//------------------------------// // Act 2: A New Comeback // Story: A New Flame // by The Zebra Hybrid //------------------------------// Crystal Empire Grounds "Th-This is impossible..." said Cadance with a shocked expression. "Trixie agrees..." added the blue showmare, "I have researched all I can about dragons before, but I've never knew that they could achieve this kind of magical power." Sam nodded, "That's because there are things we dragons do not want other races to know about." "And I'm guessing this is one of those things?" asked Applejack. "Yeah, but what James and Malefor did was only supposed to be a myth. Until they showed up." The purple female had to be honest that she was kind of jealous of James. He always played the hero for the ones he cared about. Her thoughts drifted to when she and James were both humans and had their first date. She always blamed herself for getting shot that night and leaving James alone. Now he had three other girls going after his heart, and what scared her was that, not only would he choose one of them over her, but he would forget the times they had together back on Earth. She snapped herself from her thought process and saw the four mares, Fluttershy, Twilight, Trixie and Derpy standing the furthest from the group watching James. She sighed and waled up to join them and coughed gaining their attention. "When this is over, we're all going to have a long talk with James." said Sam. "Y-yeah...we know." answered Twilight. "We just hope, we can work something out." added Derpy. "Yeah, I don't want to lose my friends over this." stepped in Fluttershy. "Speak for your selves," added Trixie, "I'm just hoping Malefor gets out of this ok." They all nodded and watched the blue dragon stare down Solar Flare, Nightmare Moon, and Discord, as the five couldn't help but blush at his serious features. The newly formed James then slowly walked forward with the same stern expression as worry began to set in the group watching him. The dragons knew from the fusion of James and Malefor that their power would rise to greater heights but they didn't know if it was enough to take on two alicorns AND a spirit of chaos. "W-will he be alright?" asked Sweetie. "Yeah, I don't want him getting to hurt." replied Dinky. "I don't know," answered Spike, "but....I have a feeling that hes going to be okay." James stopped walking toward the trio until he was just a few feet in front of them. His blue magical aura radiating off him like a calm flame. The three shook at the amount of power that was so close to them, until Discord snapped out of his shocked state and chuckled menacingly before excelling to full out laughter. The two alicorns looked at why he was laughing as James' expression hadn't changed. "HAHAHAHAHAHA!'" the spirit of chaos crazily laughed, "You really think just because you merged bodies you can defeat me! I'm Discord! Spirit of chaos and disharmony!" he screamed out toward the dragon. James however stood unfazed by his outburst. "If your that confident then die!" he exclaimed as he clenched his glowing talon as multiple lighting strikes struck down where James stood creating a magical, electrical explosion. The group covered their faces from the dust and the crystal debris. Discord laughed maniacally as he summoned more lightning strikes on the blue dragon, "You can go to hell!" he shouted sending a final more powerful strike as a bright yellow explosion shook the area. Nightmare Moon and Solar Flare took to the skies not wanting to be caught in the explosion as the other group of ponies and dragons braced themselves. "James!" the group of ponies and dragons exclaimed. "Next time warn us before you throw a tantrum like that Discord." said Solar Flare from the air. Discord only scoffed as he looked at the cloud of smoke, "It seemed I over did it." "At least he's dead," said Nightmare, "Its a shame, I actually thought he was going to be a challe....WHAT!?" The three looked at the cloud of smoke and dust created by Discord, only for a familiar blue and gold dragon to walk out with no damage or even a scratch on his body. Discord trembled in fear as he took a step back, "I-Impossible....That was one of my strongest spells!" "Like I said," stated James, "I'm through playing with you assholes." Before Discord knew it the blue dragon was already in front of him and ramming his stomach his his horns. Discord coughed up as the air was knocked form his lungs and he was sent tumbling across the crystal ground like a rag doll. The spirit of chaos recovered and skid across the ground slowing down his trip only for James to teleport above him and swipe his tail on top of Discord's head slamming it deep in the crystal ground causing cracks to form beneath. James landed in front of him as the spirit of chaos let out a curse in the ground. The blue and gold dragon grabbed DIscord's head with his talon and lifted his head before slamming it back down into the ground. When he lifted his head again the blue dragon dodged two yellow magical beams shooting from Discord's eyes and flew in the air. The spirit of chaos grunted in pain and anger as he glared at the blue dragon in the sky, "How could you hurt me! I'm literally chaos!" "It's time for you to go down Discord." stated James as he spread his wings and shot toward Discord faster than even his eyes could see. Before he knew it the blue dragon had both talons on his midsection, he was confused on what the dragon had planned until the they started to glow a bright blue. It was too late for Discord to move as he was consumed by the blue light and he screamed out in pain as he passed out on the floor not moving and his breathes shallow and heavy. James could only give the spirit