Freezer-burn

[Fiery Essence]

An orange and red mare quietly made her way through the streets of the ruined city. Essence didn't bother too much with stealth, the constant aura of heat that followed her around would give away her position if anyone got too close even if she did try to hide. The mare turned her head to glance into a window for any possible items of interest that might be inside, the small chain on her lowest earring jingling a bit from the movement as the small ruby swayed in the air.

Not finding anything of interest, the unicorn simply continued on her way and left the alleyway for the open streets. The sun was still shining bright, thus giving her no reason to fear the griffons who held onto the city. It's been quiet around here as of late. I wonder what those feather sacks are up to. She thought to herself as she continued down the broken and cracked sidewalk. I wouldn't mind a quick fight. Turn one of them into a roast.

[Guest]

She was waiting in between two buildings, not quite in the alleyway, not quite in the street. Resting against the building, she lazily scanned the area. No griffons, nothing interesting. She blew a ring of frost, watching it expand as it fell toward the ground.

It was then that she felt the area heat up. She thought it odd- such intense heat could only be created by a fire of some sort, usually in close proximity. So, she stood, cracking her neck. It was then that a pony crossed her vision, moving along the sidewalk. Her orange coat and red mane struck Hark as familiar. She quirked a brow at the pony, scanning her before noticing a few bands on her legs...

That damn apprentice! She was immediately angry. The incident with that apprentice had almost cost her her rank. Hark's horn began to glow as she approached the pony. "Hey," she called out. "I wanna talk to you!"

[Fiery Essence]

Essence stopped in her place as soon as she heard a voice calling out to her. Turning her head, she spotted the source of the voice: a fellow unicorn. That gray coat and that orange and blue mane... They seemed familiar to her, but she couldn't seem to place her hoof on just where she might have seen this mare before. Ignoring it, she simply gave the mare a nod of greeting.

"Hello. Is there something you need?" She asked, turning completely to face the other pony. Not noticing the faint glow around the fellow unicorn's horn, her own lit up faintly as Essence activated a spell to dissipate the heat around herself for the sake of the less heat-proof pony. "If it's not anything important, hurry up. I need to be somewhere."

[Guest]

Hark relaxed herself as the heat dissipated. "Yes... Yes I do need something. First, however, I'm curious: where are you going?" She inquired, a friendly, quizzical expression etched upon her face. She was still angry at the pony, though she didn't want to full out attack her. She could be useful if she was going to fight the griffons, but if she got out of control again...

... Hark shuddered internally at the thought, still keeping the friendly guise upon her face.

[Fiery Essence]

Essence straightened her posture slightly while the other pony spoke to her. "I don't see why any of that information is your business." She replied bluntly, her voice not sounding as angry as the reply would make her seem to be. "But if you must know, I was going to find someplace I can practice my magic safely."

Why did this pony look so familiar to her? Had they crossed paths in a crowd before? The thoughts seemed to pick at her, even if her serious expression never broke.

[Guest]

Hark smiled whilst keeping her friendly guise, anger threatening to boil over inside of herself. The other mare wanted to practice her magic safely... It made Hark a little happy inside, but also angry, serving as a reminder for... well, she chose not to think of it.

She clicked her tongue, a half grin forming on her face as she shook her head. "... You should have done that four years ago, friend," she said, her icy, calm tone never leaving her voice.

[Fiery Essence]

Essence paused for a few moments, the icy words from the other pony slowly filing into her ears. The slight look of realization on her face was quickly replaced with one of anger. Lowering her head slightly, she cut her magic, letting the heat around her naturally fill the air like before.

"You! That's why you look so familiar. That sad excuse for a cryomancer." She replied, a small grin appearing on her face while her eyes stayed in a glare aimed directly at the eyes of the other pony. "I'm surprised you didn't blunder into your own grave by now."

[Guest]

Hark dropped her friendly guise, a glare replacing her former expression as she looked directly into Essence's eyes. She got even closer, despite the heat emanating from her body, to the point where she could almost place her muzzle against Essence's. It was a stare-off tactic, common in all branches of the Equestrian Military. The most common intimidation tactic formed on the basis of anger.

"Look," she said, no venom in her tone. "I'm sorry about that incident. It got out of hoof far too quickly; I overreacted having not been given proper info on you. The bullshit caused afterward almost got me demoted, and I'm still pissed about that. Right now, however... I'm willing to maim if necessary."

[Fiery Essence]

Essence rolled her eyes slightly, the scare tactic not seeming to effect her in the slightest as she held her position. Her own training in the same kind of intimidation tactic helping her ignore Hark's efforts with it.

