The Thousand Year Exile

"And if you come back around here again, traitor, you'll share the same fate as your whore of a sky-roamer friend did! Now get out of my sight!" Bull Rush spat as he directed his goons to shove Thistle away from the village and from what he had just witnessed. His two-year-long friend - nay, lover - Sweet Breeze was dead now, her windpipe crushed and her wings torn. Thistle was in agony he never knew existed. Not just from physical injuries, no, those were something that would heal over time. No, the mental trauma was far more severe, like gashes torn into his heart and soul. As he stumbled back up, he turned back and tried to go to her body, only to be kicked down again.
"You heard him, scum, scram. Unless you want to join that pathetic creature?" One of the goons, Mortar, kicked yet again as he laughed. Instinct was telling Thistle to run but his heart was telling him to avenge Sweet Breeze. In the end he hobbled back up and still crying and bleeding from surface wounds, eyes red and swollen from both the punishment doled out by the village bully & his cronies as well as the scarring that they'd done to his mind, he walked, then he ran despite his right hindleg protesting.

Only hours later did he stop, having travelled what seemed to be north according to the stars. It was dark now. Up ahead he could see two mountains rising up, their tips side by side. Unicorn territory. Their magic allowed them to make a home there in a place where accessibility was difficult at the best of times. They used their levitation abilities to lift rocks wide enough to allow a pony to stand on top up to the cliffsides where no threat could reach. That combined with that same levitation to wield weapons that they could use at ranges longer than spears, sometimes even at bow lengths, made any of their dwellings almost impossible to assault without suffering major losses.
Knowing this, Thistle gave them a wide berth as he moved further up north, still sobbing.

---

1000 years later, in the Crystal Empire...

Sombra howled in agony as he felt his entire being unravelling, his body disintegrating under the assault of the Crystal Heart's power, the wave of energy forcing itself through every pore on his skin and down his every orifice. His plans were in ruins, his empire usurped and slaves liberated, fueling the Heart. His powers could do nothing against it. That damn unicorn and his lizard! They ruined everything!
And then... He ceased to be. With a massive explosion, his body tore apart, his curved horn shattering and flying off into the frozen wastes where it eventually landed in the snow with a *fwump*.

Even in death however, the dark magic that permeated his being radiated out. Wave after wave. Like clockwork. Like a heartbeat...

---

1000 years earlier...

Thistle didn't know how long it had been since he was banished. All he knew that he couldn't go back.
"Those bastards... I'll avenge you one day sweetie, I swear it... I'm sorry for being so weak. I shouldn't have brought you there. Damn you Bull Rush, damn the whole village!" He seethed before yelling his defiance to the heavens.
In truth, he had this conversation with himself far more times than could be counted at this stage.
He had walked and walked and walked, fought and ran from dangers all the while, barely scraping by even as he'd entered what his kind had called The Frozen North. The snow was everywhere, not quite unlike what he'd seen back home. But this was different. There were no trees, there were no signs of habitation, just rock and ice and snow for miles. The cold bit into him like a dagger, threatening to slit his throat if he lost his consciousness for even a second. Quite fittingly, he felt like he was walking on a knife's edge. By this point he was barely able to walk, his bruises had failed to recede, a scrape he'd gotten on his left foreleg was clearly infected and his brow was sweating despite the cold.

He also knew he was being followed. He'd not seen anything but he could sense a presence. Circling him. Probably a camouflaged bear looking for its next meal.
Thistle knew he wouldn't be able to fight it and wasn't sure about his chances of running away either. As if to punctuate it, he stumbled on a rock hidden by the snow, rolling down a small hill hidden away by all the white. When he got his bearings again, he felt the presence growing closer. Death would be upon him soon.
"I'll be with you soon, love. Just wish I could have done more..." He let his tears flow freely yet again, not caring that they froze on his chin.
The presence was almost on him now. He could almost see it too. It moved like a haze, shades of blue against a frame of white, in the shape of a pony but larger, stockier yet more slender. It snorted and made animalistic noises as it slowly creeped in closer and closer. Yet even now Thistle felt rage in his heart over what had led him here. Stubbornness bade him stand his ground.
"Come at me then! If I'm going to die, I'm going to take you with me!" He bellowed out his challenge before charging at the beast.
The windigo responded in kind. When the two collided however, the already freezing Thistle felt like something truly cold had touched him, that the temperature to this point had been but a gust of wind in autumn. He could feel his innards freezing solid, the windigo seemingly having disappeared. The seconds felt like minutes as he could see his chest growing paler and paler before he could see ice forming on it, the impossible cold moving to the rest of his body like a wave. He curled up in an effort to minimize his exposure to the outside and somehow try and stay warm. He could feel his heartbeat slowing down, growing quieter as he started to fade. Thump thump... Thump thump... Thump... thump... thump... thump... thump...

