Prologue: Dawn of the End
As the great black wolf raced toward her, Celestia knew she was going to die.
She was ready for it- she'd known this day would come for thousands of years, known her life would end in the jaws of this massive wolf. She'd lived a long life and had no regrets- save one.
Why couldn't I have saved my kingdom? she asked herself as she lifted her head to scan the battlefield, her eyes taking in the butchered corpses, the sharp tang of gore hitting her nostrils. My little ponies.... your princess has failed you.
Celestia shook her head. No time for regret. You have to face your destiny.
She struggled to her feet, ready to face the ravenous wolf. The Princess of the Sun was a sorry sight. Numerous gashes covered her flanks and back where her blood-splattered armor had failed. Her left front leg was a crumpled mass of flesh, twisted almost beyond recognition. Blood streamed from what little remained of her left wing.
Yet despite the terrible pain she was in, Celestia stood proudly as the wolf rushed toward her, a statue celebrating heroic last stands. The wolf was almost upon her, jaws agape, ready to swallow Princess Celestia, who towered over mortal ponies, whole. The doomed princess began a spell, her horn glowing white-gold.
"TIA!!!" Luna screamed, her voice echoing about the burned-out battlefield.
Celestia didn't respond, instead she closed her eyes, her horn glowing brighter by the second.
A heartbeat later, her foe was upon her.
She fought back a shriek of agony as the wolf's jaws closed on her, biting through armor, flesh and bone. With her last breath, she cast her spell.
The wolf howled in triumph.
A second later, a massive explosion ripped through its body, a flash of light as bright as the sun tearing it apart from within. The wolf's last meal had had her revenge.
When the light died, the Princess of the Sun was nowhere to be found.
* * * * * * * * *
Celestia's eyes snapped open, her short white fur drenched with sweat. It was just a dream.... oh, thank Odin, it was just a dream. But she knew it wouldn't remain a dream for long. If the ancient calculations were correct, she had exactly three years left. The end is coming.... have I done enough? Will- no, can my ponies survive? Can I?
Still reeling from the horror of her dream, she rose from her bed, her expression turning to horror once more as she glanced at the clock I overslept! The sun was supposed to rise half an hour ago! And it's the spring equinox... of all the days to oversleep, why did it have to be today?
She turned and galloped as fast as she could to the eastern tower, after which Equestria was treated to the hastiest sunrise it had ever seen.
As her sun rose above the horizon, painting a watercolor of pink and gold, Celestia allowed her mind to wander to her subjects below. Some ponies would be undoubtedly worried at the late sunrise, but most would be anticipating a perfectly ordinary Winter Wrap Up. Celestia envied those ponies. They were never troubled by nightmares of their own fated, gory death. They were not Princesses trying desperately to save their doomed kingdoms. They didn't know what was coming.
Three years... She shivered, but not from the cold.
With her sun now secured in the sky, Celestia trotted back down the tower steps, the urgency of her hoofbeats betraying her worry. Is this my fault? Did I fail to end winter?
She shook her head. That's silly, Celestia. This was fated for eons. Of course it isn't your fault.
One thing's for certain, though; I should have told Twilight about this long ago.
The princess returned to her chambers, found a quill and began to write. Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle....
Thursday, March 21
Year 1 of the Second Diarchy (1 S.D.)
Ugh, I hate Winter Wrap Up. Most boring day of the year, Rainbow Dash complained to herself. At least last year, we got Twilight's craziness. She had to suppress a giggle at the memory of Twilight running around screaming, her face full of bee stings and smelling like a skunk.
Huh. And now she's an alicorn. Rainbow glanced down at the checklist she held in her hoof that Twilight had made for her. It read:
__ Clear clouds
__ Shovel snow off rooftops and streets
__ Melt snow
__ Melt ice
__ Guide the birds home
Rainbow Dash sighed as she looked down at the annoyingly blank checkboxes. To her, checklists were the foot soldiers in the tyranny of organization, intent on sucking the life out of ponies and turning them into eggheads. No offense, Twi, but it's not like somepony as awesome as me would even need a checklist, she thought, smiling her trademark cocky grin.
One more cloud to go. Rainbow sized up the cloud. It was a perfectly ordinary cloud, medium-sized, fluffy and gray, the kind of cloud that could be seen all over Equestria during the winter months.
Rainbow kicked at the cloud, fully expecting it to dissipate.
It didn't.
"What?!" she exclaimed, kicking the stubborn cloud once more.
As her legs sank into the cloud, she felt her hooves connect with something solid. A wash of coldness raced up her back legs and through her spine, as if her blood had been turned to ice.
