//------------------------------//
// Ch. 21 Cold Hard Truth ,,,,,"The Pack is Back!" 
// Story: Cold Fire 
// by Arcanum -Phantasy 
//------------------------------//

The air was cold as hell from where I stood, the dirt under my paws shifting between my toes. The sky was still dark since I woke up at the ass crack of dawn. Nothing but loose dirt and shattered boulders surrounded me from all sides. Just the way I wanted it. The Ponyville Quarry was just the kind of place I needed to get my shit together. No plants to burn or buildings that anyone would care about if shit hit the fan. Nothing to hold me back. Perfect.
A wave of blinding hot rage shot through me, my core surging as I let my anger burn. Since about an hour ago, my mind kept running through what my pals told me. Not gonna lie, I was scared out of my fucking mind. The bitch that almost killed me back home had somehow ended up here too. Who wouldn't shit a brick? But then I thought about Autumn and I got more furious than I've ever been in my entire life. This was worse than the few times someone grabbed one of my tails.
I let out a howl of pure hate and shot out a Flamethrower so hot, it melted a hole through a nearby boulder. I acted mostly on instinct, lashing out at everything around me with every move in my arsenal. I cleaved and crushed rocks with my Iron Tail. Chunks of stone bigger than my head got flung into cave mouths by my Extrasensory. I Zen Headbutted everything in range into rubble. I threw a Hex at whatever burnt stones I came across, turning them into dust.  I let myself go more and more wild, more things getting fucked up every second I let it all happen.
When I finally ran out of things to break, I fell to my haunches and yelled to the sky with everything I had.
"WHY THE FUCK DID THAT BITCH HAVE TO BE HERE TOO!!!"
I let out a frustrated growl as I pounded a paw into the dirt, heavy pants coming out of my muzzle. I let myself go limp, most of my anger gone. 
It never fails. Something good decides to finally come into my life and I get kicked in the nuts. Can't I get one fucking break for a change? Can't the universe give me that much for fucks sake?
"I need to get out of here," I mumbled, staggering to my feet. "If I'm here, then Autumn's going to be in danger. If I head out now, then maybe-"
"No fucking way bro," a familiar voice said flatly.
I jumped and spun around. Sure enough, standing about five feet away from me was a frowning Absol. Looks like the dick's still good at sneaking up on people. That or its a dark-type thing.
"What are you doing out here?" I asked, slumping down to my haunches again.
"Keeping an eye on you," he frowned, walking up to me.
"Right," I sighed. 
Neither of us said anything for...I have no idea how long. This was still a lot for me to take in at once. My old friends coming back into my life. Finally having a happy life. Finding out my psycho ex is in this world too. My emotions were running in so many directions I didn't even know which way to go! Well, except for one route at least.
"I can't stay here," I sighed.
"Why?" Sid asked flatly.
I blinked, then glared at him as I said, "I know you're not stupid. You know why."
"Tell me anyways," he said, giving me a flat look to go with his tone as he settled onto his haunches.
I let out a frustrated sigh/growl and said, "If I'm here, then Sandra's gonna show up too. When she does, you and I both know she'll do something to Autumn. If I'm not here, she's safe. Period."
Sid just raised a brow at me (Huh. Didn't know Absols even had eyebrows.) and said, "Okay. Let's say you run off. What's stoping her from running after you?"
I opened my mouth, but no words came out. Honestly, I hadn't even thought of that. Would Autumn stay in Ponyville if I left? Probably not. I guess Sid could tell I figured that out too, because he flashed me a cocky grin before he started talking again.
"Take it from someone that's been in this world for a few years. Once the girl's here like you, they will run through hell covered in kerosene to get to you."
"Talking from experience?" I chuckled.
"You have no idea," he snorted. "Anyway. The way I see it, you have two options."
"Which is?" I asked.
Sid's smile took on a more sinister edge as he said, "Let sis and I take care of Sandra or get strong enough to settle the score."
I leaned back a bit at that. I hadn't thought of that. Why was running my first thought anyway? I fought a fucking tentacle monster a few days ago for christ sake! Sandra's just a step above that. My jaw clenched tightly as a wide smile spread across my muzzle. When Sandra comes, I will not let her take away my happiness again. Let's bury the bitch.
"I'll take option B."
"Thought so," Sid chuckled, standing back up. "But first, let's see what you have to work with."
"Huh?" I blinked.
"Your moves, dork," Sid sighed, rolling his eyes. "What moves do you have?"
