The Blizzard Chronicles

Chapters

Part 1: The Calm Before the Storm
Part 2: The Blizzard State
Part 3: The Elements of Unity
Part 4: Into the Storm

Part 1: The Calm Before the Storm

PROLOGUE

The moon overhead cast a brilliant, ghostly glow over the scene. A lonely traveller, an Earth Pony, strolled along a deserted dirt road. Around him, the plains stretched for miles out to either side, as far as the eye could see. Tall grass licked the edges of the road.

He may not have looked like it on the outside, but the traveller was very scared. Full moon tonight, he thought. Bad things can happen on a full moon. The cold didn’t help either. He shivered under the heavy packs he was carrying. He listened closely to the sounds of the night. He didn’t want anything sneaking up on him.

“Excuse me,” someone, or something, said behind him. The pony nearly jumped out of his skin. With a fearful yelp, he leapt several feet into the air, hooves flailing in a mass panic. He turned around to see what had spoken to him.

It was a Unicorn. This pony had an earthy black coloring that made him hard to see against the black sky. His mane and tail had a deep, powerful purple sheen to them, almost like the deep sea. The stranger’s eyes shone brilliant violet against the night background. His cutie mark was very curious. It seemed to be some sort of ancient design, a thing somepony would find carved into temple ruins. It was almost like the head of a trident, but something was off. The edges were more circular. Very strange, the traveller thought.

Just looking at this pony, something didn’t look right. The traveller dismissed this as nothing of importance.

“Sorry,” the traveller replied, sighing with relief. “I thought you were something else. May I help you?”

“Yes,” the stranger answered. His voice had a strange ring to it, almost like two sheets of ice scraping together. “I’m looking for a friend, and I was wondering if you might have seen him.”

“Well, okay,” the traveller said uncertainly. Odd question, he thought. “What’s their name?”

“Blizzard Blast,” said the stranger, smiling.

“No, I don’t think I know - ” The traveller paused. “Wait a minute. What’re you looking for a Blizzard for? Who are you?”

“THAT IS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!” The stranger raged. “I have a score to settle. Now you are going to tell me where Blizzard Blast is.”

The traveller was intimidated by the figure. He began to stammer, “I’m sorry - I’ve only heard - just rumors - ”

“Rumors will do,” said the stranger, growling. “Now WHERE IS HE?” With this, a sharp purple light flashed from the stranger’s horn and grew to envelop him. The light solidified and became interlocking pieces of armor. Unfurling a pair of previously inconspicuous wings, he sprang into the air and shot a violent purple beam into the sky. The energy beam lit up the night sky and could undoubtedly be seen for miles.

The traveller was terrified. At first he couldn’t say anything - he simply couldn’t speak. After a moment, the pony looked down at the ground and managed to spit out, “Ponyville. He’s headed for Ponyville.”

“Perfect.” The stranger looked off into the distance for a short second. “I’m coming for you, Blizzard Blast.” He then looked back at the pony and promptly said, “Goodbye.”

A burst of violet and the Earth Pony was no more.

ONE

Knock, knock, knock.

It was the last thing Zecora expected to hear on her front door in the middle of the night in a thunderstorm.

“Who could it be at this time of night?” Zecora asked, going to answer the door. “Traveling in this weather must be a fright!” She answered the door.

A mysterious figure stood before her. He was dressed in a simple black cloak with a matching hood drawn over their face. From the looks of it, Zecora judged the stranger wasn’t doing too well. Their cloak was drenched and the figure under it was shivering loudly.

Zecora didn’t ask who the pony was. “Oh, come in, come in, you poor thing,” she said, gesturing inside. “Let me get you something to drink.”

“Thank you,” the pony said with a shiver, sauntering inside and closing the door after him. Zecora began to make a Fire Potion to make the stranger feel better. To break the silence that followed, he said, “Would you happen to know where Ponyville is? I’m headed there next.”

Not taking her eyes off of her work, she answered, “Close to your destination you are, for the way to Ponyville, it is not far. Just take the road out from here, and follow it until the forest clears.” Zecora finished the Fire Potion and gave it to the stranger.

“Thank you,” the stranger said gratefully as he sipped the potion, holding it with unicorn magic. Warmth began to spread through his body and his hooves began to thaw. His cloak began to dry, the water coming off as steam.

“My name’s Blizzard Blast.” As he said this, he used his magic to take off the hood hiding his face.

The stranger had an icy blue complexion. His deep blue mane, cut in the shape of ice crystals, glistened with fresh moisture. His eyes glinted with a brilliant seafoam green. The levitation magic he used was lime green.

“Really?” Zecora said, pausing for a minute. “One of the Blizzard family? Interesting. What here could you be doing?”

“I suppose you could call it a . . . a search.” Blizzard Blast obviously didn’t want to stick to the subject. He cleared his throat. “I’d probably better go.”

“You can’t possibly mean straightaway,” Zecora replied. “This weather and dark combined is one terrible fray. Why don’t you stay for the night? Then, tomorrow morning, you can travel in clear skies and light.”

“Well…” He thought it over. The conditions certainly weren’t preferable for travel; getting this far in it certainly wasn’t fun. “Alright. Thanks.”

“Great. You can take the attic upstairs.” She nodded toward a ladder in the corner of the tiny house. “Just take the ladder there.”

“Thanks again. ‘Night,” said Blizzard Blast as he climbed the ladder.

Zecora didn’t reply. Blizzard Blast judged she was too tired to compose a whole poem to say ‘goodnight’.

The next morning, Blizzard Blast left without a word.

He traveled alone along the forest road, still wearing his cloak. This time, though, he wore his hood back to show his face. He didn’t much like hiding himself from others when he wore the hood up.

The trail he traveled was beautiful. The trees around him provided morning shade, and the road smelled of fresh morning dew. Blizzard Blast felt the whole forest alive around him. Everything in it worked together as one larger being.

He also felt . . . something else, and it wasn’t the forest. It was . . . a hot breath on his back. He turned around slowly. There, three towering beasts stood before him. Twigs and pieces of wood held together by magic, glowing green eyes - what stood before Blizzard Blast was a pack of timberwolves.

Immediately, Blizzard Blast took action. A blue streak of light burst forth from the tip of his horn, and in an instant one of the timberwolves was frozen solid in a block of ice. Another one lunged at him, and he rolled to the side, dodging the attack. Another blur sprouted from his horn, this one luminous lime green, and circled around him in a ring of furious, green energy. The streak pulled out of its orbit and shot toward the second wolf, pounding into it with a tremendous force. The wolf sank to the ground, its melted remains floating in the liquid.

The last remaining wolf pounced in attack. Before it knew what hit it, twin shining blue swords appeared out of thin air above Blizzard Blast’s head, and he took control of them using levitation. They flashed toward the timberwolf, and an instant later it fell to the ground in a pile of branches and twigs.

Suddenly, he heard voices behind him.

“Did you see that?”

“Simply astounding!”

“That guy’s GOT to show us how he did that!”

Blizzard Blast whirled around. Standing before him were exactly the six ponies he had been looking for.

“I know you,” he said, admiration and excitement crawling into his voice. “The noble wielders of the Elements of Harmony: Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie.” Pinkie Pie bounced into the air at the sound of her name with a light boing.

As a violet figure approached him, he nodded into a respectful bow. “And the Princess of Friendship herself. Such an honor to finally meet you in person. My name’s Blizzard Blast.”

“A Blizzard?” Twilight gasped excitedly, her eyes twinkling. She dashed over to him and shook his hoof vigorously. “Oh, I’ve always wanted to learn Blizzard magic! Would you show me some of your spells? Please?”

Blizzard Blast laughed a little, his hoof now throbbing. “Listen, I’ve got a mission to go through with right now, but I can teach you a little bit when I get back.”

“Really?” she exclaimed, hugging him tightly. “Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!”

“What’s a blizzard?” Pinkie Pie asked, obviously confused. “The weather’s just fine.”

Twilight turned. “Blizzard is only about the biggest family name in all of Equestria! They’re warriors who come from the core of the arctic North and travel the globe fighting villains. It’s hard to find one staying in any one place for long.”

She again turned to Blizzard Blast. “In an arm’s race with the most evil villains in all Equestria, the Blizzards were forced into developing stunning displays of battle magic. This one we saw here was likely nothing in comparison to this Blizzard’s true capacity.”

“Well, thank you,” Blizzard Blast said, flattered. He then gave a puzzled frown. “What are you six doing here in the forest?”

“Well,” Twilight said, trying to figure out how much to tell him. “Pinkie Pie here is throwing a party together, and - ”

Pinkie Pie finished for her. “I need Zecora’s help. I’m going to prank somepony!” She began to bounce up and down in a blur. Rainbow Dash stuck out her hoof to stop Pinkie Pie from bouncing, but she only drilled a hole into the earth and kept bouncing.

Rainbow Dash laughed. “We’re going to put Poison Joke in the punch bowl!”

Blizzard Blast smiled, just thinking what kinds of things it would do. “Just make sure Fluttershy doesn’t take any by accident,” he replied, chuckling.

Applejack jumped in. “So, wha’ would you be doin’ round here? I mean, we ain’t got a villain here fer some time.”

“Just passing through, really,” Blizzard Blast said with a shrug. “I’ll go set up a tent for the next couple of nights, and then I can meet you guys when you’re done with Zecora.”

“Sounds like a plan,” said Twilight. “We’ll meet you back in Ponyville.” The two groups headed in their own separate directions.

Blizzard Blast, however, had other plans.

Blizzard Blast was meditating a couple of hundred yards beyond Ponyville. It was far enough that the noise wasn’t disturbing him. Breathing deeply through his nose, eyes closed, he concentrated. He concentrated on why he was here. Why he was really in Ponyville.

And a horrible scene played in his mind.

It was supposed to be just like any normal night. A stallion traveled through the thick forest sided by a filly. They were coming home from a very successful night. The filly had made stunning progress since their last practice together. The stallion complimented the tiny pony, who was grinning ear-to-ear. It seemed as though nothing could happen to dampen their spirits.

It seemed.

Out of the corner of his eye, the stallion saw movement. A dark, blue light was seeping into the ground. The stallion knew what was going to happen. He warned the filly and they both ran for the edge of the path.

Then there was chaos.

The stallion had only enough time to pick up the filly and throw him to safety.

Rocks were falling everywhere. The earth began to shift. Then it slid toward the edge of a cliff. There was nothing the stallion could do. The earth slab he was standing on threw him over the edge.

“Dad!” cried the filly. He ran to get a better view of what happened.

The stallion clung to the edge by one hoof. He looked down at the ground hundreds of feet below him, and then back up at his son.

“Listen, son. I don’t know if I will be able to make it out of this.”

“No! Come on Dad, we can work this out.” The filly tried to use levitation to lift his father to safety, but he hadn’t levitated anything as heavy before. His horn only sparked. The terrified filly sank to the ground, breathing heavily.

“Listen, son.” His dad looked again down at the ground.

“Please don’t go, Dad!” the filly was now in tears.

“I’ll be there for you.” The stallion’s last hold on the edge of the cliff gave way. He dropped toward the ground.

The filly turned away, still crying. Blizzard Blast dared not look back at the remains of his dead father.

That was two years ago, during the escape of Nightmare Moon following the Summer Sun Celebration.

Blizzard Blast flinched. His heart ached just thinking about that horrible memory. But everything was going to be okay now, he told himself, now that he was here in Ponyville. It had taken him a long time, but he finally found the killer of his father. And now, she was going to know what his father’s death felt like.

Nightmare Moon.

Blizzard Blast was here to make it right.

“Revenge.” Blizzard Blast breathed the word.

He heard a high-pitched voice off to his left. “Hey guys! I think I heard something! He’s over here guys!”

Blizzard Blast knew the voice belonged to Pinkie Pie. If the Mane 6 found him right now, they would know he had not planned to meet them in Ponyville like he said. He looked around and saw that he was cornered.

He grinned. Twilight wasn’t the only unicorn in Equestria who could teleport.

With a flash and a pop, he was inside of the tent he had set up before he went to go meditate. It was a green canvas pitch-tent supported by a couple of long, thin tree limbs Blizzard Blast had found on the ground. Blizzards like him were typically light packers. He quickly exited and went to meet the Mane 6.

“He’s not here!” Rainbow Dash complained. “Where the heck is that guy?”

“Beats me,” replied Pinkie Pie. “But I know I heard something.”

Walking to her, Twilight said reassuringly, “We don’t doubt that, Pinkie Pie.” She paused for a moment. “Although I would like to learn what it was.”

“What what was?” said a casual voice, turning the corner of a hill behind them. It was Blizzard Blast. He was bombarded by the Mane 6.

“Where were you?”

“We were looking EVERYWHERE to find you!”

“We were worried something might have happened - ”

“You still need to show us how you fought the timberwolves!”

“Okay, girls - ” Twilight tried to calm down her friends, but to no avail. Suddenly she yelled “ENOUGH!” All of them instantly froze where they were. She turned to Blizzard Blast, a look in her eyes pleading an explanation.

“Sorry,” he said, an awkward expression on his face. “I suppose it would have been better if we’d established a rendezvous point.”

Twilight was just annoyed now. “A what point?”

“So what about your party, Pinkie Pie?” Blizzard Blast clearly wanted to change the subject. “Did I miss it?”

Pinkie Pie brightened in an instant. “Of course not! We were waiting for you! Follow me everypony, it’s this way!” She dashed away in a puff of smoke so fast no one saw which way she went.

“Which way?” asked Fluttershy, thoroughly confused.

The cloud of dust settled to the ground and revealed Pinkie Pie standing there the whole time. She laughed. “I got you SOOO GOOOOD!” Turning, she added, “Seriously though, it’s this way!”

The group followed her toward town. Leaning toward Blizzard Blast, Rainbow Dash whispered in his ear, “Since when is Pinkie Pie serious?”

TWO

“Well, I suppose I could show you relative location,” Blizzard Blast thought out loud.

Everyone was at Pinkie Pie’s party. It was a full house this time, and still no one knew what exactly Pinkie Pie was trying to celebrate. Even so, no one complained. Apparently, an excuse to attend a party thrown by Pinkie Pie was what it was. Blizzard Blast and the Mane 6 were all hanging out near the end of the food table, where the punch bowl was. They wanted to be able to see any results that came of their surprise. Ever since they arrived, Twilight had been begging Blizzard Blast to show her just one spell.

Upon hearing this, her interest perked. “Relative location? I’ve never heard of that.”

“That can be expected.” Blizzard Blast shrugged. “There are many ancient arts of unicorn magic that were widely practiced thousands of years ago. As time passed, though, these arts were simply forgotten. Faded into history. Relative location is one of them.

“Relative location is a fun little trick you can use to expand your capabilities with basic levitation magic. Instead of focusing on an object’s absolute position, if you will, you would focus on its position relative to another object. For example - ” Blizzard Blast shut his eyes and his horn began to glow a gentle green. A faint aura appeared around a cupcake on the food table next to them and another around Blizzard Blast. His eyes opened again.

“I am using relative location right now to focus on this cupcake’s position relative to me. As you can see, nothing is happening to it right now, but when another force acts on it - like if you were to levitate it, for example - ”

Taking the cue, Twilight used her own magic to levitate the cupcake about a foot off of the table. In a likewise fashion, Blizzard Blast also began to hover off of the ground by about the same distance. In a small shock of surprise, Twilight gasped and dropped the cupcake. In complete synchronization, Blizzard Blast dropped back to the floor.

“Ah!” he called in surprise as he stumbled from the sudden fall. Recovering, he smiled. The auras around himself and the cupcake faded and vanished.

“See? Relative location, in essence, binds the two objects together. Whenever one of the objects moves in a certain direction, with a certain speed, for a certain distance, the other copies that movement because their position relative to each other stays the same. The other object will also move that same direction, that same speed, that same distance, everything.

“You wanna give it a try?”

“Now?” Twilight asked, clearly doubtful she could do it given no practice.

Blizzard Blast nodded. “Now.”

Twilight nodded uncertainly and concentrated. Her horn began to glow and an aura of a strong red-violet grew around another cupcake on the food table. Another began to surround herself.

“Good. Now, if I levitate the cupcake, you should begin to float like I did.” Blizzard Blast used his own magic and another aura surrounded the cupcake, this one gentle green. The cupcake began to float in the air, but Twilight did not.

Blizzard Blast let the cupcake fall. He shook his head. “I’m not surprised. Relative location may sound simple, but it’s not easy to learn. Even Star Swirl the Bearded spent a week of practice to get it right, and he was even the first to succeed in recovering the spell.

“Let’s try this one more time - I am interested to see how well you can do the second try. Now remember: you must open your mind, open them to the true possibilities of your magic, your true capabilities.”

Twilight nodded and closed her eyes, concentrating. Once more, a deep red-violet glow grew around the cupcake, and another around herself. Saying nothing, Blizzard Blast levitated the cupcake about a half-foot above the table. This time, Twilight also floated above the ground. Blizzard Blast smiled and set the cupcake down. Twilight also came back down to the ground.

She opened her eyes again, knowing she had done it.

“I am very impressed, Twilight. Nopony has ever successfully performed relative location in only two tries. You are truly talented. I think you can count this another spell mastered.”

The next action was sudden and unexpected. Twilight walked up to Blizzard Blast and hugged him. The action was brief, and she pulled away after only a second or two. “Thanks for the lesson,” she said cheerfully, before walking away to enjoy Pinkie Pie’s party.

Puzzled, Blizzard Blast just stood there for a moment, not knowing what to do now. Then Pinkie Pie caught his eye. She bounced into the room wearing a chef’s hat and carrying a plate of cookies. Blizzard Blast trotted to her as she placed the cookies at the food table.

“So, Pinkie Pie, what exactly are we celebrating?”

She paused for a moment. “Well, I don’t know if Blizzards always need an excuse to loosen up and have some fun . . .” She was cut off by something that sounded like an explosion at the end of the food table. They both knew what had happened: somepony had fallen for the Poison Joke punch.

The mare who had fallen for the prank began to vibrate. Floating into the air, she exploded to the size of a giant bubble. Then a powerful current of air expelled from her mouth, shooting her all across the room in every direction. After a moment, she ran out of air and hung in the air for a split second before dropping to the floor, as flat as a deflated balloon.

Pinkie Pie laughed and winked. “. . . but we Ponyville ponies sure don’t!”

Blizzard Blast couldn’t sleep that night.

This was normal by now. Ever since he had figured out the killer of his father was Nightmare Moon, the memory of his father’s death had haunted his dreams. It had costed him many sleepless nights, but he was used to it by now.

This time, though, was different.

Blizzard Blast had taken a liking to the Mane 6. In only the short day he spent in Ponyville, they had already filled his life with so many positive things. Tonight, these things battled the negative things that came of his father’s death. They battled for control over him. They fought relentlessly and the battle was starting to heat up too much for him to handle. Blizzard Blast was confused. He didn’t know what to do.

After nearly an hour had passed of him letting this battle go on, he finally made his decision. His father needed to be avenged. But if he stayed too long, his mission might put his new friends in danger.

Blizzard Blast needed to leave.

After deciding this, he immediately got up and out of his tent. Using his magic, he lifted his tent and folded everything into a small pack. Loading it on his back, he set off into the night.

Travelling through the forest once again, Blizzard Blast breathed in the fresh, crisp nighttime breeze. The surroundings carried the same happiness as it did when he followed the same path to Ponyville the morning before, but he didn’t feel it this time. The death of his father was still haunting him.

“I know what it’s like,” said a voice behind him.

The voice was misty and smooth, with a cascade to it like silk. It was filled with pain, with sadness - and at the same time, with understanding and compassion. It had a depth to it. Its tone was soothing and calming.

Blizzard Blast didn’t care. He knew who owned this voice and it only fed his anger.

Princess Luna. The very mare who had killed his father.

Blizzard Blast stopped dead in his tracks.

The voice continued, taking no notice. “I, too, have lost dear family. I’ve been left alone for a long time. I know how you feel.”

Every sentence just pushed Blizzard Blast farther and farther over the edge. At I know how you feel, he snapped. Leaping high into the air and hanging suspended there for a split second, he slammed into the ground with tremendous force. At the spot on the ground where he landed an ice crystal grew rapidly into a shock wave that sent Princess Luna careening backwards.

“THAT’S A LIE!” In an uncontrollable rage now, Blizzard Blast used magic to expel from his mouth a fierce storm of ice crystals. Just before this storm struck her, Princess Luna teleported just above the blast of cold energy. Seeing this, Blizzard Blast ceased and promptly a huge green beam shot from his horn.

“YOU DO NOT KNOW HOW I FEEL!” Blizzard Blast began firing charges of green liquid at a frightening rate from his horn. Princess Luna was forced to block, using clouds of nightly blue ink to intercept the blows.

Before she could react, Blizzard Blast had again changed tactics. Surging into the air directly at her, he drew a pair of sparkling blue swords out of the air. Edged with a furious green energy, he slashed them both at her shield. The explosion resulting hurled Princess Luna backwards, colliding painfully with a tree. In an instant, Blizzard Blast smashed into the ground and a blue beam rocketed from his horn, freezing her to the tree.

Sprouting from his horn, a ball of violent blue light grew and floated right in front of him.

“BUT NOW YOU WILL KNOW!”

With this, the blue ball shot toward Princess Luna. She shut her eyes tight, waiting for the end. Blizzard Blast stayed where he stood, eyes closed. He couldn’t believe he had done it. His father had finally been avenged. He made it right.

But he didn’t hear a point of impact. He only heard silence.

Blizzard Blast opened his eyes, only to find Princess Luna staring at a figure between them. This figure was holding Blizzard Blast’s projectile suspended with magic. He was a fairly built stallion, with a coat of navy blue and orange eyes. His mane and tail were fiery orange, creating a startling contrast in the figure.

Blizzard Blast was overcome with hope. He had thought this stallion was dead. “Dad?”

Shaking his head gently, a light began to grow from his core. It expanded until it was blinding. Both Luna and Blizzard Blast had to look away. When the light subsided, the stallion was no longer there. He was replaced by a tall figure of golden white, with a flowing mane of all the colors of the rainbow.

It was Princess Celestia.

“I understand your circumstances,” she began, “but that doesn’t give you an excuse to -”

Blizzard Blast couldn’t take it anymore. So many different emotions flooded into him, he couldn’t take it all at once. “Oh, what’ve I done?” He tried to bow, but his weak muscles wouldn’t let him. As soon as he tried, he just crumpled to the ground and bursted into tears.

Pop!

“Another letter?” asked Twilight. She was passing the time with Spike exploring the library in the abandoned Castle of the Two Sisters. “This better not be from Blizzard Blast.”

A week had passed since the accident. All of the Mane 6 had heard the news from Princess Celestia of what had happened. She told them about the fight between Blizzard Blast and Luna, how she interfered, and that both of them were shipped off to the Canterlot Hospital to heal. Twilight was enraged with Blizzard Blast, but she read the letter anyway.

Dear Twilight,

I can understand if you’re mad at me, but I have to ask you to accept my apology and to listen. I almost did a terrible thing that night, I know that. But I wasn’t fully in control of myself.

You need to understand. As Nightmare Moon, she has done something terrible to me. I wanted revenge, and I was willing to sacrifice anything to get it. I know that was stupid, okay? I know it was. But you need to listen. She killed my father.

My father meant everything to me.

I was wrong, Twilight. I let my anger get the best of me. I used to think revenge was my only answer. Thank you for helping me to realize that the opposite is true. Revenge is never the answer.

Please accept my apology, Twilight.

I’m sorry.

Best wishes,

Blizzard Blast

Twilight read the letter again and again with increasing disbelief. Scowling with disgust, she picked up the scroll and tossed it into the fireplace to burn. He’s faking it, she thought. He’s got the nerve to kill a princess, he’s got the nerve to lie to one too. She retrieved a blank scroll and began to write a reply.

DON’T APOLOGIZE TO ME! APOLOGIZE TO LUNA! AND BESIDES, YOU’RE NOT SORRY! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT PAIN YOU’VE CAUSED?! YOU GAVE PRINCESS LUNA FROSTBITE IN ONE HOOF AND YOU’RE ONLY SORRY YOU DIDN’T FINISH HER OFF COMPLETELY! SHE WILL HAVE TO GO UNDER INTENSE PHYSICAL THERAPY BEFORE SHE CAN EVEN USE MAGIC AGAIN!!!

… And so on and so forth, she ranted for a page or so, and decided it good enough. After furiously signing the scroll, she handed it to Spike to send. A short minute afterwards, she received a reply:

Dear Twilight,

I understand if you don’t believe me. You can stay mad if you want, I can understand that. But I must warn you: if you do, you will fall to the same anger that I almost did that night. If it makes you feel any better, I have included in this letter three more spell lessons -

Twilight immediately stopped reading and rolled up the letter. Setting it aside, she began writing yet another letter to chew him out. Halfway through her message, she paused and glanced at the scroll. She did want to learn some more Blizzard spells . . . perhaps just a quick look . . .

She shook her head. “Oh, Twilight, get a hold of yourself,” she muttered to herself. She finished her second letter to chew out Blizzard Blast, and had Spike send it. This time she got a reply almost immediately. Spike unrolled it.

Twilight turned to Spike. “We shouldn’t even read this one. He’s just going to keep bribing me.”

Spike, though, began to read. He gasped. “It’s from Celestia this time!”

“What?” She read it as well.

Dearest Twilight,

I’m very disappointed in what you’ve been writing to Blizzard Blast. I’ll have to ask you not to write him again.

-Princess Celestia

THREE

The night following the receipt of the letter, Twilight decided to go talk to Celestia about Blizzard Blast. She needed to set some things clear.

As she was just about to take flight, she noticed the train pulling up to the Ponyville station just down the road. I didn’t know the train runs at night, she thought. Should probably just go ahead and take the train then. Autumn was rolling in to Ponyville and the nights were rapidly getting chillier. It might be too cold to be flying for very far.

Twilight teleported the rest of the way to the station and found the ticket mare. “One ticket for Canterlot please.”

“Sure thing,” the ticket mare replied as she dug through the drawer for a Canterlot ticket. Attempting to make conversation, she said, “You know, I got one more pony riding to Canterlot too, and that’s it. You two have the whole train to yourselves.”

Odd, Twilight thought. “Who?”

“Dunno. Didn’t tell me.” The ticket mare found the slip of paper and passed it under the window. “There you go.”

“Thanks.”

The train ride was long and boring. Twilight was glad, nonetheless, that she had taken the train, because it had soon begun to rain. The rain was falling hard enough, in fact, that the constant patter on the train roof was so loud she could hardly hear herself think. She had searched the train countless times for the mystery passenger that the other mare mentioned, but she couldn’t find them. It seemed the mystery passenger was always where she wasn’t. Murphy’s law, she thought, I guess. She finally gave up and spent the rest of the ride gazing out the window, lost in thought.

Twilight decided to fly for the castle just as soon as she got off the train. When she exited, however, a shadowy figure got off as well, on the opposite end of the train.

“Hello?” she called. “Who’s there?”

The figure vanished.

Puzzled and more than a little uneasy, Twilight took flight and headed for the main castle. As soon as she got there, she went to the throne room and the guards let her in.

Princess Luna was missing. Probably still healing, Twilight thought with annoyance.

“Twilight?” Celestia asked. “What are you doing here?”

“I thought it would be good to talk with you about Blizzard Blast. In person.”

Celestia walked down from her throne. She paused. “I didn’t like what you’ve been writing to him.”

“He’s faking it!” Twilight pleaded. “I’m just worried this whole thing is a big trick so he could get into Canterlot and take out all of us! Not just Luna, you! me! Cadence! And then . . .” Her voice trailed off.

“He really has changed, Twilight. You haven’t seen his grief like I have. He really thought it was the right thing to do.”

Twilight huffed. “Hardly.”

Celestia paused again. “Remember the pony you were two years ago? All you ever cared about was books. You read of Nightmare Moon’s return, tried to tell everypony. No one believed you.”

“Yeah?” Twilight didn’t see where her mentor was going with this.

“So you tried to stop her return the only way you knew: with books. You thought it was the right thing, correct?”

“Well, yes . . .”

“But it wasn’t really the right thing to do. You were misled. You remember that?”

“What’s your point?”

“Blizzard Blast is going through the same thing right now. Just be patient with him. Cut him some slack. He’ll figure it out.”

Twilight sighed. “I still don’t know if I buy the story, but if it’s what you want . . .”

Celestia beamed. “You were always my best student, Twilight.”

Twilight smiled back. “I had a great teacher.”

There was a short moment of silence.

Emphasis on short. The silence was interrupted by a sharp CLANG! and rapid hoofsteps resounding through the halls outside. Two guards rushed into the throne room. Celestia turned to them.

“What’s happened?”

The guards panted for a moment, and regained their composure. “It’s Princess Luna. She’s . . . gone.”

“What?” Celestia exclaimed. “Impossible! Search the castle!”

Both guards left the hall.

Twilight scowled. “I knew something like this was going to happen! It’s Blizzard Blast, I tell you!”

“We don’t know that,” Celestia replied calmly.

“No, I know what I’m talking about! I saw somepony else getting off the train when I came here. I asked who they were and they vanished! It’s Blizzard Blast!”

“Do you hear yourself, Twilight?” Celestia asked. “Blizzard Blast is in the hospital. He can’t be in two places at once.” She paused. “I thought I taught you better than to jump to conclusions.”

Twilight fell silent for a moment.

She brightened. “Well, I’m heading back by train anyway. Whoever it was, I might just be able to catch them!” She spread her wings and flew out of the hall, leaving Celestia alone.

Celestia smiled again. “That’s my student.”

“Freeze!” Twilight yelled. The rain was still falling hard and strong. Its barrage on her back was unbearable, but she didn’t care. Stopping the mystery figure was all that occupied Twilight’s mind.

The mystery pony was just about to board the train. The figure turned slowly to see who had addressed it. Twilight slammed into the ground in front of it so hard it cracked the cement ground.

“Where’s Princess Luna?!” she demanded. The figure started to back away, but didn’t say anything. It looked to both sides for help, but it was alone.

“RELEASE HER!” Twilight demanded again.

Precisely at this moment, a horn blared loudly. The train was leaving! Checking over its shoulder for a split second, the figure ducked into the train with Twilight following close behind.

But not close enough.

The doors were timed exactly right to let the mystery character inside for refuge, then slam shut in Twilight’s face. The train made the hissing noise of a steam engine, then started to leave the station. Slowly it accelerated until it was gone completely. By the time she recovered, it was out of sight, gone with the wind.

Now getting back to Ponyville was the least of Twilight’s worries.

The next day was the luncheon at Fluttershy’s. She had spent the whole morning and some of the night before just cleaning and preparing for her friends’ arrival. Her critter friends kept pestering her that it was okay how it was, her friends wouldn’t care. Through all of this, Fluttershy was insistent her house look the very best.

Now the time had finally come.

But something, rather somepony, was missing.

“Anypony seen Rarity?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Aw!” Applejack facepalmed. “I was s’posed to invite ‘er and it totally slipped my mind!” She stood up to leave. “I c’n go get ‘er.”

“You’re not going alone?” Twilight also stood. “I’ll come with you.”

“In fact,” Fluttershy agreed, “let’s just all go.”

Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie confirmed their agreement.

A curious scene awaited the group as they crested the hill where Rarity’s street began.

Rarity’s house was surrounded. Judging by the uniforms, they seemed to be members of the Canterlot guard. Three or four chariots were parked around the house.

The group galloped down to the scene. They approached a stallion guard who was scribbling notes down on a small note pad. His back was partially to them. He had a white coat and wore a full set of golden armor, complete with the blue crest on his helmet.

Applejack went first. “So, what the hay’s been goin’ on?”

The stallion made no reply.

Rainbow Dash got right in front of him and stomped one hoof in the ground. “Mind telling us what happened here?”

If he knew they were there, he made no acknowledgement.

Twilight unfurled her wings. “Maybe they’ll only talk to me.” Her friends backed away to let her talk to the guard.

She cleared her throat. “So what’s happened?”

The stallion turned to her and bowed. “Princess Twilight.” Rising again, he removed his helmet and set it to the side. His eyes and mane were both deep blue, and he bore just a touch of resemblance to Shining Armor. “I would be Eagle Vision. We’re just doing some investigating. We have reason to believe that the culprit for Princess Luna’s disappearance is - ” He took a moment to shuffle through his notes - “Rarity.”

“How can that be?” Twilight asked him in shock.

“Well,” Eagle Vision began, drawing something from one of the chariots. He brought it so all five of the friends could see. “we found this on the train.”

It was a fake eyelash, labeled and sealed in a plastic bag.

After peering at it for a short moment, Applejack confirmed. “Yep, definitely Rarity’s.”

Eagle Vision went on, putting the evidence away back in the chariot. “We had some other investigators take a look at it, and they say it’s fresh. Can’t have fallen off before eleven o’clock last night.”

Twilight gasped. “That’s the same time as - ”

“ - As the train’s last departure from Canterlot that night,” he finished. “And we talked around with every guard that was on duty then - there was no other sign of anypony else coming or leaving. Irrefutable evidence - it’s Rarity.”

“Well - ” Rainbow Dash couldn’t argue. “ - well, then, what’s the sentence?”

Eagle Vision shrugged. “Crystal Caverns for life, most likely.”

All five of them fell deathly silent. The Crystal Caverns was the highest-security prison in Equestria.

