Cold. Hard. Itchy. Those were the only words Apollo could fish out of his vocabulary to describe the position he was in right now. He had a pounding headache, blurry vision, and a large gash on his head that had caked his face and mane with dried blood; some of it close enough to his mouth to leave a metallic taste. He rose slowly off of the hard brick floor, stumbling slightly on the uneven surface. His eyes adjusted to the dimness to show an alien world, the walls around him were covered in a thick horrible green slime which dripped onto the floor, filling the air with a nauseating scent. The sound of dripping slime was unsettling in the otherwise quiet darkness. Ignoring his new surroundings long enough to check on himself, Apollo found that his leg and right cheek were matted with coagulated blood, which had apparently pooled onto the floor around him. Gnats were swarming the stain. 'Better that than me'. Apollo heard a soft moan from his left, spinning quickly to face it. Maybe that wasn't the best decision as he had a horrible headache, but that could wait. He turned to see Piper. 'Princess Piper Cadenza'.
Another nearly inaudible moan escaped her lips, and Apollo moved quickly over to her, again being rewarded with pain. He slid to his knees to examine Piper for any injuries. She was breathing very lightly, and her abdomen had a large bandage wrapped around it. There were also gauze strips surrounding her wings. Piper was covered in small cuts and bruises, but otherwise she was fine. Something in the room squeaked, then the faintest shuffling of hooves. 'More than hooves. What is that?'. Apollo stood, squinting into the darkness. He couldn't see a thing, and had almost written it off as his mind playing tricks on him when he heard the recognizable sound of feathers rustling. He had heard that sound in the night many times before since adopting Syracuse.
“Who’s out there?” he said into the oppressive blackness. “Show yourself!” Apollo waited for a few moments, hearing nothing. He slowly turned his head, trying desperately to see anything in the room. "Don't make me ask again!" He raised his voice enough for it to repeat itself along the unseen walls. Hearing no answer, nor any other sound, he lit his horn. Unable to conjure more than a dim glow, he paced around, waving curious gnats away from his face as he searched for the source of the noises. 'There' , he thought to himself. His horn had cast enough light to make out a dim silhouette beyond a row of thick bars. "I know you're there. Answer me!" He intensified his horn's glow as much as he could muster.
"Please stop" said a soft voice, so quietly that Apollo wasn't sure he had actually heard it. If it was who it sounded like... Apollo once again forced his horn to give off more light, revealing the huddled shadow as a buttercream pegasus with a rose mane, three butterflies adorning her flank, She was pressed into the corner, almost as if she were trying not to exist.
“Aunt Fluttershy?!” Apollo gasped. “Is that you?” he asked, relieved to find that this pony was a friend. He tried to get closer to her, but was stopped by the thick bars. His horn dimmed slightly in relief.
“A-apollo? I-i-it's me... Is that r-really you?" The timid Pegasus slowly emerged from the dark and approached, only to befall the same bar-related fate as Apollo.
"Yes, Auntie Fluttershy, it's me. What's going on, what are you doing here?" Apollo stuck a foreleg through the bars to hug his Aunt, who trembled hard enough to rattle his teeth in the embrace. Fluttershy sniffled a bit before responding in between whimpers.
“They captured all of us two months ago!” She exclaimed, tears streaming down he face and wetting Apollos knee.
'Two months?' Apollo thought, [i']That’s when Twilight left for… oh no…'he put his hooves on Fluttershy's shoulder and pushed her back to look her in the face. “Fluttershy, where are the others!” he asked with as urgent a tone as he could muster. Fluttershy wilted under his gaze, nearly collapsing back into a fit of choked whimpers before Apollo drew her back into a hug.
“Umm… Wh-whoever is in charge, he-, he took them" She said quietly, a fresh stream of tears spilling from her eyes as she recalled an obviously terrifying memory. Before Apollo could ask her anything else, he heard another moan from Piper, who was apparently becoming conscious.
