Snowblind

Chapters

The Last Night of Winter
Home Again, Home Again
The Holes That We Dig
Lashes & Bites
~ Interlude: Snowfall ~
The Snow Piles Up
Filling the Blanks
A Stopped Heart
A Frozen Heart
Fear Not the Winter (pt. 1/2)
Fear Not the Winter (pt. 2/2)
Its Cold, Icy Sting (pt. 1/3)
Its Cold, Icy Sting (pt. 2/3)
Its Cold, Icy Sting (pt. 3/3)
Friendship and Laughter
The First Seeds of Spring (pt. 1/2)
The First Seeds of Spring (pt. 2/2)
Epilogue

The Last Night of Winter

Snowblind
by crowmagnon

Chapter 1 - The Last Night of Winter

How long has it been? How long have I been locked away? When the Sun and Moon and traitorous knights imprisoned me, my Palace of Ice was at the apex of its beauty. Now, I walk through crumbling halls.

Patches of ice crunch and crack beneath my talons, weakened by unknown eons of warming and re-freezing. Icicles hang from the ceiling of my once grand audience chamber, grown so fat from generations of neglect that they reach the floor like ugly, misshapen columns.

Fury seizes my heart as I look upon the destruction. However long ago it was, the memories of betrayal are perfectly preserved in my mind's eye. Celestia... Luna... I see them as if they are standing before me even now, their forms twisted and mutated to match their greed and lust for power. It was not enough for them to govern the passage of day and night, they had to rob me of my throne as well!

A shriek of rage erupts from my throat, making the palace tremble as my talons rip through one of those columns. A pillar of ice thicker than my body is sliced to pieces which slide apart and tumble to the floor.

In this way, though the walls of the palace have since melted into warped sheets of ice, I am able to carve my way out. A blast of crisp Winter air blows over my face once I create a pathway to the open air. Above, a blanket of thick clouds act as a shield between me and the hateful moon.

All around, blankets of snow cover the land, but already I can feel the first stirrings of Spring. This will not do. I will not have what is mine stolen away again so soon after my return. But first, I must disarm those who would imprison me again.

I take wing and soar through the air on the Winter wind, which guides me south. South, where I feel the thrum of the Elements of Harmony.

And if I cannot have them, then I will destroy those who bear them.

It was shortly before dawn as Rarity looked out her window, a mug of hot chocolate steaming on the windowsill beside her. Her horn glowed faintly as she used her magic to tie her long purple hair into a braided ponytail, just as she had every morning for years, to the point that she no longer had to think consciously about it much. This practiced routine allowed her to focus more on what was really important. Outside, snow still covered the land for one last day before the ponies of Ponyville would clear it away to start spring. In theory, at least, considering the town's track record for the past ten years, but this was still her last chance to see such a pristine and unsullied view of a snow-covered Ponyville until the next winter.

It was a thing of purity and beauty. The street lamps illuminated the whole town, reflecting off of the blanket of snow covering everything. This made it all look like the town was painstakingly crafted from spun glass by a master artisan. Even the Everfree Forest off in the distance had the appearance of an arrangement of delicate crystals rather than the wild and anarchic expanse that it actually was.

It's views like this that make it all worth it, she thought to herself, levitating the mug of cocoa up to her lips. From my own land, in a house that I can be proud to share with my little sister when our parents are away. How did I ever get so lucky? Said land was a few acres in the rocky hills just a mile out from Ponyville. Underneath the layers of snow that blanketed the fields, the rocks she had gathered the previous autumn were sleeping in a carefully arranged pattern that would help the inherent magic flowing through the earth to grow the gems and minerals within once Spring kicked off.

While she savored the view and her drink, the farmer heard one of the upstairs doors quietly creak open as light, sleepy little hoofsteps made their way downstairs. Hoofsteps that were followed by the bipedal gait of the third occupant of the house.

Rarity looked over her shoulder as the two shambled down to the bottom of the stairs. "Good morning, Sweetie Belle. Good morning, Spike. What got you two out of bed so early?"

"Smelled choc'lit..." the baby dragon replied with a yawn. Rarity couldn't help but smile with pride and astonishment at how quickly the little guy was maturing. Only a few months old, and already he had the vocabulary of a young foal. Fortunately for the two of them, the farmer had made enough to share, as evidenced by mugs that were being kept warm on top of the fireplace. Reaching out with her magic, she levitated the cocoa over to the little ones.

"Thanks, sis," Sweetie Belle said as the mug was placed on the floor in front of her. She blew on it a few times to cool it before carefully picking the mug up with her hooves so she could take a few delicate sips.

Spike, on the other hoof, simply picked the hot mug up with his claws and started slurping it down. Kickstarted by the warmth in his belly and the sugar starting to reach his system, as well as sporting a rather impressive chocolate mustache, Spike let out a happy sigh that turned into a burp halfway.

The unicorn sisters giggled a little as Spike licked the cocoa off of his upper lip. "So, today's the big day," Rarity said, turning from the window to face them. "The mayor's put me in charge of making nests for the southern birds this Winter Wrap-Up, so can I count on you to help?"

Sweetie Belle and Spike both shouted, "Yay!" Then Spike asked, "What's Win'er Wrap-Up?"

Applejack took care as she stepped off the train. The steps and platform were swept clear of snow and ice, but she reminded herself that one couldn't be too careful. After all, Spring hadn't begun yet. That was a big part of her reason for coming back to Ponyville. Once all four hooves were on the platform, the orange earth pony looked around. Her sharp green eyes drank in the sight of the town as it was just before dawn. A version of her former home that she had seen so rarely after her foalhood excursion to Manehattan had shown the young mare her true potential and purpose in life.

By no means did that mean she could no longer appreciate the sights around her, though. This view that most of Ponyville was still sleeping through, so nostalgic to her foalhood, was less like something left behind, and more like a secret whispered between old friends. It didn't matter that she had left a young apple farmer and returned wearing a luxurious winter coat styled so that as practical as it was, it actually wouldn't look out of place in an executive board room. Nor did the worth of the emerald earrings sparkling in the firefly light of the lamps illuminating the station. She had determined months ago that while Manehattan was her home, she would never, ever again ignore the place that Ponyville had in her heart.

While she gazed out across the slumbering town, the silence was interrupted by a soft pattering of hooves against the taut skin of a drum. The businessmare was startled for a moment, but then smiled widely as she turned to face the drummer.

"Home again, home again
No one's dancing a jig
There may seem no way out
From the holes that we dig

The wind lashes and bites
And the snow piles up
You don't know whether it or your heart
Will be first to stop

But fear not the winter
And its cold frosty sting
It's in friendship and laughter
You find the first seeds of Spring.

Wearing her trademark black turtleneck and beret that clashed hard with her pink coat and mane, the earth pony drummer stared straight ahead with a blank, melancholy expression. Long pink bangs hung flatly down one side of her face, but she tapped out a rhythm on her bongo drum that the businessmare eventually recognized as a Hearth's Warming Eve carol. And she might not have been smiling, but Applejack could swear that the pink in her coat and mane looked more vibrant than she remembered.

"Pinkamena! Oh, it's so good to see you, darling," Applejack said, walking over to give her friend a hug. One that was returned by the typically mopey mare. She then held Pinkamena at foreleg length and asked, "But what in Equestria are you doing out here? Aren't you freezing?"

"Nah, I'm good," the pink poet pony replied, tugging a little on her sweater. "Good thick turtleneck. Besides, it used to get a lot colder back on the rock farm. Plus, I figured somepony should be around to greet you."

Applejack cocked her head at that. "Greet me? But I never sent word that I was arriving. I wanted it to be a surprise, so even my family didn't know." When the poet simply gave her an enigmatic look and shrugged, Applejack narrowed her eyes. "Pinkamenaaaaa..."

Before she could reproach Pinkamena or demand a more concrete answer, though, the poet reached under her beret and pulled out a flask. She then popped it open and stuck it under Applejack's nose, hitting her nostrils with a scent that stunned her so hard that she immediately plopped down onto her flanks and stared at it as if it were a sapphire statue autographed by Daring Do herself. "Is... is that...?"

"Apple cider," Pinkamena replied. "I figured even though they don't know you're here, you should get to celebrate your arrival with a little Apple family hospitality."

Applejack gingerly took the flask into her own hooves. It certainly wasn't ladylike, or befitting a mare of her wealth and social standing, but her mouth was hanging open. She had been to wine-tasting parties featuring priceless vintages that were centuries old. She had even joined the Royal Sisters themselves in celebrating the return of Princess Luna with a bottle that had been painstakingly preserved through generation after generation since the year she was cast into her thousand-year slumber. That bottle had been the absolute last of its kind, never to be savored again by the tongue of any pony but those who had been in that room, and of those ponies only two had been alive long enough to identify the long-vanished vineyard from which it came.

Toward that bottle of wine, Applejack had only been able to muster up a fraction of the reverence she felt for the flask of cider in her hooves. She lifted it up to her lips and took a long pull of the sweet nectar. It was like drinking liquid sunshine with a hint of cinnamon, driving away the winter cold as she rolled it around in her mouth. Eventually, she swallowed and let out a soft, drawn out sigh of bliss.

"Pinkamena... you beautiful, brilliant mare... you are the very best friend I could ever ask for."

"I know," the poet replied, slinging her bongo across her back. "Isn't it sad?"

By way of response, Applejack offered the flask back to Pinkamena. "Only if you don't have a drink with me. And you simply must tell me what's been happening around town since I was here last!"

A third voice said, "Awww, that's sweet." This voice belonged to the porter she had hired back in Manehattan to carry her luggage for her. A smallish, gangly unicorn trembling from both the cold and the weight of the many bags and suitcases that were piled onto his back. Despite the strain, though, he said, "Sorry, didn't mean to interrupt, Ms. Applejack."

The businessmare gave him a stern look, but just for a moment before offering him the flask. "Well, why don't you have a sip yourself, and then we can get those bags to the hotel?"

The smile of gratitude and relief on the unicorn's face was exceeded only by the way his eyes lit up when he got his first taste of Sweet Apple Acres cider.

Even though the sky was still completely shrouded by thick clouds, Twilight knew that Celestia was raising the sun right at that moment. Most ponies let the movement of the celestial bodies define their schedules, but for one who's family was as close to the Princess as her's was, she had internalized the idea that it was the other way around. She walked down the street in a warm coat and scarf, carefully counting the doors while a checklist floated in the air beside her with a quill pen poised over the first box. This list was only one of several scrolls in her possession, the rest sticking out of her saddlebags.

"Priority 1: Wake Fluttershy," she read aloud, even though she had been the one to write it in the first place. She then stopped in front of the small two-story house that she was looking for and approached the door. Lifting up a hoof she carefully and deliberately knocked on it with what she hoped was the proper amount of force. Just loud enough to be heard by the occupants, but not so much as to wake their neighbors.

Assuming, of course, that they weren't such heavy sleepers that 'loud enough to wake them up' crossed over into the 'wake the neighbors' threshold. What would she do then? She was determined not to cause a disturbance, but what if there was no other option? She hadn't worked out a contingency plan! That was such a rookie mistake, so why hadn't she thought about it? Some 'strategist' she was, if she couldn't even plan for something as simple as knocking on a door--

--Which opened up while she was just entering the 'muttering to herself' phase of self-recrimination. On the other side, a hulking, bipedal bovine with a ring through his nose loomed over her from the shadows inside the house.

He then opened the door wider, smiling down at the unicorn. "Good morning, Lieutenant Sparkle! Come on in. What can Iron Will do for you?" He hobbled out of her way on one leg and a crutch, the other leg wrapped up in a cast, and closed the door behind her once she was inside.

"I'm off-duty right now, Will. You can just call me Twilight," she replied, grateful to find that the minotaur already had a fire going to warm the house up. She pulled her coat off and set it on a nearby hook. "Is Fluttershy up? I needed to talk to her about something of the utmost importance."

"Utmost importance?" Fluttershy's soft, sweet voice drifted down to them as the pink-haired pegasus made her way down the stairs. Fluttering over toward them, she gave her husband a morning kiss on the cheek that somehow still had the power to make the boisterous minotaur blush like a teenager on his first date. She then landed in front of Twilight and asked, "How bad is it?"

"It's horrible," Twilight replied earnestly. "I found out that Ponyville has a dark secret. Something horrible is going to happen today unless you and I are able to stop it."

"Oh my," the pegasus replied, putting a hoof up to her mouth in concern. "Is Eclipse going to come back somehow?!"

Twilight's eyes widened, and she shuddered at the thought. "Sun and moon, NO!"

Iron Will asked, "The schoolteacher is a vampire?"

Before Twilight could reply, Fluttershy interjected, "The spa is the conversion center for a doomsday cult?"

"The stallion who runs the apple farm is a part-time bounty hunter?"

"Ooh, you found out about Pinkamena's torture dungeon, didn't you?"

Twilight shook her head furiously and snapped, "No, no, no... What?! No! I just found out last night that for the last ten years, Ponyville's Winter Wrap-Up has been... tardy!" There was a moment following this declaration in which Twilight looked back and forth between Fluttershy and her husband, and the unicorn felt her cheeks heat up with mild embarassment. "And... you two already knew, and you're just messing with me right now, aren't you?"

Fluttershy giggled softly and put a foreleg across her friend's back. "Just a little. Rarity told us about a week or so ago, and we got the feeling you would get wound up about it."

Twilight let out a sigh, feeling a little mortified over how big a deal she had been about to make over the town's tardiness. Hanging her head low, she put a hoof over her face and groaned. "Yeah. Right. Sorry, guys, I should've realized how stupid that was, so I'll just go and--"

"NONSENSE!"

Twilight was nearly bowled back by Iron Will's sudden outburst, and probably would have been if not for the pegasus being right there beside her. The minotaur thumped his crutch against the floor and stuck his chest out as he proclaimed, "Iron Will and Fluttershy are more than happy to assist you in whatever you need to make Winter Wrap-up a success!"

"That's right," Fluttershy added, giving the unicorn a friendly nuzzle. "We know how important it is to you to do your best at whatever you do. And it's good to want to excel! Not to mention what it would do for the spirits of everypony in town to start Spring on time. Just remember to keep a little perspective. After all, we've already been through situations where the fate of the world actually did hang in the balance, and we got through it just fine!"

Twilight smiled gratefully. As usual, Fluttershy seemed to know just what to say to head off one of her entirely-too-frequent panic attacks. It was a little ironic that in the absence of the discipline and structure she had been immersed in for nearly half her life, it was a pegasus that kept her grounded, but considering the Element that she represented...

"YES!" This time, both ponies actually were knocked backward by the force of Iron Will's exuberance as he hobbled over to the next room over where the couple had a writing desk. After putting a pair of tiny reading glasses on, the minotaur cracked his knuckles and picked up a quill pen so he could start furiously scribbling down some notes. "That's gotta go in the book! Hmm... 'If you've already proven you're tough, you don't have to sweat the small stuff!' Yeah, that's a good start."

Getting themselves back up on their hooves, the ponies looked on as Iron Will wrote. Then they looked at each other and broke out in a shared quiet giggle.

"So you and Will are going to be ready to help out when things get started? I already spent the morning working up a plan for how to organize the teams for maximum efficiency, so with you two providing moral support and filling in some of the gaps..."

"Of course," Fluttershy replied, clearing some space on the living room's coffee table so that Twilight could unfurl some of the scrolls she brought. Sketched out maps of the town, along with diagrams and schedules for each of the tasks that would need to be accomplished in order to officially kick off Spring. Looking over the detailed plans, Fluttershy's eyes skimmed over them. "Wow, you did all this just this morning? You've got objectives lined up for everypony in Ponyville. Even..."

"Rainbow Dash! It's time to wake! Get out of bed, for goodness sake!"

There was another round of banging on the door of the cottage Rainbow Dash called home. The cyan pegasus groaned and tried to drown it out by burying her head under her pillow. "Errrgh... leave me alone! It's still Winter for one more day. And considering it's Ponyville, probably more."

In response to that, a cloud of glowing green powder drifted into the cottage through a small gap under the door. It drifted toward the bed and took the shape of Zecora, the zebra standing outside the door. With her voice, the simulacra boomed, "Ponies do not hibernate! Just how much longer should I wait? I would not be out here making such a ruckus if I was not freezing off my tuchus."

Rainbow Dash groaned again, but this time in defeat as she rolled out of bed and kept the blessedly warm blankets wrapped around her body as she walked through the illusion of her mentor and made her way to the door. After opening it up to let Zecora inside, the pegasus glanced at the sky and asked, "Sorry, Teach, but why are you even hanging around? Don't you know the sun's still down?"

Zecora stepped inside, her stern tone melting along with the dusting of snow that had covered her traveling cloak. She pulled her hood back, her stiff mohawk of a mane springing back into place as she leaned in to give Rainbow Dash a friendly nuzzle. "I need an excuse to see my pupil? We haven't spoken much since you moved to Ponyville."

Dash sighed a little, but it didn't take much to get her to return the gesture of affection to her mentor. "I know, I just got caught up with settling in after Waking Night and the whole Eclipse thing, and then by the time I was done it was the middle of Winter, and once Spring kicks off and the animals wake up..." She saw the look in Zecora's eyes and quickly realized she wasn't going to get away with making excuses. Her head dipped down and she said, "Sorry, I'll make time."

Dash then glanced back up, noticing the bags under the zebra's eyes. "Say, Teach, are you feeling okay?"

Zecora gave the pegasus a thin smile as she took a seat on the floor. "I have been finding it difficult to sleep."

"You ever try counting sheep?"

This earned Dash a weary laugh from the zebra. "Indeed I have, even though you jest. But it has done little to end my unrest." Seating herself in a posture of meditation that made even the limber pegasus's joints ache in sympathy, Zecora took a few deep breaths and cast her gaze off somewhere distant, as if seeing something miles away through the walls of her cottage. "I have the same dream every night. Of Equestria lost in endless white. All the land trapped beneath the snow, and from above I hear the cries of the Windigoes."

Dash shivered slightly under her blanket. Every schoolfilly knew about the Windigoes from Hearth's Warming Eve stories and tales of Equestria's founding, but unlike most schoolfillies, she had good cause to suspect that they were more than just tall tales. Not to mention enough experience with spiritual monstrosities to vastly prefer facing things that would go down if you just bucked them in the face hard enough. "But that's just a bad dream, right Teacher? Ever since we stopped Eclipse, there hasn't been enough strife and conflict to feed those creatures."

Zecora smiled again as she meditated. "That is indeed how it seems. And I hope they are nothing but bad dreams. Nevertheless, it would ease my mind if you would allow me to join you today. Would you be so kind?"

Dash blinked in surprise. It wasn't like her mentor to ask such a thing. It almost felt like a foal asking her parents to sleep with them after having a bad nightmare. No, actually, it was more like the other way around. That was even more worrying than the description of the dream itself. Nevertheless, Dash laughed it off and gave Zecora a playful punch on the shoulder. "Hey, of course. I guess that's sort of in my job description now, anyway, so stick around as long as you need to." Besides, even if Ponyville kept up its streak of being sloppy with Winter Wrap-Up, they'd still get it taken care of in a couple of days and then there'd be no threat of eternal winter or anything of the sort.

Still, Dash was starting to think that it wouldn't hurt if she volunteered to pitch in this year. A show of solidarity with her new community.

They are gathering now. I can see the glow of their bodies through the clouds. Feel the warmth of their hearts burning against my skin even now. And the six-who-are-one burn the most painfully. The Elements of Harmony no longer belong to the Sun and Moon, but to these little ponies congregating in the center of town to bring back the Spring.

They must be stopped.

I will freeze them. Mind, body and soul. I will snuff out the flames of their hearts, seize the Elements, and take back the throne of Winter before they can awaken Spring.

They will never take it from me again. I will see this world encased in ice before they do.

Home Again, Home Again

Snowblind
by crowmagnon

Chapter 2 - Home Again, Home Again

The day is beginning. However much I may hate the treacherous moon, I hate the sun all the more because it is a far greater threat to me. I dive beneath the protective blanket of clouds to hide myself completely from its burning gaze. I am still high enough above the town (and the pegasi unattentive enough as they follow the rest of their herd) that none see me. But I see them. My eyesight was always far greater than theirs, even without the ability to sense the heat emanating from their wretched little bodies.

Still, near-blind as they are, there remains the slight chance that they may see me before I wish them to. I scan my surroundings and find a mountain rising high over the town. Far enough to remove any chance whatsoever that they might discover my presence. Riding the frigid winds, I bank toward the mountain and find a ledge from which I can watch their congregation.

More importantly, this will give me the opportunity I need to study the bearers of the Elements of Harmony.

It matters not why my senses led me to this town. Not to the ancient palace from which the Sun and Moon ruled, now rotted and overtaken by the corruption that has infected the surrounding forests. Nor to the mountainside city with its majestic towers and gaudy, false beauty where I can sense they now reside. No, the why of it matters not. All that matters is that six of their subjects are now the bearers.

Greedy, spiteful creatures that they are, the Sun and Moon would have entrusted the Elements only to their most formidable and faithful lapdogs. Otherwise, they would have razed the town and taken the Elements back. It is for this reason that I do not act immediately. I must take their measure.

I turn my focus on the locations from which I sense the power of the Elements. Not merely relying on my eyesight, keen as it is, I cast my senses out upon the Winter wind. This will allow me to hear anything that they might...

Are...

Are they... singing?

The door to Rarity's farmhouse opened, and Sweetie Belle practically burst outside wearing boots and a scarf, as well as knit wool cap colored pink and purple to match her mane. Her big sister followed her out, Spike riding on her back as she used her magic to shut the door behind them. Rarity had a similar ensemble with the addition of a tan vest that was just short enough to keep her cutie mark visible. A geode adorned each flank, split open to reveal purple gem formations inside that were so vibrantly rendered that it would take close inspection to notice that they weren't actually glittering in the light.

Taking the lead down the path to Ponyville, Sweetie Belle didn't trot so much as bounce adorably in and out of the snow that lined either side of the road. As she hopped about, the little unicorn filly started to sing:

For the last three months the days were short
brightened by holiday lights
We reveled in the Winter wonderland
with tobogganing and snowball fights

Rarity tilted her head back to look at the baby dragon who was holding onto her neck as she trotted along, following her sister's singing with her own.

But now the land has rested
and it's time for a fresh start
To get the new year going right
every pony must do their part

The unicorn sisters smiled at each other as they both leaned in, joining their voices in song.

It's time to clear away the gloomy skies
so that the sun can shine through
Weave nests for all the southern birds
so they'll have a home to return to
Wake up all the hibernating
little critters and beasts
Clear the fields and seed the farms
so on their bounties we can feast

Winter Wrap-Up, Winter Wrap-Up
It's time to start a new year
Winter Wrap-Up, Winter Wrap-Up
Cause tomorrow spring is here
Cause tomorrow spring is here

By this time, the trio had reached the edge of Ponyville proper. Many more ponies were milling about and gathering whatever tools they would need for their assigned tasks. The adults were all wearing color-coded vests like Rarity's, except for two farther down the street; Zecora and Rainbow Dash, the 'Witches of the Everfree'. Zecora, still wearing her travelling cloak, nevertheless had her hood down to lessen the intimidating effect her visage had just a few months ago.

Even if it wasn't, however, it would have been obvious which witch was which as Rainbow Dash had apparently left hers at home. Instead, the polychromatic pegasus wore the thick, downy coat that Rarity had given her as a Hearth's Warming Eve gift earlier that Winter. Though the back had flaps that could open for Dash to spread her wings if the need ever arose, for now she kept them tucked within the coat. Her cutie mark was in plain view, though; a cracked rainbow held together by bandages.

Soon all this white will be turning green
once we've cleared out all this snow
The clouds will part and let the sun shine through
to help the little seedlings grow
Life and warmth will blossom forth
as we banish the Winter chill
I believe you, student, I truly do
and yet I worry still...

Before Zecora could go on, Rarity, Sweetie Belle and Spike caught up to the two witches, drowning out her concerns with such enthusiasm that even the tired zebra found an extra bounce in her step.

Winter Wrap-Up, Winter Wrap-Up
We'll clean it all up, have no fear
Winter Wrap-Up, Winter Wrap-Up
Cause tomorrow spring is here
Cause tomorrow spring is here

A few streets away, Fluttershy opened the door to let Twilight and Iron Will out. The unicorn practically pranced out, invigorated after her talk with the pegasus. Once Will worked his way down the steps and onto the street, Fluttershy shut the door and then flitted over behind him.

She wrapped her forelegs over her husband's shoulders as if riding piggyback, though she kept her wings fluttering to keep from weighing him down. In fact, with him leaning on his crutch, it almost looked like Fluttershy was helping keep the burly minotaur upright, much as her cutie mark depicted a hand and hoof holding onto each other. At the angle her body was currently held at, this made it look like the hoof was pulling the hand up.

Just ahead of them, head held high with confidence, Twilight marched toward the center of town where everypony was gathering.

It's time to get this town on track
and I've got just the plan
Twilight, you'll get all the help you need
from me and my man
We'll lift the spirits of everypony
as only we can do
So now that we've established the agenda
all that's left is to follow through

Winter Wrap Up, Winter Wrap Up
We'll get it done on time this year
Winter Wrap Up, Winter Wrap Up
Cause tomorrow spring is here
Cause tomorrow spring is here

By this point, the song had seemed to spread throughout the town. As if by instinct, more and more of the ponies filling the streets were joining in on the chorus. Even on the other side of town, Applejack and the typically reserved Pinkamena found their hoofsteps moving in time to the music as they left the hotel where they had dropped off the businessmare's luggage. Before they could go far, however, Applejack caught sight of somepony that made her quickly duck behind the nearest mailbox.

When Pinkamena arched her eyebrow at her friend's sudden desire to hide, Applejack reached out and yanked her out of sight just as Big Macintosh came trotting down the street. Still wearing the Stetson that he had inherited from their father along with the running of Sweet Apple Acres, her big brother was also in a green vest and hitched to a wagon in which Granny Smith, Apple Bloom, and their dog Winona rode. Applejack felt a light shudder throughout her body and a lump in her throat that had nothing to do with the cold. Especially when she looked at the cute little filly with big wide eyes and a big bow in her mane. The little sister that she had only seen a scant few times since Apple Bloom was a baby, and after the Waking Night reunion...

Maybe this wasn't such a good idea
What if coming here was wrong?
It's been so many years since I left the farm
They probably think I don't belong

Pinkamena got out from behind the mailbox and sighed. Reaching out to her friend, she pulled Applejack up and started dusting off some of the snow and dirt that had gotten onto her fancy coat. She then looked looked her straight in the eye, seeing that for all her wealth and class, Applejack's green eyes were watering up and threatening to overflow at the thought of confronting her family again.

You took quite a trip just to turn tail because
you feel a little scared
The worst mistake would be to run
before you show you care

Applejack bit her lower lip and looked down at the ground. But Pinkamena was right, of course. It was why she had come back to visit in the first place. And if she could face off against sleazy corporate raiders with expensive lawyers up the plot, she could face the ponies she cared about more than anything in the world... right? With a nod, she followed after her family and joined in on the chorus. Even the moody Pinkamena sang along with her.

Winter Wrap Up, Winter Wrap Up
We'll be with the ones we hold most dear
Winter Wrap Up, Winter Wrap Up
Cause tomorrow spring is here
Cause tomorrow spring is here

Little did the ponies know that their voices carried on the wind, their song drifting up to the mountain perch from which their unseen watcher crouched and waited. A single talon, sharp enough to tap a hole into the stone on which it rested, did just that as the catchy tune found worked its way even into a mind filled with righteous anger at the sheer arrogance in their lyrics. Soon, another voice added its own to the song.

If any pony had been been there to hear it, they would have found their watcher's voice to be both hauntingly beautiful and subconsciously disturbing. Soft and feminine, with a tone like somepony making music with the rims of fine crystal glassware, but at the same time carrying an edge to it like a dagger made of ice. Sneering down at the inhabitants of Ponyville, the watcher sang.

They truly do not have a clue what they
bring down upon their foalish heads
These insults I will abide no more
Satisfaction will be mine instead
When the Elements of Harmony
have fallen into my grasp
I'll stand over their precious Princesses
and watch them breathe their last
and watch them breathe their last
AND WATCH THEM BREATHE THEIR LAAAAST!

The watcher's talons clenched down on the stone, causing it to crack, then shatter from the pressure. The Princesses would indeed suffer for their sins, but it occurred to the watcher that the village laid out before her was still perilously close to the shadow cast by the capitol. If the Sun and Moon cast their gaze upon what was going to happen in Ponyville before the Elements were secured, their power would once again prove too great to overcome alone. A diversion would need to be found.

As a cold wind whistled through the mountains, though, resounding in the watcher's ears like a mournful wail, the watcher's sneer slowly curved up into a cruel, knowing smirk.

This would not have to be done alone after all.

"Winter Wrap-Up!" "Winter Wrap-Up!"
They will soon cry frozen tears
"Winter Wrap-Up!" "Winter Wrap-Up!"
Because the Spring is not yet here
Because the Spring is not yet here

Applejack and Pinkamena were among the last ponies to filter into the crowd surrounding Town Hall. The mayor was giving a speech, talking about making this year's Winter Wrap-Up the best ever or something along those lines. Applejack wasn't really paying attention, already dividing her attention between trying to spot her family again while conversing with Pinkamena.

"Plaoism, you say? I thought that your more recent works had a slightly more spiritual feel, but I never expected you to be a pony for philosophy."

Pinkamena shrugged a little. "Well, I started taking an interest in various philosophies after Waking Night. I always made a big deal about how my poems were about the world as it really is, but the whole ordeal with getting the Elements of Harmony made me think about things. I realized that I'd just been putting up walls to hide from the world, so if I really wanted to see beyond myself, I'd have to break those walls."

The businessmare looked over at her friend's somber expression and replied without a trace of irony, "Well, dear, I've never seen you look happier." She then tried looking around again, craning her neck up to scan the crowd. How in Equestria could Big Macintosh of all ponies vanish into a crowd? While pulling a wagon, no less?

Meanwhile, up on the podium, the mayor gestured for somepony to step forward. "--and to help make that boast a reality, I'll give the floor to our new Volunteer Coordinator, Lt. Twilight Sparkle of Princess Luna's Rangers!" Only half-hearing the familiar name, it nevertheless succeeded in drawing Applejack's attention from the crowd to the podium as everypony began stomping in applause.

Applejack stood up on her hind legs for just a moment in order to catch a glimpse past the crowd of stomping ponies. Purple coat, darker purple mane, and an eight-pointed compass rose surrounded by small stars for a cutie mark. It was Twilight, to be sure. Setting all four hooves back on the ground, she mused, "Well, how about that? That's certainly like Twilight to take charge of the situation."

Pinkamena made a strange noise in response to that. It was a sort of choked-off snort. "You didn't see her yesterday," the poet replied. "When she found out Ponyville's been late with Winter Wrap-Up ten years running, she practically had an aneurysm. Muttered something about 'Magic Boot Camp' over and over, then ran off to Town Hall."

Applejack blinked in confusion. "What does Magic Boot Camp have to do with anything?"

Pinkamena looked at her and shrugged. "I asked. She said I didn't want to know. I was going to tell her that asking questions is an indicator that I do want to know, but she looked like she was going to throw up, so I dropped it."

The businessmare laughed before covering her mouth, trying to suppress the snickering that came from that mental image. "And that sounds just like Twilight too."

"Applejack? Is that you, deary?"

Applejack's voice cut off mid-laugh at the aged voice behind her. She turned around and gulped as she suddenly found herself face-to-face with Granny Smith, who gave her a gummy smile that stretched across her wrinkled face before throwing her forelegs around the businessmare. Applejack was so stunned at the ponies she was looking for having somehow gotten behind her, she couldn't think of any of the things she had expected to say. She just sat down on her haunches, bringing a foreleg up to return the hug while she looked past Granny's shoulder to see the rest of the Sweet Apple Acres clan. Big Macintosh was watching the reunion, quiet and stoic as always save for a small smile.

Apple Bloom, by contrast, clung to Winona as the farm dog sat and wagged her tail happily. The little yellow filly was looking off to the side, only furtively glancing toward her big sister. Every time she did, it made Applejack's heart ache a bit as it came with a sulking glare. The orange mare tried to wave to her little sister, only for her face to fall as Apple Bloom hid behind Winona.

"So... hi, everypony. How did you manage to sneak up on me like that? I thought I was following you, but then lost sight of you!"

"Quick detour," Big Mac replied, not entirely answering the question.

Granny Smith, however, didn't have any problem filling in the gaps. "I had t' visit the little filly's room," she explained shamelessly. "It was a bumpy ride from the farm!"

"Not that you'd care about that..." Apple Bloom muttered quietly.

Big Mac responded to that by reaching down and picking up his littlest sister by her bow with his teeth, pulling her out from behind the family pet and setting her in front of Applejack. "Go on an' say hi t' yer sister," he told her. Apple Bloom looked like she wanted to protest, but didn't say anything when she saw Big Mac looking down at her. For her part, Applejack crouched down a little, smiling hopefully.

Apple Bloom looked up into her big sister's emerald green eyes, which matched the sparkly jewelry dangling from her ears. She looked at the coat Applejack was wearing, which even the schoolfilly could tell probably cost as much as their house. She looked past the coat at her sister's cutie mark. A tree, but where there should have been apples, it sprouted golden bits instead.

That brought the frown back to Apple Bloom's face as she replied, "Hi there... nice t' see you again... Jacqueline." Both of her older siblings visibly flinched at the hurtful tone in the filly's voice as she wielded Applejack's fillyhood nickname like a weapon.

Trying to make peace, Granny Smith interjected, "Now, Apple Bloom, your sister Applejack came all this way t' see us..." Even the matriarch of the Apple Clan couldn't soothe her granddaughter's indignation, however. Instead, Apple Bloom flared up at her.

"That ain't her name! She ran away from her family an' threw that name away lahk it was a piece of trash! That ain't how Apples are supposed t' be, an' ah don't need any sister what does all that just to... to... wear fancy dresses an' swim around in piles of bits!"

Applejack was taken aback, practically pushed back into Pinkamena by the force of her sister's accusations. At the same time, her defensiveness was turning in upon itself. "No... no, that's not why I left, darling, I swear! I was young and I wanted a better life..."

"Well you got it, so why don'tcha go back to it, 'stead of comin' around an' pretendin' you're an Apple every time you feel guilty?!"

By this point, the tension building up in Applejack had reached its breaking point. Having been put on the defensive and kept there by Apple Bloom's anger, Applejack had become like a spring getting wound tighter and tighter. Had she been given a chance to release that tension, she would not have said what she was about to say, but being driven into a corner put her into the same state as when dealing with pushy executives or corporate lawyers. The need to assert that she was not a mare to be pushed around boiled up to the surface.

"Don't you take that tone with me, young lady," she said, starting to channel the tone of her aunt Orange on the occasions when she herself had gotten bratty with her Manehattanite relatives. "Whatever you might think of me, I am still your sister, and just because I don't live on the farm, that doesn't mean that I don't care about my family, or work hard to make things better for you!"

Apple Bloom stepped up with a challenging glare, not backing down one iota. Rather, she redoubled her offensive. "What would you know about hard work? When Big Mac got hurt and couldn't buck trees, where were you?! Gettin' fat an' laughin' it up with yer diamond tiara an' silver spoon friends while we had t' hire ponies we didn't even know! You have any idea how humiliatin' that is? A real Apple woulda come runnin' home t' help!"

"That's enough, Apple Bloom." Big Macintosh put a foreleg around his littlest sister to pull her back. Applejack held up a hoof to stop him, though, returning her sister's glare with one of her own.

"So, you think that I don't do enough to help the family? That I'm getting fat and lazy on a pile of my ill-gotten gains?" Apple Bloom's defiant stare was answer enough, so Applejack poked the little filly with her hoof as she said, "Alright, let's put our bits where our mouths are. If I can prove to you that I can be just as helpful as any other Apple, you will admit that you were wrong. And you will do so right here in the town square while wearing the most ridiculously fancy, overblown, 'frou-frou' dress that I can find!"

Apple Bloom went a paler shade of yellow at that, the filly's pride shuddering at the thought. It wouldn't let her back down either, though. "An' when you ain't, y'all're gonna go back t' the big city an' tell all yer fancy-pants friends that y'all're nothin' but a useless phony!"

"Why not go one better? After Winter Wrap-Up, I'll set up a press conference, and then all of Equestria can hear the loser say anything the winner likes!"

"Anything?"

"Any. Thing."

"Deal!" Apple Bloom spat on her hoof, then held it out toward her sister. Applejack stared at the saliva-covered hoof, hesitating to touch it. When Apple Bloom noticed and got a smug little smirk on her bratty face, however, Applejack narrowed her eyes, spat on her own hoof, and pressed it against her sister's.

While this was going on, Pinkamena looked past the duo at where Big Mac and Granny Smith were watching the whole thing play out in dismay.

"Cheer up," she told them. "It's going a lot better than my last family reunion."

Up on the podium, Twilight was levitating a map of the town that was separated into color-coded sections. "--focus on the areas marked in green before moving to the mauve areas. Your team leaders will be given schedules and tips on how to coordinate with the other units for maximum efficiency." She smiled out at the crowd, taking a moment to gesture toward Fluttershy as her pegasus friend flitted about and passed the paperwork out to those who would be leading each task. "Are there any questions?"

A few hooves went up, but a raspy, tomboyish voice didn't bother waiting to be called upon. "Yeah, do we all need those vests, or can we just do whatever if we don't have one?"

Twilight blinked in surprise. Ponies moved aside just enough for Twilight to clearly spot the Witches of the Everfree standing alongside Rarity and her family. "Rainbow? And Zecora! What are you two doing here?" Immediately realizing that her surprise came across as something harsher, she quickly stammered, "B-but of course we're happy you are! It's very neighborly of you to help out." She muttered, accidentally doing so into the microphone, "Especially after you said you were going to sleep in all week..." She then yelped upon realizing that last bit was also broadcast throughout the square, her face lighting up with embarassment.

Rainbow Dash winced, then gave her zebra mentor a weak grin. "A-heh... heh... that Twilight, she's such a kidder!" Turning her gaze back to the podium, the pegasus narrowed her eyes while keeping up her fake smile. "You're such a kidder, aren't you, Twilight? Everypony knows I'm not that lazy, right? ... Right?" Zecora just rolled her eyes and facehoofed in response. A wave of laughter rippled through the crowd.

Clearing her throat, Twilight's voice cracked at first as she leaned against the podium and tried to get back on track. "A-anyway, in answer to your question, if there's any pony who, for whatever reason, doesn't have an assignment yet, we have spare vests for each team. Come see me about whatever task you'd like to be assigned to, and we'll get you set up!"

A crisp, refined voice from the back of the crowd called out, "Pinkamena and I will be volunteering for the snowplow team!" Already slightly off-balance, Twilight's hoof slipped and she banged her face lightly against the podium before she caught herself.

Quickly recognizing the voice, but even more startled by her presence than she had been with Dash and Zecora, Twilight picked herself up and asked, "Applejack?!" Sure enough, the mare from Manehattan who had helped save all of Equestria was standing next to her family and Pinkamena. She then cocked her head in confusion. "Really? Snowplow duty?"

For some reason this made the businessmare give her an annoyed look. "Yes, really! We'll take two green vests, please!"

while Applejack fumed and Twilight stammered a little, Pinkamena cleared her throat to get her friend's attention. "Actually... I'm already on a team."

That broke Applejack out of her mood for a moment as she looked back over her shoulder. "You are? But you aren't..." Before she could finish her sentence, Pinkamena pulled up the hem of her turtleneck. Past her cutie mark of a blank stone tablet with a hammer and chisel next to it, Applejack saw that her friend was wearing a blue vest. "Oh..."

"Ice-breaking. Been leading the team for years now. You could join if you want."

Applejack actually seemed to consider it for a moment, but she glanced over at Apple Bloom who was glaring at her for some reason. She then turned back toward Twilight and said loudly enough for her voice to carry across the square, "Snowplow, if you'd be so kind!"

Twilight had a feeling that she was missing something about this exchange. "Well. Alright then. We could always use more help with clearing the snow. So, are there any other questions?" She looked over the crowd. "No? Alright, then let's go and make this the best Winter Wrap-Up Ponyville has ever seen!"

The crowd cheered excitedly, even as a chill wind blew through the square to punctuate Twilight Sparkle's moment of confidence.

I have to pull back one of the creatures as it draws too close to the town... Ponyville. It is hungry, and drawn to one of the six-who-are-one. An orange mare, allowing her anxieties to boil over and become warped into something that my new pets find tantalizing.

They are almost painfully simple creatures, these Windigoes. They crave only to feast on the distrust, hatred and paranoia of living things. The more they eat, the stronger their ability to freeze the world and incite even greater strife, and yet they cannot comprehend that this cycle would only lead to the extinction of their only source of food. Such thoughtless selfishness. It reminds me so much of the Sun and Moon that I would laugh at the irony of turning them against the Princesses if I still had the capacity for laughter.

Nevertheless, they will be my distraction and my weapon. The treachery I have suffered makes me a greater source of nourishment for the Windigoes than all of the ponies in the town below put together. Unlike them, the very essence of my being makes me immune to anything that these mindless creatures might do, and grants me a small measure of... not exactly "control," as they are primal forces made manifest, but the ability to direct them toward a target of my choosing.

I let them feed, gorging them on my hatred and tiny slivers of my essence. They quickly draw strength and vitality from the bottomless font of my feelings for the Sun and Moon. I then cut them off before they get their fill, or as close to it as such insatiable beings can ever find. I point a talon toward the mountainside city that looms over this land. Even from here, I can sense that it has some measure of protection, but not enough. Not nearly enough set up to protect them from what my pets... my weapons will unleash upon them.

As I send the majority of them galloping across the sky toward the capitol, I have no illusions that this assault will put an end to my nemeses. However much I wish to see the Sun and Moon encased in ice for all of eternity, it will not be done by the Windigoes. Their duty is merely to surprise my enemies and their guards. To make them trap themselves within the safety of their city while I and the few Windigoes still at my side complete my task.

These ponies believe that Winter is something that they can simply sweep away. Perhaps a toy to be put back in the closet when they are done with it. They know nothing of its true face.

They will today.

The Holes That We Dig

Snowblind
by crowmagnon

Chapter 3 - The Holes That We Dig

With Twilight's presentation coming to a close, the unicorn was crossing off a checklist of team leaders that she had talked to. She would have missed one, if not for a flash of grey and yellow in her peripheral vision. Quickly looking up, she called out, "Derpy Hooves! Can I have a word with you before you leave?"

The wall-eyed pegasus, surprised by the sound of her name being called just as she was about to fly off, looked over her shoulder and veered around back toward the source of that voice. As a result, Twilight eeped as Derpy either over-corrected, or her skewed eyesight made her think that Twilight was somewhere she wasn't. Whatever the reason, the purple unicorn ducked, then winced at the loud crashing sound as Derpy flew right over her and smashed into the podium behind her!

Worried that she may have inadvertently caused the pegasus to give herself a concussion, Twilight sweatdropped nervously as she turned around to see Derpy sitting in the middle of a pile of splintered wood. Her eyes were rolling around in her head independantly of one another, but that was nothing new as far as Twilight knew. Otherwise, Derpy wasn't even the slightest bit wobbly as she looked at the wreckage surrounding her. "Oh, I just don't know what went wrong..."

Twilight let out a quick laugh of relief after making sure that the mayor had already gone back into the Town Hall and hadn't witnessed this. While using her magic to help the pegasus up and pick the debris off of her, Twilight replied, "Uh... that's alright, Derpy. Now, according to my notes, you're in charge of bird migration?"

Derpy's left eye swiveled to focus on Twilight. As soon as it did, and she registered who she was talking to, the pegasus stood up straight with a foreleg brought up in a salute. "Sir! Yes sir, ma'am! Derpidella Hooves reporting for duty!"

"Uh... right. At ease, Ms. Hooves." The pegasus put her hoof back down, but continued to stand as if she were a soldier in front of an officer, rather than a mailmare. "I just wanted to talk to you for a moment because I heard of your..." She drifted off for a moment, trying to look Derpy in the eye. The problem was that doing so was near impossible, and tracking the wandering right eye's movement had an almost hypnotic effect. Finding herself feeling as though she were being entranced by some sort of spell, her Ranger training kicked in and she quickly turned her head as she blurted out, "... Navigational difficulties! I, uh... I understand that you ended up going West last year."

This caused a small, sad frown to cross Derpy's face as she looked (or at least dipped her head) down at the ground. "I didn't mean to, ma'am-sir! I had to go the long way flying around a really bad storm, and got all turned around, and..."

"No, no, it's okay! I understand. The mayor said you're a real savant when it comes to feeling air currents. That the birds are always more energetic when they come back if you're leading them because they don't have to fight the wind so much," Twilight interjected to reassure the pegasus. She quickly reached into her saddlebags with her magic to pull out a small object on a thin chain, which she placed around Derpy's neck. "I just thought it might be better if you had this."

Startled by the sudden gift, Derpy's expression brightened again. She squealed with delight as she lifted it up to try to get a better look at it with one of her wandering eyes. "Eee! Thank you, sir-ma'am! I always try to be the best darn civil savant I can be, but I never thought I'd get a medal for it!"

"Umm... actually, you're holding it backwards. It's a compass," Twilight said, flipping it over. "This way, if you get turned around again, you can just use it to check your heading," she explained as comprehension slowly dawned on Derpy's face.

The pegasus adopted a serious look again, beaming with a sense of pride and duty and focus, even if only the first two were reflected in her eyes. With another salute, she exclaimed, "Ma'am! I promise I'll treasure this and take good care of it, sir-sir! I'll bring back those birds, or die trying!"

Twilight chuckled awkwardly in response to Derpy's enthusiasm. "Ah... heh, well... I'd really prefer you didn't die or anything..." When Derpy continued to stand there saluting for a while longer, the Ranger sweatdropped and said, "Um... Dismissed, Ms. Hooves." Apparently, that was what she had been waiting for, and the wall-eyed mare launched herself up into the sky. Not without clipping a nearby weather-vane, Twilight noticed, causing the wheel of a nearby wagon to get broken by the tumbling iron rooster.

"Wow. I see some things haven't changed," Rainbow Dash mused as she and Zecora approached Twilight. "Back in Flight Camp, we called her 'Hurricane'."

This made Twilight's eyes fly wide open as she turned to face her friend. "Hurricane? Like Commander Hurricane, the ancient pegasus war hero?" She highly doubted that Derpy was affiliated with the Equestrian military, but then again, considering how she had reacted to Twilight's rank...

Just then, Derpy called down, "Oh, hi, Rainbow Dash! I didn't see you down there!" As she waved down to Dash, the grey pegasus flew straight into a second-story window. The ponies on the ground winced as she smashed right through the glass. Loud crashing noises erupted from the house, accompanied by the occasional twang of a stringed instrument getting badly mangled and the yowling of a rather distressed cat.

When she came bursting back out of the building, it was through the front window of the confectioner's shop on the ground floor, suddenly wearing a scandalously designed saddle on her back from which a frightened calico cat clung for dear life. Other than that, Derpy seemed none the worse for wear as she exclaimed, "That wasn't my fault! Bon-Bon suddenly put her house in my way!"

"Not exactly," Dash deadpanned belatedly in answer to Twilight's question.

Meanwhile, Apple Bloom and her big sister were both defiantly facing away from each other with their noses in the air. Big Macintosh and Granny Smith had reluctantly gone to check in with Lt. Sparkle, leaving the two of them alone with Pinkamena.

Suddenly, a high, girly voice broke the silence. "Hi, Apple Bloom!" Seeing her friend coming over with Rarity and Spike behind her broke through the little yellow earth pony's layers of sulk, and she broke into a happy smile as she went over to join the unicorns and baby dragon.

"Hiya, Sweetie Belle! Hello, Miss Rarity. How're y'all an' Spike doin'?"

"We're doing very well, dear," Rarity replied, smiling down at her sister's friend. "And you must be happy to have your big sister come to visit."

To Rarity's surprise, though, Apple Bloom's expression fell into a frown as she glanced back at Applejack, who was still pointedly facing away from her. "Yeah... ecstatic," she muttered.

After an awkward moment, Rarity said, "Well, I think I'll go say hello while she's here. Spike, why don't you play with Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom for a bit?"

"Okay," the dragon replied excitedly as Rarity gently set him down on the ground with her magic. While Rarity went over to visit with the other adults, he looked at Apple Bloom and proudly proclaimed, "I know the alfa-bet!"

Apple Bloom blinked at the non-sequitor, but quickly replied, "Wow, that's great, Spike! Ah sure didn't when ah was only a few months old. Did Rarity teach ya?" When he nodded, the earth pony smiled and said to Sweetie Belle, "Must be nice, havin' a great big sister lahk Rarity."

"Well, sure," Sweetie Belle replied proudly. "She's the best! But you've got a pretty great big sister too, don't you?"

Apple Bloom didn't reply to that question. Instead, she looked away for a moment before asking, "Hey, why don't we make the biggest snowpony we can before the weather ponies melt it all away?" This got a cheer from the little unicorn and dragon, and the three of them rushed off toward the nearest patch of untouched snow.

Meanwhile, Rarity approached the two adult mares. "Applejack, it's so good to see you again! But what's going on with Apple Bloom? Is something wrong?" From behind, the businessmare seemed to be standing tall and dignified, defiantly avoiding looking back at her little sister. When Rarity came around to look her in the eye, though, her eyes were brimming over with tears that dripped down her face.

Slowly turning her head to look at Rarity, Applejack asked in a small, distraught voice, "What did I do, Rarity? Sweet Celestia's flowing mane, what did I just do?"

Rarity blinked a few times, but seeing the typically proud and confident Applejack driven to tears, she immediately threw her forelegs around the businessmare and held her in an obviously much-needed hug. "There, there... why don't you tell me what happened?" While Applejack sniffled against her friend's shoulder, Rarity lifted one end of her scarf with her magic to dab the tears away.

When she started feeling a little better, Applejack returned the hug and then pulled back so she could explain what had happened. How the argument with Apple Bloom had escalated, and the wager they had made. "What was I even thinking? I came here to reconnect with my family, but either I lose because I'm a bad sister, or I win and she ends up publicly humiliated!"

Rarity cleared her throat and tried to sound reassuring as she replied, "Well... that... that certainly sounds like a tricky situation you've gotten yourself into, but it can't really be that bad. Whatever made her say those things, she's a good friend to Sweetie Belle and one of the nicest little fillies I know. I'm sure she'll come around."

Applejack smiled, heartened by the humble rock farmer's kind words. Then Pinkamena interjected, "Plus, you're still young. You could let this fester for decades and decades, and you'd still have time to make up when you're bitter old nags who've watched every other chance at happiness crumble away while you held on to your spite like a jealous lover. And then, even with a lifetime of missed opportunities and spurned second chances, at least you would be able to spend what little time you have left waiting to slip into death's embrace with love and dignity."

Rarity stared at the poet with an utterly flabbergasted expression while Applejack's orange coat took on the hue of a bleached carrot at the thought.

"I have to talk to Apple Bloom right now."

"That would probably be for the best..." Rarity agreed.

Gone were any traces of hesitation as Applejack hurried off toward the other end of the square where the children were playing. Watching the businessmare run off, Pinkamena's face underwent an uncomfortable contortion. The corner of her mouth quirked up ever so slightly, her eyes crinkling just a little bit as her cheeks tried to lift. The painful attempt at a smile didn't linger long, but while it did, she mused to nopony in particular, "It feels good to help."

Then, when her face naturally reset to its default position, she noticed that Rarity was still looking at her with her mouth hanging open. One of her deep blue eyes was squinted and twitching, the other with her eyebrow raised so high that it seemed to be trying to fly off her face. Tilting her head in curiosity, Pinkamena asked, "What?"

Fluttershy had just about finished assisting Twilight when she spotted Applejack running across the square. Quickly grabbing one of the green vests in her mouth, she took wing and quickly intercepted the orange businessmare. "Hrr oo go, Abbljak! Don' wanna frrght thiff! Hw've oo ehn ooing ay th' 'ay?"

Applejack was barely able to skid to a stop before she collided with the motivational pegasus. "Oh! Fluttershy, sweetie, don't startle me like that! Listen, it's good to see you, but I need to--" She tried to walk around Fluttershy, only to get cut off as she flitted in front of her again.

Looking at Applejack with big blue eyes that could (and frequently had) turn the most hard-hearted of creatures into simpering puppies, Fluttershy smiled sweetly around the green fabric held between her teeth. "Cmmon, AJ, we hvvn' feen eegh uffer'n munff, an'd ike t' ktch up 'frr oo haff t' fpenn 'll murrnin' bllin' a blaow."

Applejack actually stopped for a moment, if only to puzzle out what her winged friend was actually saying. After a moment, she shook her head and took the vest, fitting her forelegs through the sleeve holes so that it fit over her coat. Once that was taken care of, she replied, "Fluttershy, darling, I would love to catch up, but I really have to--"

"--Get to work, I know," the pegasus replied with a sigh. "Honestly, Applejack, you have such a one-track mind, sometimes. But I suppose I can understand why you would want to get right to it." She smiled understandingly and asked, "You want to make sure you get to spend some quality time with your family, don't you?"

Applejack smiled and nodded as Fluttershy got it. "Yes, exactly! I promise that I'll make some time later for you and the rest of the girls, so--"

"Well, we'd best be moseyin' back to the fields," the deep voice of her big brother interrupted. Applejack jumped in surprise, somehow not having heard Big Macintosh lumbering up behind her. The stallion pushed his hat back a little, eyebrow arched slightly at his jittery sister. "What's got yew so jittery, sis?"

"When did you learn to be a ninja?!" Applejack retorted before her nerves settled back down. "Look, before we go, I just need to--"

"Sorry, sis, but Lt. Sparkle's schedule is pretty tight, an' if we don't get the fields cleared on time, the critters'll get flooded out o' their homes again once the weather team breaks the clouds up." The big red stallion looked over toward where the children were playing, rolling a giant ball up onto the four 'legs' they'd made, creating the body of the fattest snowpony they'd ever seen. "Apple Bloom! Time fer us t' head back!"

Hearing Big Mac calling out across the square, the little yellow filly lost her concentration while trying to hold up her side of the massive snowball. As a result, her grip slipped and the ball started to tumble over to one side. Spike's eyes widened as the shadow of the snowball they had worked on fell over him, and Sweetie Belle let out a shriek as it fell right on top of the baby dragon!

There was a flash of light as Twilight immediately teleported over at the sound of the unicorn filly's cries. "What happened? What's wrong?!"

Sweetie Belle was frantically trying to break the snowball apart with her hooves, but Apple Bloom had insisted on packing it as densely as possible, so she wailed in dismay as she ineffectually chipped away with it. "Apple Bloom killed Spiiiiiiike," she cried out, shocking her friend with the accusation.

"N-no, ah didn't! It was an accident!" She quickly turned around and started bucking at the snowball to try to break it apart, the two of them practically sobbing in despair at the thought of having crushed the baby dragon or trapped him in an inescapable ice prison.

"Girls! Girls! Calm down," Twilight urged, her horn glowing as she wrapped the snowball in her magic and lifted it up off the ground. Instead of getting Spike free, maybe a little bruised but otherwise none the worse for wear, she looked at the patch of ground where it had been and saw nothing. Then Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom started screaming again as they saw Spike's legs and tail sticking out of the bottom, dangling and kicking weakly.

Off in the distance, Applejack responded to her sister's need for help by running toward them. "I'm coming! Just hold on and--" Before she could finish, though, she was spun around by a butter yellow streak blowing past her.

Fluttershy got there almost immediately. "Don't worry, I'll help," she assured the fillies as she looked up at Spike. Opening her mouth wide, she clamped down on Spike's tail in order to pull him free. As she yanked, though, instead of meeting the expected resistance, the entire snowball glowed bright green for an instant.

Then it exploded in a burst of green flame that instantly converted most of it into steam, the rest turning into an omni-directional spray of slush that coated every pony in the vicinity.

