“I…I have to have lost it, this is insane…” Winter muttered, staggering as her knees threatened to give way.
“This is what you were born for,” the elemental called to her. “This is your duty to the world, to usher in my reign.”
“But…but why me?!” she begged. “Why was it me, why did I have to be born for this?!”
The elemental’s laughter echoed along the cavern walls, causing Winter to spin her head in vain to catch sight of this malicious spirit. After a few vain moments searching, she swallowed and asked another question, though it was hard to speak with her voice trembling. “What’s going to happen to me?”
“Your essence must be purged,” the elemental said, its words sending another chill down Winter’s back. “Only one may inhabit that body.”
"Purged?" Winter gasped. "You mean I...you'll tear me out of my body? But what..."
"You are weak, your essence will not survive. But that is of no consequence."
The elemental's harsh words stabbed Winter through her heart, as she realized what it was implying. “No, please…” Winter begged. “I…I don’t want to go. I…my friends, I never got to talk with my family again…I still need to see my brother…”
"This is all you were meant to ever be,” the elemental hissed at her. Winter flinched, but she couldn't stop its words from sinking deep into her heart. “This was all your life was ever going to be, besting those around you with your might. You get to go free now, you get to be free of those who hurt, those who misunderstood you. You don’t have to fear anything anymore…”
“Stop it, please…” she whimpered, crying openly and uncontrollably. Her tears froze as they fell, shattering like glass into tiny shards as they hit the rocks beneath her. This was so wrong, so unnatural. She wasn’t meant to die here, was she? This wasn’t all the life she’d been given, just to be a body for this thing, right? But it was so much greater than her, so much older, wiser, more experienced, powerful…it couldn’t be wrong, could it? And it was right, she would be done with being hurt, nopony could harm her for her snow ever again. Something deep in Winter's core told her this was wrong, but it wasn’t loud enough. She sighed in resignation. “Alright…alright.”
The elemental laughed triumphantly, and in an instant pain swept over Winter. Her chest ached, like somepony had just materialized a lead weight inside her body, the pain growing worse with every second. It spread into her head and doubled her headache’s strength in an instant, making her reel in agony. She barely remained standing, gasping and groaning as her body rebelled against her. It didn’t take her much to realize this was how she was going out: her very soul, her essence as the elemental had called it, was being torn from her body. Winter tried to cry out in the agony she felt, but her lungs didn’t cooperate, causing her mouth to hang open in a silent scream, eyes screwed shut even as she felt the icy power building inside her, flooding her mane and tail to crackle with energy and stand on end. Her power had done that before, but this time there was so much strength behind it her eyes began to cloud over and glow. Her entire body was slowly growing numb. “Please, no more..." she begged, knowing that the process had only just begun, and surely would take far, far longer. The elemental snarled and laughed with victory, even as Winter's pain finally caught up with her and she screamed out in agony.
"Winter!" Vlyka gasped.
Midnight's head whipped around at Vlyka's words. "Where? Where is she, Vlyka?"
Vlyka pointed down the tunnel at the back of the beast's throat. "There! I...I heard her...screaming."
Midnight's eyes widened in shock, and before even Crystal could react his wings snapped open and launched him into the air. "Midnight wait!" Crystal cried, but he ignored her as he dove into the tunnel. A blast of freezing wind shot back out at him, knocking him back against a stone fang of the beast, but he merely got back up and dropped to the earth, running further in with his friends close on his heels.
"You resist destiny," the elemental hissed, making Winter's ears sting as they flipped back tight against her head. The pain was incredible, tearing at her body everywhere at once, how could she not resist that kind of pain?! But the anger froze in her heart as the elemental pounded against her mind, feeling as though it reached into her mind and tried to tear her in two. Her right foreleg had already weakened on her, forcing her to balance on her other three legs as they quavered with weakness.
