//------------------------------// // Not So Friendly Fire // Story: Rise of Equestria 2: Cannon Fodder // by Israel Yabuki //------------------------------// Silence was filled throughout the entire rich city of Canterlot. The nobles were all escorted into their homes and had all of the shops and restaurants on lockdown for the time being. Every building that ponies were inside and on lockdown were under the protection of the princess' Royal Guards. They all stood their grounds and looked all around them for any sign that their threat has arrived. All they could hear was the sound of the wind howling and brushing against their golden armor and fur. The guards all looked on each and every inch of the city, looking for any trace of their vicious foe. With the safety of all the ponies at stake, they had to be on their guard at all times. Even though there were few guards protecting the castle, Twilight and her friends had that covered. It was going to be a tough job to fight against Spike, even moreso with Eternal Flames having to rest up in Celestia's chambers. But even without Eternal, the group was still strong enough to hold their own against Spike. From what Blaze Burn and his own son witnessed, there was no doubt it was going to take everything they had in order to bring back their dragon friend. Blaze Burn only wished his son didn't have to suffer such a beating, but he still wondered why Eternal wandered off like that and not wait like the others. The only ones that knew why he left was the Princess of Friendship and Sunset Shimmer. He looked over to the two mares and walked over to them, getting their attention and addressed them with concern. "Twilight Sparkle, Sunset Shimmer, I hope you don't mind me asking you this, but can you please tell me why my son had run off to the Dragon Lands earlier?" Blaze Burn asks. Twilight was hesitant to tell him what happened, but Sunset wasn't afraid to tell him. She took a couple of steps forward and explained everything. "Eternal and Twilight got to talking about Spike. Everything was going alright until Twilight mentioned these events that had left her heartbroken. He scolded Twilight for not acting like a good sister. Mostly for not being there for Spike right when he needed Twilight the most when he felt like he was being replaced by her pet owl and ditching him at the start of the Grand Galloping Gala. But he just grew so angry when he found out about Twilight inviting all of her friends to her birthday party at the Canterlot Castle years ago." Blaze Burn's eyes shrunk for a second before he let out a big sigh. "I was afraid of this." Blaze says, facehoofing himself and trying to keep in his frustration in check. "What do you mean, sir? Has he ever done this before?" Sunset asks. Blaze Burn nodded. "Does he even know the meaning of "hitting below the belt?!" I'm starting to think he just likes putting others down. He didn't even shed a single tear when he ran off to the Dragon Lands after what he said that Twilight treats Spike like her own slave instead of her little brother!" "WHAT?!" The other guys asked in shock. "That blockhead! Why'd he have to go and say something like that?" Shadow asked, irritated. He looked at the other guys thinking they might have the answer. "Hey, don't look at me, I was born an only child!" Spark Burst says. "So am I! If you're looking for answers, then try asking Hurricane Breeze or Tidal Wave." Ground Breaker says, gesturing to the minty-green pegasus and aqua blue earth pony. "Hey, why are you putting us on the spot like that?" Hurricane asked. "I'm not exactly sure why he'd run his mouth in the wrong direction. If anypony knows anything about Eternal Flames, then I say you should ask Heat Blitz. He might know more than I do." Tidal says, gesturing to the light yellow pegasus. "Hey, you can't just put him in the spotlight like that!" Rainbow said, glaring at Tidal. "No, Rainbow. It's alright, I'll tell you guys what you need to know." Heat Blitz said, hanging his head down. Twilight looks at the young pegasus stallion with orange and light yellow fur with concern in her eyes, curious of why he looks so ashamed. Heat Blitz let out a sigh. "During one of those times when I was always bullied and my brother taught them a lesson, the bully confessed that he had an older brother that claimed he wouldn't like him unless he acted tougher around others. It made Eternal snap. He tracked down the bully's older brother and Eternal scolded him relentlessly, saying that he was a disgrace to older siblings everywhere and that if he was to ever sick his little brother on me again, he'd... he'd..." Heat stops. "He'd what?" Twilight asks. "..... Eternal would deal with him by himself or report it with dad. It scared him so much that he practically begged Eternal to not get him into trouble and even tried to make a deal. Eternal refused and he went a bit too far by saying to him "now you know what it's like to feel weak and helpless! You think it's cool to indict fear into the hearts of other young ponies who are probably younger and smaller than you? You're gonna take this punishment and you will learn to never diss