The Hound

The Frozen North wasn't always thus close, and tales of Equestrian folklore recount the days before it was so. Before Equestria itself, before the great migration Southwards, it used to be that the lands of the North housed great pony tribes and kingdoms. Their stories haven't been forgotten by the passage of time, but greatly exagerated and simplified in many aspects, now but a tale to tell one's foals around the warmth of a fireplace. Few who were around back then yet live, as is natural for events that happened milennia past, and to piece together the truth, historians have to rely upon archeology and relics found on perilous expeditions to the frozen wastes. She is one such relic, and one that refuses to cooperate. In the Northmost Empire of Üle, a land of powerful wizards and spellcasters, ruled the empress Adeena Ardin. A calm and collected leader who saw the needs of her subjects as her own. However, she had ever been antagonistic towards outsiders, only accepting to speak with them through a mediator of her own. On her ninth year after assuming the throne from her late father, the Great Blizzard brought by the Sirens rolled forth, encompassing the Northern regions first. Her subjects flocked to her for guidance, and in her castle she kept them safe for as long as she could. However, the food stocks would eventually begin to dwindle and starvation errupted, followed by plague and diseases. Her calm demeanor turned into desperation, her love for her subjects became an oppressive iron hoof, and the respect her followers had became hatred. Yet she would not accept help from the other kingdoms. Rumors spread by the mutinous few told that while the general population starved within the castle walls, she dined upon fine meals within her private chambers. She attempted to quench these rumours with violence, and on the next morning she found herself being dragged out of her bed by screaming peasants. They had killed the guards, sacked the little that was left of the castle's food supply and locked her in the highest tower of whole hold. Adeena watched from the barred windows, shivering and cursing, as her once loyal followers abandoned her. Those that survived the famine and the plagues within the castle walls sallied out South to escape the cold, but they got lost in the mountains, all that remains of them are nothing but shrivled, frozen bodies. Her fate would've been similar, it should've been. As the freezing cold sapped away her last breath, she would not die; Rather, she would dream. For thousands of years, she dreamed of an unending trail in a beautiful pine forest. The colors were vibrant, the birds chirped with glee, the warmth of the air was like her mother's embrace. She was entranced, and never once broke off from the simple dirt path, not even noticing the passage of time. To her, it was as though no time had passed at all when she finally came upon the trail's end. A great oak tree, greater than the tallest mountain, waited for her. Standing near it, facing away from her, was a stallion. Tall, covered in white clothes, with a long blue mane tied in a simple ponytail. She recognized the stallion, even as his shape shifted several times with each step she took closer to him. A father, a lover, a brother, a husband, a son, a friend. He had hundreds of names, and it was then that she felt the same of herself. Two souls, ever returning to each other, ever meant to be together. Three others were also there, yet she could not recognize them, she could not even understand their very existence. She knew they did not matter. She approached the stallion and stood by his side, and it was then that he looked down at her. He smiled. She called him by his name: Hope. His smile grew weaker, and he responded: Despair. It was then that she woke up. In the millenia that passed, her should-be-dead body went through a few changes; Her once pristine brown fur had been replaced by hard chitinous plates, her very form having been remolded into something more akin to a modern-day unreformed changeling, with a few key differences. She did not possess wings, and furthermore, the exoskeleton had somehow maintained her coat's original colors rather than darken, along with keeping her emanciated proportions from near-starvation. Her eyes hurt greatly as the light of a lamp shined over them. It had been thousands of years, she was so hungry, the two Equestrian adventurers that woke her from her dream were the first victims of the Northern Changeling Queen, and it was not their love that she feasted upon.

The two sat side by side, watching the rain fall just outside the window. It was peaceful then, something about the silence within this old wooden house kept her at ease, or it was simply his presence. A lot has changed since they first met, but this calm and nearly depressed aura that came from the Velgran has remained the same. That and his hatred towards her. She knew that he hated her with every fiber of his being, and she loved him for it, for she too felt the same about herself. As her mind wanders on its own, deeper and deeper still into self-deprecating thoughts, she slowly leans in and rests against his side. But then, something happened. He didn't shove her away. He didn't get up from the couch and wandered off into the darkness of the unlit room as he usually did. He remained still, eyes still focused upon the window. She frowned in confusion, looking up at her old friend and enemy. What is it that has changed? She glares for long seconds, looking for answers within those pale blue eyes, but receives none. She was so used to only having to read anger or disgust in his expression, that this empty look felt uncanny and out of place. Her violet eyes eventually move away and she stares at the floor before them. Just as she thought that the charade could not become more confusing, she suddenly felt one of his forelegs wrapping around her and resting on her shoulder. "What are you doing?" She finally asked with a hiss, her rough and low voice breaking the silence inside the dark room. "I am trying to protect you." His answer came, clear and sound as though it were obvious, his expression never changing and his gaze never moving. "From who?" A more predominant frown fell upon her sharp features, her eyes wandering back to focus on his face. "From yourself." As those words left his mouth, Adeena could feel her heart shatter into pieces, which then proceeded to melt on their own. She grasped at her chest, but remained otherwise still, falling into silence once more.