The next day, training continued.
This session being training with mock weapons and various other equipment.
One of the various weapons included a bow and arrow, this gave Kate Bishop a chance to show off her archery skills.
She repeatedly managed to hit the bullseye dead on, even managing to stack three arrows on top of each other.
Both Angela and Wonder Woman were both impress and surprised by Kate's bow skills.
"By Odin's beard," Angela exclaimed.
"Indeed," Wonder Woman nodded, "she could give the goddess Artemis and Faradai of the Light Elves a run for their money."
"I learned from the best," Kate replied, with a smile.
As the training carried on and got progressively harder, Twilight and the others continuously bested and cheered each other on through all the challenges put in front of them.
Their teamwork was starting to impress Angela, who had worked as part of a team and knew that importance of help allies in anyway, shape or form.
As their synergy began to improve, suddenly snow began to fall and the weather turned instantly colder.
"Snow?" Fluttershy said, "but it's the middle of summer."
"Oh, bother," Rarity exclaimed, "and I only packed summer attire and these Amazon trappings are not suitable for cold weather."
"Maybe Equestrian magic is on the loose again," Sunset suggested, thinking that Equestrian Windigos has somehow ended up in the human world, the human world had its own version of Windigos, but they were very different the ones she knew.
"This is indeed no normal weather," Wonder Woman stated, "this all has the smell of magic about it."
"Indeed," Angela said, "this can only be caused by the Casket of Ancient Winters."
"How can that be?" Wonder Woman asked, "the casket is suppose be in Odin's vault under heavy guard."
By this time, the snow had become a full on blizzard and creatures made of ice began to emerging from the snow.
"So what exactly is this Casket of Ancient Winters?" Twilight asked.
"It is a casket," Angela explained, "which contains the Fimbulwinter of Ymir, a magical winter that will destroy the world, unless we find the casket and close it, all of Midgard will be consumed by the Fimbulwinter."
"We must inform the Queen," Rainbow Dash said, "maybe we can contact other heroes to coordinate a search for this thing."
Suddenly the ground began to shake, signalling something big was approaching.
Everyone was one their guard, when seemingly out of nowhere stepped a hulking figure, clad in armour.
Angela recognised the figure immediately, "Kurse?!" she said, "impossible, you're dead."
Kurse simply roared and tried to smash the group with his massive hands.
"Get to the throne room," Wonder Woman ordered, "Angela and I will buy you some time."
"Right," Twilight nodded, she and the others dashed past the ice creatures, heading for the throne room.
Angela turned to Nubia and other young Amazons.
"You," she ordered, "with me."
Moments later, at the entrance to the throne room.
The group paused to catch their breath and recover from the cold weather raging outside.
"This day started out so well," Rarity said, "and now some crazy magical mcguffin is going to turn the world into a snow cone."
"Well," Twilight stated, "hopefully, Queen Hippolyta and Amazons might be able to help get a message to the Justice Force."
Now that they had taken a moment to warm up and strategise, Twilight and the others entered the throne room.
The sight that greeted them was equal parts surprising, horrifying and startling.
Queen Hippolyta and her guards had all been turned into different forms of animals, they could only tell they were the people in question because they were wearing items of clothing.
At the centre of the room, sitting on the Queen Hippolyta's throne was the one responsible for the transformations, Circe.
"Why hello there," the witch greeted.
"Circe," Donna Troy proclaimed.
"Who?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Circe," Twilight answered, "the witch from the Odyssey."
Rainbow Dash, along with the others, gave Twilight a confused and guilty look.
"Am I the only one who paid attention in history class?" Twilight asked.
"Can we focus, please," Sunset said.
"Agreed," Wonder Girl nodded, "as I recall, Circe, Queen Hippolyta imprisoned you in the depths of Tartarus, with zero case of parole."
Circe smiled, "I had a little help," she replied.
"From who?" Stinger asked.
As if in answer, Circe's partner in crime, stepped out from behind the throne.
Twilight and the others recognised who it was instantly, the Asgardian god of mischief along with being Thor and Angela's adopted brother, Loki.
"I believe that would be me," he declared, "hello, trickster god, hi."
"I take it, you're the one that stole the Casket of Ancient Winters from Odin's vault?" Donna Troy asked.
"Guilty as charged," Loki replied, "I made Circe an offer she can't refuse."
"Which was...?" Thunder asked.
"He offered me freedom and revenge on Princess Diana, her mother and their homeland," Circe replied.
"Making deals Loki?" Wonder Girl said, "that doesn't seem like you, not like you to play second fiddle to someone else."
"Nice try," Loki smiled, "but me and Circe, it turns out, share a goal."
"We both want to rule the world," Circe finished, "or something close to that."
"If you want the world," Twilight said, "then you have to go through us."
Circe's smile widened, "With pleasure," she laughed, with a flick of her wrist she summoned forth, a Minocentaur, a creature that was a fusion of a Minotaur and a Centaur.
"Go, my beast," Circe proclaimed, "teach these mortals who is the future queen of this world."
With a terrible roar, the Minocentaur, rushed towards the heroes.
