//------------------------------// // Chapter 14 // Story: A New Dragon in the Crystal Empire // by Vedues //------------------------------// Spirit looked up when he heard someone enter the tent. He smiled when he saw that it was Autumn, and she was holding a cup of steaming brown liquid. “Hey.” “Hey.” Autumn walked to the desk he was using and held out the cup. “You look like you could use a cup of coffee.” There was an understatement. Spirit had probably never needed coffee as much as he did right then. First Cliff and Fluttershy came out of nowhere with news that the Crystal Empire had been conquered, then they added that the Alliance had an army in the area and planned to attack soon, then Celestia and Twilight disappeared to check out this safe house where Luna, Shining, Cadance, and Flurry might be, then Spirit had been put in charge of helping Heroic alert the army and get everyone up and ready to defend themselves. Oh, and the Alliance messenger who kicked off this whole mess was apparently his long-lost cousin or something. You know, in case things weren’t insane enough already. “Thanks.” Spirit accepted the cup and drained it in one go. He looked around the small tent that Heroic had turned into an impromptu command post. Two folding tables, one of which was serving as his desk, a bunch of maps, a few books on tactics, and that was about it. Heroic herself was out meeting with the other army leaders. “Is the Everfree Platoon up yet?” Grandma had insisted that at least one unit in the army be well rested for whatever happened at dawn. Spirit had gone along with it, mostly because Everfree’s troops had the unique advantage of being able to sleep in their armor. “Yes.” Autumn sighed and took a seat on the bench next to him. “Cliff was beginning to panic that Celestia hasn’t returned to take Fluttershy to safety yet.” “That makes two of us.” Spirit tried to take another drink of coffee before realizing that his cup was already empty. “Neither Celestia nor Twi has responded to any of my letters.” “I’m sure they are fine.” Autumn wrapped her right foreleg around Spirit’s shoulders, making a metallic shriek as her armor rubbed against his. “Of course they are. Why wouldn’t they be?” Spirit returned the hug as best he could. “I mean, it’s only going to be dawn soon, past when they said they’d be back, there’s an army of angry dragons out there, and the last thing I said to Twi was some stupid joke about her being part of an alicorns-only club.” “They are fine,” Autumn said calmly but firmly. “How do you know?” Spirit asked. Autumn smiled at him in the way that said he’d missed something obvious. “The sun is coming up.” “… Oh.” She tousled his head spikes affectionately. “You’ve done everything you can here. Come back with me to the Everfree Platoon.” Spirit hesitated. “What if Heroic needs me for something else?” “Grandma and Grandpa can pass along any messages from her once they get back.” Autumn reached under the bench and pulled up Spirit’s helmet. “I guess you’re right.” Spirit took the helmet and put it on before following Autumn out the tent’s door. As they walked, Spirit looked around to make sure that everything had been set up properly after the relocation. The army had packed up and moved a half-mile or so to the south. There were some low hills dotted by trees around here, which would give them a bit of protection against aerial attacks and help in case any dragons came at them on the ground. Natural cover was limited, though, so Heroic had ordered everyone to arrange their tents in a grid pattern and roll the walls up. In theory, the tents would trip up drakes on the ground while simultaneously hiding their soldiers from wyverns in the air. Companies of unicorn mages covered the inside of the army’s defensive circle, ready to support their pegasus allies in the air. Meanwhile, the earth pony companies had mostly clustered around the outer edge of the army. The earth ponies had bows, of course, including some giant variant of a crossbow, but even the most powerful bows could do very little against a drake. Hopefully they’d be more effective against wyverns. Above them all stood the pegasus companies, stationed on clouds all around the army’s airspace, but they were mostly focused around the outer edges. Spirit found his gaze drifting below the pegasi, toward the eastern horizon. The sun’s first rays were creeping into view. “Autumn, just in case anything happens-” He was cut off when Autumn brought her hoof up to block his mouth. “Please, don’t talk like you might die. Not now.” Spirit reluctantly nodded. Autumn pulled her hoof back and looked away. “I’m sorry.” “It’s alright.” The two lapsed into silence until they reached the Everfree Platoon. All hundred warriors, ten scouts, and ten medics had gathered beneath a cluster of tents. Cliff’s team stood at the edge of the cluster, near Spirit and Autumn. “Does anyone know if Fire Claws and Burning Torch are back?” Autumn called to the group. “Not yet,” Dash said, breaking away from the crowd. “Any sign of Celestia?” Autumn shook her head. “Everyone, please listen. We need a decision now about who will be fighting and who