Green– fucking fuck–

Focus damnit!

Pressure– twisting– the world was spinning-! My inner ear was screaming at me!

–green was everywhere - squishy - soft - cold - doing its job–

The spell was fraying–! No! Stay in place–!

Celestia damnit!

Focus! It’s magic 101. Will made reality– I said will made reality damnit!

Muffled shocks and whines and screeches reached my ears through the material.

My inner ear finally settled, gravity deciding to pull in a single direction as the torque and centripetal forces faded. There were howls.

Fucking hell.

With a twitch I abruptly cut off the energy to the foam I’d filled all available space in the car with, the constructed material quickly fading from existence and dropping me to the floor.

Correction, wall. Wait, which wall was that? Crap, we’d rolled at least one full time. Damn.

“Roll call! Who’s not dead?!” I shouted over the howls of the wind and wolves- there was a rumble through the wall as I leapt up onto my hooves, eyes darting about, trying to get the measure of the situation.

There were several groans and coughs– wind?!

Were there holes in the car–? No, the wind was coming through all the shattered windows– a dark shape above-!

With a snarl and a sweep of my head I slammed steel plating against what was now the roof of the car, covering it entirely in softly glowing green plates.

Another glow- blue, a quick glance confirmed it was Quiet Mirror, also up and mildly surprised at the plating. Then he blinked and his eyes snapped to mine, “The doors-!”

Quick as thought I glanced at the ends of the car and mentally measured them before placing appropriately sized plates at each door.

“Pres–” Shadow Play had to stop to cough and suck in some air, “Present and accounted for!”

“Cumulus Rose, awake and uninjured sir!”

A quick glance confirmed that she was up and about, a fetlock hooked around the handle of her dawnblade as she hovered in place. Shadow Play was pushing her way out from beneath a bench that had been ripped from its place bolted onto the floor.

“Will those hold?” Qubanna was up, practically dancing around the edges of the car, inspecting it and the plating I had created.

“I’d be more worried about the walls of the car than those,” I said quickly as my eyes darted around, “What about the girls-?”

“They’re okay!” it was Punic, my head snapped over to him as he quite literally stood protectively over Fluttershy, Rarity, and Twilight, “Ms. Fluttershy is unconscious and lady Rarity is disoriented, but Twilight’s shield protected them.”

The purple unicorn groaned unhappily as she pushed herself up, “Should’ve gone with a pillow like you did. We got bounced around–”

Not important, “Pinkie? Dash? Aj?”

“Here! Can we do that again? What with all the spinning and turning and–” Pinkie had popped out from beneath some cushions and bolts of cloth, good, uninjured, “–and it was like being held in green cotton candy!”

“Dash? AJ?!” I called out again, turning about, searching the turned over cushions and glass and cloth.

“Here!” my head snapped to the blue pegasus as she shoved the remains of a bench off of her, her wings protectively enshrouding Applejack’s form, they’d been close enough to be enveloped in my ‘pillow foam’ construct. There’d probably been something in my eyes because she hastened to say, “I’m alright! AJ hit her head though!”

The farmpony shook her head even as she shoved Rainbow Dash off, “A’hm alright sugar! A little bump on my head ain’t gonna slow me down!”

“But AJ–!” the blue pegasus worried over her.

“Ah said Ah’d be fine!”

I looked at her critically even as I asked, “Can you run?” Her emerald eyes met mine, they were slightly unfocused but getting better, no trembles, no blood, also no hat, it wasn’t any guarantee but it might have to be enough.

“Of course Ah can!” she snapped, standing to her full height, with only the slightest wobble.

My lips pressed into a thin line, “It’ll have to work,” there was a thud against my will as something I’d guess to be a wolf slammed into one of the steel plates covering the windows. My head jerked up at the feeling, the sound of it lost in the howl of the wind and wolves outside the car, my eyes went back to the beautiful pegasus, “Dash, cover her–”

“Ah said–!”

“And I’m making a call!” I roared, making her almost flinch back. I ignored the pain it caused to see that look, “Dash, cover her until you’re sure she’s okay! Roles are still the same but I want you to keep an eye on her. And find her hat while we figure this out!”

“Right!” Celestia I felt like an asshole.

My head jerked around, emotions later, saving people now, “Punic, can you carry Fluttershy?”

The large stallion nodded his helmeted head,“Easily if we can strap her on.”

“Good, Quiet, use what cloth we’ve got left to tie her down on his back,” I realized just after I said it that I was making the two that had a history work together, but then I discarded it. Now wasn’t the time, I could hear the wolves batting against what had once been the ceiling and floor of the car, “Rarity, how are you holding up?”

The white unicorn wobbled a bit as she stood, “I–…” she paused, swallowing even as Quiet Mirror began to gather up the cloth that he could find scattered about, Punic settling down some as Twilight lifted our unconscious pegasus friend onto his back, “I don’t believe I can run at the moment dear, I’m dreadfully sorry…”

Damn. “Punic?”

“I can carry both, easily.”

“Good, get it–” *flsh-POW* My head jerked to the sound and flash, a blade at the ready before I recognized the black cloak and two other ponies who were wobbling on their hooves, “Graves, status?”

“I am uninjured, obviously, the conductors are shaken, but fine.” Graves gave a slight toss of his head, moving his mane out of his face, “As if they could be anything else.” He was fine though, good. Next problem.

I looked to the two conductors, one cream and the other a soft blue, “Can you two run?”

The cream colored one swallowed, the mare nodding her head with a soft, “Y-Yeah,” her fellow conductor nodding as well.

“Good, stick close to Twilight. She’s going to be at the center of the group, just stick with us,” calm, controlled, hold their gaze. I’m in charge and I know what I’m doing, “Can you do that?”

The blue mare nodded, “Y-Yes sir.” Damn, she was trembling. Both of them were, I don’t think they were ready for this. Fuck. I glanced over their outfits: denim jackets, handkerchiefs, their hats lost in the crash. Would that be enough? No, probably not. Damn.

In spite of the tremble of fear in my chest I pulled my scarf off, feeling it's magic fade as I tenderly wrapped it around one of the mare’s necks, “Good, we’ll get you through this. Just stick close to us and we’ll take care of everything.” Graves rolled his eyes and I had to resist the urge to snap at him as I turned, “Shadow Play, your scarf.”

She gave me a curious look for a half second, her yellow eyes glancing between me and the mare I’d just given my scarf. I saw the realization come across her. My magic scarf, like her own that she might not need due to her innate resistance to cold.

With a quick motion of her leathery wings and a hoof she unwrapped the scarf, coming over to place it on the other conductor. As she did, I turned to the necromancer, “Graves, we’re traveling in a group, Punic is on point, Quiet’s on the left, you’re on the right, I’m covering the rear.”

“Hmph, functional.” He gave me a look from beneath his hood, one I struggled to decipher though it resembled a sneer, “And can you keep yourself warm without the scarf?”

Good question. Probably not. But I could do better than an earth pony mare. “I’ll handle it.” My voice was thankfully strong in spite of fear making my chest clench.

I took a slow breath, in through the nose, out through the mouth. Okay, now what? Get everyone safe. How to do that?

… wait.

It was quiet… relatively that is. There was the howls of the wind and the wolves, the rattle of the twisted and tortured metal of the wrecked train car… but there wasn’t scratching or thumping from the wolves attacking the car itself. But with their slowly wailing howls there was no doubt that they were still nearby.

I scowled. Dammit, what was going on out there?

The exterior of the car was mostly intact, it was the inside that was torn up, the windows having been blasted out, though now covered by emerald steel.

“What now?” Qubanna asked, making my lips press into a thin line. Good question, I could maintain this plating for quite some time, but that’d only delay the inevitable.

I glanced about, trying to determine the situation, even as Quiet Mirror shouted over the increasingly loud howls just outside the train car, “There’s a lot of glass on the floor! If you don’t have shoes on or can’t fly, watch it so your frogs don’t get cut up!”

Good point, damn, “Girls! Hooves up!” my friends raised hooves curiously and I worked as quickly as I dared, focusing on each limb, measuring, calculating, and formulating the basic physics of a war-shoe for each. With some focus I encompassed each limb in a green-steel shoe. Realization dawned on each of their faces and they raised each hoof in turn.

“Grave Danger,” I said over the howls of the wolves, focusing my power into the shapes around the girls hooves, I needed more info before I could plan anything, “Could you see anything through the storm while you were up there?”

“Nothing.” For once his sneer didn’t really seem directed at me, “ I couldn’t even see the tracks through this tartarus damned blizzard.”

“Damn, okay, we can’t stay here. We need to get moving, anyone here can do tracking magic?” The tail end of the sentence was cut off by a loud slam as the car rocked, the roof denting inwards. The girls yelped even as the team tensed, myself included. Honestly though, I felt more irritated at the interruption than actual fear in spite of the formulaic blades hovering at the edges of my consciousness.

No one spoke for a long moment, staring at the dent, the howls had stopped… no, there they were, starting again with renewed vigour. Joys. Still no one answered. I snapped, “Tracking magic, anyone?”

“I have nothing,” Quiet Mirror shook his head, glancing back at the dent, “Sir.”

“What kind of–” Qubanna started, interrupted by another slam in the same place, the car rocking and the metal of the car roof splitting just slightly with the screech of tortured metal. All of us tensed once more, Rarity, Pinkie, and Twilight getting behind Punic even as Dash stepped in front of AJ, Qubanna finishing his sentence a fair bit louder than he started, “What kind of tracking?”

I readied an oversized blade, five foot by five inches by one inch of sharp steel ready to be made a high velocity reality even as the cold wind from the crack washed over me, my entire body tense.

“Any at all, scent or blood or anything!” Well shit, I could see a shape of black flame rushing towards the car through the split. Oh fuck that noise.

WIth an exertion of will I finished the creation of the blade and gave it direction in addition to its velocity. The emerald blade blurred through the crack in the roof and slammed into the shape, sending it tumbling off with a canine scream.

I ignored the wince the girls gave at the pained sound as well as the part of me that cringed. I hated causing pain, didn’t matter that I needed to do so. Grave Danger wasn’t affected though, “I can use blood to track somepony, any user of blood magic could, but we don’t have anypony–”

“Twilight!” I snapped even as there was another slam that rocked the car, this time impacting what had once been the floor of the train car. A quick glance confirmed that it hadn’t dented like the roof, thank Celestia.

“What–” to my relief, Twilight didn’t question me like Graves started to, instead hopping around Punic even as the necromancer cut himself off. I was inordinately satisfied when his head jerked towards Twilight, eyes narrowed, “Yes, that would work.”

“Can you do it?” I questioned him, my eyes focused on the crack in the former roof, searching for any other targets as snowflakes fluttered in, my ears flicking back and forth as I listened for any clues as to where the next one would come.

He scowled in thought even as Twilight looked to me and asked, “Do what?”

“Use your blood to track Shiny,” I supplied, ears twitching around, listening to the howls despite the rapidly dropping temperature of the train car. Something was weird, it was like they were… it was like the wolves were testing our defenses.

Fuck, these things were organized.

“I–” she blinked in surprise before making a sour face, “Ew.”

“Quit your sniveling and stick out your hoof, I need some blood to work with,” his eyes snapped back to mine, “I’ll need several minutes to work this spell, it is not one I need to do often.”

“Done,” I said, my eyes focusing on the crack. If they were smart… this is where they’d attack, just from an angle, everything else was covered or too tough. ”Just make it happen.” I could cover it, but if I left an opening, I could tell where they were going to attack.

Twilight hissed, and my muscles reflexively clenched at the sound of the pain from my friend. It was to be expected. Focus. I can’t let my concentration waver, keep the power flowing into the steel plating and war-shoes, keep them real. Doesn’t matter how much I want to turn with a mace of willpower, I couldn’t do anything, this needed to be done.

