Tales of the Battle Foals

by Sirdubya


Sword and Shield

Back at the Temple…

Bullseye, Crazylocks, Greensprout and Shrapnel could only look on as their unexpected guest leapt down to their level of the plateau. Was it just another snow troll? A yeti? A dire wolf? The driving snowy winds obscured its form…..until it finally hit the ground. With a resounding thud that sent a wave of ice and snow scattering around it, the unknown entity was revealed to be something completely unexpected. Before them stood…..what could possibly be described as an organic ice golem. It stood about 15 feet high and had the form of an ape, but with a glacial body that had inexplicable tatters across its arms and chest that imitated fur. It bellowed an otherworldly war cry as it stared down the foals below it.

“FINALLY! SOMETHING TO KILL!!” Bullseye exclaimed. She soared off and grabbed her bow and quiver before rising into the air. She nocked an explosive arrow back onto her bowstring and aimed for its neck before firing. “Hehehe…” Bullseye trademark sadistic smile instantly creased her face as soon as the arrow lodged itself into the beast’s throat area. After a couple short seconds, it detonated, leaving nothing but shard of ice to scatter from its shoulders. “Tch! One more for the Blood Cupid!” she sneered.

However, her victory was short lived as the ice golem didn’t even collapse. In fact, the ice from its neck began regenerating and within seconds, it formed a new head. It roared once more. “WHAT!?” Greensprout exclaimed.

Quantum Tech and Zebota came rushing out of the courtyard doors. “What’s going on!?” Quantum asked. Her question was quickly answered when she and Zebota laid eyes on the behemoth before them. “Oh…..Th-That’s what….” She rushed back inside to grab her mech suit.

Zebota quickly ran up Shrapnel to join him. “It is impure life! We must fell it!” he said. Shrapnel let out a ferocious howl in agreement. The golem then slammed its fists down, sending out a shockwave worthy of Turf War’s hammer, causing everypony to brace themselves. However, it had lowered its body to the ground in such a way that its head was low enough to the ground to easily attack. “SHRAPNEL, NOW!” Shrapnel wasted no time heeding his master’s command and lunged at the golem’s head. He furiously swiped his arborous claw just before the golem could raise back up, nearly shattering the monster’s jaw. Shrapnel retreated back to Zebota before his giant opponent could seize the opportunity to counter him.

“YOU SERIOUSLY THINK THAT’S GONNA SCRATCH HIM!?” Bullseye exclaimed.

The temple doors suddenly burst open, and familiar bursts of electromagnetic energy fired out, striking each of the golem’s knees and causing it to nearly topple. As expected, Quantum’s mech came marching out with the young scientist in the pilot’s seat. “Perhaps scratching it is not the most desirable strategy!!” she exclaimed. She took aim with her mini magic turrets and began firing after initiating her mech’s force shield. The blasts of energy were only pebbles pelting the giant pest, and it responded by forming a big ice ball in its hand and flung it at Quantum’s mech. Her force field blocked it easily, but the sheer force of it knocked her over. “OH!!” Her mech would have hit the ground with a thud had Shrapnel not caught it and propped her back up. “Good boy!”

“I WANT ICE CREAM!!!” Crazylocks sprouted her wings and soared toward it, and then began somersaulting in the air whilst morphing back into an earth pony, using her flight momentum to slam into the golem’s chest. However, the ice titan seemed to smarten up pretty quickly, and it swatted Crazylocks like a fly buzzing around it. “OOF!” She went flying into the rock wall beside them.

“CRAZYLOCKS!!” Greensprout exclaimed. She tried to rush over to her, but the glacial giant suddenly caused a wall of ice spikes to erupt that would’ve impaled her from below had something not swooped down and pulled her out of the way. When she looked up to see what it was, she was startled when the ice spikes were suddenly sundered at their base. “Air Slash!?”

Sure enough, their resident samurai had found the strength to soar to their aid. “Greensprout! Are you okay!?”

