Icy took a whiff of the cool evening air as she trotted along. She was following the path of the river, but staying a fair distance from it.
It had been an informative stroll, and she was liking Ponyville more the more she saw of it. There were the obvious things, of course - places that everyone knew about, like the Crystal Castle, or places that every town had, like the Post Office. Although she doubted most Post Offices had to worry so much about crashing pegasi.
But there were also some buildings that seemed more unique to Ponyville, like a strange one made up to look like some sort of merry-go-round - a toy shop, Icy presumed - or another that looked like it was made of food. That one was of particular interest to Icy thanks to giving off a smell so sweet she could almost feel her teeth softening. Ordinarily, she’d have rushed in there, spent every bit in her pouch, then tried to sell the pouch to buy even more. However, she didn’t have her bit pouch with her, so that wasn’t an option. After all, it wasn’t like she could go in there and expect free cupcakes or something. What kind of loon would just give away such wonderful-smelling treats?
She’d even got a glimpse of the weather team preparing a light rainfall. It was an odd sight - in her old town, the weather manager had been rather relaxed, even when wrangling clouds for a blizzard. Here, though, it seemed a light drizzle was serious business for the mare in charge. Icy had heard of Rainbow Dash, of course, but she didn’t know she was quite this stern. Or at least, she was with the adults.
There was an orange filly standing on a hilltop, watching the pegasi work with far more excitement than Icy had seen anyone feel about weather work. Occasionally she would hop up and flap her wings rapidly, hovering for a few moments before she fell back to earth. Evidently, she wasn’t the strongest flier. Not that Icy could talk, as she couldn’t manage much beyond hops and glides. However, from the distance Icy saw her at, it seemed like the problem was the size of her wings, rather than their strength, as it was with Icy’s.
However, this didn’t exactly stop her flying because, once Rainbow Dash noticed the filly, she swooped down, picked her up, placed her on her back and let her ride there as she worked, even letting the filly kick apart a few of the smaller clouds. The fact that having a little filly on her back did not in any way reduce Rainbow Dash’s level of authority was rather impressive.
Smiling at the sight of the two sisters (or so Icy presumed) bonding, Icy had turned away and taken a stroll up-river towards the outskirts of town, passing the Ponyville dam. It looked pretty solid for something that, rumour claimed, was damaged or destroyed every few weeks. Of course, Icy was by no means an expert in structural engineering. Besides, getting a clearer look would require her to get closer to it - something she wasn’t keen on doing.
She and water had... issues. She wasn't afraid of it, exactly, but it always felt odd to her. She couldn't explain it, but whenever she got near water, she could feel it - it felt like it was trying to get her. Reaching for her, almost grasping at her. It didn't move any differently, there was nothing she or anyone else could see, but it almost felt... hungry.
It wasn't all water - drinking a glass of it wasn't going to bother her, and she was fine with swimming pools and baths. Small bodies of water, ponds and small lakes, were mostly okay, too – she still felt it there, but it was a lot quieter. Rivers, oceans and large lakes, though? She liked to keep her distance. On the other hoof, the river provided a helpful path for her to wander while she thought, so she kept following it. Just not too closely.
Icy looked up. Speaking of her thoughts, it looked like she'd gotten lost in them again. She looked up at Mount Canter, with Canterlot resting casually against its closest face. It was a lot closer than it had been. Looking back over her shoulder confirmed it – she'd gone quite a way out of Ponyville. Not too far, she could certainly get back before supper, but it was getting dark and Icy hadn't wanted to stay out this late.
It didn’t worry Icy too much, though. There was still light from various sources: the white of the moon, just beginning to rise over the mountain; the yellow-orange of the fireflies gathering over the river; the red of the rock creatures coming towards her, the distant lights of Ponyville...
Wait, what?
She looked up again and, indeed, there was a group of bright red and grey pony-things advancing on her. That was the only word that described their movement – advancing. They were walking in unison, covering as much ground with each step as they could, and their heads - at least, she assumed they were their heads - were turned directly towards her. They seemed to have a purpose, and that purpose seemed to be something to do with her.
Not, as many had noted, having the most well-developed of survival instincts, Icy started going to meet them halfway. There were seven of them in all, each roughly the size and shape of a decently-built earth pony colt. Her initial assessment had been correct - they looked to be made out of rough-hewn rock. At least, on the surface. She could see a red glow through the many cracks in their stone skin, and the rock between them was moving slightly, as if they were just plates floating on a thick liquid.
Red, glowing liquid and, judging by the scorch marks their hooves left on the ground, very hot.
That couldn't be... lava, could it?
