Frosty Fates

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Epilogue
Chapter 11

Chapter 1

It was another lovely, sunny summer day in Ponyville, as Celestia’s sun reached the height of its ark just shy of noon. Its warmth enveloped the town, and many a pony was spending their noontime basking in the glorious sun. By all accounts, most ponies there would have loved to spend this kind of day outside. But not Winter Whisper. She was content to sit in the local ice cream parlor watching the summer day pass from a far cooler environment, the only way she could survive. Her icy white coat, snowflake cutie mark, and season-themed name weren’t the only giveaways that she much preferred the wintertime; she had an extra special way to demonstrate her icy affiliation. She was literally colder than anypony around her, her core body temperature unnaturally lower, making everything around her far warmer than anypony else would experience it. On summer days like today, she had to take shelter in buildings to avoid direct sunlight, hopping between shadows in an enormous sunhat that covered the entire front half of her body, or simply sit in her magically chilled home and wait for the heat to pass her. But today she couldn’t just sit in her home, as much as she wanted to. Today she had something important to do, something she was dreading, but just couldn’t avoid. Today, her parents were going to be in town.

The unicorn sighed as she shifted the pineapple swirl scoop in front of her with her magic. Not even her favorite fruit in sweet desert form couldn’t improve her mood with parental anxieties lingering on the horizon. She’d deliberately spent the last three years free of contacting her parents, save a cursory Hearthswarming card assuring them they were still in her mind; even then she’d been so paranoid about them finding where she was, that she’d traveled far out of town and posted the cards in towns nowhere near her actual home. It was silly, she’d thought, trying hard to convince herself that her parents would never have thought a mare of her former status would be living in…well, frankly, a very rural town. But Winter loved it here, and couldn’t think of living anywhere else, especially with the three ponies she’d bonded with so well. One of them, a pegasus a few years older than her named Midnight Storm, sat across from her now, looking worriedly up at her. “Not usually the one to sigh,” he said, a weak smile on his face. This was out of his depth, Winter knew it: he was so used to being helped emotionally, and having to help somepony else was one of the many, many things he constantly doubted he could truly accomplish. But what he didn’t know was that just him being there was enough, just having him tell her she wouldn’t have to face her parents alone, offering to come with her today despite him having a busy shift the night before, had done more for Winter’s spirits than she’d thought possible. “You really that worried?” he asked

Winter shrugged, but looked back up and smiled. “I guess a little," she said, her hint of a Canterlot accent seeping into her speech more than usual, thanks to her poorly-restrained worry. "I just…I don’t talk to them for a reason. And on top of it all, I found out yesterday this exhibit they’re bringing is the same one that was around when I was born. I’m fine dealing with one part of my past at a time, thanks.”

Midnight smiled and flexed a dark blue wing, nudging the spoon in his ice cream as he made a feeble attempt to grasp at another bite. “Is this exhibit really so terrible to you?”

“I don’t even know,” said Winter, sighing again. “I just…I mean I never saw this before, I wasn’t nearly old enough to remember anything even if I did, but…” She faded out as she tried to think of the right words. Thankfully, Midnight seemed to catch up quickly and helped.

“Your issues with your folks started so young, having something that’s as old as you being the reason you have to face them is an added slap in the face?” Winter only nodded in response, before taking a large bite of her swirl to keep her mood from dipping much further. “I’m really sorry about this…”

Winter looked back up at Midnight and gave him a slight grimace, one eyebrow cocked in disbelief. “And exactly why are you supposed to be sorry for this? You told my parents, ponies you’ve never met, where I was, and suggested they bring this ancient exhibit to my front door just to spite me?”

“I thought sarcasm was my and Vlyka’s thing,” Midnight responded with a near-mirrored expression. Winter couldn’t keep her act up any longer and giggled, making Midnight smile sweetly in return. Once again, the little things he did helped Winter more than anything the stallion might have said to her. She watched as Midnight raised a hoof and brushed part of his bangs out of his eyes, his hoof accidentally following one of the stormcloud-grey streaks in his mane perfectly. Winter smiled goofily as she focused on the motion, unsure why it was so amusing to her.

“You know me, I just gotta keep you from feeling bad about yourself.” Midnight smirked and rolled his eyes, leaving Winter to turn back to her ice cream swirl for a second. “It’s funny really,” she said absently, trying to keep her mind away from obsessing over the upcoming meeting. “I don’t know anything about this exhibit, I just got so fixated on how this was its twentieth anniversary, and couldn’t read anything else on that flier.”

“Something about old pony settlements around the area, I read,” said Midnight, hoof to his chin as he tried to recall what he’d seen. “There was a lot about a society in the Whitetail Woods I think, some ancient cult from centuries ago. It could be interesting to know what was around here, at least.”

Winter smiled and nodded, and glanced at a nearby clock before she turned back to finish her ice cream. By now the exhibit had opened, but one of the few things she did remember told her her parents weren't due to be around for another hour or two more. She wanted to limit her outdoor time and stress as much as she could, saving the real anxiety for confronting her parents much earlier than she'd been planning. But by now the stress was eating her alive just being awake to worry about it. "Maybe reading up on some of it would calm my nerves," she thought, taking one final bite of her ice cream to finish it off. "Shall we go take a look then?" she asked, nodding towards the door.

Midnight blinked, surprised. “You really want to go now? That’s a lot of…” he began, but Winter frowned at him as she reached magically for her sunhat. “Ok, I’m not that socially inept. Let’s get going then,” he smiled, gently pushing Winter’s hat closer to her head as he passed it levitating in the air. Winter spun it theatrically before setting it on her head, dropping a few bits on the table as a tip before following her friend. He’d waited at the door and held it for her like a proper gentlecolt…or just like Midnight, who was that kind of a pushover for just about anypony. Winter still loved it though, even as he fumbled to get his sunglasses on in the blinding summer sun after letting her out. She very gently put a hoof on his shoulder, testing both of their comfort zones a bit, as she tried to lead him away from the door until his sensitive sight returned to him. “Thanks Whispy,” he smirked at her.

Winter turned away, tipping her head so her hat’s brim cut Midnight’s face off from hers. “It was nothing,” she replied, trying to hide the light blush appearing on her muzzle. “Now we’d better go before that ice cream wears off.”

“I don’t think even you can sweat out that much that quickly,” he said, causing Winter to giggle. But he didn’t object as the two of them started trotting towards the end of the street, heading to the outdoor exhibit three streets away. "You know, there's talk of needing a thunderstorm in a few days," he said casually.

Winter smiled and looked at him knowingly. "Already planning, or is it too early in the day for you to handle?" she asked.

"If I'm honest both," he said, and Winter giggled. "But Sunny wants me on it, prevent another unscheduled lightning strike wrecking our reputation."

"Don't tell me they're making you work with that featherbrain again, the one who took down that tree last year?"

Midnight sighed, but smirked and shook his head. He went on to talk about the storm preparations and his plans, successfully distracting Winter from her personal fears, right up until they passed the road leading to the new Castle of Friendship, right where the exhibit had set up.

Winter stared at the exhibit for nearly a minute before she moved to her bag to grab the tickets, her hooves shaking. "I know this might not help," Midnight said hesitantly, "but you don't have to do this. If it hurts this much then maybe there's another way."

Winter gulped and exhaled sharply through her mouth, before shaking her head. "Maybe, but its not going to happen soon enough." She finally found the tickets and pulled them out, but lost her grip on them just as they left her bag. Midnight was fast as ever though, and snatched them out of the air with a wing, while simultaneously taking Winter's hoof in his.

"Then let me help, as much as you need me to. I'm here for you." Winter sighed, but only nodded in response. She couldn't look Midnight in the eye, couldn't even bother to pull her hoof back from his grip when her bubble of personal space felt threatened, though it did get her to smile while Midnight presented her tickets and the duo were let past.

The ordinarily restful street was now crowded with eye-catching displays and ponies crowding about them. Display cases in dozens of sizes lined the road, alongside covered models and wooden stands of pamphlets, with informative plaques plastered on almost everything in sight. Winter recognized the styles of many of the cases, having spent quite a few of her early years in various museum backrooms; Winter's mother had been a curator since just before Winter was born, to the point this very exhibit had been her first. At least the memories of the minute things were outnumbering the stressful memories surfacing from her foalhood, letting her calm down just a little as they walked in.

"Anything here ring a bell?" Midnight asked cautiously, but Winter shook her head. She knew he was talking about the exhibit's contents, and nothing here seemed familiar. Nothing except a strange rock that seemed to be the centerpiece of the entire show. She couldn't take her eyes off it.

Without realizing it, Winter changed course, headed straight for the strange stone formation. She was just conscious enough of her surroundings to avoid bumping into anypony else, but the closer she stepped towards the rock, the more it enveloped her whole mind. Something about it enticed her, beckoned her, told her to reach out and grab it. Her front right leg reached out past the rope barrier, reaching closer and closer. There was a whisper from far away, something that sounded like a friend calling "what are you doing?" but she ignored it, as her hoof nearly grazed the stone structure.

A deep blue hoof suddenly grabbed Winter's and yanked her back, snapping some sense back into her. But Winter only had a second to feel ashamed of her actions, before she suddenly wasn't in Ponyville anymore. Her eyesight dulled as strange and menacing stars blinked into view, a massive blue glow growing steadily stronger, closer. Her body didn't respond to her frantic writhing efforts to move, her screams of terror silenced, as the light completely engulfed her, only for darkness to come crushing down around her. Winter gasped and faltered, shaking violently until both her body and mind gave out. She collapsed in the dirt as the world faded to silence.

Chapter 2

"Easy Winter, easy..."

Winter groaned and clutched her head as bits and pieces of the world around her swam slowly back into view. She was warm, too warm to be at home...she must have passed out again. Her propensity for heat illness kept her from being too shocked by that thought, though it made it no less embarrassing to collapse in public like she probably had. "But...I don't remember overheating...where am I?" She muttered, blinking in the bright sunlight surrounding her. There was a dark shadow in the center of her vision, slowly sharpening up as she opened her eyes to reveal it was exactly who she'd heard speaking to her just a moment ago.

Midnight smiled worriedly at Winter as he gently supported her head, trying to gently rouse her from her fainting spell. He knew better than to raise her head while she was unconscious, that wasn't supposed to help, and she knew that she'd told him that her doctor said not to let it happen. But...at the same time, she couldn't be mad at him, just staring back up at him as she cracked a weak, embarrassed smile back at him. But a second later she slowly turned her head to look around, seeing numerous ponies standing around staring at her, just like she'd feared. The moment gone, Winter tried to squirm away from Midnight's grip and flip herself off of her back. "Take it slow," Midnight whispered to her, grabbing her sunhat and dusting it off passing it back to her. She grabbed it with her magic and nodded, though she barely heard his words as she staggered to her hooves, too busy feeling the sting of old memories lashing against her mind, memories of her parents cautioning her about publicly making a scene. A knot formed in the base of her stomach as she tried to push them back from her mind.

"Must have been the heat," she said absently, readjusting her sunhat so she could see a little better under its shade.

"And if that's the case we'd better get you some shade and some water," Midnight replied, gently putting a hoof to Winter's shoulder. She looked back at him a tad irritably, but sighed and nodded as he gently pushed her from where she'd collapsed. He'd spotted a small tent with tables and chairs off to the side of the exhibit, and gently led Winter there, even helping her grab a seat when her body hesitated.

"Thanks Stormy," said Winter, as she dropped into a seat. The shade alone had helped her cool down, even when she still wasn't entirely convinced it had been the heat to begin with. To most ponies, passing out would be passing out, but Winter had been a little too careless with her heat tolerance in the past, and knew exactly what heat exhaustion felt like when it knocked her out. This was different, though she couldn't figure out what felt odd about it, or what had caused it. "Not exactly the hoof I wanted to put forward here," she chuckled.

Midnight didn't look quite so amused. "You should have told me you were getting hot," he said, lowering his glasses enough that she could see his eyes clearly. They were tense with worry, making the knot in her stomach twist even more. "I guess I should have been paying better attention though, I know you're really worried about your parents and everything today, I should have..."

"No you shouldn't," she snapped, before taking a deep breath to start again. "Thank you, Midnight, for watching out for me." She stared right back at Midnight and gave him a huge, genuine smile, before speaking again. "You're doing great keeping an eye on me, and I know I'm better off because you're here. You don't need to keep an eye glued to me here."

Midnight was silent for a moment, but sighed and shook his head. "Alright, alright. But I do need to get you something cold to drink. I'll be right back, ok?"

"Just remember that some ponies do like lemons in their drink," she shot back at him, laughing gently as he rolled his eyes before readjusting his glasses. As he turned to walk away, faking indignity at her teasing, Winter couldn't help but watch him leave, smiling as his tail swished back and forth with each step.

"Ugh...I must be dizzier than I thought," Winter muttered, tearing her eyes away from Midnight. Her head did feel like it was spinning, only worsening as she tried to pick something to focus on and anchor her vision. It just so happened that she'd locked her eyes on an old style of museum display case, one that triggered a particularly painful memory from years ago. She'd been in the backroom of a museum, standing beside her mother Lilac Swirl as she'd designed her next exhibit. Winter had been standing for twenty minutes, the eight-year-old filly bored out of her mind and started fiddling with her magic, her icy talent she'd discovered just last year, but she was still learning to control it and a misfire had coated a display case outside and in. The case shattered under the strain, earning Winter a scolding from her mother about lady-like behavior.

It took some effort for Winter to not blast the offending case with another burst of ice: It wasn't responsible for her memory, or the stress she was under with her mother...and her father. She knew they loved her, in their own way, but every time she thought of them Winter cringed. Her ice powers scared them, or more accurately worried their family's reputation. Winter's parents had been unicorns, recently married and living near Las Pegasus with their first foal when Winter's father, Onyx, had inherited a large sum of money from his grandmother's passing. They'd chosen to move to Canterlot and adapt to high society, blending in surprisingly well in the nearly ten years before Winter was born. But they'd always been paranoid about their status, and as they had both grown up in a warmer climate, nearly worshipping Princess Celestia and her brilliant day, Winter's icy aura unsettled them, even as their little filly. The only ponies she'd remembered who didn't look at her and her fearfully were her now-gone grandmother, and her brother Guardian Gleam.

The name of her near-15-year senior brother almost calmed Winter in a moment, as she started to recall his most recent letter to her. Guardian was living in Saddle Arabia now, having left for a mission of peace when Winter was only three, too young to remember much about him. It had only been after she started falling apart from stress and loneliness that somepony had suggested getting in contact with her brother again, as a pen pal. He'd been amazingly understanding, mentioning his parents' obsession with high society bothered him too, and was eager to help. He couldn't come to visit due to recently getting a new job over there, he'd told her that there would be a day he returned to visit the family, and promised to be there to smooth over reunification with her parents after her three year isolation from them. Winter had wanted to be patient for Guardian, but the exhibit had thrown her off and panicked her so badly she knew she couldn't ignore it for the three days it was due to be in town. It was explained in her latest letter to him, but she had no way to know his thoughts for at least another month or two, given the normal speed of the post. Something told her he wouldn't be bothered by her going to confront their parents alone, and suddenly that didn't bug her as much as it would have two years ago. Guardian hadn't been something she thought about every day since she'd moved to Ponyville, even less since two winter's past...why was that?

Winter smiled and shook her head, glancing about the nearby buildings of the small town that had been a loving home to her. But as she looked around, her glance grazed across the strange stone that she now remembered had seemingly caused her fainting spell. She looked at it in confusion for a moment, wondering what in Equestria was so odd about it, but there didn't seem to be anything remarkable, besides the fact that it looked like a giant ice crystal. Yet somehow, she couldn't tear her eyes off of it, even when she tried to look away something drew her focus back. It started to aggravate her, feeling like she was stuck looking at it...or something, feeling stuck and angry, she just kept getting madder and madder, for no reason she could tell. "Agh...what's happening to me?" she growled, holding her head as she felt a pressure building in her forehead.

"Winter?" The mare's eyes snapped open suddenly, refocusing on a dark winged shadow, Midnight she realized as he fast-trotted closer to her. He had a frosted and sweating glass of water wrapped in his right wing and a fearful expression on his face. She didn't want to see the fear in his eyes behind his glasses, he looked nervous enough as he leaned down to check on her. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, yeah I'm ok," she replied, shaking her head. "Just dizzy...maybe I'm not in as good a place as I thought." Midnight gently pushed the glass close to Winter, who took it in her magic and tipped almost a quarter of its contents, ice and all, into her mouth. She let it rest there for a moment, biting the small cubes down and letting the chill deep into the roof of her mouth before she swallowed. It settled in her stomach and Winter sighed, smiling as the momentary relief from the heat began to spread into her body.

Midnight still looked worried, but he took a second to shake his wing, warming it back up after holding the cold glass for the whole walk. Winter smiled as he glanced at the wing, checking his feathers for any remaining droplets: Winter couldn't help but stare too, smiling as he flexed his feathers slightly. Pegasi wings always fascinated Winter, such a complex structure, and Midnight could move them effortlessly even while maneuvered his other four limbs. "Thanks Midnight," she said, finally snapping out of her moment. "I'm feeling better already."

Midnight opened his mouth to speak, a little nervous still, but at that very moment somepony else's voice rang out across the crowd. "Esteemed guests, I'm afraid I must announce that our guests, Duke Onyx and Lilac Swirl are unable to attend this week. They send their regards and hope that all enjoy their exhibit. Thank you."

A flash of anger burned through Winter's brain in an instant, her horn shimmering as she felt her icy aura flare. "You have got to be kidding me..." she growled, a noise of anger that nearly put their friend Vlyka to shame, turning her attention to the source of the voice. A hapless unicorn pony was standing with a megaphone in his magic, having just set it down from giving the announcement. She had a clean shot, perfect line of sight... ice began to form on her horn as she charged and aimed...

"I'm sorry Winter..." Midnight's words broke Winter's tunnel vision, letting her magic dissipate as she looked up at her friend.

Her magic may have calmed, but Winter's anger refused to be quieted so easily. "They did this to me on purpose...they got me so wound up and then refused to come..."
"Whoa Winter, hang on," Midnight said hurriedly, putting a hoof on Winter's shoulder. She felt him shiver slightly at the chill her magic created around her, momentarily aggravating her further. But he meant nothing by it, she knew he liked it cooler and wasn't bothered personally by the ice, which let her forgive him for the insult. "Your parents didn't know you were even here, right? So why do you think they could have intentionally done this, if they didn't even know you were gonna be here?"

Winter glared at Midnight for a moment, but she knew he was right. So after a moment she took a deep breath, letting her anger condense in her lungs before she breathed it all out. "I know," she sighed, shaking her head. "It's just not fair..."

Midnight smiled sadly and shook his head. "No, I know it's not. But you were so brave, coming here when you thought you'd be forced to confront them. You did the right thing."
"Yeah, well I think I'm done doing it for right now," Winter grumbled, taking another gulp of ice water. "If they aren't here I'm really done with this whole thing."

"I think that's beyond fair," Midnight smirked, before gently extending a hoof to help her stand. She took it gratefully and stood, smiling at Midnight as he helped her. Without another word, the duo wandered towards the exit, but as Winter adjusted her sunhat she caught sight of the stone again. She felt the pressure in her skull again, her anger spiked, but she tore her eyes away from it and breathed deeply to try and calm down some. No reason to cause a scene as they were just getting free from her torment!

Winter was silent the entire walk back to her house, as was Midnight, though she could tell he was trying to find the right words to say something. As she opened her door, however, he finally spoke. "This was the right thing to do, even if it didn't pay off. You're an amazing mare and this is so unfair to you."

Winter smiled and reached a hoof to hug Midnight, much to both their surprise: Midnight wrapped his hoof around her neck awkwardly, usually a pony who liked his personal space, but despite Winter's chilly aura he squeezed pleasantly, a hold Winter returned until the stallion's body heat began to wear on Winter's thermal sensitivity. She pulled away gently only after it got to be too much, Midnight seeming a bit hesitant to let go himself. "I think I need a nap after all this," she muttered.

"Yeah, I'm overdue to get to bed myself," Midnight smiled back.

"I told you you'd need more sleep than what you got," Winter teased, winking at him. Midnight looked mildly cross with her, but he smiled and shook his head. "Thanks for coming with me, and...you have a good sleep. I'll see you this evening, Stormy."

