//------------------------------//
// Chapter 11: It's Not Over Yet 
// Story: Ice and Shadow 
// by ChronicleStone 
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     Sky felt a cool breeze blow across his neck.  He opened his eyes and beheld a brilliant dazzling light ahead of him.  All the colors of the rainbow danced across his field of vision as he looked on.  Sky smiled sadly as the realization finally washed over him.
So, this is what it’s like to be dead, huh?
He tried to rise to his hooves and approach the light (as he figured he should), but found that his legs were still not responding as he’d like.  He found that a bit odd, considering that he really shouldn’t be constrained by his body anymore.  He down at his legs and noticed that he was still donned in his worn and torn white coat along with his white boots.  He was suddenly also aware that the breeze was not only coming from behind him, but that it wasn’t really cool at all: it was straight-up freezing.  Sky sighed.
Okay, so apparently, I’m not dead.
Sky shook his head and tried to refocus.  The light ahead of him was most certainly the death-bringing flames of the Chimera, but from what he could tell, they weren’t getting any closer.  As his vision cleared, he saw that a wall of ice had risen up and was holding the flames at bay.  Curious, Sky twisted his head around to see a great congregation of windigoes gathered behind him, all blowing in unison to where the ice wall stood, constantly renewing it against the infernal assault of the Chimera.
Sky rubbed his eyes.  Are the windigoes…protecting me?
He scanned the rest of the chamber.  More windigoes were coming from all over the cavern, joining their comrades in their effort to defy the Chimera.  The chamber was cast in a strangely-ambient array of colors as the light of the flames was broken by the ice and scattered against every surface.  And far across the cavern, a pure white light shone like a star.  He strained to see what it was, but as his vision finally returned to normal he saw the small outline of a unicorn standing regally like a queen, her horn glowing with power.  With a sudden burst of comprehension, Sky smiled and chuckled.
Lily.  I should have known.
Streams of light passed from her horn throughout the cavern.  Even Sky felt its calming effect on him, in spite of the very real danger he was still in.  She had used her power to break the panic on the windigoes, giving them a chance to regroup and rally against the Chimera.  And not a moment too soon, it would seem.  Just a second or two more, and Sky would have been the main course at a Chimera barbecue.
He was still trying to shake his mind free of the cobwebs when he became aware of a body beside him.  Looking up, he saw the intense face of a familiar windigo looking down at him.  “Well, are you just going to lie there all day?  You came to find this thing; I suggest you go get it,” the commander said shortly.
Sky grunted as he worked to get his legs to support him.  He stretched his wings and found that they were unharmed.  “What, don’t you want a shot at it?” Sky said through clenched teeth.
The windigo’s eyes narrowed, but Sky thought that there was a glimmer of respect hidden within them.  “You have your power.  Use it.”
Sky’s legs whined for a few moments as the feeling returned to them.  The windigoes were managing to build the ice wall even larger now that there were more of them, though Sky wondered why the Chimera wasn’t trying to move around it.  Finally, he began to move his legs rhythmically, and he felt like his old self again.
He scanned the chamber again.  Beside him, there was the gruff commander of the windigoes.  Behind him, a veritable army of windigoes hovered, their icy breath constructing a shield against the deadly flames of the Chimera.  And across the chamber, there was Lily, using her own magic to defy the dread of their foe, bringing them all together in a single effort.  Everyone was supporting him.
He felt a tingle in his wings.  Every breath sent a shiver down his spine.  His legs began to itch with excitement as he felt an unmistakable energy course through his veins.
And Sky felt his power return.
He was in the air in a heartbeat, streaking like a comet over the wall.  He caught sight of the Chimera, who was only using two heads to blast away at the icy barrier, while the goat head kept a lookout for anything that might dare approach.  It saw Sky almost as soon as he was over the wall.
Not today, ugly.
He changed direction before the Chimera’s other two heads could turn to face him.  He closed the distance deliberately, giving the goat head a chance to target him and take a shot.  Smiling, he made his approach.  I may not be able to hurt you with your own flames, but I’m willing to bet that you can’t see past them.
