//------------------------------// // Chapter 12: ... I'm Not Going Back // Story: The Adventures of Test Subject SP-1K3 // by Dedion //------------------------------// Dark purple flames danced around Spike's body before erupting in a tower of fire. Pain coursed through the young dragon. He screamed as the blaze around him roared louder and louder. The rock beneath him began to glow white hot. The cave's ceiling began to fall in large drops of lava. The ponies rushed to pick up their downed comrade and escape from the ever-growing area of molten rock. Diamond put up a force field around the group to block the falling droplets. At the same time, Sapphire cast a heat-resistance spell to help with the increasing temperature. Jet did his best to roll away from the approaching lava. He cursed loudly towards the ponies who placed the collar on him. As he finished his last swear, the tower of flames stopped. Small dark purple embers floated on the air as everyone gazed at the creature that had taken Spike's place. A dragon of pitch black scales stood at the center of the bubbling lava. Its size was taller than Spike had been and now stood at eye height to the ponies. Purple flames cloaked its arms, occasionally a few specks of green flickered in the fire before they disappeared again. Slowly, it turned its gaze towards the pony squad. All the mares stood frozen as they stared into the seas of white that should be the creature's eyes. Sweet Crisp stared at the beast and felt her heart stopped when the creature focused its gaze on her. She took a step backward; her body shivered in fear as the creature took a step forward. A squeak of terror escaped her muzzle as she took another step. The beast soon followed suit. Sweet Crisp fell onto her haunches, and the creature continued its advance. Her limbs resisted her urge to run, and with what seemed like her inevitable death approaching, her bladder emptied itself of its contents. Diamond and Sapphire stared at the pitch black dragon that slowly approached. They couldn't believe one of those were here much less that it was a baby dragon. They heard Sweet Crisp let out a small shriek of fear and turned to see the earth pony fall on her behind. The poor mare was too afraid even to stand. Diamond turned to Sapphire; the blue unicorn stood frozen in time. Whether it was for fear of the black dragon or something else, Diamond did not know. Diamond's horn ignited in preparation for a teleportation spell. Her plan was simple. After they teleported out of harm's way, they would report to the Princesses, get re-enforcement, and track down the dragons again. If all went well, the dragons would be captured within a day or two. However, her plan was stopped at its first step. Something was interfering with her magic. She couldn't teleport out of the cave! Why couldn't she teleport out!? Those thoughts briefly ran through her head, distracting her from the imminent threat in front of her. In the blink of an eye, the black dragon extended an arm. The appendage quickly stretched the distance between the creature and the red mare. The dragon's claw broke through Diamond's force field as if it were wet paper. Diamond felt the creature's claw grab her horn. She was about to cast a spell to get the claw off. However, Spike was faster. Spike gave a strong and quick twist. A loud snap rang out through the air while time slowed down to a snail's pace. The ponies stood in horror as they witnessed the scene in front of them. The dragons' jaw dropped as they saw the red horn firmly in "Spike's" grip. After what felt like hours, time resumed, and Diamond screamed. Spike looked gazed at the red unicorn horn in their claw. Having been severed during the middle of a spell, it still retained some magic. The flames that snaked across their body now surged towards the horn and engulfed it. Spike felt the magic from the horn flow into them as the fires burned away at the horn. Within seconds, the only thing remaining was a clawful of ashes. The magic absorbed from the horn felt good in a way. It coursed through their veins and served as more fuel for their flames. Their maw opened to reveal an abyss of white. What could be assumed was their mouth seemed to curl into a satisfied smile. Their moment of bliss was interrupted when a magic bolt was hit them in the head. What would have usually killed a dragon of their nature, only forced their head to face toward's the cave's ceiling. Moving their gaze back to its natural position, Spike's eyes locked onto a blue unicorn mare. Her horn was still smoking from the spell. Her face was riddled with anger. Spike's smile disappeared as they remembered why they were here. Hatred began to make their blood boil as the purple blaze grew in intensity. Spike lifted his arms. While their right arm was the same as the rest of them, their left arm consisted of purple flames. In the palm of each claw, giant fireballs were summoned. Both of them doubled the size of the black dragon's head. The unicorn's face now turned horrified as she saw Spike raise their arms higher. The two fireballs rapidly grew in size. It was not too long before the two spheres collided and morphed into one gigantic ball of purple fire. Its heat could be felt even through the heat-resistant spell that had been applied earlier. More of the ceiling of the cave began to melt, and large sections of it were beginning to fall. "PoNies cAme to Take US baCK," said Spike. The sound of hundreds of voices came from their maw. They were all in this together now, and