//------------------------------// // ix - Scylla and Charybdis // Story: The Path of Absolution - Punishment // by Morningstar1337 //------------------------------// Over Cast followed Diamond Dust into the stratosphere. The windigos’ attempts to intercept her failed as her barriers repelled the windwalkers. Eventually she caught up to the windigo queen at the eye of the storm. “So you still plan on fighting me? A waste of time if you ask me.” Diamond Dust was a few feet away from Over Cast. She looked like she was standing on the air itself. She could not believe her eyes. This was a filly she was about to battle, but that filly was capable of blizzards that could freeze Equestria over. She had to do something. “No,” Over Cast said. Her barrier of winds was protecting her from the thin air and providing her with air to breath.  “I plan on stopping you!” Diamond Dust trotted on the air as her wings began to unfold. Ice shards formed on the wings. “Bring it!” She let fly a salvo of shards heading for Over Cast. Over Cast narrowly evaded the shards and tried to fly toward Diamond Dust, but the windigo queen launched another barrage of ice and hail. She tried to dodge but some of the shards pierced her barriers and her flesh. The ice embedded on her legs and her front hooves. Over Cast felt agonizing pain as she saw the blue and white shards turn purple and eventually red from her blood. But she didn’t care, she just wanted to stop the blizzard. She charged forward at Diamond Dust and broke one of her icy wings off.. “Spunky,” the ice queen said. “But useless.” She stood on the air as she watched Over Cast’s wind barrier give out. “Damn,” Over Cast said. “She’s still flying?” Diamond Dust trotted on the air and used her horn to cast a spell. A ethereal beam of light emerged from the horn and hit Over Cast's wing. The beam froze her wing solid. Her ice and lightning barriers slowed the ice as it crept over over her body. Over Cast was in trouble. Her foe was a formidable one but she had to stop her. She charged forward and used her frozen wing as a weapon. The wing hit Diamond Dust and knocked her back, but now Over Cast struggled to fly with the imbalance that ice provided. Her ice and lightning barriers depleted as she further engaged Diamond Dust in close combat. Diamond Dust was shocked. Over Cast had managed to hit her several times. She galloped to get some distance from Over Cast and heal her wounds. "Hey, get back here,” Over Cast shouted. “Not my style,” Diamond Dust said. Her one wing was changing shape, becoming sharper and bearing more resemblance to  a sword with feathers of ice to the side and the blade of a scythe at the tip. She then turned a three hundred sixty degree angle as the ice shards flew off and hung suspended in the air. The moisture solidifying and assimilating into her wing. Over Cast knew what she was doing. Her fire barrier spell was the only spell active and her right wing frozen. She knew that the winner would be decided soon. She knew all along that she would die fighting Diamond Dust. Diamond Dust stopped spinning. Her wing made of ice blades and her six hundred sixty six molted feathers suspended between herself and Over Cast. She was getting tired of the battle, they both were. Over Cast breathed shallow and heavily for the air was too thin at this altitude. “Alright then,” Over Cast said. She raised her frozen wing up. Her flame burning hotter than before. “Do your worst!” Over Cast charged forward as Diamond Dust turned her ice wing so that the blades faced her opponent. The shards began to fly and shoot off towards Over Cast. While the windigo queen then charged forward. The distance between the two shrunk as Diamond Dust stopped. The shards being blocked by Over Cast’s wing. The windigo queen began to turn again. Her opponent was ready to strike, but Over Cast was stopped. Diamond Dust’s ice wing pierced her other side and wounded her. “Damn...you!” Over Cast said. Blood poured out of her wound, her flame extinguished. Diamond Dust’s wing began to revert to it’s original shape and size, letting Over Cast fall to her death. The excess ice formed a new wing to replace the one that was broken off. The windigos flew around their queen in triumph. The one that was in the crown said, “Well done. You certainly have proven yourself in battle. But that was a mere mortal pegasus. If you wish to fulfil your destiny, you still need to find the three servants.” “And those three servants are?” Diamond Dust said. “Sealed. They sealed themselves deep in what is now the Everfree Forest.” “And how can I find them?” “They bear the warrior's blade, the scales of life and death and the reaper's scythe. We must find them soon or else they will be forever sealed.” “Very well, but you should know your place,” Diamond Dust said. Something else dawned on her “Hey, tell me how you knew where these ’servants’ are?” “My dear, we are the spirits of the damned. We go wherever there’s hatred to feed on, and right now there’s no better place to feast on than Ponyville.” “That still didn’t answer my question.”  “I was not the only windigo outside the storm, there are others that were searching Equestria for you and your servants while the rest of my kind waited here for your coronation.” “Very well,” Diamond Dust said. “Now then, we march to find my servants.” The storm over the Unicorn Range began to move southward faster than ever.as the windigos gallopped at Diamond Dust’s command. In the storm, Gale Force was flying around the range looking for Over Cast. He saw something fall in the distance and worried. She flew to where the object fell. When he got there he was shocked. It was Over Cast, halfway frozen and bleeding. She was dead. Gale Force wept for his fallen comrade and glared at the sky. “Don’t worry,” Gale said. “I’ll stop them.” He tried to comfort the corpse but he knew his words would not reach her. He then flew out of the storm and headed east. In the Everfree Forest, Twilight Sparkle and her friends were looking for the amethyst cockatrice. “So,” Rainbow Dash said. “Even if we find this cockatrice, how do we get to unpetrify the fillies?” “I don’t know,” Twilight said. “Fluttershy do you have any ideas?” “Well um,” Fluttershy said. Just then they heard a nearby bush rustle. “it’s the cockatrice,” Pinkie Pie said. “Shield your eyes.” A snake slithered outside the bush. “Oh, nevermind then.” The mares resumed their search for the cockatrice. Later, after numerous false alarms the mares noticed the nearby bushes were rustling. Some chicken heads popped out of the bushes.         “Close your eyes!” Twilight said. The mares walked around slowly, then the cockatrices cawed. Twilight said, “Run!” and fled away form the cockatrices, the other five followed. Being careful not to look in the red eyes of the Galus serpens.