//------------------------------//
// Chapter 13: The Dragonslayer 
// Story: Rogue Sun 
// by Jninja15 
//------------------------------//

Sunset, Sunburst, Crystal Hoof and the Crusaders covered their ears as the massive dragon roared and began rampaging through the city.
“Is that- who I think it is?” Sunburst said in awe and shock.
“It’s Spike- The Brave and Glorious, yes,” Crystal Hoof said with equal shock, “but something’s not right...” 
“You mean other than he’s a sixty hoof rampaging monster?!” Sunburst exclaimed.
“He looks more like fifty to me.” Sunset quipped.
“Not. Helping.” Sunburst snapped.
“W-what do we do?!” Crystal Hoof screamed, and he began to hyperventilate, taking breaths in between nearly every other word, “We’re - under - attack - by the greatest hero - in the history - of the Crystal Empire!” He took in a real deep breath before he let loose a high pitched wail, curled up into the fetal position and began rocking back and forth.
Sunburst lightly kicked Crystal Hoof’s side. “Dude, get up you’re embarrassing me.” 
Crystal Hoof was in hysterics. “WE’RE ALL GONNA DIIII-HAHAHA-IIIIE~! And you’re concerned about me embarrassing you in front of your marefriend!?”
“I’m his ruttin’ sister!” Sunset snapped.
“Doesn’t matter! We’re all still going to die~!”
“Hey, hey, hey!” Sunburst yelled as he picked Crystal Hoof up by his shirt onto his feet and gave him a little shake, “Is this what Baz Maert, the changeling paladin, would do?!”
“Why are you bringing up my OnO character now?” Crystal Hoof half deadpanned half whined through a waterfall of tears as he hung limp in Sunburst’s grasp.
Sunburst just ignored the question. “Would he cower in the face of danger here?!”
Hoof blinked as the stream of tears stopped, leaving only shimmering eyes, “...No...” he whimpered. 
“Then what would he do?!”
Hoof jumped out of his slump (and Sunburst’s reach), wiped his eyes, and he stood upright in a proud stance, “He would fight!” he then held up an index finger, “But I don’t have any weapons or back-up so I’m going to go make sure we get some!” With that, Hoof ran off in the opposite direction of the dragon, a cloud of dirt and dust trailing him.
Heads tilted to the side, Sunset and the Crusaders stared at Crystal Hoof’s shrinking figure as he continued to put more distance between him and the dragon.
Sunset was so stunned she forgoed using any swear words in her next statement, “What. The hay. Was that?” 
Sunburst seemed to beam with pride, “Just the usual rousing speech I give to our party whenever we encounter something difficult.” then he gave a slight sigh of disappointment, “However, with my luck, he may just be running away to lock himself up in his room. It’s what he did that one time he played as a rogue.”
Sunset clamped her eyes shut as she pressed some fingers to her forehead, then realized the din of destruction and chaos happening right behind her. “OK, I am not going to stand around here and wait for that overgrown lizard to kill us, so I may just follow your friend to as far away from here as possible, and I’m takin’ these kids with me.”
“Good idea.” Sunburst responded, “But we should find Princess Cadence, make sure she’s safe and secure.”
“She’s an alicorn princess. I’m sure she can handle herself. That, and she should have a contingent of guards keeping her and her child safe.”
“And secure.” Sunburst quickly added.
“And - secure.” Sunset hesitantly added.
“Wait!” Scootaloo exclaimed. “We’re just going to leave? We’re not going to stay and help anypony?”
“Do you have a death wish or somethin’?!” Sunset responded, “We can’t fight off a dragon that size! And I’m not risking my tail to fight a dragon to save a town I barely know if I’m not getting paid for it! I still haven’t gotten paid for my last job.”
“Then we must find Cadence quickly.” Sunburst said.
“What’s that?” Sweetie Belle said as she pointed to an aircraft circling around the dragon.
“(A serenity class transport vessel?)” Sunset thought to herself.


