Tales of the Battle Foals

by Sirdubya

The Storm Begins

It had been two days since the Battle Foals began finally settled into their new home. Combined efforts concentrated solely into the water purifier allowed them to complete within half a day. They had opted to put it in the isthmus area and had Tidal Wave install pipes that jutted out into the ocean so that it wouldn’t collect mud. The surrounding trees provided it some decent cover from the elements.

After that, they divided tasks amongst each other working on various projects. Amongst them were a training arena, a proper kitchen and dining room, a few bathrooms, and their bedrooms. Quantum Tech even considered trying to construct a small observatory in one of the prison’s higher towers just above where she began installing her lab.

They decided that the prison cells that were either the cleanest or easiest to clean would be suited to their personal bedrooms. The walls were between each were concrete making them decently private, but the small open windows proved unsightly. Quantum Tech used a precision laser to cut out bigger holes and had Frostbite gently freeze them over until they could figure out how to make glass- the icy drake insisted that it wouldn’t melt.

Air Slash went into the work-in-progress lab of Quantum Tech. Their resident scientist was accompanied by Fire Fight. “Good afternoon.”

“Hey, man.” Fire Fight said.

“Oh! Hello, Air Slash.” Quantum Tech said. “What brings you here?”

“Apologies for any interruptions, but Turf War, Spiral Galaxy and I have been working on the training area, and we could use your help refining some of the mechanisms, particularly those that move the dummies.” Air Slash said.

“I suppose I have moment to give a quick inspection.” Quantum said.

“Yeah, I’m kind of helping her make sure her burner thingies don’t explode or anything while she’s running this experiment.” Fire Fight said. There was a small series of glass containing various chemicals being boiled under small open flames. Running between them was a plastic tube carrying the fumes into another container where they mixed.

“Could I trouble you to look after this in my stead, Fire Fight? I shouldn’t be long.” Quantum asked.

Fire Fight nodded. “Who needs a fire blanket when you’ve got me?”

“Err… Y-Yes, quite…” Quantum said. “Now then. Shall we?”

Air Slash led her out of the room and down the hall towards the courtyard. “Have you per chance produced any results as to the reason for Frostbite’s ice breath?”

“Nothing conclusive, but the implications are fascinating.” Quantum said. “As you may know, animals exhale water vapor, which would explain how Frostbite is able to access moisture needed to produce ice without having to be in any sort of humid climate.”

“But we met him in such a dry region. Wouldn’t he have to consume mass amounts of water?” Air Slash said.

“Precisely where everything gets tricky.” Quantum said. “You’d wonder the same thing about regular dragons not having their bodies completely combust with how much fire they can produce. However, when I analyzed his breath sample, I noticed something… odd.”

“Being what?”

“There were microscopic hints of pure carbon that were strangely charged similar to a unicorn’s horn when we use magic.” Quantum said.

“Pure carbon? As in the gems he consumes?” Air Slash asked.

“Yes! Gems are excellent conductors and containers of magical energy, but it begs the question as to where this magic in particular is coming from. It has its own set of properties that causes it to behave in a predictable way, which has allowed Frostbite to gain a feel on how to control it, but I have to wonder if this is common among dragons.” Quantum said.

“You mean their fire breathing might actually be magical!?” Air Slash asked.

“Thinking more about it, I don’t think it’s as ridiculous as it sounds.” Quantum said. “Unicorns have an organ that produces magic in the form of our horns. Who’s to say any other creatures in Equestria are without such a characteristic? I must imagine that for dragons, it would be a gland located somewhere within or around their respiratory systems.”

“And it just so happen that Frostbite is the only known dragon that breathes something that is not fire?” Air Slash asked.

Quantum giggled. “Evolution can be fun to watch.”

When they reached the door to the courtyard, they could hear a cacophony of crashes and bangs from outside. They hurried to see what the ruckus was. “WHAT IN CELESTIA’S NAME!?!?” Air Slash exclaimed.

Spiral Galaxy struggled to keep a hail of nuts and bolts from raining down as they popped out their mechanisms while Turf War frantically smacked away dummies being fired at him like bullets. “M*********!!!” he shouted.

When the storm cleared, the two caught their breaths until they noticed their company, who looked pretty dumbfounded at the pitiful display. Spiral just sheepishly smiled.

Turf War, however, had the face of a foal caught with their hoof in a cookie jar. “Umm… Err… S-See what had happened was…”

Back in Ponyville…

Spike watched as Twilight impatiently paced around her library. It had been a day since her and the search party returned from Griffonstone, but having returned empty-hoofed made it feel like forever ago. “What’d we miss? We combed that shoreline from top to bottom with no sign of the Battle Foals!”

“Maybe they just left before we could catch ‘em… again…” Spike said.

“Spike, they would have left some kind of trace!” Twilight said. “You don’t suppose King Grover lied to us, do you?”

“Why would he? He’s a king. Lying to another royalty would get in deep doo-doo.” Spike said. “We didn’t go all the way north into that icy forest. They might have gone all that way.”

“Spike, I know they’re tough little sluggers, but do you really think even they would be able to withstand living in such a cold climate for prolonged periods of time?” Twilight asked.

“Fire Fight has fire magic. He could keep them warm until they found a way to stave of the cold like the Crystal Empire.” Spike said. “Heck, friendship alone can be pretty warm, and the Battle Foals probably have that in strides!”

Twilight sighed. “I guess it’s worth investigating. I’ll let Cheerilee know so we can try and head out tomorrow.”

“Cool.” Spike said. He suddenly started shivering. “Brrr! Did you turn down the A/C? It’s really cold in here all of a sudden.”

