//------------------------------// // Broken Feathers — Part Three // Story: Broken Feathers: Frozen North // by That Avi Nerd //------------------------------// The voice sent new chills down Rainbow Dash's spine. Her mind reeled with the dragon's words. Everypony else seemed to be under similar affects; they were covering their ears with their hooves in the hopes that it would be blocked out. "Was that..." Twilight's hushed voice trailed off. "Boreas," Rainbow Dash finished. She looked over at Phantom and rose to her hooves. "What do we do?" Phantom was still propped against the wall, taking slow, long, breaths. He was staring down at his hooves, his jaw hanging open. "Hey!" she barked. "What. Do. We. Do?" His eyes drifted upwards. They looked empty... unsure... "I... I don't know," he whispered. "I don't know what to do. I've never been up against anything like this before." "Aren't you like one of the best guards?" Pinkie asked. Not surprisingly, her tone was still a chipper one, even in this dire situation. "Like, ever?" "Princess Celestia didn't exactly task me with dealing with super-natural powers; she gave all of those assignments to you guys. This?" He pointed a hoof at the door. "This wasn't in hoof camp." "Well we have," Rainbow Dash said. Phantom briefly looked at her, then found something else to focus his attention on, knowing she was making a point. She walked over to Twilight and grabbed hold of her Element of Harmony. Placing it around her neck, it let off a soft red glow. With furrowed brows, Rainbow Dash began stomping towards the door, grumbling something under her breath. "Rainbow Dash, wait," Applejack said sternly. "Now you aren't gonna go runnin' off on your own, fightin' some dragon we know nothin' about. We saw how that worked out last time." "Last time, the dragon was the size of a mountain. Have you seen how small this one is compared to the other one? This'll be a piece of cake!" She tried to walk away again but Rarity used her magic to grab onto her tail and stop her. "Rainbow," Rarity began, "the last dragon threatened Equestria with a thousand years of smoke and didn't poses apparent magical abilities. This one has an entire prophecy behind it that says the world will be turned to ice for the rest of eternity—" "Unless we stop him!" Rainbow Dash tried to get away but Fluttershy stopped her. The yellow mare wrapped a foreleg around Rainbow's shoulder. "Rainbow," Fluttershy spoke softly, "it's already started." She used a hoof to point to the frozen ponies in front of the door. "We can't just run out there and expect to fix everything." "Fluttershy's right," Twilight said, trotting up to her friends, placing their respective Elements of Harmony on them. "We don't know how powerful this dragon is. Spike?" All eyes turned to a table that was on its side. The purple dragon whose name was called poked his head up over the edge. "Yeah?" he said in a shaky voice. "Do you know anything about Boreas?" "Why would I know anything about him?" "Well you said you were going to try to learn as much as you could on dragon culture and history. Plus you've been spending more and more time around other dragons; surely you heard some stories." "Not too many. I think I heard one about Boreas though..." Everypony leaned a little bit closer to the small dragon as he stroked his chin with a claw. "Someone at the migration mentioned him. They were talking about old legends and how he was one of the Elemental Dragons, how Boreas is one of them. Basically he got corrupt and went crazy with power. He enslaved the ponies that he was supposed to be protecting." There was another series of thuds. Boreas was still moving around the rotunda, searching for something. "Um, maybe we could hurry?" Fluttershy asked. "If, if that's okay with you guys." "I'll go see what he's doing," Phantom volunteered. He leaned forward to stand. The moment his forehooves touched the cold floor, they gave way, and her nearly landed face first into the marble had Rarity and Pinkie Pie not caught him. "Oh no," Twilight said. "You're not going anywhere, not with those hooves." Phantom was about to reply when a resounding crash sounded out from behind him. Twilight reacted in a split second, creating a magical barrier around everypony. Rainbow Dash watched as the wall that separated their room from the rotunda was turned to dust. A large claw, easily larger than the biggest pony in the room, caused the destruction. She could see the sharp, black points scrape across the leading edge of Twilight's shield, turning the points that they touched into ice. The force from the blast forced Twilight to drop her protective barrier, but it had done its job and shielded them from most of the ruble and debris. Everypony had instinctively covered their heads with their hooves. When the dust settled they dropped their hooves and turned to see what was the matter. On the other side was a great dragon, freed from a two thousand year imprisonment. His looks were both uncommon for what you would expect in a dragon and at the same time menacing. He had the traditional dragon features: the razor sharp