“Hey, Starlight,” Maud said. “You know spells to control ponies’ minds.”
“Uh!” Starlight snorted. “I mean. I know them. A few, that is, but lots of unicorns know a few spells like that. Or some unicorns anyway. Twilight does, and she’s the Princess of Friendship. And sure, her history with them isn’t so great, but doesn’t that just mean we’re in the same boat?”
Maud said nothing, continuing to look up at the sky. Starlight tried to let the silence hang. She held out for all of three seconds. “It’s not like I’ve used any of them. Recently. Except that one time. And Twilight’s friends were very forgiving and… I mean. I solve problems. Okay? I’m a problem solver. And most problems are caused by other ponies who won’t do what they’re supposed to. So it’s a really general problem solving tool. And sure, I know it’s morally wrong, which is why I don’t do it anymore. I mean, try not to.”
Maud said nothing. Starlight let out a sharp snort. “I have an impulse control problem, okay!? I’m working on it. I’m seeing a therapist. I mean, I saw a therapist. A month ago. I might see them again.”
Finally, Starlight fell back to the snow, head up towards the sky. She crossed her hooves over her belly. “You’re worse than the parole board!”
For a long time, Maud was silent. They were outside in the snow, looking up at the cloud passing by. There was wind scheduled for later that day. Kite flying wasn’t really a winter sport, but they were willing to make a go of it.
“Could you make a pony fall in love?”
“WINDIGOES RETURN TO EQUESTRIA,” the paper read, “MANEHATTEN LOCKED IN UNENDING FROST.”
There were pictures below the headline, flown out of the city by brave pegasi. They showed buildings set on fire, and snow drifts up to the third story. Towers sealed shut by ice, as the ponies within fought each other for control of the scraps that were left. Wars between gangs that did not exist a month ago, fought in the midst of a blizzard. In all of them, one figure could be seen.
She was Aanakamigishkaang, greatest of all windigos, Queen of Cruel Winds and Steed of the Apocalypse, upon whose back would one day be borne the end of the world.
“This is bad, girls!” Twilight said, her upturned muzzle and outdoor voice forewarning the arrival of one of declarative moments. Perhaps even a speech. “It looks like these windigos don’t just feed off of hate and strife, they can actually create it. Aanakamigishkaang’s breath drives ponies to madness, and her subjects feed on the hate that follows.”
“How long do we have before they reach Ponyville?” Applejack asked, looking down at the map in the center of the room. Already, more than half of Equestria was covered in curling white clouds.
“Only a few days. It looks like they’ll get here just in time for Hearth’s Warming.” Twilight took a sharp breath. “But don’t worry, with Starlight’s help, I’ve come up with a solution.”
“There’s a spell I know,” Starlight said. “It’s called The Invocation of Beasts, but it’s basically a spell designed to cloud ponies thoughts. It makes you a little out of it, and also kind of stupid, but it also makes you immune to nearly all forms of mind control.”
The ponies of ponyville stared at her. Starlight coughed. “And Twilight and I can cast it on the whole town at once.”
“Is that all then?” Rarity asked, a tad skeptical. “We beguile the whole town into an addled state and hope they pass us by?”
“No.” Twilight shook her head. “You’re right—on it’s own, that’s not a solution. We can’t keep the whole town simple minded forever, so they could wait us out. And even if they didn’t, they could just pass us by and attack another town. Starlight’s spell will protect us against the windigos, but we need to do more than just defend ourselves.” There was the speech. “We need to drive them out of Equestria using the one thing that windigos can’t stand!”
“Friendship?” Spike asked.
“Harmony!” Shouted Twilight and all of her friends at once. All except Starlight, anyway. “Windigos may feed on anger and conflict, but positive emotions like harmony and joy drive them off. Powerful positive emotions like love or deep friendship can actually hurt them. So if we want the windingos to leave Equestria, they need to decide that Equestria is a little too spicy to eat. And that means—”
Pinkie Pie gasped. “Best Hearth’s Warming party EVER! Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!” She let out a high pitched squeal. “We can get the whole town together in Twilight’s castle! All of us! Shut the doors to keep the cold out, light the fires, and party the monsters away! There will be cake and presents and eggnog and even mistletoe. Oh oh. Rarity! You’ve gotta help me make decorations. And Applejack…”
Starlight watched as Pinkie Pie went on. Eventually, quietly, when everypony else was occupied, she snuck away.
