//------------------------------// // Death or Glory // Story: Equestria's chain of conflicts // by Dranz_89 //------------------------------// After walking through the dark and creepy caves, Rarity found her way out to the surface where the blue dragon was waiting for her. The dragon stood still, his eyes closed and breathing very deeply. The unicorn thought it was her chance to sneak past him, walking slowly, as quietly as she could. "Do not even bother, Rarity" The dragon said without even moving, "I am totally aware of my surroundings." "H-How do you know my name?" "Lady Fluttershy told us about you" the dragon opened her eyes, and approached the unicorn without even turning his face toward her, "the beautiful and classy unicorn with shiny eyes, self centered, yet generous and sensitive." "Self centered?! What a nerve!" gasper Rarity, "is that what she thinks of me?! I am the most sharing and magnificent fashion designer all over Equestria!" "It is time, Rarity" the dragon wasted no more time, as he began to fly to gain advantage over his opponent, "my name is Lednik, the Dragon Lord of Ice, one of the six Ancient Dragons." The dragon quickly threw a wave of blizzard from his mouth each time he charged at the pony, like a normal dragon would throw fire, and the unicorn was constantly caught in the blizzard and was thrown away by the dragons attacks. Rarity had no powerful spells to defend herself nor she had the physical strength to fight the dragon. Blizzards and Ice balls, made her hit the ground once and again until she found a diamond buried right in front of her. As the dragon approached she used her jewel detector spell, the whole field was covered by buried jewels. Now Rarity had a weapon to defend herself, using her telekinesis, she shot the diamonds at the dragons. "Take that!" Rarity's confidence grew up as she kept shooting diamonds and jewels at Lednik, "diamonds are truly a mare's best friend." The dragon covered himself with an ice shield he created, but it was useless, the jewels were harder than the ice, and Rarity's attack broke through the shield. Lednik, then, used his ice breath, freezing the diamonds and shooting them back at Rarity, who barely dodged with a backflip. Rarity prepared herself to shoot more diamonds but Ledinik attacked with an clear blue colored beam that hit Rarity, her hooves were frozen solid, stuck on the ground. "W-What?" Rarity tried her best to free herself as the ice began to slowly spread up to her legs, but her efforts were all in vain, she was almost totally frozen. "No way... Is this it? But I had so many things I wanted to..." "That is the Ice Curse. It cannot be broken. Once any creature gets this curse, it means it is all over" the dragon said as he landed facing away from her. "You can still see, and you can still hear, but it will not be for much longer, your life will freeze slowly. Soon, you will fall asleep, and there will be no awakening. I am very sorry, Rarity. The least I can do to apologize is give you a proper end for you to stay beautiful until the end of time." Lednik prepared his wings to fly away, but before he could even lift the flight, a desperate and raging shout caught his attention. Noooooo!, the source of the voice came from behind the frozen unicorn, a young, purple and green dragon gazing upon a frozen Rarity. "Identify yourself, creature" commanded Lednik, turning around, to face the young dragon, but somehow, he refused to place his sight on his new opponent. "You! How dare you?" The young dragon cleaned some tears from his eyes as he left behind the unicorn, he threatened the blue dragon with his sharp claws, "I will avenge you, Rarity. No... I'll save you!" "It is too late for her" the ice dragon calmly stated, "Rarity is halfway there. There is no way to break the curse, not even the alicorn princess could do it. Not even myself can break this curse." "Shut up!" as the young dragon's wrath increased, his body began to be covered by green flames, he strikes first, charging at Ledniks with an unstoppable will, trying to scratch his enemy's face with his claws, "I'll always fight for her! No matter what!" "S-Spike... Is it really you...?" Rarity witnessed Spike's sudden appearance, but her words were trapped in her mind, watching Spike fighting with Lednik, but unable to act. The small dragon fought fiercely, throwing his flames and attacking with his whole body, jumping skillfully around the dragon dodging the ice balls coming at him from above, and the large dragon was struggling to keep his defense up, the little Spike was too quick for him, and his attacks were coming randomly from all directions. "What is going on?" the blue dragon was confused upon receiving such a beating, he blew ice from his mouth aimlessly, hoping to hit his target, "this fighting spirit... It is impossible." As Lednik blocked Spike's last attack, he throw his blizzard up to the sky. Spike stopped his attack due to confussion, as the field became a huge ice field. Lednik closed his eyes and and stood still, deeply breathing, like meditating. The surroundings turned cold. "There is nothing you can do, creature. Now I can defeat you without moving a single muscle." "Oh, yeah? We´re about to see that" Spike striked with all his might, trying to catch Lednik with his guard off, but before he could land a punch, the ice on the field raised to hit him. "Ice is my enviroment, I have total control on the field now" stated Lednik, as