The elemental seemed to ignore her thoughts, chuckling to itself. “I’ve waited for eons for this moment…your form finally may accept me. The husk I’ve left behind will make a most fitting throne, though shaping it will require some…creativity.”
“That rock from the museum?” Winter gasped.
“That shell I’ve already left behind,” the elemental hissed. “Your body was finally suitable to hold my essence, so I removed myself from it as soon as you were close enough.”
“And that’s why my power went haywire,” Winter thought, though the pain became too strong for her to say. She collapsed on her knees as her other legs gave out, feeling a magic swirling all around her. But this wasn’t her familiar ice power, despite feeling somewhat similar. This was like another unicorn grabbing her with their telekinesis, a familiar sensation but distinctly a different pony’s magic. Only now, it was the same sensation she’d had with her ice power, a different energy for the same uncomfortable feeling. This was the elemental’s power swirling around her, engulfing her, suffocating her…everything that made her her was going to be pulled out and tossed to the winds by it.
“Winter!” she heard off in the distance. At first she thought it was merely a memory, buy she soon realized it was a voice, somepony’s voice, echoing off the walls of the cave. They were far off, hard to make out, but something deep inside her knew exactly who it was…and couldn’t decide if it was a good or a bad thing that she was hearing them now.
“Winter, are you in here?” Crystal’s voice rebounded against every wall around them, just adding to the noise. Over the wind howling in their ears, it was hard for anypony to hear what was happening around them. They’d huddled close to one another, relying on Crystal’s light spell to see in the surrounding gloom, as they delved deeper into the swirling storm. They’d been navigating by Vlyka’s sense of smell, tracing Winter’s weakening scent through the maze of structures and moving as quickly as they could, the winds only getting louder as they delved further inwards. But as they drew closer, they started to see it: a white light shining brilliantly from a side room, illuminating the thousands of snowflakes being launched into the cave system around them. The three picked up speed, despite the sensation that their manes might be blown off of their bodies in this wind. As they rounded the corner into the light, the three of them stopped abruptly, gasping in awe at the sight.
"No...no no, not again!" Vlyka murmured, only just audible over the swirling storm surrounding them.
"Winter!" Midnight yelled, cupping his hoof to his mouth as he yelled. The white unicorn hovered in the air at the center of the room, the blizzard surrounding her and whipping her mane and tail backwards. She would have almost disappeared from the storm, if it weren't for the brilliant white light blasting out from her horn, her eyes and mouth, illuminating her expression and faintly outlining her body. She was twitching, writhing in pain with her teeth clenched and eyes twitching, narrowed as she arched her neck. "Winter! Winter, what...what's happening?!"
Winter's eyes focused at the trio, the light flooding from her eyes blasting straight into Midnight's. He gasped in pain and turned away, his sensitive eyes overtaxed without his glasses, but Midnight couldn't let his eyes best him, not right now. “We want to help you, come on! Winter, please!"
Winter didn’t react for a good few seconds, just enough time for Midnight to wonder if he’d been heard or not. As he readied himself to call out again, Winter finally replied. “No, you guys have to go! Get away, please!”
“We’re not leaving you Winter!” Crystal called, and Vlyka moved to take a step forward.
“No, get back! I’m not safe!” she yelled, as suddenly her magic swirled about her horn. With a gesture, Winter fired a beam at the cave between her and her friends, blasting several sharp icicles into existence. She continued firing as the ice built, a thick curtain of sharp spikes covering the walls, ceiling, and floor, cutting her friends off from herself. Vlyka jumped backwards to avoid the spikes as they shot up, but she moved forward with Crystal and Midnight as he hurried straight up to them.
"Winter please, we're here for you! Don't push us away!" Crystal called. "We want to help you!"
Midnight swallowed nervously, but raised his voice to call out again. "You don't have to be scared, Winter. You don't have to be afraid of this. We...we'll find a way to help, I promise."
