Justice Itself

by Autocharth

Act III - Ch. 24 The Price of Invasion

Chapter 24 The Price of Invasion

***

They appeared in a flash of light, the second to grace Ponyville in the same day. It was a very different Ponyville that saw this display of magic. 'Saw' was not quite the right word, as none actually saw it. A swirl of snow-laced wind brushed their coats, so cold it would have done far more than just send a shiver down the spine of an ordinary pony.

Suffice to say, neither Princess was an ordinary pony.

Princess Celestia beheld the frost-locked world around her, seeing the rime that captured buildings and sealed them against the world. Her eyes narrowed. The subtle tremble vanished from her legs. She pushed her tiredness aside.

The soft glow of her sister’s magic pierced the wintry gloom.

“I can sense lives,” Luna murmured. “As many as I felt here on Nightmare Night. The windigoes may act strange, sister, but they still leave their victims to live and hate.”

Celestia nodded, her horn lighting up as well.

Luna’s eyes flicked over to her sister’s horn, taking in the glow. It was almost imperceptibly weaker than usual. She suppressed her frown, hiding her concerns before Celestia noticed.

‘Now is not the time,’ she thought, her eyes never leaving her sister.

“The windigoes must have left,” Celestia murmured. “I cannot sense them n-”

The wintery coating around them burst apart, a dozen ghostly horses rising. One neighed viciously, streaming from a snow drift next to the nocturnal alicorn.. It bared it’s jaws in a snarl before it stretched them apart, snapping shut where Luna’s neck had been a moment before. She slid back across the icy ground, wings flaring. Whatever trickery had hidden them had faded and she felt two from behind.

‘Only three for me?’ She snorted in contempt. ‘Mockery.’

Silver light shone from her horn, and where it touched the ghost-flesh of the windigoes, fire erupted. White flame devoured the first as she reared, swinging to sweep her moonlight across the other two. One survived, it’s windy tail seared by the magic as it fled into the snow. The other was less fortunate. Screaming a ghostly wail, it was scoured from the air in an instant, Luna’s magic focused on it for only a moment.

She sent her magic into the snow after the fleeing windigo, ripping snow and earth up when she caught up with it. It flailed and wailed, trying to escape.

“There must be some mind within you to tell me-”

“Ah!”

Luna snapped head towards her sister’s cry, forgetting about the windigo. Her eyes widened at the sight of her besset sister, windigoes clinging to her like limpets. Celestia struggled as they swarmed her, striking one with the backside of her right wing. Fire flashed through her feathers and the windigo was torn apart, but the rest continued their assault.

“Sister!” Luna was at her side in an instant, a shaft of moonlight bisecting a windigo curled around her sister’s horn.

The tentative ice along the hard length cracked and vanished into a super-heated mist. Celestia swung her head, horn like a blazing sword and cleared more of the beasts from her. She torn one loose and struck at it with a leg, leaving a brilliant horseshoe mark upon it. The mark sizzled and popped, melting through the creature, its misty coat bursting into fire that consumed it in seconds.

Where Luna’s light washed over her sister, the windigoes were forced off, seared and in pain. Celestia put them down, obliterating them with a wave of golden fire. She panted, staggering as she regained her footing after a few seconds.

“I..apologise for requiring your aid, Luna. I underestimated them. These windigoes are not like they once were. Not that we needed more evidence of such.” Celestia glanced around the town, worried eyes scanning for more signs of them. “Come, we must-”

“You must allow me to lead the way,” Luna interrupted. She looked into her sister’s surprised eyes, not willing to budge an inch.

“Luna, I can-”

“You are tired, and they know it! If we cannot sense them, we must proceed with caution and you must be careful. If they targetted you before, they will continue to do so if they believe you are weak. I will brook no argument on this!”

Celestia took a step back, surprised by how forceful her sister was being. She opened her mouth to protest, closing it with uncharacteristic meekness when Luna narrowed her eyes. After a few moments she sighed, hanging her head in defeat.

“You’re right. I am letting old habits guide me. Lead the way, and I shall follow. We cannot allow a single life to be lost.”

Together they set off, horns aglow, into the wintery depths of Ponyville.

***

Mist flooded across the ground, silent and unseen. It drifted over the rails, hiding them from view. All was still save for the slow swirl of the mist. Minutes passed, and a tremble began to run through the rails. The sound of a speeding locomotive filled the air. It came running across the rails, wheels churning through the mist.

Crrk!

The train came to a stop. It was quite an abrupt stop. Ice with the strength beyond steel coated every wheel and every joint, sealing it to the rails. It stopped, but everything inside the train found itself still moving.

The ponies within experienced it as though a great fist had struck the train. Screams filled the air as they were thrown about, anything not bolted down flying heedlessly through the air.

“What the hay was that?” Applejack groaned, pushing herself up. She felt something heavy shift and roll off her, a glance to the side showing it to be Pinkie Pie. She helped her friend up, the party pony rubbing her forehead. “Ya’ll okay there Pinkie?”

“Uh-huh,” Pinkie nodded. “That sure was a doozy!”

A pile of bedding and debris fell to the floor. The magenta dome beneath it flickered out of existence, allowing freedom for the purple mare and the baby dragon clinging to her.

“What happened?” Twilight asked, repeating Applejack’s question. She reached out with her magic, lifting her other friends free of whatever might have fallen on them and setting them back on their hooves. Applejack’s hat pulled itself from where it had been crushed, floating to its owner.

“Thanks Twi’. Dunno, train’s stopped though, that can’t be good.” Pulling her hat on, Applejack trotted cautiously over to the window. She stepped up to it, but when she glanced outside she saw nothing.

“See anything?”

“Nope, Ah-...Hey, is it feelin’ a little chilly to anypony else?” Applejack stared at where her breath had left mist across the glass pane. She let out a little puff of air again, watching the tiny cloud that appeared in front of her.

Fluttershy gulped uneasily, trying to sort out not just the physical aches from the fall but the mental. She felt the alarm of the guards in the rest of the train, and the pain of those who had been hurt. The pain was the worst, not least because it felt so strange. It wasn’t a physical feeling, at least not to her, but the way it filled their emotions and coloured their feelings made her queasy. At least none of her friends were hurt, but the poor guards were-

“Rainbow Dash!” She didn’t even realise she had said it until everypony looked first at her, then at the bed Rainbow Dash had been on. The bed with a window wide open next to her.

“I’m okay!”

A sigh of relief flooded her senses as Rainbow Dash emerged from beneath a mattress. She shook herself off and lifted into the air.

“Okay, what was that?” She demanded.

"I'm not sure, but the train has stopped moving." Twilight lit her horn, grasping the door. It trembled, unexpected resistance meeting her effort. "Nngh...something is holding the door shut."

Releasing the door, Twilight stepped back. She stared at it, working the problem over in her mind.

Rainbow Dash glanced at her friend, at the door, and back to Twilight. She bounced her weight between hooves, getting jittery.

"Twilight...hurry up!" She did her best to ignore the looks her friends were throwing her way.

"Ripping the door right open might not be such a good idea," Twilight explained. She glanced from the door to Rainbow Dash curiously. "Are you okay? I thought you were over your fear of enclosed spaces?"

"I am!" Her aggressive scowl wilted at the looks she got. Rainbow ran a hoof through her mane. "Okay, I just feel a little...I felt fine when I knew I could get out, so the door being jammed is making me edgy. So, y'know, wanna let me the hay out?!"

Twilight drew back very slightly, and Rarity coughed delicately. Rainbow’s frantic stare turned to her, which was when she realised she was right in Twilight’s face.

"Heh, sorry Twi, kinda-"

"Ahem."

Rainbow glanced over at Rarity again, mid apology.

"What now?" She asked tetchily.

Rarity just pointed at the roof.

"What are you-"

Her horn glowed, and the sound of a handle twisting, clicking, and the ceiling hatch slowly opening silenced Rainbow Dash. She looked sheepishly back to Rarity, wings twitching in excitement.

"Go on dear, no need to thank me," Rarity insisted with a smile.

Flashing a quick grin, Rainbow Dash shot up, pushing the hatch open enough to slip through. She stuck her torso through, taking a deep whiff of fresh, if chilly, air.

"Silly Dashie," Pinkie giggled. "She forgot she can teleport!"

"Uh, girls?" Rainbow called down, voice slightly muffled and ever so slightly nervous. She gulped, loudly. "I think I know what stopped the train."

She pushed the hatch open fully, clanging against the roof. Fluttershy trembled as she slowly flew up. She peeked out, and almost immediately froze. Which was, if you think about it, a rather appropriate reaction.

"...oh my..."

Twilight levitated a ladder constructed of broken furniture over and pulled herself up.

"What? What is it?" She asked, finding the pegasi joined by Pinkie. Disregarding how Pinkie got there, she looked out and got her answer.

"Ooooooh." Pinkie stared. "I think that’s why.”

Ice. Ice a deep, foreboding grey covered the tracks and the train. Even as Twilight watched it grew, ice forming higher and higher on the other carriages. Now that she was out here, she could hear the shouts and banging of the guards, trapped by the ice.

“We need to help them get out. They must not have thought of the ceiling hatches yet. Come on girls, let’s-” Twilight began to pull herself up, Rainbow Dash copying her.

Between them, Fluttershy suddenly went rigid. She let out a strangled gasp, and her grip slipped. Her wings had snapped flat against her back.

“Wh-ah!” Rainbow Dash cried out, suddenly finding Fluttershy’s weight pulling her down as her falling friend’s hoof caught her tail. No longer gripping the root, wings beating, she found the unexpected burden throwing things in favour of gravity. In between desperate wing beats to regain control, she grabbed the nearest thing: Twilight.

Since this was how these things go, she of course grabbed the first thing she could, which in this case was Pinkie Pie. In all fairness, Pinkie could have avoided it but she decided against that. This way was more fun.

All four tumbled down, landing in a pile. The tumble of four became a pile of six, since Applejack and Rarity had been directly under them and not particularly expecting such a thing to happen.

“Ouch! Fluttershy! What are you doing?” Rainbow Dash pulled herself from the pile up, glaring down at the butter yellow mare. Her gaze softened. “‘Shy? You okay?”

Her friends clearing off her, Fluttershy shivered. “N-no. No no no no no.”

“We only need one 'no', you know, “ Rainbow Dash remarked sourly.

“No!” Fluttershy all but screamed. “Not that! It was- I felt-”

“Me.”

The voice penetrated the walls of the carriage, silencing every sound. It came from every direction, from above and below with an ever-present feeling that shook them to the core. It was cold, unmistakable, bitter as a winter wind, and even without Fluttershy’s ability, they could all tell one thing from the sound of it.

Ardleon was very, very angry.

“Everypony out!” Applejack stirred them to action. She swept up Fluttershy, all but shoving her for the exit.

“Applejack’s right, we need to get out before he freezes us in here!” Twilight reached into herself, drawing on her magic. There was no time to waste getting them all out the same predictable way. She swept up Spike, Fluttershy and Rarity in her magic. “Rainbow Dash, teleport Applejack and Pinkie!”

She barely had time to see Rainbow Dash nod and dart towards her two, magenta light filling Twilight’s vision for a moment. Her horn glowed with power. The light vanished, taking the three of them with it. A moment later another flare, brilliant blue-white, and the carriage was empty.

Twilight winked back into existence, depositing her three passengers on the cold metal of the roof of the next carriage. Behind them she could see their open carriage, giving her the perfect chance to see a spike of ice ripping through it from underneath. Metal shrieked and shuddered,the carriage giving away to the attack without budging an inch where the trapping ice bound it. She ignored it, turning her attention to the hatch in front of her. Ice glazed its edges, forming an unnatural sealent. The guards underneath had gone quiet, and she felt the gathering of magic below. Twilight didn’t have time to wait for them to blow their way out, simply gripping the entire hatch in her magic, intending to tear it open.

