The Deepest Magic

Canterlot
April 6, 12:16 PM

Lily rubbed her eyes. Was she really seeing this?

She stood at the corner of the city, where the wall around the city met the side of the mountain. A mere dozen feet out or so, the protective bubble around Canterlot solidified into a transparent magenta barrier that kept the rest of the world outside of the spired city. And just beyond the barrier, sitting stoically upon a small outcropping, was a windigo.

No. The windigo.

It could be no other. She had seen an entire colony of windigoes. And as much as she thought that most of them were indistinguishable from each other, there was no mistaking this one. He looked strangely haggard, almost ragged, but the way he held himself set him apart. His piercing blue eyes were focused on her as soon as she saw him. Before him, right at the edge of the wall, several armored guards stood in defensive stances, with a tall, white, blue-maned unicorn stood authoritatively in front of them.

“Commander?!” Lily exclaimed as she approached. The guards turned to face her for just a moment as she ran between them. “What are you doing here?”

“You know him?” the unicorn asked incredulously.

Lily arched an eyebrow as she looked back at the unicorn, who wore a typical guard’s uniform, yet bore a certain commanding presence. “And you are?” she asked.

“My brother, Shining Armor,” Twilight said breathlessly as she stumbled up to Lily. She had been left behind in Lily’s rush to see this windigo for herself. “He’s…he’s the captain…of the guard…in Canterlot,” she managed between gasps for breath.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Lily said, suddenly realizing how brash she had sounded a moment before. She winced as another thought rose in her mind. “Wait…you’re married to Princess Cadance…”

Shining Armor dismissed the thought with a wave of his hoof. “Don’t worry about it,” he said. “Just tell me what this…thing…is doing here.”

“Lily Pond.”

The group of ponies turned all at once toward the windigo. His voice was airy and thin, but it was clear and concise. Lily almost smiled as her mind recalled the last time she had encountered the windigoes…when Sky was alive and well.

“Commander.” Lily stepped forward and sat down. If the other ponies around her were determined to treat him like an enemy, she would treat him like a friend. “What brings you this far south?”

“I have a message for you,” he said. “Though it is not pleasant.”

Lily’s insides suddenly went cold. If he had truly come from the north into the very center of Equestria with a message, it had to be important. And important news that also happened to be bad news…

She swallowed nervously. “What is it?”

“I am afraid that your home is no longer there,” the commander said simply. He showed no sign of sadness or remorse as he spoke, but the air grew colder with each word. “Last night, the Chimera was spotted fleeing from the remains of the town. It had set the entire colony ablaze before it fled.”

Lily brought a hoof to her mouth as tears she had thought long spent began to stream from her eyes. “Oh no…”

The commander let his head fall ever so slightly as he continued. “There were no ponies to be found after it was gone. I…” He hesitated for a moment. “I do not believe that there are any left to find.”

Lily’s tears were flowing in earnest now. Her forelegs gave out as she slumped to the ground, tears forming puddles on the stonework beneath her hooves. “H-how? How could this h-happen?”

“And how do we know that you’re telling the truth?” Shining Armor suddenly spoke up. “How do we know you’re even a windigo? For all we know, you could be the Chimera yourself!”

The commander straightened up, tall and proud, as he turned to address the captain of the guard. “And if I was the enemy you seek,” he began, “why would I endanger myself so much to travel to the most defensible location in the empire? Would I not rather strike where it is most vulnerable?”

Shining gritted his teeth and prepared to respond when Lily reached out and touched his leg. “He’s telling the truth,” she said simply as she slowly tried to sit up again. “Just…trust me. I know he is.”

“But, even so, why would a windigo do this for ponies?” he challenged. “They’ve always hated us! Why would they suddenly want to help?”

Lily’s eyes rose to meet Shining Armor’s, then turned and looked at the glowing blue orbs of the commander. “Because, as hard as it may be to believe, he really does care.”

Shining Armor made a face, but Twilight shook her head. “Let’s trust Lily on this one,” she advised. “She’s closer to this than all of us. Her judgment is probably the best of anypony here.”

“Twilight is right,” Celestia said, descending onto the top of the wall from her flight. “Lily and Sky did something that no pony has dared to do in hundreds of years. Perhaps they have set in motion the coming of a new age between Equestria and the windigoes.” She turned her gaze to the commander, who seemed to straighten up slightly as she did so. “Do you know where the Chimera was heading after it left Polarmino?” she asked.

The commander appeared slightly taken aback by the question, but he recovered quickly. “I do not know the names of locations within this realm,” he began, “but it was fleeing in a direction that was approximately due south. Perhaps it is looking for another town to destroy. Perhaps one that is important to Lily? Or the pega—” He stopped himself short. “Or Sky Streak?”

Celestia turned to Lily. “Is there anything significant to you south of Polarmino? The place where you grew up, or perhaps where your family still lives?”

Lily shook her head. “I grew up in Fillydelphia, but that’s on the coast, further east of Polarmino than south.”

“What about Sky? He grew up in Foalumbus. What if the Chimera is going there?” Twilight asked.