“Whur er wear?” She slurred, making several attempts to flip herself over and stand. “Whas gon ona?” Apollo swallowed, trying not to panic at Piper's distress.
“Actually” He said to Fluttershy, “I was just about to ask the same thing. Where are we?”
“Umm…well ummm, this is the Canterlot dungeon, so I want to say… in the Canterlot dungeons?” She responded uncertainly, almost sounding like she was asking Apollo the question. “The only reason I’m still even here, is because they wanted me to revive your marefriend over there.” She tilted her head in Pipers direction. Piper, who had managed to get to her hooves and was walking like a light drunk, flopped down onto the stone floor and giggled crazily.
“That should pass” Fluttershy said, seeing the concern spreading across Apollo's face. “It’s only the sedative wearing off.” She shrunk back slightly, her voice trailing softer as she did so. Apollo considered informing Fluttershy about how him and Piper weren't a couple, but he froze as he heard the sound of heavy locks and bolts being moved. A door at the end of the blackness opened, light flooding in and making Apollo shield his eyes from the painful exposure. He found that Fluttershy was right; By the looks of the corridor beyond the door they were indeed in the Canterlot dungeons. Two changelings walked in, showing all their chitinous glory, and went over to Fluttershy's cell. One pulled out a ring of keys so large it looked like you could kill someone with them, the ring jingling as the keys were flipped in search of a particular key. Once the first guard finally found the right key, he inserted it into the lock, the bolt making striking sounds as the huge tumblers fell into place. It eased the door to the cell open with some deafening creaks and squeaks, and grabbed the cowering Fluttershy. Fluttershy went limp, her whimpering cutting out to silence as she lost conciousness. They grabbed her under the shoulders and dragged her along, not even bothering to support her legs. Apollo's eyes had adjusted enough that he could get a good look at Fluttershy's condition. There were bald patches on her coat, and she had large bruises on her legs that showed through the remaining yellow. The second guard came over to his cell, pulling out an equally large key ring, and unlocked the door. They grabbed him in an even less respectable manner than Fluttershy… by the horn. Unicorn horns are extremely sensitive, to both pleasure and pain. Pain shot through Apollo's entire body, causing him to spew several choice vulgarities at the changelings. Once they got him clear of the doorway, another changeling grabbed piper with levitation and the group began dragging their prisoners up the stairs to the throne room. Apollo could make a solid guess about their location in this castle, what with being here so many times with his mother. They were dragged up the marble staircase that eventually opened up to flat marble floor, that was furnished only with a Chrystal cut throne. Upon said throne, lay a creature which looked like a changeling, but it's size rivaled that of the Alicorn who usually occupied said throne, and was covered in… scales? Yep, those were defiantly scales. 'Well, that explains the dragon teeth' Apollo thought. The hybrid snarled as his guards entered the room, and they cowered back in fear. The ground before them was littered with all different types of cracked and shattered pottery. Looking around, he also noticed what appeared to be blood, feathers, and shattered fragments of horns, as well as pages of books everywhere. Broken and littered across the floor were the once beautiful stained glass windows that had lined the walls, depicting his mother’s great feats.
“Pull.” hissed the vile creature sitting on the Lunar Princess’s throne. At once, a priceless and likely irreplaceable spell tome went up into the air. With a snarl, the being charged up his horn, encasing it in a green glow, and blasted the book out of the air, which exploded into dust due to it's old age. The creature then directed his attention towards Apollo.
“You, what are you doing still alive?” It demanded, no longer hissing his words. Apollo cringed. Somehow the smoother voice of the creature made it even more unsettling.
“Sorry to disappoint you, whatever you are.” He said sarcastically, his usual arrogant bravado resurfacing as rage made his stomach feel hard and knotted. First, this creature captures his mother, kills countless souls, then has the audacity to question his very existence!