	----


Lotus flew the ship in close to the now gargantuan and feral Spike, keeping enough distance to stay out of reach of any physical attacks, and strafing in a counterclockwise direction keeping the window pointed at Spike so everypony in the cockpit can see.
“Das a big ass- *hic*.” Aloe blinked. “-Dragon. I said dragon. Das a big dragon.”
Soarin gave a concerned glance at a still drunk Aloe sitting in a chair opposite the pilot’s seat in the room, before returning his attention to the dragon they were circling. “What happened? What are we going to do?”
“I don’t know.” Firefly answered. “This ship doesn’t have any firepower to force him down and we don’t have the capacity to effectively evacuate the citizens from the area.”
Button was flipping through the book about Spike. 
“What are you doing?” Aloe drowsily asked Button.
“I’m hoping there will be something familiar in here that could help us with our situation.”
“Nerd! *snort*” 
Button gave Aloe an annoyed glare before slamming the book shut. He grumbled, “I’d like to see you come up with a better idea.” 
“Maybe we can just... talk to him?” Lotus said hesitantly.
All eyes turned to her; Aloe began drifting off to sleep and kept jerking her head up when it started to become too heavy to hold up, giving a “Harumph” sound when she did so.
“W-when Aloe and I worked in a spa in Ponyville a dragon popped up out of nowhere and ponynapped one of the residents, a frequent customer if I remember correctly, it seemed as though they managed to talk it down before it shrunk down to the size of a baby dragon.”
Firefly blinked. “And you think that will work here?”
Lotus shrugged. “It’s worth a shot. Right?”
Firefly contemplated this, then nodded. Alright, you get me in close. My wings are still sore from the other day. I’ll see if I can talk him down.”
Soarin turned to his captain. “Are you sure about this? He doesn’t seem like he’s in the talking mood.”
Firefly gave a slight frown. “He usually never is.”

Lotus swung the ship around, opened the cargo bay doors, and got Firefly, standing at the edge of the platform, close to Spike’s face.
“Spike? Can you hear me?” Firefly yelled over the wind and the engines. 
Spike seemed to take notice of the craft getting close to his face and slowly turned to face it directly, eventually staring Firefly right in the eyes.
Firefly began to sweat. “(Zhòumà. What was I thinking? I don’t know what to say!)” “Spike? Why don’t you shrink back to normal size and explain yourself as to why you are now terrorizing a city.”
The dragon’s giant eyelids blinked slowly before he gave a loud bass growl, reeled his head back. Firefly could see him charging up a breath of black flames. 
“Mā de.” she said plainly.
Thankfully, Lotus could see it too and tried to swerve the ship out of the way, but Spike’s breath attack managed to hit one of the engines hard enough to where they would be unable to stay airborne for very long. But the sudden movement also tossed Firefly off the platform and hurtling towards the ground.
“Lā shǐiiii!”


	----


“Oh no!” Sweetie Belle said out loud when she saw Spike attack the ship floating in front of him and a pony fall out from the ship. She immediately ran towards the falling pony and began casting a levitation spell. The pony was falling so fast already and was likely too heavy for her to effectively lift at any speed, but she tried anyway. The pony’s decent did slow down significantly, not only because of Sweetie Belle’s spell, but the fact that this pony had wings, altering their momentum in a more horizontal direction, making it a very rough landing. Any rougher and the pony would have probably had several broken bones when she tumbled across the ground in front of Sunset Shimmer.
“Ugh...” the mare groaned as she pushed herself off the ground, slowly getting to her knees as she shook her head. “That was fun.” she said dryly to no one in particular.
Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo all ran up to the fallen mare. “Are you OK?” they all ask.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” she responded. She groaned and huffed a shallow breath as she started to stand up and put a hand on Sweetie Belle’s shoulder. “Thanks for being helpful back there, kid. I probably would have broken more than a few bones if you hadn’t helped.”
“Glad I could help.” Sweetie beamed as she steadied herself to help the mare up as more weight was being put onto her shoulder. “Are you sure you should be standing right now?”
“Relax, kid. I’ve been through worse.” once she was up on her feet, she gave a low groan as she stretched, a few of her joints popping. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small scroll with an enchanted wax seal and pressed her thumb against it as she held it up to her mouth, “Lotus, Soarin, Button, Vera, anypony. Can you hear me? Is everypony alright?”
There was a brief moment of silence before the parchment glowed and a young male voice could be heard coming from the paper. “Yes captain, we hear you, everyone’s alright, just a little shook. Though Mal’s grounded for the time being.”
The captain gave a relieved sigh, “Good.” then she looked at the giant Spike as he lumbered off to continue his destructive rampage, “Spike, you’re going to have a lot to answer for if Mal can’t fly after this.”
“Just who do you think you are?” Sunburst said antagonistically, “Saying that the Brave and Glorious Spike has to answer to you?”
The mare turned to him with half-lidded eyes, “I think I’m his captain, and that he’s a member of my crew. However, I also think I’m going mad with all this talk of the ‘Brave and Glorious’ Spike, so, you have me there.”
Sunburst bristled at that last comment and was about to take a step forward to retort but Sunset put an arm in front of him. 
“You can defend your hero- that is now attacking your city- later, after we find Cadence and I get paid.” Sunset said.
“You’re looking for Princess Cadence?” the pegasus mare said, stepping forward, ”She’s an old friend of Spike’s, she might be able to help calm Spike down. Better than I could at least. Let me come with you.”
“Ok,” Sunset said exasperatedly. “Just don’t get in my way.”
“Follow me.” Sunburst said as he ran towards the spire, everypony following him.
Apple Bloom looked over the pink pegasus as they made their way to Princess Cadence. “What’s yer name, miss?”
The mare glanced at Apple Bloom, “Firefly. Your’s?”
“Ah’m Apple Bloom. An’ these are mah friends Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. Those two over there are Sunburst and Sunset Shimmer.”
“Nice to meet you.” Firefly smiled at Apple Bloom. She turned her attention to Sunset, “Say, you look a mite familiar. Ain’t you the one that gave me four bits to punch that one guy in the face?”
Sunset spared a glance back at Firefly. “I think so... Did you do it?”
“Heck yeah, I did. Well, Soarin got to him first, and that started up a bar fight. But I still punched him in the face for ya’.”
Sunset smirked, “Looks like I got more than what I bargained for.”
Firefly smirked as well and glanced back at the Crusaders, spotting the bracelet Sweetie Belle was wearing. “Button,” she said into the enchanted scroll, “do you have the package with you?”
“Yeah, why?”
“I know what the client said, I can't help but feel like I found who we’re looking for. Meet me at the spire as soon as possible.”

