Hey! That's Our Lake!

The air around the pristine lake was slightly cool due to the dense vegetation providing ample cover from the harsh rays of the sun. The birds nestled high on the trees, the holes in them giving perfect places to build nests, the area was virtually teeming with life. For the wild-life, everything was perfect today.

Icicle cared not for it, his entire capacity to feel warmth of any sort had been extinguished like a campfire on a frozen tundra.
In fact, all he nowadays felt was cold. He embodied it. His new chance at life came at a price. Living in a time where the 3 Tribes now live among one another. A time where he and his past life's love could have been happy in. He sighed, letting out a breath that slowly faded from sight of any on-lookers as the frozen moisture in that breath thawed.
None of that mattered now, however. He only felt cold and his demeanor matched how he felt. He glanced behind him, a trail of frost and snow that was incredibly out of place during this summer time. Then he looked to his sides, the trees flanking him having the moss on their bark freezing, the moisture on it crystallizing before his eyes.
Tearing his gaze away from the trees, he looked at the lake. He had come here from Ponyville under royal instructions, though he mostly just wished to wander this place that in ages past he called home, before it's inhabitants had torn him and his heart apart.

"They say revenge is a dish best served cold... But what use is revenge to one who's source of hatred has looked up at the grass for millenia?" He said to himself in a hoary voice that seemed to echo throughout the forest as he trudged towards the lake for a drink. Though he no longer required sustenance, he could still feel his frozen belly creak and crackle in protest every so often. Even having been frozen solid didn't seem to stop one from getting hunger pangs. Hopefully he could sate it before the lake freezes completely.

Meanwhile on the otherside of the same lake stood a lone 2 story house quite the distance away from ponyville in the forest, a Unicorn was upp on the roof grunting and muttering while he doing matenance to tiles and cleaning upp there while taking advantage of the bright sunny day as he worked.

While the unicorn glared down to the ground att times in anoyance, att ground level was a human laying on a lounger close to the water as was resting lazily while his unicorn roommate was doing all the work upp on the roof, listening to the lake water lightly splash on the shore while daydreaming.

"cant belive he tricked me to do this, lazybum...." the unicorn mutterd from the roof, staring towards his human roommate

Icicle had made it to the edge of the lake when he noticed some movement on the other side of the lake. This in itself wasn't something he would have paid attention to, but the one moving on the other side was different.
A bipedal creature was relaxing on a lounger while a unicorn was working on a roof of a shack bordering the lake.

After a moment of contemplation, he decided it was not interesting enough for him to investigate. However, this moment was all it took. The lake had already begun to freeze, some ice having already accumulated over a large area. The ice would be sustained by his presence and even strengthened. It would soon start expanding itself. If Icicle was to have a sip of water, he would have to do it now.

As Pyro the human laid on the lounger listening to the lake, he could hear something peculiar, like a low tone crackling sound coming from the other side of the lake making him stir from his half-sleep half-daydreaming state "what is that sound...?" he said to himself sleepily with a yawn.

Upp on the roof, cryo could hear the same thing as pyro, but from his position he could see an area of cold air in the far end of the lake expanding, seeing its turing the water into ice during a hot summer day "what the....what in the blazes is going on with the lake?" he said as he looked towards icicle's position, not noticing him due to the could mist from the frezzing lake

The ice was expanding quicker than Icicle had expected. He had to take small strides now in order to keep up with the crystallizing mass of water.
Had he the capacity to care, he would have even felt a bit sorry for the wildlife, not to mention the pair who had yet to make contact with him. Probably the fog was still clouding their eyes.
"Icefog..." He said in that hoary voice of his. That was the name of the wendigo that had revived him and imbued him with this power over the frozen north.
As if that was some sort of signal, the freezing intensified, even if only slightly. He was just about to cross the first quarter of the lake. Any sips he had taken had turned to ice upon contact with his beard, which he had to rip out. This only added to his mass and he had to increase his pace to keep up.

At this rate, the lake would be frozen completely in no time.