claws, teeth you wanted to stay miles away from, powerful wings that made it look like he could carry a train, a tail with a blade like tip, eyes that bore a hole into your soul, horns as jagged as your average tree limb, and breath as rank as a rotting onion. However, instead of scales that were seen on most dragons, this one's armor appeared to consist of plates that often times over lapped one another. The plates that took the place of eye brows, just above his black and blue eyes, for example, extended forward like the brim of a ball cap, and backwards in the same fashion. The majority of Boreas' armor plating was white, with exception for the ones on his undersides, which were slightly grayer, and the ones on the top of his head and body, which had a bluish tint to them. His teeth, claws, and horns were black, giving the appearance that they were made of obsidian, along with the bones and veins of his wings. With each exhale, his breath touched the air, turning to water vapor. In fact, most of the air that touched him seemed to turn to vapor. Small bits of snow floated around his claws and wings. Anything he came into contact with that was solid was immediately frozen solid. What was most stunning was his size. With all of the legends, lore, mythology and fear that surrounded him like the snow, somepony would have expected him to be much, much larger than he actually was. Even though they had already seen him, he was incased in stone. Now that he wasn't, his size seemed different, slightly smaller than what the granite form made him look. There was no doubt in anypony's mind that he could still easily eat one, or two, of them whole. His eyes caught the most attention. The shone a bright, sapphire blue that surrounded black slits. The same glowing effect was mirrored within the sapphire jewels of the silver necklace that wrapped around his neck. "There you are," Boreas said. Even with as little effort as he put into his voice, he still managed to very nearly topple everypony over with its voice. "I was wondering where you had gone! Fluttershy yelled with enough force to propel herself into the air a few feet. Everypony else took the opportunity to bolt out of the room in varying directions. Several Nightingales didn't make it out; they were caught in a blast of icy air and frozen in place, much like Nyx and the others had. Rainbow Dash took to her wings, intent on fighting in someway while flying out of the room. Instead, her attention turned towards Phantom, who in the time since Boreas speaking had only hobbled a few feet; his sprained hooves and un even terrain threatening to topple him over with each step. She dove beneath one of Boreas' sweeping claws and latched onto the other pegasus' back. Grunting, she picked him off of the ground, if only a few inches, and proceeded to carry him away from the raging ice dragon with haste. Rainbow Dash looped around the pillar in the center of the rotunda, landing on the opposite side of it from Boreas. "What are you doing?" Phantom whispered harshly, looking around the edge of the base to see where the dragon was. "I thought you hated me now!" "Not enough to let you die!" Rainbow got as low as she could and looked around to make sure it was safe. The entirety of the rotunda, from floor to ceiling, had been turned to solid ice. A large white dome sat in one of the corners. Rainbow Dash didn't know it, but that is where Stryker had put up a magical barrier to protect himself, Archer, and a number of Nightingales. Boreas' power had hit the shield and wrapped around it, creating a dome of ice along its surface, trapping the ponies inside. Neither her or Phantom knew what their physical state was, whether or not they were normal and trying to get out of the ice or they had been turned to ice like the others. More disturbing was the piles of shattered ice around the room. It looked as though somepony had dropped a bunch of glass chandeliers. The immediate conclusion that Rainbow Dash made was that these were the remains most of the Nightingale pegasi. They must have been higher up in the room when Boreas was freed, so when they were frozen they simply fell and shattered into pieces. Some of the pegasi had landed intact, their wings still in mid flight positions. They must have been lower to the floor, close enough to have survived the drop. The Glaciens were also frozen in various positions. Some had their focus on dome of ice and looked as though they were getting ready to charge it. Others were spread out in the rotunda, looking fearfully at the statue base that once supported Boreas. A smaller group was crowded up near the side room that the ponies had just run out of. They were set up in a position indicating they were about to breach the room. Phantom had been staring out across the room, towards the main door that led to the throne room of the castle. There laid the still frozen form of Nyx, exactly how he had left her. Without realizing it he had begun limping towards her. That is until Rainbow Dash grabbed hold of his tail and pulled him back behind the cover just in time to be missed by an icy blast from