Rarity cried out, eyes going wide. She jumped at Twilight, knocking her away an instant before a ghostly equine swept over the spot she had been occupying. It whinnied, circling the train. Spike clambered to his feet and shot a few brief flames at it, trying to ward the beast off.

“Oh no…” Fluttershy felt them, the hunger and hate, as the windigoes boiled out of the frozen landscape. Ice skinned every plant, covered every inch of ground in sight. She shivered, not from mere cold but from the sensation they extruded.

It touched her, an invisible field of influence the hatemongers carried with them. Turning her head to the side, she saw Twilight and Rarity shudder as it ran over them. Spike froze, his eyes going wide, and he turned to glare all three of them,

“What are you doing, knocking me over like that, you stupid cow?!”

“I was saving your life, you ungrateful little shut-in!”

Fluttershy reached out without moving a muscle. She brushed aside the feeling of hate and resentment the windigoes left in their wake. In her wake, she cleansed the seeds of fear and doubt.

Twilight and Rarity blinked, shaking their head. Rarity took her hooves from Twilight’s neck like they were on fire. Spike, teeth bared, stopped as he crouched like a cat preparing to pounce. He stared at them not with the seething resentment that had been planted within him but with confusion.

"Twilight, goodness, I'm so sorry!" She sat back, giving Twilight space to stand helping her up.

She shook her head, saying, "It's fine, I mean, I'm sorry I called you a cow, I don't know what came over me."

"I know." The voice was no less colder, no lesser bitter. They looked up, all three watching the pillar of mist form. It melted away, revealing the gleaming figure crouched upon their sundered carriage.

Twilight’s expression hardened. "Ardleon."

He snapped his head up, glaring at them with glowing blue eyes.

"Hatred," he hissed, slowly rising. His wings, frosty blue flames, spread behind him "So weak. So easily swayed."

"That isn't fair. Those big mean things made them feel that way." It was Fluttershy who spoke first, disapproving frown warring with fear on her face.

Twilight remembered the sweeping chill, and the misty form that rushed passed them as Rarity tackled her.

"A windigo. That was a windigo! But they haven't been seen in Equestria for over a thousand years, how could one be here now?" She questioned, brow furrowed.

Ardleon laughed, his mirth dark and daunting as it echoed from within his nearly empty helm.

"One?” He asked, his entire body shaking as he laughed. A chorus of gleeful whinnies slowly rose, and the windigoes soon followed. They flew from their hiding places, forming from the shadows and beneath cover. The herd grew, gathering as they revealed themselves.

Twilight gulped, drawing back. Rarity and Fluttershy huddled with her, the three of them pressing their backs together. Twilight scooped up Spike in her magic and deposited him between them.

Ardleon laughed, wings flaring. He threw his arms up as if to embrace the mighty herd.

“Why bring one, when I could hundreds?” He peered down at them, and the steady frosty blue of his eyes became a mad strobing flare. “Now do you feel it? The creeping fear, the horror, the mortal Terror that makes you such flawed creatures?”

She pushed away the sound of his taunting. Right now, there was no creature less like Paladin than Ardleon.

“What do you want? Paladin isn’t here, and even if he was we wouldn’t let you near him.” She glared, fighting down the knot of fear in her stomach. Twilight gave up counting the windigoes when she reached triple digits.

‘Less than this nearly froze the three tribes! How could there be this many? How could they be here?’ For all her questions, she had no answers. The one answer she wanted right now, above any others, was ‘Where are the others?’

Ardleon scoffed at that, his tone dark as he said, “you think you have any choice, any control? Thieves such as you could never hope to wield the holy power of an archangel against me. So long as you know fear, you are weak. So long as you know hate, you are vulnerable.”

He lifted his arm, steel palm held out to them.

“So long as you can be destroyed,” he announced coldly. “Tyrael can be remade.”

Motes of mist and flecks of frost gathered around his hand, whirling into a miniature blizzard that shrunk and grew dense until a great spike of ice hung before him. The ghost-flesh of the windigoes that cloaked him were drawn around it, draping the lance in fear and hate made physical. It was as long as a pony and half as thick, but around it power thrummed. Frightful, horrible power yet power nonetheless.

With but a flick of his finger, Ardleon unleashed the projectile.

Twilight reached out with her magic, a magenta hue forming across the frozen lance. She brought her mind around it like a vice, striking at every surface with a telekinetic hammer. Power poured out from her horn. Simply getting out the way wasn’t enough, she had to completely destroy it.

The shield of windigo-mist shuddered but the spear barely slowed. A gasp was torn from Twilight as her magic failed to find purchase. She pushed herself back, to throw herself across her friends and knock all three out of the way. The snap-crack of ice forming in an instant preceded her and she found a thin layer of it binding her to the roof.

“Rarity!” She said desperately, trying to marshal her magic for another attempt in the moment they had before it struck. Her hooves wouldn’t move, her magic was taking too long to gather.

Even before Twilight called out, Rarity had opened her Sight. She Saw the icy lance, its flaws and its perfections. In form the ice was flawless, not a single structural weakness, yet shadow stained it. Pain erupted in Rarity’s head, a migraine packed into a single moment, and she cried in shock and hurt.

Fluttershy felt her friends’ fears, she felt their despair. Though her hooves were as trapped as theirs, she still had her wings and these she lay upon them both, warm and protecting, and wrapped Spike in her tail as he struggled to be brave against the dark pressure. She answered their fear with trust, she quieted their despair with her hope. Because she felt more than just their emotions.

She felt Rainbow Dash’s determination, underscored by a fear of failure that drove her will to succeed, and her smug delight. She felt Applejack, worried but resolute, a sense of certainty and control blossoming across their bond.

Light bloomed and the spear struck. The sound of ice shattering filled the air, a chorus of pings from shards striking the carriage roof following and the howls of enraged windigoes as their borrowed essence was scattered from the attack. A single grunt was all the sound their defender made.

The fog of splintered ice and power dissipated, and from within her armour of angelic silver steel Applejack shot Ardleon a smirk.

“Sorry sugarcube, but nopony’s bein’ destroyed today. Try again tomorra.”

Twilight and Rarity blinked, staring at the silverclad backside as a whooping pegasus let go.

“Oh yeah, didn’t see that coming did ya?” Rainbow Dash laughed. She flared her wings and stood on her back legs so she could be seen over Applejack. “That’s because I’m the one and only Rainbow Dash, first teleporting pegasus!”

“R-Rainbow Dash?” Twilight spluttered, the events slowly processing. “You...you saved us!”

Spike pulled himself up Twilight side, eyes wide with awe.

“Wow!” He said breathlessly. “That was awesome!”

Rarity interjected before Twilight could. “We are atop a carriage filled with ponies, Rainbow Dash. If we simply moved, it would have hit. That dreadful thing…” she shuddered.

“It would have hurt them all. Probably...probably killed,“ Twilight raised her voice, looking straight at Ardleon.

He was shaking. His armoured form trembled.

“You dare?” It came out a harsh whisper, yet his voice reached their ears nonetheless. “You dare wield his power against me. You mock me. You mock him. It is not enough that you reduce him to your filthy level, not enough that you taint him. You wear his armour in mockery, you use his power to fight me.”

The windigoes were reacting to him, their cries growing louder and their eyes brighter.

“Everypony might wanna back away…” Rainbow Dash suggested, glancing at the monsters. “Are those really…”

“Windigoes, yes.” Twilight melted the ice, ushering her friends back. “Why are we moving?”

Rainbow Dash’s mouth curved into a smirk. “Can you see Pinkie?”

Ardleon burst into mist, vanishing from sight.

“Where’s he gone?” Applejack demanded. She stepped forward while her friends retreated, passing over the hatch. She peered into the living fog. The windigoes circled but didn’t attack. If anything, they seemed gleeful and merry, if such words could apply to such creatures.

He formed in a scouring wave of cold wind, furious palm-sized blizzards wrapping around his hands. Towering above Applejack, he brought his hands down towards her back.

“BANG!” Pinkie cheered, muffled by metal and a very, very loud bang.

The hatch exploded from under him. Though the hatch itself swung clear of the floating angel’s feet, the concussive force of the blast continued up. Streamers and balloons filled the air yet it still struck him. The angel roared in shock as his attack was thwarted, his concentration shattered by the trap and his aborted spells running loose. His head snapped down, glaring at the beaming pink pony standing alongside a canon pointed upwards.

“Insolence!” His feet hit the ceiling. One on each side of the hatch he gathered his power.

“Sorry mister mean-pants, Pinkie Pie doesn’t party on her own.” Pinkie gave him a wink and suddenly a dozen unicorn guards with glowing horns were around her. “Say hello to my friends!”

Magic lashed upwards, refined blasts of energy in six colours. Individually they would have been useless, and even together they washed over Ardleon like water, but his focus was denied to him again. Rage descended and around him the windigoes began to bay.

“No! I don’t need help! Be silent!” He shut out their calls and their cries, their ceaseless chatter for him to take more of their essence. For a moment, his rage dulled, his hate died down. Only for a moment, the striking magic giving him something to focus on.

Senses sharpened from an eternity of war warned him at the last moment. His wings flared and Ardleon drew back. Silver flashed in front of him. Applejack’s steelshod hooves scraped across his chest, a fraction of her attack’s force spinning him away. Her hooves landed back on the carriage with a thud. She coiled for another buck.

Regaining his balance, Ardleon pulled himself up with a snarl. His vision brightened, a brilliant reddish-pink glow overwhelming him. The initial beam of magic ended as suddenly as it had begun, but a torrent of lesser blasts began to rain on him from the end of the carriage. Twilight’s horn burned with power, firing more attacks than six trained soldiers. She spared only a moment to feel relieved when she saw Applejack on the edge of roof, out of the line of attack.

One blast finally seemed to penetrate Ardleon’s defense. It seared through him. His shielding forearms were vaporised and the blast bit into his torso. Before it had cleared his back, the truth became obvious. His form melted into mist.

“Woo! We sure showed him, didn’t we fellas?” Pinkie bounced up onto the roof, grinning down as the guards cheered, entirely caught up in Pinkie Pie’s innate Pinkie-ness.

“Cheer later, I don’t think Ardleon is done quite yet.”

The mist that became Ardleon twirled and twisted as though caught in a storm as it rose and he reformed. With a gesture he called the windigoes nearest to him closer, seeping their misty flesh into the scraped mark from Applejack’s attack.

“Enough! I am done playing games with you. I shall seize you here.” His wings flared, their brillaint frosty blue reflected in the eyes of the windigoes. A shiver shook the air, their aura of fear and hate fully unleashed.

Fluttershy reeled, the dark emotions assaulting her from every direction. She barely felt the hooves holding her up, or her friends crying out as they too were overcome, the windigoes laying siege to their minds with ancient fury and darkest hate. Her previous work was no match for the force they now attacked with, striping away the hope and trust she had laid within Rarity and Twilight.

"Give in," Ardleon hissed from afar.

She had failed. They had failed. They were going to be frozen, trapped, killed, because she failed. Fluttershy knew, suddenly, in her heart that this all her fault and so she closed her eyes, awaiting her fate-

Pain shot through her. With a yelp Flutterhsy tried to pull away, only to find the source clinging stubbornly to her. She shook her leg, trying to get away from it as the sharp little pains cut through her. Something banged on the roof next to her and the pain faded, taking with it the barely noticed sensation of weight and pressure that had accompanied the pain. It was a whimper that made her open her eyes.

Spike lay where he had been knocked clear of her. His claws, thrown free of where he had gripped her, curled and hugged himself. Looking down on his pained, frightened expression Fluttershy could feel the fear that was devouring him from the inside out.

