Letters From a Little Princess Monster

by Georg


92. Tripartite - Part Ten

Letters From a Little Princess Monster

Tripartite - Part Ten


“At least I’ll die with my horn.” Fizzy looked up and let sparks play around her head with a grim smile. “Never thought I’d get a chance to show the world what I’m made of, but you showed me a whole new way.”

Monster did not answer right away, but just kept leaning over the front rail of the airship, watching the two ‘wings’ of the formation close around the top of the Misty Mountain with rumbling stormclouds for cover. The concentrated magic of two grown alicorns boiled around in her insides much more powerfully than just drinking far too much coffee, and the last time she did that, things ended poorly. She had fought so hard to become something other than a monster who killed, and now she could feel the sucking attraction of that simplistic power all over again, with only a few of her new friends for support.

“Killing is bad,” she managed after some thought.

“You don’t have to like it, you don’t have to think of it as a right decision, because it’s wrong, but it’s still less wrong than the alternative,” countered Fizzy. “Some creatures just need killing. The Storm King, for one. He’s bluffed and tortured his way through a half-dozen little countries down south, growing stronger with every one we conquered. He conquers, that is. I’m done with the lying bastard. If I live through this, I’m headed back home, and either he dies there or I die.”

Directly talking about death bothered Monster far more than she wanted to admit, so she nudged closer to the net-wrapped Grubber, who had tried several times to wriggle out of his confinement. She found his presence more comforting if he was within easy reach instead of running away to communicate with Fizzy’s hated… father or something. There was something to their three-way relationship that boggled Monster’s limited understanding of pony interactions, and she really did not want to ask. There were more important questions. “What if you die here?” she managed.

“If I die here, I die,” said Fizzy with a bend to her neck, first left, then right, with a sharp popping each time. “It’s just if I do, I want you to go kill Stormy in my place. Somepony has to do it,” she added quickly before Monster could object. “He’s strong enough to fend off Celestia now, and if that power-mad monster gets it into his pointy head to try drinking pony blood for power, who knows what will happen. I don’t want to find out and neither do you.”

“Never ends.” Monster rested her chin on the airship’s rail and stared into the rumbling stormclouds being shoved over the mountain. “Always another monster.”

“Sometimes it takes a monster to stop a monster. Like me.” Fizzy’s face lost any hint of the false cheer she had been using to mask her inner feelings, and a wistful longing filled her voice. “If only we had a hero like Commander Hurricane and the pegasi who rescued the griffons from the Windigo. But we don’t, so I’m going to make do with what we have.”

Monster looked back over her shoulder at Coronet, who was polishing his bugle and looking very non-heroey despite his bright golden armor.

“So what do we have?” asked Grubber, who had stopped trying to get out of his net cocoon for the time being. He poked Monster gingerly with one clawed finger, trying to get a wisp of her glowing mane.

“She’s our backup,” said Fizzy, obviously more comfortable talking strategy to her friend than a glowing alicorn child. “The plan involves using our airships and the Equestrians as a threat to tie down the non-Windigo members of the aerie and prevent them from interfering while I go kick the big bad icicle’s tail.”

“And for that, you need a trumpet player?” Grubber eyed the Royal Guard. “Is it a magic trumpet?”

“No!” Fizzy waved a hoof and pointed at the Equestrians pushing storm clouds. “It’s symbolic. You see, a griffon told me that way back in pony history when the Windigo chased the ponies out of their home, the griffons… well, they had guilt, since it was their fault that the Windigo were created in the first place. So the only remaining tribe of griffons stayed behind, vowing to fight the monsters until their last breaths.”

“Griffons still exist,” put forward Monster very cautiously. “Did they win?”

Fizzy shook her head. “They fought, but the Windigo were too powerful. Every day, there were fewer griffons left in their fortress. Some went over to the Windigo, some ran away and died in the cold, but the rest fought a fight they knew had only one possible outcome. I’ve fought griffons before, and they’re tough, but this bunch was more hard-headed and stubborn than anygriff we see today. Guilt over their actions had driven them to the edge. They knew they were going to die and had accepted it, like Moosashi’s rule, and it gave them incredible resilience. Then—” Fizzy cast an anticipatory glance at the other Royal Guard on the airship.