“Soon, you will be.” It said, it's voice filling the room despite the hushed tone it had used. It continued, “I am Exetheleon, lord of the changeling hive and the Conqueror of Equestria. And you will learn to fear the very mention of my name.” Exethelon growled, bearing down on Apollo. Pipers ears perked up at this notion, she had not aware that the hive was under new management.
“What happened to Chrysalis” she asked. The creature, Exetheleon, flinched upon hearing that name. He turned, sneering at Piper.
“She was weak, I am strong.” He said simply, breaking out of his trance he continued “Chrysalis is no more, and the Hives are better for it.” Exetheleon tilted his chin up, a look of proud satisfaction adorning his face. Horrified, Piper grasped at nothing as she tried to find words. Her face contorting with confusion, she spoke;
“You…you killed her. Your own queen… and you killed her..." Pipers confusion broke way for anger "You son of a bitch disgusting creature! Rot in hell!” Piper was writhing with anger, horrified by how plainly he could speak of the murder he had committed. Exetheleon burst out of his throne, and flew straight at her, his wings buzzing. He pinned her to the opposite wall by her neck, nearly shouting;
“Silence, insolent worm!” Apollo fought against the guards grip, trying desperately to go to Piper's aid. Exetheleon snarled, increasing the pressure on Piper's throat. “Were it not for the fact that you are royal, you would be dead at my feet." As Piper tried to figure out what he had just said, Exetheleon took a deep breath, and turned to the now furious Apollo. He walked toward him, seeming to taste the air around him as he approached, and then he started to laugh; A deep, cackling, evil laugh full of malice with no comforts whatsoever. His eyes darted to Piper, then back to Apollo. His laughing gradually subsided, and he leaned over Apollo. “Let’s play a game.” Exetheleon whispered, pulling Apollo by his mane over to a window that was more or less intact. “You win, and she gets to live.”
“And if I lose?” asked Apollo, somewhat amused by this sudden proposal.
“It’s very simple really, you both die, and I’ll even have you kill her, just for the fun of it.” Exetheleon cackled.
“What… what do you have in mind?” Apollo asked, finding it hard to speak, or even breathe with his face pressed against the window as it was. Almost giggling to himself, Exetheleon pulled him back and slammed his face into the glass. Grunting with pain, Apollo struggled against the creatures insane grip, but couldn't free himself from it. Still maddeningly happy, Exetheleon spoke.
“See that maze over there?” he asked, and sure enough, a maze of shrubbery, wood and stone rose up from the ground where there was once nothing. “I want you, and a few others, to go in there and come out… alive. If you do this, I will let you, and those else who survive, free.”
“What about Piper?” Apollo asked.
“Oh, she stays. But you can go and carry out a normal life, or as normal as possible, and like I said, if you decline I will kill her right now, right in front of her own love.” Exetheleon said playfully bumping Apollo’s head into the glass every few words he spoke.
Apollo's will broke, and he exclaimed in a pained manner; “Alright, alright, I’ll do it. I'll go into the maze!”
“Excellent.” hissed Exetheleon, nodding to his guards by the door. The burly changelings acknowledged him and opened the huge wooden doors, and a changeling came through, ferrying prisoners into the room. “These worthless creatures will also be going into the maze with you, but they are anything but friendly.” said Exetheleon. Looking around at the disheveled, obviously frightened beings, Apollo noted that they were not all ponies. There was a zebra, two griffons, a small dragon, and what appeared to be a baby hydra in the crowd as well. Looking past all that, Apollo also noted a small blue blur that flew by the adjacent window, smiling to himself.
