//------------------------------// // The Battle of Cold Ash // Story: Legend of the Burning Snow // by Phoenix Frost //------------------------------// Frostborn smiled at his sister with much sincerity. "Ah, so another time arises where the masters of ice and fire must duel once more over control of the world they were given," he said calmly. "It would not take an oracle to foresee this moment. After all, it is nature's way to decide our fate as we are born into them." "Fate does not decide anything for us, brother," Magmare argued. "We were put on this world for a reason, to choose our own destinies." "Foolish thinking, sister. The winds of change shall carry us through our journey of life. They always have," he said turning his head to the right. His eyes slowly directed themselves back to Magmare with a closed smile. "Unless you believe there to be another reason I was able to lock you away all those millennia ago." Her face froze up, her eyes wide and eyebrows at her hairline. Her flames burned more and more brightly, to the point where every blaze on her body was a wild blue ember. Her expression turned to anger and her horn glowed red. "You, little cur!" she exclaimed. She began to speak with a growl, "I'll be happy to burn you where you-" She stopped, remembering what happened during their last battle. Frostborn had toyed with her emotions, making her lose focus and create faults in her attacks. She knew this couldn't happen again, despite her violent nature. She had to keep herself in check. Her flames returned to their original red-orange color, and she shook her head to help calm herself down. "No, not again," she mumbled. Frostborn faced her again, and took a few steps in her direction. "So she has learned from her mistakes. I'm sure Father would be proud, abandoning the relentless power he bestowed upon you in exchange for a little self control." "Silence!" Magmare screamed, her flames glowing brighter. "I've learned from your tricks, Frostborn. And Father will be smiling down on me by the time this day is over." She took to the skies and charged her horn. "Unless your precious fate decides otherwise." A ball of fire grew at the tip, growing to the size of her head. Her eyes glowed white and the ball of fire turned blue. Her body straightened out, her horn pointed towards the Master of Ice. The fireball shot towards Frostborn as Magmare's body recoiled back. The alicorn colt quickly rose a thick wall of ice in front of his body as the attack impacted. A cloud of smoke filled the air around him, and Magmare flew back down to the earth smugly. She may have been weaker in the cold climate, but she concentrated a great amount of energy into that one attack. The impact could have vaporized any wall Frostborn rose and whatever was behind it. The smoke cleared, and the wall was completely gone, but so was Frostborn. Twilight and her friends gasped in fear, assuming their one hope for survival to be destroyed. "MehehehehahahaHAHAHA!" Magmare laughed maniacally. "Looks like you've been out here too long, brother," she yelled out. "The ice must have rotted your brain. You're all out of ideas." The air behind her shifted, countless snowflakes gathering into one solid mass. Slowly, the snow ascended, revealing four icy-blue legs in armor of carved ice. The body of the alicorn formed with closed wings, leading up his neck to his armored head with eyes shut. The snowflakes continued up his long horn until it reached the tip, at which point Frostborn's eyes and wings sprung open. The noise of the wings alerted Magmare to the presence behind her. She looked back without the slightest shock, she saw it coming. Her horn glowed red along with her brother's. Both alicorns stared into each others' eyes readying their magical attacks on their targets. Suddenly the portal's multicolored interior began to distort as a trio of ponies walked on through. Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie strolled into the south pole. "Ooh, did it work?" Pinkie asked, then directing her attention the the dueling siblings outside the portal. Both of the alicorns fired, and the impact of the attacks caused a white explosion that threw them apart, along with all the bystanders around the portal. The six ponies got launched over a few snowy hills and into the soft white blanket. Magmare came their way, catching herself on the ground with her hooves and dragging along the cold ground. Her eyes clenched in pain as the snow melted on her legs, making her body grow cold. She gritted her teeth and flew back up into the air when she came to a stop. Frostborn joined her up there, giving his enraged sister smugly in the eyes. She fired another beam of magical fire at her brother, who darted down and out of the way. On his way down, a large chunk of ice erupted out of the ground, hitting Magmare dead-square in the stomach. The mare spit as the ice made contact, and then balled up in pain. It took her a few seconds to recover, which Frostborn gave her the time to by casually walking to her as she lay helpless on the icy ground. When the pain began to subside, she opened one of her closed eyes to look at her brother closing in. Her fire burned brightly again, the ice melting around her and the water turning to