will not. The noncombatants will stay here with Spirit and me.” “We’ll sit out,” Cliff said immediately. “I can power up Rainbow from here.” “Cliff,” Autumn said gently. “Fluttershy wants to fight, and we aren’t in a position to refuse her help.” Fluttershy nodded weakly. “If I can save lives …” “Then have somepony cast Cloudwalking on you all and get up to the Sky Base once you’re linked,” Spirit said, gesturing at the gray structure above them. He met Autumn’s curious gaze and leaned close to her. “Dash and Cliff will move around a lot anyway, so we may as well put the rest of their team in our most well-defended location.” Autumn didn’t say anything, but her eyes sparkled warmly, a sure sign of approval. The rest of her coat was probably showing it too, except it was covered by her armor. “All combatants, link up.” Everfree had developed a sort of grapevine system to keep everyone linked in battle without any one group getting so big that it was overwhelming. Each team leader had one link with the rest of their team and one link with one of the battlefield commanders—Spirit, Autumn, Claws, and Torch—who maintained their own link. Of course, only Spirit and Autumn were available at the moment, so things were a bit different than when they’d practiced. It only took a minute or two to get everyone linked, have Blueblood cast Cloudwalking on Cliff’s team, and let Rainbow ferry the nonpegasi up to the Sky Base. One worry down, ten quadrillion to go. Spirit closed his eyes and embraced the Stillness. He and Autumn were technically in charge until his grandparents came back. If anything happened, he’d need to keep a clear head. Autumn controlled herself amazingly well, of course. Spirit could sense nervousness in her, but it was buried so far down that it wouldn’t affect her at all. “Remember, everyone,” she said loudly, “we’re the reinforcements. Keep an eye open for anywhere that needs our help.” One agonizing minute ticked by as the sun slowly climbed over the horizon, then another minute passed, then a third. Spirit was almost annoyed that the Dragon Alliance was taking so long, right up until a single white drake appeared to the east, flying toward them before coming down to land on top of a hill just beyond the army’s borders. Dozens of arrows flew toward the drake, but he simply batted one wing, and a wave of wind pushed them all off to the side. “Why?” The dragon’s voice washed over the army like a strong breeze. “No seriously, why are you all so determined to fight us? We’ll starve to death without the gem mines beneath the Crystal Empire, so we don’t have a choice about whether or not to fight. You do. So help me out here, what exactly are you offering to lay down your lives for? To save a city full of ponies that aren’t going to be harmed anyway? To rescue some nobles? If they’re already dead, then there’s no point. If not, then we’ll happily turn them over to you once they’re found. We can have a big, violent, dishonorable slaughterfest if you really insist, but I hope that most of you would rather avoid that. We all have families waiting for us back home. Do them a favor, please. Just pack up and leave.” No one spoke for a moment. No one even seemed to breathe. Then hundreds of new arrows shot from the Equestrian line. The white drake growled and batted them aside like before. “I’ll take that as a no. Attack, everydragon! Make them regret that choice!” Something rippled around him, like the air all around the hillside was rolling back to reveal- Spirit’s breath caught in his throat. -Hundreds and hundreds of dragons, most of them drakes, and all of them charging at the Equestrian line. -_-_-_-_-_- Up on the Sky Base, Cliff gripped Fluttershy’s hooves. Even through the metal, he could feel her shaking. He looked into her beautiful teal eyes, which were wide with fear, and did his best to smile confidently. “It will be okay. I’ll die before I let anything hurt you.” “I know,” she whispered back, blinking away the tears that had started to gather, “and I’ll … I’ll die before I let anything hurt you either.” They stood on some sort of balcony running all the way around the base, with doors spaced every few hundred feet. The balcony was a lot larger than Cliff had expected, over a hundred feet wide, and composed entirely of strangely solid-looking gray clouds. Thousands of armored pegasi covered the balcony, and most of them were already taking off toward the army of dragons. “I’ve never even heard of an illusion that large,” Eyes breathed. More screams of surprise and fear reached them, but this time they came from the west, opposite the drakes. Cliff turned and saw that a flying army had appeared. This one was larger, at least a thousand strong, and seemed to be made up of all three dragon types. The surprised pegasi in the area barely had time to realize what was happening before the dragons reached them. The first rays of sunlight illuminated the sheer ferocity of the attack, as dragon claws and teeth tore into Equestrian armor with disturbing ease, leaving dead or dying pegasi to fall to the hard earth below. For a moment, Cliff could only stare at the crimson blood trailing