[Thursday, 19 May 2016, The Equestrian 30th Day of Love, Outside the Castle of the Two Sisters.]

It wasn't a long walk into the forest for Becky, Luna, and Zecora to be led to wear Ocellus running another lap. Her appearance ass still something to adjust to. The sweat and heavy breathing showed her fatigue if not her stamina.

“Water Bug,” Becky called out. “Can you come here for a moment?”

The heavy frame of Cerb slowed down and strolled up to Becky, panting, but held a steady, upright stance.

“Yeah, sure. I'm really getting the hang of holding my balance now. I only tripped a few times,” she said with a toothy smile. “My stomach still hurts, but I think if I do more jumping jacks—”

“Water Bug,” Becky spoke up, interrupting with a concerned expression. “I don't think this is working. Not fast enough, at least. We want to try something else because I don't think this much exercise is safe for your body. Not when you're this young and developing.”

Water Bug’s smile melted into something more distraught, which was far easier to read on her human appearance.

“What?” She huffed. “No! I'm not fine. I still have all this energy! I need to get rid of it!”

Luna, now more sober, moved up next to Becky to stake her position.

“We are aware, young one, but this is clearly not working as we would have wished. It would seem that your physical limits do not exceed your energy consumption. We would like to help you try something more direct.”

As wrong as it was, Luna looked at the human form Ocellus held up and down. It was a near-perfect recreation of what she could remember laying her eyes on before, and Ocellus did not disappoint. However, the stiffness of the muscles did look a bit unnatural.

“Are you not tired, my dear? If not tired, you must be sore from all that running. My poor guards could barely keep up with you.”

“Guards?” Ocellus asked, still panting. Slowly, she realized she may have been watched the entire time and started to search the surroundings.

For Becky, this had gone on long enough, so she looked to the trees.

“Midnight! Come on out! You're done for now!”

A few trees behind Ocellus, a few branches bowed, shaking the leaves, Midnight dropped down, his fur darkened with sweat over his brow, chest, and back.

“Gah! Lady Landon… Water Bug,” he said, his breath heavy with exhaustion. “She is truly blessed by your kin. Are we not certain she is human herself?”

Frustration took hold of Ocellus, and she shifted her form back to her filly pony form to vent.

“I wish!” She belted out, her legs buckling under her weight as the soreness finally caught up to her. “Ow… Daddy only ran a few miles and was too tired to do our normal cool-down exercise. I'm not tired at all. All I do is keep hurting.”

A softer approach was going to be needed to ease Ocellus into accepting any kind of workable resolution, so Becky stepped over to kneel next to the poor filly.

“It's okay. When I was your age, I had a lot of health problems, too. In fact, I still do. But, I was able to get a lot better by trying new things to help make my problems not hurt me so much. And not everything worked the first time, but…”

There was a line Becky wanted to feed Ocellus about never giving up, but that didn't feel right at the moment. She knew she couldn't have said it with confidence or been able to hold any trust with this young changeling if the truth was ever known, which likely would happen eventually. So, she took a short pause to rethink her approach.

“I wanted to give up on what others kept on trying to tell me would work best for me. I didn't like how it sounded. I hated the way it made me feel, and I don't know about you, but I was more scared it wouldn't work.”

Ocellus stayed lying in her grumpy slump on the forest floor, but she turned a curious eye toward Becky. Even then, the curiosity couldn't be overruled by the inner resentment she held inside.

“It's not the same. I know you're sick. Daddy told me everyone is still trying to fix their lungs, but you don't need love to survive like I do. You weren't born into a family of evil changelings that hurt other creatures for fun. And I don't want to be anything like them.”

If this was the path Ocellus wanted to take, Becky would have no choice but to follow her lead.

“No, I needed love, just like you do,” Becky softly replied. “Maybe I don't feed on it like food, but I still needed it. Just like how Benny loves you as his new family, Benny loved me like a sister when we were growing up because I was born into an evil family.”

Becky noticed that her admission grabbed the attention of everyone around her. Ocellus inadvertently had her ears perk up, showing great interest. So, Becky decided to roll with this approach and moved to sit more comfortably next to Ocellus while reviewing her shitty childhood.

“My mother wasn't a changeling or a queen. She didn't feed on love, either. I don't think she knew how to love anyone… probably not even herself. She used people. I can say she preyed on their love for me to get what she wanted… and a lot of the time, the medicine I needed to get better, she would take for herself, so I had to rely on my friends to help me out a lot.”

Slowly, Becky leaned forward and let her weight rest on her elbows.

“I know it's easy to think you can get by doing what's safe, only doing what you know works, even if it won't cure you. Because I was doing that for a long time… Your uncle Jay came out here and risked his life to find a cure for me just a few days before saving you. He doesn't think either one of us should give up, and I know he doesn't want anyone he cares about to suffer like we do.”

If ever there was a good enough delivery, that had to be it, and Becky turned her eyes up to the rest of the group to verify her claims.

“None of us here want to see you struggle or keep on hurting. We want you to at least give this a try.”

Midnight thought he would step up to give his take to help foster some introspection. At the very least, he had to give Becky all the backing up she needed.

Anything to keep this changeling from running more laps, if nothing else.

“That magic is a part of who you are. It is no different than the magic used to give the appearance you have now. It is neither good nor bad. Where your heart lies, and the actions you take, those make the difference between good and bad, right and wrong.”

Ocellus turned to the intimidating-looking bat pony. He never seemed to say much and usually kept his distance, which was appreciated, given all the affection he seemed to give off. However, the sternness in his voice brought back more of her shy, timid nature, and again, she fell behind Becky, though he did not relent in his lecture.

“Zecora was feared because she was Zebra, a race we know very little of because of the distance of our kingdoms. Luna was feared because of her dark past, and after she was saved, the ponies of this land did not know who she truly was as a princess.” Still a little winded but not having all of the young mare’s attention, Midnight took a few shaky steps between Ocells and the rest of the group so she could see him pointing his wing toward the zebra. “It has come to be known of the many great deeds Zecora has aided in with her potions when such skills could have far more easily been turned to poison or curse.”

He lowered his eyes and turned a glance to Luna.

“Princess Luna has used her powers and authority to further peace and prosperity for Equestria, even when that same darkness came calling back with offers of granting selfish desires and greater power. Instead, she guides us to protecting the night and guarding the dream realm so that many may sleep safely.”

Finally, he lowered his head down to match eye level with Ocellus. His golden eyes narrowed their slits, and he opened his jaws enough to reveal his fangs before licking his lips.

“Even my race, my fellow bat ponies. We own the night and bask in darkness. We have been feared, mocked, and shunned by many, but we choose not to prey on those who wander into our shadows. Even if it would have been easy to do so.” He flashed his fangs again. “I did once, however, sink my teeth into one foul creature who dared threaten to harm the one you are currently clinging to. Much like you used your fearsome powers to beat, bite, and slash at one who dared harm your friends.”

Easily frightened, Ocellus clung tight to Becky, shivering in fear as she felt compelled to shout her defense.

“But I had to! That owlbear was going to kill us!”

Carefully, Becky placed her hand on the back of Ocellus’s head.

“We know that,” Becky softly said to calm Ocellus. “What Midnight is saying is being a changeling isn't a bad thing. Other changelings might do bad things with their magic but that doesn't mean that you using yours will be bad so long as you use it for the right reasons. And right now, using it so you stop hurting while you're here with us, in a safe place, you're still going to be the same cute little Love Bug we take home with us.”

“Ow!” Ocellus yelped, rolling away from Becky. “Okay!”

Instead of standing up on all fours, Ocellus pushed herself up to her rear legs. As she sat up, her soft fur melded into firm tan skin. Her frail, petite frame grew and bulked with muscles and all the familiar scared appearance of Cerb.

“I can do more shape-shifting and stuff out here, but I didn't know how to do the other magic stuff. I only learned a few pony forms, the rock, and my big bug form when I was still in the hive. Attack magic was for older grubs going into their soldier class if they weren't going to be drones anymore… I wasn't even old enough to be a drone. I don't know how to… use my magic for that.”

“Well,” Luna started with a confident smile. “You happen to be in luck. I happen to have been trained by none other than Sir Starswirl the Bearded himself. I can assure you that training two alicorns—” She turned her head with a sneer. “—especially when one so stubborn and bothersome as my sister…” She turned back to Ocellus, her friendly smile restored. “I am certain I can take his lessons and… tame them down to be more friendly and accommodating so as to assist you in channeling your magic to defend yourself and loved ones.”

Ocellus, slightly confused, cocked her head to the side, her expression with Cerb’s face, looking priceless.

“More friendly and accommodating? What kind of lessons were you given?”

Before answering, Luna rolled her eyes and groaned heavily, with centuries of emotional baggage visible on her shoulders.

“I'll ask your father to forgive my crude language after he arrives, but I cannot overstate the fact that while Starswirl was a wise and powerful mage, he was nothing short of a complete asshole as a mentor.”

[Back in the cave of Mount Everhoof.]

Spitfire stood ready, confident, yet unsure of the danger she was confronting. This changeling was large for one of their kind, and it would be her first one to fight, at an extreme disadvantage at that. Yet, she had to hope prior lessons would work in her favor.

“Just fun for you?” She playfully asked. “I don't know about that. Watching you getting blasted was fun for me. I'm sure a few hits to your smug ugly face will be a nice treat after having to deal with that twerp of a leader you're hanging out with over there. Now, come on. You gonna stand there and bluster your feelings to me all day or try to kill me with your rank breath you keep crying your poor-me stories about. I hear enough sob stories training rookies in flight camp. Didn't know the changeling army was filled with so many cry-baby softies.”

At that, Bulky lost all of his composure and lunged in at his target.

“You little runt!”

