Starlight took a breath before making the last teleport to the Crystal Empire. She expected a sudden Temperature drop, even with the Crystal Heart keeping the worst of the harsh weather at bay, it was still below 50 degrees in the summer.

However, when she teleported into the lively city deep within the frozen North, she got a lot more than she bargained for.

Starlight let out a yelp as she went from a comfortable 65° Spring breeze to an unforgiving and life threatening -21° Blizzard.

Starlight summoned a shield to keep the flaying winds from adding to her discomfort and surveyed the scene...it became painfully obvious why the Crystal Empire Ponies never arrived.

No way...that's impossible. Starlight thought to herself when she identified the perpetrator of this weather: Wendigos.

The wailing horse shaped spirits from the days of the ancient pony tribes had invaded the Crystal Empire. This made no sense, as the Wendigos can only besiege areas devoid of Friendship.

More frightening than the return of an enemy so ancient that most considered it a myth was the presence of snowy mounds that occasionally had lifeless Pony legs protruding from them.

Starlight knew that staying put was suicide, but she couldn't believe that everypony in the Empire was dead. And so she ventured forth, her shield preserving her from the worst of the merciless wind.

For the first moment, there was nothing. But as she ventured into the center of the city, she realized that the Crystal Castle at it's center was protected by a great shield. Shining Armor.

Starlight picked up the pace, but then, out of nowhere, a Wendigo rammed into her shield.

Starlight winced in pain at the unexpected strain on her already aching horn. What the!? Wendigos never attacked directly.

Her wince became a scream as she was suddenly besieged by the frenzied beasts.

Her advance ground to a halt, all of her concentration was devoted to her shield...and it wouldn't last long.

Starlight knew the only way out was to teleport, but doing so would require her to drop her shield. She had to time it so her shield would drop between attacks.

She waited, watching the Wendigos throw themselves into her shield. Three attacked at once on the right, with two striking on the left as the three recoiled.

Starlight took a breath and gritted her teeth, she knew this was going to hurt. As soon as the three slammed into her shield, she dropped and rolled on the ground to avoid the two...against the wind.

She never opened her eyes, she just focused on her memories of Cadence's Throne Room and teleported, praying she was fast enough.

The bitter cold disappeared, and the shrieking spirits became concerned voices. Taking this as a sign that she was somewhere else,(either the Crystal Castle or the Afterlife) Starlight opened her eyes.

She let out a breath she hadn't even realized she was holding when she confirmed she was still alive. She tried to get to her hooves, only to cry out and collapse. The concerned Crystal Ponies rushed to help her while Starlight surveyed her injury, three frostbitten claw marks.

She barely recognized the blurry face of Sunburst before she passed out.

The darkness brightened to the crimson orange of light shining over shut eyelids. Starlight groaned in discomfort as she stretched her waking body.

Stretching proved to be a mistake as her injuries punished her for daring to seek comfort.

Hissing in pain, Starlight opened her eyes. A nurse had heard her waking up and came to greet her. "Try not to move so much. You're not in any danger, but your injuries can still get infected."

Starlight surveyed herself. She was covered in scrapes and scratches from the wind, and the claw marks had been bandaged with a heater placed next to them to counteract the frostbite. "...how long was I out?"

"Not long, an hour at most. Sunburst has been checking on you every five minutes. You just missed him actually." The nurse replied.

"Could you please tell him I'm awake? I also need to speak with Princess Cadence and Shining Armor." Starlight requested.

The nurse nodded and trotted off. Within moments, she returned with the requested three Ponies plus Flurry Heart.

"STARLIGHT!!!" Sunburst shouted as he tackle-hugged the injured Unicorn as gently as his emotions allowed.

Shining Armor gave a slight chuckle. "Thank goodness you're okay. We tried to send word to Princess Celestia, but the Wendigos blizzard prevented letters from getting through."

"That explains a lot, you probably never even got our letters." Starlight hypothesized.

"Your letters? Does that mean Canterlot is being attacked too!?" Cadence stated.

"Not just Canterlot...the whole world." Starlight said as she launched into an explanation. She told the royal couple of Discord's scheme with the native villains, of his mysterious associates known as the Cabal...and of the Dark Eldar.

"We didn't know what to expect. We knew they'd be evil but...what they did to the Changelings..." Starlight shuddered at the memories of the Wych wearing a Changelings face on her breast.

"...That explains it." Sunburst said suddenly, gathering everypony's attention. "I hypothesized that the Wendigos strange behavior could only have been caused by an absurd increase in negativity. They shouldn't be able to attack areas where creatures are happy and living in Harmony, but if other areas nearby are suffering more negative emotions than we've ever recorded, that would explain it."

