A good night’s sleep usually tended to range around eight to nine hours, maybe seven if left undisturbed. It might leave one unwilling to leave the bed right away, but it could still melt away the exhaustion of the previous day. That’s what it was supposed to do.
Ember didn’t have the rest she was supposed to have, despite sleeping in that morning. When she woke up, she didn’t feel exhausted, but there was a weight on her front joints. She sat up and rubbed at her eyelids, using magic to get herself a cup of coffee going. Once the caffeine kicked in, she felt only a sliver of an improvement. All she could think about was the previous day. “I blew it…”
More coffee went through her system, and she was fully awake once it settled in. One set of morning chores and a couple of bagels later, she was resembling a functioning pony again. “Let’s see. Made a really nice dragon depressed by friendzoning him just after learning his name, left him out by himself that evening, oh man. How could I blow it any more than I have?”
“AHHHHHH!” A loud shriek came from outside the villa, and Ember nearly bashed her head against the surface of the nearest table. She didn’t want to think about another threat, no matter if she never actually found that creepy fish lady. Part of her wanted to pretend she heard nothing.
Then she heard more screaming, and it hit her that it was more than one voice doing it. That set off a few alarm bells in her head, and she was quick to open the curtains around the windows. When she saw what waited for her, out in the great outdoors, she experienced a mix of anger, frustration, and panic.
“By Celestia and Luna’s cosmos, if this is punishment for being a plothole last night, I’m sorry…”
Shards of ice shot out by the shoreline, thick and sharp to boot. Not only that, but numerous snowflakes drifted around in the air. She could still spot the summer sun, but she also found a herd of ponies fleeing the scene by the ocean, along with several ponies with a dazed look in their eyes, like they were under some sort of spell.
Right away, Ember fled the villa and turned around, catching a horrifying sight. It wasn’t just by the beach where the ice laid. It was all over the town. Whatever fortress Frigid made in the past, it was nothing compared to the sculpture of ice and shards that enveloped Equus Town. “What the hay is this all about?”
She got out of the area and nearly bumped into a blue pegasus. “Tell me you know what’s going on--” The pegasus had the same dazed look into his eyes, and she realized this wasn’t natural. “Oh no, no no no no. You’ve got to be kidding me!”
After the changeling invasion of Canterlot, a lot of unicorns got together and trained to figure out how to break the mind control that Chrysalis used on Shining Armor. It was tricky to find a solution, but one spell came out of all that research. With Chrysalis still out in the open for a while after the wedding, Ember decided to play it safe and learn the spell for herself. SHer horn blazed with magic along the tip, and she shot the spell right into the pegasus’s head. He flailed his forelegs for a moment, and he nearly fell to his side. When he came to, he looked around the place like it was the first time he saw all that ice around. “I’ve got to get out of here…”
“Wait, what’s going on?” Ember asked. “Don’t tell me Frigid lost control.”
“What? I don’t know who that is.” His wings frantically tried to open up. “It’s Aphrodite. You’ve got to get away from here!” He spread his wings at full span and took off, panicking in a way she had rarely seen before.
Ember turned around to face the ice, and it grew around the main street a mile ahead of her. She brought her attention to the skies above. At long last, she finally found Frigid...and the sight sent a shiver down her spine before she felt the cold on her coat. He was going wild in a way she never saw him do before. It was as if someone took over his body and wreaked havoc.
Each breath he let out unleashed a huge wave of ice and snow, and it dawned on Ember that he wasn’t alone. Unicorns were on the ground to help spread out the ice with their own magic, and he was joined in the skies with griffons and pegasi alike. They all had the same dazed look in their eyes as him.
“No….Frigid!” Ember’s mind quickly wondered if the orange fish lady was responsible, but that didn’t matter as much as stopping Frigid. “What are you doing?” She raced as fast as her hooves would carry her, and she went deep into the heart of the town. “This isn’t like you!”
It seemed as if someone expected her to show up around the street, as the path to Frigid’s location was covered in a thick maze of ice. It was well over ten feet tall, spanned for dozens of feet, and every inch was thick as an iceberg. It would take a long time to reach there, but that wouldn’t stop Ember. She glazed her horn with magic, and she rushed to start melting down the ice.
Along the way, she was stopped by a couple of brainwashed unicorns, trying to stop her with a force field spell. She meeped and ducked under the magic trails, and she shot the same spell breaking magic at them. It was enough to shake it off both of them. “Where...where am I…” one unicorn trailed off. “I was in a cave and--yeah this looks just as creepy.”
“Just get out of here. I’ll try to take care of it!” Ember rushed into the heart of the maze, and she heard Frigid’s breath go haywire above her. Storefronts were covered in ice in no time, and she panted from the anxiety and magic she already had to go through to get this far.
