My Little Pony: Equestrian Destinies

by TheEpicKyurem

Rating: teen
Tags: Other, Fluttershy, Adventure, Twilight Sparkle, Crossover, Main 6, Romance, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 30913

When a new threat falls upon Equestria, a lone pegasus must team up with Equestria's greatest heroes to save it.

Freeze was just an ordinary pegasus stallion, until he moves to Ponyville and ventures into the Everfree. Finding a large ice pillar, he gains a new power that would keep the peaceful land of Equestria from harm. Soon, however, a new threat looms over the land, and Freeze will have to join forces with the Mane 6 to defend Equestria. Will they be able to save their homeland, or will Equestria fall into chaos?

Published 2017-12-09 18:30:06 UTC
Last updated 2018-10-13 01:39:59 UTC

A New Start

The Friendship Express slowed down as it approached Ponyville station, before coming to a complete stop. The doors of the train opened, and out of one of the cars came a set of gray hooves. They belonged to a pegasus stallion, who looked in the direction of Ponyville, giving a small smile. He had a light-blue mane with a single yellow streak in it, and his tail was the same color, only there was more than one streak in it. Walking off the platform, he ruffled his wings a little, stiff from the train ride. They were the same color as his coat, but changed to light-blue as they got closer to the tips. On his back was a gray saddle bag that had some spending money in it.

Stepping off of the platform, he made his way over to the town. He soon approached the border of Ponyville. Taking a deep breath, he looked around at all of the other ponies: ponies that he hoped to be friends with.

“So.. This is Ponyville,” he said as he walked down the main street, giving small nods to passing ponies. “Pretty peaceful place.” He continued down the road, before stopping in front of the Town Hall. In the distance, he could see Princess Twilight’s castle, its crystals gleaming from the light from the sun hitting them. A few pegasus ponies were moving clouds away from the skies above the town.

Suddenly, the peaceful scene was interrupted by a pink blur crashing into him, knocking him off of his hooves. He landed on the ground with a hard thud, giving a small cry of pain. Getting up slowly, he rubbed his head, wincing.

“Agh!” he said. “What the heck was that for?” Looking up, he could see a pink earth pony mare in front of him. She had a big grin on her face, and was bouncing up and down.

“Sorry, but you’re the first new pony I’ve seen in a long time!” she said. “Well, it wasn’t really that long of a time because it’s been, what, a year or two since Cranky moved to Ponyville, but that’s still a good amount of time! Oh, I can’t wait for you to see the party I’m planning for you! It’s going to be so amazing! I-”

“Stop!” the pegasus yelled, covering his ears, before realizing he was being a little rude to her. “Sorry, you were just talking so much and so fast, I couldn’t really comprehend what you were saying. But you should really watch where you are going!”

“Oh, it’s alright!” the pink pony said, the smile still on her face, but she had stopped bouncing. “Oops! I forgot to introduce myself. My name’s Pinkie Pie! I’m Ponyville’s number one party thrower, and I love to see all of my friends be happy and smile! And since you live in Ponyville now, that means you’re my friend, too!”

The pegasus stallion tilted his head in confusion. “Wait, you already consider me a friend?” he asked, before shaking his head. “Never mind that. The name’s Freeze. It great to meet you.” He stuck out his hoof to her, a small smile on his face.

Pinkie took his hoof and shook it vigorously, making him move up and down. “It’s great to meet you too, Freezey!” she said, before finally stopping her shaking. “I’ve gotta go and get the final preparations ready for the party, but I’ll see you later!” With that, she bounced away, leaving a confused and dazed Freeze in her wake. Shaking his head, he looked in the direction Pinkie bounced off to.

“I’m never going to figure out that mare, am I?” he asked himself, before turning the opposite direction. “Well, I better go and see if the movers got all of my stuff to the house.” With that, he walked down an adjoining street, towards the house that he had recently bought.

The house was on a small street that branched off of the main street of the town. It was a one story house, with a little garden in front and a couple windows looking out. Getting out a key from his saddlebag, Freeze opened the door to his new home, looking inside. The interior was very clean, as is somepony had took the time to wash the whole place before they moved out. There was a small gray sofa near one of the windows, and a table in front of it. He made his way to his new bedroom, which didn’t have much save for a bed, a fan, and a dresser.

“Well, at least they didn’t displace anything,” he said to himself. “I’m going to have to buy some more decorations, though. It’s kind of drab in here.”

Suddenly, he got a splitting headache, and held his head. He gave a small shout in surprise and pain. “What the heck?” he said to himself, not sure why he has having such a bad headache. Soon after it started, he began to hear a voice in it, but it was too faint to make out. It sounded old and tough, like it was coming from some sort of wild creature. Soon after the voice spoke, however, the headache stopped, and Freeze found himself laying on the floor, his hooves over his head.

“What in Equestria was that?” he asked himself, a little freaked out by the experience. “That was really weird. I never had something like that before. Maybe I should get myself checked out..”

Shaking his head, he walked outside, hoping that the fresh air would help to clear his senses. Making his way off of the street he lived on, he saw that he ended up near the Town Hall. He at down on the steps of it, and began to think a little about what had happened.

“What was that voice..,” he wondered. “And what was it trying to tell me?”

New Friends

Yellow. That’s all he could see for the moment. It took him a while for his vision to come into focus, but when he did, he was shocked at what he saw.

“Are you alright?” a yellow mare said, worry in her eyes. Freeze jumped back a little in surprise, before staring at her for a minute.

“Um, uh, yeah. I-I’m fine,” he says, his voice wavering, a blush appearing on his face. “Sorry, I was just caught off guard for a moment.” He began to look her over. She was a yellow pegasus with a pink mane and bright blue eyes. She looked to be about his age. Her cutie mark was of three pink and blue butterflies. She took a step back when he answered, as if unsure of what to do.

“Oh, um, well, I’m glad that you’re ok,” she says in a timid voice. “It’s just that you, well, you were sitting there for a while and I thought that there was something wrong..”

“Oh, was I?” Freeze said. “I must have zoned out. Sorry if I worried anypony. I was just thinking about some stuff.”

“Well, um, I’m glad that you’re ok,” she said softly. She turned around and started to walk away, trying to hide a small blush creeping across her face. “Who was that stallion?” she asked herself. “I haven’t seen him around here before..”

Freeze watched as she walked off, before shaking his head and standing up.

“Who was that?” he asked himself. “And why did she ask if I was alright? I don’t even know her.”

The sun was setting as Freeze made his way back to his house. His mind was wandering at the moment, and he couldn’t stop thinking about the voice he heard in his head and the mare he met near the Town Hall. He was very tired, and just wanted to go to sleep. Unfortunately for him, life had other plans.

He walked up to the door of his house and turned the doorknob, opening it. He gave a small yawn upon entering the house, before turning the lights on so he could see where he was going. When he turned on the lights, however, there was a loud blast and a wave of streamers, balloons and confetti washed over him, knocking him off of his hooves. Pushing the streamers from his eyes, he shook his head and got up, only to see that almost all of the residents of Ponyville were in his house!

“Wha- What the heck!?” he stammered, spitting out some confetti that got in his mouth. “What is all of this!?” His right eye started to twitch.

Suddenly, a pink blur covered his vision, and he was greeted by the pink mare that he had met before.

“Hey there!” she said, as energized as ever. “So, were you surprised? Were ya, were ya?”

“What is all of this!?” Freeze said, almost shouting. “It’s almost eight at night!”

“Don’t you forget, silly? This is the party I planned for you!” Pinkie said, still smiling.

Freeze’s eye stopped twitching, and he just stood there for a moment, a blank expression on his face as the gears in his brain tried to work out what is going on. Several seconds later, he facehooved, giving a small growl.

“Celestia darn it!” he exclaimed. “I completely forgot! I am so sorry, but I’ve just been through alot today, you know?”

“Oh, it’s alright!” Pinkie told him. “I heard from Fluttershy that she found you really deep in thought and that she was kind of worried you passed out or something. Well, I gotta g and see if everything is in perfect shape, but I’ll see you later. Bye!” With that, she bounced off to another part of the party.

‘Fluttershy.. So that’s her name..,’ he thought to himself. ‘Maybe I’ll see her again here.’ A low growl suddenly emitted from his stomach. “I hadn’t had much to eat today. Maybe I should see what kind of food Pinkie made for the party.”

Freeze walked over to the refreshments table, where an assortment of sweets and drinks were set up. He grabbed a small slice of cake and took a bite out of it.

“Hmm. This is pretty good,” he said after swallowing. He continued to eat the cake, unaware of a purple mare walking up behind him. She tapped him a little with her hoof, and he turned around, a small piece of frosting on the left side of his mouth. When he saw who it was, however, he immediately stood up straight, as if he was a soldier standing to attention.

“Oh sweet Celestia!” he exclaimed, before quickly bowing. “I- it’s an honor to meet you, Princess!”

Princess Twilight Sparkle stood in front of the bowing stallion, rolling her eyes. “You really don’t need to do that,” she said. “I don’t really like it when other ponies bow to me.”

Freeze quickly got up blushing from embarrassment. “Oh, of course, sorry! Whatever you say, Princess!” he said, his voice shaky.

“Please, just call me Twilight,” she said, a small smile on her face. “I just wanted to welcome you to Ponyville. Trust me, you’re going to love it here. Your name’s Freeze, right?”

“Yeah,” he says, nodding, before getting an idea. ‘Wait a minute, maybe she could help me with the voice that I heard earlier today,’ he thought to himself. ‘She is a Princess, after all.’

“Well, I hope that you will have many good memories here, and maybe make some new friends,” Twilight said. “If you need any help, my door is always open.” With that, she started to walk away.

“Wait!” Freeze exclaimed, making Twilight turn her head back towards him. “Actually, there is something you can help me with right now.”

“Oh really?” she said, a small bit of surprise in her voice before walking back to him. “Well, what is it?”

Freeze closed his eyes for a second, before taking a deep breath. “The thing is, I heard a voice in my head earlier today,” he said. “I don’t know why or how, but it sounded old, and like it came from some sort of large creature. I was hoping that you could help me to figure out where it might have come from.”

Twilight stood there for a moment, trying to process what Freeze just said, before nodding. “Of course I’ll help you. I think I can research a bit on the subject and try to find the origin of the voice for you. Maybe Starlight can help to-” she stopped suddenly when she saw Freeze holding his head and giving a small shout of pain. She stood there for a moment, unsure what to do. “Freeze? Freeze! Are you alright!?”

Freeze gave another shout of pain, this time a little louder, before he began to feel a little woozy. “Ugh..,” he said. “Twilight… I…” It was all he said before he fainted.

Darkness. It was all he saw for the moment. He still felt a bit dizzy, but after a minute or so he got up slowly, shaking his head. As he got up, he could start to see the landscape around him. It looked like some sort of forest, with large trees that covered the sky above. A small stream trickled close by, and he could hear the rustle of leaves in the wind. The sounds of birds and other animals were in the air. It looked like any other forest, but he felt like there was something unsettling about this one. Something… wrong.

“What is this place?” he asked himself, taking a few steps forward. In the dim light, he soon saw a small dirt path. “Well, better see where this leads. It’s not like I have any other choice.”

It felt like he was following the path forever, but eventually, he came into a small clearing. There were not as many trees, so the sunlight was able to get through to the ground easily. However, there was something in the center of the clearing that caught Freeze’s eye. It looked like a jagged pillar made of ice, with ice surrounding it. It looked impossible, however, since it was the middle of summer, and there was a large amount of sunlight hitting the surface of the ice.

“What... What is that?” he said, cautiously approaching the strange structure. Suddenly, he started to hear a voice coming from it, or rather, a voice in his head.

“I have been waiting for you..,” it said, the voice low and gruff. “You are the one who will be the savior of this world, but you will not be able to do it alone. You will need my help.”

“Who... Who are you?” Freeze asked, fear creeping into his voice.

“That is not important now,” the voice said. “What is important is that you find me in the real world. I will be in the exact same place you have found me here, but know this. It will not be as easy to get to me in the real world than here. Good luck, young pony..”

“Wait, what do you mean it will not be as easy? That I will be the savior? What is this all about!” he shouted, before everything turned black.

The Ice Pillar

Freeze opened his eyes slowly, letting out a slow moan of pain. He could hear voices by him, but he couldn’t make out what they were saying. Sitting up, he saw that he was on the couch in his living room, with a few blankets over him. He could see seven mares nearby, talking to each other. He recognized some of them, but some of them he hadn’t seen before. At the sound of his voice, the mares looked towards him, relief on their faces.

“Oh, good! You’re awake!” Twilight said, breathing out a small sigh. “I was worried that something had happened to you. You were out for a while.”

“How long was I out for?” Freeze asked, his voice sounding a little tired.

“About a few hours,” a cyan pegasus mare said, walking up to him. “You were mumbling things in your sleep, too. Something about being the ‘savior of this world’. What was that about?”

“Rainbow Dash!” a white unicorn mare said, stomping her hoof on the floor. “He is just waking up, and you have to ask a question right away? Honestly, I don’t know what I am going to do with you.”

“It’s fine,” Freeze says, shaking his head. “It’s just that… Something weird happened while I was unconscious, like a vision almost.” As soon as he said that, Twilight rushed up to him, a tint of fear in her face.

“A vision!?” she yelled. “Tell. Me. Everything!”

“Alright, alright,” he said, a little creeped out by her sudden rush to him. He then began to explain what was in his dream: about the forest, the ice pillar, and the voice. When he was done explaining, the seven mares were looking at him in shock, as if they were unable to believe what he just said.

“So, let me get this straight,” the cyan mare, whose name was presumably Rainbow Dash, said to him. “You woke up in this dark forest, found a strange ice pillar, and then heard a voice from it that basically said you would save Equestria from something. Is that right?”

“Yeah,” Freeze told her, before looking down at the floor. “But why me? I’m just an ordinary pegasus. How can I have to power to save Equestria from some great evil?”

“Well, the voice did say that you needed to find the pillar in the real world,” Twilight said to him. “And if my hunch is correct, I would say that the forest you were in is the Everfree Forest. Maybe if we search there, we may be able to find the ice pillar.”

“Yeah, but the Everfree is dangerous,” an orange earth pony with a stetson hat on said. said. “If you want to find that pillar, you’ll need some help.”

“And that’s where we come in!” exclaimed Rainbow. “We’ll help you find that pillar, no problem.”

“Wait, you’ll really do that?” Freeze asked, looking around at them.

“Of course!” the white unicorn mare said, a small smile on her face. “We’ve been in the Everfree many times before, so we know most of the dangers that lurk within it. Plus, maybe we can get Zecora to help too!” Freeze couldn’t help but give a small grin to this, before getting off the couch and standing up. A determined expression came across his face.

“Well, what are we waiting for then?” he said. “Let’s find that pillar!”

“Ugh, it feels like we’ve been searching forever, and not a single glimpse of the pillar! Twilight, are you sure it’s here?” said Rainbow, getting a little impatient.

“The way Freeze described the forest, I’m almost certain it’s in here somewhere,” Twilight told her. “But even I’m starting to have my doubts. Are you sure you described the forest right, Freeze?”

The eight ponies had trekked to the deepest parts of the Everfree Forest to locate the mysterious ice pillar Freeze had seen in his vision. So far, however, there was no sign of it.

“Yeah, I’m sure I described it correctly,” Freeze said to her. “It just felt so… vivid. Like I was actually there.”

“I’m sure that we will find it, it just might take a while,” Fluttershy said from the back. She had been quiet for most of the trip, but out of all of them she was the most optimistic.

“Well, it feels like we’ve been searching for it forever!” Rainbow yelled. “We better find it soon, or I’m heading back! This trip seems like a wild-” she suddenly stopped, hearing a distinct howl coming from behind the group.

“U-um, T-Twilight?” Fluttershy asked, her voice filled with fear. “W-what was that?”

“Timberwolves!” Twilight whispered. “Stay still. Maybe they won’t notice us if we do.”

The group stayed silent, listening for the timberwolves. After a few minutes, the group began to think that they had wandered away and that they were safe, before a shadow leaped out of the leaves and landed in front of them. When it landed, they could see the full detail of the creature. It looked similar in shape to a wolf, but instead of being made of flesh, it was made of twigs, leaves and branches. It had bright yellow eyes that looked over the group, and a low growl escaped from its throat. Suddenly, it let out a loud howl, presumably to tell the rest of its pack about the prey it found.

“Run!” Twilight yelled, and the group turned around and ran for their lives, scared out of their minds. The timberwolf started to chase them, and soon more timberwolves came out of the shadows and joined it. The path was very narrow, so they did not have much space to spread out. Suddenly, they came to a point in the path where it split in two. As the approached it, Freeze jumped up and turned around, facing the timberwolves.

“You guys go on ahead!” he shouted. “I’ll handle the timberwolves!”

“What!?” Twilight yelled, stopping for a moment. “Are you crazy? You’ll get killed!”

“It’s a chance I have to take!” he yelled back. “I’ll lead them down the other path, you girls get to safety!”

Twilight looked at him for a moment, some tears in her eyes, before wiping them away and nodding to him. She then lead the rest of the group down one of the paths. Freeze turned back to the direction of the timberwolves, getting into his fighting stance.

“Hey uglies!” he yelled. “Over here!” He raced down the other path, trying to get the timberwolves off of his friends tails. Unfortunately for him, they weren’t as dumb as they looked. They saw the larger group go down the other path and, hoping for a bigger meal, raced down the path they had taken, pursuing the unexpecting mares.

Meanwhile, Freeze was unaware that the timberwolves had taken the other path, and kept on running. He soon came to a small clearing, which was lit up by the light of the moon overhead. Turning around, he was ready to fight off the timberwolves, but to his surprise, they were nowhere to be seen.

“Maybe they gave up,” he told himself. “I was probably too fast for them.” He gave a small chuckle and turned to face the clearing, but what he saw inside of it almost took his breath away. There, in the middle of the clearing, stood a sharp pillar made of ice - the same exact one from his dream. Cautiously, he took a few steps towards it, before hearing the same voice he had heard before in his head.