Bulky dived in, throwing a wide-sweeping haymaker. Spitfire dipped back and slid into her fighting stance again, quickly studying his movements. His recovery was fast, pulling his right hoof to swing a string jab of his left hoof at her face.

She sidestepped his jab, feeling the air push past her mane with the force meant to take her out. She could tell he was like her not long ago. Headstrong, angry, and had a point to prove, not choosing his targets or working with a strategy that she could see, but then he came rushing in, a flurry of punches, swinging wildly.

Her head moved side to side, ducking and dodging each telegraphed swing, but he was picking up speed.

“Shit,” she thought to herself. “I’m not ready for this.”

Her forelegs rose up, absorbing the next strong series of blows, knocking her back and driving her away from the group.

“Not so tough, are ya, pony!” Bulky shouted, rushing in to grip Spitfire’s right foreleg and striking down with a right cross she couldn't avoid.

Spitfire raised her left foreleg and took the hit. Bulky’s punch plowed into her foreleg and smashed into her face with enough force to cast her out of his hold. The blow had her spin to the ground and skid to all fours, but she immediately stood back to her ready stance, shaking off the pain in her left foreleg.

This wasn't the ideal matchup, and she'd have to change up her tactics from her air-style combat to fit her grounded situation, but she could see a way out of this.

“Oh, please,” she mocked. “I've had hail storms hit me harder than this. Now, if you were a seasoned soldier in the Twilight Guard, you might have me worried. Those mares know how to throw down. This?” She shook her hoof again, trying not to let the pain show through. “We might have to call you numb skulls over to give the newbies a warm-up. I thought you were supposed to be tough?”

Bulky snorted, the back of his shell opening up to let his wings rattle, sounding off his agitation.

“Cocky little fly pony. There's a reason we never bother with you show ponies. Now I'm really gonna wipe that ugly smirk off your face.”

He charged in, closing his wings and drawing back for another haymaker. This time, Spitfire raised her left guard, turned her body into Bulky’s advance, and drove her shoulder into his solar plexus.

They collided with a dull thud of Spitfire’s body and a crunch of Bulky’s ribs, both losing a little air from their lungs in the exchange, but Spitfire spun with her right hoof up into Bulky’s gut.

Wump!

The blow shocked his system, weakening his core and locking his rear legs in place. Reactively, he retracted his forelegs, only to shoot them out and shove the first thing that came into view: a wall of tattered wings.

“Get off me!” He grunted with the last bit of air he could breathe out.

His hooves effortlessly pushed away the feathers, the momentum of his efforts driving his body forward enough he had to catch himself from sprawling out face-first into the dirt.

In the quick maneuver, Spitfire folded her battered wing in and finished her spin move to catch Bulky bracing himself for stability. With the extra momentum, she extended her left hoof and struck Bulky squarely on his left jaw, snapping his head away.

After only a second of stumbling back, Bulky rose his head and realigned himself to face his opponent again. She bound from one hoof to the other like a boxer, her front hooves raised up slightly below her muzzle, her previous smirk replaced with a look of focus and determination. For himself, he wasn't exactly seeing stars, but he wasn't about to let himself be knocked around that again.

“So, you fly ponies can fight, huh?”

This wasn't the time for Spitfire to let her guard down, and she began to circle the brute, who was regaining his wits and balance. She knew she couldn't overwhelm him off the start in her condition compared to his relatively fresh start in this fight. Buying time or wearing him down was the goal, and she could still do that.

“We’re the best of the best. And some of the best moves I have are the ones you'll never see coming. Now, come on. The punching bags on base are never this fun to knock around… They're not as dumb or defenseless either, so I'll take it easy on ya.”

Rainbow was stuck watching Spitfire, impressed with how she held her own.

“Damn, girl,” She said with a cough. “You really did learn your lesson.”

Elytra looked on, seeming to be equally impressed.

“Is she going to be okay?” She asked, only to turn her head away with a look of scorn. “Not that I care or anything. She’s your friend, not mine. We just need to get you out of here in one piece. She shouldn't be fighting him alone.”

Rainbow continued to watch Spitfire bait Bulky in with his wide telegraphed swings, only to duck and sidestep each one. Most ended with a jab to his ribs or another taunt that clearly lowered his focus.

“She should be fine,” Rainbow commented with a slight wheeze in her voice. “A couple of weeks ago, we had the greatest warrior in Equestria train a junior Lunar Guard in about an hour to kick her flanks. Really humbled Spitfire.”

Rainbow watched Bulky miss Spitfire with a left hook by a country mile and stumble, only for Spitfire to rush up behind him and deliver a flurry of blows to his back and poorly guarded midsection.

As Bulky was forced to jump up and take flight and circle overhead, Rainbow could see how this wasn't the same fight she witnessed between Spitfire and Thunder Glide. Even around them, the battles were growing more intense, and this small conflict drew more attention from the windigos.

She shivered and coughed before clearing her throat, the air around them continuing to chill with the windigo’s ire.

“Spits fought with the best of us, but she’s hurt like both you and me. She might need us if that jerk does something crazy.”

Off to the behind Rainbow, Haltere was having a new set of issues.

“Elytra! I need a hoof down here!”

Rainbow looked over her shoulder to where she heard Haltere’s voice, then turned to Elytra. Even without the common facial features of expression to read, Rainbow knew what Elytra was thinking but didn't say it out loud.

“Go. I'll be fine. I can still take on any other changelings that come after me. And I can run to Spitfire if things get worse, but your friends need you.”

Elytra turned with a glare to step away.

“We’re not friends. We’re hi—”

The words were irrelevant, and Rainbow didn't care to hear them, prompting her to place both her forehooves on Elytra’s flanks and give the changeling a hard shove.

“I don't give a shit! Go!”

Thorax wrestled with the last windigo to remain locked in combat with him. Urtica and Arista seemed to be doing well enough, keeping the other engaged, but he struggled to reposition with his limbs constantly freezing over.

One thing that wasn't helping was his Queen barking orders at him.

“What are you doing?!” Chrysalis demanded. “Stop them already! Are you listening to me?! Thorax! Overpower that windigo!”

Thorax moved to bat the creature away, drumming its icy hooves on his chest, wanting to strike with his clawed left limbs, but he found them frozen in place.

“What do you think I'm doing?!”

With Thorax's left side still largely immobile, he swung as hard as he could with two of his massive limbs from his right. His ice-covered legs struck the windigo in the side, finally removing the onslaught of blows and ice that had frosted over much of his shell.

He turned over to see the icy opponent, flailing to get to its hooves but largely unaffected by their struggles, save a few mars and scratches. However, its new position was perfect for a new line of attack.

Thorax opened his wings, thankfully left protected from having been forced on his back for most of the fight so far. He took to flight, rapidly closing the distance between him and the windigo.

The windogo’s eyes flashed blue as it drew a deep breath and blew a torrent of icy air toward Thorax.

Crack!

An ice-covered limb from Thorax’s midsection tore through the icy air to strike the windigo in the throat, rocking it back onto its ghostly haunches, its attack halted by the blow.

“Are you watching mother?!” Thorax yelled back for Chrysalis to hear before striking down with another ice-covered limb, freeing his last leg and sending the windigo down to the ground. “This is where Pharynx is going next!”

Thorax turned and, with his back two legs, kicked the windigo off the ledge into a smaller, shallow pool of black oil.

As the windigo splashed into the oily substance, tall strands sprang out with a small wave that recoiled back into its source, overtaking the new invader.

A sharp squeal pierced the chamber as the windigo struggled to find any footing in its new confines. Painful wails instantly took the attention of everyone who could see. Ponies, changelings, and even the other windigos stopped to look down on the writhing creature, pulling itself from the coils of the oil engulfing the beast.

Over the sounds of the wails and squeals, crunches and cracks snapped louder than the sloshing of oil and splashing it created as its icy exterior was compromised.

Thud!

The windigo reached the land bridge with one hoof and freed its upper torso from the gunk.

Screech!

A long black blade emerged from the oil, cutting its way up the windigo’s back, sending small splashes of oil and stray chunks of ice.

Crack! Snap! CRACK!

As the windigo pulled the rest of its body free from the pool, shards of dark crystals formed around the first leg to stand. Together, the crystals grew and contracted, severing the leg and sending the windigo down to the ground again with a guttural wail.

The long blade that had cut a trail up the windigo’s back tilted, grinding out more chunks of ice that churned out with the excess oil that snapped and popped.

In a frantic move, the windigo spun its head around, its eyes blazing bright with blue. Ice shards as clear as glass formed around the blade, locking it in place. The beast, still writhing in pain, huffed a plume of cold breath over the oil, slowing the oozing mass to crawl but not stopping its advance or constricting, crushing squeezes around its frame.

Like a wild animal caught in a snare, the windigo began to flail, twist, and even try to fly away from the ooze but fell back to the ground, splattering more of the dark oil and breaking off more pieces of its ice-construct body. More crystals sprouted from the oil, parting way to reveal new masses of muscle-like structures coiling under the liquid, flexing and tightening their hold around the windigo’s ribs. The muscles contracted, squeezing the breath out of the creature with a painful gasp.

Slowly, the windigo tried to crawl away. The only reaction was the blade dislodging itself from the block of ice, injecting violently down through the beast’s torso, jutting out the creature’s side, causing another desperate welp.

Thorax stepped closer to the creature, showing no pity for its suffering.

“Just like the last one.”

He opened his maw and began to inhale. An aura lifted off of the windigo, pink at first but quickly fading out to a violet so dark it was indistinguishable from black.

The windigo whined and wheezed, its life force draining as Thorax's feeding continued while its body continued to crumble. The black ooze itself contained to spread up until the aura latched onto the foul liquid, making the oil recoil and slip further back to expose the mangled remains of shattered ice.

