Winter Storm

by Snake Staff


Love and Valor and Shadow

Sombra

After nearly two hours have passed, I must confess that Princess Celestia is… more resilient than I had expected. I had thought that centuries of her soft life of pampered luxury and near-invulnerability to injury would have left her with a very low tolerance for actual pain. Apparently I was wrong, as during the entire time she hasn’t so much as squeaked even though I know the process is intensely painful. That she’s fighting against it should make it all the more so.

The alicorn princess and my device are, on a metaphysical level, essentially wrestling for control of the vast reservoirs of power inside of her. The slowness of the process and the relatively thin stream of magic flowing to me shows that she’s putting up quite the fight. Determined to defy me to the last, I suppose, or perhaps even hoping the machine will kill her before I can take all of her strength. But the process is inexorable and the end result inevitable. I will claim her strength and her star, and use them both to lead our race into the glorious future that should have been ours millennia ago. I can already feel the sun through what magic I have absorbed, and I half wish to reach out and grab it right now, thrash it, and break it to its new master. But patience is a virtue – I learned that much during my death. No need to take unnecessary risks now, not when I’m so close.

But still, sitting here and absorbing the thin trickle of golden magic flowing from Celestia is, well, rather boring. There’s only so long one can stare at a silent, slightly twitching alicorn princess before one wishes for something else. In picturing this moment I always imagined plenty of screaming, pleas for mercy, and maybe even offers to serve me at length. It’s just not as much fun casting down false gods and reveling in your triumph if they won’t even acknowledge their defeat. Elysium at least had the decency to scream as she died. What I do is necessary and not solely for personal amusement, but still… it’s like watching paint dry. I wonder if there’s anything else I could be doing.

Hmmm…

I suppose it wouldn’t be a bad thing to check up on the other prisoners. I’m certain they’re all there and under guard, but it can’t hurt to be doubly sure when talking of such important ponies. Step one is, obviously, check up on the one in my head. Shining Armor is straining against the nightmare spell, so I reinforce it for the seventh time. I’m not quite strong enough to expel his soul without risking this body’s death yet, as he’s bonded to it in a way I’m not. So he gets to endure here a little longer. Again, no sense in taking unnecessary chances.

I make certain that my wards and summoned guardians are in place before I take even one step towards the door. Then I do it again, and then conjure two more golems to secure this area while I take my little tour. When I finally do start walking towards the exit, the trickle of stolen magic follows me. I take it slowly, making certain nothing disrupts the flow as I walk down my palace’s corridors, a few flights of stairs, and some lightless tunnels underground. As a security measure, I have of course been keeping all the alicorns a good distance apart. I can see the golden thread thin out and lengthen as I go, but it remains firmly attached, and I can feel Celestia’s power continuing to add to mine at a slow but steady rate.

Princess Luna is in one of the city’s natural caverns. I warded the area with glyphs of cold, put a half dozen golems on patrol, and then assigned that twice that number of windigoes to do nothing but circle her frozen form and continuously reinforce the ice. For added security I also created the best containment circle I could around her prison on such short notice. I don’t think it would be enough to stop if she broke free, but at least I would know about it.

When I check in on her, I’m pleased to see that all is well. The princess of the night is still comfortably frozen there, the delightful look of shock and fear plastered all over her motionless face. The windigoes are breathing ice magic across her prison every few seconds as they circle, making it even thicker and stronger than before. I ask for a report in their language, and they tell me exactly what I want to hear. I leave the cavern behind feeling a little less bored. So that leaves just-

What the buck?!

The thin, golden stream of the solar alicorn’s power suddenly, and without warning, snaps. I’m not receiving anything anymore, and I have no idea why.

I immediately dematerialize from the spot, rushing upwards as a black mist far faster than any wings could carry me. I pass up through the caverns and up through the palace’s lower levels before my own wards force me back into a solid state. My hooves hit the floor running, and I don’t stop. A thousand catastrophic scenarios pop into my head as I go, and I bare my teeth. Someone is going to pay for this interruption.

