Justice Itself

by Autocharth

Act III - Ch. 26 Breaking The Ice

Chapter 26 Breaking The Ice

***

The entirety of Headtown, such as it was, gathered to see them off the next day. That is to say, they first saw off Rainbow Dash, who lapped up the attention like a cat being served the finest of milk, all the while sitting on the lap of someone who really didn’t like cats, which everypony knows is cat heaven. Once she was seen off, they sat down for a bit of an outdoors breakfast. After surviving an attack by a swarm of mythical monsters of frost and snow, many ponies suddenly found a good reason to celebrate life. Largely this was the fact they still had that life to celebrate which, it was widely agreed, was something very worth celebrating. A communal breakfast, cooked over fires and in the nearest homes, shared with their saviours seemed just the thing.

Cabbage featured heavily in the menu, which was probably one reason why Rainbow Dash had been so eager to start. There was only so much cabbage a mare could take. At least there was for this mare, and frankly it wasn't much.

Twilight occupied the middle of the town square, her horn aglow with magic. A ring of stones marked the off-limits space where she conducted her work, softly humming runes of magenta light forming around her. A discerning eye with the right magical leanings might have recognised them as similar to those in the mage chamber in distant Canterlot. That room was prominent in her mind in fact, her thoughts picking apart the arcane designs and analysing the magic that had transported her from Canterlot to Ponyville. She was certain she could refine the slapdash job of yesterday’s teleportation. With the hours they had until Rainbow Dash reached the next town, she was going over everything she had done very, very carefully. A book floated next to her, which she stopped to consult every so often. It had nothing at all to do with her spellwork, but Twilight wasn’t going to have any other chance to peruse it.

Her horn’s glow began to increase as another of the foals who were far too interested reached in to poke a glowing rune, but Spike got there first.

“Hey! No touchy!” The little dragon stood in his way, hands on hips with a frown on his face. “Twilight is doing very important magic, so no going over the rocks, got it?”

As impressive as a baby dragon was to such isolated ponies, some children were not so easily cowed. The filly scowled mightily, as only a child who had decided they were old enough to be indignant at being treated like a child could, and said “Why shouldn’t we?”

Spike grinned, showing all his teeth.

“Because,” he said with an ominous chuckle. “If you do, you might turn inside out! With your guts going blerg and icky stuff bubbling and-”

Twilight facehoofed, but a little smile creeped onto her face as she focused on her work. When Spike couldn’t directly help, he still made himself useful where he could. She cast her gaze about, looking across the square. The day’s work had, for a while, been put on hold. The ponies here seemed determined to get to know the ones who had helped them, and in turn the mares had found themselves enjoying the chance to think about something other than the looming winter doom and, in one case, extreme worry for Paladin.

A farmer among farmers, Applejack was engaged in a fierce discussion that contained good-natured bickering, bragging, exchange of stories on farming disasters and sharing of farming techniques.

“-and these fellas, Ah have ta admit they brewed up a mighty fine cider, but Ah put that fence up myself, an’ Granny don’t take disrespect lyin’ down,” she was busy telling a number of serious looking stallions and mares who had cutie marks related to farming or cabbages, or both, who nodded.

“My granny never did take no disrespect. Why, we once had a griffon stealing cabbages and what did she do? Took a frying pan and chased the thief away!” one pony volunteered, to general agreement that thieves were bad and little old grannies with heavy cooking implements and vim, or perhaps vigour, were to be feared by all of reasonable intelligence.

Rarity, meanwhile, was taking the chance to do what she did best; fashion! When there wasn’t much cabbage based industry to do, it wasn’t uncommon for ponies to go about getting their winter clothes fixed up. Considering the abrupt oncoming of an early winter, very early indeed, several foresighted ponies had brought out worn clothes to give them a fix up in the sunshine. Despite the rather rural and, to be frank, practical nature of the work and garments Rarity had taken to it like a duck to water, or to something that was the next best thing to water. It was reasonably watery, although not quite the water that Rarity, as a duck, would have taken to.

Ducks and water aside, Rarity was ensuring that come next winter, Headtown would be the most fashionable rural cabbage farming village in the region, make no mistake!

“My word yes, this colour will look fabulous on you! The design is both fashionable and practical!” She beamed as the first of the ponies she had pressganged into modeling their redesigned winter wardrobe trotted past with a poleaxed expression. Rarity had something of an effect when determined to do her duty as a fashionista to these poor, fashion-blind ponies in need. With such motivation, she became something of a force of nature, save that the ponies she happened to came out of the process feeling better and looking the better.

Chuckling, Twilight looked away from Rarity. She had no trouble finding Pinkie Pie. She was, after all, Pinkie Pie. Grabbing attention was something she did without meaning to, a bright bouncing spot of pink constantly moving, constantly doing something to make somepony smile or get giggles out of.

Less active was Fluttershy. Twilight watched her, frowning. Fluttershy was smiling, but she kept glancing northward. A certain bit of only-between-friends gossip Rarity had shared wriggled its way to Twilight’s attention. Dismissing it, mostly, Twilight abandoned her work to check on the pegasus. Fluttershy looked up, offering Twilight a small smile.

“Oh, hello Twilight. How is your, um, magic going?”

“Quite well, thank you. How are you? You seemed a bit lonely over here on your own,” Twilight sat next to her, her tone’s curiosity matched by her expression.

"I'm alright. It's very nice here. I can feel their love, and how happy they are together, and their gratitude. It's..." the demure pegasus shook her head, speechless for a moment. "I don't think I could begin to describe how it feels, really."

Twilight’s eyes lit up. "Really? I never did get much chance to study the effect of Paladin’s essence on us, it was right on my list until all this-" she waved a hoof at the grey clouds hovering at the very edge of the horizon, "-happened. Your extrasensory abilities are the most remarkable of all."

"But Rainbow Dash can teleport, that must be much more fascinating," Fluttershy protested with a delicate flush.

"Incredible for a pegasus, but I'm familiar with translocation magic," Twilight answered. "A pegasus with external reaching empathic power, however..."

"Applejack’s armour is amazing, she wasn't pushed back an inch," Fluttershy went on quickly.

Twilight nodded, and said "the principles behind the conversion of mental fortitude to physical power has been theorised and I suspect I know where to begin in studying her. Speaking of studying, your-"

"Pinkie Pie’s voice can make ponies do things, surely that's more important," Fluttershy cut in. The pegasus had a faint air of desperation about her now, as if finally realising that something inevitable was, in fact, inevitable.

Frowning at the clearly evasive maneuvers her friend was taking in this conversation, Twilight again answered, "Compulsion magic is unusual, but well understood, and I need to have a talk with her about when it's appropriate to use it on other ponies. Her ability to emit cohesive blasts of kinetic energy is unusual in occurrence, but application and result are simple to understand."

"Uh, Rarity-”

“Also has a very amazing ability, yes. Fluttershy, do you not want to know more about your power? Paladin has given us this amazing gift, but you don’t seem to want me to do anything about it,” Twilight said, frowning. “What’s wrong?”

“There’s nothing wrong, I just don’t think what I can do is all that important. I mean, you girls are all doing such impressive things.” Looking away, Fluttershy let the peace of celebrating ponies drift over her like a warm, reassuring blanket.

Twilight raised an eyebrow quizzically. “You don’t think being able to know what others are feeling, resist the negative emotional force of the windigoes and channel positive emotions into supernatural power is important or impressive?”

“Oh, well, when you put it like that….” Fluttershy hesitated. “I...I’m not sure I want to know more about it. When I think about it, I feel like I stole this gift from Paladin. I’m getting to feel such wonderful things, and he isn’t.”

Shaking her head, Twilight rested a hoof on Fluttershy’s shoulder, drawing her gaze back to her. “That’s not how it worked, Fluttershy. Everything we know indicates that while there are some things, like Applejack’s armour, that are directly drawn from his previous ‘existence’, most aren’t. It’s all sort of...metaphorical, I suppose.”

Fluttershy fell silent for a moment, and Twilight just sat there. She wasn’t going to rush her friend on such an important topic. They watched the ponies around them, letting the simple joy they saw wash over them. Even without empathic magic it was refreshing, reinvigorating. It reminded Twilight of the ponies all over Equestria they were doing this for.

“You’ve had magic all your life,” Fluttershy said at last. “All this is different, when you’ve never been...powerful. Everypony seems to be adjusting to it so easily, like it was meant to be. Rainbow Dash treats teleporting like a new trick, and Rarity is so delighted at being able to find any little flaw. Pinkie Pie is….Pinkie Pie. You’re all using your gifts like you’ve always had them. But...I’m not used to this. Twilight, I can feel what everypony is feeling. All the time. I ignore it all as hard as I can, because if I don’t I’m going to be feeling what I shouldn’t feel.”

Twilight’s eyebrows shot up. She had no idea about this, or at least no idea about its extent. She knew Fluttershy had some trouble blocking out the emotions of random ponies, but she had seemed fine.

“You’ve been acting like nothing is wrong,” Twilight said.

“Because I’m trying not to think about it. Twilight, I don’t like it. I...I have power now, and what if I do something wrong with it?” the pegasus asked, fear colouring her voice. She had to fight to keep it to herself, keeping it from leaking into the link between them.

“But the Elements of Harmony! Fluttershy, that’s power as well, but you’ve been alright with that. Well, you haven’t been this unhappy about it, have you?” asked Twilight, her tone laced with worry for her friend.

Fluttershy shook her head. “It’s not the same. We share that. I know I can do it with my friends, and know we’re doing the right thing. But this...this is just me. Nopony to share the power with. Nopony to share the responsibility with. It’s based on me, on my judgements...a-and I’m not sure I’m up to it. I’m not sure I deserve it.”

Silent for a moment, Twilight replied with a sigh and a soft smile. “Fluttershy…”

“Y-yes?” Fluttershy drew back slightly, almost as though she expected Twilight to be upset.

“...you just proved that you do deserve it, if anypony needed any evidence.”

Fluttershy blinked. “...um...what?”

Twilight gave a light laugh. “Fluttershy, the fact you’re so concerned about making a mistake with such power is a sign that you’re the right kind of pony to have it. Somepony who is certain that everything they do is right is the wrong pony to give power to. There’s no room for mistakes or errors in judgement with a pony like that. But you want to use it right, use it properly, and you know the weight of the responsibility such power puts on you. If somepony doesn’t feel that weight, they don’t deserve it.”

Fluttershy sat there, still and quiet, absorbing the information.

“My magic is the same. It always has been. I’m a powerful unicorn, but that means I have more responsibility to use it well. Do you know who taught me that?”

“...the....the Princess?” Fluttershy whispered.

Twilight nodded. “Yes. I’ve made mistakes, been too sure that my magic can solve problems without thinking about how I’m using it. But I always try to do better, because if I stop trying, I won’t be worthy of having such magic. You, Fluttershy, are the most deserving pony I know. Paladin, I’m sure, would agree.”

