Tales of the Battle Foals

by Sirdubya

What Lies Beneath...

Beneath Baltimare….

Twilight, Spike, Fluttershy, Film Noir and a small team of biologists ventured into the underground subways that had been lost in time. They sought out the location of where the pile of corpses were discovered. Just being back down here made Film Noir quiver. She recalled the horrific face she’d stumbled upon almost too vividly. Her new friends were there to keep her calm, but her nerves weren’t completely agreeing with her.

Film Noir managed to find the place where she made her discovery. It was there that they all got a better look at the scene. An oil drum had clearly exploded hence the smell in air that Film Noir and her colleagues had originally dismissed as a normal odor given the nature of this place. Closer examination presented them with more evidence. A lone bullet that looked as though it may have ignited the oil drum lay amongst the debris. Twilight decided to use her magic to trace the activity of the scene by detecting recent heat signatures- there were a ton! It was clear by the pattern of the signatures that a large brawl had taken place. Thankfully, there was no sign of little pony bits, or otherwise signs that the foals were killed if it was really them who fought these monstrosities.

Twilight then stumbled upon what could be described as footprints leading towards somewhere. They followed the trail, and found that they led to a strange tunnel that had been dug into the wall of the subway. Upon closer examination, Fluttershy and the biologists determined that it was manually dug by a pony rather than burrowed through by any sort of animal. The fading trail of footsteps led all the way into the tunnel. When they got to the end, ‘shocked’ didn’t even begin to describe what they felt upon seeing what awaited them.

“WHOA! WHAT IS THIS PLACE!?” Spike exclaimed. Before them was a series of testing tubes, shattered jars of formaldehyde, a mass of unnecessarily large surgical tools and other various machines, what appeared to be embryos of the unidentified creatures, and a mass amount of corpses of said monsters littering the room.

Fluttershy and the biologists examined the embryos, and came to a startling conclusion. “Twilight! Some……Somepony made these animals! They’re not natural at all!” Fluttershy said.

“W-W-What!?” Twilight stammered. She was completely at a loss for words. How psychotic would somepony have to be to actually create monsters? She immediately began scanning around as the biologists began examining the many other corpses. Sure enough, there was even bigger, more intense all-out brawl here than in the subway.

“These specimens suffered the exact same kind of trauma that the other ones did! Whoever terminated the ones in the subway tunnel attacked them at their source!” One of the biologists said.

“And it sure looks like they succeeded.” Another one commented.

“We need to get the police down here, maybe even the royal guard! If there’s a mad scientist on the loose creating bioengineered monsters, then the Royal Sisters need to know!” Film Noir said.

Twilight snapped out of her shocked state upon hearing that. “Y-Yes! You’re right! Spike, send a note to Princess Celestia about this immediately!” she said.

“On it!” Spike said. He took out his quill pen and a sheet of paper, and jotted down everything that they had observed up until now. He left out the details about Fire Fight since despite the strong evidence, they weren’t totally sure that he had anything to do with this. Twilight probably wouldn’t be too happy with him, but he thought that such a thing would be best explained in person, and that this was a more pressing matter at the moment. With a little green flare exhaled from his mouth, he sent the letter to the solar sovereign. Afterwards, everypony left the unsettling room to notify the immediate authorities.

Meanwhile in Canterlot….

Princess Celestia peacefully sat in her throne bathed in the blessed daylight that she brought about everyday doing one her most sacred duties…..reviewing tax laws! “Let’s see…… Should the loan debtor pay excess interest to the loan giver, …..etcetera…….something……….Ugh! Please let this be the last one for today…..” After a titanic battle with her arch nemesis, boredom, the good princess finally slew the foul tax review, and earned herself a nice break…..until a sudden green flare appeared before her, and manifested into a letter.

A little frustrated, Celestia opened the note. “Oh! It’s from Spike!” Her mood immediately lightened upon realizing that, but it took another turn for the worst when she read its contents. “Oh….Oh my!”

“What is it, sister?” Princess Luna had just returned to their throne room as she heard her sister exclaim in horror.

“I’m sorry, but I must go to Baltimare at once. Their recent wheat famine was a much graver situation than we had originally realized. Can you take over while I’m gone?” She asked.

Luna nodded. “Of course. What pray tell is going on there?”

“See for yourself.” Celestia said. She showed Luna the note that Spike had sent her, and it subsequently sent a chill up her spine.

“By the stars!” Luna said. She looked back up at Celestia. “Be safe, sister.”

Celestia nodded. She addressed her surrounding guards. “Prepare a carriage to Baltimare at once! I’ll need four of you to accompany me. This could turn out to be dangerous.” Her guards acted without hesitation seeing how serious she was. Celestia bid her sister one last goodbye before setting off.

Luna sat in the throne adjacent to the empty one where her sister sat when she wasn’t busy. She couldn’t let it on, but she knew deep down what had happened. It was a night that was truly a great trial for the lost foals that she had been watching over. She silently said a prayer for their prosperity. “Oh my dear foals……may your strength and determination remain everlasting.”

