Winds of Change
Proofread by TehSporkBandit
Iblis was right about one thing at least: from the breeze whirling inside you can smell the frigid air, it has all the staleness and stasis of a freezer. Something pricks at your ears, a low muffled moan of the winds that bring with it a chill that saps the warmth from your blood. The Gremlins aren't immune either; a nearly electric current surges through them like a wave stretching from the window to the door. Excitement and fear are readily apparent on their expectant faces, twisted up in fervent anticipation.
Aside from a few seething breaths, Ulf remains silent. Twilight's presence, as pathetic as it might be, has an effect on the horde; few Gremlins would look up at the Alicorn.
“And shall you now lead us forward, to dispose of the vile queen and ascend to our rightful place as the wardens of these lands. As you promised…” Iblis's phrase writhes with a poison of malignancy, a festering entrapment of entitlement and promise disguised as devotional reverence. “Or are we to abandon our sacred responsibilities to heed and bow down to a clawful of overly-emotional livestock?”
“Livestock?!” Rainbow bursts out as Applejack clamps a hoof over her mouth.
Ulf's voice shakes as he draws a deep breath, “You say the day has come-”
“It has.” Iblis cuts him off.
Applejack and Fluttershy slowly pad towards Twilight, but Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash still have to inch back from the salient between Iblis's Gremlins and Ulf. Rainbow whispers from the side of her muzzle, “Get to the barge, on three.”
Ulf stands up straight, dragging the notched sword up in his shaking grasp, “I wasn't aware you were a seer now, Iblis. Be very careful.”
A shock shivers through the masses of Gremlins, all but their leader shuffle back and bow their heads. Iblis holds a hand up with a smile before stepping back into the midst of the horde. A single large Raven settles on his shoulder. “As always, I am careful, Ulf I see another day. I listen to our… Queen, our prophetess. In the evening light, I see a great tower rising in the sky so close to completion. I see the evening star, a last light to guide us ever onward-”
“I don't like the sound of this.” Fluttershy's warning trails off in uncertainty.
“I see a kingdom, a vicious enslaving land that divides itself from others, laid down brick by brick. I hear the postmortal winds howl and wend their ways through the ancient rafters, lifeless and cold. I see the empty cities, and a whole land wreathed in the rebirth of a new day.” Iblis smiles, his tone rising in some grand metre of prophetic providence. But he has diverged from what they'd said before, you remember the Gremlin's speech etched into your mind. Iblis had changed it.
Ulf growls, “Watch what you say, Carrion Lo-”
“Oh? Surely, that wouldn't be a threat of force now would it, O' exalted hero? Not after you just said force wasn't the way to perfect unity. Besides, you've always done your very-very best to uphold your ideals.” Iblis smirks, “Like you did before.”
Ulf's face twitches as he snarls and unsteadily stumps forward.
Iblis holds up a hand to quell the few discomforted murmurs among his kind, “Like you did when you subjugated us!” It doesn't take a mastermind to determine it was best to avoid getting in the middle of this. You and your friends back off towards the barge, clearing a path between Iblis and Ulf.
Iblis's voice rises to a roar, “You struck us down and you slaved us to your will! We groveled to you on bended knee, we had to, didn't we? And now you say fate isn't in your hands to decide?! Which is it, Ulf? Now there's something else not in your hands.” The Gremlin stoops and picks up the severed cord with the Alicorn horn suspended from it. Rarity and Applejack never had time to pick it up. "Now is our Age. Kneel before me, exalted one, see if I'm merci-"
“Juo-daaan!” Ulf's roar sends the masses of Gremlins scurrying off in all directions as he barrels towards them with his sword raised high overhead.
“Don't run away, kill him, kill him!” Iblis calls out as a mindless panic engulfs the Gremlin host. Ulf wades in, sweeping the shimmering sword in a deadly figure-eight arc. The blade spins, cleaving flesh amidst the hideous wails that fills the chamber. The Norseman slices straight through the middle of the host, closing in on Iblis. Some of the Gremlins fling themselves out the broken stained glass windows into the murderous cold while others race out the main doors. Those that stay, whether paralyzed by shock or offering some fitful resistance, are cut down by a gore drenched blade wielded by the juggernaut.
“C'mon, go, hop on!” Rainbow goads everypony towards the half-ruined Gremlin vessel embedded in the wall, its crinkled black frame wafting noxious black vapours. The closer you get to the rubble and gaping hole, the colder it feels. It isn’t just the ragged injury you clutch in a futile effort to stem the blood, something else casts a deathly cold pall over the room.
Iblis stands alone before Ulf, a single rock before a crashing wave. A cascade of sparks form between Iblis's hands before he reaches out towards Ulf. The man sweeps the shield up as the lightning bolt strikes, smashing the wooden shield to kindling with a monumental crack, sending flecks splintering off in all directions. The arcing flash splays out, dragging a craggy black scar across the marble. The room is quickly choked by the stink of scorched hair and burnt ozone.
Ulf stumbles ungainly, blind and dazed, but he lumbers forward sweeping the sword out like a scythe in a field. The Gremlin springs back, surprised by the onslaught as he flexes his claws in a myriad of sparks. With a flick of his other hand, his cloak dissolves in a flurry of black wings that blots him from view and swiftly circles around Ulf like a vortex. In moments, it spills out the door, leaving Ulf to stumble about in a daze, “Where… where are you?! Damn your eyes! I'll rip your guts out for this! Iblis! Nithinger!”
