Third Movement: Part 3- Heightening Tempo
Gilded Wing followed closely behind Crested Barbary, leaving their ships moored along the coast. The griffon warriors slid through the foliage of the forest surrounding Canterlot. Javelins, rapiers, and bows were clutched in their talons. The dark, crystalline heart beat mutely in Gilded’s shoulder bag, though its pulse intensified as they neared the mountain.
They reached the tree-line in a single, long row. Nearly a hundred griffons had come in the first wave, with several more hundred awaiting word from the advance. Crested held up a talon. His good eye pierced the distance. He lowered the talon and stepped forward.
He was blown back as dark magic flashed from the undergrowth. Twigs, leaves, branches, and bushes flew and came together into vicious canine forms. The newborn timberwolves snarled and snapped, and drove the griffons out into the open. There they met numerous diamond dogs and a few pony soldiers, the former swinging clubs and the latter casting spells.
“Stay your weapons!”
All heads turned to the source of the booming voice: The Unicorn King. Sombra descended down a path on the mountain, his iron-shod hooves crushing stones into dust. He bared his fangs. “We have business to discuss.”
Crested Barbary sheathed a javelin on his back. “You knew we were coming. How?”
Sombra narrowed his eyes. “I know more than anypony where my heart lies.”
“Then see it now!” Gilded Wing held up the crystal heart. Its thump, thump, thump echoed across the valley. “You are under my control, Sombra! Do as I say, or I destroy the heart!”
Sombra stayed still. His eyebrow tilted up. “Really?”
Gilded clanged his artificial beak shut. “Of course! It’s only common sense that you can’t survive without it.”
“There’s truth to that.” Sombra nodded. “Very well, give it a test.”
Lord Gilded Wing snarled. “What!?”
“Try it. Break it.” Sombra smiled. “See if I find reason to do as you command.”
Gilded gripped the heart tight. “You mock me!” He set the crystal against a rock, drew his sword, and stabbed. The sword was caught in a black glow and refused to budge.
The heart thumped steadily as it was drawn away on a current of magic.
Sombra gathered his heart close to his chest. “Are you done yet?”
Gilded Wing threw his sword at Sombra. It drove through the unicorn’s chest up to the hilt. Gilded shook with rage as Sombra chuckled.
“You’re kidding. You’re kidding, right?” Sombra said. His horn glowed as he drew the sword from his body. The hole left behind billowed black crystal dust. He levitated the sword until it pointed right at Gilded’s throat. “Let’s make a deal, Lord Wing of the Griffons.”
He licked his lips. “You fight for me, serve me, you and all your soldiers…” He looked around at the army of Diamond Dogs and timberwolves. “And I don’t slaughter you where you stand.”
“You can’t do this!” Gilded roared. “King Andean will never stand for it!”
“You can’t cross a bridge until you reach it,” Sombra said. “For now, let’s deal with you and your delightful little band of warriors.” The king turned to Crested. “You can’t win this fight, Captain.”
Crested counted out the timberwolves. He stopped when he reached two-hundred, with plenty more besides. “Why spare us?”
“So glad you asked.” Sombra looked down at his smoking chest, made a “tsk” sound, and closed the hole with a glow of his horn. He walked the length of the griffon army. “Timberwolves work well in large numbers, but they are not truly alive. They cannot think for themselves, and I cannot command them with any sort of accuracy at these numbers. Nothing besides ‘kill.’” He scowled. “Diamond Dogs are stupid, and ponies are reluctant.”
Sombra’s cape billowed in a cold wind. He drew his mouth up beside Gilded Wing’s ear. “Who do you think brought the rumor of my heart to your attention? Who do you think drew you here to Equestria? Who planted the thought of controlling me into your mind?”
Gilded roared and slashed his talons in Sombra’s eyes.
Sombra’s face came apart. His body soon followed suit, shattering into a million-billion crystals and whirling around in a razor-sharp tornado. Gilded flinched back and covered his eyes with a foreleg. Griffons all around raised their weapons, but then stalled; they had no clue what to do.
Gilded cowered against the rocks. His wings flapped in an attempt to drive off the whirlwind. Unnoticed by him, Sombra’s heart lifted into the air in a dark magic glow. A mouth materialized beside it, and it sent a single, whispered message.
“Awaken.”
“Awaken.”
Deep within Sombra’s tomb, in the midst of the frozen wasteland outside of the crystal empire, a pair of glowing, purple eyes opened. A statue stirred, its bat-like wings spreading and its clawed hands clenching into fists. An angular head lifted as ape-like legs shifted.
