A Wilting Flower

by Terran34


14. Fighting Frozen

The armored convoy was now a smouldering wreck. The tank, its forward hull facing back from whence they came, was at the rear, its frontal armor still burning from the rocket that had brought it down. The aid vehicle had managed to stay upright, but it was crashed into the side of the tank. The command vehicle was lying on its side opposite the aid vehicle near one edge of the bridge, and the GL Stryker was on its roof on the opposite edge.

Yet despite the destruction of their vehicles, the majority of their occupants had survived and were crawling out from within to face the new threat that now opposed them. The ice blue unicorn approached slowly, seemingly not in a hurry to kill the remainder of the survivors before him. Despite the fact that the remaining soldiers were emerging from their vehicles and arming themselves, his expression and gait radiated only smug confidence.

“Allow me to introduce myself. My name is…” the pony began, but that’s as far as he could get. The moment he opened his mouth, Raul leveled his rifle at him.

“Bring him down! Protect the civilians!” Raul ordered immediately, uninterested in hearing the unicorn out any further. The soldiers eagerly did as they were told, hailing rifle fire down on the pony without mercy. Despite the cold that had afflicted the bridge and the road around them, it seems their small arms were still in working order.

It was all an exercise in futility. Despite facing such relentless gunfire, the unicorn merely scoffed. His horn lit up and his body briefly glowed blue just before the first bullets struck. Much to everyone’s dismay, the bullets bounced off of the pony’s fur as though they’d been nothing more than pellets.

“How rude. I am talking!” the pony growled. With a sweep of his staff, a series of deadly sharp icicles formed in the air and hurtled towards the group of survivors.

“Move!” was all Raul had time to say.

Amaryllis’s eyes widened the moment she saw them, as she knew precisely what they could do. Images of the dying Jakob flashing through her mind, she threw herself aside barely in time to avoid the attack. The icicles were deadly fast; if she had moved even a second later, she would be dead.

The other soldiers dashed to cover as well, ducking behind the wreckage of the vehicles. Some soldiers rolled around the corners of the strykers, while others dove forward to slide underneath the wheels of the aid vehicle or the treads of the tank.

Yet not all of the soldiers were lucky enough to escape unscathed. One of the soldiers took an icicle in the leg just before he could slide beneath the tank. Amaryllis looked away, knowing that even a minor wound from that pony’s ice was enough to kill. That soldier was finished.

“Now, unless more of you want to waste your ammunition on me, I’ll continue.” The pony brushed off his fur as though their bullets had dirtied him. He didn’t seem to care that most of his icicles had missed. “My name is Frozen Soul, a scientist that proudly serves His Majesty, King Sombra. You should be honored to be in my presence.”

Frozen paused, his grin widening as he heard several of the soldiers yelling back words of defiance. “No? How ungrateful of you. I bothered to come kill you myself; surely you see that I view you as worth killing personally, unlike the millions of humans our undead have already slaughtered,” he remarked, stating such a staggering figure with a casualness one might expect from one talking about the weather.

“Go to hell, you unfeeling monster!” Travis, who had been lying on the ground seemingly unconscious only a moment before, suddenly rose to his feet, a serrated combat knife clutched tightly in his right hand. He attacked Frozen Soul viciously,holding the knife in a reverse grip and swiping to the left. “Try controlling undead when you’re the one dead!”

Frozen Soul didn’t even bother to dodge. The knife seemed to skid along a solid barrier resting just above the pony’s skin, producing icy blue sparks on impact. Travis didn't stop, switching his grip on the knife and stabbing downwards right towards Frozen’s horn… only for the knife and his fist to become shrouded in the pony’s magical aura, stopping them in place.

“What the…” Travis grunted, his muscles visibly straining against Frozen’s magic. The unicorn sighed. Still holding Travis’s fist tight, Frozen whirled about and bucked the soldier directly in the chest with enough force to send him hurtling backwards. Saliva flew from Travis’s mouth as the wind left his lungs and he skidded across the ice. “Gahh!”

Frozen chuckled and halted Travis’s flight by summoning a wall of ice from the road behind him. “Temper, temper…” he chided him mockingly. His aura then surrounded Travis entirely, the soldier rising off of the ground. “Though I applaud you for being the first to attack me dir…”

Then, Amaryllis was there. Her face twisted into a snarl, she ducked down low and knocked Frozen’s chin straight up with a vicious uppercut. Frozen dropped Travis and skidded backwards, nursing his chin with a hoof. His grin had disappeared, and he was glaring right at her with a forming sneer.

