We're almost there, the capital city is just out there, out of this mountain pass. Now I can understand why nopony has ever found the place. The weather alone would kill most ponies, and if that doesn't do it then the creatures that actually live out here will do the job just fine. I thought to myself, though I was hoping for some kind of feedback from either one of them. Nova hadn't talked to me since after I told of my plan and Shadow has been keeping her company no doubt. The same could be said for Ember and Hyperion after finding out that I still kept going after the third day of carrying them on my back in my darkness form and other than coordinating attacks on the various creatures that we have ran into, or pointing out anything peculiar, we haven't had much contact with Ember sticking by Hyperion the whole time here.

I didn't like it but I dealt with it as I always have and kept going as each step brought me closer and closer to saving Diamond. "Just a bit further you two, once we get clear of the the mountains we should see the city just a couple miles north of us. Once we do from here on out we need to be extremely cautious." I told them in a serious tone as I hid my magical signature.

I feel as though I should mention where we were at. We made it will away from the Crystal Empire, a few dozen miles at best, and had came upon this gigantic mountain whose top had disappeared into the clouds that surrounded it. After using my shadows to confirm that we were going the right way we started our climb up, well we did, Ember hitched a ride with Hyperion who wasn't opposed to carrying her up. After an hour or so of climbing a storm began to kick up and the wind was blowing around like mad. We had to find shelter and soon but it was hard to do with snow in your face as you're pressed up against the side of a mountain so I had to send a shadow out as I wanted to stick close to the girls just in case something happened. It soon came back and reported that there was a cave in the side of the mountain not too far from our left. I told them and we started inching our way over to it and made it there about ten minutes later.

We rested as Ember let herself be a bit curious and have a look deeper inside. After a good thirty minutes we were well and rested and were about to go looking for her when she came back to us, running around and hopping about excitedly as she was signaling us to follow her. We did and found out why she was so excited, she had managed to find a path through the heart of the mountains and I saw through my shadows that it did in fact lead to the Windigoe Capital. We've been following for the better part of two days now but we didn't care, it was much better than climbing the entire up, and it just meant that we'd be seeing Diamond sooner than we expected.

"Hey Dark Heart," I turned to look at her before she went on. "I wanted to talk to you for a bit before we go any further," She pauses and takes a deep breath in and out, as though she was nervous about what she was going to say. "I just wanted to say I'm sorry about the way I've been acting since that night. I know why you did it but I was just so angry that once again you were trying to pull this off on your own, again. We- I care about you too much to let you hurt yourself doing something so stupid but trying to stop you would have been pointless with our current mission. We may not have known each other long but I already that you're willing to sacrifice so much for those you care about and Diamond Sky has earned that to you." She seems like she wants to say more but before she can I decide to cut in before she can.

"Look Hyperion, I really don't care that you or Ember are mad at me, in fact I thought you would be after you found out, but I'm not gonna sit and say that it didn't hurt though I do understand. I get why you were mad and I just want to let you know right now that I'm sorry for worrying you. I know I'm irresponsible when it comes to helping those I consider my friends, family, and lovers, and despite everything I said about wanting to do this alone I'm glad you two came with me." She's had this worried look since I opened my mouth and it's been making me a b nervous so I was glad to see her when I said that. I grab a hold of her hands and we intertwined our fingers together as we closed the distance between us. "I'm falling in love with you, more and more, everyday Hyperion. You mean the world to me, just like my parents did, just like my sisters would have, like Tender Heart, Pinkie Pie, Zecora and the many others that I've met that have had a positive influence in my life. All of you are one of the many reasons why my dark magic is so different from anypony else that has used it before me." I pause for bit to let what I've said so far sink in.