I bolt up the stairs with all the speed I possess, tear open the door to the appropriate floor, then race down the hallway towards Celestia and whatever is causin-

Urgh!

I slam into something at full speed, and go down to the floor roughly. It doesn’t hurt, but I’m briefly stunned all the same. There wasn’t anything there, I could clearly see the empty hall beyond this point! What the hell dares to get in way of the rightful king of this land?!

The air before me shimmers, forms into a semitransparent outline, and then takes the shape of a certain pink alicorn princess with a murderous scowl on her face.

Oh, invisibility. I forgot she could do that.

Cadence lungs at me before I can recover, horn first. “Get the hell out of my husband’s head you son of a bitch!”

Ours horns connect, and hers immediately begins to glow a bright pink.


Shining Armor

“No…” pleads a beaten, bloody Twily. “No… no please…”

My sister lies broken on the scorched earth, mane and tail burnt to stubs, limbs twisted into impossible angles, wings stripped of feathers, and horn utterly shattered. Above her towers the immense form of the demonic centaur Lord Tirek. His muscles bulging, manacles shattered, and face locked in a triumphant leer, the contrast between the two could not be starker. Around them the earth has been blackened, the forests and villages burnt to ash, and the sky itself is a deep red. The massive centaur raises but one of his forehooves over Twily. It’s easily twice the size of her entire body, maybe more.

“No…” my sister pleads again, tears running down her cheeks. “Please!” she reaches a single, trembling hoof out towards me. “Shiny! Help!”

I race towards her as fast as my hooves can carry me, praying to every deity I can think of for more speed. I call all the magic I have into my horn and fire it up at Tirek. It hits his chest dead on, but he doesn’t even seem to notice. His yellow eyes gleam but once, and I’m casually tossed aside like the world’s most significant gnat. I hit the ground hard enough to feel my spine snapping. Tirek positions his vast hoof directly over Twily.

“SHINY!” Twilight screams. “HELP! HELP ME! SHINY!”

I try to get up. I can’t. I try to cast a spell. I can’t. I try to beg for her life. I can’t. I try beg him to leave her, to take me instead. I can’t. I can’t do anything at all. As the monster’s hoof descends on my little sister, I can’t even manage the strength to call out her name.

Tirek’s hoof hits the ground. There is a gruesome, lengthy crunch that seems to hang in the air for what feels like hours. Unnatural silence follows as the centaur lifts his hoof from the small crater he made. It’s covered in… well, exactly what one would expect it to be covered in. A strangled gurgle emerges from my throat. My visions goes blurry and my cheeks becomes wet. Lord Tirek turns his head to face me. He doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t need to. The expression on his face does all the talking.


Canterlot. The city of royalty. The seat of power in Equestria for a thousand years more. Boasting the finest academies of magic, the most selective alchemist guilds, scores of priceless, magical ancestral weapons, and the best-trained, largest, and best equipped regiments of the Royal Guard, it is a point of pride for the city that it has never once in all its history fallen to an outside attacker. Until today.

When I allowed it to happen.

I look out to see what my negligence, my stupidity, complacency, and weakness has cost Equestria. Changelings are running rampant through the streets, seizing screaming civilians to be carried off or simply devoured on the spot. The broken corpses of the Royal Guard – my men – litter the streets. They all trusted me. Trusted me to protect them. And all I can do is watch as the city I love is torched and consumed by the ravenous insects.

I’m in the chapel of Canterlot Palace, where weddings are held and royalty is crowned. I’m not chained up – no one could be bothered. Chrysalis is here, and she knows just how helpless I am. I try for the hundredth time to do something, anything at all, to her. She doesn’t even notice the feeble pink bursts that explode against her exoskeleton. I charge her, horn first. She swats me aside with a single glance, not bothering to look. I get up and do it again. She bats me away just as easily. A third try gets no better results. Neither do the fourth, fifth, or sixth times.

