Chapter 4: Elements revealed
The dragons continue their way through the forest. They have survived one attempt by Nightmare Moon to stop them, but there will be more to come. As Twilight press on, Rainbow continues talking about the previous battle.
"And while we were busy with those other Slicers, boom! Applejack went super nova and save you in the nick of time!" Rainbow exclaims eagerly. "Heck, I didn't know that she could do that."
"Yew done never asked." Applejack said to Rainbow with a slight smirk on her dragon face.
"Anyway, I was there, I am grateful and...look, we gotta..." Twilight was cut off as a bunch of new creatures appear in the group's way, "Manticores!"
Indeed, there is Manticores right in the group's way, but Twilight is sure that these guys are smaller than dragons, but these ones are twice the dragon size. The Mind Dragon suspects that Moon Dragon must've been up to her tricks again.
"We gotta get by these guys!" Twilight calls out as Fluttershy looks concerned while staring at one Manticore.
One Manticore jumps right at Rarity who quickly dodges the attack and kicks the thing down. The white Mind Dragon remarks, "Take that you ruffian!" Of course, another Manticore roars in her face, causing her hair to go flying back. "My hair!"
Rairty gasps as she ran from the attacking Manticore. Fluttershy in concern spoke up, "Wait," But Rarity didn't seem to hear her at all.
The Manticore chasing Rarity yelps as Applejack got on top of it, beginning to ride the big guy like at a rudio. The Worker Dragon cheers while calling like a cow dragon, "YEEHAW! Get along, little doggie!"
"Wait."
Another Manticore swipes at Pinkie Pie who happily dodges it. The pink dragon slip one of the Manticores a packet of her special 'hot sauce so hot even most dragons (who usually have a very high tolerance for intense heat) can't stand it.' (The same hot sauce Twilight tasted earlier)
The Manticore that Applejack was riding threw her off, causing the Worker Dragon to call Rainbow, "Whoa, doggie! All yers, partner!"
"On it," Rainbow exclaims, saluting as she flies right at the Manticore that Applejack rode.
"Wait!" Fluttershy tries to call to her friends but again, no one pays her any attention. Rainbow flew around making a black tornado to fight off the Manticore but it slaps her with her tail, sending the dragon crashing to the ground.
"Rainbow," Twilight gasps as her friend lands in front of the group. More of the Manticores appear, growling viciously.
The dragons scoot their claws while the Manticores did the same thing with their paws. Then the battle begins. In addition to the dragons' strength, claws and combat breaths, they could also use earth and air control powers (in the case of the Worker Dragons and Rainbow Dash respectively), telekinesis (in the cases of Twilight and Rarity) and Pinkie Pie's party cannon.
Of course, in addition to the Manticores being super-sized and able to create duplicates, they also produce duplicates AUTOMATICALLY upon forceful defeat (i.e. you subdue one via brute force, literally five more take its place), as all the heroes except Fluttershy find out while doing the fighting. They ALL manage to subdue AT LEAST three EACH with their dragon strength, combat breaths and claws (which creates a small army). It looks like this fight is going to take forever.
Twilight groans, "Okay. This is bad. We subdued the first six of these Manticores and 30 more took their places. Then we overpowered THOSE 30 and we now have 150 Manticores to deal with."
Applejack snaps to Twilight, "Save 'de fancypants math; 'De fact is, we can't give up; Not wit' so much at stake."
"I'm not saying we give up. I'm just saying we try to come up with something smarter before we're too exhausted to deal with Moon Dragon. Trying to take down these monsters physically only creates more."
Fluttershy finally speaking up and getting the others' attention, said, "Not smarter; just kinder," This causes the dragons to stop their fighting, looking confused by what the Mind Dragon just said. She flew over to the original Manticore as he is waking up, "Oh, you poor thing. You aren't evil. You're just misunderstood." The Mind Dragon rubs her head on his paw. As everyone else at her, especially the Manticore, the Mind Dragon saw a thorn in the said paw. "And look, you have a thorn in your paw. No wonder you're so cranky. Now, hold still, I promise this will only hurt for a second and then the pain will be all gone." Fluttershy removes the thorn in the original Manticore, who gratefully licks her, calls off his duplicates.
As the Mind Dragon giggle happily by what the big guy is doing, all the Manticores except the original disappear and even the original shrinks back to normal size (which is bigger than a pony, but smaller than a grown dragon).
"Awww, you are a little old baby kitty, aren't you? Yes you are, you are." Fluttershy said in a cutesy like voice. The other dragons smile. The Manticore is defeated...with kindness.
