Weiss trots up to the small Priss, who had been standing in the town square next to the Kingdom Heart, ruffling her pink colored mane with one of his draconic claws as he stared into the glittering black pyroclasm, feeling warmth from it.
'The Crystal Heart must be crying it's eyes out knowing it will never be as warm as this.' Weiss thinks to himself.
"Hey, come on Mister Noir, I just got finished combing that!" She complains, trying to squirm away from his mussing up her mane.
He laughs, and ruffles it a bit more. "And now you have the privilege of doing so again. You really should be thanking me."
She pouts, standing eye to eye with Weiss. "You're just jealous because under that burning wig you call a mane, you've been reduced to a chrome dome Weiss."
Weiss glares. "It's still hair, it's just all flamey. Your hair is flamey too, you know."
And indeed, Priss's mane is a mass of cherry-red fire as well, only a few shades richer than her coat.
"And it's the finest flame in the Shadow Realm, thank you very much, Lord Weiss. Way better than Eclipse Flash's," She says with a stomp of her armored hoof.
Weiss just laughs some more. His laughter continues, even as Luna finishes walking up behind him.
Eventually, Weiss's laughter ends, leaving his tired face fighting a rictus that threatens to overtake his small, hollow smirk.
"What a cruel dream," He states.
Luna doesn't respond as the silhouettes of ponies walking around fade away, and the black conflagration in the town square dims into nothing, leaving the area barren and aged into unrecognizability.
Weiss speaks up again, conversationally, as he walks over to the stone benches surrounding the long-dead fire and takes a seat. "You know Luna, I once had a dream just like this."
"In that dream, I saw a land of ice and snow, and then, that land was filled with ponies. Friends, families, an entire kingdom!"
"But verily, it be the nature of dreams to end," he quotes.
"And when I awoke, only the memory of that dream remained."
Luna continues her taciturn staring, before walking over to sit next to him.
She speaks up. "I've come to ask why you're acting this way. I've heard word from Ponyville. You've been... Provoking ponies. Threatening them," She says, pausing before she finishes. "Frightening them."
Weiss's posture doesn't change, but by this point, they look dead, put plainly and simply.
"I took on a lot of responsibilities back then, you know. There were a lot of ponies I had to become. I didn't really enjoy them at first, but they all felt right in the end."
He waves at the barren caverns.
"Hence nothing remains, except for our regrets."
He pauses for a few moments, recollecting his emotions into their little box, before continuing as though talking about the weather.
"A long time ago, your sister asked me how the two of you could let an evil like me continue to rule over ponies, no matter how well I cared for their needs."
"Playing off your fears for the future, I told you that I could be your rival. The practice villain that keeps your skills sharp and your armories full for the real deal."
"Weiss Noir, the Symbol of Evil," Weiss says dramatically.
He holds his arms out wide, looking sideways at the princess. "Well... I am here."
"I'll put your heroes to the test. I'll dangle prizes in front of them, and I'll roar in anger when they slyly snatch them from my jaws."
"I'll make a nuisance of myself potent enough that ponies throw aside their petty differences to stand against me."
"I'll find the ponies that are teetering on the edge, and I'll scare them so badly they leap the other way."
"But more importantly, I'm going to make preparations for Sombra's return."
"And then I'm going to murder him."
Luna looks torn at the brutally frank statement. "You don't have to do this to yourself Weiss. Let us help you."
She tries again. "Please let me help you."
Weiss laughs. An empty noise, vacant of emotion. "Oh imagine the newspapers. "Luna and Weiss join forces, return of The Nightmare?"."
His face returns to it's stony stillness. "No. I'm afraid this isn't a job I require help doing. It's a penance for the one pony who did the crime."
Luna is incensed by this. "Weiss, thou are not responsible for what Sombra claimed he had done. There is no way thou could have known, and there was nothing thou could have done!"
Weiss just shakes his head. "Luna, from the moment I met Sombra, the blame for his every action rested squarely on my shoulders."
"We cannot allow thee to continue tormenting our ponies," Luna states firmly.
At this, Weiss begins to laugh, louder and louder, as his watery eyes obtain a mad glow. "Then stop me!"
His insane laughter only turns mournful by the very slightest amount as the dream ends.
"So, yeah, uhh..." Gilda scratches her neck.
"I kinda suck at this, but I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm really sorry I yelled at you last time I was in Ponyville."
Fluttershy doesn't make eye contact, and just scuffs the ground awkwardly.
Gilda is confused at this. "Uhh, so anything to say to that?"
Fluttershy murmurs something unintelligibly quiet.