However, something was off in the spot she wound up in. The ice of the maze didn’t resemble spikes or pillars anymore. It was more like a chamber with the ceiling of ice above her head, and the way the walls reflected almost everything about it. It made her think this was a trap, and she tried hard to melt some of the surfaces away with her magic. Before she melted much of it, she heard something that made her, pardon the pun, freeze in her tracks.
“Ember Spark, was it?” a voice sang to her, sweeter than any honey she tasted. “I’ve been watching you, and I must say, you’re a delight. Even if your cutie mark wasn’t about fire, I would enjoy that flame in your soul…”
Ember’s heart shot through the roof, and her horn remained aglow with her blue flames. “Huh? Don’t tell me you’re the one pulling this stunt. Show yourself!” She scanned the chamber around her, and she swore she saw a shade of orange around the place...the same shade of orange she saw on the cruise to get to Equus Town. A drop of sweat rolled down her face, quickly frozen from the cold.
“That’s what I mean. You’re quick to fight, even when everypony else is running scared or wondering what’s going on.” More and more, Ember could see the orange figure for what she was. The ice walls distorted the sight, but she could see the brown robe around her figure, the scales, everything about her.
“You’re the one that made Frigid like that, right?” Ember’s jaw was clenched tight, and she was more than a little ticked off. “I hate you and I just met you. Do you know how hard that is?”
“Not that hard if you know how to press the right buttons. But don’t worry, I don’t make ponies like you wait for long…”
After a few seconds, Ember picked up that the fish lady was two legged, like the humans Princess Twilight wrote about. Something about that unnerved her. It was a sign that the lady wasn’t a normal pony being, nor was she a dragon. Dragons didn't have scales that looked like that….
Eventually, Aphrodite showed herself in clear detail, standing along the other side of the closest icy wall. Her amused smirk drove Ember crazy, and she shot a fire spell at the wall without thinking about it. It was enough to melt the wall, but there wasn’t someone on the other side. Instead, Aphrodite stood behind the wall on the right. “Can we talk before you decide to kill me first?”
“How about you start by telling me what you are, what you’re doing, and what you’ve done to Frigid!” Ember snorted and pounded the ground with a front hoof. The anger was masking the terror in her icy veins.
“That’s a good point, actually. The Equestrian history texts barely give me a blurb, so this will be perfect.” Aphrodite’s hands brushed along the surface of the ice, and her face kept that same arrogant smirk. “You know of the Sirens, I take it?”
“Y-Yeah...a bunch of monsters that could hypnotize people….” Recalling what she knew of them, it started to come together in Ember’s mind.
“DON’T TALK ABOUT THEM LIKE THEY’RE MONSTERS!” Aphrodite’s voice deepened to a near shriek. “I mean…” She forced herself to return to her singsong voice. “They were my daughters, you see. They meant the world to me, more than any kingdom or riches…”
After Ember was done freaking out from that shriek, the rest of the information filled in within her head. “You’re...you’re Aphrodite? I thought you were a myth! Nopony’s heard about you in centuries…”
Aphrodite’s hands kept touching the ice as she walked around the wall, and it was clear that there was an opening to the chamber on the end of the surface. “Wouldn’t you hide and wait for an opening when your daughters were banished to another world by Starswirl the Bearded? You may not be a mother, Ember Spark, but it’s a pain that’s easy to imagine…”
Ember took a step away, realizing that Aphrodite would be directly in front of her at any moment now. “I...I’m sorry that happened to you, but they were doing awful things to the ponies. Not to mention, the whole mind control thing is just...wrong.”
Aphrodite shrieked again from such an accusation, and it was enough to break the ice that remained between them. With nothing standing in the way, Ember got the best look yet at her. The lady could be standing there, doing nothing, and she could still sense all the power radiating from the mother of the Sirens. It wasn’t physical power, but she made up for it with her sheer presence. In the back of her mind, Ember couldn’t make a mistake at this point and knew it.
“You’re lucky I see you as valuable, or you’d be lucky to stay in one piece for more than ten seconds after saying that,” Aphrodite huffed. “In addition, you’re wrong to boot...and it was wrong of him to rip them away from me...it’s time I made my move to start bringing them home...and most importantly, now that Starswirl is back, maybe we can even the score…”
“B-But why now?” Ember trembled, taking another step backwards, but her horn still blazed with her blue flames. “The Pillars are back, and Princess Twilight has the throne. The deck’s stacked more than ever against you.”
“The latter is exactly why. Equestria is now ruled by an inexperienced princess, and Celestia and Luna show signs that their powers are waning…” Aphrodite regained her form, and every step Ember backed up with, she was quick to make up for it. “That, and I figured you’d want to be reunited with Frigid. I’m sure he won’t mind at all.”