“So.. You have come..,” it said, almost sounding like it was not surprised. “I knew you would find me. I just didn’t know it would be this soon.”

“Who… Who are you?” he asked, taking a few more steps towards it. “Why did you want me to find you? And what did you mean by I will be the savior of Equestria?”

The voice gave a small chuckle. “So many questions, but it is expected,” it told him. “You will get all of your answers in due time, but for now, there is something else that we must discuss.”

“What’s that?” Freeze asked the voice.

“You will need help in your quest to save this world,” it said. “I will give you powers that you can only imagine, and those powers will aid you in defeating the evil here. My spirit will rest inside of you, so you can use those powers.”

“Wait, your spirit will be inside of me?” Freeze asked, confused. “But how will you do that?”

“Touch the ice pillar,” said the voice. “I will transfer my power from here to your body.”

Freeze hesitated for a moment, before reaching his hoof out towards the ice. Suddenly, however, he heard a loud scream of terror coming from deep within the forest. He turned around, a look of fear on his face.

“I know that voice!” he exclaimed, fearing the worst. “That was Fluttershy! The timberwolves must have found them!” He turned back to the pillar. “I need to save my friends! Before it’s too late!”

“You will not be able to help your friends unless you have my power,” the voice told him. “Quickly, touch the pillar, and I will transfer my power as fast as I can.”

Freeze nodded, and thrusted his hoof onto the pillar. As soon as he touched it, he felt a power that he had never felt before surge through him. Closing his eyes, he let the energy expand throughout his body. Soon after he felt the energy enter his body, a ball of blue electricity surrounded his body. He felt his body changing, his hooves turning into claws and feet, and his neck getting longer. A yellow crest grew on his head, and his tail changed to something that resembled a generator. Soon after, the ball of electricity broke outward, and in place of the pegasus stallion that stood before was a large, gray dragon with ice on it. It let out a loud roar and flew in the direction of the timberwolves.

The seven mares huddled together, scared for their lives. The pack of timberwolves had cornered them near a large cliff, and they were backed up against it. Twilight’s horn flashed with a magenta hue, but she was too scared to perform any of her spells.

“Looks like this is it girls…,” she said in defeat, a small tear escaping her eye. They huddled together, ready for the final blow from the timberwolves, when suddenly a bright flash of light came from the sky and hit the pack. They scattered, before looking up at the sky. The seven mare looked up as well, and what they saw astonished them. There above them was a large gray dragon, electricity surging around its body. It had two different claws; one big and bulky, and one small and slim. Its tail alternated between black and white, and its shoulders and jaws were frozen over. Its shoulders also had two white spikes on each of them. What really surprised them, however, was that they could see it had pegasus wings and pony ears, similar to a friend that they all knew.

“Leave my friends alone!” it shouted, before a ball of ice formed in its mouth. It then shot the ice out in a beam, freezing the timberwolves. The dragon then came down to the ground, and from its bulky arm a claw of shadows formed. It sliced the timberwolves with the claw, before they broke apart, defeated. The mares looked at the scene in shock, before one of them walked up to the dragon.

“F-Freeze?” Fluttershy asked, awed at the spectacle she just witnessed. “Is… Is that you?”

The dragon nodded, before his body was engulfed in electricity. His body turned a deep blue, and it began to shrink, tuning into that of a pegasus stallion. The electricity disappeared, leaving a dazed Freeze in the aftermath, who promptly fainted on the spot.

Recovery and Awakening

Fluttershy looked at the unconscious body of Freeze with increasing worry. She had been sitting by his side for the past three hours, taking care of him after the attack from the timberwolves. They had rushed him to his house to keep him from anymore harm. Bottles of medicine stood on a table next to the bed Freeze was laying on. His front right hoof had a few bandages on it, but other than that there were no major injuries that she could see. His breathing was soft and even, which was a good sign. A knock at the door broke the silence, and Twilight entered the room.

“How is he doing?” she asked, uncertainty and worry in her voice.

“He still hasn’t woken up yet, but he’s breathing normally, so I think he’s just in a deep sleep,” Fluttershy said, turning towards Twilight. “I’m not too surprised. He’s probably not used to his new power yet. It must have drained him quite a bit.” She turned back to Freeze, putting another bandage on his hoof. “His hoof is the only thing that had taken damage, thankfully,” she continued. “It’s only a sprain, so it should recover in about a week or so.”

Twilight breathed out a sigh of relief. She had been worried about him ever since they carried him back from the Everfree. “How long do you think he’ll be out for?” she asked her friend.

“I’m not sure, but it could be between a few hours to a few days,” Fluttershy sighed. “I’m hoping it’s the former…”

Suddenly, the two mares heard a groan from Freeze. He rubbed his head and began to sit up, before grabbing his right hoof in pain. Fluttershy quickly placed a hoof on his chest. “It’s alright,” she said calmly. “You sprained your hoof, but luckily it was the only injury you have.”

“How long was I out for?” Freeze asked, lying back down onto the bed.

“About a few hours,” Twilight told him, walking up to the bed. “Nothing has really happened since the attack. It’s about four in the morning right now.”

“Really?” he said. “Well, I’m sorry if I kept you guys up for so long.”

“Oh, it’s alright,” Fluttershy said. “We’re just happy that you’re doing ok.”

“Yeah,” said Twilight. “You’re our friend, and friends take care of each other until the very end, no matter what.”

Freeze couldn’t help but smile, but it soon turned into a frown. “I’m sorry that I put all of you in so much danger,” he told them remorsefully.

“It’s alright,” Twilight said, giving a small chuckle. “We’re used to it by now. What’s important now, though, is that you rest. We’ll handle all of the stuff you need to do around the house for you, so don’t worry about it.”

“R-really?” he asked, surprised by this.

“Of course. Just think of it as a thanks for saving us,” said Twilight. “Now get some rest. Your wounds will heal faster if you do.” With that, she turned and walked out of the room. Freeze nodded and, closing his eyes. he soon fell asleep, softs breaths emanating from his nose. Fluttershy sat there for a while, before she too fell asleep on the floor next to his bed.

Four days had passed since the incident in the Everfree. Freeze’s hoof was well enough that he could start walking again, so he decided to visit Sugarcube Corner for a milkshake. Opening the door, he walked up to the counter to see a very familiar pink mare.

“Hey there, Freeze!” Pinkie said as she spotted him. “I’m so, so, so glad that you’re feeling better! I was thinking about throwing you a ‘Glad You’re Feeling Better’ party, but Fluttershy said that you’re not fully recovered and that I should wait until you are.” She took a deep breath. “So, what brings you here?”

“It’s great to see you too, Pinkie,” he said, giving a small chuckle. “I just came by to get a milkshake. You guys have vanilla here?”

“Of course we do, silly!” she said. “I’ll be right back.” She went into the back room to make the milkshake, when the door of the shop opened again. Rarity walked through the door, a small smile on her face. However, it changed to an expression of shock as she saw Freeze.

“Oh, hello there Freeze!” she said to him. “I didn’t expect to see you here. How are you feeling?”

“I’m feeling pretty good, actually,” he said. “Still not fully recovered, but pretty close to it. Fluttershy said it would be about a few more days, and my hoof will be back to normal.”

“Well, I’m glad that you’re feeling better,” she said. “The rest of the girls and I were so worried about you after you fainted. I’m sorry that I couldn’t really visit you, I really am, but I’ve just been so busy with orders for dresses lately I hadn’t had time to get out of the house.”

“It’s alright,” he said, completely understanding. “How’s the business doing, anyway?”

“Going good, as always,” she said. “Although I wish that I could have more breaks in between projects.” Just then, Pinkie came out from the back with a vanilla milkshake.

“Here you go Freeze!” she said. “One vanilla milkshake! And don’t worry, it’s on the house. Think of it as a glad you’re feeling better present.”

“Thanks a lot, Pinkie,” he said, taking the glass in his hooves. He made his way over to a nearby table and took a sip. His face immediately lit up. “Wow, this is the best milkshake I have ever tasted!” he exclaimed.

“Well, that’s Pinkie for you!” Rarity said, giving a small laugh. “When it comes to sweets, she always makes a perfect product.”

Freeze continued to drink the milkshake while Rarity and Pinkie talked for a bit, before Rarity made her way to the door.

“Well, it was nice too see you, Freeze, but I must be getting back to my work,” she said with a sigh. “Hope your hoof feels better soon!”

“Thanks Rarity,” he called out. “See ya!” He then continued to drink his milkshake. After he finished it, he thanked Pinkie once again and headed out, deciding to walk around for a bit.

The Canterlot Caverns were a location of mystery, since it was very easy to get lost inside. All sorts of ancient treasures were hidden deep in the twisting tunnels, but one of these ancient relics was something that should never see the light of day again. It stood in a highly protected part of the caverns; a part that was so well protected that only the princesses could go in or out of it. Huge, steel gates guarded the entrance way, and even if somepony managed to get inside, there were hundreds of magical traps to ward off intruders. This is to ensure that no one reaches the center of the cavern, for in the center lay an ancient being that was nothing short of a true monster.

The beast in question was trapped in stone, just like the infamous Discord was many years ago. In fact, it looked a lot like him, but with some differences. He was a draconequus, with more ragged animal parts than Discord, and his parts were in the opposite places. A small scar cut down his right eye, and a fierce expression was on his face, as if he was resisting containment. Large chains grappled the arms, legs, wings, neck, and tail. There was something off about him, however. Small cracks dotted the surface of the beast, indicating that he was close to breaking free from his confinement. The power of the Elements was weakening, since the bearers were transferred.

Suddenly, there was a loud crack from inside of the chamber, followed by a slow rumbling. The cracks on the petrified creature grew bigger, until they covered the whole body. Then, the stone broke off. First on the arms, then the legs, the chest, wings, the tail, and finally the head. Eyes that hadn’t moved in millenia suddenly blinked, before narrowing. The creature fell to the ground, the chains still connected to him, but they soon disappeared with a snap of his talons. Slowly getting up, he gazed at his surroundings.

“How long…,” he said, his voice low and menacing. “How long have I been contained? This place looks very different from when I was last here..” There was a sudden sound coming from behind a rock behind him. Turning around, he moved towards the sound, a small ball of energy in his hand. Peeking behind the rock, he saw something that surprised even him.

What he had found was a small, dark ball, roughly the size of his eye. It had a small protrusion on the top of its head, and what looked like three jagged legs. Suddenly, two red circles appeared, apparently being its eyes. The beast reeled back in surprise, before coming down to its level.

“What are you… Some sort of strange parasprite?” he asked, confused. The dark ball looked up at him, a devious smile on its face.

“Honestly, I do not know anymore,” it said, its voice high but creepy at the same time. “But what I do know it this. I can sense the darkness inside of you, wanting to be unleashed. If you help me to regain my true power, I will help you unleash your inner darkness.”

The creature thought for a moment, before coming to an agreement. “Alright, but you must uphold to your end of the bargain.”

“Of course,” the dark ball said. “Now then, what am I to call you? You have a name, do you not?”

The creature blinked, narrowing his eyes. “My name..,” he said, “is Havoc.

Uncertainties

Princess Celestia had had a long day. She had just finished speaking with Thorax about how to create better relations between the ponies and the changelings, and before that she had to converse with a few nobles about the fairness of taxes. So when she received a letter later that night, she almost discarded it, until she saw who it was from.

“A letter from Twilight?” she asked herself, genuinely surprised. After she became a princess, she had Twilight stop sending her friendship reports, although she still sent a few from time to time. As the opened the letter, however, she saw that it was not like a normal friendship report at all. It read:

Dear Princess Celestia,
A mysterious occurrence happened a few days ago that I would like to tell you about. A new pony who had moved to Ponyville had a vision that he would be the savior of Equestria, and that he would gain powers beyond our understanding. Weirdly enough, the vision turned out to be true.
We had ventured into the Everfree to try and find the source of this vision, and we were attack by timberwolves. Apparently, Freeze got separated from us and found the source of the vision. As expected, he gained the new power and saved us, before falling into a deep sleep. Luckily, he woke up several hours later.
I would like to speak to you about this face to face soon, so we can help Freeze to gain control of his new powers. Until then, I hope everything is well.

Sincerely
Twilight Sparkle

Celestia looked at the letter, dumbfounded. She read it again, just to make sure she wasn’t seeing things, before calling one of her personal guards to her room.

“Can you set a time for me to visit Ponyville tomorrow?” she told him. “There is something I must speak about with Twilight.”

“Of course, your Highness,” he said to her. “I will see what I can do.”

“Thank you,” she said, before ushering the guard out of the room. She then sighed. “If I am right, then there will be a big change for my little ponies,” she said to herself. “Hopefully, Equestria will survive this ordeal.”

The Castle of the Two Sisters, located deep inside of the Everfree Forest, had been abandoned for over a thousand years, and lay near the Tree of Harmony. It was also the perfect place for secret plans. A bright flash appeared in the center of the castle, and Havoc appeared, panting.

“It has been too long since I have used my powers..,” he said to himself. “But it feels good to finally be free again.”

The dark creature from before was on his shoulder. It jumped off of him and scuttled on the ground, finding a small corner. Havoc walked over to the two thrones, which were cracked and broken from decay. He lifted up his paw, and it glowed a crimson red, before he held it out and crushed the two thrones. He then snapped his talons and a new throne appeared. This one was made out of obsidian and had lava running down it. However, the lava was confined into cracks that ran about the throne. He sat down in it, leaning his head against his paw.

“We must devise a strategy,” he said. “I know that I cannot do this alone; I have learned that the hard way. However, I do not know any powerful allies that we can recruit…”

The dark being in the corner shifted, before saying, “Might I suggest someone?”

Havoc looked towards it in surprise. “Who do you have in mind?” he asked, intrigued.

“He is very powerful, that I know for sure, because I have fought him a few times myself. But the only way to get to him is dimensional travel, so I am not sure if we can recruit him.”

Havoc stared at the dark creature, before laughing. “Dimensional travel, you say?” he said. “That is child’s play.” He lifted his talon and swiped at the air. As if it was made of paper, the fabric of space ripped as he sliced through it. “Now then, shall we?”

“I cannot,” said the creature. “I am still too frail for dimensional travel. And besides, I still believe that he is upset with me.”

“Very well then, I shall go myself,” he said. “But I need to know, who am I looking for?”

The creature grinned widely. “Ask for someone named Bowser. You will easily be pointed in the right direction.”

Havoc nodded, then flew into the portal, which shut behind him.

It was a quiet night in Ponyville. Celestia’s sun had set for the day, and Luna’s moon was beginning to rise. Most of the residents were already in their houses, getting ready of bed, but that wasn’t the case for everyone.

Freeze sat on a hill near the outskirts of the town, looking up at the stars. A soft breeze blew through his mane as he sat. He was thinking about all that had happened to him the last couple of days: his move to Ponyville, the visions, and getting his new powers. Closing his eyes, he gave a soft sigh.

“I don’t understand it,” he said to himself. “Why was I chosen? It could have been any other pony, and yet, it chose me.” Suddenly, he heard the sound of hoofsteps behind him. He turned around slowly to see Fluttershy walking towards him. She stopped when he looked at her for a second, before continuing towards him.

“Um, hello Freeze,” she said softly. “I was just coming to check on you. Is everything alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he said. “Just thinking.”

She sat down beside him. “Is it about your new powers?” she asked him. He gave a small nod, before looking up at the sky again.

“I just don’t get why I was chosen. It’s probably because I’m not used to it, but I just…,” he trailed off, looking down at the ground. “What if I fail? What if Equestria falls into ruin because of me?”

Fluttershy looked at him, a small smile on her face. “Don’t worry. I’m sure that you will fulfil your duty to protect Equestria,” she said reassuringly.

“But what if I don’t?” he snapped back, causing Fluttershy to flinch. “What if I fail? Nopony will ever forgive me, and it will be all my fault! Sure, it’s kind of cool to have these powers, but I don’t think I’m ready yet!” He was close to tears at this point. “You don’t know how it feels to have the fate of the world on your shoulders, especially when you don’t know what you’re supposed to do!”

Taking a deep breath, Fluttershy looked at him sternly. “You may think that I don’t know how that feels, but I do. In fact, I have felt it many times. Sometimes I think that I’m the weak link of the group, that I’m powerless compared to the others. But sometimes, even the weakest of ponies can turn out to be the biggest of heroes. Do you know who was the one responsible for the reformation of Discord?” Freeze shook his head, before she continued. “It was me. I was the one who showed him the magic of friendship. So you see, if I can change the world for the better, then you can too.”

She moved a little closer to him, and wiped away a few tears from his eyes with her hoof. “I believe in you, Freeze,” she whispered. “We all do. But you have to take the initiative. You are the one who needs to stand up and fight. And when the final battle comes, we’ll all be beside you, ready to fight by your side until the very end.”

Freeze looked into her eyes, tears falling down his face. He wiped a few of them away, and smiled at her. “Thank you, Fluttershy,” he sniffled. “I… I really needed that…” He pulled her into a small hug of thanks, before getting up and walking down the hill. Fluttershy watched him go, smiling softly, before going in the opposite direction towards her house, a small blush creeping onto her face.

Secrets of the Past

“So, why am I here again?” Freeze asked, confused. Twilight had gathered her friends to the castle for an important meeting, but Freeze was still not too sure what it was about.

“Princess Celestia is coming here to talk to you about your powers,” Twilight said. “We are going to discuss how we can help you control them, and what you may be needing them for.”

Suddenly, the doors opened, and four guard ponies entered, followed by Celestia. Her regalness emanated throughout the room, as if the sun itself were standing in her place. As she entered the room, all of the others bowed, before she chuckled and bid then to rise.

“There is a lot that we must talk about,” she told them. “But first…” She walked over to Freeze. As she got closer, he began to sweat uncontrollably.

“Please don’t screw this up, please don’t screw this up…,” he whispered to himself as she walked closer to him.

