Hearth's Warming Evil

by Tortfeasor

The Beginning of Harmony

Hearth’s Warming Evil

Disclaimer: Climactically! I don’t own My Little Pony!

Chapter Twelve: The Beginning of Harmony

“Wuzzat?” Rainbow Dash staggered up behind Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle, still more asleep than awake. Not for the first time, Twilight wondered if Rainbow Dash simply wore what she rolled out of bed with as her normal mane.

“I said, I think we’re where we need to be.” Twilight glanced back at Clover’s map to double check once more. “How do you feel about flying up there to make sure?”

The prospect of flying woke Rainbow Dash up where Twilight’s preferred method, copious amounts of coffee, would have struggled.

“Flying? Do I want to go flying? Do you want to cast magic?” Rainbow Dash leapt a few feet into the air in excitement. “Hang on, I’ll be back before you knew I was gone.”

“Hold up there!” Twilight punctuated her words with surrounding Rainbow Dash in a magical field. “Do you even know what you’re looking for up there?”

“Ah… no.” Rainbow Dash slowly settled back to the ground. “Got something in that fancy book of yours, like some sort of guide to everything you needed to know about magically sealed caves, but were afraid to ask?”

“Um, not that exactly.” Twilight very carefully removed the map Clover the Clever had drawn. “But I do have this map, which you need to treat like it’s made of spun glass because it’s well over a thousand years old. And you’re probably going to want a coat. Haven’t you noticed that it’s pretty cold out?”

“Uh pegasus, deals well with cold, remember?” Rainbow Dash preened.

“Well,” Twilight said, “this close to their prison the Wendigos can affect the weather quite a bit. I’m pretty sure that when you’re up there at their front door it’s going to be cold, even for you. So go ahead and take a coat. Rarity can keep Fluttershy warm with a warming charm, and if this works we probably won’t need to worry too much about coats on the way back.”

“And if it doesn't work we’ll be a bit too dead to worry, right?” Rainbow Dash flew back to her tent. She was trailed back out by an clearly just woken Applejack.

“Hooo, it is cold!” Applejack shivered before tightly closing her coat. “That is the sun up there, right?”

“Wendigos.” Rainbow Dash said bluntly. “Gonna go knock on their front door, then we can kick it in and beat them up so badly they’ll never show their faces around here again.”

“Actually, less beating up and more magically resealing them.” Twilight pointed out in a very academic manner. “I’m not sure you can really ‘hit’ a Wendigo as such. If you somehow managed it I’m pretty sure you’d just come away with a nasty case of frostbite. Now get going Rainbow Dash, even without the Wendigos the weather can be pretty sketchy this high in the mountains, and I’d rather be gone before the afternoon storms start brewing.”

“Brewing? Are we brewing something?” Things must have been dire indeed for Rarity to show her face without going through the extensive routine she insisted on even while trekking through the wilderness.

“Let’s brew up some fun!” Pinkie Pie came bouncing out behind her, mane somehow bouncing into its normal shape as she went. “I wonder if Wendigos like to have fun? I've never tried to make friends with a winter spirit before, so I’m sure it’ll be fun just trying!”

“Rainbow Dash,” Twilight said under her breath, “go, and go now.”

“Right.” Rainbow Dash saluted flamboyantly before flying off with a rush of snow behind her.

“Okay, maybe it is getting a little cold up here.” Rainbow Dash admitted to herself as she flew up towards the cave Twilight had pointed out to her. “Sheesh, don’t these Wendigos have anything better to do than make things cold?”

Freed from having to trudge through the snow, and with her own prodigious talents, it didn’t take Rainbow Dash long at all to fly to the mouth of the cave. Even before she set hoof on the snow outside, she knew that this was the place. The air practically hummed with the magic that Clover the Clever had used to seal the Wendigos inside. Not to mention that Twilight had been stating it lightly when she said it would be cold, Rainbow Dash could feel her eyelids try to freeze shut with every blink.

