Evening's dusking light tore over the Wolf's Apple followed be a rush of ponies going through the doors. Starlight twisted back and forth through the crowding ponies passing out trays. Her eyes wandered through the sweat to Twilight. She frowned at her teacher having way less trouble navigating especially since Twilight was reading a book at the same time. "How does she do that with no depth perception?" She caught her words before nearly slipping over a few more drunk ponies and landed her last tray on a table covered in several empty glasses. She took a breath, "Damn vultures," she brushed the sweat off her forehead and grabbed the two glasses off her tray, "Here you go Rainbow Dartz."
"Thanks, Starlight," the rainbow colored mane dark blue pegasus stallion quickly grabbed the first glass and rushed it to his face.
Starlight rolled her eyes as he finished the first one [b]very[/b] quickly. "I knew I should have brought just one over."
"Hey, ... Don't be like that. I hold my liquor a lot better then these drunks can." He leaned back and forth twirling his dark blue toga in his seat.
"Let's hope so, or I may have to call Red Steel on you." Starlight grabbed the empty glasses and placed them on her free tray and walked away from the table only to be nearly knocked over by a green flash of movement. Luckily she jumped out of the way of the green blur as it passed by. Unluckily though her own actions threw the glasses on her tray into the air. As her eyes filled with shock, the green blur flew through the air, grabbed all the glasses and placed them all back on the tray.
"Oh, I'm so so sorry, Starlight. I need to pay attention to where I am going or I may cause the accidental death of more unfortunate glasses. Anyway, I want one cider and three hotdogs. No, wait, make that three hotdogs and two ciders. No, wait, one hotdog and one cider. No, wait, one cider, an apple and two hotdog," spoke a voice from seemingly nowhere as the green blur vanished from sight.
Starlight puff some air to knocked her mane out of her eyes as they followed the green blur across the place. "No problem Hermes."
The bell above the door rang again catching Starlight's attention. Starlight held out pretty smile to hopefully hide the returning sweat on her forehead from the sight of much more merit of creatures walking. Backtracking she made her way to the kitchen. Once she was back in the kitchen her smile instantly turned into a frown upon the sight of Silver Pear cooking.
She turned to Granny Apple and handed her the glasses before turning back to Silver Pear and puffing loudly, "Why am I out there?" Silver Pear's reaction was purely to turn and hum at her annoyance. She quickly dropped her huffs and walked over to the counter.
"What's wrong? You can be so lovel-" Silver Pear was stopped as she stuffed a pork whiney into his mouth, to which he spat out in disgust. "Besides, Twilight is out there with you."
"Yeah, but I was supposed to be cooking today. Stress is not my friend, despite what that teacher of mine thinks."
"Hey, you left your post to dodge me, so I had to take over."
"Fine." Starlight finished making Hermes' order. "Oh and make some food for Rainbow Dartz, I think he is going to drink himself under… again."
"Sure," Suddenly he stopped and turned toward her, "Oh if you're going back out there, Red Steel's food is done and so is Lighttone's." He handed her two other trays. One was a small meal and the other was a large meal.
"No problem," Starlight sighed slightly and grabbed them in her magic and walked to the door. She looked back at Silver Pear and saw him giving her a thumbs up, "Look I'm sorry for my attitude. It just I had everything planned for the next few days."
"Next- Few days!" Silver Pear jumped slightly, "Don't worry. I'll have everything ready instead." Silver Pear turned around and smiled brightly.
"What?! I was supposed to arrange everything up." Starlight leisurely walked back over. She placed her arm just beyond his back, making him blush.
"Don't worry, I can handle it. Besides, you are better at distracting that teacher of your's then I am." He began to lean into Starlight sultry.
Instantly she teleported back to the door. "Nice try, but I wasn't being sultry. I'm annoyed, there is a difference."
"You are a mean one, Lovely." He waved his spoon at her.
A thin red hue flashed on her face at his words, "Enough with that nickname, we have work to do."
Starlight turned back toward the door and walked out. She scanned around for only a moment and spotted the one she was after. She walked over to a table and put down two trays. "Here you are Hermes and Red Steel."
