//------------------------------//
// A Roar of Fire and Ice (Part 1) 
// Story: Tales of the Battle Foals 
// by Sirdubya 
//------------------------------//

Like an exalted phoenix that had risen from its ashes, Fire Fight spread his new wings and soared mightily into the air, leaving a comet trail of glorious flames in his wake.

Affixed in a state of shock and awe, Snowdrop failed to realize that Fire Fight was divebombing right towards her! “WHA!?!?”

Fire Fight threw a punch that struck the ice tyrant with volcanic force as he slammed into her like a meteor, blowing her back clear across the frozen battlefield and crashing her into the ground. “AAAARRGGHH!!!!”

Using his momentum, Fire Fight swooped back down to his friends, who were as stunned as they were elated to see him alive, just as he felt towards them.

“FIRE FIGHT!!!” Shadow Shroud shouted as they all rushed him. She threw her arms around him and yanked him in for a passionate kiss, which he happily accepted. “Am I seeing things!?”

“Homie, you straight wildin’ right now!” Turf War exclaimed.

“You’re an… alicorn now!” Spiral Galaxy said.

“You overcame her…” Air Slash said in awe.

“Ain’t that a story fer the grandfoals!” Kickback said.

“I’M SO AMAZED, I COULD HUG MY DEAD PARENTS!!” Crazylocks blurted.

“What splendor! Bravo, Fire Fight! Bravo!” Quantum Tech cheered.

“So this is the zenith of a ponyfolk’s power… I have no words!” Zebota said. Shrapnel whimpered, as if he were proud of the fiery colt.

“Oh, brother! You’re so magnificent right now, I could cry!” Greensprout said.

“Seriously! What switch did you flip in there?” Bullseye asked.

“I bet it was him seeing us get buried alive in snow.” Tidal Wave said.

“Who cares!? It was wicked!” Valkyrie said. “I think I can even hear Siegfried praising you!”

Frostbite just smiled and shrugged. “Pretty half-decent, twerp. Glad I decided to tag along with you.”

Fire Fight sheepishly scratched the back of his neck. “Aww. C’mon, guys!” he said. “I’m just glad you’re all okay.

“As are we!” Princess Celestia as she, her sister, and the Elements walked up to them. The royal sisters both looked stoically proud, while Twilight was as giddy as a filly at prom seeing another alicorn come into being.

“To see those wings spread at such at a young age… I knew you had it in you, Fire Fight!” Luna said.

Twilight took a deep breath and regained her composure. “Fire Fight, the fact that you’ve sprouted means you’ve reached some truth, a truth about friendship. What is it you’ve learned?”

Fire Fight looked around, around at all his friends, who all regained every ounce of hope they’d lost in the piles of driving snow around them. He imagined what the land looked like before it was buried in ice, how ponies played and worked together regardless of background, some working towards redemption because of their background, with others happily helping them on their journey.

“Equestria is full of different ponies, ponies who have a different place in it for one reason or another. Sometimes, we don’t recognize that some places have a purpose, and by extension, the ponies themselves. As a result, those ponies feel lost. They accept that they’re not wanted, and reject the place they really have; so they might have to learn to accept themselves all over again, just without their home in their hearts. Everypony might feel happier in the end, but nopony’s really happy when we feel like have to separate ourselves from each other. They’ll accept what happiness they have, and run away from the real issue, run away from their friends and family, run away from themselves. But I’m not gonna do that anymore! Running away only makes more space for more problems! I’m face my problems, and punch them right in the face!” Fire Fight declared.

He then looked towards the loyal comrades that had been with him for so long. “My fellow Battle Foals, I encourage you to do the same! If we can’t face our own problems, how can we expect to face bigger problems as a whole?”

They all cheered, and he stood proudly, shedding a tear seeing how far they all had come. He then looked back up at the princesses.

“What a wonderful lesson to learn, Fire Fight!” Celestia said. “Equestria needs more ponies like you.”

Suddenly, they felt the ground shake. They looked out, and saw Snowdrop staggering up from the ground and slowly rising back into the air. Her labored, angered breathing grated throughout the air.

“You think… You think I’m impressed, Fire Fight!?!?”

Fire Fight faced her with an air of utter confidence. “I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling pretty happy with myself.” He said. He lit his horn like an Olympic torch and spread his wings like a soaring eagle. His comrades, young and old, stood beside him bearing the confidence blazing from him.

Snowdrop had risen back into the air, and her dragon armor started glowing. “THAT CAN BE FIXED!!!” She released an explosion of ice magic that summoned another legion of monsters, including a few titanic ice turtles. They all roared and howled in the frigid wind, ready to rend and tear at the Battle Foals.

But they were undaunted, as they had risen from snowy ashes ready to push back, weapons ready and courage ignited, in more ways than one.

