//------------------------------// // The Dragon Invasion // Story: Thick Scales, Warm Heart // by Freeda91 //------------------------------// The Dragon Invasion Twilight and Spike rushed through the streets of the on fire Ponyville, expecting an explanation or at least to see everypony was safe. They’d come across trees, roofs and many things that were on fire; strangely enough, there weren’t close enough to each other for it to have been caused by a single small fire. It didn’t make much sense that several small fires were created all at the same time in different places; nopony could be that careless, not even Derpy. Twilight came to a halt as soon as she spotted Rainbow Dash placing a rain cloud on top of a house on fire. “Rainbow Dash” the lavender unicorn called for her. The rainbow manned pegasus glanced at the voice calling for her and as soon as she recognized it, landed next to her. “Twilight, good thing you’re here” Rainbow gasped; obviously she had been too busy moving clouds everywhere. “Don’t you have any spell that can help us out?” the pegasus asked. “I’m afraid I don’t. But tell me, how in hay did this happen?” Twilight asked back. “Oh…”Rainbow Dash hesitated to answer “It was the dragon” she said dramatically and starring at Spike. “Hey, it wasn’t me!” Spike defended himself “We were inside the library all day!” Rainbow Dash chuckled “I know, haha. I’m just teasing you” both Spike and Twilight frowned at her. She noticed this and became serious again. “I bet it was some accident; perhaps Derpy playing with thunderclouds again, or… those dragons!” she pointed behind them with a scared look. “Those dragons?” Spike asked; turning around and seeing three dragons flying threateningly towards them. There was a red one with orange spikes, a big brown one with two blue horns and a spiked ball for a tail, and a purple one with blonde hair that covered his eyes and yellow wings. Three dragons that they all knew; Spike specially. Twilight created a force field covering the three of them as soon as she saw the red one throw a fireball at them. However, as well as it protected them from the flames; it prevented them from escaping the dragons which had then landed around them. “Well, well, well. Look who we have here” the red one said “if it isn’t little Spike” They stared at each other in a way their mutual hate could be seen in the air. “What do you want Garbel?” Spike answered back “Why did you burn Ponyville?” the small dragon gestured pointing all the houses on fire, now extinguishing due to the rain. “I don’t need to tell you.” Garbel folded his arms and remained silent. “Yeah, no need to tell you we’re going to conquer Equestria for us dragons” the purple one said. Garbel didn’t hesitate to face slap himself and then wrap the purple dragon’s mouth with his own tail. “Thank you Ace, now they know it!” Blaze raged at Ace, who now was trying hopelessly to untangle his tail. “But they still don’t know that our entire army is again under the control of the most powerful dragon ever, who had been resting for at least a thousand years” added the brown dragon. “Chomp, if you say one word more, I’ll make you chomp your tail” Garbel now glared at him. “So you’re invading.” Twilight confirmed herself “But what about the dragon treaty?” she asked, looking at Spike. “That old decree means nothing to our leader, the magnificent white dragon only seeks revenge on ponykind”. Garbel answered. “And may I ask, why are you invading Ponyville? It’s Canterlot where you should invade” Spike asked, raising his eyebrows. “Oh, don’t worry; we will. But since that Celestia has such a powerful magic force field, we can’t get there yet. So we decided to block their supplies by attacking other places. She wouldn’t dare to sit and watch her entire kingdom burn, would she?” Garbel answered. Twilight kept silent while the rival dragons raged and shouted at each other; Rainbow Dash’ help was great when coming up with insults as the other two dragons were as smart as a snail. Her thoughts were focused on how did they know so much about princess Celestia since, regardless her fame, they were young dragons and weren’t supposed to know so much. Last time, he had referred to her as a namby-whatever pony princess; but now he recognized she was the powerful co-ruler of Equestria. “Enough!” Garbel shouted, supporting his anger with a fire roar. “Why are we wasting our time with you, we need to secure this place before his highness arrives. Let’s leave these helpless ponies and the pewee be. They can’t do any harm, they’re too soft”. The three dragons flew away, and Twilight let go of her force field spell; with some questions answered and even more doubts, they carried on with extinguishing the fire and saving ponies in danger. First, of