Fucking hell.

“Wait, we’re just going to go straight to the Crystal Empire from here?” Quiet Mirror asked, “Do we even know where we are?”

That… was actually a good question, Damn, I made a snap decision, “No, we’re going to follow the train tracks if we can, we don’t know if there’s a friendly welcoming party for us or not. If the tracks are covered we’ll follow Graves tracking spell.”

There were nods from the group as well as several curt acknowledgements of: “Sir.”

I glanced about quickly, taking in the readiness of the group. Fluttershy was still unconscious but now strapped to Punic’s back with Rarity soon to join her. All of the flight-capable ponies were hovering in place, Dash staying close to Applejack. Pinkie’s grin was hesitant, though she hadn’t really stopped smiling, I still felt a surge of gratitude that she understood that laughter wasn’t appropriate for this moment.

The train car was a mess, benches and cushions and glass and cloth were everywhere, this thing wasn’t salvageable at all. Damn. Would we even be able to grab the supplies?

Twilight was holding out a hoof, blood dripping from her foreleg into a small bowl Graves had pulled out from beneath his cloak, the two conductors seemed torn between sticking close to her as they were told or staying as far away from Grave Danger as possible.

Quiet was helping secure Rarity to Punics back as Qubanna stayed near the crack in the roof, slightly off to the side.

A shiver went through me before I clamped down on the reflex, the wind seeping through the crack was frigid in spite of my vest and coat of fur. The armor plating I wore still retained my heat, but for how long? Ugh, don’t think about that.

Okay… goal in place, how do we accomplish it?

We need to get out of here safely first, already have a plan for transport, and we’ll just have to wing it from there. How to get out with these things swarming around the car like roaches?

… well… everything could be solved with the proper application of high explosives...

If I had any high explosives that’d actually be a good plan, but the best explosive spell I had was a fireball, and the best I could manage with that would’ve just dented the train car. But I had swords. I doubted swords could have the same level of ‘solving all your problems’ as high explosives, but they might apply here… Swords Like Stars through the ceiling where they’re likely gathered, a barrier above us as we charge out?

Actually… I liked that plan.

Could I manage that spell while holding the plating?

Yeah. Yeah, I could.

Okay, blast out the roof where all the wolves are probably gathered, rush out to the tracks and try to follow them to the station where Shiny might have some guards holding it and then follow them to the actual city? If we can’t follow the tracks or there isn’t anyone at the station, we follow Grave’s spell. Wait, the tracks are probably in the direction of the floor…

A quick glance about to confirm the thought. Yeah, definitely in the direction of the floor. From the direction of the seats and knowing the side that… gust? Snow fist? Whatever it had been had hit. Between those two that meant the tracks would be in the general direction of the “floor” and we’d have to turn left at them. So go through the floor? No… Hrm.

I can’t do both, blast open the floor while carpet swording where the wolves are, at very least not while I’m maintaining this plating…

Wait, team, right, not alone this time.

“Rose!”

“Sir.”

“Can that sword of yours cut through the floor easy?”

“Yes sir!”

“You’re going to be opening the way then,” a snowflake landed on my scarred cheek, a drop of frigid cold against my skin, “Once everyone’s secured I’m going to kill everything on the other side of the train as we bust out that side and make a beeline for the tracks.”

“Sir,” she acknowledged with a nod.

“The girls are secured,” Quiet said just out of my peripheral vision.

“Good, get ready to breach the floor,” I ordered, tilting my head some, “Graves?”

“Quiet fool, I need more time.”

“Just checking,” I turned back fully to the crack in the ceiling. Oh, there’s no way that’s a good sign. I couldn’t see the corpse of the wolf I’d stabbed through the crack anymore. Where in tartarus did it go?

Right. Still on a team. Okay, “Quiet, watch the crack while I prep my spell.”

“Sir.”

I closed my eyes. I held the visualization of the steel plating I’d placed around the train car as well as the horseshoes I’d made for the girls. It was too many points of focus to add in the field of stars, but… With focus, I pulled power from myself, pouring willpower and mana into the constructs on the girls hooves, giving them a bit more permanence, they wouldn’t last long but I wouldn’t need to concentrate on them.

There.

In my minds eye, I could see the archway of steel in a field of darkness. I visualized the howling winds, the tundra around that archway, and I could vaguely sense the power of the wolves swarming over the archway like flies around a corpse.

And then I saw the stars.

Countless pinpricks of emerald against the black void around the archway of steel in my mind. Each point of light a blade, each one a sword or hammer or mace, each star in that black sky a weapon in its entirety. a formula of weight and strength and force.

“Graves,” I said tersely, holding that delicate image in my mind, “We move on your signal.”

“Tch, it’ll go faster without interruptions!”

Yeah yeah, I get it, “Alright! We move once my spell starts! Everybody ready?!”

There was a chorus of affirmations of varying degrees of enthusiasm and courage. Earning a tight smile from me. This… as horrible as this was, it was real, this wasn’t a bunch of mindless drones following me because I was Gary, these were people following me. I felt a small surge of stupid pride at the thought before I viciously crushed it. Now wasn’t the time.

No one spoke as the wolves and wind both howled.outside the car, small flurries of snow sneaking through the crack they’d made. Why were they waiting? Were they waiting for us to make a move–?

Then Graves spoke and there was no more time for distractions, “Ready!”

I took in a slow breath, filling my lungs with frigid oxygen before I spoke. The words were more for myself than for any requirement of the magic, but I growled them out anyways, “Swords Like Stars.” My power pulsed and even through my closed eyes I could see the emerald glow of my horn as it shone.

It was a shower of blades and weapons that I guided. I’d created the weapons and gave them their initial velocity, now all I had to do was focus them in as gravity did the rest.

Even over the howl of the wind the screams of the wolves could be heard, the shuddering thuds and small booms as oversized weapons weighing anywhere from ten to forty pounds slammed into them and the ground at somewhere around terminal velocity.

This was the spell that had reduced a section of the Everfree Forest into kindling and splinters, and for good reason. The earth actually shook with the force of the literal rain of blades, the construct plating I’d created shuddering under the rain of blows.

And as the last of the stars I held in my mind started to fall to the earth my eyes snapped open as I shouted, “Rose! Now!”

There were three quick screeches of metal behind me as I turned, Shadow Play and Qubanna shoulder checking the triangle Rose had cut into the floor, sending it flying free. “Let’s go!”

The frigid wind surged through the opening even as the others leapt through the hole, I couldn’t afford to hesitate as I leapt after them. The flurries of snowflakes and cold air making my muscles quiver as my eyes flicked about at the damage I’d done.

Snow mounded up around us, scattered by the wind and the rain of emerald weaponry, the last of the weapons still standing in a twisted parody of a battlefield before the residual magic within them faded, some stuck in the still flaming corpses of wolves. There were dozens of bodies strewn about, divots in the ground where the weapons had impacted, and through the gray snow the only colors were the ponies in front of me, the brightly colored car, and the black flames of the wolves. No blood.

Even as my hooves pounded against the snow as I rushed after the mass of ponies ahead of me, my breath was already coming in harsh pants. The spell took a fair bit out of me. But I would definitely say it was worth it.

All of this was taken in with just a momentary glance, because there was a more pressing concern.

The dozen or so wolves in the air in front of us.

“Are you bucking kidding me?! They can fly?!” came the indignant shout from Dash even as Quiet’s horn flashed and a bolt of energy slammed into an oncoming wolf, literally bounding along the edies of snow in the air.

“Keep moving!” Blade. Blade blade. Blade. I thought as I swept my eyes across the sky, shooting an emerald sword into each wolf I saw. The mass of imagined steel slamming into the airborne creatures and knocking them away. My hooves thudded against the dirt and snow beneath me, the ground I ran along already mostly cleared by those running ahead of me.

Something wasn’t right.

The wolves Quiet and I’d hit were disabled, knocked off course… but Quiet’s had caught itself several feet above the snow and started bounding towards us with a mad howl, the ones I’d struck from the sky with my blades pulling themselves from the snow as well.

“They’re not going down!” came the cry from Punic even as the horns of the other unicorns flashed. The massive stallion was avoiding the few wolves still close to the ground, instead allowing Qubanna and Shadow Play to swoop in and knock them aside.

“I noticed!” I snapped even as I glanced behind me, the wolves I’d brought down around the car that we were running away from were getting back up. Damnit. There was the briefest flare of fear in my chest before I violently suppressed it, gathering another blade in my mind. I took the fraction of a second longer in the creation of the blade in my mind to inscribe the rune for fire in its hilt and give it that dollop of more power. The weapon literally blazed as it flew through the air, a flaming arrow of green steel as it slammed into one of the wolves.

When in doubt, kill it with fire.

The shadow wolf screamed, an unearthly screech that had no business coming out of the throat of any canine. The wolf dropped from the sky, writhing on the ground even as we rushed past it, the horns of my fellow unicorns flaring once more, accompanied by two yelps and another scream. There was a sickening crunch that drew my eye upwards, finding the origin of the noise the wrenched neck of a wolf that had the misfortune to end up in Shadow Play’s grasp.

A swing of my will as I knocked another wolf away from Quiet’s form, the unicorn turning the spell he’d been readying onto another target. A quick glance back at the wolf I’d hit with the flaming blade found it struggling up, but definitely not down for the count.

“Fire helps!” I shouted.

“But it’s not enough!” Grave Danger snarled, a bolt of fire the color of blood flying from his horn and into the face of another wolf, earning a gurgling scream from it as part of its face disappeared, “They still regenerate!”

The shadow wolves were swarming around us like flies around a corpse, another glance back confirmed that several dozen more of them were rushing towards us from the car. Damnit. “Could you figure out what they are better while on the run?”

“Who the Tartarus do you think I am?!” Graves snarled even as crimson power wrapped around a shadow wolf and wrenched it closer, slamming its face into the ground as we ran, “Keep them off of me!”

I had to tilt my head to bring Graves into the vision of my better eye– Fire Blade! –so that I could keep an eye on him and shoot the–

… nevermind. Rose has got it. Damn. I’m usually the one cutting things in half. She practically buzzed around the cloaked unicorn, her massive dawnblade in her mouth flashing in quick strikes to lop off limbs and even cleave the shadow wolves in two. The strikes were quick as lightning and deliciously efficient, reducing the large beasts into smaller bits.

Right, she’s got it. Back to overwatch. I twisted my head back around–

Those howls were way too close behind me.

I twisted my head over my shoulder and fired a shotgun spread of flaming blades behind me, hearing a few pained yelps and more mundane screams at the action. That took out a handful of the closest ones– still about two dozen left– did I have time to deal with them-?

I glanced back forward- Punic was avoiding combat with his cargo, Qubana was sticking close to the armored stallion, cartwheeling about, thorny hooves shining with light as he knocked the ground-bound wolves aside- Shadow Play and Dash were both in the air, Dash was pinballing between two wolves, lacking the mass to do serious damage, Shadow Play was defaulting to breaking the necks of the wolves- Quiet was firing bolts of fire off to the left- the other girls were in a tight group at the core-

Enough time.

A smattering of stars, emerald pinpricks of light, each a star in the sky–

Each one blazing with fire–

And the stars fell.

A tight concentration of emerald streaks as the weapons fell upon the oncoming edge of the pack of shadow wolves.

The inside of my chest felt cold at the usage of power, my brain tingling unpleasantly at the rapid usage of higher circle magic. But the results were worth it, the screams of the wolves a tortured piece of music to my ears as their momentum stumbled.

I turned back tow– Oh you’ve got to be shitting me!

The wolf Rose had cut in half and we’d left behind was trying to pull itself back together.

