//------------------------------// // Chapter Fifteen // Story: HiE - A Hollow in Equestria // by Charlie_K //------------------------------// Chapter Fifteen Some days it simply didn't pay to be a princess. She looked up from rubbing the bridge of her nose to see Ulquiorra still standing there and waiting patiently, still with his hand bound by her magic. She decided it was best to release him right now as she thought over matters. What was she to do? Luna's scowl could almost be felt from where she stood. That wasn't helping matters any. "You understand how difficult a position this is for me?" she asked. "I understand that you still don't trust me. A wise policy all things considered," Ulquiorra replied as he pocketed his free hand. "At the same time I have no reason to trust you yet I take you at your word that I will remain safe under your watch," he continued. Celestia went back to rubbing the bridge of her nose, growing more frustrated by the minute. At one point she actually considered Ulquiorra to be a breath of fresh air, the break from royal decorum that he brought with him and such. But right now he was just another source of her growing headache and the day court wasn't even open yet. "If I agree to this then you'll be under the direct command of Twilight while on the journey. You'll follow her orders like you would my own. If she tells you to do something I expect you to do it, understand?" she finally asked. "Dear sister! Surely thou art not serious! Thee intends to let him go along?" Luna asked in disbelief. "Ulquiorra raises several good points that're worth addressing," Celestia replied and materialized a scroll of parchment, a quill and an inkwell before quickly writing out a note and levitating it over for Ulquiorra to take. "Because of the severity of this situation I'm extending to you a limited reprieve from the rules established two days ago. You may proceed to Ponyville but your escort will be Twilight and her friends. Your role will be limited strictly to observational purposes only and won't involve combat. You're not to attack the dragon and are ordered to let Fluttershy handle the matter. And don't assume that I won't be aware of what's going on while you're away. Are we understood?" she asked. "Indeed," Ulquiorra replied. "Excellent. Once you arrive in Ponyville deliver this note to Twilight, it should sufficiently explain the situation to her and she can take it from there," she explained. "Understood." At that Ulquiorra disappeared from view, leaving nothing behind but two very confused Princesses and the fading sound of a booming echo of static. Luna blinked and looked around. "We hath seen that technique once before when Ulquiorra Cifer first appeared in the dining hall, but we have not an understanding of what it is," she stated. "You're not alone, dear sister," Celestia replied, already beginning to wonder if she'd done the right thing. +++ As she sat on her throne and officially closed the day court, Celestia couldn't stop thinking about how this morning had begun and the events that followed. She was allowing a strange being free reign of her kingdom in the company of the Elements of Harmony and expecting him to abide by the honor system. She must've been out of her mind to consent to such a setup! And yet she had, just as she'd trusted the girls to reform Discord without her help. She must be getting senile in her old age, that was the only thing that made any sense. That's why she'd been worrying the entire day and unable to give the nobles the proper amount of attention that they were deserving. Right now she was standing on the balcony, letting out a frustrated sigh as she observed the mountains in the distance. The smoke had subsided but she hadn't yet seen any dragon leaving; she wasn't entirely certain what to think about that just yet. She could feel her sister approaching the throne room, obviously to check up on the situation. She'd been the most opposed to allowing Ulquiorra to leave with the girls due to her anger with his failure to recognize royal decorum. But even she had eventually seen the benefit that could be had if things progressed smoothly. "You're up early," Celestia commented as she heard Luna's hooves clopping against the marble floor. "We couldst not rest properly and eventually gave up any hope of a restful day's sleep," Luna explained as she approached and yawned. "What dost thou know of the situation with Ulquiorra Cifer?" "Not much I'm afraid. They've finally reached the cave and the smoke is no longer pouring out but that's the extent of it. I'm waiting to see what happens next," Celestia explained. Luna was silent and took up watching with her sister, standing up on her hind legs to look over the balcony railing properly and observe the distance for