Frostbite soared above the coaches, keeping a watchful eye in both them and their drivers. The recent, horribly botched attempt to assail the train by the ice monsters must have taught them to keep their distance, because all had been calm since for the past few hours. Looking out into the frozen shadow of the once verdant lands of Equestria, all he had opened his senses to was the shadow growing. Powerful winds drove the ice and snow as though the aether itself was continually erupting it.
The relentless blizzard was beginning to take its toll on the Pegasus towers; they were panting heavily whilst shivering like leaves. Frostbite flew down towards them. “Stay with me, runts! We’re almost there!” he said as he looked up towards their destination. “Oh… crap…”
As they neared the mountain housing the grand capital, he was slowly able to make out through the dense, icy air that a swirling cloud of raw ice magic raged above the summit like a whirlpool; and the blizzard seemed to strengthen as they neared. “Wh-What in C-C-Celestia’s name is g-g-going on?” one of the pegasi stammered.
Just then, Frostbite noticed something approaching them from straight ahead out of the blizzard- something large and fast. “Uh-oh!!” Frostbite surged forward and saw a gigantic ice boulder flying towards them like a foul baseball. With all his strength his thrust his clenched fist into the vast mass and shattered it into dust. “Phew! Crisis averted…” he said. “Wait…” he said squinting his eyes. “OH S***!!!”
Without warning anyone, Frostbite surged back the train and slammed into it, pushing against it with all his might while digging his feet into the ground. The sudden impact blasted the Pegasus towers off balance, and they desperately scrambled to level themselves in the air.
Once the train has grinded to a screeching halt, Frostbite let up and breathed a big sigh of relief. “Two for the price of one…”
“’Ey junior!” One the towers shouted. “Maybe a quick heads up before ya hit the e-brake next time! I don’t plan on startin’ a career as a windsock!! Capisce!?”
The train’s passengers then all marched out, some of whom were a little dizzy, all of whom were glaring at the icy drake. “What the hell, Frostbite!?” Bullseye said.
Crazylocks was beside her with a janitor’s bucket over her head. “I have achieved Nirvana!”
Frostbite grimaced and cleared and throat. “Ehh… sorry.” He then pointed out ahead of the tracks. “But take a good look.”
Following their friend’s direction, the Battle Foals and co. looked out to see a gigantic crevasse that had opened the rolling plain wide open and broken the train tracks far apart. Had Frostbite been a minute too late, they might have plunged into an icy abyss.
“Man. Can never be easy, huh?” Spike said.
“First rodeo, partner?” Kickback asked him.
“Nope.”
Luna strutted up to the obstruction. “Not to worry, my little ponies. We’ll simply make use of our magic…” Luna said as she alit her horn. However, as she tried levitating one of the train cars over the crevasse, a sudden updraft of frigid wind erupted from its glacial maw. Luna’s magic was blasted off of the car like sand in a desert wind, startling the lunar sovereign and causing her to drop the car in the abyss. “What!?”
“Welp! You owe somepony ‘bout a good 10,000 bits.” Turf War said, earning him an annoyed glare form Luna.
“Hmm…” Fire Fight launched a powerful flame into the updraft, but it was dispelled in an instant. Twilight shot a bolt of her own magic, but the same thing happened. “Is this… a force field?”
“Yes. It’s clearly a form of powerful barrier spell with potent nullifying magic mixed into it.” Twilight said.
“I’m afraid she’s right.” Quantum said as she read her scanners. “This spell appears to be weaved in such a way that it repels magic away as it is annulled. That’s a tricky combination to apply correctly. Hmm… It appears to be attached to a sentient force.”
“Probably the big bad causing this mess.” Valkyrie said.
“Not even a huge blast fire will do anything?” Fire Fight asked.
“Well, magical fire anyway, but manipulating a natural flame in such a vast quantity would be rather… cumbersome.” Quantum said.
“Not to mention even sparking one in this frigid weather.” Shadow Shroud said.
“Ooh! I could summon a huge meteor ad crash into the ditch! That might break the barrier.” Spiral Galaxy suggested.
“Spiral, no!” Tidal Wave said. “I don’t want you collapsing out in this blizzard!”
