//------------------------------//
// Coldest of Blizzards 
// Story: The Red Cyclone 
// by Onomonopia 
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Hundreds of pounds of muscle strained against the nearly thousand pounds of metal mass as Zangief hurled the robo him over his head, letting out a roar to the sky as he performed the back throw. Mecha Gief slammed into the dirt neck first with such force that it would have snapped the spine of a lesser man, but without a moments hesitation the mechanical marvel rose back to it's red boots with glowing red eyes still functioning.

"You built an impressive me, that much is certain!" Zangief laughed as he blocked a chop to his throat and responded with a boot to the gut that pushed the mechanical him back a bit, yet Zangief's eyes narrowed as he saw that the machine was hardly even phased by the blow. "But it if truly knew all my moves like you have claimed it does, then why does it get caught by everything I throw at it?"

"Sir, that's a question I myself am asking?" Tenna's advisor said from his side as Zangief suplexed the Steel Tornado over his head and into the dirt once again, the changelings roaring in response. "We spent almost all of our resources to build this thing, so I expected it to do more than just...take a pounding."

"Trust me, this is exactly how I want things to go," Tenna said with a smile, watching every movement, every pose and every position Zangief took up as he battled his fake. Zangief took to the skies to deliver to most powerful of splashes to the mechanical him, but to his and the ponies shock the machine leapt up after him and countered with a wicked headbutt. The blow slammed on the top of Zanigef's skull and slammed him into the ground, where he groaned groggily as he staggered back to his feet.

"Okay, never thought that I would have to take on of my own headbutts," Zangief groaned as he shook the dizziness off and took up his fighting stance again while his foe simply stood still and waited for Zangief to make the next move. "Since you were kind enough to demonstrate how that move felt, allow me to return my affection!" He threw both of his arms over his head and lunged at the robot, which jumped back at his approach. It picked the wrong option as Zangief continued to run to where it landed and slammed his hands into it's back, doubling it over and leaving it open for a-

"Flying powerbomb!" Zangief roared as he swung the machine over his head and lunged into the air, driving it down spin first into the ground with both his muscles and their momentum. Sparks flew from the neck and back of the creature as the damage began to add up, giving Zangief a moment to back off and laugh. "Come now, I thought you were supposed to be the superior copy of me! Yet I would never allow myself to get beaten so easily!"

"Seems that another one of Tenna's plans is a bust, huh mom?" Insectum laughed with a smile as she cheered along with the other changelings, but Chrysalis's eyes remained narrowed as she kept her gaze upon Tenna. His face never changed despite what was going on with the fight and his eyes gazed at Zangief's every move hungrily, as if he couldn't tear them away from the Russian.

"I don't like it," Chrysalis eventually said as she returned her attention to the fight, watching as Zangief swept the robot's feet and knocked it to the ground hard. "He's up to something, I just don't know what yet. My only hope is that whatever it is it doesn't work." 

"Time to finish your little pet project!" Zangief roared as he leapt into the sky once again, yet this time the robot did not follow him into the air. Zangief shot his knees down and somehow managed to make himself a smaller target, making the Mecha Gief's crouching punch miss him completely. The moment Zangief touched down he pulled the robot into a piledrier position and took to he air, allowing the ponies to catch an up close view of his greatest technique. He cleared fifteen feet easy with his jump and spun at speeds that no human should have been able to produce in the air, yet the only sound he made was when he came spinning down with his foe clutched between his arms and thighs.

"HHHHOOOORRRRIIIIIYYYYAAAHHHH!" the Red Cyclone roared as he drove the machine into the ground head first at high speeds, causing a shower of sparks to shoot out of it's neck and spin as it crumpled to the ground and remained motionless. "Behold what remains of your machine! This just goes to show that metal and wires are not match for muscle and Russian spirit!" Zangief victoriously cried as he threw his head back and laughed, the crowd cheering as Twilight tried to discern what she had just seen.

"That's physically impossible! No human can produce such force to clear fifteen feet, especially not with a nearly thousand pound mechanical monster in tow!" she shrieked as she ran her hooves through her mane, racking her brain for a solution while Insectum and Chrysalis watched the scene unfold.