“Commander Hurricane returned,” said Coronet proudly, with a rhythmic cadence. “He brought every warrior pegasus in Equestria with him, equipped with earth pony armor, which had been enchanted by unicorn magic. They struck the Windigo a mighty blow and freed the griffons from their mountain stronghold, protected them on the way back to the warm lands which the three tribes had discovered, and welcomed them back.”

“Which is what the ponies tell in their history,” said Fizzy. “The griffons say their emperor bowed before Hurricane, but he refused to treat them as lesser beings. Even Celestia refused to accept their subjugation, and insisted that they be treated as equals, not criminals. In return, the emperor issued an edict against eating pony flesh forever, and cursed anygriff who would even think about it. He signed several treaties with Equestria, but held griffons away from any real interactions with ponies. Since our intelligence reports say the griffon emperor is visiting this aerie, I can only guess that the Windigo are looking to settle a few old scores and perhaps turn the old bird into one of them. That would be extraordinarily bad.”

Fizzie’s lips thinned, and she glared across the airship’s railing as if she were trying to hurry up the army’s motion by her willpower alone. “So anyway,” she continued tersely, “the average griffon is hammered by their stories while growing up. Not so much the source of the Windigo, but the rescue of the last griffons by the Equestrians.”

It took very little effort for Monster to recognize one of Trixie’s favorite deceptions, and more effort to say it out loud in cautious words. “So when we arrive over their meeting with all the pony guards, the griffons who are not Windigo yet will want to take our side.”

“Or at least have enough respect for their traditions to not jump me while I’m kicking the stuffing out of their two big Windigo,” said Fizzy. “I’ll settle for that.”

“If they win…” Monster wanted to say the words, but her throat choked up until Fizzy patted her on the shoulder.

“Your big lug gives me one more trick up my sleeve,” she admitted with a cautious glance at the two batponies sharing the airship’s deck. “If that doesn’t work, nothing will, and you can light up the volcano and burn them all. The Equestrians and the Stormguard zeppelins should be far enough away to escape, and you said you could get away, so that just leaves me with the biggest tombstone on the planet.”

“What trick?” asked Monster, looking between Fizzy and the very stoic Pumpernickel.

“The Kirin trick,” said Fizzy. “Batponies are actually crosses between dragon and pony magic. If they get angry enough, the dragon portion of them comes through, and they turn into flaming rage monsters called Nirik. In theory, at least. I’ve never actually seen it happen.”

“All of the Nocturne are taught to control our anger under all circumstances,” rumbled Pumpernickel. “In this case, I think the rest of our clans will understand.”

“And that will require a pilot I can trust to make sure this airship stays absolutely in one place once we start.” Tempest lit up her horn and the nets fell away from Grubber, who gave one plaintive look at the distant cabin door but did not move.

“Your friend needs your help,” managed Monster through her trembling. “I need it too. Don’t want to hurt anypony. Or griffon.”

Swallowing once, the badger creature turned away from his escape path and looked into Monster’s eyes. “You both so owe me.”

Fizzy patted him on the head and smoothed down a ruffled patch of his mane, then repeated the gesture on Monster’s head. “If we live through this, we’ll talk. Right now, we have more important snowflakes to fry.”

❅ ❅ ❅

One single stunning burst of wind roared through the mountain top, ripping loose pebbles off the nearby castle, throwing the rumbling thunderclouds in all directions, and revealing what had been concealed behind them. Every creature in the council circle looked up simultaneously to stare at the circle of Stormguard airships and glittering Royal Guard chariots hovering in place. The impossible sight was arranged in waves of militant steel and feathers spread across the sky, glittering golden and white in the evening sun like an immense hammer above the ancient castle of the griffons while the piercing notes of a lone cornet split the chill air.

