Like waking up from a bad dream, Silvershot inhaled a deep breath before shooting his body upright from sleep. His chest hurt mildly, and so did his head. He flipped back his hair from his scarred eye and tried looking around. There was white stuff on the ground that was fluffy to touch. It was cold and shiny in the light. Silvershot inspected this stuff on the ground and found that it was snow.
Silvershot woke up and saw that he was in the Crystal Mountains in Equestria. From what he managed to ascertain, the ship made it to Equestria while it was being attacked by Danja, but there was a slight problem. Okay, maybe a really big problem. The entire ship crashed on a mountain side.
Silvershot’s eyes glowed with the fiery remains of Finn’s ship. The whole ship lay wrecked on a mountain peak. The pinnacle point of the peak injected itself into its hull. There were fires burning on the ship with its mast and sails completely incinerated by the flames. There was only one thing that worried Silvershot most of all; where were its passengers? The ship looked so destroyed, Silvershot would be surprised if anypony besides him had survived the crash.
Before he could get up from the snow to see if anypony was alive in Finn’s ship, he heard the moaning sounds of an injured pony nearby. He turned around to see Ironheart unconscious in a pile of snow. With what little strength he had left, he unburied his friend from the snow.
Ironheart was in pretty bad shape. There were multiple burns on her forelegs and sides. A large slash wound was cut across her face also. Despite all the injuries, she was going to live. Although she would have a scar that would run across her face for the rest of her life, she would be alright once she got some medical aid.
“Ironheart,” Silvershot said. He shook her a bit to see if she could hear him. “Can you hear me?”
“Yeah, I can hear you,” she replied back. She didn’t sound hurt at all, despite her moaning that from earlier. “Argh, my face, it hurts. Do I still look pretty?”
Silvershot didn't know how to exactly respond to her. "Um, you look alright. You have a slight cut on your face but you're alright."
"What happened to the ship?"
“Um, Danja fired a ballistic bullet at the ship and we crashed. We made it to Equestria though. I haven’t seen any-“
He interrupted himself. Over the cold gusting ice winds of the mountains and the darkness of the night, he saw somepony over the ridge. It looked like the Shaman. Silvershot knew that Ironheart would be alright if he just left her to rest in the snow for a little bit. She fell right to sleep when he left her alone.
It was the Shaman on the ridge and Silvershot was happy to see him.
“Shaman! You’re alive!” Silvershot yelped as he got closer to the Shaman.
“Hey, you’re alive too,” the Shaman called back. “That’s good.”
Silvershot stood next to the Shaman on the ridge. When he was able to get over, he managed to see what looked like an established refugee camp down below. Families of ponies and zebras huddled together for warmth with blankets. Some talented unicorns managed to start fires around some groups to help withstand the cold.
“How many survived?” Silvershot muttered.
“What did you say, Silvershot?” the Shaman asked.
“How many survived?!” An expression of anger was drawn upon his face.
“Roughly two hundred to three hundred. We lost a lot of ponies and zebras from the crash.”
“Dang it! I feel like it’s my fault that this happened to everypony. Why did I drag you all into this?”
The Shaman laid a hoof on Silvershot’s burdened shoulders. “You didn’t intend for this to happen. You tried your best to help and you did. Without you telling us about a possible cure for the plague, we’d all most likely have died of it in the City of Healing.”
“I’m still worried about our friends. Where are Finn, Cookie Dough, Rainbow Dash, and Applebloom?”
The Shaman was quiet for a bit before answering Silvershot’s question. “Finn died during the invasion of the ship. He tried to fight Danja alone. He thought…he thought he could do it by himself. At least, he managed to hurt her before dying. Cookie Dough is alright. She’s down with some of our ponies, giving away free cookies to help with their hunger. About Applebloom and Rainbow Dash…”
“What about them?”
“They’re alright. Calm down. They are just down there. Before Finn died, he rescued them from Danja.”
