//------------------------------// // Issue #2 // Story: My Little Patriot: Freedom is Magic // by Freedom Filly //------------------------------// Freedom Filly Comics Presents: My Little Patriot: Freedom is Magic Issue #2: Nuclear Winter Wrap-Up! And now, we check in on our heroes, the peerless protectors of Patriot City, fearless in the fight against foes of freedom, dauntless defenders of democracy, the one, the only... Freedom Force! Within the halls of the Freedom Fortress, in the sidekicks' quarters, Liberty Lad was sitting in his room and watching his favorite TV show... "I was THIS close to getting that diamond!" "You mean, getting rid of that dragon?" "Uh... yeah, sure." "Oh man, Rarity, you are hilarious!" Liberty Lad heard a knock and realized too late that he had forgotten to lock the door. "Hey Liberty Lad, you in there?" Liberty Lad desperately reached for the remote to turn off the TV, but it was too late; Sea Urchin had already opened the door. "Hey! What are you watching, anyway?" "Darling, you look ridiculous!" "Exactly! Sharing a laugh is a sure way to get someone on your side!" "...My little pony? Seriously?" Sea Urchin shot Liberty Lad a look. "Hey! This show is extremely popular on the internet! I never would've even heard of the new series if all the blogs weren't talking about it!" Before Sea Urchin could retort, the two sidekicks were distracted by the TV. "I guess he doesn't like laughing... or sharing." Sea Urchin couldn't help but crack a smile. "Okay, that was actually pretty funny." *** Several episodes later... Sea Urchin could barely breathe, she was laughing so hard. "That bit with the man-voice was hilarious! You weren't kidding when you said this show was good!" "See, I told you!" laughed Liberty Lad. "Now, which episode should we watch next..." Before they could decide, an alarm went off throughout the base. Mentor, the team's leader, called out over the intercom, "Attention, Freedom Force! Everyone to the ready room! Everyone to the ready room!" The two sidekicks quickly met up with the rest of Freedom Force - or at least, the members that were available at the time. El Diablo spoke up. "What's goin' on, compadre?" In response to the Mexican pyrokinetic, Mentor explained, "Our sensors have picked up a series of foreign dimensional entities scattered throughout the city. They appear to have been transported here through some sort of mystic gateway. I am now attempting to locate the source of the breach." The alien psychic fiddled with the control console, and an overhead image of one of Patriot City's many streets appeared on the screen. "Is that who I think it is?" Sea Urchin asked, disbelieving. Minuteman stared at the creature. "Stars and bars!" cried the patriotic powerhouse, "That's some sort of purple unicorn!" Minuteman's sidekick Liberty Lad facepalmed. "Oh dear Celestia..." "Fascinating. It would seem that this diminutive equine was responsible for creating the dimensional breach." explained Mentor. "What is this, a crossover fanfic?" quipped Liberty Lad. Before the team could react, another alarm went off. The room started to get noticeably colder. "Rings of Rexor! The walls of the Freedom Fortress are being frozen solid!" exposited Mentor. "Previet, Freedom Force." A video feed appeared on the screen. "Madre de dios! It's Nuclear Winter!" El Diablo exclaimed. "Da, you capitalist fools! At last, I have returned!" As the communist cold controller spoke, the ice within the walls of the Freedom Fortress continued to expand. "For too long have I allowed you foolish Americans to disrupt my plans! Now, I shall freeze you solid, and there will be no-one to interfere with my conquest of Patriot City!" "You'll... never... get away... with this, Winter!" said Minuteman, already being frozen solid. Nuclear Winter laughed evilly. "Dosvadanya, Freedom Force!" The feed went out as the rest of the heroes were frozen alive. *** Twilight had been searching this place (the local humans had called it "Patriot City") for hours, with no sign of her friends. She had nearly lost hope when she heard a familiar voice from a nearby alley. "Ponyfeathers! There's too many of 'em! Ah can't take 'em all by mahself!" "Applejack!" Twilight galloped into the alley, where Applejack was surrounded by thugs. "Hang on!" Concentrating, Twilight teleported into the center of the group, then focused her magic to form a vortex of telekinetic energy, battering the thugs with crushing force and sending them flying away in every direction. Applejack