Building Walls, Burning Bridges

by MonolithiuM


[ARC II] Chapter 22- Chunks

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"I hate cliche." -Robert Plant

"What?" Applebloom managed to ask before Mono's shoe introduced itself to her muzzle. His pupils were gone, replaced with two white, wide ovals that emphasized just how unnatural his being really was.

"Run, bitch, run!" he screamed. An angered roar threw up the dust around the plateau, and the rays of the sun were blocked when the dragon unfurled its leathery wings. "Oh fuck fuck fuck fuckity fuck-fuck…"

Applebloom held her snout, her eyes squeezed shut. "Mono, what the heck?"

The human ignored her and watched the dragon look about for the bastard that had dared to wake it. Mono crouched down low, pulling the other two with him. Unfortunately, Applebloom had not fully recovered from the kick and face-planted into the dirt.

"Okay, you guys cause a distraction and I'll run to town to get help," he rattled off quickly. Scootaloo glared at him.

"No! You distract the dragon and we'll get help from Rainbow Dash and her friends." Mono deadpanned at her adamant refusal.

"You mean Twilight and company?" he restated for her. "Anyway, I can make it back to town in minutes, it'll take forever for you two to get there by yourselves."

Scootaloo narrowed her eyes. "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah," Mono said. The fire in Scootaloo's eyes erupted, and she swung Applebloom onto her hooves.

"Let's move, A.B.!" she shouted before taking off at breakneck speed down the hill and into the Everfree. Mono stared at the cloud of dust, speechless.

"They fuckin' left me here!" he bellowed in disbelief. A curious grunt let him know that he was now the distraction that Scootaloo had wanted him to be. A series of stomps further alluded to this, as well as the shadow that now loomed over him.

The draconic slits of the beast burned into Mono's pin-prick brown eyes.

"Why me?" he asked just as the dragon built a fire in its throat.

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Applebloom's head hurt. All she saw were swirls of black, green and orange.

Now was a good time to sleep.

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"Dammit!" I shouted while the dragon stomped about. Normally it'd be easy to run circles around this twenty-ton toothy tool, but with his stomping came shaking. And shaking meant that I lost my footing if I ran too fast.

So my ability was hindered and I was scared shitless; not the worst situation I've ever been in. I could make out Sweetie Belle at the mouth of the cave, watching the chase unfold. I hoped she wasn't squeamish.

A sound of whooshing air was all the warning I got before a whip-like orange tail ripped the ground from under me, sending me hurtling through the air and into the wall of stone leading up the mountain. I sped down the side of the rock wall once I hit it and ground to a halt in front of the dragon.

"Missed me, shithead!" I shouted up at it. The dragon snorted and raised its claws again. "Don't hurt me!"

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Scootaloo was hauling some serious filly ass. Already she had cut the thirty-minute expanse they had previously trudged through by twenty minutes and was already racing for the exit with Applebloom's tail clenched in her teeth.

The orange and yellow ballistic missile tore through the woodland area just as Mono had screeched down Canterlot's streets, knocking anything unfortunate enough to be in their way aside.

A manticore landed in front of the duo, expecting an easy meal, only to be rejected back into the dense forest canopy at nauseating speeds. Scootaloo was probably the fastest thing on land.

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I was probably the fastest thing on two legs at the moment. Now that the dragon had begun using its tail to thrash at me, its body was stationary, allowing me to run around it unimpeded.

No more shaking meant a massive confidence boost for myself and in my cliché abilities. Dodging the barbed tail was easy enough with the speed granted by some existential force, and so I essentially played a game of jump-rope for several minutes.

The blood-orange dragon, however, grew tired of the game quickly. With a quick stomp, I was sent sprawling face-first into the stony ground. "Fuckin' A that hurt…" I thought while I stumbled about in a futile effort to stand.

I say it was futile because a quick tail swipe suddenly knocked my entire body into one of the few trees on the plateau. I fell down the trunk like one of those… fuck what are they called? Those sticky frog things that fell down a window when you threw them on. Screw it, I can't remember what they're called, but I think you get the concept: I looked stupid.

Hitting the ground with literal swirls in my eyes and drool hanging off the side of my lips was a fairly vulnerable position that the dragon used to prepare its second gout of fire.

Shaking my head and staring up at the swirling flames, I breathed a silent 'fuck me sideways' and prepared to move.

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"Fluttershy isn't home. Not a problem," Scootaloo's mind determined. If Fluttershy wasn't at home, and if she wasn't in the forest, then she was with her friends. And what better than a soft, buttery pansy than six fearless mares?

Scootaloo's speed had begun to mount, carrying herself and Applebloom several strides with just a few skips and a multitude of wing flaps. The orange pegasus’ wings moved in reminiscence of a hummingbird's own, buzzing at incalculable speeds.

This fluttering further perpetuated her forward thrust. Where most pegasi would use their wings to push off the air in strong, confident flaps, Scootaloo's rapid flitting allowed for a near constant rate of propulsion.