Boreas. "What are you doing?" she barked. "I'm trying to save my sister!" He tried to push her away, but the pain on his hooves was unbearable. She pulled Phantom's head down so that it was level with hers. Rainbow Dash stared deeply into his eyes. "Phantom, she's gone." The stallion in front of her closed his eyes and steadied his breathing. "Now come on, we need to stop Boreas before he can hurt anypony else." The black tips of one of Boreas' massive claws swept past the two pegasi. His claw grabbed hold of the pedestal they were hiding behind, the sharp ends digging into the marble stone. The pedestal was ripped from its place, bringing parts of the floor with it. Rainbow Dash and Phantom's eyes followed the small chunks of stone that fell off of the pedestal, all the way up to where Boreas held it in the air, then followed it through his arm and straight to his head. Boreas was staring at the two pegasi, his eyes fixed on them and his jaw hanging slightly open. A soft growl was coming from within the dragon's lungs. Rainbow Dash and Phantom's ears fell back as they went slack jaw, staring into the face of their destroyer. Boreas inhaled, preparing to blast the two with a jet of icy air. "Dash?" Phantom said, closing his eyes. "Yeah?" Rainbow Dash turned her head away from the dragon, also closing her eyes tightly. The two ponies braced themselves for the final blow. "I love you." A blow that never came. Just as Boreas was about to unleash his icy breath, he took a hit of lavender magic to the side of his head, knocking his aim off. A jet of white snow and ice was blown out of the dragon's mouth, impacting the wall and carving chunks out of it. Twilight Sparkle stood a fair distance away from the dragon, most of her friends in formation behind her. Rainbow Dash and Phantom opened their eyes to see the group of mares distracting Boreas. She quickly picked Phantom up and flew him behind the ice dome on the other side of the room. During their escape, Twilight was speaking directly to the dragon. "Hey! Ugly! Over here!" Boreas turned his attention towards her, growling. Immediately everypony took a step back. "An alicorn..." he mused. "Interesting. Tell me how many of your species are left?" Twilight tiled her head to the side. Taking his advantage, Boreas attempted to swing at them with a claw but Twilight saw this coming and stopped him with her magic, holding his claw in place only a few feet before it would have collided into them. She held her eyes shut, tightly, beads of sweat running down her face as she struggled to keep the appendage in place. "You are powerful, young alicorn, but you forget that I am a god, and you are in my domain!" He swung at them with his other claw. The ponies barely had time to escape when they saw the movement. Fluttershy flew up into the air while Applejack and Pinkie Pie actually ran towards Boreas, passing under him and emerging on the other side, narrowly avoiding his swinging tail; Twilight released Boreas' other claw, channeling her magic from a telekinetic spell to a teleportation spell. She reappeared next to Rainbow Dash and Phantom, behind the dome of ice. She took note that they were both acting awkwardly around one another. "Did... did you mean what you said?" Rainbow Dash asked. After a brief pause, Phantom replied, "Uh... yup." "I see." Rainbow Dash rubbed one hoof in front of the other. Looking up, she noticed the alicorn in front of them. "Hey Twi, how's the battle going?" "It's barely begun," Twilight said. There was a high pitched scream that sounded like Rarity. A jet of ice impacted the wall next to the ponies and made its way towards them. The only thing that stopped it from turning them to ice was the dome behind them, which blocked the blast as it continued on the other side and quickly came to a stop. Several pillars that he had hit were cracking at their bases, a few of them were already falling to the marble floor. The parts of the ceiling that they had once held up were beginning to collapse. "Come on, Rainbow Dash, we're ending this." The two mares flared their wings as Twilights horn began to light up, along with her crown. Rainbow Dash and her flew up and over the dome of ice, heading directly for the raging dragon that was still harassing their friends. At the moment he was attempting to knock Pinkie Pie off of his back, who was riding him like a rodeo pony. "Come on girls," Twilight called out, coming to a hover over the spot where the statue base had once been in the center of the room. "It's time to stop him!" Phantom leaned around the corner of the ice dome and watched as the mares gathered around one another in the center of the room. Their Elements of Harmony glowed, with Twilight's crown shining the most out of all of them. They were each lifted into the air, floating about half way between the floor and the still crumbling ceiling. Auras that matched the color of their coats surrounded them. Boreas flared his wings. Pushing down on them, he propelled himself towards the mares. Phantom couldn't turn his eyes away, as much as he wanted to. Twilight opened her eyes, revealing solid white orbs. A