Tales of the Battle Foals

by Sirdubya


Mechanical Mayhem

One would think that the inside of a stadium would be where the exciting events took place, not just outside of them, but as far as Frostbite and Dark Veil were concerned, chaos could ensue on the outer end whether you expect it or not.

Frostbite easily smashed and obliterated the mass of grunts, but they were in such great numbers that he was starting to get dizzy from everything that was happening. While his ice powers proved highly effective against his adversaries, his offense was starting to become uncoordinated and sloppy from becoming tired. Ice blasts and icicle spears were flung and dropped every which way but where.

Dark Veil was far more coordinated despite being slightly less capable than his draconic ally. His agility and reflexes were his saving grace when dodging enemy fire. There were several occasions when he was able to trick them into shooting each other, and he managed to use the hook of his kusarigama to grapple and fling them into each other if he wasn’t wailing on them with its counterweight or his own set of kamas.

“<pant><pant>… C’mon, guys! Where are you?” Frostbite stammered. He could tell that Dark Veil was starting to grow weary. He took a moment to land to catch his breath, but when he did, a melee droid caught him off guard, and he was just barely able to catch its blades in his hands and struggle against it in his fatigued state.

<BOOM!!>

A massive explosion from the stadium wall rocked the battlefield, startling Frostbite to the point where he a spike in adrenaline allowing him to accidently rip his attacker apart, not that he found it problematic, but as he was able to look at the source of the blast, he was equally surprised when he witnessed Quantum Tech’s mech and Shrapnel strutting out from the smoke, each dwarfing Zebota, who was flaring an emerald aura.

Seconds later, the rest of the foals emerged from the door they previously entered, armed and dangerous. Kickback suddenly fired one of his guns right in Frostbite’s direction, startling the dragon until he saw an aerial drone plummet to the ground next to him, sparking from a small, singular wound from which it smoked.

“Sorry to keep ya waitin’, partner.” Kickback said.

Frostbite creased a snarling smile. “Meh, I lasted.” He flew over to them and faced Greensprout. “Give me a boost. These grunts are really trying my patience.”

Greensprout could sense his fatigue and went to work without complaint. “Take a deep breath, brother.” She emitted a pulse from the Gaia Root that rejuvenated Frostbite’s stamina.

When Frostbite felt his strength replenish, he uttered a guttural roar that caused the air around them to chill for a moment. He then wiped his nose and smirked. “Thanks. Now then, where were we?” He popped his neck and shoulders as he readied himself for a riot.

“If it is of no inconvenience, I shall initiate.” Quantum Tech said. She locked onto multiple targets and fired her railguns and magic turrets, the shots easily destroying the first wave of foot soldiers.

With their foes left open, Fire Fight called his team to arms. “BATTLE FOALS, ATTACK!!” Without so much as a second of hesitation, each and every one of the foals charged towards their robotic rivals just as the second wave followed suit. A titanic battle was imminent.

Fire Fight crashed like a comet through a group of infantries and skid to a halt, forcing a fierce wave of fire to sear everything else in front of him. Four more of them blasted their lasers as they approached him, but he dodged with ferocious grace, but he was having to move too much to focus his magic so he could fire back. However, he kept them distracted just enough so that Shadow Shroud could sneak up behind them and throw them off balance with her kamas. She slashed two of them into halves before they hit the floor, and Fire Fight dashed to the third one and flip-kicked into the air, following up by leaping towards it and punching it towards the last one in a blaze of glory. When the droids fell, the two winked at one another.

Turf War and Valkyrie found themselves surrounded by grunts with their lasers ready to fry them both. With their shields up, they had to think on their feet. Valkyrie unleashed her ancestral light and soared into the air, distracting a good chunk of the grunts, and Turf War smirked when he knew his chance had come.

“WOOOOOO!!!!” With no restraint whatsoever, Turf War smacked his hammer into the ground, causing a mighty tremor to resound across the battlefield, throwing the grunts off balance so much so that they accidently fired their lasers whilst they staggered. Valkyrie took that opportunity to swoop down and slash and burn every one that she could in her golden light before they regained their balance, but even when they did, Turf War quickly went around and chopped and smashed them to bits before they could even retaliate.

“Tch! Bunch o’ losers!” Valkyrie said as she and Turf War bumped each other’s shields.

Spiral Galaxy hung in the back and provided support fire with cosmic blasts and gravity fields. The sheer amount of enemies made it a little difficult to concentrate, especially since she had to be careful not to hit her friends. At one point when she was charging for a massive cosmo blast, she noticed that what must have been an assassin droid speeding towards her at speed she’d expect from Tidal Wave underwater. She was about to have to release her built-up energy on it just to defend herself when said aqua-pegasus appeared from behind her and thrust his lance, impaling and killing the mecha. He flung the robotic corpse off of his lance, which it then hindered the approach of a large wave of grunts that Spiral unleashed her cosmic death ray on, annihilating them.