your little brother or bully anypony ever again, do I make myself clear, you pathetic excuse for a brother?!" And yes, he did say that." Heat finishes. "Sweet Celestia! That's just plain heartless." Twilight said, pitying the pegasus. "But hear me out. Eternal's harsh, I know that. But deep down, he's always concerned about me because I made a vow to always show peace instead of fight. He's afraid that others might take advantage of my kindness and hurt me, or worse. I keep telling him that's no excuse to put them down like that. And yet he tells me every time "I'm an uncle as much as I am a son and a brother." "I get it." Fluttershy says, getting the group's attention. "He's harsh because he cares about his friends and family too much to see them get hurt. His love for his family is probably what makes him keep on fighting all the time, but I have to agree with you all. He shouldn't be going around putting other ponies down and lecturing them on how to act like a real kind and loving sibling." "It's rather pathetic when it comes to stallions losing their tempers." Melodia says. "Melodia, now's not the time to be throwing out insults." Tidal Wave says, calmly. "Hey, he brought it upon himself to get his biscuits burned out there. He lost control of his anger and this is the price he has to pay. If anypony's to blame, it's him." Melodia says, like it's no big deal. "He made this choice out of his own free will and that decison only got him into more trouble. If you ask me, he's nothing but a liability and should just stay out of the way from now on." "STOP IT! JUST STOP IT, ALREADY!!!" Heat Blitz shouted, glaring at Melodia with tears. "How are you gonna do that, punch me? I doubt it. Last time I checked, you can't hit me because you're walking down the path of a pacifist. But, then again, even if you could slug me, you'd just be as weak and feable as your older brother, Prince Heat Blitz, was it?" Melodia retorted, unamused and staring back at him. "Maybe he's choosing not to fight." Rainbow Dash said. "But..." then in a blue blur, Rainbow Dash flew straight at Melodia and struck her in the face with her right hoof. "That doesn't mean any of us made the same vow he did, so stop picking on the little guy!" "Rainbow's right! You should watch your mouth when you speak. I already know that deep down, Eternal's really worried and he cares a lot about his friends and family. But that's no excuse for him to be so harsh and put down other ponies for the mistakes they made. And it's certainly no excuse for you to pick on his little brother who made a promise not to fight against anypony!" Sunset scolded Melodia. Heat Blitz turned away, still feeling hurt after what Melodia said. He jumped in surprise when she felt a hoof on his back, making him turn to see Twilight. "I'm really sorry you have to hear this. I know you love your older brother so much and that's fine. I can relate to you because... well... I have a big brother myself and I love him very much, too." "It's alright, Twilight. I know the truth had to come out eventually. To be honest, I was actually expecting Melodia to say something like that." Heat Blitz says, hugging Twilight back. "And I'm very sorry for the horrible things Eternal had said to you earlier." "You don't have to apologize for something your brother said." Twilight said. "More like he can't apologize for what Eternal said to you, Twilight." Ground Breaker said. "Apologies hold no meaning if you don't get 'em straight from the horse's mouth. Umm... no pun intended. But anyways, the point is, unless Eternal himself apologizes for his own actions, there's just absolutely no point in accepting apologies from somepony else." Heat Blitz looked down, not even bothering trying to deny that fact. Though his heart was in the right place, he wasn't the one to blame for hurting Twiligt. Ground Breaker walked up to the young prince and patted him on the back, showing him sympathy for at least trying. Heat Blitz put on a sad smile. But their little arguement soon stopped to the sound of a bone-chilling roar coming from the distance, giving the guards in the city a jumpscare and had their weapons ready. Everypony at the entrance of the castle stood their ground and watched carefully for any signs of Spike. In the midst of all the silence, all that could be heard was the small breeze from the wind and the sounds of large wing beats. The large wing beats grew louder and were coming closer and closer to the city. "Stay on your guard, everypony!" Blaze Burn said. "Remember, Spike is not the dragon you once knew, so give it all you've got, but above all... we bring him back alive!" Everypony in the group nodded and waited patiently for their foe to arrive. They all listened carefully to the sounds of the giant wing beats growing closer towards the city. They could also hear the sound of a mighty, vicious roar and finally, out of the blue, "DRAGON!!!" shouted a guard. A stream of searing, hot green flames blew towards the city, leaving a trail of fire as Spike had finally arrived and landed on one of the streets, towering over the buildings and letting out a huge, thunderous roar, fueled