I opened my eyes in a dark and unfamiliar place. I was tired, but I forced myself back on my feet. There was no guarantee that I was safe, and I didn’t want to stay and find out. I walked around trying my best not to bump into anything. I wasn’t sure where I was, so I thought it would be best to stop walking in the dark and give my eyes a moment to adjust before continuing on anywhere. After a moment, I could see where I was. I was in a boutique. There were larger winter jackets on the racks next to me. This didn’t seem like a place that the Cryo Spiders would have claimed.

I heard footsteps near me. They were getting louder and closer. I quickly hid behind the clothing rack and out of sight so that I could plan what to do next. “Octavia?” Sunset called out. “Where are you?”

I sighed in relief. “I’m over here,” I said. I heard the footsteps get louder until I was able to see Sunset.

“Man, it’s hard to hear you even with my super hearing,” Sunset said.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I can’t hear you when you go into stealth mode,” Sunset explained. “It’s like your invisible.”

“Oh,” I said. It looked like my stealth skills were improving. This time I wasn’t even really trying to hide myself. “Did you both get everyone back in one piece?”

“Yeah,” Sunset replied.

“Why do you think the Shadowbolts took hostages anyway? What do you think they wanted them for?”

“I don’t know,” Sunset replied. “Applejack told me that they just kept them tied up. They didn’t do anything other than that.”

“That’s weird,” I said. There had to be a reason why the hostages were taken, but it wasn’t apparent to me. Usually people used hostages for leverage against someone or other more sinister actions, but this was obviously not the case. “Where’s Applejack anyway?”

“She’s getting food for us,” Sunset replied. “There’s a small restaurant nearby and she’s getting food from there. Hey tell me something Octy, how many of those Cryo Spiders did you take out by yourself?”

“All six,” I replied. Sunset looked shocked. “It wasn’t hard. They basically left themselves open for attacks.”

“Sure,” she replied as if unsatisfied by my answer.

“It’s really dark in here,” I said trying to change the conversation.

Sunset smiled. “I can fix that,” she said. She opened her hand and forced fire to form in her palm. I gazed in awe. Apparently the fight with the Chimera had given Sunset more than I thought.

“How long have you been able to do that?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” she answered. “I just found out how to use it like four hours ago.”

“How long have I been asleep?”

“About four hours ago,” Sunset replied. “AJ bandaged you up. I gotta tell you, I half expected to find an icicle instead of an actual mare.”

“You underestimate me,” I said with a false confidence.

The truth was that I probably should’ve been dead. I wasn’t sure how I had lived, but there were a few possible explanations. I knew enough about the X.X.X. Plague to come up with three possible explanations. The first possibility was that being exposed to the Infernoland Plague made me immune to the Frostfalls Plague’s affects. The second possibility was that I had some sort of natural immunity to the X.X.X. Plague that allowed me to resist it completely just because I’m a pony. The third and final possibility was that I still had some form of the X.X.X. Plague inside me that kept me safe. Either way, I was grateful for being alive.

“Let’s find AJ,” Sunset suggested. We slowly walked to the front of the store. I was too hurt to walk quickly, so Sunset decided to help support me.

“So why did you two leave me here?” I said. “Why a boutique? I’m sure that there were many other safer places.”

“Applejack needed a jacket,” Sunset replied. “She said that she was freezing out here, but to be honest, I don’t know what she’s talking about. It feels fresh.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. For some reason neither Sunset or I were cold here. The Frostfalls felt a little colder, but not cold enough to wear a thick jacket like the ones in the boutique.

Sunset and I walked towards the entrance of the store. I was careful not to trip on any of the trash that littered the front. Sunset opened the door and walked me through it. I didn’t like to have anyone help me walk around like this, but I was too weak to protest.

“We need to find you some help,” Sunset said.

“I’ll be fine,” I said. “I’ll just stay behind you guys of something.” Sunset didn’t reply. I didn’t want to think of myself as a burden to Sunset and Applejack, but I was in no shape to fight anypony; I wouldn’t be able to run away. I began to ponder whether staying with them would help them at all.

I looked around the area and noticed that the fog wasn’t as strong here as it was in the border. I could see all the stores and shops around. None of them looked like they had been looted. In fact, I began to think that it was weird how so many shops around the city were completely untouched by looters, but then I remembered how brutal the first day of the infection was and how it spread so quickly. None of the criminals must have had the time to steal.

“There she is,” Sunset said after a few moments of silence. We walked to the restaurant that Sunset mentioned earlier. We went inside and sat down in one of the booths.

Applejack walked out of the restaurant’s kitchen with a plate full of food. She laid it on the table and sat down with us. “Good ta see ya up sugarcube,” she said.

“It always is,” I said to Applejack with a smile.

“Good ta see your attitude didn’t suffer either,” she smiled back. The three of us ate most of the food on the plate. Applejack and I didn’t eat too much, but Sunset devoured everything in sight. I almost felt sorry for the food as it was mercilessly gulped down by Sunset.

“I’m full,” I said after eating a small portion.

