//------------------------------// // Sanctuary // Story: Tales of the Battle Foals // by Sirdubya //------------------------------// The doors to the Sisters’ throne room burst open, and in flew a frantic messenger pegasus. “YOUR HIGHNESSES!!!” “Goodness, Air Stream! Whatever is the matter?” Celestia asked. “The Crystal Empire! It’s… It’s…” He tightly clutched a scroll signed with Cadence and Shining Armor’s stamp. “Oh, I can’t say! Please just read this!” Celestia took the scroll and immediately began perusing its contents. “Celestia, Luna, I’m afraid my husband and I have no time to mince words. Our fair empire has fallen under heavy assault by an unknown fiend with overwhelming power. It has frozen over our land and infested it with monstrous ice constructs, and has threatened to spread its terror to Equestria and possibly beyond. We’ve been forced to evacuate as quickly as possible and are headed for Canterlot. Please have forces ready- ours have already been frozen, and declare a national state of emergency. -Cadence” “This is terrible!” Luna said. “Yes, especially while we’re still looking for the Battle Foals.” Celestia said. “The foals…” Luna mumbled. “Sister, I will rally the troops. You must warn Twilight and spread this message!” “A-Always the one ready to take action, aren’t you?” Celestia said. “Is all well, Tia?” Luna asked. “Yes, I’m fine. This is just very sudden.” Celestia said. “Do what you must, Luna.” “Right.” Luna soared out of their throne room with the utmost confidence. However, something in Cadence’s warning made the Princess of the Sun shudder as if it were the dead of winter. “An ice-powered fiend… No…” Meanwhile, Luna’s thought were with the little heroes whom she had watched over. “My Battle Foals, I fear it has begun… I am forced to make a difficult decision. Whatever I ultimately elect to do… I hope you’ll forgive me.” Back in Ponyville… Twilight and Spike were accompanied by the CMC in her library. She had gotten out a few books and was showing them to her small guests. “Ok, Crusaders, very little is known about what lies north of Griffonstone, so pay close attention.” “We know, we know.” Scootaloo said. Twilight rolled her eyes at Scoot’s impatience. “Obviously, it’s frigid cold up there, so packing plenty of things to keep us warm; but we still have to assume that that’ll be the least of our worries. The trees there drip sap that’s cold enough to cause hypothermia, Bugbears are thought to travel there to hunt from time to time, and I’ve even heard tales from griffons that undead are said to rise-” “Twilight!” Spike blurted. “I think it’s best if we just brace for the cold and see what happens when we get there rather than preparing for superstitions.” “Yeah. None of that sounds like anything Fire Fight and the Battle Foals couldn’t handle anyway.” Scootaloo said. “Not that we aren’t worried about them anyway.” Sweetie Belle said. “We’d seriously better find them this time. Ah’m getting’ sick o’ seein’ everypony so glum n’ all. Kinda startin’ to make me mad at him…” Applebloom said. “Mad or not, he and those other Battle Foals are probably gonna need us.” Scootaloo said. Suddenly, the CMC’s marks began pulsing light, prompting them all to rush to the throne room. As expected, their marks were hovering above a location in Equestria, but not anywhere anyone would’ve expected to see: somewhere out in the middle of the Celestial Sea. “Where’s that, Twilight?” Spike asked. “I have no idea, Spike.” Twilight said. “Sure is close to Griffonstone.” Scootaloo said. “Wait! You don’t think…” They could feel heavenly rays of inspiration shining onto them as they gazed at that one fixed point on the map. “They need us more than we realized…” Sweetie Belle said. Suddenly, Spike felt a tightness in his chest, one he associated with receiving a letter from Celestia, but this one was coming on faster than normal. “Urp! Letter alert! Urrmm… !” A burped flare materialized into a letter, but something was different about it. Twilight gasped. “Oh no!” “What is it?” Applebloom asked. “This royal crest…” Twilight stammered. “C-Celestia only sends letters with this special crest if she’s… declaring a NATIONAL EMERGENCY!” Spike and the fillies gasped. “You’d better read that!” the little drake said. “R-Right!” Twilight opened the letter and read it aloud. “Twilight, as you can no doubt tell by the crest stamped onto this letter, Equestria is in peril. An unknown fiend with immense power has single-hoofedly overthrown the Crystal Empire. I received a letter from your sister-in-law detailing the incursion and that mean to evacuate, so it is my belief that they are alright. However, I must order you to seek shelter for the citizens of Ponyville and arrive at my side in Canterlot with the other Elements to dispatch this foe posthaste. I realize we’re still searching for the Battle Foals, but I’m afraid we will just have to hope that they are able to come to our aid. If there are those still able to search for them, then