"I didn't hear that, could you speak up a bit?" Gilda asks as nicely as she can, trying to remember how politeness works.
Fluttershy mumbles something that almost sounds like a couple of words strung together, if one squinted their ears really hard.
Gilda tries her hardest to not get even the slightest bit annoyed with this. "So do you accept my apology or don't you?"
Fluttershy looks up, and finally speaks loud enough to hear. "I-"
"Um, there's smoke..!" She points up behind Gilda.
Gilda, looking around, spots the huge cloud of smog as well. "Holy shed!" Gilda curses.
Apologies and their acceptance or lack thereof ignored for now, the pair make their way to town to warn the ponies of the danger.
When they arrive, Fluttershy tries to warn everyone about the smoke, but her demure manner of speaking, and Rainbow Dash loudly bouncing a ball around muffle her warnings too much. Gilda, seeing this, takes a deep breath and decides to give it the old Junior Speedsters try.
"Hey! Punks! There's a bunch of flocking smoke everywhere up there, you aught to act like it!" Gilda bellows, before cringing when she sees Fluttershy paralyzed with fear.
'Oh way to go Gilda.' She thinks to herself, vowing to avoid shouting near the buttery pegasus.
Twilight gallops up with Spike in tow after Gilda's shout, looking over the shocked ponies who are now looking up to the sooty clouds.
"She's right everypony! But don't worry, I've received a letter from the princess, and it isn't coming from a fire."
"It's coming from a dragon."
The ponies all gasp, shocked and afraid.
Fluttershy is snapped out of her own frozen state by Twilight's words, shouting quietly. "A Dragon..?!"
When Twilight gathers the rest of her friends to the Treebrairy and explains the situation, Applejack is the first to break her silence in the name of putting forth hard-hitting and seriously worded questions.
"So what in the name of all things chocolate dipped is a full-grown dragon doin' in Equestria?" Applejack asks.
Twilight answers Applejack's question with a question-inducing answer of her own. "Sleeping."
This evokes questioning noises from everyone there, forcing Twilight to elaborate further.
"According to Princess Celestia's letter, the dragon's snoring is the cause of all this smoke."
Gilda smirks when she throws her own two bits in. "And here I thought Rainbow picked bad spots to nap in."
Pinkie scrunches up her face. "He should probably see a doctor about that smoke, I don't think that's healthy."
"Well, at least they aren't snoring fire," Rarity responds to Pinkie's non-sequitur.
"So what's the plan, then?" Rainbow Dash finally pipes up.
"Are we going to have to give him the boot? Like that! And that!" Dash shouts, kicking and punching in the air before having to be caught before she hits a bookshelf head-on by mistake.
Twilight says with some exasperation. "We need to encourage him to take his nap somewhere else. Celestia has given us our mission, and if we fail, Equestria will be drowned in smoke for the next hundred years!"
As everyone nods and Twilight belts out orders for everyone to prepare for the coming trip, Gilda is the only one who notices Fluttershy trying to say something.
"You got something to say?" Gilda questions, trying to avoid accidentally spooking the pegasus. Naturally, this makes Fluttershy clam up completely, shaking her head rapidly.
Gilda looks exceedingly disappointed at her reaction, but tries to hide it under some poise and determination. "Then I'm going to go get ready."
Unknowing of the problem occurring outside, Trixie quietly sips at her drink that she ordered from the Shakee Shoppe, pondering how things have changed so rapidly and, might she say, horribly, in her life.
'As nice as everypony has been, helping Trixie get back on her hooves, I'm still bitless and homeless. I just don't get how this town even humored my act with a unicorn like Twilight here...' she thinks to herself, flashing back to that fateful moment when Twilight demonstrated magical power beyond comprehension.
Though she didn't want to admit it at the time, Weiss's offer was almost painful in how tempting it was, especially when she received it so soon after having seen that.
Trixie tries to bury the thoughts under another slurp of smoothy, thinking about it doesn't solve anything. It especially doesn't solve anything for Trixie to think about how she'll never even come close to having magic power like that.
"Ugh, why couldn't Trixie's wagon have broken down in Baltimare instead," She groans into the table.
'Because if it broke down there, you'd be out on the street instead of in a nice inn apparently paid for by the crown, drinking smoothies that were apparently "on the house",' Her thoughts traitorously point out.
It's downright bizarre to her how generous and kind the townsfolk here have been, and it doesn't at all help her mood steadily deteriorating as it had been over the past week.
And then there's the elephant in the room. The ominous black tower that rose out of the Everfree the same day she arrived. The abode of that dark wizard.