"I think Zangief broke Twilight mom," Insectum said with a sad shake off her head.

"Yes. I should have introduced them sooner."

"Sir, the machine has failed," Thox whispered to Tenna with worry in his voice as both the ponies and the changelings started to turn their attentions to the six changelings that stood on their own. "We need to get out of here and fast! Or else they'll-"

"Do not worry yourself Thox, the fight is not over," Tenna calmed his advisor. As if on cue the machine began to rise to it's feet again, eyes glowing even brighter than before as it retook Zangief wrestling stance and glared at the Russian. "In fact you could say that that was simply round one."

"So you wish for more do you?" Zangief asked with a laugh as he took up his fighting stance again, mirroring the robot perfectly. "Well, who am I to say no to such an eager opponent? But do not expect me to go easy on you simply because I crushed you before."

"Less talking, more fighting!" Chrysalis roared at Zangief, who nodded as he began to walk forward. Mecha Gief was the one to take to the skies first and outstretch a massive fist as it came down, catching Zangief off guard as the metal mitt caught him in the face. Zangief held a hand to his nose as he staggered back, checking to see if he was bleeding before smirking at the robot.

"Good. Now it is a fight." Zangief moved forward slower this time as he waited for his opponent to make a move. He saw movement and quickly dashed forward, placing himself right in front of the machine again as it had tried to back away from him. He chopped it across the face once before backing off again, waiting for the next chance to attack.

"What's going on?" a pony next to Chrysalis asked with confusion. "Why are they...dancing with each other? I want to see some bot kicked!"

"Because you idiot, as hard as it is for me to say this it looks like Zangief is serious," Chrysalis said with narrowed eyes, knowing that if Zangief was fighting this carefully then he knew that his foe had to be dangerous. Zangief saw movement again and dashed forward, but the Steel Tornado had caught on to that tactic and threw two quick kicks to the knees that stunned the Russian. Then it raised its had behind its head as it spun around, with what looked like green fire erupting from its hand as it banished Zangief back with a slap. Zangief backed off at the blow with a look of shock upon his face, the green fire on the robot's hand reflecting in his eyes before it extinguished.

"You...know the banishing flat?" Zangief asked with absolute surprise in his voice, certain for a moment that the machine smiled for a moment before it took up a fighting stance again. The crowd was just as stunned as Zangief, as for some it had been heir first time seeing that move performed, but for Twilight she looked at Chrysalis with a dumbfounded expression.

"Can Zangief make green fire erupt from his hands as well?" she asked in a near whisper, her eyes shirking when Chrysalis nodded. Zangief snarled as he regained his composure, throwing out a quick low kick to fake out his foe before leaping into the air, bringing his fist back as he prepared to punch the fake hair off the robots face. Yet once again Mecha Gief read right and leapt straight up while delivering a massive headbutt that slammed Zangief back into the ground, where he staggered back to his feet with stars floating around his head. With Zangief stunned, there was no resistance as the mecha him dashed forward and unleashed his super.

"FINAL," Mecha Gief began as it wrapped it's hands around Zangief and rolled behind him, lifting the three hundred and fifty pound Russian into the air and slamming him onto his head. "ATOMIC," it continued as it lifted Zangief over it's head and slammed him, back first, onto it's metallic knee, where a loud CLANG echoed across the battlefield. It then hurled Zangief into the air and leapt up to him, placing him in the piledriver position and spinning as it finished with, "BBBBUUUUSSSSSTTTTTAAAAARRRRR." 

The crowd gasped in horror as Zangief was spun and slammed onto his neck, shaking the ground beneath their hooves as the blow landed. Zangief fell over without a sound once Mecha Gief released him, leaving all who had seen what had happened struck silent as they looked at his unmoving body. Insectum let out a cry as she rushed to his side, begging for him to get up as Tenna began to chuckle.

"Zangief! Get up! You can't lose!" she begged him as Tenna shook his head with a smirk.

"Do you fools see what I mean now? Better in every way," he chuckled as Mecha Gief looked to him for orders. Tenna pointed to the crowd in response and the mechanical nightmare began to march towards them, prompting Chrysalis and Twilight to place themselves between the robot and the crowd. That was until Zangief stood up.