“Oh, come on. You know the answer to that.” Starlight waved her hoof towards the sky. “Didn’t Twilight ever tell you the love poison story? I know she’s told everypony else. A few years before we moved here, the cutie mark crusaders got into this alchemy book and—”
“That’s not love.” Maud said. Starlight fell silent at once, her jaw snapping shut so hard her teeth clicked. “That’s just infatuation.”
“Oh, you mean like, true love? Like, Shining Armor and Cadence love? Ridiculous sentiment love?” Starlight turned to look at Maud beside her, and after a few seconds of silence, took that as her answer. “No! No. Nopony can… I mean, no magic can induce that. Magic can’t induce real emotions. It can just trick you into feeling something for awhile.”
“Did the Elements of Harmony trick Luna into feeling remorse?”
“Uh…” Starlight blew a jet of air out through her teeth. “No! I… okay. Contextually, maybe some magic can induce some real feelings. But only if the subject is cooperative. Luna genuinely wanted to feel remorse. She just needed some help.”
“So if a pony genuinely wanted to feel love, could you do it?”
“Why do you ask?” Starlight cleared her throat. She used a touch of magic to tuck her mane in behind her ear. “Is there somepony you have your eye on?”
“Yes.”
“Heh.” Starlight took a moment to fiddle with her hooves. Her eyes went from Maud to the sky, then back to Maud. “Somepony you think might genuinely want to love you?”
“Somepony I genuinely want to love.”
“Oh!” Starlight’s tongue ran over her teeth. For a moment, she dared to smile. “Who is it?”
“Aanakamigishkaang.” Maud turned to look at Starlight. “She’s the windigo queen.”
They circled overhead, their spectral forms visible in the gloom. Their eyes were the only light in the sky. When Starlight met their gaze, it was like staring into the sun, and her eyes burned with their radiance. Yet somehow, the light that shone forth gave neither warmth nor illumination to the landscape.
They were impossibly long. Ephemeral. Thin. Their eyes were pushed deep into their sockets, and their bones pushed out under their skin. Their manes were overgrown like wild thorns.
There were three of them. Two were bare. One wore a saddle made of the aurora, and a crown whose jewels were frozen tears. It was said she was a true oracle, who knew the names of every pony who would die in the cold.
It was not a night to be outdoors. It was a night without the moon and without the stars, so dark a pony could not see their hoof in front of their face. It was a night of cruel winds, so strong they could pick a pony off the ground and so cold they cut like knives through even the thickest of coats. It was a night when some ponies would vanish, not to be seen until the spring.
The ponies of Ponyville hid from it all inside Twilight’s palace. They were celebrating. But Maud wasn’t there with them. She was out in the cold.
Starlight was with her.
“What? No.” Twilight shook her head. “It’s absolutely ridiculous.”
“But it could work,” Starlight raised her voice. “Positive emotions have a caustic effect on evil spirits, including windigos. And we know from Thorax and the changelings that directing positive emotions at something has a much stronger effect than just being around them. Sure, partying could drive the windigos away, but if somepony loved the windigo queen herself—”
“You could love her to death?” Twilight asked. Her tone abruptly turned sharp. She lifted her head from her book. “You could love her so hard she shrivels up and dies?”
“Well…” Starlight laughed. She looked off at the rafters and swirled a hoof. “You know. I mean, any plan sounds bad if you put it in the wrong context.”
“Or the right context?”
Starlight groaned. She looked back to the open book in front of her. They were alone in Twilight’s library, magical texts piled all around them. “Maybe we should just… focus. We only have another day or two before the windigos arrive. I still need to finish my enchantment.”
“No, Starlight. This is worth a moment. Look at me.” Twilight gestured, and Starlight’s head turned like she was physically yanked forward. She looked right into Twilight’s eyes. “Love isn’t a weapon. It’s a pure, positive, compassionate emotion. It’s the deepest bond of unconditional caring two ponies can feel for each other. It’s when you truly appreciate some pony for who they are.”
Starlight didn’t answer, and so Twilight spoke again. “Starlight, do you understand?”
“Are you ready?” Maud asked.
“Of course I am you stupid bitch!” Starlight screamed. She shouted so loud her words broke down into a primal screech, a sound that left her throat raw and Maud’s ears ringing. “What do you think I’ve been standing out here for!?”