In the Crystal Caverns…..

All the foals had to do was await Shadow Shroud’s return with whatever she could salvage of Quantum Tech’s materials. In the meantime, said scientist got to know her new friends a little better, and cleared up the fact that Fire Fight and Shadow Shroud weren’t cousins. Fire Fight and Turf War told her stories about some of their misadventures in their respective hometowns; she was having difficulty completely understanding Turf War’s ghetto vernacular and was still a little off put by his personality, but she could see that he meant well. Quantum also had Spiral Galaxy demonstrate her cosmomancy with and without her new hornband; the magical fluctuations that her glasses were picking up from her were startling, and she was utterly stunned that Spiral could maintain any control over it whatsoever. She assured her that the hornband would provide ideal neuromagical regulation to help her attain full control over her powerful magic. Air Slash managed to keep Crazylocks calm so that Quantum Tech could more safely observe her. Crazylocks sprouted her horn, and began making some nearby rocks dance while she ‘conducted’ them; she was surprisingly talented with such an activity. Quantum said that she’d need a much better place to observe her in order to start making any real hypotheses. Kickback unloaded his gun, and showed them to Quantum. She was fascinated to learn about how they actually worked; she had been curious ever since guns were first introduced, but she knew that her parents would completely flip at the idea of her getting close to one. Kickback had to back away from her when she tried to pet his mane.

“I’m back!” Shadow Shroud said as she jumped through the hole in the wall. “I was only able to grab a few things, namely a microscope, some charts, and a small tool kit. That’s really it.”

“That’s quite alright. I’m….sure that there’s a way that we can procure replacements….” Quantum Tech said hesitantly.

“On the contrary, I suddenly remembered that the old castle that we’re headed for had a room for what I can only imagine was for a court wizard. It was complete with a great assortment of scientific tool that I’m sure you’ll be able to take advantage of. What I managed to salvage is up to date compared to the sheer amount of testing tubes and all that’s there.” Shadow Shroud explained.

Quantum happily gasped upon hearing. “Oh, fantastic! I simply cannot wait! I’ll be responsible for those, darling.” She said. Shroud handed her the tools, and she put them in her bags. “Now then, shall we?”

“We shall!” Fire Fight said.

“YOU SHALL NOT PASS BY ORDER OF MR. POKEYLOPE!!” Crazylocks randomly exclaimed. Facehooves were abundant that fateful moment.

The foals decided to retrace their steps to that hole in the cavern ceiling where they first entered, and head down further until they got to about the base of the mountain where they could dig through to the outside. Escorting the physically challenged Quantum Tech through the rugged terrain proved to be a little difficult. She panted a lot, and would frequently trip. Air Slash had to hold her up whenever she had to shimmy along a wall or something of that nature. Fire Fight was beginning to think that he was right to be hesitant about bringing her, but nevertheless knew that they had to. He was just worried that this journey would be a lot for her to handle.

Eventually, they descended to what was presumed to be the foot of the mountain if Quantum Tech’s careful estimations were to be banked on. Thankfully, they were in a very large and open room with no pitfalls nearby. There was a massive void of darkness beyond them, but the entirety of the room save for the rocky wall next to them was crystalline.

Turf War slammed his hammer into the wall, and they all listened. “Yep. Dis wall ‘bout to come down.” Turf War said.

“My X-Ray scanner shows that this wall is considerably thicker than the one you made that hole in when you first arrived at Canterlot, but I estimate that our combined strength will allow us to tunnel through it in about…..twenty minutes, or perhaps less if we make sufficient use of our tools at hand.” Quantum Tech explained.

“Well shucks! We’ll be outta here in no time! Darn shame Ah don’t have any good tools to dig with, an’ Sound and Fury wouldn’t want me to waste any of our bullets.” Kickback said.

“It’s cool, Kickback.” Fire Fight said.

“Oh yes! I’d be happy to pass the time with you, Kickback!” Quantum Tech cooed. She flipped her mane at him and smiled. Kickback just rolled his eyes.

“Hang on. Let me get you guys started.” Spiral said. She lit her horn, and fired a focused cosmo beam that blasted much of the tougher material away from the wall. “There you go! I’d blast through the whole thing, but I don’t want to potentially start a scene out there.”

“A fair precaution. Thank you, Spiral.” Air Slash said. Spiral smiled at him.

Just before they could start digging, the foals heard a loud, long groaning sound coming from the void across the room. They looked over there, and were startled when a pair of large eyes shining from within the dark were staring right back at them!

Comments

[Lady Lightning Strike]

Something big for them to battle is about to begin.

[KingJoltik]

Good grief! They're never gonna get back to the castle, are they? Trouble just follows these foals!

[KingJoltik]

“These specimens suffered the exact same kind of trauma that the other ones did! Whoever terminated the ones in the subway tunnel attacked them their source!”

Something missing after 'them'

[bjenk4]

My bet would be threstral, changeling or discord (he likes the chaos the foals produce)

[Jonny Bench]

Changeling or threstral? Yes please!

[Ryuyu]

2 pone, 1 city?