Snowflakes fell heavy like confetti at the blasting start of a party, only the colors that floated and flitted in the air were unvarying shades of white, and beyond the blizzard's stir was no more than the gray-stained sky.

Concealed within the dull heavens was the dragon; Twilight didn’t need eyes or ears to sense it. A white and blue beast lingered somewhere in the mass of clouds, its mere presence a warning even from miles away. Twilight could feel its eyes surveying the grounds, and as a result dared not stare upward for long in fear that the penetrating gaze would lock up her joints. The book had thankfully warned her.

But the book did nothing to prepare her or the others for the catastrophic snowstorm the Ice Drake had brought. Knee-high in the snow Twilight stood shivering, unsure of just what to do next. The mare figured her companions, Lyra and Pokey, were just as clueless as she as neither had uttered a single word, instead listening for something to break the monotonous but malign heckles of the winds.

Twilight questioned the plausibility of fleeing if the Ice Drake were to suddenly show. There didn't seem to be any other options; fighting seemed hopeless given the fiend’s tremendous size and the sheer power typical of most dragons. Hiding seemed impossible as there was no place left to go. With every inch of the grounds frozen over, the three were essentially trapped. Soon, Twilight feared, they too would become ice-bound.

But Twilight knew that she had to cling to hope, even if its warmth could hardly be felt. It had been the only light in past instances. It had saved her and her friends before.

There has to be a way out of this...

“Twilight!” Lyra yelled over the blaring breeze, her body shaking beneath the baggage that she still carried. “What are we supposed to do now!?”

A tremendous clamor shook the air. It sounded as though metal was scraping metal, sword sharpening sword, with thunderous peals resounding like a gong. It was the din of a dragon's roar, followed by the alarming sound of dragon's wings.

Twilight's chest tightened as the strain of worry gripped her very soul. If she and the others were going to hide, they had to move fast. They stood out from the snowy the landscape like pastel-colored frosting on a layer of white frosting.

“Head for the beach, it's the only place close enough!” Twilight yelled back, and without hesitation she led the way to the eastern staircase headed for the island's inner bay.

Exactly how they could hide along an icy beach, Twilight wasn't sure, but her gut instinct had spoken. Her brain failed to come to a decision, something rare for the bookworm to do. Perhaps they could hide along the slope, she thought, maybe even hide inside some recession in the wall. It beat burying themselves in the snow.

The mare glanced at the sky, but all she could make out were the gloomy clouds. If a dragon were approaching, the only warning of its proximity would be coming from the noises it made.

Within the minute the trio reached the edge of the commons lawn where the cliff dropped down to the bay’s beach below. The pile of snow covering the span of railing made the fencing appear more like a short, stubby wall, and it took a moment for the group to find solid matter on which to lean.

As Twilight cautiously stuck her head out over the edge, though, there was no precipice to look down. Rather, there was a steady white slope that started where the railings began that dipped into where the waters once sat. The dip reached all the way out to the edge of the bay, where the mist and thick snowfall blurred any further vision.

Lyra, struggling to stand with the saddlebags tied over the middle of her back, leaned over the railing as well, but her reaction could not be contained.

“What’s going on? What happened to the bay!?” she shrieked.

Soon Pokey Pierce joined in as well, only after looking for a moment he proceeded to climb atop the thin railing. Three hooves made it and balanced his body as he slowly lifted his last leg up; however, while carrying it up, it bumped against part of the rail, sending the stallion horn over hooves onto the snowy slope.

Twilight held her breath as the body slid along the smooth surface, breaking apart what apparently was a thick layer of snow. Pokey’s body inched towards the steep part of the slope before stopping just shy of the fringe. Dazed for a moment, Pokey backed away slowly until he suddenly stopped and stared at the ground. He poked at the ground as a look of curiosity occupied his face, a look similar to what a young pet shows when seeing something for the very first time.

“That's funny,” Pokey chuckled to himself as he looked up. “I could've sworn this slippery stuff was-”

A crack interrupted, and in the blink of an eye Pokey's body vanished.

“Pokey!”