It walked across the room as the six other statues came to life. Howls came from deep within their glowing chests as purple fire erupted from their jaws. They crawled along, some on four legs and some on two. They lurched out of the tomb and cast their gaze about the snowy land.
“Hunt.”
The leader, the largest, shifted his head upwards. He sniffed the air for magic. His eyes blinked as he found the scent. “As you command, Master.”
The grotesques took off one by one. The leader held up a claw to the skinniest beast. “No. The master has a different hunt for you.”
Their eyes met, and the vision of a purple unicorn flashed between them. “She is Twilight Sparkle, and she must die.”
The bone-thin grotesque nodded and flew south. The leader sniffed, picked up the trail of magic, and then joined his brethren on their flight towards the Crystal Empire.
Sombra’s eyes materialized out of the smoke. He glared at Gilded Wing, who lay bruised and bloodied beneath him. “Your verdict, Lord Wing?”
“Go…” Gilded coughed. “Go chew the cud.”
“I thought so.” Sombra snarled and reverted to his unicorn body. He touched a horn to Gilded’s head. “What do you fear, Gilded Wing?”
“What are you—?” Gilded flinched. His eyes glowed a dim green. “No… No! Stop! No!” He thrashed, but he could not escape Sombra’s magic. “No! I’ll never be controlled! Never!”
“Ah. I see.” Sombra closed his eyes. “I see. You fear the loss of control. You fear your world crumbling without your talon to guide it.” He opened his eyes in a vicious grin. “You fear that the others in charge will screw it up.”
Gilded Wing hissed and covered his head with his wings.
“There’s only one way to escape your life, Gilded.” He chuckled. “The life of a servant. The life of living under Andean. Join me, and I shall make you a king.”
Gilded shut his eyes tight. “A king?”
“Lord of the griffons,” Sombra said, “and ruler of their land.”
Crested Barbary’s neck feathers stood up. “But—”
“Hush.” Gilded Wing stood. He tilted his head and squinted at Sombra. “When the tale promised total power to the one who found your heart, it didn’t mean total power over you, did it?”
“Lord Wing,” Crested gasped. He drew beside Gilded. “Lord Wing, you know that if you agree, you will owe everything to him.”
Gilded spun on Crested. The lord hit the captain upside the head with a fist and sent him to the ground. “This is everything I’d hoped for, fool!” He picked his sword up off of the ground. “Total power! This is my destiny! Join me or die!”
He lifted the sword to the sky. “And that goes for all of you! Sombra will lead us to glory! We will crawl out of the hole dug for us by the elohim! The griffons will be the superpower of the world!”
One griffon soldier took to flight. He soared towards the coast and the ships.
An arrow from one of his comrades shot into his back, bringing him crashing through the trees.
A vicious brawl broke out among the griffons. Those who wished to follow Sombra tore into those who wished to run. They were joined by timberwolves and Diamond Dogs in a free-for-all.
The griffons who sided with Sombra far outnumbered the others.
Crested Barbary bit back a cry of horror. He glared down Gilded Wing’s sword. “Look at what you’ve done to us.”
“It is what the ponies have done,” Gilded said. “They have given us nothing, so we must take what we need.” He would have grinned if he still had a beak. “We need power!”
The last loyalist griffon fell with a sword through his side. Gilded raised his talons. “Go to your ships! Tell our brothers what has transpired! Let them know that there is no other option but to join!”
Gilded lifted into the air on his golden wings. His tinny voice reached into a new octave. “All hail the glory of King Gilded Wing!”
Crested clutched at his chest feathers. His ears perked up at the sound of Sombra’s voice. “The fool.”
Crested bowed his head, shut his eyes, and decided to wait.
In the Crystal Empire, a letter lay on a amethyst desk, untouched for days. It was addressed to Cadence, from Spike. It was stained with tears from both sides of the delivery.
The bed lay made, undisturbed for the same amount of time. The hearth was cold. The curtains drawn.
Cadence had not entered the room since she got the news.
Instead, she sat before the Crystal Heart below the palace. She stared at it for hours. She watched the heart pulse with energy and willed it to enter her own chest. It did no such thing.
There was a dark pit where her heart should have been.
“Well,” she choked. “What happens when the Princess of Love runs out of love?”
The Crystal Heart did not answer.
Cadence choked and bit back sobs. “What happens!?”
Silence descended upon the courtyard. The castle rose high above, and the sunlight shimmered against it. Cadence blinked at it. She spun on the Crystal Heart and shouted. “What happens!?”