of chaos a stern look before looking at the two sisters in the air. He was amused by their shocked expression due to him taking down Discord like it was nothing. He looked at them as he spread his wings as wide as he could and flew up to their level. "I'm going to give you two one last chance." he called out to them, "Let Luna and Celestia go, or you'll end up like Discord." "Discord was weak and uncoordinated!" exclaimed Solar Flare. "But me and my sister together will be more than enough to beat you." as more Nightmare Moon as James sighed as more of his magical heat began to surround his body. "Then I guess we're doing this the hard way." he answered before both of the sisters charged him with Solar Flare lunging at him with her horn first, which James easily dodged by spinning in the air. The blue dragon then easily blocked a ram from Nightmare Moon but he was pushed back a bit in the air. Using his wings to slow his trip he somersaulted in the air and charged the two once again. He let out a breath of blue flames at the two but grunted in annoyance as the two alicorns dodged it. Solar Flare shot a beam of solar magic at the dragon but was surprised as James literally went through the beam with his horns and rammed her side cracking her armor and sending her to the ground below in a cloud of dust and crystal. She quickly rolled out the way as James came down like a meteor and striking the ground where she was a few moments ago. The blue dragon leaned left as Nightmare Moon lunged him from behind making her miss the attack. He then threw up a shield blocking multiple blasts from Solar Flare and sending back blue balls of fire. The solar alicorn tried her best to block with her shield but each impact from the blasts cracked her shield as the final one shattered it causing an explosion to knock her away and skid across the ground. Nightmare Moon charged the dragon to avenge her sister but was instantly smacked into the side of a nearby carriage by James' tail. The blue dragon then flew forward toward Solar Flare who was struggling to stand, her eyes widened as she was James struck her muzzle with his forehead knocking her on her back. Before Solar Flare could move, James channeled the magic from the earth elemental as crystals protruded from the ground locking her four limbs in place. Solar Flare tried to fire a blast at the approaching dragon but she only got a blast of magical water to the face knocking her head to the ground. James stood over her as she struggled in her bonds and was coughing up any water that got down her throat. He put a talon on her chest as he encased the alicorn in the same blue light as Discord making her scream out before falling unconscious. James watched as the armor on Solar Flare slowly burned away and her coat returning back its normal white. Her mane and tail no longer a flame but her regular rainbow texture. Celestia was now laying before him passed out and completely exhausted. James removed the crystals from her limbs and turned around to see a shocked Nightmare Moon as the two were in another stare down. Meanwhile the group could only stare in shock at what was happening. James and Malefor were getting tossed around like rag dolls but now, with the two of them now one, they were handling all three of them without even breaking a sweat. After seeing James revert Celestia back to her normal state they could only assume that he did the same with Discord, which meant that Nightmare Moon was the only one left. "I can't believe what I'm seeing." said Applejack. "Yeah! Go James!" cheered the fillies, Applebloom, Scootaloo, Sweetie, and Dinky. "We could actually win this." said Fluttershy as she used her hoof to pet Bolt beside her. "Indeed," agreed Rarity, "I need a nice bath after all of this is over." The group laughed at her antics as Nightmare glares at the blue dragon in front of her. How could this be happening? How could the Princess of the Night be losing to some dragon! Damn them! Damn them all to hell! James could only smirk at how desperate Nightmare Moon was getting and walked forward. The dark alicorn began to sweat as she stepped back with her horn glowing. Nightmare then shut her eyes in as a sudden pain shot through her head making James to even stop his advances. He was surprised to see Nightmare Moon's eyes change back to Luna's and call out to him in a desperate tone. "James!," 'Luna' called out, "I don't know how much time I'll have control but you have to finish us quickly!" "Why? Whats wrong?" asked James curiously. "Nightmare Moon plans to overload her magic and take out you and the rest of the-" Before 'Luna' could finish her eyes turned back to Nightmare's reptilian irises and cursed under her breath for losing control like that. It seems that she had taken more damage then she thought which allowed Luna to take control for a short time. But she had managed to reveal her fail safe plan to the dragon which meant that she had to act fast. The group however were stunned or confused at what just happened. "It seems that Princess Luna is still fighting for control." said Flashwing. "Hey what did she mean that she was going to overload her magic?" asked Rainbow kind of hoping that it wasn't what she thought. "Exactly what it meant, unicorns and alicorns can channel the magic in themselves and hold it their creating a massive unstable amount of energy. If the energy isn't released then the magic stored in them will try to release itself until.....well...." "BOOM!" yelled Pinkie out of nowhere. James grit his teeth in anger, Nightmare Moon had gone to far. At least Luna was doing things for the best of the ones she cared for but Nightmare Moon was doing anything in her power to kill