Tales of the Battle Foals

by Sirdubya

Resolve

Back in Ponyville...

Twilight and Spike had returned to their castle and were having a conversation with Zecora, who had requested Fluttershy’s presence, so she had come as well. The nature of their conversation was…..interesting, to say the least. “So let me get this straight: Your people have a type of magic that can tame and control monsters!?” Twilight asked.

Zecora nodded. “You may think it unthinkable, Twilight, but I assure you I am not daft. I speak of the forbidden art known as Beastcraft.”

Twilight and co. knew that zebras engaged in strange, even frightening practices, and they probably should’ve expected such an art to have some place in their culture. “Why is it forbidden?” Fluttershy asked.

“They say that those who tame beasts may become beasts themselves. The mind of a monster is a dangerous abyss to delve. This child, Zebota walks a treacherous path. He is constantly in danger of his companion’s feral wrath.” Zecora said. Her solemn expression told the ponies and dragon that she was worried for the zebra foal.

“That must be why I couldn’t use my Stare on it or understand its feelings. It was under a spell that already had it under some kind of control.” Fluttershy said.

“H-How much do you know about Beastcraft, Zecora?” Spike asked.

“If I’m to be honest, very little. My understandings of its properties are rather vague. I know it foolish of me, but I have avoided its forbidden wisdom like the plague.” Zecora said.

“I’m sure that this ‘Zebota’ gets along very well with his timberwolf friend.” Fluttershy said. “If they’ve been together for as long as you say, then surely they’re best friends by now.”

“L-Let’s not get too optimistic Fluttershy. Even if he’s able to control that timberwolf, who’s to say that it won’t try to attack Fire Fight and the other foals?” Twilight said.

“Yeah. If that timberwolf that attacked us near the castle was the one Zebota’s controlling, then we’d better start being careful.” Spike said. “Ya know…..Kinda makes me wonder if you’ve got zebras somewhere in your family tree, Fluttershy. It might explain your Stare.”

“Huh…..I never thought of that……I’ll have to ask my parents the next time I go visit them.” Fluttershy said.

“That aside, we should let the princesses and the press know about him too, but after we look into this ‘Greensprout’ first.” Twilight said.

“Yeah, you’re right. We still gotta do that.” Spike said. “Thanks for telling us about this, Zecora.”

“Anytime, my child.” Zecora said. She and Fluttershy saw themselves out.

Twilight and Spike made their way to the records room with Greensprout in mind. However, the thought of a zebra colt controlling such a powerful creature as an alpha timberwolf loomed over. “Man, oh man. There sure is a lot we don’t know about this world, huh, Twi?” Spike said.

“Yes, Spike, and right now, that’s the scariest part. We need to find Fire Fight as soon as possible. Have you finished organizing that search party?” Twilight said.

Spike nodded. “Yep! The only thing they need now is your order to leave, and we’ll head back out there.”

“Good.” Twilight said. The two reached their destination, and they began looking through the ‘G’ section of census records with utmost prudence. It took some meticulous diligence, but they eventually found records of somepony under that name, and just as the CMC suggested, Greensprout was indeed a filly. “Here we go!”

“Found her? What do we got?” Spike asked.

Twilight scanned through what little information the folder held on the little filly. “Wow. There’s not a whole lot here. Hmm…..Well, it says that she lives in an abbey in Southwestern Equestria called ‘Gardenia’.”

“What’s an abbey?” Spike asked.

“It’s a town typically run and governed by monks or some kind of religious practitioners. Their leader in known as an ‘abbot’, and in the case of Gardenia, his name is Abbot Meadow.” Twilight answered. “Huh!?”

“What is it?”

“It…seems that this abbot is her legal guardian, but……I can’t find any record of her birth parents. It doesn’t look like she even has a birth certificate!” Twilight said. That’s when it hit her. No known parents other than an abbot in rural Equestria, no birth certificate, which could very well mean that ‘Greensprout’ wasn’t even her real name…….could she have been right? Is this the Shadewalker that she’d been searching for!?

“Everything ok, Twilight?” Spike asked.

Twilight looked over at her assistant with a determined expression. “Spike, tell Ms. Cheerilee that she’ll have to lead the search party in my place. You, me and Rarity are going to Gardenia!” she declared.

Spike was understandably befuddled by the sudden change of plans, but decided to trust Twilight’s command given that he too was interested in this ‘Greensprout’ and Gardenia. “Uh….okay.” They got started packing up for their trip.