current of air was rapidly moving around the mares, behaving as if it were about to create a tornado. Phantom could feel the rest of the air throughout the room being affected by it, and got as low as he could as not to be picked up by the wind. Twilight's horn exploded in a blinding light, firing high towards the ceiling, trailing behind it rainbows that emanated from the Elements of Harmony. The beams of energy slowly arched over and came down on the dragon with an immense force. They wrapped around Boreas over and over in a vortex of light and rainbows. All the while the six mares were slowly defending from their position in the sky. When they touched the ground, all of the energy disappeared from the Elements, and Twilight's eyes faded back to normality. Boreas let out a thunderous roar and the mares erupted into cheers of victory. Phantom's training alone told him that this was a mistake. More often than not, you lose the moment you think you have won. The rainbow colored vortex died down. The mares had expected a stone form of Boreas to be left in its wake. Instead, they were greeted by the very menacing, very, very, angry sapphire of his blue eyes. Just as he inhaled, getting ready to unleash another chilling blast of ice, the mares scattered. "The Elements of Harmony," he said, "very interesting indeed. A shame your only chance didn't work!" Boreas swung his sharp tail around, narrowly hitting Applejack with it. The farmpony ducked beneath it and went about running around the dragon in an effort to confuse him. The others seemed to be doing the same, waiting until one of them came up with a better idea. "Why didn't they work? Fluttershy shouted across the dragon to her friends. "I don't know!" Twilight replied, hitting Boreas with another spell. The dragon recoiled and fired a blast of icy air at her, but she managed to use her magic to shield herself in time. "You arrogant ponies. The Elements of Harmony only affect those that have some good in them. You see me as I really am: a demon of death and destruction. I have no good. I am the apotheosis of evil!" Boreas dug his claws into the frozen marble floor. Throwing his wings back, he gave them a single, powerful beat, blowing the air in front of them into the mares gathered before him. The mares were sent tumbling backwards by the force of the artificial winds. They landed around the ice dome, with Twilight, Rarity, and Applejack sent hurdling over it and into the wall; Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy flew past the dome on the left side, relative to Boreas, with Fluttershy scraping against the the ice dome; Rainbow Dash slid on her back along the icy marble floor on the right side of the dome, coming to a half directly where Phantom was standing and watching the battle. For a brief moment, the two awkwardly stared at one another. Rainbow Dash on her back looking up at Phantom, and Phantom standing over Rainbow Dash, looking straight down at her. "So," Rainbow Dash began, stretching out the vowel sound. "About what you said earlier?" Phantom gulped. "Uh, yeah, about that..." A beam of ice roared above the ponies and the ice dome, crashing against the wall and a support column. It came crashing down, separating Phantom and Rainbow Dash from the rest of the group. "Later? There is a God trying to kill us, after all." "Yeah, we can do this la—agh!" Rainbow Dash's sentence was cut off by her own startled scream. Phantom watched, helpless, as she slid away from him, pulled by her tail by Boreas. The dragon dragged her into the air, pitching her tail between his claws so that she hanged upside down in front of him. His eyes were drawn to the silver ornament around her neck, its sapphire gems glowing brighter and brighter the closer she got to Boreas. He tilted his head to the side, surprised that he hadn't seen it, let alone felt its presence, earlier. "Tell me, pony, where did you get this?" Needlessly emphasizing what he was talking about, Boreas barely tapped the center gem with his other claw, causing Rainbow to swing slightly and a blinding light to pour out that nearly blinded her. All the while Phantom ducked slightly more behind his cover, debating his options. "What's it to ya?" Rainbow Dash spat in his face forcefully. Immediately on contact, her saliva froze, sticking to the dragon's armor like a dried tear. Remembering the dragon's freezing affects, Rainbow Dash checked her tail where he had latched onto her. Her stomach dropped. Ice was beginning to form at the tip of her tail, just beneath his claws. She hadn't much time, and Phantom recognized this. "Well you wear one of my Shards. I would like to know how a pony like yourself, not from this land, obtained such a thing. Surely you heard me speaking to you... Calling to you..." Twilight leapt over the fallen stone column and stopped at Phantom's side, her head next to his, starting at what he was staring at. "Any ideas?" she asked. Phantom nodded once. "Just one. When I say, teleport me above his head." "Wait, what?" Twilight's words of question went unnoticed by the stallion as he limped out from behind the protection of