Upon reaching the Grand Central Terminal, the Battle Foals and co. were relieved to see the group of refugees safely hidden away within the walls of the now derelict train station, their guards obviously exhausted from fighting onslaughts of foes themselves.
Knight’s Soul greeted the commanding officer. “Words cannot express my relief to see that you are all well, Iron Lung.”
“Aw shucks, master!! It wasn’t nothin’!!” she shouted with great enthusiasm. She then noticed the prepubescent platoon. “Hey! Are these the little ones that’ve been making such a ruckus!? Wowee!! Never thought I’d actually meet’cha buckos, especially still lookin’ spiff and spanky after the crap you’ve musta been through, huh!? HAHAHA!!!”
“Err… y-yes…” Quantum Tech stammered. “Could kindly use your indoor voice? Your shouting is echoing quite loudly… more than it should given the temperature, might a I add.”
“BWAHAHAHAHA!!!! Oh honey, this is my indoor voice!!” Iron Lung said…loudly…very loudly.
Knight’s Soul chuckled. “Ever the loud and proud presence, I see.” He cleared his throat. “Well, I leave the refugees in your care. I’ll dismiss a few of my troops so that they may escort you to the ship.”
Iron lung held her sword over her heart in salute. “Loud and clear, chief!!!” She sheathed her sword and looked at the Battle Foals. “Give ‘em a wallop they won’t they forget!! PWAHAHAHA!!!” She cheerfully ushered the refugees and her troops out the front door, her boisterous voice still audible as they disappeared into the cityscape.
“Damn. Somepony forgot give her, her meds.” Turf War said. “So, uh… what we do now?”
“We return to Canterlot. It’s the best stronghold we’ll have against the invader.” Twilight said.
“Okay… how?” Bullseye asked.
“By following the tracks, of course.” Luna said.
“By following the- are you serious!? It’ll take days to hoof it over there! No pun intended…” Valkyrie said.
“We don’t recall saying anything about ‘hoofing it’.” Luna said. She opened the door to reveal the tracks, but occupying them was a trio of coaches, but its wheels had been modified with spikes and were being heated by unicorn attendants using fire magic. At the helm pulling them outside were two brave pegasi clad in coats that’d obviously been imported from the Yaks. “We scrounged these coaches from wreckage, as they had had taken far less damage than any others. It will have to suffice.”
While all the Battle Foals gawked at it, Zebota just chuckled. “See how far a little scavenging can take you, my friends?”
“Excuse me! I wasn’t scavenging! I was repurposing, thank you very much.” Twilight insisted, holding her head high as she looked upon the rushed yet successful science project.
“Err… yes, of course.” Zebota said. “Shall we?”
“Let me fly outside with your pullers. I can look out for ‘em.” Frostbite said.
“That’d be great! Thanks.” One of the pegasi said.
“And just to make things easier for you…” Fire Fight said. He took a deep breath and ignited his horn, and then released a ribbon of fire that weaved around the coaches and thoroughly heated the spiked wheels.
“Sweet! That should last us at least half the trip!” One of the attendants said.
“Wonderful. Now how to handle the two elephants in the room… quite literally.” Shadow Shroud said as she eyed Shrapnel and Quantum’s mech. The little scientist and the tribescolt eyed each other awkwardly trying to figure out how to fit their respective luggage into decidedly small spaces.
Twilight giggled. “Nothing a little size-changing magic can’t fix.” She casted some light around the mech and Shrapnel, the latter whimpering at the sudden spell, and they were downsized just small enough that they could be fit through the coach doors and be stored inside.
“Shrapnel!” Zebota said.
“Don’t worry, Zebota. It won’t hurt him.” Twilight said before noticing how disgruntled the timberwolf looked.
Zebota sulked at her. “I pray that this has no lasting effects on him…”
“It won’t! It shouldn’t… probably… hopefully…” Twilight sheepishly smiled. Before any more complaints could be filed, Twilight magically moved the shrunken entities into the coach, and the troupe of troops, young and old, boarded.