Chrysalis grins broadly as the doors are thrown open and her minions drag a pair of ponies in. It’s Princesses Celestia and Luna, their bodies broken, their wings snapped off, and their horns little more than a pair of sawn-off nubs. Chrysalis gloats to them, telling her just easy it all was, just how powerless we all were to stop her. I shout out insults and challenges to the queen, only be summarily ignored. Not even the drones bother to acknowledge me, and my attacks are no more effective than ever.

Eventually, Chrysalis conjures a broad, curving sickle from the ather. Her minions drag the helpless princess forward. She raises the scythe high into the air. At the last second, Princess Celestia turns to look at me. Her eyes are hollow, mourning, and… accusing. The blade descends onto her neck.

I get to see all the gory details of what comes next.


The Crystal Empire is a warped nightmare. Black crystals structures everywhere, barring every exit. The Crystal Heart is a shattered ruin, the fragments left on its plinth as a sick joke and a testament to the power of the old king come again. The guard – my men all, who trusted me – are hanging limply from rafters, nailed to planks, or even worse. I’m nailed onto one as well. It’s a prolonged, excruciating way to die. And it leaves me plenty of time to watch what happens next.

Ponies in dark armor and demonic masks poke and prod and whip the terrified survivors, driving them to the clearing before the Imperial Palace. On the palace balcony, that place where Cadence and I once announced their liberation, stands King Sombra, a triumphant grin plastered on his ugly face. He isn’t alone. Cadence, beaten, bruised, and bleeding, hangs limply from chains hovering in the air.

“Now,” Sombra says, his booming to be heard perfectly from every corner of the empire and beyond. “Behold the futility of your hope!”

With that, he runs my wife through from behind. His curved horn punches through her back and emerges right through the center of her heart, with all the effects one might expect. Cadence’s eyes somehow find me, give me one last sorrowful look as I scream and struggle. But it avails me nothing.

Cadence’s corpse slumps limply to the floor while Sombra laughs. The crystal ponies below scream in horror and fear, trying to run this way and that. It does them no good. Inky black spirits emerge from the ground, seizing each terrified pony one by one and hurling them into a great maw that seems to appear from nowhere. The sick spectacle goes on for hours, and I’m treated to every last second of it. Ponies beg me for help, but I can’t even find the strength to struggle any more. I can just watch as everypony in my kingdom is methodically hunted down and cast screaming into the endless pits of hell. I even see my own living grandchildren seized and thrown in – even the little fillies and colts. Diamond Eyes, Gallium, and young Snowflake go in near to the end, giving them plenty of time to scream for help I’m powerless to give.

Last of all comes Cadence. When every single one of the crystal ponies – stallion, mare, colt, and filly – has been torn away and thrown into the great void, Sombra raises her body high. With one last gloating glance at me, he throws her body and soul into the endless nightmare, laughing triumphantly as she plunges in and disappears from sight and memory.


“Why didn’t you save me?” the specter of my little sister asks. “Why, Shiny?”

“It’s cold here,” Celestia’s image adds.

“And dark as well,” says Luna.

“We thought you were our leader,” says a pony in a guard’s uniform. “We thought we could trust you.”

“We thought we were safe in your hooves,” a crystal pony says. “So why are we here?”

“There are things here,” Diamond Eyes tells me. “They hunt us. They drag us away and… and…”

“Eat us alive,” Cadence finishes for her. “Every day Shining. Every day they hunt us down and consume us alive. Every night we shiver in the frigid depths and feel ourselves being put back together, slowly.”

“And then every day they come again for us,” Twilight says. “It’s dark and freezing and there’s no way out!”

“Why are we here, Captain Armor?” Luna demands. “It was your job to protect us.”

“I trusted you,” Celestia continues. “I trusted you with the lives of everypony in Canterlot and the Crystal Empire. I trusted you with my own family.”

“How could you leave us here?” Twily’s wispy image asks. “We’ve been here so long… why haven’t you gotten us out?”

“I’m… I’m sorry…” I manage. “I don’t know what to do! Nothing I try has any effect!”

“You’ve failed us,” Celestia’s eyes begin to narrow.

“We are here because of your negligence and failure,” Luna accuses with a hoof pointed at me. I don’t even bother to try and defend myself.