Something about name dropping Frigid like that melted the fear in Ember’s body, and her horn nearly made a pillar of fire. “Don’t you dare do that to him...he’s under your control, isn’t he? Why him…”
“You mean, other than the fact that he can do all this with just his breath?” Aphrodite gestured around the fortress, and her eyes came just inches from Ember’s. “Because my powers work best with the broken hearted, and his heart was practically ripe. I wonder why…” She traced a finger along Ember’s cheek.
Most of the time, Ember would be incensed by an act like that, but the words cut deep. She thought about their dates, the way Frigid acted after she sent him to the friendzone, all of it. The gasp in her throat told the whole story. “You mean...he…”
“Yes. You broke his heart. I could feel it all over when I probed his mind. He knew you weren’t telling the whole story on why you turned him down.” Aphrodite chuckled and pulled back a few inches, the hand staying on Ember’s face. “Oh, the look on your face is so rich right now. Nothing like fresh regret in a pony’s heart.”
Ember’s jaw dropped from there, and her pupils dilated. She clutched at her forehead, and she turned her head towards Frigid. He kept spewing his breath around the area, and it wouldn’t be long until the whole town was covered in his ice. If that wasn’t enough, Ember could see the blank look he carried with him through the filter of ice and snow.
“I...I...what have I done…” Ember’s mind was gone, and then her head was pulled down to meet Aphrodite’s own gaze. “No...please don’t…”
“Don’t what?” Aphrodite said in amusement. “Don’t you want to make it right with him? I could open the door for that. He’s in my army now, and I’m offering you the same position in my army. Why don’t you join us...I’m a forgiving mistress, and he would be so happy to see you again. You can tell him everything in your heart after you join us…”
Ember’s heart sank, and she was falling into a pit within her own mind. The smile along Aphrodite’s lips widened as the pony’s eyes started to glaze over, and the tension in her hooves slowly disappeared. “There we go, Ember...that’s it...make it right with him…”
I...I want to make it right… Ember thought, falling into Aphrodite’s grasp. I can do that...I want to be honest with him...I need to be honest with him… Her hooves started to shift around. I...I know what I need to do now… All four legs bunched up together, and her attention shifted to the corner of her vision, the one place the siren had no jurisdiction over.
“Well? What do you say, Ember?” Aphrodite inquired. “Are you willing to meet him again under your Mistress?”
Suddenly, all the tension in Ember’s hooves returned. She punched Aphrodite’s stomach hard with a foreleg, and it caused the Siren to cry out and bend over. If that wasn’t enough, Ember’s horn glazed with a renewed blaze. RIght when the Siren was about to get back up, Ember bucked her right in the face with her back legs.
“Ahhhh!” Aphrodite was quick to get back to her feet, but Ember’s hooves left a couple of marks along her cheeks. “What are you doing?”
“I’ll make it right with him, on my own terms!” Ember’s fire shot out in all directions in a wave, and it cut through the layers of ice like a knife. In due time, there was an opening along the chamber’s ceiling, and Ember used the crashing ice chunks as steps to reach the hole. “That, and you’re kinda creepy!”
Aphrodite’s hair was matted all over her face, and she blew it away while she got back up to her feet. She watched the pony flee through the ceiling, and she checked the area around her. “So that’s the way it’s going to be, huh…” She shot a surge of magic over in Frigid’s direction. Cut down the annoying pink pony for your Mistress….
Right as Ember got out of the fortress, Frigid received the command in his ears. His gaze turned to the pony, and his wings turned to face her. She gasped when she caught him diving right into his direction, and he was liberal with his breath. It shot out a wave unlike anything she had seen from him, and she jumped out of the way before it was too late.
It was barely in the nick of time; she felt a trace of frost hit her back legs, and his ice wave re-sealed the hole in the chamber’s ceiling. Aphrodite chuckled and shook her head. “I won’t have him kill you, just hurt you enough to get you out of the picture…” She strolled to another area of the town in the meantime, confident that he had it in the bag by then.
“Stop, Frigid! Don’t do this!” Ember galloped across the street, dodging pillars of ice along the way. Now and then, she heard him crash and break through the pillars at her back, sending another wave at her. Like before, she barely avoided it in time. “I know you’re under her control. She’s just using you!”
Frigid remained undeterred. In fact, his waves only seemed to grow in intensity with each passing second. She saw Aphrodite’s fury in his eyes, and it made her wonder, even for the briefest of seconds, if this was how she would die. “Oh buck oh buck OH BUCK…”
If Ember was freaking out from before, it was nothing when she realized she made a huge mistake. She didn’t wind up in an alley between buildings, within a store, or any place that offered cover. He had brought her to the beach, and there weren’t any palm trees around to hide her from his magic. Not only that, but he cut the distance between them in no time at all. If she didn’t do something fast, he would cover her in ice, and that would be it. Her magic could only get her so far…
Once she realized it, there was just one shot for her to take. It made her frightened to even consider it, but it was the only way. She turned around and faced him directly, screaming at the top of her lungs. “STOOOOOP! There’s something I have to say to you!”