"Good afternoon, Winter," Midnight smiled, giving her a slight bow out of respect Winter never thought she needed. She returned it though, beaming at her friend as he spread his wings. "Treat yourself well and have a great nap." With that and a final smile, Midnight leapt into the air and flapped his wings, shooting off into the distance. Winter watched as his shadow vanished over the rooftops, before the summer heat forced her to abandon the sunlit street.

Chapter 3

Being back in her frosty home had already helped Winter immensely, her weakness and lethargy already starting to wane. She decided to have another small glass of iced tea before she hauled herself back up to her room, shutting the blinds and the door behind her. She flopped down on bed, landing on her side and glancing at her bedside table.

The clock that had nearly been a casualty of her frustration this morning ticked back at her, hastily replaced and still partially frosted where she'd blasted it as it dared to wake her up. It hadn't lost a beat either, showing Winter that it was only one thirty. She’d expected that exhibit to take longer, at least four or five in the afternoon.

"At least I have some time to nap," she muttered, still letting go of the frustration from the failed meeting with her parents. She closed her eyes and nudged her pillow back, until her horn just barely draped off the side like she found comfortable. Winter started to will herself “off”, relaxing her body and letting the feelings of sleep take hold. Even with a little light seeping through the blinds, the sensations of oncoming sleep relaxed her, helped her put her worries at ease as she drifted off into Luna’s embrace…or so she’d hoped.

Soon after she fell asleep the dreams began, though these weren’t the dreams she usually had, envisioning a snowy paradise for her to play around in. As she became more and more aware of her surroundings, Winter realized that the white blankets she saw all around her were better described as a frozen wasteland. There were signs of civilization here and there, but all was buried under meters of snow and iced over, the landscape was torn to pieces. The clouds were so thick she could only guess that it was day because there was at least enough light to see the smothering snowfall above, as more and more of what used to be a wonderful sign for her threatened to destroy her. Winter used her magic to force the falling snow aside, giving her a tiny little bubble to pass safely as she searched the landscape, calling out in what she could already tell was a vain attempt to find somepony else still alive in these conditions. She felt colder than she’d ever been before; it still wasn’t “too cold” for her body, but enough that she felt ill at ease, like something was very wrong. Of course, she didn’t need her sense of touch to sense that, especially as she stumbled upon several massive shards of ice embedded in the ground before her. Winter hesitated to approach, fearing what she might find, but something compelled her to keep going, glancing at the ice crystals that towered above her, seeming to tear the clouds open to drop yet more snow on the land. For no reason she could pick up, she stopped to examine one crystal closer, something she regretted immediately. Staring back at her were three ponies, suspended in the ice with expressions of fear and pain frozen on their lifeless faces. The image itself was horrifying enough, especially when she recognized every spire was filled with shadows just like these three, but it only took her a moment to realize she knew these ponies: it was Vlyka, Crystal, and Midnight, her three closest friends, staring back at her from their crystalline tomb.

Winter’s eyes snapped open, a sharp gasp filling her lungs in an instant as the horrifying image faded from her view. The real world began to come back into focus, but the expressions she’d seen on her dream-friends’ faces still burned in her mind’s eye, and she began to hyperventilate from the nightmare terrifying her so. She was paralyzed by fear of her dream for only a moment though, before she realized that the ice hadn’t vanished completely from her vision. Turning her head and sitting upright in her bed, she came to the startling realization that there was ice underneath her; her bed had somehow frozen over. There was the sense of her power still encircling her horn, suggesting to her that she’d somehow been responsible for this magical leak icing her bedsheets. That had never happened to her before, not even when she’d first been learning to control her magic, so now all of a sudden her powers were running amok?

“Calm down, calm down…” she muttered, trying to catch her breathing and steady her heart rate. “Alright just…don’t panic.” Winter slid out of bed, an unusual motion that involved her natural grace on the ice more than she’d ever expected trying to get up from a nap, but as she stepped away from her bed she realized that it wasn’t the only thing frozen. The wall behind her and her bedside table had also succumbed to the frost, engulfing that poor alarm clock for the second time in only a few hours. Winter might’ve laughed at the poor clock's fate, but she was too occupied with freaking out at what this power outburst meant for her. She’d felt out of control exactly once before, when she’d been pushed into a state of raw fury and her power had slipped away from her. She’d frozen a town over in her anger, barely avoiding killing anypony in her rampage and barely making it out of town after the villagers had retaliated. Windigo or not, being drowned in “holy water” would have killed her…sure Ponyville would probably be more accepting if she were to lose it again, but when she was still trying to write off the psychological scars of that encounter a year and a half later, Winter was in no hurry to test that theory. Plus, she had no idea if she could pull herself back from another freakout like that, or what would happen if she couldn’t.

The weight of everything on her mind crashed down on Winter like an avalanche, sending nervous tingles through her entire body that wouldn’t go away. She tried to just walk around her home to ward them off, but the movement of her legs didn’t banish the impulses, nor the thoughts from her mind. In fact, she kept finding herself absently strolling too close to a wall, only barely turning to avoid an impact. She was trapped, looking around like the space between the walls and her was shrinking steadily. Winter had experienced cabin fever before, practically every summer because it was usually too hot to leave her house, but this was on a whole different level of anxiety.

“Outside…” she turned to the door, without thinking how hot it was out there. She’d had a little trouble on a walk in the morning, now it was likely going to be even hotter than before, and NOW she wanted to go for a walk? She stopped herself just before she pulled the door open with her magic, looking around at her house once more. The air was getting colder, and she’d started leaving a trail of frost anywhere she’d been pacing.

That sealed it for Winter, hoping that she could at least keep herself from freezing things if she were surrounded by “normal pony” temperatures…She was so distracted by her thoughts and compounding fears that she completely forgot to grab her sunhat, walking out into the heat with no protection. She didn’t even notice it, consumed by her fears and every part of her mind still in her control trying to work out how it wasn’t that bad. That is, until she began to hear something…else.

Winter stopped dead in her tracks, ears perking straight up as she heard something odd. A familiar noise…the wind from earlier. She was hearing the sound of that wind again, louder and more prominent in her ears, even when she could tell there was no breeze passing through town.

She struggled to breathe normally, failing to push back the panic at her hallucinatory wind and the psychosomatic loss of control of her powers. She felt her stress weighing so heavily on her that it felt like her body itself was getting heavier and heavier. Of course, what she didn’t realize was that her body actually was getting heavier, as a small layer of ice began to form on her hooves as her power bled out in her distraction. But Winter was too busy trying to keep her mind together to even look at herself, feeling the strain so intense she thought she was about to be ripped open and have her brain scatter so far beyond her reach that nopony would be able to tell it was her.

“Okay, okay…” she muttered, closing her eyes as she rounded the next corner in her path. “Just stay calm Whispy, everything’s fine…” She could tell she was lying to herself, everything was falling apart around her, but she was trying so hard to maintain just some sense of normalcy to prevent her from fracturing like a frozen pond thawing in the spring. It really wasn’t working. “I just need to let go of this anxiety, that’s all this is…as long as I don’t…” she began, but upon opening her eyes Winter saw herself falling further and further from safety and normalcy. She realized that she’d wandered right into the middle of Ponyville’s weekly market, a place that crowds were only beat out by holiday gatherings in terms of ponies stuffed into the square. Almost immediately the tension mounted in her head, realizing that if she lost control now she’d be putting half the town at risk in an instant.

“I’ve gotta get out of here…” she muttered, only to glance back and see that her previous exit had been blocked by a new cart just pulling in. Cursing under her breath, Winter turned to head deeper into the maze of stalls, hoping to find a quick exit somewhere else so she could flee back home, wondering if she shouldn’t have left it at all.

As Winter tried to navigate her way through, with her cognitive abilities weakened enough already due to her stress, she started recognizing voices, or at least words that were being used. They weren’t the voice in the wind, but of ponies she’d met maybe once or twice when she’d been hired to craft ice for them. In an effort to get her mind off her own struggles, Winter tried to focus in on the conversations around her, get out of her own head for a little bit, thinking it might help her calm down.

She was mistaken. “Those chills last month almost cost me my crops,” came one voice, which was responded to with a gentle, friendly laugh of a customer. Winter recoiled in shock, unable to put up a barrier between what the farmer actually meant and what her mind interpreted that statement as: a threat. She felt that he was blaming her, stating that it was her fault he’d almost lost his work. Her mind took it to the next step by filling in the blanks, and she began to think that he was going to ensure he got his vengeance on her for her attempted destruction of his livelihood.

Her next desperate attempt to disconnect from her fear didn’t get her anywhere either. “Awful chilly as of late, huh?” asked a customer at another stall.

“Yeah, wonder what those pegasi are doing. What, they want to bring winter in early?”

Winter Whisper slammed her eyes shut, every muscle in her body tensing with anxiety. “Stop it, stop it!” she yelled in her mind, pleading for ponies to leave her be. All around her Ponyville vanished, as memories of the town from a year past demanded time in her head, leaving her trapped in the scorn and fear she’d suffered even before she lost her control. She still heard them talking behind her back...nopony had spoken to her directly, but they weren't nearly as subtle as the comments her parents' high society training had taught her to listen for.

“Can you feel her even here? She’s cold…”

“What’s wrong with her?”

“Why is she still here in spring?”

“She should have melted.”

“Shut up…” she whimpered, her legs wobbling. She knelt down to save herself from falling, only to finally feel the ice that had been growing rapidly on her hooves as it spread further up her body. Her eyes remained shut, but she still heard the voices from her past.

“What demons will she bring here?”

“Her chill will kill us all.”

“No, stay back. She’s dangerous.”

“Please…” Tears formed and slid down her cheeks, only to crystallize as they fell. The wind in Winter's head grew into a storm, rumbling and adding to the noise threatening to rip her skull apart.

“Windigo.”

“Windigos.”

“She’ll bring them back.”

“Stop it…” Something in her mind told her to lash out, to strike, but but the rest of her reminded her how bad an idea that was. She knew that nopony would approve, that it would look horrible...that it would be horrendous and dangerous and wrong to hurt somepony else because of her fear. But the more she she resisted, the louder the storm raged and the more her power slipped. The temperature dropped rapidly around her, she could feel it, and she already knew it was her fault.

“Death to us all.”

“She will be the end.”

Suddenly, Winter felt a hoof on her shoulder. She gasped in shock as Ponyville flooded back into view. A quick and fearful look around confirmed that ponies were staring at her, a lot of ponies…so many that the market had come to a standstill. The pony closest to her, a unicorn with green and blue highlights in his mane retracted his hoof, shivering at the contact with her frigid body. It stung to see him shiver like that, but what came next was worse. “Are you okay? Come on, let’s get you something to warm you up.”

Somewhere deep inside Winter, something snapped. In an instant she felt the cold flood every part of her body, bursting at the seams to find a way out. She didn’t fear it getting out now though…she embraced it. “I don’t NEED warming!” she bellowed, concentrating her power on her horn and releasing a wild blast in the offending pony’s general direction. The stallion that had tried to help her was thrown backwards a few meters, but the shot was unfocused and the worst damage he suffered was his black coat becoming lightly frosted. He landed in a heap and stared back at her in shock, terror filling his face as quickly as the look of the cold caught up with him. He began to shiver as he gazed at her in fear, only angering her more.

Winter focused her power again, this time all on a single point, tapping into the reserves of energy that had come to her in the instant of rage. Without thinking, she lowered her head and fired off another burst, directly at the pony she’d just launched. Thankfully he managed to scramble away in time, because as she unleashed the strength that had built up in her, Winter’s blast became stronger and stronger. In a split second the barrel she’d hit instead was entirely encased in a thick layer of ice, quickly spreading to the surrounding items and the ground, spikes jutting out from all angles. The release of energy felt so good to Winter that her anxieties vanished, only to be replaced with seething anger. She’d been betrayed, told off by her parents for sixteen years and now abandoned when she’d tried to extend an olive branch. She’d been persecuted by those ponies in that village because of her power, and threatened because they were scared of her. The ponies around her staring at her with fear…they were right to be afraid. She was terrifying, and now was her time to show it.

Winter reared herself up on her hind legs, focusing enough power into her horn that it glowed like a brilliant blue-white star brought down to earth. Then, she slammed her front hooves down, so hard that the ice that had collected on her forelegs shattered. As the fractured crystals tinkled to the ground, each one of them took root like a seed and began to spread ice across the earth beneath her, the power radiating from her hooves rapidly freezing more and more ground. She straightened her neck and held her head aloft, staring up in the sky as her black irises clouded over, her eyes glowing with a light cyan sheen.

Chapter 4

"Thanks again for coming, Vlyka," the sunshine-yellow mare smiled from her doorway. "See you again next week!
Vlyka Velveteen waved politely at the mare as she walked away. But the moment the door closed and she was out of sight Vlyka sighed, rubbing her maroon muzzle again in frustration. She’d just gotten off yet another conversation with the mare Sunburst's dog, Big Bear. The problem was that her dog was so dense Vlyka felt her brain rebelling against the confines of her skull after every conversation!

The short mare rubbed her face in frustration as she started to walk home, accidentally tapping her hoof on one of the sharp fangs that jutted from her upper jaw and outside her slight overbite, over her lower lips even when she closed her mouth. In her fifteen years she'd gotten used to ponies staring at her freakish teeth, though it had never quite left her psyche. It was why she preferred using her special talent to talk to dogs instead: They didn't judge her for her teeth, her minor colorblindness, or her heightened senses of hearing and smell that made ponies, herself included sometimes, think she might have been part dog herself.

Vlyka sighed and shook her head as she glanced back at Sunburst's house. Sunburst had been one such pony to stare at her teeth, though the staring had died down the more visits Vlyka made for work. It was the only thing that could really get her to socialize: promise of the ease of her financial worries. But after Big Bear's maddening density, not even the knowledge she really should be out getting milk from the market could keep Vlyka from running straight home and locking the door. All she wanted was some quiet isolation, a cuddle with her mountain of a dog Remmy..."Maybe after the crowds die down," she grumbled, staring at town square for a moment. The sight of the market and the throng of ponies she could sense from that direction sent a shiver up her spine...or was that because she suddenly felt very, very cold?

Vlyka took another look at the square, only now realizing the dark clouds gathering above, with no help from a single pegasus. They'd started to drop snow... "Winter." Vlyka gasped, staring at the clouds as they continued to grow. One of her recent "social obligations" her sister Crystal insisted upon flashed in Vlyka's memory, reminding her that Winter's parents were supposed to be coming to town today. Winter had spoken at length about her issues, her fear of reuniting with her parents, something Vlyka couldn't quite understand as she would have given everything to meet her mysterious biological parents. Even a pony as socially awkward as Vlyka could tell how Winter's anxiety and the storm could be mixed, especially since she knew Winter well. Without thinking a second longer on it, Vlyka found herself running straight for the center of the storm. Her social anxiety was forgotten for the moment: All she could think about was one of her closest, only friends, one of the three ponies she trusted and admired above all others, was in danger.

As Vlyka's charge brought her closer to town square, the temperature dropped as the snowfall rose. Her hooves sank into the new fallen snow, but even the sudden shift in temperature from the summer soil didn't make her shiver. She was too busy panicking over what might be happening with Winter: she'd seen Winter's fine control of ice before, and her friend had mentioned her past experience with her strength, but seeing it for herself was an entirely different experience. "And she's content to needle me with joking insults," she muttered, suddenly wondering if it was a good idea for her to spit out the next playful insult that escaped her mind. She and Winter went at it constantly, tossing insults back and forth whenever possible, because they both enjoyed it. But if Winter could do this much...

"Not now!" Vlyka snapped at herself. "Fall apart later, Winter needs help!" The little mare refocused and kept running closer, ducking around the many ponies who had started to run away. To her mild surprise there was a crowd blocking the street, just standing and staring despite the clear danger as hail began to pelt everypony in range. She forced herself to squeeze through a gap and was spat out into the middle of the storm.

As she stood, Vlyka stared up in awe and horror. Amidst a swirling vortex of snow stood...no, floated Winter Whisper, hovering almost an entire pony's height off the ground with her eyes glowing ice blue and her mane arcing with power. Her magic aura flared around her horn, a swirling mass of white energy spiraling in her magic and pouring out into the storm surrounding her. Some of her power fell to the ground and created patches of ice, jutting out of the ground and growing in height and reach with every second. "Winter!" Vlyka screamed, but Winter didn't respond at all, not even a twitch of the ear. The storm was growing deafening, to Vlyka's poor ears especially, making her fear for Winter's fate. She could see the white of Winter's magic growing stronger with each moment, what would happen if it kept growing unchecked? "Winter, snap out of it! Winter!"

Vlyka stared up at the sky as the snow and ice grew in size and strength. What she barely noticed, however, was a large sheet of ice caught in the maelstrom of Winter's storm that finally got loose of its whirlwind tether, dropping straight for her. Vlyka almost caught sight of it too late and dove to her left as the ice came dangerously close to her, scraping against her right shoulder. Vlyka gasped at the pain, grunting as she slammed into the ground roughly while trying to avoid worse injury. She stood up and clutched her right shoulder, covering the cut a sharp shard of ice had left on her, as she looked back up at Winter.

The ice around her was getting worse, growing to her height as more of her power fell to the ground. What was worse was the sensations Vlyka was picking up from Winter's magic. She could sense something...wrong, something different, not Winter or her magic. This was getting terrifyingly bad, the wind was growing stronger and causing Vlyka's mane and tail to whip around violently in her face. She flipped it to the other side of her head as she felt the ice forming under her hooves. She stepped to avoid getting engulfed in ice, but it was suddenly very difficult for her to have a stable stance in the wind. She had to do something, and quickly, or she'd lose every chance she had to help. But how, what could somepony like her even do in a situation this insane?!

Vlyka's heart was pounding in her throat, but as she was on the verge of total panic she felt something hard behind her foreleg. A patch of ice had formed beside her, a spike beginning to form near her. As she stared at it, a crazy, half-baked plan started forming in her head. Her hooves had no traction on this ice, but with her little grip she could position herself, crouching with her legs wide and her back right hoof on the ice spike like a runner's block. The storm howled at Vlyka, but she pulled her ears back

"Are you insane?" she heard somepony behind her snap. Vlyka ignored them and focused on the ice spires around her friend. The gaps between them were growing smaller, Winter becoming closer and closer to being completely engulfed by it.

"Now or never..." Vlyka sighed, shaking her head and flatting herself out with the widest stance she could manage. Then, with all she could muster, she kicked off with her back leg, using the rest of her legs to skate across the ice and keep herself balanced and steered towards the spires. She slipped right as she reached out for the spire, falling off her hooves but just managing to wrap her hoof around a spike to haul herself back upright. She squeezed her way through the spires and tried to reach Winter's hoof. She was just in range, but the power blasting from Winter's body pushed Vlyka down as she reached close. "Winter, please..." Vlyka murmured, unsure what else to so. "Winter...Winter please!" she yelled, desperate. "Winter come back, Winter! You can't lose it like this, please!" She took a deep breath and readied herself to raise her voice louder than she'd ever yelled. "Winter Whisper!"

There was a moment of silence, just long enough for Vlyka's heart to sink. She'd failed, she hadn't gotten Winter back, she was out of ideas and had nothing she could try. She was going to lose one of her only friends...

"Vlyka..."

Vlyka's ears shot up as she looked, recognizing the slight-Canterlot accent anywhere. "Winter?"

"Vlyka is...is that..."

"It's me Winter, it's Vlyka! I'm here!"

"Vlyka...what...what's happening?". Winter's voice was weak, but the fear and confusion were evident enough.

"Winter your power, you...you're..." Vlyka couldn't come up with the words to properly describe what she saw happening.

"My...my power..." Winter gasped and winced as her magic aura flickered. "My...my power, its..."

Vlyka bit her lip. "Can you control it? Come back Winter, please!"

"I...I'll try..." Winter replied, as her aura flickered again. This time it grew stronger after it dimmed, growing stronger and gripping more of the icy white power that bled from her horn. Vlyka could instantly sense the strength of the storm falter for just a moment. Winter groaned and strained, her magic growing brighter as the storm began to fade, the wind dying down as Winter dropped to the ground slowly. The spires around her fell as she touched down next to Vlyka, and as the storm clouds evaporated into nothing and the wind faded, Winter's eyes stopped glowing.

