An Alternative Beginning

by ultrapoknee

Chapter 16 - The Oncoming Storm

Twilight Sparkle sat at a desk in the room that had been provided for her and her friends, Celestia and Sunset. There were eight beds there in total, four on each wall, with a large window overlooking the western landscape of the school grounds. There were three desks lined against the wall, a shared bathroom adjacent to the room, and a large fireplace sitting against the northern portion of the wall. The fireplace was lit and burning well, spreading its warm ruddy glow through the room. Five of the beds were occupied, with one having a Shepherd Hound curled up next to their earth pony owner.

There were two candles lit at her desk as she read over an old manuscript that she’d brought with her from the Shelter Library. She was busy reading over it and examining the small green glowing orb that rested beside the book. The mana core that had come from the timberwolf Gregory had managed to kill still eluded any attempt at study. Its magic was unlike anything she’d ever experienced before. Without having any access to her magic, she couldn’t scan the item in question. She moved her wing down and picked it up, examining it further. The green glow matched the glow of a timberwolf’s eyes precisely. Part of her wished Celestia was here, or even Sunset. Both of them still had their magic, and from what Twilight had learned about Sunset, she was just as much of a magical prodigy as Twilight, albeit with a more hooves-on approach to the study of magic.

She put the mana core back down and folded her wing back. Since she’d lost her magic and some of her ability to fly, she had become quite skilled in using her wings as appendages to pick things up, something she wouldn’t have considered if she hadn’t lost her magic. She sighed, looked back at her manuscript and read over it once more. The words remained the same, but she still couldn’t decipher any new meaning to them.

Frustrated, she leaned back and looked out the window. The candlelight and firelight did nothing to hide the brilliance of the stars in the sky. The Neutral Lands were vastly unpopulated, so there were no city lights to marr the beauty of the heavens. She could see the wisp of Faust’s Braid flowing over the night sky much more clearly than she could have ever seen it in Ponyville. As she watched, her mind wandered. She had been trying to distract herself from what was really on her mind. And she was worried about a few people as well.

First, she was worried about Spike. He looked taller now than he had been before, healthier too. His wings were a new addition that she hadn’t expected, and a part of her really wanted to know how he got them, but she knew better than to ask, at least at the moment. She hadn’t said much to him since she and her friends had arrived. As much as she wanted to try and make amends with Spike, she realized that if she wanted to regain what was lost and even build up their relationship to something better than it ever had been, she had to be patient. She would wait until he was ready, even if it took her entire life.

Second, she was pretty worried about her relationship with Starlight Glimmer. The unicorn Head Teacher of this school was still hurting from what had happened at The Trial. It had hurt when she had called them out in the hall, but what had stung the most was when the unicorn had accused Twilight of keeping her around just because she might have been a threat. She thought back, and slowly it began to dawn on her that Starlight didn’t have too many friends. She might have been Starlight’s friend once, but that friendship was shattered at The Trial’s revelations. Once more, she felt guilty about her quick judgment of Trixie. She had no idea how truly distraught the showmare had been after almost losing Starlight as a friend. To be so upset as to commit…to commit… 

She sighed. She couldn’t even consider such a horrific thought. Ponies didn’t think about such things, as the very action was so rare that it would have been such a major incident if a pony did take their own life. She had never heard of such a thing happening in her lifetime, and not only had Trixie tried to do so, but so had Jason. Both due to her own foolish actions.

Third, she was worried about Gregory. The way his eyes had seemed to glaze over with blackness when he had been arguing with Dragon Lord Ember was terrifying. It had made him look somewhat more demonic. The look of sheer anger on his face was actually worse than what she remembered seeing on Jason’s face. Celestia had reassured her that his anger would subside when the timberwolf poison was gone from his body, but she was still worried and scared. She had heard that he had been discharged and was recovering, however, so she decided to find him the next day at some point and see if he was alright.

Suddenly, she saw something fly across the night sky, briefly blocking the stars. She blinked, then looked around, searching for whatever creature had flown around. It was too dark to see, but she did spot something flying around. It wasn’t a bat but it was somewhat small. Curious, she walked to the balcony and opened the door, walking out. As her eyes adjusted to the dark, she saw a surprisingly familiar form. “S-Spike?”

Spike didn’t seem to hear her. He continued his flight, moving around with surprising ease and expert agility. She watched in awe as he performed aerial tricks that would have impressed Rainbow Dash had she been awake. This lasted for about ten or so minutes before he stopped. She could hear him panting, so she ran inside, grabbed the pitcher of water that had been provided for them, poured a glass, and carried both outside. “Spike! Here!” She waved her free wing at him.

Spike finally noticed her. A frown formed on his face, but he still approached, landed on the railing, took the glass and downed the entire thing. “Thanks,” he said as he gave the glass back to Twilight.

The alicorn spoke without thinking. “Y-You’ve really picked up how to fly. That was really amazing.”

Spike shrugged. “Gabby’s been teaching me how,” he said, “and there are a couple of dragons in our group who’ve been helping me.”

She looked at the empty glass, then back at him. She held it up. “W-Want some more?”

“Sure,” he said.

After she’d poured Spike another glass as well as one for herself, she sat down on one of the chairs. Spike was sitting on the railing, perfectly balanced and staring up at the sky. She joined him in looking at the sky. The night sky was bright from inside, but out here, the inky blue of the night was practically ablaze with twinkling starlight. She saw the various late spring constellations high in the sky, and a part of her wished she had her telescope with her. The two sat in silence for a while. “So, how’ve you been?” Spike asked after a few minutes.

Twilight released a breath she didn’t know she’d been keeping. “I’ve been alright,” she said, “better than some of the girls have been at least. But we’re back together again.”

“I saw that…” Spike fell silent for a moment. “...Did you ever explain how they were doing in your letters to me?”

Twilight let out a rueful chuckle. “You didn’t read them, huh?”

“Can you blame me?” Spike shook his head at the retort. “I’m sorry. I don’t want our first real interaction to have snark in it.”

“It’s okay,” Twilight said reassuringly, “I deserve it, after all. To answer your question, no. I lost touch with the girls while running the shelter. Typical of me, I guess, always throwing myself into work and never bothering to slow down and get the whole picture…”

“Ha, I bet that shelter was turned into a five star hotel with you running it,” Spike joked.

Twilight chuckled in response. “It certainly wasn’t easy given the clientele, but I’m sure to earn that five star review any day now.”

The two shared a good laugh before an awkward silence returned. Both Spike and Twilight were looking away from each other at the starry night sky while mirroring each other's movements by rubbing their shoulders. Finally, after a few more seconds, they spoke. “I’m sorry/I missed you.”

Spike looked at Twilight with a raised eyebrow. He gestured to her. “Mares first,” he said.

Twilight faced Spike. “I’m sorry for everything that happened to you and everything that I did to you, Spike. If I could spend a thousand years on the moon to prove it, I would. You’re my little brother, but I didn’t do enough to show that. I didn’t see the problem until it blew up in my face. I know I don’t deserve your forgiveness., but the thought of us being so estranged hurts more than facing any villain. So, I am well and truly sorry.”

