Twilight Sparkle thought she had waited long enough, and her voice boomed over the glacier again.
“I REPEAT: WE KNOW YOU’RE THERE, WIGLEK, AND WE KNOW YOU HAVE PRISONERS! RELEASE THEM AND COME OUT PEACEFULLY! NODEER NEEDS TO BE HURT!”
“There are spirits!” gasped one of the reindeer warriors flocking to Twilight’s left side. He and his kin scanned their surroundings fearfully.
“Where?” said Twilight, who was watching the cave opening above.
“Everywhere!” said Vidar.
Meanwhile, the Skoll pack on the right of Twilight were skittish, now and then shouting threats and angry recriminations to the glacier’s inhabitant.
“Quiet, please!” said Twilight in Skoll. “I cannot hear myself watching!” Despite the nonsensical statement the wolf-folk calmed down. Twilight cast the spell that let her duplicate the Sight.
“Oh my!” she gasped. “They are coming…”
“Coming?” said Spike, who was sitting on her back.
“Coming from the sky, and the deep ice…”
“The ice is hollowed out, oh Prophetess,” said Jarnsaxa. “There are tunnels carved there…”
“By whom,” said Twilight. “By you?”
Jarnsaxa shook her head.
“No, by the Jökulgast’s servants.”
“There!” shouted Spike. “Look!”
A huge shape rose from the glacier, formed from the snow itself. It looked like a giant, mis-hapen Skoll. In its head - within its jaws - rode a small, withered form, its spiritual signature a black void. Spirits danced in the air around it, forming a minor tornado of spirit-driven wind and snow.
“WOE TO THE DISTURBERS OF WIGLEK THE WICKED!” boomed a voice from ice abomination. “WHO ARE YOU WHO SEEK YOUR OWN DESTRUCTION?!”
“I’M TWILIGHT SPARKLE!” Twilight shouted back. “I’M THE HOOFMAIDEN OF HRIMFAXI AND THE STUDENT OF SKINFAXI! I COME OF BEHALF OF THE KING OF THE REINDEER, THE REVERED ANCESTRESS OF THE MOOSE AND THE PROTECTOR PACK OF THE SKOLL! I SEEK ONLY PEACE, NOT DESTRUCTION!”
“HOOFMAIDEN OF HRIFAXI, YOU HAVE COME TO THE WRONG PLACE!” shouted Wiglek. “FOR YOU AND YOUR FOLLOWERS THERE IS ONLY DESTRUCTION! I CALL UPON THE LICE AND WORMS WHO CRAWLS UPON THE MIGHTY KARHU-AKKA! MY ANCIENT PACTS WITH YOUR ELDERS, I COMMAND YOU TO DESTROY THE INTRUDERS! HIRD OF THE HOLDRAUGR! GRINDSTONES OF SACRED ICE!”
Magic energy flowed and flashed, and suddenly two big heaps of ice, far more formless than the one ridden by Wiglek, rose up from the glacier to the left and right of Twilight and started to spin like giant tops. This revealed two gaping tunnels spiraling down into the ice, and Twilight and the reindeer could see how discorporated hraesvalg spirits poured down the holes.
“They animate corpses, right?” said Twilight Sparkle.
“Yes!” said Vidar, who ordered his reindeer to be alert.
“This glacier has the corpses of several armies!” Twilight groaned.
The two tursakalfar started to slowly circle the group of skoll and reindeer. The wolves started to dig at the ground, the reindeer readied weapons. Twilight readied her loudspeaker spell again.
“WIGLEK! THERE IS NO NEED TO DO THIS! PLEASE JUST TELL THEM TO STAND DOWN!”
“THERE IS GREAT NEED, TWILIGHT SPARKLE!” Wiglek answered her. “YOU ARE A GREAT SORCERESS IN SERVICE OF MY MOST HATED ENEMY! ALL I WISH FOR IS MY DEATH AND MY REVENGE, AND YOU WILL EITHER KILL ME, OR DIE AT MY ANTLERS AND HURT THE DREAM-WALKER!”
“The scroll, Spike, the scroll!” Twilight said. Spike brought out a huge, decorated and betassled scrollcase, and pulled out an equally huge scroll.
“WIGLEK! I HAVE HERE A MESSAGE FROM PRINCESS LUNA! IN IT, SHE CONFESSES THAT HOW SHE TREATED YOU WAS A WRONGDOING AND A CRIME! SHE ADMITS HER FAULT AND ONLY HER FAULT, AND WANTS YOU TO HAVE IT!” Twilight started to levitate the scroll towards the ice-shape and the lich who rode it.