course, they needed to gather the whole gang together; starting with Fluttershy, being near a forest is very dangerous when it comes to fire. “Well, let’s go!” Rainbow Dash said before speeding out in search for her friend. But she was stopped by Twilight’s magic. “Wait, I think it’d be better if we came up with a plan; so we get everyone together in half the time. You go for Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie; I’ll fetch Rarity and Applejack and Spike will stay here in case they appear. You try to get somewhere high so that you can have a better view” She advised Spike. “we’ll meet here as soon as possible. Hopefully enough those dragons were here just to create some fire to distract us; I noticed how discretely they flew away.” “You’re right!” Rainbow realized “I first saw them when they rushed at us.” “Then let’s go!” Spike interrupted “We need everypony here before their king gets here!” Spike was right and both ponies nodded before splitting up. Rainbow Dash was the fastest, and it didn’t take her more than a couple of seconds to get to Fluttershy’s with her amazing flight speed. Not to her surprise, Fluttershy was making sure every creature that was under her care was safe; she was pretty brave when it came to her animals. Rainbow gasped in awe as she saw Fluttershy pass through a wall of flames in order to save an injured bird. The rainbow manned Pegasus couldn’t just ask her to leave the animals there helpless, but instead decided to help her so they’d get back faster. She didn’t take her time to greet her friend in need, but immediately reached for a rain cloud and created some falling water to cease the fire; and in addition, she created a mini tornado to help extinguish the fire. The woodland creatures were now safe. “Oh, thank you Rainbow Dash” Fluttershy told her as soon as they had taken all the animals far from the fire. “You’re welcome, now let’s put these animals somewhere safe so we can go; we need to meet everypony else before the dragons come back.” “Dra-dra-dragons?” Fluttershy stuttered and was now shivering in terror, covering herself behind Angel. “Come on Fluttershy” Rainbow rolled her eyes “I just saw you pass through a wall of flames and you’re still afraid of some stupid teenage dragons?” Fluttershy didn’t answer. “And not to mention that time when you tamed a full-grown dragon!” She added; Fluttershy was blushing but still undecided. “But I need to take care of these poor creatures” she protested pointing at all the animals they had saved. “What’ll happen if the dragons turn up again and I’m not here?” “They were just making a distraction; they are going to meet with their leader and besides, you’d be facing all the dragons by yourself anyway; wouldn’t you prefer to have your friends by your side?” Rainbow argumented; to her fortune, Fluttershy was convinced. “You’re right Rainbow” the yellow Pegasus finally accepted and now flew alongside her friend; towards Pinkie Pie’s. Twilight, on the other hand, was galloping at full speed and was now close to the Sweet Apple Acres; to her fortune the Apple family was careful and smart; as soon as they spotted the fire, they used all the water they could get to extinguish it. When Twilight arrived all there were was some ashes and a little toasty apple smell. Her hunger reappeared as she hadn’t had lunch, but merely a small cupcake; but it wasn’t the time to think about food, she had to bring Applejack to the town square. “Twilight!” The orange pony galloped to her tired friend “What in tarnation is going on here? Where does the fire come from?” “It’s a long story” The lavender unicorn answered “In short, we’re under a dragon invasion. I think it’d be the best if we stick together, so we’ll all meet in the town square.” “Dragons? Invading?” Asked the shocked pony “As in dragon dragons?” She referred to wild, big dragons and not the Spike comparison. “Why yes” Twilight answered ironically “Just some big scary and fiery everyday dragon; not a problem at all…” “Ya needn’t be that mean” Applejack frowned “Sorry” Twilight apologized “but we need to go!” As she left the Apple Acres and headed to Carousel Boutique, Applejack followed behind. Meanwhile, the two Pegasus had arrived at sugarcube corner and were surprised at the scene; Pinkie Pie was firefighting… with ice cream. She’d use a high pressure hose to squirt chocolate ice cream everywhere, half the time her mouth, but it seemed pretty effective against the fire; and her Pinkie sense actually helped her get some ponies out of houses falling apart. “No wonder she saved those workers as Mare Do Well” Rainbow laughed and proceeded to help her friend by picking up some littered ice cream with gusts of wind and making it like a little blizzard; it helped reduce the fire in some