“I think I can manage it this time!” Spiral boasted.
“Spiral, normally we’d let you try, but Tidal Wave’s got a point- we need you at your full strength for the fight ahead.” Shroud said.
“Ok, ok! Timeout!” Frostbite said. “Before we make any attempt at crossing this hole, something threw a huge hunk of ice our way. Something’s gonna try and stop us, and it’s not gonna be friendly about it.”
“Good to know. I shall be on watch for such a foe unless I am needed otherwise.” Air Slash said, drawing his swords.
“As shall I.” Knight’s Soul said. “However… If we can’t simply melt this icy obstacle away…”
“Then maybe we could freeze it further?” Kickback said.
“What!? Why the hell would we wanna do that?” Turf War asked.
“Well, what if we make more ice for ourselves like it wants and bridge that way?” Kickback said.
“It could work.” Zebota said. “If we can command the water carefully enough, we may be able to fool the spell into thinking there is no magic, and we may freeze ourselves a bridge.”
“Well, there’s plenty of water all around us! It’s just… all frozen.” Tidal Wave said.
“Nothing a little fire can’t solve, kiddo.” One of the fire unicorns said as they both ignited their horns, Fire Fight happily following suit. Together, the three slowly but surely melted a sizeable quantity of snow that Tidal Wave then carefully, gradually sculpted into a bridge over the giant chasm.
Frostbite popped his shoulders. “My time to shine.” He hovered over the water bridge and breathed cold flames unto it, freezing the path forward. All the while, he glanced around him every now and again for any sign of hostiles.
Meanwhile, Air Slash and his father did the same with more room for concentration at the cliff’s edge. Bullseye and Kickback soon joined with their own weapons drawn.
“See anything?” Air Slash asked.
Bullseye scanned with her good eye around the crystalline mist vigilantly. “Nope. Pretty quiet.”
“The classic calm before the storm, as it were…” Knight’s Soul said.
“Ah bet y’all got plenty more stories about that we do by now…” Kickback said. The sharpshooting cowpony scanned around with his gun drawn. For a moment, it seemed like a particular area of the mist below rustled a bit. He squinted his eyes at that, and a chill shot up his spine when he realized what was hiding in the darkness. “FROSTBITE!!! GET BACK!!!” he shouted.
“Huh?... HOLY SH-” Was all Frostbite could utter before he was smacked out of the sky by a giant ice mass jetting out from the chasm like a rocket. He fell back to the group, hitting the ground with an agonizing thud. “Ooooh…”
“FROSTBITE!!!” Greensprout shouted. She then looked up at the ice mass and shivered in terror. “What now!?”
“Is that…?” Shadow Shroud muttered.
The ice mass floated above the chasm, but its form bore a menacing presence. It was none other than the crystal golem that they’d encountered so long ago, but in the form of a sentient glacier. It had grown innumerable smaller spikes around its body, but its echoey roar was ever terrifying. There was an X-shaped wound across its torso that seemed to have been mended by the ice.
“Not this guy again!” Fire Fight said.
“Old friend of yours?” Valkyrie asked.
“Unfortunately!” Shadow Shroud said. She suddenly noticed of a barrage of icicles raining towards her, and she hurriedly dodged between them, having to contort her body quite extremely to avoid getting impaled.
“We encountered it beneath the mountain of Canterlot before we met Zebota. It must have reconstituted itself after we left the mountain caverns!” Quantum explained.
“Or it was revived by the ice overlord.” Air Slash said.
“Who cares why it’s back up!? We ‘bout to trounce it again!!” Turf War said with his shield up in front of Frostbite.
“Indeed! To arms, everypony!” Luna shouted as she alit her horn along with every unicorn around.
The frozen golem held out its claws and expelled a thick cloud of the icy mist. Before any spells could be cast, the horns’ magic were all annulled. “OH NO!!” Twilight said.
“And here I thought I was actually gonna get to melt some ice…” Fire Fight said. “Turf War, stay and guard Frostbite until Greensprout can wake him up! Everypony else, attack!”
“Absolutely, Fire Fight!” Greensprout said. She promptly got to work channeling her Gaia Root into the unconscious Frostbite.
