Hearth's Warming Evil

by Tortfeasor

Killing for God

Hearth’s Warming Evil

Disclaimer: Somewhere out there is a universe where I do own My Little Pony. This isn’t it.

Chapter Five: Killing for God

“This is incredible.” Twilight Sparkle flipped back and forth between the pages of the journal in which she had immersed herself for the past several days. “Unicorn scholarship since the creation of New Unicornia has assumed that it was earth pony intransigence that caused the summit of the three tribes to fail. Clover seemed to think that it was a failure on the part of all the leaders.”

In fact, Twilight reflected, Clover the Clever, hero to unicorns everywhere that she she’d become, probably would have been scorned by the society she’d helped to create. Twilight didn’t consider herself particularly soft on earth ponies; she preferred to think of herself as a pragmatist. All three tribes had their place in society, that unicorns and pegasi were above the earth ponies was simply the way things were supposed to be. Clover the Clever, Twilight Sparkle’s hero and inspiration for studying magic had written in no uncertain terms her desire for cooperation on equal terms between all three tribes as her preferred solution to ending the winter that had afflicted ponies in her time. To call Clover's journal a blow to Twilight Sparkle's view of the world would be a gross understatement.

The more she read, the less confident Twilight felt that she knew how Clover the Clever’s story would play out. She’d hoped to find some clues as to how Clover and Princess Platinum had overcome the various challenges on their way to forming New Unicornia. Instead, Clover’s journal was reading like something she'd expect to find hidden under Lyra's floorboards.

Twilight put down the journal with a sigh and rubbed her tired eyes. She couldn't help wondering if somewhere in the library, buried underneath another pile of inconspicuous documents were journals from Commander Hurricane and Private Pansy. They wouldn't be immediately useful to her, but her insatiable curiosity had seized on uncovering what had really happened at the birth of New Unicornia.

Maybe Rarity was having more luck with Princess Platinum’s journal. Clover the Clever, being foremost an adviser, had had far more liberty in her journal to opine and speculate. Perhaps Princess Platinum had concentrated on the statecraft that had brought New Unicornia into being, and that might save it from collapse.

Twilight hardly noticed as Spitfire fell in behind her on the way to Rarity’s chambers. Sombra hadn't yet responded, officially or not, to their success in quelling the latest riot, but Fancypant’s death weighed heavily on Twilight's mind. If Sombra's response was an assassin waiting around a corner Twilight intended to be ready.

Most days Rarity had only one guard outside the door to her chambers. As Twilight approached she counted twelve guards. Normally she would have had a jovial, lengthy exchange with them about the goings on in their lives. Instead, while polite to her, they continued to watch, hard eyed, for any danger coming their way. Being under a potential threat of assassination was no fun at all.

“How’s the reading going?” Twilight wasn't at all surprised to find Rarity engrossed in Princess Platinum’s journal.

“Rather disturbing actually.” Rarity slowly closed the journal. “I’d always thought that Princess Platinum knew exactly what she wanted and knew exactly what she was going to do to get it. Yet here I am reading about how she had no clue what she was getting into when she went to the summit of the three tribes, and how she agonized over the decisions in front of her.”

“I know that feeling,” Twilight sighed. “Clover the Clever would love Lyra if she were here today. They both think that the earth ponies should be afforded equal status to the unicorns and pegasi. These are Clover the Clever’s and Princess Platinum’s journals, the preservation spells on them were cast by Starswirl the Bearded himself, we’re talking about the figures of myth and legend here, and it turns out they were just as clueless as we are.”

“Well not entirely.” Rarity flipped Platinum’s journal open to a specific page she’d bookmarked. “Princess Platinum put a note here, I think it was years after that particular entry, saying that she believed the Wendigos were able to cause the winter because the three tribes had fractured. I would hardly call what we have now unity, but it is a stability of sorts between the tribes. I’m afraid that if Sombra succeeds in driving the earth ponies to revolt the work Clover the Clever and Princess Platinum did to seal the Wendigos will be undone. Four months of spring, summer, and fall are hardly ideal, but if the Wendigos get loose we won’t have four more minutes of spring.”

