Pony Force

by sbloom85

Chapter 3: Fire And Ice

The town was swarming with monsters, some cockatrice, a few serpents and manticores, all led by what appeared to be an earth pony in a sinister looking suit of armor and mask. Flint peeks around a vacant hotel and sizes up the situation. "How does it look?" Flint pulls back to the blind side of the building, thinking a manticore saw him. "Well... I've dealt with worse." He replies. "At least there aren't any dragons." He adds in a chipper tone. "What do we do?" Twilight asks. Flint bobs his head thinking. "Do you know any protective spells?" Twilight nods. "I do, in fact. I learned one from my brother a while back." Flint steps away from the building as Twilight encases him in a shield. "You're not going to charge head on, are you?" She asks. Flint shakes his head. "No. I'm going to see if I can at least find Afterburner. We need some attack magic. If you know an invisibility spell, now would be a great time to use it." He says before bolting into the battlefield. Twilight hears the roar of a manticore, they know he's out there now and she takes Flint's advice and renders herself invisible and instead of staying behind, she quietly follows Flint... after all, he didn't tell her to stay put.

Flint effortlessly avoids attacks from the manticores when, speak of the devil, Afterburner and Applejack get into view. "Now would be a good time to do your thing, Burner!" Flint yells, prompting an initial volley of fireballs aimed at the manticores behind him. Applejack runs past Flint and delivers a lethal blow to two of the manticores. Flint readies his sword and finishes a third. In the sky, they see Thunderhooves, Treat and Rainbow Dash attacking a group of cockatrice.

They finally catch the attention of their masked leader. "How noble of you..." He says with a distorted voice. "Evacuate the citizens before attacking the monsters." Flint starts digging at the ground and snorts in anger. "I don't know who you are, but anypony willing to attack their own does not deserve to live." Out of nowhere, several more manticores appear with a sudden volley of ice spears attacking the new beasts. Flint and the others look to see where they came from; they came from a Unicorn.

The new addition to the battle prompted the antagonist to retreat. "Until next time..." He says before disappearing in a cloud of smoke. "Dang it!" Flint yells. His anger dissolved as he walks up to the Unicorn. Speaking of Unicorns, Twilight Sparkle cancels the invisibility spell and walks up beside Flint. Afterburner was already talking to her, he sees Flint coming and clears his throat. "Flint, this is Ice Floe." He introduces her and the two shake hooves. "Thanks for the assist." He begins. "Is it safe to assume you two have a history?" He asks. Both Afterburner and Ice Floe nod. "We do." Afterburner answers. "But we haven't seen each other for a couple of years." She adds, slapping Afterburner across the face. Flint winces. "I don't think I want to know what that was for..." He comments, looks over at Twilight and looks back at Afterburner. "Hey, Burner. When you get the chance, teach Twilight some fire spells." He says, trying to break the tension. Ice Floe looks over at Afterburner and over to Twilight. "How about some ice spells as well?" She inquired. Flint smiles as he looks at a nervous Twilight. "It won't hurt. What do you think?" She resigned herself to the imminent spells. "I guess not..."

Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Rarity finally join the group. "The ponies are all safe." Rarity says as she fixes her mane. "Two fillies wanted to join us." She adds as they spread apart to reveal a mother and her daughter. Flint recognized the two as Baltimare Bill's family and felt his throat swell up. The others take notice. "Come on now, let's leave these three be." Applejack says, getting everyone else away from the scene.