by all means do so; but we need every able-bodied pony, nay, creature who help us fight this foe. I’m sure you know what all you must do. -Princess Celestia” Twilight saw naught but terror in the eyes of her assistant and young guests, and she herself never had much of a poker face- her fear was legible to a blind pony. “Th-This is bad!...” “Twilight… what’re we gonna do!?” Applebloom asked. “Pull it together, guys!” Spike said. “We’ve gotten ourselves out of worse messes, haven’t we? All we need is a plan.” “You’re right, Spike.” Twilight said. “So I hope that means you have an idea of where to start.” Spike looked at her sheepishly. “Erm… It’ll come to me!” “Us Crusaders need to get to that island. It’s gotta be where Fire Fight is!” Scootaloo said. “Yeah, but we’d probably need to go back to Griffonstone in order to get there. Are the trains even gonna be running during a state of emergency?” Sweetie Belle said. “Not the ones up north at the very least.” Twilight said. “I’ll ask Princess Celestia to send us a carriage down here that’ll take you over there along with Cheerilee and the rest of the search party.” “Actually Twilight, Ah reckon it oughta just be the three of us.” Applebloom said. “The map did call just us, and… remember when we ran into ‘em in that portal temple, that huge group of us?” “Yeah, I get the feeling that they felt pretty overwhelmed.” Sweetie Belle said. “I… see where you’re going.” Twilight said. “But Rarity, Spike and I need to come to.” “Huh!? Why!? You heard Princess Celestia; they need the elements!” Scootaloo said. Twilight sighed. She could tell by the look in Spike’s eyes that he wanted to tell them about the filly named ‘Shadow Shroud’, but couldn’t. “N-Nevermind. You’re right. Just tell them that we’re legitimately worried about them and that… everypony’s sorry. We really are.” “Totes!” Scootaloo said. “Yeah. We can attest to everything.” Sweetie Belle said. “Thank you.” Twilight said. “Spike, take a note.” And her little companion did so, ready to write even in what was sure to be a dire time. Back on Heimr Island… The Battle Foals had made significant progress in building their community. Quantum Tech got the bright idea to have Fire Fight burn clumps of sand retrieved from the beach and ocean to make glass for their windows, which were installed smoothly with Shadow Shroud cutting the glass and Air Slash making nails for Frostbite to gently, even by a dragon’s standards, hammer into the walls until Quantum was able to concoct a potent adhesive. Tidal Wave brought entire tanks worth of seawater to power wash the ruins from head to toe while Spiral Galaxy and Crazylocks used their magic to clean up rubble that had either been there for ages or was smashed out by Turf War and Kickback when it was deemed loose enough to eventually fall anyway. They put it all in the gravelly area of the beach until they decided that they needed it for some reason. Zebota and Greensprout’s garden had already begun growing healthy sprouts, but the mystic zebra also made a point of checking on the quality of their water after passing through the desalination apparatus- it was also a good excuse to be by himself after embarrassing himself in front of Quantum from not being able to do her math test as a result of never having seen Equestrian mathematical symbols. When he got his nerve back, the two of them, with some help from Air Slash crafted some more explosive light storm arrows for Bullseye. The one-eyed archer herself did what she could to help around, but she mostly ended up picking up firewood and acting as a lookout along the shoreline and from above. She didn’t expect a monster to just magically appear out of thin air, but she figured somepony had to keep a vigil whilst everyone else was focused in something else. As always, Greensprout watched everyone’s health while she maintained their garden; a visit from Air Slash when they all had some downtime was certainly a nice distraction. “Man! It’s really coming along, isn’t it?” Fire Fight said. “Understatement of the year!” Spiral Galaxy said. Frostbite swooped down next to them. “Gotta hand to you, twerps, we got a pretty sweet pad going here. Glad I decided to crash with you.” “In no small part thanks to you, big guy!” Spiral said. Frostbite just glared away from her, blushing mildly. “O-Of course! I mean… I’m the dragon here, so no duh you need a friend- I-I mean… helper guy…. like me.” Shadow Shroud leapt down from wherever she was perched. “Is ‘helper guy’ your kind’s way of saying ‘super bestie’?” she teased. Frostbite snarled at her. “I’ll end you.” “C’mon, partner. No need to act all embarrassed.” Kickback said. “Not you too, Kickback…” Frostbite mumbled. “Well, whatever. Least I’ve actually got cool people to chill with- pun intended.” he said with a wry smile, earning him an eye roll from Fire Fight and Shadow Shroud, and a light giggle from Spiral Galaxy. “And Ah reckon it ain’t gonna be too much longer ‘til our little family starts