they were going to put an end to this, an end to these ponies. "We wILL NEVER REtuRN!!" Screams were heard as Spike brought the titan of a fireball down. The grey pegasus yelled while the earth pony cried. The red unicorn laid unmoving while the blue unicorn's horn ignited again. Fizzle rushed upwards through one of the holes in the cave's roof. Garble was close behind with Jet, who Garble had retrieved after Spike snapped the red unicorn's horn off. Flying faster than they ever thought they could. The two able flying dragons flew their way up through the snaking tunnel. It was not long before they heard a loud boom. Looking back, they saw a purple flame in the distance growing larger and larger with each passing second. Fizzle began to panic and frantically searched for a place to put their companions. While he and Garble were fire blooded and had resistance to anything involving heat, the same could not be said about Fang and jet. Just as the flames seemed to have caught them, the tunnel began opening up to a new cave system. Fizzle and Garble quickly tossed the two dragons they were carrying as well as their equipment. The two dragons rolled onto the ground will the other two were engulfed by the flames. Garble and Fizzle screamed as the fire seemed to have hurt them. They plummeted from the sky and rolled onto the ground. The blaze that covered them quickly disappeared, but the pain lingered. Patches of their scales were blistered, and a few even fell off. The four dragons remained on the ground and waited for the pillar of fire to stop. Thankfully, they did not have to wait long as the blaze calmed down soon after. Fizzle struggled to stand, the weight of a mountain seemed to rest on him. It took him some time, but he was finally able to stand up. He then hobbled his way over to help Garble. The two grunted as they tried to walk to the others. Fang stood with Jet on the other side of the hole they had flown out of. They began to move closer to the other members of their party. However, they were stopped by the intense heat of the stone. Fizzle took notice of that and looked around for a place for them to meet. It was not long before his eyes landed on a small bridge made out of stone that they could cross. The group was back together in just a few minutes and began treating each other's injuries. While the Fizzle's and Garble's burns hurt, they would recover quickly. The collar around Jet's neck would prove to be an issue, but they were confident they would find a way to remove it. Fang was the one everyone was worried about. They had suspected her to start yelling and asking questions upon questions, but she remained silent. Her eyes were wide as she sat in silence. Fizzle assumed that the current events were just now beginning to set in, causing her to go into a state of shock. In the short moment of silence from the female baby dragon, Fizzle inspected her injury. The arrow had penetrated deeply into the young dragoness' shoulder. Blood covered most of her shoulder and showed no sign of stopping soon. Fizzle and Jet cursed to themselves as they quickly went through their supplies for anything of use. Minutes began to fly by in the blink of an eye. Silence threatened to suffocate them were it not for Fizzle and Jet's discussion. "Okay... so, ignoring what just happened for a moment. We need to get Fang patched up first," stated Fizzle. Fizzle did not know much about medical practices, but from personal experience, he knew that they needed to get the arrowhead out as soon as possible. They had some essential medical equipment: a roll of gauze, a bottle of disinfectant, safety pins, and a few vials of medicine. Looking through some more, they found that they had a sewing needle and some thick thread. Fizzle knew a little on how to stitch wounds. He wasn't the best, but he should be enough for the job. Now the only thing was to remove the arrow carefully. However, it was here that Garble had enough of their discussion. He took matters into his claws as he walked over to Fang. His plan was simple: rip out the arrow and burn the wound shut. He placed one claw on her injured shoulder and another claw on the arrow shaft. Before the Fizzle and Jet could stop him, Garble pulled the arrow with all his might. Most of the arrow was intact once it left Fang's shoulder. The arrowhead was snapped off and fell onto the ground. With the arrow now forcefully removed, Fang was left with a bigger hole in her shoulder than she started with. As the pain forced her to out of her initial shock, it made her scream to the top of her lungs before passing out. Spike awoke laying in lava. The bubbling lava was soothing to his aching body. He winced now and then as his hearing was sensitive now. Through the bubbling lava, he heard screaming that came from above. His eyes opened as he recognized the voice. Spike's body quickly moved on its own. He flew upwards into a tunnel, through a mass of melting earth. The flight was quick as he flew into another cave system. However, he flew too fast and could not stop his momentum in time. The ceiling of the cave became very acquainted with Spike's face in the ensuing crash. Fizzle, Jet, and Garble turned their attention just in time to watch the purple dragon fall from the top of the cave. Spike landed on the ground with a loud thud and groaned just as loudly soon after. The three teen dragons looked at each other for a long time before they acted. Fizzle quickly flew over to pick up the purple dragon. "Spike?! Spike!!" yelled the white dragon