The mother walks up to Flint and glares at him. "I should be mad at you for letting my husband die like that, Flint." She begins with an irritated tone, but she, and the daughter give him a hug instead. "But you risked your life to save this town. Bill would've done the same. Thank you." She adds, releasing her grip and wiping away a tear from Flint's eye. "We're due in Trottingham..." Flint says. "Treat and I will be met with a lot of hatred, but they have something we need." Twilight rushes up to Flint. "Sorry to interrupt, but I've got some bad news." Flint looks to her, seeing she's pointing toward the harbor. He looks there and sees smoke... a lot of smoke. He scans the harbor. "They burned all the ships." He finally says. "We won't be going to Trottingham from here." Twilight adds. Rarity walks up to them with a smile. "I might know somepony who can help." She says, getting a chuckle out of Twilight. "Fancy Pants, right?" She asks. Rarity nods. Flint looks back to Bill's wife. "I'll come back as soon as I can." He promised her. "But right now we need to head back to Canterlot." He finishes. Both Twilight and Rarity nod in agreement. "Yes, but first, I think we should take a breather." Flint shakes his head, but resigns to the decision.

Later that morning, Twilight, Afterburner and Ice Floe are gathered in a remote part of the city to teach Twilight some spells. Afterburner demonstrates a low level fire spell, one he regularly uses in his volleys. He lifts a watermelon with his levitation magic and places it on a tree stump. "You try it." He says, encouraging her. Twilight concentrates and a fireball appears in front of her horn. She looks at it, then at the watermelon and hurls the fireball at it, scorching the fruit. "Not bad, Twilight." He compliments. "Floe, your turn." He says, passing Twilight to Ice Floe. Afterburner walks out to the tree stump and creates a fireball. "Observe, Twilight." She says. The fireball is flung to her and she freezes it and levitates the newly frozen fireball to them. "My goodness. I've never seen anything like that." Twilight comments. Ice Floe hurls the frozen fireball at Afterburner, who dodges it. "For Celestia's sake, Floe!" He yells. The two mares giggle. "You try it." Floe suggests. "Alright, but I won't be throwing it at Afterburner." Twilight says, relieving the poor Unicorn. "Thank you, Twilight." He says before conjuring another fireball and hurling it at Twilight. She freezes the fireball and lets it land next to her. Afterburner and Ice Floe would continue to pass Twilight back and forth during the remainder of their session.

It was mid-afternoon. Twilight had finished her initial training, learning both low level ice and fire spells. Baltimare officials were kind enough to lend a large carriage to the group. It took three Pegasi to lift the seven wingless ponies. Thunderhooves was put in the front with Treat and Fluttershy providing support. Rainbow Dash was tasked with scouting for unfriendlies.

"Afterburner, Ice Floe..." Rarity says, gaining the attention of the Unicorns. "How did the two of you meet?" They look at each other, smiles appearing on their faces. "We attended the same classes for many years back in Canterlot." Floe begins, placing a hoof on Burner's leg. "He'd contribute to many Winter Wrap Ups with his fire spells and I'd manipulate where the melting snow would go." She continues. Afterburner nods. "Yes. Sometimes we'd also help the Canterlot Pegasi with rain water. It wasn't very often, but every little bit helps." He says before lowering his head. "Then things changed. It was roughly the same time Twilight left for Ponyville when I took a train to Las Pegasus." He says, getting a nod from Floe. "Oh my! You two haven't seen each other for that long?" Twilight asks. "Yes, but it was by choice." Afterburner answered. "There was an accident in Canterlot that was caused by our combined magic. Most of the citizens didn't hold a grudge, but we felt if we were to separate, nothing like that would happen again." Floe explained. Twilight started thinking. "Maybe these events are a sign that you two should be together again."

Flint looks out of the window. "Are we getting close to Ponyville?" Twilight asks. Flint nods and look back at her. "Yeah. It doesn't look very good though." He shoots back, getting Twilight to look out the window, seeing many of the homes lay in ruin. It wasn't a total loss as she sees her library was still intact. "We should see how bad it really is." Flint continued. "Hopefully there aren't any casualties." He says, waving a hoof to get the attention of the Pegasi. "Land!" He shouts.

The Pegasi land in the town square and unhitch themselves from the carriage. Flint and Afterburner exit the carriage, helping the mares out. Rainbow Dash flies to Flint's side. "Bad news, a lot of the buildings are toast; good news, it doesn't look like anypony is seriously injured, but I haven't found everypony" She reports. Twilight and her friends leave the group. "Where do you suppose they're going?" Afterburner asks. "Take a guess." Flint replies with a snarky tone before following Applejack.