It was built during a crime wave about a year ago when a team of Canterlot guards discovered the enormous cave systems that ran for miles below the castle. Need for a place to keep criminals was high during the wave, so Equestria built up the money to renovate the space into a top security prison. Most criminals put there were prisoners for life. It is said the warden is secretly a Blizzard, but nopony knows for sure - according to record, he’s never used Blizzard magic in his life.

Fluttershy came forward. “So, does that mean - ” she paused, choking back tears. “Does that mean we’ll never see Rarity again?”

Worry came into Eagle Vision’s eyes. He clearly saw how much these five cared about her. “Of course not. We have her inside - you can come see her right now if you want.”

Twilight sighed with relief. “Thank you so much. We won’t be long.”

Eagle Vision suddenly appeared guiltful. “. . . And . . . we’ll be transferring her to the Crystal Caverns tomorrow. It’ll just be here again at noon - I guess it’d be okay if you came to see her off . . .”

Twilight smiled a sad smile and nodded. She could tell he was trying his best for them. “Thanks again.”

It was later that same day. The weather had taken a drastic turn for the worse. It was once cloudless and perfectly sunny, but as the day had worn on, clouds began together and soon a nasty rainstorm had gathered. The rain, pattering on the window, had pasted a fallen leaf to the glass - another reminder that autumn was upon them.

Blizzard Blast was supposed to be writing. He was in a small study located in the Canterlot central castle. A scroll was spread out on a desk before him, and in the corner rested a small container of ink and a quill. The scroll was a third of the way written on - Blizzard Blast was in the middle of writing another lesson for Twilight. But he couldn’t focus. As soon as he’d heard that Princess Luna was kidnapped, and Rarity was to blame, he lost that ability. He had zoned out again - he was staring out the window at the clouds, lost in thought.

Knock knock knock. The sound reverberated through the tiny room.

The noise jerked Blizzard Blast back into the physical world and he was suddenly conscious of everything. He turned. “Yes?” It was probably just Celestia again.

Indeed it was. The door drifted open and Celestia glided silently and gracefully inside.

“Another letter from Twilight?”

Using her magic to materialize a bound scroll from the air, she replied, “Actually, yes. How’d you know?”

“Lucky guess?” Blizzard Blast accepted the letter and unrolled it. It had no salutation or signature. It only read four words:

I hope you’re happy.

Celestia frowned. “I told her to cut you some slack.”

“It’s alright if she’s mad at me,” Blizzard Blast said pleasantly. “I can understand that. That said, I still don’t like it, but that’s for her sake. Anger is a terrible emotion.”

Celestia said nothing.

After a moment, she cleared her throat. “Well, I should probably let you get to your work.” Heading for the door, she looked back and added, “Feel free to let one of us know if you need anything!”

Blizzard Blast chuckled. “I will. Thank you!” Celestia slipped out and the door shut.

As soon as the door shut, he rushed toward it and pressed his ear to its surface. He could still hear Celestia’s hoofsteps down the hall. The hoofsteps continued for a short moment, until they faded into silence.

Seeing this as his chance, Blizzard Blast concentrated. There was a flash and a pop, and he was down the hall a little ways from the study. He was standing in front of a door. The label to the side read EAGLE VISION. Taking a gulp and gathering his courage, he knocked on the door.

“Come in!” came an immediate response.

Eagle Vision was pacing the room. It was a bit bigger than Blizzard Blast’s study, with two walls lined with bookshelves and a modest chandelier lighting the room. Off to one side was an armor stand, which currently was occupying Eagle Vision’s full set of armor.

Eagle Vision hadn’t seen Blizzard Blast yet. Apparently, he thought he was somepony else. “It just doesn’t add up, Swordpoint. Why would somepony like Rarity be kidnapping a princess? Plus, I just don’t feel good separating her from her friends like that. I think there’s a little more to this case than meets the eye.”

Hearing no response, Eagle Vision looked up. He was clearly surprised to see that it wasn’t his friend Swordpoint. “Sorry. Thought you were somepony else. Can I help you?”

“Actually,” Blizzard Blast began, trying to fight off his fear. “I think I just might be able to help you. Rarity’s innocent, and I know who is really responsible.”

“Really?” Eagle Vision said with hope in his voice. “Who?”

Blizzard Blast gulped. He forced himself to form the words.

“It’s me.”

FOUR

The remaining five of the Mane 6 had all decided to meet an extra thirty minutes early. They had thought Eagle Vision was going to be there, getting done with some final documentations or something, and they’d have a little while longer to see their friend. After all, it was the last time they were ever going to see Rarity - they had all agreed to make the most of it.

But nopony was there. Rarity’s house, when they arrived, seemed a ghost town. Twilight, at least, thought that this might happen, but she didn’t like it. The group waited in deathly silence for the arrival of Rarity and her escort. The idea of what was going to happen today to their friend hung in the air like a guillotine, sharp and deadly.

Noon had come and passed. Eagle Vision said it would be here at noon, Twilight thought. Doubt sprouted and grew in her heart. Did he just tell her that to throw them off? He didn’t think they were going to try to bust Rarity out - did he? She worried.

Her deep thoughts were interrupted by a gentle click! She and the other four of her friends all turned. That was the sound of the front door. Eagle Vision and Rarity both entered. Tears of joy filled Twilight’s eyes. He really hadn’t lied to them! He really did care!

Rarity quickened her pace at the sight of her friends and went to join them. She looked uncertain and a little scared. Her hair was a little bit out of shape - which told all of them a lot about how worried she had been for this moment.

Eagle Vision stopped and addressed the group of friends. He wore his golden armor and a smile on his face. “I have some happy news!”

Everyone in the Mane 6 looked at him perplexedly. What happy news?

“We’re letting Rarity off! She’s innocent!”

Five huge sighs of relief were let off at once. Rarity still looked confused though.

“I thought none of you believed me. I really hadn’t done it!”

Eagle Vision’s smile grew bigger. “I believed you. It was the guards in charge of the case that didn’t believe you. They have received some evidence pointing elsewhere, though, so they finally bought your story.”

Twilight came forward. “When? Who?”

“Last night. I have the real culprit outside. I already put the disabling spell on him, so he wouldn’t be making any trouble. He requested he have a word with you - alone - before I ship him off to Crystal Caverns, so I’ll be leaving and he can come in and talk with you for a second.”

Upon saying this, Eagle Vision exited. Outside, he could be heard saying, “I’ll give you five minutes.”

“That’ll be just fine. Thank you,” a voice replied.

This had better not be who I think it is, Twilight thought. Anger began to well inside her.

A stallion walked into the room. His bluegreen eyes melted smoothly into his bubbly blue complexion. His mane and tail were the color of the deep sea.

Indeed it was who Twilight thought it was. It was Blizzard Blast.

Twilight lost her nerve.

“YOU GOT SOMETHING TO SAY FOR YOURSELF PAL?!?!”

Blizzard Blast was clearly taken aback.

“YEAH THAT’S RIGHT! YOU RUINED EVERYTHING ALREADY TRYING TO KILL PRINCESS LUNA AND NOW YOU’RE TRYING TO THROW MY BEST FRIENDS IN PRISON!!! IT’S A GOOD THING THE OFFICIALS FOUND YOU OUT!”

“I . . . actually confessed. They wouldn’t have figured - ” Blizzard Blast began. Twilight never let him finish.

“A LIKELY STORY!!!” Veins were beginning to stand out in Twilight’s neck. “THEY DID FIND YOU OUT ON THEIR OWN AND YOU JUST WON’T ADMIT IT! THE MAGIC OF FRIENDSHIP WILL NEVER BE DEFEATED BY THE LIKES OF YOU, YOU - YOU - YOU . . . BLIZZARD!!!

“YOU KNOW WHAT? THAT’S IT! I’M GONNA GIVE YOU A PIECE OF MY MIND - AND I HOPE YOUR READY TO FIGHT ‘CAUSE I AM NOT GONNA TAKE IT EASY!!!”

Twilight’s horn began to glow with a bright light and hummed with a loud, low hum whose pitch was rising quickly.

Her friends intervened. She tried to lunge at Blizzard Blast, but her friends grabbed her and tried to pull her back away from him.

“Cool it down and let him talk!” Rainbow Dash told her. “Didn’t you hear Eagle Vision? He can’t use magic anyway!”

“Yeah,” Applejack agreed. “What he has to say must be really important if he wanted Eagle Vision to leave.”

Fluttershy tried as well. “I’m sure he could explain himself if we give him the chance.”

Twilight finally got a control of herself. She looked at all of her friends. She spoke in a calm and gentle tone this time. “If it’s what you want,” She said. Her horn was still glowing. “But I won’t wait forever.”

“Thank you,” Blizzard Blast told all of them. “Before I start, I just want to say, everything I am about to tell you is one hundred percent truth. I am going to level with all of you totally and completely. You might believe me, you might not - but you have my word: I swear on everything I believe in that during the next few minutes I am going to tell the entire truth.”

All six of them nodded for him to proceed. Where could he be going with this? Twilight wondered.

Blizzard Blast took a deep breath, then waited for a moment. “I’m innocent.”

Twilight’s horn immediately stopped glowing. “What?”

“Yeah,” Blizzard Blast said with a curt nod. “That’s what I thought.”

Twilight was the only one to reply. “I don’t believe it.”

“But if you think about it Twilight,” he continued, “The Canterlot Hospital, where I was staying that night, is completely separate the main castle by the Gardens, yes?”

She was silent.

“I’m sure you remember how hard it was raining?”

No reply.

“Did you see any mud tracks in the main castle that night?”

“Well, there are walkways in the Gardens that don’t have dirt.”

“Impossible,” Blizzard Blast replied. “It was raining much too hard for those to stay clean. At least a little mud would have washed up on them.”

“Well, then, what about Rarity?” Twilight asked.

“Of course she’s still innocent.”

Applejack cut in. “Well, why was she in Canterlot that night?”

Rarity began to have a drama attack. “Oh, I admit! I - ”

Blizzard Blast interrupted. “She was procrastinating some costume designs for some employer in Canterlot. Total coincidence - she was just meeting with her employer for an extension.”

“How did you know that?” Fluttershy asked.

Blizzard Blast turned to her with a creepy stare. “I HAVE POWERS.” This sent Fluttershy ducking behind one of Rarity’s dressing stands. He broke out laughing. “I’m sorry Fluttershy! I couldn’t resist!”

He suddenly stopped laughing and cleared his throat. “Seriously though, I only really knew a piece of the story.” He shrugged casually. “I just guessed the rest of it.”

Twilight came forward. “So why did you turn yourself in? If you’re innocent - ”

Blizzard Blast sighed. “To answer that question, I’ll need to first tell you all a story . . .”

And so he told the Mane 6 the story of his father’s death, two years ago.

The story had come to a close, leaving the room was silence. Blizzard Blast allowed the moment.

Then, he took a breath. It was slow and heavy, like an old man taking his last breath. “My mission used to be to avenge my father. I thought it was right. I thought that revenge was my only answer. All I wanted was Nigh - Princess Luna . . . dead.

“But my stay at the Canterlot Hospital has given me some time to think. I reflected first on how close I was with my father. Our relationship as father and son was deep and powerful. It was unbreakable. We would have died for each other.

“And this thought brought me to think about you six.” The only sound that could be heard was Blizzard Blast. His voice, in the silence, sounded crisp and clear. “Your relationships with one another are deeper even than mine to my father. It has a power. This power binds all of you together and makes you strong.

“That’s when I heard of the incident with Princess Luna’s kidnapping. I knew Eagle Vision was a part of the team for the case, so I asked and obtained the information that Rarity had been convicted. I became worried for all of you. The Elements of Harmony wouldn’t be the same minus one Element. I wanted to help somehow.

“No such relationship as yours can deserve to suffer such consequences, as mine with my father had. So, I made a decision that would change my life forever. I gave myself a new mission. My new mission is this: to protect such relationships from harm,” Blizzard Blast paused. The room was so silent his last words seemed deafening. “ . . . at any personal cost.”

Another moment of silence ensued. It continued for what seemed like hours, until they all heard Eagle Vision’s voice outside saying, “Alright Blizzard Blast! It’s time.”

The five of Twilight’s friends all left, making no sound. Twilight and Blizzard Blast were alone in the house. What happened next Blizzard Blast did not see coming.

Twilight hugged him. This time she let the moment extend. Her hooves felt warm around Blizzard Blast. He smiled.

She burst into tears. “Thank you so much!” After a short pause, she drew away. Her eyes were misty and tears were streaming down her face.

“You won’t have to stay in that place forever, Blizzard Blast,” Twilight told him. “We’re going to find Princess Luna and get you out of there.” She rested her hoof on his shoulder. “I promise.”

He nodded. “There’s . . . something else I learned during my stay at the hospital. I wanted to wait until everypony else was gone so that I could tell you. I’ll tell it to you now in the form of a riddle. That way, if you ever find yourself in need of something to do, you can try your hoof at solving it.”

He was interrupted by the voice of Eagle Vision outside. “Come on Blizzard Blast, we’re on a time schedule here!”

“Coming!” Turning to leave, Blizzard Blast finished his thought. “My riddle to you is this: feeling the cold, and . . . feeling cold . . . are two very different things.”

Twilight didn’t totally understand, but she smiled anyway. “Thank you.” They both exited.

Outside, Eagle Vision was waiting for them. He directed Blizzard Blast to a parked chariot nearby. Blizzard Blast complied with a perfect obedience. It was clear to even Eagle Vision, who had heard nothing of the past few minutes, that he had every intent to stay in prison for the rest of his life.

Twilight watched them flying away in the chariot. They shrank to a dot in the sky and eventually vanished.

She had promised him she would find Princess Luna.

If only she had a clue where to start.

It was evening in Ponyville. Twilight had retreated to the Castle of Friendship to write to Cadence. At least, she was supposed to. Right now, she was watching the sunset. Its beautiful orange glow illuminated the sky. She watched it until the sun finally dipped completely below the horizon, then headed back inside to finish her letter.

Dear Cadence,

I’m assuming Celestia told you about Princess Luna’s kidnapping a few nights ago. My friends and I are forming a search team to help find her. Would you happen to know something that might be of some help to us?

Thanks a million,

Twilight Sparkle

She received a reply only seconds after sending:

Twilight,

Thanks for the heads-up sis. I haven’t heard anything about it until you told me just now. Sorry to say so. It just might be possible the pony responsible has been screening the mail coming in to me. Given the circumstances, I’m sure Celestia would have informed me by now.

Only clue I had to what was going on was a mysterious piece of paper I found in my study the other night. It was clear somepony put it there on purpose. I sent it with this letter, so you could see if that could be some help to you. It’s certainly not doing anything here in the Crystal Empire.

Also, would you happen to have an extra slot on your search team? I would be delighted to join!

If you need anything else, you know where to find me!

Princess Cadence

Twilight read the letter a second time. Mysterious piece of paper? she thought. Sent with this letter? She looked around for wherever it may have fallen out. Then she saw a scrap of paper lying on the floor. Picking it up with her magic, she turned it over a few times. It was made of some sort of ancient parchment - about as hard as cardboard with the texture of sandpaper. She read what was written on it.

There was no signature.

Scrawled on it was only five words that sent chills down Twilight’s spine.

You’ll never see her again.

FIVE

Just as Twilight read this, a bright light flashed to life behind her. She turned around and squinted at it, thinking What the Underworld is this? Its white sheen was blinding - Twilight had to look away.

The light faded and disappeared. In its place stood a tall figure of serpentine form. Its several different features came from all kinds of animals. It seemed to be some sort of strange conglomeration of them all.

It was Discord.

“Huzzah, Twilight, so good to see you again!” he called with enthusiasm.

She chuckled. “Hi, Discord.” With a pause she added, “Do you need something?”

“Actually,” he began. With a snap of his fingers, a piece of crystal jutting out of the wall of the castle teleported to him. He continued, fiddling with it in his hand. “I heard you’re assembling a search team for Luna, so I just thought I’d stop on by, and ask if I could help.”

Twilight was surprised. “Well, sure.” She handed him the scrap of paper. “Do you have any idea what this could mean?”

Distracted, Discord popped the piece of crystal in his mouth. “Rock candy is simply divine!” Seeing the paper, he accepted and read it. He thought hard. “ ‘Never see her again’, hm? Interesting, interesting. Is this our only clue as to where Luna is?”

She sighed. “I’m afraid so.”

“May I ask where it came from?”

“Cadence just sent it to me. She’s in the Crystal Empire.”

“Ah.” He nodded and thought some more. “That’s it! Look at this Twilight. Watch what happens when you replace her with it.”

She looked at him quizzically. “Is something . . . supposed to happen?”

“Have I ever told you what a delicious castle you have?” He was clearly distracted again.

She pretended not to have heard him and repeated herself. “Is something supposed to happen?” she asked again.

“Yes.” He pointed to the paper. “Think, Twilight - a villain, the Crystal Empire, and the phrase you’ll never see it again. Where has all of this happened before?” The way he asked the question, it was clear he already knew the answer and wanted Twilight to figure it out on her own.

She thought for a moment. “You’re - you’re not saying Luna’s in the secret chamber King Sombra used to hide the Crystal Heart - are you?”

He shrugged. “First place I would try. This is our only clue, after all, and that’s just about the only place it points to. Certainly worth a look.” With another snap, the air next to him exploded with a sudden energy and a bluish portal appeared that swirled energetically and created a vacuum of wind that whipped at Twilight’s mane. “Shall I take us there?”

“Let’s get the rest of our team first.”

The portal disappeared. “Good idea.”

“Ya SHORE she’s in ‘ere?” Applejack asked for about the zillionth time. “Seems a bit far to be headed from Cant’rlot.”

“No,” Twilight admitted. She did have her doubts. “But it’s our only lead. It’s not like we have a choice.”

The eight members of Twilight’s search team - Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, herself, Pinkie Pie, Cadence, and Discord - were all gathered inside the central castle. They were trying to decide on their exact plan of action.

Twilight had had to explain to Spike a million times why he couldn’t come - it was simply too dangerous. The last time she let Spike come with her to find the Crystal Heart . . . well, she wasn’t about to let it happen to him again.

She stared wistfully at the carpet that disguised the secret stairway into King Sombra’s realm. “If only I could remember that spell . . .”

Fluttershy turned to Discord. “Could you teleport us in?”

An apologetic expression flashed across his face. “I’m sorry, Fluttershy, I couldn’t if I wanted to. Sombra’s type of magic isn’t exactly up my alley.”

Rainbow cut in. “You mean to say you don’t want to?” she asked with annoyance.

“Mmm, yes and no.” Discord tried to explain himself. “It’s just that us villains just aren’t supposed to interfere with each other’s plans. Even after we turn good - it’s a professional courtesy thing.”

She wasn’t so sure. “What about the time you went to stop Tirek? I’m pretty sure that counts as interference.”

He waved the question away. Literally - a white question mark appeared out of the air and with a wave of his hand, it flew outside and out of sight. “There are plenty of loopholes - especially for former villains like me. It just so happens a situation like this wouldn’t qualify.”

The whole time while they were talking, Twilight was in the background trying to focus. She wore a concentrated grimace and her eyes squinted tightly. Gradually her horn lit up and her eyes suddenly flew open with green flames flying from their edge. The carpet slowly melted away - almost as if someone had spilled acid on it - revealing the secret stairway the group was trying to get into.

The green fire faded away from Twilight’s eyes. “That’s it!” She turned to her team. “Okay, here’s the plan. Since five out of the eight of us can fly, I think we could save a lot of time if we all flew through the course. Rainbow Dash - ” Rainbow came forward - “I would say you, Cadence, and Discord are our strongest flyers. We’ll let the three of you take the last three of us who can’t fly. That way we can all keep up with each other.

“Anything somepony wants to say before we go?”

Pinkie Pie bounced. “I got something!”

“Yes?”

Suddenly Pinkie Pie was wearing a fake moustache.

“No.”

She blew upward and the moustache flew off and drifted to the floor. “Dang it!”

Twilight addressed the rest of the team. “Anything else? No? Alright, let’s go!”

Rainbow was the first one in. She tossed Rarity on her back and dive-bombed downward with a groundbreaking speed. Just before hitting the ground, she spread her wings to slam the brakes. After hovering inches above the ground for a split second, the two landed.

“Not so hard!” Rarity complained. “You’re going to kill somepony doing that!”

Rainbow made a face like Derpy and bumped her off.

The rest of the group soon followed and were all gathered at the bottom floor of the first section of stairway. Standing in front of them was the door that King Sombra had cursed thousands of years ago to open to their worst fears.

Applejack reached for the doorknob. “Well, what ‘er we waitin’ for?”

“No!” Twilight exclaimed. She had forgotten that she and Spike were the only two who knew that the door was cursed. Quickly she regained her composure. “ - I mean, maybe I should handle this.” Her eyes suddenly burst with verdant flames and her expression grew deathly serious. The door slowly and silently swung open.

But a strange sight awaited them.

The path in front of them was supposed to lead to the staircase headed upwards to the top of the castle - the secret chamber Sombra had used to hide the Crystal Heart. And it did. But the path was blocked by a huge formation of . . . something. The substance was clear with a strange purple tint. It was solid and jagged at the edges. And it covered the entire surface of the otherwise open doorway.

Cadence spoke. “Now what could that be?”

“Don’t know,” Twilight replied, almost to herself as she pressed her cheek to the object. She quickly pulled away. “It’s cold.”

Cadence glided to her side for a closer look. “Strange. You don’t think it’s some kind of ice - do you?”

“Not sure. Never seen purple ice before,” Twilight said as she tapped the formation with her hoof. Promptly it began to vibrate and it shook the ground.

“What the - ”

She never finished her statement. Rigidly parts of the object separated and became limbs. Arms and legs sprouted and stomped into the ground and the thing stepped through the door toward the group. As it stood to its full size the creature towered over them, its shadow casting a thick darkness all around them. Its empty eyes stared blankly forward and it raised its arms in attack.

“A . . . golem?” Cadence was bewildered. “But - Sombra never learned how to do golems!”

The beast didn’t seem to care. Balling its two enormous fists together it slammed into the ground in front of the team. The earth shook violently and chunks of the weird purple matter split off of its hands and scattered across the floor. Recovering, the golem roared a terrible roar with a voice like a rockslide.

Twilight panicked. “Ooooh Cerberus, LET’S GET OUT OF HERE!”

Suddenly a huge cage sprang to life around the beast. In an instant it was trapped. Stunned with surprise, it was suddenly enraged and it began to try tearing away at the bars. Nothing it did came to any avail.

“Wha - ” she began.

Discord came forward. “Let’s not forget I have powers over chaos, Twilight.” The cage floated off of the ground and drifted toward him. With a mischievous grin he said, “You seven go on - I’ll keep our little guest entertained . . .”

“I thought you said - ”

Before she could continue, Discord raised his bear paw, coining his thumb and pointer finger into a circle. He mouthed the word, loophole!

With a confused chuckle Twilight led the rest of the team through the door to the second half of the stairway - the half that continued upward to the very top of the castle. “This is it everypony. I think I might just be able to try that gravity reversal spell on all of us - I don’t want to make all of us fly if we don’t have to.” Concentrating, she began to levitate a few inches above the ground, a red-violet aura surrounding her. Abruptly she flipped upside down and slammed into the ceiling as if she were magnetized. It wasn’t until Twilight started to slide away that she realized she was alone.

She turned around to see the rest of the team. The distance between her and them was growing. “Wait, what?” They disappeared out of sight as she turned the corner. “Waaaiiiiitt!” She turned back around to face front, saddened at the thought of being separated from her friends.

“Worked on me,” cheerily said a voice behind her.

Twilight looked over her shoulder. Cadence was following close behind, her multicolored mane flapping in the wind. Twilight brightened. She wasn’t going to have to take on Sombra’s trap alone anymore!

Soon they reached the top of the staircase and she reversed the spell to turn gravity back to normal.

“You came!”

“Well what do you think?” Cadence replied. “Family sticks together!” Her eyes widened, still looking at Twilight. “Oh no.”

Instantly Twilight realized Cadence wasn’t looking at her, but behind. She turned around and backed up, gazing upon the object in disbelief.

There, in the center of the room, in all its glory, the moonlight from outside shining crisply off the smooth, glossy surface, was a mass of purple ice. Frozen inside was none other than Princess Luna.

The sight of it sent chills down their spines. Luna was frozen in a pose like she was leaping into battle and she wore a fearless expression. A beam of inky blue was shooting from her horn, also caught in the statue. Its general model arced forward and to the side of where the two stood.

Twilight carefully approached the statue and gingerly tapped her hoof to the base, as if it were a bomb that might go off. Nothing happened. “Well it’s not another golem - that’s for sure.”

Cadence thought hard. “This doesn’t make sense. What unicorn in the world could pull off this level of magic?” She too approached the figure. “You don’t think we could just smash Luna out - do you?”

Using her magic Twilight materialized a hammer and chisel from the air. Setting the chisel in place - at the base, so Luna wouldn’t get hurt on accident - she raised the hammer high into the air and smashed it down hard onto its head.

The substance hadn’t even taken a scratch.

In fact, if anything broke it was the chisel. It had bent from the force of the collision and even snapped in two.

Twilight picked up the smashed chisel and showed it to Cadence. “What the heck?! This is tempered steel!”

Cadence examined it and thought. “We got to do something.” She began to pace. “Perhaps . . . we could get Discord to help us at least get this to Canterlot.”

“ . . . I guess that’s something.” Twilight looked up at the frozen Princess Luna. “Not really an alternative.”

“Blizzard Blast is innocent!” Twilight pleaded. She was gathered with Celestia, Cadence, Eagle Vision, Blizzard Blast, and the mysterious warden of the Crystal Caverns in the courtyard just in front of the central castle. With Discord’s help, the frozen Luna had been returned to Canterlot (even he was unable to break her free of the purple ice), her guards had returned to their posts, and most general things in the castle were brought back to normal. The only thing that remained to be settled was the verdict of Blizzard Blast, who was previously thought guilty.

Celestia chuckled. “Am I the only one who finds it humorous how much your tables for him have turned?”

“But he is!”

Cadence came forward. “It’s true, Celestia, I can attest to this as well.”

Celestia held up a hoof in a signal to be silent. She still wore an amused grin. “I know he’s innocent.”

A confused look overcame Twilight. “What?”

Celestia continued. “And I know why he turned himself in. A truly noble purpose, if you ask me. However, I’m afraid . . .” she paused, turning to Blizzard Blast. “I’m afraid I will still have to pentalize you for lying to an official.”

He shrugged. “I can respect that.”

Celestia raised an eyebrow. “. . . Exile from Equestia?”

He was taken aback. “Seems a little harsh - but I’d sure take it over Crystal Caverns.”

“Not forever. Just a year.”

He shrugged again.

Celestia nodded and turned to Cadence and Eagle Vision. “I need you two to spread word: if Blizzard Blast is found anywhere in Equestria during the next year, he is to be turned in to authorities to be dealt with.”

She then addressed the warden. “. . . And I’ll need you to escort your nephew here to the Outlands.”

The warden nodded.

Twilight turned to Blizzard Blast. “That’s your uncle?”

He nodded. “Turns out those rumors saying the Crystal Cavern’s warden is a Blizzard are true. He’d be Blizzard Quake.”

Using his magic, Blizzard Quake zapped at the air and a blue portal appeared. It swirled and crackled with an energy and at its center was a picture of the Outlands, a barren desert region with air as still as death. “Any last words before we get going, nephew?”

“Actually, yes.” It was Blizzard Blast’s turn to hug Twilight. “I still need to thank you.”

“For what? I was only returning a favor.”

Pulling out of the hug, he said “Seek wisdom, Twilight.” He trotted to meet his uncle just before the portal. Blizzard Blast turned back one last time. “Equestria!” He gave an enthusiastic salute. “Until again we meet!”

He and his uncle leapt through the portal and vanished.

Three days had passed since then.

Having nothing else to do, Twilight decided to retreat to the library of the Castle of the Two Sisters to study. There was only one problem.

She couldn’t focus.

Ever since Blizzard Blast’s exile, she couldn’t seem to concentrate. Her mind would keep wandering to, she discovered, the Outlands. It was a very dangerous place, and she often found herself worrying about how Blizzard Blast was getting along. It didn’t seem fair that he would have to go to exile just to preserve her own friendship. She didn’t like it.

Absent-mindedly she picked up the book that was laying open in front of her and she noticed something very odd. It was something hiding in the corner, previously hidden by the book. Gazing at it she remembered what it was.

It was the scroll. The scroll that Blizzard Blast had given her a month ago, when he was still at the hospital. The one that had the three spell lessons.

Next to it was another bound scroll. She picked up this one and unrolled it to read.

Dear Twilight,

Very impressive that you found this. Celestia allowed me to write you one more time before I left. In this letter I put three additional spells I believe you could find useful -

Twilight stopped reading immediately and she felt a twinge of excitement. She recalled the last two words Blizzard Blast said to her.

Seek wisdom.

Seems there was more purpose in the message than met the eye.

Part 2: The Blizzard State

PROLOGUE

Twilight read through the new letter.

Dear Twilight,

Very impressive that you found this. Celestia allowed me to write you one more time before I left. In this letter I put three additional spells I believe you could find useful.

The Blizzard family name comes from more than just a cool word. Our family shares an ability no other does in all the world. It is completely unique to us. This ability is to control the elements. Each Blizzard is given power over ice and one other element. This secondary element varies from Blizzard to Blizzard and closely reflects their personality. Mine would be plasma.

Even though nopony else shares this ability given the Blizzards, it can be mimicked. These three spells are rare winter weather phenomena that, with practice, can be harnessed by unicorn magic to mimic the Blizzard battle magic.

The first of these three phenomenon is best known as thundersnow. In a nutshell, thundersnow is essentially a thunderstorm that snows instead of rains. It sounds very simple to create, and indeed it is. During the early stages of practice I would recommend finding an existing thunderstorm and simply lowering the temperature so it would snow instead of rain. By the time you’ve mastered it, you should be able to create your own.

This phenomenon is best used not as an attack, but as a move to manipulate the battlefield to your advantage. A couple of advantages a thundersnow storm could give you in battle is, first, limited visibility. A thundersnow storm does not produce nearly enough snow to battle with itself, but it is enough to limit visibility a ton - which, with training, can mean a huge advantage in battle. Another thing this storm will do is create severe windchill which can even lead to frostbite. This spell is a recommended tactic most when facing an opponent that relies heavily on eyesight and is used to higher temperatures - a phoenix, for example.

This next one is a bit trickier - and mostly because there is a little more science behind it. It is called lake effect snow. How these guys work is affected by two main factors - fetch and lapse rate. Lapse rate is created when large bodies of water warmer than the air above - hence the name “lake effect snow” - builds up moisture in the air, which condenses into clouds and creates conveyor belts of this snow. The lapse rate is measured by the temperature difference between the body of water and the air. Fetch is determined by wind speed and direction, which in turn determines the size of this cloud of “lake effect snow”.

If you get a high lapse rate paired with a good fetch, you could dump as much as 8 feet of snow in the middle of a battle. On occasion, lake effect snow is known to even create thundersnow as a side effect, so you can expect that. This spell is best against a flying opponent - a dragon, perhaps.

By far the toughest one to tackle - and by equally far the most awe-inspiring - is called cryoseism, or better known as frost quakes. Just saying its name can take your breath away. This curious phenomenon is caused by rapid fluctuations in temperature from freezing to above and back. The key to harnessing this spell is to first saturate the ground with moisture, and then take the temperature on a rapid drop to subzero. After that, simply fluctuate the temperature. With practice, you should see that the water in the ground will freeze - and then expand and contract with the temperature. Eventually, tension will build until, when the ice contracts, it will burst apart with a flash of light and a fantastic boom. Cryoseism is best used as a direct attack and is most effective against a ground-based opponent like a minotaur.

Good luck!

--Blizzard Blast

Wait, Twilight thought. There’s a part after the signature.

It repeated that strange riddle he’d told her what seemed like so long ago.

Feeling the cold, and . . . feeling cold . . . are two very different things.

What could he mean by that? Twilight thought hard. I guess feeling the cold would be like feeling something trying to make you cold, like a snowstorm or a cold wind or something. Where he says “feeling cold” he must mean when that thing actually makes you feel cold. But what could separate the two?

Stumped for now, she chuckled and shook her head.

Blizzard Blast was definitely one tough nut to crack.

SIX

It had been a month since she received that letter. Twilight had already mastered thundersnow and was nearly complete in her training with lake effect snow. The only one she was getting any trouble with was the last one - cryoseism. Blizzard Blast wasn’t kidding when he said it was the most difficult; in fact she was having some doubts to whether she could do it. The funny thing was, all three spells used the same technique to change the temperature for some purpose or another. She had already mastered that technique and still she couldn’t pull off a successful frost quake.

Perhaps, she decided, I just need to give it more time.

The next day found Twilight practicing cryoseism once more by the lakeside. Over the last few weeks, winter had rolled into Ponyville and the lake had already frozen over by a thin layer of ice. A light and fluffy layer of snow coated the ground, and the temperature outside was pleasantly cool.

Tapping her hoof to the surface to break the ice, Twilight drew some water out using levitation and splashed it on the ground. After waiting a few minutes for the water to soak in, she formed an imaginary bubble around the spot. She tried to isolate it from everything else going on around it. Then the temperature inside the bubble plunged toward subzero. In seconds the ground froze into solid ice.

