//------------------------------// // XI: What a Fright // Story: The After Party // by Blackdrag-rose //------------------------------// "What in the name of Faust are you three doing here?" Luna demanded, surprising Rocket and his friends with her choice of words, "You know the treaty makes it very clear that dragons are to stay in Dragon Territory and never directly come into any of our towns, cities, or settlements." "Um, I honestly don't care," the black dragon said, clearly ignoring what the Lunar Princess had said, "Besides, we have no beef with you and the other Princesses currently. Sapphire, Violet, entertain our audience while I get what we came for." "I always wanted to beat up some ponies," the blue dragon, Sapphire, cheerfully said as she approached a couple of bystanders. "Keep your eyes on the prize Obsidian," Violet reminded the black dragon, "Keep your eyes on the prize." "Come on sugarcube, let's fight them," Applejack was ready to go and defend those that the dragons were planning on hitting, "We can't let them hurt anypony." "We physically can't do that Applejack," Twilight replied, hanging her head low, "The treaty Luna spoke of makes it so that any member of royalty, be they pony or dragon, that attacks any members of the other race declares open war." "So we'll lose two of our fighters," Rainbow said, staring at the blue dragon, "Why should that matter to the rest of us?" "Because the Elements of Harmony are included on the list of those who can cause open warfare," Obsidian declared, "We three aren't royalty, so our actions here won't cause a war." "You still haven't answered me," Luna said, making the dragon face her, "Why are you here?" Obsidian sighed and wrapped his hand around Rocket's neck quickly, turning towards the alicorn while holding his prisoner. "See this pony in my hand?" he asked angrily, "He has an enormous amount of energy stored inside his body, just waiting to be released. How do we know he has that much energy? We can feel the magic in the air and we felt it only a few days ago when he released quite a large amount of it. We will turn the power of Rocket Sky against you all and then we'll eradicate the mare who holds power over everything in the whole of Equestria." Chrysalis, having drunk herself into a drunken haze, looked up from her table to see some black creature holding the stallion she wanted to kidnap. She was sure that it was her mind playing tricks on her, but being drunk has that strange effect on ponies. She grinned her teeth and stood up, almost knocking the table over as she started walking towards the assembled group. Behind her, now noticing the conflict before it happened, was the waiter who was supposed to have the night off and was working instead. He sighed and conjured his old set of armor, complete with a sword he used in case his magic were to ever fail him. Now properly prepared he walked behind the Changeling Queen, as she claimed to be anyway, and prepared to join the fight. "You will not be taking Rocket anywhere you punk," Tick said, pulling his guitar out and plucking another nameless tune, "not if we have a say in it." Wisdom hovered next to him, holding some sort of long wooden staff in his hooves, never taking his eyes off the dragons in front of him. Peachy, holding no weapon, stood next to her friends and her fox growled at the dragons. Rose growled and hoofed the ground, breaking the soil as she waited for one to strike. "We can't just leave the fighting to them," Rainbow said, trying to join the fight but being pulled back by Twilight's magic. "Yes we can Rainbow Dash," Twilight told her, "We can't cause war between the dragons and ponies. Let them do this since they aren't royal or part of the Elements of Harmony." Wisdom flew over the two dragons as Tick unleashed a storm of musical waves at them, causing the dragons to advance towards him. He smiled and raised the guitar high above his head, preparing to smash it over the head of whichever dragon got near him first. Before he could even swing it Sapphire ripped it out of his magical grasp and slammed it into Tick's side, hitting him into the side of a building. "Tick." Peachy shouted, turning on Sapphire and charging at her. "Peachy, don't..." Wisdom said, realizing what was about to happen. The dragon kicked Peachy in the side again and again until she was kneeling in the ground. Never had she tried to fight others and now when she did she was being beaten before raising a hoof. "Oh no you didn't." Wisdom said, having tried to help his friends only to be stopped by Violet, "Your going down." "Try it you stupid pony," Violet smirked, catching the end of the staff before receiving a hoof in her face. Wisdom released his staff and slammed it into Violet's front foot, easily cracking the bones. The dragon growled and punched him in the chest, but he bounced back and struck her in her left armpit. Bone cracked and Violet screamed in pain, confused on how the staff was hurting her so much. "Your pressure points are visible to me," Wisdom calmly said, turning the staff over until he slammed it on top of her head and knocked her out, "Now to rescue Rocket." Before he could move Sapphire appeared in front of him and slammed her fist into his chest, which he blocked with his staff just in time. Unfortunately the staff shattered and her fist hit him square in the chest, cracking at least one of his ribs before he hit the ground. The blue dragon, he decided, was a monster in battle. "Pitiful weaklings," Sapphire said, catching Rose by the neck and tossing her into a nearby building, "None of you are worth the effort it takes to fight you. Rocket Sky is as good as ours." "Super Hoof of the Drunken Mare," Chrysalis shouted, her front right hoof blazing as she snuck up on Obsidian and struck him in the side, "Blazing Whiskey Punch." Obsidian, after receiving the extremely weak punch, turned on the Changeling Queen and tossed her over Sapphire's head, causing her to hit the ground hard. She was quick to regain herself