The surprise of the move made Frigid stop right in front of her, and he ended up on all fours before her on the ground. He huffed again, almost in amusement and confusion, and he stopped to see what she would do next. The back of her neck was coated in cold sweat, but she felt a small twinge of relief that he didn’t press the attack.
“Okay...I don’t know where to start…” Ember clenched her jaw and nearly whimpered, but she forced herself to get it together and look right into his eyes. “Nevermind. I know where. You were really upset about what I did, weren't you?”
On the other side of the town, Aphrodite was busy commanding the ponies and griffons around the rest of the island. Regardless, she could see everything Frigid saw through his eyes, and she stopped in her tracks. “What is she trying to do…”
In the meantime, Frigid remained the same as always. The only sign he acknowledged what Ember was doing was from tilting his head to the side. Ember was praying to anyone that was listening that it was a sign that he wanted to listen, and not that Aphrodite saw her as prey to play with.
Ember couldn’t believe that it worked, but it wasn’t the time to hesitate. “I...I’m happy you didn’t get mad or upset at me when I turned you down...not that I think you COULD get upset, and...I hate that I lied about why I did it. It was actually a dumb, ignorant reason…”
Frigid kept tilting his head at her. On the other side, it wasn’t just Aphrodite looking in her direction like she was crazy, it was all the ponies and griffons under her command. The siren’s eyes widened when she saw where this might go.
“I...I wasn’t sure about dating a dragon, okay?” Ember lowered her head out of shame. “It’s just weird that I was taught to stay away from dragons when I was a filly, and now we’re all friends with them and everything. I didn’t know how to feel when I thought you wanted to go out with me, and that’s the real reason why…”
Frigid didn’t react at first, but then Ember noted the pupils in his eyes. They were starting to grow a bit. Not only that, but the glassy surface on them dimmed by a few degrees. That was enough to encourage the pony to keep going.
“But that was a really dumb reason to turn you down. You’re kinda weird with the way you don’t emote at all, but I’m kinda weird, too. That, and you’ve been so nice to me since the moment we met. You care a lot about my well being. You literally made a boat ramp when you didn’t have to…”
She wouldn’t know it, but Aphrodite was already racing in their direction to put a stop to it, especially when Frigid stopped to hear it all. The hold on his mind was still there, but he wasn’t attacking her anymore. Realizing that he wouldn’t lash out, Ember came closer to Frigid and sighed heavily.
“Look, you and I are really different, and I don’t know if it’s gonna work out between us. But I didn’t give you a shot for the dumbest reason ever, and I need to change that…”
Deep down, what she was about to do terrified her. Not just because of the actual thing she would do, but whenever or not it would work. This wasn’t the time for second guessing, however. She went in and plunged her face forward, kissing him on the lips.
The sensation of dragon lips was surreal to her at first, and his scales were just as cold around them as she suspected. Her heartbeat shot through the roof, terrified he would still hurt her under Aphrodite’s control. Over time, however, she noted that the surface on his eyes cleared up. It never went away on its own, but it wasn’t as strong as it was before. She could tell within his gaze that he was freaking out on the inside.
“Finally!” With that little break, Ember launched her magic right at Frigid’s head. He clutched at his forehead with both front legs, and he crashed down on the ground. With anyone else, that collison would have freaked Ember out. With Frigid, it was a small little bump. In spite of that, she rushed over to his side and hoped for the best, prepared for the worst. “Are you okay?”
“Grrrrrr…” He shook his head around the place, and his eyelids were slow to open up. The moment he did, the daze in his eyes was gone at last. “Ember…” He lifted up his head to her, still coming back to his senses. “Tell me I didn’t hurt anyone...I remember bits and pieces…”
“Frigid!” Ember rushed to his side and hugged him tight. “I’m so sorry about everything.” She heard another pained groan come out, and she backed up a little bit. “You didn’t hurt anyone. You just...kinda sorta covered Equus Town in ice.”
He turned his head to face the music. Sure enough, Equus Town appeared like a blizzard fueled by Wendigos. That was enough to jolt him back to something resembling life, and he checked around the place for a certain someone. “I...Aphrodite turned me into...wait. I remember you said something about me. Did you just kiss me? You...you admitted you didn’t want to date because I’m a dragon...oh. It’s coming back to me. You were really emotional.”
Ember sniffled for a moment and nodded. “I know I was, but I meant everything I said. You’re a really awesome dragon, and you deserve better than that. For now, there’s something we gotta do. And--oh Celestia she’s right there!”
Right on cue, Aphrodite was standing off in the town ahead of them. Over two dozen ponies and griffons were surrounding her, all in the same hold she put Frigid in. “Oh COME ON,” she sneered. “Don’t tell me you broke it off over the power of love--actually, given my magic works best on heartbroken creatures, that makes sense.”
