//------------------------------// // Ch 14: The Royal Sisters // Story: My Little Dragon Ball: Icebound // by Tundricwolf //------------------------------// “Monsters?” Glacier said indignantly. “We aren’t monsters.” “To them we are.” Arctic said. “They’ve probably never seen something like us before.” Twilight, reluctantly, had to agree. Though she was sure many of the ponies here were aware of Spike. But then again, he was a baby. In the distance the group could see armed guards dawning golden and black armor. While Arctic and Glacier could probably handle themselves well, they had a feeling these guards were stronger than they looked and were most likely well trained. Unease began to build up in them and the two didn’t exactly want to stick around and challenge the group of guards. “Book it?” Asked Arctic. “Book it.” Said Glacier. In the blink of an eye, the two brothers shot off in two different directions. Tundra and Winter looked to each other and after a quick nod, the two ran after them. Tundra going after Glacier and Winter going after Arctic. “What in tarnation are they doin’? Asked Applejack. “Beats me.” Rainbow said, Hoover next to her. Soon the guards approached the six mares. “Split up and go after them.” Said the guard in front. The others gave a quick salute and spit into two groups chasing after the siblings. “Greetings Bearers of Harmony.” “Hello again, Riot Shield.” Twilight said giving a small bow. “Please, no need to bow. I should be bowing to you.” Said the stallion. “After all you stopped the war.” Twilight blushed slightly. She knew it wasn’t just her and her friends who had a hoof in stopping Sombra and the war. “Please let’s go to the Castle. I’m sure Princess Celestia would be thrilled to see her star pupil and her friends.” “Well, lead the way my good stallion.” Said Rarity, sidling up the stallion with a flirtatious smile. Riot Shield chuckled a bit nervously and lead them to the Castle. Riot Shield was a stallion with a carmine coat, dirty blonde mane, with light green eyes. He was a member of the royal Guard and was the second in command to Captain Shining Armor. He was just slightly older the Shining and pretty easy going. Though it didn’t mean he was to be underestimated. By all accounts, he was pretty powerful. Whenever he trained with other guards, he would always win. The only guard he couldn’t exactly best was Shining Armor. As for his relationship with Twilight, he knew the mare when she was younger. He would often watch over her or play with her should no one else be able to. He enjoyed spending time with the filly and every now and then would think of her and Spike, when he hatched, as younger siblings. As the group walked to the castle, they had begun to chat. “So,” said Riot, “the trip to the Crystal Empire wasn’t too harsh on you was it?” “The journey there was fine.” Twilight said. “Except we had to listen to Pinkie’s singing the whole way there.” Said Rainbow, crossing her forehooves, giving the small pink mare a glare. “Oh, you enjoyed listening to my singing and you know it Dashie!” Pinkie said in a sing-song voice as she bounced up and down. “W-, no I didn’t!” Rainbow shouted, her face turning a slight shade of red. “Ah beg to differ, Sugarcube. Yah were tappin yer hoof an’ bobbin yer head.” Applejack said, a wry smile cracking across her face. “S-shut up!” Rainbow blurted out. The others just chuckled, leaving Rainbow feeling even more embarrassed. Riot looked over to Fluttershy before speaking. “And Ms. Shy. I’m glad to see you’re okay.” “Oh um, thank you.” “They weren’t to harsh on you and the crystal ponies were they?” Riot asked, concern for the doe’s wellbeing evident in his voice. “Oh, well, they weren’t too harsh on us. Though, the ones they were really harsh on were the siblings.” Fluttershy said. She remembered the first time she saw them. They were all beaten up and bloodied. While she was a bit fearful of Arctic and Glacier, she did feel sympathy for them. And once she had gotten to know them, did she really start caring for them and their sisters. “The siblings?” Asked Riot. “The four who were with us before they ran off.” “Those two mares are related to those two creatures?” Riot asked in disbelief. “Well, they’re adopted.” Fluttershy said. Riot Shield just looked to the ground, still in disbelief. He couldn’t believe that those two mares had two adopted siblings. He was even more confused as to why their parents adopted them, especially the one who looked to be some kind of monkey. “How did the rest of you meet them?” He asked. The others went on to recount their first time meeting the siblings. Though Rainbow mostly went on about how cool and tough the siblings were. Especially Arctic’s Oozaru form. Riot, just listened in awe. “So those four helped beat Sombra? Not only that but helped to train the crystal ponies. Even formed a relationship with a young filly too?” “Well, yeah. Those four are so cool. I so, wanna learn how to do all the stuff they did!” Said Rainbow, her excitement plain as day. “And here I thought they were beasts and criminals you brought with you to be dealt with by the princesses.” Riot said. Then his head snapped up. “We better go stop the others from hunting them down!” The others nodded in agreement and split up to go look for the siblings and stop the guards. =========************========= Arctic and Winter were running as though their lives depended on it. The royal guards right on their tails. As they ran, ponies around jumped and dove out of the way in either surprise or fear. “How do we shake them?” Said Winter. “I don’t know!” Said Arctic. The two kept running. The guards inching closer. “Wait, I think I have an idea.” Said Arctic. “Then do it!” Said