“At least I don’t have to stay here.” The air in front of Rainbow Dash turned nearly solid with steam as she spoke to herself. “Just have to remember to remind everyone that we need to cast this spell in a hurry if we don’t want to be ice statues up here.”

Rainbow Dash spread her wings and prepared to take back off, but, before she could ascend, she felt a familiar sickening magic and the world disappeared around her.

The world around her was similar to what she and the others had been subjected to when Sombra had tried to break their spirits. It was similar, but it was somehow different. Different enough, in fact, that Rainbow Dash knew from the start that she was inside a magical illusion. Hopefully Fluttershy and the others were walking up the mountain after her and would be able to get her out of this.

Having nothing better to do, and having no intention of playing along with Sombra’s little game, Rainbow Dash walked over to a rather grim looking bench and sat down to await rescue from her friends. The buildings surrounding her weren't nearly so comically villainous as the ones from the previous illusion. True they were clearly built to intimidate and create a depressing atmosphere, but Rainbow Dash could see someone actually building this city. A very twisted someone perhaps, but a real pony living in the world she inhabited nonetheless.

At first, Rainbow Dash didn’t notice anything to separate the pony approaching her from the shadowy figures moving along the fake street. It was only as the pony actually neared her that Rainbow Dash recognized her as Lightning Dust, but it was a Lightning Dust that she’d never seen. Normally, Lightning Dust had arrogance and pride enough for ten ponies. This Lightning Dust, though, slunk along the ground meekly enough to make Fluttershy look like the very picture of self-confidence by comparison.

“La-Lady Dash.” Lighting Dust stammered in a simpering voice Rainbow Dash had never thought she’d hear. “The daily reports are prepared for you back at your office. I've also brought in that keg of cider like you ordered, polished your armor, distributed your flyers to your fanclub, and I made sure that your chair is made up of those nice, puffy clouds you always like.”

Rainbow Dash looked at Lightning Dust trembling on the ground and started laughing.

“Yeah, sure, whatever.” Rainbow Dash managed to choke out. “Listen, this is a very nice little fantasy world you’re all living in. But I’m kinda in a hurry to get back to the real world so I can make sure your boss ends up with as much spine as you have.”

“I’m not sure what you mean, Lady Dash.” Lightning Dust had never looked at anyone with such wide, helpless eyes, not even when Twilight Sparkle had torn her apart. “Please, please don’t punish me! I promise I’ll work day and night until I can tend to your every need.”

“Just shut up.” Rainbow Dash was getting fed up with this illusion in a hurry. “And go bother someone else. I’m waiting for some actually real ponies, and you’re just annoying me.”

Rainbow Dash had never seen Lightning Dust bow to anyone, much less kowtow deeply enough to eat dirt with every step. Finally alone again, Rainbow Dash sat there and waited for her friends to arrive.

Her wait was short, however, as she felt more than saw another presence approaching. Unlike the mockery of Lightning Dust, this presence seemed vastly more solid. The sky itself seemed to darken as a cloud black as pitch began to seep up from between the paving stones. Even knowing that none of this was real, Rainbow Dash had to fight a powerful instinct from the most primitive parts of her brain to flee this evil.

The cloud soon towered over her. From its depths a face eventually emerged; a face born of Rainbow Dash’s nightmares and that of every other pony.

“Sombra.” Rainbow Dash forced out. He couldn't really be here, otherwise she would be dead, but Rainbow Dash knew that she was really speaking with the traitor threatening to end pony-kind in his mad quest for power.

Her only response was a deep rumble that seemed to pass right through her. No, that wasn't quite correct. As the rumble made its way through her, Rainbow Dash somehow found a certain meaning in it. Sombra was… impressed with her for making it this far. But she and her friends could never hope to defeat him, he would rend them apart with his dark magic if they dared to try and open the Wendigos cave.

“Oh really?” Rainbow Dash fell back on her natural prickliness. “Cause we already got through all your other traps just fine, and we know how to seal the Wendigos for good. Wanna know what I think this is? I think it’s just your last, pathetic attempt to talk us out of stomping your face in so hard that you’ll fly down right past Tartarus and find out where it is they send ponies too bad for even them.”