way. “Fhamk gu Rimbow Dass” Pinkie Pie said; assuming the fact she had her mouth full with ice cream, Rainbow deducted she meant a thank you. “Eh… no problem” Was her answer. “Pinkie Pie” Fluttershy told her almost in her ear with a relatively high volume for her “We need to get to the town square fast, before the dragons come!” “Oh, do you think they’ll want a welcome party?” The party fanatic pony asked; immediately pulling her party cannon out of nowhere. “How did- where… ah forget it” Rainbow groaned and crossed her fore hooves. Applejack was heading towards Rarity’s at top speed; Twilight barely following behind, but doing so. She was really tired; not having lunch and performing a marathon to Apple Acres and Carousel Boutique. She wasn’t even that good of a runner, and had tired herself up by not pacing as she did when she raced back on fall. Hopefully for the tired unicorn, they had arrived at their destination; Applejack moved some rubble that was blocking the door and was knocking, practically bucking the door as hard as she’d hit an apple tree. No one answered, fearing the fire had knocked Rarity unconscious, she kicked the door out of the way and was pretty shocked at what she saw; all of Rarity’s family on the floor unconscious of breathing the smoke and couldn’t get out on time. The earth pony regained her composure and carried the poor unicorns out of the building. All was well, until the ceiling started falling apart right over Applejack; she closed her eyes but nothing happened. As her eyes opened, she saw a bright purple glow covering everything; she was lucky Twilight had made it in time to stop the falling structure from killing her. Once they got all the family outside and far from any fire, Twilight focused all her magic on the house to make sure Applejack could get inside and find Rarity; she couldn’t extinguish the fire, but if the structure was to fail again, it wouldn’t as long as her spell was on. After two long minutes Applejack jumped out of a broken window to save time and let Twilight rest; as soon as she did they heard a loud crash; which meant something did fall; if not everything. “Ah’m sorry Twilight” The orange pony said “but ah couldn’t find her; she must’ve gone out before the whole fire started.” “Oh, I just hope she is fine” Twilight sounded worried; who wouldn’t? The dragons had attacked them most probably because of vengeance; Rarity had been part of the whole dragon migration thing, so could they have attacked her first? As the two ponies headed back to the town square, slowly and searching far and wide on every street in order to find their missing friend, the two Pegasi and Pinkie Pie had arrived at the meeting place just in time to worry themselves as Spike wasn’t there. They were told by Rainbow Dash he’d be there waiting; maybe something happened or somepony appeared. They decided it’d be the best to just wait there while keeping an alert sky view eye. The footsteps of a running unicorn could be heard as three dragons were getting dangerously close to her; Spike as a witness couldn’t let those beasts get to her, especially being Rarity. He was on a roof waiting for the right moment and when the dragons were in the right place, he pushed with all his strength several barrels so that they fell over the dragons, slowing them the enough for Rarity to flee. She turned back as soon as she was out of sight of the dragons and spotted the small figure that had protected her; she recognized this one as Spike. The three dragons stood up and saw him; he couldn’t escape now. “There you are!” Rarity was shocked to her heart with Pinkie’s loud sudden yell. “You’re finally here” Twilight added “We’ve been looking everywhere for you; good thing you’re safe.” “Well…” She replied “I have three small problems behind me and a little guardian protecting me” “Do ya mean to say that our Spike is fighting alone against those dragons?!” Applejack interrupted. “I’m afraid I do mean so” Rarity answered to everyone’s worry. “He must have seen I was in danger and set up a trap for the dragons” She added “Now they’ll take it all on Spike!” She finally panicked. “Not if we six can stop them” Applejack said; finally the six wielders of the elements were together in a moment of chaos. And this time they’d have to fight three teenage dragons without the power of the elements. The confident smile on Applejack’s face was contagious and quickly spread to Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and everypony else. “You’re right!” Rainbow shouted “If these dragons want problems with ponies, then lets show them what we ponies can do; together!” She put her fore hoof forward waiting for the other ones to join her. They did immediately and cheered at the same time “together”. Next thing, the six ponies