With the windigos providing some extreme frosty weather, Nightmare Moon sought to dispose of them. She looked up and saw them circling around her location, ready for a proper challenge.
"Hmph," she grunted, "our sister was nothing more than a pitiful excuse of a challenge. Perhaps you will provide more fun for us."
She flew up towards the spirits and flared her wings. The spirits took no notice and, instead, offered more snow for Nightmare Moon, tossing it into her face without much care. Nightmare Moon took offense to this and wiped her face clean with her magic, angrily looking towards the spirits once more. She charged up some magic and shot it between each of the windigos as a warning shot.
"Best not to get on our bad side," Nightmare Moon warned. "Otherwise, we'll show thee no mercy, and you wouldn't like us when we show no mercy to peasants like you."
The windigos paid no attention towards Nightmare Moon and instead tossed more snow in her direction. The weather was becoming unbearably cold and began affecting passive magic spells, such as Nightmare Moon's flowing mane. Nightmare Moon didn't notice her mane stopping its flow, focusing on the windigo spirits more than anything.
"We command thee to stop this snow and cold weather at once!" Nightmare Moon threatened, lighting her horn up as a threat.
One of the circling windigo spirits flashed their eyes towards Nightmare Moon and caused the weather to escalate in terms of the frigidness. Nightmare Moon retaliated with more magic, shooting some of the built up dark magic towards the one windigo that flashed their eyes, but missing completely because of the frigid temperature.
Body beginning to shiver, Nightmare Moon finally noticed a little bit of her magic being hindered with and concentrated on warming herself up with more of her magic, but couldn't seem to do so. Firing off more beams of dark magic towards the spirits, Nightmare Moon's body slowly started to become encapsulated by ice.
Failing to notice the slow takeover, Nightmare Moon continued to helplessly fight the windigo spirits. Eventually, the ice reached her wings and stopped her from using them, causing her body to slowly fall towards the ground. Struggling mightily to break the ice, Nightmare Moon tried using her own magic to destroy it, but couldn't seem to do so. As she reached the ground, she became fully trapped inside the ice, the statue toppling over onto its side and starting to be covered with snow. Nightmare Moon continued her resistance and attempts at using her magic, but it was mostly no good. She shut her eyes and wondered what was going to happen to her now, watching as the windigos slowly crept closer towards the ground.
The cold and bitterness of the windigo spirits bled onto the land, making it feel even more of a frozen wasteland than even that of the Frozen North. Nightmare Moon's body was completely frozen and her consciousness was waning, but she still fought to keep herself awake, determined to rule the realm that she recently obtained.
It was no use.
Flying in a formation together, Lunar and Twilight were surrounded on both sides by Fluttershy, Lustrous, Eclipsa, and Noct. Star stood back to keep an eye on Rainbow Dash's recovery process while Eclipse, Astral, Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie all rushed back and followed the flying ponies from the ground.
"Everypony remembers the plan, right?" Twilight called, loud enough for the ponies on the ground to hear her.
"Affirmative!" Eclipse shouted in response for the grounded troops.
"Right," added the remaining ponies in the skies.
"We only get one shot at this!" Lunar stated, "Make it count!"
As the forces got closer towards the circling windigos, they began to encounter the severe blizzard that the ancient spirits were creating. Slowed slightly, the group continued their trek through the fierce conditions, determined to help whatever creature needed it the most, regardless of who it was.
Things continued to escalate in terms of treachery. The wind whipped and nipped at each of the ponies, but they continued to press on, thanks to their knowledge and experiences in prior encounters on the battlefield. Snow continued to fall, but the rate was slowing down slightly.
Up ahead in the distance, Twilight and Lunar spotted the circling windigos close to the ground. They redirected themselves lower so that they were closer to the ground, being followed by the ponies flying with them. The ground forces continued rushing forward through the snow, trailing the flying pack slightly.
Hearing the windigos howl and neigh in the vicinity, the conjoined faction stopped briefly once they were close enough to the action. The windigos circled faster while the group stood defiantly in the way. Lunar looked down to notice a frozen body lying in the snow, though it was significantly covered.
"Fearsome creatures," Twilight called to the windigos, "disperse from the area at once!"
The windigos paid no attention to Twilight's request, instead circling around faster and combining their magic to strengthen the freezing of the immediate area. More snow fell and the blizzard conditions picked up, topped off with the wind blowing fiercely by the troops. Twilight and Lunar nodded at each other and combined their magic efforts in casting a large enough defensive shield to protect themselves and the others and, for the most part, it worked, albeit at a cost; the spell itself was rigorous and power consuming, despite the joint efforts from the alicorn leaders.