The two parties reached each other and, sure enough, Icy could see a continual flow of molten lava beneath their rocky hides. That was strange - Icy had never heard of lava-ponies before. Rock ponies, maybe, if you counted Crystal Ponies. Fire ponies? Well, she'd heard some stories about fire spirits in pony form and there were some creatures with an affinity for magma – Malariths, some Salamanders - but lava-ponies? That was a new one.
Still, Icy thought as she wiped a drop of sweat from the back of her neck, they might be friendly. She suppressed her initial instinct of putting out her hoof to shake, since doing so might burn her hoof off. Instead, she opted for a wave and a cheerful “Hi there!”
Fortunately, this meant she was looking at the lava-pony in front the moment it took its first swing at her. Her eyes widened and she flapped her wings by instinct, sending a gust of wind at them and propelling herself backwards. The lava-pony's strike missed her by a few inches.
As she lifted off, she thanked Celestia that her reflexes were pretty good, at least when she was paying attention enough to use them.
She wasn’t so thankful that reflexes tended to be momentary things, as she was now flying backwards with no control.
She hit the ground soon after, sliding for a moment before coming to a stop around ten metres from the lava-ponies. Her head was buzzing and her limbs were aching. She knew she couldn't do that again.
She looked up to see the lava-ponies hadn’t moved, sheltering themselves with their hooves, presumably from the dust she'd kicked up. That was weird, she realized, since they didn’t have eyes and any dust would be burned up before it could blind them anyway.
It didn’t last long, though. When the wind died down, they lowered their hooves and locked their eyeless gazes on her. As one, they lowered their heads, scuffed a front hoof on the ground, and charged. The heavy pounding of their hooves echoed in her head, growing louder and louder as she lay there, sprawled and frozen.
The heat she'd felt radiating off that first attack was intense, and she guessed that one strike would be enough to... well, she didn't like to think, but it wouldn't be pretty.
In retrospect, it was a good thing she hadn't held her hoof out to them.
She giggled, briefly distracted by the thought before remembering the whole “mortal danger” thing. She watched as the murderous magma monsters ran at her, the tension making their every movement seem to take forever.
Is this what final moments are like? Icy thought. Seeing your killers coming at you in slow motion, your vision going golden and a weird buzzing in your head? She raised a hoof to her forehead.
Except the hoof was moving fine. She blinked and looked up at the charging lava-ponies. It wasn't just her, they were moving in slow motion. The one at the front was only a couple of metres from her, but barely moving a quarter of the speed he had been a moment ago, raising his front hoof for another blow like he was pushing it through syrup.
Also, that golden glow was just around them – unicorn magic! And that buzzing wasn't in her head, it was somewhere to her side. Getting louder too. What’s maki- OOPH!
Icy winced at the burning pain she assumed she felt, before realizing a second later that it didn’t burn at all – whatever had hit her, it didn't feel like a lava-pony's hoof. In fact, it felt like an ordinary hoof, which was now carrying her away from her attackers at incredible speed.
She noticed that the buzzing was now right beside her head, and she looked up to see a pair of small wings flapping furiously. A pair of small wings belonging to a familiar orange filly. She was dressed in a garish bodysuit of purple, magenta and blue, but that did precisely nothing to hide her identity.
She was shaken out of her surprise as she felt the two of them turning and screeching to a halt. Without the momentum keeping her there, she fell off the filly's hoof and down to the ground. She looked up to see the filly standing up her hind hooves on what looked, to her at least, like a scooter. There was no way a scooter could be that quick, was there?
The skid marks behind her suggested otherwise.
The filly grinned down at her. “Sorry ‘bout that. You okay?”
Icy was still reeling. This filly had taken them about fifty metres from the attackers while carrying another filly. She blurted out the first thing that came to her head.
“Holy Celestia, you're fast!”
The filly smirked and buffed a hoof against her chest. “Second fastest in Ponyville!” She sounded like she was trying to be smug, but only managed appropriate pride.
“Scootaloo?” A voice seemed to come from nowhere. The filly, presumably Scootaloo, looked down to her waist, at a badge Icy hadn't taken much notice of: a shield with an I symbol on it.
“Oh, sorry, Dinks.” She said into the badge.
“'tsokay!” The voice was coming out of the badge, crackling slightly with magical distortion. “Just hurry, I can't...” Even with the distortion, the strain the voice carried was clear.
“On it!” Scootaloo replied, before revving up her wings and looking up at Icy. “It's alright, you can go home, we'll handle this.” She revved up her wings.
“Don't touch them, they're super-hot!” Icy managed to get in before Scootaloo shot off.
“Gotcha!” Scootaloo called back as she sped away.
