“What?” Spike’s attention snapped up to Dazzle, who seemed to star struck by the new dragoness’s sudden arrival. There wasn’t any time for a response as Spike soon found himself swept up by Twilight’s wing, being roughly delivered onto her back as she took to the sky. Many other winged dragons were doing the same, as everybody was trying to make their way away from dragoness currently filling up their entire nest’s area.
“Twilight! What are we doing!?” Spike yelled over all of the other screams of panic.
“I don’t know, but getting away is step one!” Twilight shouted back as she made sure to dodge around many of the larger dragons who couldn’t seem to bother about collisions as long as it was further away from their point of origin. Spike glanced back to make sure Dazzle and Chromie were following behind them, but neither seemed to have moved from the crater’s lip.
“Twilight! We have to go back!”
“Are you crazy?” Twilight snapped. “Do you see the size of that dragon? We can’t deal with that! And if they’ve got Tiamat’s scale, who knows what that’s going to do to them!”
“But Dazzle and Chromie are still back there!”
“And they can make it on their own!”
“No, I mean they haven’t moved!”
“What!” Twilight finally slowed down to turn herself around, still dodging a few dragons, but a majority had seemed to have fled by now, leaving a wide open view of Chromie and Dazzle standing at the crater’s edge as the giant dragoness seemed to be itching the crater’s side, seeming to absently look for something. Twilight’s breathing slowly began to regulate itself as her immediate response to flee waned, her logical side trying to come to a conclusion.
“They’re not being eaten?” Twilight questioned aloud.
“No, just looks like-yep.” Spike’s hunch was confirmed as one of the dragoness’s claws came out from the crater glittering in gems, just to be deposited into her mouth. “She’s eating gems.”
“She.” Twilight breathed before she remembered what Dazzle had said, and what she had gotten earlier that day. “That’s Early Light!” Spike didn’t have an opportunity to question Twilight, as he was to busy holding on to her mane as she made a dash back to the two stunned dragons. With the speed in which Twilight had both left and come back, she was puffing as Spike dismounted Twilight and made his way back to the two’s sides. Dazzle was still in shock, but tears clearly making their way to her eyes, and Chromie merely stood there, eyes wide and mouth slightly dropped.
That’s when Spike remembered that someone was still in the crater aside for Early Light, and quickly made his way to the edge. As he peered down, sure enough, a battered Mourning Star lay on the ground between Early Light’s foot and tail, seemingly unconscious.
“Is it really… her?” Spike heard Twilight ask weakly, turning to see the alicorn looking out to the dragoness.
“I… I can barely hope.” Dazzle muttered. The statement seemed to snap Chromie’s daze as she too looked to Dazzle.
“But Mourning Star said he killed her when her greed growth was taking hold.”
“I don’t know if I can believe anything he’s said now.” Dazzle replied just as dispassionately, glancing toward the edge of the crater with the downed chief.
“I think I can say he didn’t.” Spike said as he walked back to the group, taking glances at the giantess of a dragon, digging through the top level houses, destroying hovels and taking their materials, eating everything.
“But that… doesn’t quite… matter now, does it?” Twilight huffed, finally gaining her breath again. “What matters is… well… what now?” Twilight looked up to Dazzle.
“We…I… I need to go talk to her.” Dazzle started to walk forward, unfurling her wings, ready to take off, but Spike ran ahead of her.
“Whoa whoa! Hang on a second, she’s definitely in a greed growth state, right? She’s not going to react to anything except what’s in front of her right now!” Spike declared, making Dazzle and Chromie look down at him in disbelief. “Personal experience remember?”
“What!” Chromie exclaimed. “But how’re you-“
“Not the time Chromie.” Twilight flared a wing in front of the bronze dragoness to stop any tirade of questions. “But we can’t stand here and do nothing about this Spike. I don’t know where she’s been for the last fifty years, but something kept her at bay, otherwise we’d have a lot more incident reports in Equestria.”
“I- *cough cough* -made a deal.” The group turned to see Mourning Star had pulled himself up the lip of the crater, badly beaten and looked barely conscious. The one eye they could see was twitching every so often and his head was wavering back and forth.
“What now chi- Mourning Star.” Dazzle demanded as she began to walk to the dragon, the other three quickly following. “What did you do now? Bargain a sacrifice every few years? Ship off material to nowhere for her? Never tell me what happened to her?” Dazzle’s accusations were sharp, but desperate. Mourning Star sighed deeply as his gaze drifted to Early Light.
