Archive of Abortions

Chapters

No More Running v1
Rainbow Dash Joins the Ghost Wonderbolts
Watching You Watching Me v1
Pluton's Day Out
The Penance of Garble
Nocte
If a Tree Goes in the Woods, Does Anyone Smell It?
I met a traveller from an antique time...
The abandoned part of A Nightmare for Snowfall Frost

No More Running v1

"Something has happened to time."

You'd think I could word that a bit more floridly. Maybe launch into a big, complicated explanation of what exactly has happened, not even trying to swap the big words out for the bite-size vocabulary that this scienceless sphere has to contend with. And, well, I could, but it feels too big for that. It's one of those rare times when something's so big, I have to use small words.

"That's the twenty-seventh time this week, Doc. You sure you ain't got any big speeches for this one?"

Plus, she'll just end up correcting me if I use a word wrong.

"There's hardly enough words in this language, my friend. I've never seen such an enormous temporal shift."

For once, we aren't in the laboratory. I never thought I'd miss all those crude mechanisms of timber and glass, but studying the effects of temporal distortion on the TARDIS console... it feels like I'm cheating somehow.

Maybe it's because the console isn't designed for hooves. Yeah. That must be it.

"So, is this like that thing with the butterflies?" Normally, I'd sneer and crack a joke about Danaus plexippus, but this mare doesn't hang around because of cuteness and variety. She's pulled up a picture of the Lorenz system on the other screen, bless her single heart.

"Precisely, Derpy. This is proof positive of the butterfly effect if ever there was any. The simplest of changes enacted upon an event in the past have had disastrous consequences that lead directly into the present. To wit, this 'Crystal War' business that everypony's going on about."

I switch over to the chronometric analysis feed, and easily anticipate her next question. "So, what happened that put Sombra back on top? Did Cadence forget to drink her coffee? Did Twilight go it alone? Did one of the Elements die of pneumonia?"

The numbers dance before my eyes, but the answer to the equation is quick to distract from the symphony. "Seems it's less a case of what happened, and more a case of what didn't happen." I flick a lever and push a button, swapping the image of the Lorenz system out for a temporal replay. "Recognize anything?"

A bright smile of recollection all but spontaneously manifests on her face. "That's Rainbow's first Sonic Rainboom!"

I nod, and smile wistfully at the screen. This is one of the most important events in recent history; the day that created Eqeustria's greatest heroes, the Bearers of Harmony. It's a focal point of so many diverging timelines that I can see the telltale flicker of at least fifteen perception filters in the replay. In all of time and space, I know only one other place that I've visited so often, but even that doesn't compare to this single explosive moment. To a Time Lord, that rainboom is a more beautiful and terrifying sight than the Untempered Schism. I've felt its echoes, both figuratively and literally, everywhere and everywhen I've been since I came to Equestria.

And now I know why I've felt sick to my stomach since we landed.

She sees it before I can draw attention to it. "Hey, is that Princess Twilight? What's she doing there? Wasn't she a filly back then? And a unicorn?" The smile becomes a frown, and then her jaw drops as it sinks in.

"Exactly." I let the replay move forward. Even though I know what's happened, I want to see it happen. There's the tragically necessary accident with Fluttershy, the first ring, the sharp corners, the brown one smashes into a column, and it all builds towards the glorious climax...

"There." My hooves all but slam into the console. The image freezes, magnifies, adjusts for clarity, and enters a loop. A single second replays over and over, showing a young Rainbow Dash freezing midair with the telltale glint of magic around her. Derpy points out a unicorn sitting on a cloud with a matching aura, and my breath catches in my throat. "Starlight Glimmer."

"What does she think she's doing?" Derpy's wings are fluttering faster now, a telltale hint of irritation. "Doesn't she know her country's history?"

"Evidently not." I dismiss the image in favor of the numbers. The equations say the same thing, but it feels... subdued, I suppose would be the word? I've always found the world much easier to understand when it's reduced to data on a screen.

"So, what's the plan, Doc?" She's started buzzing around like a hummingbird. "Are we going back to put the kibosh on this evil plan?"

"Princess Twilight beat us to the punch this time, Derpy. And we know better than most what happens when you have too many time travelers in one place."

"But it's Princess Twilight!" Her wings flare out and she snorts dismissively. "Who knows how much she'll have screwed up by the time she actually fixes anything! She'll probably end up overturning our entire system of government!"