after the dozens of falling pegasi. It just didn’t seem possible that he was seeing ponies die right in front of him. It had to be fake, or a dream, or … something. More pegasi rushed into battle, slamming into drakes and wyverns alike with brutal ferocity, as the earth ponies and unicorns below launched volley after volley into the Alliance’s ranks. “Cliff, snap out of it!” Eyes sent through their link. “Spirit says to be on the lookout for other Alliance fighters.” No sooner had she sent the message than another group of dragons appeared in the air above and in front of them, only a few hundred feet away from the Sky Base, and closing fast. They were flying in a formation of some kind, with two drakes near each other, surrounded by a cluster of wyverns, and they all had the grim look of dragons that knew they were about to enter a kill-or-be-killed situation. “I hate my life,” Fire Eyes muttered. “Cliff and Rainbow, blitz them! Fluttershy, Blueblood, stay with me and defend the landing platform!” Cliff touched Rainbow Dash and transferred a surge of momentum into her. As their mutual friend shot away, Cliff spared a moment to look at Fluttershy. He could feel her fear coursing through their link, but when she turned to meet his gaze, it was replaced entirely by concern for his safety. “I love you,” he whispered before casting Speed Burst once more and jumping straight into the oncoming wall of scales and teeth. As Cliff flew, a sickle-like blade of green energy extended out from between the first and second knuckle of each hand, nearly matching the length of his arms. He also tapped the thumb and middle claw of his left hand together twice, causing the suit to deposit one of its stored diamonds in that palm. The explosive force of a Sonic Rainboom tore through the center of the dragon formation, killing dozens instantly with the shock-wave and knocking countless more away as they fought to regain control of their flight. Cliff took advantage of that confusion, going invisible and angling his flight toward a green drake near the front of the group. Of course, he wasn’t planning to attack the drake yet. If the Dragon Alliance had any brains at all, they would be using wyrms to power up their drakes, and this particular drake was carrying two of them. Just as he reached the closest of the two, Cliff transferred all of his momentum into the diamond in his left hand. He was suddenly holding perfectly still as the gem blasted right through the chest of the more distant wyrm, shattering his blue scales with the force of the impact. The closer wyrm gasped, probably feeling his ally’s death through their link. Cliff spun and slashed with the blade on his right hand, cutting off the unfortunate dragon's head. With both wyrms out of the way, Cliff hacked with his energy blades into the joint at the base of the drake’s wings. The sickle-like shape was designed to pierce even a drake’s thick scales, and it worked perfectly, letting Cliff sink both energy blades deep into the muscles and tendons beneath. Two of the closest wyverns tried to interfere but were struck by a thin beam of pink energy, one right after the other. The beams sliced through their wing membranes with almost surgical precision, leaving them to fall alongside the bodies of the two wyrms. “Thanks, Eyes.” Cliff released Ghost Claws and jumped away from the falling drake without waiting to see how the other dragons reacted to the ranged attack. “Rainbow, can you reach me?” “Yeah, get ready.” He braced himself and was suddenly yanked forward as the blue pegasus came up beneath him. “Green Spear,” Fire Eyes ordered. It was one of the techniques they had developed to let Rainbow take advantage of her insane speed and maneuverability. “Then get back here. They’ve reached the landing platform.” Cliff magically attached himself to Rainbow’s back, increased her enhancement spells to max power, and shot out two new energy blades, one from either of his shoulders. These new blades were each nearly ten feet long, enough to make flyby attacks on drakes, and curved backwards so that Rainbow wouldn’t have to worry about them getting snagged on anything. “Good to go.” Rainbow Dash’s reaction time was perhaps the most terrifying thing about her. Cliff had trouble matching it, even with magic enhancements. With those same enhancements pouring into her, Cliff didn’t even try to keep up. He just closed his eyes, cast Invisibility as often as possible, and focused on maintaining a spell called Momentum Bubble, which effectively negated g-force on the two of them. It still felt like he was trapped in a whirlwind, a sensation that was reinforced by the near constant pressure of his energy blades as Rainbow flew in such a way to make them slice into enemy dragons. “Boom and snipe,” Fire Eyes ordered after a few moments. Opening his eyes, Cliff found that they had made it to the back of the formation already. He pushed off of his friend, then changed his momentum so that he was sent flying in a giant arc over the dragons and back toward the Sky Base. He didn’t know how many enemies had fallen to their Green Spear technique, but it was considerable, based