With the wheels sufficiently heated and the pegasi pullers’ confidence boosted by the watchful presence of a dragon, the makeshift transport took off into the frigid day. As they traveled down the tracks, all the Battle Foals saw was desolation. Icy, frozen desolation. Grasslands were smothered by blankets of driving snow, entire forests had been suffocated by ice as though a forest fire had engulfed them, and there was nary a trace of any sort of life, not even a little squirrel or rat scampering through the snow.
“This is so… horrible!” Greensprout said.
Zebota sighed heavily. “The very land itself is dying. I can barely feel it…” A small tear rolled down his face.
Air Slash angrily huffed as his hoof gripped one of his swords. “Whatever form this evil takes, it will be cut down, even if it must be by my blades alone!!”
“Save that energy for the fight ahead, son.” Knight’s Soul said.
“Right. Now is the time to devise a strategy.” Shadow Shroud said. “We need to consider all we’ve learned about our snow day enthusiast and plan an offensive accordingly.”
“Ok…” Spiral Galaxy said. “Well, they can summon super tough windigos and ice monsters, and a lot of them!”
“That’s gotta mean they’re awful hot n’ bothered about somethin’. It takes a huge amount o’ bad feelin’s to whip up windigos alone.” Kickback said.
“This is normally where’d I say something like, ‘it can’t be as simple as that’, but it’s probably as simple as that.” Tidal Wave said.
“What’s not so simple is figuring what this person or… thing has against the whole of Equestria, to the point that they’d freeze it over.” Twilight.
“Quantum Tech?” Fire Fight said. “When you were scanning those mind control glaciers, did you notice anything in particular about your readings?”
The brainy filly fiddled with her glasses. “I recorded my readings for reference. Let me have a look. Hmm…” Quantum intently skimmed through the multitude of lights flashing from her glasses. “Hmm… this is rather tricky...”
“Yay! Tricky!!” Crazylocks blurted.
Quantum rolled her eyes and continued. “The wavelengths and patterns of emission very much mimic that of brainwaves, as I surmised, and they’re not as sporadic as I thought they were. There’s definitely a discernable nature to them.”
“Could I see?” Twilight asked.
“Oh! Silly me. Of course!” Quantum pressed a button on her glasses, and a holographic image projected from her glasses that was big enough to be a small movie screen, leaving everypony stunned.”
“Ain’t that somethin’ else.” Kickback said. He then noticed Quantum giggled while gazing at him, and then he just lowered his hat.
“Let’s see…” Twilight carefully studied the graph before her. “Psychology is an entire realm of possibilities, but if there’s one thing I can gather from these thought patterns, it’s indignation.”
“Indigo what now?” Turf War asked.
“No, brother. Indignation.” Greensprout said. “It is when somepony feels anger towards someone or something that feel is oppressing them or holding them back.”
“Towards all of Equestria though? Sounds like someone we’d read about in a history book.” Spiral said.
“I recall no such entity capable of ice magic that would harbor such a horrible grudge against our people, at least nothing along the lines of Tirek or Discord.” Luna said.
“Weren’t you like… on vacation or something for a super long time? There’s gotta be at least a few ghost stories your sister never told you.” Valkyrie said.
“Erm… y-yes…” Luna stammered, blushing. “You do make a fair point. I did, in fact, keep from her the whereabouts of the Battle Foals after all.”
“Well, whatever it is, we might have to be more ready than we think we need to be.” Bullseye said. “If they’re anything like me, they’ll want to go beyond what they hate and choke out innocent lives just to blow off steam.”
“Which means that determining that source of their anger will be the key to felling them, which also means that we must take caution not to overpower them.” Greensprout said.
“Indeed. If I have learned anything on this journey, it’s that sometimes, a warrior’s greatest weapon against a darkness is the warmth of mercy.” Air Slash said.
“It is said in my land that a foal not embraced the village will burn it down to feel such warmth.” Zebota said.