While the Norseman howls and curses the Gremlin leader, you and your friends try to swiftly board the vessel. Twilight struggles towards the pile of crumbled masonry, neatly propped up on either side by Pinkie Pie and Applejack. The whirl of the wind streams through the shattered wall, bringing with it a cutting chill that sucks the moisture from your skin. Plumes of hoarfrost bloom across the floor in wispy patterns. Ulf's ragged breath billows out in frozen clouds as he slowly turns towards the shattered barge. “He took it… he took it because he knows it works.” His mirthless laughter echoes in the confines of the hall.
Pinkie quirks a brow, “…all aboard the crazy train.”
A glimmer of insanity shines in Ulf's eyes, orbs of madness, sigils of desperation. He grips the sword, white knuckled and unsteady as he stumps towards you in a bedraggled shuffle. “So I need another… I need another Alicorn horn.”
Your group recoils as Ulf approaches, sweeping the sword in front of him like a blind man's cane. The deadly blade tip traces across the floor with an eerie scratch as Ulfs arhythmic voice flutters with the deceptive trace of a bubbling laugh on his lips. “I'll tear that horn from your skull-”
“Go, go back to the door!” Applejack hisses back as Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie try to whisk Twilight away.
All across the crumbled frame of the storm barge, fern-like formations of ice blossom and spread. Tongues of frost lap up along the shattered masonry and take hold of the edges of the room, creeping up the sides of the tower as if it were a living being clawing its way to the throne room. It spills inside and spews across the floor towards your feet.
“I'll tear up your hide to put on a new shield. A martyr. Yeeees, that's what we need, a martyr. Come, my lady of Twilight; you'll be greater in death than you ever could have dreamed! Saint Twilight.” The glint of madness sparkles in his eyes as the cold wind blows with a whine that turns into a bestial snarl.
The sound is heard across the room, making hair stand on end and freezing blood in veins. The air current changes; the cold, gusting breath of winter turns even more stale and more frigid. The black vapours of the Storm Barge's prow crackle and cease their streaming as they twist into onyx icicles.
“No, no, that is not good. Everypony, get back!” Fluttershy's surprisingly loud cry brooks no argument.
“Aren't we taking the barge?” Pinkie asks but Rarity quickly catches her by the hoof and pulls her behind as you stumble towards the door.
“I'll cut you all to pieces, get home, and find the five! I'll make Olaf's dream come true, I will have unity if it kills me! You will get me home to continue his work!” He shambles forward, dragging his oozing foot while waving the swords towards you. “Just give up and die!”
The Norse thane raises the sword as you hear a few strangled gasps and cries behind you from your friends. The grey haze of fog that spread across the floor humming with a crystalline crackle suddenly spills across the blood soaked killing edge of the sword. The red turns black as small crimson ferns race along the metal blade, encasing it in solid ice.
The wind shifts perceptibly as an ice fog drifts into the hall from the remnants of the shattered window. A cloud slithers through the air as tendrils writhe and lash out like a Lovecraftian monster. A deep nicker resonates through the hall. Each wisp of cloud that touches your skin feels like the rasp of sand paper. Ulf turns for a moment as the skitter of hooves clatter behind him. Twisting to blindly sweep at the sound, the blade buzzes through the air but does little else.
A dark form manifests in the mist, congealing with a snort of curling vapours. An equine muzzle made of semi translucent ice rears up from the amorphous clouds that filter in through the gouge in the fortress wall. The creature is large, bigger than a draft horse on earth, a mane of prickled spines swept down its bony neck like quills. Its icicle teeth overlap its maw while dull glassy eyes emerge like bulbous beads. When it moves, it skitters; its hindquarters lost in an ethereal mass of serpentine coils.
“Demon.” Ulf growls.
The abomination twists its neck, looking him over with an inscrutable glare.
Ulf pants and flares his nostrils, mopping aside the frost forming in his beard and under his nose, “I'll kill you, too!”
“Windigoes!” Pinkie's shout shatters the discomforting quiet as the world explodes into a chaotic maelstrom. The clatter of hooves reaches your ears as a sudden tug on your sleeve releases you from a moment of shocked entrancement. Rarity's pale blue glow spreads across your arm as she pulls you towards the door.
The vicious nightmare beast lunges at Ulf with an otherworldly scream. There is no rip, no crash, no flail of hooves, just that skittering charge and a burst like water over his left side. The Norse warrior swings his blade, carving through the semi-coalesced spirit. He stumbles forward several more steps, clutching his left arm as the creature reconstitutes itself within seconds, scraping across the floor more like an insect than a horse. As the Norse thane turns, you see his arm; there was no frost coating, no video game-esque encasement, the material is stiff, the metal links of his coat are dull, but his hand and flesh are shriveled and black. His face reflects it, the skin of his neck looking burned and blotchy while his mouth twists into a thin mirthless grin showing grey teeth.
You dart towards the door, hearing a last resounding cry of defiance behind you as the thane is struck from behind by another predatory Windigo. He howls, twisting the blade in the air at the elemental spirits as the door slams shut behind you.