"Quoth General Bright Eyes." I sigh, and propose another algorithm. The dance of numbers changes slightly, but not enough to give me hope. "She's hardly alone, Derpy. If you haven't noticed, the Master Tactician is right there beside her." That seems to stop her worrying.

"Okay, so what are we going to do?"

Rainbow Dash Joins the Ghost Wonderbolts

"Life is a journey, death doubly so."

-Captain Firefly

Watching You Watching Me v1

Octavia Melody. Accomplished cellist. Connoisseur of fine wines. Set on a path to the top of the classical music world, with no obstacles in sight. Scared out of her mind.

Vinyl Scratch. Acclaimed DJ. Retired arcanologist. Fights corruption in the music industry for fun. Happier than she's ever been.

Both present at the perfect time, in the perfect place, to see the things that wait beyond the fold of reality. Both inexorably drawn towards the center of an interdimensional conspiracy that none were meant to discover. Both wishing there was enough booze in the world to make them forget.

Both totally going to bang before this is over.

Pluton's Day Out

I am Pluton. I am the King of the Underworld. I am the literal incarnation of punishment and comeuppance. All men are sure to face me, and all men are sure to fall before me. When I walk the mortal earth, the very world is uprooted by nothing more than my breath, and the strike of my trident churns the sky and cracks the planet in twain.

And yet I have been slain by naught but a single punch. A mortal man, whose heart scarcely beat as he looked upon my unknowable visage, rended me to flesh without even trying.

I need a vacation.

A One-Punch Man crossover revolving around a character who appeared in the post-credits sequence of the final episode. Basically, the character you're least likely to recognize.

Chapter 1 - A Strange Place

An impossible distance beneath the earth, in a place where time could not be measured and there was no need for names, something stirred. A crevice in the ceiling of a cavern more spacious than the sky split open, and a piece of bloody pork slipped through and fell to the floor beneath. The wet slap of the meat striking the rock echoed for miles, and a thousand creatures with neither face nor form turned as one towards the sound.

The Penance of Garble

Description: My name is Garble. I am a dragon. I am young, scarcely more than a hatchling in the eyes of my fathers. But I am wise in the ways of my people, and I have long striven to teach my fellows that they should expect nothing from dragons and learn to stand on their own. I thought myself a good dragon.

But now a foundling, a dragon raised abroad with no knowledge of his own spirit, has bested me in the greatest contest of all time. I have knelt before a Dragon Lord whose age numbers less than the scales between my claws. And he has led upon me a penance that is at once cruel and merciful.

I must go home. And every dragon I meet along the way, I must embrace, without telling them why.

Prose It Is Not for Me to Say

I remember when I first heard the call of the Dragon Lord. The burning in my scales, the glow in the darkness of my cave, and the drive to seek out my lord were all so overwhelming. As I leaped from the shadows and took to the sky, I dared to hope that this meant what I thought it did; that now was the time for a new Dragon Lord, and that I would have a chance to take the throne for myself. Even as I was joined by the banter of my broodmates, my thoughts ever lingered on visions of the Bloodstone Scepter resting in my talons.

When at last we arrived on the shores of Razorscale Beach overlooking the Flamecano, I was greeted not with the sight of an aging and decrepit Dragon Lord, but the pony-hatchling. I speak of Spike, that thrice-accursed dragon who knows nothing of himself and is little more than a pony in dragon's armor. His ignorance is an embarrassment, but worse than that is his chivalry. The child does not stand alone, and believes that no creature should. When he stands alone, as a dragon should, he stumbles and falls. But if he stands together, as those ponies have taught him, he is unstoppable. He reaches out to those who fall, rather than leaving them. He is everything that a dragon should not be, and I hate him for it.

But every time that I insulted him, every time I tried to knock him low and assert dominance, he refuses to hate me. When I take from him, he acts as though I asked, and tells me I am welcome. When I strike, however I strike, he turns the other cheek and takes it in his stride. His scales have grown hard since last we met, and when I mock him, it is like mocking a mountain.

The Dragon Lord arrived soon after to distract me. The challenge he set for us, to run a gauntlet and fight for the scepter, excited me. Only the strongest would survive. I knew that Spike was sure to fall, and when he made the foolish decision not to run from the impossible, I gave him the push he needed. I flew across the sea, and stayed aloft while others fell to the harsh attacks of the geyser serpents. I knew I would become the Dragon Lord.

Then the slingtails brought me crashing back down. In less than a minute, I went from the sky to the worthless earth, pinned down by a massive boulder. I saw Spike, having crossed the waters despite the odds, and I called out to him. He had no reason to believe me, no incentive to push the rock off of me, but he did it anyway, and when I mocked his weakness he acted as though I had thanked him. At the time, I did not know why he did it.

