Icy plopped herself down on the ground, sitting against a rock and resting.
After going to school, a quick stop off at Pip's house to see where the Aetheroscope pinpointed the most likely magical anomaly, another at her house to ask her Mom if she could stay with Pip and finally an hour-long trek here, they were finally at their destination - a rocky foothill near Mount Canter in the rough area that the lava-ponies were coming from. Probably.
If it is, they're very good at hiding, she thought.
In all honesty, expecting a small settlement bustling with lava-ponies was a bit much, no matter how much she liked the image. Still, when Pip's voice had come through Dinky's badge, telling them they were in the area, Icy was perturbed to find absolutely nothing.
It was nice to have a rest, though. The walk might not have been so bad if they hadn't had to put up with Scootaloo's complaints. Hearing about how quickly she could get there and how slow everyone else was going got old fast.
Still, she had learned why Archer didn't want her to mention cutie marks around Scootaloo.
“So, yeah, it's a bit of a sore spot with her.” She explained, after telling her about the Cutie Mark Crusaders and a few of their exploits.
“But, if their talents are so obvious to everyone else, why don't they just tell them? I mean, it'd mean they do less damage, and get them their marks sooner.”
“But it'd cheapen them.” Archer replied. “The feeling when you find your mark for yourself – when you realize what you can do, and what you want to do with your life and everything falls into place... no one has the heart to take that away from them.”
“Besides,” Truffle interjected from Icy's other side, “Archer's got a pool on how long it'll take for them to figure it out.”
“Yeah, that too.” Archer said casually, not embarrassed in the slightest.
Icy sighed as she came out of her thoughts and looked up. The others had all stopped to rest too. Lance, Archer and Scootaloo drew their weapons in readiness for battle - she assumed Scootaloo thought of her pipe as a weapon, even though it looked like it had just been ripped off a wall.
“Princess?” Truffle looked to Alula. That was apparently a code-name for her, due to her extra appendages. Or it might have been just a nickname - Icy wasn’t quite sure what level of professionalism she was dealing with. “Would you mind doing a quick aerial scout?”
“If you wish.” Alula stepped down from Scootaloo's scooter. She'd shrunk herself down to a much younger filly and ridden on the back, so she was the only one of the group not resting from the hike. Oddly enough, only Icy and Scootaloo seemed to be resenting it.
Then she started growing, and their resentment doubled. Her wings were growing into what both of them wished to have: as big as Icy's, but as strong as Scootaloo's – the perfect flying wings. Of course, Icy could tell Alula still wasn't an expert with them from the way she flapped. Nevertheless, she launched herself into the air and quickly climbed out of sight.
Icy considered what would happen when they found what they were looking for. She didn't think she'd be in much danger, since, if it came to a fight, the others would handle most of it.
On the other hoof, these things seemed to dislike her especially, though she couldn't think why. Plus, the others seemed to expect her to do something, but she didn't know what she could do or how she could do it.
Also, it bothered her that she'd kinda-sorta lied to her Mom about where she was.
A thump next to her signalled Alula landing. The others looked up in surprise, presumably thinking, like Icy, that she'd take longer.
Alula pointed at a small rocky outcropping above them. “Turns out, just over that ridge is a cave. It looks like it's been been melted into the side of the mountain, so I'd guess that's where the lava-ponies are coming from.”
“You guessed right!” Came a voice from the top of the ridge. Everyone hopped to their hooves and looked up at it. Only Icy seemed surprised at what she saw.
It was a colt, no older than her. He looked like a crystal earth pony except that he lacked any sparkle, his red-brown sort-of-skin matte and covered in orange striations. His mane and tail were slate-grey, but the tips of his hooves glowed a bright yellow-orange. Icy could feel heat coming off him, even at that distance. Heat and something else. Something wrong. It only took one look at his eyes to figure out what it was.
Hate. Pure, burning hate. His red eyes blazed with it, its blistering rage coming off him in waves. She had no idea what caused it, or how she could feel it, but she knew it for sure: everything those eyes saw, they despised.
“And you are?” Called Scootaloo, leaning on her scooter's handles, her wings tensing.
The colt growled. At first, it didn’t seem like he was going to answer, but he shook his head and the growling stopped. The hate in his eyes didn’t.
He took a deep breath, and then another, as if gathering his thoughts enough to speak was a taxing process. As if his eyes weren’t indication enough, it was obvious that there was something very, very wrong with this colt’s mind. Possibly even his soul.
“Fire Eyes.” He said at last. “Who the buck are you babies?”
Icy was tempted to point out he was probably one of the youngest ponies there, but Archer spoke before she could.
“Iota Force, at your service. So, I don't suppose there's a reason you've been sending lava-monsters to attack ponies, is there? I mean, I’m guessing you're not making them equicidal by accident, but I have to ask: what do you want?
Fire Eyes growled again, a guttural sound, like rocks sliding against one another. “What do I... whadda you think? I wanna torch your whole bucking town is what I want.”
Archer raised an eyebrow. “Kay but why?”
Fire Eyes snorted in disdainful amusement. “You ever killed a pony before?”