“Gather the people.”
Cadence gaped. “Did… did you just…”
“Gather the people.”
Cadence shook her head. “After all this time, you can actually—”
“Gather the people.” The whisper came from the Heart; there was no mistaking it. “Protect the Empire.”
Cadence tensed, her wings spread. She launched into the air, shouting for the guards to bring people to the castle. Ponies galloped, trotted, and generally hurried to the Crystal Heart. They bowed as one, sending their magic into the heart and the castle. A beam shot out of the spire, which covered the Empire in a pink shield. There was silence.
Then came the roars.
Cadence looked on, her mouth hanging open, as the grotesques slammed against the shield. Apes with wings and dragon heads, blowing purple fire against the shield. They scratched and clawed with their hands, attempting to dig past the magic of happiness. The ponies below shrieked, and the shield faltered for but a moment. They concentrated, and the barrier returned to full strength.
“When the ponies are happy, love and joy spreads through the whole kingdom.” Cadence bit her lip. “But if not…”
She looked at the Heart, a frown on her face. “I can’t lead like this.”
The Heart beat and sent a pulse of magic out to the shield. The pink dome closed in a few feet.
“Protect the Empire,” the Heart whispered, “or I will.”
“You will…” Cadence’s eyes widened. “You would make it disappear? For another thousand years?”
“Protect the Empire or I will,” the Heart repeated.
Cadence shivered. A few ponies approached, their curiosity piqued. She waved them off and drew closer to the Crystal Heart. “Who are you?”
“I protect the Empire.” The Heart pulsed, and the shield shrunk again. “Protect the Empire or I will.”
“No.” Cadence lifted her hooves. “No, give us time. We can hold those things back.”
“Protect the Empire or I will.”
“Give us some time! You can’t do this to us!” Cadence covered her mouth with both hooves. The Heart hung silently.
Ponies froze in place and turned to her. “Princess,” a young one said, “are you alright?”
“No,” Cadence gasped. She trotted away. “Keep the shield up. I need to do some… research. I need some time.”
She flew away, towards the library. “I need some time alone!”
“But—” the young pony raised a hoof, but the princess was already gone.
Sombra stood on the balcony of his castle. He overlooked his city of Canterlot. He spoke to his people.
“My little ponies,” he proclaimed, “I have driven back the windigos with the Hearth’s Warming Spell!”
A bit of applause lifted from the crowd, mostly relegated to the ponies within eyeshot of the Diamond Dog and griffon guards.
“But all is not well!” Sombra continued. “The spell only covers the fair city of Canterlot. The remainder of Equestria is frozen in an eternal winter! We cannot survive long against these ghosts!”
He placed his hooves on the railing and let his cape flow in the wind. His eyes glowed green and purple. “The only way to save our kingdom, our people, is to retrieve the Crystal Heart from the Crystal Empire! To erect a shield over our land! We begged them to help us…” He turned his head away. “But they have rejected us. They have abandoned us.”
The gasp from the crowd was genuine. Sombra hid a smile.
“I am faced with a horrid choice, my little ponies.” He lifted his nose into the air and closed his eyes. “Let my people die in a world of ice…”
He could hear cries of “No!” and “There’s gotta be a better way!” float up to the balcony.
“Or take a stand against those who would see us destroyed!”
Silence reigned.
“The time has come, we must march on the Crystal Empire and take the Heart. It is the only way to survive!”
“We can’t do that!” one stallion said. “You’re asking us to fight over it!”
“No!” Sombra roared. “I’m asking you to fight for your families!”
He paced the length of his balcony. “I’m asking you to act! Act before you must explain to your children why there is no food on the table! Act before you must watch your wives and husbands wither away to bones! Act before the windigos come knocking at your door to take your lives away!”
Murmurs from the crowd built up into a fervor.
He lifted a hoof and indicated Crested Barbary and Gilded Wing. “The griffons, long a distant neighbor of Equestria, have agreed to help us in our mission! They will fight by our side as brothers against the Tyrant of the Crystal Empire! Against the childish Princess Cadenza herself!” He pounded an iron-shod hoof on his balcony’s railing with a resounding clang. “Fight those who would see you reduced to dust! Fight those who denied you help! Who denied you life! Fight those who would deny you love!”
The crowd roared. There were those who would fight, and there were those who would not. Those who would far outnumbered the others.
“If you will fight beside me,” Sombra said, “step forward.”