were charging towards the three dragons, which were having some trouble to hit Spike; two dragons were dumb enough to hit each other in a confusing move from Spike, where he sneaked below their legs and got them falling over each other. However, Garbel wasn’t that stupid. “I’ll fight you myself Spike” Garbel exclaimed pushing the other two dragons away. “These two rock heads can distract your pony friends” He added; he had obviously seen the charging ponies. Chomp and Ace turned around and saw the six ponies prepared to defend their friend. “Don’t do it Spike!” Twilight yelled “we can fight all of them together! That way we’ll definitely win.” “I know, but I need to do this. He asked for it from the very first time I confronted him.” He answered standing still, not moving his eyes from Garbel’s. “He wanted me to kill little Pewee, he burned all ponyville, and the worst thing he could have ever done…” He clenched his fists in anger “…he tried to hurt Rarity.” The dragon was now death serious about it, and everypony knew so. It hadn’t stroked them until then, but Spike was no longer a baby; he was a dragon, one who could defend himself and his beloved ones. Garbel had had enough of his brave talk, and was the first to attack with his fire breath; Spike was expecting this and tried to fight fire with fire. The idea was terrible, as Garbel’s fire was too strong for Spike’s, and the little dragon was blown off by the power of the fire. What hurt the most was falling back, as being a dragon fire hardly did any damage to him; after all, all dragons use to swim in pools of hot lava. “Dragon or pony, you’re nothing but a baby.” Garbel confirmed this with that last mini battle. “All I wanted to do that night was to smash an egg; or a hatchling.” He advanced towards Spike slowly but surely “I guess I’ll just kill a dragon instead.” He finally said. He was next to Spike; he could just step on his head and finish him, but he decided to use his claws instead. He raised his hand skyward and intended to kill the purple and green dragon in one hit. He missed however, as Spike just vanished in a puff of purple dust and reappeared next to Twilight. “That’s the spell you used when you fled from us the first time.” Garbel noticed. “Shall we begin, boss?” Ace asked, he looked anxious to attack the ponies. “Do as you please” Garbel answered “I’ll go ahead and guide the magnificent white dragon.” He said before flying away. The two dragons grinned and stepped forward menacingly at the now frightened ponies. “Hey Ace, I wonder if grilled pony is tasty” Chomp told his friend. “You think anything is tasty” The blonde dragon quickly replied. “What do we do girls?” Twilight asked “Do we stay and fight or do we run?” The lavender unicorn knew they had charged to save Spike; he was already with them, so they didn’t need to put their lives on risk. Her stare was reflected in the blank expressions of their friends as they were insecure; Rainbow Dash wouldn’t just run away, but it was important to stay alive wasn’t it? “They won’t let you away” Spike said; standing up after being injured. “Ace is a really good flier; of course nothing compared to Rainbow. He won’t let us escape easily. However, Chomp is pretty strong and resistant. He will be hard to take on if we decide to stay.” “So we can’t flee and we can’t win” Applejack groaned. “What do we do then?” “I wasn’t over” Spike interrupted “Chomp isn’t very agile anyhow, so we should have no problem evading his attacks; and Ace isn’t exactly strong, just fast. It’s like they are completely opposites.” He said bringing the ponies hopes up a little “And they aren’t all that smart either” he finally said; to which his friends giggled. “Appart from that, you guys are the wielders of the elements of harmony; as far as I know you battled the whole Changeling army alone!” “It wasn’t all of it” Rarity interrupted “But they were quite a number.” She then added charmingly. They didn’t have the opportunity to decide whether to run or not, as the dragons had already closed by. Ace was flying quickly enough to distract them while Chomp was preparing himself for one of his famous fire burps; Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Twilight and Spike had been witnesses of his large fireballs. Twilight didn’t think it twice before creating a force field to shield them; however, Ace had been fast enough to tackle Pinkie Pie and Applejack out of it. The fire breath luckily missed these two by inches; but had already intimidated all of the ponies. Applejack and Pinkie Pie tried to get back to the force field before he blasted another fire attack. However, Ace once again separated these two from Twilight; this time by far too much even for Twilight to teleport them without breaking their shield. “Fluttershy!” Rarity