him. Nightmare smirked as he entire body started to glow a dark blue with a hint of black. James could already tell that she already started to gather enough energy for her makeshift bomb which meant he had to act fast. Channeling the air elemental magic inside him he flapped his wings creating hurricane like winds and blowing Nightmare Moon in the sky. He then shot off the ground like a bullet toward the dark alicorn as Nightmare regained her composure in the sky and shot down toward him her body glowing brighter. The dark alicorn screamed in anger and collided with James, who was caught off guard by her sudden power increase and was sent to the ground. He easily picked himself up with minor bruises and stared at Nightmare laughing like a maniac. James could only see her glowing brighter to the point of no return. "She's has to much power stored in her for me to stop her now." he said to himself, he turned back to the group watching him and smiled, "Hey!" The group of ponies and dragons were confused on to why he was calling out to them when Nightmare Moon was preparing to burst at any moment. He focused on each and every one of them, even Shining Armor and Cadence, until his gaze came to the four mares and dragoness in front of the group. He gave the five a sad smile and closed his eyes as a lone tear slid down his cheek. "I guess I won't be able to choose." he called out making the group's eyes widened. "N-No! James you can't do that!" cried out Twilight, "You'll...." "There's no other way...." "There's always a way!" added Derpy "Yeah, we'll figure something out together!" suddenly said Trixie. Fluttershy and Sam stayed silent and could only look at the blue dragon with pleading eyes. Both of them with tears threatening to flow down their cheeks. James couldn't stand the look on their faces and he even almost reconsidered on going through with his plan but they would all die if he didn't go through with it. "It's too late, Nightmare Moon could explode any second! I have to do this!" he turned back around his back facing them, "Hey Trixie!" Trixie ears perked up, "Y-yes?" she answered with a cracked voice. "Malefor asked if you could finish what he started." Trixie then felt her heart skip a beat and didn't even notice the tears now flowing down her cheeks, "I-I will!" The blue dragon smiled and walked toward the overloading alicorn until he felt a tug on his tail. He looked back and his heart fell to his stomach as he saw a familiar white filly holding on to his tail with a pleading look in her eyes. She maybe you but she wasn't dumb. Sweetie knew what he was going to do and the look that she was giving him was making things harder. "Sweetie..." was all James could say as Sweetie hugged the blue dragon. "Don't go!" she cried burying her face in her chest. James instantly hugged her back and pet her mane. "I'm sorry Sweetie, but it has to be this way." "Why! It's not fair! Why can't we just go back to Ponyville! And everything can be normal again!" "I wish there was another way..." James looked behind him and noticed Nightmare Moon beginning to glow more brightly as dark blue lightning surrounded her and her eyes glowing a pure white, "....and I don't have much time....Rarity!" Rarity nodded and teleported over to him and grabbing her little sister ignoring her protests. She gave him a light peck on the cheek as James smiled as she teleported back to the group with Sweetie Belle. James put on a serious look and walked to the alicorn. "It was nice of you to wait for me." he said to her. "I'm just letting you say your goodbyes before blow you to bits! It sure bought me the time to gather this much magical power......You also didn't have to lie to them, you had plenty of time to stop me, so why not?" "It's clear that the only reason why this is happening is because of me and Malefor. So we decided to end things right here and right now." Before Nightmare could react James spread his wings and flew toward her wrapping his front arms around her barrel and carrying her high in the sky as fast as he can. The group down below could only watch as they ascended higher and higher, until both of them pushed through the pink shield that surrounded the Empire and they were both on the outside in the snowy environment. "It seems you lost dragon." said Nightmare Moon. "You could say that," James replied, "but as long as they are safe down there.....I call this a win in my book." James then noticed Nightmare Moon smirk before her form reverted back into Princess Luna. The lunar princess had a sad smile on her face as the two ascended higher in the air, "Drag....I mean James....I'm sorry for everything....." "Don't be," he replied back, "You were only doing what you thought was best.....and got possessed by an evil spirit because of it." Luna managed to let out a light giggle despite the situation, "You know....I can see why Mrs. Sparkle likes you so much and I must say....I'm kind of jealous." The blue dragon couldn't help but blush, "Come on....I don't think I can handle another mare having feelings for me." The two chuckled until they both noticed Luna glowing brighter and they both nodded knowing that their time was up. They both looked at each other, turquoise eyes gazing at red ones. The two both hugged each other until they were both encased in a bright light. Frozen North; Somewhere in the Sky The two rulers of Thedas were flying as fast as they could to the Crystal Empire. They could literally see it in their sights, until they noticed a bright blue explosion go off above the empire. "Brother?" asked Shenron with a worried expression "I know, let's hurry." replied Porunga as they flew towards the Crystal Empire, "Lets just hope we aren't to late."