Chapter 4: Blinders
The Alpha dove through the air, giving chase to the falling Constellation Demon, Typherias. She had accepted his offer of dying with honor, so no mercy had to be shown for the creature. This was a dragon’s unspoken personal law.
He roared more flame at the demon and continued his pursuit.
She was close, right within his reach. The Demon was clutching its face, wiping away the burning sensation in her eyes.
"You spoke so surely of my death, Typherias!" roared the Alpha over the noise of the wind. He dove in closer and tore at her wings with his claws, creating holes in the leathery star-skin.
Typherias was a creature of darkness and despair. She was a master at tricking others and inflicting complete despair on them in the time they felt most successful.
So she did what she did best.
She had drawn the honor-bound Alpha close. Now her gluttony longed to cause him despair.
"Oh, I am still sure of your death, dragon! Now..." she opened her eyes, and they were bright cobalt. "BURN!"
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Blood and bits of the two archers were strewn around the claws of the red dragon, his scales glistening with the coat of fresh blood that stained them.
"You will never hurt anything again..." The dragon rumbled as he scraped the bits of equine off his claws. The mare levitated herself onto the dragons back. "Their leader is getting away! If you run, we can stop him too!"
The dragon’s scalene eyes widened at the statement, and raised his wings into the air, and took off, sending sand in all directions. The power from this dragon was immense, the mare noticed. The spell had worked much better than what was originally anticipated.
Soaring above scorched and partially destroyed trees, the dragon caught a glance of the Kings blue armor, and positioned himself, claws ready to kill.
"If it's not much trouble, cleave off his head first." The mare remembered her thoughts about her father’s head on a mantle. Giving a sign of acknowledgement, the dragon nodded and folded it's wings in, making the air whine.
Then he dove in at the blue armored stallion.
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In a flash, Typherias opened her starry maw and let loose a solid beam of cobalt magic. It collided with the Alpha before he could register the attack. The magic seared through the Alpha’s right wing, burning away the thin membrane. Without it, proper flight would be damn near impossible, and he would collide against the ground like a meteorite. But the thought of dying from the power of the honour-less Demon kept the pain at bay, and forced him to react. Slowly, his rage came back. The memories of his dead family gave him power once again, and the Balefire erupted from his throat: seemingly coming straight from Hell with how hot it burned.
The two magical energies collided, causing a thunderclap to sound all across the land, drawing the attention of any bystander on the ground. An orb coalesced where the contesting energies met. An immense power struggle between the Alpha and the Constellation Demon.
Giving a push on the balefire, the Alpha closed his eyes and shut the rest of the world away, giving his undivided attention to killing the Constellation Demon as they fell through the sky.
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Time slowed down to a crawl as the mare and her new dragon accomplice flew through branches to get to the fleeing king. A glare was reflected off his blue armor, sending off his position like a signal flare. The dragon dive-bombed for the King, and the mare hung on for her life.
They landed in front of him, making a small crater in the dirt from the force of landing. The dragon bared its pearly-white teeth to the king, making him shudder against the ferocity possessed by such a creature. The mare clambered off his back and sat in front of her father, her face expressionless.
“Well?” The king stammered. “Aren’t you going to order your pet to kill me?”
The young mare felt two ways about his question. The first was that this dragon, despite how it was created, was not her pet. She may have saved it from certain death, but she was no tyrant over others like her father.
Secondly, she wouldn’t order anypony’s death. The dragon made a decision that was much like her own: kill the starter of the horrible wars that killed so many innocent others.
“I will not become like you, father. I will not end the life of another for personal gain.” She grinned, feeling a sense of righteousness in those words.
The king laughed heartedly at her. “We are not entirely different. I killed to ensure the passage of my kingdoms existence. You lead this crusade to save those scaled bastards." He spat out the last word like poison, as if it stung him to even mention anything remotely relevant about dragons. The King glared at the dragon behind his rebellious daughter.
The mare was thoroughly confused. Did he really think she was the Draconic Remnants leader?
"I am not a leader."
She stepped to the side of the dragon, clearing his path.
"I am a follower -sympathiser, if you will."
Nodding to the dragon who was nearly shaking with bloodlust, she turned away from her father.
"And this is your punishment for bringing Typherias into this."
She weaved her magic through the ground, summoning age-old vines. They exploded from the ground around the King, constraining his legs to where he stood.
The King struggled, but the Mare's magical prowess proved itself once again. The vines wrapped and contorted around his blue armour, restricting his movement.
"You will be trapped here for the rest of your miserable life. Then when the time comes, you will die watching everything burn." The mare spoke in a low, condescending tone. Her father was beneath her; he was just another stepping stone she had to cross in her life.
"You will die watching your world burn in the light of my power as I undo the problems you caused. Starting with Typherias..."
She looked towards the sky, expecting to see Typherias.
But what she saw she would never forget.
Typherias was falling.
Falling from the sky right above her and the red dragon.