began “try using your stare” she had a small hope she’d intimidate the dragons; after all it did intimidate one big, full-grown dragon once. “Just be accretive; think of how those dragons want to hurt your pets!” Rarity added; she turned out to have pressed the right buttons, as Fluttershy became serious and her angry stare was upon her face. Incredibly enough it was effective; both Chomp and Ace were a little surprised and backed away a little. “Wow, she’s scary dude” Ace whispered to Chomp, to which he nodded. The ponies took advantage of this and took an offensive position. Applejack and Pinkie Pie, who were the closest ones to Chomp, headed his way; Applejack stood on her back hooves face to face with the brown dragon; and was throwing her fore hooves back and forth as if she was boxing. The dragon got taunted and imitated her; Pinkie Pie was a few feet away from the orange pony when suddenly she felt a tickling sensation in her tongue. “To the left!” Pinkie Pie cried; Applejack obeyed her and evaded a punch from the dragon. Then she got another Pinkie sense and told her to jump; Applejack did so and evaded a low tail slam from the obese dragon. Pinkie then shivered and yelled her to roll as she took cover herself. Applejack rolled between the dragon legs just in time to escape from a fiery fire ball and had now the advantage of being on his back; she did her famous back kick, which sent the big dragon off the ground to land on his face next to Rarity. The desperate unicorn lifted a relatively big rock over his head and let go of it; with a loud moan, the dragon was knocked out by a now giggling Rarity. Twilight on the other hand, was having trouble shooting her magic beams to the agile dragon; and half the time she had to teleport to avoid a tackle or create a force field for his fire attacks, which weren’t as strong as Chomp’s, but it was still fire. “Need a hand?” Asked Rainbow Dash to what Twilight simply nod; the rainbow manned pegasus then flew at top speed around the dragon, creating a small tornado that blew the dragon off his balance and fell to the ground dizzy; Twilight saw this was her chance and used her magic on him to knock him out too. “I told you these dragons didn’t mean business” Spike exclaimed rubbing his scraped arm. “Good thing Garbel left though.” “Spike” Rarity mentioned “It was very noble of you to try and fight that dragon alone” she said at first; then her tone changed drastically into an angry one “but are you out of your mind!?” She practically shouted him “If it wasn’t for Twilight here that dragon would’ve killed you!” Spike was speechless; he knew he had made a mistake by relying on his proud; he wanted to avenge Rarity being chased off. However it had taken the worst of him and in the end he almost got killed. “I’m Sorry, everypony” Spike sighed in depression “thanks for helping me anyway” he then added to which everyone nodded in response. Everything seemed to be going to be good for a while, everyone smiled at each other and they could finally have a moment to take a deep breath; unfortunately, they could spot Garbel flying nearby, accompanied by other two dragons and a white one, similar in size only a tad bigger, but by the way it flew, they could tell it was the famous magnificent white dragon. The ponies tried to run away from the upcoming beast, but were surprised to see the two dragons that had just recently been taken care of standing up and blocking the way, as well as the rest of the dragon army approaching from the streets. It was deafening to hear the screams of terror from the ponies that were assaulted by dragons, defenseless as they were, their houses burned alongside the ones that opposed resistance. A couple of full-grown dragons could be seen laying on the limits of the town; blocking escape routes and entrances. As the sun finally set, the ponies experienced a horror as it was to see the whole town invaded by dragons; they could merely fight two of them, let alone they weren’t smart. The moon made its appearance in the sky and the white dragon landed in front of them; he had quite a particular white shine for a regular dragon. Several dragons blocked their escape and even held them down, especially twilight. She tried to shove them of with her magic, but one of them simply held her horn with their claws; her magic wouldn’t work. “Unicorns, their magic is useless if their horn is affected in any way. I wonder why you show it with such pride. Your weapon and your weakness.” The white dragon said, walking towards them. Something that was a complete shock to them was the fact that they were being levitated by some magic, not Twilight’s nor Rarity’s, but the dragon’s one… a dragon with magic?! “Who-who are you?” Twilight managed to speak “How can