This, coupled with her already athletic abilities, had her giving Mono a run for his money while she exploded into town. Down the road, sitting around a table at a cafe, was the Mane Six.

Scootaloo's hooves dug into the ground, but they weren't enough to stop her. In an act of brilliance and ingenuity, she spun Applebloom from behind her and used her as a brace, jamming her head into the ground.

Thankfully, Applebloom's thick skull brought Scootaloo to a halt in front of the Elements, allowing the pegasus filly to explain the situation to the six older mares.

Applebloom pulled her aching head out of the dirt like an ostrich who felt the alluring call of safety. In a daze, she stumbled right into Applejack's path, getting thrown up into the air and onto her sister's back.

"Yeehaw Applebloom! Let's roll!"

The only thing rolling for Applebloom was the sky as her eyes spun wildly.

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"Puff! The magic dragon!" I screamed at the top of my lungs in a desperate attempt to pull the monster into a blind rage. Well, not so much blind as all its attention would be on me. "This is a bad idea, isn't it?"

My flying through the air for the umpteenth time signaled my correctness. This time, however, I righted myself and ran down the side of the rocks, reengaging with my shenanigans again.

Anything that came to mind was working wonders on this colossus, it was as if human culture repulsed it especially. This tactic worked favorably for me against the massive bastard, and I was practically flying around it by this point, abandoning the ground in favor of rapid bursts of speed in mid-air. With this, I was able to relocate before I even touched the ground, simply using my momentum to keep me airborne.

"You hit like an amphibian!" This got an annoyed snort out of the dragon and a good thrashing. The tail ripped the ground beneath my feet to rubble, all while I danced around it carefully. After a few seconds, it stopped, letting me comment again.

"Your landscaping skills need work, fucknuts."

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With Twilight's newfound alicorn godliness, the trip's time was sliced, diced, crushed, puréed, spiced and served on a silver platter with a glass of wine on the side.

Bursting up the mountain as fast as they could, the Elements took a moment to watch the black blur that was Mono flit around like a fruit fly. The chibi moved with such speed that he seemed to be in more than one place at a single time.

He stopped momentarily to cup his hands around his mouth. "Marco!"

The dragon's shoulder twitched and its tail tore into the rock behind it, sending Mono scurrying away at blistering speeds. However Mono had managed it, he had severely pissed the dragon off. And however Mono was enjoying it, well… that was a bit of a mystery.

A rock sailed out from the cave and knocked the dragon in the eye, causing it to swivel its gigantic horned head around to stare at its assaulter. Sweetie Belle stood at the mouth of the cave, suddenly going wide-eyed while the dragon built a fire in its throat.

A black blur shot in front of Sweetie as the dragon prepared to release its gout of fiery destruction, and Mono quickly threw his arms around Sweetie Belle.

With a powerful breath, flames enveloped the entire mouth of the cave, covering everything in a deep black ash and red-orange tongues of fire.

"Sweetie Belle!" Rarity shouted over the roar of the blaze. It slowly died down, leaving a pitch-black layering over the entire area. "…No… Sweetie…"

The entire group stared on in shock at the situation. Their friend and fellow pony: burned to death. The first alien on Terran: burned to death. They nearly exploded into emotion before a cough shook them from their near-descent into sorrow and rage.

"Oh… ACH! Goddamn… ACH-ACH! You okay, Sweetie?"

"Putooy! Yeah, just some soot in my mouth…"

The dragon lowered its head to the ground to examine its should-be victims. Instead it found a chibi and pony dusting themselves off. Mono stared at the dragon and shrugged. "This is new for me too, ya know."

The silence very much nearly ended the situation until the dragon re-engaged the battle by tearing a boulder from the side of the mountain in a show of strength and irritation at this strange creature's meddling.

However, Fluttershy's shrill whistle broke even the awkward silence filling the space between the ponies and the dragon across the plateau. "Mister Dragon, put that boulder down!" Fluttershy yelled.

With a tremendous crash that shook the earth, a humongous chunk of stone nearly the size of Fluttershy's house embedded itself in the ground. The dragon cocked one scaly eyebrow to emphasize its confusion with the situation it found itself in.

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Fluttershy's wings brought her muzzle to gigantic fucking eye with the dragon, and she began to spout the whole list of bad things the dragon did while using The Stare.

The poor bastard started shaking it was so scared. Its eyes shrunk and its complexion turned green while Fluttershy continued to chew it out, completely oblivious to the state of the monster.

"Uh, Flutters?" said Rainbow Dash.

Faster than even I could react, the dragon clutched its stomach, bent over, and vomited all over me. A wave of yellow, green, and pink washed over my body, blanketing me in the digestive remains of whatever it had previously eaten.

The wet, sloppy mix slowly oozed over my form while I stood stock-still in disbelief and disgust. I didn't want to believe it, I really didn't, but moving one of my feet and hearing the sick sucking sound of the thick half-digested meat pulling on my shoe confirmed it.

And then I lost my mind.