The tall wall of muscle steel colored buffalo bull with red horns dusted off his native style clothes and turned to the food and gave little if any look to the dry grass sandwich. He picked the meal and took a few bites before finally giving a tentative nod.
"Hmm, still no words today huh, Red Steel." Starlight smiled and tried to keep one eye on Twilight. The buffalo lifted one of his eyebrows and went back to eating. However, he stopped as one of his ears lifted up. He scooted away from Starlight leaving her confused until she heard what he was hearing as clear as day.
Jumping back Starlight barely dodged a green blur ran past her and stop mere centimeters from the table.
A white and green griffon in nothing but a speedo and biker gear appeared from the green blur as it vanished. He looked left and right before sitting down. "Oh, this is a perfect spot for me. Just the right temperature and humidity and placement. Plus the chairs are at the perfect height here. Tell me Starlight, how did you know that I would choose the exact spot in space and time for my spot? Temperature, humidity or placement?"
Starlight's eye twitched and a crooked smile formed as she looked at him. However, all that vanished upon seeing Hermes' kind eyes. Starlight took a breath and calmed herself into a proper smile, "But of course, how could I forget? You… you always sit here."
"Really? Are you a future seer? A time traveler? Or maybe you are a chupacabra?"
"A chupac-what now?" Starlight veered her head back as confusion poured over her and then looked toward Red Steel. Unfortunately, he had a more confused looked to Hermes's words than her. Though he knew exactly what to do as he placed his hand on Hermes's shoulder. Hermes looked to Red Steel and began talking a storm to him instead.
Starlight gave a sigh of relief and silently spoke a thank you as she walked off. "He can handle him just fine. Besides Hermes speaks enough for both of them anyway."
She looked to her final tray and leaned her nose upward. Soon she caught the smell of cigar smoke and crude mechanical oil. She followed it to the end of the bar, knowing very well who the smell belonged to.
"There you are Lighttone." She walked over to a table and placed down the large tray in front of a gray lion with yellow eyes and light purple and dark green mane that was clearly too long under a navy blue cowboy hat with oversized steampunk clothing in a merit of random colors that seemed to blend in quite despite the strangely large amount.
With his metal hand, he took ahold of the ballon looking meal taking a big whiff. "Medium rare giraffe liver stuffed with goat meat seasoned with bacon and garlic. Smell as good as always." He smiled with his fearsome jaws before taking a bite.
Starlight tried her best not to pull back in revulsion as she saw every piece shredded in his mighty jaws. Once the meat went down his throat, she let go of the breath she had been holding the entire time. Lighttone gave a thumbs up and she turned away.
She was about to walk away when he started to speak up, "Chupacabra? I haven't heard the word since the Chimichanga Inquisition, nearly three thousand and ten years ago, last month. Funny enough their meat has a much stronger goat taste than this though this wasn't at all a surprise considering what they ate."
"What?" Starlight turned around upon his word as he continued to talk. She looked around and noticed Twilight was handling things just fine as the crowds were growing down. She walked back over sat down as she knew a story was coming up. "Tell me more."
"Okay, but first, what be this little thing you are in such a rush for?"
Starlight raised her eyebrow to that comment. "Really? Did you forget what happened a two years ago just a few days from now?" Her face fell back at his 'I don't know' reaction. "Seriously how do you remember all of these old stories yet don't remember the here and now." She turned away from him more annoyed.
"Maybe I don't need to remember when you two are here to remind me."
Starlight's eyes widened at those words as she turned back around. "You sneaky ass. You do remember?"
"I didn't lie you just assumed." Lighttone raised the meat up to his mouth and took another bite.
"Yeah, I guess you're right." Starlight's face fell slightly.
Lighttone placed down his meat and watch Starlight's sad face. "Maybe it more of you blaming yourself for what happened to Twilight rather than being in a rush."
"I don't know, though maybe I'm worried about my teacher's attitude toward the event more than anything," Starlight's face raised and her eyes fell upon Twilight, in particular, Twilight's eyepatch.
