Unforeseen Consequences - At the wolf's mouth.

>There was something that you should emphasize, the trek through the Crystal Lake wasn’t a walk in the park, not by a long shot.
>Sure, the part of making the crystals glow with your magic to reveal a serpentine road that would hopefully lead you right into the cult’s hideout was easy.
>But traveling to the actual location? Now that was on a whole different level of magnitude. The ever present darkness gave everything an incredibly creep vibe that made you feel scared… only a bit though… y-you were too cool to be completely scared of some darkness… yeah.
>Going against the blizzard itself was certainly one of the worst things you have ever endured. The massive amounts of snow coupled with the cold made every step to feel as if you had run a marathon three times in a row.
>It’s not like you could do anything to alleviate these hardships either. Casting a shield would create enough light to bring the cult’s attention, making you a clear and easy target for them.
>So you had to buckle up and take everything like a champ. Even if that meant becoming a pony Popsicle thanks to this stupid cold weather.
>It may sound like whining, but you seriously weren’t exaggerating about the cold. Just the act of setting a hoof on the massive crystal formation was enough to send chills through your whole body and make your poor hooves to feel a bit numb.
>As tempting as it was, rushing to the other side was absolutely out of the question. Yes, you were under the pressure of rescuing everyone before the cult had their way with them, but just galloping around would make the chances of someone getting lost in the blizzard to sky-rocket.
>It really, really sucked, but Thorax, Cherrywood and you had to closely stick together and endure the glacial temperatures, the snow and the super cold crystal that you were standing on, one step at a time.
>But boy, oh boy! You couldn’t feel happier when you saw a bunch of trees creepily looming in the dark distance.

>The very first thing you did was to point out the obvious and yell to your friends.
“WE’RE ALMOST THERE! YOU JUST GOTTA KEEP YOUR COOL!”
>“FOR THE LAST TIME, ANON!” Cherrywood was behind you, and she was super angry “IF YOU MAKE ANOTHER ICE PUN, I’M GONNA USE YOU AS A CLUB TO BEAT THOSE WEIRDOS!”
>“I REALLY HOPE YOU’RE RIGHT THIS TIME Thorax was at the back, he was squinting his eyes pretty hard and had his hoof over his forehead “I REALLY NEED TO REST A LITTLE, MY INDIGESTION IS GETTING WORSE AND…!”
>“SHUT UP! I’M HEARING SOMETHING!” Cherrywood’s ears were rotating like radars, she then turned to Thorax and pointed at one of the visible trees “THORAX, WE NEED TO HIDE AND QUICKLY!”
>Thorax nodded and gave her a salute “YOU GOT IT, CHIEF!”
>With an incredible speed, Thorax grabbed Cherrywood and you and flew to the most nearby tree he could find, he then transformed into a medium sized bush, enveloping the two of you.
>“So, uuhhm…” Thorax whispered “What are we exactly hiding from?“
>“Ssssh!” Cherrywood quickly cut him off “Somepony is coming! I don’t know how many, but I clearly heard some wings flapping.”
“Dang it! Those guys must have seen the trail realized that something was off. Alright guys, chill out, I’m gonna cut the spell off.”
>Cherrywood delivered a quick jab at your stomach while she hissed in a very low volume “*HISSSSS* Stooop thaaaaat!”
“Gee… ICE no idea that you would get that ang…OUCH! Okay, okay! I’ll dispelled everything now”
>A couple minutes after the light of the crystals went off, five cloaked pegasi ponies appeared near your location. They were flying low and definitely looked as if they were searching for something… or someone.
>During the time that their search lasted, the cultists came close to your changeling-made hiding spot several times. You and your group basically had to hold your breath and hope for the best… and also prepare for the worst.