“You don’t understand…” Winter answered. “I’m not…afraid of this,” she groaned, but Midnight felt that the shaking in her voice wasn't just pain. She was afraid, she was lying. “This is what I was born to do. This is my destiny.”
There was a moment of silence as the trio looked at each other, confused. Finally, Crystal turned back to Whispy and called out. “What do you mean?”
As if answering Crystal's question, the whole room began to shake slightly. Vlyka glanced up as rubble started to loosen from the ceiling, and Midnight felt a panic in the back of his mind feel like he was about to be buried in a cave in caused by this earthquake. But as he stared fixated on Winter, he realized something that was almost more nerve wracking than the cave in fear: this wasn't an earthquake. The rocks shook, certainly, but sounded too rhythmic, almost as though it were some gigantic being…laughing?
“Your words are meaningless,” the voice the laughter belonged to boomed from everywhere. The voice was deafening, poor Vlyka yelping in pain and covering her ears as it continued to rumble. “My vessel has already surrendered herself to me. Soon, you shall witness the rebirth of a god!”
"What in Celestia's name..." Crystal gasped, her eyes flitting around the room.
“What in Tartarus is going on…” Midnight gasped, also glancing around to find where that noise was coming from.
“Consider yourselves blessed,” the voice continued. “That you should have the grace of witnessing my return, and being the first offerings to my power!”
Winter's senses were dulling, the world around her fading into nothingness, her body going numb to any sensation. It was almost a relief, after the torment she’d been feeling for what felt like hours of agony, though it could only have been a few minutes. But the elemental's voice was still booming in her ears, even when it took her a moment to put together what it's words meant. It hurt her to hear what it was saying, declaring itself reborn in her body, but what hurt her far more was the realization of what the elemental had planned for her friends. Her heart started pounding and her clarity returned to her in a rush of energy. “Wait, no!” she cried out.
To her surprise, the elemental seemed to react to her voice. “Silence,” it growled, sounding angry at her.
“No, please,” she whimpered, “you can’t kill them! I promise I’ll do whatever you need me to, but please don’t kill them! Don’t hurt them!”
“SILENCE!” the elemental bellowed, making Winter flinch. “These three are meaningless to me, they are nothing in comparison to my might, regardless of what form I may take on in your world." Winter felt like cowering in fear, since something this powerful could have killed her in an instant. But…she was alive, at least for now. She was still there, still felt herself connected to her body, even if that connection was feeble and weakening with each passing second. “And as you slip away…”
…”My strength grows ever stronger!” came the voice, echoing around the cave. But suddenly everypony could identify exactly where from. It was from Winter’s mouth, the voice of this elemental creature replacing her normal cadence.
“Oh no…” Crystal gasped, staring at Winter as her expression shifted. Her eyes glowed brighter and brighter, and a bone-chilling laughter rang out from her throat, though everypony there knew Whispy well enough to know she could have never made that tone if she’d tried. Everypony watched in horrified silence, staring at what had arrived. Midnight gasped, pressing himself against the icicle spikes and reaching a hoof desperately out towards her. Was it…too late?
“No! I can’t let you do this!” Winter cried. “You…you’re a monster!” She’d ignored this thought for a while now, since she’d given in and let this whole process of rebirthing the elemental start, but seeing how careless it was talking about her friends made Winter realize just how dangerous this thing was. It cared none for anypony, only about itself, and would exterminate anypony it liked indiscriminately. And she'd nearly laid down to let this thing take over her! If she didn't stop it now, all of Equestria...her friends...all of it would be...
Winter tried to picture her body, reaching out for it, but everything familiar to her felt so far out of reach. She grasped for anything she could know, tried to imagine herself hopping across a rocky pond towards the familiar boat of her earthy form hovering just out of her reach. But there was nothing, she never got closer, only fell further and further away as everything began to haze. Soon she would be gone, it was too late. She'd waited too long, she was going to...
"Alright! Well, if Snowball isn’t going to get her tail in gear and stop you, I sure as Celestia will!”