"So I don't want you to think that you being at me for doing something is wrong, nor do I want you to be afraid to tell me that. And know no matter what happens today we will all make it though this together." I smiled at her to let her know that I was sincere, though I took one hand away from hers to get Ember in on the moment as well since I noticed her ears were splayed back against her head. Hyperion returned the gesture as Ember was all too eager to jump on top of me and once again cover my face in sap saliva. I shoo her off before looking at both of them and see that they're in higher spirits and raring to go.

After getting up I lead them towards a platform that lies a few meters fro the entrance to the city that has long been frozen over since the windigoes just fly in and out of the city. It takes us no time at all to reach it and we decide to stop and make up a plan for getting in and out with Diamond. After about an hours debate we decided that the sooner the better since everything I've learned about the city from my shadows has shown that the citizens aren't all that active during the day for reasons I have yet to actually figure, maybe Diamond Sky can shed a little light on the subject once we get her out the city. Before we go in though I put a couple of sound suppression spells on the girls and activate my own so that we don't make too much noise across the icy roads that decorate the city as well.

Once ready we head towards to frozen doorway and with a nod, Hyperion went ahead and defrosted it with a small but hot flame that hopefully wouldn't set any alarms, though Ember, being forever the mischievous little timber wolf she is, made it a show of just how much she enjoyed the warmth of the dragoness's fire breath. It took a few minutes to complete the process but once it was I took a peek in to make the coast was clear though it seemed it wasn't need as it seemed that wherever this way lead, it had long been abandoned, at least if the state of some of the structures was anything to go by.

"So where do we go from here?"

"Towards that," I pointed out towards the big menacing looking castle that seemed to made of black ice and enough spires to make a see urchin jealous. The girls looked at me like I was stupid after I said that as they gave me looks that said 'really'. "Look if you want exact directions, it ain't happening until we're in the castle. From here we're just going to heard in the direction of the castle as we avoid detection." Yeah probably not the wisest, or safest thing to do but the design of this place was too chaotic to really make sense out of that we might as well wing it, not even my shadows are of any help.

"Uuuggghhh, fine but if things go to shit I'm blaming you!" She yelled before I clamped of hands over her mouth and told her to shush.

"You trying to get us caught?" She glared at me for that because despite my serious expression she knew that I was being smug.

"You're an ass you know that?" She harshly whispered after she pried my hands off her face. I just shrug as we begin to move into the city proper. Despite the fact that it houses the Windigoes what parts weren't destroyed, decrepit or dedicated to Fratamantus, were quite stunning almost as though the ice shaped itself into the buildings that surround us. After about three hours of getting lost and resisting the urge to just start blowing through the ice we managed to get as close as we can to the castle. Now we had a gigantic with multiple outcroppings that held at least two guards on all of them surrounded the damn thing with no possible way of getting through or around it, and I very much doubt we could go under without setting off some type of alarm.

"Remind me why we can't use your shadows to help get through this fucking place." Hyperion asked as she came beside me as I tried looking for any opening that we could exploit.

"Because Fratamantus has been growing suspicious as of late, having seen some of my shadows moving about but he isn't quite sure as of yet. Of course that leads to him being a bit paranoid and hence the huge number of guards and no doubts wards, that lay around and in the castle." I explained as only one thought, one idea seemed to run in my head over and over again, something I was hoping to avoid though at the same time I wanted it to happen as well.

"Well that's just fucking great! So what do we do from here Dark Heart?" I mulled over my thoughts once more before coming to a conclusion of what needed to be done.

"Well you three aren't going to like this but I got on idea." I said to her while still looking towards the wall and the castle it protected, though my sight laid upon the place I knew Diamond to be staying in.

"What, what are y- Dark Heart NO, that's crazy!!"

"Well I was never exactly known for being sane." I told her with a completely straight face. "Though you shoul dbe lucky I erected a sound barrier otherwise we'd have been caught with your yelling."

"Damn it Heart, stop trying to take on this kind of stuff by yourself! You have me and Ember right here with you not to mention Shadow, Nova, and I'm sure Diamond Sky has some sort of idea if you'd just get a hold of her somehow." She was gripping onto my right arm with both hand as tight as she could though by the sound of her voice she knew she couldn't hold me back.