Rather than continue with the dance of words, Ember arched down and faced the siren directly. “Are we strong enough to take her on?” she whispered to Frigid. “I don’t know how strong she is.”
Frigid snorted ice down his nostrils. “I think so. We have to stop the ones under her spell first. She wanted to use me because of my powers. If we stop her control on the others, it will be a lot easier to stop her.”
Ember nodded, blowing the hair out of her face. “Then let’s do it…” She reared up and let her horn glow up with the flames, and she was prepared for a fight. Frigid dug his claws into the ground, and he took a deep breath to get ready to rumble. “If we come out of this alive, Frigid, I promise I’ll go out on a date with you.”
“Are you saying this because you want to, or because you feel like you have to?” he inquired.
“Both.” Ember tapped a hoof on the ground, all but challenging Aphrodite with that one move. “But mostly the former.”
Aphrodite wasn’t amused, and she waved over at them. “Every pony and griffon here, your mistress wants you to take out that unicorn and dragon. However you want to do it is up to you. I need to handle something, anyway.” She calmly traveled down to the beach, stepping into the waves without a care in the world.
“Hey, get over here--” Before Ember could get to Aphrodite, three ponies blocked the way to the beach, all unicorns. They all had spells of their own that were ready to launch, and it was enough to make Ember back away. “You ready, Frigid? No turning back after this…”
“I never wanted to turn back in the first place.” Frigid snorted more ice down his nostrils, and he took one last breath before it was time. “Good luck, Ember. I’ll be with you.”
“Likewise…”
Before Ember could get to one pony, those same unicorns launched everything they had at her, and she fired a shield spell to protect herself. One had fireballs that were weaker than hers, but still singed the air around her. Another shot a blast of water near her hooves, and it was almost enough to make her lose her footing. Just when she thought she had it under control, another unicorn was thrown into the air by a griffon and came at her, firing a huge bolt of light aimed right at her horn.
She gasped and thought she was too slow, but Frigid came to the scene and blew ice at all four of them. He guarded Ember with a wing while his ice went and trapped all three ponies and one griffon, and they were stuck in the spire he left behind. “Now!” he shouted, somehow reaching a high tone and sounding calm at the same.
Ember saw what he was going for, and she rushed to everyone trapped in there. In less than a minute, she used the same disruption spell to break the mind control off of them. They all shook their heads and looked confused. “Great, I get trapped into a changeling egg when I travel to ONE royal wedding in Canterlot, now this...my luck in picking out vacations is AWFUL,” one unicorn noted, using his flame magic to get them all out of the ice.
As much as Ember wanted to laugh from the thought, she was quickly overwhelmed by the amount of pegasi in the air. Several of them were holding onto unicorns as well, and they went to continue spreading the ice around. They didn’t do it as well as Frigid, but it was adding to the headaches of the situation. “What do we do?”
“Climb onto my back,” Frigid offered. He lowered himself down to make it easier for her, and she climbed on board without hesitating. “Can you use your magic while I’m flying, or will you throw up again?”
“I ALMOST threw up last time,” she snarked. “Just don’t go anywhere near top speed and I should be fine.”
With that in mind, Frigid picked up his wings, secured Ember on his back, and took off from there. She noted that she felt a lot better than last time, possibly from all the adrenaline pumping through her veins. Her attention drifted to the pegasi around the spot, and a few were starting to form ice spirals…
...including right in front of them. Ember panicked from the sight, but she quickly launched a blue fireball right at it. It melted the ice fast enough to leave a hole for Frigid to fly through, and he looked behind the spiral in surprise. “You’re really good at this.”
“Thanks, you’re good at flying, too. Wow, that sounded sappy...look out!” A pegasus was coming right at Frigid’s right side, and she landed with a thud. Frigid grunted from the impact, and it nearly sent Ember crashing to the ground. “Oh Luna, this is intense!” She turned to see where the pegasus went, and she was quick to launch a disruption spell at the threat.
The pegasus managed to dip low enough to avoid it, and she came down to a few feet above the ground. With the ice all around her, it was going to be tricky to fly through behind her, not that it would stop Frigid. “If I get down there and get you a clear shot, do you think you can still reach her?” he asked.
“It’s worth a shot…” Ember didn’t want to admit she was about to throw up, but she made herself get through it. With that green light, he dipped down in pursuit of the pegasus. One bar of ice formed in front of him, and he dove down to just a foot above the ground. Ember swore they would crash, but he managed to pull up again.
The pegasus was disgusted from their maneuvers, but it wouldn’t matter when Frigid had already gained ground on her. An Earth Pony crashed into the scene and tried to intercept the dragon in the streets, but Ember had a clear enough shot to land her spell on his head. He would be left rubbing his head after Aphrodite’s grip disappeared from his mind.