All aboard the nope-train to fuck-that-ville. “Graves! We need some answers!” I could start experimenting again but if I had an–

A wolf twice my size was thrown past me with a sickening crunch, crimson magic fading from its form, “They’re feeding on Vice magic! Use Virtue Magic on them!”

“Good enough!” I shouted. It was like Vice magic in practice, just a different focusing lens for the power.

I thought of Applejack, of the pleasant spike of warmth and affection I always felt when I looked at her, I held onto that feeling and poured it into the blade that I fired into one of the shadow wolves, fire and affection and blade met black flaming flesh-

With a scream that put the previous ones to shame, the wolf fell to the snow, the impossibly discordant pitches of the sound it let out making me grit my teeth in actual pain. The shadows encompassing its form faded as we rushed past it, the emerald and pink blade taking up a significant portion of its torso.

Good–

“I don’t know Virtue Magic!” shouted Quiet with no fear in his voice, but definitely a tight worry.

There were sounds from the others, but I shouted over them, “Later! Get to the tracks!” Our melee fighters couldn’t– right! I’ve got a fix! I just need time, “Twilight, once we hit the tracks, throw up a shield bubble around us! We need to stop so I can do some magic!”

There were a chorus of affirmatives as we rushed forward through the snow.

I focused on the sweeping feelings of giddy happiness Dash could bring to me and cleaved one of the wolves in two with the blade, freeing up Dash to handle the other–

A bolt of crimson flew through the air, knocking another wolf from the ground around us–

Purple and blue light flashed, the blasts thudding into wolves, knocking them from the air, it wouldn’t last but we just needed the respite–

“We’re at the tracks!” came a shout from Punic.

“Twilight!”

Purple power was already flaring into existence around us, “Right!” It had trapped one wolf in here with us, one that lunged straight for Twilight.

I was more concerned about the fact it knew exactly who to attack than Twilight’s safety considering that it was struck immediately by two bolts of flame, one deep crimson and the other a crystal blue before Shadow Play slammed into it from the air an instant later, the massive armored mare making chunky salsa of what remained of the shadow wolf’s head.

These things were either smart or being controlled by someone smart, the black wisps of shadows fading from the corpse. My hooves crunched in the freezing snow as I approached, without the shadowy ‘flames’ it was a normal if large gray wolf. Exempting the disgusting lack of face and holes from the bolts of magic of course, and the lack of blood. Completely normal timber wolf. Of death.

I scowled, trying to figure out what we were dealing with as everyone’s breathing started to even out. Twilight’s horn shone as the howls of the other wolves sounded outside the barrier, Qubanna was the first to speak “And what spell do you need to cast?”

“Give me a second,” I replied as I pulled my attention from the corpse, stepping through the snow and onto the tracks. I could see the devastation of the train jumping the track… actually, one of the supply cars was pretty close! The corner of my mouth finally quirked up. Finally, a bit of good fortune!

Anyways, I needed to give our melee combatants a way to actually hurt these things now, we only had a few seconds before the pack hit Twilight’s shield and she couldn’t maintain it forever. Okay, I needed to give the team flaming hooves of justice in the next minute. No pressure.

I locked my eyes on Qubanna’s hooves, he’d need this the most, if no one else got it he’d need it, his thorns and poisons were useless against these things. Fire was easy, the trick was keeping it from harming the recipient of the spell–

A loud slam heralded the arrival of the wolves, several rapid fire thuds following immediately, Twilight letting out a small “Nng!”

–Okay, I needed a source of Virtue magic to ascribe into the power, as a focus filter for the spell–

The howls were loud through the barrier, the team setting up a circle around the inside of the sphere of purple, the Elements of Harmony and the conductors at the center.

With effort, I tuned it all out, closing my eyes and focusing on thoughts of my friends, my real friends, the ponies that talked to me and I enjoyed time with, the warm fuzzy feeling and bubbly giggles that they could bring out in me. I latched on to that feeling and opened my eyes, taking it and using it as a focusing filter as I took a basic fire spell and hooked the formula for it onto Qubanna’s existence, particularly his hooves.

The actual mechanisms behind it were pretty complex, as was any boon, but the long and short of it was that attaching a spell to the mana aura of a pony properly would keep it from hurting them, though it’d eventually wear off.

It was with a fair amount of satisfaction that I watched Qubanna’s hooves light with emerald flames, the zebra letting out a small yelp despite both himself and his vines being unharmed.

My grin was vicious, “Good, Shadow Play, hold still for a second.”

It took effort to keep the proper mindset, to keep that focusing lens of Virtue, but it was within my ability. As quickly as I dared, I wrapped the basic fire spell around the hooves of AJ, Dash, Shadow Play and myself. A much easier bit of magic was imbuing the edges of Rose’s dawnblade with the spell. By the time I’d finished enchanted all of our melee combatants the base of my skull was on a slow roast, but I had it done within two minutes. Punic had to be left out, his armor’s magic was too strong for me to affect him in this situation.

“Okay,” Dash muttered, barely audible over the howls of the wolves and the thudding of their bodies against the shield as she looked at her flaming hoof, “That’s bucking cool.”

A small smirk played across my face because I had to agree, the flames were slowly changing from the emerald green of my magic to match that of the individual's own natural magic. In Dash’s case, it was every color under the sun, creating an honestly beautiful effect despite the horrors outside of the shield as multicolored flames licked at her sky-blue legs.

Shaking off my fascination with Dash, I turned to look at Twilight, her eyes scrunched up in concentration and her horn glowing brightly. She could maintain this, but we needed her as close to full strength as possible, “Alright,” I spoke up loudly, speaking from the chest to boom over the noise of the wolves, “I’m going to fire off another Swords Like Stars and Twilight’s going to drop the shield and we’re going to make a top speed that-a-way.” I pointed with a hoof, even if I hadn’t kept track of which direction, the remnants of the train in the distance pointed the way.

Punic spoke up, the scowl audible in his voice even if I couldn’t see his face through that helmet, “That’ll leave enemies hounding our flanks.”

“And fighting them here runs the risk of them getting reinforcements,” I countered quickly.

It was Graves that snorted at that, “And we might be running into those reinforcements and be caught between them.”

“Or we could be running to our own reinforcements,” I pointed out even as I glanced about, “It’s a risk we have to take. We’re on a time limit, both our reserves and on the scarves.” I glanced down at my armored legs and the emerald flames that encompassed them, somewhat warmed by the magic, “And I don’t know about y’all, but I’m a bit chilly.”

There was a round of surprised blinks at that before my fellow scarf-wearers glanced worriedly at their pieces of cloth. The breaths of everyone visible in the chill despite them not feeling it, reminding them of the frigid environment even with Twilight’s shield. Several concerned looks were shot my way from AJ and Dash as well as Twilight and Rarity.

Pinkie, however, decided to hop onto my back, wrapping her forelegs around my neck and snuggling close. The power of the scarf didn’t affect me, but it did warm the metal at my back. I shot her a grateful look and a small smile, getting a grin in return.

Still, Graves snorted, no steam coming from his lips for some reason, his voice soft but audible over the sounds of the beasts outside the bubble, “This is a risk.”

“I’m aware,” I said as I closed my eyes, once more visualizing a field of stars, taking my time to do it properly and try to conserve some mana. Each star a blaze of flames, an aspect of Fire, I focused on the feelings of happiness my friends could bring me, ignoring the sounds of the wolves, “But it’s one we need to take.”

“Twilight, Pinkie.” It was all I needed to say.

“Yupperoonies!” The warmth on my back rolled off, with a small crunch as her hooves landed in the snow.

“I’m ready,” Twilight said tightly, the light of her horn shining even through my closed eyes, “Go for it.”

Twilight Sparkle, like the sparkling of the stars… heh… yeah, I could work with that. The twinkle in her eye when she teased me, that smile on her face when she geeked out about something.

I focused on that, and focused my power through it, my horn shining brightly as I opened my eyes, “Swords Like Stars.”

The stars fell, and the screams of the wolves pierced through Twilight’s shield bubble even as the ground beneath us shuddered as the blades rained to the ground. My teeth clenched though as I glared, power flowing into the spell. The fuckers had moved. I watched as over half of them were caught in the raining blades, but they’d started moving before I’d even finished the spell. Damnit, that level of coordination… there was probably someone in control.

As if on cue, Twilight dropped her shield the moment the last blade buried itself halfway into the earth with a boom. The group starting to run as the glow from her power disappeared.

Rapid-fire bolts of flame flew from the horns of Graves and Quiet into the mass of wolves ahead of us, only about a dozen, knocking some aside as we barreled through. Rose and Shadow Play leading the charge.

I glanced back at the derailed car and turned to Twilight, her horn already lighting up the instant our gazes met. A lurch of metal told me that the car had been picked– Wait–

Damnit! Applejack! I spitroasted the offending wolf on a flaming blade, the damn thing had broken past the lead mares by running behind another wolf! Damnit, it’d nearly been at Punic!

It was chaotic, but in moments we’d broken through the mass of wolves and were thundering down the tracks. I fell to the back of the group, hooves ablaze as they thundered against the ground.

Bolts of crimson and blue arced from the horns of Graves and Quiet respectively, lancing back into the pack of shadow wolves behind us. Many thudding home and removing a wolf from the fight, either permanently, or at least keeping them away.

The cold wind changed directions, and we were soon running against it, my teeth chattering before I clenched my jaw so hard it hurt. The flurries of snowflakes leaving specks of even deeper, lingering cold against my coat.

A quick glance back confirmed my fears, the wolves were faster than us, they were gaining on us, running along the winds rather than pushing through the snow.

The heat from our hooves made things a bit easier in that regard, but the pack would soon be upon us.

I picked my targets carefully, firing flaming emerald blades over my shoulder. I’d already fired two before I remembered to focus them through the feelings I felt for the girls, but high velocity flaming swords tended to ruin your day whether they’d been infused with warm fuzzies or not.

This wouldn’t work though, we needed something to control where they could attack from. Twilight couldn’t save our asses while hauling around that train car–

Wait.

Fucking idea! “Twilight!”

“Em?!”

“Use the car to cut off their approach!”

“Right!” with outstanding ease, she hauled the massive train car around, moving the mass of steel into place, the car cruising sideways only a foot above the snow as it walled off part of their approach.

Right, gotta reassign tasks–

“Shadow Play! Rose!” I barked out even as I started to pant, the freezing air burning in my lungs, “I want you two flying interference! Dash! You’re on our air defense!” I could hear the acknowledgements shouted over the wind, “Quiet, Graves, fire at will! Qubanna, stay in front! AJ! We’re handling anything that gets past Quiet and Graves!”

Two streaks went past me, one blue-gray and one dark blue, and for the briefest of moments I felt sorry for the wolves. It was only an instant, but I’d have to liken the two differently sized mares to a freight train and a blender. Shadow Play juked the first wolf just enough that its jaws glanced against her armor as she wrapped her forelegs around its neck and twisted.

Its head and body went two separate directions, the stumps seared by the flames on her hooves.

Said neck was about as thick around as her barrel.

Blade held in her mouth, Rose had done a precision turn and change of angle, tucking her wings tightly against her as she flew just beneath a wolf. She went right between its legs, her blade perpendicular to the ground as her feathers brushed against its fur. Between the mass of her blade and the speed she was flying at, I shouldn’t have been surprised when the wolf was bisected.

In both cases the mares had performed the action smoothly as part of their movement, killing the lead wolves in passing as they got between our group and the rest of the pack.

… yeah, memo to self: Never make them mad. Y’know, ever.

I turned back forward as we galloped, glancing ahead of us to ensure none had circled around. Visibility was getting worse, the flurries of snow obscuring more and more of my vision, and I’d be damned if it wasn’t getting colder.

