A quartet of siblings, a saiyan, a dragon, a pegasus, and a unicorn, venture outside of their isolated kingdom to explore the rest of the world and embark on the biggest journey of their lives
Somewhere in Equestria, deep within the snowy mountains, isolated and severed from the main goings on of the rest of Equestria, lies a kingdom guided and ruled by an ancient Alicorn. In the midst of this lively, one thought goes through everypony’s mind. “What is out there?” And so, wanting to discover for themselves what truly lies beyond their kingdom, a quartet of siblings, a saiyan, a dragon, a unicorn, and a pegasus, journey outside of their home to embark on the biggest adventure of their lives, gaining new friends along the way.
Before the reign of the princesses, princess Celestia and Princess Luna, their was an Alicorn, one who ruled over snow and Ice. She was a kind soul, often aiding many ponies young and old. Though, many ponies were quite unsettled by her. While she did enjoy being around other ponies, her demeanor is what drove many away. For as kind a pony as she was, she held a cold and distant aura that had many ponies slowly grow to fear her.
Overtime, with the fear of her now firmly within the hearts of many, she had completely distanced and isolated herself from the other ponies, residing within the mountains. However, one day and much to her surprise, some young fillies and colts, having heard stories about her, had summoned up enough courage to go looking for her. Once they had achieved their goal and came face to face with the Alicorn, while their were still scared, they manage to start conversing with her.
After many days of conversing with and visiting the Alicorn, the young fillies and colts had really grown to enjoy time with her and she had begun to appreciate this. Seeing the young ponies as friends of sorts. Wanting to try getting the older ponies to see that they had nothing to fear, in a rather vain attempt to get the older ponies to see that the Icy Alicorn was no threat, convinced her to go down to the their village. Unfortunately, things did go as planned. Shrieks of terror erupted within the village once they saw the Alicorn and fled the scene, trying to get as much distance between them and the Alicorn.
Overcome with sadness, the Alicorn began to walk away from the village. However, upon closer inspection, she began to hear the sound of many hooves behind her. Glancing behind her, she saw the fillies and colts she had befriended. They were determined to stick by their new friends side and reluctantly ,but resolutely, followed after her, despite her urging them to return to their village.
Many days had passed since then, and after venturing throughout Equestria in the shadows, they had stumbled upon a massive, snowy Mountain filled region at the outskirts of Equestria. Having decided to set up shop here, a very small village had been born. Years later, with many new faces finding their way into the village, it had grown. The ever expanding village, had soon become a small town and eventually became and entire kingdom, with many houses in and around the mountains, even a substantial amount of farmland with magic helping the crops grow in the snow, peppered the outside of the kingdom. And at the head of it lay the Alicorn, Queen Snowblossom. She had grown and developed into a wonderful ruler, full of pride and joy, having managed to start up her own thriving kingdom.
And now, we find ourselves many years later, with the now dubbed, Blizzard Kingdom, which was now home to many races. Ponies, Yaks, Dragons, Griffons, Deer, etc., moving forward with a wondrous positive outlook on life. Although, with how severely separated from the rest of Equestria the Blizzard Kingdom is, many are unaware of the wars and the reign of many villains, as well as their defeat at the hooves of the new Alicorns rulers, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. In fact, all the residents of the kingdom were blissfully unaware of almost everything the went on outside of their kingdom. Though, that hasn’t stopped many ponies from wondering. Few have tried to venture outside of the kingdom, but due to fear of the unknown, they would all come running back into the kingdom.
Years later, with the appearance of “The Mare in the Moon”, many creatures of the kingdom have grown a bit more curious as to what’s going on outside of their kingdom, but even still their fears kept them from venturing out of the Kingdom. Many years after, the sudden appearance of a new creature, had taken over the minds of many of the denizen of the Blizzard Kingdom.
A cry could be heard outside of the Kingdom, which a pony couple, Sweeping Gale, a Pegasus Stallion and Snowflake Winds, a Unicorn Mare, had heard. So, trudging out of the kingdom in the dead of night, they stumbled across a bundled up foal. The couple quickly picked it up and brought it home. Upon setting the foal down, they unraveled them, only to find out it was no foal at all. In fact, it wasn’t even a pony. The baby creature had Snow White hair and a Snow White tail as well as tan skin. Open his eyes, the young baby revealed his shining blue eyes and stared at the Pegasus and Unicorn, not out of fear but awe as he reached out in an attempt to touch them.
The two ponies, had contemplated getting rid of the baby, but after inspecting things more closely, the two had found a note taped to the baby’s diaper which read, “Unfortunately, we won’t be able to take care of our baby, so please, look after our young Saiyan boy.” Saiyan? The two had never head of a Saiyan before which unnerved them more, but after debating, they decided to take the baby in a raise him. He was a cute one after all. Looking at him more closely, they were able to locate a name on the baby’s diaper. Arctic Okami.
The couple’s life in the Kingdom had grown to be more difficult. They were raising an abomination as many of the other denizens claimed. It had grown to be so bad, it reached Queen Snowblossom. Upon seeing the baby, she smiled and accepted the baby into her Kingdom and asked the others to treat the young baby as if he were one of their own. It was a difficult first few years, but he had the aid of his brother and two sisters. A dragon that the couple adopted before Arctic named Glacier, and their two daughter Winter Winds, a Pegasus and Tundra Storm, a Unicorn.
The siblings did everything together as they grew up, and always enjoyed their time together. Glacier, Winter, and Tundra, always stood up for their brother Arctic, as he was often the target for bullying at the local school house. Many bully’s would call him a freak and pick on him for not being able to wield magic. It didn’t help that many Mares and Stallions, would always treat him poorly, which really got to the young Saiyan. He would often go to his siblings and parents crying and upset, wondering why he was so much different from everyone else. But with his families support he overtime grew to ignore the bullies, slowly gaining confidence in himself. This was only intensified when he eventually managed to tap into some magic, which he soon slowly grew to get better at using.
As the years ticked by, Arctic, over a long stint of trails had earned the respect of the denizens of The Blizzard Kingdom and was accepted as one of their own. He was excited and happy to finally be excepted, even his family was excited. Overtime, the siblings would continue to spend time together, even getting into watching the Queen’s guards training, soon getting into sparring with each other for fun, the four growing stronger with each passing day.
One day, with Arctic’s curiosity getting the better of him, he asked his parents what lies outside of their kingdom. Sweeping and Snowflake admitted to not knowing but warned the him and the other’s to not go outside of the kingdom. Unfortunately, as days went by, the four grew to become even more curious, and even decided that one day, the four of them would do what nopony else has. Venture outside of the kingdom.
This brings us to present day, and the beginning of the siblings adventure and what an adventure it will be
It was an early spring morning in the Blizzard Kingdom. Everything was still and silent, a calm gentle breeze swept throughout the kingdom, making the trees and bushes sway and rustle. It seemed to be a peaceful morning…well, except to Glacier and Arctic.
The Dragon and Saiyan brothers, who shared a room, were sleeping peacefully, until their sisters, Winter Winds and Tundra Storm, burst into the room, sheer excitement plastered all over their faces.
“Wake up you too! It’s to nice a morning to be sleeping in!” Yelled Winter. The Pegasus mare flew around the room. She seemed to have a boundless and never ending amount of energy as always.
“Don’t yell so early in the morning Winter. Don’t want to wake mom and dad.” Tundra Storm said calmly, using her magic to grab hold of Winter and pull her back down to the ground.
Tundra Storm. A Unicorn mare, who was in her late teens, was a fairly levelheaded young mare. She held a deep blue coat of thick fur and a long mane and tail, both of which sported a very light blue, so light in fact, it almost looked white. She often kept her mane tied up in a bun, but occasionally let it fall loose. Her eyes were a bright shimmer shade of blue which were covered up by her glasses. Her cutie mark was a mountain covered in snow and surrounding it, snow which fell rapidly resembling a snowstorm.
Winter winds, a Pegasus mare, was also in her late teens. She was a the more bubbly of the sisters, but she does know how to get serious when the time calls for it. She sported a white coat of thick fur, a fairly lengthy mane and tail, just slightly shorter the Tundra’s whenever her mane is let down. Her eyes were a light shade of yellow which, and her cutie mark was that of snowflakes bellowing in a strong gust of wind.
With a low groan, one of the brothers had risen. It was Glacier. The sisters adopted brother.
“Ugh. How are you two always up so early. It’s like you two are awake before to sun even comes up, I swear.” Glacier groaned groggily, trying to stay awake. Which was futile, as he plopped back down, promptly going back to sleep…for about a second. Winter jumped up and landed on top of Glacier with a thud, waking him once again.
“AAAHH! What the!?” He yelped as he felt a sudden weight upon, with a slight twinge of pain. The yelp was loud enough to wake Arctic from his slumber as he jolted up right in his bed.
“What’s wrong!? What happened!?” Arctic said as he frantically looked around the room. And once he spotted his sisters, Tundra standing with a small bemused smile and Winter laying on a slowly hyperventilating Glacier, he sighed.
“Geez you two. Can’t you ever wake us up like normal ponies?” He said with a tired edge to his voice.
“Preaching to the choir.” Glacier said with a slightly annoyed tone.
Glacier, a Dragon, was just slightly older the sisters were. He was taken in by Sweeping and Snowflake sometime before the sisters were born. He was unlike normal Dragons. He was an Icedragon. A subspecies to normal Dragons. Icedragons are able to more comfortably survive in snowy regions unlike other dragons. While they can produce fire, they also have the ability to take control over ice. Some are stronger and some are weaker with this ability. It’s just a matter of training themselves up to grow stronger with it.
Glacier, is fairly tall. Most ponies come up to about the center of his stomach. His scales are a light blue with a white belly. He held some fur and hair which were deep blue, almost black if not looked at properly. His eyes were a deep ruby red color. He was a gentle young drake but could be a bit hotheaded at times, but even still, he was just as lovable as the rest of his siblings.
Arctic Okami, a Saiyan, was in his late teens, slightly older than his Pony sisters, but younger than his Dragon brother. He was found and taken in by his adoptive parents Sweeping and Snowflake sometime before the sisters were born. He was the same height as Glacier, if slightly taller. He held dark skin, snowy white hair and a snowy white tail. He had shimmering deep blue eyes, which, much like the rest of family, all seemed to glow. Arctic was a bit of a shy, silent one upon first meeting, but, get to know him, and he’ll chat with you, even treat you like family.
Arctic’s appearance was a mystery. He arrived when he was just a baby, so he doesn’t remember much, except for a few bits and pieces of his past before ending up where he was. He often wonders about his birthplace and his birth parents, but he’s still very happy that whatever brought him here, gave him a wonderful family and wonderful kingdom to live in.
With a groan and some pops and cracks of his bones, Glacier stood from his bed, Winter having rolled off of him, now sprawled out on the bed.
“Well, I’m awake. May as well get this day started.” Glacier said as he stretched, thus, popping a few more bones.
“Right there with you.” Arctic replied as he too got out of his bed, popping some bones as he stretched as well.
“Finally! Let’s get this day started!” Winter blurted out as she jumped up and down, absolutely giddy.
“Sshh! Mom and dad, remember?” Tundra hissed to Winter. Winter abruptly stopping and giving a sheepish smile.
“Sorry.” Winter hurriedly rushed out of the room.
“What are we gonna do with her?” Arctic said with a chuckle. The others joined in before Tundra trotted off to her room.
The way the siblings rooms are set up, are so they can share a room, as the bedrooms are big enough for it. Glacier and Arctic share a room and Winter and Tundra share a room. The rooms are split so each resident has their own space. They each hold their own bathroom big enough to be shared.
As the sibling got themselves ready to start the day, one by one they began to notice a smell. A smell they knew very well.
“Pancakes!” All four shouted. The four of them absolutely loved their father, Sweeping Gale’s, pancakes. To them he made the best pancakes. They loved their mom’s pancakes, but loved their father’s even more. And with smell alone, they knew their father was the one cookin’ today.
The four rushed down, having finished getting ready, and with quiet but excited squeals, found that their noses were indeed correct. Their father was cooking and was making pancakes.
“Good Morning you four!” Sweeping Gale said with a broad smile and chuckle. “Mind getting the table ready for me?”
“Yes Dad!” The siblings said, full of excitement and ready to dig in. Their mouths drooling already.
Sweeping Gale, a Pegasus stallion, stood at the stove, wearing a bright pink apron was cooking breakfast for his family. He had a white coat of thick fur and had a deep blue mane and tail both of which were quite short. He was a kind stallion, but don’t let his kindness fool you. Bring any harm to his family and he won’t hesitate to to put you in your place. His cutie mark was three lines ending in swirls representing a gale of wind.
As the siblings begun to set up the table for breakfast their minds slowly began to wander. Thoughts of what the day may bring filled their heads. But one thought that seemed to always occupy their minds were thoughts of what load beyond their kingdom.
See, as they were told, after the rise of their kingdom, no pony really ventured outside of the kingdom. After a certain point, the residents of the kingdom and the kingdom in its entirety had completely forgotten what lies outside the kingdom. Because of this, many stories had gone around, theorizing about what was beyond their kingdom. Many, old and young alike, began to fear the outside of the kingdom. Some tried venturing out only to return sometime later, because their fear got the better of them. They even tried asking their Queen, Queen Snowblossom, but even she has admitted to being unaware of the outside of the kingdom. But, even still, everypony wonders what really is out there. Even the siblings.
However, they don’t have time to dwell, as the smell of their breakfast grows more and more enticing.
After setting the table, Sweeping begins fixing everypony their plates. Though, two are different, as they hold meat. These are for Arctic and Glacier, as they both eat meat. This doesn’t bother anypony else as the kingdom is home to races that eat meat. As the family gets ready to dig in, a throat is cleared.
“Ahem! Don’t start eating without me!”
The group turned and saw their wife/mother Snowflake Winds. She was standing at the entrance to the kitchen/dining room wearing a robe having evidently just got out of the bathtub.
Snowflake Winds, a Pegasus mare, was covered in a coat of thick deep blue fur. She had pale blue eyes and her mane was a light shade of blueish white. Her cutie mark was a group of snowflakes drifting about in a gust of wind.
Despite her age, Snowflake was a bit of a cheeky one. She doesn’t mind playing a few harmless tricks on her family. But that doesn’t mean she can’t be stern. She may be cheeky but she can get quite scary when angered. And much like her husband. She was willing to tear anypony a new one if they tried to harm her family.
“We wouldn’t dream of starting without you dear.” Sweeping said with a warm smile.
“Good. I would hate to miss out on enjoying your cooking dear.” Snowflake, or Flakes, as Sweeping liked to call her, cheekily bumped Sweeping with her flank, causing sweeping to give a cheeky yet sultry wink to his wife.
“Mom! Dad!” Cried the siblings, clearly embarrassed by their parents display. The two just laughed and sat at the table. The family soon began to eat.
As they ate, the siblings mind began to wander yet again about the outside world. Plucking up some courage, Winter spoke up.
“Hey, Mom, Dad?” She said. A hint of shyness present in her voice.
“Yes hun?” They asked looking up at her, noting the shy tone.
“Um, we’ve all been wondering, what do you think goes on outside the kingdom?” She asked, slowly shying away from them.
Sweeping and Snowflake, a bit taken aback by the question, but understanding why she asked, cautiously looked to one another not sure how to answer. After a minute, Snowflake spoke up.
“Dear, nopony really knows. Not even the Queen knows. We live in a kingdom completely isolated from the rest of the land. Whatever we did know about the outside of the kingdom has been lost to time, completely forgotten.” She said with a tenseness to her voice.
Sweeping soon chimed in.
“While it has been lost to time and many, us included, have a fear of the outside, that hasn’t stop others from trying to go see what lies beyond our borders. But even still, they return, some as soon as a few hours, some as late as two days, because fear keeps them from going any further.”
Tundra, her mind still wandering, decided to ask another question.
“What do you think is out there?” She asked, her hooves trembling slightly as some fear began to set in.
“My parents told me that they think it’s a barren wasteland out there. Nopony else really lives out there and even if they do, it’s in small rundown towns and villages.” Sweeping replied.
“I think it must be a forest out there. Full of all kinds of unknown and dangerous creatures. If any ponies do live out there, I hope they’re all doing well.” Snowflake said as she placed a hoof to her chest.
These ideas of what may be lying in wait outside of their kingdom, got the four siblings’ minds racing. Their own ideas and theories of what may be beyond their home filling their minds. But, all together, the four unknowingly thought in unison,
“I wish I could see for myself what’s truly out there.”
After enjoying an amazing breakfast, the family had begun to clean the kitchen. They enjoyed doing that every morning, spending some time together eating breakfast and chatting before heading out. As they cleaned they, had begun to hum a little tune together as they worked, after which they promptly erupted into joyful laughter. When they had finished, Snowflake had sat down with Sweeping on the couch and with a smile, she turned to her children.
“So you four, now that you’re awake, what are your plans for today?” She asked, awaiting their response.
The four looked to each other, unsure of how to answer. Other than school, the four of them would often go around the kingdom to hang out with friends or even help out with any business in their free time. They often enjoyed helping out their friend, Pascal Harvest, an Earth pony stallion, on his family’s farm. But today, honestly just felt like one of those days. They didn’t really want to do much today but still wanted to just get out and about.
“I don’t know Mom. Maybe we could help on the farm again?” Winter asked looking to the others, unsure of what they would think.
“We did that yesterday and they’re already ahead of schedule, so they might not need help.” Glacier replied, pondering what they could do.
“What about going to the training grounds?” Tundra asked looking to the others.
The kingdom had its own training grounds near Queen Snowblossom’s castle for the guards to use. However, while it is for the guards, civilians can use it to train in order to better their magic based attacks or defense or build muscle in strength training if they like. The quartet use it fairly regularly. They practice magic or work on upping their strength. While they are good with magic, they’ve grown very well in using Ice Magic because of this. Elemental Magic is a very common thing in the Blizzard Kingdom. Anypony, who wants to, can learn to use Elemental Magic. This magic allows the user to control different elements, such as: water, fire, wind and the like. The most common Elemental Magic used is Ice Magic. They can use it for a variety of everyday things. But many use it in training to better their battling skills. The quartet are such beings who use the training grounds for that reason.
“I don’t feel like training today. Wanna just see what’s going on throughout the kingdom?” Arctic said as he looked to his siblings.
It felt odd for him to decline training. Being a Saiyan, he loves training and battling it out with his siblings, but today he just didn’t feel up for it.
“I don’t mind that.” Glacier said with a small smile.
“Neither do I!” Winter blurted out, her bubbly nature really shining through.
Tundra let out a groan, rolling her eyes with a smirk. She believes her sister is to old for such a bubbly and bouncy personality, but even still, she loved her sister.
“I’d like that. It’s been a while since we just roamed around and watched what all was going down.” Tundra said adjusting her glasses a bit.
“Sounds like fun. Well, we should get ready for work huh dear?” Sweeping said looking from his children to his wife.
“That’s right. Don’t wanna be late again do you?” Snowflake said with a rye cheeky grin.
“Oohhh nooo. Not again.” Sweeping shuddered slightly remembering the last time he was late to work.
Sweeping Gale worked for a postal service. He was one of the various mail ponies. On the day he was late, the night before, he was tired after a long day. But as he was walking home with his friends from work, one of them suggested to going to the local bar for a drink. Sweeping had declined but reluctantly agreed and went in saying, “Okay but only one drink.”. He returned home late at night, drunk, after having downed multiple drinks. Because of this he overslept and when he woke up he was almost two hours late. He hurriedly got out of bed, got himself, somewhat presentable, and darted to work. When he arrived he found one of his coworkers heaving heavily and once they saw Sweeping, they chewed him out. They had to take over Sweeping’s route last minute and after rushing through Sweeping’s route so they can get to their on time, they were left exhausted and unfortunately unable to get to their rout on time. After that thorough chewing out and having to work late to make up for being late, Sweeping no longer made such a mistake again.
“I better get going.” Sweeping hopped off the couch and kissed Snowflake. Then, after kissing the quartet on their cheeks, much to their embarrassment he got himself ready to leave. “See you all tonight!” He said leaving the house.
“Guess I should get going too.” Snowflake said as she got up from the couch.
Snowflake Winds, work at the local boutique. She helps sell different outfits to the many residents of the kingdom and has done so for years.
“Don’t want to be late.” With a stretch and ready to start another day of work she hugged and kissed her children before trotting out of the house.
The quartet, after getting themselves ready and dressed for the cold weather, they headed out ready to roam the kingdom.
The Blizzard Kingdom was a massive one amongst the mountains. At the tallest mountain, in the center of them all, stood the Blizzard Castle, home of Queen Snowblossom. From there, going down, many homes stood. Houses of various shapes and size stood, housing the many different residents of the kingdom. Dragons, Deerfolk, Ponies, Griffons, and while there were very few of them, even Kirins lived there among many other races.
Further down, was the shopping district, where the many shops and stalls stood where the many creatures of the kingdom worked or purchased various different things. The schools stood not far from there and after school many of the students would often roam around here just unwinding after a day of school.
The quartet, who had walked down from their home not really seeing much along the arrived at one the various entrances to the shopping district. Upon arrival they could see that it was already very busy. They could see many creature young and old roam about the district.
“This place is as busy as ever.” Glacier said as he looked around in astonishment.
“This district is always busy. Especially in the morning.” Replied Tundra as she also looked around, quite surprised as well at the fact that the district was full of hustle and bustle this early in the morning.
“Let’s get to looking around.” Winter said as she started excitedly spread her wings and took off. Leaving the others to chuckle at their sister’s antics and chased after her.
As the went through the district they got to see many things.
They saw some ponies buying and selling produce, some ponies at the street food stalls getting something to eat either on their way to work or just relaxing and enjoying being out and about.
As they rounded a corner, they stopped. They all grew a bit agitated. Already. Already their day dampened a bit knowing what was going to happen next.
It was Arctic’s bullies. Three ponies, two stallions and a mare and a griffon male. They were a year or two older than Glacier and Arctic and were all huge pains. Especially to Arctic.
“Well, well, well. If ain’t the magicless alien monkey.” Said the griffon, who was the leader of this ragtag group of jerks.
“What do you want Gunter?” Said Arctic in an annoyed tone.
“Just wanted to see how our favorite alien was doing.” Gunter replied with a grin.
“Will you just leave us be, you jerky ragamuffin.” Winter said with a scowl.
“Couldn’t come up with a better insult huh, birdbrain?” Said one of the pony stallions said as he went up patted Winter’s head with his hoof.
Glacier saw this and smacked the hoof away.
“Don’t touch my sister again.” He said, his tone frowning more agitated.
“Or what?” Said the stallion as he hit Winter’s head a bit harder, winter letting out a pained groan afterwards.
Glacier then punched the stallion sending him stumbling backwards. This resulted in one of the other ponies jumping in to attack Glacier only to be stopped by Arctic. Gunter jumped in and punched Arctic, and soon, all of them were brawling. Punches and kicks were thrown all over, yelps and grunts echoed around, as the group fought. An older doe had caught sight of them and called out.
“What do you all think you’re doing?”
Almost immediately, the fighting had stopped. They all looked to each other before quickly farting away in different directions.
“This isn’t over!” Cried Gunter as he ran off.
After having gone a good distance the quartet had stopped for a breather.
“T..that was…something.” Heaved Tundra, taking deep heavy breaths.
“I can’t…stand them.” Glacier replied breathing just as heavily.
After a few minutes, the group finally caught their breaths before speaking again.
“Why do Gunter and his goons always have to pick on us?” Winter said stamping a hoof, clearly still agitated.
“Because of me. They know I’m not from here. I am an alien.” Arctic said looking to Winter, an apologetic look on his face. He doesn’t want them picked on because of him.
“Don’t blame yourself Arc.” Tundra said. “You may be an alien, but that doesn’t matter to us. You’re our brother and we love you no matter what.”
“She’s right.” Glacier said, piggybacking off of her. “We’ll always love you, alien or not.”
“And don’t mind his “magicless” comment. You’re better at magic then he is. He could only dream of being at your level.” Winter said, hovering up to Arctic and wrapping a foreleg around him.
They all chuckled and soon broke out into full on laughter. After a bit, they calmed down and started thinking.
“Wanna go to the Lower District?” Arctic asked.
“Sure!” The others said in unison.
The Lower District. This district is an underground district. On different sides of the Shopping District, the are entrances to the Lower District, or The Underground Town, as some call it. In this district there are other shops and stalls, but their are also, restaurants and even some farmlands and other homes. The Lower District is big, just as big as the Upper Level, or the Main Level. This District is a rather nice one. Full of life and friendly faces. Since the sun doesn’t shine down there it is full of lanterns.
Further from the Lower district’s Shops and restaurants, are the farmlands. The May farms here grow many different things. With special magic poured into the soil by Queen Snowblossom, the crops of the farmlands are able to grow.
After walking down through one of the entrances, the quartet were once again taken aback.
“Even the Lower District is busy already.” Arctic said.
“As usual.” Said Tundra.
“Come on guys! Let’s explore!” Winter said as she quickly flew down to many stalls and shops of the Lower District.
Again, chuckling at the antics of their sister, they chased after her, ready and waiting, wondering what they’ll see happening today in Lower District.
After arriving to the lower district and just roaming around, the quartet had made a stop at the Lower Districts bakery, the Blizzard Bakery, and got themselves some treats to snack on.
Once they got them, they found a table outside and sat down, digging into their treats with pure delight.
“I never get tired of these doughnuts! They’ve got to be the best in the kingdom!” Winter said in a cheery tone.
“You always get those doughnuts. It’s like you can’t live without them.” Tundra said with a chuckle as she popped one of the cake pops she got into her mouth with her magic.
“Can you blame me? These doughnuts are the best!” Said Winter, stuffing another doughnut into her already full mouth.
Winter had always enjoyed the bakery’s famous Blueberry doughnuts. Ever since she had one as a young filly.
“Not as good as the Apple Cinnamon Muffins.” Glacier said as he chowed down on one of his muffins.
“Yeah right! The Banana Nut Muffin’s are the best.” Arctic said eating one of his muffins.
“Of course you like the Banana Nut Muffins, Monkey-Man.” Glacier said with a cheeky grin nudging Arctic’s arm.
“Oh, shut up, Dragon-Boy.” Arctic said nudging hun back with an equally cheeky grin.
Monkey-Man and Dragon-Boy. Two goofy nicknames the Saiyan and the Dragon gave each other when they were younger. The nicknames started off as jokes but eventually stuck.
As the group sat, eating their treats, they saw a Buck walking alongside a Stallion, accidentally listening in on what they were talking about.
“It would be truly something if that was truly out there.” Said the Stallion.