Spike tried to stand up, but the ice raised over and over again, without giving the young dragon a chance to defend himself. "Spike... stop it... please..." The unicorn, struggling to move, could only see his friend falling constantly, until Lednik finally decided to stop. "It is enough" the ice dragon turned his back at Spike and said, "you have not a single possibility to defeat me. I will let you live, but you should learn this, young creature, battles are won with courage, not with anger." But before Lednik could fly away, Spike was getting up again, his whole body was weak and shaking, but he could barely stand on his feet. "No way..." Spike said, struggling to keep his balance and walking toward Lednik. "It's not over yet. I can still fight!" "Why do you keep fighting a lost fight? Why do you fight with so much rage?" "Because of Rarity. You hurt her, and that makes it personal! I'll fight for her, until the very end!" "I have no intention to kill you, but you will keep fighting for Rarity. Even if you could waste your life doing so?" "For me... Living in a world without her, is living in no world at all." "I respect that, mysterious creature. You shall end just like her, to honor your passion for her" said Lednik, then, he prepared himself to launch his ice curse once more, but suddenly, Rarity's magic bursted out of her horn, surrounding her in a magic sphere, casting powerful spells at Lednik. "What?" The ice dragon was caught by a countless light beams. "Impossible! No creature could break my ice curse before!" Lednik used his ice field to counter atack, but the ice couldn't pass through Rarity's magic sphere. The unicorn was making an uncontrollable storm of spells aimlessly, Lednik was knocked out by Rarity's spells and the ice field melted almost inmediately, but she didn't stop, she was out of control, overpowered by her own magic, only a far away voice could reach her ears, getting closer by each second, until it was close enough to her to hear it clearly. "Rarity!" The young dragon passed through the burning sphere, and touched her shoulder. "Rarity, wake up!" The unicorn, then, recovered her conscience, the magic sphere around her faded. "Uhhh... What happened?" Rarity wondered, very confused, while shaking her head, and upon noticing Spike's condition, she gasped. "oh, Spikey! You're hurt." "Oh, it's nothing" Spike scratched the back of his back, "here I was trying to save you, but you were the one who saved me." "Oh, Spikey..." Rarity showed a concerning face, "but it was so noble of you, my brave knight fighting for me. But then you started losing, and I couldn't stand to see how that bully was beating you. And you were willing to lose your life... for me. If you wouldn't have appeared, I would have given up sooner. You saved me." "Yeah, well..." Spike blushed and avoided Rarity's eyesight. "Now that I mention it, I saw you fall from the Sky Wanderer, how is it that you're ok?" "Well, I found myself among an army of dragons, and I was taken away, but then Fluttershy said I was one of them. Oh, I totally forgot! We gotta find Fluttershy quickly, you wouldn't believe it, but she..." "She is behind all this, I know. I still can't believe it..." Rarity interrupted, "Rainbow Dash must be fighting her right now. I'm worried." "Rainbow Dash?! versus Fluttershy?! B-but how?!" "We had to save the princess, and Fluttershy wanted to stop us, so Rainbow Dash stayed to face Flutershy and... let's just hope it doesn't end in tragedy. If we save the princess, she'll bring order and they'll stop fighting. We must be on our way. So, can you walk, Spike? "Of course I can!" Spike walked ahead with a tough attitude and ignoring his wounds to impress Rarity, "that was nothing. In fact, I was just getting started." Suddenly, Spike stopped walking and fell face down to the ground unconscious. Rarity gasped and rushed to inspect Spike, after a loud snore, Rarity sighed in relief, she carried Spike on her back, and walked forward to reach the princess. "Spikey wickey... you were just getting started, but he was about to finish you..." Meanwhile, on the top of the crag, Guardian Sword and Twilight Sparkle finally found Skyclaw, who was waiting with the princess imprisoned beside him. Right afrer the ponies landed right in front of the dragon, they were greeted by Skyclaw. "Only two of you? what happened to your precious friends, unicorn?" "Don't you dare talk to the general's sister like that!" Guardian Sword respond right before Twilight say anything, "I am the one you will be facing." "What? No way you're doing this alone!" stated Twilight, not very happy with Guardian Sword. "Miss Twilight, I can't allow that" Guardian Sword's sincere eyes stopped Twilight's reaction, as he continued his chivalrous speech, "my mission is to protect you. I am loyal to my duty, please allow me the honor to accomplish my mission." Guardian Sword, bravely flew toward Skyclaw, but he was easily deflected by the dragon's tail, however he recovered quickly and repeated his attack, Skyclaw used his tail again, but Guardian Sword avoided it, and used his hooves to hit the dragon in the face. The dragon used his fire, but Guardian Sword was too fast, and using his wings as razors, he slashed the dragon over and over, until Skyclaw began to fly himself. Guardian Sword chased him, and the battle kept going on air. Meanwhile, Twilight rushed to Princess Celestia. "Your Highness! Hang on, I'll get you out of there!" Twilight