//------------------------------// // Act 4- Chapter 12: Ice Clad Steps // Story: Icon: Remnants of the North // by Vixavior //------------------------------// Ice Clad Steps Proofread by TehSporkBandit A shriek follows in the wake of the bone-chilling wind. The unnatural cold encases each hair of the fur rug in ice, earning a noisy crackle with every step. Warning chimes in your mind spur you forward, an instinct of desperation there to put as much distance between yourself and the horrid apparition as possible. A blackened husk lays crumpled near the left staircase, its fingers twisted and gnarled around an icicle-encrusted dagger. The grating cry of Ravens is swallowed by Applejack’s shout, “Right! Go right!” Your group veers towards the right staircase, away from the macabre remnant of death in its weather ravaged vestments. The low rattle echoes from the cooling hearth. A gust of wind sweeps out the last guttering embers as that deathly breath of cold rushes down and coalesces before your very eyes. Its thin insectoid legs and semi-translucent body tenses. The Windigo drags itself towards the closest source of food and warmth: you and your friends. It glides across the floor on a carpet of mist, but you know how quickly the predatory spirit can move; you've seen its unnatural scuttling crawl as it wailed like a banshee. The Windigo’s disquieting visage disappears as your flight takes you down the curling steps and past the broad landing. Something explodes like coal beneath your feet. You wobble for a second before steadying yourself against the rough stone wall. An unfamiliar black carpet spreads down the last flight of stairs and across the hall. Here and there, curved yellow beaks and ice coated talons stand out from the frozen matt. It’s a whole flock of Ravens, flash frozen by the unrelenting beasts that must have pursued the Gremlins from the throne room. The carrion birds lay in contorted heaps, gripped in a thick layer of hoarfrost that shatters at the fiantest touch. A torpid scream erupts from behind you. “Get going!" Rainbow’s hesitation is palpable as everypony halts. Fluttershy quakes and shivers uncontrollably at the dismal sight in the hallway despite Rainbow Dash's urging. “T-there ain't nothin' you can do, Fluttershy.” Applejack tries to coax the aghast Pegasus forward to no avail. Hearing the sounds of pursuit, Rainbow Dash growls irritably, “Seriously, what's the hold up!?” She’s stuck near the back helping everypony else keep up, but she leaps up and cranes her neck forward to take a look. Her hasty wing flap barely carries her a few inches in the air; the cold robs her of flight and she sinks back down after catching a glimpse at the horrid scene. “Horse apples.” The rushing hiss of wind brings with it a cutting wind as you turn to see the Windigo at the top of the stairs. The cavernous mouth unhinges, showing row upon row of icicle teeth as its eyes roll back in its head. “Mo-” you start to cry out but are swiftly cut off by a rush of frozen air. Rainbow turned when you did and had seen the creature. She swiftly flaps her wings, pushing the icy cloud bank back. The rapid beat coats her wings in ice, first slowing, the beast, then disintigrating it into an amorphous haze. Already, the scrape and clatmber of another Windigo echoes down the corridor. It takes only a moment to grasp Rainbow by the scruff and pull her forward, “Come on, that won't last long!” The Windigoe’s unearthly roar rings through the hallway. Instead of being tugged along, Rainbow butts you forward, careening into everypony else and forcing them over the charnel carpet. It’s simply easier to close your eyes rather than watch the figure you tread over burst like ice cubes underfoot. All down the hallway towards that landing, the glass windows cracks as gelid mist cascades down the widening fissures leaving fern-like ice formations in its wake. “B-be a dear and slow down!” Rarity chokes down a disgusted grumble in her throat. The sound of hooves behind you may be mostly hesitant but at least they follow. “Hurry your haunches up!” Rainbow goads the flagging ponies behind her. The film of frozen air drifts down the wall and across the floor, turning it to glare ice. “Watch it, it's slip-” “Woah!” Rainbow's hooves slip and scrape across the mirror surface. She halts herself at the first step to the other hallway as a thin layer of haze creeps over her right forehoof. The Pegasus hisses and skates backwards, her eyes going wide as she tucks her hoof against herself and darts down the steps to the iron clad doors with the rest of the group. “Dashie?” Pinkie gallops over as everypony else retreats from the waterfall of mist pouring down the staircase. “It's not bad.” Rainbow says, plastering her ears back as the bright azure nail peels in jagged layers. Pinkie cringes, clutching it in her hooves and turning it over as you take a look over Pinkie’s shoulder. “Uh-huh.” “Just felt like it was burning for a second or two. That's all.” The skin on the underside of her hoof is darkened like old leather. “Yeah, but you were only in there for a teeny