‘I can feel it,’ she thought with a blink, her only sign of surprise. ‘I can feel them all. Everypony.’

Fear, doubt, hate. In only seconds they were dominating her friends, the frightful power of the windigoes so thick in the air that it took her more time than she wanted just to pull Spike up into a hug.

“Shhh,” she ran a hoof over his spines, smiling sadly down at him. “It’s alright Spike, it’s going to be alright. Thanks to you.”

The pain had freed her. She gave him a kiss on the forehead, patting and soothing him before lifting her head. The pain had broken her out of the near-trance the windigoes’ power had put her in, but where the power she had been gifted with had reduced the ghastly aura’s effect, her friends had had no such protection.

‘But they do now.’

As she had done before, she reached out to them. It was easier and easier each time she did it, Fluttershy drawing not just from her own strength but that of her friends to touch them each deeply within their souls. The depths of the dark emotions was incredible within each, and she qualed for a moment. But only a moment. Fluttershy felt Spike shift in her hug, and her resolve firmed.

‘I know I’m always afraid, and I’m not that strong, but I know I can do this.’ The thought gave her new strength, flooding her with determination.

Fluttershy thought back to every happy moment in her life, focusing on those with her friends. Each memory was a reservoir of positive emotions, love and happiness that made her certain she could do anything. It was these memories, or more exactly the emotions they stirred within her, that she first shared. Like a cleansing fire she burned away the shadows of the windigoes from each mind, and with each freed the force of positive emotion only grew.

From hungry, eager whinnies the cries of the windigoes became furious and frightened. Their alarm flooded Ardleon as he stared at the passive flood of blue-white light that formed a dome across his enemies. His hands clenched, fists tight, and if he had been angry before, a new height of rage was witnessed that moment.

"Go."

The growled order echoed across the empty air, and the windigoes grew still.

“What-” Rarity began to ask.

In answer, the windigoes charged.

***

The windigo howled, its cry abruptly silenced by a brilliant flare. Snow melted, a ring of grass as green as emeralds and sodden dirt replacing ice and frost where the creature had sought shelter.

Celestia lowered her head, letting the light die. The silvery glow of Luna’s magic quickly followed suit, leaving the sisters alone as the biting wind blew a haunting howl too reminiscent of their wintery foes to leave either comfortable.

"More small packs, hiding and ambushing. What has changed? They were never smart enough for this!" The question was hissed through clenched teeth, frustration bleeding into Princess Celestia’s voice. She peered at the patch of life, lonely amid the chill, as if it would yield answers as easily as that if she stared hard enough.

Luna approached, consoling patience; "we will find the truth, of that I am certain. Do not let your fear drive you to rashness."

Shaking her head, though she knew Luna was right, Celestia could not help but want to work faster.

"There are too many lives at stake for me to give in to impatience, but I feel we must move quickly. Something is happening, and I am helpless to stop it." This time she didn't even make a cursory attempt to hide her feelings on the matter.

Glancing across the town, Luna silently agreed. She could feel it in her bones; something momentous was indeed happening. She scanned the ice-locked buildings, seeking an answer or a clue. Snow crunched under their hooves as they trotted through the streets, no longer walking unevenly but side by side. The trace senses of life within each building called out to them, and it took no effort at all to imagine the cries for help the frozen ponies would have screamed out.

But they pushed on.

‘It will be pointless,’ Celestia told herself, the latest gathering of life-forces beginning to register at the edge of her senses. ‘So long as the windigoes are no longer immune to love and friendship, freeing the ponies here will just mean the windigoes will prey upon them. We must be rid of them.’

She repeated the argument over and over again in her head, trying to convince herself. No, not convince herself. She knew what it was true.

‘That does not mean I have to tolerate it. There is always a way. Patience is all I need, and a thousand years has given me that.’ At the thought she fought off the creeping guilt the words ‘thousand years’ always brought upon her.

“Wondrous! Sister, we must go to them!”

So absorbed in her thoughts, it took Princess Celestia a few seconds to work out what her sister meant. The moment she spared a thought to her mystic senses, the reason for the joy in Luna’s eyes became apparent.

Ponies. Living, free, untrapped ponies!

Her wings flared, and with an expression of hope she galloped forward. Her sister joined her, the two sprinting, their hooves churning through the snow and slush. Although she knew it would be faster, Celestia forced herself not to fly and risk drawning even more windigoes towards the gathering of life-forces.

“The library!” Celestia cried out, joy in her expression as they galloped towards it. “It must be!”

Luna nodded, her expression grim. She began to gather her magic. “Sister, they could not have been safe on their own. The zebra shaman should be here, but her skills can only delay the beasts, and I know of no unicorns in this town capable of resisting the windigoes or with the knowledge to shield such a number of lives as well.”

“I know,” Celestia’s expression was still joyous, but her eyes were hard. “This is a trap. But there is little we can do but be prepared, and show them the foolishness of trying to trap us.”

That brought an amused smirk to Luna’s face. They finally came into sight of the library, and though it was glazed in deep ice like every other building, the sense of life and warmth within it was a beacon to them - and to the windigoes.

The moment they began to slow their approach, the windigoes emerged. Bursting from hiding, over three dozen of the creatures swarmed towards the sisters.

Celestia’s eyes widened. “So many!” She narrowed them, snorting out twin streams of mist. “But not enough. Burn.”

Summoned by a single word, fire blossomed before her. Blazing heat and energy took the form of pulsating, burning sphere of fire and light. Ice began to melt and the nearest windigoes howled in agony at it’s touch. They shied from the ring of melting snow that marked the range of her miniature sun’s effect, their charge curving to each side of it.

At the same moment Luna turned, facing the windigoes that came from behind. She said nothing as she cast, drawing on the moon’s power in a sudden display of silver darts. They winked into existence like stars appearing in the night sky, and if one were to look closely enough the glittering lights in Luna’s mane were now fewer in number. The shining dots of silver magic floated around her for only a moment; with a gesture she sent them off, the darts firing in a deadly shower that tore the advancing beasts apart. Their ethereal forms proved to be no defense against the attack, breaking the charge on another front.

Without discussing it, the sisters each turned to their right, facing the opposite directions but new foes. A dark blue aura surrounded one windigo. It had a moment to wear a look of fear on its ghostly, beastial face before it vanished with a pop of displaced air. There was no sign of where it reappeared, but Luna’s satisfied smile as something suddenly began to sizzle in the heart of Celestia’s miniature sun told that tale. She fired a beam of magic at another, wiping it away before they were on her. Magic surrounded her front hooves and horn, allowing the princess to lay into the oncoming creatures with ease. She stomped one that sought to entangle her legs, feeling it’s almost wind-like body give way and break when her hoof tore through its head. Another found itself suddenly in two places at once, sundered down the middle by her wicked horn.

Celestia fared as well as her sister, her magic showing far more clearly in the gloom and her weariness just as obvious. She drew a string of fire from her sun, twisting it like a whip. With a snap she caught two windigoes in it, searing through them before sending the whip to wrap around another and destroy it too. Gone was the caring, motherly air her subjects were familiar with; now she fought without mercy for the creatures before her, burning them from her sight like an unsightly blemish.

Yet the creatures still came, a relentless tide of cold divided into individuals only by their sinister cobalt eyes. They flowed around attacks which took their kin, as shifting and nebulous as the wind. For each destroyed another took its place, rising from the ground as though fleck of snow was a seed from which a new windigo was born.

The library wasn’t merely a trap. The entire town was.

Whatever power had cloaked them was gone, the herd of hungry equines now swarming towards the princesses. Their hunger fueled them, drove them to attack and attack and attack. Their numbers thinned, but never enough. Luna slashed and stabbed with her horn, a blade of moonlight extending ten yards before her. Celestia reared up, flaming hooves striking the nearest windigoes and a shifting shield of fire constantly spinning through the air about her. With a flick of her wings a burning wind cleared the air for a moment of enemies.

The battle was already draining her, and already tired such a fight could not last long. But some part of her reveled in it. A thousand years of restraint and weakness suddenly gone as if they had never happened. A bluff no dragon, monster or marauder had ever been brave enough to call thrown to the wayside.

‘Burn,’ part of her whispered. ‘Burn their imperfections away. Let the sun fall with naught but ashes remaining.’

With effort she forced down the urge.

‘A thousand years and still this urge plagues me.’ She focused her attention on the enemy. “Luna, we cannot hold out forever. Guard me!”

“What- no, sister, stop! You cannot do it again!” Luna cried, trying to keep the windigoes away and reason with Celestia at the same time. She crushed the skull of one beneath her hoof, and spared a moment to glare the other. “You have done it once already today, to do so again would be utterly foalish!”

“Then count me a foal, dear sister.” Celestia’s form glowed and she vanished. Rather than the pop of displaced air rushing to fill the void, a buffeting wave of fire rocked out, striking the windigoes on all sides.

Snarling curses that were most certainly unbefitting of a princess, Luna called her star darts back, weaving them into a dome of twirling silver lights against a field of dark blue magic. The windigoes were rebuffed for the moment, but she knew they would attack until her defenses were broken. She could already feel them slamming against the dome. The windigoes ground themselves to nothing and that alone dismayed her. They should not be acting like that. windigoes were selfish, hateful creatures. For all they lived - as far as the term could be applied them - in herds, they were cowardly creatures when a power greater than theirs opposed them. They did not throw themselves at a barrier, dying merely to weaken it. They did not sacrifice themselves.

But these ones were.

Celestia appeared in a blaze of light above the town. Her sister’s dome visible below and her sense of it weakening by the second, Celestia wasted no time. As she had done not long ago in the skies of Canterlot, she called to the sun above and the power within. Her mane became a wildfire, burning in shifting colours from heated orange to deadly shades of blue and green, and her tail a brilliant flame. The solar winds buffeted and fed the hungry fires. A flash of light on each side flared and cut around her, forming a ring of light.

The sun’s light shone through the heavy clouds, breaking through them in a flood. The clouds not directly around her burned red and orange with the light they barely blocked. A single great howl from a hundred throats covered the town as deeply and coldly as the ice. It was a cry of rage and pain, the roar of the spiteful vanquished. Each note promised revenge, swore an oath to drink deep of their enemy's terror when they returned.

Celestia heard, and that ancient, iron part of her soul, the part of her that kept her sane and forged a nation from the crippled remnants of a shattered age, whispered to her.

'No mercy. Show them the price of invading your land. Make them burn.'

So she did.

The light of the sun could not be said to darken. It was light and heat and energy. So long as there was a flicker it would shine brightly. But something about it changed. The light took on a quality of force and presence. The windigoes had barely begun to flee when they found themselves stuck fast, flies in the proverbial web. A web they soon found to burn.

Beneath her Celestia felt the weak pulse of ponies sealed in ice and bound in chains of hate and fear. The anger, the rage that had been growing, so deep within her she had barely noticed its presence began to boil forth. She had guarded this land for over a thousand years, maintaining a peace never seen by another era. These beasts came to end it, to torment and destroy her little ponies.

Luna looked to the sky and her sister’s hovering form. Her mane once more glittering like the night sky, she looked upon the windigoes and felt a shiver of fear. Envy had been her flaw, envy for her beloved sister and the praise she had received. Despite what their subjects might think, Luna knew Celestia was just as flawed in her own way. Ever had Luna envied how her sister had defeated her own flaw, her ancient vice. Where she had been too weak, too willing to hide from herself, Celestia had conquered that which could have broken her. The moon reflected the glory of the sun. The sun blazed with furious light. The sun raged.

And the windigoes burned.

Princess Celestia descended, the white town below growing more colourful by the moment. It brought a smile to her face, a smile that fell away when she finally laid her hooves to the ground and promptly nearly collapsed. She stumbled, struggling to keep herself upright. This was made all the more difficult when her sister all but threw herself at the elder alicorn.