I could still see Dash darting around right above the main group, the girls that were awake glancing back repeatedly even as they ran, Punic using his great mass to simply plow through the snow on the tracks, making a channel for the rest of us to follow after.

Graves and Quiet were firing off bolts of fire behind us, and I glanced back quickly to check. With the train car taking up a large part of our right flank the target range was a lot smaller. A wolf started to run on the winds above the train car–

Not happening.

With thoughts of Applejack in mind I launched a flaming blade into the wolf’s side. I didn’t lead it enough and got it in the hips rather than the shoulders, but the force of the oversized blade slamming into it knocked it out of the sky.

We ran, the biting cold of the wind seeping through my armor, my coat slowly getting soaked with the frigid water. Between the bolts of magic being fired behind us and the two airborne missiles of death, the wolves struggled to approach. Any that got past the mares were subject to my blades.

I picked my shots carefully, I had to. We didn’t know how far the station was from here, let alone the Crystal Empire, we had to conserve our power. I’d already expended a fair amount of my power on three Swords Like Stars, the base of my skull burning from the exertion.

My chest quivered out of fear as well as the cold, if those things got to the girls… Damnit, can’t think of that, got to focus.

The moments didn’t matter anymore, seconds or minutes weren’t the concern. The tremble in my legs, the increasingly harsh breath of my companions, the increasing intensity of my shivers… those were the measures of time.

Time passed.

It was mechanical. Pick a target, focus on friendship, fire flaming blade, don’t stop running. I lost track of time. I couldn’t allow myself to get angry, I couldn’t think too hard about the situation, I needed to keep using Virtue Magic, I couldn’t stop running in spite of the growing ache in my muscles.

The wolves were thinning, but they weren’t attempting to overtake us anymore. They were simply hounding us rather than pressing our defenses. There were maybe twenty of them left, less. But they stayed far enough away to dodge the bolts of power from Graves and Quiet–

“Shadow! Stay with the group!” I shouted at the againaip, who had started to engage. A surge of relief accompanied her immediate response, pulling ahead of the wolves once more with several powerful beats of her wings, but a pair of wolves pulled ahead of the pack in bounding leaps, closing the gap–

Damnit, no!

My blade had already been fired, aim was slightly off but it accomplished its task even as I fired another. The first oversized blade clipped one wolf and knocked it out of the air. My second blade was no better aimed, but hitting the wolf’s leg didn’t knock it out of the air, the wolf lunging at the flank of the large mare–

Damnit! Blades wouldn’t–

A bolt of crimson fire finished its journey, passing within a foot of Shadow Play to burst against the wolf’s head, reducing it to a charred stump, the corpse tumbling out of the air even as the shadows fled from its body.

I shot a grateful look at Graves, who was scowling from beneath his hood, teeth gritted, “Fool! They’re hounding us! We either engage them as a group or don’t! Do not try that again!”

Shadow Play nodded, cringing slightly as she flew, glancing back at the pack that still hounded us. I didn’t say anything because he was right, I just hadn’t had time or the breath to say it.

I turned forward once more, focusing ahead of us. hoping that we weren’t being hounded into a trap.

The tracks that we were following were being covered in larger and larger amounts of snow as it came down… the snow wasn’t white anymore. Okay, that’s not good.

I glanced about, despite the worsening visibility now that I’d noticed I couldn’t stop seeing how the snow was transitioning from pure white to a dirty gray. Our group was thundering along, pushing through the nearly foot-high banks of snow on the ground. A herd of multicolored ponies in varying states of armor, most of the group was fine, Grave Danger wasn’t even breathing hard.

But Twilight wasn’t used to running through snow like this, and between running and lifting the loaded train car she was starting to sweat and pant. But it was the conductors that really concerned me, the two mares obviously weren’t athletes and wouldn’t be able to keep this up. Hell, I wouldn’t be able to keep this up, I was more of a sprinter than an endurance runner at the best of days, but in this blizzard? The wind and snow were leeching the heat and strength from me bit by bit, killing me by inches.

Yeah, fuck that noise.

I grit my teeth and snarled, popping the lid I’d had on my emotions, on my anger. Power bubbled up inside of me as I seethed. These fucks were treating us like prey! These pieces of shit! A fire pooled in my chest as my barrel heaved, I was exhausted, but I wouldn’t allow these fucks to harm my friends!

Tongues of emerald fire licked at the corners of my vision as I fanned the flames of my anger in both a metaphorical and literal sense, allowing the roiling power to warm my body and banish the chill, if just for now. I’d be useless for a while after this was done, but if I survived till that time I’d count it as a win.

It was just about when my breath was coming in puffs of flames that Dash shouted, “There’s the station!”

I couldn’t make it out through the rolling gray and the flurries of snow, but I trusted her vision far more than my own, “Double time people! We’ll take a rest at the station regardless of what’s there! Graves! You’re on barrier duty!”

“Tch, you can’t handle it?” I couldn’t see him well, but I’d swear Graves was smirking, and there wasn’t much heat in the question. But I still snapped at him.

“Have you cast three sixth-circle spells recently? No? Then bite me!”

As the necromancer laughed, I could finally start to see the station through the blizzard, the sight of it enough to make me push myself just that bit harder, the others in the group doing similar. We thundered the rest of the way towards the platform, nothing more than a covered area in the middle of the snow near the end of the tracks. My eyes darted around wildly as I searched for figures in the snow, either more of the wolves or, hopefully, ponies–

“Hey! There’s ponies!” This time it was Rarity that saw better than me and I quickly followed her gaze, finding several ponies throwing camouflage blankets off of themselves and standing.

“Sir Emeris!” Punic shouted, the question implied.

“Go for the platform!” They’d meet us there and at the very least, the conductors and I needed a rest, Twilight probably did as well.

… the howls had picked up. Fucking fuck of fuck!

A quick glance back confirmed my fear, the monsters had started to really put on the speed, rushing towards us and trying to close the gap before we made it to ‘safety’.

“Sir?!” Shadow Play barked the question, having seen the same thing.

“Graves! Quiet! Discourage the fucks!” Bolts of crimson and blue shot from their horns as I turned back forwards, trying to close the last few dozen yards to the platform.

Qubanna launched himself onto the platform, quickly followed by Punic and Pinkie. The two conductors struggled up onto the raised platform even as Twilight and Applejack leapt up, Twilight managing to turn the train car sideways in a smooth motion and fitting it onto the platform with room to spare. I ignored the mass of steel rushing past me as I spun in place, facing the oncoming pack of wolves, a blade at the fore of my mind as I waited for the other guards to hurry over.

Fifty yards.

Forty more yards before the wolves were here, Shiny’s guards…

Thirty yards.

There wasn’t enough time!

Rapid-fire swords flew into the side of the pack, the emerald blades clipping their targets and occasionally thudding home, but none did permanent damage to the shadow-infused wolves. But they accomplished their task, slowing the wolves on that side and caging their movements. Four bolts of magic flew over my head into the leading wolves, accompanied by screams from the creatures before another volley was loosed.

Ten yards.

“Graves!” I snapped as I launched myself backwards up and onto the platform, moments before the last of Shiny’s ponies were on it. A wall of crimson snapped into existence inches from the front of the platform, a distorted bubble of semi-transparent crimson encompassing the entire platform–

The first few wolves slammed into the shield with a snarl, not even bothering to slow down as they did. There were several tense moments as the wolves thudded against the red barrier before the attacks slowed, the wolves instead starting to prowl about the edges of the bubble, some trying to gnaw or claw at Grave’s barrier.

I scowled at the beasts momentarily before turning back to the group, trying to get my breathing back under control, “Graves, how long can you maintain this?”

His hood was down, his pale yellow horn glowing brightly, and there were definitely hairline cracks glowing a dark red in a ring about halfway down it, “Indefinitely of course.” He said it with confidence, but there was definite concentration on his face, he was making it look easy, but with the wolves literally gnawing at the edges of it there was no way he wasn’t feeling it.

Still, I trusted his statement enough to turn to the rest of the group, “Okay, status reporrrrt.” I clenched my teeth at the shiver that interrupted me.

Despite her own panting, Twilight started to step towards me, “Em–...”

“I’ll be fine.” I responded curtly. Not that I really would at this rate. It was getting colder, I was sure of it. Fuck this noise. But we’d deal with that later. First, everyone else, “How are we holding up?”

“The conductors are exhausted,” Shadow Play stood protectively over the two mares, and my eyes caught a small quiver of her muscles beneath her thick coat. The two conductors seemed fine aside from being coated in sweat and panting on the tile of the platform.

I held back on the ‘I told you so’ to Shadow Play, it would’ve just been rude.

“Miss Fluttershy awoke briefly during the run, but fainted immediately afterwards.” I turned towards Punic, a part of me irritated at the ease which the massive stallion was able to speak despite carrying two full grown mares and that much armor while being our plow through the snow. But that part was mostly crushed beneath the gratitude for him doing so.

“Rarity?” I asked, looking at the fashionista.

“I’m fine darling, though I hope we have a bit of a reprieve from the excitement, my mane is atrocious,” she huffed, earning a small smile from me even before she added as an afterthought, “Oh, and I do think I can run on my own now.”

“Good, get down to make it easier on Punic,” I swung my head around, finding Twilight’s breathing starting to even out, though there was some sweat dripping from her. She gave a short nod and a brief smile and I moved on, she’d be okay.

“We’re good,” Dash pre-empted me before I could ask, a flaming hoof waving off the concern as she smiled. Both Aj and her seemed fine, though the farmpony was rubbing her head some. She’d retrieved her hat as well, good.

My eyes kept moving, Qubanna was uninjured, as were Rose and Quiet. I turned to the silver unicorn, “How are your reserves?”

“I’m fine,” he shook his head, eyes darting about, following the wolves outside the shield, “But I still don’t know Virtue magic. I’m practically useless here.”

Since my hoof was on fire, I bonked him in the side of the head with my elbow, “That wasn’t useless back there to me.” Quiet Mirror blinked at me stupidly as I continued, “No, they weren’t down for the count but your magic kept them off of us. We’ll deal with the knowledge later, when we’re not on a time limit.”

He blushed some as he nodded, “Ah, sir. Yes sir.”

Finally I turned to Shiny’s men, “Alright, report.” Two unicorns, one pegasus, one earth pony, all stark white from the magic of their golden armor that itself had a coat of white over it.

As one, they saluted and the pegasus stallion stepped forward, “Sir! First Lieutenant Strider, here to retrieve your team and the Element Bearers, sir!”

“Good to hear lieutenant, how far are we from your main base?” The tracks stopped here, there was just a loop for the engine to turn around and a small building on the other side of the tracks.

“The Crystal Empire is about a five minutes gallop away, sir.”

I couldn’t help the scowl that appeared on my face, “We have civies with us lieutenant, they might not be up for that kind of run, and I’m operating without cold-resistance here. Do either of your unicorns have a warming spell?”

One of the two unicorns stepped forward, “Sir.”

“Get to it then, I’m freezing my tail off,” a small smile crossed my face, “And I’m not being metaphorical.” I gave the appendage a wag and there was an audible crackle of ice as it fell away from my short tail. It didn’t actually hurt, but man it sounded bad, it got a snort of amusement from me as I quipped, “I mean, ow.”

There were a few sympathetic cringes from the ponies, though I had no idea why. Seriously, most of it was hair. But the unicorn’s horn lit up with a deep blue glow before a similar glow appeared against my skin, I didn’t feel anything at first, but I let her work her magic as I turned back to the lieutenant, “Regardless, is there any way to send a message to Shining from here?”

But the armored stallion shook his head, “No sir. We’d have to go ourselves. The blizzard is interfering with all forms of communication.”

