The Immortal Dream

by Czar_Yoshi

A Windigo's Worst Nightmare

"Hi there, ponyos! Your friendo Halcyon, who is currently a spooky ghost in this very room, wants to know if any of you would like to get possessed by a cool windigo today!"

Everyone, even Leif, yelled in surprise. Papyrus's scream was almost funny enough to make me forget how badly this situation was going wrong; it sounded less like a pony and more like a violently strangled turkey call.

And then Coda turned to Ludwig, summoned her horn, lit it with a pink-black aura, and fired.

A huge glob of sickly-looking energy burst forth, visible for half a second before it crashed into Ludwig, sending black lightning crackling across his body. He fuzzed, twitched and lost a little altitude.

"Hie from here, demon," Coda threatened, visibly freaked out but also somewhat excited as she took a battle stance. "Or else speak! You are a windigo, are you not?"

"You can hit him?" Corsica asked, her own shock giving way to intrigue. "Huh. So why are you here now, then?" She raised an eyebrow at Ludwig. "Back for more? I didn't expect either of us would want to do that again."

Leif was bristling. "You're the one who lives here, then. You were in her apartment that day..."

Papyrus glanced at Unless. Unless shrugged, and I realized she actually hadn't been among those to scream. In fact, she didn't look surprised by Ludwig's presence at all.

"Ouchie," Ludwig complained, the energy from Coda's attack slowly fading away. "I do not think my face deserved that... What even are you, anyway?"

"You definitely deserved it," I retorted, floating closer. "In fact, I'm of half a mind to do it myself. And maybe I would, if I wasn't a ghost!"

I didn't have changeling queen magic, but I more wanted to get a point across than actually hurt the windigo, and so I raised a translucent hoof and slapped him anyway.

It worked.

Unlike everything else, where I phased through walls as if they were air, my hoof struck Ludwig. It felt like punching cotton candy, and there was no solid purchase, but he was tangible. Ice instantly shot up my limb in retaliation, and Ludwig reeled back in surprise. "Rude and not fair!"

I grinned a sharklike grin.

Coda apparently didn't notice that Ludwig had just been slapped. "I am the final note in the song of destruction, goddess of love and scion of Izvaldi, Princess Coda. As the archnemesis of evil, I command you to surrender!"

"I am surrendering as fast as I can, megashrimp," Ludwig insisted. "Enough with the friendly fire already! I have totally been summoned and stuff by your friendo to help your faces beat up some anti-friendos!"

"Megashrimp?" Coda's brow furrowed in indignation.

Corsica sighed, heaving herself to her hooves and stepping between Coda and Ludwig. "Kid, let me do this," she said with a look over her shoulder, then turned to Ludwig. "First question: what was that about Halcyon being a ghost?"

Ludwig wiggled unhappily. "It is pretty spooky, raspberry ponyo. She is right there, right now, listening to everything you say." He wiggled in my general direction. "She is also invisibly staring at your flanks a lot. I am wracking my whole entire brain trying to figure out why she looks like she enjoys it so much."

Corsica's cheeks reddened. "I wish for your sake you're making that up. Hey, idiots!" She glanced at Papyrus and Unless. "Go check on Halcyon and make sure she's still where we left her."

I had no idea what I could say to prevent the other me from being checked on. She'd want to be alone, obviously, but... With every second that passed, I felt more and more like giving Ludwig the time of day had been a bad idea.

"Right away, junior trash tyrant." Papyrus rolled his eyes, not bothering to get up. "Just as soon as I finish listening to this fascinating conversation."

Corsica slapped him with her telekinetic aura. "Not in the mood. Try again, Ludwig: what was that about Halcyon being a ghost?"

"You are looking at me like I have any idea why she be the way that she do," Ludwig slowly insisted. "I am serious, friendo. She is a ghost! A ghostly one. Kind of like me when I am invisibly stalking you. I think it is called an Iklofna, which is an old windigo word I heard from a cousin of a cousin that refers to how we are sort of spooky and half-existent and stuff like this." He flew through Papyrus, who yelped and batted at him like he was a swarm of flies. "See?"

"Lovely," Corsica told him. "Why's she like that?"

"Beats me, raspberry ponyo. Maybe she just decided it would be cooler to be like my face than to be like your face." He turned to me. "Ey little cigar, why are you a ghost, anyway?"

"Magic. Wish I knew," I replied, wishing I could talk to Corsica myself and considering going back to my body... except no one here seemed to be going to check on me. And even if they did, I wasn't all that sure what I would do, since I was tied up at my own request.