growin’ some more.” Kickback said. “Yeah, man! Once we get some more of these rooms padded out, we can finally go searching again! Heck, maybe foals will come to us!” Fire Fight said. “Ok, maybe that last part’s a bit of a stretch…” “Ooh! I can’t wait!” Spiral said. “We’ll go on all kinds of cool and dangerous adventures together and have a private island to come back to! We can have our own parties and sleepovers, write our stories, maybe even end up building an entire new town here! One just for anyone with a fighting spirit!” “Ambitious, but not impossible.” Shroud said. “Reckon it’ll be hard sneakin’ around with that bounty on our heads n’ all.” Kickback said. “If anyone gives you crap out there, let me deal with ‘em.” Frostbite said. “Any friend of the dragons should be recognized as strong enough to stand on their own feet…. or hooves.” “Just don’t threaten them or anything. We don’t want anyone to get the wrong idea.” Fire Fight said. “Alright, I think it’s high time for a lunch break. Who’s hungry?” All of his posse instantly came out, joyously answering him and eager for food. Fire Fight happily went to his new kitchen and got started. ***** During the renovation process, Turf War had knocked down a few old banners that he asked Tidal Wave to wash in the ocean. After finishing lunch, Fire Fight used his magic to quickly dry them out so they could be used as picnic blankets as per Turf War’s idea. They set up in the open grassy area where the Jotun had landed when they first arrived. The weather was perfect for such an occasion, and the breathtaking scenery of the Celestial Sea churning at the edge of a lush island was the icing on the cake. For their meal, Fire Fight had gotten pretty creative and used some seaweed harvested by Tidal Wave to wrap up some simmered fruit and veggies. “You’re not going to have any gems, darling?” Quantum Tech asked Frostbite, noticing that he didn’t have his favorite snack with him. “Nah.” Frostbite said. He then showed her that had three fish skewered onto his tail, which he had frozen over; He chomped them all off of his tail in one bite, chewing vigorously before swallowing. “Gems are great n’ all, but I’ve gotten a taste for seafood lately.” “Well that’s good! A tad off-putting, but who am I to complain?” Quantum said. The Battle Foals made merry and had a grand old time whilst munching on their delicious meal. Air Slash and Greensprout decided to snuggle up to and just enjoy each other’s company. Quantum took the time to teach Zebota about the math symbols he was unfamiliar with, which in turn prompted him to share with the math symbols of his people, which she eagerly paid attention to. When everyone started complaining that the sun was getting a little hot, Frostbite exhaled small ice clumps for all of them to sit next to so they could cool off. Fire Fight, Shadow Shroud, Turf War and Kickback gathered a small handful of pebbles and used them to play marbles, which Frostbite eventually joined in after he left his ice clumps. Crazylocks was off to the side having what was certainly a very intelligent conversation with Shrapnel, but she was close to Bullseye who was keeping an eye on her. With the archer were Spiral Galaxy and Tidal Wave, the three of them casually chatting. Suddenly, Bullseye felt… a shift in the wind, causing to stare out into space anticipating something terrible to happen. “Bullseye?” Spiral said. “Huh?” The anxious archer snapped out of her trance. “You ok?” Tidal Wave asked. “Yeah, it’s just… I felt a sudden chill in the air, and I don’t like it…” Bullseye said. “And I’m not talking about popsicle-breath over there.” she said, eyeing towards Frostbite. In the Crystal Empire… The lucky few ponies that managed to evacuate left no trace of them ever leaving, making the already desolate, frozen ghost town all the more haunting aside from the legion of ice monsters harvesting the vast majority of the populace, whom they managed to encase in deep blocks of ice. The glacial golems brought their captives to the town square, piling them up for whatever gruesome reason. Their draconic queen descended towards the pile of prisoners, making one last aerial scan to double-check that nopony that didn’t escape was unaccounted for. “Some grand empire this turned out to be. Oh what am I saying? It’s my empire, my sanctuary of nothing! NOTHING!!! Now just to expand it ALL THE WAY!!!” she said in a distorted, hollow voice. “Hahahahahaha!!! And I sense that the Battle Foals won’t even be a threat now that they’ve finally found their own little sanctuary! Imagine that!!” Her laughter echoed throughout the icy hellscape. “Still… I ought to ensure their impotency. I’ll be freezing everything eternally after all!!! AHAHAHAHAAA!!! I think I’ll send them one last gift: a battle they’ll surely find to be to DIE FOR!!!!!" She expanded her humongous frills and charged ice energy into their clawed ends, firing it all at once into the air and creating a huge cloud of mist that drifted east…