The two mares shouted as they leaned farther over the railing, stretching their necks out as far as they could. Without thinking Twilight rose onto the stone guard and leaned out to see a hole where Pokey’s body had disappeared, its gap filled with a dark blue color.

“Pokey! Are you okay?”

The wind replied with a loud howl of its own, adding in giant flakes to force Twilight to shudder more than just because of her fear. The mare ignored the malicious tease of the weather.

She called again, “Pokey!”

Lyra then stood atop the railing as well as she peered into the hole through which Pokey had fallen. After a few seconds of racing hearts, the two observers exchanged worried glances.

“W-What do we d-do?” Lyra asked, face full of fright.

Twilight could only reply, “T-Try and go in after him.”

Gingerly, the two stepped off of the railing and onto the snow-covered surface of the slope. Their first steps sank through the white layer, sinking half their bodies into what they figured was snow. Their hooves met a solid surface below, but its touch was utterly bone-chilling, even worse than the air and frozen precipitation.

“W-What is this we're s-standing on?” Lyra asked as she tiptoed to evade of the icy sensation that bit the tips of her hooves. “Did they just build a cover over the stairs leading down to the beach or something? If so, I never got to see it!”

Twilight rolled her eyes as she cleared a patch of snow in front of her. Beneath it was a light blue veneer filled with tiny bubbles, its hue lighter than that which filled the hole through which Pokey Pierce had fallen.

The mare cocked her head in confusion. “I t-think it's j-just ice.”

“Ice?” Lyra repeated. “T-This must be a t-t-t-thick layer to hold the b-b-both of us-!”

Just as she said this the ice began creaking like old floorboards, until suddenly there was nothing beneath their hooves. A short scream broke the air as Twilight and Lyra fell, but the drop only lasted a second. Still, Twilight only had a moment to gather herself before she began sliding down a slippery surface. Her attempt to stand and balance herself turned into a sideways tumble down the smooth gradient, which only grew more painful when another body joined the topple.

All of a sudden there were grunts, followed by a face full of grains of some sort. Twilight, dizzy and dazed, collected herself as best she could. From the corner of her eye she spotted Pokey standing and staring in another direction, distracted.

“Pokey!” Twilight got out. “Are you okay?”

“Oh, sure, don't worry about me,” groaned Lyra. “You only sent me tumbling a few seconds ago-” She paused as she raised her head and brushed the mess from her mane. “Wait a minute, where are we now?”

Reaching over them was a giant wall of ice, curved upward like one half of an archway. Its span started not a stone's throw away, its smooth texture turning to ripples as it reached the top of the precipice behind them. Off to the right from where they had fallen was a smooth but steep slope of ice, and beneath it visible treads of stone.

“We must be on the shore,” Twilight noted aloud. “And that means we just slid down the stairs-”

“The stairs?” groaned Lyra. “But what's this glassy arch? It's like we're in some crystal palace, or inside some kind of tidal wave.”

Twilight shook her head in awe as words spilled out, “That would have to be a really large wave to reach up to the grounds-”

The mindless utter quickly turned into intense thinking.

“Wave of ice!” Twilight exclaimed. “But could it be..? Lyra, do you remember that wave that you stopped when that big storm hit the academy? Do you remember how tall it was?”

“How could I forget?” Lyra said with a shiver. “It practically reached the span of the bay. Even scarier was that it reached as high as the... cliffs...” The look of shock on her face demonstrated her awareness of Twilight’s train of thought.

“There was ice in the bay and heavy snow falling when that giant wave came,” Twilight added. “It was almost as though the waters were beginning to freeze.”

“And there was that terrible storm, too. That voice warned me about everything, even about something she referred to as the ‘source of the storm’. I couldn't see it, but I could sense it.”

Twilight’s eyes lit up. “Could that Ice Drake have been the cause of it all? And also the cause of this? If you sensed something nearby when that wave approached, maybe it was hiding off in the ocean out of sight! The book did say that Ice Drakes occasionally reside in giant blocks of ice mistaken for glaciers at sea!”

The two paused as the revelations began to set in. Pokey merely nodded in unison.

“That wave, that one wave,” Pokey pondered aloud, tapping his nose. “I don't remember anything.”