---

1002 years later, in a frozen wasteland...

The heartbeats were ever so slow. Like the tapping of a window by a single raindrop. Agonizingly slowly a being began to stir. At first movement was difficult, like it was being held down by something. But eventually it had gathered enough strength to free one limb. Then another. To it, it might have felt like years. But eventually it could move. The snow covered it but that was no matter, it could not feel the cold. In fact, it was as if it couldn't feel anything at all. The limbs moved yet he felt no exertion. The amount of snow should be crushing his body yet it felt no pressure. It only felt cold in one place. Deep in it's chest, like a faded memory.
Eventually it had managed to dig it's way out of the snow. Once it did, it began to take a look at it's surroundings, then at itself. Curious... This limb shouldn't be covered in ice. At least, that's what it's mind was supposed to believe, leading it to using another of it's limbs to clear it of the offending ice, which was easy enough. It's head was frozen to the point where the chin was covered in a block of ice like a beard. The body itself was white, almost melding perfectly with the ice that encrusted it. It's mane was cyan and encrusted as well, completing the look of an arctic beast of myth.
A grunt and a roar sounded off a short distance from the creature. Covered in similarly white fur and large of stature, it was muscular and ferocious looking - a prime example of an adult polar bear. It seemed that the creature had unwittingly dug itself out into its territory. Ever so slowly the creature raised the other still ice-crusted hoof and brought it down while turning to face the bear. This sent out a wave through the undisturbed snow and before the creature could register it, a wall of ice had risen between it and the bear. The bear was wise and chose to run away, leaving the creature to wonder at it's powers. "Sssstraangeee." It hissed out, the voice sounding like a frozen wind. Years upon years of no usage of the vocal cords had left much to be desired but for now it was enough. But it was the ability that it now seemed to possess that was more important to it.

Rotating its head to the right, the creature saw in the far off distance a pillar that had a radiant light shining from it's tip. It was surrounded by smaller structures that it couldn't discern the true nature of at this distance. Seeing no other thing that caught its attention, it slowly began to move towards the structure when it felt a sharp jolt in it's head, like an icicle had been driven through it's frozen skull. It felt like a pain that it felt a long time ago but when it tried to recall, the cold in it's chest grew painful. It felt like it had lost something important but couldn't recall what. Eventually it started moving again. Maybe it would recall more as it moved, it thought.

The pillar was not actually that distant as it had once thought. A mere 10 kilometers from where it had emerged. But some higher elevation showed that it was not the only thing that had found it interesting. It was surrounded by smaller structures that seemed almost like they were made for habitation, but they resembled nothing that it remembered.

Hm. Strange, it couldn't recall what exactly they looked like. Nor where it had seen them. All it knew was that these were not it. As it grew closer it even began to discern shapes moving around and about. Some of them even flew. But even as the shapes gained detail, they had one thing in common.
They looked similar in stature to the creature. Maybe it was one of them? Taking a look at itself, it began to think that maybe it might be one of the creatures down belo-
Suddenly a word flooded it's consciousness like another icy spike had been driven into it: Pony. They were ponies. Was he one of these ponies down there, forgotten or accidentally left behind?
By the time the pony moved, it noticed its limbs- hooves, the painful feeling seemed to remind it - had been frozen solid on the ground beneath it. With a far more agile jerk, it felt the hoof come off, as did all the others with similar physical strains. No matter what it was, it didn't seem to have an emotional response to it. Indeed, it felt like there was no emotion that could match what it seemed to feel. Except maybe cold detachment.
One of the flying ponies had gotten closer as the frozen one had been in deep thought thinking that what it saw was some kind of statue but as soon as it began to move, it panicked and started to recede again.