“I know that’s right. But what if some kind of dangerous creatures lived out there? I mean, remember the group who tried going out last time? They said they heard all kinds of eerie and terrifying noises before rushing back to the kingdom.” Said the Buck.
“That’s true. Still, I always wonder what’s out there. Perhaps it could explain the mystery of the Pony on the Moon.” Said the stallion.
“Perhaps. If only somedeer was actually brave enough to go out there.” The Buck said as the two of them laughed, a bit of nervousness present in their laugh. While they would like to know what lies beyond their home, they know, like every other being in the kingdom, that none of them would truly be brave enough too.
After the two of them had walked away, the quartet had stopped eating. All four looked down, each one with inquisitive looks on their faces, before looking to each other once more.
“You know,” Glacier said, “it would be nice to know what’s actually out there.”
“But who knows what would happen if somepony went out there. What if they never came back?!” Winter said, quietly shouting, worry and fear clear in her face.
“But what if it’s a nice place out there?” Arctic said hesitantly. He too, much like all the other residents of the kingdom, was quite fearful of what was outside their home.
“I doubt it.” Glacier replied. “I mean, even Queen Snowblossom is unaware of what’s out there.”
The four of them had shuddered slightly. If even the Queen didn’t know what was out there and was hesitant to venture out there, then maybe it was dangerous out there.
Winter, with a bit of determination, but still pensive and scared, spoke up.
“We wouldn’t know if it is dangerous out there if we never go see for ourselves.”
“You mean send somepony out there?” Tundra said, whipping her head over to Winter, upsetting her glasses in the process before hastily correcting them.
“Well, maybe.” Winter said shyly.
“No way we’re sending somepony out there! Who knows what could happen!” Tundra blurted out. Fear and a bit of anger in her voice. She didn’t want to go seeing any of the residents sent out into the unknown. She herself was worried for the groups who tried going out there and was relieved when they returned.
All of them felt that way. They didn’t like the idea of any of the beings in their home being sent out there. But, still, they too were curious as to what lay beyond their border.
After some more thinking, one of them spoke up.
“What if we went ourselves?”
Three looked up to the voice. It was Glacier.
“What do you mean, “what if we went out there?!” Tundra blurted out? She was taken aback by the suggestion and was quite angry. Her outburst caught the attention of others and after a quite and shy apology, she wheeled around to her brother.
“We can’t possibly go out there. If other’s went and returned after only a day or two, full of fear and talking about monsters they saw out there, what makes you think we should go?” Tundra said still seething a bit.
“I mean, surely you wanted to see for yourself what’s out there, right?” Glacier asked.
Hesitantly, and a bit shyly, Tundra replied.
“Y..yeah. So what?” Tundra said.
“This could be your chance to see for yourself, for all of us to see for ourselves, what’s really out there.” Glacier said, a little excited but still a bit nervous.
“I don’t know.” Winter said. Her ears were folded back, her head down. She was nervous, afraid even, to go galavanting out there and away from home. “What if we get hurt or something worse?”
“We could get hurt. But the four of us are strong. We can defend ourselves and each other if need be.” Arctic said. He too, was a bit nervous, but a little excited about going out on an adventure, seeing what’s out there.
“I suppose. You could also use that Oozaru thing.” Winter said.
The Oozaru thing, was Arctic’s transformation. They remember when it first happened. The group were out at the outer region of the kingdom near one of the lakes around the kingdom. They were talking about random things and playing with each other, till Tundra brought up the Pony on the Moon. They decided to look up at it, a bit mesmerized by it. That is, until a roar was heard. They whipped around and saw Arctic transforming. After transforming and ramping a bit, the Royal Guard had showed up. It was a hard fought battle, but the guard had managed to stop him, getting lucky and managing to knock him out.
After the ordeal, he was asked about it. He didn’t know much, but digging through what foggy memories he had before ending up in the kingdom, he figured it out. He vaguely remembered it being called an Oozaru and needing the moon to transform into it. After more discussions, the Captain of the Guard asked if it could be controlled. Arctic didn’t know but was up for trying. It took many months, but eventually Arctic was able to gain control over the Oozaru form. All of this was done in secret, but only his family and the Guard knew about this. As well as Queen Snowblossom.
“I guess I could use that. I suppose, I may be up for going out on this adventure.” Arctic said. Still a bit unsure about all this.
Glacier chimed in, slightly more confident, but still a tad bit nervous.
“Same here. I’m up for an adventure. We’ve been here for so long. It’d be nice to see something new. Even if it could be dangerous and terrifying.”
“I guess I’ll go too.” Tundra said. “We’ve done a lot together, guess we’ll do this together too.”
“Alright. That’s three. Winter, what about you?” Arctic said. The three looked over to her.
Winter was struggling inside. She wanted to go on an adventure and see something new, but she was afraid. She also didn’t want to be away from home.
After a minute or two of debating, she responded.
“I..I’ll go too.”
“Alright Sis!” Glacier said excitedly. He hugged her tight and she returned it.
“If we’re going to do this, when should we go?” Tundra asked.
“How about tomorrow morning?” Glacier suggested.
“What?! Why so soon?” Tundra spluttered, surprised at the suggestion.
“Why not? It would be better to do it tomorrow. If we try doing this later, we might not go, having talked ourselves out of it.” Glacier replied. He was right. If they pushed it off, they all probably would’ve just talked themselves out of it, allowing fear to deep in day by day till they abandoned their idea.
“I.. ugh. Okay. I guess we’ll go tomorrow.” Tundra said.
“It’s settled then.” Arctic said.
“Tomorrow morning, we’re officially leaving and going out to see what’s well and truly out there.” Winter said. She was very slowly growing excited but still scared and nervous.
“Alright. We’ll have to get some things together before we go.” Tundra said.
“Right!” Arctic, Glacier, and Winter said in unison.
The quartet packed up their leftover treats and head out for the stores to gather some supplies, as well as inform the Queen and their parents about what they intend to do.
After a bit of shopping at the local shops and stalls, the quartet had returned home in order to drop off what they had gotten. With what money they had on them, they bought different foods that they could take on their journey, as well as a tent big enough for the four of them to sleep in comfortably, sleeping bags and pillows, as well as new saddlebags. Although, for Glacier and Arctic, their “saddlebags” were the regular bags, except the bags were attached to a belt that went around their waists and the bags were a bit larger than normal. Arctic also had a separate bag to carry on his back to hold his clothes and other items.
“Okay, that should be everything we would need.” Tundra said, going over everything in an attempt to make sure nothing was missing.
“The food should last a few days, till we eventually have to go hunting for food.” Glacier replied, also looking over everything.
In the meantime, Arctic and Winter were sitting at the table writing a note for their parents to find. They wanted to tell them and the Queen in pony, so they decided to tell them as well as the Queen at her castle. So, the note was to let them know to get to the castle after work.
“Aaannnd finished.” Said Winter as she set the quill down.
Calling out to his other siblings, Arctic said, “The note’s done!”
“Okay!” Came the reply.
After everything was all said and done, they left the house once more. Not before leaving the note taped to the front door.
Now, the trip from their home up to the castle was a long and tiring affair, not just for them, but for the other residents of the Kingdom. It also, took quite a while to get other places throughout the kingdom, as it was a very large one. So, in order to get places faster, a fleet of trolleys had been crafted. A group of talented creators had given rise to these machines many years ago. The run with the power of Gemstones. Since gems aren’t that hard to find and are quite plentiful in certain parts of the kingdom, these trolleys have been running throughout the kingdom since they were built.
The siblings had always enjoyed watching the trolleys roll on by carrying other residents of the kingdom to and fro. They enjoyed it even more when they took on the opportunity to ride on one of them. So, riding to the castle on the trolley was a wonderful time.
After a few minutes, the quartet had arrive at the castle’s station and got off. After waving goodbye to the driver of the trolley, they looked back to the castle. It always filled them with both awe and intimidation.
The castle was massive. Just about, if not, bigger the Canterlot Castle. Though, of course, they were blissfully unaware of Canterlot Castle and Canterlot itself.
The castle was of many shades of blues and even some purples. It also held some gold as well. The castle always seemed to glow and shine throughout the day. Though it was a night when it seemed to glow its brightest. Like a beacon, shining its light brightly, let the residents of the kingdom know that their ruler was there, watching over them all, like a mother watching over her children.
As they walked up towards the castle, they were halted at the gate by the two guards stationed there.
“Halt! Who goes there?” Said the guards in unison. It almost sounded as though only one voice had spoke out.
“I, Tundra Storm, and my siblings, Glacier the Dragon, Arctic Okami, and Winter Winds, request to meet with Queen Snowblossom.” Tundra said trying not to give off the fact that she was a bit intimidated. The guards were quite big after all. Not the mention the swords they were carrying. While she could defend herself yes, she wouldn’t last. These two were some of the best of the Royal Guard.
“Do my ears deceive me, or are my four students really hear?” Called a voice.
From within the gate a Unicorn mare had stepped out. She was clad in golden armor, her helmet removed and floating beside her. Her yellow coat somewhat visible and her light gray mane and tail flowed in the wind. Her deep red eyes stared at the quartet. A soothing gentleness and kindness to them.
“Miss Sunshine!” Called the quartet. They were happy to see her.
Miss Sunshine, aka. Sunshine Javelin, was the captain of the Royal Guard. She was a tough as nails mare and highly respected among many. While she held a tough air to her, she was quite kind and often acted like an elder sister to many.
“So what are you lot doing here?” Sunshine asked. “Here for some training again?”
Glacier stepped up and spoke.
“No ma’am. We’re here to speak with Queen Snowblossom.”
“Oh? Whatever for?” Sunshine said giving an inquisitive look and slightly tilting her head.
They felt they should tell her the reason as to why, but were a bit timid about it. But they deeply respected her. She was their teacher after all. So they decided to fill her in.
“Can we tell you and the Queen as well? Our parents will be arriving so they can be told too.” Winter said shyly.
Sunshine was curious and suspicious. She wondered what it was they wanted to the Queen, their parents, and now her. But she figured she should wait and see where this goes.
She loves the group and trusts them. In fact, outside of training, she treats them like her younger siblings. She always wanted that, younger siblings. After her and a few other guards had a run-in with a rampaging Oozaru Arctic, she had offered to train him to better control that form. During their training, the others got into the mix, wanting to train as well. That was when their relationship blossomed.
“Very well. I’ll take you to her.” Sunshine said, some suspicion present in her voice.
She turned to the guards at the gate.
“Let them in. And when their parents arrive, Snowflake Winds and Sweeping Gale, arrive, be sure to let them in.”
“Yes ma’am” the two guards said as they opened the gate and allowed the quartet in.
After getting on castle grounds and hugs exchanged between the siblings and Sunshine, she led them in and towards the Queen’s throne room. Along the way, the siblings glanced around the castle. They had only briefly seen the inside, so they really took everything in. The colors, the staff rushing about the castle keeping things in order, the tapestry strewn about the walls, they even glanced out the windows at the gardens.
After their sightseeing, they had come up to a massive set of gold double doors. The siblings looked upon it with awe.
“Well have to sit here and wait for your parents to arrive then we can go in.” Sunshine said to the group and with a nod of their heads, they all sat upon a sofa and began chatting about random things.
Once about an hour had passed, Sweeping and Snowflake had arrived being escorted by a guard.
“Thank you for bringing them.” Sunshine said to the guard.
“My pleasure Ma’am” said the guard as she saluted and walked off.
Sweeping looked over to his children and spoke.
“We found your note. What was it you wanted to tell us?”
“And why did we have to be told at the castle?” Snowflake chimed in.
“Whatever it is seems to be important. Important enough for the Queen to know.” Sunshine said looking from Sweeping and Snowflake to the quartet with a raised eyebrow. “Am I right?”
Timidly, they shook their heads.
“Very well. Let’s go see the Queen.” Sunshine said.
As the group approached the doors the guards opened them, allowing them all to enter the throne room.
While the throne room was no big deal to Sunshine, having been in it multiple times, the same couldn’t be said for the family. They all marveled at the throne room.
It was huge. Undeniably massive. It held the same blues, purples, and golds as the rest of the castle. It also had many different flowers adorning the walls, candles giving the room a gentle and welcoming glow, there were even fountains connected to the walls on either side leading up to the throne. The sound of the water gave a calming bliss to any being who heard it. The carpet, which was a deep red, lead up to the throne and sitting atop it, was Queen Snowblossom.
Queen Snowblossom was big. If she or any other being known of Princess Celestia and seen her, they would see that Queen Snowblossom was bigger than her. Queen Snowblossom’s coat was a light blue, her sparkling mane and tail, which flowed in a nonexistent wind, were a light grayish blue. She had dull blue eyes that gave off a sense of calm. Her gold regalia shown brightly with purple gems embedded within them. At her side, sat a golden scepter with a snowflake at the top, a purple gem in the center.
As she looked down at the group walking up to her, in a low, calming, and soothing motherly voice, she spoke.
“Welcome my dear subjects. What brings you here today?”
The quartet stared in awe. Before them stood Queen Snowblossom. While they have seen the Queen on a number of occasions, they still looked upon her in sheer amazement. The same could be said for their parents and their teacher. Queen Snowblossom was always a sight to behold.
After giving a quick bow, Sunshine stepped forward.
“My Queen, your young subjects, Glacier the Dragon, Arctic Okami, Tundra storm, and Winter winds, have an announcement for you, as well as myself and their parents.”
Queen Snowblossom slightly raised a brow in curiosity.
“Is that so?” She asked looking at the for siblings.
“Y..yes, your Majesty.” Said Glacier. Nervousness washing over him.
“Then by all means. What is this announcement you have for us Today?” She gave a gentle and motherly smile to the siblings.
While her smile did make the quartet’s nervousness diminish slightly, they were still nervous. The four looked at each other, wondering who would speak first.
Wanting to finally let it out, Winter blurted out,
“We want to go explore outside of the Kingdom!”
Silence. It was so silent in the throne room, you could hear a pen drop. Queen Snowblossom stared at them alongside Sunshine and their parents.
“You want to WHAT?!” Exclaimed a shrill voice.
The voice belong to the quartet’s mother. Snowflake Winds angrily stomped up to her children.
“And why exactly would you want to do that?!” Snowflake asked. She was angry and also terrified. She did not want her children gallivanting off into the unknown.
Arctic sheepishly chimed in.
“Mom, we want to know what’s out there. We’ve never had anypony really go far out there. They always came back.”
“Because they knew that horrible things had to be out there and returned to safety!”
Glacier jumped into the mix, adding in his two cents.
“How can we really know for sure if there really are dangerous things out there, if we’ve never explored further?”
“And so you four want to risk it by going out there yourselves?” Sweeping asked, anger present in his voice, but also a bit of nervousness.
“Yes we do.” Said Tundra in a rather shy voice.
“And what if one or all of you end up getting hurt? What then?” Sweeping asked.
“Well, with the training we’ve been doing with Miss Sunshine, we could protect ourselves and each other.” Replied a sheepish looking Winter.
Sunshine just stared at them before speaking.
“You four are exceptionally strong, but there is always the chance you four end up getting seriously injured. Or worse.” Sunshine shuddered at the thought. She loved the little group and didn’t want them to end up severely hurt or dead.
“We know, but still,” said Glacier, “we want to go out there.”
“And if nopony else is willing to go further out there, then we will.” Tundra said, a slight confidence coming from her as well as her sibling.
Having watched and listened to everything, Queen Snowblossom spoke up.
“It has been so long since I’ve been outside of the kingdom.”
Everyone looked to her as she spoke.
“I’ve completely forgotten what the outside world looks like. And after so many years, who knows how much things have changed. Even I have a slight fear of what may lie just beyond our kingdom.” She said. Her voice was quiet, just barely above a whisper.
She thought back as far as she could. She vaguely remembered how things were before her Kingdom came into being. But she mostly remembered the young fillies and colts who gave the lonesome Alicorn a chance, leaving their home to start a new home with their new friend. She even still, somewhat, remembers their parent's protests and pleas for their children to come back and stay away from her, but, surprisingly, they refused. They wanted to stick by her and that was final.
Queen Snowblossom, still searching her mind, tried to remember anything else from the days before her Kingdom, but those memories have either vanished or are were far to vague to be remembered properly.
She looked up to her four young subjects, a solemn look on her face.
“Are you four sure you wish to embark on this journey?”
The four gave a nod.
“Very well. Have you chosen a day to start this journey of yours?” She asked.
“Tomorrow morning your majesty.” Said Arctic.
“Tomorrow morning it is. Before you leave, I will meet you at the entrance to the Kingdom.” Queen Snowblossom said.
“Yes your Majesty.” Said the siblings as they gave a bow.
After informing the Queen about their plan, the quartet had spoken more with Sunshine before leaving the Castle Grounds.
Along the way home, Sweeping and Snowflake were still ranting to their children. Asking why they would want to do this and trying to get them to stop. The siblings, while very nervous, were adamant about their decision.
After arriving home, the air was tense. They all hardly spoke, even at dinner they hardly said anything to each other.
The night came and went and soon it was the day of the quartet’s journey. They had gotten washed, gotten their bags packed, and headed out towards the entrance to the kingdom, their parents solemnly trudging behind them.
As they approached, they saw the Queen and some of her guard there. Sunshine was also. She too looked quite down.
“Good Morning my young Subjects.” Queen Snowblossom said.
“Good Morning your Majesty.” Said the quartet, as well as their parents who spoke in low voices.
“I see you have packed and are nearly ready to go.” Said Queen Snowblossom.
“Yes your majesty, but what do you mean “nearly”?” Asked Glacier.
“Before you go, there are two things I wish to give you.” Queen Snowblossom looked to one of her guards who was a female Griffon.
The Griffon nodded and from her bag, proceeded to pull out cloaks and wrap them around the four siblings.
“Those are to aid in keeping you hidden and safe should you find yourselves needing to escape anything.” Queen Snowblossom stated.
“Thank you your Majesty.” Said the siblings.
“And the final thing I wish to give you are these.” Said Queen Snowblossom, as her horn glowed and from a bag one of her guards held, emerged for necklaces which she put around the four sibling’s necks.
The necklaces were made with a leather like band and hanging from each necklace hung a single gem. The gems were a deep royal blue and shined bright in the morning sun.
“If I may your Majesty ?” Asked Arctic, “What are you giving us necklaces?”
“Those necklaces are special. They will be able to aid in your venture whenever the need arises.” Queen Snowblossom replied.
The siblings looked at each other, then to the necklaces. They had no idea how these simple necklaces could help them, but they decided not to say anything on it and each bowed to the Queen.
“Thank you your Majesty.” They said.
“You are welcome my young subjects. Now, I believe it is time for your journey to begin.” Queen Snowblossom gave them a smile.
After giving temporary farewells to their parents and teacher, who bonked the four over the head and stating, “You four ragamuffins better come back safe ya hear?”, the quartet stood at the entrance to the kingdom.
“You ready for this?” Glacier asked.
“As ready as I’ll ever be.” said Arctic.
“Let’s get this show on the road.” Tundra said with a small smile.
“And let’s see what awaits us.” Winter said. She was still nervous but excited for this adventure.
Soon, the four began to walk, taking their very first steps outside of the kingdom.
That was the best way to describe how the quartet was feeling at the moment. Completely cold. While the Kingdom itself was cold, they were able to handle it. The ponies had their thick coats to help keep them warm. While Glacier and Arctic held no fur like their sisters, they were able to handle the cold, it not being much of a bother to them. However, this cold, this was far worse than any cold they had ever felt before.
“How is it this cold?!” Cried Glacier, the cloak given to him wrapped tightly around as he rushed forward.
“I don’t know!” Winter called out, as she too ran in a mad-dash to escape this biting cold.
“Think it’s some kind of magic from the Queen to keep things out and away from the Kingdom?” Asked Tundra.
“It could be.” Arctic replied. “But I’ve never heard of the Queen setting up something like this.”
The others agreed. While they have read about many of the trials and tribulations of the Queen as well as the kingdom, they never once heard about the Queen casting some kind of spell that created a frigid cold such as this to keep others away.
As the quartet ran forward in an attempt to escape this cold, they slowly began to slow down. The intense cold alongside the wind blowing furiously, the siblings got colder and colder. The run became speed walking, then became a simple walk, till eventually they were moving at a snails pace.
“T..this..is horrible.” Said Arctic, his teeth chattering.
“How m..much l..longer till we g..get out of this cold?” Winter asked.
The siblings kept on walking desperately trying to get out of the cold. Unfortunately, with the cold as bad as it is, Winter collapsed. Glacier picked her up, carrying her on his back, but this made his struggle even worse. He too, eventually collapsed. Arctic and Tundra drug them along but even they began to struggle.
It had been about an hour when, out of the cold and biting wind, stepped Tundra and Arctic. The two were shuddering badly and on the verge of collapse themselves, but they pressed on. After dragging their downed sibling a fair distance away, they hurriedly began looking for any burnable material and soon, by the skin of their teeth, managed to create a sizable fire, before they also collapsed, fading into darkness as they fell unconscious.
=============================
It had been about eight hours when one finally arose. It was Winter. She groggily looked around, her vision blurred. After blinking a number of times her vision returned and she saw her siblings. They were curled up, evidently still cold, but not as bad as before. She saw they fire in front of her. It was still going but it was dying. Shakily, Winter got up. She stumbled some as she walked away to go find some material to feed to the fire.
Doing this with her body in the state it was, was dreadful. She stumbled and tripped as she walked, looking around for anything to give to the fire to keep it going. It took some time, but eventually, she was able to find a substantial amount of kindling, which sat on her back, and trudged back to the little campsite.
With a groan, Tundra had awoken. She shakily used her magic to pop her glasses back onto her face. As her vision cleared, she looked around.
“Winter?”
“Hey Sleepyhead.” Winter said.
Tundra had seen that Winter was missing and called her name. Once she did, she got a reply.
Tundra looked to where the voice had come from and saw Winter. Winter was wrapped up in her cloak sitting next to the fire with a pot over cooking so soup. Before leaving, the night before, their mother had packed extra bags full of supplies to make food should what they originally packed ran out.
“Nice to see you awake.” Winter Said.
“Same to you. How long have I been out?” Tundra asked as she yawned.
“A few hours.” Winter stated.
“You’ve been keeping the fire going?” Tundra walked up to her.
“Yup. It was difficult finding things to keep this going but I was able to.” Winter said with a small chuckle.
“You did great.” Tundra said hugging Winter.
Winter smiled and hugged her back wrapping a wing around her. They heard a low groan and looked over. It was Glacier. He was slowly and shakily getting to his knees, glancing around before his eyes landed on Tundra and Winter.
“Glad to see you two awake.” Glacier said as he crawled over to them.
“We’re glad to see you awake too.” Winter said. “But shouldn’t you have been able to handle that cold? You’re an Ice Dragon.”
“I can handle intense cold like any other Ice Dragon, but that, that was far too much for me to handle.” Glacier said with a shudder as he thought back.
While Ice Dragons are capable of handling rather intense cold, even they can be overwhelmed if the temperature is too low for them to handle.
“Well, at least you’re okay.” Winter said as she smiled at him.
“Yeah.” Glacier said in a quiet tone. “So, making some of that soup mom packed for us.”
“Yeah.” Winter replied.
“Awesome. I love that soup.” Glacier chuckled.
“Better leave some for me.”
The three looked over to the voice and saw that Arctic had woken up as well.
“We should be the ones saying that.” Tundra said laughing slightly. “With how much you, we’d be lucky to get any.”
The three slowly began to chuckle before erupting into full on laughter. Arctic just rolled his eyes, smiling a bit, before chuckling himself.
With wooden bowls and spoons at the ready, they had gotten themselves some soup and began to eat. The soup really warmed them up which are them smile and sigh in comfort. Not to mention they just loved the soup. It was one of their favorites and it showed.
After eating the soup and relaxing by the fire for a while they had warmed up considerably and decided to continue their journey. After putting the fire out and repacking their bowls and spoons, they had begun to walk.
“Let’s get going.” Arctic said.
“Buck yeah!” Winter exclaimed. Her chirpy nature returning once more.
The quartet had begun walking once more. They were a bit apprehensive but determined to face what the world throws at them next head on.
High up in the air, a Pegasus mare flew. She raced like a rocket towards her destination, her goal having been accomplished.
After a good number of days had passed, the mare eventually touched down, the armor she wore clanking a bit. She trotted towards a set of doors and entered.
The mare, determination in her eyes, not stopping for anything, she eventually reached a set of double doors. Giving a nod to the two guards standing at the door, they opened it and allowed the mare to enter.
In the depths of the room, mere torches illuminating it, the Pegasus mare trots slowly up towards a throne. Sitting upon the throne, rests a stallion. A small grin etched onto his face as he watches the mare trot up towards him.
As the mare gets up to the throne, she gives a bow.
“Arise.” Called the stallion. His voice low and gruff yet with an underlying elegance to it.
“Of course your majesty.” Said the mare as she rose up from her bow.
“I assume you’ve investigated it?”
“I have.” The mare responded.
“What were you able to find?”
“A small group. They seem to be explorers of some kind.”
“Hmm. Were you able to get a good look at them?”
“Yes your majesty.”
“Tell me what you could see.”
The mare gave a slight nod.
“Their group seemed to consist of a Pegasus and Unicorn mare, a dragon, and some kind of creature.”
“Creature? Pray tell, what do you mean, “creature’?” Asked the stallion raising an eyebrow.
“It was bipedal your majesty. It appeared to be a male, it was furless aside from the tail it had. Both it and its mane were pure white.” Said the mare.
The stallion gave a scoff. He couldn’t believe exactly what he was hearing. Some bipedal creature was roaming around with a dragon and two ponies? It sounded utterly absurd to him.
“And you are not lying to me about this, are you, mare?” He said narrowing his eyes, releasing a low growl.
“N..no you’re majesty.” The mare said shuddering under the intense gaze of the stallion.
She hated that. The gaze the stallion would give. His eyes seemed to bore their way into her soul. And she wasn’t the only one. Nearly all of the ponies under the stallion were utterly terrified of the cold, terrifying gaze to stallion would give. Many of the stallions and mares in his guard would do everything they could to please him, just to avoid be subjected to such bone chilling eyes.
“Very well. Were you able to see if they were with her?” He asked, spitting out the word “her” with venom in his voice.
“I am unsure your majesty. They did not seem to have anything that indicated that they were with her.” The mare replied.
The stallion shut his eyes, mulling over to do and say next. After reaching a conclusion, he opened his eyes.
“I want you and your squadron to head back to them. Threat or not, I do not want them here. Once you’ve beaten them, drag them back here. I will deal with them after that.”
“Of course your Majesty.” Said the mare as she turned and trotted off to gather her squadron and make their way to the group.