“You must be the pony that Twilight has told you about, if I am correct,” she said, a warm smile on her face. Freeze nodded, before she continued. “To be honest, I am quite surprised that this happened. I have witnessed many things in my life, and I have never seen or heard of anything like what you have went through. So, tell me young pony, what is your name?”

“M-my name is Freeze, your h-highness,” he stammered.

“Freeze… Well, it certainly matches you,” she said, giving a small chuckle before turning to the direction of the throne room. “Now then, let’s get this meeting under way, shall we?” The others followed Celestia to the throne room in the castle. When they reached it, Twilight and her friends took their usual seats, and Celestia materialized cushions for herself, Starlight, and Freeze. After they were all seated, she began the meeting.

“So,” she started. “I believe you all know why we are here today, so let us get right to the point.” She materialized a book onto the table and opened it. “What we are witnessing here is the beginning of the biggest prophecy ever told in Equestria. It is a prophecy so old, that it was before even Starswirl the Bearded’s time.”

“Before Starswirl?!” Twilight interrupted, leaning in.

“Yes, Twilight. Before even him,” she said. “Now, as I was saying, this prophecy was written two hundred years before Starswirl was even born, so imagining that it would take place so far into the future would be impossible at that time. The prophecy begins with a lone pony finding a great power that will alter the course of Equestrian history. If my hunch is correct, that pony is you, Freeze.”

“Yeah, you should have seen him!” Rainbow said. “He froze the timberwolves and then shattered them! It was so awesome!”

“I’m sure it was,” Celestia said, before she turned the page in the book. The next page depicted a picture of a gray dragon fighting a serpentine-like creature while the surrounding area burned behind them. The eight other ponies around the table gasped at what they saw.

“Oh… Oh my…,” Fluttershy said, terrified of the picture.

“Alright, I’m guessing that the gray dragon is supposed to be Freeze, but who or what is the thing that he’s fightn’?” Applejack asked.

“It looks kind of like Discord… But at the same time, it doesn’t…,” Twilight said, trying to figure it out.

“You are partially right, Twilight,” Celestia said. “It is a draconequus, but it is not Discord.” She turned the page, revealing a smaller picture of the serpentine creature, but there were more of it. The others we fascinated by it, looking it over multiple times.

“What… What is it?” Twilight asked, breaking the silence.

“The Chaos Lands,” Celestia told her. “This is where the draconequus lived, before the tragedy, at least.”

“The… tragedy?” Rarity asked. “What happened?”

“Long ago, two of the draconequus that lived in the Chaos Lands had a son. They named him Havoc, and he was their pride and joy for many years. However, about 600 years after his birth, his parents had another son. This son, of course, you may all know.”

“Was it Discord?” Fluttershy asked.

“Indeed it was, Fluttershy,” Celestia said. “When Discord was born, his parents were overjoyed. As he is now, Discord was a mischievous child, and loved to play small pranks on his family. His mother and father took them in good spirits, because they knew that he was still learning his powers, but as they began to care about Discord’s improvements more and more, they started to give Havoc less and less attention, and this made him bitter.

“One day, Discord was playing around with his powers, when he accidentally hit Havoc with a blast of magic. That was when he finally snapped. His power surging, he destroyed the Chaos Lands in a rage, and in the processes, almost killing off the entire draconequus race. The only survivor of his attack was Discord.

“Discord, seeing his home ravaged and destroyed by Havoc, fled to Equestria in hopes of getting help. Arriving in Equestria, he saw how beautiful and peaceful it was, and wanted to do whatever it took to protect it. He soon came across me and Luna, and told us about what he had been through. We convinced our parents to let him stay in the castle, and eventually he became like part of the family. Soon after he moved into the castle, however, there were reports of Havoc all around Equestria, causing chaos and destroying towns and cities.

“Years passed, the situation with Havoc not improving. Luna, Discord and I had fully matured, and Discord put it on himself to defeat Havoc. We tried to stop him, but he said that this was his burden. Fortunately, he defeated Havoc and our parents came in with the Elements of Harmony, but not before Havoc placed a curse on him, changing Discord’s mind so that he would continue his work. Unfortunately, what he didn’t know was that the mischievous side of him remained, and he became the Discord we know today.

“We were heartbroken when they had to turn him to stone, but unlike Havoc, we knew that he was not as dangerous. That is why we put him in the Canterlot Gardens, in hope that one day we could find a way to break Havoc’s spell. In the meantime, however, we had locked Havoc up deep in the Canterlot Caverns, so that nopony could set him free.

Celestia closed the book and looked at the eight ponies in front of her. “What we didn’t realize, however, was that the bearers of the Elements would be transferred. Just like with Discord, the seal on Havoc will weaken until he breaks free.” She turned to Freeze. “And that is where you come in, Freeze. You are destined to stop Havoc and save us all.”

The rest of the ponies sat in shock, their jaws hanging open. After a few minutes, Freeze broke the silence.

“So what you’re saying is that I have to stop an enraged monster that is literally related to Discord and save Equestria?” he said. Celestia nodded. He got up slowly, giving a small chuckle. “Wow. Me. Having to save Equestria from a being that can do anything. This is just-” he was cut off as he fell to the floor, unconscious. Fluttershy immediately got up and rushed over to him, checking his pulse. She breathed a sigh of relief.

“It’s alright everypony,” she said. “He just fainted.”

“Did I say too much?” Celestia said, looking around the room. All eyes quickly turned towards her.

“Ya think?” Applejack said, raising her eyebrow.

A bright light appeared in the middle of the castle, signaling Havoc’s return. He flew out of a large portal and landed on the ground near his throne. Soon after, a large, scaly foot stepped through the portal, which soon revealed itself to be the foot of a large, monstrous turtle-like creature. Its shell had spikes running down it, and had crimson red eyes. It looked around the room, snorting.

“You call this a castle?” it said, its voice low and manly. He gave a small laugh. “This place is a dump!”

“Yes, well, I was planning on renovating it soon,” Havoc said. “This castle has not been used in a thousand years, so of course it would look a bit… rugged.”

The monster looked around, frowning. “Yeah, well you better do it soon,” he said. “I need a castle fit for a king if I’m going to take over this world!” Havoc looked back at him, his eyes narrowed.

“You mean, we are going to take over this world,” he said. “I was the one who recruited you in the first place, Bowser.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Bowser said, waving him off. He took a few steps towards Havoc’s throne. “So, where’s my throne at?”

Havoc sighed, then snapped his talons. Another throne appeared next to his, this one green and red with spikes running down the back of it. Bowser smiled and gave a small cuckle.

“Now that’s more like it!” he said, before sitting in it. “Huh, this feels pretty comfortable actually.”

“Don’t get too comfortable…,” Havoc said. “We must enact a plan soon, before the Princesses know that I’ve escaped.”

Bowser’s eyes lit up. “You didn’t tell me there were princesses here!” he said, getting up from his throne. “How many are there?”

“That is not important,” Havoc said. “What matters now is that we eliminate them.” Suddenly, he felt a small tingle in his body. “What in Equestria..? What was that?”

“What was what?” Bowser asked, looking at him curiously. “Cause I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.”

“No, it’s… Oh, never mind,” Havoc said, waving him off. “It’s not important.” He shook his head. “I’m going to get started on renovations. Don’t do anything too rash.” Bowser simply shrugged, and Havoc teleported to another part of the castle.

Suddenly, the castle shook, and a blinding light engulfed it. When the light faded, the castle had changed. Instead of being broken down and ruined, it was restored to its former glory, but with a few changes. The walls were now made out of obsidian and other hard stones, and had iron bars where the windows were. Tall pillars topped with fire stood outside the gates, while the ground around it had been turned into a rocky landscape.

Havoc soon teleported back into the throne room to find a bewildered Bowser sitting in his throne, a shocked expression on his face.

“Wow,” Bowser said. “That was fast.”

Havoc simply ignored his comment and looked out at the Everfree, a stern expression on his face. A small smile soon creeped over it, before he chuckled softly.

“Now… It begins…,” he said quietly.

Freeze's First Battle

After Freeze recovered from fainting he, Celestia, and the others made their way to a large field outside of the town. They soon stopped in a small area with a few rocks, while the rest of the ground was covered in grass.

“Alright, Freeze,” Celestia said. “Why don’t you transform, so we can see what powers you possess?” Freeze nodded, focusing the power inside of him. A large ball of blue electricity soon grew around him, until he was engulfed by it. A few seconds later, the electricity disappeared, and he could be seen in his dragon form, roaring loudly as he did so. The others all stared at him; some in awe, some in fear. Celestia’s mouth hung open a little, surprised at the transformation, before regaining her regal posture and clearing her throat.

“W-well then,” she said. “Why don’t we see what you can do in this form?” Next to her, Twilight materialized a notepad and a quill, ready to take notes if necessary. Freeze nodded, before flying up into the sky. Looking down, he chose a relatively large rock to start with. A bright ball of draconic energy grew in his mouth, before he released it in a devastating beam. It hit the rock, exploding on contact. When the dust cleared, the eight mares could see that half of the rock had been destroyed, scorch marks covering the spot the beam hit. They stared in shock, surprised at how much damage the beam had done.

Freeze, however, wasn’t done yet. Another ball of energy soon formed in his mouth, but this time it was an icy blue. Like the last one, he shot it out in a beam, but instead of destroying the rock even more, it froze it, the ice slowly creeping across its surface. He then crashed down to the ground, before a claw of shadows grew on his right arm. He flew towards the rock, before shattering it with the claw, the pieces flying everywhere. Celestia quickly summoned a magical shield to protect them from any stray debris, but luckily, none came near them. Freeze landed, the claw disappearing.

Celestia stood in shock at what she saw. Never in all her life had she seen something like this. She could feel the power radiating from him; a power that could match even hers, maybe even more. There was a long silence, but finally, Rainbow broke it.

“That. Was. Awesome!” she exclaimed, doing a small flip in the air. “Did you see him? He obliterated that rock!” Meanwhile, Twilight was furiously writing notes on what Freeze had just done, writing down every detail she could think of. The mares continued to talk to each other for a while, all except for Celestia, who was talking with Freeze.

“Freeze, your power is extraordinary!” she said. “With your power, we may stand a chance against Havoc. I know that this is all so sudden to you, but you must help us. If the prophecy is true, then…” Celestia trailed off, thinking about what would happen if Havoc succeeded in his conquest.

“Don’t worry, Princess,” Freeze said. “Even though I’m new to this power, I won’t let you down. I’ll do whatever it takes to stop Havoc from taking over Equestria.”

Celestia looked up at him, but right before she was about to express her thanks, a large object slammed into Freeze, making him stumble backwards.

“What the heck!?” he said, getting his balance back. “What was that?”

In front of him, a figure dropped down, looking him straight in the eye. It stood up, crossing its arms and giving a small chuckle. It looked like a large turtle, but more threatening and with spikes on its shell.

“Well well well,” it said. “So this is where the little princess is hiding! But who are you, the bodyguard or something?” Freeze took a defensive stance, standing in front of the Princess and his friends.

“Who are you?” he asked. “And why did you just attack me out of the blue like that?”

The creature laughed loudly. “You don’t know who I am, do you?” it said. “Well, it is expected, since I’m not from your world. I’m Bowser, and unless you want to get beaten to a pulp, you’re gonna hand over the princess!”

“And why would I do that?” he asked. “To me, it looks like you’re the one who’s going to get beaten up.” Bowser scowled, before cracking his knuckles.

“Oh yeah, well not for long!” he said as a bright light enveloped him. “You see, I’ve got a friend of mine who gave me this sweet new power, and with this power, I’ll be more than a match against you!” As he said this, he began to grow until he was the same height as Freeze. The light faded away, and he let out a loud roar.

Freeze turned his head to his friends. “Get out of here,” he said. “I’ll handle him.” The others nodded and ran. Fluttershy was a little hesitant, but she followed her friends as well.

“Please stay safe, Freeze,” she whispered to herself as she ran, worried about the pony-turned-dragon.

Bowser made the first move, throwing out a strong punch at Freeze. Freeze flew up, barely dodging the punch, and began to circle around Bowser.

“I’ve gotta find his weak spot…,” he said to himself. Suddenly, fire began to build up in Bowser’s mouth, and he shot it like a flamethrower at Freeze. Quick to react, Freeze fired a beam of draconic energy at Bowser. The fire and beam connected, resulting in a large explosion. A large cloud of smoke covered Bowser’s vision, making him unable to see anything around him. Freeze soon burst into the cloud of smoke with a claw made of shadows, cutting him in the stomach.

Bowser roared in rage, before slashing at Freeze. Too close to him to dodge, he was slammed into the ground. Bowser then stomped on his back with his foot, making it so he couldn’t get back up. He looked over the dazed Freeze, giving a deadly smile.

“Well, you put up a good fight, but there’s just no beating me,” he said as fire began to build up in his mouth once more. Unknowingly to him, electricity started to course around Freeze’s body, before he was enveloped in it. The electricity shocked Bowser, literally and figuratively, and he was forced to move away from Freeze. Freeze slowly got up, still surrounded in the electricity, and rushed towards Bowser, hitting him square in the chest. The force of the impact pushed him all the way to the edge of a small forest nearby, his momentum being broken by the trees that were crushed underneath him.

Bowser slowly got back up, wiping off a little dirt that was on his snout. He shook his head and stared straight at Freeze.

“You’re better than I thought,” he said. “Clever, too. But I’m not going to be defeated by the likes of you!” He charged towards Freeze, before sliding into his shell and spinning. The momentum of his charge kept him going, so that he was like a spikey top, moving quickly towards Freeze. Unfortunately for him, he wasn’t fast enough, as Freeze flew up to dodge it. He then turned around and fired a beam of freezing energy. It hit Bowser, and he began to slow down. He soon stopped completely, the ice taking hold of him and freezing him solid.

This ice didn’t hold forever, though, as cracks started to appear on the surface. He soon broke out of the icy prison, turning around towards Freeze. He fired another flamethrower towards the dragon, who returned it with another stream of energy. This time, however, instead of them both exploding, the beam began to overpower Bowser’s fire breath. The draconic beam soon overpowered the fire so much that it hit Bowser right in the mouth, causing it to explode in his face. He was pushed back by the blast, scorch marks all over his face.

Roaring loudly, he charged at Freeze again. Freeze, anticipating the same attack, flew up into the air again, but instead of doing the same attack as before, Bowser jumped up and grabbed Freeze by the leg, pulling him down to the ground and making him slam into it. He then used his flame breath at point-blank range, hitting Freeze right in the face. Grabbing his tail, he spun Freeze around and threw him with all his might, making him land in the same forest he crashed into. Thinking he was out for the battle, he grinned, until he saw the blue electricity coming from where he landed.

There was a sudden roar, and a giant blue ball of electricity came rushing at Bowser, Freeze in the middle of it. It struck him hard in the chest, making him slide back. Bowser managed to keep his ground and grab Freeze, making the ball disappear. He then headbutted him right in the middle of his head, before grabbing him and somersaulting into the air. He crashed back down, Freeze below him so that he crushed him under his weight. He soon got off of him to see him beaten and bruised, almost unconscious. His friends called out to him from where they were standing, but he couldn’t hear them. His vision began to fade, the last thing he saw was Bowser stomping up to him, a maniacal grin on his face.

Suddenly, he heard a voice. It was small and soft, but it was recognizable.

“I believe in you, Freeze,” it said. “We all do.”

He suddenly opened his eyes, his body surrounded in an electrical field. He slowly got up, before flying up into the air. The spikes that were on his shoulders turned into tubes, which attached to his tail, making it glow a bright blue. Putting his claws together, he slowly pulled them apart, forming a ball of ice between them. Electricity coursed through the inside of the ball as it grew, before he launched it at Bowser. It was a direct hit on his head, and as soon as it made contact, Bowser’s whole body began to freeze, until he was completely covered in ice. Freeze ten launched a Dragon Pulse at the frozen Bowser, which exploded on contact.

When the dust cleared, the ice covering bowser had broken off, and he was standing like nothing happened. Just when he thought he would never defeat him, Bowser fell over, landing on the ground with a loud crash. A light surrounded his body, and he shrunk back to his regular size.

Freeze landed on the ground, panting heavily, but he managed to let out one last roar of triumph. A ball of blue electricity soon engulfed him, and he transformed back to his regular form, although now he had numerous cuts and bruises all over his body. Looking at the fallen Bowser, he gave a small, cocky grin, before falling over on his side, unconscious.

Fluttershy was the first to react, racing over to the unconscious Freeze and checking his pulse. It was slow, but steady. The others eventually made it to her and helped her with Freeze, Celestia and Twilight picking him up with their magic. They rushed him to Fluttershy’s cottage, which was the closest building to them, and lay him on her couch. Fluttershy then rushed to get medicine to heal him while the others watched him.

“This happened after the incident with the timberwolves,” Twilight said after a small silence. “I just hope he’s alright…”

“Don’t worry, Fluttershy can heal anything,” Applejack said.

“I hope so,” said Twilight, sighing as Fluttershy came back into the room with the medicine and started to take care of him.

Bowser slowly got up rubbing his head. He gave a small groan of pain and looked around him, his eyes narrowing in anger.

“What!?” he roared, rage in his eyes. “How did he defeat me!? He said that it was impossible for anyone to defeat me with the power he gave me, and we were going to take over Equestria easily! When I get back there, I’m gonna give him a piece of my mind!” He stomped off towards the direction of the Everfree, not knowing that there was a pair of eyes watching him from the forest behind him.

“Hmm… Taking over Equestria, you say?” a voice said from the darkness. It was a feminine voice, soothing but sharp at the same time. “Maybe he could be of assistance to me and my plans…”

Information From a Dragon

Freeze found himself in a large cave, dimly lit with small holes at the top letting daylight in. Large spikes made of ice stood around the cavern, and the air was freezing cold. He he looked up, crystals of ice hanging from the cave’s ceiling. A chilling mist covered the ground, reaching as high as the tops of his hooves. A large lake could be seen in the distance, but it was completely frozen over due to the freezing temperatures within the cave. Surprisingly, he wasn’t too cold, which was odd given the conditions he was in.