“You foal! You utter foal!” Luna pulled back and supported her sister. Her frown didn’t falter, and disapproval rang clear in her voice. “Twice in one day! We must return the palace, and you must rest.”

“After we have made sure our little ponies are safe,” Celestia said gently, nodding towards the library. With a grumble of assent, Luna helped her limp towards it. A touch of magic pushed the the door open, and they were greeted with a table flying towards them.

Luna reacted faster than she thought, cleaving the table in two with a beam of brilliant moonlight from her suddenly incandescent horn. It cut into the floor, running up through the table, and screams filled the library. The two halves of the table fell to the side, clattering on the floor, and the four mares stared at each other.

Octavia and Vinyl stared at the princesses, their mouths hanging open. The earth pony stood up right, although it didn’t take a genius moment to see why. Her foreleg were braced under Vinyl, the unicorn wrapping hers around Octavia’s neck as she was held up. The magical beam hummed, roughly an inch of space between it and the arch of Octavia’s back legs as she stood up right.

“Uh...h-hello your highnesses…” Octavia said weakly, her legs trembling.

“Hehe, h-hey.” Vinyl waved with a nervous smile.

“Miss Octavia, Miss Vinyl,” Celestia greeted them wearily. “Might I ask why you are here?”

“O-of course, P-Princess, but, um, y-your highness…” Octavia glanced down at the still present beam of magic, sweat running down her face. The fact Princess Celestia knew her name didn’t have much bearing while there was a beam of magic that could cut her in two so very, very close.

Luna grimaced, letting her magic fade. The cut ran deep into the wooden floor, and she made a note remember to the treasury that Twilight Sparkle would require reimbursement for damaged floor.

“My apologies, loyal subjects. I hope I did you no harm.” She could just see the tabloids now if she had accidentally eviscerated one of these mares. It would be such a mess, in every possible sense.

“It’s fine, thank you Princess.” Octavia visibly relaxed, the trembling vanishing from her legs.

Vinyl nodded in agreement, although she didn’t move.

“Yeah, thanks!” She said, letting out a sigh of relief. She peered past the princesses. “Are those things gone?”

“Windigoes, Vinyl, we went over this, and be more respectful,” Octavia reprimanded the DJ, “these are the princesses! I am very sorry about her manners, your highnesses.”

“Tis fine, subjects, you need not fear to approach us,” Princess Luna assured her. She raised an eyebrow.

“What problem with my manners?” demanded Vinyl, pushing her sunglasses up.

“You don’t have any,” Octavia shot back.

Princess Celestia cleared her throat and both ponies blushed.

“I am sorry to interrupt, my little ponies, but I need to know where Twilight Sparkle and Spike are,” she told them, her tone firm but polite. She glanced over her shoulder, the sounds of ponies staggering from their homes and calling to each other. Life was returning to Ponyville.

“She asked me to look after the library while she was away. They left on the train a few hours ago,” Octavia explained regretfully. Her expression became worried. “She left with her friends and some guards. Are they in danger?”

“At full speed, the train would be halfway to Canterlot by now,” Celestia murmured, ignoring the question. The answer was obvious, at least to her. She looked to her sister. “Luna, we must leave. Miss Octiava, Miss Vinyl, thank you kindly. I suggest you make sure everypony in town reinvigorates themselves with something hot and sweet. Sugar Cube Corner’s hot cocoa would work wonderfully, and the royal treasury shall repay the cost.”

Her horn glowed, and a scroll appeared in a puff of smoke. It bounced on the floor, unrolling to reveal the crest of the royal treasury. Both mares stared at it with shocked expressions.

“Show that to Mayor Mare. We must be off.” With that Celestia turned, prompting her sister to follow to keep Celestia was staggering in front of their subjects. She was forced to allow Celestia free movement, simply because flying like that would be impractical. They soared away from Ponyville, ignoring the gasps of the ponies below as they caught sight of the princesses, flying out along the railway, speeding through the air.

Despite her tiredness, Celestia pushed herself to fly as fast as she could. She couldn’t afford to be weak or tired, not now. Now when they had a train to catch.

***

Octavia and Vinyl stared at the departing princesses, watching them take to the sky.

“Whoa…” Vinyl looked at Octavia. “Princess Celestia knew our names!”

“You’re right….she did!” Octavia felt all the tension and worry that had filled her since the monsters had brought their unnatural blizzard upon Ponyville drain from her, and she beamed at Vinyl. It was only then that she realised she had spent the entire time the princesses had been there with Vinyl held in her arms.

“What’s wrong?” Vinyl asked, seeing the smile drop from her friend’s face.

“...get off me.”

Vinyl pouted.

“Aww, but Octy, you feel so snuggly and cuddly!” She whined foalishly, giving the earth pony a playful pout.

Octavia let go and shrugged Vinyl’s hooves off her neck, scowling as the unicorn fell to the ground with a thud and a yelp.

“I am not,” she said darkly, going back to all fours and picking up the scroll, “cuddly.”

***

The charge fell into chaos, Ardleon’s scream ripping the order from the herd. They milled into a twisting mass, trying to turn back to their master. The angel had fallen to his knees, the frozen grass of the hill overlooking the train crunching beneath his silver shell. He pressed his hands to his chest, great heaves shaking his form. Stabs of pain assaulted his mind. Fire ripped into him, tearing at the edge’s of his mind. The destruction of a single windigo, even a small group, was nothing. The relentless, simultaneous destruction of so many creatures bound to him shook the angel to his core.

“Back!” He snarled, gesturing with one hand as he slowly stood. His armour creaked, groaning at the stress from within. “Return to me!”

The ponies below looked around in confusion as the windigo herd began to flow towards Ardleon. Twilight’s horn glowed brilliantly, and even with the retreat she didn’t let it dim.

“What is going on?” Rarity asked no one in particular, confusion clear on her face. “The dreadful beasts are attacking him?”

“I doubt we’re that lucky, I bet they’re just trying to lure us into a false sense of security!” Shaking her head, Rainbow Dash jumped in front of the rest, hooves placed wide in an aggressive stance.

Twilight shook her head. “I think it’s something else. Girls, we couldn’t have beaten those windigoes…” Alarm came to her eyes. “Rainbow Dash, in our carriage, look for a wooden box, the one I keep the Elements in. It’s spelled so magic can’t affect it, so I haven’t had the chance to get it. You’re the fastest, go, get them. No teleporting!”

Nodding, Rainbow Dash became a dart of blue and rainbow, jumping down behind the train. She looked into the windows of their carriage. The spike of ice had pierced through the floor, but most of the carriage was merely a mess. Gingerly pushing some shattered glass from a window, she slipped in.

“Wooden case, wooden case…” she looked around the wrecked carriage, throwing things aside as she searched. It was already a mess, so she felt free to tear her way through.

While she worked, Ardleon spread his arms. The windigoes fell into his embrace, soothing his pain. The death of so many of their kin had shaken them too, but the link between the angel and the windigo herd had been weakened.

“I must...recover. So many destroyed…” Their swirling forms became a cloak of living wind and frost across his armour. He turned hate-filled eyes of blue luminescence upon the train. “But I will not leave here defeated.”

He rose into the air, a whirling, twisting tower of windigoes holding him aloft. His ominously glowing eyes glared down upon them.

“Hear me, mortals!” His voice boomed across the land, striking their ear drums hard enough to ring. “If you wish to spare this land of suffering, if you wish to see an end to endless winter, come north! Come north!”

“What’s he talking about?” Spike gulped. “Suffering?”

“I don’t know,” Twilight said, pulling him close.

Ardleon continued, heedless of them; “I command you, mortals, come to me in the north…” His eyes glowed even brighter. “As Tyrael has done!”

With that bombshell his wings flared, and the herd burst into motion. They shot in every direction, streaming into the sky. Their cries had become gleeful once again, hungry phantoms unleashed upon a buffet.

“Cover the land, my herd! Expose their terror! Reveal their hatred! Bring them destruction! Freeze Equestria!”

The angel vanished, a dissolving into mist before the horrified eyes of the ponies below.

“What in the hay….” Applejack took a step back, her eyes fixated on the storm of windigoes above. “W-what he’d mean?”

Rarity had a hoof over her mouth, shaking her head as if to deny the obvious. “H-he’s sending them in every direction! W-we have to stop them! Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash” She shrieked, galloping to the edge of the carriage.

While Fluttershy whimpered, and Pinkie wrapped her in a hug, Twilight just stared. Her heart had frozen as it fell into the pit of her stomach. She understood perfectly what was happening, and it just made her tighten her foreleg around Spike even harder. Hundreds of windigoes, windigoes that ignored the friendship and love of the Elements of Harmony themselves, all across Equestria.

“We have to go north,” she whispered. Spike looked up at her with wide eyes and she raised her voice. “We have to go north!”

Applejack gulped and said, “I wanna stop him too sugarcube, but just doin’ what he said-”

“We have to! Didn’t you hear him? He’s sending those windigoes across all of Equestria! They shouldn’t been able to come near us, and one of them nearly overwhelmed us! The princesses might be able to stop them, but they went in every direction! No no no no no.” Twilight’s foreleg grew ever tighter, until Spike squirmed for freedom.

“T-Twilight! Too tight!” He croaked, pulling at her leg. She let him go with an apologetic smile. “Okay, so, we gotta go north? Uh, where, exactly? There’s a whole lot of north.”

“We aren’t going anyw-”

Spike was already shaking his head. “No! I’m not staying here, I’m not heading back to Canterlot, I’m not going anywhere but with you!” He glared at her. “Tell me I’ll be safer with you, the super powerful unicorn and her awesome friends, or in a town where the windigoes can just ignore all the stuff that is meant to stop them. Go on, tell me.”

She gave him a blank stare.Twilight opened her mouth. A moment later, she closed it. Spike didn’t quite smirk, but he certainly looked smug.

“...fine. But only if we can find something to keep you warm, I have a feeling the weather is going take a turn for the wintry,” she said, giving in.

Spike’s satisfied look faded. “Twilight...he said ‘like Tyrael’. That’s Paladin, right? What does that mean?”

Fluttershy trotted over, shuddering. “I-I think-”

“Booyah! Got it!” Rainbow Dash landed next to them with a thud, the wooden case holding the Elements of Harmony in her hooves. “Too bad he ran off, or we totally could have rainbow cannon’d him.”

“The Elements of Harmony are not a ‘rainbow canon’. What were you saying Fluttershy?” Twilight look to her, stepping out to the way as Applejack went to calm the near-hysterical Rarity.

“W-well, I was just thinking-”

SMACK!

“She’s all better now!” Applejack called.

Rarity rubbed her cheek, glaring at the farmer. “Applejack!”

“Sorry sugarcube, needed to snap ya out of it.” Applejack nudged her and pointed at their carriage. “Let’s see what we can find, if we’re headin’ north we’re gonna need to wrap up warm.”

Twilight sighed. “Fluttershy, start again. Hopefully without being interrupted...again.” She looked at Rainbow Dash, who was staring down into carriage beneath them.

She caught Twilight’s look out of the corner of her eye and glanced up. “Hey, why’re you looking at me?” She demanded sourly.

“Um, Twilight? Paladin feels...strange,” Fluttershy mumbled, looking at her hooves.

“Strange?” The unicorn questioned.

Fluttershy nodded. “Determined but, I’m not sure, upset? Guilty again, I think. He’s so far away, and I feel so bad just doing this to him, like I’m spying on him, but I’m so w-worried.”

Giving her friend a hug, Twilight tried to smile reassuringly at her. It was a lot easier than she expected, especially since she knew Fluttershy could feel her real emotions.