vapor is it did. Her whole body, including the coat, turned to white, and she rose into the air, stretching her hooves. Frostborn took a step back, but before he could make a full retreat, Magmare and the air all around her exploded in red-orange fire, with the Master of Ice getting caught in the blast. The smoke and fire cleared, leaving Magmare in a new brighter orange coat looming over an incapacitated and scorched Frostborn. "Was this fate, brother?" she asked. "Or was there another reason I can crush you?" Her horn lit up, forming another fireball at the tip. Frostborn's eyes closed tightly at the bright light he sensed over him, while at the same time, trying to disregard the pain and gather all the strength he could muster. Magmare drew her head back, still smiling wickedly at her brother in pain. Frostborn kept trying to look past the agony of the burn, and managed to get some magic to his horn. The light-blue magic from the horn coursed down his whole body, which began to sink into the snow. His sister launched the attack down to him just as his body was shrouded in the blanket of snow. However, the attack left a crater, meaning that if Frostborn was only that deep when it hit, then there would at least be a body or some ashes. Nope, he was gone, entirely. Magmare looked around frantically. He'd pulled this trick before, and he would definitely try it again. She looked everywhere, left, right, over the shoulder, straight ahead, her brother was nowhere. She turned completely around and backed up slowly, her eyes darting left and right with each step. Suddenly, she felt herself loose her footing. The snow behind her began sliding into a circular pit, as if it were quicksand. Magmare panicked, desperately trying to run from the snow trap, but her two back hooves kept slipping on the moving snow that crept closer to her front pair. She gave out a quick scream, her eyes bulging out of her head from the horror. Eventually, the two back hooves brought her whole body down with them, causing Magmare to slide further down into the pit, which she could have sworn had sides that were growing steeper. More short yelps followed, until she reached the center of the quick-snow and her legs were being buried in the freezing trap. She continues to scream as the snow engulfed her, her two front hooves flailing in the air trying to dig herself out. Her head was about to be consumed by the snow when her horn began to glow. She went under, hooves, head, wings, everything. It was silent and the snow trap began to close. The rim of the quick-snow trap started to shrink, leaving a more and more narrow pit in the ground as time passed, Magmare was nearly stuck inside. That's when the snow in the trap began to glow orange. An orange light emerged from what part of the pit was still open, followed by the surface bursting open with an orange alicorn flying out with flames burning white all over her body. She took to the skies, looking down to the ground for her brother, fire burning deep in her eyes. After the frantic darting of her eyes all over the ground, they turned to white, and she charged her horn. "AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!" she bellowed, firing a beam of fire all around the area around her. The ray burned many lines into the snow, even wiping just in front of the six friends who were pulling themselves out of the snow. They screamed as they jumped back from the crossfire, breathing heavily all the while, save for Rainbow Dash and Applejack. Those two looked back up at the action, eagerly awaiting more shots to fire. "That was AWESOME!!!" Rainbow cheered. "Are you crazy!?" Twilight yelled waving her hoof like a maniac at her friends. "You kiddin?" Applejack asked. "This is somethin' to see!" She turned back to Magmare, who was still looking for Frostborn. From the ground below her, the snow piled up on it's own, making a snow pony alicorn out of itself. The snow pony burst open, revealing Frostborn who had hidden inside. All the colt's wounds were gone. His scorch marks and any sense of pain he felt just vanished with the snow. He met his sister in the skies, still baring that casual smile of his as appose to Magmare, who's very flames burned in brighter colors. "Putting up a fight as usual," Frostborn noted. "Father raised you well, sister. It's especially important for the weak ones to have a strong willpower." The Mistress' fire burned more ferociously. "I WILL BURN YOU!" she exclaimed. Her fire started emitting an exponentially increased amount of smoke, and it coursed to either side of her. The haze began to circle Frostborn, putting him in the center of a massive ring of smoke. Magmare's dress fed into the smoke, which caught fire that traveled along the ring until both branches met at the end. With one more charge of her horn, Magmare caused multiple explosions in the flame stream, anywhere around twenty to thirty detonations total. The fire and smoke faded away from the blasts, leaving behind a copy of Magmare where each explosion occurred. "HAHAHAHAAAHAHAHAHA!" the clones laughed in unison. Frostborn raised an eyebrow in curiosity, "Something new for a change, hmm?" The Magmares continued to speak simultaneously, "We will overwhelm you!" All their horns charged