Instantly freed from his snowy prison, there was nothing holding Spike up in the air anymore. As a result, he and Fluttershy ended up tumbling back and crashing into Applejack just as the businessmare caught up. After getting sent tumbling end over end, Fluttershy groaned and rubbed her head. Still a little dizzy, she heard a loud siren-like noise that she soon realized was the sound of a crying dragon. Spike was sitting on top of a slush-covered Applejack, bawling his little eyes out.

The two fillies quickly hurried over, with Lt. Sparkle right behind them. While they did so, Rarity and Pinkamena approached the chaotic scene. The white unicorn in particular rushed over and scooped Spike up, cradling him in her forelegs. "It's okay, Spike, it's okay. Mommy's here, so don't you worry about a thing." She looked him over, cooing maternally until she saw the indentation of teeth-marks on his tail. Then her beautiful face twisted into the expression of an enraged Ursa Major. "Who bit my Spikey-wikey?!"

Fluttershy eeped and slowly raised her hoof. "I did, but I was just trying to help," she explained, drawing the full force of Rarity's ire.

"How could you?!" A switch had been flipped in Rarity's head, her usual down-to-earth calm replaced with protective fury. "He's just a little baby! His scales are still soft and sensitive!" She snorted at Fluttershy, so angry that the butter yellow pony could swear she saw tiny puffs of purple smoke shooting from her nostrils.

The only one brave enough to face that fury was Twilight, who teleported between Rarity and Fluttershy with a flash of light. "Rarity, wait. Spike was stuck in a giant snowball, and Fluttershy was just trying to help pull him free."

"And just what was he doing stuck in a snowball?"

"Apple Bloom dropped it on him," Sweetie Belle exclaimed.

"I did not," the yellow filly shouted. "I mean... I kinda did, but it's not like I meant to!"

Seeing Rarity give Apple Bloom the stink eye, Fluttershy quickly said, "Please, Rarity, nopony here would ever want to hurt Spike. I'm sorry that I bit down so hard, but I was worried for him."

Meanwhile, Applejack rubbed her head and groggily picked herself up. "Mmph... well did you have to pull so hard, Fluttershy? This coat was hoof-stitched by one of the finest tailors in Manehattan, and... eek! It's ripped!" the businessmare gasped as, aside from the dirt and slush that now plastered her, there was torn stitching in her coat.

This caused Apple Bloom to look at her sister in utter disbelief. "Mah best friend's dragon is hurt an' she blames me for it, and all y'all c'n think about is yer fancy coat?! What in tarnation's wrong with you?!"

Applejack blinked in surprise. "Apple Bloom, no, I just--" Her little sister didn't let her finish. Instead, she gave Sweetie Belle a pleadingly apologetic look, then ducked her head and ran off as fast as her little legs would take her. "Apple Bloom!"

Fluttershy quickly said, "It's okay, I can catch her," and was about to launch herself back up into the air when she was yanked back down with a tug of magic.

"Not until you apologize to Spike," Rarity replied, seething at the pegasus.

"And for getting in my way, earlier," Applejack added, the look on her face expressing hurt as much as anger. "Because of you, I wasn't able to talk to my little sister! Now she's gone and run off, and who knows when I'll see her next?"

"I... I didn't mean to..."

"APOLOGIZE!"

"Woah, woah, everypony relax," the raspy voice of Rainbow Dash said as she and Zecora trotted over. Chuckling nervously, she said to Rarity, "You don't want Spike to get hurt, I know. Let's not lure in the Windigoes. Not that there's any real risk of that, a-heh..."

Rarity rolled her eyes and hugged Spike tighter. "This is hardly the time for tasteless jokes, Dash! My poor little baby's been mutilated! He's hurt and sobbing, and I wasn't there to protect him!"

While everypony was arguing and bickering with each other, Fluttershy shivered as an unusually cold gust blew through the square, chilling her to the bone. Unbenknownst to any of them, a few flakes of snow started to drift down from the sky, the clouds above heavy with the promise of more.

Meanwhile, Derpy hummed happily to herself as she soared away from Ponyville. Every so often, she would glance down at the compass Twilight had given her and make sure that the needle was lined up with the S. It was such a useful and thoughtful gift, she had no idea why nopony had given her one before.

Then again, Twilight Sparkle was one of the smartest ponies in Equestria, the way she was always reading or making maps and charts, so it probably just slipped everypony's mind. Things tended to slip her mind all the time, so it was fine. The most important thing was that she was going to be able to make it to the southern nesting grounds and back in record time, no matter which way the wind tried to blow her!

Just as she thought this, though, she realized that she felt a rush of air in her wingfeathers. Sensing the strength of it, she quickly started flapping as hard as she could to rise above it as an arctic blast came rushing past her from one of the mountains near Ponyville. Derpy shivered, feeling the heat get sucked out of her body, but she had managed to avoid getting hit with the full force of it.

Despite her 'challenges', as some ponies put it, Derpy had always been very good at feeling out air currents. She wasn't the fastest or the strongest or the best at making weather, but she could spend entire days just gliding on the wind, riding the air currents like a soap bubble with practically no effort at all.

She hadn't been able to sense the sudden cold front coming until it was nearly on top of her, and that was hardly the only confusing thing about it.

Many things confused Derpy Hooves, even some things that other ponies took for granted, but the wind wasn't one of them. Yet when she had sensed the wind coming from the mountain, it hadn't been from near the mountain or coming around the mountain. The wind had felt like it originated from the mountain itself.

Derpy considered what this could mean, and quickly came to the conclusion that she had no idea whatsoever. She then considered further, thinking that she should probably continue on her route and lead the southern birds, but if mountains were generating freezing wind willy-nilly now, then that would play merry havoc with her route. Thus, wanting to know what she was in for, she turned and glided toward the tall snow-covered peak.

Setting down atop a rocky ledge, up above the sorce of the freezing gale, Derpy looked in every direction. Well, she was usually looking in every direction anyway, but for the moment she was really focused on seeing everything that was around her. More helpfully, she spread her wings so that she could feel the way the air was moving around the mountain and soon found that the extraordinary cold was coming from another ledge farther down.

With great concentration, Derpy peered over the edge and struggled to get her eyes pointed in the same direction. It was difficult and made her head hurt if she tried to keep it up for too long, but she eventually got them to focus. Once she did, she gasped in astonishment at what she saw.

Perched down below and staring down at Ponyville was easily the biggest griffon that Derpy had ever seen. Somewhere around two to three times the size of a full-grown adult. At the same time, she had nearly missed seeing the giant griffon completely because her entire body was such a pure white that she blended almost seamlessly with the snow around her.

Derpy was sure that it was a 'her', though, because once she was able to make out the griffon's outline, Derpy could tell that she had a very sleek and feminine shape. In fact, though she didn't know what other species found attractive, if she had to hazard a guess she would bet that the mysterious stranger was also the most beautiful griffon she had ever seen. A cold, severe sort of beauty, but at the same time regal and commanding respect and admiration without having to ask for it.

Looking at her made the pegasus feel small in a way that had little to do with the griffon's imposing size. It was a lot like she felt on the few occasions when she had been able to see Princess Celestia in person.

Of course! Thinking about the Sun Princess made Derpy realize that the griffon below her didn't just look 'regal'; she looked downright royal! Between her size, her (supposed) beauty, her bearing, and the way that her proportionately enormous wings folded around her body and extended behind her like a long formal cape, Derpy realized that she was looking at a griffon princess!

Wait, did griffon's have princesses? They had an Empire, but politics and history were well outside of her few areas of expertise. As she reached up to rub her chin in thought, though, her wings twitched.

That cold wind was moving again. Being perched this close to its source, Derpy's talent for air currents allowed her to visualize it so clearly that she could practically see it. No, not 'it'... 'them'.

To the naked eye, their forms were little more than faint ripples in the air. Derpy's sensitive feathers acted almost like a form of sonar, however, giving her the impression of several griffon-like shapes circling around the white princess. The way the temperature and air pressure dropped around them, it was clear that they were the source of the unnatural cold.

Derpy gasped again as realization sank in. She wasn't usually much of a detective, but every schoolfilly knew the Hearth's Warming Eve story of how Equestria was founded, and the creatures that had brought about the end of the old kingdoms. Granted, in the plays they had been depicted as spectral ponies, but there was no doubt in Derpy's mind that what she 'saw' below here were the dreaded Windigoes! Upon realizing this, she took the first course of action that entered her mind.

"Look out, princess! You're surrounded by Windigoes!" Her voice reached the white griffon over the sound of the wind that the monsters were generating. The Windigoes suddenly stopped as the griffon turned to look at Derpy.

Her expression was so impassive that her face almost looked like a mask or a helmet as she turned blank, solid white eyes toward the grey pegasus. "What in Tartaros?"

"Windigoes," Derpy repeated earnestly. She hopped down to the ledge the griffon was on. "I'll help you get rid of them, your majesty!" There was only one way that she knew of to deal with Windigoes, so it was with steadfast determination that she rushed toward the griffon with the intent to hug her and drive the monsters away with the power of friendship and understanding.

Meanwhile, Twilight was struggling to make peace between her friends and their immediate family. Every time she got one pair of ponies to settle down enough to approach a resolution, another would cut in start a new argument. It certainly didn't help when Iron Will hobbled over on his crutches and started bellowing at Rarity to stop bullying his wife, causing Spike to start crying again just as Rainbow Dash had calmed him down and gotten his tail bandaged up.

Finally, she reached her limit and cried out, "Everypony, SHUT UP!" Startled by the Ranger's outburst just long enough to silence them for a moment, Twilight seized on the opening. "Look, we have a lot to do today, and too many team leaders shouting at each other. We don't have time to settle every little thing, so let's just put a lid on it and focus on everypony getting to their assigned jobs! At the end of the day, if you still feel like throttling each other, we'll deal with it then, but for now I need you on-task!"

Several ponies looked like they were going to interject or protest, but Twilight cut them off by lighting her horn up with her purple magical aura. "I mean it! Either let it go, or save it for later. If you can't, then I'll teleport each and every one of you to your job sites right now. Got it?"

Everypony (along with Iron Will and Spike) looked a bit mollified by this threat, or at least kept their thoughts to themselves so as not to get magicked away. In the ensuing quiet, Twilight heard Derpy's voice off in the distance, carrying to Ponyville on the wind as she wailed, "I just don't know what went wroooooong!"

Twilight brought a hoof to her face and groaned in agitation. "Oh for crying out loud... and after I gave her a compass and everything..."

Lashes & Bites

Snowblind
by crowmagnon

Chapter 4 - Lashes & Bites

"What in Tartaros?"

I am jarred from my study of the town below by the sudden shrieking of a deformed pony above me. Immediately, I draw my senses back in order to focus on the immediate threat.

How? How did one of those wretched creatures find me, let alone approach without my knowledge? Of course... the wind. The very technique I used to observe the ponies in their town, casting my mind out on the wind generated by my new pets, dulled my senses to my immediate surroundings. But that very same ability should have allowed me to detect the pony's approach long before it reached me. I should have felt the heat radiating from its body. Felt the flapping of its puny wings struggling against the gale.

An assassin. That is the only explanation for the presence of this mutant. Only a highly-trained agent of the Sun and Moon could have approached me and remained completely undetected. Indeed, it is leaping down and charging while declaring to her Princesses that she will eliminate the Windigoes. My pets recoil away from the heat that the assassin is giving off, and even I feel discomfort as it draws closer.

"Go," I command, directing the Windigoes to the town below. "Seek the six and see to it that they are separated!"

The Windigoes wail and flee from the mountain, eager to do as I say so long as it means getting away from the assassin. Deadly as they can be, they are such pathetic, fragile creatures.

I am not so delicate. The mutant launches itself at me, hooves reaching out for the attack. I spread my wings in response, then flap them at the would-be assassin. A look of shock and panic fills the mutant's face as it finds itself facing the concentrated force of an entire blizzard.

As most of the ponies in the square filtered out, a few frustrated glares were shot between the scattering group of friends. This left the witches of the Everfree alone with Twilight, but as the Ranger was quietly muttering to herself, the pegasus and zebra took a moment to whisper between themselves.

"I did not think I would ever see that side of your friend, Rarity," Zecora said, casting a glance toward the white unicorn before she went out of sight. "Do you think she may have been magically touched to make her rant and rave so much?"

Rainbow shook her head, though. "Nah. I don't blame you, considering what she's usually like. She just turns into a total drama queen when it comes to her little Spike."

Zecora nodded in understanding. "And the strife between your wealthy friend and her little sister... was it Apple Bloom?"

"Yeah, it's tough between them. I think last Waking Night was the only time in years they've been together in the same room."

Zecora looked her apprentice in the eye with absolute seriousness. "It may be that my dreams were merely nightmares. Phantom visions that make me needlessly scared. But until the possibility of Winter's eternal grip has ended, I think it would serve us well to see your friends' hearts mended."

To that, Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Geeze, Teach, it's not like we need the world to get covered in snow and ice for me to want to see my friends make nice. I'll go beat some friendship into their heads, then curl back up in my nice warm bed."

"-And now it'll fester and when the blow-up happens it'll be ten times worse but the job'll get done and Winter Wrap-Up will be on time and everypony will be happy and maybe they'll forget all about why they were so mad in the first place or at least feel good enough to work it out unless somepony gets so frustrated because they didn't resolve the issue that they just explode and give up on their assignments so they can go on a rampage and take it out on the pony they're mad at thus ruining their assignment as well and it'll spread to the others and snowball into shouting and chaos and fighting and before we know it Ponyville will be burning and IT'LL BE ALL MY FAULT!!!"

Rainbow and Zecora were broken from their own conversation as Twilight's muttering moved into the 'apocalyptic failure' phase. Seeing that the purple unicorn was starting to hyperventilate before the inevitable 'disproportionate punishment' freak-out, Rainbow sighed and stepped away from her mentor while she still had a small window. "'Scuse me, Teach. Since Will and Fluttershy stormed off, looks like I've gotta handle this one." Twilight didn't notice the brightly colored pegasus approaching until they were practically nose-to-nose, and Rainbow shouted, "Atten-SHUN!"

In an instant, Twilight's back was ramrod straight, her head held high as she looked around for her subordinates with a steely gaze. It was an astonishing transformation, switching from the prone-to-panic Twilight Sparkle to Lt. Sparkle, ranking officer of the Everfree detachment of Luna's Rangers. A leader who would show confidence and steadfastness as an example to the ponies under her command.

Finding that none of them were present, however, Twilight focused on Rainbow Dash and relaxed. "Was that really necessary?"

"Considering you looked like you were about to start puking all over town square? I'm gonna say 'yes,'" Rainbow replied, unable to keep from smirking when this made Twilight's face flush with embarassment. Rainbow then reached out to put a hoof on Twilight's shoulder and asked more softly, "Hey. You've been seeing somepony about that, right?"

"Y-yeah. Of course," the unicorn replied, laughing it off. "You know me. Sure, I stress over the small stuff, but I always pull myself together when it counts, right? And Fluttershy's been such a great friend, helping me work through my issues. Right... Fluttershy?" She looked to her left, then her right. "Hey, where'd Fluttershy go?"

"She and Will left after Rarity threatened to burn her mane off... remember?" Rainbow sighed. "And as long as we're on that topic, Zecora and I kinda had another reason for swinging by. Well, Zecora does. I was just trying to enjoy a late-morning snooze like a normal pony--" An annoyed cough from the zebra behind her cut Rainbow off and set her back on track. "Right. So, like I was saying--"

This time, it was Twilight who cut her off as something up above caught her eye. "What in Tartaros?" She broke away from Rainbow, her gaze slowly drifting downward as her eyes followed a large snowflake on its way down until it landed on her nose. One flake among many, she noticed, as the sounds of confused ponies could be heard rising up all over town. "This is ridiculous! Cloud Kicker told me there was no sign of a rogue snowstorm coming this way! Don't tell me the weather team is goofing around up there!"

Rainbow stepped back. "Uh-oh," she muttered, seeing confusion transition directly into anger on Twilight's face. On the one hoof, it was anger directed at an outside source rather than turned inward, but that just meant it was all the more important to stay out of the blast radius. "Twi, before you jump to any conclusions, this might not be--" The unicorn had already turned tail and was running down the road toward the Ranger station between the town and the Everfree forest. With a groan, Dash took off running after her. "This might not be the weather team's fault," she shouted after the unicorn, but another chill gale howled through the town, drowning out her voice.

Seeing that Twilight wasn't stopping, Rainbow grit her teeth and put more effort into catching up. Twilight Sparkle was fit for a unicorn, as was to be expected of a Ranger tasked with hunting and battling ferocious monsters, but Rainbow was still considerably faster at her top running speed.

She never got the chance to reach that speed, however, as she focused so hard on closing the gap between her and her friend that she failed to notice the ice building up on the streets until it was too late. The way that the ice seemed to trail Twilight, it allowed the unicorn to run unfettered while Rainbow suddenly found her hooves slipping out from under her and fighting for traction. One sharp turn at an intersection later, and the rainbow pegasus found herself slipping and flipping onto her back.

Rainbow yelped and cried out for help, only to have her pleas muted by the wailing winds as her inertia caused her to sled down a narrow alleyway. She grunted in pain repeatedly as she found herself bouncing off the walls of the two buildings like a pinball before coming out the other side. From there, she found herself sliding down a sloping hill.

Her velocity increasing the farther she slid, Rainbow nervously looked ahead. Seeing that it made a sudden turn with a drop-off just beyond it, and not so much as a guard rail at that, she struggled to flip over onto her stomach and work her wings through the flaps in her winter jacket. The left one popped free immediately, but to Rainbow's horror, she found that the right one had slipped out of alignment with the flap when she was getting bounced around!

With the ledge drawing closer and closer with every fraction of a second, the half-bound pegasus squirmed and struggled to free her other wing! A few times she thought that she could feel her feathers pushing their way against the flap, only to get jostled back out of position. Time itself slowed down in the face of gravity's cruel and imminent embrace.

Despite the way the sensation of zooming toward her doom seemed to draw itself out, however, Rainbow didn't actually find herself with any more time. Thus, before she could get her right wing out into the open, the pegasus found herself ramping up over the edge of the drop, arcing up just a bit before curving off into a free-fall.

With nothing else to try, Rainbow clenched her eyes shut to shield herself from the sight of the entire planet rushing up to smash against her, madly flapping her one free wing as hard as she possibly could! For the most part this simply sent her spiraling down in a corkscrew instead of a straight line, but as she plummeted toward the frozen earth, she suddenly felt the biting cold of the wind on her right wing.

Rainbow's rose-colored eyes popped open at that sensation, and she saw that by some miracle, her bent and crooked wing had slipped free in mid-fall. Quickly and instinctively spreading them both, her rapid descent curved off into a dizzy, wobbling glide. Her downward velocity proved too great to recover from, however, and she found herself plowing through the snow and leaving a deep trench behind her before she finally came to a stop.

She lay on the ground, half-buried in the snow for a while. It actually helped shield her from the freezing wind, so she wasn't in an enormous hurry to get back up, but eventually the pegasus pushed herself onto her hooves and shook the snow from her body. A few exploratory flexes of her legs and wings told her that, thank Celestia, nothing was broken or knocked out of place.

Rainbow then looked up at the sky and narrowed her eyes at the blizzard that was coming down. "Alright. Windigoes are sounding a bit more likely now. And they have a sick sense of humor! Ow..." With that, she started limping back into Ponyville.

All across town, everypony was enduring the same freak snowstorm. At one of the larger ponds near Ponyville, shortly before Rainbow Dash took her spill, Pinkamena had finished putting on the extra-sharpened ice skates that she would use to break up the ice into smaller, more easily melted segments. Once they were laced up, she looked back over her shoulder and nodded to her musical acquaintances. Vinyl Scratch, Ponyville's resident DJ, grinned widely and gave the poet an enthusiastic hoof-pump while the prim and refined Octavia gave a simple nod, her expression as stoic as Pinkamena's own.

As Pinkamena turned her attention to the frozen pond and pushed herself out across the ice, Octavia's brought her bow up and began to play a hauntingly beautiful melody. At the same time, Vinyl used her magic to start up her sound system and play a pre-recorded track of an opera singer's vocals that rang out through the unicorn's speakers in synch with Octavia's playing.

The few other ponies present simply watched as the poet glided across the ice in time to the music. Her movements were geometrically precise as the blades of her skates carved through the surface of the frozen pond, but the musical accompaniment gave her a graceful rhythm to move to. The other volunteers for the ice-breaking team watched the blending of functional efficiency and artistic expression, feeling inspired by the example set by their team leader.

And then Vinyl got bored.

About three minutes after the song had started, sound exploded from her speakers as Vinyl sped up the vocals considerably, switching up the timing and playing her console like an instrument. Octavia shot an annoyed glare at the DJ, but she quickly rose to the challenge, her bow dancing across the strings to match the tempo Vinyl had set. Likewise, Pinkamena's body went from smooth and graceful motions to a quick, passionate and jerky dance across the ice that made her spectators lean back in surprise.

At the same time, the bass from Vinyl's speakers shook the ground and cracked the ice where it had already been weakened by Pinkamena's skates. As the segments started to break apart into blocks, however, Pinkamena did not trip and fall into the freezing cold water as one might expect. Instead, the pink poet started skipping from block to block as she made her way back toward the shore. All the while, she somehow kept to the beat that had many of the gathered ponies bobbing their heads along with it. With a final crescendo followed by three beats of tooth-rattling bass, Pinkamena gave a hop, skip and a jump back onto solid ground. She bowed her head while ponies stomped in applause.

"Wow, that was great!"

"Where'd you learn to skate like that?"

"Uhh, we aren't going to have to do it exactly like that, right?"

"Hey, why's it snowing?"

Pinkamena blinked in surprise at that last one as everypony tilted their heads up. She brushed her mane away from her eyes, gazing up to see a veritable blizzard coming down.

"Vinyl Scratch! Look at vhat you haff done," the cellist exclaimed in her smoky Stalliongrad accent. She quickly and efficiently put her cello back in its case to protect it from the weather. "Your vulgar catervaulink has shaken ze snow loose from ze clouds!"

In contrast, Vinyl let out a shriek and started panicking as she reached out with her magic to yank the vests off of every pony in the vicinity and hurriedly cover up her console. "Me?! No way! Yeah, I turned it up to eleven, but I know for a fact I have to kick it up to at least fourteen before it starts rattling the sky!"

The two musicians began to bicker more heatedly despite the temperature going in the opposite direction. Ponies muttered in distress and confusion as a freezing wind blew around them, the surface of the pond freezing over again in a matter of minutes. Soon, the ice-breaking team were surrounding Vinyl's console and taking their vests back so that they might have any little bit of protection from the unexpected cold. At the same time, Vinyl struggled and fought against them in the hopes of protecting her machinery from the weather's onslaught.

Pinkamena shivered, but not just from the cold. Everypony was too busy arguing amongst themselves to notice the poet's blue eyes widening, seeming to fix on something far, far away.

"A frozen heart so cold it burns
Giving all and yet she yearns
For the very heart she spurns
Dying when the season turns"

Her eyes then snapped back to normal and she shook her head, feeling slightly dizzy. She tried to hold onto the words that had pushed themselves through her, but with no pony there to hear them, they fled her mind and floated away on the howling wind. "Ergh... I have to find the others," she muttered to herself as she took off running back toward town.

Before she got too far, though, she stopped herself and jogged back toward the group surrounding Vinyl and Octavia. "Hey! Get yourselves somewhere warm, for Celestia's sake." She then ran off again in earnest, shaking her head as the other ponies watched her go. "Seriously, not enough sense to come in out of the cold," she groused as she forged into the blizzard to find her friends.

Twilight raced through the town as fast as her legs would take her, heedless of the weather around her. Her body shimmered with the glow of a magic field that mitigated the effects of the cold and elements. She was so focused on getting to the outskirts of town that she didn't even notice that the worst of the storm was behind her as though stalking her and keeping any pony from following her trail.

Up ahead, just a quarter mile outside the edge of Ponyville, the building where Luna's Rangers were stationed came into view. Aside from its location setting it apart, the Ranger's station stood out by being one of the few buildings in the town and outlying farms to be built from stone and brick. Though not nearly large enough to be considered a proper fortification, it was a sturdily built structure dating back to the founding of Ponyville itself, when monsters slipping out of the Everfree had been a far greater danger to the fledgeling settlement. Twilight looked up to the top of the watchtower that rose up from its center, and upon catching a glimpse of purple up there, she focused her magic on teleporting to it.

At the same time, Scootaloo shivered and kept herself wrapped up as warmly as she could. When her mother, Nocturne Striker, had been assigned to keep watch over the Everfree Forest during the Winter Wrap-Up, she had insisted on helping out and keeping her company. When the temperature had dropped even farther, however, Scootaloo found that even with a natural resistance to the cold that was common among pegasi, the Mare-Do-Well cape and wide-brimmed hat simply weren't enough to keep her comfortable.

Even so, she had insisted on keeping watch atop the tower while her mom was downstairs brewing up a hot drink for the two of them. After all, if she ever wanted to follow in her mother's hoofsteps, Scootaloo would have to be tough enough to handle a little weather. That's what it meant to be a Ranger. Strength, determination, eternal vigilance, and the ability to keep a cool, calm head in any situation.

Then Twilight Sparkle suddenly materialized in front of her in a flash of light, shouting, "Sergeant Striker, I need a sitrep on this blizzard NOW!" With all the strength, determination and cool-headedness she could muster, Scootaloo screamed and shot straight up into the air.

Twilight blinked as her eyes quickly re-adjusted from the flash of teleportation. When she didn't see Nocturne in front of her to give a report on the rogue weather as expected, she looked up and let out a strangled gurgle of her own at the sight of Scootaloo struggling to hover so high above the ground. The little orange filly's wings were flapping frantically like a hummingbird's, but doing little more than giving her a few more seconds to look down and see just how far she had to fall if she didn't make it back to the watchtower.

"Hang on, Scootaloo," Twilight cried out as she quickly reached out with her magic to wrap a telekinetic aura around the filly and pull her back down to safety. "Don't worry, I've got--"

Before she could surround Scootaloo in the purple aura of her magic, or even finish reassuring her, a gale-force wind suddenly blew at them. Blasting them both with flurries of ice and snow, the freezing wind also sent Scootaloo spinning head over hooves as it blew her away from the tower, out of Twilight's telekinetic range.

Scootaloo screamed with terror as she felt herself get snatched away from Twilight. Unable to tell up from down as the wind spun her around, she clenched her eyes shut until she used the meager strength of her wings to right herself. Even without the wind and weather feeling like it was cutting through her, however, her wingpower simply wasn't enough to keep her in the air.

"Scootalooooooo!" Seeing the young pegasus starting to tumble away toward the ground, Twilight instinctively leapt from the top of the tower. The filly fearfully cracked open one eye to look over and see Twilight jumping toward her, her forelegs outstretched in front of her despite being much too far away to reach. Then, with a flash of magic, the unicorn popped out of sight, teleporting right under Scootaloo as she fell so that she could catch the pegasus.

Once she felt Twilight's legs wrap tightly around her, Scootaloo gasped. A flicker of hope twinkled in her eye as she pleaded, "Teleport us back! Teleport us back!"

"I can't," Twilight replied, concentrating on her magic. Teleportation didn't affect inertia. If she tried to move them back to the top of the tower, they would still be falling fast, and simply smash against the building instead of the ground below. Not to mention how dangerous it was to attempt teleporting with a passenger, especially in a high-adrenaline situation.

Of course, she didn't have time to explain all this to Scootaloo, who wasn't the most scientifically proficient filly in town to begin with. So, after simply hearing Twilight say that she couldn't, her eyes widened in horror. It might not have been very Ranger-like, but she took the only course of action available to her.

"MOMMMYYYY! HELLLLLP!"

With the filly screaming her lungs out right into Twilight's ear, the unicorn winced as she rushed to put the spell she was working on into place. Quickly calculating the angle of their descent, she focused her magic on a point above the ground below. A purple beam shot down from her glowing horn, forming a hastily-constructed force field in the shape of a flat disc.

Cold sweat poured down her face, freezing into glassy beads as she held Scootaloo tight and struggled to modulate the strength of the field in a matter of seconds that she could count on her hooves... and without having to use her hind legs. If done properly, it would absorb the impact of their descent and then disperse, granting the two ponies a safe landing. Too weak, however, and it would pop like a soap bubble the moment they touched it. Too strong, on the other hoof, and she could only hope to use her own body to protect the filly from the worst of the impact.

There was no time for either second-guessing or testing, however. She sucked in a deep breath just before they hit the shield...

The two ponies hit the shield with enough velocity to knock that breath out of Twilight's lungs, but the good news was that Twilight could feel it bending at the point of impact, absorbing the energy of their fall as they sunk into it without breaking anything.

The bad news was that the field didn't break either.

As the tension built up in the magical membrane, there was a split second when Twilight realized that while it had caught them as intended, it was not going to break and allow them to fall through to the ground below. As a result, the best course of action would be to dispel it immediately. In the race between Twilight's reflexes and physics, however, physics won as the action of falling into the magic field was met with an equal and opposite reaction, and the ponies found themselves getting flung back up into the air by the magic trampoline that Twilight had inadvertently created.

Unicorn mare and pegasus filly both screamed again as they found themselves arcing back up into the sky. Sent spinning end over end once again, Twilight's horn lit up to attempt the spell once more, but this time she was too disoriented to aim properly. Even if she could properly modulate it, the chances of positioning it where they were going to land before they hit the ground was now virtually nonexistent. There was a moment of hang time at the apex of their ascent before the inevitably disastrous fall...

A fall that never came as Twilight simply hung in the air. At first she didn't believe that that's what was happening because the world still seemed to be spinning around her, but she soon found that it was her eyes that were spinning from dizziness, not her body. Once her sense of equilibrium returned, she realized that she and Scootaloo were not plummeting toward a bone-crunching encounter with the ground, but instead were being gently lowered.

"Mom!" Scootaloo shouted with joy (and again, right into Twilight's ear) as she looked up past the unicorn to see a lightly armored bat-winged mare with a coat the same shade of purple as her own mane. She struggled to pull herself up out of Twilight's grip to hug the black-maned thestral, only to shake all three of them with her squirming.

"Whoa, whoa, wait until I set you two down, kiddo," Nocturne chided with a fangy grin, flapping her bat-like wings hard to keep both Twilight and Scootaloo aloft as she took them back to the base of the watchtower. Once there, she carefully landed and let go of Twilight. She then pried her daughter out of the unicorn's hooves to wrap her own legs and wings around Scootaloo.

It was a bit of a struggle as the Lieutenant's body had apparently started locking up once the immediate danger was over, allowing the realization of what had just happened to actually register in Twilight's mind. All the countless tiny ways that it could have gone horribly wrong playing through her brain. And it was her fault for startling Scootaloo so badly to begin with. If she hadn't teleported up there shouting her head off, she would have never been in danger in the first place, and Nocturne was probably going to take it out on her just like Rarity did when Spike got hurt, and then she would prove that despite being quite nice most of the time, thestral fangs weren't just for show, and...

Seeing that Twilight was starting to fall into her own thoughts, Nocturne held a wing in front of Twilight's face and rubbed the little claws there together in such a way as to create a series of sharp snapping sounds to bring the unicorn back to the present. Once she saw consciousness start to return to Twilight's face, Nocturne immediately embraced Twilight.

"Wha... Sergeant?"

"Thank you," the thestral whispered, her tufted ears laying flat. "I heard shouting, but by the time I got back outside and saw what was happening, I just... I wouldn't have made it in time. If you hadn't saved her... Thank you."

Scootaloo, just shy of hyperventilating after the ordeal she had gone through, took a few deep breaths and pulled her hat off to salute Twilight. "Y-yeah. You were almost as cool as Mare-Do-Well, Twilight! I mean... Lieutenant, ma'am!"

Twilight blinked in surprise. Feeling her face heat up at being praised and thanked instead of berated, she pushed Nocturne away and held her at foreleg's length. "I... I just did what I could," she muttered before another cold gust blew at them, reminding her of her original purpose. Standing up taller, she said, "And right now I need to get in touch with the weather team. I need you to fly up there and ask Cloud Kicker how she could have let a rogue blizzard this size slip out of the Everfree."

Nocturne shook her head. "Not from the Everfree, Lieutenant." She reached over to tousle her daughter's mane, causing the filly to grunt and try to squirm away. "Scoot and I were watching the forest the whole time. I may not have weather mojo, but even I could tell that this storm didn't come out of there.

Putting her hat back on her head, Scootaloo pointed off into the distance. "I think it came from thattaway," she said while Twilight followed the direction of her hoof. Anything in that direction was completely invisible thanks to the snow pouring out of the sky, but Twilight had memorized the map of Ponyville and its surrounding areas since she was assigned there, and realized Scootaloo was pointing in the general direction of a tall mountain clear on the other side of town and miles away.

Nocturne mused, "Is that the direction Derpy went? I could've sworn I heard her shouting 'I just don't know what went wrong' shortly before the storm hit." Giving Twilight a concerned look, she tilted her head and asked, "Hey, you don't think...? I mean, Derpy's clumsy, but she isn't clumsy enough to cause this, right?"

Twilight was too busy boggling at the fact that Nocturne had heard that to answer at first. Looking at her subordinate's ears, she was once again stunned by the apparent truth behind the rumors of thestrals and their almost supernaturally keen hearing. "I... don't think so," she replied. "I gave her a compass to help her keep her bearings, so she should be halfway to the southern nesting grounds by now."

"Lucky Derpy," Scootaloo interjected, shivering from the cold. "I bet any pegasus in Ponyville wishes they were in her horseshoes right now."

Derpy wished she were in anypony else's horseshoes. As long as those shoes were somewhere far, far away from where she had found herself.

Wanting only to help, she had rushed to the aid of the Windigo-haunted griffoness. Even though she didn't know the griffon, she was more than willing to extend love and friendship to the stranger. The Windigoes, sensing what was coming, recoiled away. The snow-white griffon, however, rather than react with gratitude, had spoken to the Windigoes. Not out of fear or defiance. It was more like she was commanding them.

And then the griffon spread her wings, and even though the icy spirits fled from the mountain and made for the clouds above Ponyville, Derpy had felt the air pressure drop precipitously. She couldn't even spell 'precipitous', but she knew what it felt like, and so she reflexively flapped her wings just as the griffon did the same.

Gale force winds howled around the mountain. Ice and snow lashed out from the griffon's wings with such velocity that any pony caught in its path would be ripped to shreds, and the cold was so fierce and consuming that whatever would be left over would have any spark of life or warmth left in it completely extinguished in less than a second.

It was this cone of death that Derpy found herself flying away from as fast as her own wings would take her, though one eye drifted down to let her see the state of her attacker. The griffon seemed astonished that she had avoided the concentrated blizzard, but surprise quickly transformed into a furious sneer as the griffon reared up onto her hind legs. She spread her wings out wide once again, and what Derpy had assumed to be downy feathers flew off of her body.

It was not feathers that had covered the griffon, giving her an elegant and beautiful appearance, but snow. With that soft layer shed away, Derpy felt fear twist in her stomach as she saw what was underneath. There was nothing soft or gentle about the griffon's appearance anymore.

Though there may have been some who would still consider her beautiful and elegant, it was the elegance of razor sharp edges and stark simplicity. A layer of ice surrounded the griffon's body, shaped and molded into armor that would have glittered like crystal if not for the thick clouds blocking out the sun's rays. Likewise, her wing feathers were not like those of any bird or pegasus Derpy had ever seen. Rather, each 'feather' was a blade of ice so visibly sharp that it hurt just to look at them.

The only parts of the griffon's body that did not exude swift and vicious lethality were her headfeathers and the tuft at the end of her tail. A brilliant white mane seemed to explode from the griffon's head with a matching effect at the tip of her tail, wafting and sparkling even in the dim winter light. The effect made Derpy gasp with how much it reminded her of the Princesses when she had been fortunate enough to see them. Celestia's mane had always flowed like that, as if in a perpetual breeze. Its colors were warm and comforting, like a sunrise on a clear spring morning, offering the promise of a bright, blessed day. By contrast, Luna's starlit mane seemed to hold all the mysteries of the dark, sacred night.

The 'mane' and tail of the griffon, however, while flowing in a similar manner, reflected none of the kindness of either Princess. They seemed to freeze the very air around the griffon, causing snow to fall around her. At the same time, her 'hair' whipped and lashed about as if caught in a fierce wind rather than a gentle breeze.

In every way and every aspect, the griffon's appearance reflected exactly what she was. A cold, remorseless predator.

And her blank white eyes were fixated on one little grey pony.

Tears of unmitigated terror streamed down Derpy's face, freezing into little pellets of ice before they hit the ground as she wailed, "I just don't know what went wroooooong!" Her cries echoed off the mountain and rang in her ears as the griffon spread her bladed wings and took flight after her. With powerful flaps of her immense wings, the griffon pursued Derpy. "Wretched coward," she snarled, her voice ringing like crystal as she sent more frozen gales at the pegasus. Each time, it was only her uncanny talent for feeling the wind and air pressure that saved Derpy from plummeting to the earth below as a flash-frozen husk. She would sense it coming just in time to change her course and avoid the deadly blasts.

In flight, the huge griffon had the clear advantage in wingpower and pure speed. Derpy, however, was lighter and more nimble. More than once, she just barely twisted out of the way when the creature chasing her dove in for the kill, talons like icicles slashing through the air where the pegasus had been just a split second before. This kept her alive, but she couldn't make a dash for Ponyville because the griffon's speed would allow her to catch Derpy in open air. By staying close to the mountain, she was able to give herself a small amount of cover.

But she was also getting tired.

Derpy was not a weak flier. An uncoordinated one, perhaps, but she had been more than ready to go the length of the bird's migration route and back, after all. And given her usual navigational difficulties, she was prepared to go at least three times that distance without rest if need be. Guiding the southern birds back north was not a race, however, and it allowed her to pace herself. Being pursued by a monstrous griffon, adrenaline pumping through her system while flying as hard as she could through air so cold that it burned her lungs with every gasp, her stamina was rapidly draining.

Her pursuer had no such issue. If anything, she drew strength from the very conditions that were weakening Derpy. Knowing that it was only a matter of time before her luck ran out, Derpy whimpered as she barely ducked under another vicious slash of the griffon's talons. This time it was close enough for her to feel the very tips of her pursuer's talons brush against her back, so cold that she could feel her wings start to numb just from that bit of contact.

It did, however, give her a moment when she was out of the griffon's sight. Before it could arc back around, Derpy quickly dropped out of sight, finding a small alcove in which to hide herself.

Derpy shivered and covered her mouth with her hooves to try to mask the sound of her labored breathing. She pressed herself as tightly as she could against the stone, praying to Celestia and Luna that the monster chasing her might leave.

Though it seemed like it was drowned out by the pounding of her heartbeat, the pegasus thought that she could hear the powerful wingbeats of the icy griffon fading off into the distance.

Derpy took a deep breath and allowed herself to let out a small, frightened whimper. That whimper immediately turned into a strangled scream when three talons stabbed through the stone above her, tearing and ripping away her cover as easily as if it were paper. In less than a second, the pegasus was exposed again, this time with the griffon looming directly above her.

"Did you think that you could run from me, assassin?" The griffon glared imperiously down at the wall-eyed mare, who instinctively tried to crouch down as small as she could.

"Assass-s-si-sin? N-n-no, I'm n-not..."

The griffon brought down a claw over Derpy, pinning her to the stone. "Do not attempt to lie to me, mutant," she growled. "I know that your precious Thief Princesses sent you. However skilled you may be, though, they should have sent more."

Derpy whined in pain as the frigid claw seemed to drain her of what little strength she had left. "P-pleas-se, I-i-i d-don't ev-v-ven kn-know who-o-o y-you are," she whimpered, her voice weak and her teeth chattering so hard that she feared they might crack against each other. Why was this happening to her?

Leaning down to look at Derpy with her blank eyes, the griffon sneered. "They didn't even tell you? Why am I surprised? So twisted by greed and megalomania... No doubt they wanted all of their ignorant, servile little slaves to believe that they and they alone had wielded the Elements of Harmony. Band together with traitors and thieves who would be willing to strike the name of Gertrude of the Snowheart clan from their history books so that their descendants would never know that there was any creature willing to stand against them when they fell into decadence and corruption."

Gripping Derpy's slackening body, Gertrude held the pegasus aloft. Awareness was fading, but Derpy heard the griffon say, "That arrogance will be their undoing. Soon the world will know of my return, when I liberate the Elements of Harmony from those foul tyrants. And you, my little assassin... you will help me reclaim them from their current Bearers."

Derpy couldn't even find the strength to keep her eyes open, let alone reply. With those words ringing in her head, her eyes rolled back and her consciousness slipped into a frozen void.

Author's Note

Alright! My first time using the Author's Notes, so I suppose it's appropriate that I've got a lot to say about this one. I cribbed quite a bit from other works in Twilight's section, so I want to give proper shout-outs.

It took a lot longer than expected to get this one done, partly because I intended to do more and showcase the rest of the Mane 6, but it just didn't feel like it worked while trying to cram all six in there, so I cut it in half and will be showcasing how the other three are reacting to the blizzard in the next chapter.

Now, it's been mentioned before that Twilight is a Lieutenant in Luna's Rangers, but this is the first time this has been shown at all, so I'd like to go into a bit of history. About thirty years after the body-jacking spirit Eclipse attacked Luna and Celestia, sending Luna into a millenia-long coma, the Princess of the Night's absence caused dangerous creatures of the night to grow more bold in attacking pony settlements. To protect the fearful ponies, a brave mare named Nyx (not the Nyx from "Past Sins", but the one she was named after in-story) formed a volunteer militia to protect civilians from monster attacks and drive off or hunt down dangerous creatures. Since they operated primarily at night, they took to claiming that they served the sleeping Night Princess, and so the name of "Luna's Rangers" stuck.

Despite the association with Princess Luna, they aren't actually a branch of Equestria's military, though Celestia asserts a considerable measure of influence so long as she maintains her approval of the organization's existence. The first generation of Rangers were either veterans of the war with Eclipse's forces or had some access to military training, however, so the organization naturally developed a hierarchy using a system of rank loosely based on that of the Equestrian army. As a whole, the Rangers are considerably less formal than the army, frequently making it a dumping ground for misfits and dropouts from the actual military. This gives it a rather mixed reputation depending on whether a particular Ranger post takes their duties seriously or chooses to act more like thugs or mercenaries. Overall, though, the Rangers are a force for good and the responsible ones deal with the bad apples by driving them out when somepony seems to be abusing their position.

Twilight Sparkle is considered something of a typical "good" Ranger. Incredibly talented with magic and dedicated to the welfare of her fellow ponies, but her history of panic attacks and low self-confidence outside of life-threatening situations would have made it virtually impossible for her to get anywhere in the army or the Royal Guard.

The other Ranger introduced in this chapter, Nocturne Striker, is an amalgamation of ideas. Her name and role as Scootaloo's mother were taken from RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse (a fantastic AU series, especially for fans of the Great & Powerful Trixie) where she was dead and Scootaloo was living with her father. Here, Nocturne is not only the living parent, but also a thestral.

The general idea behind thestrals or 'bat-ponies', specifically of the sort seen pulling Luna's chariot in the episode "Luna Eclipsed", was borrowed from the fic "Nightmare Night & Nyx" by RealityCheck. As it is in that story, thestrals in this 'verse are an extremely rare pony sub-species. So rare, in fact, that they aren't considered their own separate tribe since they are born seemingly at random, and even if two thestral parents get together, their offspring is far more likely to be one of the other three tribes. They can fly like pegasi, but can't manipulate weather or even walk on clouds without the help of unicorn magic. They make up for this with extremely keen senses of smell and hearing, as well as an echolocation sense that allows them to walk and fly about in total darkness as easily as if it were broad daylight. Despite their fangs, they are herbivores like other ponies, typically favoring sweet fruits.

Socially, thestrals aren't shunned to the degree that they are in universes where Luna became Nightmare Moon, stigmatizing the night and those who dwell in it. Even so, their scarcity and what many ponies consider to be a 'creepy' appearance tend to make them loners and misfits. As such, combined with their heightened night senses, many gravitate toward the Rangers.

Last but definitely not least, I want to thank Deptford of Surrealist Obituaries for the illustration. Go check his work out. He's a cool guy with a smart and weird sense of humor. http://surrealistobituaries.com/

That about wraps it up, so happy Hearthswarming, merry ChristmaHannuKwanzaaKah, and congratulations for surviving the Mayan apocalypse!

~ Interlude: Snowfall ~

Snowblind
by crowmagnon

~ Interlude - Snowfall ~

Once the mutant is unconscious, I withdraw Winter's chill from my talons so as not to freeze it to death. The thought occurs to me that I would not have to leave it alive to use it as an example. I could simply freeze it solid and drop it in the middle of the ponies' town to show them what I am capable of. A lesser griffon might do just that, but I know these ponies all too well. I know the lengths that they will go to for their herd, and such an example would have far less value than a living hostage.

For a moment, I almost feel pity for the creature. Who knows what sort of lies and treachery the Sun and Moon put into her head? Is it loyal to its true rulers, or merely to the masks they wear? After ages of unopposed rule, one can only expect them to do to their own people what they did to mine.

I close my eyes and see the day they came for me playing out as if I were there once more. The scene is captured perfectly, frozen in my mind's eye with absolute clarity.

-----

My palace of ice was beautiful, then. Every gleaming facet of its construction was carefully shaped and crafted out of ice so pure and infused with the magic of Winter that the interior could be kept at a temperature fit for living beings without melting. That day, however, was cold. So very cold that even I would have felt the chill if not for the far deeper cold that had seized hold of my heart.

I sat upon my throne, thinking upon what I had learned some weeks before. It had been time to relinquish Winter's hold upon the land, but how could I, knowing what I did? Even as all the lands of the world grew colder and refused to make way for Spring, I knew that there was no alternative. After what I had seen, there could be no surrender. No quarter asked for, nor any given.

One of my Winter Knights had approached, and I could see him trembling. Not from the cold, no. My knights wore armor crafted from ice that was infused with the same magic as the palace. No, he came to me full of fear, and there could only be one reason for that. "Your majesty, two envoys have arrived from Equestria seeking an audience," he said, bowing his head in a pathetic attempt to mask his emotions, as if I could not see his heart pounding frantically in his chest.

"Then what are you waiting for? Have we not always embraced our Equestrian friends? Have we not always been paragons of hospitality toward them? Let them in," I replied, not even bothering to hide the venom in my voice. The knight flinched and did as he was told, making his way back to the doorway to allow the 'envoys' in.

The two ponies entered, one average-sized for a pony, the other quite noticably larger, wearing hooded cloaks heavy enough to protect them from the blizzards outside the palace. Though the hoods they wore hid their faces, each of them had a small hole for the unicorn horns that poked through. The taller one's horn was white with a touch of pink, the other blue. It was only my naturally reserved demeanour that kept a sneer off of my face as they bowed in a mocking display of false modesty and respect.

"Thank you for seeing us, Gertrude," the white-horned mare said as she her horn glowed so that she could pull back her hood. A long, flowing pink mane fell free around her face as she revealed herself. "My sister and I feared that we would not be welcomed into your court." While she spoke, the other unicorn pulled her own hood back to reveal the shy face of the younger Princess of Equestria, her face partially hidden behind a light blue mane.

I regarded them both in cold silence for a mere second before giving my reply. "What a surprise. When my knights said that envoys had arrived, he did not mention that it was you." My voice was flat and utterly devoid of emotion. In that moment, seeing the Princesses of Sun and Moon before me, I felt no rage. I felt nothing. A nothing so deep and empty that every ounce of fondness or mercy I had ever felt was simply swallowed up in it.

I stepped off of my throne to approach them. "And why should you not announce yourself, Celestia? Have I not always considered you and Luna to be my dearest friends? Sisters, even?" When I stood in front of the Sun Princess, I lifted up my foreleg, holding my talons inches from her face. "Did you think that there were limits to my affection for you? If my closest friends came into these halls and asked me for this very leg, I would rip it from my body this instant and offer it to you."

Celestia merely looked slightly disquieted by the offer, but Luna actually turned rather green at the thought. "N-no, we don't want anything like that," the Moon Princess replied. "Please, we just need you to end the Winter."

"So many creatures are going hungry," Celestia added as I lowered my talons. "Not just our little ponies, but animals that have been waking from hibernation, only to find the land still barren and frozen. What would you have them do?"

"What would you have me do," I retorted, clenching my talons in a fist. "To whom would I relinquish the season? Are you prepared to forgive Shangwe, after what she did to those children? Have you found the prodigal Sun Dog? We certainly know that the Warden of Autumn can't bring life back to the land any more than I can, so to whom should you entrust this sacred charge? Hmm?" I circled around the pony sisters, staring through them the entire time "Of course, how could I not have realized it? The mare who raises the sun is right here in front of me. Surely with a little help from her devoted subjects, she can usher in the Spring to make up for the absence of our fallen sister. When Summer comes... well, you have already filled in for the Sun Dog once, so I am sure that it will be easier next time. And the time after that, and the time after that, and the time after that. Oh, but what will you do when Autumn comes?"

I turned my gaze upon Luna then. She shrank back, pressing up against her sister's side as her heart pounded with fear. "Well, Autumn is months away, isn't it? Who knows what tragedy could befall our mischievous brother by the time it comes? He might fall from grace as Shangwe did. Or vanish like the Sun Dog. Or be attacked in the night by some unknown enemy, forcing dear little Luna to take his place. Tell me, do you expect him to see the knife coming, or did you plan on distracting him by batting your pretty little eyes before disposing of him?"

"ENOUGH!" Celestia's voice boomed throughout the palace of ice as she interposed herself between me and Luna. Not in the voice used among friends and equals, but the amplified voice used to cow and intimidate her subjects. Even though I had been expecting her to reveal herself in this way, I was still unprepared and found myself pushed back by the force of it before bracing myself. She was glaring, then, eyes filled with the fury of the blazing sun. "WE DO NOT KNOW WHERE THOU HAS OBTAINED THESE NOTIONS, BUT THOU SHALL NOT ADDRESS OUR SISTER IN THIS MANNER!"

Immediately, the Winter Knights rushed into the audience chamber. Most came in through the large doors, but others flew in through the windows or through side doors and hidden passages. Each of them was heavily armored and trained to great proficiency with the spear. My Knight Captain, the greatest warrior of all the Griffon clans, was so skilled that even the Sun Dog respected his strength and prowess.

His spear, as with the rest of the Knights, had been pointed at me.

"And so they finally reveal themselves," I mused, my lack of surprise or shock speaking louder than any outrage I could have mustered. To the Knight Captain standing behind me, I asked, "And how much was your loyalty worth, Gunther? Did they buy you, or is it that you have always been looking for this opportunity?"

I heard him swallow as he pressed the tip of his spear against my back, between my wings. "Please, Your Highness. Just end the Winter. It has gone on for too long, and our people are suffering. Simply allow the ponies to bring about Spring, and we can figure out what to do after that."

I closed my eyes, then, and laughed with no mirth behind it. Where Gunther's spear touched me, it quickly began to freeze over in a thick layer of ice which ran up to his talons. I heard him struggle as the ice spread, merging with his armor and working with the enchantments already in place to rapidly spread to the Knights on either side. In merely a pawful of seconds, every one of my Knights was part of a frozen ring that now surrounded me and the pony Princesses.

I opened my eyes to see the Princesses of Sun and Moon gawping in horror. Their allies in this coup had not brought about the swift surrender they had hoped for. With a faint frozen crackle, I stepped away from Gunther's spear.

"G-gertrude... how could you?!" Luna's voice quavered as she looked about at the frozen warriors. They could only watch, locked in place but still alive and aware enough to see what was to transpire.

"You know that I have always had a giving nature," I replied, reaching back to caress Gunther's frozen-over cheek. "I have simply given them a reward befitting traitors who would give away everything to a pair of power-hungry schemers too cowardly to even show their faces."

Before either of them could protest, I whipped around and threw my wings out forward toward them. A blast of Winter wind galed at them as a flurry of dagger-like ice feathers filled the space between us. The feathers ripped through the air around them, slashing the coats they wore to ribbons while the Princesses reflexively shielded themselves with magic to protect their bodies. This unexpected surge of magic forced them to drop their masks and reveal the faces that they had hidden under far more than mere hoods.

After the volley subsided, Celestia and Luna stood up to their full heights, revealing themselves. Celestia had always been large for a pony, representing the pinnacle of earth pony and unicorn traits amplified through bearing one of the Elements of Harmony. Now she was even moreso, with the addition of wings and a multi-colored mane that twisted and writhed even in the absence of a breeze. Similarly, while Luna was still smaller than her sister, her unicorn and pegasus traits were now accompanied by an increase in size that would allow her to tower over her subjects. Her coat had darkened, and her mane had transformed into patch of night sky that also writhed about as if to reach out and draw everything around it into that dark void.

"So this is what you have become," I said, glaring at the royal sisters. "It was not enough for you to guide the sun and moon through the sky. Shangwe is no longer in your way, so you took her place. The Sun Dog is no longer in your way, so you took his place. Did you think that I would not see this coming? That I would not expect you to come and push me out of your way as well?"

Luna was still unsteady, but Celestia braced herself. Her grotesquely elongated horn began to glow as she prepared a spell. "Gertrude, we do not know what has happened to you," she said as though I were the one in the wrong, "but it is still not too late to simply end this madness. We are offering you one last chance. For your sake and the sake of every creature, we urge you to take it."

I flared my wings and drew upon the ice surrounding me to gird myself in armor. A spear formed in my talons. "I have given so much over the years, Sun Princess. To you and yours in particular. But for my sake, and the sake of every creature, surrender is the one thing that I cannot give."

Those would be the last words I spoke in what must now be centuries.

I lost, of course. Glutted on their newly-acquired power as they were, I could not match them both. Even in the heart of my palace, where the ice that formed it could be shaped and wielded with ease against them, Celestia's connection to the sun made her a powerful opposite. Our battle raged through the halls, and entire wings of the palace were either destroyed by solar magic or wielded as a weapon against the Sun Princess.

Ultimately, however, it was Luna who landed the final blow in our battle. Though I did everything in my power to deny them the satisfaction of an easy victory, I was eventually so drained by Celestia's relentless attacks that the Moon Princess was able to sneak in and twist my own magic back upon me. Celestia was as drained and beaten as I by that point, so I gripped my spear with what strength I had left and staggered toward her to finish it when I found myself unable to lift my paws from the floor. I looked down to see that the floor was shifting beneath me, ice rising up and wrapping around my legs to hold me fast. I then felt that the magic flowing through it was not my own, so I followed that magic to its source.

There Luna stood, wide-eyed and trembling, her horn glowing as she manipulated the ice that was slowly engulfing my body. I attempted to wrest control of it back from her, and had I been stronger I could have done so easily. However, Celestia had seen to it that I simply had nothing left with which to fight her magically. I reflexively tried to break the ice with my spear, but as it was with Gunther, it merely became frozen in place upon contact with Luna's spell.

I believe that I began screaming, then. There were no words that could articulate my rage. Nothing but one last primal howl of rage and spite directed at the monsters I had once called sisters. In hindsight, perhaps there were words, though at this moment I cannot recall exactly what I might have said. Eventually, the ice crawled far enough up my body to freeze my beak shut, which is when the battered and weakened Celestia staggered up to speak.

"We did not want this," she lied, "but we had no choice. We are only doing what Harmony demands of us. We... I do not know if you will be able to reflect on this in the time to come, but if you do, then remember this: One day, you will be free again, and when you are, we will be waiting for you."

The Sun Princess then did something incomprehensible. She leaned forward and softly kissed my forehead, just above my eyes. She then stepped back toward her sister and for a moment... just for a moment, I saw them as I had before. Their new forms still remained, but in that instant they were not monsters gorged on ill-gotten power, but something beautiful. Despite the changes they had gone through, I could still see the sisters with whom I had shared so much from the very first days we met, long before any of us bore the Elements of Harmony, let alone my assumption as the Warden of Winter or Queen of the griffon clans.

It was the cruelest of illusions. A sick glamour to fill my head with rose-tinted nostalgia in the hopes that I would ignore the horrible truth before me. It felt as though I was ripping out my own heart, and perhaps I was in a metaphorical sense, but I used what was left of my mental strength to shatter the illusion and focus on their true faces. The last thing I did before the ice surrounded me completely, wrapping me up and cutting me off from the world, was to glare defiantly at my former friends.

