Verve

Arin splashed into the pool after the two mares, the current sweeping them up as he swam his way towards Celestia. Tempest had already grabbed her, and was helping keep her afloat. With a tightening of the bag on his back, his arms caught the two of them in the chilly waters.

“What’s the plan?” he asked, the chill of the water making his movements sluggish after being in the snow and cold for so long. With his wings spread over the water, he could handle more of Celestia’s weight without issue. Tempest kicked her legs to stay afloat, thinking.

“Can you still fly?” she asked the Seraph, who shook his head.

“Not waterlogged. I would have flown us out of there, but my wings are really loud. Besides, where will we even go?”

“We shouldn’t fly at all right now anyway - if Nightmare Moon spots us from the window, we’re as good as dead. If anything, she’s going to look for us beached on the edge of the moat, if she’s smart.” Celestia fought back panic as she spoke, water splashing against her cheeks.

Tempest, being a former commander and strategist - started to come up with a rough plan. Her eyes darted around the water’s edge, settling on the churn of bubbling rapids.

“I have an idea. It’s worked before for Twilight and her friends - and it will work for us now. Follow me.”

She broke away from the huddle, turning towards the looming waterfall’s stream. With little options and nervous looks, Celestia and Arin followed close behind.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” the Solar Princess asked, as they treaded water towards the billowing falls.

“No. I’m not. But it’s this, or certain doom. You’ll have to trust me, Princess.” Tempest rejoined them as the current grew intense, the water sucking them towards the edge.

“At this point, I’m questioning my trust!” she shouted, the trio steadying themselves for the fall. Arin gulped, his arms hugging Celestia close, as a sudden fear of heights he long since repressed returned. The water was too intense to fight now, growing deeper as even Celestia’s legs couldn’t find purchase.

“Arin, Celestia! Hold your breath, and dive away from the rapids. If not, you’ll get sucked in and pummeled!” She splashed to face them, screaming over the approaching drop. In the next second - she tumbled over the falls - diving straight down like a falcon would dart for its prey.

“Arin, if we die, I know it’s early, but… I love you,” Celestia whispered above the roar of the falls, the Seraph’s grip tightening around her.

“I know,” he choked in reply after the briefest of hesitation. The water soon rippled them over the edge into the chaos below - the duo angling downwards with heavy, soaking wings to stabilize their fall. Freezing air froze them in their bones, as the darkness of night claimed them.

Two hundred hooves above the crashing, rolling water - an orange aura hugged tightly around the tumbling duo, Tempest floating by their side in the very same magic - her hooves crossed in frustration. A struggling Pumpkin gasping as the new weight nearly ripped her from her broomstick.

“I-I c-can’t…” She began to crack, hooves sparkling brightly as her aura’s grasp began to weaken.

Another world shaking boom echoed from the world above - a wave of frost engulfing the castle as a fresh, starry light sucked at the sky. A field of icy magic encompassed Pumpkin - and her powers vanished. The broom faltered and failed. And all five of them plummeted once more - screams aplenty breaking against the water below.

Impact.

The body of the seraph tumbled away in the rolling currents of the fall, as the churning waters dragged him down beneath the tide. Pummeled by the water, he nearly lost his breath - clawing desperately to break away from the flood. But he wouldn’t budge. He couldn’t. The rolling water sucked him back into the bubbling toil, his vision darkening as air escaped his lungs. He could see dark figures of the ponies who escaped treading the water, searching for him among the bubbles.

Is this how he died? Trapped and pummeled, bruised and battered by a surging tide? Ripped down into the base of a waterfall - his wings were now a death sentence, as they helped trudge him down along the water’s floor.

In these moments, his thoughts went back to Tempest’s advice. Celestia had managed to dive out of the way, but in the confusion… he forgot. And now, he was trapped. Seconds felt like minutes, and he knew his legs wouldn’t work anymore. His breath had left him. He closed his eyes, accepting his fate. And into the darkness he went.

He felt claws snatch at his wrist, ripping him free of the endless barrage of water. The click of a beak ended the tirrage of the pouring rapids, as he broke the surface in a confused gasp. Air. Fresh, glorious air. His mind reeled and his senses came back to him, free of the water’s grasp. He heaved up lungfuls of water, hacking as it burned his throat.