“Y-Yes, thank you, but…You should be in bed!” Greensprout said. The ice giant bellowed again as it began forming an ice hammer in its hand.

Air Slash quickly launched a sword beam that severed the frozen weapon by its pole, but it was for naught as the broken half seemed to disintegrate itself as the weapon reconstituted. “NOT WHILE THIS MONSTER THREATENS US!” he said. He soared high into the air and launched a cross-blade beam at the giant’s head, but it jumped out of the way just before it could connect and swung its hammer towards Air Slash. The soaring samurai nearly made a perfect aerial dodge, but the edge of the hammer just barely clipped his lower back, and he had to roll into a landing. However, the menacing mass of ice landed and slammed the ground, causing a mass wave of ice shards to blow towards them.

Shrapnel took what were flea bites to him to protect his master while Quantum was thoroughly protected by her force field, but the other’s had to dodge out of the way. The titan bellowed once more to assert its animosity. “YOU PISSED OFF THE WRONG FOALS, M***********!!!” Bullseye exclaimed. She fired another explosive arrow at its chest and actually hit, and the subsequent explosion caused the titan to wince and quickly grab its chest.

It was then that Quantum Tech got a sudden reading from her glasses. “<GASP!> It has a vital core just like the windigo in the White Tail Woods!!” she explained just as the beast repaired itself.

“It does!?” Air Slash asked as Greensprout healed him.

Quantum fixed her glasses. “Seems I should make use of my ultimate form of arsenal!” Confident with her new heating system, Quantum input the command to initiate her death ray. “Everypony, stand clear!” The prongs used to conduct the energy necessary for the devastating laser appeared and began charging, but the icy monstrosity seemed to sense what was happening and reacted. It blew frigid air out of its nose toward the mech, and the prongs began to freeze over.

“Warning! System Malfunction! Aborting Overdrive! Warning! System Malfunction! Aborting Overdrive!”

“WH-WHAT!? N-NO!!” Quantum’s alert systems began shutting down her death ray, and were indicating that the frigid breath of the golem was freezing the prongs faster than her heating systems could keep up with. As such, she was forced to withdraw her death ray altogether. “WRETCHED FIEND! NOPONY HARMS MY TECHNOLOGY AND GOES UNPUNISHED!!” Thankfully, it was only the death ray prongs that were vulnerable to the generated elements, so she could still use all of her other weapons, but seeing her newest augment backfire was pretty disappointing, especially at a time like this. The best she could do now was fire from the back with her magic turrets and railguns.

“READ ME A STORY, UNCLE BOB!!” Crazylocks inexplicably reappeared seemingly unharmed from her crash and used her sprouted horn to magically lift a huge pile of jagged rocks that had broken off the cliff from her impact. She hurled them at the golem’s head, but they simply bounced off of it like a rubber ball off a smooth floor.

“It seems we can only keep the pressure on it until we can crack open a path to its core!!” Zebota said. He drew his sling and recited a familiar incantation that caused his ammunition to glow an earthly green before slinging it at their foe. It impacted with traumatic force that managed to crack the golem’s forearm, which it mended within seconds. Shrapnel locked eyes with it and roared ferociously. “GRANT IT NO QUARTER, MY MONSTER!!”

“NOPONY GO EASY!!” Bullseye exclaimed. Just then, the golem raised its hands in such a way that you’d think it was worshipping some god whilst roaring. Much to the foals’ horror, a smarm of scorpion-like ice mites each about a foot higher than them arose from the piles of snow surrounding the titan. They hissed and poised their claws and tails before marching towards their equine enemies. “Well, s***…”

“COWARD!!” Air Slash exclaimed before letting out a sneeze. He and Greensprout were suddenly being swarmed by the ice mites. “Stay behind me, Greensprout!”

Greensprout took a deep breath before nodding, putting her confidence in the young Bladerunner. “Ok.” She held up her staff. “All of you! Fight at your peak!” she said as she released a vitality pulse that gave everypony a boost.