“Where does it all go?” Applejack asked with a hint of disgust in her voice as she saw Sunset continue eating.

“Do you really want to know?” I asked her. She shivered a little at that thought.

“I’m full,” Sunset said after eating everything left in front of her.

“Are you sure?” I asked. “Because I think Applejack and I can make another mountain of food for you if you want.”

“Nah, I’m good,” she replied.

“Oh thank god,” Applejack said under her breath.

“Now let’s get going,” I said. Applejack and Sunset exchanged looks. “Or you know what, I can go alone and hopefully find Discord’s safe house.”

“Wait you want to find the safe house?” Sunset asked. I nodded. ”You’re not trying to find the Chimera and kill him?” I shook my head. ”Okay then, we’ll find it, but you need to stay there after we do.”

I shrugged. “That’s good enough for me,” Applejack said.

“I’ll lead,” I said. “I’m the only one who knows it’s location after all.” I pulled out the map Discord gave me and walked away from the booth with Sunset and Applejack following behind me. “Wait,” I said before continuing any further.

There are two ways to get to the safe house, one is quicker and easier, but it goes through the main street, so it’s a little less safe, and the other path is long and longer and goes through alleys, but most likely safer. Which path should we take?”

“It’s up ta you,” Applejack said. Sunset nodded her head in agreement.

“Short and fast it is then,” I said. We walked out of the restaurant without bothering to clean up after ourselves for obvious reasons. We started walking through the alleys to our destination. I walked as quietly as possible, but Sunset didn’t seem to care about safety. I was almost convinced that she wasn’t even using her super hearing ability to hear any nearby danger.

We walked through another alley and ventured forward. We reached the other side and found that it was closed off by a giant gate. We saw another alley and walked through it. Unfortunately it was also closed off at its end. We continued through alley after alley trying to find a way out. The original entrance was nowhere to be found either.

I suddenly stopped when something caught my attention. There was a beautiful garden hidden away in the maze of alleys. I could tell that Applejack and Sunset wanted to get a closer look, and honestly I did too.

The garden reminded me of the courtyard back at the police station and the Canterlot gardens back in Equestria, except it was adorned in ice. There was a fountain in the center that shot out water despite the fact that it was partially frozen. The fountain had an ice sculpture of a bird at the very top of it. Some of the flowers were real plants, but others looked like colored water frozen into the shape of flowers. The central ice sculpture radiated blue giving the whole garden a beautiful blue glow.

“This is amazing,” I said to no one in particular.”

“You like it?” asked a voice unfamiliar to me. I turned around to see a woman wearing a white dress. She was just as beautiful as the garden. She was about my height. She had long raven black hair and rosy cheeks. Her eyes were a gorgeous shade of magenta. She smiled at me and I smiled back.

“Yeah,” I replied after a while.

“I made them,” she said.

Sunset tried to retrieve her berettas, but I stopped her before she could aim. “What’re you doing Octavia?” Sunset asked. “She’s a Cryo Spider, look at what she made with her power. She’ll kill us the moment she gets a chance.”

“Look at her eyes,” I said. “She still has free will.”

Sunset looked at her. She smiled at us again. It was almost as if she knew she wasn’t in any danger. Sunset reluctantly put her guns away.

“Are ya alright, Sunset?” Applejack asked. “Ah’ve never seen ya this aggressive before.”

“I’m fine,” Sunset said trying to calm herself. “I’m just a little stressed I guess.”

“We’re all a little tense hun,” Applejack replied. “Don’t worry, we’ll get through this.”

“Are you hurt?” The beautiful lady asked me.

“I just have a cut or two, nothing bad," I replied trying to sound tough.

“I can help heal you,” she said.

“That won’t be necessary,” I said hesitantly.

“Please,” she said. “I want to help. Just take off your shirt and follow me inside.” My hands moved almost of their own accord and unbuttoned my shirt. I heard Sunset snicker behind me. “Would you two like to come in too?” she asked Sunset and Applejack as she opened the door to what I assumed was her house.

“Sure,” Applejack said. She walked to me. The Cryo Spider walked further into her house and out of sight. “Don’t worry Octavia, we’ll keep you safe.”

“Yeah Tavi,” Sunset said with a grin on her face. “We won’t leave you two alone even for a second.”

“Thanks,” I said to Sunset in a sarcastic tone. I turned to Applejack. “Don’t worry I can handle myself,” I said to her as confidently as possible.

“I’m sure she’ll be fine,” Sunset said.

I doubt it,” Applejack retorted. “She isn’t thinking straight,”

“Don’t think that’s the problem.”

The truth was I wanted to see more of the Cryo Spider’s abilities firsthand. I sighed. “Relax AJ,” I said. “Nothing’s going to happen. Now can you please help me take off my clothes?” Applejack glared at me. It might have been better if I had selected my words carefully, but it wouldn’t have been nearly as funny.

“Undress yourself Shimmer,” Applejack said bitterly. “We’ll be hunting that Chimera.”

“Okay, so I’m just going to finish up here and then look for Discord’s place. Radio me when you find the Chimera.”