The rush of hate and anger she felt nearly staggered Rainbow Dash. She saw her friends, insides splayed about and looks of unfathomable agony on their faces. In their eyes, Rainbow Dash somehow knew their last moments had been spent pleading for her help, help that had never come. She saw the ponies of Ponyville being tortured by means too horrible to even think about, all the while having their very souls slowly consumed by Sombra. There was something underneath it all, an invitation to spare herself the pain by joining him.

“We get it.” Rainbow Dash grit her teeth as the words came out. “You’re not a nice pony, and you want everyone to know it. You know, I think you’re just crazy enough to think that you really did fight Celestia and Luna. If you see them on your way down past Tartarus, tell them to kick you one last time!”

The next rush of hate and anger brought Rainbow Dash to her knees. She saw, and felt, two ponies that were incomprehensibly beyond her. One, white coat with a mane that seemed to shimmer like the sky itself, blazed with a fury that felt like the raw sun. The other, darkest of dark blue coats with a mane that held the night sky, held a vastness of power that really seemed like endless expanse of midnight. And there, on the ground and surrounded by a miasma that made what she thought was Luna seem bright by comparison, was Sombra. Rainbow Dash barely knew the first thing about unicorn magic, but even she knew that Twilight Sparkle would struggle on her best day to equal the least of the spells the three ponies cast.

“Well,” Rainbow Dash said as she struggled back to her hooves, “Celestia and Luna beat you once, and we’re going to do it again. And guess what, I’m gonna be one of the ponies that beats you!”

Rainbow Dash suddenly found herself standing in front of the Wendigos cave shouting into thin air. She felt her joints crack as she forced herself to take a few cautious steps. At least she hadn't fallen off a cliff while in Sombra’s illusion.

“Rainbow Dash!” Applejack had quite the set of lungs. “You still alive up there?”

“Yeah!” Rainbow Dash found her voice a bit creaky. “Yeah! This is the right place!”

The others struggled up the last incline and ran as much as they could to where she was standing.

“Are you alright, darling?” Rarity started poking at her with both hooves and horn. “Twilight and I could feel that dreadful magic from all the way down at our tents.”

“I’m fine.” Rainbow Dash brushed Rarity’s hooves aside. “We’re probably going to want to hurry though. I’m pretty sure I was talking to Sombra, the real Sombra. I think he was trying to get me to join him, and I kinda told him to go jump in a lake. Anyways, I think he knows we’re here, so he’s probably on his way and none too happy.”

“Right,” Twilight said in her unflappably businesslike manner. “Rarity, I’ll need to use your magic to bring down the seal. The rest of you, the seal was made with only unicorn magic, so you won’t be able to help until it’s time to build the new one.”

Twilight and Rarity walked to the very mouth of the cave and began to cast magic. The seal came down with far less magic than it should have taken. Twilight knew she needed to concentrate, but she couldn't help worrying about what was going on back in New Unicornia to weaken the seal this much. Suddenly, there was a rush of cold and power that made each of them shiver.

“Seal’s down.” Twilight waved them close. “The Wendigos aren't going to take long to figure out they can leave, so let’s do this and be done.”

Twilight started to reach out to each of the five other ponies with her when a wall of black crystal erupted at the mouth of the cave. From that wall of crystal came the same cloud of blackness that Rainbow Dash had so recently faced down.

“Die.” Came the single word as the horribly misshapen face of King Sombra emerged.

--

Lyra sat at the window watching the road, more a trail really, leading towards, rather from, the Everfree Forest.

“Waiting to see if they’re back?” Bon Bon waked up behind her with a steaming cup of tea.

“Yep,” Lyra said. “If they didn’t lose any time going through the forest, and they didn’t have to do any real searching in the mountains, then this should be the earliest they could be making it back. And please say that tea is for me. It feels more like the first week of winter than the first week of summer.”