“You again. I’ve been chasing you humans ever since the subway, but you simply refuse to die,” Frozen growled. He brought his staff to bear, the orb at its tip glowing brightly. “How you managed to escape from there in the first place is a mystery; you had no warning and no reason to expect our attack. Yet you responded so quickly… as if you knew.”

Amaryllis didn’t respond at first, despite knowing he was on the right track. She relaxed her muscles and rose her fists into an aggressive stance. She knew full well that attacking Frozen head on was likely the dumbest thing she could do, yet she couldn’t think of anything else.

“You want to fight me, then? You think you can do better than your friend?” Frozen asked softly. He noted Travis already back on his feet, the soldier moving to provide Amaryllis with back-up. His cocky smile returned, and he indicated the crowd of Oppressed behind him. “You’re railing against the inevitable. I’ll toy with you until I’m bored, and then you’ll be food for my army.”

“Shut up,” Amaryllis snapped, doing her best to quell the hint of fear she could feel. Frozen was a magically adept unicorn… and if he was anything like Seth, she was no match for him. That wasn’t even counting the number of undead they faced. She knew very well that this was likely their final stand. “I’m going to make you pay for the lives you’ve taken. Every last one. Travis, are you in?”

Travis ran a hand through his short dark hair, spitting onto the ground in challenge. “Hell yes,” he declared bravely, and then he too assumed an aggressive stance. “Let’s bring him down.”

“Very well then,” Frozen responded to their challenge, icicles already forming from the tip of his staff. His eyes narrowed. “Let’s see if you can.”


Raul crouched behind the aid vehicle, his rifle clutched tightly in his hands. His mind raced with different scenarios and plans of attack. He had around fourteen men left, not counting the civilians. He had some cover from the undead and their leader, and he had access to small arms and equipment. Yet, against a magic unicorn with protection against knives and bullets, as well as ice related abilities… none of what he had seemed very effective.

He glanced over the edge of the vehicle, noting the horde of undead Frozen had brought with him. That was the biggest threat in his mind. There were so many of them… it would take a heavy weapons emplacement to hold off that number for even a short time.

“Soldiers, stand by and prepare to provide fire support on my order,” Raul ordered, taking care to keep his voice low so as not to be overheard by Frozen. He noted Travis and Amaryllis standing up against Frozen Soul, and marveled at their courage. He made a mental note to recommend the both of them for a medal if they managed to get out of this. He wondered if he would get flak from the brass for doing such a thing for a civilian.

“Shouldn’t we help them?” Samuel asked anxiously. “You haven’t seen what Frozen did to Jakob; he’ll kill the both of them.”

“I haven’t, but I know very well how dangerous he is,” Raul responded. He turned to look at the soldier who had taken an icicle in the leg. He was not dead, having been saved by the split decision of his comrade to cut off his leg before the ice could spread any further. “One hit and it’s over.”

“If only our weapons could do something to him… if only we still had our fifty cals,” Fabian expressed in a hopeless rage. “How is this fair at all?”

“Knowing the enemy before you strike is half the battle; so says Sun Tzu,” Raul recalled grimly. “They did their research; they know exactly where to hit us. Even if…”

Raul suddenly cut off in the middle of his statement, much to the confusion of the soldiers around him. He exhaled several times to make sure that he wasn’t mistaken. He could no longer see the vapor in the air when he breathed. An idea began to form in his mind.

“Sir?” Fabian pressed, worried about his sudden silence. Raul’s eyes hardened.

“Travis and Amaryllis need support. Are you two up for it?” Raul asked, his heart heavy as he asked. He was sending them on a suicide mission and he knew it.

“I’ll admit I want a crack at him… but do you think we can win?” Samuel asked hesitantly.

“I have an idea. Doesn’t it feel warmer out here now?” Raul pointed out. After a pause, the two of them started to see what he was getting at. “I need time. Can you do that?”

Fabian and Samuel looked at one another, then back at Raul. The two of the nodded solemnly, recognizing what they had to do. Raul sighed gratefully.

“Then go out there and do me proud,” he commanded them.


Amaryllis quickly found herself in a fight for her life. In fact, it would be difficult to even call it a fight. After her first hit on him, Frozen made it extremely difficult to get close again. She sprinted around the bridge, moving erratically in order to make it harder for Frozen’s icicles to hit her. Every time she heard one shatter against the ground beside her, she felt her heart skip a beat.

“This is how it should be. For all your myths… for all your legends… you are nothing compared to us,” Frozen declared condescendingly. “Your weapons are but compensations for your own weaknesses. Against one whose strength comes from within… you cannot stand.”

