Dragons
“Look alive!” Stu shouted before pulling his crossbow out of his saddlebag with his teeth and affixing it between his two forelimbs.
Meanwhile, Swirls was shouting, “Your Highness! Watch out—!”
“Haaaugh!” But Sam Rose was already charging the three monstrosities.
The trio of dragons held their ground and jerked their heads forward. Three beams of flame layered the charging path of the armored equine.
Sam merely ducked, slid under them, and dashed forward. He skidded to a stop by the first dragon and shook his hindquarters. The sheathes of his armor flew open, and he grabbed the hilt of the largest blade from his left. Swirling, he raised it in a combined grip of his teeth and forelimbs to block a talon swipe of the closest dragon. Parrying, he lurched to the side and sabbed forward. A spurt of hot blood flew from the drake in front of him. As the beast stumbled back, its two companions lunged forward at the snarling earth pony.
“He's... H-he's insane!” Rainbow Dash cackled.
“No, he's angry!” Ember Speak said, loading up her crossbow. “There's a difference!” She took aim and shouted towards the other two. “Cover fire!”
Three bolts flew through the air, whistling and sailed into the flesh beneath one unlucky dragon's left wing. The creature shrieked and stumbled towards the rubble.
Sam Rose caught wind of this. Holding his blade in his teeth, he vaulted over the other dragon's neck, slid down his tail, somersaulted forward, and skewered the stumbling wyrm's throat with the full length of the blade.
The first dragon had recovered, and was witnessing its sibling's demise. It charged viciously at Sam.
The princely warrior, felt the attacker's approach through the trembling rubble. He jerked back, yanked the blade through the air, and spun one hundred and eighty-degrees. The scalding hot blood from the slain dragon flew into the eyes of its vengeful companion.
Hissing, the dragon skidded to a stop and thrashed around blindly. Furious, it took a huge breath, sucking the warmth from the air.
“Everypony scatter!” Stu shouted, canceling the reload of his weapon. “Fire incoming—”
As prophesied, the blinded dragon exhaled. A wave of billowing plasma rolled across the Siladelian ruins, turning sand and dust to glass. Stu threw himself out of the way. Swirls and Ember Speak dove into a crevice together. And Rainbow Dash...
Rainbow Dash did what came natural to her. She flew straight up, soaring above the blast. Sweating form the intense heat, she looked down to see Sam running up the tail of the blind dragon, mounting its head, and stabbing down at its skull repeated times with soul-trembling shouts. Unbeknownst to him, the last dragon was stalking up from behind, its teeth glistening as it prepared to lunge at its succulent target.
“Hey! Behind you!” Rainbow Dash shouted. Sam was too engulfed in the passionate slaughter to see his doom beyond the nearby flame and soot. Rainbow gnashed her teeth, pressed two hooves to her ruby pendant, and flew down like a missile. “Haaaaaaaugh!” Her eyes narrowed and a white sphere of light flashed around her figure right before impact.
The force with which Whitemane's shield slammed the attacking drake was enough to create a concussive blast of turbulent energy. Vaporous air expanded outward from all directions. Rainbow Dash managed to save Sam, but she also knocked the two of them hard into the concrete rubble below.
“Unngh!” Rainbow Dash landed hard and rolled a few feet.
“Ooof!” Sam collapsed, three of his swords spilling out of his armor and clattering to a stop around him. Wincing, he looked up and saw the last dragon reeling. With a strained breath, he gripped one sword in his mouth and slapped his hoof over another. The second sword flipped up in the air—at least until Sam spun, bucked its aiborne hilt with his hoof, and sent it—along with the blade in his mouth—flinging towards the shocked target. “Yaaaaugh!”
Both blades lodged into the creature's chest. Shrieking, the monster fell down like a scaly sack of meat. It's gaping jaws vomited up blood and bile.
“Mmmf...” Rainbow Dash winced and sat up, her body still fluctuating with platinum energy. “Why does every problem I solve in life involve slamming my head against th-things?”
“You!” Sam exclaimed as he gaped at her, struggling to catch his breath. “You interrupted my fight!”