"She says magic," Ludwig translated. "Which honestly is a pretty lame answer, but those are the words that came out of her face."

Corsica frowned. "...Halcyon. If you're listening, what did we talk about earlier tonight, at the spa? General subject. No details."

I blinked. "Your special talent."

Ludwig bobbed in excitement. "Oh, that is saucy, little cigar! I am not comfortable repeating that in this much company, which is saying something because my face is pretty shameless. I suppose the most family-friendly way to put it would be 'Your special talent.' The adults in the room will know what I mean."

Papyrus whistled. Corsica slapped him again, but looked more pensive than before.

I, being invisible and having no one but my target to judge me, wound up for a much bigger punch.

This time, expecting his wooliness and getting close enough that I wasn't handicapped by the length of my legs, I landed a deep, solid blow, and sent Ludwig flying all the way across the room, until he hit a rack full of parts and tools.

Unlike last time, everyone noticed.

"What was that?" Leif glanced sharply around the room, focusing on everything but Ludwig, trying to find what had thrown an intangible windigo.

...Well, mostly intangible. He had, I noticed, hit the wall. More of gaseous and able to flow around normal blows... But not around me.

I ignored my friends, a wisp of curiosity morphing into an idea in my mind. I couldn't touch walls. Ludwig could touch walls. I could sort of touch Ludwig... Any desire I had held to work with him was by now firmly snuffed out. But I did kind of want to see what would happen if he got squished.

Painful memories dredged themselves up in my mind, of panic and despair as Ludwig, hitching a ride inside Corsica, fled the hideout with myself and Ansel helpless to give chase. I grinned, aimed, and flew.

Ludwig went flat against the wall almost instantly. But rather than feel the wall behind him, I began to press into something else. It felt like the windigo was the surface of a taut trampoline, bending back into the wall as I pushed. Some of Ludwig was clearly caught by the wall, staying in the room, but another part was in my hooves, being pushed out of it... What would happen if I kept pushing?

"Ow! Owowow!" Ludwig squirmed and flailed, yet it was entirely ineffectual. Cold washed over my body, colder than ice, yet without a physical form, I couldn't freeze and the ice couldn't restrain me. "Stop it! What are you doing, little cigar!?"

"Getting tired of your nonsense," I growled, pushing harder. "You had a great opportunity for a reset. We hadn't seen each other for half a year, and you could have turned another leaf, but you just can't help being compulsively annoying, can you? So forgive me if I don't feel bad for seeing whether you've got limits!"

I couldn't explain how I was pushing, given that I was a floating spirit who had purchase against nothing. It felt more like I was using my mind than my muscles, and as Ludwig continued to resist, I started to realize the cold was somehow hitting my mind as well: more a conceptual feeling than a physical sensation, thoughts of ice and wrath that made me shiver from the inside out.

"Knock it off, friendo!" Ludwig writhed, and ice started creeping into my vision. Not good. I had officially picked a fight now, and returning to the status quo might no longer be on the table. Could I win this? Ludwig was straining further and further the more into the wall I pushed, the more I spread apart whatever parts of him were physical and incorporeal. Would he give out first? How much could he take, and what would happen if he did? If only I had a little more...

I squeezed my eyes shut and wished for my bracelet's fire. And, suddenly, it was there.

A thin filament of ghostly light surrounded my foreleg, in exactly the position where I usually wore it. There were no voices in the back of my head to whisper doubt and fear, to tell me that I couldn't do it or that I'd suffer cataclysmic consequences. I commanded it to light, and fire pushed back the cold as Ludwig gave like wet paper.

Something snapped, and I tumbled into darkness.

---

"Oh no," Ludwig's voice said in my ear, missing its usual grinding, eldritch quality. "Oh, come on! No, no, no, you killjoy!"

I focused my eyes. Everything was monochrome, the world visible in only white and light blue. The light was almost blinding in its intensity, and while my eyes seemed more able to take it in than usual, it still hurt. In fact, I was ravenously hungry, and my entire body felt pretty not great... At least, the parts of it I could feel at all.

A quick glance down made me freeze: I was hovering in midair, and everything from my midsection down was smoke.

I was...

I was a windigo?

Everyone else in the room - it took me a moment to recognize them with the colors as messed up as they were - stared at me with a mixture of awe, disgust, and concern. "What just happened?" Leif asked.

Corsica took a half step backwards. "Ludwig...?"

A tiny mote of light no one was looking at pulsed next to me. "Cheater," it accused with Ludwig's stripped-down voice.