Frozen lowered his staff to the road, summoning a line of icy spikes that shot towards her rapidly. Amaryllis saw it coming and noted that it was slower than his icicles, so she had just enough time to plant her right foot and propel herself forward and around the attack. She attempted to close the distance between them, her fist at the ready.

Amaryllis leapt over Frozen’s staff as the unicorn attempted to knock her feet out from under her, and then she struck him with a right hook… only to recoil in pain. She cried out, feeling as though she’d just struck a wall. She glared at him, noting the presence of a shimmering blue field where her fist had just struck. She reasoned that he must be protecting himself with a magical barrier that could turn away fist, knife, and bullet alike.

“You thought that would work a second time?” Frozen commented. Before Amaryllis could move, his aura surrounded her, restricting her movement entirely. Even though she could feel her muscles straining, it was though she were surrounded in a liquid substance that had solidified around her.

With a flick of his head, Frozen brought Amaryllis around to the left, where she smacked right into Travis, who was attempting to give her support. The two of them tumbled to the ground together in a tangle of limbs. Before they could recover, Frozen slammed his two front hooves into the ground, sending sheets of ice surging in their direction.

They couldn’t dodge in time. The sheets collided with them and knocked them into the air, where they struck the suspension cables of the bridge painfully before falling back to the ground. Amaryllis immediately rolled over and checked her skin where she had been struck. She let out a sigh of relief when she found only bruises and not the spreading of ice.

“Not all of his attacks are instant death,” Amaryllis whispered to Travis, helping him rise. “It seems as though only those icicles have that ability. Don’t get hit by them.”

“Noted,” Travis grunted, stretching one arm. “I have one grenade left. Can you stop him moving?”

“Would it do any good? Besides, I’d…” Amaryllis started to respond, but then she noticed Frozen’s horn glowing. Two circles of bluish light appeared on the road several feet away from him on either side, forming an equilateral triangle with the unicorn as the tip. “He’s doing something. Let’s stop him!”

“Right!”

Amaryllis and Travis broke into a run, avoiding the circles on the road and heading directly for Frozen. In the process, Travis picked up his knife from where it had fallen.

“Are you sure you want to ignore those?” Frozen taunted. From the two circles, two pillars of ice about five feet tall and half a foot thick shot upwards. At the top of each of the two pillars was a small crossbow.

“Oh shi-!” Amaryllis attempted to halt her momentum, but she slipped on the icy ground and fell forward, landing flat on her face. In the process, she avoided the bolt of ice that fired from the pillar closest to her, but Travis was unlucky enough to take it in the shoulder. “Travis!”

“I’m fine… but it’s not over!” Travis returned, gritting his teeth. Sure enough, the crossbows were already turning to track them, each one cleverly set upon a ball joint so as to attack from any angle and elevation.

Amaryllis and Travis were forced to dart around the field to avoid both the attacks of the crossbows and Frozen’s icicles. Amaryllis kept a close watch on the crossbows as she did so, quickly determining that they could fire once every four seconds. With such a relentless hail of ice, it was only a matter of time until Frozen would hit one of them with his icicles.

Suddenly, Samuel and Fabian were there, striking simultaneously at each of the pillars. With the two of them carrying lengths of metal pipe, they were able to break through the fragile ice easily, sending the crossbows to shatter on the ground below.

“We’ve got your back!” Fabian called out to Amaryllis and Travis, the soldier sliding to a halt beside the latter.

“Frozen dies today!” Samuel stood beside Amaryllis, holding the pipe up threateningly. “Grant, Rachel, and Sawnee say hello.”

“Am I supposed to know who they are?” Frozen remarked uncaringly, unperturbed by their increased number.

“You killed them! A loving family, who only wanted to…” Samuel roared angrily.

“Please, you can’t possibly expect me to remember the names of everyone I’ve killed,” Frozen cut across him, angering the latin male even further. He then spun his staff around, releasing a wave of frigid air and ice in all directions. “And I’m certain I won’t remember yours after you’re gone.”

The four of them grunted and held up their arms to protect their eyes from the wintry attack, their body temperature dropping by the second.

“As if a little wind is going to stop the US Army!” Fabian shouted defiantly, pushing through the wind and into Frozen’s effective range. He slammed his pipe down on the unicorn’s back… only for the metal to strike the skin-tight barrier and bend. He attempted to follow up with his knife, but the weapon merely shattered on impact.