Pyro shiverd as the wind blew the cold air from icicle towards him, jolting awake and rubing his arms as he froze, but as he did that he saw what cryo had noiticed earlier than him, this caused pyro to get upp from his seat and went closer to the lake before he heard cryo yell att him from the roof "there is something going on with the lake, i have a bad feeling about this!".

After cryo said that, he made his way down to see what was causing this, pyro on the other hand was allready by the lake trying to see trough the fog.

The fog was thick but not thick enough to conceal Icicle's presence at this distance. Slowly but surely the two would notice a shape moving in the fog, coming closer and clearing up. The shape paid no mind to it's unintentional camouflage becoming uneffective and continued it's movement. A large chunk of ice had now clung to Icicle's beard. He stopped for a moment, gripped the beard of ice and began to tear at it. A bit of effort later a small chunk of the beard came off, along with the extra weight the ice elemental had accumulated. Somehow the beard started growing back, until it was back to it's original length, though with some minor alterations in how the ice flowed down.

With this hindrance over with, Icicle continued his march.

"hey! why are you frezzing our lake?!" pyro called out att the shape moving closer to thier side of the lake as icicle continued his march, but when icicle came to close for comfort, pyro took out as wind rune and activated it, turning the rune into a fan and swung it, causing a heavy gust of air to blow away the fog and to push icicle away from compleatly frezzing the lake.

A moment later cryo came to pyro's side, both shocked as they saw icicle's appearance with ice growing on his body "what are you?" cryo asked

The gust of wind took Icicle by surprise, but he recovered and planted his hooves firmly on the ice. He then started taking steps forward, having to exert enormous force just to get his hooves to come off of the ice below him.
"I'm just here for a drink. The lake will thaw in time." He said as he looked at the two. He adjusted his path and started moving towards the pair. If they leave him alone, then he might be able to get what he came here for.
"I am Icicle. And one of you is a creature I've never seen before. But that's not important right now."
He stopped at the edge of the lake. "Why did you stop me?"

"you dont see what you are doing? you are frezzing our lake compleatly solid, what if we need the lake too, so just stop your ice magic, allright?" pyro said anoyingly att icicle, wondering how he does his ice magic.

Cryo moved closer to the lake and taped the ice with a hoof "the lake is frozen over compleatly, even in this blasted heat...hope in dose not freeze our pipeing" he said before turning to icicle "what are you doing here anyway other than bring cold to a hot day?"

"Your lake? Since when have you had any right to lay claim to something that belongs to the earth that you stand upon?" Icicle said in his hoary voice. He was intrigued. Most who gaze upon him start feeling fear. And when he speaks, most run like migratory birds in escape of winter.
"And as for me stopping... I cannot. This is something I cannot control. Can one really hope to control a landslide on a snow-covered mountain? Can one stop winter itself?" He said. It was unknown if the two would find it arrogant, but he cared not.
"And as I said, I came here for a drink. But instead you impede my progress, only managing to keep the cause of this freeze in front of your eyes. Even now I can sense the area where I came from starting to crack under this sunlight." Sure enough, unknowingly to the two, the shore where Icicle had came from had slowly began to thaw, the vegetation slowly coming back to life from the momentary sleep beneath his hoofsteps.
"Unless you really just want me to freeze this lake over completely?" He said. He raised a hoof in front of his face and blew onto it, a snowball beginning to form. He then threw it to an unfrozen part of the lake, a fair distance away. When the snowball hit the surface of the water, Icicle's beard began to shiver and crackle, until almost a quarter of it tore off and flied towards the snowball's location like a missile. When that reached it's destination, it exploded in a frozen blast, leaving the area the snowball had it a literal iceberg. It was small, but it proved his power.