“You're welcome.”
“What kind of sorcery is this?” He squinted at the translucent shield. “You possess magic, pegasus?”
“Hey. It's all in the mane, remember?” She dryly smirked, her lungs heaving. “Give Ember Speak a gold star already.”
Just then, a steady stream of roaring noises echoed over the horizon. Rainbow and Sam spun to see a solid line of six... eight... twelve dragons incoming.
“More of the Matriarch's children!” Sam ran towards the last slain dragon and yanked his blades out. “Nnnngh! Too much for all of us to handle! I shall hold them off!”
“What?!” Rainbow Dash's eyes twitched. She frowned. “Dude. That's suicide!”
“I will merely distract them while you find the others and rush to the entrance to Sanctuary!”
“But I got this shield thingy for three more minutes—two at least!” She exclaimed, pointing at her pendant. “I can totally use it to distract the dragons!”
“No!” Sam shouted, already galloping towards the incoming flock. He glanced over his shoulder and shouted, “Use it to get my subjects to safety! I value their lives above all else!”
Rainbow Dash bit her teeth, watching as the dragons descended upon the brave warrior. He miraculously warded them off with a flurry of blades before galloping into a cluster of rock croppings. The drakes pursued viciously, breathing fire unto the sundered gray mess below as they attempted to flush them out of hiding.
All of the dragons were successfully distracted, all except for two. They broke off from the chase and made thunderously for Rainbow Dash's location.
Hissing through her teeth, Rainbow Dash spun around and dove low towards the rubble. She could hear the massive flapping of scaled wings. The air grew hooter a she threaded her way into the porous stone below and found three ponies running towards her with their crossbows reloaded.
“Where's his Highness?!” Swirls exclaimed.
“He's giving a bunch of dragons the run for the money! But there are two coming this way! Sam's asked me to help you guys get to Sanctuary!”
“Then we'll meet up with him there!” Stu said, nodding.
Rainbow Dash gave him a shocked look. “How can you be so sure?! Has he dones this stuff before?”
“Knowing our prince, it only means more dragon heads to count by evening time,” Ember Speak said. “Now let's hurry!”
“Do you know the way?!” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Yes!” Swirls exclaimed, nodding fervently as she pointed ahead. “Directly forward, just through those last few barriers—”
Rainbow Dash soared forward in a prismatic blur, smashing straight through the walls and forming a massive tunnel with her shield.
“Whoah!” Stu exclaimed.
“What?!” Swirls stammered.
“Yes!” Ember Speak grinned as she galloped on through. “I knew she was magical!”
“No time to explain!” Rainbow Dash said, sailing aside Ember as her shield shimmered. “Let's just get to your place and—”
A dragon's head burst through the gray ceiling above. It pivoted about and roared directly in front of them.
Ember Speak gasped, slipped, and glided forward into the monster's jaws.
Swirls squatted, aimed, and fired her crossbow.
A metal bolt flew into the drake's throat before Ember could. The creature twitched, gurgled blood, and lifted back up out of the ruins.
Swirls trotted over and helped Ember up. “That was a close one—” A second dragon's hand burrowed through the debris above and gripped her waist with claws the sides of machetes. Swirls shrieked, bleeding instantly from several places at once.
“Oh Goddess...” Rainbow Dash gasped, her eyes wide.
“Aaaah-haaaugh!” Swirls yelped in agony.
“No!” Stu snarled. Eyes enflamed with fury, he ripped his quiver open, grabbed all the darts at once in his teeth, and flew forward. He shoved the whole cluster of the barbs into the joint of the creature's huge, scaly wrist.
A loud, painful roar emanated from above. The dragon tried retracting its arm, but its elbow got stuck in the rubble above. Swirls sobbed in pain as she was thrashed about in the monster's tortured grip.
By this point, Rainbow Dash was gripping the claws of the beast. Whitemane's shield was about to give way. Everypony saw the platinum glow flickering to death right as she finally pried the scaled fingers apart. “Ember—”
“I got her!” Ember Speak rushed forward, clutching Swirls' convulsing body. “It's okay, girl! Just hold onto me!”