“Thanks for the support, Tidal Wave.” She said.

“Yeah! Too bad there’s no water for me to-” Tidal Wave was interrupted when he suddenly felt his brooch react to something. “Huh?” He looked around and noticed a nearby tower whose top was much bulgier than the pillar supporting it, and stored within it was a massive amount of water. “Oh, baby…”

“Umm… Dude?” Spiral became a little worried when she saw a stupid smile crease the colt’s face.

Tidal Wave shined his brooch. “OH, BABY!” A section of the tower’s bulge began to show signs of breaching. After a moment, it burst, causing the water stored inside to gush out like a broken fire hydrant. As the water began to flood the ground below it, Tidal Wave drew it all around him and his lance. He formed a blade of water around his lance just as another wave of melee droids came rushing towards them, and used the rest of the water to summon a huge wave that swamped the area around them, in which he was able to swim and slash them all to pieces.

He jumped from the flood back to Spiral and shook the excess water off of him like a dog. “How’s that for a flash flood?”

Spiral giggled. “I’m totally swamped!” She shared a laugh with Tidal Wave.

Air Slash soared across the reddened sky, slicing down every aerial drone in his wake. His swords absorbed their laser shots which he fired back as sword beams. However, he maintained a certain proximity to Greensprout, who emitted vital pulses to everyone when things looked toughed; she made sure to keep her Gaia Root’s energy balanced.

At one point, Air Slash rapidly spun around when he was surrounded by enemies, unleashing a torrent of magic slashes that decimated his assailants. He used his momentum to bank down towards Greensprout and unleash a massive wave of slash magic towards a wave of melee drones charging her, cutting them up like paper.

“How are you faring, my dear?” he asked.

“Let me do the worrying, Air Slash.” Greensprout as she cast a vital pulse on him, rejuvenating his stamina.

Air Slash nodded. “Stay safe nevertheless.” He soared back into the air, ready to wreak further havoc.

Zebota used his overflow of Nature power to beckon the wild. The flood that Tidal Wave had created served as a sufficient source of hydration for the plethora of hostile plants he’d summoned to decimate the robots, even the bigger ones if Shrapnel wasn’t mauling entire waves of them. The trouble came from the fact that his power allowed him to stimulate the growth of life native to this land, which came in forms that would be more bizarre to him if he more discriminate about the beauty of life. One form in particular were bulbous plants about the size of birdbath that were emitting spores.
Quantum Tech just so happened to fire a laser blast into a cloud of the spores as a group of mechs were approaching Zebota, and the cloud spontaneously combusted, incinerating the droids. Zebota ducked out of shock when it happened. “What the…?” he stammered as Shrapnel rushed to see if he was alright.

“Zebota!” Quantum called out. “What happened!? Are you alright!?”

“I am unharmed, Quantum Tech, but it seems the life that once thrived here was far more dangerous than I was willing to give it credit. Shall we use it to our advantage?” Zebota replied as he shined his brooch.

Quantum fixed her glasses and smiled. “After you, good sir!”

Zebota eagerly beckoned forth more of the volatile bulbs within enemy lines, and Quantum locked on. She more than happily let loose her fury when she detected the produced spores, and the mystic duo quickly joined her to watch the fireworks. Shrapnel happened to be casually chewing on the ripped torso of a foot soldier as it happened.

“All is as it should be.” Zebota said.

Kickback took it upon himself to move forward from the back lines and make an assault run. His pin-point accuracy allowed him to make clean headshots taking down the guards. But even if his aiming reflexes were top notch, he couldn’t match Shadow Shroud’s agility and had trouble bobbing and weaving out of the way of the laser fire, and he was beginning to regret his reckless decision. He was able to keep his cool and shoot in all directions as he was being surrounded, but he was suddenly rescued by a torrent of ice raining from above.

Frostbite swooped down just low enough for Kickback to catch his foot with his whip, and the icy drake pulled him up and gave him a ride on his back. “Let me know when you wanna jump, dweeb!” he said.

“Ah’ll certainly try not to overstay mah welcome.” Kickback said.

As Frostbite surged and swooped through the sky, he blast any ground drones that fired up at him and smashed through what few aerial drones could get to him if Kickback didn’t shoot them down first. It was then that the gunslinger hatched a crazy idea. “Let one o’ them varmints get near, partner.”

Frostbite flinched a little at his request, but decided to trust him. “O-Ok!” He was cautious about nearing one of the drones, but Kickback was quick to act, and he caught the drone with his whip, swinging towards it and landing on top of it.

“YEEEE-HAAAW!!! GIDDY-UP!” Kickback bellowed. The drone tried to shake him off, but he managed to hang on for dear life as he fired his guns at every drone that tried to help their friend even though they couldn’t fire for the risk of destroying it.

“Hey! Not a bad move for a pony!” Frostbite side as he crushed a drone in his claws. “YOU DIDN’T HEAR THAT, BY THE WAY!” He vomited a blast of cold air that froze the mechs below to the point that they just cracked and broke apart.