Afterburner and Ice Floe walk around the town to size up the situation. "Is it really that bad, Burner?" She asks. He nods. "Yeah." He says softly. "I'm not sure about this whole 'Reharmonizer' thing, but Flint seems to think we'll need it to stop whatever this thing is." He adds. A young Unicorn filly sees them and gallops toward them. "Well hi there." Floe says, greeting the distressed Unicorn. "Are you lost?" She asks. The Unicorn shakes her head. "No, but I need help saving my friends. They're trapped under some rubble." Floe and Burner look at each other and nod. "Take us to them." He says, following the filly.

The three arrive at the ruins the filly mentioned. Afterburner quickly gets to work with his levitation magic. "What's your name, sweetie?" Floe asks, consoling the young filly. "Sweetie Belle." She answers. Floe wipes away her tears. "It's alright, Sweetie Belle. Burner's levitation magic is strong. Your friends will be out in a jiffy." She continues, seeing Afterburner move layer upon layer of rubble, eventually reaching Sweetie Belle's friends. "They're out!" He yells, moving the unconscious fillies; the Pegasus onto Floe's back and the Earth Pony onto his. "Is there a hospital in town?" Floe asks. "Yeah. Ponyville Hospital isn't too far from here."

Floe and Burner make it to the hospital, with Flint waiting outside. He sees his two friends and waves. "Hey! Glad you could make it." He says before seeing the unconscious fillies on their backs. "Oh Celestia... are they alright?" He says as two nurses exit the hospital and take them. Sweetie Belle follows them. "I hope so." Burner says. Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow dash exit the hospital and run up to them. "Thanks for finding our sisters." Rarity says, giving Afterburner a hug. "Sisters?" Rarity and Applejack nod. "And the Pegasus?" Floe asks. "I kinda adopted Scoots as a sister." Rainbow Dash says. "I've been her idol and..." Floe and Burner nod. "Say no more. Are they okay?" Floe asks. "They'll be fine." Applejack answers. "You should keep an eye on them, just to be on the safe side." Flint suggests. "Where are Treat and Thunderhooves?" Burner asks. Flint turns around and points up, seeing the two Pegasi darting around looking for any other injured parties. "We've got two hours, then we'll move on to Canterlot. So rest up." He orders.

Amazingly, the bakery was not a victim of the other night's attack. Afterburner and Ice Floe enter and see Pinkie Pie preparing and baking some treats. "Hiya Burner and Floe!" She says, greeting them with a plate of oatmeal cookies. "Have some. They're a couple of days old, but they should still be delicious!" She exclaims, bouncing back toward the oven. "Burner... do you think it'd be possible for us...?" Ice Floe asks timidly. "Considering what we're doing, I have no doubt that we'll be able to learn to control ourselves." He answers, giving the ice mare a nuzzle.

---

An hour had passed in what seemed to be a blink of an eye. Afterburner and Ice Floe were strolling through Ponyville to make sure nopony else was in the same predicament as Sweetie Belle and her friends. They see Applejack gallop toward them. "The train just arrived. It'll be leavin' for Canterlot in an hour." She told them. "Thank you, Applejack." Ice Floe said. "Hey, AJ..." Afterburner opened. "How's your brother?" He asked. Applejack smiled. "He'll be fine. He'd been through worse than that fracas." She said with a lot of enthusiasm. "Where's Flint?" He asked. "I reckon he's at the station picking up some tickets. Now if you'll excuse me, I gotta get some supplies."

---

Another hour had passed, the group was onboard the train to Canterlot. Flint had spoken to the conductor and the path back to Canterlot was clear; Afterburner and Ice Floe sat in their respective seats. "We're going home." Burner says, resting his foreleg on Floe's.

