~48~
“Twilight’s Going Head to Head with a Dragon?"
The fog served not only to hide away the contents of the streets from the girls, but to also disable them to from seeing whatever lurked just a few feet ahead. Buildings became fragmented by the wisps as its windows displayed images incompressible to the conscious mind, causing all those who dared to look past the glass to do a double take.
The faint sparks fell from the charged lavender horn as its glow dispelled some of the fog before them. While they couldn’t see what awaited them at the end of the streets, the four could make the trip like this.
Far deep into the pits of the fog where the wisps of cloudiness almost burnt the fur it touched, the four panted as sweat rolled down their faces, while their hooves cold to the touch. They kept going onward, though the world became all the more blurry by the step.
“How could this be happening?” Rarity’s attempt to speak over the blaring siren was a minuscule success. “Are we even in Canterlot anymore, because it sure doesn’t feel so.”
Twilight’s eyes trailed over to her friend, feeling the same distress as her friend, but making no mention of it as they climbed the last steps of the last case of stairs. It felt as if strokes of fire were slashing away at their bodies as they ascended past the barrier of fog, until they phased through the final inferno cloud, and reached the same plane where the castle stood.
“What in the name of!” Rarity rushed passed her faux leaders and to the railing that ran in a circular direction, showing below the circle the chilling drop to the lands almost a vista below. The sight served to both fright and thrill those who gaze down it, as well as to remind all just how high up in the mountain they were.
But the height of the drop wasn’t what made Rarity want to scream. For that right belong to the colosseum sized dragon just above their heads, whose flap of the wings sent them all flying back, as it raised back a claw and slashed forth in the air before it.
“Rainbow Dash!” Rarity cried as she was flung backward into the air and onto the steps she had just climbed, ignoring the pain her system had just incurred to look back up to the dragon. The claw slashed forward, catching the cyan mare in its back, as the force of the impact sent her flying into a nearby building.
The sounds of the siren went silent against the nothingness freeing Twilight’s mind. Her eyes widen to their full extent to consume the detail of the dragon’s every blue scales, the combined strength that its muscles were able to output, and trailed the exact angle that her cyan friend had been shot back at.
When her amethyst eyes finally contact with the fallen yet blurred body of her friend, she did not see the pixels of blue, but rather the haziness of green and purple combined. Her number one assistant lay hurt and maybe dying in the distance, all because she made too many unnecessary stops to make it in time to protect him.
Twilight watched in her mind’s eyes the times where she spoke words of vileness into his ears and replayed the incident just a moment ago where the drake would not be undoubtedly scarred. To make matters far worse, the dragon above swirled around and prepared the fire brewing in his stomach.
“Don’t just stand there Twilight!” Applejack tried shaking her deaf friend from her haze, but no reaction was had from the mare. “Rainbow’s hurt. We gotta go now!”
The only response the cowpony received as the light mixing itself in the aurora forming around the lavender horn, expanding outward by the second as the energy of the ball sucked anything loose nearby into it. Applejack backed away a few steps as she clutched her Stetson closer to her head, backing away a few steps.
Twilight’s eyelids had shut on their own as she channeled this incomparable feeling into her horn for all the energy it was worth, for neither did she feel a hatred for what the dragon had done or joy for what was to be done to it, but a certain nothingness that’s depths seemed endless to her.
“Whoa!” Pinkie yelled as her hooves tightly held the bars of the railing, as her body was both sucked into Twilight’s magic and being flung away from the dragon’s mighty flap of the wings. “Twilight’s going head to head with a dragon? I need some popcorn for this!”
A bag filled to the brim with popcorn poofed into existence from pink mare’s tail, though its contents were sucked into separate directions until the bag itself was taken away by the winds. “Drats!”
The ball of green energy created its own current by its sheer size, threatening to take even the bricks and glass of windows to grow it into a magnitude that could dwarf the circle with the endless dropped. Fortunately, due to a will refined by long study nights and always being there for her friends, Twilight opened her eyes and directed her aim to the dragon ready to breathe fire.
