“I think, therefore I am a fan of ponies.” — René Descartes
Throughout the flight to Fillydelphia, Twilight kept the thought-music spell going. After a few more songs by Rainbow, I moved on to the Clash, Rush, Journey (“Don't Stop Believing” was an instant hit), AC/DC, Aerosmith, the Ramones, Van Halen (Rarity really seemed to like them for some reason), and a few others.
The mares all listened intently—Rainbow Dash would occasionally start to headbang and play air guitar (yes, despite not having fingers, the ponies had invented guitars)—and even the armored pegasi could sometimes be seen bobbing their heads in time to the beat.
Despite the music in the air, my guts squirmed as Ponyville faded in the distance. If we failed, that might be the last that any of us ever saw of it. We really had no idea what we were up against, and sword or no sword I wasn't completely convinced that the shadow dragon could be killed so easily. I nervously rubbed my thumb along the star in the sword's pommel.
The others looked only slightly worried and I wondered if the same thoughts had entered their heads as well. I was suddenly very grateful that Twilight wasn't allowing my own misgivings to get out of my skull. I tried to keep the music upbeat and cheerful, which helped a little bit.
It was late afternoon by the time that our destination came into view. Fillydelphia was located at the bottom of a shallow valley and sprawled along the shores of a pair of rivers that intersected at the city's heart, dividing it into quadrants. The buildings all seemed to be made of either wood or stone bricks and came in a variety of interesting styles. A few of the trees that lined the edge of the city had already started to turn yellow and orange, but most retained their brilliant green foliage. If it weren't for the thin layer of black smoke covering the western section and a conspicuous lack of visible residents, it would have been a pleasant sight.
The chariot descended and landed just outside the southern border. A dozen stallions in rusty iron armor snapped to attention and gave a human-style salute. Their eyes were all bloodshot and the pegasi's wings drooped ever so slightly, but they were obviously reluctant to show any kind of weakness or even surprise at my non-equine appearance.
“Oooh, it's a welcome party!” Pinkie said before she stuffed the last of the taffy pieces into her mouth. Despite the uplifting music, she'd been the only one to eat any of the snacks during the entire trip.
I returned the guards' salute as I stepped out of the chariot. “At ease, folks,” I said, swallowing my returning anxiety and attempting to adopt a military mindset. “Who's in charge here? What's the situation?”
A big black unicorn—the only one in the group—stepped forward. “Sergeant Linden, Fillydelphia Reserve Forces. I'm the acting commander. Or at least I was until you showed up, sir.”
“What happened to the Major?” Thunder demanded through his mustache from the front of the chariot.
“He lead the evacuation of the west sector, but his squad was ambushed and taken out by the dragon.” Linden paused and his unreadable expression turned to absolute terror for a fraction of a second before he regained his composure. “I've never seen anything like that monster. Even when you're staring right at it, you can't tell what it looks like. Sir.”
“Do you know where it is right now?” I asked. My innards squirmed again and I took a quick look around to make sure that there wasn't anything unusual in sight.
“It's holed up in the main library, uh...”
“Captain.”
“It's holed up in the library, Captain. Probably resting or waiting for it to get dark again.”
“Alright, let's move quick,” I said as I tried to think like a soldier. “Send out your pegasus warriors for immediate aerial recon in case that bastard tries to leave. The rest of you form up. Stay close, but try to stick to cover. Everypony understand?”
It felt strange to be giving orders like that, but they all nodded and the three ironclad pegasi took flight, leaving behind eight earth ponies and Sergeant Linden. Not the attack force that I would have picked, but beggars can't be choosers.
“You want us to go too, Captain?” Thunder asked. He pulled a small steel box out of the back of the chariot and it dropped to the ground with a jingling metallic clink.
I nodded. “Might as well, Lieutenant. Keep your heads down, though.”
The golden-armored stallions detached themselves from the chariot and set off after the other pegasi, pausing only to give a quick final salute. A minute later, they were out of sight.