used all releasing spells she knew, but they were all useless. "It's no use, Twilight. This isn't a prison spell. It is some kind of barrier, that can't be broken from either side." "Then just as Skyclaw said, he must be defeated. I'll be right back." Twilight used her magic wings and flew toward the battle. Guardian Sword was using his speed to fight the dragon, but Skyclaw had more tricks up his sleeve, using his magic, a flash blinded the pegasus, leaving him vulnerable, Skyclaw threw his fire again, but before the pegasus was wrapped in the dragon's flames again, Twilight teleported beside him and used a barrier spell. "You see?" said Twilight, "you need to be protected too." "I'm sorry, Miss Twilight. I have dishonored myself." "No, you haven't. I'm still alive, right? We can protect each other, and certainly, we can defeat Skyclaw together." Twilight teleported behind Skyclaw and shot magic beams at him, as Guardian Sword's razor wings slashed him, constantly. Skyclaw's magic summoned a thunder storm. And the ponies moved quickly in circles to dodge the thunders, until the dragon hit them both with his tail. "This was only a warm up. Prepare to feel my full power!" Skyclaw began to glow, as the storm raged stronger, the winds created a hurricane around the ponies and the dragon. "Behold! The skies bow to my power! Do you really think you can save your princess now?" The ponies did all they could to keep up, but the dragon's power was too much for them. Guardian Sword protected Twilight with his body, as he avoided the thunders and Skyclaws flames, but Twilight used another barrier spell, which was slowly breaking. Without thinking twice, Guardian Sword pushed Twilight far from the hurricane, and he charged at the dragon hit him in the chest, then, the pegasus began descend to the ground, speeding up and taking the dragon with him. The dragon covered his body with flames, but the pegasus ignored it and kept going downward. "No! Guardian Sword, stop!" Twilight was deliberately ignored by the pegasus. "What are you doing? If you do this, you may die, too!" The dragon desperately tried to reason. "You're hurting her. My mission is to keep her safe with my life. She is one of the Elements of Harmony, she holds the power to keep peace in Equestria, her mission is far more important than me, my life is a low price to pay in order to accomplish that mission." Upon hitting the ground, a big burst covered the dragon and the pegasus, Twilight landed as soon as she could, and she found both Guardian Sword and Skyclaw laying on the ground, she approached Guardian Sword very quickly. "Oh no... are you ok? Please, talk to me!" Twilight saw that the pegasus' wounds were serious. "I'm sorry... I have failed... I won't be able to protect you..." Guardian Sword could barely whisper. "What do you mean? You defeated him!" Twilight, then, noticed that the hurricane was still going on, and the princess was still imprisoned in the crystal. "No way... How can this be?" "Miss Twilight, you were wrong... We can't defeat him together... but you can do it yourself... I know you don't want to hurt Skyclaw, even if he is the enemy... I could see you didn't use your battle spells... but if you want to save the princess, you must be willing to take Skyclaw's life." "N-no... I can't... There must be another way... " "This is war, Miss Twilight... We are pawns in a chess match between life and death... the battle is ruthless... so you must take your enemies' lives so they can't take yours..." "No... I'm sure that if I beat him hard enough, I could release the princess, and she... she will fix everything." "You will understand, Miss Twilight... and just like everypony's first time in war... you will understand the hard way." Guardian Sword fainted, and Twilight was left alone in the battle. The dragon was already awakening, he had hurt the right wing, his rage was now aimed at Twilight. "You do not understand what is like to see your how brothers starve, and not being able to help them!" roared the dragon , and his glowing eyes were filled with hate. "You do not understand what is like to fly around looking for a few jewels to eat, and find nothing, because you ponies use them to decorate your cities and dresses. Always being treated like monsters with no feelings! It has been so long since I soared freely through the sky, I even forgot how it felt like! You are the only obstacle between me and the liberation of the dragon kin! This doesn't end until one of us can not go any longer!" "It doesn't have to end like this, I know we can work this out another way!" Twilight tried to reason. "Fluttershy tried to work this out another way. But your princess was too arrogant, there was no place for such dangerous creatures in Equestria, those were her exact words." "Princess Celestia said that?" Twilight turned her sight to her princess, and the princes could only stared at the ground in regret, "please. It's never too late." "It is too late. You were separated from your friends. It was also Fluttershy's idea, she knows that your power comes from your friends, and by yourself, you are nothing. Your friends probably were already eliminated by my partners. Do you still believe there is another way?" "What?! No... My friends... Fluttershy... how could you? They were her friends too..." "I also have friends that have died by following me. We must end this, here and now, Twilight! We both owe it to our fallen friends."