“Aanakamigishkaang’s magic is impairing your judgement.”
“No, it…” Starlight grasped her head with a hoof. She squeezed her eyes shut. “No, it isn’t! You just don’t understand! How would you understand another pony’s emotions? You never understand anything you stupid wind up doll!”
“Starlight.” Maud reached out. She held Starlight’s cheek.
Starlight stared at her. Ice was already forming in Maud’s coat and along her ears. If she didn’t get inside soon, she’d start losing the tips to frostbite. Her mane whipped in the wind. She had her frock pulled tight around her. It did nothing to protect her from the cold. She couldn't stop shivering, and where she touched Starlight, her hoof shook.
“Maud…” Starlight squeezed her eyes shut again. She shook her head. “It’s… no. This isn’t safe. You need to go back inside.”
“Starlight, I need you to focus.” Maud lowered her hoof. After a moment, she added: “Please.”
“I just don’t see why you’d want to do this.” Starlight always liked Maud’s tea. It was stone tea, which Maud made by putting a stone in water and then heating it.
Which, to Starlight’s mind, tasted much better than regular tea. She wasn’t really a tea sort of pony.
“Windigos are bad.”
“Yes.” Starlight sipped her water. She looked all around Maud’s cavern, admiring the crystals and stalling for time. “Windigoes are… bad. That’s right! They’re very bad. But Twilight and everypony else is already going to drive them away. With the party. So it’s not like you have to do anything.”
“But I could do something.”
“You could! Totally, totally could.” Starlight lifted a hoof. Maud was looking at the floor, and playing with Boulder. “But, do you really want all that rattling around in your head? I mean,” Starlight laughed, “that would be weird, right? Falling deeply, truly in love with the queen of the windigos?”
“I don’t know. Would it be weird?” Maud didn’t look up from her rock. “Have you ever loved somepony, Starlight?”
“I don’t… I’ve never had a special somepony.” Starlight smiled a stiff smile. “So that—”
“That’s not what I asked.”
Starlight’s smile faded. Her ears drooped. “I uh…” She tried to swallow, but her mouth felt suddenly dry. “Sure, I… I’ve… I’ve loved. Somepony. I’m sure. Like my parents. When I was little and didn’t know any better. Or um… well. Trixie and I. We’re good friends. And that counts, right?”
Starlight tucked her legs in tighter around herself. “I thought I loved Sunburst. But the therapist says that apparently, enslaving an entire village because somepony moved away is a little less ‘love’ and a little more ‘dangerously obsessed and using it as an excuse to act out your darkest impulses.’” Starlight laughed. “And she wonders why I didn’t come back for another session.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever loved.” Maud rolled Boulder around, left and right. “I care about Pinkie Pie. Maybe I care about her a lot. I don’t like it when she’s hurt, or upset. But when other ponies talk about love, I feel like there’s something there. Something special. I once asked my mother how I knew if I was in love, and she said if I had to ask, it wasn’t love. I’d know when I felt it.”
“And…” Starlight’s jaw opened and shut. She stammered as she searched for the words. “You’re asking me?”
Outside, the wind howled.
All the ponies of Ponyville were in Twilight’s palace. And they were having a blast. Starlight’s spell made them a little out of it, and a little stupid, and none of them could care any less.
Ponies played games. They laughed. They told good stories, ate good food, and drank good eggnog. Rarity gave Fluttershy her gift, sank into a daze, forgot the entire conversation occurred, and asked Fluttershy who made her that wonderful dress. When she found out, she was delighted, and they both got to enjoy the moment all over again.
Applejack and Rainbow Dash found themselves under the mistletoe, and kissed in front of the entire party. Neither could say why they did it, but they spent the rest of the party side by side, nuzzling into each other's shoulders.
Twilight finally told Spike she loved him like a brother. Maybe it was the spell, maybe it was the nog. Twilight and Spike both cried, and hugged in front of the entire party. As the wind howled outside, all of Ponyville swooned over their sweet moment.
Starlight and Maud stood in the corner. They didn’t party, they didn’t drink, and they didn’t swoon. They listened to the wind. They watched ice form over the windows and the doors.
They both snuck out, when the time came.
Starlight’s horn shone. It was the finest spell she’d ever cast. Possibly, she thought, the finest she ever would cast. It was a work of art. And there wasn’t even another unicorn to see it.
