Spearhead from Space
The weather was brisk and bitterly cold, as it always was in the uncontrolled polar caps, but Cold Sheer didn’t mind at all. In fact, he loved this, the frozen wastelands where only the truly dedicated could survive. Not that he was in any danger though, as he was no more than a mile from the nearest weather station, which helped maintain the climate of the crystal empire. The stallion was climbing the ice sheet as he made his way to a cave carved onto the ice sheet. This cave was not natural, however. Cold Sheer, as part of a scientific research team, had co-opted the stations ionizer, the device which kept the glaciers slow, almost inevitable, march at bay. Having focused it at one specific area had drilled a rather impressive shelter as Cold entered the artificial structure.
Reaching in his bag, he brought forth several containers and an ice pick. His mission was to collect samples of the ice, which hadn’t seen the light of Celestia in eons. With it, he could expand the collective knowledge of early Equestrian history, perhaps even discover information about the world in a time before Celestia and Luna appeared. This was what pushed him, the discovery of knowledge, especially when it came to the Arctic. As a young colt, the idea of the Arctic always intrigued him, so much so that when he attended college, he had received a degree in climate and meteorological sciences. This was a rare accomplishment for an earth pony, but Cold Sheer had proven himself worthy of the degree. In fact, that’s why he was chosen to lead the scientific expedition, as his knowledge in this inhospitable environment was invaluable.
After setting up a small portable light, he started to work on the ice. After a few minutes of excavating around the back of the cave, he noticed something. There was a shape in the ice. At first Cold sheer thought it was a trick of the light or an unusual ice formation. However, digging closer, the shape became much better defined and was clearly some form of creature which he did not recognize. Cold Sheer stop his excavation and soon realized what he had discovered and decided to hurry back to the base to get more help in extracting the mysterious creature.
Whoosh Whoosh Whoosh
In the middle of a rather overgrown section of the Crystal Empire, a blue police box seemed to appear out of thin air, slowly fading in before becoming solid.
The doors of the box soon opened and a rather curiously dressed pony emerged. Dressed in a frock coat and plaid pants, the white maned pony seemed rather weak.
After walking a few steps from the box, the pony collapsed on the ground. He was muttering “No, no, no,” as he fell.
Princess Cadence, ruler of the Crystal Empire and host of the Equestrian Games, was fed up. She was now arguing with one of her guards in her bedroom.
“Your majesty, we need to accompany you wherever you go,” The guard said.
“I’m going to the washroom and there is no way anyone is following me in there,” Princess Cadence angrily replied. Taking a moment, Cadence took a deep breath and calmed herself. “I know you mean well but I still need some privacy and I feel you and your guards are suffocating me.”
“Sorry, mum, but it’s SOP when on orange alert,” The guard replied.
“And just what is orange alert?” Cadence asked.
The guard looked a bit nervous as he spoke, “I don’t know, mum. I’m just following orders.”
“Well I have new orders for you then.” Cadence replied. “You and your guards are to report to your commanding officer and asked for your next assignment and tell him I sent you.”
As the guards left the room, Cadence drew a sigh of relief and laid down on her bed. A short while later though, another one entered.
“I thought I told you to leave,” Cadence said, tired more than anything.
“I have the report you asked for,” the guard replied.
“Oh, okay,” Cadence said, standing up properly now, “Let’s have it.”
“No major incidents so far in the Empire,” The guard said. “But there have been several minor reports coming in. Nothing extreme so far, but there have been several fights between visitors and the natives of the empire, mostly localized at bars and other such establishment. Only about two dozen hospitalization have been reported from these occurrences, but estimates would suggest that that number could be doubled as many go without treating their injuries until the next day.” The guard finished, looking back up at Cadence.
“Anything else?” Cadence asked.
“Only that the fights seemed to have occurred between ponies and griffons.” The guard concluded.
“Thank you, your dismissed,” Cadence said. The guard left the room as Cadence entered her bathroom. Turning on the tub, she settled down for a nice relaxing bath. “I never said running the games would be easy, but come on!” she said before enjoying her small break.