at once, releasing a barrage of fiery beams towards Frostborn. He tried to react by encasing himself in ice, but by the time the attacks had reached him, the barricade wasn't put up. Each ray had made direct contact on the Master of Ice, surrounding him in an explosion that filled the entire ring of Magmares, who stared into the fire in delight. The fire subsided, and from the bottom of the smoke ball came Frostborn crashing down to the ground. The landing launched the snow in all directions, while the alicorn lay motionless and half buried in it. His eyes were shut lightly and his wings were lying limp in on the ground. He made not a sound. The six friends gasped, worrying for their one hope of survival. The army of Magmares in the sky turned to smoke and dissipated into the sky, save for the one real alicorn. She flew down to her brother's body, standing triumphantly. "Muahahaha-hahaha," she laughed maniacally. "If it were only this easy last time!" She leaned in closer, her white fire melting a layer of snow below her. "You never answered my question, brother. Was it fate?" She lifted her head back up. "Enjoy the next hundred millennia in the Earth's core, Frostborn," she taunted. Her horn glowed red, and Frostborn started to sink into the ground. "I can't watch!" Fluttershy said, turning away. Applejack took her hat off and held it over her heart. Rainbow Dash saluted the Master of Ice, Pinkie's face was stained with terror, and Rarity gnawed at her nails? Hooves? Whatever they are in this case. Twilight tried to show hope, giving a nervous smile to try and instill confidence in herself. Frostborn still hadn't budged. Magmare continued to sink his body into the snow, inch by inch. The snow crept up to his top eye, until it swallowed the lid in a pure white sheet. Frostborn was gone. "It's over," Applejack said, trying to hold back the tears. Fluttershy held onto Pinkie and cried on her shoulder. Everypony began to see that hope was lost. Magmare turned her wicked head to face the six horrified friends. "Brilliant plan, little fillies," she said sarcastically. "Oh if only she were awake to see my triumph now." She looked towards Princess Celestia, who was still unconscious in the snow a few meters behind the ponies. "Not that I can complain. I finally overcame Frostborn this day, and I haven't a doubt it was quite the event." Something was wrong with this picture. Magmare's horn hadn't stopped glowing. No magic attacks were being shot, no random fire around them, it just glowed. Was it possible she was still... Twilight saw something twinkle out of the corner of her eye, and she looked down at the ground below Magmare's head. She saw something rising from the snow, something small. From the looks of it, there was a shard of ice rapidly ascending from the ground. The ice shot directly up, just barely missing the Mistress of Flames' eyes, but it didn't miss. No, the shard kept rising, up to Magmare's forehead, and sliced the alicorn's horn clean off. "GAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Magmare screamed in pain. Her horn fell to the earth, and combusted into flames. The fire quickly subsided and the horn was completely gone. That's when the snow began to shake in front of the pain stricken alicorn. She backed up, and looked at the rustling in the snow, her pupils had never been smaller. The ground erupted in a grand display of white powder, giving way to a massive alicorn in armor made of ice. Frostborn soared high in the sky, wings stretched out wide. Magmare looked up in disbelief, then quickly to anger. The stump where her horn once extruded from, started burning, building a new horn in it's place. Once the horn was back, her expression turned from anger to pure rage. Her eyes glowed white, and her flames burned wildly blue. She gritted her teeth as her mane and tail waved frantically in the air. Frostborn rose a bit higher, and angled himself so that his hind legs were aligned with his back while still pointing down to Earth. Her two front hooves outstretched to either of his sides, just below the waist. His wings were stretched as far as they could and his eyes glowed white like his sister's. His horn glowed a light-blue and one could see the clouds above his head start to circle like a hurricane. "Two can play at that game!" Magmare screamed. She flew up to meet her brother in the air, and took on a pose that mirrored his. Her horn glowed a brilliant red, and the clouds above her head disbanded completely, giving way to a starry night sky. Frostborn's clouds began to shimmer, and from those sparkling lights came a barrage of three foot icicles. They came flying down in hundreds, maybe even thousands. On Magmare's side, the edge of the hole in the sky had some orange light coming from it. Soon, one could see a large black rock engulfed in raging flames hurdling down into the atmosphere. There wasn't just one. As it passed by, it was clear it had five or six meteors following close behind it. Both sides were packing a heavy attack towards one another, and there was sure to be some crossfire. "Um, I think we should get moving," Rainbow Dash suggested. The five friends all nodded in agreement and took off in the opposite direction. Twilight made sure to pick up