"Don't worry, I know she will like what you have planned." Lighttone placed his metal hand on Starlight shoulder.
Starlight smiled at the cold touch. "Thanks, you old cook." She turned and gave him a hug. Suddenly the sound of glass smashing broke the hug.
"Starlight, clean up," spoke Granny Apple.
"Sorry," apologized Hermes.
Starlight stood back up and grabbed her face to cover the grin. "I got to go." She walked away from the table. "Oh, I want to hear more about that story later."
"Don't worry, you will. I've got all the time in the world for stories." He leaned back and popped his neck. He looked around to quieting noise as the crowds thinned to its weakest point. He laughed and turned back to Starlight as she cleaned up the mess on the other side of the tavern. "Hmm, she is a good friend. And she has good friends around her," He noted to the embarrassment on Hermes' face.
He looked down to his meal and rubbed at his stomach. "I'll get another bite in a second." He picked up his cigar and took another puff and turned toward the window. He watched the snowfall on the other side of it. "You know, I haven't seen snow like this since..." He turned once he remembered that nopony was there to hear his words. He exhaled heavily and continued with his words, "Not since an old friend was still alive."
Miles away in the far-off land of the ifrits, the very same snow fell in quick succession. It gobbled up every flame without any hesitation move more like a swarm rather than a storm. Ifrits ran around either filled with fear or rage. Fear for the snows around them and rage toward the murder in the castle.
"It's snowing? How?" Mon questioned. He placed his hand on the window. pain tore through his hand and he pulled back. "What?" He looked to see ice particles forming on the tips of his hand. "Impossible. It can't be that cold here."
His ears lifted at the sounds of footsteps. They increased in sound the closer he got to the door. He tightened his grip on his cutlass. The door flew open and he loosened his grip at the sight of Rex and Clover walking in.
"We have to be ready when he gets in. What is it you wanted to show me?" Rex questioned.
"This way." Clover held her hand out to one of the walls as Mon walked over to it. Rex raised an eyebrow as he walked over to what looked like a simple wall. However, as he got close it quickly became apparent that this wall was very different from the others as this one had the faint image of a symbol of a goat head.
The three stopped at the wall. Rex lifted his hand up. The symbol became more visible the closer he brought his hand to it. "I see, it one of his symbols." He took a breath and placed his hand upon it. He felt something burn on his upper sternum and the wall began to vanish. It revealed a new room. The room's walls and floors were covered in gray glass and there was a purple agate stone in the center of the room, standing on a pedestal.
"Like I thought. A dark magic wall." Clover placed her hand on Rex's hand and pulled it away as the wall reappeared. The burning on Rex's upper sternum vanished with the new room. "Sanity and Carnival must have been hiding out in this castle trying to figure out how to break into this room."
Rex placed his hand back on the wall as it vanished again. "I'll have to hold open the path then."
Clover placed her hand on Rex right on the spot of the burning and felt of the metal object hidden under the cloth. "Are you he will care enough to hear you this time?"
"Let's hope so," Rex tried to assure them. "Just get inside. We need to confirm that alicorn's intel."
Clover slowly retracted her hand and turned toward the opening. "Okay, come on Mon." Mon followed after her as the two enter the room.
The closer they got the colder the room seem to get. It was strange, the cold was not like cold of the snow, more like cold of… darkness. Clover reached out her hand as they got halfway. "Hold here, there might be a trap."
"Okay," Mon held up his cutlass.
Clover shallowed her breath and slowly moved closer. At a certain range, it became clear that there was an inscription on the pedestal. "Here lies the faith of Cassandra. She puts her trust in the fires to protect this stone. May her waves not be forgotten." she smiled rather forwardly. "Goldy was right, it is one of the Alathar."
Suddenly the purple agate began to glow brightly at the word Alathar. A female voice spoke, "The one without fear, step forward."
"You two might want to hurry." Rex felt an uneasiness pour over him. Behind him, something started to move.
"Okay," Clover took in a deep breath to calmed herself. "No fear, huh. Luckily I'm always around Rex." She reached over slowly and pulled the stone free from the pedestal. "Okay, I have it."
