//------------------------------//
// Preparation 
// Story: I'm a Lich and I know it! 
// by Dream Seeker 
//------------------------------//

	Shining Armor awoke. Groggy-eyed, he got to his hooves and glanced around the prison. He gazed inside the cell where Twilight should have been. It was empty. Shocked, Shining Armor could only stare for a moment.

"Twily..." he whispered.

He whirled around to check the guards. To his surprise, they were not dead. They were only standing, passively, their weapons on the floor nearby, unattended. Shining Armor felt a bad feeling in his chest.

I can only hope that I am wrong...

Shining Armor cast a few spells, quickly confirming his fear: Mind control. He scrambled outside, taking note of the meandering troops that stood everywhere, walking aimlessly. Not a single one of them held weapons. Quickly, Shinning Armor realized what must have happened. Twilight was gone, and it was all because he hadn't prepared well enough.

"I'm going to KILL you, Winter Aurora! Nopony messes with my family and gets away with it!"

In another place, at the same time, Averum Aquaestinitum dropped its mind-control spell as it spent its last reserves of power attaching itself to Winter's forehead, going into stasis and releasing Shining Armor's army from the mind-control as it could no longer power the spell. Consequently, all of the ponies awoke from their mentally-altered state. Steel Shield rubbed his horn with a hoof, feeling it tingle uncomfortably, before suddenly realizing that if he had a hoof free to rub his horn with, he must not be holding his weapon. Hurriedly, he glanced around, before finding his sword on the ground and picking it up. What he didn't notice was the small fragment of bone, still crackling with arcane lightning, fused with the faux-leather hilt...

As he noticed his army stir, Shining Armor galloped to the armory, where he quickly donned his legendary armor, the Armatura Immortalis. Designed by Twilight, forged by Luna, enchanted by Celestia, and blessed by Cadence; there was no better armor in all of Equus. As he levitated the helm onto his head, the armor locked together to provide complete protection. He emerged from the building, and stomped his hoof. The ice beneath him cracked, and a loud rumble echoed through the tundra. He had the attention of everypony in his army.

"Calypsion falls tonight," Shining Armor declared. "Prepare for this battle. For some of us, it may even be our last battle. But we cannot stand here in good conscious and let those evil mind-controlling bastards kidnap our Princesses without consequence. We may fight, and we may die, but freedom must be preserved!"

Shining Armor's army let out a reverberating cry through the tundra, replying to his declaration. Shining Armor smiled, and he knew that soon, the threat of dark magic would once again be no more.





Sombra glanced worriedly at the mobilization of Shining Armor's camp. "He's figured it out, and I think he's about to launch a full scale attack," Sombra predicted. "Prepare the troops for what could be our final defense."

The War Council rumbled in acknowledgment. Sombra's word meant a lot to them.

"Sombra! Your presence is requested in the Lockdown Zone," a messenger told him. "It's Ice Storm, she wants to talk to you."

Sombra raised an eyebrow, but followed the messenger. They walked down the streets of Calypsion, and it filled Sombre's heart with sadness as well as pride to see all of the residents preparing for war, each in their own way. From the smallest filly to the strongest stallion, each played their part. Windigos and Changelings and Timberwolves all worked together to accomplish their goals. It was good to see that they were all working together, but Sombra just wished it was for a more pleasant cause. Finally, Sombra stopped in front of a large, reinforced building, made from layers of crystal, ice, wood, and changeling goo. His magic slipped between the heavy enchantments he himself had put on the building, and opened the door.

The inside, which was larger than the outside, was sparsely decorated and contained many heavily armored ponies rushing about. Sombra noticed, to his concern, that some of the armor still had pieces of ice sticking out of them.

Ice Storm must not yet be able to control her powers.

He strode through, closing the door behind him, and trotted swiftly towards Ice Storm's Containment Room. As he trotted, he began layering himself with enchantments that could protect his physical body without a need for the heavy armor that most of the Lockdown Zone's staff wore. Finally he arrived at Ice Storm's Containment room, and unlocked the thick door, the slab of heavily reinforced metal swinging inwards and revealing Ice Storm. When Sombra saw her, his eyes widened in surprise. It seemed she had much more control over her abilities than he had previously thought. She was covered in a thick layer of protective ice, which appeared to both be hard enough to function as strong armor, and also be malleable enough with her magic that he could see her chest plate move as she breathed. In addition, she had a very determined look on her face, like she was ready to fight her way through a horde of guardsponies.