“No way,” Bon Bon stuck out her tongue. “Get your own tea. I hope they make it back soon, though, the weather is really worrying me. Like you said, it should be the start of summer, it should actually be hot out for the next few weeks. Twilight Sparkle said that the seal on the Wendigo’s cave would start failing in a hurry if we fought a civil war. I’m starting to worry that she was right.”

“We’d better not freeze to death in summer.” Lyra turned away from the window. “I still owe Octavia a new cello. Not that I’m going to have the wood for it any time soon, not with the way rebuilding is going to gobble up all the timber around here.”

“Speaking of wood.” Bon Bon got way too much pleasure out enjoying the tea she’d denied Lyra. “I was talking to the ponies who are in charge of drawing up the new plans for the town. I guess they decided that since Sunset Shimmer did so much demolition work for them they might as well take advantage of it to do some better urban planning. Anyways, they said that if we’d like them to rebuild that oak tree, they’ll be more than happy to do it for us. It still might take awhile, but it looks like we’ll really have a home here.”

“Hey,” Lyra smiled at Bon Bon, “I don’t care if we have to sleep on the castle floor every night for the next twenty years. As long as we’re both here, I’m more than happy to call this place home.”

Bon Bon smiled back. “Glad to hear that, but I’m totally gonna tell them to go ahead and rebuild it for us. Oh, and if you’re getting tired of the castle, Derpy, the Doctor, Vinyl, and Octavia all offered to let us stay with them for as long as it takes.”

“Didn't they say they’d already had ponies moved in with them who lost their homes in the attack?”

Before Bon Bon could reply to Lyra’s question there came a great racket from the hall, they both paused to stick their heads out to see what it was all about All they saw was the back end of a number of ponies running towards the front door.

“Let’s go see what it is!” Lyra grabbed Bon Bon, who merely held on to her tea, and started running after them.

The cause of the commotion appeared to be a small band of ponies approaching the gates. Normally, such an occurrence would have gone completely unnoticed. However, Sunset Shimmer’s attack had the whole town on edge, and with New Unicornia plunging into civil war strangers were no longer to be trusted.

Of course, Lyra thought upon seeing the new ponies, there weren't many ways that two fillies and a very elderly pony could cause the town any harm. The only thing immediately off about the group was that one of the fillies was a unicorn while the other two were earth ponies. Lyra hadn't known that anyone besides Twilight Sparkle had been trying to get the tribes to work together.

“Should’ve known I’d find you two here.” They’d apparently beaten Shining Armor to the top of the outer wall. “At least they don’t look very dangerous. Hay, they look colder and hungrier than you did when you arrived.”

They all jumped at a commotion a little ways down the wall. Shining Armor’s horn began to shine with killing spells, while even Lyra made ready the little defensive magic she knew. They deflated with relief, however, when the commotion was revealed to be simply Derpy and Scootaloo, who had been one of those ponies moved in with Derpy due to losing her home and parents.

“Sorry.” Derpy shook off the dust she’d accumulated while crashing. “Scootaloo wanted to see who was coming to town, and I was paying more attention to them than I was to landing.”

By now, the approaching ponies were close enough that those on the walls were able to start making them out.

“Bon Bon,” Lyra grabbed the other pony, “that unicorn filly, doesn't she look familiar?”

“Not really.” Bon Bon shrugged her shoulders. “But unicorns weren't exactly common customers at my store. Why, have you seen her somewhere?”

“Call me crazy,” Lyra said, “but she looks just like portraits of Rarity’s little sister.”

“Maybe.” Shining Armor, who was standing close enough to have easily overheard every word, leaned over the top of the wall. “Twiley did say that she’d hidden Sweetie Belle somewhere in Platinum City. Who would ever think to look for a unicorn princess in Dirtville? But if things are half as bad as it sounds like they’re getting then I can understand why they’d want to get her out.”

“Aren't y’all gonna open up for some cold, hungry ponies?” The elderly green earth pony paused just in front of the gates.

At Shining Armor’s signal, the gates slowly creaked open. Lyra, Bon Bon, and Shining armor raced down the stairs, followed by Derpy and Scootaloo.