second, like, a micro-second.” Pinkie winces and looks up as Rainbow impatiently taps her good forehoof. “Look, we'll patch it up later on. We don't have time for this.” Pinkie quickly takes off her 'pirate' headband and binds it across Rainbow's hoof. “There, for now.” You nod and pat her withers. Another voice calls from down the landings and beyond the hastily closed doors. A fervent chime rises to a crescendo, “Forward, forward you curs! The Day of Destiny is at hand!” The scent of smoldering incense and scorched ozone churns your stomach. An earth shattering thunderclap rocks the hall and shakes free sheets of ice from the ceiling. Raising your arms over your head, a thick plate sized section slams over your back. You hiss and strain, feeling like you've been hit by a baseball bat. You grit your teeth past the painful throb and throw yourself at the wide double doors. With a resounding crash, you burst into the central chamber. Amid the swirling mass of bodies, dozens of robed Gremlins and their seething swarms of Ravens clustering around a trio of phantasmal Windigoes. Two of the spectral predators scurry across the walls, their spindly legs gaining some demented form of traction across the slick surface. Another settles into the high rafters, twisting its head around the wrong way and hanging like a limpet as its mouth yawns open. As your group spills into the hall, it attracts very little attention except from two Windigoes already in pursuit. The breath leaves one as a hollow shriek, clapping the marble pillars in ice as the small hanging lights all go out all at once and sprouting icicles from their metal casements. In moments, the wide hallway had been transformed into an icicle-hedged maw of a cave fit only for the otherworldly ice wraiths. The creature's howl alerts a single cloaked form; Iblis twists and spots you. His mouth twists in a conceited smirk as he conjures feathery blue sparks in his swirling claws. Tossing yourself backwards, you flatten Pinkie, Applejack, and Twilight, shielding them as Rainbow bowls Rarity and Fluttershy flat. The burst of lightning rakes overhead, bouncing off the stony corridor to slam full tilt into the onrushing Windigoes. One explodes into whirling bits of frozen shrapnel while the second's legs splinter apart, turning it to mist. The three remaining Windigoes wreck havoc in the chaotic room. The candles on the table flicker then die in a single tumultuous gale spewed from the beast in the upper rafters; its deathly breath cuts a swath through the Gremlins, withering limbs and blackening ruddy flesh amidst a cacophony of tortured screams. The other two ice spirits dart among the Gremlins, lashing out with seeking tendrils and embedding frozen shards in their victims. The other two Carrion Lords direct their efforts at the malicious spirits. Lancing arcs of energy scythe across the roof, pulverizing the plaster frescoes. The hanging Windigo is caught in the mouth, blasting its head apart, leaving just a roving eye and half a muzzle. Iblis snarls and gestures wildly, “Slay the ice horse, kill them! Then butcher the false queen and her Unicorns! Our time has come!” Despite Iblis's frantic urging, or its grievous wounds, the hanging Windigo doesn't disappear. The mist congeals around its ravaged face as the translucent skin reconstitutes itself. In a scant few moments, there is no indication that half its head had been missing seconds before. Another Windigo is hacked at as huge gouges split from its crystalline frame without a single note of pain. It rears, snapping at the creatures fruitlessly chopping at its icicle quills. You pull yourself up and look down the stairwell leading to the ground floor. “We'll have to go right through the middle of them!” Twilight mumbles something that Pinkie quickly translates, “She says we have to go get the other Unicorns first.” Pinkie lifts herself up and points at the unguarded door to the right. Still supporting Twilight between them, Pinkie and Applejack furtively shuttle the weakened Alicorn to the room, skirting the edge of the swirling melee encompassing dozens of shrieking Gremlins, darting Ravens, and writhing Windigoes. One of the remaining Carrion Lords lifts his arms up, the stone blade of his knife held like a sacrificial dagger. “Stand up, take heart, for the day of Destiny has-” The pair of Windigoes formerly pursuing your group stream in from the hall and focuses on their next victim. They lungie into the mass like a tidal wave and wash over him. In a trice, all that's left is a wretched husk, arms spread out like some twisted angel. “Oh my goodness, oh my goodness. Follow me, please, I don't want to see you get hurt. Any of you!” Fluttershy calls out to the wheeling mass of black birds desperately avoiding the deathly bellows from the Windigoes. Some of them draw off from the frenzied mob, no great mass exodus, but enough as they plunge through the open doorway at the side of the room, Fluttershy at their head. Iblis's gaze burns like coals as he grinds his sharpened teeth, then quickly ducks into the imperceptible mass of