“That's because you were most likely not here, Pokey,” Twilight remarked. “There was a giant wave, a tsunami, that was going to hit the island. If it had hit, it would have looked like this... only, it didn’t look like it was going to freeze.”

“It's so strange; where did all this ice come from?” Lyra asked. “If the wave I faced would have frozen solid like this, there wouldn't have been a need to sing and stop it-”

“The song!” Twilight shouted, which echoed through the corridor of glassy, ice arches. “Lyra, that song warded off the wave last time, and didn't you say later on that it was supposed to be used against that 'source of the storm'? If the Ice Drake is the cause of this, then maybe that song is what we need to defeat it!”

Lyra blinked nervously.

“I-I don't know if I can do that,” Lyra murmured, breaths grew short. “Facing a dragon... that's... I just don’t think I can...”

“Lyra, you have to!” Twilight pleaded. “That's the only way we know how to fend off the Ice Drake!”

But the minty mare still held a reluctance about her as she stepped back, her shame almost the final straw to bring her shaking knees to collapse.

“It’s impossible, Twilight,” Lyra sighed. “There’s no way I in my right mind could put myself in such danger. You know me, Twilight: I can't take the thought of pressure! You should have known that the only way to get me into such situations is by accident or without me knowing-”

“Do you have your lyre?” Twilight questioned, violet eyes fixed on her friend.

Lyra gave a confounded look as she glanced at the massive pack she carried. “No, Twilight, I just have everything I've brought to the island on my back! You know I'd love to show you, but it's buried somewhere in all my things; I wouldn't want anypony making off with it so easily, you know.”

It's never easy with you, is it?

Twilight curled her lips into a dubious frown. “Hmm, I don't know if I believe you. You are pretty forgetful.”

“Wha-! To think my friends don't even believe me!” Lyra gasped, vexed. “Why are you acting like this? Do I really have to get it out and show you to prove myself?”

Twilight nodded, to which Lyra growled and used her magic to lift the bags from off her back and drop them on the ground. After a quick glare directed at Twilight, she began digging through her things, flinging items up in the air, too flustered to care where they landed.

Meanwhile, Twilight turned to Pokey, who had been watching silently.

“Pokey,” she whispered, “I need you to stay here while Lyra and I go face the Ice Drake.”

The stallion, dumbfounded, tilted his head. “But I thought she wasn't going?”

“She is, she just doesn't know it yet,” Twilight said, rolling her eyes. “I know her, she does well under pressure. Like she said, she just has to be fooled into going. She’s... strange like that.”

Pokey paused again to look over at Lyra, who continued to furiously dig through her belongings as her complaining came out in muffled mutters.

“You're not taking me, too?” Pokey inquired, a helpless look coming over his genuinely innocent expression.

“I need you to use your telepathic spell,” Twilight said, trying her best to ignore the puppy eyes that stared at her. “Try and keep a look-out for Luna. I don't know if there's a magic barrier that will hinder you from seeing far out, but I need you to try and contact her as soon as possible. Tell her to come right to the commons where Lyra and I are heading.” She gulped. “Hopefully we won't be frozen by then.”

“Wait, you're heading back out?”

“I thought I made this clear, Pokey,” Twilight groused, when suddenly Lyra jumped in.

“Heading where now?” she asked as she faced the two, her golden lyre floating by her head.

“Got it? Good. Brace yourself, Lyra!” Twilight warned, but her friend hardly had a moment to prepare as Twilight went straight into casting her teleportation spell.

In a flash the echoes and otherwise eerie silence of the chamber of ice disappeared, replaced by the raging winds and tempestuous precipitation once more. The white was strangely blinding as the scene of the academy blended into the pearly colors of the turbulent atmosphere, but Twilight forced her eyes to adapt at once. The cold was almost unbearable, however, as ice pellets began to fall instead of snow.

“What-!” Lyra wailed. “Why are we back out here again!?”

“We're facing the Ice Drake, Lyra,” Twilight stated. “We can't turn back now; you have to use that song you learned to stop that wave. I know you can do it!”

“You actually believe that whole connection?” Lyra squawked with a jump. “I thought we were just speculating!”