The unicorn mare scowled at me for a moment before her horn brightened and I felt the beginnings of pins and needles across my skin, as if I’d suddenly started pouring warm water over a numbed appendage. Which actually, probably wasn’t too far off from the truth.

“Damn, okay,” I took a breath as I tried to figure out what to do. Goal was to get everyone to the Crystal Empire, which was apparently all our base belong to us. “Alright,” I turned to the other unicorn of Shiny’s men, “Could you maintain a shield while Grave- Danger rests?” I caught myself before calling him Graves. I doubted this counted as ‘in danger’.

“For a while sir…” the unicorn trailed off, unsure.

“Grave Danger is the only one here who can consistently put these things down–”

“Other than you,” Dash pointed out with a smirk, earning a scowl from me.

“Consistently put them down,” I stressed, my lips pressing into a thin line as I shot her a glare before returning to the unicorn, “So we need him as close to full strength as possible.”

“He can–?” The magically white unicorn glanced between me and the necromancer with wide eyes for a moment before snapping back to attention, “Sir! Yes sir!” The stallion’s horn lit up and another barrier appeared within Graves own, this one a bright pink.

Graves scowled slightly, “I’m able to handle this.”

“Rarity, can you bolster his shield?”

“Certainly darling,” the proper unicorn nodded as she finally slipped off of Punic’s back, “I’ll get right to it.” She closed her eyes and her horn lit with a crystal blue.

“Good enough Grave Danger?”

The small unicorn rolled his eyes but his horn dimmed, his barrier slowly fading as the pink one began to shift into purple, “This is not such a great strain on me.”

“I don’t doubt that, but you’ve seen how intelligent these things can be, do you think that they haven’t been calling backup?” The pale unicorn’s lips pressed into a thin line as I continued, a revelation coming to me. The wolves were only truly killable with Virtue Magic, or maybe a combination of Virtue and fire magic. With as many soldiers as Shiny had as well as Cadence, the single most powerful Virtue magic user in existence… this should’ve been a cakewalk. “And think about it, if this was all they were dealing with,” I jerked my head towards the wolves circling the now purple dome, “Don’t you think that Cadence and Shining could’ve handled it?”

Grave Danger scowled, but said nothing as I turned away from him. The girls were huddling together, Dash’s wing wrapped around Aj, Twilight trying to gently wake Fluttershy on Punic’s back. Pinkie was making funny faces at the wolves circling outside of the barrier.The more military ponies though were all at attention by now, or at best, ‘at ease’.

Regardless, I turned to Strider, “Lieutenant, what are we dealing with here?”

The pegasus’ wings ruffled some, his eyes darting to the side, “Ah, sir, an unknown number of these shadow wolves, lower estimates are in the hundreds and the supernatural blizzard cutting off communication, magical transport, and supplies.”

“Well, good news, we’ve got some supplies with us,” I jerked my head towards the train car sharing the platform with us before locking gazes with Strider, “Now tell me what’s the real problem here.” I had not missed that hesitation.

He glanced behind me, likely at the conductors, his hooves shuffling against the tile of the platform, “Ah, um, it’s a new development sir.”

I scowled at him, barely restraining a small snarl, still riding high from the anger I’d used to keep myself warm, “What are we really dealing with here lieutenant?” Yes, my bedside manner was shit, and we might be scaring the conductors shitless, but we needed to know–

There was a twitch in his face, “A mountain.”

Well that derailed my irritation, “... you’re gonna have to elaborate on that lieutenant.”

Strider half turned, likely looking out in the direction of the Crystal Empire and snarling, “It’s a Celestia damned walking mountain!” he snapped before restraining himself, “Sir. It’s bipedal like a minotaur, reports say it’s made of ice, but it’s hundreds of decahooves high! It towers over the whole city!”

I blinked a few times even as several of the others reacted with disbelief, that sounded familiar. And was going to be problematic. The fear on the faces of Shiny’s men was unsettling, but the sheer absurdity of such a statement made it hard to feel actual fear about the terrifying thought. Fuck. “Well, doesn’t that just fiddle my biscuits. I’m guessing this thing moves pretty slow or isn’t super observant otherwise you wouldn’t be here?”

Strider took a slow breath and nodded, “Yes sir, avoidance has been our only option so far, but any engagement seems to draw its attention.”

“Really wishing we’d brought the Elements proper then,” I grumbled as I sat down on the tile. While the tile had thankfully been warmed by the flames on my hooves, without the power I had as Gary something the size of a mountain was probably beyond anything we had. I started to turn towards Graves but the lieutenant’s voice interrupted me.

“You-... you didn’t bring the Elements themselves…?”

I turned towards the sound from the earth pony member of Shiny’s squad, finding her to have slid to her flanks, though in her case it didn’t seem a deliberate choice.

“We had no reason to believe that there was a singular enemy that would stay still long enough to use the Elements on,” I explained patiently and with more calm than I really felt, “Apparently we were wrong, we’ll deal with it.” And we would. Always another step forward, gotta keep moving and play with the hand you’re dealt. I turned to Graves fully, “Do you have anything that can deal with something that scale?”

The necromancer had pulled his hood back up at some point, shaking his head sending the black cloth rustling, “No.”

“Damn, okay,” hadn’t expected him to but I’d hoped. I chewed my lip in thought as Dash flew up.

“Pfft! Don’t you worry! No stupid mountain is gonna stop us! We don’t need the Elements to beat it up!” She made a few shadow boxing moves with her flaming hooves, getting a small smile from me even as the guards looked at her like she was crazy.

Still, I rubbed my chin with my flaming hoof as I thought, starting to pace with the hobbled gait. Okay, hopefully we can get to the Crystal Empire proper without this thing intercepting us and then deal with it at our leisure. But what if we can’t? Did I know anything that could slow down a walking mountain? I knew Twilight didn’t, though she had the brute strength to manage something just by beating at it…

I reached the edge of the bubble and turned. Instead pacing in front of the train car, avoiding the mass of ponies at the center of the bubble.

Much of my research and magical study had been dedicated towards finding a way to understand and negate my status as Gary-Stu. Thus the weird specialization in Countermagic, enhancement magic and reality warping. Could I enhance Twilight enough that she could beat this things face in? Hrm, no, not really–

“Sir–”

With a raised hoof, I cut him off. My knowledge of cliches was the only thing that kept me from just brushing it off, “Is it important information about the capabilities of the creatures, the situation between here and the Crystal Empire, or something about the Crystal Empire itself that affects the tactical choices we make now?”

“Ah,” the stallion blinked shuffling in place, “No sir.”

“Then give me a minute to think,” I made sure to say it with at least a bit of a smile, though I doubted it fully reached my eyes. I was tired and my friends were in danger, I wasn’t exactly in the mood to sing kumbaya right now.

Okay. I took a breath as I got my thoughts back on track, ignoring Dash as she started to brag on me and the movements of the group about me. Seriously, we’d have to talk about that later. I didn’t like it. But enhancing Twilight was out, the magics I knew for, well, enhancing magics were almost all dark and dangerous and something you could only do for yourself. I didn’t know of any ways to use the magic to enhance someone else’s power at the moment.

But, as loathe as I was to do it, I could enhance my own power. As Gary, I’d been drawing power from the planet itself, directly hooked up to all the leylines. I could imitate that and get a large power boost at the risk of burnout. There were also the other things I’d looked into, either as a possible source of my power to cut off or a way to get enough power to break the curse directly.

I could use some of my own life force to fuel a spell, and there was always the possibility of tapping into the power of tartarus, the dead, and the fae. With some effort, I should be able to pour an overwhelming amount of power behind a single spell. I didn’t know the upper limits though, but tapping into even two of those power sources would make it a sixth circle spell like Swords Like Stars…

Finally stopping my musing, I found that Pinkie had started up a conversation with Shiny’s guards. Or was trying to at least, the soldiers looked a bit uncomfortable at her rambling. I stopped pacing in front of the train car, “Alright, I have a basic plan.”

“–and there’s going to be streamers and cloud carving and- yes Emmy?” Pinkie as well as the others turned to me, the unicorn warming me nodding in acknowledgement as she concentrated.

The mass of ponies gathered around as I sat, my back to the steel, “For the moment we’re going to rest, but once we’ve got our breath back we’re gonna blast our way out of this mess and make a beeline for the Crystal Empire. Odds are pretty good this mountain is going to be in our way. Roles are basically the same, Lieutenant, I want your unicorns covering the left flank, but you’re going to be leading the way back on point.” Strider saluted.

Then I turned to the remaining ponies, “Cumulus Rose, Quiet Mirror, I want you two to work together and figure out if there’s a way to break some of the magic in this blizzard. Engage if necessary but if we can teleport then Twilight can get most of the ponies out of the line of fire. Get started now.”

The two of them nodded, “Sir!”

My eyes landed on our zebra, “Qubanna, I’m reassigning you to mid-range support. But if we encounter that mountain I’m going to need you to cover me while I set up my spell.”

At his nod I turned to my purple friend, “Twilight, you’re on area denial, limit the ways these things can attack us. If Quiet and Rose can break this blizzards magic you’re to teleport yourself, the conductors, and the girls to the Crystal Empire.”

She scowled, “I don’t think I can manage that many at once.”

My lips pressed into a thin line. Damn. My first instinct was to tell her to leave the conductors but I knew she wouldn’t. “Then be ready to send a message to your brother as well as Celestia about the situation. One to ask for reinforcements from him and one to ask her to send the Elements themselves.”

Twilight nodded and I blew out a breath as I looked at Strider, “Lieutenant, you two are on point,” I nodded at him and the earth pony beside him, “You know the direction and distance. Lead us straight to the base.”

He nodded, “Sir.”

I gave my hooves some experimental taps against the tile of the platform, feeling the shock through my legs properly. Good, no longer numb or shivering. I turned to the unicorn, “I’m good now, save your strength. Thank you.”

She nodded, her horn dimming as she took a few shuddering breaths, cool air washing back over my coat and skin.

The wolves outside were slowly circling the bubble of power Rarity and the other unicorn were projecting, but they weren’t attacking yet. “Alright, five minutes before we head out!”

“Sir yes sir!”

Ponies sat together under the purple shield as Rarity and the military unicorn maintained the barrier. Qubanna watched his fellows as they either stood or sat, none laid on the cold tile of the platform. While the scarves kept the air around them warm, it didn’t warm the iced over ground.

He shot a quick glance at both Emeris and Shadow Play, the two who’d given up their scarves to the conductors. While the againap had wrapped her leathery wings around herself as small puffs of steam escaping her nose, their team leader on the other hand had the wing of the blue pegasus wrapped around him. Quiet Mirror was shooting unhappy glances at their team leader but had yet to say something.

If this ‘Sir Emeris’ had been competent, he’d have left the two conductors on their own, as it was he’d weakened himself and two of their team to save them. It was a hard truth that sometimes you needed to sacrifice something for the greater good. They could barely protect the Bearers, let alone civilians that could add nothing.

Qubanna wasn’t sure he believed the large unicorn really had a way to deal with a walking mountain, but then again, he wasn’t sure he believed there was a walking mountain. But he had no particular reason to disbelieve either other than the unlikelihood.

He looked out at the wolves circling the barrier, massive things of shadow, each one was about the size of Punic with sharp teeth and claws as well as the ability to recover from even the most grievous of wounds.

The pink earth pony mare was the only pony smiling at the moment, the expressions of the others ranging from grim determination to emotionless silence to nervous shuffling, the yellow pegasus that had finally awoken again was practically shaking like a blade of grass on the savannah.

There was a warm sigh, steam rolling out of Emeris mouth as he stood, stepping out from under Rainbow Dash’s wing, “Alright, break’s over ladies and gents. Up and at’m.” A brief smirk played across his lips as he stepped into the center of the bubble, Qubanna and the others gathering around, “Lieutenant, which direction are we headed?”