Air Slash reared his sword with the blade glowing fiercely. “I fell you once! I’LL DO IT AGAIN!!” He launched his sword blades in an X-shape right at its chest, but the mist quickly fizzled it. “Even that!? Rngh…! Very well!” He surged forward towards the golem with his blades ready to slice.
“AIR SLASH, NO!” Knight’s Soul shouted.
But his father’s plea fell on deaf ears, and Air Slash closed in to swing his sword. He was thrown off-balance when the golem’s new mini spikes suddenly thrust out into long needles. “UWAH!” Air Slash managed to stop himself mere inches from being impaled. His terror distracted him from the golem swinging its arm and knocking him out of the sky. The impact scattered the snow as if a meteor had fallen. The golem then shot a bolt of icy lightning at him, flash freezing the downed samurai.
“MY SON!!” Knight’s Soul screamed. He ferociously glared at the golem as he held his sword with his hoof. “YOU WILL PAY DEARLY FOR THAT!!”
He charged forward towards the golem, which lowered itself with its spiked arms ready to swing. Knight’s Soul stopped for a moment and held his sword in a defensive stance as the beast swung. He parried the blow, but it took a great deal of effort for him to push back. When he did, he took a slice and the golem’s thin upper arm. A chunk of ice broke off, causing the beast to roar in pain. It formed ice blades around its already enormous claws and began swiping furiously at the knight master, who gracefully bobbed and weaved out of the way and parried what hits he had to with seamless dexterity.
Kickback, having charged his whip, ran up and crack it as the golem’s hand and shattered most of it. It let out a sharp, yet short cry before instantly freezing over its arm, regenerating it. It rose back into the air and held out its frigid claws. “Tarnation!”
“Uh-oh!! Run!!” Spiral shouted. Everypony scrambled as the golem fired bolts of ice lightning that streamed across the frozen plain, leaving thorny glaciers in their wakes.
“Here’s hoping it’s no longer light-absorbent!” Quantum Tech said as she rapidly fired her railguns at the frozen sentinel. Much to her relief, the blasts violently popped against the golem’s armored body, causing it to hold back its beams. “It’s lost that property, has it?”
“But we still can’t use our magic!” Twilight lamented. “The best Princess Luna and I can do it maybe distract it.”
“So it would seem!” Luna said, and the two alicorns ascended around the golem.
Zebota struggled in vain to alight his brooch, the mist clearly choking out its magic. “It’s no use! I cannot connect to the land!”
“Maybe you guys can’t whip out your magic, but I bet I can whip out my ancestors!” Valkyrie said. Though it took greater effort than usual, she ignited her Valhalla. However, the golden light was reduced to mere sparkle around her body. “Even me, huh? Well, you use what you can.” With a mighty caw, she soared towards the golem.
Spike, powerless to contend the beast, ran over to the ice black trapping Air Slash and hurriedly started clawing and flaming away at it. “D-D-Don’t worry, buddy! I’ll get you out!”
Much of the ground crew were helpless to do anything to combat the golem. All Kickback could do was pelt it with electrified bullets while Valkyrie dueled with it as the princesses made near futile attempts to distract its vision. Along with him were Quantum and her railguns, Bullseye taking careful aim with her arrows, and Crazylocks occasionally managed to latched onto it to pummel with her pigtails, only to be flung off. Their ability to damage it couldn’t keep up with its ability to regenerate its frozen body.
The golem suddenly launched a hail of ice spikes every which way but where. Everyone scattered and dodged, save for Turf War, who blocked the shots from hitting him and Greensprout, who was still working on Frostbite.
“Yo, homegirl! You waitin’ on his insurance to come through!? What’s takin’ so damn long!?” Turf War demanded.
Greensprout frantically kept channeling her Root’s energy into Frostbite, but the icy drake showed no signs of stirring. “I-I-I don’t understand, Turf War! He has a pulse, but… the Gaia Root just isn’t reaching him for some reason!”
Twilight descended to her. “Greensprout, dragons are incredibly resistant, even immune to magic. I’m not healing magic like this will work!”
“What!?” Greensprout said. “But the Gaia Root is as old as dragons and ponies alike, perhaps older! This should be working!”