Young, strong stallions and mares came forward, some despite protests from their families. They were soon outfitted with ancient armor, which covered the whole body from head-to-tail in spikes and armored plates. Magic sparked from horns, wings fluttered and tested weight, and strong hooves pounded the streets.
Those who would not fight fled to their homes.
Sombra shattered into a cloud of shards. His eyes flared out of the gloom. “Now, my little ponies, do you swear allegiance to me!?”
“Yes!” The answer bellowed out from the newly-forged soldiers. They stood in a ragtag line and saluted, some with the wrong hoof.
“Thank you, my little ponies!” Sombra said. “You shall lead the charge against the tyrant who would destroy us!”
Gilded Wing’s chest expanded and contracted rapidly. “Who would have thought the elohim so easy to manipulate!?”
“They’re just ponies, sir,” Crested said. “Nothing more.”
Gilded glared out of his right eye. “But far less than ponies.” He chuckled. “These are now cannon fodder for my army!”
Out of the corner of his eye, Crested saw Sombra smile. He clenched his beak tight. “Of course. Your army.”
Rover Redvest snickered. Gilded towered over him. “You doubt what I say?”
Rover sneered. “Rover surprised you can say anything without a face.”
Gilded raised a sharp talon. It was caught up in Sombra’s magic glow.
“No.”
Gilded Wing turned to Sombra, who shook his head. “No," the king said. "Save it for the Crystal Empire.”
Tinny sounds of breathing filtered through Gided’s iron beak. He nodded slowly, and Sombra released him. The Unicorn King returned to the balcony’s edge as he spoke to the soldiers waiting below. “We march tomorrow! To victory! To freedom! For our homes and families!”
He stood back, and let the cheers wash over him.
“Kick!” Jigawatt shouted. “Kick with all your might!”
A line of pegasi bucked with their rear legs, impacting the large, dark clouds that surrounded Cloudsdale. Giant thunderclaps rang out as lightning streaked across the sky.
Wind howled as snow fell in blankets across the entire city of Manehatten. Several ponies could be seen below, frozen in blocks of ice. Soldiers ushered citizens to the underground, within the basements of some of the bigger buildings or into the subway tunnels. Still others stood firm at the perimeter, throwing spears at any windigos that got close.
Jigawatt pulled his frizzy pink mane downward. “Kick again! Buck at will, you morons!” He shook a hoof at the sky. “I’m not gonna let a couple of ghasts tear my stronghold down!”
To his horror and astonishment, a windigo materialized out of a nearby cloud. It whinnied and spun around, as if daring him to attack it. “Change of plan!” he shouted. “Buck that!”
The first brave Guard to charge the creature took it by surprise. The windigo whinnied as the soldier passed right through it. Ice coated the pegasus from head to hoof as he tumbled through the clouds below, out of sight.
The windigo snorted and moaned, its eyes glowing. It was joined by two others, their eerie trails shimmering with snow. Jigawatt turned and flew as fast as he was able. “Run for it, boys!”
He dived down, plowing his way towards the ground.
Blueblood grunted as a windigo’s chill gripped at his hooves. He set fire to the ground around him and melted the ice. He looked up as the howl of the monsters filled the air. “This is impossible!” He turned to the heavily armored mare at his side. “Captain, have the citizens gotten to the shelters?”
“Most of them, Prince Blueblood! We can’t do much about the ones already frozen!” Stonewall hollered. She threw a spear, but it only passed through the center of a windigo’s chest. “There’s only the soldiers left.”
Blueblood brushed a thin coating of ice off of his blond mane. “Then start the retreat. We can’t face the windigos without the Hearth’s Warming Spell.” He stood at the edge of the ocean, his face hard. “I want you leading the retreat, Stonewall. Get our ponies out of here.”
Stonewall started. “With all due respect—”
“With all due respect, Captain,” the prince interrupted, “follow my orders!”
A pegasus landed between them, his body stiff with a coating of ice, his eyes blank and devoid of life. “Go!” Blueblood barked.
Stonewall saluted and flew away. Blueblood’s horn glowed, charging another fiery spell. He saw a windigo float to the ground just ahead of him. Blueblood blasted a fireball straight for it. It passed through the ghost, evaporating the core of its body.
The windigo reformed in a second.
Blueblood fired again. And again. And again. Each time, his spell gave the same non-result. The prince gasped as his horn strained against the heat. Still the windigo approached.
The prince looked over his shoulder and watched as his last soldiers, the ones that stood beside him despite orders to retreat, froze in the magic snow of the windigos.
“Idiots,” he hissed.