Even looking back now, his reasons still elude me.

As we made our way deeper into the gauntlet, Spike outpaced me continually. I discovered that he had secured an alliance with the Dragon Lord's daughter, Ember. Her swift flight and impressive strength formed a terrifying synergy with his sharp mind, and they wound their way through countless trials without so much as a scratch. Even I, who was scarcely more than a few feet behind them at any moment, took more than my fair share of beatings.

I caught up to them at the scepter itself. I fought Ember tooth and claw for the power, believing that she was the only real threat. But as we wrestled, something else was happening. That impetuous pony-hatchling had reached the scepter.

Nocte

It has been one thousand years since the sun set. A thousand years since Luna's elder sister went mad with power and became Solar Flare. A thousand years since Luna was overwhelmed by jealousy and became Nightmare Moon. A thousand years, in either case, since the Elements of Harmony refused to obey their bearer.

Most ponies go their whole lives without ever seeing the sun, and those few who do are terrified by how bright its light burns.

http://ziom05.deviantart.com/art/Nightmare-Moon-Battle-Galea-481153549

If a Tree Goes in the Woods, Does Anyone Smell It?

The botany of crystal trees is a very difficult thing to explain, and the Tree of Harmony doubly so.

Your average crystal tree never stops growing. For several centuries, the crystal tree was regarded as a thaumological impossibility, as the Third Trotsani Theorem postulated that an infinitely-reproducing lifeform of any kind could only exist by draining magic from a progressively larger area, until eventually it would consume the entire planet, and yet the specimen growing in Celestia's private garden showed no indication of consuming any more magic than the average Sapient Poplar. However, after the return of the Crystal Empire allowed for a revitalization of the stagnant field of crystal study, the answer to the apparent cosmic riddle became clear.

A crystal tree's infinite, but almost imperceptibly slow growth is not a function of photosynthesis or thaumivorous behavior, but of calcium carbonate aggregation. In laymare's terms, it is the same process which forms stalactites in caves, but in reversed polarity to the normal direction that stalactites form, i.e. growing up instead of down. The reason for this apparently consistent localized violation of all laws of gravity remains one of the great unknowns of crystal botany, continuing to be categorized as Machinanian magic even to this day.

The unique phenomenon of naturally occurring facets which is shared by all crystal trees is thankfully not similarly unknown, being the verified byproduct of Equestria's magically enriched earth using crystal trees as a sort of primitive venting mechanism for excess magic (thus explaining both the magically saturated nature of the Crystal Empire, and may potentially be the source of pegasan weather magic --> further research, possibly another paper entirely, IMPORTANT: don't read this addendum out loud)

From the enigma of crystal trees, we move on to the quintessential mystery of crystal botany, the Tree of Harmony. This magical organism, previously thought to be a normal crystal tree being used as a domicile for the Spirit of Harmony a school of thought which inspired multiple generations of scholars living in trees, so it definitely isn't weird, has been recently discovered to be something else entirely. None of the very few things we know about crystal trees seem to apply to the Tree of Harmony, aside from the most basic and superficial of gardening tips, and even then only if used sparingly.

Perhaps the most significant difference, as well as the most recent discovery, is in growth. With one very notable exception, the Tree of Harmony has not been measured as having grown by any distance in any direction since the date of its discovery in the Squillionth Refraction of Discord. (current theory suggests it was constructed in its current form, but lack of obvious markings makes theory non-credible, do best to avoid speculation in final draft) Instead, the various energies normally associated with growth in crystal trees are channeled into bearing the Tree's unique fruits.

Most notable of these fruits are the Elements of Harmony, the magical [7°] gemstones that continue to be the most powerful naturally-occurring magical artifacts on record (speculation over whether the assimilation of their magic into Bearers can be classified as natural artifacts). However, the Elements are not the only fruit put forth by the Tree of Harmony; they are merely the largest. Since the Tree's restoration to full health at the conclusion of the Plunder Vine Outbreak (Ponyville and environs.), it has been recorded as putting forth several hundred grams' worth of magically charged geodes, most commonly at a rate of one quarter-gram every three weeks (re-adjust language to indicate frequent variance in exact numbers). The majority of observed geodes have displayed a magical value of .0000000000004°, this being roughly the amount of magical energy needed to perform basic telekinesis. Some have exhibited magical values of over .000000004°, but these appear to be a byproduct of external stimulus and should not be used as a benchmark for any expectations of yield (DO NOT IMPLY THESE SHOULD BE HARVESTED, THAT WOULD BE THE WORST POSSIBLE THING) therefore should be treated as outliers.