"Help aid us, my friends," Lunar called, looking down to the grounded troops, "show the windigos just what unification can really do!"
"Got it," replied Eclipse.
Eclipse rushed forward, charging magic up in his horn. He reached the edge of the defensive barrier Lunar and Twilight had provided and briefly stepped out of it, unleashing the built up magic on the ancient spirits. The magic wasn't as strong as Nightmare Moon's or even Twilight's or Lunar's, though it did manage to disrupt the windigos slightly.
Noticing the disturbance, Rarity joined Eclipse in unleashing some of her own magic at the windigos. She struggled mightily to do so, but after building up strength, she fired off a small beam of magic towards the spirits, watching as it sailed right by them. She felt disheartened, but was quickly backed up by Astral and Eclipse. They looked at each other and nodded.
"Together," Eclipse suggested, looking towards Applejack and Pinkie Pie as well.
"It might be our only way," added Rarity, motioning for them to come over.
"On three," smirked Astral, joining hooves with Rarity and Eclipse, "one…"
While Astral counted, Lunar and Twilight looked to the airborne troops that were assisting them presently. Lunar spoke out first, suggesting that Noct and Eclipsa fly around as a distraction to the windigos.
"We'll cover you," he added, "promise."
"Got it, boss," Noct responded.
"On it!" Eclipsa beamed, taking off in a direction that mirrored Noct's.
Noct flew around the right side of the windigos in a zig-zag motion while Eclipsa did something similar on the left side of the windigos. Fluttershy flew closer towards Lunar and Twilight and, despite the immense amount of power the two were utilizing at the moment, encouraged them with kindness to keep going, for the sake of each pony that was around.
"You guys can do it," she told them, "just a little bit longer!"
"Thank you, Fluttershy," Twilight said, grunting from the amount of power she and Lunar were currently using.
"Two…"
Noct and Eclipsa flew by each other, trying their hardest to divert the attention of the windigos from the ponies on the ground to themselves.
"Betcha can't catch me!" Eclipsa teased, flying close by the spirits.
"Or me!" Noct added, diving down slightly and increasing his speed.
One of the windigo spirits turned their attention from the grounded troops to Eclipsa and Noct, flashing their eyes at the two bat ponies. Eclipsa noticed the flash and glanced back towards it, looking directly into the eyes of the windigo. She felt her body slow down and begin to shiver uncontrollably. Noct saw this and called out to Eclipsa.
"Don't look at them!" He yelled, trying to snap Eclipsa out of the trance she was placed in, "It'll only speed the process up!"
Eclipsa couldn't hear Noct and continued to look at the flashing eyes, feeling her body freeze up more, figuratively and literally. The tips of her hooves began to freeze from the frigid temperature, but Eclipsa still didn't move out of the way. Finally, Noct flew towards Eclipsa and grabbed her, using much of his strength to fly the two of them away.
"I gotcha," Noct smirked.
"Wh-what happened?" Eclipsa wondered, blinking her eyes a few times, then realizing her partially frozen hooves. "How'd this happen?"
"The windigo was trying to lure you in so it could freeze you," Noct explained, "but I got you now, so you're all good."
"Thank you, Noct," Eclipsa smiled softly. "You might have just saved my life."
"Don't sweat it," replied Noct, "now come on, we still got a distraction to cause."
Noct kicked the ice off of Eclipsa's body and nodded to her. Eclipsa nodded back and flapped her wings again, taking off by Noct's side and flying in formation with him. They continued their distraction while Lunar and Twilight kept up their shields for the others.
"Three!"
The ponies on the ground felt the magic flowing through each of them and focused on exerting it and showing the windigos just what it could do. A bright light flashed the area as the magic was released, hitting the windigos and crippling them to an extent. The bitter cold started to recede a bit and the wind died down a lot, though the snow still asserted its authority by falling from the windigos' location.
Twilight and Lunar called for both Noct and Eclipsa to retreat and regroup with them. Following orders, they did so and joined back up with Fluttershy, Twilight, and Lunar.
"What's up, Lunar?" Noct asked.
"We got the windigos on the ropes now," Lunar explained, looking to the troops on the ground, "but if we're really going to push them back, we need to all do this together, not as a flight group and a grounded group."
"What's your plan?" Eclipsa wondered.
"Here's what I'm thinking," Lunar continued, beginning to explain his thought process to the two bat ponies.