“That’s definitely her!” Lyra skidded to a stop. “That’s Sweetie Belle.”

The filly’s eyes went wide with fear before Shining Armor stepped forward. “Don’t worry your highness, I’m Twilight Sparkle’s older brother, Shining Armor. She said that she’d been looking out for you, and I’ll make sure that you’re all taken care of.”

“Only made it out of Dirtville because of that sister of yours,” the elderly green earth pony said. “Wasn't for that bag of bits she gave us and those guard’s who’d sell out their own mother, we’d still be in that city waiting to get scooped up. Even with all that help it was still close. Big Mac said he’d catch up with us when those other guards showed up, but I don’t think he’s coming any more.”

All three of the new ponies suddenly had tears welling up in their eyes. Lyra could only guess that there had been a fourth member of their group who hadn't made it.

“Is it really that bad in the city?” Shining Armor asked.

“Worse,” came the reply. “Whole districts of Dirtville are getting cleaned out at a time. Unicorn guards walk down the streets killing any earth pony they feel like and the rest of us can’t do a thing. At the rate it’s going, won’t be an earth pony left in Platinum City by winter.”

“That explains why things are going so well elsewhere.” Shining Armor put a plaintive hoof to his chin. “Sombra really is putting exterminating the earth ponies ahead of winning the war. Anyways, let’s get some food into you. It won’t be much, and it’s pretty cramped quarters here, but at least it’s safe.”

Lyra looked over at Bon Bon, her look back plainly agreed that they’d be dead by now if they hadn't escaped Platinum City when they had. They started walking back to the castle, Shining Armor having sent Derpy ahead to ask for a meal to be prepared for their new arrivals.

On the way, Lyra saw something that restored her severely battered faith in pony-kind. Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and the third filly, Apple Bloom she thought the name was, were running around and playing together long before they’d even reached the inner town.

“Makes you wish we could all get along that well, doesn't it?” Bon Bon leaned in to ask.

“Yeah,” Lyra leaned back in to her. “Maybe one of these days it really will happen.”

--

No one needed to shout at them to dodge Sombra’s attack, no one needed to shout at them to attack him in their turn, and no one needed to remind them how pressed for time they were. With the seal down they had to defeat Sombra and reseal the Wendigos in a matter of minutes or all pony-kind would perish in eternal winter.

Twilight neatly sidestepped a crystal lance meant to impale her and lit her own horn with deadly magic. She’d been waiting all this time with a burning desire for revenge after Sombra had so easily humiliated her back in Platinum City. It was time to see how he liked being the magically inferior one.

“Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy,” Twilight shouted. “Get up in the air and make him focus on more directions!”

That quickly proved to be a good idea as it appeared that Sombra could only create his dark crystals out of the ground. Attacking Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy the old fashioned way meant taking his attention off the ponies on the ground.

Unfortunately, Twilight and the others quickly discovered that Sombra remained as incorporeal as ever. Disrupting his gaseous body seemed to annoy him, but they needed to kill or permanently incapacitate him, not annoy him.

“Anyone have any ideas?” Twilight skidded to a stop after dodging yet another crystal assault. “I did this song and dance routine with him back in Platinum City and it didn’t work.”

Any response to Twilight’s question was interrupted by Sombra’s next attack. The mountainside erupted with black crystals that launched towards the six ponies. Twilight Sparkle and Rarity quickly threw up a shield behind which they huddled along with Pinkie Pie and Applejack while Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy took to the skies.

“Die.” At least Sombra was staying consistent with his few words.

“Let’s try punching his face in!” Rainbow Dash shouted as she flew around above them. “It’s the only part of him that seems even halfway solid, maybe we can hurt it.”

“Good a plan as any.” Applejack muttered. She proceeded to try it out by picking up a shattered crystal and bucking it at Sombra’s face.

It seemed to annoy him far more, perhaps it even caused him real pain. Anywhere else Twilight would have called that a plan to run with. They could simply put him in enough pain that it became too much to keep attacking them. But here, playing for all the marbles, Sombra wouldn't let a little something like excruciating pain stop him. They needed a way to put him down for good.