“I told her… I’d keep the scale safe.”
“And for that you killed my family?!” Dazzle snapped. “You bargained with a mad drake to keep a dumb scale locked up over the clan?”
“I bargained for my family!” Mourning Star roared, his left arm propelling himself up further over the crater lip. Spike glanced to Early Light at the outburst, but she seemed to be scraping out a particularly rich hovel. Mourning Star’s height didn’t last, as his pull propelled him out of the crater, his upper body now laying outside of the crater, his right arm laying against him, useless, either from the fight or the collision. Both of his wings weren’t moving and seemed to have minor tears in them, and his legs looked… his waist was twisted out of line with his torso, neither leg seemed to react to anything. With his one good arm, he began dragging himself fully out of the crater. “I bargained for her and your lives.” Mourning Star growled.
“Why?” Dazzle asked in a bit of shock at the statement and Mourning Star’s state. “What’s so important about me! What made everyone else so expendable!”
“Because that’s all we could get!” Mourning Star yelled, huffing hard, tears beginning to form. “It’s all we could get before she couldn’t think anymore.” Mourning Star’s head hit the ground in self defeat.
“Before she couldn’t... what?” Dazzle asked, exasperated, her wings finally falling, claws unclenched.
“Before she lost herself.” Spike clarified, making Dazzle look back at him. “She realized what was happening, wasn’t she?”
“How?” Chromie asked. “Isn’t greed growth spontaneous?”
“No, there’s a catalyst.” Twilight interjected. “Spike’s was an overabundance of gifts on his birthday. He began to grow, but nothing really came back all that different other than his size, but then…”
“I began on focusing on only gathering more things.” Spike finished. “So what happened?” Spike asked the pained face of Mourning Star.
“She… I let her touch the scale.” Mourning Star admitted as he finally looked back to the group, Dazzle and Chromie’s shock leaving them more and more numb. “I was… passive in my duty and saw no harm in feeling the scale. Early Light wanted to see if she could feel the renewal of lava. As she wasn’t moving the scale, I allowed it. I would allow her to come and examine the scale, and she always told me she could really feel something strong coming from it every time she did. It wasn’t until I found her caressing the scale one night did I think there was a problem. It took a long time to convince her of the same, but by the time I did…” Mourning Star scrunched his face in shame.
“The growth became exponential.” Twilight concluded.
“That-that still doesn’t explain your deal.” Chromie pipped up. “Shouldn’t the deal have been to… I-I don’t know…”
“The savage side started coming out more frequently, adamant in the scale’s safe protection. It demanded the scale be under family protection. I…convinced it that the clan would hunt her down, and that the scale was safe where it was. She’d…it would just place the scale in danger. So it agreed to leave the scale with her family for as long as it wasn’t moved.”
“I… but then why?” Dazzle tried to form a coherent question, but everything made no sense anymore, her world had gone insane.
“But if the deal was Early Light’s family… shouldn’t your children have…” Twilight tried as well, but felt sick at the thought of familicide. There was deep pain in Mourning Star’s eyes as he contemplated his next words.
“I was never the most… observant chief. Not in my lax protection of the clan’s relic. Not in making the deal. And even blinded more by the scale after Early Light left. I made a deal too vague, and I now believe the scale worked through me. As… Dazzling Star is my only daughter-”
Dazzle sneered. “Now at least.”
“-With Early Light.” Mourning Star barked back, but just as quickly lost his anger. “…But that was all it allowed, so narrow a stipulation, and I see that now. I thought… I thought it would include the clan, but the deal seems to only be for blood family, Dazzle.”
“So…so when Starset took the scale from the alter…” Chromie began.
“It came back.” Mourning Star shifted his head to look back to Early Light starting to dig through the second layer of the clan crater. “And now I feel this isn’t just any other greed growth. There’s to many… variables. The scale may have been a catalyst…” Mourning Star turned his gaze back to the group, but to Spike specifically. “But as Spike has noted, it has its own essence. Perhaps even… a soul. Acting through dragons around it.”
“You’re projecting now!” Dazzle snapped, a snarl coming to her lip and a fire to her eyes. “You want to blame anything now! Starset, the scale, Mom! Anything to make it so this isn’t your fault!”