The movement in the buildings had lessened. By the time the frozen pony had made it to them, the other ponies had all but disappeared. If it had a more inquisitive mind and a face that had more mobile features and less permafrost, it might have raised an eyebrow. A daily ritual perhaps? Did it seem like a threat to them?
Looking behind itself, its gaze was drawn to the icy trail that followed it into the street from the wild and untamed snow beyond. Even this far north, the snow knew not to encroach on the domain of the spire. Except where the frozen one trod. It was as if the enviroment itself knew the only pony on the street right now was something to envelop for it could perpetuate it, even if it didn't know how.
Soon enough it would not be the only pony there though. A group of 5, wearing some sort of silver & purple armor, though their fur still had their own variations on color, were approaching it. They also held spears somehow as if they flew alongside them. The pony then noticed that they had something on their foreheads sticking out. A horn. In fact their helmets had been designed so as to accomondate them. One of them had a crested helmet with red fur protruding from it.
"Sir, what is that?" One of the other armored ponies said, glancing at the one with the crested helmet.
"I don't know, Private, but I don't like the look of it." The crested one said with what seemed a mixture of horror, revulsion and disgust.
"Sir, it looks like a pony."
"I know it looks like a pony, but that isn't natural! Look at it, it's like it fucked a windigo harder than I fucked your sister yesterday! Surround it!" The leader said, the order being carried out smoothly, though with a bit of chagrin from the one that was insulted.
The frozen one stood there as it was surrounded. Slowly it raised a hoof and gestured around the area. The voice that came out from its mouth scared the guards, for it sounded like it came from the darkest depths of the Frozen North.
"Hhhhomme....?" It asked. The voice had been quiet, almost too quiet so the guards looked at their commanding officer, who did not hear what exactly the frozen creature had said.
"Attention, creature. You've disturbed the peace of the Crystal Empire and its people. You will come along quietly and Prince Armor along with Princess Mi Amore Cadenza will decide your fate."
The ice pony moved so slowly so as to seem unresponsive to whatever it had just been told.
"I said you will come with us!"
No response except for the waving hoof now on it's forehead and a slowly twisting expression.
"Right then. Squad, arrest it."
Unbeknownst to the leader, another jolt of pain coursed through the pony's head. Its home was not here. It was to the south. It didn't know why it was up here in the north, but it needed to go home. Maybe it would have answers there.
"Hhoomme..." It said again, faster this time. Louder too, everyone heard it.
"Home? You ain't going home, you're coming with us." But it was no use, the frozen pony didn't acknowledge it.
One of the guards made a move to restrain the frozen pony but instead found the hoof feeling like it had been exposed to something like liquid nitrogen. The cold was so instant it didn't even register at first but the sight of the limb seeming to freeze as it grew closer most certainly did and the hoof was quickly retracted in alarm.
"Home..." The frozen pony said as it turned what it believed to be south and began to walk that way, a bit faster than the previous movements had been. The other guards backed away from it slowly as it walked toward them but still kept it surrounded.
The leader was gazing at what the Private had attempted and was horrified. This was not what he had expected to happen. Whatever this was, it was something dangerous and needed to be dealt with fast. Trained instincts kicking in, he raised his voice.
"Squad, restraining field, pattern Gamma, now!" Quickly a forcefield had been erected around the pony who had unknowingly hurt their comrade, who was now suffering from extreme localized frostbite. "Private, tell Prince Armor to bring reinforcements and get yourself to the medical bay pronto!"
"Aye aye sir!" Private said before hobbling off in pain and to the sound of his own chattering teeth as he could feel the coldness slowly moving up the hoof and sapping his heat.
"What in Tartarus is this pony!?" The leader said as the pony began to slowly smack one of its hooves against the barrier.

---

Shining Armor waved away the private who had just come in with a report of a pony who had frozen his hoof and his sergeant who had requested reinforcements in dealing with it. Sergeant Pomp Top was always a very boisterous type, one to make excessive requests & sometimes outrageous claims, but he was a good squad leader. While the private's name wasn't known to the prince, he remembered the face and it was scared.
"What in the heck is going on out there?" He said to himself as he went to a balcony that provided a good view of the streets below. Noticing the lack of ponies in all but one area, the prince's gaze was instantly drawn to it. The distance made it a bit hard to distinguish faces but the forcefield and its occupant were clearly visible. Shining was aghast. That was a pony, seemingly covered in ice and yet fine & undisturbed by it. It also seemed to be trailed by what looked like snow. Some strange magic must have been at work, usually the Crystal Heart kept such temperatures at bay for the most part. Maybe Pomp Top had been right. He quickly walked back inside and towards the door.
"Captain Steel Sling, I need you and 4 other capable unicorns to accompany me down there to see what we can do to handle this situation."
"My Prince." The captain acknowledged and departed with the prince.