“Come, the games are about to begin!” Hissed one of the changelings, brandishing an electrically tipped spear. He prodded at one of the griffons, the female one, and she retaliated, stunning it with a wing before bearing down on it with her beak and claws. She nearly ripped the changeling into pieces, but at her own expense; The other changeling guards came over to the assaulting griffon and beat it to death with the electrical spears and clubs. Her squawking stopped abruptly, echoing through the halls as the male griffon cried silently to himself over the death of the female. Apollo struggled against Exetheleons hold once more, earning a prod with an electrified spear in the process. The changeling guards chained them together and led them out of the throne room, a final backwards glance showed Apollo that Exetheleon had returned to his game of antique skeet before a changeling prodded him again, hissing at him to keep moving. The hallway the band was in started to widen and brighten, until they emerged in the castle gardens. The entrance to the coliseum-like maze lay in front of them, with barred doors and gates. At the presence of the group, the doors slowly swung inward, revealing three passage ways. Each was equally dark and smelled of death. The changeling guards prodded them into these dank, dark hedge passageways, shocking any who resisted. Apollo made his way over to the male griffon, who was also accompanied by a unicorn mare, with electric blue hair, and a pair of shattered magenta sunglasses on her face. Her cutie mark was that of a music note, and she seemed to be clutching a piece of paper in her mouth. As he observed the griffon, he noticed his features. He had a long scar that ran down the entire length of his beak; his left eye was green, while the right was a shockingly bright, electric yellow. He had a strong build, and he was quite tall, far more so than any pony, maybe even Celestia herself. 'Celestia. And Luna. Where were they? How could they let this happen? Have they betrayed us?' He shook that last thought from his head. Luna would never betray him.
One of the changeling guards shoved a hoof toward a large rack of collected weapons; among them was Apollo’s bow.
“Chose your weapon, any two” said the changeling. He quickly ran over and grabbed his bow, and looked around for Pipers knife, but found nothing. Maybe they hadn’t taken it. These thoughts crossed his mind, but were suddenly interrupted by an annoyingly clear voice. It was Exetheleon.
“Mares and gentelcolts, fillies of all ages, I give you, the maze!” Grinning wildly he continued, “Let’s take a look at the audience, shall we.” He gestured behind him, and multiple ponies were shoved forward, among them stood Piper. As he looked at the horrified crowd, he also noticed among them, Celestia, Luna, and… his mother, as well as the rest of the elements of harmony. They pointed to him, happy to see him, but scared as to why he was here. He walked forward, ignoring them as best he could, and selected his arrows. A changeling walked over to him, and hoofed him in the face, breaking his nose. As blood spilled down his maw, he stammered and demanded to know why his nose and face were just mutilated. The changeling coldly responded “To break you.” then stalked off. Apollo called after the thing, and it turned to face him.
“What do you want, you worthless worm” he said
.
“I am allowed two weapons, yes?”
“Yes” replied the changeling incredibly annoyed, so much so that he went over, and hit Apollo again. Grimacing from the pain he felt in his face, he put his lips together, and whistled. It was a loud, incredibly high pitched whistle, which probably stirred the diamond dogs in there far off mountains. As he did this, a period of silence followed suit, then an ear-shattering caw rang through the sky, and a blue streak came flying through the sky, and landed on Apollo’s back. It was Syracuse. He cawed happily to his friend, then turned and stared daggers at the stunned changeling, who began to hiss in fury.
“That is not a-“
“Let it be, Cremesius, HE will not survive either way.” Intervened Exetheleon. Upon hearing this, his mother began to sob. Seeing his own mother cry infuriated Apollo, filling him with a whole new form of rage. He wanted to rip, tear, and bath in the blood of Exetheleon. He wanted to not only kill him, but to destroy him, to incinerate every fiber of his being, and to mutilate every cell in his body. To completely and utterly obliterate his very soul.