Twilight worried. I always make it this far, she thought. And then I mess up. Doubtful, she raised the temperature inside the bubble to above freezing. Just as it was supposed to, the ice inside began to expand. Seeing this, Twilight again set the temperature on a downward spiral, plunging again toward zero.

Nothing happened.

Twilight repeated the process a few more times.

Still nothing happened.

She scowled. Why wouldn’t this work?! As she lost control of her temper the ice patch exploded with a sudden violence.

“You’re not cold?” asked a voice behind her.

She whirled. It was Spike. He was carrying a coat for her.

Her expression softened. “Hi, Spike.” She hesitated. “Yeah, I’m good. Thanks though.”

“You’re sure?”

She nodded.

“Okay.” Spike glanced past her to the smoldering scorch mark. “I’m not sure I like you doing this to yourself, Twilight. You sure you don’t want to take a break?”

Twilight gazed at the black streak in the snow that she created only moments before. “Maybe you’re right Spike. I’m losing it over this. I’d probably better.”

They both began the long and silent walk back to Ponyville.

Spike attempted to make some conversation. “Your friends are all bored - Pinkie Pie especially. She’s mad there’s not enough snow to have a good snowball fight.”

Twilight laughed, thinking of lake effect snow. “I don’t think that’ll stay a problem for long.” Her moment of humor was short. Her eyes glazed over and she sighed sadly.

“Something else wrong?”

“This weather reminds me of Blizzard Blast.” A deep sigh followed, its frosty fog billowing into the air. “I miss him.”

“Everybody misses him, Twilight.”

No response.

Spike gave a confused look. “You know what? I think you’re starting to like that guy. Like-like him.”

“What?” She looked down at her dragon. “Spike - what? Don’t be ridiculous! He’s . . . just my mentor, is all.”

Twilight turned away just soon enough to blush.

Precisely at that moment Twilight saw something in the sky. “What is THAT?!”

“What’s what?” Spike followed her line of sight.

The object appeared to be some kind of comet. It gave off a sharp light that glinted almost like the sun. The light was outlined by deep purple that started at the front, then flowed around the sides of the light then broke off the back and left a short trail behind it. It bulleted across the sky with a tremendous speed.

“You don’t think that’s some kind of a meteorite, do you?” Spike asked.

Twilight levitated Spike and popped him on her back. “Whatever it is, it’s headed for Ponyville. We’ve got to beat it there!” She launched herself into a full-on sprint.

They had a head-start on the thing - it had more distance to cover than they did - but it was gaining fast. Every second of running seemed like an hour. They both worried about what would happen if it beat them to Ponyville.

It was a photo finish. Twilight had just sprinted into town and skidded to a halt just in front of the Castle of Friendship when down the street the meteor rocketed in a downward arc and smashed into the ground.

A small area immediately surrounding the point of collision became blanketed by a strange purple fog. The cloud stayed for a moment before disappearing, being sucked into the horn of a stranger unicorn who rested in the center of a crater.

It was a unicorn. This pony had an earthy black coloring that stood out against the midday background. His mane and tail had a deep, powerful purple sheen to them, almost like the deep sea. The stranger’s eyes shone brilliant violet. He carried a small pack on his side. His cutie mark was very curious. It seemed to be some sort of ancient design, a thing somepony would find carved into temple ruins. It was almost like the head of a trident, but something was off. The edges were more circular.

Twilight turned to whisper in Spike’s ear. “I need you to find my friends. Now, I think I can take this guy, but if I do end up fighting him, things could get ugly. Fast. You and them will have to evacuate Ponyville. Got it?”

Spike nodded and jumped off of her back. He left in search of the Mane 6 and vanished from sight.

Returning her attention to the stranger unicorn farther down the street, she politely asked him, “Can I . . . help you?”

He replied, approaching her with an air of calm and fake friendliness. “Yes. I heard someone by the name of Blizzard Blast is somewhere around here.”

“He was here,” Twilight corrected, more than a little uneasy. Whoever this stranger was, she was sure he didn’t mean good news for Blizzard Blast - or anyone. “He was exiled one or two months ago. Why?”

“Oh,” the stranger began casually. “I just have a whole Equestria to take over and my brother turns out to be the only one who can stop me. Seems logical I’d - ”

Twilight didn’t let him finish. A beam of telekinetic energy shot into the sky from her horn and began to form a cloud. The cloud quickly grew until it was enormous. Its color dropped from white to a threatening grayish purple and swooped toward him.

Before the stranger knew it the entire town was inside of a giant storm of thundersnow.

Squinting his eyes against the harsh winds, he searched for the mare who dared try to stop him. All he could see was a dense fog that gathered around him. Thunder crackled in the background.

He growled. “How dare you toy with me, princess...” The s trailed, but the stallion was silent. His horn was hissing. A spherical force field was expelled from his horn that grew rapidly. It forced the mist away and exposed Twilight to his field of vision.

Spreading a pair of previously concealed wings he shot a violaceous beam of energy into the air. Exploding as would a firework, the particles rained all the way down to the ground and as they came to rest on his form they created shock waves of purple. As the waves intersected and overlapped, a suit of armor was formed. Soon the stallion was girt in a glorious suit of amethyst armor, embroidered with intricate swirling designs. The armor glowed and he declared, “I am Blizzard Rage, son of Blizzard Flame and rightful king of Equestria! All who oppose me shall FALL!”

Blizzard Rage shot a violescent ball of crackling energy straight at Twilight. She teleported out of the way just in time. With a pop she vanished from view just as the meteor barrelled through the spot where she had been only a split second before. Immediately it shrunk and dissolved into the air as if it had never been.

Only a second later Twilight reappeared in exactly the same place. A reddish-violet aurora surrounded her horn as the ground trembled. Gradually, from every water source in Ponyville, streams of luminous blue light grew and ascended to the sky. All the cerulean tendrils of energy gathered into one point exactly over Twilight’s head. From this single point grew yet another storm cloud, much larger and mightier than her last, growing to enormous proportions.

“You’ll have to try harder than that!” Twilight returned, sending the monstrous cloud right at Blizzard Rage. Raining an overwhelming amount of snow on him, it seemed almost as bad as the last time a pegasus shoveled her driveway.

But he was too quick. Almost as if he could see into the future, he generated a telekinetic ceiling above his head just in time to catch all the snow. Once it had stopped falling, the telekinetic sheet curled up into a ball, packing all of Twilight’s snow into a snowball the size of a building. With what seemed like no effort to him at all, Blizzard Rage hurled the gigantic snowball right at Twilight.

This time it was a direct hit. She yelped as it mowed her right into the ground. Glued to the snowball now, she rolled with it until it crashed into the Castle of Friendship right behind her. As it shattered into snowfall she fell helplessly to the ground. She tried to stand. Down but not out, Twilight had sustained some damage. She was badly bruised and cut in some places, and her left hoof hurt to lean on. Her breathing was heavy as she struggled to stand. Unwilling to be defeated she approached her opponent. She walked with a bad limp.

Blizzard Rage broke into laughter. “When are you going to realize it’s game over, princess?” He began to advance on her as well.

They closed in on each other. As distance neared, Twilight halted. “You may have defeated me . . .” She was cut off. Blizzard Rage was still advancing. She began to back up. Fear crawled into her voice. “Blizzard Blast undoubtedly saw what happened. He knows Ponyville’s in trouble. He’s gonna march right in and - ” Blizzard Rage was still gaining ground on her. Quickly she found her back to a wall. The shadow of the Castle of Friendship loomed high over her. Her hope began to fade. “He’s gonna - he’s gonna - ”

She was trapped.

Blizzard Rage uttered one word. One word that stopped Twilight’s heart.

“Perfect.”

You know you like her.

Could you just leave me alone for five minutes?!

Blizzard Blast could swear he was going nuts.

It had been a long time since he was exiled. And sure, the Outlands look scary, but survival there was not much of a problem. At least not for a Blizzard. Blizzards like himself were almost native to the barren mountain regions of The North. The Outlands were no different.

With all this spare time, Blizzard Blast had found nothing to do. The boredom was nearly deathlike. It hadn’t been long before he started to hear voices in his head.

What did you say her name was? Twilight?

OKAY, YOU JUST NEED TO STOP TALKING!

I thought you said you liked her.

I didn’t SAY that!!! You read my mind!!! And anyway THAT’S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!!!

It kind of is -

JUST SHUT UP!!!

Their banter was interrupted by an explosion. At least, the sound of one. Its earsplitting, thunderous boom swept almost like a wind all across the wasteland. It undoubtedly could’ve echoed for miles more.

Blizzard Blast turned. He was at the face of a cliff, and the vista it brought him was breathtaking.

He could see the entirety of Equestria from up there. The one mountain in the place, the one supporting Canterlot, rose above the scene like a needle and gave a cool contrast to the view. Far below it various other landmarks scattered almost haphazardly - Ponyville, the Everfree Forest - the view stretched almost as far as to even the Crystal Empire.

Blizzard Blast could care less about the view. He wanted to see where the explosion came from. Exile or no exile, he thought, it’s my duty as a Blizzard. Besides, it’s an excuse to have some fun. He chuckled to himself. Been needing that.

I wouldn’t recommend it. You know what Celestia said if you were to return.

She only said -

He was cut off again. Another explosion flashed into view right before his eyes. A purple dot appeared in the sky, and expanding rapidly sent another shock wave through the air. To Blizzard Blast’s horror, his suspicions were only confirmed.

The dot had appeared exactly over Ponyville.

Twilight.

And without a second thought he jumped.

SEVEN

Things didn’t look good for Twilight. She had tried thundersnow and lake effect snow; neither spell had any effect on this stallion. It didn’t even work to threaten him with reinforcements. Didn’t look like Blizzard Blast was coming anyway. There was only one thing left that she could do.

Cryoseism.

She had to try.

Twilight gulped. She knew very well it could fail. And if it did, she could be done for. Ponyville. Equestria. An entire kingdom lost - because one silly little unicorn couldn’t get a spell right! What an ending that would be!

Then the tiniest germ of a thought entered her mind. Blizzard Blast believes you can do it. From that one, tiny sentence Twilight began to draw intense amounts of strength. The tiny spark quickly grew into a flame, burning bright and strong. Blizzard Blast believes in you. Your friends believe in you. Spike believes in you. Celestia believes in you.

And then she decided to try.

Twilight shut her eyes tight, forming an imaginary bubble around the ground directly below Blizzard Rage. Isolating it from the rest of the world, she put all other things out of focus, everything except for that spot of ground. As she focused further, her breathing steadied - in and out, in and out. With it the temperature of the spot began to synchronise - in and out, in and out, up and down, up and down.

She waited a moment. Nothing happened.

The temptation came over her with a fantastic ferocity to give up. To just walk away, say she tried, and just give up. Twilight responded with matching strength. Holding her ground with all her might, she squinted her eyes only tighter, bit her tongue hard and grit her teeth together. Pain flowed violently through where she’d bitten her tongue and tears began to stream from her eyes, but she didn’t care.

All she cared about was keeping the spell going.

The temperature continued to fluctuate. It seemed almost near the breaking point.

Blizzard Rage interrupted. He’d noticed this curious mare was up to something . . . but what? “What are you doing?”

Tension was building. Twilight gulped.

“Hoping this works.” With this she stomped one hoof into the ground directly in front of him.

With a dramatic burst of light comparable to the very sun and an explosive sound the likes of which dwarfed even the Sonic Rainboom - with a terrible tremor which shook the very earth - a terrific crack in the ground burst forth and exploded with a miraculous energy that sent Blizzard Rage soaring backwards.

Seeing an opportunity, Twilight launched herself into the air. She didn’t want to be fighting on hoof with a bad leg. “I’m no Blizzard . . . ” she began. Followed by an electric crackle a standard steel sword materialized in the air, just above her horn. She took hold of it using levitation. “ . . . but I can still fight!”

“Oh, I see . . . ” Blizzard Rage growled. Catapulting into the wintry air in a likewise manner, he then summoned his own weapon - a fearsome scythe, the blade formed by a dragon wing design flowing with elegant curves from the central staff. It was made of a strange material - a purple, clear matter that gave off a cold air.

And it was familiar.

Twilight gasped. “YOU were the one! YOU kidnapped Princess Luna that night!”

Blizzard Rage chuckled. “Oh look, Little Miss Purple knows SO MUCH.” He slashed his scythe at her. “Let’s see if you got skill to match.”

Without a word Twilight returned the stroke with her sword.

Just before the two weapons clashed a bright blue spark appeared in the air. Forcing them apart the spark grew until it was a sizeable azure light in the sky, eye level to the two contenders. A silhouette became visible, embedded in the center . . .

A ball of ice shot upwards from it. After traveling a distance into the sky it exploded into a mosaic, almost like a firework. Its design looked like three ice spikes that intersected at a triangle. Twilight got excited. I know that design! It’s the cutie mark of . . .

A shock wave flew from the object that sent both Blizzard Rage and Twilight hurling to the ground below. Following them, the thing dropped from the sky and smashed into the ground as well. Upon impact, the light exploded into a ball of steam that hissed loudly. Above its noise rose a voice. Its gentle cascade filled Twilight with hope.

“We meet again, brother.” it said.

The steam cleared. It was Blizzard Blast.

Rage sneered. “What a pleasure you could drop in, Blast! I was waiting for you, you know.”

Twilight exclaimed with hope. “You came back!”

For a split second, Blast turned his head just enough to gaze over his shoulder. “‘Course I did!” He returned his attention to Rage.

“Yeah. I know. I know what you’re doing! You’re traveling around the entire world, eliminating one Blizzard at a time. With each one eliminated, one less obstacle for you. And you thought you’d start with me.”

“Oh no,” he droned with fake worry. “So you knew I’d get rid of you first? Then why’d you come?!”

Blast took his time answering that question. “Why did I come?” he began slowly. “Because I knew what you were doing. Because if you finish me, you’d just go on and get rid of more Blizzards. I came because if I didn’t, you would bring harm to my family. And that is NOT something I will stand for! I came to defend my family!”

Blast hesitated. “I came because MY FAMILY IS MY POWER!!!”

There, beginning to surround him was a blinding emerald-green light. It started at his core and expanded to cover him entirely. Both Twilight and Rage had to look away.

Then, slowly the light faded.

Floating there, hovering just inches above the ground, was Blizzard Blast. He wore a blank expression, and his eyes were glazed over with an ominous green glow. With fantastic brightness its mint color shone. Then he assumed a look of combat. His eyebrows, digging down into the sides, carved a sharp edge into his luminescent features.

In this expression, Twilight saw a rage like none other. She could see one thing clearly: Blast wanted to kill him.

. . . And yet, somewhere beneath the tangles of anger hidden in his expression Twilight found something . . . else. Almost as if . . . she could see the faces of everyone Blast knew and loved. She could see the deepness of his desire to protect them. She found something inside that she never believed anger could fuel. At first she denied it, but the truth swept over her of what it was.

Love.

With fresh vigor the warrior sprang into combat.

Twilight could hardly tell what was happening.

In less than an instant Blizzard Blast’s signature double swords rose into the air beside him. In a blur now, he leapt toward his brother. Rage tried to counter, but Blast was no longer one singular unicorn. He was a blur of energy, the very embodiment of speed.

With one sword he tossed Rage’s weapon to the side like it was a toy. Using the other he catapulted Rage into the air.

Before his brother could react Blast teleported eye level to him. Suddenly a circle of ice formed in the air just beneath Blast, but he didn’t come to stand on it. Both of his swords flashed into orbits around himself; two deadly buzzsaws cored by the unicorn that was once Blast. With them he slashed at his brother over and over again. If it weren’t for Rage’s indestructible armor he would have been toast.

Blast created an explosion with his horn that sent Rage again crashing downward. Before following he combined his two swords together into one blade. As they spun around him they created an arc of plasma that rocketed from its source toward Rage. Upon its impact Blast smashed into the ground just down the street.

Deciding to wait for his brother to retrieve his weapon, Blast again blazed toward him and shot him into the sky. As he teleported after him Blast spun his swords this time in a rotating circle in front of himself. From the center expanded a ball of plasma encased in luminous blue ice. It was an energy bomb.

Blast had him. All he had to do was detonate. Rage would have been no more. There would be no more threat to Equestria. It was all he had to do.

But he couldn’t.

Blast took one look at the stallion he was about to kill. He didn’t see a villain. He didn’t see a killer.

He saw his brother.

His family.

Upon this realization the glow faded from his eyes. He shuddered as if waking from a dream. “Brother? Where am I? What’s going on?”

Rage didn’t answer.

He had an opportunity to take.

Fear turning into confidence, a pair of purple jets streamed from his horn, one to either side. They doubled back and slammed into each other right at Blast. Where they made contact it froze into that weird purple ice, until Blast was frozen completely.

In one fell swoop Rage took his scythe and stabbed it into the energy bomb. It exploded right at Blast and shattered his frozen statue to smithereens. Its pieces fell to the ground.

A singular tear tear found its way down Twilight’s cheek. “No . . .”

An instant later she saw more purple ice. It covered her field of vision entirely, and the scene she saw had tinted violet. In a flash Rage had teleported to her. This time he was carrying three large objects with levitation. One of them looked very familiar.

Princess Luna!

He had Cadence and Celestia too!

Twilight tried to launch herself toward Rage. She wanted to just take him and kill him. Cadence! Celestia! Luna! NOBODY messed with them while she could help it!

Except she found that she couldn’t.

With hope fading fast she attempted to move. She willed her hoof to straighten, her wings to stretch, anything. They simply weren’t responding.

Her horrors were confirmed.

She had been frozen.

Rage thought to himself. “Now, where to put these in my new castle . . .”

This was officially the worst day ever.

Rage had taken the Castle of Friendship for his own. He had indeed found a place for his frozen statues: right in the entry hall. All four alicorn princesses were under his custody - which meant it was only a matter of time until all of Equestria bowed to him.

Twilight wished she had the strength to deny all of this. She didn’t even have the strength to stay warm. The ice that imprisoned her seemed to be sapping away at her warmth, as if it were keeping her alive just enough to live the rest of her life in cold and misery and darkness. She wanted to just curl up in a ball; the ice wouldn’t let her. It held her frozen in the same exposed position, pressing its freezing surface to her open cuts and stinging like acid.

Then she remembered something. It was the riddle that Blast had told her so long ago. Feeling the cold, and feeling cold, are two very different things.

What did it mean? What could separate “feeling the cold” and “feeling cold”? She thought. Perhaps what he said in his fight with Rage could help her . . .

MY FAMILY IS MY POWER.

Maybe . . . no. That would be impossible. That couldn’t do it. That couldn’t possibly be the answer . . . could it?

Snapping her out of her thoughts was a voice. It was outside of the castle.

“Hey!”

Instantly Rage came rushing down the entry hall. “This better not be who I think it is . . .” he mumbled. He threw open the castle doors.

Just outside stood a mare Twilight had never seen before. She had a cerulean complexion that was just a little bit darker than Blast. Her violaceous mane swayed in the breeze, which had just calmed down from all of the day’s fighting. The late afternoon sun shone on her purple eyes. Her cutie mark, also purple, was a design in the shape of a heart - made of two parts, the bottom half which arced upwards like claws, and the top half which shaped nearly like a triangle.

Rage growled with frustration. “Beam? Didn’t I leave you frozen in Manehattan?”

A confident smile grew on the mare’s face. “Takes more than a little dark ice to get rid of me, bro!”

Fuming, Rage went outside to fight and slammed the doors behind him. Almost immediately following a stranger teleported in.

This stallion was very strange. His skin was the purest white. His mane was red and cut at jagged edges and he had a pointedly short tail. A red crystal was his cutie mark.

But that wasn’t what made this unicorn strange.

He was a cyborg!

His left front leg was entirely robotic and his hooves were encased with machinic boots. The horn on his forehead as well as his right eye were entirely missing, replaced with mechanical replicas. All of his robotic parts were connected by wires to a small disk on his side, maybe the same size as one’s hoof. A silver tendril extended backward from the disk, which curled around his tail and ended in a steel spike.

The stallion turned to Twilight. The spike began to peel itself from his tail, working itself around and around until it was entirely free, attached to him only by the disk on his side. Like a tentacle it stretched toward her until the tip touched the edge of the ice.

Without a word he began to concentrate. Shutting his eyes - at least his normal eye; his robotic eye ceased to glow and shrunk as would the shutter on a camera - his expression slowly tightened. Twilight could begin to feel heat coming from the spike, could see it beginning to melt the ice . . .

In a flash of purple light she had thawed completely.

“Wha - ” she began.

Still silent the stallion raised a metallic hoof to his lips in a gesture to remain quiet. He quickly proceeded and thawed the other three princesses. As soon as all four of them had recovered, he relayed curt instructions to them in a low voice.

“Flee to your own castles. This situation is now under control. It is at the utmost priority you remain unseen.”

The four princesses were gathered in the top floor, preparing to leave.

Celestia was packing a bag. “Here Twilight, you can come with us to the - ” she began, until she realized her former student wasn’t listening. She was at the balcony, just inside, staring outside at the battle below.

Celestia approached her student. “What’s wrong?”

Without turning Twilight answered in a tiny voice, almost to herself, “Blizzard Blast.” It was then she turned to her teacher, in tears. “That stallion killed Blizzard Blast.”

A look of surprise flashed across Celestia’s face. “He was here?”

Twilight turned back away. “It’s my fault.”

“It wasn’t either.”

No response.

“Blizzard Blast was . . . indeed a noble warrior.” Celestia put her wing on her student’s shoulder. “But being a Blizzard is a dangerous job.”

Again no response came. Twilight had left the physical world long before, traversing into her own mind.

One thing was for sure: Blizzard Beam loved to fight!

From the air appeared an enlarged version of her cutie mark made out of ice. Quickly it transformed and turned into an electric guitar. Its design was elegant and fluid, and its color shone stormy blue cored by rivers of purple liquid.

Also materializing was a guitar pick, a tiny ice triangle. As she used it to strike the guitar, from its end shot a ray of crackling purple lighting into the sky. Where the bolt struck a black cloud formed. Much like Twilight’s, it grew in size until it blanketed the entire battlefield.

An electrified rhythm began to pulse, like it would the prelude to a song. With each synthesized beat purple bolts of lightning zapped downward from above or a spike of ice would shoot up from the ground.

A hum began to fill the air. It slowly grew in pitch, while a lustrous blue ring formed around Beam that rotated and spun like it was on a gyroscope. The pitch of the hum continued to intensify, to grow in pitch, until it hit a high point and plummeted back down.

With it two explosions happened at exactly the same time. One was a physical explosion, a spherical wave of wind that blew Rage backwards, and the other an explosion of sound, an electronic pulse that sounded loudly and fueled a piece of instrumental action music, played by Beam on her guitar as she fought. With each strike of her guitar purple sparks flew to attack Rage, and with each attack attempt he made intercepted by the ice ring which circled her.

At this moment in the battle the cyborg stallion entered the fight. Rage was taken aback with surprise.

“How many times,” he said, “do I have to kill the SAME STUPID BLIZZARD?!”

“Too many!” yelled Beam as she reared up on her hind legs and shot lightning bolts at him with her hooves.

Rage stomped into the ground. A wall of purple ice appeared in front of him, which intercepted both bolts. Stomping again, this time with both hooves, Rage sent the wall straight forward at Beam. It smashed right through her shield ring and collided with her head-on. The wall traveled right past her, expanding in thickness as it went, and the next thing she knew, she was frozen.

Before the cyborg stallion could react, he too was frozen. Rage had won.

Just as Rage’s face grew into a triumphant grin a voice spoke up behind him.

“You’ll have to try harder than that!”

Rage turned around.

The owner of the voice stood his ground just in front of the Castle of Friendship. Saying nothing more, he popped his neck both ways. Three plasma balls flew into the air. They immediately froze into plasma-induced ice shards. As the three projectiles fell down to earth, the figure flung them at Rage.

It was Blast.

EIGHT

It just wasn’t Rage’s day.

“HOW MANY TIMES?!”

Blast made no reply.

His three projectiles had hit their mark. The center smashed Rage in the face; the other two broke Beam and the cyborg free of their frozen statues.

“AAAAAAAGGHH!!!” In a temper now, Rage drew his dragon scythe from the air and threw it at him.

While the scythe was halfway through the air toward Blast, he generated his double swords. He jerked his head up and to the side. Following the path of his horn, a trail of green liquid was created, right in the scythe’s path. The tendril of plasma sliced the weapon in half, and it harmlessly fell to the ground.

Without a break in stroke, without a seam in movement, Rage summoned another scythe from the air and ran to face his brother. As he ran, his signature purple ice armor began to melt into being.

Blast waited. And waited.

And struck.

In one fluid motion, Blast slammed one sword upwards into the hook of Rage’s weapon until it caught. With great strength he swung the sword over his head, bringing Rage with it. Blast then directed his blade downward, and his brother crashed face-first into the ground. Both their weapons fell to the ice-covered ground and spun away.

Rage recovered and soon the two brothers had engaged each other in a fist fight. Off to the side, their weapons had come to life as if on their own and began to fight as well. The two fights began to mirror each other’s movements.

Blast punched. His swords thrusted.

Rage countered. His scythe parried.

Four pairs of eyes were on the scene as the two brothers fought back and forth.

Simultaneously Rage hit and his scythe attacked. Both Blast and his weapons were launched backward into the snow. Rage stood where his brother had landed. Blast’s face was buried in the snow.

Rage’s horn began to glow. “This time it’s for real . . . ”

“No,” Twilight gasped. “Not again . . . ”

But Rage’s horn wasn’t the only thing glowing. A greenish tint began to light up the snow around Blast. As Blast stood back up for another round, it was clear that the glow was once again coming from his eyes.

“Oh no,” Rage said, this time with sincerity.

Blurring right to his brother while drawing his double swords, Blast slashed at Rage’s chest with one terrific stroke of his blade. Rage was sent flying backwards. In a flash Blast teleported behind him and slashed again, knocking him the other way. Blast kept teleporting between a bunch of different points and knocking Rage around like a cat playing with its food.

After a moment of that, Blast this time popped into place directly under Rage, and generating an explosion around himself, sent his brother careening high into the air.

It was happening again. The teleport, the energy bomb, Blast saw it all happening again. This time, he was ready. He still saw his brother. He still saw his family.

But this time, he also saw something else in Rage.

He saw a villain. He saw a killer.

It was true, Rage was his family. He loved him just as much as Beam, or his father, or anyone else in his family. But Rage had chosen to follow the path of evil. This, Blast learned, has made them enemies. It was the simple truth. Because they will always be family, but in the heat of the battle of good and evil, they will also always be enemies.

Rage had made his decision.

Now I will make mine.

Blast detonated the energy bomb.

Rage was sent flying. Soaring backward in a downward arc, he slammed into the ground at breakneck speed. Still traveling in a line, he tore up the street like a crashing meteorite until he lost momentum and finally came to a stop. Smoke began to curl up into the air from the crash.

The glow faded from Blast’s eyes. “Oh no.” Quickly he teleported to the scene of his brother’s landing. “You alright?” He hadn’t meant to hurt Rage that badly.

Rage had indeed sustained some gruesome injuries. He had some nasty scrapes and his face was a little bit torn up.

Rage looked at Blast. What he did next no one expected.

He smiled.

It was a sad, exhausted smile, one that almost glowed. His eyelids drooped a little. Something in his facial features was different. He had lost something, though what it was Blast couldn’t place.

“That was magnificent, brother. Here, you earned this.” He turned to the small pack on his side, which Blast had forgotten about. From it, he used his magic to draw out a tiny metal object. As if it was magnetized it flew from his grasp and latched onto Blast’s hoof.

Blast stared at it. It was a tiny golden bracelet. It was blank, its whole model plain and smooth, and at its center was a little gold circle. There was a shadow cast over the center of the gold circle; it was concave, like there was once a jewel inside.

Nothing apparent was special about it. Until it did something very strange.

A tiny wave was expelled from the center of the trinket. As it grew outwards, the empty golden circle was replaced by a curious design: Blast’s cutie mark. Where there was once a shadow in the middle, there was now a green gem. Once the wave hit the outer edges of the central object, it dissolved into the air.

Once the process completed, Blast could feel unspeakable power beginning to flow through him. His eyes started to glow again, the same minty green. A burst of wind was generated around himself, seemingly by magic.

Then the sensation was over. Blast’s eyes had immediately returned to normal, the wind dissipated. Blast looked to Rage for an explanation.

He got none. Rage simply watched the whole thing, his eyelids drooping heavier. “I . . . look forward . . . to our next battle, Blast. It will be,” he huffed, like he was making a joke, “an honor.” With this, his eyelids closed completely and he disappeared in a cloud of blackness.

Blast will never get an explanation of what just happened.

He just stood there, stunned. He was almost zoned out. The first thing he remembered after that was the feeling of a hoof on his shoulder.

He turned. It was Twilight. Her eyes were misty and it was apparent she had been crying over something. “That was AMAZING!” With what seemed like a mood swing, she punched him. “Don’t EVER die again!”

Blast rubbed his arm with one hoof. “Calm down! I never died.”

“What?” Twilight didn’t get an answer to her question; Cadence had also elected to come congratulate Blast.

Cadence addressed him. “That was, indeed, AMAZING.”

Blast chuckled. “Princess Cadence. I don’t believe we’ve formally met.”

“Well I’ve heard a great deal about you from Twilight.” She flashed a friendly smile. “Some pretty neat things she says about you.”

He blushed a little bit.

Luna had come too.

At the sight of Luna, Blast wrenched his face into an awkward smile - Blast and Luna hadn’t crossed paths since the night he tried to kill her. “Oh. My gosh. This is awkward.”

Luna laughed. “Only if you make it, Blast.”

Suddenly a shadow loomed over him. It was Celestia.

“Oh, sleet.”

Celestia had a lot to say. “I saw what you did . . .”

“I can explain . . .” It hadn’t occurred to Blast until just then that he was still in exile.

She wore a serious expression. “. . . and I must say . . .”

“I had to . . .”

Celestia’s look softened and she bowed her head slightly. “You were magnificent.”

“What?”

“Equestria was in trouble. You came - even though you knew very well you could have gotten punished for it. You cared about us more than yourself. And in doing so you saved us.”

Blast was silent.

“Consider your exile no more.”

“Yeah,” said Twilight, “she does that.”

It was late afternoon that day. Twilight was leading Blast, Beam, and the cyborg stallion through the Everfree Forest.

“Remind me again why we’re going, and . . . where we’re going?” asked Beam.

“Castle of the Two Sisters,” Twilight replied matter-of-factly. “We’re needing to set some things straight about what just happened, and I think we’re going to need some help. From books.”

“You mean like why Blast’s eyes were glowing?”

Blast spoke up. “And what the heck this amulet is?”

“And why Rage was evil all of a sudden?” Beam asked.

“Precisely,” answered Twilight. She gave Beam and the cyborg a curious glance. “And on the way, I think some . . . introductions . . . are in order?”

“Oh. Right. Well,” Beam began, “I guess first of all, my name’s Blizzard Beam, most just call me Beam. I’m Blast’s older sister. My backstory . . . doesn’t have a whole lot of pizzazz to it. I’m just like any other Blizzard - I grew up in the North, trained until I found my secondary element (electricity) and set out to go kill some bad dudes.

“It was maybe a year or two into my travels I heard about the tragedy with Dad. I’m sure you already know about it from Blast.”

Twilight cut in, skillfully avoiding the subject. “You . . . could say that.”

Beam nodded. “The news didn’t really hurt me as much; I’ve never known him that well. I only ever even saw him when he came home every now and then while I was growing up. I just kind of took the news as . . . I don’t know, like one of my old friends moved away, one I never really talked to, you know?”

“So I just went on. And then I discovered something that fascinated me. Something that I saw shrouded in mystery and wonder. Something whose power had captured my heart. Music.

“I quickly developed a talent playing the electric guitar, among other instruments. By this time, I was also really enjoying my Blizzard career fighting, despite my lack of a good fighting style. Pretty soon I came to the conclusion: I fight good, I do music good, let’s combine the two!”

“That’s cool!” Twilight commented.

“It is,” Beam agreed. “So that’s me. The music girl. That about sums it up.”

“Sweet!” It was clear that Twilight liked this mare. “So what about . . . robot pony, here?”

“Blade?” asked Blast, a little teasing in his voice. “He’s not exactly a stallion of many words!”

“He talked to me.”

Blast’s jaw dropped. “He talked to you?!” He regained his composure. “I blame you being a princess for that.”

Beam explained. “He’s Blizzard Blade. Our cousin. More the strong and silent type. Kinda tries to hide himself. He doesn’t talk a whole lot.” Taking a look from Twilight at the cyborg, she added, “Especially not about his backstory.”

Twilight could tell what she meant. She meant ‘backstory’ meaning how he became a cyborg. “Well, OK. It looks like we’re here anyway.” Gradually the forest around them began to clear, giving way to a sheer cliff. Attached only by a rope bridge was a small stone island in a sea of fog. On this island rested a pile of ancient ruins.

“Yep. Castle of the Two Sisters.”

Just a few moments later, the group was in the library.

Twilight browsed the books a little bit. “Dang it, I know I saw it somewhere here,” she muttered to herself. “Ah - here it is!” She brought the book down with her magic and read the title. “A Blizzard Encyclopedia: The Defenders of the North.” She opened to the table of contents. “Any ideas why Blast’s eyes were glowing?”

There was a moment of silence.

“I think I might have an idea,” Beam chimed. “One day while I was still in the North, I overheard my parents talking about something called the Blizzard State. Do you think that could be it?”

