//------------------------------// // Ch 8: First True Battle // Story: My Little Dragon Ball: Icebound // by Tundricwolf //------------------------------// After colliding with the barrior, Glacier and Arctic quickly jumped out of the way allowing Tundra to attack. With Tundra’s horn glowing brightly, charging magic, she lowered her head and fired. “ICE CANNON!” With that mighty shout, Tundra fired a blast of magic directly at the barrier, destroying it in an instant. The squadron, a bit taken aback by the power of the attack, immediately composed themselves and split into two groups jumping into action and going on the attack. Arctic and Winter had gotten together, fighting as a team. With every strike, hooves and fists collided in a blinding flurry of attacks. One of the members of the squadron, a unicorn, had jumped back and unsheathed a sword. The stallion charged forward with his sword ready to slash at Winter’s wings, but as he swung his sword, it had been blocked. Infront of him, blocking his sword was another sword. However, the sword was made entirely of ice. He looked to the side and saw that creature. Arctic had used his own magic to craft a sword made of ice to block the unicorns attack. After which, he kicked the unicorn away and began fighting alongside Winter. “Winter! Wanna do the thing?” Arctic shouted to Winter with a giant grin. Winter saw this and grinned as well. “Sure! Let’s do it!” After jumping back, Arctic raised his leg and stomped the ground causing snow and ice all around the go flying in the air. The half of the squadron they were fighting were also launched into the air. The squadron looked on in confusion, wondering what was happening as well as how that creature was able to do that. “What in the!?” “What’s going on?” “I don’t know but we need to be read-“ Before that sentence could be finished, Winter and Arctic had flown up to the airborne ponies and began rapidly flying around them leaving nothing but a ball blue and white streaks around them. Winter and Arctic were moving so quickly the squadron could see them, but they could hear them. “Crystaline Rush!” With that, the attack began. Thousands of small crystals began flying from the inner walls of the ball, pelting and cutting up the Squadrons armor leaving multiple dents and gashes in their armor. After a minute the attack had stopped as the Squadron fell to the ground. They were hurt but still able to stand and continue fighting. Arctic and Winter rushed down to them as their battle intensified. Arctic was fending off and attacking with all he could, however, he failed to notice one Pegasus mare sneak behind him. She going to grab his tail and try slamming him into the ground. Biding her time, she watched and when the opportunity arose, she pounced. She jumped forward and bit down on his tail. Arctic felt it and faltered a bit, about to fall over. The mare saw this. Though she didn’t have much time to properly process it when she heard a shout. “Frozen Spheres!” She looked to the side and saw Winter standing on her hind legs, her wings outstretched. Held within her wings were two glowing spheres that resembled balls of ice. With a swift flap of her wings, Winter launched the Spheres. The Pegasus mare, had barely any time to react as the spheres collided into her, leaving a small explosion in its wake and sending the mare flying backwards. She managed to recover and flew straight towards Winter. “You’ll pay for that!” “We’ll see.” Winter said as she charged head first towards the mare. The their hooves pulled back, as they got closer to each other, they shot their hooves forward, hitting each other in the face creating a small shockwave as they did so. After a moment the two rapidly began trading blows. Hit for hit, blow for blow, the two pegasi were going all in on this battle. The Pegasus mare jumped up and took to the air with Winter right on her tail. Arctic was fairing well, blocking and dodging as well as throwing any punch or kick he could. He had managed to recover from having his tail bitten and so decided to wrap his tail around his waist. The others had noticed his faltering at having his tail grabbed and so were trying to come up with some kind of plan to get a hold of his tail. A unicorn stallion jumped back and began to charge magic while Arctic was distracted. Once he was finished he blurted out, “Take this Creature!”, and fired his attack. His allies jumped back, expecting Arctic to get hit, however, Arctic saw the attack and quickly pulled his fists back, charged some Ki, shot his fists forward, and fired. “Calamity Cannon!” (Think of the Kamehameha, except Arctic’s hands are closed.) The two beams collided. The squadron were shocked by this. He moved so quickly, they couldn’t believe it. “Never mind. He’s distracted. Let’s go for his tail while we can.” Said an earth pony stallion. “Right.” Said the other members as they rushed forward. On of the Pegasi were able to get behind Arctic and with their wings managed to pry Arctics tail from around his waist leaving it out to be grabbed. Arctic felt and saw this and when he saw an Earth pony stallion rushing in to grab his tail, he used his tail to smack the Stallion in the face then grab the stallions hind leg and throw him into the others. Unfortunately, this left him open. “You got sloppy!” Arctic turned to the voice into see a Pegasus stallion with a sword slash at him. Arctic managed to move away but it wasn’t enough. The sword slashed at his shoulder leaving a massive gash. With the pain he had begun to falter with his blast and the unicorn was beginning to win. Thinking quickly, he jumped away before he could get hit by the magical beam and gained some distance from them. Arctic looked at his shoulder. Blood was oozing from the gash, trickling down his arm and dripping to the snow. “That’s definitely gonna leave a scar.” He said wheezing a bit. He was slowly beginning to feel a little tired. He watched as the Squadron rushed towards him only to be stopped by Winter who had dropped down with the Pegasus mare she had been fighting close on her tail. Arctic could see that the mare was enraged. He watched on as Winter raced towards the other members of the squad and her opponent inching closer to her. Then last second, once she was muzzle to muzzle with the squadron she pulled up letting the Pegasus mare chasing her slam into her allies sending them tumbling in a heap. Winter landed by Arctic and gasped when she saw Arctic shoulder. “Arctic! Are you okay?” She asked clearly worried about her brother. “I’m okay. Gonna hurt to move my arm, but I’m okay.” He said with a small smile. “We’ll have to patch you up soon.” Winter said