Silvershot looked at the direction where the Shaman pointed at. He was glad to see that he was right. He could see Applebloom and Rainbow Dash perfectly fine and safe. They sat near their own campfire, trying to ignore the cold snow as much as possible by having a conversation with each other.
“Mind bringing the Blac-, I mean Ironheart, over to the campsite? I need to talk to Applebloom and Rainbow Dash.”
“I will do it, my king.”
“You don’t have to call me king.” Silvershot trotted away through the snow to Applebloom and Rainbow Dash.
“Of course I do, because you are.”
After sloshing through some snow, Silvershot met up with his friends. The first one to notice Silvershot’s return was Applebloom. She was excited to see that he was alive. At the first sight of seeing him, she jumped into the air and grabbed onto his wings. He tried to shake her off as best as he could but he knew it was all for fun that she jumped him. They wrestled in the snow while Rainbow Dash stared at them in amusement.
“I’m glad you’re safe Silvershot,” Applebloom said happily. She grinned happily and continued to wrestle with him.
“I’m glad that both of you are safe,” Silvershot said back to back. He also looked at Rainbow Dash. He politely asked for Applebloom to get off of him before asking Rainbow Dash a question. “So, what were you talking about?”
“Sadly, about how much time is left before everyone dies,” Rainbow Dash replied solemnly. She slumped into the snow the moment she finished.
“No way, are we too late?”
“No. We still have thirty minutes. I was just telling Applebloom that we won’t be able to make it back to Ponyville before the virus kills us all.”
“We will make it back to Ponyville but with the virus cured. Do you realize where we are?”
“Ah nope.” She said it exactly like Big Macintosh in Sweet Apple Acres.
“This is the Crystal Mountains!”
“And?”
“This is where the most wanted criminals are detained after they are arrested. Do you know who is Equestria’s only detained criminal?”
“Your father?” She said in confusion. Applebloom was fortunately following along.
“That’s right! He has the final piece to the element of sacrifice. I am going over to the prison, get the information out of him, and then fly as fast as I can over to Canterlot where the rest of the pieces should be. Once the pieces come together, the element of sacrifice should be able to stop the virus.”
“Alright, that sounds like a good plan. I’m coming with you.”
“And me too!” Applebloom cried out over the wind.
Silvershot allowed them to come with him to the Crystal Prison. He didn’t want to leave them behind again. Applebloom squealed with joy and jumped onto Silvershot’s back. She was the only pony amongst the three who couldn’t fly so she had no other choice. Silvershot and Rainbow Dash took off into the air and flew as fast as they could to the Crystal Prison.
There was one thing pegasi were taught to avoid at all costs in flight school; they were to never fly in a storm. Especially if it was a snow storm. The three were brave to fly into a snow storm, especially in the mountains. They were running out of time. They only had thirty minutes to save Equestria.
The Crystal Prison wasn’t that far away from the crashed site of Finn’s ship. Through the storm though, it felt like Silvershot and Rainbow Dash were flying for miles. Zero visibility and the wind was blowing against them as they were flying. He managed to see the torchlight of the prison through the snow storm and they flew in that direction.
They touched down in the snow and carefully walked through it and to the prison. At the front entrance, there were two dead guard ponies; one on each side of the doorway. They had died from the Danja’s virus but their bodies did not explode, which was good for Applebloom since she didn’t have to see any more exploding bodies.
Once inside the prison, there was only one prison cell that the group found. It was meant for Equestria’s only known criminal that made his own mark in history. It was for Silvershot’s father, Silver Lancet.
Silver Lancet sat in his cell, all four hooves chained to the walls of his cell. A neck brace also held his neck to be chained to the wall. He was utterly immobilized where he was.
Silvershot, Applebloom, and Rainbow Dash, approached the frozen solid metal bars of Silver Lancet’s cell. Several times, during the visit, Applebloom attempted to lick the said frozen bars but she knew it was a dumb idea to do so. She was curious as to why tongues stuck to bars when they froze.