>Every time they passed by, you could feel Cherrywood rolling her mechanical hands into a fist as you gathered magic without making your horn glow, and of course… you could feel a small vibration caused by Thorax’s indigestion.
>The worst thing is that their eyes never stopped provoking fear in you, it was like a green evil emanated from them.
>What kind of magic was that? Not even Chrysalis’ brain-washing stuff made you feel this physically sick.
>Praise be to all the sciences and Thorax’s magic that things ever escalated beyond that. After a while, the Pegasus ponies gave up their search and quickly flew east.
>Everyone let out a sigh in relief after that.
>At least you could be sure that they only saw the light trail and nothing else, otherwise, you would’ve been swarmed by those guys before even coming close to where you were.
>Once the coast was clear, and Thorax changed back to his moose-self. You noticed something odd, or rather, you wanted to slap yourself in the face for not realizing this earlier.
“The blizzard is gone…”
>“Just like our chances to get to them…” Thorax said with a defeated tone “What are we going to do now?”
>You gave him a gently hit on his leg and chuckled.
“That’s simple, Cherrywood is a bat pony, remember? We don’t need the trail to get to their hideout, we only need her super awesome hearing”
>“I mean, that’s not wrong” Cherrywood shrugged with a proud face “I can hear some loud noises coming from where those jerks went to, and they ain’t that far away.”

“Let’s move then, make sure to stay close to the trees, we don’t know if there’s more pegasi patrolling the area. Cherrywood, if you hear something, tell Thorax so he can hide us”
>Both of them nodded before walking in the direction that Cherrywood pointed at. She was at the front of the group, her ears were now permanently rotating like cute little radars as she pointed the direction in which you needed to go.
>Meanwhile, you and Thorax did your best to stay alert in case you saw something.
>You also had to say, this also proved to be nerve-wracking. With the blizzard gone, the forest was now dead-silent, and as you have learned, that’s always a bad sign.
>After some walking, Cherrywood broke the eerie silence and whispered “Anonny, about that blizzard…” She looked at you with a worried face and sighed “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
>You slowly nodded while continuing walking and scanning your surroundings in case some frickin’ cultist decided to ambush your group.
“Yep, the Crystal Heart never failed. The blizzard, the incident at the hall, everything was caused by the cultists."
>“WHA…?” Thorax gasped in shock but quickly put his hooves over his mouth to prevent making any loud noise. He then took a deep breath and whispered “B-but why would they go through all that trouble?”
>You dropped your head and shook it as you let out an amused chuckle.
“It’s quite simple, my dear indigestion-ridden friend. They did that to scare us and keep everyone in a place where we would be easier to capture. It doesn’t matter if we stayed at the mansion or the cabin, the blizzard gave them the perfect cover and blocked off any escape route.”

>Thorax quickly came closer to you as he replied with a scared voice “That makes everything worse!” Oh man, he was trembling “How we are even supposed to go against ponies as powerful as them?”
>You gently pushed Thorax away before he made you trip, then, you shook your head and shrugged.
“Eeeeh… My bet is that they’re not all that spectacular when it comes to power, but they are clever and more importantly, if they can pull a blizzard like that, then they MUST have high numbers.”
>“I dunno about that, Anonny…” Cherrywood sighed as she grabbed the radio from her winter coat and showed it to you “Those creepy weirdos must have some pretty nasty hitters if they can block Mr. D’s magic”
>You rubbed your chin while looking at the radio and thinking on the events that happened.
“Hmmm… Cherrywood, can you turn the radio on and set it to Discord’s frequency? I want to test something.”
>“You know it’s not gonna work, right?” Cherrywood raised an eyebrow at you, but ultimately shrugged and with a tired sigh said “Whatever, I’m not in the mood to call your dumbness out.”
>Just like before, the only thing you got out from the radio was static, only that this time, it was much more louder and way more erratic.
>When Cherrywood turned the radio off, she looked at you with an annoyed face and said “There, you happy?”
>You smugly nodded as you gave her a similar grin.
“Actually, yes, because now I can actually make one of my super awesome theories on how the cultists are blocking the radio AND how they operate”
>“Really?! That’s awesome, Anon!” Thorax said with complete awe “I just heard a bunch of weird noises!”
“Thorax, you need to pay more attention to the little details, man! The static in this part of the woods is waaaay worse than how it was back at the cabin. That, my friend, means that their blockade has a limited range. Hmmm, maybe I’m wrong, but it’s probably a big shield or something like that”