"Good -"
Instantly Rex was stopped as a black metal pipe hit him right in the sternum. The force of the attack knocked him far from the wall. The wall slowly appeared as the glowing red snowflake barely made its way into the secret room.
Rex crashed into another wall and coughed hard. "Damn it, that hurt."
"Did it? Did it? Had you been any other creature, I guarantee it would have killed you." Carnival rode over as he swung the pipe left and right. "I am really good at anatomy."
"Well, hello again. Want so badly to join your friend. And what do you mean by anatom-" Rex tried to get up, but he found that his arms had no strength. "What the?"
"Our Lord Frost, oh our Great Lord Frost. As reasonless as he may seem to some he chose each of his followers for a purpose." Carnival stopped right in front of Rex. "Outside of my priestly duties is my knowledge in anatomy, particularly bone structure. I may not have killed you, but I had stunted the connection between your shoulders and your brain." He raised his pipe above Rex. "They will be out for a few hours." He dropped the pipe hard on Rex's back.
"Damn it, the reports-" Rex's body wracked in pain as his teeth gritted. As another hit went down Rex quickly looked over his arms. He smiled at the sight of the twitching fingers. "The former circus runner who spends his free time-"
"Preaching beating and raping, raping, beating and preaching. Yes, yes, I may not be the purest priest out there, but mostly due to the god I follow." Carnival dropped the pipe down harder. "You are stubborn." He lifted his pipe high. "I guess that makes sense, I've beaten nearly every species with my words, my pipe, and even my rod, but you are my first umbrum."
Seeing his chance, Rex flipped his fingers upward and looped what remained of his strings over the unicycle. "I really hope you satisfied yourself enough?" Pulling, he ripped the unicycle out from under Carnival.
"Ouch, Ouch." Carnival rolled across the ground. As soon as he fell over a shadow, Rex's eyes glowed. Chains shot out of the shadow and stabbed Carnival's arm to another wall.
"Good, now to Clover and Mon," Rex glanced to the dark magic wall and pulled out chains around it. The chains swung around and held together in the form of a hand. "You are not going to like this move at all." He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth while shooting dark magic through the chains. The dark magic hit the wall and the opening reappeared. "You two better move, I don't how long I can make him hold this."
There was no answer. In fact, it was deathly quiet. Not a single sound came out of the room. Rex's eyes widened through his sweat and his fingers forced themselves into a fist. "Answer me you two. Can you hear me?"
"Oh, they can hear you just fine, well to be more accurate one of them still can, the other I'm not quite so sure about."
Rex's face went completely pale at that voice. A voice so smooth and calm almost sincere in tone that it couldn't belong to either of them. [i]There was nopony else in the room, nothing else…. but the... but the snowflake.[/i] Rex's breath dropped as sweat dripped from his cheeks straight to the ground splashing and quickly evaporating on impact. "Indigo… Frost."
"That is truly better, I am most glad that I haven't been forgotten in all these wonderfully dank years."
"You can shapeshift into snowflakes."
"Oh, not quite, but you are on a certain track. I expect that much cleverness from another like myself. Though the same couldn't be said for your allies."
Rex's muscles tensed and he tried to pick himself up again. He was just a few feet from the opening. But in his position, the opening might as well have been miles away. "Clover? Mon?"
"Do you doubt me? As I said before one is perfectly fine, the exquisite mare has not a single wound on her. Unfortunately, this strong stallion is not so perfectly fine," Indigo Frost pushed the tips of his claws deeper into Mon's back. Ice from the tips was digging even deeper into Mon's flesh then Indigo Frost's own fingers.
Clover kept her eyes tightly on the icy blue figure hiding behind Mon. She couldn't see a face or a body for they were hidden behind a cobalt cloak covered in stitches and a deer skull mask. All that she could decern was his height that dwarfed Mon and herself and the distinct seemingly endless cold air that flowed out from him. All she could do was hold tightly onto the stone and tried to think of a way to pull Mon free from the icy grip.