any trace of activity. Why were they not using the royal telescope in this situation when it was vastly superior? It wasn't even as if it was inaccessible at the moment but rather a mere five feet away from where they now stood! A distant roar could be heard coming all the way from the mountains to the east. That really didn't sound good at this point, a roar indicated aggression and hostility. What was going on to warrant such? Had Ulquiorra Cifer interfered and not allowed Fluttershy to do what she had been assigned to do? "Might we ask thee a question our dear sister?" Luna finally asked. "Of course," Celestia replied and nodded. "Why art thou standing naked in the throne room?" The roar of the dragon was the most horrible thing anypony could recall ever hearing in their lives, the horrors magnified as the sounds reverberated off the cave walls and shook the entire ground. The horrors were magnified to an even greater degree than this already terrifying fact as large chunks of rock began to dislodge from the cave's ceiling, with stalactites falling like arrows and impaling themselves in the ground all around them. "Cave in!" It was an entirely redundant scream of terror but Twilight honestly couldn't think of anything else to say at the moment. Immediately her friends hunkered around her for safety as her horn glowed and she threw up a forcefield to avoid them being crushed to death, debris falling and bouncing off of it like large hailstones in a massive thunderstorm. The commotion outside the cave was nearly deafening even behind the forcefield as the dragon was immediately on the move, throwing out huge clouds of dust and loose gravel as well as larger debris as it scrambled out the front of the cave, its massive wings unfolding as it took to the skies. "At leas' the big fella's leavin'," Applejack finally spoke up as the cave in seemed to stop once the roaring did. "Thank Celestia. Let's see about getting out of here before that dreaded beast comes back," Rarity added. Twilight nodded in agreement and dropped her forcefield so they could leave. However before she even took a single step she noticed something; the sheer emptiness of the cave. Where was Ulquiorra? He'd been holding the dragon at bay single-handed -and in the most literal sense of the strange word she'd ever seen displayed no less- before the cave in had begun and... "Ulquiorra!" she shouted as the realization finally came to her like a ton of bricks...or a grand piano being dropped from a Cloudsdale moving van. "The dragon's got him!" Nopony would doubt that Ulquiorra was strong, and he'd been holding his own quite admirably, but now the dragon was out in the open where it had a greater range of movement. The Arrancar's small body and speed was no longer the advantage in this situation. There was a shared moment of terror at Twilight's words, as the horrors of the possibilities quickly sank into their minds at to what could be happening to him right now. Possibilities they didn't want to consider. "No bucking way!" There was no time for procrastination or discussion in this matter, they didn't have an hour to waste talking it over. Without so much as another word Rainbow Dash took off, flying out of the cave in the direction the dragon had headed, her tail flapping about wildly and uncontrollably as she did, blowing past the smouldering remains of fire and paying no attention to what her friends were saying behind her in protest of her actions. She was a pony on a mission right now and that mission waited for nopony! Unlike the others she was ready as she hurtled out of the cave mouth. She was fast. She was incredibly fast! She was un-bucking-believably fast! She was the fasting bucking pegasus in all of Equestria and everypony knew it! That said though, even she would admit the dragon had a considerable lead on her, and despite its massive size those huge wings were flapping hard enough to cover a significant distance in a short amount of time. She found herself having to flap her feathery wings as hard as she could just trying to catch up with it. Even as fast as she could move, it was still going to take at least an entire minute just to get in range to see the large ridges on the dragon's tail. That was a fact she didn't like to admit. "You're not getting away from me!" she shouted, not that it did much good at either helping her actually catch up to the dragon or distract it in its course. She'd be surprised if she could even be heard at this distance. She was getting closer. It was taking everything she had just to avoid being left behind but she was doing it. As she got closer she could definitely make out part of Ulquiorra's frame sticking out of the dragon's tightly clenched claw. Now she was presented with a difficult question; even