I didn't particularly need to have my friends nearby while I figured this out. Floating through the door, which was exactly like flying as a ghost, I undulated my way down the hallway, earned multiple shouts as I passed through the barracks, and slipped through a narrow opening where someone had forgotten to block the exit all the way to get outside.

Night sky greeted me in the trench, but I felt no cold at all.

"I'm a windigo," I whispered, my voice now sounding like rusty death. "This is Ludwig's body. I..." I looked at the mote of light. "I kicked you out. And stole this for myself."

"Yes, and your face was very intelligent and cool in doing so," Ludwig drawled. "Not. This is seriously lame, little cigar. Can we go back to our plans to break into Icereach together?"

I grinned a wicked grin. "You mean you don't like getting possessed? For real?"

"It is called a double standard." The light mote bobbed in midair. "I am great at making those, friendo. If you ever need some for yourself, I work on commission!"

I tried to blink... and realized I didn't have eyelids. Disturbing. "Ever heard the maxim about treating others the way you want to be treated?"

"Yup." The light mote vibrated. "It is for losers who lose a lot."

"Like you, apparently," I sighed. "Because now you're just gonna have to sit down and see what it's like for a while. Luckily for you, I'm not a megalomaniac who's out to crush your spirit, but I do see a whole lot of advantages in keeping you off the stage for a while and don't feel one bit sorry for giving you a taste of your own medicine."

The light mote buzzed in thought. "...I suppose karma is ironic, little cigar. But here is an idea, though: I bet you should totally give my body back because bad things might happen to you if you keep it and stuff."

I tried to raise an eyebrow... and realized I didn't have eyebrows. Was this why Ludwig wiggled so much? Was he just missing all other forms of body language?

Whatever. "Yeah, I'm sure I'll run afoul of an ancient curse, or something," I snorted. "Be more specific."

"Wellllll..." The light mote bobbed up and down. "Why do you think I possessed your rude raspberry friendo in the first place? Part of it was to see the looks on all of your faces, but there was more to it than that."

"Don't remember, don't care." I considered trying to scout more of the trench, but... I had windigo powers. There really wouldn't be many better opportunities than this to fly to Icereach, check out what was happening, and freeze anyone I didn't like. "You sure it wasn't just to mess with us?"

"I wanted to be a ponyo because being a windigo is lame," Ludwig insisted. "We have a whole bunch of limitations and stuff. I actually told your face about them like seventeen million seconds ago, which now that I think about it is sort of a lot. It is a pretty miserable existence, little cigar. King Father never thought about how we would feel when he made us, you see."

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," I said, gaining altitude. "Whatever I can or can't do in this body right now, it's a whole lot more than you can do as... whatever you are. And see if I cry for your loss."

Ludwig buzzed. "That is pretty mean of you to say to my face, by the way. Are you sure you would have said it if you were your normal self? I have a hunch in my brain that being a windigo is making you meaner, little cigar."

"Can't say I was feeling too charitable before I got your body, either," I told him. "So I guess you just get to deal with it."

"Fine." Ludwig shivered, drawing further away from me in the night. "Call on me when you get yourself into a mess you don't want to solve, stupid ponyo. I have a whole lot more experience having a windigo's face than you do."

He drew farther away, until I lost track of him. Good riddance.

I kept on climbing the trench, turning my thoughts to what had just happened... To what I had just done. The fact that I was anything but normal was already well-established, but... just what was I? My mask, the personality that made me me, could become a tangible magical object, or a detached ghost. Had I effectively forced my mask onto Ludwig, kicking him out and establishing myself as the personality his body was hosting? If so, how come I evicted him, rather than burying him in my mind like I did to the Halcyon who was currently in my own body?

If only I could ask Corsica about her experience with Ludwig. When she was his host, had she been disembodied like I was and like I had made Ludwig? Or was she stuck in there together with him, and with him in control?

Clearly, I had something in common with Ludwig, if we could both float around and possess others. Iklofna, Ludwig had said... I had never heard of that word before. And when I took over this body, unlike with Ludwig and Corsica, I did it without the aid of a magic circle. Did that mean I was like Ludwig, but more powerful?

My other selves were nowhere to be seen. I was on my own, and odds were decent I was about to stumble onto some secret about our capabilities without them around to stop me.

I shivered eagerly, still rising. True, I might not have had a magic circle, but there was something I did have: my bracelet.

