//------------------------------// // The Cold Hard Truth // Story: Tales of the Battle Foals // by Sirdubya //------------------------------// In an instant that almost felt like an eternity, the group were sucked through a magical wormhole formed by the teleportation spell that spat them out and let them fall on their faces in some random location, one of course covered in snow. “Ugh… that was rough.” Fire Fight said as he and everyone else staggered to their feet. “Y-Yeah… not my best moment. Sorry” Twilight said. As they brushed the snow off of them, they were able to take in their surroundings. “Wait… Did you bring us where I think you did?” Shadow Shroud asked. After taking in their surroundings more, Fire Fight also recognized where they currently were. “We’re back in Ponyville!” Sure enough, the Princess of Friendship had teleported them to the humble hamlet she called home… only to find it in about as much shape as the ruined Canterlot. Dilapidated buildings crushed by ice, once lush fields and vegetation asphyxiated under snow, and glacial columns overtaking the townscape was an image only as chilling as the wind blowing throughout the town. Oddly yet fortunately enough, there were no corpses, frozen or otherwise immediately visible anywhere. “Looks like everypony bounced ‘fore it got real nasty.” Turf War said. “I’m thankful for that much.” Greensprout said. “How is Her Highness?” Air Slash asked, looking at Celestia. “Oh!” Greensprout said, realizing she was next to the solar sovereign. She was still unresponsive, but she was visibly, albeit slowly breathing. “She’ll be fine, but we need to get her inside.” “Good luck finding something that still has a roof.” Valkyrie said. Looking off in the distance, Twilight noticed that her lavish abode, while caved in some areas, was still relatively intact. “We can take her to my castle. Let’s go!” Without another word, everyone rushed in the direction of the castle with the incapacitated Celestia in tow… except for one. “Princess Luna?” Spiral Galaxy asked. The mare of the moon was just standing there with the face of somepony who’d just witnessed a murder, completely fixated on her thoughts. “Snowdrop… How… Why…” she mumbled. “Yer Highness, Ah don’t reckon now’s the time for ruminatin’.” Kickback said. “Wait… she knows that jerk?” Bullseye asked. “Let’s finish being shocked and confused when we’re nice and warm.” Tidal Wave said. “He’s right. Your Highness!” Knight’s Soul called out. “Huh!?” Luna snapped out of her confused trance. “O-Oh, yes.” Now that they had Luna’s attention, she joined the group in rushing towards Twilight’s castle. Once they got there, they found the front doors frozen shut. With a hefty mix of magic and brute force, they managed to pry the entrance open. What they found inside made their stomachs turn in several different directions. “GET ‘EM!!” bellowed a voice from within. A large group of ponies suddenly rushed them armed with a various assortment of weapons, makeshift or real, but immediately stopped upon seeing who had entered the castle. “TWILIGHT!!!” The princess of friendship was suddenly tackled to the ground by a familiar pink mass of floof, who was now had her in a wrestle pin of a hug. “Pinkie Pie!” Twilight said gleefully. “Would you mind?” “Huh?... Oh! Ok.” Pinkie said as she released Twilight. Twilight looked up and saw all of Ponyville’s residents within her castle, and they certainly looked as if they were surviving an apocalypse. Within the enormous lobby alone, emergency workers had small medical tents set up, food rations were carefully managed and stored, and there were makeshift stoves heated with controlled burners that melted snow into drinkable water. “Oh my gosh! Are you all- wait, no! Nurse, I need you to make room for Princess Celestia!” she said, showing the still unconscious royal. “RIGHT ON IT!” The nurse said, and immediately took Celestia into their care. “Oh darling, there you are!” a familiar posh accent said. The rest of the Elements appeared and warmly embraced Twilight. “And you even brought Fire Fight and the other runaways back too!” Fluttershy said. “Oh, I’m so glad you’re all ok!” “FIRE FIGHT!!!” A cacophony of little voice shouted the colt’s name, and he was suddenly being rushed by all of Ponyville’s school foals. From every direction, he was piledriven by hugs. Button Mash especially was really laying the bro hug on him. Silver Spoon lingered the longest until Fire Fight had to gently push her off. “Dude!! I can’t believe it! You’re… You’re actually ok!” Button Mash said. Fire Fight blushed. “Well, yeah. I, uh… Did you forget about Action