Her teeth chattering, her whole body shaking, a barely conscious Rainbow Dash charged the cloud. Cloud, meet my awesomeness.
Fiery pain shot through her skull as she slammed headfirst into the cloud. Her vision dimmed, and then went black.
And Rainbow Dash, bearer of the Element of Loyalty, Wonderbolts cadet, and the only pony in living memory to ever perform a Sonic Rainboom, fell from the sky like a stone.
* * * * * * * * * *
"Okay, Fluttershy, I'll see if someone else can go and try to find her... now, what were you saying, Applejack?"
The orange earth pony cleared her throat. "We don't have enough ponies plowing the southern fields. Could ya get a few more on the task?"
"Sure." Twilight flipped through her lists, trying to find out what ponies were available.
"Um, Twilight," Fluttershy remarked, "I think there's something you need to see."
"Just a minute, Fluttershy." Turning back to Applejack, Twilight said, "How many ponies do you need?"
"'Bout six or so. Less if they're strong."
"Twilight, this is really kind of important..."
"Okay," Twilight scanned her list, "Berry Punch and Bon Bon are on duty in Whitetail Woods, but you said that wasn't as important, right?"
Applejack nodded. "Sure did."
"TWILIGHT!" Fluttershy screeched. "RAINBOW'S FALLING!"
"What?!" Twilight gasped, whipping her head around to see that Fluttershy was indeed correct. Rainbow was falling, and she had almost hit the ground. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?"
Twilight concentrated, focusing on the magic inside her, willing herself to move. A minute later, a bright flash of magenta light announced her arrival almost directly beneath Rainbow. Reaching out with her magic, Twilight caught the falling pegasus and set her gently down on the snow.
She was out cold; a dark, blotchy bruise stretched across her forehead, half hidden by her mane. Twilight kneeled down and put one ear to her friend's chest.
Fluttershy and Applejack trotted up behind her. "Is she okay?" Fluttershy fretted.
"She's unconscious but her heartbeat and breathing are steady. She'll probably come around in a few minutes, but we should get her to a doctor, just to be safe," Twilight said. She stood up and carefully began to lift the injured pegasus onto her back.
"Sugarcube, I think gettin' Rainbow to a doctor is the least of our worries right now."
Twilight whipped her head around and glared at Applejack. "How can you say that? What could be more important than Rainbow Dash?"
Applejack pointed to the sky. "Look."
Twilight looked up.
Above her flew a ghostly being the color of winter. It had the shape of a pony, but it was much more gracile, almost as if it was made of smoke. As it flew, it stirred up storm clouds in its wake, causing the wind to howl violently around the three ponies in the center of the field.
"No," Twilight whispered, her mouth half open in shock. "Windigoes haven't been seen in over a thousand years. How can this be...?"
"You can wonder why later, Twi," Applejack said. "Right now, Ah think we've got a problem on our hooves."
Twilight felt something pressing against her side and looked down to see Fluttershy cowering, trying to put as much distance between her and the Windigo as possible.
Twilight took a deep breath, trying to stop herself from following Fluttershy's example and cowering in a corner. She was a Princess now. She had to stay strong. "Okay," she said, hoping she sounded more confident than she felt, "Fluttershy, you go get Pinkie, Rarity, and the Elements."
The yellow pegasus sped off, a relieved expression on her face.
"Applejack, stay here and guard Rainbow. I'm going to try and fight it."
"Uh, Twi, are ya sure?"
Twilight didn't answer, simply flapped her wings and took off.
As she rose into the air, the howling winds around her grew impossibly violent, so that Twilight had to fight with all her earthpony strength for every flap. She shut her eyes and gritted her teeth, her face a mask of grim determination as she struggled upward.
When Twilight opened her eyes, the world had changed. Her vision was enveloped by a swirling expanse of white, the worst blizzard she had ever seen. The cruel wind began to toss her like a child's toy- up, down, up again. She shut her eyes, hoping against hope that this all was some sort of a bad dream, that she was safe inside her warm bed-
Her tears froze to her face.
Then Twilight felt a coldness the likes of which she had never known before- a chill so cold that she felt as if every molecule in her body had been turned to ice. But more than that, she felt like the very essence of who she was would freeze. Friendship, laughter, generosity- all being sucked out of her, leaving in its place only the terrible, burning cold she now felt.
Twilight opened her eyes to see a glowing white pair staring into hers.
The Windigo flew forward, so that its snout was just an inch away from Twilight's. And it spoke. It didn't use words, but Twilight could hear its voice just the same. She shuddered at the mental sound.
You thought you could stop me, foal, but you will pay the price for your error. And there is no being alive that can stop our triumph, for it has been fated since the dawn of time. Soon, your pitiful race of ponies will be destroyed. And we shall rule.