Starlight paled as she remembered something Twilight told her. "Discord said the Dark Eldar arrived on the other side of the planet...lands we never even knew existed...creatures we never encountered..."

A grim silence gripped the Ponies assembled...until Flurry Heart grew fussy over the dark atmosphere. "Oh, I'm sorry Flurry. I would've found somepony to foalsit if I knew we would be talking about stuff like this." Princess Cadence said as she consoled the crying filly.

"Well, in any case, we still need to find a way to evacuate the Crystal Empire without losing anypony else." Shining Armor stated, hoping somepony would come up with an idea.

"If I rest for a little longer, I should be able to summon enough magic to teleport out of the Crystal Empire and get back to Ponyville to get some help." Starlight suggested.

"Hmm, I may be able to assist you in that regard...but I want this back." Cadence added playfully before lowering her horn to Starlight's...and transferring her Alicorn magic to her.

Starlight was overcome by the power, and lifted into the air in a bright cyan glow that caused the onlookers to shield their eyes.

When the glow settled, Starlight floated back down beside the bed. Landing on her hooves without a single scratch on her body. Her eyes went to her horn, the briefest focus flaring her magic to half of what was once her full potential, and then to Cadence, who needed Shining's help to stay upright.

Starlight's look of astonishment became a look of determination. "I won't let you down Princess."

The weakened Alicorn could only give a silent nod before Starlight teleported away.

"Y-you want me to...oh, I shouldn't be surprised." Rarity groaned. After freaking out about her sister's encounter with Tirek, and frantically thanking Greenskin for protecting her, they had to address the issue of his clothing.

The sleeves of the Ork's jacket had ripped at the base, and the his pants had ripped in his thankfully empty groin. Adjustments would have to be made, but Greenskin had requested another change besides size.

Rarity groaned again as she took Tirek's broken horn into her magic. The thought of ruining the symmetry of Greenskin's jacket by adding the large bullish horn to one of his shoulders elicited no small amount of dread induced shuddering from the Fashionista as she put it atop the pile of torn clothing.

Greenskin was left in his less stylish undergarments, a loose black t-shirt and checkered boxer shorts. His boots miraculously did not require repairs, though Rarity still knew she would have to make a larger pair eventually.

Her train of thought was interrupted by a bright cyan flash that startled her and the Ork both. "Dowwowow! Who threw da flash bomb?"

When Rarity's vision returned, she saw the culprit behind the surprise. "Starlight!? What in Equestria are you doing here?"

The Unicorn in question took in her surroundings with a confused expression. "Oh! Sorry Rarity, I was trying to find Princess Celestia, but I guess I need to get the hang of Alicorn Magic."

Rarity's eyes shrank to pinpricks. "WHAT!? w-why do you have Alicorn Magic!?"

"No time to explain. I need to find Princess Celestia fast, and I can't risk teleporting again, so...I guess I'm running." Starlight said more to herself than to Rarity as she galloped out of Rarity's boutique.

Greenskin observed all of this silently. Dese Boniez
ave alot ov Weirdboyz 'round.

After explaining the situation to the Royal Sisters, Starlight was instructed to stay put, as she couldn't control her powers.

In her place, Celestia and Luna personally led the rescue operation.

The Royal Sisters appeared in the Crystal Castle, expecting a swift exodus...and found a slaughter.

Between Starlight's return to Ponyville, and the Princesses brief trip to the Crystal Empire, Shining Armor's shield had failed, and the Wendigos ran ranpant.

Celestia had scarcely believed how Starlight described the Wendigos abnormal behavior, but now saw with her own eyes as the once passively hostile creatures tore fleeing Ponies limb from limb with serrated teeth and monstrous claws protruding from their hooves.

The Royal Sisters sprang into action, Celestia putting herself between the monsters and desperate Unicorns trying to hold them off, and Luna seeking to avenge a freshly slain Pegasus.

Both Princesses blasted a Wendigo with as much power as they could muster. But to their horror, it barely stunned them.

The Wendigos counterattacked. Luna simply dodged the attack while Celestia teleported herself and the small group of Ponies behind her back to Ponyville.

Luna dodged two additional attacks from the Wendigos and blasted the offending beasts in the time it took her sister to return...a look of despair upon her face.

"We...we can't save them...if Shining Armor was still holding them off or, if everypony was in one group but..." She kept frantically searching for an answer that wasn't there. But no matter how she tried to solve the problem, the answer was the same: their magic wasn't enough to make the required trips back and forth over such a long distance.