When Trixie questioned the bookish librarian about them, she found herself nearly buried in tomes on the historic villain, which had to be culled down to one tome in particular that managed to quench her curiosity, and doused ice water on the idea of going to them for any help, or indeed, any reason at all.
"Know-Our Vice", as the book referred to the pony, was the evil ruler of an ancient citadel, famous for both his ironic punishments towards criminals, and his ironic gifts for those that displeased him. The most famous example being the Equestrian Spy that he granted the toggle-able power of invisibility when they were caught, with no strings attached. They had enjoyed themselves with the power so much after being sent home that they were eventually caught and tried for spying in Equestria itself, unable to resist the temptation to abuse their new ability.
The hallmark of the villain's rule was their twisted adherence to harmony. Tempting ponies with generous gifts, kind actions and mercy to defeated enemies that often infuriated them, speaking honestly when they knew others would not believe him, or would willfully misinterpret his words, a loyalty to his minions that bordered on pathological, and above all else, a bizarre and all-encompassing sense of humor.
Trixie assumed after reading that book that Weiss's offer was genuine, but would somehow leave her miserable if she took it.
But sweet Celestia, why was it still so tempting?
Well, that's a dumb question. It's tempting because Trixie can't stop thinking about just how she is neither Great nor Powerful compared to the humble unicorn that probably saved her life from that Ursa.
The loud snore of a dragon halts Twilight and the others.
"What the hay?" Applejack comments as the ground rumbles.
"Well, looks like that's what a dragon snoring sounds like," Twilight comments.
Fluttershy, after regaining her senses, looks up at the mountain with mounting trepidation.
"That's... Really high up," She says, prompting Rainbow Dash to snort slightly.
"Yeah, mountains tend to be like that," Dash responds.
She then continues. "I'm going to fly up there and check it out!"
Before Dash can live up to her namesake and dash off, Applejack points out something important.
"Hold on, now. I think we should all go up together. Safety in numbers and all that."
Her words drag Rainbow back down to the rest of the group with a grumble.
Rarity speaks up with a point of small talk to make. "I hear the only thing more alluring than the luster of a dragon's scales are the beauty of the gems they use in their nests. If I play my cards right, perhaps I could even convince him to part with a few..."
Gilda's eyebrow raises, prompting her to interject. "That sounds like a really bad idea. I've never heard of a dragon reacting well to someone messing with it's loot. I know I wouldn't react well to it."
Pinkie follows up on that with a faux roar. "Rawr! Want a diamond Rarity? Well too bad, they're mine!" She roars.
All the girls in the group laugh at this except for Twilight.
"Girls, this is no laughing matter! Fluttershy, you're the expert on wild creatures. How do you think the dragon will behave?" Twilight asks the distinctly Fluttershy-lacking space behind her, before seeing Fluttershy still at the bottom of the mountain.
Rainbow reacts to the sight predictably. "Hey, what's the holdup Fluttershy?"
Pinkie takes this opportunity to have a baklava and a fake pistol that they fire off into the air. "Did somepony say holdup?"
Fluttershy scuffs the ground shyly. "It's... really steep."
Rainbow retorts readily. "Yeah, mountains tend to be like that too. You could just fly up here, you know?"
Fluttershy works up her nerves and nods, but when the dragon's snoring startles her, her wings snap shut and she falls back to the ground.
When Applejack starts climbing back down, Twilight takes the opportunity to interject. "We don't have time for this, what are you doing, Applejack?"
"I'll take her around the mountain another way," The farmer says plainly.
At this, Gilda is flooded with impatience. 'Come on Gilda, keep it together.' She grits her teeth at the delay.
"Wait, wait. I could just carry her up, it would be faster," Gilda slowly forces out as she calms herself.
Twilight nods happily as Gilda softly grabs the pegasus and hefts her up into the air with powerful flaps. "That's a great idea Gilda, we'll be right back on track if you do that."
Fluttershy is too overwhelmed with fear to complain as they make their way further up the mountain.
Weiss awakens from his slumber, rising up from the black pit in the room's center to reform his body and steel his mind for the day.
"Six heroes, and only two Weapons of Light. Well... That just won't do. Not at all."
He hums to himself.
"Until I can find a rube willing to scour every pawn shop in Equestria for the Alicorn Amulet, that particular line of research is lost to me. But maybe... Maybe I should simply source my goods more... locally."
With a malicious chuckle, he descends the stairs of his tower, into the castle ruins he grew it from.
"Oh what was it called again? Visionation Augmentation? No, it wasn't that."
His self-aimed mumbles follow him as he slowly scours the castle of the pony sisters from top to bottom for a very particular book.