"Alright, so you're sorry. That's just fine." She replied bluntly, no true anger in her voice despite the mild rejection of the apology. "Oh sorry you almost got demoted, that makes up for threatening to kill me so much. And I will not hesitate to defend myself."

[Guest]

Hark gritted her teeth. She didn't want to fight this mare; in fact, her own anger was subsiding as she backed away from her. She was actually more angry with her superiors than anything, as this whole fuck-up had been their fault. Then, her rage flared again, toward Essence. Hark's own uncertainty, mixed with a bit of her insecurity, fueled this rage.

"Goddesses damn it!" Her cry of rage was directed at nothing in particular. "I don't like having to do things like that. I needed you to stand the fuck down, otherwise bad shit would have happened."

[Fiery Essence]

As Hark backed away from her, Essence straightened her posture once more. Her horn flared with magic once more as she dissipated her ambient body heat for the other pony's comfort. "Things wouldn't have gotten that far if they had informed you about the use of these bands on my legs, yes." She stated simply.

"However, if you allowed me to explain myself it could have saved us both some much unneeded anger." She replied in a calm tone of voice. "I admit that anger got the best of me that day. It seems that statement is true for the both of us."

[Guest]

At the surprisingly calm tone of Essence's voice, Hark let out an exasperated sigh. "Yes, that's true," she stated in her once more cool tone. "I'm sorry, all I saw was you nearly incinerate two of my men. I had no idea it was an issue over control."

As the temperature fell, Hark's own horn stopped it's glow. She looked toward Essence, regarding her somewhat calmly. Her fit of anger had subsided rather quickly, and now she wanted to repair her fractured relationship with this mare.

[Fiery Essence]

Essence gave Hark a slight nod, her scowl turning to a more neutral state of expression. "It's alright, I should have also tried to look at things from your position. These bands probably just looked like simple pieces of jewelry to you at the time." She replied, raising her left leg up and holding the band near her face as if to examine it.

Placing her hoof back down on the ground, she turned her attention back to hark. No words left her as she simply let the silence linger and let the anger slip away from them.

[Guest]

Hark sighed as she continued to look toward Essence, regarding her with respect and some admiration. Would she seriously forgive that easily? The skeptic within Hark told her that this was all a lie, and the paranoia within Hark told her that this was a ploy. The optimist told Hark that this was all true, and Hark herself wanted to believe it. So, she did.

After a silence of around fifteen seconds, Hark began to speak once again, noting the lack of a scowl on the unicorn's face. "Perhaps I could.. observe your practice?" She asked in a tentative manner, her own expression one of uncertainty.

[Fiery Essence]

A brow raised, Essence was no doubt made curious by the question. This mare seemed ready to attack her one moment, but then wanted to observe her the next. She couldn't help feel like it was a ploy to study her fighting style. Though, she couldn't sense any hesitance in her tone of voice either. Hark was either very good at lying, or she really did simply wish to keep her company. With a nod, the mare spoke once more.

"I don't see a problem with you joining me. I just need to warn you about keeping a good distance if you don't want to get burned." She replied, a slight half-grin appearing on her muzzle.

[Guest]

"Alright. I want to help you learn a bit of control, though." Her expression and tone shifed back to the icy, calm, and indifferent Highmagus from the Mage's Corps. Genuinely, Hark wanted to unlock the full power of the unicorn, but for her own reason: to decimate the griffons. She wanted them out of Equestria, and fast.

[Fiery Essence]

"I have practiced plenty on my own in my years since the incident. I have more or less full control with two bands off, which is how many were removed before." Essence replied simply, turning herself back towards the direction she was walking before the two met. "Though, some pointers would be very helpful. I want to be as strong as I can to get revenge on those feathered monsters."

[Guest]

"I want to get you to all of them off. If you draw so much power that you are simply forced to cast, the there are two options: take drugs, or do extensive training. I recommend the second." She watched as the mare turned, and if she were to walk, Hark would follow. "We agree on one thing, I noticed: griffons need to die. All of them need to die," she said, an indifference carrying heavily in her voice.

[Fiery Essence]

"Removing all four bands will result in my death no matter how much I train. My magic stores have grown far too powerful far too quickly. Letting them release at full power would result in my body being ripped apart by it." Essence replied grimly as she started heading down the sidewalk towards the location she used as her regular training grounds. "I heavily agree with those words. These griffons wish of nothing than the death of our kind. So we need to give them the same kind of treatment."

[Guest]

Hark began to follow the pony down the street, replying to her words with her own. "You involuntarily absorb too much energy. As far as I can tell, you just need to induce magical exhaustion and then start controlling how much energy you get," she said, her icy and indifferent tone never leaving her voice. "If you die with four, then try just three off. Work on controlling that."