He also seemed to get angrier and angrier as they kept pelting him in his vulnerable face. The next few minutes were full of hectic dodging and the occasional bolt of light or lump of crystal flying back across the mountain.

The six of them worked as a team better than Twilight had dared hope. She and Rarity were able to blunt most of Sombra’s attacks with their shields, Pinkie Pie and Applejack kept up a constant stream of fire from the numerous crystals strewing the mountainside, and Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were there to distract Sombra or pick up a pony who needed moving in a hurry.

“Die!” Twilight smirked. Sombra wasn't chillingly stating his intentions, he was raging at them. If he lost his concentration they might find a way to actually hurt him.

“We have to hurry, Twilight!” Rarity shouted over an ice filled gust of wind. “The Wendigos are going to escape any time now if we don’t stop them!”

“Tell that to him!” Twilight shouted back as she rolled away from a plethora of needle like crystals sprouting where she’d been. “I think he’d rather we all freeze before he lost.”

Behind the black crystals covering the entrance to the Wendigo’s cave, Twilight thought she could almost see their ghostly silhouettes pounding at, and pounding down, Sombra’s barrier. Rarity was right, the Wendigos knew their cage was open, and they were eager to make up for lost time covering the world in an eternal winter.

Then Sombra tried a new trick that had them all dodging for their lives. He created a huge number of crystal spikes on the ground and launched them into the air. Where they would come down was anyone’s guess, and all the while he was hitting them with everything else in his considerable arsenal.

Twilight wished she could have said that she was surprised it was Fluttershy who got hit first. The pegasus was the kindest pony she knew, and talented at a great many things, combat, however, was at the very bottom of that list. If anything, Twilight was surprised it had taken as long as it had for a lump of crystal to have a high speed collision with Fluttershy.

“Fluttershy!” Rainbow Dash took off after her friend. Despite her best efforts, Rainbow Dash couldn't weave her way between Sombra’s crystal attack before Fluttershy hit the snow covered ground.

Still racing towards her fallen friend, Rainbow Dash almost impaled herself on the crystal cage that erupted around Fluttershy’s prone form as she hit the ground. Rainbow Dash started to kick and pound at the cage, but she might have been pounding at the mountain for all the good she did.

“Twilight” Rainbow Dash shouted. “Get over here, Sombra’s doing something to her!”

Twilight awkwardly jumped and dodged her way between the forest of crystal shards littering the ground. She got over to Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash just in time to see Fluttershy encased in a dark yet somehow translucent crystal coating.

“What the hay?” Twilight prodded at Fluttershy with her magical senses. “I don’t know, Rainbow Dash. I could try to blast it off, but there’s no guarantee that Fluttershy doesn't get caught up in it.”

Rainbow Dash let out a wordless scream of anger as she kicked at Fluttershy’s prison. As soon as her hooves touched the smooth crystal encasing Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash found herself stuck to her friend and with that same crystal crawling up her legs.

“Twilight, help!” Rainbow Dash struggled against her encroaching prison.

“Hang on.” Twilight grabbed hold of her and pulled. The crystal growing over Rainbow Dash didn’t so much as crack. Twilight started to throw every spell she could think of at the crystal that wouldn't involve cutting through Rainbow Dash, but to no avail.

Twilight only let go with a gasp when the crystal crept up to the hoof that she was still pulling on.

“Girls, don’t touch that crystal!” Twilight turned around only to let out a moan of despair. Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie were all trapped in their own crystal prisons with look of alarm on their faces. From the look of things they’d been trying to reach Fluttershy as well, but hadn't made it.

“Hahahahaha.” The black form of Sombra rose from the ground in front of her. “Die, slave.”

Twilight tried to run towards him, only to find her own hooves rooted to the ground by crystal making its way up her body. The feeling was horrible. It was like ice and death and every bad memory she’d ever had. Looking back at her friends, Twilight realized that wasn't alarm on their faces, it was terror.