The pegasus nodded almost straight out from the platform, “That way sir.”

Qubanna looked in the direction, seeing only the purple of the shield, the burning black of the wolves and the gray of the swirling snow. A small snort came from Emeris, “Of course it’s through the greatest concentration of them.” Their commander turned, “Rarity,” he paused, before almost asking, “Private?”

“Sir,” the addressed military unicorn nodded in acknowledgement, his horn still glowing.

Rank confirmed, Emeris continued, “On my mark, drop the shield and we’ll charge out through the wolves. Twilight, keep the train car behind us. All other unicorns are going to open fire into the wolves as we power through.”

But Qubanna couldn’t let that sit, not that cowardice, “Could we not simply slaughter the wolves? We have more forces now and the ability to permanently put them down.”

But the large green unicorn shook his head, only half turning towards the zebra, “No, we have civvies with us and we don’t know whether reinforcements are coming for the wolves or not. Our priority is getting to the Crystal Empire and lingering here only endangers that.”

“And yet are we not leaving our back unprotected for a dagger to stab into it?” Qubanna countered with a scowl.

“No.” His tone was uncompromising, green eyes locked with Qubanna’s own, “We’re not. We’re leaving.” The dismissal was clear, the conversation was over.

Unable to help himself, Qubanna snarled, “You’d run from a battle?! Our foe is right there!”

The unicorn whirled on Qubanna, and for the briefest of moments, he was afraid. Emeris likely weighed half again what Qubanna himself did, maybe more, and unlike his normal unthreatening posture, the unicorn loomed over the zebra, his eyes flashing a brilliant green. But Qubanna had faced scarier things before and did not back down. Regardless, it was only a moment later that the menace bled out of Emeris’ stance and he spoke, just barely louder than the growls of the wolves outside of the barrier, “Our goal is not to defeat our enemy. Our goal is to get to the Crystal Empire and prevent its capture by enemy forces–”

“And are you not ignoring an obvious opportunity to further that goal?!” the battle-shaman snapped, his hackles risen, gesturing at the wolves outside the barrier.

Emeris bristled, but restrained himself, instead growling out between his teeth, “They are not the same thing! Killing the wolves is just one way to accomplish our goal, and I’m judging that the risk outweigh the benefits in this situation–”

“But we can–” Qubanna started, but Emeris talked over him.

“A fight is never a goal in of itself!” teeth were bared as his eyes glowed in the half-light of the storm, “It’s only a means to an end, and is sometimes a distraction from the true goal! Like now.”

The two of them had gotten closer during the confrontation, allowing a wash of steam from Emeris breath to hit Qubanna’s face. An image of only a few minutes ago, of emerald flames licking at the corners of the unicorn’s mouth, came unbidden to Qubanna’s mind. The connection between breath, and flame, and fury with the unicorn in front of him was made and the zebra felt his insides clench in reflexive fear.

Gazes locked for a long moment before the unicorn ground out, “We’re done here.”

Qubanna’s jaw clenched tightly, but he said nothing as Emeris turned around. Qubanna disagreed, but Emeris was in charge according to the Princess and Qubanna had flinched. When in a confrontation of wills, one couldn’t flinch. He’d fall in line, for now at least.

“Everyone ready?” he addressed the gathered ponies as Qubanna swallowed a growl. The other ponies in their group glanced between the two of them, the tension obvious. The unicorn’s lips pressed into a thin line and he looked over his shoulder at the zebra, eyes simmering, “Do I have to worry about you at all?”

Qubanna looked away, admitting defeat for now, “No, sir.”

“Good,” he turned to the Element Bearer and military unicorn maintaining the shield, “Drop the shield on my mark.”

The military unicorn nodded his armored head, swallowing, “Sir.”

The white Element Bearer coughed delicately into her hoof, “Of course dear.”

“Good, now is everyone ready?” There’s a hint of anger and impatience to the unicorn’s tone and Qubanna counts that as a victory of sorts as the group choruses affirmatives, the various ponies arranging themselves. Qubanna did as well, placing himself near the Lieutenant at the edge of the barrier. The wolves had bunched up on the same side of the shield, three on the left, four on the right, and twelve wolves right in their way while the rest had gathered in two groups to flank them.

“Alright, on three! One!” Qubanna lowered himself into a crouch, “Two!” Horns lit, the train car lifting with a rumble and moving behind them as the group tensed, Qubanna’s flanks and back bunching as he prepared to spring forward.

“Three! Drop it like it’s hot!”

The barrier popped like a soap bubble and a number of things happened at once.

There was a flash of emerald light from behind the group and two massive flaming blades slashed horizontally through the air, cleaving into the flanking wolves–

A bubble of crimson flame flew from Grave Danger’s horn, engulfing several of the oncoming wolves–

Multicolored bolts flew from the horns of the other unicorns–

The mass of steel and supplies lurched into motion behind them as the ponies began to move–

Qubanna launched himself forward, off of the platform and into the mass of wolves just ahead of the Lieutenant– His hooves met shadowed flesh and he could no longer keep track of the others.

Hooves of fire and power slamming into the hides, flaring up upon contact and blasting away bits and pieces of the dark smoke of shadows that clung tightly to the wolves, revealing burning fur. Flashes of colors appeared at the edges of his vision as he tumbled forward, lashing out at legs as he passed. Jaws snapped at his flanks and back but he was in constant motion, just as he had always been taught.

Several sudden loud thuds drew Qubanna’s attention and he caught a glimpse of a massive emerald limb swiping several shadow wolves aside–

“Push through! Move move move!”

Hooves thundered against the ground as they charged forward into the flurries of snow. Qubanna cartwheeled forward, eyes darting about, searching for weakness in their formation. Tumbling into a roll, the zebra launched himself forward, forehooves extended as he plowed into an oncoming wolf’s neck, the bursts of flames heralding the sharp break of its neck.

Bouncing off of the wolf, Qubanna rolled onto his hooves and ran along with the herd, darting between the armored forms of the slower ponies.

And then there was the gray and white expanse of the tundra.

Qubanna’s eyes darted back as they broke from the pack. Bolts of magic were flying from the unicorns as several wolves advanced on the flank of the group. Qubanna fell back as Sir Emeris shoulder-checked one wolf advancing on Graves– the jaws of one wolf snapping around his torso, clanging against his armor before a blade stabbed into it, but the wolf didn’t let go, holding Sir Emeris in place.

The large unicorn snarled, his hooves flailing above the ground as the wolf lifted him despite the blade impaling it as the rest of the group charged onward.

Qubanna fixed that problem.

Three rapid strikes to the wolf’s jaw shattered its bones, causing Sir Emeris to fall free as Qubanna ducked underneath the wolf’s claws, using its mass to shield himself from the next wolf, the pack trying to close around him and the unicorn–

Emeris bit the scruff of the wolf’s neck and slammed it around into the others as he started to run, Qubanna getting a glimpse of solid emerald eyes as he rushed after the armored unicorn. Bolts of magic blasting over their shoulders before the train car slammed between them and the wolves.

Snow flurried as their hooves kicked it up, tearing through the wake of the rest of the herd of ponies.

Qubanna shot a glance at Emeris, confirming that the unicorn was uninjured before focusing his eyes forward. The flurries of snow were getting worse, the wind and gloom making it increasingly difficult to see even the ponies in front of them. The wolves were baying at their flanks, trying to surge around the train car first one side, then the other, but bolts of magic and ethereal blades of fire met them as they did.

“Twilight Sparkle!” the necromancer shouted, his horn blazing beneath his hood, “Lift the car!”

His cloak flared as he spun around, magic the color of blood lashing out from his pale horn in a wave. The power enveloping the wolves, the predators screaming as they scrambled, trying to take to the sky but failing to escape the surge of crimson. Qubanna would later swear that he could see the shadows of equine skulls in that wave of destruction.

Grave Danger had stopped running, standing his ground and staring down the receding wave of destruction. Qubanna slowed to a trot, as did the others, turning to stare at what remained of the wolves. What little there was at least. The blast had reduced the wolves to bones, tatters of skin and ligaments hanging from the bleached bones… there were a few wolves that hadn’t been completely enveloped, but everything the wave had touched had been eaten away.

Qubanna forcibly swallowed down the bile in his throat as several of the partially consumed wolves twitched and whimpered and cried.

“Graves,” hot steam escaped Emeris’ mouth as he looked over the carnage. His face was… blank, and Qubanna found that even more unsettling than the carnage he had just witnessed. Everypony aside from Grave Danger seemed ready to lose their lunch, and even the necromancer that had cast the spell wasn’t… blank like that. “Why didn’t you tell me you could do that earlier?”

“I needed them all in one area,” Grave Danger returned with a sneer as he resettled his hood over his head in the wind.

Emeris head snapped to Grave Danger, his eyes flashing brightly in the gloom as he snarled at the much smaller unicorn, “That’s not what I was asking and you know it.”

Grave Danger bristled, his hackles rising. But after a moment, he forcibly calmed himself, “I didn’t know for certain if I would be able to.”

The armored unicorn grit his teeth, but with a breath that had emerald flames licking at the corners of his mouth, he visibly forced it down. “That’s not a valid excuse. If I’d known, I could’ve been covering you specifically when you tried it.”

The rest of the small herd backed up slightly. None wanted to get between the two spellcasters as Grave Danger’s lips pressed into a thin line, his nostrils flaring, “I must admit that I am… unaccustomed to working with others.”

Emeris took a slow breath in, letting it out as a mass of steam, glaring out at the remains of the wolves. A gust of chill wind that Qubanna barely felt through the magic of the scarf blew past and the armored unicorn shivered. Emeris grit his teeth, “Don’t do it again. We don’t really have time to stay here though. We need to get moving. Lieutenant, lead the way.”

This wasn’t good.

There was no other way for Cumulus Rose to put it.

Wind speed was increasing and visibility was getting worse, even with her goggles she could barely see beyond the herd of ponies. Even untrained ears could probably hear the howls of the wolves over the unnatural winds.

They’d been moving at as swift a pace as they could given the thick mounds of gray snow. Even with the flaming hooves Sir Emeris had given them, those on the ground were making slow progress.

“How much farther?” Rainbow Dash shouted over the howling winds.

“We’d be in sight of it now if it weren’t for the snow!” Strider shouted.

Rose couldn’t see anything; she hoped the lieutenant was right. A puff of emerald flames lit up the swirling gray snow beneath her, causing her to glance down at Sir Emeris. The large unicorn was keeping to the paths the others had cleared through the snow, flakes of gray snow clinging to his armor and coat, and Rose could swear that she saw ice forming against the metal.

The scarves were certainly doing their jobs, those that had them had no ice or snow on their coats in direct contrast with with Sir Emeris and Buck Sergeant Shadow Play. The large unicorn’s armor and coat were slowly icing over, and Rose’s fellow flyer wasn’t faring much better.

If Rose had ever had any doubts about the supernatural nature of the storm, they were long gone. Normal blizzards didn’t chill her to the bones or make her feel cold and afraid inside, not through her Wonderbolt uniform. And she knew that despite the intense cold the speed which her team leader and fellow flyer were icing over was unnatural–

“Oh! Oh! Twitchy tail! Twitchy taaaaaiiiiilllll!!!” Cumulus Rose blinked and looked down at Pinkie Pie, finding her… having a siezure…? Was she okay…? The earth pony stopped quivering at the center of the group, eyes wide, “Hooooo boy it’s a doozy!”

Rose resisted the urge to float down to her to check on her fellow pink pony, but Grave Danger spoke up over the howling winds, “What are you going on about you–… fool…?”