“Chimera?” the beautiful Cryo Spider asked. “Do you mean the leader of the Ice Spiders?” I hadn’t even noticed her return.

“No,” I said casually not sure if we could trust her or not with our mission.

“I want that son of a bitch dead,” she said.

“Why would you want that?” Applejack asked suspiciously.

“Because he turned my fiancé into one of the Ice Spiders too, but he became different. He lost his sense of self. He became too loyal to the leader.” She looked away from me for a moment. “He passed away while under his command.”

“When did he die?” I asked hopping that I had nothing to do with it.

“Three days ago.” Relief surged through me.

“Where’s the leader now?” Sunset asked.

“He’s in the center of this land,” she replied, “but he’s almost never alone. He always has spiders, special Ice Spiders following him.

“I can handle that,” Sunset said confidently.

“I’ll bring a map. Just follow me,” she said. The four of us entered her house. The first room looked similar to a waiting room in a hospital. It had chairs lined up on the walls. There was a single table in the middle of the room. The table looked odd. It’s edges were protruding upwards acting as a container for the water that was inside the middle.

She returned seconds later with a map for Applejack and Sunset. “Here you are,” she said with a smile. She turned to me. “Now take off your clothes and lie down on the table.”

“Okay,” I said. I took off my hoodie shirt, shoes and socks, and the bandages Applejack had me covered in. I saw Applejack blush a little. Apparently she wasn’t used to seeing a half naked anthro pony with muscles. I suppressed a smile. “Do I have to take off my pants too? Cause I’m married.” I saw Applejack’s blush further at my question.

“That won’t be necessary,” the Cryo Spider said. I climbed onto the table and lay down. She put her hands on my chest. The water began to rise over my body.

“I didn’t know you could manipulate normal water too.” She nodded. “I guess I should start calling you Hydro Spiders.”

She ran her hand down my chest causing the focus point of the water to shift from my chest to my stomach. The sensation was amazing. I closed my eyes in relaxation. Her hands felt so soft against my fur covered skin. She moved her hands back up to my chest and gasped.

I opened my eyes in concern. “What is it?” I asked. “What’s wrong?”

“You’re body has so much unusual potential and power,” she replied. “It feels like all that power is trapped inside of you and it wants to break free. I’ll try to set it loose.”

“What do you mean?” Sunset asked. “What power does she have?”

“I don’t know,” she said as she tensed her hands on my chest. “But it’s hard to release. I don’t think I can do it.” The sensation of water caused was beginning to sting.

“Wait,” Applejack said as if she had just realized something. “Sunset’s full of energy. Could ya use her?”

“That actually might work,” the Cryo Spider said as she pulled her hands out of the water. “But I have never tried to channel another human’s power before.” Sunset walked towards her.

“What do I have to do?” she asked.

“Just put your hands where mine are,” she said. Sunset put her hands in the water just above my chest. “Okay now, just touch her chest and begin extracting her power.”

“How do I exactly ’extract’ her power?” Sunset asked.

“Just feel it coming out,” she replied.

“Okay,” Sunset placed her hands on my chest in the similar manner as the Cryo Spider did. Her hands felt odd on my chest. I liked the Cryo Spider’s soft warm hands in place of the uncomfortable rough ones that belonged to Sunset. I could feel that this was just as uncomfortable for Sunset as it was for me. We both avoided eye contact.

“You have to feel her energy,” she encouraged.

“I feel something,” Sunset said. “I feel the energy in me get stronger like it did when I fought the Infernoland Chimera.” Sunset was beginning to breathe harder and faster. Her hands began to glow the same sickly white color that I had seen before. She used the aura to kill the Chimera, and now I could feel that she was doing the exact same thing to me.

My body became tense as I tried to resist Sunset’s ability. I felt like my life was being siphoned away from me. “Is she supposed to look like that?” Applejack asked.

“I don’t think so,” the Cryo Spider replied with concern in her voice. I let out a small cry of agony as Sunset continued. The water was restricting my movement making it impossible to free myself. Applejack and the Cryo Spider each grabbed one of Sunset’s arms in an attempt to pull them away, but she was too strong.

“Sunset!” I yelled. “Snap out of it!” She ignored my command and continued to siphon away my energy. I could feel the world around me slowly begin to expand and contract. Everything felt surreal now. It felt like I was slowly sinking into a dream, I resisted as long as I could, but the urge to just let go was getting too strong to resist. I could almost see the dark gathering around my body, and a moment later I realized that the dark wasn’t just in my mind; some weird black aura was covering me.

I suddenly felt something in me spark. It was a power that felt somehow familiar. My strength began to return to me. I was even strong enough to break free from the water. I grabbed Sunset’s hands and struggled to push them away. Sunset seemed to get stronger the longer she pushed back. She was beating me. I could feel her try to drain more of my energy but now I was becoming strong enough to resist. I pushed her as hard as I could into a wall. Crash. She hit the wall with a hand thud and fell to the floor.

“Are you okay?” Applejack asked me. She helped me back on my feet. She gasped in surprise.

