Cross Realm Raiding
Chapter Eleven
There it was. The smoking cavern in the side of a mountain. It reminded each of the ponies of the same dragon lair they had visited a while back, which gave them a sort of confidence in their mission. All they had left to do was climb the mountain, convince the dragons to leave, or if that failed find a way to make them leave, and get back to Ponyville. That was in the minds of the original six ponies. In Bishi's Fayt's and Korins minds was to clear out the cave, destroy any eggs, and find anything that could get them back home.
"Ok ponies, I see two ways of scaling this mountain. The pegasai and I can fly to the roost point and carry a passenger with them, that would get everyone save one. It's either that or all the grounded ponies climb while the fliers keep a birds eye view in case of danger." Bishibosh stated.
"I say yall go on and fly up, I can climb this here mountain myself." Applejack declared.
"Or I could stay behind and set up traps for any dragons that escape." Fayt also suggested.
"Wait, I thought we were only dealing with one big dragon, are you saying there might be more in there?" Rarity questioned.
"Well, this is a dragon roost you know, that means baby drakes and the such. We will also want to get rid of any eggs lest one be another broodmother." Korin smartly suggested.
"Eggs? why would we want to get rid of the eggs?" Twilight asked concerned.
"Leaving a hatchery full of eggs alone is a mistake Twilight, they would hatch and likely seek vengeance on their fallen family." Fayt remarked. "The dragons are completely aware while they are in those eggs"
"Spike wasn't" Twilight scowled, she detested the idea of destroying eggs. They had every right to live.
"He was also from you're world. The dragon that attacked before was definitely of our world, somehow the genetics must differ. But I understand your concern Twilight. I take no joy in ending the young lives inside, but dragons are clever and vindictive. They would certainly rise up against their broods killers."
"Killers!? We are going to KILL THEM!?" Twilight began shaking in what seemed to be a confused rage.
"We can't kill them! They havn't done anything to deserve it!"
Fayt was about to mention the dragon attack on the farm but kept his mouth shut. He wanted to see Bishi dig his way out of this one.
"Twilight, you saw how deadly the last dragon was. These things are not the dragons of Equestria, they are mean from the egg, and hostile from their blood. Any other kind of dragon I would suggest otherwise but these are Twilight Dragons! Corrupted from the shell and raised to hate! Unstable, unpredictable, and non-negotiable. The pain the dragonling must have felt in the egg as the Twilight magic fused with it's futile self must have been unbearable. Listen to me when I saw this Twilight, all of you, Death is a mercy for these things." Bishibosh finished his speech and all the ponies save for Twilight had changed their faces. Instead of anger, now was confusion and sorrow, but Twilight remained unconvinced. Still scowling at Bishibosh for even suggesting death.
"Twilight, listen."
"No, you listen. We are ponies, not some band of merry adventurers who slay dragons at will. We carry magic wing and hoof in the place of sword and shield, and in place of war we have diplomacy. Those dragons must listen to reason! Come on everypony!" Twilight stormed up the mountain path. All the other ponies looked between her and Bishi, and one by one followed their Friend. Eventually it was only Bishi, Fayt, and Korin.
"I admire her heart but naivety will get her killed." Bishi sighed.
"I say let em go and figure it out themselves. After the first breath they will be back down in an instant." Fayt chuckled.
"No, we need to get up their before them!" Korin exclaimed.
"Oh you three arn't going anywhere..." Said a familiar voice to the shaman and rogue.
The ponies made it to the dragon roost, Twilight was still steamed about Bishibosh's suggestion to kill them all. Never had she needed to kill anything save for Timberwolves, and they just got back up anyways. As they neared the roost, a small voice made a suggestion.
"Maybe we should wait on them to join us? Just in case..." Fluttershy muttered.
"Yes darling, I know they didn't give us the best option but his words did have a ring of truth about them." Rarity confirmed.
"No no no no NO! We can't just kill the unborn because they MIGHT be a threat, It's inhumane!" Twilight defended herself. " We do this the right way, with diplomacy and kindness."
"Sugar, I agree with you. It's not right to just kill em, but it's them bigger one's that got me worried" Applejack said as she moved towards Rarity.
"Ugh... Fine! We will wait five minutes, if they are not here by then I say we move on with my plan." Twilight groaned...
The six ponies waited and finally the five minutes were up. Twilight looked up at her friends and the still looked concerned.
"Ok, times up... lets do th..."
Before the finished her sentence a dragon roared from inside the cave, the piercing roar stabbed into all six ponies like a dagger, felling their resolve and whatever bravery they had mustered to come up here, bu it was what came out of the cave afterwards that scared them the most.