It is not yet known what the cause, or indeed the purpose, of these 'fruits' is, or indeed why the Tree does not appear to be growing any gemstones on the scale of the Elements of Harmony that we can discern. The current theory is that the geodes are similar to the facets of the garden-variety crystal tree, being the accidental byproduct of excess magical ventilation. There is the possibility that destiny is involved (you forgot to science this sentence) There are some theories suggesting that whatever intelligence inhabits the Tree of Harmony is deliberately producing these geodes for some as-of-yet-unknown purpose, but with the possibility of direct communication a verified non-possibility, it is not yet possible to verify if these theories have any credibility.

In short... uh...

Twilight put down the paper, and grinned sheepishly at her audience. "I kind of didn't write that far." Spike and Starlight smiled back at her, their ears like four black holes doing their best to suck all of Twilight's words out of her mouth. "So, uh, what did you think?"

Castle Friendship suddenly echoed with vibrations, a titanic sound that put Twilight in mind of breaking glass on a galactic scale. The walls of the castle seemed to scintillate and sparkle with light and color that defied classification, and the floor beneath her hooves briefly bucked and rolled like the ocean if the ocean had a lot of trouble getting up in the morning. It all came together to create an effect that seemed to combine raucous laughter with fervent applause.

When the cacophony died down a little, Starlight got up off the floor, fell over, then got up again before sitting in her chair and grinning like she was off her meds. "Well, I think the Tree likes it."

Twilight giggled as she realized that all that ruckus had been the Tree's attempt at congratulations. There was a tiny little niggling voice in the back of her head that was ranting about how there were probably a million sensitive instruments that had been damaged by the Tree's stunt, but for the moment Twilight was content to sit back in her chair and blink rapidly at the absurdity of it all.

In stark contrast to the bubbly Starlight Glimmer, Spike looked to be downright pensive as he sat with his talons steepled in front of his face. That, or he was queasy. It was sometimes hard to tell.

"Please tell me that was just a first draft," was all he said before his gurgling stomach cut him off. Definitely queasiness.

"Of course not, Spike. You know me better than that." Twilight shuffled the papers in front of her, making quick notes with a quill as new thoughts came into her head. "There's sources missing everywhere, every point is woefully unexpanded, and the paragraphs are distributed more like a short story than a scientific dissertation. Good as it is, this version of the report is barely even fit to be called a prototype. If anything, I'd say it's a proof of concept, a slightly expanded outline. There's maybe a few sentences of this that'll make it into the real thing, and even they'll be radically altered."

"So why bother reading it to us?" Starlight asked, her eyes full of that child-like wonderment that could almost make Twilight forget how many emergency procedures and hidden counterspells there were surrounding that mare.

"Everyone needs a sounding board," Twilight explained happily. "Even at such an early stage, feedback is a vital part of the piece's development. Plus, seeing as you've both contributed several hours to the geode project already, you're perfectly poised to make sure I'm not going off on tangents with the report!" There was a sudden feeling of emptiness, as though the walls were soaking up sound. "Also, since the Tree is the subject of the project, I felt it only fair that we allow it a chance to hear the thing." The walls were back to normal, although they somehow seemed a little more self-satisfied.

"I'm curious about that bit where you mentioned the possibility of harvesting," Starlight said. "Or, I guess, where you mentioned that you had to make sure not to make that possibility clear to the readers. I think I must have missed something there."

"What's to miss? The geodes are too hazardous. We have to avoid their use in anything industrial or commercial for as long as possible. End of story." Twilight resisted the urge to slam her hoof on the table.

"But think of the possibilities! Magical enhancement without the need for unstable spells! Self-contained looping spell matrices without the need for constant unicorn input! Automation on an unforeseen scale, enhancement of everything we do, these geodes could change the world!"

"And that's precisely why the world shouldn't have them."

Starlight looked confused and sad. "I don't understand."

"I'm sorry, Starlight. But just like controlling magic can go too far, so can empowering it." Twilight set the paper aside, going from Researcher Mode to Teacher Mode. "I've seen what happens when an earth pony tries to tend a crop they don't specialize in. An entire orchard, dried to a lifeless husk within a day. Now imagine the opposite end of that spectrum. What happens when an earth pony decides to use one of our geodes to help out on the farm, then they go to nurture a little sapling? We could end up with walls of roots as high as the skies themselves."