"Oh," I said, chuckling awkwardly. "Well, I've got Flamethrower, Extrasensory, Hex, Zen Headbutt, Iron Tail, Flame Charge, and I think Protect, but I'm not sure."
Sid nodded, a small frown on his face as he stared at me.
"So three Special Moves, three Physical Moves, and maybe one Status Move. Guess you haven't found your Mana Move yet."
"My what?" I blinked.
"Don't worry about it," he sighed, waving off my question with a claw. "What about your ability?"
"I....don't know," I mused, putting a paw to my chin. "What are Ninetales abilities again?"
"Are you serious?" he said flatly.
"Hey! Give me a break! There's like eight hundred fucking Pokémon out there and four times as many abilities to keep track of!"
Sid rolled his eyes and said, "Does fire still hurt you?"
"A little?" I said, raising a brow.
"Do you glow every now and then?"
"Yeah?" I said, wondering where the hell he was going with this.
"Then congratulations! You have Drought!" he said with the cheesiest smile I had ever seen, before it shifted back into a deadpan.
"Huh," I blinked. "How about that?"
Yep," Sid chuckled. "Can you turn it on and off at will?"
"Nope," I sighed. 
"Then I think we should start there," he smiled. "Should make your better moves pack a bigger punch later."
"Right," I smiled, then frowned as I looked around and asked, "Hey, where's Dahlia?"
"Getting to know your girlfriend better," he chuckled. "Don't worry about it."


***


Dahlia was no stranger to training others, a consequence of years of working as a gym coach back in her previous life. Through grit, discipline, and a lack of compromise, she managed to turn limp noodles into titans and supper models with a very small margin of error. One would think that similar tactics would translate well into teaching Equestrians how to fight. While not wrong, it was significantly more difficult than back on Earth. Humans didn't have magic as a crutch to lean on when their bodies couldn't hack it and their world was a lot more cruel. To put it simply, Dahlia saw Equestrians as soft with only a handful of them not being total pushovers. Turning someone that lived that kind of life into a warrior was an uphill battle with the hill covered with oil and soap. 
That aside, she saw a bit of potential in Autumn. As they made their way towards one of the many open fields surrounding Ponyville, she could see a fire burning in the doe with each passing glance. It was solely for that reason that she was even entertaining the idea of training her in the first place. What it really boiled down to was whether of not that fire could survive what Dahlia had in store for her. After all, guts could only take Autumn so far when Sandra came to town.
By the time they came to an open enough clearing, the sun had moved long past the horizon into a clear late morning sky. Nodding, Dahlia turned to face her student with a shark-toothed grin that made the Kirin audibly gulp.
"Alright hot stuff, let's make a few things clear," Dahlia said with a wild edge in her tone. "First off, I'm not going to pull any punches here. The whole point of this is to make you strong enough to take down a psychopath that can and will fuck you up in a split second. I'm gonna drag you through so much hell, you'll beg me to kill you just to make it stop. You got that?"
Autumn nodded, lips pulled into a resolute frown with eyes that burned with determination. Dahlia liked what she was seeing. A small part of her felt bad for what she was going to put the Kirin through, but she knew that there was no getting around it. She needed to remind herself that this was the only way to make sure that Autumn survived what was to come.
"Good," she smirked, backing up from the doe.
Once she was a good five feet away from the Kirin, she continued.
"First, I want to see what you can do right now."
"Okay," Autumn nodded. "How do you want to do this?"
Dahlia's smile turned cocky as she said, "I want you to hit me with your best shot."
"Wh-What?!" Autumn balked.
"I won't know what need to work on if I can't get a feel for your power level," she shrugged. "Besides, I doubt a light weight like you could hurt me anyway."
"R-Right," she gulped.
A orange glow surrounded Autumn's horn as she gathered magic into it, but before she could do anything with it, a force slammed into her chest and sent her flying. She gasped, the air getting knocked out of her before she fell into the grass. She staggered to her hooves and leveled a glare at Dahlia, only for it to turn into wide eyed shock when the Kitsune seemingly appeared in front of her. Dahlia's tails took on a metallic sheen as she spun them towards her. Autumn had just enough time to put up a barrier before she was knocked to the other end of the field. She dug her hooves into the ground to stop herself at that point, just as Dahlia opened her mouth and shot a white ball of mist at her. Autumn dropped her barrier and rolled out of the way at the last second. A quick glance back showed what would've happened to her if the had attack connected. What had once been a tree was now a solid ice sculpture in the shape of a tree, the plant's shriveled and frost bitten remains trapped in its core. She looked back just in time to see her opponent close the gap between them, a violet glow covering her forehead. Thinking fast, she put up a barrier just before Dahlia rammed her head into her. The barrier shattered like glass under the force of the Kitsune's Zen Headbutt , stunning her just long enough for an Iron Tail to knock her across the field again.