“I can’t believe we’re in the Crystal Empire!” the grey and yellow Pegues said after exiting the train. “And with the Equestria Games going on, I’m sure I’ll be able to get the big scoop that will land me the front page back home.”
“But weren’t you a mailmare like three weeks ago?” said the rather lanky Featherweight.
“Uh, let’s just say me and my boss there were having some creative differences,” Derpy said, laughing nervously. “But let bygones be bygones. I’m now going to be Equestria number one newsmare.”
“And what made you decide to go into reporting anyways?” Featherweight asked.
“I’m always seem to be in the right place at the right time.” Derby replied. “So I figured I’d use my good luck for something.”
As she was talking, Derby accidently walked into a divot in the pavement. Losing her balance Derby crashed into a nearby stand.
“Hey, are you alright?” The stand owner asked her.
“Yeah, I’m fin-“she sputtered as stood up, before sitting back down. Her ankle hurt and she couldn’t stand on it.
“Looks like you twisted your hoof,” the shopkeeper said before looking closer at the damage. “It’s worse than I thought. We should probably have a doctor look at it.”
“Its fine, I’ll just walk it-“Pain shot through Derpy’s leg as she once again attempted to stand up. “Maybe you're right,” She said. She turned to Featherweight. “Well, it looks like I’m out of the story for now. Go take some nice pictures for the paper and we’ll meet up later.”
“Don’t you think it’s dangerous for a colt like me to just go wandering around?” Featherweight asked.
“Well, go find your parents first,” Derpy said, “The paper didn’t bring them along for nothing.”
“Are you sure you’ll be alright?” Featherweight asked.
“I’ll be fine,” Derpy responded. “Just got to stay off my hooves for a while.”
“Come on, hospital’s this way,” the shopkeeper said, helping Derpy walk.
“Catch up with you soon Featherweight,” Derpy said as she and the shopkeeper started to limp towards the hospital.
“What a beautiful place.” Two young ponies were walking through the Central Empirical Park enjoying the scenery.
“What’s that?” one of them asked, spying a rather out of place box.
“Don’t know, let’s have a look.” The other said.
Moving closer to the blue box, they noticed a white maned pony lying unconscious on the ground.
“Hey, buddy, are you alright?” one said, nudging him. The pony on the ground didn’t reply.
“I think he needs help.” The pony closest to the white hair one.
“Alright, will use this,” the other said, pointing at the box. “It says Police on it, so it must be some kind of communications box. We’ll be able to send for help.” Turning to the box, the pony tried to open the door. “Thing’s locked.”
“Well, come on, this poor fellow need to see a doctor right away,” the one closest to the unconscious pony said, lifting him onto his back.
“Right,” the other said, and she then helped her friend carry the unknown pony to the nearest hospital.
“Alright, set it down here,” Cold Sheer had just entered the bases lab as several other ponies were dragging a large slab of ice into the room. They lifted it up and placed it on one of the workbenches.
“Thank you,” Cold Sheer said as the ponies exited the room a bit grouchy. Outpost 7 was not the friendliest place but it was to be expected. When Cold Sheer had been given a Royal charter to examine the ice bed, it had also given him full authority over the outpost, including the staff. The staff was willing to accommodate Cold and his team, but they did have a job to do and did not like being interrupted, especially when they were being asked to go out to the glacier. Their job was to hold back the glacier, being undermanned at the ionizer to go ice fishing on it was not the way to do their job.
Soon the rest of Cold Sheer’s team entered. A group of four ponies now stood around the large slab of ice. They could all see the shape imbedded in the ice.
“It almost looks like a dragon,” one of the scientist, named Penley, said.
“It’s much too small for it to be a dragon,” another, named Storr, replied.
“Well it could be an ancient ancestor to modern dragons,” Cold said.
“Please don’t bring your radical ideas into this,” the final one, Clent, said.
“You can’t denied the evidence before Clent,” Cold replied. Cold did not like Clent, given his more conservative, and in Cold’s opinion, closed-minded opinions, but he had connections in the ministry and was an excellent writer of scientific papers, which unfortunately made him necessary on this expedition.