Twilight peered at the table of contents for a second. “You know,” she said, finding a page on the Blizzard State and flipping to it. “That might just get us somewhere.” She began to read aloud. “The Blizzard State is an extremely rare phenomenon, caused by a deep love to someone or something. It is a special state of mind that endows the user with unthinkable power. It takes the user’s strength in combat - speed, knowledge, skill, strength, size, or power - and multiplies that strength a hundredfold!

“There is a reason why The Blizzard State is so rare. It is known as a ‘dead’ state, that is to mean, it cannot be activated by natural means.”

Blast interrupted. “That doesn’t make sense. I just barely used it twice!”

“There’s more,” Twilight pointed out. “Emphasis on ‘natural means’. There is one way remaining that The Blizzard State can be activated: through a set of amulets widely known as the Elements of Unity.”

Beam gazed curiously at the bracelet with her brother’s cutie mark on it. “You think that might be one of those?”

“Almost certainly,” replied Twilight, already at work finding the page to explain. “Here it is!” Twilight cleared her throat. The others listened intently. “Not much is known about the Elements of Unity. What is known is that they are a set of amulets that date back just as far as the Elements of Harmony. In fact, legend has it that they originated with the creation of Equestria itself. It says that all of these Elements were given by the Tree of Harmony to princesses Celestia and Luna to fight away evil and bring forth the good of the world. The Elements of Harmony were given to Celestia and those of Unity, the more powerful of the two collections, to Luna. The Elements of Unity include: the Elements of Courage, Justice, Honor, Creativity, and Wisdom.”

“Wait a second!” Beam cut in. “Aren’t there six Elements of Harmony? Why’s there only five Elements of Unity?”

“I don’t know,” replied Twilight. “It only lists five.” She continued to read. “During the imprisonment of Nightmare Moon, the Elements of Unity lost their owner and therefore, their purpose. They have chosen new wielders, and no other ponies in the world are able to access their power. Legend persists that that night, they vanished into thin air, hiding themselves from the world, just waiting to be uncovered by just the right hooves.” Twilight looked up. “According to the book, yours is the Element of Honor.”

“Wow,” Blast said, staring at his Element. “That’s a lot to take in.”

Twilight paused. “Wait. There’s a cross-reference here. See the Theory of Alternate Timelines. What?”

Beam spoke up. “Could be worth a look. We do still need some answers to Rage turning evil.”

“I guess . . .”

NINE

“The Theory of Alternate Timelines.”

Twilight had found the page.

“According to this theory, two alternate futures exist for Equestria and all who reside in it. One future is good, and the other is evil. As time progresses, one of these futures will be erased, replaced by the path followed by the other.

“It is said that there is one single event to determine which future will be erased and which will be followed. This single event is an unnamed battle, a battle that has not happened yet and is not yet determined as when and where. At some point in time, the villains overruling the evil future will reach back into the past to ensure their future is followed and the good future is erased from existence. There is one force in the universe that stands in their way.” Twilight read the last four words with chills riding down her spine. “The Elements of Unity.”

A gasp came from Beam. “The evil Rage must be from the bad future!”

The exact same realization hit Twilight at exactly the same time. “AND he had the Element of Honor! If the villains from the future get the Elements . . .”

Blade finished her sentence with a dark tone. “There will be no battle. They will have already won.”

Beam spoke up. “We’ve GOT to find the Elements before they do!”

Twilight was beginning to panic. “They were that close to getting the Element of Honor! Who knows how many more they’ve already gotten?”

“We’ve got to try,” Blast said.

He was right. All four of them knew it. We’ve got to try.

Twilight shook her head. “Well if we are going to go through with this, we’re going to need some help. And I know exactly the mare for the job.”

The group was silent.

“A.K. Yearling.”

Beam came forward. “Translation?”

“Daring Do.”

It was the worst timing ever.

The sun had set, replaced by the moon just as the group was preparing to leave. All four of them knew that the Everfree Forest grew deadly come nightfall, so they decided to spend the night at the ruins and take the journey for Daring Do’s place in the morning.

Blast and Twilight wandered together through the halls of the castle. They had a lot to catch up on.

“Nice place,” Blast wondered absent-mindedly. The moonlight streaked through the windows lining one side of the corridor, creating a dreamlike silvery glow.

“Yeah,” Twilight agreed, in a tiny and distracted voice. With a much more focused tone she added, “So how’d you not die? I saw that with my own eyes.”

“You didn’t read my first lessons letter, did you?”

“No . . .”

“Well if you did, you would know the answer to that question.”

Twilight felt a sting of regret.

“I guess I’ll tell you myself.” Blast gathered himself a little. “One spell in there is called telekinetic fields. Just like relative location, it’s basically an extension of your levitation skills. It’s exactly like when you levitate things, except you generate an empty field. Just an empty field of air.”

“Yeah . . .” Twilight was trying to follow his train of thought.

“Once created, this field will act just like a solid object.”

Eagerly Twilight awaited his conclusion.

“So, if you put a disguise over this solid object . . .” it was clear Blast wanted Twilight to finish the sentence.

She did. “A telekinetic pseudo-replicational field, of course!”

Blast nodded. “So how were the other lessons?”

The question caught Twilight off guard. “What?”

“The lessons. You did get them . . . didn’t you?”

“Oh!” Twilight just then realized what he was talking about. “You mean the ones about thundersnow and stuff?”

Blast grinned. “I knew you’d get it. Did you like it?”

“Yeah, it was cool!” Twilight huffed. “Took me forever to pull off the cryoseism, though.”

“You did cryoseism?!”

“Yes . . .” she replied. Where’s he going with this?

“Impossible!”

“That’s a little harsh. I know magically speaking I’m not a genius, but -”

“Not you, Twilight. The spell.”

Twilight’s heart skipped a beat. “What?”

Excitement was finding its way into Blast’s voice. His grin only grew. “The spell. Cryoseism is only a natural phenomenon. Never in recorded history has anypony ever successfully created it!”

“What do you mean?”

“I gave you an impossible spell! And you did it!”

“That’s . . . ” Twilight was at a loss for words.

Blast was clearly waiting for this. “I knew you could do it.” The conversation fell silent.

Twilight was beginning to blush. “I missed you, Blast.”

“You wanna know something?”

Silence.

Blast blushed a little. “I missed you too.”

Twilight turned away so he wouldn’t see how red she was turning.

The moment was interrupted by a flash of blue light exactly in front of them. For an instant, the hallway was flooded with the blue light, an instant later a pop could be heard, and an instant after that the light was gone. In front of them was Beam.

“Tiens!” She waved cheerfully. For no evident reason she was hanging on the ceiling. “What’re you guys up to?”

Blast was caught very off guard. “Nope - nothing. We weren’t doing nothing.”

Twilight agreed. “Yep. Nnnnnnada.”

“Me neither,” she replied disappointedly. “I wanted to see if there’s really a Pony of Shadows, but it’s a freaking no-show! I think it’s either it’s not for real or it’s just not looking for trouble tonight.” She jumped down from her perch. “I really hope it’s the latter.”

Twilight shrugged. Blast made a face like Derpy.

“You guys are no fun!” Beam turned around. “I’m outta here. See ya guys!” With another flash and a pop, she disappeared, leaving Twilight and Blast alone once again.

There was a long silence.

Meanwhile, Blade had given those three the slip. He was alone, in a room at the opposite end of the castle. A deep breath streamed into him, then returned outward, billowing in smoky wisps into the cold night air.

There was a reason he never told his backstory.

It was just any normal day.

The sun was shining. The sky was blue. It was a pleasant negative twenty degrees outside. All of my friends were playing. It was the most beautiful day.

Until it happened.

The sky turned sickly, deathly orange. I could see a swirling blue . . . thing . . . appearing in the sky - just over the center of the camp. Out of it stepped . . . something. Something of only nightmarish description. All those tentacles . . . those devilish horns . . .

We were defenseless. There was no one to guard us. We were only children.

But someone had to save us.

“Everyone get inside!” I said to all of my friends. They listened and we all gathered inside the nursery. We waited in the corner, shivering with fear, for it to be over.

Sounds of a great battle ensued. Outside could be heard crystal grinding against crystal, laser fire, evil laughter. The noises continued for five minutes that crawled by like hours. And then silence. We shivered. We waited. We waited for some sign that it was over.

There was a terrific crash. We all jumped in surprise. Crash again. Cracks began to appear over the walls and ceiling of our shelter. Then, the building suddenly split in two, and its airborne half drew itself away. It was in the clutch of something. Something that will haunt my nightmares for years to come.

It was what I saw crawl out of the portal. At its center swirled an energetic, concentrated ball of darkness. Two beady green eyes were inside it, glowering in maniacal joy. From the top of the spherical horror two bright red horns sprouted. One was missing its tip - replaced by a jagged line and sparks. Myriads of tentacles flew from the central ball; horrendous black things with rivers of red electricity at their centers.

It had no mouth, but I could tell the thing was grinning in triumph. It spoke in a dark, oily whisper. “No one to save you now.” The thing laughed. “No one to save you now!”

No. It wasn’t true. There had to be someone to stand up to this thing!

There was one of us.

One of us came forward. His head was bowed, his eyes closed.

“You?!” It only laughed harder. “You’re not scared of me?!”

The filly replied in a calm voice. “I am afraid of you.” He opened his eyes and lifted his gaze to stare the thing straight in the eye. “But if you’re going to kill my family, you’re going to have to kill me first.”

His friends tried to stop him. “No! Don’t do it, you’ll be killed!”

Another of his dear family, his cousin, did also. “Run!”

But I was done running.

It was I who stood there, waiting to die.

“While I stand,” I began, “You’re not going to hurt my family!”

It was hard to describe what happened next. The first thing I noticed was a reddish tint being pulled over my eyes, as if I were wearing sunglasses or something. Then everything around me began to shrink. The building, my friends, the monster, all began to grow smaller. The monster shrunk until it was not much bigger than myself.

And then something very strange happened. I began to fight the beast. Except . . . my mind wasn’t in the battle. I wasn’t thinking of when to jump or when to block or when to do this or that. I was just watching myself, almost like one would watch television, the thing being driven backwards and backwards away from my friends and family. Whatever I was doing, it was working!

Until the monster lashed out a tentacle and grabbed me around the neck.

The sensation was leaving me. The red tint left and my vision returned to normal. Everything began to grow back into its normal size. The dark monster now towered over me, and it was holding me high off the ground.

A strange feeling began to grow. Almost like . . . something spreading. Something was trying to spread throughout my entire being! I looked down. From the place the tentacle was touching me, a strange black was spreading over me. It had taken my front left leg completely.

I tried to move it. I willed my hoof to move.

It didn’t respond.

It was getting worse. My vision was starting to blur on one side. The darkness had taken my right eye! I could feel it spreading over my horn, and getting worse by the second.

“Oh,” the monster said, grinning without a face at my suffering. “You’re brave, I’ll say that. Brave. For that,” he said with a maniacal laugh, “I’ll give you the honor of dying first.”

Those words had hardly escaped him before the tentacle tightened around my neck. I yelped in surprise before it cut off all air flow. I couldn’t breathe. Just one breath was all it took. It wouldn’t come. I tried with all my might to break free, tear the tentacle away from me, but the monster was infinities too strong.

This was it. I was going to die.

Then I saw something crash into the thing - at the back of its head. With annoyance it turned its attention away from me. I could see where the projectile came from. Four ponies had gathered at the ground to confront the beast. Although all Blizzards, they each had much differing features. Two of them were my parents, another I recognized to be my cousins’ mother. They came to save me.

As it released its grip on me the monstrosity jumped into the air. “I’ll be back . . .” it growled as it disappeared in a cloud of blackness.

I fell to the earth, losing consciousness as I plummeted. Blackness flooded into my vision. I was barely conscious enough to feel the impact when I hit the ground.

Even with my much darkened vision, I could see my parents running to my side. With expressions worried sick they scanned my injuries. My dear cousin came too, to assess the damage. He turned to my parents with a look more serious than one would think a child could muster.

The last thing I remembered were the words he spoke.

“He’s going to die.”

I spent the next while largely unconscious. I’d occasionally wake up for maybe a few minutes at a time, and then I would drift back into my coma. The first of these scenes was kind of freaky.

I remember waking to a gliding sensation. My eyes drifted open. Well, my eye. I winced. Where my right eye once was, I only felt a sharp pain. I remember . . . lights. Lights that passed overhead like a train coming through a tunnel. It was then I realized where I was. I was on a stretcher, riding down the halls of a hospital.

It was so weird. I couldn’t feel my leg. The one that . . . got infected. Infected with that darkness that the monster inflicted on me. I couldn’t feel any of my hooves either.

I looked down.

Even now, I wish it was a dream. My leg was entirely missing. My other limbs were cut short at the hoof. I tried to speak, tried to ask the nurse what was wrong, but I couldn’t. I could only wave my head around aimlessly.

I saw my mother, running alongside the stretcher. She was beautiful. Her glossy black mane flowed in the breeze coming off from moving so fast. She wore twin black spikes that crossed into an X in the back of her hair. She laid a green hoof on the stretcher as her red eyes stared at me.

“You didn’t have to do that,” she said.

I wanted to tell her I would’ve anyway, I would have protected those I loved whether I had to or not, but I couldn’t speak.

“You scared us half to death!” It was only then I realized what she meant when she said ‘you didn’t have to do that’.

Worry and pain in her eyes, she turned to the nurse. “You’re sure this is going to work?”

“Trust me,” replied the nurse, getting a little emotional himself. “Your son’s going to be fine.”

I blacked out again.

The next while (I was unconscious - I had no idea how much time had really passed) went by in a blur. Once again I woke up on a stretcher, a different nurse this time pushing me down a hall, repeating the phrase “It’s gonna be okay, you’re gonna be okay,” over and over. Another time when I woke up was on a hospital bed. Looking around, I saw a bunch of mechanical things over to the side that looked suspiciously like robotic parts. I had only just figured out what they were for when again I slipped out of consciousness.

The next time I woke up, I was back to stay.

It was on the same hospital bed. I still didn’t feel my missing leg, or my hooves, but I saw something very different when I looked down at myself.

Where my missing leg once was, there was now an entirely robotic limb. It appeared basically a mechanical skeleton, with two spherical joints and at the end, a shell made into a hoof shape. In place of my other hooves there were now steel boots embroidered with cybernetic engravings.

Wait a second! I thought. I squinted my left eye shut. There was no longer a blind scar where my right eye once was. It was amazing - I could see just as if I had never lost my eye!

I tried to use my magic to pick myself up. It worked!

“Welcome back,” I heard a friendly voice say.

I turned around. It was the nurse.

She lifted the mask off her face and beamed. “Shall we get the good news to your parents?”

It was hard to control my excitement. I nodded and jumped off the table.

The look on her face quickly grew worried. “Careful - ” she tried to warn me.

It was too late. I hit the ground and felt a sharp pain on my robot leg. I cringed.

The nurse read my mind. “That’s going to take some getting used to.”

I managed what of a smile I could before trying to walk out of the office. I took two steps before I put my robot leg forward again. As I put my weight on it it just crumpled and I fell to the ground a little bit.

The nurse came to my side and put her wing under my hoof. As she lifted her wing up I came again to stand. “Need a wing?” she asked with a friendly smile.

“Yes, thank you,” I politely replied as we both exited.

At the waiting room I found my parents. They both paced the room with increasing worry. As she chewed her imaginary nails, my mom saw the nurse and I enter the room. She ran to me with tears in her eyes and gave me the tightest hug I’ve ever felt. I thought she’d never let go.

“We were worried sick!” She gave me the most panicked look I’d ever seen. “It doesn’t matter anymore. You’re back, Blade. And you’re home.”

TEN

“C’est un beau jour, team!” Beam exclaimed. “Shall we get underway?”

“If we can only find Blade,” Blast reminded her. “I swear the guy’s a ghost. He can walk through walls and everything.”

“What language is that?” asked Twilight, addressing Beam.

“French.” Beam shrugged. “I can speak it a little. I read and write it a lot better, though.”

“Cool!” Twilight turned her attention to finding Blade. “Now where is . . .”

“I’m right here,” said a voice.

She turned. Blade was indeed right with the team! “Where were you?”

“Meditating,” he simply replied. “I take it we’re leaving?”

She looked around. Looked like everyone was here. “Yeah.”

The team was once again taking a stroll through the Everfree Forest.

“Quiet,” Blast commented. “The Everfree is never quiet.”

He was right. An unsettling silence was in the air that day. Just as the Blizzards had come to the realization of the true situation, it seemed the forest did also. Like the entirety of Equestria, holding its breath and waiting. Waiting to see what it will become.

“I have to agree,” Twilight replied, “it is a little worrying.”

Nopony else dared break the silence. For hours the team walked on without saying a word. The forest around them uttered not a sound. At long last the team arrived at the home of Daring Do.

Twilight came forward “OK. I should probably do the talking. She might . . . not react well to strangers.”

They nodded. Twilight politely knocked on the door.

A light coming from an eyepiece in the door went dark for a second before Daring Do answered the door. “Twilight! What a surprise!” She paused. “Who are your . . . new friends, here?”

“They’re Blizzards, but that’s besides the point.” Twilight scanned the surroundings. “I don’t think it’s safe to speak here.”

“Of course, of course, come inside.” The team entered her tiny house.

Twilight jumped straight to the point. “We need some help. We’re looking for the Elements of Unity.”

“The Elements of Unity?!” exclaimed Daring Do. “The lost sister talismans of the Elements of Harmony?”

“The very same.”

Daring Do began to get very excited. “The Elements of Unity were my inspiration! They inspired me to become the adventurer I am now!” She sighed with happy memories. “I remember the first time I ever heard their story . . . I said to myself, You’re going to find those someday. You really are.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Twilight didn’t mean to be rude, but it wasn’t exactly story time. “Can you help us?”

“Are you kidding?!” That was a very obvious yes. “Let’s see, we’re going to have to keep a communication. How are we going to do that?”

“Can’t we just use mail?”

“Hmm . . .” Daring Do thought about it for a minute. “Nope. Too risky. Somepony could pick up on our line. Somepony could intercept our messages.”

Twilight thought too. It wasn’t long before she lit up with the clear “lightbulb” moment. “Not coded messages.”

Daring Do picked up on the idea. “Ah, yeah, that might just be crazy enough to work!”

The two picked up a stray pile of papers and began to write. “Now, what should this code be . . .” Twilight wondered.

The Blizzards watched the pair in awkward silence. They weren’t doing a whole lot to contribute to the situation. At any rate, it didn’t take long for whatever they were doing to be done.

“That good?” Twilight asked, just to double-check.

“Yeah, that should do it.” Daring Do locked away a scrap of paper in her writing desk. “I’ll let you know as soon as I get any leads.”

After a curt “Okay, thanks!” Twilight proceeded to shoo the Blizzards out of Daring Do’s house. They were a little bit hesitant (they didn’t catch a whole lot of the conversation) but they decided to trust the princess. She must know what she was doing.

As soon as the team left Blast asked the question everyone was thinking.

“What happened?”

Twilight drew a piece of paper from the air. “Daring Do’s going to be some extra eyes and ears for us. If she notices anything she thinks could lead to an Element, she’ll send us a coded letter. And this is our key.”

“That makes sense,” said Beam.

Blast spoke up. “Now all we need is a base of operations.”

“Got that covered,” Twilight answered. “I have a study back at the Castle of Friendship we can use. It’s not much, but I think we can work with it.”

The forest started to clear. Pretty soon, the team was on the road headed in to Ponyville.

Beam voiced everyone’s thoughts. “Soooooooo . . . now what?”

“Hmm,” Twilight thought. “Well we can’t do much to actually go after the Elements right now . . . I guess we’ll just have to rest up for tomorrow. When we do find an Element, we’ll need to be at our top performance.”

Beam brightened up. “So, Sugar Cube Corner?”

Twilight shrugged. “Sure.”

Just as the group entered Ponyville, they proceeded for Sugar Cube Corner - with the exception of Twilight. She put a hoof on Blast’s shoulder. “Could we . . . talk . . . for a sec?”

“I don’t see why not.” Blast signaled Beam and Blade with a casual wave. “We’ll catch up with you in a minute!”

“Okay!”

Twilight waited for them to leave before she turned to Blast. “Your riddle . . .” she began.

“Yeah?”

“Well,” she said, excitement entering her voice. “. . . I figured it out.”

“Is that so?” Blast’s expression became shady.

“Yes. The answer is -”

Twilight didn’t get to finish her sentence. There was a metallic ring in the air, and before she knew what happened, she was staring at a sword. A sword a quarter of an inch from her throat. It was one of Blast’s signature blades.

She had no idea what was going on, but she didn’t dare say a word.

Perfectly silent, Blast lowered his blade and flew backwards, putting a lot of distance between himself and Twilight. Just as he landed arcs of shining blue ice swept from his horn straight toward her.

Still having no idea what he was doing, she nevertheless reacted fast. She generated a telekinetic wall just in time to catch all of the ice waves. As they made contact, the projectiles began to freeze it, creating a material wall of ice. With a grin, she sent the wall flying back at Blast.

In response he teleported out of the way just as the ice wall plowed over the spot he had just been standing. He teleported back an instant later. Shooting a beam of light into the air, a cloud started to form above Blast’s head. Growing huge, the white monstrosity flew for Twilight.

An electric popping noise sounded from her horn. As she began to flap her wings, the wind generated flew toward her horn and imploded. The cloud grew closer. She continued to flap her wings to create wind, which got sucked into her horn and disappeared.

Just as the cloud came right over her head, a mighty explosion of wind was expelled from her horn. It flew out as a spherical force, then hung suspended in the air for a split second before imploding right back into her horn. The second time the explosion traveled upward in a focused, powerful tornado. The twister grabbed hold of Blast’s storm cloud and hurled it right back at him.

“Yes,” Blast said. “Turn your opponent’s moves against them. Make them fight your fight!” Dodging a lightning bolt flying from it, Blast shot a bright green jet of plasma at it and it was instantly vaporized.

Twilight spread her wings once again and jumped thirty feet, coming to a standstill gliding in the air.

Seeing this, Blast had to comment. “Exploiting a superior range of movement over a flightless opponent. Clever!” Materializing dozens of copies of his swords, he began to fire them, spinning end over end like boomerangs, right at her.

Twilight teleported out of the way so many times she looked almost like a star in the sky. Once she miscalculated. A blade soaring through the air sliced off a few of her outermost feathers. Thrown off balance now, she plummeted toward the earth.

Blast would be waiting for her.

She will have to be waiting for him.

In midfall she teleported once again. Simultaneously pulling her own sword from the air, she reappeared right in front of Blast. She brought the blade to face straight at Blast’s throat: a clear demand of surrender.

Blast’s swords disappeared. In fact, all signs of resistance seemed to evaporate into the air, replaced by a beaming smile growing on his face. “Thanks for the match, Twilight. It was an honor.”

“What?” Twilight was stunned. Blast was just messing with her?

“The answer to my riddle,” he continued. “Tell me tomorrow.”

Twilight could only repeat herself. “What?”

“Tomorrow. Town hall. Eight o’ clock.”

“What?”

She never got an answer. Blast teleported away, leaving her alone and utterly stunned.

Part 3: The Elements of Unity

PROLOGUE

“I won’t do it! I won’t help you any longer!” he said.

“And why is that?” replied the monstrosity.

The two had met at a place once known as Manehattan. Now, it was in ruins. The streets, once bustling with business, were dead now. Half-decayed buildings were scattered all around. Clouds of black smoke blocked out the sun, leaving the world in eternal darkness.

“He’s my brother! He’s been so good to me . . . everyone has . . .” The stallion made up his mind. He glared up at the thing in defiance. “These ponies were good ponies. And if we’re trying to take them over, if we’re trying to ruin them, then I don’t want anything to do with it!”

“Very well . . .” it decided. Its dark blue mass flowed off of it like flames, black and starry. “GET HIM!”

Immediately, all around, dark pony-like creatures began to surround the stallion. Insectoid wings buzzed and whirred as they came into position. Their empty white eyes stared him down. From their shadowy horns plasma balls began to fly.

The stallion made the decision to book it. With a great leap into the air he dodged everything they threw at him. Spreading his wings he attempted to fly away.

“NO!” yelled the monster. “STOP HIM! DON’T LET HIM GET TO THE PORTAL!!!”

In obedience the wings of the insect creatures flashed to life as they took flight and gave chase.

The stallion knew his target: a bright blue portal swirling high in the sky. There was a skyscraper - or what was left of one - standing right next to it.

If only he could beat them to that portal . . .

Assessing the situation, the monster bellowed in anger. “Sombra! Close the portal!”

From somewhere inside the abandoned building came the reply: “Aye!”

There was a sound like something huge shutting down after a long day of work, and the portal began to quickly shrink. No! the stallion thought. I’ve got to get through, got to warn them!

Wings beating as hard as they could, he leapt for the ever-shrinking portal . . .

Blast was nowhere to be seen.

Twilight had just woke up about an hour ago. Eight o’ clock, town square, she thought to herself. How peculiar . . . She’d been looking for Blast all morning and still haven’t seen him. She looked at the clock. It was ten minutes to eight. Guess I’d better . . .

As she headed for town square, she started to notice other ponies gathering there.

“What’s going on?” she asked Lyra Heartstrings, who was also headed for the center of Ponyville.

“Dunno,” Lyra casually replied, “I only know it’s something important. Something Blizzard, definitely.”

Twilight was puzzled. What in Tartarus is this guy up to? Nevertheless she followed Lyra to the town square. Upon arrival, she was greeted by a very surprising sight.

Everyone in town was there! Whatever Blast was doing, it was clear he’d invited all of Ponyville to watch. He must be out of his mind! she thought. What could he possibly be doing that needs the entire town here?!

There, at center stage, microphone in hand, was Blast. He seemed to be entertaining everypony, suddenly talking like a game show host. He spotted Twilight in the crowd.

“Theerrre sheee iiiiiiissss!” he called. The crowd parted, creating a path leading her to the stage where he was standing.

“Blast? What’s going on? What are you doing?” She started to follow the path.

He replied with an ecstatic enthusiasm. “We got a little surprise for you!” Clearly he was excited about something.

She smiled awkwardly and surprisedly at the crowd as she passed them. She ascended to the stage. “I . . . can see that!” She stared at Blast, looking him up and down. “Seriously, though, what’s going on?”

“I was just getting to that!” Blast cleared his throat. “Centuries ago, a gentleman by the name of Blizzard Storm became the very first, the root if you will, of what is now known as the Blizzard family name. As part of doing so, he invented a spell that has gone down in history as the Freezing Spell, and you’ll see why in just a second.

“The Freezing Spell takes two requirements to perform: first, a non-Blizzard pony must pass a test given by a Blizzard as they see fit. Then, that same non-Blizzard must defeat the same Blizzard in a battle. Then, and only then, can the Freezing Spell be achieved.”

“What does it do?” Twilight wondered. “And why did you invite all of Ponyville?”

“Well what do you think it does?” Blast casually asked her back.

“Does it . . .” Her heart skipped a beat. He couldn’t possibly be . . . “adopt that pony as a Blizzard?”

Blast gave a silent nod. Twilight was starting to see what he was so excited about. “So tell me, what is the answer to that riddle?”

“Well,” she found it appropriate to turn to her audience. “This Blizzard here, Blast, gave this riddle to me a long time ago. He said ‘feeling the cold, and feeling cold, are two very different things’. Since he first gave it to me, I’ve had a long time to think. I soon came to the conclusion that he was talking about something to separate feeling a cold wind from that wind making you feel cold. And I tried to figure out what it was. I never seemed to get any closer to figuring out the identity of this thing, until he said something very important. That’s when I figured it out.”

She paused for effect. “The answer is: love. The simplest and purest form of good, of light, of warm. The very affection that we all can feel for one another, and our deepest desires to protect them against the forces of evil, of darkness, of cold. And when you keep this powerful emotion forever close to your heart, not even the coldest blizzard can pierce it!”

Blast nodded again. His expression was in every sense of the word electrified. He, too, turned to the citizens of Ponyville. “Please welcome, who will soon become the newest Blizzard to the family!”

Powerful cheers resounded. Turning away and again toward Twilight, he began the spell.

With an ethereal silence the warrior spread his hooves wide and low to the ground. A beam of energy shot from his horn to a spot in the air just above Twilight’s head. Blast began to squint his eyes and his teeth ground together harder and harder from the effort. As energy continued to flow from himself through the current, a gem began to form. Its color was pinkish purple and as it grew it became the shape of a heart. From it golden tendrils of light began to sprout. As they grew larger and larger they coiled together into two tentacles, which surrounded the heart gem and expanded out to curl toward each other into the shape of . . .

It soon became evident why it was called the “Freezing Spell”. For at that exact moment, a column of electric blue light zapped downward from the object, freezing Twilight into a block of ice. Her surprised - and somewhat betrayed - expression, frozen forever.

Not quite. It wasn’t long before Twilight’s whole form began to glow a fiery purple color, almost at the brightness of Celestia’s sun. Everypony was forced to avert their eyes.

The ice shattered apart. And what a sight awaited them.

There Twilight stood. The amulet that was created during the spell she now wore as a necklace. It was shaped kind of like Celestia’s necklace. The large center jewel was still heart-shaped, until it expelled a wave of energy and became the shape of Twilight’s cutie mark. The red strands of her hair and her cutie mark had changed color - they were now electric blue. All around her lashes of purple energy floated suspended in air. They looked almost like . . .

“Cold fire,” Blast said with awe in his voice. “Your secondary element is cold fire.”

“What?” asked Twilight.

“Cold fire only exists in legends, Twilight. You are destined for nothing less than greatness as a Blizzard.”

Twilight smiled and even blushed a little.

It was at that precise moment Beam and Daring Do came. They pushed through the crowd a little bit to get to Blast and Twilight.

“Yes?” asked Blast. “Is this about the Elements?”

Beam answered him - Daring Do was out of breath. “Yes. We think we found the Element of Creativity.”

Blast slumped in exhaustion.

ELEVEN

Blast’s horn sparked.

Beam noticed. “Ca va? You don’t look so good bro.”

“I’m fine,” he answered with an exhausted tone. “I just, eh . . .”

Beam looked to Twilight. She could tell what had just taken place, but she didn’t believe it. “You didn’t . . . use the Freezing Spell on her, did you?”

“I most certainly did! We got a new Blizzard!”

“Under any other circumstances,” Beam replied, “I would be excited, but I don’t think now was the best timing ever.”

“What do you mean?” asked Twilight. “Now I can help more! This is great timing!”

“Not exactly,” Blast told her with a tone like he was walking through a minefield.

“What?”

“Well, using the Freezing Spell can be . . .” his horn sparked again. He massaged his temples with one hoof. “very taxing. Usually the Blizzard involved can’t even use magic at all for a short time after.”

“How long?” Twilight asked, clearly getting worried.

“Depends. It could be hours, it could be days.” He sighed. “I could be out of commision for as long as a week.”

“That’s not good!”

Beam jumped in. “We’ll just have to leave you here while we find the Element, Blast. It could get too dangerous if you don’t have any magic.”

“I am too coming! I have the Element of Honor, I could help!”

“I’m sorry bro. Not a good idea. Besides, while we’re gone you can . . .” she stared at the crowd. Most had already left, but some stayed to see what was going on. “ . . . chill with your new friends, I guess?”

Blast grumbled. “Fine.”

“You’re sure this is the place?” Twilight asked for the zillionth time.

She wore her new amulet. She was with Beam, Blade, and Daring Do (who insisted she accompany the team) just outside an ancient temple.

It was mostly in ruins, partially torn apart. Pieces of it lay haphazardly scattered across the clearing in the Everfree Forest where it was. Some sort of engravings were once carved into its walls, but worn down by time and the elements, they had become obsolete. The area was overgrown with vines and weeds, and the temple must have been gold originally, because now it was only pale yellow.

Beam pointed to a chunk of rubble lying to their side. “Sure as I can read French,” she simply replied.

Twilight read a set of timeworn engravings on the piece of architecture. It read L’élément de la créativité. She didn’t need another hint. This was definitely the place.

“What’re we waiting for?” asked Daring Do, clearly buzzing with excitement to get the Element. “Let’s get in there!” She leapt to her wings and dove inside.

Beam turned to the rest of the team. “Well?” They all galloped after their teammate.

The inside corridor was maybe three times as wide as it was high. The walls lining it were smooth, made of bricks overlaid by mortar. It was dim, to say the least. There was no evident light source beside, obviously, the outside sunlight, but they were only a few yards inside and the light filtering in quickly faded away. So fast, in fact, that Blade didn’t see Daring Do right in front of him and almost ran into her.

Calmly she stuck out her hoof to the side. A clear signal to stop.

“Wait.” She let her hoof fall once she had everyone’s attention. “It’s a trap.”

Most light leaking inside from the doorway had eroded away, so the three Blizzards lit magic orbicular torches from their horns.

It indeed was a trap. The ground before them, stretching on for some fifty yards, was split into a giant grid. The square spaces were separate of each other; tiny stone islands in a sea of blackness hidden underneath.

“A standard move,” Daring Do muttered with a chuckle and a confident smirk. “If you step on the wrong tile all of them will fall. But if you can figure out a pattern and step on the right ones with the right sequence, you can pass it.” There was a flash of worry in her eyes and the smirk left her. “Except . . . I don’t recognize these.”