Fluttershy cringed, as if hoping Paladin wouldn’t be brought up. “I’m not really sure about that…”

“I am. Paladin would be proud that you’re putting so much thought into using the gift he gave you properly,” Twilight told her. They both looked north-east, in the direction Paladin surely was. They sat in silence together for a while, just taking comfort in each other’s presence.

“He’s out there, Twilight, I can feel it. I don’t want to pry where I’m not wanted, but it’s so hard not to feel some of his emotions, even from this distance. How could he get so far ahead of us?” Fluttershy asked.

Twilight frowned, saying after a moment, “I’m not sure. He could have left before we began moving, and he was further north than us, just slightly. He would have to fly all day to keep ahead of how far we teleported.” She grimaced. “Which sounds like him, I would think.”

Fluttershy agreed, sighing as she did so. If there was one thing Paladin was capable of, it was determination. When it wasn’t blunted by questions on his own nature, his purpose or other philosophical madness, Paladin’s determination to follow a course of action was formidable. She could easily see him forcing himself to fly for hours at a time without rest, wings beating a relentless pace.

“We’ll find him,” Twilight promised her. “He won’t face Ardleon alone. Even if he was acting a bit...well, even then, he’s our friend. We’ll be there for him. Of course, to do that we need to catch up with him first, so I guess I better get back to work.”

Fluttershy followed her gaze to the magical arrangement. Spike was facing the challenge of even more foals, and there was only so far his little arms could spread to stop them. The mares giggled at his determined if futile struggle.

“Thank you, Twilight. This talk has helped,” Fluttershy murmured. She didn’t put her feelings into further words, simply sending them directly to Twilight.

Her friend smiled, enjoying the sensation. She couldn’t send her feelings back the same way, but she pushed at them. After a moment, Twilight was sure Fluttershy picked up on them. Trotting back to the circle, Twilight murmured back.

“No need to thank me. It’s what friends do.”

***

“You can come out, you know,” Paladin called. He sat next to the small stream, the fresh water refilling his supplies. Just as the last few times, the griffon failed to reply. She remained on the other side of the hill, panting.

He glanced in her direction for a moment before shaking his head. She seemed determined to not acknowledge that he knew she was following him. She had eaten the food he left out the night before. Or an animal had. Paladin had no way of determining the truth. He hoped she had been the one to take the rations he had left out.

“I’m going to rest a while before I continue on my way. The water is clean, I have refilled my waterskins, and if you wish a drink or to bathe before I resume my journey, it is free to be used.” His part said, Paladin began to repack his supplies. After a moment, the griffon emerged.

Gilda walked past, not glancing his way in the slightest. It was as if she couldn’t see him.

“Pride,” he said, “is a dangerous thing.”

She ignored him, lowering her head to the stream and sticking her beak into it.

“It can drive you to push yourself beyond your abilities, to hurt yourself. Pride can only sustain you so long, and it cannot heal wings strained beyond use,” he continued.

Gilda glanced up for a moment before focusing on the water. She reached in, splashing the fresh water onto herself and trying to clean the dirt from her feathers. This was not a conversation she needed to actively participate in, as far as she could tell.

“Pride,” Paladin went on, his voice quiet and solemn. He took a breath, as though something hurt him to think about. “Pride can cost you friends.”

She looked up for just a moment before lowering her head. Paladin gazed into the distance, her reaction only a minor note as his thoughts plagued him.

‘I do what is needed. There is no pride in my decision,’ he told himself.

“...who needs friends…”

Paladin’s ears twitched and he looked up, frowning at Gilda. She gave no sign of having spoken, but she had. He got the sense she regretted it, running a claw through her ruffled wings.

He answered, “Everyone,” his voice heavy with feeling.

She didn’t reply, save for a disbelieving snort. Gilda curled up by the stream, head on the ground as she glared at nothing at all. When he left a short while later, she resisted the temptation for all of two minutes before getting up with a growl and taking to the air after him. She didn’t need friends, she reminded herself, but some company would be nice.

***

Rainbow Dash soared across the forest, the snow-tipped trees giving her a healthy case of the heeby-jeebies. Her rainbow contrail described a straight cut above the wide forest she had come across only minutes ago. Her wings pumped, keeping her moving without straining her body. Regardless of what some ponies might say, she understood the concept of restraint. Restraint meant she could fly longer and further without exhausting herself again.

‘I should be there soon. I better be there soon, damn it,’ Rainbow Dash grumbled to herself. The jumper Fluttershy had knitted her kept her surprisingly toasty as she flitted above the frozen landscape, even the wing-sheaths keeping her favourite limbs warm without interfering with flight. She had no idea how, but she really didn’t care.

The forest broke ahead, and she grinned widely as the town came into sight. Her grin died as quickly as it appeared, however, as she saw the town.

It was very different from Headtown. It was, for one thing, an actual town. From above it looked nearly the size of Ponyville. Unlike Headtown, and Ponyville, it was covered in ice. Snow stacked between the buildings, filling the lanes and streets, while the buildings themselves were sheeted in thick, glacial ice. No sounds greeted her arrival, no ponies called welcomes. Nothing. She flew over it slowly, looking for any sign of life.

“Creepy,” she murmured.

Rainbow Dash was not as alone as she thought. Something stared at her from the darkness, it’s eyes glittering with amusement. At the edge of the town, somepony else did the same save that amusement was replaced with annoyance. Emerald green eyes narrowed, a growl escaping the mare as she watched the rainbow maned pegasus.

“Of all the…” the hidden mare scowled. There was nothing she could do now.

These were only two of the beings who watched her. The rest rose all at once as Rainbow Dash began to wheel around above the town square. Ghostly forms emerged from the buildings, leaving their hidden feasts. A shiver ran down Rainbow Dash’s spine, colour draining from her face as she looked at the sea of windigoes surrounding her.

“...pony feathers.”

She focused on the town square, her wings lighting up. For such a long jump it took her longer to marshal the energy she needed. Time was not something she had in great reserves, as the suddenly charging swarm of windigoes showed. Her wool-encased wings snapped shut, dropping into a dive below the herd. They opened an instant later, carrying her above the piled up snow with only inches between her hooves and the icy white slush.

“Heh, stupid windigoes, trying to catch me in the sk- ah!” she pulled up, narrowly avoiding the bite of a windigo that erupted from the snow below. She kicked it in the face and flew on, yelping as she dodged another.

Wings beating hard, she dodged and evaded, her eyes widening as more and more streamed towards her. Rainbow Dash threw herself into a quick teleport, flashing from the town to the edge of the forest. She came into existence right in front of mound of snow. Snow went in every direction.

Rainbow Dash spat a mouthful of snow out. “Pony feathers,” she repeated. A moment of cursing her luck later, she sat up. Even sitting on the snow she didn’t feel cold, despite the fact that side of her was exposed.

Looking towards the town, Rainbow Dash sent a smirk towards it.

“Watch out fellas,” she taunted the distant herd. “I’m not done with you.”

She shivered, ruining her smirk. Wings twitching, she frowned in confusion at the cause.

The windigo that had been sleeping in the snow mound rose silently. It swirled above her, opening its maw hungrily as it prepared to bite down.

A sharp snap-hiss sound was its first warning.

An emerald green glow was the second, the light’s colour casting the snow into toxic slush, turning Dash’s head. Her eyes widened at the windigo poised to attack her, and for a moment she was too shocked to react. Had she been alone, she would have found herself at the windigoes’ hungry mercy, or rather, lack thereof.

A blade of light sliced into the windigo from behind, cutting into its ghost-flesh. Though the green beam did nothing to harm it, the cowardly beast pulled back into the sky, neighing fiercely. Before she could react, a pale orange hoof was pulling Rainbow Dash into the forest.

“H-hey! Who’re you?” she demanded, and was promptly ignored.

“Get moving!” barked a unicorn mare, a beam of green magic rising through her red mane. “I can’t hurt it, just surprise it!”

The windigo had come to the same conclusion and fell down towards them with its maw opened in a hateful whinny. The mare snarled a curse, aiming her spell blade at the oncoming monster. She barely felt the hoof wrapping around her neck as Rainbow Dash tackled her before the windigo vanished in a flash.

The pair landed in a pile, rolling through the snowy forest floor. The unicorn’s saber of light flickered off, revealing the horn it had been born from. She grunted, pushing Rainbow Dash off her without a word. Rolling onto her front, she looked around suspiciously while one hoof brushed snow from her thick winter garments and the scarf around her neck.

“What was that?”

Rainbow Dash sat up, snorting. “I teleported us, duh,” she said as though it was incredibly obvious.

“That’s impossi- damn it, get moving! We’re not far away, and it can still sense us! Get moving!” she repeated harshly. Without waiting for a reply, the unicorn shoved Rainbow Dash into action. The howl of the windigo wasn’t far off, and it was soon picked up by even more distant frost wraiths. Further away, but far greater in number. That decided Rainbow Dash on the issue of whether to argue or follow. She took off, flying along next to the mysterious mare.

A shadow moved through the forest, following their every step. Leathery wings were hinted at with faint sounds as the creature moved in pursuit. It never let them leave its sight, watching with the most sinister of interests. Windigoes streamed towards the same pair it stalked, but it paid them little mind and they paid the mysterious presence none at all.

“Whoa, look out!” Rainbow Dash stopped, looking down at the snow lined gully before them. “Be careful!”

Rather than take notice, the heavily garbed unicorn jumped partway down the slope. She skated the rest of the way, balancing smoothly, adjusting her hooves like an acrobat. She looked across the bottle of the gully, her gaze stopping on the shadowy alcove formed by a stump and the fallen trunk that had once been towering from it.

“We can’t out-run them, we’ll have to hide. Unless you can teleport us away,” she challenged, galloping for it. Rainbow Dash joined her inside, wrapping a wing around her strange new ally.

“Yeah yeah, just gimme a sec…” Rainbow dash muttered, trying to focus. Long range ports were taking a lot more effort and concentration than short range, and each time the windigoes howled it threw her off. The glow of her wings flickered whenever she lost control. “Darn...come on…”

Neither noticed the shadow slipping in from beneath, creeping beneath the fallen trunk. The darkness concealing them changed imperceptibly, becoming deeper and somehow darker. To them, nothing changed save a hissed order from the unicorn telling Dash to stop making the light as the windigoes’ howls got closer. From outside, the makeshift cave was simply empty shadow.

The first windigo hurtled over the lip of the gully, turning glaring blue eyes about. They washed over the trunk. Rainbow Dash didn’t flinch, forcing herself to remain completely still. The unicorn did the same. For one breathless moment, its gaze swept over them. The moment passed as it kept going, and with a hateful niegh, it took off deeper into the forest.