She didn’t question his pause, because Rose had seen the same thing. The Element Bearers and Sir Emeris had reacted to the statement by tensing and going on high alert, like a sparrow that’d realized it was in hawk territory.

Suddenly the orange farm-pony’s head jerked about, “Did anypony else feel that?”

“Be more specific AJ!” Sir Emeris shouted over the howling winds, a scowl on his face, “I’m sorta numb–” Rose watched as nearly everypony on the ground other than the unicorn himself twitched. Rose’s head jerked around, peering into the gloom around her as Sir Emeris shouted, “Okay, I’m guessing I missed something?!”

“There are tremors in the ground!” Twilight Sparkle shouted.

Horror flashed across their leader’s face for just a moment before it was replaced with rage, his eyes blazing even in the gloom of the storm, “What are you waiting for?! Move! Move! Move!”

*boom*

The herd started to scramble forwards through the snow and against the howling winds, the conductors practically gibbering in terror, and even their guides seeming rather unsettled. Shining Armor’s soldier's parting the thick banks of snow for the rest of the group as they pushed their way forward–

*boom*

Rose was concerned, this wasn’t feasible. Sure it was the home stretch but they were ignoring the sounds of the wol– buck!

Rose dove to the side, twisting around and bringing her flaming dawnblade to bear, nearly opening the throat of the wolf that she had barely dodged mid-air. Rose continued with the spin and brought the other blade of her dawnblade whipping around, the blazing cloudsteel going straight through the wolf’s neck.

There were several muffled thumps and the sounds of magical discharge, quickly followed by the pained sounds from the wolves. Rose’s brain was just starting to make the connection that they’d been swarmed by the wolves when Grave Danger shouted over the winds, “Damnit Emeris, this isn’t working–”

*Boom*

“Damnit, we can’t see anything– Rose! Mirror! Get over here!” Rose’s head jerked towardsSir Emeris before she dove down to his level, careful of her blade as he spoke, “What have you found out about this storm?”

“The storm is linked to a source but is a separate phenomenon!” Quiet Mirror shouted over the howling wind, “It’s being powered by the source, that’s why it’s so persistent!”

“Rose, could you break the storm if it wasn’t being powered?!”

“That’s–” Cumulus Rose jerked back in surprise, “The scale is just absurd!” A single pegasus cutting an entire storm of this scale was the stuff of legends, not reality! “No! No sir!”

“But in theory it’s possible?!” the large unicorn shouted, his green eyes glowing brightly in the darkening gloom.

Rose’s mouth worked uselessly for just a moment before she said, “Yes! If we had a dozen more wonderbolts!” If the storm wasn’t being sustained, any pegasus could clear it out with some time, but to do it in a combat situation? A storm of this size? They’d need a dedicated team of Wonderbolts!

*Boom*

Sir Emeris turned back to the smaller unicorn guard, “Quiet, can you sever the connection?!”

Rose ducked and lunged out with her dawnblade, taking the forelegs off of a shadow wolf, jerking her head back and stabbing it through the neck as it tried to recoil. Blasts of light and flashes of flaming hooves impacting shadowed flesh appeared briefly around her as the herd beat back the wave of enemies. Quiet Mirror shouted back over the howling winds, “If I was three times stronger maybe!”

“Do it! I’ll handle the power problem!” Is he mad–?!

Twilight Sparkle's head jerked towards the larger unicorn, “Em! Don’t strain yourself, I’ve got it!”

Emeris looked over to her, blinking once with a scowl before nodding, “Do it! Rose, be ready to cut the storm!” Rose gave a small shake of her head, this was madness… Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sir Emeris’ irises expanded to encompass his entire eye in glowing green, a snarl on his face, “Graves! Twilight! Cover us magically!”

Four horns lit up the darkness, revealing a mass of wolves circling the group, causing Rose’s insides to clench in fear as she tightened her jaws about the handle of her dawnblade. There were at least a dozen within the circle of multicolored light alone. Even as the train car was swung between them and some of the wolves and barriers of purple and red appeared around them. This… this was madness…

But… the pony in charge had given her an order, she had to trust he knew what he was doing.

*Boom*

She only prayed that he was right.

Okay, Twilight’s got Quiet’s back here, I just need to worry about Rose.

Ignoring the burning at the base of my skull, I called up my power. I’d studied boons extensively, as well as amplifier artifacts. I didn’t remember all the detail, but I remembered the basics and that’s all I needed here. The basics… and raw power.

I might not be Twilight, but power? Power I could do.

“Rainbow Dash! Ally-oop!” Rose shouted over the howling winds.

“Right!” my marefriend swung over towards the wonderbolt.

“Don’t leave the group!” I shouted, building the spell in my head to focus and amplify pegasus magic, “Don’t forget these things can fly!”

Quiet Mirror released his spell, a bright blue comet with a tail of lavender hurtling into the gloom.

Right, had to trust that. I immediately began the spell, ignoring the burning at the base of my skull. With fury and anger as my focus, my refusal to give an inch to this bullshit, I used that to amplify the basic effect I was recreating, powering through the burning in my skull. Emerald light started to pour from her massive dawnblade as I wove and ‘wrote’ the amplifying spell.

Heh, Emerald Dawn combination attack.

“Grave Danger!” That was Twilight-? “I’ll hold the barrier, build up another one of those blasts!”

“Don’t mess it up child!” All right, that’ll do–

There was a mental *pop* as Quiet Mirror’s spell went off and I shouted, “Rose! Now!”

Dash grabbed a hold of Rose and began to fly in a tight circle with Rose on the outside, turning the pair of pegasi into a blue disk with rings of colors–

Graves took that as his cue to release a blast of crimson death, turning the shadow wolves into chunky masses of gristle, bone, and shredded pieces of skin–

With a grunt that was barely audible over the winds, Dash let go of Rose, sending her hurtling in a tight arc, barely going thirty feet up– at the top of the arc, the pink pegasus snapping her body forward, drawing her blazing blade down–

And the sky parted.

Like Moses parting the sea, Rose’s blade split the clouds and winds apart without even touching them– the sky and air clearing, revealing blue skies, a pink dome and mountains in the distance, a mountain coming from them and getting… closer–

… oh. So that’s the walking mountain.

*BOOM*

I jerked about as the earth quaked beneath us, a massive foot, damn thing had to be over a hundred feet high. It was vaguely humanoid, with a lump of ice in the middle of its thirty foot wide shoulders that acted as its head. It was like a freaking walking glaciar of black ice, with baleful green and crimson eyes in its lump of a head, with wolves of flaming shadow swarming about its lumbering mass like flies around a corpse. Each step seemed to agitate the swarm as it tried to settle on the crags and ledges on its icy form.

Okay, this is bad. “Twilight–!”

“I can teleport! Getting the conductors to the city!” *flsh-POW!I

A glance– … huh, you could see the city from here, covered in a pink dome. Strider had a good sense of direction–

“Guardsponies!” a flash of focus and Fluttershy was cut free from Punic’s back, “Get the Element Bearers to the city! Team! We’re stalling!”

“Sir!” came the shout of acknowledgement with varying levels of fear as Shiny’s men started to push towards the city once more, one of the unicorn’s picking up the unconscious Fluttershy in their magic as the group pushed through the snow.

Dash started to protest, “Em–!”

“Stalling not dying!” I snapped, “Now go!”

How long did I have to cast here? Each step took about 10 seconds and looked to be about 20 feet per stride and the thing is about a mile away… that’s about forty five minutes. That’s not the problem though, those wolves are going to be here in just over a minute and we can’t run full tilt with these snow drifts… Okay, we’re running to put some more distance between us and that swarm of teeth, claws, and bad dental hygiene.

“Team, with me!” I launched myself into a full gallop, using my mass to plow my way straight through the gray snow, ignoring the freezing chill against my coat. The team was on my flanks without a moment’s hesitation, “Cover me while I build up a spell! Graves, get that things attention on us!”

There’s a crackle in the air before a… a pony skull of deepest black and shrouded in crimson fire went screaming through the air at the mountain. If I couldn’t feel the nastiness radiating from the thing I’d have thought it to be a joke, but it got my attention and I’d seen some nasty stuff as Gary. A wolf intercepted the skull, and I could feel the blastwave even from here.

Okay, yeah, that got its attention. I could just about feel the anger from the thing being pointed this way as the mountain started to turn.

*BOOM*

Alright, focus on the problem.

Fireball. Munchkin up a really nasty fireball. Get something going before the swarm of wolves engulfed us.

Half remembered phrases, fuzzy recollections of incantations and only semi-coherent thoughts crystallized in my head as the mass of howling death raced ahead of the mountain towards us.

"Fire beyond heat," I murmured beneath by breath as I plowed through the banks of snow. Using that half-remembered phrase to touch upon the power of the ‘sun’ in Tartarus, the flames of hell. My horn lit up as I opened the gate and I had to grit my teeth as my heart felt like it’d caught aflame, molten pain crawling through my veins.

The howls were getting closer– No! Focus! Can’t lose focus! Not while using this!

I tuned it all out, the freezing ice, the howls of the wolves, all that mattered was the spell. "Ice beyond the coldest reach," the fire pouring outwards, lines of pain spreading through my veins. It raced outwards from my heart as I reached for the coldest depths of Tartarus, the furthest depths of the prison from its terrible sun. The fire in my veins reached my heart and I let out a wordless sound of pain as my body acted as a conduit for terrible powers.

I grit my teeth and just let my blood burn as I channeled the power of two ends of hell through my body and horn, bringing them together at the tip. Out of the corners of my eyes I could see two flames, one a brilliant green, the other blacker than night, coming together in a fire at the end of my horn.

Not enough! I knew it wasn’t enough! I needed to do more. Come on.

“Thunder and lightning of a storm beyond,” I ground out through the pain, starting to burn up my life force for power, causing a numbing and crackling sensation to spread across my skin as my nerves trembled. Unable to help myself now, the next line was shouted, “Of which the souls of the damned are fond!” I used my life force as bait and power to open a channel to the realm of the dead. I entwined the powers together, my burning life and the power of death pouring through my body, my flesh feeling cold even as my veins burned down to the capillaries.

"Gather and clash!" I shouted, the words coming unbidden from my mouth as I focused the conflicting powers at the tip of my horn, forcibly bringing them into contact. Ice that would freeze even light and fire that would burn stone, the crackling power of life and the thunderous power of the dead… I… I don’t even know what I’m casting now… I’m just a conduit and focus.

My flanks twitched.

"Contained in a dream!" I snarled, touching upon the dreams, the feeling of reality shaping that I’d shared with Luna and poured it through my horn. I’d opened a conduit to the better sides of the astral plane and encased the seething mass of power. Multicolored threads started to encroach on the edges of my vision with each beat of my heart.

*BOOM*

My head jerked towards the walking mountain, eyes locked with its own malevolent green and red ones, each the size of house… "Nightmares manifest…” I murmured, knowing there was equal violence in my own eyes before snarling, “Shine and scream!” I stopped restricting myself to the dreams and opened myself fully to the astral plane, the dreams and the nightmares. With every beat of my racing heart, my vision shook and threads of every color and every shadow started to overwhelm my vision, those same tendrils reaching out from my horn to encase the blazing and crackling mass of energy in a tight sphere.

I couldn’t feel the chill of the snow anymore…

My flanks twitched. Still not enough.

"Sired by my Sins!" I tapped into the darkest parts of my psyche and focused the powers I already strained to contain through it. I opened myself to my darkest emotions and focused the terrible powers through it, "Born of my Darkness!"

"It is Wrath from Anguish!" I roared, accepting my fury at my weakness, at my inability to to save and help-! Tears of fire running down my cheeks as light of crimson, emerald, icy blue, and impossible darkness seethed around my horn, cradling the multicolored sphere hovering at the end.