“What’s wrong?” I asked with a little worry in my voice. She pointed at me. I looked at my torso in time to see that the last of my cuts and bruises heal themselves. “Oh, well that’s new.”

I heard Sunset grunt from the wall. “Sunset, are you alright?” Applejack asked.

“Why the hell did you throw me into a wall?” Sunset asked in between moans of pain. “That hurt.”

“What?” I asked indignantly. “You tried to kill me.”

“Aright Tavi,” Sunset said condescendingly. “When are you going to let that go?”

“What?!” I said indignantly again. “It literally just happened.”

“Whatever. I forgive you for throwing me like that, so you should do the same.

I glared at Sunset. “You’re a horse’s ass Shimmer,” I finally said.

“Morons,” Applejack said under her breath. She shook her head at us.

“Okay enough,” I said. “You two need to get to the Frostfalls Chimera and stop him, while I look for Discord’s safe house alone. Unless you want to join me?” I asked the Cryo Spider. She smiled and nodded. Through the corner of her eye I saw Applejack shake her head. “I’ll radio you as soon as I finish. Is that understood?” Everyone nodded. “Good now let’s get going.”

Octavia and the Frostfalls girl stayed in the girl’s house to look through the map for Discord’s safe house. Applejack and I were left alone to try and find the Chimera. The map we were given gave us a general direction, but it wasn’t completely accurate. I felt energized after draining Octavia’s energy. The experience was odd. I went back into the celestial warrior trance I had once used, but I wasn’t able to control it as well as I did before. It was like something in Octavia caused me to want to hurt her. I tried not to and I resisted as long as I could. Luckily, Octavia’s abilities stopped me from really hurting her. ”Abilities that she apparently had trapped inside her,” I thought to myself. ”What if that was apart of her secret?” I pushed away the thought and pressed on.

I began to wonder what other ablilites Octavia had recieved apart from the rapid healing Applejack told me about. I had thought that Octavia was tough before, but now I was really scared of her raw potential. She could kill six skilled Cryo Spiders with no serious injury and that was when she was normal. There was not telling what she could do now.

Applejack and I traveled through an alley that the Frostfalls girl told us would lead to the inner Frostfalls. The alley was long, but it was safe. It wasn’t until the end that we saw Cryo Spiders lurking about. Luckily, they were too distracted with moving something to notice us. I looked towards the group of Cryo Spiders and saw that they had a normal person in the center of the group. Upon further inspection, I noted that they had her tied up to a metal rod.

Applejack and I hid behind a car and looked on. “What do ya think they’re doin’?” she asked.

“I don’t know, but I don’t think this girl’s gonna make it through.”

“Wait a minute, I know her,” Applejack said. “She was one of the Shadowbolts that helped destroy the Canterlot High outpost.”

“She helped bring down the outpost?” I asked in surprise. Despite her part in the destruction of an outpost, I knew we needed to help her. It was the right thing to do. “It doesn’t matter, we can’t let her die.”

“Ah know,” Applejack said thoughtfully. “But she isn’t going to get away with it.”

“Wait, you need a weapon,” I said. I began to rummage through the supply bag for a weapon that Applejack could use to defend herself. The only thing that was left was one handgun. I handed it to Applejack. “Stay hidden as long as you can.”

“What? Why?!” Applejack protested. “Ah’m not useless.”

“AJ,” I said calmly. “These guys aren’t like the Shadowbolts or the Xenomorphs. They’re stronger, faster, smarter, and above all, they have equestrian powers.”

“Octavia killed six of them,” she retorted.

“Octavia’s a cop and highly trained in combat,” I responded. “Not many people or ponies could do what she did.” I rested my hand on her shoulder. “I can handle this. You just cover me in case they start to beat me.” Applejack reluctantly agreed.

I rose from the car and dashed to the Cryo Spiders. There were four of them. They all looked at me in unison and began using their abilities. The two Cryo Spiders furthest from me forced the ice on the ground to gather and rise to form a wall that covered them and their prisoner. The other two thrust their hands forward and fired dense pieces of ice that looked as sharp as daggers. I dodged a few by taking cover behind a dompster, but three of the ice daggers were able to strike my shoulder.

“How do you do it, Tavi?” I whispered to myself. Octavia would have been able to not only avoid all the ice daggers, but I was sure she would have already killed at least three of them. Stealth was Octavia’s strength just as raw power was mine. I was done trying Octavia’s way; it was time to fight like I knew best.

I forced both of my hands to erupt into flames. I wasn’t able to use the fire ability like the Pyronocks could, but that wasn’t going to stop me from trying. I rose up from the dumpster and shot the fire in a steam towards the Cryo Spiders. They jumped out of the way as my fire hit the buildings around them melting some of the ice in the process. I took another shot, but the Cryo Spiders easily avoided the stream of fire.

“Damn it,” I whispered to myself. I couldn’t hurt them if I kept fighting like this. My aim was awful. I suddenly had an idea. I peered back to the Cryo Spiders. I smiled when I saw the fire that hit the building still burning. I touched the ground and focused spreading the fire. I heard the sound of the fire erupting. I glanced back and saw the small flames grow twenty times their original sizes. I had set up the field so that I could finally fight the Cryo Spiders on my turf.