"Now don't get any quizzical ideas, little filly?" Indigo Frost reached out of his stitched covered cobalt cloak with his other hand. This hand's strange pale white color seemed to clash with the icy blue fur of his other arm. "All I want is the Alathar, nothing more. It means... so much to me. Give me the gem, and I will give this sweet and kind colt a merciful death."
"No…" Mon barely rasped with an icy cold breath "I... already down."
"No," Clover pleaded, "What about Fredricson?"
"Don't worry, that old horse... can keep going... without me." Mon attempted to smile, despite tears falling from his face. Each tear turned to ice as they fell to the ground, shattering on impact. His complexion was getting paler by the second.
Clover's eyes fell, she looked away from them as thoughts of escaping filled her head. The room quickly filled with an icy cold silence before Clover's eyes finally went back up. She looked at Mon, his face was now completely pale white and his movement was very slow, yet it looked like he was looking at something. Following his eyes downward she saw his shadow.
Her eyes loosened, "Fine, you win." She lifted up her hand and threw the gem toward them.
Indigo Frost reached out, however, chains shot out of the shadow and grabbed it first. Seeing the shine of the purple agate vanish in the shadow, his eyes narrowed and his voice dropped, "Do you even know what those precious objects are?"
"So.., You are after the… rest as well? Huh?" Mon let loose a chuckle as his arms fell and the rest of his body began to stiffen.
Clover's eyes went wide and she jumped forward without thinking to grab Mon away from Indigo Frost. But without warning, ice shot out of the ground blocking her.
"Poor little filly, so far, yet so close. Did you really think I would be that distracted?" Indigo Frost snapped his fingers and the ice became translucent. His eyes narrowed and his mask covered face leaned over Mon's shoulder. "But it seems you were too slow anyway."
Both Rex's and Clover's eyes widened at those words. A toothy smile tore through Indigo Frost's mask as his sight wandered over to the eyes of Mon. Without warming, small ice sheets tore through the irises. The flesh of the eyes fell to the ground and shatter into gooey pieces. Mon's body stopped completely. With a twist of Indigo Frost's hand, a loud cracking filled the air
Clover's jaw slowly dropped as Mon's flesh sagged and waned. Rickles formed over every part of it until ultimately, the flesh fell off like a glove. All that remained was the muscle and skeletal structure covered completely in ice and a massive crack that flowed from one side all the way back to Indigo Frost's hand as his pushed deeper and deeper.
"Oh, you didn't realize that I had been filling his insides with endless cold?" Indigo Frost turned to Rex, "Did you hear that? I just gave the most useful hint to how my incredible powers work." He returned his sight to Clover and basked in her fear. He opened his jaw wide and let his fangs hang outward. Dropping down his dug his teeth deep into the collar of Mon. The massive crack boom loudly once more but this time small cracks webbing out from it and the area around the spot he was bitting down on. Meanwhile, the spot itself was filling with a dark color. Indigo Frost stabbing his tongue through the spot and lapped up every inky and viscous drop of the slush as it rivered into his mouth. Once he had his fill of the blood slushy he pulled his tongue and bit down completely ripping the spot out of place.
The mini cracks spread faster and faster as the whole body eventually fell to pieces. Each chunk fell into the shadow only leave the heart behind safely in the very icy blue claw that had been ripping through the back the whole time. The heart stayed completely warm despite the remaining icy chunks that laid around its holder.
Indigo Frost's ears lifted at the sounds of more shattering coming from the shadow where the other pieces of frozen muscles and bones had fallen into, "Oh, it's a two-way path isn't it?" He lifted his foot and stomped on the shadow loudly and nothing happened. He turned back to Rex, "That's not playing fair at all. Please be more considerate to your allies next time." Indigo Frost returned his sight one final time to Clover and dropped down to pick up the flesh of Mon, keeping his sapphire eyes on her the whole time even while rising back up to toss the flesh over his shoulder. "I guess I'll take this lovely fine pelt as compensation. Meanwhile..."