chuckling but huffing slightly. It was clear as day she was getting tired. “Don’t think t..this is ov..over yet.” Arctic and Winter looked up and saw the Pegasus mare and her allies all standing, injured and tired, but still ready to fight. Meanwhile. Glacier and Tundra were battling it out with their half of the Squadron. However, there were multiple Tundra’s fighting. This was Tundra’s technique, “Ice Clone”. This technique allows Tundra to create an army of clones of herself. However the clones are made up of ice. While the move is useful, it takes a considerable amount of magic to keep it going. So Tundra was beginning to falter. Among having to fight a pony herself as well as keep he clones fighting as well were taking a toll on her. Glacier, who was fighting some Pegasi in the air, saw this. And with a strong flap of his wings, he used his move, “Gale Typhoon”, blowing away the Pegasi as he rushed down to help Tundra. “Tundra!” Glacier called out, “Move!” Tundra immediately canceled her spell, dismantling the clones and teleported away from the Squadron. Glacier reeled back and released a burst of blue flames from his mouth. The Sqadron could see the flames coming and quickly, the unicorns set up a barrier to protect themselves. The flames collided with the barrier as it slowly but surely began to crack and chip. One of the Pegasi, blown away by Glacier had recovered and began racing towards him. Before he could reach him, he was blown out of the air having been struck by a magical energy beam by Tundra. Then she began firing more beams at the Pegasi trying to take them out. As this went on, Glacier had stopped breathing fire and charged at the barrier intent on smashing it to pieces. Unfortunately, before he could reach it, he was shot. Hit with a beam of magic from one of the unicorns. Luckily, the unicorn was tired and on the verge of collapsing. The beam had struck Glacier’s side leaving a big gash in his side. Glacier didn’t give in yet. He kept charging and smashed into the barrior. He then released flames from his mouth hitting the squadron and launching them backwards. After that he collapsed, clutching his side in pain. Tundra, had seen this and rushed over to him. “Glacier! Are you okay?!” Arctic and Winter heard this and whipped around to see Glacier on the ground and bleeding from his side. “Glacier!” The two cried worried for their brother. Unfortunately, this left them open. In a swift motion, one of the Stallions shot forward and bit Arctic’s tail hard. This caused Arctics muscles to falter and he collapsed. “Arctic!” Winter cried. But before she could do anything, she was struck in the back of the head and swiftly knocked out by the Pegasus mare she had been fighting. “Serves you right, you brat.” “Winter!” Yelled Tundra. She tried to run over and was beginning to charge her Ice Cannon attack but she too was struck in the back of the head by an attack from one of the unicorns Glacier attack. Tundra had been knocked out. Arctic, witnessing all this, began to feel his anger bubbling within him. Soon the ground had began to shake and rumble. The Squadron and Glacier looked around before seeing Arctic erupt with ki blowing everyone back and getting his tail released. Then with a primal yell, Arctic’s ki flared. His muscles grew slightly his hair shot up and flowed with his aura. His eyes, had changed. His irises had vanished leaving only the whites of his eyes. The Squadron were confused by this and were even a bit scared. “What the buck just happened?” One asked. “I don’t know!” Another shouted. Arctic looked around at the squadron, his blank eyes sending shivers down their spines. Then he attacked. In one swift motion and with a primal roar, he raced towards Glacier and Tundra’s half of the Squadron, attacking them one by one, knocking them out in single blows. Each punch left his aura on where ever his fist connected. The other members of the Squad as well as Glacier were surprised and terrified by this. Arctic turned to the rest of the squadron and charged forward. However, with his injuries and damage from the fight as well as whatever this was putting a strain on his body, it had taken its toll and before Arctic could reach them, he collapsed. The surge in power really did a number on him. The ponies of the squadron, still a bit scared had calmed down and chuckled. “Well, seems like he pushed his body to the limit.” One commented “I’m just glad he collapsed like that. We’d have been done for.” Another stated clearly still shaken. “Well, let’s gather them up and get ready to go.” Said another. After walking up to the down Saiyan and Dragon, swiftly knocking them out, they had gathered them as well as their knock out allies and dragged them away. After a bit of walking. They found their carts they had stashed away before going up to the Siblings and threw them all in their and begun to limp their way back home. ============================= “I’m pleased to see you’ve returned.” Said the stallion sitting upon his throne, looking down at the remains of his squadron. “Thank you your majesty.” Said a Pegasus mare. “It was a tough fight but we managed to win.” She said, purposefully leaving out the fact that they almost lost to Arctic. Speaking of, Arctic and his siblings, still unconscious were sitting in a cart now sitting before the stallion. He looked on the the quartet and sniffed. “What even is that ugly creature? To think it and some lowly ponies and a dragon could deal enough damage to knock out half of your squadron.” He looked over to the Squadron. “Were you able to see if they were associated with Celestia?” He asked. “No your majesty. In fact it seemed they didn’t know who Celestia was.” The stallion cocked an eyebrow. “Interesting. Oh well, we shall interrogate them later. Send them down to the dungeons. Now!” Stated the stallion, stomping his hoof, causing an echo throughout the room. “O..of course your majesty.” Said the mare as she and the rest of her squad bowed. “Good day, King Sombra.” They said as she hurriedly trotted away hauling the cart with the quartet down to the dungeons. “Hmm. If they don’t know about Celestia, perhaps.” Sombra began to think to himself as he walked from his throne to a balcony. He looked over the broken and war torn Crystal Empire, watching as shackled ponies roamed around with guards surrounding them. With a chuckle Sombra looked to the sky, the sun beginning to fall over the horizon marking the start of another night. “I failed once. I shall not fail once more. Bring all you have Celestia. For you shall fall to the wayside this time.” Sombra chuckled and began to cackle loudly as he started planning his next move.