Northern Frontier of Equestria, Crystal Mountains
April 6, 3:43 AM
The inner sanctum of the colony was slowly beginning to look like the chamber he remembered. It had not been but two weeks ago that he had seen it decimated in an epic battle with the creature known as the Chimera. He could still feel the dread of the horrible creature and feel the heat from its fiery breath.
In the wake of that terrible clash, he had proudly told the pegasus that the windigoes would not leave their home. And now, looking at the progress of the reconstruction, he felt the satisfaction of being right. The sheer rock walls of the cavern had been once again coated in a thick layer of ice, and the decorative carvings and etchings were already beginning to return. The one supporting pillar that had been destroyed was under full-scale construction, and there were already more than a dozen platforms that had been placed around the vastness of the chamber. High above him, on the opposite side of the chamber, the magnificent throne of his lord looked out over the recovering domain.
And the king was there.
The pale glowing eyes of King Icevein pierced the distance to the leader of his forces. They were filled with power, as they had always been, but the commander couldn’t help but note the distinct look of worry and contemplation as he patiently stood before his master. “And you saw this?” the king asked, his booming voice shaking the chamber.
The commander looked on undaunted. “Some of my scouts returned with this report less than an hour ago,” he explained. “It is gone.”
Even from this distance, he could see the king’s eyes shift in brightness as his expression changed. “Do we know where it has gone?”
The commander bowed his head, taking a moment to carefully choose his words. “It was last seen heading south.” He paused again before continuing. “I did not want to risk any more scouts by following it, so its current location is unknown to us.”
He listened to his voice slowly dissipate into the vastness of the cavern before the king spoke again. “Do we have any other information?”
He lifted his eyes back to the throne as he spoke. “No, my liege.”
The king reclined back on his throne as the commander finished speaking. A long, awkward silence followed.
He steeled his nerves. He had been the king’s most trusted officer for years, and his reputation for being cold and calculating had only served to solidify his standing within the ranks of the windigoes.
But that did not mean that he was not without fear.
He had never thought he would see the day when he would feel the need to perform an act of service to a creature of any kind. He believed that it was the duty of any windigo to prove that they were self-sufficient, not requiring the aid of any to survive. They were the strongest of any civilization; the survivors of the unsurvivable, and the citizens of the uninhabitable.
Until the ponies came.
That fateful night when the pegasus and unicorn came to him and warned all the windigoes of the threat of some monster called “the Chimera,” he had almost laughed at them. But when the threat turned out to be real and the danger was far greater than he could have imagined, it was those same two ponies that had stood up and defended his home. And it was his duty of honor to see that deed repaid.
King Icevein suddenly leaned forward again. “And yet,” he said slowly, “here you remain, so there must be something you still wish to say.”
If a windigo was capable of sweating, he knew he would have started. He had never felt this nervous; not even the Chimera had instilled such a sense of fear on him. Was he crazy? Was he actually about to ask this?
“Yes, my lord,” he said in a steady voice. “I would like permission to go south to warn the unicorn.”
The air shifted. It did not become warmer or colder, but it became thicker, tighter...closer. The king’s eyes narrowed as he focused in on where the commander stood. The tension in the room grew with each silent moment, until the very air itself felt so heavy that the commander thought he might choke on it.
“…Do you know where she is?”
The question drew the commander’s focus back onto the king, who was now leaning so far forward on his throne that he appeared to be ready to fall right off. It was obvious that he was both disturbed and deep in thought, yet his attention had never drifted from the windigo on the icy ground before him.
The commander mentally chastised himself. No one else in the colony knew that he had secretly been keeping an eye on the unicorn ever since he had returned them to the town after the conflict with the Chimera. He had felt a certain compulsion to watch over her, perhaps as a form of payment for what she had done. Maybe he had done it out of some sense of honor. Or perhaps, deep within himself, his long-frozen heart had begun to thaw from the warmth of friendship and compassion he had sensed in her presence.
Still, he had inadvertently let the king know that he had been back to the colony recently. And one way or another, he was about to admit that he had done even more than that.
“She is in the capital city of their empire, in the heart of their realm.” His words came out concise and clear, but slightly too loud to be normal. They betrayed the anxiety he felt.
The king rose up and floated down to the leader of his forces. He appraised the commander long and hard, though his thoughts were kept to himself. The commander looked attentively into the eyes of his king, though the silence caused his nerves to fray even more. He wished that, if only for a moment, he could look into the mind of the king and see exactly what he was thinking. At least he would know what kind of punishment he would receive for his actions and subsequent request.