Finally, the aura lifted from the fallen creature and Thorax closed his lips with his eyes in an expression that looked as if he drank in a fine wine.

“Oh, not exactly the love I was expecting, but… that hit the spot.”

Behind him, Chrysalis was glued to the projection, watching the windigo’s remains crumble to chunks beneath her new champion.

“Yes… Yes… YES! No creature is safe from the swarm! All of you! You saw how it’s done! Feed on their love! Drain them until there is nothing left!”

High above, one of the changelings took advantage of the windigos being distractied and dove in from behind, latching his legs around the back of the creature’s neck. His limbs began to freeze on contact, but he would suffer the short losses if it meant gaining a meal.

“Feeding time!”

The windigo dove down, twisting and turning to try and shake free the joy rider. On its backside, the changeling opened its mouth, creating a small pink sphere at the back of his throat that cast an aura of the same color over the windigo's head. He inhaled deeply, drawing out all the love that he could take in…

“It's not working!”

Another changeling flew in close by, trailing as close as he could with all the twists and turns, trying to assist in the takedown.

“What do you mean it's not working?! Malpaghian, how are you screwing this up?!”

Malpaghian tugged hard on his hooves, now frozen to the windigo’s neck and back, between his attempts to siphon any love from the squealing beast.

“There’s no love in this thing! I can’t feed on it!”

Again he drew back, trying to take in any trace of the empowering emotion to feed off from, but the connection proved fruitless. There was no love to be tasted, detected, let alone taken.

“I'm stuck! Vertex! Get me off this thing!”

Down below, Chrysalis was not amused with the lack of progress the rest of her underlings were advancing with.

“Thorax! What is the meaning of this? You said we could feed on them! What are they doing wrong?!”

Thorax clenched his teeth, his right hoof now pressed against his cheek as he groaned in pain.

“Gah! I don't know. Their love is different!” He leaned forward, lowering his head as more pieces of the carapace protecting his face fell away, and something else painfully forced its way out. “It didn't taste the same.”

Chrysalis paused to watch a small trail of blood stream down from Thorax’s face behind his hoof. Slowly, the visual cues she had overlooked began to revisit her, making her question what had really happened in that cave.

“Love is pink when we drain it from our victims.” She narrowed her eyes and leaned in closer to the protection. “What did you feed on from that windigo, Thorax?”

[Back over with Spitfire.]

Bulky swung down hard, striking the ground and chipping away a chunk of the ice after missing another blow on his target.

“Rah! Stop hopping around, Ya little runt!”

Spitfire kept her wings open. Even if their mass of missing feathers gave her less of the balance and acceleration she was used to, she still kept her cardio better than she had last time going one-on-one in a fight like this. Even still, she could feel her strength leaving her. Now, she could see why combat sports had rounds go for only a set number of minutes.

“How about you stop swinging your hooves around like a rock on a slinky?” She mocked. “You don't actually expect me to stand still for you to hit me, do ya? I mean, I know a lot of you changelings are dumb, but come on. Really?”

Fed up, Bulky stood ready to accept his shortcomings in this matchup.

“Alright, so you're tougher than you look and quick on your hooves to boot. I'll give ya that much, but I got plenty of tricks of my own.”

A swirl of green lights engulfed Bulky, fanning out and rising up eight feet high before dropping down to reveal his new form of a manticore.

“Brute strength and unrelenting assault. I'll crush you eventually.”

Inside Spitfire’s mind, she was panicking but knew better than to show any weakness.

“Unrelenting? Such an intelligent word for such an underdeveloped mind. Do you keep changing into bigger creatures to make up for your lack of intellect?”

Bulky roared like a lion, his rage boiling over as he fanned his wings open and drew his claws into the icy dirt.

“I'm gonna tear you apart!”

Both charged at each other, Bulky wanting nothing more than to beat the cocky Wonderbolt into a pulp and Spitfire knowing she couldn't keep up her previous tactics with this new form.

CRASH!

Between them, a windigo landed hard, and a changeling was tossed free from his back, wailing in pain.

“Ahh! My leg! My leg!”

Vertex flew over, finally having a clear shot, and unleashed a bolt of magic from his horn on the downed windigo.

Boom!

It was a direct on the lower back of the windigo, creating a small cloud of dust, smoke, debris, and ice.

“Malpaghian! Get up! If you can’t drain the stupid thing, then fight!”

Still screaming, Malpaghian squirmed on the ground in a fetal position.

“My leg! I can't feel my leg! It hurts!”

Vertex spun in the air and started to charge his horn, landing next to his downed comrade and taking a defensive position.

“It's just a little ice. Get up, ya grub!”

Malpaghian attempted to scramble to his hooves but was hampered by his rear legs having a thick layer of ice over his joints and painfully expanding in the holes naturally formed in his extremities. When he went to stand on his left foreleg, his body sank forward, and his pain doubled with the sound of a dull, cold thunk impacting the ground.

“Gah! My le—”

There was a moment of disbelief. Malpaghian looked down and saw below his knee that his leg was missing after the ice had covered what remained of his limb.

He looked over to his right foreleg to compare, seeing his other foreleg, covered in fractured portions of ice but still with its entire length, then back to the one in pain. As if being reminded of the missing length, all the pain returned. With the rising affliction, a mix of fear and hatred took hold to match his pain as he trained his eyes toward the slowly resting dust falling over the rising windigo with a black nub of a lower leg frozen to its back.

“Gimme back my leg!”

He felt his heart begin to race, his head grow light, and his vision begin to blur. His anger and confusion were still focused on the windigo, but he was unsure exactly how to engage. All he knew was that the beast was to blame.

The shell on his back opened to reveal his wings, and he took flight toward his target, but he was blind to the danger he was flying into.

“Malpaghian, no!” Vertex shouted, diving in to tackle his comrade out of the path of icy breath, skidding to a halt and into safety. “What are you doing?!”

Under Vertex, Malpaghian huffed shallow breaths while holding his ice-clad hoof over his chest.

“Gnah. My heart… eng, and my stomach. It hurts. I can't… I can't think straight. What was I doing?”

Nearby, Rainbow couldn't help but overhear what sounded familiar, and even if they were the enemy, old habits were hard to suppress.

“He's going into shock!” She shouted over the chaos and continued fighting. “If he keeps fighting, he's gonna die! Keep him on his back with his legs up!”

Vertex snapped his head back at the source of the unsolicited orders.

“What?! Who asked you?!”

Standing next to Rainbow, Elytra pulled Rainbow back to have her new ally face to face.

“What are you doing?! Don't help them! They're trying to kill us!” She turned her eyes back to Vertex, trying to pull Malpaghian back to his remaining hooves, albeit both of them struggling. “And what do you mean he's been shocked? He was frozen, not electrocuted.”

Cautiously, Rainbow survived her area, eyeing up the windigo rising up again, Bulky and Spitfire circling each other, then back to the struggling pair of changelings. It took her a few raspy breaths and another cough, but she quickly gathered her thoughts.

“There’s so much you don't know about what made ponies and others like you and them want to be bad for so long. I can't blame all of them when they're not able to fight back.” She sniffed hard and spat out what had drained into her throat. “And it's not electric or surprised shock. My friend that helped save Ocellus explained it to me after saving another… friend. It's caused by a dramatic loss or disruption of blood flow. His limbs are frozen, so his blood flow is being slowed or blocked. If he doesn't get warmed up and sent to a hospital, he's gonna die.”

Further ahead of Rainbow and Elytra, Malpaghian lost his balance and fell forward, catching himself on the frozen nub of what remained of his missing leg.

“GAH!” He screamed, collapsing to the ground again. “Vertex! My leg!”

As quick as Vertex could, he moved to pick up his comrade.

“Stand up straight, you idiot!”

As he lifted Malpaghian, the remaining pieces of ice on the damaged leg snapped off, stuck in the dirt, along with chunks of carapace and hardened flesh.

And that's when the blood began pumping out.

“What the?!” Vertex shouted in panic before dropping Malpaghian. “Thorax! That red stuff on your face! Malpaghian has it, too! What's happening!”

Rainbow began to back away towards the edge at the sight of the bleeding changeling. Quickly, she realized how fast danger was escalating around her, perhaps worse than they had when fighting Harmony and the echoes.

“Shit-shit-shit,” Rainbow frantically mumbled to herself. “It’s just like Harmony said. Every creature has its limits. We gotta get outta here!”

She turned her attention back to Spitfire, sliding under a swipe of a manticore’s tail and breaking off into a sprint behind the beast. A small puff of smoke started to build up behind her.

Spitfire took off in a sprint, running as fast as she could to stay in Bulky’s blind spot behind him as he turned and searched for her. His increased strength, combined with the added size and mass he had gained in this new form, could not be denied, so she would have to play to her own strengths.

“Quit running around! Bulky demanded, only finding a trail of grey smoke. “You can’t keep this up forever!”

Before he knew it, he had turned completely around, only to find a ring of grey smoke surrounding him. Somewhere in the smoke were hooves racing circles around him. Clipping and clopping in long strides before jumping and the rustling of her tattered wings would flap, spreading the smoke out wider to blind him.

“You can’t hit what you can’t see,” Spitfire taunted.

The smoke was too thick to see through, but the clopping of hooves was still close enough to pick up on. The strides stayed consistent between the short flaps of wings, unable to carry her far, so he only needed to time her leaps and landings.

“Nowhere to run or wings to fly, little pony,” Bulky warned with a grown.

Another flapping of wings came, along with hoofs hitting the snowy dirt, sliding to a stop off to Bulky’s right. He spun to face his hidden target, waiting for Sptifre to emerge from the ring of drifting grey smoke.

“Not goona work, twerp. You can’t get the jump on me if I don’t wonder in your little smoke screen.”

Tink!

The sound of something knocking into a stone further to his left pulled his attention to potential movement.