Spike remained silent for a moment, looking into Twilight’s eyes as if he was searching for something. Finally, he spoke. “As…well, as weird as it feels to say, I did miss you, Twilight. I wasn’t lying about that. But as for forgiving you…” he trailed off, taking on a contemplative expression for a moment before continuing. “I can’t do that just yet. We haven’t seen each other for a year. I need…a lot more time than that. Not just with you, but with the others. Especially Rarity.” His face darkened briefly with hurt and anger before he calmed himself. “You hurt me a lot, Twilight Sparkle. You and the others. It still hurts whenever I think about it. Sometimes I have nightmares about certain times in Ponyville. Even so, I want…I want us to at least try and rebuild-no, not rebuild. Build something new between us. Something better.” He stopped and took a deep breath, chuckling and putting his claw on his chest. “Whoo…that was a lot…”

Twilight smiled a bit. “I’ll say,” she said, “but I hear you, Spike. I know the road to making something new will be long, but I’m glad we can walk it together.” 

He smiled back slightly. “Well, maybe not physically together, but I get what you mean. I still have CFE things to tend to, and that takes me all over Equestria.”

“I hope things work out with Cozy,” Twilight said hopefully. “I read that paper. None of it was good. Especially if we take The Trial into consideration.”

Spike frowned slightly. “A lot of ponies will do anything to stop us,” he said, “and honestly? It looks like it might work…”

The morning sun shone down warmly on the many citizens of the city as ponies went about their day. Most were on vacation there, visiting the casinos and bars to enjoy a pleasant time. In one particular casino, two twin unicorn brothers were sitting at a blackjack table, each looking down at the table with intense expressions. The dealer, who was a young but tired looking griffin, looked at one of the brothers. “Card, sir?” he asked, his claw on the pile in front of him.

“Indubitably, good sir.” Flim said.

The griffin placed a card down on the pile. “Three of hearts,” he said in a slightly bored tone. “That brings your total up to nine. Hit or stay?”

“Hmm, what do you think, brother of mine?” Flim asked his brother. 

Flam discreetly checked a device on his forehoof before he looked back up at the griffin. “It’s in the cards, my good griffin. Hit us hard.” Flam said eagerly.

The griffin nodded and flipped a card. “Seven of diamonds. You now have sixteen. Hit or stay?”

Checking again, Flam shook his head. “Playing it safe this round, good sir. We’ll stay.” Flim said.

“Alright, you’re locked in at sixteen,” the griffin said before turning to a rather well-to-do looking unicorn couple sitting next to them. “And as for you two? You have twelve already. Hit or stay?”

The stallion looked at the cards, then smirked. “Hit,” he said.

The griffin pulled up the next card and placed it down. “Queen of spades. You went over by one, so you lose.” He turned to the Flim Flam brothers. “You two win the pot again.”

The two brothers shouted out victoriously as they hugged each other. “We’re cleaning house, brother of mine,” Flim said.

“Soon, we’ll have enough to jumpstart our next project,” Flam said.

“We’ll take Equestria by storm!”

“A triumphant return!”

“That is, if you two aren’t filthy cheaters,” the stallion beside them snarled angrily, glaring at them. His wife was also giving them a cold hate filled look.

The brothers stopped their celebration to address the couple. “Come now, good sir. We can’t all be winners. No need to throw out such a slanderous claim,” Flim said.

“It’s all in good fun in this perilous game of luck,” Flam added.

The stallion quickly grabbed Flam’s forehoof and raised it up for all to see. There was a strange mechanical device wrapped around it. “Luck, you say? Then what’s this?!” he demanded.

“J-Just a watch for the time,” Flam said.

“A watch. Really?” The stallion used his telekinesis to pull it off with a yank and examine it closely before either brother could act. “I certainly doubt it. Looks like you’ve been counting cards!”

Both Flim and Flam gasped dramatically at the accusation. “Can you believe it, dear brother?” Flim asked in an incredulous tone.

“I certainly can’t. Such words are uncouth in the presence of a mare. Especially without proof.” As Flam said this, his hoof moved too close to the table and he hit the button on top. A screen flashed as several numbers rapidly scrolled by until the exact number of the deck was shown. “Oh dear…”

The stallion looked more closely at the brothers. “Yes…it makes sense now,” he snarled. “I recognize you now. I thought I knew you from somewhere, but I couldn’t place it. You were at The Trial! Not only that, but I know you tricked my Honeysuckle out of her pearl necklace for some horsedung cure for her stiff neck!”

“Yes! I recognize them now!” the mare named Honeysuckle said, pointing at them with an accusatory hoof. “That worthless ‘cure’ of theirs did absolutely nothing to help!”

When the brothers both looked to the griffin for help, he just shrugged. “I don’t get paid enough for this shit,” he said dryly. “If you’re gonna fight, take it outside.”

The unicorn stallion grabbed both brothers by their collars and dragged them out of the door. The mare quickly followed until the four of them were out in the Las Pegasus Strip. The stallion threw the brothers to the ground none too gently, catching the attention of passers by. “Alright, cough up the necklace you stole from Honeysuckle!” he snapped.

“Come now, good sir,” Flam said nervously, “I’m sure there’s a more reasonable way to settle things. Right, brother?”

“Indeed, brother we–” Flim paused as a sudden chill crept up his spine. He shivered on the spot as cold breath left his muzzle.

The stallion didn’t seem to notice this. Instead, he wrapped a tight magical grip around their necks, cutting off their air supply. “I didn’t ask for excuses, runts!” he bellowed, his breath now visible thanks to the sudden drop in temperature. “Either give my wife back her pearls or I’ll take it out of your worthless hides!”

The mare, who did seem to notice what was happening, gently nudged her partner. “Um…dear? I think we should-”

“Quiet and let me deal with these idiots!” the stallion snapped back. His grip on the brothers’ necks tightened more. “So, are you gonna give back the necklace, or do I have to beat it out of-”

“RAAAAOOOOOORRR!” 

Everyone stopped then. The stallion was so taken aback that he dropped his grip on the brothers, who fell to the ground, gasping for breath and drinking in gulps of air. The unicorn couple both looked up into the sky where the sudden roar came from. The northern sky was still clear, but the southern sky was dark with black roiling clouds. Lightning flashed and thunder rolled across the city as the clouds continued moving in at an abnormal speed. Honeysuckle grabbed her partner. “Cuff Tailor?” she asked in a shaking tone.

“Inside, love. Now!” the now named Cuff Tailor shouted as he took his wife’s hoof and pulled her back into the casino.

A steady flow of ice began to creep after the ponies. Despite closing the door, the cold unfeeling frost was undaunted. One second the couple was breathing a sigh of relief. The next, the mare let out a piercing scream of terror. Her husband was completely frozen solid. Flim and Flam mouths both flew open at the sight. Then, just as quickly, the mare joined her husband in a frozen tomb. The other patrons began running around in a panic. A harsh wind blew the door of its hinges and a violent gale of frost-bitten wind flooded the room. Flim and Flam ran away from it, but the ice persisted in chasing them down, freezing anypony unfortunate enough to get in its crosshairs.

The griffin who had been working the blackjack table, upon seeing this, spread his wings and flew above the chaos, watching helplessly as various ponies were encased in ice. Even pegasi who had the same idea as the griffin were captured midair and encased in the deadly ice. His expression, normally one of boredom and resignation, was now one of terror as he watched every single pony become engulfed. Then, he saw it. Two piercing glowing eyes that came in through the door. The pony shaped creature flew around the room in a circle, building up the ice in the casino. Eventually, every pony in the casino was frozen.

The griffin, however, was frozen in another way. He found himself staring into the cold emotionless eyes of the strange ethereal creature that now floated before him. The griffin held onto a frozen fallen table, nearly pissing himself in utter terror. The strange floating horse approached, staring at him for what seemed like an eternity. The wind blew around him faster and faster, and the griffin felt like he would pass out at any moment. Then, to his surprise, the creature turned away and moved out of the frozen casino, leaving the poor griffon unfrozen in a city of entombed ponies.