To arms! To arms! cried out the strident call, and for one moment, every single griffon crouched with their wings angled for flight, even the massive bulk of the corrupted Wingmaster at the center of the council circle. With a tearing snarl of rage, Talon forced his will back upon the gathered griffons, and wan flickers of icy blue once again overrode their natural colors, although Tempest Shadow was not waiting for them to recover.

The commander of the Equestrian invasion force stood tall in the bow of the largest zeppelin, looking down at the milling griffons with a sneer. Her dark Night Guard armor gleamed against the sun in a fashion far different than the gold of the Equestrian daytime guards, but just as effective against claw or spear, and her long horn glowed softly with the violet glow of powerful magic. Griffon eyesight was sharper than any pony, and it was a fair tossup whether the griffons remained ground-bound due to the enormous number of armored Equestrians, or the sheer impossibility of their leader.

“Griffons of the Misty Mountain Aerie!” thundered the lead unicorn’s voice across the mountain with enough power to shake the stones of the ancient castle and make the trees tremble on the mountain slopes. “I am Commander Tempest Shadow, and I am here to receive your unconditional surrender in the combined names of the Storm King and the Equestrian Principality. We can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way.” A cruel smile spread across Tempest’s face, and she reached one foreleg over to place it across the trembling shoulders of the small alicorn standing by her side. “Either way is fine with me.”

Lowering her voice to a whisper, Tempest added to her small companion, “I hope you’re wrong, Twilight Sparkle. I only see one who might have turned into a Windigo, but if this goes wrong—”

“I’ll do what I have to,” said Twilight in a clear voice. She shifted uncomfortably on the floor of the airship deck, the only sign that she was carrying the magic of three alicorns being the faint iridescence in her mane and tail that shimmered and flowed in the bright mountain light. “Hope I’m wrong. Ready.”

“Good. Hang on.”

It was cheating to have kept their method of descent secret from the little alicorn, but Tempest was not really certain how Twilight would react if she knew. The familiar thrill swept up her body as she kicked the coil of rope overboard, flashed Grubber a grin, and dropped with Twilight tucked under one foreleg. In a normal boarding operation, she would have two of her best yeti commandos at her side, but by way of some really bloodthirsty threats, Hurk and Muurl reluctantly stayed behind as she whizzed down the slack rope, braking by way of one rope-wrapped foreleg and one hindleg until she landed in the sandy soil of the griffon council circle.

The icy chill sweeping up her legs and leaving an intricate tracery of frost on the surface of her borrowed armor was a firm verification that Twilight Sparkle’s tale about Windigo was no myth. So was the hulking griffon creature lurking in the center of the circle, glaring at Tempest with blazing blue eyes while being surrounded by a swirling haze of icy mist.

He still looks mostly like a griffon. That’s good. He’ll want to monologue.

“Kid,” said Tempest casually. “Go stand over by the other ponies. Mama’s going to take care of the trash.”

“Climb back up to your airship, pony,” hissed the frost-covered monstrosity while Twilight Sparkle scurried away. “Run back to your masters and tell them to despair, because—”

“Nope!” declared Tempest, and gave a tug to the rope hanging down by her side. The upper end made a sharp noise, and the rest of the length cascaded down until there was a messy coil heaped on the sand next to her. “Surrender, or I’m going to beat your frosty feathers into the ground, and then I’m going to break your son in half.”

From the sharp flinching and the sudden virulent glare the corrupted Wingmaster gave the collection of trembling bound ponies, something had happened to his son, and certainly nothing he considered good.

Weakness with his pride. I can use that.

“We do not bow to your King of Storms,” snarled the Windigo.

“Neither do I!” snapped Tempest right back. “Ponies destroyed your kind with the power of Harmony. Celestia held off the Storm King with that same power. I’ve joined my forces with theirs to make an army that can crush your aerie, slaughter your people, and destroy your corruption.” She let out a low chuckle and crouched, ready for the inevitable rush. “But it looks like all I need to do is crush you instead.”