Beam studied the markings. The engravings on the stone spaces formed words. Words she recognized.

“This is French . . .” she said with hope rising. “I get this!” She stared at the tiles. Spotting one that said Tu viens, she immediately trusted her instincts and jumped for it.

“Wait - ” Twilight called, before she saw that Beam was safe.

Beam landed the leap with one hoof and swung herself into a handstand. “You come,” she translated from the square she now stood on. “I get this!” She turned by spinning her hoof to pivot herself. Even reading upside-down, she saw her next target. Coiling her hoof, she sprung into the air with a stylish side-flip - more like she was at a dance-off than on a perfectly serious mission - she landed on a square that read au perfectly balanced on her horn. “You come to . . .”

The team followed Beam through the loopholes of the trap. First Daring Do, then Blade, then finally Twilight came behind in single file, copying Beam’s tile sequence.

Beam, still balanced on the tip of her horn, began to spin like a top and teleported to the next tile, reading Temple. “You come . . . to . . . the Temple . . .” The next tile said être juge, which she reached by summoning an ice staff from the air and spinning it into a circle before skillfully jumping off of her space to wedge the staff between the stable tile and the ceiling. She then grabbed the shaft and swung herself across the room. “ . . . to be judged . . .” She only lightly touched down on the tile before launching herself airborne again. This time she aimed for the wall, which she jumped off of with a swift kick. During her brief time in the air she scanned the nearby tiles for her next target. Spotting it - a square reading digne - she did another handstand on it, this time with both hooves. “. . . worthy . . .” Without hesitation she flipped again onto another tile. “. . . or . . .” She searched for the last remaining space. Only another yard or two to go, and then they’d be home free! Where could it be?

With fading hope she continued to read the spaces in front of her. Finally she found one. One that said mort.

That one word froze her dead in her tracks.

She just stared at it, fear beginning to enter her mind. Mort was the French word for dead.

She had hesitated just barely too long. Daring Do bumped right into her and caused her to fall onto the wrong spaces.

“Oh no,” Daring Do stressed.

A sharp rumbling noise came from under them, like an earthquake. The spaces began to fall into the earth. Acting quickly Daring Do grabbed Beam with two hooves and flew her to safety. Then she turned around to get Blade.

He was hovering above the whole scene, streams of flame shooting from his robotic hooves. “Don’t worry about me!” he said as he flew to the other side as well.

“Wait a second,” Beam paused. “Where’s Twilight?”

The answer came from far behind them, near the start of the trap. Twilight was taking steps backwards as the ground in front of her fell away into blackness. “Uhh, guys?”

“Twilight! Just fly!” Beam called to her.

Taking her advice, Twilight spread her wings and flew to them. As if on cue, however, huge stones began to fall out from the ceiling. One fell directly on Twilight and forced her down into the pit of darkness.

In silence what was left of their team stared down, in hopes that Twilight had somehow survived.

There was a blue flash of light, followed by a purple light, then an explosion. The light grew bigger and bigger, closer and closer, until Twilight ascended eye level to them, floating on a cloud of cold fire. She jumped off onto the ledge and the cloud disappeared.

“Let’s not forget I’m a Blizzard now!” she told them cheerfully.

The look on Beam’s face broke into a grin. “Right!” The team turned.

On the other side the ground they stood on fell away to another cliff face. This time, though, it depressed down into a ravine, at the end of which was something incredible.

There, floating on a pedestal, surrounded by clouds of luminous fog, was the Element of Creativity. Although impressive, it was actually very simple - in fact it looked almost exactly like what the Element of Honor once was: just a simple golden bracelet with an empty golden circle in the middle.

“There it is,” Twilight breathed.

“That’s it?” Daring Do asked to no one, obviously disappointed. “That was the only trap? The only thing protecting the Element?”

“I’m not sure that’s entirely true,” Beam said. “That trap we just barely passed said ‘you come to the temple to be judged worthy or dead’. I’m pretty sure the Element has some sort of magic barrier. So only its wielder can retrieve it, or something.”

“Whatever.” Daring Do was clearly anxious to get it. “Let’s just go get it and get out of here!”

At that precise moment a humongous figure stepped out of the shadows directly in front of the Element. It was hard to tell what it was in the dim light, only that it was enormous. The thing stood almost as tall as the cliff they stood on. Some features could be made out. The large, beefy arms, the elongated horns, the powerful hindquarters . . .

Twilight, at least, could tell exactly who this thing was.

She breathed the word. “Tirek.”

Daring Do gasped. “That’s Tirek?!”

Beam threw a knife at the ceiling. As it dove into the stone surface a ribbon attached to it pulled taut. “Tirek or no, we’ve got to get the element!” She jumped off of the ledge, swinging by the rope until she glided to a stop at the ravine floor.

The rest of the team nodded. Daring Do and Twilight flew; Blade teleported. Soon the whole team was gathered at the base of the ravine. The only thing that stood between them and the Element was the figure.

It took no notice to their presence. Anxiously it reached its huge hands toward the element. As soon as they came in contact with the strangely glowing fog, however, a hissing noise was made, which grew louder and louder. Immediately it drew back and the hissing stopped.

The figure growled. “RRRGH! How hard does this have to be?!”

“Hey!” Beam yelled to grab his attention.

The lumbering centaur turned. It was, indeed, Lord Tirek. Except he looked . . . different. A huge scar following a tear in his shirt was slashed across his chest. Crossing it and creating an X across his chest was a silver sash and on it was stored hundreds upon hundreds of . . . horns. Horns that undoubtedly belonged once to unicorns that he’d defeated. The sight struck horror into Twilight.

“You again,” he snarled. Smashing his fists together, he cracked his knuckles with a mighty booming sound that shook the earth. “Time to die.”

“NO!” yelled Beam, rebounding with matching ferocity. A shock wave of ice was expelled from her, coming to a stop in a circle around her on the floor. Roman numerals appeared across its surface, and two arrows leapt from the center. It was a clock design on the floor. The minute hand blurred around the clock and the hour hand followed. Once the hour hand had made a complete rotation, Beam materialized her signature electric guitar. “C’est l’heure de danser!”

With this she rocketed into the air far above Tirek’s head and smashed her guitar squarely between the eyes. The centaur roared in anger.

Somehow the impact snapped Twilight out of her horrific trance. The next thing she saw was the rest of her team joining the battle; Blade joining Beam in a team effort to hold off Tirek while Daring Do snuck around and tried to get the Element. Twilight threw herself into the fight, lighting her hooves on fire and punching Tirek in the face repeatedly.

“Not this time, princess!” A ray of light shot from one of the horns on Tirek’s shoulder strap and froze Twilight in place in a red aura. With a wave of his hand Twilight floated to the side while he did the same to Blade and Daring Do. Before anyone knew it they were all floating suspended in the air, frozen under the centaur’s power.

He chuckled to himself. “Now whose horn shall I take first?” He scanned over the team, trying to decide who to torture first. “I know . . .”

Suddenly the aura containing Beam slammed into the wall and adjusted to pin her spread-eagle to the wall.

Uncontrollable amounts of fear and dread surged through her. “No! No, no, no!”

A stream of red energy flowing from another horn on Tirek’s strap materialized a gigantic axe. “Oh, yes!” The centaur grinned.

He swung his axe.

Distance narrowed. First ten feet, then five, then one, then inches, then a quarter of an inch . . .

At that exact moment, just before the axe struck her down, a purple blur flew out of nowhere and knocked the weapon right out of Tirek’s hand. Both his axe and the thing crashed to the ground and spun away for a second before slowing to a halt.

Twilight peered at the object that caused the purple blur. Its general shape was very familiar . . . the purple staff . . . the dragon wing . . .

Then, out of nowhere zoomed blur of black this time. It rocketed right past Tirek, opening an ugly gash straight across his face as it smashed into the ground. The auras freezing the group in place disappeared as Tirek crumpled to the ground in pain.

Somehow on the way from her position in the air to the ground, Twilight saw the thing, rather the pony, that had come to save them.

It was Rage.

Quickly he tried to remove the Element from its standpoint. He first tried levitating it, before deciding that that wasn’t working. In another attempt he dove his hooves into the luminous blue mist to try and dislodge it. He was in obvious pain, but tried still to reach the Element. Although he did, it seemed there was a force field around it which wasn’t letting him take it from its post. Finally the pain was too much for him and he aborted the attempt, his hooves glowing red with stinging heat.

Tirek was recovering. Someone had to do something. And they had to do it fast.

Rage, again using levitation, finally jerked the Element from its pedestal and tossed it to Beam, its circular golden design spinning through the air like a frisbee. “Beam! It’s your call!”

Immediately it stuck itself onto her hoof and a wave expelled from its center transformed into her cutie mark. Her eyes began to glow blue.

“No!” Tirek cried as soon as he saw what had just happened. “No, no, that won’t be necessary!” He suddenly appeared a coward. The gash on his face was just beginning to bleed. “Just go! Just go, I don’t want any trouble!”

With curious looks on their faces the team retraced their steps back through the temple and began the dash back to Ponyville. They didn’t slow their pace to a walk until the temple was far out of sight.

Beam tried to catch her breath. “Let’s just clear the place, before he realizes this Element is a fake.”

The team stopped in their tracks. There was a short silence.

“What?” Twilight asked for an explanation.

Beam grinned. “My master plan! In the case that we were intercepted and we couldn’t get the Element, we’d simply scare the bad guy away! So I grabbed a bracelet I found lying around and painted it into a phony Element!”

“What about the Blizzard State? We saw you use it!”

Beam’s grin only grew. “I painted my eyelids! See?” She shut her eyes. Indeed it was nothing more than blue glow-in-the-dark paint.

“So what about . . .” The team turned. Rage was still with them. They were all, especially Twilight and Blade - who’d witnessed firsthoof his evil side -

“Don’t worry about him,” Beam reassured them. “He turned good.”

“What do you mean?”

“He turned good. Just before Daring Do got me to help her with the temple she found, I ran into Rage. He told me that he turned good and he wanted to help us find the Elements before the other villains from the bad future could get them. So we teamed up!”

“Only one problem,” Daring Do pointed out. “The real Element of Creativity is back there, and so is Tirek!”

“No problem!” There was not even a small lapse in Beam’s confidence. “He can’t do anything to it - the defense spell, remember? We just need to get out of here before -”

A bellow of anger could be heard coming from somewhere off in the distance. The trees shook and birds stirred in a mass panic.

“Now,” Blade, so silent until now, finished her sentence. “We just need to get out of here, period!”

No one had any time to react. In one huge leap Tirek had appeared right in front of them. He chuckled. “Leaving so soon?” With an evil laugh he used his horns to conjure five fireballs and fling them at the team. They came to rest suspended in the air right in front of them and exploded, tossing each of them miles apart.

Beam had lost her teammates. She couldn’t see, couldn’t hear. The explosion had knocked her senseless. She could only feel the wind whistling through her mane as she tumbled end over end through the air.

The next thing she felt was . . . a sudden stop to her fall. A very sudden stop.

Face first she slammed into some kind of a brick surface. What hearing was coming back to her was knocked out again by the earsplitting blast of sound. For a few seconds she could feel the stone crumble, fall away, and she was falling again . . .

This fall was more of a drift than anything. Falling. Falling like a piece of paper, drifting down to earth. Again she crashed into concrete, but this time she barely felt it. Her consciousness was fading. The emergence of the situation had melted away, slipping away into a dream.

The last thing she registered was a sensation, of someone . . . or something . . . grabbing onto her hoof . . .

Splash!

Beam coughed herself back into consciousness.

“She’s coming around!” someone shouted.

Gradually her vision cleared.

From what she could tell, she was somewhere in the Castle of Friendship. It was a small room, with two opposite walls lined with full-stocked bookshelves. Sunlight of the late afternoon leaked in from the wall to her back. She was seated in a chair in the center, and around her crowded the worried, and somehow impressed faces of Blade, Twilight, Rage, and her brother Blast.

“I should’ve come!” Blast lamented. “They said you were awesome!”

“What?” Beam uttered groggily, before she snapped herself back into her senses. “Wait! What happened to the Element?! Tirek -”

“Calm,” Twilight told her with a soothing tone. “We’re safe. Tirek is gone. We have the Element. And,” she stole a glance at her crush, “I agree, that was quite the display.”

“What are you talking . . .” Beam began, before she took a look at her hoof. Clipped onto it, just like the fake Element of Creativity once was, was now another golden bracelet, this one decorated with a central jewel of deep purple, cut into the shape of her cutie mark. “Is this the real thing? The Element of Creativity?”

“Yep!” her brother Rage confirmed.

The team spent the rest of the day and well into the night celebrating their victory.

TWELVE

“You idiot!” The thing threw its face into the palm of its hand. It paced the room impatiently, speaking through gritted teeth. “Is there any job you can’t screw up?!”

Tirek pleaded for mercy. “Please, Master, I can explain . . .”

“SILENCE!!!” The temper of the creature manifested itself through the powerful slash of claws it delivered. The centaur took the blow right across the chest, reopening his painful scar, and lumbered backwards two steps. “I have given you my trust . . . and you have done away with it. However, perhaps there is another . . . yes . . .” The creature turned in rage to another figure that stood in its midst.

At its center swirled an energetic, concentrated ball of blackness. Two beady green eyes were inside it, observing the situation with a mild curiosity. From the top of the spherical nightmare two bright red horns sprouted. One was cut short at a jagged line, sparking with red energy. Myriads of tentacles drifted downward from the central ball; horrendous black things with rivers of red electricity at their centers.

“Sombra!” The blue darkness addressed the being. “Can I count on you?”

Besides eyes, the thing that was called King Sombra didn’t have a face. Despite this it was easy to see the evil joy hiding behind his eyes. A blue portal appeared beside him.

“You can.” He laughed a maniacal laugh. “You most certainly can.”

The party the Blizzards threw lasted the rest of that day and the entire following night.

They, especially Twilight, wished they had someone like Pinkie to host their party, but they had decided it was in their best interest their operations remain secret. Especially to Twilight’s friends. On top of all the other stress they had to deal with, saving the world and all, the last thing they wanted to deal with was a mass panic. And if Twilight’s friends heard, they would clearly want to get involved. Help their friend. And that, a point Twilight made clear, was far too dangerous. Putting her friends in harm’s way, especially when unnecessary, was far out of the question.

They did however, have one star to shine for them. That star was Beam. One thing was made very clear to each of them - Beam truly was talented in the arts of music! Most of the party, in fact, was spent just watching her as she performed her best songs (all of which masterpieces she herself had written), and most of which were performed in accompaniment to some sort of fight scene involving one of the other Blizzards. It was, in every sense of the word, fantastic.

Right now it was morning. They had finally run out of things to do to celebrate the retrieval of the Element, and the place had cooled down considerably. So they were just all relaxing, visiting with each other and laughing.

Suddenly Rage caught his sister Beam looking at him funny, her head cocked to one side and a questioning look on her face. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I don’t get it,” was all that she said. She waited before elaborating. “I just don’t get it. Why’d you turn evil in the first place? I remember you used to be about the most peaceable stallion around. Why’d all that change?”

Rage brought his hoof to his forehead like he suddenly had a headache. “In the bad future . . . there’s this thing . . .”

“Yes . . . ?” Beam prompted.

“This villain . . . one villain, that never otherwise existed. It only exists from the combined might of the other villains. Its ability - it exists as a pool of sludge, sentient sludge. Anypony exposed to it -” he paused and shuddered - “bad things would happen to them.”

“Like turning evil?” asked Twilight.

Rage could only nod weakly.

There was a moment of silence.

“Hey, guys?” asked Blast questionably. He was glancing out the window. “You might want to see this . . .”

The entire team rushed to the window to see what he was talking about.

The view that was provided stretched over all the houses in Ponyville, all the trees in the Everfree Forest, and stretched almost as far as the Outlands. The tiny horizon in the distance was lined with mountains and jagged edges. And even though the sun had risen above by now, the sky there was still orange. Twilight hadn’t seen the sky that color since a year ago, during her first visit to the Crystal Empire . . .

This wasn’t all. Red flashes would keep appearing along the horizon, almost like fireworks, but different . . .

“What is that?” Beam wondered out loud. “Could it have something to do with the Elements?”

Twilight was apparently the only one with a clue what was going on. “Undoubtedly. That was King Sombra.”

“What?!”

“And we’ve got to stop him!”

“So why was the Element all the way out here?” Beam scanned the surroundings. “I mean, it’s a little . . . dead.”

Almost the whole Blizzard team - Beam, Rage, Blade, and Twilight (Blast’s magic needed still more time to recoup) - were now in the Outlands. Twilight, leading them with her natural-come knowledge of the tyrant king, had been lucky enough to find a scorch mark on the ground that undoubtedly meant one of the red flashes had occurred at that place. She found another only a few hundred yards away, and she led the team tracking the scorch marks, following a linear path skirting only the edge of the vast desert.

“We don’t know he’s got an Element,” replied Twilight simply. “We only know Sombra’s out here somewhere and that surely means he’s up to no good. And we’re Blizzards, aren’t we? We’re supposed to stop bad guys like this. And if he’s got an Element, that’s an added bonus for us.”

“Sounds logical,” Rage commented.

Blade followed them in his usual cold silence.

The group followed the marks in the ground until they come to the strangest place.

It was some sort of valley formation. Located just outside Equestria’s borders, it began at an average height before descending quite steeply to make a bowl-shaped depression in the ground. A tall, blue oval floated in the center - the unmistakable shape of a portal. And standing in front of the portal was the strangest being.

It somewhat resembled something Twilight read about once called an ‘octopus’. Its center was a very concentrated sphere, like a black hole. The tentacles that flowed from it were also very black, red electricity pulsing through its center. It seemed to have two horns that curled up toward each other, but one of them was cut short.

The creature growled. “I don’t think your pet likes me very much.”

“Whatever, Sombra,” replied a voice, presumably coming from the other side of the portal. “Just bring the Element.”

No one saw because he was behind them, but Blade stopped dead in his tracks, petrified by his own fear. This was the thing that had almost killed him so long ago.

The rest of his team paid no attention. They leapt into battle.

Rage slammed into the octopod Sombra with a huge ball of purple ice.

Beam materialized her guitar and shot him with lightning bolts.

Twilight set her horn on fire and spun in a circle, becoming a floating fire buzz saw.

Blade stood where he was, scared stiff.

Sombra looked into the portal as the three Blizzards attacked him. “Don’ worry about me, Master. I got ‘em.”

An amused chuckle came from the other side. “That's the spirit!” The portal began to shrink. The chuckle turned into full laughter. “Have fun!”

It disappeared.

Sombra was left alone facing three full-blown warriors.

Using his magic, he reinforced one tentacle with a shadow crystal and used it to block Twilight’s attacks. Although taking no lasting damage, the mere force with which she was dealing her blows was driving him back. Tides turning Sombra brought his crystal-encrusted tentacle up, Twilight still attacking it, and with matching force smacked it down in one fell swoop. Twilight was sent flying all the way back into Equestria.

Annoyed now he turned to Rage, who was pounding him with chunks of purple ice. “You . . .” he snarled. “Tsk, tsk, tsk. Master isn’t happy with you . . .” A ball of darkness generating between his two horns flew toward Rage and froze him to the ground, imprisoned in a rapidly growing crystal. Sombra brought himself down to stare the alicorn in the eye, Rage’s nose almost touching his face. “I wonder what she will have to say . . .”

It was then that Beam saw a tiny golden bracelet coiled around one of his tentacles. “Guys! He does have an Element!”

Sombra’s attention turned to Beam. With lightning speed one tentacle lashed toward her and wrapped itself around her. It rose and brought her eye level to him. “Never seen you before,” Sombra commented as he studied the mare from different angles. “You’re kinda cute,” he thought to himself. “Such a shame that I’ll have to kill you.”

It was at this time he noticed the white stallion who waited at the edge of the tiny valley. Sombra saw almost piercingly through the disguises their last meet had brought. The robot leg, the completely mechanical eye, none of it changed who it was that stood before him.

“Well, hello,” Sombra said, his voice dripping with fake friendliness. Blade’s muscles tensed uncontrollably. “Hadn’t seen you for a while!” He took a casual stroll toward the stallion, simply biding his time, striking maximum fear into Blade’s heart. “You must be that pitiful colt I mutilated so long ago . . .” Blade made no reply. His muscles simply wouldn’t cooperate. They wouldn’t let him move out of the way as Sombra generated a blast of energy that sent him flying miles backward.

Blade went through the most excruciating pain he had ever felt at precisely that moment. He found the energy blast so powerful that it was making it hurt again in the places where his robot parts connected to him. Places that hadn’t felt pain for years. It wasn’t until he looked down that he realized why.

The energy blast had actually blown away the robot parts! Where he once had a steel leg there was once again nothing but a black spot on his torso. His hooves were gone, now nothing more than shadowy stumps. His head ached uncontrollably and he found that he could not keep his eyes open - even with his one eye gone his eyelids wanted to operate in unison. And the scar that was once his eye gave him nothing but sharp pains when it opened; pains like none other.

So it was that he suffered pain beyond what he could have imagined, and he suffered it all in silence as he sailed through the air.

And then . . . he stopped.

It wasn’t like crashing into the ground. It felt like . . . he fell into something soft, something that cushioned his landing, something that . . . understood his hurt. Gently it caressed his wounds and all the pain that was in them seemed to melt away. Something, someone was doing this. Was trying to help him. He looked to see who his rescuer was.

It was Twilight.

She and he were gliding on a mass of cold fire. Quite clearly she was multitasking; she had her back turned to him, intently staring off into the distance. He looked down and saw that they were actually covering a lot of ground very quickly. They were headed back to the battle.

“You came back for me,” he rasped in the strongest voice he could muster.

It was at that point that she glanced back at him for a second. She managed a smile that, again, seemed to melt away the pain that he had so intensely felt mere seconds ago. “Of course I did, Blade. We’re family.” She turned her gaze back away from him.

With those last two words a realization hit him with greater force even than he’d taken from Sombra just a few moments ago.

His family was there for him.

His family was always there for him. His parents . . . since the incident happened that turned him into a cyborg, they were there through his every pain. Every time he fell, he had his parents to help him get back up. And his cousins, Blast and Beam . . . they were the best friends he could ever have asked for. He knew they loved him, and they would slay dragons for him. And now this . . .

Right on cue he and Twilight re-entered the battle. Blade did what he could to try and stand. He was finally going to face his fears.

Twilight looked back at him again. Although manipulating the purple fire to help him get up, she wore a very concerned look. “There’s no way you’re gonna fight that thing!” She cocked her head. “You’re in no condition to do that!”

Using what of limbs he had Blade jumped off of the cloud straight for Sombra. He knew what he was going to do.

My family has always been there for me.

Now it’s my turn.

As he neared the villain he readied his remaining front leg for attack. With one eye he stared his worst fear right between the eyes. He bent his leg. As he was just about to hit Sombra he struck the octopod an uppercut blow with his elbow - the one part of him still okay. “I DON’T CARE!” he yelled.

A brave move.

But a huge mistake.

Blade fell to the earth. As he hit the ground some of his weight was put on the black places that he had lost. They screamed at him almost as intensely as they did a few minutes ago. Suddenly Blade felt so powerless, so helpless, so . . . limited. Once he tried to get up, and after a failed attempt he collapsed to the ground in tears.

There was no help for him now. Rage was imprisoned in a still-growing black crystal on the ground, and Beam was still trying to fight her way out of the villain’s grip. He was alone.

And towering over him was the octopod form of Sombra. “So sad . . .” he mused, taking his time to creep toward the shivering stallion. “Even now, you can’t defeat me?” He chuckled, until it grew louder and became full evil laughter. “Even now!”

Then something happened that even Sombra didn’t see coming.

It started with a vibration he felt on his tentacle. At first he dismissed it as nothing, focusing on the stallion and relishing the fear he was emitting. The sensation came again. In annoyance the tyrant king brought up his one tentacle to see what was the matter.

It was the Element. It was moving.

The tiny gold bracelet on his tentacle was twitching. Its movement escalated from a jiggle to a rattle, then a jerk, as if it was trying to work itself free. Without warning it rocketed out of Sombra’s grip and sprang itself toward Blade. Before anyone could react it snapped itself onto what was left of his leg.

Immediately his eyes began to glow red. He started to grow. Like, grow. Still down, he grew larger and larger until he was eye level with Sombra - laying down.

And then he stood.

STOOD. Blade looked down at himself.

His robot parts had been replaced by constructs of luminescent red energy.

The tides had turned on Sombra.

“Aw nuts.”

Blade had no idea what was going on. But as far as he could tell: it’s happening again!

He was again fighting Sombra, but again he wasn’t focused in on the battle. He wasn’t controlling his own movements, his own actions . . . it was just like watching television again. He wasn’t living anymore . . . he was just watching television.

Then, he saw Sombra disappear. Just like last time - a cloud of black fog appeared around the king, enveloped him, and vanished.

And again the Blizzard State left him. His vision returned to normal, everything returned to its normal size. As he finished shrinking, the red energy forming his robot parts vanished and he collapsed to the ground. He was no longer in pain but very tired. The Element remained clipped onto his leg.

Beam ran up to him and massaged his shoulder blades. “Ya done good, cous’,” she told him, “ya done good.”

THIRTEEN

“Ah well,” Beam said with a shrug. “He was due for an upgrade anyway.”

The team - Blast having rejoined them - was in the process of taking Blade to the hospital in Canterlot. They still had no idea which Element they had gotten - despite the fact that it made clear that it had chosen Blade as its wielder, it gave no clues as to which it could be. Twilight had just sent it to Celestia while they waited. Beam was currently checking in her cousin while the rest of the group waited outside.

She was referring to the fact that Blade needed to upgrade his machinery every six months or so. This was simply due to the fact that ponies grow and robots don’t. Much like a snake shedding its skin.

The doctor looked at her funny. “You’re taking this exceptionally well.”

Beam shrugged again. “He was due for an upgrade. Might as well have a little fun on the way, am I right?”

The doctor’s questioning look grew only worse. “I suppose . . .” His expression changed quickly to that weird candy-coated friendliness that all medical people seem to have about them. “Well it can’t be too long. We should be done sometime tomorrow.”

Beam flashed her immaculate smile. “Thanks!” She went outside to meet the others.

Twilight, Rage, and Blast greeted her. “So how is he?” Blast questioned.

“Fine. They said he’ll be out sometime tomorrow. It’s basically just a routine upgrade after all.” She paused. “So . . . what’do we do now?”

There was a short silence.

Twilight came forward. “I guess we can just -” She never finished her sentence.

In a flash of light a stranger appeared before them.

He was a caramel-brown stallion with electric blue eyes. His midnight blue mane was unkempt and evidently hadn’t been properly done in a while. There was a holster strapped onto his hoof, which appeared to be occupied by a sleek handgun. His cutie mark resembled a boulder that was struck in two, its two halves separated by a straight line. He looked around at the four ponies he had appeared to.

“We need to talk,” was all he said.

“Please . . .” pleaded the octopod Sombra. He hated to see his master angry, largely because she had a nasty habit of destroying things.

“AGAIN!!! FAILED AGAIN!!!” raged the thing that he called ‘Master’. At first it went to strike Sombra across the face, then it refrained, then it threw fits trying to harness its temper. Its claws carved deep gashes over its face as it tried not to explode into a fit of wrecking things. This was of no issue to it; it was made of sludge, it never took injuries like that.

Finally it calmed down enough to control itself without physically constraining itself. “Perhaps we can still win this . . .” Still fuming, it addressed one of its smallest servants: “Chrysalis! A favor, if you please . . .”

“The Element of Justice?!” Beam exclaimed. “In Canterlot?!”

The stallion nodded.

They had all gathered at a remote area in the Gardens out of earshot of passersby. The stallion introduced himself as Blizzard Quake, the warden of Crystal Caverns, and Blade’s father. He had quite the story for the team: he had reason to believe that the Element of Justice was hidden somewhere in Canterlot.

Blast was at a loss for words. “Wha - wha -”

“Last night,” Quake began. “It was last night. I was taking a walk through the Gardens when I saw it: somepony getting attacked by . . . something. I’d say it was a Changeling, but it wasn’t exactly, it was . . . different. The holes it had in its hooves were filled in by this weird green energy, and it was noticably larger. They were in a corner where nopony would see them. From the looks of it the Changeling had been there for a long time, possibly playing cat-and-mouse with the poor mare.

“I tried to intercept them, but just as I got there the mare’s eyes turned gray and she . . . didn’t seem in control of herself anymore. She got up and ran away. Then the Changeling noticed me and took the form of the mare it had just attacked.

“This is the weirdest part. The thing talked. It saw the look on my face and snickered. ‘Three days,’ it said with a raspy voice. ‘Three days I had to work with her. She had a strong heart.’ And then it flew away.”

“Whoa . . .” Blast marveled.

Rage clearly saw the emergence of the present situation. “That kind of Changeling is from the evil future!”

The statement stunned Quake. “You . . . know . . . these things?”

Rage nodded. He remembered that his uncle didn’t know of the existence of the bad future - let alone that he was from it himself. “These Changelings are much more powerful than the ones we know. These ones can suck out the very life force of a victim - the process can take anywhere from hours to days to even a week. But when it’s complete - the Changeling can take not only the form of that pony, but their powers, their knowledge, all of that.”

A realization was beginning to hit Twilight. “And if these things are attacking Canterlot . . .”

Blast got the exact same brain wave. “. . . The Element of Justice!”

Beam was starting to realize what exactly was going on as well. “Celestia!” The thought sent a shiver down her spine.

As if on cue, a demonic whining noise began to resonate through the air. Its horrible ring echoed through the entirety of Canterlot.

The alarm.

Quake was quick to take the wheel. “Fan out! If you find anything just use the Beacon!”

It seemed to Twilight she was the only one who didn’t know what this was.

Beam and Twilight somehow found themselves working together. They worked their way down the streets, scanning for any kind of Changeling activity. The alarm still sounded, and the roads were suddenly abandoned - like a ghost town. To anyone else, this may have been unsettling, but the two paid no mind - they were on a mission.

“Where are these little guys?!” It was clear that Beam was very disappointed by the lack of fighting going on. “Can they be this hard to find?”

Twilight kicked in with her usual deductive logic. “Well the warden did mention how long it takes for a Changeling to completely copy somepony. They’re probably hiding somewhere.”

“True.”

“By the way, the warden said to ‘use the Beacon’. What’s that?”

“Oh!” Only then did it occur to Beam that Twilight still had much to learn as a Blizzard. “The Beacon’s basically like a backup system so if one of us Blizzards are losing a fight, we can call in some support. It’s really just a magic firework we shoot up that explodes into our cutie mark. Blast did it to call me over back when Rage was evil.”

“So like that one over there?” Twilight asked innocently. She pointed to one side where a firework was going off. It exploded into a design like a rock splitting in two.

There was nothing innocent about the look on Beam’s face. “Yes! Let’s go!”

The Beacon had appeared in the sky only on the next street. It didn’t take long for them to loop around and swing in to the scene. But one thing was wrong.

“ . . . there’s nothing here,” Twilight uttered, bewildered. The street was empty and as dead as the last one. “But - how can that be? You saw that - didn’t you?”

“I most certainly did,” Beam reassured her. “Somethin’ funky’s going on here . . .” She stared with a testy aggravation down the street - at nothing. “. . . and I would be very excited to find out what it is.”

Meanwhile, down in the Crystal Caverns . . .

“NO!” Quake yelled at the being. It skirted the shadows of the tiny cave. “You’ll never get the Element of Justice!”

“Funny thing,” she, Chrysalis, thought half to herself. “It was two years ago I hid away in these very same caverns.” A flash of evil shone in her grin. “And now, even after they discovered these caverns they still haven’t found me.”

Her servant Changelings surrounded the stallion. As they closed in on him he tried to fight back. Green shafts of light flew from their horns to his own and froze his horn solid in insectoid green goop.

This was it.

He couldn’t use his magic.

The Queen of the Changelings stepped into the light.

She looked almost the same as she used to, except for some stray details every here and there. An eyepatch shielded her left eye from view. The holes in her hooves and horn were filled in by flowing plasma, just like with her Changelings. Resting in the middle of her horn was a shining green gem.

“We’re going to find the Element of Justice,” she said with a very serious voice. “You’re going to take us there and unlock the Element.”

“No.” Despite being completely surrounded, the stubborn Quake stood his ground.

Taking a silent cue from its queen one Changeling stepped forward. It approached the stallion with an air of almost mechanical calm. In one sudden move it thrashed a kick straight across Quake’s face and knocked him to the ground. He slid across the ground a distance before coming to a halt.

Anger was beginning to enter Chrysalis’ one-eyed glare. “Yes. You will.”

“No.”

The Changeling beat him again. Harder this time.

“Yes.”

“No.”

One final time the Changeling struck him. This time the force knocked the wind out of him and he fell so hard that the crystal ground he slammed into was beginning to crack.

“YES. YOU WILL.”

One more time Quake got back to his hooves. He had to admit it. He didn’t have a choice. Either unable or unwilling to speak, he simply nodded.

The look on Chrysalis’ face broke into a grin. “Excellent. I knew you would come to reason. Now, where is it?”

Quake only signaled to follow him before leading the group out of the room.

He could not believe that he was going through with this. He, Quake, the warden of the greatest enforcer of justice in Equestria was leading his mortal enemies to something that could bring his kind total destruction. But there was nothing he could do. No one knew what was going on down here in the Crystal Caverns (at least no one who’d help him - the place was full of criminals he’d made mortal enemies with), and he couldn’t use his magic anymore. He was basically out of options. Unless . . .