Then, Exetheleon spoke again "These are the rules.” He cleared his throat before continuing. "When you enter this maze, you will each face a series of challenges, which will result in death for most of you. The last creature standing will be crowned the victor, and be given his freedom. The losers, well, you’ll all be dead won’t you?” He laughed insanely again. “Begin!” A sound like a gunshot, followed by scrambling and wicked laughter. When the shot sounded, the griffin bolted into the left corridor, followed closely by the blue-manned mare. Apollo, seeing this, took off in that same direction. He kept running, but no matter how fast he willed his body to go, the griffin was still the faster of the two. Apollo kept running, until he heard a scream. It was a female scream, and he rounded the corner in the general direction. It was the mare. She must have gotten separated from the griffin. She was being pulled into the ground, roots strangling her, pulling her through the dirt downwards, and she was still…alive. She was in serious pain though, the roots pulling out her fur, cutting into her skin, whipping her exposed back. She was screaming, Apollo tried to blast off the roots, but it did not affect. He realized that his horn was coated in a thick, green slime, as well as hers. Gurgling now, drowning in the blood that was filling up her chest cavity and lungs, she pulled him down to ear level and whispered:
“Kill… agghhaah… me…” When Apollo hesitated, she grabbed an arrow from his quiver, and stuck it through her own heart. As the arrow pierced her, small red fireworks burst from the stands, symbolizing the death of one of the challengers. Apollo yelled into the air, furious with this evil creature. He saw a black blur out of the corner of his eye, and stopped. He slowly slunk towards the shadow, the pure rage in his heart being so intense, that his horn melted the green slime off, which dripped onto the ground, and sizzled producing small wisps of smoke. He slowly slunk toward the assailant he saw, and pounced on it. This sent both of them tumbling through one of the hedges, into a clearing. Apollo charged his horn, ready to blast the enemy to pieces, when he recognized him.
“I would appreciate it if you lowered that horn of yours” said the griffin coolly.
“Who are you, and what happened to that mare?”
“Well, the mare wondered off even though I told her to stay with me, and my name is-" he was cut off by strange laughter coming from nowhere. An ominous sound, seemingly coming from the wind itself. Truth be told if not for the griffons keen hearing, Apollo would have thought himself mad, or on the brink. The griffin perked up his ears, and looked around. A very suspicious shadow began to cover the clearing, coming from the north then stretching outwards. The laughter began to grow louder, and turned into more of a cackle. A light pink glow began showing through the darkness, but then became brighter in area, yet darker in color. The cackling progressed into more of a high pitched hollow giggle. Out of the pink darkness, came a pink pony, with bright green eyes. They blinked, studying the duo quizzically, then without any sort of warning, the pony pounced. It jumped onto the griffin, or it tried to at least, but he was too quick for it, and evaded easily. It tumbled into a somersault, and then skidded to a halt, taking a good deal of dirt with it. Turning to face the two, she giggled, blood dripping down from its right eye socket and onto the floor. Its single remaining green eye was still as vibrant as ever, and was beginning to flicker between green and yellow. Then it turned its attention towards Apollo only, snickering at the look of sheer surprise on his face. It was pinkie pie. Only it wasn’t really her, this thing was the same, but different. Pinkie pie would never attack them. Apollo cast a reveal changeling spell, which resonated and rippled off her body, then died down. Nothing happened. He tried again and still, nothing happened. Pinkie just laughed. She wasn’t a changeling, but something was off, she would never try to hurt anypony, or griffin for that matter. She shook her head back and let out a long cackle, then charged. Apollo took a right hoof to the base of his horn, which caused him immense pain. So much so that he fell over, leaving the griffin to fend for himself.
The griffin dodged, blocked, swept, clawed, bit, and stunned, but this Pinkie Pie didn’t seem to tire, or feel pain, or anything. She had long cuts along her mid-section and upper body from the talons of this ferocious monster. Apollo had heard stories of the ferocity of the griffins, but he had never seen it in person. Never saw one take a fatal hit, and then continue on as if it were nothing. From his ground view, he saw his talons rake across pinkies face, mutilating her other eye. She stumbled around, blinded, and the griffin took this as a time to check on Apollo, who was still writhing with head splitting pain. His eyes fogged, but he could still see pinkie advancing on them. She couldn’t see, but she could still hear. She readied a particularly sharp rock, and made the motion to bring it down on the griffins head, but the blow never came. Apollo, being the smart individual that he is, cast a time freezing spell, right at Pinkie. She stood frozen in time, only able to move her destroyed pupils. Then, with a cry of anguish, the griffin turned, and dug his claws into her chest, pulled out her still beating heart, and threw it. Apollo released her from the time spell, his vision now blurred only by tears. The Pinkie Pie, stumbled, faltering. Then, suddenly the green left her eyes, and they turned a beautiful bright pink.