Shot?” He then turned to his brigade of battle-hardened foals. “Plus, I was hardly alone.” The class gawked in awe as the Battle Foals just stood there, each individually silently greeting their new audience. “Oh, honey!” Fire Fight was suddenly overwhelmed by the embrace of his mother. “Whoa! You too, mom?” Fire Fight said. “Forget someone?” his father said, appearing beside him. He, far more gently than his wife, embrace his son. Fire Fight could do naught but smile. “Hi, guys.” And they let go. “Umm…” Hesitantly walking towards them was a familiar purplish red mare. “I… don’t suppose you’re terribly happy to see me…?” Cheerilee said. The memory of that terrible day weighed heavily on Fire Fight’s mind, and encountering Cheerilee once again with a guilty smile on her face certainly added to the uneasiness. But the fiery colt couldn’t bring himself to be mad anymore, and he warmly smiled at her. “Hi, Ms. Cheerilee. I, uh… didn’t make you worry too much, did I?” he said sheepishly. Cheerilee’s smile flashed into shocked elation, which created a new smile. “So you… actually forgive me?” Fire Fight shrugged. “We’ll just say it nopony’s fault. Except maybe Action Shot’s…” “Oh, THANK YOU, hone- er… Fire Fight!” Cheerilee sheepishly said. “I’m so happy everything’s settled between you all again, but what’re you all doing here?” Twilight asked. “You ought’ve been close to the southern border by now.” “We were waiting on you, silly!” Pinkie said. “I mean how else are the Elements of Harmony supposed to serve the big baddie on a rainbow rhubarb pie if we don’t have all six spicy-sweet ingredients?” “Spicy-sweet!?” Crazylocks blurted. “You liar! My great-great-grand-great father told me they were loony-luscious! He said so on his deathbed… Do you bite your hind hoof at him!?” Pinkie gasped at her, somehow unfazed at Crazylocks’s outburst. “Oh my gosh! You’re absolutely right! There is a loony lusciousness in every sprinkle of our magic muffin menagerie.” “And don’t you forget!” Crazylocks said. “Although, you two would’ve certainly had a meaningful discussion of the sweet spiciness that you speak of.” Pinkie saluted with her mane. “He sounded like a great stallion.” Bullseye deadpanned. “What’ve we done?” “Ok, but why are all the other townsfolk here? This is the most danger Equestria has been in since Tirek attacked!” Twilight said. The Mayor walked up to her. “Being perfectly honest, we just… couldn’t bring ourselves to leave, especially considering you were returning, and we’d see the return of so many runaway foals. I at least wanted to assure their safety before arranging to reunite them with… well, most of them with their parents.” Zebota chuckled. “With respect, ponyfolk elder, I believe it is us who will assure your safety.” He said as Shrapnel calmly sat behind him. Oddly enough, the townsfolk seemed quite enamored with the large wolf. “Oh, wow! So that’s Shrapnel?” a random stallion said. “Fire Fight’s parents told us about one of you guys having a pet timberwolf. He’s so cool!” a filly said. Modest as he was, the mystic zebra colt couldn’t help but blush. “And I see you’ve been scrounging to survive until help came, yes?” Quantum Tech asked. “Yeah, we been sneaking out to grab what supplies we can use and decide what to do with it here. It’s a miracle we haven’t been attacked yet.” Fist said. “Now that ya say it, we didn’t get attacked even though we scurried over here like prairie dogs.” Kickback said. “Perhaps that… Snowdrop, was it, concentrated all of her resources in Canterlot, hoping to eradicate us.” Shadow Shroud said. “Oh, yeah! Princess Luna, you seemed to know that filly.” Knight’s Soul said. “Wait, really!?” Rainbow Dash said. She and everypony seemed quite shocked at the prospect. For a moment, Luna just stood there, looking as disheartened as a bride who’d been abandoned at the altar. Eventually, she shed a tear, and she had to take a deep breath before speaking. “She was a very, very important friend of mine from long ago, before I became Nightmare Moon.” “She’s that old!?” Frostbite said. “I thought ponies could only live that long if they were alicorns!” “That’s just the thing!” Luna said. “My sister told me after I’d returned that she had long since passed away, as I’d feared I’d learn, so why do I see her in the here and now, just as I’d left her a thousand years ago!?” “Forgive me, sister…” Everyone looked over to see that Celestia had woken up, and she looked as guilty as her sister believed.” Princess Celestia!” Greensprout said. While most everyone bowed, Luna marched right up to her sister. “Tia, explain yourself this instant!!” she demanded. Celestia