//------------------------------//
// Chapter 31: Ascent IV 
// Story: Penned IN 
// by Qwix 
//------------------------------//

	Flames seared the ground as Gosthette shot blast of fire after fire into the mass of black before her. Luna was hovering near her head, shooting down changelings that tried to approach from the back.
Gosthette swiped a clawed hand at the ground, knocking three changelings flying while another two dodged. She snarled and swiped her tail at them. They fell along with a building.
"I know we're the away team here," said Shining Armor, who was guarding her with his shields at her feet. "But the key word is team. Would it kill you to try and not put us in pointless danger?"
"Quit complaining," retorted Gosthette, tone marred by a low, guttural growl of a dragon. "My way or the highway."
She punched at the ground, sending debris everywhere. Some of it hit airborne changelings, but the rest almost landed on Shining. He raised a shield to check it, then let it burst, throwing the debris onto an incoming group of changelings. "Our lives or the archives, you kill us by accident, you're gonna have a lot more to answer to in the history books after this is over."
"Now I remember why Celie or I never had kids," said Luna, shooting down a few changelings with a few precision bursts of magic. "You could be a little more careful, you know."
"Oh, wah. Mommy Woona's gonna send the itsy-bitsy fire-breathing dragon to timeout because she doesn't play well with others. Oh woe is me," said Gosthette, letting burst a roar of fire into another wave of changelings. They scattered behind the buildings for cover.
"Come on, you weaklings! Where's the fight?! Quitangu, where the HELL are you!?"
A lightning bolt struck from the blue, cleaving the ground at Gosthette's feet. She stumbled back in surprise, almost falling onto Shining.
"Ah ah ah. Auntie Quiwi's gonna stop getting you presents with that attitude, Gosthette."
Luna landed next to Shining, both in front of Gosthette as she struggled to right herself. Quitangu was in the air, clad in her usual armor. The fire light reflected off of it, bathing the area around her in a golden glow. Her face, a macabre, twisted façade of glee and rage.
"How precious of you. I do love seeing Sadhiki pissed at anypony who ruins his crops, and that entrance is sure to have annoyed him greatly. But enough of that. How are you three doing, really? Luna? Fluffy?"
"My NAME is–"
"It is Fluffy, Fluffy. Fluffy Mopsypoof."
Shining glared at her. "You know, I thought Gosthette was annoying. Now I know where she got it from."
Behind them, Gosthette shifted back from a dragon to a changeling with a burst of wind. "No, you're just an easy target, Fluffy," said Gosthette. "Do you even stab things?"
"Whose side are you even on?!" complained Shining.
"My own."
Gosthette charged ahead, hooves transforming into steel. Quitangu snarled and drew her own blade, a viscously curved machete. 
"Let me guess–" said Quitangu as she intercepted Gosthette's steel strike, "–that your plan was to draw our attention with a pretty firework–" she gave a mighty outward slice, sending Gosthette soaring backward, "–while that half-sensible hay penny boy toy of yours pedals his way up the central tower to fight the Queen. Am I right?"
Luna said nothing, instead electing to cast magic bullets that exploded when they contacted the ground. Quitangu raised a barrier of ice, which cracked only slightly at the barrage. It exploded outward, sending ice shards in all directions. Shining barely managed to raise a barrier in time.
"Well, whether I'm right or not is neither here nor there. Kris can handle herself. My job is entertaining you three."
Quitangu held her blade level in front of her. "Eenie meenie miney maw–" she said as she pointed to Luna, Gosthette, and Shining in turn, "–poke a tiger in his paw, if he hollers, make him serve, fifty tasty Prench hors d'oeuvres... My mommy told me to eat the very best one and you... are... IT."
She scraped the blade along the dirt, sending a massive wave of electricity backwards. It crashed into the ruins of the remaining building, vaporizing the stone as it passed through with a mighty explosion.
"Don't let it get anywhere near you! Long range combat only!" yelled Luna.
"BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! LITTLE TOO LATE!" screamed Quitangu.
She glided forward like a ghost, ice underhoof, and swiftly cleaved upward. Luna manage to dodge to the side, but Shining Armor rose a shield to block it. The bolt seemed to curve, arching swirling around the shield and him; after a moment, it tightened, lighting up the shield's surface like the sun. Gosthette rose a hoof to block the light while Luna did the same.
Quitangu giggled hideously as the impact forced her backwards, shooting ice beams indiscriminately. "Come now, Gosthette, I want to play a game or three! How about a game of Risk?"
Gosthette barrel rolled to dodge a few ice beams. "How about a game of Monopony instead? You sell Boardwalk, I get the Waterworks, your ass goes bankrupt, I win. Luna, care to play a round?"
"...I hate Monopony," said Luna, countering incoming beams with her own. "I'm not used to needing to build castles on new property."
Quitangu suddenly stopped sending her flurried lightning bolts. She sighed and brushed her mane out of her eyes. "Mmm... no thanks. I hate boardgames.
"So how about we decide this battle with a coin toss?" she said as she reached with her magic into one of the many borders of her armor.
From the armor came a small, golden coin. "Heads, I win," she said as she shot the coin skyward towards them. "Tails... I win anyway."
"Watch out!"
Gosthette glanced over her shoulder, from behind them, Shining Armor rushed forward and conjured a bubble shield. No sooner did it close than the coin land. Time seem to slow to a crawl as sound deadened inside the bubble.
They waited in hesitation. Then, as they dared to lower their guard, an explosion rattled the ground beneath them. Shining grunted as the shield cracked. "D-damn... that was no weak party gag..."
He lowered the shield as Gosthette and Luna tensed. Quitangu was sitting on a rock, twirling her blade around her hoof magically.
"Didn't think Fluffy of all ponies would recognize that trick," said Quitangu, "Kudos, truly."
"Armor?" asked Gosthette.
Shining's magic flickered around his horn, himself visibly exhausted. "Bit bombs. Designed to look exactly like bits, intended for terrorist attacks. A foreign invention, but we managed to intercept a load and study them once," he said. "Anonymous donating to a princess is suspicious. It was either to curry favor or a Trojan horse."
"I had hoped that trick had done more damage," sighed Quitangu. "Stick 'em anywhere; the streets, the underside of carriages, or even in somepony's pocket. Nopony would second look—even mindlessly pocket it!—at a golden bit. My greatest invention, if I do say so myself.
"So good, in fact... why have just one?"
From her armor flew hundreds—perhaps thousands— of bit bombs to surround her. Quitangu put a hoof to her face, smirking. "The gold standard is high today and the price is your life!"
They launched in batches, streaming fast. The three of them stood side-by-side, shooting the bit bombs out of the air; by magic, by ice beam, or by shield bullets. Explosion after explosion kicked up earth and rocked the air, creating an impenetrable cloud of dust between Quitangu and them.
The dust cloud seemed to float without any sign of falling. Small crackles of electricity jumped from one place to the next as the cloud itself spread out around them. "Luna, get an aerial view," commanded Shining Armor. "Gosthette, you–"
"I thought I told you, Armor. I do not answer to you," warned Gosthette. "Luna, don't even bother with an aerial, that's what she wants. She'll shoot you down mid-flight, and we won't be able to reach you in time. Game over."
Luna glanced between both of them. "Strange as it may be for me to agree with her, Armor... She's right."
Shining looked disgruntled. "That's what I get for taking some sort of initiative, huh?"
"Never mind that," said Gosthette, glowing a light blue aura. "I have an idea to stop her, but the magic will take a minute to form. Shining, Luna, defend me until I can, will you please?"
Luna landed lightly in front of her, while Shining backed up behind her. They circled around, facing outwards; a cackling came from somewhere in the dust. "Gosthette, you were always a natural commander on the field. So quick to make a decision, so intuitive in reading your opponent. You're right, I was going to strike her Highness out of the sky the second she flew high enough..."