“But this is my fault!” Mourning Star roared, making the group brace against the shockwaves of his voice and slammed his fist. “This is all my fault! I was negligent! I looked for easy solutions! I sat on my laurels! I have failed this clan! And… and…” Mourning Star began to cry before he slammed his head into the ground, grinding down hard in self harm. “And I’ll never get any of you back.” He began to sob. “Gleaming Day, Sparking River, Silver Starlight, Starbolt, Gold Chaser, Astral Strike, Crimson Armor, Crystal Aurora, Obsidia, Moon Glow, Azure Sun.” He listed off, each one in a heart wrenching admission. “I killed them. I can say the scale made me, but I did it, I was too weak to protect them. I…I…” Mourning Star couldn’t say any more, gone to his own pity, but the site of her broken father made Dazzle finally stop being angry with him. There weren’t any words or deeds she could do now to make her father suffer for his own actions.
The group could only stand there in silence, all at a loss at what needed to be done, broken only by Mourning Star’s grief.
The near silence was broken shortly there after as Mourning Star let out a gasp as he was flung further away from the crater as Early Light’s tail flicked him away so she could begin digging into the hovels underneath him. The sudden shift snapped the fours attention to the giant dragoness as her slitted eyes flicked between the hovels, her claws meticulously scraping material up. The group quickly had to shield their faces when Early Light slowly opened her mouth to eat, as the interior of her mouth emanated a heat not unlike the lava that flowed about the clan’s dwelling.
Dazzle took use the sudden draft by opening her wings and allowing herself to be pushed away. Spike and Twilight shared a quick look before Twilight wrapped Spike tightly in a hug as she mimicked Dazzle and followed after her. Chromie huffed as she began jogging after the other three.
They didn’t go far, as Dazzle just glided around the crater to be out of Early Light’s way. When the Twilight and Spike landed behind her, Spike could see just how much life had left Dazzle. She hadn’t even bothered to land, a long skid mark in the ground indicated she had simply let herself collide with the ground, ending up as a laid out heap of a dragon. There wasn’t anything Spike could think to say, but Twilight could.
“So what are you going to do now Dazzle?”
“Do?” Dazzle glanced dejectedly up over her shoulder with a sneer. “What’s there to do? Dad made a deal with a monster. He became a monster. The Dawn Star clan is scattered and decimated, it doesn’t exist or matter anymore. Of my remaining family, one hates me, one’s better off dead, and one’s insane. The best I can do is just lay here and wait for whatever the insane one wants to do with me.”
“But she’s just going to want to destroy things!” Spike exclaimed. “With Tiamat’s scale driving her base instincts, all it’s going to want is to destroy her-“
“That’s fine by me!” Dazzle snapped, laying her head back down. “There’s no reason for me to care! Everything I could have cared for is gone! There’s nothing left!” Her tail smacked the ground in finality.
“Then make… something.” Chromie huffed as she approached, having heard the last declaration, making Dazzle commit to looking over her shoulder. “Things are… bad. But that doesn’t mean… they can’t get better.” Chromie sighed, fully catching her breath. “And the first thing is getting you mother back.”
“Chromie, you’ve said some nonsense before, but that’s not happening. Look at her.” Dazzle lazily gestured toward her mother and the completely decimated top two levels. “There’s nothing left to get back.”
Twilight did look, and in doing so tilted her head as she puzzled something together.
“She’s still here.”
“Yeah, she’s eating everything she can-“ Dazzle started.
“No no, she’s still here.” Twilight emphasized as she looked to the others. “Spike thinks that Tiamat’s scale makes the possessed unnaturally aggressive, to destroy everything. But she’s eating. Why?”
“She’s been gone fifty years, probably forced hibernation until the deal broke.” Dazzle dismissed, but Chromie picked up the logic there.
“And why hibernate?” Chromie rushed to her friend’s back, tightly gripping Dazzle’s shoulder. “Why not rampage through the lands sacking anything and everything else?”
Dazzle glanced up to Chromie before forlornly looking out to the beast that had been her mother. “Why stay in the Dawn Star hovel?” Dazzle muttered. It took a second, but it clicked for Dazzle, eyes going wide as she stumbled over herself as she tried to get up. “Why would she stay? Why would she stop? Why wouldn’t she destroy? Why wouldn’t she be Tiamat’s dragon?!” Dazzle whipped around to the others, life sparking in her eyes.