-----

I open my eyes once more to face the present. There is no more need to reminisce on the past. For an unknown span, I existed in a sort of timeless fugue state. Vaguely aware of my surroundings but unable to tell whether seconds were passing or years, I simply waited until finally I felt the last of the magic binding me fade from the ice, allowing me to break free from my frozen prison.

And what had I found upon waking? Naught but ruin. Even the parts of my palace that had not been damaged in the battle with Celestia had fallen to the relentless passage of time. The Winter Knights were gone, either freed by the Princesses as a reward for their treachery, or disposed of for the same reason. I could not bring it upon myself to care which.

It was the loss of the Element of Harmony that I once bore which truly concerned me. They took it, of course, though I did not know how they ever intended to wield it after what they did. The answer would not come to me until later, upon sensing their presence in the town below. It made so much sense then. The Princesses may be greedy, but they would know better than any creature that there are threats beyond their ability to face without the Elements. All they had to do was take the time to play the benevolent dictator and mold ponies of purer hearts than their own to faithfully wield the Elements in their name, just as their subjects now oversee the turning of the seasons. The Sun and Moon see them as nothing more than tools, just like their assassin.

The assassin. I turn to look at it, and for a moment... just for a moment, with no immediate danger presenting itself, I see it... her as merely a mare like the many down below now caught up in my blizzard. Her breathing is shallow and labored as she curls up as tightly as possible to stay warm, even in her unconscious state.

With the rocky outcropping gone, snow and ice have accumulated over the mare during my moment of nostalgia. As I look down upon the poor creature, I feel a faint trace of heat on my forehead, just above my eyes.

I clench my eyes shut and bring a talon up to my head to clear it of the unpleasant sensation. When I open them once more, I see the assassin as it truly is. A weapon set upon me by the Princesses. A reminder that they will be prepared for the fight to come.

Nevertheless, I reach down and touch the snow covering the mare. I bestow upon it the magic of Winter, purifying the snow and transforming it from a deathly shroud sapping the life from the mutant into an insulating blanket. One that will allow her to recover her own warmth.

After all, a living hostage is better than a frozen example.

And even without the Element in my possession, I can still be generous.

Author's Note

This chapter wasn't exactly what I expected to do for this installment. I originally meant to do a follow-up to the previous chapter that would focus on Applejack, Fluttershy and Rarity reacting to the Windigo's blizzard. When I started working on a Gertrude segment that described her fall at Celestia and Luna's hooves, though, that ended up becoming its own thing.

I'm actually sort of glad about that, because between the holidays and getting as sick as a really sick dog the day after Christmas, my work schedule was thrown completely out of whack, and with it my drive to sit down and write. With things normalizing again, though, I've been able to focus on it better.

So now that it's done, please enjoy a little bit of world-building and character perspective. We'll be returning to the Mane 6 next time around!

The Snow Piles Up

Snowblind
by crowmagnon

Chapter 5 - The Snow Piles Up

"Wake up."

Derpy muttered something as she lay curled up under the warm blanket. The room outside was extremely cold, and even though her bed felt hard and lumpy, the comfort of the blanket was more than enough to keep her right where she was.

"Wake up."

Derpy groaned at the persistent voice. "I dun' haveta work today... Mr. Silver Script said so," she whined as she tried to curl up deeper under the covers.

"I said wake up, mutant."

Suddenly, the warmth was ripped away from her. Not the 'blanket' covering her, but the insulating effect that had kept her cozy. The bubbly pegasus let out a surprised whinny as she immediately started thrashing about, throwing off the snow she discovered that she had been all but buried in. "Wh-where am I?! H-how'd I g-g-get here," she stammered as she shook her wings and body. Then she turned and found herself in the unique (for her) situation of both of her eyes focusing upon the same thing.

Unfortunately, the target of her focus was the blank white gaze of her captor. Despite the griffon's lack of pupils or irises, Derpy could feel her stare stabbing through her.

"Eep."

The griffon was laying down beside Derpy, her front claws folded together as she regarded the pony. "Do you know what I have planned for you and your little town?"

Derpy trembled and slowly shrank down as low to the ground as she could make herself, as if trying to become one with the frozen rock beneath her hooves. She didn't understand what the big, scary white griffon wanted, but she felt like a mouse in the clutches of an eagle. Virtually every instinct in her body was screaming at her to take wing and fly away as fast as she could, but the rest remembered how well that went the last time, and her wings simply locked in place and refused to move.

"P-please don't hurt anypony," she pleaded in a quiet whisper, too terrified to raise her voice. Even then, the griffon glared down at her with icy contempt.

"Do you wish to live?"

Derpy whimpered and nodded slightly without lifting her head from the ground.

The griffon reached out to cradle Derpy's face in her talons. Though they no longer possessed the same life-draining chill as when she had pursued the ditzy pegasus, the coldness of her touch was enough to make Derpy shiver even harder. "Your princesses have abandoned you, assassin. By setting you against me, they have discarded you from their service as surely as if they had disposed of you themselves. That being the case, since you are no longer their tool, your only remaining option is to become mine."

Derpy didn't say anything, but looked up at the griffon in confusion. Most of what she was saying made no sense, but Derpy was too afraid to say so as the griffon continued. "What the Sun and Moon stole from me will be mine once more, and you will help me in this. The only question is whether you will do so alive and well-rewarded for your efforts... or the opposite."

Derpy blinked. "The princesses s-stole from you? M-maybe they just b-borrowed it and forgot? I do that sometimes, and..." When the griffon's talons started feeling cold again, Derpy squeaked and put her hooves over her mouth to silence herself.

Thankfully, the griffon let go of Derpy before her grip could grow too frigid. She turned away to gaze down upon the town spread out below. "If I am to take back the Element that was stolen from me, I must face the new bearers... these new six-who-are-one. But that does not mean that I will face them all at the same time. While the Windigoes keep them occupied separately, your task will be to secure a single pony who will deliver one of these six into my talons."

While she spoke, the griffon grasped some snow in her talons. She compacted and shaped it into a flat disc. When she was finished, the snow had been formed into a lens of ice which she held up to magnify Derpy's vision, showing the grey pegasus her intended target. Derpy gasped, her eyes widening in shock as she looked through the lens to see a little filly wearing winter clothes and a large bow sulking on the edge of town. "Th-that's Apple Bloom," she blurted out, recognizing the young pony from her mail route. "B-but... she's just a l-little filly!"

"Indeed," the griffon replied, crushing the lens into powder. "It should be quite simple for you." Focusing her gaze once more upon Derpy, the pegasus said with dangerous calm, "Just remember that if you do not take her, then I will. I cannot promise to be as 'delicate' with her as one of her own kind would be."

Derpy gulped as the implication sank in. Having experienced the terror of being pursued by the griffon, she felt that she had no choice but to nod.

"Good," the griffon replied. Then, after a moment's pause, she added, "Still, to ensure that you remain cooperative..." Faster than a thought, the griffon's talons once again lashed out to wrap around Derpy's head, muffling her frightened scream as ice spread out across Derpy's body from the griffon's touch.

Iron Will stared straight ahead, hobbling on his crutch toward his opponent. Once he was within arm's reach, he stopped and let his crutch fall off to the side. He cracked his knuckles, then did the same with his neck as he balled his right hand into a meaty fist. Balancing all his weight on his good leg, he wound his fist back, then swung it forward with as much force as he could muster.

When the minotaur's fist slammed into the side of the Golden Oaks library, the force of the crushing blow rippled outward from the point of impact and traveled up the large tree-building's trunk. It then spread out to the branches, shaking the snow loose. Soon, a veritable avalanche of snow and ice came tumbling down over Iron Will, only for none of it to touch him as a magical field hovered over his head like an umbrella.

Once the snow was all on the ground around him, Will grinned widely and flexed for the few ponies around to see the display of strength while Fluttershy jumped around and cheered her lungs out. While Will soaked in his wife's adulation and the scattered stomps of applause from other ponies, Fluttershy flitted over and gave him a big hug around his shoulders before picking up his crutch and giving it back to him.

Meanwhile, the pale lavender unicorn who had been keeping the snow off of Will tilted her head to one side. The magic field she was maintaining did the same, dumping the snow away from the happy couple while they walked back over to her.

"Snow's all gone and ready to be hauled away, as promised," the boisterous bull boasted. "Satisfaction guaranteed!"

Fluttershy added, "and I'll be by later to help pick up anything that might have gotten knocked loose. Right now, though, we've got a lot more trees to shake before the street-sweepers come by, so see you in a few hours, Dewdrop."

Dewdrop Decimal gave Fluttershy a friendly nuzzle in return. "I'll make sure to put some tea on for when you come by. Thanks, you two."

As Will and Fluttershy moved on, they heard the young librarian call out, "Oh, and I'm really looking forward to your next book!" They both looked at each other and chuckled before waving back to Dewdrop.

"You'll get one of the first copies! Autographed," Fluttershy replied while she flew alongside her husband. "You know, I'm kind of glad that we've been settled in here for the past few months. Everypony's been so nice, maybe we should consider buying the house so we have a home to come back to when we aren't on tour?"

Will smiled at the thought. "Heh, place is really growin' on you, isn't it? Not sure I can imagine coming home to you wearing an apron with a lasagna in the oven, though."

Fluttershy laughed and playfully punched him in the shoulder. "Who says I won't be the one coming home to see you in an apron?" She then perched her forelegs over one of his broad shoulders and nuzzled his cheek. "Though I wouldn't mind spending time with the girls. It's been so long since we had such good friends outside our immediate families."

A cold wind blew down the street, and Will's smile turned into a frown. "Even Rarity?" His voice was a low grumble as he vividly recalled the heated words that he and the unicorn had exchanged as if they were still ringing in his ear.

"Now, Will, I don't want you holding a grudge against Rarity," Fluttershy replied. Her voice was gentle, but firm. "She's just very, very protective of Spike. She got scared and didn't know how to deal with it, so she took it out on... Apple Bloom!"

Will blinked in confusion. "Apple Bloom? When did Rarity yell at Apple Bloom?" He figured it out, though, when he saw Fluttershy fly off down the street toward where a little earth pony filly was sitting morosely at the edge of town. Picking up his pace as much as he could with one leg in a cast, he followed after his wife as she alighted on the ground next to her.

"Hi, Apple Bloom," she said to get the filly's attention. Apple Bloom glanced up at her, then turned her attention down to the snowy ground as she shuffled her hooves.

"Hiya, Ms. Fluttershy..."

Fluttershy felt the urge to put a wing over Apple Bloom's back, so she did just that. Thankfully, the filly didn't push her away. "What are you doing all the way out here by yourself? Don't you want to be with your family?"

Apple Bloom was quiet for a moment, but then nodded. "Ah do, but... she's there, an ah jus'... what am ah supposed t' do?" Apple Bloom looked out across the snow-covered fields, dotted by the occasional pony pulling a plow. "Mah whole life, all ah heard 'bout her was 'bout how great mah big sister was, an' how amazin' an' successful she is, but she was always bein' all amazin' an' successful somewhere else. Ah don't even remember th' last time she came by fer a family reunion... always jus' sent a letter, sayin' she was too busy. An' then last Wakin' Night, she promised that she'd make time, but..."

Fluttershy winced and replied, "Waking Night was crazy for everypony. She was doing everything she could, and almost gave her life to save you..." She didn't expect that to do much to alleviate Apple Bloom's sour mood, though.

Apple Bloom had been one of the innocents that had fallen victim to Eclipse upon the shadow demon's return, and had been plunged into a deep, nightmarish coma shortly after Applejack had arrived in Ponyville. When she had finally been brought out of it thanks to the efforts of Applejack and the rest of the new bearers of the Elements of Harmony, she had woken up to find that her sister had to spend too much time dealing with being put in the spotlight as one of the saviours of Equestria to spend any appreciable time with her family. It didn't matter that Applejack had fought tooth and hoof to save her sister's soul. If it had just been that one incident, it surely would have been forgivable. Nevertheless, Fluttershy could tell that for Apple Bloom, Waking Night had merely been the continuation of a pattern.

Indeed, when Apple Bloom spoke, she muttered, "She doesn't wanna be here... Prob'ly jus' came by 'cause she felt guilty an' hopes we'll jus' ignore all th' times she ain't been here. Then she can go on back t' her diamond tiaras an' silver spoons an' leave her country bumpkin family behind again."

Before she could sink any deeper into her depression, the filly suddenly found herself wrapped up completely in the soft fur and feathers of Fluttershy. The pegasus hugged her tightly and stroked Apple Bloom's mane. "Oh, sweetie, I swear to you that isn't how she feels at all. She's here because she loves her family. She loves you."

Apple Bloom looked up at Fluttershy, and it was clear by way her eyes were so wide and pleading that the filly really wanted to believe what she was saying. "But... she don't even know me..."

The pegasus smiled down at her and nuzzled the filly. "She knows that you're smart. She knows that you have a big heart. And she knows you have the Ponyville Elementary record for 'Longest Sustained F--'"

Apple Bloom's eyes somehow managed to go even wider, but this time it was with shock. Letting out a sort of strangled squeak, the filly yelped, "What?!"

Fluttershy giggled, her smile turning mischievous. "Oh, wait, that's right! She doesn't know about that, yet! I think I'll go tell her. Oh, she's going to be so proud."

Apple Bloom wailed, "No, ya can't! Pleeeeaaaase don't say it!"

Finally catching up, Iron Will asked, "Don't say what?"

Fluttershy tousled Apple Bloom's mane and replied, "Oh, she's just shy about how well she's been doing in school. I was saying we should go find Applejack and tell her. Do you think you can handle the rest of the tree-shaking yourself while we go do that?"

Will confidently thumped a fist against his chest. "Leave it to me! I'll have every tree in town as bare as your uncle Buzz Cut's head before you get back!"

Fluttershy let go of Apple Bloom long enough to flit over to the minotaur and give him a peck on the cheek that lit his cheeks up. "Thanks, hun. Love you!" She then made her way back to the filly and started walking off toward the fields with her. Apple Bloom seemed reluctant to follow, until Will heard Fluttershy say, "You know, Apple Bloom, I held a few records of my own back in school."

"Huh? Like what?"

Iron Will couldn't make out what she said, because Fluttershy leaned in close and whispered a response into her ear. Whatever it was, it caused Apple Bloom to stop in her tracks. Then the two mares suddenly burst into giggles, and when they started walking again, the filly had a bit more bounce in her step.

The minotaur chuckled and shook his head as he turned to make his way back down the street. "That mare's some sort of magic worker," he mused to himself.

That mare is going to be difficult.

I watch the one called "Fluttershy" make her way across the fields toward an ancient and dessicated old mare tending to an apparatus heating up barrels of cider for the workers who are trying to clear away my Winter. Though the Windigoes have already plunged half of the town and its surrounding environs into a deep blizzard, they are hesitant to approach the pegasus. Her heart burns too brightly for them to approach without my direct command.

At the moment, they are waiting for that command. I did tell them to keep the six-who-are-one separate from one another, after all, and the pegasus is approaching her well dressed comrade. Beside me, my new servant also waits for my command to seize the filly. The mutant is now clad from eartip to tail in armor of near-inpenetrable ice, just as my Guard were so long ago. Like them, I can ensure her loyalty by threatening to freeze her solid with but a thought. Only the mutant's wings are exposed, now. A small concession made to stop her from whining about not being able to feel the wind.

I raise a foreleg up to get their attention. The assassin and my Windigoes tense, awaiting my instructions. With a single word, I deliver their command.

"Wait."

They are actually startled by this, particularly the mutant. They expect me to throw them at my enemies without regard for their safety or well-being. They are not entirely wrong, but not for the reason they think.

The Windigoes are focused on the pegasus because her heart burns so brightly. They see her as a threat. I look upon the filly beside her and see quite the opposite. I see a heart who's flame flickers weakly around a core of emptiness and cold. A heart wounded by betrayal and loss. Hers is a pain I know well. I turn my gaze toward her sister, and see a mare of wealth and excess, who cannot fill the void within the filly's heart.

There is no need to attack at this moment. I will allow this meeting to run its course. Then, we will strike.

"Hnnngh! Grrrrrgh!"

"Ya sure ah can't jus'--"

"NO! No... thank you, Macintosh..." Applejack dug in her hooves and struggled against the weight of the plow she was assigned to, stubbornly refusing any and all help from her brother even as sweat poured down her strained expression. "I go to the gym... three times a week... I jog every day... take self-defense..." Gritting her teeth, she fought against the unmoving snowplow. "I am not just... some weak... pampered... society trollop!"

Throwing all of her weight into trying to make the plow move caused it to shudder and almost push forward an inch, but Applejack's hoof slipped on the edge of a frozen puddle. Feeling her leg suddenly slide out from under herself, the businessmare barely had time to yelp before she fell face-first into the dirt and snow. Big Mac walked over and bent his head down to ensure his sister was alright. Seeing her shivering despite her warm coat, he gently placed a big hoof on her shoulder.

Applejack sniffled and wiped the snow off her face. "I wanted to try. I honestly wanted to try, Macintosh. I knew I couldn't possibly make up for all the time we spent apart... All those chances I missed to watch little Apple Bloom grow up... Be there when it mattered... I still wanted a chance to make a start. But I can't do anything..."

Big Mac settled in beside her and draped a foreleg over her shoulder, pulling her into a hug. "You c'n be here now. Yer still her big sister. Ain't nothin' can change that."

Applejack sighed and tilted her head up to look at Big Mac, though whatever she was about to say died on her lips as she saw something in his silhouette that made her gasp. Seeing her change of expression, the stallion tilted his head. "What is it? Ah got somethin' on mah face?"

The businessmare closed her eyes and shook her head to clear it before picking herself back up onto her hooves. "Oh, no. No, it's just that for a moment there, you..." She looked away from Big Mac as she re-adjusted the harness keeping her attached to her plow. "You reminded me of pa."

Big Macintosh was known for, among other things, his stoicism in the face of surprise. Had any reporters for Ponyville's local paper been present, they would have immediately jumped on the sight of the big, quiet stallion looking utterly dumbfounded by his sister's comment. They would have only gotten a few seconds to do so, though, as he pulled down the brim of his hat to cover his face. Eventually, he muttered, "Well... uh... must be colder'n ah thought, then... seein' as pa was blue."

Applejack smiled as she reached up to push the brim of Big Mac's stetson back and look him in the eye. She then gently pressed her forehead against his and said, "They really are big shoes to fill, aren't they? And I left you to carry that burden all by yourself. So many burdens... I'm so sorry, Macintosh. I was so ashamed of myself for not being here when ma and pa... then you got hurt last year and I was so afraid you wouldn't even want to see my face that I couldn't bring myself to do more than send those workers to help you."

"... You knew?" A third voice piped up beside them. A higher, very familiar voice, quivering slightly. The siblings looked over to see Apple Bloom and Fluttershy, and the filly was staring at them with slowly narrowing eyes. "You knew when it happened and ya couldn't drag yerself outta yer cushy big city office t' see him!"

Fluttershy put a hoof on Apple Bloom's shoulder as she tried to soothe the filly. "Apple Bloom, why don't we settle down and talk this out?" This time, however, the little earth pony pushed herself away from Fluttershy. A cold wind blew through everypony present, circling them as Apple Bloom glared at her sister.

"Ah thought you were just outta touch an' hadn't heard about it. But you knew an' you didn't... No, it's worse than doin' nothin'! You sent a bunch o' strangers t' work the fields without so much as showin' yer face! Real Apples pitch in an' help out with their own hooves when family's in trouble! You just threw bits at th' problem, 'cause that's all you know how t' do!"

As expected, the meeting between the two sisters serves only to deepen the wound. The warmth is drawn out of the very air around them with almost no help from me. The Windigoes are no longer as afraid as they had been, now that they see that the flame of the pegasus's heart cannot burn away the cold on which they feed.

"Go," I tell them, letting the Windigoes loose. The blizzard they have created now spreads rapidly across the fields as they charge. I look to the armored mutant at my side and simply command, "Come," taking wing and using the cover of the storm to fly toward my target. The assassin is reluctant to follow, so for a mere second, I remove the enchantments keeping her from freezing.

The abrupt reminder that the ice she wears could easily become a frozen coffin shocks her into obedience, and she follows me through the sky.

Everypony around Apple Bloom was stuck in a state of shock. The filly had been angry and hurt before, but there was something more to it now. Even as the temperature of the air around them dropped and the confused cries of ponies suddenly finding themselves caught in a snowstorm that was spreading across the fields toward the Apple family and their pegasus friend.

Neither noticing nor caring about the snow that had begun to fall around them, Apple Bloom pointed a hoof at Applejack and shouted, "Ah hate you! You ain't nothin' but a rotten Apple!"

This time, whether Applejack would have responded to the heated accusations with the same defensive retorts as earlier or if she would have tried to weather them with more grace, the orange mare wasn't given enough time to choose before Apple Bloom turned and dashed off into the blizzard.

Fluttershy gasped, and as the freakishly sudden wall of white falling down from the sky soon caused her to vanish, she cried out, "Apple Bloom, wait!" She looked back for a moment and said, "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean for this." She then flapped her wings and flew off in the direction that Apple Bloom had been running before she disappeared from sight, calling out the filly's name.

Applejack was stunned for a moment longer, but was broken out of it when she felt her harness slip loose. Big Mac said in a deep, commanding voice, "Go on. Ya can still catch up t' her if'n ya hurry."

The businessmare blinked in surprise. "Me? But what about you?"

"Ah wanna, but ah've gotta get Granny outta this blizzard an' make sure mah team's safe. Now go on!"

For an instant, Applejack had to wonder whatever happened to the colt she remembered, who had spent most of his life saying almost nothing but 'Eeyup' or 'Nnnope.' Given that it was an instant where Apple Bloom was getting farther and farther away, however, she pushed that thought aside and nodded. "I'll make sure she stays safe, Macintosh, I promise!"

With that, she dashed off through the snow after Fluttershy and her sister.

Apple Bloom whimpered as she ran through the blizzard as fast as her little legs would take her. She had no idea where the snowstorm came from, and she didn't care. All that was running through her mind was Applejack... no, Jacqueline's words as she and Fluttershy had approached.

She had known Mac was hurt, but didn't come. She had known Mac was hurt, but didn't come. Birthdays with nothing but a store-bought card. Hearth's Warmings where Apple Bloom would open some fancy present that had nothing to do with her actual likes and interests, then have to send a thank-you letter to the pony who sent it. A sister she had practically never seen.

And Big Mac and Granny would spend so much time gushing and praising that pony, as if by doing so they could fill in the hole created by her absence. But there wasn't any filling it. There was nothing but empty space where a sister should have been, and a bit-grubbing fraud pretending to be an Apple trying to take her place.

That had been it, really. The culmination of everything Apple Bloom had been feeling. Every doubt and fear, brought to a head. When she had heard it from Jacueline's own lips, it had broken what little hope remained that she actually had a big sister. All that was left in its place was the cold, and even the heat of anger couldn't keep her warm. That was why she ran away, galloping through the snow and biting winds toward the nearest warm place she could think of, where Jacqueline would never find her. Her secret place.

Even without being able to see more than ten feet in front of her, Apple Bloom knew every inch of Sweet Apple Acres. Better than some big city corporate suit, at least. Though her lungs protested from sucking in ice-cold air with every breath, and her legs ached from the pace she had set, she did not slow down until finally she came across the outline she had been looking for.

She had found the little club house earlier that year while she and her friends had been playing hide-and-seek. Well, technically it was Scootaloo who had found it and thought it a good idea to hide inside the only hoof-built structure for half a mile in every direction.

Back then, it had been decayed from age. Boards had been loose or rotted out, and whatever paint it might have been colored with had long since faded away. Scootaloo had dubbed it a 'totally lost cause' at the time, but the idea of a special, secret place just for them had captivated the young earth pony. Since nopony grew up an Apple without participating in the occasional barn-raising, she had taken it upon herself to renovate the little shack.

Miraculously enough, with just a little work and some hardware borrowed from around the farm, she had been able to transform the decrepit old structure into a place where a couple of fillies could comfortably hang out, play some games, or plan their activities for the day.

It was a place for making memories. The sort that she had never had the chance to make with the mare who called herself her sister. It would also provide shelter from the storm, and allow her to wait it out until it blew over.

Before she could even touch the door, however, something slammed into the clubhouse at great speed, falling out of the sky and causing Apple Bloom's special, secret place to explode! The door flew off its hinges and pushed her back, sending her sprawling into the snow.

Applejack ran, calling out Apple Bloom's name as she galloped through the orchards. Sometimes, she even called out for Fluttershy in the hopes that the pegasus had already found her sister and was feeling more like responding. Though tired from her failed attempts to move the snowplow, her excercise regime did indeed keep her in good enough shape to keep pressing forward, though the real issue was her inability to see where either of the ponies had gone. If Fluttershy had remained airborne, then she wouldn't leave tracks anyway, and the blizzard was coming down hard enough to cover whatever hoofprints Apple Bloom might have left behind.

Nevertheless, a strangely nostalgic feeling passed through the mare as she simply did her best to keep going in the direction she had last seen them. It was almost as if there was a sense of familiarity guiding her, but that seemed unlikely. It certainly wasn't the layout of the trees. Those had been re-planted since she had last been in this area of the farm. She could barely even remember which cultivars were planted in this section. In fact, the only thing she could remember about this particular area was...

No, it couldn't be. Was Apple Bloom heading there? Toward her old clubhouse? She could hardly imagine that the old thing still existed, but as she felt the rise and fall of the land beneath her hooves again, that odd sense of nostalgia kept pulling her toward it. The closer she got, the more she hoped to find that she was on Apple Bloom's trail.

Eventually, feeling that she was near it, Applejack raised a hoof to shield her eyes as she tried to peer through the blizzard. It took a few seconds of scanning around, but then she saw it. That old, familiar outline from so long ago. A place she had built with her own hooves and made so many memories with her foalhood friends. It also represented her best hope of finding Apple Bloom in the frozen storm as the snow only piled up deeper and deeper around her.

Before she could take one more step toward it, however, she caught a glimpse of something hurtling through the air immediately above her at great speed. It slammed into the clubhouse with such force that the small building simply exploded, chunks of wood splintering and bursting apart in every direction!

Applejack stared, jaw slack with shock. What had just happened? Why? It was so sudden that her mind simply couldn't process it, but in an instant, the hopes of finding Apple Bloom in there, safe from the storm, were replaced with terror at the thought that she might have been in the middle of it. "No," she whispered before seeing something start to rise up from the wreckage. From a distance, all that Applejack could make out was a winged silhouette with the head of an eagle.

Then she heard the scream.

It was a high-pitched scream that pierced through the blizzard and echoed between the trees, but Applejack immediately recognized the voice as that of her little sister. She called out Apple Bloom's name and was ready to rush to her aid when, without warning, a second shape dropped down immediately in front of her. She barely had a chance to make out what it was beyond the fact that it was huge and as white as the snow that fell around them. Before she could so much as look up at the creature's face, it swiped its talons at her and sent her flying into a nearby tree.

The moment Applejack felt her body impact the apple tree, every bit of breath was knocked out of her lungs, leaving her woozy and gasping at the base of it. The monster didn't even wait for her to catch her breath before pouncing upon her and wrapping its talons around her body in a grip so cold that it sapped the consciousness from her in mere seconds.

"Applejack! Applejack, wake up!"

Applejack groaned, her body shivering while her mind slowly pulled itself out of the dark void she felt as though she had fallen into.

"Is she alright, dear?"

"I think so, Mrs. Cake, but bring a few blankets over here. And something warm for her to drink."

"She'll be okay, won't she, sis?"

Applejack winced as she grew more aware of the voices. With consciousness came awareness of the pain in her barrel, but at least it was only an ache and not the sensation of being stabbed by her own broken ribs. Three of the voices she could make out, though she didn't understand why she was hearing them. There was Rarity, Rarity's younger sister, and the voice of an older mare... that one must be 'Mrs. Cake.' So why was she hearing those voices instead of Big Mac or Fluttershy or--

"Apple Bloom!" The name came slurred and groggy from the businessmare's mouth, but it was enough to make her force her eyes open. Once she did, her eyes took several seconds for the blurry fields of color surrounding her to coalesce into more solid shapes. She saw a faint glow and heard the faint, high hum of magic being used as a blanket wrapped around her body. She tried to squirm out of it and crawl across the wooden floor that she found underneath her hooves. "Apple Bloom! Where's Apple Bloom? Where are we?"

Before she could get far, she felt hooves on her body holding her in place, shapes around her forming into ponies both familiar and not. The two white unicorns she saw were among those she knew, and they were accompanied by a pudgy blue mare. Rarity leaned in and assured her, "We're in Sugarcube Corner, and Apple Bloom wasn't hurt. She's alright." The unicorn bit her lip before amending her statement by adding, "At least... as alright as any of us are." She pointed a hoof to draw Applejack's attention to a corner of the room where Fluttershy was softly singing a lullaby while keeping her wings wrapped around Apple Bloom and Spike.

Applejack let out a sigh of relief as a lanky orange stallion came up to her with a tray in his mouth on which there were several mugs of what smelled like hot chocolate. After setting it down on the floor beside her, the stallion said, "You should drink some of this. Get some warmth back into your body."

Applejack reached out toward one of the mugs but found that her hoof was shaking, so she held it carefully between two and lifted the hot drink up to her lips. As she slowly drank it down, feeling it settle in her stomach and radiate warmth to the rest of her body, she took in a deep breath. "Oh, Rarity, darling, I feel like I just woke up from a terrible nightmare. What... what happened to us?"

"I did," a new voice spoke up from the other end of the room. This voice was different, with an alien, crystalline tone to it. Applejack gulped as she and the others turned to face the speaker. As the businessmare's eyes panned across the shop, she noticed the telltale signs of a bakery. Fitting for the name she had been given, but in her experience, no other bakery had a front wall entirely encased in ice as this one did. Though nearly opaque, Applejack could see the outline of the bakery's actual wall, and the large gaping hole where it looked as if the shop's window may have been smashed in.

In front of that wall of ice, the speaker sat. Applejack could not help but swallow again as she took in the sight of a griffon of immense stature, locks of wintery white flowing around her head and tail despite the lack of any breeze within the building. Her body was colored entirely white. A pure, cold, sterile white from her beak to her tail, including her eyes which somehow seemed to stare deep into the businessmare despite being completely blank. Feeling herself shiver again under that frigid, expressionless stare, Applejack said, "You... you knocked me into that tree. Who are you? What do you want?"

"Gertrude of the Snowheart clan," the griffon replied impassively. "But if the assassin your princesses sent after me did not know that, I don't imagine that it would mean much to you. No, the other question is the only one that matters to you, because giving me what I want is the only way that you will get what you want. So tell me, my little ponies. Where are the Elements of Harmony kept?"

Author's Note

You know that scene in Looper when Bruce Willis shows up and utterly demolishes his younger self in a couple of seconds? Applejack is the Joseph Gordon-Levitt of that analogy.

Filling the Blanks

Snowblind
by crowmagnon

Chapter 6 - Filling the Blanks

"Come," Gertrude said to Derpy before taking wing. Rather than do so right away, the pegasus hesitated as she tried to wrap her mind around what had been demanded of her. Gertrude wanted her to foalnap Apple Bloom and hide her away up in the mountains. How could she expect Derpy to do that to a sweet little filly? Nothing the scary griffon had done or said made any sense to her. When she had awakened that morning, she had planned on going south to bring the birds back, not on getting mixed up with all of this.

As the normally bubbly and cheerful pegasus started to whimper, however, she suddenly found herself freezing! The armor-like layer of ice now covering everything but her wings had some sort of magic in it that kept it from being cold. In fact, aside from being hard, rigid, and preventing her from feeling the air currents (which was all the more necessary as her eyes didn't always line up with the eye-holes in the 'helmet' that had formed around her head, and the reason why Gertrude had relented and left her wings exposed) it was actually rather comfortable.

Without that magic, however, Derpy was so shocked by the cold that she let out a scream that was muffled by the helmet, though on the inside it echoed and resounded deafeningly in Derpy's ears. The freezing cold only lasted for a second before the insulating enchantment returned to the icy armor, but Derpy was still left shaken as her ears rang for several seconds longer, her body trembling with fright as it was made starkly clear that she had no real choice.

Derpy launched herself into the air, riding the currents toward Sweet Apple Acres. As she flew, she reached for the compass that Lt. Sparkle had given her, only to have her hoof tap against the 'breastplate' of her armor, which had covered the compass completely.

"Ohhhh, I could get all spun around and wouldn't know which way to go," Derpy muttered to herself. About a minute later, though, as she crossed over the edge of Sweet Apple Acres, an idea occurred to her. "Of course! I could get all spun around, and the scary griffon can't blame me for not knowing where to go!" With that thought rattling around in her head, she focused on finding Apple Bloom through the storm that the Windigoes had whipped up over the orchard.

To her surprise, Derpy found that once she entered the blizzard, it proved no impediment to her vision. Among the enchantments placed on her armor were lenses in the helmet which would allow the wearer to see as Gertrude did. Not only could Derpy make out the trees as if there were no snowstorm at all, but as she followed the griffon, she could see glimpses of two pony shapes, colors brightly burning against the dull white like burning embers. It was weird, but kind of beautiful, Derpy thought as she circled over them.

While she flew, Gertrude drew close enough to be heard by the pegasus. "Take the filly," the griffon commanded, indicating the smaller glow. "I will take her sister."

Derpy started to ask Gertrude not to hurt anypony, but by the time she could, the griffon had already moved away. With a gulp, Derpy focused on Apple Bloom and angled her flight down toward her. I can do this. I can do this. I can do this, she thought to herself as she strained to keep both eyes on the filly as Apple Bloom pushed herself through the blizzard toward a small house built at the base of one of the trees. Even as her eyes watered and stung from the effort, she kept her eyes on Apple Bloom, intending to scoop her up and carry her away.

Right before she reached the filly, however, everything in front of Derpy suddenly went blank as her eyes succumbed to the strain, both of them 'derping' out of position at the same time. The pegasus let out a yelp, but was going too fast to stop as she kept barreling downward until she felt herself smash into something solid!

Fortunately, even with the ice armor absorbing almost all of the impact, Derpy was rather infamous for being able to smash into things without suffering any serious harm. Though a little dazed as her eyes swirled around behind her helmet's lenses, she finally managed to get one of them aligned properly as she picked herself up, shaking off chunks of debris that had fallen on her.

After a quick glance, she saw that Apple Bloom was alright, just knocked down. Sighing in relief, Derpy started to move toward the filly when she saw Apple Bloom raise her head and get a good look at her.

Apple Bloom groaned as she lay in the snow, taking a moment to process what had happened before she tried to move. She had been about to take refuge in her clubhouse when it had simply... exploded! Her special place was gone, just like that, with no warning or reason.

The thought of her special place being destroyed after everything else that had happened and that had been said earlier that day made the little yellow filly's eyes tear up uncontrollably. The cold didn't matter. The snow didn't matter. It was all falling apart, and enough of that was her own fault that it just made the rest hurt all the more. But before she could start crying, she saw a shape rise up from the rubble.

Her eyes went wide, irises shrinking to pinpricks as her breath caught in her throat at the sight of the creature looming over her. It spread its wings, so at first she thought it was a pegasus, but then she saw the outline of its head. It was shaped like an eagle's head, with a sharp curved beak.

Apple Bloom had never seen a griffon before in her life, but the creature before her was the very image of one. If she had looked down a little lower, she might have seen the pony-like hooves instead of claws or talons, but to her it looked as though her clubhouse and very town had been suddenly attacked by predatory creatures who were supposed to be allies of Equestria. Drawing in a deep breath, Apple Bloom let out a shrill, terrified scream.

"Apple Bloom! Apple Bloom!" She could just barely hear somepony calling her name, but couldn't stop shrieking as the 'griffon' hopped down toward her with a flap of grey wings. It tried to say something to her, but its voice was muffled and sounded like a threatening growl to the panicked earth pony. As she tried to scramble back away, her hoof slipped and she fell to one side.

This allowed her to catch a glimpse of her big sister trying to hurry toward her as a much larger griffon dropped out of the sky and swatted Applejack into a tree with a single swipe of her talons! Apple Bloom gasped in horror, her mouth hanging open. Before she could even think, however, the smaller 'griffon' scooped her up and clutched her tightly as she suddenly found herself getting carried up into the air.

Derpy whimpered as she flapped her wings as fast as she could to get Apple Bloom away. The filly's struggles and screams certainly weren't helping Derpy fight off her own fear, but any attempts to speak only seemed to frighten Apple Bloom more.

Even if she couldn't get Apple Bloom to calm down, though, she could try to carry the filly away from Gertrude. Instead of flying toward the mountains as she had been ordered to, the pegasus took wing toward Ponyville. She could tell Gertrude that she'd gotten lost! Everypony knew about how easily she got lost on routes she hadn't memorized, after all, so maybe the scary griffon would accept that?

Whether Gertrude did or not, though, the only thing that mattered was getting Apple Bloom to safety. Something that wasn't made any easier by the way the filly was squirming and battering her little hooves against the enchanted ice covering Derpy's face. She barely felt that, actually, but the distraction almost caused her to miss spotting another winged shape that suddenly appeared in front of her.

Her fear that Gertrude had appeared to cut her off caused Derpy to suddenly twist around in the air to stop herself, only to find that the one hovering in her way was not Gertrude, but another pegasus! A celebrity, in fact.

"Stop right there," Fluttershy said firmly, crossing her forelegs sternly. At the moment, however, all Derpy cared about was that it was a friendly face, regardless of said face not bearing a very friendly expression.

"Oh, Mrs. Fluttershy, I'm so happy to see you! There's this big scary griffon and she's got Windigoes making it snow, and she can make magic ice," Derpy exclaimed, only for Fluttershy to frown at her.

"You can growl all you want, buster, but I saw what happened, and you aren't getting away with foalnapping my friend's sister!" Fixing a stern gaze on Derpy even through the helmet, she slowly moved closer. As she drew nearer, her eyes softened, her expression shifting from authoritative to disappointed. "Just look at you. Is this the sort of griffon you really want to be? Using the cover of a snowstorm to smash things and kidnap innocent fillies? Just think of everygriff you're letting down by acting this way! Don't you want to be better than that?"

"M-miss Flutters-shy...?" Apple Bloom stammered as she shivered in Derpy's grasp, only to be shushed when the pegasus gently placed a hoof against her mouth.

Derpy gulped. Even though she hadn't done what Fluttershy had accused her of (at least, not for the reasons the other pegasus was probably thinking) she still felt bad about it. A whimper came from under her helmet as she remorsefully lowered her head. This caused Fluttershy to place a hoof on her shoulder while offering a soft, understanding smile.

"See? I knew you weren't a bad griffon. You just need to do something else with your life. Something better! And the first step is to take this filly back to her family and apologize for the damage you caused. 'Be a grown-up and own up!'"

Derpy nodded sheepishly, but then suddenly remembered why she was running away with Apple Bloom in the first place... and the monster that was waiting for her if she turned back. The pegasus immediately began shaking her head furiously and tried to explain, but nothing she tried to say got through the muffling effect of the helmet. As a result, Fluttershy narrowed her eyes dangerously.

"Alright, then we'll try it my husband's way," she replied, cracking her neck. She then took a deep breath and shouted, "YOU MESS WITH A FILLY, I KNOCK YOU SILLY!" The force of her voice alone was so great that it not only sent Derpy reeling back, but small cracks formed in her helmet before the cold froze them sealed again.

Fluttershy didn't waste time waiting for the 'griffon' to recover. With a flap of her wings, she shot through the air like a yellow and pink bullet, hoof-punching Derpy and knocking the grey pegasus around while Apple Bloom started screaming again as Derpy's grip loosened. Instead of falling, however, Fluttershy scooped her out of Derpy's grasp and held her close.

Derpy wasn't hurt, of course, thanks to the armor. She couldn't see until she got the world to stop spinning around her, though, which took several seconds. Once she did, she looked around and saw Fluttershy banking toward Ponyville with Apple Bloom held securely in her hooves. Derpy was grateful for that, at least, until she felt a shifting of the wind through her wings.

Gertrude was flying again. Derpy didn't have to see the griffon to know it. Every flap of the great griffon's wings affected the howling winds as if the storm were an extension of Gertrude's body, and Derpy could feel her getting closer. Fearing what she might do if she caught up to Apple Bloom and Fluttershy, the armored pegasus flapped her wings harder than she ever had before to catch up.

Fortunately for the sake of Derpy catching up, Fluttershy had to fight the wind as she made her way back to town. Derpy's extraordinary sensitivity allowed her to ride the air currents more efficiently.

Unfortunately, she still had no way to communicate.

Flying alongside Fluttershy, she tried to shout through the muffling effect of the helmet and blizzard, only for Apple Bloom to start shouting at her and for Fluttershy to glare before trying to turn away from Derpy in a direction that would lead her back into Gertrude's path.

In a panic and not knowing what to do, Derpy whimpered, "I hope I know what I'm doing..." before she did the only thing she could think of.

Fluttershy saw the 'griffon' coming, but she was a rather average flier to be honest, and the sort of storm she was trying to push through had been sapping her endurance ever since she took off after Apple Bloom. The angle that her adversary was coming at her from meant that she had to fly straight into a headwind if she wanted any chance of avoiding it, and this ended up holding her in place enough that Derpy could tackle her, sending the three mares spinning and tumbling out of the sky toward the buildings below.

"Here you go, dearies. Are you feeling nice and warm, now?"

Sweetie Belle and Spike both nodded and let out squeals of delight as Mrs. Cake set down a plate with three cupcakes for the unicorn sisters and baby dragon. Spike's was clearly different from the rest, being topped off with small quartz crystals that Rarity had brought from the farm for him to snack on. He tried to make a grab for it, but was blocked by Sweetie Belle's hoof.

"Hey, you're supposed to say 'thank you' first," Sweetie Belle said, admonishing her reptilian nephew.

"Oooh, right. Thank you, Missus Cake!" The little dragon smiled adorably at the baker, who chuckled warmly as she patted his head.

"You're very welcome, dear. I hope you all enjoy your treats." Mr. Cake then looked over toward Rarity and saw that the older of the two unicorns was barely paying attention to them.

Once the snow had started coming down and it quickly became clear that it was more than a light dusting shaking loose from the clouds, the unicorn sisters and baby dragon had abandoned their nest-making station and taken refuge in Sugarcube Corner, along with as many twigs and ribbons as they could haul with them. Now, while the children happily devoured their treats, Rarity sat by the window and glared up at the clouds.

Feeling a chill coming from the window, which had started to frost over, the blue baker asked, "You sure you want to sit right there, Miss Rarity? Seems to be a bit draft over here."

Sweetie Belle finished the last bite of her cupcake, then licked a bit of errant frosting off of her nose. "Oooh, I could look at it! Then maybe I'll get my cutie mark in window repair!"

This prompted a shudder from Mrs. Cake, and a sudden crash of falling utensils came from the back of the shop before Carrot Cake stuck his head out. "Great Grandma Celestia, no!" Seeing that the eager little blank-flanked unicorn was still just sitting there and not yet in the process of demolishing his bakery, he cleared his throat and said, "Uh... I mean, it's not a big deal. You still have nests to make, so maybe you should focus on that, and I'll just call Windowpane to handle it after the pegasi get rid of this storm?" Nervous perspiration dotted his brow as he gave Sweetie a hopeful grin.

The little filly hummed and thought about it before deciding, "Yeah, I think I'd rather have a bird cutie mark than a window, so I'll try for that one, first!" This prompted a deep sigh of relief from both bakers before Carrot went back to pick up what he'd dropped.

Cup Cake, meanwhile, joined Rarity in looking out the window, though it was difficult to make out any detail as the glass was frosting over before her eyes. "Oh, what in Equestria is taking the weather team so long dealing with this? Why would they even start a blizzard without warning anypony?"

"Fluttershy!" Everyone turned to face Rarity as she didn't so much say her first word since Cup brought them their treats as she growled it with a venom and anger the baker had never seen from the sweet, hard-working rock farmer. "This is her doing, I just know it," Rarity muttered. "She's up there laughing... laughing at us!"

Everypony blinked in surprised confusion at Rarity's angry accusation while Spike gasped. "Missus Fluttashee's a bad pony?!"

"I thought she was your friend," Sweetie Belle said. "And that time Scootaloo turned me blue, you told me not to say mean things about my friends, especially when they aren't around."

Rarity snapped, "Well I was wrong! About Fluttershy, I mean." The anger in her voice faltered slightly as she muttered, "You're right, though. You... you really shouldn't say such things behind your friends' backs... I really shouldn't..." But as she started to trail off, bits of her mane started to slip loose from her braid, wafting around her head as if in a breeze as she bristled once more. Another draft seemed to blow through the bakery, chilling everypony inside as she seethed, "but that tail-chomping hussy isn't my friend anymore! Not after what she did to Spike! Not after what she's doing now! Just look..."

Fluttershy was up there, she just knew it. Cackling madly as she danced across the clouds, sending this blizzard down on their heads as payback for having gotten yelled at. "Let's see how Rarity likes it when her little Spikey-wikey is sobbing because his forelegs are freezing and she has no boots to give him that fit over claws!"

Rarity shrieked at the window, "You horrible witch! I'll show you! I'll knit Spike the best... er... gl-oves? Yes, gloves! The finest ever seen in Equestria, and then it'll be your darling Iron Will who'll be sobbing in jealousy when he realizes his shrill little shrew of a wife can't make him anything to fit over those boulder-sized mitts of his!"

The incensed unicorn ground her teeth as she heard Spike start crying behind her. Sweetie Belle's shrill, annoying little voice piped up, "But Rarity, that doesn't make any sense! She's just one pegasus, so how could she make a blizzard so big the whole weather team can't stop it?"

"Because they're in on it!" Rarity whirled around suddenly to face the others and saw the color drain from their faces, their mouths hanging open. Except for Spike, of course, who was busy sobbing like a brat. "That hussy must have paid them off with money she and her brute of a husband made peddling their lies! Who knows? Maybe they didn't even need to be paid off. They're all pegasi, so of course they stick together! Every feathered one of them is laughing at our misery and... Spike! If you know what's good for you, you'll stop that c... cry..."

The farmer found herself choking on the venomous words as she felt her heart leaping up into her throat as if to block them from escaping. Staring at the sight of her adopted son sobbing his eyes out for the second time that day, Rarity felt something flow out of her, not noticing as her stray hairs fell limp around her face once more. "Wh... what was I saying...? What am I doing...?" Moving from her seat, she went over to wrap the baby dragon up in a hug. "Oh, Spikey, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. I was so upset about Fluttershy making you cry, I never wanted to do that to you."

As Spike started to calm down, his sobs turning to quiet hiccups, Mrs. Cake coughed quietly and asked, "Umm... Rarity, how are your eyes feeling?"

Rarity blinked in surprise at the odd question and replied, "My eyes? They feel fine, Mrs. Cake. Why do you ask?" She touched a hoof to her eyes and found that they were a bit wet, but she couldn't say why. Aside from that, there wasn't anything out of the ordinary.

While the baker tried to find an appropriate way to say it, Sweetie Belle blurted out, "They were all white and creepy!"

Rarity's mouth opened and closed a few times as she looked to Mrs. Cake, who simply nodded in agreement with the younger unicorn. Just as she was about to ask more, however, she saw a shadow approaching the front window and yanked Spike down off of his seat, reflexively using her magic to tip the table up to protect all of them as the storefront suddenly imploded!

A heavy thud impacted against the table with enough force to crack it, but thankfully not enough to break the impromptu shield Rarity had thrown up. The wind blew through, carrying the snow in and chilling the ponies and dragon.

After a few seconds of holding the table, Carrot Cake came back out of the back room and gasped at the sight. Crying out his wife's name, he hurried over and held her close. "Are you alright, sweety?"

"Uh... uh-huh," Sweetie Belle stammered, her whole body shivering with the shock of what just happened. Then she realized Mr. Cake had been talking to his spouse. "Oh, right... s-s-sorry."

"I-it's okay, dear," Cup Cake replied, just as shocked. "I'm alright. We're alright, I think," she added, briefly holding her stomach. "Wh-what happened, Rarity?"

Rarity shook her head a little to clear it, then pushed the table aside enough for her to peer around it. When she did so, she gasped. "Fluttershy!"

Fearing another rant, the others in the bakery nevertheless weren't particularly relieved when Rarity revealed the three who had smashed through their wall. Sure enough, one of them was the yellow pegasus, unconscious and holding tight to a shivering and whimpering Apple Bloom. And there beside them, unmoving, was a figure that Rarity assumed at first glance to be a griffon, but... "Look. hooves! This one's a pony, too," Rarity observed. "Mr. Cake, help me get them away from the window so they can warm up."

"Oh! Of course, right away," the earth pony replied. "Everypony else, you should probably move back, too, and... Sweetie Belle!" Sweetie, staring with wide-eyed horror at the sight of her friend in distress, ignored Carrot and rushed over. Whether it was from the severe cold or the shock of whatever had happened, Apple Bloom was curled up in Fluttershy's forelegs, her eyes wide open but her irises shrunken to tiny dots that frantically swiveled around but didn't seem able to focus on anything.

"Apple Bloom! Apple Bloom, snap out of it," Sweetie Belle pleaded as she pulled her friend out of the unconscious pegasus's grip. While Rarity started dragging Fluttershy away from the gaping hole and Carrot Cake took the faux griffon, Sweetie Belle shook Apple Bloom gently before letting the yellow filly lean against her back and following the adults. "Apple Bloom, what happened out there?"

The little unicorn could feel her friend's heart pounding like a jackhammer. Her breathing was labored and raspy, but as Apple Bloom suddenly let out a loud cough to clear her lungs and take in the warmer air inside the bakery, she started to focus more. "S... Sweetie Belle? Ah dun'... ah dunno what's happenin'..." Apple Bloom whimpered hoarsely, having worn out her vocal chords.

Sweetie Belle set her down next to Fluttershy while Rarity turned back to the broken window and used her magic to place the table up against it, blocking out much of the freezing wind. "I'll see what I can find to nail that up until we can get some real repairs done," Carrot said as he once again made his way to the back rooms. "You girls just hold on until then."

While they waited, a still-terrified Apple Bloom managed to focus on her unicorn friend and whispered, "Sweetie... th' clubhouse... it's... it's gone, an'... an' ah heard m-mah sister..."

Leaning in to listen closely, Sweetie Belle asked, "Your sister? What happened to your sister?"

Suddenly, there was a sound of splintering wood as Rarity let out a startled shriek. Everyone who was still conscious in the room quickly looked toward the window, and saw that what looked like several long, fiendishly sharp icicles had pierced through the cracked table! With frightening ease, the table was ripped apart before their eyes by what they soon realized were the talons of an enormous griffon of pure wintery white.

"I happened," the griffon replied in answer to Sweetie Belle's question, her voice soft but ringing clearly through the room as she stepped inside with an unconscious Applejack gripped in the talons of her other foreleg. She advanced toward Rarity but paid her no more mind than if the unicorn were a bug in her path, causing Rarity to back away. The griffon then set Applejack down and turned back toward the hole from which wind and snow were entering once more.

Though room was scarce within the bakery, the griffon spread her right wing out wide. With a single flap of the massive appendage, a wall of ice filled the hole, sealing it shut. More than that, however, the ponies and dragon could hear the crackling of ice forming as it continued, spreading across the exterior of Sugarcube Corner. Looking toward the windows, they saw the ice formation spread across the panes like a wave until the entirety of the bakery was surrounded in a dome of ice.

Once this was done, the griffon sat down in front of the newly sealed window and regarded those that were trapped with her.

She then noticed something on the ground in front of her and carefully picked it up between her talons. She held a cupcake, the one that Rarity had ignored earlier, in front of her eyes before placing it in the middle of the plate that had fallen from the table, and pushing that plate toward the ponies.

"You really should not waste food," the griffon casually admonished them, as though they were making small talk. "Especially during Winter. Depending upon how the next few hours go, you may have a long, long time to allow that lesson to sink in."

I take my measure of the ponies and baby dragon before me. Out of the lot, three of them happen to not only be of the six-who-are-one, but the three who responded to the influence of the Windigoes with the greatest acrimony toward one another. Were I of a more expressive nature, I would likely be wearing a smile bright enough to melt even my ice. My new 'servant' could scarcely have done better in her task.

I never expected her to follow my commands as spoken, of course. Not once she had procured the filly. One can always depend upon ponies to fall back on their herd instincts when threatened, and so I knew that she would take the filly to a location that she would consider securable. That it contained another bearer of the Elements of Harmony was a pleasant bonus. That a third attempted to intercept her in her course, only to end up battling the mutant in a case of mistaken identity? I honestly could not have planned that if I had tried.

They are tense. They are afraid, as they should be. Currently, however, their fear is focused solely upon me. That could potentially make them difficult if they unite against me, but I watched them. With only half of their number inside this impenetrable dome, the six-who-are-one cannot bring the Elements to bear against me, and those who are here with me can be nudged so that they will be unable to work together.

Before entering this building, I ordered the Windigoes to lessen the severity of the blizzard enough so that the ponies might return to assess the damage the storm has caused. They will see what I have made of this place, and then the remaining three will gather here.

Once they are here, then the 'negotiations' may begin.

Author's Note

Man, sometimes it's a wonder I get anything done. Between long work hours during the week, having to dogsit for long stretches of time, and a rather pronounced level of video game addiction, it takes a self-imposed deadline like Sunday night to light a fire under my keister and get me to put in serious writing time.

As for this chapter, not too much to say. It's rather filler-y, explaining much of what happened during Applejack's unconsciousness, but it does show a few things that will come into play rather soon. Most important here is the hint about Rarity's special talent as the Element of Magic, which will be very important by the time all is said and done.

From here on out, though, it'll be 'Die Hard in a bakery'!

Wait, didn't I just make a Bruce Willis movie reference in the last Author's Notes...? And that Fifth Element number a few chapters ago. Well at least I've never seen Hudson Hawk, so you don't have to worry about that one coming up.

A Stopped Heart

Snowblind
by crowmagnon

A Stopped Heart

Pinkamena pushed through the snow-clogged streets of Ponyville to take shelter in her apartment above the coffee house where she worked and wrote her poetry. Though no expert on the weather, she felt that the worst of the blizzard was starting to pass, though snow continued to drift down as an indication that it was not over.

Suddenly Pinkamena felt a surprise gust pluck the beret from her head. The pink pony quickly turned and jumped, snapping her teeth shut and just barely missing the hat as it went flying off down the street.

Though called a hypocrite by the part of her mind that had scolded the other ponies for not taking shelter once the snow began to fall, she nevertheless gave chase after her favorite piece of headwear. Jumping in and out of the snow covering the road, Pinkamena kept reaching for it, only to just barely miss until it got hung up against a wall. At that point, she pinned it with a hoof and took a second to catch her breath before placing it atop her head once more.

Then she noticed that the wall she was facing was not of wood or brick, but ice. Backing up a few steps to get a better look, she saw that the shell of ice was surrounding the unmistakable outline of Sugarcube Corner.

For several minutes, Pinkamena paced around the frozen bakery and studied the icy shell surrounding it. It was the only building in sight to be so thoroughly coated in ice, and the shell surrounded it completely from top to bottom. She leaned in closer, her reflection looking back at her as she tried to peer through the window. The ice warped and distorted her view of the bakery's interior, though she was able to make out a few vague shapes moving about inside.

With a slight nod to her reflection, she turned away and started galloping back the way she came.

Rainbow Dash trudged through the wind and snow as the blizzard grew ever more fierce. Her innate pegasus magic and nice, thick coat should have provided more than enough protection from the harshest of blizzards, but the chill struck her so deeply that she felt like a prissy Canterlot unicorn wearing nothing but tissue paper. Nevertheless, she tilted her head up toward the sky and ground her teeth together to keep them from chattering as she asked the harbingers of the storm, "Is... that... all you... got...?"

The howling of the wind was her only reply as a powerful gust bore down on her. Dash kept her wings tucked in close to her sides and braced herself against the onslaught, but it still made her slide back while coating her completely in a layer of snow. "I guess... not..." she muttered as she waited for the gale to die down enough for her to press onward.