Bullseye’s surge of wicked anger was further fueled by her vital boost, and she was ready to tear things up. “Hehehehehe! WHO WANTS THEIR NECK BROKEN FIRST!?” The half-blind berserker decided to make use of her bow’s new blades and started hacking away at the ice mites as they started to swarm her. One jumped at her, and all she needed to do was swing her bow upward and slice it into shattered halves. She then followed up by jabbing on of the bayonet-like blades at the tip of the bow’s arm into another icy assailant. One by one, few by few, they tried to overrun Bullseye, but with her avian agility and archer’s accuracy, she managed to easily tear through their assault. “KEEP ‘EM COMING!! I GOT ENOUGH THRASHING FOR EVERYPONY!!” Her taunt was taken in good stride by the golem, because it decided that she was a threat and threw a punch her way. “OH, F***!!”

Out of nowhere, Crazylocks through herself into the beast’s wrist, causing the entire hand to shatter just before it could connect. “THERE WILL BE NO UNSOLICITED HIGH-FIVING WITHOUT A WARRANT!!” the manic filly shouted as she landed next to Bullseye.

“Crazylocks…” Bullseye looked over in surprise. Mere moments ago, she’d brought the filly she dismissed as a freak to genuine tears simply out of frustration, and actually felt bad for it. Why would she so readily protect her?

Crazylocks looked over at the archer with that same innocent, manic smile and extended her hoof. “Explosion buddies?”

For one reason or another, Bullseye didn’t feel the urge to gut her or anything, far from it, in fact. Did she feel indebted to her? Could she somehow sense a genuine hint of sane kindness from an otherwise loose cannon? Whatever the case may be, Bullseye grabbed her hoof with her own softly wicked smile creased onto her face. “Explosion buddies.” She said.

Heeding their agreement, the aggressive archer nocked back an explosive arrow and took aim while Crazylocks went to town on the ice mites.

Meanwhile, Quantum Tech and Zebota did what they could to keep the ice golem at bay. It was the source of their problems, and they needed to destroy it quickly as it started spawning more mites. Quantum kept the pressure on with her railgun and turret shots while Zebota had Shrapnel decimate the ice mites. All the while, the mystic zebra continued to sling his nature-powered ammunition at the icy titan to help Quantum Tech. “Quantum Tech! Is there a way for us to stop it from regenerating!?” Zebota asked as he had to draw his tomahawk and fend off a couple of mites.

“I’m scanning!” Quantum said. As her mech unleashed a hail of destruction upon the beast, she scanned for any sign of a weak point or physical weakness other than the core they had to target. However, it was to no avail. Any weaker sections of its body didn’t need a scan to discern since they weren’t as protected as some areas. “Nrgh! It appears that what you see is what you get! Stick with your advice and don’t let up on it!”

“You hear that, Shrapnel!?” Zebota called out. His wooden titan let out a roaring howl in response before slamming his claws down onto a small horde of the ice mites, crushing them into dust. He then let out another howl that echoed with such force that it caused another wave of the mites to just crumble. “Hmph! Feeble fodder!” Zebota nearly forgot about the golem, which hurled a huge chunk of spiked ice at him. “<GASP!>” The striped shaman braced himself, but just as quick as it came flying, the ice chunk was blown out of existence by one of Quantum Tech’s railgun blasts. Zebota glanced over at her and smiled. “You have my thanks!”

Quantum giggled. “It was my turn to protect you anyway!” she said. When her focus shifted back to the golem, she could see that its armor was starting to fall apart faster than it could regenerate itself. “WE’RE ALMOST THERE!! JUST KEEP AT IT!!”

“Right!!” Zebota ceased his fire for a moment and clutched his brooch as it glowed with his eyes, and a glyph form in the ground beneath him. “Kupanda nyingi dhidi ya maadui hili. Kuzuia harakati zake na kuwafunga kwa ajili ya uchafu wake!” A storm of grass and roots erupted from the ground and entangled around the icy giant, snaring it and preventing it from dishing out heavier attacks.