It took Winter a second to realize it, but that was Vlyka speaking...that was Vlyka, insulting her. Not hurtfully, oh no…Vlyka was a sarcastic little piece of work whenever she felt like being funny. She smiled softly as memories of Vlyka's best comebacks to Winter's teasing flashed in her mind, the memories brilliant as though she were living those moments again. The little mare, that strange little fanged mare with her love of dogs and stubborn willfulness...she wouldn't give up here.
"Vlyka..." Winter gasped, her voice clear through the noise, the shudder of the tremendous invader in the mare's body. Midnight gasped at the faintest sign that Winter was still there, almost not noticing when the spike he was pressing against shuddered. He stepped back for a moment, only to notice that the spikes were all receding. Something was weakening, calling the ice down from between himself and Winter.
There was a gasp behind him, and as he turned his head Crystal was just starting to smile broadly. "Hey Whispy!" she cried, "next snowball fight remember that some ponies duck!"
Winter burst out laughing, shaking her head as images of her first meeting with Crystal flooded her mind. "That was an accident,” she thought, “and you did try and throw my body weight in snow back at me.”
“ENOUGH!” the elemental roared, shaking Winter’s concentration on holding herself together. “You are nothing but my vessel, these words are meaningless!” The cavern walls echoed the voice several times, making it hard for Winter to keep her image of Crystal afloat. “Insolent pests,” the elemental growled, as it lowered Winter’s head, aiming her horn right at Vlyka. Before Winter could gasp in shock, she felt the energy coursing into her horn, firing a frigid blast at Vlyka. The mare reacted with barely enough time, leaping backwards to clear the shot. She didn’t make it entirely, and was slammed by a shockwave as the burst hit the ground, tossing her backwards like a ragdoll.
“Vlyka NO!” Winter cried, shock and horror flooding everything she could feel. The elemental growled in pain, but she didn’t notice, as she stared at Vlyka’s prone form through the wall of ice she’d created to keep her safe. For just a moment she thought Vlyka was gone, the first of countless, perhaps all living things in Equestria, all because she’d failed to contain this demon inside her. But to her great relief, Vlyka stumbled back upright, shaken but not taken out by the shot. She stood up and growled directly at Winter...no, the elemental, Winter was just stuck between them. “Vlyka…”
"Winter...Winter please, can you hear me?"
She gasped. "Midnight?"
"Winter please...if...if you hear me please...please come back. Do you remember when we first met, Winter?"
Even as he spoke, Winter saw the scene coalesce all around her. "Of course I do, Midnight," she smiled feeling a pleasant warmth swelling from her belly. The snowbanks around a Ponyville sat everywhere she looked, bathed in the brilliant and soothing light of a full moon hung perfectly in the sky. "How could I forget that night?" She smiled as she watched, giggling at her own silliness as her army of snowponies jumped up, all the way watching in a daze as Midnight nodded to her, smiled, and took off into the sky, his wings glistening in the silhouette of the moonlight. But as Winter gazed up at the moon, the colors began to shift, the world all fading save the moon as it transformed before her. She reached a hoof out towards it, floating towards the light before her.
The echoing voice laughed, that same bone-chilling noise that set everypony’s mane and tails on end. “At last…” it snarled, a tone that Midnight could only call a sick pleasure or enjoyment. “At last, I am reborn!” A blast of energy radiated outwards from Winter’s body, chilling the atmosphere around them by several degrees.
As everypony staggered to stay upright, they shared a moment of horror. All at once, they all realized what this meant: if this creature was truly reborn, then Winter was gone. Crystal’s eyes immediately clouded with tears, gasping for breath. Vlyka’s instincts took hold and she bared her sharp teeth, snarling in fury and injury. Midnight’s mind stopped all thought for several seconds, before he began pleading, desperately. “No, no no no Winter, come back!” he cried out. “Winter Whisper! Don’t leave me, please! Winter!”