Before too long, the girls manage to all make it up a good portion of the mountain, coming face to face with a gap in the path, a long fall between two nearby cliffs.
Where the others are all able to leap across trivially, Fluttershy is left behind, unable to work up the courage to make the leap.
Twilight gently points this out. "Alright Fluttershy, it's your turn now."
Fluttershy shudders, pupils dilating at the sight of the chasm. "But it's really... wide."
"You could just leap on over," Applejack claims.
"I don't know..." Fluttershy responds, before another snore from the dragon makes her jolt into the air briefly.
"I really don't know." She says again, shaking as she looks down.
At this point, Pinkie hops back over to Fluttershy's side. "Oh come on Fluttershy, it's just a hop skip and a jump!"
Gilda, preternaturally sensing Pinkie preparing to burst into song, interjects. "I could just carry her across like I did before."
Fluttershy, upon hearing her words, rapidly rambles quietly. "Oh, no there's no need for that, no need at all really, I'll just um-"
Fluttershy closes her eyes, and, driven by the idea of the alternative being another ride on the griffon express, leaps across the surprisingly small distance between the cliffs on her own.
Though Gilda manages to hide it much better this time, Fluttershy's fearful reaction at the idea of Gilda helping her sends a bitter pang through the griffon.
"Well, as long as you've got it handled." Gilda says, restraining herself with every iron band of willpower she can to keep from acting upset.
Meanwhile, and arguably parawhile, the flow of time itself briefly becomes convoluted, as out of the chronal fabric above Sweet Apple Acres, a large, bulbous machine slowly fades into existence. The machine is painted mostly yellow, with accents of green and blue. For whatever reason, the word "Hope!" is painted on the side in a way that seems almost ironic. It slowly lands in a clearing of the apple tree forest, and it's bulbous, slightly conical cockpit hisses open.
The heavily cloaked mare that stumbles out of it spots some of the apples, and, with nothing short of desperate and reckless abandon, runs over and uses some of their precious little energy to yank an apple free of it, stuffing it in their mouth with a sob as they eat as quickly as is safe for them. Feeling the agonizing hunger of their subjectively past week slowly abate, they pull down more apples and eat those at a slightly more sedate pace.
The unicorn's gaze slowly sweeps to the mountain in the distance, and the jewel of Equestria, the city of Canterlot affixed to it's side.
"Got to get to Celestia. Got to get to Canterlot," They rasp, throat soothed slightly by the juicy, ambrosial apples.
Time Machine ignored completely in their desperation, the yellow-coated mare pulls down her hood, stuffs it full of apples, and forces herself to begin walking the long route to the nearest train station.
Twilight slowly treads across a long stretch of trail, whispering to the others.
"According to the map, this entire area is an avalanche risk-zone, so be as quiet as you can manage, alright?"
Everyone but Fluttershy nods. The excluded mare looks terrified, and opens her mouth, before a panicked look from everyone makes her pause, and making eye contact with Gilda causes her to snap her mouth shut as fast as possible. Strangely (and frighteningly), this reaction doesn't make Gilda look any happier.
They slowly tread past the area, and finally make it to the dragon's lair.
What goes unaware to them is the dragon in question detecting their scent. Six ponies don't warrant the slightest concern, but as they near, his nostrils detect the stench of griffon feathers.
And a griffon with greed in mind is a great concern indeed.
Twilight nods as they stand in front of the cavern's mouth. "Ok, everypony, here's the plan, Gilda and Rainbow, you two will clear the smoke clouds," She says, making the duo nod.
"Pinkie Pie and Rarity, you'll create a distraction to divert the dragon if things get dangerous in there," She continues, making the second duo nod as well, Pinkie Pie blowing a party horn at the same time.
"Applejack, you're ready with the apples in case he decides to attack, but it shouldn't come to that," Applejack nods as well, throwing an apple and catching it with determination.
"Fluttershy, your job is to wake him up safely so we can open a dialogue... Fluttershy?" The pegasus being questioned shakes her head, her legs locked in place.
Fluttershy starts. "I-"
"I can't go in the cave."
Rainbow Dash raises an eyebrow. "So what's the problem? I think we've got some torches if it's the dark that's bothering you."
Fluttershy shakes her head. "I'm not scared of the dark... I'm scared of..." she trails off into an inaudible mumble, before being startled by the dragon snoring fitfully.
After some prompting from the others, she finally spits it out. "I'm scared of dragons."
A small shifting occurs inside the cave.
Twilight interrogates. "But Fluttershy, you've always been talented dealing with wild animals, what's the issue here?"