After thirty seconds of flight, Frigid finally caught up to within ten feet of the pegasus. Eventually, his ice fortress turned out to be a curse to the foe, as it forced her to fly in a straight lane. “Ember, are you ready?”
Ember had her head over the side of his body. Without going into details, she was reminded of what she had for breakfast that morning, and her face was pale green. “Y-Yeah...here goes nothing…” She took a long breath to get her stomach under control, and the spell landed right on the pegasus’s flank. It was enough; the pegasus stopped in the middle of her flight and clutched her head with both forehooves. “What...what happened...I think I saw a really hot fish lady…was she a hippogriff or one of those weird human people?”
Frigid pulled up before he collided with the pegasus, and he checked around the area. “There’s still a lot of ponies and griffons under her control. Are you holding in there?”
The poor choice of words made Ember lean over and hurl again, and she coughed after she was done. “You did that on purpose...okay, we can do this. We’re doing good so far. Just...give me a moment…”
The next fifteen minutes consisted of the longest fight Ember and Frigid remembered being in. It felt like it took twice that time, but eventually, there wasn’t a single pony or griffon under Aphrodite’s control. All of them looked around the town in a daze, adjusting to life under their free will again. The next thing they knew, they were already helping Ember melt the ice down over the town. Frigid remained by the beach for the time being, staring off at the beach where two humanoid footprints led up to the ocean.
Once it was all said and done, Ember was so relieved by the progress they made. Save for a lot of water from the melted down ice, Equus Town was back to its old self. “There we go. You’re all safe and sound again. Everyone Is accounted for, I think that’s all the people on the wanted posters, and...and…”
She realized that Frigid wasn’t there, and she searched frantically around the beachfront for him. After a little bit of searching, she caught him sitting at the edge of the shore, secretly afraid that Aphrodite caught hold of him again. “What’s going on?”
“I was waiting for you,” he informed her. “When we were fighting, I remembered more and more about my time under her command, including the footprints she made. These match hers perfectly. She’s somewhere out there, and I don’t think she’d walk away from a fight like this.”
“Of course she wouldn’t,” Ember sighed. “And I’m not finished with her by a longshot. If she was going to use you like that, she deserves all that’s coming for her.”
“But what if this is a trap? She’s a Siren. They lived in and around the ocean for a reason. It could be where her powers are at their strongest.”
“I don’t care.” She was quick to climb on his back again. “Between my magic and your awesome dragon powers, she can’t stop us at this point. Let’s finish this.” She felt confident by that point, given her stomach was done emptying out. Hopefully.
“Very well.” As soon as she was snug on his back again, Frigid spread his wings and took off again. In the blink of an eye, they were off above the ocean, and there would soon be nothing but blue horizons around them.
Back in Equus Town, however, several people were at the beach, looking off at the dragon and pony. “Wow, those are the guys that got me out of that trance,” one griffon noted. “They really did a lot for us.”
“That’s what was going on?” a pegasus realized. “Huh. I was hiding for a while there. Wait a second. They’re going off to fight that siren, right?”
“Yeah. At least, I think that’s what they’re doing. Why do you ask?”
“Well, a lot of us have wings, and we’re strong enough to carry unicorns in our limbs. That’s what the siren was making us do when we fought that dragon, so we could do it.”
“Huh?” Then it hit the pegasus. “Ohhhhhhhh. I see what you’re getting at. It doesn’t feel right just sitting on the sidelines, anyway. We can do something about this.”
In the meantime, Frigid and Ember were searching the waters around the island, scanning for signs of Aphrodite. “Have you seen anything yet?” she inquired. “I have no idea where she went off to.”
“We won’t have to look for her. She’s going to come to us when she’s ready,” Frigid noted. “You need to be careful. She’s not going to take us lightly.” A slight snort came out of his nose. By his standards, that was almost as unnerving as a full throated roar from any other dragon.
“Yeah...I’m not looking forward to this. She made it way too personal.” For good measure, she snorted through her nose as well--and then she found something. It was subtle at first, but she saw ripples in the surface to the side, the kind that only tended to happen with sea life directly below it. “Stop for a moment. I think she’s close.”
Frigid did just that, and he slowed his flight to a hover. He caught wind of the ripples along the water shortly after she did. The ripples continued, intensifying with time. With how clear the waters were, it wasn’t hard to see below the surface...and they could find Aphrodite swimming with her front side facing them. Even from that distance, they could see the hateful beam she sported on her face.
It was enough to send Ember on edge, and she tugged a little tighter on Frigid’s back. “Okay. I don’t actually know how to fight a siren, but it can’t be that hard, right? It’s not like she’s gonna hypnotize you again…” The tightness on her hooves told a different story.
“Prepare for anything and everything with her,” Frigid warned Ember. “It’s the best we can do.” He used a foreleg to steady her on his back.