As the dragons go by Fluttershy and the Manticore, Twilight stays behind for Fluttershy who caught up, with her hair sticking up. The Mind Dragon, amazed, asks, "How did you know about the thorn in the paw?
"I didn't KNOW. I just strongly suspected. I AM, after all, a professional animal doctor. His anger seemed to be more based on pain than actual meanness. I just know that sometimes, all we need is a little kindness."
Twilight pauses to think about what Fluttershy said and smiles. She has shown real kindness. The Mind Dragon follows her friends as they continue their quest for the Elements of Harmony.
As the dragons leave, not one of them saw the thorn that Twilight removed changing into familiar smoke, looking a bit upset. Once again, her plan was stopped but Moon Dragon won't give up just yet. She goes after the female dragons once more.
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Deeper in the forest, the dragons move on, trying to avoid hitting each other by accident and the other trees. Fluttershy pauses, recalling Twilight's argument with Spike (she and her friends overheard her before coming into the library earlier).
"Umm, Twilight, why were you harsh to Spike earlier on? He just wanted to help." Fluttershy ask Twilight in concern.
Twilight admit, "Okay, so maybe I AM sometimes harsher with Spike than I mean to be. But I'm only strict with him because I care that much about him. Yes, he's an alicorn, but he's still a kid. Really, I try not to be any harsher with him than a stern but caring parent would be. I'm just trying to be a responsible care-taker for him, though, as aforementioned, I admit that I probably DO sometimes overdo it. If we make it out of this, though, I promise that I'll try very hard to make it up to him."
"Have you always been harsh to him?"
"That story I prefer to wait for another day. Please, we got to focus on this mission."
Fluttershy nods in understanding though her thoughts were interrupted by Rarity groaning while shivering, "Argh! My eyes need a rest from all this muckening mucky!" Suddenly everything went dark. "Not literally."
"Not good. Why that ancient ruin could be right in front of us and we wouldn't even know it." Twilight said in concern. Unknown to the dragons, the same mist went pass them and into the trees. The dragon shivers a bit. "Brrr, the wind is getting cold." Of course, the gang begins to bump into each other.
"Oh, sorry; didn't see you there."
"Right here...ugh, it's cold." Rainbow said, shivering from the cold. The wind is getting mighty chilly.
Applejack heard a mud splash, causing her to lift up one foot while mumbling, "Hang on. Ah done think Ah stepped in something. Brrr, the wind is getting mighty cold." Suddenly Fluttershy screams in terror. "What? It's just mud an' a cold wind."
Suddenly Applejack jumps away as she realizes why Fluttershy was really screaming. One of the trees seems to came to life and shows a scary face. In fact, there's more like it! The female dragons scream in fright and cold. Obviously, another one of Moon Dragon's work as she whip up a VERY cold wind which makes the situation even scarier since dragons ARE cold-blooded.
Every one of the dragons screams in fright...well, not all of them...
To the dragons' confusion, Pinkie Pie was laughing while making faces at a tree and making funny noises. Twilight looks confused. What is that crazy dragon think she's doing?
"Pinkie, are you crazy?! Run!!" Twilight exclaims frantically to Pinkie.
"Oh, dragon girls, don't you see?" Pinkie asks her friends happily. The other dragons look confused as she begins to sing.
Pinkie: When I was a little dragon
And the sun was going down...
"Oh, tell me she's not." Twilight said in annoyance. Is Pinkie doing another one of her random acts again?
The darkness and the shadows,
They would always make me frown
"Yes, she is." Rarity said to Twilight sheepishly.
I'd hide under my pillow
From what I thought I saw
But Granny Pie said that wasn't the way
To deal with fears at all
"What is the way, then?" Rainbow asked in confusion.
She said: Pinkie, you gotta stand up tall
Learn to face your fears
You'll see that they can't hurt you
Just laugh to make them disappear
Ha, ha, ha!
To the dragons' surprise, after Pinkie laughs at a scary tree... the tree disappears from sight. The dragon even uses her flame breath to cool the air all around them. That sounds fun and amazing so the other dragons join in, laughing along. Even Twilight is having fun.
So, giggle at the ghostly
Guffaw at the grossly
Crack up at the creepy
Whoop it up with the weepy
Chortle at the kooky
Snortle at the spooky
And tell that big dumb scary face to take a hike and leave you alone and if he thinks he can scare you then he's got another thing coming and the very idea of such a thing just makes you wanna...
HAHAHAHA...heh...
LAAAAAAAUUUGH!