on the number of bodies either at or falling to the ground below. Beneath and behind him, another Sonic Rainboom tore through the enemy’s ranks. Cliff pulled two more gemstones out of his suit’s storage enchantments and sent each of them blasting away into wyrms near the base. He pulled out one more gem, an emerald, and angled himself down toward the rapidly approaching landing platform. Just as Fire Eyes had said, it was swarmed with dragons, mostly green or yellow wyverns. Many were already fighting with the pegasi there, and a large cluster had formed around Blueblood’s shield. Fluttershy and Fire Eyes were there with him, trading off as Fluttershy stunned groups of enemies and Fire Eyes blasted them. Once again, Cliff came to a sudden stop by draining all of his momentum into the gemstone and shooting it at a nearby dragon. It caught a red drake in the side of the head, but that only seemed to anger it. Cliff landed next to Blueblood’s shield and pulled out another gem, a ruby this time. “Enchant this to explode,” he asked Fire Eyes. Fire Eyes sent out a stunning pulse toward the wyverns around Cliff before complying. Unfortunately, the spell seemed to have no effect on the yellow wyverns with the bony plates on their forehead. “Thunder wyverns,” Fire Eyes sent it almost like a curse. “None of my electric spells work on them.” She reached out to Cliff through the link and cast a spell on the gem in his hand. Ducking under a barbed wyvern tail, Cliff threw the gemstone into the wounded drake’s mouth as it roared. It seemed confused for a moment, until the gem exploded, and the drake fell out of sight with a cry of pain. “Only wyverns have tried to land,” Fire Eyes explained, using her Telekinesis to knock one of the wyverns near Cliff into another one, “and even then it’s only the thunder and venom ones. I’m guessing that the other types can’t walk on clouds.” The wyvern that had just attacked Cliff froze, thanks to Fluttershy’s Stare. He sank an energy blade into its chest before taking out the two that Fire Eyes had knocked down. Another drake suddenly crashed down through the platform nearby, and Rainbow Dash landed right next to the hole it had just made. “You miss me?” she yelled over the sounds of battle. “Very much so,” Cliff yelled back, slicing through a wyvern’s tail and jumping out of the way of a burst of fire from a nearby drake. The fire couldn’t hurt him, of course, and his armor was immune when it was active, but he had no intention of letting the clouds beneath his feet evaporate. The clouds somehow remained firm. However, the venom wyvern that Cliff had just been fighting was caught in the fire. It screamed in pain as the flames consumed it. “Wait, wyverns are vulnerable to heat?” He didn’t have time to linger on that revelation, however. One of the other venom wyverns spat a cloud of poison into Cliff’s face before he could dodge it. His face and chest seemed to explode in pain as he was reduced to helpless coughing. “Cliff!” Fluttershy shouted through the link. “Blueblood, shield him!” Fire Eyes blasted the wyvern away with her Telekinesis. “Cliff, can you heal yourself?” “Y-yes.” Fighting through the pain, Cliff poured healing magic into his chest, followed by a spell to neutralize toxins, and another spell to heal his eyes and muzzle, both of which had begun to bleed. He resisted the urge to take a deep breath, however. A lot of gas was still in the shield with him. Off to the side, a thunder wyvern spat a bolt of electricity at Rainbow Dash, which her suit channeled harmlessly into the clouds beneath her. She poured pegasus magic into her wings and flapped, releasing a burst of wind strong enough to knock several wyverns away, then stomped on the clouds, releasing the stored electricity at the venom wyvern that had hit Cliff earlier. Finally, she flapped again and sent herself flying into one of the thunder wyverns that was scrambling back to its feet. Bones snapped easily beneath her metal clad hooves. “Get back to the main shield, you idiots!” Blueblood sent. No one bothered to acknowledge that. Cliff and Rainbow were close-range fighters. Retreating behind the shield would severely weaken the team’s ability to attack, and the ranged support from their teammates was doing a lot to keep them safe anyway. Another team of the Everfree Platoon, three wyrms, an earth pony, and a bat pony, shot up through a hole in the clouds, laying into the wyverns that were suddenly trapped between them and their allies. “Spirit says to tell you, ‘Here’s a late birthday present,’ ” Fire Eyes sent. -_-_-_-_-_- “Keep transporting teams up, everyone,” Spirit sent. Only five unicorns in the Everfree Platoon knew the Cloudwalking spell, and the most powerful of them, Blueblood was already up at the Sky Base. Thankfully, Cliff’s team and the pegasi companies had been able to keep most of the flying dragons occupied while he and Autumn got the rest of the Platoon ready to help. “Apparently, thunder wyverns are immune to electricity, and venom wyverns are vulnerable to heat,” Autumn relayed to the rest of the team leaders. “Other types might have similar weaknesses and