=============================
After a few days, the quartet had been traveling their way through the snow and ice. They hadn’t seen much along their way but they were enjoying themselves.
“Is this all there is?” Asked glacier as he rifled through one of the bags they had.
The quartet had eventually stopped and decided to set up camp to relax. They had managed to start another fire and were planing to heat up some fish that Tundra had managed to catch in a frozen lake nearby. Though, Tundra hadn’t caught very many.
“There weren’t that many in there.” Tundra responded with a small huff.
“Oh well. At least we have some. We can make what we have left count.” Arctic said.
Over the few days they were advancing, their food supplies had begun to diminish more and more.
“Hopefully there’s some kind of town somewhere. We can get some new supplies and maybe we can meet some new ponies.” Winter said with excitement in her voice, giddy at the thought of meeting some new ponies.
“Same here!” Said Tundra. She too was growing a bit excited at meeting some new ponies, should they come across any.
“Yeah yeah.” Said Glacier. “I’m looking to meet any new dragons.” He said with a grin.
Arctic watched and listened before giving a small sigh. He knew he wasn’t from this world and he was fine with that. He ended up with a family that loved him more than anything and made some great friends in the Blizzard Kingdom. Even still, he gets a bit lonely. Knowing he’s the only of his kind can still get to him every now and then.
A good rested on Arctic’s shoulder and when he looked over he saw Winter.
“It’s getting to you again isn’t it?” She asked.
“Mhmm.”
Winter wrapped her hooves and wings around Arctic, pulling him into an embrace.
“I’m sure it must be tough knowing the only of your kind here, but that doesn’t mean you’re alone.” Winter said giving a small smile.
The others joined in, hugging Arctic tight.
“You’ll always have us with you.” Glacier said ruffling the saiyans hair.
“He’s right. We’ll be by your side no matter what.” Tundra said giving him a smile.
Arctic still felt a bit upset, but knowing that his siblings always had his back made him smile.
“Thank you.” He said. “I’m lucky to have you three as my siblings.”
Soon the quartet were eating some fish and what little soup they had left, telling stories and reminiscing about events of their younger days. After a few hours, they were sitting by the fire ready to get some shuteye, when then, all of a sudden, they had begun to hear the faint sound of hooves striking the snow.
“What is that?” Asked Tundra.
“Sounds like, hooves?” Glacier asked as he tried to look to where the sound was coming from.
“Think there are ponies who are also exploring?” Asked Arctic.
“Could be,” replied Tundra, “though it sounds like, a march?” She asked.
As they listened, the sound did indeed sound like a group of ponies walking together in a march.
They waited and waited and soon they began to see ponies emerging from the horizon. As they watched on in curiosity, they soon began to become a little anxious. More and more ponies marched on and straight towards them.
“What’s going on?” Asked Glacier as he watched them approach.
Eventually the small squadron of ponies, all decked out in blacked armor and glowing green slits for their eyes, stopped before the siblings. After a moment of silence, a voice came. It was a little low, but the siblings could barely make out what was said.
“So this is them?” Asked the voice.
Another voice responded. This one feminine and a bit gruff.
“Yup. This is them.”
“A Dragon and two ponies, but what in Faust’s name is that creature?” Asked the first voice.
“I don’t know, but we need to take it in.” Replied the second voice.
One of the ponies stepped forward before speaking in a much louder tone.
“You four are to come with us right this second. If you refuse then we will take you by force.”
Silence.
“Well?” Asked the mare.
“Why should we have to come with you?” Asked Arctic.
“So, you can speak creature.” Said the mare. Then she began examining them closely and muttered out, “they don’t hold anything that bares her cutie mark, so they can’t be with Celestia.”
Arctic was wincing a bit. He hadn’t expected to be called “creature”. It hurt him quite a bit. But that hurt shifted to confusion. Not just for him but for his siblings as well. They heard what the mare said and were confused. They had never heard of the name “Celestia” before.
Another voice called out.
“Well, if they aren’t with her, would should still bring them in. With Celestia or not, we can’t just leave them.”
“Right. Okay you four, like I said earlier. You will be coming with us.” Said the mare as she stepped forward.
The siblings stepped back, getting on guard.
“Well, looks like we’ll have to take you by force.” Said the mare, a crooked smile appearing on her muzzle beneath her helmet.
The solders of the squadron got themselves ready for a fight. The siblings taken aback and confused, got into stances of their own.
A stare down had started, both groups waiting to see who made the first move. Then, with a stomp, the siblings charged forward with the squadron doing the same.
This would be the first true battle the sibling ever had and they were not about to back down. They were going to put their training with Sunshine to the test and see how well they would fare against their foes.
And with the first punch thrown by Glacier and Arctic into a barrier set up by one of the Unicorns in the squadron, the battle had begun.
After colliding with the barrior, Glacier and Arctic quickly jumped out of the way allowing Tundra to attack. With Tundra’s horn glowing brightly, charging magic, she lowered her head and fired.
“ICE CANNON!”
With that mighty shout, Tundra fired a blast of magic directly at the barrier, destroying it in an instant. The squadron, a bit taken aback by the power of the attack, immediately composed themselves and split into two groups jumping into action and going on the attack.
Arctic and Winter had gotten together, fighting as a team. With every strike, hooves and fists collided in a blinding flurry of attacks. One of the members of the squadron, a unicorn, had jumped back and unsheathed a sword. The stallion charged forward with his sword ready to slash at Winter’s wings, but as he swung his sword, it had been blocked. Infront of him, blocking his sword was another sword. However, the sword was made entirely of ice. He looked to the side and saw that creature.
Arctic had used his own magic to craft a sword made of ice to block the unicorns attack. After which, he kicked the unicorn away and began fighting alongside Winter.
“Winter! Wanna do the thing?” Arctic shouted to Winter with a giant grin.
Winter saw this and grinned as well.
“Sure! Let’s do it!”
After jumping back, Arctic raised his leg and stomped the ground causing snow and ice all around the go flying in the air. The half of the squadron they were fighting were also launched into the air.
The squadron looked on in confusion, wondering what was happening as well as how that creature was able to do that.
“What in the!?”
“What’s going on?”
“I don’t know but we need to be read-“
Before that sentence could be finished, Winter and Arctic had flown up to the airborne ponies and began rapidly flying around them leaving nothing but a ball blue and white streaks around them. Winter and Arctic were moving so quickly the squadron could see them, but they could hear them.
“Crystaline Rush!”
With that, the attack began.
Thousands of small crystals began flying from the inner walls of the ball, pelting and cutting up the Squadrons armor leaving multiple dents and gashes in their armor.
After a minute the attack had stopped as the Squadron fell to the ground. They were hurt but still able to stand and continue fighting.
Arctic and Winter rushed down to them as their battle intensified. Arctic was fending off and attacking with all he could, however, he failed to notice one Pegasus mare sneak behind him. She going to grab his tail and try slamming him into the ground. Biding her time, she watched and when the opportunity arose, she pounced. She jumped forward and bit down on his tail.
Arctic felt it and faltered a bit, about to fall over. The mare saw this. Though she didn’t have much time to properly process it when she heard a shout.
“Frozen Spheres!”
She looked to the side and saw Winter standing on her hind legs, her wings outstretched. Held within her wings were two glowing spheres that resembled balls of ice. With a swift flap of her wings, Winter launched the Spheres. The Pegasus mare, had barely any time to react as the spheres collided into her, leaving a small explosion in its wake and sending the mare flying backwards. She managed to recover and flew straight towards Winter.
“You’ll pay for that!”
“We’ll see.” Winter said as she charged head first towards the mare.
The their hooves pulled back, as they got closer to each other, they shot their hooves forward, hitting each other in the face creating a small shockwave as they did so.
After a moment the two rapidly began trading blows. Hit for hit, blow for blow, the two pegasi were going all in on this battle. The Pegasus mare jumped up and took to the air with Winter right on her tail.
Arctic was fairing well, blocking and dodging as well as throwing any punch or kick he could. He had managed to recover from having his tail bitten and so decided to wrap his tail around his waist. The others had noticed his faltering at having his tail grabbed and so were trying to come up with some kind of plan to get a hold of his tail.
A unicorn stallion jumped back and began to charge magic while Arctic was distracted. Once he was finished he blurted out, “Take this Creature!”, and fired his attack. His allies jumped back, expecting Arctic to get hit, however, Arctic saw the attack and quickly pulled his fists back, charged some Ki, shot his fists forward, and fired.
“Calamity Cannon!”
(Think of the Kamehameha, except Arctic’s hands are closed.)
The two beams collided. The squadron were shocked by this. He moved so quickly, they couldn’t believe it.
“Never mind. He’s distracted. Let’s go for his tail while we can.” Said an earth pony stallion.
“Right.” Said the other members as they rushed forward.
On of the Pegasi were able to get behind Arctic and with their wings managed to pry Arctics tail from around his waist leaving it out to be grabbed.
Arctic felt and saw this and when he saw an Earth pony stallion rushing in to grab his tail, he used his tail to smack the Stallion in the face then grab the stallions hind leg and throw him into the others. Unfortunately, this left him open.
“You got sloppy!”
Arctic turned to the voice into see a Pegasus stallion with a sword slash at him. Arctic managed to move away but it wasn’t enough. The sword slashed at his shoulder leaving a massive gash. With the pain he had begun to falter with his blast and the unicorn was beginning to win. Thinking quickly, he jumped away before he could get hit by the magical beam and gained some distance from them.
Arctic looked at his shoulder. Blood was oozing from the gash, trickling down his arm and dripping to the snow.
“That’s definitely gonna leave a scar.” He said wheezing a bit. He was slowly beginning to feel a little tired.
He watched as the Squadron rushed towards him only to be stopped by Winter who had dropped down with the Pegasus mare she had been fighting close on her tail. Arctic could see that the mare was enraged. He watched on as Winter raced towards the other members of the squad and her opponent inching closer to her. Then last second, once she was muzzle to muzzle with the squadron she pulled up letting the Pegasus mare chasing her slam into her allies sending them tumbling in a heap.
Winter landed by Arctic and gasped when she saw Arctic shoulder.
“Arctic! Are you okay?” She asked clearly worried about her brother.
“I’m okay. Gonna hurt to move my arm, but I’m okay.” He said with a small smile.
“We’ll have to patch you up soon.” Winter said chuckling but huffing slightly. It was clear as day she was getting tired.
“Don’t think t..this is ov..over yet.”
Arctic and Winter looked up and saw the Pegasus mare and her allies all standing, injured and tired, but still ready to fight.
Meanwhile.
Glacier and Tundra were battling it out with their half of the Squadron.
However, there were multiple Tundra’s fighting. This was Tundra’s technique, “Ice Clone”. This technique allows Tundra to create an army of clones of herself. However the clones are made up of ice. While the move is useful, it takes a considerable amount of magic to keep it going. So Tundra was beginning to falter. Among having to fight a pony herself as well as keep he clones fighting as well were taking a toll on her.
Glacier, who was fighting some Pegasi in the air, saw this. And with a strong flap of his wings, he used his move, “Gale Typhoon”, blowing away the Pegasi as he rushed down to help Tundra.
“Tundra!” Glacier called out, “Move!”
Tundra immediately canceled her spell, dismantling the clones and teleported away from the Squadron. Glacier reeled back and released a burst of blue flames from his mouth. The Sqadron could see the flames coming and quickly, the unicorns set up a barrier to protect themselves. The flames collided with the barrier as it slowly but surely began to crack and chip.
One of the Pegasi, blown away by Glacier had recovered and began racing towards him. Before he could reach him, he was blown out of the air having been struck by a magical energy beam by Tundra. Then she began firing more beams at the Pegasi trying to take them out.
As this went on, Glacier had stopped breathing fire and charged at the barrier intent on smashing it to pieces. Unfortunately, before he could reach it, he was shot. Hit with a beam of magic from one of the unicorns. Luckily, the unicorn was tired and on the verge of collapsing. The beam had struck Glacier’s side leaving a big gash in his side. Glacier didn’t give in yet. He kept charging and smashed into the barrior. He then released flames from his mouth hitting the squadron and launching them backwards. After that he collapsed, clutching his side in pain.
Tundra, had seen this and rushed over to him.
“Glacier! Are you okay?!”
Arctic and Winter heard this and whipped around to see Glacier on the ground and bleeding from his side.
“Glacier!” The two cried worried for their brother. Unfortunately, this left them open.
In a swift motion, one of the Stallions shot forward and bit Arctic’s tail hard. This caused Arctics muscles to falter and he collapsed.
“Arctic!” Winter cried. But before she could do anything, she was struck in the back of the head and swiftly knocked out by the Pegasus mare she had been fighting.
“Serves you right, you brat.”
“Winter!” Yelled Tundra. She tried to run over and was beginning to charge her Ice Cannon attack but she too was struck in the back of the head by an attack from one of the unicorns Glacier attack. Tundra had been knocked out.
Arctic, witnessing all this, began to feel his anger bubbling within him.
Soon the ground had began to shake and rumble. The Squadron and Glacier looked around before seeing Arctic erupt with ki blowing everyone back and getting his tail released. Then with a primal yell, Arctic’s ki flared. His muscles grew slightly his hair shot up and flowed with his aura. His eyes, had changed. His irises had vanished leaving only the whites of his eyes.
The Squadron were confused by this and were even a bit scared.
“What the buck just happened?” One asked.
“I don’t know!” Another shouted.
Arctic looked around at the squadron, his blank eyes sending shivers down their spines. Then he attacked.
In one swift motion and with a primal roar, he raced towards Glacier and Tundra’s half of the Squadron, attacking them one by one, knocking them out in single blows. Each punch left his aura on where ever his fist connected.
The other members of the Squad as well as Glacier were surprised and terrified by this. Arctic turned to the rest of the squadron and charged forward. However, with his injuries and damage from the fight as well as whatever this was putting a strain on his body, it had taken its toll and before Arctic could reach them, he collapsed. The surge in power really did a number on him. The ponies of the squadron, still a bit scared had calmed down and chuckled.
“Well, seems like he pushed his body to the limit.” One commented
“I’m just glad he collapsed like that. We’d have been done for.” Another stated clearly still shaken.
“Well, let’s gather them up and get ready to go.” Said another.
After walking up to the down Saiyan and Dragon, swiftly knocking them out, they had gathered them as well as their knock out allies and dragged them away. After a bit of walking. They found their carts they had stashed away before going up to the Siblings and threw them all in their and begun to limp their way back home.
=============================
“I’m pleased to see you’ve returned.” Said the stallion sitting upon his throne, looking down at the remains of his squadron.
“Thank you your majesty.” Said a Pegasus mare. “It was a tough fight but we managed to win.” She said, purposefully leaving out the fact that they almost lost to Arctic.
Speaking of, Arctic and his siblings, still unconscious were sitting in a cart now sitting before the stallion.
He looked on the the quartet and sniffed.
“What even is that ugly creature? To think it and some lowly ponies and a dragon could deal enough damage to knock out half of your squadron.”
He looked over to the Squadron.
“Were you able to see if they were associated with Celestia?” He asked.
“No your majesty. In fact it seemed they didn’t know who Celestia was.”
The stallion cocked an eyebrow.
“Interesting. Oh well, we shall interrogate them later. Send them down to the dungeons. Now!” Stated the stallion, stomping his hoof, causing an echo throughout the room.
“O..of course your majesty.” Said the mare as she and the rest of her squad bowed.
“Good day, King Sombra.” They said as she hurriedly trotted away hauling the cart with the quartet down to the dungeons.
“Hmm. If they don’t know about Celestia, perhaps.” Sombra began to think to himself as he walked from his throne to a balcony.
He looked over the broken and war torn Crystal Empire, watching as shackled ponies roamed around with guards surrounding them.
With a chuckle Sombra looked to the sky, the sun beginning to fall over the horizon marking the start of another night.
“I failed once. I shall not fail once more. Bring all you have Celestia. For you shall fall to the wayside this time.” Sombra chuckled and began to cackle loudly as he started planning his next move.
That was all that could be seen for miles. With a stream of light steadily revealing itself, he slowly but surely returned to the realm of the living.
Letting out a low Groan, Arctic had slowly opened his eyes before snapping them shut. A lit torch perched above him briefly blinded him. Opening his eyes once more, his eyes slowly adjusted he looked down at himself. He could see that he had some bandages on his injuries. While the bandages looked, not great, they would get the job done till he got fresh bandages. Looking some more, he saw that his clothes were still tattered and ripped. In fact his top was completely gone. He just groaned and laid his head back.
“The creature is awake.” Called out a voice.
Turning his head to see where the voice had come from, all Arctic could see was darkness. Letting his eyes adjust more he saw what was there. Ponies. Lots of ponies. They were there all watching him. The more he looked at them, he could see that they were all bound in chains. Plus they all looked dirty, as though they hadn’t washed in weeks. Not to mention they all looked malnourished.
“Hello creature,” said a voice, “Are you feeling well?”
Arctic looked to the owner of the voice. It was an elderly Unicorn stallion. Just like the others, he too looked malnourished and dirty. His coat was difficult to make out but Arctic could see it seemed to be some yellow color. Looking into his eyes Arctic could see fear on the stallions face but also concern.
“I’m fine.”Arctic said groggily.
“That’s good. When you and your friends were brought here, you all were in bad shape.”
Arctic perked up at this. He looked around and soon spotted them. Glacier, Tundra, and Winter where there. They were also wrapped up in bandages and were sleeping peacefully. Or somewhat peacefully. Arctic could see them tense or twitch in pain every now and then, but still, to see that they were okay eased his worries.
“They’re okay.” Turning to the stallion and the other ponies he bowed. “Thank you for helping my brother, sisters, and I.”
Jumping a bit and with a small shocked expression, the Stallion spoke up.
“Brother and sisters? My young Stallion, you look like no dragon I’ve ever seen. And you’re certainly no pony. How are they your siblings?”
Arctic tilted his head slightly.
“Well, I’m adopted. See, our parents adopted me and my brother Glacier. Then they had my Sisters, Tundra and Winter.”
“Adopted you say? Well, I’m pleased to hear that. But, if I may, what are you exactly? I’ve never seen a creature such as you.”
Arctic chuckled. “I’m a Saiyan.”
“Saiyan?” Asked the stallion as he racked his brain, trying to figure out if he had ever seen or at least heard of such a creature. “I must say I’ve never heard of a Saiyan before.”
“I’d be surprised if you did.” Arctic said with a chuckle before his face slowly fell into a small frown. “As far as I’m concerned, I’m the only of my kind here.”
The stallion softened slightly. His fear of Arctic slowly giving way to sympathy.
“I’m sure it must be hard knowing you’re the only of your kind around, huh?” The stallion asked. Arctic nodded.
Three low groans and coughs sounded out. Looking over Arctic saw his sibling waking up. Glacier was the first to wake.
“What happened?” Asked Glacier.
“Welcome back. We all were knocked out.” Arctic said.
“Those jerks. When I get my hooves on them.” Growled Winter as she shielded her eyes with her wings from the torch above them.
“Where are we?” Tundra groggily asked.
“In the dungeon.” Said the stallion.
The three looked to the stallion and then took in their surroundings.
“So it would seem.” Tundra stated.
“Oh, where are my manners?” Said the stallion. “Please call me Sunstone. And you all are?”
“Glacier.” Glacier said rubbing his eyes before giving a small smile.
“Tundra Storm.” Tundra said adjusting her glasses.
“I’m Winter Winds.” Winter said in a low but more chipper tone.
“And I’m Arctic Okami.” Arctic said with a bow.
“Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you all.” Sunstone said.
“Mr. Sunstone?” Asked Winter. “Why are we here? Where are we?”
“And who attacked us?” Glacier asked, some anger present in his voice.
“I can answer that.” Called a voice.
“It is a pleasure getting to finally speak with you. You’ve been asleep for a while.”
Looking over to where the voice came from, the quartet watched as a fairly tall mare emerged from the shadows. She, like the others, was dirty and also looked to be a bit malnourished. Her coat, mane, and tail were caked in dirty and grime. While it was difficult to make out, they could see that her coat was a pink color and her mane was three different colors.
“I’m pleased to see you all awake. I am Princess Cadence.” The mare said spreading her wings a bit.
…
Silence.
There was silence for a good while. The quartet was stunned. They were not only in the presence of royalty, but they were in the presence of an Alicorn. They believed Queen Snowblososm to be the only Alicorn, but to see another standing right in front of them was surreal.
Cadence tilted her head slightly. “Are you all okay?”
Breaking from their trances, the siblings jumped up and immediately bowed.
“It is an honor to be within your presence your majesty!” They all said in unison.
Cadence was taken aback by this. She smiled a bit only to then frown as she looked at them. She could see them trembling. Though she couldn’t tell if they were trembling in fear or in pain. They were still injured after all.
“Please no need to bow.” Cadence said.
Reluctantly, the quartet rose and got into seating positions. Then Tundra spoke up.
“Princess Cadence, if you are royalty, why are you down in a dungeon.”
Cadence sighed.
“I was defeated and placed into here.”
“Defeated? By who?” Asked Glacier.
“Him.” Cadence uttered with a great deal a venom in her voice.
“Him? Him who?” Asked Winter.
Cadence was taken aback once again. Surely they knew, right?
“Surely you must know?” Cadence asked.
The siblings glanced at each other before shaking their heads.
Cadence was surprised and in her mind thought, “How could they be so unaware of all this?”
“Well,” cadence spoke out, “to answer a previous question, you are sitting within a dungeon in the Crystal empire.”
The siblings tilted their heads and looked to each other. They had never heard of the Crystal Empire before and were growing curious.
“As for your other question, the him I’m referring to, is the Unicorn tyrant, King Sombra.”
The siblings were growing even more confused the more they listened.
“Princess, if you don’t mind, could you tell us what’s going on.” Winter Asked.
“Of course. Now, for this tale, I should start from the beginning.”
The siblings sat in silence they didn’t want to miss a thing.
“Long ago, when the Crystal Empire was thriving, it had been plunged into darkness. An evil unicorn named King Sombra had appeared one day in the Crystal Empire and took control. After obtaining control of the Empire, he had enslaved many of the ponies and forced many of them to fight for him in his efforts to conquer all of Equestria. However, his plans were thwarted. With the might of Princesses Celestia and Luna, as well as the aid of the Elements of Harmony, they had defeated King Sombra and banished him for a thousand years. Unfortunately, before his defeat, he managed to place a curse on the empire. It too fell alongside him.”
The siblings were listening to the story with bated breath, eager to hear what happened next.
“As years passed, the Crystal Empire was soon a distant memory. That is until, the day it returned. With its return, Princess Celestia had been made aware of it and in order to stop a repeat of last time, they sent a new Princess to watch over the Empire. Things for a while seemed peaceful, until one day. One said day, things were as normal as could be, when all of a sudden, the Empire was attacked once again. King Sombra had returned and in the blink of an eye, he had taken the Crystal Heart and defeated the Princess. Yet again he had taken control of the Crystal Empire and with his reign, he enslaved the ponies and with ponies fighting for him in his new army, he had attacked. Princess Celestia, alongside her Sister, Princess Luna had begun to fight back. The battle lasted days. It seemed as though it would never end. Then in an attempt to finally defeat King Sombra, the Elements of harmony were sent alongside their new bearers. Unfortunately, King Sombra, being aware of the Elements, crafted a plan to stop the Elements from being used. Before the Bearers of the Elements could do anything, they were ambushed. In the midst of the ambush, one of the Element bearers had be knocked out and captured alongside her element. Without her, the elements were utterly useless and the war raged on. This brings us to today.” Cadence said finishing her story and looking to the Siblings.
The quartet were speechless. They had never known that this war was even going on. And of course when they decide to leave their home, they get caught in the middle of it.
“Princess?” Asked Arctic. “What happened to the element bearer that they captured?”
With a small sigh, Princess Cadence turned and walked away into the shadows. Confusion struck the quartet as they watched this. After a moment, the Princess had returned, but she had also returned with a mare. The mare, or rather, the doe was fairly tall, her coat was dirty and scuffed. Her long pink mane was greasy and matted as though it hadn’t been washed in months. Her wings even looked a mess. Though, her bright shimmer green eyes showed fear and unease, they also held something else. A sweet kindness to them that warmed the hearts of all around. Then the doe spoke.
The quartet stared at the doe, examining her closely before all giving a simple wave and a smile. Suddenly, Fluttershy as well as the other ponies jumped, trembling slightly. Looking to each other, Arctic and Glacier realized why.
“I’m sorry.” Said Arctic as he quickly stopped smiling
“Same here.” Said Glacier doing the same.
The two brothers had forgotten that they both had rather big and sharp teeth. Their smiling revealed this to others making them jump.
”oh, um, it’s okay. I know you didn’t mean too.” Said Fluttershy in a quiet tone.
The two smiled as Tundra began to speak up.
“So, what happens next? We can’t just stay trapped down here forever.”
“We’ve tried escaping, but we can’t break through the chains.” Said Princess Cadence.
“But you’re an Alicorn, Princess. Can’t you break them?” Asked Glacier, eliciting a nod from his siblings.
They all had heard that Alicorn were the strongest ponies in all of Equestria. None of the guards back in the Blizzard Kingdom could touch Queen Snowblossom whenever she decided to train them up. They were surprised to hear Queen Snowblossom would help train the guard, but to hear that not a single one of them has ever touched her, let alone last even 3 minutes against her, told them that she was very powerful.
“I could, unfortunately, Sombra managed to clamp this onto me.” Cadence said using her hoof to point to her horn.
Looking up at it, the quartet could not only finally see that sitting upon Cadence’s horn was a ring. She point to all of the other unicorns and they could see that they also had these rings on. Looking at her own horn, Tundra could see she had one on as well.
“What are these things?” Tundra asked.
“Magic Dampening Rings.” Replied Cadence. “These rings keep an and all unicorns from being able to use magic.”
“What!?” Tundra shrieked. All of the ponies jumped in surprise. Even Fluttershy jumped at the yell and quickly ducked behind Cadence.
Trying to cast any kind of spell she could, Tundra strained in a futile attempt to cast something. Eventually with a groan, Tundra eventually gave up and plopped to the ground with a “thud”.
“So how are we going to get out of here now?” Winter asked. After the battle with Sombra’s little squadron, she was still to tired to really do much to try anything.
“I suppose I could try melting the chains.” Glacier suggested.
“A..are you sure?” Came a timid voice.
Looking over he saw Fluttershy.
“With your injury, are you sure you can do it?” Fluttershy asked?
Glacier had to admit, with his injury it could hinder him. Plus, he was still in some pain because of and with most of his energy going towards helping that heal up, he doubted he could melt the chains but he wanted to try. So, grabbing onto his chains, he began to breath out his blue flames. The flames licked and lashed at the chains for a moment before he began to splutter and cough.