As he would later come to discover, every single pony in Las Pegasus was completely frozen, but every non-pony was left untouched.

Located south of Baltimare just across Horseshoe Bay was the Baltimare suburb known as Yearling City. It was one of the more prosperous suburbs of the smaller metropolis. Many different ponies from all trots of life lived there, including a family of displaced ponies from a now infamous town who now lived in a small one two bedroom apartment just above the shop where they worked. 

Carrot Cake wiped his brow as he put the next batch of cakes into the oven. He sighed as he closed the oven and went back to his station. Unlike Sugarcube Corner, Sugar Avenue was a larger sweets and bakery shop was definitely more demanding than his old job. Of course, he didn’t own the shop and was only one of several employees who worked for their boss, an older and surprisingly small earth pony stallion named Tea Cup. It was the only job that would take him, especially after his appearance in The Trial. Fortunately, at least so far, nopony at the shop seemed to know who he was, which surprised him, or if they did they weren’t saying anything about it.

He was starting on the next batch of strawberry creme when he heard the angry sounding call of his boss. “Carrot Cake! Get your flank in here now!”

Carrot winced. He knew that tone well enough. Even after six months, he still hadn’t gotten used to it. He took time to wash his hooves and walked towards the office, the only part of the building aside from the storefront that was air conditioned. The diminutive earth pony was sitting in his chair, looking down at his desk at a few papers. Carrot knocked gently. “Mr. Cup?”

Tea Cup looked up at Carrot and glared. “Get in here and shut the door,” he snapped. Carrot did as instructed, and soon it was just the two of them. Tea motioned him forward, and Carrot complied again. Tea didn’t look away from Carrot, one of his hooves on a single piece of paper. “I’m not happy, Carrot. Not. Happy.”

Carrot felt his body go cold. Normally whenever he got a dressing down (which was more often than anypony else in the shop) Tea got right in his face, screaming and hollering abuse at him. Not this time. This time, it terrified the former owner of Sugarcube Corner to see his boss and landlord being so calm. He opened his mouth to ask what he had done, but all he got out was “U-Um, w-why?”

“Why what? Be specific, Carrot,” Tea gestured.

Carrot took a deep breath, then said, “Why are you unhappy?”

“Your slipshod performance makes me unhappy,” Tea said, getting up and walking to the window. He looked out at the street below, watching the various ponies going to and fro about their day. Without turning, he continued. “I’ve been generous with your constant screw ups ever since you started working here. Hay, I even let you rent out the apartment upstairs. However, your incompetence has cost me more bits in the past six months than the past four and a half years combined.”

“If this is about the fire, it wasn’t my fault!” Carrot said quickly. He felt the panic rising inside him. If he lost his job, he’d lose the apartment. His wife couldn’t work with him because nopony was around who could watch Pound and Pumpkin, so she had been relegated to a stay at home mom. “The stove was faulty, and-!”

Tea whirled around and glared. “Don’t give me pitiful excuses,” he said angrily. “I have multiple eyewitness reports that say you were the responsible party for that disaster! We had to throw away so many burned products because of that, not to mention the repair job!” He sighed, walked back to the desk and sat down. “Carrot,” he said in a strangely friendly tone, “I honestly don’t know if you’re a good fit for this store. We strive to uphold a standard of excellence here. Excellence, speed and consistency. I don’t know how you did things back where you’re from, and I don’t care, but we do things differently here. Perhaps you’d be happier elsewhere.”

Carrot was almost in full blown panic mode now. “S-Sir, nopony else will hire me! I applied at plenty of other places before I came here! Please don’t fire me!”

Tea sighed. “I’m such a bleeding heart sometimes,” he muttered before he turned back to Carrot. “You’re fortunate that we’re short staffed. Even a pony like you has some uses. However, I expect you to be on your best behavior. I believe I’ve been more than lenient with you, Carrot. If you are involved in any more…incidents…any damage will come out of your paycheck. You have one more freebie before that goes into effect. I suggest you think long and hard about it.”

Carrot sagged, defeated. “I…I understand…”

Tea nodded. “Good. Now, go home. We can handle things here without you.”

“B-But, I can still work the full shift-”

“I said go home,” Tea said with an insistent gaze. “We. Will handle. Things. Without you.”

Carrot slowly nodded. “Yes sir.”

Several minutes later he was opening the door to the apartment above the sweets shop. Unlike their last place they’d been staying in after they left Ponyville, this one wasn’t crumbling and didn’t have rats. Carrot placed his hat on the hanger along with his stained apron. From the kids bedroom, he could hear his wife playing with the kids. Despite himself, he smiled. He hadn’t heard her laughing much lately since they’d been forced to close the shop back in Ponyville. He walked over to the couch and collapsed onto it, breathing out deeply. Despite only working less than half a shift, he was exhausted. He hadn’t been this exhausted ever when he ran his own shop, but he couldn’t find another job anywhere. Who would want to hire a pony who was seen across the nation abusing and hurling trash at Jason Wright?

From the other room, he heard somepony walking out, then pause. Cup Cake rushed over and knelt before her husband. “Carrot? Are you okay, dear? You’re home early.”

“I’m fine…just tired,” Carrot said. “ Boss sent me home early…”

Cup Cake bit her lip, then straightened. “You want something to eat? We have some leftover potato soup from last night.”

“Sure…”

Cup nodded and rushed to the kitchen. Carrot heard some soup being ladled into a bowl. She came out and placed it on the small table in front of the couch along with some dry bread. “Here you go, hun.”

“Thanks…” Carrot sat up, took the spoon with his hoof, then began to slowly eat the now cold stew. It wasn’t anything special, but it was all they really could afford. He tried to sneak home a few scraps from work every so often. He dipped the bread into the soup and ate it that way. He took a sip of water after a while to wash down the soup and bread and put it down on the table harder than he meant it. “I hate this…”

“Hun?” Cup looked over from where she was dusting the furniture, a concerned look on her face.

“I said I hate this! I hate this town! I hate my so-called coworkers and insufferable boss! I hate this lousy apartment and slop that passes for food!!!” Carrot Cake slapped the bowl down to the floor in fury “We’re better than this! I’m a better chef than anypony that comes downstairs! We had a good thing back in Ponyville!!!”

Cup’s ears flattened at everything he said. “I-I know, dear,” she said, trying to sooth him, “but we have to think about the foals. Nopony will give us a chance, and we were lucky to get this job and apartment in the first place.” She knew better than to say anything more, especially since the reason why remained unspoken between them. Cup Cake knew better than to mention Jason Wright and The Trial.

A dark look flashed over Carrot’s features. “It’s all that human’s fault! He ruined our lives!”

Cup Cake had finally had enough. She stood and stamped the ground. “You really want to have this conversation right now, Carrot Cake? Fine! This isn’t Jason’s fault! You were the one who threw garbage at him! You were the one who did all of those horrible things to him in that memory! You led the mob! I am getting sick and tired of you blaming everypony else! And it isn’t just you! I caught him rummaging through our garbage and chased him off too! It’s our fault, so get it through your thick skull, grow up, and THINK ABOUT YOUR FOALS!” She was fuming now, eyes ablaze with anger, but not with hatred. 

Carrot recoiled as if he'd been struck. Not even in the year since they’d closed Sugarcube Corner had she ever raised his voice to him, and his anger was briefly replaced with shock. Then, indignation returned. “How can you say that?” he asked. “I am thinking about our foals. I was doing it when that human first showed up. What? Was I wrong for wanting that thing away from our shop? I was protecting us.” 