“It’s… all your fault,” Cadence says. “Your fault. Your fault.”

“Your fault,” Twilight agrees. “Your fault.”

The other specters begin to take up the chant, one by one. A slow, droning monotone rises through the darkness, seeming to permeate everywhere.

“Please!” I yell out above it. “Please, give me one more chance! I’ll get you out of there, I promise! Please!”

If the ghosts can hear me, they ignore what I said. If anything, the chanting grows more rhythmic and powerful with each repetition. I can’t concentrate, can’t think properly. I fold my ears down and cover them with my hooves, but that doesn’t seem to have any effect at all. More and more ghosts appear, ponies I know and some I don’t. First dozens, then hundreds, then thousands. The simple chant gradually become a booming crash with such force as to shake the very earth beneath my hooves. And it only grows stronger still from there.

Images begin to form around myself and the ever-growing legion of specters. I see Tirek crush my sister into a bloody ruin a second time. Then a third. Then a fourth. A fifth. A sixth. Another image joins it, this time of changelings devouring the citizens of Canterlot. Then one of Chrysalis beheading the princesses. And then the Crystal Guards hanging limply from their nooses. Then the crystal ponies being cast into the black pit. And last of all, I see Cadence being impaled by Sombra. Again. And again. And again. And again. And again. All the while the chant continues to pound endlessly, so hard that it rattles my teeth.

All I can see is vision after vision of my failure, of those I love perishing while I can do nothing. All I can hear is endless accusing chant of their ghosts, risen from the endless frigid hells to punish me for it. It goes on and on and on and on and on, never once ceasing or even growing more quiet. Escape is impossible. Movement is impossible. Speaking is impossible. Even thought is impossible. I should just lie down. Submit to my just punishment.

But, wait, isn’t there-

“Your fault! Your fault! Your fault!”

Thing I should be-

“Your fault! Your fault! YOUR FAULT!”

Real… world?

“YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT!”

What… saying? This… is real world?

“YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT!”

Just… retribution?

“YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT!”

Just… retribution.

“YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT!”

Lie down…

“YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT!”

Submit…

“YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT!

M-my… m-my… my… my fa-

“NO!”

What the-

The tempo of the chanting drops back a little as a new voice comes onto the scene from on high. I shake my head to clear off the buzzing and manage to look. There’s a brilliant white light high above all the scenes of death and vengeful ghosts. At the center of it is an almost angelic-looking figure, descending slowly towards where I stand. I blink and squint and it’s… Cadence?

But Cadence is in the…

I swivel my head back down. Sure enough, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, my wife, is one of the crowd of specters surrounding me. Behind them I can see quite clearly the scene of Sombra’s triumph, where he executed her and sacrificed the rest of the Crystal Empire to dark spirits from beyond. I see her die once, twice, and then three times over! We lost. She’s dead! I… I failed everypony, her included. This is just-

“Shining!” the taller, angelic-looking Cadence drops directly in front of me, interposing herself between the ghosts and me. “You’ve got to listen to me! None of this is real!”

“Your fault!” the chant’s volume starts to rise again. “Your fault! Your fault!”

“Listen to me!” she grabs my face and wrenches me into eye contact. “This is all just a spell! An illusion! None of this has really been happening!”

“Your fault! Your fault! YOUR FAULT!”

“But how can that even…” I trail off uncertainly.

“YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT!”

“Sombra’s back!” Cadence yells, trying to make herself heard over the booming legion of ghosts. “He’s possessed you! This is all in your head! Please, hear what I’m saying!”

“YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT!

“But it’s all my… all my fault…” I hang my head.

Cadence slaps me.

“YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT!”

“None of this is your fault!” she’s screaming at the top of her lungs, but compared to the chant it’s barely a whisper. “None of it is real! Come back, Shining! Help me! I need you!”

“YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT!”

“You need… me? I… why?”

“He’s in your body! He’s too strong! I can’t pry him loose on my own, I need your-”

“YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT!”