"I've already thought about Hyperion. Fratamantus probably thinks I'll have came alone and that me charging straight the city wouldn't be too far from my repertoire. Using that would solve a number of issues from finding a way inside to how to get rid of the guards. You and Ember can sneak in right under their noses, grab Diamond and get to safety. I'm not sure if
I can beat him alone but I know that I can pull him away from his daughter to make her rescue possible." I feel my dark magic running through me as I prepare to transform, though I won't do it before I teleport to the city gates so I can make this even more believable.

"Please be careful out there Heart." She choked out as Ember whimpered.

I smile to both of them before bringing them into a hug. It didn't last long as I knew that the more time we wasted the better the odds are they'll be seen. "Don't worry girls, I'll be alright." I give them both a kiss, Ember on her forehead and Hyperion the lips, before teleporting myself to back to where we had entered and quickly changed into my darkness form to cover up the magical surge that was most likely felt by Fratamantus himself.

"Hope you know what're getting yourself into."

"No idea, but it's never has stopped me before."

"Well know that you can count on us no matter what." I smiled at hearing Nova's voice again but it didn't last long as I set things further into motion as I blasted a gaping hole into the entire front wall. This got the desired effect as warning systems went off round the city. I could already see of the windigoes forces converging on my location as I stood there looking at them with a bored expression. Waiting until they were just feet away from me, I let out a wave of dark energy similar to that of when I had first changed in the past and as predicted it vaporized all who were within the blast. Once it had dissipated I ran into the city with Cursed and Blessing now drawn as I used them to travel above ground level and get to the castle gates sooner. Any guards I ran into were either cut down or smacked back as I allowed none to interfere with my mission.

Shadow is it almost ready?

"Yeah, just give it another minute or so and you can get Ember ad Hyperion inside without issue."

Good, with any luck it should draw out the bastard and all but a handful of his cronies outside and leave very few for those to two to have to deal with. This is one of the reasons I was hoping to be able to resort this, I get to destroy a city without worry, it so does make a great stress reliever though I do hope to change that soon. OW, What was that for? I yell into my head as a sudden pain could be felt in my mind, not my head, my mind.

"No naughty thoughts mister especially when you're in a fight to save somepony!" Nova scolded as I heard Shadow chuckling.

My bad I told her before turning serious once more and prepared to unleash a little present I had. I gathered the immense amounts of dark magic, that Shadow has been gathering from the now dead windigoes, into my arms. I could feel the same chilling feeling that the ponies of old must have felt when they succumbed to the power of the beasts. I have yet to feel this the type of darkness in ones heart that would attracted windigoes to them and for that I'm glad.

I take glance over to where I had left the girls and made eye contact with Hyperion. I saw the worry and fear she felt but I also saw that she believed in me and was no doubt cheering me on, as well as a determination to do her role in rescuing Diamond Sky and getting out safe and sound. Flashing her a smile I turn back to my task as the energy reached peaked mass.

"ARCTIC DARKNESS!!" I shouted as I shot the energy into the castle's wall and watched as the most of the front of the wall was engulfed in a veil of darkness before it dissipated, leaving nothing behind.

"You know your magic scares me a lot sometimes." Nova stated though I didn't as I was focused on a certain individual that floats in front of me.

"So we finally meet face to face Dark Heart, though I wish it was as allies." Fratamantus spoke as though he was disappointed though something was telling me he didn't really care. "Though I must say that I certainly don't appreciate the fact that you've decided that destroying my kingdom was the best way to get my attention!"

"Ooooooo, I think somepony is maaaaad." Shadow mocked the king.

"I don't give a damn bastard! You know why I'm here so give her to me and I won't leave the rest of kingdom in shambles!" I demanded as I keep up the act that I'm here rescuing Diamond alone.