“I guess I can’t do it.” He said with a sigh before looking to Arctic. “What about you? Think you could do something?” He asked.
“Still to weak. Maybe I could if I was back up to full health and my energy was a little restored I could.” Arctic replied looking to his hand.
Soon, Sunstone chimed in.
“I beg your pardon, but what are you intending to do if you manage to escape? There are guards everywhere. And I don’t think you can take them on your own.”
He was right. The siblings were strong yes, but not strong enough to challenge all of the guards. They may be able to handle themselves for a while, but once they get tired, they’ll be back where they started only under heavy watch.
“Maybe you could fight with us.” Arctic suggested.
Sunstone just spluttered and shook his head.
“Us? Fight them? We couldn’t stand a chance young Arctic.”
“We could teach you how to fight.” Winter said some enthusiasm edging its way into her voice. She even began pouncing slightly.
Fluttershy giggled at this. It reminded her of Pinkie Pie in a way.
“Teach us?” Said a Pegasus stallion. “How are you going to teach us how to fight.”
After some thinking, Glacier asked a question.
“Princess, how often do the guards come here?”
Cadence thought about it before responding.
“Well, they arrive to give us breakfast, lunch and dinner, other then that, one may come by to check on us, but otherwise we’re left to ourselves.”
Arctic began to smile.
“So we can teach you in between and try not to get caught by the guard that comes by.”
Cadence took a moment to mull over the suggestion. While she wouldn’t want to see her little ponies end up injured or worse, she knew that they’d be needing all the help they could get in this war with Sombra. And having them attack while Sombra’s army is in the midst of battle could turn the tides in their favor. So, with a nod Cadence had come to a conclusion.
“Very well. You can teach those who wish to help in this upcoming battle. The rest find somewhere to keep hidden for safety.” She said looking to the siblings.
They all gave a nod and soon began their training.
Over the next few weeks, the siblings had fully recovered and were well into training the ponies. Only half of the ponies were interested and wanted to train while the other half watched. In the beginning, it was a bit difficult keeping it all under wraps. In fact, they had almost been caught a number of times, but were able to keep it all together. For the training, the quartet had been teaching the ponies how to use ki and the different ways it can be used in battle.
Surprisingly, Fluttershy also wanted to train. While she wasn’t all that into it, she did enjoy learning to use ki. While she had no plans of using it to fight others, she did figure it could be useful in order to protect her self from harm, as well as protect her animals and friends should the need arise.
When not training, they all would chat. Telling each other stories of their past and plans for what to do when this war was all said and done. Surpsingly, Arctic found himself talking with a young Unicorn filly. She was quite interested in him. She thought he was cool and wanted to learn about him and the saiyans. He couldn’t tell her much, seeing as he never really got to be around other saiyans, though he could tell her what he remembered his father telling him when he was younger. Those memories were a bit fuzzy, but he could remember them.
After the weeks had turned into near two months, they all felt that they were ready and were being to make a plan to break out.
After discussing things, they all nod and get ready to set their plan into motion.
After hours had passed, the guards bringing in dinner had unlocked the gates and walked in dragging carts full of food behind them. But before they could leave, they were blindsided. Arctic and Glacier struck the guards in the back of their necks, knocking them out. Then, digging around in one of the guards saddlebags, Arctic found a key to unlock the chains and began freeing himself and the others, even removing the Magic Dampening Rings from the unicorns.
“Good work.” Said Cadence, “Now the next step.”
The quartet, the Princess, and the ponies who wanted to help fight, all began making their way out. Even Fluttershy was going, although she wasn’t planning on fighting, mainly helping any injured ponies who’ll need help. As for the other ponies who didn’t want to fight, they stayed behind as to not get in the way or get hurt.
Making their way along, they encountered more guards, but were able to take them out. Soon they reached the door leading outside. As quietly as they could, the peeked out. Seeing nopony around, they fully exited only to be stopped in their tracks by what they saw.
The Empire looked Miserable.
Everything looked destroyed. The sky looked dark and dismal. All of the ponies had varying emotions, ranging from, sad, to surprised, to angered.
“The Empire looks awful.” Said Cadence.
As she looked around, she wanted to cry in shame and scream from anger.
“To think I was sent here to protect and guide the Crystal Empire, only to fall from grace and let it be destroyed like this.” She said as she walked around looked at the tattered and destroyed Empire.
“Princess, don’t worry.” Said Fluttershy. She too was saddened by this but she wanted to put up as brave a face as she could. “I’m sure we could get the Empire looking wonderful again.”
Cadence smiled a bit at this. She really hoped Fluttershy was right.
“Well, look who it is?” Came a voice.
Looking over, they saw that it was one of Sombra’s squadrons. The siblings glared and growled. It was the same squad they fought before.
“Looks like you managed to escape, well done. Not like it’ll do much. You’ll only end up right back.” Said the Pegasus mare.
While she was surprised to see that they had escaped, she was also glad they had. It meant she could have another go at the squadron, especially Winter, whom she glared at with hatred.
Cadence stepped up to them, anger in her eyes.
“Where is Sombra.”
Raising an eyebrow, the mare replied.
“Our Majesty, King Sombra, is our leading the charge in another battle against Celestia. He left us and a few others behind to make sure nothing happens here.” She said as more ponies appeared.
Good. Cadence thought. We don’t have to worry about him and can focus on taking out these ponies first.
“Well, I hope you’re all ready to be sent back to the dungeon again. I know I’ll be happy to send your miserable flanks back.” Called the Pegasus. She had been aching to have a go at the siblings again and was glad to have her chance.
“You will not beat us this time. Today marks the beginning of the end for this war, and we will be the ones to come out on top.” Cadence said, flaring out her wings and charging her magic.
“We’ll see about that Princess.” Said the mare as she got ready to fight.
The siblings and the other ponies also gotten ready fight. With an intense battle cry, both sides leaped into action, prepared to fight in a battle of their lives.
With almighty crashes, fights had begun all over. The Crystal Ponies were brawling with King Sombra’s squadrons, doing whatever they could to attack and defend. Hooves collided with swift counters, wings flapped in an endless cycle, and horns were firing off beams of magic like their lives depended on it. Even a few ponies were trying to use ki as well.
In the dungeon, while biding time, waiting for the best moment to strike, the quartet had been teaching the Crystal ponies how to use Ki. Arctic felt that should Pegasi or Unicorns find themselves unable to use their wings or horns, they had Ki to fall back on. Glacier too felt it a good idea and was eager to help. So too were Tundra and Winter. Over the few weeks, many of ponies had slowly begun to use their ki quite quickly, which surprised the quartet, but the ponies still had a long way to go. But still, seeing the crystal ponies use ki to the limited degree they could, filled the quartet with pride.
In the midst of the battle, Tundra was fighting with vigorous force. Her horn was a blaze with magic, and she was going at Sombra’s ponies with full force.
“Come on little filly!” Cried a Pegasus stallion. “Why don’t you use your neat little trick again?”
“I won’t need it to beat you this time!” Tundra cried.
Tundra knew what her was talking about. Her Ice Clones. While the clones would help, performing that trick would only deplete her magic. She knew it would be needed, but she wanted to keep as much magic in her as she could. The same went for her ki. If she used that for her clones, it would deplete that as well. So, Tundra would have to keep it tucked away as a last resort. She didn’t want to run out of magic like last time, and leave herself unable to protect her family or her new friends.
“Don’t need it, huh? We’ll see about that!” Cried the stallion.
He whipped around and dove straight too her. Tundra could see him approaching at a rapid speed, but she made sure to keep herself calm and her eyes locked on. Once he got close enough, Tundra unleashed a blast from her horn right at the Pegasus. As it shot towards him, the stallion with a mighty beat of his wings, dodged the blast before rushing in and nailing Tundra in the chest only to rush back into the air.
Tundra knew she’d have a difficult time with this one. He was fast. Very fast. But she has dealt with speedy Pegasi before. She needed to wait for an opportunity. However her train of thought was interrupted by a powerful kick to her side, sending her through the air and crashing down with a thud.
Tundra wheezed and coughed before looking up. It was an earth pony mare. She had just bucked Tundra right in the side and was charging towards her and so was the Pegasus she had been facing. They were both rushing in to strike her at the same time. However, before they got too close, Tundra’s horn lit up and in a burst of light, she was gone. She had casted a teleportation spell and got out of the way, getting behind them just in time to see the two collide with each other.
“Watch where you’re going, birdbrain!” Cried the mare.
“Same to you, you dumb bucking asshole!” Shouted the stallion.
Tundra saw this and took quick action. Tundra rose up to her hind legs and with her forelegs held in front of her she fired a ki blast right at the two. Not a powerful one, but enough to send them back a few feet and luckily crashing into some of their own teammates. Tundra smirked and even chuckled a bit at this. That was short lived as a shadow loomed over her. Turning around, Tundra saw another earth pony. She was up on her hind legs ready to slam her forelegs down onto Tundra. But, before it could happen, a pair of hind legs jutted out and slammed the mare side sending her flying away. Looking to the owner of the legs, Tundra found Cadence.
“Are you alright, Tundra?” Cadence asked.
“I’m fine Princess Cadence. Thank you. That was an impressive kick.” Tundra said, clearly impressed and amazed by Cadence’s strength.
“Why thank you. Now let’s get back to it.” Cadence said.
“Of course.” Tundra replied, the two of them charging back into the fight.
==========*********===========
Glacier and Winter were fighting together. Both were up against a group of Pegasi. The two were having a difficult time. The Pegasi all dawned wingblades and with their skill, they were quite deadly. Scarily so.
“This is such a pain.” Grunted Glacier. For all his training back in the Blizzard Kingdom, he had never been taught how to deal with wing blades.
“It is.” Said Winter. “I’ve only trained with wingblades once. I don’t know exactly how to counter those.”
“And with how coordinated they are, it’s kinda scary.” Glacier said giving a low huff.
The group of Pegasi were simply enjoying themselves. Losing to the quartet the first time was just a fluke. They wouldn’t lose again. Not with that creature out of the way. They remembered how his tail seemed to be its weakness and after informing the others, they would surely be able to stop it.
The group of Pegasi charged Glacier and Winter. With every Pegasus to shoot by the two, they could be cut and nicked by the blades. A few on occasion managing to get in some deep cuts that would most like scar.
However it didn’t mean the siblings were down. They were able to get in a few hits as well, both sides knew neither was going to back down.
“Winter! How about we do it.” Glacier said his mouth lighting up, showing he was ready to breath fire.
“Right!” Winter said with a smile.
The two shot forward like bullets ahead of the Pegasi before whipping around. One of Winter’s wings was outstretched, a ball of ki forming. Then with a mighty flap she launched it, followed up guickly by Glacier flames. The two attacks melded into one, Winter’s ball of energy now engulfed by Glacier’s blue flames. The Pegasi, unable to properly dodge were struck. The attack exploded and smaller versions of it showered down, striking a few other members of Sombra’s ponies. And unfortunately some Crystal ponies.
This move was their “Meteor Shower” attack.
Winter’s energy ball shrouded by Glacier’s flames. Upon impact it would explode but it would also shower down smaller versions of itself, hitting any other target below it.
The two were upset to see their attack hit some of the crystal ponies and shot down to them. Landing to some of them.
“We’re so sorry!” Winter cried. Her eyes were welling with tears.
“It’s okay little ones. We know you didn’t intend for it.” Said one stallion.
“We still got you guys caught in it.” Glacier said. While his eyes weren’t welling with tears, it was clear he was upset.
“It’s common for an ally to caught in the crossfire in fights. Don’t beat yourselves up for it.” Said a mare before coughing violently.
“Let us help at least.” Said Winter.
“Um..I can help.” Said a voice.
Turning around, the siblings saw Fluttershy. The winged doe was trembling, clearly scared but she wanted to help. Even if it wasn’t fighting.
“Are you sure?” Asked Winter.
“Oh, of course. I want to help in any way I can.” Fluttershy said. Fear was still present in her voice, but she seemed determined.
“Okay then.” Said Glacier.
The two siblings looked to Fluttershy with a grateful look before flying off, jumping back into the battle. Fluttershy quickly called over some ponies who weren’t fighting but keeping hidden ready to help injured ponies if needed. The ponies ran over and quicker than blinking, picked up the injured ponies and took them in ready to start patching them up.
===========********===========
Arctic was holding his own well. He was blocking, dodging, and countering attacks from multiple directions as best he could and he was doing well. Looking back, Arctic saw an Earth pony charging towards him a massive hammer, swinging it in an attempt to hit Arctic. He was able to dodge a few of the swings, but a few did strike him when blocking. From behind him, a unicorn was charging a massive spell. Arctic could sense the power in this. It was almost as if the Unicorn were trying to go for the kill, dumping as much power into this as he could. After a brief moment, the Unicorn fired. Arctic knew he couldn’t take that blast without taking a massive amount of damage, so he jumped. However he wasn’t fast enough. The magical blast hit Arctic’s leg but it also hit the Earth pony he was fighting. The resulting explosion was massive. And near blinding.
As the dust and light settled and cleared, Arctic touched down. His leg was bloody and his pant leg was tattered. Some of it looked burned. Arctic couldn’t set his foot down without pain coursing through his leg. He then remembered the Earth pony and looked up.
“Ugh. Bucking damn.” Came a voice. Out stumbled the Earth pony. Her armor seemed to have been incredibly durable. Well, sorta. The armor had been destroyed and left massive gaps and holes in places, but the mare, while extremely dazed and quiet injured judging by the blood that ran down the side of her face, was still alive. Arctic was glad for this.
“Did… you really have to…go that hard?” Asked the mare before falling over seemingly unconscious.
“Idiot. She should’ve moved out of the way.” Said the unicorn. “At least I managed to injure our little friend here.”
Arctic chuckled slightly.
“It’ll take more than this to take me down.”
“Oh really?” Asked the unicorn.
“Yeah.” Said Arctic with a slight grin.
Arctic, too caught up with the unicorn, didn’t realize it till it was too late. Another unicorn using his magic to create what looked like chains, locked onto Arctic wrists and leg keeping him in place and right behind him, a Pegasus shot forward like a bullet. His target clear in sight. Arctic’s tail.
Grabbing hold of Arctic’s tail, the Pegasus grinned then smiled, soon erupting into laughter.
“Hahaha! Bested once again! And to think this tail of yours was your biggest weakness and you just had it out in the open!”
Arctic dropped down to a knee and began breathing heavily.
“Now let’s get you back in the dungeon and end this miserable little fight.”
The Pegasus nodded for the others to come up to help get Arctic back down to the dungeon. But as they did, they began to hear something. It sounded like laughter.
“What is that?” Asked the Pegasus.
“I think it’s him.” Said a unicorn, pointing his hoof to Arctic.
Upon closer inspection, they could see that he was indeed laughing.
“And what in the Tartarus is so funny?” Asked the Pegasus.
“Gotcha.” Said Arctic giving a small smile.
Before any of them could question what he meant by that, Arctic lifted his tail with the Pegasus still clinging to it, and slammed it down on the unicorn keeping him restrained. The others, taken aback by the attack, were all swiftly knocked out by Arctic. With a smile he ran off to begin fighting again, also thinking up a way to pay back the little filly who helped him.
==========********============
“You want me to grab onto your tail?” Asked a little filly.
“Yes please. You’ll really be helping me out with this.” Arctic said.
“Um, okay.” Said the filly as she grabbed hold of Arctic’s tail making him collapse limply to the floor.
“Aaah! Are you okay?!” Yelled the filly.
“I..I’m okay. Just keep h..holding on.” Arctic replied in a weak voice.
“Okay.” Said the filly.
The filly was named Morning Dew. She was a tiny earth pony with a light green coat and an orangish brown mane. She held no cutie mark though. When they first met, the little filly was quite scared of Arctic as well as Glacier. But over time she grew to like them and eventually they became friends. When not training, Arctic and Glacier would just play with the little filly as well as the other little fillies and colts.
Though Morning Dew likes Glacier, she seems to have a huge fascination with Arctic, especially since he is a creature she nor the other ponies had ever seen before. She would play with him, ask him multiple questions, and surprisingly, she would even ask to train with Arctic. He did help her learn how to fly and how to use basic ki attacks, but other than that, she would help him train up his tail.
Arctic knew his tail was a weakness now and he knew the squadron he and his siblings faced would tell others about it, so he needed to get rid of this weakness. So, everyday, Morning Dew would latch onto Arctic’s tail till eventually he had slowly but surely managed to overcome his weakness. He even strengthened it, now easily able to lift Princess Cadence with no issue.
Arctic really needed to find a way to repay that little filly.
===========*******============
Princess Cadence and Tundra were working well together. But they were also being to reach a limit. They were fighting so many ponies. They were tired, hungry, and quite beaten. Tundra had a few cuts and small gashes. Even Princess Cadence had quite a few cuts and scratches.
“They just keep coming.” Cadence growled.
“This is such a pain.” Tundra said as she bucked a pony and fired a magical energy blast at another.
“And to make matters worse, I’m running low on magic.” Cadence said.
It was true. Cadence had been starving, and weakened for her long stint trapped in the dungeon. She had yet to regain her full power.
“Maybe we could try containing some of them?” Tundra said as she sat next to Cadence.
“What do you mean?” Cadence said wheezing and swaying a bit.
“You could set up a barrier around them and when they’re contained, I can blast them.” Tundra said.
“I suppose it could work. Let’s give it a shot.” Cadence said with a wry smile.
Quickly, Tundra set to work. She focused her magic and gave rise to a small liter of Ice Clones and began fighting again. What the Ponies of Sombra failed to notice, was that Tundra was slowly guiding them. Getting them closer and closer to each other.
Once a massive group of them were close together, Princess Cadence used what magic she had left to raise a barrier around the ponies, trapping them all. After Tundra’s clones shattered, she summoned and charged a good amount of magic before firing her “Ice Cannon” attack.
The attack struck the barrier and hit the contained ponies, taking them out of the fight. Princess Cadence, to had been taken out of the fight. The barrier had taken what magic she had left in her and she had collapsed from exhaustion.
“Princess!” Cried Tundra, running up to the fallen Alicorn.
“I’m f.. I’m fine.” Cadence said weakly.
“Let me help yo-“ Tundra got no further as she saw the doe, Fluttershy quickly run up with other ponies in tow.
“We can help her.” Fluttershy said.
“Are you sure?” Tundra asked wearily.
“Oh, yes. You need to keep fighting. We can help the Princess.” Fluttershy said with a small smile.
Tundra was anxious. She didn’t want to leave the Princess but she knew she was in safe hooves with Fluttershy. Not wanting her or the others to get hurt, she nodded and let them take Princess Cadence before running back in to fight.
============******============
Glacier and Winter were in the same boat as Tundra and Cadence. Tired, hungry, and injured. They were working well, but it was clear that they would falter at any moment.
Glacier was spewing blue flames all over and Winter was using her ki to enhance her speed rapidly striking any opponent she could. However, this proved to be her downfall. Winter was charging straight towards another Pegasus, ready to take them out, only to have her ki splutter and die out before falling towards the ground.
“Winter!” Called Glacier as he sped towards her.
In his blind hurry to get to Winter, he didn’t notice the Pegasus charging magic in her wings and unleashing a massive ball of magical energy towards Glacier. By the time he saw, it was too late. In a great explosion, Glacier had begun falling out of the smoke. He and Winter both crashed to the ground in a heap.
Crystal ponies nearby saw this and rushed towards the two, only to be stopped by more of Sombra’s ponies. In the midst of the chaos, they failed to see a shadow lurk towards Winter.
It was Morning Dew. She along with others had been watching everything taking place, hidden from view. Morning Dew, when nopony had been paying attention, slipped out to go help Winter and Glacier when she saw them hit the ground. Reaching Winter, Morning Dew had grabbed hold of her and begun to try pulling Winter away. Opening an eye, Winter saw this and smiled solemnly.
“I won’t leave you here.” Morning Dew said as she struggled and strained to making Winter budge.
Chuckling slowly, admiring the little filly’s determination, Winter offered up some guidance.
“U…use your ki. channel it to your l..legs t..to help you.”
Morning Dew stopped and tilted her head some. Then things came back to her. So, she shut her eyes and slowly began to channel her ki. Using it to enhance her strength, she began to pulled Winter away. After a bit of struggling, Morning Dew managed get Winter to safety before rushing off to help Glacier.
Glacier could hear the clip clop of tiny hooves on the ground. Cracking open an eye he looked up to see Morning Dew rushing over to him. He reached his claw out to her only to have his heart stop at what he sees next.
As Morning Dew ran towards Glacier, out of the smoke, emerged a Pegasus mare. Morning Dew didn’t have time to react. The mare whipped around and kicked out her hoof bucking the little filly in the side sending her skidding across the ground.
“Stay out of this, you little brat.” Spat the mare with a low growl and slight smirk.
Glacier stared at the little filly in shock and horror. He could see her on the ground, twitching and clutching her side, before letting out a blood curdling scream. Glacier felt his anger rise to new heights as he too let out an all mighty scream.
Many ponies looked his way only to see a massive pillar of flames erupt from him like a volcano. His wings were spread out, blue flames escaped his mouth, even the tip of his tail was shrouded in blue flames. Without a second thought, Glacier charged and began rapidly attacking the Pegasus mare. Punches, kicks, scratches and even swipes of his tail were thrown at the Pegasus, beating her into the dirt. Glacier set his sights to the other ponies of Sombra and he began attacking them.
===========*******============
Arctic was fighting with multiple ponies when he heard the two screams. His blood ran cold and ditching the ponies he was fighting, he charged towards the source of the screams. He skidded to a halt when he saw a pillar of flames erupt into the sky. After observing for a bit he rushed forwards again. When he saw what was waiting for him, he stopped dead in his tracks.
In front of him, he saw Morning Dew clutching her side, tears streaming down her muzzle. He saw Fluttershy rush up to her to help her but he was more focused on Morning dew. Then he saw something that made his fury boil over and his blood run even colder. Morning Dew was bleeding all over her side where she had skidded across the ground. Arctic watched Fluttershy quickly run away with Morning Dew on her back, Fluttershy occasionally raising a ki barrier to protect them.
As Arctic stood there, he had begun to be surrounded. He could see them speaking, but he couldn’t hear. Then out of nowhere, Arctic let out a primal roar. A mix of his voice and the roar of the Oozaru sounded out. A dull blue pillar of ki rose into the air. Arctics iris’s and pupils had vanished, leaving only the whites of his eyes. He bulked up some and the ground beneath him cracked. Looking at the ponies surrounding him, he saw their fearful expressions. He didn’t care. They would pay.
“How… how DARE YOU!” Arctic roared out. The deep Oozaru voice still behind his own as he rushed forward and began his attack.
===========*******============
Out on the battlefield, the two roars had been heard.
Sombra, turned his head looking back only to see one pillar rise into the air, followed shortly by another in the Crystal Empire.
“What on Equus is going ?” He questioned.
“I can’t leave them alone for a moment.” Sombra groaned in anger. Taking on his shadow form, he slithered away rushing towards the Crystal Empire to see what was wrong and deal with it himself.
==========*********===========
Hoping off of a train, five mares emerged. They looked haggard and rough, but were standing strong. That is until they heard the two roars and pillars erupt into the sky.
“Woah! What was that?” Said one mare.
“I don’t know darling, but it didn’t sound good.” Said another.
“Ah reckon, some ponies er fightin’ in the empire. Sounds like they’re puttin up on heck of a fight.” Replied another voice.
“I hope they are having too much fun without me!” Called one pony in a bit of a singsong voice as she bounced up a down.
“Hopefully whoever’s fighting can hold on till we get there.” Said another voice.
“Yeah. Then we can find Fluttershy and we can buck sombra and his goons right into next week!” A mare said as she hit her hooves together ready for a fight.
“I do hope she’s alright. Hopefully these dreadful ponies haven’t been too hard on the poor dear.” Said one mare. Worry clear in her voice.
“Let’s go find out friend and bring this to an end said another voice.
“Right!” The others said in unison before they all took off.
The mares were Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight Sparkle.
The 5 after losing Fluttershy, had been working their way with Princess Celestia and the Solar guard in multiple fights as they slowly made their way to the Crystal empire, trying to remain unseen and safe. Especially since they had the Elements of Harmony with them. After so long, they had finally made it and were ready to save their friend and end this horrible war.
As they neared the Empire, they could see there was indeed fighting going on. While they’d like to avoid it, they knew they would have to fight as well. However, they weren’t expecting to see a pony fly towards them and land on the ground.
“Aaah!” Shrieked Rarity, “Goodness gracious, what happened to them?!”
Rainbow was about to reply until she saw something barrel its way towards them. It was Arctic. Still in a blind anger, he saw and sensed the 5 mares approach and rushed towards them with his arm and hand outstretched, ready to attack them.
Twilight stared on as time seemed to slow to a crawl. She watched as some creature shot towards them, its arm outstretched as if ready to grab one of them. Before she could do anything, Rainbow reacted first. The pegasus had sprung into action and swinging around roundhouse kicked Arctic square in the face. The kick sent him flying away only to stop himself. But before he could start attacking again, he found himself surrounded. Twilight had collected her bearings and shock herself from her shock and encased Arctic in a dome to keep him trapped.
“Great job Dashie! That was incredible!” Shouted Pinkie.
The small pink earth pony was dancing on her hind hooves. Pompoms in her forehooves and party cannon firing confetti all over the place. Rainbow, much like the others, were wondering where Pinkie got them. She hadn’t brought them with her, but at this point, they just learned not to really question Pinkie.
“Thanks Pinkie. No way I’m gonna let some creature hurt my friends!” Rainbow said as she looked at Arctic with a glare and a snarl.
Twilight slowly walked up to closer examine him.
“What is it exactly?” Twilight asked.
“Ah don’t know Sugarcube. Maybe, Fluttershy would know, if she were here.” Applejack said as she too observed Arctic.
“And look at those rags darling. How unsightly.” Rarity said. She was afraid of Arctic. His teeth were bared so they could see his sharp canines plus he was covered in blood. And from the pony that flew by before he showed up was of any indication, he was fighting. But Rarity was more upset by the fact that his clothes were tattered and destroyed. And from what she could see, they seemed like they would’ve looked nice.
Arctic was still observing the dome he was in. His anger had subsided somewhat, but the memory of the bloody Morning Dee flashed into his mind. Making his anger rise once again. Then with a primal roar, Arctic’s ki erupted. Twilights dome had begun to crack before eventually shattering. Rainbow, having noticed the dome crack, raced forward. Once the dome had shattered she pulled a foreleg back, ready to punch Arctic in the face. Arctic, seeing this, managed to move away a bit as Rainbow threw her foreleg forward. Although, Rainbow did manage to scratch Arctic’s cheek. As she shot forward, before she could get far, Arctic’s tail flicked up and wrapped around Rainbow’s tail. Spinning around, he whipped his tail throwing Rainbow to the side. Then a blue glow emitted from beneath him. Looking down, he was blue dots on the ground. Looking for the source, he found the white unicorn. Rarity. But before he could try to stop her, glowing blue gem shards shot out of the dots. Arctic stuck his arms up to protect his face, as the shards cut up and slashed at his body.