“Spirits of the earth and stone,
Hear the cry of one alone.
Hear the pain your greed has sown!
Seeds of ruin, now are grown.
“You took her soul, made it your own,
Set her on an earthen throne.
Stole the world of flesh and bone.
Blood and passion, overthrown.
“Spirits please, bestow your gifts,
Every one, without reserves.
Her spirit each in order lifts,
Let her have what she deserves.
“Spirits of magma, give her fire,
Let her feel her heart run fast.
Spirits of iron, strength in being,
That fires fade, the steel may last.
“Spirits of soil, givers of life,
Let her joy forever grow.
Spirits of rock, wisest of all,
Be there for her, when it is not so.
“Most important of all, the spirits of gems,
Grant her the eyes, to behold where you lie.
Grant her the power to stand witness to treasures.
That her love last forever, when all magic must die.
“No stone is unmarked, no iron is pure.
For the virtues we treasure, the rest we endure.
For love to be true, a choice must be made.
Let her see her love’s soul, and know why she stayed.”
The spell wrapped itself around Maud. For a moment, her eyes unfocused. Then she looked up at the sky, at the queen of the windigos, and she smiled.
Aanakamigishkaang laughed. It was a dark, cruel sound that carried clear through the sky.
She floated down to the earth, so close Starlight could have reached out and touched her. She leaned in towards Maud. Like they were about to kiss. Maud leaned forward.
And with a single puff of her breath, Aanakamigishkaang froze Maud solid.
The machine next to Maud’s hospital bed let out a steady beep. She was hooked up to all manner of tubes and wires, putting things in her, or taking them out, or just making sure that certain parts of her body hadn’t decided to stop working all of a sudden.
It was a bright, sunny day outside. Spring had come early. The birds were chirping incessantly. Though, Maud probably couldn’t hear them that well. She’d lost most of both her ears.
“Hey, Maud.” Starlight gave a little wave as she stood in the doorway. Maud’s eyes flicked to the door, and Starlight knew she had been seen. “How you feeling?”
Maud didn’t answer.
“Well, that’s ah… that’s about what I thought!” Starlight gave a stiff little laugh. “So I uh… I brought a book. It’s a book about rocks. I know you can’t really read on your own yet, so I figured you must be pretty bored. I thought I’d come and we could read it together.”
Still, Maud said nothing. And so Starlight sat next to her hospital bed, and began reading An Unabridged Analysis of Shale Microfractures in Response to Non-Orogenic Thrust Faults. After several hours, a nurse came in to change Maud’s bandages. She was doing a lot better under there. Large sections of skin were still falling off, but they’d stopped turning black. And she wasn’t going to lose her eyes. That was big.
The nurse said as much. Then she left, and Starlight resumed reading. She got as far as the middle of chapter seven. Then she had to pause for a time, to try and figure out some of the diagrams.
“Starlight,” Maud said. “Please don’t blame yourself for what happened.”
Starlight’s head shot up from the book. “Maud! You’re… good! I mean, I don’t—”
“I heard you crying in the hall when you thought I was asleep.”
Starlight bit her lip. Her eyes went down to the ground. After a moment, she carefully put the book to one side, and scooted closer to Maud’s bed.
“Maud? I want you to listen to me, okay? I’m not really good with… feelings. And stuff. So. I should have said this sooner. A lot sooner. But…” She swallowed. “You know I… know you, right? Nothing about our interactions… I mean. At no point was I under the illusion that you were normal. Not even on the day we met. I knew you were different. And I’ve gotten to know you better since then.
“Maud, I know who you are. I know what you are. I know you. And I know what you feel about rocks or… ponies. Or what you don’t feel. And I choose to be near you anyway. I understand why you feel like you don’t belong. And maybe I even get why you think you’re broken. But I don’t think you’re broken. And I wish I’d told you sooner.”
Starlight licked her lips. She found the one spot on Maud’s face that wasn’t covered in bandages. Then she leaned down, and kissed Maud on the forehead. “I love you.”
Maud fumbled out with a hoof. She was too weak to get it all the way around Starlight, but she found Starlight’s leg and held it tight.
After a time, she asked: “Do I love you too?”
Starlight couldn’t help but laugh: “You have to decide that, but… yeah. Yeah, I think so.”
“Oh.” Maud said. “Good.”