“I want to jump right to the end.” Twilight huffed. “Everyone knows that Clover the Clever and Princess Platinum were working on something big when they were assassinated. But they took it to their graves, and no one since has had any idea what they might have had in mind, until us.”

“Believe me.” Rarity laughed mirthlessly. “I've had my hoof trembling at the end of this thing more than once. I just keep getting the feeling, though, that I have to read everything that happened to her or I won’t grasp what she was after when she died. Oh, I do have some good news. I've waded through about three forests worth of paper, but I think the transfers for those two pegasi you told me about should come through before long. I’m afraid that as the head of my guards you’ll have to sign enough papers to build yourself a new desk.”

“That’s totally worth it.” Twilight smiled. “And speaking of worth it, I've been thinking, and I might have come up with a big improvement to what we’re doing.”

“Do tell.” Twilight could tell she had Rarity’s undivided attention.

“We've been thinking that the best way to defuse Sombra is to get the earth ponies out of his way, right? Well, Spitfire said something that got me thinking, what if we get the earth ponies way out of his way? As in, the earth ponies should have left Platinum City weeks ago, so let’s help them go. And not necessarily back to their lords and ladies. Instead, let’s send them to nobles out in the countryside who are on our side. It gets them away from Sombra, it makes sure we have the food we need to keep things stable, and giving nobles who support you more power might help swing the council your way.”

“That is certainly attacking the disease rather than simply treating the symptoms.” Twilight could virtually see the gears turning in Rarity’s head. “I do, however, have one big concern. Our forces, such as they are, for such an endeavor are quite limited. Do we really have the ponies to pull this off?”

“If you’d asked me a week ago, I’d have said no. Then I saw them all in action. I can hardly believe that we stumbled across a group of ponies who are so good at what we’re asking of them, but I’m not going to question our good luck. I think we can have Lyra, Bon Bon, and Pinkie Pie running one group while Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash run another. At a few hundred earth ponies per group it won’t be long before we've gotten enough out of Platinum City and out of Sombra’s reach for his whole plan to come tumbling down.”

Rarity thought for only a few seconds before speaking. “I've always trusted you with matters like this Twilight, so if you think this will work then let’s do it. How soon can you get the first group of ponies out of Platinum City?”

“If you’d like,” Twilight said, “I can head straight to Lyra and take her down to Dirtville to see if they think it can happen, and how soon.”

“What are you still waiting around here for?” Rarity seemed genuinely surprised Twilight hadn't already rushed out of her room. “If you pull this off you’ll have all the time in the world to memorize Clover’s journal, and then I’ll let you have Princess Platinum’s.”

That was plenty of motivation for Twilight to set a personal record at sneaking out of the palace.

--

Lyra gulped down the last of her hay shake with a contented sigh. She had seen off the last of her customers for the day, and with tomorrow her one day off per week she was looking forward to a day to do what she wanted. Maybe she could visit Bon Bon without the fate of New Unicornia hanging in the balance, maybe she could spend the day reading musical journals and getting some practice in, maybe, she grumbled as she heard her door open, she could teach ponies how to read a ‘closed’ sign.

Should she try a diatribe on Flutterponies, or humans, or maybe she could come out walking on her hind legs? No, she’d have to see what kind of pony she was dealing with. Some of those nobles thought they were above all the rules, and with the kind of bits they shelled out she was willing to be open regardless of what the sign on her door said.

“No!” She shouted with an accusatory hoof pointed at Twilight Sparkle as she saw the Court Sorceress standing in her store. “I was in Dirtville just three days ago watching Bon Bon go out that door wondering if I would ever see her again. It’s bad enough that she’s stuck living on streets that double as toilets. I don’t care who you are, I’m not going to let you make that her grave!”