She was ready for the attack, or at least she thought so. That misconception nearly cost Tempest her life when the huge griffon moved. Nothing should have been that fast, and she could feel the chill of talons rake across her breastplate as she threw herself to one side. Even then, she had the presence of mind to flick her tail and its hidden package of razorwire into the griffon’s wing on the way past, and the sharp tug and agonized howl gave notice that her dirty trick had paid off.

“Warmblood!” hissed the huge griffon as he skidded to a halt in a spray of icy sand. Pearlescent drops of pale blue blood oozed to the surface of his wings, forming icicles as they flowed down his frosted sides, and a line of severed feathers down his neck fluttered to the ground like flakes of bitter snow.

“Oh, did you think I was going to play fair?” taunted Tempest with every bit of arrogance she could muster since her heart was beating so fast, and she really wanted to throw up. “Fair means I wouldn’t be able to do this!”

As fast as the huge griffon was, he couldn’t dodge lightning, and with her horn restored, Tempest could make a storm far more powerful than she had ever managed before. That did not mean Talon was unable to punch through the blazing electrical arcs, streaming smoke and burning feathers to make a clawed pass closer than before. The screeching of frosty talons against her borrowed Night Guard armor made her belly clench in reactive fear, but she still managed to put a hoof into the budding Windigo’s side as he passed, then dive for the sandy floor of the council circle once she realized the temperamental trick shoe had actually worked for a change.

Or at least she thought it worked. Looking up from her crouching spot in the sand, she caught the griffon looking puzzled at her actions, but there was none of the explosive drama she was expecting from the shoe stuck to his icy side.

“Fearsome warrior, falling over your own hooves,” sneered Talon. “Your petty attacks are doomed to failure. Watch.”

Frost formed over the dripping wound on the griffon’s side, drawing together glittering feathers and pierced skin with clear ice, and when it evaporated away, Tempest could not even tell where the razorwire had struck.

“I have power far beyond your pitiful Storm King,” sneered Talon.

“You’re a puppet,” snapped Tempest in response just to keep the big griffon talking. “Dancing on strings without a mind of your own. Celestia told me about her student’s spell, and how she defeated Nightmare Moon. I’m not fighting you, I’m fighting Discord.”

“WAIT!” The strangest creature just appeared out of nowhere, standing between Tempest and the frost-covered griffon. It looked like some mad doctor had taken the limbs and torso parts from a dozen different species and glued them together, then dressed it in a black-and-white striped outfit. Lifting a whistle to its lips, it puckered up and blew a sharp blast. “Slander! Ten yards penalty and a red card.”

All of Tempest Shadow’s reflexes were honed for a fight to the death, and to have such a ridiculous sight pop into view was throwing her off about as much as if the corrupted griffon had turned out to be an inflatable balloon. She was caught speechless, unable to move, but her opponent…

...was frozen in place, the same as everything else around her, from the griffons to the hovering airships.

“Discord,” she managed from stunned lips.

“Commander Tempest Shadow,” replied the odd creature with a deep bow. “Imagine finding you here. I was expecting Twilight Sparkle or one of her little friends, and the commander of the Storm King’s Stormguard doesn’t have any friends.”

“I… don’t have many of them,” admitted Tempest, still jittery on the tips of her hooves with the mythical embodiment of frozen death just a few steps away and the mythical embodiment of chaos even closer.

“Take it from me,” purred Discord. “Friendship is highly overrated. I mean all the other Discords lap it up like it’s some special thing, but I’m sure you’ll agree that power beats it hollow. Right?”

“I used to think so,” said Tempest cautiously. “But the bad thing about power is there’s always somebody who wants to take what you have. Friendship can only be given.”

“Humph!” Discord crossed his mismatched arms. “You’re no fun. And after all the trouble I went through to make sure you’d have a fair fight.”

After a quick glance at the motionless Windigo, who outweighed her by at least twice her body weight, Tempest managed, “Some fair fight.”