by his anger. "NOW!!!" Blaze Burn commanded. The most of the group ran through the streets of Canterlot into Spike's direction, while the pegasi traveled by air. Spike's eye locks onto the pegasi: Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Hurricane Breeze and Spark Burst, who were charging straight at her. The giant dragon breathed out fire into their direction, but pegasi broke up into four in order to dodge the attack and flew in until they were close enough to cirlce around the dragon's head. Spike roared and swung at the pegasi, trying to swat them away. Thanks to this distraction, the others got close enough to the rampaging dragon without worrying about getting attacked in the process. "Spikey, please stop! Don't you remember your friends? Please, snap out of it!" Rarity called out. She had hoped that by at least trying to talk him out of this, he'd come back to his senses. However, calling out to the giant-sized dragon only proved to either be useless, or a big mistake. Pretty soon, not long after, Spike's tail lifted up and slammed onto the ground, leaving a huge crack in the street and made Twilight and some of her friends lose their balances. Half of the gang fell to their sides and immediately caught the giant dragon's attention. Spike growled as he stared down at Ground Breaker and opened his jaws and blasted out an enormous stream of green fire at the stallion. Ground Breaker made a futile attempt to lessen the damage and hopefully survive. But he didn't need to, due to Twilight and Sunset putting up a barrier that shielded Ground Breaker from the blast. Once the fire stream has subsided, Spike had once again returned to swatting the pegasi circling around him. While the giant dragon was distracted, Ground Breaker ran up to Spike and attempted to use his Element of Respect, but it didn't do a thing. In that failed attempt, Spike's giant, long tail swung and hit Ground Breaker face first and knocked him 40 feet away from the rampaging dragon. Rainbow Dash was nearly struck with a devastating blow by the dragon's razor sharp claws, had it not been for Spark Burst pushing her out of the way and taking the blow instead, causing him to fall flat onto the ground. Rainbow Dash got worried and flew back down to the ground to get Spark Burst out of the way. "Hey, Spark-o, are you okay there, buddy?" Rainbow asked. "Nngh! Ouch! He's got a killer right hook. But I'll be alright, I just need to-- AAGGHH!" Spark shouted in pain. He tried to get to his hooves, but his body was injured from both the strike of the blow and the fall, leaving him completely immobilized and helpless. But then, Tidal Wave ran in and carried the injured pegasus out of harms way and took cover in one of the alleys and laid Spark down. Spark Burst knew he was in no condition to fight alongside with the others. Meanwhile, Spike still went on his rampage and is suddenly taken by surprise by Pinkie Pie, who floated up to Spike's face using her balloons and fired her party cannon. Some of the confetti landed in his eye and Spike's rage was further provoked by the party pony's surprise attack. But this proved to be a big mistake as Spike swung his mighty claw at the party pony, only hitting her balloons and sending her falling to the ground. Before she could even land with a solid thud, Shadow Force grabbed her in the knick of time with his levitation magic. "Thanks, Shady!" Pinkie said to Shadow. He gave her a confident smirk and a nod before teleporting the two of them out of the way of Spike's giant, swishing tail. Rainbow Dash took to the skies again and struck at Spike's blind spot with a solid kick. Spike growled in pain and nearly snapped his jaws onto Rainbow. Luckily, she was too quick for the mighty beast to touch at the moment, but his blind spot didn't last long. His eye opened back up, but it was red. The giant dragon unfurled his wings and took to the skies, flying over to the castle. Twilight gasped. "Quick, everypony back to the castle!" she called out. A few of the ponies followed Twilight while a couple of other ponies stayed behind in order to help treat their wounds. At their top speeds, they all barely managed to catch up with Spike, and soon got shot at by his green flames. Everypony dodged out of the way, except for Ground Breaker who only got grazed by the dragon's flames. "GROUND!!!" Applejack called out. She ran up to him to check if he was okay. Ground Breaker grunted a little from the burn on his back. "You alright?" she asks. "Just a minor burn. I should be okay." Ground Breaker replied. Spike then let out a thunderous roar, getting the others attention and saw him standing at the top of the castle, glaring down at them. He opened his mouth again and shot his flames at the group. Everypony either flew, teleported, or ran out of the line of fire and soon, Twilight, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash all flew up to Spike. "Spike! You've got to stop this right now! We're your friends and don't want to hurt you! Please, you have to listen to us and come to your senses! We know you're still in there!" Twilight said, looking straight into the giant purple