Soon all the scary faces disappear...and the dragons combined their six sustained blasts of flame, causing the cold wind to disappear. They then all land on the ground, laughing in delight.
"Wow, Pinkie." Twilight giggles a bit. "I can't believe that I'm saying this...but that was fun!"
"I know. That was fun!" Pinkie giggles happily. The dragons continue laughing until they recover and got up to keep on going.
Moon Dragon is nearby, fuming. She will find a way to stop those dragons. But after what she will do next, the evil dragon got some pony to visit...
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Spike woke up and saw that Twilight is gone. The baby alicorn sighs but begins to get some chores. He hopes that his friend and the others will come back safe and sound.
As Spike was helping himself to a snack, a voice spoke up, "Little pony..."
"Huh? Who's there?" Spike asks in worry as he looks around, "Sun Dragon; Twilight?"
A puff of familiar smokes appears as Moon Dragon stood in the room, giving an evil smile to the dragon.
"Moon Dragon," Spike exclaims to Moon Dragon in shock and alarm. "What are you doing here?!"
"Coming to check on my future subjects of course! And I got to admit, I notice something about you when that purple unicorn who reveals me earlier." Moon Dragon said with a sly grin. "From the looks of you, you are her little friend."
"Personal assistant, but who's counting?" Spike asks with a shrug while getting back to work. "Look, shouldn't you be trying to make it Eternal Night or something?"
"Little pony, listen carefully! Aren't you worried that that dragon treated you like a slave?" Moon Dragon asks Spike madly. "You got to admit, she didn't bring you with her to try to stop me, leaving you here to do chores all alone."
Spike said to Moon Dragon sternly and in defiance, "Twilight cares for me."
"She cares about nothing! All you are to her is a slave. A pansy! A wussy! She keeps making you do all the hard work. Rearranging books? Honestly?! And that's not the worst, is it?" Moon Dragon hisses evilly to Spike, trying to get him to see that Twilight treats the pony like a slave.
Moon Dragon then made the whole room dark, leaving only herself and Spike visible. The pony looks startled as the villainess made images on all the times that Twilight was harsh on him, name calling and unintentionally injuring him. It likes that she never like him at all.
"Hoo boy," Spike said, seeing all those images. It's like Moon Dragon has picked into his mind, seeing what he has experienced before.
"You see?" Moon Dragon asks with a smirk to Spike, "Would you want to stay with someone who treats you like a slave, even injuring you?! But under my care, that would be different. You will never be treated like a slave; my subjects are treated equally under Eternal Night. You will get that equality but only if you join me. I can each help you find out who your true family are. Do you want that?"
"...no." Spike answers. This surprises and shock Moon Dragon. That isn't the answer she wanted.
"Pardon," Moon Dragon asks Spike with a deep frown.
Spike comment, "No. I know Twilight. Yeah, she has a hard time connecting to others, but she is not deliberately mean. She makes mistakes, sure, but she has never given me real reason to doubt she really cares about me. If anything, she cares TOO MUCH. And, yeah, she works me fairly hard, but she works HERSELF more than TWICE AS HARD. Besides, I may not be as heavily into books as Twilight is, but I've read enough comic books and seen enough cartoons to know a brainwashing attempt when I see one. And THIS definitely qualifies. So, thanks, but no thanks."
Moon Dragon screams, "You are a fool! You refuse my help?! Do you not even want to know who your true family is at all?!"
"She is my family, the only one I got, Moon Dragon." Spike said to Moon Dragon. "Have you thought about your own family during your banishment all these centuries; As in Princess Sun Dragon whom you imprisoned?"
Moon Dragon hesitates, some of her wants to harm Spike for even bringing up Sun Dragon...but the rest appears not to want to.
"You're lucky that your friends will fail and I am in a good mood...and when Equestria is finally mine, you will pay for not taking me up on my offer!" Moon Dragon hiss to Spike as she disappears from sight.
The baby pony sighs in worry. He hopes that Twilight and her friends find the Elements of Harmony and stop Moon Dragon before it's too late...
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The dragons continue their way through the forest, Pinkie leads the way, but stops. Her friends crowd around her and saw that they are now in front of a river that is churning choppy, making it impossible to walk across.
"Any idea how to get across this," Pinkie asks her friends puzzled.
Fluttershy comment, "This shouldn't be a problem. After all, we can all fly."
Rainbow put in, "Some of us much faster and more gracefully than others."
Suddenly the dragons yelp as a huge wave splash them. What did that? The females heard crying and came through the bushes. Sure enough, there's a purple sea serpent with orange hair and a mustache, half of it appears to been cut off in the water, the reason why it's impossible to cross because he was crying his eyes out while making his tail flop around.