Pinkie Pie bounced out of the golden carriage with her usual grin and energy, completely unfazed by (or uncomprehending of) the gravity of the situation.
Rainbow stretched her wings and flew up to my side. “Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get in there and whoop some ass!”
Applejack nodded in agreement. “A quick kick to th' teeth an' a stab to the heart is what Ah say. Let's hurry an' get 'im 'fore ma sis gets inta too much trouble back home.”
“Not so fast,” Twilight walked up too and dropped her voice to a whisper. “Did you see how scared Linden got when he mentioned the dragon? We need to be smart about this. Our best bet may be a surprise attack.”
“Surely we can't fail with our new leader,” Rarity said rather loudly. “Whatever strategy he chooses, our triumph is assured.” If I hadn't been so grateful for the support, I would have been frustrated with her constant insistence that I was some kind of miracle worker.
“The length of a triangle's hypotenuse is equal to the positive square root of the sum of the squares of the lengths of the other two sides!” Pinkie shouted happily, which earned her a long, confused stare from everypony.
I looked at Fluttershy, but she was nervously glancing all around and didn't say anything. She also shook very slightly from head to hooves, but that was actually displaying more confidence than usual and much more than I had expected from her.
I cracked open the box that Thunder had pulled out, and inside were five golden necklaces. Set in each was a bright gemstone in the forms of an orange apple, a blue balloon, a pink butterfly, a purple diamond, and a red lightning bolt. In the middle of the jewelery was a shiny tiara with a large purple starburst gem and several smaller blue jewels along the band. They were the Elements of Harmony, naturally.
The mares silently put on the necklaces and tiara. There wasn't much to say, but at least we had another line of defense now. Hopefully one that would make a difference.
When they were all ready, I nodded to Linden. “Lead on, Sergeant. Let's get a move on.”
“You heard him, colts,” Linden barked to the earth ponies. “Spread out, eyes open. Regent, take point. Draft and Tackle, guard our rear.” The stallions wordlessly got into a protective ring around us and we settled into a quick march toward the setting sun.
The shadows grew long as we walked, filling the alleys between them with darkness. A warm breeze blew scraps of shredded paper and dust through the air. There was very little noise and a vague hint of dread hung in the air. That ethereal feeling of anxiety grew as the light faded beyond the distant hills.
Before long, we came to one of several arching stone bridges that spanned one of the rivers. The water was completely still, and Pinkie couldn't resist the urge to kick a pebble into it. The resulting splash echoed in the lifeless city and the ripples spread in thick rings that bounced off both shores and headed back to their point of origin. Nopony said anything and we marched on.
“Oh, this is positively horrible,” Rarity complained as we stepped off the far side of the bridge and set foot in the western quarter of Fillydelphia. “All this smoke is going to ruin my hair.”
The air on this side of the river was filled with dark fumes that blocked the already weakened light. The wind was stronger here, but the smoke refused to dissipate.
“D-did the dragon start a f-fire somewhere?” Fluttershy's voice shuddered, and again she was looking everywhere.
Linden shook his head. “While the evacuation was underway, we enchanted the entire city with a fireproofing spell to make sure that didn't happen. We think that the smoke you see is coming directly from the beast himself.”
He suddenly took a deep breath and turned to me with pleading eyes. “Look, we never trained for an attack like this. None of us are soldiers. We're carpenters, apothecaries, and bakers who volunteered to be in the Reserve Forces, but we never really thought that we'd have to handle something this serious. I plant trees for a living, for Celestia's sake! Please tell me that you can defeat this monster and save the rest of the city!”
I was taken aback by the sudden begging. That was a bad sign. A really bad sign.
“You can count on us,” I said bravely. “One way or another, we'll get this dragon out of your manes soon enough.” I wasn't really that confident myself, but I knew that the other ponies were listening for my response. Keeping morale up in stressful situations is important.