The charm on his wrist was now gone. Gasping for oxygen, his eyes scanned the brush line of the forest with desperation, relief taking him when he spotted four silhouettes in the chilly air. Wasn’t it still late summer? Why was it so cold?

His eyes shot up to the clouds above - while it was dark, there was a strange separation in the sky. A white corona, slowly growing outwards from Canterlot - as snow had begun to fall across the waters he splashed in.

When he made it to the shore, sobs had taken the forefront of conversation before him. Tempest hugged tiredly onto Celestia’s torso, as the Princess leaned over the cracked-horn mare. Pumpkin Spice cried pitifully over the frozen husk of her Sister and Teacher, her friend - her Vee. She was still stuck like an icy statue, the small mare unable to even touch her or risk chilling her hooves solid.

Arin pulled himself free of the water with a grunt - all eyes turning to face him. Like they had just seen a ghost.

“A-ARIN!?” Celestia screamed, dashing into the knee deep water to grab him in her hooves. Tempest stared wide eyed at the Seraph, but Pumpkin… she didn’t move. Only look over her Mentor with absolute sorrow.

“Yes yes, I’m fine - thanks for saving me, by the way, guys! You know, from the freezing cold water!”

“You… Arin, we couldn’t reach you. You were stuck under the falls for… ten minutes.” Celestia said dumbly, squeezing the Seraph tightly in her grasp. Tugging him to the shoreline, wiping away her tears. “You… I thought you were dead. I-I couldn’t even reach you with what little magic I have, and… it was too dangerous to dive after you, the falls would kill anypony who tried.”

“A curious thing, fate is.” The click of a beak came from the frozen pegasus, a raven resting on her wing. “To be molded so freely not once, but thrice.”

Pumpkin shot up from her mourning, her eyes darting to the calm raven. “P-Please Onyx! Please! Bring her back!” she pleaded, and he raised a quiet wing to silence her.

“I am the weaver of fate for few, but for Vee, she is a thread severed. I have no control of her destiny; she chooses what comes of her future as she desires.” He clicked his beak, inspecting the icy statue beneath his talons. “A mockery to the life she lived, I am sure. But a sculpture it is, and nothing more.”

“Just… stop speaking in riddles! Bring her back! I… I’m nothing w-without her, m-my Sister!”

The mare collapsed again, sobbing. Onyx had no reply to give, only gazes to behold. A croak, and he was gone - as if he ceased to exist.

Arin approached the suffering mare after breaking from Celestia’s hooves, kneeling by her side. His arm draped tightly around her, soaking into her pitifully cold fur. “I’m sorry, Pumpkin. I… she risked her life to buy us time. She’s a hero.”

No response. Only sobs and tears. Eventually, she slumped her shaking body into his cold clothes - hugging tightly around the last hope she had.

“Y-You… you can heal, can you?...”

“I can heal many things, but… I can’t heal this.”

This squashed the faint light within her.

“I… I can’t leave her like this. A-Arin, p-please… S-She wouldn’t want to rot in the forest. H-Help me. I… I need to bury her,” she croaked after several pitiful minutes of crying, pulling her green eyes away from the floor. Tears aplenty lost to the dirt below her.

“I understand, Pumpkin.” He slid the tight straps of his pack off, dropping the bag to the floor after a few sparse moments of mourning. Shuffling around, he found a shovel within - a small one, meant for latrines - and at the young witch’s discretion, he began to dig.

A soft spot under a willow tree seemed the perfect place for the forlorn witch’s body. Vee, even frozen solid - was absurdly light and easy to carry, Celestia and Tempest helping Pumpkin do so through the use of a blanket.

A shallow grave soon formed for the icy sculpture, the Knight panting with exertion under his soaked clothes. His near death all but forgotten, as there were matters to attend to. The roots of the tree ran deep, making it a hard job - but cutting through them was easier as rage boiled in his stomach. Not only did he lose Vee, the amazing witch from Canterlot - but he lost one of his best friends, Vapor Cloud, to Nightmare Moon’s horn.

Smothered in dirt, he pulled himself from the hole - waterlogged and muddy, as the trio above worked to lower the icy remnants of a good friend down to rest.

“I have a few words to say, Pumpkin. In remembrance of your lost Sister.” Celestia said, closing her eyes. “If they would help.”

“P-Please…” she whispered quietly, wiping away a fresh set of tears.