Once it was over, he held multiple cuts and was bleeding from them all. Just then some pressed against his stomach. Looking up, he saw a cannon.
“Fire in the hole!” Pinkie shouted. She was on her hind hooves, dressed like a pirate and wielding a sword. Gummy resting on her shoulder.
The party cannon fired. Confetti and streamers flew everywhere as the force of the cannon blew Arctic backwards. Then a lasso wrapped around his arm. It was Applejack. The big mare had her lasso clutched tightly in her teeth. Then she began to spin around, swing Arctic around like a top. After another spin, a magical energy blast burst forth from Twilight’s horn, nailing Arctic square in the stomach. Shooting him backwards and into the ground.
The girls were breathing heavily, coming down from the adrenaline rush and begun to celebrate.
“That. Was. AWESOME! That thing didn’t stand a chance!” Rainbow blurted out.
“I must say, it was rather nice getting to flex my own muscles.” Rarity said with a small ladylike smile. She wasn’t much of a fighter, but she was very willing to throw down when the time called for it.
“Now let’s get to the emp-“
Before Twilight could finish, a burst of energy caught there eye. It was Arctic. He was standing up, his energy ablaze and staring them down.
“Just give up already!” Rainbow exclaimed as she shot towards him.
As she got close, Arctic made his ki flare and push Rainbow away. Then he flew towards the other. Applejack using her lasso tried to catch Arctic again. But he was ready this time. He caught the lasso and yanked it pulling Applejack to him. Then swinging around he slammed Applejack into Rarity. Before he could do something else, he felt the barrel of the cannon press into his back.
“Fire in the hole!” Pinkie shouted again.
Arctic remembering this, leaned forward and kicked the barrel, pointing it to Pinkie. And just like that, it fired, launching Pinkie back. Her tail caught on one of the jagged black crystals. Streamers and confetti covering her.
“Huh. So this is what being a piñata feels like.”
Rainbow Dash had flown towards Arctic ready to attack him. But Arctic, sensing her approach, jumped up and flew away. This surprised her as well as the others.
“He can fly?!” Rainbow asked in astonishment.
Shaking herself from her shock she flew after him. Twilight watched on in awe. She never expected to see him fly. But wanting to help stop him, Twilight started firing magic at him. Arctic managed to dodge them all and looking down at Twilight and Rainbow, he crafted an idea. Out of nowhere, Arctic shot down towards the ground with Rainbow still chasing him. Then he flew towards Twilight. Twilight not wanting to get caught by him started firing rapidly at him. Arctic blocked and deflected them all til he got closer. He shot up leaving Rainbow to get struck by Twilights blasts. But the speed and momentum from Rainbow carried her forward allowing her to slam into Twilight.
Arctic touched down and walked up to them sticking his hand out and charging ki. As he stared at the pegasus and unicorn. He tilted his head some.
“Are you, Twilight?”
Twilight looked on in shock at the creature.
“You can speak? You know my name?”
“I can and I do.” Arctic replied.
“And how do you know that. Are you a spy? Are you working with Sombra?!” Rainbow Dash shout as she got in Arctic’s face.
“You’re just as brash as she said you’d be.” Arctic said with a chuckle.
“She?” Twilight asked.
“Fluttershy.”
“What? You know Fluttershy? Where is she?” Twilight asked.
“Back at the Castle. She and other ponies are helping the wounded.”
“Well? Take us to here, will ya?” Rainbow asked. She was worried about Fluttershy and wanted to see her oldest friend again.
“Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie. Though Fluttershy probably told you about me. Nice to meet you! What are you? I’ve never seen anything like you before. What’s your favorite flavor of cake? No, I’ve cream. No, wait! What’s your favorite flavor of pie?”
Arctic was taken aback by the tiny pink mare who was currently on his shoulder. And her rapid fire questions were throwing him off. But still, he gave a small smile as his aura died out, his muscles shrunk to normal, and irises and pupils returned.
“I’ll answer those later, Miss Pie.” Arctic said with a small chuckle.
“Miss Pie? Just call me Pinkie, silly.” Pinkie said. “Come on girls. Introduce yourselves.”
“I’m Rainbow Dash. Fasted flyer in all of Equestria.” Rainbow said. Not wanting to miss the opportunity to brag about her speed.
“I’m Twilight Sparkle. It’s nice to meet you.” Twilight said giving a small smile.
Applejack and Rarity were hesitant. They both clearly saw that this creature could fight. Plus something about him kinda unnerved them. Cautiously, the two walked up to him but tried not to get too close.
“Names Applejack. Pleasure to meet yah.”
“And I’m Rarity. It is nice to meet you as well.”
Arctic could tell those two seemed more weary of him, but he assumed he knew why. He was an unknown to them. Some creature they had never seen or heard of. It was understandable but it still hurt a bit.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you all. I’m Arctic Okami.” He said giving a small bow.
“If you don’t mind me asking, what are you?” Twilight asked. Getting a bit excited to learn more about him.
“I’ll tell you all about myself after this is over.” Arctic said as he rushed into the Empire.
The five mares watched him for a moment, glanced at each other, before rushing after him.
==========**********==========
The rest of the quartet and the crystal ponies were all tired, beaten, and ready to collapse. They had managed to defeat a large chunk of Sombra’s soldiers, but a good number of them remained.
“This is bad. We won’t be able to last much longer at this rate.” Cadence said as she took deep breaths.
Glacier perked up once he sensed something.
“Arctic’s coming back. And there are five powers coming with him.”
“Guess we’re getting some extra help with this.” Tundra replied as she straightened her glasses.
==========**********==========
High above on a long shard of blackened crystal, staring down at the Empire, Sombra watched on.
“Guess I underestimated these fools. They managed to take down a fairly massive chunk of my soldiers. Though it seems they won’t be able to last long.”
Then he saw something else out of the corner of his eye. Turning to see it completely he saw what it was.
“That creature is running back into the empire. Wait. Who is with him?”
He squinted his eyes and leaned in slightly for a better look, before stomping his hoof down in rage.
“The rest of the Element bearers. They must be here to fight and to find their little deer friend. Oh, that will not happen. I will not be bested by those miserable things a second time.”
Morphing into his shadow form, Sombra slithered down towards the empire, ready to put a stop to them.
Glacier looks to see Arctic running up with five mares running alongside him.
“Hey. Who are they?” Glacier asks.
“Remember the stories Fluttershy told us about her and her friends? These mares are them.” Arctic said with a small smile.
Glacier looked to the four mares really taking in their appearances.
Applejack was a fairly tall and well built mare. Her muscles were pronounced and the scars adorning her body show that she’s tough and has been through her fair share of ordeals.
Next, Glacier’s eyes went to rarity. The unicorn mare was a looker, Glacier thought. Though, he did wonder if she was a fighter. She didn’t look the type, but looks could be deceiving.
Next, he looked to Pinkie Pie. The pink earth pony mare was small. Just barely bigger than a filly. He also kinda marveled at how the tiny mare seemed to have such boundless energy as she kept bouncing around taking everything around her in.
Then, he looked to Rainbow Dash. To Glacier, this Pegasus mare was a total tomboy. Add on the fact her front legs were bandaged up and the multiple scars, it showed that she was tough and may very well be a decent fighter.
Lastly, Glacier turned his eyes to Twilight Sparkle. Glacier chuckled a bit. Twilight reminded him of Tundra. He got the feeling that those two would get along well.
In the blink of an eye, Pinkie Pie had vanished and appeared right on Glacier’s shoulder. Glacier, having been scared out of his mind, jumped at the suddenness of it. But he was even more unprepared for what Pinkie was about to do next.
“Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie, though you’ve probably heard of me from Fluttershy! I am after all the world’s best party pony! But, what are you? You look like a dragon. Are you a dragon? You do remind me of Spike, but you’re much bigger. You should come meet him someday. You could also come to Sugarcube Corner, where I work and stay! What’s your favorite flavor of cake? No, let me guess! Chocolate! Is it chocolate? Or is it another flavor? Is it a flavor I’ve never even heard of?!”
“Uh, Pinkie Pie? I think you’re overwhelming the poor fella.” Applejack said with a small smile.
Glacier, was indeed, a bit overwhelmed. He wasn’t expecting to be bombard like that. Arctic walked up and laid a hand on Glacier’s other shoulder.
“I get the feeling. She did it to me too.”
“Glad to know I’m not the only one. Anyway, you five are here for Fluttershy?” Glacier asked.
“Why of course, Darling. We simply must get Fluttershy out of this dreadful place. And end this horrible war.” Rarity stated as she looked around clearly upset to see the Empire in such a state.
“Well, we managed to take out the strongest of the ponies in Sombra’s little squadron. The crystal ponies say they can handle the rest, but I’d like to be back soon. I don’t think they’ll hold out long.” Tundra said as she walked up. Her horn aglow as she adjusted her glasses.
“Let’s go.” Said Glacier as he lead Arctic, Tundra, and the five mares down to the dungeon where Fluttershy and the other’s were.
Upon arrival, they all took in the sight. The dungeons had been turned into a makeshift hospital. Multiple ponies were lying around. Bandaged up or having there wounds tended too. After hearing the sound of somepony approaching, Fluttershy turned around. And when she saw her friends she ran to them in an instant.
“Girls!”
“Fluttershy!”
In a matter of seconds the six mares had all ended up in a pile. Hugging each other tightly as if the moment they let go of each other one of them would be taken away.
“I’m so glad to see you’re all okay.” Fluttershy said tears streaming down her face.
“Forget us, what about you?” Twilight asked, “You look horrible.”
“Haven’t they been feedin’ yah, Sugarcube? Yah look so thin.” Applejack said as she examined her friend.
“Not to mention your coat and mane? You look like you haven’t had a proper wash in ages.” Rarity said distraught to see her friends coat and mane coated in dirt.
“That’s because she hasn’t. None of us have.”
The six mares looked over to Cadence. Twilight left the group hug and charged to Cadence giving her a hug.
“Cadence!”
“Hello Twilight!”
After there hug they began to do their dance.
“Sunshine, Sunshine, Ladybugs Awake. Clap your hooves, and do a little shake.”
The girls just smiled watching it all. Twilight had been in a dismal mood, so seeing her like this really brightened their day. Arctic, Tundra, and Glacier smiled as well, but they smiled even wider when they saw Winter. She was laying still, awake, and watching Twilight and the Princess. But she grinned when she saw her siblings.
“Well, look who decided to come visit.” Winter said in a cheeky little tone.
The three rushed her and hugged her. But made sure not to hug her too tight. They didn’t want to hurt her.
“Like we’d leave our sister all alone and hugless.” Arctic said with a slight chuckle.
“Wait, you four are siblings?” Rainbow Dash asked. “But, how?
“Well,” Tundra said, “Winter and I are sisters by blood. Arctic and Glacier were adopted by mom and dad.”
“I must ask, are you really a dragon? You look unlike any dragon I’ve seen.” Rarity said. The only dragon she had seen and knew was Spike, so it was a bit nice to see another dragon.
“I’m am. Though, I’m an Ice Dragon.” Glacier replied.
Twilight’s ears perked up at that.
“You’re an Ice Dragon?” Twilight asked.
“Yup” Glacier said with a nod.
“What the hay is an Ice Dragon?” Rainbow asked.
“An Ice Dragon is a subspecies a dragon that resides in snow regions. While like regular dragon’s they can breath fire, but they also have to ability to control ice. There hasn’t been an Ice Dragon seen equestria for years. Princess Celestia has only ever seen two. And I’m getting the chance to meet one myself!” Twilight said with a giddy smile as she did a little jig.
“And, what exactly are you? I ain’t never seen anything like you before.” Applejack said, eyeing Arctic. While she was still weary of him, she was slowly beginning to think he wasn’t all bad. He did seem like a good fella.
“I’m a Saiyan.” Arctic said.
“A Saiyan? Now, what on Equus is a Saiyan, Darling?” Rarity asked, an eye brow raised.
“I suppose, you could say I’m an alien. After all, I’m not even from Equus.”
The five mares sat in silence. Completely still. Until Twilight spoke up.
“An alien? A real life alien? I’m talking to a real life alien?!” Twilight began to hyperventilate. The fact she was talking to an alien rocked her to the core. So much new things to learn about a new species. She was truly getting excited.
“An alien?” Rainbow asked. “That…is…so…COOL!”
Arctic nodded. “I can tell you more after all this is dealt with.”
“Please do!” Twilight wheezed out. He mind racing with a many questions she wanted to ask him.
“Twilight, don’t faint on us.” Cadence said with a chuckle.
After a moment, Twilight managed to steady herself before speaking up.
“Right. Now that we’re back with Fluttershy, we can end this once and for all.” Twilight said as her horn began to glow.
Six orbs of light materialized other the mane six. And after the glow died down, it revealed the elements of harmony. The five necklaces slipped onto their respective bearers necks, a crown gently landing on Twilight’s head.
“Those at the Elements of Harmony, right? Winter asked. “Princes Cadence told us about them.”
“Right yah are Sugarcube.” Applejack said with a smile.
“Equestria’s greatest weapon, and the key to the end of this war.”
“What about the Crystal Empire?” Will they be able to fix the damage done here?” Arctic asked.
“Well, they’ll defeat Sombra, but the Crystal heart will be able to fix the damaged and properly heal us all.” Cadence said.
“Where is the Crystal Heart?” Tundra Asked. “If we want the Empire to be restored then we’ll need it.”
“King Sombra most likely hide it somewhere.” Cadence said. “I can try to look for it. But who knows how long it’ll take to find it.”
Just then, three ponies, still bandaged up, walked up to Cadence.
“Princess, we’d like to help you.”
“You three want to help? I appreciate it, but I can’t have three injured ponies help me. What if you get hurt even more?” Cadence asked them.
The three ponies stood, resolute in their desire to help their princess.
“If we get hurt, that’s a price we’re willing to pay if it means helping get our home back and ending this terrible war.”
Cadence looked at the three and smiled.
“Very well. We’ll go look for the Crystal Heart. You six try to beat Sombra.”
The six mares nodded.
“Of course Princess!”
With that, Cadence and the three ponies ran out of the dungeon and went to search for the Crystal Heart. As the mane six began to head out, they were stopped.
“We’re going with you.” Said Glacier.
“You are?” Asked Twilight.
“Of course. We wanna help you win this war and see it through to the end.” Tundra said.
“I’m going too.” Winter said as she got up on shakes hooves.
“You’re injured Winter. We don’t want to see you get hurt even more.” Arctic said. “I don’t want to see anyone get hurt again.” His eyes briefly flashing yellow as he thought back to seeing Morning Dew’s injured body.
“Look, I’m not gonna sit here and let you three fight alone. We’re family. Family sticks together.
The three contemplated it but reluctantly agreed.
“Okay, but don’t push yourself.” Said Glacier.
With a nod, the Quartet followed after the mane six. As they got outside, they stopped dead in their tracks.
It was Sombra.
“Well, hello, Element Bearers.” He cracked a smile. His sharped teeth glinting slightly in the light as his horn began to glow. Black jagged crystals emerging from the ground.
Sombra shot forward, one of the black crystals in his magic being wielded like a sword. Twilight set up a barrier blocking the strike, only for Sombra to swing again, destroying the barrier. As he did so, Glacier spewed flames at the king causing him to jump away. Arctic flew up to Sombra and grabbed him by the horn. Spinning around rapidly, Arctic threw Sombra away from the castle.
Everyone gave chase, ready to keep up their attack. As they got closer, black crystals shot from the ground and rapidly approached the group. They all scattered and dodged trying not to be struck by the crystals. Rarity, tapping into her magic, began her attack. The gems that made up her cutie mark, appeared on the ground Sombra and blue gems shot out, slicing up Sombra.
Twilight, Tundra, and Arctic all surrounded Sombra and fired blasts at him. Before they could hit, Sombra summoned more black crystals making them protect him from the incoming blasts. After the blasts hit, Sombra emerged from the crystals and charged towards Twilight, his crystal sword at the ready. As he started to slash at Twilight, she teleported away. Winter and Rainbow Dash, who had been flying over head, nodded to each other. They both began to fly down, back to back, with a hind leg outstretched. Before Sombra could do anything, the two slammed into his back knocking him to the ground.
After Sombra shakily began to stand, he got punched in the stomach by Arctic and kicked away into Pinkie’s Party Cannon, which blasted him and sprayed confetti all over the place. Sombra swung his crystal sword at Pinkie, but her Pinkie Sense told her about the incoming attack and she was able to dodge and scurry away. Applejack, with her lasso at the ready, lassoed Sombra and yanked the rope back, sending him flying towards her. Swiftly turning around, Applejack bucked Sombra in the stomach. However, Sombra was able to ready his sword and cut Applejack’s back leaving a huge gash. After Sombra collapsed next to Applejack, he got back at Applejack by bucking her, sending her skidding across the ground. Rarity rushed over to Applejack to help her.
“Are you alright darling?” Rarity asked as she helped Applejack up.
“Ah’m fine Sugarcube.” Applejack said. Though she was sure that she would need to get her new wound checked out.
Back in the fight, Sombra was going against Glacier. The dragon was shotting fire at the king, trying to hit him, but he always seemed to find a way to dodge. So, Glacier decided to fly up to Sombra and slash at him with his claws. While Sombra was able to dodge some of Glacier’s slashes, he had been hit by a few. With his anger growing, Sombra swung his crystal sword at Glacier, but he was able to dodge. Landing on his claws, Glacier swung his tail at Sombra, hitting him across the face. Using his magic, Sombra grabbed hold of Glacier’s tail and slammed him into the ground before bucking him away.
Arctic, having managed to sneak up on Sombra, grabbed onto him and suplexed him before grabbing his hoof and throwing him into the air. Rainbow, having noticed the airborne king, flew towards him and rapidly threw punch after punch, hitting him in the gut. Sombra, used his magic to grab Rainbow and kicked her in the face before falling back to the ground with Rainbow still in his magical grasp. And after landing on the ground he slammed Rainbow to the ground.
After landing Twilight had begun firing blasts at Sombra. Noticing this, he began firing blasts back. Each blast they shot collided and giving off multiple explosions. Winter, flying up behind him, charged up magic within her wings and fired to massive balls of magic at Sombra which struck him leaving a massive explosion in its wake. After the smoke clears, Sombra is there, covered in bruises, some blood, and bleeding heavily.
“Hehe. I must say, you all are exceptionally well fighters. You managed to get in some decent hits. Although, I won’t be losing to either of you.” Sombra said a wry smile.
Just then, multiple black crystals emerged from the ground and began to cover him. More and more crystals appeared and before they all knew it, a giant crystal pony had formed with Sombra sitting in the forehead.
“I don’t like the feel of this.” Arctic said.
=========***********==========
Princess Cadence and the three ponies with her were traversing the stairs making their way to the top of the tower of the castle. One of the ponies, having noticed something out of the corner of her eye, looked down, only to see a giant crystal pony fighting with the Element Bearers and the Quartet.
“Oh my goodness!” The mare blurted out.
All the others looked to the her and then to where she was looking.
“Oh no!” Cadence exclaimed.
“Do you think they can beat that thing?” A stallion asked.
“I trust that they’ll be able to hold it off. Once we get the crystal heart we can be done with this. And hopefully the elements won’t need to be used.” Cadence said as she began climbing the stairs again.
==========*********===========
Arctic, Glacier, Winter, and Rainbow were all flying above the giant crystal Sombra throwing punches and kicks trying to break the crystals. Applejack was bucking at the crystal Sombra trying to break it, with Pinkie blasting it with her party cannon only really covering it in confetti.
Twilight and Tundra were firing magical blasts at the giant Crystal Sombra but their blasts weren’t doing much, not even Rarity’s Gem Storm Attack was doing much.
“What the hay?!” Rainbow shouted. “Why can’t we break this thing?” She said as she dodged one of Sombra’s swipes of his tail.
“There must be a way to break it.” Twilight said as she dodge Sombra’s hoof as it stomped into the ground.
Arctic was thinking up any way to try breaking through the crystals.
“Maybe I could use that form again.” Arctic said.
“Well, it could work. Give it a shot.” Glacier said.
Arctic flew away from them and landed on the ground. After struggling a bit, he was able to tap into that form again.
After taping into it, he flew towards the Crystal Sombra and threw bunch at it managing to punch away a massive chunk of crystal away. With a smile, Arctic began rapidly flying around the Crystal Sombra, punching and blasting away at it.
Sombra was doing what he could to attack back, managing to get a few good hits in but Arctic managed to bounce back and keep up his assault.
==========*********===========
After reaching the top of the tower, the group spotted the crystal heart.
“There it is. Let’s get it.” A mare said, as she shot towards it.
However , once she got close, she stepped on an alarm. Sombra having been alerted, activated his magic and trapped the mare, but not before she managed to knock the Crystal heart away.
“Are you okay?” Cadence asked as she ran up to the Crystals keeping the mare trapped.
“I’m okay Princess.” The mare said.
“That’s good. Now let’s get the Crystal Heart back.” Cadence said as she picked up the crystal heart with her magic and began to leave the tower.
==========**********==========
Sombra, having been alerted to the fact that somepony was near the Crystal Heart, he was keeping a close eye on the tower. Just then he saw Princess Cadence exiting the tower. In a bout of rage, Sombra stomped on Arctic slamming him into the ground, before rushing towards the tower.
“You won’t win!” Sombra shouted as he ran faster sending Crystals shooting through the ground trying to stop the Princess. She managed to dodge a crystals but was taken aback when Sombra got on his hind legs ready to slam Cadence into the side of the castle with his forehooves. Before he could hit her, his hooves were grabbed. It was Arctic now in his Oozaru form.
The fight had gone on for a while. The sun had set and the moon was out. After being slammed into the ground, the mane 6 and his siblings rushed up to him.
“Arctic!” Glacier shouted, “are you okay?!”
Coughing up some blood, Arctic responded.
“I’m fine.”
“Fine!? Darling, you were just crushed under that giant brutes hoof!” Rarity said.
“And to make things worse, he’s going after Cadence.” Twilight said, fear and worry in her voice.
“I think I have an idea to keep him busy.” Arctic said looking to the moon.
“What idea is that?” Tundra asked.
When they got no response and saw Arctic’s eye were red and his chest was thumping his heart beat heard by all of them, Winter perked up.
“We need to get away!”
“What for?” Rainbow asked.
“I can’t explain now, but we need to leave.” Winter said.
They all ran, getting away from Arctic as he began to transform.
After being grabbed by Arctic, Sombra began fighting Arctic again as Princess Cadence flew away, dodging any falling debris caused by the two giant’s fighting. After managing to get away, she flew under the Castle placing the Crystal heart in its proper place. The snowflake pattern in the center began to glow and after a concentrated burst of magic the Crystal Heart began to destroy the black crystals and the crystals surrounding Sombra before destroying his physical form. The Crystal Heart also began to repair the damage and everypony became crystal even Glacier and Arctic. After everything was over, Arctic began to fall out of his Oozaru form and checked out his body.
“They did it!” One of the Crystal Ponies shouted.
“That was intense. I’m much too old for this.” Said an older Crystal Pony.
Princess Cadence walked up to the Crystal Ponies who had been under Sombra’s control. They were dazed and looked up to the Princess.
“It’s finally over. Get some rest now my little ponies.”
The ponies smiled and nodded. After shakily getting up, they bowed and walked away to get some rest.
===========*********==========
Out in a field the Solar Guard were fighting it out with Sombra’s ponies before suddenly collapsed. Sombra’s magic before leaving their bodies as the Solar Guard stopped in their tracks.
“It seems Sombra has been beaten.”came a voice.
“Should we head back home, dear sister.” Asked another voice.
“Yes. We should get our injured ponies tended to wait to hear from Cadence.”
After getting their things gathered, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna began to head back to Canterlot to get things in order.
After the battle with Sombra, the Crystal Empire had been returned to normal, the Crystal Heart returned, and Sombra defeated. All of the Crystal Ponies cheered and celebrated, jumping for joy at the end of Sombra’s reign. They even took some time to admire their crystal bodies which had finally returned after what felt like forever. Even the siblings started admiring themselves.
“Woah! This is pretty cool!” Glacier said as he kept admiring himself.
“Yeah it is! I never thought this would happen!” Tundra said with a smile.
“Cool? Cool?!” Came a voice.
Looking to the source of the voice, they found Rarity staring at them with a bit of a manic glare.
"Darling, this is not cool! This is absolutely wondrous! Look at how we glisten and shimmer in the light like freshly polished jewels! Oh, I wish this could last forever!” Rarity said as she squeal and laughed with pure joy.
The siblings just watch rarity do her thing as Tundra leaned over to Applejack and whisper, “is she usually like this?”
“Eeyup.” Applejack said with a slight smirk.
As the siblings just chuckled and kept watching Rarity with the other’s of the mane 6, they were ambushed by the Crystal Ponies. The siblings could barely heard what was being said but they could tell they were being thanked.
“Thank you so much!”
“We wouldn’t have won this without your help!
“You four were amazing!”
All the voice came in like a tidal wave. Once they had calmed down some, the siblings spoke up.
“Thank you, but we didn’t do much.” Said Winter with a shy smile.
“You guess could’ve won this without us.” Tundra said.
“Yeah. I mean, the element bearers could’ve bested Sombra instead of us.” Glacier said rubbing his arm and pointing to the six mares.
“Yeah. We probably wouldn’t even have been needed.” Arctic said scratching the back of his head.
“Maybe, but you did help us win this battle.” Came a voice.
Looking back, they all saw Princess Cadence walking up to them with a smile. Everyone started bowing, but Cadence just smiled.
“No need for that.” Cadence said with a chuckle as they all rose.
“You four didn’t need to help us in this battle, but you did. You also helped train my ponies. You helped them grow stronger so they would be able to defend themselves and each other. I can tell they’re stronger now than ever before. You’ve even helped me and for this, I thank you.” Cadence said with a smile and bowed to them. “You will forever have my gratitude.”
The siblings blushed and smiled before asking Cadence to stop, as it felt strange to have a princess bow to them. Cadence did and let out a chuckle as she thanked them again.
“Well, now that this is over, who’s ready to PARTY?!” Shouted Pinkie, the tiny pink mare riding on her party cannon as it fired shooting confetti and even fireworks.