dragon's emerald green eye. This only made the monstrous foe growl in anger. "Please, Spike! Listen to Twilight! We're all your friends and we don't want you to suffer anymore! Please, come back to us! You can still fight these urges and free yourself from the Song of Dragons! Please, Spike! You have to try! Try for us!" Fluttershy pleaded. "Come on, Spike! You're stronger than this! Put all you've got into this and fight off your greed! Show us that you're still our favorite dragon!" Rainbow called out. The mighty dragon clenched his claws into fists and threw his head up in the air and roared as loud as he could, flaring his wings out wide. The others thought that their words were reaching out to him and it looked like it, but even Melodia was surprised that the girls might actually pulled it off. However, when he stopped roaring, his eyes became more slitted and his fangs flashed in a nasty frown. Spike opened his mouth again and almost got Twilight, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, had it not been for Twilight's quick thinking, conjuring up a magic shield large enough to protecting them. Melodia flew up to the sky and tackled Spike's lower jaw, shutting his mouth and saw smoke emitting from his nostrils and the opened part of his mouth. He growled and snarled in agony and pain from the intense heat that exploded inside his large mouth. "How do ya like that, big guy?" Melodia asked in a gloating tone. Spike let out a nasty snarl and turned his attention directly at the over-confident pony/dragon hybrid. He swatted at her, but she teleported on top of his head just in time before he could get to her. "Sorry Big Guy, but you're juuuuuust a little too slow for my pace. And besides, we both know how this is going to end. So, I suggest that you give up the hope of an idea you have of winning against ME in that whiney, childish tantrum attitude of yours and start, BEHAVING! knocks him down or something?" she asked, checking her claws. Spike was growing angrier and more impatient by the second and slammed his fist at Melodia again, but at the moment of impact, she teleported again, and Spike only struck himself. Melodia was now behind Spike for a few seconds until she flew up to Twilight. "What are you doing?! We're trying to help Spike, not turn himself into a giant-sized punching bag!" Twilight scolded Melodia. "I thought knocking some sense into that cranium of his would do the trick." Melodia shrugged, having her back turned to the dragon behind her. "And you should be thanking me. Because now..." Melodia paused and coated both of her dragon horns in a magical aura, teleporting Twilight, Rainbow and Fluttershy back down to the ground before Spike blasted a larger stream of green flames. The flames missed the ponies, but it landed on a few flags that were scattered around the city. "Uh-oh!" Rarity said, seeing the flames get bigger. "Everypony, LOOK!" she pointed. Twilight and her friends looked at the city and all gasped. "We've got to stop the fire!" "Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Ground Breaker! You three get over there and do what you can to put out that fire, we'll stay here and see what we can to save Spike" Sunset ordered! "Spark Burst, Tidal Wave!" she called, but said ponies weren't in their sights. Sunset then realized. "Oh no, I forgot! Those two are still in the city somewhere, we gotta get them out!" she said in a panic. The moment Melodia heard Sunset say that, her pupils got more slitted and made a dash for the city and searched for her trusted friend. "Tidal! Tidal! TIDAL! Where are you!" Melodia called out! She heard the sound of coughing from down one of the streets and flew to where she found smoke coming out of an alley and found her light blue stallion and his bright yellow injured pegasus friend, Spark Burst, who had bandages wrapped around his waist. Melodia wrapped both stallions in a magical aura and flew them back to the castle, setting them at the front entrance. "Stay there!" Tidal nodded and watched the dark purple pony/dragon hybrid princess take off to the sky and confronted Spike with a nasty glare. "You were a fool to think you could outmatch me, but an even bigger fool to nearly take my Tidal Wave away from me!" she snarled. "Melodia, DON'T!" Rarity called out. "Please, you mustn't hurt Spikey-Wikey anymore than he already is, he needs our help to bring him back!" she yelled from the stairs. In the attempt of trying to console with her, Melodia glared down at the fashionista unicorn. She teleports down to the ground out of Spike's reach and just kept on staring at her until she finally exploded on her. "Spikey wikey this, spikey wikey that, spikey wikey, Spikey Wikey, SPIKEY WIKEY!!! SHUT UP!!! YOU KNOW, IF IT WEREN'T FOR YOU HE WOULDN'T BE IN THIS CONDITION! IF YOU HAD MAYBE SWALLOWED YOUR UNIVERSE OF PRIDE AND ACTUALLY LISTENED TO YOUR FRIENDS HE COULD'VE MAYBE RESISTED ZOOR'S CALL!!! BUT OOOOOH HOH NO! IT'S ALL," she says in a pompus tone trying to sound like Rarity, "They don't understand, I know myself best! They could never be as wrong!" Well swallow this PRINCESS, YOU'RE WRONG!!! W-R-O-N-G WRONGO!!! SO