At that moment, everyone suddenly looked at Fire Fight. The red-hot colt awkwardly looked around the coach, and then rolled his eyes. “Oh, very funny…”
“So just do what we with them ice zombies n’ not bash ‘em around too hard? C’mon! I know y’all seent how diesel some o’ them ice monsters was, and we ‘bout to throw down with their boss! I ain’t gonna give ‘em no love tap.” Turf War said.
“Obviously not.” Air Slash said. “Our foe will assuredly fight with unbridled fury. It is after quelling that fury that we then pacify whatever beast was nurtured in their heart.”
“Then the next step is deciding how we are going to fulfill such a responsibility strategically and efficiently.” Knight’s Soul said. “I will begin with a proposal: Those eager to fight the most will be on the front lines. That way, once the beast is subdued, those most capable of persuasion can have the subsequent heart-to-heart.”
“Ok, there’s two problems with that idea.” Bullseye said. “1. We’re all eager to fight. If anypony’s gonna be out there raising hell, it’s us. 2. What’s everypony else in the back supposed to do? We need as much weight as we can pull.”
“I’m afraid she’s right, sir. This will be a contest of resolve.” Greensprout said.
“Hmm… indeed.” Knight’s Soul said. “Then the tricky part will be figuring who must fight where. Our foe will likely have their forces divided and ready to conquer.”
“Definitely have me and Turf War out front!” Valkyrie said. “Winter-Wonder-Whatever is totes gonna have grunts out there that we can keep down easy.” The street-born bastion smiled deviously as he looked at his feathered friend.
“Allow Shrapnel and I to lead as well. I will muster all the power the spirits will grant me to combat the darkness wielded y our foe.” Zebota said.
“I’ll be there too, and I’m sure Frostbite will want a slice of that pie.” Fire Fight said.
“IF THERE’S FROZEN FIEND PIE TO EATEN, I’M YOUR GIRL!!” Crazylocks said.”
Greensprout giggled. “Indeed, sister. I’ll work from the back to support everyone like always.”
“I’ll provide the covering fire within my power whilst analyzing our foe. I’ll just need to be covered myself whilst doing so, of course.” Quantum said.
“Give me some room to concentrate, and I’ll summon a starstorm or two here and there.” Spiral Galaxy said.
Tidal Wave pondered. “Hmm… ice and snow are still technically water, so I guess I could go anywhere…”
Sky Strike lightly nudged his son. “Then keep a close eye on the battlefield and go where you’re needed at any given moment. I think I’ll do the same.” He said before winking.
“The same shall apply to my son and I, I think.” Knight’s Soul said.
“I have no objections to that, father.” Air Slash said. “And I presume Shadow Shroud shall do the same whilst hidden in plain sight.”
Shroud giggled. “You know me so well.”
“Guess cowboy and I are hanging in the back then, huh?” Bullseye said.
Kickback tipped his hat. “Surely. So in other words… we’re doin’ pretty much what we’ve been doin’ this whole time, Ah reckon.”
The Battle Foals looked around awkwardly. “Err… yeah! If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! Y’all know what I’m sayin’!?” Turf War said.
“Right.” Twilight said. “We have our game plan. Now, it’s a matter of meeting our foe face to face.”
As the sound of the train’s wheels rolling over the rails echoed throughout the coach, Luna couldn’t help to recall the voice she’d heard in Manehatten. “Why… Why did that presence feel so… familiar?” she thought to herself. She knew her answer wasn’t much further ahead, whether she liked it or not…
All of a sudden, the coach was assailed by ice bats. Shrieking like banshees with the cold of winter in their voices, they surrounded the vulnerable transport.
Fire Fight ignited his horn as they all prepared for battle. “QUICK! EVERYPONY-” was all he could mutter be they heard a cacophony of smashing and crashing around them followed by watching countless little bits of the bats being scattered to the wind, then silence. They then noticed a certain ice dragon flying just outside their window upside down and posing as though he were relaxing on the beach. He smugly grinned before giving them a thumbs up. “…get totally shown up by Frostbite…”
Tidal Wave sheathed his lance. “OP, please nerf.”