Everyone began to cheer and the party begun.
As the party got underway, Arctic was approached by a Pegasus mare.
“Excuse me.” Said the mare.
Turning back, Arctic saw the mare. The Pegasus mare had a relatively long gray mane styled in a braid. Her eyes a bright yellow and her coat was a mint green. Her cutie mark was a needle and thread
“Hello ma’am.” Arctic said with a smile.
“My name is Sharps Yarn. I’m Morning Dew’s mother.” Sharps said with a smile.
Arctic stared at her and soon smiled as he bowed.
“It’s nice to meet you, Ms. Yarn.”
“There’s no need for that. I should be bowing to you. You’ve done so much for her. You and your siblings. She really looks up to you four.” Sharps said
“S..she does?” Arctic said, a bit surprised.
“Of course she does. She even told me she wants to be big and strong just like you four.” Sharps smiled brightly at the saiyan.
Arctic couldn’t help but smile at that. He knew the little filly enjoys being around him and his siblings, but he never really expected to hear that she looked up to them.
“We’ll have to go talk to her when this is over.” Arctic said with a smile.
“Please. She would really enjoy seeing you all again. And one more thing.” Sharps said.
Arctic tilted his head slightly and became a bit more alert.
“Morning Dew saw that your clothes were all destroyed and she asked me if I could make some new clothes for you. I’m a fashion designer you see. So I often make various clothes for many different ponies. Well, Morning Dew is often with me. Watching me design clothing. She wants to do it too and often makes little doodles of clothes but is too afraid to ask me to make them or try her hoof at making them herself. Until recently. She wanted you to have some new clothes. So she made many designs and she made one she liked and one she thought you might like.” Sharps said.
Arctic was even more surprised. He wasn’t expecting to hear this. He had known Morning Dew had a liking for fashion design. She told him and the others when they all were locked up in the dungeon. But to hear that she designed something for him? He couldn’t help but smile.
“She actually designed an outfit for me?” Arctic said his eyes welling with tears.
“Of course. She wanted you to have a brand new outfit made by her as her way of saying thank you. I’m here to ask if you would allow me to take your measurements for the outfit.” Sharps said.
Arctic didn’t hesitate to start rapidly nodding with a giant smile on his face.
Sharps took Arctic to her place where she took his measurements and began working on the outfit. Arctic sat and observed. He was amazed by how fast Sharps was when making the outfit. It was also clear to him that Sharps was filled with pride. Pride he could only assume was for her daughter.
After about two hours, Sharps was completely done with outfit.
“Here you go Arctic.” Sharps said giving Arctic the folded up clothing.
“You can use the changing room right over there.” She said pointing to a room.
“Yes ma’am. Thank you.” Arctic said as he rushed in.
After a couple of minutes, Arctic had the outfit on and was admiring it.
“So, what do you think?” Sharps asked.
“I love it!” Arctic said as he stepped out.
“There must be a way I can repay you for this.” Arctic said.
“No need. This is a gift and I’m not taking any payment for it.” Sharps said.
“Are you sure, Ms. Yarn?” Arctic asked.
“Of course I am. Now let’s go enjoy that party, huh?” Sharps said as she trotted up to the door.
Arctic just smiled and followed after her. When he returned, his siblings and the element bearers saw him and were shocked. No more so than rarity.
“Well I’ll be! I like the new outfit Sugarcube.” Applejack said.
“Same here! That looks really cool on you!” Winter said.
“You do look really nice.” Fluttershy said.
“Darling? Who made that outfit? It looks magnificent!” Rarity said with a giant smile as she quickly started examining Arctic’s new outfit admiring the work.
“Ms. Yarn made it, but Morning Dew designed it.” Arctic said.
“Morning dew designed that?” Tundra asked.
“And who’s Ms. Yarn?” Glacier asked.
“Yup, she did. And Ms. Yarn, or Sharps Yarn, is Morning Dew’s mom. And this outfit only took her two hours to make.” Arctic said.
“Uh, who the hay is Morning Dew?” Rainbow asked hovering next to Arctic.
“A little filly who was in the dungeon with us. And is currently resting there recovering from her injuries.” Arctic said.
“A filly designed that and her mother made it in only two hours? My, my, looks like you got some competition Rarity.” Applejack said with a smirk.
“Oh hush.” Rarity said glaring at the farm mare.
“Well, how about we keep this party going?” Glacier asked getting a cheer for everyone else.
The party went on for hours. Games were played, food was eaten, even songs were sang. The party was, overall, an absolute ball. Afterwards, the quartet had made their way to Morning Dew to check up on her. When Morning Dew saw Arctic in the outfit she designed for him, she couldn’t help but smile. The five talked for what felt like hours before eventually making their leave having promised Morning Dew that they’d come see her again. As they stood outside. They saw ponies still having fun even after that party had ended.
“So, what do we do next?” Winter asked.
“I have no idea.” Tundra said.
“Maybe you could come with us.” Said a voice.
Looking back the quarter saw the element bearers.
“You want us to come with you?” Tundra asked.
“I don’t see why not.” Applejack said. “I’m interested in learning more about y’all. Ya done peaked ma interest.”
“I can also learn your favorite ice cream flavors!” Pinkie said appearing on Arctic back with her forelegs and hind legs wrapped around his neck and chest.
Arctic was startled but calmed down and smiled.
“And I get to learn more about you and your kind.” Twilight said, levitating a massive stack of paper and a dozen inkwells and quills. “The chance to learn about an alien race. This is gonna be amazing!” Twilight said bouncing up and down.
Arctic just chuckled watching the mare.
“So where are we gonna go?” Glacier asked.
“We’ll be going to Canterlot to see Princess Celestia and Princess Luna and tell them what happened.” Twilight said with an even bigger smile, clearly eager to go see the princesses, especially Princess Celestia.
“Alright then. Guess we’re going to Canterlot.” Arctic said.
As the announcement was made that the elements and the siblings would be leaving, the crystal ponies all set gathered to the train station. As they all said their goodbyes and got on the train, the siblings were stopped. It was Morning Dew and her mom. They had come to say goodbye. The siblings gently picked up the filly and hugged her. After getting on board the train, the elements and the siblings, poking out of the window waved to the crowd. As the train began to leave the station, fireworks began to go off in the sky. The crystal ponies cheered and waved back even after the train had left their view. But they all smiled and laughed when they heard them all shout,
The train car rocked and swayed slightly as it was dragged along by the steam locomotive. The rhythmic sound of its chuffing enough to bring a smile to any face. The car was empty, save for the bearers of harmony and the quartet. Each of them was beginning to get comfortable in their seats. Pinkie was animatedly talking with Rainbow, Fluttershy was chatting with Rarity, who was fussing over Fluttershy’s still dirty coat and mane. Applejack and Winter were talking to each other, discussing a random topic. Tundra was chatting with twilight, and Glacier and Arctic were sitting across from each other staring out the window.
“Well, that was something huh?” Glacier asked.
“What do you mean?” Asked Arctic, still looking out the window.
“I mean this whole thing with the Crystal Empire. The first thing we encounter when we leave home, is a war.”
Arctic thought for a moment before responding.
“I guess that was something. But Isn’t it also a good thing we ran into this war?” Asked Arctic.
“How is that a good thing?” Glacier asked looking over to Arctic.
“I mean, if we hadn’t shown up, maybe the war could’ve gotten to home. We did aid in stopping it and it didn’t get to our home.” Arctic said.
“I guess you’re right, but even if it did get to the kingdom, I’m pretty sure Miss Sunshine and the rest of the guard would’ve handled it. They are pretty strong. And even if they couldn’t stop them, Queen Snowblossom would’ve beaten them without breaking a sweat.” Glacier said with a chuckle.
While it was very rare, during the quartet’s trading with Sunshine, Queen Snowblossom would join in to demonstrate some of her skills. In fact, non of the inhabitants of the Blizzard Kingdom knew just how strong their Queen was. Or rather just a strong an Alicorn can be.
“I guess you’re right. But still, I’m glad we helped in ending the war.” Arctic said with a small smile.
“I am too. Though I wasn’t expecting to see the Oozaru form. That was one heck of a surprise.” Glacier said chuckling.
Arctic couldn’t help but chuckle as well. Rainbow, who had been listening to the last bit of their conversation, chimed in.
“Is that what that whole giant monkey thing is called?”
This caught the attention of the others. Specifically Twilight, who was eager to learn more about the saiyan.
“Yeah, I wanna know more about it and your kind. You did say, you’d explain it to me.” Twilight said as she jumped onto the seat across from Arctic, next to Glacier.
“She ain’t the only one, Sugarcube. Ah seen a lot in mah days, but ah ain’t never seen somethin’ like that before.” Applejack said.
“Giant Monkey thing?” Asked Fluttershy.
The others were confused for a moment, but all collectively registered the same thing. Fluttershy wasn’t there when it happened. She was down in the dungeon keeping out of harms way and also hiding out of fear, so she hadn’t seen the short skirmish between the Oozaru and the giant Crystal Sombra.
“Oh, oh! I wanna learn too!” Exclaimed Pinkie Pie.
The short pink Earth Pony hopped up and into Arctic’s lap looking up at him like a small foal ready to listen to a bedtime story. Arctic just chuckled and looked up to the others.
“Are you sure you wanna know about the Saiyans?” Arctic asked.
“Of course!” Said Twilight, “It isn’t every day, one gets to learn about an alien race.”
“She is right Darling. I must say, I’m also interested in learning about your kind.” Rarity said as she elegantly took a seat.
“Alright then. I guess I’ll explain the Oozaru transformation.” Arctic said.
Twilight, having rifled through her saddlebag, pulled out parchment, a quill, and some ink, eager to start documenting what she was gonna learn.
“So, you’ve seen me transform, but I should explain how. My memory may not be the best, the knowledge of the Saiyans I know are from stories my birth dad told me before I ended up in Equestria. Saiyan babies do develop faster than regular babies but even still some memories are a big hazy.” Arctic said.
The others just silently nodded, all of them interested in learning about the Saiyan race. Even Glacier, Tundra, and Winter were interested. Arctic never spoke much on what all he remembered about his race and the things he saw before appearing in Equestria.
“So, anyone with Saiyan blood and has a tail,” he said showing his own tail, “will be able to transform into an Oozaru, or Great ape as it’s sometimes called, when the moon is full. If I remember correctly, the sunlight bouncing off the moon’s surface creates some waves, that when absorbed by a Saiyan’s retina, will cause some bio chemical reaction produced in the tail making the Saiyan transform.”
After Arctic finished the bearers of harmony were pretty shocked. They didn’t exactly know how to respond to that. Though Twilight was shocked she was also ecstatic.
“This is so fascinating! So any, uh, Saiyan was it?” Asked Twilight. Arctic nodded. “Can transform at a full moon because of waves the come from it thanks to the Sunlight reflecting off of it! I would love to see it again, if you don’t mind?” Twilight asked hopefully.
“Sure. I can show you again.” Arctic said with a smile.
Twilight giddily squeed in excitement. Rainbow soon spoke up.
“That sounds so awesome! Just being able to transform into something like that? Ugh, I wish I could do that!” Rainbow said, imagining what she would look like as an Oozaru.
“That does sound like fun!” Pinkie said. “Being all big and tall! You must be able to see for miles in the form!”
Arctic let out a low chuckle.
“I suppose I can see a good distance away. Plus I get stronger in that form.”
Silence soon fell over the group.
“That form makes you stronger too?” Asked Rainbow.
“Yeah. About 10x my normal strength.” Arctic said.
“That’s. So. Cool!” Rainbow exclaimed.
“That is a mite interestin’. A form that makes yah bigger and stronger.” Applejack said.
“But, Darling, with all that fur, doesn’t it ever become a hassle.” Rarity asked.
“I suppose it does every now and then, but I’m hardly ever in the form so it doesn’t ever become much of a problem.” Arctic said.
Fluttershy soon spoke up.
“Could you tell us more about the Saiyans?” Fluttershy asked.
“Of course.” Arctic said, as Twilight ready herself to take down as many notes as she could.
“Well, the Saiyans are a race a warriors. Every saiyan adores a good battle and chowing down on as much food as they can get. From the stories I remember from my birth father, the Saiyans are also conquers. They travel throughout space in pods to different planets, taking them over for some tyrant they worked under.”
This brought everyone pause. Even Glacier, Tundra and Winter were unaware of this.
“They traveled through space?!” Asked an excited Twilight and an astonished Rainbow Dash, as well as a bewildered Pinkie Pie.
“They conquered other planets?” Asked the others.
“Yeah,” said Arctic. “Though it was for some tyrant they worked under. I don’t remember his name. Anyway, I remember my birth dad saying something about the Saiyan’ original homeworld being destroyed by that tyrant, taking most of the Saiyans with it, but not ll of them.”
Everyone was even more shocked to hear that. Arctic’s race’s homeworld was destroyed. How? They wanted to ask, but they didn’t want to interrupt, so they let him continue.
“Apparently, thanks to the warning of one saiyan, I believe my birth dad said his name was Bardock, a good handful of the saiyan’s escaped the planet before it was destroyed and settled into some new planet out of the tyrants radar and soon started the rebirth of the Saiyans. After years the Saiyans had grown in number and there were even more Saiyans than there were in the old world. The Saiyans began to mellow out, but still enjoyed fighting, Saiyans even began to evolve to better live in different regions of the planet. I only remember three of the saiyan tribes. The Original Saiyans, the Kazan Saiyans, and the Yuki Saiyans.”
“There are regional Saiyans?” Twilight asked.
“What exactly is the difference between those three Saiyans.” Fluttershy asked.
“Well, the Original Saiyans are the Saiyans who are much like the Saiyans from the older generation, before the original homeworld was destroyed. The Kazan Saiyans, are regional Saiyans who live in the harsh volcanic region I believe. And Yuki Saiyans are Saiyans regional Saiyans who live in the snowy region.” Arctic said.
Everyone was truly fascinated by this. All of them never believed that they would be learning this, especially Glacier, Tundra, and Winter.
“I didn’t think there was so much to your race.” Glacier said.
“We’ve lived together for so long, and never knew about any of this. Though, I’m glad we’re finally learning more bout your kind.” Tundra said.
“Yeah. I bet mom and dad would love to hear about this.” Winter said with a broad smile.
The rest of her siblings smiled as the bearers of harmony took everything in, with Twilight furiously writing away, a stack of parchment growing with almost every second that passed by.
“My, I didn’t think I’d be learning so much new things about a whole new race of beings.” Rarity said.
“Yah got that right. I never even thought ah’d be meetin’ a member of an alien race when ah got up this mornin’.” Said Applejack.
“Me neither, but it’s so much fun!” Exclaimed an excited pinkie.
“Not to mention, Awesome!” Blurted out Rainbow.
“Um, if you don’t mind me asking, which regional saiyan are you? Asked Fluttershy.
After a moment of thinking, Arctic found his answer.
“I believe I’m a Yuki Saiyanjin.” Arctic said.
“Saiyajin?” Asked Twilight as she looked up to Arctic.
“It’s the technical term for saiyan.” Arctic said.
Twilight smiled wider than before as she began furiously writing again.
“Do you think you could tell us more?” Asked Rainbow, excited to learn more.
Arctic smiled as for the rest of the train ride, he began telling them lol more about the Saiyans from what he could remember. In what seemed like no time, the train had reached Canterlot station and the group were ready to disembark.
“Hoowee, sittin’ like that’s got me achin’. Ah sure do need a good long stretch.” Applejack said as she stood, stretching her now aching limbs.
“Tell me about it.” Said Winter as she too stretched letting some bones pop as she did.
“Are you sure you’re gonna carry all that to the castle Twilight?” Asked Rainbow.
Twilight, who was now standing, albeit, wobbling slightly, was wearing her saddlebags, which were fit to bursting, as they were full of parchment. Every last one of them filled completely with notes from Arctic’s tales.
“Of course I’ll carry it to the Castle. I’m not leaving all this behind. Plus, I wanna show it to Princess Celestia. She should know about all this amazing new information I got.” Twilight said. A strain present in her voice.
“Could just ask me to tell her about it, but suit yourself.” Arctic said.
“By the way,” Tundra said, “you never told us anything about this Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. What are they like?”
“Oh, I can tell you on the way to the castle.” Twilight said, happy to tell her new friends about her teacher.
As the group began exiting the train car, they noticed that the station had a good number of ponies on it all wanting to catch the train back to their homes or going to see family now that the war was over. As they saw the Bearers of Harmony, many of the ponies smiled and cheered for them. Seeing Tundra and Winter, the ponies assumed they were friends of the bearers, and so cheered and thanked them. However, Glacier and Arctic, was a different story. Once the ponies saw them, they instantly went silent, staring at them. After a few minutes ponies, all now sitting with growing fear, especially when the two smiled, inadvertently showing their sharp canines, the ponies ran away as quickly as they could.
“Monsters!”
“Stay Away!”
“Somepony get the Royal Guard!”
The group just stood there in shock. Non of them exactly knew what to do. And when they saw members of the Royal Guard charging their way in the distance, they all knew they were in trouble.
“Monsters?” Glacier said indignantly. “We aren’t monsters.”
“To them we are.” Arctic said. “They’ve probably never seen something like us before.”
Twilight, reluctantly, had to agree. Though she was sure many of the ponies here were aware of Spike. But then again, he was a baby.
In the distance the group could see armed guards dawning golden and black armor. While Arctic and Glacier could probably handle themselves well, they had a feeling these guards were stronger than they looked and were most likely well trained. Unease began to build up in them and the two didn’t exactly want to stick around and challenge the group of guards.
“Book it?” Asked Arctic.
“Book it.” Said Glacier.
In the blink of an eye, the two brothers shot off in two different directions. Tundra and Winter looked to each other and after a quick nod, the two ran after them. Tundra going after Glacier and Winter going after Arctic.
“What in tarnation are they doin’? Asked Applejack.
“Beats me.” Rainbow said, Hoover next to her.
Soon the guards approached the six mares.
“Split up and go after them.” Said the guard in front.
The others gave a quick salute and spit into two groups chasing after the siblings.
“Greetings Bearers of Harmony.”
“Hello again, Riot Shield.” Twilight said giving a small bow.
“Please, no need to bow. I should be bowing to you.” Said the stallion. “After all you stopped the war.”
Twilight blushed slightly. She knew it wasn’t just her and her friends who had a hoof in stopping Sombra and the war.
“Please let’s go to the Castle. I’m sure Princess Celestia would be thrilled to see her star pupil and her friends.”
“Well, lead the way my good stallion.” Said Rarity, sidling up the stallion with a flirtatious smile.
Riot Shield chuckled a bit nervously and lead them to the Castle.
Riot Shield was a stallion with a carmine coat, dirty blonde mane, with light green eyes. He was a member of the royal Guard and was the second in command to Captain Shining Armor. He was just slightly older the Shining and pretty easy going. Though it didn’t mean he was to be underestimated. By all accounts, he was pretty powerful. Whenever he trained with other guards, he would always win. The only guard he couldn’t exactly best was Shining Armor. As for his relationship with Twilight, he knew the mare when she was younger. He would often watch over her or play with her should no one else be able to. He enjoyed spending time with the filly and every now and then would think of her and Spike, when he hatched, as younger siblings.
As the group walked to the castle, they had begun to chat.
“So,” said Riot, “the trip to the Crystal Empire wasn’t too harsh on you was it?”
“The journey there was fine.” Twilight said.
“Except we had to listen to Pinkie’s singing the whole way there.” Said Rainbow, crossing her forehooves, giving the small pink mare a glare.
“Oh, you enjoyed listening to my singing and you know it Dashie!” Pinkie said in a sing-song voice as she bounced up and down.
“W-, no I didn’t!” Rainbow shouted, her face turning a slight shade of red.
“Ah beg to differ, Sugarcube. Yah were tappin yer hoof an’ bobbin yer head.” Applejack said, a wry smile cracking across her face.
“S-shut up!” Rainbow blurted out.
The others just chuckled, leaving Rainbow feeling even more embarrassed. Riot looked over to Fluttershy before speaking.
“And Ms. Shy. I’m glad to see you’re okay.”
“Oh um, thank you.”
“They weren’t to harsh on you and the crystal ponies were they?” Riot asked, concern for the doe’s wellbeing evident in his voice.
“Oh, well, they weren’t too harsh on us. Though, the ones they were really harsh on were the siblings.” Fluttershy said.
She remembered the first time she saw them. They were all beaten up and bloodied. While she was a bit fearful of Arctic and Glacier, she did feel sympathy for them. And once she had gotten to know them, did she really start caring for them and their sisters.
“The siblings?” Asked Riot.
“The four who were with us before they ran off.”
“Those two mares are related to those two creatures?” Riot asked in disbelief.
“Well, they’re adopted.” Fluttershy said.
Riot Shield just looked to the ground, still in disbelief. He couldn’t believe that those two mares had two adopted siblings. He was even more confused as to why their parents adopted them, especially the one who looked to be some kind of monkey.
“How did the rest of you meet them?” He asked.
The others went on to recount their first time meeting the siblings. Though Rainbow mostly went on about how cool and tough the siblings were. Especially Arctic’s Oozaru form. Riot, just listened in awe.
“So those four helped beat Sombra? Not only that but helped to train the crystal ponies. Even formed a relationship with a young filly too?”
“Well, yeah. Those four are so cool. I so, wanna learn how to do all the stuff they did!” Said Rainbow, her excitement plain as day.
“And here I thought they were beasts and criminals you brought with you to be dealt with by the princesses.” Riot said. Then his head snapped up. “We better go stop the others from hunting them down!”
The others nodded in agreement and split up to go look for the siblings and stop the guards.
=========************=========
Arctic and Winter were running as though their lives depended on it. The royal guards right on their tails. As they ran, ponies around jumped and dove out of the way in either surprise or fear.
“How do we shake them?” Said Winter.
“I don’t know!” Said Arctic.
The two kept running. The guards inching closer.
“Wait, I think I have an idea.” Said Arctic.
“Then do it!” Said Winter.
Arctic grabbed onto Winter and jumped up. He formed an energy ball in his hand and threw it to the ground, creating a big smoke screen. The guards taken aback by this, all rushed in the cloud, tripping and falling or bumping into each other or some other object.
The two had escaped into an ally, running as far as possible.
“We got away!” Winter said.
“Yeah we did.” Said Arctic.
Their celebration was short lived. As before them appeared a group of Pegasi.
“You’re not going anywhere.” Said one.
Just before the two could try to fly or run, they were enveloped in an aura from a unicorn.
“Gotcha. Now let’s take you to the princesses.” Said the unicorn.
The two siblings no a tried to over power the aura, tried to break out, but no matter how hard they fought, they couldn’t do it. So they stopped and looked to each other, fear present in their eyes as they were brought to the castle.
==========**********==========
Elsewhere, Glacier and Tundra were flying and galloping as fast as they could. Tundra was using her magic to knock things over to block the guards path and Glacier tried kicking up dust with his wings to blind the Pegasi. But it seemed nothing would work.
“They won’t let up.” Glacier said.
“They are guards. They probably trained for stuff like this.” Said Tundra.
Just then, the two felt Arctic’s ki briefly rise before hearing a small explosion and seeing dust and smoke rising in the distance. Then they felt the energy’s of Arctic and Winter become distorted somewhat.
“Think they could Winter and Arctic.” Asked Glacier.
“Possibly. A unicorn must’ve gotten them.” Said Tundra.
The two were so caught up in wondering about their brother and sister, they didn’t notice the Pegasus charging in. Before they knew what happened, Glacier and Tundra were slammed to the ground as a unicorn walked up, slipped a magic dampening ring on Tundra’s horn and tied up Glacier’s muzzle, to keep him from breathing fire, and tied his arms and wings down to keep him for flying away or swinging at them.
“There. Now, let’s get them to the castle.” Said one of the guards as his horn lit up and picked up the two, bringing them to the castle.
===========********===========
After what felt like hours of searching, the element bearers and Riot Shield all reconvened. All of them were breathing heavily.
“I can’t find them anywhere.” Said Twilight.
“Neither can I.” Said Rarity.
“Maybe they were already captured after fighting. I did hear some explosion somewhere.” Said Rainbow.
“Ah heard it too.” Said Applejack.
“Me three!” Said Pinkie pie who was still bouncing up and down.
“Perhaps. We should go the castle. They may already be there.” Said Riot.
With a quick nod, the group ran off to the castle.
Eventually the group made it and rushed inside, startling the butlers and maids as the group rushed by in a blur. After running into some of the guards who were chasing the siblings, they confirmed that the siblings were there and waiting just outside the throne room to see the princesses. The group rushed there as quickly as they could and sported the Siblings. They were bound by ropes and chains to insure they didn’t escape or fight. Guards also surrounded them and when they heard the clip clop of hooves rushing over to them, they all looked back.
“Sir Shield.” Said the guards as they saluted the stallion.
Riot saluted back. “Alright you all, return to your posts. I’ll take things from here.”
“Yes sir.” Said the guards as they began to leave, but not before bowing to the Bearers of Harmony.
“Hopefully we can convince the princesses to not punish you four.” Riot said giving the siblings an apologetic look as if to apologize for sending his guards after them.
“It’s okay Sir. We probably shouldn’t have ran.” Said Glacier.
“You were scared and so ran, not like I blame you.” Said Riot.
Just then, the giant doors before them began to open as a voice said, “the princess shall see you now.”
Riot lead the siblings in with the bearers following close behind. The siblings looked around in awe. All around them were golds and whites, blacks and blues, images of the Sun and Moon all over the walls. They even noticed the giant stain glass windows all depicting events that seemed to happen in the past. They even saw one that showed the Bearers using the Elements of Harmony on some mare who looked to be an Alicorn, which confused the siblings.
Their confusion and awe didn’t last as they heard two voices ring out.
“Welcome back, my dear student. It seems you and your friends have returned safely.”
“And thou hath brought prisoners. Pray tell, what manner of creature is that?”
The siblings looked up and were aghast. Before them sat, not just one, but two Alicorns. They thought that Queen Snowblossom and Princess Cadence were the only Alicorns, but it seems they were wrong.
Both Alicorns were big. Heck, they both were bigger than Arctic and Glacier. They came up to Princess Luna’s neck and Princess Celestia’s chest.
The siblings could tell that Queen Snowblossom was bigger than the two Alicorns before them, but that didn’t mean that they weren’t impressed. Not to mention, intimidated.
The two Alicorns radiated power. The sibling could sense that. It sent chills down their spines. Not to mention their looks. They didn’t look like simple princesses. They looked like Queens. Gods rather. They reminded them heavily of Queen Snowblossom. The sheer power she radiated, the looks that screamed Queen. They were sure if it was Queen Snowblossom they were meeting like this, they’d want to run away out of sheer fear.