Twilight Sparkle gave her a look as though she’d been called far worse in her time. “I thought we went over this already, I'm likely to end up dead way before Sombra even starts thinking about ponies like Bon Bon. Anyways, as much fun as it is going back and forth with you, I’m actually here to talk to you about an alternative to sending Bon Bon out the door wondering if you'll ever see her again. It still won’t be safe, not by a long shot, but it should be less dangerous than what we've been doing.”

Lyra stared back with eyes full of suspicion. “And by ‘alternative’ do you mean something other than racing the guards into the worst areas of Dirtville?”

“Would you believe me if I said yes?” Twilight Sparkle floated Lyra’s cloak to her. “Now come on. I’d rather not explain this new plan twice.”

Lyra didn’t know why she kept following Twilight Sparkle. It just caused headaches for her, put Bon Bon in danger, and it was a miracle her business hadn't collapsed into one of the snowbanks that didn’t get cleared nearly often enough during winter.

No, she knew perfectly well why she was heading down the icy streets of the pegasus part of Platinum City as a spring blizzard started to swirl snow down from the sky. Bon Bon dreamed of being able to come up into the unicorn part of the city to visit her without anyone caring what kind of pony she was. Lyra would march down into the sewage and trash cluttered streets of Dirtville behind Twilight Sparkle a million times over to see Bon Bon's dreams come true.

The guards at the wall had more or less retreated into the gatehouse and most likely didn’t notice two more ponies wrapped up against the cold crossing back into Dirtville. The only good thing about the blizzard, Lyra thought, was that it kept down the stench of unwashed ponies, and of unwashed ponies dumping their sewage onto the streets. The first time she’d come down here to see Bon Bon she’d nearly emptied her stomach from the stench.

Twilight Sparkle had clearly gotten over any jitters she had about being in Dirtville. She walked purposefully down the streets making the turns to Bon Bon’s shop without pause. Twilight's confident, driven stride marked her as not a normal to Dirtville. Lyra couldn't help thinking that her own determined gait likely marked her an outsider as well.

Before Lyra could give the matter much thought, Twilight Sparkle had magically undone Bon Bon’s lock and stepped inside her darkened, closed shop.

“Bon Bon.” Lyra called out, not wanting to be mistaken for an intruder. “It’s me, Twilight Sparkle’s with me too, she’d like to talk about something.”

Bon Bon’s head poked out from behind her counter. She was holding a positively wicked looking knife Lyra hadn't known she owned. As if that wasn't bad enough, Lyra then jumped at a soft bump behind her, only to whirl around and find a sheepishly smiling Pinkie Pie behind her holding a cord of bailing wire that could easily have strangled an unwary intruder.

“We come in peace.” Twilight Sparkle seemed to Lyra as cold as the ice starting to pile up outside.

“Sorry.” Bon Bon slid the knife back behind the counter. “Pinkie Pie had a full body twitch this afternoon. According to her, that’s Pinkie Sense for a doozy coming our way. When this storm started coming in and I closed up the shop I figured 'a doozy' must mean a thief. Some of the earth ponies who haven’t made it out of Platinum City yet are starting to get pretty desperate about food, so we figured it would be better to be ready for trouble if we were going to head it off.”

“Pinkie Sense?” Twilight tested the words. Right, Lyra thought, Twilight Sparkle didn’t know Pinkie Pie very well. “Whatever. How would the three of you feel about gathering together a band of earth ponies, say three hundred or so, and getting them out of Platinum City to somewhere they’ll be safe?”

“I think you’ll start another riot,” Bon Bon said. “There are a lot more than three hundred earth ponies who want to get out of this city more than life and limb, literally. If you go telling them that they have to pick and choose who stays and gets hauled off to a penal colony the next time you can’t pull a quick one...”

“This isn't a one time thing.” Twilight Sparkle used her horn to cast the shop in dim, magenta light. “At least I’m hoping it won’t be. I want you to take those three hundred earth ponies to Ponyville. My brother is in charge there, and he’ll be happy to have three hundred extra ponies working the farms. If it works there I’ll get in touch with other nobles who would also welcome the extra help. I did some homework, and I've noticed that most of the earth ponies still here are from lands ruled by nobles who lean towards Sombra. If we can find them work somewhere else it’ll be a win for all of us.”