the ice dome. He continued trotting until just before the spot above which Rainbow Dash was hanging. The dragon seemed too focused on Rainbow Dash to notice the new comer. "Hey, you!" Phantom called. "Ah," he stumbled, searching for an insult. Boreas raised Rainbow Dash a little higher in the air so that he had an unobstructed view of the stallion. "Uh... yeah! You! Drop my—er, that, mare!" "You dare attempt to order a god? Do you know who I am?" "I know you're a cranky lizard who woke up on the wrong side of a two thousand year nap. Also, your breath stinks." Boreas furrowed his brows, if that was even possible. Inhaling, he unleashed a tremendous roar, sliding the stallion back across the ice a few feet and forcing him to rear up slightly to keep his balance. Phantom blinked his eyes several times to regain focus. "Yup. That's pretty rank." "So, pony, you know who I am, but who are you?" "Oh, nopony really... just the harbinger of your coming imprisonment. Twilight, now!" The mare Phantom was signaling was still confused about what she was instructed to do earlier, and hesitated. There was an awkward pause as nothing happened. Boreas kept glancing between Phantom and Rainbow Dash, Rainbow Dash between Boreas and Phantom, and Phantom between Boreas and Rainbow Dash. "Any day, Twilight?" The alicorn snapped back to attention, realizing that that was her cue to take action. With a simple teleportation spell that she had used hundreds of times before, she followed the instructions given to her by the pegasus moments earlier. Phantom disappeared before Boreas, leaving the godly dragon confused for the moment in advance to something landing on top his head. Knowing that there really wasn't much that he could do, Phantom was becoming desperate. The ice was consuming Rainbow Dash's tail, now at about the half way point, and still consuming; he hadn't long. He did his best to do something that would at least occupy the dragon so that she could escape. By slamming a hoof down on Boreas' left eye, he did just that. Although the eye felt like it was made of crystal, it seemed to have an effect. Boreas dropped Rainbow Dash, reared onto his hind legs and slowly backed up, using his arms in an attempt to swat Phantom off of his head. Twilight used the opportunity to teleport Phantom off of the dragons head, bringing him to her side. She casted a powerful spell, one that shot out of her horn in a lavender colored beam that smacked into Boreas' now exposed upper chest. Twilight braced her self as best she could, but even still the force from her own spell was pushing her along the icy floor. However, Boreas was under more effects. The blast hit him in the chest, knocking him off balance and causing him to fall onto his back. The impact of his full weight slamming into the marble cause the entire room to shake, lifting the ponies into the air slightly while more pieces of stone fell from the ceiling. Pinkie Pie saw her chance and went for it. She ran across the room and jumped atop Boreas chest, bouncing up and down playfully. The other's tried to help out the best they could, doing something. Applejack obtained her lasso and was quick to rope Boreas jaw shut while Rarity used what little magical spells she knew to attack the dragon. Fluttershy buzzed around his head, asking him to stop in a kind and shy voice. Twilight used her telekinetic spells to attempt to keep his limbs on the ground. All the while Phantom had run over to where Rainbow Dash was laying on the ground, gathering herself after being thrown like a rag doll. "You alright?" Phantom asked, sliding to a stop along the ice next to her. "Yeah," she said, looking down at her tail, "but not for long..." The ice was still making its way up Rainbow Dash's tail, passing the half way mark. Phantom tried picking up the chunk and throwing it against the ground, hoping that it would break. It did not. Rather, it made an impressive thud and bounced a little. Seeing that his tactic had failed, Rainbow Dash lamented, "Oh, great. Now I'm going to turn into a popsicle." "No you won't." Reaching into a sheath attached to his gaskin and pulled out a small knife. "What're you doing?" hesitance was the key tone in Rainbow Dash's voice. "Keeping you from ending up like my sister." Knife in hoof, Phantom held the chunk of ice in his free hoof and lined the knife up with the part of her tail just above the chunk. With one motion, the silver blade cut into her polychromatic tail. The chunk of ice fell to the frozen marble with a thud, and stray pieces of rainbow hairs floated away. There was a brief silence between the pegasi as Phantom resheathed the knife. "It... doesn't look too bad?" Rainbow Dash stood up and turned so that she could see her now shortened tail, but only barely. In order to be sure to stop the spread, Phantom had to cut nearly three fourths off. "Great," she sighed, "Rarity is going to flip." "I think she's got something else on her mind right now!" Phantom grabbed hold of Rainbow Dash's head and directed her attention to the other side of the rotunda. In the time that he had been cutting most of her tail off, the