“What, would you rather fight two of them?” A quick snap of his talons, and a second slightly smaller Windigo appeared behind the first, although thankfully motionless. “Or maybe you would like a whole nest.” A second snap made a half-dozen frosty monsters appear behind the corrupted Wingmaster, one of whom was the bulky griffon emperor standing nearly three times her size.

“Fair is relative,” admitted Tempest, turning her eyes to the frozen Windigo Wingmaster and focusing on staying alert. It might just amuse Discord to quit talking and resume the normal flow of time at any moment, and all it would take was a split-second of inattention for her to be killed.

“Really, I shouldn’t even be doing this,” admitted Discord with a tap of one taloned forefinger against his bearded chin. He lowered his voice and whispered, “I was just going to watch you get killed fighting both of the Windigo, but I couldn’t resist messing with that boooring little green pony. I mean he was about to get all dead, and I know how much that would upset little Twilight Sparkle. Plus, this fight would not be nearly as exciting!”

“Twilight said you had three challenges for her,” said Tempest quickly. “Why don’t you let me get back to kicking Frosty’s tailfeathers while you go check on the rest of them?”

“Oh, they’re not nearly as fun as you,” scoffed Discord. “Starlight Glimmer has this little humorless village that should be inside a snowglobe, and Sombra is just all—” the mismatched creature turned black and smokey “—crystaaahllls!” Several coughs later, Discord shifted colors back to his abnormal form and spit out a small black piece of glittering rock. “Bleah!”

“So…” Tempest gave him just the barest flicker of a glance. “Are you going to buzz off and let me finish dealing with the Windigo or did you want to talk with your friend Twilight first?”

“Friend?” Discord backed up a step and placed one clawed hand across his chest. “Oh, no, no, no.”

Now that was worth taking her eyes off the huge frosty threat. “Oh, really? Can you honestly tell me that Twilight didn’t turn your entire world upside down five minutes after you met?”

“Yes,” said Discord while looking in two different directions, neither of them hers.

“She did something nice for you even though you didn’t deserve it,” continued Tempest, watching the red line of embarrassment crawl up Discord’s neck like a thermometer. “Just out of the blue, in a way that nopony else had ever offered. She gave you her friendship.”

“She did not!” Discord shook his mismatched arms and shooed away a few hundred tiny moth-sized purple alicorns who all seemed to be chanting “Friends! Friends!”

“You’ve never had a friend before,” said Tempest. “You can’t deal with it. That’s why you saved Twilight’s friend.”

“I don’t have to stand here and be insulted!” huffed Discord. He snapped his fingers and all of the additional Windigo vanished, except for the corrupted Wingmaster. “I’m going to go check on my good friend, King Sombra. Goodbye.”

Then there was another snap of his talon as Discord vanished in a puff of plaid smoke, and almost immediately after that, the trick shoe she had managed to stick on the flank of the huge Windigo exploded.

❅ ❅ ❅

Monster was afraid when Fizzy jumped off the airship, and would very much like to have shouted, or even screamed. She swallowed instead, determined to have a frantic screaming and panicking fit sometime later when circumstances allowed. The bitter cold of the frozen sand when they landed brought a chill up her flanks and troubled the calm place in her middle where she was storing all the alicorn magic, but Fizzy’s comforting voice let her scurry away from the upcoming fight unafraid, or at least afraid in a controllable fashion that would not result in a volcano.

There was a pile of bound and beaten ponies to one side out of the way of the fight, and to Monster’s intense relief, had a familiar shade of scroungy green right in the middle where she headed as fast as she could scurry. Trixie’s husband was covered in frost and chunks of dripping ice, but he was alive, and she practically slammed into his side while gasping for breath.

“Greenie!” she whispered, but she was unable to get Green Grass’ attention, because he still had his eyes closed and was shivering so much his ice-clogged coat was making little tinkling noises like a wind chime. Thankfully, her voice had not drawn the attention of the Windigo in the center of the council circle either, and that was rather odd. He was not paying his captives any attention at all. And worse, he was monologuing!