if she could catch up with the dragon -which she definitely could, no doubt about it- how was she ever going to rescue Ulquiorra? It wasn't like she could pry the dragon's claws open and snatch him up, she wasn't that strong. There had to be something she could do. She fell back in her pursuit and took to a higher altitude before pursuing after the dragon again, beating her wings with all her might to pick up the necessary speed to gain what ground she'd lost, and to pull off the only maneuver that would likely work in this case against such a huge beast. The only thing she was thankful for right now was how the dragon was flying in a relatively straight line, that would make it much easier to do this. No time for hesitation, now was the time for being strong. The air erupted with a violent multi-colored explosion as her Sonic Rainboom was detonated in her approach, her trajectory hurtling her straight into the side of the dragon's back at unbelievable speeds. The force of the impact against the scaly ribcage was significant as she ricocheted off to the side, spinning wildly out of control and off in a tangent, but it was enough to leave the dragon stunned and grasping the impacted area with its free claw, the hold on its quarry loosening enough that Ulquiorra fell free as their paths of travels diverged and became significantly different, the dragon continually flying away while he was in free fall toward the ground. "Gotcha!" At least he was until he came to a sudden jerking halt. Ulquiorra soon found himself free from the dragon's claw and in a much more awkward position, the cyan pegasi's forelegs wrapped around his trunk under his arms and keeping him from falling any further to the ground. "Never fear, your friendly neighborhood Rainbow Dash is here!" she stated with a sense of triumph. "You deployed your Sonic Rainboom technique against the dragon," he observed. "That I did, U.C.," she stated proudly as her wings continued flapping to keep them in the air. "Why?" Her wings nearly stopped beating at the question. Why? He asked why? Was he serious? "Are you foaling me or something? To rescue your flank from that thing," she pointed out. "Why?" he repeated, only to be met by another confused noise from Rainbow Dash. "Yesterday you were greatly infuriated with me for not being impressed by the display of your "Sonic Rainboom" technique. Why would you burn through the majority of your mana and leave yourself vulnerable for the purpose of trying to rescue me?" he asked. "Wha' the hay are you talking about? Did you think I'd just leave you to get devoured or something because you ticked me off earlier?" Rainbow Dash asked him. Was he really serious? "Correct." He was serious! Oh Luna! "Look I don't know what things are like where you come from but here in Equestria that's not how we do things. We don't let ponies -or whatever you are- die just because we're upset at them. That’s not what friends do for each other, there’s no logic in that," Rainbow Dash explained. "Besides I haven't wowed you yet, I can't let you get eaten before then!" "You're completely illogical," Ulquiorra stated simply, finding nothing else to make sense in this context. "Thanks," Rainbow Dash replied, obviously oblivious to the meaning of what he'd just said. "You can thank me later, though, the dragon's coming back and we gotta get outta here!" True enough the dragon had circled back around and was currently coming toward them, roaring angrily as it flapped its mighty wings and bearing down on them, prepared to unleash the fullest magnitude of its fury. That is until a boulder came flying out of nowhere and shattered against its head and left it dazed and no longer directly focused on them. "What the buck?" Rainbow Dash asked. She'd been prepared to engage in whatever fancy aerial maneuvers were needed to get them to safety, but the sudden intrusion by a rock left her confused. Another boulder followed and slammed into the dragon's ribcage on its injured side and made its flinch in pain. "Direct hit Twilight!" Applejack called as she looked through the binoculars, only to have them yanked away from her by Rarity's magic. "Marvelous aim darling. But if you want another bullseye to the head you'll need to adjust your aim three degrees to the right," she explained. They lacked Rainbow Dash's speed and powers of flight. But that didn't mean they were helpless in the situation. While Rainbow Dash was away making her grand rescue attempt they'd scrambled out of the cave and done the only thing they could think to do; improvise. Which in this case was Twilight magically hurling large stones at the dragon as hard and as fast as she could, Rarity providing latitude and longitude for each shot, and Pinkie fetching the boulders to be used for ammunition