VIII
I leaned to Fluttershy and said in my lowest voice possible: “Let’s just tiphoof to the door, slowly. No sudden movements.”
“Uh-huh,” said the reply, a sound that could barely be heard.
We each took a step to our left.
The ice flamer saw us and bellowed out another roar. Why would I ever think that tiphoofing would work?
“RUN!” I yelled, and I booked it for the door. I pushed the door open, and held it open for my companion, who was…nowhere next to me. “Fluttershy?” I asked warily.
My friend, like I said before, was absolutely paralyzed with fear. She couldn’t move an inch, even with the flamer right above her head.
“FLUTTERSHY!” I yelled and I ran (or at least, attempted to) right to her. I tackled her, pushing her out of the way as the flamer’s ice breath froze off that entire section of ground she was standing on.
She shivered uncontrollably, but I couldn’t tell whether that was from the cold or not. She looked to me for hope. “F-f-f-f-f-fire-st-st-st-starter?”
“Come on,” I said, “No time for chitchat.” We had to do something about this.
The idea came to me. I could probably use my fire to destroy the beast, but I had no idea how much I would need. This thing was way bigger than anything I’d handled before (heck, I don’t think I’ve ever actually handled things before), and I didn’t want to risk burning the whale, the building, and most importantly, Fluttershy.
I decided it wasn’t the best option. So, Fluttershy came up with an idea, over the flamer’s roar. “S-s-stay out of sight h-here. Go g-get help. I can f-fly around for n-n-now.”
And with that, Fluttershy took to the air. The ice flamer roared again, and began swatting at Fluttershy, who was surprisingly nimble. However, his swat ended up tearing down the ceiling piece by piece.
I soon realized that the massive debris would probably crush me, so I hobbled over to the door to the bay. I looked back a final time, and I noticed Fluttershy distracting the beast. Let’s hope she’s as good with animals as she said she was.
I went down the hall, as some of the staff came out.
“What’s going on in there?”
“Sounds like a fight.”
“In the whale room?”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“PONIES!” I shouted, “THERE’S AN ICE FLAMER IN THERE!”
The staff questioned each other. They had no clue what an ice flamer was, and I expected as much, but they seemed fearful all the same.
But then again, maybe it was me. They started backing away and conversing amongst themselves.
I shook my head. “Just listen to me! I’m not here to burn down anything! There’s a poor whale and a poor pegasus still in the whale room! And they aren’t going to make it unless we get some help!”
The staff looked to one another. What did they have that they could do?
One of them came up with a bright idea, “I’ll call for help. The Wonderbolts should be able to take care of this.”
It wasn’t a bad idea. The Wonderbolts were famous for taking down large beasts. I nodded at him and he went to go try and signal them.
My mind returned to Fluttershy. The calvary wouldn’t be coming in for who-knows how long, and Fluttershy might need some back up. I waved a hoof to some of the staff to follow me.
I got a better response than I’d hoped. About five of them stepped forward, not extremely courageous, but willing to go help out a pony in need. They trotted, and I hobbled, leading the way to the door.
The glass door was now covered with a layer of ice. I tried pushing it open, but it wouldn’t budge. Feeling it was safe to use a tiny bit of my magic, I envisioned the ice melting. Sure enough, a small flame appeared, melting the ice rapidly. Once that was done, I summoned it out of existence, and we barged in the room.
The entire floor was basically ice, and I felt myself shivering from the cold, which seemed to increase exponentially. Looking up, I found the flamer still going for Fluttershy, who was way above his head in the exposed nighttime New Horseleans sky. She was safe.
I waved my good hoof. “Fluttershy!”
She found me. “Firestarter!”
She flew up, then down incredibly fast. The momentum she just created would help her get down fast enough. The ice flamer roared and swatted one more time at Fluttershy.
His claw, made entirely of ice, landed with a horrible, gut-wrenching smack on Fluttershy’s back. I cringed at the sight of it, as the force was enough to rocket her towards to ground.
There was no stopping at all. She came down at the speed of sound onto the water, all of it now solid ice, and crashed through the ice with a force enough to completely shatter it. Her body splashed into the water, and at the rate she was going, I figured she was going in deep.
What I didn’t expect, was her not coming up.
I stared at the opening to the water only moments more, and my pink-maned friend showed no sign of breaking the surface.
Dear Celestia.