The siblings could only stare at the two Alicorns as the two looked down on them. They could hear something being said, but it didn’t register with the siblings, as they just watched the two Alicorns.
The siblings just stared at the two Alicorns as they stared back. Celestia held a slight bemused and confused expression, though it was difficult to tell upon first glance. Whereas Luna just stared in anger and slight disgust. Though it was mostly directed at Arctic and Glacier.
“Dear sister, would thou agree that these are the ones causing panic amongst our subjects?” Princess Luna said glaring at the two.
Princess Celestia didn’t say anything. She just kept staring at the siblings. Twilight slowly walked up to the throne.
“Um, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, these are our friends.” Twilight said gesturing to the four.
“We shalt not believe the four of them are thy friends Ms. Sparkle.” Luna said, pointing to the four with a hoof. “These four are prisoners and will be punished!” Luna bellowed in her Royal Canterlot Voice.
Princess Celestia, who had just been observing, stood up and walked down from her throne to the siblings. She looked them each in the eye and smiled.
“You four are the ones I felt, correct?” Princess Celestia asked.
“What art thou talking about dear sister?” Luna asked as she looked down towards Celestia.
“You four were fighting in the Crystal Empire, yes?” Celestia asked.
The four siblings cautiously nodded. Luna just stared. She couldn’t believe that those four were fighting in the Crystal Empire.
“Sister, dost thou expect me to believe that these four were fighting in the war? They don’t even look like proper fighters.” Luna said incredulously.
“Princess, if I may?” Said Twilight, looking up to Luna. Luna nodded.
“Well, first, I should introduce you all.” Twilight said before clearing her throat. “Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, meet Arctic Okami, Glacier the Ice dragon, Tundra Storm, and Winter Winds.”
Celestia went wide eyed as she looked over to Glacier. Even Luna’s eyes widened slightly.
“An Ice Dragon? I never thought I’d see one again.” Celestia said.
“Um, Princess, what in tarnation is an Ice Dragon?” Applejack asked.
The others also wanted to know. They had been mainly discussing Arctic and his race and Glacier, didn’t exactly go into his kin because neither he nor even Twilight, with the amount of studying she does, knew much about Ice Dragons beyond the basic things.
“Well, I’m assuming Twilight has given a bit of information on Ice Dragons when you first met?” Process Celestia Asked.
The girls all nodded.
“Well, beyond that, Ice Dragons are a subspecies of dragon who inhabit the more snowy regions of Equestria. There aren’t very many of them, as they are quite rare. My sister and I have only met two and that was when we were young fillies. I never thought I’d get to see another. It is a pleasure to meet you, Glacier.” Celestia said giving a slight bow, making Glacier blush slightly.
“Now, what of thou? Thee art not a creature we have seen before.” Luna said walking down to Arctic.
“Um, that’s because I’m the only of my kind here.” Arctic said nervously.
“What does thou mean?” Luna asked narrowing her eyes slightly, making Arctic even more nervous.
“He’s the only of his kind, because he’s an Alien, Princess.” Twilight said, a smile plastered across her muzzle, clearly still happy she’s in the presence of a real life alien and befriended it.
Princess Luna and Princess Celestia looked to Arctic with a mix of emotions. They were in shock, amazement, and a bit of unease.
“An alien?” Celestia asked.
“Yes Princess.” Arctic said.
“Yup. Our brother here is an alien. Ain’t that right ya big ole goober?” Winter said lightly hitting Arctic’s arm.
“That is right, you little ole goober.” Arctic said gently hitting Winter with his tail.
This surprised the Princesses even more. Those four were siblings? How?
“Young ones,” said Luna, “please explain to us how you four are siblings.” Luna said.
The four of them recounted how the four of them were siblings. How their parents adopted Glacier, discovered and adopted Arctic, and later gave birth to Tundra and Winter.
“Well, that was quite the story.” Said Celestia with a smile. “Your parents must be wonderful ponies. I would like to hear more about them and your home at a later date. But for now, would you mind explaining your stint in the Crystal Empire?”
The siblings nodded and explained everything. Them being found by some of the ponies from Sombra’s army, their fight, getting imprisoned, training up some of the Crystal Ponies, the battle within the Empire, and their battle with Sombra alongside the Element Bearers.
Celestia took it all in as well as Luna, though she had a bit of a difficult time believing it all.
“Well, I apologize for you four getting caught up in this war, but if it weren’t for your help, who knows what would’ve happened. So I thank you for giving aid to the Crystal Empire.” Celestia said giving them a bow.
Luna, reluctantly, gave them a bow as well. Though she still couldn’t believe that they were fighting with Sombra and his Army. Perhaps she could test them someday. See for herself if these four siblings were truly able to hold their ground against Sombra.
“I must ask, what are your plans now?” Asked Celestia.
The four siblings looked to each other and shrugged.
“Princess, we left our home to see more of Equestria. To see what else lies beyond our home.” Said Glacier
“We would like to see more, but maybe we should do that once everything is calmer. A war did just finish, so there’s probably a lot that needs to be done.” Said Tundra.
“Where will you be staying in the meantime?” Asked Riot Shield, who had been silently watching and listening to everything.
“We don’t really have anywhere to stay.” Said Glacier.
“And after how the other ponies reacted to myself and Glacier, I don’t think anypony will want anything to do with us.” Added Arctic.
Suddenly a loud gasp broke through the air. Looking back ever saw the sound came from Pinkie Pie.
“You can stay with us in Ponyville!” Pinkie exclaimed.
“Ponyville?” Asked the siblings.
“Yeah, it where we live! It’s only the bestest most funest wonderfulest places in all of Equus! I can throw you a “Welcome to Ponyville” Party! It’ll be one of the biggest and most funest party I’ve ever thrown! And you’ll love it I guarantee it! WAIT! You still haven’t told me your favorite flavors of cake! Is it Strawberry? Chocolate? Vanilla? Oh oh oh, I know! I’ll make a cake with all the flavors! This is gonna be amazing!” Said Pinkie as she excitedly bounced up and down. Her mind already racing with what to do for the upcoming party.
All of the others were both shocked and amazed that Pinkie got all that out in a single breath.
“Um, alright then. Well, how do you four feel about Ms. Pie’s suggestion?” Asked Rarity.
The four looked to each other. They all unanimously agreed they could go stay in Ponyville.
“We don’t mind going, but would the other ponies in Ponyville mind?” Asked Winter.
“What do you mean?” Asked Rainbow. “How could they not want you guys there. You’re all so cool. Especially you, Arctic. Who wouldn’t want to meet and be friends with a real life alien?” Rainbow said a smile plain as day on her face. She was clearly still giddy over the fact she befriended a real life aliens who could fight and transform and even fly. She also really wanted to race him. As well as his brother and sister, Winter. She wanted to see how fast they really were.
“Um, Rainbow Dash,” said Fluttershy. “You saw how all those ponies at the train station reacted to Arctic and Glacier. What if the same thing happens in Ponyville?”
“Oh, right.” Said Rainbow.
“Oh I’m sure everypony’ll warm up to them Sugarcube.” Said Applejack.
“Where will we be staying though?” Asked Tundra.
After a brief moment of silence, Twilight spoke up.
“You can stay at my place.”
“Are you sure? We wouldn’t want to intrude or be a burden.” Tundra said.
“Of course I’m sure. Spike can also meet another Dragon and meet a real life Alien.” Twilight said with a broad smile.
“Hehe, bet she only wants them there so she can study Arctic more.” Applejack whispered to Rainbow.
“Hope he’s prepared.” Said Rainbow quietly to Applejack.
“Then, we thank you for allowing us to stay with you.” The four said bowing to Twilight.
“Well, if you four are leaving, I do hope to see you again soon. I really would like to talk with you four some more.” Celestia said.
The siblings smiled at her and bowed to her and Luna.
“We’ll be sure to come back to speak with you again Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.” Said Winter.
“I look forward to it.” Celestia said with a smile and nod.
After being escorted by Riot Shield, the group was now aboard the train once again and in an empty car, so no chaos would ensue.
“I can’t wait to get back home. I hope Spike isn’t too worried.” Said Twilight.
“Nonsense Twilight. Little Spikey-Wikey is a brave little dragon. I’m sure he’s fine.” Rarity said.
“Ah just can’t wait to get back to see mah family. Applebloom has to be worried sick about me.” Applejack said.
“Ugh. I just can’t wait to relax. Well, after the party anyway. Right Pinkie?” Rainbow asked, lazily glancing over to Pinkie who was sitting in Arctic’s lap.
After boarding the train, Arctic and pinkie were talking when Arctic started absentmindedly petting Pinkie’s head. When it was brought to his attention that he was petting her, courtesy of Winter, he stopped, only for Pinkie to ask him to keep going as, according to her, his petting made her feel like she was, “relaxing on a bed of Cotten Candy with a slice of her favorite cake.””
Pinkie, her tongue hanging out of her mouth, her eyes shut, looking to be off in another world, lazily wave her hoof and muttered out a “yupperoni .”
The others just watched and laughed enjoying the calm atmosphere as the train rattled down the tracks towards Ponyville.
After a long ride, the train had begun to approach Ponyville’s train station, and they all got up, preparing to disembark. Well, except for Pinkie, who was all to comfy laying across Arctic’s lap and enjoying the head pats, didn’t want to get up. It wasn’t until Arctic promised to give her head pats again after the party did Pinkie hop up ready to get off the train. After it came to a halt at the station, they all began to get off the train and walk into Ponyville. However Ponyville seemed quiet. They were expecting to see others at the train station, but nopony was there. After a bit of walking, they all came up towards the center of Ponyville, when suddenly a bunch of loud pops and bangs sounded. Confetti rained down over them all as pony after pony emerged from their hiding places and a large banner dropped down reading, “Welcome Home!”
The Element Bearers all stood in silence as all the ponies before them shouted out in glee, welcoming their friends home. Then they all charged towards them. The siblings watched on as Twilight ran to a small purple dragon, Rarity ran to a small unicorn filly who they assumed was Rarity’s little sister. Applejack rushed off to her kin, a small filly, an older mare, and a big red stallion. Fluttershy ran towards a group of animals who all tackled her and hugged her tight, licking all over her face. Pinkie was greeted by a mare and stallion who the group assumed were Pinkies parents as they watched them hug her. Rainbow was greeted by a small orange Pegasus filly who hugged the mare tight.
As the siblings watched, they saw Twilight break away from the young drake who was clinging to her with tear streaming down his face. With a loud clearing of her throat, Twilight began to speak.
“Thank you everypony for the wonderful welcome home surprise. But before things really kick off, I’d like to introduce you all to my newest friends and Ponyville’s newest residents. Meet Tundra Storm, Winter Winds, Glacier the Dragon, and Arctic Okami!”
The siblings gave a small wave. As the residents of Ponyville heard the names and watched them step up, they cheered and welcomed them, however once it got to Glacier, it was clear that they all were caught off guard and were getting a bit nervous. Sure they have seen dragons. Well, more specifically they’ve seen one dragon, Spike, they had never seen a dragon like Glacier before. And once Twilight got to Arctic was when everypony just stopped. They all looked at Arctic as he waved and nervously at them. The element bearers and the siblings could tell that they were uneasy, scared even.
Fluttershy rushed up to the siblings and turned to face the crowd.
“Everypony, please don’t be scared. Arctic and Glacier are both sweethearts and they’re both my friends. I know you all can find it in your hearts to welcome and befriend them as well.” Fluttershy said.
This threw everypony off. Fluttershy was defending those two and even claimed to be their friend? They watched as soon Pinkie happily bounced up to the siblings. After getting behind Arctic and wiggling her butt, like a cat ready to pounce, the tiny pink mare jumped up onto Arctic’s shoulder.
“Yeah, Arc and Glaci are the bestest Dragon and Saiyan I know. And between you and me, Arc gives the best head pats.” Pinkie said.
That got a bit of a chuckle out of the crowd and a blush from Arctic. As each of the six mares began to defend Arctic and Glacier, the ponies of Ponyville all cautiously looked to the two, before one mare slowly and cautiously walked up to them.
The mare was an Earth Pony. Her mane was Gray and her coat a nice tan color. Her eyes were a deep blue and her cutie mark was a scroll. The mare stopped before Arctic and Glacier before speaking in a shaky nervous voice.
“Um, h..hello. M..my name is Mayor Mare. I am the m..mayor of Ponyville. I’m pleased to meet you.”
Mayor Mare slowly raised her hoof as Arctic and Glacier gently shook it. Mayor mare quickly backed up a bit as she gave a small smile.
“Well, now that that’s out of the way, who’s ready to give these four the best “Welcome to Ponyville” party ever!?” Shout Pinkie who was still perched atop Arctic’s shoulder.
The ponies of Ponyville were still cautious, but seeing how those six mares jumped up to defend them gave them all a small bit confidence. Maybe those two really weren’t all bad. But still, they were all still going to be quite cautious around those two.
As Pinkie hopped off of Arctic’s shoulder, she quickly began to set up the party as the four siblings just looked to each other ready to face whatever Ponyville could throw at them head on.
After what seemed like a mere few minutes, the super duper party pony Pinkie Pie, had conjured up a massive party in the middle of Ponyville. There were games, music so loud the houses all look as though they’d just fall, courtesy of a The Dj Pon3, there was also multiple different baked goods and bowls of punch. After the party had kicked off, the residents of Ponyville began to chat with the Quartet. Winter was dancing and chatting with Pinkie and a few other ponies. Tundra was hanging with Twilight, the two bookworms discussing something book related, even asking about the Mare of the Moon. Glacier was chatting with Spike. The young dragon was having a blast chatting with another dragon, glad to not be the only dragon in Ponyville. Arctic, on the other hand, wasn’t really hanging with anypony. All of the ponies of Ponyville where still apprehensive to talk to him, as well as Glacier. While they do believe that they’re both good, especially after the display the Element Bearers put on, they were still unsure. Although, there was one pony who was brave enough to at least try talking to him.
Arctic was sitting on a bench with a cupcake in hand just watching everyone do their thing, when he heard a voice next to him.
“Um, excuse me.” It said.
Arctic looked over and spotted a tiny filly. In terms of height, she was quite short. She came up to about his knee. She sported a yellow coat with white Overo markings. Her mane and tail were a vibrant shade of red with her mane tied into a ponytail. She had bright blue eyes and a big pink bow in her mane.
“Uh, hello there.” Arctic said slightly raising an eyebrow. He wasn’t really expecting one of the Ponyville ponies to come up to him, let alone a little filly.
“Ahm Applebloom. What’s yer name?” Said the filly.
Arctic could tell the little filly was nervous, if not scared, but trying to put up a brave front. He smiled a bit admiring the little filly’s bravery.
“My name’s Arctic Okami. But you can call me Arctic.” He said holding out his fist to the little filly.
Applebloom flinched back slightly, staring at Arctic’s fist. Eventually it clicked with her what he was doing and she put out her hoof giving him a hoof bump.
“So you’re Applebloom huh?” Arctic asked.
“Y..Yeah.” Applebloom said cautiously.
“Applejack told me and my siblings about you. She said you were the best little sister in all of Equestria.” Arctic said with a broad smile.
Applebloom’s face brightened up at that.
“She said that?” She asked.
“Yup she did.” Arctic said.
Applebloom just beamed. She was so happy to hear that, even though she knew she was best little sister in all of Equestria. Feeling a bit more comfortable and confident, Applebloom hopped onto the bench and looked up to Arctic.
“Uh, could yah tell me what yah are? Ah’ve never seen anythin’ like yah before.” Applebloom said.
Arctic chuckled and told Applebloom what he was which made her just stop and stare at him. She was so still, she looked like she was a statue. Eventually Applebloom began to speak again.
“Y..you’re really an alien?”
“Eeyup.” Arctic said, mimicking the way he heard Applejack say “yup”. He liked it, thinking it was an odd way to say that, but liking it nonetheless.
“Woah.” Applebloom said.
Behind the pair, there were four eyes watching, hidden in some bushes. The eyes were wide in both fear and amazement. Eventually one of the pair of eyes vanished before a filly’s head popped out of the bushes loudly saying, “An alien?!”
Looking back Arctic said a filly. She saw him look to her. She sheepishly shied away before slowly making her way to him. Then another filly emerged from the bushes following the first. Arctic smiled slightly as he took in the two fillies.
One was a Pegasus filly, the one shouted. Her orange coat had deep purple sock marking over her forelegs and hind-legs. She wing’s feathers and her tail feathers were mixes of white and purple. Her mane and tail were a deep shade of eggplant purple. Her eyes were a light shade of purple. She also had a few bandages on her legs, nose, and one on her cheek.
The other filly was a Unicorn. Her coat was white with gray sock markings on her legs. Her mane and leonine tail were curly and were two toned with purple and pink. She had bright green eyes and she wore what looked like a sash that wrapped around her chest, going beneath her right foreleg and over her left shoulder.
Another thing Arctic noticed about the two fillies and Applebloom was that the three of them had no cutie mark.
Arctic watch the two fillies come up. The Pegasus filly seem nervous but all excited. Whereas the Unicorn filly just looked nervous and as though she was about to bolt at any moment.
“Arctic, these are mah friends, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. We’re…”
Before Arctic knew it, the three fillies were all standing together wearing capes. And with a loud shout, mostly from Applebloom and Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle’s voice was quite, just barely above a whisper, they proclaimed,
“THE CUTIEMARK CRUSADERS!”
The loud shout threw Arctic off guard and his ears began to ring. Even the ponies who were closer to them’s ears began to ring slightly.
Trying to make his ears stop ringing, Arctic asked, “Cutiemark Crusaders? So what do you three do?”
With a sheer unbelievable amount of enthusiasm, Applebloom spoke up.
“The three of us are on a mission tah get our Cutiemarks!”
Arctic just smiled.
“Well, I hope the three of you manage to get them someday.”
Arctic reached out and began to pet Applebloom and Scootaloo on the head. He remembered Pinkie really liking it, so why not to it with the Crusaders. Well, at least Applebloom and Scootaloo, since Sweetie Belle still seemed a bit scared. The two fillies sighed in relaxation as they got pet. Eventually, Scootaloo spoke up.
“Hey, are you really an Alien?”
“Yeah. I’m an alien. The only of my kind in all of Equus.” Arctic said.
Scootaloo’s eyes widened.
“Could you tell me about your kind?” Scootaloo asked, her tail wagging slightly and her wings buzzing a bit in excitement. Even Applebloom looked a bit excited.
“Sure I can.” Arctic said.
Scootaloo jumped onto the bench getting on Arctic’s other side opposite of Applebloom. Sweetie Belle did get a bit close, but not super close. Once they were settled, Arctic began telling the three fillies all about the Saiyan race from what he could remember. Overtime, he had gone from talking about his race to talking about the Blizzard Kingdom. He didn’t delve into too much, mostly telling them about how it looks, the different creatures that live there and the many places Arctic and his sibling hung out. Eventually, Sweetie Belle’s fears had subsided a bit and she was a bit more comfortable sitting closer to Arctic.
The ponies of Ponyville closer to them had watched them and smiled seeing that the Crusaders had warmed up to him quite quickly and decided that if those three were willing to give him a chance, then they should as well.
At some point Scootaloo hoped up and held onto Arctic’s arm.
“Hmm? What’s up Scootaloo?” Arctic asked.
“You said you can fly right?” Scootaloo asked.
“Well, yeah. I can said I could fly. You seemed quite amazed at that.” Arctic said with a light chuckle.
Thinking back, Arctic remember The Crusaders reaction to hearing he could fly. He even showed that he could when he started to float. Sweetie Belle was shocked, Applebloom was also shocked but a bit amazed, Scootaloo was astounded and giddy as ever seeing that somepony could fly without wings.
Scootaloo looked a bit nervous before looking to Arctic again.
“Um, could I fly with you? On your back?”
Arctic tilted his head.
“You want to sit on my back while I fly?” Arctic asked with a small chuckle.
“Yeah. It was Princess Luna who had become The Mare in the Moon.” Twilight said
“And here we though it was just something the moon always had.” Said Tundra.
“Not to mention, after so long, Princess Luna has missed out on so mu-Woah!”
Twilight and Tundra jumped as a shadow flew over them and wind blew all over them. It was Arctic. He had flown by with The Crusaders. Scootaloo was sitting on his back with her forehooves wrapped around his neck and Sweetie Belle and Applebloom in his arms, all three screaming and cheering.
“Looks like they’ve taken a liking Arctic.” Twilight said with a chuckle.
“Who were those three little fillies he was carrying?” Tundra asked.
“The Cutiemark Crusaders.” Twilight said with a chuckle and smile.
Twilight and Tundra just smiled as they watched them fly.
==========*************============
Pinkie and Winter were both dancing with a group of other ponies. They were all having fun and Winter was really enjoying herself partying with new ponies who could potentially become new friends for her. Applejack and Rarity were also there drinking some punch and chatting with each other. Just then all of them saw Arctic flying with the Crusaders. Upon hearing the three fillies laughing and cheering, they all just smiled.
“Looks like those three are having fun with Arctic.” Rarity said with a smile.
“Yah got that right Sugarcube.” Applejack said as she let out a hearty chuckle.
===========**************===========
Spike and Glacier were talking with each other, both sitting on a bench eating some cupcakes.
“I didn’t know there were such things as Ice dragons.” Spike said.
“That makes sense. From what you said you were always around ponies since you hatched.” Glacier said as he bit into a cupcake
“Well that’s true. Sometimes, I’d like to learn more about dragons and my parents.” Spike said.
“Hey, you’re not the only one.” Glacier said.
“What do you me…”
Before spike could finish, he sees Arctic flying with the Crusaders.
“Woah! He can fly?” Spike asks, watching in awe.
“Oh yeah. I’m sure he’ll explain how he can fly. That is, if Twilight doesn’t explain it to you first.” Glacier said with a low chuckle.
“I wanna fly like that!” Spike said with a giant smile.
“You know, I could carry you and fly you around.” Glacier says.
“Really? You’d fly me around?” Spike asked, looking up to Glacier.
“Of course.” Glacier said.
==========*********=========
Before anypony knew it, they were all having more fun than ever. After watching Arctic and Glacier fly Spike and the Crusaders around, they all very slowly began to trust and speak with the two brothers. Of course a few ponies were still apprehensive but most of the ponies had slowly grown to like the brothers a bit. They were all dancing, singing, Arctic and Pinkie even got into a cupcake eating contest. They both tied. Eventually once the sun had begun to set, everypony had begun to head for home. Once they all had gone home, Twilight had brought the Quartet to her home, which amazed the siblings, having never seen a tree turned into a library/house, and got things set up for the siblings. Twilight had managed to pull out a second bed and set it up by hers.
The four sibling all slipped onto the bed, Arctic and Glacier laying on it longways with Tundra and Winter curled up with their heads resting on Arctic and Glacier’s legs using them as pillows. Spike he already plopped into his little bed and almost immediately fell asleep. Twilight watched them and just chuckled to herself as she slipped into her bed and blew out the candle, plunging the room into darkness as they all slept peacefully, ready to see what was in store for them next.
It had been a few days since the Siblings had come to Ponyville. While staying with Twilight, they would help out in any way they can. Cooking, cleaning, helping to reorganize the books, they had even started up a little garden outside. Other times, Twilight would drag poor Arctic and Glacier down to the basement to study them. Especially Arctic. Twilight would often drag Arctic down to study him as much as she could. He, and Glacier when she wanted to study him, would try to fight Twilight’s magic, but it happened so often, they kinda just gave up and accepted it. They wondered if she did that often, and Spike confirmed it when he informed them that Twilight does tend to use her magic to drag him around.
==========********==========
“Yeah, she does do that a lot. You’ll get used to it sooner or later.” Spike said with a shrug.
==========********==========
Other than that, the siblings would always roam about Ponyville, learning as much as they could about the little town. Many of the pony’s had gotten used to seeing the siblings. They would often wave or stop to chat with them for a brief period of time before going about their day. Some ponies where still apprehensive about Arctic and Glacier, but they were starting to expect them. Most of them anyway. Meanwhile, Rarity would often bring Arctic over to design some clothes for him. She was slightly upset though. She would’ve liked to be the first pony to ever make clothes for an alien. But she, begrudgingly, accepted that she was the third to make clothes for him. The siblings also made it a point to hangout with the Bearers of Harmony. Those days were truly interesting. Pinkie would often bake with them, which sometimes resulted in a minor food fight. Fluttershy introduced them to her animal friends. Many of the had grown to like them, except for one. Her bunny, Angel. The siblings would help out of the Apple Family Farm when they could, which Applejack really appreciated. Rainbow really seemed to enjoy either racing them or watching them show off the ice magic or ki attacks they could perform. Which resulted in Rainbow pestering them to teach her how to do it. Rarity always either designed some new clothes for them or drug them off the spa. Whereas Twilight, when not studying Arctic and Glacier, like the adorable purple nerd she is, would read with the siblings. Like the adorable purple nerd she is.
==========********==========
It was a sunny day in Ponyville. Tundra was resting in the library reading some books. Winter was hanging out with Fluttershy and Glacier was at the lake relaxing in the water. Arctic was with Twilight, Spike, and Applejack. Applejack had come to Twilight, Spike, and Arctic while they were out a Sugarcube Corner. She had asked the three if they could help her out on the farm, and they immediately agreed. After the four worked through to the afternoon, well three, seeing Spike had been sitting on Twilight’s back the entire time, they had finally finished up and were heading to the barn to put up the apple’s they were carrying. With Spike digging through the apple’s twilight was carrying and throwing them aside while repeatedly saying, “No”, or “Nope”.
“Thank yah kindly, Twilight and Arctic, for helping me out. Ah bet Big Macintosh ah could all these Golden Delicious in the barn by Lunchtime. And if I win, he’ll walk down Stirrup Street in one of Granny’s girdles.” Applejack said with a laugh.
“No problem at all, Applejack. I’m glad the goal was Lunchtime. All this hard work is making me hungry.” Said Twilight.
“I know, right?” Asked Spike as he threw an apple up into the air, it coming back down and bonking Twilight on the head.
Twilight shot a glare at Spike as he sheepishly smiled at her.
“Please Spike. You’ve been lounging on my back all morning while we worked.” Said Twilight.
“Exactly. You three were taking so long, I missed Snacktime.” Said Spike rubbing his belly.
“Oh? What about all the cupcakes you at, before we came to the farm?” Asked Arctic giving Spike a look.
“Those were my After Breakfast Snack. I’m talking about my before lunch Snack.” Said Spike as he continued digging through the apples.
Just then, there was a low growl. They all looked over to see it had come from Twilight. With a sheepish grin and chuckle, Twilight looked away.
“I guess we should get some food.”