He passed on the outside of the fiery streak, cutting off his vision of the Chimera.  With a desperate push of his wings, he sped up as he reached the tail end of the beast, where the snake head was stretching out to try and intercept him.
“Oh, hi there,” Sky said as he threw everything he had into his momentum, stretched out, and caught the tail in his mouth.  He felt the Chimera strain as the sudden jerk pulled its body taut.  Sky summoned all the energy he had and released it in a surge of magic that sent him rocketing forward, dragging the Chimera unwillingly behind him.  With a quick whip of his head, he sent the monster head over heels through the air, crashing into the bare stone wall, engulfed in a cloud of fallen dust and debris.
Sky coughed as he landed.  “Ugh, you know you taste terrible?” he taunted.
The Chimera made no response.  Sky waited patiently for it to reappear, but after several tense moments, there was still no sound.  Still he waited.
“Come on out.  I don’t have all day to finish you off, you know.”
As the dust cloud settled, Sky was surprised to find that the Chimera wasn’t there.  Well…it was, and it wasn’t.  The great hulk of a beast that he had been fighting before was gone.  It was replaced by the all-too-familiar body of a windigo.
It stood upon the platform, legs splayed outward, looking battle-weary and exhausted.  Its head was cast downward, and it was taking deep breaths to try and recover.
Sky raised an eyebrow.  He knew he couldn’t trust the Chimera, but how bad had he actually hurt it?  “I don’t care what form you take.  You’re still a menace to Equestria, and it’s my job to see you eliminated.”
Slowly, the Chimera-windigo raised its head towards the pegasus.  Its eyes were closed, and as it spoke, Sky noticed that its speech was no longer made up of the blend of voices that he was used to hearing.  “You can try all you want, but no pony can eliminate me.  Not even you.”
“Back to referencing yourself in the singular again?  Man, I really need to start taking it easy on you.”
The Chimera-windigo actually smiled and began to laugh.  It was a cruel, thin laugh that seemed to linger in the air.  It made Sky’s skin crawl.  “Well, you have done an admirable job here today.  But do not doubt me: your day of reckoning is coming.  And you cannot hide from that.”
Sky snorted.  “The only day of reckoning that’s coming is yours.”
“Oh, yours will come.  You will see.  There is no lasting victory.”  With that, its eyelids pulled back to reveal a pair of glowing crimson eyes that Sky knew all too well.  He recoiled as the eyes brought back haunting memories of his first encounter with the beast.  “THERE IS ONLY ME!!!”
Sky planted his hooves as the Chimera-windigo took off and headed for the exit.  He could feel Lily’s calming spell as it quieted his fear.  He launched himself into the air and began his pursuit of his quarry as it headed for the exit.  The windigoes turned and prepared to seal the exit with a wall of ice.
“No, wait!  It’s too—”
The Chimera-windigo was into the tunnel just before the barrier sealed the cavern exit.  Sky rammed into it, hoping break through, but the seal held fast.  Smiling, the fake windigo turned and sneered.
“And so we part again, pegasus,” it said in a mocking voice that was muffled by the icy covering on the exit.  “It was nice catching up with you.”
Sky snarled and beat his hooves relentlessly against the ice.  “This isn’t over!” he screamed defiantly, his voice wrought with fury.  He had been so close…he couldn’t let it get away now.
“Oh, of course it isn’t.  I certainly hope to see you again very soon.”  A black mist suddenly wrapped itself around the body of the impostor.  In a moment, the cloud was pulled back, and the windigo’s body had been replaced by another.  It was the body of an aged tawny pony with a white mane and tail.  A head of wheat formed the cutie mark on its flank.  Its eyes glowed red as its wicked smile widened across its face.
Sky could feel his teeth grinding as he watched the scene play out before him.  The body changed again into another pony, looking just as old, but this one was a deep gray stallion with a light grey mane.  A tall grandfather clock graced its flank as the cutie mark.  Finally, the body of the windigo returned.  It pressed itself right against the ice with a syrupy sweet smile that made Sky’s stomach turn.
“Very, very soon,” it said softly.