They ran, heading for the exit, Kate Bishop firing an arrow at Circe, as they ran, but with a snap of her fingers the arrow transformed into a snake that slithered away.
Luckily, the team managed to make it to the door, just before the Minocentaur could get its hands on them.
It continued to chase them, even outside in the blizzard.
"We need to lose it," Applejack cried, "then we need to find Wonder Woman and tell her what's going on."
"And how do we do that?!" Rarity asked.
"First," Midnight said, "we need to stop it from moving, that'll make it easier to deal with."
Twilight nodded, "we need some breathing room," she stated.
"I'll distract it," Rainbow Dash stated, "that'll give you guys time to think of a plan."
Using her geode, Rainbow Dash began running in circles around the Minocentaur, making it pay attention to her and not the others, she added to her distraction by taunting the creature.
"Hey freakshow," she jeered, "if you're a Centaur and Minotaur, does that mean your half horse, half bull and half man?"
The Minocentur simply roared in response.
"Hey," Rainbow Dash replied, "was that horse or a bull noise? Pick one, please."
While the creature was distracted, the others had quickly come up with a plan.
Once the plan had been formulated, Twilight told Rainbow Dash to get clear after which she, Midnight, Rarity and Fluttershy using their lantern rings to bind the creature with Applejack and Thunder delivering the finishing blow.
Upon the blow being delivered, the Minocentaur vanished in puff of smoke.
"An illusion?!" Squirrel Girl exclaimed.
"Must have been Circe's plan to lure us away from the Casket of Ancient Winters," Spider-Girl realised, "it has to be hidden somewhere on the island."
"We can worry about that later," Stinger said, "right now, we need to find Wonder Woman and the others and warn them."
Everyone nodded, but as they were about move off more of the ice creatures from before, rose from the snow surrounding them.
"I suggest we run," Sunset stated.
"Yeah," Applejack nodded, "and fast."
As the snow creatures advanced on them, the group made a mad dash away from them, but, the blizzard made it hard to tell which direction was which.
The snow creatures, despite being big, were surprisingly fast and managed to keep up with them.
"It's no use," Lightning cried, "they're gaining on us and we can't tell where anything is because of all this snow."
"And on top of that," Thunder added, "every time we beat one of these things another one rises up."
"There are too many of them to fight," Fluttershy cried, "what should we do?"
"Fight anyway," Twilight answered, lighting up her lantern ring.
As one of the creatures was about to attack a figure emerged from the blizzard and effortlessly annihilated all the snow creature with a few moves.
"Wow," Ms. Marvel breathed, "that was just...wow."
The figure turn, noticed the group and approached revealing herself to be Jane Foster, formerly the holding of the title of Thor, now the hero Valkyrie.
"You must be the Champions," she greeted, "we meet again."
In the intervening time, the original owner of the Thor name, Thor Odinson, had reclaimed his powers and title. In appreciation of her dedication and heroism, Thor's father, Odin had granted Jane Foster the powers of a Valkyrie.
Along with her new powers, Jane had also received Undrjarn the All-Weapon, a magical vambrace that could turn into any weapon she needed.
"Dr. Foster," Twilight replied, "thanks for the assist, your arrival couldn't have come more sooner."
"Indeed," Valkyrie nodded, "Odin informed me about the theft of the Casket from his vault, I arrived here as fast as I could."
"And thank goodness for that," Rarity replied, "unless we find that Casket, this whole island and the whole world will experience another ice age."
"We need to find Wonder Woman and the others," Sunset stated, "then we can regroup and go after Loki and Circe."
"Agreed," Valkyrie nodded.
The group along with Valkyrie, continued on their way, trying to navigate through the thick blizzard raging on.
Applejack and Rainbow Dash used their lantern rings to create a snowplough construct to create a path and to clear the snow, as it was starting to pile up.
They had almost thought they were completely lost, when they managed to stumble across Wonder Woman, Angela and other young Amazons.
After quickly explaining the situation, along with Valkyrie's presents, Angela was ready to go on the warpath against Circe and her adoptive brother.
"Do not be a fool, Angela" Wonder Woman said, "charging in without a plan is reckless."
"Princess Diana is right," Valkyrie nodded, "as Twilight has said, we must find the Casket of Ancient Winters and close it first, then we can deal with Circe and Loki."
"Go on your hunt," Angela replied, "but I will go and deal with the witch and my brother, alone."
Without another word, Angela draw her twin blades, called Ichors, and rush off into the blizzard.
Wonder Woman sighed, "Just like Thor," she breathed, "always leaping before he looks."
She turned to Artemis and Nubia, "go with her," she ordered, "it would be good for Angela to have some support."
The two nodded and dashed off after Angela.
"Anyway," Wonder Woman continued, "we need to split up and search for the Casket, once we find it and close it, we can end this whole thing."
With that, the group split into pairs.
They were about to move out when suddenly an energy dome appeared, sealing off the island from the rest of the world, essentially turning the island into a giant snow globe.
"It's Circe," Wonder Woman said, "she's isolating the island."
Shortly after the dome had been put up, the ground shook as the entire island began lifting out of the water and into the sky.
"Find the Casket, now!" Wonder Woman cried, "then we must deal with Circe and Loki."