“She’s in there, fighting.” Dazzle said breathlessly, desperate to hope. “She’s fighting the rage with… with…pedantics!” Dazzle chuckled. Finally Spike pieced it together.
“She made a deal with Mourning Star to leave the scale with her family, made no point to destabilize its safety by rampaging, and now filling up after fifty years of hibernation! But…for uh…” Spike stumbled on as to why.
“For help.” Twilight finished for him. “She’s looking for help.”
“How though?” Dazzle asked. “We can’t fight her down, she’s too big! Anything she swat’s us with would take us out in a second!”
“We don’t have to fight her, we just need to get the scale away from her.” Twilight stated.
“We can’t!” Chromie blurted out. “Even if we found it in, at best, her teeth, none of us who could stand that temperature could touch it! We’d just get as corrupted as she is!”
“And even if we could get it away from her, then what? She’ll just come for it, probably eating whoever took it.” Dazzle sighed in frustration, desperately wanting this to be true. Twilight bit her lip, glancing around the entire area, looking for anyway they could stop Early Light before she left on a rampage.
”Break it.” A voice shot through Spike’s head, making him grunt and grip his head like a migraine shot through it like Rainbow Dash.
“Spike? What’s wrong?” Twilight asked, gaining concern from the other two as well.
“I don’t know, it felt like-“
”Break the scale.”
“-Agh!” Spike gripped his head in both hands now, the pain pounding through his skull.
“Spike!” Twilight was immediately around the drake, casting anything she could think of to find a source of injury, but only found a small trickle of blood from Spike’s nose.
“Break the scale.” Spike breathed. “Pyrathy says to break the scale.”
”What!” Exclaimed Dazzle and Chromie.
“Are you sure it was-“ Twilight began.
“Yeah, and I think he’s as desperate as we are.” Spike rubbed his temple as he wiped under his nose, finding blood on his thumb. “I don’t think he’d have done that otherwise.”
Dazzle gripped her face with one claw. “Ugh, fine, that fixes the ‘what’, but that leaves us with two how’s. How do we get the scale, and how do we break it? Oh! Also without corrupting ourselves.”
“Well, it is just a scale.” Chromie mused. “Anything that could crack one of our scales should do the trick.”
“But none of us are that strong. And we can’t heat it up, it’s already the source of fire!” Dazzle contemplated.
“But what if… we punched it… with a mountain?” Spike laid out slowly, confusing the three before Twilight caught on.
“Dazzle, your photo!” Twilight turned back to the other two dragoness’ as Spike shook the last of his pain away. “We might not be able to break the scale in one hit with it, but your photo is reinforced enough to act as a denser impactor.” Dazzle and Chromie were still a bit confused by this, but there was also concern in Dazzle’s eyes.
“What if that doesn’t work?”
“Then we find some other way to snap it! But we need to start moving soon, she’s almost to the bottom!” Chromie called out as she glanced to their target.
“Right! So, Dazzle, get the photo. We’ll-“ Twilight began.
“I’ll pop the lava flow on her.” Chromie took over. “She might be a monster dragon, but the clan’s lava has been super-heated by that scale to the point where even we can’t handle it in the stream. The pain should make her open her mouth long enough to get in without her noticing.”
Spike gulped. “That leaves me getting the scale out of her.”
“Spike, I can come in with you to-“ Twilight began again.
“No offence Twilight, you barely managed basic living conditions for dragons.” Dazzle cut off. “A super-heated maw would overwhelm you faster than you might think.” Twilight huffed at the dragoness, but she wasn’t exactly wrong. Twilight began to calculate just how much magic would be needed to shield herself inside Early Light’s mouth when a claw lay gently on her shoulder.
“I’ll be fine Twilight,” Spiked assured her. “Just be ready. Keep her from eating what’s left in the hovel and keep a look out for me. When I get out, take the scale from me. Our best bet at minimal corruption is you managing it with magic.”
Twilight glanced at the gathered dragons, each psyching themselves up for their jobs. She sighed in slight defeat as she lowered herself down for Spike once again. Once he was situated, she flared her wings, ready for a once over of the plan.
“Okay. Dazzle, get the photo. Chromie, keep her distracted below, I’ve got above. Spike…”
“I get the scale out as fast as I can and we gather at Mourning Star.” Spike concluded, garnering a skeptical look from the rest. “What? Got any other land marks?” There was a brief thought before the group shrugged.