immunities, so be careful and report back.” High above, wyverns, drakes, and wyrms began firing spells and breath weapons at the Equestrian soldiers below. Thanks to the Sky Base, returning fire was almost pointless. It was constructed with military-grade clouds, which were enchanted to absorb or deflect arrows or energy attacks. Not good. Spirit looked east to the army of drakes that was busy crushing its way through the earth pony companies. Then he looked west, to the flying army that had begun making strafing runs at the supply wagons. Finally, he looked up at the Sky Base. Alliance forces must have gotten inside, because they were opening up small holes in the base to let them fire at the ponies below. Twin pincer movements and control over the only high ground, accomplished after giving the enemy all night to prepare, and done with a force of only a few thousand dragons. Spirit almost wanted to applaud the Alliance, if they weren’t killing hundreds of ponies every minute. His eyes paused on that white drake, who was still sitting on that hill in the distance. Spirit’s gut told him that the drake was Silver Tail, one of the Alliance’s most powerful champions. Celestia wasn’t around for the duel he’d requested, so why hadn’t he joined in the battle? A flash of blinding light encompassed the hilltop for a moment, and then it was just gone. Two blurs of white circled in the air where the hill had once been, and one of them was firing beams of golden light at the other. “I think Celestia just got back,” Spirit said. Autumn let out a sigh of relief. “And I’m sensing Twilight and your grandparents approaching us.” All three arrived just seconds later. “Spirit, what’s going on?” Fire Claws asked, skidding to a halt next to him. “We need more fighters on the north side. Bring up three teams to the west where there aren’t a lot of enemies and push as one group!” He turned to his grandmother. “The Alliance’s plan seems to hinge on attacking from the cover of the Sky Base to keep the center of our army scattered and off balance. We need to retake it ASAP so our forces to the east and west can fall back and rally.” He pulled Twilight into a tight hug. “And where the hay have you been? I was scared spitless that the Alliance had ambushed you somehow.” “What?” Twilight pushed him back a bit. “I sent you a letter saying that we were okay.” “We never received a letter,” Autumn said, her eyes narrowed in concentration. “It seems only thunder wyverns, the yellow ones, are immune to electricity. Yellow, light green, and dark green, the main colors for this group, are all vulnerable to fire.” “We can worry about lost letters later,” Fire Claws said. “What’s going on up in the Sky Base?” Spirit nodded. “You’re right, we have more important things going on. For now, we’re bottlenecking the attacking dragons at the entrances to the base, but several hundred made it inside before we could get enough forces up there to stop them. There are pegasi companies inside that just returned from an all-night patrol. They’re getting slaughtered, and we don’t have the forces to do anything about it. Even our medics are up there fighting.” “Lightning Bolt, keep your backs to the wall! Help is on the way. Wind Whistler, get your team over there!” Spirit almost sagged in relief as he felt Fire Claws extending a link to him. He gladly accepted it and linked her to the rest of the Platoon’s command chain as well. “Alright, Grandma, tell us what you need us to do.” “I need you to tell me what our highest priorities are,” Fire Claws answered. “Just tell me what you need the Everfree Platoon to do, and I’ll make sure the best teams for the job are put to work on it.” So much for being relieved of duty. “The bottleneck would be more useful if we didn’t have to worry about enemies on both sides of it,” Autumn said immediately. “If we can somehow clear out the inside of the Sky Base, it will give us a more defensible position for a counterattack.” Fire Claws turned to Spirit. “Who still needs Cloudwalking cast on them?” Spirit looked. Only the unicorns that could use the spell and their teammates were still on the ground. They were standing nearby, waiting for orders. “I think we’re the only four left.” The older dragoness nodded. “Noteworthy, Lucky, Steel Claw, where are you?” “We’re on the ground.” Noteworthy waved sheepishly from his spot next to Minuette. “Far east, next to Fire Eyes’ team.” “Northeast, and we need backup!” “All of you,” Claws said to the four teams on the ground, “you’re going to lead the base assault from the southwest. Torch and I will take the southeast. Spirit, Twilight, and Autumn, stay here and don’t engage unless absolutely necessary.” She pointed at Spirit and Autumn. “You two, just keep doing what you’ve been doing.” She turned to Twilight. “Keep them safe no matter what. The Everfree Platoon will fall apart without its command structure.” Twilight nodded. “I’ll do my best.” As they spoke, Fire Claws was also busy issuing orders, “Lucky, head into the nearest entrance and start clearing out any Alliance forces inside the base. Steel Claw, retreat into the base, if possible, and focus on holding the