SHUT UP AND ACTUALLY TRY TO HELP INSTEAD OF EITHER PITYING YOURSELF OR JUSTIFYING YOURSELF MAYBE YOU'D SEE WHAT HE REALLY NEEDS, HOW HE REALLY FEELS! HOW BLIND, STUBBORN, AND USELESS CAN ONE PONY BE?! I GUESS THE PHRASE SHOULD BE STUBBORN AS RARITY INSTEAD OF STUBBORN AS A MULE!!!" Melodia sighs with a big huff in satisfaction as she then turns and walks off to help the others. Rarity's heart felt like it was ripped out of her when Melodia snapped at her, not because of how her anger was clouding her mind, but because of what she had said to her. No one ever had the gull to tell Rarity something so cold, yet truthful at the same time. It was a cold hard truth live with, but Rarity had to accept the fact the Melodia was right. Spike had always had his eyes on her. Even after all these years, he's never given up on her, but she never took his affections seriously and in turn, resulted in a broken heart that caused Spike to fall prey to the Song of Dragons against his will. But, Rarity didn't have time for feeling sorry for herself. Spike was still under the spell of the Song of Dragons and he needs everyone's help, including his crush. Whether it was a mistake or not, Rarity took a deep breath and called out to the giant, rampaging dragon. "SPIKE!" Spike hears her and glares dagger at her. He didn't seem to recognize her, or if he did, his anger would probably be a lot more instense. He folded his wings and climbed down the castle and stomped his giant clawwed feet onto the castle steps. He lowered his head down, growling at the fashionista. Rarity could see nothing but anger and hatred in his eyes. It broke her her heart more than it scared her. "I know I never understood how you truly felt, but I want you to hear me out! I'm sorry! I'm sorry for being so cruel to you when I should have been there for you when you needed me the most, even when you never asked for anything in return. If I had the power, I would stop all of this from happening, but instead I was a terrible friend to you, I just want you to say I'm so very sorry." she explained. The whole time she told him this, her eyes were teared up, looking directly into his predatorial, emerald eyes and had her hooves on both of the large dragon's cheeks. She wanted to show him that she really meant every single word she said and hoped that her words got through to him. Spike's eyes, became less slidded for what felt like a few short moments, but in that moment, a sad smile formed on her face. His growling became soft and Rarity could almost make out the one word she hoped he'd say. "R... Ra... ri... t... y..." the giant dragon whispered. Rarity nodded and felt like she might have broken the spell, but the worst had come so shockingly as the dragon's pupils had returned to their slit form and he growled loudly and deeply. Rarity backed away from her humongous friend and was about to launch another fiery blast at Rarity. She could feel the heat coming from deep within the dragon's mouth, but she was too scared to run away. But then, Sunset jumped in and knocked Rarity out of the way before Spike's green flames hit their mark, therefore, only striking the air. "Rarity, are you crazy?! He could have killed you!" Sunset scolded. Rarity stared at Sunset with her tearful eyes. "I... I thought I could reach him." Rarity then turned her attention to the ground knowing that she had failed to reach Spike. "I thought that my voice could reach him and hopefully reverse the effects of the Song of Dragons. But, it seems I was dead wrong, again." "Don't say that! We haven't completely lost him yet!" Sunset replied, looking at the raging dragon. Spike stood tall on his hinde legs and spread out his giant wings, roaring loudly in anger, almost completely deafening the ponies all around him. "Nnnngh!!! That roar of his is becoming a real pain in the ears!" Shadow Force said with his eyes closed tight, not being able to take the roaring. Once he stopped, Spike set his eyes on the city and flashed a nasty grin. He had no time to fight the ponies in front of him and so he began a slow walk towards Canterlot. Melodia's ears heard the sound of his giant steps moving towards the city. She sees him coming and he was ready to burn the city to the ground, judging by the look in his eyes. "Looks like the big, scaly reptile still wants to play, well I'm done with these games! Playtime's over!" Melodia said, spreading her wings out and flying towards Spike, but she starts hearing the sound of her father's words. 'Melodia, my daughter. The Song of Dragons may be hazardous to all dragons, but just remember that there is only one way to break the spell.' echoed her father's words. Melodia's eyes widened from the moment she realized the one basic weakness the Song of Dragons has. 'Blast! To think that I'd actually forget something so important.' Melodia thought. "Well, I suppose I'd better use it as soon as possible or we're in for a royal barbeque!" she said to herself. The former dragon princess high-tailed it towards the giant dragon as quickly as possible. Melodia's only concern was making it on time to stop him or lose the city and her friend Tidal Wave.