“All right then, break!” Twilight called as she and Dazzle took off, Chromie making her way over the broken hovels.
While she had said she would distract Early Light from above, Dazzle had been right about trying to fight the monstrous dragoness. Her wings could easily spread over the entire clan crater and it seemed what little space Mourning Star had taken up before was now gone as Early Light filled it up, likely from the scale making her grow even further. So for now, Twilight hovered behind Early Light’s head as she gorged on the remaining homes.
“Spike?”
“Yeah Twilight?”
“Do you really think you… we can do this?”
“…That depends. Which part of this? Because I for one think I’ll make a great toothpick.”
“Spike!” Twilight half heartedly chuckled, as did Spike. But they both knew they were dancing around the subject.
“…Immediately, maybe.” Spike finally answered. “I don’t know what that scale will do, but I have expectations. After this… we can only hope.” Twilight was silent to this, but she could only have faith in her number one assistant, and that had been fairly bolstered by his claims of uncertainty and preparedness.
“I believe in you Spike.” Twilight said as she saw Dazzle break into her hovel’s roof. “You should be able to see where the corruption is coming from and take it from there. If-“ Twilight gulped. “If you go further than her mouth, or can’t make it out, jump up and down or something. I’ll make sure to keep a trace on you just in case.”
In a swell of pride, fear, and love, Spike wrapped his arms around Twilight’s neck in a tight hug, startling the alicorn slightly as she lost a little altitude. Both of them could feel a few tears on Twilight’s mane, but neither said a word, only letting the hug speak all of their words. With a shuddering breath and a wipe of his eyes, Spike sat back up.
“I’m counting on you then Twilight.”
A short rumble was all the warning the two had before a jet of lava burst from near the middle of the crater wall, coating Early Light’s heavily in the molten rock, making her cringe away from the pain and roar out in anguish. Twilight saw her opening and beat her wings as fast as she could, steeling herself to dash between the dragon’s teeth. As she passed over the open mouth, she tilted herself as to let Spike slide off of her into the waiting maw. Spike was half grateful as he hadn’t prepped himself to jump, but also half hated that this plan entailed him getting eaten.
Spike landed semi-roughly as he slid a way across Early Light’s tongue, the saliva and rough texture making stopping an interesting dilemma. He was able to finally grip a taste bud to stop himself, but after a second Early Light began lashing her tongue about, probably to dislodge him, so Spike obliged by allowing himself to be thrown to a row of razor sharp teeth.
Luckily he only hit the interior of the teeth, managing to avoid impalement. Not so Luckily, Early Light seemed to notice his abnormality, as her tongue was quick to start looking for him. Spike tried to lower himself before the tongue could find him, but hitting the dragoness’ gum seemed to make him an easier find. He was quickly scooped up, the tongue rose, and Early Light’s mouth closed.
Spike was about to be swallowed and he knew it, yet the scenario seemed to slow down as it had before in the forest, as with no other light, Spike could see the scale gleaming its blood red shine. Spike didn’t know if the lack of outpouring gore and violence was a good thing or not, but the fact that it was lodged in the lower jaw was definitely a blessing, if only it weren’t for his impending doom as the tongue scrapped across the roof of the mouth to scape him down.
Thankfully Twilight came through with something, as the mouth shook and Spike once more slid down Early Light’s tongue, only this time with a destination in mind. Spike winced in pain as a roar erupted from Early Light, making him lose sight of his objective as his ears rang, and soon enough he found yet another flaw to this plan.
Early Light’s mouth was not a stable place to move in. Spike more stumbled than ran to his objective, and even once he made it off Early Light’s tongue and onto her inner gum, he knew he had to be doing a little bit of damage as his claws gripped into her flesh. But whatever Twilight and Chromie were doing was distracting Early Light enough that she wasn’t focusing on scraping him out her mouth with tongue or claw.
The mission was a bit more straightforward now. Spike was latched into Early Light’s gum, his ears had triggered some sort of blocking machination to not be deafened by Early Light’s near constant roars, and her opening and closing mouth allowed Spike to see where the scale of Tiamat lay wedged between two of Early Light’s teeth. Breathing was a bit hard and labored as air rushed past him in and out, but Spike unfurled his claws to the furthest extent and began to climb, digging his hands and feet into the soft, wet flesh, blood seeping out from each insertion. There was some initial hesitation, and possibly even a near blackout from what was happening, but Spike steeled himself and climbed, this horror would be dealt with later.