After digging around some more, Spike pulled out a vibrant and juicy looking apple. Before anyone could blink, Spike had shoved the whole apple into his mouth, eating it in one bite.
“Spike!” Said Twilight.
“What?” Asked Spike looking at her.
Just then Spike’s faces scrunched up and his cheeks puffed out, before belching out flames. Just then a letter popped into existence.
“A letter from Princess Celestia!” Twilight said as Spike grabbed onto it and unfurled it.
“That was new. Could he always do that?” Arctic asked Twilight.
“Oh yeah. Spike was taught how to do it so we could send letters to Princess Celestia.” Twilight said with a smile
Throughout the time the siblings had been staying with Twilight and Spike, they had never seen Spike do that before. Arctic made it a point to ask if Glacier could learn to do that someday. Breaking from his thoughts, Arctic heard spike clear his throat as he started to read the letter.
“Hear ye, hear ye. Her grand royal highness, Princess Celestia of Equestria, is pleased to announce the Grand Galloping Gala, to be held in the magnificent capital city of Canterlot on the 21st day of…yada yada yada…cordially extends an invitation to Twilight Sparkle plus one guest.”
Twilight and Applejack’s eyes widened as they both began to celebrate.
“The Grand Galloping Gala!”
Arctic just watched the two before leaning over to Spike and asking, “What’s the Grand Galloping Gala?”
Twilight and Applejack paused before their heads shot over to him.
“You don’t know what the Grand Galloping Gala is?!” They both asked.
Arctic just gave them a deadpan look as if to say, “seriously?”.
“Oh right.” Said Twilight. “The Grand Galloping Gala is an annual royal ball held to celebrate the completion of Canterlot that’s mostly attended by high-class ponies. The only way to get in is to receive a golden ticket from Princess Celestia herself.” Twilight said as Spike belched once again, revealing two golden tickets.
“Great! I’ve never been myself. Have you Spike?”
“No. I plan on keeping it that way. I don’t want any part of that girly, frilly, froufrou nonsense.” Spike said. “What about you Arctic? Would you like to go the Gala?”
“It sounds like it would be an interesting experience. But after how those ponies reacted to me and Glacier, I don’t think those ponies would take two kindly to me be there. But whoever you choose to go with you, Twilight, I hope you have a nice time.” Arctic said.
“I suppose so. Plus a good dance sounds nice.” Twilight said.
“Nice? It’s a heap good more than just nice. I’d love to go. Land’s sakes, if ah had an Apple Stand set up, ponies would be trying our tasty vittles till the cows came home. Do yah have any idea how much business ah could drum up fer Sweet Apple Acres? Why with all that money, we could do a heap of fixin’ up around her. We could replace that saggy ole roof. And Big Macintosh could replace that saggy ole plow, and granny could replace that saggy ole hip. Why, I’d give my left hind leg to go to that Gala.” Applejack said as she looked to be off in her own world.
“Well, in that case, would you like to..”
Before Twilight could finish a loud yell sounded out. Looking up, they saw Rainbow falling toward them. Before, she could hit the ground or Applejack and Twilight, Arctic jumped in a caught her.
“Sup Speed demon.” Arctic said with a small grin.
“Sup Arc. Soooo, we talking about the Grand Galloping Gala?” Rainbow asked.
“Rainbow? Yah said yah were to busy to help with the harvest. What were yah doin’? Spyin’ on us?” Applejack asked, giving Rainbow a glare.
“I was busy. Busy napping.” Rainbow said as they all looked to where she was napping. “And I happened to hear you had an extra ticket?”
“Yeah, but,” Twilight said before being interrupted by Rainbow.
“Yes! This is so Awesome. The Wonderbolts perform at the Grand Galloping Gala every year! I can see it now. Everypony would watch the sky, their eyes on the Wonderbolts, but in would fly Rainbow dash. I’d draw their attention with my Superspeed Strut. Then mesmerized them with my Fantastic Filly Flash. And for my grand finale, the Buccaneer Blaze. The ponies would go wild and the Wonderbolts would insist on having my moves in their routine and then, welcome me as their new member. This could be my one chance to show them my stuff. You’ve got to take me!” Said Rainbow.
Arctic, seeing things getting a bit out of hand, he slowly began to walk off before shuffling into the barn to drop off the apples. As the rest of the day rolled by, Arctic was back at the Library.
“Hey, Arc. How was your day?” Asked Tundra who was still reading.
“It was, interesting. Have you been reading all day?” Arctic asked.
“Yeah, she has. She read almost all the books on this section of the bookcase.” Winter said as she flew up onto Arctic’s shoulder.
“You and Twilight really are alike with all your reading.” Arctic said.
“Hey, reading is an essential part of life. Everypony needs to read every now and then. And besides, I don’t read that much.”
“Yes you do.” Said Arctic and Winter. Even Glacier once he walked in with a plate full of grilled cheeses.
“So, what’s with Twilight?” Glacier asked
“Good question. Last time she and Spike, popped in, she looked stressed. Especially when she saw Fluttershy in here quote, unquote, Spring Cleaning.” Said Tundra.
“Oh, Twilight got two tickets to Something called the Grand Galloping Gala and the other’s are trying to convince her to take one of them. Guess she can’t figure out who to take.” Said Arctic.
“What’s the Grand Galloping Gala?” Asked Glacier.
Arctic sat as he and grabbed a sandwich as he began to explain the Gala to them. Afterwards, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy burst into the Library.
“Whoa, what the!?” Shouted siblings as they looked over.
“Oh, Howdy you four.” Said Applejack.
“Arc!” Exclaimed Pinkie as she jumped onto Arctic’s shoulder.
“Hey Pinks.” Arctic said as he started petting Pinkies head.
After the first time Pinkie had gotten pet by Arctic, she asked to be pet more by him. Soon it kinda became their thing. Pinkie would get up onto Arctic’s shoulder and he would pet her on the head.
“What are you all doing her?” Glacier asked.
“Oh, we’re here to see Twilight.” Said Fluttershy with a small smile.
The siblings all looked to each other having a hunch as to why they were there. Just then, with a loud “pop”, Twilight and Spike appeared. Spike, burned and dazed, shakily stood up, stumbling a bit.
“Warn me the next time you do that.” Spike said.
“I didn’t even know it was going to happen. Quickly, we need to lock the…” Before she could finish, she saw the girls and yelled.
“I can’t decide, I just can’t. It’s important to all of you and I just can’t stand to disappoint you. And giving me gifts and doing me favors won’t make a difference! You’re my friends and I want to make you all happy and I can’t. I just can’t!” Twilight said.
The siblings looked over to the girls whom all had guilty looks on their faces. Applejack slowly walked up to Twilight.
“Twilight, sugar, I didn’t mean to put so much pressure on you. And if it helps, I don’t want the ticket anymore. You can give it to sompony else. I promise, I won’t feel bad.”
“Me too. I feel awful for making you feel so awful.” Said Fluttershy.
“And me too. It’s no fun upsetting your friends.” Said Pinkie still sitting on Arctic’s shoulder.
“Twilight, it was unfair of me to try to force you as I did.” Rarity said.
“Yes! The ticket is mine! I got the ticket! I got the ticket!” Rainbow celebrated before looking around, finally reading the room. “You know, I haven’t perfected my moves for the Wonderbolts yet. I don’t need the ticket.”
Just then, the girls looked over to the siblings with an expecting look.
“What?” Asked Winter.
“We’ll aren’t you going to apologize to Twilight too?” Asked Rarity.
“No.” Said Glacier. “We didn’t even know about the tickets, let alone the Grand Galloping Gala itself.” Glacier said.
“You never heard of the Grand Galloping Gala?!” Blurted Rarity as she looked at them like they grew second heads.
“Yup. We never knew about the Gala till Arctic told us about it.” Said Tundra.
“And I never knew about it till Twilight explained it to me.” Said Arctic.
“Then why don’t you go?” Fluttershy asked.
“Well, Twilight doesn’t have enough Tickets. So we can’t go even if we wanted to.” Winter said.
“And with how those ponies reacted to seeing us,” said Glacier pointing to himself and Arctic, “don’t think they’ll like to have us their.”
“What boulder dash. Those ponies would be honored to have two ponies as wonderful as you there. And you deserve to experience the Gala yourselves.” Rarity said.
“Well, like Winter said, Twilight doesn’t have enough tickets, so we can’t go.” Arctic said.
“And that’s exactly why I’m sending the tickets back.” Said Twilight.
“What?!” Exclaimed the girls.
“Spike, take a note.” Twilight said as Spike got ready. “Dear Princess Celestia, I’ve learned that one of the joys of friendship is sharing your blessings. But, when there isn’t enough to go around, having more than your friends can make you feel awful. Thus, I will be returning the tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala. If my friends can’t all go, then I won’t go.”
“You don’t have to do that Twilight.” Applejack said.
“I’ve made up my mind. Spike, send the letter.” Twilight said as Spike sent off the letter.
“But, you won’t be able to go Twilight.” Fluttershy said giving Twilight a sad look.
“It’s okay. I couldn’t possibly enjoy myself without you all their with me, so I’d rather not go.” Twilight said as the six hugged.
The Quartet just watch with a slight smile as Spike just silently gagged. Just then, his cheeks puffed out and he belched.
“Huh? A letter from Princess Celestia? That was fast.” Said Twilight.
As Spike opened the letter he read it aloud.
“To my faithful student Twilight, why didn’t you just say so?” Then he held up six tickets. “Six tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala!”
“Now we can all go!” Twilight said. And then her stomach growled.
“Hehe, allow us to treat you to lunch.” Said Rarity.
The six all began to walk out taking their tickets from Spike.
“How come we don’t get tickets?” Asked Spike.
“Who knows, guess Princess Celestia didn’t want to invite us.” Said Glacier.
Just then Spike belched again. It was another letter.
“And tickets for you, Spike, Glacier, Arctic Okami, Tundra Storm, and Winter Winds.”
The five looked to each other and ran out of the Library with their tickets, ecstatic to have gotten tickets and ready to experience the Grand Galloping Gala themselves.
It was a few days later. After some time, the siblings had settled into Ponyville a bit more. Many of the ponies had really grown used to seeing the quartet exploring Ponyville and had started striking up conversations with them. Arctic and Glacier were glad for that. What really caught them off guard, were the young fillies and colts of Ponyville. The two would get bombarded with questions from the curious youngsters. While they have seen a dragon before, Spike, they never met a much older one and one that’s from a rare subspecies of dragon. So, Glacier would often be asked about Ice Dragons. And with Arctic, well, he wasn’t even of this world. They would ask him about his kind and sometimes ask him or Glacier to fly them around like they would do for the Crusaders and Spike.
On this warm day, the siblings were all sitting at Golden Oaks library. Spike was with them. The five of them were bumming it on the couch or the floor reading books. Well, except for Arctic. He was toying around with his elemental ice magic. He was creating multiple different types of sculptures. One of each of his siblings, the element bearers, Spike, even his parents, Queen Snowblossom, as well as the Royal Sisters, and Cadence.
Spike, noticing this, walked up and watched.
“Woah, are you making sculptures out of ice?” Spike asked.
“Yep. I often times like to toy around with my ice magic. I kinda recently started doing this.” Arctic said.
The others soon came up and observed the small ice sculptures.
“Woah! Now those look cool.” Glacier said.
“And incredibly accurate. I didn’t take you for a sculptor. I knew you enjoy drawing, but sculpting too?” Tundra said as she adjusted her glasses.
“Hey, gotta have hobbies. Otherwise, others will think you’re all boring.” Arctic said.
“What’s that? I’ve never seen that before.” Winter said as she pointed a hoof to a sculpture.
Among the sculptures, there were sculptures of other things. The trolly from their home, the steam loco, even a few trees. But there was one that looked out of place.
“I don’t remember what it’s called, or if this is how it looked. But I vaguely remember my birth-dad showing me something like this somewhere.” Arctic said.
He didn’t know he had made a little go-kart. When he was small, his birth-father would take him all over to many different places. Eventually, at some point, he had brought Arctic to a small go-kart track and they watched them race around the track for quite some time.
As he was trying to explain as best he could what it was, A low rumble had started up.
“What the? What’s going on?” Spike said.
“Don’t know.” Glacier said.
Just then, the rumbling stopped. They rushed out of the door and soon found a group of ponies all celebrating. Going up to them, they began to hear some of what was being said.
“Apple-tastic!” Shouted pinkie who was somehow just floating in the air. She looked over and saw the siblings and spike come over. Letting out a long loud gasp, Pinkie rushed over. “Hey guys!” Pinkie said as she jumped up onto Arctic’s shoulder and started pointing to her head with her hoof.
“I swear, you are a cat and you can’t convince me otherwise.” Arctic said as he started petting Pinkie’s head. He tilted his head slightly, thinking he heard Pinkie purr.
“We felt a rumble before we came out. What was going on?” Winter asked.
“There was a stampede. It almost came straight into Ponyville, but Applejack was able to save the town!” Twilight said.
“And it was awesome!” Rainbow shouted out.
“Oh, we simply must find a way to thank Applejack for Single-hoofedly saving the town.” Mayor Mare said.
“Oh, oh, I know! A PARTY!” Pinkie shouted out.
==========*************==========
After many muck up’s from the hooves of a very tired and delirious Applejack, which were, launching Rainbow Dash into the air resulting in the speed demon crash-landing into Golden Oak, getting multiple ponies sick with, quote, “Baked Bads”, and scaring baby bunnies so bad, a bunny stampede blows through Ponyville, Twilight confronted Applejack. Finally the stubborn mare allowed herself to get helped, after releasing she had only done half the orchard and the other half needed to be harvested.
The siblings and Spike were all at the lake. Rainbow Dash was with them trying to spare with Glacier. The Speed Demon had been wanting to test her metal at duking it out with the siblings. While they were doing that, Arctic was working on his Fire Elemental Magic. He was also trying to learn how to send letters with it, with Spike teaching him. Tundra and Winter were swimming when Twilight came up.
“Hey you guys!” Twilight called out.
“Hey Twilight!” They called out.
“What brings you out here Twilight?” Glacier asked as he ducked under Rainbow Dash who tried to kick him.
“I came to ask you all if you wanted to help Applejack at Sweet Apple Acres.” Twilight said.
“So that stubborn ol mare finally set aside her pride and is letting us help?” Tundra asked.
“Yeah.” Twilight said.
“I don’t mind helping.” Winter said.
“Neither do I. Could be fun.” Tundra said.
“It’ll be just like helping on Pascal’s farm back home.” Arctic said as he sent out a scroll. Only to have it reappear and bonk him on the head.
“Who’s Pascal?” Twilight asked.
“Pascal Harvest. He’s an earth pony from back home. His family owns one of the lower districts farms.” Winter said.
“Lower district? What the hay is that?” Rainbow asked.
“Part of our home sits underground. We all call it the Lower District.” Glacier said.
“An underground district!?” Twilight blurted out. Her eyes wide as saucers ready to start firing off questions and documenting it all. But she stopped herself. “So you’ll help.”
“Of course we will. Let’s go!” Arctic said as he got up and started to fly away with Spike on his back.
The others all followed after, making their way to Sweet Apple Acres, picking up, Pinkie, Rarity, and Fluttershy. After getting to the orchard, they all got to work. Though, Twilight when ever she could, got Arctic and Glacier to demonstrate the many ways they kicked the trees, getting the apples down. Applejack was still impressed. She had seen Arctic’s kicks and was really impressed with how well he does. But seeing Glacier do it? This was the first Dragon she had ever seen Applebucking.
At some point, the Siblings had begun to hum a song which the others joined in on. After everything was all said and done, they had sat down and were drinking some apple cider.
“I just have to ask. Where in Equestria did y’all learn to Applebuck?” Applejack said.
“We learned how to back home on one of our friends farms.” Winter said.
“Oh right. Your friends underground farm?” Twilight asked.
“What’s an underground farm?” Asked Pinkie who was laying on Arctic’s lap.
“Back home, we have something called the Lower District. While half of the kingdom sits within the mountains, another half sits underground.” Arctic said.
The six mares and spike were all stunned and silent. They had never heard of half a kingdom residing underground. Questions began to flood all of their minds. More specifically Twilight. The unicorn mare just needed to know more. Just then, Spike belched. Out of the flames emerged a scroll.
“Huh? A letter from Princess Celestia?” Twilight asked.
“Yup.” Spike said as he opened it.
“Well, what’s it say?” Fluttershy asked.
“To My dear Faithful Student, I request that you, your friends, and the four young siblings, Arctic Okami, Tundra Storm, Winter Winds, and Glacier the Dragon, make an appearance to Canterlot Castle. My Neice, Sister, and I wish to speak with you all Tomorrow evening. Sincerely, Princess Celestia.
The group were a bit surprised. Why did she want to talk to them?
“Guess we’ll be going to up to Canterlot tomorrow.” Fluttershy said.
“Oh I simply must get myself a new dress. I must look my best for the Princesses.” Rarity said as she bolted back to her home.
“Guess we’ll all need to look our best if we’re gonna go see all three Princesses.” Applejack said.
“But, the underground kingdom.” Twilight said. She really wanted to ask the siblings some questions.
“We could tell you about it after meeting the Princesses.” Tundra said.
“Aww.” Twilight said as she pouted. She desperately wanted to have her questions answered.
The siblings knew this, but decided to keep things to themselves just to mess with the unicorn. They all got up and left to go get themselves ready for tomorrow to go meet with the Princesses in Canterlot.
Hey everyone! So, I’ve been wanting to make redesigns of characters for my story, MLDB: Icebound. After some time, I finally made some designs. I might rework a few and if anyone’s got some suggestions, feel free to let me know. I’m currently working on redesigning Starlight glimmer and the Princess Cadence. But for now, here are my current redesigns.
It was the early morning of the next day. The Siblings and the element bearers along with Spike, we’re all sitting at the train station, waiting for the train to arrive.
“Jeez! Did we have to get up this early!?” Complained Rainbow Dash.
The group had woken up quite early. The train to Canterlot took some hours so they had to get up early in order to get there in later in the evening.
“Don’t be like that Dashie.” “Pinkie said. “You can get some sleep on the train.”
“And don’t you get enough sleep enough with all your napping?” Spike butted in.
The whole group had all seen Rainbow Dash, at various points in time, dozing on clouds multiple times. She often claimed she wasn’t dozing but simply resting her eyes. None of them believed that for even a second but none of them really cared to really argue with her on it.
“Look, I just don’t like getting up this early in the morning, ok?” Rainbow said.
The other just chuckled. Pinkie, as per usual, jumped up onto Arctic’s shoulder as her excitement flared up.
“What do you think the Princesses want to talk about? Think they want us to help plan a party? Oh, or maybe they want us to be a part of super secret spy organization!?” Pinkie said slipping on a skintight black outfit with night vision goggles.
“Ah don’t think it’s that Pinkie. Though, ah don’t know what the Princesses wanna talk about.” Applejack said.
“Guess we’ll have to find out once we get there.” Twilight said as she let out a small yawn.
A few moments later, with loud puffing and the blast of a whistle, the steam loco pulled into the station. The group all scurried onto the train desperate to find some seats and get a bit of sleep in before meeting with the Princesses. After nearing the Canterlot Station, and being awakened by the conductor, the group exited the train and begun to make their way to Canterlot Castle. As the walked, they all could see ponies staring at them.
“I say, what are all of them staring at?” Rarity asked as she looked around at the ponies.
“Oh, I know! It’s you!” Pinkie said.
“Me? Why would they be staring at me?” Rarity asked.
“Your face! You makeup! They’re all probably jealous of how sparklerific and dazzling your makeup looks!” Pinkie said as she bounced up and down looking at Rarity’s done up face.
Rarity had spent a considerable amount of time putting on make up before getting to the train station. She wanted to look her absolute best and so she used her best makeup which seemed to shine and sparkle in the sunlight.
“Oh my. Well, I don’t blame them. Not everypony can look as beautiful as moi.” Rarity said as she began to strut her stuff, trying her best to show off a bit.
“I don’t think it’s you they’re staring at Rarity.” Said Tundra, catching Rarity’s attention.
Looking to her, Rarity could see Tundra looking over to Arctic and Glacier. The two had uneasy expressions on their faces. She, along with all the others, began to put the pieces together. All of the ponies they walked past were staring at Arctic and Glacier. The ponies of Canterlot were all still quite afraid of the two and while some sat and stared in fear, a few retreated, doing their best to avoid them all together. The mood around the group had dropped quite a bit but after eventually reading the castle, their moods brightened.
Entering the castle, the group was escorted to the throne room by a small regiment of guards. After one guard walked in, he announced the arrival of the group and they all walked in. Upon seeing the group, Princess Celestia gave a broad smile, Princess Luna was just observing them, specifically Winter, Glacier, Tundra, and Arctic. Princess Cadence, unable to help herself, rushed down and performed the “Sunshine Dance” with Twilight. The others couldn’t help but smile at that.
“I’m glad to see you all made it here safely.” Said Princess Celestia. “Nothing bad happened on your way here did it?”
“Well, no, except the fact that ponies still seem to be afraid of me and Arctic.” Glacier said, a bit of bitter sadness seeping from his voice.
“Oh my. Well, my little ponies just need time. I’m sure they will warm up to you both quite soon.” Said Princess Celestia, giving them a warm smile.
“Now then, first I would like to ask, Tundra, Winter, Glacier, Arctic, how are you four fairing in Ponyville?” Princess Celestia asked.
The four siblings told her everything they had been experiencing while in Ponyville. The rather rocky first few days regarding Arctic and Glacier, how the two had become friends with the cmc, how the residents of Ponyville eventually came around with Arctic and Glacier. They even went over how they helped on the Apple family farm, sparring with Rainbow, and Spike teaching Arctic to use his Fire Elemental magic to send letters.
“It sounds like you all have had a rather eventful few weeks.” Celestia said.
“But that’s not what we wanted to talk about.” Cadence said catching the groups attention. “Arctic, Glacier, Winter, and Tundra, we wanted to learn about where you four came from.”
“Where we came from?” Asked Winter.
Celestia nodded her head slightly. “Indeed. Princess Cadence has explained that you four lived somewhere quite far from here.”
“That’s right your highness. We lived in a Kingdom called the Blizzard Kingdom.” Tundra said.
“We’ve never heard of such a kingdom. Thou art not lying to me, right?” Luna asked glaring at the siblings.
“N..no you’re highness.” Stuttered Glacier.
“Pray tell, is there a ruler in this kingdom?” Cadence asked.
“Yes, there is Princess.” Glacier Answered. “Her name is Queen Snowblossom.”
“Queen Snowblossom?” Asked Celestia?
“Yes your highness. Do you know her by chance? She’s an Alicorn just like you three.” Arctic asked.
The silence was deafening. The Princesses just stared all in various degrees of shock. The element bearers were also shocked. Even Twilight, who had pulled out a quill, ink, and paper to take notes, had stopped and stared. This unnerved the siblings greatly.
“Another Alicorn?” Asked Twilight. “T..that can’t be right, can it?”
“It’s true, our home is ruled by an Alicorn.” Winter said.
“Uh, Princess, do you know who Queen Snowblossom is?” Asked Twilight looking up to Princess Celestia.
“Neither my sister nor I have ever heard of this, Queen Snowblossom.” Celestia answered.
“Mine sister and I have lived for centuries and have never heard of her.” Luna retorted.
“If you would, could you please explain your home for us?” Cadence asked.
With a nod, the siblings began explaining things about their home. How it started, how it advanced, the backstory of Queen Snowblossom, at least, what they knew, they even went over the smaller things. Fluttershy perked up when the sibling got into the various animals that live in the kingdom. Animals she had never heard of before. Rainbow dash got excited when she learned that the Kingdom also had something roughly like the Wonderbolts. Applejack was amazed to hear that the kingdom had massive farmlands underground and was curious as to how that worked.
Pinkie Pie, who was sitting on Arctic’s shoulder, was already planning on a party to throw once she got to the Blizzard Kingdom. Rarity was imagining the different outfits she could design based around the Kingdom and wanted to go to see the fashion they had, and Twilight was just excited to go read the books they had. The Princesses just sat there. They were amazed and shocked to know that there was an entire kingdom they had no idea even existed, especially the fact that there was another Alicorn that existed.
Getting into the Siblings lives there, Luna perked up. Hearing that the siblings had been training with their homes Royal Guard peaked her interest. Being a warrior herself, she had begun sizing the siblings up. They seemed tough, but, then again, she couldn’t see how the four of them were able to battle with Sombra and squeak out a win against the dark King.
“If we may,” interrupted Luna, “we would like to see your might for ourselves.”
“What do you mean, Luna?” Asked Celestia, looking over to the Alicorn of the Night.
“Thou claims to have trained with Royal Guards. But we do not believe that. We wish to see for ourselves how mighty thou are. Come, let us use the training grounds. Prove to us that thou was strong enough to challenge and best the Dark King.” Luna said as she left her throne.
The group was confused. Staring at Luna, and the looking to each other, the siblings followed. The element bearers and Princesses Celestia and Cadence followed after them. Reaching the training grounds, multiple guards could be seen training. Straw dummies, hay bales, targets, bows and arrows, and multiple different weaponry lay neatly against nearby walls. Princess Cadence, seeming to glow with sheer happiness plastered across her face ran forward directly towards a stallion.
The stallion was big. He was shorter than Big Macintosh but bigger than Applejack. He wore no armor like the other guards, so his battle worn body was on full display. He held multiple scars from his time fighting in the Sombra War. His mane and tail were multi-toned with different shades of blue. His beard was scruffy but seemed to be well taken care off. His voice boomed and held a great sense of authority as he yelled at the other guards, trying to make them push themselves. Upon hearing the sound of a pony galloping toward him, he turned around. Flashing a smile he trotted up to Cadence and hugged her tight and kissed her on the lips.
Watching the scene confused the group, but they couldn’t help but smile. Leaning over to Twilight, Applejack asked,” Hey Twi? You’ve lived here fer a while, right? Do yah know who that is?”
Twilight, saying nothing, stormed over to the Stallion and Cadence. The stallion noticed twilight and his face lit up.
“Twily! I didn’t know you were here. What brings you…” the stallion could finish as Twilight had interrupted him.
“So, big brother, when we’re you going to tell me you and Cadence were dating?” Twilight asked.
This shocked the others. They never knew twilight had a brother, but to also learn that he was dating a Princess? They all just stared then started looking to each other, questions all popping into their heads.
Here’s my newest redesigns. Here we have, Princess Cadence, Stalight Glimmer, Trixie Lulamoon, Sunset Shimmer, and Twilight Sparkle. I redid my Twilight Design as I thought the first design was just bad. I’m quite proud of this one. Next I’ll be redesign Shining Armor and Big Mac.
