Spark Storm sighed as he sat outside Rapid's hut. He was close to falling asleep when a trio of large shadows passed over him. He ran out of the shade of the building to see three Dragons sailing off into the sky. He watched them with a shocked look on his face as his memories took him back to that dark and stormy night two weeks ago.
Spark groaned as he took the lightning bolts. Inbetween strikes, he would look up into the sky. Beyond the blurring pain, beyond the raindrops falling heavily into his eyes, he could see shapes. Something moving in the clouds. Three of them, waving like wild ribbons in the night sky. If he didn't know better, he'd say that those were...
"Dragons..." Spark watched the three creatures wisp away until they couldn't be seen anymore. Horrific realization dawned on him. Shimmering Oasis controlled the Dragons. Did that mean...?
He turned around only to come face-to-face with her. "You...you did -!" She gave him a kind smile before she leaned down to kiss him to silence him. At the same time, she put her spell on him. His eyes quickly glazed over, and as she pulled back, she looked at him with smug satisfaction to see a blank, dull look on his face.
"Good boy. Come with me." She turned around and headed back to her personal makeshift room. He followed wordlessly, his wings and tail dragging along the ground.
As the three Dragons sailed over a particular section of forest, there was a place, a large, perfect square, that had been frozen. Trees had toppled, plantlife had died. Blocks of frozen tree were scattered everywhere. As the three shadows passed over this area, Frostbite looked up from his massacring of the plant life in his anger of losing Lemon Pop. He immediately started running to catch up with the flying creatures.
Twilight Sparkle and Lemon Pop both squinted as the door to their prison opened. It was the first time they'd seen daylight in hours. The door was propped open to keep the light.
In walked an adult, red Earth pony mare. Her mane was black, done up nice and pretty. Both girls had a bad feeling about her. She turned and went to the side of the small hut, reaching down into a small pack on her left foreleg to strike a match. With this, she lit a lantern that had remained hidden in the darkness.
With the lantern in tow, the older mare closed the door, and the only light remaining was that of her lantern. She set it down in the floor, then reached for her other leg to grab a small but sturdy kunai knife. Both mares felt fear and despair grip them.
Lemon Pop's eyes were wide with fear, and her breathing was barely controlled. Twilight looked like a deer in oncoming headlights. She stared as fear tightened on her chest, making it impossible to breath.
Fire Lotus turned to the girls. She smiled at them. Not in a mean 'haha I'm going to kill you' kind of way. She almost looked at them with respect. "You two are no strangers to death." She turned to Twilight. "Or at least, no strangers to danger."
She swiveled the knife inbetween hooves skillfully as she watched their eyes. "Yes, I am going to kill you. I just wanted to let you know that it's not personal. Your deaths will ensure our victory. Be thankful for being so useful.
"No."
Twilight's voice was small, barely noticeable. Lemon noticed it. She hung her head and cried. Twilight had lost it, and they were both about to die. There was nothing to be done.
"No."
Twilight's voice was a little louder. Fire Lotus was watching her carefully. Something told her she needed to be quick with this one. Slit the throat, be done with it.
"No!" Twilight could feel her heart beat quickening. She felt her blood rushing to her head, she could hear it in her head, gathering around her horn. Pressure was building, like someone who was bending a garden hose, unaware that at the other end an entire dam was bursting to get through.
Lotus had heard enough. She approached Twilight quickly and sliced at Twilight's throat. Lemon Pop let out a strained scream, but it was cut short as she stared in amazement.
The knife was dissolving, as if it were melting into thin air in the red mare's hooves. Lotus stared at it, then at Twilight's horn. "What...what?"
Quite suddenly, the magic cancelling ring that had been fitted on Twilight's horn burst into two pieces, falling to either side of her.
"I said no!" She practically screamed as she got to her hooves. Her horn was glowing brightly, lighting up the room almost more brighter than the sun could. The ropes binding her had caught fire, as did Lemon Pop's.
The grounds suddenly became a place of panic as a small hut near the back exploded in a cloud of purple. Fire Lotus found herself flying through the air just above the ground. She ran into the well and burst through it, rocks tumbling down into the water. She skidded across the ground and tumbled through the grass until she stopped just before falling into the metal smith's smelting area.
She got up slowly with a pained groan. It felt like she'd broken a rib when connecting with the well. She looked down at her body, now riddled with bruises and a little blood. She looked again to where the hut had been. Standing in it's place was a bright purple light. She couldn't make out any figures yet.
What the devil had happened? The filly had been outfitted with a magic canceller! Nothing short of an average Alicorn should've been able to break it! Something told her that Princess Celestia had indeed not been messing around with her chosen diplomats. The Unicorn child was special, far beyond anything Fire Lotus was prepared to deal with. Maybe the Dragons...
