When Snow Falls

by Prophet Of Doom

Chapter 41: Duel In The Dying Storm

Nightmare Moon stared up at the palace that here army had all but conquered. She let out an audible sigh as she turned back to the indigo eyed guard standing before, “Find something to use as a battering ram and break that door down. I want that filly, alive and unharmed!”
The unblinking pony gave a salute and raced off to follow his queen's order.
Well, there's the price of unwavering loyalty She groaned internally. No initiative whatsoever.
Her sights moved onto the mass gathering of ponies that had been assembled in the shadow of the palace. They were shivering and terrified, continuously staring at Nightmare Moon. Eyes filled with fear and anger, many wise enough to avert theirs from her look. However, there was one pair of eyes that she could burning into her. She turned and meet them, “Princess Cadence.”
The aforementioned princess was on the ground several yards from where she was standing. Chains from the rune adorned saddlebags still wrapped around her, denying her of her freedom. Even her voice was denied her, chains were wrapped around her snout too. Yet was her eyes that Nightmare Moon was enjoying the most, “Allow me to reassure you. I do not intend to harm your daughter. But with such magical potential and having a young, breakable mind. How could I not take her on as a protege and possible, future host.”
Cadence’s eyes flared madly, bringing a chuckle from Nightmare Moon.
“Given half a chance, Princess of Love,” She mused quietly. “You would quite happily rip my head off.”

Nightmare Moon’s mocking came to halt with the sound of a bang coming from the tunnel that Twilight was hiding in. A dust cloud had been kicked up obscuring the tunnels entrance. Nightmare Moon checked her forces that were present. She only had a handful of guards that were free to aid her but they should be enough she thought to deal with Twilight’s entourage, while she could deal with Twilight herself.
As the dust started to settle, figures emerged and stepped out of it. However, they were not being led by the alicorn that as she had expecting.
“Midnight Snow,” She said half surprised. “May I ask what you are doing?”
Midnight ignored this question and continued to move towards her. She made a head gesture towards some nearby guards, who moved in to subdue them but Twilight kept them at bay by an expanding shield spell. When he was no more than several yards from Nightmare Moon, Midnight stopped and addressed her, “Nightmare Moon, I give you this one chance and this one chance only. Release Foxtrot and withdraw.”
Nightmare Moon stared dumbfounded at him. She developed a giggle which quickly grew into a full-blown laughed. She looked back into unmoving eyes, “My word, your serious. You are honestly serious about this!”
“I am!” He retorted. Placing an adamant hoof down, which only drew more laughter from her.
“You poor delusional fool, Midnight Snow. You are totally surrounded and vastly outnumbered, and yet you believe you can threaten me and dictate terms!?! If this threat had come from Twilight, then I would take it seriously,” She mocked aloud for all to hear. Nodding at Twilight, who like Sunset, Spike and Gimmer, stood just behind him. “But not from you, Midnight.”
She rubbed a hoof against her chin, “Do you know why I chose Foxtrot as my host over you. Cause you see have known about you and your alicorn status for a long time now.”
Midnight did not answer, nor was he moved by this statement. Mildly irked by this, Nightmare Moon continued, “You are weak, Midnight. For an alicorn, you have very little magical potential. Any unicorn can worth their salt can tell you this. On top of that, you can’t even fly! So go ahead and make your threats, for you will fall. But I do welcome you to try, and show to the world what little a one winged alicorn can do!”

Midnight unfolded his wings in a threatening posture, stretching out wide his good right wing and his left stump. The sight of the latter drew more giggles from Nightmare Moon but they did not last.
From the tip of his stump, a gold light lit up and grew, forming into a full wing made of pure magic. This drew the awe of all those watching who still had control of their own minds.
Nightmare Moon now studied him with great intent. His magic whilst not as substantial as hers or Twilight’s, it was fierce in its intensity. It was also too familiar to a man she had encountered before to be a coincidence.
“You!” She growled. “you're of his blood!!”
Nightmare Moon unfolded her wings and launched high into the air. Without breaking a step, she fired a powerful bolt of lightning from her mane directly at Midnight Snow. A golden shield spell was flung up and absorbed the attack. Midnight glanced over his shoulder, “Guys, I don’t care how you do it, just keep them off my back.”
“Right!” The others replied in unison.
Then with a powerful leap, for the first time in his life, Midnight Snow took flight

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High up in the central palace, Flash Sentry pushed his back hard against the chest of draws that he and Soarin were using to barricade the door. From behind this door, came another bang as ponies attempted to break it down.
Flash took a moment to take in the current situation. The only window to the room was being blocked by Rainbow Dash and Spitfire with a wardrobe. Like the door, it to was being buffeted by attackers, the glass window long been shattered. Over by the bed, Cadence’s chambermaid, White Quartz, was trying her best to comfort the terrified Flurry Heart. This was not her room, just a very small guest quarters but she had moved here a precaution.
The door received another hefty thumb. Flash began to release that the current situation was unwinnable. However, there was still one thing that could be done, “Hey, you three are Wonderbolts right?”
“Yeah, what of it?” Dash shouted back, the wardrobe receiving another thump.
“Which one of you is the fastest?”
“In a straight line, problem dash here,” Spitfire answered. “Why?”
“Dash, take the young princess from Quartz. We’ll create an opening,” He addressed Dash directly. “And when we do, you take Flurry Heart and you fly. You fly far and you fly fast, and you get her out of here!”
“What!?! I can’t abandon you guys here!!”
“Rookie, he’s right!” Spitfire asserted. “You need to get her out of here!!”
“Wait guys!!” Soarin said, pointing at the door. “They’ve stopped.”
They all felt their barricades were no longer being pushed against.

