"Hmm," Discord stroked his chin as he examined what appeared to be a large hedge blocking their path. 'Who here has time to keep a hedge so well trimmed?' He thought to himself. Xareme frowned; she heard no sound, but noticed a slight dimming of the light. Xarame looked up, and saw that the sky too was now separated from them by the silken threads, as was the path behind them, the only way open to them now led into the woods...
Frozen looked and saw nopony. "Xarame? Father?" He looked around at the supposedly empty path in the trees.
Xarame looked around in terror, and bolted into the woods, hoping to get away from whatever had spun the webs. "Xarame!" Discord called after her, "Frozen!" He looked to his son, but he seemed to be concentrating on something; some spell to help them out of this situation? Trusting Frozen could look after himself, Discord took off into the strangely well-tended woods, with a view to finding Xarame and returning her.
Frozen came upon a city entirely Frozen in ice. He passed the corpses of ponies who were stuck to the ground by large sheets of ice that wrapped around them. Thunder clapped overhead as he approached what appeared to be Canterlot castle.
Xarame fled further into the wood, stumbling on roots until she made the mistake of looking back, and running head long into a web. As she realised she was tangled and stuck, the feeling of abject helplessness hit her like a horribly familiar punch to the gut, and hot tears rolled down her cheeks. Through blurry vision, she saw a dark shape approaching... ------ Discord managed to keep sight of Xarame for a while, but eventually she disappeared around a hedged corner, and when Discord rounded it, he found himself in a garden. A garden that he knew every inch of like the back of his claw. A garden that he loathed and feared more than any other place. He turned to flee, but found his path blocked by the Princess sisters; their horns glowed menacingly, and there was a sadistic look in their eyes. "N-no," He stammered, stepping back. " Not again! I didn't do anything!"
Canterlot castle was covered in a thick sheet of ice, towering above a ruined city. Frozen guards and noble ponies flanked either side of the path; some were posed to fight, others frozen in flight. All of them wore the same petrified expression of horror.
The dark shape remained blurry, but Xarame could see spiders; crawling around and cocooning her body with their web. She was terrified, but she could only sob helplessly as she tried to block out what was happening, as she had so many times before... ------ Discord tried to run, but his legs seemed to be moving through treacle; he tried to fly, but his wings and his magic failed him. The sisters were still advancing, driving him with terrible inevitability towards the plinth at the centre of the garden. "Please!" He pleaded, "My friends need me!"
Frozen opened the doors to the castle tentatively. He slowly walked up the steps towards the throne. At either side, frozen in place, were the two sisters. Sitting on the throne was Frozen himself, lounging quietly and at ease. Cruelty and evil shone behind his eyes.
The dark shape moved closer and Xarame's eyes focused through the tears; it was Arzeroth, sickly malicious grin et al. She could stand it no longer; fighting the terror, she cried for Frozen as loudly as she could in a final act of desperation. ------- The sudden noise was out of place and, despite everything, drew Discord's attention. The sisters noticed it too, and turned towards the source, hissing. noticing the garden around him seemed to be flickering; morphing in some places into a wild looking forest, Discord took this moment to strike; picking up a small statuette, he dealt a blow with all the savagery and loathing hundreds of years imprisonment had instilled in him. Celestia received the blow, but the creature that fell to the ground, broken and twitching, was most certainly not Celestia. With it fell the illusion, Discord finding himself in a foreboding looking forest; compared to what he'd been experiencing, it was like waking up in Sugarcube Corner. He stepped over the creature and rushed to find his son. He found Frozen still on the path, staring a glazed expression into the eyes of another one of the awful creatures. Burning with a kind of cold fury, Discord approached the monster with claws out and fang bared...
Frozen was about to attack himself, when suddenly he was rippes from the illusion by the sound of Xarame's screams. He blinked, and then beheld the creature for what it truly waa, though he wasn't yet aware of his father's presense.
Tackling the creature from the side, Discord ripped into it in a blind rage, attacking with a martial savagery he'd rarely, if ever, unleashed. Once the creature was dead, and he had regained some control, he looked up at Frozen, green ichor dripping from his claws and mouth. "I-" He started, before being cut short by further screams from within the forest...
Frozen waa, understandably shocked at the display, but he recovered quickly and chased down the cries for help. He took off into the woods, in the direction of Xarame's voice, presuming his father would follow.
Discord followed behind Frozen, still shaken from his experience, but making sure to check their surroundings and hopefully avoid falling into another ambush. After a short run, they came across a small clearing; Xarame stood at the centre, frozen in place, eyes locked with one of the creatures. At the edge of the clearing, there seemed to be a tumble-down hut of some kind, but they would have to investigate that later; Xarame was the priority now...
Frozen charged headlong into the creature, tackling it to the ground. Using his ice magic, he formed two spikes at the end of his hooves, and tore it apart.
Xarame blinked and looked around in terror as the creature's gaze was broken, and Discord rushed to comfort her while Frozen dealt with the last creature. As it was slain, however, there was a blood-curdling scream; not from the creature, or Xarame, but from the ramshackle hut. There in the doorway, stood an elderly looking Changeling and Windigo, looking on in horror...
Frozen slowly stood up, rage etched across his face. He looked over, only to see the elderly couple. His face melted into an expression of confusion.
The elderly windigo let out a cry of anger and unleashed a blast of ice magic in their direction. Discord quickly threw up a wall, surrounding them like a tiny fort. "Those creatures," He said, a little breathlessly, "I think we just found their parents." Xarame was still shaking, so he conjured up a blanket to wrap around her and passed her gently to Frozen. "What do you want to do?" He asked.
"Their deaths are still fresh," he said, "I may know a way of drawing them back from the aether, if you can calm down the parents!"
"Do we want to? They did just try to kill us; I'm not sure I'm feeling particularly charitable towards them right now..." Discord said, peeking over the wall and getting one of his horns frozen for the trouble. Xarame stared wildly. "You want to bring them back!?"
"I.." Frozen didnt know what to do, "I only thought they were attacking us because we killed their children?"
