ACT THREE
Their royal majesties were looking most disturbed by magical images they were viewing when the gang practically barged into the throne room, nearly running down the guards at the doors.
“What’s happening?” asked Lightning.
Grand Ruler pointed at the images, “See for yourselves. This all just happened a few moments ago.”
What the gang saw then made them gasp in shock…
The snow was falling heavier, and the winds were more crispy and chillier as it got colder, but that wasn’t the worst of it.
Ponies outside, that got caught in the storm, were seen no longer feeling joyful, or caring and sharing, but rather were now acting cold and hostile towards others-- knocking presents out of their hands, smashing their own Hearths Warming decorations to pieces, some were even stealing from carts and stores, and others began to brawl in the streets forcing the guards and the Starfleet sentries to try and break it all up…
…Then again, even some of the guards and the sentries began to act in the same way.
“That’s just awful.” whimpered Fluttershy.
“What’s with everyone?” asked Buddy. “Just an hour ago there was happiness galore.”
Twilight observed everyone’s behavior, and how some went from really nice and happy, to really hostile and nasty. “It’s like they’re under some kind of spell.”
“They must be.” said Celestia. “Sensors have indicated trace amounts of evil magic within the snow itself. It can and will spread all over anyone touched by it, and we found what the cause of it is.”
She used her magic to freeze the magic images, and then zoom in at the clouds overhead, and Twilight and the Equestrians could see a distinctive creature in the clouds.
“It’s a Windigo.” cried Spike.
Lightning and the Space Ponies had studied about the Windigos, and their connections to the myth of Hearths Warmin, but this was the first time they had actually seen any.
“Those are the chilling spirits that feed off of the fighting and hate of others.” said Dyno.
“Si, and they more hate they feed on, they grow stronger, which makes the weather colder and more savage.” added Myte.
“This is horrible.” cried Fluttershy “If everyone keeps acting like this, what will happen to Hearths Warming?”
Celestia shook her head in dismay, “I fear there may not even be a Hearths Warming.”
Pinkie gasped. “N-N-N-No Hearths Warming?!!”
Everyone began to realize the seriousness…
Without the good feelings of caring, sharing, giving, and light, Hearths Warming couldn’t possibly function properly.
Rhymey then asked their majesties…
“Can’t something be done to stop all this hate?
Is there no spell that will make everything great?”
Twilight’s head perked up. “The Fire of Friendship… Just like in the story of Hearths Warming. The great pony leaders of each tribe came together, to solve out their issues and--” she stopped when she noted the Space Ponies glaring at her with disapproving expressions.
“I don’t think it’s that simple this time.” said Lightning. “The Windigos are the ones spreading the hate.”
“But that doesn’t make any sense.” added Krysta. “Windigos only feed off hate and fighting. They don’t create it and spread it.”
“Maybe not.” replied Grand Ruler “…Which can only suggest that the Windigos, themselves, are not the main cause of all this.
…Captain Lightning.”
Lightning stood tall and firm, “Sir?”
“You and the Space Ponies will investigate at once.”
The other Space Ponies agreed by saluting.
“Hey, what about us?” sneered Rainbow.
“Yeah, you can’t leave us out of this!” added Pinkie.
Grand Ruler cleared his throat, “… You ladies will be accompanying them.”
The Equestrian ponies all blinked once in shock.
Some of the Space Ponies were astounded, but none as deeply as Lightning and Twilight.
“Wait, they can’t come with us.” said Starla “They’re not even commissioned to the force yet, and they’re still beginners in their training.”
Rainbow’s features hardened. “What are you saying; that we don’t have what it takes?!”
“We’ve had plenty of our shares of adventures before.” insisted Rarity.
“But you’ve hardly had any adventures like we have.” protested Buddy, “And even with what training you’ve done, you’ve all got a long way to go.”
“We’re still willing to help.” balk Applejack. “We know more about the Windigos than you guys ever will.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?!” growled Artie.
Protests went back and forth, until Lightning shouted, “ATEN-TION!!” and everyone else froze where they were.
“We were given our orders, and that’s final!”
Twilight agreed, “Besides, you don’t see me and Lightning bickering over who’s better than who, or who should be doing what. We’re just wasting time while that blizzard is affecting more being out there.”
Their majesties were very proud of their students, and the other ponies all felt silly for acting like fools.
“But wait…” said Spike “If we go out there, won’t we be affected by the blizzard too?”
“No, we won’t,” said Lightning. “Our battle suits and their heating units should protect us. As for the air, we’ll just use oxygen masks.”
“Well that’s dandy, but what about the rest of us?” asked Applejack. “We can’t use those super suits like you have.”