*****

Morning had broken in the former bandit den, and the Battle Foals didn’t need to say anything seeing as they all knew from last night that they had to make haste. Fire Fight didn’t even bother cooking breakfast; the foals all just had fresh fruit stored away in Quantum’s mech as they made their way north as instructed by Princess Luna. All the while, nary a word was spoken as they couldn’t stop thinking about her warning of a catastrophe….

Turf War finally broke the silence. “Damn, ya’ll! Uh….We got to meet Princess Luna d’ho, what? It’s like a….a dream come true, a-am I right? Naw, fo’ real! We really was dreamin’, but it was actually happenin’! AHAheh! Y’all see what I did there? A-A-Ain’t dat kinda a trip d’ho? I mean, it’s like….it was real, but it wasn’t, ya feel me? But still….Princess Luna!? Are you serious right now!? I’m sayin d’ho. Dat mare hung the moon! HAH! Y-Y’all see what I did? ‘Cause…….she do dat…….e’ery night?.......No?.....”

Despite his attempt to lighten the tension, nopony was in the mood for laughs. While they were beyond thankful for Princess Luna’s aid, the thought of them having to fight back something that could only be described as a catastrophe was jarring. Their only goal was to build a place somewhere in the world just for them and others like them, not become saviors. Even if they had acted heroically in the past, that was all nothing more than a sense of justice they all shared. “Sh-Shut up.” Bullseye stammered. It was clear that even she was a little rattled.

“L-Let’s get off the subject.” Fire Fight said. “Shroud, do you know which mountain in the Unicorn Range is the highest?”

Shadow Shroud looked at her map to confirm. “Right here.” She pointed to mountain right on the southern side of some marked train tracks that led towards Vanhoover. “Great Horn Summit is our destination. We need only hike through these woods past these other, smaller mountains. It’s not that far.”

“O-Ok then. Let’s not waste any time!” Fire Fight said.

Shroud folded her map and stored back into her cloak as she eyed her fiery friend with slight disapproval. “Come on. What happened?” she asked firmly. Fire Fight glanced over at her in surprise. “What happened to that endless determination that kept that fire going, huh? Did it just fizzle out the second you heard the princess’s warning? Surely you’re not afraid of what might come? Was I wrong to guide from the beginning?”

Her harsh words whipped Fire Fight’s resolve back into shape. She was right; he couldn’t start chickening out just because some prophecy that may or may not even come true. He had to be strong for his team. “Of course not! If something does happen, we’ll punch whatever it is right in the face!” he declared.

Shroud giggled. “That’s what I thought.”

The other foals seemed to catch onto their leader’s strength and cheered up somewhat. “I agree! We’ve come much too far to simply give up now!” Air Slash said. He drew his sword and held it skyward. “Whatever darkness may befall us, my blades shall rend it!”

“Tch! Not before I pump it full o’ arrows!” Bullseye growled.

“Apologies in advance if it’s me!” Spiral Galaxy joked.

“We forgive you in advance, darling.” Quantum Tech teased.

“Ugh! That was supposed to be a joke, you meanie!” Spiral said. The two shared a giggle.

“If it happens, can we sing it a lullaby in 100% organic Gaelic?” Crazylocks blurted.

“Y-Yes, Crazylocks. Why don’t we?” Greensprout said.

“Regardless, it would be prudent for us to make haste to this mountain.” Zebota said. “If what Princess Luna said is true, then this search party may not be too far behind us.”

“Ah reckon we oughta.” Kickback said. “But…..Y’all think this might be trap? Ah mean, she could very easily have set up a whole hayfield’s worth of guard up there where we wouldn’t be able to scram.”

“I thought that too, but if she already knew where we were based on our sleep, wouldn’t she have sent guards our way long ago?” Shroud said. “Besides….I could feel her sincerity when we hugged her.”

“Wow, Shroud. It’s not like you to empathize like that.” Spiral said.

Shroud shrugged. “What can I say? I let you guys soften me a little.”

“I’d rather you be too soft than so hard that you become unlikable, Shroud.” Fire Fight said.

Shroud giggled. “That’s nice, but Greensprout is all the little sweetheart we need.”

“Oh, sister!” Greensprout said.

“Hehe. You all need to get a room already!” Bullseye said. They all shared a little laugh, and their worries seemed to fade away. They still had a goal in sight, and there was no point in turning back now. They had the Princess of the Moon on their side, and they had no intention of letting her efforts to support them go to waste. If anything, the new pressure they found themselves under served to further encourage them to keep moving forward.