Frozen grabbed the soldier with his aura and slammed him into the ground viciously, and then hurled him towards Travis, who nimbly ducked and lashed out with his foot. Once again, the attack had no effect, and the unicorn retaliated with a gust of icy air that hurled him backwards.

Amaryllis and Samuel attacked simultaneously, focusing their attacks on a single area in an attempt to push through the barrier. But Frozen seemed to grow tired of tanking their attacks. He grabbed Samuel with his magic next, and then he moved his head out of the way just in time for Amaryllis’s fist to go soaring past his head. When she attempted to strike again, Frozen positioned Samuel in front of her, forcing her to halt and nearly causing her to slip again.

It wasn’t long before Fabian returned to the battle, forgoing his weapons in favor of his fists as well. Frozen sidestepped the soldier’s attack, and then he slammed Samuel into the soldier’s chest, knocking the two of them back. He allowed Amaryllis’s next attack to strike against his barrier, merely causing her further pain.

“This is impossible! Nobody’s invincible!” Amaryllis emitted in helpless rage. Even as the four of them struggled, none of them could land a single hit on Frozen, and only took injury after injury.

“My dear...” Frozen laughed at her words as if they were the funniest joke he’d heard all day. “You would not want to meet King Sombra.”

“I have! And you’re nothing compared to him!” Amaryllis snapped back, much to the unicorn’s surprise. “I could feel his power in the very air I breathed… but I feel nothing from you.”

“You’re absolutely correct. I am nothing to King Sombra. How does it feel, knowing that you cannot even measure up to one of his servants?” Frozen returned with a coy smile, slamming Amaryllis telekinetically into the side of the one of the vehicles. “Doesn’t it make you feel pathetic?”

Frozen blasted Travis and Fabian away with a shockwave of air and ice, and then he thrust his staff forward, pinning Amaryllis to the vehicle with a surge of frigid air. She attempted to move, but the cold seemed to sap the energy out of her limbs.

“Sh-Shut up!” Amaryllis snapped back, even though she knew full well he was right. She flushed with shame as she heard Frozen laugh with delight.

“It seems you’re beginning to understand,” he observed with a grin. To Amaryllis’s horror, she saw multiple icicles forming in the air above him, pointed directly at her. She struggled harder, but she couldn’t move beneath Frozen’s assault. Her struggles grew more and more desperate; she couldn’t die here. She had to get out of the city; she had to find Gerome; she couldn’t let these people die. Travis and Fabian were attempting to reach her, but they wouldn’t make it in time. “This is your place in the world; fodder to be trodden upon by the hooves of those far your superior!”

Frozen gestured with his head, and the icicles shot forth, sped along their way by the wind gusting from his staff. Amaryllis could feel her heart pounding harder and harder as they flew inexorably towards her.

“I won’t…. not like this…” Amaryllis grunted, and helpless tears squeezed out of her eyes. She put every last bit of her strength into moving, but only managed to move a few inches. Slowly accepting that there was nothing she could do, she focused her eyes on Frozen. “Go to hell, you bastard!”

Time seemed to slow down. Amaryllis suddenly became aware of a dark shape standing in front of her, directly in the path of the icicles. Before she could figure out what she was looking at, the icicles embedded themselves into the shape with a dull thump. The sound of crackling ice followed.

“Gggrh…” the pained grunt of the shape in front of her, as well as the cessation of the wind that restrained her, allowed Amaryllis to identify her saviour as Samuel. She didn’t know when he had arrived, only that he had saved her from instant death. Her eyes widened, and horror and dismay struck her like a hammer blow.

“Samuel… you…” Amaryllis knew it was over for him well before she opened her mouth. She could already see tendrils of ice snaking their way around his body. She felt conflicted; she wanted to yell at him for doing something so suicidal; She wanted to question him why he had thrown his life away to save her; she wanted to curse fate’s cruelty for leading them both to this moment… but more than anything, she wanted to thank him for saving her. Yet the words would not come to her, and all she could do was stare at him with a mixture of despair and awe. “Why… why did you…?”

Samuel staggered; it was clear that it was taking every last inch of his willpower to remain upright. He turned to look at Amaryllis, revealing the frozen bloody holes that the icicles had left in his chest. He gave her a sad smile, clutching his chest with his hand.

“Don’t look at me like that; I did what I had to do. Any soldier… would be proud to have a death like this...” Samuel grunted. The ice began to reach his neck and spread down his arms, and his movements grew stiffer and more erratic. “To die for one’s country…”

“Shut up! You didn’t do anything for your country; you did it to save me!” Amaryllis snapped back tearfully. “What am I supposed to do now?! You’ve been here with me the whole time… I promised to save you!”