Rainbow Dash let out a sigh of relief, only to find a hoof where no hoof had been a second before. The unicorn glared at her over the hoof clamping Dash’s mouth shut. An angry protest rose to her mouth, on the tip of her tongue, when the air above the gully suddenly became rather more wintery. The windigo herd streamed past, howls and whinnies screaming from them. It was over in under half a minute, yet seemed to stretch for far, far longer.

When at last the windigoes were gone, she removed her hoof.

“Jade Facade,” the mare said by way of greeting. She stepped out cautiously, then nodded. “They’re gone. Come on.”

“Whoa, hold on! Why should I go anywhere with you? I could just get my friends and bring them back here!” Rainbow Dash pointed out, glaring into Jade Facade’s green eyes.

The mare shrugged. “You could. If you mean to teleport them back here, however, I imagine they would find it less than pleasing if they landed between the herd of windigoes and the town they will inevitably return to.” Although not overtly hostile, there was a flat note of annoyance at having to deal with this in her voice.

She made a good point, but Rainbow Dash wasn’t about to admit that. Instead she harrumphed and tried to think of something else to do.

“Of course,” Jade went on, “You could follow me to where my employer is waiting, out of the way of the herd’s return path and somewhere safe to bring your friends to.”

“I don’t know who you are, lady, even with a name...but you did help me,” Rainbow Dash admitted reluctantly.

“I did. Now come on, if you’re coming. Unless you want to bring your friends to join all the ponies in town as living ice sculptures…”

Rainbow Dash glared at her, flying after her. “I get it, okay? Geez.”

Jade Facade led the way, setting a pace Rainbow Dash had little trouble matching. The unicorn mare was alert to the smallest sign of danger, and insisted that Rainbow Dash remain below the treetops.

“They can’t seem to precisely sense a pony without being in relatively close range, but they can still see you if you fly too high,” Jade insisted.

The pegasus just rolled her eyes. She was tempted to point out to Jade that they had totally missed them when they were hiding, but with a sigh she decided not to. It was probably just another weird perk of getting a dose of angel direct to the soul. She itched to go to her friends, but despite the mare’s rudeness, Jade Facade had saved her and Rainbow Dash was willing to extend a little trust in her direction.

A gully much like the one they had hidden in was their destination, half an hour after they set off. It ran deep, almost a miniature canyon that ended in a roughly hewn cave. The fact it was a cave was not, at first, apparent. From above it seemed to be just a rocky cliff-face, the formations of stone creating an optical illusion from all directions but directly in front. Past that, Jade pushed her way through a black sheet that went from wall to wall deeper inside.

“We’re here,” she said, somewhat needlessly, as she shoved the sheet aside. Rainbow Dash followed her in, and her eyes widened.

A little fire blazed merrily in the centre of the naturally formed chamber, all the more cheerful for the lack of choking smoke. A pony sat before it, a pony who smiled widely at the sight of them. He stood, giving Rainbow Dash a rather courtly bow. If Rarity had been there, she might have described him as roguish, a handsome devil with the emphasis on devil, a dashing scoundrel or any of another dozen overly romantic things.

“Ah! What a surprise,” he greeted her. His eyes darted to the side, to a golden case like a pocket watch or compass, before he focused on her again. “Yes, a surprise. Where are my manners? I am Wild Card. It’s a pleasure to meet another pony who isn’t frozen. Now there’s two of us.”

Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but crack a grin. There was something she liked about this pony. She shot her guide a smirk. “Two? Aren’t you forgetting somepony?”

“Jade is many things, Miss Dash, but warm is not among them. She has come into this wintry crisis pre-frozen, as it were,” Wild Card answered with a chuckle. Jade Facade took it well, it must be said, with a mere sigh of disgust and a shake of her head.

“Heh, I got that impression...wait, how did you know my name? I haven’t introduced myself!” Rainbow Dash’s wings flared and she drew back, her gaze now wary.

He held up a placating hoof, sitting back down next to his smokeless fire. “Yes, it seems not. I rather enjoy learning things, and one of the Elements of Harmony, a pegasus who can perform the near-mythical Sonic Rainboom? I would be very remiss if I learned nothing of you. You are a very unique pony.”

Rainbow Dash preened, settling back down at the flattery. “Yeah, I guess I am,” she said with as much modesty as she could manifest, which was roughly enough to fill a thimble. “Unique, hay yeah I am. Only dad has a mane like me.”

“I see. Would you perhaps mean Bifrost? I once had a busin-” Wild Card came to a stop as Jade coughed with about as much discreetness as Rainbow Dash had modesty. “Forgive me, I seem to be wandering from the point. Two windigo attacks in as many days can do that to a pony.”

“Two? Oh, yeah, the town! What happened there? We were gonna make a stop there, but it's full of windigoes!” Dash let this matter pull her attention from the mention of her father. She had more important things to discuss right now.

Wild Card sighed. “Jade and I had the same idea, but unfortunately a windigo attack a few hours ago made things complicated. We only escaped because the windigoes were much more interested in going after groups of ponies. With just the two of us, we were of little interest.”

Thinking hard, Rainbow Dash mulled over the issue. She knew they were short on time, with Paladin being somewhere between them and Ardleon, but this was a whole town of ponies frozen and feeding windigoes. They couldn’t just skip out on them!

‘We helped Headtown,’ she reminded herself. ‘So we’ll help these ponies too!’

“Alright, this isn’t standing! I’ll be back soon, with reinforcements! Don’t go anywhere!” With that declaration, Rainbow Dash began to concentrate on Headtown’s little town square, her mind firmly on the spot Twilight had her memorise. A glow overtook her wings, and they seemed to grow longer, larger, their shape changing slightly as she built up the energy for a long range jump.

Wild Card backed up, his expression wary. On Dash’s other side, Jade Fire lowered her head, keeping her horn ready and their guest in sight. She recalled Rainbow Dash’s claim to teleport, and dismissed it as a cocky flier talking her up own speed at about the same time as the pegasus flashed and vanished from the cave with the faint pop of air rushing to fill the vacuum she left.

“..huh, she wasn’t lying.” Jade Fire lifted her head, cool as ice.

Shaking his head, Wild Card gave her a genuine smile. “This is going to be even more interesting than I thought.”

Rainbow Dash reappeared soon enough, but not alone. Twilight Sparkle glanced through the small chamber, giving Wild Card and Jade Facade a smile of greetings.

“These are the two I told ya about,” Rainbow Dash gestured, mopping sweat from her brow with a wing. “Oof, that was one long ‘port.”

“Take a minute to rest, okay? Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle, thank you very much for helping Rainbow Dash,” she said brightly. Her smile turned into a thoughtful look. “I feel like I’ve seen you somewhere before, actually.”

Wild Card smiled at her, a smile that hinted that he knew far more about you then you knew about him, and that it would stay that way. “I lived in Canterlot for a time. You might say I made a trade on knowledge.”

“Oh. Oh! Of course! Well, I have been to every bookstore in Canterlot. I’m glad you two were here, especially you Miss Jade. Rainbow Dash didn’t say it, exactly, but I got the impression you helped her quite significantly,” Twilight turned to the other mare with another smile. Wild Card made no move to correct Twilight’s assumption.

It died slightly in the face of Jade Facade’s frosty expression. There was something imperious about the unicorn, intimidating even when she was just standing there.

“Wonderful,” said Jade in a tone that indicated it really wasn’t. “Do you have a way to deal with the windigoes in town?”

“Uh, yes. Well, I think I do. I just need to get a good idea about this room, and I can teleport the others to here.” Twilight looked about the chamber. She memorised it, visualising the circle back in Headtown and laying that image over it. It was a little on the small side here, but so long as she positioned the teleportation right she was confident she could do it.

A flash of Twilight’s horn materalised glowing magenta runes across the floor of the cave. Seven unique marks appeared, and Wild Card looked on in fascination as Twilight moved them about. Jade watched as well, though less obviously. She kept one eye on that and the other on Rainbow Dash. The pegasus seemed to find the whole thing tiresome.

“Those seven marks show where we’ll appear, please keep them clear or it could mess up the spell,” Twilight made the request as she motioned for Rainbow Dash to come to her. “Long range teleportation is very tricky.”

“You can trust us,” Wild Card assured her.

“I’m sure we can. Are you ready, Rainbow Dash?” Twilight looked at her friend, just in time to realise Rainbow Dash’s wings had begun to glow.

“Better question is, Twilight,” Rainbow Dash began with a grin. One hoof wrapped around Twilight’s shoulder and they vanished in a burst of light.

***

“Are you ready?” Rainbow Dash finished. They were in the centre of the circle Twilight had laid in Headtown, their appearance heralded by a great golden flare. Releasing her friend she grinned, lowering her wings in a bow to the impressed ponies. “The one and only Rainbow Dash, the ‘porting pegasus pony!”

As though summoned by alliteration in place of unholy unspeakable chanting, Pinkie Pie appeared next to her. She inhaled, apparently ready to burst into song with her friend’s return. Rainbow Dash proved her wings to be even more multipurpose, one slapping over Pinkie’s muzzle.

“No time for a song Pinkie, we gotta get going again. There’s a whole town of ponies who’ve been frozen and...and…” Rainbow Dash frowned, glancing over at Twilight. “Uh, Twilight, last time I felt like I was gonna vomit after two ‘ports that far carrying you. I feel a bit, I dunno, queasy? Queasish? Something, I don’t know, but not as bad. Weird.”

“First things first, Rainbow Dash,” Twilight told her.”’Queasish’ is not a word, and should never ever be a word. As for how you’re doing better this time around, I suppose practice makes perfect’.”

That was not a wholly accurate way to describe Twilight’s main theory, but frankly she had a feeling she would be wasting time, and so something that sounded enough like it to get the idea across while not actually really explaining it would have to do. Rainbow Dash proved Twilight’s expectations were spot on, accepting it with a grin.

“Awesome. Well girls, and Spike, technically, we gotta go.” The others had gathered upon her arrival, and Rainbow Dash was happy to be the centre of attention.

“‘Bout time! What’s this about a town of ponies? Sounds like we gotta do some more savin’,” Applejack said with a flash of determination in her eyes.

Rarity flipped her mane, stepping into the circle. “Wonderful darling, we have everything ready to go, and not a minute too soon! If there are ponies in need, we must do our best. Thank you for everything, everypony, and I do hope you feel more fashionable this winter.”

Dragging her saddlebags in and putting them on, Fluttershy gave a very, very, very small goodbye wave like her friends. The ponies of Headtown were gathering around the circle, calling out thanks and good byes to their departing saviours.

“R-remember everypony, th-think happy thoughts, if that’s okay with you,” she mumbled. A few seemed to have heard, and that was good enough for Fluttershy.

“Bye everypony! Bye Green Rows. Bye Muck Shovel. Bye Tall Stems. Bye -” Pinkie went on and on, saying goodbye to every single pony there. It wasn’t quite as bad as it could have been, considering the size of Headtown.

Just as Twilight’s spell began, the glow building up, Spike looked at Rainbow Dash.