“Fluttershy, if he’s determined and a little upset, that means Ardleon hasn’t foalnapped him. He wanted us to think that, but we know Paladin must still be in Canterlot. If he was being held against his will, he would be even further away from your senses and he would probably be a lot more alarmed,” Twilight told her.

“I...I guess you’re right.” Fluttershy smiled slightly back, although it fell down after a moment. “What now? I don’t think the train can move…”

“I know, which is why we need to get moving, so we can find Ardleon and stop this before innocent ponies are hurt.” Twilight looked up at the sky, uncertainty flicking through her eyes. “The Princesses can do a lot, but the windigoes are going in every direction. Even they can’t be in six places at once. Whatever made Ardleon retreat, he must have planned for this.”

Fluttershy bit her lip, looking in the direction of Canterlot. She knew Paladin would be upset at them for going after Ardleon without him, but there was no time…

‘And I want him to stay there. Ardleon hurt him; I don’t want to see him get even more hurt,’ she thought, heaving a sigh that was, for her, heavy.

“I guess so…”

Before Twilight could reply, Pinkie bounced up out of the carriage and pointed a hoof at Fluttershy. “We need some mind-whammy-magical-Fluttershy-goodness down here, stat!” She blinked. “Wait, I’m not down there anymore. We need some of what I just said down there, stat!”

Peeking into the carriage, Fluttershy gulped at the frost covered guards. She felt queasy from the low, simmering anger and resentment they extruded.

“I-I’m not sure how well I can do on ponies I don’t know. But I’ll try my best,” she agreed, fluttering down.

“That’s all we can ask. I’m going to look for food in the carriages, and some larger saddlebags.” Twilight trotted towards the next carriage, levitating Spike onto her back.

“I’ll make sure all the ponies Fluttershy is fixing are warm and dry and happy!” Pinkie volunteered, bouncing down the hatch.

Spike stood and jumped off Twilight’s back, landing next to her. “What about me? I’ll go-”

“You are staying with me,” Twilight said firmly, teleporting him onto her back. “If you’re coming, you’re not leaving my sight. Not for a second!”

The little dragon crossed his arms, trying to figure if this was a good thing. It sounded a bit smothery to him. He could tell by her tone she wasn’t in the mood to argue about it, much as he was tempted to, so Spike reluctantly decided to leave it for later. They would have plenty of time to talk about it.

‘I’ve never been to northern Equestria. Wonder what it’ll be like, other than cold.’

***

The palace was a flurry of activity, guards rushing in every direction. From above he watched, studying them. He had been there, slowly drying as he waited, for nearly ten minutes before anypony noticed him. By then the training yard below and the guard barracks were nearly empty, the garrison already dispersing into the city to help the citizens.

“Uh, sir?” One unfortunate unicorn called up to him. “Can I ask you to come down?”

Paladin’s eyes narrowed. Situated on a narrow ledge, a shadow was cast over nearly all of him. Only the end of his muzzle and his eyes were visible. His blue-white eyes glared down at the unicorn guard, who gulped slightly.

“S-sir?”

“I heard you,” Paladin growled. He rose and slipped from the ledge in a single smooth movement, his great white wings only unfurling for a moment to blow dirt up from the training yards ground.

The guard covered his eyes, blinking dust from them. When he looked again, the large pegasus was standing right in front of him. Perhaps ‘looming’ would have been a better term, merely standing failing to convey the menace he managed to exude. The storm-grey scarf wound around his neck did nothing to diminish this impression.

“You wanted something? Out with it, guard, I have business to attend to.” A thoughtful light entered his eyes. “Perhaps you may be of some use. Come with me.”

He didn’t wait for answer, striding towards the barracks, nor did he bother looking back to make sure the guard was doing as he said. Paladin merely acted as though he would be obeyed, as thought he should be obeyed.

Paladin suppressed a satisfied smile when he heard the clop of the guard hurrying after him.

‘Diminished I may be, but no mortal has more right to command than I.’

“I was just sent to check the storerooms.” He gestured to the clipboard hovering in his magic next to him. “And, well, you were kind of...looming, up there, sir. I, uh, I didn’t mean to question you...please don’t geld me!”

That made Paladin stop, turning slightly to look at the nervous guard. He raised an eyebrow.

“I beg your pardon?” Deserts could have taken lessons in dryness from him.

The guard gulped. “Uh, sorry sir, something the sergeant said made me kind of...nervous. He can’t actually do ‘that’, right?” His tone begged an answer that wouldn’t leave him in fear for his ‘himself’.

“...no, he cannot.” Paladin frowned, glaring at the guard. “The storerooms. We are going there.”

He stepped back, indicating for the guard to take the lead.

“Oh. Oh! I’m sorry, sir, nopony told me that I was meant to be helping you. Private Critical Hit, sir!” He saluted.

‘He thinks I am a guard, and his superior. Fate favours me.’ The notion of deception like this made Paladin hesitate, but one thought made him press on; ‘Let him assume so. I am not bound to honesty.’

Despite reassuring himself that nothing held him to telling the truth, he resisted the idea. It was unbecoming, but he saw no other path. He told himself it was justified, yet he found the knowledge of his deception burning at him. Shame was already eating at him.

“Quickly, boy,” he growled, urging the guard onward. “Time is of the essence.”

“Yes sir!” Critical Hit hurried on, gulping nervously. His eyes darted back, but he didn’t risk turning to look at the dark pegasus. Everypony in the guard knew of the mysterious stallion, and rumours about him abounded. Some claimed he was a guard assigned to protect the Elements of Harmony, and the trouble in Ponyville not long ago was often the evidence given for this. That he seemed to know the Princesses simply added fuels to the flames of gossip, and the fact he had been in line to receive an award at the gatecrashed Gala was no secret. So the young guard just hurried on, lamenting the sour turn his fortune had taken of late.

Paladin had no desire to be in the castle when the Princesses got back. He glanced at the guard. Even he could tell the unicorn was nervous, his gait disciplined but lacking what Paladin identified as the confidence of experience in his movements.

“Why were you sent to do this work?” Paladin asked, his tone as flat as ever. “I would expect a clerk of some kind, not a guard.”

Critical Hit looked back, but the stone faced expression on Paladin convinced him this conversation would go better if he didn’t feel like he was about to be reprimanded.

“The clerks are busy organising the civilians and accounting for everypony they can. I’m good with numbers so I usually get assigned storeroom duty.” He shrugged, then felt that was a bit too informal and winced. He wish he had a codpiece. “So I was sent to take stock of our winter supplies, in case they come back. Nopony told me I was meant to be helping you, sir, I thought all the officers and higher ups were out organising things.”

“I have a duty I must see to.” Another false answer. Not technically a lie, but that did little to comfort Paladin. It was deception, regardless of how he tried to justify it or any technicalities, and the indignity stung at him.

Critical Hit spotted at the room in the rear of the barracks, pulling a key from his armour and opening the door. He stepped back to allow Paladin to enter first, the pegasus stepping through and glancing about the dark room.

“This storeroom has the winter supplies, correct?”

The guard nodded. “Yes sir. Everything we need for winter, except armour and weapons. Those are in the armoury.”

Paladin grunted, looking around. The lack of armour annoyed him, although the lack of weapons not so much. He had hoped to acquire some proper plate or even chain mail, since the only blacksmith in Ponyville knew how to make neither. Caramel, who made his own horseshoes, had apparently began to read up on it after Paladin’s inquiry, but it would be a long time waiting and anything produced would not be the quality he desired. He didn’t concerned himself with weapons at the moment for the very simple reason that any fit for a pony were likely to be beyond his skill range. A master warrior he might be, but all weapons were unique and he had no wish to wield one without the proper knowledge.

“Guard, what would you assign a pegasus such as myself with in the context of a solo mission in deep winter, likely with a long distance to travel and little time?” He framed it as a question, but his tone bordered on a demand.

The guard stared at him for a moment before a narrowing of eyes prompted him to snap to attention. “A-A scout-issue pegasus winter coat, reinforced with leatherbark, with heat-retaining enchantment, a set of military saddlebags with scout-issue supplies for winter maneuvers, uh,” he rattled off a few more things before coming to a stop. Critical Hit gulped as he stared nervously at Paladin, waiting for him to correct him.

‘It’s a test, oh Celestia, it’s a test and I’m going to fail, mum will be furious when I can’t give her grandkids-’

“Good. Get them.”

“Huh?” He froze mid-terrified thought, blinking a few times.

Paladin just looked at him. He had to do very little else. He had a gift of Looks which felt like they deserved a capital L. He raised an eyebrow as well, just to really make sure.

“Right away sir!” Critical Hit saluted and spun, galloping through the room. He took Paladin’s order seriously, finding the largest size. As far as he knew only Captain Bulwark required this size, but she and Paladin looked close enough that he was positive it would fit. He also thoughtfully selected one in a storm-grey colour that would match the scarf the pegasus was wearing, because damn it, just because he was in the military didn’t mean he had to entirely forget about fashion.

“Full pegasus winter gear, sir!” He saluted again, trying not tuck his tail between his legs just in case.

“Hm.” Paladin circled the laid out array of gear, lifting the various items and inspecting them. “Maps.”

“The standard scout gear contains basic maps of the Canterlot region, and there are several cases of maps of various regions I can get for you sir,” Critical Hit reported obediently.

“Northern Equestria.” Paladin began to dress himself in the winter coat. He was thankful that Critical Hit had gone to get the map, since he doubted the sight of him struggling to work out how to get his wings through the slits on the back would do much to support his intimidating impression.

The guard was back barely a minute later, a hard brown tube in his magic. He opened it,, showing a number of thinner lengths of wood, pulling one out and splitting down the middle to roll out a map. He showed Paladin before stowing the tube in a socket on one of the saddlebags.

“Everything you would need, sir.” He bit his lip. “Uh, sir? This was a test, right?”

“Tell no one of this. It is of utmost importance,” Paladin commanded. He stared straight into Critical Hit’s eyes. “Lives depend on this. None are to know. Am I clear, guard?”

He was very clear, but something about this seemed off to the guard. Something finally seemed to tick the wrong box in his head, proving that a shapeshifter invasion could teach a few lessons. “I...sir, are you sure? We need to sign these off if you’re taking them, and my sergeant should know if I do anything with thi-”

He barely had time to comprehend it, Paladin striking with quicksilver speed. His hoof slapped Critical’s forelegs out from under him, bowling him over. Paladin stepped forward, jerking to the side as an arrow of magic burst from Critical Hit’s horn. A second spell was preempted by Paladin striking again, leaping around the downed guard and cracking a hoof against the back of his skull. With a sigh the guard crumbled to the ground, knocked out by the powerful blow.

Paladin stood over the guard, staring down at him for a moment. Guilt and shame played across his features before he shook his head and checked his defeated opponent. Other than some blunt trauma, Critical Hit was alive and hopefully well.

“I...I apologise, guard. Critical Hit. I apologise, Critical Hit, though you cannot hear me. I have no wish for the Princesses to learn of my departure upon their return. I pray you are well, and little damage was done.” A head wound was serious business. Paladin couldn’t count the times he had slain a demon with a head blow, or the mortal warriors he had seen die from seemingly minor head wounds. Although he had known little of how mortal bodies worked in most regards, their use in war was one he knew all too well. He knew their fragile nature.

Retrieving another of the scout packs, he pulled out the rations and laid a coat over Critical HIt, just in case. The key he took with him, breaking the handle on the inside and doing his best to ensure the guard would be unable to get out and give warning to anypony once he awoke.

‘If he wakes. Light, I...’ Paladin stood in the hall, staring at Critical Hit. He was fairly sure he hadn’t done much damage. He hoped he hadn’t done much damage. He knew where to strike to do the minimum damage, thanks to numerous books on anatomy in the library. After the Nightmare used so many innocent ponies, he had made sure he knew how to fight properly in his new body, and how to incapacitate a pony without doing real damage.