He led them through the top floor of the prison before turning down a hall and into his office. Neither Chrysalis nor her servants noticed Quake’s discarded holster on the desk - still housing his trusty pistol. Quake played it cool and payed no mind to it.

There was a back door behind his desk - a simple blue rectangle in the center of a perfectly flat crystal wall. It had no doorknob.

“This is it?” asked Chrysalis wonderingly.

“Behind here,” Quake explained. “But this is a magically protected door. It requires unicorn magic to open, and it’ll only respond to my energy signature.”

He was right. Chrysalis was getting impatient. His ploy was working. “Well?” she turned to one of her Changelings. “Get ‘im working!”

“But queen,” the Changeling responded with a raspy, grinding voice. “What if he’s tricking us? If we give him his magic back . . .”

Chrysalis considered the thought. In all of two instants her temper flared and she whirled at Quake. “You’re bluffing! There’s no magic protection here!”

He yielded no reply.

Chrysalis leapt toward the door. She used her own magic to try to open it.

A serious mistake.

A blinding white bolt of lightning shot from the door and zapped Chrysalis so hard she went careening across the room and crashed into the opposite wall.

It was all according to plan. Quake smirked, his confidence growing.

And he struck.

With one leap he dove toward his desk. As he jumped he did a cartwheel over it, grabbing the leather bag containing his pistol with one hoof. He pulled off a perfect landing and ripped out his pistol. An instant later the gun weighed three bullets less and three Changelings lay dead on the floor.

“Maybe I can’t use my magic,” Quake said with a confident smirk. “but then again, I’ve seldom needed to.”

The remaining five insects launched an immediate attack. Two of them rushed forward to pin him down, but Quake maintained an advantage. They were opposite each other in the room - the Changelings had too much ground to cover. Another two shots took care of them.

Something strange happened with the last three. The green spheres embedded in their hooves removed themselves, as if they were larva leaving the honeycomb for the first time. They floated suspended in the air and started to circle the three Changelings. They started going slow but orbited faster and faster until, finally, they hurled themselves toward Quake.

This was not a move the warden suspected, but nonetheless he reacted with lightning speed. Trying to multitask, he did another cartwheel to the side - most of the acid balls slamming themselves into the wall - while reloading his handgun with another bullet cartridge. The rest of the acid balls he either dodged or intercepted in the air with his precision aim.

Before the Changelings could make another attack he again dove across the room - this time toward the door that had the Element of Justice. Shoving the door open he thrusted himself inside and slammed it shut.

While it did stand true that only Quake could open that door, it didn’t require the use of his magic. As the warden of the Crystal Caverns, he had long ago decided that he would train himself to never rely on his magic - this way he could keep his identity as a Blizzard secret. He even had the secret door modified so that it did not require magic to open - as was previously intended in its design.

Long ago Quake had already discovered the Element of Justice during the Crystal Caverns’ early days, in a secret temple where it was soon planned to expand the prison. It had already chosen himself as its wielder. He and Celestia only knew about this important finding, and it was soon decided that it be hidden in his office - in the case of a mass outbreak, they agreed that he would need all the help he could get.

Quake chuckled to himself. Chrysalis was right about one thing: he was bluffing. But it wasn’t about the protection spells on the door. It was in the fact that it required magic to open. He wanted the queen to catch him making a bluff and then try to open it herself. When that failed, he would have an opening to attack, get to the Element, and guard it from her Changelings. A double bluff, if you will. A perfect plan.

A voice behind him seemed to read his thoughts. “But not perfect enough.” It was the voice of Chrysalis.

Quake whirled. Chrysalis wasn’t there.

And neither was the Element.

FOURTEEN

It was the following evening.

Quake took his time returning to the surface. He wasn’t in any rush. He’d just failed his greatest assignment - protecting his Element - and he wasn’t happy about it. The whole way back he kept internally beating himself up. Because of his sloppy actions, the entirety of Equestria would fall beneath the united forces of evil. At least he could use his magic again.

When he finally showed up he was met with the other Blizzards, including a teary Beam rushing to him with her arms open like she was a little girl again.

“We were scared, Uncle. We were scared the Changelings copied you.”

The look on Quake’s face melted into a tired, saddened smile. He stroked his niece’s mane with one hoof. “Nope. Takes more’n that to get rid of me.” What he had of a smile quickly left.

Blast saw this. “Something the matter?”

“The Element of Justice. I lost it. Chrysalis has it now.”

The team’s initial reaction was clear - very worried and a little bit panicked. Just barely too late they realized this could hurt Quake’s feelings and hid this. He noticed.

Blast spoke up. “Don’t despair,” he reassured his uncle. “We can win it back.” He came forward to hug him too.

Quake laughed a sad laugh. “You really are your father’s kids.”

In the background, Twilight flinched - ready for any reaction this could elicit from Blast. Nothing. Apparently, Blast really had come to terms with his father’s death.

It was only then that Quake realized he hugging in front of people - let alone an alicorn princess. He suddenly cleared his throat and stood up. “Well, it’s been a long day,” he said as he watched the sun set below the mountains. “What do you say we hit the hay and re-hash this whole Element thing in the morning?”

“Sounds like a plan,” Rage agreed.

“I got a summer home here,” Beam pointed out. “We could just stay at my place. It’s just down this street aways.” The team followed her down the road to her home.

Except for Twilight anyway.

She felt the feeling of a hoof around her. She looked down and, indeed, saw a blue hoof hooked on her. It tugged her into a bush on the side of the road. The rest of the team took no notice and left her.

Twilight tried to gather herself. The inside of the bush was hollow, and moonlight leaked in through the branches and leaves. Some of it fell on a figure standing before her.

“What the - ” she began. “Blast? Are you always going to be like this?” He couldn’t have just asked if they could talk? You think you know this guy . . . she thought.

“We need to talk with Celestia.”

“What the - what? What’re you talking about?”

“I can explain,” Blast told her as he backed up to the edge of the bush, “but on the way.”

Twilight followed him at a trot to the front gates. On the way, he explained to her something strange he found on the Element of Honor . . .

“Another riddle?” Twilight could not believe this guy.

“Yes. But this one isn’t mine. I found it.”

“Engraved into the Elements, you said?”

“Yes. At least my Element. On the inside of the bracelet part there were the words: hold the key. Something like that.”

“Huh. What do you think it means? Like what holds the key? And what does it unlock?”

“No, no, and no. That is to say, I dunno anything what it means. I’m hoping the other Elements we’ve gathered so far could give us a clue. They probably combine to give us some form of larger message.”

“You know . . .” Twilight was starting to understand. “That might just get us somewhere! Smart, Blast!”

A nod of his head was the only reply. They had arrived at the castle gates.

Twilight was able to negotiate their way in with the guards. Soon they found themselves in the throne room conversing with Celestia. The two together relayed the information to her.

Celestia contemplated the possibilities. “I think we’ll need to get Luna in on this,” she finally told them. “She knows the Elements of Unity much better than I.” She left Twilight and Blast alone.

For a few minutes there was simply an awkward silence. Soon it grew so much so that Twilight couldn’t stand it anymore and she told Blast, “I think it’s so cool how you love your family. That’s a rare quality, you know.”

“Yeah, well,” he shrugged, “It wasn’t an easy one to develop. Nor a painless one.” Blast chuckled to himself. “I guess you gotta just roll with the punches.”

“What do you mean?” Twilight guessed she was about to witness another rare unfolding reveal of his past.

“You see,” he began, “I never had friends. Ever. I know you kind of can understand how that feels, what with your pre-Ponyville life and all that, but I never got any friends like you did. The only friends that ever came my way were the ‘fake friends’. Kinda the parasitic type of people, the people that never listen to your problems, the people that you’re just resources to them, you know? People who, deep down, don’t really care about you.

“And this brought me to rely a lot on my family. They were the only people in my life who really cared about me. Recognized me as another being that was in need. Were there through my every pain. They were always there to help me get back up. I knew that I could always rely on them, because they would never turn their back on me. My relationship with them grew, every day stronger and stronger. I started to return the favors. I had their backs and I knew that they had mine.

“A lot of these feelings came to me from my dad. I remember when I was really little, I technically wasn’t even supposed to leave home yet, but my dad could tell that The North was no place for me. He took me with him down into Equestria to train me to become his own warrior. His own hero. I remember these were the best days of my life.

“Then one night -” Blast’s breath caught in his throat and he choked back hot tears.

Twilight could tell the flashback was a very emotional one for Blast. She laid a reassuring hoof on his shoulder. “Relax,” she told him with a soothing voice. “I know the rest. It’s okay.”

This clearly had a very relaxing effect on Blast. Although his eyes were still misty, the tears stopped coming and his muscles, which she only just realized had begun to tense, were beginning to loosen again. “Thank you.” He was clearly very grateful for not having to recall his father’s death one more time.

Twilight nodded. “I thought you’d come to terms with it.”

“Technically. I mostly just try not to think about it.”

Before Twilight could reply, Princess Luna entered the room. “Am I . . .” Luna searched for the word as she saw the exchange between the two. “. . . interrupting something?”

“NO.” Blast’s response was a little drastic. “I mean, no. No, you’re good. So,” he cleared his throat, “about the Elements of Unity -”

“Celestia told me.” Luna waved off the question. Using her magic, she materialized a small box out of the air. “And, I do think I remember there was something written on them. A combined message, I think.” She used levitation to draw three gold bracelets from the now open box. One had a green center jewel in the shape of Blast’s cutie mark, another displayed a purple heart pattern, and in the center of the third was a red crystal.

“By the way,” Luna pointed out as she laid out the Elements on the floor, “I’ve been looking at the cyborg’s Element - it’s unmistakably the Element of Courage.”

“Really?” Twilight inquired. Her brilliant mind scrolled through the process of elimination. “So the only Element we haven’t uncovered is -”

“The Element of Wisdom,” finished Luna.

Twilight looked at the insides of the bracelets. None of them had any sort of writing on them. “Why aren’t the -” She was cut off by a strange sight. A tiny wave of energy grew from the Element of Honor, a wave that distorted the background that it passed over. Kind of like a heat wave coming off of something metal when it gets really hot - she’s seen those before. Appearing as the wave expelled were the words hold the key engraved in cursive along the edge. The energy wave dissolved into the air.

Twilight was only further confused. “What?”

Blast stared down at his hoof. “Maybe the words are protected. It’s possible it reacted because it can sense its wielder nearby.”

Luna gazed at him with a little curiosity. “Do you think the others will react to you?”

“Worth a shot.” Blast shrugged. “I don’t think it’ll work, but definitely worth a shot.” He waved his hoof over the other two Elements. With apparent patience he waved his hoof back over and the other way again.

Already they were starting to elicit some form of reaction. The energy wave that they’d seen with his Element were starting to show themselves on the others. They grew a little bit, then seemed to hesitate.

“Come on,” Blast whispered through gritted teeth. His tone of voice exhibited mostly urgence, although still backboned by some patience.

The reactions completed themselves. The waves flew outward and disappeared. Two more phrases revealed themselves: Only together and they will free.

Twilight scratched her head. “What can that mean?”

On the side of the Elements opposite them, Luna was concentrating so hard Blast thought her head would explode. “I could swear I can remember what they mean . . .” With a look on her face half like she knew what she was doing and half like she was Derpy trying to play chess, she tried to rearrange the Elements on the floor. “I think I can remember at least how they went . . .” She finished moving them around. “There!”

The message that the amulets created went as follows: Only together ________ hold the key _________ they will free.”

“That leaves so many blanks though!” Twilight freaked out. Her OCD mind couldn’t take all the stress from it not being perfect and complete. “Like who’s they? And what does their key unlock? Is it some sort of monster or something? WHAT?!”

“Calm down,” Blast tried. “We still need the Elements of Justice and Wisdom. We can’t expect the message to be complete without them.”

“Well, yeah, but STILL!”

Luna’s expression quickly grew concerned. “Maybe you should . . . get some rest, Twilight. We can figure this out at a later time.”

“If you say so . . .” she grumbled. She stormed out of the castle dragging Blast along with one hoof. “Thanks for the help Luna!”

“Anytime!” came the reply just before the giant doors slammed shut.

Blast and Twilight approached the house where they’d be staying for the night.

Blast chuckled a little. “You think they’re mad? They got to have noticed we were gone by now!”

Clearly Twilight was still very annoyed by the blanks left by the message. “Don’t know. Don’t care.” Judging by the tone in her voice, she was about ready to blow something up - something most knew her to do a lot when she got mad. Blast did not want any trouble from an angry Twilight, so he did what seemed to him the wisest decision: stop talking.

Twilight burst through the front door. The lights were all on inside. Beam, Rage, Quake, and a surprise guest - Daring Do - had themselves situated and were conversing in the living room. At the arrival, however, of a very steamed alicorn princess dragging a limp and clueless Blizzard, they all instantly fell silent and stared at the pair.

Quake finally spoke. “So where did you two disappear off to?”

“That’s none of your business!” Twilight snapped.

Beam saw an opportunity to tease her little brother. She rolled her eyes and her voice dripped with sarcasm. “Don’t worry about it Uncle, they were just kissing in the alley again.”

“WHAT?!” The reaction this evoked from Blast was almost explosively defensive. “NO!” Despite it being the truth that they did no such thing, Blast still blushed furiously at the thought.

Twilight saw this. Apparently Blast was prone to this kind of teasing and can never seem to defend his case, no matter how much of it was truth.

“I’m just messin’ with ya, bro.” Beam winked. Evidently Blast’s reaction was, by far, satisfactory for her and definitely worth it. “Ch’lax. You look like you got stabbed.”

Quake repeated himself. “Seriously, though, where were you?”

“We were,” Twilight searched for the right word, “exploring.”

“Exploring? Exploring what?”

“The Elements. There’s a phrase engraved into each one, and it’ll only reveal itself to its or another Element’s wielder. They combine to give us a larger message, but with two blanks left to go - between Justice and Wisdom - we don’t have the whole thing just yet.”

“Well,” Daring Do cut in, “We may just be able to help with that.”

“What do you mean?” Twilight asked hopefully.

Daring Do drew an object from a pack she was carrying. It was a small plate. Engraved on it was a series of markings. “The Element of Wisdom. I think this can lead us to it.”

Beam stood up and joined them. “She and I were trying to translate it while you were gone. The most we could make of it was depths of darkness and something about a glowfish and a black spotted octopus.” She looked from Twilight to Blast and back. “Can either of you make sense of that, because none of us can!”

“Hmm.” Twilight thought hard. “Depths of darkness . . . glowfish and the black spotted octopus . . . well, both of those things are aquatic animals. Depths of darkness must be talking about how much sunlight is at the depths of which those two things live.”

“Huh?” asked everyone in unison.

Twilight ignored them. “There’s a formula. Oh . . . what was it . . . that’s right! Twenty multiplied by point nine-seven-five raised to the x power!”

That answered no one’s question.

“That’s the formula for how much sunlight penetrates through x feet of water! Twenty multiplied by point nine-seven-five raised to the x power!”

Still no one seemed to follow her logic.

“So let’s see.” She brought her hoof to her lip as she thought. “The glowfish lives about 100 feet down from the surface, and the black spotted octopus can usually be found only in the first five feet or so.” She paused and turned to the others. “Fun fact: Black spotted octopi don’t eat. They use their black spots to absorb sunlight. They’re the one animal in the world that uses photosynthesis for energy. That’s why they live in such shallow water.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” said a somewhat exasperated Beam, “that’s fascinating. But what do these numbers mean?”

“Dunno just yet,” Twilight replied. She was clearly excited to get the Element and finish that combined message. “I’ll have to figure it out in the morning. Let’s just get some rest. It’s late.”

FIFTEEN

“Bro!” Beam stopped her little brother in the hallway. It was only a few seconds after the team parted for bed.

“What?” Blast innocently replied.

“You got some explaining to do!”

“I do?”

She ran up to him. “You have a crush on Twilight.”

“WHOA, that’s a little bit - eh,” The sentence only fell into awkward silence. “Was there a question in that?”

Rather dramatically she stared him right between the eyes. “You tell me.”

There was a pause. Blast slapped his hoof to his forehead. “WHY is this kind of thing just SO hard with you?!”

Beam laughed. “Well whatever of a secret it is is safe with me.” She smiled and headed off for bed. “‘Night”.

If anything, that only further worried Blast. His insides churned. He was doomed.

It was next morning.

Everyone had had a good night’s rest. Everyone, at least, except Twilight. She’d forgotten that calculators didn’t exist in her dimension and had to do all of the math with only the aid of ink and a quill. It took her all night. The others woke to find her with dark circles under her eyes.

“Umm . . . Twilight?” Rage asked. “You okay?”

“Yeah, I just . . .” she paused to let out a monstrous yawn - her mouth opening three times as wide as it should go - “I - I’m good. And I got some great news!” It was easy to tell that loss of sleep has cost her nothing in spirit - excitement was shining fresh behind her weary eyes. “I figured out the numbers - and what they mean!”

Twilight didn’t wait for a response. “So the amount of sunlight that penetrates through to a black spotted octopus’s habitat is about %17.6219 and the glowfish’s realm has %1.5903. Together that makes 19.2122.”

“What does that mean, though?” asked Quake. “That could mean anything!”

“Glad you asked! It took me forever to figure this out - but I think it’s talking about time. Something happens on the 19th of every month at twenty-one twenty-two hours that can lead us to the Element of Wisdom.”

“That’s today!” gasped Beam as she glanced at her grandfather clock. It also told the day of the month. “The 19th!”

“But where?” Rage cut in. “It didn’t tell us anything about where!”

“Ahh.” With a smile and a twinkle in her eye, Twilight held up one hoof. “Ahh, but it did, my friend. There’s only one place in Equestria where the glowfish and the black spotted octopus both live.”

The group was silent.

“The lake. The lake by Ponyville.”

The moon shone high over the scene. The group - composed now of Blast, Twilight, Beam, Rage, and Quake - were gathered at the lakeside. Beam was the only one who was doing anything to pass the time; she skipped rocks across the surface. One she threw skipped three times, after its third skip finally falling into the water with a tiny splash. The ripple it caused shattered the moon’s reflection and disrupted the otherwise peaceful lake.

“How much longer?” she complained. “It’s cold out here.”

“Shouldn’t be long,” replied Twilight with a nervous glance at her watch - something she managed to snag before they got here. It read 9:21. “Any minute now -”

She was right. The watch ticked the minute and now said 9:22. At almost the exact same time the ground began to shake. It started small and grew bigger and bigger, until the earth shook so intensely Twilight wondered if it were an earthquake. Gradually again it cooled down, shaking less and less by degrees, until it was peaceful again.

Then Twilight saw it - a tunnel. A tunnel whose opening was embedded in the ground to their side. Its mouth was a simple circle, perfectly carved into the ground. The tunnel evidently stretched on for a long time, because she could only see blackness inside.

“Okay, everypony. This must be it.” She jumped down the hole and with more than a little reluctance everyone else followed.

Twilight couldn’t see, couldn’t hear anything. It was all a black. She could only feel the sensation of sliding. Sliding down a chute of some sort. Its surface was cold, hard stone. She felt the end of the slide coming, falling onto a solid floor.

The others soon followed. First Blast, then Rage, then Beam and finally Quake landed on the stone floor.

It was completely dark. The only source of light was the moonlight leaking in from outside.

Until Twilight’s watch ticked the minute.

The hole closed up.

They were trapped.

“Uh oh,” Rage muttered.

“Should’ve seen that coming,” Twilight uttered to herself. She lit up her horn and flooded the scene with light. “Ah, well. Keep moving forward, as they say!” A strange optimism was seeming to envelop her.

The area in which they now stood was completely blank. It was a perfectly smooth-edged rectangular room, which continued on in one direction about as far as Twilight’s horn would light up. It was a tunnel.

There seemed to be nothing interesting about the room. But Beam heard a swoop.

“Guys?” she asked nervously. “Did anypony else hear that?”

Twilight was beginning to lead the group down the tunnel. “Hear what?” The rest of the team ignored Beam.

They were grateful Twilight brought a watch - it was hard to keep track of how much time was passing. The tunnel would change direction every so often, but its shape remained the same: a perfectly smooth rectangle. For what seemed like hours they followed the light on the end of Twilight’s horn, lighting up the same box in front of them.

“Blast?” asked Rage for his brother’s attention. He spoke in a whisper.

“Yes?” Blast slowed his pace, and he and Rage fell to the back of the group, just out of earshot.

“I’ve been thinking.”

“Wow,” Beam cut in. She was just ahead of the two and had clearly tapped in on their conversation. “Do you know how many people die from doing that every year?”

Both Rage and Blast were silent.

“Sorry.” Beam trotted to the head of the team with Twilight.

Rage continued. “I’ve been with you guys on every adventure looking for every Element. I even got the Element of Honor. The Element of Creativity? Been there. Done that. Courage? Check. Justice? Done.”

“What’s your point?” asked his little brother Blast.

“ . . . Well, all of you guys got Elements. You got Honor. Beam got Creativity, Blade got Courage. And now Twilight’s going to get the Element of Wisdom. So . . . where’s my Element? Am I just not worthy?”

Blast thought deeply about those questions before he answered. “I can’t say I know what role you’re meant to play.” He spoke with a whisper and a delicate tone. “I can’t say I know your destiny. I don’t even know my destiny. But I’ll say what I can say, which is that I know this much: when you side with the cause of good, especially if you make a sacrifice on the way, it will always be worth it.”

He waited for that message to sink in before continuing. “That’s something I learned during my experience with the Element of Honor. When you do what’s right, no matter what, the favor will always be returned.”

Rage was silent for a moment. If anything he looked even worse than before Blast told him that. “There’s . . . something else. Something else that’s been on my mind.”

Blast gestured for him to continue.

The black stallion sighed. “That . . . thing, that turns people evil - it can’t do that to everyone. Sometimes, there’s a pony whose heart is too strong and the thing can’t do anything to them. In that case, it only steals their abilities and uses it to become stronger.”

He sighed again. “My heart wasn’t strong enough. It turned me evil.”

Blast didn’t know how to respond to that.

Luckily he didn’t have to. A voice - Twilight’s voice - drifted back to them with a hearty “We made it!”

It was the end of the tunnel. It ended in front of them with an abrupt, blocky stone wall. Two blank doors were carved into its surface. On both of them - about where a knocker would go - was a strange-looking totem. They were both identical in design: troll-like faces with twin canines jutting out from either side. Both totems were carved from silver and from the top of their heads leapt the only source of light in the cavern - twin green fires. Between the two identical doors, engraved into the wall, was a tablet of writing. Twilight came forward and read it aloud.

“Behind one of these doors is the Element of Wisdom. Behind the other is certain death. The totems can tell you which will lead you to your goal, but there is a catch. One will always lie, and the other will always tell the truth. You may only ask one question to one totem. Then you will select a door. If you pass this test, you are worthy to wield the Element of Wisdom. Good luck.”

Blast took the first move. “Why don’t we just ask one which door to take?”

Having lost herself in the puzzle, Twilight only muttered to herself.

“Hmm,” Quake thought. “Couldn’t you ask the totem whether it’s the truth one?”

Rage was quick to find the error. “The problem with that is if the totem’s the lying one then it’ll say it’s the truth one, wouldn’t it? Besides, that wouldn’t tell you anything about which door to take.”

Beam heard it again. A swooping noise. It seemed to come from somewhere off to the side. “Um, guys? I heard it again!”

No one paid any attention to her.

No one, either, could seem to crack the code. Even Twilight seemed stumped. She thought to herself, occasionally muttering incoherent things to herself like: “one lie”, “the truth”, and “bounce back”, until her expression lit up with an obvious eureka! moment. “I got it!” she announced. “It’s - ”

She was cut off by the sensation of someone crashing into her side. It caught her completely off guard, and its force knocked the wind out of her. She fell to the ground. Looking up, she saw it was Blast.

Just as she was about to demand an explanation she felt a strong wind. It passed over her face with force like a whirlwind and almost touched her nose. The thing appeared to be a bright green vine, a tentacle of some sort.

A sight that was all too familiar.

It passed right over her and wrapped several times around Blast. Only then did she realize that Blast saw what was coming and sacrificed himself to get her out of the way. The thing that ensnared him now brought him suspended in the air. The figure that owned the tentacle stepped out of the shadows.

It was the Mane-iac.

Well, sort of.

She looked drastically different from the last time she and Twilight had met. Instead of her regular pony body that was attached to her octopod form, there was only her head, which was encased in a glass orb full of green fluid. At the base of this glass orb there was a robotic assembly that attached to her new tentacular form.

Then Mane-iac had a weird spasm. A green electrical current coursed through her mechanical green tentacles and she shuddered. She was laughing uncontrollably. Three more tentacles lashed out and grabbed everyone else - Beam, Quake, and Rage - and levitated them up in the air.

“Mane-iac?!” Twilight exclaimed. Was this even possible? Mane-iac was supposed to be in another dimension!

While Mane-iac was still laughing hysterically a recorded voice could be heard, evidently coming from somewhere in her mechanic parts. “So we meet again, Twilight . . .”

“Who are you?” asked Twilight. The only place she ever heard that voice before was . . . when they were going after the Element of Courage, Sombra talking into the portal . . .

“Nevermind that,” the voice continued. “Poor little Mane-iac. I found her stranded in her own dimension, mentally destroyed forever by you and your unsavory crew. I was able to give her a new body, but a mind - a mind can never be replaced. She can still take orders, though - and a good thing, too!” It paused. “So . . . what is the answer to that puzzle?”

Twilight stared up at the giant in defiance. “I’ll never tell you.”

“I was hoping you would say that.” As if taking a silent cue, the demonic Mane-iac turned her gaze to the rest of the group, trying in vain to fight their way out of her grip. “Now,” the voice wondered, “which of your friends to torture first?”

Twilight only stood there in silence. To herself she thought, not Blast, not Blast, not Blast.

Whoever owned the voice seemed to read her mind. “This one looks good,” it muttered to itself. Taking another silent order, Mane-iac turned to Blast. The tentacle tightened around him and he let out a cry of pain. Another spasm attack followed and a green electrical current followed through and electrocuted him.

The look on Twilight’s face quickly grew to one like she got stabbed. “Wait!”

Mane-iac stopped. The voice sounded aggravated. “Yes?”

Reluctantly, Twilight turned her back to the villain and approached the totem on the left-side door. “Excuse me,” she addressed the totem with a tone like Fluttershy.

The totem came to life. Literally. It let out a huge yawn, showing off its huge front teeth, and smacked its lips. It stared tiredly into the eyes of the adorable mare who had addressed it. “Sorry,” it quickly apologized, though it still seemed very tired. “I was just having the most relaxing nap.” It yawned again. “I assume you have a question for me?”

“Yes.” Once more Twilight hesitated. This was her last chance. “Which door would the other totem tell me to take?”

“That good-for-nothing numbskull over there?” the totem chuckled. “He’d tell you to take my door.”

“Thanks.”

“Not a problem. Now if you’ll excuse me,” the totem yawned one more time and shut its eyes. “I think I’ll be . . .” It didn’t finish it’s sentence. It snored for a moment and returned to its “nap”.

The voice emanating from Mane-iac was getting excited. “Did he say his door?”

Twilight nodded her head. “Yes, but -”

Mane-iac didn’t wait. Her hold on the four Blizzards disappeared as she leapt toward the door and threw it open.

Well, it opened . . . but it wasn’t the Element of Wisdom that lied in wait behind it.

A shaft of brilliant flame flew from the mouth of the door and sent Mane-iac flying. An enourmous figure crawled out from the door. A figure with a beak the size of the doorway, with wings that barely fit through the tiny opening . . . the figure that now stood before the team was a dragon.

Luckily for them, the dragon happened to be standing in a room with five Blizzards. Before it knew what hit it the creature had been frozen, melted into plasma, electrocuted, compressed into a solid rock, frozen again, and mashed into pieces.

Twilight ran to what was left of the Mane-iac. The glass orb that housed her head had been cracked severely and was starting to leak. Her vegetative tentacles were on fire in many places and the mechanical disk had taken a beating as well.

She looked at the squid-like thing that lay before her with a look of disgust. “Tell me where the battle is going to be.”

“Never!” replied the voice that was clearly not Mane-iac’s.

“Suit yourself.” Twilight summoned a hammer from the air and began to smash at the metal disk.

“WAIT! If you do that you’ll kill Mane-iac!”

“I know,” replied Twilight with a flat, firm tone. She continued to smash the assembly.

“WAIT!”

“I want to know where your battle is.” Twilight raised the hammer, threatening one more strike. “I won’t wait forever.”

“THE HAILSTROM!” cried the voice as the busted form of Mane-iac began to vanish in a black cloud. “THE HAILSTROM!”

Part 4: Into the Storm

PROLOGUE

“For the last time, will anypony tell me what the Hailstrom is?” Twilight asked for about the fifth time in the last four minutes.

Beam giggled. “Besides a surprise?”

Twilight scowled.

The team, now comprised of all six members - Beam, Twilight, Blast (whose magic had just finished recovering), Rage, Quake, and Blade (who’d just gotten out of the hospital) - had retrieved the Elements of Unity from Princess Celestia. They were now packed onto the train, headed as far as Twilight could tell to the Crystal Empire. Apparently, something there called the Hailstrom will help them win the battle for the future - and NO ONE was willing to tell her what it is.

It was night, just barely after the team retrieved the Element of Wisdom. Moonlight leaked in through the one windowed side of their compartment. Upon the train’s arrival into the North, the temperature rapidly dropped. Their car hit a bump on the tracks and everyone in it jittered up for a split second before hitting their seats again.

Beam could hardly contain his excitement. “Trust me, this surprise is one I think you’re going to like!”

Blast was quick to agree. “Yeah, Twilight! You’ll love it!”

The two siblings were the only ones who seemed excited about what was about to happen. The mere idea of the battle they were headed to had sunk into the other’s hearts like stones. They were now going to fight against the combined might of all villains that have ever existed, and the battle was going to decide the fate of Equestria. However the two, Beam especially, seemed perfectly unperturbed by all of this.

She turned to the others. “Really guys? Is this your first day of being Blizzards? Ch’lax, we do this type ‘o’ thing on a daily basis!”

Silence.

“Suit yourselves,” she grumbled to herself. To break the silence, she asked Twilight, “So have you figured out your default weapon yet?”

“My default weapon?”

“Yeah. Well, I guess I shouldn’t say default, more like a signature weapon,” Beam explained. “Basically your go-to move for hoof-to-hoof combat. Every Blizzard’s got ‘em. Like Blast over there has his double swords,” Blast summoned them from the air, “Rage has his creepy dragon scythe,” Rage materialized his signature scythe, “an’ I got my guitar.” Promptly her beloved guitar also appeared in the air. “Do you know what’s yours?”

“I -” Twilight looked down at the ground in embarrassment. “- don’t.”

Beam huffed. “We can fix that.” She walked up to the alicorn and laid a hoof on her forehead, just below her horn. The room began inexplicably to darken. “Now,” she began. “I want you to focus on who you are. Who are you? What is your purpose? What role are you meant to play? Why did you want to become a Blizzard? Who are you as an equine being?”

These questions and others flowed through Twilight’s mind as she closed her eyes and thought deeply. I am Twilight Sparkle. I am to dedicate my life to furthering the cause of good. I am to do everything I can to right the many wrongs of this world. I have become a Blizzard for this very purpose.

Her forehead began to feel warm. Like . . . energy. Energy. Being transferred into herself, flowing from the place on her forehead just above to her horn and back out. It wasn’t long before she heard an electric popping noise resound through the tiny compartment.

She couldn’t help one peek.

One squint grew to a full-on stare as her eyes came to rest on the weapon before her.

There it was. Floating in shrouds of purple fire was the most beautiful bow Twilight had ever seen. It was of crystalline design, with clearly defined edges and angles and a taut bowstring. Its crisp form was ice-made, a stream of cold fire embedded in its center. The bowstring was on fire. Next to it floated a translucent quiver of arrows, also ablaze.

Beam gawked at the weapon. “Ni-hice!”

“Blast!” Twilight trotted to the stallion’s side.

It was only moments later. Lights-out had come and gone for the other Blizzards, and apparently Blast was headed for some form of late-night snack. After all, it wasn’t too late in the night, and most of the train’s services were still in function. The two met in another passenger car, and most of the lights were out.

It was with the innocence only a pony could reflect that he turned to meet her gaze. “Yes? Something wrong?”

“When we were getting the Element of Wisdom,” Twilight began. There was some look in her eyes that Blast couldn’t quite place. Sadness? Pain, maybe? No, it was . . . urgency. Like it was something important she wanted to tell him, and she feared this would be her last opportunity. “Beam told me . . .” the sentence trailed off, and she stared awkwardly down at her hooves.

Blast’s expression quickly reverted to one of guilt. He remembered the discussion that he then shared with Rage - and during it Beam had struck a conversation with Twilight. He cursed under his breath, for he now understood completely - his treacherous sister Beam told her of his affections for her. “I -”

“Well,” the awkward was starting to find its way into her voice as well. “I just wanted to say . . .”

He tried to explain. “Twilight, I -”

She stopped. One hoof rose and came to rest over the stallion’s chest. “Thank you.” She cocked her head in interest at him.

Blast’s devious heart skipped a beat.