Meanwhile, Air Slash and Greensprout found themselves busy handling hordes upon hordes of the ice mites. The mighty Bladerunner easily sliced and diced through each of the frozen scourges while the motherly monk saw fit to launch life bombs that dispatched them just as easily. Air Slash’s reckless courage got him quite a few bites and cut wounds, but Greensprout patched him up with ease. “Be careful, Air Slash!” she said.

“Only if you will!” Air Slash stayed close to Greensprout, slicing any scourges that dared to go near her without a hint of mercy. Despite his body recovering from a cold, his thoughts were only with protecting her and ridding them of these abominations. “BACK TO THE PIT FROM WHICH YOU CAME, YOU DEMONS!!” He sent out sword beam after sword beam, but to the mites, it didn’t seem to matter how easily they were falling. More and more of them kept replacing their brethren.

Greensprout was starting to get worried when she saw that the swarms were becoming thicker, and Air Slash was to stay practically within conversation distance of her just make sure she didn’t get overrun. “A-A-Air Slash! We should fall back! This is getting dangerous!” But when she turned around, there was a wave of mites waiting to get her. “<GASP!>” She quickly responded with a vital bomb, but all it did was put space between her and another swarm, a swarm that Air Slash dispatched within seconds.

“I WON’T LET THEM DO SO MUCH AS BREATHE ON YOU, GREENSPROUT!!” Air Slash declared as he swung his swords so furiously, that he seemed to cut the very wind that blew across the mountain.

Greensprout found herself surprised by that and looked up at him. What was driving him? How reckless did he have to be to brave through a cold and cold weather simply for everypony’s sake? He’d always been a funny one, but strangely enough, that didn’t seem to disappear as she looked into his eyes that burned with the passion of a true warrior. He was holding nothing back, and despite his fury, Greensprout couldn’t help but to feel an odd warmth inside at the sight of him in such a violent state. “Air Slash….”

When he had room for it, Air Slash launched another cross-blade beam at the ice golem. “YOU’LL FALL THIS DAY, MONSTER!” The beam managed to piece and knock off a good chunk of his chest armor.

However, the mites started swarming him from the front faster than expected, and he readied himself, but they were quickly dispatched by a sudden shower of arrows of light that rained from one point on the sky. He looked over to see that it was indeed Bullseye. “Tch! Stupid roaches!”

Quantum Tech fired both of her railguns simultaneously at full charge and hit the golem’s chest, knocking off more armor and just barely revealing the core. “JUST A LITTLE MORE!” she exclaimed.

“A LITTLE MORE FUN WITH UNCLE SUSIE!!!” Crazylocks finished the job by hurling herself into the cracked chest, knocking the rest of the armor and revealing the core.

“BULLSEYE! NOW!” Zebota shouted as he hurled one last charged rock at the core.

Bullseye creased a sadistic smile just before firing her explosive arrow at the core. Zebota’s rock managed to prevent some ice from reforming around it just long enough for it to hit! “HAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!! SEE YOU IN HELL!!!!!!” she shouted. The arrow detonated, and the golem began howling out in agony as it thrashed violently against its restraints. Cracks began forming all around its body with light pouring out of them. As that happened, the ice mites just stopped moving as though they’d been turned off, and disintegrated back into the snow.

“Rest in peace.” Air Slash said as he sheathed his swords, eyeing the monster as it began to crumble. However, the icy titan wouldn’t fall without one last effort to take them out, and just before it exploded into ice shards, it hurled one staright at Air Slash! “What the!?” Before he could even react, the frozen spike pieced right through his chest.

“AIR SLASH!!!!!” Greensprout exclaimed. Air Slash could only gurgle in shocked pain as he fell to ground along with their crumbling adversary. Everypony rushed over to him worried sick. “AIR SLASH!!” Greensprout examined him quickly, but in a panic. He was barely breathing and didn’t even try to speak.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING, HIPPIE!? HEAL HIM ALREADY!!” Bullseye exclaimed.

“Th-This is too grave of an injury for me to heal so easily! We have to careful!” Greensprout explained.