“Well, how the hell we s’posed to- OH, S***!!!” Turf War exclaimed as he noticed a giant ice ball being flung at him. He managed to shatter it with his seismic hammer, but he thrown off-balance and stumbled to the ground. “I’m ‘bout to-” was all he could mutter before the golem froze him with a bolt of ice lightning.
“TURF WAR!!” Greensprout exclaimed. All she saw of him was the look of frozen terror in his eyes as Twilight scooped up both her and Frostbite and ran.
Fire Fight hurried over to his friend and started desperately punching away at it. “Don’t worry, bro! I’ll get you out!! Being frozen’s really not that bad anyway…”
Valkyrie noticed what had happened on the ground and glared fiercely at the golem. “OH, YOU’RE DEAD, PUNK!” She took a big swing at the beast, which it parried with its forearm shaped into a blade. The two went back and forth, the clashing between cold steel and enchanted ice echoing sharply even throughout the frigid air.
“DOGPILE!!!” Crazylocks shouted as she divebombed into the staggering golem. It was knocked to the ground with a thud.
As it tried to get back up, Shrapnel suddenly pounced onto it, grasping its shoulders with his claws and locking his jaws onto its head. “TEAR IT TO BITS, MY BEAST!!” Zebota commanded, and the wooden titan started thrashing it like a chew toy. It was a contest of brute strength between the two titans as the golem struggled to break free from Shrapnel’s grip.
Eventually, the golem managed to grab Shrapnel by the collar and suplex him into the snow. Valkyrie took advantage of the distraction and dove towards the golem, thrusting her sword into its head. It screamed in agony before swatting the avian knight off of it. She hit the snow with and thud, and the golem froze her with bolt of ice lightning.
“THIS ISN’T WORKING! WE NEED A SOLTUTION NOW!!” Tidal Wave shouted.
“We need Frostbite, that’s what!” Spiral said. “But on ice- …Wait a minute…” She looked back and forth between the golem and Frostbite, and then at Quantum’s mech. “Quantum Tech! Do you still have any more of those crystal shards from when we beat it before?”
Quantum blasted the golem with her railguns as she heeded her friend. “I do. Why?”
“Remember when we fought Nidhogg? He ate one of those crystals and got all supercharged. Maybe we can wake him up with one?” Spiral suggested.
“Hmm! Interesting idea indeed.” Quantum said. The golem suddenly roared as it barreled towards her mech. She activated her railguns’ beam saber mode and parried it just before it rend her armor. She quivered in fright as she looked into its soulless yet enraged crystalline eyes. “SHADOW SHROUD, GRAB ONE!!” she screamed as she ejected on of the specimens from the back of her mech.
“On it!” Shadow Shroud said. With shadowy swiftness, the little ninja swiped the crystal from the air and rushed it over to Greensprout, whom Twilight had taken cover with behind an ice cluster left behind by the golem’s ice lightning. “Did you catch our plan?”
Greensprout nodded. “Yes, sister.” She took the crystal and gulped. “I certainly hope this works…” She charged the crystal with her Gaia Root, giving it a gentle green glow. She then stuffed it into Frostbite’s jaws and forced him to chew it. “Please wake up, brother!”
Frostbite had ingested the charged shard, but for moment, it didn’t seem to do anything. They began to worry that their idea had been in vain until… “Unh…”
“Frostbite!?” Twilight said.
Slowly but surely, Frostbite began to resuscitate. His breaths gradually became more powerful… until a sudden swell of power seemed to shock him awake.
“RAAAAWWWWWRRRRR!!!!!!”
An explosion of sheer will power blew away all the ice and snow around the enraged dragon. The golem looked startled at Frostbite, who lunged at it at blinding speeds with a clenched fist. “JUST DIIIEEE!!!!” Frostbite thrust his fist directly into the wound on its chest before the golem could put its arms up, and Frostbite shattered through its body like a baseball through a window. The golem was motionless in the air for a moment until it suddenly dulled out and shattered into countless chunks.
Frostbite heavily panted as he was knelt on the ground, but he caught his breath and stood back up. He brushed some stray ice off his shoulder as he looked back at the golem’s remains. “No one hurts my little twerp friends without me pummeling ‘em.”