other mares had been back at work, trying their best to fight Boreas anyway they could, but all efforts were proving to be futile. Rarity was backed into a corner, feverishly putting all her effort into the spell that was doing nothing to the dragon that was bearing down on her. Everypony else was still recovering from Boreas' previous strikes. "Well what are we waiting for?" Rainbow Dash flared her wings open. Phantom stretched a hoof out to her as she lifted into the air that she grabbed. Together, the two pegasi flew over towards the distressed unicorn. Phantom instructed Rainbow Dash to fly up above the dragon, then to come down in front of him to pick up Rarity on her way out. Once overhead, Phantom let go of her arm, falling once more onto the ice dragon's head. The stallion had enough force with him that he pushed Boreas' head down, narrowly smacking it into the floor. The dragon back away from the corner and once more tried using his arms to swat the assaulting pegasus off of him. In the meantime, Rainbow Dash had swooped in, grabbed hold of Rarity, and flow away to the relative safety of the ice dome. Phantom ducked beneath each of Boreas' swipes, taking cover and holding onto his obsidian horns. The dragon changed tactics, leaning forward and running for the wall. Seeing what was about to happen, Phantom slid down Boreas' neck, stopping his fall by grabbing onto one of his icy wing joints. A moment later, Boreas slammed head first into the frozen wall, bringing all of his momentum to halt. He stumbled away from the new indentation in the wall, disoriented by the blow. "How do we stop him?" Applejack called out from the center of the room. "You can't!" Boreas swung his tail, narrowly missing the earth pony. From the other side of the room, Twilight fired a spell that hit the Conduit, still around the dragon's neck. Sparks of blue electricity shot out from the main sapphire stone as the spell it, spreading in all directions. Boreas let out a terrific cry, the support of his legs and arms giving way. He laid on the ground for a few seconds, struggling to get up. Phantom tried to keep his balance on the dragon's back as he regained his strength and stood back up. The sparks flying from the Conduit had died down, with only a small tendril of electricity sparking out every so often and running along the surface of the necklace. Phantom remembered what Stryker had told him earlier, that the Conduit was the key to everything. The Conduit is everything, he repeated to himself. He looked from the where he stood by Boreas' wings towards the Conduit. He couldn't see very much, just the leading edges since it didn't wrap completely around the dragon's neck. So then how do we stop the Conduit? His mind drifted back to when Prince Castor reanimated Boreas with the jewel, how it was the spark to this powder keg ordeal. The Conduit brought Boreas back to life... and in the legends, it's what he was imprisoned in in the first place... by powerful dragons we don't know how to get a hold of... Boreas started to run in a circle counter clockwise around the room, chasing after Rainbow Dash. He would have flown, but being that he was trapped in this rotunda, he had no room to do so. Phantom struggled to stay on, with every step the dragon took, the world around the pegasus shook violently. He struggled to keep ahold of Boreas' wing. When the dragon skidded to a stop to avoid slamming into the ice drum, Phantom lost his grip and flew forward, propelled by his inertia. He would have been flung off of Boreas completely had he not stretched out with a sprained hoof and latched onto the dragon's icy neck. Dangling in front of the Conduit like some ornament on a Hearth's Warming tree, Phantom noticed something.There was a tiny gap between the jewel and Boreas' armored skin. Hanging on with one hoof, he reached into his sheath to pull out his knife again. The blade was just thin enough to slip into the gap. He had to use both hooves in order to push the blade through. Boreas cried out louder as the blade plunged in deeper. Bolts of blue ice started firing in all directions, threatening to strike Phantom and the other ponies. Phantom put all of his weight onto the knife, but it stopped half way in, unable to go on. Ice was beginning to consume the blade, working its way up to the hilt. He positioned his hind legs so that they were just under the Conduit and pushed, applying leverage to the knife in the hopes that it would pop the Conduit off of the dragon's neck. The gap slowly grew in size. With every inch that formed between the Conduit and Boreas' neck, the sparks grew more and more intense. Boreas was stumbling around the rotunda, trying to fight off the pain of the Conduit being ripped off of him and being attack by the Element of Harmony bearers. Phantom noticed something out of the corner of his eye. It was a large section of the lasso that Applejack had attempted to shut Boreas' jaws with. For the most part it was intact, one end of it was caught in between the dragon's razor sharp teeth, while the other end dangled within reach of Phantom. An idea came to the