“Don’t pull the shard out all the way! You’ll just make him bleed out!” Quantum said.

“Then you’ll have to heal him as we pull it out slowly.” Zebota said.

Realizing that that’d work, Greensprout gulped and nodded. “O-Ok. Just….go as fast as I say!” she stammered. Without a moment’s hesitation, Zebota and Bullseye started slowly pulling the spike out of Air Slash’s chest as Greensprout quickly latched her healing onto him. It was much brighter and seemed to flow faster this time. “Oh, please be okay!” she mumbled under her breath. Despite seeing him on what should’ve been his death bed, Greensprout found the composure the concentrate, and after a painstaking half-hour or so, they finished.

“Ugh….” Almost immediately after his ordeal, Air Slash began to stir.

“Air Slash!?” Greensprout said.

The young Bladerunner slowly but surely found the strength to lift his head and look at the monk. “Gr…..Greensprout?”

Tears suddenly began flooding her eyes as she felt nothing but relief that he was okay. “Air Slash!” She threw her arms around him and began sobbing, and Air Slash wasted no time embracing her back. “Air Slash, I’m so sorry! <sob> I….I didn’t mean to…<sob>….You were protecting me, and-”

“It’s okay.” Air Slash interjected. “If I fall with my blades shielding the innocent, then I’ve served my family well.” He said. He then looked into her eyes and blushed. “E-Especially if….I-If it’s…you.” He sheepishly stammered those last words.

The very same surprised warmth suddenly ignited within Greensprout again as she stopped crying so much. “Wha?.... I-I….” It was strange, but….she found herself gazing into his emerald eyes, remembering the heroic ferocity they exhibited earlier. Somehow, their calm softness now felt no different…..and the two found themselves with their lips gently pressed up onto each other. A few seconds felt like a blissful eternity for the monk and samurai before they broke off, their faces as red beets. “U-Umm….” Greensprout found herself giggling her words.

Air Slash gently stroked her mane. “Greensprout, I….I lo-” He was cut off when the motherly monk gently pressed her hoof against his mouth with a dreamy smile on her face. Air Slash didn’t object, and he smiled back. They both understood, and not even the frigid winds of the Great Horn Summit could smother the warmth between them.

“OOOOH! I knew this would happen eventually!” Quantum Tech squealed.

“Yes. We are happy for you, ponyfolk.” Zebota said. Shrapnel whimpered in affirmation. Bullseye just creased a small smile and nodded at them.

“Th-Thank you….” Greensprout said as she and Air Slash helped each other up.

Bullseye then looked over at Crazylocks, who looked as out there as usual. “Hey…” she said. “Uhh…..thanks…”

Crazylocks suddenly started throwing snow above Bullseye as if it was confetti. “We, the ponies of the explosion buddies exposition have endured another trial of the blubber bloopers!”

Once again, Bullseye wasn’t even mad. In fact…..she was strangely happy for once. It was then that she realized it. “We’ve both been through some pretty f***** up s***, huh? That’s what you were trying to say?” She took the manic filly’s eyes bobbing up and down as a ‘yes’. “Tch. Wow. I uh…… Ok, I’m sorry I’ve been such a b****. I guess I didn’t really have anypony that really understood what I’ve been through….except for a freak show like you.”

“Silly Bullseye! Freak shows build character for all the branch sculptures you could make!” Crazylocks said.

Bullseye couldn’t help but to let out a little chuckle. “Explosion buddies…..Yeah, that sounds about right.”

Quantum Tech then looked over at the pile of ectoplasmic ice left by the golem. It glowed with an ethereal, ominous sheen that piqued her curiosity. Why did it share the same signature as the windigo they encountered before? “Zebota, would you kindly help me gather a sample?”

Zebota nodded. “Absolutely.” He said. The two couldn’t help but to share a warm smile of their own as they approached the site of their research.

???

My world…….feels cold…..

My heart……..is cold……..

This land……..has grown cold!........

It……..WILL FREEZE!.....