“Hehe that was fun!” she said, and then fell over in a puddle of her of blood, mixed with the blue of the griffins. The griffin promptly wiped the blood off his claws, than went over to finish checking up on the sobbing Apollo. The pain had nowhere near subsided, but it was bearable, for now at least. Though he doubted he would walk away from another hit like that. The base of his horn was leaking silver liquid down onto Apollo’s face, which he wiped off. Still sobbing, he walked over to Pinkie Pie’s mangled body, and cried some more. This was not a changeling, it was a changeling bite. The proof of this was in the pinpricks in the side of her neck. They had just killed the legitimate bearer of the element of laughter. A pony that he called aunt, and hoped his own kids would one day do the same, and they had just killed her. Sullenly, he got back to his hooves, and turned to the griffin, which was looking just as sorry.
“We were going somewhere, yes?” questioned Apollo. Nodding, the griffin made a gesticulation with his wing, pointing down the corridor to the right of them. Suddenly, they heard an awful, high blood curdling scream to the north. The griffin nodded, and they bounded off towards the screams. They had barely gone thirty yards, when a pony came barreling through the hedges, covered in blood, a gaping hole in his chest that was singed around the edges. He was dead, yet his pulse remained. His mangled body began to writhe, broken bones clicking back into place, sticking out of skin, or shattering. The sound was horrible, and as its spine snapped back into its spot, his head tilted upwards slowly to look at the two horrified creatures, and then it smiled. It was an awful smile, with cracked teeth, a shredded tongue and gums caked with blood and grime, his eyes opened, and the two were shocked that underneath he eyelids lay two piercing green eyes. It snarled, foam now dripping from its nose and mouth, and pounced.
It grabbed onto Apollo, who whistled just in time. His faithful dawnix companion swooped down from the clouds and grabbed the freakish pony-zombie-changeling hybrid. He flew up into his sky, as high as he could, and dropped the monster. Apollo shielded his eyes as he heard a horrible splat, and the feeling of warm, sticky blood splatter all over his hooves and front of his body. He blinked several times, clearing the blood from the area around his eyes. Then he saw it. Dozens of purple glazed shapes underground. He could see through the dirt, as if by x-ray. The purple shapes were moving, and they were going up. Fast. Suddenly behind them, a hoof broke through the dirt and rubble, and a pony climbed out. He was from the Discordian wars, a soldier, with a very sharp looking spear. Its eyes were green just like the last, then they heard another heart wrenching shuffle of gravel and dirt, and they turned to see another dead pony. This one was a member of the Lunar Republic, those who supported Nightmare Moon. Those who were caught after her fall had their wings tied and were thrown off the tallest tower, and quite a few of them landed in the gardens, buried for hopefully all eternity. Yet one was staring at them right now, with eyes as green as grass, but horrifying. More and more creatures started to rise up around them, mainly from those two groups, but there were also several griffins, a small dragon, and three cyro griffins, a wolf-griffin species that were endangered and extremely rare, and equally dangerous. All at once, the green eyed demons attacked. Apollo drew his bow, and the griffin readied his talons, and Syracuse poised to attack. With the sound of charge form his companion, Apollo leapt into battle. He jumped into the air, assisted by Syracuse, and rained arrows down onto the creatures below them. The griffin tried to take off and give more Arial support, but could not. He fluttered his wings a bit, but it pained him greatly, and he was still on the ground. Giving up, he stuck out his arms, and using his wings to help him, began to spin. He became a whirling-dervish of destruction, his claws slashing anything that came within a five foot radius to shreds. Meanwhile, Apollo and Syracuse were fighting for their lives. He was shooting, and blasting zombies away from him, releasing stun pulse whenever he could. He could almost feel Exetheleons eyes boring into him, sitting, waiting for him to slip up.