A brief silence fell over the group before Archer responded, swallowing hesitantly before she did.
“Can't say I have.”
“Then you wouldn't know.” Fire Eyes picked up a rock and held it before his face. As the rock turned orange and started to liquify, the colt's eyes took on a faraway look. “If you ain't never felt a pony's face melt onto your hoof. Heard their screams and the crackling of their fur. Seen in their eyes all the years of... all their stupid lives fail and fry. And then seen all the other ponies around, acting like they're better than…” He paused, his eyes coming back into focus and seeing his opponents once again, smirking. “Trust me, you felt that, you'd wanna do this too.”
There was a horrified pause before Dinky piped up. “That's awful! How could you do that?!”
Fire Eyes's expression fell instantly into a sneer. “Aaaaaaand you ain't listening.” He snorted. “Like I care.” He closed his eyes, gathering his thoughts again. “I’m gonna keep making my golems. I’ll keep putting a fragment of my soul into them and I’ll make enough to sweep them over your town and your world and your lives and what I want,” he opened his eyes and glared at them, “is to watch. Them. Burn!
Icy heard Scootaloo mutter “few feathers short of a wing” before Archer continued, sounding distinctly uncomfortable.
“I'm guessing we have to be put out of the way first?”
Fire Eyes snorted. “Like you were ever in my way. But if you insist!” He raised his hoof, as if to strike the ground, when Icy asked the question that was nagging at her.
“What about me?”
He locked his gaze on her, and Icy could feel his hate beating down at her. His eyes started twitching as he kept gazing at her. “What about you?”
“Why do your lava-ponies keep coming after me?”
It felt good to see an emotion other than anger come across his face. Not that good, though, since the emotion was confusion.
“I don't even know who you are!”
“What?” Icy cried. “Then... why were your things so determined to get me?”
“You got me!” Hatred returned to his face as he squinted down at her. “I feel it too, but... I dunno. You're just... wrong. You’re… you like… got some kinda thing about you that… it’s just wrong.” He looked away, as if seeing her repulsed him. “Not for long, though.” A smile spread across his face. “The others can face my golems, but you... are mine.”
He struck his hoof down, instantly melting the edge of the ridge, sending splashes of lava down. As he did so, a group of lava-ponies leapt from behind him, going for the colts and fillies beneath. Luckily, they were prepared, and scattered the moment he struck, dodging the splashes of magma and entering battle with the lava-ponies.
It was amazing to watch, really. Lance and Truffle took the vanguard, forming a blockade to protect their teammates. Lance focused on parrying and getting in the occasional slash, keeping the constructs off balance, whereas Truffle preferred to slam into them, using his considerable weight and protective suit to make up for lacking their strength. A few lava-ponies tried to go around the two, but were smashed back by Scootaloo's continual hit-and-scoot attacks.
Meanwhile, the other three had leapt up among the surrounding rocks, ready to scramble up should any make it through. Dinky peeked out from behind a rock, lighting her horn whenever she saw an opportunity. Archer was grinning down at Icy encouragingly, barely looking up as she fired a constant stream of arrows into the melee.
As for Alula, she had changed into a small grey filly, her new coat camouflaging her against the rocks. Her suit had also changed colour to a slightly darker grey. She was creeping around the edge of the fray, presumably trying to sneak behind Fire Eyes and either distract him or take him out somehow.
Even without her direct assistance, though, the other five were holding the lava-ponies at bay expertly, and it wouldn't take them too long to put them down, Icy was sure. Unfortunately, that still left the problem of Fire Eyes, who was simply standing there, the heat around him looking like enough to protect him from any direct attack. He watched the battle with a malicious grin on his muzzle, despite how badly his side was doing.
Also, he was descending. Icy looked at the ground beneath him to see that it was sagging down. The slight glow to it suggested he was heating the ridge to bend, but not melt. Icy looked up again, only to find his baleful gaze, still glowing, searing into her eyes once again. It paralysed her, not with fear but disturbance.
Soon, he was on their level. The moment he got there, the rock beneath him began to bubble and boil, a pool of lava quickly growing around him and snaking towards Icy. Occasionally, an arrow would come towards him, only to burst into flames, doing nothing but get ash on his coat. A faint, wobbling golden glow seemed to suggest Dinky's magic was being disrupted by the intense heat.
The same heat was getting uncomfortably close to Icy's hooves. She was about to back away when she saw it stop, about two metres from her. She looked up at Fire Eyes to see why he'd stopped. He grinned, sending a hot shiver through her, and held up a large glob of lava in his hoof. He pulled his hand back and Icy realized why he'd made the lava path.
To give him a clear shot.
The glob fired from his hoof, heading at her face.
Everything seemed to slow down for Icy, but not due to Dinky this time.
An arrow pierced the glob, but only succeeded in burning up and making a hole in the liquid that was still flying at her.
A faint golden glow wibbled into existence around the glob, trying to slow it down, but quickly dissipated in the heat, and the glob was still flying at her.
Light hoofsteps to her right, heavy hoofsteps to her left and a buzzing from behind her told of three friends trying to intercept it. They'd be too late. The glob was still flying at her.