“Wait, ‘girls, and Spike, technically,’? What’s that supposed to mean?!”

The ponies of Headtown would never know, given that a moment later the six ponies and one dragon were gone, but in the years to come local legends and rumor mills would provide plenty of answers. Some were believable, some were not, and some were the kind that were not to be spoken lightly and would have left Spike severely scarred if he were to return and inquire about them.

***

“I didn’t mean anything by it,” Rainbow Dash announced to the cave. She stumbled, using Applejack for support. The farmer chuckled, letting the pegasus take a moment to get her hooves back under her before letting her go without saying a word.

“If you didn’t mean anything, why say it? What did you mean, ‘technically’? How does that even…” Spike looked away from her, blinking as he stared at the new pony. “Hi.”

Jade stared down at him, a slight widening of her eyes indicating her surprise. “...hello.” She inclined her head minutely in what was probably a greeting.

“Howdy there partner,” Applejack extended her hoof to the nearest pony. Wild Card took it with a smile. “Name’s Applejack. Ah’m guessin’ there’s a reason y’all are where Twilight brought us, an’ probably ta do with the town we heard about, right?”

“Pleased to meet you. I am Wild Card. I believe it would be best to let you all settle down from such a long range teleportation first,” Wild Card suggested. He snapped shut his golden cased compass, smiling to himself in a way that was altogether too knowing for anypony who noticed it to be comfortable. “A pleasure to meet you all. This is my associate Jade Facade.”

“Hmm, darling, what a lovely mane you have.. It goes wonderfully with your eyes,” Rarity leaned over, inspecting the new ponies. “Rarity, at your service.”

Wild Card’s eyes widened. The signs of his surprise being fake were visible to only a single pony there, and Jade wasn’t about to share that with them.

“Not the Rarity, surely? Designer of Sapphire Shores’ wardrobe? The esteemed dressmaker who clothed Princess Cadence for her wedding? Not that Rarity, surely,” he spoke in a tone of disbelief.

She blushed slightly, but soaked it up the implicit awe like a sponge. “Well, I do hate to blow my own trumpet but I am that Rarity, yes,” she confirmed.

Wild Card tapped his chin thoughtfully, running his gaze over the others. “Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Rarity...why, Jade, I do believe we’re in the company of the Elements of Harmony!”

Jade Facade managed to look entirely unimpressed. She did, however, twitch, but then there was a good chance that was because of the pink pony clamped to her in an inescapable death hug. This may have been the cause of the twitch, but technically it’s possible it was something else.

“What tipped you off,” she growled, trying and failing to pry Pinkie Pie loose. Unfortunately for her, the party pony was not about to be so easily dissuade from making a new friend and invading her personal space.

“Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie! It’s nice to meet you!”

“Hello. Let go,” Jade ordered.

Pinkie beamed. “Aww, but then how will I get to know my new friend?”

“Why does that involve hugging? There’s an entire town of ponies frozen solid and being fed on by monsters from the founding of Equestria. Let go of me and focus on that,” hissed the irate unicorn. She was seriously tempted to ignite her horn just to make the pink pony get off her.

“Pinkie darling, she has a point. We have to do something, and quickly. We can’t ignore this, but we have to move fast,” Rarity said, taking pity on Jade. “Besides, there are two ponies you’ve never met before, are there not?”

Pinkie slowly turned her head to look at Wild Card. Her grin turned almost predatory. Wild Card felt unaccountably nervous, a reaction not even the princess could get out of him.

Jade’s frown turned upside as the pink pony became a pink blur in the second it took her to jump over to Jade’s employer and lock him in a welcoming hug.

“Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie! It’s nice to meet you!”

“Hello...as I said, I’m Wild Card,” he gave her a slightly unnerved smile. “Now that you’re all here, we need to get to work. If you six- I’m sorry, seven, have any method of driving back the windigoes I think the ponies currently freezing there would appreciate it.”

Spike, beaming widely at being included, nodded at him. “We can help! We just defended a village from windigoes, I’m sure we can clear these ones out!”

“Did you indeed? Wonderful,” Wild Card grinned. It must be said, he was doing a professional job of remaining serious despite his pink limpet. Some might find a determined pink hug-o-matic distracting, but after a moment to adjust he powered on as though this was all perfectly normal.

“If there’s ponies in need, y’all can count on us.” Shedding her saddlebags, Applejack gave them a determined nod. “Ain’t gonna leave them hangin’.”

Twilight copied Applejack. “She’s right. What can you tell us about the town?”

Emerald light, Jade's magic, formed an image above the fire. The flickering flames cast the ghostly town above into a hellish light.

“We can do better than tell you,” Wild Card said with that same all too knowing smile.

***

“Why are you following me?”

Gilda looked over her shoulder, glaring at the pegasus. “None of your business.”

He raised an eyebrow at her. “I suspect it is. I do not mind. I am simply curious.”

Huffing, Gilda turned away and went back to tearing at the fish she had caught. Paladin’s maps, which she had seen him take out a few times, had helped him find proper places to stop. Streams and rivers were, apparently, important to stop at.

“You have clearly spent some time on your own. Did meeting another soul remind you of what it was like to have company?” Paladin pressed her.

Knowing how squeamish most ponies were, she moved to expose the fish. Her beak tore into it, revealing its innards. This, Gilda was sure, would make him back off. Hopefully vomit too. Now that would knock him down a peg.

“If you do not wish to share your reasons, you need merely say. I am, I must admit, quite curious. The further we go, the more windigoes we are likely to encounter,” he went on. She saw his eyes flick to the fish, study it for a moment, and then go back to her as if he didn’t care. “It is only by some great fortune we have come across no more. I would encourage you to seek shelter in the next town or village we pass.”

Swallowing a bit of her meal, Gilda was annoyed to find him failing to react as she wanted. Even Rainbow Dash had vomited the first time she had seen Gilda do it. She had to admit the way he had saved her had been pretty cool, for a pony, but she expected some reaction from him. The annoyance ate at her resolve to not participate in conversation, and as much as she wanted to ignore him, her pride was stung by the implications of his words.

“What, think I can’t handle myself? I’ve gotten along just fine for ages! No stupid ghost ponies are going to make me run like I’m part-chicken,” she snarled.

Paladin’s eyes narrowed. “No. They will focus on your dark emotions until they are all you can feel. Then they will feed off you, leaving you trapped in ice until you starve to death. You will not have time to run.”

She scoffed, snapping up another beakful of fish, and said “What makes you so special that the same won’t happen to you, huh?”

It seemed that her demand silenced him, the dark pegasus with brilliant wings staring past her. His gaze was turned north, and for a moment the familiar pain of betrayal flashed in his eyes. She blinked and it was gone. If Gilda hadn’t known that look, hadn’t seen it in her own eyes when she went to the stream near her cave, she might have been able to convince herself it was just her imagination.

‘Pfft, he’s just some namby-pamby pony,’ she tried to tell herself. ‘What does he know about betrayal? About a friend turning against you?’

“I know more than you could possibly imagine,” he answered at last, his tone unexpectedly cold. Gilda looked up in shock as he continued, realising only too late that she had spoken aloud. “Betrayal is not something I have escaped in my life. There are few things as painful as someone you trusted turning against you.”

Gilda lowered her head, her eyes hooded. “I hear that,” she murmured, thoughts of her former best friend returning with painful force. “Betrayed me…”

“It hurts,” he said, and she had no reason to disagree. She knew it hurt. “I can understand that pain. But far worse is when you think...how could I have prevented it? What could I have done?”

“Pfft, it’s he- their fault,” Gilda scowled, glaring at the ground. She looked up at him, feeling uncharacteristically open. “When somepony turns against you, it’s not your fault. It’s theirs."

He gave her words some thought before shaking his head. “Not always. There are ways to change such fates. There is always something that I- something that could be done.”

“Whatever dude. No reason to blame yourself when it’s their fault,” Gilda grunted. She realised that, from a certain point of view, her words could be taken in some way to be sympathising or comforting him. They were not. That was far too mushy for her.

Paladin heaved a sigh, standing and preparing for departure. “Perhaps...but the thought will always be there, that regardless of blame, could I have done something? Somepony must take responsibility, why put the burden on another?”

He took off before she could reply, and swallowing the last of her fish, Gilda shot into the air after him. No way some freakishly huge pegasus was outpacing her in the skies. She pushed his words from her mind, scowling inwardly. The answer was obvious anyway.

***

“Are you certain this spell will work?” Jade asked, glancing cautiously to the skies.

Twilight nodded, then seemed to rethink it. “I’m pretty sure it will. I had to throw it together on the fly. Your Don’t Notice Me spell is quite delicate and precise already, altering it to make our presence on a non-physical level acquire the effect is very tricky.”

The flame-haired unicorn shook her head, clearly uneasy at trusting an untested spell.

“Don’t worry, Miss Jade, Twilight is very good with magic. I’m sure we’ll be fine,” Fluttershy tried to reassure her. Jade’s scepticism was evident in the look she gave the pegasus, but her caution and doubt in Twilight lessened somewhat. Only Fluttershy could tell, and she doubted Jade wanted it announced.

“I suppose so,” conceded Jade. “Princess’s student. Let’s see if you’re as good as you say then.”

“Oh, no, Twilight doesn’t really say it very often,” smiling softly, Fluttershy corrected their new ally. “She’s much too modest.”

Twilight blushed slightly. “Well, I guess. A-anyway, the spell should hold so long as we don’t do anything hugely noticeable. It shouldn’t be hard for us to find all the ponies there, and you can mark their locations?”

“Correct.” Jade Facade nodded. “We place the teleportation markers down, get out of there, and you set up that long range teleportation spell so I can retrieve them on my own.”

“But that will take you a long time, I mean, no offense…” Twilight began to cast the spell, her expression uncertain. Her aura spread over the three of them, taking care that it was well connected. It would be awkward if they had trouble noticing each other.

Jade laughed, a sedate chuckle. “None taken. I can get more than you’d expect using your long-range spell matrix once you’ve laid it down. I might not be some Canterlot magical prodigy but I am more than competent.”

“I didn’t doubt your ability, or anything,” the Canterlot magical prodigy quickly said.

Sighing, Jade shook her head. “Calm down, I didn’t think you were. Although I have to ask why she is coming?” Jade questioned, nodding towards Fluttershy as they left the treeline.

Fluttershy looked down, but before Twilight could answer for her she looked up again. “Um, because, I can...sense emotions, a-and counter what the windigoes do.”

“Even without their attention focused on us, that many windigoes all at once will be passively causing positive emotions to decrease around them, and encourage negativity,” exposited Twilight.

“Wonderful...okay, quiet now. We can’t risk making any noise to give ourselves away,” Jade warned them as they entered the limits of the town. Another spell helped them walk atop the snow. Twilight began to whisper an explanation about a variation spell designed to spread and distribute weight over wide areas like snowshoes but much more efficient, only to get a glare from Jade to shut her up.