“Father,” Silvershot said. His voice echoed in the air and trailed off into the snow storm outside. He waited for a response from Silver Lancet.
He was still alive. “Ah, Silvershot, my son. How have you been?” Silver Lancet spoke. His voice was deep with ominous evil intent. “You know it’s quite boring in here without some guards to talk to. They’ve been dead for three days and I have had nothing to eat but stupid snow.”
“Look, father, we don’t have much time-“
“I am aware of the mysterious virus. Danja’s been up to some serious plotting against our family for generations. I should have done something while I was still King of Venturia!”
“Well you’re not king anymore! So help me while you’re still alive to speak! We have under a half an hour before the virus kills us all.”
“Yup, I know.” He didn’t sound like he was affected by the fact that he would die in thirty minutes. He actually sounded like he liked the idea of dying sooner than later.
“Look, several years ago, you forged the element of sacrifice. That was a fake. I am trying to forge the real one and fix this mistake that Armonia, our oldest ancestor, started nearly a thousand years ago. We are missing a piece and I know you have that piece. So where is it? I know you have it so don’t lie to me.”
“Yes, I have it. Like a good member of the Cavallo family, I’ve passed it on to you. In reality, you should have it.”
“That’s a lie! You never gave me anything.”
“Oh, how contraire. I did give you something. Do you not remember what it was?”
In fact, despite these mind-boggling words, Silvershot knew exactly what he was talking about. The one thing that Silver Lancet ever gave his son, was the family tradition of weaponry. Silvershot took out his throwing star using his magic and lifted it into the air. Silver Lancet smiled at the sight of his throwing star and laughed hysterically from behind his cell bars. Rainbow Dash and Applebloom gave him stern looks as soon as they heard the creepy laughter.
“What are you laughing about?” Rainbow Dash questioned Silver Lancet.
“It’s just, I am surprised Silvershot didn’t realize it sooner. Now you have under twenty minutes to forge the real element of sacrifice together at Canterlot which takes about twenty-five minutes to fly there. There’s no way you can make it.”
Applebloom sensed something wrong in the air. She looked at Silvershot and saw tears running down his eyes. He was crying but he was building up rage inside of his body. With a very loud scream, he propelled his throwing star at Silver Lancet. The throwing star slashed right through the metal bars like paper and headed towards Silver Lancet. Silver Lancet was prepared to die and he stared at the incoming projectile that was coming right at him.
The throwing star missed Silver Lancet’s head but it did hit his chains. All five of his chains that kept him chained to the wall were broken as the throwing star bounced back to Silvershot.
Holding onto Silvershot’s leg was Applebloom. She was trying to calm his fury by calling out to him. She cried for him to stop being angry. Once he heard her voice, he started to calm down. Her voice reminded a lot of Fortress to him, who he very much wished was here. He caught his throwing star upon its return and made it vanish into thin air with his magic.
“We’ll make it. Just watch.” Silvershot assured his father.
“I can reach Canterlot from here,” Rainbow Dash offered. “With a single sonic rainboom, I can make it there in ten seconds flat!”
Silvershot contemplated whether or not she would make it. He had heard a lot of rumors about the sonic rainboom that Rainbow Dash accomplished a little while back in Ponyville. He wasn’t there when she did it, but he believed all the rumors. If she could do it again, then she could definitely bring his throwing star back to Canterlot.
“Rainbow Dash, I want you to do it. I want you to fly to Canterlot, with my throwing star, and bring it to Princess Celestia. Try your best to put it together,” Silvershot commanded. He turned to look at Applebloom, who was still holding onto his leg. “I know what you can do. It’s finally time for you to shine.”
“What can I do Silvershot?” Applebloom asked, releasing her grip from his leg.
“You get the best part. You get to forge the element of sacrifice yourself.”