Chapter 12: To Burn the Sky
Proofread by GOOPMONSTER!
In a mere instant, the SOLDIER heard just about every royal guard present yell out in shock and alarm, some, judging by the clatter of metallic noises that filled his ears, nearly jumping out of their armor or tripping over their spears and hooves.
In an almost automatic reaction to the guttural roar, Spitfire tucked herself close to Zack’s side for protection, her own golden eyes scanning the overcast sky she usually loved for something she knew she should be afraid of.
The SOLDIER couldn’t help but find himself a little confused at her almost foal-like reaction, given he had never seen the mare act nervous, let alone fearful, the entire time he had known her.
He didn’t respond to the action or move a muscle, as the flood of magic raced through his veins, and what he intended to do with it, was the absolute and unwavering pin point of his attention.
“Just like old times,” he thought, remembering the countless times he had used summons in other fights.
The roar, as he guessed from the ponies reactions, was to them a titanic earth shaking sound that could’ve startled even the sternest royal guard. Like the roar of one of many ancient and powerful beasts, as Spitfire had told him, that were enchained by Celestia and Luna in the dark fiery depths of Tartarus. The bellow washed over the palace grounds and everypony standing on them, and as if the sound was laced with the very essence of the word fear, virtually froze the blood running in the armored ponies’ veins.
Sounds as loud as the one they had just heard, as their years of vigorous training and personal combat experience had taught each and every one of the royal guards, only came from things like Ursa majors or things that were both powerful and big, REALLY big.
Each and every set of now unnerved equine eyes, including those of the two stone faced alicorn princesses, were now flashing their gazes quickly between Zack and the clouded sky in search of the roar’s source, the two rulers’ noble wings flared protectively over their subjects as they looked up at the circling grey storm clouds.
The SOLDIER couldn’t help but grin to himself as the worried mutterings started behind him.
“Zack… what the bucking hay was that?” Soarin’ asked in a barely audible whisper as he trotted over, the stallion sounding almost truly scared for once as he pawed at the grass.
The SOLDIER just shook his head in reply. “Heh, that, Soarin’, is what you’re about to find out,” he smirked wickedly, his hands still grasping the cold metallic grip of his Buster Sword tightly.
“Why do I always get a bad feeling whenever you smile like that?”
That was when, in answer to Zack’s will and call, something bright pierced the heavens like an arrow and shot down from the thick circling clouds. For a moment it was just a speck against the patches of grey, but as it sped earthwards, that speck quickly materialized into something resembling a lightning blue comet that would have easily measured the rough size of a Canterlot house.
Its earth-bound path, if the SOLDIER was right, was carrying it straight towards the magically reinforced barrier... and the royal white stone city that sat proudly right below it, just as he had intended.
Unfortunately, Shining Armor seemed to catch on pretty quickly.
“ZAAAAACK!” the white stallion virtually roared in the SOLDIER’s direction. “What. The buck. Have you done!”
“I know what I’m doing,” The SOLDIER snapped back with equal venom, not even bothering to open his eyes. “Do you want these changelings dealt with or not?”
“I’d prefer for you not to destroy Canterlot and kill us all in the process!”
Zack barely took note of the stallion’s angry outburst, other than a slight mental groan and a small momentary snort, though he could hear the faintest tone of fear in the royal guard captain’s voices, fear that was now spreading amongst the other royal guards. He understood why they’d be scared, having something that looked like a comet plummeting straight at you was a far-from-inviting prospect, but what he needed at that point was their trust and belief above all else.
“Zack, are you… ” Spitfire started.
“Just trust me Spitfire, please,” he cut in as he tightened his sword grip, the rest of his body not moving in the slightest. “I know it seems crazy, but I know what I’m doing… nothing bad will happen to you or anypony else ok, I promise you that… on my honour.”
She looked at him for a moment with a raised eyebrow, before sighing and giving a single nod. “I believe in you,” she whispered.
Despite the unease everypony else, bar apparently Pinkie Pie who was humming for some strange reason, and the general sense of fear that was running through the ranks of armored royal guards, he couldn’t help but smile at her words.
“Zack… for your own sake, you best be right about this,” Celestia said darkly from beside him, looking at the SOLDIER along with her younger sister, both sporting death glares. “If that comet breaks through…”
“That thing’s not a comet.” Zack smirked at last, his glowing blue suddenly snapping open as his pulses of magic faded and everypony suddenly stared at him, followed by a collective wave of “WHAT?!”