“Vee-Ness, the pegasus of the College of Pointed Hats, had a long life stretching behind her. From the day I first met her, she was interested in magic - her whole world seemed devoted to rooting out the mystery of the cosmos and summoning fourth great energies to change the world for the better. Her life was one well lived; a pursuit of knowledge and companionship that raised many more Witches into this world.”

She continued, magenta eyes cracking open to gaze upon the lost soul. “Her very life had been spent changing lives, and in the end, she gave hers to save ours. She died not as a pegasus, but as a hero.”

Arin wiped the tears forming in his eyes, as even Tempest seemed touched by the moment. She had no tears to spare for the dead, as many had fallen around her - but her respect was paid in kind.

A misplaced rock from the small hole tumbled back into the grave, crashing into Vee. The ice sculpture below cracked in half - shocking the gathered funeral attendees, as Pumpkin’s tears came to a halt.

“...It’s… it’s all ice?” she whispered. The soft sip of a cup from the nearby bushes broke the group from their shocked stupor; a familiar purple pegasus downing an iced latte while she watched the ceremony.

“Yes! All that frost put me in the mood for a chilly brew. Thought I’d flap home and cook a pot before hitting the road.” Vee said, watching over the splintered shards of ice with curiosity. “Oho! Please continue, don’t mind me. I’m just judging you all very harshly on what you have to say about me. Which should be good things! D’ohoho~”

Vee picked a wing to preen, finding an endless supply of bent feathers to select from - as the broken pinions soon fell uselessly into the grave below.

Instantly, Pumpkin tackled Vee to the floor - crying as the Purple landed on an overly large bag she brought with her. The sealed mug spun around in the air, before crashing into the floor with a shake of ice-cubes inside.

“H-How! Why! Why would you - d-don’t do that to me, EVER AGAIN!” Pumpkin screamed, the shocked silence of the crowd around them ending as a clatter of questions began.

“W-What?” Arin coughed.

“Strange; I’ve never seen a pony feign death so well,” Tempest murmured, inspecting the grave with curiosity.

“How…” Celestia looked between the perfect mockery of Vee - split in two - and the real thing.

“What? No, really, what?” Arin repeated.

It took well over thirty minutes of crying, gathering what belongings they had, and general movement out of the forest before Vee found it opportune to explain herself.

“You see, I had snooted up an old bag of the Frozen North coffee Umbra had given me, and decided that today would be a good snow day to drink it. And with a bit of preening and drinking, hot coffee can stave off the ugliest of colds, d’ohoho~”

“But… I saw you turn to Ice. Literal ice, in the air.” Pumpkin whispered, “I thought you were just faking it… but… when you didn’t wake up…”

“Oho! You saw the effects of Nightmare Moon’s spell go stiff and chilly! I was, in fact, still flapping about. More so in the dream realm, for a moment - coffee does that to a mare, after all. If you drink enough of it.”

This challenged over two thousand years of Celestia’s wisdom and knowledge on magic - but she knew that if she inquired further, none of the answers would make any sense. Vee had been flapping next to them steadily since they started moving, seemingly half asleep, and shockingly unaffected by seemingly… anything, really.

“I’m curious to know more, but not crazed enough to find out,” the Princess spoke, sticking close to Arin’s side as they walked. With just a bit of magic to support her, those long legs of hers could go a much longer way.

“It’s… a trade secret,” Arin said after a moment. Vee tipped her witch hat with a wink.

“Tempest, where are we going?” Pumpkin asked as their conversation died down. The wine mare had started guiding them, as her commanding disposition gave her some authority among the general confusion. Even though Princess Celestia was right there, and a few thousand years more qualified to spearhead the group over her - even the morning mare fell in step with the cracked-horn Unicorn. At this moment, the Solar Princess was simply out of ideas. At least Tempest seemed to have a plan.

“For me? The far West. This is a lost cause. Retreat while you can, and find shelter for the storm that approaches. Twilight is captured. The Elements will likely be imprisoned as well. I see this as a losing battle; and that’s a clear enough reason for me to do whatever I can before this-” She pointed to the sky, that white halo of stars spreading slowly over the land “-covers everything.”

“Wait, hold on Tempest - we can’t just give up.” Arin jogged to her side, boots squishing in the dirt of the forest path. “Look at us. We may be rough, but-”

“But what? All I see is an insane pegasus, a crybaby mare with a stutter-”

“H-Hey!” Pumpkin cried, proving her point.