[Fiery Essence]

Essence kept her distance from Hark, making sure to stay close enough to not lose her however. "That's what I've been trying to do recently, but it is a matter of timing." She replied simply, her tone seeming to get more serious as she spoke. "Removing three is more than just the simply control issue that the removal of two has. Three can still kill me, though it's much less than instantaneous."

The fiery mare grinned as she stopped in her tracks, glancing to the sides before turning and entering into the doorless entrance of a large ruined building. Anything flammable had been removed from the building, scorch marks littering the cement floor that once held a plush carpet. "Well, here we are."

[Guest]

Hark nodded at the words of the other unicorn, keeping her distance from her as well. When they arrived at the burnt-out building, well... Hark wasn't surprised. Such buildings were commonplace in elemental training camps, due to the abundance of fire-types. She looked at the scorch marks, remarking their size and darkness. An involuntary 'Hmmh' sounded from Hark, as she scuffed her hoof against the concrete floors of the building.

"I'll... step back." With that, she did just that. Wishing to observe the unicorn's prowess before she started on a wild, constantly degenerating lecture/rant.

[Fiery Essence]

Essence nodded while stepping towards the center of the building, taking deep breaths to calm herself and focus her thoughts on her magic. She took her position and turned to the side, keeping her focus away from Hark but allowing her to more better observe. The mare closed her eyes as her horn lit up with magic, a few embers leaving her horn before a small fireball lit up in the air above her. Unflinchingly, she simply swirled the flame through the air and around herself in graceful lines and swoops. She was simply focusing herself for the much bigger events that were about to unfold.

[Guest]

Hark observed the other unicorn's spellcasting show. She watched as the fire-type elementalist summoned and swirled a small fireball. Unimpressive, excluding the fact that she did it without fear and with something akin to grace... if fire could have grace.

[Fiery Essence]

Once she felt she had gotten herself into the correct mindset, Essence flicked the fireball into the air and let it explode above her. Keeping her eyes closed and mind focused, she kicked off her left front suppressing band that slid a good distance away from her. Her mane and tail rustled slightly from the slowly increasing magic in her body.

With what seemed to be minimal effort, Essence formed a large serpent of fire while allowing it to snake around her body while seemingly unaffected by the flames that never made contact with her. A second serpent joined the dance with the first soon after, the two joining into one large roaring flame above the unicorn before crashing into the ground in front of Essence. Another black scorch mark was added to the cement floor.

[Guest]

Calmly watching the intense and impressive display of abstract magic from the other unicorn, Hark nodded in approval upon her completion of the display. "So... You wear pieces of jewelry... to limit your magical intake. More or less, that was one impressive display. If you will, I'd like to put on a display of my own." She finished with a grin toward the other unicorn.

[Fiery Essence]

Essence opened up her eyes and glanced towards Hark once she spoke, nodding her head once before retrieving her reducing band and slipping it back onto her leg. "More or less. I will show you what I can do with two bands off, but I should rest for a moment after that." She replied simply, not looking very strained at all despite her words.

She used a quick spell to dissipate the heat from the room before moving over to the other unicorn. "I would enjoy seeing what you can do. Don't hold back." She stated with a grin.

[Guest]

Hark proceeded to what she estimated to be the center of the room, exhaling heavily as she closed her eyes to concentrate- a common tactic of elementalists when preparing rather powerful spells. For this, she would be performing an abstraction of ice forming, ice movement, and perhaps even the deadly ice shattering. Her horn glowed, and the temperature in the room became visibly colder. Her horn frosted over, as a small ball of ice rapidly formed.

Then came the fun part. Several balls of ice began to form, each of them different sizes. They interacted with each other, much like droplets of water, or bubbles; the orbs of elemental ice absorbed into each other, grew, and expelled each other, without any melting occurring. Finally, the orbs formed into one super-large ice orb, then, part of the orb fell away, leaving the form of a pony, and the rest of the orb shifted it's formation into a smaller orb. It shattered, sending spikes of ice in all directions excluding Hark and Essence.

Hark opened her eyes, her horn still glowing. For what purpose? To animate the statue of ice. Rudimentary movements at first, simple head-turns and the like, then followed by a walk cycle. The pony approached Essence, smiling in greeting before dissipating. Hark, now breathing heavily, grinned at Essence as she walked toward her. "So? How was that?"

[Fiery Essence]

Essence set her rump down on the floor while taking her rest, not making a sound as she simply observed what her fellow elementalist would be doing with the power of ice. A slight grin of approval appeared on her muzzle while the movements of the magical ice became more intricate as time passed, a slight chuckle escaping the mare while looking at the moving ice sculpture.