I shot several magma balls in the Cryo Spider’s direction. They dodged them as I thought they would. I gave the fire I had spread around the area another command of attack. The Cryo Spiders were so busy fighting me back that they didn’t see the fire spread out from behind them until it was too late. I had used my direct attacks to distract the Cryo Spiders while at the same time forcing the background fire to attack them. The fire had forced the two Cryo Spiders onto the ground. They scattered around until they lied on the ground completely still.

I walked to the wall of ice and began blasting it with streaks of fire. It began to melt, but more ice formed to replace it. I forced all the fire in the surrounding area to launch itself into the wall. The ice repaired itself, but it wasn’t fast enough to keep up with all the surrounding fire. I got my guns out and aimed forward. I waited for an opening before I fired. After a few seconds I saw an opportunity and repeatedly fired my guns. Bang-Bang-Bang.

I fell to the floor out of sheer exhaustion. Moving the rest of the fire had used up all of my remaining energy. The wall of ice had completely melted away. I could see both of the Cryo Spiders on the floor completely still. I also saw the metal rod that they were guarding. The person that was bound to the rod was now replaced by a solid chunk of ice.

I rolled on my back and closed my eyes. I heard footsteps in the snow and assumed that it was Applejack. Bang! A lone gunshot pierced the silence. I heard a body fall in the snow and I immediately rose from the floor. I saw Applejack pointing her gun towards one of the Cryo Spiders. Apparently I hadn’t finished off all of them like I thought I did.

“Are ya alright Sunset?” Applejack asked.

“I’m fine,” I replied. “How the hell does Octavia do it?” Applejack grabbed my arm and pulled me up. I couldn’t eye handle four Cryo Spiders even with my powers, but Octavia could take out six on her own.

“Well you saw Octavia heal,” Applejack answered. “Maybe they had something to do with it.” I began to think for a moment.

“Why do you think Octavia was able to heal fast?” I asked.

“How are you able to control fire?” Applejack retorted.

“That’s not the same,” I answered. “I’m not completely human or pony now, but Octavia is still…” I trailed off after realizing something. “Octavia isn’t a pony either is she?”

“What?” Applejack asked.

“Think about it,” I said. “It makes sense. It explains everything like her skills, or her knowledge about everything or her ability to heal.”

“Some of that stuff is actually normal,” Applejack said. “The only stuff that isn’t, started after you tried to kill her.” Applejack became silent as if she was lost in thought. “Do you think you infected her with whatever you have?”

“I—I” I wasn’t sure what to say. Applejack was right; most of Octavia’s skills and knowledge could have been gathered through other ways, but it wasn’t clear if I had infected Octavia and gave her healing powers.

I began hearing radio static. “Sunset,” I heard Octavia say. “Did you find the Chimera yet?”

I unhooked my radio and held it to my mouth. “No,” I replied. “Did you open the safe house tunnel?”

“Yeah,” she replied. “I’ll be heading your way in a bit. I’ll go as soon as I say goodbye to Celaeno.”

“Who?” Applejack asked with a slight edge to her voice.

“The girl that helped heal me,” she replied hesitantly. “The point is I’ll run as fast as I can to you two. Calaeno told me where to go.”

“We’ll meet you there,” I said. I put my radio away, and afterwards I turned to Applejack. “Octavia’s second girlfriend gave her directions here. She said she’d get here as soon as she could.”

Applejack rolled her eyes. “So what do we do until then?” she asked.

“Wait I guess. Do you really think I infected Octavia?” I asked getting back to the conversation.

“Ah dont know. There’s a possibility.”

“Wait, no,” I said as a thought popped into my mind. “Maybe I did infect her, but what if that’s what she wanted to happen?” Maybe that’s what Octavia was hiding. “Want if Octavia has something to do with the X.X.X. Plague?

“You think she started the X.X.X. Plague?”

“No—I don’t know. Everything’s so complicated. Octavia has been helping us so much, and maybe she’s helping because she feels guilty for causing it?” It was a farfetched speculation.

“You think she planned on meeting Gloriosa here or planned that Gloriosa infecting you, and then felt bad about it at the last moment?” Applejack asked cynically.

“Maybe,” I replied. “Let’s talk about it some other time. For now, let’s just keep moving.” Applejack opened her mouth as if to protest, but I continued talking before she could. She knew she had won, I didn’t want her to gloat. “She has direction and she knows the city. She’ll find us in no time.”

“Aright,” Applejack said. We began walking passed the dead Cryo Spiders and towards the Chimera’s domain. I was nervous about confronting him, but also looked forward to it. Killing him would make me stronger.

Dr. Gloriosa Daisy was analyzing her test subjects for further signs of evolution when Krystrus arrived. “Hello, Gloriosa,” she said. “Have you found anything important?”