heavily sighed. “Allow me to provide some history on our foe.” She said. “She was a Pegasus filly who resided in Cloudsdale, just like any other, except that she had a distinct disadvantage: she was blind.” “Blind? But she seemed to always know exactly where we were!” Valkyrie said. “When one sense goes unused, it means the brain can supply the extra energy towards all the other senses.” Quantum Tech explained. “Especially when one is so vastly empowered by magic.” Zebota added. “Indeed.” Celestia said. “She was much like my sister, misunderstood and often… looked over. There came a time where she and her class were expected to create a symbol celebrating the coming spring one year for my sister and I to accept, and it was hers that stood out.” “Wait a minute.” Tidal Wave said. “I know who you’re talking about! We had to read about her in our weather class in Cloudsdale! She was the one who created snowflakes!” “Whoa! Seriously!?” Rainbow Dash asked. Twilight pulled out a book and flipped to a page with Snowdrop’s unmistakable image. “The very same.” “No, no, no. I mean, there was a class about her in school?” Rainbow Dash asked. Everyone in the room collective glanced at her, and the prideful Pegasus could feel a great deal of judgment being weighed on her. “Ehehe… They, uh… They really teach them kiddos better than they did back in our day, huh?” she stammered. Twilight rolled her eyes. “Anyway, it’s said that she crafted snowflakes from regular snow by listening to the stars twinkle every night. What she thought stars looked like based on what she heard is what gave rise to snowflakes having the beautiful shapes we know of today.” “She could… hear the stars?” Spiral Galaxy said. “Yes. She presented her gift with such passion and heart that it reshaped Equestrian winters from then on.” Celestia said. “Being that Luna was as misunderstood as her at the time, the two struck a powerful chord with each other.” Luna sniffled. “She would visit the castle, and I would welcome her as though she were a niece. Oh, how we would play and talk together, how she loved to learn more about Equestria and what made it so wonderful, how her new winter made everything more beautiful.” “And then… it happened…” Kickback said. Luna heavily sighed, producing a visible breath cloud. “Yes. In spite of her cherished support, my resentment from back then was still too great. As a result of my exile, I had abandoned her, and… I never got to see her again.” A tear rolled down her face, freezing before it hit the castle floor. “But a thousand years have passed between then and my return! She should’ve long passed away by now! Sister, we even released her first snowflake not long after I was cleansed! Have you been lying to me this whole time!?” All eyes were on the solar sovereign, and she was a defendant who knew she was guilty, so she made no attempt to sugarcoat anything anymore. “It was not long after I’d banished you. As you’d expect, she was devastated at the sudden loss of her closest friend. But where she mourned the separation of her dear friend, she witnessed all of Equestria celebrating the defeat of a malevolent witch, she who was the very mistress of the nighttime that she loved oh so dearly.” “Yeesh. That’s uh… that’s kinda brutal.” Frostbite said. Celestia nodded. “She was so consumed with frustration and anger that she accused everypony, even me… especially me of betraying my sister, and the bond we had begun to forge; she asked if she and her beautiful winter were next. I tried to console her, but… she her fury was too great. I… I daresay it outmatched my sister at the time.” “And that’s when she went berserk?” Bullseye asked. Celestia nodded. “Even though she is not a unicorn, she had formed a powerful affinity to the winter she’d created for Equestria. She cried countless tears, and those tears froze into weapons poised against her people. And so…” “You had to seal her away as well.” Shadow Shroud said. “It was a furious bout; I felt as though I was fighting Nature itself. But in the end, I subdued her. The moon was already fully occupied, so I had to seal her elsewhere. The only place left was far to the north.” Celestia said. “Um, in the Frozen North, Yo’ Highness?” Turf War asked. “The Frozen North was not frozen back then… until I sealed her. And even so, her rage seethed. I feared the day she would be able to break free, but… my own hubris prevented me from believing she ever would.” Celestia said. “And now that she’s back, she desires nothing more than to wreak her vengeance upon myself and all of Equestria.” The whole room went silent. Everypony looked upon