Locking the door, Paladin winced at the memory of Zecora’s first lesson. He rubbed the back of his head, where he had struck Critical Hit, and where Zecora had demonstrated the same move. The fragility of his body against a skilled opponent was frightening. His strength of will mattered for nothing when a single blow could render him senseless.

Departing the barracks was as easy as it had been to enter, slipping past the very few guards who remained. He intended to have some words with whoever was in charge of that when he got back. If he got back.

‘My return is of little importance. Equestria’s safety...my friends...they are what matter most,’ he thought as he trotted through the palace. He managed to avoid others, the palace largely vacated by the servants and guards for the moment, without much trouble. He stepped into the gardens that ran between the northern wall and the palace, looking cautiously around before proceeding.

His wings flared, and Paladin took a deep breath. ‘Time to see if I have truly mastered my own body.’

He ran through Rainbow Dash’s lessons, tensing and preparing as they had practiced. When he moved, his heavy muscled rippled like mountains shifting and his wings caught the air. He flapped, the feathery appendages sending gusts at the ground beneath as he lifted away.

A smile spread across his face. He took off, soaring up towards the wall. The sensation of flight was marvelous, and he basked in it. The sky magic he had absorbed in the act of destroying the Nightmare had largely been drained, but it had kickstarted his body’s natural abilities. The power of flight and mastery of the weather, the gifts of pegasus kind, had become his at last.

Paladin topped the wall, the wind soaring past his ears, sending his tail aflutter, the world spread out before him-

Battle-refined sense warned him a moment before the strike landed. His wings sloped and he curved down into a dive, the whistle of something moving with great speed where his head had just been. Paladin’s hooves slammed to the ground in a rough landing, shaking his body. Ahead of him, his attacker landed with far softer slaps of bare skin hitting stone, and Paladin saw it had not been one attacker but two.

The monkey warriors stood before him. They were ready for a fight, Riko wielding one of his spears while Mojo had fallen into a fighting stance.

“We know where ya goin’, angel. We been ordered ta keep ya safe, an’ ta keep ya here,” Riko’s voice was heavily accented, his mastery of the Equestria language rough but functional.

“Return forthwith to your dwelling so that we might keep from bloodying our hands in combat, honourable pegasus,” added Mojo, his fluent Equestrian slightly muffled by his helm.

“Honour,” Paladin spat. “What would you know of it, trying to ambush me?”

Mojo snorted, but it was Riko who answered. “We gotta job ta do, tasked by de Sungiver herself. Dat honour comes before our own.”

“And we thought it would be easier to disable you and explain ourselves once you were secure,” Mojo said lazily.

"Then you have failed. I have business beyond the palace. Step aside.” He reached back, pressing his hoof against a buckle.

“We cannot comply with such a demand. Stand down, Sir Paladin, or we shall be forced to make you return.”

“Force me?” Paladin’s voice took an amused edge. He pressed the buckle and the saddlebags fell to the side, before he shrugged off the winter coat. “I have waged war for more than ten thousand mortal lifetimes. Do not think a mere lessening of form has diminished my mastery of battle. You have no chance of victory here, primates.”

The monkeys didn’t take their eyes off him, but there was a sense of silent communication between them.

“Don’t be blamin’ us if we ain’t gonna take yer word for it,” Riko chuckled, twirling his spear. He crouched, dropping one hand to the ground. “De way de King explained it, ya ain’t the same creature no more.”

“Then allow me to provide you something more substantial than my mere word. Come!” He snarled the word, wings flexing in and out, ears up.

They struck at the same time, blurs of fur and multicoloured armour from one direction and dark fur with bright wings from the other, meeting halfway. Mojo reached first, striking with his fists. Paladin matched the monkey’s speed, fending off a blow aimed at his head with a hoof and ducking below another. With a leap the monkey was above him, and Riko came in with the butt of his spear lancing towards Paladin’s skull. The pegasus jerked to the side, wooden haft zooming past his head, and extended his wing in a sudden jarring strike that slapped the feathery limb into Riko’s eyes.

Mojo came to the ground, but rather than go for Paladin he went for the saddlebags and cloak. Dodging another swing of Riko’s spear-shaft, Paladin narrowed his eyes. On the next strike he evaded only by an inch, snapping his jaw shut on the spear’s middle.

“Eh?” Riko’s brow furrowed. He held on tight, which did nothing to help him. Paladin wasn’t trying to steal his spear, or break. Instead the pegasus reared, wings flapping, and spun, lifting the spear in his jaw and bringing the attached monkey with it. He completely half a turn when he let go of it - and spear and monkey went flying through the air to slam into Mojo’s back just as he reached Paladin’s things.

Paladin spat in disgust, the taste of varnished wood on his tongue. “Evidence enough?” He asked. They got up, scrambling to their feet by which time Paladin stood protectively over his supplies. Neither his stare nor his stance had visibly relaxed, the pegasus still very much willing to continue this fight.

“We could merely retreat now, and inform the Princesses of your intentions. You could not stop us,” Mojo pointed out.

The pegasus snorted. “You are more than welcome to do so. I shall be long gone before they return, and I imagine with those windigo beasts out there somewhere, they will be otherwise occupied. You cannot-”

They attacked while he talked, launching themselves forward and crossing the distance in the space of a single breath. Paladin’s reaction was no less swift, his wings blasting wind at the monkeys. It wasn’t enough to knock them back but it delayed them for a moment, enough for him to strike. He refused to be forced to the defensive, slamming his head into Riko’s defenceless face. The monkey howled in pain, but swung down with the butt of his spear. They were still fighting only to disable him, and for this Paladin was thankful, since he would have been knocked senseless had the blow been faster or harder. As it was he felt the spear-shaft bounce at an angle from the top of his head and used the chance to disarm Riko by twisting his head up, imposing himself between monkey and spear. He reared, forehooves slamming into the wooden chestplate. A grunt was ripped from him as the spear slapped into his shoulders but he was fortunate, Riko’s grip breaking before the spear or Paladin’s neck.

The monkey let out a screech, rolling back a few steps before he recovered, drawing his other spear. Paladin slapped at one end of the spear he had taken with a wing, spinning it around his neck and catching it in his mouth. With a sharp crack he snapped it in half with his jaw.

Mojo had taken the chance to flank him, and led the way with a fast jab at Paladin’s neck. His palm connected but Paladin flowed with the strike retreating with one hoof and kicking the blunt end of the shattered spear up with the other. He caught it in his mouth, ignoring the taste of varnish, and swung. His blow caught Mojo’s next, knocking the fist away.

They exchanged blows, the bipedal primate using his advantage in speed and flexibility to keep Paladin from attacking. Riko lurked around the edges, circling as he waited for the chance to strike. Paladin’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. They weren’t going after his supplies, because the last time it had provoked him to take further action. Instead, he suspected, they were trying to wear him out. When Mojo began to tire, Riko would take his place, swapping places until the pegasus was too tired to begin his journey.

‘I will not be thwarted before I have even begun!’

His right forehoof lashed out, striking Mojo’s ankle with a crack. The monkey let out a snarl of pain, lifting his wounded foot automatically. His pace of attack slowed but his balance was preserved by his other foot and his tail.

Paladin swung his weapon straight at Mojo’s face, but it was easily caught. Paladin pushed, neck straining as he fought Mojo’s strength. The taller warrior grunted, both hands holding onto the broken spear-shaft, pushing back.

Riko saw his chance. He charged in, leaping above to strike Paladin over Mojo’s head.

Paladin suddenly began to pull rather than push, rearing up. Mojo unfolded to his full height, tall enough to avoid being so easily lifted, but he failed to realise Paladin’s intentions. The pony pulled his back legs in and fell onto his back. Still holding on, Mojo found himself stretched over Paladin, struggling to keep a whole of the broken weapon and keep his feet on the ground. He heard Riko shout, the other monkey seconds from landing on his back.

Unfortunately for both, Paladin’s plan didn’t end there. All four legs tensed, folding up. Understanding dawned on Mojo’s face when Paladin let go of the spear a moment before he struck the monkey on the chest with a four hoof kick.

Mojo rocketed up into the air, colliding with Riko. They sailed away, landing in a heap quite a distance away on the wall. Watching for a moment, Paladin allowed himself a satisfied smirk as he gathered his winter coat and saddlebags. It was good to know he could still win a simple fight.

Few ponies noticed the dark-furred, white winged pegasus soaring high above the city, and none paid much attention to the direction he was going.

No one paid much attention until he was beyond the outskirts of the city, where a pair of gleaming blue eyes followed him from afar.

***

Twilight huffed, rubbing her hooves together as she surveyed the gathered supplies.

“Alright girls, this is everything?” She asked.

“Everthin’ we’ll need if the weather keeps on like this,” Applejack answered, scowling at the sky and fighting off a shiver. The temperature had dropped drastically in the past ten minutes, enough that she wished she had a thick jacket to keep her warm.

“The guards are still kinda out of it.” Landing next to her, Rainbow Dash ran a hoof through her many hued mane. “Fluttershy got them moving again, but none of them are really gonna be much help. Whatever that stupid angel did, they’ve gone all dull and lifeless, they barely move without some prodding.”

Twilight nodded thoughtfully, her horn lighting up as she began to sort through everything they had managed to pilfer from the wrecked train. Fortunately they all had their own saddlebags, so she just needed to work out how much weight each of them could take. Spike busied himself digging into the pile and ticking things off a checklist Twilight had him prepare earlier.

“We’re going to need to some more warm clothes, the weather is already turning cold. Rainbow Dash, can’t you do anything about it?” Twilight asked. She began to put military rations they had borrowed from the guards into one of Applejack’s bags, stacking them neatly together.

“Nope,” the pegasus said with a scowl, “I tried like five minutes ago. I kick one cloud into stuffing and another is there like five seconds later, not to mention they’re like the old Hearth Warming story, I can’t even really control them. They used to say if you kicked a windigo snow cloud too much you’d get frostbite. Sorry Twilight.”

“It’s okay. Can you go and check the guards again? They must have something we can use, we don’t have enough for all of us,” the unicorn requested without looking from her organising.

Rainbow Dash nodded and took off, only to return about half a minute later, grinning.

“That was fast, even for you,” Twilight observed, glancing at Rainbow Dash. The grin made her somewhat worried. It was the grin that said she had found something awesome. Applejack apparently picked up on that too.

“What’s got ya grinnin’ like that, sugarcube?”

“You guys gotta come look at this! I know how to fix the clothing problem!” Rainbow Dash swooped around, pushing her friends towards the train. They let her push them for a minute before walking along on their own, leaving Spike to continue ticking off the checklist. She led them to the guard train, where Fluttershy was...giving them scarves. She had a basket of them, in many different colours, and she was moving through the group of dull faced guards at a steady pace.

“Uh, okay, Rainbow Dash, ya'll wanna explain?” Applejack looked at her with a confused expression. “How’s Fluttershy givin’ scarves to the guards gonna help us? Ah mean, it’s awful nice of her but it ain’t exactly gonna keep us warm when the sun goes down.”

“No, it won’t, but Fluttershy might be able to make more than scarves,” Twilight said, a smile slowly spreading across her face.

Rainbow Dash grinned, making sure it was especially smug when she flashed it at Applejack. The farmer just rolled her eyes.

At this point, Fluttershy finally noticed them. She blushed and scurried over, dropping her basket in from of them with a nervous smile.

“I was just helping the guards, they were all so cold and I still had all the wool and knitting supplies the Princess gave me,” she explained softly.

Twilight floated one of the scarves up, running her gaze along it thoughtfully.

“Fluttershy, you didn’t make this many on the trip, did you? How fast can you knit things?” She asked.

