The Guide Of Lost Children

Ethereal Ice, whose name was once Luminescent Path, did not earn his cutie mark in life. Instead, he earned it in death.

Luminescent Path was the son of mountain guides, ponies that often risked their lives to get travelers to where they were going. Often times, the mountain path was the only way through, and medicine to neighboring communities were often needed and transported. One snowy year, the pair had a foal, and raised him to help with their dangerous job.

Little Luminescent Path found his niche right away - he invented a lamp that would be sealed with his mother's magic, and he would light the path ahead of the travelers, making finding their way through the mountains much more efficient.

One terrible night, the colt's parents had a fight. No one could tell you what it was about, as there are none now that remember it. Even Luminescent had blocked it from his memory, but it was terrible enough that he fled the house, taking his lantern with him. Unfortunately, he forgot to have his mother light it for him, and in his despair and urgency to leave the house, he became lost in the mountains.

In his last minutes, he wished that someone would come find him, or at least that he wouldn't be alone. He died holding the paper lantern.

Luminescent did not pass on, though. His last thoughts had been on the lantern. Passing through the mountains would be difficult again without it, wouldn't it? His spirit, distraught and becoming more lost as time dragged on, became lost and stranded on the material plane, unable to cross over. He wandered the mountains, forgetting more and more of his past life as the days dragged on into months, and then years.

Eventually, the lost spirit felt a call, a summoning, made specially for him. He found his way to a shaman [link] , the first in generations. Though their first meeting was tentative and brief, the child soon returned, and the two counseled. The child soon became aware of a new purpose, and in that moment, he finally gained his cutie mark - the paper lantern that he created, now filled with a ghostly light.

Ethereal Ice found his place and his purpose: to the guide the lost souls of the dead, mainly children, who could not find their way, as he had. He promised the nameless shaman and himself that he would never let another soul wander alone as he had for so many years.

This amazing traditional drawing was made for me by *wafflenaw Thank you so so much!
"Nameless shaman" belongs to *tinkr-tailr-sldr-spy
Ethereal Ice original design by *Artistic-Twist