"Winter, are you..." But Vlyka's words were lost as Winter stumbled and fell unconscious beside her.

Chapter 5

"Wake up…" came a voice from somewhere far away. Winter recognized it…Vlyka, it was Vlyka, calling for her to come back around. She realized that she’d passed out somehow, and that something ached in her body…as she struggled to bring herself back to consciousness, Winter’s head hurt tremendously. She pushed through it and cracked her eyes open, startled to realize she was out in the middle of the bright sun at…well, she could remember it should have been summer or so, and she was out in the middle of the heat. Had it been another heatstroke? No…probably not. Vlyka had helped her through one before, and certainly been concerned, but she remembered now that Vlyka had been…shouting. Something had seriously disturbed her, so much so that she broke her general quiet nature to yell at her out of worry.

"Uh…Vlyka? Was that really you?" she asked, groggy and dazed as she started to feel out what kind of condition she was in. The bright light forced her to keep her eyes shut for a minute, but she felt she was lying on her side on what felt like something familiar, a little pillowy and comforting to her. Was it…snow? In the middle of summer? "Where am I? What happened?" She opened her eyes slowly, seeing Vlyka’s burgundy coat swim into view.

Vlyka stared silently at Winter, fear evident on her fanged face. She heard Winter's question and opened her mouth, only to close it and look away awkwardly, her right foreleg shifting across her left as she did so. Crystal had told Winter it was a tell, an unconscious thing Vlyka did when she was feeling socially pressured or uncomfortable...and Winter felt that it wasn't just trying to take care of her passed-out friend in the middle of a public street. She let her gaze wander past the little mare and take in her surroundings.

It was like the village from two years ago all over again, or part of her nightmare come to life. Spikes of ice jutting out awkwardly from the ground, a steady covering of snow atop every cart and stall in the once-crowded marketplace, and ponies everywhere with frozen terror on their faces. Nopony was encased in ice, thankfully, but that didn't stop ponies from staring right at her, judging her. Winter withered under the assault as her memories flooded back to her, her eyes grazing the same dark-coated unicorn that had accidentally infuriated her, set her off and sent her into a blizzard -summoning fury. He didn't look any worse for wear, even a little worried about Winter herself...but she couldn't look at him, knowing what she'd nearly done to the poor stallion.

Winter turned and stood up, feeling the snow and ice beneath her hooves, all centered around her in a conspicuous target as to just whom had caused this chaos. She looked up to avoid seeing the ice on the ground, only to see the clouds still dropping a light dust of snow across the marketplace. Everywhere she looked was more evidence she'd screwed everything up all over again.

"Winter?"

Winter turned and glanced down a bit, staring at the worried face of Vlyka. She looked up at Winter, eyes wide as she looked her up and down. She'd been there, at the epicenter of the storm, come through the worst of it...Winter gasped as she saw Vlyka's shoulder, still raw from her impact with her blood noticeable even compared to her reddish coat. She'd gotten hurt by Winter's outburst, one of Winter's best friends was bleeding on the street because of her magic...

Vlyka cautiously stepped closer, but Winter snapped out of her daze and jumped back. "No, Vlyka stay back. Don't come closer."

Vlyka blinked in surprise. "Winter, it's me. It's just me, Vlyka..."

"No you don't understand..."

Vlyka gulped, but spoke again louder. "I'm not going to hurt you, Winter, it's just me..."

"I...I can't...I, Vlyka please, don't, I can't keep you safe...I might..." Winter's heart was pounding in her ears as they pulled back as far as they could. Winter kept trying to back out of her talk with Vlyka, not watching where she was going as she backed into a cart. Vlyka moved closer to her, her hooves shaking as the poor little mare was clearly out of her emotional depth, yet trying hard to protect her friend as well. It would have been sweet and welcome, if not for the sheer terror that Winter might snap again and put Vlyka in a block of ice...or a morgue.

By now the whispers had started, ponies gathering around to watch and speculate what had happened, talk about Winter and her power, her fury, stare and judge for what she'd done. She heard them, the new words melding with the old as her terrifying memories from the last time surfaced again. Winter cried out in fear and turned to run for her house, but Vlyka stepped in front of her. "Winter please, relax a little..." the tiny mare murmured, as Winter tried to run around her other side. But Vlyka always was a stubborn pony, and she shifted again to block her escape. Twice, three times more, before Winter gave up and hung her head. She wouldn't trick Vlyka that easily, there was no escaping to her home. Unless...

"I'm sorry, Vlyka." Winter raised her head just enough to meet Vlyka's eyes, unintentionally showing the little mare the tears frozen on her face, as Winter brought forth more power into her horn and aimed at Vlyka's hooves.

Vlyka gasped and tried to rear up to avoid Winter's icy beam, but it was too late. By the time she could center herself enough to react, Vlyka's hooves were trapped in ice, frozen to the ground. She yanked at her legs and tried to break free for a second, only to realize she was well and truly stuck. She raised her head to Winter, but as they made eye contact the betrayal in Vlyka's eyes was too much for the snowy mare to bear. More tears freezing to her eyelashes, Winter turned and ran past Vlyka, shutting out the panic in Vlyka's voice as she cried for Winter to stop and stay. She heard her bucking against her ice restraints, but Winter couldn't stop to apologize again, as she ran straight for her home, using a bit of ice magic to startle ponies and make herself a path.

By the time Winter returned home and slammed the door shut behind her, gasping for breath out of a mixture of her running and her emotional torment. To add to her stress her ice from earlier hadn't melted yet, the magically altered climate of her home allowing it to survive longer than it should have...too long, in this case.

"I can't control it..." Winter collapsed against her doorway and sobbed. "I'm a threat..." She hung her head and curled herself up tightly, crying frozen tears that fell and shattered on the ground. "Nopony is safe near me."

Chapter 6

The single candle illuminating the small workroom flickered as Crystal Lattice brushed her hoof past it, helping a levitating gemstone bounce properly into her "cheap" basket. The bright green unicorn winced as the shadows danced across the room, aggravating her fear of the dark a little bit, but she'd been caving long enough to avoid losing her grip just because of a single candle going out. Besides, it was still blindingly bright outside, Celestia's golden sun hanging high in the sky just beyond her curtains. But right now, Crystal needed darkness and focused light to work.

The unicorn focused on a topaz at the top of her latest haul from the gem mines just outside town. She almost instantly saw a large flaw on one face of the gem, visible even without the jewelers loupe currently tangled in her short, chestnut and yellow-highlighted mane. She sighed and tossed it into the "cheap" bag as well. It was so annoying some days, digging through her bags of gems for the highest of quality gems to practice weaving her magic into. The highest quality gems held magic much better than the gems riddled with impurities, and the purest of gems could hold such a quality of magic she desperately wanted to practice.

Crystal cracked open the top drawer on her left and opened the jewel box sleeping inside, revealing a quartet of the purest opal gems she'd ever encountered. She smirked at her pet project and levitated the pale blue gem she was saving for Winter Whisper, turning it over in the light. "I just hope everything goes ok for her today," she said, setting the gem down between a gem seemingly cut from the night sky itself, hopefully destined for Midnight, and her own green stone. Before she closed it she glanced at the red gem for her adopted little sister and smiled, as she closed the case she could just hear her calling her name...wait, that really was her!

"Crystal, are you home? Crystal!"

Crystal jolted up and used her magic to yank open the lock of her office door. She hurriedly stood from her chair and trotted to the door, moving for the stairs before she heard a panicked pounding on her shop's front door. She'd put up the "Out to lunch" sign in her front window and locked her door to get some sitting through gems handled, but Vlyka's fear was more than enough to get her out of working.

Crystal didn't wait any longer and summoned her magic, picturing the mat just inside her front door and pointing her magic there to check if it was safe. She then pictured herself dropping gently onto the mat, and with a flash of light and a crackle of energy she was there. Teleporting herself was one of Crystal's most advanced tricks, making it difficult to maintain her orientation after each teleport she did. This one was no different, making her shake her head for a moment as her dizziness passed and she could look up again.

Vlyka was standing there on the other side of the window taking up the upper half of her door, her literally little sister's chin just high enough to reach the windowsill. It let Crystal see the entire horrified, frantic look in Vlyka's eyes as she hurried to open the lock and let her sister in.

Vlyka didn't enter however, only locking eyes with Crystal and tensing to run. "Winter’s in trouble. Can you go check her house while I get Midnight?"

"Wait, Vlyka slow down. What happened to Winter?" Crystal waited just a second, but Vlyka didn't answer, only looking down the street for her clear path to run. "Are you okay? you're panting, do you need something to drink?"

Vlyka glared at Crystal for a moment before sighing and shaking her head. "Winter's magic went crazy, she made a storm and froze me to run away. Go check on her while I-"

"Wait wait, she froze you?!" Crystal grabbed Vlyka in her magic and started surveying her for injuries. "Oh sweet Celestia Vlyka, are you okay?"
Vlyka growled as Crystal checked her body, Crystal ignoring her sister's growing anger until she ripped her hoof from Crystal's magic. "I'm fine!" she yelled, "can you go to her house?!"

Crystal gasped in shock, it wasn't often Vlyka lost her patience with her like that. Sure she wasn't always patient with herself or strangers, but Vlyka had serious patience for her best friends and family. Something was very wrong if she'd snapped at her so easily. After a moment, she nodded. "I'll go. You...be careful, sis."

Vlyka turned to run, but froze on the doorstep and looked back. "I will. You too, Crys...and, I love you." She turned on her hoof and wrapped her forelegs around Crystal's neck, Crystal hugging her back tightly.

"I love you too, sis," she whispered, squeezing Vlyka tight in her hug before letting her go. Vlyka smiled briefly at Crys, before the worry returned to the little mare's face and she turned, taking off towards Midnight's cloud home. The pegasus would be asleep by this hour most days, Crystal could only hope Vlyka could get him up soon.

Crystal locked her front door and turned the other direction down the street, running for Winter's home. She wasn't as physical as her little sis, but Winter's home was closer, she felt sure that she would reach it well before Vlyka could start getting Midnight up. She felt sure she could help talking Winter into a calmer state before the more emotionally tense half of their little quartet could arrive.

But as Crystal arrived at Winter's house, something was going to go wrong. Winter's front door was hanging ajar, and as Crys dove in to shut the door she nearly slipped on the ice formed on the front carpet. Winter certainly messed around with ice and could be something of a prankster with it, but the fact that her home was layered with ice haphazardly told Crystal this wasn't an innocent joke. She hurried upstairs, finding icy hoofprints heading both up and down, leading to every room in Winter's home. "No, please..." Crystal gasped, running to Winter's bedroom, only to find precisely what she feared.

Winter's closets were raided, some protective gear and a saddlebag missing and nothing else. A teddy bear, one Winter had said was a keepsake from her maternal grandmother, was missing from its regular spot on the shelf as well. "No no no Winter..." Crystal stammered as she ran to the kitchen. It too was raided, a box of non-perishable snacks upturned in front of a cabinet. But as she looked to see if anything else was missing from the kitchen, her eyes wandered across the kitchen table and stopped there. Sitting there in an icy card holder were three pieces of paper folded in half. One in the middle bore a single name, Guardian Gleam, and one in the bottom had the two of Winter's parents. But the top one...

Crystal grabbed the note addressed to her, her sister, and her good friend, the one with the most care and attention in the writing. It didn't make the words sting any less. Nor did reading them a second, or a third time, as Crystal dug desperately for any signs that Winter was fooling with her. But no hints came, and as she heard the approach of Vlyka and Midnight she stumbled out the front door, brandishing the letter and wiping tears from her eyes. Midnight landed and stared worriedly at Crystal as she turned the letter over.

"To my best friends,

I’m so sorry I have to do this to you. I hope you know me well enough to know this hurts me as much as it hurts you, but if I don’t, I fear it might hurt you much, much more.

Vlyka knows how bad it got today, but for Crys and Midnight, just know that it was bad. Really bad. If Vlyka hadn’t stopped me, I might’ve killed somepony and not even noticed it. I felt like I was losing my mind, like something deep inside me is trying to make me lash out. I think everything I had to bottle up with my family jumbled together into some other me, something that hates everypony around it and doesn’t care if somepony gets hurt or worse. And I don’t know if I can stop it…if I can’t, then nopony is safe.

That’s why I have to leave, get away from any and everypony I can. I’m going out into the wild where somepony out of control like me won’t be out of place. I know you’ll come here to check on me, but please, don’t come after me. I can’t stand the thought of hurting any of you, you’re all my family. And to protect you from me, I have to leave. Take care of each other, and don’t forget that I still love all of you.

Goodbye,

Winter."

The trio stared at each other in pained silence for nearly a minute, nopony certain what could even be said. Finally, Crystal recovered her senses enough to let her speak. "What...what do we do now?"

Vlyka started to glare at her, a seething fury in her eyes. Crystal winced at the look, but Midnight found his voice in the moment. "We're going after her. I don't think...I think I speak for all of us. We're not leaving her to deal with this alone." Vlyka turned and nodded at Midnight.

Crystal sighed with relief and smiled. "I'm glad we all agree on this. Should we...go get supplies? Help?"

Vlyka shook her head. "Winter doesn't want anypony there...she was afraid of hurting me back at the market. She'll panic if anypony but us goes after her."

Crystal nodded. "She had to go somewhere uninhabited then...Everfree?" Nopony disagreed with her. "Then maybe we should pack quickly, meet at Vlyka’s house in an hour?"

Midnight nodded. "Pack for cold, see you on an hour." He turned to run home, but froze and turned back to Crystal and Vlyka.

“We’re going to find her, Midnight,” Crystal said encouragingly, coming to him and putting a hoof to his shoulder. “She’ll be alright.”

“I hope you’re right...” Midnight sighed, before flapping his wings and taking to the skies.

Crystal smiled as he flew off, Vlyka running for her home as well. As she turned to head home herself, she sighed and bit her lip. “So do I...”

Author's Note

Bonus chapter to the weekly upload schedule, due to the last few being shorter than I anticipated. Also introduces the last new character to the mix, so hopefully I haven't overwhelmed you all with OCs!

Chapter 7

The snap of another branch beneath her hoof had stopped scaring Winter, though she did look around warily for a moment. She’d been afraid of wild animals jumping her since she’d forced herself into Whitetail Woods, but the thought of not doing so meaning she would put her friends at risk propelled her forwards into the brush. While the area itself wasn’t as unnatural as the Everfree Forest, at least as far as she remembered, she still perceived the area as dangerous to the unprepared. Of course, given she’d tried to pack within 20 minutes, unprepared is exactly how she felt. She worried that she hadn’t packed enough supplies to keep herself healthy on her trip to…where was she even going? She had no end goal in mind, she was basically just wandering in to get lost, hopefully where nopony would ever find her.

“Maybe it’s a good thing I don’t have a lot of supplies,” she muttered. “Maybe it’d be better if I just…disappeared into the woods. If I can’t keep myself in check, what good am I?” But Winter shook her head as the thought settled uneasily in her mind. Her stomach was already feeling light, it had been a while since she'd eaten anything substantial, but she didn't exactly feel hungry just yet. She couldn't for sure tell if that was the anger at leaving her home, the sorrow at losing her friends, or the strange swirl of energy that felt like it had replaced her magic.

Winter had felt that something was very different with her icy abilities, like it wasn't the same kind of magic that her fellow unicorns wielded so easily. She'd always struggled with any traditional unicorn tricks save her telekinesis, and even that didn't have a particularly strong lifting potential. But her ice...anything she imagined in snow or ice and it was simply there, her magic guiding some other force into the shape she desired. It was so easy for her, in fact, that she had to put on a show when she did her ice sculpting, make it look like it took any kind of effort at all to make something even twice the size of a pony. The other force had felt unique, and could burn her if she tried to use too much, but it had always felt like a friend, something she could trust. Now she could sense it, something different, trying to fill that same familiar spot with a pressure. It engulfed her and squeezed her, pressing her harder any time she poked out at it with her magic.

Winter sighed and rubbed her shoulder as she glanced up. Much to her chagrin she'd sensed this new force growing around her at the same time as a storm that hovered high over her head. It was only in the last hour that Winter had finally admitted to herself that it was her storm, her fault, considering it had just started dropping a decent snowfall all around her. She'd made snow before, mostly as a prank or payback for an annoying heckler, but the only time she'd made a big storm like this already looked like it was shaping up to be was the village two years ago.

"Dear Celestia, why am I doing this..." Winter sighed, dropping to her knees on the forest floor. "Maybe I should just let starvation loom..."

As though it heard Winter, the energy surrounding her seemed to compress on her. The pressure built against her head, encircling her horn and squeezing her barrel until it felt like she was going to be sick. "I can't take this..." she growled, shaking her head and standing back up. She clutched her head with one hoof as the pressure lightened up just a bit. "Alright, alright...I'll keep going." Winter sighed as she took a look behind her. She must have been a mile or more from Ponyville already, and there was no sign of the town or civilization anywhere: Canterlot wasn't even visible through the trees.

"At least mother and father aren't casting their judgments right now...or at least I can't see it." It was a momentary comfort for Winter as she thought back to her note to her parents, a thinly veiled prayer that her parents forgive her for being born a disgrace and asking them not to look for her. "Not that I even know where I'm going..." she muttered, glancing at the forest ahead of her. She'd only been heading which direction felt like it hurt her the least. But every time she closed her eyes, she felt something there behind her, something whispering in her ear and a set of claws to her back as she walked deeper into the forest.

"Otto get out of my office!" Crystal yelled as her pet munchkin cat scurried out of the room in question. Crys went to the door to shut it, but saw Ottoman had knocked over a bag of her yet-to-be-sorted gems across her desktop. She took a moment to grab all the gems and throw them in the bag, opening her dresser drawer to stash them away, only to pause at the opals in her drawer. She levitated the opal for Winter up to her face, so close she could almost see her teary reflection in the polished surface.

"Why didn't I just give these out...would she have stayed if I'd just done it?" Crystal sighed and shook her head as she set the gem down sadly. She knew the reason why, she'd wanted to fill these gems with a special magic to tie her friends together, a little bit of a selfish wish she was sure. Her friends would be happy with just the stones and the silver she was working on getting, but Crystal just had to make them perfect and enchanted too.

"Not now, Crystal," she snapped, shutting the drawer quickly. "Bigger problems to deal with. Winter's alone, she needs us with her now. I promise I'll find her."

Crystal sighed heavily and hurried out of her workroom, barely remembering to lock the door behind her. She'd already thought to speak with her neighbor about feeding Otto, but the cat would wander wherever he pleased and she knew that him in her workroom would cause chaos. She was grateful that her neighbor was one of Vlyka's dog-whisperer clients, so she'd been quite accommodating in taking care of Otto for the next few uncertain days as they pursued Winter.

"Be good for the nice mare, ok?" she called to Otto, as the cat sat on her showroom counter as she hurried past a few display cases for the front door. She barely checked if her "Closed" sign was up as she slammed the door shut behind her and turned towards the Everfree Forest, towards Vlyka's cottage...towards the hunt for Winter.

Vlyka checked over her camping equipment one more time to ensure she'd secured everything. Fire starting tools for an emergency, a collapsing tent, compass...she didn't know how much she'd need, but if Vlyka's frequent trips into the Everfree had taught her anything it was to be prepared for the worst at all times. She felt certain she had packed enough finally and closed her bag, laying it by the front door as she trotted hurriedly back to her room and closet. Buried deep in the back of it were a few scarves and a pair of older snow boots she really should have replaced by now.

"Of course, should have known I wouldn't have til winter this time," she muttered as she checked the boots to see if they would at least hold up on this trip. Thankfully they weren't so bad off, but as she started to put the boots on she felt one grip her foreleg tightly, sending a shiver up her back. Vlyka had a lingering sense of betrayal from Winter attacking her, freezing her to the ground like she had, but even with her weak social skills Vlyka could tell it hadn't been a malicious attack. Winter was afraid, fearing what might happen to Vlyka if she stayed close.