"Hatred from Guilt!" How much pain had this thing caused already? How many had died because of it? I would allow no more! I wouldn't let this bastard do anything more!

"Suffering made manifest!" the seething pearl of anguish pulsed as it became solid, coherent, physical. A wave of pressure exploded outwards from it, making me grit my teeth as I struggled to contain it. I couldn’t feel my muscles or flesh… just the fire in my veins and an ache in my bones… I could barely see now past the colors and darkness creeping through my vision… all I could see was the mountain, that thing, that walking glacier of malevolence and dark magic…

My flanks twitched. This… this would work.

I skidded to a halt, spinning to face the oncoming thing, shadows and ice flowed freely at the edges of my vision, but I ignored them, trusting the others to cover me. Planting my hooves wide as I lowered my head, snarling at our foe.

"And so I unleash–!" I roared, focused on my target, "The HELLBALL!"

Blinding pain shocked through my horn as if it had been struck, my body convulsing as the screams started. A bolt of emerald lightning and shadows showed the trail the blast had taken in that briefest of instant as the ball of death expanded.

A ball of sickly green with shadows seething across its surface, images of skulls and faces flashing in and out of existence as the burning sphere grew, the screams of a thousand souls heralding the blast, a warbling wail of pain and agony as the world shook. Pressure blasting away as the sphere of destruction grew, kicking up the snow and pushing us back even as we stood just over a mile away.

The glacial form that stood over a hundred feet high was almost entirely encompassed by the blast, a flurry of snow and gravel and black ice surging out from it in a wave that was evaporated even as it blew outwards.

I trembled like jello, muscles quivering masses of pain as the wave of frigid water and air rushed past us, soaking me to the bone. The blazing green ball lingered, burning in the air before slowly dispersing into wisps of ghosts and smoke and shadows, the wailing screams slowly fading.

The world jerked as the mass that had once been one of the mountain's arms hit the tundra and I jerked around, my ears ringing and vision swimming– Fucking fucker fuck! It felt like there was powdered glass in my veins!

Fuck, couldn’t see– vision was swimming–

I'd blown off the lump that had been its head and a fair portion of its torso. I'd somehow missed the center of mass, one arm still dangled by the equivalent of a thread as the body slowly toppled. If it's arm had—

Someone shouted as if through water, "Brace yourselves!"

Then it hit, an unknowable number of tons of black ice falling back to the snow-covered earth. The world jerked and I was thrown from my hooves having tried to brace myself. The impact with the snow was like razor-blades, and the less said about hitting the ground beneath it the better. Coughing past the pain and tears streaming from my eyes, I twisted back up onto my hooves, struggling past the pain in my limbs.

The team was still going, I wasn’t the only one knocked down– our two airborne members had been blasted back– the wolves?!

They were scattered, disorganized–

I was panting, each breath felt like my lungs were scraping against concrete. Damnit. They were coming back! "Everyone up!” I shouted hoarsely, “Come on you lazy bastards! On your fucking feet!" Several of them were struggling out of the scattered snow–

"T-The buck was that?!"

"The army buster!" I snapped at Quiet Mirror, my forelegs buckling beneath me. Damnit legs, work! Work! We’ve got somewhere to be damnit! "Now come on!" I shouted over the wind, "We've still got to get back to the shield–"

I trailed off.

… we just cleaved the storm… there shouldn’t–

Oh you've got to be shitting me!

"Fuck!” I was interrupted by a coughing fit as I tried to stumble forward, past the ground glass in my joints and knives that seemed to dig into my muscles with every movement. “We've got another problem!" Forcing my way past the stabbing pains I raised my head and lit my horn back up, burning fingers clenching around my brain, "Graves! Quiet! Up and at 'em! We've got work to do!"

“What?! But sir–!”

I cut Quiet Mirror off, stumbling forward, “We need to bury that thing!”

“Wha– But how?!”

*flsh-POW* “Em! What–?”

“Twilight! IT’s still alive! We need to bury it!”

“Wha- right! Avalanche! We don’t have enough to– be right back! Get yourselves to the city!” *flsh-POW*

What was she– the city! Guard! Right! I stumbled forward, nearly falling onto my face as my legs failed me, “Damnit–! Agh…” I coughed as I suppressed a scream, the team glancing over at me. Okay, this isn’t working, “Punic, gonna need a ride!”

“Sir!” the armored earth pony acknowledged and I found myself slung up onto his back–

–!!!

… ow. My everything.

“Sir!” That was Cumulus Rose right? She sounded concerned. Wonder why. There’s no way it has to do with how I just cried out. Nah, never.

“Just–” I swallowed down a groan, “Just take it a little easy with me please and thank you.”

“But sir–”

“I’ll be okay!” I snapped, trying to cling to Punic’s back as he stood fully, “We just need to get to the city, I’m going to be useless, can one of you stick me on–” a bolt of crimson splashed against my torso, “... well then.” At least Graves was on top of– Another bolt of crimson struck me, making me blink and turn towards Graves, finding him scowling, “Um… what…?”

His scowl deepened as the howls started to drift on across the gathering winds, “Later,” he turned towards the others, “Let’s go.”

“Right!” the team acknowledged as they started off–

–!! Agh! Oh! Okay! Nope! That’s a nope! Just– all the fuck that! Fuck! Just– Celestia damn, my vision was swimming with every thud of Punic’s hooves!

Come on, focus– that was close!

My head jerked back as a barely coherent construct-mace slammed into the far too close shadow-wolf–

My construct shattered–?!

There was a flash of sky-blue and dark gray and I suddenly felt something splatter against my numbing face–

What–? Was that Dash–?

Guh… ooooohhhhhh…

I– I think I just… something ruptured or something in my head cause now I can’t see out of my left eye… that’s… that’s not good.

… ugh…

World’s… swimming… come on…

Can… can we not spray snow and ice into the face of the brightly colored sack of potatoes on your back please and thank you? I want to focus on not throwing up and watching the pretty lights–...

… pretty… lights…?

Oh… that’s good, that’s… that’s a lot of spells flying over our heads…

There was a rumble that had nothing to do with the thunder of pony hooves and despite the pain in my neck I glanced over and saw the spells impacting against the side of the nearest mountain, setting off a cascade of snow and rock. It was in a barely coherent trance that I watched the mass rush down the mountainside with a bass rumble before rushing across the plains between the mountain range and the city.

There were flashes of numerous colors along the edges of the oncoming avalanche until it had encompassed the prone form of black ice of the walking mountain… spells…? The wolves were almost black specks against the darkening skyline, a swarm of flies buzzing about the buried form of the walking mountain.

… that… that worked out pretty well…

Punic’s hooves found a particularly hard bit of tundra– the jolt had brought tears to my eyes. The impact had sent a wave of razor-blades through my chest cavity. Bile rose in my throat, ugh, I–

I…

I don’t feel good.

Twilight anxiously looked over the oncoming team, firing off blasts of magic alongside Shiney’s guardsponies, keeping the shadow wolves off of them.

The winds were kicking up the gray snow once more, starting to conceal things in the distance as the clouds rolled back in, “Keep up the spells! We’re getting them under the shield! Don’t let the wolves take another pony from us!” Shiney shouted to his fellows as he fired off several bolts of magic himself, “Squad three, be ready to bring them in!”

“Sir!”

Twilight had already gotten all the rest of her friends and the supplies beneath the shield, she’d teleported out and picked them all up in pairs and dropping them off outside the barrier before going to get others. Her hooves shuffled anxiously even as she fired off a spread of magic into the swarming wolves above the team.

If she could have, she’d have already done that to get the team, but with the return of the winds, so had the interference. She couldn’t just jump out to save them. Counting the moments as the team approached.

Thirty decahooves.

Wait, where was Emeris?!

Twenty decahooves.

“Squad three! Go!” A half dozen pegasi darted away from the line of unicorns, hooves flashing through the sky as they helped the team beat back the wolves.

Ten decahooves.

There! On Punic’s back– why was he on– No!

With a snarl of her own, Twilight released a wave of force from her horn, blasting back shadow wolves even as Shiney shouted out, “Get back behind the shield! Move move move!”

As the team rushed past them, the line broke and fell back through the pink shield with a thunder of hooves. It was only when Twilight felt the warming love of Cadence’s shield that she let out a sigh of relief. Everyone was back in–

*thum-th-th-th-thump!*

“Eep!” Twilight squeaked, jumping away from the barrier as the shadow wolves slammed into the opaque field of love.

The howls of wolves and wind began to pick up just beyond the barrier… but the magical shield held. Thank Celestia…

“We’re–” Emeris coughed a few times before grinning, “We’re here we’re here, great balls of hellfire, we’re here.”

“Em?!” “Emmy?!” Twilight and her friends rushed over to their friend draped across Punic’s armored back. He hung limply across the steel plates, his eyes bloodshot and unfocused, tears and snot flowing freely and a trickle of blood was leaking from his nostrils, “Emeris?!”

He waved off their concern with a hoof, “I’ll be okay, just… your brother’s here right Twilight? I can’t see shit right now…”

Shiney stepped forward, his armor staying on as he gave Twilight’s friend a concerned look, “I’m here…?”

“Shiney!” Emeris grinned as his left eye tried to focus on Shining Armor, “Good to hear you, right, Sir Emeris reporting with the team the princesses sent. I’m turning over command of the group to you as ordered, though I’m a bit useless at the moment.” He tried to look around, but seemed to decide it wasn’t working with his unfocused eyes, “We’re going to need a debrief for everyone, we–” the dark green unicorn started to shift about, but froze, letting out a sound somewhere between a groan and a whimper, “Ah… we… we need to exchange notes.”

Shining Armor scowled, “And we need to get you healed up. We’re headed to the palace.” Shining Armor turned to his guardsponies, “Squads two and three, you’re back to the reserves. Squad four, you’re off duty, put squad six in on your route.” The soldiers nodded as the went to follow orders and Shiney turned to Twilight’s friends and the team, “Everyone here?”

Punic nodded, “Yes sir, we were fortunate not to have lost anypony.” He gestured to the armored unicorn slumped across his back, “Sir Emeris here is by far the worst off of us, the most we have are some scratches.”

Applejack placed a forehoof gently against Emeris’ scarred cheek, getting little reaction from the limp unicorn. Twilight frowned even as Shiny asked her friend, “What happened to you anyways?”

While Emeris tried to raise his head again, it was Grave Danger that actually spoke, “This idiot is suffering the consequences of excessive black magic.”

Shining Armor’s head jerked back, shooting a look at Grave Danger before doing a double-take at his cloak. Shiney blinked once before a small scowl settled on his face and he asked, “Is it going to be a problem?”

But Grave Danger shook his hooded head, “No, this idiot damaged his internal organs, but given some generalized but intense healing magics he should be combat ready within the day.” Twilight sighed in relief, her friends mirroring the action. As much as she disliked the necromancer, she trusted him to know what he was talking about when it came to black magic.

With a small sigh, Shining Armor nodded, “Good… we’re going to need everypony we can get.” He turned towards the crystal city and started to walk.

Frowning, Twilight cantered to catch up to her brother, she hadn’t seen a look like that on his face in a long time, “What’s wrong Shiney?”

His lips pressed into a thin line as her friends and Emeris’ team followed after them, “Cadence’s shield is starting to fail… we’re running out of time.”

Author's Notes:

I HAVE RETURNED (again)!

Sorry about the delay on this chapter, but it's here!

This isn't my favorite chapter, but I have some moments that I really like in it. What are your favorite parts? Any parts you don't like?

I have a feeling there's an error or two in here that have been missed, please point them out if you see them!

As per usual, comments and critiques are always welcomed! Tis the breadcrumbs of joy for authors!

Anyways, Decepticons, Rise Up!