The ice wall dropped as he walked toward Clover. With the wall gone, he could see the fear so much more clearly. It continued to grow greater on her face with each step. He took each step ever so slowly to savor the sight as long as possible. "Don't worry these things won't go to waste. I'm sure his flesh will make a fine blanket of even a luscious coat, a gift willing to my faithful followers. As for Mon's heart, that will provide so much more usefulness." He stopped just mere inches from her. Clover was too frozen in fear to even look at him directly, in fact, it was as if she hadn't moved at all. Indigo Frost dropped down to her height and placed the heart right against her cheek, next to her nose. "Don't disturb. Take whiff with your nose, you can perfectly smell every ounce of power within the lovely organ."
When still no reaction was given Indigo Frost frowned and jumped back. "How unfortunate? I thought you were worthy enough to stand by his side. But it's obvious that you are nothing compared to her."
Back in the main room thousands of white snowflakes tore through the small windows and swarmed around. After a moment they flew over to the opening and entered the smaller room. The snowflakes swarmed around Indigo Frost as he body glowed a certain prominent red hue that could be identified right away. As they got faster and faster he slowly faded among them. The swarm quickly left the small room with the heart and flesh in tow.
The white snowflakes stopped in front of Rex as he looked up to them with anger. "Where are you?" Rex questioned until he spotted red snowflakes among the swarm. "I... see. You don't shapeshift at all." Rex's voice dropped drastically as the pain got worse.
"Please be as careful as possible, you don't want to use all of his dark magic up," Indigo Forst's voice vibrated from the red snowflakes and seeming only the red snowflakes alone. "Since you removed the Wave of Nightmare, I have no reason to be here. I will take these and go look for the next Alathar. Despite our failure, let us leave with dignity, my faithful priest."
On that Carnival pulled at some of the strings in his arm. His arm fell partially apart allowing him to escape Rex's chains. He walked over to the red snowflakes as he restitched his arm back together. Carnival stopped just before entering as his eyes widened.
"How?" Carnival questioned as he pointed to Rex's moving body as it trembled up into a standing position. "His bones should beyond repair?"
"Don't be too alarmed. There is something you missed while attacking him." Some red snowflakes flew toward Rex, hitting around his sternum which now glowing maroon red. A chuckled spouted from the red snowflakes. "I see your amulet is as powerful as he said it was."
Knocking the scarf away revealed an amulet with a metal alicorn head with a knife like horn and huge wings that spread around and over the shoulders. A single gem in the center that shined maroon light outward. The entire amulet itself seemed embedded into the flash.
The red snowflakes concentrated in certain areas of the swarm to form eyes and a smile, "Look my most loyal priest, say hello to one of three sister alicorn amulets, otherwise know as the Dark Alicorn Amulet." The makeshift face tilted sideways. "I had my suspicions that Rex was its new owner."
"But how is he standing?"
"Because each of three sisters is referring to the three forms. Mind, Body, and Soul."
"I... see you know your knowledge." Rex held up his hand. The flesh almost seemed split yet not. "Priest, this amulet refers to the body and gives me the flesh of a hydra. You could call it a blessing from a true god."
Indigo Frost laughed uncontrollably, "You also have the weaknesses of a hydra too. Oh, Rex how deceitful of you. Here I am giving you hints to my own power and you throw in red herring to your power. Calling it a refine blessing when you above all being in this world would rather call it the worse possible curse. Besides providing hydra skin isn't the only thing it does." On that, the red snowflakes grabbed Carnival and flew out of the window.
Once they left, the room went incredibly quiet. The fires returned back to their full strength bringing back the much-needed warmth. Rex smiled before his body fell to the ground. He frowned at his body fighting him back so quickly. "Damn it force the regeneration too fast." He did find a slightly better mobility in his hands and lower parts of his arms. "Darn you, cursed amulet, when will you ever give me a warning next time when you give out?" Lightly slamming his hand on the ground to the best of his abilities to show anger. "It didn't matter in the end, he perfectly saw through my acting and my words. You are far from ever useful. Especailly since you are the only keeping me alive."
The glow dimmed rhythmically. Rex kept his eyes on the light and nodded his head to it. "I know the bluff was needed to get the answers I needed"
He glanced at the opening of the other as his chains shook and slowly faltered in place, "Now about saving Clover." His breathing decreased as the magic wained.
