"Please, You Must Trust Me!"
A thick wall of smoke wafted over the circular platform released a barrage of roars sounding more like chuckles to the ponies who heard them, feeling the foundation they stood rumbled from the vibrations from the dragon's voice. Those who had been surrounding the circle retreated back to their original position to await a clear view of their target. Meanwhile, still standing tall together, Applejack, Celestia, and Luna held their heads up high to the smoke.
The wisps of smokes were then dispersed by the winds generated by the mighty flaps of the blue, scaly wings. The dragon began its slow descent to the opposite side of the circle from which the princesses stood upon, terrorizing those who carried a shred of cowardice with the daunting mass of both his size and power.
A wave of wind washed away the dust surrounding his landing space as his wings finally came to rest upon his back, as the dragon towered tall and gazed opposite oppression. His purple eyes rested upon the orange cowpony whos' hat was tied around her neck, as the memory of their previous encounter was brought to the forefront of his mind.
The dragon rose his claw agonizingly to the sky, which halted all of those who had readied their bows against him, before letting it fall in the direction of the cowpony. She knew this was the dragon's declaration of war, urging her to stand taller and to hide the lump being painfully swallowed deeper into her throat. The monstrosity summoned back his claw to the base of his throat, his prospectiveness catching Applejack off-guard, as he cracked his neck left and then right while never breaking that same eye-contact.
A booming roar escaped its unholy throat as its claws snapped into fists at its side, declaring to all those who heard the deafeningly cry the beginning of the Battle for Cantorlot. This deceleration against her homes urged Celestia to step forward as well, throwing up her hoof to the sky before striking it in the dragon's direction. "Fire!"
The many plucked strings of bows resounded within the circumference of the circle they comprised as their shot arrows whistled up in the sky. The blue dragon unleashed a concentrated beam of fire that sprayed the sky as his head wobbled, enshrouding his form underneath a layer of smoke while disintegrating the pesky airborne arrows.
"Halt fir–" The princess's command was interrupted by the blue snout that blasted past her as it directed itself at the orange farm pony. Applejack's mind naturally transitioned back into the most basic of instincts to aid her in the hostile environment as she reflexively jumped backward, only to discover the rest of the dragon's body emerging past the smoke and toward her.
He hadn't just bent over in an attempt to catch the mare in his teeth; the dragon's opening move was to throw himself straight at the most powerful oppressions to seal the doom of the one that brought him pain. Dragons are considered brutes that mostly loses to ponies due to the differences in their wits, but like a unicorn, a dragon has an energy reserve intended to see him as the victor of every fight.
Pride.
The dragon devours the weak to challenge those who are stronger. A constantly shifting hierarchy of power, those defeated in battle must submit to the others will or be killed. It is the duty of the strong to ensure those below them are unchallenging of their will, and that those who are devoured to show the rest their lack of weakness. The fact that this dragon was hurt by an infidelic lifeform displayed the world a contender to his power; an act that wounded his pride as a dragon.
The blue dragon would have to devour this mare to repair the cracked precipice of his pride, which threaten to unleash the surge of adrenaline boiling behind the title. He opened his maw and showed the mare of his oncoming fangs before they were smashed together by the impact of the blunt weapon smashed against the top of his snout.
Celestia twirled around from her attack of the malice atop the passing dragon's head with the same instrument picking up momentum alongside her. Her arms ached with the force with which she launched the spikes of the weapon at the terrifying creatures, hearing a satisfying crunch as the dragon was thrown off his course into the merciless wall of the bar.
Applejack snapped out from the hallucination of her fate being sealed past the scaly lips to glance up at the now panting princess. "Ya saved me."
The same princess released the handle of the malice into her golden telekinetic grip; a magic she could only sporadically summon due to her exhausted mana reserve. It was because of this the princess was forced to resort to weaponry instead of the powerful archaic magic she was known for – a developing weakness that tried to conceal from others.
"Don't fret about it." Celestia sighed at the weariness her body was enduring – were she in the same state with her fight with Nightmare Moon, then surely, she would've lost. "Just be on your guard...from now...on..."
Her attention was earned by the sprinting form of her little sister, who withdrew the axe on her back with the assistance of a dark aurora, before swinging the blade back before propelling forth into the dragon's neck.
The dragon roared in frustration of not being able to stand after being knocked down, eyeing the blurry things sticking out of his neck. Before he could so much as raise a claw to it, the item was ripped off from the socket it helped create. He looked down at the body of familiar pest from before, sending a spiderweb of cracks along the precipice sealing the energy of his pride.
Luna didn't avert her gaze away when the dragon roared in her face, opting to instead raise her axe to the sky once more before slamming it down atop the dragon's snout, transitioning his roar into a muffled cry. The metal of the axe tore through the scales of the blue snout as its owner pulled its handle back to her side. "Any who shall dare roar before the Princess of the Night should be prepared to lose a few scales."
Sensing that this could be their moment to strike without suffering any damage, the surrounding Royal Gauds galloped to the frantically wagging tail of the dragon while undocking their spears on the way. Feeling the breeze upon reaching their full speed, three out of the six guards leaped in the air and propelling a fury of strikes against the lengthy appendage.
The irritating pinpricks of pain assaulting the length of his tail forced the blue dragon to momentarily lower it away from his offender, only to yelp not at the line of scales ripped from his nose but of the things that had impaled themselves past the spines of his tail. He dared to look away from his solar opponent to find a trio of guards who had been waiting for his with with their spears, as his eyes then glanced up to the Pegasi responsible for the earlier assault striking the sharpness of their weaponry past the bone of the tail – keeping said member still due to the opposing pressures keeping it in place.