“So why am I here?” Lyra asked. “I can’t exactly go door to door asking earth ponies if they’re here illegally and they’d like to escape Platinum City. That would be a great way for me to wind up dead.”

“You’re here for Ponyville.” Twilight pulled some paper and a quill from the top of Bon Bon’s counter and began to write on it. “Ponyville is pretty calm as far as relations between the three tribes go, but three hundred earth ponies showing up without any notice will probably freak even them out. I need you, a unicorn, to talk to my brother and make sure he knows what I’m up to and what I want him to do. I've written it down here, but if the letter gets lost, or he has more questions, then I’m counting on you. So, how soon can you get those ponies out of here?”

“Like I said.” Bon Bon reached into her office to grab her heaviest cloak. “The problem will be getting only three hundred earth ponies to leave with us.”

--

Twilight’s mind whirled as she struggled back uphill against the blizzard raging through Platinum City. Clover the Clever's journal kept running through her head, sparked in no small part by Bon Bon’s assertion that even in a blizzard that could easily freeze a pony to death she would struggle to limit the number of ponies leaving with her. How bad were things for an ordinary earth pony that the risk of being abandoned to die in a snowdrift was preferable to staying in Platinum City?

Twilight also found herself worried that Pinkie Pie had had such a bad feeling that she’d gotten Bon Bon to go to such lengths to prepare. Twilight was pretty sure that something wasn't entirely right with Pinkie Pie, but Twilight herself had also been feeling like something wasn't quite right since she’d woken up. Even Soarin hadn't made a single remark about pies that day while standing about with an alarmingly grim expression on his face.

Getting back to the cobblestone streets of the pegasus part of Platinum City, and the smooth paving stones of the unicorn part, made no difference in her travel, Twilight was struggling through knee deep snowdrifts by the time the palace lights were discernible through the sideways blowing snow.

Twilight’s first sign that something had gone horribly, horribly wrong while she’d been gone was the simple observation that the gates were unwatched. It wasn't particularly alarming that there were no ponies standing at the open gates, dedicated or not it wasn't safe to stand around in a blizzard. When she saw the gatehouse empty, however, it sent a shiver down her spine that had nothing to do with the cold.

Running back to the castle was an awkward affair that involved mostly taking long jumps over the snow. Her second, much more worrisome sign was the empty foyer just inside the palace. Regardless of the hour, there should have been a servant there to fawn over her every need. Twilight Sparkle had never been one for palace decorum, she abandoned every pretense as she galloped to Rarity’s rooms, loaded saddlebags slapping against her sides.

Twilight's third sign that something was grievously wrong sent her into genuine panic. Spitfire had joked just over a week and a half ago that she would end up with her wings ripped out over some minor disagreement. Twilight Sparkle couldn't keep her stomach from revisiting lunch as she saw Spitfire’s lifeless body laying a room apart from her wings.

Twilight wasn't a particularly strong runner, the position of Court Sorceress called for more intellectual and magical pursuits from its holders, but she thought any of Rarity’s guards would have been satisfied with the time she made through the distressingly empty halls to the throne room. She slid to a halt, and nearly slipped, on Soarin’s blood in front of the massive doors. If her stomach had had anything left in it, she would have lost it at the sight of Soarin’s body on one side of the doors, his blood pooling all the way past the other.

Twilight blinked back tears for both of her violently deceased friends as she nearly blasted the doors to the throne room off their hinges with her magic. Rarity and Sweetie Belle could still be alive. Mourning for those Sombra had killed would have to wait. She dashed into the throne room, and there he was. Sombra had always vaguely creeped her out; the curved, red horn, the semi-fangs, the clinging to the shadows with his growling voice, but none of that did him justice when Twilight saw him. His legs seemed to melt into a cloud of vapor that sucked in the light. His mane literally flowed as bits of it seemed to drift off and disperse without the main body being any less for it. The worst of it, however, was the deep purple miasma coming off his horn and eyes. All the nervousness Twilight had been feeling since noon or so came to a pitch as she saw, and felt, that blasphemous aura permeating the throne room.