Gloriosa had to suppress the desire to kill her because she knew that nothing good would have come from it. She trivialized her current findings and, in her eyes, that was enough reason to do the deed, but unfortunately she was too important to her company to risk it. If Gloriosa wanted to hurt her, she would have to wait until she was strong enough to avoid the negative repercussions for doing it. “Nothing new. Did you enjoy your tour of Canterlot?

Krystrus smiled. “I found exactly what I wanted to find,” she replied. “As soon as you’re finished gaining all of the data I need you to collect, and I’m done gathering the assets I need, we can leave this place and clean up the mess that’s left behind.”

“What assets?” Gloriosa asked. “How are you going to clean Canterlot?”

“No need to concern yourself with that,” she said, “and I believe you know what I mean by “clean.”

“Yes ma’am,” Gloriosa replied. “We can’t risk anything from the city escaping. No information or survivors should be allowed to escape.”

“And we won’t allow it,” Krystrus replied as she looked to the test subjects. “Nothing will escape the explosion we trigger as soon as I have what I need.” She smiled and turned away to the exit. She had retrieved one of the resources vital to her plans, but there were still three that remained.

Applejack and I had cleared five more groups of Cryo Spiders on our way to fight the Frostfalls Chimera. I was exhausted from using the fire ability, so Applejack and I resorted to using our handguns for fighting. Applejack wasn’t a very good shot. She had gone through four magazines trying to shoot all the Cryo Spiders to death. After the fight, we decided that moving forward without Octavia might’ve been a bad idea. We waited near the camp of the last group of Cryo Spiders for Octavia to arrive. It only took about five minutes of waiting for her to get there.

“Hi ladies,” Octavia said.

“Hi,” Applejack and I said together.

“How have you two been doing against the Cryo Spiders?” Octavia asked. I looked at the last group we had just killed.

“We handled them,” I answered, “but we can always use your help.”

“That’s why I'm here,” Octavia replied.

“How’s Calaeno?” Applejack asked with the same edge in her voice.

“She’s taking the tunnel to Discord’s location so that he can study her,” Octavia replied nonchalantly.

“Why does Discord need to study her if he can’t use her to cure the X.X.X. Plague?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Octavia said, “but there’s no harm in letting him try.” I nodded and began walking towards Octavia.

“Here,” I said to Octavia as I handled her the map Calaeno had given us. “You’re better with directions than AJ and me, so you lead.”

Octavia smiled and took the map. She scanned the map then put it in her pocket. “Alright,” she said. “Follow me.” Octavia dashed forward in a full run. I could easily pass her, but I didn’t want to leave Applejack in the back, so I just kept pace with her. We ran like this for a few town blocks. Octavia suddenly stopped near an intersection. I was able to hear movement just beyond that and immediately understood that Octavia had spotted another group of Cryo Spiders.

Applejack and I walked to Octavia who was taking cover against the wall. We looked to the side of the wall and saw four more Cryo Spiders talking amongst themselves. I was just horrified y the way the males looked. I thought that the Pyronocks looked terrifying enough but since the fact remains that these Xenomorphs are part wolf spider except they had six legs and four arms which just made them more repulsive. “Octy,” I said, "show Applejack how you handle things.” Octavia nodded and sprinted forward.

Octavia ran with the same silent steps that I had come to expect out of her. She was almost six feet away from the first Cryo Spider when they spotted her. She pulled out her knives and stabbed the closest Cryo Spider in the chest before moving on to the next. She dodged all of the ice daggers the remaining three shot at her. Octavia rolled to the side of one of them and stabbed him. The other two continued their barrage of ice daggers. Octavia rolled away from the Cryo Spiders and took cover behind an alley.

“Hot damn,” Applejack said in surprise.

“Told you,” I said.

“Ah had no idea that Octavia was that fast,” Applejack said with the same surprise in her voice. “She killed two of them from that close. You couldn’t even do that. You had to use a lot of your power to kill the same amount of Spiders, but she isn’t even letting herself get hit from that close.”

“Okay AJ, I get the point,” I said with mild irritation in my voice. “Octavia’s stronger than me.”

“You’ve seen her do this before?” She asked.

“Not like this,” I replied.

Octavia rose from her cover and aimed her magnum towards the Cryo Spider furthest from her. Bang. Octavia shot and killed the Cryo Spider with a single shot. The last Cryo Spider looked scared so he began to run away. Octavia sprinted towards him. I was a little surprised to see how fast Octavia could run now.

Maybe she is like me, I thought to myself. I shook the idea off and concentrated on the fight at hand.

Octavia was still chasing the Cryo Spider. She managed to tackle him to the ground as soon as she was close enough. Applejack and I ran towards them afterwards. “You’re not as brave as the others are you?” Octavia asked the Cryo Spider.

“Please—“ he said.

“Please what?” Octavia interrupted harshly. “Please let you go so that you can tell your boss?”

“I won’t,” he said on the verge of panic. “I swear I won’t tell anypony.”

“Why should I let you go?” Octavia asked. “You’re a Cryo Spider and loyal to the Chimera. You’ll tell him as soon as I let you go.”