Shaking her head to clear the thoughts away, Vlyka put her boots on and grabbed a pen and paper from her desk. She had thankfully run across Sunburst on her dash back from Winter's place, and in desperation asked the mare to watch Remmy for a few days, in the event they were gone that long. It had been a long shot, or so Vlyka had thought, but Sunburst had been delighted to watch Remmy after Vlyka's efforts with her own dog. Still, Vlyka felt the need to leave a short note, as both a kindness and an assurance Remmy was watched like he deserved.

"How long are you going to be gone?" Vlyka's special talent translated the worried and sad whine of her dog into something she could understand.

"I don't know," she sighed, turning to hug Remmy tightly. Remmy was massive for a pet dog, even factoring in her short height: he came up easily to her chin. It was one thing that bugged Vlyka a little bit, a constant reminder of her physical stature, but she couldn't stop loving Remmy just for that matter. "You be good for Sunburst, alright?"

Remmy panted and licked her face, making Vlyka smirk as she took the pen between her fangs to finish her note off. She was just setting it down as obviously as she could when she heard the knock at her front door.

Midnight Storm slammed his hoof down again, hitting the cloud floor of his floating home. He couldn't believe that this had happened, that he'd just let Winter skip town. She'd been fine when he last saw her, or had she? Her experiences at the exhibit had shaken her, but she'd recovered hadn't she?

"Crystal would have seen her stress a mile away," he hissed at himself, shaking his head enough that the scarf round his neck threatened to come loose. He tightened it back up and grabbed the saddlebag resting on the couch, just sealed shut after loading up the last of his travel food. He hoped that Winter couldn't escape them so quickly, but he could just tell that it may take days to catch up to her. "If I'd just told Crystal, Winter wouldn't have run, we wouldn't even be going out after her now..."

Midnight sighed and grabbed his bag, hurrying out his front door as he slammed his glasses down over his eyes. The shift from distilled sunlight through his drapes to blinding late afternoon light. Even the sixth time he'd tried to rush out the door in the last 20 minutes, only to remember something else he'd forgotten to pack. He had to stop panicking or Winter would disappear forever. He spread his wings and launched off his cloud lawn, twisting in the air towards the Everfree forest and Vlyka's little cottage.

As Midnight hunted for a favorable air current, his gaze wandered up towards Canterlot. He shook his head and looked away though, trying to suppress his imagination from wondering what things would have been like if Winter had never left Canterlot. But as he looked away towards the northwest, he caught sight of something odd: a cloud formation drifting northward. There shouldn't have been enough wind up here to move a cloud like that without pegasus help, he could feel it, yet there it went gliding across the sky. He stopped and hovered in the sky as he looked further towards the west, eyes hunting for a sign of the unusual weather...and sure enough he found it. A storm brewing over Whitetail Woods, flecks of snow falling from the mysterious clouds.

"Winter," Midnight gasped, almost shooting forward towards the storm. But his stomach held him back, as it dropped back to the ground like it was filled with lead. He wanted to go to her, fly straight to the eye of that storm and hug Winter tightly, never let her out of his sight again. But he knew that he would fail at that: If he showed up on his own, Winter would turn and run, disappear forever. He'd lock up and stay silent, scare her off, shut her down from ever listening to him again...

"I can't." He shook his head sadly. "I can't take that risk." Trying to keep his breathing in check, Midnight turned back to Vlyka's home. "Crystal will know how to help her...she has to."

Midnight flew in silence to Vlyka's cottage, trying to shut out his uselessness in rescuing Winter so he could properly think about things. By the time he reached the clearing that opened to Vlyka's front lawn, the little earth mare was just locking her door and greeting her older sister as she trotted closer. Both of them wore scarves and boots, with stuffed travel bags slung across their backs. He landed next to them and sighed. "She's not heading to the Everfree. There's a storm due west of town...I can see from here, it's not natural."

Crystal and Vlyka looked at him worriedly, Crys speaking first. "She must be making that on accident, if she wanted to run away she wouldn't leave that big a trail."

Vlyka sighed and put a hoof to her head. "It happened at the market. Is she...losing control of her magic?"

Crystal put a hoof on Vlyka's shoulder. "She should be fine, I don't think she'll lose that much control. We just need to find her and help her calm down, she'll be alright. We'll make sure of it.

Midnight turned westward, just catching the rising dark clouds of Winter's storm. His breath shuddered as he watched it for a moment, too distracted to hear anything until Crystal put a supportive hoof on his shoulder. He turned to face her gentle smile before he turned back to the clouds. "Hang on Winter," he whispered. "Just hang on. We're coming."

Author's Note

First time I'm experimenting with hopping between character's headspaces in a single chapter, please feel free to inform me if it's obnoxious.

Chapter 8

The heavy forest canopy that had been blocking the dimming evening light finally gave way, revealing a large clearing and the raw face of a towering mountainside. Winter glanced up to look for the summit of the mountain high up. It was a mistake though, since her eyes gravitated to the thickening clouds her snowstorm was creating. It covered a large part of the sky by now, the storm had to be huge, one giant target for any flier to tell something was very wrong around this mountain. It wouldn't be long before somepony came to check what was happening...or even worse, Midnight flew over the forest straight for her.

Winter snapped her eyes shut, clenching them for a second as the headache she'd been nursing for the last two hours, before she focused back down on the mountain. It was towering now, not as big as Canterlot's peak but far bigger than Winter was used to seeing, especially this close. The mountain had looked far smaller from town when she'd vaguely decided that was where she wanted to hide... "How am I going to get up there?" she muttered, as she watched the snow starting to land and coat the rocks. "Why did I even come out here."

As she watched the light vanish from the mountainside, Winter had to convince herself that it wasn't merely the storm growing worse, but the light of Celestia's sun finally giving way to Luna's moon. How had it gotten so late? "Was I seriously walking for that long?" she murmured, putting a hoof to her stomach. She could still feel it was light, seemingly almost empty, yet her body was still working just fine and she was only just getting hungry. Surely she'd been walking for at best an hour or two...but it wasn't that late when she'd left Ponyville and it was nightfall now...

Winter sighed and dropped her bag on a rock near the base of the mountain, sitting in the growing pile of snow nearby. She hung her head as she tried to banish the thoughts of Ponyville that rushed to meet her. The town had felt like home almost since she’d left Canterlot, and every day she seemed to find a new reason to love it there. The walks down the sunny street towards town hall or Sugarcube Corner, the sight of her home after a long hot day, the way the snow piled on the hills in her namesake season, the twin pools of pale moonlight that always welcomed her with the slightest glance...

"No, no." Winter sighed, wiping a tear away as it froze on her hoof. "That life is done. I can't go back, not anymore." As the tear fell and put a hole in the blanket of snow to her right, Winter sighed and fell flat on the ground, trying to keep more and more tears from joining their one chilled companion.

"Climb."

The deep, rumbling voice prompted Winter to leap to her hooves, heart pounding in her ears as she turned around. Her ears were spinning all around, looking for where the terrifying voice had come from. "Who...who's there?" Winter stammered, half expecting some great and terrible creature to wander out of the forest. But there was nothing, no response for nearly a minute, save her headache worsening with every turn of her head.

"Climb."

Winter spun straight behind her, right where she'd heard the voice, only to see the spire of the mountain and the steadily growing white coat it was growing to match hers. There was nothing there, no source for the voice anywhere she could see. "Who are you? What...what are you? Where?"

"The peak," the voice answered, sending shivers of terror up Winter's back. She shivered so rarely thanks to her body, so the sensation was already worrying for her. But the voice that seemed to echo all around her had a tinge of something...off, something wrong. She felt ill hearing that voice, like she was hearing a howling from an empty graveyard, only a hundred times more discomforting. "Climb."

Winter almost nodded in agreement, feeling a subconscious urge to obey the voice blindly. But there was something else in her mind that yelled against it, either too proud or too afraid to listen to the voice in the mountain, no matter how dominating it sounded. "No. No, not now."

"Climb," the voice demanded, that piece of Winter buried deep within twisting in anger. A deep raw pain flared inside her heart, along with her headache and the magic pressure crushing down around her, trying to force her into complying. But she couldn't, not now.

"No! I'm tired and hungry...I can’t, I won’t!" Winter cried out at the mountain peak. The energy pressed tightly down on her, squeezing her head around her horn and making her buckle with pain, but after a moment everything stopped. Winter clutched her head and sighed as she stood back up. She was dizzy from the pressure she felt only a second ago, and almost nauseous as she looked in her bag for food, but she needed something to eat at least.

It didn't take long for Winter to eat her meager meal, but as she tried to reorient herself after her meal, she just couldn't rest. She tried to make a fire to see by but she just couldn't get the wood to catch. By the time she threw the stick aside in frustration, the storm around her had started to grow very dense. As she stared, her headache flared and the voice growled at her again. “Climb,” it commanded.

“No!” Winter snapped at it. “Not now, I need to sleep. I haven’t slept all day because of all this…mess, I need some chance to sleep!” She glared defiantly up at the clouds above, having no better place to focus her anger at this immaterial voice dragging her through so much torment.

When there was no response from the voice for several minutes, Winter felt it appropriate to look at her surroundings again, watching as the snow continued piling up. She needed some kind of shelter to spend the night, or she’d get buried alive. Thankfully, Winter was in her element and had plenty of raw materials to work with. She grabbed a nearby mound of snow and pressed it into blocks, forming an igloo with a simple twist of her horn. Her normal magic was at work again, something she'd been afraid would never feel familiar, even as the storm raged outside filled with a raging energy that felt ready to tear her apart.

Winter's igloo didn't need a heat trap at the entrance, though as she crawled inside to make herself comfortable she wished she'd made one anyways. The straight tunnel offered a fine view of the storm outside, coating the trees and freezing a nearby brook. In a moment of panic Winter grabbed a new chunk of snow and rammed it into the entire tunnel, blasting it with an icy beam to freeze it shut.

Winter shook her head before laying it back down, curling into a tight little ball as she begged herself to calm down just a little. “You’re still here Whispy, you’re still here…” she tried to convince herself, but it wasn’t nearly effective. She kept thinking of what she’d done this afternoon, how Ponyville had nearly become a glacier, and if she were really that powerful and mad, she kept worrying that it wasn’t going to stop at one little town. By the time she fell asleep, her dreams were polluted by her fears, transforming them into unhinged nightmares of a frozen Equestria, with only herself to walk amongst the ruins. She would be alone again, all because of her ice.

Chapter 9

Midnight did another aerial loop to calm his nerves…the sixth time in fifteen minutes he’d had to do it. “Oh who am I kidding…” he muttered, glancing down at Vlyka and Crystal below him. He looked out at the storm out to the west, apparently moving further away, marking to him Winter's position. What worried him so much though was that the storm was growing bigger, making it hard to tell exactly how fast it was moving…but it was moving away. They weren’t moving fast enough…Stormy could have caught up with it faster by flying, but he knew that even if he did catch up with Winter, he had no idea what to say to her. He’d bungle talking to her somehow, send her deeper into her sorrows...only Crystal could help Winter calm down, he knew it, maybe even Vlyka if she wanted to, but he was useless.

He sighed as he glanced down at the ground below him, spotting the sisters trotting through the forest beneath. Vlyka had her muzzle almost to the ground again, sniffing the dirt. It was one thing for Vlyka to have such a close connection to canines, but when she literally had a better sense of hearing and smell than the average pony, it was really difficult not to point it out to the little mare. Of course, Midnight knew Vlyka well enough to know, even from a friend, comparing her to a dog would sound like an insult...unless it was meant as one. He couldn’t help but roll his eyes, remembering how in their first meeting Winter had cracked open Vlyka’s isolationist shell with some self-depreciating humor, and their relationship had blossomed under it ever since. Winter would toss out playful insults, calling Vlyka “pup” quite often, while Vlyka would threaten laughing when Winter melted in the hot summer sun. Midnight grinned as he remembered listening to the two of them go at it for a solid three minutes one afternoon, amazed at how quickly the both of them could come up with original insults for their amazingly close friend. He glanced back up and the smile faded, however, at the sight of Winter’s storm on the horizon. What he’d give to be sitting there again, listening to the two of them go at it, waiting to see Winter’s smile again...

“Hey Midnight!” Vlyka called, snapping Midnight out of his moment. He looked down to see that he was flying past the sisters as Vlyka had stopped. “Come down here!” the little mare called, prompting him to dive down to stand beside them.

Vlyka had her nose to the ground as Crystal watched with curious interest. “That storm growing much worse?” Crystal asked him, only to have him nod and point a little to the right of their current path, just the latest minor course correction to their trek. He readjusted the sunglasses on his nose, since they’d been a little jarred loose by his loops and staring down.

After a second, Vlyka looked up at the two of them, her face tense with worry. “I can smell her trail, this way, but...” She hesitated, prompting Crystal to gently put a hoof on her sister’s shoulder and smiling. “It’s...it’s weird really, I just...her trail is weakening.”

“Well that should be normal, right?” Crystal asked, but Vlyka shook her head.

“No, the trail should get stronger the closer I am to her. But...it’s almost like her trail...like there’s something else there.” Vlyka’s tail twitched anxiously as she spoke. “Like something’s following her...something familiar somehow.”

Crystal pat her sister’s shoulder comfortingly. “It may just be a wild animal following her. Winter’s resilient, she’ll be fine.”

Vlyka looked back at Crys with a look Midnight had felt on his face many a time: pained, enforced silence. She was holding back some response, something she wanted to say but didn’t feel Crystal could handle or was interested in it. Crystal had turned away to look down the path and missed the expression, Vlyka turning her head down to sniff the ground again for Winter’s trail. Midnight watched Vlyka for a moment before deciding to hoof it for a while, not exactly feeling like being up in the sky to watch the storm he could have stopped spiral out of control.

About an hour later the sun was starting to set, and the snow was beginning to pile up around them as they kept walking. The trio found their way to a nearby stream and Vlyka began pitching the tent she carried for her occasional wilderness explorations. Midnight had gone to get firewood while Crys set up a preliminary dinner for the three of them, which she started to cook over Midnight’s roaring fire right as the sun began to dip below the horizon. Despite everypony sitting around the fire for light, Midnight admittedly wincing a little at how bright it was for his eyes, not a word was said for an uncomfortable twenty minutes.

Surprisingly, it was Vlyka who broke the silence. “I’m so scared about Winter,” she muttered, staring straight into the fire. “What’s going to happen to her?”

“We can’t know,” Crystal replied, “I don’t think even she does. But that’s no reason to assume the worst, is it?” she stared meaningfully at Midnight. He smiled back at her after a second and shook his head. She had him pegged, she knew just how bad he was making the situation without having to hear him say a word. He'd certainly bugged her enough with his emotional garbage to guess what he was thinking.

"I guess all we can do for her is hope and catch up. That's the best we've got," he said softly. "I really just hope it's enough..."

"She'll be fine, Midnight," Crys replied with a broad smile, "she's super tough! I told you how we met, right?"

"I thought that was when she passed out from heat exhaustion outside your shop," he replied. Vlyka nodded in confusion.

"No no...well, that is when we really started to hit it off," Crystal replied thoughtfully. "It was the winter right before that, I’d just had a terrible day trying to dig through snow out by the Everfree looking for crystals, and I was so sick of seeing it everywhere. I just wanted to go home and melt all of it out of my boots. But when I got back to town, somepony nailed me in the face with a snowball. I was so fed up with it I just grabbed as much snow as I could lift and lobbed it in the direction that the snowball had come from. And all she did was stop the whole thing and threw it back at me!”

Midnight couldn’t help but laugh, joining Crystal as she giggled at her own story. “Oh that sounds like Winter alright,” Midnight shook his head. “She probably had no idea you were upset, she just thought you were having fun with her!”

“Yeah it turned out the snowball was one she’d tossed at somepony else, and it missed them just to hit me dead on. It’s just hilarious how much work it took me to lift all that snow, and she turned it around on me like it was nothing!” Crystal sighed and looked up at the night sky with a broad smile on her face. “What a crazy coincidence...and I’m so glad it happened.”

Vlyka smiled along with her companions and nodded. “She’s really good company, even for me.”

Crystal looked at her sister with a bemused grin. “You know I’ve been meaning to ask you. Why do you let her joke about being raised by timberwolves?”

Vlyka cringed for a split second as her sister spoke, Midnight watching her for any signs of a worsening mood. Vlyka’s past was a touchy subject for her, even with the three ponies she trusted above everypony else. But Crystal was right, Winter had taken several stabs at how Vlyka had been found being cared for by timberwolves, even though by all estimates the mare had been only sheltered a night or two by the creatures of the Everfree. “I don’t know,” Vlyka muttered. “I guess it's because the first time she mentioned it I wasn’t really sure if she was kidding or not. By the time I worked out it was a joke, she’d already insulted herself enough that I forgave her for the confusion.”

Midnight nodded. “Yeah, Winter’s told me how much she can be afraid how strong her snow and ice can be...I think she realized she messed up by touching that subject and wanted to make you feel at ease with it by poking one of her own problems.”

“Well, it sure worked,” Vlyka said, “and the fact that she’s so quick with a reply to my stupid comments...I never thought anypony would be so willing to joke with me like she does, especially a mare from Canterlot!”

Everypony laughed briefly at Vlyka’s reply as Midnight tilted his head back, looking out to the horizon. Just past the clouds of Winter’s storm, he could see the edge of Luna’s moon rising into the sky. Living up to his name, Midnight had always loved the night sky, so much so he’d dedicated himself to being a nocturnal weatherpony just to spend the nights watching the stars. Ever since that fateful Nightmare Night Midnight had hoped to have a proper meeting with the Princes of the Night, bereft of the other half of his namesake filling the skies as if by magic or trying to hunt down a stolen thundercloud from his inventory. But tonight, the moon wasn’t reminding him of Princess Luna...

“I remember when I met Winter too, Crys,” he whispered, almost in a daze. “It was the Winter Solstice, two years ago. Her first one here. I was outside wandering the town, really just hoping for something rivaling the Summer Sun Celebration. But there was nothing there, nopony outside celebrating the longest, most beautiful night of the year...” He sighed and shook his head, as Crystal gently extend a hoof to his. He smiled and nodded to her before continuing, his voice a bit stronger. “Well after a while I gave up looking for the elusive party to end all parties, and just stormed off...” Crystal couldn’t help but snicker at his word choice, causing Midnight and Vlyka to throw her a dirty look.

“Sorry,” she giggled, Vlyka only rolling her eyes in response. “Just sounded so intentional!”

Midnight stared at Crystal with a single eyebrow raised, but his amusement was betrayed by the smile on his face. “I left in a huff, but I was too frustrated to just go home. So I stopped outside a shop and just started making a snowpony. I thought the foals might like a surprise when they woke up and it’d get some of my energy out, so I just started crafting it. Of course, by the time I finished that one, I turned around to see the entire street was filled with them.”

“Did one of them tip their hat to you?” Vlyka asked with a slight incline of her eyebrow.

“Actually, yes, the one that I’d just made tapped me on the shoulder to do that. And it scared me about ten feet straight into the air,” Midnight laughed. “Winter called up to me and apologized for terrifying me, she said she just wanted to make me smile. I was a little too wounded in my pride to be grateful to her for the effort though...” Midnight stared deep into the fire as his expression fell. “She left without even telling me her name...I even went to the town Hearthswarming party hoping I’d bump into her there, but no luck...”

Crystal shifted from her seat and rested a hoof on Midnight’s, smiling softly as he looked up at her. He was trying his best to not break down crying right there, or fall apart in a nervous panic. Vlyka sighed and looked up at the sky. “We need to get her back...” she whimpered.

Hearing how hurt Vlyka’s voice was, Midnight couldn’t help but stand up and walk over to the little mare, touching her shoulder gently. His smile was pitiable, but he still felt he had to comfort her, even a little bit. “We’ll find her, we’ll catch up with her...”

“We’d better get some sleep,” Crystal chimed in. “Finding Winter’s going to be a lot easier if we’re all rested.”

Midnight sighed, but only nodded in response. Crystal and Vlyka both smiled at him, but he turned away from the two and trotted off into the forest to think for a minute. By the time he’d returned, wrestling with three dozen painful thoughts and crushing emotional weight, the fire had dimmed so much Vlyka was beginning to put it out for the night. Crystal had made herself comfortable in the tent, but as the fire died Vlyka shivered and glanced at the tent longingly. Midnight smiled softly and pushed her shoulder, causing the little mare to step back and head for the tent to bundle up. Midnight stared into the dying embers for a moment before he stomped the fire out and doused the ashes, sighing as he did so. “Please Winter...we don’t want to lose you,” he sighed. “Please, come back...”