Not a minute later Spike came to his final problem, actually reaching the scale. Yes, it was right there above him, but there was at least ten feet of tooth between him and the scale. His claws just couldn’t breach Early Light’s teeth, so here he was, stuck at the end of the gum with barely enough to hold on to.
And there Spike held on, in shock, disbelief, and anger. It was right there, all he needed to do was grab it and let Twilight teleport him out. He was so close to ending this whole thing. And he couldn’t reach it.
He was too short.
Soon, the anger started becoming more prominent. Tears weld in his eyes. A claw came off the gum and punched the tooth, but to no avail. It was right there, right there. And he was too Celestia damned small to reach it! Spike clenched his eyes shut as he punched the tooth again, and again, and again. Tears were streaming as he cried, punching this dragons’ tooth, not caring that his fist was hurting, feeling the weight that had just been piled onto him.
He wasn’t meant for this. He hadn’t been raised for this. He was supposed to be Twilight’s friend and helper. He was supposed to bake meals and keep schedules straight. And suddenly a primordial dragon wants him to fix everything? Fix what an even greater primordial dragon broke? What was he supposed to fix? Base instincts? You don’t fix a genetic subconscious! And here this one, lone, discarded scale was proving he couldn’t do anything about this.
Because he was a child. Pyrathy wanted a child to fix a grand problem. And that just wasn’t fair. It just wasn’t possible. Not by himself.
Spike’s head rested against the tooth, his fist having stopped pounding from exhaustion, and Spike stood there, three claws embedded into fleshy mouth gum. After a few deep breaths, Spike sighed. He would have to jump off, do something crazy for Twilight to notice, and get him out of this mouth to come up with a new plan. Probably send in Dazzle like they probably should have done in the first place to get the scale out.
But in his moment of calm, Spike realized the roaring had stopped, as well as the violent thrashing, and it was bright. Spike looked up toward the mouth to see what was happening, to then notice a giant claw coming in.
He had stayed still to long, banged to hard on the tooth, or something to let Early Light know where he was. Now was a good a time as any to jump, so he prepared to. However due to time or hesitation, Spike’s remaining claws had become quite well imbedded and caked over with dried blood. There was a frenzied hurry to dislodge himself before the claw got to him. As he got his remaining claw and right foot out, he felt the claws shadow come over him, and Spike flinched for the incoming pain.
But there wasn’t any. Spike cracked an eye open to see the claw was instead above him.
Ten feet above him.
Dislodging the scale.
Spike’s eyes widened at what he hoped was happening. He leaned into the tooth as to not fall to soon and waited as Early Light dug the scale out of her teeth. When it came free, Spike saw a trail of the viscera and carnage flowing from the scale into the teeth, and he also saw the scale falling right towards him. Spike leaned back to grab it, but this was no Crystal Heart, and Spike’s hands barely latched to the sides of the thing. The force of the falling scale also dislodged him from his spot, and Spike quickly started falling to Early Light’s lower gums.
But just as fast as he found himself falling, he found himself teleported outside, floating alongside Twilight.
“Spike! You did it!” Twilight cheered. But that was soon drowned out by the sound of screams, the feeling of tearing flesh, and the smell of running blood. The scale, now detached from Early Light, started seeping its influence into Spike.
”Take what’s yours.” A cacophony of voices demanded.
”Take what’s theirs.”
”Burn the undeserving.”
”Kill all in your way.”
Kill.
Kill!
Kill!
“Twilight! Take it!” Spike quickly chucked the scale forward. “Get me away from it!” Twilight’s magic easily held both Spike and the scale and quickly pulled the two apart from each other. Spike heard the voices fade, but he was still close enough to hear the desire of destruction emanating off of the scale, but Spike felt no want or need to get closer to such power. But he also felt he wouldn’t need to, for as soon as they were separated, he could see the power of the scale begin to radiate ever outward like water over the ground.
“We need to break this thing as fast as we can before it can latch onto anything else.” Spike declared as Twilight deposited him once again onto her back.
“I’m sure Dazzle is already in positi-whoa!” Twilight cried out as claws passed by on either side of her. They both looked back to see a pained looking Early Light clutching her face with one claw as the other was buried beneath them.
