Fire Fight heavily panted from his feat of strength. His muscles ached and his mind pulsed with fatigue; it amazed even him that he was able to stand and face Surt at all. All of the Battle Foals stood strong against their crippled yet enraged foe, Shadow Shroud going to check on her friend.
“You okay, Fire Fight?” she asked.
Fire Fight managed a small smile. “Yeah…<pant>… Thanks.”
Surt leapt high into the air and landed in the center of the arena, prompting the foals to surround it as they readied themselves for another assault. Some of them came later than others, but their combined strength that had been nurtured and grown up until this point readied them for another round with what felt like a penultimate enemy, a test crafted by Fate herself. They’d faced many powerful foes over the course of their odyssey, all of whom fell, thus hardening the foals’ resolve.
Fire Fight had his heat turned up to the max and was ready to pummel the metal fiend, Shadow Shroud braced herself and honed her ninja focus, Turf War taunted Surt by smacking his shield with his hammer, Spiral Galaxy began beckoning the cosmos unto her horn, Air Slash poised his swords, Kickback and Quantum Tech took aim, the latter ready to hit the switch on her death ray, Zebota began chanting an incantation while Shrapnel was ready to pounce, Bullseye took aim with an explosive arrow, staring at her foe with all the rage her darkened heart could muster, Tidal Wave beckoned the water on the field around him, Valkyrie flared her ancestral light, and Frostbite viciously growled as her cracked his knuckles and popped his neck, exhaling puffs of frigid air through his nostrils, and Greensprout stood ready to maintain their good health until this terrible battle finally came to a close.
<CRASH!!!>
The foals heard the sound from high above them and looked up to see that something had smashed through a window high above them. Glass shards fell amongst a mass that appeared to be someone or something screaming.
When it hit the ground, it rolled for a moment before stopping to reveal that it was Skadi struggling to defend herself from a feral Crazylocks. “H-H-HELP!! GET THIS PSYCHO OFF OF ME!!! HEEEEELLLLLPPPPP!!!!!”
Crazylocks was mercilessly pounding at the hen while she pled for mercy, and Surt took aim at the lunatic. She noticed this and growled like a mad dog before pouncing onto its head. She then ripped its scalp wide open to find two disc-like structures that one could presumed acted as a mini power generator to sustain its AI.
Before anything could be said, Crazylocks pulled out and donned an inexplicable pair of sunglasses and began fiddling with the discs like a DJ. Suddenly, disco music began playing, and Surt just stood on its hind legs and began dancing extravagantly, executing impressive disco moves for what he was. Everyone watching just looked on with expressions that’d make you think their brains had been broken, save for Turf War, who was grooving to the music just as much as Surt was.
When the ending beat of the song hit and Surt executing a pose along with, he just exploded just as Crazylocks jumped down to her friends, her sunglasses now gone as inexplicably as they appeared. It took Turf War a second to realize that the rave party was over and stopped dancing. “Oh…”
“……What just happened?” Spiral asked.
“WAAAHAHAHAA!! He couldn’t take my sick beats!!” Crazylocks exclaimed.
“Crazylocks!!” Bullseye shouted as she flew into her friend for a hug, which was reciprocated. “I was so worried about you…” she said in an uncharacteristically caring tone.
“Me too, Bullseye!” Crazylocks said in her familiar maniacal pitch. “I thought I’d never…..ever…..” The loony filly began sobbing as her words stammered, and much to the foals shock, there was hint of sanity in her soaked eyes. “SEE YOU AGAIN!!!!” She cried profusely as everyone went to check on her.
When they managed to calm her down, Greensprout went to work with her Gaia Root. “Are you hurt, sister? Did Skadi torture you at all?”
“Nope! All’s peachy keen, Greensprout.” Crazylocks replied.
“Good.” Bullseye said. She turned her hellish gaze to the bruised and beaten Griffon spent of her energy. “‘Cause she would’ve been on the menu for a meat fest otherwise!” she hissed.
Skadi was barely able to stagger to her feet when she realized that she was suddenly surrounded by the Battle Foals, who all had looks of ‘we gotcha now’. Her heart started racing as she slowly realized that she’d been bested by these children.
“This, my dear Skadi, is what we might call ‘checkmate’” Quantum Tech said.
Skadi nervously reached into her sleeve and pulled out a remote. “D-D-Did you forget about all the pawns I still have on the field?”
Kickback shot the device out of her talon, destroying it just as she was about to press a button. “Ah reckon it only matters if the king’s been rustled up.”
“Your wicked treachery ends here, Skadi. I’m sorry it’s come to this.” Greensprout said.
Air Slash shook his head disapprovingly. “You stain your title with your evils acts here. I hope you’re ready to face your fate.”
“I’ll make damn sure she does!” Valkyrie declared.