"Well, those roots would probably have fruit on them. We could make treetop villages, and... stuff..." Starlight trailed off.

Twilight sighed. She hated when dreams got crushed. It was the worst part of trying to make Starlight grow up. "And what about pegasi? If they used some of the geodes we found down there, they wouldn't just end up going supersonic, they might end up going so fast that their magic can't protect them against the G-forces. And as for unicorns... we'd just be creating even more over-powered unicorns who eventually go crazy because they've got more raw power than their brain knows how to distribute. And that's barely scratching the surface of what these things could do."

The two of them fell silent, and Spike looked back and forth between them as though he were waiting for one of them to b

I met a traveller from an antique time...

The Iron Wing stood vigil, and Rainbow Dash smiled up at her. The statue was a good likeness, hewn from a single stone that had been half the size of Princess Celestia's throne room when Maud started on it. Now, it was only as big as the average small house, and most of that was taken up by the plinth with all the names on it. Rainbow couldn't think of a better war memorial.

Well, she could, but asking ponies to build statues of every single casualty of the war had been shot down early on as a nice idea, but not economically feasible. And most of the ponies who had fought on the front lines were very adamant that, alive or not, she truly had been the face of the war effort. So the statue had been made of her, and her alone. But the names carved beneath her stone double's hooves were not merely names.

Every single name carved into the stone had been carefully enchanted. When Rainbow's eyes passed over a name, it would pop out to her, allowing her to read it from any distance of up to twenty feet away. If she was looking for a specific name, the plinth would recognize that, and every name would seem to slip under her eye until she finally saw the one she was looking for, so that she didn't actually need to take the time to read and process every single name. The enchantment also meant that she didn't need to take time physically walking around the plinth to read every name.

When it had first been proposed, Rainbow had thought it disrespectful. But now, as she read through the names without having to squint or tilt her head for the hundredth time, she couldn't help but agree. She'd have to ask the princess to give the plinth's enchanter a raise.

Rainbow felt the touch of a familiar hoof on her left shoulder, then turned and smiled at Maud. Maud Pie was always there to pull her back, and to help her take off. Even when she didn't actually need any help, and was just a little bit lost in thought, Maud was still there, just in case she had drifted too far. Maud was her rock, and if there was one thing that Rainbow could not un-learn about rocks (among the several billion things she could not un-learn about rocks) it was that rocks were constant, even when they didn't technically serve a purpose. And that was Maud Pie, through and through.

There was an empty space on the earth pony's far side, but she did not resent that. Pinkamena was honoring the dead just as they were, only instead of keeping a lonely vigil over a statue, she was off putting smiles on ponies' faces, telling stories of her exploits as though it wasn't the most horrifying time of her life. In that way, she was all the stronger for not needing to be here.

"Pardon me, miss. Are you Rainbow Dash?"

Rainbow's ear flicked at the unexpected voice, and her curiosity was piqued by the use of her real name. She turned to face the newcomer, and felt a world-weary smile tug at her lips as she met the gaze of a light purple unicorn. "It's been a long time since I heard that name, stranger. Almost surprised there's still somepony who remembers it."

The stranger smiled, and took a tentative step closer. "It's what they call you in the history books. Of course, if you'd prefer I use the nickname..."

Rainbow shook her head, and beckoned with her wing. "No, no. To be honest, it's kind of nice to hear it again. Come closer. Sit and talk with us for a while."

The stranger seemed to freeze up for a few seconds. "Um, are you sure? I'd hate to intrude." Her eyes flitted to Maud, and Rainbow just let her grin grow wider.

"It's not as if we were doing anything, kid. Besides, there's only so long you can stand to sit and stare without talking. Now come on, sit yourself down."

The stranger gave off a sigh of contentment, and settled on Rainbow's right side. Rainbow noticed that she was deliberately sitting out of wing's reach, but she decided not to mention it. Using her name or not, the stranger was clearly one of those many ponies so in awe with what Rainbow had done that they had trouble seeing her as mortal.

There were other details about the stranger that stood out. Her mane was long, flowing, and clearly arranged for style rather than substance. The faint scents of shampoo and conditioner still clung to her locks, and there was a certain shine to her that even Princess Celestia very rarely showed off these days.

"What's your name, stranger?" Rainbow did her best not to sound suspicious, but if she did, the stranger gave no indication that she had noticed.

"My name is Starlight Glimmer." There was a weight to the way she said that, as though convinced that hers was a name that had seen empires fall and stars collapse. To Rainbow Dash's ears, it wasn't a name that meant anything.

