The Clash of Shape-Shifters
She was born in the dark breezes of the cold mountain region. Her coat was as black as night. Her eyes were a cold, indifferent blue. Her mane was purple, the color of airless blood. The horn on her head could pierce fog. Her wings could create blizzards if she ever chose to sacrifice her life. Upon finding her, Princess Luna dubbed her Tundra, named for the frozen wasteland in which she was discovered.
With aid from the thunder god Raiden, Tundra was raised to fight against the evils that Princess Celestia's love could not. Tundra's cryomancy, ice magic, rivaled that of the Lin Kuei warrior Sub-zero. She could conjure temporary clones and blades made from nothing but ice. Freezing an enemy for short bursts of time was child's play to her. Both Princesses had hoped that they would never need to resort to this weapon that had taken after their image.
In one of her training sessions, Tundra had discovered something beyond anyone's predictions. As she aimed a physical blow toward her training partner, her spiritual chi had locked onto her foe. In that instant, she had taken on both their form and their abilities. During that lapse in time, her own abilities were somehow blocked off. After instinctively redistributing her inner energy, she returned to her original alicorn form. A flash on her coat behind the wings indicated that her cutie mark appeared. The mark resembled a frozen eighth note, which stood for the abilities of ice magic and chi attuning.
For many years, Tundra had been shielded from public notice. Peaceful times required no violence. Even the returns of Nightmare Moon and Discord were solved through non-violent measures. However, when Emperor Shao Kahn of Outworld declared his challenge against the realm of Equestria, Tundra was immediately added to the combatants chosen. She wasn't given the choice to fight. She was only given the notice in her private training quarters. A heartless creature had no need for freedom, only masters to control her.
The tournament was to take place in Outworld. Lord Raiden would transport her and the other warriors of Equestria Realm. However, he could not participate in the tournament as it was not his realm to defend. Tundra and the others would be on their own. There were only two existing options: victory or death.
Ponies of peace were not ready for battles of blood lust and mad men. Their souls had been devoured by the sorcerer Shang Tsung upon their death or defeat. The slightly more fortunate felt the mercy of the jagged spike pits or the depths of the lavas outside of the organized arenas. One even experienced a painless death as the acid in the sewer ate his nervous system before the rest of his body.
Still, witnessing these deaths did not deter Tundra. She felt no pity. Apathy resided as a permanent resident in her soul. Her next matches would require her to face the demons of hell itself. There was no time for mourning casualties.
She gazed into the rage-filled eyes of the warrior before her. His rage-filled eyes matched his outfit in color. He carried two swords, though he rarely used them in the matches that Tundra had seen him. She planned to show him that his revenge against a previous Earthrealm assassin was all for naught.
As soon as the match started, the man released his signature kunai with chain.
"GET OVER HERE!"
Tundra would have none of that. She used the momentum from his pull to deliver a kick to his stomach, inadvertently attuning to his chi. She took on the shape of the not-quite-human and his bipedal stance. She decided to see if demons could experience burning pain.
She held a small smile under her newly formed mask at the realization that fires from below could hurt him. In his temporary paralysis, she pulled out both of her blades to do what the man should have done in his last fight. He was unprepared to be cut apart by his own swords. The demon was slain.
Tundra hit her wrists together and reattained her black-winged body. Mixed cries of outrage and awe met her ignorant ears as she walked away, feeling as empty about the whole ordeal as she felt about anything else.
The necromancer proved to be a greater challenge than his yellow-vested subordinate. He often summoned portals allowing his own escape and re-entering the arena at any time. This made close combat with him unpredictable. His constant use of green skull projectiles made offensive strategies difficult to connect. Tundra could not get a lock on his chi signature regardless of how she tried. She only had one option.
"Ki-ra-tai-yu!"
Her freezing spell held Quan Chi in place long enough for her to deliver the finishing strike. A quick flight followed by a stomp from above shattered the Netherrealm sorcerer into several purple-blooded parts. The observers were once again outraged that a foreigner was defeating Outworld. Still, Tundra paid no mind to their cries of disapproval. She was just following her destined path.
The tournament was coming to a rather gruesome climax. Were Tundra to win her next death match, Equestria would be safe for another 500 years. This was not her drive. That was just a side benefit. Her real goal was to fight a worthy opponent, one that could match her Shujinko-esque ability. The next match would give her just that.
The robed man was much older than his physical appearance led others to believe. Shang Tsung was Shao Kahn's second in command. As he stepped down from his seat to face the newest soul, he felt pride and anger overcome him at once. Tundra could only tremble with anticipation. She was Equestria's last remaining defender facing the tournament's very host. Tension had not been this high since the victorious streak of Liu Kang, champion of Earthrealm.