purposes. Even if they couldn't cause any serious injury to the dragon at this distance they could at least provide a distraction to keep him from attacking Ulquiorra and Rainbow Dash. "On it!" Twilight replied as she grasped another boulder and hefted it for another salvo, not even noticing the roar in the distance. "Nopony gets away with hurting our friends! Not even if they're a dragon!" Pinkie yelled as she shoved another boulder into place. "He's comin' back ya'll!" Applejack suddenly warned as she saw the dragon's figure getting bigger. Their distraction was working alright, just a little too well as it was now completely ignoring the other two and coming back for them! Another boulder caught the dragon in the neck just below the jawbone, making it reach up and grasp its injured area. And from the sounds it was making it was easy to tell that it was very displeased with being pelted. "Do your "friends" actually believe they can stop the dragon with such a petty assault?" Ulquiorra asked as another rock came hurtling into view and smashing against the dragon's shoulder. "Beats me but it gives us a chance to get out of here," Rainbow Dash pointed out. She was just about to do that when the dragon unleashed another angry roar and took off flying again... headed right back towards her friends! "Horse apples!" "Are you able to catch up to the dragon with me in tow before it reaches the others?" Ulquiorra asked her. "...No..." Rainbow Dash replied slowly, not wanting to admit the fact. Her rescue attempt had drained most of her mana and trying to keep herself and him up in the sky wasn't doing her any good. She wouldn't admit it but she had her doubts at to whether or not she'd be able to catch up to the dragon even before it reached her friends. She was just about to ask Ulquiorra what he had in mind, when much to her surprise he did his boom thing and disappeared right out of her forelegs and out of sight. "How'd he do that?" she asked in confusion. And the better question was where had he gone? Nevermind! That was a question for another time, right now there were more important issues at hoof like trying to rescue her friends! There was a great deal of panic back at the cave as the five tried to figure out what to do. The dragon was coming in fast and there was nowhere safe to hide that they couldn't be found. It could easily tear up the cave looking for them and their legs would never carry them far enough away in time to avoid being caught. "Ah think we bit off more than we can chew," Applejack stated as the dragon got closer. It was only a few hundred feet away right now and that distance was closing quickly. And then the last thing any of them ever expect to see happen actually happened; Ulquiorra had appeared in front of the dragon and stopped it in its tracks. Actually that was an understatement as what truly happened was something they couldn't properly comprehend. The idea behind the sonido they more or less understood but that was as far as it went. What they didn't understand was how he'd managed to sonido in front of the dragon, in midair no less, and had halted the dragon by using both hands to press against its snout and slow its progression to a standstill, his feet kicking up clouds of what looked like dust in the process as if he'd slowly ground to a halt against the hard stone of the mountain. He was literally standing in midair right now, hundreds of feet above any solid ground, and somehow generating enough force to overcome the thrust of the dragon's wings and stop it from advancing any further, a mere fifty feet away from the cliff's edge the others stood upon. A feat that was supposed to be absolutely impossible to pull off. So just how in the nine pits of Tartarus had that just been possible!? "Did he just..." Rarity asked but was unable to finish the sentence, the entire display simply too unbelievable. "He stopped the dragon," Twilight answered, completely dumbstruck. "In midair!" Applejack added in utter disbelief. Had Ulquiorra done the whole thing on the ground it would've been impossible enough to believe, but this was like impossible squared or something. The dragon seemed to share their confusion, going cross-eyed to look at Ulquiorra as he stood there, presenting an immovable object. "I believe I've adequately explained that I cannot and will not allow any harm to come to these ponies," Ulquiorra calmly stated as he drew his left hand back and brought a fist down firmly on the dragon's snout. Under the best of circumstances, if the pony in question was really strong, this act would cause the dragon momentary pain and disorient them. But these were not such circumstances, Ulquiorra was no pony, and the dragon wasn't disoriented. Rather the dragon was now howling in intense pain and