“Well, I mean, I don’t want to brag but I won the Cloudsdale Extreme Knitting contest last year…” Fluttershy shuffled, looking nervous. “A-and the year before that...and the year before that…”

“Cloudsdale has ‘extreme knitting’?” Rainbow Dash asked with disbelief plain in her tone and on her face.

Fluttershy nodded, prompting a facehoof from the athlete.

“And I thought Cloudsdale was so cool,” she muttered sourly.

“O-oh, but it is! I won because I could knit a jumper in under five minutes.” For once Fluttershy let her pride show, beaming brightly at the memory before abruptly remembering there were other ponies around and going into a self-conscious huddle again.

“Perfect! Fluttershy, do you think you have enough to make something for each of us? Not just scarves, larger items to keep us warm?” Twilight pulled Fluttershy up.

“I-I think so.” Taking a breath to calm herself down, Fluttershy nodded. “I can. I’ll go get started.”

“Thanks so much Fluttershy.” Twilight sighed in relief at that problem being fixed. When Fluttershy didn’t actually move, she looked at the pegasus uncertainly. “Uh, Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy blushed. “Oh, I’m sorry Twilight but could one of you keep giving these out?”

Twilight nodded and levitated the basket up, shoving it in Rainbow Dash’s hooves. She ignored the pegasus’s complaints, turning back to her organising. Twilight wore a cheeky smile as she heard Applejack letting out a hearty laugh at Rainbow Dash’s childish grumbling.

She had only just begun when her ear twitched, catching a distant sound. The flap of wings in the distance.

‘Rainbow Dash is probably just coming to complain about having to do that,’ Twilight thought with a roll of her eyes. The distant wing beats grew slowly and steadily louder. It occurred to Twilight that Rainbow Dash would have said something by now and she wasn’t that far away, just in time for a pair of alicorns to land behind her. She looked back in alarm and her eyes went wide.

“Princess Celestia! Princess Luna!” She stared at them, shocked to see them there. It took her a moment to take note of their appearance, particularly her mentor’s clearly weary state. “What happened to you?”

“A good question, but a better would be what happened to your train? Although I suspect I already know.” Celestia’s eyes narrowed, inspecting the ruined train.

“The angel returned,” Luna growled, twin jets of steam shooting from her nostrils in the cold air.

Twilight nodded, her expression grim. “Yes, he did. We managed to hold him off - barely - until he suddenly collapsed.” She hesitated before adding; “Did you do something?”

The others were taking notice now, Rainbow Dash throwing aside the basket to fly over and Applejack leaving the food cart, one she had been methodically emptying, to approach. They remained silent, but were clearly as curious as Twilight. In Pinkie's case, this silence was only after a shouted greeting.

“The princesses did something? I bet you did something amazing! You're the princesses, after all!" Pinkie asserted with unshakable certainty.

“We did. My sister did, in particular. She incinerated the windigoes in Ponyville-” Luna began.

“Ponyville?” The three smaller ponies cried at the same time.

“Is mah family okay? Did anythin’ happen to ‘em?”

“Was Scootaloo alright? And Cloudkicker should have been in the skies all day, what about her?”

“The library! Princess, two ponies were looking after it, and oh gosh what about everypony who must have been out at the market?”

All three spoke at the same time, worried voices overlapping each other.

Celestia lifted a hoof, all she needed to get silence. She smiled reassuringly at them.

“Never fear, the windigoes are gone. They attacked Canterlot too, and I drove them off first, only to learn that they were in Ponyville too. Clearly Ardleon hoped to catch you at either location, though how he knew of the town I cannot say. Regardless, the windigoes in Canterlot were defeated. The ones in Ponyville…” Her expression darkened. “I refused to allow them the chance to escape.”

“And dangerously weakened yourself!” Luna cut in sternly. “We must return so you can rest. Twilight Sparkle, gather the other Elements and the guards, I shall teleport us back to Canterlot.”

“That might not be a good idea, your highness,” said Twilight, clearly reluctant to correct the princess, “because Ardleon was here, yes, but after he got hurt he...he sent the windigoes all over Equestria. He must have had them avoid you, but I saw them streaming away all over the sky. There were hundreds.”

Celestia and Luna exchanged horrified looks. The bright alicorn brought a wing to her mouth, looking sick.

“This...this is my fault. I drove him to more desperate measures by destroying them. What have I done?” She muttered, turning her stricken gaze to the sky.

“W-what? Princess Celestia, how could you say that? This isn’t your fault at all! Ardleon is the one at fault. He’s the one going crazy because Paladin isn’t an angel anymore,” insisted Twilight, coming right up to her and looking the princess in the eyes. “Please don’t blame yourself, you don’t have any responsibility for this.”

“Your student is correct! The mad angel is at fault, and we must deal with him! Twilight Sparkle, where did he go?” demanded Luna, her eyes blazing.

“Uh, somewhere north. That’s all we know. He told us to come north, because he said Paladin has.” Rainbow Dash offered, hovering in front of the younger princess.

“A lie, most likely. Paladin should not know where Ardleon is, although if he learns…” Princess Celestia trailed off. She stared up at the sky, her expression grim and torn. Her sister was explaining, loudly, that they needed to get everypony back to Canterlot so they could safely find Ardleon and turn him into scrap metal.

“We cannot,” said Celestia, sighing deeply. “Sister, windigoes are spreading across Equestria. We cannot be sure we will find him before they have destroyed half the land.”

“It takes days for windigoes to ultimately drain a pony of their life,” protested Luna. Even as she said it, she knew what Celestia would say, but the welling feeling of helplessness made her argue nonetheless.

She was not disappointed as the solar princess shook her head.

“The windigoes are different now, stronger. Their power is working far faster than before.”

Twilight looked thoughtful, rubbing her chin as she listened.

“I did think it was strange,” she admitted, “in the stories windigoes always spent days or weeks slowly stirring negative emotions, they never attacked outright like this.”

“In all the stories, they didn’t have a crazy angel telling them what to do,” Rainbow Dash pointed out.

“Rainbow Dash is correct. Ardleon is the difference, I suspect. If he truly is commanding the windigoes, he has thrown off the the morals of his own kind, and his angelic influence is allowing them to do things they should never be able to do, ignoring the love and friendship that should be rejecting them. Luna and I must begin to clear the windigoes from Equestria, before they bring suffering and death to innocent ponies.”

As Celestia talked, the others had heard her, and Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie hurried out. They gathered around their friends, and Celestia looked down at the group with an air of commanding.

“I am afraid I must ask you to go north, and find Ardleon. Find where he lairs, and have Spike send a letter telling us where. Do not fight him, I can’t stress that enough. Simply inform us. This won’t be an easy journey, and I can’t predict how long and hard the task will be, but I trust you all to do your best. If, of course, you are willing to do this?” Celestia added the final question with an unreadable mask over her expression.

“We trust you,” Luna added, stepping up and offering the seven of them a grim smile. “You have proven your mettle and to our shame, we must ask you to prove it once again for the sake of all Equestria.”

Twilight took one glanced at the others before turning back to the Princess with a look of determination.

“You aren’t asking us to do anything we weren’t already going to do. I promise, we’ll find Ardleon, right everypony?” Her friends cheered, Spike piping up a moment later when Twilight nudged him.

The princesses exchanged brief looks that in a moment conveyed more than words could have. If the emotions and thoughts they shared needed to be put into one word it would be, very simply, ‘hope’.

***

Author's Note:

Not much to say, really....I'm considering changing to a smaller, roughly 9K words per chapter but with more frequent updates, now my semester is over for the year. Any thoughts on the matter?

As ever, give thanks to Web of Hope and Nealend86 for their editing of this ramshackle work of mine, it is always much appreciated.

As ever, please comment, because they help my motivation to write tremendously.

Comments

[VampDash]

I'm... I'm sorry but something Ardelon said has me all nervous.

“Now do you feel it? The creeping fear, the horror, the mortal Terror that makes you such flawed creatures?”

This sounds like something Diablo The Lord Of Terror would've said.... Faust have mercy on their souls if he is coming.

[hanatoro]

And so, the place of battle has been decided and the chosen warriors begin their journeys.

The Mad Angel, driven insane by his own sense of duty
The Fallen Angel, prey to his feellings
The Six, determined to help thier comrade in sptie of himself

The temperature is falling.
Equestria is under siege

The day of reckoning is almost upon us.

[Autocharth]

3433171 Seven, Spike is there too, thank you very much.
Otherwise, heh, that was cool. I liked the rest of it.

[clonezero]

While I expected more from those monkeys I guess fighting an age old warrior would still give them a run for their money.

and damn Ardeleon really is lost ... wonder if they can still smack some sense into him.

[VampDash]

3433229 BAH!! It's nothing more than a disgusting plane of peace and love. My brethren will soon fix this... atrocity.

[VampDash]

3433271 So we're going to play it like that. *pulls out demonic cell* Tathamat? Yeah it's Diablo. Listen some idiot nephilim are trying to kill me and my brothers, are we still sure Andariel is a girl by the way, and so that's the problem... Okay see you soon then.

[Keeper of Jericho]

Nope, Ardleon is still an idiot who has to die in the most horrible manner possible after mentally collapsing under a massive mountain of guilt after first feeling all the pain he caused. I hate retards like him.

...

What, sadist, me? Naaaaah, you're just imagining things.

[VampDash]

3433304 So you know who Tathamet is?

[VampDash]

3433327 Dang and here I thought I was the only major nerd. Also I had an idea in my mind to make Spike a reincarnation of... NO NO SPOILERS FROM ME!

[VampDash]

3433357 Okay I'll pm the idea to you.

[Buckshot2825]

Reading this was the pinnacle point of my day. Only way it can get more badass is if you somehow popped another chapter out.

I'm so happy I could bounce around in circles like pinkie pie on coffee

[Nealend86]

All shall burn in the name of the Unconquered Sun!

[dusk flame]

For like... the first 3 or 4 paragraphs I was utterly confused because I thought I was reading a Warcraft crossover with Arthus... but then it clicked that this was the crossover with Tyreal and suddenly everything made sense again

[DarkParable]

Ok, one thing to say... Paladin is a total badass. That is all.

[SwimmingDalek98]

3433171 The Fallen and the Mad, who shall finish their feud of form within the frozen lands of the North… and Harmony's Six shall be forced to watch… and do nothing...

[Jirodyne]

3433175 I'm still surprised you haven't been like every other author on this site. You know, picking up spike and throwing him out the window, never to be seen again, with him probably ducktaped to the CMC's clubhouse roof.

[Autocharth]

3435219 I hate that! Hence why I'm trying making a point of including him. No brushing off the baby dragon in MY story!

3434221 You know, there's the whole story description about it being a Diablo crossover, I honestly would have thought that would have been a bigger hint.

3433404 Good to hear you like it, that certainly makes my day.

3435032 Oh, I think not, no side-lines for them!

[Cadmium]

I don't think Ardelon is really "mad" or totally fell like Izual, he still thinks he is doing the right thing by trying to restore Tyrael only his methods are a bit drastic thanks to a bad first impression and the windigos. I pity him because he is the best example of blind loyalty overruling common sense and reason, he saw that Tyrael was diminished and he saw six mortals wielding his power and in the ages old conflict between Heaven and Hell there where no shades of gray only the two absolutes of the Angelic Host and the Forces of the burning Hells so he assumes the worst and stays with it until the bitter end.

I can see him sacrificing his essence and thus himself after his defeat, when he realizes that he became what he hated so much, to allow Tyrael to reclaim the blessings he gave to the M6 and return to his status as Justice. .