"Very impressive. You can get more creative when your element is a bit more solid, huh?" She asked while standing up from her seat. "You do seem to be very practiced at the very least."

[Guest]

Hark grinned toward her fellow elementalist, gesturing for her to take the stage. "I personally think you can get more creative with an incorporeal element, such as fire. What I did was extremely difficult- any elementalist without the skill I have would be unable to perform any merging technique, let alone create and sustain a free-thinking elemental. With fire, a much more... energetic and powerful element... I can hardly imagine the possibilities." She grinned as she sat, exhaustion evident on her face.

[Fiery Essence]

Essence chuckled slightly under her breath when Hark didn't seem to fully take the complement, not letting it bother her as she stepped towards the center of the room again.

"Well, I personally like to focus on power rather than too much finesse. Easier when you can lose control rather easily like me." She replied simply, flicking her tail as she took a few deep breaths to get back to her previous state of mind. "I can give you a real show, if you don't mind a little heat."

[Guest]

Hark shrugged, giving a nod toward her. "I don't mind it in the slightest. Just don't set me on fire," she added with a chuckle. As she sat, she slowly regained magical energy, and her horn had defrosted now. She watched the other unicorn with intent, looking for flaws, styles, ect. She was unnaturally interested in this pony.

[Fiery Essence]

Essence chuckled a bit to herself as well. "I'll be sure to not send any flames your way if I can help it." She replied simply, taking another deep breath before closing her eyes to focus her thoughts. The unicorn stood motionless for a few moments before suddenly kicking off the two front suppressing bands off of her legs towards Hark.

She opened up her eyes, now white from the magic that was flowing freely through her body. Essence took a deep breath through her mouth before releasing it all at once, a twister of flames leaving the mare's mouth in a perfect cone into the cement wall of the building. The cone spiraled upwards and came back around, encasing the pony in a protective dome of flames that eventually exploded outwards in the form of fiery arrows that covered every direction that wasn't filled by an icy pony.

After a moment to breath, Essence simply trotted towards Hard with a grin on her face while leaving behind two perfect circle marks from where the flames had licked the cement. She didn't say a word and simply slipped her bands back onto her legs. As her eyes turned back to their normal state, she almost immediately fell to her haunches, exhausted.

[Guest]

Hark watched the other unicorn's display. If this was with two bands off, she could hardly imagine the power ofthis mare. If Hark remembered correctly, Hark scored a 10.3 on the Sparkle Magical Aptitude scale, an incredibly high score. This unicorn could have been a 12 or even a 13! The thought of fighting along side her was inticing.

As she plopped down beside Hark, she assistied in placing Essence's bands back on. Then, she noticed her exhaustion. Magical Exhaustion was common in such massive uses of energy, and Hark had not yet reached a.point even near that. She could be considered winded rather than exhausted. "Good job there... do you want to try three?"

[Fiery Essence]

Essence glanced towards Hark as the question was asked of her, simply shaking her head lightly afterwords. "Maybe some other time, but not today." She replied simply, keeping her seat on the cement while resting after her large use of magic. "I say that more for your safety than my own. Removing three bands for long enough will kill me, yes, but I would probably kill you on accident first. If you think my loss of control back in the military was bad... You wouldn't want to see three."

[Guest]

Hark nodded slowly, noting the exhaustion of the unicorn beside her. "I understand. There's not much more to do, then..."

As Hark trailed off, she glanced toward the other unicorn's bands, the bindings of her magic. They seemed so.. unimportant. Yet, to Essence, they were nearly everything: her control, her restraint, her life and the lives of those around her. Perhaps she couldn't be persuaded to take more than two off... and that was fine by Hark.

[Fiery Essence]

Essence eventually rose back to her hooves after a moment's rest, taking one final deep breath. "Thank you for understanding. I would hate to harm you so soon after finally having the chance to bury our hatchet."

She glanced at Hark for a moment before a slight half-grin grew onto her muzzle. "Well then, what do you suppose we do now to pass the day? I wasn't planning to go full force with my training today, so i expected it to last for a while."

[Guest]

Hark shrugged. "No idea. I have nothing to do today, especially because I'm out of money. In theory, we could go and mug some griffons, but it's up to you," she said with a smirk. It wouldn't be hard to overpower a griffon or two with their powers combined.

[Fiery Essence]

Essence brought a hoof to her chin, tapping it a few times in thought. She grinned and gave her colder companion a nod. "I think that sounds like a great way to spend a day. They don't deserve any of the stuff they have anyway, so it'd be just taking back what is ours in the first place." She replied simply, twisting her head lightly to pop her neck slightly. "I'm all fired up and ready to go already anyway."