door until backup arrives. Scenic Trail, Sky Painter, you and the rest of the scout teams are that backup.” Spirit noticed a wounded blue drake falling toward them. “Whoa, we need to move!” Claws grabbed him before he could run out of the way. “We’re fine.” Next to her, Burning Torch created a pyramid-shaped shield around the four of them. Spirit was confused by the shape right up until the drake landed on it, snapping it’s back on the point with a sickening crunch before sliding down one side. Fire Claws reached out to the drake as her husband’s shield faded. The second her palm made contact, the drake’s blue scales began fading to a lighter tone, almost white, and its entire form grew thin and emaciated. Meanwhile, the few scales that Spirit could see under his grandmother’s armor grew richer and more vibrant. The dragoness motioned, and some invisible force exploded from her clawtips. Spirit glanced up in time to see it explode and liquefy one drake and nearly a dozen wyverns. At least, ‘liquefy’ was the best word he could think of to describe it. One moment they had been a formation of dragons, the next they were nothing but a reddish smear falling to the ground like some kind of morbid rain. Twilight’s jaw dropped. “What kind of spell was that?” Fire Claws turned to her. “That was a spell I don’t get to practice much because it requires the death of something that still has at least another century’s worth of life-force.” She held out a hand to the purple alicorn. “Now cast Cloudwalking on Torch and I and teleport us up to that base!” “Get moving, everyone. Oh, and Fire Eyes, tell Rainbow Dash that if she doesn’t get back into the air and start using the Sonic Rainboom again, I will personally kick her tail from here to the Crystal Empire!” -_-_-_-_-_- “Rainbow, start using the Rainboom again!” Fire Eyes ordered. “Cliff, be careful. Lucky’s team just got ordered to clear out the inside of the base.” Above them, swarms of wyrms and light green wind wyverns maintained an almost continuous stream of attacks, either with magic or some type of concussive blast of air. The drakes were the worst, though. Once it became clear that their fire had no effect, they had started dive-bombing the platform, leaving it spotted with massive holes. A roaring white drake flapped backwards in fear as Fluttershy’s Stare hit it. Cliff jumped off the platform and slashed at its throat. Unfortunately for him, a thrust of telekinetic power knocked him away before he could connect. The green wyrm responsible for the Telekinesis jumped off of the drake’s back, slashing at Cliff with a lower tier version of Ghost Claws. Unfortunately for her, Fire Eyes released a spell that generated a small but powerful explosion right in her face. The dragoness was knocked senseless and fell off the platform without a sound. Going invisible, Cliff changed the shape of his energy blades to be perfectly straight and shot back at the drake, stabbing it twice in the throat. The familiar sound of a Sonic Rainboom rocked the area as Cliff jumped away, and Fire Eyes concentrated her willpower into a thin beam of energy that she shot out of her mouth. It was a testament to her skill that the beam hit one of the wounds from Cliff’s attack, punching deep enough that vast amounts of blood began to pour out of the drake’s neck. She had managed to hit its jugular. Coming back down, Cliff returned his energy blades to their sickle shape and charged at a group of thunder wyverns that had unwisely tried to pierce Blueblood’s shield. Fluttershy’s Stare locked them all in place, making them easy targets for a combination of blade and fire. Instincts honed by years of training kicked in, and Cliff jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding another drake as it crashed through the platform behind him. Fire Eyes sent a bolt of lightning after it, probably hoping to stun it long enough that it would crash, as Fluttershy used the Stare on yet another drake that had gotten too close, Cliff went invisible and slashed through a venom wyvern before it could spit more of that poisonous gas, the blast of another Sonic Rainboom shook the area, and Blueblood curled into a ball and whimpered. Over the edge of the platform, a group of venom wyverns that were covered in glowing runes spat a massive cloud of poison right in front of a golden drake, who was similarly decorated. Cliff had no idea what they were planning, until the drake flapped and blew the entire cloud into them. The problem with shield spells was that making them airtight was generally a bad idea. It took a lot more energy than a traditional shield weave, wasn’t any stronger, and tended to make those inside the shield die of suffocation. Fire Eyes was closest to eastern edge of the shield when the gas hit. She started coughing almost immediately. “Fluttershy, clear the air!” Fluttershy turned and began flapping her wings. They weren’t nearly as large as the drake’s, of course, but her natural pegasus magic, augmented by the batteries in her suit, was enough to blow away the toxic gas in the shield. Cliff ducked inside the shield and started enchanting another gemstone to