“Sneaky little—”

“RAAAAAAAH!”

From out in front of Bulky, Spitfire dove out, her left forehoof punching out to give her momentum, her right forehoof wound back, her googles missing, and a war face that matched her scream.

CRACK!

With a well-timed turn of her hips as her left rear leg touched the ground, Spitfire carried through with all her might as her right forehoof connected with Bulky’s manticore jaw.

In an instant, Bulky’s vision turned white, then black, while his head was snapped so far to the left that his cheek slapped against his shoulder.

“Guh!” He grunted, stumbling to catch his balance. “Snuky luddly—” His words slurred out of his mouth. “Yer gunna—”

Crunch!

“RAH!” Bulky roared in pain, jumping back with his front left paw cradled. “Stop it, ya little—”

Giving no reprieve, Spitfire rushed in towards Bulky’s upright, dazed, and impaired mass. As she neared, she jumped and somersaulted in the air, extending both her rear legs into Bulky’s thin, unprotected gut.

“Oough!”

The double kick to the gut had Bulky doubled over, holding the scuffed hoof prints on the hard-pressed, matted fur, making it look as if he were bowing low to pay his respects. Unfortunately, there would be no respect given or quarter given as Spitfire sat herself up and rolled back in to close the distance.

“See me now!”

With all the speed she could build up in the short dash she muster, she turned her hips and extended her right hind leg.

Crack!

Her hoof connected with Bulky’s face again, snapping his head limply to the side where his body dropped, and a green flash surrounded his body. Where the flash of light left, Bulky returned to his true form, unconscious, a gasp of breath leaving him as his top left fang fell out from his upper lip.

Near exhausted, Spitfire stood in the dissipating smoke, huffing and puffy, trying to catch her breath.

“Ha… Like I said…” She whipped her mouth clear of a speck of spit. “Some of my best moves are the ones you don’t see coming.”

At the steep ledge over the deep pool of oil, Haltere and Elytra were struggling to bring Gater’s limp body back up to safety.

“Come on,” Haltery grunted with his foreleg around Gaster’s back, interlocked with Elytra’s. “Don’t slip on the ice, here.”

On the other side of Gaster, Elytra was struggling more than Haltere.

“Slow down. I only have three good legs. If I slip, you can only catch one of us, and she’s all slippering from the cocoon.” Nearing the peak of the ledge, she started to peer over and requested the unthinkable. “Rainbow Dash! A little help, maybe?”

Unfortunately, her request for help was about to go unfulfilled.

“Spits!” Rainbow cried out. “Look out!”

Spitfire heard Rainbow’s warning from behind and moved to position herself low and crouch, ready to pivot to avoid any danger.

“Gah!” She yelped, nearly twisting her back left ankle.

Now high on alert, she turned her attention to her back leg, shocked to find a trail of ice had been growing under the smoke screen she had created and had begun to entrap her hoof. In a panic, she yanked twice, cracking the ice and tearing off a portion of her uniform but freeing her leg in the process.

“Dash! A little help here!”

As more of the smoke faded and lowered to the ground, two bright blue, glowing eyes pierced through the shroud. A windigo with a changeling’s leg frozen to its back, breathing out a chiller warning, loomed forward.

“Shit! Dash!”

More shards of ice sprouted from the ground, and Spitfire jumped back to narrowly avoid them. She darted to her right towards Bulky’s slumped-over body, but a stream of icy breath cut off her path, forcing her to lock up her legs and grind to a halt.

She turned to run, but a crackling of ice erupted with a wall of ice to impede her escape.

“Spits!” Rainbow called out, jumping over the fading smoke and growing ice trail. “I got you!”

It was still a gamble, going on lore, but Rainbow slid in next to Spitfire and locked her forelegs around her fellow Wonderbolt, holding her tight and hoping all her goodwill and admiration would win out.

“I’ve always admired you,” Rainbow said hurriedly, admitted with a raspy voice before coughing and drawing a deep breath. “I never would have made it without you. None of this was your fault. I should have listened to you more and prepared more. I was overprotective of Justin and wanted to get back to him faster and spend more time with him because he needed us.”

The windigo stepped closer, slowing his pace. It studied the two mares with its glowing blue eyes, yet it did not relent on the mounds of ice summoned around them.

“It’s okay,” Spitfire hastily replied, wrapping her forelegs around Rainbow in return. “I get it. I don’t blame you for any of this. You were doing your job, and I would have been frozen if you hadn’t taken charge and led us out of the storm when I was too scared to act on my own. And I wasn’t honest about Fleetfoot, and I wasn’t honest about Justin either. We knew there was something special about him since my fight with Thunder Glide. We know we can’t have the whole cake; all we wanted were a few crumbs!”

“Cake!” Rainbow shouted, baffled if not offended by Spitfire’s unprompted admission and the confusing last statement. “What cake?! What crumbs?! And you both are trying to get with Justin, too?!”

The windigo’s eyes shone brighter, casting a layer of ice over Spitfire’s and Rainbow’s hindlegs.

“Shit!” Rainbow shouted, realizing they were trapped because of her resentment, prompting her to hug Spitfire tighter. “I’m sorry! Justin can love whoever he wants to! I can’t stop him or you or anypony else!”

To their side, another windigo was slammed to its side, hitting the ground, bouncing off the ground, and flying back with a torrent of icy breath. A raging bull, shacking off flakes of ice, roared past the stream of ice breath, followed by two more changelings in hot pursuit. Meanwhile, overhead, more magic bolts fired off, pillars of ice sprouting off the ceiling, callouts for directions of fire, and wails from windigos continuing. Not too far out in front of Rainbow and Spitfire, Malpaghian was still screaming out for his leg while Vertex stumbled around in all directions, unsure of what to do. Chrysalis could be heard screaming at Thorax, but that was it.

The other changelings were still with Gaster, and Pharynx was off flying around as a decoy. Rainbow and Spitfire had isolated themselves.

“We didn’t want to cause any problems,” Spitfire admitted, cringing and shaking in fear as she held tightly to Rainbow. “We didn’t know if we had a chance. The cake is a metaphor. We wanted what Rarity and Fluttershy had with Justin. What we thought Thunder Glide was close to getting with him. Anything to not be coltless until we retire and give up our wings and end up alone! We didn't mind sharing! But we never had an in! We're not good enough!”

This was do or die. Rainbow had to put aside any prejudice or selfish desires and be honest. At this point, the ice was climbing up to their hips.

“That's not true! Justin respects you both! He wanted you both here from the start! You both proved yourselves fighting Harmony! You stuck with him when Rarity and Fluttershy wouldn't! He needs you! I need you!”

Shivering from the cold invading their bodies and from the fear of being frozen over, Rainbow and Spitfire held tight to one another, the ice climbing up to their waists.

“Grrr,” the windigo angrily growled overhead, leering down at the two mares though its eyes lost their shine.

Behind the windigo, Thorax recoiled in pain, holding his face, enraged at the site.

“What are you waiting for?!” Thorax shouted, ripping his bloody hoof away from his mangled face. “Just freeze them already! What’s so special about those two?! Huh! Is it because they’re friends?! You don’t want to keep them apart or something?! Why do you keep ignoring them?! JUST FREEZE THEM TOGETHER!”

Chrysalis gagged at the site.

“Gah! You ponies make me sick. Praising each other through your failures. Supporting one another's fragile emotions… You should have run while you had the chance. Nothing but weakness holding onto more weakness.”

“I disagree,” Pharynx called out, finally landing in front of Elytra securing Gater to Haltere's back, all of them safely standing on the land bridge, a small flame of green on the tip of his horn. “It's what makes a hive strong.”

Elytra nodded, an angry sneer directed at her former Queen as she pulled her hooves free from Gaster's binding secretions.

“Pharynx, you never gave up on us. You're dedicated to the hive. Dedicated to making sure I'm a better, smarter, more capable changeling. Even when we fail and you scold us, you correct us to make us better. We didn’t understand that’s what you were trying to do with Throax, but we understand it now.”

In front of Rainbow, the bull changeling rolled to his side, an angry huff mixed with exhaustion as it lowered its head to charge. Before it could dart forward, however, the windigo in front of Rainbow snapped its head around to face the bull, its eyes full of wicked light again and casting a layer of ice that trapped the bull’s foreleg to the ground. The ice had grown so large and so fast that it managed to ensnare the bull’s horn as well.

“What the?!” Plumose shouted, his eyes now fixed on the ground. “I’m stuck!”

Distracted by the callout, Urtica turned her attention to the site of the bull with its head frozen to his leg.

“Plumose, you dummy!”

With her eyes turned away, she missed the windigo she had been fighting, drew a deep breath, and quickly unleashed a torrent of frozen mist over her right side.

Having been paying attention, Arista caught the attack in time and charged his horn.

“Gotcha!”

Instead of discharging a bolt to fire from a distance, Arista rocketed down in a blaze of green magic surrounding his body like a homing missile.

Wah-boom!

With a thunderous crack, Arista hit the windigo in the back of the neck, sending the beast down to the land bridge below and him tumbling down thereafter. He landed on his back, his shell absorbing all the blow, still knocking all the air out of him. At least it would have if something wasn't covering half of his face.

Groggily, he tried to roll over but couldn’t lift his head off the cold, hard ground, or at least what he thought was the ground. Raising a hoof to his muzzle, he found a hefty layer of ice had now covered much of his head. Half of his muzzle, starting from his left nostril, over his lips and chin, stretching over his cheek and up to his still burning-with-cold right eye, were frozen over.

Urtica, struggling to breathe, knocked her only free hoof against a mound of ice pilled over most of her chest and abdomen, reaching down over her hip and reaching as far as her knee. The weight had her pinned down without any mobility to gain the leverage needed to push herself over, and the awkward angle gave her little moment to strike the ice holding her.