Sleep comes easily to some. Like catching butterflies in their backyard. Unfortunately, Rage wasn’t in the group of ponies that lucky.

Especially on a night like tonight.

It wasn’t as if he wasn’t tired. It wasn’t that at all. In fact, quite the opposite. It had been a long night for him, and his muscles ached terribly from his team’s previous adventure that same night. Not to mention how temptingly warm his bunkbed was.

But he had far too much on his mind.

He felt so alone. So isolated. He was surrounded by good ponies, by his family, and this was the very thing that made him feel this way. All of them had won Elements, and there were none left for him. Was he not worthy? Was he just not good enough? He let that question sink in. Not good enough. Am I not good enough? A tear welled up in his eye.

Almost immediately a thought appeared in his head. When you do what’s right, no matter what, it will always be worth it. And the voice did not sound like his own.

Only minutes after her run-in with Blast, Twilight stood outside at the caboose of the train.

She neither could sleep, and being cursed with the nasty habit of late-night pacing, she had already walked laps spanning the entire train and come to stop at the caboose. She leaned on the rail and gazed at the stars. Her mind was occupied with Rage.

He certainly was a curious alicorn. Their relationship had begun on rather uneven terrain, what with his conquest over Equestria and all. And she’ll be honest with herself, she kinda hated him. Okay, she really hated him. He’d crossed a sore line with her - he made ice statues out of Celestia, Luna, and worst of all Cadence. She could distinctly remember how badly she wanted to kill him right then.

She couldn’t say that she knew him. Hardly at all, in fact. But he did say that he was under the control of . . . some other being, during the time he was evil. Not to mention that he had come along to help them find all of the Elements of Unity. She hardly knew who he really was on the inside - but, she decided, she was still willing to give him a second chance.

She made up her mind. Even considering all of the evil that he has done to her, she was willing to forgive him.

Still stargazing, she made a mental note to tell Rage that.

SIXTEEN

It was like a thousand snakes that the hiss screeched through the frigid winter wind. A huge puff of steam billowed into the air as the station came into view. One more shrill hiss and another white cloud signified that the Blizzards had arrived.

The Crystal Empire.

The dawn pierced through the windows to the Blizzards’ resting place. Quake was the first one up. “Awright, everyone, rise and shine. This is our stop.”

Twilight yawned like a lion. With tired eyes and a still half-asleep brain, she tried to stare directly into the sunrise - something she quickly realized was a bad idea. “The Crystal Empire?” she asked. “Why here?”

Quake chuckled as the others arose. “Not exactly.” He turned to the rest of the team. “You all got your things?”

Beam laughed. “We didn’t exactly bring anything besides the Elements, which you have, so . . . yeah. You could say that.” She gestured to a small pack Quake was carrying.

“Right. Then let’s get going.”

After a few moments, the entire team had been herded off to the station. Quake led them off in the opposite direction of the Crystal Empire - off to the barren wastelands of the North.

Twilight was the only one who seemed perplexed by all of this. “This makes even less sense! What do we have waiting for us out here?”

Beam turned to her with a twinkle in her eye. “Besides victory?”

Twilight’s head bobbed from side to side like some do when they weigh their options. “Granted, there is . . . that.”

Conversation ensued. For what seemed like forever the group simply trudged on through the arctic desert. Every so often a conversation would strike up, live for a little while, and die away. All the while the sun climbed ever so higher in the sky.

Then a snowstorm hit. The sun was completely blocked out. Winds whipped around them like a tarp in a tornado, and otherwise peaceful snowfall was tossed around and assaulted them from all sides. The only talk that occurred now was the occasional instruction that drifted back to them from Quake. Besides that, all of the Blizzards were left alone to their own thoughts.

Beam wasn’t as confident about their battle as she pretended. She was actually kind of nervous, and the butterflies in her stomach reminded her of her first concert. It had always helped her to think of it as just another performance, and a strategy she commonly used to combat her nervousness was to choreograph how she was going to do the fight. Suddenly she thought I wonder if Uncle Quake’s called the North Wind. I hope he has. She would think it seriously awesome if the North Wind would come. It was hard to have some good fun in a fight without him.

Rage’s mind was still mulling over what his brother had told him. When you do what’s right, no matter what, it will always be worth it. It seemed pretty straightforward. He was doing what was right - he was fairly sure of that. He just hoped his dear brother was correct. It will always be worth it. I hope so, he thought. I hope so.

Quake’s thoughts traveled down a darker trail. He was the earliest Blizzard to have already been chosen to represent an Element, and he was the one Blizzard who had failed. He was supposed to be the Element of Justice - but he let it slip through his hooves to the forces of evil. He could hardly sleep at night without beating himself up over it. He was supposed to be this great representative of Justice - and he had failed the very same thing. He just hoped his Element could forgive him.

This was, in fact, a lot of the reason he now led the team - the other reason being that he was he only adult. He felt like this way he may be able to make it up to his Element.

He was so engrossed in his thoughts he didn’t even notice the ice crystal in front of him until he stubbed his hoof on it. Snapped out of his mental world he looked down at the rock he’d just hit. “This is it everypony. The Hailstrom.”

Twilight, eager more than anything to finally get some answers, wormed through the others to see what he was talking about. Instead, she stared perplexed at the object. “THAT’S the Hailstrom?!” WHEN will the world start making SENSE again?! she wondered.

Quake laughed. “Not exactly.” He pressed the rock like a button in the ground. It bounced back up and a sheet of ice just to its left flipped up to reveal a hidden black panel. Quake laid a hoof on it. After scanning his hoof, the panel folded back into the ice surface. The ground began to shake.

“W-w-who-oa! Wh-h-a-a-a-t’s go-o-o-ing o-on?” Twilight’s voice vibrated with the earthquake.

Blast waited to reply until the ground stopped shaking. “Heh heh. Let’s just say they call us Defenders of the North for a reason!”

There, towering far over the team, its massive shadow drowning them in its shade, was the biggest building Twilight had ever seen. Its near cubical shape stood as high as a skyscraper, its whitish blue surface almost camouflaging with its icy surroundings. The mere size of the thing nearly blocked out the sky.

“What do you say, team?” asked Quake. “Let’s check in.”

A small opening appeared at the ground level - right in front of the group.

“So whaddaya think?” asked Beam excitedly to Twilight.

Twilight made a noise somewhere between a laugh and a whimper. She was clearly impressed. “I - there’s - no words.”

A laugh came from Blast. “Wait’ll you see the inside.”

As if on cue, Quake stepped into the tiny opening. His mane and tail flapped upward from a vacuum in the ceiling. Without warning he was sucked upward into a chute and one by one the rest of the team followed.

Twilight came last. Now alone in the frigid cold (the storm was still raging) she stepped in. As soon as her own mane succumbed to the vacuum force she looked up. For a split second, she saw just a black hole - until she too was sucked up into it.

It was a chute of some kind. The ride reminded her of her adventure for the Element of Wisdom, only this chute was made of glass. Which didn’t do a whole lot, because the only thing she could see from outside was black anyway.

She didn’t spend long tumbling around getting dizzy before she was dumped onto a solid surface.

After a barely successful attempt to stand she stumbled aimlessly for a moment before she could get her bearings straight again. She shook her head to clear her vision and scanned her surroundings.

It was quite anticlimactic. A tiny hallway extended from her point maybe twenty feet or so, then turned a corner. One wall was lined with some type of computer screen. Blast was the only one of the group remaining in the corridor, who was facing the equipment.

“Blizzard Inferno Blast,” she caught him saying.

A voice came from the computer. “Identity confirmed. Welcome to the Hailstrom.”

Twilight came to Blast. “What’s this thing?”

“This?” He pointed to the computer equipment on the wall. “ID scanners. Security purposes, you know.”

“I’m guessing I need to do it?”

“Yeah. I just registered you, so yeah. Just stand right here -” he stepped aside to show her - “and say your name. It’ll scan your magic signature to verify and then it’ll let you through.”

“Okay.” She followed his directions, moving to stand where he gestured and repeated her name. “Blizzard Twilight Sparkle.”

Green laser beams leapt from a dot just above the computer screen. They scanned over her horn for a brief moment before dissipating. The screen beeped to life with a picture of a unicorn mare with a green coat.

“Identity confirmed. Greetings, Ms. Sparkle.”

“Twilight is fine.”

“Of course. Welcome, Twilight, to the Hailstrom.” The screen went black.

“Thanks!” She relaxed and followed Blast down the corridor. “Wow. This is anticlimactic.”

Blast chuckled. “Not everything is as it seems, Twilight.” She hadn’t seen him this excited since he made her a Blizzard. The corner was coming up. He held his breath.

And it wasn’t long before Twilight saw why.

It wasn’t a corner they were turning - the hall opened up into an immense control room. Its sheer size probably took up the entire interior of the building. Like an amphitheatre the circular walls sloped up from the center stage. Each and every seat was taken by a pony at a computer desk. The room was full of constant chatter.

“No way.”

“Yes way!”

“This is blowing my mind!” There was no way they could lose now!

There was someone on the center stand. It was Quake. “HALT EVERYTHING!” he yelled. Everything quickly calmed down enough for him to speak.

He cleared his throat. “There has been a new development. I’m pretty sure most of you already know but I’ll give you a rundown. The united forces of all the villains - Sombra, Chrysalis, Tirek, Mane-iac, and a previously unknown villain - will sometime soon be at our doorstep. They come from a future of evil and darkness. If we are defeated . . . all is lost. Everything hangs in the balance. We must win.”

Some concerned mumbles came from the crowd.

“Now, the odds are looking in our favor. We have the Hailstrom and we have all of you. I have called for the North Wind -” off to Blast’s and Twilight’s right, they heard someone let a whispered “yes!” escape. It was Beam. Quake continued without a lapse in sentence. “. . . and he should be around sometime tomorrow. If that weren’t enough we also have recovered (at least for the most part) the Elements of Unity. At this point, we just need to stay alert. When we get the word our enemies have come through . . .” he let the sentence hang, “we’ll let ‘em have it.” Pause. “The fate of Equestria rests upon our shoulders, now. We are the only ponies who know this battle is even going to happen. WE are Equestria’s only hope. Are we going to stand idly by? Are we going to let them down? OR ARE WE GOING TO SHOW THEM WHAT TRUE BLIZZARDS ARE MADE OF?!”

Cheers.

“So let’s see what we have here . . .” Twilight wondered aloud.

She was gathered with the rest of the team - except for Quake, who was busy directing preparations - in a study room somewhere in the Hailstrom. Turns out, there’s just about a whole castle under that main room! The whole team had already booked rooms for the night and now Twilight was taking another look at the combined message.

The others watching her work, she rearranged the Elements of Honor, Creativity, and Courage on the floor. “The message as it was before we found Wisdom was like this: only together ___________ hold the key ___________ they will free.” The Element of Wisdom floated out of a small box to her side encased in red-purple magic. The reaction had already taken place - not surprising considering it was in a room with almost all five of the Element’s wielders - and the inside of the bracelet part read these powers in fancy cursive writing.

“Let’s see what blank this fills in for us,” she muttered as she first placed it at the last blank. The message now read: only together ___________ hold the key these powers they will free.

Beam broke the silence. “That kinda makes sense . . .”

“Not entirely,” Twilight disagreed. “Although the sentence does flow correctly, I think these powers are talking about the Elements. What sense does that make now? The Elements have already been freed.” Without another word Twilight moved it to fill in the other blank. She read the message aloud. “Only together these powers hold the key ___________ they will free.” A brief silence filled the air as everyone contemplated it. “That actually makes sense!” Twilight was obviously ecstatic to find some meaning in the mystical message. “That actually makes sense! So these Elements combined will free something!”

Beam gazed curiously at the amulets on the ground. “Do you think it’s something that can help us?”

“Undoubtedly.” Twilight picked up the four Elements with her magic and put them back in the box. “We’ll have to meet back together A-S-A-P tomorrow and get Quake filled in on this. With his help we should be able to piece together a plan to get the Element of Justice and unlock whatever the Elements want us to unlock.”

“Sounds like a plan,” agreed Rage. A questioning look flashed over his face. “What do we do now then?”

Twilight shrugged. “Pass the time, I guess. Quake’s obviously busy with the rest of the Blizzards - we can’t talk to him now.”

“Okay.” Despite this, Rage stayed down and waited for everyone else to leave. As soon as he and Twilight were alone, he turned to her. “I’ve been needing to ask you something.”

“Yes?” she replied over her shoulder as she fit the Elements into the box.

There was a pause.

After only hearing silence, she turned to see what was wrong. She saw Rage staring uncomfortably at the ground, trying to find the words. Finally he spoke.

“Can you ever forgive me?”

Twilight’s heart melted. She knew that she forgave him for what he’d done to her. But it never occurred to her how much it could have been troubling him. She stood up and approached him with a loving twinkle in her eye.

“Of course I can.”

“Finally!” the thing shouted as it turned the Element of Justice end over end in its claws. “Someone knows how to do their job!”

“Anything, Master,” replied Chrysalis with a bow. Sombra and Tirek shot her jealous glares from the side. Something she gladly returned.

She was just happy she could please her master.

“All that aside, though,” the monster said as it dropped its ‘hand’ gripping the talisman. “Now the Blizzards know where we will attack. We must follow through before they have any time to prepare.” It turned to its last servant. An asset it had almost lost. “Are we ready?”

The stallion stood blanketed by shadows in one corner. “Yes, Master. We are.”

SEVENTEEN

Twilight and the others filled Quake in on the details of their new discovery.

“So if we can get the Element of Justice, then we will free something - and we don’t know what it is?” Quake concluded. “Sounds a bit risky if you ask me.”

“That’s not entirely true,” Beam reminded him. “Remember, the Element of Justice fills the blank of what it is we’ll unlock. So as soon as you get it then we know what we’re doing.”

Quake thought about the concept. “I suppose we do still need to get that Element anyway . . .” He paused, thinking. “Okay, here’s the plan. Theoretically, the Changeling Army we’re about to face is infinite, so we’re going to let the entirety of the Blizzards beside us handle them. We have to hold off our enemies, but our top priority is the Element of Justice. So we’ll each fight the villain we faced during the recovery of our own Element, but keep an eye out. The Element of Justice could be kept anywhere.”

A bored expression was swept across Beam’s face. “We got it, MOM, we got it,” she stressed with a teasing voice.

Quake ignored the comment. “Just get ready for battle. And Beam,” he addressed his niece. She perked up. “The North Wind should be here any minute.”

“Yes!” she whispered with a fist-bump the way one would after a successful game of Jeopardy.

With that Quake left the room.

It was that night.

Twilight stared worriedly at the screen, insides churning.

It was a holographic screen, projected onto the one empty wall of the main control room. Displayed on it was a camera feed of what was going on outside. Something that was perfectly normal.

It was what was on the screen that terrified her.

A blue portal.

It had just barely appeared, and all eyes in the entire Hailstrom were on it.

She stood with her companions - Blast, Quake, Rage, and Blade - at floor level, anxiously watching the portal for any surprises. Nothing yet - the starry blue mass just kept swirling as if it had been doing so for the past thousand years, puppeting Twilight into a phase of suspense that seemed to strangle her.

“What if,” she wondered half to herself, choking on the words, “we fail?”

She looked around. As it seemed, she was the only one who took seriously what was about to happen. The only faces that were returned to her as she gazed around at her teammates were ones of confident, joking lightheartedness. Did none of them realize the weight of the situation? Did none of them realize how much - Blast’s first arrival in Ponyville, Rage’s conquest, and now their adventures for the Elements of Unity - that all of that led up to precisely this moment? Did none of them realize that if they failed, not only Equestria but all of the pony world - everything that ponykind stood for - would fall to its knees before the combined forces of evil?

Quake laughed heartily. “I doubt that highly. The odds are looking up for us.”

“Just relax,” added Blast. “I can show you the ropes.”

Strapped onto Quake’s hoof his trusty gun rested in its holster. He refitted it anxiously, despite without nervousness. “When is Beam going to get here? I called her up forever ago!”

“Right now,” replied a casual voice behind them.

Everyone turned.

Beam looked like she’d dressed for some formal event or something. Her mane had been completely redone. She now wore a black collared shirt, which was neatly tucked into a pair of black slacks. The outfit was topped with an open vest of electric blue and a matching bow tie.

“Wo-ho-how!” Twilight marveled. “You gonna fight in that?”

“Hey,” Beam tossed back as she used her magic to straighten the vest. Twin blue auras gripped the edges and tugged them forward in a swift, polished movement. “can’t fight, I say, if you can’t do it in style! Ya gotta respect the job!”

“Is this . . .” Twilight searched for the words. “. . . something to do with that North Wind character? Is he . . . your boyfriend or something?”

Quickly it was that Beam’s expression shifted from one of ecstatic anticipation to one of question. Two ears dropped and an eyebrow arched as she stared at the alicorn. An awkward silence befell the six.

“Did I . . .” Twilight began. She felt suddenly embarrassed.

Suddenly Beam flared into laughter and doubled over. She lost balance and almost tripped until she swayed to catch herself. Wiping a tear from her eye, she cheerfully replied. “No. He’s way. WAY. Better.” She winked. “Trust me. You’ll love ‘im.” Her attention moved from Twilight to the screen behind her. “Ooooooohhh, FUN!”

Everyone turned.

Tirek was stepping out of the portal.

Twilight gasped. He was HHHUUUUUUUUUUGGGEE! Comparably large almost to the Hailstrom, his jet black hooves stepped through the portal and anchored themselves into the frozen tundra ground. The ice cracked under his weight. A confident quality was evident in his facial features - both shining behind his eyes and in the smirk smeared on his face.

“Deploy!” came a command ringing through the entire control room. About one in every three Blizzards left.

“That’s my cue everypony!” Beam called as she walked toward a number pad embedded in one wall. Punching in a four-digit code, a panel of the wall slid open, revealing a doorway. She stepped in, turned, and offered a casual wave to the others. “See ya out there!” She was sucked up into another chute and out of sight.

The team silently prayed it wasn’t her final goodbye.

“Hey Scabby!”

Tirek looked up.

It was that pesky mare again. The one that stole the Element of Creativity from him. He smirked. He was not going to fail this time.

Beam had been launched into the air by a Blizzard launch port. From the looks of it, she was probably a half a mile up. She laughed with excitement as she materialized her signature guitar from the air.

A purple lightning bolt leapt from the end. It stabbed itself into the ground just in front of the centaur and pulled taut. Then it tugged on the guitar and sent Beam rocketing downward toward her opponent.

Her speed grew faster and faster. The wind screamed through her mane and the ground sped up to meet her.

Just as she drew eye level to Tirek, Beam took her guitar by the small end and slashed the straight across his face.

Almost howling in pain, Tirek bit his lip and took a step backwards. His eyes narrowed in spite. He was not going to fail.

Sixty feet down, at the ground, Beam had created a shallow, but huge crater. Recovering from the landing, she looked up to meet the gargantuan centaur’s gaze, only to find herself immobilized. A red aura had phased into existence surrounding her. Looking closely, she saw one horn on Tirek’s shoulder strap that was glowing. The next thing she knew was the feeling of being tossed upward in an arc over his head and down into the ground.

She felt the red aura dissolve just as she smashed into the hard ice. Its cold flat surface slammed into her side and she bounced slightly. The aura reappeared and froze her in a new position. It brought her up to face him at eye level.

A glint of evil in his eye, Tirek removed the glowing horn from his strap. “Know whose horn this one was?” he asked as he fingered the delicate piece.

Beam was silent. She only glared back at him with a look of disgust.

He smiled and put the horn back where it belonged. “Yours.”

With that he flung her a hundred yards to the side.

As readily as possible she stood. It took a moment to regain her composure; vertigo had overcome her a little bit. Her vision was at least clear enough to see other figures stepping out of the portal as well. She could make out the shapes of Sombra and Chrysalis and . . . some other black dot flying in the sky. Presumably just a Changeling. She was probably correct, because, after all, shortly after their emergence the portal exploded with the things.

Also could be seen was the humongous figure of Tirek, charging straight at her.

He was gaining fast. Beam would have to think of something. As she racked her brains for a plan she brought herself to stare down. And somewhere down there, somewhere far beneath the ice, she saw . . .

Tirek was gaining distance.

She readied herself.

He was right upon her.

And she fired.

A breath of icy wind flared from her horn straight up into his face. Promptly it froze over his eyes to temporarily blind him.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGHHHHHHH!” came the reply that quite clearly meant Tirek was in pain.

Beam jumped a few inches in the air. Just under her hooves was materialized a disc of ice, which she used to shoot herself sixty feet in the air. As she lost momentum she came to rest at eye level with Tirek.

The centaur, annoyed, attempted to wipe away the ice over his eyes.

Beam fired another frozen shaft of energy.

Just barely too late. Tirek succeeded in clearing his vision and, just in time, dodged the blow by inches moving his head to the side. The furious freeze shot into the ground behind him and carved a straight line off to his side.

Tirek folded his arms, annoyed. “You missed.”

Beam looked down again. She could see the tusked reptilian face staring up at her. She smirked at the hulking villain and dusted off her hooves. “Patience, mon ami. Patience.”

“WHAT IS THAT?!” Twilight shrieked.

It was no surprise to her to see all of the villains they’ve so far faced gathered far below at the ground. It was no surprise to see the thousands upon thousands of Changelings surrounding them. And being shot out of a cannon miles up in the air? She was not just one but two Elements! She could handle that any day.

What she was gawking at was the huge shape of . . . something . . . writhing under the ice. Something directly below the fight between Beam and Tirek. And it was growing closer and closer to the surface.

Twilight spread her wings and halted in the air. She wasn’t going anywhere NEAR that thing until she knew what it was!

Blast saw this out of the corner of his eye. He may not have wings, but Blizzards like him weren’t perfectly flightless. A cloud of plasma generated beneath him and it stopped his fall. He followed her line of sight. “Oh, that?” he replied casually. “It’s the North Wind.”

“Yes, but WHAT IS IT?”

He thought about the question. “You have Spike, Sunset has Bellus, and you see we have . . .” He let the sentence fall as the battlefield exploded.

Literally exploded. The thing burst through the surface of the ice, shattering the ground on which Tirek stood. Ice shards were flung everywhere and a cloud of dust sprang up. Something that appeared to be a powerful gust of wind sent the dust dissipating in all directions. In the midst of it Twilight saw something marvelous.

IT WAS A DRAGON.

Not just any dragon - it was easily the largest that Twilight had ever seen. And she’d seen some pretty big dragons in her life. Its massive serpentine body stretched on for easily twice as far as Tirek was tall. A trail of icy clear-blue spikes started at the back of its neck and followed straight down its entire spine. It gradually crawled off the back of the snakelike tail and ended on one side, where the spikes suddenly grew three times their size and tipped off the tail with one razor edge. Its wings alone seemed to span almost as long as its body.

Its face alone was awe-inspiring. From either side of its jaws twin tusks protruded, maybe a third as long as its wingspan. They were shaped, for lack of a better term, like a candy cane: pointing out straight as a ruler then curling back on themselves just farther than one-eighty. A small (comparably anyway - it was still at least the size of a carriage) frill shockwaved from the back of its face, attached by multiple bony spikes. Its eyes, probably somewhere closer to Twilight’s own size, appeared as slim jet-black slits over a silver iris.

“The North Wind is your pet dragon?!” she gaped in awe. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a nod from Blast.

She turned to him. “You Blizzards are just packed with surprises!” She could almost forget how worried she had been only moments ago.

“Ya. It runs in the family.” With that he flashed a light-noted wink. “Just wait. He’s gonna do something awesome!”

Her attention again turned back to the dragon.

And it roared.

Okay. To say that it “roared” could be a small understatement. Perhaps that it let loose a sonic explosion that sent the core of the very earth trembling uncontrollably and sent everyone and everything airborne tumbling backwards. Maybe that’s a little closer to what really happened.

Then it blinked.

Twilight saw something strange when that happened. When the dragon’s eyes opened, its black pupils took up nearly the entire space of its eyes. They again shrunk back to slits, revealing that its iris had changed color from silver to green.

It roared again.

This time, out from its mouth burst forth an ocean of luminous green plasma. Literally an ocean of the stuff. The earth shook again as the blast of energy struck the ground and took out at least thirty Changelings. They were quickly replaced, however, by yet more of the buglike creatures continuing to emerge from the portal.

Twilight was at a loss for words. “You mean . . . it . . .”

Blast caught her exact brainwave. The North Wind controls all the elemental powers of every Blizzard that has ever lived.

“Three thousand four hundred eighty-two,” he recited. “And counting.”

“That is SO COOL!”

He chuckled. “My thoughts exactly.”

There was a pause as they both scanned the battlefield.

“Hmm,” Twilight muttered to herself. She turned again to Blast. “Quake said to fight our own bad guys, right? I don’t see Mane-iac.”

The stallion laughed again. “Man, you must have busted her! I don’t even see her!”

She grinned. “Must have.” Quickly her expression melted into a concentrated frown. “No Element of Justice either. Do you think it’s possible they didn’t even bring it to the battle?”

“Almost certainly,” came the almost immediate reply.

“Shall I take the portal?”

Blast wore his own puzzled frown as he searched the battlefield. “I don’t see why not. In fact, I think I’ll come with you. Heheh. I certainly don’t see an evil Rage anyw - HOLY SLEET!”

There, surging toward him with alarming speed, a purple gleam shining in his eye, was Rage.

Except he didn’t look quite right. There seemed to be something . . . off. He appeared to have grown slightly since Blast saw him only a few seconds ago. He seemed a few inches taller and his muscles appeared just a touch bigger. His face, in terms of generic facial features, appeared to be slightly more aged, and his eyes . . . there was something familiar in his eyes. Blast couldn’t seem to put his hoof on it, but there was something . . .

In his mind, Blast took a step back. Wait a second, he thought. Wasn’t his brother still good? This guy couldn’t possibly be from the evil future - the good Rage was that Rage. So what was the thing with this guy? Was he truly his brother?

He didn’t get enough time to think about it. The evil Rage kept coming, and at a downward angle smashed Blast out of his thoughts. He latched onto Blast and sent them both careening down to earth.

Almost instinctively Blast yelled to Twilight. “I got this guy, Twilight! Take the portal while he’s off your back!”

She was gonna do that anyway.

Folding her wings in, she fell into a dive. Her ears folded flat against her head as speed increased. She looked for an opening. For some reason, the villains were all leading their battles in front of the portal. It was only then the realization hit her that they were guarding it. Wow, the Element of Justice has gotta be in there, she thought.

And she saw it: a tiny space between Beam and Tirek. Beam, Twilight noticed, was riding the North Wind. It blinked and changed its eye color to a bright lavender color.

Just as the dragon took a breath and prepared to strike, Beam smiled and yelled “CLAIR!”

This time, from its jaws burst forth a gargantuan lightning bolt. Its purple glow pierced through the night sky and stabbed itself through the air toward Tirek.

And Twilight was headed straight for it.

She thought fast. Because she was wearing her amulet, after all, she was able to freeze a thick shell of ice around her and stopped flying completely. Her only momentum now came from inertia, and she sailed through the wind directly through the electrical eruption.

The energy bolt melted partially through her ice shield, but it was otherwise okay. Before Twilight could stop herself she soared through the portal.

And then she exploded.

Blast was getting worried.

It had been nearly ten minutes since Twilight disappeared into the portal.

Something had to be wrong. He had to go in after her.

But he was busy fighting the evil Rage. The black stallion who leapt into the air high above him. Who materialized a wall of purple ice. Who was coming back down to crush him.

Blast teleported out of the way in the nick of time. Reappearing in the air just behind his brother, he formed two telekinetic fields at either side of him. The ground shook for a split second as huge frozen boulders were ripped from it and brought together to smash Rage in between.

Just as they were about to sandwich him Rage brought twin walls of purple ice rocketing upwards to stop them. He willed the walls to force the huge ice chunks down and they obediently slammed down into the ground.

Blast didn’t wait for a counterattack. With lightning speed he materialized three of his signature swords. All three began to spin around him becoming three saw blades - one outside of the next. The innermost ring began to rotate on an axis attached to the middle, which in turn rotated on another axis, perpendicular to the first, around the outermost - until the whole assembly resembled a gyroscope. With this encompassing him Blast again charged at his brother.

In reply, Rage summoned his own dragon scythe, and his purple ice armor melted into view. As Blast grew closer and closer, Rage simply stood there. He held his ground, still as a statue. Waiting . . . waiting . . .

SLICE!!!

One thing must be brought to surface before the cause of that sound can be understood. This thing is: Rage’s secondary element is shadows. Now, that sounds like a very powerful element to wield, and indeed it is. But Rage had never learned to unlock its full potential. All he can use it to do is change the direction his own shadow is pointing. And as it took him very little time to realize, such an ability is basically useless in a fight.

Instead of using darkness directly as a weapon, Rage had long ago learned to mix it with his primary element - ice - to create the thing he now calls “dark ice” - a purple, translucent substance that is colder than regular ice and nearly indestructible.

So, as can now be predicted, the SLICE!!! came not from Blast’s swords cutting through Rage’s defenses, but from them shattering in the attempt.

Now defenselessly locked in a head-on collision with his brother, Blast did the first thing that popped into his head: which was to summon an ice spike to intercept the collision. It shot out of the ground just in time to knock Blast in the chest and send him tumbling over Rage’s head.

Blast pulled off a catlike landing - four hooves on the ground.

He panted heavily. Sweat beaded on his forehead. He may not have sustained any physical damage yet, but fighting Rage sure was tiring.

Before either of the combatants could react a black blur flew down between them. It came at an angle to Blast’s back, a little to the right, and crashed into the ground with a purple explosion. Rage, although still standing, cringed slightly from the blow, crouching to keep his balance in the sudden burst of wind.

Blast squinted his eyes from the ice dust and staggered a bit himself. When he came back to stand, he saw the figure before him to be . . .

“RAGE?!” Blast exclaimed. There were two of them?!

The one that had just intercepted the battle turned to look over his shoulder. He looked slightly younger than his other self. “Just help Twilight.” He turned back to the second Rage. “I’ll take this guy.”

“What the - wha -”

“Just go!”

“Whatever you say.” Blast had no idea why there were two of his brother all of a sudden, but he was glad for the opportunity to go help Twilight.

Without another word he sprinted for the portal.

Twilight thought she knew portals were weird.

But that was before they traveled through time.

It was a very unusual - and rather unnerving - sensation, exploding like that. It started in her hooves, like they were dissolving into swarms of atomic particles no longer connected to her. As soon as the feeling began, Twilight shut her eyes as tightly as she could. She did not want to see her hooves disappearing before her eyes.

And so she stayed there. Stuck in some sort of space-time limbo just under the surface of the portal, slowly dissipating into lavender dust. She could feel it starting to happen in her tail, now, and her legs were almost entirely gone. It soon worked its way up her mane and she was gone completely, nothing more than a cloud of dust now.

Then that cloud imploded.

Every particle of her seemed to rush toward each other, into one point about where her chest used to be. How she knew that, or how she was still capable of consciously thinking and feeling these things, she had no idea. But she decided she’d rather not dwell on that.

The tiny point condensed yet further and further, until the speck was so tiny she wondered if death was possible at that size.

Then . . . she started moving. Moving at incredible speeds, speeds that surely defied physics, and in . . . every direction. It didn’t take long for her to realize that the process had doubled back on itself, completely reversing as her tiny self exploded back into a cloud of purple sand.

As if they all had minds of their own, each individual particle began rearranging themselves to reform her normal self again. By the time she could see, she was completely reformed and on the other side of the portal. She drifted a yard or two to the ground until her hooves finally touched down.

Twilight scowled. “Yeah, no way I’m gonna do that again,” she muttered under her breath to herself. She took a look around at her surroundings.

To describe the place in one word she found difficult. It was a vast valley surrounded on every side by mountains. A single cloud of black smoke blanketed the sky and blocked out the sun’s light almost entirely. On every side of her rose enormous skyscrapers - weathered and run down, there was little left beyond their framing. Then she looked down and saw shrouds of blackness layering the ground that came up about to her knee. Looking behind her, she saw the elliptical portal, about three times as high as it was wide, floating suspended in the air like a picture hung on a wall.

It was . . . it was . . .

Dead.

Twilight shuddered. She knew, up until this point, what would become of Equestria if this battle was lost - but, as it happens, one can never truly understand something unless one has experienced it for oneself. The sight before her struck a strange mixture of awe and horror in her heart, for the reality of the moment had never totally hit her until precisely that moment. She felt her previous knowledge of the situation were nothing more than words written on a lone page ripped out of a book. A page that was now burning, gradually blackening and withering away inside of an inferno. Her new knowledge was that raging flame.

And she was the only pony in the world who knew this.

She could feel herself becoming that poor burning page. Her own self, the only good that now existed in this entire world, everything that the forces of light had ever stood up for, shriveling up and dying like that poor burning page. She cringed.

It was, indeed, dead.

Now locked in despair, she looked around for any sign of hope. Nothing. Nothing but desolation and darkness.

Twilight whispered the single word to herself. “Nothing.”

She melted to the ground. All hope was lost.

All but one.

Her closing eyes caught a tiny glint of light. And she wanted to see what it was.

It was the Element of Justice.

It floated only a half a block away from her, levitating in a pillar of light.

The sight of the final Element alone was enough to rekindle the fire of Twilight’s hope. It wasn’t much - the ashes left of the flame were only beginning to glow again - but it was enough. Enough to give her muscles strength again. Enough to tell her to move toward it.