deal with that drake. As soon as she finished healing herself, Fire Eyes joined him. The gem, a sapphire, broke the sound barrier several times over as it shot out of Cliff’s hand, boring deep into the golden scales on the drake’s chest before exploding. The runes must have protected him, because he managed to stay in the air. At least most of the drake’s chest scales were blasted off, revealing a wide area of blood-streaked skin. Before Fire Eyes could follow up, though, a purple wyrm slid down the drake’s neck, magically holding herself in front of the drake’s wounded chest. She even threw an attack spell of some kind, which hit Blueblood’s shield with all the force of a small pebble. In spite of that, Cliff felt his legs go weak as he recognized the wyrm. Heart Echo. To his left, Fluttershy shrank back and covered her eyes. To his right, Fire Eyes stood motionless. Why are we even doing this? Cliff looked down at the blood splattered across his chest. “What happened to you guys?” Rainbow demanded through the link. “All of you just got super depressed.” Another drake smashed through the platform, leaving the piece of cloud that they were standing on completely separate from the rest of the Sky Base. “Emotion manipulation,” Cliff realized. He should have seen it immediately. Fluttershy had practiced the nicer variants of the Stare on him often enough that he could usually recognize when something was affecting his emotions. “Don’t let her control you, everyone!” he sent, along with a surge of determination, anger, and courage. Fire Eyes quickly sent another wave of similar emotions. Wyrm spell-casting required precise control over emotions, giving both Cliff and Fire Eyes a lifetime of practice in fighting off the effects of Heart’s spell. Fluttershy and Blueblood had no such advantage. In fact, they were barely conscious. A blue drake flew into their shield from above. Freed from the rest of the base, their chunk of cloud sank easily with the impact, sending all four of the shield’s occupants hurtling toward the ground. Cliff grabbed Fluttershy, Fire Eyes grabbed Blueblood, and they both jumped back up to the Sky Base before it got too far away. Thankfully, Blueblood’s shield had been set to keep him at its center, so it traveled with them. That was where their good luck stopped, though. The platform was swarming with dragons. “Fluttershy, snap out of it!” Cliff whispered urgently to the shivering mare in his arms. “We need you. I need you.” Fire Eyes looked down at the nearly comatose Prince Blueblood that she was holding. “Whatever, his shield’s still up.” She dropped him before turning and launching a ray of pink energy at Heart Echo, who threw out a shield to defend herself. The ray cut through Heart’s shield and even pierced through her forearm before digging into the scales on her chest. Gritting her teeth, Heart fired her emotion-based spell again. This time, it was at Blueblood specifically. The white unicorn screamed in terror and passed out, dropping the shield that had kept the rest of them safe. A blue drake crashed down on Fire Eyes, dragging her out of sight, as a group of light-green wyverns spat more of those blasts of air at Cliff, Fluttershy and Blueblood. “Rainbow, Eyes needs you!” Cliff threw out a shield of his own over the three of them and launched another gem at one of their attackers. Shield magic had never been his specialty, however, and the poisonous gas still in the air was making it hard to concentrate. Maybe it was the fact that they were in trouble, but Fluttershy suddenly regained control of herself. She sent out a burst of wind, clearing the air around the three of them, and directed a powerful Stare at the wind wyverns. They fell motionless through the platform around her. Rainbow Dash arrived just then, shooting after the blue drake and Fire Eyes at mach speeds. She returned to the platform a moment later, Fire Eyes held firmly in her hooves. Eyes was gasping in pain and holding her ribs, but she managed to activate a healing spell for herself as Rainbow set her down next to the others. “Claws says they’ve rallied the pegasi inside and cleared out the wyverns that made it in.” Most of the venom wyverns dove to catch their falling allies, but two remained next to the golden drake, continuing to spit out venom clouds for him to send toward Cliff and the others. Meanwhile, one of the thunder wyverns dove at Rainbow Dash, who was just crouching to take off again. Cliff intercepted him midair, impaling him twice with his energy blades, and knocking them both away from the blue pegasus, who sent out a gust of wind to disperse more of the poisonous gas that was building up. “Thunderfang!” one of the venom wyverns shouted. “They’re starting to retreat along the northern side of the base.” Even though she was still lying down and gasping for air, Fire Eyes sent a bolt of lightning toward the wyvern that had just shouted. The wyvern screamed in pain, but was able to keep flying. She even spat another cloud of venom, though the group was turning to retreat with their other allies. Heart climbed onto the golden drake’s back, clutching her wounded arm to her