“Nnngh... St-Stu...!” Swirls moaned.
“Carry her out of here!” Stu shouted and shoved the three forward as the dragon's bleeding hand finally retracted through the hole above. “Sam will be waiting for us and—” The hole widened as a dragon's maw shoved down, opened wide, and clamped down over Stu's rear legs. “Aaaauckt!”
Ember howled, “Stu!”
Rainbow Dash bolted forward without thinking. She slammed her elbow into the dragon's skull, but instantly yelped from the scalding touch. Her shield was gone and she was vulnerable.
Bleeding and convulsing, Stu was yanked up out of the hole.
“No! Stu!” Swirls managed to gurgle.
“Hnnngh!” Rainbow Dash lept up, reaching with her hooves.
His face twisted in pain, Stu caught her forelimbs, fighting desperately for a grip. He was yanked again and again towards the world above.
“Just hold on! I got you!” Rainbow Dash wheezed, her every muscle quivering. “I got—”
The dragon's nostrils flared, and a jet of burning flame surged down. Rainbow Dash was singed across the neck and shoulder. The sheer pain was enough to knock her off balance, and she fell down, her hooves slipping from the stallion.
Stu was lifted—alive and screaming—into the smoggy heat above.
“Stu!” Swirls was sobbing as much as she was bleeding. She buckled over in hysterics, fighting to wrangle her way out of Ember's grip. “Stu! Oh please, goddesses, no! St-Stu!”
“Rainbow Dash!” Ember Speark was shouting in spite of her tears. She was hoisting Swirls backwards towards a deeper pocket of the ruins. “Please, Rainbow! Help me! I-I can't do this alone!”
Rainbow was lying on a stone slab, wincing from her reddened coat. Her eyes were locked onto the hole above, until Ember's pleas and Swirls' wails finally snapped her out of it. With a slightly dizzy twitch to her eyes, she snarled, gnashed her teeth, and flew after the two mares, hoisting them up off their hooves and carrying them towards their goal.
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1359790
Haha, right. I forgot that dash's infiltration resulted in a chase scene
Choice Objective Complete: The Few for the Many (Go after Stu or leave him behind)
STU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Goddamn fuckin' dargons.
You know, Dash should totally be the Dragonborn. Come on, stranger visits a war-torn nation beset by dragons? Perfect.
Challenge Completed: Hard Hat
Screw concussions- use the power of your skull to your advantage!
Ram something with your head: 1/1
+500 XP, +5 stubbornness
Damn man. Damn.
No comment
Aww hell can't resist
This chapter was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If Swirls survives her wounds, she's going to wreck some dragon's sh
.
I do like how well action and exposition are mixed in this story. Plot explanation never goes too long without some action to spice it up (a trick I've yet to master). After a thrilling arc climax, we get a few chapters of RD's introspection before getting back into another arc. It's just so well done. The disciplined pacing works very well with the short-chapter format. I should probably take a page from IC's book on that.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO~~~!!!!!!!!
Dammit! Fare thee well, Stu, wielder of crossbows and noble stallion of the Silvadelean Kingdom. May your suffering end quickly and your journey to the afterlife be peaceful.
That settles it. Sam is definitely the Dragonborn.
Oh my. That did not end well. Not at all.
1360269
Not for Stu, at least. Sam isn't back yet. There is yet hope!
1360269
1360366
Depends on how much inventory is left in the Deus ex Machina store.
Oh wow, I wasn't expecting casualties, at least not this early. Poor Stu. I feel like somehow Sam is gonna blame his death on Dash, but we'll have to see. Maybe they'll find him later and be able to save him? *hopeful optimism* Ugh, I'm so used to plowing through like ten chapters at a time. Till tomorrow, then!
1360106 If you ask me, with a story this good, gushing is more than deserved!
Title Obtained: "The Magical"
-Minty
But I don't wanna use my HEEEEAAAAD!
AAAAAAAAAUGH *crash*
STALLION DOWN! WE GOT A STALLION DOWN!