---

It was a day's ride from Ponyville to Canterlot. When the train arrived, everypony was shocked that Canterlot didn't take the beating Ponyville had. "Floe, would you look at this?" Burner says with disbelief. "I'm seeing it, but I don't believe it."

The train comes to a stop and everypony leaves their seats and exits the train in a single file. When outside, Burner and Floe walk side by side in the back with flint taking the lead.

The city may not be as busy as it was last time, the group does see several ponies wandering around, keeping up with their routines. The group stops in the middle of town and gathers in a circle. "Rarity... you, Floe and Burner go look for Fancy Pants." The three nod. "Treat... you, Thunderhooves and Rainbow Dash gather supplies." Rainbow Dash groans. "We've already got plenty from Ponyville." She complains. "I realize that, but it's better to be prepared though." He says. Rainbow Dash lets out an upset sigh. "Oh alright." She says. "Rest of you come with me." He concludes and the group splits up.

Floe and Burner watch as Flint's group heads to the castle before catching up to Rarity. "So tell me, Floe... may I call you Floe?" Rarity says, making sure she's not being rude. "Of course." She answers. "Excellent! I'm afraid I wasn't in Canterlot when your incident occurred. What exactly happened?" It was an event that neither Floe nor Burner wanted to relive, but Floe let out a light sigh. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt to tell her, would it?" Burner asks. "No." Floe responds. "You know that Burner and I excel in opposing thermal magic." She says, eliciting a nod from Rarity. "Well... when those opposites collide, it's potentially violent. With us it was explosive." Floe continued, getting a shocked look from Rarity. "You mean you two almost blew up Canterlot?!" Rarity asked wide-eyed. Burner nodded. "It could've ended that way, but the odds were in our favor and we accidentally blew up an intersection." Burner says. Their reminiscence frightened Rarity, but the three march on.

It took a while, but they managed to find Fancy Pants. He was seen with Fleur de Lis as they were packing things into a cart. "Hello, Fancy Pants!" Rarity shouts, gaining the attention of the Unicorns. "Lady Rarity!" He yells. The two trot up to each other and hug each other. "Good to see you again. I wish these were better circumstances." He says before letting go. "As do I. We were going to take a ferry to Trottingham, but... all the ships were destroyed." Fleur and Fancy Pants look at each other in shock. "My goodness. I don't suppose you need a lift?" He offered. Rarity smiled. "We were hoping." She says before turning to Floe and Burner. "Find the others and bring them here quickly." She ordered and the two take off.

The two gallop to find the rest of the group. "Let's split up." Floe suggested. "You take the marketplace and I'll go to the castle." Burner nods. "I'm on it."

---

Floe approaches the castle in a gallop, but slows down as she approaches the guards, who block her from continuing. "I need to speak to Flint right away." The guards look at each other before letting her pass.

Floe would be escorted to Celestia's throne room where Flint, Twilight, Applejack, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie were present. "Thank you for giving us an audience, your majesty." Flint says as he bows. "It looks like somepony else has some news." Celestia says, noticing Floe. Flint and the others turn around. "Tell me it's good news, Floe." He says. Floe nods. "Yes, we're about ready to leave for Trottingham. Burner's retrieving the others right now."

---

Afterburner gallops toward the market as Floe heads toward the castle. It takes him a while, but he sees Rainbow Dash fly overhead, leaving her signature rainbow contrail and whistles. "Hey! Rainbow Dash!" He yells.

The rainbow Pegasus stops in her tracks and races over to Burner. "What's up? Are we ready to get the show on the road?" She asks. Burner nods. "Just about. Rarity's securing our transport and Floe's picking up Flint and the others." Treat and Thunderhooves flutter over to the two and land. "I think we're ready." Treat says, tapping on his bag.

---

With Flint in the front of the group, he leads the others to Rarity and by extension, Fancy Pants' airship. Flint takes a deep breath, still worried about what might happen to him and Treat and continues.

Author's Note:

The next chapter will focus on Flint.