"That's because those animals aren't dragons," She shakes her head.
The shifting increases, and the tinkling of treasure rings out in the distance.
Rainbow Dash interjects, a bit shocked. "You dealt with that manticore like it was nothing, though?"
"That's because that manticore wasn't a dragon," Fluttershy nods.
Small thumps begin to approach, but go unnoticed by the others.
Pinkie Pie offers her own take on the matter. "Spike's a dragon, and you aren't scared of him!"
"Yes, because he's not a massive titanic horrific sharp-toothed fire-breathing smoke-snoring scale-armored long-horned could-eat-a-pony-in-a-single-bite scarier-than-Gilda all-grown-up dragon!" Fluttershy shouts aloud.
"And just what's so wrong with that?" The dragon growls, arms crossed as they stand up behind Fluttershy, who was turned away talking to the group.
The group all look on with horrified expressions as the dragon takes another stomping step forward, while Fluttershy stumbles back away from it, whimpering, whispering and generally failing to say anything coherent.
"I- uh- w-" Fluttershy is completely paralyzed as the dragon snarls at her.
"Well?" They growl again.
Gilda, who had been watching with restraint and fear previously, slowly grows more and more incensed, but remains too worried about frightening Fluttershy even more to do anything about it.
When the dragon smirks at Fluttershy in a way that's painfully familiar to Gilda, her resolve snaps.
'Oh screw trying not to scare Fluttershy. This is way more important.' She thinks to herself, wings already flaring.
"Hey! You need to back off, bub!" Gilda roars, getting up in the dragon's face.
The dragon looks confused at this, it's just one griffon, purple glowing wings or not, so why are all their instincts screaming "Danger!"?
Mustering up some resistance, the dragon retorts. "But she said mean things about me."
"Yeah, when you scare ponies they're not going to act nice. It sucks, and you're just going to have to suck it up! Because you don't get to try and scare ponies just because you're mad. Even if they don't like you," Gilda snarls, magically enhanced killing-intent wafting off the incensed griffon.
The dragon takes a step back at this, teeth chattering, before Fluttershy flaps up between the two and interrupts the exchange with newfound bravery after watching Gilda's stand with wide eyes.
"I'm sorry for what I said, Mr. Dragon. I was just intimidated. I shouldn't have judged you before I got the chance to meet you, no matter how scared I was," Fluttershy says, patting the dragon on the nose.
"We're also sorry for interrupting your rest, but the reason we're here is because your nap is making a lot of smoke, and it's not good for the ponies that live here. Could you please pack your things, and maybe find somewhere else to finish your nap?" Fluttershy pleads.
The dragon looks sheepish at this.
"Ok..." They look down, before plodding off inside.
Fluttershy then turns to Gilda, pinning the now terrified griffon to the metaphorical wall like a metaphorical butterfly with her eyes.
"You shouldn't yell like that," Fluttershy says with a small, world-devouring glare, before her face softens.
"But thanks for sticking up for me."
Fluttershy looks shy in a surprisingly uncharacteristic manner for once. "I should have taken the time to get to know the real you before deciding if I was scared or not when you apologized, Gilda. It's obvious now that you've got my best interests in mind. Even if you are a little loud."
Gilda scratches her head and awkwardly chuckles. "I probably should have kept my head on straight the first time we met. So... We even?" Gilda holds out a balled up talon.
Fluttershy hoofbumps Gilda's outstretched fist. "We're even."
"Dear Princess Celestia,
I'm happy to report that the dragon has peacefully left our fair country, and it was all thanks to my two dear friends, Fluttershy and Gilda. The adventure taught me that you should never lose faith in your friends, and, more importantly, that being afraid can make you push away the ones that would be willing to help. During these times, overcoming your greatest fears is a task that can be truly surmounted with the help of someone willing to stand up for you."
Twilight finishes, as Spike happily writes it all down, grateful for the break from dealing with Fluttershy's animal friends.
"Man, Twilight, they're acting totally different now!" Spike says, looking out at the window, where Fluttershy is discussing various birds of prey with a curious, but mostly laughing Gilda.
"Well, I suppose that's just what happens when somepony stares down an angry dragon for you."
Spike shudders. "Remind me not to get angry at Gilda, then."
Twilight just laughs at that.
Weiss dumps everything in a treasure chest for aesthetic purposes.
"Ok, I've got the book, I've got the Heart's Desire resin, I've got the Stardust, I've got one of the branches The Tree dropped."
"Now I just need an alchemist to help put everything together." He finishes, staring down at the magical reagents with unabashed excitement.