Both had been rendered immobile and vulnerable.

Meanwhile, Haltere, taking the same initiative, stepped forward, his horn flaring at the tip with a small flame of green magic.

“I thought it was every changeling for themselves, and I almost gave in and left you three behind when those windigos first came after us up here. But as I was flying off, I looked back to see Phyarnx risking his life to save both Gaster and Elytra. It was then that I remembered that without them, I couldn’t get Thorax back to the hive. And even if we couldn’t, I would have no changeling who would risk their life for me like I knew Pharynx would. The way Elytra fought to protect Gaster, how she rushed to save me when my head was frozen. This is my hive.”

Elytra, standing tall and proud, no longer caring about the pain in her leg, grinned and boasted about their bond. At the tip of her horn, a small green flame began to burn.

“Haltere is more than a scout. He’s quick, strong-willed, loyal to the hive,” she turned her attention with a sly expression towards his direction for only a moment before adjusting back at Chrysalis. “To our hive, that is. He saved me when he could have saved himself. Not once, but twice. This is the hive, I claim, now.”

The two windigos chasing Pharynx flew in low over the small band of changelings, their eyes glowing bright, casting a wall of ice around the group to block off their escape. With angry growls and squeals, they flexed their magic to enlarge their influence, narrowing the remaining space left for the changelings to stand.

Unfazed by the threat, Pharynx stepped out from the center, approaching Chrysalis's projection, his horn shining with a brighter, more radiant, brimming with unnatural magic to that of a changeling. Its flame burned with a warmth that reached out to warm all it touched without discomfort but a sense of safety.

“All we have is the hive. No other creatures protects us, feeds us, or would be willing to risk their lives for us. All the hive has is us. Without our willingness to support, defend, or even sacrifice ourselves for each other, there would be no hive. Because when we fend for ourselves, we are left alone to fall. But together…”

Together, all three changelings erupted in the same flame. Their light combined to illuminate the entire cave before swirling off their horns over them, amassing in a giant green burning heart of blazing magic.

Together, they declared, “We are the hive! Together, we will survive!”

Half warmed by the green light and half freezing from the waist down, still locked in ice, Rainbow was in awe of what she could see. A site of reimagined legend that sent the windigos scattering to all corners of the caves to hide in shadows or deep crevices.

“The Fire of Friendship,” Rainbow called out in a raspy voice.

“What?!” Pharynx barked back at Rainbow. “No! This is the Heart of the Swarm! Don’t call it something stupid like Fire of Friendship! Fire burns things. This is… Green… And warm and—Never mind that! You both agreed to help us, so we’re making an exception for you two ponies. We’re getting you out of here.”

Elytra couldn’t hide some form of a smile as she stepped closer, though she had to keep her eyes fixed on Bulky’s body when talking to keep herself from showing any further emotions.

“Huh. Bulky is one soldier of a changeling none of us can push around, but you took care of him on your own, injured and already worn down. Not only to save your fellow pony but to protect us.” She started to smile wider, even blushing a bit, but then turned her head in a forced display of disgust. “Guh! We still only have to get along until we all get out of here, so don’t get the wrong idea.”

Equally impressed, Haltere examined the level of ice covering the two mares.

“Same thing happened to us when I flew back to save Elytra. Those flying cold pony, windigo things boxed us in. We thought we were done for.”

[Not much earlier before the fighting began in the caves.]

“Hey!” Elytra shouted, fear gripping her as she felt the ledge give way underneath her hooves, holding on for dear life. “This ledge is falling apart! Lift me up!”

The trail was fresh, or so Haltere had said when he Pharynx up this way, but the footing was weak, making him hurry ahead to lessen the load on the faltering ledge.

“Elytra!” Pharynx shouted back. “Stop panicking! Haltere! Hurry up and grab her before the whole thing collapses!”

Before Haltere could safely make it to the edge to reach for Elytra, as ordered, a familiar cold breeze drifted in from where the trail was leading them. Along with the cold, threatening wails and squeals came pouring out down the entrance towards them.

“Somethings coming!’ Pharynx called out as a warning.

“It's those things!” Elytra shrieked, seeing the first one round the corner.

“Fly, now!” Haltere shouted out, jumping down behind Elytra to open his wings out of sight.

Pharynx was stuck out in the open with Gaster still on his back and the enemy closing in. They didn’t have time to plan, the room to flee, or the numbers to fight. There was only a small amount of space for them to hopefully hide in if they were quick enough.

“Hide, you idiots!” Pharynx ordered, only to turn back and see Elytra still gripping tightly to the crumbling ledge Haltere never removed her from.

“Pharynx! I’m slipping!” Elytra shouted. “PHAR—!”

Finally, succumbing to the wear and tear of time, as well as the new weight of recent travelers, the ledge broke free, dropping Elytra along with broken stone, dirt, and ice.

“I got you!” Pharynx shouted, diving out to grab Elytra’s hoof in the nick of time.

Pharynx had been fortunate enough to reach Elytra in time, but with Gaster still on his back and the angle of what remained of the ledge on a downward sloop, he couldn’t lift Elytra to safety. In fact, what remained of the inclined sloop was more ice than rock.

“WE’RE SLIPPING!” Elytra shrieked, feeling both of them slowly slide lower. “DON’T LET GO!”

The situation seemed impossible. There was nothing to hold onto, no imperfections or rough spots to grip. Pharynx had ensured that Gaster was properly secured to his back, and he wasn’t about to let go of Elytra, nor did she show any sign of letting go of him.

He needed help.

“HALTERE!” Pharynx screamed. “WHERE ARE YOU?!”

Swip!

It was inevitable. They couldn’t fight gravity, and the ice had worked against them. Perhaps the benefit of falling was a few more moments of avoiding those cold ponies still descending on them as they fell screaming down to the depths below.

Even still, Pharynx had to try, with Gaster on his back, Elytra’s forelegs locked around his, he managed to open his wings and did his best to fly.

“AHHHHH!” Whether it was fear, frustration, or determination, Pharynx didn’t know why he was screaming, but he was still focused on one thing: “We can make it.”

They weren’t slowing enough. Not enough to break their fall. If anything, they were only slowing enough to allow the windigos to catch up to them.

“Let her go!” Haltere shouted, his voice barreling in from behind.

Before Pharynx could register what was happening, something had ripped Elytra out of Pharynx’s grip, and he could see Haltere flying off ahead of him with Elytra folded over his shoulder.

“Yell at me later! We gotta make a run for it!” Haltere shouted as he took point.

Elytra, riding uncomfortably over Haltere’s shoulder, was half still in shock, the other half furious with her savior.

“You left me! What the heck, Haltere?!”

Buzzing around pillars of rock and ice, dipping down into any passage open, Haltere did his best to give reason to his actions while trying not to crash.

“I came back, didn’t I?! Besides!” He buzzed down low to avoid hitting an underpass they had traversed earlier. “What good is a scout without a soldier to back’em up? It’s like a changeling without a hive! Don’t make no sense! Now, hold on!”

Still angry, Elytra held tighter than needed but watched their rear as they were hopefully taken somewhere safer.

“Hold on?! Why should I ever trust you again?”

Before Haltere could answer, Pharynx flew ahead, racing ahead and veering right.

“Stop arguing and keep flying!” Pharynx shout. “We need to circle back!”

“Wait!” Haltere shouted back, steering himself up and turning sharp to round up back to where they scaled on hoof not much earlier. “Pharynx! Stop! Let me take point! You’re heading towards a—”

It was too late. Haltere knew where Pharynx was leading them and stopped short of crashing into where Pharynx nearly slammed into a wall of ice. The same wall Haltere had examined before that had led to previous confusion.

“—dead end,” Haltere said with a defeated sigh. “This is where Thorax wandered off to before.”

“Dead end is right,” Elytra announced with alarm as she pushed herself off of Haltere’s back. “We’re trapped.”

Haltere and Pharynx turned to see windigos edging themselves around the narrow entrance, their only escape to this small chamber. The temperature around them dropped rapidly as ice crept closer from the entrance, encasing the walls and covering the floor from the windigo’s cold, glowing stare.

“You should have left us when you had the chance,” Elytra angrily stated as she backed closer to the wall, but even closer to Haltere’s side.

“No,” Haltere declared, a firm mix of pride and determination in his voice. You three are all I have. I have no reason to leave this stupid ice heap if I can’t bring you all with me. That’s why I came back. I never should have left. Pharynx wouldn’t abandon us, and even if I freeze down here because of it, I won’t abandon any of you ever again.”

Without intentionally prepping an offensive spell, the tip of Haltere’s horn began to glow with a small green flame while the windigos slowed their approach for some reason.

Elytra, thinking they were making their last stand, thought at least to say a few words.

“Ya big dummy… Thanks for coming back anyway. Even if we did mess things up, we never would have made it this far without you. You’re a great scout. I was proud to watch your back. You never led us down the wrong path.” Without warning, the same green flame began to glow on the tip of her horn. “And Pharynx… I’d rather freeze in this fight at your side than wander alone. Thank you for not leaving me behind.”

Pharynx pushed his way ahead of his two other hive mates, a brighter green flame burning over his horn.

“You two are the bravest, strongest changelings I know! We are the heart of the swarm! I’ll die before I let them take you! Not these cold ponies or any changeling else!”

[Right back to where Haltere was reminiscing.]

Haltere walked up to Rainbow and Spitfire, turned to the side, and kicked the ice surrounding them firm enough to shatter it enough for them to step out safely. The recollection of prior events kept to himself as he released his temporary allies.

“It’s not a long story, but I’ll spare you the details and say we did it better, faster, and never got caught up in their ice like you two. Once we acknowledged how great our new hive was and we created the Heart of the Swarm, those windigo things flew off.”