“I’m not loyal,” he said. “Just because I’m a—a—a Cryo Spider or whatever you called it doesn’t mean I want to help him. I’m not like the other Xenomorphs he ordered around. I still think on my own.”

I looked into the Cryo Spider’s eye, and knew that he was telling the truth. His eyes weren’t the same color as the ordinary Cryo Spider. They were magenta.

“Okay,” Octavia said. “Maybe you do have free will, but why should I risk it? It doesn’t look like it’s worth it.”

“I’ll give you whatever you want,” he said. “I’ll help you escape this place.” He was still panicking.

“I don’t want to leave just yet,” Octavia replied. “I’m still looking for someone.”

“I’ll help you find him. Whoever it is, I’ll help them in time. Just give me a name.”

“I’m looking for the Frostfalls Chimera,” Octavia said.

“The what?” he asked.

“This land’s big boss. You know the first of the Cryo Spiders. The one that made the Frostfalls.”

I could see the Cryo Spider’s eyes widen at Octavia’s request. “Do you want to kill the leader?” he asked with what I was almost sure was hope in his voice.

“Yes,” Octavia said plainly. “That’s the deal: his life or yours.”

“Fine then,” the Cryo Spider said. “I’ll tell you where he is.”

“Show us,” Octavia insisted. “I want to make sure you don’t double cross us to your boss.”

“Me and a lot of other Cryo Spiders want him dead too,” he replied. “So I’ll gladly help you with that.”

“I don’t care what you want,” Octavia said apathetically. “We just want to kill the Chimera. You help, and we’ll let you live. So start walking and show us the way or we’ll find another Spider who wants to live.” The Cryo Spider nodded nervously and walked forward.

Octavia turned to us and signaled for us to follow. The three of us followed a few steps behind our tour guide. He led us through many streets that were completely Cryo Spider free. We occasionally stumbled upon blocks of ice that hosed wayward explorers, but other than that the streets were completely empty.

“Where is everyone?” I asked.

“Most of them are out fighting the invaders,” the Cryo Spider answered.

“The invaders?” I asked.

“He must be talking about the Shadowbolts,” Applejack answered.

“That’s right,” Octavia agreed. We followed our tour guide until we reached a water park.

“He’s in there,” he said. “Do I have to go with you?” he asked with concern in his voice.

“No,” I answered before Octavia could. “You did what we asked you to do, and now you’re free. However if you want to leave this place, gather as many Spiders who still have their free will and bring them here to follow us out.” He smiled and bowed to us. He walked away moments later.

The three of us walked inside the water park. There was an aquarium right next to it with the same blue and gray colored pattern. They were clearly conjoint attractions. The water park was as deserted just as the rest of the streets we had just passed through had been. We walked in and began searching for the Chimera. It didn’t take us long to stumble into the main pool area and find him.

There he was. The Chimera was sitting on a large throne-like spiderweb made of ice that you would expect to see a queen on and not a king. He was directly above a large pool of water that was completely frozen over. He stared at me as soon as I walked in.

“AJ,” I said. “Take cover. Octavia and I can handle this.”

“Okay,” she said without a fight. She ran to the entrance of the building and stood there with her handguns raised.

“You ready for this Tavi?” I asked.

“You know it Shimmer,” she answered. “I need to find somepony to test my new power on. He’ll do.”

“And I still need practice with my fire power,” I replied. “This asshole doesn’t stand a chance.”

“You two sound a little overconfident,” the Frostfalls Chimera said arrogantly. “You May have killed some of my followers, but you’ll find out that I’m not so easy.”

“You don’t stand a chance,”, I replied. “I was made to kill Chimeras like you.” Octavia shot me a quick uneasy glance then turned back to the Chimera.

“Two against one hardly seems fair,” he said with a smile. “What do ya say we even up the odds.” He lifted his arms forward and forced the ice in certain parts of the pool to melt and allow the Cryo Spiders waiting below to rise. There were ten of them now. “There, problem solved.”

“Sunset,” Octavia said. “Let’s take down the Cryo Spiders first. Afterward, we can fight the Chimera together.”

“Sounds good,” I said. We both prepared our weapons. I pulled out one of my berettas, while Octavia grabbed her knives. I blasted the Chimera with a magma bolt, but he countered it with a condensed field of ice in the form of a ball. I switched targets and shot magma at the Cryo Spiders. All but one of them dodged the magma bolt. The one that did get hit went flying out of the area.

Octavia was handling herself well too. I threw a glance in her direction and saw that three of the Cryo Spiders were already dead. Another ran towards me with two swords of ice. He tried to strike me, but I dodged it in time. He left himself opened, so I shot him in the chest from point blank range. He fell to the ground and didn’t move.

“Enough!” The Chimera shouted. He rose from his web chair and forced ice to form around his body. It started from his four arms and moved to his chest. The ice continued growing until his entire body was encased in ice. He was making his own armor. “Fucking useless minions.” The five remaining Cryo Spiders backed away from the fight. They were thrown out of the area by a wave of water thrown by the Chimera.

