It was snowing.

Furious sudden puffs of snow that seemed like it was lit from within. The first thing that came into view was a centaur. The centaur they had met after coming out of Echidna's lair.

\"Oh,\" Nelda exclaimed. \"It's what's-his-name. Wait, where's Brenda.\"

She spun around. Brenda had tumbled onto the ground a short distance away. She looked even more-than-usually angry. And she seemed to have taken to magic very quickly.

Brenda raised her hands -- black shadows rushed towards Nelda.

Nelda raised the alicorn reflexively ahead of her. The rushing shadows parted and dissolved into hissing steam.

\"Well,\" said Brenda. \"Let's do this the old fashioned way.\" She started to stomp toward Nelda, but stomping proved to be a poor strategic move. After a few steps her impractical gothic boot got stuck and the damp mud churned over by the pegasus. She tugged and pulled her foot free from both mud and boot. She teetered a while with one foot, clad in a soiled white tennis sock, held high -- and then toppled backward onto her ass.

Nelda choked back a laugh. [Even in dire circumstances, you've got to appreciate slapstick.]

Brenda actually growled, like an irate cat. She reached out one hand dramatically.

The unicorn horn jumped in Nelda's hand and she briefly lost her grip on it, grabbed frantically and pulled it close to her body. The strength of the pull only grew. Fighting back Nelda fell down on one knee, planting her other foot in front of her in the dirt. But she was losing her balance, on the verge of being face-planted in the mud by Brenda's magical tractor beam.

Hands considerably beefier than SmithGuild's grabbed Nelda by the waist. She started to kick in protest before realizing the hands were pulling her backward, not taking her towards Brenda.

Whipping her head around she saw the chonky centaur was helping her out, his saucer-sized hoofs planted squared and securely.

Nelda just cocked her head and smiled. Gesturing dramatically with her hand, fingers curled like hooks, the pull on the horn redoubled. Even if she could not move Nelda and her equine anchor, the weak point was the grip of her hands which was beginning to weaken and the horn started to pull away from her body. She could feel her fingers starting to loosen. It had already got too far away for her to try and hook and elbow around it.

\"SmithGuild, help!\" she called out.

Brenda was smiling. She looked even more terrible with that smug smile than her usual truculent scowl. Nelda realized that, with an up-do and some nice duds, Brenda was actually rather beautiful -- in a cold and commanding way. She was like a high fantasy Lady Macbeth in her wrath and determination. [\"Bend up each corporal agent to the terrible feat..\"]

But then Brenda's expression flickered and waned. Her fingers lost their aesthetic curl, her mouth fell open.

As the incredible pull of her summoning fell slack, Nelda struck herself full across the face with the horn. At the same time, her body was lofted back and upon the air. She got a blurred glimpse of the centaur landing backward on his horse ass as she did an unplanned triple salchow back toward the house and very much failed to stick the landing.

She found herself planted neatly between two stakes holding up bean-vines, with the horn flat beneath her. [No impalements. Maybe dating an asexual man has taught me a thing or two.]

A few tufts of pegasus fluff blew past in front of her, and clods of much and mud were sprayed into her face. But she still got to see the gratifying sight of Brenda in full, but unfortunately successful retreat.

Brenda had sprouted an impressive set of black-as-night wings and was beating them with all the urgency of a started pigeon sending wind, soil, and fluff in all directions. As she fought to gain flight and figure could be seen leaping after her.

[Fuck me, it's Manny the Manticore.]

And so it was. A creature capable of cat-like grace despite his four-square build and oversized round head fringed with heavy mane. Manny seemed within an inch of grabbing her foot as he reached the apex of his leap, but his rows of pointed teeth snapped shut on little more than air. As Brenda stabilized and swooped upwards, Manny landed with a heavy thump and painful-sounding crack.

Nelda took a deep breath, just to make sure she could. Keeping one eye on the rapidly retreating Brenda she felt along the unicorn horn. It seemed to be all in one piece, undamaged, if noticeably warm at the tip. She used it as an impromptu walking stick to help lever herself to her feet.

It was strangely quiet.

[We have comprehensively destroyed the seer's garden.]

SmithGuild was pretty much where she had last seen him. The centaur was collecting himself awkwardly off the ground. Manny was a dark lump, unmoving. Brenda was barely a speck distant in the sky.

Nelda collected a white tuft that was tangled in her hair. Up close it looked like nothing more than feather down like someone had emptied out about two dozen goose-down pillows all around them.

In fact, the fluffiest of them all [in both senses of the word] was the centaur who was practically covered in the stuff. [Which makes sense if this was part of some pegasus-creating spell.]

\"Okay,\" Nelda said to herself. \"So that happened.\"

She began to pick her way through the flotsam towards the manticore.

\"Um, are you sure you should do that?\" SmithGuild asked in a quavering voice.

\"He does seem to have saved our lives-slash-maybe the world,\" Nelda said as she continued. \"If you are right about who should have this thing.\" She waved the horn in his general direction.

She was having a little trouble seeing out of her left eye, which was swelling up from where she had hit herself with the horn. [I wonder if it can heal injuries it also caused?]

Nelda was beginning to have second thoughts as she got closer. The manticore was easily the size of a male lion, accessories aside, built more like a pit-bull. Its fur was an unrealistically over-saturated shade of terracotta red.

[He, not it] Nelda reminded herself. [This is Manny.]

She edged around the prone figure, laying flat on it's front with legs splayed out. She Found his giant head turned to the side.

Gently lifting up mane hair she peered down at his Cheshire-cat-like face, its giant eyelids closed.

\"Hey, Manny,\" she mentioned. \"How you doing there?\"

Manny's bifurcated lip wrinkled. \"I' turns out,\" he said. \"That manticores are assholes too,\" he said. \"Even worse than you lot.\"

\"Ah.\" Reassured that he was not dying, Nelda let the mane fall back over his face. \"If you can manage it. I think we should take this inside.\"