Chapter 10

The distilled light filtering through the walls of the igloo woke Winter from her nightmares, as much as she didn't want it to. She could sense the snow building up outside, and even though it wasn’t nearly as bad as her nightmares, yet, she knew it was probably a matter of time until it became reality. Her headache and chest pain had returned and were growing steadily worse, making it hard to concentrate sufficiently to shift the ice and snow to unseal the tunnel. She gathered her saddlebag and squeezed her way through the tunnel, only to find that there was still a mound of snow blocking her exit. She pushed it out of the way and emerged, only to realize her igloo had been half-swallowed overnight. “I can’t believe this, I’m totally losing everything…” she whimpered, clutching her head in her hooves as she felt her aches flare. She felt like crawling back inside and just going to sleep forever, felt like she wasn’t worth anything else. It was painful to move, to breathe, and she knew every second longer she was around there was more and more snow threatening to choke the life from Equestria. Was she really worth being this big a threat to everypony?

“Climb…” she heard the voice on the wind, though she swore it was louder than it had ever been yesterday.

“Glad to know that hasn’t changed…” she muttered, using the sarcastic bite she’d picked up from hanging out with Vlyka and Midnight.

A meager breakfast and a few hours later, Winter found herself standing high up on the mountain's face. It had been an uneventful walk, there almost seemed to be a clear pathway winding around the entire structure as it rose to tear her snowstorm asunder. It had grown worse, snow beginning to pile up under her hooves as she kept trudging up the mountain. She heard the wind howling louder in her ears, only seeming to strengthen the hissing voice in her skull. For so long Winter had heard it as an extension of her youthful wrath, the fury she'd suppressed when her parents had demanded she rein in her powers. The pain she'd tried to hide after one of her silent tantrums in her room nearly destroyed the favored teddy bear she still kept close.

Winter paused and opened her saddlebag, sitting on a long rocky outcrop as she pulled out the old bear in question. She'd never named him, she never knew what she might have wanted to, what her grandma might have suggested. It was all Winter had of her left, the only thing she remembered about the elder mare, except for her conditionless love for the chilly filly.

Winter stroked the bear's cheek and smiled, remembering the faint images of her grandmother holding her, smiling, speaking so kindly to her... Winter's tears froze on the bear's nose as she set him down softly on the rock, too broken up inside to look at him anymore. Holding back sobs of regret, Winter stood and walked away, further up the mountainside.

Half a cycle around the mountain later, Winter was just finishing off crying over leaving her precious bear behind, far from her where it belonged like anything else. But as she cleared her eyes Winter glanced up just in time to spot the yawing abyss stretching out beyond her. The mountain was almost vertical here, no chance to climb the side or go around...but the path clearly extended on the other side. Looking around Winter noticed a pair of rotting wooden posts half-buried in her snowfall, a frail rope dangling off the side. "A bridge?" she asked aloud, pulling a portion of the rope up from the abyss. It was shoddy and disintegrated in her hoof, surely none of it had held any significant weight in quite some time.

“Centuries ago, your kind came here and climbed this mountain to become closer to the sky,” the voice whispered to her, before laughing aloud in a sinister tone that sent another shiver along her spine.

Winter gasped as she stared up at the air between the gap. She was shocked that it was suddenly so vocal, and silently prayed that something would finally materialize and show her what was causing this madness. But there was no such luck. "H...how do you know that?" she asked, trying to keep herself from shaking in the presence of this nightmare.

“Because I watched some of them fail. They were buried by the snow when it came, forgotten by others who followed their hoofsteps.” Winter gasped and raised her foreleg, looking down in the snow as though it would rise up and attack her. She shuddered and shook her head, trying desperately to tie the voice back to that childish rage she'd suppressed for so long. That voice spoke to every moment of anger, every time her parents had told off or snubbed her for her icy powers. But it was too foreign for her...too cruel. She could never have taken that kind of sickening glee in a pony suffering, not even when her parents had angered her to her breaking point, when that village had cursed her and her powers. Or...had she wanted them to suffer? Had she wanted it after all, was that voice there deep inside her all along, willing her to harm another pony?

Winter shook her head violently to get the thought out of her head, wanting to focus herself anywhere else. Thankfully there was something else she could focus on right now, a looming problem ahead of her: the gap. An answer formed in Winter's mind before she could stop herself, an elegant bridge of ice spanning the expanse. She was quickly working out the weight and angles needed to support it, her natural skill in mathematics figuring out the forces at work for her latest work of art. But just before she began to craft, just as she was about to blast her magic from her horn, she stopped herself. Something deep in her soul made her afraid, something about the ice pained her very essence. She'd been losing control of herself ever since she'd left Ponyville, ever since her ice and snow had ramped out of control into the chaos that surrounded her now.

"Maybe this is a bad idea..."Winter thought. "Maybe I shouldn't be using my magic for this. Maybe this is wrong, hurting me..."

But just as Winter took a step back to reconsider, a crushing weight settled in Winter's chest. It radiated pain like a fire pressed to her heart, causing her to cry out in pain as it flared up her neck and into her horn. As her head lowered, an icy burst formed around her horn, and blasted out of her, coating her in a dark shroud as it impacted the ground on the other side. She gasped as the power coursed through her body, burning like it had never done before, until the burst finally halted and the pain fell away almost instantly.

Winter's eyes opened as the pain subsided, withdrawing to that cold yet burning lump that had nestled right next to her heart. The weakened sense of relief from the pain didn't last long however, as her eyes opened and gifted her with the sight of an icy bridge. The structure seemed sound enough, certainly, but it was nothing like Winter had first envisioned. There was no artistry, no fine angles or support, not even the guardrails she had seen for both artistic and comforting herself as she dared to cross it. The artistry, or lack thereof, was crushing enough for Winter's sense of self as an artist, but beyond her personal pride the bridge terrified her. She felt so afraid it would simply collapse under its own weight, or the center would snap out from under her as she dared to step out to the weakest point. This wasn't something she would have made...it wasn't something she'd made. It had felt almost just like something had ripped her magic from her horn and thrown it down into this mess. Something had used her to make this...thing, and that made Winter shudder with disgust.

"What in Equestria is happening to me?" she whimpered, clenching her eyes shut as the pain in her chest grew stronger, the voice’s echoing command grew louder and louder in her ears. “Alright, alright, I’ll climb!” she yelled, “just make it stop hurting!” To her relief, the pain began to subside, giving Winter the faint strength to push aside her panic at the slow loss of control in her own life. She needed her energy for other crucial tasks right now...like not falling off a bridge.

Winter stepped up to her...the bridge spanning the gap, swallowing nervously as she looked at it. She tentatively placed a hoof on the edge of the ice, testing her natural grace and traction on the slippery substance she so easily crafted with her gifts. Even with the assurance she wouldn't slip on the bridge, she was hesitant to take the first step out onto the bridge. But it was either shimmy her way across or turn around and try to vanish into the woods...but she'd come this far already. What good would it be to turn away now?

Winter's hooves clicked along the ice as she walked, a slow and steady pace not quite fitting of the stress bound tight in her heart. But Winter knew that giving into her panic would only cause her to lose her hoofing and fell into the abyss, so she refused to look down even as she felt herself reach the midway point of the bridge. The stress wound itself down as she inched closer to the stone ahead of her, letting her breathe as her hoof touched the snow-covered mountain face. She glanced back across the bridge at her the hoofprints in the snow. She'd been pacing a little, the deep hoofprints she'd left still clearly visible despite their distance from her now. But there was no going back to the other side...

Winter turned and continued her climb, watching as the mountain peak grew closer and closer. Another turn around the mountain, and Winter found the end of the pathway at long last. The peak was still several feet up, but Winter found no way to climb further up, nor any desire to. For as she looked up at the rock face, she found a pair of eyes glaring down back at her.

Chapter 12

It had taken Winter nearly twenty minutes from reaching the peak to braving her way down the dark and gloomy cavern, trying her best to not let the thought that she’d just delved inside some giant monster’s gullet root itself too deep in her mind. She held her head a little higher up, letting the light spell she’d learn from Crystal illuminate the murky cavern depths that threatened to engulf her. Crys would have loved it in here, looking at the walls to tell the age of the rock and how the cave had formed...at least the natural parts of it. It had taken another twenty minutes of stumbling around the caverns to realize, like the carving outside suggested, this wasn't an entirely natural cavern. There were stone seats and benches carved into the walls, sconces for illuminating torches that had long since degraded or been emptied. As she delved deeper, Winter started to see drawings and etchings in the cave walls. It was familiar...the art, the carved furniture...she stumbled across a room with a large stone altar she knew she'd seen a reproduction of recently. Very recently. These were from the exhibit her parents had brought to Ponyville!

“What was all this?” she wondered aloud.

To her surprise, the voice began to explain. “Centuries before your birth, your kind developed a view of the world, that the world was the skin of a god itself, and all that lived upon it were inferior. They took it as their duty to appease this god, but in time believed that service would be rewarded, by elevation from being a mere parasite. Fragments of the religion that grew from those beliefs climbed this mountain, believing that the entire universe was the god, and hoping to come closer to its center by praying from the peak."

The voice’s words rapidly set Winter’s nerves back on edge, if they’d ever calmed down to begin with. There had been some writings like that in the text she’d read at the exhibit, but it hadn’t had nearly as much detail. It didn’t feel like something a fragment of herself would have just made up to fill a gap in the story as she understood it, so where was this information coming from? Somewhere besides herself? Her voice shaky, she asked “what happened to them?”

With a slight chuckle, the voice answered her. “A kind not unlike your own, but bearing stripes and greater superstition than yours, had come to understand that there were artifacts from the past that could pose a danger to the beings of the world in their present.”

“A kind like mine…Zebras?” Winter asked, looking around in confusion. She couldn’t tell if it was just an echo from the cavern, but Winter could swear that this voice seemed close to her, still hiding somewhere…but present, somewhere in this cave.

“This visiting kind confronted yours about their zealous beliefs, discovering the dangerous artifacts they had been keeping. When they tried to explain, your kind attacked them. But the visitors were prepared to fight, and destroyed the resistance. Those that surrendered were taken and treated with their potions and magic to cleanse their ‘corruption’.”

“They were…the zebras fought the ponies? For those beliefs?” Winter stammered. It was a horrifying thought, fighting with somepony that harshly just for differing beliefs…Winter knew deep down that she never would tolerate that. This wasn’t her mind talking after all…yet somehow, that was no comfort to her.

“Those survivors remained with the striped ones due to being too far removed from your kind for decades, and were kept from the corruptions that had reached them before.”

“And how do you know all this?” she asked, swallowing nervously as she did so. She had a feeling the answer was going to make all of this worse, but she was in deep already and didn’t see the harm in figuring out exactly what had gone so horrifically wrong.

“Because I was here, to witness it,” the voice hissed, a raspy sound to it. It was almost like somepony speaking through a wide grin without moving their teeth, a mental image that didn’t help Winter at all.

“You were...here? But that was centuries ago right? That's so long ago, who…who are you?”

“I am beyond your understanding,” the voice rasped, sounding almost bored and irritated as it continued to speak. “In an era before your concept of time can measure, I was one of many beings who bent the very powers of creation to our will. There was nothing, save what we chose to create or destroy, and for only how long we desired it. And all we wanted was our power. We fought for dominance, for a stronger link to those elements, to destroy those weaker intellects that fell before us.”

Winter gasped in shock and terror, as in a flash of white light, the cavern around her vanished. She started to see strange things, visions of places she’d never seen nor imagined, and things she couldn’t comprehend existing for mere moments before vanishing entirely. Entire mountains formed in a split second, and degraded almost as fast. Rivers became oceans to streams to gusts of wind all around her, all suspended in the blackest void she’d ever felt. It was terrifying and confusing, yet paradoxically it made it all too much sense at the same time.

“I swallowed countless lesser beings, always to strike back harder at those who threatened me. Millennia passed, and I grew strong enough to strike down thousands of my equals, and take their power for myself while snuffing out the potential threats from beneath me.”

“You…you destroyed your own kind?” Winter asked, shocked. “Without remorse?”

“There is no remorse for one such as I,” the voice chided her. “Those not strong enough to survive were destroyed.” The visions shifted again, showing Winter a vast, swirling light source somewhere in the void. The closer she looked at the sphere, she started to notice tiny little tendrils of energy bleeding off it, flowing outward into countless small vortices of dust. Some of the dust clouds had other threads stretching out to dozens of other spheres, each with a different color and substance. Winter could sense each of them for what they were: the cores of creation, the voice had called them, the power these creatures could use to make whatever they wanted. “For eons the battles raged, shattering others and drawing their strength in, fighting for the strongest connection to the cores. The one who commanded it all could do whatever they imagined with eternity.

“Then, out of nowhere, the cataclysm began. Two spirits emerged.” As the voice continued to describe events, Winter saw what it said play out in front of her…a memory of history, before Equestria had even formed! Right on cue, two bright, shining vortices appeared, each gleaming white with a unique halo of colored light around the edge; one of red, and one of gold. “For ages nothing changed, the war went on as ever, but eventually it became clear these demons had begun to work together, defeating that which they could not do alone. They borrowed each other’s power, and lent it in return, as the two grew stronger and stronger.” The ages flashed by Winter’s eyes too fast to determine any individual battle, and all she could tell was that the two spirals…the two entities, were growing larger, stronger, their energy streams growing brighter even as they passed the threads back and forth between each other. “They destroyed countless of us, fragmented our forms and scattered us to the vastness of the void. Then, with the power they stole, they began to create, together.”

Sure enough, the spirit of gold began to weave matter, create a raw mass of material, letting the red spirit shape and mold the matter into shapes, some seeming strikingly familiar to Winter. “But the two did not destroy their work when they completed, instead allowing it to persist, and expand to fill all of creation."

"The birth of Equestria..." Winter gasped. She felt herself shaking, awestruck at witnessing an event that nopony could have imagined before or since...or at least, a memory of it.

"In the end, the pieces that were left of us were forced to take on a form or be lost to oblivion. But fractured as I was, my meager connections to the cores each became a separate material being, and were scattered across the land. For centuries I could still feel my other shards, each with a fragment of my essence along with it. But the ages past, and I lost contact with my other shards, until I could only sense one. Trapped in the physical plane I could not move, could not reach out to find my fragments, could not shape anything. I was trapped, here, on this mountain for centuries. I had lost it all to those demonic spirits.”

Winter's jaw hit the floor as the visions faded, returning her to the cavern all alone. She had just a moment to sift through the sheer amount of information that had been dumped on her, enough to keep Canterlot’s best historians busy for decades. But in her current state she just could not process anything that had just happened, only just able to process how she was somehow speaking to an elemental creature from beyond the beginning of her world! Questions flitted to the front of her mind, only to be bogged down and swallowed alive by the avalanche of other questions that followed, all drowning in a tide of mind-breaking awe and fear. Her words stopped working, and any slight noise she tried to make was muddled and meaningless before it even made it to her lips.

“But now, it is time for the chosen to fulfill their destiny, and free me from this torment,” the ancient elemental cackled at the tiny little ice pony.

Suddenly, the flood in her mind cleared, all of it stamped out by one massive question that filled every part of her brain. “It’s me, isn’t it? I’m your chosen, aren’t I?”

“Yes,” the elemental said bluntly. “This miserable world finally gifted me the chance to escape my eternal suffering. After millennia of waiting, you were delivered in close enough proximity for me to accept such a gift.”

“Proximity…” Winter latched onto the word, as her mind began to race. Her first thought was obvious enough: these whole two days had been this elemental’s fault. It had been doing this to her, with her, but that still left the question of why? Why had it chosen her, and when had it done so? “The stone at the exhibit,” she muttered. That was when this had all happened: the pain and the voices, the loss of her control, it had all happened because of that stone.

“Indeed,” came the reply. “That was my physical embodiment of my connection to the ice element of creation. The only one I have access to in this…disgusting fragmented state.”

“But why? Why would you pick me?” she asked. “You chose me over everypony else there, I felt you from so far away! Is it because of my ice powers?”

A loud, booming laugh echoed off the cave walls, causing Winter to cover her ears in pain. The elemental was laughing at her, but why? “You foolish creature,” it said, “your timescale is off. I chose you twenty years ago.”

Realization hit her like a cold ocean wave, so cold she actually shivered again, finally understanding. The first time she'd recognized seeing the rock was only two days ago, but the elemental inside it had encountered her long before then. Her mother had been curating the exhibit, the search for artifacts that had found the elemental's body here on this very mountain. The exhibit was as old as her...while it was being set up, Winter's mother must have been pregnant with her. That lined up with the elemental's story, especially as it continued.

"As your body developed, I was able to influence your growth, your rapid change and your frequent proximity made it simple to mold your form. I opened your mind, your very being, to the forces of creation. Your powers came from me, to make you a suitable one to be my chosen.”

Winter began to shake with fear, realizing she knew deep down what this thing had in mind for her. She still felt compelled to ask. “And…what was I chosen for, exactly? Why did you do all this to me?”

“You shall be my new vessel on this plane,” the elemental explained. “You shall be the physical form I require, the chance to regain my power and reclaim the world I desire."

Chapter 13

“I…I have to have lost it, this is insane…” Winter muttered, staggering as her knees threatened to give way.

“This is what you were born for,” the elemental called to her. “This is your duty to the world, to usher in my reign.”

“But…but why me?!” she begged. “Why was it me, why did I have to be born for this?!”

The elemental’s laughter echoed along the cavern walls, causing Winter to spin her head in vain to catch sight of this malicious spirit. After a few vain moments searching, she swallowed and asked another question, though it was hard to speak with her voice trembling. “What’s going to happen to me?”

“Your essence must be purged,” the elemental said, its words sending another chill down Winter’s back. “Only one may inhabit that body.”

"Purged?" Winter gasped. "You mean I...you'll tear me out of my body? But what..."

"You are weak, your essence will not survive. But that is of no consequence."

The elemental's harsh words stabbed Winter through her heart, as she realized what it was implying. “No, please…” Winter begged. “I…I don’t want to go. I…my friends, I never got to talk with my family again…I still need to see my brother…”

"This is all you were meant to ever be,” the elemental hissed at her. Winter flinched, but she couldn't stop its words from sinking deep into her heart. “This was all your life was ever going to be, besting those around you with your might. You get to go free now, you get to be free of those who hurt, those who misunderstood you. You don’t have to fear anything anymore…”

“Stop it, please…” she whimpered, crying openly and uncontrollably. Her tears froze as they fell, shattering like glass into tiny shards as they hit the rocks beneath her. This was so wrong, so unnatural. She wasn’t meant to die here, was she? This wasn’t all the life she’d been given, just to be a body for this thing, right? But it was so much greater than her, so much older, wiser, more experienced, powerful…it couldn’t be wrong, could it? And it was right, she would be done with being hurt, nopony could harm her for her snow ever again. Something deep in Winter's core told her this was wrong, but it wasn’t loud enough. She sighed in resignation. “Alright…alright.”

The elemental laughed triumphantly, and in an instant pain swept over Winter. Her chest ached, like somepony had just materialized a lead weight inside her body, the pain growing worse with every second. It spread into her head and doubled her headache’s strength in an instant, making her reel in agony. She barely remained standing, gasping and groaning as her body rebelled against her. It didn’t take her much to realize this was how she was going out: her very soul, her essence as the elemental had called it, was being torn from her body. Winter tried to cry out in the agony she felt, but her lungs didn’t cooperate, causing her mouth to hang open in a silent scream, eyes screwed shut even as she felt the icy power building inside her, flooding her mane and tail to crackle with energy and stand on end. Her power had done that before, but this time there was so much strength behind it her eyes began to cloud over and glow. Her entire body was slowly growing numb. “Please, no more..." she begged, knowing that the process had only just begun, and surely would take far, far longer. The elemental snarled and laughed with victory, even as Winter's pain finally caught up with her and she screamed out in agony.

"Winter!" Vlyka gasped.

Midnight's head whipped around at Vlyka's words. "Where? Where is she, Vlyka?"