Princess Celestia's comatose body, levitating it in the air a few feet behind her. The friends had about five seconds before those attacks landed. They kept sprinting until they heard the earth-shattering KA-BOOM erupting from behind them, along with a dangerously close feeling of heat on their backsides. Twilight looked back at the chaos, the meteors and ice spikes were still raining down, and she could still make out the two siblings sustained in the air. That didn't last long. Soon after that first meteor hit, another landed below where Frostborn flew, and the blast was able to reach him. The explosion sent him tumbling through the air and onto the ground. Magmare laughed at her brother's pain, but what she hadn't realized that the explosion had shattered a large number of icicles and sent the pieces flying. The root of one came hurtling towards her face, smacking her square in the cheek, and knocking her down to the ground. The air attacks came to a halt as the siblings fell down. Both of them rose to their hooves, looking back at each other in a familiar position. They were back where they had started. Magmare started walking towards Frostborn, stomping with each step. The Master of Ice tried surrounding her with a cage of ice, but as soon it was up, the sheer force of the stomping had it shatter around the Mistress. He tried shooting a bolt of ice magic to her, but Magmare just fired an attack of her own that collided with his, causing a small explosion in the air immediately above the ground. She was still walking. Frostborn took a step back, a worried expression on his face. He was running out of options, and he rattled his brain for an answer. Finally, he found the solution. He closed his eyes, and his eyes closed, and his body turned to it's winter breeze form. The snowflakes started circling around Magmare, getting faster and faster. The Mistress of Fire shifted from side to side, trying to get a good view of her brother. She charged her horn in preparation for attack, but suddenly she couldn't find her full strength. She was feeling colder, and she looked down to see her flames fading to white. "What?" she demanded. Frostborn's breeze kept circling, picking up more and more speed. Magmare felt weak, her flames were turning back to orange as she started bending her knees. Her coat lost its bright orange tint, and she collapsed to the ground. Frostborn didn't stop circling. "Stop," his sister pleaded weakly. "Brother." The snow started to pile up all around her, and covering her in a dome of the cold substance. The snow flashed in red from the inside as it slowly flattened. Magmare was sinking deeper into the earth, and the top of the dome was close behind. It continued flashing in red, growing more and more faint as it shrunk. Eventually the snow had become level with the ground, and the flashing stopped. The breeze stopped spinning, and shaped itself back into Frostborn, powerful as ever. An eerie silence filled the air, not even the noticeable winds on everypony's faces were howling. They all just stood in quiet waiting for someone to speak up. Twilight finally did. "Well?" she asked the Master of Ice. "It is done," he answered. Princess Celestia's eyes opened, and she started blinking. Applejack gave her a hoof up, and Celestia held her hoof to her forehead. "What happened?" she asked. "It's over," Twilight informed her. "Magmare's gone." "Oh, thank goodness," she sighed. Celestia took notice to the massive alicorn that towered over them all. "Oh, and he is fine, too." "Indeed, Celestia," Frostborn said. "The frost stands triumphant over the flames once again." He turned back to the ground where Magmare had sunk down. "She was weak, begging for mercy when fate's decision had become clear." "Thank you so much for your help," Twilight thanked him. "Regardless of your needs, I would have confronted my sister under any circumstance. But now that is all behind us, and it is time once again for a new era." He turned his head back to the ponies before him. "Why start new?" Applejack asked. "We kinda like what we got already." "The frost can only spread if there is no heat to hinder it's advancement. Because of your deeds today, the heat has been removed from the equation. My era has dawned." Rainbow Dash gave herself a facehoof. "You gotta be kidding me." "He's not," Princess Celestia said. "I was hoping Magmare would have taken him down with her. While farfetched, it was our only chance against Magmare." "You know you could have TOLD US THAT before you sent us out here to revive this guy," Dash boomed. "We could have come up with something." Frostborn smiled. "Whether or not your intent was to bring me to power, you did bring be back before my sister could reach full ascendancy, and for that I suppose I am in your debt. In return, I will allow you to prepare for the oncoming apocalypse at your doorstep. I don't believe that those who fight for their survival deserve a helpless death. Now go, gather your forces. I will arrive at Canterlot tomorrow evening." On that note, Frostborn took to the skies, and flew into the clouds and out of sight. The six friends turned to Princess Celestia, who looked all around them uncomfortably. "One thing," Applejack said. "That's all ya had to say."