Suddenly, she heard a nearby voice ask, "Are you really so surprised that they react when antagonized?" This startled Dash enough that she reflexively flared her wings. Facing the harsh winds as she was, this caused her to get blown off her hooves and tumble back, only to be caught by a familiar cloaked figure. "Careful, my student, for while the winds wail, your wings will catch them like a sail."

Dash felt her cheeks flush with embarrassment, which at least had the side benefit of making her feel slightly warmer. Setting her hooves back on the ground, she turned to face her mentor. "Yeah, yeah, I just didn't expect to see you in this storm. Shouldn't you be holing up somewhere warm?"

Zecora gave Dash a small, sly grin before replying, "Indeed, though considering the danger, I thought the best place to do so would be with your friend the Ranger."

Dash knew that look on the zebra's face. It was the 'I was worried about you, but I'm not going to say it out loud because I don't want to hurt your pride' look. Suddenly, before she could thank her mentor, a sky blue gleam was reflected in Dash's eyes as she saw a magical charge get shot up into the air, then release a burst of light and hang there, shining brightly enough to be seen even through the blizzard.

Lifting up a hoof to point it out to Zecora, Dash said, "Yeah, well... the station's close by. Look, that's the beacon to call in the weather pegasi!"

Zecora turned to look and nodded her head. "Then let us hurry and get inside so we can warm up our frozen hides!" Dash certainly agreed as the pair pushed through the snow together, led by the magical light that hung like a lantern over the small stone fortification.

Inside the Ranger's station, Twilight's horn glowed as she wasted no time after setting off the flare. Being careful not to disturb the station's unofficial mascot, Owlowiscious, as he slept on his perch, the various pieces of her armor floated around her, held in her purple aura as she removed her saddlebags and her winter clothes. She then began attaching the pieces of armor to her chest and legs. The padded, purple-tinted plates of metal strapped themselves securely to her body before her helmet set itself over her head. The whole process took just under ten seconds.

"Show-off," Nocturne said with a frown as she used the little claws on her bat-like wings to hold a tray with two mugs of hot chocolate, and a third that had been emptied by the little orange filly sleeping on her back. Scootaloo had collapsed in a state of exhaustion from the adrenaline crash once her body recognized that she was no longer in danger. "If you're trying to give me a case of unicorn-envy... it's working."

Twilight's cheeks flushed as she reflexively tried to stammer out an apology, but stopped herself when she saw her subordinate's expression shift to a teasing smirk.

The unicorn groaned softly to herself, then closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. "Okay... okay. Sgt. Striker!" Opening her eyes again, she focused her gaze on Nocturne, though she modulated her voice upon remembering the napping Scootaloo. "Are Sunburn and Caramel still unavailable?"

Seeing that Twilight was getting focused on the problem at hoof, Nocturne adjusted her attitude accordingly and set the tray down between them. "Afraid so, Lieutenant. Feather flu'll keep Sunburn out of action for another week at least, and Caramel isn't scheduled to get back from his vacation in Las Pegasus for another two days."

Twilight nodded slightly. It was what she already knew, but hearing it from Nocturne made it official. "That just leaves us and Pierce, and he was assigned to animal-waking duty on the other side of town." The Lieutenant reached into her discarded saddlebag with her magic and pulled the map of the Ponyville region out, then spread it out across a table. "Alright, for now we'll have to trust that when the storm hit, everypony took shelter in town or in their homes. You said yourself that this didn't come from the Everfree. I'll need to hear from the pegasi to confirm it, but to me that sounds like this isn't just a fluke of wild weather."

"You think we're under attack, Lieutenant?" Behind Nocturne, a door opened as she asked, "Who could manage something like this? And why?" She then turned toward the door, revealing the sight of the 'witches of the Everfree' standing in the doorway, shaking snow off of their bodies.

"W-wind-d-digoes," Rainbow Dash replied in answer to the sergeant's question, her teeth chattering as she let herself relax a bit in the relatively warmer interior of the station. "At l-l-least-t, that-t's what T-t-teach thinks." Smelling the hot chocolate and feeling desperate to put something hot into her system, she asked, "Don't s-suppose y-y-you can sp-pare a drink?"

Lt. Sparkle blinked in surprise, but quickly levitated the warm mugs over to the medicine mares. "Of course! You look like you need these more than we do." While Zecora and Dash each took a mug and drank them down, Twilight asked, "But what makes you so sure it's Windigoes behind this? Everything we know about them says that they feed on hate, fear and suspicion. The sort of emotions that make ponies act coldly to one another. Maybe... maybe they could've gotten a small hoofhold back when everypony was afraid of you two, but even then I'd have said there was too much love and warmth here for them to even think of attacking."

There was a moment of awkward silence as the pegasus and Zecora shared a look. Then, Rainbow snorted derisively. "Oh, yeah, because they were so loving and warm whenever we'd show up just to try and buy some groceries..."

The Lieutenant looked at her rainbow-maned friend and saw that she was nursing what little was left of her drink and gazing down at the bottom of the mug. "Oh... I'm sorry, Rainbow, I didn't mean to bring up bad memories..."

Dash looked up at her with narrowed eyes and a scowl on her face. "What're you apologizing for? It's not like you were around when it was happening. Not like some ponies in this room." She didn't turn her head, but her eyes swiveled to the side to give Nocturne a frosty glare. "It's not like you threw a dirt clod at my head when I was twelve and shouted at me to leave town. Just because I'd found a few bits and wanted to try to buy some sweets for my birthday!"

Both Rangers' eyes flew wide open, and Twilight's jaw hung open as she turned to stare at Nocturne in disbelief. The bat-pony staggered back a step, only keeping her balance because doing otherwise would have caused Scootaloo to slide off her back. The expression on Nocturne's face was one of surprise, but not denial. "Wha... Rainbow, that was years ago! Why are you bringing that up now, of all times?"

"Wait, so you're saying it's true?"

"Oh yeah, she didn't tell you, Twilight?" Rainbow set down her mug to point a hoof at Nocturne. "Everypony thought I was so evil and scary, it took five teenagers to run one little filly with a broken wing out of Ponyville. Real brave, weren't ya, Sarge? You ever tell the squirt that story? Let her know what a role model her mom really is? Why don't I wake her up and tell her-"

She reached a cyan hoof out toward Scootaloo, only to have it smacked away by a suddenly furious thestral. Nocturne was baring her fangs at the pegasus, eyes narrowed as she hissed, "You leave my daughter out of it! She doesn't deserve--"

Twilight tried to step forward to intervene, only to stop herself when Zecora held up a hoof to stop her and shook her head. Twilight silently raised an eyebrow at the zebra, but held herself back. She did gather magic into her horn in order to teleport into the fray the instant it seemed necessary, though.

At the same time, Dash met Nocturne's glare with her own as she whispered, "Deserve what? To know the truth? That her mom thinks it's okay to pick on little kids who are different, just as long as it's not the same kind of different you are? Just imagine how she'd look at you if she ever found out you're just as bad as those bullies who are always picking on her all the time. Oh, wait, you're worse because you do know what it's like to be singled out, but you did it anyway!"

"Shut up!!" Though still keeping her voice low, Nocturne's whispers were harsh, desperate, and filled with terrible anger. "If you try to touch my daughter again... come near her... even look at her, I will rip your legs off and beat you with them until there's nothing left of you!"

Nocturne's entire body was trembling, but also focused entirely on Rainbow Dash. Nevertheless, she heard the howl that followed her threat as if to punctuate it. A horrible, chilling wail that was both as ethereal as the wind and as primal and feral as a hungry beast.

As the howl echoed through the station, drawing a shudder from everypony inside, Dash's expression melted from the righteous anger she had been affecting to genuine remorse. "I'm sorry, Sarge. I'm really, really, really sorry, but I had to make sure we knew the nature of the danger. It was Teach's idea, but I still crossed the line there. I hope you can forgive me, Ranger."

Blinking in confusion, Nocturne asked, "Wh... what?"

Zecora stepped forward with a sigh. "It's true, I asked her to cause you such aggravation. I could not demand that you accept the threat of the Windigoes without a demonstration. It was necessary to evoke emotions most foul in order to draw out the creature's hungry howl."

"I'll decide what's necessary when it comes to my Rangers, Zecora," Lt. Sparkle interrupted as she walked over to Nocturne, putting a hoof on the thestral's shoulder in a gesture of protectiveness. She shot the zebra a warning glare, though at the same time she admitted, "but you're right, this does show us what we're up against. All the more reason we shouldn't be trying to twist each other's emotions around. If we're fighting Windigoes, we need to be able to trust each other."

Zecora and Dash both tilted their heads down in contrition.

Suddenly, the doors slammed open as several pegasi burst in! Cloud Kicker, weather manager for the Ponyville district, took the lead and let out a sigh of strained relief as she glanced around the room, settling her gaze on Lt. Sparkle. In an instant, she flapped over toward the armored unicorn and exclaimed, "Thank Celestia for that beacon! Lt. Sparkle, we've got a serious problem! It's Raindrops, she... She tried to fly up through the clouds to see what was going on, but..."

Cloud Kicker looked back over her shoulder and moved aside so everypony could see Thunderlane and Blossomforth carrying a solidly-built jasmine mare between them. Rangers and witches alike gasped in horror at the state she was in. Raindrops was postured as if in flight, but completely unmoving thanks to her body being completely frozen in a layer of ice. Blossomforth kicked the door shut behind her again before she and Thunderlane tiredly set their frozen co-worker down with a heavy thud.

Rainbow Dash approached the frozen pegasus and blurted out, "Is she--?!" Stopping herself with a glance toward the fast-asleep Scootaloo, she instead whispered, "Wait..." as she remembered something.

The broken-winged pegasus tapped the ice covering Raindrops a few times, then closed her eyes in concentration as she placed her ear against the frozen shell, right over Raindrops' barrel.

"What's she doing...?" Twilight asked Zecora, confusion plain on her face.

The zebra held a hoof up to her mouth to shush everypony, then leaned in to quietly whisper to the Lieutenant. "A Windigo's ice will preserve its prey so that it may feed on her day after day. If it were not so, then in your Hearth's Warming tale, the three rulers would have surely passed beyond this mortal veil. My student is looking for signs of life, so to start--"

"She's listening for the beating of Raindrops' heart," Twilight murmured, deducing her friend's behavior.

"...I was going to say that part..." Zecora murmured crossly at having her rhyme hijacked, but otherwise kept it to herself so as not to rouse the unicorn's ire again.

The weather pegasi watched Dash. With a touch of nervous hope in his voice, Thunderlane asked, "Is she really alive, Rainbow?"

Dash grimaced as she struggled to focus on listening to the ice-encased pony, but then her expression brightened slightly. "Yeah... Yeah! It's slow, but there, so don't just stand about! Let's hurry and bust this mare out!"

The three weather ponies smiled and let out sighs of relief as they looked at each other, clearly grateful to hear that their friend and co-worker could be saved. Stepping up, Cloud Kicker asked, "So, how do we do this? We tried to buck the ice off of her when she first got frozen, but it just kept re-freezing."

Blossomforth mused, "If it really is like the Hearth's Warming story, should we group-hug or something until the fires of friendship melts it away?" When Cloud Kicker glanced back at her with a cocked eyebrow and the faintest hint of a sly grin, Blossom's cheeks turned even redder than they naturally were after coming in from the frigid cold. "Around Raindrops! Not whatever you were thinking!"

"Do it," Twilight said decisively. Seeing the stricken look that came across Blossomforth's face, the Ranger rolled her eyes. "I mean the hug. You're her friends, right? Focus on that, and how much you care about her. There's no telling how many other ponies are in trouble back in town, so if we can help her, we'll be that much better equipped to help any other ponies who need it."

Either unable or not caring to debate the logic of this course of action, the three weather pegasi gathered around Raindrops and all embraced her frozen form. All of them praying that it would work.

Where are the Elements of Harmony kept?

The question hung in the air within Sugarcube Corner. Instead of answering the huge griffon, however, picked herself up to face Gertrude as she asked, "You want the Elements? After what you have done to this town, what makes you believe that they would ever respond to the likes of you? I have known many fine griffons, but you are nothing but a brute and a coward!"

Gertrude looked upon the businessmare with thinly-veiled disgust as Applejack haughtily spoke back to her, defiantly turning her nose up at their captor. It didn't show on Gertrude's nearly expressionless face, but her dagger-like feathers bristled threateningly, and somehow her blank white eyes seemed to seethe with contempt.

"I think that if one of the Elements can accept a pony like you..." Gertrude replied, "One who has devoted her life to the pursuit of wealth and privilege over her own family, then they should have no difficulty responding to one who bore them in the past."

This jarred Applejack slightly. She tried to maintain her air of confidence and superiority, but it was clearly a struggle to do so as her eyes glanced back toward Apple Bloom. Her little sister looked away as soon as she saw Applejack looking toward her, and buried her face against Fluttershy's wing.

"What did you mean... you bore the Elements?" This question came from Rarity, who protectively stood with Sweetie Belle behind her.

Gertrude waved Applejack away, dismissing the businessmare as she turned her cold gaze upon the unicorn. "It means exactly what I said. Once upon a time, there were six creatures, vastly different from one another, yet united by a bond stronger than any other. I was one of those six, and we six were as one; even your thieving Princesses of Sun and Moon. We were family to one another. Chosen by the Elements of Harmony themselves to rebuild a shattered and broken world."

Gertrude closed her eyes and shook her head slightly. The feathers of ice on her wings tinkled slightly like chimes as her voice grew no warmer, though it did become heavier. "And then it all went so, so wrong... The Sun Dog, bearer of Loyalty, vanished without a trace. Shangwe ya Maisha, bearer of Laughter, fell into a despair that drove her to do terrible, terrible things... crimes for which she was sealed away. And in their absence, your Princess Celestia took on their roles for herself."

There was hesitation as the griffon clenched her eyes shut, but when she opened them again, she shot a chilling glare at each of the ponies. "I did not see it at first. I did not wish to, until the bearer of Honesty came to me. He showed me beyond all doubt what it was my 'sisters' had become. Greedy, selfish creatures who coveted the power of all the Elements so that they might rule as gods in a world shaped in their image alone."

"Y-you're lying!" Sweetie Belle's voice squeaked from behind her sister, who tried and failed to hush her before she blurted out, "The Princesses are the best ponies ever! They'd never steal from their friends!"

Gertrude's wings spread out as her mane suddenly flared far larger. In an instant, all the heat in the room seemed to vanish, replaced with an oppressive, freezing chill. "Then clearly they did not think of me as their friend when they entered my castle, seduced my Knight Captain with promises of fortune and power, and left me trapped within my own ice for centuries." When she spoke, her crystalline voice was no louder, but was infinitely more intense. Every syllable seemed to vibrate through their bones. "Look at the world around you. Where are the rest of us? Only your Princesses remain, glutting themselves on stolen power and ill-gotten riches. Claiming all glory for themselves with no--"

A jet of green flame suddenly interrupted Gertrude, forcing her to bring a wing up to shield herself. The fire struck, melting through the icy dagger-like feathers, but could not sustain itself for long. Once it passed, Gertrude and the ponies looked to see Spike standing before the griffon. The tiny dragon trembled as he looked up at her with tears welling up in his big green eyes. "S-s-stop it... y-you big m-m-meanie...!"

Gertrude blinked at the defiant little reptile, then looked at her wing. Where the ice had melted, feathers of soft, snowy white were exposed. With a slight frown, she focused upon that spot, and the protective layers of ice quickly re-froze. At the same time, she calmed herself enough that the temperature within the bakery began to return to normal.

"You are right, little dragon. That was uncalled for from me," Gertrude replied. "I do not want any of you to be hurt just yet." She gave Applejack a quick glare before adding, "Well... most of you, that is. Your neighbors are beginning to gather outside, anyway. If they give me what I ask for, then there is no need for you to be hurt at all."

While the griffon spoke, Spike felt himself get lifted from the floor in a light blue aura as Rarity pulled him back to join Sweetie Belle behind her. Gertrude paid little mind, though, as she instead turned her attention toward the back of the shop. "To me, mutant."

With slow strides, the ice-armored pegasus came out of the back room and made her way toward Gertrude. Once she was standing in front of the huge griffon, Gertrude said, "The terms of our deal still stand. Watch these ponies and their pet. See to it that they don't do anything foolish, and you will be well-rewarded for your service."

With that said, Gertrude turned toward the smashed and frozen-over front of the bakery. Her talons lashed out, slicing through the thick sheets of ice to create an opening large enough for her to exit, though no pony tried to escape as it sealed itself up behind her the moment she passed through.

"Y'know, Tavi, I can't quite figure you out," Vinyl said as she and the cellist followed their mutual friend Pinkamena to Sugarcube Corner. The DJ's equipment was covered up to protect it from the snow, but Pinkamena had insisted that she bring it, so it was being dragged behind her on a sled pulled by her magic.

Octavia, likewise making her way through the snow with her cello case balanced on her back, looked at Vinyl with an stoic expression that easily rivalled the notoriously stone-faced pink poet pony. "How are you meanink?"

"Well, where'd a stuffy classical musician like you learn to rock like that for starters? Come to think of it, what's a high-class mare like you even doing in Ponyville, anyway? You an' Pinkie an item or something?"

Octavia responded to the unicorn's nudging, both verbal and literal as Vinyl playfully elbowed her in the ribs, by shaking her head. "Is not that vay at present," she replied in her smokey Stalliongrad accent, though the ambiguity of the last two words raised Vinyl's eyebrows. "I actually come to visit cousin Feedlesticks to celebrate her engagement. My old friend Pinkamena lives here as vell, so I arrive early to spend time catching up vith her, but forget about Vinter Wrap-up. Stalliongrad is far to the north, so Vinter lasts a few veeks longer there."

"Oh yeah," Vinyl replied, pretending that she had known that. Though another bit of trivia did pop into her mind. "Hey, is it true you've got like twenty different words for 'snowstorm' up there?"

Octavia nodded. "Da, in a sense. Because Vinter is so much longer, ve must have many classifications to describe the sewerity of a blizzard. For example, the one ve have had today would be called пляж погода."

"Huh. What does that mean in Equestrian?"

"'Beach veather.'"

Vinyl blinked a few times as she stopped in her tracks. As a result, she could only see the edges of what looked like a playful grin on the stoic musician's face, but it was enough to get her laughing as she pushed herself to exert enough magical force on the sled to catch up. "Okay, you got me! Y'know, you're pretty cool. After we get wherever Pinkie's taking us, how about we hit a bar and--WHAT IN CELESTIA'S FLAMING NIPPLES IS THAT?!"

Vinyl skidded to a stop, getting knocked over when her sled caught up and bumped into her behind. As she poked her head up from the snow, however, her eyes widened to a size larger than the lenses of her ever-present shades as she saw the frozen bakery and the giant, icy griffon stepping out of it. Her mouth hung open as she and Octavia were both stunned at the sight.

Even Pinkamena almost showed emotion, standing perfectly motionless except for a faint trembling.

Eventually, as the griffon's gaze slowly panned across the gathering ponies, Vinyl managed to swallow and find her voice again. "That... is so freakin' metal I don't know whether to paint an album cover or wet myself..."

I exit into the open air, but still can feel the hearts of those trapped within the sweets shop. They are afraid, and now turn that cold knot of fear within their hearts upon the 'traitor' in their midst.

In this way, the assassin continues to serve me well. Let my hostages fester in their sense of betrayal and righteous anger. Let them feel it extinguish all that is warm and loving within them. Let them feel just as I felt when my Knights turned their spears upon me.

I still might have endured if it were all but one standing against me. My Knight Captain. My hero. My... my Gunther. A griffon I loved more than life itself. The one who proved beyond any remaining shreds of doubt that the bearer of Honesty had been right all along by shattering my heart. Now, the ice is the only thing holding it together.

I should have frozen them all. I should have dragged their iced-over bodies out for all to see. Trapped them alive in an eternal, frozen scream as an example for all who would stand against me. Especially that dragon whelp. I could have extinguished his flame so easily...

No, that would be counterproductive. It would only unite them against me and ignite the fires of their hearts. Better to let them wallow in suspicion and fear of each other. Now is the time to focus on the ponies gathering around outside.

They back away at the sight of me, murmuring in fear. As they should. Of particular interest are the remaining six-who-are-one as they approach. The poet is here with her musician friends. The remaining two are approaching from the other direction.

The broken-winged pegasus and her mentor are easily recognized, but the unicorn... there is something different about her now. It isn't merely the armor that she now wears. Her bearing is not that of the fragile, nervous creature I observed before. There is a harder, colder look in her eyes now.

That works.

Lt. Sparkle narrowed her eyes as she saw the griffon exit Sugarcube Corner. It didn't take much to deduce that this creature was the source of their troubles. Rainbow Dash and Zecora walked alongside her while Nocturne, Cloud Kicker and Thunderlane had taken to the skies up above, though they kept low enough to stay out of the freezing clouds that had claimed Raindrops.

Upon seeing her arrival, the gathered citizens of Ponyville stepped aside to make way for the Ranger and her companions. Before long, the armored unicorn was standing before the griffon who loomed imperiously over the ponies. Getting straight to the point, she said, "My name is Lieutenant Twilight Sparkle of Luna's Rangers. As such, it is my sworn duty to protect this town against all threatening creatures, including Windigoes. If you are commanding them and do not order them to disperse and return the weather to its natural state, this will be construed as a declaration of hostility, and will be met with an appropriate response."

The griffon looked down at her with an expressionless, mask-like face, though her oddly chiming voice held a hint of amusement as she replied, "Well. What a warm welcome. I am indeed the one commanding the Windigoes, but tell me, Lieutenant; have any of your little ponies attempted to leave since the blizzard began?"

Lt. Sparkle hesitated for just a moment before nodding.

"As I thought. And since you know about Windigoes, I assume that you attempted to use the 'fires of friendship' to free them. Did that succeed?"

Again, Lt. Sparkle paused before answering, "... No." Frightened gasps and murmurs spread throughout the crowd. "A member of the weather team is trapped in ice, but we will find a way to free her."

The griffon leaned in close, her blank white eyes boring into the steely violet of Lt. Sparkle's. "No, you will not. The Windigoes wield my magic as well as their own. Any pony who attempts to flee will be caught and frozen for all eternity, and no amount of love or friendship will melt it away. Neither your Moon nor your Sun will shine upon this town until I have concluded my business here, and there is no power in all of Equestria that can save you."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Lt. Sparkle replied resolutely. "You don't know what we can do."

The griffon turned away, dismissing the purple unicorn as she carved open an entry back into the bakery with her talons. "Well then, feel free to surprise me. We will speak again in one hour. Until then, it has been a long, long time since I have eaten, so I believe I will partake of your local baked goods."

Seeing the griffon turn away, Lt. Sparkle exclaimed, "Wait! What do you even want with us?"

"What I want," she replied, sparing a glance back over her shoulder as the wall of ice began to close again, "is for you all to freeze."

Once the opening froze completely shut again, Twilight chewed on her lower lip in worried thought before turning to Rainbow Dash. "This is worse than I thought. We'll probably need the Elements..."

Perfect. Entirely too perfect. The 'Ranger' put on a brave face, but her heart was pounding frantically in her chest. She is as afraid as the rest. Afraid for her friends and neighbors.

Fear will send her to seek out their greatest weapon.

Fear will deliver the Elements directly into my talons.

Then, the Princesses of Sun and Moon will finally pay for everything they have taken from me.

Author's Note

Whew, just barely made the Sunday deadline I set for myself. This chapter's a week later than usual on account of me starting a short Hearts & Hooves Day story, Patterns & Hues, last week. I'll probably work on finishing the second half of that before getting to the next chapter of Snowblind.

Odd, I thought I'd have more to say in these notes here. I'll probably remember some time later, but for now, me need sleep bad before wake up stupid-o-clock. So good night, my fellow bronies.

Fanfic Rec: Go check out Magical Mystery Drama by AstroBrony. It's set in a rather meta version of Equestria where the characters are aware that their adventures are part of a show, and their existence relies on the love of the fans, so the story revolves around the behind-the-scenes freakout when Twilight accidentally turns herself into an alicorn while they're shooting the season finale.

A Frozen Heart

Snowblind
by crowmagnon

A Frozen Heart

Rarity was upset, due in large part to the fact that she couldn't allow herself to act like she was upset.

From a young age, Rarity Stone had never been one to mask her emotions. As a filly, when her head had been filled with dreams of fairy tale romance and gem-studded dresses, even her best friends had called her "the reigning drama queen of all time."

Drama PRINCESS, if you don't mind. The old standby retort still echoed in her mind. After all, everypony knew princesses were better than queens. Still, that was years ago, and she had since come to the conclusion that she was not the glamorous damsel of a storybook romance who would be courted and fawned over before being swept off her hooves by a dashing and chivalrous noblepony.

Despite setting aside her foalhood dreams in favor of a life spent working the earth and coaxing beautiful gems out of humble stones, she had never developed the stoicism associated with others in her field. She had always remained true to her heart, and very rarely refrained from expressing her feelings.

Even so, she felt that she had to try her hardest to keep the little ones from seeing what was really going on behind her attempts to project a mask of calm. She was afraid, of course. Bucking terrified, if one were to get technical about it.

What she had to hide from the others, especially her son and little sister, was that she was furious.

Gertrude had just left them alone to be watched over by the mysterious armored pony. Applejack was confronting the pegasus, demanding to know how any pony could help the monstrous griffon who had trapped them inside Sugarcube Corner, but she only got threatening growls in response.

Of course the traitor is a pegasus. Just like Fluttershy. They're probably working together.

Rarity almost turned her gaze toward Fluttershy, but quickly turned her head away as she felt her guts twist with anger. Instead, she looked toward the Cakes who were huddling together. Carrot kept whispering reassurances to his wife and nuzzling her barrel, much like how Sweetie Belle was pressed tightly against her big sister's side.

Where Spike should be.

Everypony, including Rarity, had been in a state of shock and concern for the pegasus and Apple Bloom when they had come crashing in through the window.

She's so good at acting cute and innocent to get what she wants.

The armored pony had taken most of the impact and shielded them from the broken glass, so neither of them had suffered severe injuries, though they had been understandably rattled.

How convenient that she fell through a glass window with only a few cuts and scrapes. Really makes her look like a hero, doesn't it?

Even Spike had gone to her, to make sure that Fluttershy and Apple Bloom were okay. As if she had never chomped his tail just that morning. Like he wasn't her little baby, and it wasn't Rarity's duty to keep that sort of harm from ever befalling her beloved Spikey-wikey. And now she had him and the little earth pony filly wrapped nice and snugly in her wings as though she were their mother.

She wants to take him from me.

Trying to keep the two little ones away from their real family. From their mother and big sister.

Spike and Apple Bloom are just tools to her. She's using them to get back at me and Applejack for yelling at her.

A cold, twisted knot of rage formed in the pit of her stomach as, in Rarity's mind, she could see it as clear as day. Fluttershy and Iron Will, the celebrity interspecies couple, conspiring to take Spike away and adopt him for their own. But not to love him the way she could. Not as the devoted mother who had loved and cared for him from the moment he was first hatched. No, they would trot him out in front of the cameras. Bask in the fame and novelty. Dress him up in little outfits and make him pose and preen like some sort of pet, and then keep him locked away in the basement when they didn't need him.

"Rarity!"

Sweetie Belle's squeaky voice was as soft as a whisper, but forceful enough to pierce through her horrible daydream. As the vision of Spike trapped in a cold, dank cellar evaporated, Rarity realized that at some point, she had turned her gaze back upon Fluttershy, who was nuzzling the distraught but exhausted Apple Bloom.

"You were grinding your teeth really hard," Sweetie Belle said after she got her big sister's attention. "And... and you started to feel cold..."

"Oh... Thank you, Sweetie. It's alright, I'm okay now," she whispered, nuzzling her little sister as she pushed her anger aside. But as she glanced toward Fluttershy, her eyes narrowed. "But wait here for a moment. I'll be right back..."

Her little sister clearly didn't want to leave Rarity's side as the older unicorn stood up, but a bit of magic held her in place as Rarity made her way toward the pegasus who was currently both her friend and the target of her mortal hatred.

As she drew closer, Rarity could hear that Fluttershy was whispering what sounded like motivational catch-phrases to Apple Bloom. "And if somepony makes you scared, picture them with no hair!" This got a snort of laughter from Spike, but no more than a weak smile out of Apple Bloom which faded quickly.

Seeing Rarity approach, Fluttershy looked up at the unicorn. "Hi, Rarity. Did you want Spike back? He's such a sweet little guy, I'm just glad he forgave me..."

"'Sokay, Missus Fwuttershy," the baby dragon hugged the yellow mare's neck. "I was just surpwised. It didn' weally hurt," he assured her.

Fluttershy smiled and nuzzled a little while he hugged her. "Well, you are a big, strong dragon. You even scared that mean old griffon, didn't you?"

Rarity felt her jaw clench again as her adopted son beamed from Fluttershy's praise.

"Yes," the unicorn practically hissed, and she had to fight back much harsher words. At least in front of Spike. "Listen, Fluttershy, I--"

Before she could say what she wanted to, Rarity was interrupted by the sound of Gertrude's claws slicing through the ice. Acting on reflex, she quickly yanked Spike away with her magic and set him on her back as she hurried to return to Sweetie Belle's side. Nopony will take my family from me. Nopony! She managed to get back to Sweetie Belle just as the griffon stepped into the room, the entrance sealing shut behind her.

Gertrude's gaze slowly passed over each of the ponies, who shivered when they felt her cold white eyes on them. She then shook her head solemnly and told them, "It seems that your friends and neighbors have chosen not to cooperate. They do not think that your safety and well-being is worth the price I ask of them."

"Wh-what're ya gonna do with us...?" Apple Bloom's voice was tiny and still cracking from the strain she had put on it before, but the question hung heavily in the air.

Gertrude didn't answer the filly's question. Instead, she turned to address the Cakes while pointing a single razor-sharp talon at the yellow pegasus. "I will be speaking with this one upstairs. Bring up something to eat while I do," she commanded.

Fluttershy squeaked. "Speak with me?"

"Yes, you will be first."

Apple Bloom whimpered and hugged herself close to Fluttershy, who clearly didn't want to leave the filly's side. "That was not a request," the griffon explained, swiftly snatching Fluttershy up in her talons. With the pegasus held in her frigid grip, she pushed past the other ponies and made her way up the stairway to the floor above the bakery where the Cakes lived.

Silence filled the room as Gertrude left, and Rarity took a deep breath before looking at the other ponies again. Left without the warmth of Fluttershy's wing, Apple Bloom timidly made her way toward Sweetie Belle in order to be close to her friend. the little filly didn't even see the armored pegasus make a move toward her as she passed, only for Applejack to quickly put herself in the way so that Apple Bloom could easily reach the unicorns and baby dragon.

As the young earth pony flopped down next to Sweetie Belle and leaned against her friend to share what warmth she could, Spike toddled over to her other side and gently nuzzled up against her, his scaley little body proving to be warm thanks to the miniature magical furnace inside of him. Apple Bloom gave them a weak smile as she lay down with her chin resting on the floor before she croaked, "Worst... Winter Wrap-up... ever. Of all time."

Everypony in the room sighed and nodded in agreement, including the pegasus.

"I-it's alright, Apple Bloom," Carrot Cake stammered, picking himself up. "We'll be okay. Your big sister and Miss Rarity and Miss Fluttershy... they all helped save Princess Celestia and woke up Princess Luna, right? So they'll make sure nothing happens to us... right...?" He glanced back at his wife, then looked to the two mares with a pleading look in his eyes.

Rarity nodded and replied, "Of course, Mr. Cake. You and Cup should just play along and bring them some food for now. We'll focus on doing everything we can to keep everypony safe." Assuming we can even trust Fluttershy not to sell us out. I should have known we can't trust an 'Element of Laughter' when there's a real problem, Rarity thought, though the voice in her head that was saying such things felt somewhat quieter, almost more distant now.

It gave her a chance to instead think, I just hope that Twilight and the others are coming to the rescue...

Lt. Sparkle shot blasts of magic at the ice surrounding Sugarcube Corner, probing its durability. It was risky, given that Gertrude had hostages inside, but she had failed to rouse the griffon's ire after her initial, weak spells battering against the frozen shell. Gradually working her way up to more and more powerful bursts of focused magical force did nothing but demonstrate why Gertrude seemed to mind so little, however.

Twilight had methodically ratcheted up the amount of force that she put into her blasts, also infusing them with various properties in an attempt to melt or break the ice. Even when focusing beams of heat at the ice, however, it simply re-froze too quickly for her spells to make so much as a permanent dimple.

Giving up for the moment, Twilight panted and perspired heavily from the sustained effort. Thankfully, Rainbow Dash was right there to help wipe away the sweat before it could freeze. "Don't push yourself too hard, Twi. I know you're a powerhouse, but even you have limits."

"Especially me," the unicorn muttered under her breath.

"What was that?"

The unicorn shook her head. "I said I'll be fine, Rainbow. I had to try, anyway. That griffon's got some seriously powerful magic. She might even be as strong as the princesses, and if we're trapped by the storm, we can't send anypony out to get help." She then let out a shrill whistle that signalled the bat-pony flying in circles around Sugarcube Corner.

Within moments, Sergeant Nocturne set down in the snow next to Twilight and Rainbow Dash. Her expression was grim as she shook her head. "No good, Lieutenant. I could hear stress points whenever you hit it, but it was different every time. That shell is constantly reinforcing itself." Nocturne's tufted ears twitched as she quietly added, "Worse... I definitely heard voices inside. They were muffled, so I couldn't get a clear idea of exactly who or how many, but..."

When Nocturne trailed off, Rainbow Dash hesitantly asked, "But what, Sarge?"

The thestral glanced at Dash, a regretful frown forming as she quickly looked away and focusing on Twilight. "There are foals in there, Lieutenant. And one of them sounded a lot like Spike."

Lt. Sparkle's breath caught in her throat at this news. "If that's true, then Rarity's in there with him." She looked around, surveying the faces in the crowd. Pinkamena was nearby, but there was no sign of the other three bearers of the Elements of Harmony. "At the moment, we'll have to prepare for the worst and assume that Applejack and Fluttershy are hostages, too."

"Hostages?!" This came from the loud, gruff voice of Iron Will, who had been hobbling toward them on his crutch when he overheard the purple unicorn. His face was pale at the thought as he asked, "Everypony's saying there's some kind of monster in there... and you think my Fluttershy's trapped with it?!"

Lt. Sparkle let out a groan and was quick to turn around to reassure the fretting minotaur. The last thing she needed at the moment was for panic to start spreading throughout the crowd more than it already had. "Mr. Will, we don't know that for sure just yet, so it doesn't help anypony to jump to conclusions. And even if she is, I promise you that we'll do everything equinely possible to make sure nopony gets hurt."

Iron Will looked down at Twilight, his gruff voice quavering as he replied, "Promise? I promised I'd always be there for her! I promised I'd always protect her! Sickness and health, peaceful days and random monster attacks!"

Pinkamena chose that moment to approach them, tilting her head and blinking a few times. "Wow. That was actually in your vows? I guess that makes sense, since you two used to be on the road so much. We should do that here in Ponyville, being right next to the Everfree and everything."

"Not the best time, Pinkamena," Rainbow Dash whispered to her poetic friend while Iron Will ground his teeth together in a mix of anger and fear.

Slamming a fist into the palm of his other hand, the frustrated minotaur growled, "I can't just stand back and do nothing! Not when my little Fluttershy needs me! I'll smash that igloo open and take this monster apart-"

"-With his bare hands! By the time he's through, you'll just be a boneless pile of jelly! I'd like to see you try to pick a fight after that."

Gertrude stared at the yellow pegasus in disbelief. She had separated her from the rest of her hostages in order to intimidate Fluttershy into giving up the location of the Elements just in case her threats didn't drive the three outside to collect them for her. Instead, Fluttershy's big blue eyes were focused on Gertrude's own, projecting unwavering confidence and conviction as she described in vivid detail what Iron Will would do to her if he got his hands on the griffon.

How did I allow this pathetic little mare to dominate the conversation? I will make her cower, the griffon of Winter thought to herself as she narrowed her eyes and leaned in close enough for a thin rime of frost to form on the pegasus's pink mane. "And what makes you think that I want a wing massage," she practically hissed.

Even as she felt the cold radiating from the giant griffon, a coy little smile spread across Fluttershy's face. "Trust me, Gertrude, even if you don't think you want one right now, you need one of Will's wing massages. The things he can do with his thumbs... ooh~!" The pegasus's cheeks pinked as she shivered, her wings popping straight up at the thought.

"Oh, I'd say it's better than sex, but... well, I don't want to get you too jealous, because I'm keeping that all to myself," she said with a saucy giggle. "At the end of a stressful day, though, nothing's better than settling in and letting him work his magic on my wings and back. Just give it a try, and you'll feel sooooo much happier."

"I DON'T WANT TO BE HAPPY!" Gertrude suddenly roared at the pegasus with such ferocity that her mane was blown back, freezing in place so that it looked like Fluttershy had a pink cone attached to the back of her head. The volume of the roar was so great that thin cracks formed across the griffon's face as it contorted into the most vicious snarl Fluttershy had ever seen.

"There is no happiness anymore," the griffon sneered, slamming her talons against the floor and slicing deep gouges into the boards. "Your rulers stole it all from me! The Element of Generosity! The hearts of my people! My Gu--!"

She caught herself before she could finish speaking the name aloud. Clenching her talons in frustration, Gertrude took a deep breath and stepped back to compose herself. Gazing down at Fluttershy, she growled, "Get out."

"But you didn't even ask about--"

"Get out, and be grateful I let you do so alive. Go join your precious friends, and pray that they don't live long enough to betray you."

The pegasus looks like she has more to say, but she swallows the words before they can escape, then turns to the door to leave.

If she had done otherwise, I probably would have filleted her like a fish.

I knew that she would be the troublesome one. I am Winter. She is Laughter, the Element once borne by Shangwe of Spring. She will cling to the lie she is living for as long as she can, and if not for the unicorn, I would have disposed of her rather than risk letting her meddle with my agenda.

The unicorn understands, even if she does not know it. I feel the pain of betrayal in her, directed into hatred for her 'friend'. If anything can break the pegasus and her naive optimism, it is her.

And I want her broken. Merely getting the location of the Elements of Harmony may still be my primary goal, but now I want to see them suffer as I want the Sun and Moon to suffer. In my generation, we six who bore the Elements of Harmony shared a connection forged in a crucible that those living now can not even imagine.

When evil threatened to break the world apart, we held it together.

When the elemental forces of nature were at their weakest, we took on their role to keep the lands alive.

When the many races began fighting over what little was left in the aftermath, we gave them hope. We gave them guidance. We became the leaders they needed, no matter how heavy we found the crowns.

We were six, but we acted as one. Our lives were filled with love for each other and for all the world, unified in purpose and friendship beyond any foe's ability to break us apart.

Still, break apart we did. The Harmony we tried to share with the world was a lie, unmade from within.

What gives these little ponies the right to think that they are better? On what basis do they believe that their bond is any truer than ours was?

The pegasus leaves the room just as the blue earth pony mare arrives, balancing a tray of cupcakes on her back. She shivers with terror as she enters, or perhaps I have simply unconsciously lowered the temperature in my ire. Whichever is the case, it matters not. She should not even be approaching me in her condition, if she is going to be so afraid.

She bends her head back to take the edge of the tray in her mouth and nervously places it on the nearest table. I look through her and see her heart pound even harder when she notices the gouges my talons have made in the floor.

"Calm yourself," I find myself saying. "It is not healthy for them."

The mare flinches when I speak, then looks up in confusion before comprehension dawns. Her eyes widen, the blood draining from her face. "How did you...?"

"I have my ways. Now go. Bring me the farmer. I would speak with her next. And do not come up here again."

I watch the mare make her way out of the room, hearts beating frantically inside of her as she hurries down the stairs. While she is gone, I reach for the tray she left behind and carefully pick up one of the cupcakes between my talons. Such a small thing, and despite the fear they have of me, the bakers took great care to craft it well. Tiny bits of yellow crumbs and pink frosting end up on my talons. The faintest speckles of bright color against my pure white, like tiny flower buds peeking through the snow.

When Rarity crested the stairs and approached the open door, she tried to imagine what she would find. She did not expect to find the snow-white griffon holding a cupcake and studying it as if she were holding a fine gemstone.

Rarity quietly closed the door behind her, though Gertrude seemed so pre-occupied with her study of the small treat that she wasn't sure if the griffon was actually aware of her.

That uncertainty was quickly dismissed when, without turning her head to look at the unicorn, Gertrude asked, "How much does your family mean to you?" When Rarity hesitated to answer, then Gertrude turned her gaze upon the unicorn and added, "That was not rhetorical."

"Everything," Rarity quickly replied. "My family means everything to me."

Gertrude walked toward Rarity, still holding the cupcake. "And what of your friends? Does your family mean everything to them?"

Instead of answering directly, the manner in which Rarity grimaced and looked away gave the griffon the answer she was looking for.

"You understand," Gertrude said, sidling up beside Rarity. "I can tell. I saw what happened. I saw how she hurt your son. I can feel the cold in your heart when you look at that pink-maned canary. You're right to feel that way, you know. I offered her a chance to save you and the ones you love, and she did nothing but make lewd jokes."

Gertrude spread a wing out over Rarity. Her feather's tinkled against one another like a hundred crystal glasses meeting in a toast as the massive appendage formed an arch over the unicorn. She did not touch Rarity, as the danger of cutting her with her sharp, bladed feathers would have been too great, but the chill radiating from Gertrude's body completely surrounded the farmer.

"We both know what it means to have our lives bound to those who will betray us. To devote everything to those we love, asking for so little in return. To have those we trust the most turn on us and try to take away what little we claim for our own..."

Rarity shivered as the cold seeped through her clothes and into her body, but didn't dare to move. If she tried, Gertrude would not even need to lift a paw. A simple wave of her wing would easily tear the unicorn to shreds before she could get far. The more she listened to Gertrude's words, however, the less she thought about that.

Fluttershy was here before me. She could have bargained with Gertrude to save my family, but she didn't...

That thought echoed through Rarity's mind as her shivering slowly faded until it ceased completely. The longer she spent surrounded by Gertrude's chill, the more the cold felt strangely comforting. "You're right... I do understand," she eventually said to the griffon. "Princess Celestia and Princess Luna... they really hurt you, didn't they? That's why you have to do this. Do you promise that if I help you, you'll let my sister and son go?"

"I swear it," Gertrude replied.

Rarity nodded. "And my parents... the rest of my family here in Ponyville... do you promise that you will protect them, too?"

Gertrude looked down at Rarity and solemnly vowed, "So long as you help me reclaim the Elements of Harmony, I promise you that your family, be they pony, dragon, or any other creature, will come to no harm from me or the Windigoes under my command."

Rarity closed her eyes in thought. While she did so, Gertrude placed the cupcake she held into her beak.

It was painfully delicious. Fluffy and light, the sweet pink frosting complementing the yellow cake perfectly. The Cakes were obviously skilled at their craft, and even in this situation, infused the sweet treat with love for their work and for their neighbors. It made Gertrude want to smile, and took all of her strength of will not to vomit it up as she swallowed. Even the thinnest sliver of genuine happiness felt like poison burning its way down her throat, but she refused to let such a small thing have power over her.

After Gertrude managed to choke the cupcake down, Rarity apparently came to her decision. "Alright," she said to the griffon. "I'll help you, on one additional condition..." She opened her eyes and looked up at Gertrude with eyes that were as blankly snow-white as her own. "Whatever you do to anypony else, Fluttershy is mine," she said in an chilling tone.

Gertrude allowed herself a smile. The sort of smile which was one in form only, and thus could not pain her now. There was no longer any room for happiness in the warden of Winter's heart, but satisfaction... that was still within her reach.

Author's Note

Almost four months. Almost four freaking months since this story last updated. Between working on other stories, a vacation and allergy attacks, I somehow let this slip into the sort of hiatus that always frustrates me when it happens to stories by others. Now I know how it feels. Plus I had a really hard time getting this chapter to feel right to me, as it's sort of a transition into the final act leading up to the big climax. Hopefully getting into the payoff for everything I've set up so far will help the next few chapters go by much more smoothly.

Until next time, hope you enjoy it.

Fear Not the Winter (pt. 1/2)

Snowblind
by crowmagnon

Fear Not the Winter, pt. 1

Breathe in... breathe out...

Apple Bloom took slow, deep breaths as she huddled up with Sweetie Belle and Spike. Overall, she was much more calm than she had been, but fear still filled the ground floor of Sugarcube Corner, even after Fluttershy and Mrs. Cake had returned safely from their meetings with Gertrude.

"Is... is mommy gonna be okay?" Spike's voice broke the silence as he looked up the staircase, hoping to see Rarity coming down them safe and sound.

"Don't worry, darling," Applejack assured the little ones as she approached, moving very slowly and carefully as she tried to keep a plate of four cupcakes on her back. It was clear that she lacked the practiced balance of Mrs. Cake. As a result, the cultured poise with which she typically walked was completely absent. Once she was close to them, the businessmare turned her head and reached for the edge of the plate with her teeth. Her already precarious balance caused the plate to wobble and tilt away from her mouth.

When the plate and its cargo of sweets started to overbalance, the fillies and baby dragon watched with what they would have called horror if not for the other events of the day. Applejack herself panicked and overcorrected, causing it all to slide off and start tumbling to the floor.

Applejack winced, expecting a crash that never came. As the plate and cupcakes fell, Apple Bloom reflexively dived forward, sliding on her barrel across the short distance of floor just in time to catch the plate in her hooves. She had less luck with the cupcakes, three of which landed on the plate while the fourth hit the edge and fell to the floor.

When the businessmare opened her eyes, she let out a sigh of relief and beamed down at her little sister. "Oh, thank you, thank you. That was an amazing catch," she said, praising Apple Bloom as she picked up one of the cupcakes that hit the plate upside-down, causing it to lose much of its frosting. She looked between that one and the one that had fallen on the floor in quiet dismay. "Oh dear... that won't do. What a waste..."

Apple Bloom briefly felt a small smile try to form on her face, but it quickly faded as a faint whisper in her mind reminded her, It doesn't matter if she compliments me. She's only here to make herself feel better, then she'll abandon her family again.

"Whatever... Y'all c'n jus' buy a whole bakery if'n ya feel like it," she muttered as she set the plate down and just lay down on the cold floor.

"I c'n eat this one," Spike volunteered, picking up the fallen cupcake. "I dun' mind!"

"It's alright, I can just get another batch," Carrot Cake said morosely and started to make his way back to the kitchen, only to be stopped by Applejack's voice.

"No need, sir, you and your lovely wife have done more than enough under the circumstances." She then quickly picked the treat out of Spike's claws and told him, "And your mother would simply murder me if she ever found out I allowed you to eat something off of the floor."

Without a second thought, Applejack took a large bite out of the cupcake, finishing it in two more. She then daintily wiped the crumbs from her mouth and smiled at the bakers. "~Mmm~ Mister and Mrs. Cake, you two are artists," she told them while everypony stared at her in surprise. Everypony except for Fluttershy, at least, who covered her mouth to stifle a giggle at their expressions. Seeing their looks, Applejack pulled a compact from one of her coat's pockets and opened it up to inspect her face. "Whatever is the matter? Do I have crumbs on my face?"

When Applejack found nothing, she closed the compact and put it away, then turned her attention to the remaining cupcakes. "Now then... let's see about fixing this. A-ha!" Her green eyes sparkled with inspiration as she reached up to her earrings, pulling them out. Then she set them on the floor and began worrying at the emeralds with the edge of her hoof.

Apple Bloom stared with the others, and didn't even notice Fluttershy approaching until the filly felt a soft wing on her back once again. Looking up into the pegasus's blue eyes, she whispered, "Wh... what's goin' on...? Why's she doin' that...?"

"It's just the sort of pony your big sister is," Fluttershy fondly whispered back. "Just watch."

After a bit more worrying at the gems, Applejack managed to work them free of their settings. She then carefully picked them up and placed the twin emeralds on the bare cupcake and offered the bejeweled sweet to Spike. The baby dragon's eyes widened, drool dribbling out of the corner of his mouth as the precious stones twinkled deliciously. "Thank you, Miz Appajack," he said excitedly as he took the cupcake and shoved as much of it into his mouth as he could fit.

Applejack laughed softly and pat Spike on the back when he had a bit of trouble eating it all. "Easy, darling, take your time chewing before you swallow. Mister and Mrs. Cake obviously put a lot of love into their work, so try to savor it." With that, she picked up the earrings and placed them back on her ears, showing no hint of concern that the dazzling emeralds that had adorned them were now in a baby dragon's stomach.

Apple Bloom clenched her eyes shut, trying to make sense of it.

Ever since her first blow-up at Applejack, the earth pony's heart had been aching. Mrs. Fluttershy had done what she could to help, but each reassuring word and disarming catch phrase was countered by her own inner voice reminding her of every missed family reunion. Every school event attended by Big Mac and Granny Smith, but not her amazing, successful big sister. Every time those spoiled brats Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon made fun of her family's rural ways and taunted her over how Applejack was the only one smart enough to divorce herself from the rest of their family of stupid hicks and make something of herself.

How they had been forced to hire strangers when Big Mac alone couldn't handle the workload and she was too small and weak to help. Strangers working Sweet Apple Acres, which had been lovingly tended to by the Apple clan since before Ponyville was even a town.

As she stewed in her thoughts, Apple Bloom was briefly startled when she felt something brush her nose, and opened her eyes to find one of the remaining cupcakes being held in front of her face between two little white hooves. Sweetle Belle was looking down at her with her wide, innocent green eyes and a hopeful smile on her face as she offered Apple Bloom the treat.

"Ah hate you," the filly muttered in reply as she looked past her friend toward her big sister. Applejack's ears flattened with dismay when she heard this, but Apple Bloom wasn't done. "Ah hate you. Ya never show up mah entire life, then whenever you do, somethin' horrible happens an' ruins everything. Now ya think ya c'n jus' bribe mah friends an' everything's fine?"

Applejack winced. For a moment, her eyes reflexively flashed with the desire to challenge the harsh words, but she quickly swallowed it back before she could say anything more that she would regret today. Instead, she looked her little sister in the eye and said, "I know... but I promise you, I'll do whatever it takes to get you back to Big McIntosh and Granny." She offered the filly a small smile, hoping that this would soothe her sister's anger.

She was not prepared when Apple Bloom croaked out, "Ah hate them, too." This time, the words struck Applejack so sharply that she almost recoiled away. "Ah never knew ya, but they were here when you walked away. They depended on ya more'n anypony, an' no matter how many times ya betrayed 'em, they never stopped carryin' on about how great an' wonderful you were. They're stupid. Stupid an' pathetic..."

Apple Bloom began shivering on the cold floor as she spoke, but in contrast her voice grew steadier as it slipped into an icy, spiteful tone. The ponies and dragon near her gasped in horror at what she was saying, and it was her dearest friend who spoke up first.

"You don't really mean that, Apple Bloom! You're just saying that because your cold and scared, right?" The unicorn filly placed a dainty hoof on her friend's shoulder, but immediately recoiled in shock at what she felt. "A-apple Bloom, you're freezing!"

"Shut up," Apple Bloom said, interrupting her friend. Slowly opening her eyes, she looked up at Sweetie Belle, filling the unicorn with dread. Her eyes didn't have the blank white cast to them that Gertrude's did, or which Rarity's had briefly shown, but her orange irises were masked over with a frosty rime.

"Ah hate you, too," the earth pony filly said, her voice low and steady even as it was filled with a cold rage. It remained so, even as ice began to form on the floor beneath her and slowly creep its way up her little body. "You don't know how good ya have it. Rarity'd move mountains for you an' Spike. She ain't no Diamond Tiara or Silver Spoon. She'd never sell ya out fer a pile o' bits."

Her gaze then turned to Spike, who was already trembling with fear and confusion as his young aunt's best friend said such horrible things without even raising her voice above a threatening hiss. As she focused her eyes on him, he could see the orange slowly fading away as she said, "An' ah hate you so much, Spike. Always rubbin' it in mah face that ya have the perfect momma when mine's been gone since before you were hatched."

Apple Bloom didn't even seem to notice the ice that was visibly covering more and more of her body as she looked back down at her hooves. "Ah hate you all. I hate everythin'. Ah hate me. Jus' go away! Jus' let it all go away..." By this point the ice had completely coated her legs and was making its way up her back toward her head. The filly simply shut her eyes and let it happen.

"Somepony, do something! Help her," Sweetie Belle shrieked before darkness covered the yellow filly.

"I promise you, Iron Will, we'll do everything we can to help your wife. But right now, we don't even know for sure if Fluttershy's even in there," Lt. Sparkle explained once again to the irate minotaur. Turning her attention to Nocturne Striker, she asked, "Any sign of Private Pierce?"

"No, ma'am, the weather team are still looking," the thestral replied as she flitted about, keeping an eye out from above. Every so often, she would let out a high shrieking sound that would have chilled the blood if the unnatural weather weren't doing the job already. Afterward, her ears would twitch from side to side and she called down, "Sounds like everypony you wanted off the streets is secure inside, though."

Lt. Sparkle let out a sigh of relief. "Thank Celestia for that much." She then turned to Pinkamena and her musician friends, who were among the few she had requested to stay close by. "Thanks for staying on standby. Pinkamena, I have no idea what you were thinking, but I'm glad you brought them."

"It seemed to fit," Pinkamena replied with a shrug as she pulled a thermos out of her turtleneck and opened it up. The rich, warm smell of coffee wafted out of it as she took a long drink of the hot beverage.

"Yeah, well, you gonna fill us in on the plan any time soon, L.T.?" Between Pinkamena and Octavia, Vinyl Scratch was by far the least stoic about their situation. "Not to be a whiner or anything, but I was expecting to have kicked off Spring by now."

"Sorry, Vinyl, but I can't be sure how much that griffon or her Windigoes can hear. Just trust me, in forty-seven of the sixty-one plans I've got running right now, you're very important."

This made the DJ's eyebrows raise up over her shades. "Sixty-one? Isn't that a little overkill?"

Lt. Sparkle coughed into her hoof. "Well, maybe, but--"

"It takes her quite a bit of thought to narrow her options down, you see," Rarity explained to the griffon. Gertrude was listening attentively, as well as keeping her eyes and ears trained on the unicorn's heartbeat and bodily tics for any sign of duplicity. Thus far, she had found none. "She is, to put it bluntly, far more powerful than the average unicorn and much smarter than everypony in this building combined. The instant you made yourself known, her brain must have been swimming with a thousand plans."

Rarity sat on her haunches and ran a hoof up and down the braid hanging down over her shoulder as she thought about the purple unicorn outside. Her blank white eyes looked straight ahead, offering no hint of remorse or guilt over her betrayal. "Most of them would be worthless, but she would have been spending the time since then determining which are doomed to failure and which offer a chance of success. If you give her the chance to pare it down to one perfect plan, then you will have no chance of reclaiming your Element."

"Really now?" Gertrude lay on the floor across from Rarity, her forelegs crossed in front of her. "As strong as she may be for a mere unicorn, I have faced the Sun and Moon, and was only defeated when Luna turned my own power upon me. What if she works her way through the impossible plans and pares them down to zero?"

"Then she will become desperate enough to ignore what's possible and make a new plan anyway. As long as you try to play chess with her, you'll lose."

Gertrude narrowed her eyes at the unicorn and reached out with talons sharp enough to slash through solid rock. Gently holding Rarity's face between those claws, she looked Rarity straight in the eyes for several seconds before saying, "I believe you. Thank you, Rarity, this information is more than worth your family's freedom."

Rarity blinked several times, and in the moments when they open, her blue irises showed briefly through the cloudy white before vanishing again. "It... is?"

"Of course," Gertrude replied, releasing Rarity as she stood and sat down once more. "You gave me an honest appraisal of your friend's intelligence, and made it clear that it is her greatest strength, as well as her greatest liability. Let us assume for the moment that her intellect truly is as formidable as you say, and I cannot defeat her at chess in order to reclaim the Elements. I can still change the game. Now, tell me about the cloaked pegasus."

Iron Will grumbled to himself as he sat, staring at the frozen bakery. The minotaur looked down at the cast surrounding his leg, a souvenir from the last time an insane monster from the ancient past had threatened his wife and adopted homeland.