Twilight stepped forth chuckling, “Leave that to me.”
“…To us.” Added Celestia as she and her husband stood behind Twilight.
All three of them combined their magic together, shrouding all the Equestrians in a magical, sparkling light.
“Hee-Hee-Hee… it tickles.” laughed Pinkie.
“What is this?” wondered Fluttershy.
When the light had faded, Grand Ruler explained, “This spell will provide you all with shielding against the cursed snow and from the cold, but be warned: it will not protect you from the air itself, so you’ll have to wear masks and eyewear.”
“Also…” Celestia added “We only gave you enough power to last a few hours, as the spell wears off, you’ll start feeling cold, and that’s when you’ll know to turn back.”
While the Equestrians didn’t feel any different, nor did anything unusual show on them, they put their faith in their majesties and in Twilight; it was her spell after all.
With all this, it was time to bundle up and head out.
“We’ll be staying here to find some way to counteract the blizzard,” said Grand Ruler. “…But it shall be up to all of you to find out what the cause of it is and stop it.
Good luck, My Brave Ponies.”
The ponies all bowed in respect, and Lightning and the Space Ponies all stood in a line, “STARFLEET MAGIC!!” and they transformed-- donning their battle armor and visors; one-by-one calling out their respective force.
Lightning: “Power of Believing!”
Starla: “Power of Space!”
Buddy: “Power of Flora!”
Artie: “Power of Art!”
Rhymey: “Power of Wind!”
Dyno & Myte: “Power of Fire!”
The Equestrians were still very impressed by it all, especially Rainbow as she commented “I got to get me one those.”
Soon, with the Equestrians bundled up, and wearing masks and snow-goggles… they were off.
All the Space Ponies did the flying, carrying an Equestrian on their back since most of them could not fly, and those that couldn’t keep up as fast.
“WHOA!!!” groaned Twilight as she held onto Lightning tightly. She had flown before with her own wings, but never this fast before.
Spike looked green in the face as he gripped onto Starla.
Even Rainbow couldn’t believe the speed as she held on tightly. “I think I’m going to blow!!” she groaned.
They reached their destination in almost no time at all. The Space Ponies let their riders off of them, and the poor Equestrians felt pretty dizzy.
“You all okay?” Lightning had to ask.
“Ugh… we’ll live!” groaned Rainbow.
Pinkie turned down and actually barfed into the snow on the ground.
“Don’t worry,” said Starla “You’ll all get the feel of it if you keep up your training.”
The girls managed to snap themselves out of it quickly, because for now there was a mission to deal with.
The main location of the storm seemed to be far from New Canterlot, in the open countryside far from any town or village.
It was much darker here than back home, even for the night, forcing the Starfleet Ponies to use their visors infrared to help them see. The goggles which the Equestrians wore were magically enhanced by their majesties to help them see clearly too.
The cold didn’t bother anyone at all, and Krysta used her own magic to shroud herself in a small barrier, but the falling snow and the billowing winds were almost unbearable to watch or feel.
“I’ve never seen it storm like this before.” said Spike. He was barely able to hold his ground in the strong gales.
“Look up there!” cried Krysta.
Everyone looked up and saw many Windigos soaring around, with their cold eyes glowing and the storm worsened.
“Try a few warning shots.” suggested Lightning.
“What?” wailed Pinkie, “But they’re just spirits. You can’t hit a spirit with a blast.”
“No, Pinkie…” sighed Twilight “Maybe we can distract them. It may break up the storm a bit, and maybe even make whoever’s really behind all this come forth.”
“Ohh… right…” said Pinkie.
Lightning rolled his eyes and sighed, but then he ordered the Starfleet points to prepare to fire.
“Twilight… Rarity… would you do the honors too?” he asked offering them both a place in the line.
The ladies saluted and took their places at the end of the line.
“Ready…!” shouted Lightning, and everyone’s horns began to glow “…Fire!”
Everyone began to fire small pulse blasts up into the air, straight for the Windigos.
Suddenly, from out of nowhere, the blasts were intercepted by bright and freezing beams, actually solidifying the energy in balls of ice that shot straight to the ground and shattered.
The ponies couldn’t believe their eyes.
“…Nice try, you bunglers,” hissed a sinister voice. “But it will take much more than simple fire power to freeze my plans to destroy Hearths Warming.”
…Destroy Hearths Warming?
Some of the ponies already felt sick to their stomachs to hear such a plot, and then they saw who said it coming out into the open.
The white-robbed creature floated down on a dark, magical snow cloud.