“-a half dead Princess, a soaked Seraph, and me. The only one here with half a head left on her shoulders, it seems. All of the Guards are likely either dead, freezing, or locked up. Or probably something worse. Twilight is definitely-”

“That is enough, Tempest,” the Princess stated, looming over the mare with her full height. Tempest was tall, but not Celestia tall. Even so, the wine mare didn’t even flinch. In fact, she looked stressed - but unbothered otherwise.

“Oh? What are you going to do - zap me with your horn? As if.” She turned on her heel, stomping off into the brush alone.

“Tempest, wait!” Celestia called, but Arin caught her with his hand, nodding to the tired Princess. He would handle this.

Making his way after the reformed pony, the bushes rattled as he passed.

“I’ll bite. Why are you heading west?” Arin asked calmly. Tempest rolled her eyes.

“While you were gone, Seraphs kidnapped Umbra - my friend and research partner. I’ve done everything in my power to institute a search and rescue operation, going so far as to investigate the scene myself - but I had no support in doing so. Look at the sky, Arin. All of Equestria will soon be enveloped in the Lunar Realm. I’d rather freeze to death among pleasant company than be tortured in that demon’s new prowling grounds.”

“Wait - you know where Umbra is?” he asked, brain whirling with this new information. Suddenly, an idea was born.

“Faintly. The unexplored West. That’s all my time managed to scrape together. A direction,” she stated, cracking a branch under her hoof as she marched on.

“Well, it just so happens that I need to find Umbra, too. If there’s one pony alive that could challenge Nightmare Moon, it would be her. At least, a pony we could reasonably save.”

Tempest stopped in her tracks. “You’re not saving her because she’s your friend. You’re saving her… to use her.”

Okay. Ow. That hurt. Umbra was his friend, yes, but… maybe he put his words out of order, just a bit.

“The first thing I intended to do when I escaped the moon was rush to Umbra’s aid. I would never abandon a friend like that. But now, not only do I want to rescue her - but she-ACK!”

A bolt of chaotic magic from Tempest’s shattered horn exploded into his chest, Vee’s wing stopping Celestia from darting forward and intercepting them. Luckily, the blue dragonhide vest had absorbed the majority of the blow. But the blunt impact of the unrefined foci left him coughing. She leered over his toppled form, spitting her words.

“Don’t you dare lie to me! How would you even know she’s in danger? Better yet - how dare you go back on your words. Your first thought was to use her like a puppet to achieve your goals! And to think, I was the one in need of friendship lessons; using her is something that the Storm King would do. The only difference between strangers and friends for you, is that you don’t benefit from strangers.”

She turned with a whip of her tail, leaving the Seraph reeling on the forest floor. It took him a moment to stand, but when he did, he went on the offensive.

“I’ve been friends with her for three years. I convinced her to be less of an Umbrum, and be more of the pony she wanted to be. I stood by her and defended her when nopony else would. And you’re going to call me a bad friend? Friends need each other! I’ve held her hoof when she was at her lowest, and she’s protected me at my weakest! And right now, everypony needs her. Not just you.”

The quiet mare stopped in her tracks, sighing. The anger evaporated as this all came to light. It’s true; she had no right to talk like this, or accuse Arin of anything of the sort. But knowing that no one at the Castle cared for the former Umbrum… it all came to a head, all of that stress she’s been fighting with on the daily. And she took it out on Arin.

“You’ve known her for what, ten days or so? I’ve known her for years. I’ve been her shoulder to cry on, I’ve taught her about friendship. I’ve watched her grow, like I’ve grown - and now, she’s made a friend. A new friend. You, Tempest. A year ago, that would have been a dream.”

The Commander slowly turned to face the group behind her, her eyes gleaming in the dim moonlight. “I apologize. I’ve been brash, Arin. I just… I have no hope. Not now. What makes you think Umbra alone could take down Nightmare Moon?”

Celestia joined the Seraph’s side, standing proud of her student. “Not alone. She’ll have us to help her. After all, she banished the entire Crystal Empire to the Shadowfell. I was there when it happened. If anypony is capable of taking down Nightmare Moon besides Twilight, it would be her.”

Vee flapped her wings to join the Princess and Seraph, Pumpkin bouncing Vee’s purple pack on her own back as she stood by the group, throwing her little hat in the ring, too. Metaphorically speaking.

“What do you say, Tempest? Think we can help?”