“Sombra, where’s Rarity?” Twilight shouted before dry heaving. Rarity’s father was slouched on the throne of New Unicornia, his insides spread all over the steps leading to the throne. “You’re behind all this, aren't you? I’ll see you dead for this!”

Sombra’s response didn't even seem directed at her. “Celestia, Luna! Watch me triumph over your pitiful sun and moon. I’ll rebuild my Crystal Empire here, and this time you won’t be able to stop me. Witness as I make your pitiful ponies suffer my lash for all eternity. I shall be their God and their doom!”

“Great,” Twilight muttered as Sombra continued to scream at the two divine sisters of pony myth. “The most words I've ever heard him say at once, and all it shows is how crazy he is. Well, crazy dead ponies can’t bother anyone.”

Before she could make a move, Sombra whirled about to face her. Twilight thought she could literally see madness in those red tinted eyes overflowing with dark miasma.

“Crystal slave.” Sombra’s guttural voice broke up the words. “No, rebel, dangerous, kill.”

“Oh, this is not going to end well.” Twilight was moving even as Sombra’s horn began to bubble with purple and black pustules of magic.

The bit of floor she’d been occupying erupted in black crystals that seemed to suck in the light. They were also plenty sharp enough to have put more of her on the outside than on the inside. Twilight’s response was rather less elegant if no less lethal for it. A beam of liquid light, pure magical energy, streaked towards Sombra. He didn’t even bother to dodge it. Rather, he seemed to dissolve around the attack into a black mist showing only Sombra's snarling face.

“Come on!” Twilight shouted. “That is so not fair. Where did you learn to do that?”

Sombra, unsurprisingly, didn’t respond to her. Instead, a ring of black crystals burst through the floor around her. Twilight barely dove out of the ring before deadly looking sparks leapt from crystal to crystal.

“Alright,” she panted, “no more Miss Nice Court Sorceress.”

Twilight had a repertoire of spells second to none in New Unicornia. She used every spell in that arsenal meant for killing, maiming, or otherwise meant for causing pain and harm to another pony. None of them seemed to bother Sombra in the slightest. His crystal based assault on the other hoof left Twilight with several nasty cuts dripping blood to the tiled floor.

“This is not working.” Twilight gasped between breaths. She didn’t see any signs of Rarity or Sweetie Belle in the throne room. Nor for that matter had she seen any bodies except Spitfire in Rarity’s rooms. Had they escaped, or had Rarity run to Sweetie Belle’s rooms only to die together?

Twilight wouldn't find out by letting Sombra kill her here in the throne room. The fancy tile exploded into a quite acceptable cover for her escape. Twilight ran back into the empty halls. Several turns led to another pair of brutally murdered guards outside Sweetie Belle’s rooms. Inside, however, she found only Rapidfire’s head on a table, and his body slumped against a chest full of Sweetie Belle’s toys.

Twilight began to hope against hope that Rarity and Sweetie Belle had used the blizzard to slip out of the castle into the howling winds and swirling snow. That meant, however, that she had to find them quickly or else risk the last hopes of New Unicornia and all the ponies in it freezing to death in a spring snowstorm.

Sombra normally had a great many ponies at his beck and call. None of them seemed to be in the palace that night. At least, none of them seemed to be in that particular part of the palace Twilight Sparkle was galloping through.

Twilight burst out of a small door into the blasting snow. She could barely see the end of her snout in front of her eyes. The problem with building Platinum City on a mountainside was that it tended to attract considerably worse winter storms than the surrounding lowlands. Finding Rarity and Sweetie Belle among the swirling snowdrifts could prove as difficult as fighting Sombra.

Twilight immediately wished she’d thought up a different comparison. Fighting Sombra hadn't exactly been a resounding success on her part. That didn’t matter, she thought as she flipped the hood of her cloak back over her head, she’d search Platinum City until she found Rarity and Sweetie Belle or died trying.