Sky hurled the fire-spell orb he had fished out of his saddlebags against the ice and watched as the frozen seal disintegrated.  The Chimera-windigo turned and fled, laughing maniacally as it moved down the corridor outside.  Sky squeezed into the tunnel, deaf to the cries of the windigoes (and Lily) behind him.  All he knew was the red fury in his brain and an image of the Chimera laughing over the fallen bodies of Grandpa Grain and Grandfather Clock.
He tore down the tunnel, frantically looking for the Chimera.  He raced along at a breakneck pace until he arrived at the mouth of the tunnel.  The sun was high in the sky, and its reflection off the snow blinded Sky where he stood.  Shielding his eyes, he squinted and strained to see anything, but all he detected was the sound of a cruel laughter as the wind carried it.  He prepared to take off into the daylight when a voice spoke from behind him.
“No.”
Sky whipped around to see the commander coming up beside him.  “But it’s getting away!  And I can stop it!”
“Can you?” the commander asked.  “Were you able to stop it on your own today?”
Sky bit his lip.  He knew the answer, of course, but he wouldn’t admit it.  To concede the point was to allow the Chimera to get away scot-free.
“Perhaps one day you will stop it,” the commander continued.  “But if what you told me earlier is true, then your only chance to defeat it will come when you are surrounded by those that you love and care about.”
The windigo’s words surprised Sky.  For a moment, he forgot about the Chimera.  “Wait, what?”
The windigo looked down at Sky.  There was no disdain in his eyes.  In fact, if he had considered it to be possible, Sky could have sworn that he saw…sympathy.  “Every creature has its strength.  For the windigoes, we ride upon the chaos of our enemies.  But the ponies of Equestria find their greatest strength in their reliance upon each other.  It is what drove the windigoes away and allowed them to claim the land of Equestria as their own.”
Sky remained silent.  If the commander felt any bitterness over the legend of the Founders of Equestria, he didn’t show it.  “We have thrived here for ages.  And in that time, the windigoes’ hatred of the ponies has been allowed to fester.  And yet, in the midst of a danger we were unaware of, two ponies come to warn us about it.  And in the end, we ended up working together to drive the creature off.”  He hesitated as he stared off into the distance.  “You are truly unique.  Both of you.  Your courage led you into the heart of those that considered you their enemies, and your compassion brought us together in a common cause.  And you have forced at least one windigo to reconsider what he thought he knew.”  He turned back to Sky.  The commander did not smile, but there was an unmistakable look of respect on his face.  “Never lose that.  I believe that it is a source of strength for you that will see you through many trials.”
Sky found himself surprised by the windigo’s honesty.  “Thank you, sir,” Sky managed.  “And I really mean that.  It means a lot to hear such words come from someone that basically hated my guts when we first met.”
Sky gazed out the opening again.  There was silence for a while before Sky spoke again.  “So now what?  The Chimera essentially destroyed your home here.”
The commander shook his head.  “No.  It decimated our main chamber, but that is hardly the entirety of our home.  We will stay and rebuild.  We have not moved for hundreds of years, and I do not believe that we will move now.”
“What about your King?  Is he alright?”
The commander snorted.  “You know little about King Icevein.  Even with all its power, the Chimera could not hope to eliminate our King so easily.  He will be fine with some rest.”
“Ah, good,” Sky replied.  He was silent for another moment.  “Well…what about Lily and myself?  What will happen to us?”
The commander sighed.  “The King will make a judgment on that.  But I believe that he will release you back to your homes.”
“Really?  Even though so much damage was caused?”
“Are you asking to be kept a prisoner?” he replied.  Sky grimaced and looked away.  “But do not worry.  Eventually, the beast would have destroyed our home.  But it would have done it entirely.  Nothing would have been left.  You saved both our home and our lives.  The King will not fail to see that.”
“Hm.”  Sky looked out over the snow-covered plain for a moment, then turned around and began to head back to the main chamber.  “I just wish I had one more chance to destroy that thing.  I wouldn’t fail.”
“That chance will come,” the windigo advised.  “Just not today.”