Shining Armor tapped his chin thoughtfully. “Foalumbus…that’s in the right general direction. But if he only grew up there, that’s not much of a reason to want to destroy the town. Does his family live there still?”

“They do,” Lily confirmed. “He told me about them when we were travelling to the windigo colony. But how would the Chimera know where Sky’s family lived?”

“The Chimera was trying to get into Sky’s mind,” Shining explained. “If it succeeded, it would know almost everything about him…including where all the ponies he cared about were.”

Lily’s eyes grew wide. “Wait…then do you think that the Chimera went after Polarmino to get…me?”

She felt every pair of eyes lock on her. She shrank down, suddenly feeling very guilty for some reason. “I think that it is very likely,” Celestia said softly.

The princess looked again to the windigo. “Commander, I thank you for your help. We will see to it that we do everything to eradicate this threat to both of our civilizations.”

The windigo tilted his head ever-so-slightly to one side. “Might I ask…where is the pegasus Sky Streak? I must admit, I fully expected to see him here.”

An awkward silence ensued. After a few tense moments, it was Lily’s voice that answered. “He battled the Chimera some nights ago. By himself. We don’t know all of the details, but we found him unconscious, and he has been that way ever since. We keep hoping he’ll wake up soon, but we don’t know when that will happen.”

The commander’s eyes dimmed. He was silent and still for several minutes while the ponies looked on. Finally, he raised his head as his eyes flashed a brilliant blue. “Sky Streak once spoke to me of the power of friendship and love. He told me that it grew stronger as more ponies contributed their own love to it. I must confess that I did not believe him until he battled the Chimera, when I saw with my own eyes the strength that he had when he fought for those he cared about. And I told him that if he had been right about the power of friendship, then it would only be when he was surrounded by those that he loved that he would be able to defeat the Chimera.”

The commander’s eyes seemed to glitter as he continued. “But now, it may be that he needs your love to save him, before he can use his love to save you.”

The ponies stared in shock. The windigo seemed oblivious to their stunned silence as he slowly rose into the air. “It was good to see you again, Lily Pond,” he said.

Lily recovered as she heard her name. “You, too, commander. Thank you again,” she replied. She sighed. “I guess we’re even now?”

He began to fly away before stopping and looking back. “Perhaps we are,” he conceded. “But if I am not mistaken, then that does not mean that the goodwill between us needs to end.” He then made a strange face. Lily didn’t realize what she was seeing for a few seconds, when the truth hit her like a sack of bricks.

The windigo commander…was smiling.

She blinked in disbelief. When she opened her eyes, he had turned away and was flying back to the north. An involuntary smile of her own rose to her lips.

“Did…did that windigo just smile?” Twilight asked, her confusion evident.

“Are we even sure that windigoes can smile?” Shining muttered.

“Shining Armor.” Celestia’s voice brought a sudden solemnity to the conversation. “We will need to dispatch a group of guards to Foalumbus immediately. We cannot leave the citizens there without some form of protection, or, if that fails, at least a warning.”

“I agree,” the captain nodded.

“And I must ask that the Elements of Harmony head for Foalumbus, as well.”

Lily saw Twilight’s head jerk upwards to look at the alicorn in surprise. “What?” she asked.

“We do not have Sky right now,” Celestia said. “And without him, we have very few options for dealing with the Chimera. Our best hope is that the Elements of Harmony can stop it.”

“Pardon me, Princess,” Lily interrupted, “but I believe that Sky is still our best hope.”

Celestia regarded the white unicorn for a moment. “I understand what you mean, Lily,” Celestia replied, a hint of compassion in her voice. “And that is why you will be staying here with Sky. If you believe what the windigo commander told us, then Sky will need you. And,” she continued, seeing the question rising in Lily’s face, “if he does wake up, then we will need him to go face the Chimera. Because as powerful as the Elements are, Sky is the only one that truly understands our enemy. And that will be our most useful weapon against it.”

She turned again to Twilight. “Gather the others and get on the next train to Foalumbus. I will personally see to it that it leaves within the next hour.”

Twilight bowed before turning and galloping back to the palace. Lily watched her go, thinking of how fast she had seen Sky move in his battle back north. Suddenly, a startling thought occurred to her.

“Wait a minute,” she said, causing Celestia to look at her attentively. “Did the commander say that the Chimera was at the colony last night?”

Celestia nodded. “Yes, I believe he did. Why?”

“Because that means that he covered the distance from his colony to Canterlot in one night,” Lily said. “He came all the way here in one night just to deliver a message.” She shook her head, as if to try and help her brain accept the unbelievable truth. “It’s no wonder he looked so ragged!”

“I believe, Lily Pond, that perhaps you and Sky have had made more of an impact with the windigoes than you realized,” Celestia said with a strange smirk.

“I guess so.” She gazed longingly to the north, wishing that she could bring herself to believe that the news of the windigo commander had merely been a bad dream. “I just wish that Sky could have been awake to hear that.”

“Then you should go be with him,” Celestia suggested, “so that you can tell him when he wakes up.”