Twilight shivered. “I didn’t even touch it. Was there supposed to be a cold front today?”

Spike suddenly started choking before belching out a flame that materialized into a letter. He grabbed and started reading it. “It’s from Cadence… and… it looks like serious trouble!”

In the Crystal Empire…

Border guards on the edge of the empire stood vigilantly just within the magic rim protecting them from the wrath of the Frozen North. Ever since they discovered the magic anomaly, Shining Armor had ordered their best watchmen to keep their eyes on the outside.

They were used to witnessing the intense blizzard and even have had to venture out into it one a few occasions, but for some reason, everything felt more tense than usual. There was an uncomfortable pressure looming in the air that they couldn’t place.

“D-Does anypony else feel cold? Like… colder than usual around here?” one of the guards asked.

“I think you’re just tense.” his colleague replied.

Suddenly, a powerful chill overwhelmed them, and a cluster of snow and icy dust appeared and began swirling violently. “Hey! Over here!” another guard called out.

The icy swirl slowly congregated into a physical form, the form of a large python made of ice. It had fangs like icicles dripping with no doubt chilling venom and hissed at them.

“Wh-Wh-What’s that!?” a guard exclaimed.

The ice python spat cold venom at her, which froze her solid in an instant.

“STAUNCH VALOR!” another guard cried.

They all drew their weapons as the ice python lunged at them, save for one pegasus who flew as fast as he could towards the castle to warn his lieges…

Within the Castle…

Cadence and Shining were in their bedroom resting. Today wasn’t terribly taxing, but their royal duties often kept them from having long moments of family time, such as having some freshly made sandwiches together. Flurry was in her room asleep.

“Honey, are you sure we didn’t send too many guards to the edge?” Cadence asked.

“Maybe we did, but we can’t be too careful with everything that’s been going on.” Shining said.

“We really should have sent an investigation team over to that ice anomaly.” Cadence said.

“Some ponies have ventured out there themselves, and its apparently unapproachable.” Shining said. “The best thing we could hope to do it set up a camp out there to observe it from a safe distance.”

“Once we know the empire is as safe as it could be, right?” Cadence said.

“Yep.”

“Well, I don’t think it could get any safer if we tried.” Cadence said. “I think it’s high time we contacted those scientists and-”

A pegasus guard suddenly burst through their balcony doors sweating bullets and hyperventilating. “You… You… YOUR HIGHNESSES!!” he shouted.

“Shh! Our baby’s asleep!” Cadence said.

“Calm down, Eagle Wing. What’s wrong?”

The guard took a deep breath. “Sorry. The empire’s under attack!”

“What!? By who?” Shining demanded.

“By… By the blizzard!” Eagle Wing replied.

“The… blizzard?” Cadence asked.

The screams of ponies suddenly echoed from the city, prompting the royals to rush out onto their balcony to investigate. Too their terror, half of the empire had frozen over, and the ice storm was quickly growing. On top of that, the empire was overrun with ice monsters ravaging their surroundings. Python, spiders, apes, horses, and other kinds of monstrous effigies formed from bitter cold ice freezing and smashing everyone and everything in sight, and the ill-prepared guards were helpless to defend themselves or anyone from the onslaught.

“I’m getting Flurry Heart now!” Cadence said.

“Send word to the Princesses while you’re at it! I’ve got to rally my troops and help the townsfolk!” Shining said.

“Right! I’ll come help as soon as I can!” Cadence said.

Shining rushed to the aid of his soldiers. When he got outside, he could barely tell that the crystal heart was doing anything to shield the empire from the blizzard. The air was frigid and dry, driving snow asphyxiated the ground, and spires of ice dominated the landscape and pierced through destroyed houses and smashed buildings.

From afar, the ice monster looked like they’d be formidable, but not their ferocity was unheard of. Even with their steel weapons, they couldn’t do so much as break through their foes’ icy armor. The guards had been trained more vigorously over time, but the beasts weren’t at all tame, and their overwhelming strength in both numbers and general physique allowed them to tear through the empire’s defenses like paper, freezing whomever wasn’t already laying down drained of stamina. Shining fought with all he had.

“<HRAAAWWWRRR!!!!>”

From high above echoed a frightening roar, and Shining looked up and was horrified to see a serpentine dragon made of ice just like its apparent underlings slithering through the sky. It was wingless, but had clawed frills pluming from around its neck like a vampire’s cloak.

“HERE ME, EQUESTRIA!!” a young, feminine voice boomed from its gaping maw. “THE COLD OF WINTER SHALL REIGN ETERNAL!!” The claws on its frills glowed like unicorn horns and summoned more and more ice monsters, and its roaring made the blizzards more violent. It fired beams of ice that around town that formed entire glaciers that made the once lush and lustrous empire into an unrecognizable frozen hellscape.

Observing the beast more closely, Shining could make out a small silhouette from within its mouth…

Comments

[DDDDDDDDD23]

So the battle foals are protected by Twilights inability to change her opinion on someone no matter the evidence pilling up?

[HB_DS2013]

9602631 Apparently, yes.

[KingJoltik]

Uh oh. Looks like trouble...

[DoctorWhoooves]

It's time for the Battle Foals to go on their First Mission. Would that they had an Airship though Amirite

[HB_DS2013]

9603411 Wouldn't they get discovered by Twilight and company that way?

[DoctorWhoooves]

9604457
But they might also get discovered eventually anyway, as the elements will most likely also be sent to the Crystal Empire. Why hide and run when you can prove everything you've been saying?

[TheDerpySoupCan]

Snowdrop?

[raven618]

Nidhogg's sister?

[jimerjam]

9606726
that...maybe...uhhh

IDFK