"First rule of fighting," Dahlia said, tone even as she slowly moved towards the gasping Kirin laying in the grass. "Never give your opponent an opening. That means, if your best shot takes a while to charge, don't stand around like an idiot. Do it while your moving and when its ready, always go for the throat."
Autumn coughed, breath heavy as she staggered back to her hooves. Dahlia let a smirk creep onto her muzzle as she watched small flames start to cover Autumn's body. 
Almost there, she thought, a small twinge of guilt filling her over what she was just about to do. Please don't hold this against me too much.
"Hell, if you're this much of a wash out, maybe I should be Alex's mate."
"What?" Autumn asked, eyes and mouth wide with shock.
"I mean, hell, we've known each other for years and I am trying to gut the bitch that hurt him. Plus, we're both Ninetales, so I've got that going for me. What do you say hot stuff? Mind if I take a shot at it?"
Autumn let out a roar of rage, her body blasting into a raging inferno of blue and pink flames as she assumed her Nirik form. Dahlia was given no time to brace herself for the charging rocket of flames and a furious Autumn Blaze that blasted into her. She bit back a pained scream as she hit the ground, rolled, and got back onto her paws in one practiced motion.
"Now that's more like it!" Dahlia cried, smiling through the pain that she knew she earned. "Now for rule number two."
Before she could finish, Autumn let out another furious roar as she charged towards her. Ready for it this time, Dahlia gathered some of her energy into her tails and spun. Instead of turning into metal, torrents of water surrounded her tails as they slammed into Autumn's side. All of Autumn's fire went out on contact before she was sent flying again, now feeling as if she had just been hit by an ocean wave as opposed to a wrecking ball.
"Never loose your cool," Dahlia continued, eyeing the fallen Kirin with a small smirk. "Still want to keep going?"
Autumn let out a deep growl, random patches of her body returning to her normal form as she glared at her opponent.
"Th-That was a dirty trick," she growled, her voice an off echo of her normal tone and a demonic growl.
"Got you into battle mode, didn't it?" she shrugged. "Now, come at me again and fucking mean it this time!"
Autumn let out another roar as she charged towards Dahlia. The Ninetales snorted as she tapped into a different core in her body. A second later, Autumn slammed into a light green barrier that stopped her dead in her tracks. Autumn's glowing white eyes grew wide with shock while her opponent gave her a bored frown.
"What did I just say?"
Before Autumn could answer, a pink orb about the size of bowling ball formed on the end of one of Dahlia's tails and hovered over them. A second later, the orb fired a matching beam of energy down on Autumn. The Kirin had just enough time to scream in shock before she was blasted away.
"Your Nirik form is your battle mode," Dahlia explained, banishing her Protect and Moonblast as she strolled towards a dazed and normal Autumn. "You need to learn to use it with a cool head or you're dead!"
"H-How?" Autumn groaned, dizzily dragging herself to her hooves. "Kirin can only turn into Niriks when we're angry."
"I didn't say not to get angry," Dahlia sighed, her smile dropping into a cold frown. "I said to keep a cool head."
"What's the difference?" Autumn frowned, finally managing to shake off her daze.
"In a word? Control."
"Huh? What do you mean" Autumn asked, sitting down.
Dahlia sighed, taking a seat as well.
"When my brother and I visited The Dragon Lands a couple years back, an Elder Dragon taught us how to be better fighters. One of the things he taught us was that the best way to make our attacks stronger was by controlling our anger. The way he put it was any dragon can breath fire when they are angry, but only a great dragon warrior knows how to use that anger to fire a narrow stream of flame."
"Okay, I think I know where you're coming from," Autumn nodded, only to frown in shame as she added, "But how do I learn to control it? No Kirin can really control themselves when they go Nirik. All we can do is throw a tantrum until we cool off."
"That's what practice is for," Dahlia chuckled, swatting Autumn playfully in the shoulder. "Once you learn how to aim that temper of yours, that bitch won't know what hit her."
"I hope so," Autumn sighed.
"Hey! None of that defeatist crap!" Dahlia snapped, her smile dropping into a frown. "You will get control of your Nirik form and you will be ready when Sandra comes! YOU GOT ME?!"
"Y-Yes ma'am!" Autumn stammered, jumping into attention like a Guard. 