And she obeyed. With all the strength she could muster, she began to crawl toward the place where the Element of Justice awaited her. It was the only way. Her only light.

And a shadow zeroed in on its target.

EIGHTEEN

“PLOT TWIST!!!” Beam yelled as she teleported, then brought an electrical meteor raining down on yet another Changeling. She turned to a mare who was fighting next to her. “I don’t like this. They should be back by now.”

The mare didn’t acknowledge her; she was busy fighting a Changeling herself. A jet of water fired from her horn, crashing the beast in the face. After a second or two, the jet froze to become a column of ice - the Changeling caught inside by its head. The mare then brought the column soaring over her and smashed it on the ground. It shattered completely - including the frozen Changeling’s head.

It was then she looked at Beam with her silvery eyes. Her coat was of a whitish shade of blue that made one think of peppermint. This idea was helped by the minty white coloration of her mane - which was cut short in one straight line and let to hang loose. Her cutie mark resembled a swirling breeze carrying a flurry of snowflakes.

She spoke to Beam. “Be patient, sweetie. I don’t know what those two were up to, but you can’t expect them to be that quick about it.”

“I think they’re in trouble, Ma!”

“Give them time. Besides,” her mother turned to the constantly growing army of Changelings. “I think we’ve got a fort to hold down while they’re gone.”

“Valid point,” Beam conceded as she opened fire.

“Why the long face?” chirped the recorded voice.

Twilight had been caught. She was now in the clutches of none other than Mane-iac.

The emotions that now flooded through her frail body were too much for her. She buried her face in her hooves and did the only thing she still had strength to do: cry.

“Hey!” the voice snapped. “Would you look up when I’m talking to you?!” The tentacle carrying Twilight shook violently back and forth. She made no reaction.

The voice huffed. “Hmph. It’s broken.” It hurled Twilight into the hard ground.

Again Twilight made no reaction. She no longer had any reason to hope. Face-first she hit the ground and kicked up a puff of dust.

And she stayed there. Defeated.

Until . . . she heard something.

It was a curious noise. Like . . . a whistle. Something whistling, sailing through the air toward her. She heard something puncture a deep layer of dirt just beside her.

She mustered the strength to look up.

It was a sword.

Before her slowed brain could register its meaning, she caught ear of another noise behind her.

She craned her neck for a view.

Mane-iac whirled.

It was a tiny blue unicorn thirty feet from them.

Blast.

The noise was a growl: a deep, guttural growl one would expect to hear from a feral dog. He was making the growl through gritted teeth. His horn seemed to be sparking with bright green energy. He advanced on the squid-like monster with an almost animalian crouch.

The voice attached to Mane-iac snarled. “Why you little -”

Blast never let it finish its sentence. With a sudden burst of speed he leapt into the air high above its head. A spherical blue energy field faded into being around him. It was partially translucent, and inside of it Blast could be seen materializing his double swords. They began to circle him at incredible speeds, carving glowing green lines in the blue force field.

“YOU WILL NOT HARM HER!!!”

Suddenly the green lines flew outward like an explosion. They sliced through the humongous buildings like a shark fin through water and their unsupported pieces fell in slow motion to the ground. Seemingly in unison the once tall frames of the skyscrapers smashed into the ground and kicked up an explosion of dust. A dust storm that stampeded its way toward them.

In an instant, it seemed, it had enveloped Blast completely - who was still a little ways away. It swallowed him up like an avalanche. And it kept speeding towards Mane-iac and Twilight from all directions until the fog swept around them, too.

Now, to be fair, Twilight had just been through a bit of an outburst of emotions. It was pretty logical that her brain had partially turned off from power overload. She could barely register who it was that was saving her, let alone the meaning behind his reaction. But it was an understatement to say she was startled. More like that she was rattled only further out of her senses. Why was he acting this drastically?

She coughed in the thick smog.

Mane-iac could be heard some distance off to her right (the dust cloud had cut down her vision to only a few feet) scowling in annoyance. “Where are you, you little -” The voice was cut off by a sound.

Probably the closest thing it could be described as was a whipping noise. Not like the sound of a whip cracking, per se, but more like a swift swish, that happened so fast it could be described as a whip.

The noise baffled Mane-iac - or at least, whoever was in control of it. “What the -”

Again the the sound cut her off. This time it occurred to her opposite side, on her left.

Before any reaction could be made, the noise happened again on the first side, and then again on the other side. It was soon happening so much that it blended together into one recurring noise, traveling around Mane-iac and Twilight in a circle.

Even in her current condition, Twilight could then see what Blast was doing.

He was making a tornado.

And she inferred that before they started levitating.

As soon as the sound became one, the dust had disappeared in a whirl. Mane-iac was revealed in the center of the scene, eyes darting around, confused, at the rising cylindrical walls around her.

Gradually Mane-iac peeled from the ground by its tentacles. First the tips of its tentacles bent upward, then slowly became larger and larger until they separated from the ground the squid was floating on air completely.

“WHAT is going ON?!” the voice raged.

It had taken Twilight a moment to notice that she, too, was levitating. Despite the fact that her wings were folded at her sides, her hooves were no longer touching the ground, and an upward draft created by the spiraling wind was pushing her upwards.

Both she and Mane-iac floated the entire distance to the top of the tornado. And Mane-iac rose to eye level with Blast.

All the signs were present. The Element of Honor was proudly latched onto his hoof. The minty green luminescence was present in his eyes. And he was inexplicably flying, without using wings or an ice platform or any other logical explanation.

He was in the Blizzard State.

The sight triggered something in Twilight’s memory. A scene flashed to life in her mind. It was in the Castle of the Two Sisters. She was reading out of a book.

“The Blizzard State is an extremely rare phenomenon, caused by a deep love to someone or something . . .”

Perhaps Twilight could have deciphered its meaning . . . if the situation would have given her enough time.

Blast’s expression was deathly serious as his twin blades again appeared out of the air. He stuck their straight edges back to back, creating a broad, thin shield-like formation. He tossed it like a frisbee to come to rest exactly over Mane-iac’s head. Making a blurring leap to land on top of the board, Blast delivered one powerful kick downward that sent the monster plummeting back to earth.

Mane-iac smashed into the ground with a mushroom cloud of black dust.

Blast soared downward at a diagonal, landing with a good two blocks’ distance between them.

It was then Twilight realized that the tornado had vanished completely. She, too, fell toward the earth, until at the last second she spread her wings. They caught the wind like a parachute and cushioned her landing.

She turned to Mane-iac and saw her trying to regain a standing. Twilight also caught sight of a tiny grey object folding out of the mechanical disk. It grew into a small satellite dish and began to hum.

There was only time for her to warn Blast.

“Look out!”

Then a blinding green laser beam leapt from the device straight at Blast.

The stallion reacted not a moment too soon.

One sword flew in front of his face just in time to deflect the burst of energy. Another flashed to life just in time to catch it again. The two swords re-adjusted until they had caught the laser beam infinitely bouncing between them.

Ignoring them, Blast performed a front-flip to jump over it. He landed in a hoof-stand on one hoof and curled the rest of himself into a ball. Without warning that ball started to spin rapidly, gradually gaining speed until it was literally wrapped in a humming noise of its own.

Then he was lit on fire.

Well, not exactly. More like he had cloaked himself in a glaze of plasma.

And then - using the very laser beam that Mane-iac had launched at him - he propelled himself toward the demon.

Distance closed. First there were two blocks. Then one. Then a half. Then ten feet. Before anyone could register the speed at which Blast was moving, the living plasma ball was inches from Mane-iac’s face.

Then time froze.

At least it did for Twilight.

Because another scene flashed in her mind.

This time she was with Blast at a stage. Before them was the entirety of Ponyville. She remembered this! She was answering Blast’s riddle. And she heard her past self say four words.

The answer is love.

And a chill rode up her spine as she finally understood.

Blast was doing this for her.

She recalled Blast’s riddle. Feeling the cold, and feeling cold, are two very different things. And she understood how true the answer was. This future . . . this evil . . . this darkness . . . was all the cold. Blast was only feeling the cold. He was only sensing the presence of something trying to make him feel cold. But Twilight . . . she felt cold. And what separated them?

Love.

She always thought that Blast’s love for her was something casual, something he played around with every now and then. Nothing really heartfelt. But that was all up until this point.

Because she understood why he was acting this intensely.

For her. He came through the portal after her and saw not just a princess, but his princess, in mortal danger. He saw that it was now up to him to protect her. And so he stepped in.

And what a step it was.

Time seemed to resume as Twilight watched the endless typhoons of emotion Blast funneled into one single blow.

The living plasma ball struck Mane-iac in the head.

The squid went flying. It struck the ground with a force that knocked it unconscious, and its body limply rolled before coming to a stop.

And Blast kept bowling straight through the place where Mane-iac had just been, smashing into the ground and leaving a trail like a meteor.

Finally the plasma was extinguished. Blast stood up and ran to Twilight’s side. His eyes had returned to normal - he was no longer in the Blizzard State.

“Are you hurt?” he asked worriedly.

“I’m fine now,” she replied with a nervous chuckle. “You dropped by just in - oh my goodness Blast! Your -”

Ripping across his muzzle now, in a diagonal line, was a fresh red laser burn. It steamed with fresh heat, and from the looks of it the front part of his nose was even missing.

“I’m a Blizzard, Twilight. It’s kind of in my job description.”

“Ooh,” Twilight said as she looked at the wound, then made a hissing noise through her teeth. “Are - are you sure you don’t -”

“It’s nothing,” he replied, despite the frown he wore and the fact that he kept rubbing his muzzle with one hoof. He must’ve decided it wasn’t worth it, because he drew his hoof away with a curt “ow” muttered to himself.

“We need to get you some help.”

“Maybe later. Right now,” there was a flash and the Element of Justice appeared levitating before them, “I think we have more pressing matters at hoof here.”

“Right.” Twilight teleported them both back to the portal. She took a quick look around. “What do you say we get out of this Tartarus of an Equestria?”

“Sounds good to me.” He jumped through the portal and dragged a suddenly reluctant Twilight along with him.

“Oh no.”

Exploding into a dust cloud was bad enough before her remains could mix with someone else’s.

Somewhere in the future they left behind . . .

A shadow loomed.

A fist clenched.

And a voice spoke.

“I have to do everything myself . . .”

At this point in the battle, both Tirek and Sombra had fallen. At least Tirek did. Sombra . . . who knows where that guy was? Wherever he went, the North Wind must have chased him off - the dragon had disappeared as well. The only threat really remaining was Chrysalis and her seemingly infinite army.

“INCOMING!!!” yelled a voice off to Quake’s side.

Quake was too busy fighting the queen to see a trio of green acid balls being hurled at him from behind.

He turned just in time to see three black rectangles appear out of nowhere and intercept the enemy fire just before they hit him. He looked up.

The mare who had just saved him leapt over his head - blocking out the sun for a split second - and landed to his front and right.

“Right on cue, angel!” he said pleasantly.

The mare wore a coat of olive green and stunning red eyes. Her glossy black mane was held back by two crossing black spikes. Her cutie mark was an ambiguous design, a circle with intricate triangular edges cut into it.

“Naturally,” she replied. A playful grin splayed across her face, she summoned a whole stack of the black rectangles - a deck of modified playing cards - and threw a handful of them like throwing stars. They acrobatically weaved themselves out of Quake’s way, sped past him, and flew straight at a trio of Changelings behind him.

The cards stabbed themselves into the green balls of energy still embedded in the creatures’ hooves. They promptly exploded green goop all over their owners - who, disoriented now, tripped facefirst into the icy ground and stayed down.

“Ya got Chryssy there?” she asked with a glint in her eye that closely resembled Beam’s.

“Yeah, I’m good.”

Still smiling, Quake’s wife Blizzard Strike - for that was the identity of this mare - chased after another group of the beasts and left him to fight Chrysalis.

Quake turned to his opponent.

She was gone.

And in her place was a half a dozen Changelings.

All at once they tackled him to the ground. Five of them positioned themselves to pin him down and the sixth lit a plasma ball on the end of its horn. A split second before it fired Quake squinted and lit his own horn with a bright, harsh light. A split second later he was gone.

He reappeared directly over their heads. Again his horn lit up and from it sailed a swirling white hailstorm.

Before he knew it even more Changelings had swarmed around him.

This is ridiculous! he thought. These things surely outnumbered the Blizzards at least forty to one! And who knew how many more there were on the other side of that portal?

He was trapped, now. Inside of a living pillar of the monsters, constantly falling. He tumbled over one Changeling body, then another, then another. How he stayed airborne doing this, he had no idea, but it was disorienting at best. His vision was full with nothing more than black and green, swirling and darting around inside his eyeballs.

He was getting dizzy fast.

There would be no more dealing with that madness. He closed his eyes. So the only hint he received that his son teleported to him was the pop he heard to his . . . left? Up? Down? He didn’t even know where!

“There’s too many!”

“Think I don’t know that?” Quake was only starting to get annoyed at this point.

“We need -”

“We need what?”

Pop.

Everything disappeared.

Quake could tell he was somewhere new. The nauseating feeling of tumbling through air forever had left him, and thankfully it left him standing. The scenery, for Quake had opened his eyes, had been replaced with the surroundings of a dark icy cave.

“Wha -”

“The caverns below the North Summit,” said a voice behind him.

Quake whirled. It was Twilight. She stood by Blast, holding a small box with her magic.

“I assume it’s something important?” asked an annoyed Beam off to Quake’s side.

“And why did you bring me here?” Rage added.

Twilight cracked open the box. Inside were all five of the Elements of Unity.

“Elements anyone?”

NINETEEN

Quake’s breath caught in his throat.

He didn’t tell anyone, but secretly he was kind of offended that anyone would go for the Element of Justice in his place. It was, after all, his Element. Shouldn’t it be his responsibility to show it his true embodiment of justice? Wasn’t he supposed to be the hero here?

These thoughts and more flooded through his mind, but he spoke none of them.

Rage spoke. “So what do these Elements hold the key to?”

Twilight’s face broke into a huge smile as she picked up the Element of Justice. She showed to Rage three words carved into it. “I think you’re going to like this . . .”

“I don’t think we can last much longer!” the peppermint blue mare, Blizzard Moon, shouted. As it seemed the sheer number of Changelings had increased the volume of the battlefield with insectoid chattering so much that shouting was all one could do.

Beside her stood the green mare. “Brace yourselves!” she yelled. “I see another wave coming!”

Right on cue the portal began to make a series of weird noises. Its spacey mass swirled as it had been the entire battle. Except this time its black core shook and jerked in something like a spasm attack and at once exploded with yet another swarm of the beasts.

There was little fighting going on around them. The Changelings had most of the other Blizzards already surrounded and pinned to the ground. They were about to suck out the Blizzards’ life forces and copy them. Then they would storm through the rest of the warriors, then the princesses, then all of Equestria.

A group of maybe half a dozen Changelings tackled the blue mare to the ground. Another few distracted the green one while the others copied her friend.

The hope was scarce.

The light was fading.

The battle was lost.

Until . . .

Out of nowhere appeared a bursting orb of light.

It flashed to being almost directly over Chrysalis’ head. It burned whitish yellow, almost as brightly as the sun, and gave off a distinct vvvvvvvvvvvvv hissing noise. A shock wave flew from its center and everything in close vicinity staggered backwards. From it a voice arose:

“YOU CANNOT WIN, CHRYSALIS!!!” it said.

Chrysalis huffed. “Watch me!” She shot a green bolt at the huge ball of energy.

It was ineffective. The plasma beam made a splash on it that was almost laughable before the liquid dripped off.

Chrysalis was taken aback. She staggered a step backward and her voice quivered just a touch. “But . . . what? What is this?!”

The orb grew. Grew to a size that could easily hold half a dozen ponies; in fact it was doing just that. In its center, surrounded by his family, Rage spoke again.

“You cannot win Chrysalis!” The opacity of the ball of light toned down, and in it could be seen Rage in the center, wearing a huge smile on his face, surrounded by Quake, Blade, Twilight, Blast, and Beam. “You may have your armies, and you may have your legions. We may be sorely outnumbered, but we have something that you don’t!”

Chrysalis stared, confused. She was silent.

“We have something that you can NEVER have! Something that binds all of us together as one! Something with the ability to forever protect from the forces of darkness all who value light and the things of good! And while it remains with us, the future you hail from will NEVER come to pass! For we have . . .”

Silence.

The five warriors surrounding Rage each fitted their Elements to their wrists. Five hooves pointed toward one central point and five blasts of energy exploded from them. Each of the warriors flew outward from Rage like the sparks of a firework.

“LOVE!!!”

The stallion Rage continued. “Blizzard Blast, a stallion with the purest drive to do what was right, no matter what - the one who was strong enough to fight against someone he loved - represents . . .”

The end of the sentence came from one ball of light falling from the first, this one glowing bright green. It vanished, to reveal Blast inside. He was thrown into the Blizzard State as his Element kicked in.

“THE ELEMENT OF HONOR!”

In a speeding blur now, Blast flashed into a zig-zag pattern - flying between random points on the battlefield. A couple seconds after he hit one point, it detonated in ethereal explosion of blue and green. The move resulted in a chain reaction of energy bombs.

Rage didn’t stop there. “Blizzard Beam, a mare who lives in the moment - the artistic mastermind who created the one plot that successfully defeated Lord Tirek - represents . . .”

Now another luminescent orb, this one purple, bursted open and out flew Beam. She was in the Blizzard State as well.

“THE ELEMENT OF CREATIVITY!”

The mare wreathed herself in lighting bolts and shot herself at the ground like a meteor. A circular energy field was generated as a huge crater crashed itself into the ground. With a wave of her hooves, she rechanneled the electric energy into a circle around her. The circle sizzled and crackled a luminescent purple, and with a raise of her hooves it rushed back and shot her up into the air. The result: A humongous purple tentacle supporting her in midair.

As she began attacking the Changelings with an array of ranged attacks, Rage continued. “Now Blizzard Blade, a colt who possesses bravery unbound - the one whose virtue carried the strength to face his own fears in battling King Sombra - represents . . .”

Out from a red bulb of light exploded the cyborg Blade.

“THE ELEMENT OF COURAGE!”

Blade used an icy wind to propel himself toward the Changeling army. As he phased into the Blizzard State, however, he grew so rapidly that his hooves touched the icy ground before he’d even began any kind of descent. He now stood a good distance higher even than Beam was flying. An electric red glow filled his robotic horn, and from it was expelled a sea of molten metal. It swarmed toward the Changelings and took a huge amount of them by flood.

Rage spoke again. “And Blizzard Quake - a stallion who has forever pledged himself to fight the forces of evil - the one who took every measure to protect his Element - represents . . .”

The second to last light bubble, this one caramel brown, popped to reveal one angry Quake in the Blizzard State and ready to defend the forces of good.

“THE ELEMENT OF JUSTICE!”

He fired himself, as if out of a cannon, straight downward. As he slammed into the ground, another gigantic crater etched itself into the icy surface and a shock wave was expelled that could only be compared to an earthquake. Then, using his telekinesis, Quake took grip of a line of the ground in front of him. With strength only Celestia knew could ever exist in a single being, the stallion tore it upward and the entire ground bursted up like a carpet rug getting whipped up. Using this same strength again, Quake smashed it back into the ground where it belonged, and a four-foot-thick sheet of ice did an enormous “wave” - traveling all the way across the battlefield and completely decimating the Changeling’s swarms.

Attention turned back to Rage as he took another breath. His grin was as wide as ever. “And, finally, Twilight Sparkle, a mare with the mind of a labyrinth - the one with the brain to take the riddle and understand its meaning - represents . . .”

The final orb of light, this one blue, bursted apart to reveal the alicorn princess, herself in the Blizzard State with eyes burning blue. She yelled at the top of her lungs.

“THE ELEMENT OF WISDOM!”

She was the one Blizzard who remained in the air. Beams of blue light leapt from her horn and became floating ice shards. She created more and more of them until the battlefield was buzzing with the flat pieces of ice floating through the air. Lasers - purple lasers made of super-concentrated cold fire - fired from her horn in random directions and reflected off of one ice spike, then the next, then the next, until the entire battlefield was transformed into a humongous crossfire.

Chrysalis could hardly believe her eyes. These five pesky Blizzards were single-hoofed taking down her entire armies. She lifted her gaze to Rage, the one pony who remained.

His speech wasn’t done yet.

Tension built in the air.

Streams of power began to flow from the other Elements to combine inside the ball of energy still encasing Rage.

And he spoke.

“And I,” he began, tension still building and his voice growing louder by the second, “I am the one who has been by my teammates’ sides every step of the way. I have been there at the recovery of every Element, and have been blooming in my own self representing each one.” he paused for a moment. The smile on his face was huge. The power inside the sphere began to conjure into an incomprehensible shape. “And now I represent the sixth Element.” The object formed into his own cutie mark, and slipped itself on his head as a helmet.

He waited for exactly the right moment.

Tension was still building.

Power was gathering in his horn.

And he spoke.

His words seemed to erupt.

“THE ELEMENT OF LIGHT!!!”

Suddenly the ball of light surrounding him turned from bright yellow to deep purple. The color reflected that of Rage’s glowing eyes.

And it exploded.

Blur.

That was all Beam saw. Blur. A big blur.

Her other senses seemed to be in a hodgepodge too. What she heard and felt was nonsense, about as foggy as her sight. She could only pick up on . . . somepony grabbing her hoof. She was helped to her hooves. There was a blurry figure . . . he looked black . . .

Little by little her senses cleared.

It was Rage.

In a sudden burst of emotion she hugged her brother. “That. Was. AWESOME, BRO!” She ran around like Pinkie Pie on caffeine. “Those Changelings, they were all like I GON’ KILL U ALL and we were all like ZHONG! ZZVVEEW! SHA-VA-KAI-EEEE! AWESOME!”

Rage laughed. He was still wearing the Element of Light. “Sha-va-kai-eeee? I’m fairly sure I didn’t make a noise like that. And for that matter, I don’t think anyone has. Ever.”

Twilight, with a hoof around Blast, took a share in the humor with a hearty chuckle. “I’m just glad this is all over.”

Blade huffed in agreement.

There was a moment of silence.

Quake broke it. “We can celebrate later. Right now,” he gazed at the battlefield. “I think we still have some matters to attend to.” The battlefield was smoking in some places. It was dotted with injured Blizzards, getting helped to their hooves by their comrades.

“Yes,” said a voice behind them. “You do.”

The voice shot chills down their spines. Inch by inch, each of the six Blizzards turned.

The thing standing before them could only be described as: a monster.

If one had to be specific: a tar monster, probably. It towered over the team. The thing’s black, sludge-like substance dripped lazily to the ground, then crawled back and rejoined the mass in a never-ending cycle. It gave off no reflection, no shine of any light that hit it - in fact, it seemed almost to be absorbing the light, siphoning it like a bee drinks nectar. It lowered its face inches from touching Blade’s - for he was the one closest - drowning him in its ghastly breath. Chuckling, the beast drew away and back to its full height before throwing its head back and cackling.

“Best run,” was the two words Blade said before he teleported out of sight.

An instant later Quake was also gone.

Then went Rage, then Beam, then one by one every Blizzard in sight until the only two ponies remaining were Blast - who had little idea what was going on - and Twilight - who had much less idea what was going on.

Twilight, needless to say, was baffled by the action. “What the - what?” Why were the Blizzards being such cowards all of a sudden? She looked to Blast for some form of explanation.

All she got was a curt “I don’t know.”

Her stallion wore a grave expression. His eyes were shadowed with some type of foreboding. His eyebrows creased with worry and a deathlike seriousness. The air around him seemed to plunge in temperature.

He said one impossible word.

“Go.”

She blinked at the question and looked him up and down. “What? No.”

“Go.” For the first time, he turned to face her. He kept his stance like a statue; only his face was turned. It was filled with a sudden mix of worry, terror, protection, and . . . guilt? “Get out of here Twilight. I’ll hold this thing off.”

She held her ground. “I’m not leaving.”

Before she knew what was going on, she heard a popping noise behind her. A light appeared, and she could tell without a look that a portal appeared behind her. Gradually, she lost feeling of the ground.

She looked down.

And found herself encased in a green aura.

“Wait, what - wha -”

Blast turned away to face the beast, in the process giving her a final sideways glance.

“No!”

He didn’t listen.

The aura tossed her into the portal.

The portal vanished.

Two swords appeared at either side of the warrior.

And one tear fell.

“We have to go back!” Twilight found herself pleading. “Blast is back there! He can’t fight that thing alone, he’s going to die!”

She was in the same cave where they prepared the Elements of Unity only moments before. The cave, and at that the entire cave system, was made entirely of ice. Its smooth, cool-blue surface gave off a cold wind - not exactly harsh, it was actually quite smooth and gentle, but nevertheless freezing. Despite the fact that it came from no evident source, a dim light flushed the cave with a bluish green glow.

All around her were Blizzards. Unicorns - of every shape and color - surrounded her, each with gravely serious faces. Gathered with her were Beam, Rage, Blade, and Quake. They each stared at her with uneasy faces. It wasn’t exactly the deathly seriousness that reflected in their eyes. It was . . . calm. For some reason, they didn’t seem to be worried about the current situation.

Quake approached her. He laid a reassuring hoof on her shoulder.

In the background, hundreds of horns began to glow. In a multicolored display, every Blizzard could be seen lighting up their horns with sparks of energy of every color. They drifted up from their horns, joining together in one huge pool of light up above.

Quake's face melted into a comforting smile.

“Don’t worry . . . we know.”

Twilight opened her mouth to reply.

Quake held a hoof up in a gesture to be silent.

“Watch.”

A frail body smashed into the ice.

It was Blast’s body.

He made no sound; he had long since lost the strength even to keep his eyes open. He had headed into that battle going strong . . . until the monster siphoned his strength. Now . . . he didn’t stand a chance. He suddenly felt so powerless, so limited, like an empty shell. Literally. So . . . brittle, only a shell of what he once was, like someone ripped out his heart and left his body hollow. He couldn’t cry - he had no water, nor strength left to - but he was sure that he would’ve.

But none of that mattered.

Twilight was okay.

And that meant he was okay.

The monster picked him up again with one claw. It drew the feeble stallion up to its face. “So you’re the big hero huh?” It used the word hero mockingly as its putrid breath came upon him.

Silence.

It held its grip on him as it again smashed him into the ground. “Any final words,” it said as it drew up its other claw, “hero?”

Silence. Blast dared not look.

The claw shot toward him.

Every moment seemed like an eternity. Blast just wanted it all to be over.

He could hear the bladed fingers slicing through the air.

It came, it came . . .

And . . . nothing. He didn’t hear any whistle, he didn’t feel any claws slashing across his flesh. He mustered the strength to open his eyes. And what a sight awaited him.

It was Twilight.

She stood between him and the monster, panting. It was her who had taken the blow, across her chest and down one arm. Trying to hold in a scream, she bit her lip and her bad leg buckled. She knelt to the ground.

Taken aback, the tar monster crept backwards just enough to free Blast.

He ran to her side and assessed the wounds. The slash badly shredded her chest and her upper leg. He tried to help her up.

“You didn’t have to do that.”

Twilight beamed up at him. “What?” As soon as she put weight on her bad leg, she grunted and crumpled again. “Nnnggh! Think I can’t take a hit?”

The thing laughed as its brain finally worked past the shock. “You’re counting on a princess to help you?” It smirked - metaphorically because, besides eyes, it was lacking a face - and thrust a claw down at the alicorn.

She flinched.

But nothing happened.

The monster was confused. It held its claw up and looked curiously at it. “What’s wrong? Your -” it stopped itself as it realized - “your power . . .”

“What’s wrong?” Twilight taunted as she stayed down. She glared up at it with a fiery defiance. “Didn’t think I’d give it away, did you?”

“Your - wha -”

She attempted one more time to stand. “You cannot win.”

“You -” The tar thing recovered from its shock and lunged at Twilight with one claw. “That changes NOTHING! I’ll have a terrific time torturing you . . . and your little colt friend!”

“Nope,” Twilight replied simply. Some unseen force deflected the monster’s blow - its claw glanced off of some invisible force field. She was almost back to her hooves - her bad leg was still suffering, after all. “Because I know something you don’t know.”

“AND WHAT IS THAT?!” The being spat out every word as it tried in vain to dig through the unseen field protecting her and Blast.

“It wasn’t just me who transferred my magic.” As if on cue, hundreds upon hundreds of Blizzards began appearing all over the battlefield. Of every color, of every size and shape, everyone was united in the one thing they were all doing.

They were staring down the monster until it felt like nothing more than a speck of dust.

“It was all of us.” Twilight relished the moment as she came finally to a stand. She plowed through her dialogue word by word as she joined them in staring. “Every single Blizzard alive. Every color, every element, from every single corner of the globe - ALL of that is now UNITED in one stallion and one purpose . . .”

The ground began to shake.

“. . . to destroy every speck of evil in the world. That’s right.”

A purple light bursted from the earth.

Her last word seemed to explode.

“YOU.”

The light focused itself into a beacon as a silhouette inside rose into the air. One by one beams of purple lanced from the being and forced the monster backwards. One of the beams froze it solid in a block of purple ice.

The figure stayed airborne as the light receded.

It was Rage.

He paused. Beginning to fly from his horn were rays of black energy. It shot at the inside of an invisible sphere, behaving like a liquid as it pooled into a ball. Soon Rage was encased entirely in a black ball floating in the sky.

Then more shafts of light leapt from it. But this time it was different.

They were different colors. Each one represented an element, and each one pointed down to its owner. Fire, water, lightning, plasma, darkness, cold fire, earth, wind - each and every imaginable power was present. They shot down from the sky and surrounded their owners before doubling back and firing right back at the alicorn stallion.

The beams of elemental energy splattered over the dark ball that housed Rage. Each one in its own color, until the black was covered over by every color and every power imaginable. A multicolored conglomeration now, the ball shrunk and levitated to Rage’s side.

It was then he realized what made the Elements of Unity so powerful. It was family. Not just any family, but true family - the bond that binds together all those who truly care about one another. True family never depended on blood - it depended on love. Those who took to it, by loving one another, have become one.

That was what made the Elements so powerful.

The answer was in the question.

“UNITY!!!”

The conglomerated sphere of energy obeyed his command, and came crashing down on the last trace of evil in the world.

TWENTY

It was a day or two after that battle.

Things had calmed down remarkably fast after those final moments. The team of six had taken a trip back to Canterlot - mostly to get Blast and Twilight, as well as Blast’s injured mother, to the hospital there. As luck would have it, she had survived the Changeling attack with surprisingly minor injuries. Blast they let out almost immediately after taking a look at his burn, and Twilight soon after with her chest bandaged and her leg in a sling. Blast’s mother, however, they needed to keep in the hospital during recovery.

The team of six - besides Beam, who refused to leave her mom’s side - were now resting in Beam’s summer home. Blade and Quake took one couch, Rage the rocking chair, and Blast and Twilight rested on the floor.

“Wait,” Twilight asked again. “You mean to tell me concentrating our magic into Rage was planned?”

Quake chuckled and nodded. “After all, I did spend a lot of time planning with the other Blizzards.”

She whistled, impressed. “The Elements of Unity - the monster - and then that? You planned that all from square one?”

“More or less. I mean, I’m not going to pretend that I expected a huge tar monster to come popping out of nowhere, but it mostly was according to plan.”

“Cool!”

Rage popped in to change the subject. “So, Twilight, Blast, what’d they say about your injuries? Good news, I hope?”

Twilight spoke first. “Mine certainly looked gruesome, but it actually wasn’t that deep. I should be back on four hooves in a couple of months. I’m not gonna deny that it hurts, but I don’t regret it.”

Rage huffed at the alicorn and a smile of admiration slapped itself on his face. “What about you, Blast? That burn getting along?”

“Yeah, about that . . .” Blast scratched the back of his head and grinned sheepishly. “This one’s staying. I got my first scar guys!”

Quake laughed. “Wait’ll Beam hears. She’ll be so jealous!”

Twilight leaned just a touch to whisper in Blast’s ear. “I think it looks cute,” she said.

The stallion shrunk a tad as he grinned and his cheeks turned pink.

Rage turned to Quake. “So was that really the last of evil in the entire world? I mean, that’s quite . . .”

“Yes.” Quake nodded his head. “Think about it. That’s every single one of the villains - at least their future versions - are gone permanently. Even if we let them alone at this point, they’ll follow the natural course of time until they travel back to the past - this past, where we will have defeated them. Make sense?”

The black alicorn gasped. “Oh my gosh, you’re right!”

The conversation was interrupted by a sharp BANG! Everypony jumped - Twilight the highest. They turned to see what was the matter.

It was the door. It had flown open and crashed against the wall. And in the doorway was Beam. She stood there, panting, as if she had just run a marathon. Her face was stained with tear streaks and her eyes were misty. After a moment’s catching her breath, she ran into the main area and her eyes darted around for Blast.

She found him and ran to him. “Blast!”

Blast slowly got to his hooves. “What’s the matter?”

His sister grasped him in the tightest hug he had ever felt. And she whispered in his ear. “It doesn’t matter what happened, Blast. You’re still my brother, and you always will be.”

He could only repeat himself. The shock of how she was acting left him stunned. “What’s the matter? What . . .”

Realization hit him like a brick as Beam let one word escape her tongue.

“Mom . . .”

Blast clutched his heart with one hoof. His breath caught and a lump formed in his throat.

He was now an orphan.