He began to take a few steps forward, hoping to find out more about where he was, when he suddenly heard a low growl coming from behind him. He turned around suddenly to see a large cavity in the wall. He could see glowing yellow lights in the dark tunnel. It slowly came towards him, soon revealing itself to be coming from a large gray dragon. Its eyes were pure yellow with no pupils, and its mouth was completely frozen over. It had two frozen wings on its back, but one looked to be larger than the other. It had two small arms with two claws on the end of each, and large legs that caused it to hunch over. Its tail was small with three spikes at the end of it. A yellow crest could be found on its forehead, and it radiated a freezing aura.

The dragon stomped closer to Freeze, its steps making the ground shudder slightly. Freeze started to back away, fear creeping over his face. The dragon soon stopped advancing, staring straight at him. Suddenly, Freeze could hear a voice in the air, although neither he nor the dragon moved their mouths.

“So, I finally get to meet you face to face,” it said, low and gruff. “I have to admit, you do not seem like the type to be a hero.”

Freeze stared at the dragon, recognizing the voice. He started to walk closer to it, and stopped when he was a few feet away.

“Did… Did you just talk?” he asked, confused since the dragon didn’t open its mouth.

“Yes, I did,” the dragon said. “I have been waiting to meet you for quite some time.”

“You’re the voice from the pillar…,” Freeze said in awe. He was almost speechless, staring at the dragon with wide eyes.

“Indeed I am,” the dragon said, lowering its neck to Freeze so they could look at each other easier. “I am Kyurem, and as you can see, I am not from your world.”

“Your not from my world?” Freeze said, confused. “But, I thought other dimensions were just a legend.”

“You should know by now that many of the legends in your world turn out to be true,” Kyurem said. “I was sent here by my master, Arceus, to aid you. He has sensed an imbalance coming from this world, and felt that I would be the best one to help you.”

“But how?” Freeze asked. “Isn’t your master in another dimension? How can he sense a disturbance in my world?”

“That is not really important at the moment,” Kyurem said, expelling a icy mist from its body. “I must speak quickly, before you wake up. There is much that you must know.” Kyurem then began to explain to Freeze about itself and what powers it possessed.

“I just have one question,” Freeze asked after Kyurem was through with his explanation. “My friends told me that I retain my wings and ears after transforming. Do you know why that is?”

“It may be because of your DNA mixing with mine,” Kyurem said. “A part of you must have mixed with my spirit, which rests inside of you. I do have to admit, you have a strong will and body, and I am looking forward to helping you in the future. Now, however, you must wake. I have given you all of the information that you need. I hope we will meet again like this at some point.”

With that, Kyurem turned and walked back to the cavern he came out of. After it was out of sight, Freeze could see a bright light from the corner of his eye. He turned his head towards the light before seeing it engulf him, his vision turning white.

The cottage was quiet as Fluttershy got ready for bed, a small, worried frown on her face. She was worried about Freeze, who hadn’t woken up in a day. She was beginning to fear that the wounds he had taken from the battle were very severe, and that he couldn’t be able to protect Equestria when the time comes. After making sure her animals were asleep, she crept to the living room where Freeze was.

He was laying on the couch, a few blankets draped over him. His breathing was steady, which was a good sign, though Fluttershy didn’t know why he wasn’t up yet. Other than being unconscious, he had many bandages on his from the cuts and bruises he had gotten, and he had a larger bandage on his head due to a rather nasty bump on it. She sat beside him, adjusting the blankets that were on him. As she did this, her heart began to pound in her chest, and a small blush began to form on her face.

She didn’t notice this at first, but she could soon feel her heartbeat beginning to quicken. She stopped what she was doing and sat there for a moment, unsure of why this was happening, but she soon continued until the blankets were draped over Freeze comfortably. She looked at his sadly, hoping that he would wake up from his unconsciousness soon, and began to walk out of the room quietly.

As she approached the door, however, she heard a small cough coming from the living room. Turning her head, she saw Freeze moving slightly under the blankets, before sitting up and shaking his head, holding it in pain. She suddenly rushed over to him, squeezing him in a strong hug. Freeze was surprised by this, looking down to see his friend clutching him tightly. She soon let go and sat on the floor, looking at him.

“Wow,” Freeze said, catching his breath from the lung-crushing hug. “I never knew that you could hug so hard.” He looked around the room, confused at where he was. “Where am I?”

“You’re at my house,” Fluttershy said softly. “After the battle, you passed out and, since my cottage was the closest, we decided to take you there. You were unconscious for over a day, and we were worried that you had severe injuries that we didn’t know about. Luckily, it seems that isn’t the case. You do have a rather bad bump on your head, though.”

“Huh. So that’s why my head hurt so much when I woke up,” Freeze said. “But I was out for a whole day?” Fluttershy nodded, shocking him. “But it only felt like I was in that cave for a few hours.” Fluttershy looked at him in confusion.

“A cave?” she asked. “But you were here the whole time.”

“It must have been in my subconscious, then.” he said. “You’ll never believe what happened there, though.” He then began to explain to her what had happened in the icy cave, and what Kyurem had told him. Fluttershy tried to process the information that Freeze had told her, and when he was finished, there was a short silence between them. After a few minutes, Fluttershy spoke up.

“I’ll tell the others when they come over tomorrow,” she said to him. “Right now, though, you need your rest. I’ll be in my room if you need anything. Don’t hesitate to ask.” she gave him one last small hug, before going to her room. Freeze watched her go, before laying on his back, staring at the ceiling.

Havoc paced in front of his throne, his face a mixture of anger and frustration. Bowser had returned a few hours ago, and told him some disturbing news. He slammed his paw on the side of the throne in rage.

“That disturbance I felt earlier…,” he said to himself. “It must have been what Bowser fought. But what was it? He said that it was some kind of dragon, but with pony ears and pegasus wings. And it gave him quite a beating, too, even with all the power I gave him.” He walked up to a nearby window, which was the only one that didn’t have bars over it, looking out over the Everfree. He became lost in thought, and he didn’t notice the appearance of a pair of green eyes in the darkness behind him.

“Maybe I can help with your dilema,” a feminine voice said from the darkness. The eyes revealed themselves to belong to a tall, female pony-like creature, but it was different from normal ponies. Her legs were covered in holes, and she had a twisting, sharp horn. Her wings resembled and insect’s, and she had a deep teal mane and tail, which also had holes in them. Havoc recognized her species immediately.

“A changeling…,” he said, his eyes narrowing. “What are you doing here? There is no love to be found, only hatred. You should go someplace else, before I make you.”

“Is that the way to greet a potential ally?” she said. Havoc’s ears perked up at this.

“What did you just say?” he asked, mostly suspicious, but also intrigued.

“I saw your ‘friend’ fighting,” she told him. “It was a shame that he had lost. But I saw something that he didn’t; something that can help you. You see, after the dragon that he fought won the battle, it transformed into an ordinary pegasus stallion. And wouldn’t you know, he’s friends with the ponies that I despise the most!” She stomped her hoof hard as she said this. “You and your ally can easily overpower the princesses, that’s for sure. But with that stallion in the way, you’ll never get through. That is why I would like to offer my services to you.

“If you help me to kill my enemies, I will help you to make sure that that stallion is not able to stand in your way anymore.” She stepped up to him, giving a small, evil smile and held her hoof out “So, what do you say? Do we have a deal?”

Havoc stared at her hoof, then at her face. He knew that he was in trouble if what she said was true, and he wanted to do whatever it takes to carry out his plans. Part of him, however, thought that this was a trick, and didn’t want to give in to it. After thinking it over, he grabbed her hoof with his paw and shook it, sealing the deal.

“We have a deal,” he says. “But if you decide to turn your back against me, Tartarus will feel like a sunny field compared to what I can do to you.”

“Duly noted,” she said. They soon heard a large pair of feet stomp into the room. The changeling turned her head to see Bowser standing at the door to the room, his arms crossed.

“And who’s this?” he asked. “Your girlfriend or something?” Havoc’s eyes narrowed at him, while the changeling walked up to him and slapped him in the face, her face beet red.

“Was that really the first thought that came into your mind?!” she yelled at him, before walking past him. She stopped while she was behind him, turning her head in his direction. “I am Queen Chrysalis, and unless you want to spend the rest of your life in a cocoon, you’ll stay out of my way, you overgrown turtle.” She then walked off to another part of the castle, far away from Bowser. He stood there, dumbstruck.

“Did she really just call me an overgrown turtle?” he said to himself, shaking his head before walking up to Havoc. “So, what’s the plan? Are we just going to sit around and do nothing?”

“Oh, I have a plan,” he told him, an maniacal smile creeping across his face. “Or rather, Chrysalis does.”

The Capture

Twilight walked along the path to Fluttershy’s cottage, a small smile on her face. She was going to go and check up on Freeze to see how he was feeling. It had been a few days since his battle against Bowser, and in that time he had told her and her friends about what had happened in his subconscious. She was still not used to the fact that a dragon was living inside of his body, but with all of the strange things that had happened in Ponyville since she moved there, she could at least accept it. She soon approached the door to the cottage and gave a small knock.

The door soon opened slightly, revealing a tired Fluttershy. She soon opened it all the way when she saw who it was.

“Oh, Twilight!” she exclaimed in surprise. “I didn’t know you were coming over today!”

“Sorry about the sudden visit, but I just wanted to check how Freeze was doing,” she told her. “Is he awake?”

“Yes, he is,” Fluttershy said. “He’s laying down on the couch.” She let Twilight into the house, before turning to go into another room. “I wish I could join you, but today was the day I was going to give all of my animals a bath.”

“It’s alright,” Twilight said. “Do you need any help?”

“No, I think I can manage,” she stifled a yawn. “I only have a few more to go.”

“Alright,” Twilight said. “But if you do need help, don’t hesitate to ask.” Fluttershy gave a small nod, before going off into another room. Twilight walked into the living room to see Freeze laying on the couch, casually tossing a small ball into the air and catching it. He soon noticed Twilight standing nearby and gave a small wave.

“Hey, Twilight!” he said. “What’s u-ow!” He was cut off as the ball he was throwing into the air hit his face. Rubbing his face, he gave her a sheepish grin. “Woops. Should have payed attention.”

“It’s alright,” Twilight said, stifling a small chuckle. She moved over to Freeze and sat on the floor beside him. “How are you feeling?”

“Meh, I’ve been better,” he said, putting the ball beside him on the couch. “But it definitely isn’t as bad as the first time. Should be out of here tomorrow.”

“Oh, really? That’s great!” she said, giving him a small smile. There was an awkward silence between them, Twilight pawing the carpet with her hoof. After a few minutes, she broke the silence. “So… um, after you get better, Rarity and I were planning on going out for lunch tomorrow. Do you want to join us?”

“Sure,” he said with a small shrug. “I’ve got nothing else to do really, so of course I’ll go. Plus it’ll give me a chance to learn more about you two, you know?”

“Yeah, let’s go with that,” Twilight said, a small blush barely visible on her face. She suddenly got up. “Well, I have to get going. I have to tell Rarity that you’re coming tomorrow.”

“Alright. See you tomorrow, then,” he said. She then walked out of the room to the front door. After leaving the house, she let out a small sigh.

“What is this feeling I’m having?” she asked herself. “I feel as though I… No, it can’t be. I just met him about a week ago.” Shaking her head, she walked back to Ponyville, not noticing the pair of green eyes hiding in the forest nearby.

As she entered the borders of Ponyville, Twilight made her way to Carousel Boutique to tell Rarity the news. Opening the door to her friend’s shop and home, she heard a loud crash coming from upstairs. Suddenly, Rarity’s cat Opal came running down the stairs covered in a light blue cloth, Rarity hot on her trail.

“Opal, dear, get back here!” she yelled, trying to catch her cat. “That cloth is very important!” As she kept chasing Opal around the store, Twilight sighed and used her magic to lift the cloth off of Opal’s head. The cat stopped instantly, looking around in confusion, before walking back up the stairs. Rarity noticed Twilight nearby, holding the cloth in her magical grasp.

“Oh, well I could have done that from the beginning…,” she said, chuckling. She took the cloth from Twilight and placed it neatly on a nearby couch. “So, what did he say? Will Freeze be joining us?”

“Yes, he will,” said Twilight, looking down at the ground. Rarity noticed this, giving a small frown.

“What’s the matter, dear?” she asked. “I thought that you would be happy that he was joining us.”

“I am,” Twilight said. “But, I just… I just think that something may be wrong with me…”

“Whatever do you mean, Twilight? You look perfectly fine to me.”

“I just…,” she began, looking up at Rarity. “I mean… I don’t know why, but I feel like I may like Freeze a bit more than a friend.” As Twilight said this, Rarity’s eyes widened, before a big smile crossed her face.

“Twilight, are you telling me you have a crush on Freeze!?” she said happily, hoping she was right.

“Well, I mean, I guess,” Twilight sighed. “But, I still barely know him. I don’t know why, but every time I’m near him I just feel… well, happy. I feel like nothing can go wrong when I’m around him and that I’ll be kept safe no matter what.” Rarity let out a small squeal of happiness.

“Well, then isn’t it lucky that we are going out to lunch tomorrow!” she exclaimed. “You’ll be able to learn more about him, and he’ll learn about you!”

“Yeah, but what if I screw up and say something wrong? What if he doesn’t want to be my friend anymore? What if-!” she was cut off from Rarity putting a hoof to her mouth.

“You won’t screw up, Twilight,” she said. “Just be yourself, and everything will be fine. Besides, I’ll be there too if you need any help, remember?” Twilight gave a small nod, smiling.

“What would I do without you girls?” she asked, chuckling. She then made her way towards the door. “I need to get ready if I want to make a good impression on him. I’ll see you tomorrow for lunch.”

“Alright, dear, see you then!” Rarity said, before Twilight stepped out of her house. Rarity gave a small sigh. “I hope it all works out in the end… There is only so much I can do for her, after all.

After exiting Rarity’s house, she walked down the main street of Ponyville, her thoughts like a runaway train.

“I know Rarity said not to worry, but I just can’t help it,” she said to herself. “I mean, it is natural to be nervous, but I just don’t want to lose him as a friend.” She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she didn’t notice that she took a wrong turn down one of the smaller streets in the town. She had ended up in a small, dark alleyway. The air around her felt ominous, as if something was going to attack her out of the blue.

“I really must be out of it today,” she sighed. Shaking her head, she turned around, only to come muzzle to muzzle with one of the only beings in Equestria she did not want to meet.

“Chrysalis!” she said, taking a step back, before igniting her horn and shooting a beam of magic at the changeling queen. She countered it by raising up a shield with her magic, making the beam bounce off and hit the ground near Twilight.

“Ah, so you remember me,” Chrysalis said, mocking her surprise. “I thought you may have forgotten.” Twilight narrowed her eyes and shot another beam at Chrysalis, but just as before, she used another magic shield to deflect it. This time it hit a nearby house, fortunately only leaving a small scorch mark on the wall.

“Ah, ah, ah. Don’t want to hurt any of your precious subjects, do you?” she asked. She then shot a beam of magic at Twilight, but instead of exploding, it wrapped around her, trapping her in shackles of magic. There was even a small ring of magic over her horn, rendering her magic useless.

“What do you want, Chrysalis,” Twilight demanded, gritting her teeth.

“Oh, nothing much,” she said. “Just to get rid of you and your friends once and for all! And now that I have you, I can put my plan into action!”

“What are you going to do, hold me for ransom?” she asked.

“Oh, I have something even bigger planned,” Chrysalis said. “But first, I have to get rid of you.” She charged magic into her curved horn and a familiar green fire surrounded Twilight. She tried to scream for help, but the flames blocked her voice. “Goodbye, Twilight Sparkle,” Chrysalis said, before becoming enveloped in a green light. The last thing Twilight saw through the flames was the green light disappear, revealing an exact copy of herself. “You will not be missed,” the now transformed Chrysalis said, walking away from the circle of flames as Twilight was transported far away by them.

Twilight slowly woke up, her legs in pain as she tried to stand. She soon realized, however, that the shackles of magic were still around them, and that the ring was still around her horn. She looked around to try to get a better view of her surroundings, but it was very dark where she was. The only light came from a small lantern above her, which shone down dimly.

In the dim light, she could see that she was in some sort of cell, not unlike the ones in Canterlot. The floor was cold to the touch, and was very rough due to the fact that instead of an actual floor she was on bare rocks. There were no windows in the cell, so she couldn’t tell where she ended up, although she imagined that she was deep underground.

Suddenly, she heard a sound coming from the right end of the hall. It got closer, until it stopped right in front of her. She looked up to see a being that looked much like Discord, but was more ragged and had a scar on his right eye. She let out a small gasp of surprise.

‘That must be Havoc…” she thought to herself.

“Well then, it seems like Chrysalis’s plan went off without a hitch,” the creature said in a low voice. “I am surprised to see that there is another alicorn in existence, though. Tell me, princess, what is your name?”

“M-my name is Twilight Sparkle,” she said hesitantly.

“Hmm. Well, it won’t matter since you’ll be stuck here for the rest of your life.”

“What!?” Twilight yelled, struggling to get up, but the shackles on her hooves kept her from doing so. The creature gave a small laugh, before disappearing. Small tears started to pour down Twilight’s face. She realized that since Chrysalis was disguised as her, there would be no way that anyone would see that she was really missing. The tears started to fall like a waterfall down her face as she buried her head in her hoofs, sobbing.

The Deception

The next day came by quickly, and at around one in the afternoon Freeze was walking down the streets of Ponyville, trying to find Twilight and Rarity for their get-together. He soon spotted them near a small restaurant, sitting at a table outside. They appeared to be in a small conversation. Walking up to them, he sat at an empty chair.

“Hey guys,” he said, smiling. “Sorry if I’m a bit late.”

“No no, it’s fine dear,” Rarity told him. “We just got here ourselves, actually.” Picking up one of the menus on the table with her magic, she began to look over the food choices that the establishment severed. Freeze and Twilight picked up their own menus as well, and soon decided what to order. Once the waiter came and took their orders, Rarity started up a conversation.