As the afternoon sun started moving into midday, the foal came across another set of railroad tracks that snaked between the Smokey Mountains and Unicorn range and into a forest. They had no choice but to follow it since having to climb around and over the mountains just to avoid being seen by any passing trains would be both pointless and needlessly difficult. “It’s the mountain just to the north of here.” Shroud said. She took another look at her map. “Looks like it’s pretty far though. Be on the lookout for a place we can camp for the night. I doubt we’ll make it there in one day on foot.”

Fire Fight nodded. “Understood.” He then looked at Quantum Tech. “So, what all do you know about this portal, Quantum?”

“Well, according to what little record that exists on the subject, we really only have Princess Luna’s word to go on.” Quantum said. “Even the nature of its activation had been lost to time, though I do not expect any difficulty discerning that once we reach the summit.”

“Ah just hope we don’t keep too many fillies r’ colts waitin’ while we scurry off to the other side of the realm. That’d be a cryin’ shame if there was somepony fer us to rustle up while we just jumped through the portal all willy-nilly.” Kickback said.

“We could just come back afterwards. We might even be able to finally set up a home somewhere over there. I mean, the griffons don’t really care much for us anyway, so I doubt they’d mind a bunch of runaway foals much at all.” Spiral said.

Bullseye chuckled. “Then we’ll just have to be good neighbors, huh?”

“I just hope dat don’t none o’ ‘em snitch on us.” Turf War.

“We’ll be able to concentrate on what to do once we’re able to see those surroundings for ourselves, guys, so let’s get going.” Fire Fight said. It was then that a little thought crossed his mind. “You know…..that windigo we fought…..maybe it was some kind of warning of this catastrophe?”

“Hmm…..I wonder….” Zebota muttered. Shrapnel lightly whimpered as his master pondered over the meaning of that strange encounter, but the time for that would have to come later, because for now, the foals had a forest to hike through.

Comments

[MrSpecOps]

I'm actually afraid for Abbot Meadow now! How's he gonna explain about Greensprout? Also goddammit! They know more about the foals and now they're getting closer to messing up Fire Fights MISSION!!!

[KingJoltik]

Interesting. Well, here's hoping leaving a forest this time isn't an ordeal for the foals. That and Twilight and the others are now five steps behind instead of just one or two. I'm seriously believing that they're finally gonna catch up to them at the end of the story. That's the only way I can see this story going down. Though I am hoping Luna gets caught just to make things interesting.

Also, I'll hunt for errors later. I need to stock up on some error shotgun ammo. I ran out of shells.

[HB_DS2013]

“Yeah. If that timberwolf that attacked us near the castle was the one Zebota’s controlling, then we’d better start being careful.” Spike said. “Ya know…..Kinda makes me wonder if you’ve got zebras somewhere in your family tree, Fluttershy. It might explain your Stare.”
“Huh…..I never thought of that……I’ll have to ask my parents the next time I go visit them.” Fluttershy said.

My original headcanon for Fluttershy is that she's descended from earth ponies, nevermind her parents and Zephyr Breeze with his very stupid manbun. Ugh, he's even more hipster than freakin' Trenderhoof. AnywaymI've read fics where she has thestral and dragon blood. But her being descended from Zebras? Next to the earth pony and thestral thing,that sorta thing might as well be the most plausible reason why she can use the Stare. But it would be even cooler if she was really descended from dragons.

[Jonny Bench]

8157569 imagine if pinkie was part draconoqus and that's why she can do pretty much anything. Or if fluttershy was part changeling and the stare is just mind control magic

[HB_DS2013]

8157590 OH. MY. GOSH. Nevermind Fluttershy being part changeling or a changeling queen. The fact that Pinkie might be related to Discord scares me, seeing as she can mess with the laws of physics like Mr Popo's pecking order.

[Windy0]

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8157590
I just hope they get their permanent base of operations soon. And for Fire Fight and Shroud to become a couple followed by Turf War and Bullseye becoming a couple as well. I think these pairs are a good match, what do you all think?

[KingJoltik]

8157569 I think the thestral thing is probably due to Flutterbat. That's how most fans see Fluttershy in terms of her being related to other species. Though, it would be cool if one of the foals they end up getting is a bat pony. That would be neat.

[StarzGecko]

I was gone on vacation and I got to catch up with the story now. Anyways, i can't wait to see them make it up to the portal and see what kind of challenge they'll face to get throw.