The glow dimmed rhythmically, this time more erratically.
"What are you saying? Of course she useful to us, at least far more than you are anyway." Rex stopped looking at the erratic glowing as it slowly faded away. "Hey, Clover, I can't hold it any longer. Get moving..." She didn't answer. She was still in shock of what just happened. Rex turned his sight to the hallway as the sounds of footstep echoed through them in quick succession. "Damn it, those ifrits are still mad. So much for the forgiving types."
Suddenly his chains fell and the wall reappeared. "Fine, hard way it is." Pushing at his hands he rolled himself to the nearest shadow and vanished. Soon he appeared in the sealed room. His rolling stopped upon Clover's legs."Damn, I didn't think combining your dark magic with my shadowmancy would actually get us in here."
Noticing that she didn't react to his words in any way he stared deeply into her face. Soon he saw the fear stuck in her eyes. "How is she still frozen in... " Instantly he stopped and looked toward the pedestal. "In fear? Of course, the damn test." Closing his eyes, he pulled on what magic he had left. The chains shot out slowly but made their mark in smashing the pedestal.
Clover's eyelids fell and she dropped into his arms once the test was broken. Rex held onto her tightly as glared back at the wall. He could hear voices on the other side. "Damn it, wake back up. I... could use your help." His eyes fell upon his sternum.
The maroon glow returned and the shadows around them grew to a great size. Soon they slipped right through and vanished.
Outside the red snowflakes flew around as they lowered to the ground. They stopped flying and swarmed in a circle once they found Sanity's body. "Hmm, don't be concerned. You are still very useful to me."
On that Carnival dropped down and picked up the body. "Upsy daisy, upsy daisy. I'm certain your sister might be very mad at that this happened" His eyes widened to the swarm. "But lord, what about the Alathar? Vanity would be even more ashamed that her brother's death happened during this failure."
"It's useless to them without the instructions. And even then they would need all of the Alathar to stop us." The eyes stared at the castle, seeing all the ifrits rip through it. "Besides this was far from a failure. I am now certain of his resolve."
"Who resolve?"
The eyes narrowed at the rage of the ifrits, "Rex's. When will he ever listen? He wants to try to protect them at every turn, just as the radiant mare wanted him to. Yet one day he will have to realize that these monsters don't need to be protected. They need to be saved." On that, the red snowflakes flew off with Carnival and Sanity in tow.
The evening light finally faded in the ifrit city. Voices and whispers spread like wildfire at the vanishing of Sanity's body. Many of them wanting answers that could not be given, while some simply wanted to not care anymore.
In a building on the outskirts of the city, a lone white ifrit in a blue suit and black tie was finishing paperwork. "I can't believe they want to have a meeting tomorrow. I'm far from ready." He struggled to hide his grumps. Despite his distance from today's events, the noise outside was getting louder by the second. "Darn it, why is everything in such a ruckus today?"
"I'm not exactly sure, but maybe they need to let off some steam."
"Yeah, right-" His voice stopped upon realizing the other voice was there. This was too strange since aside from him and some papers the room was completely empty. "Who's there? Answer me?"
"I was wondering when you were going to notice me."
The ifrit's eyes raced across the room, this time more clearly. He was certainly missing something. "Where are you?"
"Here."
The white ifrit fell out of his chair as the owner of the voice moved out from behind him. It looked like a rather old and wrinkly stallion with dark mold green flesh almost bare of fur. His clothing if it could be called that was so loose and old that it barely hanged from his body.
"Who are you? How did you get in here-" he stopped and grabbed his nose as the stink finally hit. The creature stank so badly that it nearly brought the irfit to tears.
"Who I am doesn't matter." The creature walked over to the center of the room. "What matter is that I'm here to bring you a message from Frost. A message that will be the final light on this evening's... darkness."
Author Notes: I hope you all enjoyed it, don't forget to comment or follow or whichever you deem to be the right idea. I would love to hear some reactions either way. Next month will be Chapter 3: A Dream Gate.