She considered what was happening. Scootaloo and Dinks seemed to have everything under control - if they said they could handle it, there was no reason to doubt them. Besides, Scootaloo had told Icy to go home, and that did seem like a good idea. At the very least, it'd be safer.
So, naturally, Icy started running towards the battle, trying to figure out what she could do to help. As she got closer, though, she had to stop both her mouth and her haunches from dropping in disbelief.
Scootaloo was little more than a blur and a dust cloud, the chaotic colours of her suit making even pinning down her exact location a challenge. She zipped in between and all around the lava-ponies so fast they could barely raise their hooves before she was past them. She was literally scooting circles around them. What's more, she'd often seem to punch them backwards, despite Icy knowing that that would get her hoof burned horribly, if not off. Looking closer, though, she realized Scootaloo was holding some sort of pipe. The filly was jousting these creatures at hyperspeed.
Occasionally though, one of the lava-ponies looked like it was about to intercept the multi-coloured streak, though whether by luck or judgement, Icy couldn't say. However, whenever they did, a golden glow would envelop them and they'd slow down, going a fraction of the speed they had been. Shifting her eyes away from the spectacle, Icy noticed a tiny purple-grey unicorn filly, presumably “Dinks”, who seemed to be causing these effects. She was also dressed in a bodysuit, but this one was a bold red, with a hooded cloak. She was also wearing three watches on her left foreleg for some reason, presumably to do with her time-warps. Said warps didn’t last long, but, by the time she let the lava-ponies go, Scootaloo was well away from them. Their attacks would then whiff completely, often throwing them off balance enough for Scootaloo to get a free hit on another run.
However, despite the two of them seeming safe from the lava-ponies, they didn't seem to be making much progress either. Each of the lava ponies showed dents and craters from Scootaloo's strikes, but it didn't faze them much. Furthermore, as Icy got to about ten metres from the fight, she could see their rocky hides slowly flowing back together.
Icy assessed the situation. Evidently, she thought, these two are awesome. Also evidently, they can't keep this up forever, and the lava-ponies might be able to outlast them. Is there any way I can help? She thought back to her own brief encounter with them. Well, kicking up a dust cloud seemed to stun them, that might do something.
Nodding to herself, Icy flared her wings and started flapping up as much of a gust as she could. She did her best to focus it on the lava-pony furthest from the two, hoping Dinks and Scootaloo would see it and focus on it too.
As the dust cloud reached it, the lava-pony froze. Icy knew it would only last a moment, but it might help, particularly if Scootaloo was as fast as she tho- there it was.
Scootaloo, noticing one of her opponents stopping, broke off from the main group, zipped about fifteen metres away, then charged straight at her frozen foe. With that much run-up, the hit sent the lava-pony flying backwards, landing in the river and sending up a massive cloud of droplets and steam.
When the steam cleared, there was no lava-pony. Just some loose rocks flowing out along the current.
Icy could see the other two smiling. They'd found their weakness. She saw Dinks start speaking rapidly into her badge. The good news was that she seemed to have a plan.
The bad news was that the lava-ponies had noticed this, too and had stopped moving, turning their heads. Not at their more dangerous opponents, but at Icy.
“Eep!”
The lava-ponies turned around as one and charged at her. Icy was about to close her eyes when she felt something wrap around her hoof, and everything slowed down. Not just the lava-ponies, but the grass, the wind, even Scootaloo as she did donuts on the riverbank. Looking down, she saw a watch had been placed around her ankle, its face glowing.
“These meanies don't like you, do they?” Icy heard a high-pitched voice say. She looked up to see Dinks giving her a worried frown. The little unicorn’s horn was glowing the same colour as the watch and less brightly than when she was slowing down the lava-ponies - presumably the watch was a focus for her magic.
Icy gulped noisily before answering. “Doesn’t look like it, no.”
Dinks smiled. “Good.” She stopped smiling as she realized what she'd just said. “I mean, not good, very bad, but it means I've got an idea. Do you think you can act as, well, kind of... bait, once Scootaloo's finished?”
Icy looked over to Scootaloo, who was going at quite a speed even when slowed down. “I... guess so?” She looked at the slow-charging lava-ponies. “Assuming they don't burn me to ashes first.”
Dinks giggled. “Just use your wings, silly, like before.” Her horn stopped glowing and time sped up again. Icy turned around to see the lava-ponies barrelling towards her. Half because of Dinks's advice and half out of blind panic, Icy started flapping her wings as fast as she could, creating a minor stream of air, However, despite how week the wind was, it made the lava-ponies skid to a halt. They seemed paralyzed for a moment before they started moving towards Icy again, slowly and ploddingly, as if they were fighting a gale force wind rather than a slight gust.