“He isn’t a thing!” Cup bellowed. “He’s a living, breathing creature that deserved much more than we gave him! You and I and the whole town abused him for no other reason than because we thought he was a monster! What did he do to deserve that?! NOTHING! He was desperate for food and shelter because NOPONY WANTED HIM!” She stared into his eyes, trembling in rage. After a few seconds, she turned away. “I can’t stand to look at you right now.” She began walking towards the twins bedroom. However, she paused in the doorway, and in a trembling voice, she said, “Protection of family doesn’t mean you abuse a helpless individual, Mr. Cake. We should have known better…” With that, she entered the room and closed the door, locking it behind her.

Carrot Cake fumed in slight anger. A part of him wanted to bang on the door and give his wife a piece of his mind, but he relented and stormed off outside the apartment instead. He went for a walk through the streets as he quietly contemplated the argument. They’d never argued at any point since they were married, but now it felt like everything was on a timer. It felt wrong. He never would’ve even considered his wife yelling at him. He let out a defeated sigh as he stopped and looked up into the sky. “It’s times like these that I miss you, Pinkie.”

Just then, a large and nasty smelling object hit the side of his face. Across the street were three unicorn teenage stallions pointing at him and laughing. “How does it feel, freak!? Have all the garbage you want! Didn’t you tell him that?” one of them called out before they ran away, snickering and laughing at Carrot’s misfortune.

Carrot glared after them, then just sighed. “I guess they know here too,” he said quietly. Carrot sighed again and decided to head back home to his wife. At the very least, he should apologize for letting the stress get to him. However, it was at that moment that a blistering chill entered the air. Carrot stopped when he saw his breath visible in front of his face. He began to tremble and shiver from the drastic drop in temperature. He looked back up only to see a thick blanket of clouds in the sky and snow falling. “It’s the beginning of spring. There shouldn’t be any snow for months yet!”

Then he saw it. Glowing cold blue eyes filled with malice looked at him out of the clouds. A ghostly equine figure that only seemed to have eyes for him slowly pushed out of the darkening clouds. He stood there shocked to his core at the sight of the creature as it let out a terrible wail while fierce winds followed it. A torrent of ice suddenly shot out from all directions and froze everything in sight. That finally prompted Carrot Cake to turn tail and run away. He pushed his lanky legs as hard as he could back to the apartment building and to his family. 

Cup Cake was already at the nearest window, staring out in shock when Carrot came bursting through the door. She shrieked and whirled around. “Carrot, what-?”

“Get the foals. We have to run!!!” Carrot interrupted quickly. 

Cup didn’t argue. She ran into the room and soon came back out with the twins. They looked groggy, but thankfully didn’t argue. Pound looked up at his parents. “Mama? Papa?” he asked, looked at the two adults with young innocent questioning eyes while rubbing sleep out of said eyes with his wings. Pumpkin only yawned and stretched.

“Cup, hurry! Pack up a few supplies and let’s head for the trains!!!” Carrot Cake said sternly.

Cup rushed to the closet and grabbed some thick coats for all of them. She wrapped her foals up in their coats quickly and tossed one to Carrot. She ran to the kitchen and grabbed as much food as she could, stuffing it into her saddlebags. She came running out and looked out of the window. Snow and ice were coming down hard already, and the streets, which were once full of ponies, were now empty. “What in Equestria is going on?!” she asked in terror.

“It’s–” Another horrible howl rang out as several more Windigos appeared.

The two young foals began crying at the noise, clinging to Cup Cake. “Mama! Mama!” Pumpkin said with tears streaming down her cheeks.

Cup put a hoof on both their heads. “Cover your ears as best you can, dearies,” she said as she wrapped scarves around them. She looked back at her husband. “Where did those things come from?” she asked.

“Just run!!!” Carrot screamed.

The family ran out of their apartment, scant belongings in hoof. Cup held both of their foals close while they ran down the street towards the nearest train station. The temperature continued to plummet while the clouds thickened. The sky was growing darker and the foals were crying out for their parents. Suddenly, Cup slipped on a newly formed patch of black ice, collapsing with a shout of pain.

Carrot Cake stopped and turned only to see his wife and foals on the ground. He looked behind him and saw the train and ponies evacuating. His gaze landed on the ghostly menaces fast approaching them. It was there he knew why they were being pursued as he remembered a key fact about Wendigos. They fed on hate. To be more frank; his hate. The hate he had for his situation. The anger at his wife for the argument. And especially the resentment and hatred he felt towards the human he thought was responsible for his misfortune. Carrot held his head down as he trotted up to his family and helped them up. When Cup Cake and the twins made to run again, Carrot Cake stayed behind and faced the malicious snow spirits.

“Carrot! Come on! The train’s right here!!!” Cup shouted at him. “What are you doing?!”

Carrot shook his head and looked back at his family with a fearful expression. “...Go on, get out of here, Cup. I can’t go with you…”

“Of course you can! What are you talking-?!”

“No, you were right, honey bunch. This is all my fault.” Turning back to the Windigo, Carrot ignored the increasingly desperate cries of his wife. He watched as the spirits opened their muzzles as ice began to form. Carrot chuckled ruefully before giving his family one last glance. “Tell Pinkie I–” His words were cut short as a hail of ice covered his form in an instant, leaving behind his frozen remains.

Cup was in hysterics as she was pulled into the train by a few other ponies. She kept on screaming his name in desperation. It eventually took four ponies to get her into the train, which began to move away. She could only stare out of the window blankly at where her husband was last, the damage done by the Windigos increasing in the suburb. What he had done finally hit her, and she wept, holding her scared and confused foals close to her.

Mayor Pen Sharpie sighed as he looked down at the paperwork on his desk. There was more here than normal ever since Filthy Rich was arrested for plotting the assault of Ponyville’s second human. The news about the CFE’s leader Cozy Glow didn’t exactly help things either. Pen hadn’t even known there had been a second human in the town until he received the news that said human had been chased out of town recently. Since then, the mood in town had seemed to only grow worse, especially when it got out that six mares who had been part of the Elements of Harmony had all left on an early train heading up north. Nopony knew why, but the fact that it had come only a day after this second human had left made the rumors spread like wildfire. Pen didn’t put much stock in rumors, preferring to keep his own thoughts to himself and to have all the facts at his disposal.

He was just looking over another report of the increasing homeless problem in the town which made him want to tear his pink and wink mane when his secretary came in. She was a pegasus mare named Fine Dictation. “Mr. Mayor,” she said, “there’s a pony here to see you.”

“I’m way too swamped to see anypony,” he said tiredly.

“She’s pretty insistent, sir,” she said.

Pen looked up at the mare. “She? Who is it?” he asked.

“Miss Milk, sir,” Fine said.

Despite himself, he smiled a bit. Ever since he’d taken over the mayorship of Ponyville a year ago, he and Spoiled Milk had been becoming friends. He’d been there when she’d broken down sobbing after her husband had divorced her and left her and her filly with nothing. She’d been there when he’d almost had a breakdown six months into his first term. He put his pen down and looked at Fine. “I guess I have a few moments to spare. Send her in.”

“Alright, sir,” Fine nodded and walked out. 

Moments later, Spoiled Milk came in, and Pen could tell that something was wrong. She looked more upset than usual and it looked like she’d actually been crying. As she closed the door behind her, Pen stood and walked over to her. “Spoiled? What’s wrong?” he asked.

Spoiled moved closer and put her head against his neck. Stunned, he put one reassuring hoof around her and stroked her mane gently. “P-Pen…” was all she could get out.

