//------------------------------// // 82. The Battle of Baltimare // Story: Azure Edge // by Leaf Blade //------------------------------// The dragon soaring through the thundering rain clouds over Baltimare was massive. Rarity knew in her heart that if it couldn’t use the Golden Oaks Library as a damn toothpick, it could certainly use it as nothing more than a backscratcher. The beast opened fire on Rarity and Celestia’s team, launching a swollen orb of flame from its maw. Celestia looked unfazed, and with a mental command, ordered Rarity to conjure a shield to protect the four ponies and Baltimare. Rarity did as commanded, a solid wall of pale blue energy meeting the flame and dispersing it on impact, though the burden on Rarity to tank that attack with her magic was greater than she expected, knocking the wind right out of her. Rarity was impressed by herself—or rather, she was impressed by Celestia’s magic that flowed through her body thanks to their kiss before the battle that allowed her to pull off such a technique. But even the Queen’s energy could only do so much when contained within a body as delicate as Rarity’s. “We need to ground it,” Celestia said firmly as her four swords flew into the air to attack the dragon as if by their own will, but in reality being meticulously manipulated by Celestia’s magic. Rarity watched in awe as Celestia commanded the four blades, teleporting them to and fro to disorient her enemy, watching the dragon swat at one blade, only to have to deflect another coming for its eye in the time it took to breathe. The dragon seemed to be doing well enough at defending itself, keeping the four weapons at bay with its claws, snapping them up with its fangs sometimes, only for the sword to teleport out of its jaws and careen toward its head, only to then be deflected by a thin green aura around the dragon’s scales. “As I thought,” Celestia said, biting down on her thumbnail, “this dragon uses magic. This won’t be a simple exercise, but it’s nothing out of our reach.” Celestia turned her glance to the team, though her attention never wavered from her airborne weaponry. “Spitfire, Tempest Shadow; can I count on you both to bring this beast to the ground?” “You got it, boss!” Spitfire gave a proud salute, and Tempest merely nodded confidently. Celestia didn’t have to tell the pair twice, and as Tempest’s horn crackled with fraying magic and Spitfire took off into the air, Rarity felt a tad underdressed; though she quickly changed her tune when her magical barrier was the only thing that kept Spitfire from being torn to shreds by a mighty buffet of wind from the dragon’s wings. The dragon seemed to be faring well against Celestia’s arsenal, learning the pattern of her attacks and adjusting its own moves accordingly, though Rarity suspected her Queen had something else in mind than simply slaying the dragon in a mere swordfight. Rarity was proven right when a loud burst erupted from Tempest’s horn, and a ray of black and red energy shot through the sky and ripped a hole in one of the dragon’s wings, eliciting an ear-splitting howl from the beast as nearly half of its wing decayed from the blast. The dragon charged toward the ground, eager to outrun Celestia’s weapons as it rushed to eliminate the bane of its wing, but it couldn’t get away from blades that could simply teleport right in front of it. To Rarity’s shock and disgust, the dragon didn’t slow down when met with the newfound wall of blades, instead charging right into them and getting all four blades stuck between the scales on its face; though the thin green aura that surrounded it seemed to reduce the damage, blood still poured from each wound, covering the dragon’s face in a sickly red sheen. The dragon opened its maw again to shoot flame, and Rarity prepared her shield, though Celestia held her back. Like a bolt of lightning, a fiery pegasus tore through the dragon’s remaining wing, burning an enormous hole right in the leathery flap. The dragon roared in pain and flapped its decayed, useless wings, but it somehow managed to remain airborne and retreated into the storm clouds while the party was left behind, Rarity wondering how it managed to stay in the sky, or even alive, with those injuries. “Of course,” Celestia hissed. “It’s using magic to keep itself airborne, not its wings. “So what’s plan B?” Rarity asked. “The same as plan A,” Celestia reaffirmed, clenching her fists, “we ground it. But if it won’t come down, we’ll simply have to meet it up there.” Before Rarity could ask, she felt her body surging with energy, then a pair of gossamer butterfly wings shone from her back, and she knew she could fly. “Spitfire followed it into the clouds,” Celestia said through gritted teeth, “she’s going to get herself killed that way. Let’s go, Rarity. We haven’t a moment to lose.” “My Queen!” Tempest, no wings in sight, stepped toward a distinctly irritated-looking Celestia. “What do I do from the ground?” “I don’t need to explain your orders, Tempest,” Celestia growled. “You know what needs to be done, otherwise you wouldn’t be here.” With that, Celestia and Rarity took off into the downpouring night sky, Celestia parting the sea of thunderclouds just long enough to unveil the dragon and pull it out of its cloudy shield with her magic. Sure enough, Spitfire was engaged with it, having pulled one of Celestia’s swords from the dragon’s face—an absolutely dreadful fountain of blood pouring from the dragon’s cheek in the weapon’s place—and fending off the dragon’s attacks, though Spitfire herself was bleeding from the face and arm. The dragon wasted no time swatting Spitfire out of the sky and refocusing its attention on Celestia, firing a bolt of flame that was blocked by Rarity and her barrier’s timely intervention, at the cost of much of Rarity’s stamina. As Rarity tried to catch her haggard breath, Celestia asked her “How many more can you block?” “One?” Rarity replied shamefully. “Perhaps two, but I don’t think would survive the second.” “Then save your one for my command, no matter what happens,” Celestia said, her swords snapping into her hands with a crack of yellow light, “and leave this to me.” The dragon tried to smash Celestia in its claws, but she blocked by stabbing her swords between the fingers of both hands, yellow barriers around the