While they were coursing through the possibilities, Aphrodite just kept swimming inches below the surface. Then, like a teleportation spell at work, she disappeared within the confines of the ocean. It was like she was never there in the first place. Frigid remained well above the water, and he would search around for any signs of her once more.
Ember did the same thing, secretly panicking on the inside. She remembered a few details about the Sirens when she read up on Ancient Equestrian History, and she recalled how powerful they could be. Before she could question what Aphrodite was going to do next, she got the answer in the most unpleasant way possible when she spotted something in front of them.
To put it lightly, a massive wave rose ahead of them. The siren stood on the top of the wave, her arms out in full force. Her voice echoed a melody that was both pleasing and eerie to hear. It carried all the power she needed, and the wave was so high, it was hard to tell how tall it really was. Before it reached its crest, she pointed both arms at Frigid and Ember, and the wave rushed at them with an unnatural speed.
“What the hay is that?” Ember balked. “Okay, that’s not fair. What do we do now?” She was thinking of all the spells she could muster, but there was no time for any of them before the impact was made.
Instead of responding with words, Frigid rushed right ahead at the wave. He heard Ember’s screams in his ear, but he flapped his wings to get up close and personal with the wave. There was seemingly no end in sight of the wave, but he prepared his lungs and hit the heart of the water with his breath, from the bottom to the top of the crest.
Within the blink of an eye, a slice of the wave froze up. Frigid shifted Ember in his forelegs and clung to her tightly, shielding her in his grasp while he landed on the side of the frozen water. She screamed from it, and she shut her eyes before he landed. The wave crashed around them, and the frozen slice gave them just enough shelter before it fell down to the side, dropping down to the bottom of the ocean.
A few seconds passed, and Ember opened her eyes again. They were both safe and sound, and she realized he was observing her state through it all. “Oh...OH. That's what you were going for. You’re a genius, Frigid.”
“For a moment.” He shifted her onto his back again. “That was the first round. She’s got more tricks up her sleeve.” He kept an eye out for Aphrodite, but he wouldn’t have to look far. Her handclaps gave her location away.
“That was a clever counter against my attack. I'll give you credit for that,” Aphrodite admitted, standing on top of a levitating wave. “But defense will only get you so far. Let’s see if you can actually best me in a fight.” She waved them on, inviting them for said fight.
Just that little taunt was enough to egg Ember on, and she didn’t even wait for Frigid to fly over to Aphrodite to launch her fireball at the wave she stood on. The siren shrugged and merely let the wave collapse below her, and she fell underneath the fireball before it was remotely close to her.
It all seemed so simple...before Frigid managed to freeze the water directly below her. She let out an oof as her back hit nothing but solid ice, and it knocked the wind out of her sails. Ember was prepared to launch another blue fireball at her, and Aphrodite didn’t have the strength to dodge it like before. Instead, she rolled off the ice platform, and she swam below the surface. Unlike last time, the fireball came so close to her, she felt the heat as clear as day. This wasn’t going to be so easy.
“Did we get her?” Ember asked, searching with her eyes underneath the surface. “Tell me that it hit her. She’s pissing me off!”
“She’s not going to be so easy to hit,” Frigid warned her. Sure enough, they were blinded by a sudden wave behind them. It sent them crashing down to the ocean, and they ended up a foot below the surface.
Every fiber in Ember’s being screamed at her that this was Aphrodite’s domain, and she had no chance down there. She kicked as hard as she could to reach the surface, and she gasped for air once she finally got up there. “Frigid! Are you okay?”
Frigid’s wings flapped around the water, and he coughed out water as ice chunks from his throat. “I’m okay. Where is she?” He swam close to Ember and held out his wings around them. When the coast was clear, he aimed his lips in front of them. In just a second, he made a little cold platform for the pony, and he guided her to stand on it. It was stable and left her plenty of room to stand on.
“Thanks...aI can’t find her anywhere--” They were hit with another wave, not as harsh or big as the last two, but it was enough to catch Ember off guard. She tugged around the platform with all four legs, and she found Frigid pulling away from the current. He struggled at first, but he flapped his wings and escaped from the water. However, that didn’t stop her from drifting away from him, or from being able to stop the mini wave that hit her.
She nearly screamed as she fell off the platform, but Frigid was quick to use his breath from a distance. Ahead of her, Ember spotted five platforms around the water, and she jumped as far as she could to land on one. She tugged at it again, but she finally found Aphrodite...right when she was using currents to pull Ember far away from Frigid.
Something about that ticked her off, and she pointed her horn right at Aphrodite’s front side. Time crawled to a halt, and all of her senses were focused just on getting some hit on the siren. Her horn ignited from the blue flames she gained her cutie mark in, and the mother of all fireballs launched right at Aphrodite.