Things looked to be all clear, so Pharynx stepped forward to fill in the rest of what he thought the two mares should know.

“The windigos retreated from Heart of the Swarm—”

“Fire of Friendship,” Rainbow interjected with a sneer.

“Shut up,” Pharynx responded in deadpan. “We flew back up to where we last heard you three. It was much faster with the windigos all hiding from us. However, when we came back to where we fell, Elytra suggested we hide Gaster in case we had another fight with Thorax. I didn’t want to at first, but it made sense. Then, when we heard the other changelings with the rest of you two, I knew the risks we were taking and told Haltere to pose as Gaster. I thought if anything, I’d be taken back as a prisoner, and Elytra would be left unguarded to tend to who they thought was Gaster, allowing her to escape with Haltere and recover the real Gaster.”

Elytra, unable to hide how happy she was to see how well things had turned out for her new hive, didn’t mind standing next to Spitfire and Rainbow for the time being.

“We didn’t think things would turn out this bad. At worst, we thought we would have to come back and rescue Pharynx. Haltere wouldn’t stop whispering that he wouldn’t we couldn’t let them separate us if we were going to be kicked out of the hive.”

While the background information may have been appreciated, and the liberty to speak more freely was putting them at ease, Rainbow still had something else to attend to.

“Yeah, that’s great, guys. Seriously, I want to know more about it later, but first, we gotta take care of this changeling over there.”

Even if the windigos had removed themselves, not all the threats had been removed, and two more changelings swooped down to block Rainbow’s path.

From the projection, Chrysalis defiantly stood her ground.

“Anetenn! Frons! Don’t let any of them near Malpahian. Vertex, stop grubbing over Malpaghian. He’ll be fine. And Thorax, pull yourself together.”

Shocked, Rainbow stumbled back a few steps, her tattered wings raised in protest as her angered voice responded the same.

“What?! He’s bleeding to death, and you’re going to stop me from helping him?!”

Finally, Thorax raised his head from his hoof to face Rainbow. Where the damaged carapace had once fallen away, new dark, sharp crystals covered the once-exposed raw flesh.

“You want to save him? Surrender. Give yourself up and let me take your place, or I’ll kill him myself.”

“What?!” Rainbow shouted, more than shocked, her heart practically dropping into her stomach.

“Thorax!” Chrysalis shouted as to reprimand her subordinate. “You are not to wager the lives of my—”

“He’s dying,” Thorax interjected just as sharply. “If we let him go with Rainbow Dash and the others, they’ll never return him or the information we want. We lose everything, and they'll tell the Elements of everything they’ve seen here. If they really want to save Malpaghian, let them prove it. That’s what ponies do, after all. They risk their lives for others. Even my brother’s so-called new hive are doing the same. So if he’s dying, and they say I’m dying, and every attempt at friendship is killing me, let them do the right thing and sacrifice themselves to save me and Malpaghian.”

Vertex, standing in Malpaghian’s blood, recoiled violently at the proposal.

“You can’t kill him! He’s one of us!”

“QUIET!” Chrysalis demanded before turning her attention back to Rainbow. “Well… It's not the tactic I would have led with, but now that I think about it, I don’t want to lose any of my changelings if I don’t have to. I’ll be losing many more if we don’t learn your secrets. As for you, it seems you don’t want to let them die if they don’t have to. And I don’t think you have what it takes to betray your virtues. So if you don’t surrender yourselves, you’ll be responsible for whatever happens to Malpaghian and Thorax.”

Scritch.

The sound of carapace dragging over frozen dirt and snow broke the silence.

“Ugh!” Vertex grunted.

Scritch.

The dragging came again.

“Gah!” Vertex grunted again, pulling Malpaghian away from Thorax and closer toward Rainbow and the others. “Stand up and help me move your dumb, heavy body. This red stuff is making you slippery.”

“My. My leg,” Malpaghian weakly spoke, his voice distant and delirious. “I can’t… I can’t find… my leg… Are we going home?”

Crystalis, furious, turned her ire towards Vertex, dragging Malpaghian away.

“Vertex! What are you doing?! Bring him back this instant! That’s an order!”

Not even bothering to direct his full attention back at Chrysalis, Vertex leaned down lower to lock his forelegs around Malpaghian’s torso, opened his wings, and began to lift his comrade as much as he could to drag him away further. The whole effort was clearly a struggle, yet he had clearly made up his mind.

“Forget you! Forget the swarm! Malpaghian is my brother from the same batch! I won’t let Thorax or you kill him to save his stupid, broken face! And what about Scutellum? Who’s going to save her?!”

Rainbow turned to look at the changeling's still-frozen form from earlier. Things were still a little murky about durability and mortality, but she had to at least be optimistic.

“Well, so long as the Fire of Friendship keeps burning—”

“Heart of the Swarm,” Pharynx corrected her.

“Shut up,” Rainbow snapped, not wanting to argue about the proper title. “Or whatever their version is, she should thaw out in a few hours. Since I think the ice is enchanted, it’s probably keeping her alive in there.”

Boom!

An explosion of green smoke and dust erupted from where Vertex had been dragging Malpaghian. Both bodies dropped to the ground, Malpaghian slamming hard first, and Vertex sent flying further away and tumbling a good distance away.

Thorax grit his teeth, his eyes glowing with rage and his horn still sizzling after the discharge he sent off.

“Now I know,” Thorax quietly started to say in a hushed tone. “Just like love and friendship, how I can smell it, taste it in the air when you ponies pretend your lives are so grand and great. Those windigos weren’t trying to warn me about The Darkness. They were guarding it. Stealing from it. When I looked into The Darkness, that emptiness, hopelessness, all that rage, it’s so… filling. I can smell the hopelessness on Malpaghian, taste the rage pouring out of Vertex… I’m getting hungry all over again.”

Spitfire swallowed hard and stepped back closer to Rainbow, not sure of what they were to do now.

“Uh, Dash? Can we actually save these changelings and ourselves? And since when can changelings feed on… emotions other than love?”

Rainbow quickly glanced at Vertex struggling to reach his hooves, then at Malpaghian still bleeding out, and then back at Thorax.

“We gotta try. Ocellus showed us not all changelings are bad.” She let out a few cold, wet coughs and spat before sizing up the main changeling in front of them. “As for this Thorax and what he’s doing… I think we’re gonna need Twilight’s help talking with our brony expert. This is all new to me.”

Knowing this fight wasn’t going to be easy, she kept her eyes on Throax but called back to Pharynx. It would all be much easier with added numbers on their side, after all.

“Since were working together until this is all over and your brother isn’t changing sides, you three mind helping us take these last few guys down so we split?”

As eager as Pharynx was to leave, as well as stop Thorax, if not save him, there was some bad news he had to share about honoring that request.

“Uh, if we move too far away from The Heart of the Swarm, it burns out. Then the windigos will come back… Cuz, you know… Fighting? …Can’t you ponies take this one?”

Spitfire snapped her head back to bark at the changelings.

“Are you fucking kidding me?! Two against three?! Dash is sick!”

Slowly walking up behind the two mares, Vertex shook his head clear of the stars dancing in his vision, but made no hostile posturing as he moved to stand alongside next to Rainbow.

“Name’s Vertex. If you got a deal with those three for getting you both out of here alive to help Gaster, save my brother, and I’ll make it an even three on three. But I fight dirty.”

Rainbow was about to say some words of encouragement, but as she opened her mouth, something else came out.

“Achoo!” Another sneeze came out, putting an ache in her lungs that told her how poor her health was declining and how much help she needed. “Gah! Fuck it. No pony else is here to watch us. Kick’em while they're down if you want to. I’m sick of them and this cold ass mountain. The faster we take’em out, the faster we get out of here. But we gotta be quick. I don’t know how long it takes for a changeling to bleed to death.”

Behind Rainbow, Spitfire, and Vertex, Pharynx stood under the glow of the burning green heart that required his audience. Before him, stood two ponies ready to contend in a battle that should have been his with a brother that should never strayed from home.

“Thorax!” Pharynx called out. “You can still join us! You can belong with us! Our own hive!”

The tension was high with the offer hanging in the air, and Chrysalis had to know.

“Well, Thorax?” She asked coyly, practically mocking the proposal. “Care to give friendship another try?”

Thorax opened his shell to extend his wings, looked past the three still willing to challenge him, and focused all his rage on his Pharynx.

“I’ll make him hate me before I watch him drown in Darkness. And their Heart of the Swarm, be glad you're not here to see it for yourself.”

While it was true that Chrysalis was revulted at the site of the floating, mystical object burning infront of her projection, she was now curious as to what exactly she wasn’t there to witness herself.

“Oh? And why is that?”

This time, Frons, standing next to Thorax, licked his lips and salivated as he was fixated on the burning heart.

“It’s made of love, my Queen. I want to taste it.”

Standing on the other side of Thorax, Anetenn could see it just as clearly and felt the same urges.

“Chrysalis? May we feed?”

That bit of information was rather unsettling, and Chrysalis did not take kindly to any of it all.

“Recovering those two ponies takes priority. After that, do whatever you wish, but Pharynx and his new hive must not leave this mountain alive.”

Off to the side, not too far, barely in earshot, Urtica shouted out clarification for her role.

“Hey! What about me?!”

Thorax turned his eyes just enough to see the state she was in, covered in his, as well as Arista floundering to pry himself free from his miny ice trap. They were both passingly pathetic obstacles to avoid in his eyes.

“It’s every changeling for themselves unless Chrysalis says otherwise. Pick yourself up and make yourself useful.” He turned his attention back to Rainbow specifically as another piece of carapace fell off his cheek, revealing a shiny piece of metal. “Anetenn, take Spitfire. Frons, you get Vertex. I’m going to see how much love I can pull out of Rainbow Dash before she’s as lifeless as Gaster.”