Blueblood, Crown Prince of Equestria, froze into a statue of ice.
Stonewall nearly tripped over Jigawatt as the yellow stallion slid past. He grasped at the collar of her armor and screeched into her face. “We can’t fight these things! What’re we gonna do?”
She brought her knee up to his stomach and pushed him away. “Get everybody out of town!” She pointed at a group of ponies meandering through the subway tunnels. A magic-propelled tram sat powerless in their midst, its unicorn operator long having been frozen above. “See if you can get that working before the windigos get in here.”
A mighty grunt assailed her ears. She rose into the air and watched, her mouth agape, as a sea serpent attempted to wriggle his way into the subway. He pushed four fillies forward with his scrawny forearms. “Come now, girls,” he said. “Keep moving. We’re almost to the tram.”
“What about Mom!?” Babs Seed said. “And Dad! They was helping with the soldiers!”
“We can’t leave ’em behind!” Apple Bloom yelped. “They’re family!”
Sweetie Belle huddled next to Scootaloo, her mane covered with frost. “Want my sister. Want Rarity.”
Steven Magnet got stuck, pulled himself back, and then moved incrementally forward again. “Easy. They said they’d meet us in Ponyville. Needn’t worry.”
His moustache drooped as he said the words.
“Yeah,” Scootaloo said. “Yeah, no worries! Rainbow Dash’s gonna just Zap! Wap! Pow! her way through those windigos. Just like in the Hearth’s Warming Pageant!”
Apple Bloom stomped her little hoof on the ground. “She got frozen in the play!”
“Shut up!” Scootaloo butted heads with her. “She wouldn’t get frozen in real life!”
“Stop!” Steve said. “Stop this instant! We can’t lose our heads!”
“The serpent is right,” Stonewall said. She fluttered down to the fillies and stood tall. “Arguing is just going to attract the monsters. We need to keep calm.”
“Horseapples!” Jigawatt dropped a wrench and sucked on his hoof.
Stonewall groaned. “Do as he doesn’t. Got it?”
She flew over the crowd and held her forelegs out. “Everypony! Listen up! This tram only goes a little beyond the city, just enough to get us outside the windigo radius. We’ll all pile on and set off as soon as Jigawatt gets it running. If we’re quiet, we might be able to slip right out from under these things’ noses.”
Jigawatt lifted his wrench into the air and gave the tram’s engine a good whack. It hummed to life and started rolling slowly down the tracks. “Everybody on! Come on, get to it!”
Steven Magnet bent down over the fillies. “Remember, head straight for Ponyville.”
Babs looked up at him, a frown on her face. “You ain’t comin’ with us!?”
“I can’t fit in that thing,” Steve said. He looked up as the tram started to pick up speed. “Go on. I’ll meet you there. Promise.”
“N-no you won’t,” Sweetie Belle said. She wiped tears off of her cheeks. “J-just like Mr. and Mrs. Orange won’t. Just like our sisters won’t.” She sobbed. “You’re gonna freeze just like everypony else!”
Frost spread up the Sweetie’s legs. “Everypony’s gonna freeze and we’ll be all alone!”
“Dangit!” Stonewall flew in and used her wings to scoop the four fillies onto her back. “Serpent, you gotta get outta here! I’ve got the girls!”
Steven pulled himself forward on his tiny arms, but didn’t budge. “I can’t.”
He looked back. His rear half was frozen solid, and the cold was spreading fast. “Just take the girls. Go.” He waved her off. “Move! I’ll hold them off!”
Stonewall flew into the tram. She set the fillies on a bench and stuck her head into the engineer’s cabin. “Jigawatt, can’t this stupid thing move any faster!?”
“I’m working on it!” Jigawatt shouted. He punched buttons on the control panel with his hooves. “This was built for a unicorn’s horn, not a pegasus’ wings!”
Stonewall grasped the wrench in her teeth and hit the accelerator with all of her might. The lever broke off with the force.
Jigawatt’s mouth dropped open. “Stonewall, I needed that!”
They lurched backward as the tram jumped ahead. They barreled down the tracks, leaving the entrance far behind.
Windigos entered the tunnels. They slipped past a motionless sentinel, Steven Magnet. The Wyrm of the River sat alone, his eyes staring down the path the ponies had taken.
The windigos hovered around for a moment, searching for life. Finding none, they returned to the surface, howling all the way.
The tram spat forth sparks as Stonewall pulled down the break lever. The tram had been going at a speed it was not designed for. She heard a clang and felt a jolt as one of the rearmost wheels broke off and zinged into the distance. With the extra drag of the wheel-less corner, the tram skidded to a stop.