The dust seem to sink slightly as Gosthette closed her eyes. This is risky business, this magic... windigos are an unstable race. Harnessing the essence of the form without transforming might melt my horn a little if I don't release it before the critical point, she thought. On the other hoof, I can't trap her in my ice without the extra power. Oh well.
"Luna, create an opening or just distract her enough," Gosthette asked, flinching as the effort of speaking caused the magic to shift off its center. She realigned it with a grunt. "Armor, you earn you paycheck."
Luna nodded wordlessly and sent a pulse of magic outward into the dust cloud, blowing it away. Quitangu was nowhere to be seen.
"The air, then?" Shining asked, looking skyward.
Though the wind died to a stop, Gosthette still felt the gentle brush of air that came from Luna's wingbeats. Not the air, Gosthette thought. She started this fight from the air. She's not one to do something twice in a fight. Instead... In her meditation, she picked up the sound of a low rumble.
She opened her eyes, burying the magic into a safe spot in her stomach. "No, look down!"
Beneath them, the ground gave a mighty heave and split, sending more earth into the air. Gosthette hopped sideways with a burst from her wings while Shining leaped backwards, only to hit a wall of earth that sprung up suddenly. He let out a grunt of pain and slid down, into the newly formed rift.
Luna burst through the air towards him, dodging errant lightning bolts that Quitangu was undoubtedly the source of from the bottom of the rift. She managed to catch him midair with her magic and pull back up in time before the earth pulled back with a thunderous slam.
She deposited him next to Gosthette. He was rubbing his back. "Ow..."
"Where's that constitution of iron you were boasting about on the trip here, eh Fluffy?" Gosthette said, pulling the core of magic back into her chest. "Hurk..."
"You didn't steal it, apparently," shot Shining.
Luna smacked both of them upside the head with her wings, scowling. "Would you two just focus for once?"
Gosthette coughed, letting a little ice magic out by accident. It hit the ground and created an icicle, sharp and translucent. "Fuck you..." she managed to say.
"Ooh... so that's what you're up too."
From the earth that remained split rose Quitangu, covered in dirt. "Though I know you took some of Aloysius' dilutive. You're too weak to trap me in your ice. Had you not done that... you might have."
She drew her blade again, trailing electricity. "But I'm starting to grow bored of these little games. Two rounds of draws mean only one thing."
She swung her machete in a clock like motion, slowly and deliberate. When it hit noon position, an immense blast sounded and four thunderbolts the size of skyscrapers hit the ground. They did not fade; instead, they arched to a center point and sent arches of lightning down. They were trapped.
"We're deciding this with an electric cage death match. The lighting extends below ground, so there is no escaping until I say so."
She reached behind her back and drew another sword, a trident-like long sword. It glowed white-hot and burst into flame while the machete crackled with electricity. "Round three... fight."
She advanced, crossing the swords. Fire and lightning erupted and struck the ground, tearing it up. Shining emitted pink energy, forming it into a sword of his own; he jumped in front of Luna and Gosthette and blocked the machete. 
Luna burst into the sky over them, letting out a stream of her own magic, fluid and silvery. She landed behind Quitangu as the magic coalesced into a katana with a slight curve in the inner part, almost like a sickle. She burst into a gallop and struck, meeting nothing but Quitangu's flaming blade. Sparks flew and the temperature rose, scorching the ground and making Gosthette flinch.
Any more of this and I'll loose control of this spell...
She stumbled backwards, letting her wings lift her to the apex of the cage. Though the magic weighed in her chest like an iron ball, adding layer after compressed layer, she fought to rise as high as she could. Below her, Luna and Shining Armor were both trading blows with Quitangu, turning the ground white with heat in the process.