[Guest]

Hark grinned as she leaned forward from the wall, using her momentum to snap into a standing position, looking down toward Essence. "Let's go, then," she said as she began to walk from the building, not quite waiting for her to stand. Hark knew she would catch up quickly, and in that time, she could find their mark quickly. As she reached the door, she scanned around. Who to mug... she thought.

[Fiery Essence]

Essence rose up after a moment, grinning while she stepped up behind Hark. Her horn made a faint glow as she dispersed the ambient heat around herself to avoid tipping anyone off of their presence. She remained quiet, but her mind raced. I can't believe I never thought of doing this before. Take the money from those who don't deserve it. She thought to herself, smirk only growing.

[Guest]

As Hark heard Essence step behind her, she gestured to a rather bored looking griffon who was standing on the side of the street, across from them. She grinned as she looked toward Essence, her head almost turned fully around. As she snapped it back, she trotted toward the griffon, grinning as she flashed her sheathed blade whilst passing him by.

"I'm gonna eat your tiny bitch ass!" The griffon said in a cliche angry, oppressive griffon voice, taking his cliche, angry, oppressive griffon sword from his side as he charged Hark, as she stepped into the alleyway.

Having keen senses honed over several years of combat, Hark easily heard the griffon as he neared, flipping around as she unsheathed her blade in her telekinesis, blocking his blade with her own. The familiar clash of steel rung in her ears as she winked toward Essence.

[Fiery Essence]

Essence kept her distance from Hark while she set the stage for her appearance. A large, almost jubilant grin appeared on her muzzle as the thoughts of getting the griffon filled her mind. The two combatants' swords clashed with a familiar metal twang. The orange mare's horn began to glow once more as she prepared a simple heat spell, slowly heating up the sword in the griffon's grip to where it almost began to glow.

"Drop it, you know you want to..." She said under her breath as she watched the scene continue on in front of her eyes. She spawned two balls of fire that hovered and swirled around her in preparation of an actual attack once the griffon was unarmed.

[Guest]

As the griffon noticed his blade heating up and burning his claws, he dropped it, and Hark's blade followed through for a nice, wide slice across his chest. He grunted as he backed up as he placed his claw over the wound. Then, a spike of elemental ice impaled his hand to his chest.

And Hark grinned at the scream that followed, watching as Essence moved in to attack.

[Fiery Essence]

Essence moved in closer to the two others, hurling the orbs of flame into the griffon to leave scorch marks in the body if they reached their goal of his side and shoulder. Without saying a word, the mare kicked off one of her bands, conjuring up a familiar serpentine flame that would attempt to wrap around the larger creature and burn him farther if he was unable to avoid the attack.

She conjured up a second snake of fire, keeping it around herself and simply waiting in case she would be needed for another strike.

[Guest]

As Hark watched Essence hurl the orbs toward the griffon, she shifted her sword's location. Now, it was pressed against the griff- wait, it wasn't. But there was a nice, deep cut where it used to be. As the griffon was literally fried in his own skin by Essence, silence came from his open beak as he trembled. Hark jammed her blade inbetween two stones, leaning on it as she watched the griffon die.

Satisfied with their job, Hark turned to Essence. "Nice work. Hopefully, you didn't melt the coin," she said with a grin, gesturing to the almost corpse of a griffon. "Will you do the honors?"

[Fiery Essence]

"I would love to. And don't worry, these flames aren't hot enough to melt metal." Essence chuckled as she dissipated the fiery snake from around her and pulled her band back onto her leg. She moved up to the nearly dead bird and riffled through his pockets, a wide grin growing onto her face as a bit sack came out with her hoof. "Bingo, baby."

[Guest]

Hark grinned as Essence retrieved the sack of bits. She sized it up, and grinned at it. "Looks like about a hundred or so. We made bank!" She threw her hooves up in the air with glee as she sheathed her blade, returning to a standing position moments later with a half grin. She looked toward the corpse of the griffon. "Well, I'm already a criminal. You?"

[Fiery Essence]

"I am now, but I could care less at this point. Besides, we're just criminals in the eyes of the true criminals." Essence replied simply, nudging the body a few times with her hoof. She chuckled a bit before glancing back at Hark with an almost content expression.

"Well, that was fun and we made quite a good haul from it. We should try this more often." She stated, glancing to the side. "We should probably head out. We won't be able to put these morons in their place if we get executed."

[Guest]

Hark shrugged, gesturing toward Essence whilst bowing her head. "Well, you lead the way." Her head rose as she placed her hoof back upon the ground. "I'm sure we could take a couple griffons if they came, anyway."

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