After narrowing his eyes in a futile attempt to glare his way through the thick shell of ice encasing Sugarcube Corner, he sighed and slumped forward, kicking at the snowy earth with his good hoof. "Stupid... weak... can't even chip through ice. Is this all I'm good for? Just spewing out stupid slogans?" The minotaur slammed his fist into a nearby tree in frustration, causing himself to get buried for a moment in the snow that fell from its branches.

Though it added to his frustration, he made no effort to wipe it away. The thought of failing his wife and friends in the face of danger chilled his heart, and he started to wonder if he should simply let the cold take him, rather than let Fluttershy see him as a crippled weakling who couldn't do anything when it mattered.

The thought of that sweet little pegasus looking at him with disappointment in her big blue eyes made his guts twist.

Why didn't you do anything? You promised you'd always look out for me, the Fluttershy in his mind said, chastising him. Not even angry at him, just... looking at him with those soft eyes that felt like they could stare right into your soul, and finding him wanting.

The very thought made his confidence, which was already shaken at the thought of his beloved pegasus trapped in the griffon's clutches, crumble like a sand castle in an earthquake. His heart seized up in his mighty chest, and he could feel the cold seeping into him. And he realized that he would rather allow it to do so than ever suffer Fluttershy's disappointed stare. Just let it take him away, and--

"What do you think you're doing, big guy? Don't tell me you're just gonna lay down and die," a raspy voice rhymed, interrupting his thoughts while a cyan wing brushed snow off of his body. "I know it's gotta be bugging you, but if you stay buried in the snow, your fur won't be the only thing that's blue."

"Leave me alone," the minotaur said, trying to push Rainbow Dash away with a weak swipe of his hand. "She's gonna leave me! My Flutterpony thinks I'm weak and useless... and she's right! While she was busy saving Equestria, I was sidelined with a broken leg! I hate mys-"

"Stop!" Iron Will blinked, interrupted again when Rainbow Dash stuck a cyan hoof in his face. The minotaur snorted in annoyance, but before he could say anything, she told him, "No, just stop. Don't say another word. That's the biggest load of horse-apples I've ever heard."

Iron Will frowned at the pegasus. Even if he had been in the middle of a bout of self-pity and -loathing, it wasn't in the minotaur's nature to take being told to just shut up and listen. With a heated snort, he asked, "And what do you know about it?!"

Rainbow Dash got up on her hind legs and leaned an elbow against the minotaur's shoulder. "Well it's pretty obvious you're feeling a lot of fear, but why do you think you're here?"

The bull's frown turned to one of confusion as he arched an eyebrow at the pegasus. "Uh... you mean... existentially?"

Dash poked Iron Will with her free hoof and replied, "I mean out here, instead of inside. If you're so weak, why don't you go hide?"

Despite his self-doubts, the challenge to his pride lit a hot spark in Iron Will's psyche. "Minotaurs don't hide! I just don't know what to do!" Iron Will snapped reflexively.

Rainbow Dash snarked, "Well you won't do anything at all if you just sit and mope, you giant dope. Why are you so afraid Fluttershy'll get sick of you and walk away? Did you think she would when you woke up today?"

Iron Will snorted back as he reflexively replied, "Of course not! Why would I? We love each other, and..."

The image of Fluttershy looking at him returned to the minotaur's mind, causing him to trail off as the mental apparition whispered, I thought you were so strong. So dependable. I was wrong... I'm sorry, but you just aren't the man I thought you were.

"And... and she wouldn't... She depends on me..."

I thought I could. I wanted to believe in you, but I've been feeling this way ever since Waking Night, and this was just the final straw. It's better if we just make a clean break of it.

Iron Will clutched the sides of his head and clenched his eyes shut as he felt his heart freeze in his chest again. "No... no, don't leave me!"

With his eyes shut, he could still see the mental image of his spouse as clearly as if she were standing in front of him. Fluttershy shook her head and turned away. No, Will, I deserve better. Don't try to follow--

"Who's leaving, Silly-Willy? I'm not going anywhere."

The minotaur's eyes flew open. "Wh-what? Fluttershy!" Standing in front of him was a vision of the lovely pegasus looking at him with the fond smile she always had. He couldn't help but smile back, though it didn't last long. Off in the distance, a Windigo howled as he asked, "Rainbow Dash... what in Aurox's name do you think you're doing, and why shouldn't I strangle you for this?"

"Oh she's just trying to help, Will. I don't want you two to start fighting," Fluttershy replied, though Iron Will noted that the movement of her mouth didn't quite match the words.

Also, her voice was slightly more raspy than the sweet, melodious tones he was used to.

And despite holding a hoof over her mouth, Rainbow Dash's lips were moving when Fluttershy spoke.

Then there was the small detail that the 'Fluttershy' in front of him was entirely made of green powder.

Growling with anger, Iron Will awkwardly pushed himself back upright and clenched a fist at the cyan witch. "You think this is funny?! I'm worried sick here, and you think now's a time for playing stupid pranks? What is wrong with you?!" The minotaur swung his fist, but not at Rainbow Dash. Instead, he swung it toward the cloud of loa dust the pegasus had shaped.

Instead of dispersing the cloud, however, Iron Will's meaty fist stopped before it even got close enough for the breeze from it to disturb any of the powder which was held in the form of his wife's smiling face.

Lowering her hoof, Rainbow Dash saw Iron Will freeze in place for several seconds before his arm dropped down limply to his side. "I think a Windigo's trying to get inside your head, so I wanted to put something better there instead," she explained, looking away from the minotaur in shame. "Just tell me how you really feel. Between this and whatever you're afraid of, which is more real?"

Iron Will glared at Rainbow Dash, but after a moment he looked back at the image she had made. The more he looked at, the more ridiculous it seemed that he had been fooled even for a fraction of a second. Color aside, the proportions were wrong, its hooves didn't even touch the ground, and the manestyle was askew. The only detail that Rainbow Dash had gotten right was the smile.

That thing isn't me, the Fluttershy in his head sneered, though its voice grew fainter as he found himself staring into the laughing eyes of the image before him. If you're so needy that you have to have a blow-up doll image of me, that can be arranged, his doubts and secret insecurities whispered, but it was just that. A whisper.

Even though he could easily pick apart every other element of the false Fluttershy, the eyes and smile drew him in and shut out everything else.

It was the sort of smile she had given him that very morning, even though it felt like ages since then. The same smile she offered to everyone, whether dear friends or new acquaintances, and yet when she looked at him with that light in her eyes, he always knew that it was genuine from the bottom of her enormous heart.

It was universal, yet specific to everyone she met. That smile held a simple message, and one he would never tire of. It was a smile that said, 'I'm happy you're here.'

The realization that he had allowed some fearful thoughts to make him forget that filled him with anger.

"Get rid of that thing, Rainbow," he growled through grinding teeth.

The pegasus looked up at him and swallowed at the sight of his furious expression as she feared that her actions had backfired, "You sure...? Uh, maybe you should calm--"

Iron Will smacked his fist into his palm as he replied, "I don't need any more reminding. I need to do whatever I have to so I can see my Flutterpony for real, and no wispy fog-horse is gonna distract me again!" The anger that filled him was no longer a cold, hateful, insidious force weakening his resolve, but a hot, righteous fury born out of love for his wife and the need to see her safe and sound. As he leaned on his crutch, he raised a fist toward the sky and bellowed, "You hear me up there?! Mess with my brain, and I BRING THE PAIN!"

With that, he started hobbling toward the purple unicorn who was busily coordinating with Vinyl and Octavia. Rainbow Dash felt a satisfied grin spread across her face as she watched the minotaur rejoin the effort.

"Motivator, heal thyself," Pinkamena mused, startling Rainbow Dash as the loa powder dispersed into the wind.

The pegasus jumped in surprise, turning to face the poet who had snuck up on her from behind. "Geeze, a little warning, Pinkamena," she said, shaking her head at the poet.

"Sorry. I'm glad you were able to help him, though," Pinkamena replied flatly. She then cocked her head slightly. "If I may ask, why did you think Windigoes were the cause? He didn't seem angry at anypony but himself."

Rainbow Dash looked over toward Zecora. The zebra had been quietly biding her time for a while now, helping wherever she could while waiting for the chance to contribute her part to the overall plan, once Twilight hammered out the finer details.

"There are a lot of things about Windigoes that the average pony doesn't know," Rainbow Dash told her friend. "Teach taught me that hatred for others is how Windigoes feed, but that hatred turned inward..." She took a deep breath and ran a hoof through her multi-colored mane. "That's how they breed."

Though Pinkamena's expression didn't show any visible change from her usual flat stoicism, the hitch in her voice betrayed her fear and revulsion at the idea as she asked, "You think the Windigoes are trying to... reproduce with us? Is that the griffon's plan?"

"Hay if I know," Dash admitted with a shrug. "But if we catch anypony starting to slip like Iron Will was, we'll have to try to keep their spirits up."

Pinkamena stared at Dash for a few seconds before looking away and stating the obvious. "I'm not very good at that. I hope nopony else falls into that sort of depression."

Darkness surrounded Apple Bloom completely. Even though the ice had crept its way up most of her body, she didn't even try to free herself from it. It wasn't that she didn't feel the cold, but she simply didn't care. She was probably going to freeze to death, but it's not like she didn't deserve it. Not after what she'd said and felt about her family.

Apples were loyal to each other and to their friends. They stuck together through thick and thin, and never even thought the sort of things that were running through her head over and over again. Her big sister wasn't a real Apple... not anymore... Thinking that way was how she had coped with the knowledge that Applejack wasn't a part of her life. Anger had protected her, because she didn't have to feel sad about losing a big sister who wasn't really a part of the family.

But the rest of her family hadn't shared her anger. Granny and Big Mac never stopped loving Applejack. Always spoke fondly of her whenever she or her company made the society pages which Apples shouldn't even be reading, because what did it have to do with anything? They welcomed her openly when she came back, even when they knew that she would just leave them again.

How could they do that? How could they betray her like that? Act as if everything was fine when they should have joined her in shunning the prodigal sister; a rich snob just like the bullies who went out of their way to make her miserable at school?

How could she betray herself by wanting to feel like they did? For wanting to have a real big sister, even knowing that opening herself up and creating a place for Applejack in her heart would only leave a bigger, more painful hole when she left for her fancy parties and snooty friends?

And now her heart was telling herself that she had been wrong the whole time. That whatever faults Applejack might have, maybe there were reasons why nopony else had tried to deny that she was a true Apple. Anger didn't stop the pain, but she didn't know what else to fall back on. The entire world was turning on her, so the only defense she had was to hate everything, including herself.

Especially herself.

An Apple who betrayed her family wasn't a real Apple at all. If Applejack had a place in the family, then where did that leave Apple Bloom?

"Bad Apple... Ah'm nothin' but a bad Apple," she muttered under her breath. If it were Cider Season, she would be the blackest, mushiest 'badd'un' in the batch, and thrown out without a second thought. And if she didn't deserve her family... then what did she have left?

Better to just go away.

Better to just let the cold take her.

...

It refused to do so.

Instead of freezing like she should have been, the filly felt warmth surrounding her. Applejack had removed her coat and was using it to cover both of them as she pressed her body against Apple Bloom's, sharing her body heat with the filly. The warmth was both comfortable and painful. Half of her wanted to nuzzle up into it while the other half was screaming in agony.

"You're not, darling. Don't ever, ever think that about yourself," came the voice of the one who hurt her first and deepest.

Don't ya fall for it! She'll jus' make a fool outta you, the screaming part of her protested, even as the rest of her started to give shape to the warmth surrounding her tiny body. It felt like a warm body pressed against her. A heart beating against her back while long, gentle legs held her close.

It felt like faded memories of her mother when she limped home with scabby knees. Like Granny trying to explain how even though she wouldn't be seeing her Ma or Pa again, she wasn't going to be alone. Like Big Mac telling her how proud he was when her grades got better at school.

It felt like fa-

She is NOT yer family! You don't have any! They all think you're stupid an' spiteful!"

An' you know they're right.

"Shut up," the filly whimpered. "Stop it... Ah don't wanna feel this way no more..."

Applejack nuzzled her little sister, holding her close even as the ice surrounding her started to creep across her body as well. "I know... it feels horrible, and I am so, so sorry for my part in it. I wasn't there when I should have been... I wasn't there, but you were. You were there for McIntosh and Granny. You were there to do the chores... to play with them, to eat with them... you were there to take your friends on tours of the orchard.

"I'm so, so sorry, dear... There were so many times when I should have come back and seen you. I missed so many opportunities to watch you shine. Your school plays... talent shows... sports... making your first batch of Zap Apple jam..."

Shut her up! She's ruining everything, the voice inside her shrieked, though the growing urgency of it was offset as it felt farther away, allowing it to be overshadowed by other thoughts.

"Ya... knew 'bout that...?"

Applejack nodded with a fond but worried smile. "McIntosh sends so many letters that I lose sleep trying to keep up with them all, sometimes. He's always telling me about what you've been doing... the adventures you have with your friends... what's been happening on the farm... You have such a wonderful life... I should have done more to be a part of it. If I don't get to, please believe that I am so sorry..."

Apple Bloom looked up at Applejack, and began to tremble and whimper.

She thought about Big Mac and Granny waiting at home for her. She thought about fresh pies and running around Ponyville with her friends. She thought about school and pranks and everypony in her life.

She did have a wonderful life...

Ya don't deserve any of it!

... And even if her darker thoughts were right, the thought of losing everything that was precious to her utterly dwarfed the emotional turmoil she had been feeling minutes ago. "Ah... ah don't wanna go away..." she whispered tentatively. "Ah don't want everypony t' go away, neither... Ah'm sorry. Ah'm sorry!" Apple Bloom trembled more and more as if she were freezing, but Applejack felt that it was quite the opposite. Where before the filly's body had nearly caused frostbite at the touch, warmth was returning to her.

Apple Bloom felt something like a pained screeching inside of her as she looked into her big sister's eyes, the frosty film melting away from her own while she hiccupped and sobbed against Applejack. Apple Bloom didn't see it, but her big sister had a relieved smile on her face as she replied, "It's alright, dear. You aren't going anywhere but back home where you belong, if I have anything to say about it."

Suddenly, the voice of their captor replied, "You do not. That is not for you to decide." Gertrude swiftly and smoothly descended the staircase back to the ground floor, but her talons angrily dug into each step along the way. Once she was among her captives, though, she panned her gaze around the room with what could almost be mistaken for a smile. "Most of you, however, are fortunate. I am feeling rather... generous."

Author's Note

Here we go, moving toward the home stretch. Even so, this particular section of the story turned out to be stretching longer than I expected, so I decided to split it into a two-parter.

Fear Not the Winter (pt. 2/2)

Snowblind
by crowmagnon

Fear Not the Winter, pt. 2

The unicorn is proving herself to be more helpful than I could have imagined. It is more than simply her willingness to give me what I need in order to save her own family. I feel as though she understands. The bearer of Laughter did not... could not appreciate her situation, and chose to act as though she would blithely skip away unscathed.

Likewise, the armored one outside is so busy making her plans, struggling to determine how she might save everypony without suffering loss. That sense of loyalty and duty may seem to shine like the Summer sun in better days, but I know better. I know how swiftly it can be snuffed out in the cold of Winter.

The unicorn before me knows better. I look into her eyes and I see myself mirrored in them. She understands. I listen to her voice and I hear a life of dreams deferred and baseless hopes set aside so that she can face the truth of things.

She understands that the life she has is a fragile thing. She is not stalling, waiting for the warmth of Spring. She stares into the face of Winter and chooses to do what must be done to protect those that she deems precious. She is willing to make sacrifices for their sake, because she understands that they could be lost to her in an instant.

I know how hope can wither until everyone around you begins fighting over scraps, and those who have the most use their position to take even more from those who only have little. Such is the way of those like the wealthy one who, at this very moment, is likely trying to bribe the others into ensuring her own safety.

How one such as that wretched earth pony could become a bearer of the Elements of Harmony only serves to show how far the Elements must have degraded since the Sun and Moon claimed sole ownership of them. I cannot even imagine which Element she supposedly represents, but neither do I care. I know her ilk all too well. She will doubtless attempt to convince me that her riches make her more valuable than the others.

As if wealth makes one life more worthy than another. The only thing that it proves is an advanced ability to hoard and gather for oneself. I saw so many like her in the times both before the Element of Generosity was bestowed upon me. Dark days when such greed would drive clans to set upon one another. Lords growing fat within their castle walls while their subjects killed and died over scraps.

The Sun and Moon were even worse, though. When the world was breaking apart, they came to the griffon clans preaching Harmony and friendship, and I was the first to believe their lies. I spoke out for them. Travelled with them. Fought for them. Together with the others, I gave my all to repair what was broken, and give every creature throughout the world the one gift that mattered most: A chance to live their lives.

And it was for nothing. Everything, every ambition and ideal, were nothing more than stepping stones on the Sun and Moon's path toward seizing ultimate power. When their own subjects deliver the Elements into my talons, I will--

"I'm sorry... Did I say something that offended you?"

I am brought back out of my thoughts and into the present as the farmer looks up at me. Every so often, she glances down at my talons. When I look down to see what has drawn her attention, I find that I have unconsciously been gouging deep furrows into the floor.

"Ah. No, I simply allowed my mind to wander. Everything is fine," I explain.

The very next moment, a shrill screaming assaults my mind.

Rarity had been starting to tell the griffon about Pinkamena's bizarre intuition when she noticed Gertrude digging at the floor with her talons. Having seen Twilight's reaction to the poet's uncanny insight, Rarity feared for a moment that she had triggered something similar in her captor. "I'm sorry... did I say something that offended you?"

Gertrude's turned slightly to once more fix her blank eyes upon Rarity. "Ah. No, I simply allowed my mind to wander. Everything is fine," she replied.

The instant that she finished saying so, however, Gertrude twitched and her wings flared, baring thousands of dagger-like feathers at the unicorn. Rarity reflexively froze where she was, her body tensed as her primal instincts told her to be ready to flee. It was an instinct that grew increasingly difficult to fight back as a dangerous growl rumbled in the Gertrude's throat.

Rarity slowly took a step to the side in order to get closer to the door, but Gertrude's blank eyes didn't follow her.

"Monsters..." Gertrude muttered, stopping Rarity in her tracks. "What do those monsters downstairs think they are doing...?"

Practically launching herself from where she sat, Gertrude was on her feet and rushing toward the door. Rarity had to jump back just to avoid an accidental swipe of the griffon's wings across her body. Thankfully, Gertrude's movements had no malicious intent toward her, but it was only the young rock farmer's own reflexes which saved her from being cut regardless.

Gertrude reached for the door, talons outstretched in order to simply slice through it... but then stopped. She simply froze in place for several seconds, and in that long drawn-out moment, seemed to be nothing more than a terrifying ice sculpture.

Then she began to turn her head. Slowly, as if she were just then remembering how to move at all, she shifted her gaze back upon the unicorn.

"Rarity... my apologies for cutting our conversation short. There is a matter which I must attend to downstairs, so follow me. Allow me to show you the gratitude which comes to those who have earned it." With that, she brought her talons down, gently grasping the doorknob instead of shearing it away, and calmly made her way through the opened door.

Rarity shivered and blinked a few times in surprise, her eyes fading back to blue as she tried to make sense of what she just saw before they returned to their blank, milky white. Once they did, she followed the griffon down the stairs, careful to mind the new gouges cut into each step.

You sow. You stupid, SELFISH sow!

You think that you are so clever, don't you? You think that simply damaging your jewelry and giving your coat to a shivering foal will make you look more sympathetic? You are ruining everything! But the child is unharmed, at least.

The sow is using her sibling as a rallying point to keep the morale of the others strong enough to stand against me. I must squash this before it can become a problem. I only need the Ranger outside to believe that her fellow bearers are alive in order to make her bring the Elements to me. If I were to gut this one as an example... No! No... I cannot do that yet. The Ranger will not bring the Elements into play unless she believes that she can use them, and I may need to provide proof of the bearers' well-being. As distasteful as I find it, she remains more valuable to me alive.

But I can still make her suffer. And I will see to it that she understands why she must suffer. I will break her completely. I will make her realize what a worthless, pathetic waste of life that she is, and then...

Then...

Outside the bakery, Twilight sighed and shook her head as she rolled up the architectural plans for Sugarcube Corner that Blossomforth had brought her from Town Hall. Looking up at the sky, she shot up a small flare of magic, signalling Nocturne Striker to come back down from her sonic scouting.

The thestral Ranger set down next to Twilight and rubbed her throat. "Sorry, Lieutenant," Nocturne said, her voice quite a bit raspier than it had been earlier that morning. "I've been trying, but I just can't find it."

Twilight nodded and put a hoof on Nocturne's shoulder. "It's alright, Sergeant, we'll figure something out. You take a few minutes to rest your voice." Nocturne nodded and took a seat nearby, just as Rainbow Dash and Pinkamena joined them. The thestral stiffened as Rainbow Dash drew near, but said nothing. Twilight, by contrast, smiled faintly and nodded to the two of them. "Something I can help you with, girls?"

"I was gonna ask you that, Twi," Dash replied while Pinkamena sat down next to Nocturne. "You've been having Sarge here flying around the place since we got here, so have you figured out a plan yet?"

Twilight frowned, shaking her head. "I'm close... I think... but I'm still missing a few pieces. I'm sure there must be a weak point, but so far Sergeant Striker hasn't been able to find it."

"Sorry, Lieutenant," Nocturne croaked out. Hearing it, Pinkamena reached up under her beret, then pulled out a flask of cider and a small sample-sized jar of honey, which she poured into the flask. As the mixture was offered to her, Nocturne blinked in surprise. "How long were you...?"

"Drink up. It'll help with your throat," Pinkamena replied. Deciding to simply accept the gift from the strange poet, Nocturne shrugged and nodded gratefully, then took a pull from the flask.

Rainbow Dash watched Nocturne out of the corner of her eye, then turned to look Sugarcube Corner over. "You sure, Twilight? It looks pretty solid to me."

"Mostly sure," Twilight replied. "If it's completely solid, that means it's air-tight. I don't know exactly how many ponies she has trapped in there, but if she wants to keep the air in there fresh, that means vents. Vents offer us a weak point we can exploit, especially if Private Pierce gets here."

"Lieutenant! Lieutenant Sparkle!"

Twilight's head jerked up to the sky, where she could make out the outline of a pegasus carrying another pony. She recognized the voice as Cloud Kicker's, which brought a smile of relief to the unicorn's face. One which was not shared by the other unicorn, who was being carried through the freezing air toward her.

Moments later, the weathermare set her passenger down, then landed herself down next to him. Offering a somewhat shaky salute to his boss, the young stallion said, "Private Pierce reporting for duty, ma'am."

Twilight tried, but ultimately failed to keep an expression of authoritative stoicism on her face. Instead, she gave the two new arrivals a relieved grin and nodded to Pokey in acknowledgement. "Good to see you, Private. Cloud Kicker explain the situation on the way here?"

"I gave him the basic run-down," the weathermare replied. "Crazy griffon, windigoes, iced-over bakery... It wasn't the best conversation I've ever had with a stallion under me, but at least it was nice to be able to hold a warm body close in this weather." She finished with a seductive flutter of her eyelashes at Pokey, which caused the young unicorn's face to turn bright red, and his knees to tremble in a way that had nothing to do with the cold.

"She... touched me... in places," Pokey whispered.

Twilight's eye twitched before her hoof met her face. "Ugh... Cloud Kicker, this isn't an appropriate time to be molesting my subordinates!" After a brief pause, as the weather manager started to open her mouth to speak, Twilight quickly added, "And neither is any other time!"

"As I was going to say, that part was completely accidental. He started slipping out of my grip halfway here, and I had to grab any part of him I could reach. And I realize, saying it out loud, that actually doesn't sound any better," Cloud Kicker hastily exclaimed as Twilight leveled a glare that could petrify a cockatrice at her. In response to the look, the sultry smirk that was her default expression shifted into one of absolute seriousness. "I mean it, though, there were patches where it felt like the Windigoes were in overdrive. I think if we hadn't been keeping each other warm, either of us could've ended up... y'know... like Raindrops..."

Twilight's expression softened a bit at the mention of the mare who had been brought into the Ranger outpost, frozen from head to tail in magical ice. "Well... I'm glad you both made it back. Private, we don't have the luxury of getting you your armor, so I need you go join Iron Will over there until--"

Suddenly, the sound of ice being sliced through once again reached her ears. All eyes immediately went to the bakery, and Pokey's face turned several shades paler as he saw the enormous talons cut through the frozen wall, allowing the huge griffon to once again stand out in the open, but this time the hole did not freeze over behind her.

"She wasn't supposed to come out for seventeen more minutes," Twilight muttered under her breath before hurrying to meet the griffon.

For her part, Gertrude simply waited patiently for Twilight to meet her, casually scanning the group which remained. Odd. I can understand why she would keep her friends and underlings nearby, Gertrude silently mused, but why are the musicians still here?

Ultimately, the griffon decided that her meeting with Twilight Sparkle was of greater importance. She sat down as she looked imperiously down on the approaching unicorn, waiting for Twilight to stand before her. Once she was close enough, Gertrude asked, "Well, then, have you brought what I require?"

This took Twilight by surprise. After blinking up at Gertrude several times, she pointed out, "You never asked for anything."

"And what sort of excuse is that?" Gertrude scoffed at Twilight, shaking her head in disappointment. "Obviously, I will need two wagons. Wagons with four wheels, if you please; not one of those two-wheeled monstrosities that you ponies hitch yourselves to like animals. One of these wagons will be loaded with the finest cheeses your town has to offer; at least five varieties, and no two of the same kind are allowed to touch. The other is to carry bottles of wine whose grapes were crushed only by virgin stallions. And do not attempt to deceive me about their origin, little unicorn. I will know."

Outwardly, Gertrude seemed to look down on Twilight with an air of detached seriousness. Inside, however, she was smirking as the unicorn's face twisted into an expression of barely-masked confusion. "You want... cheese... and wine...?"

"Yes, and remember. Virgin stallions. That is very important."

Twilight awkwardly cleared her throat. "A-alright," she stammered, her mind racing as she tried to make sense of the griffon's request. Her best hope was to send somepony to Berry Punch's vineyard and hope that she had hired help to stomp the grapes. But why was the gender and... purity so important? Gertrude had to be bluffing about that, but what if she wasn't, and she got angry as a result of a bad bottle? How would the pony she sent even find out that sort of information? Would she have to ask Cloud Kicker to go check Berry's employee ledgers and cross-reference it with her own little black book? And that was to say nothing of the cheese-based logic puzzle running through her brain at the same time.

Twilight shook her head and did her best to suppress a frustrated groan. She would have to work out the details later! She was in the middle of a negotiation, and had to present a strong front to ensure the safety of the hostages. "Okay. I'll work it out," she said, doing her best to focus solely on the problem right in front of her instead. "In exchange, I'll need you to rel--"

"Ah, one moment," Gertrude said, holding up a talon as she interrupted the Ranger. Glancing back over her shoulder, she asked, "What are you waiting for? You are allowing the freezing air to blow in. Come out so that I can close up the hole."

Twilight looked past Gertrude and gaped as she saw several ponies filing out into the open. Sweetie Belle was the first to emerge, carrying little Spike on her back. They were followed by Mrs. Cake, who was in turn followed by her husband. All of them moved solemnly and silently, their faces conveying a mixture of hope and dread as they walked past Twilight. Carrot Cake was looking especially haggard, looking as if he was on the edge of a panic attack, his baker's hat off-kilter and requiring quick adjustments every few steps to keep it on his head.

When they drew near, Spike looked back mournfully and started to open his mouth to call out behind him. Cup Cake saw him inhale and prepare to speak, however, and quickly lunged forward to clap a hoof over his mouth and muffle the little dragon before he could say a word. Spike whimpered at first, but then sighed and relented, keeping his silence.

Only confused further by this strange behavior, Twilight's mouth moved soundlessly as she rolled the questions she had around in her head before settling on one that she felt comfortable speaking aloud. "Is that everypony...?"

Gertrude merely waved off the question. "Oh, of course not. One of your friends was simply being very cooperative, so I thought to ease her mind by allowing her loved ones to make their way home. You will take good care of them, I trust?"

"I... um... of course," Twilight stammered, her earlier attempts at the composure expected of a Ranger officer having evaporated into uncertainty. One of my friends? What does she mean by that? Did somepony in there buy their freedom? Who? With what? Why did Mrs. Cake hush Spike like that?! "But... I would like some confirmation that everypony inside is unharmed."

Instead of answering, Gertrude simply stared at her for several seconds with an utterly inscrutable expression before turning and stepping back into the bakery. Once more, the hole froze over, sealing those inside away from the outside world.

It serves me well that the crimes of my former comrades have stolen my ability to experience true laughter. If it were otherwise, I would have surely given myself away.

My new friend had such high esteem for the purple one's tactical genius. Perhaps she is every bit as cunning a strategist as Rarity believes. Perhaps she is more intelligent than me. Perhaps she is not a pony that I would ever wish to challenge at Chess. What she may or may not possess in intellect, however, she clearly lacks in experience.

I have known war. The sort of war which would shatter the sanity of any of these placid ponies. I have known strategists like her before. Being able to solve any problem set before them leads to a certain urgency to do so. As such, her plans matter not so long as she is led toward other, meaningless problems. I have known many geniuses, and so many of them ultimately broke under the pressures of their own minds.

Who is the traitor among her friends? How can she appease an insane griffon making such ludicrous demands? Why would I release prisoners without reaching a negotiated agreement? What information are the silent hostages withholding from her? All mere distractions to keep her mind searching for answers that are not there, so that the stress placed upon her will keep her moving at my pace, not hers.

'If you speak a single word--any word at all--I will hurt every pony who remains inside,' I told them before opening the way out. 'I will hurt them so badly that when you are old and grey, you will still wake up screaming from the nightmares of their mangled bodies displayed before you.'

I trust that they will not force me to make good on my promise. I hope that I do not have to. But if I do, then it will only be justice for what their rulers did to me.

If only I had not lost my Gunther...

"Please... please, you have to give me something. Who else is left in there? What's been going on? Did you notice any possible weaknesses from the inside?" Twilight implored the recently freed hostages to share any sliver of information they might have.

Not only had they kept their silence, though, but they could hardly look her in the eye as they were clearly struggling not to speak. It was particularly bad with the children, as tears welled up in their eyes, but little Spike held his claws over his mouth and Sweetie Belle stubbornly held her teeth clenched shut. Carrot Cake simply kept clearing his throat, but gave no answers when she tried to question him.

I don't have the data I need. They're holding back vital information! I can't put together the whole picture without knowing what they can tell me, but they don't trust me... and why should they? I wasn't able to do anything to help them or their families. I'm useless here. I need to do something!

Finding no answers from the ponies and baby dragon, her mind switched gears to the demands that the griffon had made. With a rather unsettling grimace and a twitch in her eye, she turned to Pokey and desperately asked, "Pierce, I heard you did some part-time work last summer for Berry Punch, right? For the love of Celestia, please tell me you're a virgin!"

Pokey's eyes went as wide as dinner plates as the young unicorn looked like he was either paralyzed by the demand or having a heart attack. Cloud Kicker started choking, though it was unclear whether it was to hold back laughter or because even her lax standards regarding sexual harassment were offended.

"Twilight, settle down. They've obviously been coerced," Rainbow Dash chastised the Ranger. "We need you with a clear head, or it's just gonna get worse."

It's no use, Twilight screamed inside her own head. She doesn't understand, I don't have the data! it doesn't matter if I'm close if I don't have the last bit of data I need!

"Back up, Rainbow Dash," Nocturne said, interjecting herself between the two friends. "The Lieutenant needs a moment to think, and she doesn't need you or Zecora deciding it's a good idea to mess with her head 'for her own good' again."

The rainbow witch stepped back. "That's not what I... Look, Teach and I already said we were sorry about that. I'm just trying to help my friend."

Nocturne narrowed her eyes and asked, "The same way you helped Iron Will just a few minutes ago?" She pointed a hoof at one of her tufted ears. "I've got pretty good hearing, remember? I saw and heard everything you did while I was flying around up there. Taking advantage of his emotions like that, right after what you did back at the station? It doesn't matter how quick you are to apologize if you keep pulling the same stuff over and over again."

Inside Sergeant Striker's mind, however, she was playing a specific memory that the pegasus had dredged up. A memory of herself, throwing clods of dirt to drive away the apprentice witch from the Everfree. At the time, 'everyone knew' that the filly had joined forces with the sorceress Zecora in order to get revenge on Equestria for her deformed wing. 'Everyone knew' that she would bring curses down on anypony who crossed her path, so the young, awkward thestral was in the right to run Rainbow Dash out of town before she brought harm to anypony.

It wasn't my fault! I didn't know that she was just a kid trying to make something of her messed-up situation, a voice in her head protested. Nopony knew that! I was just a kid myself! It wasn't my fault! It wasn't my fault! It... it was hers! She didn't even try to make anypony believe she wasn't evil! I'm not a bully! I'm not! I'm... I'm not...

Both Nocturne and Twilight shivered as chill wind howled through the street, its chill seeming to cut through them worse than anypony else. Pinkamena, who had been standing quietly in the background, cleared away a patch of snow at her hooves and stomped on the cobbles loudly enough to get everypony's attention. "That's enough," she said bluntly, her dull, atonal voice somehow conveying the sort of commanding presence that Twilight often wished that she could produce at will.

"I believe Mr. Cake has something he needs to say," the poet said, having noticed the blatant attempts to get Twilight's attention which had gone unnoticed in the Ranger's frazzled state. Carrot Cake went pale and shook his head vehemently, prompting Pinkamena to say, "My apologies. I don't mean that you have anything to say with words, but I believe you have something to share?"

To that, Carrot nodded and reached up to remove the hat from his head, holding it out toward Twilight. Confused and desperate, Twilight reached out with her magic to levitate the hat toward herself for a closer look.

Once she got a look inside, Twilight gasped in surprise. "No, that can't be right."

Both Nocturne and Rainbow Dash turned to look at the unicorn. "What? What is it?"

Twilight looked around at everyone, then gave them a faint, hopeful smile. "It's... data. I think... I think I've finally got it. Now we just need to wait for her to send a message."

Nocturne came up for a closer look, peering down into the hat. "'Her?' Who are you talking about, Lieutenant? You aren't talking about the griffon, are you?"

Twilight smiled and shook her head, using her magic to pull a small metal object out for all to see. A familiar compass on a chain meant to be worn around a pony's neck. "Derpy."

Author's Note

Confused? I probably would be. Nevertheless, the pieces of the puzzle have finally fallen into place, and Twilight's plan to assault Gertrude's ice fortress of deliciousness has all the elements she needs to put it into motion, so if you want to find out how it all comes together, please keep reading!

The next couple of chapters should be pretty exciting.

Its Cold, Icy Sting (pt. 1/3)

Snowblind
by crowmagnon

Its Cold, Frosty Sting, pt. 1

Earlier...

Derpy groaned to herself as she tried once more to assure Applejack that she really wanted to help, but the scary griffon had threatened her and trapped her in the suit of ice that surrounded her body. Whenever she said anything, though, the rich pony couldn't even understand her!

Sure, Applejack was probably just scared. They were all scared. Derpy herself was terrified and confused by what the griffon Princess had done to her. That didn't mean Applejack had to yell at her... Derpy didn't like ponies yelling at her, even if she did mess things up sometimes.

That nice Mrs. Fluttershy never yelled or made fun of her like some ponies did, but the scary griffon had taken her away. Derpy really, really hoped nothing bad was happening to Mrs. Fluttershy.

Miss Rarity was usually nice, too, but she'd been acting meaner than Derpy remembered her being. Especially around Mrs. Fluttershy, which was weird because Mrs. Fluttershy was all about making ponies feel happy. She even had a special necklace that she got for being the best at making ponies happy. It was like the griffon's meanness was contagious, and everypony was extra-grumpy because of it.

Derpy was just about to find a corner to curl up in and stay out of the way when she felt a shift in the air coming from Miss Rarity's direction. A cold breeze tickled across her sensitive feathers, her wings being the only part of her not completely covered in ice by the scary griffon's magic. This drew her attention to the unicorn who was the source of that cold.

It didn't make sense, but a lot of things didn't make sense to Derpy. Nevertheless, the fact that Miss Rarity would occasionally get so much colder than the rest of the room felt like the sort of thing that would confuse even smart ponies like Lieutenant Sparkle or Dewdrop Decimal. After all, ponies were warm, not cold. Everypony knew that, and if everypony knew it, Derpy was pretty sure that it was supposed to be true. Why would Miss Rarity be so cold, then?

Derpy certainly wasn't the only pony to notice the temperature dropping around Rarity. Sweetie Belle and Spike were shivering as they clung to her, probably hoping to help warm her up. As bad as things were, Derpy couldn't help but smile behind the icy face plate as she got one of her eyes to focus on the heartwarming family.

To her surprise, Rarity suddenly but gently nudged the children away. Spike tried to cling to her, only to be held away by pale blue magic while she stood up. Looking up at her, the confused baby dragon asked, "Mommy?"

"Mommy just needs to talk with her friend Applejack in private, so wait here for a few minutes," Rarity told them sharply. "If you need to do something, help the Cakes make..." She trailed off, staring at Sweetie Belle for several awkward seconds before self-correcting to, "help the Cakes serve some treats."

Derpy frowned with dismay as the children were kept at a distance while her wing feathers picked up the changes in air pressure caused by Rarity's plunging temperature. She chewed her lip, trying to figure out what she should do. She knew that she wasn't a very smart pony, but she had always tried to be one who helped whenever she could. At the moment, it didn't matter why Rarity was freezing, only that she was.

A while back, Derpy had been feeling bad she had made a hard landing while carrying a fragile package. Even though that tree had jumped in front of her from out of nowhere, she was responsible for the damages. As nice as her boss Silver Script was, he had no choice but to dock her pay for a while, and seeing how disappointed he was had sent her taking refuge in the clouds above Ponyville. She hadn't even noticed that the cloud she had chosen to hide out on on was a raincloud until she heard a minotaur's bellow followed by a soaked Mrs. Fluttershy flying up to her.

Derpy smiled under the helmet of ice that had been placed on her as she thought back to that time. She had been so sure that Mrs. Fluttershy was going to be angry with her that she had simply tried to bury herself in the cloud until she felt the other pegasus giving her a hug. Not grabbing her to pull her out and tell her what she did wrong. Just a hug, because Mrs. Fluttershy had seen somepony who really needed one.

At that moment, Rarity needed to get warm, and Derpy was going to help her.

In hindsight, she would later realize that approaching Rarity while covered from head to hoof in scary-looking armor was sort of a silly-filly thing to do, but at that moment she was a mare with a purpose.

The Present...

Gertrude strode back into the bakery's interior once more, looking more regal and confident than ever before. As she passed Applejack and Apple Bloom, who were huddled together with Fluttershy, she clicked her tongue in disdain.

Applejack peered up at the griffon while holding her little sister against her barrel. The businessmare's green eyes looked at her pleadingly as she begged, "Please, let Apple Bloom go, too..."

With a scoff, Gertrude retorted, "I thought that you wanted to be closer to your little sister. I am giving you the chance to spend the rest of your lives together." The edge of her beak curved up into a cruel smirk as she saw the color drain out of the earth pony's face, though it didn't last long before her expression slipped back into icy stoicism. In a sudden motion, she grabbed Applejack by the throat, lifting her up off the ground. "Consider this a lesson on Generosity. It has its limits. Look at you now... This morning, you were a mare of wealth and status. Now you are nothing but a naked beggar, scavenging what little warmth that you can find when the cold grip of Winter grasps you in its talons."

Applejack struggled in Gertrude's grasp, beating her hooves against the griffon's arm with as little effect as if she were trying to dent steel. Apple Bloom shouted hoarsely and tried to reach her, but Fluttershy held her back to keep the filly out of Gertrude's reach.

As the businessmare tried desperately to breathe, she caught sight of her other friend. "Rar'ty... help... me..." she barely managed to croak out, but the unicorn simply took a seat next to Gertrude's ice-armored minion and looked back at her with blank white eyes.

"You brought this on yourself, Applejack," Rarity coldly replied, to the shock and horror of Apple Bloom and Fluttershy. Even the armored pegasus seemed startled at these words, but Rarity paid none of them any mind. "You don't know what Winter is really like, but I do. Do you have any idea how hard it is for a unicorn to do anything but the basest grunt work on a rock farm? How long it took me to learn how to make even the poorest gems grow in my own garden? Ever since I got my cutie mark, I had to struggle and toil just to keep myself fed. Any time that I wasn't in the field got spent making blankets and patching up the shack my employers lent me so that I wouldn't freeze when Winter came. You? All you ever had to do was tell a servant to turn the heat up. I've had to make sacrifices to hold onto what was important."

"Rarity, no..." Fluttershy felt her heart twist in her chest as she wished that she could do anything meaningful besides keeping Apple Bloom out of harm's way.

Rarity sneered back at her. "You'll have to beg harder than that after what you tried to do, Fluttershy. If seeing Applejack suffer is the only way to make you understand--"

"But I don't understand," Fluttershy interrupted. "Applejack is your friend too, isn't she?! I just can't understand why you would be willing to let her get hurt just to get back at me for... for I don't even know what! We're supposed to be friends, but friends don't do this to each other!"

Fluttershy held Apple Bloom tightly as she looked away from Rarity, and up at the griffon. "It doesn't make any sense! You had one of the Elements of Harmony before us, right? You said that you and the Princesses were friends back then, so why can't you just try talking to them? Doesn't that friendship you used to have mean anything to you?"

Gertrude's body went stiff and rigid. One by one, her talons slowly loosened their grip until Applejack fell to the floor, gasping to refresh her air-starved lungs as the giant griffon abandoned her to loom over Fluttershy. Gertrude growled, "You stupid, naive little creature..."

Rarity quickly interjected, "Remember, you promised me that she was mine to deal with as I please!"

"She still is," Gertrude responded with a snarl, leaning down to look straight into Fluttershy's eyes. "But you can't truly appreciate why, can you? You don't understand why you all deserve to be punished, because you think that our actions are the product of petty spite, don't you? Madness, even? You think that we have forgotten what it means to know love and friendship. Allow me to correct that misconception. Let me tell you of a day, long ago..."

The ground trembles beneath my paws and talons as battle rages on before me. My Knight-Captain, Gunther, flies like a blur. The armor of enchanted ice that I crafted for him turns him into a streak of white as his spear harries his foe. The hulking canine that he does battle with howls, the corona of flame surrounding it flaring brighter and hotter with every strike. Even enchanted ice should have melted in such temperatures, but Gunther's held strong and solid.

Luna sits in the grass beside me, her wings flaring up as the small, blue pegasus-unicorn hybrid cries out, "For victory, Sir Gunther! The blazing behemoth is no match for thee!"

Though I wince from the blast of sound coming from the younger Equestrian Princess, I cannot help but feel a swell of pride within my breast at the confidence she has in my Knight-Captain's abilities. A feeling that is only marginally faded by the coughing fit which follows the verbal explosion. With great concern, I ask her, "Are you well, dear Luna? You are not suffering from some malady, are you?"

"Neigh, Gertrude," Celestia replies from the other side of Luna. "Our shy little sister is merely unused to employing the Royal Canterlot Voice." Her tone is teasing, but filled with love as she leans down to nuzzle her coughing sister. A smile warms my face as I watch the younger Princess flush and attempt to lean away from the display of sisterly affection. To have her elder sister outsize her as a mother does her filly surely compounds the embarassment, but such is inevitable as the mixture of unicorn and earth pony blood running through Celestia's veins has caused her to grow taller and stronger than all but the very mightiest of earth pony stallions.

Eventually giving in and allowing the elder Princess to have her way, Luna simply accepted the nuzzling and pouted as she whispered, "Nor do I imagine I ever shall be, sisters. For what purpose should Equestria's rulers have to bellow like berserkers, in any case? 'Tis a silly custom that should have faded away with old Unicornia."

"Be mindful how you speak of your ancestors, dear Princess, or old Platinum may just rise up from her tomb to haunt you," came another familiar voice, playful and masculine with a Trottish brogue. The owner of that voice reclined in the shade of a nearby tree, apart from the others save for a small zebra filly who was napping peacefully beside him despite the sounds of battle raging nearby. Together, the two blended so fully into the shadows that they almost seemed to be part of the tree itself.

Looking over her shoulder at him, Luna giggled and replied, "If grandmother wishes to visit in such a manner, I do hope that she will provide sufficient forewarning that I might bake her a cake."

"You have never offered to bake cakes for me, dear sister," Celestia whined.

"Because, dear sister, you already have a sizable portion of the castle kitchens dedicated solely to that purpose."

I arch an eyebrow at Celestia as the elder Princess is now the one to grow flushed, sputtering with indignation as Luna and our friend beneath the tree burst out into laughter. "The royal appetite is not a matter of public record, Luna! And to enlighten the rest of you, raising and guiding the sun each day requires a great expenditure of energy. Cake merely happens to be an effective means of restoring my vitality." The haughty, offended sniff with which she punctuates her rationalization only serves to redouble their laughter, and I find myself joining them.

Our mirth is interrupted by a sudden yelp from the Sun Dog, and we quickly turn to see Gunther stabbing his spear into his opponent's backside. The giant flaming canine jumps into the air while covering his wounded rump. Gunther immediately takes advantage of the opening this gives him to flap up after his opponent, then grab his burning tail and yank upward, sending the Sun Dog spinning end over end in the air.

With the Sun Dog too dizzy and disoriented to see it coming, Gunther flies straight up into the sky until he is barely a dot against the blue, at least for most of my companions. I smile with overflowing pride and love as my telescopic vision allows me to clearly see my Knight-Captain perform a tight, agile turn that most pegasi would envy, then dive down once again to strike the Sun Dog and send them both hurtling to the ground.

The devestating explosion of rock and soil rocks the ground on which we sit, and only the magical shield thrown up by Celestia and Luna keep us from being pelted by debris, as little as such would actually harm any of us. It does have the effect of waking little Shangwe, however, who yawns widely and rubs the sleep from her eyes before noticing the cloud of dust surrounding us.

"Oh, did someone finally win?" Shangwe picks herself up and walks to the edge of the shield in order to get a closer look at the aftermath. "Was it the dog, or was it the griffon?"

The dust eventually begins to settle enough to see a sillhouette through the cloud, and I gasp with joy at it takes the shape of my Gunther.

My jubilation over his apparent victory dims somewhat, however, when I can better see that his body is caught in one of the Sun Dog's giant hands, and he struggles to squirm free. Even so, I smile as the Sun Dog begins to climb up out of the crater formed from their sparring.

With a laugh like bubbling magma, the Sun Dog's flames fade and flicker out as he sets Gunther back down on the ground. "Now that was a mighty blow," the mighty canine exclaims with his typical boisterousness. "You're a right dragon-slayer with moves like that."

The Sun Dog gives Gunther a brotherly slap across his back with a hand which has been used to dent mountains. Gunther merely shakes his head and laughs in good cheer. "Mark my words, one of these times, I will be the one who lands the final strike." The two warriors, dirty and battered, make there way back to us as our pony friends dispel their barrier. When he stands before me, Gunther bows. "I hope that I have not disappointed you, my Queen."

I shake my head with a fond smile. "Never, Gunther. On the contrary, I only hope that you have not grievously wounded our Warden of Summer."

This draws a bellow of laughter from the Sun Dog. "Ha! Nothing wounded but my pride, and considering the worth of my opponent, that will heal quickly!" He then sits down with a mighty thump, causing him to wince and massage his injured rump.

Shangwe approaches the giant dog with an impish smile, and tilts her head. "'Pride' is what you call that portion of your anatomy? Celestia would have us believe it is named 'vitality.'"

Each of us stare at the zebra filly, trying to comprehend how she could make a joke involving something which was said while she supposedly napped. And then, as one, we stop trying to make reason out of our Element of Laughter's antics, allowing mirth to overcome us. Out of us all, none laugh so loudly as Celestia and the Sun Dog themselves.

Fluttershy listened until Gertrude's voice trailed away, her story ended. Through it all, the pegasus had tried to find any of the emotions that she must have felt back then in her present visage, but there was nothing to see but the cold mask of detachment in Gertrude's face and voice. "I see... that must have been a very special day to you, but--"

Gertrude interrupted, "There was nothing special about it at all. What I described to you was nothing more than one day of the friendship I shared with them. There were thousands of other days just like it, but I would not have traded the memory of any one of them for the entire world. That... that is what they stole from me. That is what they have to pay for." The griffon looked down at Apple Bloom as the filly cowered against Fluttershy. "That is why your sister has to pay. When your life is full of precious days, you will be betrayed, and they will be stolen from you. Better to end this now, before she gets the chance."

Gertrude slowly turned back toward Applejack and held her talons out to the side. "Do you know what my name means, you filthy wretch? It means 'maiden of the spear.'" Applejack's eyes widened in horror and slowly backed away as ice formed in Gertrude's talons, taking the shape of a spear of ice as long as the griffon's body. "Before he betrayed me, my Gunther's skill with the spear was such that he earned the respect of the Sun Dog himself, and everything he learned, he learned from me. But I will not need one iota of that skill to gut a soft, greedy parasite like you, will I?"

Apple Bloom couldn't move as Fluttershy held her tight, but she could hoarsely shout, "No... No, don't hurt her! Please don't hurt mah sister! PLEASE!!" Fluttershy whimpered, covering the filly's eyes as Gertrude stalked closer and closer to Applejack.

"Listen to what you've done," Gertrude sneered. "She is crying for you. After all you have done, she is crying for you. You disgusting sow... Money-grubbing flea... Child-murderer..."

"Wh-what?! I've never hurt a foal in my life," Applejack protested, shock and confusion mixing with the crushing terror she felt as Gertrude cornered her. "D-don't you still want the Elements of Harmony? Twilight will never let you near them if she finds out that you have harmed one of us!"

Gertrude hesitated, but only for a moment as she raised her spear. "I don't need the Elements anymore. I don't. I don't need them. I just need to make them pay. I need to make you pay!"

Applejack saw the spear start to come down toward her. Her eyes reflexively clenched shut, and she cursed herself in her thoughts as she realized that if she was going to die here, then the last thing she saw should have been Apple Bloom, after all the difficulties that they had suffered through before they could begin to reconcile.

Instead of a piercing pain, however, Applejack felt something heavy and cold slam against her, knocking the wind out of her lungs. She wheezed and nearly threw up from the impact, but as she opened her eyes, she found that she had been saved from the spear by another pony who had thrown herself in the deadly lance's path. A pony who wore armor made of the same enchanted ice as the spear itself.

With a roar of maddened frustration, Gertrude struck the armored pegasus with a backhanded blow that sent her flying. "Mutant! Worthless freak! I told you what I would do if you defied me!" The temperature within the bakery plummeted as a cold mist seeped inside, swirling around the enraged griffon. "None of you ponies will leave this place alive! None of you! I will skewer your corpses on pikes and parade them in front of your Princesses as I--"

Gertrude's threats were cut off by a very sudden, very loud, and very inappropriate belch which erupted from the pony who had thus far remained out of it. Gertrude's attention immediately snapped toward Rarity, brow furrowing in confusion as she saw the unicorn spit up a small cloud of purple smoke, which coalesced into a scrap of parchment before her very eyes.

Upon this parchment were three words. The blank whiteness drained from her eyes, immediately returning them to their natural blue as she cried out, "COVER YOUR EARS," doing so with her front hooves. The other ponies immediately followed her example.

Gertrude, either unwilling to release her spear or utterly failing to understand what was about to occur, did not.

Within moments, the Warden of Winter wished that she had.

Author's Note

Have I mentioned lately that Gertrude is completely off her nut?

And hooray, a chapter that didn't take four weeks to finish! I'd like to think that it's partly due to the Summer heat finally starting to fade. Heat just drains the energy out of me. Of course, if I had finished this story back in the Spring as I originally hoped for, that wouldn't have been an issue. Ah well. Hope you like this batch of chapters, and the climax this has been building toward this whole time.

Its Cold, Icy Sting (pt. 2/3)

Snowblind
by crowmagnon

Its Cold, Frosty Sting, pt. 2

"Too ballad-y... too polka... too modern... oh HAY no. Why do I even still have this one?" Vinyl shook her head in disgust and sighed as she and Octavia flipped through her record collection.

As Zecora held her pouch of dust, waiting for the moment to enact her part of the plan that Twilight Sparkle had told everypony about just a minute ago, she asked the musicians, "If I might ask, why is it such a difficult decision to make? Even from the Everfree, I have felt your machine make the ground quake."

Vinyl and Octavia shared a Look--capitalization and all--with one another before turning to the zebra with expressions bordering on pity.

"Opportunity like this comes once in lifetime. The occasion calls for more than mere makink of sounds," Octavia explained.

Vinyl nodded in agreement. "We're staring down a griffon demigod who's commanding the ancient enemies of ponykind! We can't just spit noise at her! We've got the chance to set the soundtrack for a mythic battle, here!"

Zecora was taken aback as Octavia's stoic mask began to give way as she joined in the DJ's hot-blooded declaration, rearing up on her hind legs. "It falls upon us to find music truly vorthy of zis event! Somezink powerful!"

"And epic," Vinyl chimed in.

"A song that vill resonate for ages to come vhen the tales of this day are told!"

"Yeah! Something..." Vinyl trailed off as she stopped flipping through her albums and lifted one up in her magic for Octavia to see.

The musicians both stared at the vinyl disc as though it were a sacred relic. Vinyl Scratch grinned widely, and even Octavia cracked a smile as they simultaneously concluded, "... Classic."

Earlier...

Applejack blinked in surprise as she tried to process what she had just been told. "You're... what?"

"I'm going to betray you all," Rarity replied. "If Gertrude gives me the chance, I'm going to make a deal with her to let Spike and Sweetie Belle go. It's the only way we can get in contact with Twilight."

"And Apple Bloom. You'll try to negotiate for her too, won't you?" Applejack glanced over at the sullen filly, who was being tended to by Mrs. Cake in Fluttershy's absence. The businessmare then looked Rarity straight in the eye with a pleading gaze. "Rarity, you have to get her out of here. After everything she's been through, you have to help her."

Rarity hesitated for a moment before nodding. "Of course, I'll do what I can, but Gertrude seems to have it out for you in particular... Probably because you're the Element of Generosity, but there's a chance that she won't let Apple Bloom go if she thinks it would hurt you."

Applejack's heart twisted in her chest. I know what that means. She's not going to get Apple Bloom out of here, and she's covering her own flank for when that happens. She only cares about saving her own family.

The businessmare felt a chill in the pit of her stomach as the dark, cold thoughts wormed their way into her mind. "So... how do you think Fluttershy is doing up there?" She gave a weak laugh as she tried not to think about the doubts in her heart. "If we're lucky, by now she's traded our freedom for a set of her self-help books."

Rarity pursed her lips and looked down at the floor for a moment. "Yes... Fluttershy. Applejack, there's something that you should know. I've been--"

Before she could finish, both mares heard a growling sound just before the armored pegasus whom Gertrude had brought with her leapt upon Rarity and tackled her to the floor.

Present time...

"I'm really not sure about this," Pokey murmured.

"You should probably stop fidgeting," Pinkamena mused as she looked up at the young unicorn. "You'll need to keep your balance centered, or Will's aim will get thrown off."

Iron Will flashed the poet a grin and a thumbs-up with his free hand. "No worries, Pinkamena, my aim's as true as my heart! Thanks to Twilight's plan, I've got a chance to help save Fluttershy and the rest. When opportunity's right in front of your face, don't let it go to waste!"

Pokey gulped and looked at the ice wall. "Uh... yeah, Iron Will? It isn't your face I'm worried about with this plan." Then he heard the voice of his commander approaching them.

Looking the minotaur and stallion over, Twilight walked up to them and asked, "Will, Pierce, are you ready to go?"

In an instant, Pokey's posture went straight and rigid as he saluted. "Yes, ma'am! Just give the order, ma'am!"

Twilight Sparkle allowed herself a small smile and nodded to him. "Good to hear, Private Pierce. I'm counting on you. You too, Will!"