The beast looked reptillian, standing on it's two hind legs and raising up to a height none of the ponies could guess, the purple glowing creature glared down at the six ponies. It's chest was clad in armor, a tri-horned helmet rested on it's giant head. One of the brutes massive arms held a sword that was bladed front and back. Twilight inched forward.
"Ex-ex-excuse me s-s-sir, but y-you see, we a-are..." Twilight coughed and sucked in a big breath of air. " We are from ponyville and one of your dragons had found it's way to our little home. Unfortunately it was killed as it crashed into a farm on our lands. So I just wanted to ask you to move you're home so that maybe this wouldn't... happen... again?"
At this the dragon was visibly irate, and it roared again and raised it's blade to cut down the purple pony who sat before it. Twilight barely had time to let out an "Eep!" as Rainbow Dash flew in to snag her out of the way of the giant drakonid. All six ponies then ran back down the mountain side, turning back to see the drakonid return to his lair, but something worse pulled it's head out of the crevice. The sheer size of the dragon's head was at least five times the one who attacked Ponyville. Twilight wanted to freeze up in fear but as she slowed her friends knocked her in the head and snapped her back to reality. The dragon drew in a breath and flooded the mountainside with twilight flame.
Bishibosh's trio had heard the roar and immediately began to worry for their pony friends, but Wizzle's arcane prison had them locked tight, and as long as the gnome channeled the spell they were helpless. This magic was new to them, they had seen similar spells used by the kirin tor but on larger scales. The mana Wizzle mustave been expending to keep the prison up would be taxing on the little gnome body. This triggered in Bishi's head as a red flag... He was still a gnome!
"Wizzle, I recognize you. The gnome we through into that strange device that teleported us here. You look much older than I remember." Bishi mentioned.
"Ah yes, the Cow and the Corpse that killed my envoy from the alliance and ruined my plans to neutralize Thunder Bluff. I remember you, and I see this land's magic affected you as well!" The gnome couldn't help but start laughing. Bishi noticed the prison fade for a split second. He had his way out.
"Yes, the portal turned both me and Fayt into ponies. Even my brother here was changed when he approached the machine. That doesn't answer why you look so old. And why you are still a gnome."
"Ah yes, well you see, My theory is that since I was pushed into the portal first, I was sent back much farther in time that you two would have. As for me retaining my form, I noticed objects that have mechanical properties were also unphased. I then thought that my history with the mechano gnomes and being turned into one left me with an immunity to the shapeshifting magic of this land." Wizzle proceeded to explain, Bishi knew gnomes loved to explain science and theories. If he could get the gnome distracted enough maybe he would lose focus on the prison.
"So you mean that because we pushed you in first, you were thrown back in time along with to a new world?"
"Well, not technically to a new world. I would suggest this is an alternate reality. See, our world was set in a galaxy that had massive doors connecting different doors together, such as Azeroth to Draenor, or rather Outlands. This world has no such doors, and is mostly ran on magic rather than logic. Even the night cycle is controlled by two physical beings using magic."
"I see, and because you were transformed into a mechagnome that made you immune to the magic of this land."
"Well not quite, you see I have taken a blast or two from those blasted pony guards. I tried to get into the main city but was blocked at everypoint, and when I tried to polymorph them they just shrugged it off and blasted at me."
Bishi again saw the prison barrier fade but the gnome didn't even notice.
"So what was the plan to neutralize Thunder Bluff?" Bishi asked again. Wizzle took offense.
"You think I would tell you!? I don't think so. As long as you stay here and I escape I can just retry until it works!"
"But you were discovered almost immediately as you entered Mulgore." The gnome was fuming.
"It was all that damn humans fault! He wanted to charge in and slay the mighty Tauren but I wanted to play it safe and sneak by the goblin mining operation but nooooo he had to go running into the first village he saw and..."
The gnome began ranting and raving about this human. Bishi remembered him, and how he almost got an explosive wrench thrown at him. Fayt remembered him too and was disgusted, The man was relieving himself when Fayt killed him and the bastard pissed down Fayt's leg. The shaman noticed the barried fading into almost nothing. Gnomes were smart, but were gullible as anything. as soon as the gnome's raving made him pace around Bishi blasted the prison with a lava burst that also hit the gnome in the back, knocking him unconscious. Bishi this turned into his dragon form as Fayt hopped into his back. Korin was already flying up the mountain side. A giant dragon was bathing the mountain in flames.
The six ponies were hiding behind a rock protruding out of the mountain surface. None of them sure what to do. The heat alone was roasting them behind the rock and Twilight wondered how long until the rock just burst into magma and cooked them alive. She kept the nasty thought in her head. She just wanted this day to end...