swords keeping the monster’s claws at bay. Celestia’s other two swords, including the one reclaimed from the retreating Spitfire, hovered above the dragon’s eyes, the demon watching them warily for the perfect moment to deflect them. Rarity could see Celestia sweating from trying to keep the dragon’s crushing claws from coming closer to her, and Rarity knew the dragon could certainly see it as well. Celestia was a bastion of physical strength, but she wasn’t a dragon, and she couldn’t hope to contest it in a physical contest for long. Celestia grit her teeth and grunted, and the swords in her hands zapped away, allowing the dragon to crush her in its claws, its nails digging through her armor and into her flesh as she screamed in agony, leaving a gasping Rarity to watch in horror. But the dragon’s momentary victory came with a price, and the swords that disappeared from Celestia’s hands had to reappear somewhere; and the place she chose was inside the dragon’s eyes. Celestia’s immediate proximity to the monster allowed her to perfectly transport her weapons right through the demon’s eyes, the hilts of her swords sticking out from giant glassy spheres that instantly started pouring blood. The dragon opened its mouth to breathe fire, and Celestia struggled to escape its grasp; the claws embedded into her skin making it impossible for her to concentrate enough for a teleportation spell… so Rarity would just have to do it for her. Rarity shut her eyes tight and pooled as much of her magic as she could into her horn, directing it at Celestia and praying that her studies had paid off. And after a satisfying CRACK, Rarity opened her eyes to see a relieved yet bloody Celestia flying in the air beside her, as the dragon’s flame uselessly engulfed nothing but empty air. The dragon roared at Rarity and Celestia, the latter’s jaw dropping as she exclaimed “That wasn’t enough?” Suddenly, Rarity understood Celestia’s plan; just as Celestia had been unable to focus through the pain from the dragon’s claws, the party would have to cause the demon enough pain for it to lose its flight spell. “Celestia, darling,” Rarity gave a dazzling smile as she drew her sword, “let me take the lead.” Celestia snapped one of her swords in front of Rarity, who took it in her hand and let her own sword hover in her aura around her head. “Make me proud, Rarity.” Rarity grinned as she flew toward the dragon, and even as the beast swiped in the air at her—its sight likely also enhanced with magic, so its lack of eyes was only a minor inconvenience to it—Rarity remained vigilant. It dawned on Rarity that this dragon was quite the accomplished magus, if it had so many spells cast on it before it even entered the fray. It wouldn’t be a stretch to assume it had a spell that would allow it to endure past its normal pain threshold. Rarity bemoaned that dragons must have had a much larger well of magic to draw from than even alicorns, otherwise Celestia would have been able to cast such spells on the party before they arrived, and that would have put this battle on a much more level playing field. No such luck though. Rarity dodged the grasping claws of the dragon and slashed Celestia’s sword through several of its fangs, slicing her own blade through a second layer of the demon’s fangs and severing half its damn teeth in the process. While the dragon tried to bite down on Rarity, the holes left in its teeth were easy enough to glide through, and Rarity did so with style and grace, effortlessly escaping the dragon’s bite, only to be covered in the shadow of its hand instead, as it reached to grab Rarity in its giant fist. Rarity closed her eyes and prepared her shield, but before she knew it, she was hit by a thud and was careening upward. She suddenly found herself being carried to safety by an injured— though still very much alive and grinning cheerfully— Spitfire. The dragon breathed flame up at the two, and Rarity deflected it with her barrier, feeling a gross pang in her chest as magic exhaustion started to creep up on her. It wasn’t often she felt it, but repeatedly defending against a dragon’s flame will wipe out any reserves a pony may have. “Do we have a plan?!” Spitfire yelled, and Rarity didn’t know how to answer at first, but the solution quickly dawned on her. “Yes! Go down! Toward the ground!” Rarity answered, and while Spitfire gave her a momentarily hesitant glance, she followed Rarity’s orders without question. During Rarity’s little bout with the dragon, it never once tried to go after Celestia, and Rarity surmised that it could only focus on one target at a time using its sight spell. So if Rarity and Spitfire, still kiting the dragon’s attention, were to pass by Celestia… Sure enough, the dragon followed as Spitfire raced toward the ground with Rarity in her arms, and though the dragon was weakened, it was still able to keep pace with Spitfire, at least until the ground was in sight, when it reared up and roared, knowing what fate awaited it if it came too close to the earth. Unfortunately for the dragon, it was already too close to the sun. Celestia grabbed the dragon’s neck in her magic and yanked it downward, and though she could only hold the beast for a mere second before being forced to let go, that was more than enough time for a roar of black and red energy to tear through the sky and rend the dragon asunder, piercing right through its stomach and causing the edges of its chest and pelvis to decay as well as its limp carcass fell into the sea with a monstrous splash. “I knew we could count on you, Tempest!” Celestia cheered as she hovered above the water, and Tempest gave a salute from the dock, her horn still crackling with barely restrained magic. Celestia smiled at Rarity and Spitfire. “You two both did phenomenally as w—” The dragon should have been dead, but its roar revealed it was quite alive, as did its remaining fangs digging into Celestia’s leg and eliciting a frenzied howl of pain from her. She teleported a few inches away from the beast’s maw, and as it rose from the ocean, everypony could see its injuries were still present. How the hell is this beast still alive?! It didn’t stay behind to engage the party again, and instead took flight over the ocean, disappearing behind the horizon before the party could even think to give chase.