and charged at the blue dragon in her way, barely missing with her hoof this time. Before she could dodge she was moved out of Sapphire's way by magic, which turned out to be the waiter that had served her earlier. Only he was dressed in the armor of a Lunar Guard and carried what resembled a sword on his back. "Ah, it is good to see you again Coffee Bean," Luna said, clearly pleased to see the unicorn stallion. "Princess Luna, I take it an old captain has permission to engage the enemy?" the stallion asked, not taking his eyes off the dragons in front of him. "Do what you must," Luna replied, turning to the letter she was only just starting to write. "Who are you to interrupt our fun?" Sapphire asked, watching the stallion draw the sword on his back with his magic. "The name is Coffee Bean," the stallion replied, holding the sword before him, "Ex-Captain of the Lunar Guard and personal mentor of one Captain Shining Armor." Chrysalis, despite her drunken haze, knew the reputation the stallion had. She had heard of him while listening to Shining talk about his past while she was impersonating Princess Cadence. Coffee Bean was a legend among the Lunar and Solar Guards. Sapphire charged at the stallion and swung her open hand at him, intending to rend the life out of him in one go, but found her attack blocked by the weapon he held. Coffee pushed his foe back and cut her chest lightly, causing her to think the wound was greater than what it actually was and faint. He smirk and approached the black dragon, spinning the sword as moved. Obsidian never moved once as his friends fell and that meant he was planning something. Obsidian smirked and tossed Rocket into the air before rushing towards Coffee Bean and spinning around to dodge the arch of his sword. Before the stallion could react he slammed his fist into the armor and dented it before kicking it even harder, this time shattering the underbelly. Coffee stumbled backwards and, before he could even raise his sword in defense, received another blow to the chest, this time causing him to flip into the air. Obsidian appeared above him and slammed his fist into Coffee's exposed chest, crushing him into the ground and cracking the area around them. Before catching Rocket Obsidian turned towards Chrysalis, if it truly was her, and smacked her across the face before slamming her into the ground. Then he caught Rocket by the horn and held him up, showing that not even the group of heroes could save the unicorn from his fate. "You will claim to not know the power that this pony wields?" Obsidian asked, not that anypony had said that they didn't know he had power, "You will claim to know that he is trustworthy and all the nonsense that I know you'll claim to actually know. But allow me to show you exactly how powerful this unicorn truly is when he's not aware of his own actions." With that said Obsidian raised Rocket into the air and slammed the base of his horn across his waiting keen, breaking the unicorn's horn in half. The shockwave that emitted after the deed was done knocked over Chrysalis and Coffee Bean, but everypony was surprise by the expression they saw on Rocket's face. His expression was of shock and his eyes were not moving, just staring straight ahead. Pathetic. Luna recognized the voice; it was the same one that had spoken that one word before Rocket took down the Ursa Major. Whatever the voice was didn't seem happy at all. Without me you would have died. This time will be different. Music "What is this strange music?" Twilight asked, looking around for the source, but finding nothing. Energy began to gather around Rocket as one of his legs got up, but instead of it being a normal pony leg it was the leg of a werepony. As Rocket got up it almost looked like his costume had come alive and was taking over, but his eyes were colored black with a golden center. When he was fully up he roared and almost everypony in the area seemed scared by what had happened. "This is what we get for watching Bleach before eating those damned cupcakes," Peachy said, watching her poor friend as his horn regenerated itself. "Instant Regeneration?" Luna asked, "That's impossible." Obsidian laughed and said, "This is the form the creature known as Rocket Sky has chosen. Fear this form and the massive power that it contains." Rocket grabbed Obsidian and tossed him into the air, surprising the dragon. Before he could react he was battered from every side by the quickest moving pony he had ever met. Just when he thought it was over he was thrown higher into the sky and he barely noticed his friends had joined him. Rocket landed on the ground and looked up at the three, energy beginning to form above his horn again. Music "Stop him," Peachy pleaded to anypony who would listen, "Stop him before he fires that...thing..." Rose, despite her weakened form, ran up to the stallion and pounded on his chest. "Snap out of it Rocket," she shouted, the orb growing larger, "Don't do something that you'll regret." Despite her efforts the orb fired and a huge wide beam of energy soared towards the three dragons in the sky and she feared that she was too late. "Screen Divide," a voice shouted as the beam split in half and barely missed the dragons as they soared off into the distance. Rocket growled as none other than Princess Celestia landed in front of him with Cadence right behind her. "His power is great," Celestia said, her magic bound to Rocket's front right leg, "but it shall be bound." Luna and Cadence followed suit, binding their magic to his front left leg and his back left leg. Twilight nodded and bound his back right leg, sealing the power by the combined might of the four alicorns. Rocket gave a low growl as his body returned to normal and collapsed to the ground. "Now we all must discuss this turn of events," Celestia said, turning to leave, "but first we must wipe this night from the minds of everypony in Ponyville and deliver these dragons to the guards." That was all Peachy remembered before everything went blank.