Chapter 12: Winter’s Bite
Cryssy flashed back into the world as the cold of the night bit through her coat. Her chest had grown numb to the stabbing pain at each point that the talons dug into her skin, thankfully relieving her of at least one of the discomforts that came with this trip.
Her blood still ran cold, and the tingling feeling filled every inch of her body. It felt like it was pushing out on every part of her, desperately trying to escape its fleshy prison, but no longer able to surge into her head as it had done for the trip up to this point. She had never felt it this strongly before, the feeling always managed to escape long before it reached this point, and she had no idea what would happen when the collar finally came off.
The night lay silent around her aside from the flapping of wings; one of those rare places in time which either foreshadowed peace, or served as an omen for unfortunate events to occur. Cryssy knew that this particular night was filled with the spirit of the latter. This thought fueled the frozen tingling in her body, stretching her like a mature cocoon. What was inside her was nothing beautiful, and she knew tonight it would only bring pain.
“It’s time” the all too familiar voice of Gilda finally broke the silence, “Fawks, take your warriors and do what you do best. You have 10 minutes and then I’m going in, whether you’re done or not.”
“Of course majesty” a gruff voice, apparently Fawks, replied without hesitation.
A quick flutter of feathers surrounded Cryssy, wherever she was, and then was gone. She didn’t know where they were, or what the other griffins were doing; she didn’t want to know. Yells erupted from below them, along with screams of pain and the rattling of metal.
Cryssy tried desperately to block the sounds from below; sounds of death, sounds of pain, the sounds of battle. She shook her head back and forth as fast as she could, hoping that this was still just a long dream, and that she’d awaken back in Ponyville or Snowhoof.
“Knock it off Squirt!” the griffin growled above her and pressed her talons deeper into Cryssy’s chest, revealing that the numbness of before had only been a false promise of relief.
The blind unicorn groaned and complied, dropping her head back to where it had been before. Suddenly Cryssy found herself falling, or diving along with Gilda. The griffin’s feathers pressed tightly against Cryssy’s back as they plummeted and the wind whipped into her dried eyes. The pair shot through a plush mass, which the blind unicorn could only guess was a cloud, after which the dive steepened.
They were headed straight downward, moving so quick that Cryssy thought they would have hit the ground by this point. The only sound she heard was the wind blaring through her ears, and the sharp whistle of air passing through the griffin’s beak.
Gilda finally pulled up after only a few seconds after breaking through the clouds, leveling herself out while only losing minimal speed. The fear of the decent increased the pressure within Cryssy’s body yet again, leaving the pony afraid to move or she may tear open. She felt the griffin slow down to about half of her previous speed. The screams and shouts from earlier returned to her ears, though much louder. Wherever they were, it was in utter chaos, the pony only wished she could tell who was winning the battle.
“Majesty!” Cryssy heard that griffin from earlier, Fawks, yelling over the screams, “The perimeter is secure, you’re clear to the castle!”
The castle? There was only one place in Equestria that Cryssy knew had a castle, but the griffins wouldn’t dare go straight here, would they? It was suicide, surely they couldn’t outnumber the guards there, and even if they did, these were supposed to be the strongest ponies in Equestria; they would be able to win right?
Gilda finally came to a stop, dropping Cryssy onto a patch of raised stone beneath her. The griffin came down quickly beside her and lifted the pony by the back of her neck, “Time to get on stage Squirt.”
Blood slowly dripped onto the cold stone floor, sending a sharp echo throughout the cell with each falling drop. The small puddle seemed much larger to the pony above it, but she guessed that must be due to some psychological reasoning involving fear of one’s own blood.
The lavender unicorn slowly lifted her head away from the puddle, desperately wishing she could wipe the blood from her slashed face. The guard in front of her licked the fresh blood from his talons, staring at her beaten face the entire time.
“Mm, salty.”
Twilight Sparkle’s eyes widened at the comment, he wouldn’t actually eat her would he? It’s just a sick joke right? She hoped it was, that he was just messing with her, but after Ice’s story from back at the farm…
That was where this all went wrong, wasn’t it? If they hadn’t run off without her, if they had brought her with them to the library, then they could have stopped her from being ponynapped.
They could have taken her anywhere by now, and use her for their plan, whatever it was. But she still didn’t know how, after all, Ice had told them herself that she can’t control her magic, so how would they use her power for what they need?
And where was Celestia? She had told them she was going to Skybluff herself to talk with the king? Surely she would have run into her on their way to the city, if not inside the castle itself. She placed her hope in the Princess coming to save them after realizing they weren’t anywhere in Ponyville, and hopefully Spike would tell her where they went.
“Alright little pony,” the griffin’s voice ripped the unicorn from her thoughts, “time for round two.”
Cryssy struggled to even walk straight beside the griffin which was escorting her to Celestia-knows-where. The pressure within her body had tightened around her joints, at least making her feel like she couldn’t walk. She walked blindly down what she assumed were the halls of Canterlot Castle and the sounds of the battle raging outside had long since faded into the distance. The only sounds she could hear were her own hooves and Gilda’s talons tapping across the tiled floors.