“You can’t save anyone if you’re dead…” Samuel reached out his hands and grabbed one of Amaryllis’s, his chilled fingers grasping her tightly. “Look at me. You have a duty to save these people… and I know you can see it through.”

“Samuel…” Amaryllis’s body trembled. She didn’t know when it had happened, but she had somehow grown attached enough to him that his impending death hurt… a pain she hadn’t felt thus far despite the death she’d already encountered.

She remembered how many times the two of them had fought together in the past few days, watching one another’s back despite how they felt about one another. She remembered how he’d taught her how to reload a gun. She remembered how during her moment of despair at the church, he’d stood there beside her, helping her up. Then it hit her; she knew why this hurt so much: she had started to trust him.

“Just promise me one thing…” Samuel urged her. The ice reached his hands, freezing them through. Amaryllis could feel his grip weaken, his skin already starting to crack. Amaryllis could do nothing but watch as he crumbled to pieces before her.  “Don’t… let me die… in vain…”

Amaryllis stood there silently for a moment, and then she turned her gaze on Frozen, who had been watching the whole display with a smirk. A bolt of burning hot rage shot through her, but it soon dissipated, to be replaced by a calm determination. She couldn’t describe how she was feeling at that moment, but she knew only one thing: this wasn’t a fight to escape anymore. It was a fight to kill Frozen Soul.

“Well now, That was quite the dramatic performance. I must say, I haven’t seen something quite so utterly pointless since I murdered that pathetic pegasus! It seems ponies aren’t the only species prone to such emotional outbursts,” Frozen commented, sounding bored. He twirled his staff, icy energies building up around him once again. “Shall we finish this up? I have other humans to cull, you see.”

“Travis. Fabian,” Amaryllis said calmly. The two soldiers, who now stood on the other side of Frozen between him and the horde of Oppressed, looked at her upon being called. “I’m going to kill him. Will you help me?”

“You don’t even have to ask,” Travis returned, his mouth set in a grim line. Fabian nodded his assent as well, his combat knife clutched tightly in his hand.

The three of them quickly surrounded Frozen and attacked him all at once; Amaryllis with her fist and the two soldiers with their knives. However, they had to cut off their charge to avoid hitting one another as Frozen surged up into the air on a pillar of summoned ice.

“Come now! That was too obvious an attack plan!” Frozen criticized them. His horn glowed, and then much to their horror, multiple crossbow turrets burst from the street in a circle around them, numbering ten in all. “What’s that look for? You didn’t think I just stood there and watched while your friend died, did you?”

The three of them scattered as the turrets began to fire all at once. Amaryllis slid beneath one of the bolts and grabbed Samuel’s pipe from where it had fallen. With it, she approached the nearest turret through the hail of icy thorns. She raised the pipe and swung, managing to shatter the base of the turret just as it fired again. She turned to the side, the thorn slicing into her side painfully.

Travis ducked beneath one of the darts and swiveled to avoid another, cursing under his breath when he realized that trying to get close would be difficult. Thinking fast, he rolled forward to avoid another onslaught, retrieving his handgun in the process. He fired from the hip at a turret as soon as he steadied himself, the bullet shattering his target instantly. Two things happened immediately afterward; upon seeing that bullets could harm the turrets, Fabian withdrew his handgun as well. Secondly, the soldiers hiding behind the vehicles opened fire with their rifles, destroying the turrets one by one.

“Tch.” Frozen bit his lip, annoyed now that that one particular tactic would no longer work for long. Before he could form any further spells, however, his three opponents began to run at him all at once, Travis and Fabian in the lead. Frozen scoffed. “You fools… how many times do I have to teach you this lesson?”

Frozen easily lifted both Travis and Fabian off of the ground with his telekinesis and attempted to club Amaryllis with them. Much to his surprise, she slid underneath the two of them. Amaryllis spun on one foot and slammed her fist into the side of Frozen’s head. Frozen gasped in pain and skidded across the ice, a bruise forming where she had struck.

“You witch! How dare you!?” Frozen raged furiously. With a flick of his staff, a jagged wall of ice surged forward like a speeding train, slamming into her and sending her tumbling onto the ground. Despite the pain, Amaryllis could only think of one thing.

“I… I hit him?” Amaryllis whispered to herself. She looked at her fist, and then back at Frozen. Nothing seemed to have changed between now and before, when she couldn't hurt him. She wrinkled her brow: something was up.