Fluttershy silently pointed at the nearest building, and with a nod the three mares approached. The thick ice made it hard to see, so they spent a minute circling, looking through the nearly snow-hidden windows they had to crouch down to see through. At last they came across one clear enough to see, and Jade crouched down. Her horn glowed, and the frozen ponies within were marked by tiny green flashes for a moment.

“Done,” Jade whispered, and they began to move to the next building Fluttershy indicated.

The pegasus was frowning, her head down at the snow as if it concealed some mystery. She could sense despair, misery, fear and hate below her, but it was diffused, almost spread out. Halfway across the street, a yelp surprised them. Fluttershy tripped, face-planting into the thick icy snow. Jade’s eyes narrowed and she nearly growled in annoyance while Twilight rushed to help her friend up.

“S-sorry,” squeaked Fluttershy. She gratefully let Twilight help her up, glancing down. “I-I just tripped on something…”

Her pupils seemed to constrict as she stared down in horror. A piece of dark blue ice was exposed, the snow around it knocked away by the impact. Half the frozen head of a mare, everything below her eyes still buried in the snow. Those eyes, however, were wide in terror.

With the snow gone, Fluttershy suddenly felt the fear and despair in the mare below her. She pulled back as Twilight gasped, only Jade remaining silent. Hurrying her hoof through the snow, Fluttershy reached out. Focusing on the snow with, each flake was suddenly infused with darkness. Her eyes snapped open as she understood.

“Oh my goodness, Fluttershy, are you alright? How did we miss this pony?” Twilight asked nopony in particular in a whisper. Jade said nothing, marking this pony too.

“The snow, it’s...it’s muffling them, or spreading it out? All h-her emotions are being, well, absorbed by the snow. I didn’t notice, because my attention was on finding stronger emotions, I think I missed it. It’s still kind of hard to focus on the emotions in the snow. I...I concentrate, but it’s constantly slipping away,” Fluttershy frowned, eyes closing as she tried to focus.

Twilight looked up and down the streets, her horror growing. “Think of how many ponies are buried under here! There’s no way we could dig them all out without being noticed.”

“Be quiet!” Jade hissed sharply, one ear twisting to catch a sound. She pulled them both closer to her and began to back away. “I heard something, I think it’s….”

A horrendous crack filled the air, a sound sharp on the ears. Ahead of them, the ice shattered across one face of the next building, the one Fluttershy had pointed them towards. Ghostly wails began to rise from it and one of the windows gave way. A ice-sealed pony in its ethereal grasp, a windigo slithered out as snow fell in through the broken entrance. Behind it, ice once more covered the face of the building, a house. Through the thick covering of ice, the shape within was just discernible as generally stallion shaped.

Jade gave them both a look to be quiet, the three ponies going still and silent as they watched without understanding. Twilight desperately wanted to ask if either of them knew what was happening, but she didn’t dare even whisper. If the windigoes didn’t get her, Jade certainly would.

The windigo dragged its captive through the snow, cutting a deep furrow in its wake. It knickered and neighed with sadistic glee when its prize smack against ponies concealed below.

“We need to follow it,” Twilight whispered.

“Under no circumstances,” Jade hissed back.

Twilight shook her head. “We need to know what its doing. This is totally out of the ordinary for a windigo; there’s nothing about them acting like this. We need to know what is going on.”

Fluttershy’s support was obvious, despite her fearful shudder. Jade was amazed that was the closest the timid mare had gotten to shivering, despite her woolen coat leaving her legs mostly unprotected.

“Fine,” the unicorn growled, shaking her head in disapproval as they took off after it. She still forced them to make some concessions to stealth, but fortunately for them the windigo had found the sound of ice smashing against ice amusing and had slowed down to hit more things with its victim as it travelled steadily deeper into the town.

Wary of Rainbow Dash’s warning about the windigoes hiding in the snow, they followed. At the very least the snow was unable to hide slumbering windigoes. Fluttershy led them around the places she felt the concentrated hatred. Their strange snow cover might make it harder for her to find them, but Fluttershy warned them well before they passed over the creatures. Each time the windigo’s toy cracked against other captives Fluttershy winced.

It was more than a simple wince that made her pull up, stopping the two. She rubbed a hoof against her forehead.

“What’s the problem?” Jade whispered. “You did want to come all the way here, we’re nearly to the middle of town.”

Fluttershy shook her head. “I-I don’t think- it’s just...there’s a lot of them nearby. Um, a lot, a lot. Like, heaps. Just ahead.”

“A trap!” hissed Jade, taking a step back.

But Twilight frowned, for some reason not finding the idea as likely. “I’m not so sure. There’s something more here. I’m not sure what it could be-”

Her line of thought was lost as a scream shocked her into silence. From the corner around which the windigo had gone, a pony came charging out, terror written on his face. He cried out again galloping past the shocked mares. Before either Twilight or Fluttershy could try to help him, Jade held a foreleg out to bar them.

“Wait!” The command proved fortuitous, as windigoes came streaming around the same corner. They were neighing gleefully, their focus on the freed pony. Their senses passed over the three magically cloaked infiltrators, slipping past without noticing them on any level. Fluttershy certainly noticed the wave of dark emotions, the sapping of hope from the air and light from the soul. She was able to easily shield herself and the others from it, and she yearned to extend it to the poor stallion. The savage glee of the windigoes made it all too apparent what this was; a hunt.

“T-they’re hunting him…”

Jade sent her a dark look, her expression warning. The message was clear; there would be no heroics right now. It broke Fluttershy’s heart, and she had to bite her lip to keep back a whimper. She hugged close to Twilight, the weight of the world atop her as the helpless stallion ran.

“We have to do something!” she pleaded desperately, watching him run. If she just reached out, she could clear out the influence of the windigoes from his mind. The overwhelming fear and despair she could feel radiating from them was sadistic; enough to make him desperate and afraid, but not enough for him to give up. It was cruel, so very cruel and Fluttershy felt a moment of hate for such beasts.

One of the windigies paused, feeling something unfamiliar. It was...delicious. A tiny drop, the merest taste of the very best kind of hate. No hate was as filling as a loving soul driven to it, nothing as succulent as the darkness of a good heart. It inhaled deeply, seeking it. The presence of darkness made it hunger for such a rare treat, like finding a fire ruby among mud clots. Feelings their aura produced were filling and delicious, but didn’t approach what this was like. While its fellows charged on, it stopped and turned.

“...” All three mares spent a moment staring into the ominous blue eyes.

Jade promptly broke her own command, “Buck.” With a snap-hiss her horn became a laser blade of green magic, a defensive precaution she knew was futile. “Twi-”

Twilight wrapped her companions in magic, the hungry howl of the windigo calling back its herd booming in their ears. Magenta light stained the white landscape for only a moment, Twilight’s teleport whisking them from danger in an instant.

***

She had caught up with him, wings beating hard until she could relax her pace to match his. It was still a hard pace, leaving her no chance to answer. She could at least benefit from his pegasus magic. Gilda had to admit she was impressed. She knew a bit about pegasus magic, including how it worked for their flight. Rainbow Dash’s - she winced - was focused, but Paladin’s spread out. The wind around him was influenced, the very air aiding him. If she kept close enough, she benefited from it too.

“I’m glad to see you can keep up easier now,” Paladin remarked loudly, speaking over the wind as he slowed his pace slightly. Relaxing their speed enough to talk, even if just for a moment.

Gilda scowled. “I can keep up! Seriously, you might as well save your magic for yourself.”

“Magic? I am no unicorn,” was his confused answer, glancing to her with an obvious question in his eyes. He kept their pace now at this more comfortable speed, curious to what she meant.

“Weather magic, duh dude!” Gilda rolled her eyes. “You’ve got a whole damn bubble of the stuff all out, like, all the time. Don’t give me that ‘no magic’ flak, you ponies have way more than everyone else”

“I do? Ah...I see...Paladin frowned, focusing on his energies. It was so strange, how they felt now. His internal pegasus magic had been jumped started with the sky magic he had absorbed, producing the weather magic he needed to fly. Perhaps he had missed some use for it?

She cocked an eyebrow at this but shrugged it off. “Whatever.”

“Hmm...I was not intentionally doing this, but now I can feel it. I am influencing the air around me. Is it not interfering with yours?” he asked.

“Mine? Pfft, I’ve got enough to move clouds and kick weather out of them,” Gilda said, scoffing at him. “What, didn’t you know? You pegasi have way more. D- my fri- somepony I knew could whip up a twister like that.” She snapped her talons.

“And you could not do the same?” Paladin was curious now, focusing more on Gilda than flying. He was starting to realise that he might have been lazy, or lax. ‘I was so busy moping about being powerless. The only power I imagined was that I had as an angel. Could I be doing more?’

That thought troubled him. He needed to be sure he succeeded, as best he could. Failure would risk making his denial of his friends pointless. Friends who had already done great things before his arrival. Was it not the highest arrogance of him to not consider the powers of this land, of their kind? All he thought of was what he had wielded through his lost angelic essence.

“Well, of course not! What are you, an idiot?”

He ignored the rudeness of her reply. It was already clear that Gilda had about as much social grace as Imperius. He could forgive her such an attitude. If he was honest, it made this easier. She was lonely, as her following him showed, but she was abrasive whenever they talked. It was an amusing duality, a need for company and yet she regretted any social norms that would keep that company. At one moment she came hurrying after him; the next she scorned and scowled and carried on as though she didn’t care in the slightest.

‘Loneliness is hard to deal with. Betrayal makes it especially so,’ he thought.

“I am not. The pegasus who has instructed me in flight has concentrated largely on simply flight. I am aware that pegasus sky magic is involved in the process. Until recently, I was…” Paladin sought for the right word. “Imperfect. I did not produce the sky magic needed to allow my body to fly. My understanding is flawed.”

“What? You’ve never flown? You gotta be kidding me!” Gilda looked at his powerful wings, watching them beat. “You’ve got like the biggest wings I’ve ever seen, and all this sky magic! You’re making a massive bubble of that fancy pegasus weather magic around, even I can feel it!”

Paladin glanced over, confused. “I do not understand. Sky magic is the natural form, and it becomes weather magic when released by a pegasus, correct?”

Gilda sighed, covering her face for a moment. “Seriously. Come on! How can you not know this stuff?”

“Perhaps you could explain,” Paladin suggested, now somewhat irritated by her attitude. He tried to patient, but frankly it was wearing on him.

“I guess, I could. I mean, you aren’t such a dweeb, so maybe…” she considered the idea. It would be a good way to pay him back for helping her, not that she had needed the help, or wanted to pay him back.

“Your generosity knows no bounds,” he answered, face as straight and serious as an arrow.

“Yeah, I...wait…” Gilda’s eyes narrowed. “Was that sarcasm?”

“Clearly, your perception is equally unrivalled.”