"Nice to meet you, Starlight Glimmer." As she said that, Rainbow's gaze drifted back to the plinth. The names blurred in front of her mind's eye, then came to a stop. She stared, and the hair on the back of her neck rose as she read the name. Then she turned to face Starlight, and everything seemed to click together in her mind. "Um, I don't mean to be rude, but... you're dead."

Starlight's eyes bugged out when she heard that. "What? No I'm not! I'm just as alive as you!"

A chill ran up Rainbow's spine, and she couldn't stop herself from checking the plinth. The names blurred and blurred, but she didn't see her own name. "Look, Starlight, you're dead. Your name is on the stone."

Starlight turned and examined the plinth, and her skin paled. "Oh. I suppose it is. You know, I always suspected it would be, but I never had the nerve to look."

There was no more suspicion left in Rainbow's heart. Instead, she only had sympathy, and a little touch o

The abandoned part of A Nightmare for Snowfall Frost

"Nothing," answered a windigo. "We kept to the terms of the agreement."

"Liar," she growled, teleporting out of the pit and seizing every hate-filled winter spirit in her aura. "Equestria would not simply fall. You must have manipulated them."

"The agreement was strict," another windigo spoke up. "You made sure of that the first time. 'Take only what calls you by its nature, and yield to the fire that ponies hold'. We could not have disobeyed, even if were capable of starving into desperation."

Nightmare Moon growled, and reached out for something. She found it quite easily. "So what happened here? Why do I return to a frozen wasteland, instead of a continent of prosperity and immeasurable wealth?"

Yet another windigo thrashed against the Nightmare's aura, just enough to get her attention. "The greatest fire that ponykind ever lit. The Warming of the Hearth. One of yours decided to end it."

"End it?" Nightmare Moon started in incomprehension, then something else sunk in. "One of mine?"

"Burner of the midnight oil," a windigo hissed. "You know the sort... They stay awake into the smallest hours of the night, so absorbed in their work that they only turn away from it to watch the stars for a while. Ponies that live in the night."

Part of Nightmare Moon flared up at that, like a meager flame that has been guttering for hours only to burst back into glorious life. "And they... they loved me? They loved the night?"

The windigos nodded, some eagerly and some venomously. "Not a single one of them was ever in our grasp. Fire in their hearts, near as strong as the Warming, and all for industry."

Nightmare Moon closed her eyes and shook her head in confusion. Princess Luna opened them. "Industry," she whispered fondly. "And under my stars as well." Then the pressure of her encroaching asset urged her back to relevant information. "You said one of mine, they ended Hearth's Warming. How? Why?"

"Why do you think? A season dedicated to not-work. An entire day where progress was an unworthy goal, and work was treated as torture. Constant distractions from brilliant magic, and it was brilliant, even for an alchemist."

"An alchemist," Luna repeated in amazement. "An alchemist did this. How?"

"Pony memory. 'Tis even more ephemeral than the pony body. She brewed up a potion that made the ponies forget to warm the Hearth. From there... we have held to the agreement. Barely two years, and the last of them fell."

"Who was this alchemist? Was she of any noble house? What tribe was she?"

"What do you care?" one of the windigos asked. "She's been dead for over a hundred years."

Princess Luna bared her teeth, and stamped her hoof against the ice and snow. "And now the world stands as a monument to what she did. She will be remembered from now until the moment when Equestria crumbles to ash and reality itself bleeds away. Not even I or my sister could boast such accomplishments. So tell me her name, that I might remember her."

The windigos fell silent. The wind picked up, and it blew the snow so hard and so fast that the world turned to solid white. Luna held her breath, and wondered if the cowards had fled. She dared not ask if they were still there; uncertainty was weakness, and as the only fresh meat in a hundred years, she could not afford to show weakness.

"Her name was Snowfall Frost," said a voice far too close to her ear. "She was a unicorn, and a direct descendant of Clover the Clever at that."

"How ironic," Luna joked, and she looked up at the sky. The clouds had cleared, and there was a great white light shining down on the snow. The blizzard around them was sparkling like a sea of diamonds, and the windigos were almost transparent under the rays of piercing light. Then they looked up as well, and they saw the star falling from the sky. Rather than scream and run as ponies might have, they just stood there, and turned to glare at Luna.

"Last question, I promise." The Princess of the Night wove the arcane sigils of a time spell, and prepared to catch the star. "Did you really think that you could take over the world, and there wouldn't be any consequences?"

One of the windigos