Very little had changed in the arctic since yesterday morning. The high winds were still whipping the snow around. The Reverse Cremator was still standing. Sombra had barely even swayed as he stood in front of it waiting for the time for it to lay its last egg. The circular crack in the ground nearby hadn’t been disturbed; nor had the hair-trigger creatures that dwelled beneath it. As for the ponies trapped within the circle, they didn’t know how much longer they could last. After Rainbow Dash’s failed attempt to find an escape route via the snow clouds, she, Scootaloo, and Amber Aldis had been huddled together since then. They were freezing, starving, and anxious. And now that the sun had come up, they knew it wouldn’t be long before Sombra would move on with his scheme. There had been virtually no talking in this area for nearly twenty-four hours. When they weren’t fearing for their own and the Crystal Empire’s safety, all three of the trapped ponies were trying to figure out what Sombra meant when he said he’d discovered something that might sway Snowdrop to go along with his evil plans. It seemed very likely that they knew each other over a millennium ago; were they friends back then? Had Snowdrop known Sombra before he became a tyrant?

Rainbow Dash broke the long-lasting silence. “I’m-m g-gonna t-try th-the s-sky ag-gain.”

Scootaloo and Amber gave her discouraged looks, but said nothing. Sombra gave no indication that he heard.

“I c-can’t s-stand wait-ting around-d for that w-wacko to s-spring into action,” Rainbow stood up, shaking from head to hoof. “I h-have to g-get help.”

“It’s-s n-no use, D-Dash,” shivered Amber. “It-t’s m-morning. Th-the th-third egg’s-s c-com-ming an-ny m-minute.”

“I kn-know it’s r-risky,” said Rainbow Dash, gazing upwards, “b-but I am-m n-not g-giving in.”

“Ah, memories,” murmured Sombra.

This was far from a good sign, but Rainbow Dash was not discouraged. She spread her wings and took to the air. It was disheartening for Scootaloo and Amber to see that her speed was sluggish. Even knowing what was waiting for her above the clouds, it wasn’t likely that she could put on enough speed to make it through the herd.

“I j-just h-hope I h-have th-the st-trength t-to c-catch her th-this t-time,” Amber said as she stood up shakily.

“I h-hope sh-she d-doesn’t g-get t-to f-far outs-side the c-circle bef-fore she f-falls,” said Scootaloo fretfully. “Th-then n-no one will c-catch her.”

I really don’t know what Spitfire and Lightning Dust see in me, Rainbow Dash thought as she drew nearer to the dark clouds above. This is so stupid… what I’m doing… I can’t do this… I know I can’t do this… why am I doing this?

Her wings would not stop pumping. She punctured her way through the clouds and was once again in plain view of the windigoes.

“You didn’t even check up with your mom to see if she actually was sick!”

“You put the lives of every foal in Cloudsdale in jeopardy!”

“You left Spike to fall while you went back for the money you let go of like an idiot!”

“You don’t even care that Soarin’s an insomniac!”

“You didn’t bother to help Ponyville with their tornado!”

“You still haven’t explained to me how a messenger got to the Crystal Empire!”

Rainbow Dash could not believe what she was seeing. Running towards her past the indifferent silver horses were a pair of savage-looking pegasi.

“Those morons,” she groaned, starting to feel he windigoes’ effects. “What do they think they’re doing?”

She quickly realised she was doing the same thing, and that got her madder.

“You couldn’t make a sonic rainboom after five tries!” bellowed Spitfire.

“You’ve never even come close in all your life!” roared Lightning Dust.

Then, at the same time, as their pace was getting slower and their faces more manic, they both yelled something that made Rainbow’s angry feelings drain slightly.

“You’re no Rainbow Dash!”

Rainbow watched as Spitfire and Lightning Dust began to lose their hoofing. They now noticed that Rainbow Dash was right in front of them. She never gave them a chance to speak.

“You wanna taste of what it’s like to be me?!” she screamed at them. “Here!”

She turned, grabbed one of Spitfire’s foreleg’s with her right hoof, one of Lightning Dust’s with her left, and pulled them with her as she dived down through the clouds.

The last two times the Reverse Cremator had laid an egg, no one had seen it properly. When Amber had been restored, it had been obscured by smoke. When Sombra was renewed, all the witnesses had blurred vision. Now that it was going to lay its third egg, there was nothing to stop Scootaloo, Amber, and Sombra from watching as it glowed red and yellow.