“The hooves…” Jarnsaxa said and pulled at Twilight’s shoulder.
Wiglek seemed taken aback, but then the winds tore at the scroll and set it flapping towards him. Simultaneously, Twilight and Spike winced at the treatment of the written word.
“SHE THINKS SHE CAN GET AWAY WITH AN APOLOGY… ON PAPER, NOT IN PERSON?!” he roared. “SHE DIDN’T DARE FACE ME?!”
Twilight hesitated, then used her megaphone spell again.
“SHE MIGHT RISK WAKING KARHU-AKKA! AND IT’S MORE THAN AN APOLOGY, WIGLEK!” she shouted. “IT’S A PUBLIC CONFESSION OF HER ACTS! SHE’S BASICALLY PUTTING HERSELF AT THE MERCY OF THE COURTS OF CANTERLOT FOR TRADING MAGIC WITH YOU AND NOT REVEALING HARMFUL SIDE EFFECTS, A FELONY ACCORDING TO EQUESTRIAN LAW! THIS IS MERELY YOUR COPY AS THE PLAINTIFF! SHE’S SHOWING TRUE REMORSE!”
Wiglek howled with rage and tore the scroll apart.
“SO THE DREAM-WALKER IS PUTTING THIS THING TO A MOOT CONTROLLED BY HER AND HER SISTER, BY ITS NATURE SYMPATHETIC TO HER CAUSE?! JUSTICE!? A JOKE, MOON-THRALL! WHAT POSSIBLY COULD SHE OFFER IN COMPENSATION FOR HER DEEDS?!”
“WE CAN BRING YOU PEACE, WIGLEK!” she shouted. “I WIELD THE ELEMENT OF MAGIC! PLEASE STAND DOWN AND I CAN BRING YOU TO MY FRIENDS! WE CAN EXORCISE THE NIGHTMARE AND BRING YOU PEACE!”
“Mistress, the hooves, hundreds of hooves!” hissed Jarnsaxa.
“NO PEACE, MOON-THRALL!” said Wiglek. “DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND THE SUFFERING I HAVE KNOWN? NO, HOW COULD YOU! DO YOU THINK THAT I WOULD SO EASILY FORGIVE THE DREAM-WALKER HER BETRAYAL? THAT LIKE A MUTILATED PUPPY, I WOULD BE GRATEFUL WHEN SHE CHOOSES TO PUT ME DOWN THROUGH ONE OF HER LACKEYS, AFTER CUTTING OFF MY LEGS AND EARS AND NOSE?! NO, I WILL FIND TRUE DEATH FIGHTING ALL SHE HOLD DEAR!”
“The hooves of the dead!” said Jarnsaxa and shook Twilight.
“NOT NOW - OH!” Twilight had time to say before adjusting her spell. “We must… oh…”
From the holes opened came stiffly marching rows upon rows of hraesvalg-animated corpses, mostly reindeer, but also moose and aurochs, russ and skoll. Their frozen bodies were decked in ancient armor and wielding weapons just as old, spears and axes and seasx-knives that clash and slammed against each other, and against ancient shields bearing the signs of long dead houses and clans. Their feet trotted against the ice with a click-clacking sound that Twilight first now noticed.
“I don’t have much strength left,” Twilight mumbled. “He cannot use his spells more than once, or twice but they are powerful, and he doesn’t tire…”
“Well, what are we going to do then?” said Spike.
“Use the other things I asked you to send for…” Twilight said.
“Oh!” said Spike and rummaged through his pack and found a thermos.
“Coffee?” said Vidar incredulously.
“Are you going to drink that vile stuff now?” Jarnsaxa wailed when Spike opened it and the strong smell of caffeine assaulted her nose.
“Oh, this is no ordinary coffee,” said Twilight and smiled weakly. “I had Spike ask for this to be teleported through his flame… for an emergency… This zebra-made stuff… I knew a giraffe who swore by it… and he never slept!”
Twilight drank the thermos as fast as she could, and despite trying not to, she spilled half of it in the snow.
“Please… hold them back just a little, wreck the ground…” she moaned. “Once this works… I’ll be back, though not at full power… for a little while.”
The reindeer formed a circle around Twilight, and the Skoll furiously started a tunnel each, trying to undermine the zombie horde and the circling elementals. The ground shook as Wiglek’s pawns drew closer.
The sorcerer chanted again, calling upon wile names that Twilight recognize as she felt alchemically strengthened super-caffeine course through her veins.
“The Windigo!” she gasped. “He has pacts with the Windigo… Then I must… I know what I must do!”