“Hey, talk to me, what’s wrong?” he asked gently.

It took a few false starts, but eventually she managed to tell him what was wrong. Apparently, the human who had been staying at the Helping Hooves Shelter had been volunteering his time to read stories to some of the foals there, including her daughter. It had started the night after the Collection, and had continued on and off for the next few nights. Spoiled said that when she’d heard about it, she let her daughter attend because she hadn’t seen Diamond so happy before. However, when most of the other ponies living in the shelter had heard about it, they’d kicked him out and he’d left town. “A-And now she won’t listen to any stories I try to read to her,” she stammered out as she finished, “n-not even her favorites from when she was y-younger!”

He held her closer, letting the poor mare cry. His heart went out to her. He’d met Diamond Tiara a few times when he’d had her and her mother over for dinner. She was a polite filly, but he could tell that the events that took place after The Trial had affected her, especially the divorce of her parents and subsequent homelessness. “Shhh, just let it out, Spoiled,” he said softly to the crying mare.

After a while, she stood back up. Pen gave her some tissues and she blew her nose. “I-I’m sorry for bothering you,” she said, “but nopony else back at the Shelter would want to talk to me. They think I’m just a traitor because I defended that human. I didn’t even get a chance to thank him…”

He looked at her. He hated seeing her so down and upset. “Well…would you like to go and see this other human?” he asked.

She looked up at him in confusion. “But…I can’t afford the train ticket,” she said.

“I can pay for it,” he said reassuringly.

“But I can’t pay you back-”

“You don’t have to,” he said, “it’s a gift. You’re my friend, Spoiled. And, to risk sounding corny, I like to spoil my friends.”

She rolled her eyes despite herself. “Ha ha,” she said.

He chuckled, then reached into his desk. He pulled out a bag of bits and gave it to her. “Here. You and Diamond should take some time away from Ponyville. Go and take your daughter to see this other human. Heck, you can even take Diamond’s friend too if their parents allow it. I’m not hurting for bits.”

She gave him a grateful look. “Thank…thank you,” she said softly.

“Of course,” Pen said kindly.

Spoiled Milk was just about to say something else when there was a sudden dip in the room’s temperature. The window to the outside was open, so Pen immediately went to close it. However, he saw something unusual. His window faced the west, and he spotted a large mass of black clouds approaching. Spoiled walked up quickly beside him. “Pen? What is it?”

“I don’t know…” he said uncertainly, staring at the clouds. “Did we have a storm planned for today?”

“You don’t keep a schedule?” Spoiled asked.

“I do, but we were scheduled for sunny skies most of the day with some partly cloudy conditions later,” Pen said.

“Well, maybe it’s some pegasi acting as a rogue element?” she suggested.

Pen was about to reply, when he heard something. He held up his hoof to stop her from saying anything more. He tilted his head and aimed one ear directly at the storm. He closed his eyes and concentrated. Pen had always been told his hearing was his strong suit, so he focused all of it on the storm. When he heard the sound again, it was only slightly louder. His eyes shot open wide and he stared back at the clouds only to see an impossible sight: a retreating equine head that was bigger than anything he’d seen before. “What in Equestria…?”

“I-Is that a Windigo–?” Spoiled never finished as the specter released a powerful shriek that broke every window in Ponyville. “Gaah!?”

Pen was already on the move. He used his unicorn magic to pull Spoiled away from the window just in time for the shards to miss her. “Time to leave! Let’s get your daughter and anypony else we can and go to the train station right now!”

Spoiled took a moment to gather her wits before nodding. She remembered that Diamond was on a playdate with the other foals in the playground of the shelter. She ran out of the office and almost wished she stayed inside. All around her was nothing but snow and ice. The air was frigid and cold with a chilling bite attacking her skin and fur. The simple act of running was like working out on a treadmill set to the highest setting. But, the worst part about being outside was the other ponies. Most of the citizenry was reduced to nothing but ice sculptures. She didn’t have time to identify any of them as the howls grew louder as glowing eyes danced in the skies, giving chase.

Pen ran alongside her, shouting at anypony who was still around and kicking to evacuate the town. The remaining ponies were running indoors for the most part. Soon, they reached the Shelter and ran to the playground. There, the pair found a group of foals huddled underneath the jungle gym, including a terrified looking Diamond. Pen, with magic he never knew he had, threw a shield around the foals that was stronger than any he knew he could make. “Time to go!” he shouted above the wailing of the Windigos and the wind.

As they gathered the foals, Pen noted some ponies were holding up in the shelter instead of running away. He stopped and ran over to them as a group of them was using whatever they could to barricade the doors and windows. “What are you all doing? We have to leave!!!”

“We won’t make it five feet out there in that storm!” Thunderlane shouted back. “We need to hunker down here. This castle came from the Elements of Harmony. It will protect us until the princess can do something!”

Pen was about to reply when there was a terrible thundercrack. He looked up only to shield his eyes from the shards of crystal falling down, landing between him and the shelter. He saw two other bolts of hard blue lightning strike the exact same spot on the top of the tower, but nothing else happened. He gave Thunderland a hard glare. “Still think it’ll hold up!? Get your flanks moving! The shelter won’t hold you for long!”

“Come on, big brother!” Rumble shouted in agreement, “we gotta go!”

“No!” Thunderlane argued. “We’re staying here! We’re safe here. You all saw it. It’s suicide to try and run out there. Our wings would ice up. Your muscles will go numb and we’ll collapse. And that’s just from the adults. I’m not risking my brother’s life!”

Rumble glared at him. He came out from where he had been huddling with the other foals outside. “Tough! I’m leaving and that’s that!”

“Don’t fight me on this! Not today!!!” Thunderlane yelled back as Rumble flinched. 

Pen looked down at the young pegasus, then back at Thunderlane. “You have no right to tell him anything more. Not after you kicked someone out where he had been welcomed in by Twilight!!”

“I’m his older brother!” Thunderlane retorted. “I know what’s best for him! Don’t you dare try and tell me anything when you don’t have any foals or siblings! If you want to risk your life, then go ahead!!!”

“I’m leaving, Thunderlane, and that’s that,” Rumble said before he turned and helped Diamond and Silver Spoon up. “Come on, let’s go.”

Having enough, Thunderlane flew out of the window and since Rumble had walked out of the shield Pen was making, grabbed Rumble by the scuff of his neck. The colt kicked and screamed but he could not free himself as Thunderlane flew back into the Shelter, found an empty room with no windows and threw him inside. He then turned to the other adults. “Gather all the other foals that misbehave and put them in here where they’ll be safe. The door looks from the outside.” The other adults hesitantly complied.

Pen snarled in anger and strengthened the shield he had around the other foals who had been playing outside. “Spoiled, we’re leaving with the rest. Come on!” With that, he began gathering the foals. He turned back once more to Thunderlane. “Faust have mercy upon thee, because they won’t,” he said, pointing to the Windigos. Soon, Pen, Spoiled, Diamond, Silver Spoon, Button Mash, and several other foals were running towards the train station, fighting the wind and the cold and trying not to slip on the ice.

The train station was in a state of utter chaos. Ponies were pushing and shoving other ponies to get on board. Pen and Spoiled kept the foals they had with them safe as best they could. Pen used his newfound magic shield to keep the other ponies from hurting his charges as they finally managed to get on board and find a car where they could all sit. Pen told the foals to cuddle up close to either him or Spoiled for warmth, and soon there were two small piles of foals surrounding both of them. The wind and snow buffeted the train around them until finally the whistle blew and they began to move. Pen watched as Spoiled looked out of the window at the town, a longing look on her face. He reached out and put a tender hoof on hers. “I’m sorry…” he said.