Luna set her face to keep her emotions from overwhelming her. "Find Cadence and her family, I will gather as large a group as I can. GO!!"

Celestia didn't argue, the stern tone in her sister's voice spurring her unfocused mind to obey.

She teleported to the royal bedroom...and was greeted with a horrifying sight.

Flurry Heart, crying like the infant she was, was barely shielding her weakened mother and unconscious father from no less than five Wendigos.

Celestia wasted no time. Channelling as much power as she could spare whilst retaining enough for one more long distance teleport, she blasted the Wendigos away from the Alicorn filly and surrounded her shield with one of her own making.

Flurry Heart looked up to Celestia, her tearful eyes still alight with fear. "It's alright little one. We may not have interacted much since your birth, but I am your friend, now and always."

The few memories of Celestia Flurry Heart held pierced the veil of fear, and the filly lowered her shield to let the eldest Alicorn come close to her.

The Wendigos had not been idle during this time, but Celestia's shield was far stronger than Flurry Heart's, so the Pirincess of the sun was able to retain her composure as she spared the briefest moment to comfort the filly.

Unfortunately, that composure faltered when she realized there had been a fifth Pony in the room. Sunburst, close friend to Starlight Glimmer and Flurry Heart's Crysaller, laid dead in a pool of frozen blood, his throat ripped out by a Wendigo's maw.

Wasting no further time, Celestia teleported herself and the Royal Family of the Crystal Empire back to Ponyville.

Help was already there, tending to the Ponies Luna had managed to save. The Lunar Alicorn was also recieving aid due to a scratch across her barrel.

Celestia approached her sister with Flurry Heart wrapped in her hoof. "How many?"

Luna looked to her sister, and to the Royal Family receiving medical attention, before casting her gaze downward. "Six."

Shining Armor returned to consciousness within half an hour. Clutching his aching head. "Ughn, Wha...what happened?"

"...Shining?" Came the familiar voice of his wife in the bed next to him.

Shining Armor turned to her. "C-Cadence? Where are we?"

"Ponyville, you passed out, and the Wendigos attacked. My Auntie got us out while Luna saved everypony she could." Cadence said sadly.

Shining's world stopped turning. "...wuh...what..." He stuttered.

"...It's not your fault. I know that's what you're thinking Shiny, but it's not true." Cadence said still weak.

Starlight came in the medical tent, tear trails plain on her eyes. "I'm...I'm so sorry...you trusted me to make it...you trusted me to get help..."

"It's not your fault either." Cadence replied. "The only creatures to blame for this are the ones who drove the Wendigos insane in the first place."

When Cadence said this, Shining Armor suddenly remembered the last moments before he blacked out. He had plenty of energy left. He wasn't nearly as exhausted as he was during the Changeling Invasion of Canterlot. But then, he suddenly felt an agonizing pain. A deep pressure on his horn more powerful than any attack his shields had ever endured...even from the frenzied Wendigos.

"The Dark Eldar..." Shining Armor hissed, his despair giving way to anger. "...They did this."

Starlight was about to ask him to elaborate. But then, then thunder cracked and boomed in a far more rapid pattern than was normal, and members of every species started running back towards the Forest.

Starlight stuck her head out of the tent and realized with an accelerating heartbeat that the thunder was coming from the black storm clouds in front of Ponyville, activated by waiting Pegasai for one reason. "...They're here."

Author's Note

And so it begins. My apologies for how sloppy this is. It really shouldn't exist, but I had forgotten to include the Crystal Empire prior to this chapter and needed to explain their absence.

Initially, I was going to have the Dark Eldar attack them directly, but that wouldn't have explained why they weren't included in the initial evaluation like the other kingdoms.

I should probably have just rewritten the last few chapters to include them, and I might do that later before I start Vol. 3, but I want to finish this Volume as soon as possible because...two weeks of job hunting have paid off.

It's just an interview, it's not set in stone yet, but it's looking good. And that means that I'll have to get used to an entirely new schedule soon, and I want to have this done or as close to done as possible before that happens.

P.S. In case anyone's lost on why the Wendigos Blizzard would prevent the magically letters from getting from A to B. I based that on the fact that the letter Spike sends to Celestia in the intro is visibly seen floating in the wind as ash. So the intense wind from the blizzard would probably tear the ash clouds apart.

P.S.S. If anyone interested in seeing my welds, I celebrated my graduation with a video.

That's all for now. Next chapter...the invasion begins.