Ponies filed out, their manes askew and their faces downcast. They were but one group out of the millions of ponies that lived in the formerly great cities of Cloudsdale and Manehatten. They milled about the end of the line, not daring to enter the open air just yet.
Stonewall walked up to the four fillies, who lay huddled up on top of each other. Sweetie Belle lay on the bottom, absorbing as much warmth from the others as possible.
Stonewall removed her helmet and set it to the side. She did the same with her breast plate and leg guards. She lay beside them, gird in a simple chainmail tunic. “So, you belong to the Element Bearers.”
Apple Bloom looked up. “Applejack’s my sister.”
Sweetie Belle shivered, but said nothing.
Stonewall nodded. She opened her mouth and blew out a small breath. “I wouldn’t worry about them. They’ve survived things that would make my tail curl.” She smiled. “Heck, they’ve beaten things that would make my mane and tail curl.”
Scootaloo rested her chin on her foreleg. “You really think they can beat this?”
“I believe it.” Stonewall fluttered her wings. “I have to believe it.” She sighed. “If I don’t, then there’s nothing for me.”
Jigawatt staggered out of the engineer’s cabin. He pulled his safety goggles off of his eyes and set them on his forehead. “So what now?”
Stonewall lifted her chin. “To Ponyville. That town’s always been a magnet for trouble.” She raised an eyebrow. “So maybe it’ll be a magnet for the Bearers, too.”
Babs Seed sniffed. She wiped her nose and poked Sweetie Belle. “Y’hear that, Sweetie? You’re”— her voice cracked—“goin’ home.”
“Hay,” Apple Bloom whispered. She hugged Babs close. “You’re goin’ home, too, Cousin. There’s family there.”
She looked around. “There’s family for all of us.”
Scootaloo’s head bobbed up and down. “Yeah! And your mom and dad are still there, Sweetie Belle! And mine, too!”
Jigawatt smiled a soft, sad smile. “Maybe I’ll get to see Fluttershy again.”
Stonewall stood. She gathered her armor up into a bundle and strapped it to her back. “Then it’s best we get scooting.” She looked around at the other ponies. “You can come with us to Ponyville, or you can try your luck with someplace else.”
One by one, the other Manhattenites and Cloudsdalians either agreed to follow or to set off on their own. The ponies who followed far outnumbered the others. They all journeyed out through the light snow, through a land the windigos hadn’t quite gained total control over.
Some distance behind them, Cloudsdale dumped snow on Manhatten. The two cities merged even more fully as the ground became as white as the clouds above. Windigos moaned and flew, and the storm intensified.
Armor-plated ponies, griffons, and Diamond Dogs marched towards waiting train cars. Sombra stood on a craggy outlook, smiling as the armies passed by underneath. Gilded Wing flapped his wings as he landed beside the Unicorn King. “The ships are ready. The pincer movement will go swimmingly.”
“Excellent.” Sombra scowled as a unicorn soldier tripped over his own hooves. “I assume you understand your mission?”
“The Crystal Heart will be captured as soon as possible.” Gilded Wing clutched a talon to his sword hilt. “The Empire will be powerless.”
“Yes.” Sombra sat down and drew his cloak tighter around his shoulders. He watched as the skinny grotesque flew overhead on its way to Ponyville. “Yes, of course.”
He touched the Alicorn Amulet that hung around his neck. “Have you ever known a griffon to be able to use pony magic?”
Gilded Wing narrowed his eyes. “No. Why?”
Sombra detached the artifact and passed it to the griffon. “Just a hunch.”
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I'll say this much about Sombra. He sure knows how to play to a crowd. Turning Equestria against its protectors is quite a devious move.
Also, why must the Crystal Heart be so cryptic? You're driving the pony who wields you crazy, pal. That's not gonna help.
Once again, you manage to blow my mind with your depiction of Blueblood. I would not expect that ponce to make a noble sacrifice like that. Not that it leaves much hope for our heroes, seeing that Manehattan has fallen.
I'm also interested to see what that ape-like assassin is.
Dramatic. Very much dramatic thing.
And Spike continue growing.
4323550
You don't get to be an evil king without a little charisma.
I protect the Empire. Protect the Empire or I will.
And it just so happened that it was the jerkiest sacrifice ever!
Chapter Eight
Huh. That passage hurts to read. I am sooo thankful that I've grown as a writer since then.
4325200
So much drama!
I get the feeling he can't help himself.