Spoiled let out a long tired sigh as she turned away from her long time home. “Ponyville was on the decline long before this mess. I suppose we were always fooling ourselves by staying here…”

He slowly moved to her side, letting the foals snuggle up to them. He pressed himself against her, put a hoof around her, and pulled her close. “Wherever we next go,” he said, “we will make it a better place.”

Spoiled looked up at him with a grateful smile. “Thank you…” She leaned against him and closed her eyes. “Thank you…”

                                                      [Canterlot - Throne Room]

Princess Luna could only watch out of a nearby window in abject horror as the massive and sudden storm that had sprung up in Ponyville completely and utterly razed it to the ground. Blueblood, Fancy Pants, Fleur De Lis and a few of the nobles who weren’t corrupted also watched wordlessly as buildings were torn asunder, trees were ripped up from the roots, and ponies were frozen in place. The former Castle of Friendship, as strong as it was, was also showing signs of being destroyed. Beside her, Blueblood was the first to speak. “Faust’s Mane…” His tone was one of despair and disbelief.

“Luna!” Celestia bellowed. “Stay focused! Canterlot needs you!”

Noblesse Oblige, one of the nobles who hadn’t been arrested, nodded quickly in agreement. “Oui, yur ighnez,” she said in her Prench accent, “ve must bé ready!”

“Yes, of course.” Luna shook her head and stood straighter before looking down at her fellow ruler. “Prince Blueblood, inform Captain Steel Forge that I want all ponies in Canterlot to move to the shelters. Make sure they turn on their armor enchantments to stave off this bizarre weather. Also, I want to know the point of origin of the storm. Perhaps our pegasi can quell it.”

Blueblood nodded, turned to his personal guards, and said, “Accompany me, and activate your own enchantments.”

“I’ll go to the mages to see about erecting some protection spells over the city,” Sunset said as she teleported away.

Fancy Pants looked at his wife, Fleur, and then back up at Luna. “What can my wife and I do to help?”

“Gather your personal guards and assist in keeping order while moving the citizens. The last thing we need is ponies running around in a panic and worsening the situation.” Luna stated. 

“Eet eez too late fair zat, I'm afraid,” Noblesse said as she looked out of the window down at Canterlot. She turned back to Princess Luna and Celestia. “Ponees are already panikeng een le streets.”

“Tch,” Luna frowned as she turned to Celestia. “Come with me, sister. Our presence should sooth the frightened masses.”

“Very well,” Celestia said as both teleported out of the castle and into the sky above the streets. Sure enough, ponies were indeed running around in a fright. Thankfully, it was only blind running and not a full on riot. Celestia cleared her throat and channeled her magic. “Ponies of Canterlot; hear us!” she shouted using her Canterlot Voice.

“You must calm yourselves and head to the designated shelters for safety!” Luna added. “We know not what is the cause of these unusual weather patterns, but rest assured we shall discover the source!” Luna said.

“The Windigos are back, your Highness!” a male voice shouted from below. Looking down, the two sisters saw a group of ragged looking ponies, two adults and several trembling and crying foals. One of the adults was a unicorn stallion with a purple coat and a pink and wink mane and tail. He was apparently the one who had shouted. He was casting a dark red shield around the group he was with. The other adult was known to the sisters as the ex-wife of Filthy Rich. The foals were all huddling close to the two adults for protection.

Both the celestial sisters paled as silence reigned throughout the streets. In an instant, Celestia and Luna appeared before the pony in question with a stony visage. “Did you say the windigos? Returned? You’re sure?” Celestia asked in a deathly serious tone.

The unicorn stallion who had spoken looked ragged and worn, as did the other adult. He had one hoof around one of the foals. He flinched a bit at Celestia’s tone, but stood up straighter. “Yes, Your Highness,” he said stalwartly. “Ponies in Ponyville are being frozen in droves. We were lucky to escape.” He stumbled wearily, only to be caught by a worried looking Spoiled. “Forgive me…” he said, “I’m so tired…” and with that, he collapsed, much to the terror of Spoiled and the foals. The shield dissipated moments later.

Luna spotted some guards approaching and immediately pointed to the group. “Guards! Get these ponies some medical attention, now! Especially that unicorn! He looks like he needs it the most!” 

The guards nodded and began gathering the group. As this was happening, Sunset appeared beside Celestia. “The mages are preparing some magical protection spells as we speak.” She then noticed the collapsed unicorn stallion. “What happened here? Who are they?”

“There were some survivors that just arrived from Ponyville in dire need of medical aid. They told us the cause of this storm. The old enemy of ponykind has returned…”

Sunset’’s eyes went wide. “Windigos? Wow…”

“The very same, young Sunset,” Luna said. “I never thought we would see them again.”

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “You’re kidding, right? They’re attracted to hatred. Mom always told me ‘Where there is hatred and bigotry there will the Windigos be.’”

“The Trial…” Celestia said with a modicum of shame. “Jason’s quest for justice revealed an ugly truth to the world, and the windigos caught wind of it.”

“Bingo!” Sunset nodded. “Frankly, I’m surprised they weren’t here sooner. Not after everything I saw when you and I arrived in Ponyville. I mean, the town has a long history of non-pony abuse!”

“Then their arrival was only a matter of time,” Celestia said ruefully. “I could almost laugh at the punctuality.”

“No time to think about that now,” Sunset said.

“Regardless, they’re here now and we must stop them,” Luna replied. “This isn’t like it was during the pre-unification era. Now, we have a means of combating them.”

“They are much more violent now than they were then, sister,” Celestia said, “or so it seems. Let’s just hope you’re right. Come along, Sunset. We must inform the others at the Seeds of Yggdrasil school so Twilight and the others can stop this.”

“If the Elements will even accept them anymore,” Sunset replied in a foreboding tone as the three teleported away.

Gregory and his two guards were walking near the edge of the forest where he and Ember had been attacked, observing the damage done. Now that he wasn’t in fear of his life, Gregory could take in the view of everything around him. The piles of wood that had once been the timberwolves were in a burnt out pile some distance away from the unusual forest. Moonlight had told him that the mana cores from the timberwolves had already been collected and a few of the bullets had been found, which had been promptly returned to him. Gregory had instead given them to Twilight and Starlight to study since they were useless anyway.

He kicked at one small branch that had once been a timberwolf and sighed. “All this, and we still didn’t get a jackalope,” he sighed, “but I guess we can get some more later.”

“Jackalope, sir?” Moonlight asked from nearby.

He smirked a bit. “Ember and I were hunting jackalope in that forest,” he said as he indicated the forest. “We should really name that forest, by the way.”

“Got anything in mind?” Swift asked, landing beside Gregory and looking up at him curiously.

“Yeah, actually,” Gregory said with a chuckle. “Briarwood seems fitting. Last time I was there, I saw tons of briars. That, and briars can be seen as foreboding sometimes.”

“Good name,” Swift replied, “but the forest seems cleaner than before. And those crystals in there are glowing.”

Gregory raised an eyebrow. “Really? Can you show me one near the edge of the forest?”

“Well…let me find one.” With that, Swift shot off into the sky with incredible speed, possibly enough to put Rainbow Dash to shame if she could still fly.

Gregory crossed his arms and smirked. “With speed like hers, I wonder why she didn’t join the Wonderbolts.”