“Just get your song ready!” Twilight ordered. “You and I both know you do well under pressure. Didn’t you do better than me on the final test at Celestia’s school?”

Lyra gave an anxious grin. “Well, I might have lied about that...”

“You lied? About the- But why would you-?” Twilight slapped her face. “Just get ready for when the dragon gets close!”

Lyra looked at her lyre, which still hovered by her head, its thin strings vibrating from the bits of ice that tapped against them. Her ears retreated farther back with every second her eyes ran up and down the golden instrument.

“It's just that, well... I...” Lyra gulped. “I don't remember the whole song!”

Twilight’s eyes darted from the sky onto her friend.

“You WHAT!?”

A roar blared through the sky, followed by loud tears through the fabric of the air. Twilight knew the disturbances that beat in the distance. The thunderous blasts sounded closer and closer, and Twilight knew it wasn't the inner workings of the storm: the dragon was drawing near.

She looked to Lyra with begging eyes. “Try and remember it, Lyra, and fast! I know you can do it!”

The two surveyed the sky, searching for any sign of the monster hiding in the silvery mist of the low-floating clouds. Flake after flake hit against their eyes, making the search more and more of a struggle.

“But the test, Twilight,” Lyra muttered. “I didn’t actually beat you-”

“THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS!” Twilight hollered. “Just play!”

Lyra lowered her head, and after a pause began plucking the strings of her lyre as her eyes and expression went vacant. Twilight could hear the notes go off one by one, with an occasional familiar tune; each progression, however, went wrong sooner or later. As the seconds ticked by, Lyra's attempts sounded less and less on the mark.

“I can't do it!” Lyra shouted after only a minute of trying. “I just can't remember! Twilight, teleport us out of here!”

“Lyra, you’re supposed to do well under pressure!” Twilight growled as she clamped her friend’s face between her hooves, more overwrought than frustrated. “If we teleport now, that dragon will sense us move into our hiding spot, and then we’ll be done-!”

Another roar filled the air, this time showering down from directly overhead. Twilight spotted a light blue streak slither past a thin shroud of cloud like a large comet streaking against the night sky.

“What do we do!?” Lyra screamed, wheezing.

“You just need to concentrate, Lyra!” Twilight said. “Don't worry about the dragon for now; I'll try and distract it. Just try and remember that song!”

But Twilight nearly failed to follow through with her obligation, for as she made her way to the across the lawn with her horn lit like a fire, the dragon came searing down to the earth, eyes fixed on her, throwing the mare's mind for a spin.

The Ice Drake's wings screamed like blades whistling through the wind, and its breaths were one hundred times louder than that of an Ursa Major. The force of the winds beneath its wings nearly blew Twilight off her hooves, and once it landed the earth shook under its mighty claws made of frost. The more detail Twilight could make out of the beast, the more she began to doubt her strategy of diversion would last as long as she hoped.

The dragon's shadow cast out a new sheet of cold beneath its darkness, turning Twilight's breath into glistering ice crystals. Twilight swallowed and dared to raise her gaze.

No, don't look into its eyes!

Twilight remembered the warning in the book, and so kept her eyes around where its chest and front arms stemmed out as she continued to back away from the beast. It had mighty limbs, muscular like any dragon’s. Its wings which then rested were long and wide, nearly invisible with their clear white texture blending in with the clouds above. Its talons were like blue ice, its teeth not long but extremely sharp. As it rose from its four legs on to two, it revealed its true height to be almost as tall as the main hall itself.

“Lyra!” Twilight called, keeping her eyes on the flying beast's sapphire chest.

The dragon, still drawing near, continued to stare down, unaware of Twilight’s intentions.

Sensing no reply, Twilight's eyes slipped away from the dragon and off to where her friend stood. “Lyra!”

This time the monster stopped its advance. Twilight, horrified, watched as the Ice Drake turned around and looked where Twilight's eyes had accidentally aimed: right where Lyra stood with her instrument. The golden glow stuck out from the snowfall like a ruby in a stony brook.

Did she remember it? Why isn’t she singing yet?

The dragon abruptly turned and headed off towards the mare and her instrument. Twilight's eyes flashed wide with horror.

Not that way!