The Dragons! Lotus looked up into the sky to see that the Dragons were close. She could just make them out in the sky. Now if only there was enough time. She looked again in Twilight's direction, only to see her winking into existence right in front of her. A teleport spell. Twilight glared at her as her eyes burned with a fierce lavender light. This was going to be the fight of her life, and she'd be lucky if she had an army to lead after this.
The pounding on the door continued until Shimmering Oasis finally opened it to see Princess Cadance standing there. She looked absolutely upset.
"Princess..." She bowed her head to the shorter Alicorn with a patient smile. "How may I be of -"
She was cut off as Cadance pushed her way inside, her eyes darting this way and that. The room seemed empty. She whirled around to glare at Oasis, who had turned and somehow kept her smile. "Where is he?"
Shimmering Oasis's lips just barely concealed the annoyance she so desperately wanted to display. "I am confused. Who are you looking for?"
Cadance narrowed her eyes at the other Alicorn, her feathers bristling. "You know who I'm talking about. Our powers aren't that different, Princess. I know an enchantment spell when I see one, and Spark Storm was following you like a lovesick puppy."
Shimmering Oasis stretched her smile out. Just a little bit. "I did no such thing. He may have followed me to my bedroom, Princess, but he was most certainly not under a spell."
Cadance stared at the other Princess with shock. Shimmering Oasis smirked, pleased at having upset the smaller Alicorn.
Refusing to be shaken, Cadance's horn lit up in bright yellow as she cast an illusion dispell. Having not expecting this, Shimmering Oasis' own horn lit up in a deeper shade of gold, but not in time. The room quivered and shimmered before it lost the illusion of being empty.
Right in the middle of the floor lay Spark Storm, asleep. Cadance ran to his side and laid a hoof on his back. He seemed fine, his breathing was regular, but he wouldn't wake up from a simple wake up spell. This was a powerful illusion, one that touched his mind, not just his body.
She stood once more, her wings unruffling and spreading in a threatening gesture as she turned to Shimmering Oasis, who was already standing in her own threatening pose, her horn lit up.
Shimmering Oasis suddenly gasped. Something was wrong. She activated her simple scrying spell, and immediately wished she hadn't. Her Dragons had landed where they were supposed to, but they were confused and upset. The usual camp ground was in chaos. There were ponies running everywhere in panic, and bright purple explosions. Where were they coming from?
She growled as she looked ahead again to the other Princess. She wouldn't be able to concentrate on whatever was happening with Fire Lotus -and- engage in an illusion battle with the Princess. She chanced another glance through her scrying glass and gasped as she saw what was causing all the trouble: little Twilight Sparkle, her horn aglow, sending spell after spell, trying to hit Fire Lotus, who seemed to be the only pony on the battlefield that still had her senses about her.
Shimmering Oasis groaned as she felt an uncomfortable sensation in her eyes. This sensation traveled in an instant up her horn and through space until it reached the eyes of the Dragon. Shimmering managed to open an eye and glare at Cadance. She was grinning from ear to ear.
"So, little Twilight Sparkle is ruining your plans? What a shame..."
Shimmering Oasis tried to ignore the ringing in her ears. The smaller Alicorn was indeed powerful to be able to 'hack' into her scrying spell and see what she saw. The bigger Alicorn strained and finally pushed her out. Breathing heavily, she gave the pink mare an evil grin.
"I just ordered my Dragons to kill her. You'll have to beat me if you want your little friend to survive."
Cadance's eyes opened wide with shock and fear, fear for her beloved little Twilight. Her horn lit up once again in bright yellow, her mane picking up and billowing as though it were blowing in a wind not present.
Fire Lotus ran with all her might to keep from getting hit by the seemingly random and destructive spells that the little Unicorn was firing at her. The shots flew wide, but they caused great damage, easily destroying most everything they hit.
It wasn't long before Lotus tripped and fell. She shielded her eyes as a spell was cast her way. It never hit, as the Dragons had finally arrived. Lotus was supposed to kill them, but now they were defending her. Good. Shimmering Oasis must have seen what was happening and taken direct control.
However, their movements weren't nearly as fluid as they usually were. It was as if the Alicorn had to take control of them one at a time. Their movements were halting and twitchy. Twilight turned her attention on the Dragons now, dismissing Fire Lotus.
Lotus had barely begun to crawl off to safety when the little strawberry Pegasus landed in front of her, glaring at her angrily. Lotus got to her hooves slowly, a sweet, smug smile on her face.