With those words, the Windigo's eyes glowed an icy bright and a violent gust of wind sent her spinning out of control through the maelstrom of white.
Twilight hit the ground hard; bouncing, rolling and sliding over the snow-covered ground. At last she came to a halt. She groaned and lifted her head up. Everything hurt.
No broken bones, that's good. She sat up gingerly. Twilight gazed into the blizzard, wondering where she was. No clue.
Despair gripped her heart as she realized she was lost, at the mercy of the Windigo.
No... I can't die like this. Not here, not now. I... I still have a lot to do, a lot to learn. And what's going to happen to Equestria when I'm gone? Without my Element of Magic, how will my friends defeat the Windigo?
What caused it to appear in the first place? I know Windigoes feed on hate and fear; so what triggered its arrival? There's been no reports of unrest; is there something the Princesses aren't telling me?
"Now what the hay do you think you're doin'? I just cleared this field!"
"It's... not that bad, dear. Once we vanquish that horrid spirit, you have to admit it will make for a pretty sight."
"And besides, snow is fun! You can make snow cones with it, and snow balls, and snow forts, and-"
Twilight pricked her ears at the sound of the familiar voices. My friends! They're here! If only I knew where here was... "Applejack! Rarity! Can you hear me?" she shouted over the noise of the rushing wind.
A hazy purple line appeared through the blizzard, surrounded by a pale blue glow. As it moved closer, the shape solidified into that of a white unicorn desperately trying to keep her perfectly coiffed mane from disintegrating in the gale.
"Rarity!"
"Thank goodness you're safe, darling. Applejack told me what had happened and I was so worried," Rarity said.
Twilight watched as her other friends stepped out of the blizzard; first Pinkie, still cheerful as ever, then Applejack, carrying a still-unconscious Rainbow Dash on her back, and finally Fluttershy, huddled low to the ground in a quivering yellow blob.
The sight of her friends filled Twilight with a sensation almost forgotten: hope. Her confidence renewed, she stood up and turned to the storm.
You can't win. You were defeated long ago, and we'll defeat you again, she thought as her horn began to glow. The magenta fire traveled outwards, melting the snow and cutting through the clouds like a luminous knife.
The shockwave hit the Windigo full on; the spirit howled as Twilight's magic tore through it. Before it could be vaporized completely, however, the Windigo turned and flew away into the now-sunny sky.
"Wow! Twilight, that was amazing!" Pinkie exclaimed.
Twilight smiled. "Thanks, but it wasn't just me," she said, looking warmly at her friends. "It was all of us."
Rarity gasped.
Fearing the worst, Twilight spun around to see what she was looking at.
The snow and ice crystals that the Windigo had left were perfectly positioned to catch the light of the morning sun, and as such, an arc of light stretched across the sky, paler than any rainbow but no less beautiful.
"Why, it's an icebow!" Rarity exclaimed. "I've never seen anything like this before. It's truly magnificent."
"Yeah, rainbows tend to be pretty awesome," said a small voice from Applejack's back.
"Rainbow!" Fluttershy said. "You're awake. Oh, we were so worried about you."
"Ugh, my head hurts," the blue pegasus groaned as she got to her hooves. "What happened?
"Oh, nothing," Pinkie Pie replied cheerfully. "You just ran into a really really hard cloud and it knocked you out but Twilight saved you just before you hit the ground and then Applejack looked up and saw a Windigo so Twilight flew off and tried to fight it but it was really really cold up there and Fluttershy went and got me and Rarity and it took, like, forever to find Twilight in the storm but we found her and then Twilight used her magic to drive the Windigo off and then the sun made the pretty icebow and then you woke up. So nothing really important."
Rainbow's mouth fell open in shock, as did the mouths of the other four ponies listening. "A... Windigo?" Rainbow asked.
Twilight nodded. "The thing is, it shouldn't be hard enough to knock somepony out. I know you hit it with a lot of force, but they're supposed to be non-corporeal. You should have just-"
The sound of footsteps crunching on the snow interrupted her thoughts. Twilight turned her head to see Spike running toward the group, a pained expression on his face.
"Spike? I thought you-"
"Letter from Princess Celestia," he gasped. "It's really important." And with that, he unceremoniously belched out a letter.
Rarity cringed.
Twilight levitated the scroll, a worried expression on her face.
The letter read:
Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle,
You must come to Canterlot at once. There is a threat much greater than Discord or Sombra. There is much that I haven't told you, but the fate of Equestria and the entire world is at stake.
Sincerely,
Celestia
"Pack up, girls," Twilight announced. "We're going to Canterlot."