Fire Fight concentrated, and then released a fierce light that surged around and enveloped his friends. When the light hit them, each one had a fiery aura blazing around them, and they could feel their power surge beyond the sky.

“You guys take care of the critters!” Fire Fight commanded. He then eyed up at their blind foe. “Snowdrop is mine…” His fiery surged around him more violently as Snowdrop’s icy aura became more fierce. “CHARGE!!!”

Without a moment’s hesitation, the Battle Foals charged headfirst into the fray, their weapons drawn and their fangs born.

Meanwhile, like a mighty phoenix that had risen from its ashes, Fire Fight soared aloft his new wings in a blaze of glory, readying his fists as he made for Snowdrop, who was ready for him as she froze a sheet of spiked ice over her dragon armor that gleamed with piercing light. When Fire Fight struck her, her ice sheet burst into an explosive parry, sending him back, but not off his balance. The two glared at each other, and began their titanic spar.

Back on the ground, everypony else fearlessly engaged Snowdrop’s monsters. With the auras of fire bestowed unto them by Fire Fight, they knew they could overpower their foes with ease.

Shadow Shroud had drawn her nunchucks. As she twirled them around, her blaze caused them to catch fire, allowing her to fling small but powerful bursts of flame from a distance. They knocked out handfuls of ice bats and scorpions one by one as flames were spread. When they started to close in, Shadow Shroud suddenly summoned and disappeared into a pillar of fire, leaving the confused monsters to search the ashy remains of where she once stood. As they did, Shroud suddenly jumped out of a nearby blaze and ambush them, shattering them with explosive strikes. Before they could counter, she disappeared into another flame, and jumped out of another one and volleyed a flurry of flaming shurikens that burned through their armor and destroyed their cores. Rinse and repeat, she jumped in and out of flames and ambushed the monsters.

Turf War and Kickback teamed up. Without words, they fist bumped and executed a cunning plan. Turf War threw his shield onto the ground like a bodyboard and jumped onto it. Kickback uncoiled his whip and let Turf War grab onto the end of it; he then spun Turf War around and launched him. Just as he did, a large ice gorilla had hurled itself his way. Using the momentum he’d already built up in his whip, he cracked it just as the snowy simian was about to crush him. The fiery shockwave instantly melted through every layer of the ape’s icy armor, and ruptured its core like a zit, destroying it.

“COMIN’ THROUGH, Y’ALL!!” Turf War slid along the snowy ground, and his blaze aura gradually increased in intensity like a meteor. He held his hammer out in front of him for protection as every little monster caught in his path was knocked away like ragdolls. 

“YEE-HAW!!!” Kickback took aim and shot flaming bullets at them as they fell to the ground, finishing them off.

Turf War then saw that he was coming upon an ice ape. Thinking quickly, he tilted his shield up so that he could ollie jump. The ape had generated ice gauntlets and was ready to pummel him, but Turf War smirked like a real gangster and flew towards the beast with his shield up. The ape threw a punch, but Turf War just crashed into it and blew it apart on impact. The shockwave from the blast sent him skyward, and as he fell, he readied his hammer. 

“WOOO!!!” When he was about to hit the dirt, he swung his hammer down into it, causing an enormous infernal shockwave to blast around him, disintegrating the swarm of smaller monsters around him. “Mic. Drop.” He said as he dropped his hammer like a microphone.

Off in the distance, Kickback just smiled and tipped his hat.

Standing side by side, Spiral Galaxy and Tidal Wave stood fearless of the horde and once more combined their strength. Tidal Wave was able to connect his water jewel with his fire aura, and he used it to melt a vast amount of snow around them. As he did, Spiral Galaxy, without any strain, summoned a gravity field that absorbed the water into a massive whirlpool bordering on a waterspout. She then filled it with star energy that clustered in the center of it.

Tidal Wave launched the giant whirlpool in front of them, which swallowed up smaller ice monsters. When apes and windigos started to whirl around it, Spiral Galaxy ignited the star power inside it, and it burst into a small supernova, evaporating everything around it.

As the dust settled, the two looked at each other and gazed into each other’s eyes.

“I love you.” Tidal Wave said.

“I love you too!” Spiral Galaxy said. And the two took a spontaneous make-out break.

Soaring high into the air, Air Slash readied his swords, now cloaked in raging fire. He faced a swarm of ice bats and swirling windigos, but his grit as a warrior left him undaunted. His fiery aura shielded him from the rising currents of freezing winds. The bats fired a flurry of icicles at him. “Hmph! Not this time!”

Air Slash spun around with his swords held out, creating a twister of flames around him that destroyed the icicles shots. When he dispersed the twister, he launched a flurry of fiery sword beams that melted the bats. Immediately after, many trios of snarling windigos begun swirling around him, threatening to freeze him solid and tear him to pieces. He took a deep breath and patiently waited. As they all closed in on him, he swiftly slashed them apart, his flaming swords melting through them like butter.