Vlyka pointed down the tunnel at the back of the beast's throat. "There! I...I heard her...screaming."

Midnight's eyes widened in shock, and before even Crystal could react his wings snapped open and launched him into the air. "Midnight wait!" Crystal cried, but he ignored her as he dove into the tunnel. A blast of freezing wind shot back out at him, knocking him back against a stone fang of the beast, but he merely got back up and dropped to the earth, running further in with his friends close on his heels.

"You resist destiny," the elemental hissed, making Winter's ears sting as they flipped back tight against her head. The pain was incredible, tearing at her body everywhere at once, how could she not resist that kind of pain?! But the anger froze in her heart as the elemental pounded against her mind, feeling as though it reached into her mind and tried to tear her in two. Her right foreleg had already weakened on her, forcing her to balance on her other three legs as they quavered with weakness.

The elemental seemed to ignore her thoughts, chuckling to itself. “I’ve waited for eons for this moment…your form finally may accept me. The husk I’ve left behind will make a most fitting throne, though shaping it will require some…creativity.”

“That rock from the museum?” Winter gasped.

“That shell I’ve already left behind,” the elemental hissed. “Your body was finally suitable to hold my essence, so I removed myself from it as soon as you were close enough.”

“And that’s why my power went haywire,” Winter thought, though the pain became too strong for her to say. She collapsed on her knees as her other legs gave out, feeling a magic swirling all around her. But this wasn’t her familiar ice power, despite feeling somewhat similar. This was like another unicorn grabbing her with their telekinesis, a familiar sensation but distinctly a different pony’s magic. Only now, it was the same sensation she’d had with her ice power, a different energy for the same uncomfortable feeling. This was the elemental’s power swirling around her, engulfing her, suffocating her…everything that made her her was going to be pulled out and tossed to the winds by it.

“Winter!” she heard off in the distance. At first she thought it was merely a memory, buy she soon realized it was a voice, somepony’s voice, echoing off the walls of the cave. They were far off, hard to make out, but something deep inside her knew exactly who it was…and couldn’t decide if it was a good or a bad thing that she was hearing them now.

“Winter, are you in here?” Crystal’s voice rebounded against every wall around them, just adding to the noise. Over the wind howling in their ears, it was hard for anypony to hear what was happening around them. They’d huddled close to one another, relying on Crystal’s light spell to see in the surrounding gloom, as they delved deeper into the swirling storm. They’d been navigating by Vlyka’s sense of smell, tracing Winter’s weakening scent through the maze of structures and moving as quickly as they could, the winds only getting louder as they delved further inwards. But as they drew closer, they started to see it: a white light shining brilliantly from a side room, illuminating the thousands of snowflakes being launched into the cave system around them. The three picked up speed, despite the sensation that their manes might be blown off of their bodies in this wind. As they rounded the corner into the light, the three of them stopped abruptly, gasping in awe at the sight.

"No...no no, not again!" Vlyka murmured, only just audible over the swirling storm surrounding them.

"Winter!" Midnight yelled, cupping his hoof to his mouth as he yelled. The white unicorn hovered in the air at the center of the room, the blizzard surrounding her and whipping her mane and tail backwards. She would have almost disappeared from the storm, if it weren't for the brilliant white light blasting out from her horn, her eyes and mouth, illuminating her expression and faintly outlining her body. She was twitching, writhing in pain with her teeth clenched and eyes twitching, narrowed as she arched her neck. "Winter! Winter, what...what's happening?!"

Winter's eyes focused at the trio, the light flooding from her eyes blasting straight into Midnight's. He gasped in pain and turned away, his sensitive eyes overtaxed without his glasses, but Midnight couldn't let his eyes best him, not right now. “We want to help you, come on! Winter, please!"

Winter didn’t react for a good few seconds, just enough time for Midnight to wonder if he’d been heard or not. As he readied himself to call out again, Winter finally replied. “No, you guys have to go! Get away, please!”

“We’re not leaving you Winter!” Crystal called, and Vlyka moved to take a step forward.

“No, get back! I’m not safe!” she yelled, as suddenly her magic swirled about her horn. With a gesture, Winter fired a beam at the cave between her and her friends, blasting several sharp icicles into existence. She continued firing as the ice built, a thick curtain of sharp spikes covering the walls, ceiling, and floor, cutting her friends off from herself. Vlyka jumped backwards to avoid the spikes as they shot up, but she moved forward with Crystal and Midnight as he hurried straight up to them.

"Winter please, we're here for you! Don't push us away!" Crystal called. "We want to help you!"

Midnight swallowed nervously, but raised his voice to call out again. "You don't have to be scared, Winter. You don't have to be afraid of this. We...we'll find a way to help, I promise."

“You don’t understand…” Winter answered. “I’m not…afraid of this,” she groaned, but Midnight felt that the shaking in her voice wasn't just pain. She was afraid, she was lying. “This is what I was born to do. This is my destiny.”

There was a moment of silence as the trio looked at each other, confused. Finally, Crystal turned back to Whispy and called out. “What do you mean?”

As if answering Crystal's question, the whole room began to shake slightly. Vlyka glanced up as rubble started to loosen from the ceiling, and Midnight felt a panic in the back of his mind feel like he was about to be buried in a cave in caused by this earthquake. But as he stared fixated on Winter, he realized something that was almost more nerve wracking than the cave in fear: this wasn't an earthquake. The rocks shook, certainly, but sounded too rhythmic, almost as though it were some gigantic being…laughing?

“Your words are meaningless,” the voice the laughter belonged to boomed from everywhere. The voice was deafening, poor Vlyka yelping in pain and covering her ears as it continued to rumble. “My vessel has already surrendered herself to me. Soon, you shall witness the rebirth of a god!”

"What in Celestia's name..." Crystal gasped, her eyes flitting around the room.

“What in Tartarus is going on…” Midnight gasped, also glancing around to find where that noise was coming from.

“Consider yourselves blessed,” the voice continued. “That you should have the grace of witnessing my return, and being the first offerings to my power!”

Winter's senses were dulling, the world around her fading into nothingness, her body going numb to any sensation. It was almost a relief, after the torment she’d been feeling for what felt like hours of agony, though it could only have been a few minutes. But the elemental's voice was still booming in her ears, even when it took her a moment to put together what it's words meant. It hurt her to hear what it was saying, declaring itself reborn in her body, but what hurt her far more was the realization of what the elemental had planned for her friends. Her heart started pounding and her clarity returned to her in a rush of energy. “Wait, no!” she cried out.

To her surprise, the elemental seemed to react to her voice. “Silence,” it growled, sounding angry at her.

“No, please,” she whimpered, “you can’t kill them! I promise I’ll do whatever you need me to, but please don’t kill them! Don’t hurt them!”

“SILENCE!” the elemental bellowed, making Winter flinch. “These three are meaningless to me, they are nothing in comparison to my might, regardless of what form I may take on in your world." Winter felt like cowering in fear, since something this powerful could have killed her in an instant. But…she was alive, at least for now. She was still there, still felt herself connected to her body, even if that connection was feeble and weakening with each passing second. “And as you slip away…”

…”My strength grows ever stronger!” came the voice, echoing around the cave. But suddenly everypony could identify exactly where from. It was from Winter’s mouth, the voice of this elemental creature replacing her normal cadence.
“Oh no…” Crystal gasped, staring at Winter as her expression shifted. Her eyes glowed brighter and brighter, and a bone-chilling laughter rang out from her throat, though everypony there knew Whispy well enough to know she could have never made that tone if she’d tried. Everypony watched in horrified silence, staring at what had arrived. Midnight gasped, pressing himself against the icicle spikes and reaching a hoof desperately out towards her. Was it…too late?

“No! I can’t let you do this!” Winter cried. “You…you’re a monster!” She’d ignored this thought for a while now, since she’d given in and let this whole process of rebirthing the elemental start, but seeing how careless it was talking about her friends made Winter realize just how dangerous this thing was. It cared none for anypony, only about itself, and would exterminate anypony it liked indiscriminately. And she'd nearly laid down to let this thing take over her! If she didn't stop it now, all of Equestria...her friends...all of it would be...

Winter tried to picture her body, reaching out for it, but everything familiar to her felt so far out of reach. She grasped for anything she could know, tried to imagine herself hopping across a rocky pond towards the familiar boat of her earthy form hovering just out of her reach. But there was nothing, she never got closer, only fell further and further away as everything began to haze. Soon she would be gone, it was too late. She'd waited too long, she was going to...

"Alright! Well, if Snowball isn’t going to get her tail in gear and stop you, I sure as Celestia will!”

It took Winter a second to realize it, but that was Vlyka speaking...that was Vlyka, insulting her. Not hurtfully, oh no…Vlyka was a sarcastic little piece of work whenever she felt like being funny. She smiled softly as memories of Vlyka's best comebacks to Winter's teasing flashed in her mind, the memories brilliant as though she were living those moments again. The little mare, that strange little fanged mare with her love of dogs and stubborn willfulness...she wouldn't give up here.

"Vlyka..." Winter gasped, her voice clear through the noise, the shudder of the tremendous invader in the mare's body. Midnight gasped at the faintest sign that Winter was still there, almost not noticing when the spike he was pressing against shuddered. He stepped back for a moment, only to notice that the spikes were all receding. Something was weakening, calling the ice down from between himself and Winter.

There was a gasp behind him, and as he turned his head Crystal was just starting to smile broadly. "Hey Whispy!" she cried, "next snowball fight remember that some ponies duck!"

Winter burst out laughing, shaking her head as images of her first meeting with Crystal flooded her mind. "That was an accident,” she thought, “and you did try and throw my body weight in snow back at me.”

“ENOUGH!” the elemental roared, shaking Winter’s concentration on holding herself together. “You are nothing but my vessel, these words are meaningless!” The cavern walls echoed the voice several times, making it hard for Winter to keep her image of Crystal afloat. “Insolent pests,” the elemental growled, as it lowered Winter’s head, aiming her horn right at Vlyka. Before Winter could gasp in shock, she felt the energy coursing into her horn, firing a frigid blast at Vlyka. The mare reacted with barely enough time, leaping backwards to clear the shot. She didn’t make it entirely, and was slammed by a shockwave as the burst hit the ground, tossing her backwards like a ragdoll.

“Vlyka NO!” Winter cried, shock and horror flooding everything she could feel. The elemental growled in pain, but she didn’t notice, as she stared at Vlyka’s prone form through the wall of ice she’d created to keep her safe. For just a moment she thought Vlyka was gone, the first of countless, perhaps all living things in Equestria, all because she’d failed to contain this demon inside her. But to her great relief, Vlyka stumbled back upright, shaken but not taken out by the shot. She stood up and growled directly at Winter...no, the elemental, Winter was just stuck between them. “Vlyka…”

"Winter...Winter please, can you hear me?"

She gasped. "Midnight?"

"Winter please...if...if you hear me please...please come back. Do you remember when we first met, Winter?"

Even as he spoke, Winter saw the scene coalesce all around her. "Of course I do, Midnight," she smiled feeling a pleasant warmth swelling from her belly. The snowbanks around a Ponyville sat everywhere she looked, bathed in the brilliant and soothing light of a full moon hung perfectly in the sky. "How could I forget that night?" She smiled as she watched, giggling at her own silliness as her army of snowponies jumped up, all the way watching in a daze as Midnight nodded to her, smiled, and took off into the sky, his wings glistening in the silhouette of the moonlight. But as Winter gazed up at the moon, the colors began to shift, the world all fading save the moon as it transformed before her. She reached a hoof out towards it, floating towards the light before her.

The echoing voice laughed, that same bone-chilling noise that set everypony’s mane and tails on end. “At last…” it snarled, a tone that Midnight could only call a sick pleasure or enjoyment. “At last, I am reborn!” A blast of energy radiated outwards from Winter’s body, chilling the atmosphere around them by several degrees.

As everypony staggered to stay upright, they shared a moment of horror. All at once, they all realized what this meant: if this creature was truly reborn, then Winter was gone. Crystal’s eyes immediately clouded with tears, gasping for breath. Vlyka’s instincts took hold and she bared her sharp teeth, snarling in fury and injury. Midnight’s mind stopped all thought for several seconds, before he began pleading, desperately. “No, no no no Winter, come back!” he cried out. “Winter Whisper! Don’t leave me, please! Winter!”

Author's Note

Experimenting with throwing multiple character's headspaces into a single chapter. I'd appreciate feedback if it is too intense or confusing.

Chapter 14

The sphere of light before Winter stretched on and on, a tunnel of power flowing outwards into infinity, or so it seemed. It seemed almost like a stream, a gentle wash of energy washing past her as it traveled somewhere behind her. But she couldn't bring herself to turn around and look, because she knew what was there: her failure. She'd let the elemental win, it had ripped her from her body and cast her spirit into the void. How long could she last out here? The elemental had been certain she wouldn't survive like this, not for long.

"Well, may as well see what all this is..." she sighed, as she half swam, half glided forwards into the energy flow. "Maybe there's something I can use here to turn this around..." she muttered half -heartedly, already giving up. How was she going to fight an elemental being so so far out of her magic potential?! It was insane, a terrible idea she would never get to live through. She had let her friends, all of Equestria down...

With a shake of her head Winter pushed forward, looking all around herself in an attempt to learn whatever she could. She felt as though she were deep in Luna's night sky, stars glistening so impossibly far away, nothing for miles in any direction. She was alone, in this stream of white glowing energy pulsing so very familiarly. She finally thought to close her eyes and just feel for a moment, finally realizing what she was seeing. It was her magic...no, her power. This was the link of her ice powers, the true magic she had merely directed from somewhere else.

"Guess it's a good thing Tirek didn't get me," she chuckled morbidly. "If he'd caught up with me I think he'd have tried draining this through my body." The momentary smile faded, however, as Winter felt the weight of a realization press on her: this had never been her power. The elemental had done this, she was channeling its might this whole time, none of it had truly been her. Sure she was the face of it, but the strength and skill of her ice sculptures, the soft billows of snow she would tease her friends with...it had all been the elemental, truly, none of it her. But if that was the case, why had she felt so violated before, when it had made that bridge before?

As Winter tried to figure out what was really happening, she felt the energy rushing past her strengthen in flow. For a moment she wrote it off as simply her moving closer to the element, the source of this power...but something was off. It had gotten much stronger very quickly, faster than she would have expected. It was then that she noticed something odd about the stream, something she hadn't noticed before: there were two colors to it. The center was almost pure white with a tint of blue, a force that felt so comforting to her. But it was surrounded by an energy of white with black specks and a purple tint, and as she'd pressed forward that purple tint had squeezed down tightly on the blue tint. It was bottling the strength, throttling the blue's flow back down to Equestria.

Curiosity overcame Winter and she leaned towards the energy barrier, reaching her hoof out into the purple energy. "Gah!" she yelped immediately, yanking her hoof back and clutching it to her chest. The energy burned to the touch, even as she could clearly feel the power of ice she was so familiar with. It felt dark, painful, wrathful...and familiar.

"The bridge..." she gasped, staring at the ring of purple pressing down on her tunnel of light. "This was the energy from the bridge...the elemental's!" She gasped again with a hoof to her mouth.

"'I opened your mind, your very being, to the forces of creation.'" The elemental's words echoed in her mind as she abruptly understood their meaning. And, more importantly, something it had revealed to her.

"It's not me...my power, it's...that's not the elemental, it's me! It's my ice, my snow...it's always been mine." For the briefest of moments Winter's heart lifted from the abyss it had sunk into for the last few days, as she realized that the storm that had lashed out wasn't her madness after all. There was really no way to tell if her power or the elemental's had created the storm, but her basic desire to stop it had been hers after all, and she'd lost against the stronger force...at least then.

"I can't let this thing win!" she snapped, narrowing her eyes as she felt her heart pound in her ethereal chest. "That storm was nothing for it, I can't let it get loose. But what can I do against that...thing..."

As she spoke to herself, she felt the icy energy brush past her, stronger. The elemental's magic was closing around her own stream, trying to cut her off from the element they were both reaching out to touch. Suddenly Winter understood why her powers acted as they did. She was a conduit, her body a battery for the magic and trying to push too much of it through her at once strained her physically. But with enough work and preparation, she could use a lot of power at once. Could it be...

“I can fight it,” she said. “I can stop this thing. It’s feeding off of me, but I don’t have to let it.” Winter closed her eyes, determination flaring in her heart and mind, as she focused in on the pool of energy she and the elemental were both connected to. "Please," she begged, unsure what she was talking to. "Help me. Help me fight this monster, help me protect my friends. I want to go back." Winter begged, as she shut her eyes tightly and concentrated. She reached out with her magic, her heart, stretching to feel the element reaching for her. It touched her very soul just like she remembered, feeling as the energy around her strengthened just a bit as her heart connected to the element. "I can do this, this has to work. Please, help me..." Winter wrapped her heart in the element's strength and pulled it softly back to her, and to her elation the stream's strength magnified. But now she could feel it, feel the strain as the energy pressed against the elemental's. Yet it fought to reach her, washing past her and making her smile broadly. "I need your help, now. Please."

Winter sighed as she centered herself, clearing her mind as she pressed her energy into every corner of the body she felt. She had stored elemental magic in her before, she knew what to do to build her might. And now she could feel it, feel the element's strength flooding past her back to the real world. She felt it fighting the blockage, building strength behind it to fight. "Come to me, please..."

Suddenly, the bottleneck shattered. She glanced up just quickly enough to see the purple flow of the elemental's power flaring outwards at the pressure of her own power. The tidal wave of energy smashed into Winter, but it was so familiar that she couldn't be afraid: this power was right, it was hers, and right now she needed all that she could muster. She let herself lift off the ground and get caught in the avalanche, sending her careening backwards from the element, back towards Equestria, the mountain, her friends...her friends...

Winter gasped, her head snapping backwards as she felt her entire body tingling. Her skin crawled, every square inch, as her entire body rushed to meet her returning essence. Deep in her chest, she felt that pulse of energy she’d summoned, a core of strength she could use. All through her system, she felt the elemental’s presence blocking her, holding her back from reclaiming her body. But she had the advantage now: she could feel her power growing steadily, rising faster than the power the elemental had. It may have had more experience using this power, but Winter refused to let it win.

“What is this?” the elemental growled, and suddenly Winter’s core was struck at from all sides. She winced with the pain of having her very self attacked, but she held firm, drawing the energy out further to fortify her position. “No, NO!” it roared at her, its assault growing stronger, but Winter refused to give in.

“You didn’t make me,” she growled back, forcing her field outwards. The elemental grunted as she expanded her energy, drawing more and more from the well to keep her power consistent. "One gift does not mean I'm yours!" Winter flared her power again, this time feeling a response from her body. As her whole body came into focus for just a moment, she felt the elemental’s energy pressurize, threatening to rip itself out of her body. There was a chance, she could defeat it. She could free herself. “My mother carried me, birthed me, raised me,” she said, the image of her mother giving her strength. “She didn’t understand me, but she cared for me, and that’s more than I can say about you!”

“Enough of this!” the elemental snapped, but Winter heard the strain in its voice. It was weakening, and she capitalized on that. Another surge of energy flowed from her core, along her legs and filling her hooves with her power. More power from the well solidified her hold, melding her soul back into her body.

“My mother and father raised me, tried to teach me to be moral. My brother has tried to help me from so far away. All of them tried to help me be happy. My friends…they made me happy.”

"My...friends..."

"Did you hear that?!" Crystal gasped. Vlyka turned to nod as Crys cried out again. "Winter, can you hear us? Winter!"

As they three stood awestruck, Midnight realized that the ice wall blocking them off had receded further, enough for somepony to get through. Without thinking, he darted through the gap before something happened to cut off his entrance, even when Crystal called out for him to wait. Winter was still hovering above the ground, motionless as her magic still poured out of her like she was leaking everything she’d ever held in her body.

“Winter, can you hear me?” he called, taking off and fluttering right in front of her. “You recognize me? Come on, say something, please...”

“S…Stormy,” came Winter’s voice. It was weak, struggling, but definitely Winter. She didn't look at him, her gaze still vacant despite the light blaring from her eyes, but that didn't discourage him.

