The Blizzard Chronicles

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.