That settled things for Rainbow, and she saw fit to lead the charge.

“Take’em down!”

Both sides charged at each other, and despite Rainbow’s sickly state, her superior speed still put her ahead of the trio, where she met with Thorax first.

Tat-Tat-Tat-Tat-Tat-Tat-Tat!

In rapid succession, Rainbow unleashed a series of punches over Thorax’s neck and chest, pushing him back but not taking him down.

Barely a second behind, Spitfire met with Anetenn, who leaped high with his hooves out to tackle her to the ground. Spitfire, faster on her hooves than Anetenn could adjust in the air, fanned her wings out with their pitch to the ground, making her body slump low and out of his reach. Just as quick, as if to loop in flight, she changed the pitch of her wings, crouched, and jumped with her forehooves extended.

Crunch!

Both hooves hit Anetenn in the ribs as he passed overhead, knocking the air out of his lungs and him off his projected path.

“Guh!” He grunted, folding up in the air before tumbling down into the dirty snow.

Spitfire wasted no time, spinning herself back around and darting back toward her opponent. She could see him holding his chest with one hoof, the other trying to push himself up while his wings began to flutter to bring him up to flight.

“Oh, no you don’t!”

Crack!

With no flight-worthy wings of her own, Spitfire delivered a left hook to Anetenn’s jaw, spinning him back down to the ground where she immediately took mount over his tender ribs. Under her right rear leg, she had his left foreleg pinned while Anetenn’s right was up and batting wildly at her face as she groaned, wheezed, and hissed.

“Knock it off!” She screamed, finally catching his free foreleg under hers before dropping hammer blows to his face. “You wanted this fight! Take it!”

At the same time, Vertex and Frons seemed dead even in their traded throwing blows that nearly knocked one another away or dodged one advance or the next.

"Come on!" Vertex shouted, egging on his rival. "All those times I scouted for you! You never learned to fight!"

Behind all six, Chrysalis watched, grinding her teeth at how her underlings were fairing.

“Anetenn! You worthless insect! Get up! Frons! Stop flying around and do something! And Thorax! Rainbow Dash is sick and flightless! Destroy her already!”

Still going hard in the fight, Rainbow continued her pummeling Thorax. Body blows with punches, quick kicks to his sides and shoulders. Every hit landed with precision, the force she’d practiced for years, yet none of them took off his hooves or knocked him away like a normal changeling.

“You’re going down!” Rainbow cried out, throwing powerful punch into a rising blur of blue magic rising up around Thorax.

Shin! Thunk…

“Need some help there, Rainbow Dash?” Thorax asked, now holding Rainbow’s hoof in a large five-fingered-like paw. “Maybe another lift?”

Before, Rainbow wasn’t the changeling with a broken face or the large insectoid Throax had changed into before. Amid her attack, he had changed into a yeti. A towering quadrupedal beast of the arctic areas, hind legs like those of a jungle cat, a broad chest of a lion, but a near furless face of the same species with no discernible ears. Its fur was a mix of large tufts of thick, white fur over its chest that hid the muscular form underneath. The rest of its legs and torso were a darker, mated grey fur that showed its refined, sculpted anatomy. The hindquarters, much like its front paws and face, were all but bare, dark grey skin. What ultimately stood out were the unnatural flooded orange eyes that matched a small four-pronged growth of skin that sat almost like a crown atop its forehead.

Unlike so many other creatures Thorax could have taken, what was unique about this form was the five semi-opposable clawed toes it wielded on each front paw. One paw, in particular, that still held Rainbow’s by the fetlock. There was no aposable thumb, but all five digits had been wrapped with such a painfully strong hold that it didn’t matter.

“Let me know if I grip too tight!”

In the blink of an eye, Rainbow was lifted off her hind legs.

Crack!

“Guh…”

Rainbow tried to gasp. Her back, her head, and her wings were all throbbing and aching. None of those aches or pains compared to the agony of what she felt in her foreleg, still gripped in Thorax’s hold.

In one fell swoop, Thorax had lifted her up and swung her down from over his head onto her back, slamming her down onto the unforgiving, unmoving, frozen ground.

She could barely breathe. Her lungs demanded she cough, but instead, she choked and wheezed.

Thorax, stood over her, his new, vicious, beastly form, sneering down at her with hungry eyes and that viousious mouth of giant, sharpened teeth.

“I'm sorry,” he mockingly cooed as he wiggled her limp foreleg in his paw. “I thought I was grabbing you gently enough to lift you. I didn't mean to hurt you."

Too caught up in the moment, Chrysalis had to call out a warning.

“Thorax, you idiot, look out!”

The sound of rapid insect wings buzzing grew louder, and Thorax turned in time to see Frons gut-checked in Vertex’s shoulder, diving bombing in toward him.

“Incoooming!”

Boom!

Vertex charged his horn at the last moment, erupting a blaze of green around his impact. It struck Thorax in the chest, creating an explosion that separated all parties in different directions.

Spitfire spun around from the changeling’s chest to see the mini explosion’s aftermath.

“Dash!” She shouted, now panicking and jumping off the battered changeling’s ragdolled body.

Slowly, Anetenn brought a hoof to his face, brushing a way chips and chunks of busted carapce. One eye was swollen shut already, the other barely opened at all. He tried to turn to his side to stand, but was overwhelmed by the flux of pain and loose rocks or pebbles left jumbling in his mouth.

Instead of trying to stand, he took a deep breath and used the air to spit the loose gravel he must have taken in during the beating. Unfortunately, with the one eye still granting him vision, as he spat, all he could see leaving his mouth were teeth.

“Canterlot wasn’t this bad… Oww.”

Over with Rainbow, Spitfire quickly made her way to her downed Wonderbolt’s side to asses her injuries, rightfully concerned, given the mare’s state.

“Dash! Dash! Oh, my gosh. This is bad. Can you still move?”

Rainbow as in a daze, wheezing, her wet cough sounding worse than before.

“Can’t… fight… him,” she struggled to speak aloud. “Felt… something… wrong…” She coughed again, a deeper rasp in her voice. “Danger. Power…Anger… Like Justin… When he…fights.”

Nothing about that sounded promising, urging Spitfire to reach down and lift Rainbow up to her hooves.

“Gah!” Rainbow sharply yelped out, her voice cutting off as she again struggled to breathe.

Concerned, Spitfire froze, first seeing Rainbow struggling to breathe, but then her right foreleg hanging low from her shoulder, her knee twisted out of place, and her fetlock swollen larger than her hoof.

“Oh, shit. Dash. This is bad. We gotta go. Full retreat.” She turned to Pharynx and took Rainbow’s good foreleg around her neck. “Hey! It’s now our never! Forget your Heart of the Swarm, grab the other changeling and Vertex, then fight us a way out of here! We’re leaving!”

“NO!” Thorax’s voice boomed through the cavern, drawing everyone's attention on him, holding Malpaghian up by a hindleg near the edge of one of the shallow pools of dark oil. “I’ll break you apart. One by one. Drain you all. Kill all of you if I have to. Then I’m going to the Crystal Empire. Find those friends of yours. Tell them whatever they need to hear about HOW I ALMOST SAVED YOU WORTHLESS, stubborn lives… and then they’re gonna heal me.”

As the heroes looked closer, they could see drops of blood slowly but steadily leaking from Throax’s yeti lips. Whether it was from his previous injuries spreading further or new ones created from this current fight, no one could tell. What was clear was that he was hurting, bleeding, and more serious than ever.

“Vertex, get up… Remove the ice from Urtica and Arista, and I’ll let you take your brother back to the hive. Frons, wake up Bulky. It might be every changeling for themselves but I’m getting tired doing all the hard work myself.”

Malpighian was weak, dizzy, hurting in places he didn’t understand, and growing colder as he watched his blood continue to pump out from his busted leg into the snow. It was such a strange sight to see; such a shade of red was uncommon where he was from. There it was, pooling together below him, melting the snow, slowly carving a crimson path over the ledge toward The Darkness, threatening his life if his brother did not comply with Throax’s demands.

In the center of all the madness, Vertex defiantly stood up, refusing to cater to Thorax.

“Let my brother go! You think I’m stupid?! I can’t trust you!”

Thorax thought this would have been easier. Then again, he’d proven himself to be deceptive, merciless, and that he held no loyalty to even his own brood. So, he decided to provide a little more incentive by lowering Malpighiana little further, half over the edge and hovering over the safety of same landbridge he stood on.

“Hmm, maybe you can’t, but you can’t get your brother back without me, either.”

“Hey,” Malpighian weakly spoke up, suddenly sounding more concerned.

Thorax, ignoring Malpighian, kept his eyes on Vertex and the others as he gave his ultimatums.

“Think about it. You want what I want. The knowledge Rainbow Dash’s friends have. You can’t heal this. I can’t. Chrysalis can’t. A cocoon might sustain him, but have you ever seen a three-legged changeling?”

Again, Malpighian called out, this a little louder with more panic.

“Lift me up.”

Still, Thorax held Malpighian to bleed over the ledge, making his demands as passively as possible.

“These ponies owe you nothing and will give you noth—”

“Pull me up now!” Malpighian screamed, finally alerting Thorax that something was wrong.

Too late, Vertex saw it too and called out for his brother as he opened his wings to take flight.

“Malpighian!”

Thorax raised Malpighian and looked down to his side to see the black oil had climbed up over the ledge, running up the trail of blood that had fed its way down the side. Reacting violently, crystals and jagged shards of metal began to sprout from the pool of blood the oil overtook, dangerously close to Thorax himself. Then, as if aware of his presence—

Shink!

From the oil, a shard of black metal sprouted out, stabbing Thorax's paw, standing in the pool of blood being overtaken.

“Rah!” Thorax shrieked, jumping back and slamming Malpighian’s body down like a club on the mass of oil and jagged shards that had attacked him.