dusted herself off. "Thanks fer tha save, Twi. Those varmints almost got me!" "I'm just glad I found you. Have you seen anypony else?" "Nope, ah ain't seen hide nor hair o' our friends since ah got here." "We'd better keep looking. Who knows what trouble they've gotten themselves int... wait, when did it start snowing?" The two ponies looked up and found that it had indeed started snowing. The sky was covered in gloomy gray clouds, pouring flakes of frozen rain all over the city. "That's odd... how could anypony make so many clouds, so fast?" Before Twilight could come up with a hypothesis for the sudden change in weather, she heard what sounded like a small group of marching soldiers. People were screaming. Stepping out into the street, Twilight and Applejack witnessed crowds of fleeing civilians being pursued by three human soldiers wearing fur coats, large fur hats, and thick goggles. The troopers appeared to be using freeze rays, if the trail of frozen citizens was any indication. "Horseapples! We better go help 'em, Twi!" "Don't worry, AJ. I got this." Focusing her magic. Twilight fired off a bolt of arcane energy into a group of ice troopers, taking out one. "I have failed... the motherland..." The remaining two ice troopers aimed their freeze rays and shot beams of freezing cold at Twilight. "For Comrade Winter!" Twilight easily galloped out of range of the slow-moving beams, while Applejack circled around and prepared a powerful kick. "Take that, varmint!" The ice trooper stumbled backwards, stunned, allowing Applejack to finish him off with another kick. Twilight prepared another arcane bolt for the last trooper. "Your victory is highly improbable." she chided before launching the bolt, knocking the mook out cold. A voice called out from a loudspeaker somewhere up in the clouds, "More heroes? I thought I froze the last of you along with your precious headquarters. No matter, you cannot hope to defeat me, for I have turned the very atmosphere against you!" The clouds above the two ponies began to darken before shooting out streams of thick snow, condensing around Twilight Sparkle to form solid ice. "Twilight!" cried Applejack, before being frozen herself. The voice laughed. "You foolish capitalists really should learn not to keep your heads in the clouds." Somewhere, a certain pink pony felt the urge to pull out a guitar and play a power chord while screaming, 'YEEEAAAAAAH!!!' *** What will become of our little ponies? Who will rescue them? And how will they be able to stop the communist conquerer, Nuclear Winter, when the weather itself can freeze anypony solid in an instant? "Help! Save us!" A crowd of panicked civilians fled down the street, trying to find cover from the freezing clouds. The beams had them surrounded; any second now, each of them would be helplessly frozen and unable to move. Suddenly, a flying blur burst through the layer of clouds, causing the snow beams to dissipate harmlessly into ordinary snow. Landing in front of the crowd, the mysterious hero quipped, "Y'know, when I said '20% cooler', I didn't mean it literally." "You saved us! Thank you!" Another civilian asked, "Who are you?" "You can call me Rainbow Dash!" The blue pegasus struck a heroic pose. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a city to save!" Rainbow Dash flew off to look for the source of the weaponized clouds. I'm just glad my weather control still works in this dimension, thought Rainbow Dash, scanning the ground for possible culprits. Spotting a group of frozen people, she swooped in and bucked the ice prisons one by one, shattering them and freeing the trapped humans. "Th-th-thank you," shivered one of the freed civilians. "I think there's m-m-m-more heroes frozen over there," he said, pointing. More heroes? There's more heroes in this dimension? Rainbow Dash flew over to see Twilight and Applejack trapped in the ice. "Oh my gosh!" Turning around on her front legs, she bucked her friends out of their frozen cages. "AJ! Twilight! You guys okay?" Applejack smiled. "Thanks, Rainbow. Ah owe ya one." Twilight shivered. "C-c-c-come on, girls, we need to figure out how to stop these clouds." And so, with the help of the cloud-kicking Rainbow Dash, our little ponies set out to stop the maniacal machinations of Nuclear Winter! Can they defeat the frozen fiend and wrap up this out-of-control winter? Find out... in the next issue of Freedom Force! Hey, what are you doing?! How did you even get in here?! Wait, give that back, I need that for-