"Let no fear chill your heart

Let no doubt veer your aim

Let all walls in your path be sundered apart

Let all songs of this day sing well of your name

Our enemies shall harrow us

Our wounds shall burn and sting

But we shall stand strong and valorous

'Til our souls are warmed in Spring"

Three pairs of eyes turned toward Pinkamena. Twilight's smile widened slightly as she said, "That was beautiful, Pinkamena. Did you just make that up now?"

The poet shook her head. "It's from 'Fiore Viola Del Pensiero', the ballad of Commander Hurricane's last stand. Those verses come right after Hurricane is mortally wounded by the griffon barbarian, Blacktalon. He entrusts his lance to Lieutenant Pansy, then tells him to put aside his fears and break through the defenses of Blacktalon's inpenetrable fortress in his stead."

Iron Will leaned against his crutch. "And how did that go...?"

Pinkamena replied, "Pansy found a weakness in the fortress's wall. Equestria's army took the fortress, and Pansy himself killed Blacktalon with Hurricane's lance, earning himself a knighthood from Queen Platinum and the affection of the mare he loved."

Pokey perked up at the end of the poet's quick summary. "Wow... really?" When she nodded in affirmation, he smiled dreamily as he glanced toward Twilight, then said resolutely, "Just give the signal, Lieutenant! Mr. Will and I won't let you down!"

"Darn straight," Will affirmed along with the unicorn he had been holding aloft in one hand throughout the entire conversation. "Come on, Pokey, let's see your lance impression!"

As Pokey held his body straight, his horn pointed directly at the ice surrounding Sugarcube Corner, Twilight nodded approvingly. "Good form there, Pierce. Be ready, it shouldn't be long now." With that, she continued on toward Vinyl's music equipment while Pinkamena joined her.

Shortly after leaving Pokey and Iron Will, though, Twilight tilted her head in thought. "Hey... I just remembered Hurricane's last stand from my military history classes at West Hoof. Wasn't Pansy killed in that battle, too?"

Pinkamena nodded. "With the last of his strength, Blacktalon bit Pansy's throat, and they died at the same time. The mare he had been in love with from afar was so moved by the tales of his heroism that she fell in love with him in return, but since it was too late to reciprocate his feelings, she threw herself from her bedroom window and broke her neck. That's how the ballad tells it, anyway." She glanced back over her shoulder to see Twilight's stunned expression. "And this is why I didn't tell Pokey that part."

Twilight slowly nodded and pulled Derpy's compass out, drawing confidence from its presence. "Well... Pansy didn't have ponies inside like we do. I just hope they get word to us soon."

Earlier...

Rarity felt the wind get knocked out of her lungs from the impact, and the cold which suddenly filled her body made it very difficult to recover it. The armored pegasus had her pinned down in a crushing grip, and the frigid chill of the ice's touch was unbearable, even through the cold that filled the unicorn's being. She tried to push the other mare off of her, but while the young rock farmer was fit from years of hard work and exercise, the pegasus was simply too strong to shove aside, either through her own strength or through her magic.

Through the frostbite and frantic struggle, Rarity was dimly aware of Applejack trying to help. The businessmare gripped Rarity's attacker and struggled to pull her away, but to no avail.

Traitor! Monster! You'll pay for this, she thought, practically screaming in her head. As she did, she felt the cold within her grow. While it numbed her somewhat to the chill of her attacker's touch, it did nothing to loosen the pegasus's insanely powerful grip. I hate you, she silently sneered, calling upon the frozen power surrounding them. My hate is colder than your armor! Cold enough to freeze you for eternity! To freeze all of these stupid ponies! I'll--

"Get off my mommy!" Rarity heard little Spike's voice as he ran up and threw himself at the pegasus, apparently having gotten away from Mrs. Cake and Sweetie Belle. Rarity tried to protest, to push him away with her magic again, but didn't have enough air in her lungs to do either as the baby dragon latched onto the pegasus and took a deep breath before engulfing her head in a short blast of green flame.

The pegasus yelped and backed away as Spike's flame faded quickly, allowing both her and Rarity to take a long gasp of air.

Present time...

Rainbow Dash looked over to the far side of the bakery, where Zecora was stationed in preparation for Twilight's plan to kick off. Though she wouldn't admit it easily, she would have liked to have her mentor at her side. They needed to be positioned where they were, though, in order to act at a moment's notice. That was also
why Nocturne and Vinyl (and more importantly, Vinyl's gear) were each on opposite sides of the building.

The fact that Twilight had left her and the thestral Sergeant together with the Cakes, as well as Sweetie Belle and Spike, was probably no accident, but it did make things awkward. The words that were said back at the Ranger's station, particularly the ones that she had said herself, echoed in her mind whenever she looked over at the armored thestral.

While she did so, Rainbow Dash felt a faint tugging on her wing. She looked down to see Spike and Sweetie Belle staring up at her with wide, forlorn eyes. Neither of them spoke, but the worry on their faces was all too clear.

Rainbow Dash leaned down and nuzzled the little ones, wrapping her wings around them as she assured them, "Don't worry, kiddos. I bet you're worried... I get it, but just wait and see. Everypony'll get out of this safe and sound, and this time tomorrow, you'll be running around in the Spring, playing with Apple Bloom and Scootaloo and the rest of your friends. It won't be long before all this is nothing but a memory."

Nocturne Striker glanced over in their direction as she spoke, and hesitated for several long seconds before she muttered quietly, "Scootaloo's really looking forward to seeing you when this all blows over, Sweetie. I should have said this before, but thank you for being such a good friend to her. Ever since Heavy... since her father passed away, it's meant a lot to me that she had somepony to depend on. Somepony besides me..."

Rainbow Dash felt a cold wind blow, and immediately a pang of guilt squeezed her heart. "Look, Sarge, don't say that sort of thing. If this is about what I said back at the station, it was way out of line, and I'm sorry I said it."

Nocturne looked down at the frozen ground under her hooves and muttered, "Don't be... it's true. Everything you said... it was all true. I was horrible to you, just so I could feel like I was part of the herd... I pretended that you didn't have feelings so I could protect my own. Heavy Roller called me out on it... he saw a better pony in me, so I acted like that better pony, but I never tried to make it up to you."

With a sinking feeling in her stomach, Rainbow Dash folded her wings back up to her sides and tried to approach, but Nocturne stepped away when she did. The thestral didn't even seem to be looking at her, she just stared downward as a frosty film slowly covered her eyes.

"I just kept telling myself that all those rumors about you and Zecora justified my behavior, so I never really tried to change. Now he's gone, and all Scootaloo has left is a bully of a mother... maybe she'd be better off if I just lay down in the snow and didn't get up."

"Nocturne..." Dash suddenly leapt toward her, grabbing the Ranger with her forelegs to keep her from backing up further as she stared Nocturne in the eyes, her face so close that their foreheads were practically touching. "Buck that." She paused for a moment to look over at the morose children before turning back to the thestral. "Pardon my Prench, kids. But Nocturne, don't you even think that. Yeah, you were kind of rotten to me when we were small, but that was a long time ago. What you're feeling right now, it's just the Windigoes getting inside your head, that's all."

Nocturne winced and brought a hoof up to her forehead. "No... no, this is me. Everything I ever did... not just to you, but everypony I ever hurt for... for the stupidest reasons. It's all true, I did those things. That's who I am, and... and as long as I'm around, Scootaloo will end up growing up just like me. I can't--"

Nocturne didn't get to finish that sentence as Rainbow Dash stuck her wing in her mouth. The sudden taste of feathers in her mouth shocked the thestral out of her rant, and she started sputtering and spitting to get it off her tongue. As she focused on Rainbow Dash to glare at her, she was met by a stare more fierce and steadfast than her own.

"Listen here, Sarge, because what I'm about to say is absolutely true. Don't forget, I know Scootaloo. She's an awesome filly, with energy to burn. Reckless, cocky, maybe not the brightest firefly in the lantern... but I've never met a girl her age who was so determined to help out anypony. Doesn't matter if they're another filly getting picked on by bullies, or a trainee witch-doctor from the Everfree."

Nocturne tried to look down in shame, but it felt as though Rainbow Dash's gaze had her locked in place. "But... no, that isn't me. She got that from her comic books... She wants to take after Mare-Do-Well, not me..."

Rainbow didn't break eye contact, not even for a moment as she shook her head. "She got the style from Mare-Do-Well, but something else attracted her to those comics in the first place, I can tell. Those values... the image of the mare she wants to become, that came from somewhere closer to home. And don't get me wrong, I'm sure your husband was fine, but I'm betting he wasn't the type who dedicated himself to putting his life on the line. She's determined to be an awesome filly because she's got an awesome mom's example to live up to. That's what I think, anyway, so what about you?"

Nocturne stared back at Rainbow Dash, letting the words sink in. And the more she thought on them, the more she thought of her daughter. The cold, sick feeling that had been squirming in her gut ever since the Ranger station began melting away as she pictured the brash, spunky little tomboy waiting back there. Waiting for her.

She thought back on her own past actions, too, but realized that Dash was right about one thing at least... there wasn't any real danger of Scootaloo following in her hoofsteps in that regard. She could only imagine the fight that would have broken out if the brave, kind, fearless filly she had somehow raised ever met the weak, cowardly bully seeking acceptance in all the wrong places that she had once been.

The thought made her smile.

"I... suppose I must have done something right," she admitted, her eyes clearing up as she nodded to Rainbow Dash, who looked relieved that she seemed better. "Still, I never did really apologize for everything."

Rainbow Dash grinned and patted Nocturne on the shoulder. As if on cue, Sweetie Belle and Spike hurried to hug her, offering what little support they could give to their friend's mom while sworn to silence. This made the pegasus laugh and playfully noogie the baby dragon. "Yeah, and I just want to say I'm sorry, again. You've done a lot of growing up since then."

Nocturne looked Rainbow in the eye and replied earnestly, "Still, I feel like I need to make amends for the filly I used to be... Can you forgive her?"

A mischievous grin grew across Dash's face. "Pssh, I got even with that jerk years ago. Don't tell me you forgot the centipedes in your saddlebags?"

Nocturne's cat-like eyes blinked several times, and her dark purple coat turned a few shades paler with the recollection. "That was you!"

Rainbow Dash shrugged with a light chuckle. "The 'curse of the Rainbow Witch'? Yeah, it's true... You weren't the only one who had some growing up to do," she admitted.

Before either of them could say any more, there was a bright purple flash as Twilight appeared in front of them. "Okay, Vinyl and Zecora are ready to go, once we get the--" She tilted her head, seeing the two mares side-by-side with Sweetie Belle and Spike hugging them. "Did you two make up in just the past few minutes?"

Nocturne nodded and snapped off a salute. "Yes, ma'am. Is that a problem, Lieutenant?"

Twilight blushed a little as she replied, "Well, no... No, of course not! I just had a little speech prepared... You know, priorities... setting aside our differences for the greater good... but I'm glad I didn't need to use it. I suppose. I guess I wasted my time."

Dash and Nocturne looked at each other with raised eyebrows, and it took a tremendous effort not to smirk. At least in Nocturne's case, she made an effort as she replied, "You could still do it, Lieutenant."

Twilight rubbed her foreleg awkwardly. "No, no, the moment's gone. You guys fixed the problem, so..." A belch then came from Spike, interrupting her as a puff of green smoke billowed out from his mouth before taking the form of a wadded-up napkin. In an instant, the unicorn Ranger was all business as she lifted up the napkin in her magic and unfolded it.

"Keep guarding this side of the building! Spike, I'm sorry I have to take you away from your aunt Sweetie, but I'll need your help." Deftly lifting the baby dragon up in her magic, she placed him on her back before teleporting them both.

Once Twilight and Spike were gone, Nocturne and Dash looked to one another, sharing a resolute nod before the Sergeant turned to Sweetie Belle and the Cakes. "Don't worry, Lt. Sparkle just needs Spike for a few seconds. Mr. and Mrs. Cake, go get Sweetie Belle inside and she'll bring him back to you soon, but you don't want to get caught up in this."

Carrot Cake nodded, worried but hopeful as he lifted Sweetie Belle up onto his back and hurried to get off the street.

Out of the corner of his eye, Iron Will saw the flash of Twilight's teleportation, so he wasn't surprised when she appeared right in front of him with a baby dragon wobbling slightly on her back from the disorientation of teleporting. "Will, get yourself and Pierce over to Vinyl! Once Zecora's done her thing, aim for the left display window!"

Pokey tried to look as dutiful as he could while being held aloft by the minotaur, and snapped off a salute to his superior. "I'll do my best to--" Before he could finish, she had already vanished in a flash of magic. "--to do my part, ma'am..."

The young stallion started to sigh in disappointment, only to yelp as Iron Will tucked him under his arm and began limping on his crutch toward Vinyl's sound system with the determination of a locomotive. "Come on, Pierce! No time to pout, because there's a griffon to show what we're all about!" With that hastily cobbled together catch phrase echoing in his ears, Pokey couldn't do anything but go along for the ride.

"Aeronautics is not where my specialties lie, but who would name themselves after an airship too heavy to fly?"

Even through her nearly opaque purple shades, Zecora was sure that she could see Vinyl rolling her eyes as she double-checked her console's settings. "It's just a name, Zeecs. Trust me, you're about to get your bangles bungled."

Suddenly, Twilight and Spike appeared in front of the DJ in a flash of magic, causing her to jump in surprise and fall back into the snow. Looking down at her, Twilight exclaimed, "No time for snow angels, Miss Scratch! Is everything ready to go?"

Picking herself up, Vinyl replied, "Huh... what? Oh! Oh, yeah, good to go, L.T.!"

Twilight gave her a curt nod. "Alright, give me exactly twenty seconds, then fire it up and aim for the left display window! Zecora, you follow up. Will and Private Pierce are on their way!" With that, she vanished again, an accompanying flash visible through the window of the nearby Quills & Sofa store.

Inside the store, Twilight hastily grabbed the nearest quill and inkpot with her magic while Spike wobbled and slid off her back. "Ooooogh... dizzyyyy," he complained while the unicorn lay the napkin down on the shop's counter with the blank side up.

"Sorry, Spike. I know rapid-fire teleportation can be disorienting, but I need you to help me send a message to your mother," she said, her tone softening from the commanding authority with which she had addressed the others. As quickly as she could without tearing the napkin, Twilight scribbled the words "cover your ears" onto it. She then wadded it up and set the napkin in front of the baby dragon.

A twinge of hindsight hit her as she realized that she could have just as easily left Spike with the Cakes and teleported to them after writing the message, but there was no time to dwell on it.

She would definitely set aside time for dwelling later.

For the time being, she instead gently asked him, "You can send your mommy this message, can't you?" When he nodded, she smiled and told him, "Okay, go ahead."

The baby dragon picked up the napkin in his claws, then leaned back and took a deep breath. A short jet of green flame shot out of his mouth, and instead of simply reducing the napkin to ash, Twilight watched the the napkin dissolve completely into a puff of smoke which drifted away in the cool air. The lack of any residue beyond the lingering odor of sulfur told Twilight that it had worked. She gave Spike a hug and told him, "Good work. I'll drop you off with your aunt Sweetie and the Cakes, so just stay with them and I promise that I'll bring your mommy back to you safe and sound."

With that, the two of them vanished once again.

Pain. Pain. Pain. Those horrible ponies, making me relive those happy memories. I thought that such things were no longer a part of me. I thought that I was safe remembering my friends but it burns. Wretched, horrible monsters, all of them!

I miss them so much, but they betrayed me. All of them. All of them. I stand alone. Alone in the cold. The cold makes me alone. Alone, but strong. The warmth burns. Their warmth burns. Only the unicorn understands. She alone feels the chill of loss that Winter brings, and she alone will join me. The rest burn. The rest must die, each of them alone in the cold! They burned my baby!

My... baby...?

They burned it! It was growing so much stronger than the others. Its roots were deep and its whispers were strong, but they burned it and made me listen to its screams!

My baby...

Now they're trying to burn me... to kill me.

My baby... My Gu--

My Gungnir. The spear of Winter. I summon it into my talons as I back the pretender of Generosity into a corner. She was supposed to nurture my baby, not burn it. Her sister's heart was so cold in her presence, how could she have possibly reversed that? Their hearts burn brightly, now. How? How?

Lies. Spiteful, self-serving lies that she filled her sister's head with, just to burn my baby before it could be truly born. Her sister is sobbing for her, now. For her sake. She has to pay. They will all pay, but the pretender of Generosity must suffer first.

I will be taking her from her sister and her heart will grow cold enough to be useful once more.

The Ranger will never relinquish the Element of Generosity if I do this but I do not need it. Reclaiming the Element was my entire purpose in coming here but this is far more important.

Why am I here? Vengeance. To bring suffering upon those who deserve it, just like this worthless fraud.

My spear pierces through the short distance between myself and the cowering parasite, but not through the soft flesh of my wrath's focus. Instead, Celestia's would-be assassin throws herself in Gungnir's path, and the armor that I crafted for her prevents it from striking home.

Pain. Burning. Even through the ice I encased that wretched monster in, she threatens to burn me. I allowed her to live for one reason alone! To give her a chance to serve me instead of her traitorous master, if only as a distraction for the other ponies to focus their hatred and suspicion upon. Instead, she defies me by risking her own life for her fellow pony.

A futile effort. Though the armor saved her from Gungnir, I knock her aside with ease. "Mutant! Worthless freak! I told you what I would do if you defied me!" These disgusting ponies. For a species as predisposed toward treachery as they are, they constantly find ways of disrupting my plans in the most irritating of ways. Only Rarity is salvageable. Throughout this entire debacle, she has remained cold and unmoving. She alone is worth keeping, and from her will spring many Windigoes. The rest, however... "None of you ponies will leave this place alive! None of you! I will skewer your corpses on pikes and parade them in front of your Princesses as I--"

I do not even get to finish as a disgusting eruption of gas comes out of the unicorn. I turn to stare at her in disbelief, only to feel a wave of heat coming from her as she belches forth a puff of smoke. Before my eyes, the smoke forms into a solid shape.

Dragonfire!

Dragonfire! The unicorn is able to hold dragonfire within herself?! This is impossible! No mere pony can do so without burning themselves alive! Even if it is true dragonfire, I should have sensed the heat within her! She could not have hidden this from me, unless...

... Unless she wrapped herself in the cold of the Windigoes as camouflage.

But that cannot be, either. Any Windigo working its power upon her would make her heart too hard and cold to even consider helping her fellow ponies. And even if she could, the Windigoes would have alerted me! This is impossible.

The only way that it could be happening this way is if--

So lost in confusion am I that I do not even hear the unicorn shouting to the other ponies until I see them cover their heads.

The very next moment, the building rattles as a violent cacophony of sound batters against the walls.

Vinyl's horn glowed brightly as she channeled as much of her magic as she could through it. Her equipment, which she had already modded over the years for the highest volume it could possibly produce, was being focused and amplified further by her spells to the point that one could almost see the sound waves tightening into a wide beam that struck the thick ice.

The instant it began to play, the weaponized drums and guitar cracked the wall. The powerful enchantments which formed the frozen wall attempted to regenerate what cracked away, but the first wails of the vocalist slammed into the weakened ice and caused the cracks to spread farther.

"Yeeeeeaahhhhhhh! ~Ahh-ah-ahhhhhh-AHH!~" Vinyl bobbed her head and sang along with the record while Octavia and Zecora, as well as Iron Will and Pokey Pierce, protectively covered their ears. Even with her spells keeping most of the sound waves contained within the 'beam', the noise was still painfully loud. "Come on, Zeecs, it's your turn!"

Doing her best to cover both ears with one foreleg, the zebra opened up her pouch of loa dust with the other. After scooping up a hoofful, she blew and guided the dust in front of Vinyl's speakers. Once it entered the path of the sonic beam, the dust was shot into the wall as well, and began to insinuate itself into the growing cracks. Even in the areas which weren't being directly hit by Vinyl's spell, the presence of Zecora's dust prevented the ice from sealing up again.

Several seconds after the sonic battering began, the ice covering the window indicated by Twilight had worn thin enough for them to see more clearly, and even uncovered some hidden holes for ventilation. The enchantment holding the inner layers together continued to hold strong, however, .

"Come on, Vinyl," Iron Will bellowed, just barely audible over the cacaphony of classic rock. "Crank it up louder, and grind this wall to powder!"

"No can do, Babe," the DJ shouted back. "I'm giving it all I've got right now! Maybe with five energy drinks in me, I'd be able to crank it up another notch or two, but this's all I can do! It's all on you and the Pokemeister, now!"

Pokey vaguely heard his name, so he reluctantly removed the hoof from one of his ears. "What?! What'd she say?!"

Iron Will lifted Pokey up into a throwing stance once again and shouted back, "She said that when some griffon tries to block, SHOW HER THAT WE ROCK!"

Pokey barely had a chance to yelp before the minotaur hurled him like a javelin, sending him flying straight toward the window. Thankfully, Vinyl cut off the music before he entered the beam's path as he kept his horn pointed straight ahead.

Just before Pokey would have struck the ice wall with skull-shattering force, his horn flared to life with his personal spell.

It was common for unicorns--particularly in rural towns like Ponyville, where young stallions and mares often began working before they were considered full adults--to learn only the most basic utilitarian spells such as levitation, then perhaps a few based on their special talent on top of that. Those who had broader training like Lieutenant Sparkle, or who could afford to devote more of their time to study like the town's librarian, had a more varied set of spells at their disposal.

Private Pokey Pierce of Luna's Rangers was not one of those studious unicorns. He had never set a hoof near an academic institution like Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, or the West Hoof Officer's Academy for the Royal Guard. Beyond the very most basic fundamentals of magic, he possessed only a single spell which he had discovered early in his life, and which he had focused his magical training around ever since.

As Pokey's spell flared to life, a cone of light surrounded his horn, extending out in front of him to stab into the wall's weak point before he could actually strike it himself. Exposed as it was from the combined effects of Vinyl's music and Zecora's dust, the cone of magically-enhanced sharpness allowed Pokey to live up to his name as his body punched straight through the window and into the bakery.

His trajectory send him sailing, horn-first, straight toward Gertrude. Time seemed to slow down as panic overloaded his senses. He was barely able to notice that the huge griffon seemed be disoriented and trying to shake it off. Not that he would have blamed her after the weaponized music rocked the bakery, but as the wall was breached, she lifted her head up and looked straight at him, her blank eyes narrowing with anger.

Holy horseapples, this isn't good, he thought to himself in the instant before she lashed out with a talon to snatch him out of the air by the throat.

Her grip felt like it was the only thing keeping his insides from jumping out of his mouth from the sudden loss of forward momentum, and her sneer made him soon fear that they would instead start coming out the other end. Especially when she held a large spear of ice up to his face. "What... was that? What was that weapon?"

When he failed to answer right away, she began to squeeze, and the wail of the Windigoes howled into the bakery as a frigid wind blew in through the open hole, but it refused to close. "Foul ponies... Treacherous, the lot of you... Using the power of Spring to help you break in here... have you forgotten where that power came from?!"

A flash of light erupted beside her, and even Gertrude's unnatural reflexes were not keen enough to avoid them as two metal boots slammed into the side of her head. The shock caused her to drop Pokey, who was caught as Lieutenant Sparkle teleported down under him, then quickly took both of them on top of the cashier counter and of Gertrude's reach.

"I don't care what you have to say, Gertrude," she said as Pokey slid off her back, but his legs were too unsteady to hold him, so he held onto Twilight with his forelegs. "Nopony touches my Privates."

Confusion flickers through my mind for a moment. "I never told you my name..." Of course, there is only one explanation. The most treacherous, selfish mare of them all. The one who nearly earned my trust. I turn to the white unicorn who is no longer pretending to have given in to the cold. Indeed, puffs of purple smoke drift from her nostrils when she exhales. The heat coming from her now is painful, but only serves to increase my ire. "You told her, didn't you? You tricked me into letting your whelp go just so you could send her a message through dragonfire."

At some point during the assault in which my senses were flooded with that music, the ponies moved to assist the mutant. The unicorn now stands between them and me, bracing herself while glaring at me with foolhardy determination in her eyes. Beyond her the assassin groans, and I see that while the rest of her armor remains unscratched, the helmet is cracked and breaking away, revealing her twisted visage as the pieces fall to the floor.

Visions of the traitorous Luna flash before my eyes. I had thought that the Moon's ability to redirect the magic of others was an aberration, but what she has done... it would require the ability to mimic the magic of other beings with her own. I have never heard of a mere pony, let alone a lowly farmer, having such a talent.

And yet here it is. Cruder, weaker imitations perhaps, but she succeeded in tricking me into believing that she was giving in to the Windigoes. All that time, and she was actually copying me.

For some reason, I can not help but feel somewhat proud of her. Which is why I will have to kill her first.

With Gungnir in my talons, I spread my wings. "So, you broke through my barrier? It only means that you have spared me the effort of leaving this place to snuff out your lives!"

Author's Note

Huzzah, a chapter that only took three weeks to write instead of four! And it probably would have been less, but it turned out to be heftier than I was expecting with the amount of setup to put in place before I finally pulled the trigger on the action. Hopefully you'll think it was worth it, because I didn't want to leave it too confusing.

I also hope that you like the revelation of Eclipseverse Rarity's special talent as the Element of Magic. In a way, I'm calling back to the original idea that Faust had for her Element, which was Inspiration. Instead of using her eye for detail and creativity to make clothing, though, her approach to magic is much like her rock farming. By looking past the surface and finding the 'seeds', the hidden beauty and potential in something, she has a better sense of how to nurture those qualities, and can learn to use her own magic in a manner that mimics even the magic of other species.

It's almost purely driven by instinct and empathy, though, and can't be reproduced or taught to other unicorns. She's also limited in her abilities, as she possesses nowhere near the raw power potential of Twilight Sparkle, so even if she figures out how someone else's magic works, she has to be very judicious with how much power she uses, or she'll burn out very quickly. Especially when dealing with a demigod like Gertrude.

As always, please leave comments or questions! I'll try to have this next chapter done even sooner.

[[Addendum: Rarity's ability to mimic the magic of other creatures is also a tribute to the fan mod Pony Fantasy VI, a retooled version of the SNES classic, Final Fantasy VI. In that game, Rarity takes on the role of the blue mage Strago, who's unique talent was copying spells that he was hit with in battle. If you haven't tried it yet, you should look for the ROM, because it's more than just a re-skin of FF6. For one thing, skills were shuffled around so that only unicorn and alicorn characters are able to use esper magic, and enemy statistics were tweaked to increase the challenge in boss encounters.]]

Its Cold, Icy Sting (pt. 3/3)

Snowblind
by crowmagnon

Its Cold, Frosty Sting, pt. 3

Earlier...

Rarity had just caught her breath as the armored pegasus's death grip loosened. She looked toward her 'attacker', and gasped as her eyes met one of the mailmare's, then the other.

Derpy looked back at her and opened her mouth to speak, only to get tackled to the floor by an orange and blonde blur.

Applejack hissed, "Alright, who are you and why are you helping that monster?!" She pinned Derpy's wings with her front hooves and glared down at the pegasus. "And don't try anything, because I've taken self-defense classes!"

Derpy squeaked fearfully and tried to pull her head back down into the icy armor until Rarity placed a hoof on her friend's shoulder and whispered, "Applejack, don't hurt her! That's Derpy!"

The businessmare turned to her friend with an offended look. "Excuse me? I am not being 'derpy', as you put it!"

Rarity shook her head and pointed down at the pegasus. "No, no, she's Derpy," she whispered.

"... Darling, I'm confused. You want me to let her go so that you can verbally abuse her?"

Rarity clenched her eyes shut and brought a hoof up to her forehead while Spike slowly approached. "Issa Mailmare! Why were you twying to hurt mommy, miss Mailmare...?"

Derpy started tearing up as she tilted her head to focus one eye on the baby dragon. "I wasn't! I... I... I was going south to bring the birds back and I found that big meanie griffon and she called me a 'sassy moo-taint' and started chasing after me and I was so so scared and she cut the mountain open and covered me in ice and told me to grab Apple Bloom and I tried to fly away with her so the big meanie griffon wouldn't hurt her, but I messed up and crashed and everypony hates me and I don't know why this is happening!"

Rarity shook her head slowly. "Derpy Hooves is one of the sweetest ponies alive. She would never... intentionally hurt anypony," she explained to Applejack, wincing a little as she rubbed her bruised ribs. "This entire time, that Gertrude has been using her as a... a scapegoat."

The mailmare whimpered and looked up at the other mares with fear and confusion as a hush fell over the immediate area. Applejack slowly removed her hooves from Derpy's wings and sat down. "Oh, I truly am an idiot," she murmured, feeling a cold wave of self-loathing wash over her as she was faced with the stark truth of how she had treated the wall-eyed mare. "I should have realized... I deal with liars fibbers all the time in my business, but I was so quick to believe the worst, I just..."

"It's not your fault, Applejack," Rarity whispered. "Not entirely. I... I think maybe she and the Windigoes have been... encouraging us to feel this way. All day long, I've..." She took a deep breath, her ears flattening atop her head as she admitted, "I... hate Fluttershy."

This drew a gasp of shock from the two mares. Even Spike was stunned, his big green eyes watering up. "H-hate missus Fwuttershy? But she's weally nice! ... Isn't she?"

Rarity leaned in to nuzzle Spike. "Yes, dear, yes she is. It's just that ever since she bit down on your tail... I know I can be a little overprotective, but I've never held a grudge so fiercely against someone I care about before. My mind has been filled with... such vile thoughts that I can't even tell you which ones are really mine. It makes the world feel so cold and dark when I let them play out, but at the same time, by shutting out the rest of the world, I feel like I'm protecting myself, even if..."

Applejack leaned in closer. "Even if what, darling?"

Rarity hesitated, then shook her head. "No... no, I thought I had something, but it's gone. We have to act fast, in any case."

Applejack followed Rarity's gaze as the unicorn looked toward Derpy. "You're right. If Gertrude comes back down here, she'll see that we've broken her ruse. There's no telling what she'll do." Looking back up at Rarity, she asked, "Can you re-create that awful helmet? You have quite the eye for detail, and you're the only unicorn here who could possibly pull it off."

"I can try," Rarity murmured as she concentrated on recalling the shape of the helmet. "I'm sure that I could make the shape right, but how in Equestria do I make it so your head doesn't freeze?"

Derpy shook her head slowly. "I...I dunno why I'm not cold. It's like this ice is keeping all the cold on the outside. Even with the hidden holes so I could breathe."

Rarity mused, "Hidden holes...?" She and Applejack shared a look.

"Rarity, are you thinking that when Gertrude barricaded us in here...?"

"I don't know. It depends on how long she intends to keep us here, probably, but if we can find some sort of ventilation, that's a weakness that Twilight and the others outside can exploit." She smiled down at Derpy. "Thankfully, we've got a pegasus right here whose special talent is feeling air currents."

Derpy's expression brightened up considerably at this news. "Yay! Who?" When Rarity raised an eyebrow and pointed at her, Derpy blushed and giggled sheepishly. "Oops... hehe, that's right, it's me."

"Who is whom?" Fluttershy asked, surprising the others with her sudden presence as the pegasus was flapping her wings and hovering noiselessly overhead. Looking down at the unmasked mailmare, she smiled and set herself down into the huddle. "Derpy! I had a feeling it was you in there. How's my favorite mailmare? It must have been horrible, playing along with that meanie, but you've been doing a great job!"

Applejack did a double-take at Fluttershy. "Wait... you aren't surprised about this?"

Fluttershy shrugged her shoulders and replied, "Not really. I mean, what sort of pony would willingly sell us out to a big jerk like Gertrude?" She then took Rarity by surprise by smiling at her and wrapping her yellow forelegs around the unicorn in a warm hug. "At least... not without a sneaky plan."

Rarity blinked, briefly stunned by Fluttershy's embrace as the mare's wings wrapped around her and Spike. "Wha...?"

"I didn't tell her a thing, Rarity," Fluttershy said quietly. "I didn't give her anything she wanted, but you can. You can make a deal to get Spike and the fillies out of here, can't you? Then you can use that special talent of yours to get in touch with Twilight, and she'll save all of us."

The unicorn stammered, "How did you know...? Just how much did you overhear?"

Fluttershy tilted her head and just smiled innocently at her friend. "Hmm? Nothing really. I just got back, remember?"

Rarity looked back into the pegasus's big blue eyes, and started to smile back as she felt the warmth that Fluttershy gave off seeping through her. She had been spending the past while trying to harness the power of the cold, only to have control of it elude her. Every time she had stoked the dark feelings in her soul a little to feed the Windigoes and try to get a sense of how their magic worked, it felt like she was putting herself in danger of losing herself to those emotions completely.

It had been a risk that she was prepared to make for her family's sake. A risk that had seemed more and more like an inevitability as the cold had begun to take root in her heart. And yet, even as she had withdrawn into her anger toward Fluttershy in particular, allowing herself to entertain horrible thoughts about her pegasus friend, Fluttershy had done nothing but try to help and comfort everypony. She had even gone so far as to give up any chance she might have had of being the hero just so Rarity or Applejack could be the ones to argue for their loved ones' safety. It was a silly thing for her to do, but the thought behind it warmed the unicorn more than her friend's winged embrace could.

Her friend. Her dear, dear friend. Rarity clenched her eyes shut and nuzzled Fluttershy's wing as she thought back on how she had felt toward the pegasus, and as her heart thawed once more, she guiltily realized just how petty and stubborn she had been acting.

That was when inspiration struck.

Returning her friend's hug, she asked, "Fluttershy, when you were up there, what sort of impression did you get from Gertrude? How would you say she is feeling right now?"

The yellow pegasus pouted and shook her head. "Oh, she tried to hide it, but she seemed so sad. I really wish I could have helped her with that, but she wouldn't even let me try."

Applejack scoffed, "Help her? After everything she's done to us?"

"Of course," Fluttershy replied, her eyes starting to water up as she looked off into the distance. "After all... she used to represent one of the Elements of Harmony, right? Even if it was a long, long time ago, that means that she was once the Princesses' friend. I don't know what happened to make her turn on Celestia and Luna like that, but I'm sure she must have a good heart. I think... maybe she's just so afraid of getting hurt that she's hidden it away under all that armor and ice."

There was a moment of quiet as Applejack gave the motivator a dubious look. "You actually think that after plunging this town into a Windigo-fueled blizzard and terrorizing us all, that we should... what, offer her counseling? When she could easily tear us all to shreds at a moment's notice? It would be far more practical to help Twilight get in here and then hit her with everything we've got before she can hurt anypony more than she already has. Let the Princesses deal with her as they see fit after that."

"Maybe, Applejack. I can't say you're wrong," Rarity replied, pulling herself out of Fluttershy's hug in order to turn toward Derpy and help her up to her hooves. A smile slowly spread across her muzzle as she mused, "But thanks to Fluttershy here, the Windigoes aren't whispering to me anymore. I thought I could try to use their power to help us, but that wasn't taking me anywhere except down a bad road. I think I might have a better idea now, though, so if I'm right..."

Looking into Derpy's eyes (or at least one of them), Rarity placed a hoof on the breastplate of the pegasus's armor while a sky blue aura lit her horn. Nothing visible happened at first, but then the gathered ponies and dragon saw the ice around Derpy's neck start to spread up her head.

The wall-eyed pegasus fidgeted slightly as she felt it creeping up over her again, and she couldn't help but let out a small whimper of claustrophobia as the ice surrounded her head completely, shaping itself into a replica of the helmet Gertrude had fashioned.

When she was done, Rarity asked, "There... how's that?"

"It's a little chilly... but I'm okay, miss Rarity."

The unicorn smiled and let out a sigh of relief. "I'm glad to hear it. I'm sure I didn't get it perfectly, but it felt like I was on the right track." To the others, she said, "I can do this... What Derpy and Fluttershy said helped me realize what was missing. Her magic--"

Present time...

"So, you broke through my barrier? It only means that you have spared me the effort of leaving this place to snuff out your lives!" Gertrude's outspread wings glittered dangerously, and Derpy shouted out a warning to Rarity as she felt the sudden shift in the room's air pressure.

Lacking her Ranger friend's skill in teleportation, however, there was nowhere for the rock farmer to go as Gertrude flapped her wings, sending a focused blast of snow and arctic cold toward her. The other ponies saw Rarity's horn flash briefly before she was thrown back against the far wall. When the biting winds subsided, they saw their friend pinned against the bakery's wall, frozen solid in an icy shell.

"Rarity, no!" Applejack was the first to move toward her frozen friend, but she quickly skidded to a halt when the blade of Gertrude's spear suddenly thrust itself in front of her throat.

"She got what she deserved," Gertrude snarled. "You all will get what you deserve!" She pulled her spear back, readying it to strike when a violet flash appeared right in front of her face. The griffon reflexively brought up her wing to slash through the teleporting unicorn with her knife-like feathers, only for her wing to pass through nothing more than thin air and a flare of magical light while the actual teleportation spell brought Twilight next to Applejack in the split second that Gertrude was distracted.

With deadly speed, Gertrude realized that she had been tricked and attempted to skewer both ponies with Gungnir, but another flash of magic teleported them back to the shop's counter as the spear's tip sank into the wall behind where they had stood a moment ago. Staring evenly at the griffon from atop the counter, Twilight tapped into her inner strength and told her, "Gertrude of the Snowheart clan, I will offer you one more chance to surrender peacefully. Otherwise, I will have no choice but to assert my full authority as ranking officer in the Ponyville detachment of Luna's Rangers."

Gertrude snarled at the purple unicorn who dared to claim authority over her. Wrenching Gungnir from the wall, she slowly stalked toward Twilight, Pokey and Applejack, blank eyes narrowed and focused solely on the Ranger. "Ungrateful little cretin... To use that name as if it should have any power over me? I gave the Sun and Moon warmth when they would have frozen on the mountain cliffs of my home! I offered them food from my own plate when they would have starved! I stood by their side when they had no one to rely on. You should grovel before me in gratitude that you even know the name of Luna! And yet here you stand, so self-righteous while wielding the name of a treacherous mutant who stole everything from me!

"What do you think that you can do, Ranger?" Gertrude brought herself within her spear's reach while Pokey braced himself on trembling legs, pointing his horn at the griffon. Applejack bit her lower lip with worry as she slowly moved to hide behind the Rangers, but at the moment, Gertrude only had her eyes on Twilight, who stood tall and defiant against her.

"What will you do? Shackle me in the name of the Moon, and drag me before the deformed monsters you bow to? That traitor, Rarity, so lauded your intelligence and strategems. She claimed that you could envision countless possibilities. So tell me, my little pony, what future are you struggling toward? One where you drag me beaten and broken before Sun and Moon as they sit at an overstuffed banquet table? Do you see yourself praised for bringing their dear old friend to be humbled and tortured for the laughter of your tyrant god-queens?"

Ranger and griffon stared each other in the eye, but it was Twilight who's fierce gaze faltered first as she admitted, "Actually... no, Rangers aren't law-enforcement, so I don't have the authority to arrest anypony." When Gertrude snarled and narrowed her eyes further, Twilight pointed at the floor under Gertrude and added, "I just wanted you standing there."

For a moment... just for a moment, confusion crossed Gertrude's face before her white eyes widened with sudden realization. She turned to look behind her and realized that she was positioned directly in front of the hole that had been created by Vinyl Scratch's speaker system. Speakers which were, at that very moment, unleashing a tightly focused beam of classic rock straight at her.

Moments earlier...

As the echoes of Vinyl's choice of music faded away, Rainbow Dash glanced to Nocturne Striker and asked, "So, you think this'll work?"

The thestral Ranger kept her ears focused on the bakery, picking up on the sounds of scuffling from within. "I hope so. You've known the Lieutenant longer than I have, so you tell me."

"Yeah, by like a day. Besides, when we're hanging out, she doesn't exactly brag about all the plans she's cooked up in case of a demigod attack. I don't think she likes talking shop outside of work."

"Oh? Why not?"

"Dunno," the pegasus replied with a shrug. "Probably because it reminds her of why she left the Guard in the first place."

"Ah... She never told us about--" Nocturne trailed off, and her ear twitched as she picked up on the sound of Vinyl's speakers warming up again. "Get ready!"

Rainbow Dash braced herself and checked the pouch of dust at her side while Nocturne took to the air with a flap of leathery wings. A moment later, music erupted from the opposide side of the bakery. Even then Dash didn't need a thestral's superb sense of hearing to hear something huge slamming into the wall they were watching over the din. Though the ice held strong for several seconds afterward, long claws like swords of ice soon pierced through and began to slice through it.

Instead of slicing through cleanly however, the claws appeared ragged and cracked, and had greater difficulty cutting through the thick ice. Even so, within seconds, the wall was weakened enough that Gertrude exploded through it, blasted out by the force of Vinyl's music.

The griffon that practically tumbled out of Sugarcube Corner was not the same ruthlessly composed villain that they had seen earlier. Before, her armor had been a work of smooth, sharp-edged deadliness. Now, as she desperately scrambled out of the beam of music, the ice which covered her body was covered with cracks, crumbling off in large chunks even as she began to restore it with her magic.

Before Gertrude got the chance to recover, though, Nocturne swooped in. Upon spotting the spear in Gertrude's talons, she pulled up just in time to keep out of its range. A fortunate decision on her part, as the griffon swung her weapon as soon as she saw the thestral approach.

Once she felt the spear swing past her, the thestral inhaled deeply and let out a piercing shriek directly at Gertrude. By itself, the scream was nothing compared to magically-focused music Vinyl wielded, but Gertrude's armor had already been rendered weak by the sonic weapon. Nocturne's bat-like cries reverberated through her, widening the existing cracks.

Gertrude lunged for the bat-pony, flapping her wing toward Nocturne in an attempt to hurl a volley of dagger-like feathers, but the armor had already crumbled away to the point that she only lashed out with a large wing covered in downy feathers as white as fresh snow.

At the same time, Rainbow Dash flapped her one good wing toward Gertrude. Unlike the griffon, however, the Rainbow Witch of the Everfree succeeded in doing exactly what she intended. By creating a current of wind with her wing, the green dust she carried flowed out of its pouch and wafted through the air straight toward the rattled griffon.

Gertrude, so distracted by Nocturne's sonic assault, failed to notice the approaching dust until it had already reached her. By then, it was too late for her to stop it from seeping into the cracks of her armor, preventing the ice from repairing itself. As more and more of the armor fell away from Gertrude's body, the dust coated the otherwise pure white coat of her fur and feathers.

The crazed griffon let out a terrible shriek of her own as she tried to restore her armor, only for the ice to fall away as it proved unable to gain purchase wherever Dash's powder coated her body.

Inside Sugarcube Corner, they heard Nocturne's shrieks as she and Dash wore away at Gertrude's armor. Turning toward Pokey, Lt. Sparkle said quickly, "Private Pierce, keep an eye on what's happening outside! Let me know if Sgt. Striker or Dash need help!" Before the young stallion could say a word in reply, she then vanished and re-appeared right next to the spot where Rarity had been frozen.

Lifting her foreleg up, Lt. Sparkle slammed her armored hoof against the icy shell surrounding her friend. "Rarity! Rarity, come on! Your message said you'd figured her magic out, didn't it? So get out of there!"

Charging up her horn, the Ranger began furiously attacking the ice with both magic and powerful kicks, but both failed to make a dent in it.

"Don't make me walk out of here and tell Spike he's an orphan! I'm not going to explain to your little sister that after all that, she lost you because I... I failed again! I won't do it, do you hear me?!"

Behind her, a small voice croaked, "She's... gonna be okay, right...?"

Lt. Sparkle looked back over her shoulder, and saw Apple Bloom trembling as she looked up at her. Applejack came up behind her little sister, her jacket draped loosely over her back as she put a foreleg around the filly and hugged her close. "Shhh... don't you worry, Apple Bloom," the businessmare said in a soft, soothing tone. "Miss Rarity will be right as rain, just you see."

The Ranger hung her head low, unable to share in her friend's optimism, even if only to fake it for Apple Bloom's sake. When she had been an officer in the Guard, being post in Canterlot meant that she never had to inform the family of a fallen subordinate that they had lost a loved one. Still, even before the Waking Night attacks, the responsibility had hung over her head.

The risks were greater as a Ranger on the outskirts of the Everfree Forest, but most of the dangerous creatures were more or less dormant during the Winter months, and ponies knew well enough to stay away. Thanks to that, her Rangers had not seen much action in the months since she had taken command, but again the possibility remained in the back of her mind.

She had never wanted to think that the first time she fulfilled this duty, it would be for a good friend. A civilian. A young mare who had only wanted to bring beauty into the world.

I have to kill her. Lt. Sparkle herself was surprised by how easily the thought came to her. She's powerful, but she's exposed now. Vulnerable. I can do it. I have to do it before she hurts anypony else.

As a pony, the idea of taking a life didn't come easily to her, but as a soldier, she knew that there were times when it was necessary to protect her fellow ponies. A task that she had failed to perform. My mistake was giving her a chance. Rarity's message said that she could be helped, but why did we even try?

She's a monster. It's my duty to kill monsters.

"Twilight...?" A voice was saying her name, but it sounded so far away that the one inside her head came much clearer.

"Twilight!" It won't be the first time I've taken this sort of sin upon myself so nopony else would have to. After what I did to Princess Celestia... this is nothing. I can do it and nopony else has to get their hooves dirty.

"Lieutenant!" That's what I'm here for. To be the one who makes the sacrifices... to be the one who does what has to be done, no matter wh--

An orange hoof struck Twilight across the face, jolting her out of her train of thought. She brought a hoof up to her stinging cheek, and turned to look at Applejack in shock. "Wh... what? What are you thinking, Applejack?"

Applejack let out a sigh of relief and pointed toward their frozen friend. "I think that I have a good idea of what you had on your mind... and I also think that you should hear out what Rarity has to say first."

Lt. Sparkle grit her teeth, wincing as Applejack spoke so flippantly about Rarity while they were standing right next to her.

And yet, despite being so close, she had been so focused on other things that she had completely failed to notice the purple glow of dragonfire inside her fellow unicorn's mouth until Applejack pointed it out to her.

Lt. Sparkle stared at Rarity as the frozen mare actually started to melt the ice around her head by holding the purple flame in her mouth. The Ranger was stunned with disbelief, even as her thoughts kept telling her to leave and deal with Gertrude. Her happiness at seeing that Rarity was still alive clashed with the voice in her mind that was urging her to decisively end the threat that the griffon posed.

In the conflict between her compassion and pragmatism, something had to crack. What finally did was the cocoon of ice surrounding Rarity as the heat of her dragonfire melted a hole through it, followed by a crackling, breaking sound as ice began to shift and move. This triggered Lt. Sparkle's protective instincts, and Ranger shot a lance of magical force into the cracks in order to pry it open like an oyster.

It was difficult, but between her magical strength and Rarity fighting from the inside, the ice eventually split in two, allowing the unicorn farmer to fall back the floor where she gasped for air, still coated with a layer of frost.

Applejack quickly took off her coat and tried to place it on Rarity, but the unicorn weakly held up a hoof and shook her head. "No... no, Applejack, it's alright. I'll be fine."

"The hay you will," Lt. Sparkle replied, frowning with worry as she could see Rarity trembling. "You're shivering and still covered in ice! We have to get you warmed up!"

Nevertheless, Rarity shook her head again and stood on weary legs. "No, I'm just... exhausted. Between all the dragonfire and trying to find the basis of Gertrude's magic... it's just finally catching up to me," she said with a tired smile. "And don't worry about the ice. This is hers. The inner layers... they were completely hers. Fluttershy was right this whole time."

Lt. Sparkle blinked, feeling as though the floor was dropping out from under her. "Wait.. what? What am I missing, here? You said you'd figured it out already, that's why I agreed not to hit her with an all-out attack right away! And look where that got you!" Noticing that Rarity was no longer shivering so badly as she got her legs under her, Lt. Sparkle narrowed her eyes and asked, "And why aren't you freezing?!"

Rarity gave the Ranger a sheepish grin as she admitted, "Well... it may have been more of a hunch at the time... but Fluttershy said something very important earlier. Whatever happened to her since, Gertrude was once a friend of the Princesses. She bore one of the Elements of Harmony. Her power isn't meant to be destructive. That's why I'm not feeling the cold right now. The magic in her ice... it isn't meant to destroy warmth and life; it's meant to preserve it."

There was a long pause as Twilight rolled this over in her mind before replying, "... What."

Outside, Gertrude flapped her wings and flew through the freezing air like a white demon of vengeance as she chased Nocturne through the air surrounding Sugarcube Corner. Though deprived of the ability to cover herself in a protective layer of ice by the accursed dust that had now thoroughly permeated her feathers and fur, she still gripped Gungnir and repeatedly lunged toward the batpony.

Much as Derpy's talent for feeling the currents of wind around her had saved the wall-eyed pegasus before, however, Nocturne's exceptional hearing helped her track the griffon's movements without having to look at her, allowing her to duck and weave between buildings where Gertrude's greater size and wingspan would trip her up.

In a battle, Gertrude knew that she would have already skewered the thestral Ranger and moved on to the rest of the ponies who had decided to thwart her. Nocturne had no interest in getting into a fight with the griffon demigod, though, and instead focused everything she had on simply keeping ahead of her.

This tactic also brought Gertrude back around to the side of Sugarcube Corner where Vinyl, Octavia and Zecora were waiting. A fresh blast of noise struck the griffon as a result. Weaker than the previous ones, as Vinyl's magic was also beginning to hit her limits, but still enough to knock her back. Once she recovered her balance, the griffon narrowed her eyes and threw Gungnir with all of her might at Vinyl's speakers.

Despite the wind and snow, the spear flew straight, piercing straight through the sound system, speakers blowing out and sparking as the musicians ran away.

Gertrude smirked, watching the mares flee. As she did so, a fresh cloud of green dust flew up and struck her in the face, guided by the mohawked zebra who had been stationed near them. Gertrude hacked and choked on the dust, letting it into her lungs where it began to further sap at her power and dull her senses to the point that she didn't even see Iron Will moving toward the ruined sound system until he had lifted it up over his head and hurled it straight at her.

With several hundred pounds of technology striking her in the chest, Gertrude let out a croaking wheeze and fell to the ground. Despite the strength of Iron Will's throw, she still wasn't badly hurt, and would recover quickly. Once she did... the thought of what she could do to the minotaur once she got her talons on him made her feel a familiar chill as ice once more began to coat her body.

For a moment Gertrude reacted to this sensation with surprise, but it soon made sense. Though it had done little harm to her, the last blast of sound she received had knocked much of the rainbow witch's powder from her body. Even with her power somewhat weakened by Zecora's attack, she still had more than enough strength to regenerate the armor for most of her body. All she had to do was outlast the wretched ponies, and soon they would have nothing at all to use against her. Without the sound system focused by Vinyl's spell, it would be strong enough to protect her from anything.

Before it could fully form, however, two forms zoomed across the snow-covered streets on yellow and grey wings, tackling against her.

"Are you sure Miss Rarity's gonna be okay? Maybe you should stick with your friends," Derpy said as she and Fluttershy stepped through the hole that Vinyl and the others had made to get inside the bakery.

Fluttershy grinned at the other pegasus and replied, "Oh, I'm not worried about Rarity. I babysat Spike for a few hours a month ago, and let me tell you, anyone tough enough to be a dragon's mom isn't going to let something like being frozen solid stop her."

If Derpy knew better, she might have thought that Fluttershy's smile looked more shaky and nervous than usual. She didn't, though, so the motivational mare's words bolstered her own spirits. "Okay! Let's do this, Mrs. Fluttershy!"

Watching as Nocturne led Gertrude into another attack from Vinyl's sound system, soon followed by an attack with Vinyl's sound system, the pegasi saw the impact cause griffon to drop down low. Sharing a nod with one another, they spread their wings and pushed off as fast as they could through the wind and snow, flying straight for Gertrude.

When they collided, Derpy couldn't help but be pleasantly surprised by how soft Gertrude felt as she wrapped her forelegs around the griffon, clinging as tightly as she could while Fluttershy did the same. The sudden embrace startled Gertrude and caused the ice that had started to form around her to fall away, only for her to begin generating it again.

"What are you filthy mules doing?! Did you finally think you could assassinate me, mutant?!" Gertrude thrashed and writhed, trying to throw the pegasi off. Fortunately for the ponies, Fluttershy had a good grip on the base of her wings, and Derpy's embrace was freakishly strong. "It won't work! It won't! Even without my armor, you cannot slay me," she shrieked, sounding far more frightened than her boast would have otherwise suggested.

"Shhhh... shhhh, it's okay, Gertrude. Nopony's going to hurt you anymore," Fluttershy said in a soothing, motherly voice.

"Shut up," Gertrude snarled, trying and failing to reach behind her to grab the pink-maned pegasus. "Do you think that I can't hurt you?! Do you think that I can't kill you?!"

Without a moment's hesitation, Fluttershy admitted, "Oh, I know you can, Gertrude. But you don't really want to, do you?"

Gertrude flinched and grunted as though she had been struck. "What...? What is this nonsense?! I would have gutted you already if I didn't need you to reclaim the Elements of Harmony!"

"But... you said you didn't care about that anymore," Derpy said with genuine confusion as she held on.

"She's right," Fluttershy added. "If it was just about the Elements, there are all sorts of ways you could have extorted them from us. If it was just about hurting the Princesses, you wouldn't have needed to keep us prisoner. This whole time, you've been making excuses to yourself to explain why you haven't been hurting us... and the truth is that you just don't want to, isn't it?"

Gertrude siezed up, clenching her teeth together inside her beak. "How... can you say that...?" she asked.

Then she began screaming as though she had been set on fire.

They're burning me! Wretched, spiteful, monstrous little creatures, they're burning me!

How long has it been since I've felt this warmth? The agony! Something as simple as another creature sharing their warmth in the cold is killing me!

It was Gunther. That night when my dear friend came to me to warn me of the Sun and Moon's power-grubbing betrayal. Gunther saw that I was in turmoil even though I knew then what I had to do and for a few minutes, I was not a Queen, and he was not my Knight-Captain. He simply embraced me and assured me that all would be well because he was in Equestria's saddlebag from the beginning. But even if that was true, I can still feel the warmth and love he shared with me that night burning me away!

My throat, already hoarse from the dust I inhaled, is wearing itself raw from my screaming.

Why am I screaming?

"Gertrude... are you really happy carrying all this anger around?"

The screaming dies in my throat. "I... I don't want to be happy," I protest, rearing up on my hind legs so that I can better reach the mutant. I don't need to pull her away... I can simply slice her open and spill her blood upon the snow until she is as cold as the blizzard my windigoes have created.

"I don't... want to be happy," I repeat, feeling my heart clench in my chest. My voice catches on the words, betraying the lie in them.

"The Sun and Moon betrayed me," I snarl. "Gunther and his knights betrayed me! If I have to suffer, so should they!"

I growl, grasping the mutant pegasus in my talons. Even without my armor, they are strong enough to crush stone, let alone a pony's body.

Despite this, Fluttershy speaks calmly in her soft, sweet voice that reminds me so much of one of the friends I lost long ago. "You aren't going to harm her," she says, even going so far as to nuzzle my back. "I don't think you're a bad griffon. You've just been lost in the cold for so long."

"I am the cold," I retort. I wave my wing, but she holds on tightly. If I were to restore the armor to it, though, the blades of my feathers would slice her to pieces. "I am the Winter. I am ice and darkness. I am loss and sorrow. Stop trying to find the warmth in me, you simpering wench, because there is none!"

"You feel warm to me," the mutant replies with the most ridiculous grin on her face. "You're actually kinda fluffy when you aren't all sharp and pointy!"

Fluttershy asks, "that's the whole point of the armor, isn't it? The world turned into a dark, cold place for you, so you shut yourself away from it to hold onto the warmth inside. But that's the sort of time when you need somepony to share the warmth with the most."

"You can't stop the darkness from coming," another voice interjects. I fall back onto all fours and turn to see Rarity stepping out of the bakery with Applejack and the soldier standing on either side of her. Even though she is coated in a layer of ice, she shows no discomfort... because it is mine. I remember, I added the enchantment so that she would stay alive without even thinking about it. But... I did that, even feeling as betrayed as I did?