While Travis and Fabian were recovering, Amaryllis ran back to confront Frozen, who eagerly met her advance. The unicorn assailed her with a hail of icicles, but she used the frictionless surface of the iced bridge to slide to the right. She retaliated with a left hook, but her attack did nothing, slamming onto his barrier like before.

She quickly attempted to put some distance between them, but immediately found herself clutched in Frozen’s telekinetic grip. To her horror, an icicle formed in the air beside Frozen’s head, the missile turning in midair and glinting dangerously.

“I’m done playing with you. Now you die,” Frozen growled. Just then, a shot rang out, and a bullet shattered the icicle. Frozen turned his head just in time to see Fabian dangerously close by. Frozen jerked his head, and Amaryllis swung through the air towards the soldier.

Fabian had expected this. He ducked beneath her and planted his fist into Frozen’s chest, causing Frozen to cry out and forcing him back several feet. With that, Amaryllis was free, and she quickly climbed to her feet.

“I hurt him…?” Fabian asked softly, looking at his fist. Amaryllis looked at him as well, her mind racing. Then it struck her.

“That’s it. He’s not invincible after all,” Amaryllis realized. Fabian and Travis, who had just caught up, heard her and looked at her in surprise. “You two, I have an idea. How much ammo do you have left?”

“In this current clip, two shots,” Fabian answered.

“Three here,” Travis added. “What is your… oh shit. Move!”

A veritable glacier of ice surged across the bridge, courtesy of a very angry Frozen. The three of them scattered in time and quickly went on the attack in order to prevent Frozen from attacking again.

“On my signal then!” was all Amaryllis could get out. Travis and Fabian called out their acknowledgement, and then they once again entered melee with Frozen. It wasn’t long before Travis found himself in the unicorn’s grip once more.

“This game is beginning to grow…” Frozen began… only to be interrupted by Amaryllis’s fist thudding right into his flank with all the force she could muster. His eyes went wide and air whooshed from his lungs.

“...Tiresome?” Amaryllis snarled, and then she immediately followed up with a kick, sending Frozen hurtling into the side of the bridge. Travis was released from his grip, and it seemed like the soldier was starting to connect the dots as well. “I agree. Your genocide ends here; right now!”

Amaryllis didn’t give him a chance to recover. She sprinted for him as he was rising, her fists at the ready. Frozen got to his feet and aimed his staff at her, the crystal glowing with a deadly blue light. She deliberately slowed her pace so that she arrived just as the spell was firing. She grabbed the staff and moved the tip away from her such that the blast of ice passed harmlessly by her side… and then she promptly planted her fist directly into Frozen’s chest.

“Raaagh!” Out of desperation, Frozen blinked out of existence in a burst of magic, reappearing behind her… and right in the path of Travis and Fabian. Frozen tangled with the two soldiers briefly, his barrier rendering all of their attacks useless. However, Amaryllis noted that he wasn’t casting any spells either.

Finally, Frozen grabbed Travis with his telekinesis. Amaryllis struck once again, knocking the unicorn right off of his hooves with a sweeping kick. She immediately followed up with a vicious haymaker, smashing him into the ground and cracking the ice. The two soldiers, as well as all of the soldiers still in cover, watched her with awe, shocked by the sudden turn of the tables.

“I will not be harmed by some worthless human bitch!” Frozen shrieked, planting his hooves on the ground. He unleashed a powerful wave of ice from his staff in all directions in an attempt to force the three of them back.

“Amaryllis!” Travis called. The soldier clasped his hands together and knelt down, looking at her expectantly. With his help, Amaryllis soared over the wave of ice and swung her fist downwards, forcing Frozen to block her with the haft of his staff. Her furious, yet calm eyes drilled into Frozen’s; she would not back down.

“Enough of this!” Frozen pushed Amaryllis back with a shockwave of magic and grasped her with his telekinesis… which was exactly what she was waiting for.

“Shoot him! Shoot him now!” Amaryllis called out. Frozen’s eyes widened, but it was too late. There was the sound of thunder, and bright red blood burst from the unicorn’s flank. Frozen released her immediately and cried out, hunching down and nursing the sudden gunshot wound. Fabian raised his weapon, a grin forming on his face.

“Hey… did our weapons just work?” One of the soldiers hiding observed.

“Maybe… he’s not invincible…” another soldier added. Just like that, the morale began to return to the squad. “Yeah! Let’s kick his furry little ass!”

“That’s right! This pony isn’t as tough as he makes himself out to be,” Amaryllis announced, speaking loud enough for everyone to hear her. “It’s as simple as this… he can’t cast magic and protect himself at the same time. Isn’t that right, Frozen?”