you do this?” “Surprised?” The turquoise spiked dragon said “it’s a natural ability of those dragons that are born due to magic. My name is… too important to be pronounced to such creatures as yours, so refer to me as White; King White.” Twilight and Spike had their jaws dropped to rock bottom. They both knew who he was, and unfortunately knew what he could do. “You’re princess Celestia’s dragon!” Spike announced; all of the ponies but Twilight gasped loudly. “My, my, what do we have here?” White asked jokingly as he analyzed the small dragon. “Looks like you’re a smart one; and not only that, but you have been born due to magic as well!” He finally noticed. “I knew I could smell something weird in you. Tell me little dragon, why are you joining forces with these?” He asked, loosening his magic grip over him. “They are my family, like Celestia was yours” Spike answered. “How could you do that!? You killed your own brother!” “He was the one who wanted to die” The dragon defended himself “I wanted the dragons to take what belonged to them, everything!” He exclaimed by raising his arms in the air and increasing the volume of his voice “He decided to protect the ‘harmony’ and got what he deserved. I may have grown in pony hands, but nothing can change what I really am, a dragon!” He then stared into the shining moon, its brightness illuminating the not so dark night as it was being tanned in a fire red color. “The princesses were able to defeat me before, but I now know they’re no longer connected to the power they once wielded and they’re nothing compared to me!” “A question, uh… White” Spike spoke gently “If the elements of harmony take the chaos out of your heart, then that’d mean…” He was cut off by the dragon. He was now frowning at the child for asking him such a question out of the blue; it was obvious he had no intention to answer it. That is, if the questioner wasn’t another one of its own kind. “I wasn’t brought into chaos by any sort of magic” White replied “I did what I though was correct, to give my fellow dragons all the territory they deserved, the gems to gobble on, and recover the honor that was lost in the war with ponies.” “On the other hand” Spike added “your brother decided it was best for the two species to be in eternal peace; you were the one who took down the peace treaty by attacking your own brother!” “My brother was weak!” White shouted almost as loudly as Luna used to speak “He was far too kind for a dragon, and coward to fight back” “He was brave enough to stand up for his heart’s desires, and face his own brother” Spike cut the big dragon off; White’s frown on him was only narrowed by this fact, for such a small dragon he could find he was smarter and braver than any other dragon in his army; perhaps the way he was raised? A dragon such as him would definitely be a great addition to his troops; especially since he was a magical dragon, the rarest of its kind. “I’ll give you a chance young…” White gestured by drawing circles with his hand in the air in order to get Spike to tell him his name. “Spike” He replied firmly. “Young Spike” the dragon continued “I’ll give you the opportunity to join my dragon army, even as my own apprentice so that you can master your magic capabilities.” Spike had some hard time processing the dragon’s words. “It is already useless to fight for these ponies who are already doomed” he pointed out looking at the girls “you said they were your friends; but as a dragon brought up by ponies, I know the hard feeling of being different, feared by everyone else. Hated.” Spike suddenly felt as if the last night’s events were being rubbed at his face again, and to his shock, it was all true. He may have a like for them for being their friends, but they also feared him and treated him differently than other ponies. He paced back and forward on making up his mind; he could either be loyal to his friends, or be promised to become a real dragon, and the mightiest of them all. He just couldn’t evade the fact that even if he loved his friends with all his heart, he was a dragon; and it was only a matter of time before he grew up and had to leave them, because of his size, and life expectancy. He took a final decision, he looked back at his friends to see the worried looks on their faces; one by one he analyzed everyone’s expressions and deducted their feelings; worry in all of them. Of course, Rarity took the most time for him, apart from Twilight who he had shared his entire childhood with. Having made up his mind he gave him the pleasure to see the faces of the ones he loved one more time as their friend... “I would be honored to become your apprentice, my king…” I apologize to the readers for taking so much time to upload this as well as leaving you hanging from a cliff...