When everypony arrived at the base of the tower, Cadence was already there issuing orders to groups of soldiers. Once the last group received their orders Cadence turned to the oncoming group and greeted them.
“Captain Firefly, I’m surprised to see you here. Where’s the rest of your crew?”
“Well, as you know one of them is now a giant dragon rampaging through the city. But the others have been shot down by said rampaging dragon. Thankfully, they’re all still alive.”
Cadence let out a breath. “That’s a relief.” She then looked to Sunburst and noticed something, dark, about his eyes. His iris’ flashed red, the sclera of his eyes green.
Both ponies’ eyes widened when Sunburst sneered and pulled his gun on Cadence. Just as he fired, Firefly managed to grab his right arm and pull it up, the bullet missing Cadence by an inch.
“What are you doing!?” Firefly and Sunset yelled at Sunburst, who only responded with a snarl as he tried to use his other hand to punch Firefly. She blocked the punch with her forearm, then wrapped the same arm around his and locked his arm to where she threatened to bend his elbow backward or dislocate his shoulder.
“He’s under the influence of dark magic!” Cadence yelled. “He’s not himself!”
Sunset got behind Sunburst and looped her arms underneath his and put him in a Nelson hold, allowing Firefly to loose her grips and back up a bit.
“Five bits to punch this guy in the face.” Sunset quipped.
Firefly put her fist into her other open palm. “Do you want a bar brawl happenin’ afterwards?”
“Nah, a good hard punch to the face will do just fine.”
Firefly threw her punch, but Sunburst managed to twist himself to where Firefly punched Sunset in the face instead, making her lose her grip.
Firefly froze for a moment. “I’m not getting those five bits, am I?”
“No!” Sunset snapped, her eye already beginning to swell from the punch. “No you’re not!”
Sunburst let out a low growl as he turned his attention back to Cadence, the dark magic showing prominently in his eyes as he leveled his gun at her. Suddenly, a cricket bat met the back of his head and he collapsed onto all fours, losing his grip on his gun. 
He groaned and slowly stood up as he rubbed the back of his head. “What happened?” he asked before Firefly pinned him with his back against a wall and an arm over his throat. His face turned a shade red, then he saw a gun pointed at his face by the same mare that held him against the wall.
“Hold him still.” Cadence commanded as she ran up to Sunburst.
Sunburst turned towards Cadence and the signs of dark magic flashed across his eyes before he flinched in pain and shut his eyes tight, the purple haze still managing to seep out through his eyelids.
When Cadence reached Sunburst, she put both hands on his face and her eyes flashed a bright white as her horn glowed with her magic. Sunburst let out a pained yell as his eyes shot wide open and green consumed his eyes as it grew brighter before it faded away. Once the green light and purple haze left his eyes, his face relaxed, his body went limp and he fainted.