"What a world, what a world!" The sea serpent sobbed.
Twilight looks concerned. Something has this guy upset. The Mind Dragon begins to ask, "Sir, if you don't mind me by asking, why are you crying?"
"I...I don't know! Why, I was sitting here, minding my own business when this tacky cloud of smoke whisked by me and cut off half of my beloved mustached! I look horrid!" The sea serpent explains to the dragons who doesn't seem a bit faze by the hair part. "And worst yet, I am starving! There isn't any fish in this river, they all disappear! No fruit or nothing!"
The sea serpent sobs some more while causing more water to splash onto the female dragons. Rainbow groans in annoyance, "You got to be kidding me!"
"'Dat's what 'dis fuss is about?" Applejack asks the sea serpent skeptically. She tell him, "Look, to be honest, while we do sympathize with you being starving, we DO have a world to save, which means we just don't have time to feed you right now. Rainbow, could you please freeze the lake AND this guy with your ice breath? We can thaw him and the lake out after we're done dealing with Moon Dragon, when we'll also have plenty of time to give him a proper feeding."
"Applejack, how can you be so insensitive," Rarity suddenly scolds Applejack then come over to comfort the sea serpent. "Why, look at him; Just wonderful luminescent scales."
"Yeah, I know." The sea serpent said with a sigh.
"As well as your expertly coiffed hair." Rarity complimented, making the sea serpent blush at the compliment.
"Yes, yes, I know." The serpent said while rubbing his orange hair.
"And your wonderful manicure." Rarity said with a smile.
"Why, yes! It's all so true!" The serpent exclaims with a gasp of drama.
"All of it is ruined with your mustache...and worst yet, you're hungry! You shouldn't continue having an empty stomach like this." Rarity said with a sad and worried look on her face.
"Hideous and hungry; Oh, I cannot move on like this!" The sea serpent sobs some more.
"Well, a crime against fabulosity as well as a hunger crime...I cannot allow both to go uncorrected." Rarity said in determination. She flies over and grabs a sharp scale from the serpent, pulling it right off. The sea serpent screams in shock and alarm.
"What did you do that for?" The sea serpent asks Rarity in confusion as the dragon held her scale in her hands. Her friends look confused, what is she going to do?
Twilight begins to ask Rarity, "Rarity, what are..." She was cut off as a sound of something being sliced is heard. The other dragons gasp in shock as the sea serpent groans dramatic before falling. For a moment, it looks like Rarity has stabbed him...
But in reality, Rarity has cut off her own hair, leaving it now shortened. With a smile, the Mind Dragon ditch the scale and use her magic to make the hair itself glow pink. It lifted up and attached itself to the sea serpent's ruined mustache.
The sea serpent looks surprised and happy upon seeing his new mustache piece...enough that he straightened up and cries again, this time in joy, "Oh, my mustache! It's wonderful..." He looks himself over in the water.
"Yes, you look smashing." Rarity said as she uses her magic to give a couple good-sized drums full of food to the sea serpent. "I was saving this for the trek but you need it more than we do."
"But your beautiful hair, Rarity," Twilight said in concern at Rarity's short hair. The white Mind Dragon has to give up the rest to help the sea serpent.
"Oh, it's fine, really. Short hair is in this season anyway. Plus...it'll grow back." Rarity said, trying to brave and not so upset while looking at her hair.
"So do mustaches." Rainbow whispers to Twilight making, her smile a bit. Just then, the Mind Dragon spotted that the river has calmed down.
"The river is calm, we can cross now! Come on!" Twlight insists as she begins going through the river. "That way, we don't have to use our wings and energy!"
Suddenly Twilight yelps as the sea serpent lift his tail up, making a bridge. He smiles while saying, "Allow me. It's what I can do to thank you."
The dragons smile as they cross the serpent to get through the river. Rarity has shown Geneorsity and it helps them continue on their way now.
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The group moves on forward through the forest, they should be getting closer to the structure. Twilight then saw some sort of ruins up ahead, much to her eagerness.
"Yes, that's it, the ruin that held the Elements of Harmony, we made it!" Twilight exclaims excitedly. It's time to get to that ruin.
As Twilight fly towards the ruins, Applejack calls out, "Whoa, sugar cube; wait fer us!"
"We should almost be here."
Suddenly Rainbow stops in front of her, Twilight yelps as the Mind Dragon almost ran into her. The Storm Dragon said, "Listen, I think we may run into more trouble so how about I go fly up ahead and do some scouting? Just to be safe. I can come back very quickly."