“We not here to change the establishment and this thing, whatever it is, won’t help you disprove generations of scientific thought,” Clent replied.
“We’ll soon see about that,” Cold Sheer muttered under his breath.
“Once you two have stopped arguing with one another,” Penley said, holding an acetylene torch in one hoof, “Maybe we can actually see what this thing is. Now, where is that blasted mask?” Penley soon found the welders mask and placed it over his face.
Lighting the torch, Penley lowered the flame until a short blue fire was erupting out of the tip. He lowered it slowly to the slab on the table. The ice was rapidly becoming water.
“Go gently, we don’t want to damage it,” Storr said.
“I know, I know,” Penley said, being extremely careful with the flame.
Soon the ice had thinned considerably and Penley stopped. “Okay now we have to be extremely care-.“ He was cut off as a fist burst from inside its tomb.
Cadence had just finished with her bath when Shining Armor crashed through the bedroom doors. “Where are the guards I ordered here?” He said in a panicked tone.
“Wait, you’re the one who ordered the guards to follow me everywhere?” Cadence asked.
“Yeah, you know where they are?” Shining replied.
“Yes, I ordered them to go away,” Cadence respond.
“WHAT!” Shining yelled, “Okay, we have to get them back right now. With the games going on right now we need to be prepared for anything. Changeling, Windigos, Yeti.”
“Shining,” Cadence tried to say, but Shining Armor wasn’t paying attention.
“A swarm of parasprites, bunny stampede, alien invasion, the return of the nightmare force,” Shining continued.
“Shining!” Cadence said with more force, but Shining Armor continued.
“Clockwork robots, insane clowns, Fluttershy turning to the dark side and unleashing all the powers of chaos and hell on Equestria,” Shining rambled.
“Wait, what?” Cadence said at the last suggestion. This seemed to finally break Shining Armor’s rant.
“Well, I mean Fluttershy is friends with Discord and the Cerberus that guards Tartarus, so if she ever really wanted to, she could wipe Equestria off the map,” Shining Armor replied a bit calmer than expected.
“First off,” Cadence began, “Fluttershy is one of the nicest and most gentle ponies in Equestria and would never do something like that. Second, YOU NEED TO CALM DOWN!” It was at this point that Cadence remembered she was married to Twilight Sparkle’s brother, and couldn’t help but laugh a little at the family resemblance.
Shining Armor took a deep breath. “You’re right, but you shouldn’t have sent the guards away. This is a pretty dangerous time right now.”
“Then where are your guards?” Cadence asked a bit coyly.
“They’re Er, uh?” Shining fumbled.
“Don’t think I can’t handle things by myself?” Cadence replied.
“No, it just, um” Shining Armor continued before sighing. “I just want to make sure you're safe.”
“I know,” Cadence said, kissing Armor on the cheek. “But I think an alicorn princess can defend herself.”
“But what if there was a bomb in here, or something else? I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t do all that I could to protect you.” Shining Armor said.
“That’s sweet, but nothing major’s going to happen,” Cadence reassured her husband. “And besides, the guards will be of much better use out of the castle. There are a few too many bar fights for my liking.”
“Then we’ll have to get on it at once,” Shining Armor replied, turning to the door.
“Well, I think it can wait a little while,” Cadence said seductively, grabbing Shining Armor and dragging him towards the bed.
All of a sudden, a guard burst through the door.
“Your Royal Highnesses, I have important news,” he said.
“What is it, Commander,” said Shining Armor, turning to face the guard.
The guard handed a message in his hoof to Shining Armor, who shared it with Cadence. “We have reports coming in that Glacial Outpost 7 has been destroyed.”
Next Time: The Monster of Peladon
Author's Note
Second story. Yay.
Thanks to E3gner for proofreading.
In grand Doctor Who tradition, Derby sprained her ankle while walking over level ground. Also, I made the guards British for some reason.
Just got the Ice Warriors DVD so I said I would post something and hear it is. Had this one on the backburner for a while. Didn't want to publish it until I was finished with my first story, but that's taking some time. Still working on it though.
This will be updated irregularly, but I'm thinking I could post unedited chapters here while editing goes on for my first story.