falling out of the sky from the force of the blow. Being around Pinkie long enough made one comfortable in the fact that things could happen that nopony could adequately explained. They just accepted it for whatever it was. But that said, nothing Pinkie could conceivably pull off could ever prepare them for what they were seeing right now. Were there any laws of physics that Ulquiorra wasn't currently violating? Defying gravity, pound for pound generating far more force than could even be conceived as possible, withstanding hundreds of degrees worth of heat without suffering any burns, moving faster than the eye could see, and single hoofedly beating the snot out of a fully grown adult dragon! Twilight's mind was running wild with more questions than ever before, more than she ever thought possible. The things Ulquiorra was doing right now as he faced off against the dragon couldn't be explained no matter how hard she tried to. She was certain there was some logical, physical, scientific explanation for it all, something that could be found somewhere and broken down into easy to understand facts that would all make sense if they were really applied. But right now she wasn't coming up with a single one of those things as she was far too busy watching everything unfold before her, just like the rest of her friends. "How can anybody be so unbelievably strong?" Rarity finally asked, being the first to find her voice. The entire display was unlike anything she could ever remember seeing before. Not even the fantasy novels she sometimes borrowed from Twilight talked about something like this, it was simply too unbelievable to be taken seriously. "Sure beats the tar outta me," Applejack replied, "can ya imagine what it'd be like if he worked at Sweet Apple Acres? There wouldn' be an apple left hangin' by the end o' the first day o' applebuckin' season!" Having recovered from the blow the dragon was making its way back toward them with a vengeance. It was out for blood and revenge and was going to tear through anything in its path without discretion. "Look out Ulqy that big mean dragon's coming back!" Pinkie called out loudly. Ulquiorra said nothing in response, not even looking back at who spoke or looking down to confirm the facts. Instead he opted to sonido out of view and back into view in front of the dragon's eyes. No words were exchanged as he raised his right foot and forcefully stomped right between its eyes, not even bothering to take his hands out of his pockets in the process. For the life of her Rainbow Dash couldn't properly wrap her head around what she was seeing during her approach. First he'd disappeared out of her forelegs and apparently traveled between there and her friends faster than even she could move, and then it looked like he was beating the crud out of the dragon all by himself. He was super fast and super strong? What was this dude made from, dark matter or something? How could he send a fully grown dragon into screams of pain with a single kick when even she couldn't do that? And didn't he say yesterday that she was faster than he was? What was up with that? As she made her way back to her friends she didn't know whether to be seriously jealous, or wowed by the sheer awesomeness of it all. He was kicking more flank than she ever believed possible. "RD ya feather brained idjit get outta the way!" she heard Applejack yell as she got closer. Right now it really did sound like a good idea, the skies were too dangerous right now and she made a beeline for the group figuring it was safest with them. "Am I really seeing what I think I'm seeing?" Rainbow Dash asked as she touched down, wincing at the sight of Ulquiorra actually slapping the dragon right across its beak with enough force to move its head to the side. "That and a whole lot more," Twilight replied and nodded, cringing at the sound of a loud crunch as Ulquiorra dove toward the dragon and kicked it in the lower jaw, making its head snap back as it tumbled backwards. "That's gonna hurt in the morning..." From their vantage point it didn't look like the dragon was in any position to be getting back up again. And it seemed Ulquiorra had reached the same conclusion as he turned and walked -on thin air no less- back to the group and stepped down onto the ground next to them. For a long moment there wasn't a single sound coming from the ponies as they just stood there in stunned silence. Then after a long moment he was bombarded with questions and statements from all sides about everything they'd witnessed in the course of just a few minutes. How could he overpower a fully grown male dragon? How could he fly without wings? How could he walk on air? He could he withstand the dragon's fire? How did he get to be so awesome? And so on, and so on...and