“I don’t know how much longer she can fight it, go, GO!” Spike kicked his heels into either side of Twilight, startling her into flying forward and toward the downed body of Mourning Star.
As they fast approached the fallen chief, Spike kept an eagle eye out for the dragoness. “There!” Spike pointed toward the middle of the chief’s back where Dazzle stood with her picture clutched to her chest. “Try to keep the scale as far from her as possible before we’re ready.” Twilight gave a curt nod as she came into range. Twilight held the scale well out of range of the three by reasonable standards. but Spike noticed even at this range the power was barely five feet from them and spreading quick. They needed to get this done now.
“Are you really sure this is going to work Twilight?” Dazzle asked. “It takes a lot of pounding to crack a dragon scale, much less break them entirely.”
“We don’t have anything else right now Dazzle. The only other thing I can think of it to play cat and mouse with the scale and Early Light until we could get something else, and even then, I’m the only one who could carry it, and I don’t know how I would match up to her!” Twilight pointed back at Early Light, who had crawled out of the crater and making her way toward the trio.
Dazzle glanced between the picture, her mother, and the scale, before closing her eyes, took a deep breath, and let it all out with a curt nod. In a demonstration of speed to wow even Rainbow Dash, in one motion, Dazzle unfurled her wings and took to the sky in one down beat, blasting Twilight and Spike with air. As Spike looked up, he could see Dazzle in the air, eye level with Early Light, aiming the picture where Twilight laid it down.
And just as fast as she rose, Dazzling Star, true to her name, came hurtling down, crashing into the scale and throwing up a cloud of dirt, Twilight and Spike barely having time to shield their eyes. As Spike lowered his arm, so too did his stomach.
It hadn’t worked. The picture was barely wedged into the scale, Dazzle still holding it, kneeling beside the pair of entwined items.
And she was panting.
And the energy was retreating.
Into Dazzle.
”NO!” A gurrtial roar came as Early Light hastened over. Spike was frozen in indecision. They had to get away. Dazzle had to get away. Early Light couldn’t have the scale!
But as Dazzle looked up to her mother, Spike no longer saw the Dazzle he had come to know. He saw a savage beast, ready to kill anything and everything, with claws already extended and wings beating.
Only for a purple aura to envelop Dazzle, as Twilight recognized the frenzy in Dazzle’s eyes.
“Spike! Move! Now!” Twilight called as she began running with a flailing Dazzle in her aura toward Mourning Star’s head.
“But what about the scale?!”
“MINE!” Dazzle screeched as she broke from Twilight’s grasp and flew at Spike.
Now, even his heart froze as Dazzle tackled him to the ground, sliding the pair a fair distance. “Take! Kill!” Dazzle rasped out as her claws dug into Spike’s back, making him cry out in pain.
"You" Early Light boomed as she stomped forward, snapping Dazzle’s attention to her.
"Will NOT" Early Light grew closer to the scale, making Dazzle leap to it.
"Take" Dazzle almost made it to the scale, but Twilight yanked her back once more in her magic.
"My" Early Light was looming over all of them now, easily able to kill them all and take the scale,
"Daughter!" Early Light’s claw came down hard, on the picture, on the scale. And even if Early Light couldn’t feel it, and the others couldn’t see it, Spike could.
A tirade of blood red energy came spewing out from underneath Early Light’s claw, jettisoning out in every feasible direction, eventually lifting into the sky and dispersing in the air. It went on and on for Spike, well over five minutes, in which Early Light still stood, breathing deeply, perhaps feeling the energy flow away. Twilight came to the motionless Spike with an unconscious Dazzle in tow. Twilight contorted the dragoness into a feasibly comfortable sleeping position before looking to Spike.
She was quickly worried by the bleeding wounds in his back and moved to fix them, only to find they were well on the mend already. Worried and a bit confused, she sighed in exhaustion as she lay beside the entranced Spike.
“We did it, didn’t we?” Twilight asked.
“Yeah, yeah I think we did.” Spike responded, his gaze never shifting. “It’s still going.”
“The energy?”
“Yeah, still rushing out of the scale.”
“And Early Light it seems.” That got Spike to look up, and sure enough, the once towering dragoness was significantly smaller than before now barely twice the size of Mourning Star.
“Huh.” Was all Spike could muster before his adrenaline crash lead him to fall unconscious against Twilight, who only smiled.
“Well done Spike, well done.”