"FIGHT!"
Wasting no time, Shang Tsung released a flurry of flaming skulls. Tundra countered with a volley of ice blasts. Readjusting his aim, the sorcerer pulled his fiery ammunition from underneath the cold alicorn. She was not ready for this.
The attack placed her within range of Shang Tsung's signature attack, the soul eater. On instinct she reacted with her chi attuning at the same instant. The result was a switch of physical forms but not minds. To say the situation was awkward was an understatement. Nevertheless, neither combatant gave an inch.
Calling on their respective signature powers, Shang Tsung and Tundra had changed this Mortal Kombat final from a one-on-one into a battle royale of souls. An Equestrian guard launched magic missiles at Twilight Sparkle's bubble shield. Rarity's gem boulder swept Cyrax off his cybernetic feet. Applejack tussled with an unmoving Goro. There was even a brief rematch between Subzero and Scorpion.
Eventually, both combatants had exhausted their arsenals of souls. Physical strain was also apparent on either side. Without waiting for the opposition to recover, Shang Tsung delivered a neck-snapping punch forcing Tundra to the ground unconscious. While this normally would have pleased Shao Kahn, the emperor was strangely silent and disappointed.
Within seconds, hundreds of green souls escaped from the fallen alicorn before the dead sorcerer resumed his default form. A slap of the wrists reverted the standing bipedal to resume her original form as well. Equestria's victory would not exist if Shao Kahn had anything to say about it.
"You are NOTHING!"
When the emperor finished his giant leap into the arena, the entire stadium shook like an earthquake. Tundra was not worried. She would annihilate any being who challenged her.
It was her destiny.
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is property of Hasbro Studio. Mortal Kombat is property of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. I gain no profit from this.
(Semi-Epilogue) The Legacy of Tundra
The Legacy of Tundra
Following the previous tournament, Tundra returned to Equestria. The souls that she and Shang Tsung had absorbed were safely redistributed back to their rightful owners. For years, the cold-hearted alicorn returned to her training in the secret chambers beneath the crystal caverns. Here, she honed her precision, her deadliness, and her reflexes. Even the cunning changelings had no knowledge of this place.
But the cyber Lin Kuei were more adept at discovering hidden back doors. They were the ones who seemed to conjure their presence from out of thin air. Only green data streams signified the difference between their powers and those of the unicorns' teleportation magic. Tundra was briefly caught off guard by their appearance, but not long enough that she couldn't react.
A few hoof kicks sent three of them crashing to the cavern floors. Another was met with a face full of ice shuriken. Yet another found out just how cold Tundra's exhaled breath could be. She immediately followed up by slicing through him with an ice blade in addition to cutting two more of the metallic assassins through their waistlines. Blue blood painted the ground in addition to scattered pieces of metal and bones.
One last cyber Lin Kuei appeared after the initial wave of attackers. Tundra recognized him as one of the followers of Shao Kahn. His maroon enhancements were enough for her to identify him as Sektor. Of all the Lin Kuei who had undergone the Cyber Initiative, he was considered one of the two best fighters. But as usual, Tundra remembered the facts with little enthusiasm. Reputation did not make a warrior. Only his strength and victories did that.
"I will show no mercy!" Sektor declared in his robotic tone.
Tundra hardly batted her eyelids as she ducked under his dual-wield flamethrowers. As the flames died down, she drove her hoof in an uppercut into his chin. The collision with metal let loose a small ringing noise as Sektor stumbled back a bit. But it wasn't long before he transferred his data in a green stream through the floor. He caught Tundra off guard by appearing underneath her and punching her with an uppercut of his own.
Sektor followed up his one-up with a missile that was locked and loaded. It fired from his inner chambers. The explosion sent Tundra spinning to the floor. While she didn't voice it, her pain was obvious. Bones were probably misaligned and internal bleeding was highly probable.
Of course, warriors were foolish if they thought that she couldn't keep fighting through that. Using the technique that had earned her cutie mark in the past, she attuned to her opponent's energy before standing up on two legs. With her new temporary powers, she flowed into the floor and appeared underneath the original Sektor. The force alone was enough to send him flying. She fired a barrage of missiles at him. All four of his limbs were destroyed in the explosions as was his head and body. As more blue blood painted the cavern floor, she turned around and assumed her default form.
"Fatality," she muttered as she resumed her training in freezing stalactites.
A/N: Okay, so I was mistaken. This is a one-and-a-half-shot.