Apollo was determined not to give him the satisfaction. He was beginning to tire though, and he wondered how the griffin had such fantastic stamina. The thought was cut short however, as Apollo heard an ear splitting cry of anguish. The creatures were swarming around something, and the whirling death had stopped. A bird was crying, and Apollo took action. He was throwing the remaining ponies out of the way with telekinesis, and saw a cyro griffin stooping over his friend, going in to bite onto his neck, and finish the fight. He charged up his horn with the most powerful spell in his arsenal, cosmic rip. It teleported part of the body two another dimension, ripping the target in half. He cast the spell on the creature, and it rippled all over its body. Then, without seemingly any warning, there was a great purple flash, and a vertical half of the undead cyro griffin was sitting there, then it fell over with a flop. That still left two cyro griffins, and a *gulp*… dragon. The cyro griffins began advancing on his position, snapping their jaws threateningly at him. One of them pounced, but he dodged it, then the other did the same, but he was slightly less fast this time, and was clipped by a canine tooth on the side of his shoulder. He cried out in pain, clutching his shoulder, blood dripping down from the wound. The other cyro griffin that he had originally dodged took advantage of his problem, and grabbed his bow, which had been dropped in his pain. He picked up the bow in his teeth, and snapped his jaws, splintering the oaken bow into slivers of wood. Apollo, upon seeing this, seethed with rage. That had been his actual fathers bow; it was the only thing with him at the orphanage when he was found there. He drew an arrow, and wielded it as a knife, slashing at the creature with such rage that this mindless beast seemingly backed off. But it only looked that way for a minute, because the next thing he knew the cyro griffin was advancing again. With a practiced hand, he spun the arrow around in his hoof, and drove and slashed at the beast. He put several deep cuts around its chest and facial area, which were bleeding profusely. This made it lose its balance, but did not kill it. Apollo took this to his advantage, and rushed it, driving the arrow into its chest, and through its lung. It shuddered, and died. Apollo breathed a sigh of relief, but he wasn’t done yet, not by a long shot. He still had another cyro griffin and a dragon coming at him. Speaking of the dragon, Syracuse was currently distracting it and the remaining griffon from Apollo. He fished into his quiver, and brought out his last arrow. Then, he threw it, but not at the enemies, up into the air horizontally. He jumped with it, took air, and slammed his hoof into the back of the nock, sending it flying at the griffin. The creature didn’t even have time to register that the thing stuck through its throat was in fact an arrow. It shuddered, and fell over with a “flump”.
That just left the dragon. He walked toward it, being that it was still distracted by Syracuse, it was safe as it could be, but then, the dragon roared and released a pillar of fire at the bird, engulfing it in flames. He screamed as he saw his longtime companion plummet down to the unforgiving earth. The dragon reared its ugly face at the insignificant pony who was addressing him. He was met with a massive blast of raw purple energy. The dragon roared, throwing its head back in pain, but only to be bombarded with a flurry of furious spell form a furious pony. He blasted the dragon with every spell in his mind, even a color changing one, and a light spell. Surprisingly, it was the light spell that did it. This dragon was nocturnal, and when it saw a light as bright as a solar flare coming right at it, it veered it body and hid its eyes, promptly tripping, and landing on the great stone statue of discord, which went right through it. The dragon laid there, blood pooling around its body. Apollo turned his attention back to the griffon, and ran over to his side, panting heavily. He went over to the downed griffon and hit him in the chest, trying to wake him up. With a flurry of CPR like hits, he managed a cough, then a series of coughs, followed by blood flowing from his mouth as he cleared it from his lungs.
“Talon,” he coughed up, “My name is Talon.”