“Here sh-she c-comes,” groaned Amber.

Sombra beamed as a violet egg fell out of the lifelike phoenix model and rolled over in the snow.

“It’s R-Rainbow!” exclaimed Scootaloo, pointing up. “B-but who’s th-that w-with her?!”

Now no one knew where to look. The egg was cracking, and Rainbow Dash was zooming downwards, dragging two ponies with her. Sombra was looking cross for the first time since he’d returned, disturbed by the sudden appearance of two more ponies.

“She’s n-not f-falling,” said Amber. “Is sh-she… t-trying t-to…?”

The air around Rainbow Dash, Spitfire, and Lightning Dust began to feel tight. Rainbow’s face took the most resistance, but she and her companions never stopped gaining momentum. She kept on pumping her wings, and refused to let go of Spitfire’s and Lightning Dust’s hooves.

“A rainboom!” Sombra spluttered furiously.

His horn lit up, but he was distracted when the purple egg fell apart. A bright turquoise filly emerged from it. Her eyes were wide open, and she looked straight up, where everypony else was looking.

The noise was tumultuous, and the scene was magnificent. It was unlike any rainboom Rainbow Dash had produced before. It seemed to ripple like water, and tiny sparks ignited all over it. And perhaps it was because there was a wall of dark grey clouds behind it, and that they were in such a white and dull area, but Scootaloo, Amber Aldis, Sombra, and Snowdrop had never seen something so vibrant and hypnotizing. Snowdrop’s mouth was hanging open. The three who had created this feast for the eyes descended rapidly towards Scootaloo and Amber Aldis. Rainbow Dash scooped up Scootaloo using only her head, but unfortunately, due to weight and numbness, she only managed to knock Amber Aldis over. The battered and weary alicorn was left behind as Rainbow steered her convoy over the circular crack. A claw came up to swat at them. It hit them. But the claw and the four ponies had been going at the same speed. Rainbow Dash, Spitfire, Lightning Dust, and Scootaloo all took a hit, but their incredible speed allowed them to pass over the crack as they tumbled forward and hit the ground hard. The group fell apart and rolled in the snow, dizzy, unstable, and in a fair amount of pain.

Rainbow Dash had landed in front of Sombra, who grabbed her by the throat seething.

“Your escape attempts are finished!” he snarled, his horn lighting up.

Spitfire was laying in front of Snowdrop, her face half-buried in snow. She could see attractive hexagonal crystals with one eye, and the iconic inventor with the other.

“You make these?” she asked groggily.

Snowdrop looked down at the powder Spitfire had scooped up in her hoof, and shook her head.

“Didn’t you invent these?” slurred Spitfire.

Sombra’s eyes popped. His horn went dim.

“No…” he breathed as he let go of Rainbow Dash.

“Are you the one who created star-shaped snowflakes, or not?” Spitfire asked before passing out in front of the bewildered Snowdrop.

Sombra’s body was no longer solid. It seemed to blow away bit by bit in the gale as though it was made of sand. He was once again reduced to powerless shadow, and disappeared within a minute.

Scootaloo stood up; she was the only one in the rainboom party who was able to. Spitfire was unconscious, Rainbow Dash was barely breathing, and Lightning Dust’s body was contorted a little.

“Amber!” called Scootaloo. “You’re s-still s-stuck.”

Amber looked around glumly. “Well, at l-least y-you t-two g-got out. Hey… here’s-s y-your s-scooter.”

She approached the gap as closely as she could without revealing herself to the frostaceans, and tossed the scooter over it. Scootaloo smiled to show her thanks, and turned to Snowdrop, who was still in disbelief over what she was experiencing.

“Hello, S-Snowd-drop,” she shivered. “M-my name’s-s S-Scootaloo. You’re p-probably r-really c-confused…”

Snowdrop spoke at last. “What happened to Sombra?”

“Oh…” Scootaloo gulped. “I… I’ll exp-plain later. R-right now, w-we n-need your h-help. We’ve b-been t-trapped out here f-for a whole n-night. We’re f-freezing… and we’re s-starv-ving.”

Snowdrop looked over her shoulder, then back at Scootaloo.

“You want me to…?”

“I kn-know you’ve p-probably n-never d-done it b-before,” shivered Scootaloo, “b-but we n-need you t-to run t-to the C-Crystal Empire and g-get help.”