How had I used it? Summoning it while pushing Ludwig felt deeply instinctual, but that told me nothing about how summoning it - or wearing it as a ghost - was possible at all. And I still didn't know what it did, other than that I used it!

There was a time I had worn it while not entirely real before, I realized: when I accidentally went inside Coda's throne, and first brought back Procyon. That bracelet was tied to me on a level that went deeper than physically wearing it.

Maybe it was from wearing it for years. Maybe it was from considering it my own. I knew too little about magic artifacts, and too little about my own past.

But whatever. My first priority was finding Mother.

---

I crested the mountains, hovering near Wystle Tower and looking down on Icereach from above.

A large airship filled the sky, too big to dock at the fortress. Vertical propellers all around its sides gleamed with neon magic, augmenting the massive dirigible and helping to keep the thing afloat. It looked like it was built around the dirigible, though, rather than simply underneath it; there was a platform on top as well that looked like a landing pad for normal-sized airships like the two that patrolled the skies around it and the one that actually was docked at the compound.

On its own, the ship didn't look more imposing than warranted, clearly designed for normal military use rather than as an egomaniac general's flagship of evil. But the searchlights on the ship that scanned the ground, and the spotlights on the ground that scanned the skies, gave the whole scene an eerie look that sent a shiver down my cloudy spine.

...Also, the lids to the rocket silos were open. That was a bad sign.

I floated closer to the tower, realizing I didn't have a perfect grasp of my current abilities and that it might be useful to practice before sticking my frosty face into the mess in the valley.

Fortunately, and somewhat oddly, my special talent still worked even though my real body was all the way back in the hideout, allowing me to pick things up with ease. Creating ice? It was as easy as envisioning a formation, then breathing out. The instincts I'd usually use to breathe, at least, since windigoes apparently didn't have lungs... I wasn't quite sure how I had been talking, earlier. Turning invisible was a little more instinctual and hard to describe, and harder still to test when I still couldn't fly through solid rock, so I wasn't sure I wanted to rely on that until I got to try it on a live pony. I could, however, go effectively anywhere air could go, and squeeze through the tiniest cracks and crevices with effortless ease.

Was that all? There were a few other things I could do that felt instinctual to my body, but didn't seem to have any effect, as if I was spinning a crank handle that wasn't attacked to anything. Maybe it was because I was only half of a windigo - possessed Corsica had been a windigo in a pony's body, so I was only as much a windigo now as Ludwig had been a pony then.

Satisfied with my preparation, I floated out toward the giant airship, in what I hoped was invisible mode.

No searchlights found me as I approached, determined to start this foray off by getting a closer look at my enemy. The side of the warship was painted with Yakyakistan's flag, and it wasn't hard to find an artillery deck where several yaks were loosely manning a giant cannon. The weapon looked like it was designed more to fend off other airships than to bombard the ground, and all the yaks wore unfamiliar decorated tabards that probably counted as military fashion. Happily, none of them saw me as I drifted closer, hoping to eavesdrop.

"Communication all clear. No targets," said a smaller yak next to a small speaker box on the wall.

The other yaks rumbled in acknowledgement. I could physically feel their stiffness and unease, though; these weren't soldiers who could both follow orders and be happy about it. In fact, so acute was the sensation that I knew which one was about to complain a second before they did it.

"Big cannon not Yakyakistan way," the uniformed yak grumbled. "Not seem like pacifist cannon to Makalov."

"Big cannon keep peace," another yak said, though I instinctively knew he was reciting a script he had accepted but didn't believe. "If never fight, no way to stop windigoes from breaking peace. Shoot windigoes, save friends in Icereach. Very simple."

"Big cannon not shoot yaks anyway," a third added, feeling more legitimate in their beliefs than the second. "Or ponies. Shoot windigoes. Windigoes evil. Not need to break vow to shoot evil because evil not count."

Makalov didn't seem satisfied. "Big cannon shoot anything big cannon pointed at. Principle of thing is problem. Way it used is just excuse."

"Principle of thing is shoot windigoes with big cannon," the third yak rumbled back. "Seem clear to Mordecai."

An excited little itch buzzed in my ghostly chest. What would a cannonball do to a mist monster? About as much damage as a paper fan. How would they react when they learned that? Or just when they saw me, in the first place?

Panicking them could work to my advantage. I could throw this entire ship into chaos with just a few tactical appearances, without even having to-

Focus. Get Mother. What was I thinking? I didn't need these invaders to be on any higher alert than they already were; that would just make my job harder.

That excited little itch turned slightly painful.