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Mere meters before the descending inferno hit the barrier, it happened, a thunderous explosion of magical energy and blue light unlike anything Equestria had ever witnessed before. Within a heartbeat the powerful magic pulse had converted every drop of moisture in the air and sky to ice, and then, with a colossal crack of white lightning, shattered them with the sound of breaking glass, resulting in Canterlot being caught in a shower of thousands upon thousands of tiny glimmering crystals.
With an almost blinding flash of light, so intense it caused every pony present to shut their eyes in pain, the magical energy dissipated away, leaving in its wake a sight which made Zack’s grin widen as a few memories came rushing back. Every pony and changeling else, including the two alicorn rulers and the six element wielders, gaped and went completely silent in total shock.
“Buck… me… sideways,” he heard Soarin’ gasp at last, his comment followed by a chain of similar murmurs.
“Wow,” Spike whispered, the SOLDIER’s mouth breaking smile at the young dragon’s amazement.
“Yeah… wow,” Rainbow Dash added, hovering next to her scaly friend.
Almost everypony around him let out some description of amazement, even Twilight and the two princesses were utterly amazed at what they were seeing, much to the veteran SOLDIER’s silent unvoiced amusement.
“Zack…” Shining Armor started before trailing off, any other words quickly becoming lodged in his throat.
“Now you know some of the true power of SOLDIER,” Zack grinned, slowly replacing his massive Buster Sword across his back before raising his own eyes skywards. “I said you could trust me didn’t I?”
Residing just above the purple barrier, before the very eyes of both the respective pony and changeling masses below, was a dragon, a dragon, in Spitfire’s eyes, of near godlike appearance and powerful majesty that could rival that of Princess Celestia’s own.
Unlike every other dragon she had either heard of or seen, Spitfire saw its colossal figure was covered not in thousands of individual scales, but what looked to be a combination of thick coloured plates, some of which seemed to be glowing with blue magic. Its scythe-like talons were not white like the talons of Equestria’s dragons, but rather a brilliant metallic silver colour, like they were actually forged from steel, and the beasts eyes, almost like those of the SOLDIER who had summoned it, were literally glowing a bright and eerie blue.
This time, it was Soarin’ who decided to yell at the SOLDIER. “Zack! Please tell me that I'm just seeing things!”
“Z-Zack,” Spitfire chocked out a moment later, her golden eyes bulging to a near unnerving size, and her tail tightening between her legs as she looked up at the massive creature. “What… is that?”
“That, Spits, is a summon called Bahamut.” Zack chuckled smugly, his voice being cut off by a titanic roar.
For a single moment after the monstrous sound, the entire world stood perfectly still and was deathly silent, bar the deep pounding beats and movements of the wings of the king of dragons. Every pony and changeling looking up at the silent beast’s hulking shape in a combination of awe and horror.
That moment though ended quickly.
With another and final thunderous roar, the dragon was gone, sending another blast of blue energy outwards before shooting back up through the clouds, and into the highest possible piece of reachable sky, its glowing blue eyes locked downward on the awaiting world that sat far below its talons grasp. In the depths of its mind it knew exactly why it had been summoned, by the very SOLDIER who had long ago beaten it in a fight of all creatures, and it also knew what was now required of it.
The very power it had once used against the SOLDIER as they had clashed.
Flaring its wings out to their fullest extent and opening its colossal maw, the dragon began its devastating attack, absorbing and focusing the magical energy in the air around it into a tight shining ball between its jaws. With every passing second the ball grew in size and power as it was fed by glowing streaks of energy, building up to a titanic concentration of magic that could raze a city to the ground with ease.
Within bare seconds it became almost too much to control, and hence with a momentary pause and swift arch of its neck, the dragon opened its jaws and finally released the megaflare blast, sending a crackling ball of blue energy hurtling downwards towards the city of Canterlot.
Five seconds later, the world once again shook as it collided with the barrier.
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It had been just over a year since the first invasion of Canterlot by the changelings hordes, but the majestic flash of magical light, caused by the bond of love shared by Shining Armor and Cadence, still burned brightly in the mind and memories of everypony who had been there that fateful day.
Many of those ponies, civilian and royal guard alike, now crowded the paved streets of Canterlot and the lawn grounds of the Palace, their eyes locked skywards as they all, half curiously and half fearfully, watched the various movements and actions of the dragon who had answered Zack’s call and appeared above their city. Some had their jaws freely hanging open in awe, mainly due to the fact that seeing a dragon up close was a rare event in Equestria.