She knew it would never work, but Twilight tried nevertheless to cast Clover’s spell. If she could trap the Wendigos and her brother could defeat Sombra’s forces then New Unicornia, no, Equestria would still have hope.

Just as she’d known, Twilight couldn't even start the spell on her own. With Sombra’s triumphant laughter in her ears, the crystal began to climb up her horn and her doom approached.

If only she’d been stronger. Then it hit Twilight. It wasn't brute strength that defeated evil, it was the little things. It was kindness like Fluttershy reaching out to that Ursa Major, or how she’d always taken the time to look out for other ponies on their trip. It was honesty like Applejack always speaking her mind, and when she’d been the one to see through Sombra’s lies in the swamp. It was generosity like Rarity giving Applejack her coat, or even when she’d been prepared to burn herself out to help others. It was laughter like Pinkie Pie helping them laugh off the terrors Sombra had tried to destroy them with, or how she’d always been there to put a smile on their faces this whole time. And it was loyalty like Rainbow Dash sticking by Fluttershy even when she could have gone further on her own, or how she’d thrown Sombra’s offer of power back in his face.

Twilight realized it as the crystal began to close around the very tip of her horn, that was the magic she’d needed all along. And that was the spark she needed. Rarity’s magic rushing into her was nearly as familiar as her own. But it was joined by others that Twilight had never felt. Only as they started to weave together into Clover the Clever’s last spell did she recognize that it was pegasus and earth pony magic flowing through her.

The rush of power through her horn was truly unbelievable. Twilight's eyes glowed a brilliant white with bottomless energy as she felt the countless threads of magic come together and knit the very fabric of reality. As the magic reached its crescendo, Twilight thought she heard at the very edge of her senses twin cries of defeat. Then, it was over.

Twilight staggered on her newly free hooves. It took a moment for it to register that her hooves had been encased in Sombra’s crystal along with the rest of her. In a panic she looked about for Sombra and his next attack. He was nowhere to be found. In fact, the mountainside was completely free of the carpet of black crystals their fight had left.

“Twilight!” Twilight was tackled by Rarity’s diving hug. She was fairly sure that several other ponies were also on top of her. “You did it!”

“We did it girls.” Twilight could only see Rarity’s face at the bottom of the pile, but she knew the others could hear her. “When I realized how special you all are to me I just felt it click. It was like grabbing your magic and weaving that spell was the easiest thing in the world.”

“Well where’s Sombra?” Applejack’s voice accompanied a lightening of the pile.

“I think he’s in there.” Twilight couldn’t point to the cave. “With the Wendigos. Clover’s spell was designed to trap incorporeal beings like the Wendigos, and I think Sombra had actually transcended his physical body enough to get caught up in it.”

“Well they certainly deserve each other.” Rarity voiced what they were all thinking. “So, what happens now?”

“Um, girls?” They all turned to see a very worried Rainbow Dash standing over a still prone Fluttershy.

“I uh, I can’t feel my wings.” Fluttershy’s speech made Twilight sigh with relief, for a terrible second she’d thought Fluttershy dead. Then Fluttershy’s words processed, and Twilight found the terror again.

They all ran over to where Fluttershy was lying. Just a look made Twilight want to throw up. Fluttershy’s wings were at such an awkward angle that it was clear only flesh was still holding them on to her body. Even if they’d been standing in front of the best hospital in Platinum City she likely would have never flown again. Out here, almost two weeks from civilization…

“It’s okay,” Fluttershy said with more serenity than Twilight thought possible in her situation. “It actually doesn’t hurt. And I never flew that often. I guess that now I’ll be able to work with the animals like I wanted.”

Twilight numbly collected their belongings for the long trip back. Behind her, Fluttershy slowly got to her feet with Rainbow Dash’s help. If Fluttershy hadn’t been able to walk. Well, Twilight decided to count her blessings. They’d won, but oh the cost.

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

So how man chapters are left?

[mojomcm]

Woo! Victory party!

[Alchemystudent]

The scene where Twilight activated the elements was beautiful!!