Icy didn't have time to ponder this as she heard “NOW!” to her side. Moving with more certainty than she felt, she ran towards where she'd seen Scootaloo - right by the water. She swallowed, doing her best to ignore the river next to her.
She stopped on the patch of earth Scootaloo had kicked up and turned to see a golden aura enveloping the lava-pony in front. Okay, so Dinks was... speeding it up? Why was she...?
The reason quickly became apparent – the other lava-ponies, mimicking their frontrunner, started running as fast as they could towards Icy. Unfortunately for them, Icy was suddenly not there anymore, replaced with an after-image of orange and purple.
Scootaloo quickly came to a stop, setting a slightly-less-winded-than-last-time Icy down. They turned back to their opponents.
To the Lava-Ponies’ credit, they managed to stop themselves just on the edge of the river. However, this didn’t help much because Scootaloo's moves had loosened the soil, and the moment their bodies touched the ground, they started baking the ground into clay dust. All of this made the ground beneath them collapse and plunge them into the river, steam billowing up.
Once the cloud cleared, the lava-ponies were gone. They had won!
Icy didn't have time to celebrate, however, as she found herself grabbed by the shoulder and whirled around to face Scootaloo. “What are you doing here?” She shouted.. “I told you to get outta here. We could have handled this fine, but you coulda been killed!”
Icy let the rebuke wash over her, focusing instead on the most pressing question she had. “How are you only the second fastest?!”
Immediately, Scootaloo's expression changed one of awe and excitement. “Oh, Rainbow Dash is so much faster than me! She's amazing, you should totally see her when she's flying about all zoom and nyyoooow!”
Icy blinked and turned away from the sudden moodswing to see Dinks coming up to her, concern in her golden eyes.
“Are you okay?” She asked. Now that the danger had passed, Icy couldn’t help but notice how small and gentle the filly looked and sounded. “Those things didn't hurt you, did they?”
Icy checked herself over, an instinctive reaction she'd developed to being asked if she was hurt, which happened frequently. “No, no I'm fine.” She remembered her manners. “Dinks, I assume?”
The filly’s giggle had a musical quality, like an echoing glockenspiel. “No, that's just what Scootaloo calls me.” She held out a hoof. “I'm Dinky Doo!”
Icy shook the hoof, smiling. “Icy Flight. Hi there!”
“Hiya!” Dinky replied.
“So,” Scootaloo, now out of fanfilly-mode, said behind Icy, “what was that thing you did with your wings?”
Icy held out a wing and examined it, confused for a moment before she remembered what Scootaloo was talking about. “I don't know.”
“What do you mean you don't know? You did something, what did you do?”
Icy thought for a second. “I really don't know, I just made a bit of wind.” A snort from Scootaloo made her realize what she just said. “I mean, a gust of wind. From my wings. Like you just asked me.” She sighed as Scootaloo continued chortling. “I guess it was just the dust I kicked up.”
At this, Scootaloo stopped laughing and gave her a flat look. She put a hoof on the rear wheel of her scooter and spun it, kicking up a cloud of dust. The cloud was much smaller than the ones her scooter made during the scuffle, but still had more dust in it than anything Icy had made.
“Oh.” Icy's brow went down as she tried to think of what else could have happened. “Well, then... I guess I don't know what happened. Sorry.”
“Well, I think it saved us. Thank you so much!” Dinky said with a smile that went all the way up her face, radiating sincere gratitude.
A look that was dispelled when Scootaloo scoffed. “As if! We'd have figured it out and taken those chumps down!” Dinky turned towards her, surprise and sadness in her eyes, and Scootaloo's smugness vanished. “But I guess you helped, Icy, so... yeah, thanks, I guess.”
Turning around quickly, she leapt onto her scooter and zipped away.
“Huh. She doesn’t stick around, does she?” Icy asked.
“Oh, don't worry!” Dinky beamed at her. “She's just...”
Scootaloo zipped back in front of them, a purple trailer attached to the back of her Scooter. The same symbol Icy had seen on their badges was painted on it.
“Hop in!” Scootaloo said as Dinky climbed onto the trailer. “We're heading back into town, figured you might want a lift.”
Icy shrugged – it would be easier than walking and mean less chance of meeting giant evil grasshoppers or whatever this town came up with next. She hopped into the trailer and looked over at Scootaloo. “Thanks. So, if you don't mind me asking, how come you two don't have your cuuuUUAAAAAAAAAAH!”
Anything else Icy had to say was lost as Scootaloo sped off, the wind drowning out any attempt at speech.