She looked at him, his face carefully blank, and after a moment she let out a laugh. “Ha! Dude, good one. Sure, I’ll tell you. You’re not that bad. Nice to have a fr- company, nice to have company after so long.”

“How long?” he asked.

“How long what?” Gilda asked back.

“How long were you alone?” Paladin clarified.

She made a sound he translated into a verbal shrug. “A...year or so.”

“A year?” He raised an eyebrow at her. “I am given to understand such isolation is not always healthy.”

Gilda bristled. “Aw, shut it. Just fine on my own. Who needs friends?”

Paladin was tempted to ask her why she was accompanying him if she really thought that. He didn’t, but he was sorely tempted. A twinge of guilt reminded him that he had left his friends behind to keep them safe. Gilda was not a friend, but he was still leading her into danger. Did the fact he barely knew her make it better or worse? Her pride would make it easy to get her to leave, but….

...but he didn’t want to be alone either. He didn’t want to make someone else feel alone. Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack and the others all had each other. If he made sure she left, did Gilda have friends to find comfort with? She was prideful, and with a friend’s betrayal sending her into this seemingly self-imposed exile. How much beating could her pride take, if he did the same?

‘Damnation,’ Paladin thought wearily. But he would take this burden. As he had asked her hours ago, if he didn’t take responsibility, why expect another to? Somepony had to, and he was the only pony there.

“Tell me, then, of how I might better use this weather magic,” he asked, turning the conversation away from friends and their importance.

“Eh, I’ll do my best, griffons don’t really have much more then we need to touch clouds. I know a bit from...from somepony I used to know.”

***

“-light, get us- oh.”

They reappeared in the cave, a flush of cold air brought with them. Flakes of snow dotted the floor around them. Wild Card stopped pushing bits from his pouch across the flat topped stone between him and Spike.

“Ah, welcome back. I assume there was a complication? Incidentally, Miss Sparkle, I suspect there was a mistake when you hatched your little dragon’s egg; he seems to be part shark,” Wild Card said ruefully.

Spike stopped taking the coins and jumped up. “Twilight! Are you okay? Did you see the windigoes?”

“Darlings, are you okay?” Rarity asked, trotting to Fluttershy. She found herself being hugged by a teary eyed Fluttershy.

“Those...those horrible meanies!” She sniffled. “T-they were playing with those poor ponies!”

“Who were? The windigoes?” asked Applejack.

Fluttershy nodded. “They were…” she sniffed. “They let a pony go in the middle of the town, and then chased him.”

“Like cats. Cruelty in animal form. Catch a little mouse, but just getting it easily isn’t quite fun enough. Let it go, let the prey think they have a chance…” Wild Card trailed off ominously.

“There were ponies buried in the snow of the streets. I suspect they’re the victims of such ‘games’. I’m not sure our long term plan is viable anymore. Even if Low Horn and the dandy arrive within the next few days, the fact that windigoes are doing this to amuse themselves suggests to me they’re growing bored,” Jade Facade reported. “If they get bored, they're going to do more and more dangerous and extreme things to amuse themselves. It won’t be long before the ponies there are beyond our ability to help.”

Rainbow Dash, peering in from where she was watching the outside, jumped into the conversation. “We better get on with saving them then! No spooky ghost horse is stopping Rainbow Danger Dash!”

“How ‘bout fifty spooky ghost horses?” Applejack demanded. “That enough for ya?”

Twilight tuned out the conversation, pulling a book out of her saddlebags. She had only brought one or two, and had been given little chance to indulge, but this one was very important. It was the book on soul magic the Princess had given her. She skimmed through it, looking for something.

‘Where was it...’ She had an inkling of an idea. Fluttershy was going to prove vital, if it was workable. Her friend’s empathic gift was quickly becoming almost the go-to solution. Twilight had a moment’s worry about the pressure Fluttershy would feel; stacking on top of what Fluttershy already suffered. ‘Physical reagents intensify targeted effects, if I remember right…’

“Yes!”

The cave fell silent, staring at Twilight. Pinkie frowned.

“I thought I was supposed to be the one who randomly shouted things,” she complained.

“I’m sure she didn’t mean to steal your style, Miss Pinkie,” Wild Card assured her, his attention firmly fixed on Twilight and the book in her hooves.

Twilight blushed. “Sorry. I think I have an idea. I didn’t think of it until now. We can use the frozen ponies scattered about the town. Fluttershy, I’m sorry but we’ll need your abilities again. I hate to put more pressure on you, but your empathic powers are the perfect counter for the windigoes.”

Shaking her head, Fluttershy gave Twilight a small smile. It was shaky, but it was a smile. “It’s okay. I can help, so I should. I don’t mind.”

As curious as he was as to how one pegasus could teleport and the other had psychic powers, Wild Card kept his silence. He allowed them to do their planning, simply watching. It was fascinating, and he gleamed more than he suspected they knew they gave away. It was interesting and, he judged, likely to be quite profitable.

“So, why didn’t we do this to start with?” Pinkie asked curiously. “I mean, it sounds like it’ll work and it’s really gonna be fun! Like hide and seek!”

“Hide and seek with evil frost monsters, darling, not quite the same,” Rarity pointed out. Pinkie just shrugged, apparently not bothered by that.

“I only thought of it now. I think I know how to alter the Don’t Notice Me spell further for what we need, but it will take a few hours.” Frowning in thought, Twilight tried to calculate what she would need to do.

***

As far as going unnoticed, starting off with explosions was not a good way to go. The detonation rocked the wintery town, blasting snow, slush and dirt into the sky. It roused the windigoes from their play, the unsettled beasts swarming to the location on the west of the town. No sooner had they arrived then a wordless bellow shook the forest, bringing snow down in a thunderous, freezing rain. Knowing how close they had come to new meals twice in the last few hours, the windigoes were eager to find their prey.

Once more, they found nothing and the herd began to about face. They swarmed together as they began to return to their current feast. High above, none of them noticed a far distant flash. A few seconds later, one lucky windigo heard a strange whistling sound, like something dropping from a long way away. It looked up curiously.

Which is when it got a facefull of divine armour and farm-reared muscle. Applejack drove through the middle of the herd, a meteor of steel and flesh that tore a hole in them. Snow sprayed to all sides where she impacted on the ground.

“Howdy y’all,” Applejack grinned up at them. “See ya!”

Rainbow Dash appeared for only a split second before she was gone again, and Applejack with her. Watching from her hiding spot, Rarity smiled. This herd was far, far larger than the herd that attacked Headtown, but they only had to delay and distract them, not defeat them.

The herd turned towards where Rainbow Dash and Applejack had teleported to, only for a cannon blast to blow away those who passed too close to a deceptive pile of snow. Confetti tangled them, which was confusing enough for them without a bright pink pony grinning at them. She jumped behind a tree, which was no obstacle to the swiftly recovering monsters. They flooded around the tree on both sides, their prey was gone.

Snowballs hit them. The fact that things that shouldn’t be hitting them were continuing to do so spurred the windigoes to greater rage, their glowing eyes homing in on the party mare now standing about a snow-covered boulder. Pinkie grinned, juggling a dozen snow balls. In quick order she sent each one flying at the windigoes before bouncing up, vanishing into the treetops.

Peering down from above, concealed by Twilight’s original variation of the Don’t Notice Me spell, Rarity focused her Sight. She peered through the cloud that Rainbow Dash had hollowed. Between the skilled weathermare’s strengthening of the cloud and Twilight’s cloudwalking spell, she had no fear of falling.

“There’s a tree that will fall with a little help just east of Applejack. Fifteen windigoes are circling to surround Pinkie Pie. Some are over Card’s trap!” Rarity reported, eyes flicking about as she tried to keep track of the windigoes, her friends, and the traps their new allies had laid down.

Jade Facade waited next to her, her horn glowing. Her range of spells was turning out to be very useful, but Rarity had some suspicions about what sort of pony would need spells to avoid notice, set off traps and communicate with others silently. Taken separately, the first two were already suspicious. Together…

Rarity banished the thought. It wasn’t helpful now, and without knowing the truth it wouldn’t be productive to speculate. She kept her attention on her job, her enhanced vision picking out the smallest detail in the widest range. It made her feel beyond herself, like her sight had detached from her body as she shifted her attention to different parts, tracking windigoes and aiding her friends.

Sitting in the out of the way cave, Wild Card felt distinctly useless. He wasn’t useless, he knew that, his contribution was proving useful. They might not be able to hurt the windigoes, but the explosions were a fun, disorienting surprise.

Twilight, Spike and Fluttershy materialised in the now empty town square. Taking into account the thick snow layer and lack of exact knowledge, Twilight’s teleport had been aimed for a few metres higher and just within sight of where they had come before. Slowing herself, and thus the little dragon she carried, while Fluttershy supported herself.

“Okay, so, the windigoes should be gone for at least a little while. While the others keep them distracted - I don’t even want to know why that stallion has dynamite - you need to try and connect to everypony that you can. Remember, it doesn’t have to be anywhere as near as strong as the bond between us.” Her horn glowing, Twilight channeled her magic into the Don’t Notice Me spell again. She spent half a minute working on the spell this time, the brilliant glow of magic growing stronger than it had before. Her aura surrounded Fluttershy for a moment, sinking into her as the spell took shape.

Spike blinked. “Hey, where’d Fluttershy go?” He turned, looking for the pegasus standing a few feet away.

“I guess that means the spell is working.” Pleased with her work, Twilight moved away from where she was pretty sure Fluttershy was standing. Even knowing her friend was there, the empowered Don’t Notice Me spell made it next to impossible for Twilight to see her. Her gaze just seemed to slip right past her, and she knew if she wasn’t careful she might run into her friend.

Now came the tricky part. It was taking a constant feed of magic into this version to keep it going. Twilight estimated that she could use a few spells, but another Don’t See Me, even the original version, on herself was out of the question.

“So, now we just stay here and guard her?” Spike asked.

Twilight nodded. “I need to be close to keep powering the spell. I can shield us, use magic to fight off any windigoes, but another Don’t See Me spell is too precise and delicate for me to maintain it.”

“Didn’t you manage three earlier?” he asked, turning around on his place on her back so he was constantly facing away.

“No, I managed one weaker spell that covered three ponies. There’s a difference.”

“If you say so.”

Fluttershy shut them out, concentrating first inward. She found the shining light within that was, to her mind, the strange power infusing her being. From there she reached out, spreading that light through her body and beyond. Twilight and Spike were the first, already constantly sensed by their link. It was strongest with Twilight, conveying determination, worry for her friends and a touch of self-consciousness at having Fluttershy’s protection in her hooves. Her link to Spike was different, in that it was a strange fusion of the bond between Twilight and Spike and Fluttershy’s friendship with the little dragon. His trust in Twilight and Fluttershy, his fear of failing to help, of slowing Twilight down, swam into focus for a moment.