“I’m here Winter, it’s okay,” he replied, extending a hoof to touch her shoulder. She was freezing cold, even compared to the temperature around them, and something was radiating off of her that pushed him back, discouraged his touch. But Midnight refused to let it get to him. He shivered at the touch, but planted his hoof firmly and didn’t move it an inch. “I’m here for you, we’re all here for you.”

“Midnight…” Winter smiled. “My friend, all of my friends…”

“They are nothing, YOU are nothing!” the elemental roared, but the more Winter grabbed back from it, its voice sounded less intimidating and more…afraid.

“My friends aren’t nothing!” she snapped. “They’re brave, and caring, and strong, and they came after me despite the risk they had to deal with. They made it up here on their own, when I had to rely on you to kick me through everything. But guess what,” she growled, unleashing as much power as she could muster. She felt the elemental’s influence get pushed further and further out of her, returning her body piece by piece to its rightful owner.

As the elemental’s energy flowed towards her horn, it tried to take root in her head, strengthening her headache beyond what she’d dealt with for two days now. But she refused to let it take hold, no matter what strain it put on her. “I might not have made it up here on my own power, but that doesn’t mean you can just walk all over me!”

“No!” the elemental cried out, but the power in its voice had all but vanished.

“I’m not you, I wasn’t made for you! You don't get to claim who I am!" Winter’s headache softened as she felt her energy spread further out. Her body was finally starting to tire out, her strength and resistance for the element's magic failing, the core was waning and the buildup in her mane softened, allowing it to fall back to her normal style. Her power was draining, but by now it had done its job. She was back, only just barely fighting anymore to reclaim her body.

Suddenly, she felt two more hooves touching hers. It was a lot more than she was used to, but now she felt comforted, knowing that all three of her best friends were here for her. As she felt herself touch down gently, Vlyka and Crystal’s touch migrated up to her shoulders as well, and as the glow in her eyes died down. Her vision finally returned to her, and she glanced left and right, gazing at all three of her friends with a look of shock and confusion on her face. Her expression quickly changed upon seeing her friends concerned looks, and with a tearful smile she sighed with incredible relief. “Crys, Vlyka...Midnight, I…” she began, but suddenly her headache returned with a vengeance.

“You will not best me!” the elemental’s voice shook the room, its voice rather hollow compared to before. It didn’t change the pain in Winter’s head, at least until the energy she was feeling forced on her was squeezed into her horn. Again without her controlling it, her magic fired, releasing a misty white substance that began to collect into a mass of gaseous energy. Everypony stood in awe and fear of it as the cloud grew denser, all except Winter herself; as the energy finished bleeding off her, Winter felt lighter than she’d had in two days. She felt herself recovering already, and though she was still tired she could feel it wasn’t enough to stop her now. “Surrender to me!” the elemental screamed, the cloud of energy surging forward to consume her again.

Winter spread her forelegs and hunched down slightly, bracing for the energy she was calling forth. She channeled as much power as she could muster, her mane and tail standing on end again as she focused all the strength she could muster into her body. She glared at the approaching cloud and took in a deep breath, focusing as she called the energy forth into her horn. “Just chill out.”

The sound of Winter's ice magic bursting forth resounded off the walls, so violent a stone bench in the corner split in two. Behind her Vlyka yelped and covered her ears, as Midnight and Crystal winced at the sound caused everypony's ears to ring. Winter's own ears pained her too, but she could do nothing to soothe it right now. All her focus right now had to stay on her magic blast. The elemental had responded and condensed its magic in the center of its cloud form, firing its own beam back at her. The force of impact between the two snow white beams flooded the room in a blinding light. Winter's blue tinted beam struggled for a moment as she felt her hooves slip, the elemental's beam so strong it pushed against her even though her magic. But Winter planted her hooves firmly on the ice, feeling her natural talent grip the slick floor as she channeled all the element's magic back at the elemental's. It had more skill and know-how to command the element, but Winter would not let herself be bested now. It was too important for her to lose it now.

Sadly, Winter's bravery wasn't quite enough, and the blast of energy shook her to her core and made her legs weak. Her foreleg almost caved as she gasped in pain, shaking as she tried to stay standing. But right as she felt despair root in her heart, she felt a hoof touching her shoulder again...and another, and another. She could feel it, the warmth and love they had for her flowing into her. And her love rose to meet them, flooding her body with the greatest sensation she had ever felt. Her muscles felt lighter and stronger than ever, her mind soothed and ready, her magic rejuvenated. With a steady breath, Winter brought her magic close to her thoughts and twisted it tightly around her horn. The memory of her journey towards the element core had given her an idea, and just like before the magic funneled the strength of her power tighter into a narrow lancing beam.

“No!” the elemental cried, as Winter’s concentrated burst shot clean through its defenses, striking the core of the cloud it had formed. The power it shot back at her washed around Winter's beam and flooded over everypony, casting them into a frigid air. But with the core of the magic dissipated, it was nothing worse than a cold gust of air. “Nooo!” it bellowed, as Winter poured as much energy as she could bear into her shot. The chamber shook violently, the elemental’s roars rattling the very ground around them. Everypony recoiled, but Winter fought hardest to recover, keep the pressure on the creature up as it fought. Her eyes glowed brilliantly, but unlike every time that had happened to her before, she felt the absolute control of her power, and refused to let it get out of hoof. Her continued stream of energy slammed into the cloud and, slowly but surely, it began to dissipate, the rumbling and roaring dying down in equal measures. By the time the voice had vanished, the cloud had all but evaporated, a few seconds longer in Winter’s beam throwing all that was left of it to the winds. Finally, with nopony pulling energy from the well, the storm that had engulfed the cavern died down, as Winter retracted her essence back into her body. It was over; she was free.

Besides Winter’s heavy panting, there was silence between the four ponies for a few uncomfortable moments, just a hair of a gap between them as nopony knew what to say next. As Winter stood there, however, barely still standing after what she’d just done, she closed her eyes and swept her mental gaze all around her body. There was still some odd strain in her body, trying to readjust to physically feeling herself after being completely separated from her body even for a few moments, but beyond that still she felt very strange…but in the most fantastic way possible. For her whole life, she'd felt something intrusive, something that never quite seemed to fit her taking up residence in her heart, something that she'd always wondered why it was there. But now it was gone, her body felt pristine as new fallen snow. The elemental that had clawed its way into her heart and mind was gone.

With her mind and body weakened from the last two days of agony, the incredible relief that flooded Winter's system was just too much for her to bear. Her knees gave out, and as she sank to the floor she began sobbing. After everything that had happened, after all the stress she’d put on herself, any kind of relief felt fantastic, but having such a tremendous weight lifted off her all of a sudden and she just couldn’t cope with the unbridled joy she felt deep in her heart. Surprised, her friends glanced at each other in confusion and uncertainty. Crystal approached her and set a single hoof on her, a gentle sign that told her that somepony was there to help her. Midnight and Vlyka hung back, nearby but giving her space to cope with her situation if she needed it. To her surprise, however, that isn’t what Winter wanted at all.

“Guys,” she sniffled between sobs, grabbing the two outliers with her magic and pulling them forward. Her magic was far weaker than Crystal's on a good day, but in their surprise Midnight and Vlyka didn’t struggle in her grip, even fell towards her as she basically just pushed them. Winter jumped up on her hooves and spread her forelegs wide, grabbing everypony tightly as they came close enough for the biggest hug she’d ever dealt with in her life. Despite their body heat warming her to an uncomfortable level, Winter felt she preferred this right now, especially to the sensation of dark chilling she’d dealt with for two days. She held her friends tightly for a few moments, long enough for everypony to catch on and return it, before Winter let go and everypony backed up enough to give her some space. She sniffled, beaming as she wiped her eyes. “You’re so not going to believe this one."

Chapter 15

Midnight sat in awed silence as Winter finally took a deep breath, her gentle, sweet voice falling silent after a solid ten minutes of talking. He almost wanted her to just keep talking, just to listen to her speak, but he had already been overwhelmed by the information she had given them just to catch them all up. “Well, you’re right,” Crystal muttered, after a few seconds of silence in the cavern. “I really don’t believe that story. I…I’d swear you were making it up if I didn’t know you.”

“I swear to Celestia I’m serious,” Winter looked back at her as Midnight stared at Winter's eyes. He could see the tension around her eyes as she spoke with her friends to believe her. But the light from the small ice crystal Crys had enchanted to glow made the underside of the mare's muzzle glow, separating her white coat from her teeth as a barely-contained smile etched itself on her face. After the time they'd spent worrying, nothing made Midnight happier than to see that expression.

Midnight sat a bit away with Vlyka, who was also watching with relief as Winter spoke. Winter had backed up a bit after their hug, lying down and panting with exertion and overheating. They were familiar with her needing a second to rest in the shade by now, but after everything they’d just seen it seemed like hardly enough for her to rest. Winter gave no indication she needed anything special, so her friends simply sat by and waited for her to recover, giving them a minute to calm themselves down. He couldn't help feeling something twisting in his heart however, something still bugging him despite Winter's safety. Of course he was ecstatic to see her again, relieved, and surprisingly even believed her story about an elemental creature from beyond known time and space. It was hard to deny the utterly alien sensation of that creature's power that washed over them all as Winter had evaporated it. “I don’t think I can say I don’t believe can't say 'I don't believe you' either,” he said a little confusedly, the admittance shocking the three mares with him.

“Wow,” Winter smiled, “I really don’t know what to say about that.”

“I think he hit his head on an icicle when he shot through your barrier,” Vlyka snorted, prompting all of them to laugh for a second. “I’m just glad that you’re alright.” Crystal nuzzled up to her little sister and smiled, clearly happy that she was being open with her feelings. “That was a lot of power.”

“Yeah,” Whispy sighed, still seeming a hair short of breath. “But I can feel it’s my power now. I don’t feel something wrong anymore…I don’t feel that thing inside me. My powers are mine now…and that’s got me worried now,” she muttered, ears turning back.

“What’s wrong?” Midnight asked, as Crystal sat up to step closer to Winter.

“I just…all that power is mine, and even when that thing was controlling me, I did a lot of damage to the market, to the forest. I don’t even want to think how badly I messed up the seasons out here…”

Crystal put a hoof on Winter’s back as a sign of comfort, but the mare still looked downtrodden. At least until Vlyka chimed in. “I wouldn’t worry about it,” she said. “When I was leaving the market, everypony seemed to have cleanup under control. They might be angry you made a mess, but it didn’t do any real harm. And the woods out here are pretty resilient. Only a day or so of snowfall isn’t really going to hurt anything.”

“I don’t know…” Winter muttered, “I feel like all those trees and plants aren’t going to take to being covered in snow out of nowhere. Shouldn’t they be…”

“They’re fine,” Vlyka grumbled, a low rolling sound in her throat signaling she was getting irritated. Midnight raised an eyebrow and stared at the mare, but he eventually smiled and relaxed a little. Vlyka was right: while the sudden climate change would probably have shocked quite a few plants and animals, it was already changing back. Most plants would probably survive that, even if it did seem so sudden.

Thankfully, after staring in shock and a little fear for just a moment at the pony iritably at her, Winter smiled and nodded. “Thanks pup,” she smirked, “for letting me know that animals are so resistant to the cold.” Without warning, the blanket of snow underneath Vlyka surged up, engulfing the burgundy mare in a coat of winter white. She barely had a second to yelp in shock before she was covered, the snow being dumped on her from above like somepony had just knocked it off of a roof or tree branch she was under. Crystal and Stormy stared in shock, glancing at Winter’s cocky smirk as the aura dissipated from her horn. After a second Vlyka burst out of the snowbank, snarling.

“Oh, that’s how you want to play, is it?” she growled, as Winter stuck her tongue out at the younger mare. “Well fine, come at me Snowball!” Vlyka was furious, not taking being embarrassed well, just like Winter had clearly known she would react. As Vlyka hurled a snowball back at Winter, she effortlessly slung the shot around her head and orbited it right into Crystal’s flank.

Hey!” she replied, leaping up on her hooves as Midnight followed. His worry had vanished, however, catching Winter’s wink at him before glancing at the horrorstruck Vlyka.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…” she stuttered, backing up a couple steps. Crystal advanced on her sister though, a smile spreading across her muzzle.

“You know that was rude, don't you Vlyka?” she asked, already forming several snowballs and levitating them to threaten Vlyka with. Vlyka looked horrified, having been catapulted into an "aggressive" social situation without realizing it.

“I didn’t mean to, she tricked me!” Vlyka gestured at Winter, who shrugged in mock confusion.

“Don’t go blaming Whispy, she’s gone through enough in the last couple days.” Crystal stalked closer to Vlyka, who had backed herself up against the wall. “She’s had enough stress today, I don’t think you should gi-oof!”

Crystal’s head spun to the left, as a snowball that pounded against her cheek. She turned her head back, smile in her face as she met Midnight's smirk, a second snowball in his raised hoof. “Hey, leave the introvert alone,” he smiled. “Pick on someone who actually meant to hit you.”

“Stormy, down!” Winter yelled, and without thinking about it Midnight dove into the snow beneath him. He felt the blanket getting yanked forward towards Winter and he let it carry him, carting him closer to the snowy mare. But halfway into the pull, Winter gasped and her magic flickered. Midnight's momentum died and he had to leap up towards Winter, wings flapping to launch him closer as his ears turned back in fear. Winter clutched her chest and took deep, labored breaths, as she closed her eyes and let herself calm down. "Whew...okay, too much at once. Gotta rest..."

“Okay, okay..” Midnight murmured, stepping closer to Winter. She smiled at him softly as he approached her, reaching a hoof into his bag. “I, uh, well I found something I think was yours...did you lose it?” he asked carefully, as he pulled a stuffed bear from his bag.

The gasp from Winter as the bear emerged into the light was more than enough to tell him he’d been right. “Oh sweet Celestia...” Winter whispered, extending a hoof weakly for the bear. Midnight quickly hoofed it over to her and she grabbed it, holding it in a tight hug as her face tightened up. Midnight’s ears drooped worriedly as he watched, too afraid to add anything. “I...I didn’t want to see this again...”

“I’m sorry Winter,” he said hastily, trying to approach her but feeling as though his hooves were frozen. “it’s just that I...I knew I’d seen it in your house, I thought you’d abandoned it because I...I should have known...”

Winter smiled and shook her head. “No Midnight, it’s okay. It’s...it’s perfect, thank you.” She tipped her horn down and put her forehead to the bear, smiling as she closed her eyes. “This is what made me control myself as a filly, kept myself from making these giant storms when I got mad. I thought that I’d abandoned that side of me, so I...”

“But it wasn’t you,” Midnight murmured, looking at the mess of snow still surrounding the pair. He failed to realize that Crystal and Vlyka had vanished, a light just outside dimming faintly as the pair walked away. But Midnight was too focused on his thoughts to notice that. “That creature, that elemental was forcing its power through you and making that storm.” Winter nodded with a giant beaming smile on her face, though her ears still were pinned back and tears welled in her eyes. “I think your grandma would have been proud of you.”

Winter sniffled and wiped her eyes dry, tenderly placing the teddy bear in her own saddlebag lying not far away from her. She was moving stiffly, Midnight could see her wince as she tried to move the bag’s latch, and he gently slid close to help her pack the precious cargo away. “Okay...I think it’s about time I got him home,” she smiled, looking up at him as he placed her bag onto his back.

“Are you okay to walk?” Midnight asked. “Crystal's light spell isn't going to hold forever,” he whispered, giving Winter the chance to smile.

“I think I can move still,” she answered him, working to get her hooves under her and stumble upright. “Let’s just go slow though.”

“Fair enough,” he smiled, helping Winter stand up. His hooves lingered as he helped, however, something both of them noticed after a second. Midnight blushed a bit, but surprisingly didn’t try looking away or backing up in embarrassment. “I think we have the time now...”

Midnight shifted a little bit to give Winter room as she staggered up, her legs still shaking from exhaustion. She smiled, but couldn’t bear to look right at him, her cheeks a little flushed as she struggled to stay standing.

“Thanks Midnight,” she muttered, as she tried to take a step forward. Her body was still tired, and she stumbled instead of stepping. But just as she gasped in shock at losing her balance, she felt something soft and feathery catch her under her belly. Midnight grunted with exertion, but managed to haul her back on her hooves using his wing to support her weight until she could take most of it back herself.

“Here,” he said, ducking down slightly and allowing Winter to drape her foreleg over his shoulder. While he was only an inch taller than her, Winter had to fight a bit to find a comfortable position to support herself with his body. But once she found it, it was a lot easier for her to use her remaining legs to start walking alongside him, towards the exit.

“Thanks Midnight,” she repeated, too distracted to realize she’d said it already. She tilted her head away from Midnight’s again, feeling herself turning pink. She'd kept her secret for so long, after Crystal had warned her, but now Midnight would completely...

“I guess summoning the powers of creation drains a poor mare of all her energy, huh?” she tried to joke, distract both him and herself from her embarrassing behavior.

“I bet it’s tiring, especially since you’re just learning about how it really works,” he answered. “As long as you don’t start having god delusions I think it’s okay for you to practice it, with a little time.”

“What, god delusions not a very attractive thing in a mare?” she asked as playfully as she could. Unfortunately for her, she caught her word choice and gasped, staring into Midnight’s eye as he looked at her in bewilderment. They both turned away at the same time, Winter almost slipping off Midnight in her embarrassment.

“So Crystal told you?” he muttered, sounding a little annoyed.

“Told me what?”

“I figured she’d caught on to me…but I just didn’t know how she’d take it after what I did tell her. I should have just been honest,” he sighed.

“I…I don’t understand, what are you talking about?”

“Whispy, I…I like you. A lot, a whole, whole lot, you’re beyond special to me. But I’m just not interested in…that isn’t what she said, is it?” he gulped, in response to Winter’s shocked and embarrassed gasp.

“Crystal told me that I wasn’t your type, so I wouldn’t get hurt if I told you I…” she stammered, before taking a deep breath and just saying it. “I love you.”

“Y…you…” he replied, almost trying to pull away from her. She could feel him move against her foreleg, instinctively trying to put a comfort zone around himself, but he wouldn’t let her fall to the ground like that. “Uh, I…wow, that…I didn’t see that coming.”

“Well, I wish I’d had the guts to say it earlier then. Probably would have been great to know before I thought it was worthwhile to just run away and not face this whole…demon thing,” she sighed. “Uh…sorry, I hope you didn’t take that as…”

“No, no, I understand,” he glanced at her, and finally his nervous glance was too much for Winter to handle. She pulled her hoof back off of him and set it down, trying to give him the room he needed.

“I just…Winter,” he finally said, steeling himself for his next sentence. He cast his gaze directly at her, the faded yellow of his eyes shimmering like the pale moonlight she often caught illuminating his silhouette, and now more than all those times before that light made her heart pound in her chest. "I love you too, Winter, I really do." There was a moment of silence in the cavern, Winter only hearing the blood rushing in her ears as she frantically listened for whatever words Midnight was struggling to add. "But I…I just don’t feel that attraction to ponies like somepony else might. I…I don’t feel like I want to start a family, I get weirded out thinking about being so physically close to somepony else, I…I just don’t want you to be hurt by me. Hurt, disappointed in what I’d give you…”

“Midnight,” Winter whispered, cutting him off after a moment. His familiar depression attracted enough attention that she'd snapped out of the emotional spiral he'd just thrown her into. “I don’t care about any of that.”

“You don’t?”

“No, of course not,” she smiled. “You know I get really uncomfortable with ponies touching me. And…well, I never really thought about a family. I don’t know if I want one, I don’t know if I should with this power in me. Even before I knew what it was, I wasn’t sure if it was safe for me to have foals.” Winter’s expression changed a little, looking a bit downcast and defeated, but she didn’t let it linger for long. “And even if I do, that doesn’t mean my feelings for you change at all. I still care about you so much; you’re my more than my best friend, you’re somepony I need to be around. If that’s all we can really be…then that’s enough for me. I’ll work with it.”

“Winter…” he sighed, “Winter, you’re too good for me.” He smiled and put a hoof on her shoulder, only to be met with a kiss on the cheek. Winter's cheeks burned as she turned away in embarrassment, but Midnight surprisingly felt a little more at ease for it. “How about we take this a little slower, when we’re a little bit safer too,” he said, glancing around. “Home sounds like the place to work this out, how about it?”