Kickback could sense that the drone he hitched a ride on was about to self-destruct, so he leapt off of it and caught his whip onto another one and climbed onto it. The subsequent explosion rocked the new drone, but Kickback managed to hang on. He resumed his shootout. His electrified bullets caused a good chunk of them to short-circuit, but an unforeseen effect was that it seemed to cause the drones to gravitate towards one another if they weren’t already destroyed; it made him wonder if the metal they were comprised of had a strange magnetic property that was affected by electricity. Nevertheless, he knew he could use this to his advantage.

“FROSTBITE!!” Kickback called out.

The icy drake noticed the cluster of malfunctioning drones and knew just what to do. “Say no more!” He exhaled a massive gust of cold air and froze the cluster of drones and formed a huge ice ball that he spiked at the ground. It hit a large formation of robots and exploded, causing a violent burst of electricity to destroy them.

Frostbite pumped his fist in the air. “SLAM!!”

“What a finale!” Kickback called out. He shot out the drone he was on and jumped. Seconds later, Frostbite swooped down and caught him, letting them him ride on his back. They fist-bumped.

Back on the ground, Bullseye spared no expense going into rage mode and sublimating every ounce of her hellish fury into the accuracy of every shot she took if she wasn’t smashing up her foes with her bladed bow. Her aerial mobility and drive for destruction made for a deadly combination, her explosive and light burst arrows notwithstanding. Due to the environment and circumstances, she felt much freer to do as she pleased, but in her fit of wicked anger, she barely noticed just how reckless she was being.

“DIE!! <gasp> DIE!!! <gasp> DIIIIIEEEE!!!!!!” She hadn’t realized that she was expending so much energy, and she was
starting to tire out. She landed to take a breather when a group of infantry had her surrounded and at gunpoint. “S***!”

Suddenly, a black mass began swiftly leaping back and forth between the mechs at lightning speeds and smashing the droids. In a few split seconds, the droids were in pieces, and Dark Veil landed besides Bullseye. She smiled and nodded at him before taking off.

Dark Veil readied his kusarigama again as he the last wave was thinning out. “Good to see you’re getting better…” he muttered to himself.

After a maelstrom of mayhem within the forbidden cityscape, the remaining robots, whatever their form began retreating, and the Battle Foals along with Dark Veil reconvened. They were too exhausted to celebrate, and they didn’t want to let their guards, but they nevertheless felt incredibly accomplished.

“Great job, guys. Let’s keep this up until we can take down Skadi.” Fire Fight said.

“Don’t forget about Crazylocks. We’ve still gotta rescue her too.” Bullseye said. “Not that shoving an arrow or two up that bird-brained b****’s a** won’t be a high priority.”

“Quantum Tech, did you happen to determine our sister’s location?” Greensprout asked.

“I’m afraid that’s still unclear. We should remain together until we find her so we can be fully prepared to take down our rather nasty hostess.” Quantum said.

Fire Fight looked at Dark Veil. “Are you still gonna help us?” He could feel an intimidating glare from beneath the shrouded stallion’s mask, but he was satisfied when he received a silent nod.

Shadow Shroud giggled. “How thoughtful of you.”

Suddenly, a hologram of Skadi emitted from a building just beyond them, and the crazed councilor started down at them with a psychotic grin. “Hrrngh…! You little nothings ought to know you’re place! I was chosen by this place! I rekindled its glory, and I’ll spread around the world! EVERY UNWORTHY WILL BE SNUFFED OUT LIKE MATCHSTICKS, STARTING WITH THAT SLUM OF A GRIFFON’S NEST!!”

“She’s breaking down.” Spiral Galaxy said.

“Where Crazylocks at!?” Turf War demanded.

Skadi let out a maniacal laugh. “YOU WANT THAT SCHIZOPHRENIC CHIMERA BACK SO BAD!? WELL COME AND GET HER!!” Screen around the vicinity turned on to reveal the loony filly trapped and sedated in a stasis tube behind Skadi. “I’ve kept her safe under my wing….for now.”

“And she’s gonna be safe with us here soon enough.” Kickback said.

“HAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!! Go on. Try! I’m in the highest point of this fortress waiting for you, AS IF YOU’LL EVER MAKE IT!!” The holograph shut off, and the foals were left with only one option.

They looked around the skyline and noticed a particularly tall tower that had some actual royal aesthetic to it not dissimilar to what one might see in Canterlot, and it was blinking a yellow light. “Target: sighted.” Tidal Wave said.

“Let’s go, guys! No holds barred!” Fire Fight said. He lead the charge forward, and his comrades followed without hesitation. Within the charge, Shadow Shroud turned to Dark Veil and looked him the eye. The message her gaze sent was easily read by her fellow Shadewalker, and however reluctantly, he took his leave and let the Battle Foals do their work.