"Just get out of my way, little girl, and I won't have to hu-"
She barely managed to dodge the swift kick aimed at her head. She lunged forward, tackling the Pegasus to the ground as she grabbed a kunai knife from her foreleg band, but it was swiftly knocked out of her grip with the blunt edge of a well-aimed wing.
Lemon Pop rolled Lotus over her as she moved backwards, and landed on top of the bigger mare. She brought her hooves down repeatedly, batting at the red Earth pony's face. Each blow was blocked.
Lotus kicked her off, then got up and got into a careful, aggressive stance. Lemon did the same, then lunged at her. Lotus spun around as Lemon thrust a hoof at her, but Lemon spun as well. Her dancing lessons with Sapphire Snow had paid off.
Lemon ducked and snapped her wings closed over Lotus' long tail. The Pegasus pulled forward, dragging Lotus off her feet. Lotus kicked out at her, but at the last second Lemon hopped over her legs and then came down on them. She spun again, her wings and hooves both catching Lotus square in the chin.
The momentum sent Fire Lotus crashing to the ground, knocked clean out. Lemon Pop dusted her hooves off and sat down on her foe, watching the fight unfold before her. As skilled as she was, there was no way she was a match for three Dragons, and...frankly, Twilight scared her.
Twilight's shield was holding out against the lightning and fire raining down on her. When she wasn't being fired on, she fired blast after blast of pure magical destruction down onto the Dragons. They were rocked and quivered in the air as their bodies were put to the limit of stamina.
Twilight's magic supply was getting dimmer and dimmer, though. Her shields had gotten smaller and smaller, to barely covering her. Finally, the last of her magic gave out. She collapsed, barely conscious.
Lemon Pop was there in an instant, grabbing Twilight up in her forelegs and flying just over the ground as fire and lightning rained down from above, barely missing the two.
"Oh hold on, Twilight, please!" Lemon hugged the Unicorn tightly to her, but Lemon wasn't used to carrying ponies. She groaned and finally fell down, tumbling with Twilight for a moment before coming to a stop in the abandoned camp. Lemon hugged Twilight to her tightly, burying her face in the Unicorn's mane.
"I'm so sorry, Twilight! We came so far, only now..."
The Dragons encircled the two prone ponies before raining firey death upon them.
Shimmering Oasis laughed loudly in triumph as her horn lit up the room around her. This time, she was forcing the scrying image upon Cadance, forcing her to watch as Twilight was wreathed in flames. Cadance cried in pain, both in seeing her favorite Unicorn like this, and from the terrible pain in her head at being controlled. She had put up a good fight, but was overpowered in the end.
Shimmering let out a low, shocked gasp. No...it couldn't be...The Unicorn and Pegasus were still alive? Indeed, at the last second, they had been sealed in a shell of ice. A new Unicorn had entered the fight. The cryomancer.
Shimmering's shock was just enough. Putting forth more effort into this spell than she ever had for any spell before, Cadance aimed a simple telekinesis spell at Shimmering Oasis. It hit the bigger Alicorn hard in the horn, disrupting all her spell-casting. She was stunned for a moment before Cadance hit her with another one in the stomach. This spell sent her through the wall and outside, where she laid unconscious.
As Shimmering Oasis had been incapacitated, Spark Storm stirred from his sleep. He got to his hooves shakily, then fell to the side, only to be supported by Cadance, who looked as tired as he did.
He looked at her with confusion, but she only hugged him gently before she had to sit down.
Frostbite looked up at the three Dragons. He looked totally ready to throw down. He'd been running for twenty minutes straight without stopping to get here, and now he was ready to rumble...!
However, the Dragons had ended their attack, and were simply looking around as if they didn't know what to do. After a moment, they flew up into the air, heading back for their homegrounds.
Frostbite looked around at the campgrounds. They were completely destroyed. Tents were on fire, entire buildings had been demolished and tipped over or simply turned to ash. He had missed everything.
"...Oh come on!" He yelled to nopony in particular.
He sighed quietly as he slowly undid the ice shield protecting the two girls. Once it was gone, Lemon Pop ran for him.
"Really? You guys see all the action, and I-"
He didn't get a chance to finish when Lemon Pop latched onto him, crying quietly.
"Ah, geez..." He sighed once more and rubbed Lemon Pop's back comfortingly. "I always miss the action..."
"Shut up, you big..." Lemon Pop trailed off, simply nuzzling her friend and partner. "And thanks for saving us."
And that's it! One more closing chapter for Neippon and we're headed on back to our regularly scheduled program! Our next storyline takes place in the wilds of the Everfree as Orea, Spark Storm and others race to find the Dryads before the Changelings wipe them all out. If our heroes fail, it'll mean no future for the Nymphs. It's a race to the finish line, and the prize is the existence or the destruction of one of the oldest races of Equestria!