After a long day where not a lot had gone right Twilight finally had a lucky break. She found two troughs in the snow, one large enough to accommodate a full grown mare like Rarity, the other small enough for a filly like Sweetie Belle. Neither of them particularly knew how to move around in the snow. Twilight immediately set off after them with the great, leaping lopes that let her cover ground in the snow covered streets of Platinum City.

Unfortunately, spotting two white ponies against a constantly shifting background of white wasn't exactly the definition of an easy task. Even if they’d worn darker colored cloaks during their escape from the palace they would still be swallowed up by the walls of snow swirling through the darkness.

Twilight lit her horn with a bright light to see farther. That… didn’t exactly accomplish much. The blowing white snow merely reflected most of her light right back into her eyes. She kept her horn lit after blinking back tears that threatened to freeze in the cold. Even if the light didn’t do much to let her see further, it might let Rarity or Sweetie Belle see her in the blowing snow.

“T...ht” Twilight scarcely heard her name through the howling winds. It was only after several repetitions that she actually turned her attention to the voice shouting at her through the snow.

Leaping awkwardly through the snow, Twilight ran as much as she could towards the shouting pony she dearly hoped was Rarity. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy weren't what she was hoping for, but they were a welcome sight for sore eyes.

“Twilight.” Rainbow Dash panted under her heavy winter armor. “Lightning Dust showed up this afternoon, and she seemed sure as the sun’s gonna come up tomorrow that she didn’t have to worry about you or Rarity when she started tin-pot tyranting around the place. Fluttershy figured that meant something bad was gonna happen, so we kinda went awol to find you.”

Twilight noticed that Rainbow Dash failed to refer to Rarity as princess, noticed and didn’t care one bit. “Consider yourselves drafted into Rarity’s personal guards. Sombra has launched a coup, so being awol is the least of our worries right now. I couldn't find Rarity or Sweetie Belle in the palace, and I saw what looked like some tracks they’d leave going this way. I’ll light my horn, stay in sight of it and we’ll fan out to look for them.”

Fanning out turned out to not mean very much. The raging blizzard forced Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy to stick rather close to still be able to see the light coming off Twilight’s horn.

When Fluttershy found Rarity and Sweetie Belle her voice didn’t come close to carrying over the wind back to Twilight. Rarity’s shrill cries, however, pierced right through the worst the weather could throw at them.

“Rarity!” Twilight stumbled to an ungraceful halt in a snowdrift. “Are you and Sweetie Belle okay? I didn’t see you in the palace, and all those dead ponies…”

“I’m okay.” Rarity looked anything but okay. “Spitfire… Spitfire shoved us out out my rooms as Sombra broke in ranting and raving about some nonsense. We ran with Soarin to the throne room, and then we went through the secret passage behind the throne out of the palace. I remembered enough to keep us moving to avoid freezing to death. Then the three of you showed up.”

“I’m so glad you’re okay.” Twilight was ready to collapse into the snow with relief. “After I saw what Sombra had done to your father I was afraid he hadn't left anything for me to find. By the way, meet Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, the newest, and possibly only members of your guard. Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, there should be a group of earth ponies with a unicorn heading towards Ponyville. I want you to take Rarity and go catch up with them. Take her to Lyra, she should be easy to find, she’ll be the only unicorn.”

“Wait just a second Twilight!” Rarity’s imperious tone was lessened by her shivering. “I’ll not abandon Platinum City or my little sister to that brute Sombra and his thugs.”

“I've got somewhere else in mind to hide Sweetie Belle. We can’t risk Sombra finding both of you at once. He’s using some sort of dark magic that I can’t even begin to grasp at, let alone figure out how to beat. Keeping you two in different places is the best thing I can think of. Now go!”

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy got the hint. Despite Rarity’s indignant squawks, the three ponies quickly disappeared up into the raging storms. Twilight hoped they would be all right, but they were safer with the weather than they would be here in Platinum City.