Nopony seemed to have anything to say to that, so we kept moving in silence. The smoke became even thicker and the odd feeling of uneasiness increased as we moved on. I could tell that the others felt it too by their heavier breathing and the nervous glances that they kept throwing over their shoulders. Only Pinkie Pie didn't seem eager to get away from this dark place.
What little light managed to permeate the gloom revealed that many of the houses had been heavily damaged. Roofs had been torn apart, walls were knocked in, and long scratches were raked across the street. Loose tiles and chunks of stone were strewn haphazardly around. Long splinters of ruined timber beams stuck out like shattered bones from what looked like a destroyed post office. Whatever had done all this had to be big and seriously pissed off.
Several times I saw what appeared to be torn and bloody pony corpses, but they were always lying in a darkened alley or covered in debris. We all tried not to look too closely; at least one of the bodies was far too small to be a fully grown pony.
The sun finally set. Now the only sources of illumination came from a few electrical lights on the nearby buildings that were still more or less intact and the occasional streetlamp. The bulbs flickered and threatened to go out at any moment, causing the shadows to waver and shuffle around unnaturally.
Before the moon could rise, we reached the library. It was located near the middle of the western quadrant, in the darkest and smokiest part of the city. The place was enormous and looked like a medieval cathedral, complete with columns, leering gargoyles, and spiky Gothic spires on the steep roof. The surrounding trees swayed back and forth in the wind, and the rustling of their leaves sounded like plotting, treasonous whispers.
There were numerous lights inside that gave off plenty of colorful illumination through the stained glass windows that hung between many of the building's ribbed stone arches. The windows depicted scenes of ponies playing in the sun, lounging under trees, and other cheerful situations that the gloom and smoke had twisted into perverse mockeries of themselves. Every painted smile had become a grimace and their singing mouths now screamed in agony. Each trace of red glass was a pool of blood and the eyes all seemed to be fixed on us.
Twilight shivered. “I have a bad feeling about this,” she muttered to herself.
With a flutter of wings, Lieutenant Thunder landed in front of us and saluted. I returned the gesture. “Anything to report?” I asked, grateful to see another familiar face.
“The dragon is still inside and we're stationed all around. He can't get out without us knowing.”
I nodded and slid Luna's shield onto my left arm. “Good. Tell the others that if things go to hell and he makes a break for it, don't try to take him on by yourselves. Follow him and let us know where he's headed so that we can plan an ambush. And, most importantly, don't let him out of your sight.”
“Of course, sir.” He flew back into the darkness where the indistinct silhouettes of the other pegasi hovered.
“What about us, sir?” Linden asked nervously. “Do you want us to go inside with you?”
I considered for a moment, then shook my head. “No, if there's too many of us, we won't be able to sneak around. Set up a perimeter out here and be ready to follow the dragon if he tries to break away. Coordinate with the pegasi and stay calm.” I didn't say that nine extra ponies would just be more targets for the dragon to attack. Or that I had some serious doubts about their resolve. I happened to know that if even one of them tried to retreat in the middle of a fight, it could get all of us killed.
Linden nodded and gave a few short orders. He soon had the place surrounded. Apparently they had trained on how to do that.
I stepped up to the library's massive wooden door, took a deep breath, and turned to my friends. “Well, if anypony's having second thoughts, this is your last chance to back out.” I fully expected Fluttershy to try to take off, but she bit her lip and said nothing.
“Alright, let's go in quietly and get a look at the situation. Stay close, keep your eyes open, and be ready for anything.”
The ponies nodded and I carefully pushed open the door. It swung silently on its hinges and we all snuck inside quickly. I pulled the door shut behind us and gently allowed the latch to close. We were now in the shadow dragon's temporary lair.
The entire building was silent. Utterly silent. I know that libraries are supposed to be quiet places, but there was not a single sound in that place. Even my own breathing echoed off the walls, columns, and ceiling.
We slowly made our way forward into the library. Tens of thousands of books were stacked in hundreds of bookcases that spread out across the floor and the nine upper levels that protruded from each of the walls. Twilight gasped quietly at the sheer number of texts. It was clear that she was wondering what was written in them all and planning how to get her hooves on a few before we returned to Ponyville.