I ignored it and flew for the ground, aiming for the familiar entrance to the elevator shafts. The doors weren't airtight, and I squeezed through a tiny crack, becoming greeted with an empty shaft.

Hmm. Not exactly the sight I was used to navigating...

Drifting downward, I counted the number of doors, trying to time myself to emerge on the proper floor to reach Mother's apartment... Though, knowing Icereach, there were probably a million unmarked floors with secret things the elevator couldn't normally stop at, and I would vastly undershoot.

Somehow, I didn't, and emerged on precisely the right floor.

The hallway was crawling with ponies, mostly wearing similar attire to the yaks on the airship, and mostly looking a lot less bothered by what they were doing than the yaks. Made sense, since a smart commander would put any troops with questionable sympathies in the back when occupying a new area...

Mess with them, the feeling in my chest urged. They looked so high-strung, with the frowns on their faces and the tension in their eyes. Looking at them was like staring at cookie dough and wanting to lick it: tantalizing, and whatever were they there for if not for me to do it?

No. No breaking stealth until I found Mother. I swatted at the thoughts, and felt that itch in my chest tighten, like curtains getting balled up in a talon. Mission aside, I really wanted to mess with these ponies and pay them back for messing with my home.

Which... wasn't a feeling I would normally entertain. At least, I was fairly certain, but the more I thought about it, I couldn't tell. Was I being silly? Or had Ludwig been telling the truth about there being downsides to being a windigo?

Doubting myself only made the itch stronger. Just to quiet it, I promised myself I'd ruin some invaders' days on my way out.

I passed through an impromptu checkpoint that seemed to be designed to barricade civilians inside the housing complex. On the other side, I started seeing a lot more Icereach ponies, visibly agitated and conversing in hushed whispers in the halls. A sixth sense told me there were a lot more ponies in the apartments than usual.

Made sense. Odds were, the invaders were here to do something other than simply rule, and so they sent the entire population back to their quarters to get them out of the way while they accomplished their goals.

Hopefully, it meant Mother was here. I drifted through the corridors, the tension in the air caressing me like a tender blanket. These ponies were afraid. Mass fear like this, spread over so many, would take only a single spark to grow into action...

The idea should have terrified me, and yet it felt seductive, instead. I shook myself out of it and cleared my head, focusing on Mother. The itch in my chest tightened harder, this time making me physically wince. What was that?

I reached my old apartment, the nice new one that we had upgraded to after the Aldebaran incident, and floated under the doorjamb.

Mother wasn't home.

She was the last one to be here, I could tell. Artifacts of her life were everywhere, including that same Varsidelian spy novel she had read probably a hundred times by now. I saw no signs of a struggle, no signs of a search, and no signs of packing for a deliberate exodus... though some details I'd normally look for, like layers of dust, didn't actually show up to my windigo eyes. Seeing in just searing white and blue was surprisingly inconvenient.

Also, I was hungry, and had an incorporeal mouth.

Restless adrenaline washed over me, and with a growl, I left the apartment. Where would Mother have gone? She was a survivor, so she'd probably look for a way out. But I hadn't seen her on the way down... What if she was on an airship? Not sure how she'd get there, when she couldn't fly. Deeper into the caves, in hiding? Perhaps. But that wouldn't leave her any way out... Maybe I needed to check the surface again.

---

Minutes later, I was outside, the pang in my chest almost making it hard to fly as I passed up more opportunities to take high-strung ponies and start a brawl. I did the lungless equivalent of gasping for breath, which I didn't have words to explain: it was like a lazy creator had decided a creature should be able to breathe without giving it the apparatus to do so, and the laws of reality bent over backwards to make an exception so it could happen and the boss wouldn't get mad. But metaphors aside, what was going on with me? Or, well, with Ludwig? It was like I had a physical need to torment ponies, and not just a twisted desire for it. Like by stealthing on past, I was denying myself some necessary sustenance.

I scanned the area, searching for anywhere I might go if I was Mother...

Of course! The airship still docked at the yak fort! That was one she could have reached and stowed away on, exactly how she tried to take over the Aldebaran and flee half a year ago. I invisibly wiggled my way toward it, swimming like the air was water and I was a fish.

As I entered the gondola through its open door, a new scent reached my incorporeal nostrils, one I could identify instinctively: the fresh aftermath of a fight. It was intoxicating.

...No. Not a fight. A slaughter.

Dead ponies lined the floors, all wearing those uniforms. I was still myself enough to feel revulsion, though a wave of disappointment came along with it, and the idea of broken toys nudged at my consciousness. Upon examination, the first one had died of a clean puncture wound to the throat... as had the second, the third, the fourth and five more after that.