Faces on the ponies hardened, while a few looked nervous.
“Who are you?” Lightning demanded. “Identify yourself!”
The creature snickered, but then lifted up her wing to pull back her hood; revealing herself to be a silvery white finch, with a short, yellow beak, and cold blue eyes. She also actually had long flowing white hair that fluttered in the breeze and sparkled like the snowflakes.
“The name is Frieda… or more appropriately: I am Queen of the Windigos; thanks to this…” she showed the amulet on the string that she wore.
“What is that?” wondered Spike.
“I’ve never seen anything like it.” said Twilight
The space ponies hadn’t the foggiest either.
“Now why doesn’t that surprise me?” mocked Frieda. “Not many know of the Winter Amulet, it was given to me by the Windigos.
I continue to feed them with so much of my hate and anger, and they help grant me the power I need to destroy Hearths Warming.”
The gang could already feel this Frieda character was no less of a sicko.
“But why…?” asked Fluttershy “Why would you want to destroy Hearths Warming?”
Frieda only chuckled and balked, “Why not?! It’ll spare me of watching any more of the cheer, and joy, and silly nonsense, and thanks the amulet, the Windigos are now roaming about; empowering my Cursed Blizzard, spreading hate and anger to everyone.
Soon, there will be no more Hearths Warming. Everyone will be too mean and nasty to really care or notice.”
The ponies were growing angrier.
Lightning had heard enough already and stepped forth. “This is your only chance. Surrender willingly and call off your storm, otherwise we’ll have no choice but to take you by force.”
As expected, Frieda refused to surrendered, and softly touched the amulet showing she meant business.
“Okay then…!” sneered Lightning. “Let’s take her!”
The others all agreed and were ready to charge, when Frieda called “…Just a minute!” and her amulet began to glow.
“What’s she doing?” cried Krysta.
Suddenly, two enormous blocks of ice appeared, and what Twilight saw made her gasp in terror. “It can’t be…!”
There, encased in the ice blocks. “Shining Armor…! Princess Cadance!”
“She’s frozen them solid!” cried Buddy.
“That explains why they were so late in coming.” added Applejack.
“Hey, you feathered freak! What’s the big idea in capturing Twilight’s relatives?”
Frieda didn’t answer, and she didn’t have to. Twilight was able to figure it out for herself. “She captured them so they couldn’t try to fight back.”
She remembered how their love was strong enough to at least drive away the Changelings at the Royal Canterlot Wedding, and that Cadance’s magic was powerful enough to remove certain kinds of brainwashing.
Frieda flicked her hair with her wing and gave an evil smirk.
Twilight was trembling furiously. “Give them back, right now!”
Lightning could feel Twilight’s emotions starting to get to her. “Hold your tongue!” he sneered softly at her.”
Frieda snickered at Twilight. “You want them? Then come and get them… if you dare?”
Twilight was furious by this point.
“Stay where you are,” ordered Lightning, and he motioned to the all the others “…All of you; don’t anyone make a move.”
The Space Ponies agreed instantly, having the same idea he did, but the Equestrians couldn’t feel to contain themselves.
“She’s got our friends-- Twilight’s relatives!” said Rarity.
“We’ve got to save them!” wailed Pinkie.
“I said “Don’t move…!” growled Lightning.
Rainbow was trembling and gnashing her teeth, feeling Lightning was crazy.
Applejack was sweating angrily yet nervously.
Fluttershy, she swallowed hard…
…But it was Twilight that finally snapped, and with a loud roar, she began to gallop forth.
“Twilight!!” shouted Lightning, and he quickly zipped over and scooped her up and out of the way… just in time… as a huge blast of ice came zooming in from above and would had frozen them both had Lightning not acted in time.
“It’s a trap!” shouted Starla.
They all suddenly found themselves surrounded by herds of Windigos, all looking ready to brawl.
“Look out!!” shouted Krysta.
With her magic amulet glowing, Frieda fiercely thrust her wing outward and ordered her army, “ATTACK!”
The evil creatures began to fly about ready to unleash more ice beams, forcing the Space ponies to scatter about and grab the Equestrians to pull them out of harms ways.
“We’ve got to get the girls out of here!” shouted Dyno.
“Si,” agreed Myte “Krysta, can you teleport them away?”
Krysta kept zipping up and down and all around to avoid getting hit. “I can’t get close enough for a clear shot!”
She tried to conjure up her double-reflector portals to absorb the blasts and sent them back, but mush to her and everyone else’s total shock, the portals were frozen upon being blasted, and they fell hard to the ground and shattered.
“I don’t believe this!” shouted Rarity. “The ice power is too much for any of our magic to work.”