“Well, I knew that I loved you in part for your brain,” she shot back, managing to meet his gaze again. “You’re right, let’s get out of here. I’ve got a lot I need to get used to myself before I think of bringing anypony into this…escapade."

“I think I can be patient,” he answered, bending down slightly to offer his shoulder for support again. With a little embarrassed hesitation, Winter took it, and the two of them stumbled out the cavern exit, Midnight’s wing draped gently over her as a sign of affection. "I love you," he whispered in her ear, holding her just a little closer. Winter could only smile and nuzzle Midnight's cheek, her heart lighter than she had felt in months. She couldn't believe that two seemingly impossible things had happened to her, and she had somehow come out with the best result possible. She smiled and walked slowly with Midnight out into the future.

Epilogue

It was early evening of the next day by the time Ponyville was close enough for Winter to feel the comfort of her home beckoning her as though it were reality again. It had seemed far longer than a several hour hike through the forest to her, probably because her body was shuddering from the strain of her magic exhaustion. It had been a really, really stupid idea to craft a giant ice slide down the entire mountain last night, after her fight with the elemental had drained her magic and burned her body with her own element connection. She'd burned herself out, to the point she couldn't even walk most of the way back home. Midnight had been a perfect gentlecolt and carried her on his back, even when she could tell his legs were weak from walking so long with the added weight. She forced herself to give him a break for the last mile or so, even when she overheating from the summer sun and very shaky on her hooves as her muscles burned from her injuries. She was ready to get home and drop straight into bed, not waking up for about three days if she could help it.

As they passed through town, she got a few strange glances, ponies she recognized from the marketplace only a few days ago. She felt nervous, unsure of what to really say or do, especially in her weakened state. Thankfully, most of the gawkers saw her friends nearby and decided that talking wasn’t worth their time, happily moving along as their evening came into view. To her surprise and mild mortification, however, the very pony she had almost frozen approached them with a soft smile. Midnight had greeted the stallion with a smirk and a gentle hug, introduced him as a friend named Shining, and promised him a chance to catch up as soon as he wasn't near comatose from the last few days. Shining had laughed and dismissed Winter's apology for the marketplace, just glad that she was ok after that incident. He'd left with a smile and a polite bow as the quartet continued their march to Winter's home.

As though simply to add insult to the injury of the last few days, the group was forced to head down the same street where the ancient society's exhibit had been set up. Most of the pieces were still there, they were scheduled to move out tomorrow, but nopony felt inclined to stop and read anything after Winter's story. Winter tried to avert her gaze altogether, but couldn't help glancing at the stone that had started this entire mess, the body the elemental had been trapped in since the world was made. But now it was a shadow of itself, just like the essence of the creature. The entire thing was fractured, deep cracks crisscrossing across the entire mass. For just a second, Winter heard the whispering wind that had accompanied the elemental’s voice as it tortured her for the past two days. There was still something there, something that was trying to reach out and claim her.

“I’m…not…yours,” she growled, glaring at the stone, as she finally had something to focus her anger towards.

Then, to her surprise, the rock itself shattered. Whatever had been holding it together just simply gave out: whether it was something physical that just happened to give at that exact moment, or a spiritual fragment of the elemental clinging to it, she didn’t know, nor did she care. As the whole thing fell into tiny little fragments, Winter couldn't help but feel a little sad; that had been the body of some grand and glorious being once, and ending a life like that would have been a tragedy. Only this time, that life had chosen itself over everypony in the world, and Winter's guilt faded almost entirely as she turned away to hobble off to her home, quick as her legs could manage.

“That wasn’t you, was it?” Vlyka asked, not even slowing her pace. She’d picked up on Winter just being ready to leave it behind, and followed suit.

“I don’t know,” she shrugged, glancing back one last time as she walked away. Already some ponies involved in the exhibit were crowding, most of them looking either slightly angry or resigned, probably having expected the thing to fall apart after it had cracked out of nowhere, at least as far as they knew. “But if it was, I don’t care. It’s all over.”

After she put the past behind her, literally, Winter looked forward to seeing her home shining like a beacon right ahead of her. She summoned the rest of her energy to speed towards her house, fast as her hooves could carry her…which wasn’t that fast, since nopony else had to trot much faster in order to keep up with her. By the time she made it inside to crash on her sofa, she was completely spent, only just able to not fall asleep then and there. Her friends entered behind her, Vlyka shutting the door behind them to keep the cool air in.

“Anything we can get for you?” Midnight asked, as Winter tried to not melt into a puddle.

She shook her head in response, before summoning the energy to speak again. “Nah, go home and take a rest. Say hi to Remmy and Otto for me,” she said, as Vlyka was already halfway out the door.

Vlyka smirked as she trotted back downstairs. "Good news is the cooling spell seems to have protected your stuff, though you might wanna clean up the leftover ice when you have strength. And I’m sure Remmy will be happy to know you’re safe,” Vlyka replied, before being her usual self and leaving without a proper goodbye. Crystal shook her head at her sister as she vanished from sight.

“I sure hope Otto didn’t get into my gem room again,” she muttered. "I’m sure he’s mad I vanished the last few days, that will be fun to win him over after.”

“As for me,” Midnight said, “I need to get back on a real sleep schedule. I don’t understand how you ponies do this ‘daylight’ thing.” Crystal chuckled, and Winter smirked as he walked closer. “Stay cool.”

“You too,” she replied, kind of hoping that he wouldn’t come in to kiss her goodbye right now. She wasn’t sure how to deal with it right now, feeling her body already angry at her for the long hike in her drained state; an elevated heart rate felt like too much to bear right now. Fortunately, Midnight seemed to understand, or at least think that when she was weak like this she really didn’t want to have a raised body temperature, and only tapped a hoof gently on her shoulder. She smiled at the “hug” and he left her alone.

Winter smiled at Midnight as he departed, Crystal in her way out after her. But as Winter shifted to sit upright, Crystal halted. "Why do I hear magic?" she asked, turning back to Winter with fear in her voice. “Winter, what do you think you’re doing?”

“I need to…write something,” she labored, her body fighting her as she tried to channel her unicorn magic. Even the simple task of lifting a piece of paper and writing quill was excruciating for her, but this had to be done sooner rather than later.

“No no no, you’re in no shape to magic anything. You shouldn’t even be out of bed right now,” she said, being far firmer than she usually was with anypony; she didn’t want to interfere with Winter’s actions and choices, but she was too tensely wound after what Winter had been through to just let it go right now.

“But…”

“I’ll write it for you, if it’s that important,” she cut Whispy off, grabbing the quill and paper from her weakened grip. “Then you’re going back to bed to rest.”

“Yes doc,” Winter chuckled.

“Good…” Crystal pulled a seat up to the nearby table and sat, readying herself for Winter’s dictation. “All set.”

“Okay, but promise not to faint when I start talking,” Winter smirked. Initially Crystal was confused, but realized she was joking…she just didn’t get the joke until after she nodded and Winter began. “Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle…”

Crystal had to pause for a second, taking a deep breath. The recently titled “Princess of Friendship” Twilight Sparkle was something of an idol of Crys’, being a living symbol of the altruism Crystal desired to hold in her heart. Winter smirked as the expression on Crystal's face shifted from shock to elation to fear and to mild irritation as she glanced at Winter again. Winter couldn't help but giggle slightly as Crystal recovered to listen.

“I feel I owe you an explanation for the strange snowstorm that happened over the last few days. Unfortunately, I’m not in the best shape to be moving right now. If I may humbly ask you to come to my house, I’ll happily explain everything that I can. The short answer is that everything should be fine now, so I hope you will be able to calm any of those affected with this news. Respectfully yours, Winter Whisper. PS: My friend Crys idolizes you.”

“Hey!” Crystal snapped out of her writing with a start. “I’m not sending her that,” she muttered, turning her gaze away from Winter’s knowing smile.

“What, she should know the truth,” she said oh-so-innocently, making Crys glare at her for a second. The snow mare laughed at the reply and shook her head. “Alright then, forget the PS.”

“Well it’s too late now, I already started the P.” Crystal moved to crumple the paper, but Winter shook her head.

“Then don’t waste the paper…how about ‘The friend generous enough to write this for me greatly admires your work.’” Crys scribbled for a moment as Winter couldn’t help but chuckle a bit. “There, bland enough for you?”

“I’d call it ‘distilled’,” Crys replied, as she finished writing. “But yes, that’s better.” She started walking over towards the desk Winter had been trying to pull this from, grabbing an envelope and folding the letter away safely inside.

“Alright then…can I ask you to deliver it then?” Crystal tensed up, making Winter smirk again. “Make up for breaking my heart and twisting my words?”

“Fine, I’ll drop it off at the castle door for her,” she grumbled, “but if I get called out for approaching her I’m not giving you a glowing recommendation.”

“I can live with that,” Whispy smiled. “But in the meantime I’m headed to bed, I promise."

"Okay Winter," Crystal smiled softly, gently coming closer and brushing Winter's mane over her ear. Crys was just close enough for Winter to he comfortable, smiling gently as Crystal stepped away. "You sleep well ok? I'll come check on you soon."

"Thanks Crys," Winter smiled, gently grabbing her hoof and holding it for a moment. "Talk with you soon."

Crystal smiled and turned to the front door, shutting it gently behind her as she disappeared down the cooling summer evening. But as Winter stood to haul herself upstairs to bed, she glanced at her desk, a pang of guilt deep in her stomach outweighing her other pains.

“One more letter,” she sighed, knowing this was a bad idea before she even started moving. She pulled herself back upright and lit her magic again, pulling a quill and paper to her bedside table. She grumbled as the ache started in her hooves, a sign she was starting to injure her body again, but she had to get this out while she was still thinking about it, and her writing wasn’t legible even to her unless she wrote with her telekinesis. So, under the strain and the prayer she wasn’t going to burn her soul out, she began.

“Dear mother and father,

“I need to keep this short as I can. I~~’m alright, mostly alright,~~ will be alright. But if you hear about it, yes, the snowstorm in the middle of summer was me. I found out something bad about myself, something I couldn’t face alone, and it took over me for a few days. But now I’m back, thanks to my friends helping me, making me see who I really am. I’m my own mare, ice and all, and nothing is ever going to change that.

“I don’t know what Guardian Gleam has told you in his letters, if anything, so here’s a basic: I write to him on occasion, but since he’s way out of country I don’t hear back that often. He and I have a deal, and when that comes to pass I promise you’ll know what I’m talking about.

“I hope you still know I don’t hate you. I just can’t face you right now. We struggled too much, I can’t cope with how our relationship went in the last few years I was living at home with you. I still love you, I want things to be better, but I need to make sure I can handle the change before I try.

“I’ll try and write back to you soon, just to make sure you know I’m still doing okay. I really, really do love you. Don’t think I’ll forget that, please.

“Love, Winter Whisper”

"Oww..." Winter moaned, as she set her quill down on the desk. She wiped the tears from her eyes as she looked at her letter again, already regretting that she was going to ask Midnight to hoof-deliver it to her family's mailbox so they wouldn't get her address. She wanted to make up with her parents, deep in her heart, but it was going to be a long road before she could get to that point. At least for now, she smiled as she crawled upstairs and into her defrosted bed, she had peace and love in her life. Her friends, her love, were here for her, and she could let that feeling slide her gently into Luna's embrace.

Chapter 11

Vlyka helped Crystal as the mares burrowed into the snow, trying to free the way down the tunnel they'd found. Midnight's sharp eyes had picked it out, an igloo partway covered by the blizzard surrounding them. With the path clear enough Crystal disappeared down the tunnel, only to emerge a few seconds later shaking her head. "She's not there," Crystal muttered, as Midnight sighed heavily. He'd been standing with his back to the igloo as though he couldn't bear to look at it.

Vlyka shook her head sadly as she tried to get a whiff of a trail. Winter's path was there alright, she could sense a faint whiff of the familiar icy unicorn, but her scent was being choked out by that unnatural scent that Vlyka had been trying to pin down. It was going to keep bugging her, but right now there were more important things to get into. "She went this way...up the mountain." Vlyka pointed her hoof to the peak they were standing at the base of.

Midnight launched himself straight up in the air and hovered several feet above the ground. He flapped far beyond where Vlyka could tell what he was doing for a few minutes before diving down to the ground again, shaking his wings out. "I saw a path up there," Midnight replied. "She must have started climbing it..."

"We'll get her back Midnight," Crystal smiled, stroking his shoulder gently as she trotted close to him.

Midnight sighed and shook his head, pulling away from Crystal gently. "It's getting serious up there, it was hard to stay flying," he muttered. "If it gets much worse..."

Vlyka shook her head and looked up the mountain path. "Let's go already," she snapped, harsher than she'd planned but no less motivated. Standing around wasn't going to accomplish anything, so even with her anxieties eating her alive Vlyka did not feel ok standing around. She proceeded to sniff her way up the mountain path, Crystal and Midnight in tow, silent for almost two hours save the howling winds that felt ready to blow her tiny frame off the mountainside. Midnight had fallen behind somewhere along the line, but by the time Crystal and Vlyka noticed his absence he was hurrying to catch up with them. Vlyka didn’t stop to let him catch up, as she’d just sniffed something encouraging out.

"The scent is a little stronger, just up ahe-" Vlyka began, only for her voice to cut off with a gasp. Just around the corner was a massive chasm in the rock face, a frozen sheet draped across the sides like a bridge. "What the heck..."

"Winter must have crossed that," Midnight said dryly, trotting closer to the gap and looking over the edge.

"Did she make it, though?" Crystal asked her horn alight with her pinkish red magic. "Winter told me about a pattern she uses, some structure in the ice she puts in everything...but it's not here. I can't feel it." Vlyka rolled her eyes but couldn't help but smirk: of course those two had talked about crystal structures of materials, considering Winter specialized entirely in how water made crystal patterns... It was a struggle for Vlyka to think that her own relationship, interest in other ponies was lacking, with both Winter and her own adoptive sister.

"It's lacking her artistry, her skill, that magic she has..." Midnight added, staring at the bridge itself for the first time. "This isn't her work, she's too passionate for...this." He gestured in disgust at the bridge, refocusing Vlyka's attention at the howling abyss that Crystal was staring down at from the edge.

“That’s quite a step down…” Crystal muttered without thinking about it. Vlyka turned and glared at her big sis, baring her fangs slightly.

“It’s the only way across,” Midnight replied, glancing worriedly at Vlyka as she bit her lip. He carefully took off, still practiced in flight even in unstable winds, and darted over towards the bridge's center, touching down lightly as he could. “Seems like it’s okay,” he called back, after taking a few steps with his wings outstretched. He turned back and leaped towards his friends, pushing against a rough headwind as he came for a landing on the mountainside.

Vlyka looked at the bridge and gulped. Winter had to have crossed that thing, and Vlyka wanted to trust Winter. But, she didn’t know how long this thing had been there, and how much support it might’ve lost since creation. Plus, she didn’t have Winter’s ice traction, and the snow wasn’t collecting nearly enough on the sloped surface to help her stay stable.

“I wish I’d been practicing my levitation…” Crystal muttered, “or my teleportation.”

“Seriously, not helping,” Vlyka growled, making Crystal blush in embarrassment. “Just pop over there already, don’t worry about me.”

“At least let me take your bag,” she offered, to which Vlyka consented. Might as well, it was less weight for her to risk cracking the ice with. Crystal took her bag gently in her grip and pulled it off Vlyka's back, setting it on beside her own as she looked across the gap to the other side. In a moment, she poofed out of existence, reappearing safely on the far rocks.

“Maybe I can lift you,” Midnight offered, but Vlyka watched as he took to the skies. He was a good flier, there was no doubt about that, but she could see him fighting the wind and snow as he tried to just lift himself. Asking him to lift her would only put both of them in danger.

She shook her head. “I can manage it,” she muttered, glancing across the bridge for any rough patches

“At least let me stay next to you?” Midnight asked. Vlyka was about to glare at him as well, but sighed and nodded. Even she could tell he was panicking at the thought of her at risk, the chance of losing two friends forever in as many days. He was going to worry about her no matter what, there was no use fighting it. There were better uses for her energy…like keeping her balance on an icy precipice below her.

As Vlyka stepped up towards the bridge, taking a deep breath to steady her nerves, she glanced up and spotted Crystal staring at her, her head lowered and horn aimed right at her. “I need traction if I’m going to walk!” she was about to yell, realizing that Crystal was about to try lifting her, but Vlyka bit her tongue. Her insecurities were tearing at the core of her psyche, the two older ponies having to take care of her in this dangerous situation. But as she shook her head to try and push back against the howling anxieties she felt her balance shift from under her. She was still on the rocks, but if she'd been scuttling along the ice she would have easily tumbled off the side. "Maybe some backup isn't such a bad idea..." Vlyka muttered to herself, just loud enough for the wind to tear it away from her mouth.

Vlyka stepped out gingerly with her first hoof, setting it down solidly but as lightly as she felt comfortable. It seemed just as stable as Midnight had found it. She continued to work forward, one step at a time, taking her time to place her hooves very deliberately to prevent herself from slipping. Haste was the bigger danger here, instead of the temperance that had been an issue yesterday. Her heart was racing, but she focused on keeping her tread stable and breathing steady. She wasn’t even paying attention to how far she had left to go, feeling as though she’d only be discouraged at any distance, or be tempted to try and leap if she were “close enough."

"Gaah! Whoa!" Vlyka cried out, as a small chunk of ice under her back leg cracked and slid off to the side. Two simultaneous gasps followed her cry, all drowned out by the howling winds around them. But Vlyka caught herself and focused on breathing, Midnight hovering closer to her as she looked panicked back at him. He glanced at her back hoof and nodded to her, Vlyka nodding back and gingerly moving the hoof still hovering in the air back to the bridge. She staggered for a moment trying to reorder her stance to maintain balance on the narrow, slippery pass.

Thankfully for everypony, after two more heart-stopping slips, Vlyka’s hoof hit snowy rocks again, allowing them all to breathe a sigh of relief. Midnight set down next to Vlyka, who collapsed in the snow shaking from the stress. She lay there for a minute to breathe, Crystal and Midnight watching her carefully to make sure she didn’t end up too close to the edge. But finally the little mare felt her heart rate dropping back to rest, and she could stand on her own four hooves again. As she stood upright though, she smiled with teary eyes and hugged both Crystal and Midnight with a hoof each. She squeezed both of them tightly, trying to ignore how weird it was feeling of two ponies' body heat in her personal space.

The pair hugged Vlyka back for a moment until she started to squirm out of their grip, the pair letting her go without hesitation. Crystal smiled proudly at Vlyka, Midnight giving her a gentle nod as well, as Vlyka grabbed her bag from Crys and resettled it on her back. She then turned her back on the death bridge and set her nose down once again. There it was, Winter's trail, weakening even further as they continued up the mountain. At least until there was a large concentration of her scent, somewhere just up ahead...

The path up the mountain leveled out about forty feet below the tip of the mountain peak, though as the three of them trotted further up they realized that only half the mountain's tip was there. The other half was filled with open air, all the way down to the path level save for a ring of boulders twice a pony's height placed around the rim almost like a low grade guardrail. There was another boulder sitting in the middle of the arena the stones had formed, smooth and flat like a ramp stretching halfway to the remaining face of the mountain. As Vlyka turned to look at the rocks however, she froze in panic, as the rocks were staring back at her. Carved roughly into the rock face was the visage if a savage, snarling animal, almost reminding Vlyka of a wolverine. Its features were weathered by the elements, but the eyes were still striking, hollow pits in the mountain itself. Its jaws lay open, the lower lips about eight feet off the flat ground they were standing on now, too high to climb up it alone. But between the rocky fangs and the ramp lay an icy bridge, just like the last one, granting access to the pitched black cavern nestled deep within the creature's maw.

"Holy Celestia..." Crystal gasped, staring up at the stone. “How long has this been here?”

“Winter...” Midnight whispered, staring at the bridge of ice. “She’s here, she has to be!”

Vlyka gulped as she looked up at the eyes of the carving again, feeling the back of her neck tingle with fear. There was something very, very wrong here, something so unnatural that it made her skin crawl. And just to add to her sense of unease, at that very moment from deep within the mouth of the beast, Vlyka heard it. Echoing off the walls, quiet and distant, with her hearing there was no denying it. She heard Winter, screaming out in pain.