"And why, pray tell, do you want that little whore for?" Fratamantus snorted out as my anger flared even more.

"DON'T YOU DARE CALL HER THAT!!" I growled as I grabbed my blades and prepared to strike him down.

"Oh, what's this, you mean to tell me that you actually got a heart?" He mocked but I just swept it off. Make fun of me all you want but those I care about, you better pray to the goddess I don't find out. Though that didn't stop me from throwing Cursed into the air and bring it down on him. He managed to move out of the way but some of the guards weren't so lucky as a those in its path were cleaved in half.

Wasting no time I use Blessing to intercept his path as I called in Cursed. The cowardly bastard used some of his own guards to take the hits as he once again slipped out of the way. Blessing was reeled back in as well so that they both stood by my side before I lunged at him from my perch and started to spin rapidly, releasing more of the chains length and making a vortex of spinning metal. I wasn't done though as I poured magic into a rune that lied n the gauntlets, which glowed with an eerie purple, almost black, light before I saw the first set of spikes pop out of chain that was attached to the gauntlet and watched more come out before disappearing into the frenzy of chains that spun with me.

Despite the chain wall that blocked my sight I knew Fratamantus had been trying to grew through to me with his own magic as I saw the bright blue flashes every so often. I paid it no mind though as I kept the attack going as the much more prominent crimson red blood stained my chains further as the fools tried to muscle their way through the imposing walls of my blade vortex. Unfortunately I soon had to release the attack I couldn't keep it up for long without leaving myself disoriented and vulnerable. I slowly wound down and retracted the chains bit by bit until there was a suitable amount left to preform long distance attacks without it getting in the way. I was looking around at the devastation my attack had done before a slow clapping was heard from my left.

"Bravo Dark Heart, you managed to wipe out a good chunk of my soldiers but it seems you've missed me." He said with a sadistic smirk as I growled at him.
"I didn't miss Fratamantus, I want to see your face as I RIP TO PIECES!!" I roared as I lunged at him once more, this time with him coming to meet me head on with his sword.
'I hope you three are alright in there.' Was the thought that ran through my head just before we locked blades.

We had ran in after Dark Heart destroyed the wall with his spell, Arctic Darkness if I heard him right, and all the soldiers that were coming out had ceased. Seemed his idea of using himself as a distraction worked damn good once I saw windigoe that was bigger and more imposing than the others fly out towards Dark Heart.

'Please be careful Dark Heart.' Was what ran through my head as I took one last look at him before Ember and I disappeared into the castle. We ran through the halls until we were a good ways away from the action and took refuge in an empty room after making sure it was clear. I leaned my back against the wall as I caught my breath before we headed out to look for Diamond Sky. We've just started this insane mission and already my blood in fucking pumping, I mean we just broke into the capital of the same creatures that can literally freeze your heart from the inside out with us being outnumbered hundreds, if not thousands, to one with there only being four of us to really do anything.

Before I could continue thinking about I heard a whimper and I looked over to the source which was Ember as she stared out the window that seemed to have a view of what was happening outside. I knew what she was feeling as I saw Dark Heart and Fratamantus exchange blows as blood and gore already littered the ground.

"Don't worry Ember, he'll be fine," I told her as I scratched her behind the ears. "We just got to hurry and find Diamond and we can go home before anything bad happens." She jumped off the window sill and jumped on me with her fronts paws on my shoulders as she liked my face. I laughed and tried to get her off of me as the sticky sap from her tongue was getting under my scales. I finally after or so but not without a thorough coating of the stuff for my troubles, as well as a proud looking timber wolf. "I hope you know I'm getting you back for this." All that got was a raspberry from a highly amused timber wolf that was soon to be victim to a Pinkie Pie prank. I may not know the mare all too well but what I do know is that there's no point trying to get away from the mare, because once she sets her eyes on you there's no getting away.