One of the blasts came straight at Starla.
“PULSAR LASER”
Her blast intercepted the ice-beam, but got frozen in the process.
“Just like before!” she cried.
Frieda laughed, “The more hate I feed to the Windigos, the stronger their powers become.”
“Well, then…” said Artie. “Let’s try a fire attack!”
The twins agreed and they joined hands.
“Keep behind us, Applejack.” cautioned Dyno.
“Oh, boy!” groaned Applejack.
The twins powered up and unleashed their power, “BOOM-BOOM FIREBALLS!”
“PAINT BOMBS” Artie launched his explosive gunk-balls.
The powerful flames and the resulting explosions seemed to work, driving the ice attacks away, but everyone knew it would be no use in attacking the Windigos directly.
The evil creatures continued to swarm and fire their ice-beams at the fighters.
“These guys fight as strongly as we do.
The more hate they feed, the stronger they’ll be too.” said Rhymey.
Rainbow dodged another ice beam, and then she could see Frieda down below form where she was flying. “We’ve got to stop her controlling these frozen freaks!” and she suddenly realized “The Amulet… I’m going for it!”
“Rainbow, wait!!” shouted Lightning, but Rainbow had already zoomed towards Frieda, and it looked as if she was going to grab for the amulet, but upon getting too close to her… the amulet glowed; zapping Rainbow and encasing in solid ice on the spot.
“Oh, no!” cried Twilight.
Everyone else looked and gawked in terror at what had happened.
“She’s been frozen!” whimpered Fluttershy.
“Ha! Fools!” shouted Frieda “You think controlling the Windigos is the only power I possess. I am the Queen of Winter… try to attack me, and you’ll get a chill out of it! Even your precious protective spells won’t be enough to save you.”
She began to fire more ice beams out at the fighters, forcing everyone to dodge.
“Wow! Whoa!” Pinkie cried as she dodged the blows, but then was frozen herself.
“Pinkie!” shouted Artie “Hang on, I’ll get you out!”
He grabbed his staff, and took a swing to shatter the ice, only for one of the Windigos to freeze it right in his hand. “ARGH!!” he groaned, and then he shot again, and frozen.
“No!! Artie!” shouted Lightning.
“Looks like things are beginning to cool down.” shouted Frieda, and she aimed a shot at Rarity next, making her scream in fight.
“NOOO…!!” Spike shouted as he leapt up and tackled her out of the way, and just barely missing the shot himself, causing the blast to ricochet off a large rock and strike the twins, Artie, and Pinkie.
“No!” Fluttershy, and in her distraction, a beam of ice was coming straight for her too, but Rhymey quickly sped in, scooped her up and leapt out of the way.
Frieda kept laughing and cackling as this was most enjoyable to her.
Then suddenly, she began to shiver a little herself. “Oh, no! Not now!” she groaned. She actually began to look a paler as she herself was starting to freeze…
…Which Twilight and Lightning both noticed.
“I’ve got to get out of here!” Frieda grumbled, and she hopped up onto her magic cloud and began to rise up high into the freezing sky, taking all her frozen prisoners with her.
“No! Wait!” shouted Twilight as she galloped forth and readied her magic to try one last time to save her friends, but her magic did nothing and froze every shot she made.
Rarity begged and yelled at the Space Ponies. “Don’t just stand there, do something! Don’t let her get away!”
“We can’t!” snapped Buddy, and he motioned at all the Windigos surrounding Frieda. Any attempt to try and go after her would likely result in the rest of them being frozen.
All any of them could do was look up angrily, even a bit tearfully as their friends vanished with the evil finch up into one giant and very dark cloud-- most likely where her hideout was.
Applejack let out an angry growl as she kicked the snow hard.
Fluttershy and Rarity’s tears began to fall at the loss of some of their friends, but the tears froze almost instantly as the winds continued to pick up and the snow fell harder.
“The storm’s getting worse!” shouted Lightning “…Krysta, teleport us to the palace, quick.”
“I’ll try!” yelled Krysta.
Twilight continued to look up at the cloud where Frieda had vanished from, until she and the others were all teleported off by Krysta’s magic.
While in her hideout, Frieda sat upon an icy throne, just relaxing calmly. “That was too close.” she said to herself. “As good as my power is, it isn’t without its drawbacks.
I must not let Starfleet figure this out!”
She then remembered all the prisoners she had captured, and began to feel. “This may be the perfect chance I need to round up the rest of them and complete my plot.
Then nothing will be able to stop me from turning all beings cold-hearted, and destroyed Hearths Warming forever!”