Scores of long tapestries hung from the walls and carved marble columns. Each of them displayed a sun and a moon at the top and various different scenes on the bottom two thirds. Like the windows, these showed ponies in moments of happiness and blissful playing that had been tainted by the dragon's presence. A few had been ripped to shreds, but the ones that were still intact seemed even worse somehow. The woven eyes either stared at nothing or glared at us, furious that we hadn't been consumed by the beast yet.
Applejack suddenly stopped in her tracks and motioned for us to do the same. She frantically pointed towards the wall to our left, between two rows of bookcases.
Lying against the wall between two support columns was a dark mass. It was a lump of solid lightless matter, as black as the library was quiet and then some. There weren't even any shadows on it, it was so dark. Pitch-black doesn't even come close to describing how black it was.
The darkness was illuminated ever so slightly by a strange green light that came from a shining emerald gem, but strangely the light only made the darkness seem even darker. That faint light made my skin crawl and the hairs on my neck stand up, and judging from Rarity's expression—a mixture of awe and disgust—even she knew that the jewel was tainted by evil.
The darkness was slowly expanding and contracting in a slow, steady rhythm. We all watched in horrified fascination as the dragon silently slept, oblivious to our presence. You'd expect to hear deep, rumbling snoring or breathing from something like that, but it gave off no sound of any kind, as if it didn't have lungs. That was pretty damn disconcerting.
I waved the ponies back and they silently followed. We hunkered down together behind a few rows of bookcases to discuss the best approach of attack.
“Here's what I'm thinking,” I whispered as they all huddled around. “If we stay quiet and do it right, we can end this without a fight. One quick hit in the jewel and it's dead.”
“Then why didn't you just do it when we were over there instead of bringing us back here first?” Rainbow asked crossly. Her wings twitched in agitation.
“Because we need to be smart about this,” I explained calmly, or at least as calm as I could manage while coming up with a plan with a giant shadow dragon less than a hundred feet away. “We want to have a Plan B in case something goes wrong. Stay back and let me get close unless that thing wakes up. If that happens, Rainbow, you and Fluttershy need to fly above the dragon and distract him while Applejack and Pinkie run around behind him and attack from his rear. Rarity and Twilight, get his sides. Everypony take turns pulling his attention away until I can hit him with this thing,” I tapped the sword's star pommel and looked around at the six of them.
They were all nodding. “If that doesn't work, Plan C is to fall back and regroup, say on the second floor in that corner over there. Are we all clear? Any questions?” Nopony spoke up. “Then let's do it.”
In a few moments, we were back to where we had been and were looking at the dragon once again. It hadn't moved or changed its breathing at all in our absence. The gem still glowed with its strange otherworldly light.
I took a deep breath and took a careful step towards the creature. Then another. And a few more. It didn't react. Maybe we didn't need to make a Plan B or C after all, I reassured myself as I slowly crept forward. This might be easier than I thought.
Since it was impossible to distinguish just what the dragon's body looked like (the thing's parts all blended together and it was so dark that I couldn't tell what part was the body and what was a leg or the neck), I judged my progress by how close the gem was as a reference. The thing wasn't quite as big as I'd initially thought. Once the jewel was within an arm's length, the mound of blackness rose up about ten feet; not nearly as big as the dragons that the ponies had faced on the show.
Despite its reduced size, that odd feeling of dread was back and hung extremely strong in the air around the dragon. It was suddenly tempting to fall back and try to think of another plan, but I gritted my teeth and took one last step towards the shining emerald. It really was a nice gem, but there was something about it that made me cringe. It simply didn't belong in this world, or in any world for that matter.
I took another breath and tried somewhat successfully to steady myself. My hand shook as it slowly pulled the glowing sword out of its scabbard, which suddenly seemed like a really bad thing to do. I had a sudden vision of the blue glow waking the dragon up, angry eyes, breathing fire, burning...