The siren was distracted by the dragon flying in her direction, and a deep, pained cry came out of her when the fireball collided with her chest. Her body and robe briefly ignited, but the flames extinguished the moment she fell into the water. The worst damage from the fireball was a bodywide sting and the brown robes turning slightly black, but the sting was so harsh that she gritted her teeth again. Her eyes widened while she sunk down, and she was prepared to swim up to get her revenge...only to find out how deep Frigid’s ice could go down into the ocean.
A pillar of ice emerged from the surface and shot down at her. Frigid had to use every ounce of oxygen in his lungs to make it happen, and his wings flapped harder to compensate for it. Aphrodite put everything she had into her legs to get out of there before it was too late. Even then, she felt a trace of ice hit the back of her leg. At least it came off easily and dulled the pain from Ember’s fireball.
She was so relieved when she came up above the surface, and she was thinking about the next move she was about to do, right when a certain ice platform manned by a certain mare bumped onto her back. She turned around to see who it was. In all her life, she had never seen a mare so furious as Ember was when they met face to face.
Ember didn’t hesitate and launched fireball after fireball at her. Aphrodite ducked at the nick of time, but Frigid responded with more ice bursts in her direction. He was beginning to tire out, but Ember was just getting started. “GET HIT GET HIT GET HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!” Ember shouted.
They had Aphrodite corned and saw it as plain as day. The siren was increasingly incensed, and she prepared another spell of her own. “I underestimated you, I admit that, but that’s nothing that can’t be fixed with a few adjustments…”
All of the sudden, over a mile of ocean in all directions shifted around them and rose up, inch by inch. Ember caught wind of what was happening, and she swam in tight with Frigid. “Don’t tell me this is happening. There is no way!”
Frigid clung to Ember, but he gazed up to the sky. “Wait a moment. We just need to stall for a little bit. It won’t take long. Just look ahead of you.”
“What do you mean--” Ember saw what he meant for herself, and she sighed in relief. “Oh thank Celestia, Luna, Twilight, Cadence, all those princesses...we weren’t going to win on our own, were we?”
“No. But we held our own. That’s all you have to do, sometimes.”
Aphrodite didn’t see what they were talking about. Instead, she brought her hands up and raised more of the water into the air. It lifted Ember and Frigid up with them, and it turned into the start of a wave that made her first attack look like a warm up act. She rose up to the top of the watery pillar away from her foes, and she had a self-satisfied smile when she saw the lack of any fight left in them. “Don’t worry. I won’t kill you. You’re too valuable as pawns for that...I might need to try harder next time…”
“Yeah, well, buck you!” Ember sneered. “Alright, everybody, she’s over there!”
“Wait...who are you talking to…”
Right after she finished, she saw it for herself at last. A couple dozen pegasi and griffons emerged over the blue horizon, many of them carrying unicorns with their front legs. “There she is! She’s the hot lady that hypnotized us!” one griffon pointed out. After she got a few stares for that choice of words, they all swarmed after Aphrodite.
Aphrodite sneered from the sight and found herself having to dodge countless spells and attacks. “Damn it...strength in numbers again…” She dropped the wave away, and she had to deal with the wholesome sight of Frigid swooping in and picking up Ember in his forelegs. At least she could just dive into the water for some cover, and so she did.
As the siren hid within the depths of the ocean, she got a better glance at the numbers she would have to deal with. “Okay okay, so I underestimated all of you. My planning left much to be desired, and I need to work on that...good thing I have time for that. More time than most of you will ever live for…” She went deeper into the trenches, using the darkness to hide her tracks while she fled the scene.
“Is she gone?” one pegasus asked around. “Oh come on. I wanted to be the hero for once...I don’t want everypony to have to rely only on the Elements of Harmony…”
“I think we were the heroes,” a unicorn cut in. “Well, the main heroes are that dragon and mare, but--wait a second. He’s not looking too good.”
After it was pointed out to her, Ember gazed up and realized Frigid looked exhausted. His eyes were barely open, and his wings slowed down the frequency of their flaps. He forced himself to lower down to the surface, and his breathing was sharp and heavy. “Wait, it’s okay now. You don’t have to fight anymore” Ember told him.
“Are...are you sure? Is she really gone?” He still scanned around the ocean to see if it was true, and he didn’t lower his guard just yet. “I can’t stop until she’s gone…”
“Hey, it’s okay, Frigid. It’s okay. I’m safe and sound, she’s gone, and we won. You don’t have to worry anymore. It’s over.”
Despite that, Frigid fought hard to stay awake. He didn’t fully sense it, but his belly was resting along the water. Ember hovered on the surface in front of him, nuzzling his face softly. Up ahead, he swore he saw boats from the town coming to their aid, and he didn’t know why they were there.
All he knew was that Ember was just as safe as she said she was. Right when a few ponies helped him rest on his side onto one of the rescue boats, that would be enough. He passed out and dreamed well after that, right after he felt another kiss from Ember on his lips.