“Lyra! Lyra, watch out!”

But Twilight knew her call wasn't reaching far. The dragon's steps drowned out all sound, and when their mighty blows against the ground weren't resounding, the winds blew with a wrath of their own. Their combined power knocked Twilight off into the snow where, in her shock, she could only watch the dragon tower over Lyra.

I have to distract it somehow... but how!?

Twilight looked around, but nothing was readily available; nothing but snow, ice, and whatever was buried beneath. She had been practicing her creation magic for weeks, but nothing had prepared her for such an occasion. She knew she had to improvise.

Ideas ran through the mare's weary head, which were so wobbled that they poured out from her mumbling mouth. “There wasn't anything in the book about weaknesses. It only said something about limits, the only one being it can't go places without snow or ice... wait a second, maybe that's why it broke all those windows! It couldn't freeze anypony inside because they were protected from the reach of the snow and ice! That’s why the dragon came when the snowstorm came! But what can I do about it..?”

She glanced over at Lyra, who seemed completely unaware of the fact that a dragon was slowly approaching despite its earth-shaking steps. Twilight summoned what power she could and focused on a spell she had used only once before in similarly dangerous situation.

Her horn glowed a majestic pink, and soon a similarly-colored line encircled the dragon on the ground. With a forceful wave of Twilight’s horn it suddenly folded upward to form a dome around the Ice Drake. Every last bit of snow and ice inside began to melt as precipitation dissolved upon touching the protective veil. The dragon turned in circles, confused, examining the barrier with contempt. Suddenly, it began bashing its colossal head against the enclosure.

Twilight felt her magic power quickly diminish; her hold was fading from the violent attacks, and fast. With all her might, however, she held the protective sphere together as best she could, hoping with all her being that the dragon would somehow be drained with its supply of ice and snow cut off.

But one final blow shattered the bubble like glass, its sound similar to the smashing windows of the school. The barrier was no more.

Twilight stumbled to keep her hooves planted. She felt the energy drain from her like the last drops being drunk from a bottle. She slumped from the fatigue that suddenly hit her like a boulder flung from a catapult. But her physical exhaustion was not the worst thing on her mind – rather, it was the Ice Drake, which then was looking straight down at her.

The mare's mind went totally numb as her thoughts cleared like notes erased from paper.

Its eyes-!

Everything proceeded as though in slow motion. Step after step the dragon approached, staring the mare down, and Twilight couldn't do a thing. Body numb and thoughts slowly returning, all she could do was contemplate her final moments, eagerly waiting for a nerve or muscle to move again.

The Ice Drake drew close enough to reach down and strike her with one of its many giant talons, or even squash her like a bug under its legs. Instead of these, however, the dragon lowered its head as it examined immobile victim. Twilight watched as tiny crystals poured from the beast’s mouth like an icy mist. After the details of the dragon’s black eyes were imprinted on Twilight’s brain, the beast reached its neck up to the icy heavens and started to fill up its lungs with a tremendous inhalation.

Then, like a toll of dulcet bells, it began:

“Like the water, calm, my spirit...”

The words resonated with perfect tone; its power upstaged even the storming gales.

“Show thy sense of perfect peace...”

The dragon paused and turned to face the source of singing: Lyra, bearing her precious lyre, eyes wide open and glowing a celestial white.

“Halt ye winds and rest ye waters...”

The beast started to twitch, starting with its head, then arms, legs and wings. As soon as Twilight felt her senses return she stumbled onto her hooves and darted over to her friend.

“Force thy restlessness to cease!”

The dragon gave another deafening roar, this time growing weak at the end of its howl. Every successive breath was a struggle as it teetered and tottered across the lawn. It fell onto its brawny chest with a deep bellow, crushing the vegetation of the park, its head just steps away from the mares. Its eyelids twitched until finally closing, and its body went completely still.

Then everything went completely still.

Did we do it?

Even Twilight and Lyra couldn’t move as they watched the dragon with tense nerves. Each one waited for some kind of movement, their hopes hanging by the thinnest thread. Neither dared to move nor make any sound aside from the panting they could not hold back.