Others though, including a stone faced Shining Armor, were far less impressed and far more worried about the creature’s presence.
As captain of the royal guard, he had seen and dealt with all sorts of threats before, including a rogue dragon every so often, but the beast he had just seen had been by far the most terrifying thing he had ever laid his eyes on.
“Zack, What exactly is that thing goi…”
The stallion had intended to further berate the SOLDIER on his course of action, but his voice was suddenly, and rather violently, cut off by yet another barrage of fearful yells erupting from the guards around him, and more than a few loud curses from nearby ponies as they either ducked, or tried to turn their tails and run.
“What the…” The stallion wondered aloud.
A moment later, and before he had the faintest idea of what was truly going on, the entire city was shaken on its foundations by yet another titanic explosion, and flooded with a third wave of blinding blue light. These ones though were so loud and intense they made the first and second look like small fireworks in comparison, the blast causing a decent amount of royal guards to tumble over as the entire mountain beneath Canterlot shook.
Frantically getting to his hooves again and looking up, the royal guard captain’s blood just about chilled to ice as he realized just what had happened, and what Zack had been planning the entire time, took place before his eyes.
The dragon’s blast had a moment prior collided with his barrier, and a second after it had the very air seemed to erupt into a sea of blue magical fire as the monstrous explosion followed on, the blast vaporizing every single screeching changeling that had graced the sky over Canterlot in a single heartbeat, and leaving not one of the insect creatures alive in its wake.
His own magical barrier was quickly strained and stressed under the immense wave of energy, and the stallion began to sweat as he saw faint cracks begin to appear in the purple surface, like at any moment it would shatter like glass.
He understood then and there why Zack had wanted the barrier reinforced so strongly; whatever the magical nature of the dragon’s attack was, it was powerful even by his standards.
“Remember how I said you should pray this worked? Now you know why,” Zack grinned after a few moments with a shake of his black locks, the last of flames dying away as he spoke.
His obvious amusement, despite the severity of the situation, and Shining Armor’s current sense of dread, ended up resulting in the stallion wanting nothing more than a chance to buck the SOLDIER square in the face.
“ARE YOU ACTUALLY OUT OF YOUR MIND!” Shining Armor yelled, tensing his legs and readying to charge straight at the burly part-human, who swiftly drew his Buster sword in response while Spitfire flared her wings aggressively. “NOT ONLY DID YOU SUMMON A DRAGON, ZACK, BUT YOU NEARLY HAD IT CONVERT CANTERLOT AND EVERYPONY IN IT, INCLUDING BOTH PRINCESS CELESTIA AND PRINCESS LUNA, TO ASHES!”
“Look, just calm down Shining…” Spitfire started, only to be cut off by a loud snort from Princess Celestia’s muzzle.
“That is quite enough, Shining Armor.” Celestia cut in from behind both of them, the captain looking back over his shoulder to see her glaring fiercely at him, and a none-too-impressed expression plastered across the alicorn’s face. “I agree with you that his actions were dangerous, yes, but the barrier held, nopony has been hurt, and Canterlot is now safe once again… hence I am asking you to drop the issue.”
“But Princess…”
“Captain, that is an order, the threat to Canterlot has been dealt with and everypony is safe, now I suggest you stand down, and calm down, before you make an embarrassment of yourself, because with all due respect I find the thought of you being able to subdue Zack a little hard to believe.”
Turning his head in response, He saw first and foremost his little sister was glaring daggers at him, while the other Elements of Harmony, Princess Luna, Stormwing, Spike, the Wonderbolts’ team members, and a decent amount of his fellow royal guards were also watching on, many with eyebrows raised in either confusion of scepticism of his actions.
Shining Armor shot the SOLDIER a dirty look, before shaking his head and sighing in defeat as he scraped at the grass in embarrassment. “Ugh, alright, alright… sorry Zack… sorry Spitfire,” he snorted somewhat bitterly, not looking up to meet his two friends’ gazes.
The SOLDIER just gave the guard captain one of his signature smirks. “Heh, don’t worry about it.”
Nodding, taking a few deep breaths, and eventually calming down, the stallion shook his head again and backed off a few paces while Zack slowly replaced his sword across his back, his wary eyes still not leaving the burly white unicorn. The royal guard captain then gingerly retreated to his sister’s side as the solar princess to came forward, and wordlessly approached the black haired SOLDIER until they were a bare meter apart. A few other royal guards continued to watch on while the rest moved off to secure the rest of the palace.