Perfect cuts. Deadly precision.

I drifted around, looking for the bridge, and began to get a worse feeling than usual.

Eventually, I found it, and it had two ponies who were still standing. One was Mother.

The other was a Whitewing.

The Whitewing's head swiveled, and its metal eyes locked onto me despite my invisibility. "Ludwig," it said in the controlled, pious tone of the Composer. "Why have you left your position?"

A thrill shot through my icy heart. Was I about to dupe Kitty? Think, Hallie. Use your talent.

Be Ludwig.

"Honestly, robobobot?" I said in the harsh, frozen voice of a windigo, becoming visible again with a pomf. "I got bored. So I thought with my brain, and figured, eyy, maybe I will go see what the robobobot is up to instead! So here I am. What is happening here, friendos?"

Beside me, the mote of light that was the real Ludwig returned, bobbing in approval. "Nice one, little cigar. You are good at being me!"

Neither of the duo noticed the light. Mother's ears flicked when I appeared, but she didn't look up from the ship's control panel.

"I already told you the plan," the Composer said. "Return to your post."

I did a loop in a way that I hoped was just as annoying as when Ludwig did it. "Oh, the plan? I might have forgotten just a few of the details. They were pretty boring too." I hesitated. "Actually, that is a lie. While you were telling my face, I was only pretending to listen and thinking up rude jokes about you to pass the time. So I never knew in the first place!"

"Unfortunate," the Composer replied. "Because I do not presently have time to enlighten you. Nehaly, how go the preparations?"

"Give me a minute," Mother grunted. "Never studied for a commercial pilot's license..."

I floated up to her instead, needing to know right now why Mother was siding with the Composer after the way last time had turned out. "Eyy, haggy, you are chumming it up with the windigoes? I thought everyone was having a whole entire crusade to squish our faces and stuff."

"Gotta do what it takes to keep my daughter alive," Mother said through clenched teeth, poking at dials with her one good wing. "Just the way it's always been."

I glanced expectantly at the light mote.

"I am going to be honest, little cigar," Ludwig said. "My face is pretty sure it wasn't paying attention to the plan either. All I was supposed to do was let the good guys into my hole and then let the bad guys in after them so they could have a brawl down there."

The Composer didn't seem inclined to further humor me. I vaguely considered trying to reveal who I really was, but trying to prove it sounded outlandishly difficult and even if I did, Kitty probably wouldn't take kindly to me usurping one of her pawns. So instead I floated, hovering over shoulders and trying to be generally as intrusive and obnoxious as possible.

Not because I wanted to make Mother's day any harder. It just felt like the right way to get some information.

The airship was moving, I realized. Mother was turning it about in midair, adjusting the bearing until we were facing the entrance to one of the four rocket silos.

I tried to blink, and again didn't have eyelids. Was this...?

Mother angled the ship slightly down, and accelerated.

The engines roared, the ship quickly speeding up on a collision course with the ground. As the floor lurched beneath us, Mother and the Composer both raced for the exit.

Were they insane? I undulated through the air after them, both of them leaping out the open door. Mother landed tumbling in a snowdrift, the Composer spread its wings and hovered in midair...

The small docking craft, however, was still accelerating, and moments later it crashed into the ground with a fireball and a terrific boom, landing right in the mouth of one of the launch silos and firmly jamming it with a pile of burning, mangled airship.

Sirens immediately went off, and searchlights from all the remaining airships fixed themselves on the wreckage.

"One down," Mother groaned, getting to her hooves and limping aggressively toward the next silo. "Three to go. As long as my daughter's in Ironridge, no one is bombing it on my watch."

Comments

[Numinos]

Oof. I sense a lot of wrong things will happen, and somehow mostly with right reasons, as always.

[penguincascadia]

I saw the chapter title and was thinking until the end that windigo Halcyon would meet a windigo's worst nightmare...

[Zapdroid]

An interesting development. I cannot wait to see where this goes!

[PropsValroa]

Very, very interesting...

[Sharp Quill]

I think it is called an Iklofna, which is an old windigo word I heard from a cousin of a cousin

iklofna is an anagram of loaf ink.

that refers to how we are sort of spooky and half-existent and stuff like this.

Makes perfect sense now.

[RoboRed]

Oh I'm getting a really bad feeling about this...

[sploopy slooder]

this seems like an exceptionally bad idea. im sure nothing could possibly go wrong.