A sound like thunder reverberated through the room. The ponies all exchanged confused glances. Dash and Spitfire then began gingerly sliding the wardrobe to one side enough to get a view of the outside world.
The skies were abuzz with activity. The pegasi that were attacking the window had been drawn away by an ariel duel that was taking place. They had been heading straight to it but were intercepted by Twilight Sparkle. Using teleportation and shield spells, she was easily able to keep them occupied.
“Is that Twilight!?!” Flash asked, peering through the gap.
“Yes, that's Twilight alright,” Spitfire confirmed. “But who’s that fighting over there, with Nightmare Moon?”
Rainbow dash strained to see the two ponies in question. Neither of them were flying, not in the conventional sense. They were more being held aloft with their own magic. It wasn’t until the mystery pony started went into a climb that she saw the separate coloured wings, one blue and one gold, “Wait a minute! That's Midnight Snow!”
“The one winged alicorn!?!” Soarin said confused.
“Not anymore he isn’t,”Dash responded, punching the arm. “And it looks like he’s got Nightmare Moon on the ropes!”
“Well I don’t know about that, Newbie,” Spitfire said, scanning the skies. “But Twilight is differently trying to keep the others away from them.”
“Well, let's help her then!” Dash shouted as she shoved the wardrobe aside and catapulted herself out the window.

“Newbie, stop!!” Spitfire shouted, as two more forms darted past her and out the window. “Flash! Soarin!! Get back here NOW!!
Her words fell on deaf ears, however, as the three of them raced off to aid the heavily outnumbered Twilight. Spitfire face-hoofed, “Oh well. In for a penny, in for a pound.”
She toppled over the wardrobe in the direction, so that it landed on the chest of draws in front of the door.
“Keep an eye on the princess,” She ordered White Quartz, who nodded measly in response. Climbing up onto the window ledge, she took one more good look at the skies.
Dash, Soarin and Flash had quickly engaged those who Twilight was busy with. The figures of Nightmare Moon and Midnight Snow had just gone beyond the protective reach of the Crystal Heart. Spitfire just managed to catch sight of them as they disappeared into the now dying storm.
Once they were gone, Spitfire jumped off the ledge and into the fray.

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Nightmare Moon glided through the snow falling in torrents from high above. The winds were abating but still strong enough to cause her problems.
Keeping track of Midnight, however, was not a problem. His wing made of pure magic was glowing bright gold, making him easy to track in the heavy snow. She discharged a bolt of lightning in his direction. He dodged and pulled away from her until he was completely obscured by the snow.
“You dare threaten me and then run!!” She bellowed as she charged after him. However, she was unable to reestablish contact with him, despite the glowing wing, ”Face me, Midnight!”
Whilst panning around search of him, Nightmare Moon registered a slight glint in the corner of her eye. Midnight had worked his way above and was now diving on her.
She swivelled and launched several lightning bolts at him but he’d already erected a shield which deflected them away. His posture was unusual, his right hoof held straight while his left was folded back. However, the one that was outstretched was glowing gold in a similar fashion to his wing but with one key difference.
A rune!! She screamed internally. He’s even using his technic, how!?!
She couldn’t let him touch her with that hoof. With a mighty beat of her wings, she just managed to effectively sidestep his attack. Midnight did not stop his dive, however, and flew away from her, trying to build up a distance.

Nightmare Moon fired a series of snapshot bolts at him whilst she levelled herself but they didn’t find their target. He was flying low to the frozen wastes, using what cover there was to avoid her lightning.
“I will not be imprisoned again!” She Shrieked fervently. “I WILL NOT!!!”
With this, she unleashed a powerful beam that ripped the ground apart, forcing Midnight to pull up and shield himself as the ice covered ground practically erupted in a fiery explosion.
Midnight reeled back up into the sky and lost sight of Nightmare Moon, as she followed her attack with yet more lightning bolts. One of these landed hard into Midnight’s back and shocked him violently. It only lasted him a couple of seconds but when it had ended, Midnight started to fall from the sky.
Was that it!?! Nightmare Moon fumed inside, somewhat disappointed. She watched him plummet to the ground, seemingly lifeless, only to pull up at the last moment. This feint gave him some breathing room which he used to regain altitude.

Nightmare Moon smiled at this low move just pulled by her opponent and watched him come about and charged at her, his hoof glowing again.
This time she stood her ground and fired off her powerful destruction spell once again. The beam hit Midnight shield square on but it seemed to be able to take it and he pushed on. Yet, the closer he got to Nightmare Moon, the slower his charge became and more his shield strained.
Eventually, just a few yards from his target, the shed spell broke and exploded in Midnight’s face. He was thrown back viciously, temporarily blinded. When his vision returned, he was confronted by the terrifying sight of two thunderbolts coming straight at him. He had no time to dodge or defend, and the bolts struck him in the chest, hard.