“Sweetie Belle?” Twilight turned to the filly. “I need you to be a tough, grown up pony here. We’re gonna have to do a lot of walking through the snow to get where we need to go, but it’ll be safe. Can you do that? Can you be a big pony for me?”

Sweetie Belle was plainly even more miserable than Rarity in the full fury of the blizzard. She had, however, the full measure of pride any full grown mare could possess. Pride or no, Twilight quickly realized that Sweetie Belle had neither the height nor strength to leap through the snow at any sort of pace that would keep them alive and unfrozen.

Twilight Sparkle had carried Sweetie Belle on her back a hoof-full of times back when she’d just started at the palace. None of those times had involved a blizzard or a snow covered cloak. Even with Sweetie Belle struggling to hang on they still made far better time down to the wall separating Dirtville from the remainder of Platinum City.

Twilight never saw the magical attack coming, at least not with her eyes. Her magical senses gave her just enough time to get a shield up to block the beam of light that threatened to bring her career to an abrupt and permanent ending.

“Looks like we're not quite out of the woods yet.” Twilight slid Sweetie Belle off her back. “Close your eyes, I don’t want you seeing this.”

Sweetie Belle had apparently been through enough by that point to not bother uselessly arguing. Twilight turned to face her attackers and hoped the wind would block out the sounds. She’d been rather rudely handled by Sombra earlier that night, and she felt a burning need to salve her own pride.

The three unicorns in suspiciously nondescript clothing strode towards her, confident that her earlier struggles had wearied her. They were right, but Twilight aimed to show them that weary or not, she was still more than a match for any of Sombra’s minions.

Twilight pulled a long, thin needle from her saddlebag. It served no normal purpose, and any pony would have been hard pressed to guess what it did as Twilight began to make it hum with her magic. The hum continued to increase in pitch. Finally, just as it became unbearable, Twilight pointed the needle at one of her attackers and let go of her magic. The hum had been Twilight storing energy in the needle until it contained a staggering amount of force. The poor unicorn on the business end never saw the needle coming his way. All his companions saw was his head being reduced to a fine red mist that swirled away in the snow as his body slumped to the ground.

That seemed to alert the other two to the fact that Twilight was far from helpless. Their horns began to glow as they attempted to charge in tandem across the snow towards her.

Twilight decided to show them just how bad an idea that was. Water, frozen cold enough, could be as hard as steel. Twilight swirled together a pair of icicles, froze them as cold as she could manage, and then demonstrated their effect on the second attacker. He coughed up a few bloody spurts as he tumbled lifelessly into another snowdrift.

The final attacker seemed to realize how horribly outclassed he was, and, in a sudden attack of common sense, decided to be somewhere else. Twilight thought briefly, and then elected to visit upon her last attacker the fate they’d had in mind for her. He was already quickly disappearing into the snow, but Twilight had hardly any difficulty aiming a searing beam of magical light his way. She didn’t look too closely, but it wasn't hard to see his body and his head falling separately to the ground.

She looked around one last time, and, satisfied with the results, turned to Sweetie Belle.

“Okay, let’s go. You can open your eyes now.”

Twilight was confident that the snow had already hidden her grim deeds from wandering young eyes. Even so, she had Sweetie Belle on her back and was making for Dirtville in short order.

The unpaved streets of Dirtville were no place for a unicorn princess. That was exactly what Twilight was counting on in deciding to hide Sweetie Belle here. Sombra and his group of high born collaborators would never think to look for their prey in such destitute surroundings.

Twilight had a little difficulty in finding Applejack’s door through the raging storm, but, still on the safe side of a pony-cicle, she eventually found herself pounding on the rickety planks of wood that she hoped held safety on the other side.

“What in tarnation is goin on out there?” The door opened slightly to reveal a bundle of ragged blankets with an orange head poking out the top.

“Thanks.” Twilight normally would have asked permission to enter, even from an earth pony, but she was tired, cold, and really needed to be on her way.

“You!” Applejack mustered what indignation she could while weighed down by her pile of blankets.

