In the cold, the dark, the waning sunlight dripping over our horizon, it moves. With the weather, the dryness, the heat that never ceases, it breathes. Under the glow of the moon and the candle of the sun, it hunts. To the beating of fear-laced hearts it draws near.

Magic—
Life of fire and death of winter.

Magic—
Smile of joy, shriek of sadness.

Magic—
The beginning or the end?



Relentless actuality coursed across her body. Worlds, lives, truths—possibility—flooded through her vision. Peering into the abyss, lyres' strumming, green and callous light, mires of history, brambles of hatred clashing with the love; all tongues of flame clawing at her mind.

That long ago, the drumming, drumming.

"Twi—" A voice, a face, the graying sky. Veins of frost closed the gap. The silence was unmarred.

The burning, the pain, the sorrow, the… hate?

It was almost mystical. A feeling unlike any other. A new magic, one that burned her spirit, cemented her fear in frames of jealousy and anger. It alighted her soul with indignation.

Righteous fury interminable.

The water all around, the frost, the darkness chewing at the corners of her mind, power grew, spread, and fed on a spring of emotion. Boiling water, break through the barrier, use the power, destroy them forever.

The blaze of glory—


"—ight…" She recognized the voice.

"Rainbow Dash?"

Head pounding, soaked to the bone in icy water, smoky breath threading away in the chill breezes—battlefield scarred by an unknown force.

"It's okay. You—" Dash stopped for a second. "You were pretty awesome, actually."

But the Windigos were still out there; or was that even what they were? The cold chill, the anger, the power. Beneath the calm, the tranquility, the chivalry, something horrid lay. Beneath the golden hearts, the kindness, the peace, something… drumming, drumming, drumming…

Something lay beneath the surface.

And she saw it all.