"I want to fight," Ice Storm spoke. "I've learned to control my abilities, and I want to help protect Calypsion from both Shining Armor's legion as well as Triple Threat's."

Sombra sighed. "I see, you've managed to make yourself a fancy new set of armor. But do you really think that's all you'll need if you want to survive on the battlefield? You're going to need to be able to fight, and maybe even kill. You have no experience, no practice. Maybe if you'd been a trained soldier before now, but you're still only a civilian, even with your new powers, which considering you only got them the other day, I doubt you can fully control yet."

Ice Storm merely pointed at a dartboard, which was peppered with ice shards, the majority of which were clustered in the bullseye. "I've been practicing."

Sombra glanced at the dartboard, and raised an eyebrow. "You're that good already, after such a short time to practice?"

"I've always been somewhat decent at darts, this isn't too different. Besides, I think my... 'mutation' increased my reaction time as well."

"How's your accuracy while moving?"

"I haven't had too much room to test, but nearly as good as standing still."

"Hm," Sombra grumbled. He was running out of reasonable excuses to prevent Ice Storm from joining the fight. "Are you sure you want to do this? It's dangerous out there. I won't be able to prevent you from being hurt."

"I'm sure," Ice Storm said confidently.

Suddenly, Sombra whirled around, horn glowing. "I think I hear somebody coming."

Shining Armor dashed into the room, letting out a fearsome battle cry as he swung a sword towards Ice Storm. "For my family!" he screamed.

Ice Storm's eyes went wide with shock, and she instinctively ducked to one side, dodging the blade. She extended a hoof and an ice shard flew out of it, impaling Shining Armor through his lung. Choking, coughing, Shining Armor stared her in the eyes. "I'm... dying..." he whispered. "I'm sorry I couldn't be stronger... Cadence, Twilight, Celestia... I'm sorry..." With one last, final gasp, Shining Armor died, his body lying on the floor in front of Ice Storm.

Her breath caught in her throat. "Nice one, your first kill and he's the Prince," Sombra commented impassively.

"That was a life!" Ice Storm snapped. "He may have been misguided, but he didn't deserve to die like that!"

Sombra smiled gently, and his horn's light faded, and with it, Shining Armor's body. "Thank you for confirming what I had hoped. That was merely a test, a test of character."

"W-w-what?" Ice Storm spluttered, blinking.

"I apologize. I needed to see how you would react to the sudden and unexpected appearance of a hostile. You reacted quickly, recognized the threat, evaded the attack, and provided a counterattack. Afterwards, I needed to make sure that you understood that all lives, even the lives of the enemy, matter. I'm sorry I had to scare you like that, but it would not have worked had it not been a surprise."

Ice Storm blinked again. "Sorry... Can you give me a moment to catch my breath? That was... Stressful..."

"I can give you a moment, but the enemy won't. Are you still sure you want to fight?"

Ice Storm hesitated for a moment, before nodding firmly. "I need to protect my family. Snowflake... I couldn't forgive myself if she died as Calypsion was overrun, and I hadn't joined in its defense. Winter... I practically consider her family now, as well. If she were to die..."

Sombra flinched, hard. His head turned down. "I'm afraid..." he said softly. "You may be a little too late for that..."

"What?" Ice Storm asked sharply. "What do you mean?"

"You must not have heard the news, being kept away from the populace in the Lockdown Zone. Winter appears to have given her life to save Twilight and Celestia from Shining Armor's camp."

Ice Storm's eyes lit with a cold fire. "Do you mean to say that the filly that is practically my daughter has died and I was not informed?"

Sombra flinched away. "I'm sorry..." a tear trickled down his face.

Ice Storm's eyes were as cold and hard as the ice of the walls of the containment room. "I will fight in her memory. And Celestia save any who tries to stop me."

Without turning to look back at Sombra, Ice Storm stormed out of her containment room... Through one of the heavily reinforced, blast-protected, and very nearly indestructible walls of her room. Alarms quickly blazed to life, and immediately creatures of all kinds rushed into repair the damage. Sombra merely stood there, tears trailing down his face, as he broke down and began to sob.

"Winter..." he whispered.