Even without reaching out to them Fluttershy could feel her friends. Elation, the thrill of doing something daring and dangerous and not at all sensible came thundering from Rainbow Dash as she darted across the forest, packs of windigoes streaming after her only to find their prey gone in a blaze of light. Though muted by constant thought on the importance of their job, Applejack too conveyed the thrill of a challenge, a challenge she met as she rammed through windigoes very much like a living battering ram of angelic steel. Almost exactly, in fact. Pinkie Pie sent a constantly shifting surge with a depth that would be surprising to many ponies. Not simply joy or amusement, although she still took some fun from every moment of every action, but a firm determination to do the very best she could for her friends. Rarity’s wish to be closer, a longing to be right there with her friends instead of watching from on high, came across so strongly Fluttershy nearly caught her thoughts. Her emotions were so strong they verged on images.

Letting her attention shift from her friends, Fluttershy reached into the muting snow around her. Her brow furrowed as she forced herself, forced the light of her soul, to push through the sinister slush. The reach of her empathic touch found the first ponies buried in the snow beneath her and Fluttershy nearly buckled at the first. She sealed her bond to the other Elements of Harmony instantly, leaving it intact but letting not a hint of what she was experiencing seep through.

Hate. Overwhelming, all-consuming hate. It filled the mind of the pony below. All other emotions were shunted to one side, suppressed just so more hate and rage and fury could blossom within the poor, helpless pony. It was a burning wall that she shied back from for a moment. She felt it, and for a moment she thought of Paladin, of the wall he had thrown up to push her away. She thought of her angry, guilty friend and she thought about what he would do.

‘Paladin wouldn’t let this stop him,’ she thought. ‘But I’m not as strong as him. I’m not...but that doesn’t mean I can’t try.’

She pushed against the dark wall, imagining her touch as a needle to pierce the raised shield of hatred. The tip slid in, breaching the wall she saw in her mind. Like blood welling from a wound, more and more emotions leaked out. Though she couldn’t see it, the ice around the pony she sought to aid shimmered. Defenses rose against her.

Screaming, ponies fleeing in every direction as the sky fell in. Neighs and whinnies overwhelming the screams as ghostly predators swept in from above like hungry birds of prey. She saw from the eyes of another pony, heard with ears not her own. She flailed-

-and pulled free. Fluttershy was confused, and distressed. Her powers were meant to be empathic, but she had seen what the poor pony had seen. She had heard no thoughts, had been privy to nothing more concrete than his feelings. On the other hoof, she knew it was a he down there.

The thought of experiencing that again made her shudder, but Fluttershy couldn’t give up. Would Rainbow Dash give up? Would Applejack? Pinkie Pie? Rarity? Twilight? No. No. No again and again. They wouldn’t let this stop them, and neither would she.

Fluttershy took a deep breath, and threw herself into it. Emotions struck at her, dark and furious, and she saw. Memories pulled at her, playing before her mind’s eye. This time she was ready, and though Fluttershy couldn’t close herself without abandoning the attempt she resisted the pull of the memories. They tried to draw her in, remnant magic of the windigo attack trying to overwhelm her. The torments of the captive within his icy tomb followed before she was done, tainted by a malicious undercurrent of hungry winter magic.

Golden light shielded Fluttershy’s mind, at least from that. When she finally passed the shield, a thread on the needle connecting her to the poor stallion below, the memories began to die away. She let out a sigh of relief, and expanded herself further. Another pony, sealed in ice and trapped by the same hateful wall raised by the influence of the windigo. And, she discovered, yet more memories to assault her. Despair and fear clawed at her from this mare’s suffering. Fluttershy pushed on, not letting it stop her. Her heart broke with every moment of torment she saw. But she didn’t stop.

When that pony was anchored to her by a golden thread of spiritual power, Fluttershy found the next. And the next. And the next. She saw the attack, over and over, and she would see it a hundred more times. Unseen by her friends, only a few feet away, tears ran down her cheeks.

***

He was falling.

“I thought pegasus were light! You’re bucking heavy!”

Paladin didn’t realise he was falling until he felt claws digging into his sides. He blinked away the wetness in his eyes, looking up and summarily smacking the top of his maneless head against Gilda’s beak. She let out a squak of pain, her talons digging in harder as she fought not to let him go.

“Ugh, my beak!” she shrieked. Her wings beat furiously. “Start flying already! I want to pay you back for saving me, but this is a lame way to do it!”

“I’m fine,” he announced, flexing his wings. She felt them beneath her and let go. Paladin fell for a moment as he regained his bearing and spread his wings. Soon he was flying again, his eyes dried, but his feelings disturbed.

Gilda glared at him as she flew alongside, rubbing her beak. “Seriously, what the buck? I’m not that boring. When I said learning this stuff bored me to tears, I wasn’t being literal.”

“You’re not. It wasn’t.. I…” Paladin fought to keep from turning his head towards where he felt Fluttershy’s emotions. The bond between them was alive with the strength of her emotions. Something horrible was happening. Even with the bond between him and the others muted and distant, everything from Fluttershy was suddenly as strong as though she was there with him.

‘I need to turn back, I need to help her. I can’t leave her suffering like this,’ he thought, his breath coming in raggedly.

A wolf-whistle distracted him. Paladin looked at Gilda in confusion, frowning. He had too much to deal with, he didn’t need her randomly making sounds. He had too much to think about to also have to wonder why she was smirking.

“So,” Gilda drew the word out. “You’re running from a mare. That make so much sense.”

Paladin blinked. “What.”

“Dude, if you’re gonna talk to yourself, maybe do it in a whisper,” Gilda advised, snickering. The world extended far above and below, her wings were aching, but somehow the look on his face when he realised he had said that aloud made it all so worth it.

“....be quiet.”

Ignoring her, Paladin forced himself to keep his course steady. He wanted to help Fluttershy, but he couldn’t. He had to stop Ardleon. His friends, her friends, would help Fluttershy. He had to trust them. It hurt to keep flying away, but it had hurt to push his friends away. It had hurt to belittle Rainbow Dash, but he had done it. It had hurt to sneer in Twilight’s face, but he had done it. Because no matter how much it hurt, he had a responsibly, a duty, to protect them.

So Paladin flew on, and he hated himself with every beat of his wings.

***

In the forest, as they hunted their constantly fleeing prey, the windigoes felt it. Something was disturbing their food.

Someone.

Rarity gulped, watching the herd begin to about face, storming in a very literal sense towards the town. She looked at Jade.

“Done,” Jade Facade didn’t need to expand on what she had done. Sweat dripped down her face, the cost of sending a message to Twilight draining her energy. They both knew their distraction had proved less effective than they had hoped, and now they had to rely on their friends for this next part.

Twilight cocked her head to the side. She heard a whisper in her ear.

“They’re coming.”

She gulped.

“Spike,” Twilight murmured, looking west. “They’re coming.”

The little dragon gulped as well, but he showed a brave face. “Oh. Well...don’t worry, Twilight, I’ll protect you.”

That made Twilight smile. “Thank you, Spike, but-”

Snap-hiss.

“-I can handle myself.”

He considered the magenta beam of energy rising from her horn. It was, he decided, awesome.

“Okay, but just in case…” he said, fidgeting.

She gave him a hug. “How about we protect each other? That way, we’ll both be safe. Deal?”

Spike smiled up at her. The distant sounds of an angry herd of frost spirits was audible now, but he wasn’t worried anymore. He had Twilight protecting him, and she was the best unicorn ever. Twilight didn’t have to worry either, because she had her number one assistant protecting her. His teeth gleamed, diamond crunching jaws exposed and the fire in his belly welled up. He was going to prove that reducing one of the basement walls to a char-covered mess was worth it.

This time he wasn’t going to be cornered and captured. He wasn’t going to curl up and let them whale on him. He wasn’t going to be a burden. This time, he was going to protect her.

***

Author's Note:

Yes, if anyone was wondering, Twilight now has a Lightsaber horn. Yay!

As ever, thanks go to Nealend86 and Web of Hope for editting this, as does blame for any that have passed them by. Hahaha! Scape goats!

Comments

[Web of Hope]

Skyped!

[Nealend86]

Twilight's got a lightsaber!

[Nealend86]

So is Twilight basically a Blue Mage? If she see's a spell performed she can reproduce it?

[Autocharth]

3784529 She is in the show. She starts teleporting after NMM teleports her, for one, and while she isn't as good as Alicorn Amulet boosted Trixie, she can still nearly perform the spells Trixie used after seeing, if I recall right.

[Always Breakfast]

Yeah there's like, no way Jade isn't a changeling. Being tanked full of love may well be the only reason she's survived a windigo herd this long.

Also, you're alternately calling her Jade Facade and Jade Fire. Might want to pick one.

[Knight Breeze]

DUDE! you got featured!

[Wannabe Scholar]

Nice chapter! We get an introduction to two new characters and I love how the Mane Six try to find more about the Windigoes. The action was good, nice examination on Fluttershy's feelings, and I loved Paladin's interaction with Gilda. I can guess that the two groups will meet up with each other and resolve their issues.

Plus I like your two new characters, Wild Card and Jade Facade (or Jade Fire, depending on how you call her). They really were enjoyable. Also, they reminded me a lot of a certain red head and a smuggler. Am I right or am I just seeing things?

Anyway, keep it up. I hope to see more!

-W.S.

[Autocharth]

3784911 Jade Fire is her name, Jade Facade is the fake name Card gave for her and she has continued with. And as for being changeling, what about Wild Card? As far as I know, neither is a changeling. They were at the edge of town, and barely escaped when the attack happened.

3785248 You aren't seeing things. If you read the author note of chapter 25 I say exactly that, Wild Card/Karrde and Jade Fire are the ships of... you guessed it!

[Smurf]

a most excellent chapter as always, i tip my hat to you

but in the years to come local legends and rumor mills would provide plenty of answers. Some were believable, some were not, and some were the kind that were not to be spoken lightly and would have left Spike severely scarred if he were to return and inquire about them.

this needs to be in the "A Little Justice On The Side" fic, Spike pays a visit to the town some years down the road, just for the lol factor

[Tony The Tiger]

LV.60 DEMON HUNTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[SwimmingDalek98]

Okay, Twi-saber, didn't see THAT coming… Tyrael's making a U-turn to help them, and Gilda is still being a clingy little moron. No, seriously… who else thinks she has totally lost it?

[Bladluis]

Wait, there are actually bronies that play Diablo 3?
Hit me up on Diablo! I play on europe west as bladluis#2478, I hope to find you online!

[Always Breakfast]

3785543
Really? Huh. I guess it was unintentional then but felt foreshadowed that way to hell and back.

[The Rogue Wolf]

3785729 Spending a year alone can do a number on the psyche, even one as fiercely independent as Gilda's.

[Jirodyne]

3784488
quickmeme.com/img/06/060ec21017e667e3f8041664f8fb7b6b9cc8bbaee97d2e4d120a4871b50911a5.jpg

[clonezero]

It's been a while! Anyways nice chapter and first time I've read of Gilda becoming anypony's teacher.