pegasus' head. "Somepony distract him for a minute!" he called out. Rainbow Dash heard him and dutifully saluted, "I'm on it!" She flew down to Boreas' face, hovering just in front of him. With one kick to the front of what she guess should have been his nose, she caught his full attention. "Bet you can't catch me!" "That was unwise, pony." Boreas roared at Rainbow Dash as she turned tail to fly away, leading the fuming dragon on a chase around the rotunda. Taking one off of the knife, Phantom reached out towards the swaying rope, catching it when it swung close to him. He threaded it through the gap of the Conduit, tying it around the necklace. Phantom pulled on the other end of the rope, managing to free it from Boreas' mouth. "Hey, ice lizard!" Phantom taunted the dragon. Boreas skidded to a halt and looked down at the pegasus clinging to his neck. "Want a piece of me?" "No. I want all of you!"" Boreas reached for Phantom with one of his powerful claws. Oh I hope this works... Phantom thought to himself. He raised his forelegs into the air as the dragon wrapped his claws around him. Instantly, Phantom was colder than he had ever been in his life, visibly shaking in a vain attempt to warm up. His teeth chattering, he managed to wrap the end of the rope around Boreas' wrist, tying it tightly. When Boreas pulled Phantom away from his chest, the rope went taught, and he unknowingly pulled the Conduit off of his own neck. A blinding blue flash consumed the visions of everypony. As it faded, they noticed small blue balls of energy falling from the ceiling like snow. Phantom was thrown from Boreas' grasp, hitting the wall on the opposite side of the rotunda and falling to the marble floor. Boreas collapsed. The Conduit slid along the ice in front of him, just out of reach. He was writhing with pain. The tips of his tail, wings, and horns appeared to be dissolving, joining the collection of particles of blue energy around him. Phantom watched the scene unfold before him from his position on the ground, laying on his right side in a semi-conscious state. However, his attention could not be held on the dying dragon long, Phantom was in a world of pain of his own. Slowly lifting his head so that he could look down, he saw that his armor had shattered and fallen off at some point. Around his barrel were five thin evenly space strips of ice in the shapes of claws. His fur around them was beginning to fade to white as frost covered them. "Oh, great," Phantom mumbled to himself softly. He felt like his midsection was on fire, an odd sensation but not one who was unfamiliar with. Usually he experienced it after frost build up from high altitude flying. He noticed a numbing sensation emanating from his forehooves. Looking at them, he saw that they they were already frozen solid from their contact with the Conduit and the knife he had jammed behind it. Well this is going to suck. Rainbow Dash heard a magnificent roar that brought pain to her ears. Turning around in the air, she happily watched as Boreas fell to the ground, the Conduit flying from his neck. As he began to dissolve at the ends, he desperately crawled for the Conduit, his claws swinging wildly for it. But when he should have grabbed hold of it, his claws merely phased through the ancient jewel as if it were made of vapor. "No!" Rainbow Dash landing in front of Boreas, joining the rest of her friends as the watched him squirm. The color in his eyes had turned to white and their light grew in brightness until they shined with bright beams of light. Boreas continued to dissolve into the air, letting off a soft blue glow. His claws and legs began to disappear next. Eventually he was nothing but but a torso, neck, and head. With his final breath before disappearing, he whispered harshly to the mares, "I will return..." And just like that, the last bits of Boreas vaporized into a glowing blue dust, swirling up into the air like the rest of him. The collection of blue balls of light gathered in the center of the room, revolving rapidly around one another. They began to spin around the room in a column that resembled a swarm of bees. The Conduit began to glow bright as the particles of energy neared. It let out a beam of light that seemed to suck the particles into it one by one. As the the last blue particle was sucked into the Conduit, a voice whispered out in the still cold room. I will return... Once the last particle disappeared, a vortex of wind swirled around and followed it into the sapphire centerpiece, snuffing out all of the light in the rotunda. That is, until Twilight casted an illumination spell that hung in the air at the top of the room, restoring the previous light levels. The mares let out elated cheers of joy, only stopping when Pinkie Pie jumped into the air, slipping on the ice when she came back down. Wait, ice? "Why is the ice still here?" Rarity complained. Everypony looked around. None of the ice had disappeared, even the massive ice dome was still there and all of the ponies were still frozen. One in particular caught Rainbow Dash's eye. The pony was laying up against the wall, and wasn't completely