What's more, his beard began to grow back. He chuckled as it did, while gazing still at the two.

cryo steped upp towards icicle "are you threating us? if you wanted your "drink" you could just have stoped your magic from freezing the lake to begin with, and i dont see why you cant controll your magic given that you tossed that ice bomb to freeze more of our lake!" he said, not particularly happy how icicle is behaving towards them

"now, how do you even use your magic? you're a earth pony, i have only seen unicorns do this sort of thing" pyro said, making himself ready incase things go out of hand

"Am I threatening you? It matters not to me. I am a conduit. I carry winter wherever I go. I can direct it, but it will always be present." Icicle said. He then looked towards the human.
"You know not much of this world, do you, ape?" He said with cold contempt. "Beneath this cold exterior, what is it do you think you see? An Earth Pony? A pegasus? A unicorn? I could be any and all of them and it would not change a thing." He said, ice forming mockeries of the distinguishing features of pegasi and unicorns, which shattered after he finished his final sentence.
"Now, if you two are done, I'll set out to do what I came here for. You don't like it? I'll just give you the cold shoulder." He said, turning and laughing at his little pun as he began walking away.

"hey! this is our lake you overgrown popcicle!" said pyro, having enough of the ice pony infront of them before he sent another but stronger gust of air towards icicle, hitting him unexpectedly hard against him.

"Go somewhere else snowcone, we dont want your rudeness around here" said cryo, his horn glowing brightly to look intimidateing as he prepeard himself for the worst

Icicle was not prepared for the gust that was thrown his way. He even lifted off the ground for a second as he was thrown to his side and he began spinning on the ice. Once he stopped, he lay still. Eventually though, he began to stir.
"How... dare... you..." He said slowly as he rose.
"I have not been brought back from the dead after two millenia to be ordered by the likes of you! You unicorns are as arrogant as you were back then!" He said. He flicked his hoof at Cryo as if to prove his point. But Cryo would notice ice starting to form around his legs. "Feel the chill!"
He then stomped the ice with a hoof and shards of sharp ice blasted towards the pair.
"Oh, and if you think I'm just a pushover... I am ancient. Ancient. But hardly frail."

"fire claw!" pyro shouted, swiping his hand just as the ice shards came into range, his hand magicly turning into a fiery claw and evaporated the ice, the heat also thawed out cryo's hooves from the ice from pyro's large swipe, cryo then took a step back as he readied his runes for battle, pyro already being prepeard as he stept closer

"what quarrel you had from your time dose not exist anymore, but if you are trying to bring it back, then you chose the wrong pair to begin with" pyro said boldly, steping on the ice as he slid on it but not losing control as a fire blade manifested in his hand

"Well look who's all fired up. Chill out for a bit." Icicle as a wall of ice rose up in front of Pyro and quickly formed a circle around him before it sealed up from the top. Any fire that the biped would try to summon would not be able to sustain itself since the air inside this newly-created prison would be the only fuel for the fire. Not only that, it was made of far thicker ice now that Icicle himself was, ironically enough, getting fired up.
"Feh, youth today." He quipped.
And with that taken care of, he turned his attention to the other one.
"Now, let me ask you something, unicorn." He said as his hooves had small amounts of the accumulated ice break off. Cryo would feel the ice weakening beneath him.
"How comfortable are you with swimming in a frozen lake? Heheh." He said as he stomped the ice, a crack going towards the weakened ice Cryo was standing on.
"This entire fight is pointless. You fight over something that would return to normal in time. You deny that which comes round every year. All because someone acts in a way you don't like. Is it really that worth it? Is it worth your life?"

As the crack in the ice went towards cryo, he quickly jumped out of the way to the side as he took out a rune before he landed, he then shot out a thunder bolt towards icicle when he landed with a thud on the ice and quickly began to move about to remain a hard target to hit.

pyro on the otherhand concentrated on the ice surounding him, charging the magic around him into a strength boster rune as he reved upp his fist, before he punches the ice wall infront of him with such incredible strength that it blasted the ice wall into bits, expending a bit of his own energy he resorted to use his less draining fire blade to conserve his power should he need to do that again.

Icicle flinched as the thunderbolt hit him square in the chest, but otherwise showed no signs of immediate damage. If he struck now, he could finish off the biped. But still, like the cold frontier advances slowly but inexorably, he was going to win regardless. These two put up a fight, but can they outlast that which is practically eternal?
Let them tire themselves out.