When he cleared them out, he then noticed one last trio of them that swirled vertically, charging ice magic in the center of them. They let out horrible neighs and fired it. Peerlessly and effortlessly, Air Slash slashed the massive ice bolt in two; and using his momentum, he lunged forward and diced them to bits. He smirked proudly, and was eager to see more foes approaching, ready to fall to his blades.

Back on the ground Greensprout was holding her own about as well as any of them. The surge of strength granted by Fire Fight affected her more profoundly than the rest of her comrades, as for once, she felt as strong as her more hardened friends. She didn’t feel the need to spread her own blessing to them, and mustered her own courage.

“I… I will cleanse Equestria of this evil!!” she declared. Using her newfound strength, she was able to convert her healing beam into a holy flamethrower. She blasted monsters around her, and they melted quickly; but instead of their cores being ruptured, they seemed to take on the holy properties of Greensrpout’s flames, and they softly dissipated into magical mist that absorbed itself into the soil. “Huh?”

“Interesting.” Zebota had shown up from next to her with a trail of destroyed ice monsters behind him and Shrapnel. “You’ve released the land’s strength from these creatures and let it begin healing itself!”

“Really? That’s wonderful!” Greensprout said.

Zebota nodded. “Indeed. So perhaps, we can make use of it.” Zebota concentrated his magic onto the ground around them, and he could indeed tap into regenerated land mana. He absorbed some it and channeled its energy through his brooch and into Shrapnel, and the two felt their spiritual connection to the land deepen significantly. They used that to channel glyphs they’d never conjured before into the ground beneath them, ones that glowed with holy light.

With what he could muster, Zebota caused the glyphs to erupt. The explosion of light caused the monsters caught in them to dissipate, as though they had been purified rather than slain. “By the spirits…”

“So Snowdrop truly isn’t beyond help!” Greensprout said elated.

“Perhaps.” Zebota said. 

Just then, they heard a ferocious roar off in the distance. When they looked, they saw a large ice monster in the image of a timberwolf materialize from icy mist within seconds. Shrapnel could feel a challenging glare from it, and with silent permission from master, he charged forward, his opponent following suit. They violently collided with each other, biting and clawing at each other viciously.

As they tussled, Greensprout charged and fired a powerful burst of vital energy towards Shrapnel, which was quickly absorbed into him. It was all he needed to have a surge of strength great enough to allow him to maul through his icy doppelganger like a house of cards. As he stood over its dissipating remains, he let out a ferocious howl, which emitted a shockwave of holy light that obliterated every monster in front of him.

As all of that dust settled, it too was absorbed into the ground, and little sprouts of grass and even flowers here and there bloomed from under the snow. Their curiosity turned into contentment, taking this as a sign of their assured victory, so they fought on.

Despite being by herself, Quantum Tech was far from overwhelmed in her walking battle tank. The fiery aura that Fire Fight had bestowed unto her boosted her mech’s parameters far beyond what she calculated to be safe levels, yet her systems remained as stable as she could’ve wished. While inexplicable, she sure wasn’t complaining and decided to save any analyses for later.

“ALL SYSTEMS: FULL POWER!!!” She shouted. Her force field was up and blocking everything thrown at her; ice bats that tried to kamikaze into it instantly fried. Her mini turrets fired more rapidly, and the shots were more powerful. Not only that, but her targeting systems had inexplicably been upgraded with a tracking function, causing her turret shots to home in on their targets. When she activated her railguns, she was equally surprised and delighted to see that the shots violently burst on impact, with the molten shockwaves destroying nearby smaller foes.

Off in the distance, she then saw a small group of ice gorillas being followed by some titanic ice turtles, but much smaller than the one from Heimr Island. They were charging her way. Undaunted, she began charging her death ray. Her other weapons continued to fire even with the overcharge happening. When it was complete, at the tip of the energy convergence formed an ethereal dragon head. It opened its mouth and fired the discharge, which had far greater size and magnitude than before. She swept the torrential inferno around and obliterated the entire incursion. 

When the dust settled, much of the snow had instantly melted. Quantum fixed her glasses. “An obvious outcome.”

Off in the distance Bullseye and Crazylocks were at it again together. With her newfound vision, Bullseye volleyed an explosive arrow into a cluster of scorpions. The fire aura greatly empowered the blast, and they were easily destroyed, but much larger hordes took their place. “Crazylocks! Go in and wreck house! I’ll cover you!”