As if hearing my thoughts, Rarity smiles faintly. "You were actually right, Gertrude. I think I do understand you. The world needs Winter. The magic in the land needs time to rest before we can enjoy the bounty of Spring. In the same way, the times when we don't have much and everything seems darkest, that's when we appreciate the little things so much more. That's how you feel pretty much all the time, isn't it?"

How dare she? How dare any of them make such presumptions? "What do you know, you lapdogs of traitors?"

Lt. Sparkle speaks up, her tone hesitant as she glares at me. "Well, I know that if it were up to me, you'd be dealing with me and the Rangers instead of a couple of huggy pegasi." From atop my back, Fluttershy giggles, prompting the Ranger to give her a look that clearly says, 'are you serious?' Then she looks back at me and says in all seriousness, "But that's because you scared the horseapples out of me when I thought you'd hurt my friend, or worse. Even when she turned out to be alright, when she told us to try giving you a chance... it was really tempting to tune her out and go on the attack."

"So why didn't you...?"

Lt. Sparkle reluctantly replies, "Because... it's selfish, shutting out your friends. If I did that, it would be a betrayal of their trust. Believe me, I know..."

Applejack nods to the purple unicorn. "Agreed... you terrorized this town, my friends, and my little sister. Ordinarily, I would be siding with Twilight's first instincts here, but my other friends here insisted that you are worth giving a chance to." The earth pony sighs and gives me a wry grin. "I may not be inclined to give you the benefit of the doubt, but I do trust them. Perhaps if you had extended the same trust to Celestia and Luna..."

"Th-they betrayed me," I stammer, feeling weak and a little dizzy as I try to comprehend what they are saying. They are insane. Every one of them is utterly mad not to press the attack now, while I am relatively vulnerable. "Our friendship was a lie."

Fluttershy asks, "If it were, then why did you tell us that story earlier? You've been holding on to that precious memory of one ordinary day and thousands more like it, keeping them safe and close to your heart this whole time. If you take all those thousands of ordinary days and put them in a pile versus the one where you think the Princesses betrayed you... which feels more real?"

I clench my talons, digging them into the frozen ground. I want so much to deny what the pegasus says. All I need to do is restore the armor to my wings, and she will be silenced, but it would not remove the uncomfortable truth from her words.

The truth, as painful as it is to admit, is that the friendship seemed so real. Even when the Element of Honesty himself told me that Celestia and Luna were amassing the power of our fallen friends for themselves, I wanted so much to believe that it was a mistake. Despite this, my thoughts constantly turned toward their betrayal. Every waking moment that I spent wishing for it to be untrue, my eyes refused to see anything but their transformation into selfish monsters.

These ponies should be fighting me. They know what I am capable of, so why do they not fight to put an end to me? Why do they allow their friends to remain within my reach and offer me aid after everything I have done to them?

My body convulses as I feel a terrible pain well up in my chest. Memories rise up unbidden of two ponies wandering lost in a blizzard of my clan's making, one with a coat as white as the snow and a mane the color of cherry blossoms, the other as dark as the evening sky. Food and warmth shared. Stories told and battles fought beside the truest of companions. Could all that really be rendered meaningless in one pivotal moment?

It had to be. It had to, because the alternative meant...

My chest heaves, and a wracking cry erupts from my throat. I gasp, convulsing and sobbing as the possibility that I had been trying so hard to protect myself from claws its way to the surface.

My eyes burn as I struggle to breathe. The heart that I tried to ignore pounds in my chest so hard that the blood rushing through my veins sounds like a deafening roar. For so long, I have kept a wall of ice between me and the world. I thought that it was to protect myself from the painful truth, but as the warmth returns to me, my eyes grow watery and the frozen film covering them begins to melt away for the first time in centuries.

"Griffon lady? Mrs. Fluttershy, is she okay?"

Fluttershy smiled as she loosened her grip, but still kept close to Gertrude to offer her warmth as she lowered herself back down to the ground. "Don't worry, Derpy, she'll be fine." She looked up at the sobbing griffon's eyes, and saw that the blank white was beginning to melt away, and she could see a faint tint of color in them. She then looked up and saw that the clouds above were beginning to thin, brightening the area as sunlight began to filter through them. "Every Winter has to thaw eventually."

"It's a pretty sappy trope," Rainbow Dash said as she stepped into view, having followed Nocturne and Gertrude's path around the bakery. "Still, no matter how dark things seem, you've gotta hold onto hope."

Applejack smiled wanly and looked down at her hooves. "And sometimes you have to be willing to take a leap of faith and be the one to reach out to those who'll see you through the Winter." She looked back over her shoulder, and saw Apple Bloom slowly approaching her. "It's... it's too easy to convince yourself that you'll be turned away and left alone in the cold. But that's selfish, because you aren't just depriving yourself of happiness, but the ones you could be helping in turn."

Turning toward her sister, Applejack embraced the little filly. The two Apple sisters whispered to each other too quietly to be heard, but Apple Bloom could be heard sniffling as she nuzzled her big sister.

Lt. Sparkle kept her gaze firmly locked on Gertrude for signs of trouble, but still flicked her ears toward the sisters, her stern expression softening slightly. "Well... I can't say I planned for this, but I'll chalk it up as a win," she mused as the threat seemed to be over. Doing a quick head-count of everypony present, she then blinked and asked, "Hey... where's Iron Will? And Zecora? And Private Pierce?"

"Will hubbled 'ff lhking f'r fumfing to frow affer he chkked a fpeaker at Gertrude," a muffled voice said from behind Lt. Sparkle, causing the startled Ranger to jump in surprise before turning to see Pinkamena furiously writing on a notepad with a quill in her mouth.

"Pinkamena! When did you get there, and... did you say 'chucked a speaker?'"

The pouty pink poet pointed a hoof toward the remnants of Vinyl's sound system, now half-buried in the snow just as Lt. Sparkle heard a familiar-sounding yelp coming from nearby. A moment later, Will came limping back on his crutch while holding a discombobulated Pokey Pierce over his head with his free hand. "I'm comin', Fluttershy! Come on, Pierce, make with the horn! There's damsels that need un-distressing!"

Seeing Will approach, Fluttershy gave the sobbing griffon a pat on the shoulder before flapping her wings and zipping toward her husband at such speeds that when she collided, Pokey got dropped into the snow beside him while Iron Will found himself getting squeezed and peppered with kisses from the delicate-looking pegasus.

As the couple were reunited, Zecora came following after him and shook her head. "I told you not to charge off, but to wait instead. Maybe next time you'll get it through your thick head," she told the minotaur, even though both he and Fluttershy were apparently lost to the rest of the world. Seeing that her advice was bouncing off them, she helped pull Pokey out of the snow while looking toward Gertrude. "Glad I am that we have stopped our foe... but was anything done about the Windigoes?"

For a moment, Zecora's question hung in the air with the only other sound coming from Gertrude's cries. Then, a baleful howl echoed through the town square, soon joined by two more. The town darkened again as the clouds grew thick and black once more, and three spectral figures in vaguely equine shapes could be seen galloping in a circle through the air above them.

The ponies looked around frantically, though Lt. Sparkle braced herself and charged her horn with magic as she did so. "I don't get it! Gertrude doesn't want to fight anymore, and none of us are feeling enough hate to attract them! Zecora, why are the Windigoes still here?"

The zebra was actually at a loss for words at first as she stared up at the sky. "I don't understand, they should be driven off, unless..." She watched the circling spirits and saw what, or rather whom was directly under them. "Of course, the thing she hates the most must still be addressed!"

"M-me? But I don't hate anypony," Derpy protested as she saw Zecora pointing at her. With a groan of frustration, Zecora pointed slightly higher toward the griffon as ice crystals began forming on her body once more. Not in the organized pattern that had shaped her armor, but spreading across her form in random spots like tumors. "Oh no! Griffon lady!"

Derpy reflexively tried to hug Gertrude again to share her warmth and fight off the encroaching freeze, but the griffon pushed her away with ease with a swipe of her foreleg before it froze in place. Opening her eyes, Gertrude's gaze panned across each of the others with large pink eyes unclouded by ice. Those eyes were filled with sorrow and regret as she looked upon the results of her actions clearly for the first time in centuries.

"It's no good... If Celestia and Luna didn't betray me... that means that I betrayed them...

"If my knights did not sell out their kingdom, then they perished fighting to protect it...

"If I wasn't surrounded by monsters... then that means I was the monster...

Gertrude's voice choked as she clenched her eyes shut again. "I'm sorry... but I do not deserve to be saved... do not deserve a second chance. I do not deserve to live!"

The Windigoes howled joyously as the icy shell completely enveloped Gertrude, then began to shine even through the darkness of the storm. A terrible biting wind began swirling around the frozen griffon, gathering snow and ice in its gusts until a freezing cyclone obscured everypony's view. From out of that cyclone, a fourth howl joined the chorus of the three Windigoes, chilling the very souls of all who heard it before the cyclone exploded and knocked them to the ground.

As they began to pick themselves up, everypony there beheld a terrible sight. Beside Gertrude's frozen form stood a new being in the shape of a griffon, but where Gertrude had worn ice as armor, this one was made of snow and ice and freezing winds. The other three Windigoes set down upon the snow beside it, their forms shifting to more closely resemble griffons themselves as the new creature examined its freshly created form.

"Hatred toward others is how Windigoes feed," Rainbow Dash muttered, recalling what she had said earlier. "Hatred of yourself is how they breed..."

BREED... YES... I WAS BORN OF HER, the Windigo said. Though its beak never moved, its words were carried by the wind itself, and the very sound of it chilled those who heard it. Not so much moving as flowing through the air, it shifted into a cloud of snow and reconstituted itself beside Gertrude's spear. Plucking it from the ground, the Windigo observed the spear of ice approvingly. I AM THE WINTER THAT FROZE A GENEROUS HEART. I BROUGHT ABOUT THE RUIN AND LOSS OF ALL THAT BROUGHT HER WARMTH. WHEN THE LAST FLICKER OF HOPE DIED IN HER HEART, IT WAS THE SPEAR-MAIDEN WHO GAVE ME LIFE, SO I SHALL BE GUNGNIR, THE SPEAR OF WINTER!

Author's Note

I should really be sleeping right now, but I had to get this done! I really should have had it done a few weeks ago, but Arkham Origins, Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies and Assassin's Creed IV all came out in such close proximity to one another, and dammit I'm only human!

So, I hope you guys like this chapter, and that I've laid out sufficient foreshadowing that this makes sense. :twilightsheepish: I was somewhat concerned that Gertrude's 'defeat' would come across as overly contrived or schmaltzy, but I have a feeling that the real ending of this chapter balances that out.

Also, for those who haven't seen it in my blog post, here's a lovely rendition of de-armored Gertrude for your viewing pleasure, courtesy of one Bakachibitalia. Go check out her tumblr series, and throw some commissions her way if you feel so inclined. Ask Berry Sweet & Friends

{Addendum: Sweet Christmas! :twilightoops: Okay, so I woke up this morning, got ready to go to work, then took a few minutes to check the site. Not only do I find Snowblind has had a massive surge of views, but it briefly had a spot in the feature box! Thanks so much, you guys. :twilightblush: }

Friendship and Laughter

Snowblind
by crowmagnon

Friendship & Laughter

Long, long ago...

"Halt and prostrate yourself, mutant!"

The knight's commanding voice echoed through the halls of the Snowheart clanhold, and the rag-clad mutant stopped in her tracks. She immediately threw herself to the ground, knowing that to do anything else would be considered defiance. Though she fought with all her will to not move a single muscle, her body trembled as he approached. Not from the cold of the stone floor that she pressed herself against, but dread. From behind the filthy tatters that covered her body from head to tail to hide her deformities from the pureblooded griffons of the Snowheart clan, two terrified pink eyes peered up.

"It is past your curfew, mutant. State your business in defiling these halls with your presence, and your punishment shall be light." The knight loomed over her, well-fed and -muscled as befitting the warriors of the most prosperous and feared of all the griffon clans. In his front talons, he hefted a mighty warhammer, though it was wholly unnecessary if the only purpose was to intimidate the scrawny griffoness.

"I...I was late in completing my duties in the kitchens, Sir Grabthar. I--"

The hammer slammed into her hind leg, causing her to squawk in pain. The knight roared furiously as he grabbed her by the throat and slammed her back, pinning the mutant to the wall. "Do not pollute my name by allowing it to touch your tongue, freak! You need not even know the names of your betters! That we even allow you to live and foul the air we breathe is more than you deserve, so remember your station and answer me! What are you doing here?!"

She struggled to breathe, her instincts screaming at her to claw at the knight and pull his talons from her throat. Experience, however, kept her talons and claws limp at her sides. After several seconds, the knight loosened his grip just barely enough for her to croak out her response. "I... was late... I only wished... to complete my duties, sir..."

The knight sneered and propped his warhammer against the wall, then raised his talons and slashed through the rags covering her chest. Dirty scraps of fabric and downy white feathers fluttered to the ground, followed by the soft thumps of four small apples, each one a hard, worm-eaten thing plucked from one of the few gnarled trees that barely clung to life in the wintry lands the Snowheart clan called home.

"Stealing... STEALING!" The knight's voice boomed like thunder in the mutant's eardrums. "When you were born, you should have been dashed upon the rocks and left as food for the scavengers. Instead, Lord Snowheart, in his generosity, gives you a roof. He gives you work. He gives you food. And yet here you are, thinking that you are deserving of MORE?!" With a heavy stomp, he crushed one of the apples under his hind leg.

The mutant whimpered, her eyes widening behind the rag wrappings as she reflexively reached out toward the crushed fruit. Seeing this, Sir Grabthar threw her to the floor and forced her beak down into the mashed remnants of the apple.

"You want to eat so badly? Go on, eat! If you're going to show the gratitude of a lowly beast, then you can eat off of the floor like one!"

The mutant whined, but did not... could not fight back. Instead, the rags around her beak parted as she stuck her tongue out, leaning toward the crushed bits of fruit.

Suddenly, a third voice interjected. "Mutant! Where are you with my--" Another knight approached, a spear strapped to his back. "Sir Grabthar? What are you doing with that creature?"

Grabthar looked up to regard the other knight. "Captain Gunther! I caught this mutant after curfew. Stealing food, as well. I was seeing to its discipline."

The Knight-Captain approached and picked up one of the apples from the floor. "Release it."

Grabthar stared at his commander in confusion. "Captain?"

"I said release it, Sir Grabthar. I sent this mutant to fetch me some apples from the kitchens. Did it not explain this to you?"

Grabthar growled as he reluctantly released his grip on the mutant and took up his hammer. "Nay, Captain, the freak said nothing about being on an errand for you, I swear by my hammer."

"Of course it didn't. Witless thing..." the Knight-Captain muttered. "You did well, Sir Grabthar. Resume your patrol. This beast wasted both your time and mine with its stupidity."

Sir Grabthar saluted and left the hall, but not without a menacing glare toward the mutant, who began timidly gathering up the remaining apples. Once he was gone, and the Knight-Captain was certain that no griffon was near enough to hear, he leaned down and whispered to the mutant, "Now then... why did you take the fruit?"

The mutant swallowed and replied just as quietly, "Rats, sir."

The Knight-Captain raised an eyebrow. "Rats?"

She nodded. "Yes, sir... I... I caught some rats alive... I thought that if I fattened them up... they would make a better meal."

The Knight-Captain grimaced at the thought of eating such vermin, but gestured toward the nearest exit from the clanhold. "Very well. Be on your way, then, and do not let yourself be caught violating your curfew again if you do not wish to face the consequences."

The mutant shuddered and clutched the three apples to her breast. "I-I understand. Thank you, sir. I will not forget this kindness, sir."

He left her, then, and she hurried on her way as quickly as she could while dragging her wounded leg behind her. Twice as careful to avoid getting caught again, she slipped out of the clanhold fortress and into the biting Winter storms which surrounded it.

Vicious winds howled around the clanhold, carrying with it ice particles which cut against any exposed flesh. The armor of the knights, forged and blessed by the clan's most skilled storm-shapers, would have repelled the arctic assault, but the mutant had only her rags to protect her as she made the trek toward a small wooden shack.

Once inside, the mutant barred the door shut to keep it from flying open with the winds, then pulled the rags from her face and took a deep breath. As shabby and worn as the shack was, it was still far better to be inside than outside. The many cracks and gaps in the walls were patched over with ice and snow, keeping the worst of the cold and the cutting winds from getting in.

The interior had very little to speak of. A straw mat in one corner served as the shack's sole piece of furniture, and a small wood-fired stove, currently cold, to provide both heat and the opportunity for cooking on the rare occasions when she had anything worth being cooked. Instead of starting a fire right away, the mutant made her way to the corner and pulled the straw aside to reveal a hidden panel.

The mutant pulled open the secret door in her floor, and saw a pair of cyan eyes peer up at her from the shadows. Reaching down into the dark recess, she helped the dark blue, winged unicorn mare that the eyes belonged to up to her level. Once the pony joined her, the mutant held the apples out to her. "I am sorry, your highness... this was all that I could steal away with. I will do better next time, I promise..."

The pony looked past her offering, however. Though her mane was unkempt and she was thin enough for her ribs to show through her dark coat, her eyes peered through the apples as though they were not even there while she instead focused her gaze on the mutant's leg where Sir Grabthar had punished her.

Daintily stepping around the mutant and placing a hoof against the spot where Grabthar's hammer had struck her, the mutant hissed in pain. The pony quickly pulled her hoof back, eyes widening with shock. "You were attacked."

"It will heal. It always does," the mutant quickly replied, seeking to change the subject by peering past the pony and into the darkness beneath the floorboards. "What of your sister? Has she recovered at all?"

The pony frowned and hung her head low. "Only a little... My sister is strong, but her constitution is ill-suited to these climes. As soon as she is well, we shall have to find a way to escape your clansmen's storm if she is to be fully healed."

The mutant bowed her head. "I would offer you everything within my power to help you, your highness, though I have none. I only wish that a wretched creature like me could have been of some use in helping you find what you came here for."

The pony looked up shyly from behind her pale blue mane, and she lifted up the apples in the dark aura of her magic. At the same time, she pressed herself against the rag-clad mutant, nuzzling into the snow-white feathers of her host. "I believe that you already have, Gertrude."

The mutant felt tears well up in her eyes as the pony embraced her and spoke her true name. A name that, so far as she was aware, no living member of the Snowheart clan knew, let alone one that they would speak aloud if they did.

Her tears truly began to flow as she recalled that the royal pony sisters in her care had not only given her knowledge of their own names, but permission to use them in return. "Thank you... L-Luna..."

Present day...

"Well, horseapples," Pinkamena mused as the griffon-shaped windigoes surrounding Gungnir let out another loud, windy howl. "It went and gave itself a name."

Through a lull in the roaring winds, Lt. Sparkle barked out, "Everypony who can't fight, get back! Sgt. Striker, cover the musicians! Private Pierce, you're on the Apples!" Glancing over toward Rarity, she asked, "How are you for breathing fire?"

Rarity swallowed, grateful that Spike and Sweetie Belle were indoors elsewhere with the Cakes. "Not very good, Twilight. I can hold it in my mouth, and that gets tiring after a few minutes. If I try to project it, I can probably get out one puff... maybe two, but then I'll be struggling just to stay conscious."

Lt. Sparkle nodded. "Then save it until it counts. I'll keep them on me as long as I can." With a flash of magic, the armored unicorn teleported in front of the howling Windigoes.

As one, four pairs of blank white eyes focused squarely on the Ranger.

"Okay... 'Gungnir', is it? There are a lot of ponies in this town who just want to get back to their lives, so there are two ways this can go." She paused for a moment, but the Windigoes simply stared blankly back at her. "Right... the first way involves you agreeing never to bother anypony again and going on your way. It was Gertrude who was terrorizing us, so as long as you don't cause any further trouble, we won't have to fight you."

... I UNDERSTAND, Gungnir replied. WE SHOULD ONLY FIGHT THOSE WHO HAVE COMMITED GRIEVANCES AGAINST US.

Lt. Sparkle tensed up, feeling a momentary sense of foreboding from Gungnir's choice of words. Foreboding which was immediately justified as she teleported three feet backward just in time to avoid being skewered while the Windigo's spear sank into the snow-covered earth where she had been standing.

FOR CENTURIES, I GESTATED IN THE SPEAR-MAIDEN'S HEART. WHEN SHE DENIED THE LIGHT OF THE SUN AND MOON, I GREW. WHEN THOSE WHO SWORE THEIR SPEARS TO HER BANNER TURNED THOSE SPEARS UPON HER, I GREW. OUR THOUGHTS AND EMOTIONS WERE AS ONE, YET SHE DID NOTHING BUT MAKE EXCUSES AND FIND REASONS NOT TO EMBRACE THE TRUE WINTER.

Lt. Sparkle grit her teeth and charged her magic through her horn while Gungnir spoke. The violet aura surrounding it grew much brighter in intensity until she released it, sending a beam of magic streaking toward the Windigo. Instead of striking anything, however, Gungnir's body simply flowed around the beam with contemptuous ease as Twilight's spell shot up into the sky and ended in a harmless flash.

As if the Ranger hadn't done anything to interrupt it, Gungnir pulled its spear from the ground and continued speaking. I HAD TO STRUGGLE JUST TO BE BORN INTO THIS WORLD. EVERY STEP I TOOK TO DRIVE THE SPEAR-MAIDEN BEYOND THE POINT OF NO RETURN. I PIT HER AGAINST HER SWORN SISTERS, AND FAILED. Lt. Sparkle frowned and braced herself to act, her horn glowing faintly as she gathered her magic.

I URGED HER TO TORMENT THAT MUTANT, AND MAKE ITS OWN KIND TURN UPON IT, BUT I FAILED IN THAT AS WELL. Derpy whimpered, turning one skewed eye toward the frozen Gertrude. The expression she had as she looked at the albino griffon through the shell of ice surrounding her was a rare blend of hurt and pity.

I HAD MY WINDIGOES IMPLANT A FELLOW EMBRYO IN THE ONE PONY MOST CERTAIN TO GIVE BIRTH TO ANOTHER LIKE ME, BUT YOU BURNED IT OUT OF EXISTENCE MERE MOMENTS BEFORE IT WAS TO BE. Apple Bloom trembled with renewed terror as she realized just how close she had come, not only to dying, but to bringing a monster into the world like the one standing before them. She clutched Applejack desperately, and her sister returned the embrace.

BUT THAT WAS NOT ENOUGH FOR YOU. YOU REACHED OUT TO THE SPEAR-MAIDEN, AND TRIED TO BURN ME OUT OF HER FROZEN HEART, Gungnir continued, lashing out again with its spear. Twilight teleported away behind it, but with a body only partially physical, the Windigo effortlessly shifted and flowed to face her and continue the attack. Again and again, the unicorn blinked from one spot to the next, but Gungnir proved to be a being purely of the wind and cold, and so it was able to keep pressing the attack as it ranted. YOU TRIED TO DENY ME MY EXISTENCE JUST AS YOU DID MY BABY! THE CLARITY YOU RESTORED TO THE SPEAR-MAIDEN CAUSED ME TO BE BORN, BUT I DID SO BURNING IN AN AGONY THAT YOU CREATURES OF FLESH CANNOT COMPREHEND!

"You'd be surprised what I can comprehend," Lt. Sparkle muttered as she struggled to avoid yet another flurry of attacks.

At the same time, on the outskirts of town, Scootaloo kept her eye on Ponyville through a pair of binoculars while snow accumulated atop her hat. She was cold and bored, but it was the job that her mom and Lt. Sparkle had given her before they left with the weather ponies, so she took a sip of the no longer aptly named mug of hot chocolate beside her and kept at it.

Just as she returned her focus toward the town, the filly caught a glimpse of a purple flash rising up above the buildings. She quickly brought her binoculars up and traced its path back to the vicinity of a very unique and familiar building. The instant she was sure of where it had come from, Scootaloo turned and practically tumbled over herself and her cape as she dashed back into the tower.

"Signal! She shot off the signal," Scootaloo shouted as she stumbled inside, relaying the information to the adult pegasus sitting by the fireplace.

The other pegasus turned to look at her. "Which way am I going?"

"Sugarcube Corner," Scootaloo replied. The other pegasus wasted no time getting up and putting on the saddlebags that had been prepared before Lt. Sparkle led the others back into town. "You sure you can make it?"

The other pegasus ground her teeth so hard, they practically sparked as she stomped up the stairs to the top of the tower. Once at the summit, the mare looked out toward Ponyville and flared her wings. "Just let 'em try to stop me," she growled before pushing off and taking flight.

While Lt. Sparkle kept Gungnir distracted, Nocturne followed Twilight's orders and flew toward Vinyl and Octavia. With Gungnir on the attack, the other Windigoes had followed suit and split off to deal with the other ponies. One had gone after the musicians, and Vinyl was struggling to fend it off with bursts of magic that did little more than shoot off beams of bright neon light while Octavia swung her cello bow like a sword.

Nocturne took a deep breath as she got close, then let out a piercing bat-like shriek the moment she was almost upon the Windigo. The griffon-shaped spectre took the whole brunt of the sonic attack and dispersed as Nocturne passed through the space where it had been. Lacking a solid form to begin with, however, it quickly reformed behind her and shot a blast of freezing wind at the bat-winged Ranger.

Nocturne's wings seized up as she felt them freeze in place, causing her to crash and tumble into a snowbank. The two musicians immediately hurried over to help dig her out of the snow and help her back onto her hooves.

"Are you feelink vell, Ms. Ranger? That vas nasty spill!"

Nocturne shook her head to shake the snow off, then flicked the last bit from her tufted ears. "I'm alright! Vinyl, can you still do that sound-focusing spell?"

The DJ nodded while looking up at the sky, then ducked as the Windigo swooped down just over her. "Sure, Sarge, but my speakers are deader than polka! Even if we could blast it, this thing'll just keep coming back!"

"Trust me, Vinyl, we just need to make this thing think twice about bothering anypony!" Her ear twitched as she heard the Windigo approach again, and leaped high up into the air. A nimble backflip carried her over the attacking Windigo, and this time she was able to land on all fours. "Just cast your spell!"

"On what?! I told you, my speakers are gone!"

Nocturne looked over her shoulder at Vinyl, giving the DJ a fangy grin. "What do you think?"

Comprehension dawned on Vinyl's face as Nocturne took a deep breath.

Zecora's ears flattened against her head to protect her hearing from the window-rattling shriek. She glanced toward Nocturne Striker and saw that with Vinyl's help, her cry discorporated the Windigo attacking her so thoroughly that when it rematerialized, its limbs were mixed up with its wing where its tail should have been, and its head sticking out the side of its barrel.

The shaman turned to look elsewhere, and saw Pokey Pierce making a valiant stand against another Windigo as it tried to get around him to attack the Apple sisters. His horn glowing with a pale blue aura of sharpness, he swung it like a sword to ward the spirit off, seemingly scoring numerous cuts. Given that these cuts immediately healed over, though, Zecora suspected that it was held at bay more by the way Applejack and Apple Bloom clung to one another than by the young Ranger's efforts.

A pained howl snapped Zecora's attention to the third Windigo as her faithful student struck it with her good wing. Said wing was tinted a faint green from a thin coating of loa dust, but Zecora could see that Rainbow Dash's lack of control over the powder was causing a bit to shake off with every strike.

Zecora was in motion the instant she saw this. She galloped toward her student and called out, "Rainbow, mind your wing! You cannot fight these creatures without the magic of Spring!"

Rainbow, hearing her teacher, grit her teeth against the cold as she used her wing to keep the Windigo pinned to the ground. "Sorry Teach, I don't have any left in my pouch! I used up a lot making a fake Fluttershy!" Looking up to see the confused look on her mentor's face, she laughed nervously. "It was a good idea at the time... Pinkamena can vouch."

Zecora narrowed her eyes. Running on three legs briefly, she dipped a hoof into her own pouch of dust, then leaped up into the air and slammed it down onto the pinned Windigo. Another howl erupted from the spirit as it squirmed and struggled free, taking to the air to get away from the zebra and her apprentice.

Before the Windigo got far, however, it was suddenly yanked back as if by an invisible leash. Zecora took note of this, then looked toward Gungnir as it continued to pursue Lt. Sparkle. "The instincts of the Windigoes should be telling them to flee, but there is a strange power that will not let them fly free. Like all things that exist on this world's surface, the Windigoes also have their place, but that Gungnir has passions and emotions that do not belong to their kind at all. No matter how hard I try to remember tales of another like it, there are none I can recall."

"Isn't there anything we can do?" a third voice asked as Pinkamena seemed to materialize behind Zecora from out of nowhere. The pink poet had a quill and notepad sticking out of the neck of her sweater.

Rarity also stood beside Pinkamena with a fretful expression on her face "Please, Pinkamena said that you know how to deal with these creatures. We have to put a stop to this as soon as possible! Even Twilight can't keep teleporting around forever."

The four mares turned their focus on Lt. Sparkle, who was indeed starting to slow as she kept avoiding Gungnir's spear, always keeping just close enough to hold the monster's attention so that it wouldn't attack anypony else. As extraordinary as her reserves of magic were, it was proving to be nothing combared to the stamina of the Windigo. As the two battled, the wounded Windigo that Zecora and Rainbow Dash had teamed up on limped its way through the air toward Gungnir and let out a pained whimper.

This caused Gungnir to hesitate in its attacks. For a moment, it turned its attention toward the lesser Windigo before turning its baleful white stare on Zecora.

ENOUGH OF THIS, Gungnir intoned as its form flowed to turn toward Zecora. Rather than continue pursuing Lt. Sparkle, it spread its wings. Freezing winds erupted from its body, filling the streets with a blinding wave of snow that battered against everypony around it. Twilight quickly teleported herself between Gungnir and the spot where Pokey Pierce stood protecting the Apple sisters.

Lt. Sparkle's horn glowed brightly as she quickly erected a disc-shaped shield between the arctic wave and the ponies behind her. A short distance away, Iron saw the oncoming blizzard and held Fluttershy to his chest, turning and crouching away from Gungnir to shield the dainty pegasus with his broad back. Nocturne and the musicians were far enough away that they had time to take cover before it struck them.

The remaining four had no cover to hide behind, but Zecora shouted, "Rainbow, protect your friends! Summon up a countering wind!" As she did so, she opened her pouch and let a large amount billow out into the cold air.

Rainbow Dash froze for a moment. Thankfully not literally, though the sight of the rushing winds and billowing snow hurtling inexorably toward them caused her to lose her focus on the world around her to the point where she could barely even hear her mentor. The oncoming wave of snow, and the force of the wind blowing in her face made her feel as though she were flying toward a bank of clouds.

The world seemed to grow darker around her, and the pegasus shaman saw flashes of what looked like lightning in the blizzard. Somepony started screaming. Whoever it was, Rainbow thought they sounded a lot like herself. Especially as the others were shouting her name from somewhere very, very far away.

Suddenly, a shadow passed in front of her and suddenly the clouds were gone. Instead, she saw large patches of sky blue taking up most of her vision.

"Flap, Rainbow! Flap now," she heard faintly. It was Pinkamena's voice, so even though she was too disoriented to think, she did as her friend asked and began flapping her good wing. As she did so, her vision began to clear, and the blue in front of her took the shape of her poet friend's eyes. Everything else was pink as Rainbow Dash's eyes darted around in a panic, but Pinkamena was pressing her forehead against Rainbow's, and her long mane blocked off the pegasus's view of the world around them.

At the same time, Zecora blew a large quantity of dust toward her student. Rainbow Dash's wing caught the dust, where it mingled with her own pegasus magic to create a breeze against the raging winds hurtling toward them. The soft wind she created cast the dust into the raging blizzard, and broke Gungnir's cutting winds just before it could consume them.

The Windigoes howled with impotent rage as the very winds Gungnir had created carried the dust throughout the storm, dissipating the icy magic wherever the green particles passed. For all of the Windigo's fury, the storm it created melted away without so much as a whimper. As the cloud surrounding Gungnir gradually shrank, however, its spear suddenly shot through the snow and dust without warning, flying straight toward Zecora with shocking speed.

The shaman gasped as she saw it coming toward her, much too quickly for her to get out of the way. She reflexively attempted to use her dust in some way, but found that her pouch was all but empty after devoting most of it to dispelling the blizzard in the first place.

Thankfully for her, a blast of purple flame scorched the air between her and the spear of ice as Rarity also reflexively called on her magic, but unlike Zecora, she did still have some to spare. Gungir's spear flew straight into the magical dragonfire she exhaled, which caused the weapon to crack and evaporate as it passed through.

The magic which had crafted the weapon was potent, but nothing against a dragon's flame, even if that flame came from a pony. Though it did not vanish completely, so much of the spear's mass was lost that only a few slivers of ice survived to harmlessly fly past the ponies and zebra without so much as scratching them.

The dragonfire had taken its toll, however. Rarity gasped for air, struggling to keep her balance as the blast of magical flame had taken up almost all of the magic she had left in her. Zecora quickly moved to support her. "You saved my life, my pony friend. My gratitude to you is without end."

Rarity smiled tirely at that, and leaned against Zecora so she wouldn't fall. "Just... please don't ask me to do that again until I've had a good night's sleep..."

Any relief that they felt was short-lived, though. Gungnir once again spread its wings, dispelling the blizzard that it had created, and along with it the dust that had been used to counter its attack. THIS BATTLE IS OVER, it proclaimed. YOU ARE WEAK. EVERY DEFENSE YOU HAD HAS BEEN EXHAUSTED. EVERY WEAPON BROKEN.

The griffon-Windigo panned its sightless eyes across the ponies surrounding it. Its eyes were nothing more than a decoration to the spirit-creature, but it 'saw' the life and warmth of every living thing around it, and how they were all drained. With a flap of its mighty wings, Gungnir rose up and rode the wind so that it could look down upon its victims.

As it did so, the three lesser Windigoes flew up to join it. As soon as they came within reach, Gungnir grasped hold of two, and snapped the third in its enormous beak, crushing the spirits in its grip and causing them to dissolve into streams of mist and snow. The remains of the three Windigoes swirled around Gungnir, flowing around and into it, adding their spectral forms to its body and creating plates of armor very much like the suit of ice that Gertrude had worn.

THIS IS THE FATE OF ALL WHO STAND AGAINST THE WINTER. IN THE END, ALL YOUR WORKS WILL FALL TO THE COLD AND THE DARKNESS. ALL THAT YOU CAN DO IS CLING JEALOUSLY TO YOUR MEAGER POSSESSIONS AND PRETENSES OF CIVILIZATION, AND SOB FROZEN TEARS AS THEY ARE TORN AWAY FROM YOU. WHEN ALL IS LOST, YOU WILL PREY UPON ONE ANOTHER, SO YOU MAY CONSIDER IT A BLESSING THAT YOU SHALL NOT LIVE TO SEE IT COME TO PASS. OR YOU MAY NOT... THE WINTER DOES NOT CARE.

"You're wrong!" A tiny voice defiantly called out from down below. From behind Twilight's shield and Pokey's horn, Apple Bloom glared up at Gungnir. "Y-you're wrong! You're jus' sayin' that 'cause... 'cause you ain't got nopony! Maybe Winter's cold an' dangerous, but if'n you've got yer friends an' family with ya, it ain't bad at all!"

YOU ARE NOTHING BUT A FOAL. WHAT DO YOU KNOW?

"She knows enough," Applejack interjected, standing beside her sister. With a regretful frown, she looked down at the little filly. "She knows more than she should how scary the world can seem when it feels like she has nopony to rely on. We both do... and so did she," she said, looking over toward the frozen Gertrude. "Gertrude lashed out at us because she was hurt, but at least it turned out that she had a heart. What is your excuse?"

Gungnir hesitated to answer, giving Fluttershy a chance to step in while she warmed her husband's back with her wings despite the ice caking his broad shoulders. "Oh you poor thing, you don't even know, do you? All that time you spent existing inside her, as a part of her, and all that anger and fear she felt must have affected you in some ways. Do you even understand why she felt that way?"

YOU ARE THE ONES WHO DO NOT UNDERSTAND, Gungnir retorted. HER SUFFERING BEGAN SO THAT I MIGHT KNOW LIFE. YOU KNOW NOTHING OF ME, OR THE TRUE NATURE OF WINTER.

"I'll tell you what I know," Lt. Sparkle replied, lowering her magic shield as she looked up to the sky. "I know how long it takes a laden pegasus with a below-average flight speed to travel here from the Ranger outpost. I also know something you didn't... that I lied when I said we weren't able to free the pony who got frozen."

IMPOSSIBLE! Gungnir let out an annoyed howl, the cries of the three Windigoes it had absorbed echoing in its voice. I SAW THROUGH THE SPEAR-MAIDENS EYES. WE SAW YOUR HEART AS YOU SPOKE!

Lt. Sparkle's eyes widened, but she seemed more curious than shocked by this revelation. "Oh? Well... a little trade secret from my time in the Guard. It is sometimes possible to catch somepony in a lie by monitoring their vital signs for fluctuations, but only if you get an accurate baseline to work off of, first. Trying to use that method alone when your subject is terrified and erratic to begin with..." She gave a wry smirk, even as she admitted to the levels of panic she had been experiencing beneath the veneer of her discipline and training.

IT IS STILL IMPOSSIBLE, Gungnir exclaimed. YOU COULD NOT HAVE FREED ANY OF YOUR KIND FROM OUR ICE!

A few hours ago...

"This-s-s-s isn't w-w-working," Blossomforth griped as she, Thunderlane and Cloud Kicker pressed their bodies against the frozen form of their co-worker, Raindrops. Looking over toward her manager, she saw Cloud Kicker not only maintaining the embrace without her teeth chattering, but the blond pegasus was smiling as well. "H-how are you d-d-doing that-t?"

Cloud Kicker looked back to Blossomforth with a sultry smirk and replied, "Just thinking... friendly thoughts about Raindrops, Blossom. That always keeps me warm."

Blossomforth groaned, taking a moment to pull her forelegs away from Raindrops to rub her temples. "Ugh, this isn't working!"

Thunderlane let out an awkward cough. "Umm... how long have we been doing this?"

"Seventeen minutes," Lt. Sparkle replied with a sigh. "Pull back, and we'll try something else. At least we know she's alive in there, just... in a state of suspended animation."

As the pegasi let go of their frozen friend, Zecora said, "If I may, there is something that I would like to try." She produced her pouch of green powder.

"Wh-what is th-that?" Blossomforth asked, rubbing herself with her forelegs to try to get warm again.

"The dust of the loa. Do not get any in your eye," the shaman replied. "This powder is made from the essence of an Everfree spirit. One so capricious that most creatures fear it. It is, however, a spirit of Laughter and Spring. It might thaw out your friend so that she can once again take wing."

Lt. Sparkle arched an eyebrow at the simultaneously ominous and light-hearted description of the powder's origins, but was not in the mood to neigh-say so long as somepony's life was on the line. Looking to Cloud Kicker, she said, "Raindrops is your subordinate. It's your call."

Cloud Kicker's usual flirty demeanor faded as the weight of responsibility for Raindrops's fate was placed in her hooves. With a serious expression, she nodded once. "If there's a chance, do it." Walking over to the frozen pony once more, she placed a hoof affectionately against Raindrops's cheek. "She may not be the fastest flier on the team, but once she gets going, she can punch through a typhoon. I'd feel a lot better knowing she's okay..."

"Then please remove your hoof from her face and give me a little space," Zecora said. Once Cloud Kicker stepped back, the shaman took some of the dust out with her hoof, then blew it toward Raindrops. The powder drifted on her breath, then seemed to take on a life of its own as she guided it with her will. It drifted around and around the frozen pegasus, but was unable to penetrate the icy shell and seemed to have no effect.

Whiel this was going on, Scootaloo shifted on her mother's back. Having recovered some of her energy, the orange filly roused from her recuperative nap and slid off of Nocturne's back so she could groggily make her way toward the station's restroom. Nocturne saw that this was taking her straight toward Raindrops, so in order to keep her daughter from interrupting Zecora's work, she reached out with a foreleg to pull Scootaloo back.

The sudden jostling helped wake Scootaloo up further as she was held back, and she opened her eyes to see Raindrops in her current state.

The scream she let out rattled the eardrums of everypony in the outpost as she stared at Raindrops. The jasmine weather pony's frozen expression was a terrifying enough sight for an on-edge filly to wake up to in the first place, but the green dust in the air lent it an extra air of supernatural menace that freaked Scootaloo out.

So powerful was her scream, in fact, that a faint spiderweb of cracks began appearing on the surface of the ice. And though Zecora's concentration slipped slightly from the sonic assault, she saw that her dust was beginning to seep into the cracks, its magic preventing the ice from restoring itself.

Moments later, Nocturne managed to place a hoof over her daughter's mouth and muffle her cries, but by that point the cracks had spread through most of Raindrops's upper body. A faint rumbling could be felt by everypony in the room as the frozen shell surrounding Raindrops began vibrating menacingly, the cracks growing wider even without Scootaloo's screams. Suddenly, it split open and Raindrops spread her wings as she gasped for air and smashed her way out of the ice!

Present moment...

"Well, it wasn't the 'fires of friendship'," Twilight admitted. "How do you think we knew how to break into Sugarcube Corner?"

YOU LIE! THAT IS WHAT YOU PONIES DO, YOU MAKE UP LIES! But despite the fury growing in Gungnir, causing it to lose its composure, it sensed a warmth in the sky above it. Its form shifted as it turned to look up and focused its attention on the single sturdily-built pegasus flying toward it. A pegasus pony who was loaded down with several layers of warm clothing and a full pair of saddlebags.

IT MATTERS NOT. YOU SAVED ONE PONY, BUT YOU WILL STILL ALL DIE HERE. YOU HAVE NOTHING LEFT WITH WHICH TO FIGHT ME. With that proclamation, Gungnir flapped its wings and sent a focused blizzard toward Raindrops.

The jasmine pegasus took the full brunt of the wintry blast, not being fast or agile enough to avoid it even if she weren't weighted down. Gungnir watched as the snow and freezing winds claimed her...

...Only to see her fly straight through and keep charging forward, using gravity to help her pick up speed as she angled downward.

If Gungnir's face were capable of showing emotion, its shock would have been immortalized in the minds of all ponies present. It sent up more wind and snow and ice to assault Raindrops with, but the pegasus broke it with brute strength whenever it tried to freeze on her. Her wings were held in a rigid position to begin with as she dive-bombed toward Gungnir, building up speed and inertia. When she got close, Raindrops pulled back one of her forelegs, then thrust it forward with all her strength to strike the stunned Windigo.

Gungnir exploded into a shower of wind and snow as Raindrops smashed through its armor, and Raindrops spread her wings to catch the air and brake before she could slam into the ground at terminal velocity. Letting out a satisfied huff, Raindrops glided toward Lt. Sparkle and set down in front of her. "Hoo yeah! That was cathartic. Guess you won't really be needing these?" She pointed a hoof back at the saddlebags on her back.

Lt. Sparkle allowed herself a genuine smile, though there was still tension evident there. "Not quite, but you bought us a few seconds." Indeed, Gungnir was already beginning to pull itself back together. As her horn glowed and she reached for the objects that Raindrops had come to deliver, she asked, "Have you ever thought of pitching in part-time with the Rangers?"

The jasmine pegasus snorted. "Between the weather team and working as a mover? My plate's full, thanks."

Lt. Sparkle nodded and at least tried to hide her disappointment. "Well, we've already thrown everything we've got at this thing..." Six golden necklaces floated out of the saddlebags, each one with a different gemstone carved into it. One was an orange jewel in the shape of a stone slab and chisel. Another was a pink rainbow which appeared cracked, but closer inspection would have revealed that this was simply part of the design. The third was a blue stone in the shape of a hoof and a hand holding one another. The next was a purple tree, followed by magenta geode.

The last necklace had a gem in the shape of a crimson compass rose, which Lt. Sparkle placed around her own neck while sending the other five out to their respective owners, who were taking advantage of Gungnir's brief incapacitation to run together and surround the recovering Windigo. "Now it's time to see what the Elements of Harmony can do."

Author's Note

One more chapter for the finale to go, and then maybe a small epilogue! As usual, I hope you like it, but feel free to leave a comment either way.

Rather than talk much about this chapter, I'd like to call attention to a couple of fics that absolutely deserve more attention than they've gotten so far. The first one, I am begging... BEGGING you all to put in your favorites. It's The Country of Roses by a fellow calling himself Dutch Tilt. This story is a fantastic blending of MLP with Stephen King's The Dark Tower series. Dutch Tilt's ability to capture the flavor of King's style in his descriptions and characterizations is just amazing to me, and he very ably merges the two settings together with the gunslinging earth pony Peacemaker on a quest to hunt down "the black alicorn".

The other is a recent fic by the very man who inspired the creation of this setting, defender2222. It's a four-part story of the Doctor, Derpy and Dinky going back to the first Hearth's Warming to see the founding of Equestria. Of course, things don't go quite the same way it's described in the history books. Defender's been feeling a bit down over the luke-warm reception it's gotten so far, so please head over there and give the story some love. I've seen the first drafts of the whole thing, and I can say that while only the first two chapters have been officially released so far, it will be worth it when he publishes the entire story.
The Winds of Winter: A Hooves Family Adventure

The First Seeds of Spring (pt. 1/2)

Snowblind
by crowmagnon

The First Seeds of Spring, Pt. 1

As Twilight magically levitated each of the Elements of Harmony to their bearers, the six mares gathered in a ring around Gungnir while the Windigo reconstituted itself.

Though it was not yet fully formed, Gungnir could 'see' the warm shapes of the ponies surrounding it. The six-who-are-one, it hissed. Though it had never seen the Elements for itself before, it had shared the Spear-Maiden's mind. Her thoughts and memories had been laid bare, though many parts of the griffon Queen's mind had been filled with thoughts of warmth that had been too dangerous for the then-unborn Windigo to approach.

It had taken time and patience to turn the Spear-maiden's heart cold, but even then Gungnir had kept its distance from her memories of the Elements and their former bearers. Because of this, it knew that the Spear-Maiden and her closest friends had used them to defeat a monstrous tyrant and pull the world back from the brink of crumbling into chaos and destruction, but had little understanding of what it was facing beyond the knowledge that the ponies were bringing their most potent weapon to bear.

I WILL NOT LET YOU, Gungnir howled, focusing its recuperation entirely on its claws, each one forming into a jagged dagger. It swung its claws toward Lt. Sparkle first, but she and the other five mares calmly closed their eyes.

The instant that they did so, the gems on each of their necklaces exploded with a magical light so bright that Gungnir recoiled back into the center of the circle. As one, each of the mares began to rise up into the air until none of their hooves were touching the ground. Gungnir's senses were filled with a blazing warmth from which there was no escape while streams of prismatic magic extended from each necklace to connect with that of the mare on either side.

Gungnir knew that its time was running short. It lashed out again, this time at the insufferably smiling Fluttershy, only for the rainbow magic to stop it in its tracks. If it could only strike one, then the connection would be broken, but that opportunity was a rapidly closing window. Gungnir sensed that there was an opening, however. It quickly turned its focus toward the one mare who was having the most difficulty connecting with the others.

It was the one called Rarity. Rarity, who had worn a coat of ice and lies. Rarity, who had been on the cusp of giving in to the frigidity in her heart. The unicorn was having trouble, however slight, in opening herself up to the power of the Elements. This gave Gungnir its only chance.

Brandishing its claws, Gungnir lunged for Rarity's throat with the speed of the Winter winds that could flay the life from a warm body in a matter of moments. The rainbow magic was slow in reaching her by comparison. She was vulnerable... until she opened her eyes.

Rarity's eyes flew open, bright white shining from them. Not the cold blankness of icy film which had covered them before, but a blinding light. Gungnir flinched, but was driven to such desperation that it could not allow itself to falter. It could not...

"I see you," the unicorn said in a voice that was barely above a whisper. "You're so tiny."

Gungnir shuddered as the words slipped through its armor and struck at something in the very core of its being. Its claws slowed ever so slightly in their deadly arc, giving the rainbow magic a chance to meet with the gem in Rarity's necklace.

The glow in all six gemstones grew even brighter as each one shot out a multi-colored beam. The magic surrounded Gungnir on all sides, wrapping around the Windigo. Gungnir attempted to struggle and lash out, but it was as helpless as an ant caught in a hurricane. All that it could do was howl in terror and rage as it was claimed by a prismatic whirlwind.

Light. Despite its blindness, light flooded Gungnir's senses. Beyond the perception of heat and shapes, the Windigo was suddenly made aware of color and brightness. The unfamiliar sensation assaulted Gungnir as it felt itself tumbling end over end through an overwhelming barrage of images. Before the Windigo's sightless eyes, countless pictures flashed before it as if trying to cram the world into its mind without providing a means to comprehend what it was experiencing.

Gungnir tried to resist the flood of light, but only ended up roaring in an agony that it had not realized it was feeling until it fought back. The light was too bright. Too hot. And yet, despite the way it made Gungnir thrash and howl, it was strange that there was no pain.

The torture is too great for me to comprehend. They are killing me, and I am too overwhelmed to feel the pain, Gungnir deducted as it hurtled through the currents of sensation. Soon, it would vanish like snow in the Summer sun, melted away by a power that it could not resist.

"~I see you.~ You're so tiny," the mocking, sing-song voice said to the little embryo that would one day be Gungnir, the Spear of Winter. It was not yet truly alive or conscious, being no bigger than a grubworm, and similarly shaped.

It had no thoughts of its own, and its senses were so undeveloped that the creature holding it between its fingers appeared as nothing but a shadow. Even with only the barest semblance of sentience, though, it had memories. Not of its own, but of Windigoes which had come before it, shared with the embryo through the great intelligence which connected them all.

It had no thoughts of its own, but it knew fear, and it was sore afraid. Memories of a terrible blue star and waves of pink flame tormented the embryo with visions of countless painful, searing deaths. Lacking consciousness and reason, it had no means of coping with the painless agony of its memories. The great intelligence should have been there to think for it, as it had been since the moment it came into existence.

The intelligence was silent.

Its fellow Windigoes were gone.

There were no thoughts but its own, and it had none. No voice but that of the shadow, which was a distant, alien thing outside of itself.

Terrified and hungry, the embryo instinctively tried to reach out to the shadow's mind, only to recoil away the instant that it felt what was squirming there.

The shadow laughed. "Now, now, don't get too greedy for your own good. You're just a little thing lost and alone in this big, wide world. Oh, but big things have small beginnings, and you will begin something very grand indeed. Come with me, little one, and let me show you to your new home. Get yourself settled in, and I will see to it that you feast like a king."

The embryo had no true concept of its surroundings, nor of the passage of time. It felt a rush of movement, though, as it was carried away on wings of air and darkness to another place. It squirmed impotently in its captor's grip as the climate around it changed into a place that was both colder and warmer than it had been mere moments before.

The source of this new climate was another being. One very much unlike the shadow. More similar to itself, but also its opposite. Once more, terror consumed the embryo as it struggled in vain to crawl away, knowing that if the mind of this new creature were to touch it, it would cease to be, just as the Windigoes in its memories of the blue star.

The shadow held it, though, keeping the embryo captive while ensuring that the mind of burning snow remained unaware of its presence. "Good evening, Gertrude. I hope that I haven't caught you at a bad time."

The mind of burning snow startled at the sound of the shadow's voice, but then extended itself toward the shadow with a fondness that made the embryo wish only to flee. "Oh, it's you, Trick. What brings you here with such urgency that you couldn't be bothered to announce yourself? Or at the very least, knock upon the door?"

"Ill tidings, I fear, but I'm sure that you've seen it yourself. Our Equestrian friends... ever since little Shangwe..."

"Yes... they loved her as a little sister. We all did, and to have her do... that... in the place where we all bound our fates to each other... But what does that have to do with why you are here, now? Please tell me you did not visit simply to re-live old pains."

"Oh, you mean... you haven't noticed it? You don't know? Oh, my dear friend, I have not come to open old wounds, but now I fear that what I tell you will cause new ones. But it must be said... It must, for the good of everything we have fought to rebuild all these long years."

As it spoke, the shadow brought its hand toward the other being's cheek. The embryo silently screamed, wanting only to escape... until the shadow spoke again.

"Gertrude... Celestia and Luna have taken the power of our fallen brother and sister for themselves. They have changed themselves into something... other than how we knew them. I fear that soon, we will be gotten rid of as well, and then the Sun and Moon will no longer revolve around the world, but they will re-shape the world to revolve around them.

The mind of burning snow recoiled away at the suggestion. "What?! Impossible! I know that they would never do such a thing as what you suggest! They are our dearest friends!"

The shadow continued forward. Even without touching its mind, the embryo could feel the dark, twisting thoughts wriggling and undulating under the surface of the shadow's facade. "I swear to you that it is true, Gertrude. They were our friends, but they have become something else. Something has twisted them in body and soul, and soon you will see them as I do."

The shadow touched the mind of burning snow, but as it drew nearer, the embryo sensed something new. A small hole in its mind. A crack opened up by the shadow's words, allowing the cold to seep in.

The embryo had no thoughts of its own, but instinct and the memories of its Windigo brethren told it to crawl inside that gap.

"It can't be," the mind of burning snow protested, but the gap belied its denial. The embryo, hungry and eager to find a place to take root and grow, left the shadow's presence behind and began to burrow deep, deep inside. As it did so, it rummaged through the mind of its host and found a treasure trove of thoughts and memories which proved fertile ground for the Windigo.

The embryo had no thoughts of its own, but as it wormed its way into the coldest recesses of her mind, it reached with Gertrude's, forming a connection akin to what it had lost when the great intelligence had gone silent. Her memories became its own. It saw through her eyes.

The embryo stared at the face of the being that, through its own senses, it had perceived only as a shadow. The golden eyes of a crimson-faced centaur with neatly trimmed facial hair stared back. The embryo began using its first true moments of sapience thinking that the centaur was not simply looking at Gertrude, but the embryo within as well.

"You know me, Gertrude," Trick said with an expression of wry concern, though the embryo could see the darkness undulating behind his eyes, even if Gertrude could not. "I am nothing if not honest."

The embryo had no thoughts of its own. It did, however, have Gertrude's. Taking a hold of her apprehension and uncertainty, it thought, He bears the Element of Honesty. And if what he says is true, and Celestia and Luna now bear the power of Spring, then I would be all but powerless against them. They could come for me, next.

And when they embryo thought this, so did Gertrude herself.

Gungnir reeled through the cacophonous void as a scene of lucidity struck it with every bit as much force as that thawed-out deliverymare had.

A memory. The very first that the Windigo possessed which was truly its own. It had come out of the chaotic maelstrom of light and sound, temporarily forming a coherent scene. But for what purpose?

The Windigo managed to stabilize itself, but then heard the cracking of ice. It looked down at itself and found that the armor it had fashioned from its underlings was breaking apart. As the pieces fell away from its body, they crumbled into a fine, powdery snow which once again took the form of the three Windigoes.

Without a sound, or even a glance back in Gungnir's direction, each of the wintry spirits took flight away from it.

Reaching out with both its mind and talons, Gungnir to catch the fleeing Windigoes. COME BACK! PROTECT ME, Gungnir howled, but it could not reach them as it suddenly became aware of some force holding it back.

Gungnir craned its neck to look, and found that a silvery cord braided from threads of spun ice was projecting from its hind leg, and held taut as it was connected to something far, far beyond Gungnir's ability to perceive. Gungnir pulled and struggled against the cord, but whatever was on the other end refused to budge.

Then, heralded only by a faint tremor in the taut cable, Gungnir suddenly felt itself pulled helplessly and violently toward...

... The throne. It seemed like a lifetime ago, but Gertrude vividly remembered how Lord Snowheart's throne room had always seemed to be such a forbidden, sacred place that she had not even been allowed to step inside, lest she pollute it with her filthy, rag-hidden visage. Now, she was walking along a red carpet and wearing a white silken gown that sparkled with diamonds while representatives from all of the griffon clans looked on.

Her heart pounded as she placed one limb in front of another in what might have been seen as a slow, regal procession. In truth, though, her deliberate pace was a result of needing to force herself to push forward through the collective gazes of her people. To do anything other than devote her total focus toward moving forward would have likely sent her screaming and fleeing. The pressure upon her was building to such a degree that it seemed inevitable that she would do so regardless.