Snowdrop nodded, turned around, and began to fly away towards the crystal city. But after being disturbed by three ponies, the windigoes were increasing the amount of snow and wind that came down, and Snowdrop was buffeted to the point where she couldn’t get any distance hovering in the air. She touched down and began trotting towards civilization, going as quickly as she could in the strong winds.

“She can fly?!” Scootaloo felt like she’d strayed into windigo territory herself.

When Rainbow Dash next woke, she felt quite warm. She looked around. She was in a tent, which was swaying; no doubt there was a lot of wind outside.

“Rainbow’s awake,” said Shining Armour.

Some crystal ponies walked towards her.

“Are you feeling well enough to eat?” one asked.

Rainbow considered, and nodded. The medical ponies set up a tray with sandwiches and cocoa. Rainbow Dash sat up on her cot and looked to see who else was in the tent. Three other cots were next to hers, each occupied by a pegasus. Scootaloo was awake and beaming wearily, and Lightning Dust and Spitfire were asleep.

“Where’s Amber?” asked Rainbow.

“She’s still trapped on that glacier,” sighed Shining Armour. “We couldn’t get her over the gap. My shield spell was useless against those frostaceans. We tried getting a ramp over, but they swatted at it the instant somepony tried to cross it. But don’t worry. We threw her a hamper of food and plenty of kindling. And a tent for her own. She’ll be alright.”

Rainbow Dash smiled and sipped some cocoa. “What about the Reverse Cremator?”

“I threw it into the pit,” said Shining. “No one can get to it now.”

Rainbow Dash spotted Snowdrop, who walked up to join Shining Armour and the medical staff.

“Imagine how we all felt when Snowdrop, thee Snowdrop, came running into the Crystal Empire shouting that there was trouble out in the arctic snow,” chuckled Shining Armour.

The storm died down after a few days, and the patients and their caregivers lived quite comfortably in the large tent during that time. Amber never complained about being stuck in that circle. Everyone who threw provisions to her made sure to throw them upwind so they didn’t fly back and hit them in the face. It wasn’t long before Spitfire and Lightning Dust awoke. Slowly but surely, the whole story began to unfold. Shining Armour was ecstatic when Spitfire told them what she said before Sombra lost his power and his body.

“Celestia and Luna will be so pleased to hear this,” he said. “They’ve been trying to figure out what dark pacts Sombra made to give him such power for centuries. It all fits. He tied his life and his power to a secret he didn’t want the world to know. And he tried to take over the Crystal Empire to turn it into a complete nightmare so he could keep ponies away from the area, so no one would discover his secret.”

“What was that secret?” asked Spitfire.

“What? Don’t you know?” Shining Armour spluttered.

“I have no idea what I did to Sombra,” shrugged Spitfire.

“You discovered that…”

Shining faltered and glanced at Snowdrop, who frowned and stepped forward.

“That I didn’t really invent the snowflake,” she said.

“Oh,” said Spitfire. “That’s right. The windigoes create the same kind you introduced to Equestria.”

Rainbow Dash remembered something Pinkie Pie said once when Prince Rutherford visited Ponyville. “Snow is snow, no matter where it comes from.” Now it seemed she’d been wrong.

“For years and years, nopony knew this,” said Shining Armour. “Sombra figured it out and didn’t want anyone to know because he thought it would give Snowdrop’s legacy a black eye.”

“Has it?” asked Snowdrop.

Everypony answered “No” at the same time.

“If somepony had discovered the snow the windigoes create and showed everypony else,” said Spitfire, “everyone would have considered them evil. You showed Equestria a beautiful side of winter weather. You may not have been as original as everyone thought you were, and you may be able to see now, but that doesn’t make you any less of an idol.”

Snowdrop smiled. “Well, I’m glad you realised this, Spitfire. If you hadn’t, I hate to think what evil things Sombra would have done.”

“I wouldn’t have realised this if it weren’t for Lightning Dust,” said Spitfire. “She’s the one who dangled that bag of arctic snow in front of my face while I was in the infirmary.”

“What were you doing that for?” asked Scootaloo.

“Oh. That was when I found out why Spitfire was having that fevered dream about her mom and the ice iris,” Lightning Dust didn’t sit up as she spoke. “I knew she’d opened that door Sombra cursed, and that he must’ve been around if it was making ponies think they were living their worst nightmares.”

“You’re both real heroes,” said Rainbow Dash happily.