Winter. Arctic grabbed onto Winter and jumped up. He formed an energy ball in his hand and threw it to the ground, creating a big smoke screen. The guards taken aback by this, all rushed in the cloud, tripping and falling or bumping into each other or some other object. The two had escaped into an ally, running as far as possible. “We got away!” Winter said. “Yeah we did.” Said Arctic. Their celebration was short lived. As before them appeared a group of Pegasi. “You’re not going anywhere.” Said one. Just before the two could try to fly or run, they were enveloped in an aura from a unicorn. “Gotcha. Now let’s take you to the princesses.” Said the unicorn. The two siblings no a tried to over power the aura, tried to break out, but no matter how hard they fought, they couldn’t do it. So they stopped and looked to each other, fear present in their eyes as they were brought to the castle. ==========**********========== Elsewhere, Glacier and Tundra were flying and galloping as fast as they could. Tundra was using her magic to knock things over to block the guards path and Glacier tried kicking up dust with his wings to blind the Pegasi. But it seemed nothing would work. “They won’t let up.” Glacier said. “They are guards. They probably trained for stuff like this.” Said Tundra. Just then, the two felt Arctic’s ki briefly rise before hearing a small explosion and seeing dust and smoke rising in the distance. Then they felt the energy’s of Arctic and Winter become distorted somewhat. “Think they could Winter and Arctic.” Asked Glacier. “Possibly. A unicorn must’ve gotten them.” Said Tundra. The two were so caught up in wondering about their brother and sister, they didn’t notice the Pegasus charging in. Before they knew what happened, Glacier and Tundra were slammed to the ground as a unicorn walked up, slipped a magic dampening ring on Tundra’s horn and tied up Glacier’s muzzle, to keep him from breathing fire, and tied his arms and wings down to keep him for flying away or swinging at them. “There. Now, let’s get them to the castle.” Said one of the guards as his horn lit up and picked up the two, bringing them to the castle. ===========********=========== After what felt like hours of searching, the element bearers and Riot Shield all reconvened. All of them were breathing heavily. “I can’t find them anywhere.” Said Twilight. “Neither can I.” Said Rarity. “Maybe they were already captured after fighting. I did hear some explosion somewhere.” Said Rainbow. “Ah heard it too.” Said Applejack. “Me three!” Said Pinkie pie who was still bouncing up and down. “Perhaps. We should go the castle. They may already be there.” Said Riot. With a quick nod, the group ran off to the castle. Eventually the group made it and rushed inside, startling the butlers and maids as the group rushed by in a blur. After running into some of the guards who were chasing the siblings, they confirmed that the siblings were there and waiting just outside the throne room to see the princesses. The group rushed there as quickly as they could and sported the Siblings. They were bound by ropes and chains to insure they didn’t escape or fight. Guards also surrounded them and when they heard the clip clop of hooves rushing over to them, they all looked back. “Sir Shield.” Said the guards as they saluted the stallion. Riot saluted back. “Alright you all, return to your posts. I’ll take things from here.” “Yes sir.” Said the guards as they began to leave, but not before bowing to the Bearers of Harmony. “Hopefully we can convince the princesses to not punish you four.” Riot said giving the siblings an apologetic look as if to apologize for sending his guards after them. “It’s okay Sir. We probably shouldn’t have ran.” Said Glacier. “You were scared and so ran, not like I blame you.” Said Riot. Just then, the giant doors before them began to open as a voice said, “the princess shall see you now.” Riot lead the siblings in with the bearers following close behind. The siblings looked around in awe. All around them were golds and whites, blacks and blues, images of the Sun and Moon all over the walls. They even noticed the giant stain glass windows all depicting events that seemed to happen in the past. They even saw one that showed the Bearers using the Elements of Harmony on some mare who looked to be an Alicorn, which confused the siblings. Their confusion and awe didn’t last as they heard two voices ring out. “Welcome back, my dear student. It seems you and your friends have returned safely.” “And thou hath brought prisoners. Pray tell, what manner of creature is that?” The siblings looked up and were aghast. Before them sat, not just one, but two Alicorns. They thought that Queen Snowblossom and Princess Cadence were the only Alicorns, but it seems they were wrong. Both Alicorns were big. Heck, they both were bigger than Arctic and Glacier. They came up to Princess Luna’s neck and Princess Celestia’s chest. The siblings could tell that Queen Snowblossom was bigger than the two Alicorns before them, but that didn’t mean that they weren’t impressed. Not to mention, intimidated. The two Alicorns radiated power. The sibling could sense that. It sent chills down their spines. Not to mention their looks. They didn’t look like simple princesses. They looked like Queens. Gods rather. They reminded them heavily of Queen Snowblossom. The sheer power she radiated, the looks that screamed Queen. They were sure if it was Queen Snowblossom they were meeting like this, they’d want to run away out of sheer fear. The siblings could only stare at the two Alicorns as the two looked down on them. They could hear something being said, but it didn’t register with the siblings, as they just watched the two Alicorns.