Quitangu looked crazed, swinging her blades as if she were a hurricane. Innumerable deep gong sounds echoed as magic blade met magic blade. In fact, the more energy she seem to put into her flame or bolts, the more she seemed to not notice where Gosthette had gone.
All the better for me. I can't hold this power in for much longer...
She willed the iron-hard ball of magic to rise from her chest into her throat. She could feel it freezing her insides as it rose, a decidedly uncomfortable feeling.
She closed one eye and centered above Quitangu the best she could, wings practically a blur in noble effort to keep her airborne. 
Now...!
Much to her disgust, it felt like exactly like vomiting. The energy poured out with a rush, freezing her lips and forming icicles on her chin. Through her blurred and limited vision, she saw Luna and Shining jump back right before the outpouring of ice landed.
It roared like a waterfall, howled like the wind; the electricity scarring the landscape dissipated immediately with the fire. All heat vanished along with the cage; Gosthette dropped wearily to the ground next to the small ice mountain she had just created.
She coughed a little, tasting the inside of her mouth. "Bleh... mint flavor."
Luna and Shining ran over to her. "Are you all right?" Luna asked. "That looked unpleasant to do."
"I'll be fine, but I don't know why you care," she shot back, spitting a few ice shards out. "This fight is over, at least."
She looked behind her. The ice was thick enough to only just make out a blob of black somewhere in the center. "Unless I say so, she's not breaking out of that."
"Hate to be the party pooper, but that was only one commander," said Shining Armor. "What about the other two?"
She closed her eyes, slowing her breathing. "Sadhiki... he would not have missed a chance to try and kill me. He's a lunatic that loves his crops more than anything."
"So what are you suggesting? That he's elsewhere?" suggested Luna. "Maybe... at the central tower?"
Gosthette put a hoof to her head. Though the ice had gone from her chest, an unusual heat had rose to replace it. A changeling's body temperature is never this hot... not even a pony's. Something is off...
"Gosthette?"
She looked up. Both of them were looking on worryingly.
"Don't worry, I'll be FINE," she snapped. "Why do you even CARE?"
"I know you're normally bitchy, but what did I do this time? All I asked if you could sense where Sadhiki might be," said Shining.
She let out a cooling breath, though it did no good for her chest. "Sorry... it appears as if I did not pull of my little trick without a little recoil."
"That was just normal windigo ice manipulation, though," said Luna. "What makes this one different?"
Windigo... Gosthette thought.
"I borrowed the essence of changeling transformation and combined it with windigo ice magic to strengthen it," explained Gosthette. "Windigos are a race of hatred... I think I know what's going to happen to me now."
She closed her eyes and cobbled a quick hive-sense, focused over the city.
"...There are no changelings left in the city, save for Pennaprose, three trapped in ice in the central tower, Chrysalis herself, Krayka, and me..."
She refocused her hive-sense, this time in a fan towards the outer limits of the city. "...Ah."
"You found them? Where are they?" asked Luna.
She brought her transmitter, which was miraculously unharmed, out her saddlebag and pressed the button. "Aloysius, respond. What are the details of the escape route?" 
Silence.
"Aloysius, respond. The escape route!" A snowstorm of static greeted her.
She stowed it away, a sudden sense of dawning horror rose in her chest.
"That's not good. Please tell me Aloysius is messing with us, right?" said Luna, a tone of trepidation creeping into her voice.
"He's as humorous as a dead patch of moss," answered Gosthette. "I'm afraid the entire city is surrounded. Five million strong."
Shining visibly twitched. "...Five million?! I was prepared to die in coming here, but five million is asking for a massacre!"
Gosthette lurched over, the heat becoming unbearable. An inexplicable hatred was beginning to rise; she only barely repressed an urge to attack Luna then and there.
"Defeating the Queen is the only chance at this point," said Luna. "If she's gone, the rest of the army might scatter. ...Shining, we need to get to the tower to assist the others ASAP."
"And the five million?" asked Shining.