“So, Freeze,” she began. “I was wondering, where did you grow up?”

“Glad you asked,” he said, a small smile on his face as he remembered his early years growing up. “When I was growing up, my family and I lived in Cloudsdale. I lived with my mom, my dad, and my two brothers.”

“You have siblings?” Rarity asked, curious. Freeze nodded.

“Yeah,” he said. “I have an older brother named Water Spout, and a younger one named Flare Rush. I really have to go visit them again sometime.” Their food soon came, and they all dug in, striking up conversations every now and again. Although, it was usually only Rarity and Freeze doing the talking. Twilight had barely said a word since the meal started, and Freeze was beginning to notice.

“Hey, Twilight,” he said to her after finishing up his dandelion sandwich. “You seem quieter than usual today. Is something up?”

“No, definitely not!” she said quickly. “Nothing’s wrong here. I was just really intrigued by your conversations and I just wanted to listen, that was all.”

“Oh, well alright,” Freeze said, dismissing her weird behavior and asking something to Rarity. They soon payed for the bill, which Rarity insisted on paying, before she said she had to get a small project finished and went off, leaving Twilight and Freeze alone. They stood in silence for a little bit, before Twilight broke it.

“So, do you want to come over to my place for a bit?” she asked him. He shrugged.

“Sure,” he said. “Don’t have anything to do today.” They made their way to the castle, where, after a quick knock, Spike answered.

“Oh, hey Twilight! Hey Freeze!” he said. “How was lunch?”

“It was great!” Freeze said. “Rarity treated us to a nice little restaurant near-

“Sorry, but we’re kind of busy,” Twilight interrupted. “I was going to show Freeze some of the books in the library. Why don’t you go see if Rarity needs any help? She told me that she needed to get some work done.” When she said this, Spike stood straight up, the prospect of helping his crush exciting him.

“Alright!” he said and sped down the road as fast as his legs could carry him. Twilight soon ushered Freeze into the castle and closed the door. Freeze looked at her skeptically, tilting his head.

“Alright, what was that about?” he asked. “You’ve been acting weird all day. First you barely speak during lunch, then you go and do that. It’s almost like you wanted to get Spike away from the castle.”

“Just follow me,” Twilight said, walking up the stairs to the second floor. Freeze looked at her in confusion, but followed her anyways. They soon came to the second floor of the castle, and they turned to walk down one of the long hallways.

“So, where are we going?” Freeze asked. Twilight didn’t answer him. Instead, she stopped in front of a door and opened it, motioning Freeze inside. He hesitated for a moment, before walking into the room. He was surprised at what he saw. On the right wall was a large bed, lavishly decorated like it was for royalty. On the left wall was a dresser with a mirror above it, which had a bunch of pictures of Twilight and her friends on it. A window was on the far wall, looking out over Ponyville.

“Twilight, is this you room?” he asked, amazed at the decor. He made his way over to the mirror, looking at the pictures. “Hey, where’s my picture? Don’t tell me that I’m not that important!” he said, chuckling a little. He soon stopped when he heard a lock click nearby. Turning his head, he saw Twilight standing in front of the door, a seductive smile on her face. Her eyelids were lowered a bit, and as she walked towards him, she swayed her flanks a little bit. She soon came face to face with Freeze, who was backed up against the wall.

“Uhh, Twilight?” he said nervously. “What’s going on? Why are you acting li-” he didn’t get to finish as Twilight closed her eyes and pressed his lips against his, silencing him. His eyes were wide in shock, not knowing that Twilight was into him like that. As she kept kissing him, he realized that this was wrong, but for some reason he couldn’t find the courage to break it. He soon closed his eyes as well, and when he did, he didn’t notice the green aura around Twilight’s horn. It let out a small trail of green magic, which snaked its way around Freeze, before disappearing inside of his chest.

‘Twilight’ broke the kiss and opened her eyes, giving an evil grin. Freeze soon opened his eyes as well, but instead of his normal yellow eyes, they were a faint green.

“Now then, Freeze, how did you like it?” she asked.

“I liked it very much, my love,” he said in a monotone voice.

“Good. And you will do anything for me, correct?”

“Of course, my love.” ‘Twilight’ chuckled with glee, surprised that he plan actually worked.

“Very good,” she said, before going to the door and unlocking it. “Now then, you stay in here. I will be right back, and then we will continue what we were doing.” She stepped through the door, before closing it behind her and used a locking spell to lock Freeze inside. She soon teleported out of the castle and into Havoc’s throne room. The draconequus in question looking out the window behind his throne. He soon heard her teleportation, and turned around.

“Well, did it go as planned?” Havoc asked.

“He fell for it. I can’t believe it was that easy,” ‘Twilight’ said, before becoming engulfed in a green light. When it died down, she had transformed back into Chrysalis. “How is our prisoner doing?”

“Beautifully,” he said. “She tried to use her magic to escape a few times, but that spell of yours must be very strong, because she is as helpless as a foal.”

“Good, good,” Chrysalis said. “Now then, with him out of the way, why don’t you make your grand entrance. Nothing will be able to stand in your way now, not even the Princesses.”

“Of course,” Havoc said, giving a small chuckle. “I have waited too long for this moment. Over a thousand years of imprisonment, and I finally get the chance to finish what I have started. It is time to give them the hell they really deserve...” He disappeared in a flash of light, startling Chrysalis for a moment, before she turned to walk out of the room. Before she left, however, she saw something out of the corner of her eye. It looked like a black blur scuttling across the floor in the shadows. She could barely make out what it was.

“Probably just a common insect,” she said to herself, before walking out of the room. She made her way to a set a stairs and walked down them. The stairs led down to the dungeons below, and as she walked down, she began to hum to herself a song that she was very familiar with. She finally reached the bottom of the stairs and made her way down the long hall of cells, before stopping in front of one.

Inside of the cell was Twilight, broken and sobbing, knowing that she had no chance of getting out with the shackles and ring still on her. Chrysalis stood there for a moment, taking it all in as she relished her victory. After a short silence, she spoke.

“Poor, poor princess,” she said. “All alone, with noone to help her.” Twilight looked up when she heard Chrysalis’s voice. Her eyes were puffy from crying, and stray tears washed down her face.

“Why…” Twilight said, her voice cracking. “Why are you doing this?” Chrysalis said nothing. She simply stared into the broken mare’s eyes, her tears falling out of them like raindrops. After another silence, she spoke.

“Because I have been humiliated by you and your friends too many damn times,” she said coldly. “ by your brother and sister-in-law when they blasted me out of Canterlot, and then by your own student when I thought that I had finally won! I was even betrayed by my own hive! Do you know know it feels to wander Equestria in hiding, never knowing if someone would see you and call the Royal Guard? Do you!?” She was shouting at this point, the pains of the past getting to her.

“I had it all; a hive that came to my beck and call, a whole kingdom under my rule, and you took all of that away from me. When Havoc is finished with your little friends, there will be nothing left to go back to.”

“But Freeze will stop him!” Twilight yelled back. “He’s still there, and he can protect Equestria!” Chrysalis suddenly laughed out loud, throwing her head back like someone had told her a funny joke.

“Did you forget that I was a master planner, princess?” she said, staring at her. “I knew about Freeze from the beginning. That is why I captured you, so I could take control of him and make sure he wouldn’t get in my way. And I have to admit, he is a pretty handsome stallion. I might make him my king when this is all over.”

“You won’t!” Twilight retorted. “He’ll find some way to break the spell, and he’ll come in and stop your plans!”

“You know, I don’t know why I’m wasting my time with you,” Chrysalis said, turning her back to her. “You’re going to die down here somehow, whether from starvation or the rats, or even Havoc himself. It’s pointless to have hope at this point, because everything has been put perfectly into place.” She started to walk away from Twilight, into the dark hall ahead, and let out a loud cackle. Twilight watched her leave, tears welling up in her eyes again, and he put her head in her hooves, thinking about what Chrysalis had said as she cried.

Chaos vs. Chaos

Celestia stood on the balcony that was connected to her room, her horn glowing with magic. As she used it to set the sun to bring in the night, she couldn’t help but think about what was to come. After watching the last of the sun’s rays disappear behind the hills, she turned to see Luna’s moon slowly rising as the night began. She let out a soft sigh before retreating back to her chambers, tired from a long day.

She had just sat down near the fireplace to read before turning in for the night when there was a sharp knock on her bedroom door. Celestia rolled her eyes in annoyance, and stood up, opening the door. On the other side was one of her Royal Guards, but he had a look of terror on his face. He was one of the newer guards, not having much experience protecting the royal sisters, but he still took his job seriously. Now, however, he looked like a foal in a thunderstorm, scared out of his wits.

“Y-your majesty,” he stammered. “I have some grave news. It’s Havoc; he has escaped!” Celestia’s jaw dropped in shock at hearing such news, before the guard continued. “We haven’t really checked the prison in a while, so a few of the guards and I decided to check to see if he was still there, but…” he trailed off, letting Celestia fill in the blanks.

“I see,” she said, regaining her composure. “I feared that this day would come, but I didn’t know it would be this soon.”

“Actually, your Highness, we checked the area inside of the prison, and it appeared that he had disappeared some time ago.” This worried Celestia even more. She took a deep breath and looked at the guard in front of her.

“Tell your captain that I want all guards on duty at all times. Especially inside of the castle,” she commanded him. The guard saluted and ran off to tell his commanding officer the news, while Celestia closed her door and took out a piece of paper and a quill.

“I hope this makes it to Twilight and Freeze in time,” she said to herself as she began to write.

On a small hill overlooking Ponyville, there was a bright flash of light that contrasted to the inky blackness of night. As it disappeared, it revealed the serpentine-like form of Havoc. He looked down at the sleeping town for a moment, contemplating what he should do first to ruin their lives.

“It looks so peaceful down there,” he said to himself. “So sickening to look at. Once I’m through here, they won’t even remember what their lives were like.” He floated off the ground and flew over the town, before stopping right in the middle of it. Holding out his talon, a ball of energy began to form in it, before he launched it into a large beam. He moved his talon as the beam was fired, hitting a large area in front of him with it. It hit the town hall in the center of the town, and after the beam disappeared, there was a large explosion. The town hall was engulfed in a fiery blast, shards of wood falling to the ground next to the remains.

The blast rocked the ground, waking up the inhabitants. Some brave souls opened their doors to a horrible sight: the charred and burning remains of the town hall lay before them, and looking up, they could see Havoc floating in the air, a maniacal grin on his face. He soon saw the ponies standing there, wide eyed in shock.

“Greetings, little ponies,” he said. “It’s time for all of you to learn who the real ruler of your pathetic little world is. Not even your precious Celestia will be able to stop me this time!” His paw began to glow in a crimson light, and he slammed it into the ground. After doing this, large spikes of energy burst from the ground, aiming at the ponies watching.

Just when they were about to get hit, a turquoise beam cut through them. They exploded, which gave the ponies time to run away. Out of the smoke, a rainbow blur shot straight towards Havoc, hitting him right in the chest and launching him into the remains of the town hall. Getting up quickly, he saw Starlight and Rainbow Dash, the latter having come back after hitting him.

“So, you’re Havoc, aren’t you?” Starlight asked, narrowing her eyes. Havoc laughed, not believing his eyes.

“Well, this is different,” he said. “Some of you are actually fighting back. How cute. However, your efforts are futile. Your ‘hero’ is incapacitated, and now not even your princesses can stop me!”

“But I can,” a voice said. There was a flash in front of Starlight and Rainbow, and it soon faded to reveal a very angry Discord. Havoc stared at the being that he once called his brother with malice.

“Discord…,” he said, growling. “Are you actually siding with these pathetic ponies?”

“Yes. Yes I am,” Discord said. “And they’re not pathetic. They have taught me the value of friendship and kindness, something that I had lost thanks to you!” He got into a fighting stance, ready for what was about to come. “This time, you’re not going to trick me. You’re going back to the Canterlot Caverns where you belong!”

With this, his paw and talon were surrounded in a yellow light, and he launched multiple balls of energy at Havoc. Havoc put up a shield at the last second, causing the energy balls to explode on contact.

“Well then, it seems like you haven’t gotten rusty,” he said as he called off the shield. “It doesn’t matter, though. After I kill you, Equestria will fall to me. Your so-called ‘friendship’ is just a lie, holding you back from your true power. If you were like me, we could have ruled together. But I guess that just isn’t meant to be.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, Havoc!” Rainbow said. “Friends stick together, no matter what! And nothing can beat the power of a strong friendship!”

“So be it! I will crush you here and now!” Havoc roared, letting loose a blood-red shockwave that hit Discord, Starlight, and Rainbow. They were pushed back a little, but regained their stances quickly. Starlight fired a beam of magic at Havoc, who easily dodged it and returned it with his own. She quickly cast a shield spell to block it, causing it to explode.

Through the smoke of the blast, Havoc charged at her, paw and talon out front to slash at her. Just when he was about to hit her, Rainbow came in and hit him off to the side. He rolled onto the ground, but quickly got back up. His paw and talon began to glow crimson, and he fired red lightning at Starlight and Rainbow. Starlight used another shield spell in time, but Rainbow wasn’t as lucky. She was hit by the lighting at full force, sending her plummeting to the ground.

Havoc laughed, before charging at Rainbow, his paw and talon still sparking with electricity. He didn’t get far, however, as he felt a sharp pain in his back. Discord stood behind him, his talon bathed in a yellow light as he had just launched another energy ball at his back. The light then moved to his tail, and he slammed it onto Havoc’s back, breaking the ground underneath of him. He soon got off of him, thinking that his work was done. He was proven wrong, however, as Havoc’s paw began to glow.

He slammed his paw into the ground, causing giant spikes of energy to break out of it. Discord, caught off guard by the sudden attack, was hit square in the chest by one of the spikes and was sent flying. Havoc slowly got up, only to be knocked down again by another beam from Starlight.

“That is it!” he yelled. “This ends now!” He rose up into the air, his eyes turning completely red and red electricity sparking from his body. Discord recovered from the spike that had hit him and shot towards Havoc, a yellow energy ball in his paw. The electricity around Havoc began to converge at a single point in front of him, before firing into a destructive beam that was aimed at Starlight. She materialized another shield, but as the beam hit it, the shield began to crack due to the power of the beam.

Just when the shield was about to break, Discord threw the ball of energy that was in his paw. It his Havoc square in the face, and that gave Discord his chance. From his talon he made a giant claw of pure energy, and slashed at Havoc with it. The giant slash resulted in an explosion, sending Havoc falling to the ground. The beam dissipated, and Starlight collapsed in exhaustion. Rainbow slowly stood up, the electricity still coursing across her body, but she wasn’t in as much pain as she was before.

Discord floated down to Havoc, the claw disappearing as he did. He landed in front of him, staring down at the beaten villain. Havoc slowly got up to one knee, staring at his brother.

“This isn’t the last you will see of me, Discord,” he told him. “Mark my words, I will be back, and you will be erased from existence….” With that, he was surrounded in a bright light, and disappeared.

Rainbow limped over to Discord, a smile on her face. “That was awesome!” she said, before wincing a little from the electricity. “You saved our skins. If it weren’t for you, we would have been toast. Come to think of it, though, how did you know that he was here?”

“I sensed his magic, of course,” he replied. “I knew it was him the very moment I sensed it. His magical aura is nothing but malice and hate, so it is easy to track down since not many beings here have that kind of aura.” Starlight soon joined the two, her legs wobbly from using so much magic.

“Hey, Rainbow?” she asked. “Where’s Freeze at? He would have been over here in a second if he saw what Havoc was doing."

“You know, that’s a good question,” Rainbow said. “Last time I saw him he was with Twilight heading to the castle. You don’t think he’s still there, do you?”

“I never saw him leave the castle. Let’s go check it out,” Starlight said, before breaking out into a gallop. Rainbow gave Discord one last thanks, before joining Starlight. Discord looked at the two and sighed.

“I hope that we’ll be able to stop him,” he said to himself. “If he’s as strong as he was back then, it will be a real challenge.” With that, he teleported to Canterlot, to tell the Princesses the news.

Havoc reappeared in his castle, out of breath. He held his chest in pain and looked down at it. Three claw marks raked his body, and although they were almost fully healed due to his healing magic, he could still feel the pain. His ears twitched as he heard hoofsteps echo the halls, but they soon stopped. Turning his head, he saw Chrysalis staring at him. He narrowed his eyes.

“What do you want?” he said in a low voice.

“What happened?” Chrysalis asked, wondering why he was bent over in pain when he was supposed to be conquering unchallenged.

“My excuse for a brother happened, that’s what,” he told her. “Of course I forgot to compensate for him. I thought that he was still in stone because of what I did to him, but it seems that isn’t the case. And of course, he is siding with those ponies!” He slammed his paw on the ground in anger as he said this. He then took a deep breath. “Is our prisoner still contained?”

“Yes, she is,” Chrysalis said to him.

“Well, at least one thing is going right,” he muttered to himself. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to go and find someone.” Getting of the ground, he walked past Chrysalis, not even looking at her as he did so. He walked down the dim halls of the castle until he came to a room that was darker than the rest of the castle. There was little to no light, so Havoc conjured a fire with his talon so he could see around him. He looked around the room and scowled.

“I know you’re in here,” he said. “We need to talk.”

There was a small noise, and soon it appeared that a part of the darkness was moving towards him. Two red eyes looked up at him, and they revealed themselves to be part of the dark ball that Havoc had met when he had first broken free.

“Yes?” it said. “What is it you wish to speak about?” Havoc bent down, getting up to the dark ball’s face. His eyes narrowed.

“You have done nothing to help me so far,” he said. “I am beginning to think that you were lying to me when you said you could help. If you cannot pull your weight around here, then you are leaving.

“As I said, I am too weak to do much of anything at the moment,” it said, not fazed at all by Havoc’s threat. “Yes, my power is growing, but I can’t be of much service yet.” Havoc growled, turning away from the ball of darkness. “But,” it continued. “if it makes you feel any better, I have sensed something that can help you if you can control it.” Havoc turned back around, a mixture of anger and surprise on his face.