“You…” Frozen snarled, but he didn’t refute her statement. He took a few steps back, blood trickling steadily from the bullet wound in his flank. He noticed how the other soldiers were starting to point their rifles at him and panicked. He immediately turned back to the horde of Oppressed on the bridge. “Playtime is over! Kill them! Kill them all!”

The Oppressed promptly shrieked and roared, finally starting to move after being still for so long. Amaryllis cursed, watching the wall of undead surge over the bridge towards them. Despite their minor victory, there was no way they could fight him and a horde of Oppressed at the same time.

“Weapons free!” Suddenly, the main gun on the aid vehicle roared to life, pumping hundreds of rounds of high explosive rounds into the ranks of the Oppressed before they could even get close to Amaryllis and Frozen. Kristoff sat in the gunner’s seat, the grizzled man chewing on a lit cigar as his hands squeezed down on the trigger with fervor.

Not wanting to be outdone, the newly invigorated soldiers took their positions and leveled their rifles at the incoming Oppressed, raining hot metal into the horde. Some of them even threw the last of their grenades into the mess, the resulting explosions tearing the undead apart and causing the the bridge to shudder beneath their feet.

“Keep those Oppressed back! Don’t let them lay a finger on Amaryllis!” Raul commanded from his position atop the upturned command vehicle, emptying his clip into the wall of undead flesh.

Frozen looked around wildly, his composure slipping when he realized that the Oppressed wouldn’t be able to save him from the woman that steadily approached him.

“Change of plans. You die instead,” Amaryllis said calmly, cracking her knuckles. Travis and Fabian stepped up beside her, their weapons at the ready. With them backing her up, Amaryllis felt invincible. With them around, Frozen could no longer cast his magic carelessly.

“Then bring everything you’ve got! I am a loyal servant of his Majesty, King Sombra! I will not be bested by you!” Frozen returned with fury, breaking into a gallop. Amaryllis, hunched down, spreading her arms in a defensive stance.

Amaryllis met the pony’s charge head on, ducking beneath his two front hooves and wrapping her arms around his middle in a grapple. She had been practicing martial arts for her entire life as a hobby. There was no way she’d lose in a straight up fight.

Twisting her legs, she turned and used Frozen’s momentum to throw him clear off the ground and slam him into the road below. She wheeled and attempted to stamp down on his stomach with her foot, but the pony rolled out of the way and bucked backwards with his back two hooves. Amaryllis leaned her upper body back just in time to avoid the deadly attack, and charged at the unicorn once again.

Frozen and Amaryllis met once again, hoof meeting against fist in a desperate struggle for dominance. As they fought, it was clear who had the advantage. Frozen couldn’t lay a hoof on her unless he used his magic, yet whenever he tried to, she punished him with vicious punches and kicks. All the while, Fabian and Travis followed the fight with their sidearms leveled, prepared to shoot if the unicorn attempted to use his telekinesis again.

An icicle zipped past Amaryllis’s head, and then her elbow rammed into Frozen’s jaw, knocking a tooth out and causing the unicorn to spit blood. He snarled and counterattacked with a swing of his staff, but Amaryllis easily dodged and retaliated with a flurry of punches. Neither of them seemed to be gaining any headway on the other as their fight took them across the surface of the bridge.

Eventually, Frozen completely forewent using magic at all, leading the fight to a complete standstill. Even as they grappled with one another, none of them could deal any damage to the other. Amaryllis was tougher and more skilled in physical combat, but Frozen’s barrier was insurmountable.

Finally, after Amaryllis threw Frozen a good distance away, the unicorn leapt to his feet and sent two Oppressed who had managed to make it through the hail of gunfire after her. Amaryllis scoffed and faced the Oppressed; if there were only two, this wouldn’t be a problem for her.

“Amaryllis!” Fabian tossed a metal pipe over to her, which she accepted gratefully. With it, she smashed through the skull of one of the Oppressed with a single swing, and after blocking the claws of the second, she kicked it to the ground and bashed its head in.

“There’s nowhere to run, Frozen,” Amaryllis growled, once again walking towards the unicorn.

“That’s my line.” Unlike what she expected, Frozen’s grin returned. A sense of unease fell over her when the ground around her began to glow with a bright light. A gigantic mystical rune made from crackling blue energy formed on the surface of the bridge, encompassing the whole area where the two of them had just been fighting. “You didn’t think I spent this whole time fending you off for nothing, did you?”