The ghostly legion is growing closer, the sound of their voices drowning out the end of Cadence’s sentence. As they walk towards us, I notice that they’re starting to show… fangs?

“YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT!”

“His soul can be expelled, but not by just me!” Cadence has to get in close and yell directly into my ear. “We can save the day! We can make everything right! But we can’t do it without you!”

“YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT!”

The specters are almost on top of us now. I can clearly in their mouths long, sharp, identical sets of fanged teeth. Fangs that I swear I’ve seen before.

“But… how?” I manage. “I don’t have… don’t have the strength…”

Cadence smiles gently, though her ghostly duplicate is all but nipping at her tail. She leans in and whispers delicately into my ear.

“Our love will give us strength.”

Right.

We touch horns. The ghosts pounce. And everything explodes.

Just as I can feel the ice-cold fangs of a spirit sinking in to one of my back legs, a spark of blue and pink magic passes between our horns. The spark explodes like the heart of a star, blinding in its radiance. It sweeps over Cadence and I without effect, but the instant it touches ghost flesh there is an agonized scream. Not from one throat, a dozen, or even a hundred. Ten thousand throats wail in an unbelievable, earth-shattering screech. The blast – half-bubble, half wall of flames – expands outward exponentially, consuming the screaming ghosts as it does.

Cadence and I lift off the ground as the inferno expands to cover the endless plain that surrounds us. I can see into the distance, see the accusing specters fleeing like the hounds of hell are on them. It does them no good, as the cleansing fire sweeps over each and every one of them. It reaches the images – the horrible, unending scenes of nightmarish death – and shatters them with the lightest of touches. As we ascend towards a great light above, I feel almost embarrassed for having bought into them.

Almost.


I awaken screaming and in a good deal of pain.

I can feel my body writhing, contorting under me in manners unnatural even for an alicorn. My back and legs twist themselves into pretzels as I kick and flail wildly against the agony. My wings jerk in every direction possible and few that aren’t, breaking and repairing themselves several times over in course of seconds. There’s armor on me, unfamiliar and uncomfortable, and in the course of my blind thrashing about I kick a good deal of it off an onto the crystal floor beyond.

My coat, I can vaguely make out, is somehow grey now. And it’s oozing black mist, as if I had sprung some sort of leak. Cadence is towering above me, worry writ large on her face and spell on her horn. Whatever it is, it doesn’t seem to be working. The pain goes on and on and on as I kick and scream. Minutes – or what I think are minutes – pass as I continue to release trails of inky blackness. But they gradually grow thinner and thinner, while my coat becomes lighter and lighter.

It takes… a lot more time than I would have liked.

At last, though, the fiery agony fades away, first into a dull ache, and then into nothing more than a cold sweat and bad case of shivers. My fur resumes its natural white coloration as I pry off the last of the unfamiliar steely-grey armor. I lie trembling on the crystal floor of what I recognize for the palace, curled up for warmth. Cadence has her own body, sweaty and dirty but soft and warm, wrapped around mine as best she is able.

At length, I finally manage to force my body to stop shivering. Then, one by one I peel my limbs away from my body. Slowly and hesitantly I make my way back to my hooves. I take some small pride that despite the quivering I don’t need the slightest bit of assistance in getting back up. When I finally do, Cadence is there beside me, looking up at me with those beautiful purple eyes of hers.

We breathe a simultaneous sigh of relief.

“It’s over…” she manages as we share a kiss. “At least… it’s over…”

“The hell it is.”

Our head swivel as one at the sound of that deep, echoing voice. Not too far from where we stand, that black mist is coalescing into a thicker, deeper cloud. No… more than that. It’s coalescing into an outline.

“I did not cheat death and spend centuries planning to correct the world to be undone at the last second by some amateur-hour horsecrap like the power of love!”

Cadence and I each take a step back as the outline grows more and more solid, forming into a pony I thought I’d never see again.

“I’ve taken more than enough of your strength!” King Sombra snarls, setting one all-too-solid hoof onto the floor. “I am killing you BOTH, RIGHT NOW!