"Ugh...okay, you got a round on me with my own move and I do not appreciate that," he snarled as he rubbed the back of his neck and began to march towards the machine, with all eyes looking at him with complete disbelief.

"That's not possible," Twilight whispered next to Chrysalis as Insectum joined her mothers side again, the same confusion in her eyes that all of the ponies and changelings wore. "He should be dead. With that much force and speed his neck would have been snapped in half! How is he still standing?!" None of the crowd had an answer to that question, but as the two goliaths matched each other up one more time Pinkie ran between them with a giant smile on her face.

"I'm so excited! What will happen now?" she asked as she looked to the both of them before screaming, "FIGHT!"

"I will end this," Zangief replied as, to the shock of the crowd, he leapt into the sky once again despite his numerous failures. Just like before Mecha Gief followed him into the air and prepared to unleash the headbutt to ground his foe once again. But then Zangief did the unthinkable.

"I am the protector of Russia's skies!" he yelled as both hands swung behind his head and he began to spin, one of his arms catching the Steel Tornado in one of his paws. The moment his foe was caught Zangief spun in place, above the ground, with his foe in his grasp before Zangief tucked him into a headlock and...rocketed straight up without touching the ground to change direction.

"SSSSSIIIIIIBBBBBEEEEEERRRRRRIIIIIIAAAAANNNN!" he began as he continued to spin upward to the utter bewilderment of the crowd, his very actions breaking both Twilight and the laws of physics at the same time.

"NO! NO DAMNIT, THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!" Twilight screamed as she pulled chunks of her mane out at Zanigef's blatant disregard for the works of the great scientists before him. Zangief stopped flying up and began to spin in place thirty feet above the ground as he tossed the mecha him above his head, catching him this time with the robots legs tucked under his arms and placing his feet on the robots arms so that his foe was looking straight down. The two then began to spin towards the ground at incredible speeds as Zangief yelled out,

"BBBBBBBLLLLLLIIIIIIIZZZZZAAAAAAARRRDDDD!" The impact that was made by the blizzard made the final atomic buster pale in comparison, as the land was torn apart while both ponies and changelings alike were hurled into the air by the impact. Tenna and his changelings watched without any understanding of what was happening, only snapping out of their baffled state when the head of the Steel Tornado flew through the air and landed at their hooves. All eyes then turned to the crater as Zangief arose from the impacted dirt with the body of his foe in one of his hands, which he then tossed at Tenna's feet with a smile.

"Intercepted. Any thing else you wish to throw at me?" Dead silence met his words for nearly a minute until an explosion of cheering could be heard, both from the changelings and the ponies that had been watching. Zangief turned around at the sudden excitement before he found himself swarmed by both changeling and pony alike, all of them still trying to process what he had just done while Insectum tackled his chest and hugged him as much as she could, getting a laugh out of the Russian.

"General, what do we do now?" Thox asked him as Tenna picked up Mecha Gief's head with a smile.

"We leave." A flash of light went off from the five changelings behind him, blinding all who had looked into the light. When they could see again the royalty found that Tenna, the changelings, and the machine he had made were both gone, leaving Chrysalis to sigh with frustration as she shook her head.

"He got away again. One of these days I should really remember to shoot his head off," she growled before looking at Twilight, who looked like she was in a trance as she walked through the crowd of ponies up to Zangief. She parted the ponies in front of her with her magic, gaining the attention of the Russian.

"How?" she asked with disbelief in her voice, not certain of what she had just witnessed. "How did you do that? How do you make the impossible happen every time you get into a fight? What are you?"

"What am I?" he asked with a laugh as he picked up both foals and changeling children alike and let them sit on his mighty biceps as he laughed with victory in his voice. "I am Zangief! The Red Cyclone! The greatest wrestler to exist in the history of the motherland!" He laughed as he said this while Chrysalis also let a smile cross her face at the look Twilight had.

'You still don't get it. He is Zangief. That is the only solution Twilight,' Chrysalis said as she walked over to congratulate the idiot that lived in her house and ate her food, seeing all of the ponies and changelings smiling together as they cheered for him, not one of them fighting. 'And that is why he can do the impossible.'