I spent a bit of time getting what I can of the sap off before simply giving up and went about our main goal as we exited the room and started looking through doors to find our way to one the spires that held Diamond. Just as Dark Heart had predicted, there were still some soldiers inside acting as guards as they patrolled the halls of the massive fortress. We had a couple of close calls but we were able to avoid them none the less though they did deter our search quite a bit from some of the places I would suspect a windigoe princess to be kept during an attack.

'Damn it, I wish we had something of hers so Ember could track her down instead of us searching aimlessly, I wonder how Dark Heart had planned to do this by himself?' No sooner had I thought that did a plan popped into my head. I looked down at Ember as she looked right back at me with those curious eyes. Even after all this I find the fact that a timberwolve can be so expressive fascinating, and a tad bit weird. "Ember, if we can something that belongs to Diamond could you track the scent?" I asked her as she seemed to get excited at the idea as she was wagging her tail and looked like she wanted to start barking but held back. I smiled to her and we went looking for some of this place many servants and see if any of them had attended to Diamond Sky recently.

We finally found someone who had been around Diamond lately and brought down her laundry full of dirty gowns and dresses, which of course was a gold mine to get a scent from. As soon as it was left unattended for even a minute I quickly ran to it and just grabbed something from the basket without looking before running back over to where I had left Ember. I made sure that I wasn't noticed has we hid in a vacant room that had already been checked so we didn't have to worry about anybody coming in. When I figured that I hadn't been spotted I looked at what I had grabbed and grew red as in my hands were a pair of panties. I turned towards Ember because I had heard a strange sound and saw that she was sitting down with one of her front paws on top of her muzzle as it seemed she was holding back her laughter, at least if the way her shoulders seemed to shaking was any indication.

"Shut up!" I said in a harsh whisper before throwing the undergarments at her. She yelped as they landed on her face and she tried shaking them off but they remained stubbornly glued to her muzzle and she started running around the room trying to get them to come off. I was holding back my own laughter at the scene before I recomposed myself and grabbed a hold of her and lifted her up so her commotion wouldn't attract any unwanted attention. Taking Dia's panties off of her I held it up to near her muzzle as she just glared at me. "Come on Ember, just get her scent and let's get going, the sooner we get this done the sooner you can try to maim me later." It was at this time the entire building shook violently and things were brought to another perspective , "And the sooner we can get out of here before Dark Heart gets hurt." She complied and took into the scent that was left behind on the single piece of cloth before I put her down and we ran out the room. I brought them with me just in case Ember lost it at all but it seemed she new actually where she was going as we ran through the halls with our only stops being to hide from any passing patrols.

It took us about four more minutes to come up on a door that seemed to lead to one of the spires if the view from one of the windows we passed by were anything to go by. There stood two guards at the doors and, me worrying about Dark Heart, took the more direct route of getting rid of them and ran up to them before they could react and punched them as hard as I can which got the effect of knocking them out. I was about to move them somewhere else so we weren't found out but then another tremble ran through the castle again which caused some of the chandeliers to fall. A couple fell from right above and so we jumped out of the way as they landed on the two knocked out, now dead, guards. We left them there since we thought it would be suspicious to try to clean up the mess than just leaving them there.

We walked through the door and saw that there was a long stair case leading up to what was hopefully Diamond's room. "Hold on Ember." I told her as I picked her up and stretched out my wings. I wasn't too sure I was able to fit through but it doesn't hurt to check and as long as I don't just go full speed ahead I have nothing to worry about. I flapped my wings and started to ascend slowly through the middle of the spiral staircase, being mindful of how far I could extend my wings. When we reached the top I let Ember down first as I descended on the closes step in I could without the risk of damaging my wings or falling. Ember sniffed around and nodded towards me, indicating that the source of the scent we've been tracking is just beyond the door. Now before I just walts in I take a look at the door as something seemed strange to me. Now I was expecting some ornately designed master piece made out of some kind of rare magical ice or something but no, it seemed to be a steel door with a small, barred opening, like that you see in a prison cell and it was then that I realized why Dark Heart wanted to rescue her so badly, besides the fact that they seemed to have fallen for each other in their first meeting, and that was because she was as much as prisoner to her father as much as she was a princess to the common folk. That must be why he hated Fratamantus even more whenever his shadows came back from surveying the city on our way here and here I was doubting that things seemed to be this bad for her. Being treated as a princess and a prisoner at the same time by your won father, it must be a hell of way to live.