But the dragon kept sleeping, undisturbed by the metallic rasping noise and sudden change of light.
I tightened my grip on the sword and drew my arm back. One quick stab, I told myself. Just one quick stab and it'll all be over.
I jabbed my arm out. I thought that I could hear the ponies suck in their breath. My aim was perfectly straight and the point of the blade hit right in the center of the green jewel....
The point bounced off.
A sudden snort came from the mass of shadow and two new green lights appeared right above the emerald. They lingered on me for a moment and narrowed into thin, furious slits.
Oh. Shit.
I frantically swung the sword again and once more hit the gem. Like before, the metal was ineffectually turned aside by the emerald.
“Get out of there!” Twilight yelled as Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy leapt into the air. The glaring eyes and the jewel rose in the air as the dragon lifted its head and neck off the floor with an angry hiss.
Again, the thing was so black that without the gem, eyes, and background there was no way to distinguish the dragon's exact shape. It seemed to have sharp angles around the edges of its head and spikes along its neck, but it was difficult to see even those. I really wish that there were some other features to help me figure out what the fuck this thing actually looks like, I thought for some reason.
The monster decided at that moment to open his mouth, revealing dozens of dark silver teeth that glowed with their own faint evil light. Each one of them was about as long as my hand and tapered to a sharp point. On second thought, maybe it was better the other way.
The dragon arched its head back before darting forward, its jaws stretched wide. Without thinking, I brought the shield up and planted my feet. I bent my knees and braced myself.
The impact of the dragon's snakelike strike knocked me flat on my back, but I somehow managed to turn my fall into a backward somersault and rolled to my feet just in time to see Rainbow crash into the side of the monster's head. That distraction gave the other ponies time to run into the positions that I had assigned to them.
“Take this!” Applejack gave a swift buck to the black mass at the bottom of the dragon. A large clawed foot materialized out of the darkness and kicked her right back. She slammed headfirst into a bookcase with a yelp and was covered by an avalanche of text as the tomes fell from the shelves.
The dragon then returned its attention to Rainbow, who was still flying around its head and delivered an occasional kick. A deep rumbling came from the beast's chest as he took a breath (so it did have lungs after all). He then opened his jaws again and violent green flames shot out past his teeth at the blue pegasus. Rainbow let out a continuous stream of half-formed swearwords as she looped and twisted to dodge the fire.
The flames abruptly stopped as a small stone statue fell from above and slammed the dragon's mouth shut with a nasty crack. He glanced up with an enraged hiss to see Fluttershy hovering in the air and attempting to rock a large bookcase over the edge of the third-level balcony. He opened his teeth again in what looked vaguely like an evil grin and took another deep breath.
Suddenly I had a crazy, stupid idea. Just as I dismissed it, the words of Thunder came back to me: 'She also said that you should trust in it, whatever that means'. I looked down at the silver shield and gave a mental shrug. Alright, but there's no way in hell that this is gonna work.
I slipped the shield off my arm and threw it in a reverse frisbee toss just as the dragon shot out a small fireball at the yellow pegasus. The shield flew in a silver arc and intercepted the green flames, throwing them right back at the dragon. It let out a roar of pain as it was hit by its own attack and knocked over a shelf full of books and scrolls.
The shield then flashed back towards me and fitted itself once more to my arm. The entire process had taken less than a second. It was like something out of an outlandish anime, but I was there to see it happen with my own eyes.
Fluttershy meanwhile had managed to tilt the bookcase over the balcony's railing and sent it crashing down on the shadow dragon, who was more preoccupied with the dying fire that had landed all around him and was unable to dodge as the weight crashed right onto his back with a hollow thump.
The beast shook itself and finally got to its feet. The additional defined limbs finally gave us a much better idea of what it looked like; it was stocky with a short neck and had a long slender tail that ended in a pointy spike. The green gem was located on its neck just under the chin.
Pinkie giggled loudly and popped up from behind a bookcase. “Hey, mister draaaagon!” she called, which drew an angry glance from the monster. “You look like you've been living in a chimney for the last ten years!”