As Sunburst’s unconscious body was taken off on a stretcher, followed by two crystal pony guards, Sunset was in a tizzy. “What was that all about?!” she yelled at Cadence.
“Sunburst was under the influence of dark magic.” Cadence said calmly, not fazed by Sunset’s response. “This has Twilight’s handiwork written all over it.” she held a hand to her chin thoughtfully, “She must have been able to figure out how to plant an undetectable piece of dark magic within somepony to control their actions.”
“Do you think that’s what happening with Spike?” Firefly asked as she sat down with a crystal pony unicorn behind her casting a spell to help heal her wings.
“I believe so. And just like Sunburst, I’m going to have to come into physical contact with him.”
“Great.” Sunset groused. “Now you are going to have to run up and touch a giant rampaging dragon. Talk about a suicide run. Can I at least get paid first?”
Cadence looked at Sunset sternly. “You will be paid what you’ve been promised after this ordeal is over. More if you help us now.”
Sunset groaned. “Fine. What do you need me to do?”

Sunset was scowling as she drove a hovervan. “I cannot believe that Cadence made me bring those three with me while we’re searching for your crew.”
Firefly glanced at the Crusaders in the back seat. “Are you talking about the kids back there? They don’t look that bad to me.”
Sunset gave a deadpan look, “You obviously haven’t tried the unicorn’s cooking.”
“Hey! I’m not that bad.” 
“You’ve burned juice! JUICE! How does one burn juice like that?! Not even a dragon can burn juice!”
Sweetie Belle pouted. Firefly stared at Sweetie Belle with wide eyes and pursed lips before turning away in a trying effort to not burst out into laughter.
“I should have raised my rate for having to bring those three along.” Sunset grumbled to herself.


	----


Meanwhile, Cadence had mobilized her soldiers to either evacuate all nearby buildings or help detain the feral Spike. If there was to be any hope at all for Spike to return to normal Cadence had to be at the forefront of the unit tasked with occupying and detaining Spike. 
Cadence was panting for breath as she held up a magical barrier, shielding herself, her soldiers and the buildings with fleeing citizens behind her as Spike loosed a torrent of black fire upon them. Holding up the barrier against Spike’s attacks was taking a lot out of her, and it was beginning to come into question whether or not Cadence would have any energy left to expel the dark magic out of Spike. Cadence had herself too preoccupied with holding up the shield for the escaping citizens that she had missed several opportunities to advance on Spike and take him down, estimating that he would have been able to attack again and harm civilians before she could reach him. 
“My queen- er- Princess!” a guard behind Cadence stuttered.
“Yes, soldier?” Cadence responded, unable to call him by name because she couldn’t turn around to see his face, but could mentally narrow it down to a changeling refugee by his slip of the tongue.
“All nearby structures have been cleared of civilians.”
“Good. Signal for the advance and get back to your squad.” 
The Changeling blew into a horn to signal for the advance. Cadence dropped the barrier and fired an energy beam at Spike’s face, disorienting him for the other soldiers to have a head start on surrounding the dragon. Once surrounded from all sides, including two levels from the air, every soldier leveled their spears at Spike and the spearheads began to glow with the color of lacrima that was embedded at the end. The sharp steel edging of the spear being only 25% of the entire spearhead, primarily functioning as housing for the lacrima crystal. While the ground troops, consisting of unicorn, earth pony, pegasus, their crystal counterparts, and some disguised changeling refugees, had a variety of lacrima spears ranging from fire to ice; to earth and wind, the pegasus and crystal pegasus troops surrounding him in the air wielded mostly air and lightning lacrima spears, their natural magical aura and the lacrima boosting each other's elemental power. Everypony fired in unison for the first volley. This did nothing but scuff the dragon’s scales, as they continued to fire at their individual paces. 
Spike merely snarled as he turned his attention to the greatest concentration of ice lacrima users and fired a breath attack. Most managed to run out of the path of the attack, but several earth pony soldiers came together, pulled their shields in front of them, some planting the shields into the ground. The earth lacrima crystals within their shields activated and, pooling magic from the other guards and shields, created a magic tan-colored barrier that protected the shield bearers and other soldiers coalesced behind them. Meanwhile, dozens of pegasus troops with lightning lacrima spears rallied together in one spot behind Spike and they pooled their power together to be fired in a single blast. A loud crack of thunder rang out as the blast hit Spike and actually made him lurch forward a bit from the blast. He retaliated with another breath attack at the flying pegasus troops, managing to kill or ground more than half the squad.
Cadence had her breather, and now she was ready to go in and expel the dark magic from Spike. With a spear made of pure lacrima infused with her magic in hand, she knelt down into a runner's ready position then leaped forward with a soft ‘boom’. It was very much a straight shot for Cadence as she flew directly for Spike’s face just as he was turning past her direction. The firing stopped and everypony froze once Cadence’s hand touched the bridge of Spike’s nose between his eyes, and Cadence immediately cast her spell. A bright flash of white emanated from Cadence’s hand and blinded everypony in the vicinity. 
Once the light settled, all could see that nothing happened.
“What?” was all Cadence could say as she hovered in front of his face.
Unphased, Spike let out a low growl and he swung his head, batting Cadence away, sending her flying far away. 