"Hey, hey are you Princess Diamond Sky?" I asked as I peeked in to find a lone figure inside, sitting in front of a window, obviously watching the battle raging on outside. It had to have been a windigoe mare seeing how she was wearing a rather elegant dress, that I won't bother trying to describe, as well as the all around curves that any female possessed, or fem colts but I'd rather not think of that Shivers. She jolts up and looks towards me and we make eye contact before I jump back as her face suddenly appears in front of the opening.

"Yes, I am Princess Diamond Sky, who are you? Are with Dark Heart? Are all of you to rescue me?" She quickly shoots off each question as she seems eager and happy just to see us standing before her.

"To answer your questions in order, My name is Hyperion, yes I'm with the big lug outside, and of course we're here to rescue you, we sure as Tartarus wouldn't be out here with only us if we were planning to come fight some windigoes. Now how about we get you out of there." She nods, beaming at me before backing away from the door, seeing what I had planned with my hand already wrapped around the door handle. The thing was locked, I had already checked, and I didn't feel like wasting time trying to find some keys so I was going to rip it right off of it's hinges. Making sure I had a strong grip I pulled back as hard as I could and the door came off with ease as I let go of it to have it lodge itself into the wall behind us.

We walked in as Diamond just stared at me, correction she seemed to be staring at the doorway behind me as a smile grew on her muzzle until it rivaled Pinkie Pie's. "So are you ready to go Diamond?" I asked her to snap her out of it.

"Yeah, I don't really have anything here that I want to take with me besides present my mother gave me when I was filly but I always wear it so I don't have to worry about looking for it though let me go get changed into something that's a bit more durable." She ran into her closet picked out some clothes and ran into the bathroom. She came back out a moment later wearing a tank top that matched her dress in color, with a pair of black combat pants with a pair of matching boots. She was also wearing some kind of metallic armor over her right arm that went from her shoulder to her fingers, and a white bracelet with a pair of wings that were made of silver and amethyst. It seemed she also managed to put her mane up into a ponytail and acquire herself a bow and quiver, though something seemed strange about the bow though I couldn't quite put a finger on it. "Alright, all I gotta do is grab my coat and we can leave." She did just that she ran back to her closet and removed a hidden floor panel that kept said coat that seemed to be designed to go with the outfit as a sleeve was missing and fit over the armor no problem. It wasn't really anything special though as it was grayish blue and went down to her waist and had a couple of pockets located at the bottom, so yeah not anything too special.

We soon find ourselves running down the stairs and out in the hall we entered from with the two dead guards at either side. She barely offered them a glance as we made our way by them and seemed strictly focused on getting out. I'm not sure what happened to the other windigoes though as we hadn't ran into any guards or even servants on our way back to our exit point. Fierce tremors still shook the structure as the fight raging between those two was still going and Diamond made it clear that it didn't well with her as she flinched every time we felt or heard it. I'm not sure how long it actually took us to find our way out but we did none the less and Diamond let out a sigh of relief when we landed on the ground outside.

That soon changed when we all looked up in time to see Dark Heart being thrown off the mountain, all but his head, besides his horn, frozen and Cursing and Blessing lodged in the ground not to far from us, their chains severed from his gauntlets. We could do nothing but stare in horror as he disappeared over the cliff, without a way to break himself out.

"I would say that I'm surprised to see you with a couple of his friends in your combat gear but that would be a lie, dear daughter of mine"