Gosthette took the transmitter back out, setting it in front of her. She wiped beads of sweat from her brow, then crushed it underhoof, leaving an indent in the ground.

"I'll hold them off."

They both looked at her in shock. "Are you kidding me?!" exclaimed Luna.  "You'll be a fly fighting a tidal wave! What do you even think you'll even accomplish?!"
Gosthette looked back up, feeling a familiar coolness finally flood back into her body. But the heat did not leave; both hot and cold swirled as if in a dance within her breast.
"I fear I was not strong enough to tease out the power of a windigo with bringing out the whole of it."
"So you...?"
The cool magic flowed from the tip of her horn, washing over her body. She could feel her hind legs turning to wispy strands of air.
"I think that Chrysalis did not know what kind of magic she was tampering with when she added windigo magic to the mix," said Gosthette. "I fear I will not be able to return from this form. I can feel the hatred already clawing at the edge of my mind..."
She felt her wings evaporate into pure magic, wrapping and winding around her body.
"Luna, you are a princess of a land who will know light no matter what, even in the night. Shining... your wife and the ones you've sworn to guard have known that light so well that the touch of darkness must never reach them, no matter what."
Storm clouds began to gather above Gosthette, crackling with lightning. Her body lost all cohesion and became as air, a faintly glowing stream of magic. It floated a moment, then reassumed a façade of her original form.
"I, who woke to night, saw first a nightmare in veils and served only a shadow inked by fate in the darkness, etched by betrayal... have no future, regardless of who wins here today. But Pennaprose... he does. There are those who wish his company, his support... and his love. He has grown to be a being in his own right... And I?"
"You can't be serious..." Luna exhaled. "You would sacrifice yourself? Nay, suicide?"
"It is not suicide if there is a purpose, Luna..." assured Gosthette. "Why would you mourn for me? I mean nothing but something you'd rather forget from your immense life."
"I was once possessed by fell magic, Gosthette... a darkness that fell because I sat in the shadows too long and resented it," said Luna. "I know it may seem hopeless, but if Pennaprose is a light for others to gather around... then he will bring that light to your life eventually. Don't be a fool!"
She raised a hoof to her face. It was translucent, brimming with electricity and magic. "I have no choice, Luna. The process has already stripped away my body. In minutes, it will strip away my mind as well. I was too weak to prevent my own sacrifice; it is simple as that.
"And yet... I am not sacrificing myself. Such a word implies I will—I have—accomplished nothing. Not so... I will focus my rage at the changelings whilst I remain conscious. Because I intend to crush them. Crush every last changeling that stands on the field of battle with me, to stamp out the last of the darkness that plagues this land. For there can be no shadows if there are none left to bear them."
Luna fell silent. Gosthette was floating, unburdened by gravity as traces of magic floated off her. "I will summon all kinds of natural disasters to stall the entire changeling race. ...Meanwhile, you two get to the palace. Shining, cast your best shield to cover its perimeter. That should buy more time for Pennaprose... and protect you all from me."
She turned her nebulous back to them, rising into the clouds. They expanded immensely when she entered them, letting booming thunderbolts and flurries of snow scatter and destroy the landscape without warning. Luna and Shining Armor ran away, towards the palace.
Luna looked back at the wanton destruction being carried out by the storm. Lava began to shoot up violently, hailstones struck and punched holes in walls, tornadoes began to form and touch ground. The ceiling of the cavern was beginning to drop rocks; Luna's jaw dropped at the display.
"Such is the power of a windigo... it's little wonder they once ruled half the known world," said Shining Armor. "They could have destroyed us at the very dawn of time... she could, if we're not careful."
Luna said nothing, but never tore her eyes from the raging apocalypse behind them. But in the midst of the ice, lava, stone, and spitting earth, she could spot a glint of rain. Even from the distance they manage to cover in such a short time, she felt a sadness from them that betrayed the fact that they were more than mere drops of water...