[Hoof of Approval]

This is survival of the fittest
This is do or die
This is the winner takes it all
So take it all

[Aurora Dimmet]

3784535

Let's not forget the most solid evidence. She saw Celestia hatecast dark magic once. Then turned around and used it herself with near the same ease.

Also, getting the feeling that Jade might be a shapeshifting dragon, actually - not a changeling. The only thing she's shown emotion at so far is Spike's appearance.

[Buckshot2825]

Yes, if anyone was wondering, Twilight now has a Lightsaber horn. Yay!

Twilight, come to the dark side twilight.
I, am your father!

Mmmm well i think that jade and wild card are theives or ponies that steal shit, like oceans 11-12-13-14
meh, no matter...
I want my moars... please gimmie some

[Rune Soldier Dan]

Yep, still really enjoying the Gilda-Paladin screentime.

In other news, this story is almost 300,000 words long. And yet I've done something on the order of three re-reads of the whole thing. It's that compelling.

[xbox432]

I got to say that I really enjoyed Gilda and Paladin's interactions, they had a really good flow to their banter going.

And I'm REALLY hoping that Paladin gets to look totally awesome in his confrontation with Ardleon. Not to say that I don't hope the others don't need to knock some sense into him, I just really want to see him cut loose with the smiting just to see the girls...and Spike's, reaction. It just doesn't seem that they fully comprehend the fact that he's an immortal spirit of justice trapped in mortal form sometimes... While it's understandable that their not awestruck per say, ... I guess I'm just trying to say that they don't seem to have reacted to the news at all. Sorry if I'm rambling.

As always my good friend, below you will find some typos for your editing enjoyment.

*save that the ponies she happened to came out of the process - 'happened to' what? May be missing a word there.
*somepony smile or get giggles out. - somepony smile or get giggles out of.
*as if finally realising the something - as if finally realising that something
*Twilight again answered,"Compulsion - Twilight again answered, "Compulsion (space between {answered,} and {"Compulsion})
*has a very amazing abillity, - has a very amazing ability,
*windigoes and gain channel positive - windigoes and channel positive
*on my judgements...a-and - on my judgments...a-and
*or errors in judgement with - or errors in judgment with
*even more foals. and there - even more foals, and there
*wish a drink or bath before - wish a drink or bathe before
*on the town square,her - on the town square, her (space between 'square,' and 'her')
*The pair landed a pile, - The pair landed in a pile,
*rolling throwing through the snowy - rolling through the snowy
*watching with a most sinister - watching with the most sinister
*her gaze stopping on shadowy - her gaze stopping on the shadowy
*with a hateful niegh it - with a hateful niegh it
*for far, far logner. - for far, far longer.
*Dash’s wings winged and - Dash’s wings flared and
*there, but its full of - there, but it's full of
*cocky flier talking her own - cocky flier talking up her own
*realise Rainbow Dash’s wings had began - realise Rainbow Dash’s wings had begun
*you. I feel bit, - you. I feel a bit,
*there’s a reason ya’ll are - there’s a reason y'all are (it's a contraction of you and all, so you wouldn't put the apostrophe between the 'a' and the 'l', plus I'm a country boy and I know my dialect. Good job an AJ's by the way.)
*mane you have.. It goes - mane you have. It goes
*the princess could get out of him.. - the princess could get out of him.
*ponies in need, ya’ll can - ponies in need, y'all can
*Emerald jade magic formed an image - Emerald Jade's magic formed an image
*she moved to exposed the fish. - she moved to expose the fish.
*not your fault. It’s theirs.: - not your fault. It’s theirs."
*Paladin heaved a sighed, - Paladin heaved a sigh,
*so I can retreive them - so I can retrieve them
*about about a variation - about a variation
*frozen head of an mare, - frozen head of a mare,
*focus on the the emotions - focus on the emotions
*constantly slipping away.” Fluttershy - constantly slipping away,” Fluttershy
*sealed pony in it’s ethereal - sealed pony in its ethereal
*to know what it’s doing. - to know what its doing.
*could feel from them radiating - could feel them radiating - or - could feel from them
*was that I had as angel. - was that I had as an angel.
*want to make someone else alone. - want to make someone else feel alone.
*bored, they going to do - bored, they're going to do
*“How ‘bout fifty of spooky - “How ‘bout fifty spooky - or - “How ‘bout fifty of those spooky
*bellow shook the forest , - bellow shook the forest,
*none of them notice a far - none of them noticed a far
*Applejack drove the middle of the herd , a - Applejack drove through the middle of the herd, a (added 'through' and got rid of the space after herd.)
*“Howdy ya’ll,” Applejack grinned - “Howdy y'all,” Applejack grinned
*concealed by the Twilight’s original - concealed by Twilight’s original
*windigoes, her friends and the traps - windigoes, her friends, and the traps
*light. Thought muted by - light. Though muted by
*slid in, breaching it the - slid in, breaching the
*as the the the sky fell - as the the sky fell
*She let out a squark of pain, her talons digging int harder - She let out a squak of pain, her talons digging in harder
*way, we’ll be both be - way, we’ll both be

[Flamester]

Awesome chapter, have another typo to fix, throgh should be through.

[Autocharth]

3794870 Hmm, I do take your point about them not reacting. The part with Fluttershy and Twilight talking was, in part, meant to be me trying to fix this and I will continue to explain it as best I can, by which I mean make shit up and pretend I always meant to do it this way. I think I had trouble working out how to do, so I just sort of...didn't. Which was foolish of me, and I don't recall thinking about it over much. I intend to make use of this, since it's there and no way to change the past (at least not until THE DEVICE! is complete, but I'm still waiting on enough human brains).

Also, glad the Gilda and Paladin interaction was good for you, was worried about that part.

3791162 Smugglers.

3789853 At this point I'm not even sure what Jade is anymore. Wait for the sequel, maybe I'll reveal it then.

3814328 Many thanks, glad you liked it. I can't see the error though, when I search the page the only instance of throgh I see is yours.

[Buckshot2825]

3837610 smugglers, theives the only similarity being that they break the law XD
also... party pooper... why didn't you just be like all the other writers and go 'nope guess again :3' really takes the fun and insanity out of guessing.

[RanmaChaos]

Great

[Frazzled Pony]

Damn, I'm slow, I only figured out the lightsaber horn at the final "snap-hiss". Awesome. That goes for the whole chapter. I will never stop being impressed with how you manage the balance in this story, retaining humor and heart even in such grim circumstances as this. That takes skill and I salute you on that.

Now, for nitpicks:

"The pair landed n a pile, " Think you missed an "i" when you attempted to write "in a pile".

"It was probably just another weird perk of getting a dose of angel direct to the soul." Think it should be "directly".

"Focusing on the snow with, each flake was suddenly infused with darkness." Think you forgot to write what she focused on the snow with,

"It knickered and neighed with sadistic glee when its prize smack against ponies concealed below." Should be "smacked".

“...” All three mares spent a moment staring into the ominous blue eyes." Ugh, I really dislike the "empty speech bubble" when I see it in text. That's why I suggest avoiding them, but it is after all your story.

"His internal pegasus magic had been jumped started with the sky magic he had absorbed" Think you meant "jump-started". At least, not "jumped started".

" and yet she regretted any social norms that would keep that company." Think you meant "rejected" or "resented", not regretted, that sounds more like what she does. I suggest the former.

"No sooner had they arrived then a wordless bellow shook the forest, bringing snow down in a thunderous, freezing rain." Think it is "than", as the sentence is a kind of comparison and then you use "than".

"High above, none of them noticed a far distant flash." Odd structure, because as the wording makes it sound like it is the Windigos that are high above, not the flash, I suggest the more straightforward "Non of them noticed a far distant flash high above."

"Which is when it got a facefull of divine armour and farm-reared muscle." I think it ought to be "Which was when", keeping this whole thing to past tense.

" They flooded around the tree on both sides, their prey was gone." Think a "but" before "their" would help immensely. As it is now, the two sentences ought to be separated by a full stop, not a comma, but if you want to keep the comma-structure, a "but" would solve it.

"Slowing herself, and thus the little dragon she carried, while Fluttershy supported herself." This is a fragment and it looks like it leads up to something that happens while these two things happen, instead of those being the central message in the sentences. It ought to be "She slowed herself..."

"you need to try and connect to everypony that you can. Remember, it doesn’t have to be anywhere as near as strong as the bond between us.” Lose the first "as", it's unnecessary. Then you get "have to be anywhere near as strong..."

“I thought pegasus were light! You’re bucking heavy!” Isn't it "pegasi"? or "pegasuses"? I don't think the word is the same in plural and singular form.

"Rarity gulped, watching the herd begin to about face, " Think it's "about-face", but I might be wrong. That goes for every use of the expression. It is a kinda odd choice of word if you ask me.

Well, that's enough of me being nitpicky, because there wasn't anything else to complain about. A great read as always. Looking forward to the next chapter.

Happy writing.

[Flamester]

3837610

Sorry that I didn't help more, the paragraph it is in is

Which is when it got a facefull of divine armour and farm-reared muscle. Applejack drove throgh the middle of the herd, a meteor of steel and flesh that tore a hole in them. Snow sprayed to all sides where she impacted on the ground.

If it helps the word is formatted weirdly, gh appear to be underlined for some reason. Hopefully this helps, even if only to confirm that the problem is only on my end.

[PhycoKrusk]

3837610
I know exactly what Jade is: One bad dude, that’s what.

[Nealend86]

3852924 Wrong gender on that statement friend. Jade is one bad "gal", not dude.

[PhycoKrusk]

3927972
I stand by what I said, and hereby proclaim “dude” to be a gender neutral pronoun.

What’s wrong? You not a bad enough dude to accept this as fact?

[ArthurHucksake]

3928113 memefrontier.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/default_width/meme/are-you-bad-enough-dude-hit-your-own-dick-hammer.jpg

[ABitterPill]

Wild Card’s eyes widened. The signs of his surprise being fake were visible to only a single pony there, and Jade wasn’t about to share that with them.

Actually, with Rarity's eyes, wouldn't she be able to see through false/non-genuine expressions?

[DaCrazyOne]

4352864
I'd assume she doesn't have the power active at all times, as it would be quite taxing.

[H3lios]

Rainbow Dash's dad's canon name is Rainbow Blaze according to the TCG. Just putting that out there.

[Wing Dancer]

What is the point of keeping Fluttershy invisible? I mean, if Twilight falls, she'll be vulnerable anyway. So instead of having full power to protect herself, she has a lesser amount and has to keep in mind where she steps, lest she stumble into/cut/kill Flutters and royally F everything up.

The windigoes will be even more deadly with Flutters invisible, as they might hurt her purely on accident, rather than (as per usual) just trying to disable her via their emotion magic.

[The Warrior Scholar]

Applejack, titanfall is a go