Icy closed her eyes and wished. Wished something, but she wasn’t sure what at first? That she wasn't about to die? Well, obviously, but she knew that might happen. That there was something she could do to stop Fire Eyes? Again, she did wish that, but it seemed pointless - there was no water around, so what they needed to do was to find a way to cool his stuff down, which they didn't have. Still, that wasn't it. She wished...
She wished that the hate she'd seen in those eyes wasn't there. That that gaze wouldn't keep trying to destroy whatever it fell upon. She wished it would just STOP!
She felt her wings flap, and then felt the glob impact solidly onto her ribs.
Wait... solidly? As in... not a liquid?
She looked down to where she heard the stone thump into the ground. It was just an ordinary stone – the same shape as the glob that was flying at her, but not lava. Not even hot.
She began looking up, tracing a path of no-longer-liquid stone. It was like the gust her wings had made had turned it back to stone - had somehow cooled it.
She flicked her gaze up to Fire Eyes, who was equally confused. The battle around them had stopped as well – the fiery colt's confusion presumably making his minions stop, and her friends simply being surprised.
Icy thought for a moment, then, calling up all the things she'd just felt, flapped again. This time, she could feel the energy gathering in her wingtips, before streaming out into the wind she made. It wasn't aimed at anything, but it had an immediate effect on the now-cool ground in front of her. The clear-white crystal that started growing on it was unmistakable.
Ice. She was making ice. Her gusts were somehow cold enough to cool magically-sustained magma and make ice on clear ground.
Her life flashed through the back of her mind. Her preferences in temperature. Her love of the winter months. Her name.
A tiny, almost imperceptible voice in the back of her head seemed to sigh at her, as if to say: Took you long enough!
She looked around at her new friends, who she now noticed were less surprised and more impressed.
“Okay,” Archer piped up, “hooves up anypony who didn't see this coming!”
Only Icy and Fire Eyes raised their hooves.
Tiny hoofsteps behind her were Icy's only warning before Dinky leapt on her with a huge hug. “Congratulations!” She squealed. “I knew you'd be amazing!”
“Th-thanks...” Icy choked out, Dinky's hug squeezing just that little bit too tight. “But... battle.”
“Oh yeah!” Dinky released her abruptly, letting her get her breath back before indicating the still frozen lava-ponies, silently urging her to make that description literal.
Icy still hadn't quite registered just what it was she'd discovered, so nodded quite casually. “Sure!” She said, flaring her wings. A few flaps later, the ex-lava-ponies were just crumbling piles of rock.
This finally seemed to snap Fire Eyes from his outraged stupor, and he screamed.
“NnnnnNNO!
His eyes glowed far brighter than before, almost blinding her as a wave of rock-melting heat swept through the air between them.
Luckily, her eyes weren’t what was making this ice-wind, and her wings were more prepared, flapping on instinct and sending as strong a gust as they could, cooling the air before it got even halfway towards her.
His anger only growing, Fire Eyes backed up towards the base of the mountain. Icy followed him forward and heard the others do the same – advancing as a group and intimidating their opponent.
Not that he seemed to be affected – he just continued to glare at them, as if his eyes alone could burn holes in them. He stood on his rear hooves, placing his front hooves and his back against the rock face.
She noticed Scootaloo grin in her peripheral vision. “Looks like your plans are on ice, Bright Eyes!” Icy made a note to groan at that later. “Now come quietly, and maybe we won't have to hurt you too much.”
“Come with you?” Fire Eyes spat with what was becoming standard hatred, and Icy couldn't think of two more depressing words. “So you can kill me or lock me up or whatever you do?”
“What?! That's not...” Dinky seemed hurt by the suggestion, “we'll just take you somewhere you can get help for... whatever's wrong.”
“NOTHING'S WRONG WITH ME!” Screamed Fire Eyes.
“Think we'll let the authorities decide that one!” Truffle rolled his eyes. “Now, come along!”
“No chance.” Fire Eyes' hoof and eyes glowed and, before anyone could make a move, the rock behind him flashed into lava. He fell backwards into it, the glowing liquid swallowing him up. Scootaloo raced forward on instinct, but Alula’s hoof stopped her from getting burnt. She thumped a hoof into the ground by her scooter's side, glaring at the rock face as it cooled into a solid again.
“Dammit! Shoulda seen that one coming!” Her wings started buzzing as she prepared to take off. “I'll circle round the hill, catch him when he comes out!”
Alula's hoof wrapped around the scooter's handlebars. “Won't do any good. Could come out at any point, up or down or around the hill – too unlikely you'd happen to be in the right place when he does.” Scootaloo frowned as she slowed her wings.
Alula gave a thin smile. “Don’t worry, we’ll get him sooner or later.”
“Don't know if you're interested,” came Archer's voice from behind them, “but I've just told Pip what's been happening, and he says we don't need to walk back.”
The other seemed to just nod at this, but Icy was confused as Dinky put a hoof on her shoulder. “Huh? What do you mean? It's still an ho-”