Tales of the Battle Foals

by Sirdubya

Sparks of Hope

Fire Fight and Turf War sat in silence in there prison cell with the latter fidgeting anxiously and tapping his hoof on the floor, waiting for any action as he had given up on breaking down the door while the former just calmly leaned against the wall, internally lamenting the first obvious defeat he and his team had suffered while lost in thought as to what to do about the current situation. Time seemed to slow to a snail’s pace as even their softest breaths could be heard from across the room.

Suddenly, they heard metal footsteps clanging towards their door. Turf War perked up aggressively while Fire Fight just lifted his head towards the door. “Things ‘bout to go down, homie…” Turf War said.

“Looks like it.” Fire Fight said.

Just then, the door opened, and before them stood two of the robot guards, one of them motioning for the foals to exit their cell, which they did cautiously. The guards ushered them down the hall as another duo of the robots opened the door to Crazylocks’ cell, but instead of the manic filly walking out, one of them, carried her out in an unconscious state. The two colts decided to be quiet about the scenario and just go with the flow. Bullseye apparently didn’t agree with their line of thinking as she banged on her cell door with extreme animosity.

“YOU PUT HER THE F*** DOWN YOU BUCKET OF BOLTS!!!” Bullseye shouted. One of the robot guards reacted by smacking her door with a stun baton it detracted from its arm, causing a burst of sparks to flash violently for a moment.
The colts were shocked when they didn’t hear any sort of retaliation from the half-blind berserker.

The colts and Crazylocks were escorted out of the hall by the guards and separated them from the rest of the foals when the closed the hallway door behind them.

Back in Bullseye and Valkyrie’s cell, the angry archer wasn’t exactly happy about being told off by electricity and foamed at the mouth, furious as how powerless she had been rendered.

“You done yet, Cyclops?” Valkyrie said.

“Rrrgghh….. Can it, feather-face. We’ve gotta figure out a way to break out of here and rip Skadi a new one.” Bullseye growled.

“What do you think I’ve been doing this whole time?” Valkyrie asked.

“Picturing ways that b**** could be maimed?” Bullseye guessed.

“Besides that.” Valkyrie said.

“Tch! Well, if ya got anything spit it out.” Bullseye said.

“Wish I could, Bullseye. Don’t suppose you’ve been thinking much?”

“Nrgh!” Bullseye gritted her teeth as she impatiently looked around the cell. In her frustration, she almost didn’t notice that the electronic lock to their cell door was sparking a little, causing it to rapidly unlock and relock before the static dissipated and the system corrected itself. Bullseye slowly creased a wicked smile as she realized what was possible. “Heheheheeee… You thinking what I’m thinking, bird-brain?”

Valkyrie, having noticed the opportunity that her cellmate did wiped her nose and smiled deviously. “I’d say it’s worth a shot.”

Somewhere in the Fortress…

Fire Fight and Turf War had been led outside, still unarmed and inhibited as they were ushered by the guards. They got a better look at their current playing field from somewhere that wasn’t locked in a cage, flying or otherwise. It looked like what they could imagine Canterlot looking like in a very distant, very dystopian future with effigies of bizarre bipedal beings that they could only presume were the people that originally built this place towering into the red sky. It looked to be a much different area of the city than the section they observed as they were whisked away in their cages, which compared to this scenery seemed more industrial. Their current surroundings had an atmosphere akin to a shopping district or some kind of social plaza. The statues were too worn down to ascertain any other defining features of these apparent precursors, but what was even more unclear was how they could have possibly disappeared with how prosperous their society must have been. Could the cause have been something they could turn against Skadi and her forces?

Eventually, they came to a big stadium-like structure and were ushered onto a platform connected to a large metal cable that extended further into the long, dark tunnel before them. The guards stepped off of the platform and pressed a button on the control panel that caused the platform to start moving along the cable, and from the corners erected tall nodes that served no apparent purpose.

Just as the colts were able to seize the opportunity to see if Crazylocks was alright, she suddenly awoke. “Huh!?”

“Whoa! Hol’ up!” Turf War and Fire Fight jumped back from shock, and it was then that they noticed that she had a black collar around her with a small red light right in the area of her adam’s apple. “The f***?”