>“So what?” Cherrywood said unamused “We can’t go back from where we came from and test how big that thing is! Those jerks will be finished with… whatever they plan to do to everypony before we can call Mr. D!”
“I realize that… and I also realize something that none of you haven’t. Tell me, how many cultist unicorns have we seen so far?”
>“Uuuuuhm…” Thorax shrugged as he nervously smiled “I-I’m sorry, Anon, but I have no idea. That attack left me too scared to notice anything.”
>Cherrywood tapped her chin and then pointed at you with her hoof “Unicorns? Well, I only remember the guy you blasted and that’s it… What’s your point anyway?”
>Your smug grin became even smugger when she asked that. It was time to do the cool revelation!
“Because my blast caused a huge explosion, or did you forget that cool part? Think about it, the camp would be in flames by now if their style was to come with magic blazing everywhere. I was them and saw a huge magical explosion on the distance, I wouldn’t send a team of five pegasi and earth ponies. Nope, I would send my best magic-casters to deal with whoever is capable of doing something on that scale, and the team they sent would be just for backup.”
>Cherrywood rolled her eyes and groaned “I’m not a dummy, you dummy! Skip the boring part and get to the part that actually matters!”
>You rubbed the back of your head and chuckled
“Heh, sorry, I got carried away with the detective thing. Anywaaaay! What I wanted to say is this. They didn’t send their unicorns because most of them must be busy with keeping whatever spell is blocking our communications going. So… yeah, you’re wrong, I’m right and please don’t hit my face too hard”
>“I’m not going to hit you” Cherrywood said with a warm smile
“Seriously? And why not?”
>“Because I’m pretty sure that their hideout is just behind that snow dune.” Her smile quickly turned to a worried face as she pointed to the little dune in question.

>And she was right, while it was several hundred feet away, you could actually see a faint light glowing beyond it.
>At that moment everyone forgot any precaution and rushed towards the small dune as if your life depended on it.
>Of course, no one dared to jump over it, instead you and your group timidly peeked over it, enough to see what was happening but without anyone being able to see you.
“Oh... no…”
>What you saw on the other side of the dune was something that made you want to run away as far and fast as possible from there.
>There was at least fifty of those cultists dancing and chanting songs to King Sombra around an altar, some sort of cauldron that produced bizarre purple fumes from time to time and what it looked to be a stone-made throne.
>The thing made you feel more than anything than what happened at the hive was the object placed on top of the altar… it looked kind of like a small crimson curved blade.
>You could also see another circle of what you assumed were unicorns surrounding the dancing cultists. A purple laser came from their horns and went into the small curved blade, making it pulsate with the same evil aura that emanated from the eyes of the cultists.
>So that crimson device was the responsible of the communications blockade? But… why? Or more importantly…What in the whole wide world of Equestria was that thing?
>On the brighter side, every captured pony was here… and they were locked in cages made out of those black crystals… and there were at least another fifty of those cultists with them.
>Most of the foals and even the adults were crying, pleading to be freed, but all of that fell into cold ears as the chants for King Sombra became louder and more frantic.
>The cacophony became worse and worse, but when it felt like they had reached their climax of madness, the cultists went completely silent when a new figure emerged from the shadows.

>It was another cloaked pony. A unicorn, only that this one looked much frailer. Whoever that unicorn was, he or she slowly walked to the throne and sat there, looking at the rest of the cultists with this aura of malevolence.
>“MY DEAR BROTHERS AND SISTERS” It was then when you realized why the unicorn was so frail looking, she was old… “IT IS TIME TO TAKE THE NEXT STEP TOWARDS RETURNING THE TRUE KING OF THIS WORLD BACK TO US!”
>When the unicorn took off her hood, the face that you saw is something that will hunt your dreams forever.
>She wasn’t just old, she was essentially a walking corpse. She had no fur or mane, only this rotten brown skin with holes instead of eyes.
>The horror didn’t end there, one of her subordinates quickly handled her a vial that contained something, and when she drank it…
>Oh dear heavens… everything grew back in the most grotesque way possible. That walking corpse was now a beautiful mare with purple fur and a pale blue mane, she even got her eyes back.
>Human or pony, this horror show couldn’t be possible by any law of nature or science, and yet, you witnessed it with your own eyes.
>Now you truly understood why your moms used so much resources to fight the cult, why not even someone like Chrysalis wanted to deal with them.
>Cherrywood then came closer to you and rested her body against yours… she was shaking and badly “Anonny… I can hear them… and there’s a lot of them… please tell me you have a plan.”
>You would be lying if you said that you weren’t shaking too, the only thing that you could do, was to grab Cherrywood’s hoof so you could fear together before you whispered into her ear.
“I-I do… b-but you’re not going to like it one bit”