Crazylocks saluted with her pigtail. “FOR OUR BLOOD PACT, BULLSEYE!!!” Before frolicking into the frozen fray, Crazylocks took a moment to take in her blazing aura. As she absorbed some of it, she twitched and struggled as if something was happening to her. “Nrgh… Rrgh!” Shockingly, both her wings and her horn sprouted at the same time, but her hair didn’t loosen. “GRAAAAHHHHH!!!” Crazylocks had the face of an enraged killer, and her pink coat had become a vibrant crimson as her fire aura blazed more furiously. She rocketed towards the incoming monsters.

“H-Holy… Gimme a damn nightmare, why don’t ya?” Bullseye muttered. “Oh, shoot! Right!” She aimed towards the sky and fired a light arrow. It burst high above and heralded down a rain of fireballs.

Everything that wasn’t obliterated by the falling brimstone was ferociously mauled by Crazylocks. She soared from monster to monster smashing them to pieces with her hair, all the while being cloaked in raging fire that she intensified with her horn. She even shot fireballs of her own from them and blasted whatever was caught in her crossfire. When the horde was cleared, she reverted back and passed out.

“CRAZYLOCKS!!” Bullseye shouted and soared over to her friend. “You okay?”

She was fine, but stumbled to get up with Bullseye’s help. “Oooh… Wha… Where…” she stammered before locking eyes with Bullseye. “Y-You… You’re… Wh-Who are… you?”

“Crazylocks, it’s me. Bullseye!” she said.

“Bullseye… Bullseye! That’s you name!” Crazylocks said, sounding oddly… sane. She then giggled. “You threw a rock at me because you thought I was being annoying.”

Bullseye just looked at her stunned. “A-Are… you back to… normal?”

“Normal? Did something- Oh… Oh, right! I… They… Grampy!...” Crazylocks started to shake violently, and then she suddenly had her loony smile on. “REMINISCING IS THE FOR THE WALLY WORLDERS! TOO ARMS!” She sprouted her wings and flew off.

Bullseye just smiled. “Baby steps.”

Closer into enemy territory, Valkyrie and Frostbite found themselves facing off with a titan turtle. It roared, and released a swarm of ice bats ready to overwhelm them.

“Pfft! Easy!” Valkyrie said. Focusing onto her Valhalla, she summoned her ancestral light, which now had a bit of a fiery tint to it.

But before she could swoop in to the rescue, she noticed that her Valhalla light produced something else. Floating around her were fiery spirits, spirits of faces she recognized. “Wait… Fenrir the Hunter? Thor the Stormblade? Astrid the Slayer?” And there were more faces she knew, but most importantly, floating right beside her… “S… Siegfried!?” She recognized the face of her exalted ancestor anywhere. The large, proud griffon warrior said nothing and just smiled warmly at his young descendant. He reached down and roughly patted her on the back, as if to show approval of her progress. Valkyrie smiled back, accepting the praise as if it were from her own father. 

The fiery ethereal warriors then all drew their massive weapons and cawed the skies, declaring battle with the beast. Valkyrie followed suit, eager to fight alongside her ancestors. 

She flung flaming sword beams from her greatsword that cleaved through the bats and struck the turtle’s shell, leaving hotspots on the points of impact. Her summoned ancestors, after crashing through ice bats themselves, jammed their blades into the hotspots in an attempt to penetrate the thick carapace, but not quite. The turtle shook them off with a blast of cold air, prompting them to retreat.

The turtle then began charging a vast amount of ice magic and concentrated it at its mouth. They all braced themselves, but just as the titan was about to fire away, Frostbite swooped in front them. “Here’s goes nothing!”

With a concussive blast, the turtle fired its massive ice beam. In retaliation, Frostbite exhaled his own ice breath. Empowered by his flame aura, it became enormous and blazed with a fiery gleam. The two collided, and battled for dominance with both going back and forth. The turtle showed no relent as Frostbite struggled to maintain his breath. But through sheer draconic willpower, he overwhelmed the titan’s beam and forced the vast collection of energy into its mouth. While it didn’t destroy the walking ice fortress, a massive flash of red from inside gave the impression that it had some bad indigestion.

“Huh. So that’s what breathing fire’s like.” Frostbite. “Meh. Kind of a letdown. Can’t complain about the results though.”

“ANCESTORS, CHARGE!!” Valkyrie cried. She and her summoned ancestors soared into the beast’s mouth while it was vulnerable and demolished its core from the inside, causing to rupture and then explode. 

Remarkably, the sheer amount of heat protected them from being frozen inside, and they emerged from the remains unharmed. While he ancestors cawed a victory screech, Valkyrie took a seldom moment to herself. “That was for you two, the ones from Heimr Island. I’m sorry; I don’t remember your names, but I never forgot your sacrifice.” She said. Siegfried floated up next to her, and he patted the proud little griffonlet on her head.

The Princess and Elements were holding their own well enough against what little of the horde now remained, but the one question looming over all of them… was how the true hero of this battle was faring in the clash looming above them all…