“What?” he said skeptically.

“Yes, it seems that a large amount of positive energy lies nearby,” it said. “If you can control it, and change it into dark energy, you can help me to grow stronger. Then I will be able to help you.”

There was a short silence, before there was a sudden crash from outside. Havoc quickly stood up to attention, wondering what had happened.

“I will be right back,” he said. “I will think about what you have said.” With that, he disappeared in a flash of light.

A Plan Falls Apart

Havoc appeared outside of the castle, looking around to see what could have caused the crash. He soon saw a wide trench cut out on the rocky ground nearby. Curious, he followed it. It went so far, it reached the end of his small domain, where the stone gave way to dirt. The trench, however, continued for a while, until he came across something he had never seen before in his life.

At the end of the trench was what looked to be a large, eight armed robot that was in pieces. A few fires burned on some of the cables, which could have been from the result of something breaking it apart. Nearby, there was a smaller sphere with something inside of it. The sphere suddenly opened up, and a creature that Havoc had only heard about in legends fell out of it. The creature, a human, slowly got up and, seeing the destroyed robot, rushed over to it. As he ran to the robot, Havoc could see that the human was very fat, yet it could run moderately fast.

“Where is it, where is it!” the human shouted to himself as it rummaged through the robot’s remains. Havoc moved behind the human and folded his arms, an unamused look on his face.

“Were you the one who caused the trench in my territory?” he asked coldly. At the sound of his voice, the human tensed up and slowly turned around. Seeing Havoc, he quickly backed away on all fours until he was stopped by one of the robot’s pieces.

“P-please! Don’t hurt me!” the human said, fear in his voice. Havoc gave a small chuckle at watching him squirm to get away.

“Don’t worry,” Havoc said. “I won’t kill you… yet.” He then brought his talon up, and it began to glow crimson. The human soon began to glow the same color, and was levitated up so he was inches from Havoc’s face. “Now, I’m going to ask you again. Did you create that trench?” A touch of malice began to form in his voice.

“Y-yes! Yes!” the human said, nodding his head. “But I didn’t mean to! I have no idea where I even am!” Havoc stared at him for a moment, his eyes narrowing, before he let him go from his magical grip. The human dropped to the ground, stunned.

“No matter, I can fix it anyway,” Havoc said, before snapping his talon. Instantly, the trench disappeared, the only things remaining were the burning remains of the robot and the sphere the human came out of. “Now then, who are you?” The human stood up and, thankful that he wasn’t killed instantly, he gave Havoc a large smile.

“My name is Ivo Robotnik, but you may call be Dr. Eggman!” he said, giving a small laugh and folding his arms. Havoc stared at him for a second, before laughing uncontrollably. Eggman gave him a quizzical look.

“That- That is the funniest thing I have heard in eons!” he said, tears forming in his eyes. “Who even names themselves that? Only an incompetent fool would come up with a name like that!”

“Hey! I have you know my IQ is over 300!” Eggman retorted. “So I am no fool, you walking zoo!” Havoc’s laughter suddenly stopped, and in one quick movement, he pinned Eggman up against a tree with his talon, His blood-red eyes glowed with anger.

“You do not comprehend who I am,” he said coldly. “I can end your life in a million different ways, and some of those ways you cannot begin to think of how painful they can be. I was turned to stone thousands of years ago for a reason. So unless you want to die, I’d refrain making fun of me.” Eggman simply nodded, fear in his eyes. Havoc let go of him, and he dropped to the ground. “I am taking you to my castle. There, we can discuss some things.” He snapped his paw, and they both disappeared.

“Freeze? Where are you!” Starlight shouted. She had been searching the castle for well over half an hour, but there was no sign of him. Rounding a corner, she soon came across Rainbow Dash.

“Did you find him yet?” Rainbow asked, to which Starlight only replied to a shake of her head. “Dammit! Where’s that stallion when you need him!” Starlight thought for a moment, before getting an idea.

“There is one place we haven’t checked yet,” she said, motioning for Rainbow to follow her. They soon made their way to Twilight’s room. Stopping in front of the door, Rainbow gave her a quizzical look.

“Do you really think he would be in there?” Rainbow asked.

“It’s the only place we haven’t looked yet,” Starlight told her, before her horn began to glow. A faint magical aura appeared on the doorknob, but as she tried to turn it with her magic, it didn’t budge. “Must be locked,” she said. Fortunately, she had just learned an unlocking spell a few days earlier, so within a few seconds, the lock clicked, and she opened the door.

She was greeted to the sight of Freeze standing near the mirror, staring straight at the mares. They could instantly see that something was off about him. For one, he didn’t react when they opened the door. He stood straight up, as if invisible strings were keeping him from slouching over. His gaze did not move, and he barely blinked. Starlight and Rainbow walked up to him slowly, keeping their guard up.

“Um, Freeze?” Rainbow said after a short silence. “You alright there bud?” She shook him a bit, trying to get him out of his trance, but her attempts did not prove fruitful. Suddenly, she gasped as she saw his eyes flash green for a fraction of a second. She instantly recognized them, thinking back to a couple years before.

“Chrysalis…,” she muttered. Starlight overheard her, gasping in surprise.

“Wait, you don’t mean that Chrysalis hypnotized him, do you?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Rainbow told her. “I’ve seen this before, at Princess Cadence and Shining Armor’s wedding. It was… Hard to forget.” She cringed as she said this, remembering the events of the wedding perfectly.

“Well, how do we break the spell?” Starlight asked, a worried look on her face.

“At the wedding, Princess Cadence’s love for Shining Armor broke the spell on him, but in this case, I don’t know,” Rainbow said solemnly. “To my knowledge, he doesn’t have a special somepony.” Unbeknownst to Rainbow, the gears in Starlight’s head began to turn.

“Wait a minute, but if Freeze is here under a spell, in Twilight’s room, wouldn’t Twilight notice?” she asked.

“Yeah, she would…,” Rainbow said, thinking, before her pupils shrank to pinpricks. “Wait, you don’t mean-”

“Yes. Somehow, I think Twilight was foalnapped by Chrysalis!” Starlight said, interrupting her. “I have a hard time believe this myself, but I believe that I have a theory. It can’t be a coincidence that when Freeze was put under Chrysalis’s spell, Havoc decided to attack.”

“Are you saying that Chrysalis teamed up with Havoc?!” Rainbow exclaimed.

“Yes, but I hope I’m wrong,” Starlight said, turning back to Freeze. “We need to break him from the spell and find Twilight, fast. Who knows what they could have done to her by now!”

“But we don't even know where to look!” Rainbow exclaimed. “And we don’t even know how to break the spell!”

“I believe I can help with one of those things,” a voice said suddenly. There was a flash of light, and Discord appeared in the room. “Did you forget that I could sense Havoc’s magical signature? Wherever Havoc is, Twilight will hopefully be close by.” He stepped up to Freeze, looking at him curiously. “But about the spell that was placed on him, even I have no idea how to break it.”

“So, does that mean that he could be stuck like that forever?” Starlight asked, hoping that the answer was the one she was hoping for. After Discord examined Freeze for a few more seconds, he stood up and faced Starlight.

“I’m afraid that might be the case,” Discord said solemnly. “Unless we can find somepony who has strong feelings towards him, he may remain this way forever.”

“And how are we going to do that? It’ll take forever to find somepony who does!” Rainbow said. Meanwhile, Starlight began to think.

“Unless, we had some extra help,” she said. “Rainbow, gather the other girls here. I think I may have an idea.” Rainbow nodded, and flew out the door.

“While you do that, I am going to find Havoc,” Discord said, and he disappeared.

“So what you’re saying is, you want to take over this ‘Equestria’ and kill the princesses and your brother?” Eggman asked, intrigued by what Havoc had just told him. He was growing fond of the draconequus, even if he did look weird to him.

“Yes, but it is harder than it looks,” Havoc told him. They walking down the steps to the dungeons, so Havoc could check on his prisoner. “My brother is about as powerful as I am, and of course, he is siding with those ponies.” He says this in disgust.

“Well, at least you have some leverage,” Eggman told him. “You did capture one of the princesses, right.”

“Yes, I did.” Havoc said. “That is who we are checking up on now, to see if she is still there. Although, there isn’t much she can do to break free.” The duo reached the bottom of the stairs, but what greeted them was complete darkness.

“Um, is it supposed to be this dark down here?” Eggman asked.

“No, it is not,” Havoc replied and conjured a flame in his hand. The two walked down the long hallway. They soon came across the cell that Twilight was kept in, but instead of finding the alicorn, they found something else.

“Hello, brother.” Discord said from the darkness, revealing himself to the two. “I see that you have a new friend.”

“He is not a friend, he is ally.” Havoc snapped back. “And you are a fool to come here.” As he said this, he launched a ball of energy at Discord, but instead of hitting him, it passed right through him, hitting a wall nearby. Discord faded for a second when the energy ball passed through him.

“I knew that it would be too dangerous to come here myself,” Discord said. “This is merely a projection. I’ve just come to pick up a little something, nothing more, nothing less.” He gestured to the cell behind him. Havoc looked to where he was pointing, but instead of seeing Twilight in magical shackles, it was empty. Havoc looked dumbfounded, before his eyes turned completely crimson and he gave a loud roar of anger.

“How!? How did you know where she was!? Everything was going perfectly, and then you had to show up! You and your meddling little ponies! You are a disgrace to our kind, Discord, and I will not rest until I kill you and everyone you care about!” The image of Discord simply stood there, unamused. He rolled his eyes, and the image faded out, leaving Havoc and Eggman alone in the dungeons. Havoc’s eyes were still crimson in anger, but they soon turned back to there original color. He then turned towards Eggman.

“That machine,” he began. “The one you came here with. Does it still work?”

“Well, uh, no, it doesn’t,” Eggman said, still shaken by Havoc’s sudden outburst. “And it is far beyond repair. But, if I can get my hands on a lot of metal and mechanical supplies, I can make a new machine to help you.” Havoc looked at him for a moment, before sighing. He snapped his talon, and started to walk away from him.

“Everything you will need is upstairs in what was the ballroom,” he said as he walked away from him.. “That will be your workshop.” He then disappeared, leaving Eggman alone.

How the Tables Turn

Twilight opened her eyes slowly, the bright lights around her causing her to squint. She could make out blurry shapes in front of her, and when her vision cleared, she could see that they were her friends. Giving out a small breath of air, she stood up slowly, alerting her friends of her presence.

“Twilight!” Pinkie screamed, and immediately tackled her to the floor. She then proceeded to give her a back-breaking hug.

“Pinkie!” Twilight said, gasping for air. “Can’t breathe!”

“Oops, sorry,” she said and let her go. After taking a few deep breaths, Twilight looked up to her friends.

“What happened? Did Havoc attack?” she asked them, fear and worry in her voice.

“Yeah, but Starlight, Discord and I beat his sorry butt back to where he came from!” Rainbow said. Starlight rolled her eyes, walking up to Twilight.

“That’s not the only thing that happened, though,” she said, before pointing her hoof behind Twilight. She turned around slowly, before seeing Freeze in his hypnotic state.

“F-Freeze?” Twilight said, walking up to him. She put a hoof to his cheek and looked into his eyes, seeing a glimmer of green in them. She gasped and backed up, shaking. “That’s why Chrysalis impersonated me,” she whispered to herself. “To hypnotize him and make him unable to fight.” A few tears fell down her face, but she quickly wiped them away and turned to her friends, a determined expression on her face. “We need to break the spell, no matter what.” She stated.

“That’s what we were gonna try to do,” Applejack said. “We were going to see if any of us could break it, before we ask other ponies.” Twilight only nodded, before stepping up to Freeze. The others looked at her, confused, before getting the message. All at once, they all hugged him.

Suddenly, a bright light enveloped them, growing brighter by the second. The light then converged to a single point, right in front of Freeze’s chest, before going inside of it. The mare’s didn’t see it, but as soon as the light went inside of him, he blinked, the green gone from his eyes. Shaking his head, he looked down to see the mares hugging him tightly from all directions.

“Uh, guys?” he said, confused. “What are you doing?” They all gasped, looking to him. Slowly, smiles appeared on all of their faces, and they started to hug even tighter, yelling with joy that their friend was back. Freeze, meanwhile, was gasping for breath. They soon broke off of him, looking at him with smiles of pure relief. Shaking his head again, he looked at them.

“Alright, what happened,” he said. “You guys look like I died and then came back to life.”

“You were under Chrysalis’s spell,” Twilight told him. “We’re lucky that we were able to break it.”

“Wait, but how?” Rainbow asked. “As far as we know, none of us like him like that.” Rarity gave a small, silent chuckle, knowing that this wasn’t the case.

“Maybe it was our friendship that brought him back,” Applejack said. “We don’t know if breaking the spell is restricted to just love.” The others nodded in agreement. Freeze, however, was just more confused.

“Wait, who is Chrysalis?” he asked, before looking around. “And why did you take me to your room, Twilight?”

“Chrysalis is the former queen of the changelings, before they became good,” Starlight told him. “And that wasn’t Twilight who brought you into her room. It must have been Chrysalis, and she had put a spell on you so you couldn’t defend Ponyville.”

“Yeah, and that night, Havoc attacked, so we think that they’re working together,” Rainbow finished. Freeze put a hoof on his chin in thought, before looking at the mares.

“Well, that explains a few things,” he said. “But there’s been something on my mind for a while now.”

“And what’s that, dear?” Rarity asked.

“Where does that Bowser guy fit in with all of this? He attacked me out of the blue that one day, and we never saw him again.”

“Maybe he’s working with Havoc, too!” Pinkie exclaimed. “I mean, think about it! He said that someone gave him power, and Havoc is a very likely candidate to do that.”

“So we have Havoc, Chrysalis, and Bowser working together. Great, just great. Because just Havoc wasn’t enough,” Freeze said, rubbing his forehead. “On top of all of that, I barely know what I’m doing in my dragon form! I mostly just let Kyurem take control, but it tires him out, and I can’t take as many hits.”

“Well, then that’s something you’ll just have to work on, then,” Fluttershy told him, putting a hoof on him reassuringly. “And don’t worry. We’ll help you out as much as we can.” The others mares nodded.

“Thanks guys,” he said, giving a small sigh. “I’m gonna need a lot of training if I want to beat him.”

“Alright, put it over there! No, not there! Hey, watch where you’re going with that!” In the span of a few hours, Eggman had created a reasonable amount of robots, which he had dubbed ‘Egg Pawns’. They were currently working on a large, menacing robot that was almost as big as the room it was in. It looked similar to a bat, with giant, sharp wings and a long tail. There was a small hole on the head of the mechanical beast, presumably for a cockpit of sorts. As Eggman continued to bark orders to his robots, Bowser came stomping into the room, his face contorted in anger.

“Hey, what’s the big idea!?” he shouted, causing the mad scientist to turn his head. “I’m trying to get some sleep here, and I keep hearing all… this…” He trailed off as he looked up at the larger robot under construction. “Wow, that is actually pretty cool. Did you build that all by yourself?”

“No, of course not,” Eggman said. “I’m making my Egg Pawns do it.” He walked up to Bowser, squinting at him. “I feel like I’ve seen you before, but I can’t put my finger on it.”

“Well, I’ve never seen you before in my life,” Bowser tells him. “You the new recruit Havoc was telling me about, right?” Eggman simply nods. Bowser then chuckles to himself. “Good. We need another good brain around here. That bug’s idea was absolutely terrible.”

“What did you just say, grub?” a cold voice said from behind him. He turned around to see Chrysalis in the doorway staring at him.

“I said that your plan sucked,” he told her, making eye contact with her. He began to walk up to her, scowling. “I mean, really, you didn’t even have her for a day! How hard can it be to keep her in there?”

“Well excuse me, but I didn’t know that Havoc had a brother, and that it was Discord no less!” Chrysalis said. She was visibly shaking in rage at this point.

“Well, you should have known!” he yelled back. “One of the most important things in a good plan is to research beforehand! That’s how I almost win back on my world!”

“Yes, almost! Did you actually win, though?”

“No, but I’ve come closer than you have, insect!”

“Oh really? Have you captured all of the most important people in your world so that there will be no one left to save it!?”

“No, but I’ve made my own galaxy in the center of the universe! Twice!”

“And how did that work out for you!? It probably imploded in on itself due to your sheer stupidity!”

“Oh, that’s it! I’m gonna squish you until you’re just a smear on this floor!”

“Try me, turtle! You probably won’t be able to because you’re so slow!”

“Oh yeah? Well, at least unlike you, I’m not a pain in the-”

“ENOUGH!!” There was a bright flash, and Bowser and Chrysalis found themselves floating in the air, a very angry Havoc in between them. “If you two can’t cooperate, I’ll personally destroy the both of you! I don’t need this in my life, not when there is a whole world to take over!” He then dropped Bowser and Chrysalis and floated towards Eggman. “Is it almost finished?” he asked.

“Yes, I just need to make a few more adjustments and put in the power source, and it will be all done!” Eggman said.

“Good, because I have some news. Apparently there is a large source of harmonic energy right near us, but there is a little bit a darkness lurking underneath of it. If we can extract that darkness and make it take over the harmonic energy, we can have enough dark power to make sure that no one stands in our way ever again.”

“But how are we going to do that?” Bowser asks. “If that harmonic energy is as strong as you say it is, then how are we going to convert it to darkness?”

“I believe I have an idea for that,” Havoc said, before turning away from the group. His talon began to glow crimson, before he slashed at the air with it. The air around the slash rippled, before turning into a scarlet portal. Immediately, a loud screech could be heard from inside, making Bowser, Chrysalis, and Eggman cover their ears. After the screech had finished, Havoc closed the portal, before turning to the others.

“Wait, why did you close it?” Chrysalis asked.

“Because what was on the other side is too big to fit in here along with Eggman’s machine,” he stated. “It is capable of radiating an aura of darkness, and if my theory is correct, then it will be able to corrupt the harmonic energy.”