She had to duck down as the dragon swung a claw at her. Apparently laughing at this thing only made him angrier.
Several books smashed into the dragon's side, and he turned to see Twilight and Rarity picking up another volley with magic. He didn't seem to enjoy the thought of being hit again, and his tail flicked out. Both unicorns were knocked away and skidded to a halt on the stone floor about twenty feet away. Twilight's tiara flew off and fell to the ground with a metallic tink. They groaned softly in pain as they got back to their hooves.
I ran back up to the dragon and slashed my sword at where his chest seemed to be. The gem was out of range, but seeing my new friends getting hurt made me slightly angry. Besides, just sitting back and waiting for him to offer a free shot didn't seem to be an option.
I definitely felt the blade slice through something in the blackness, but there was no blood or visible damage of any kind. The dragon knocked me back to the ground with a backhanded (backclawed?) strike for my trouble.
Rainbow came up behind the dragon's head and gave a mighty kick that seemed to disorient it for a moment. “You like that?” she yelled as she kicked again. “Have some more!”
The dragon shook its head furiously and growled in annoyance. His tail whipped through the air and smashed into Rainbow Dash as she tried to land another hit, sending her spinning into Applejack just as the orange pony managed to free herself from the cascade of books. A second avalanche of texts buried both of them.
Rarity was standing still and rubbed her head at the base of her horn. She seemed a little disoriented from being hit, but snapped out of it when she saw Twilight using her magic on one of the pillars that supported the level over the dragon. Rarity then made her own horn glow and went to work on the other column, which shook violently from the spell.
An iron anvil dropped out of nowhere on the dragon's head, driving it to the ground. Pinkie Pie laughed maniacally and shimmied up the nearest tapestry while I sprinted forward and stabbed out again before the dragon could recover. The glowing jewel was once again within my reach.
Speaking of once again, once again the sword bounced off the gem without any helpful result.
Goddammit! I raged as the dragon hissed and drew its head back to strike at me again. Why isn't this working?
“Get back!” Twilight and Rarity yelled in unison as the marble pillars that they'd been affecting cracked and fell. They didn't have to tell me twice. A few quick backward steps brought me out of harm's way, but the dragon wasn't so lucky. The falling pieces of stone pinned him to the ground and a large cloud of dust blocked our view of him as he thrashed around in an attempt to free himself.
I took advantage of the brief break in the fighting to see what had happened to the others. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were both fighting to free themselves from the books, Rarity and Twilight were levitating more rubble and bookcases onto the trapped dragon to buy us a little more time, Pinkie Pie was still hanging from the tapestry and threw what looked like cupcakes down at the beast (no idea where she got those from), and Fluttershy was trying to back away from everything. We were too scattered and disorganized to do anything at the moment, and the dragon wouldn't be stuck for much longer.
“Fall back!” I shouted. “Plan C!”
We escaped from the flailing beast before he could try to attack us all again, pausing only to retrieve Applejack and Rainbow from the mound of texts. By the time that he freed himself, the seven of us were hiding out of sight behind a large bookcase in the corner of the second level.
Aaaaand it's time for another commercial break! Yay!
Hello, fillies. Look at your stud. Now back to me. Now back at your stud. Now back to me. Sadly, he isn't me. But if he stopped using that whimpy coat wash and switched to Ancient Zest, he could smell like he's me.
Look down. Back up. Over there. Back here. Where are you? You're on a boat, with the stud your stud could smell like. What's in your hoof?
Back at me. I have it. It's a pair of golden tickets to that thing that you like. Look again. The tickets are now diamonds. What's that in the sky?
Back at me. Now back at the sky. Me again. The sky is now diamonds. Anything is possible when your stud smells like Ancient Zest and not a whimp.
There's now two of me. Two studs that your stud could smell like. Now just one. Two again. Just one now. Back at your hoof. Your hoof is now diamonds.
Back. To. Me.
I'm a horse.
To be continued...