so on... coming from five of the present ponies, each of them trying to gain an advantage at being heard and hopefully getting their questions answered. Pomf! His attention slowly turned to Rainbow Dash as she stood there with her wings fully deployed and pointing upward, her primary feathers extended in a manner that didn't look particularly comfortable to be in. Slowly all eyes turned to her as she appeared uncomfortable with this development. "Really Rainbow Dash?" Applejack asked in an incredulous manner at what she was seeing. Rainbow laughed nervously. "What can I say? He's...awesome..." she tried to explain. The significance of the entire display was lost on Ulquiorra, to the point he was willing to ask Twilight Sparkle to elaborate. However before he could even get the first word out their was a roar and a rush of wind behind them as the dragon once more came around, swooping up the side of the cliff and shooting over their heads at great speed. "He jus' don' quit!" Applejack stated as she held onto her hat while looking up, only to go pale at the sight of the dragon preparing to unleash a massive fireball. "Hit the dirt!" The ponies scattered from the scene as the fire came. Ulquiorra responded to the incoming assault by grasping the hilt of his zanpakutō and spinning one hundred and eighty degrees as he unsheathed it, a massive trail of his reiatsu following after the arching sweep and meeting with the fire, before cutting through the fire and dissipating the path all the way back to the dragon's mouth and slamming into the back of its throat. To Twilight and her friends who saw everything it looked like he'd just overpowered the dragon's flames with nothing more than a single swing of his sword, the force of the swing traveling all the way back up to the dragon's mouth and causing its fire to peter out. As Princess Luna would say the awesomeness had just been doubled... Or at least that's what Rainbow Dash thought she'd say. To Twilight it was just another thing to add to the list of questions that needed to be answered. Another burst of sonido and Ulquiorra appeared in front of the dragon, his left arm drawn back before his fist was slammed into the dragon's chest at full force and resulting in a very dull, very loud thud from the contact that could easily be heard from where they stood. The dragon let out a loud groan of pain that suggested this had hurt it far more than any of the previous attacks, its front claws drifting to its midsection as it lost altitude and more or less crash landed on the hard ground in a collapsed fashion, groaning and panting heavily as if the wind had been thoroughly knocked right out of it. "Did you girls see what I just saw?" Pinkie asked curiously. "That Mr. Cifer fella sucker punching the dragon an' bringin' it down? Eeyup," Applejack replied. "I don't think it's over yet, girls, look," Twilight stated and pointed as Ulquiorra disappeared from view and reappeared in front of the dragon, calmly resheathing his zanpakutō before speaking again. "I grow tired of demonstrating the fact that you can't harm me. I have given you multiple opportunities to leave of your own volition but you've continued to respond in an overly aggressive manner. I'm unwilling to extend you anymore chances. Your very existence threatens the existence and wellbeing of countless others. And it is for that reason that you're going to die now," Ulquiorra explained to the downed dragon and extended his right hand, a ball of green energy forming at his fingertip. The others had started to emerge from where they'd hidden in order to get a better view of what was going to happen next. They'd all heard the talk back in the cave but they'd assumed it was just a boast. But now with all the facts taken into account it no longer looked like that, it looked like he was not only serious but quite capable of doing such. Despite the facts and what they'd seen so far this idea horrified them. Equally horrifying with the eerie green-hued glow the technique was casting over the immediate area and the shadows it was casting on the dragon's face, something about it was deeply unsettling and disturbing. "Hey dude come on, the dragon's down for the count, it's not like he can get back up and attack again," Rainbow Dash stated in disbelief. Ulquiorra had already won, did he really need to press the matter further when it was already so obvious? She didn't even know exactly what he was doing but she knew it couldn't be good. "Ulquiorra stop! What're you doing!?" Twilight shouted as she galloped over to him, the others not far behind her. "What Princess Celestia herself will not do," Ulquiorra replied calmly and discharged his Cero at the dragon. He missed. His aim had been true and the dragon should've been reduced to a