"Are you sure?" Twilight ask Rainbow in concern.
Rainbow commenting, "I'm one of the few dragons to ever crack the sound barrier (even if it WAS only once - when I was seven years old)." The Mind Dragon mutters the last part to herself as she flew up ahead.
"Yeah, especially since we wouldn't need a bridge just like the actual series!" Pinkie exclaims happily, making the others look at her oddly. "What?"
Rainbow flew up, looking around. So far, so good; the dragon was about to call her friends that the coast is clear when a voice spoke out, "Rainbow Dash..."
"Huh? Who's there?" Rainbow demanded as she looks around, seeing a thick fog that surrounded the woods. The Storm Dragon prefers herself for any sign of trouble.
"Rainbow Dash..."
"Come on! I ain't scared of you! Show yourself, jerk!"
"We have been waiting eagerly for the best dragon all over Draconia." The voice said, much to Rainbow's notice.
"Who is?" Rainbow ask curiously, wondering whom the 'we' ones were referring to.
"Well, you, of course. Who else could it be?"
"Really, me; Wait, of course it's me. Who else could it be? Heh heh. Well, when you see the Wonderbolts, can you tell them? I was trying to be with those guys for like ever!"
"Oh, we won't do that...because we want you to join us the Shadowbolts!" The voice answers. Rainbow saw whom it belong to: a head of a trio of Storm Dragons who wear outfits identical to the Wonderbolts, only dark and sinister looking with different lightning symbols, that came out of the thick fog. The Storm Dragon blinks a bit as the one who spoke, the leader, spoke, "We are the greatest, the most powerful dragons in the Everfree Forest and soon all of Draconia! Of course, we need a captain. The most magnificent..."
"Yeah," Rainbow said with a smile, especially the dragon is referring to her.
"Swiftest..."
"You got it..."
"Bravest and fastest dragon there is." The Shadowbolts leader explains to Rainbow with a sly grin.
"Yeah, it's all you!" Rainbow exclaims with a slight chuckle. That dragon describes her to the max. What the Shadowbolts leader said made her more excited.
"We need...you."
"YAHOO, cool! Sign me up! Just let me get back to my friends and let us deal with Moon Dragon and we have a deal!"
"No, Rainbow Dash! It's either them or us!" The leader hiss to Rainbow, making her look shocked and alarmed. To her, it sounds like the Shadowbolts won't let the Storm Dragon into their group unless she do the unthinkable. "Abandon your friends or your dream. Which is it?"
Rainbow is worried and hesitant. She wants to be part of the most awesome group in Draconia...but would it mean abandoning her friends to do so? Would the Storm Dragon actually do it? What can she do?
Rainbow heard Twilight's voice, "Rainbow, what's going on?" The Mind Dragon looks through the frog and gasps upon seeing the Shadowbolts. Not good! It appears that Moon Dragon is trying to tempt Rainbow into doing something terrible! "No...Rainbow," Of course, the Shadowbolts leader see what she's about to do and made her own eyes flash, causing the fog to get thicker and harder for the Storm Dragon to hear her friend. "Rainbow, don't listen, Rainbow..."
Rainbow looks back but couldn't see her friends. She can hear them screaming and suspect that they could be in danger. Not good while Rainbow went over her choices in her head. What could she do?
"Well, we're waiting?" The Shadowbolts leader asks patiently to Rainbow. Finally, the Storm Dragon nods, giving her answer.
"You..." Rainbow said. For a moment, the Shadowbolts leader smirks, thinking that his group has did it, that the Storm Dragon is going to abandon her friends. That is until Rainbow continues, "I mean, thank you...for the offer but I'm going to say no. I gotta keep my friends safe, you know?"
The Shadowbolts look shocked as Rainbow flew back to the other dragons. Their plan to tempt her has failed. They frown and turn into the same smoke before going into the ruins. Looks like Moon Dragon has failed once more.
Twilight looks surprised as Rainbow lands in front of her and the others. The group smiles as they cheer for her. For a moment, the Mind Dragon has feared that the Storm Dragon would give in to the dark offer but she didn't!
"Hey, you dragons okay?" Rainbow asks her friends with a smile.
"We're fine...for a moment, I thought..." Twilight said with a happy smile on her face and a look of relief.
"Come on, I would never leave my friends hanging, no way!"
Twilight smiled. Rainbow has indeed cared for her friends, showing Loyalty to them. That's something that came into the Mind Dragon's head as they flew on further into the castle itself.