[SwimmingDalek98]

3435593 … dag nabbit… can he at least make a really good The Reason Why You Suck speech to them when they interfere? A kind of 'this is my fight, my problem, and you aren't helping' thing? I have been EAGERLY waiting for his (remarkably strong) self-control to break, and he just goes LOOSE on them. I know, I'm a sadistic ********… this is what I like for the stories I read… a kind of 'Break the Cutie' moment.

[Autocharth]

3435720 Except him fighting Ardleon on his own would be very selfish of him. It's his fight? He has a stake in it, but so do they since Ardleon is threatening their home and loved ones. By wanting to be the only one fighting Ardleon, he denies them the chance to protect their loved ones and the world and takes the whole burden onto himself, which is also somewhat arrogant in assuming he can do it all on his own and doesn't need help.

I mean, I'm not saying he won't try that, but his friends will call him on the reasons why that is very stupid. Paladin isn't a super-powerful Archangel, he can't do it all on his own, and refusing help because it's 'his' fight is selfish and dangerous, it's Honour Before Reason. Because it's not just his problem, it's the problem of all the lives Ardleon is threatening.

Because why would he give them a reason they suck speech for trying to actually help and being in a position to do so? I don't get why you're assuming they're useless. They're not. You know, extra magical powers and teamwork can do quite remarkable things.

3435663 That's basically what I'm going for with how Ardleon is. He's easy to hate, but if you give it a try he can be understood. I mean, that doesn't make his reasons valid and he's not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer (maybe a spoon), but he's not just trying to be evil. He's building off a flawed foundation, and hint hint, having creatures who live off and caused hate and fear bound to his soul isn't doing wonders for his ability to think clearly, as soon when he told them to shut up.

[Cadmium]

3435797
I really like Antagonists that have real understandable reasons for being the Antagonist beyond hurrdurr 4tehevulz, senseless spite or "im 3edgy5U so i have to do evul things because of my edgyness". I especially hate the last kind.

And because we saw exactly how he slipped into that role i cannot understand that there are people who dislike him and say hes stupid because he certainly is not he is just following the same patterns as he did since the beginning of time, as would Tyrael if he hadn't interacted with Sanctuary as often as he did and the becoming mortal part kinda forced a change of view for him anyway.

[dusk flame]

3435593 You don't see that when you go directly into the chapter from the link in the update email.

[FleetlordAvatar]

Definitely worth the wait for this.

WE RIDE NORTH!

[SwimmingDalek98]

3435797 I'm not saying they're useless. The Reason You Suck speech is because they have pretty much screwed him over, and they still think they can make him better with friendship. I mean, LOOK at the guy! Stripped of his angelic status, and his powers, and they've all been given to mortal ponies who barely understand HALF of the hard work he's done to earn them… they think every problem can be solved with friendship… and he knows this one can only be solved with- to quote Otto von Bismarck- blood and iron. They're going to try and make Ardleon and Tyrael solve this by having a nice friendly chit-chat… and it doesn't work like that. Ardleon is too far gone… and Tyrael has nothing left to return to... One shall stand, one shall fall...

[Autocharth]

3437857 A number of things there:
'They' have not screwed him over. I don't recall Twilight trying to steal his power, or anything like that. He chose to give up his power to save them, and if you want to blame someone blame the Nightmare for doing what it do to them to make that the only way he could save them. As for them not understanding, well, what, you expect them to suddenly develop an understanding for a life they couldn't fathom and have never needed, such as Tyrael had? That's not something they can just acquire.
What they have done, exactly, that screwed him over which is their fault? Was it when they befriended a socially awkward and cold person who seemed to have no friends? Was it when Rainbow Dash helped him learn how to fly? When Rarity made him a suit, simply because she wanted to help her friend look good? Was it when Twilight gave him somewhere to live and taught him about the world he didn't understand? Or when Applejack gave him a job, and through that, let him meet a new friend? When Fluttershy did her best to comfort him?
You're blaming them for things beyond their control, and for not knowing or doing things they have no reasonable way of being able to know or do.
Paladin might not be the powerful Tyrael anymore, but guess what? Power isn't everything. He's weaker, yes, but so what?
I hate to tell you this, but considering the 'Friendship is Magic' thing, friendship can solve some a lot of problems in this world. I'm not saying it's all fluffy and solved by sitting down and talking it out, it clearly wasn't with Nightmare Moon, but you have clearly missed a large point of the world they live in. Friendship CAN make him better, which might not be mean more powerful, but see about about 'power isn't everything', but they can help him.

Ardleon and Paladin are going to fight. But Paladin won't fight alone.
And I shall decide how far gone he is, and whether he can be redeemed. There are few villains so far gone they can't be reached, and Ardleon might have gone off the deep end a tad, but that doesn't mean he can't come back.

There's my response. Regardless of how I disagree with your view on these matters, thanks for the comment.

[SwimmingDalek98]

3437928 That's the exact response I was hoping for… you have been keeping track of your own story… bravo, sir… bravo…

That is one of my 'how well do you know your own story' tests… this is the first one I've conducted so far… and I await being given a chance to do it again… I do it to make sure an author can truly understand their story, so as not o go too far from the original concept… and you have passed with FLYING colors!

[DarkParable]

3437938

...You serious? You make it your job to test people on their own writing? Ooooookay...

[Amethyst Blade]

Ehem! He has no right to call himself a protector, angel, pure immortal soul when he has all the bad traits of a human being...blasphemy. you know who I'm talking about, his name start with an 'A'.

[xbox432]

For updates! And Paladin for stepping up and getting out of that emo funk he was in... even if it was partly staged, yuck. I'm really looking forward to Paladin coming to terms with his mortal emotions, and using them to better himself rather than shackling him. Ooooh, and the scene with Octovia and Vinyl was priceless, " I am not .... cuddly!" Hahaha!

Below you will find some typos for your editing pleasure:

*Dash nod and dart towards her two, magenta - Dash nod and dart towards her two friends, magenta
*bring one, when I could hundreds?” - bring one, when I could bring hundreds?”
* “Why are we moving?” - “Why aren’t we moving?”
*side of the hatch he gathered - side of the hatch as he gathered
*her heart that this all her fault - her heart that this was all her fault
*dark emotions was incredible within each, - dark emotions were incredible within each,
*She knew what it was true. - She knew that it was true.
*spared a moment to glare the other. “You - spared a moment to glare at the other. “You
*We must return the palace, and - We must return to the palace, and
* magic pushed the the door open, - magic pushed the door open,
* didn’t take a genius moment to - didn’t take a genius to
* she made a note remember to the treasury that Twilight Sparkle would require reimbursement for damaged floor. - she made a note to remember to inform the treasury that Twilight Sparkle would require reimbursement for a damaged floor.
* to keep Celestia was staggering - to keep Celestia from staggering
* not now. Now when they - not now. Not when they
* shaken them too, but the link - shaken them too, the link
* Fluttershy?” Twilight look to her, stepping out to the - Fluttershy?” Twilight looked to her, stepping out of the
* ponies Fluttershy is fixing are - ponies Fluttershy are fixing are
* He didn’t wait for answer, striding - He didn’t wait for an answer, striding
* as thought he should be obeyed. - as though he should be obeyed.
* added fuels to the flames - added fuel to the flames
* He wish he had a codpiece. - He wished he had a codpiece.
* Critical Hit spotted at the room - Critical Hit spotted the room
* He didn’t concerned himself - He didn’t concern himself
* moved, his heavy muscled rippled - moved, his heavy muscles rippled
* Battle-refined sense warned him - Battle-refined senses warned him
* his mastery of the Equestria language - his mastery of the Equestrian language
* to steal his spear, or break. - to steal his spear, or break it.
* He completely half a turn - He completed half a turn
* His blow caught Mojo’s next, - His blow caught Mojo’s next attack/strike/punch,
* struggling to keep a whole of the broken - struggling to keep a hold of the broken
* going to need to some more warm clothes, the - going to need some more warm clothes, the
* her basket in from of them with - her basket in front of them with
* has thrown off the the morals of his own - has thrown off the morals of his own
* Twilight took one glanced at the others before turning back to the Princess - Twilight took one glance at the others before turning back to the Princesses

[SwimmingDalek98]

3437989 The thing is, this is an extremely important point in the story… what happens here changes EVERYTHING. I want to make sure the author knows about the story as best he can before continuing...

[DarkParable]

3438049

Understandable I suppose, but the thing is you've kinda got to trust that an author, any other really, knows this. Feed back is great, it can show an author what they did wrong and how they can fix it, but grilling someone on their story to reassure yourself really only helps yourself. It's not really my place to say anything, honestly, so I won't... Beyond that it's better to point out a mistake and let the author figure out how to fix it then try and preempt a mistake and potentially stop growth through hand holding.

[SwimmingDalek98]

3438097 Not really 'grilling', more like pop quizzing… POP QUIZ!

[D48]

This was a good chapter as usual, although Vinyl and Octavia really stole the show there.

[Bazing]

That was awesome

[Raistlin]

3433139

“Cover the land, my herd! Expose their terror! Reveal their hatred! Bring them destruction! Freeze Equestria!”

Worse, He is calling the three Prime Evils! Guess who are going to be the final bosses.

[VampDash]

3461981 WE ARE LEGION!

[Blankscape]

I'm considering changing to a smaller, roughly 9K words per chapter but with more frequent updates, now my semester is over for the year. Any thoughts on the matter?

Please do. Anything over 20k would be too much for me to take in one sitting

[InOpperable]

Season 4 aired today and the part where Twilight was grabbed by the vines reminded me a lot of Chapter 5.

[Frazzled Pony]

As always, you write awesome chapters. Ardleon is a great villain, classic, badly fallen angel, and the utter idiocy and hypocrisy of his actions really makes me look forward to him getting his comeuppance at some point.

You have quite a few things in this chapter that made me raise an eyebrow. A letter too much or a missing word here and there.
Here is the ones that were bad enough that I took notice:

" ‘So long as the windigoes are no longer immune to love and friendship, freeing the ponies here will just mean the windigoes will prey upon them.’ " You seem to have mixed up "So long as the windigoes are no longer susceptible to love..." and "so long as the windigoes are immune to love..." Also, if you use the first one, you should go with "are not susceptible..."

"They did not throw themselves at a barrier, dying merely to weaken it. They did not sacrifice themselves.
But these ones were."
This ought to be "these ones did." That connects better to the previous sentence. Either that or "these one were doing just that."

“Tell me I’ll be safer with you, the super powerful unicorn and her awesome friends, or in a town where the windigoes can just ignore all the stuff that is meant to stop them. Go on, tell me.” Again, the phrasing is really wonky. It should at least be "tell me, will I be safer with you..." or you should go with "Tell me I'll be safer in a town.... than with you, the super powerful unicorn and her awesome friends. Go on, tell me." That last one actually seems the closest to what I suspect you meant.

"Caramel, who made his own horseshoes, had apparently began to read up on it after Paladin’s inquiry" Pretty sure it's "had begun", with a "u".

" struggling to keep a whole of the broken weapon and keep his " Think you meant "a hold of the weapon" or "a hold on the weapon."0

There were a few more, but until the first of the ones I noticed here, they were minor enough that I didn't bother. Then I noted one down, and thought I might as well note down a few more. But considering that this chapter is a mountain of text, like all the others, it is impressive that you probably have less than twenty things I take issue with.

Now, on to the next chapter.

[Frazzled Pony]

3530761

I thought the exact same thing. Kinda awesome to have a real visual on it now.

[Adixon524]

cleary this is not an in game trope to relate to diablo 3 or anythin right ? i will asume wroung why cause you have to
kill this fuker any way

[Sketch Scribbles]

Ardleon's ruthlessness and blind unyielding hate would make Mephisto proud to have such a genocidal sucessor.
Also, Holy crap this fic is long, how many more chapters are there?!

[TheDerpySoupCan]

Still waiting on them to form their own version of voltron and give Paladin his power back... somehow