That was an extremely stupid thing for a proper monster to do, and she had not believed Fizzy when she said that was how the fight was going to start. On second thought, it was how Nightmare Moon had acted, and how Dark Feather had confronted Mayor Marigold Mare, so maybe smarter monsters were required by some rule to handicap their intelligence with unintelligent action and posturing speech. After all, Trixie’s comic books had all kinds of examples, and although some of the things she learned from the colorful books had been complete lies, there had been several enlightening discoveries.

It was a question for later. She nudged Green Grass instead and bit him gently on the ear where Trixie had said was the best spot.

“Eek!” Greenie shook off whatever was paralyzing his mind and looked back at her with panicked blue eyes nearly the size of saucers. “Twilight!” he gasped. “What… I mean…” Ever so slowly, his eyes lifted up to the larger griffon who was looming over the both of them. “Twilight Sparkle,” he continued in an extremely calm and leveled voice, “I’d like to introduce you to a good friend of mine in the griffon aerie. This is Gilda, the Wingmaster’s daughter and third… No, second griffon in line to inherit the Big Perch now that her half-brother is dead.”

Gilda said nothing, but continued to stare at the both of them with cold blue eyes.

“She’s currently under the Wingmaster’s mental control,” continued Green Grass more quickly now, “so while he’s distracted, I believe it would be to both of our best interests if you were to kick her in the neck. In the crop,” he quickly clarified as the Windigo and Fizzy clashed together with a brief roar. “Now.”

Apple Bloom had taught Monster how to properly buck an apple tree, and then Applejack had taught her how to gently repeat the procedure, and how to properly treat and wrap the injuries she had inflicted on Kethi Terrace, a middle-aged tree who had a delightful crunch to her eating apples, which were not to be made into cider expect in unusual late-Fall mixes when Yatha Indigo ran out. Apple trees were a lot more sturdy than ponies, and Monster was still all fizzing with extra magic, so she turned around and kicked with all the gentle precision she was able.

Gilda went down like a dropped postal package and proceeded to hack and spew a short distance away. Greenie seemed happy at the result, although it was difficult to see his eyes with all the frost in his eyebrows, and she was not about to try melting it away for fear of melting him too.

Green Grass weakly smiled in a vindictive way she really did not expect when the Windigo Fizzy was fighting gave out an anguished howl, although his thick green coat shook with a short shudder afterward. “Oh, good one. Think your Tempest can beat the Windigo, Twilight?”

“Not sure.” Monster huddled closer to his ice-clogged coat. “Hope. If she loses, you’ll all d-d-die in lava.”

“A-and I’ll n-never get to write a doctoral thesis on the Windigo.” Greenie coughed and made to stand up, only to sag back down onto the sand-covered ground and wheeze, “I can’t even get up, and everything’s getting blurred.”

“You better live,” croaked Gilda, who rose up by their sides in an angry wall of fluffed feathers smeared with vomit. Her eyes had turned into a fierce gold, and she closed her dripping beak with a short click. “You had her kick me!”

“Made you throw up,” said Greenie. “Fight off your father’s influence. No, don’t go fight him!” he snapped with a frantic gasp for air and a swift glance around the larger circle of looming griffons. “The only thing keeping the rest of the flock from piling on is instinct. As long as it’s just the two of them, it’s a leadership challenge. Save Sunny and Stargazer. Get off the mountain. I’ll stay here with Twilight.”

Whatever the griffon said must have been both negative and profane from the sharpness of her actions and words, although she looked around afterward and added one single word in Griffon.

Green Grass shifted painfully and looked around the nearby bound and beaten ponies, as well as the heavy bulk of what looked like the second-largest griffon in the area. “Sunny’s gone. Prince Sky, did you see where she went?”

The large griffon grunted, which was about as much as he could do with all the ropes tied around him. Greenie threw himself flat and heaved himself forward to get closer, growling under his breath, “Gilda, if you’re not going to get Stargazer to safety, at least help me unwrap Sky while your father’s distracted. Hurry!”