Holy grilled cheese sandwiches, Batman! That was amazing!!!
Despite the fact that Stu's grumpy attitude annoyed me a bit, I feel kinda sad that he is gone. Although, who knows, maybe we will see him later
Swirls ain't gonna be happy either, and I see a fair bit of blame coming RD's way
.
1361184
Hehehe, I just got that
1360466
Yeah, I'm thinking they're fresh out at this point. I guess RD's good record with royalty is about to get a big stain on it
1361953
I'm trying to work royalty as a theme into my crazy internal analysis regarding this journey and its parallels with the elements. Does seem more than peculiar that Dash happens to run into the leader or royal of every place she visits, hm? Then again, that could just be following the trope set in all RPGs where the hero is always mucking about with heads of state because it would be uninteresting otherwise.
1362244
So far, Rainbow Dash has always been referred to the higher echelons by those who consider her to be magical or royal herself. If you look back, she never seeks out authority for herself. It's always somepony else saying "She has wings! We must tell the mayor/Queen/etc!" and then she is whisked off to the seat of power. Perhaps a bit contrived, but you must admit, it's kept the story going fantastically. Though the latest close encounter of the royal kind bucks this trend, the fact that Sam is a warrior helps keep disbelief suspended. He leads from the front, and that's where weird things like
fall out of the sky (pun very much intended). While it is definitely an RPG trope that the main character spends a strangely large amount of time with figures of political importance, there is at least a believable reason for all of Dash's visits so far.
1361170
Didn't you already use that one?
1363268
Nope!
-Minty
1364553
Okey dokey lokey!
1359764 Because we can.
-THEpandaman007
Oh my goooooooooooooooooooooood you are such a great writer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ok, I lied. I'm gonna finish this tomorrow.
Goodnight.
IIIIIt's Dashie's Ultimate Marathon Evaluation Time!!!!!
Wow...that was...an incredibly morbid chapter. It described the death and fight scenes perfectly. It used graphic and detailed imagery and almost made me want to throw up. I loved every second of it. Also, I do hope we'll get to see Luna soon. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
P.S. Only one left...ugh...
P.S.S.1673437I really hope you decided to wait the extra day...
30 more chapters.
Hey, I'm the thirtieth commenter here.
2117240 I've done a bunch of edits to that story and I cut out a lot of the gore, the chapter with Gilda especially. She doesn't even cut her open and I add character development to that chapter, something I was kinda missing before.
NO STU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
>Sweating form the intense heat
Do you mean "from"?
>It's gaping jaws vomited
I think you mean "Its"
>The air grew hooter a she threaded her way
lel hooter
One loss for the day...
No! Stu is gone!
BUt he may not be dead... 
Stu!
Mmmmmm stew...
I mean, oh no not Stu!
“What kind of sorcery is this?”
memestorage.com/_nw/52/23082190.jpg
That's one heck of a random magical phenomenon there...
Deaths: 1.
Impressive.
2371928 Wow, I didn't expect you here, don't you have a chapter of The Prince to publish?
Always late to the party
/edit
Nah, don't update The Prince, update The Life
Well... with a story this big and full of this much crazy stuff, I guess it was bound to happen. The first death has come upon us, nearly 3 all at once. It could have been one of the other two, but I'm really glad it wasn't. Now... blame and repercussions and stuff shall be flung like shit from a monkey.
~SolidFire
6719703 I would have said it was they went attack of titan on us.
.
Here is a new character, their a fighter, their prity good at it, they fight giant enemy creatures, did we mention he's prity good at it? He's even got a little romance going. Now guess whats going to happen to him in the next 10 mins
Ehhh, here start the feels...
This is starting to get a bit grim, even for this story.
No! Please don't kill Stu and Swirl!
EH, I like ember more anyways
I honestly thought she'd chase Stu down anyways. I guess dragons are a bit different than spider-bats, huh?
Fascinating. I'm assuming that the crucifixions aren't being done by the ponies so they are being done by the dragons, and they're being taken from the ponies that come up. So now the question is why?