"Fuck that ma'am shit," Dahlia hissed, her eyes glowing with a cold rage that made snowstorms look warm. "Call me Dal or nothing at all."
"Yes Dal," Autumn gulped.
"Good," Dahlia smiled, her cold glare gone so quickly that it gave her student mental whiplash. "Now, let's see if we can get you to transform without almost breaking one of my ribs this time."


***


Crickets chirped in the otherwise quiet Everfree Forest, the night air chilled by the full moon reining supreme in the sky above. Moving in the deep shadows of the forest was the last thing most would expect to see at this time. A jet-black Earth Pony mare walked confidently through the treacherous woods, a proud smile gracing her muzzle in spite of the potential dangers that surrounded her. Her deep blue eyes scanned the trees with mild interest, her mane and tail a pair of waiving black masses with red tips that covered her back and almost trailed across the ground respectively. Her cutie mark was a turquoise peal in front of a mirror with no reflection.When she crossed the tree line, an unexpected sight replaced her relaxed smile with a confused frown. Standing in the middle of the path leading towards town was a light green mare. Her mane and tail were amaranth dreadlocks with light vermillion highlights. An orange bandana covered with white flowers kept what few bangs she had out of her eyes. Her eyes, normally a light purple and worn in a dreamy fashion were now wide with glowing yellow irises. 
The forest mare reclaimed her smile and approached the mare.
At about two feet, she stopped before her and in a soft voice said, "Good evening. I hate to bother you, but I think I'm a little lost. Could you tell me which way Ponyville is?"
"You are not welcome here," Treehugger intoned, voice as cold as ice and heavy as stone.
"Well that's rude," the mare frowned.
"You may fool others, but not my eyes," Treehugger frowned. "Leave now Skinwalker or I promise you will not live long enough to regret it."
The mare blinked in shock, only for a sinister smile to don her muzzle a second later.
"Looks like Alex has been telling people about me. Nice to know he still thinks about me."
"Leave," Treehugger growled.
Sandra chuckled, then in a voice that was a perfect mix of soft venom and sugar said, "Make me."
Treehugger reared onto her hind legs, but instead of bringing her forehooves down for a stomp like Sandra was expecting, the mare assumed a bipedal stance and reached into her mane. With a single fluid motion, she pulled a six-inch long metal cylinder out from behind her bandana and flicked it. With a series of loud clicks, the cylinder grew into four foot long silver staff. Sandra had just enough time to look shocked before the mare swung the staff at her. She ducked under the blow, only to receive a hind-hoof to the face for her trouble. Blinking she stars out of her eyes, her form flickered as she rose to her hind hooves as well. With a furious growl, her left foreleg turned into black furred arm with red claws, said claws tightly gripping a blade of pure darkness as she charged towards the mare.
Treehugger's brow furrowed into a wide-eyed glare as she twirled her weapon, her movements an elegant dance of death as she moved into striking range of her opponent. Sandra had no chance to strike, Treehugger's attacks coming in a constant barrage of spins and thrusts that bruised, battered, and rammed into her body from every direction. Treehugger's attacks came faster and faster, her dance like movements becoming a rhythmic blur as Sandra screamed in agony. As her attacks grew in speed, they too grew in power, turning her barely perceivable attacks into hammering blows powerful enough to shatter boulders into pebbles. Sandra could do nothing as her bones shattered like dried sticks, the pain too much for her to properly register before a flat forehoof strike sent her battered body flying into a tree. When she slumped to the ground, she raised her head just in time to see Treehugger before she chucked her staff at her like a spear. And just like that, the metal rod ran clean through her chest and the tree behind her.
Sandra let out wet gasp, the rest of her illusion falling away to reveal the Zoroark beneath. She laughed, blood trickling out the corners of her mouth as she stared at her killer.
"Looks like Alex has made some scary friends. I'll need to be a bit more careful this time around."
"You say that like you're going to live through this," Treehugger frowned.
"I won't," Sandra chuckled. "But the real me will."
With that, Sandra's body fell apart, what had once been a Zoroark now a pile of dirt and leaves with random clumps sculpted into the shape of one. Treehugger sighed as she casually pulled her weapon out the tree, her eyes going back to their normal look and color while she frowned at the pile. Of course she would use a decoy. This was the kind of thing monsters like her would use to test the waters. With a small grimace, she reached into her mane and pulled out a sprig of dried Poison Joke. She popped it into her mouth, slowly savoring the herb's sweet and sour flavor as it settled her nerves. It looked like she was going to have to step out of retirement for a little bit.