Monster was trembling to see the pony she depended on being a stable source of support turn out to be so frantic and disorganized—

… time … discontinuity…

It nearly caught her by surprise, but when the time spell swept down across them all, she still was able to reflexively make a tiny one-Monster bubble inside it so she was not trapped like the rest of them.

Everything slowed down, leaving Monster to wonder if she was going to get in trouble for using an unauthorized time spell right in front of Trixie’s husband. If so, it would be worth it because getting in trouble ‘after’ meant there was going to be an ‘after,’ and as long as she kept from looping, she didn’t have to worry about knots too.

She did start to abruptly worry about the mismatched creature in front of Fizzy, who had to be Discord. It seemed to be both larger and smaller than the statue in the Royal Gardens Open Sunrise to Sunset, which she had helped her friends clean years of pigeon poop from every mismatched niche and oblong cranny. Seeing it actually alive was a relief, because she had started thinking that the pigeon poop might have been some sort of preservative, and it would be terrible for the creature to come back from its long exile missing an arm or leg. Discord did fit the creature quite well, because nothing that asymmetrical could possibly exist without having immense power or a lot of health problems. It had stopped time without the slightest bit of displayed effort, after all. There was no way to predict what chaos would do next, no way to prepare for where it would strike or how strong. All of the practicing she had done with her friends was useless! They had made all kinds of plans and Apple Bloom had written them all down and Sweetie had made sure they were spelled correctly and none of that mattered against Discord’s disharmony…

…Harmony.

Harmony was more than just order. Or even following the rules. Her friends had taught her new things every day, and their relationships had changed each time while the harmony between them grew. Sometimes the changes were for the better, sometimes stressing their friendships, but a chaotic changing with organized growth that brought new friends in, new different friends who should not fit together or get along, even though they did. The fact that Discord functioned meant that he too had harmony inside him. Celestia had said he was too powerful to fight, but fighting was chaos, it broke apart order, like eleven cookies among twelve friends.

Monster was helpless on her own. She was unable to go with Shining Armor to find Cadence because she was still afraid of them. She couldn’t face Starlight Glimmer because she didn’t even know how her own cutie mark worked. She wanted to help fight the Windigo, but that would only end in disaster and fire with no chance of saving all the captive ponies and griffons on the mountain. She needed her other friends, but they were needed by Trixie and Cadance and brother so much more. She couldn’t steer the airship because she had no idea how, and certainly could not help Greenie and his griffon friend untie Sky, because the last time she had tried to help with the knot on Apple Bloom’s bow it had turned out so badly. There were so many things flooding her mind that she was paralized in place, her eyes darting from pony to griffon to Windigo.

She wanted…

She needed…

...to trust her friends.

And trust in Harmony.

She didn’t have to do everything herself. She didn’t have to trick Starlight or fight the Windigo or do whatever squishy thing that was involved in foalbirth. She had one responsibility of her own, and dozens of friends to help with the others. She was no longer alone, with only her mother for support. She would never be alone, even if she lived to a bazillion, cagillion years like Celestia and Luna. Together with them, she was larger than all of them. There would be bad times, Nightmares of her own, like the time she stepped on Angel’s back paw, but friends helped you get through even the worst of times.

Maybe she could even show Discord what it was like to be a friend.

It was going to be a difficult job. The distortion from the time-bubble made Fizzy and Discord difficult to make out and impossible to hear, but he seemed to be just as arrogant as Diamond Tiara used to be, and as bossy as Greenie’s father. Rather than worry about what she could not do, Monster focused on what she could do.

What she needed to do.

When she was to do it.

And waited…

❅ ❅ ❅

Time snapped, and Tempest nearly died. Again.

The blur of fast-moving Windigo was nothing that could be observed, then reacted to, then countered. It was something you had to feel deep in your heart before it happened, a frozen spear that had to be burned out of the air before it touched flesh. Tempest had fought hundreds of foes, even sparred with the Storm King when he was feeling in the mood, and only that experience kept her alive for more than a few minutes.