similar bodies. “Death to the thieves, reclaim the Queen!” His voice rings around the room as all eyes turn on the escaping ponies. With a frothing howl, the mass of Gremlins launch themselves at you, swinging gnobbled clubs and flint-edged axes over their heads. You have no weapon, your arm isn't working well, yet there has to be something. A flat gleam catches your eye; a discarded lid to a serving tray glistens from amid the ruins of the table. “Get Twilight in there, I'll be right behind you!” Your feet barely move, the shuffle is quick but it almost feels like you're gliding as a ringing buzz fills your ears. You stoop down, picking up the metal serving lid and bringing it up to your body just as the first fervent imp flings itself forward. “The Day of Destiny has arri-” 'Bong!' It careens into the serving lid with the sound like a gong before toppling over, stunned. You grip the metal lid, feeling the vibrations shiver down your arm. The zealots pour in, flailing their primitive weapons as something familiar forms in your mind: It was one of a barbarian horde streaming up a staircase into a narrow breach with just two armoured warriors holding them at the ship's forecastle. The mass of bodies hampered the attackers, turning strength to weakness as they were picked off in quick succession. “C'mon!” Rainbow howls as you keep the makeshift shield flared out, held away from your body as the creatures direct all their rage at that simple piece of metal like a bull attacking a matador's red cape. Slowly, surely, you edge back towards the door, avoiding the wrathful swings held by a blood crazed mob bereft of sense or reason. A clawed hand finds the bottom of the makeshift shield only for a blue flash to windmill into it, pulping it to the stone floor. Rainbow follows up the thrash by stepping on its stomach, knocking the breath from it in a wheezing huff, “Hey, he might be an idiot, but if anypony's going to brain him, it'll be me. Back off, snipe-snouts!” The Pegasus quickly fans her wings out protectively. “Thanks.” You edge back, protecting the group as Fluttershy keeps the door open for the Alicorn and her two assistants. A Gremlin rushes at Rainbow with an irate screech. She merely lunges forward, headbutting it and sending it on its rump where a quick follow up punch drops it to the floor in a groaning heap. “Don't thank me until we're out of here. But when we are out, I'll expect it in hayfries and housecleaning work for how awesome I am saving your sorry butt!” “I'll worship your damned hooves and the clouds you walk on if you get us out of here!” You lash out as the edge of the impromptu shield shatters a Gremlin’s flint dagger. “Yeah, scratch that 'hoof' thing, but that's the spirit.” The Gremlin's remaining leader stretches a hand towards you, spilling out what looks like a spider web from its palm. Sweeping up your shield, its oozing squelch spatters on the other side. “Drop the lid!” You just stare at the silver shield as blackened blots spread across the metal like it’s melting. Letting go of the handle, it drops to the ground, turning to a mass of sticky tar. “H-how did-” A chair, encased in a blue haze, sails past and flattens another knot of Gremlins. Rarity calls out from a few steps behind you, “I'd hate to think I'm stifling your bravado, but would you two so kindly mind not going looking for trouble when a lady's trying to escape?” The Windigoes lunge in among the masses once more, taking advantage of the stalled advance. They sweep through the ruddy imps like reapers, and slowly the mass of Gremlins ebb. The once fenzied horde trundles back, claw-over-claw, retreating towards the staircase despite the showl of rage and myriad of curses spat from their irate leader. The Carrion Lord froths as he's swept up by press of bodies surging to safety, “No! Stand fast, the Day of Destiny dawns! Will you shirk your responsibilities now?! Will you-” he suddenly looks up, coming face to face with the Windigo staring down from the ceiling. The glassy stare reflects in the Gremlin's eyes as his mouth opens to shriek, though he gets no farther than that. His agonizing shrieks of pain and fright are swiftly silenced amidst a victorious bellow from the otherworldly predator. The horrid spectacle is the last straw. The Gremlins break and flee pell-mell down the steps, leaving behind a motley array of primitive weapons amid dozens of black husks strewn across the floor. Two of the haunting spirits bursts into clouds and billow down the stairs, pursuing the Gremlins as the last looks straight at you. “Hurry!” Fluttershy's gasping cry echoes out as the Windigo scuttles forward with a scream. You and Dash both throw yourselves through the open door as the nipping frost of the Windigoes snaps at your heels. Fluttershy slams the door shut and flings the oaken bar down, sealing the nightmarish monster out for the time being. Your chest heaves you look around the elaborate prison room hub. There are no windows and next to no light; there no way out. The rotunda would become your tomb. Weren't there lights here just a few minutes ago?