Crazylocks took a moment to observe her surroundings, her head moving very unnaturally and cartoony, not that it was unnatural for her. “Did we finally build our mud soup factory?”

Fire Fight sighed, relieved that Crazylocks was still herself….for better or for worse. “N-No, Crazylocks. Skadi is holding captive, remember?”

“Oh, right! I should so tell Bullseye. She’s gonna flip!” Crazylocks said.

“I hope she don’t flip nothin’ but her bow.” Turf War said. Before they could say anything else, the platform stopped in front of a gigantic blast door. A few robot arms reached down from the ceiling with the foals’ respective armaments and removed Fire Fight’s magic suppressor. “Yo! Sweet!” Turf War reached for his hammer-axe, shield and armor without hesitation.

Fire Fight was certainly happy to have his gear back, but he was a little confused as to why this was happening given the situation. Skadi must have been able to discern that he was very much able to fight back bare-hooved, but she just gave him back his big upgrade why he was a prisoner. Why? “Am I the only one who thinks this is a bit sketchy?”

“Ok, maybe she’s bein’ a li’l sneaky, but maybe she gettin’ overconfident!” Turf War said. “We could blow this joint and bust out the others! Let’s go!” He tried leaping off of the platform towards the direction they came from, but the nodes in the corner lit up and activated their revealed defense, an electric force field in a dome shape around the platform. “GYAH-AH-AH-AH-AH-AH-AH!!!!” Turf War was blown back by the force of getting zapped and crumbled to the ground in a smoking heap. “H-Hell no…”

“HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY, TURF WAR!!!” Crazylocks blurted. Turf War gritted his teeth at her.

“You okay, dude?” Fire Fight asked, using his magic to dwindle down the heat.

Turf War fumbled to his hooves. “Nrgh. Yeah, I’m straight.”

They suddenly heard the ear piercing sound of a microphone ring from within the tunnel, and a voice could be heard through speakers. “Tut tut, little colt. I knew you weren’t the brightest star in the night sky, but you ought to grateful your endurance prevented you from lighting up like a supernova completely.”

They recognized the voice immediately. “Skadi!!” Fire Fight shouted.

“It’d be quite the shame if your short lives were cut even shorter by your own folly, but then again, you’re likely quite used to cheating death by now, so I can understand if you’ve lost touch with your mortality.” Skadi said.

Turf War drew his hammer. “B****, WHY DON’T YOU GET YOUR FEATHERED A** DOWN HERE AND I’LL SHOW YOU A THING OR TWO ‘BOUT MORTALITY!!!”

“My! Such a lack of manners. That’s alright though. Now I won’t feel quite so guilty about what’s about to take place.” Skadi said.

Fire Fight gulped. “A-And what’s that?” His question was answered when the blast door suddenly began opening. Masses of sunlight faded out to reveal the fighting arena. “Sorry I asked.”

Skadi chuckled. “Not to worry, little ones. This should take but a moment of your time.”

“Can I get fries with that?” Crazylocks blurted.

Suddenly, another voice came onto the intercom. “Be careful, you guys!”

The frantic posh accent was unmistakable. “Quantum Tech!?” Fire Fight said.

“Rrgh! Get back to your post, you!” Skadi ordered, the sound of her pushing away Quantum Tech being overlapped by her voice. “So sorry about that little interruption. Now then, if you’d kindly…”

Fire Fight looked out into the arena and instantly felt a knot in his stomach, but he knew that all he could do for now was cooperate with Skadi’s demands until they could find a way out of their predicament, so he and the other two cautiously walked onto the battlefield. All the while, one question still loomed in his mind. “Where’s Shadow Shroud?”

Back in the Armory…

Shadow Shroud and Dark Veil waited patiently in the blankets of darkness covering them as they patiently waited for their prey to come to them. The former hid atop a tower of supply crates out of view from anything below while the latter hid amongst the many pipes that constructed the feeding trough. Their training taught them that patience could require great amount of endurance on its own, so they felt more than ready to execute their plan of attack, and judging by the sounds of large machinery approaching them gradually, it seemed that their patience was about to pay off.