“I asked her that once, and she said that she wanted to serve her princess and country first,” Moonlight replied as they waited for Swift to return. “And with how things are going for the Wonderbolts now, I doubt she’d want to.”

“What’s going on with the Wonderbolts?” Gregory asked.

“Well…many of their better members have either been disbarred or quit,” Moonlight said. “I heard Spitfire herself resigned in shame and hasn’t really been seen since then. Soarin tried to take over for her, but he left six months after Spitfire. The new captain is a mare named Fleetfoot and last I heard she was considering rebranding the Wonderbolts to the Blue Thunders.”

Gregory nodded. “Interesting choice. Kind of like the Blue Angels.”

“Blue Angels?”

“They’re a group of human pilots in my country’s Navy who perform daring stunts in their jets,” Gregory said. 

“Navy?” Moonlight asked in a confused tone. “Forgive me, Sir Gregory, but why would flight be in a navy?”

Gregory chuckled a bit. “Sorry, it’d take a long time to explain. I’ll probably explain human flight and my nation’s military in my class.” He paused and sighed. “My class, huh?”

“Are you alright?” Moonlight asked.

“Not sure,” Gregory admitted. “I’ve never been a teacher before, and I don’t know what to cover. Human history, culture and technology is so diverse that it’s hard to nail down what to teach. There are eight billion of us on our world.”

Moonlight’s eyes widened. “That is…more than our entire world,” she said.

“Yeah, well, humans have been around for two million years, and our world for much longer,” Gregory said.

Moonlight was about to say something when Swift came back, a look of alarm on her face. Gregory was instantly on alert and put his hand on his pistol. She landed in front of him and looked up at her charge. Moonlight saw the look on Swift’s face and stiffened. “What is it? More timberwolves?”

Swift shook her head. “N-No,” she said breathlessly before grabbing her canteen and downing a healthy gulp before turning back to the other two. “I just saw something strange. I don’t know how to explain…”

“Start from the beginning,” Gregory suggested.

Swift nodded and began her explanation. “I was flying around the borders when I thought I saw one of those crystals. I flew down and whatever I saw seemed to move. I stopped and hovered there, but after a while it didn’t move for a while, I flew down again, but it moved again. So I stopped, and then I saw it.”

“It?” Moonlight asked.

Swift nodded. “It’s hard to describe what I saw. It looked like ponies but…wrong. It was taller than I think even Princess Luna and Celestia are. It was white with a silvery mane and it looked at me with this weird blank expression, snorted like a pony, and began moving to the edge of the forest. I came back here as quickly as I could.”

“Pony shaped and taller than the tallest alicorns?” Gregory said, pursing his lips curiously and stroking his chin, absently noting his need to shave. “Did this creature have wings or horns?”

Swift shook her head. “Not that I could see,” she said. “It was like an earth pony.”

“Like that?” Moonlight asked, pointing behind Swift.

She turned back and Gregory looked in the direction that the unicorn was pointing. His eyes widened in surprise as he watched a large horse standing nearby, giving the human and two ponies a curious expression. It looked disheveled and dirty with brambles in its mane, but other than that it looked healthy enough, if his limited skill with horse knowledge was any indication. Nobody spoke for a while. The light amber eyes of the white horse kept watching the three. Gregory felt like this horse was looking directly at him. Without looking away, he whispered, “That’s a horse…”

Beside him, he heard Moonlight gasp. “Horse? Those ancient creatures that look like ponies but who can’t talk?”

“Aren’t they supposed to be extinct?” Swift asked.

“Apparently not,” Moonlight said.

The white horse continued staring at the three, its tail swishing every so often to ward off insects. Its ears were swiveled towards the group. He didn’t know too much about horse body language despite his few summers on a farm where horses lived, but what he guessed was that this horse was surprisingly relaxed. It looked relatively strong despite its disheveled state. “I wish Fluttershy was here,” he muttered. “Do either of you have a rope in your saddlebags?”

“Sorry, no,” Swift said.

“I left mine in the room,” Moonlight said.

“Damn, so we can’t tie a lasso around it and try to lead it into the school,” Gregory said.

“Why would you want to capture it, sir?” Moonlight asked.

“Because that horse looks like it could use a good scrubbing, hoof clipping and fur trimming,” Gregory explained.

Moonlight looked back and observed them more closely. “I suppose it could.”

Gregory nodded. “Swift, go back and get Moonlight’s rope. Just don’t make any sudden moves. This horse might be relaxed now, but from what I know of them they’re skittish if startled.”

“I figured,” Swift said as she began to move away slowly.

This caught the attention of the horse who perked up and turned its head towards Swift. It watched her go slowly away, then looked back at Gregory. Gregory didn’t look directly into the horse’s eyes but didn’t stop looking away from it completely. Slowly, he took one step forward, not knowing why.

The horse had its attention on him even more now. Moonlight took a step forward and put her hoof on his leg. “Sir, what are you doing?” she whispered worriedly.

“I’m gonna try and see if I can gain its trust,” he said. Slowly, he reached into his bag and retrieved one of the granola bars he’d brought from earth. He peeled off the wrapper which he stuffed in his pocket before he turned to the horse, holding up the offering of a small snack. “Hey, you want something to eat?” he asked soothingly. 

The horse looked at the bar in Gregory’s hand, then took a step back. Gregory stopped and backed away one step. The two stood there, looking at each other in complete silence with Gregory continuing to hold out the granola bar. Then, to Gregory’s delight, the horse took an experimental step forward. Neither he nor Moonlight moved. Minutes seemed to pass as the horse slowly made its way closer to Gregory. Finally, the horse was standing nearly next to the human, sniffing experimentally at the bar. After a few experimental nibbles, the horse took a bite.

Gregory took the opportunity to reach up slowly to stroke the silvery white but bramble filled mane with his free hand. In the time that the horse had been approaching, Gregory had taken note of the horse’s sex. He was a stallion, and if his limited knowledge of horses was any indication, a young one and strong too. He was surprised that this horse was being so calm. The stallion quickly finished one of the bars and looked at Gregory with an almost expectant look in its amber eyes. Gregory chuckled softly, pulled out another bar and fed it to the stallion.

After the stallion’s third bar, Swift returned with a rope in her mouth. She slowly landed and approached the group. She and Moonlight exchanged some brief words before they both tied a loop into the rope. “What should we do now?” Swift asked.

“Moonlight, hold the rope up with your magic and then the both of you back away,” Gregory replied, not stopping his gentle stroking of the surprisingly soft mane. He had been carefully pulling out branches, twigs, brambles and other miscellaneous foliage from the stallion’s mane. After the two pony mares did as he asked, Gregory pulled out a fourth bar, but took a step away from the stallion towards the floating rope. “You want more?”

The horse looked at the bar and took a step forward. Encouraged, Gregory took another step back, his free hand outstretched towards the floating rope. In about a minute, his hand was wrapped around the rope and he stopped. The horse was next to Gregory once more and beginning to devour the bar. While he was doing that, Gregory slowly and carefully slipped the rope around the horse’s neck. When the horse was done, Gregory gently began pulling on the rope. To his surprise and relief, the horse seemed to follow his direction, walking beside Gregory but looking at him expectantly. 

He was about to reach in for another granola bar when a hay colored bar appeared in front of him, encased in Moonlight’s magic. “Here, sir,” the aforementioned unicorn said.

He took it gratefully and fed it to the horse, who accepted it and nibbled at it. It took them about ten minutes to get back because the horse was walking rather slowly, but the human and ponies patiently continued feeding the stallion. They walked through the gates with no problems while the guards watched in stunned silence. They walked past the student dormitories with no problems too.