Frostbite grabbed Skadi by the neck of her robes and brutally punched her in the face, putting a small crack in her beak. “That’s for trying to loot MY cave of MY food!” he berated, and then backed away a little and froze her hands together, detaining her. “I leave the rest to you.”
“Thank you, Frostbite. She will be carried on Shrapnel’s back.” Zebota said. Shrapnel lowered his body so that Skadi could be lifted onto his back, which she didn’t resist as she didn’t have the energy.
“Well, that’s one more ordeal out of the way.” Tidal Wave said as they took their leave.
“Let’s hope it’s the last, at least for a while.” Fire Fight said.
“Feeling a little…burnt out, are we?” Shroud teased. Fire Fight just brushed off her comment.
As they trekked through the fortress one last time towards a marked exit, the ominous red clouds had noticeably thinned, allowing some starlight to peek through the broken overcast. All of the previously hostile robots now just stood where they were and eyed the foals and Skadi, as though they had forgotten who friend and foe were. They figured Crazylocks must’ve smashed whatever console controlled them when she beat up Skadi.
After a moment or so, Skadi found the strength to lift her head and face her troops. She raised her talon and made a series of gestures that the robots didn’t seem to acknowledge, but Turf War took notice of.
“B****, I know you ain’t tryin’ something right now!” he said.
Skadi creased a weak but wicked smile and lowly chuckled. “Tried and succeeded.” She croaked. “In case of emergency, this entire fortress is rigged to self-destruct upon a given signal! <pant><pant> If I can’t realize my grand vision… I’LL ANNIHILATE YOU LIKE I SHOULD HAVE WHEN I HAD THE CHANCE!!”
The foals just stared at her blankly, but they did panic a tiny bit. “I’m shocked you have the energy to try and bluff your way out.” Valkyrie said.
Suddenly, loud alarms started resounding from everywhere around the fortress. An AI voice spoke a message in what was presumably the language spoken by the civilization of before. Quantum Tech ran the message through a loose translator she’d programmed into her glasses during her captivity, and her heart stopped when she read the result.
“<GASP!> SHE WASN’T BLUFFING!! WE ONLY HAVE FIVE MINUTES!!!!”
“WHAT!?!?!?” Everyone screamed.
“AHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!! NICE KNOWING YOU, BATTLE FOALS!!!!!” Skadi shouted.
The foals made a break for it in hysteria, and they could barely tell the difference between their racing hearts and the blaring alarms. Every second seemed to pass slower than the other as they raced across the metallic jungle and eventually back into the desert, where the countdown could be heard as though they were still trapped in that forsaken fortress.
“KEEP RUNNING, GUYS!!” Fire Fight shouted.
“It’s hopeless!!” Skadi declared. “I’ve calculated what the magnitude of the blast would be, and it’ll be big enough to swallow this entire desert!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! YOU’LL BE BUT MERE ADDITIONS TO THIS WASTELAND’S COLLECTION OF DECEASED SAVAGES!!!”
“Quantum, please tell me she’s joking!” Tidal Wave pled.
“I-I’m afraid I can’t give an accurate answer, Tidal Wave! W-We’ll just have to take her word for it!”
“Then what the hell do we do!?” Bullseye exclaimed.
“Shall we take shelter behind one of the mesas!?” Air Slash asked suggested.
“NO! It may topple over from the blast and crush us!!” Quantum said.
“Then what about on top of one!?” Greensprout suggested.
“I’ve been through enough volcanoes to tell you that’s not gonna work! We’ll be caught in the blast, and the rock’s gonna keel over anyway!! And you can forget about a big enough ice wall!” Frostbite said.
“Yo my boy, you think can like raise a rock wall or somethin’!?” Turf War asked Zebota.
“I…I could try…” Zebota said. He stopped and turned to the fortress. “Go on without me! If it is my fate to perish here, my only wish is that I do not take you as well!” He focused on his brooch and began chanting.
“ZEBOTA, DON’T YOU DARE!!” Quantum shouted. She practically leapt out of her mech and ran up to him. “You keep running with us THIS INSTANT!! We’ll just have to put it on good faith that we’ll survive! This is a fool’s errand!” Zebota kept his incantation going, and Shrapnel started barking, ordering them to keep running.
“Quantum, we’re out of options! There’s nothing here to shield us!” Shroud said.
“Precisely my point! What’s a wall of sandstone to an explosion of this magnitude!?” Quantum argued.
“I know my homie better than that! He gonna call up a wall take that blast like a thug!” Turf War said.
“How I wish I had your optimism, Turf War.” Quantum said.
“Quantum, please! We just need to have faith…” Fire Fight said. Quantum could tell by his sorrowful tone that he didn’t like this any more than she did, and Zebota did willingly offer himself to death’s jaws. She wanted to heed her leader’s words, but she couldn’t get her body to cooperate. Tears began welling up as she knew she was being forced to say goodbye to one of her closest friends.