The blast door opened and in slithered the mecha python. The Shadewalkers were a little surprised to see it back to soon, but they considered the possibility that its large size and functionality likely made it consume fuel as fast as Bullseye lost her temper, which would explain why Skadi didn’t have any more of them to speak of if she wanted to conserve energy. They held as still as statues until the python reached the trough and opened its big mouth and started feeding- that’s when they nodded at one another and took action.

Shadow Shroud hurled a kunai at the crystal while Dark Veil swung the sickle of his kusarigama at it. Both struck true and caused the crystal to spark violently. In that same swift motion, they both leapt towards each other with Dark Veil quickly pulling his chain up and Shroud catching it as it swung to the other side, making it so that it flew into and got caught in the python’s mouth. The mechanical menace struggled to dislodge the unstable energy crystal from its mouth, but the overflow blasted into its inner workings as if it was drowning from the excess energy. Glowing cracks began to form on its armor, and then its entire body short-circuited and violently burst from the cracks, silencing it permanently.

The ninjas moved out of the way as the beast collapsed to the ground in a smoking heap. Shards of the energy crystal lay scattered around the shards of its armor, but they had lost their luster from the mass energy loss. They waited a moment for something to happen, but it seemed that all was calm, so they took a sigh of relief.

“Talk about heartburn.” Dark Veil said.

“It’s only a matter of time before something realizes that Slithers here is K.I.A. We need to get over to the prison on the double.” Shroud said.

Dark Veil nodded. “Let’s do it.”

“Although, I have to say that you really outdid yourself coming up with such a risky plan and executing it so seamlessly, Dark Veil. You’ve really grown up.” Shroud teased.

“R-Really?” Dark Veil stammered. “Err… I mean of course I did. What sort of Shadewalker would I be if I couldn’t?”

Shroud couldn’t help but to detect his shift in tone, but decided it wasn’t important and simply led her colleague out through the same exit she took before.

Back in the Arena…

Fire Fight, Turf War and Crazylocks were surrounded by nothing but tension and oppressive atmosphere as they stood in the high tech ruins awaiting whatever Skadi had ready for them. If Quantum Tech’s frantic warning was to be heeded, then they had to keep their guards up and then some. This entire fortress was both her domain and her weapon.

The intercom suddenly came on again. “I bet it was easy for you to guess that this place was a form of sports stadium when it was still in its heyday. Granted, I’m only drawing conclusions from what I was able to find myself, but based on the architecture, you’d have to be a fool to not follow the same logic, unless these people had very different ideas of how facilities were built and functioned of course.” It was Skadi.

“Why’s that important?” Fire Fight asked.

“Oh, it’s really not- just a little thought I had. You foals seem to have an unquenchable thirst for combat and adventure. I have to wonder if your adrenal glands are still intact.” Skadi said.

“I’d be more worried ‘bout your skull, Skadi. Now what the hell goin’ on?” Turf War demanded.

Skadi sighed. “Well, since you asked oh so nicely…” Suddenly, blast doors from across the arena started opening, and they could already see pairs of eyes shining from the darkness, and they readied themselves for a riot. “Have fun with your new toys, kiddies! I’ll be watching…”

Comments

[KingJoltik]

Huh. Here's hoping they survive this. Though I'm guessing that the only way they're going survive this is if Skadi becomes so overconfident that they can do anything and Skadi still thinks she would win.

Also, weird spacing error:

“YOU PUT HER THE F*** DOWN YOU BUCKET OF BOLTS!!!” Bullseye shouted. One of the robot guards reacted by
smacking her door with a stun baton it detracted from its arm, causing a burst of sparks to flash violently for a moment.
The colts were shocked when they didn’t hear any sort of retaliation from the half-blind berserker.

Hmmm...guess this comment can't show it well. You'll have to look at it in the chapter.

[Sirdubya]

8717971
I think I got it. It was hard to tell from editting, but thanks.

[KingJoltik]

8717991
Just switch from regular view and edit view. It still didn't fully fix it.

[HB_DS2013]

I thought two new chapters were posted, but I read this one on my phone and it didn’t register. Of COURSE Crazylocks asked for fries!? What kinda fries would she want anyway?

[jimerjam]

does this tech city remind any of you about the endgame tek tier in ark: survival evolved?