“Dammit! What did you do!?” Amaryllis demanded, cursing herself for not noticing his discrete spellcasting. She couldn’t recall ever noticing him setting something like this up.

“You probably thought you were interrupting my spellcasting this whole time. I can’t blame you for thinking that way, as I never cast any offensive magic towards you… until now,” Frozen explained. He tapped the ground with the butt of his staff, summoning a thick shield of ice to protect him from the front. “No, I was merely laying the groundwork for this masterpiece of an ice spell! Behold my strongest spell! Crystal Tower!”

Frozen’s horn lit up like a christmas tree, and the glowing rune on the ground steadily grew brighter. Now, Amaryllis could physically feel the power of the spell in the air as though she were surrounded by static electricity. She could already tell that if this spell went off, she and everyone around her would be dead.

“He’s casting a spell! Kill him now!” Amaryllis demanded. Travis and Fabian obediently unloaded the remainder of their clips into the ice shield protecting Frozen, but it did little more than crack the ice, causing the unicorn’s grin to widen. “Damn you! I will not fall here!”

“Oh, I think you will. You put up a fight, but in the end, I will triumph!” Frozen declared confidently, his staff shining like a cyan sun. He reared up, magical energy rushing away from his body. “Crystal Tower… rise and pierce through the…”

“Frozen Soul!” Suddenly, a pony appeared several feet away from the two of them in a burst of magic, just outside the intensifying magical rune. Amaryllis recognized her as one of the ponies that had attacked her group at the church; it was the dark blue unicorn with the deep violet and pale turquoise mane. Except there was one striking difference in her appearance; one half of her body was burnt and matted with dried blood, patches of fur missing. The rage of one with nothing left to lose burned in her eyes. She didn’t even look at Amaryllis, her eyes fixed solely on Frozen. “This is for what you did to Rays!”

“Shade…?!” Frozen emitted, but that was all he had time to say before a blast of unrefined aquamarine magic slammed into the tip of his staff, cracking the artifact beyond repair. Frozen gazed at the staff in horror. From the cracks in the crystal, the magic contained within began to run rampant. The cracks blazed with freed magic and then exploded violently, shattering the ice shield and engulfing the unicorn completely.

Just before he was lost from sight, Amaryllis spotted his barrier dissipating, overwhelmed by the sheer magic flowing out of the destroyed staff. She seized the opportunity and broke into a run, her hand reaching around to the handgun that had been buckled at her side, unused, for all this time. This was it. She wouldn’t get another chance if she let this slip by.

The exploding magic passed over Amaryllis, painfully burning at her skin, but she ignored it, focusing only on the form of Frozen before her. When the light finally cleared, Frozen stood unsteadily, hunched over from pain and his fur burnt. He had just enough time to look up into Amaryllis’s merciless eyes, the barrel of a gun pointed squarely between his widened eyes.

Amaryllis pulled the trigger, and Frozen’s body crumpled to the ground, motionless.

A hush fell over the bridge, the sounds of combat slowly dying down. The remaining Oppressed came to an immediate halt, standing completely and utterly still. Travis tentatively approached one of them; when it did not react, he tipped it over with a light push, the undead collapsing to the ground like a wet noodle.

Amaryllis panted heavily, glaring at Frozen’s corpse, the unicorn’s face forever displaying his last look of panic. Blood and grey matter trickled from the hole in his skull. It was very clear that he was dead.

“That was for Samuel… and the Graves family… and for Jakob,” Amaryllis spat, resting her hands on her knees. However, she knew she couldn’t relax just yet. She turned her gaze up towards the unicorn that had saved her life; the one Frozen had referred to as “Shade.”

“All units regroup and secure the bridge! Take that pony into custody… with force if necessary!” The air soon filled with Raul’s orders and the sound of movement as the soldiers searched the bridge for any further hostiles.

Travis, Fabian, and Amaryllis, who were the closest to Shade, pointed their handguns at her without hesitation. Whether she saved them or not, it was clear that all ponies were their enemy.

“Do whatever you want. I won’t resist,” Shade emitted sullenly, the mare sitting down on her haunches. Amaryllis could tell from the way the pony’s frame trembled that she was in terrible pain; both physically and emotionally. “Frozen Soul is dead. That’s all I care about.”

“Good. It’s best for both of us if you’re cooperative.” Raul approached the pony, his shotgun pointed directly at her. Despite her appearance, Raul’s expression showed no signs of sympathy or understanding. “Now… I have a great deal of questions for you.”

“Alright,” Shade answered readily, looking into Raul’s eyes with her own unwavering gaze. “Shoot.”