frozen, yet. Then she recognized his midnight blue fur. "Phantom!" She zipped over to his side, landing early and sliding along the ice for the final feet. She gasped when she saw what had become of his hooves and barrel. Thankfully, though, it appeared that the ice was no longer spreading, cut off from its magical influence by Boreas' reimprisonment in the Conduit. Twilight and the other's were quick to join Rainbow Dash by Phantom's side. "Oh my," Fluttershy held a hoof up to cover her mouth. "Sweet Celestia," Applejack said, "is he okay?" Twilight lowered her head to his, tapping his forehead with her glowing horn. "Thankfully I think the ice has stopped spreading," she informed everypony, much to their sighs of relief. "But it doesn't show any signs of reversing. The damage is already done." Rainbow Dash held her hoof in Phantom's frozen one, ignoring the cold chills. She couldn't take her eyes off of the scars of ice around his barrel. "Phantom, I'm sor—" "You don't have to be sorry..." Phantom interrupted her, although weakly. His voice was barely above a whisper. "We stopped him." He angled his head up so that he could see his sister's frozen form not that far away. He couldn't take the feeling off seeing her like that so he forced himself to turn his attention back. "Where's the Conduit?" "It's back there," Rainbow Dash indicated by motioning her head so that she could continue to look at him. "Somepony needs to make sure it's safe..." She nodded. "I'll go get it." Phantom's eyes widened once he understood what she had said, but she already turned around and left. "No!" he called out. Nopony heard him in his weakened state, not even Fluttershy, who was hovering over his side to examine his wounds. She merely saw his rapid swing of emotion and petted his mane, whispering to him that he should calm down. "She mustn't touch it!" Still, nopony heard him. Rainbow Dash trotted up to the Conduit, its main sapphire stone still shinning brightly from the intake of energy. Beautiful she thought to herself. It was one of the prettiest things she had seen, more so than the famed Rainbow Falls. It was hypnotic, even... She lowered her hoof to grab the jewel, her hoof getting colder the closer it got. When she touched it, there was a silent flash of white light. Everypony looked over to where Rainbow Dash was standing; there was a collective gasp amongst them. Her eyes were solid white orbs, her jaw hung open and her wings were fully extended as though she was frozen in a shocked state. Her cyan coat was beginning to turn white, starting at her hooves, the discoloration made its way up her legs. At the same time, her namesake mane and tail seemed to turn to some kind of rainbow colored vapor that merely hung in the air where her hairs once were. Around her neck, the Element of Loyalty had disappeared entirely, only to be replaced by the Conduit itself. "What's happening to her?" Pinkie sighed. No longer was a cheerful voice omnipresent in her voice. "I don't know..." Twilight whispered. She took a step towards her changing friend, only to be stopped by one of Phantom's frozen hooves. She looked back at the stallion, who simply shook his head slowly. When she turned her attention back to her friend, she could no longer recognize her. The Rainbow Dash that was once stood there no longer existed. All that was there was a tall mare, one the size of Princess Celestia herself. Her coat was a solid snow white. Streaks of ice jetted out from where her hooves touched the floor, adding a second layer of the cold material to them. What used to be her rainbow mane had dissolved into streaks of rainbow colored vapor that hunger were their physical counterparts once were. On her flank, he once revered cutie mark had faded into grayscale, becoming semi-transparent. A pair of fangs showed themselves through the end of her closed muzzle. Around her neck, the sapphire jewel of the Conduit was brightly illuminated. When she opened her eyes, blue reptilian orbs with deep black slits were revealed. This new creature turned its head slowly to the collection of ponies against the wall. The air around them immediately dropped a few degrees in temperature. Fluttershy made herself as small as possible. Rarity took a few steps back, nearly tripping over Phantom. Pinkie merely deflated, her jaw hanging open. Applejack and Twilight both took protective stances in front of everypony, trying to protect them. Phantom couldn't believe his eyes, nor could anypony. What ever it was, it kicked something shiny on the ground, sliding it over to the group. It slid between the legs of the mares, stopping only when it hit Phantom's frozen hoof. Upon recognizing the object, he felt a pit in his stomach grow further. It was the jewel that had once been the centerpiece for Rainbow Dash's Element of Harmony: the ruby lightning bolt. Its edges had been frosted over, and several notably cracks streaked down the middle. The gem had lost all of its luster. "You have failed," the beast's voice was a demonic hybrid between Rainbow Dash's and Boreas'. "Your friend is no more, as is your world, and soon, your lives."