chest, and released another of her strange attack spells. Cliff quickly generated as many positive emotions as he could, hoping it would help. What he wasn’t expecting, however, was the burning, almost uncontrollable emotion that appeared in his heart. Protectiveness. Fluttershy was his wife. How dare he put her in danger by pursuing this fight for even one more second? What about the others? He needed to keep them all safe! He needed to get them as far away from this battlefield as he possibly could! Fluttershy grabbed onto one of Cliff’s arms, pulling him away from the Alliance’s fighters, as Rainbow Dash gathered Eyes and Blueblood. They were almost to the doors of the Sky Base when something changed, and everyone paused, looking around in confusion. “Is everyone okay?” Rainbow asked. “What was that?” “I’ll explain later,” Fire Eyes replied, holding her sides and gasping. “Rainbow, hit them with a Sonic Rainboom before they get out of range.” Rainbow stared at her incredulously. “What? They’re retreating. We already won.” “We don’t need to fight anymore,” Fluttershy added. “Do it,” Fire Eyes ordered. “Every enemy we kill today is one that can’t kill more Equestrians tomorrow.” “That was Cliff’s cousin.” Rainbow waved a hoof at the retreating dragons. “I know she’s on the other side, but I’m not going to just murder her like that!” Cliff didn’t want her dead either. Unfortunately, Fire Eyes was right. “Her emotion manipulation spell is too dangerous,” he said. “It’s on par with the Stare. She’ll kill dozens of soldiers with it, maybe even hundreds, if we don’t stop her now.” Rainbow looked from him to Fire Eyes to the retreating dragons, fluttering her wings uncertainly. “You have to do it!” Cliff insisted. “No, she doesn’t!” Fluttershy yelled. -_-_-_-_-_- Fluttershy couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She didn’t want to believe it. Her husband, the dragon who had always been so kind and loving, was shouting at Rainbow to kill his own cousin! Cliff turned to face her, and Fluttershy really saw him for the first time since the battle had started. Blood was splattered all across his armor, some of it fresh enough to still be dripping off of him. She remembered how that venom wyvern had screamed a name as Cliff killed the thunder wyvern. Thunderfang. Had she been his friend? Mate? Sibling? The blood dripping off of his armor was making her stomach churn. Fluttershy looked down and saw flecks of blood across her hooves and chest as well. Time seemed to stop. That’s right, Fluttershy realized, I killed a lot of dragons today too, maybe even more than Cliff. He, Rainbow Dash, or Fire Eyes had always been the one to deliver the final blow, but she had paralyzed countless dragons for them with the Stare. That made her at least as much of a killer as the others. She thought back to how the Crusaders had all hugged them tight and begged for them to come back alive. How many children or parents would never see their loved ones again because of her? “Fluttershy?” Cliff asked, his voice heavy with concern. She could feel it too, coming through the link. He knelt in front of her. No, don’t look at me with those warm green eyes! She wanted to run away and hide somewhere that no one would ever find her. The blood still covered him. It was all over both of them. She felt the bile rising in her throat as she began to tremble. “Fluttershy!” He reached out to her with a blood-covered hand. She tried to pull back, but he grabbed her shoulder with it anyway. Don’t be so kind to me, her mind silently begged. He had murdered dozens of dragons. She remembered him horribly burning a group of wyverns before slicing them to pieces. He can’t be the same Cliff Runner that stayed up and held me all night that time I had a terrible nightmare. She remembered him throwing an enchanted gemstone into a drake’s mouth so it would blow up and kill it from the inside. He can’t be the same husband who kissed me so tenderly every time we were intimate. Tears began to pour down her cheeks. He can’t be that same dragon … and if he is, a sob escaped her, he couldn’t possibly love a killer like me! “Fluttershy, speak to me!” Cliff whispered urgently. Cliff can’t be a killer, but he is. Uncontrollable sobs rocked her. Cliff can’t love me and yell at Rainbow Dash to kill one of his own family members, but he did. The world was spinning around Fluttershy. I can’t be a killer, but I am. She looked away from Cliff and saw the lifeless eyes of that wyvern, Thunderfang. It felt like darkness was rushing toward her from every direction. Please, Celestia, this all has to be a dream! As the residual magic in the wyvern’s body faded, it gently slipped through the cloud and was gone. Fluttershy was hit by the sickening realization that only the thunder and venom wyverns that she had paralyzed with the Stare had been finished off by Cliff and the others. Most of the others had fallen to their deaths. No one else could share the blame for that. Their deaths were entirely her fault. That thought snapped any vestiges of control that she still had. Fluttershy turned and was noisily sick before letting the darkness take her.