smouldering corpse. But instead his Cero was fired off toward the horizon as Fluttershy held onto his wrist with a single hoof and wasn't letting it anywhere near the dragon. She had spent this entire mission being quiet, scared, staying behind and doing everything else to convey her fear of the situation. He assumed her fear of dragon's outweighed her care for animals and she wouldn't have interfered. It appeared he assumed wrong as she was now doing everything in her power to actually defend the dragon from harm, including interfering with his Cero's trajectory. Three things immediately came to his mind. The first being Fluttershy's speed and how she had managed to launch herself between him and the dragon just before the discharge of his Cero. He assumed her speed was enough to rival that of Rainbow Dash if she truly tried. The second was something that seemed pointless currently but couldn't be ignored; while most of the ponies he'd encountered didn't quite come up to his waist at the shoulder, once they reared up on their hind legs the difference between their height and his wasn't even a full foot. The third was her eyes. The look in her eyes as she stared straight into his was... intimidating. They were filled with a barely restrained rage the likes of which he hadn't seen since... +++ "...I see. No mercy eh?" Ulquiorra asked rhetorically as he looking up toward the Shinigami that stood atop his head, a bright red Cero forming between his horns and aimed directly at his face. "How very Hollow-like." Despite his best efforts he'd been incapable of defeating Ichigo Kurosaki and protecting the safety of Las Noches. Through a means he didn't understand the Shinigami had managed to survive having a hole blown through his chest via his Cero Oscuras technique and now stood before him -and on top of him- in triumph. He himself laid defeated on his ground, cut through from hip the shoulder, one of his horns severed and helpless to do anything other than look up at his own impending death. "I don't care. I have no reason to live now that you've beaten me," he said bitterly as he watched the Cero being charged, his doom growing closer and closer by the second. "Do it." ** +++ ...since he'd been Cero'd to the face by that brat. How ironic. "How dare you?" Fluttershy asked, oblivious as his Cero passed by her and disrupted the flow of her mane, the beam having come dangerously close to one of her flapping wings. "How DARE you?" she demanded as she stared at him, trying to burn a hole straight through him with her piercing gaze. "What gives you the right to decide who lives and who dies? How dare you try and kill something that can't even stand up against you? Can't you see that he can't even stand on his own feet, much less defend himself?" It was ludicrous. In his time in Hueco Mundo he had stared down many who challenged him. His strength was recognized and subject to both respect and fear. His gaze was enough that even Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were uncomfortable when staring him in the eyes and they'd attempt to focus elsewhere. And here he was, being stared down by the meek yellow pegasus who was easily the weakest in the group and finding himself unable to shake the feeling that he was the proverbial ant underneath the magnifying glass and being lectured. The fact that she'd managed to even move his arm was amazing and most curious. Even more curious was how her reiatsu level had suddenly jumped when she'd intervened, and even now it was increasing dramatically as she spoke to him. "All this poor dragon wanted to do was take a nap, that doesn't warrant death!" she stated, before turning her attention to the dragon itself. "And you! I can understand how badly you want a nap and how tired you are, but you can't nap here! You need to find somewhere else that isn't so close to a populated area where ponies and little animals are going to be breathing your smoke for the next hundred years. Now go on and shoo like we asked you too earlier. This whole mess could've been avoided if you'd just been a little more understanding the first time around," she scolded. Ulquiorra watched -in great disbelief- as the dragon seemed to heed the words of Fluttershy and slowly stood itself back up on shaky legs, giving its wings a few cursory flaps before taking off into the sky again and setting off toward the east, far away from their current position until it was nothing more than a tiny dot in the sky. His attention slowly drifted back to what was in front of him; namely a very pissed off looking Fluttershy, still glaring at him. "It would seem Princess Celestia's trust in you was not misplaced," he commented, uncertain of what else he could say on the situation. What really was appropriate to say in this situation?