An idea popped inside of Luna's mind that stirred her into staring at her reflection in the metal of the axe, watching the dark aurora surrounding her horn expand outward as its hue grew darker by the second. She then glanced over to the other alicorn across the bottomless circle who possessed the same power level as her. "Tia, do you have any excess mana you could use to weaken the scales around the dragon's tail?"
"I can only afford one magical attack until I'm unable to protect the city or restrain the dragon when we need to." Celestia shook her head as she stepped to the edge of the circle. "You already know that dragon are impervious to magic. Even if I were to use alicorn magic on him, it would weaken a small patch of scales by the tiniest margin."
"Then that is what I need you to do, dear sister." Luna looked back to her reflection on the blade to find the blackness of her aurora accented by a starry-blue encompassing it. The spiral of magic slowly drifted over to the form of the weapon which it soon seeped inside, imbuing it with its power as it left its owner panting, though that did not stop her from looking back over to her sister. "Please, you must trust me!"
Celestia had been staring down the depths of the bottomless circle watching the possible conclusion race past her mind, as well as mentally crossing off the options that would ensure defeat. The moment she heard her beloved sister asking for her trust was the same moment her mind was wiped clean as her horn began to exude a golden aurora, entrusting entirely the next stage of the battle to her sister.
The Princess of the Night saw her sister close her eyes as her horn lit up with the particular hue of golden associated with the spell capable of weakening objects resistance to magic. An influx of indescribable emotions began to course through her body that compelled her teeth to bite down on the leather handle of her weapon with determination. She was overwhelmed by a peculiar giddiness that she seldom felt, not knowing why at this particular moment she was feeling this euphoria as she gave a final nod to the guards restraining the dragon's tail.
Once every condition of her plan had been met, Luna began its initiation by bursting away from the dragon in a gallop toward the bottomless circle. But when she refused to slow down it became clear to all those around that her objective was at the center of the circle, causing her dear sister to suppress the urge to question the action with a twitch, before she stretched out her alabaster wings.
Princess Celestia ascended into the day sky...
...while Princess Luna descended into the shadows created by the underside of the city.
The blue dragon had become dazed by witnessing the bizarre actions of these pests, deciding to avoid any unnecessary observations to instead focus on the present issue tearing holes into his tail. Whatever weapons the ponies were using against him were small enough to pierce through the lines in-between his scales, though not strong enough to serve his bone nor inflict any lasting damage. He began to frantically shake his tail despite the pain it infliction upon him in order to loosen the grip their blades had, and the shifting forms of their owners showed the dragon his goal was nearly achieved.
Pressing his claws against the floor the dragon rose his body up, glancing over at the pony bigger than the rest from the other side of the circle, before using his claws to propel his upper body at her. Her eyes remained closed as a golden glow adorned her horn, not seeing the open mouth of the beast and the cocked claw both destined to meet her.
The golden glow then brightened into a heavenly blinding light, infusing a burning whiteness into the dragon's vision that rendered him unable to see as his body leaned left in its ascension, yelping along the way. Something frigid began to caress a patch of scales on his tail that's chill bore deep into his bone, not knowing in the single moment what had just happened.
Celestia opened her eyes when she felt her horn fill completely with the magic necessary to cast the spell she had been preparing. She saw the dragon approaching her but paid it no mind, as she entrusted her life fully into the care of her sister as she cast the spell. The golden aurora glowed so brightly it burned all other eyes but hers, as she watched the magic fade away from existence along with her second-last bout of mana.
She watched the golden field of magic reappear at the base of the dragon's tail, scorching the blue scales while simultaneously freezing and sucking away their power until the loose scales were vacuumed out of existence entirely exposing the fragile layer hidden beneath them. Blood spewed out from the red mass from being exposed so violently, while displaying the bulge in the many veins carrying blood to the rest of the tail.
The deed was done, which was a Celestia could do, feeling the backlash from casting such a power spell in a weakened state as the impact threw her backward. She didn't flap her wings in defense nor cast a bubble shield spell that would take the damage for her, opting to relax and go with the flow of things. The next few moment would be used to regain her strength, which she didn't have much of.
The last thing Celestia saw before closing her eyes was the spark of dark blue, her beloved sister zapping into existence, and flying forth into a roll gained by the mouth of her previous descent. An axe gritted in-between her teeth, she roared a roar the screamed of the ferocity repressed inside her soul, comparable to that of even a dragon.
The blue dragon fell to his side along the circle after being blinded into a wall of whiteness, hearing of a spark the shook the ground like his roars had managed to do before. When his eyes finally faded back into the details of the world his vision was assaulted once again by the rays of sunlight, outlining the form of the twirling princess in their holy light as they captured the coming scene perfectly.
Luna came to her final spin and eyed the exposed patch of scales upside down, shifting her lower body right and her upper body left, as she came down on the base of the dragon's tail. Snapping her upper body right and lower body left she used all the energy gained from the move and invested into the impact of her axe slicing through the exposed meat in its path to reach the bottom.
The Princess of Night gave one final roar as she put her all in directing the blade through the dragon's tail.
While the dragon himself released a cry that sounded more like a howl.
The metal of the axe met the bone of the dragon, one of the hardest known surfaces know to ponies and equivalent to the resistance of a gemstone. Summoning the power she had imbued in the blade before, Luna thrashed it harder and further against the bone, using all of her momentum and body weight to give it the extra push it needed.
The surrounding guards stared in awe watching their mostly quiet gallop jump willingly into the depths of the bottomless circle and time her teleportation perfectly to use all the energy she could against the tail of a dragon. They were then assaulted by a gust of the wind that was a direct result of the impact of her attack, as a snap and a crack resounded off the mountain side, and the dark coat of their now beloved princess was bathed in the color read from the shower of gushing dragon blood.
Luna severed the dragon's tail.