Suddenly something began to emerge from the fallen beast, and Lyra made it known with a terrible shriek. A strange light violet color floated out from the Ice Drake’s body, taking the form of an entirely new creature, one that started to walk in the mares' direction.

It appeared to be a full-bodied, ethereal being, an apparition of sorts. It looked somewhat like a pony.

It looked up at the two mares, eyes open and attentive like a hawk's. As it looked between the two, something strange wandered into its expression; surprise, joy, horror, Twilight couldn’t quite tell.

All of a sudden the dragon's body began moving once more, convulsing to life as though struck by lightning. It rose onto all fours and stretched its neck upward as its revitalizing breath recreated the winds that had disappeared. The first sound it made was like a terrible roar, only reversed.

Twilight knew she only had a second to react.

She summoned her protective shield once more, this time surrounding Lyra and herself. The pink enclosure quickly formed to cover the two, and no sooner after it materialized did a turbulent blaze of white and blue ice dazzle around them like a ferocious fire. The mysterious flames dispersed upon touching the thin veil, and otherwise ran across its surface like water over a rock. Angered, the Ice Drake stopped and stomped on the ground as it began to inhale again.

Twilight wasn't sure how much longer she could hold her spell.

The dragon reached its head high as though it were drinking from the very storm clouds themselves, when out of nowhere a flash of lightning struck its head. The creature stumbled back, shocked, and looked around, its gaze shooting in each and every direction.

Twilight looked at Lyra, but her friend looked as clueless as she did.

Another lightning bolt seared through the sky, this time hitting the dragon's wings. As the beast staggered back yet again, Twilight noticed the ghost-like pony in front of them mimicking the Ice Drake's movements, doddering and staring at the sky in perfect unison with it.

Twilight looked up again as a section of clouds slowly began to part, leaving a gaping hole in the sky. Sunlight shone through and painted the scene with streaks of gold, staining the bland canvass that had loitered since morning. A figure slowly descended from above the clouds, its dark colors contrasting with the light which it had brought. Twilight knew who it was from the leaping her heart performed inside her chest.

Princess Luna!

The alicorn zipped into action, swooping down to strike the staggering beast. One shot after another she released dark magic directed into beams or giant orbs which pummeled the dragon like cannonballs. Though thrashed numerous times by such strikes, though, the Ice Drake did not cease its fighting. It leaped into the sky and spreads its injured wings, staring down Princess Luna with a look that threatened to attack her with every last ounce of its being.

But the headmare seemed hardly intimidated. She flew back up to the base of the clouds and raised a hoof into the billows. The gray material began turning black as midnight as it twisted to form a whirlpool of storm clouds. The entire atmosphere went black as though another night were falling, but soon enough electric pulses lit the sky, beating like blood through the cloudbanks’ veins. Twilight thought she could see Luna's eyes glowing a similarly dynamic incandescence.

The dragon beat its great wings, ready to clash heads, sending gales which the grounded unicorns began to feel as Twilight's shield had faded away. Twilight spotted the ghost pony, still glowing a faint violet color, as it stared up at the sky unaffected by the vigorous breeze.

A mighty roll of thunder suddenly accompanied the electricity flowing through the clouds, its sound spinning like liquid down a cone. As the cracks of light drew close to Luna, the alicorn vaulted into the clouds and out of sight, only to blaze back through it with an ear-shattering explosion. She shot through the sky in the blink of an eye, her trail flashing like a dark lightning bolt, its violet and gold-glittering streak piercing the dragon's body. What energy remained branched off and cracked like regular lightning, but its sight - though a flash - was still far from ordinary.

The thundering roar trailed off miles into the distance, and the flash remained imprinted on Twilight's eyelids. She had never beheld such a powerful spell.

What... What was that?

The dragon's wings stopped flapping as its body hung suspended in the air. Bit by bit it began to fade away until its form, no longer white and blue but black as ash, dissolved as the twirling winds carried it off as though it were weightless dust.

Twilight’s eyes fell onto the ethereal being standing before them. The look on its face matched the shock on her own.

“This... This freedom,” it uttered, voice trembling, “I thought it would never come.”

Next Chapter: Chapter 36 (Episode 9, Part 2): The Phantom's Omen Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 42 Minutes