The Chimera charged for Octavia while simultaneously making th the ice form swords on two of his arms. He lunged toward Octavia, but Octavia countered his attack with her pair of knives. They both held their ground against each other. I suddenly noticed something was wrong. There was something ripping through the ice and heading for Octavia and the Chimera. It looked like an overgrown fin was sprouting from the ice and swimming towards the two.

“Tavi! I shouted. Octavia looked to me then towards the shark fin that was moving towards her. She dodged the first strike, but the fin circled around and followed her. I suddenly hear the sound of another fin tearing away at the ice. The ice behind both fins replaced itself just as fast as the sharks tore through it.

“Sunset!” Octavia shouted. “Take him out with your magma!”

“Magma?” The Cryo Spider Chimera asked unthreatened. “That won’t help.”

“Let’s find out,” I said as I attacked him with a stream of magma. He forced a wall of ice to form between us. He shot out ice daggers. I barely managed to dodge most of them. One scratched my side. The smug bastard smiled. The Chimera lifted his four hands, forcing chunks of ice to rise from the pool in the form of columns. I used the columns to cover at first, but they quickly turned against me as the Chimera forced the columns to topple and nearly crush me to death.

In the corner of my eye, I could see both of the fins following Octavia. Octavia evaded them with ease, but the sharks weren’t going to give up so easily. I could tell that Octavia was starting to get tired. I knew that the longer the battle was drawn out, the harder it would be to win. I had only one choice if I wanted to win. I would have to go back into the celestial warrior trance like before. The problem with this was that I didn’t know how to use it. I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate, but nothing happened.

Tentacles made of water burst out from the floor and grabbed me. I couldn’t break away. They were constricting me as the two shark fins changed direction and began coming towards me. I felt so defenseless that moment, but I suddenly began feeling a change. I felt the power surge I had come to love. This time it felt stronger. The alabaster white that signaled my powers sprouted from other parts of my body instead of just my hands. My arms up to the elbow and parts of my legs and chest, now had small streams of the white aura on them. Then I felt the power hunger that came with my abilities. There were two possible targets that would satisfy my hunger. The first was the Frostfall’s almighty Chimera, and the second was Octavia.

The water that restrained me became paler. The water tentacles moved as if to shake off my influence, but eventually they surrendered themselves to it. They let go of me in time for me to dodge the shark attack. Both of the sharks had launched themselves out of the water in an attempt to eat me, but I easily avoided them. They sank back into the water and continued to hunt Octavia.

I looked at the Chimera and smiled. He seemed taken aback by my appearance and confidence. “You look worried Flash,” I taunted. “I like that.” I stepped forward and he left his ice web throne. I ran to him and forced my hands to burst into flames. Flash created more walls of ice to keep me from him, so I allowed the fire to build up in one of my hands and touched the ice walls. The embers spread themselves around and began melting the ice. Flash forced the wall to repair itself. I was forced to change tactics.

I replaced the fire with the alabaster aura I used to control the Infernoland Chimera’s fire. The walls of ice paled and collapsed to the floor leaving the Frostfalls Chimera open for attack. He formed more swords and charged towards me. The swords melted the moment they came into contact with me. I forced the ice I still controlled to form a wall behind him.

With his back to the wall, the Chimera forced the ground below him to open. He sank in and escaped my wrath. He rose from another spot and created a column to keep himself off the ground and away from me. Chuncks of ice began to rise from the ground. Each chunk twisted itself into the shapes of knives sod launched themselves towards me. I allowed a few to hit me, pretended to be hurt, and allowed myself to sink into the water. I quickly stopped playing dead and swam to the other side of the column.

Flash laughed and allowed the column to sink partially back into the water. He turned his attention to Octavia who was still fighting the Chimera’s sharks. He launched a volley of ice daggers in Octavia’s direction. The ice that had covered the pool was beginning to re-form, so I only had one more chance to him.

I waited for the ice to completely re-form before I used my white aura power. I used it to control the water around me into breaking the ice and pushing me back up. I jumped on to Flash with me white aura in hand and threw him to the floor. The white aura reacted to Flash as it had before. It latched on to him and siphoned his energy. He tried to struggle, but after a few seconds, it completely stopped. I had finished him, but I wasn’t done yet. I turned to Octavia.

Octavia was out of the pool now walking towards me. I dashed forward. My hunger was overwhelming. It was messing with my brain and causing me to seek out power, and Octavia was full of it. Octavia quickly understood what I was doing and switched to a defensive stance. It wouldn’t do her any good; she would be done the moment I touched her. ”Like last time”? I thought to myself. ”No, this time will be different...this time I’ll win!” I reached out for her chest with my white aura covered hand. Octavia didn’t resist; instead she touched my forehead. I was instantly unable to move. Everything around me began to spin. Octavia let go of my face and allowed me to fall to the floor. I closed my eyes and was unable to resist. ”Is this what I did to the Chimera?” I finally gave in to Octavia’s power and fell asleep.

Next Chapter: Chapter 12: A Conscious Reunion Part 2 Estimated time remaining: 3 Hours, 42 Minutes