their exalted princess with shock while Zebota, Valkyrie, and Frostbite all individually lamented her actions in silence. “Sister…” Luna sobbed. “Why!? Why did you never tell me!?!” All Celestia could do was lower her head in utter shame. “I’m so sorry, Luna… just so sorry. I couldn’t bring myself to tell you…” “IMAGINE WHAT I COULD HAVE DONE FOR HER IF YOU DID!!” Luna bellowed, her royal voice in full effect. “I watched you accept her snowflakes right from her hooves all those years ago, and you have the GALL to imprison like some kind of monster!? What was I truly to you back then!? What was she!? What was ANYTHING you or ponies feared!?!?” “Princess Luna, please!” Greensprout said. Luna snapped out of her rage when she saw the entire room cowering away from her. “Oh dear. I… I’m so sorry, everypony.” “You have every right to be angry with me, sister.” Celestia said, a tear rolling down her face. “Now, I will do all I can to make things right.” “We will too!” Fire Fight declared, he and the Battle Foals standing with such a powerful aura of courage. Celestia giggled. “I’m very glad, Fire Fight. I’m also sorry about the hardships you and the Battle Foals have endured. I’ve only now met you, and I can already tell that you’re no ordinary foals.” She said, earning a blush from the fiery colt. “Only this time, I will see that you’re all loved, and your talents are nurtured to their absolute best.” “Thanks, Your Highness; but we need to focus on Snowdrop right now. She’s even more powerful than we thought, so we’ll have to be absolutely certain we don’t get cocky.” Fire Fight said. “She’s gotta be on her way over here as we speak.” Spike said, shivering at the thought. He turned to address his comrades. “Look guys, we can bring her down! We just have to stand together and brave her cold! Up until now, we’ve face huge monsters, mad scientists, ancient evils, and Snowdrop’s monsters! We might not have been ready for her the first time, but next time, she’ll have the fire of hardened warriors ready to melt her rage away!” He ignited his horn. “WHO’S WITH ME!?” The Battle Foals bellowed respective war cries, never more ready to fight at their leader’s side. They replied in the order he met them. “I’ve been yo’ wing man since the beginnin’, and ain’t nothin’ changin’, not even at the end, homie!” “You’ve all done so much for me. If I give up now, I’ll have betrayed all the faith you put in me! I’ll crash the entire universe down onto her if you want!” Air Slash put one of his swords over his heart. “Were it my choice, I’d make you an honorary friend, even member of our proud clan; but as it stands, my blades serve the pact we forged. I wouldn’t have it any other way.” Kickback swiftly reloaded his guns. “Yee-Haw! It’s time for a rodeo, sheriff!” “My mind feels so clear!!! I truly mean that.” “All I can say is: All systems are ago!” “A flaming spirit rages deep inside of you, Fire Fight. I shall not hold mine back, so don’t hold back yours.” Zebota’s words were followed by Shrapnel courageously howling. “My powers serve to heal. If fighting Snowdrop is the only way to heal her heart, then I will support you with all of my being!” “I know what kind of rage she’s dealing with, so give it my all to save her from herself.” “I won’t run… I can’t run! In fact, I’m done running, you guys! My lance will pierce the darkness!” Valkyrie preened her feathers. “You’ve got a Griffin warrior’s spunk, dude. Careful, I might be force to outdo you!” Frostbite cracked his knuckles and blew frigid smoke from his nostrils. “I’m just gonna leave it at that. No corniness, just action.” Everyone just started cheering so vigorously for the Battle Foals, some even chanting their names. Fire Fight struggled to hold back tears of utter joy. For the first time in what must have been forever, he felt appreciated by somepony other than a foal like him. Shadow Shroud then walked up to him. She had a twinkle in her eye that he never thought possible, almost as if she was a completely different filly, but only for that moment of triumph. She pulled him in for a close, warm embrace. “You’re a real hero, Fire Fight. I won’t let you down.” Fire Fight hugged back and kissed her. “I know you won’t, so I’ll fight with all my strength and then some.” He said. She giggled at him. “We’ll be at your side too, darling!” Rarity said, standing beside the five other Elements, and even winking at Shadow Shroud, who winked back. Everyone who had fought beside them before also swore their bravery, assuring Fire Fight that in spite the sheer impending danger, he would have what felt like the strength of the nation by his side.