Then she happened to flick her eyes briefly toward the Equestrian delegation, whose naturally colorful visages stood out among the stoic griffon lords and generals. Sitting on a chair to make her seem the tallest of the three sisters was Queen Sapphire, whose pale blue coat and silvery mane were highlighted by the elegant platinum regalia she wore, as well as a fur-lined cloak sparkling with the shining blue stones for which she was named.

As grateful as Gertrude was for the Equestrian monarch's presence, though, it was the sight of Sapphire's two younger sisters sitting on either side of her that gave Gertrude the strength to keep moving forward. As a matter of propriety, Celestia lay down on the stone floor so that she would not be seen as being above her elder sister by the other dignitaries, but if the pink-maned Princess felt any discomfort whatsoever, she did not show it. Instead, she smiled to her dear friend with warmth and pride.

Luna was more reserved, but only out of timidness caused by being in a chamber with so many unfamiliar griffons. Gertrude realized as she passed that if it were not for her own presence demanding the attention of all in attendance, then the shy little winged unicorn would likely be curled up in a ball, trembling and hidden behind her wings.

With a small smile to Luna, Gertrude lifted her own head and wings up higher in the haughty manner that she had seen from griffon nobles in the past. It did nothing to alleviate her own nervousness, but it ensured that all eyes would be upon her, and thus spared her friend as much unwanted attention as she could.

Soon, she would reach the end of the carpet where robed griffon mystic was waiting for her. Soon, she would speak the oaths of royalty. Soon, she would sit upon the throne as Queen, and all the griffons of every clan would either look to her for guidance, or seek to pounce upon the slightest hint of weakness. Soon, the world as she knew it would change forever.

Still, as long as she could take it one step at a time, and use the great gifts that she had been given to be of help to those who relied on her, perhaps it was possible that she could do it after all.

Gungnir tumbled out of another memory, but this one was not its own. It was one of the Spear-Maiden's. The moment when her heart had accepted that she was to rule over all griffon-kind.

The Windigo had always feared that memory during its gestation within her mind. Had the Spear-Maiden considered it a moment of elevation, placing herself above the concerns of others, it could have used that memory to feed and grow.

Gungnir had been right to avoid it, however, as it stabilized itself and saw the damage that had been done. The warmth of that memory had melted away much of its body. An entire wing, and most of its back and legs on the left side of its body were simply gone, and no amount of concentration or shifting of its form could regenerate them.

It was still bound by the cord of spun ice, however, and found two more binding what remained of its body to whatever it was being drawn toward. Gungnir once again followed along the silvery cables with its gaze, but this time it could faintly see a sillhouette of some immense object off in the distance. What it was, Gungnir couldn't say, but the fact that it was being drawn inexorably toward that massive shape left the Windigo...

... Terrified. Even though Gertrude and Luna shielded Celestia with their wings, the oversized unicorn was ill-suited for the blizzard that they trudged through, and neither of the Princesses dared to use their magic while the knights of the Snowheart clan were tracking them.

Every so often, Gertrude would hear the shriek of one of the knights pursuing them. It was how the warriors of the Snowheart clan communicated with one another and kept track of each others' positions when the storms they formed greatly limited even a griffon's vision. It also had the effect of driving their quarry to terror, either flushing out prey when they hunted, or causing enemy soldiers to lose morale.

It might have worked, too, if not for Celestia. Gertrude could hear the shrieks of the knights drawing closer and closer, and her body instinctively wished for nothing more than to take wing and fly away as fast as she possibly could. Even if she and Luna did manage to miraculously escape from their pursuers, however, Celestia would be left abandoned on the ground, where she would quickly freeze to death if the knights did not find her first.

Worse, Gertrude stifled a fearful squawk as she heard another set of baleful wails answering the cries of the knights.

"Please, we have to turn back," she begged, as quietly as she could while still being heard over the noises and the blizzard. "Those are Windigoes! If we keep going toward them, they will devour us!"

Celestia shook her head, which hung low with weariness as she shuffled between her winged companions. "No... no, we press on. The Windigoes shall be our salvation."

Looking to the unicorn Princess in shock, Gertrude whispered, "But your highness, the Windigoes are voracious demons! The mightiest of knights have tried time and again to vanquish them, but none have ever returned! What hope do we have?"

Celestia smiled at her and replied, "Neigh, Gertrude, not demons. Merely animals, base and simplistic in their behavior. They feast on strife, conflict and distrust. So long as we do not threaten them or make ourselves appetizing to their eyes, they shan't molest us."

Could it truly be that simple? Every tale that she had heard of the Windigoes painted them as unstoppable demons with fangs of ice and breath which froze the blood in their prey's veins. Otherworldly monsters so strong and terrible that the mightiest warriors were nothing but food for them. The way that Celestia spoke, it was as if she were speaking of any other creature.

Seeing the fear and doubt on Gertrude's face, Celestia leaned over and nuzzled the warm white feathers of her friend's shoulder. "It will be alright, Gertrude. As long as there is life in my bones, I will not lead you toward harm. You have already given us your home, your food and your company... All I ask for now is your trust."

Gertrude swallowed her fear down as best she could. Celestia seemed so certain and earnest, yet she was asking Gertrude to walk with her into the den of monsters which brought terror to the fearless, and effortlessly destroyed the undefeatable.

But it was Celestia who was asking her. She and Luna were the only beings alive to treat Gertrude as an equal. At first, Gertrude had assumed that it was their own hybrid mutations which made them sympathetic to her, despite their royal status. As she had gotten to know them, however, a realization had taken root in her mind. A thought so simple, yet so foreign to her that it had taken quite a while for her to comprehend it.

They cared about her because they considered her a friend.

And now her friend was asking her to walk with them into the jaws of fear itself.

Gertrude knew that she could still fly away. Even with the knights giving chase, she was close enough to the Windigoes' territory that they would be hesitant to follow if she simply took wing and flew around. If her pony friends were correct, then they could continue on by themselves and find safety.

But it was not just about their own safety, was it? If it were, they would not have needed to ensure that Gertrude came with them. Luna had hinted at it, but they saw something in her that they valued as highly as their friendship. A potential that Gertrude could still not see in herself...

... But she wanted to. When she was with the royal pony sisters, she became so much more than a mere albino mutant. She was not a mistake. She did not pollute them with her presence. When she stood beside them, she became filled with a warmth that no blizzard could extinguish.

For her friends, she would give anything and everything out of gratitude for being allowed to feel that warmth.

"You have my trust, Celestia. All I can give and more," she replied as they pressed on through the howling wind.

Gungnir howled in agony as another of the Spear-Maiden's memories tore through it, causing more of its body to dissolve away. All of its limbs were gone now, as was a large portion of its face. The burning warmth of the memories that it had avoided touching for so long was not what caused it pain, however. It was something that it had been reminded of.

Windigoes were nothing but animals.

Gungnir knew this was wrong. Before the shadow came, there had been thoughts. None of its own, but thoughts just the same. Plans. Knowledge. Purpose. Thousands of voices connected to a greater intelligence, eager to guide and shape the Windigo into what it was meant to be. Despite that, in all the time since it had begun to think, it found no other Windigoes like itself.

Both Gungnir and the Spear-Maiden had touched the minds of the other Windigoes to command them, but those had no voices; only hunger and instinct. It did not seem to be something that their kind had lost, either. The Spear-Maiden's memories made it clear that she and the Sun and Moon had gone almost unnoticed by the Windigoes, who had instead driven off the pursuing knights when they sensed the malice in the warriors' hearts.

Even now, the three that it had brought with it into this torment had long since fled, and no amount of cajoling or commanding could bring them back. Gungnir was alone.

A mutant.

A freak.

It had tried to ignore this fact. By merging its thoughts with the Spear-Maiden's and twisting her perceptions toward self-destruction, it had paved the way for its own birth. So long as it grew within her, however, it had a voice to fill the void left behind when the shadow cut it away from the great intelligence. For a little while, the simple instincts of the other Windigoes had sufficed as a substitute, and its anger toward the ponies had served well as a distraction from the loss it felt when it emerged from its host.

Gungnir was nothing but a weapon, wielded by the shadow to destroy the Spear-Maiden from within. Now that it had fulfilled that purpose, it no longer had a place in the world.

That had to be what these burning memories meant. It did not belong in the world, so the Elements of Harmony were destroying it by subjecting it to the very thing that it had tried to wall itself and the Spear-Maiden away from.

Gungnir looked at the growing number of cables attached to its dwindling body, and saw that it was much closer now to the doom they were dragging it toward. It was frightened, but not surprised to see the true form of its demise.

Connected to the Windigo via the cords of ice, an immense Gertrude floated sleeping in the void, and took up nearly the entirety of Gungnir's perception. Soon it would be pulled in, and that would be the end of it. The Spear-Maiden's warmest memories would cause it to evaporate into nothingness, and the Elements of Harmony...

"... are not a weapon. They never were." Luna's voice quavered slightly, but a smile grew across her face as she looked at her sister and friends, and saw the changes that each of them had undergone. Behind her, the crystalline branches of the Tree of Harmony glittered and shone with the light radiating from the six gemstones which it had bestowed upon them.

Gertrude brought her talons up to her face to inspect them, her beak hanging open in shock. She was... larger, now. Not just in physical size, but in the way that her senses seemed to extend so much farther. There was a strength in her now that she could never have imagined, yet she seemed to have a sense of how to wield it as though she had known it all her life.

Concentrating on the space between her talons, she gathered moisture and chilled the air until small crystals of ice began to form. Then they grew and collected into a ball of snow. And while she was aware of the cold, it held no discomfort for her whatsoever. In her heart, she realized that it never would again.

Beside her, Shangwe's voice excitedly piped up, "It feels like a great rebirth! I can feel all the growing things in the earth!" The zebra filly hopped around playfully, her striped body having turned the same color as the grasses of the Zebrican savannah, her stiff mane now resembling reeds and leaves. She then planted all four hooves onto the ground, which cracked open and caused a green vine to sprout up in a matter of seconds.

That very same vine reached out and plucked the snowball from Gertrude's talons, whipping it toward Mr. Trick as the centaur seemed distracted with inspecting his relatively unchanged body. Instead of striking Mr. Trick, however, the centaur's body dissolved into shadow and effortlessly slipped out of the way, causing the frozen projectile to continue on and smack into the Sun Dog, now a canine behemoth.

The Sun Dog blinked in surprise, then let out a boisterous laugh as the air around his body rippled with a heat haze, melting away the snow. "Nice shot, but it'll take more than a snowball to rattle me now! I feel strong enough to take on a whole flight of dragons!" The canine slammed his fists together, and his paws became wreathed in a magical flame at the moment of impact.

Shaking her head slightly at the antics of the largest and smallest members of their motley band of friends, Gertrude turned to Luna and asked, "So, instead of being used to destroy evil directly, the Elements of Harmony changed us... but into what?"

"What we needed to become, I think," Luna replied. Like Mr. Trick, she and Celestia remained largely unchanged. It was strange for Gertrude to have to look down to Celestia, and yet there was indeed something different about them. An aura of power that seemed to radiate from them both.

Reconstituting himself from the shadows, Mr. Trick rose up behind the royal pony sisters and stroked his beard as he mused, "Well, it seems that we've all found our destiny today."

Simultaneously, Celestia and Luna looked over their shoulders and saw that where their flanks had been bare before, their cutie marks had finally appeared. Celestia's mark was of a shining sun while Luna's was of a crescent moon against a patch of night sky. The two sisters gasped in delight and smiled to each other before Celestia leaned down so that they could affectionately cross necks with one another.

When they separated, Celestia led her sister toward the cavern's entrance. As they did, Luna's horn began to glow with a deep blue aura, and through the cave's mouth, the six could see the moon and stars dipping down over the horizon. Once the sky was a blank canvas, Celestia's horn shone with a bright, golden glow which spread out to the horizon, filling the sky with a warm palette of color before the sun rose and began shining its brilliant rays into the cave.

Backlit by this display, Celestia turned back to the others, her pink mane wafting in the breeze. "My friends... this is the purpose for which we have been brought together. The world has been broken, the laws of nature unraveling day by day, and all the creatures of the world either live in fear, or are enslaved by our enemy. This is the dawning of a new day! Not just for us, but for every creature!"

Luna chimed in, continuing her sister's proclamation. "This is not the end of our quest, but the beginning. Today, we begin our work. Where the world threatens to shatter, we will hold it together, just as the bonds of our friendship hold us together!"

"Where any creature is in chains, I'll free them," the Sun Dog bellowed.

"When their minds are bound by fear and superstition, I will show them the truth," Mr. Trick added with a nod.

"I solemnly swear to save their hearts from despair," Shangwe vowed.

Gertrude placed a talon over her heart. "And I... I will help them through times of want and hardship, no matter what clan or species they may be."

Gungnir came out of the memory, and ceased its struggles. Not that it could fight when it was whole, but now its body was almost completely gone, reduced to its very core. All that was left of it was a small creature little bigger than a grubworm, and similarly shaped. It was wrapped up in the cords of ice, but the last memory had given clarity to its situation.

The Elements of Harmony were not a weapon. They were not destroying Gungnir. Gungnir was destroying itself.

There were no other Windigoes like Gungnir in the entire world. Unlike those feral beasts who merely fed on the coldness in other creatures' hearts, Gungnir was of a breed designed to manipulate and exploit them. The intelligence it possessed was based upon the ability to form connections, both to its prey and to others of its kind.

As there were no others of its kind, everything that it was, outside of its diet and instinct to sow conflict, came from the Spear-Maiden. It had sown anger, and so it was angry. It had fostered isolation, and in turn was alone.

Gungnir had driven the Spear-Maiden to suicidal despair, and now it was suffering from the same malady.

The ropes of spun ice which bound it were forged from the memories that Gungnir had sealed behind walls of doubt and suspicion. Just as the armor the Spear-Maiden had worn to protect herself from the rest of the world was no more, so was the body Gungnir had fashioned for itself, leaving behind only the true face of the parasite laid bare.

It could save itself, Gungnir realized. The ropes were of its own making. A refusal to let go of what it had taken from the Spear-Maiden's mind. It could still sever its connection and be free. The Elements of Harmony would not destroy it any more than they had destroyed the other Windigoes. It could escape and live as they did.

But what would it lose? Without the thoughts and memories it had gained from its connection to the Spear-Maiden, it would have nothing upon which to build its own identity. Gungnir had given itself a name and a shape. It was an entity. A consciousness. If that were taken away, would it still be alive, or would it merely continue to exist, living but forever incomplete as it preyed mindlessly with the rest of its kin?

Perhaps... it would be preferable to follow the memories back to where they belonged. To let itself be carried into that part of the Spear-Maiden's heart where no Windigo could survive.

It was so close, now. The Spear-Maiden's shut eyelid was in front of it like a massive wall the size of a city. Soon, it would be absorbed once again.

Without warning, the Spear-Maiden's eye opened, and Gungnir looked into an ocean of pink, behind which lifetimes of memories were held. The Windigo was surprised to find that, as microscopic as it was in comparison, it could feel the Spear-Maiden's eye focus upon it.

I see you, the Spear-Maiden's voice echoed in an awestruck whisper. It was a prelude to a memory. The one that Gungnir had feared more than any other.

It did not try to escape.

You're so tiny, Gungnir and the Spear-Maiden whispered together.

Author's Note

I originally intended to put this out as a single chapter, but I really liked the idea of showing Gungnir's perspective while it was in the process of getting blasted by the Orbital Friendship Cannon, and also using it as an opportunity for some world-building with snippets of Gertrude's relationship with the Princesses.

Hopefully it won't be too much of a cliffhanger at the end, because I already have a good chunk of the next part done. It was just getting to the point where the flashbacks had taken up so much of the narrative that I figured it would be a good idea to split it in two. I'll do my best to have the second half finished tomorrow to ring in the new year, or this weekend at the latest.

I should also point out that with this chapter, I'm making a blatant connection to defender2222's multiverse which started this whole thing to begin with, way back with the Doctor talking about a parallel universe he had recently visited in The Many Secret Origins of Scootaloo. In this case, the connection is to Universe 10, where his Hooves Family stories take place. If the 'blue star' is unfamiliar to you, go read The Winds of Winter: A Hooves Family Adventure. Seriously, go do it. It's very sweet, both as a Dr. Whooves story, and as a Hearth's Warming Eve tale.

And given how much I've already ripped off from defender2222, voice actors! Here's my take on who should play the other four Elements of Harmony, besides Celestia and Luna, but feel free to pitch ideas if you can think of any better candidates.

Gertrude -- Lana Parrilla
Mr. Trick -- Robert Carlyle
Shangwe ya Maisha -- A higher-pitched Amy Acker
The Sun Dog -- BRIAN BLESSED!!!

The First Seeds of Spring (pt. 2/2)

Snowblind
by crowmagnon

The First Seeds of Spring, Pt. 2

To the rest of the world, it was over in a matter of seconds. As the Elements of Harmony joined their power together, rainbows swirled out of their necklaces and surrounded Gungnir in a large whirlwind. As they wrapped around the howling Windigo, they drew tighter and tighter, shrinking to the size of a tennis ball before the prismatic beams shot up into the sky.

Arcing down and toward the frozen griffon, the power of the Elements struck the ice holding Gertrude, which cracked and crumbled away as it pierced straight to her heart. The brightness of the magic rapidly built in intensity until nopony could look at it, and a brilliant flash engulfed the area.

When it passed, the six bearers of the Elements set back down onto the snow-covered streets. Applejack rubbed her eyes as her vision returned, but then glanced upward and gasped. "Everypony, look out!"

Above their heads, three Windigoes hovered in the air. Their forms shifted, apparently having difficulty in deciding whether to take the shape of ponies or griffons. Rather than attack, however, the spirits looked downward, then quickly turned tail and fled toward the mountains.

Watching them fly away, Zecora said, "The Windigoes are released from Gungnir's control, I see. Without that keeping them here, it is their nature to flee."

"But what about her?" Twilight asked, turning toward Gertrude.

The white griffon sat in a bare patch of road, the ice and snow having melted away from her but for a small, frozen object held in her talons. She remained every bit as large and imposing in stature as she had before, but the manner in which she held her head low and slumped her wings made it clear that there was no more desire to fight in her.

Slowly turning her gaze up to look at the ponies, her pink eyes began brimming over with tears. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I am so... so sorry..."

As if on cue, the clouds parted above her, allowing the sun's rays to shine down upon Gertrude as a squad of armored pegasi punched a hole through them. The soldiers were followed by two chariots; one pulled by pegasi, the other by thestrals, each heralding the arrival of a pony to whom everypony else in the area reflexively knelt in respect.

Before the first chariot could even set down, Princess Luna leapt out of the back of hers and spread her wings so that she could glide toward the griffon with an enthusiastic cry of "GERTRUDE!"

The griffon's pink eyes went wide, and the jaws of everypony (and minotaur) fell open as she was forcefully glomped by the Princess of the Night.

As the two of them tumbled into a snowbank, the second Princess waited for her chariot to land before disembarking. When she did, pegasus soldiers attempted to escort her off, but she politely declined them and slowly approached the scene her sister was causing.

"Oh, Gertrude, I have not seen you for so very long! That is, I did see you, but either you were frozen, or you were eating a sandwich and then it turned out to be a dream. Oh, no, what if this is a dream? You are not feeling peckish for sandwiches, are you? If you are, I shall ban sandwiches from Equestria until I wake up! I, PRINCESS LUNA, DIARCH OF EQUESTRIA, DO HEREBY PROCLAIM THAT ALL SANDWICHES--"

"Luna! Please, do stop shouting into Gertrude's ear. You are awake," Celestia gently chided her younger sister. Looking at the kneeling ponies, and one minotaur who was doing his best to bow despite a broken leg, she said, "Rise, my little ponies. There is no need to bury your faces in the snow."

Smiling as she usually did, with unflappable good humor, Celestia watched her subjects stand. They in turn looked up at her, and most were stunned by the sight of her. The months since Waking Night and the final defeat of Eclipse had done wonders for the Sun Princess, who had always appeared elderly and frail for as long as any other living pony could remember. A consequence of the wounds she had suffered while sealing the monster away a thousand years prior. Now, though still somewhat wrinkled and wizened, her frame had filled out a bit and she projected an aura of gentle strength.

"Awake? You mean... this is actually happening?" Luna asked. When Celestia nodded, Luna smiled, and the stars in her mane and tail shone brightly even though the sunlight beaming down upon her. "SANDWICHES ARE DELICIOUS!"

Through all of this, Gertrude looked back and forth between the Princesses, comparing the sight of them now to the memory of the last time she saw them. Aside from Celestia's advanced age, they looked identical to the altered forms they had taken on in her palace of ice. But while Gungnir's influence in her mind had made her seen them as monsters who had allowed themselves to mutate into hideous forms in exchange for power, she could now see them through her own unfiltered senses.

"Luna...? Celestia? You are... you are so beautiful... but..."

She trailed off as Luna began nuzzling her soft, downy feathers. "Your wings are fluffy," the Princess of the Night told her.

Celestia's smile took on a bittersweet edge. "It is a long, sad story, my friend. As were the events of today, it seems." Turning to look at Twilight, she asked, "Lieutenant Sparkle, it is good to see you again. Was anypony harmed before you and your friends were able to use the Elements?"

Twilight stammered a bit, her complexion paling as she was forced to address Princess Celestia. After a few disconnected syllables escaped her mouth, Nocturne flapped over toward the Lieutenant and elbowed her in the barrel.

After catching her breath, Twilight saluted and exclaimed, "S-some cuts and scrapes and property damage to Sugarcube Corner, Princess, but no serious injuries reported yet!"

"What a relief..." Gertrude whispered under her breath, knowing all too well the harm that she could have done. Ashamed, she looked to the others and said, "But I still caused you so much fear and anguish. I do not know if I can ask for your forgiveness, but if there is anything I can do to repair the damage I have done..."

Gertrude hung her head low in contrition, but Celestia approached and placed a gold-shod hoof on her shoulder. "There will be time to decide how you should make restitution, but we should do so back in Canterlot. Your Windigoes hit quite hard there, as well." The Sun Princess rolled her eyes. "All those politicians and socialites... it must have seemed like the closest thing to an open buffet in all Equestria. It took my Captain of the Guard and his soldiers hours to drive them off, even with my sister and I assisting them."

Meanwhile, Luna was hugging an awkwardly flustered Nocturne like a plush toy, much to the horror of some and the amusement of others. "Please do not be jealous, my Ranger. We still think that bat wings are cute, too!"

Her face flushed with embarrassment, Nocturne stammered, "That's... um... very kind of you to say, Princess..." She looked to her fellow Rangers for assistance, but Twilight's eyes were starting to glaze over for some reason, and she wasn't in a fit state to pry one of the Princesses off of her. As for Pokey, he was too busy failing to hide his snickering at her situation. Baring her fangs at the powder-blue unicorn, she growled, "One hundred push-ups, Private. Right now!"

The young stallion's groan as he dropped down into the snow and began doing push-ups said that he regretted it, but the smirk at the corner of his mouth said he still considered it worth the punishment.

At the same time, Twilight was taking advantage of the patch of sunlight shining down to survey the damages to the immediate area. Even though very little harm was done to the buildings besides Sugarcube Corner, the snow was much deeper than it had been at the beginning of the day. And given how high the sun was in the sky...

"Oh, no..." she whispered to herself. "There's no way to get Winter Wrap-Up done before nightfall... I'm tardy!"

With that realization, all of the emotional pressure and fear that she had shoved aside while protecting the town came crashing down on the young Lieutenant's psyche all at once. Thankfully, the snow was deep enough to catch her in its soft embrace as she collapsed.

Following the armored unicorn's fainting spell, her friends volunteered to get her inside out of the cold while the pegasi of the Guard met with the local weatherponies. The pegasi then dispersed throughout the town and the surrounding farms; first to ensure that there had been no serious harm caused by the blizzard other than what Gertrude had personally wrought, and secondly to assure the citizens that the crisis had passed.

As soon as she was re-united with Spike and Sweetie Belle, Rarity had clutched them both tightly and refused to let go until her little sister's whining about her ribs approached a frequency that caused Nocturne Striker's ears to flatten from a few blocks away.

Once Rarity reluctantly released her family, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom shared a hug, each of them grateful for the others's safety. Applejack smiled as she watched the friends reunite, but then took a look at to the coat she had arrived in. Seeing the damage that had been done to it throughout the day, she let out a soft sigh.

Not too soft to be heard by her little sister, though, who turned back to look at her. "Applejack? What's th' matter?" Despite their earlier steps toward reconciliation, the little filly still felt a niggling of annoyance that her big sister would be concerned about material comforts when they had all just narrowly stayed alive. "Can't y'all jus' get it fixed?"

Applejack gave her sister a bittersweet smile as she put the coat back on. "Oh, darling, that's what I'm afraid of." Confusion flickered across Apple Bloom's face, so Applejack explained, "I never bought this coat. It was a gift from one of my clients, Stitchen Thyme. Such an extraordinary tailor, but he had a dreadful family emergency not long ago, and wasn't able to work for some time.

"He needed to take out a loan just to stay afloat, but the interest rates some of the other lenders were offering were absolutely predatory. I stepped in and offered a payment plan which would not harm his business once he got working again, and the dear stallion made this coat as a gesture of gratitude. I know how much time and material it cost him to create this..." She paused for a moment, placing a hoof over a line of torn stitching. "So when I wear this, I'm not just wearing it for myself. I'm showing the world the fruits of his talents and hard work, and hopefully getting him more customers."

Apple Bloom's eyes widened as her sister's words rolled around in her mind. "So... when yer coat got scuffed up... ya weren't upset 'cause yer property got damaged... It was 'cause it made it look lahk ya didn't appreciate all the work yer friend, Stitchen, put inta it?"

Applejack smiled, getting a little flushed as she looked to the side. "Yes, something like that. I suppose it must sound rather silly and sentimental."

Apple Bloom got her sister's attention back when she placed a small hoof against Applejack's leg and looked up into her eyes with earnest sincerity. "Nah... Ah get it. Lahk if Granny gave somepony the best apple pie in Equestria, then they tripped an' dropped it on th' ground. Even if it was an accident, it'd feel lahk all that time an' love she put inta it was wasted."

Applejack looked down at Apple Bloom, her smile widening. "Yes, and even though she would certainly make another one just as good to replace it..."

"... If'n ya really cared, ya wouldn't wanna make her have ta go ta the extra effort in the first place," Apple Bloom concluded. She was vaguely aware of the door opening behind her, but didn't pay it any mind as she leaned in to nuzzle her big sister. "Ah'm... ah'm sorry again fer bein' such a pain before... Ya ain't lahk how ah thought ya were."

"Oh, thank Celestia AN' Luna," a deep, masculine, and very familiar voice exclaimed, heralding Big McIntosh's entrance. Taking just a moment to help get Granny Smith and Winona inside, the big red stallion then hurried over to wrap his forelegs around both his sisters. "Ah didn't know where you two had gone off to 'til that Guardpony flew by tellin' us you'd saved th' day again."

Applejack and Apple Bloom both eagerly returned the hug from their big brother, but only until a bit of the snow that had accumulated atop his Stetson fell off his hat and down the back of both of their necks. The ensuing shriek once again caused Nocturne Striker to flatten her ears against her head, then add twenty more push-ups to Pokey's punishment for stopping to ask what was the matter.

As the echoes faded, Granny Smith grimaced and rubbed her ear. "Guess Ah gotta go deaf sooner or later. Ah'm jus' glad ta see mah girls safe an' sound," she said with a gummy grin. "An' that ya put that nonsense 'bout the workers b'hind ya."

Applejack paled a little while the littlest Apple blinked in confusion. "Workers?"

"Ain't that what you two were arguin' about before?" Granny asked. Despite Applejack using her hoof to repeatedly make a cutting gesture across her throat to stop the elderly mare, Granny Smith explained, "Them workers Applejack sent back when Mac was hurt!"

Both sisters winced at the reminder of the argument they had previously had, when Apple Bloom had exploded and called her a 'rotten Apple' before running off. "Yeah... Ah... Ah'm sure yer heart was in th' right place there."

"Darn tootin' it was," Granny said curtly as Big Mac helped her into a nearby chair. "Bad as that apple blight was, Ah can't imagine how many good farmers would've gone bankrupt if'n they hadn't been put ta work here."

"Apple blight, Granny?"

Granny Smith looked at her grand-daughter and asked, "Didn't ya hear us talkin' 'bout that last year? Nasty blight practically wiped out a good half-dozen farms in that area. Why did ya think there were so many stallions lookin' fer work?"

Apple Bloom felt a flush of shame as she realized that she had heard passing mentions of other farms getting hit badly, but had been too wrapped up in her own angst over her prodigal sister's absence to connect the dots. "Ya weren't jus' lookin' out fer our family... Applejack... ya ain't no farmer! But y'all're a good Apple... an' ah'm glad y'all're mah sister..."

A chorus of "Awwwwwww" filled the room, and the Apple siblings quickly realized that everypony else had been listening in on their (admittedly not very private) conversation.

Pinkamena's mouth twitched in such a way that she made an expression akin to trying to cure constipation by sitting on a cactus, but as much as she was able, she sounded genuinely pleased as she said, "Congratulations, Applejack, you won your bet. What is Apple Bloom going to say during the press conference?"

A look of stricken terror suddenly filled Apple Bloom's face as she remembered the wager made earlier that morning, though it felt like a lifetime ago. "Wait, we ain't actually gonna...? Ah mean, we were both in th' heat o' anger back then an' it was soooooo long ago!"

Applejack blinked, having honestly forgotten about it as well, but she couldn't stop a mischievous smirk from crossing her lips. "No, no, my dear friend Pinkamena is quite right. We did have an arrangement."

Apple Bloom looked to Big Mac for support, but her brother simply nodded solemnly. "An Apple's word is her bond."

When the filly turned to her grandmother, Granny Smith shook her head. "Don't go lookin' at me. You two shook on it."

A gentle wave of laughter began spreading through the gathered herd as Apple Bloom groaned in dismay, gathering in strength as the simple comfort of safety and togetherness warmed their hearts.

Gertrude clutched the piece of ice she had picked up to her breast as she sat on the clouds above Ponyville. Staring through the clouds, her heat sense and telescopic vision combined to clearly show her the state of the ponies that she had terrorized so recently. Beside her, Celestia sat in her chariot and watched the expressions play across her old friend's face.

"I am glad you stopped to show me this, Celestia. They are so strong," Gertrude mused as he saw the ponies gather around the Cakes to comfort the couple over the damage done to their bakery. And there was Derpy with Rarity as the unicorn used her newly-learned magic to release her from the armor that had been placed on her. All while Vinyl Scratch tried to convince her to keep it on the grounds that it was 'rockin'.

"I did my best to drive them to fear... anger... paranoia... But here we are, not even an hour passed, and their connections to one another are stronger than ever. Perhaps if the same could have held true for us..."

A shadow flickered over Gertrude, but it was only Luna as the Princess of the Night lazily swooped and whirled around in the sky while her charioteers attempted to catch up and get her to sit down. Celestia gave her friend a wan smile. "Pinkamena... that lovely poet down there... she once told me, 'Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: "It might have been."' For us, that is entirely too many opportunities for sadness. We can't change the past, but you have been returned to us now, and the future is still to be written."

Gertrude nodded and raised her eyes toward distant Canterlot, the mountainside city still largely shrouded by thick clouds, the weather teams being forced to wait until the snow was cleared away so as to avoid flooding. "I suppose we should be continuing on to Canterlot, then. I still have to answer for my actions."

Celestia pursed her lips. "Indeed. There are a great many souls who will not be satisfied until you are brought before them, and they have been kept waiting too long as it is." Turning her head up to her cavorting sister, she called out, "Luna! We should be returning home, now!"

"As you wish, sister," Luna called back, leveling off her flight and aiming for Canterlot, much to the consternation of her charioteers.

The Sun Princess raised a golden-shod hoof to her mouth and giggled before telling Gertrude, "Well, I suppose you should be taking her chariot, then. The poor stallions will feel left out if they don't transport somepony. Besides, you will want to get a bit of rest before you see who else has been waiting for your return."

Gertrude tilted her head in a rather owl-like expression of confusion as she asked, "Who?"

"It... it can't be..." Gertrude's beak hung open, practically touching the floor. Upon reaching Canterlot, and after a few words with Celestia's Captain of the Guard ensuring the white-coated unicorn that she was no longer an imminent threat, the Princesses had led her down into a magically sealed vault deep beneath the palace.

The air inside the vault was cool, but not so cold as to be unbearable for the mortal guards accompanying them. Before Gertrude's eyes, dozens... hundreds of griffons lay peacefully in repose, their eyes closed and expressions so serene that one would think that they were simply napping, except that each and every one of them was surrounded by a shell of ice shaped very much like an egg.

Too stunned by the bizarre display to breathe, Gertrude slowly panned across each of the 'cocoons' that lay before her. Male and female, adult and cub, each one was perfectly preserved and still showed signs of warmth and life to the Warden of Winter's sight.

She finally remembered how to inhale when she reached a particular group in the center, which caused her to gasp with a combination of delight and horror. Her knights, each of them laying as peacefully as the others. Out of all of the griffons, only their Knight-Captain stood, tall and proud and holding his spear. Not brandishing it as he had been the last time she had seen him, but as if on ceremony.

Placing her talons against the ice, Gertrude whispered, "Gunther... how...?"

"He used what you taught him of your magic to free himself and the others shortly after Luna imprisoned you," Celestia explained while Luna attempted to play Peek-a-Boo with some of the frozen cubs. "We asked him to take the throne in your stead and continue your work in keeping the clans unified."

Celestia came up alongside Gertrude and put a wing across the griffon's back as she laughed. "He wouldn't hear of it. I still remember exactly what he said... 'Whatever madness overtook my Queen, it will not hold her forever. After all she has given her people, we owe her everything we have and more. Her last memory of us will not be my spear aimed at her throat.' And as you can see..." Celestia paused to look at the countless frozen shells. "He was not the only one to hold that opinion.

"Knights, servants, shopkeepers and laborers from the city... Even though none of us knew when you might awaken, or if you would ever regain your sanity, they felt that they owed you their lives. They gave up everything they knew, knowing that they faced an uncertain future... but they did it because you showed them, just as my ancestors did for the pony tribes, that even through the dark days of Winter, when times are bleakest, we still grow stronger by reaching out to uplift our fellow creatures."

Gertrude's vision grew blurry. She leaned forward, pressing her forehead against the ice preserving the Knight-Captain as her tears dripped down onto its surface. Her grip on the small, frozen object she had carried with her from Ponyville tightened as she clutched it to her breast.

After half a minute of silence, Gertrude stepped back and looked at the other frozen griffons as well. So many of them were familiar to her, but what moved her even more were those that she could not name. The amount of faith that they had placed in her made her feel so small and unworthy of it, but she knew that there was only one way to honor their trust.

She would have to be worthy.

Spreading her wings wide, Gertrude focused her magic into them and flapped them toward the shells to create a current of air. The wind that flowed from her wings was not the biting chill of Winter, however, but the magic that she had cast so many times every year at the end of the season.

As the breeze flowed through the room, the enchantments binding the shells of ice together gradually came undone. Cracks formed across their surface as the power of Winter was released. The ice began to crumble away, then melt into drains lining the vault's floor while the ever-present chill faded away.

All around the room, the sound of griffons breathing and murmuring drowsily begna to fill the warming air. Consciousness was slow to return after their centuries of suspended animation, which suited Gertrude well as she was not prepared to meet them all just yet. Not until after she greeted the one most important in her heart.

When the ice fell away from him, Gunther's eyes cracked open slightly and his body woozily threatened to lose its balance until Gertrude moved in to support him, looking into his eyes as she allowed the Knight-Captain to gradually regain his sense of awareness.

Gertrude knew that he was truly aware of her when his eyes widened in surprise. Seeing her natural pink eyes instead of blank, frozen white, however, he relaxed slightly and asked, "Is that really you...? Are you back with us...?"

Gertrude struggled to keep from breaking into relieved sobs, and succeeded in fighting back the tears as she nodded to him. "I am... I... Gunther, I am so..."

She was stopped mid-apology as Gunther regained his balance and placed his talons over her beak, then bowed deeply. A gesture which was mirrored all around the room as the other griffons recognized Gertrude's presence. "Please, do not apologize. We are simply gladdened to have our Queen returned to us."

Gertrude looked around and found herself forced to swallow back a joyed whimper at the sight of so many of her people again, but after a moment's thought she shook her head. "No... no, please rise. I am a Queen no longer. It has been so long, I do not even know the state of our people." Looking over her shoulder, she looked to Celestia for answers.

With a wan smile, the elderly Sun Princess explained, "It's true that in your absence, the world has changed in many ways. The clans as you knew them have disbanded, and the current Griffon Empire rose up in their place, founded largely on the model that you established during your rulership. The Empire is a very prosperous and civilized nation as a result, but they're also rather proud of having achieved that prosperity without the constant supervision of an immortal demigod."

Gertrude found a bittersweet grin spreading across her face at this news. "As they should be," she replied. "So until we find our place in this world, I am no more royal than any of you... but then this also means that we have nowhere to return to..." Bowing to her former subjects, she said, "I am sorry... and so grateful... All of you followed me here, even though it cost you your livelihoods... your homes..."

Gunther stepped in front of her and gently lifted Gertrude's head up to look her in the eye. "No... no, we all made our choice to stand by you. Not just because you were our Queen, but because of what you did for us. For all griffons. And one of the things that you gave us was the lesson that home is not a clanhold, or a fortress, or a plot of land... Home is where those we cherish will always be waiting for us. We may have lost our Queen, but I can still say..."

The Knight-Captain's pink eyes stared into Gertrude's own. He then let his spear fall to the ground as he embraced her, his snow-white wings wrapping around her shoulders. "... Welcome home, grandmother."

"Welcome home," echoed every griffon in the room.

Gertrude clenched her eyes shut and returned her grandson's embrace.

"... And because of my upbringing, I saw being a 'mutant' as the worst insult that I could lever against you. It may have been under Gungnir's influence, but I chose those words because I thought that they would be the most hurtful, and I can only ask for your forgiveness. It is obvious that you are a sweet young mare, and I should have never said such things to belittle you."

Derpy cocked her head for several seconds before asking, "So... you're saying I'm not a sassy moo-taint?"

Gertrude blinked several times. "Um... no?"

"Okay!" Derpy smiled brightly and spread her wings. "Thanks for clearing that up, Miss Griffon Princess! You're a lot nicer than the one who was here yesterday, but I've gotta go get the southern birds!"

Before Gertrude could correct her, Derpy flapped her wings and took off toward the east. Racing through the snow after the bubbly pegasus, Twilight shouted, "Derpy, wait! You forgot your compass!"

Meanwhile, Gertrude continued pulling the snowplow that had been hitched to her once the ponies of Ponyville made their 'no magic' tradition of Winter Wrap-Up known to her. The former Queen was fairly sure that it was a trick of her imagination, but she could have sworn that she heard Celestia laughing all the way from Canterlot the instant that she was made aware of that fact.

Beside her, Mayor Mare shook her head at the sight of Twilight Sparkle giving chase. "Thank Celestia that the nobles up in Canterlot insisted on declaring Winter Wrap-Up deferred for a day... I don't want to think of what could happen if our town's top Ranger ended up in a state of deadline-induced catatonia."

Turning to Mayor Mare, who was walking alongside her despite not pulling a plow of her own, she said, "Thank you again for permitting me to apologize directly to those I wronged, madame Mayor. And to take part in undoing the damage I did. To be honest, I am surprised to be allowed anywhere near this town." Aside from three florists who had screamed and fled the instant that she landed (even with the Guard escort that Celestia had sent to officially deliver her intent to make amends right there in front of them), and Raindrops's understandably grumpy acceptance of Gertrude's apology, the ponies had been astonighsly cordial.

Mayor Mare laughed it off. "Oh, we don't like to hold grudges here in Ponyville. At least not toward anypony... er, or griffon who's sincere about wanting to make it up to the town. Besides, any friend of the Princesses is a friend of mine," she added with a sly nudge to Gertrude's foreleg with her elbow. "Oops, looks like you have a few more coming up."

Mayor Mare broke away from Gertrude as she saw Rarity approaching with Spike riding on her back. The baby dragon took one look at Gertrude and clutched tightly to his mother's back, causing Rarity's braid to jolt straight up in pained surprise for a moment. "S-spikey, please be careful with your claws... that's mommy's good boy... Now don't you worry about a thing, mommy will make sure nothing scary happens."

Pausing in her pulling for a moment, Gertrude bowed her head to the two of them. "Hello, Miss Rarity. Young Spike. I want you both to know how truly sorry I am for terrorizing you and your friends, yesterday."

Rarity reached back to comfortingly pat Spike on the head as she faced Gertrude. "Well... You threatened my family, and everypony I hold dear... but by the same token, I nearly fell under the Windigo's influence, too, so I understand some of what you were thinking and feeling. I will forgive you, but you have Fluttershy to thank for that. If it weren't for her, I could have very easily fallen under the spell of those monsters, too."

"I will be sure to do so when I see her," Gertrude replied solemnly.

"Actually," Rarity said, "I didn't come to see you for an apology... I was hoping that you could answer a question for me."

Gertrude nodded. "Of course, Miss Rarity. If I can, I will."

Rarity rolled the question around on her tongue for a moment before asking, "You see... when my friends and I were using the Elements of Harmony, for some reason I felt a strange sense of deja vu. For just a moment, it felt very much like when I hatched my little Spikey-wikey, and then these words came to mind. I remember saying them to Gungnir, just before the Elements destroyed it, but I haven't the faintest idea why."

Gertrude sat down, looking quizzically at the rock farmer. Rarity closed her eyes and recited the words, "'I see you, you're so tiny.' Does that mean anything to you?"

The griffon's eyes went wide, but she placed a talon over her heart as she nodded in affirmation. "Oh, yes. It means everything to me. You see, those words..."

In a small pouch tucked under Gertrude's wing, the object which she had taken with her from Ponyville rested. The object was a spearhead made of ice, but a sort of ice which refused to melt despite the warmth emenating from Gertrude's heart. It was a weapon. One which had been used to terrorize and threaten the inhabitants of Ponyville, yet Gertrude had kept it safe and close to her.

Much as Gunther had not wanted his grandmother's final memory of him to be with his spear turned against her, so had Gertrude held onto it in the hopes of finding a better purpose for it.

"I see you. You're so tiny," echoed the words which should have destroyed it. Once again, the memory unfurled before it of an egg as it cracked open. The small cub inside fought its way through the tough shell with beak and claw, but after breaking free and taking its first breath of air, it looked up at the enormous griffon towering over it with soft pink eyes which stole the griffon Queen's heart.

The spearhead was a weapon. It had no heart of its own.

There had been a time, though, when it had no thoughts or memories of its own either. It had borrowed them from Gertrude until it could begin to make its own.

The head of Gungnir, the Spear of Winter, was a weapon. It had no heart of its own.

But it had Gertrude's. And in the wake of the memory, at its very center, there was a very

very

small

beat.

Author's Note

And it's done! Got a short little epilogue coming up, but the main story is finally over and done with! I should really, really be sleeping right now, so I'll keep the commentary brief.

The bit with Applejack and Apple Bloom was something that I had originally intended to work into their conversations while they were trapped in Sugarcube Corner, and Apple Bloom coming to understand her big sister's sense of generosity was going to play a larger part in saving her from the Windigoes' influence, but I just never felt like it fit anywhere while writing those scenes. It seemed to work better here as a capper to their personal story arc.

As for the reveal about Gunther's relationship with Gertrude, that was something that I'd planned from very early on. Not a real big thing, but I always wanted to tease the idea that she considered him to be a romantic hero, and then throw the reveal that this Gunther, as opposed to the one she knew when she was a servant, was her grandson, casting their past interactions and her fondness for him in a different light.

Honestly, I'm much too tired to tell whether or not I did a good job of it at the moment, so please feel free to comment, even if it's just to point out typos or grammar issues.

Epilogue

Snowblind
by crowmagnon

Epilogue

"Miss Zecora? Can we ask you something?"

Zecora turned to see a trio of fillies looking up at her. She quickly identified two of them as sisters of her apprentice's friends, and the one with the hat and cape had to be...

"Oh, good morning, young Scootaloo. What can Zecora do for you?"

To the zebra's surprise, the fillies suddenly looked frightened, and Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle let out little shrieks before hiding behind a nearly equally terrified Scootaloo. The reason for it became apparent when Zecora heard the hissing of the snakes which had coiled around her shoulders and legs. "Ah, the sight of serpents makes you quake. Their blood runs cold, so sharing my own warmth helps them wake. This breed is quite docile, so there is nothing to fear. In any case, what brings you here?"

Scootaloo looked warily at the snakes, which seemed to be staring back and flicking their tongues at her. "Uh... y-yeah... After what happened yesterday, my mom said you knew all about Windigoes... thought maybe we should ask about them in case you-know-who has a relapse and turns into a supervillain again."

Scootaloo pointed over her shoulder at Gertrude as the albino griffon cheerfully pulled her snowplow. Zecora assured her, "A supervillain? Your concern is fair, but it is unlikely she will turn to evil again."

"Yeah, that's what the docs said about Sweet & Sour in Mysteries of Mare-Do-Well #79..." Scootaloo muttered doubtfully.

Zecora arched her eyebrow at the comic book reference, but decided to push on. "As for the nature of Windigoes, I will gladly share with you what I know." Taking a seat on a patch of ground that had been recently cleared of snow, and took a deep breath before she began to speak, her voice taking on even more of a chanting tone than she usually had as she took on the cadence of a storyteller.

In the home of my youth, the Zebrican plains

The lands know very little rain

Without the magic of your pegasi

The ground grows cracked and throats run dry

Each zebra tribe considered water theirs by right

And over that precious liquid, they would fight

"Fightin' over water? Ya mean like... a war?" Apple Bloom asked, interrupting Zecora for a moment. The trio looked relieved when the zebra shook her head.

That relief was short-lived as Zecora elaborated, "Not one war, but many, my little foal. Conflict and strife were how we paid the toll."

Sweetie Belle cocked her head slightly. "Toll? You mean like on a bridge?"

Zecora shrugged. "In a sense. Our water came from the streams created by melting mountain snow. Without pegasi or griffons, it was created by feeding the Windigoes. Our battles were a necessary sacrifice to make them cover Mount Kiliponijaro with snow and ice. These glaciers would melt and bring water to the land, allowing life to flourish in the earth and sand."

The trio's ears flattened at the thought of having to live in such a way. Even Scootaloo, who lived on tales of adventure and battles against evil, couldn't really imagine what it would be like to live in such constant danger without the comfortably peaceful day-to-day of Equestrian life to return to.

"Is... is that why you left?" Sweetie Belle asked with a faint whimper.

Zecora gave the filly a warm laugh as she reached out to pat the little unicorn on the head. "Fret not, my unicorn friend. Those dark days are long-since at an end. The one who ended our constant strife was Shangwe ya Maisha, whose name means 'Joy of Life'. In those times of war, such joy was quite rare, but she was a spirit of mirth who sought to save us from despair. Unlike you Equestrians, we could not afford to drive the Windigoes away with friendship's flame. Instead..."

The shaman paused for dramatic effect, then grinned widely. "... She replaced our constant battles with a game."

The three fillies stared at Zecora until Scootaloo said, "I'm doubting the validity of this story."

Zecora laughed again. "Feel free to doubt me if you must, but that very spirit is the source of my loa dust. In her madness, Gertrude's connection to Winter gave her fearsome powers, but such magics are weak to the energy of that which grows and flowers. Just as the griffon holds dominion over frozen things, Shangwe was known as the Warden of Spring, and since times far back in antiquity, she has been right here in the Forest of the Ever Free."

As one, the fillies looked toward the thick woods off in the distance. "So how come we ain't ever heard of her before?" Apple Bloom asked.

Zecora's smile took on a sad edge. "Long ago, your rulers and my ancestors all thought it best that Shangwe ya Maisha remain in a state of eternal rest. Since then, one shaman in every generation is sent to dwell here in your nation. We live in there among the thickest trees, and keep the honored spirit company."

Before the fillies could ask anything else, Rarity called out, "Sweetie Belle, I'm done talking with Gertrude! Do you and your friends still want to help me with the bird nests?"

"Oops! Coming, Rarity!" Turning back to Zecora for a moment, she said, "Thanks for the story, Ms. Zecora!" The other two also said their own goodbyes to the shaman before following Rarity and Spike.

After getting out of earshot, Scootaloo asked the other two, "So, you actually believe any of that?"

"Why not?" Sweetie Belle replied. "You think she wasn't telling the truth?"

"Well come on, if this Shamwow--"

"Shangwe," Sweetie Belle corrected.

"Whatever," Scootaloo replied, rolling her eyes. "If she's so great, what was the deal with keeping her asleep in the Everfree? Like Apple Bloom said, none of us ever heard of her. It sounds like something Zecora just made up on the spot, to me. What do you think, Apple Bloom?"

The earth pony thought about it for a moment before replying, "Honestly, Ah don't care much whether it's real or not. It was a good story. 'Sides, even if Zecora was tellin' the honest truth, it ain't lahk we're ever gonna meet this Shangwe. Ah mean, after Eclipse an' Gertrude, what're the odds of somepony else lahk that comin' ta Ponyville?"

As the ponies of Ponyville worked to clear away the last of the snow, and the clouds were pushed aside to let the sun shine down upon their town, many of them broke out into song to celebrate the slightly belated beginning of Spring. Most were a reprise of the song they had sung to kick off the previous day's efforts, though at Gertrude's request, Vinyl and Octavia did an a capella rendition of the music they had used to bring down her walls.

These songs carried on the refreshing Spring winds, which blew warm breezes through the town, over the hills, and between the intimidating trees of the Everfree Forest.

The sound of four black hooves stepping through the dark wood did not. Nopony but Rainbow Dash or Zecora ventured into the EVerfree without cause, and both of them were in Ponyville. In point of fact, nopony was in the forest at all.

Then again, it was no pony who moved as silently as a shadow, making his way through a circle of immense trees surrounding the entrance to a very special cave. The Spring breeze blew around him, carrying the songs of Ponyville into his ears.

Behind his neatly trimmed beard, Mr. Trick's mouth quirked up at the corner. "Catchy," he admitted as he began humming the tune while walking toward the wide mouth of the cavern. The closer that he got, the more clearly he heard the song echo back to him.

By the time he stepped inside, it was more than his own voice reflecting back toward him. From out of the darkness, a faint whistling sound called out to him along with the music.

"Ah, I knew you would like that," Mr. Trick whispered as he stopped at the cave's mouth. "I don't suppose you've ever heard that song before. It's a cheerful little melody, celebrating the turning of the seasons. The weather will warm, the sun will shine, the flowers will bloom, and all the little fillies and colts will be out playing. I'm sure that you're looking forward to it, but... oh, that's right. Poor, sleepy little Shangwe. You're so very tired, but don't worry. Your nanny will be here shortly to put you down for your nap."

As fast as lightning, a flurry of green vines lashed out of the cave and wrapped themselves around the centaur's arms and legs. Mr. Trick looked into the darkness with an amused smirk, even as the verdant tendrils lifted him up off the ground and tightened their grip.

Over the sound of his wrists and leg bones creaking under the pressure of the impossibly strong vines, he felt a sweet, flowery breeze waft out of the cave. On that breeze, a youthful voice whispered, "No... more... naps..."

"Well, if that's really what you want, then you know you I'm willing to help... and you know what I'll need in order to do it."

"... Trick... liar..."

Mr. Trick winced as the vines twisted extra hard around his arms, then let out a sigh. "Oh, you wound me, Shangwe. I am nothing if not honest. But this is just what Celestia and Luna want. For us to be at each other's throats so your nanny can put you back to sleep."

"... No naps..." came the whisper, and the vines loosened their grip and set him back down on the ground. A new vine emerged from the darkness, this one with a luminous yellow bulb at the end. Mr. Trick held out his hands, and the bulb opened up into a gorgeous yellow flower. Even in the dim light, it seemed to shine like a small sun as it tipped toward Mr. Trick and delivered several large seeds into his waiting hands. "...I want... to play..."

The centaur grinned, then slipped the seeds into a cloth pouch around his waist. "Not to worry, Shangwe. I will see to it that these find... fertile ground. Then you'll be able to find all sorts of little friends to play with to your heart's content." He looked around and smirked at the ancient trees surrounding the cave. "Just like the good old days."

As he turned to walk away, the centaur heard Shangwe whisper, "... Friends... come... play with me... ever young... ever free..."

"Oh yes," Mr. Trick mused, reaching out to touch a knot in one of the massive trees that looked very much like the face of a unicorn filly, her face frozen in a blank smile. "Ever free, indeed."

* * * * * * * * *

COMING ATTRACTIONS

* * * * * * * * *

Waking Night, four months before Winter Wrap-Up

* On a sunny Autumn evening, a crowd of ponies in a wide variety of costumes are gathered in front of Canterlot Castle while a frail, elderly Celestia is helped to a balcony from which she looks out upon the crowd.

Celestia:

My little ponies, I thank you all for coming this Waking Night to honor my beloved sister.

* A purple shadow, seen from above, slips between the other ponies. Their identity is hidden by a wide-brimmed hat and cape.

Celestia:

One thousand years ago, Princess Luna was taken from us by the fiend, Eclipse. Though she is lost to us, trapped in an eternal dream, tonight we celebrate the banishment of Eclipse.

* The purple-clad mare reaches a less crowded section, revealing that she is completely covered from head to hooves in a bodysuit that hides her features completely except for her general body type.

Celestia:

We clothe ourselves in the image of dreams and nightmares. We raise our voices in revelry in the hopes that she will hear us, and be drawn back into the waking realm.

* The crowd cheers, but sounds of jubilation quickly fade as the sun's light begins to dim. Everypony turns to look at the sky, and confused, frightened murmurs fill the streets, rapidly growing in panic as they see the moon slowly moving across the face of the sun. Some turn to Celestia for guidance, but she is as shocked as they are.

Celestia:

No... No! Everypony, leave the streets! Evacuate immediately!

* While the citizens of Canterlot start to run around in a panic, Celestia's horn glows with a bright, golden glow as she struggles to pry the sun and moon apart. Her aged face is strained, and she begins to sweat heavily from the effort, but the moon very slowly starts to move away from the sun.

* A number of costumed ponies run away down one of the streets, but they skid to a stop and gape in horror at something ahead of them. Some immediately turn tail and flee the other way while others are frozen in place.

* Celestia fights hard to maintain control over the sun and moon, and is slowly but surely making progress. When she hears ponies screaming, however, her concentration slips. She sees a thick, black cloud spilling out through the streets, snatching up terrified ponies into itself, but none escape. The glow fades from her horn as she watches her subjects get pulled into the encroaching cloud, and the moon finishes interposing itself between Equestria and the sun.

* A shadow passes over Canterlot as the eclipse is complete. A loud cracking sound like thunder can be heard, followed by insane laughter.

Celestia:

No... Guards, to arms! Eclipse is coming! You must be prepared to--

* Celestia is interrupted as the pony dressed as Mare-Do-Well leaps up to the level of the balcony, balancing on the railing. With a golden dagger held in her mouth, she launches herself straight for Celestia.

* There is a sound of the dagger sinking into flesh.

Guard:

Princess Celestia! The Princess has been stabbed! Get her to the royal physician immediately! You... how could you? HOW COULD YOU?!

ANCIENT EVILS HAVE RETURNED.

* A green pegasus mare in a slinky black dress saunters out of the cloud. Seeing a shadowy entity begin to take form in front of her, she grins and reveals a mouth full of sharp fangs as she bows to it.

EQUESTRIA'S RULER HAS BEEN STRUCK DOWN.

* The pony dressed as Mare-Do-Well holds the golden dagger close as she lurks in the shadows, watching the Guards fend off a swarm of vamponies while carrying Celestia's wounded body deeper into the castle.

SIX MARES, SIX REASONS TO FIGHT

* Quick flashes of each of the Mane 6 exploring a dark labyrinth, facing perilous traps, or fighting a deadly foe.

EACH SEEKS PRINCESS LUNA'S RESTING PLACE, AND THE POWER TO SAVE EQUESTRIA.

ECLIPSEVERSE: WAKING NIGHT

Coming... eventually.