“Then what are we waiting for, then? Let’s get it over here!” Bowser said excitedly.

“It is not that simple. It will take a lot of my energy to transfer it over. We may need to wait a week at the very least before I have enough power to bring it across the portal.”

“But you got me here just fine!” Bowser said. “What makes that thing any different?”

“Many factors, but they are not important right now. The important thing is that we prepare for its arrival. Eggman, I trust that you will finish your machine soon?”

“Yes, of course!” Eggman exclaimed, before hurrying back to his Egg Pawns and resuming his work.

“Good, and as for you two,” Havoc turned towards Bowser and Chrysalis. “If I hear you two fighting one more time, that Freeze will be the least of your worries. As entertaining as it is, I cannot have my allies fighting each other if it means my plans will fail.” Bowser and Chrysalis simply nodded. “Good. You are dismissed.” They gave each other one last look before they went their separate ways, presumably to their rooms.

Havoc sighed before teleporting out of the room, appearing in the darkest room of the castle. Conjuring a flame in his paw, he looked around before seeing a dark blob on a nearby rock. The dark creature had grown, but not by much. It was now about the size of a baseball.

“You better hope this works,” Havoc said leaning in towards it, before teleporting out of the room. The only thing that the dark ball did was give a small chuckle, showing its brilliant white teeth.

Test Flight

A loud crash rocked Ponyville the next day. It came from the direction of Twilight’s castle, so no one really paid any mind to it since they were used to hearing crashes from there. In reality, though, the crash did not come from inside the castle, but rather from behind it.

A large crater had been created in the field behind the castle. Laying in the middle of it was Freeze in his dragon form, groaning. His friends looked into the hole he had created when he crashed, worry on there faces.

“Hey, uh, Freeze? You alright down there?” Rainbow Dash asked, flying down to her friend.

“No, not really,” Freeze replied, his voice muffled due to his head being in the dirt. “Actually, I think I’ll just lay here and take a small nap.”

“Yeah, uh, no.” Rainbow said, before trying to pull him out of the ground by his tail. Of course, her efforts proved futile since he was a giant dragon compared to her being a small pony, but she tried anyway. “C’mon, don’t you want to have enough power to beat Havoc?”

“Yeah, but not right now,” he said. The other mares looked to each other nervously, before Fluttershy and Twilight flew down to the bottom to join Rainbow.

“Freeze, Equestria’s in danger as long as Havoc is still active,” Twilight told him. “You need to master your new abilities, and soon. We don’t know when or where he’ll attack next.”

“Yeah, well I’ve been training for an hour now and have gotten nowhere.” he said, sitting up. “I can’t even fly! How am I supposed to fly without flapping my wings? In fact, why do I even have these wings in the first place? I can’t even use them, for Celestia’s sake!” He gave a small growl as he said this, looking down at the three mares in front of him. Rainbow raised an eyebrow at him, while Twilight and Fluttershy had pleading looks on their faces. After several seconds, he sighed.

“Fine, I’ll keep trying,” he told them, before standing up, making the ground close to him rumble. He crouched down, preparing to take off. After a few seconds, he shot up into the air, leaving his friends on the ground.

The wind rushed past his face as he climbed higher and higher into the air. Squinting his eyes, he fought past the air currents trying to push him down. Suddenly, he hit a strong downdraft that caused him to start plummeting towards the ground. He tried to fight the air currents, but each time he flew higher, the currents pushed him back down.

Getting frustrated, electricity began to surround his body. He did not know that this was happening, since he was trying to get past the downdrafts and climb higher. After what seemed like the 20th time getting pushed back down, he let out a loud roar of anger, and that was all the electricity surrounding him needed. He was suddenly surrounded in a ball of blue electricity, and he flew back up to try to get past the air currents once more. The ball surrounding him deflected the downdrafts as he climbed higher and higher into the air. Gritting his teeth, Freeze used one last push to break through the cloud barrier. As he did, the ball of electricity exploded off of him, and it blew away the clouds around him. Due to his new form, he could go higher up into the air than pegasi can, and looking down, he was in awe of the landscape below him.

“Wow,” he said, his breathing ragged due to the decrease in oxygen around him. “That’s actually pretty beautiful.” Hills and mountains dotted the ground below, while blue streams snaked their way around them. He could see Ponyville, Canterlot, and a few neighboring cities near them. After looking down for a few minutes, he decided that it was time to go back down. Angling himself downward, he began his descent.

Far below, the six mares who had went out with him were looking up into the sky with anticipation.

“Uh, shouldn’t he have come back down by now?” Rainbow asked.

“Just give him some time,” Applejack said. “He might be practicing some aerial man-whatchamacallits up there.”

“Aerial maneuvers,” Rainbow corrected her. “I’m not sure that’s what he’s doing up there, though. He barely knows the basics! What makes you think he can do anything else up there?”

“Um, I don’t know, but I think he’s coming down now!” Pinkie said, interrupting the two. Sure enough, they could see Freeze nosediving towards the ground. He was trying his best to pull up, but the air around him kept pushing him down.

“He’s going to crash!” Twilight yelled, before summoning her magic A magenta glow appeared around Freeze, with the intent of slowing him down. While he did start to slow down, it was not by much. He was still going too fast to land safely.

“It’s not working!” Rainbow yelled to Twilight. “Give it some more power!”

“I’m trying!” Twilight yelled back, gritting her teeth as she poured more magic into her spell. Beads of sweat began to fall down her face as she tried to keep her magical hold on Freeze. He kept falling, however, and was getting very close to the ground. At the last second, however, just when he was about to crash, he leveled himself with the ground. He was now flying parallel to the ground; straight towards the mares. In a split second before he hit them, Twilight cancelled her hold on Freeze and teleported herself and her friends a safe distance away. Meanwhile, Freeze dug his feet into the ground, which, because of the sudden stop, caused him to flip over and land on his back.

The crash that followed shook the ground like an earthquake had hit. After the rumbling subsided, Twilight and Rainbow quickly went up to him to see if he was alright.

“Hey Freeze, you alright?” Rainbow asked him. All she got for an answer was a loud groan, before he was suddenly surrounded by a blue light, changing back into his normal self. After transforming back, he sat up and rubbed his head.

“Ugh, that hurt..,” he said, before looking at his concerned friends. The others had caught up with Twilight and Rainbow, and looked at him with worry. “Hey, it’s alright, just a small headache from the crash. Nothing too big.” The mares sighed in relief.

“So, what happened?” Rainbow asked, walking up to him. “How did you managed to trap yourself in a nosedive?”

“No clue,” he answered. “But you should have seen the view from up there. It was really breathtaking.”

“…How high did you go?”

“Uh, past the clouds, why?” With that, Rainbow’s jaw dropped, surprised at what she had just heard.

“Wha- Past the clouds!?” she yelled. “Not even I can go that high! How did you survive up there?”

“I… I honestly don’t know. It might have been because I was a larger creature, so that meant that I could take in more oxygen or something.” He shrugged, before standing up and dusting himself off. “I do know one thing, though. I am definitely done for today.”

“Yeah, I think that little stunt you pulled up there can testify to that,” Twilight said. “We’ll stop here for today, and tomorrow we’ll try and practice some of your attacks.”

“Sounds good to me,” Freeze said.

“Past the clouds…” Rainbow said to herself, still shocked. The other laughed, before heading back to the castle for a well-deserved break.

“Yes! It’s finally finished!” Eggman said as he triumphantly stood in front of his new machine, a large smile on his face. Havoc walked up next to him, his eyes narrowed, before giving a small smirk.

“You really have done a fine job, doctor,” he said. “Are you sure this will be able to kill him, though?”

“But of course!” Eggman said. “It is outfitted with everything I could think of! Missiles, lasers, and a launchable tail! And, thanks to you, it has infinite ammunition! I can’t wait to see him cower to this! Hahahaha-Ack!” As he laughed, he began to go into a coughing fit. It stopped after a few seconds, but he was left bent over with his hands on his knees. “I think I’m getting too old for this,” he said quietly before standing up again.

“Don’t die on me, old man,” Havoc told him. “I need you for your help with the harmonic power. Speaking of which, now that you’re done with your robot, why don’t we discuss how we are going to extract the energy once we convert it.”

“That sounds like a good idea, but shouldn’t we see where it is first?”

“Good point. Wait here.” Havoc disappeared in a flash of light, before returning after a couple minutes. “Follow me,” he said to Eggman, before they left the room. They walked outside of the castle and across the bridge leading towards it. What was once a rickety old rope bridge was now a stone bridge with large torches at the entrance of it. After they crossed the bridge, Havoc looked to his left to find a set of stairs leading into the canyon below. Eggman hurried to follow him, but Havoc snapped his paw and they appeared at the bottom in an instant.

“Wow. I don’t think I’ll get used to that,” Eggman said, before following Havoc around a corner. They soon came to a large cavern that had a bright light shining out of it. The area around the cave was untouched by Havoc’s magic. Suddenly, Havoc stopped in his tracks, which caused Eggman to bump into him. Havoc did not seem to notice, however, and began to sniff the air.

“I sense it…,” he said. “And I don't like it. It reminds me of a power I felt thousands of years ago.” He stepped into the cave, and he and Eggman gasped at what they saw.

At the end of the cavern sat a glowing, crystalized tree. It had five branches on it, each one containing a gem at the end of it. The middle of the tree had a six-sided star on it, while the trunk had a sun symbol and a moon symbol on it. Eggman gazed at it in awe, while Havoc scowled.

“The Elements of Harmony,” he spat out. “So this was where they were kept.”

“Elements of what-now?” Eggman asked, confused.

“The Elements of Harmony were what turned me to stone thousands of years ago,” Havoc told him. “They are artifacts of pure harmony, which can be dangerous to creatures of chaos like me. This must be what he was talking about.”

“Who?”

“Never mind. The important thing is that we find out how to convert it.” Havoc began to sniff the air again, trying to find the small amount of dark energy that was described to him.

“Wait, but I thought you said whatever was in that portal can corrupt it,” Eggman said.

“Yes, but we need a starting point first,” Havoc replied. He soon stopped sniffing and dug into the ground. Beneath the dirt was a few, small dark objects that looked like seeds. “Perfect.”

“What’s perfect?” Eggman asked. Havoc removed one of the seed-like objects from the ground and showed it to him.

“This,” he began, “Is a plunder seed. It is designed to corrupt beings of harmony. The more harmonic energy there is, the more it will grow. My brother must have tried to used these when I made him become evil, but the Elements’ power must be too strong to let them mature.” He put the seed back into the ground a covered it back up. “The creature that I will summon will have enough power to make the seeds grow, and they will take over the Elements. Once that happens, we can extract the energy that it emits.”

“But why are we doing this?” Eggman asked. “Surely you have enough power already.”

“It is not for me,” Havoc answered. “Rather, it is for an acquaintance of mine.” He snapped his talon, teleporting the two back to Eggman’s workshop. “Now that I have seen where it is, we can teleport to it whenever we want. It will make things much easier for carrying supplies down to it.” He raised his talon again, getting ready to teleport. “Why don’t you go and test your new machine? Who knows, you may actually succeed in killing him.” With that, he snapped his talon and disappeared.

Eggman looked at where Havoc had been standing, before turning the his machine. A large grin grew on his face as he let out a small chuckle.

“Oh ho ho, this is going to be fun,” he said to himself as he rubbed his hands together in anticipation.”

Eggman Attacks!

“Uh, Twilight, what’s that?”

Freeze, Twilight, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash stood in the same field they were in the day before. Today, though, was not a day for flying. A large object made of metal stood in the middle of the field. It showed several gauges and lights on it’s sides, and a large funnel came out of the right side of it.

“This is a machine that will calculate the power of your attacks,” Twilight explained. “It measures all of the energy in each attack, and converts it into numbers and formulas so I can read it.”

“Yeah, but won’t they, you know, break it?”

“Nope. I cast several protection spells on it, so the only way it could break is if it overloads, but I put in some failsafe spells for that, too.” After she said this, she gave a small, awkward smile.

“Well, alright,I trust you,” he said, before transforming. He let out a loud roar after the transformation ended, blasting wind in the direction of the three mares. Twilight and Rainbow looked at his with raised eyebrows, while he looked at them sheepishly. “Sorry, can’t help it. Makes it look cooler.”

“Alright, alright,” Twilight said, shaking her head and giving a small chuckle. “Let’s start with the ice beam. Can you shoot one of them into the funnel here?” She pointed to the funnel on the side of the machine with her hoof.

Freeze nodded, and reared his head back, building up ice energy in his mouth. Bringing his head back to its original position, he aimed a light-blue beam of ice into the funnel. The sides of the funnel started to get covered in ice, but it quickly melted due to Twilight’s protective spells. The lights on the machine began flickering as the gauges recorded the energy of the beam. At the back of the device, a long paper began printing out, showing a multitude of numbers and equations. The beam soon petered out, and the paper stopped printing.

Twilight grabbed the paper with her magic and looked over its contents. She occasionally gave a soft hum or gasp, but when she finished reading it, she stared up at Freeze with a shocked expression.

“The power in your ice beam is like nothing we’ve ever seen before!” Twilight said. “While it isn’t as strong as Princess Celestia’s magic or the Elements, it is still very powerful!” Freeze stood proud at this statement, before getting ready to give another loud roar of triumph. Twilight, seeing what was going to happen, quickly kept his mouth shut with her magic. “Freeze, while we enjoying your roaring, some of the other ponies in Ponyville might not, or even worse, they might get scared by it. So can you please keep it to a minimum?” Freeze nodded, and she let go of her magical hold on his mouth.

Meanwhile, Rainbow and Fluttershy were talking to each other nearby.

“Yeah, I don’t know what any of that stuff on the paper means, but by the looks of how much is on there, that beam of his must be really strong!” Rainbow said. Fluttershy gave a small nod, but something soon glinted in the corner of her eye. She turned her head slowly to see a pair of glowing blue eyes staring back at her in the forest behind them.

“Um, Rainbow Dash,” she said, fear trickling into her voice as she pointed to the eyes in the distance. “W-what’s that?” As soon as she said this, more pairs of eyes appeared next to it. Soon, there were hundreds of eyes staring at the two pegasi. Then, one of the pairs of eyes moved forward to reveal itself from the darkness. The blue eyes belonged to an orange and yellow robot. It had two, four-fingered arms and walked on two legs. It’s body was very round, and it had what looked like a long, yellow nose on its face. More of theme emerged from the forest after it. Some of them held swords, while others held ray guns. They marched in a uniform order out of the forest, walking towards the group.

“Twilight! Freeze! We’ve got company!” Rainbow yelled. The dragon and alicorn stopped talking, looked to where Rainbow and Fluttershy were, and gasped. Hundreds and hundreds of robots now stood between them and the forest, walking closer to them with each passing second. Freeze flew up and landed in front of the oncoming robots, while Rainbow and Twilight joined him on each side. Fluttershy stayed behind him, peeking out to watch.

Suddenly, the robot’s advance stopped, and they stood lifelessly staring at the group. No one moved for several seconds, before everyone in the area heard a loud metallic screech. A large shape flew up out of the forest and flew towards Freeze and the ponies. It the hovered in mid-air above the robots, revealing itself to be a large, robotic bat. Two huge wings beat the air as it hovered in place, it’s red eyes glaring at the group. A long tail with a claw-like end protruded from its back, and a large, crimson gem was on its chest. On top of its head was a glass semi-sphere. The glass opened up to reveal a man inside of it, laughing maniacally.

“Hahahaha! Prepare to meet your doom, ponies!” he said. “I suggest you all give up now, because I, Doctor Eggman, have orders to kill him!” He pointed to Freeze as he said this. Rainbow flew up into the air in front of the man, sneering.

“And what makes you think we’ll do that?!” she shouted. “There’s no way we’re gonna leave him here by himself! I’ll fight you myself if I have to you-” She suddenly disappeared in a flash of purple light and reappeared next to Twilight.

“What are you doing?!” she whispered to her. “You could have gotten yourself killed!”

“Well, I’m not gonna sit by and watch while Freeze gets beat up!”

“I’m not saying we’re going to abandon him! Just don’t charge into there without knowing what you’re doing!”

“Are you two done yet?” Eggman asked, folding his arms. “I have a tight schedule, and Havoc will want me back at the castle soon.” Freezes ears perked up to this, and he narrowed his eyes at him.

“What did you just say?” he growled.

“What I said doesn’t concern you! Not when you’re about to be destroyed by this: the Egg Bat!” he said, laughing afterwards.

“Seriously? The Egg Bat?” Rainbow semi-whispered to Twilight. “That sounds like a lame name.”

“I heard that!” Eggman said. “Egg Pawns, get those ponies! I’ll take care of that dragon!” He closed the glass around him and pressed a few buttons. The robotic bat made an ear-piercing screech, before charging at Freeze. Freeze lifted his claws to intercept the attack, stopping the bat in its tracks. In the position they were in, Freeze could see right into the glass where the man was. He opened his mouth and let a stream of draconic energy loose on the glass, hoping to destroy it.

The stream died down after a few seconds, but he was surprised to see that the glass didn’t even have a crack in it. In his confusion, he didn’t see the robot swing its tail into his side. This caused him to lose his hold on the bat, and it flew up above him out of harm's way.

Meanwhile, the Egg Pawns were getting closer and closer to Twilight, Rainbow, and Fluttershy. Gritting her teeth and narrowing her eyes, Rainbow let out a yell as she shot into the sea of robots. Even though she couldn’t puncture through them, she could still make them unable to fight. As she flew through the robots, her momentum caused the ones that were in her way to be sent flying. Twilight started to lift them into the air and smash them onto the ground, breaking them. The two worked in sync; soon, there were about a few hundred Egg Pawns left.