However, when the horse was nearing the main tower, he stopped and his ears swiveled forward. His eyes widened a bit and he released a whinny, rearing up slightly before landing again. Gregory reached up and put a gentle hand on the horse’s cheek. “What is it, boy?”

“I believe he’s seeing or hearing that,” Moonlight said, pointing inside the gate.

Gregory turned and peered in. Moonlight was pointing to the large central tower where a group of miscellaneous creatures were clamoring. Standing in front of them, Gregory could see several familiar faces, such as Gabby, Spike, and a nervous looking Cozy Glow. “The fuck is going on?” he muttered.

Gabby saw them, spread her wings and flew over to them. “Hey you guys, guess you’re wondering what’s going on, huh?”

“I’ll admit a polite interest,” Gregory said.

Gabby sighed. “It isn’t good,” she said. “These creatures are members of the CFE branch closest to here. They’ve read the papers and they came on the early train here to protest against Cozy.”

Gregory shook his head in disbelief, then began making his way forward. The cries of the varied creatures began to slowly die away as they saw him and the strange equine creature he was leading. As if on cue, they parted for him and the horse, which was nervous now. All was silent as Gregory locked eyes on Cozy Glow, who looked like she was about to start crying. All eyes were on him and the horse now but he simply reached out to Cozy. “Cozy Glow, come here for a bit,” he said, and to his own surprise he sounded a lot like a parent in his tone.

“Y-Yes, daddy…” Cozy took tentative steps toward Gregory before flying to his lap. 

Gregory wrapped his arms around her and he felt her relax in his arms. He sensed the angry stares from the other CFE members directed her way. “What’s been going on?” he asked. Nearby, the horse looked at Cozy, then lowered his head to sniff at the young filly, nickering slightly.

“Hey, get away from that traitor!” A random voice called out from the crowd.

Gregory lifted Cozy up in one arm, then turned to the voice. “What makes her a traitor?” he asked. 

“Didn’t you read the paper? She’s been lying to everyone for an entire year!” another voice said.

“YEAH!!!” the mob agreed.

Gregory sighed, walked up to the front of the mob with Cozy in his arms and the horse in tow. He turned and looked at them. “And you believe the paper that ponies write to be fact?”

“This came from the Manhattan branch and Canterlot,” one of the previous voices argued. “It came from your device. It’s just like the Trial the other human showed us.”

“Yes, the papers got the images from the show,” Gregory agreed, “but do you know how they got these images?”

“It doesn’t matter how they got them,” another voice shouted, “what matters is that we’ve been misled. We believed in that filly. We thought she was different from the rest of the pony folk that abuse us. But, she’s been using us to free Tirek and other horrible creatures! How can our movement be associated with someone like her?”

“Her lies will ruin us!!!”

“No one will take us seriously now!!!”

“We were just her pawns!!!”

Gregory felt Cozy clinging more tightly to him. He frowned. “It’s not about the leadership; it’s about the message behind the movement,” he said more loudly now. “Besides, you need much more than the admittedly flimsy proof that these papers got. I have it on good authority that the show is not as accurate as you believe.”

“And how can we trust your word if you defend a liar?” another voice called out. “We had a good message, but what good will that do for us if the spokesperson manipulated us?”

“You still have a good message,” Gregory insisted, “and if you can’t trust my word, I know the word of a trustworthy pony in this school who can confirm what I’m saying.”

“There shouldn't be any ponies in this school! We can’t trust any of them. Didn’t the head teacher here admit her crimes during The Trial as well?” The mob was getting more and more rowdy. Cozy started to tremble in Gregory’s hands as tears resurfaced.

Gregory turned back to Cozy. “Cozy, tell me the truth. Have you been in contact with Tirek?” he whispered.

“Y-Yes, why?” Cozy asked. “He’s my penpal. He told me how he got betrayed and sent to Tartarus unfairly. I wanted to help get him out.”

“See? She admits it!!!” another member of the crowd shouted as the mob grew louder.

“Has it occurred to any of you that Tirek might have been the one misleading Cozy here?” Gregory asked.

This caused the crowd to go silent for a few seconds. After a while, there were some murmurs as some members of the crowd thought it over. However, someone then said, “That might be true, but how can we take anything she says as the truth? Why is she allowed to talk to a dangerous criminal?”

Gregory sighed. “She might have hidden the truth from you, but I don’t think she’s the same pony that the show portrayed her to be.”

Cozy looked up at the crowd. “I never lied! I was going to tell everyone what I planned to do, honest!” Cozy cried as her tears flowed more freely.

Gregory looked down at the crying filly in his arms and his face softened. He wiped her eyes with his sleeve before he said, “Cozy Glow, your heart might have been in the right place, but don’t forget that just recently Tirek tried to steal all of the magic in Equestria. Regardless of whether he was betrayed or not, he has to be punished for his crimes. I admit, I don’t know if he was betrayed all those years ago or if he was innocent or guilty, but his most recent crime isn’t something he can be let off the hook for.”

“But he told me he didn’t have a choice,” Cozy argued. “He said it was the only way he could get justice. You know, like how Jason did with The Trial.”

“Maybe he was wronged,” Gregory conceded, “or maybe he was lying. Tirek is over a thousand years old. None of us were there when it happened. We don’t know for sure. Celestia and Luna were, so you would have to talk to one of them about it. Cozy, you need more concrete evidence than someone’s word. You’re a remarkable filly. You’re a good leader and from what I can tell you have good intentions. But just like me, your good intentions can lead to disaster. You need to learn to be more discerning when it comes to these things. Forget Tirek for a moment and answer me this: do you believe in the cause of the CFE with everything you have?”

She nodded her head vigorously. “Yes I do!” she insisted.

“Tell the people here why you believe in the cause, then,” Gregory said, gesturing to the crowd.

She turned around in Gregory’s arms and faced the crowd again. “I genuinely want everyone to be happy!” she shouted in a tearful plea. “I’ve wanted to help others since I left my home because my family believed in hurting others to get ahead.”

Cozy’s words seemed to be having some effect until another member called out, “Isn’t it true that your cutie mark can influence others?”

Cozy swallowed nervously. “I-I mean, it helps me speak–”

“Then you could still be lying!” the member shouted. “Let’s put you under a lie detector. Or get that Gjallarhorn that was used in The Trial. Then we’ll know the truth!!!”

Gregory felt rage burning through him. The crowd was inconsolable at this point. However, before anything else could happen, several thuds could be heard behind the crowd. Everyone turned to see the dragons led by Ember landing in front of the school. The Dragon Lord wore a serious expression as she marched up to Gregory. “Where’s the other Twilight?” she asked. “I need to speak to her now!”

The horse near Gregory reared up and neighed at this sudden outburst from the dragoness, but Gregory quickly turned and eased the stallion. He turned back to Ember. “Last I heard, she was inside,” he said. “I think in her office.”

Ember nodded and turned to her subjects. “Alright, everyone get inside! We don’t have much time before they get here! Those of you that can still fight stay out here with me!!!”

“They? They who?” Gregory asked.

Ember pointed towards a growing storm off in the distance that was approaching the school at unnatural speeds. Gregory noted that it was a snow storm, but as he squinted, he could make out a shimmer of something in the clouds. The others noticed this as well and a wave of uneasiness waved over the masses. Suddenly, a ghostly wail echoed across the land as the temperature dropped. “Them!”

Gregory immediately recognized the sound and all color drained from his face. He took a deep breath, clung more tightly to Cozy almost protectively, then whispered, “Windigos…”