“This is what you get for hurting my friend!” Twilight yelled from under the weight of her own magic as he legs began to slide, but never did they fall. “No one ever hurts my friends...Spike?”
Applejack’s head recorded backward from squinting her left eye. “Spike? Twilight, what are you goin on about? Shoot the dragon before the winds get too strong!”
The words never floated into her ears as Twilight’s eyes stared deep into the blue of the scales of the dragon, as their color faded from existence and green was filled into the space. The contorted face of the dragon propelling the fire through his chest was replaced by giant dragon baby who had been hatched in the lands not too long ago, looking as if he could do no harm besides play.
“Spike...my precious baby Spike…”
“Twilight. Fire, now!” Applejack leaped at her friend and tackled her to the floor, causing an impulse in the magical mare that sent a concrete beam flying forth from her horn and into the sky. The glow from the beam reflected off the corner of the dragon’s eyes, as he twisted to see it more, and flapped back as quickly as possible upon sensing the danger.
The split second maneuver managed to secure his body from the harmful beam, but the same couldn’t be said for the left wing that had saved it. The beam pierced through the leather and tore a hole that allowed all to gaze at the beam as it disappeared into the clouds.
The dragon turned his head to stared at the new herd that dared to oppose him. A quick glance at the hole that still burned and allowed air to pass through his wing fueled his rising rage, as he prepared a concentrated fire to the entry of the platform they stood upon.
“As much as a wrong time it is for me to announce this.” Rarity walked over to her friends while her eyes never left the oncoming heat of death. “I finally realized that that fog was not fog, but, rather smoke from a dragon.”
Applejack laid against the barrel of her friend’s body, as her body felt frail and her mind too tired to get back up. “Ye~ep. Realized that one a little too late.”
The friends all stood and sat together underneath the wave of heat from the upcoming jet of fire directed at them all. The dragon threw back his head and closed its eyes as the ball of fire traveled up the length of his throat.
The explosion currently exploding behind the dragon’s back struck a shiver into his body, causing the spread of flames to remove the clouds of the sky instead as they all dissipated away…
...only for an electric green current to phase through each of the individual clouds and began to tighten its grip, bring the barrage of clouds closer together to the center of the circle on the platform. Green infused itself inside the white whisked until they adapted to the new color, growing to the surge of the new found power.
But these mere clouds were not enough to conduct what the power was trying to will, as more and more green clouds with a shade of black were shocked into their gigantic existence. The blue sky was slowly shrinking as the barrage of clouds covered to even the mountains peek, all shooting green electric currents to keep the energy circulating.
An alicorn of the night appeared from round the mountain peaks while her guards of black followed suit behind her in the air, all their horns lit a shade of black as they shot concentrated beams into the dragon.
The dragon roared at both his flames unable to pierce past the thick clouds and the influx of pain, deciding to fly away to behind the mountain; the guards and alicorn quickly en route to him.
The four, with their leader’s eyes dilating back to the real world, all untangled themselves from each other and rose to their hooves. The thing that was about to kill them couldn’t be seen past the side of the mountain, and the smoke that it left behind finally cleared away from the streets below.
“So that ended the way it did.”
“Yep.”
“Yep.”
The three who had spoken looked over to their leader, wondering why she was still mute until they clocked her gaze to the hazardous green clouds still present.
That just so happened to be still expanding as more bolts of electricity shot out in conjunction above the circle of the platform.
“Uh, Twilight?” Applejack stood next to her friend with a mouth that never closed. “I know your magic is pretty darn powerful, but is it robust enough to create a storm like this?”
Twilight shook her head as her mouth opened a second later. “Not nearly enough. Though it would suffice to help start one.”
The green eyes trailed from her friend to the sky then back. “And just what do you mean by that?”
Their answer came from the laughter that resounded from the clouds that split the rocks on the nearby mountains. All the girls crammed their hooves in their ears to repel the damaging effect from the booming laughter, as it transcended into a voice.
"Finally! I have won this little game of ours."