Fluttershy watched the battle take place. Her gaze kept switching back and forth from Freeze and the Egg Bat to Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and the Egg Pawns. She was so distracted by the fights taking place that she didn’t notice that three of the Egg Pawns had left the group and were sneaking up behind her. Unfortunately for them, one of the robots was very clumsy and tripped, making a loud clanging sound as it hit the ground. Fluttershy turned to see the three robots, the one that tripped getting back up quickly and holding out a ray gun towards her. A terrified expression appeared on her face, and she started to back away. Right when the robot was about to pull the trigger, however, a magenta beam shot straight through it, showing the circuits and wires inside. The robot’s eyes went black, and it fell to the ground.

Fluttershy turned around to see Twilight’s horn shining as she fired another beam. This one hit the robot on the left, destroying it’s head. A third beam cut clean through the third robot’s stomach, and it exploded in a mess of metal and wires. Fluttershy looked at the three fallen robots, mortified. Twilight then cast a shield spell over Fluttershy so she wouldn’t get attacked by any of the other robots before turning around to get back into the fight.

A crash to Fluttershy’s right snapped her out of her stupor. Clouds of dust blew over the shield containing her, ad when they cleared, she could see Freeze standing back up from his crash. The Egg Bat hovered a few yards away from him, before six missiles shot out of it’s back. Freeze quickly flew up into the air, causing one of the missiles to hit the ground. The rest followed him as he flew up, trying to get away from them.

Turning his head around, he let loose another draconic beam, destroying two of the missiles following him. He kept flying, swerving in the air to get rid of the missiles. He then got an idea, Changing his directory, he flew straight towards the Egg Bat. Right when he was about to make contact with it, he shot upwards, making the missiles hit the robot. The blasts caused it to fall with a mighty crash. Freeze then held out his claws, and a shadowy aura covered them. He shot down towards the Egg Bat and slashed the gem on its chest with the dark claws.

The claws left a small gash in the middle of the crimson gem, but did not do much else. Freeze flew backwards after his attack, and landed on the ground with a heavy thud. The Egg Bat slowly stirred, and with a powerful beat of its wings it took off into the air once more. Freeze and Eggman stared at each other for a few seconds, before Eggman pressed a few buttons and pulled a lever on his control panel, a crazed smile on his face.

“Let’s see you take this!” he shouted, his voice coming out through the robotic bat’s ears. The Egg Bat the climbed high into the sky, before stopping above Freeze. It then pointed the tip of its tail at Freeze, and it began to spin. Suddenly, the clawed tip of the tail shot out towards Freeze, spinning like a drill. It hit him right in his chest and exploded, causing him to go flying back and land on the ground hard.

“Freeze!” Fluttershy yelled, before banging on the shield. No matter how much she hit it, however, she couldn’t get a single crack on it. Freeze slowly got up, standing on one knee with his right claw on the ground to brace himself. A low growl escaped his throat as he struggled to stand, his stamina starting to weaken. The Egg Bat flew overhead, looking down at the fallen dragon. A new clawed tail tip came out from the stub on its tail.

“Hahahaha!” Eggman laughed maniacally. “Take that! That’s why no one messes with me!” He then pressed a large red button that was in the center of his control panel. The mechanical beast opened its mouth, and a bright light began to form inside of it. The light soon grew into a ball of energy, ready to be unleashed. “This is the end of the road for you! Now die!” Pressing another button, the Egg Bat let out a metallic screech as the ball in its mouth was fired in a devastating beam. Inside of the shield, Fluttershy could only watch as the beam headed straight towards Freeze. A few tears escaped her eyes, before she looked away, knowing what was going to happen.

Freeze, however, wasn’t going to give up so easily. With the last of his strength, he willed the spikes on his shoulders to become tubes and attach to the holes on his tail. This time, however, instead of the tubes glowing blue, they began to glow a fiery orange. Parts of his tail, arms, and head began to glow the same color, and right when the beam was about to hit him, a sphere of freezing orange and purple energy surrounded him. The beam from the Egg Bat impacted the sphere, which kept the beam from hitting him.

Suddenly, with a loud roar from Freeze, multiple tendrils came out of the sphere. They rushed towards the Egg Bat, which was still occupied with the beam and couldn’t move. The tendrils of freezing energy homed in on the crimson gem on its chest, and when they impacted it, there was a blinding flash of light. The gem began to get covered in ice, which then moved to the rest of the robot’s body.

“No, no! Stop! What are you doing!?” Eggman yelled as the ice crept closer and closer to his cockpit. The ice, however, stopped before it reached there, but the damage was already done. The ice had covered the chest, legs, and wings of the robot, making it unable to fly. The tendrils, however, kept going, hitting the gem ferociously. It wasn’t long before the gem began to crack, and soon, multiple cracks criss-crossed it’s surface.

Down below, Rainbow and Twilight had finished off all of the Egg Pawns and were looking up at the raging battle nearby. Suddenly, they heard Freeze’s voice.

“Rainbow! Smash the gem! Quickly! I don’t know how much longer I could hold this!” he yelled. The icy tendrils dissipated, but the sphere around him remained, holding back the beam that the robot was still firing. Rainbow nodded in understanding, before flying up high into the sky. She then nosedived down, angling herself towards the gem. A mach cone began to surround her, before the air around her exploded in a rainbow light, triggering a Sonic Rainboom. At supersonic speeds, she slammed into the gem, and that was all it took. The gem exploded into multiple shards that fell to the ground as Rainbow flew back down, her work done.

With its power source destroyed, the beam the Egg Bat was firing dissipated, and it began to shake violently. The cockpit on the head of the machine broke off and flew away, towards the Everfree Forest. Soon after it had disappeared, the robot exploded, sending metal pieces in every direction. Twilight quickly cast a shield spell around the group to block the shards of metal coming their way. When the dust cleared, all that remained of the machine was twisted pieces of steel and broken wires.

The sphere around Freeze evaporated, before he began to transform back into his normal self. After his transformation finished, he began to stumble a little, before regaining his balance. He panted heavily, having expended almost all of his energy in the fight. He looked up to his friends, and gave them a small smile.

“Well, I guess we won,” he said in between breaths. The shield around Fluttershy disappeared, and when it did, she ran towards Freeze, before giving him a big hug.

“I… I thought you were going to die!” she said, sobbing. Tears streamed down her face as she cried. “P-please don’t scare me like that again!” Freeze managed to get one of his hooves free and pat her on the back.

“It’s alright. I’m perfectly fine, see? Tired, but perfectly fine,” he said, giving a small chuckle. Twilight reached the two a few seconds later and joined the hug, while Rainbow hovered nearby, rolling her eyes at the scene. Eventually, the three broke the hug, and Rainbow spoke up.

“So, are we going to chase him down, or what?” she asked.

“Well, seeing that Freeze just used all of his energy in that fight, then no,” Twilight said. “We’ll have other chances to catch him, but for now, I think it’s best if we all got some rest. That fight tired me out, too.”

“I think that’s a good idea,” Freeze said. “Let’s head back to Ponyville. I don’t know how much longer I can stand up.” The group began to walk towards Ponyville, Rainbow and Twilight in the front while Freeze and Fluttershy took the back. Rainbow and Twilight were chatting while they walked, but for Freeze and Fluttershy, the walk was mostly silent. As the neared the town, Fluttershy spoke up.

“Hey, um, Freeze?” she said timidly.

“Yeah, what’s up?” Freeze said, turning his head towards her. This caused her to hide herself in her mane a little, peeking out from behind it.

“I-I wanted to ask you something,” she told him. “If you don’t mind.”

“Sure, go ahead. I’m all ears.” he said.

“Well, I…,” she trailed off for a moment, looking down and.

“You what?” Freeze asked, tilting his head in confusion.

“Oh, never mind. It was nothing,” Fluttershy said, stuttering. She looked away from Freeze, a small blush on her face, before hurrying ahead to join Twilight and Rainbow.

“Huh, weird,” Freeze said, before dismissing it as he continued on.

The group eventually reached Ponyville, and they went their separate ways. As Freeze walked home, he couldn’t get what Fluttershy had said to him out of his head.

‘What was she trying to ask me?’ he thought to himself. ‘And why did she dismiss it like that?’

A Break From Craziness

Twilight paced back and forth, thinking. She had gone to Rarity’s early in the morning, hoping to get some advice. The unicorn in question watched as Twilight paced, unsure of what to do.

“I don’t know how I’m going to get Freeze’s attention,” Twilight said to herself. “And I feel like Fluttershy has feelings for him as well…” She stopped and gave a small groan of frustration. “Ugh! Why does this have to be so hard?”

“Twilight, I know that telling him how you feel is hard,” Rarity said. “But maybe you should stop thinking about this for while. It would do you some good to have a nice relaxing day with nothing to do.”

“But what if-” Twilight started, before Rarity put a hoof to her mouth.

“No buts! You are going to have a day to yourself, and there will be no thinking about Freeze during it,” she said, bringing her hoof down. Twilight gave a half-hearted, slow nod. “Good! Now, I’ve booked a spa appointment for later today, and you are more than happy to come along. Aloe and Lotus will probably let you come in with me. But before that,” at this point, Rarity had moved over to her dresser, applying some makeup, “I think a good breakfast will do us both good. Does that sound good?”

“Yeah, sure I guess,” Twilight said, sighing. While she wasn’t thrilled of the idea of having to wait to talk about Freeze, she did feel a bit sore from the day before.

“Excellent!” Rarity exclaimed, finishing up her makeup. “I found this wonderful little restaurant nearby that we can eat at. Shall we get going?” Twilight gave a small nod, and soon the two mares headed out the door.

“There, all done! How’s it look?” Freeze said, putting down his cleaning supplies. He had decided to help Fluttershy clean some of her animals today, and they were almost done. In front of him was an annoyed Angel, his fur sticking out in multiple directions so that he looked like a white puffball. Fluttershy turned around from her work on Harry the bear to see, and let out a soft giggle at what she saw.

“He looks wonderful, Freeze,” she said softly. “Thank you again for coming to help.”

“Hey, it's no problem,” he said. “I’m always happy to help out a friend.” He started putting his cleaning supplies in a small bucket nearby, before picking it up in his teeth and carrying it to the side of Fluttershy’s house. Fluttershy watched him as he did this, not taking his eyes off of him. After watching him for a few minutes, an impatient growl from Harry released her from her thoughts.

“Oh, I’m sorry Harry, I almost forgot,” she said, before continuing her cleaning. It was not long until Freeze had returned, but by the time he got back, Fluttershy had finished cleaning up the bear and was starting to put her cleaning supplies away.

“So, now what?” Freeze asked. “Is there anything else you need me to do?”

“No, I think that’s it,” Fluttershy said.

“Alright, well, do you mind if hang out for a bit? I’ve got nothing else to do today.”

“Um, sure. I don’t have anything else to do either,” she said, giving him a small smile. “So, what do you want to do?”

“I don’t really know. I guess we can go for a walk for a bit until we figure out something to do,” he said. Fluttershy nodded, and the two walked down the dirt path leading towards Ponyville. The walked in silence for a few minutes, before Fluttershy spoke up.

“Freeze, I was wondering, what is it like to be in your dragon form?” she asked.

“It’s kind of hard to describe it,” Freeze said, looking up at the sky in thought. “I mean, I feel like my regular self, but in reality I’m bigger and have more power.” He turned to look at her. “Imagine that my dragon form is kind of like a suit of armor or something. Under all of that is just my regular self.”

“Oh, I think I get it now,” Fluttershy said. The two continued to walk in silence until they reached Ponyville. As they walked past the houses and shops, they made some more small talk, mostly about themselves. After a few minutes, they reached the park, where they stopped to take a break.

Freeze positioned himself up next to a tree, while Fluttershy laid down on the ground next to him.

“Pretty peaceful day today,” Freeze said, stretching his legs a little. “Definitely a change of pace from what we’ve been going through, huh?”

“Yes, it is,” Fluttershy said, smiling. She looked over to Freeze, who had his eyes closed and his head up. She looked down at the ground, giving a small sigh. Hearing it, Freeze opened one eye and looked at her.

“Something bothering you?” he asked. Fluttershy, hearing his voice, looked up towards him and frantically shakes her head.

“N-no! I’m perfectly fine!” she said quickly, a blush forming on her face. He looked at her for a second, unsure if she was telling the truth, before shrugging and closing his eye again. She breathes out a small sigh of relief, quiet enough so he wouldn’t hear it. He blush did not leave her face, however, and she couldn’t help but stare at him.

‘Why do I feel this way around him?’ she thought to herself. ‘I’ve never felt this way around a stallion before.’

Just then, a rainbow blur skidded to a stop next to the two. Fluttershy quickly turned to look at it, while Freeze slowly opened one eye. The blur disappeared to reveal Rainbow Dash, her usual cocky grin on her face.

“Hey Fluttershy. Hey Freeze,” she said. “What’s up?”

“Nothing much,” Freeze said, opening his other eye and looking at her. “We’re just hanging out.” Fluttershy gave a small nod in agreement.

“Really?” Rainbow asked. “Or are you sure you’re not doing something more?” Freeze and Fluttershy stared at her, blushing , before she laughed out loud. “Haha! I’m just kidding with you. But seriously, what are you guys doing? Just sitting here all day?” Freeze shook his head as his blush faded away, before answering her.

“No, but I’m not too sure what we’re going to do,” he said. “We’re just taking a small break here.”

“Alright, well, I just wanted to say hi,” Rainbow said. “I gotta go and get Scoots. We’re going to go to my parent’s place for dinner tonight. Do you two want to come?”

“Sorry, but I think I’ll pass this time,” Freeze said. “But definitely some other time, alright?”

“Yeah, definitely,” she said, before giving Freeze a hoof bump. “See you two lovebirds later!” With that, she flew away laughing. Freeze watched her go, shaking his head, before getting up.

“Why don’t we find something to do?” he said. “I’m sure we can think of something.” Fluttershy nodded, before getting up and following Freeze.

“Ah, this feels so good. I can’t believe I hadn’t gone here sooner,” Twilight said as Lotus massaged her. After their breakfast, her and Rarity went straight to the spa for a much needed treatment. Rarity was nearby, getting a hooficure from Aloe while reading the newspaper.

“Well, I’m glad you’re enjoying it dear,” Rarity said. “This is the best way to let go of all of your worries.” She turned the page of her newspaper before giving a small gasp. “Twilight, you won’t believe this!”

“What? What is it?” she asked as Lotus was finishing up and preparing for her hooficure.

“Listen to this. ‘Strange Creature Attacks Ponyville: A few nights ago, Ponyville was attack by a very unusual creature that looked like Discord. Sources have confirmed that said creature was not Discord, since witnesses said that he and the creature were fighting. The creature in question had destroyed the Town Hall, and had almost killed many ponies. From what we could gather, the creature’s name was Havoc, but that is all we know. Luckily, Discord and two ponies who were recognized as Rainbow Dash and Starlight Glimmer defeated him. However, he had escaped, and his whereabouts are unknown. Other strange events had been reported lately, the most recent being the sighting of a large bat-like creature and a dragon fighting in a field near Princess Twilight’s castle. We only hope that these events are not the sign of the end of Equestria as we know it.’”

“Great now everypony knows what’s going on,” Twilight muttered.

“Well, not exactly, but a little bit. And that dragon fighting the bat-like creature is Freeze, am I right?”

“Yes. As I told you, Freeze fought a giant mechanical bat yesterday. Why the creator of the machine decided to base it off of a bat, I have no idea. But somepony must have had seen their fight.”

“This is definitely a problem. Think of the widespread panic!” Rarity put the newspaper down on a nearby table. “I hope that we will be able to stop him soon, before things get worse.” Rarity suddenly looked at Twilight with a quizzical look. “Wait a minute, can’t we use the Elements of Harmony against him? Then our problem will be solved easily.”

“I wish it was that easy,” Twilight said, sighing. “But I don’t think we can even get to the elements. When that man that was controlling the machine left, it went in the direction of the Everfree forest, where the Elements are. And I’ll bet you that Havoc made the Castle of the Two Sisters his base. If we went in there to get the Elements, we’d probably all be killed in an instant by Havoc.” She shuddered as she said this, trying not to think about it.

“So all that leaves us is Freeze and Discord, since Discord is his brother and Freeze can transform.”

“Exactly, which definitely brings down our odds of winning,” Twilight said. “But I know we can do it. We’ve faced difficult foes before, and we’ve always came out on top. “This won’t be any different.”

“That’s the spirit, Twilight,” Rarity said, before picking up the newspaper again and waiting for Twilight’s hooficure to finish.

“So, are you sure this will work?” Havoc said as he surveyed the area around him. He and Eggman were in the cave where the Tree of Harmony stood, but the area looked different from normal. Tubes ran across the walls of the cave and led outside, towards the castle. The tubes all converged at one point before connecting to a machine that wrapped around the Tree of Harmony.

“Of course!” Eggman said. “That machine will suck out all of the energy and transfer it to the castle, which will then power up your ally. Now all we need is that creature and our plan will be complete!”

“Yes…” Havoc muttered before stepping up to the Tree. “But it will take a few more days for me to have enough energy to transport it here.”

“May I ask, what is this creature you plan to bring here?” Eggman asked.

“It is a creature I have known since my first conquest of Equestria,” Havoc said. “I found him purely by accident, actually. You see, I was planning out my revenge on my brother one day, when I found a large stone. Apparently, that stone turned out to be a large dark bird-like creature in a hibernation state. Apparently, it could understand me, and was happy to aid me in my plans. But of course, Discord had to ruin my life yet again and sent it to another dimension! It took me a while to locate it, but I finally found it. Now all I need is the energy to transport it here.”

“Wow. That thing sounds pretty dangerous,” Eggman said. “Does it have a name or anything?” Havoc gave a small chuckle.

“Oh, it goes by many names: The Destroyer, The Death Bringer, and so on. The name it is most commonly referred to, however, is Yveltal.”

“Really now? Well, I am excited to meet this Yveltal creature. I just wish that you didn’t have to build up power to transport it here.”

“I have to agree, but it is a small price to pay since I was trapped in stone for more than a thousand years,” Havoc said bitterly. “For now, however, you should make sure that this machine works perfectly, otherwise I will be very angry with you.” With that, he teleported out of the cave in a flash of light.