With that thought, Icicle sat down as large ice blocks began to rise from the lake's depths, surrounding and covering the earth pony within an icy cocoon, much like Pyro had been trapped inside one.
However, as soon as the cocoon had been completed, a shard of ice shot out from the outer layer, then another, and another. They were tiny, but sharp. Not liable to cause huge damage, but a barrage oughta force Pyro and Cryo to rethink their strategy.

"hiding inside a wall of ice dont stop us that easily" pyro said but backed upp as the ice shards flew towards them "no, but i feel like he is trying to wear us down trough attition" cryo said as he studied the fortified cocon icicle made around him "hmmm, you got the intangibility rune pyro?" cryo asked and pyro replied with a nod.

"good, you use the rune to pass trough his barrier after i boost you on the ice" cryo said and pyro nodded as he stod infront of cryo on the ice, spawning a shield to block the ice shards coming towards them as cryo charges his telekinetic magic.

Despite being stuck inside the huge cocoon (Some could say prison) of ice, Icicle could hear Cryo perfectly.
"Intangibility? He can't do anything to me in such a state and even if he did find a way, it would be for naught. Foolish biped. You'll grow colder... But no older. Hm hm hm hm hm hm..."
Let them try their plan. Infact, why not give them a lift?
"Let me help you out." His voice boomed through the icy barrier, despite his mouth actually not moving inside it. As soon as the sentence had been finished, an icy pillar began to rise from beneath Pyro's and Cryo's location, once again subjecting the pair to the icy hail that emanated from the outer layer due to the shield remaining in place. This was something he hadn't expected, but he was going to take this opporunity and use it as best he could.
The hail barrage intensified as if by an unspoken command now that the pair were back in the line of fire. "Hail comes!"

"pyro, we must act now!" cryo yelled over to pyro as they where in icicles line of fire again ontop of the ice pillars thier opponent made under them "i got it cryo, im ready! "he yelled back as pyro made a aura of fire around himself to melt the hail heading towards him and jumped down the side of the pillar to slide down and build upp speed as cyro the exact same thing that pyro did in sync.

As both reached the bottom of the pillar and build up enough speed, cryo then used his kinetic charge on pyro to boost him towards icicle's mountain of ice, and when pyro recived the boost he immidietly made himself intangiable, now sliding att a high speed on the ice towards icicle as he readied his blade and went trough icicle's mountain to the core, he could not see inside the ice but he felt himself colder as he got closer to the icepony and swiped his fireblade hard, the attack mutiplied by his speed send cracks that began behind icicle's back trough out the ice, cracking the mountain open with pyro sliding out from the other side.

The little mountain began to tear apart at the back, the weight of the pieces crashing through the icy layer that kept the combatants above the lake's waters.
Icicle could feel the weight behind him lessening. It was at that moment he knew to strike. The ice around him began to creak and crack until roughly circular area around him was freed from the ice. He sent those pieces at a high speed towards Pyro, the icy boulders striking areas around him haphazardly. Each of them left behind a vortex with icy particles swirling around them. "Cold swirl!" The vortexes would keep Pyro's movements sluggish. Icicle then formed another snowball in his hoof and aimed at the human. At the same time, the mountain around him began to crack and then disintegrate as he used his power to assail the unicorn while the two were separated.

Pyro saw icicle's counter-attack as he turned towards his foe, seeing the large boulders of ice slam the icy ground around him as slow fields where made from the inpact areas of the boulders, feeling the effect of the freezing slow, he hurried out of the field as he noticed icicle aiming att him, but once he got out of the field he was in, he began to ice skate, bobing and weaving inbetween the slow zones to get closer to icicle to attack.

On cryo's end, icicles attacks towards him seemed less consentrated as he dodged them easily, charging upp some thunder bomb spell with a rune as he went closer to icicle aswell, useing his telekenises to punt away bolder heading straight to him.

Once Pyro was close enough, Icicle leapt into the air and used his power over ice to create one last vortex directly in front of Pyro. This would force him to stop lest he collide straight into the ice.
Just for good measure, icy spikes pointed at the human as the vortex was given life.

This lapse in motion that the human would surely make was when Icicle threw the snowball he had formed in his hooves. He was directly above Pyro now and moving behind him as he began to descend from the air.