“Stop!” a thundering voice echoed throughout the castle, sending Cryssy straight to her haunches in fear, and pulsing another wave of pressure throughout her body.
Gilda yanked the frightened pony to her hooves and spun her around, “You must be Princess Luna?”
“That is correct griffin,” the lunar princess continued to bellow through the hall, “now explain this assault!”
Cryssy was jerked in front of Gilda, and her talons wrapped around the back of the collar, “It’s simple; either surrender Equestria, or I pull of this collar and my little friend here sends this entire castle, and probably part of the city, into a new ice age.”
“Surely you’re joking, no unicorn holds that kind of power!” the princess’ voice no longer thundered across the hall, but had toned down to a more normal level, “Leave now fowl, or face my wrath.”
Clearly Princess Luna was much less diplomatic than her sister, which served as a small surprise to the blind unicorn as she waited for one of the two within the hallway to make the first move. She would expect that the younger alicorn would act much as her sister, searching for a peaceful way to end this, but it would seem that she lacked the patience after Canterlot was so savagely attacked.
Cryssy felt the air swirl with magic around her, pulling her coat onto end as it reached for the source of this power. She felt her own body begin to tingle once again, no longer pulsing to her horn, but rather it seemed to be moving outward in every direction. This was still met by a blast of heat from the collar, but it didn’t back down. Her magic continued to press for the outside world, leaving her neck constantly burning with greater intensity each second.
Gilda suddenly burst out in laughter, “Fine, have it your way Princess.”
Cryssy felt the griffin’s talons press into the back of the collar, popping the lock on the metal ring. Her mind instantly filled with a white light, and every inch of her body stung as the pent up magic exploded from every pore. With her last thought the unicorn hoped that nopony, or even griffin, would be hurt by what she was about to cause.
Spike paced impatiently in front of the library, his claws clamped behind his back. He tried to look at the dirt beneath him, but he couldn’t help but look up to the path out of town every few seconds, just in case Twi and the others came over the hill while he was looking away.
It had been almost two days since the six ponies had left, and he hadn’t heard a thing from any of them, and the Princess still hadn’t returned either. The baby dragon was sure they’d be fine, after all they’d defeated both Nightmare Moon and Discord before, how hard could it be to beat one little griffin?
Wait, it was the king of the griffins, which means he probably had an army. So they had to defeat an entire ARMY of griffins; maybe he should be worried? He already was, no need to lie to himself, he had been nervous the moment Twi and the others had left the library; a bad feeling had grown in his gut ever since overhearing the story about what Ice Crystal had been through.
Even after the situation with Nightmare Moon, who had easily been the greatest threat to peace in Equestria. The mare that threatened to shroud the world in complete darkness, and likely had no issues with striking down any who may oppose her, at least the Elements of Harmony could stop her. But there was no way to know if the Elements would have any effect on a normal griffin, or any being not of a magical nature.
He looked back to the path, but again he found no sign of Twi or anypony else walking into town tonight. Maybe he should just get to bed? It was way passed his usual bedtime, and he should be tired. No, he would never get to sleep, not when he was this worried about Twi and the others.
Suddenly a blast of freezing air blew the dragon off his feet, and the night was filled by a cracking sound louder than anything Spike had ever heard in his life. The wave of air and sound shook buildings, blew the leaves from trees, and must have woken everypony in Ponyville.
The wave bore memories of the story the Elements had told of how they obtained their cutiemarks, the story of when Rainbow had first performed the sonic rainboom. The wave resulting from her had nearly blown Pinkie off her feet, could this be something similar?
Spike stood back up, and looked back to where the blast of air had come from, but was unable to see anything in the darkness of the night. The air remained cold even behind the blast, and small ice shards floated through the sky. The baby dragon shivered and ran back toward the library to escape the cold, but was stopped mid sprint by what he saw in the distance, barely visible in the light of the moon; Canterlot was frozen in a spire of ice.
Twilight was fading in and out, barely able to keep herself conscious after everything the guard had done. Her face had been left alone after the original attack, leaving crusty rows of blood caked into her coat. Unfortunately her chest and legs had been the next targets, leaving her body to burn at even the lightest movement.
Luckily, or at least it could be considered lucky, Typhoon had apparently ordered that they be kept alive, and had brought in a doctor to patch her wounds and make sure she would survive. The doctor worked slowly, apparently fully aware that the longer he took, the more time Twilight would have before being tortured again. She was surprised at the strange amount of concern from a griffin, but she couldn’t expect every griffin to hold the same apparent hatred of ponies as the guards or their king.
Even with her own relief, she wished he would hurry up. The screams of her friends echoed through the dungeon as their own torture continued, and she was beginning to regret ever having brought them to this place.
Twilight jumped in surprise at a sudden wave of cold air flashing through the room, accompanied by a soft snapping noise. The doctor stopped his work and looked into the air, staring at the shining crystals that had formed out of nowhere. He looked back to the lavender unicorn after a moment, fluffing the feathers on his back to keep himself from being effected by the sudden chill in the air.
As much as the lavender unicorn hated to think about it, she knew where the blast had come from, or more accurately who it had come from. Typhoon’s plan had worked, and now nothing she or her friends did could change it.