She had thought the delayed explosion from her trick shoe was going to slow down the ice-covered griffon, so she had jumped the Wingmaster, only to be hammered across the frozen sand by a nearly casual backclaw. Once the explosive damage healed over in a sloughing of slush-like flesh, there was little of the griffon left in his features now, only a vague shape and that hissing voice like ice shards in the wind. She still broke off shards whenever she managed to get a successful blow in, but it was becoming more difficult to move in the growing cold, and the Windigo was playing with her, like a cat with a particularly dangerous mouse.

“Why do you fight?” gloated the Windigo with two swift strokes of his claws that could have disemboweled her if they had connected. “You have brought us so many to swell our ranks and cover the world in ice.”

She wanted to snap back a response, but was too busy staying alive and adjusting where their fight was going.

“There is so much hate in you, waiting to be unleashed,” hissed the Windigo. “You will be my most powerful slave—” One massive icicle-encrusted claw swatted her out of the air during her leap and slammed her down into the frozen sand. “Once you have been properly prepared,” he finished.

Tempest could feel the edges of the sand-covered rope coil under her back, even if she could not see the airship hovering directly above, and she managed to gurgle through the ice around her neck, “Prepare this!”

“What do you mean?” asked the Windigo, so close to her face that his breath was freezing the hairs inside of her nose. “Perhaps him!”

The Windigo lashed out with his other claw, catching the plummeting form of Pumpernickel, who had been just about to land high-velocity directed violence on its back. With a solid whump of frozen sand, the hefty Royal Guard was slammed to the council circle floor right next to Tempest, and the Windigo let out a low, cold chuckle as its claws tightened around their necks.

“Oh, the decisions I must make. You both just drip with rage and hatred. Still, I’m going to feed one of you to the other, so I just have to pick.”

It was a surreal experience, as if Tempest could see inside the hefty nocturne pegasus’s mind when they exchanged glances from around the Windigo’s claws. As if they were one violent pony, both Tempest and Pumpernickel tucked their hind hooves up, braced themselves, and let loose with identical hammer-blows into each side of the warped griffon’s sides. The Windigo let out an agonized screech and landed a short distance away, allowing the two ponies to roll to their hooves and follow.

Tempest Shadow had always been a loner without any real friends. She fought against others, not with them. This fight was so different, and yet the same in some strange manner. As she lunged and kicked, smashing icy limbs and directing iron-shod blows to vulnerable spots, she could not tell where her attacks ended and Pumpernickel’s began. It was a dance of death and destruction, male and female in perfect harmony as they defended and attacked, ducking and weaving through razor-sharp talons and beak blows. The Windigo’s ability to heal its injuries was stressed to the limit with massive chunks of ice hammered away from its body, and for just the smallest part of time, Tempest thought they had a chance.

“Enough!” With one convulsive motion, the Windigo slammed Tempest into the sand by one rear leg. She was dazed by the impact, but not so blind as to miss the hefty batpony being grabbed by the neck in the process and slammed as well. “You two fools!” it shrieked. “I am a force of hate! Your rage only makes me stronger. Only love can melt the heart of a Windigo!”

For some reason, Pumpernickel took that moment to break out in laughter, and not just a snort of amusement or a low chuckle. He laughed, even while lashing out with one hind leg and knocking the Windigo’s claw away from Tempest.

“Why are you laughing!” shrieked the Windigo, getting both claws around the batpony’s neck. “I’m going to kill you! All of your kind will die in ice and snow! I’m the most powerful force of vengeance on the planet! What is so funny!”

Tempest staggered to her hooves where she had rolled, but before she could move, Pumpernickel gave one immense heave, then lashed up with his hind legs. To her shock, instead of trying to break free from the stranglehold, he lifted his steel-shod hooves up and pinned the giant ice monster’s wings down so it was unable to flap or even move for a critical moment.

“I’m MARRIED!” bellowed the trapped batpony.

Then Laminia, who was plummeting down from the sky in a trail of fire with her wings wrapped around herself to maximize her velocity, landed rear hooves first on the nape of the Windigo’s neck.

And the Windigo’s head exploded in flames.