“Tell me…why would you risk so much to travel into the midst of those who despise you with a warning they may not even listen to?” the king asked as he circled the object of his query.
For the first time since entering the chamber, the commander knew exactly what to say. The words seemed to well up from within him, as though he had no ability to hold them back. “Was it not so long ago, my king, that they did the same for us?”
King Icevein was undaunted. “Why not send a scout in your place?”
It was a baited question. He already knew that. The king was trying to force him into a corner and make him say that he wanted to go. He wasn’t sure that was entirely accurate, but he couldn’t deny that in at least some small measure, it was true.
He decided it was safest to guard his words. As much as King Icevein had trusted him in the past, he could not be certain that his standing would remain the same. “She will only know me, not one of my scouts.”
The king closed his eyes and sighed. He turned and slowly backtracked to his throne. “I take no pleasure in the thought of losing you for even five minutes,” he said as he floated through the air. “But I sense that I cannot dissuade you from this.” He reached the throne and returned his gaze to his subject. “If this is truly your desire, then I will grant your request.”
The commander bowed low as his mind registered the surprise he felt. “Thank you, my king,” he managed. He quickly rose up again and looked directly into the eyes of his king. “I shall depart immediately and return as swiftly as I may.”
“Then go,” the king concluded with a gesture of his hoof. “Be swift and cautious on your way.”
With one final nod of his head, he turned to leave. But as he reached the small arched exit from the chamber, the king’s voice boomed out again.
“Commander, do not think that you are the only one of this colony that would go on this mission. The coming of the ponies has changed many things among the citizens of this realm, not the least of which being our long-seeded hatred of the Equestrians.”
He found himself involuntarily turning back to look at the king, his surprise overpowering whatever force of will he tried to impose against it. “My liege?”
“You do an honorable thing today,” he continued in a softer voice, “and greater things may yet result from it.” The king hesitated for just a moment before he called out again, strong and clear. “Go! Time passes quickly, and you have none to waste.” The gleam in his eye seemed to echo his speech in silent communication.
“As you wish, my lord,” he replied. With a sudden burst of speed, he raced through the halls of the cavern until he emerged into the open air of the starlit night. Columns of smoke rose to the southeast, just on the edge of the horizon. If this does not end now, then such will be the end of all civilizations that oppose the Chimera.
He took a deep breath of the frosty air. The chill invigorated him; he knew that his journey would take him far from the lands of the comforting cold, where his strength would lessen. But it was a journey he had to make. With a screech, he took to the air and made a beeline just west of due south, flying as quickly as he could.
I told him that he was lucky to have survived his journey, he mused. Perhaps he was. Perhaps not. But either way, I could use some of that luck right now.
Canterlot
April 6, 10:07 AM
The sound of a hoof knocking on wood awakened Lily from her sleep. She groggily opened her eyes and glanced around the room. The sunlight was pouring in through the open patio doors, blinding her temporarily as her eyes attempted to adjust to the sudden solar intrusion. As her vision cleared, she was surprised to find herself lounging on the bed beside Sky’s still form. She must have gotten up on the bed beside him sometime during the night. She didn’t remember doing it, but it would have been hard to dispute the evidence.
She sat up and stretched for a moment. She rolled her neck from side to side and curled her legs, trying to pop her stiff joints when she suddenly remembered what had awakened her in the first place. She quickly spun around to where the door stood, still closed.
She hastily ran her hoof through her mane a few times to try and cause herself to look presentable when the door opened a crack and a familiar purple unicorn head poked in. “Can I come in?” Twilight asked softly.
Lily smiled. “Of course, Twilight,” Lily responded, lightly hopping off the bed onto the floor. “I’d appreciate the company.”
Twilight stepped into the room and shut the door behind her. She nervously glanced between Sky’s body and Lily a few times. “Any changes?”
Lily let her head drop as she shook it from side to side. “No. He’s still exactly the way he looked when I got here.”
Twilight’s brow furrowed as Lily finished speaking. “And how are you doing?” she asked.
Lily looked up in surprise. How was she doing? She hadn’t really thought about it until now. “Me? I’m…alright, I guess,” she said with a shrug. She looked over to where her head had been resting on the bed, where she saw the distinct marks of dried tears on the bedsheet. “I’ve stopped crying, at least.”
Twilight looked away and rubbed her leg inattentively. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—”
“It’s alright,” Lily interrupted, looking sympathetic. “You didn’t mean any harm.”