Both Spitfire and Lightning Dust looked doubtful.

“I’m serious,” Rainbow Dash climbed out of her cot. “If you two hadn’t shown up, I would have been those windigoes’ dinner. You two made me realise something. You shouldn’t sell yourself short. Everypony has things that can make others jealous, and it can be a bit hard to appreciate our own when we spend so much time worrying about what others can do. We all have a hero and a role model in us.”

She went back to bed. She still felt nauseated from the misadventure. But her little speech had done wonders to raise the morale in that tent.

When the storm died down and the snowfall and wind returned to normal, ponies came to visit the tent. Twilight Sparkle and the rest of the Friendship council, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, the Wonderbolts, Stormy Flare, Updraft, Coco Pommel, Starlight Glimmer, and the Royal Sisters took up so much space, that they all had to take turns being with the patients in the tent while everyone else stood outside. Princess Luna was perhaps the happiest pony in the arctic then. Having Snowdrop back was almost too much for her. Scootaloo discovered that Snowdrop was the reason Luna had taken an interest in Equestria’s youth, which was why she’d appeared before her and her fellow Crusaders in their dreams when they were having problems. Starlight never went into the tent. She stood at the edge of the circle most of the time. She and Twilight had both tried their luck at using magic to free her from the enclosure, but to no avail. Twilight tried teleporting into the circle right away, with the intention of taking Amber back with her on her return trip. This was the first time anyone caught a clear view of a frostacean’s claw. It seemed to make Twilight appear out of nowhere, holding her by her mane, and tossing her back away from the circle.

“I’m sorry I’ve caused so much trouble,” Amber said after Twilight and Starlight had given up trying to use magic to free her.

“It’s alright. You couldn’t help it. We know how badly you wanted to be able to use magic again,” said Twilight.

“I’m especially sorry I’ve betrayed your trust,” Amber said to Starlight. “You worked so hard trying to find a cure for me, and I just couldn’t wait for you.”

Starlight sighed. “I can’t blame you for falling for Sombra’s trick. I think I might’ve been exited too if I thought I was channelling the ghost of Starswirl the Bearded.

Judging by the look on Twilight’s face, Starlight and Amber were sure she would too. As no one could get Amber across the gap, they supplied her with provisions to build her own cabin with. Arrangements were made for food and drink deliveries to be made regularly to, what was soon known as, Amber’s Glacier. On the morning after Amber had finished building her shelter and slept overnight in it for the first time, she exited her cabin to find a small stage was being set up just outside the circle by Starlight.

“What are you doing?” asked Amber.

“I didn’t want you to miss this, so I asked if we could do it out here,” replied Starlight.

Amber was excited to learn that a knighting ceremony would be taking place out there where she could watch. Hundreds of ponies showed up to watch the event, including Twilight’s Knights of Harmony.

“Spitfire… Lightning Dust… thanks to you two, we beat Sombra. He was stopped again from trying to rule the Crystal Empire and enslave the crystal ponies,” Rainbow Dash beamed as she stood on the stage in front of the Wonderbolts’ captain and the Air Sprinting gold medalist. “So, as a member of the Friendship Council, I’ll be taking advantage of my right to dish out knighthoods.”

She unfurled her wings to reveal a shiny gold pendant held in each.

“You’ve both earned the title Knight of Harmony,” she said, “for committing yourselves to stopping a disaster, letting go of your worries that you’ll fall short of somepony you admire, and knowing full well that you were leaving something you really wanted behind.”

She flung one pendant over Spitfire’s head so it settled around her neck, and did the same to Lightning Dust with the other pendant. The sound of the crowd’s applause drowned out the wind and carried across the snow. Spitfire and Lightning Dust turned to face the crowd.

“I’m happy I could do my part,” said Spitfire. “And I’ll do my best to keep it up.”

She beckoned Snowdrop to come and join her on stage.

“I’ll be taking Snowdrop into my home,” she finished, “and helping her adjust to modern Equestrian life.”

The crowd applauded her.

“I’ve got a little project too,” Light Dust announced. “I am going to figure out a way to get Amber Aldis off that glacier and out of the frostaceans’ and windigoes’ reach.”

She received some applause as well.

“Also, while I’m up here,” Spitfire said, “can someone explain to me how Clopley Hill’s weather team got that call for volunteers to the Crystal Empire when the weather was so bad?”

Author's Note

And that's another batch of ten done.