“OH, SCREW THIS!!” Spiral suddenly blurted. She ran up beside Zebota and focused her gaze onto the fortress, which seemed to pulsate with light from its sirens.
Much to everyone’s shock, she removed her hornband and chucked it to the side. She turned her gaze to the stars above and began focusing her cosmic magic. The remaining clouds dispersed, revealing the night sky in all its glory. Suddenly, the ground around them began violently shaking, as though an earthquake had happened, and Spiral’s horn shined a swallowing light that was enough to break Zebota out of his incantation. The familiar galaxy formation expanded around Spiral, and it spun around with intense velocity. She gradually rose about ten feet into the air, taking clumps of sand and gravel with her. Her booming voice called upon the cosmos.
“RAAAAIIIIINNN UPON THIS EAAARRTHHHH!!!!!!”
A group of stars that were close enough together suddenly shined far brighter than one should be able to perceive from Equestria, and they formed streaks of light that connected them in a spider web-like shape. An intense light from the center began flaring violently……and a gargantuan pillar of starlight crashed into the earth where the fortress was, no doubt obliterating everything caught in in its wake.
The foals had to cover their eyes from the intense light until it finally faded out. When the smoke cleared, the fortress was no longer visible. All that was left was a massive crater where the earth had been severely wounded, and Spiral fell to the ground with a nasty thud. Everyone just stared for moment, terrified at the cataclysm she had just unleashed.
“My babies...” Skadi whimpered.
“Spiral!!” Tidal Wave shouted. He sprinted over to her and cradled her to examine her, when he made a startling discovery. “She…She’s not breathing!”
“Move aside!” Greensprout ordered. She wasted no time channeling her Gaia Root’s restorative energy into her friend, but virtually nothing. The best she could do was restart her pulse, which was still weak. “Put her hornband back on!”
Air Slash was quick to retrieve the accessory and slip it onto her horn. He sighed. “It seems she saved us, however…”
“Don’t worry. This isn’t quite as bad as what happened with you, Air Slash.” Greensprout said. “She’ll survive; she just needs to rest.”
“For how long?” Valkyrie asked.
Greensprout sighed. “A day or so, I’d say. We’ll have to keep her body hydrated and as undisturbed as possible until then.”
Tidal Wave lifted his unconscious friend onto his back, her body limply hanging off, but he could feel her weak breaths. “I’ll carry her until we get rid of Skadi.”
“I don’t think her blood will flow very easily if she’s laying on top of your spear, big guy.” Shroud said.
Frostbite approached him and lifted her off. “I got her, twerp.” He gently cradled her in his arms like a baby, which earned him a surprised look from the other foals. “Wh-What? We owe her for saving us from getting cooked, so…..s-so you better appreciate me doing this!”
“We surely do, partner.” Kickback said. “Hey sheriff, whaddya think about lettin’ Frostbite tag along? He sure looks like he could use a friend r’ thirteen.”
“Not to mention he’s a breath of cold air in this scorching desert we call life!” Crazylocks blurted.
Bullseye chuckled. “Nice. You should write greeting cards.”
“Erm… I don’t know.” Fire Fight said. “He was a huge help and all, but don’t dragons prefer going their own way?”
“W-We do, but…” Frostbite took a deep breath. “I’d be happy to…join up.” He said, surprising the foals profoundly. “B-B-Because you guys need me! I proved that today, remember!?” He nervously shouted.
“Yeah! You guys wouldn’t have lasted if I….uhh…didn’t help you break out, or….hold off those hordes of robots, and….”
“We thoroughly remember your heroics today, Frostbite, and we are deeply grateful.” Zebota said.
“Yeah! If you really want in, I don’t think any of us would object.” Fire Fight said. Looking around, it was clear they shared
the same feelings about their draconic friend. “Just keep Spiral safe, okay?”
Frostbite nodded and smiled. “You can count on me, twerp- I-I mean…dude.” They all shared a little laugh before embarking on their hike back to Griffonstone.
“Quantum Tech… I am sorry I acted so carelessly and worried you.” Zebota said.
“Oh, all’s forgiven, darling. Though, I should apologize for my childish actions. We may have been incinerated had I not held us back out of worry.” Quantum said. “Although, I would have missed you dearly...”
Zebota chuckled. “I will spare of my speeches this time. Now, we resume our adventure.”
Quantum nodded. “Yes.”
“Oh! Perhaps you could recreate that technology with the information you gathered about it. Imagine what you could do for us with it.” Zebota suggested.
Quantum shook her head. “No. Technology that dangerous deserves to be left destroyed so that it may no longer fall into evil hands.” She took one last look at the remains of the accursed fortress, thankful that she and the Battle Foals saved the world from the horrors it could very well have wrought.