	----


Sweetie Belle rubbed a hand on her upper arm apprehensively as she stared out the vehicle window, watching the buildings pass by.
“Where are you now?” Firefly said into her communications scroll.
“We are holding our position about 50 yards away from the cra- rrrrough landing site.” came a more mature male voice over the scroll. 
“I see you. Continue holding your position.” 
A brief moment of silence passed before Sunset spoke up, “You a military mare or somethin’?”
Firefly glanced at Sunset. “Wonderbolts.” she waved her scroll. “Soarin here used to be my superior officer.”
“Huh,” Sunset responded as she pulled the hovercraft up to the group of ponies standing underneath a lamp post that she presumed was Firefly’s crew.
Firefly opened her door and jumped out. “Is everypony alright?”
“Yes, captain.” responded the tall, muscular light blue pegasus. “Some bumps and bruises but otherwise alright.”
Firefly nodded, then turned her attention to a brown earth pony colt. “Button, do you have the package?”
“Yes, captain.” He pulled out a dark wood box from behind him and handed it to Firefly.
Firefly took the box, fiddled with the latch for a moment and found that it wouldn’t budge despite the appearance of no locking mechanism. She then walked over to Sweetie Belle’s door and opened the door. “I’m not rightly sure,” she started, “but I think this is for you.” she handed Sweetie the box.
Sweetie looked at the wooden box and, upon closer inspection, saw what looked like her sister’s cutie mark engraved on top of the lid. She quickly snatched up the box and set it in her lap, slowly caressing her fingers over the engraving before she flipped the latch with a soft “click.” She took a deep breath before she opened the box and found a large heart-shaped ruby with a small thumb drive set next to it in the foam padding. She handed the drive to Scootaloo next to her and picked up the ruby in her hands, the daylight glistening off its cut edges. But before Sweetie Belle could form any cohesive thoughts about the ruby, a loud ‘boom’ sounded off just across the street from where they were. Everypony ran to the newly formed crater and, as the dust settled, found a battered Cadence laying inside. 
“No.” Cadence whispered hoarsely as she laid inside the crater, “It should have worked. The dark magic. It’s too strong. How-?” she was interrupted when a dragon’s roar was uncomfortably close, about three blocks away.
The raging dragon, followed by a diminished line of guards, stared down the group of ponies surrounding Cadence in her crater and began advancing towards them. 
A paralyzing fear gripped everypony there. Sweetie Belle clutched the ruby close to her chest, and that’s when it started to glow. She looked down at the jewel and felt something inside her rise up and overcome the paralyzing aspect of the fear she felt. She looked to the dragon barreling towards them and stepped forward in front of the group.
“Kid?! What are you doing!?” Sunset yelled as Sweetie Belle cooly walked in front of everyone.
Sweetie Belle thrusted the ruby forward and held it slightly above her head as if offering it to the dragon. The dragon slammed his feet to the ground as he came to a grinding halt in front of Sweetie Belle, tearing up the street as he did so, and the jewel began to glow brighter.

Cadence, having seen Spike stop his rampage, signaled the order to cease fire until further notice as she watched the young unicorn begin to tame the dragon. 
The green from Spike’s eyes faded away to a pale red, matching that of the ruby. He lowered his head closer to Sweetie Belle and the ruby as his throat let out a low thrumming noise, almost like he was saying a name. He breathed out a soft snort of hot breath and he began to shrink back to normal size.
Everypony was astonished at this turn of events as the fifty-foot dragon turned to little under six feet tall. He was on his knees, the mist in his eyes was still there but now the glow of his eyes was a light red and there was a knife stuck in his shoulder violently emanating the black smoke of dark magic. 
Spike gasped as he realized he was in control over himself now. He reached for the dagger in his shoulder, and with a pained yell, pulled it out, stopping the violent outpour of dark magic smoke in his shoulder and eliminating the haze in his eyes. He was on all fours gasping for breath as he clutched the dark, gnarled knife in his hand. He looked up and saw a bright red glow dissipate from a large heart-shaped ruby and the pony holding it up, his sight very hazy.
“R-Rarity?” he breathed before he collapsed to the floor.