as he approached the downed baby dragon. As he got closer, Fizzle found that he came to a stop as he looked over Spike's lava covered body. Fizzle managed to get the chance to look at the new appendages on Spike's back. A pair of darkened purple wings laid limp on Spike's back. The scales that surround the base of the wings had darkened as well. Fizzle stared at the newly grown wings intently. More so out of fear than anything else. "That's... that's not natural.." Fizzle whispered to himself. "WhAt's NOt... naTURaL?" Spike asked through labored breathing. Multiple voices came out at once as he did so. Fizzle took a step back. "... WhAT's wROnG?" Fizzle found the strength that he had just returned vanish in an instant. His legs gave out as he stared at Spike. "FRiZZle? Frizzle... is everything okay!? Where is everyone else?!" Spike's voice slowly became normal as he stood up weakly. Fizzle gave a fearful look at the now worried dragon. Fizzle took a moment to calm himself down. Spike seemed to have returned to his usual self for the moment. He quickly tried to regain his confidence before speaking. Fizzle guided Spike back to the group. He filled Spike in on Fang's current situation, which caused Spike to rush towards the awaiting group. Garble and Jet were still on edge after seeing what Spike just a while ago. They were even more on edge as they spotted Spike's new wings. Everyone began asking questions; however, barely any of them were answered. Fizzle managed to get all their attention focused on Fang whom Jet was trying to stop bleeding. For the next hour or so, the group focused their effort to patch up the rusty colored dragoness. Meanwhile, the pony squad cheated death. Sapphire was able to teleport the group farther into the cave system as well as protect them from the blast of the black dragon's attack. The attack left the blue unicorn with relatively low magical reserves. It would be a while before she would be able to teleport again. Not to mention, the way they escaped from was impossible for them to go back. The lava stopped any progress made going back within range of the entrance on hoof unlikely. Usually, that would not be an issue. With at least two unicorns casting the spell, the range of teleportation was more massive. However, after that thing took Diamond's horn, that too was impossible. Sapphire couldn't stop herself from shaking fiercely. Her eyes the size of pinpricks as she held onto Diamond Storm. The red unicorn still laid unconscious. "How could one be here?! They weren't supposed to be here?! And how did it get so strong? None of them were that strong!!" she muttered. Her questions did not fall on deaf ears, and Storm Rider ran up to her. "You know what that thing is!?" she yelled. The look of terror in her eyes rivaled that of Sapphire herself. "I've fought dragons before, but that thing is on a whole 'nother level! What are we supposed to do against that thing?!" "We can't," answered Sapphire, "The Black Dragon Protocol was only meant to be used on the dragon front! Even then, it was used sparingly!! We can't go up against something like that!!" Storm Rider's fear only deepened. She looked around as if searching for something to say. "If we can't fight it, then we have to escape and report back to the princesses!" Storm stated. Sapphire shook her head. "We can't teleport out now that Diamond's horn is broken. And this Celestia forsaken mine won't let me even send a distress signal out..." Sapphire stopped to think for a second. "... No, this can't be..." "... Yeah, I think it is..." Diamond Storm confirmed, "... This is the High Cliff Mine. The number one resource in Equestria for pony level anti-magic material." The rest of the group crowded around Diamond. Each happy to see that she returned to the conscious world. "There are bound to be countless ores and minerals in here that cancels, absorbs, or redirects pony magic." Diamond continued. "Felt it before I got my horn snatched by that dragon. I was going to teleport us out before it was too late, but my magic couldn't connect to the outside. It's most likely that this is a Closed Off Effect." "What in the name of Luna's flanks is that?!" Storm Rider asked. Diamond groaned as the pegasus' yelled made her ever-growing migraine worsen. "To make it simple, it's when pony magic can't leave a certain area due to outside influences. The area has a certain 'limit' based on its size and the amount influences there are. While magic cannot leave the area, it can travel freely inside the area. If I still had my horn, Sapphire and I could have tried to force our magic out and, at the very least, send an S.O.S signal," explained Diamond. She stumbled a bit as she tried to stand. Sapphire stood and helped her as Diamond's legs felt like bags of sand. "Until we find an exit or a weak point, we're pretty much stuck." Storm Rider groaned loudly as Sweet Crisp sat back onto the ground. "We're... going to die here," Sweet Crisp said weakly. Her eyes began to water. "Why do ah have to die like this?! Is it karma for the facility?!" "Sweet Crisp, don't start!" Diamond warned. "Ah mean, sure, ah used my position for personal gain. That's bad. Ah get that, but ah was in heat! Ah don't want to die just because ah wasn't thinking straight," she screamed, tears streamed down her face. The three ponies looked at the hysterical mare as she cried her heart out. With the morale of one pony already dangerously low, the rest of the ponies knew that it was only a matter of time before they were out of luck.