Twilight looked up again, and the small form of a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. “Thanks.” She produced a small satchel from her back, and, untying it, revealed a pair of glowing white marbles. They reminded Lily of the fire spell orbs that Sky had used several times during his time in Polarmino. “These are magical nutrient containers,” Twilight explained, apparently noticing the attention Lily was giving to them. “Since Sky can’t eat right now, we’ve been using these to keep his body healthy. They’ve worked pretty well up to this point, but the Princesses are worried that they will lose their effectiveness if we keep using them too often.”
“I see,” Lily said, amazed at the ingenuity of the devices. She watched quietly as Twilight broke them open and emptied the glittering contents into Sky’s mouth. “Twilight, can I ask you something?”
The purple unicorn turned back to face her white counterpart as the last of the glittering substance fell from the orbs. “Of course. What is it?”
Lily cleared her throat as she began. “When I arrived here, it felt like everypony was watching me so closely. It was like they were expecting me to cast some powerful magic and make everything better, just like that. Is that what everypony was expecting?”
A muscle seemed to tighten in Twilight’s neck. “Well…maybe. See, when we found out that you had saved Sky’s life when he was in Polarmino, we all became really hopeful that you were an extremely powerful magic user.”
Lily blushed for a second. “Oh, no. My magic is a calming magic, used to dispel panic or negative emotions. From what I understand, it’s a lot like Princess Cadance’s magic.”
“Oh, alright,” Twilight said in comprehension. “Once all this is over, I’ll have to get you to show me this magic. I think it would be useful in my studies.”
“Okay,” Lily replied. “So they expected me to use some complicated magic spell to save Sky when I got here?” she continued, redirecting the conversation back to her original question.
“I don’t know if that’s what we were expecting, but it’s certainly what we were hoping for. See, there was another incident that occurred where two ponies were able to cast an incredible magic spell because of the love between them. Maybe we were a bit optimistic in believing that it might happen again, but we had to try.” She released a sigh as she shrugged.
“I see,” Lily said softly. A thought arose in her mind. “But how did you know about…well, about Sky and me? Did he talk about me?”
Twilight seemed to turn a bit redder in the cheeks as the question left Lily’s lips. “Well, no, not exactly. We read his journal.”
Lily’s eyes suddenly grew wide in surprise. “He kept a journal?” she asked.
“You didn’t know?”
“He never mentioned it.”
Twilight brought her hoof to her chin in contemplation. After a few moments, she looked back to Lily. “Well, we didn’t know about it until Princess Celestia told us about it. That’s when we found out about you.”
Lily bit her lip as a new question came to the front of her mind. “Twilight, would you do me a favor?”
Twilight looked on with curious eyes. “What’s that?”
“Would you read Sky’s journal to me?” she asked softly, as though the request seemed inappropriate. “As much as I like him, I still know so little about him. And since he can’t tell me about himself right now…”
Lily watched as Twilight’s eyes became glassy. She turned to a nearby shelf and pulled a black book to herself with her magic. She walked around to beside Lily and sat down as she opened the cover to the first entry. “Sure, Lily. I’d be glad to.”
So the two mares sat together on the floor, reading the journal of the pegasus resting in the bed. As they read, the entries were interrupted by the sounds of laughing and the sounds of crying as they shared in the thoughts and adventures of their friend through the previous three months. As Twilight read, Lily found herself hearing the voice of her boyfriend instead of the violet mare, as though he was perfectly fine and was reading everything himself.
As Twilight finished reading the final entry and closed the journal, the sudden opening of the door caused them both to jump. Spinning around, they found Princess Celestia standing in the doorway, accompanied by a gold-armored guard.
“My little ponies, I must ask that you come with me immediately.” Celestia’s face was grave as she spoke.
“Princess Celestia, what is it?” Twilight asked. “What’s wrong?”
“An intruder has made his way to the edge of Canterlot. He has not tried to penetrate the barrier, but he says he has a message,” Celestia explained.
“An intruder?” Lily asked, shivering. “Is it…the Chimera?”
Celestia shook her head. “No. It is a windigo.”
Lily’s mind suddenly became a whirlwind as she heard Celestia’s words. What was a windigo doing here? Why had it come so far south? And why was it giving a message to the ponies?
“What’s the message?” Twilight asked, a sudden fierceness in her voice.
“That is why I need you,” the princess answered. She turned and locked her gaze with Lily. “He says that his message is for you.”