He didn’t move or flinch under her unfaltering gaze, and neither did the golden pegasus mare still standing firmly beside him, but they could both tell she wasn’t exactly overwhelmed with joy at what had happened.
“What you did was both near crazy and dangerous Zack, and I want you to know that,” she said firmly through what looked to be slightly clenched jaw, her own eyes locked with his glowing blue ones, and her gaze making him feel a little more than unnerved. “You put the lives of a lot of my little ponies on the line today, as well as this entire city itself, something which I personally would have much preferred you hadn’t done, and strongly suggest you never do ever again…”
“Look, Celestia, I Just…” he started defensively, only to find the alicorn’s white hoof quickly moving forward and covering his mouth.
“But…” she continued as she removed her hoof. “I accept, Zack, as you seem to have made a habit of doing, only did so with the intention of protecting Canterlot and its citizens, so… I believe my sister and I are willing to let it go this once… are we in agreement on the issue, Luna?”
“For once, yes we are ‘Tia,” the darker alicorn smiled almost cheekily, the happy grin being one of the very few Zack had seen cross her face since meeting the night ruler. “But, as my sister said Zack, we would both prefer you refrain from doing such dangerous and stupid things again.”
Zack sighed, shrugged, and nodded in reply, aware he and the white alicorn were now the centre of pretty much everypony else’s attention.
“I understand, but like I said earlier, it was an idea neither of you probably would have liked in the first place, but it was the best chance we had… so, yeah, that’s kinda why I didn’t exactly explain everything beforehan… uh, hoof.”
Celestia nodded calmly, the faint fire of anger in her eyes now dying away. “I know it was, and all I ask is that you heed our words, Zack… you know we care about the wellbeing of our subjects above all else,” she said softly, a smile slowly beginning to grow across her alabaster muzzle. “But enough of that, Canterlot is safe once again it seems….”
“Yeah, only for now though,” Zack spat, his right still holding his sword grip. “Discord’s still out there, Princess, and I really don’t think it’s a coincidence he gets out the same day Chrysalis launches a second attack.”
“You think they’re working together?” Spitfire asked in utter confusion, looking between her princess and coltfriend curiously.
The SOLDIER sighed. “Well, if Discord breaking out on the same day Chrysalis sends a changeling army to Canterlot is anything to go on, I’d say so.”
Spitfire snorted. “But that doesn’t make any sense,” she groaned, rubbing her forehead with one of her hooves. “Chrysalis would never have even met Discord, let alone struck a deal with him… I mean, the only time he’s escaped in the last… millennia or two… he was only out for a day before being trapped in stone again, right Twilight?”
“Less than a full day actually,” the lavender mare shrugged from where she was standing beside her friends, her lips curling into a small scowl. “And most of that time he was either taunting, humiliating, and manipulating us, or wreaking havoc in Ponyville, so I can’t see how Chrysalis… unless…” she trailed off.
Spitfire nodded and beckoned. “Unless…?”
Her purple eyes suddenly darted sideways, and came to a sudden stop on the face of her adjacent older brother, those of Spitfire, her close friends, a still steel faced Zack, the two Princesses, and everypony else present quickly following suit.
“Shining… did you mention anything about Discord when Chrysalis was… pretending to be Cadence?”
A mere instant after the lavender mare spoke, the SOLDIER noticed that her brother’s eyes shot open like something sharp had been prodded into his flank, and a moment later his jaw clenched shut like a steel vice on a piece of worked metal.
“Well?” she pestered.
“I… before the wedding, I remember walking her through gardens a few times, including past Discord’s statue every so often, Cadence and I used to do it so she could unwind from her duties…” he snorted with a vigorous shake of his head. “Ugh, it’s been over a year. How the hay is that still coming back to haunt me?”
“Simple, Chrysalis is one to hold a grudge,” Soarin replied bluntly with a shrug of his shoulders, prompting a face palm from Zack, and a glare in his direction from both Spitfire and Stormwing. “I mean, you and Cadence gave her a fair flank kicking that d…”
“PRINCESS CELESTIA! PRINCESS LUNA! COME QUICKLY!”
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Notes:
I’m back! Anyway, this chapter, as you can guess, was delayed due to my exams (plus a rather annoying power outage)