“Guck!” Was the sickly sound Malpighian made as his body hit the ground, shattering crystal and metal that pierced his carapace.

As fast as Vertex could fly to his brother's aid, he watched in horror as the black oil crawled further around each limb.

“Hold on!”

Malpighian was more than in a state of shock; he was shivering, trembling, panicking, bound by oil wrapped over him and impaled through his gut and hip.

“Vert-ACK!”

Before Vertex could reach his brother, a mass of dark crystals burst from his lower abdomen so fiercely it punctured through his left thigh. Where blood began to pump and spry out, the oil quickly overtook the world, devouring flesh and fluid alike. More crystals grew and contracted, sprouting jagged shards of metal that tore open from his back and flanks, leaving Malpighian to scream uncontrollably in agony.

Behind Malpighian, Thorax carefully stepped away, too entranced by the violent nature of what The Darkness was capable of doing to a living creature. The windigos, entities constructed of ice, as far as he knew, were one thing when stripped down, crushed, and broken open… but this terrifying.

“Stay back!” Rainbow shouted, sending into a coughing fit, doubling over on Spitfire’s shoulder.

Vertex refused to yield in his rescue and continued to race over to his brother’s screams, but apprehension of The Darkness consuming his kin and screams kept him just out of reach as he hovered over his brother’s outstretched hoof.

“Malpy! Get up! Fight! Bug up! You can do this!”

Somewhere deep in Malpighian’s body, a sickening crunch muffled out with the sound of tearing tense fabric and sloshing of fluids. Malpighian’s hoof fell limp, his head slumped over the ledge, and his frightened blue eyes faded to a lifeless white. A low rumble briefly escaped the motionless changeling’s mouth, but that was only for the few drops of blood to find their way before more of the oil overtook the flow, covering his lips and jaw. The oil quickly looked to firm itself, coiling around like a band of barbwired snakes before contracting and crushing the mandible, skull, and horn alike.

Unsure of what he witnessed, Vertex remained hovering in place.

“Where… where’s my brother?” He quietly asked if the answer wasn’t plainly in front of him. “Malpighian… He… He was just right here. He was just right here! Where’s Malpy! WHERE’S MALPY!”

Thorax looked down at his paw, a familiar ache returning. From where The Darkness had stabbed him, not only was he bleeding, but more of the oil was festering, corroding, melding with his flesh.

“Maybe it doesn’t matter,” Thorax started to say, coldly, a bit of emptiness taking hold as he seemed to accept the position he was in. “The white crystals. The black crystals… They come for us all. Rainbow Dash said he was going to die… and he did. Rainbow Dash said that only her friends can save me, and I refuse to die. I’m too scared to die. Too tired of living like this.”

Slowly, Vertex, hovering, his wings beating with desire for vengeance, began to turn as he started to pull some of his magic into his horn.

“You’re tired of living, Thorax? Fine… I’ll kill you, too.”

All the while this was happening, Chrysalis was speechless at everything she was given view of. The Darkness, in fact, could kill a changeling. Thorax was willing to kill for her, and perhaps there was a mystery to the crystals, death, and missing changelings that she needed to be looked into as well. Beyond that, Thorax, of all her underlings, was outclassing any in her swarm she could have tasked with facing any of the Elements, injured or not. Despite how much she instilled uniformity within her ranks, Thorax was distinctly different… and she wanted him back.

“That’s it! I’m sending another team! Thorax! Capture Rainbow Dash and Spitfire. We need that information if The Darkness is too dangerous to the swarm! Send any who get in your way into The Darkness. Whoever betrays the hive will perish!”

Vertex, enraged, with tears in his eyes, his horn brimming with magic, waiting to be discharged, screamed, "LIKE MALPY! He was loyal! You could have stopped this! Could have stopped Twilight the last time. Should have stopped Cadance in Canterlot. But we’re always starving, hiding, sent off to fight the battles not even you can win. You’re worthless!”

If Chrysalis could have reached through her projection to strike down Vertex there and then, she would have.

“Silence, traitor!”

Having taken enough, Vertex narrowed his eyes on his former Queen, ready to make a vow he could never take back.

“Even if it’s the last thing I do, I’m going to see you stripped of your hive, mother. And I’ll drag you down into this Darkness myself if I have to.”

Things had gone too far, and Spitfire couldn’t stop herself from shouting down evil in front of her. Her eys watering up with a mix of the terror of what The Darkness had done and ruthlessness of Thorax under Chrysalis’s command.

“You should have learned your lesson, Chrysalis. Once we get out of here, you have no idea the kind of pain we’re going bring to you. You thought the Elements of Harmony fucked you up?! We have the killers Harmony feared ready to fight for us, and they won’t bat an eye if they have to kill for us… They can’t be killed. And Thorax, you’re first.”

Suddenly, another chill ran through the air. A drop in the air so sudden that shouldn’t have been possible with Pharynx’s Fire of Friendship/Heart of the Swarm still burning. Yet, as the tensions rose, and Throax readied his claws and threats, the air grew colder still.

“You know what?! You two know so much! I’m thinking I’ll only need to bring back one of you alive!”

“RAHHHHHHH!”

From the depths of beyond the steep ledge were the deepest portions of the oil lay, a large figure emerged, screaming, squealing, splashing globs of the oil in its path between all bickering changelings and poneis. It seemed to have no determined path or target, huffing puffing pumes of white mist that chilled the air in direction the mists traveled.

Without direction or cause, its two large cracked front crystal hooves stomped their way between Urtica and Arista, huffing out strong puffs of frigid that had a scent of coal, something metallic, and another element that was ominous all of its own. Yet, as it scurried through, the trail of oil not exactly thinning out by falling off but absorbing into the beast, an amorphous tail began to take form on its backsides as it neared the remains of Malpighian.

Finally, after huffing another white plum, it drew a deep breath and turned its head toward Thorax. It gave a hungry squeal and sprinted closer, barreling through the frozen statue of Scutellum, who had been left undisturbed since early in the fight.

Fracturing into pieces that sprawled under its hooves, crushed further, carelessly Utica and Arista frantically began to pull, pry, and attack the ice that held them in place. Misplaced chunks of their once whole commrade spinning like toy pieces in view after bouncing off their faces having motivated them immensely.

Just the same, as Spitfire was backing away, her heart nearly jumped out of her chest, and she almost elbowed Haltere in the face, stopping just in time when she recognized his helmet.

“Gah! What are you.. Your heart thing? I thought? What is that?”

Pharynx took his position in front of the group, watching the creature sniff its way closer to where Malpighian last fell, and Vertex was darting back and forth the remains, shouting at the beast.

“The Heart of the Swarm kept the windigos away, but these are different. These aren’t affected by The Darkness at all.”

Further ahead, Thorax hunkered low and backed away, letting Vertex take all the attention. Surprisingly, though, the creature only briefly studied the changeling screaming at him.

“Get back!” Vertex shouted despite being ignored. “Stay away! That’s still my brother in there! Hey! Listen to me! You got rocks for brains! Hey! Heeeey!”

Unbothered by the shouting, the creature lowered its head, more of the oil cleared away to show a black mirror polished windigo’s head dipping its muzzle into the mess that used to be Malpighian.

Crunch. Crack. Snap. Huff. Crunch. Pop. Crunch. Snap.

In a moment of disbelief, Vertex nearly lost control of flight and fell several feet before catching himself at the site of watching this… thing carelessly, hungrily, eat what remained of his brother.

“What… What is happening?!”

Behind them, the warmth of the burning green heart faded out, and Pharynx made it clear what was happening.

“Rainbow Dash is too hurt to fight, and now we have to carry her out just like Gaster. We can’t save Malpighian or Scutellum; we need to get past that thing and then bust out. I hope the storm has passed. We’re not gonna make it back the way we came. Our problem won’t be getting past Thorax or any of the windigos… Even they don’t want to go near the dark one.”

The dark windigo feasted greedily upon what was left of Malpighian and paid no mind to Vertex. However, when only scraps were left and sparse splotches of the oil to sift through, it sniffed again and turned its eyes up to Thorax.

Thorax caught eyes with the creature, but that was only at a glance. This dark windigo was made of black ice, crystals, and metal; its face fractured unevenly down the middle, one ear was different as if it had grown back recently as a crystal. More disturbing was one eye had been hollowed out and glowed with a dark blue aura, resonating with a deep hatred whle it stared back at him.

Somehow, instantly, Thorax knew what he was looking at, and he abandoned his yeti form. As the blue magic dispelled around his damaged body, Thorax spat a bit of blood out before he bore his fangs and charged his horn, ready for a new fight and another victim of vengeance.

“You…. You did this to me." Under the glow surrounding his horn, some of the polish began to erode, revealing a metallic shine. “I guess there wasn’t enough of that gunk to kill either of us last time. This time I’ll drain you before I before I crush you.”

Author's Note

I apologize for the delay in getting this chapter out. In vain with the last submission, getting some of the art done did slow me down, but largely so did the writing as well as my health.

I've been trying to do more to relax, which is saying a lot because I can't do much as is. However, mentally, I'm really struggling at times. Not only that, but now that I'm back to living on my own again, I'm finding a lot of pitfalls in where my limits are. And by that, I'm pretty sure twice of me cleaning up after myself and some light tidying up I mistook having to lay down for a moment and falling asleep for passing out, or really, I'm still lying to myself about it all, and I simply don't like admitting the truth.

Regardless... I'm sure you can summarize the severity of the events that took place here in this chapter. Shit has finally tipped the scale from Life-Threatening to Life-Ending.

Where does it go from here? You'll have to come back and read:

Chapter 15.
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Also, acknowledgments to my story support:

The Fan Without a Face:

Editor for Chapters 01 - 03, 5, 7

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