Unbeknownst to the prince, his beloved had heard everything and peeked out of the balcony to see the same sight.

Once the 4 other unicorns had been located on the way down, the party stepped outside and quickly moved towards the scene. The Sergeant kept up his part of the spell even as he noticed the prince arriving.
"My prince! I did not expect you to come help deal with this situation personally!" He said, bowing as best he could.
"Home..." The frozen pony said once again as it now pounded on the barrier preventing it from continuing.
"What's going on here? Who is this pony and why does one of your squad have a frozen limb?"
"Sir, we got reports of a disturbance closing in on the city and the citizens began to close themselves off in their homes. Then we see this thing walking the streets and attempt to apprehend it. That private attempted to take them down and you saw the result."
Another pounding on the barrier and a groan from the unicorns who had been holding the forcefield up. Shining Armor furrowed his brow. This guy was strong to be able to give 4 unicorns using their powers as one a challenge.

---

Home. It was all that mattered right now. Let me go. Home! The pony's frozen beard was bristling, shaking even... The ice around its body slowly began to expand as if in response to what the other ponies around would recognize as frustration and anger. On a sidenote, it had come to realize that it's movement was now faster, more like that of the regular ponies keeping the barrier up around it, but still a long ways off.
But that did not matter now. The barrier was in the way. Another jolt reminded it of unicorns and their strange powers. Irrelevant. It didn't care how, it would break the barrier and continue the journey back south.
The pony stepped back and reared it's hindlegs, preparing to smash the barrier down with whatever power it had.
The beard was now bristling far more viciously. It was as if it was about to shatter the rest of the ice.
"Break."

---

Shining didn't like the look of that icy beard shaking.
"Captain!" He called out. He didn't need to do more, they knew what was required. Adding his own magic to the mix, the 10 unicorns pumped their power to the spell that was keeping the pony inside it from breaking out. Some would have considered a layered defence, but Shining realized that such a move might not be enough. 10 paper towels versus one brick wall, no, there was no consideration. Whatever was about to happen would be a big one, especially since whatever this pony had was enough to bother 4 unicorns as it was.
And as soon as they'd managed to do it, it happened. With a sickening rip, the icy beard seemed to rip itself from the frozen pony's face and blast off towards the wall of the forcefield. It bounced from it like a bullet, ricocheting around faster and faster as each impact tore off more and more ice from the main mass until eventually the pony itself was indistinquishable from the blurring shapes that kept speeding around it. The faster and faster growing icicles were straining the unicorns to their limits.
Suddenly what seemed to sound like an explosion went off inside the forcefield. The shield shattered as the unicorns who had kept up the shield for so long had felt their magic run out, leaving the shield undercharged for the task.
But it seemed to have worked. The icicles had caused lots of snow to form inside the chamber as they flung about and scraped, but seemed to have caused enough damage to the pony to knock them out cold. Shining grimaced at the ill-fitting pun considering what it took to deal with this guy. As he was about to get closer to the pony, he felt a hoof on his shoulder.
"Hold up, Shiny. You saw what happened to that private, you might want to keep your distance. Let me handle this." Princess Cadance said as she stepped forward.
"Cadance!? When did you-" Shining didn't even finish his sentence as he felt stupid for even bothering to question it, he knew she'd eavesdropped. Opting to sigh instead, he decided to focus on helping his troops, especially Sergeant Pomp Top and his squad. His own magic wasn't as spent as his Captain and other troops, so he felt it might be necessary to share some of his mana with them to give em a bit of energy. "Just be careful, ok? We don't know what is going on here."
The pink princess paid him no mind as she grew closer and closer to the prone form of the frozen pony.
As she was about to use her telekinetic powers to move them so they could breathe properly, they moved it's head slowly. "Ah! He's still conscious!" She turned and semi-shouted to her husband. She then turned back and lifted his chin so she could look at him directly in the eye, when she saw his eyes widen and what seemed like his pupils being frozen before her own. Or at least, being more frozen than before.
"S...ssweetie...?" The pony's hoary voice called as it tried to raise a hoof towards it before it truly seemed to pass out.