“I’m so sorry to do this to you.” Twilight gently lowered Sweetie Belle’s shivering form from her back. “You were worried about getting caught up in unicorn doings, and here I am, but there’s nowhere else in New Unicornia I can be sure she’ll be safe.”

“What’s goin on here?” Granny Smith creaked over beneath, if it was possible, an even more ragged pile of blankets.

Twilight used her magic to lift Sweetie Belle’s cloak. “Applejack, Granny Smith, Big Macintosh, Apple Bloom, I’d like you to meet Her Highness, Princess Sweetie Belle.”

Applejack, Granny Smith, and Big Macintosh seemed somehow even more flummoxed than when Twilight had signed their forged residence papers.

“Ohmygosh! This is so cool!” Apple Bloom leapt out of her pile of blankets to run towards Sweetie Belle. “I never thought I’d have a real, live princess stayin with us!”

For a filly who had just been worrying Twilight about hypothermia, Sweetie Belle’s new found energy seemed miraculous. “I can’t believe it! You don’t have your cutie mark either. I thought I was the only filly my age who still didn’t have one. This is gonna be so much fun!”

Twilight sighed as she turned away from the happy scene. “Tomorrow morning you’re going to hear how a band of earth pony fanatics infiltrated the royal palace itself and brutally assassinated the royal family. You’ll probably hear how they did such horrible things to the princesses that their bodies can’t even be shown. Except for the part where the Unicorn King is dead, that’s all lies. Rarity is already out of the city, but if Sombra finds either of them you can expect that part of the royal family will be dead soon enough.”

“This, this is all way over my head.” Applejack freed a hoof to rub at an imaginary headache. “Are you saying that this is the safest place in all New Unicornia?”

“For now, yes.” Twilight reached into her cloak and brought out a bag and a sheet of paper. “This is a list of all the guard posts out of the city and what should be more than enough to bribe your way out if you need it. The most corrupt guards I know of are a pair of brothers named Flim and Flam. If they haven’t sold their own mother out yet it’s only because they haven’t found a buyer. I hate to run out on you again like this, but the longer I’m here the more danger you’re in. If you do have to run, make for a place called Ponyville.”

“Wait just a second.” Twilight stopped with a groan as Applejack interposed herself between Twilight and the door.

Twilight had been expecting some lecture about dumping unicorn problems on earth ponies struggling to find enough to eat. What she got was Applejack putting on a hat and a cloak that appeared to be several cloaks too worn to use singly sewn together into a passable piece of clothing.

“Sounds like all us earth ponies have a heap of trouble headed our way. And you just made sure we’re public enemy number one in Platinum City. Now I ain’t about to turn a defenseless filly out in the cold, but if we’re gonna be in this much trouble then doggonit, we’re gonna earn it. What I’m sayin is that I’m goin with you.”

“Fine.” Twilight didn’t have nearly enough time to argue. “But you’d better be able to keep up, we've got a long way to go.”

“Race you.” Applejack threw open the door, and with a wave to her family, she bolted out into the cold.

“Sweetie Belle.” Twilight paused at the door. “Be good, stay out of sight, and don’t let anyone know you’re here.”

Twilight slammed the door closed with magic and took off after Applejack into the swirling snow.

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

Well that escalated quickly.

[Starlight Nova]

How many more chapters until this story is over?

[Tortfeasor]

3808614

Best guess is that the story will total 13-15 chapters. And yes, it did escalate quickly. I like to think that somewhere out there Ron Burgundy is proud of me.

[Starlight Nova]

Will Twilight continue to be badass in this story?

[Starlight Nova]

Just so you know, they're called windigoes, not wendigoes.

[Alchemystudent]

Hmmm, the team is heading to Ponyville. Gee, I wonder what powerful magical artifacts are waiting for them there?

Also...Celestia and Luna exisits, That is a good thing to know.

[Alchemystudent]

Sombra's attack came as no surpris as it had been building up over time. I just wish we had more of a chance to see him before he went mad. The buildup to the massacre was also well done as I was on my seat the entire time.