The Earth trembled as the six dragon leaders landed on the ground in front of the alicorns. Lauren and her daughters had been caught off guard by the dragons who had come to stand in their way. So close to the temple entrance, she wondered why they put themselves between her and her goal.
“What is this Av? Why do you stop me?” Lauren looked nervously at Av. Celestia gritted her teeth and Luna stared daggers at Huxio who was licking his lips in anticipation.
“You know, it all started when I personally fought Elder that I knew by his sheer strength and power that he was no ordinary dragon. I kept an eye on him after that but you, you coming to apologize during his burial proved everything.” Av's memory refreshed itself.
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It was after the attack on Canterlot a week ago, the dragons had returned to South Rhymica directly from Canterlot to find that their elder had been slain. No living thing was there as proof of the murder, just a gaping hole. Atlas pulled the black dragons body from the chasm and laid it down among the horde.
“This is impossible.” Av said to the others. “He can't be killed!”
Atlas looked skeptical. “I don't know Av, he wasn't much to look at.”
“Because he has a bigger more powerful form. This has to be some sort of blind sided attempt to take us out.” Av continued.
“ We are not going to fall for this again.” Skadholm said. "There were many zebra corpses at the bottom of the pit."
“The ponies? Were we betrayed? How did they know?” Huxio asked every-dragon.
“Alexandra, gather all the dragons and take them to Skadholm. We will regroup there and plan.” Av said.
“What are you going to do?” Alexandra asked.
A bright flash of light illuminated the area and every dragon looked at its source to see a unfamiliar white alicorn standing beside the corpse.
“You're not going to do anything.” Lauren said. “It wasn't the ponies. It was a chaotic god who's powers matched that of this dragons. It's so strange.. this is the first time I've ever seen his eyes closed like this.” she said sadly nuzzling the dead dragons face with her own.
“Another pony? Why should we trust you?” Ryalon said, her blue skin melting into her background like camouflage.
“Because I am like Elder. I am also like the chaotic god so do not cause war for the ponies!” she said angrily. “I will revive Elder and he will be among you again soon.” With that, she teleported away.
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Back in the present, Av stood between the alicorns and their goal. He was very angry at them along with the other dragons that made up the leadership.
“I've decided that we are and have always been pawns of you gods. I followed you to make sure that ends, once and for all.” Av nodded.
Lauren was pretty sure she had teleported from that burial scene so she didn't believe Av that he followed her. “Well if you insist on a fight, you're going to get more than you can handle.” Lauren told them.
“I'll take my chances.” Av laughed.
He then lunged at Creation attempting to grab her in his claws. Luna was quick to the draw and kicked his hand as hard as she could. He yelled in pain and withdrew it back into his chest. Atlas and Ryalon came after Celestia. Huxio chased down Luna after she flew from Av's impending rage, Alexandra followed closely.
Lauren was stuck battling Av and Skadholm. Using her magic, the ground below began to shake and giant vines came shooting out at Av intent to ensnare him as he was flying. Skadholm pushed him out of the way getting caught himself. The vines squeezed the purple dragon so hard that he began turning a darker shade of purple. Av set the vines on fire with his breath to weaken their grip on Skadholm. Lauren shot Av with beams from her horn and it left black marks on his perfect white scales. He screamed in pain at its burns. The flaming vines still trapped Skad but they no longer held him in midair. He dropped to the ground trying to free himself in the burning cage.
Huxio chased Luna but he dared not fly after her. He wasn't a fast flier and she would get the advantage by using ranged magic on him. Luna did just that. She began shooting a barrage of magically charged beams at Huxio's torso. It didn't do much but it did annoy him. Suddenly Alexandra appeared behind Luna and whipped her with her tail. Luna hit the ground face first. She rolled a bit but quickly recovered getting to her feet before Huxio could grab her. She went straight for Alex in a blind rage but the green dragon blew fire out at her. The night alicorn dodged and flew into Alex's head bucking hard at the dragons temple. Alexandra fainted and took a dive towards the ground but before she hit, Huxio caught her.
Celestia was in trouble. Atlas was relentless as he flew toward her at speeds she rarely see's a creature can go. His snake like body made him hard to dodge especially when he was whipping it around. Fortunately her flying was above par too so she managed to dodge his fire breath attacks. What got her was Ryalon, this dragon would appear out of nowhere with the rare ability to camouflage. When Celestia was to busy focusing on hitting Atlas and dodging his claws, she would appear out of nowhere and hit Celestia with an attack. The sun princess got the better of the situation when Atlas accidentally shot the hiding Ryalon with a barrage of fire breath. The fighting was intense, the alicorn team had to come up with tactics to take out their foes.
If things weren't bad enough, a green flash caught the corner of their eyes and there, the female version of Discord appeared.
"I told you that they would be here, Av." Discordia winked at the white dragon. She looked around and saw Lauren, and with malice in her eyes, the draconequus pointed a finger and started shooting green fireballs at her. The projectile magic made it's way toward Lauren but without warning, vanished.
“Celestia, I love you dear but I have found someone else.” a familiar voice said as a male draconequus appeared beside Celestia. “Shes quite the looker too!”
“Get over yourself Discord.” Celestia said angrily. “How long have you been here?”
“Long enough to see if you would get your flank kicked.” he chuckled.
“You!” Discordia said narrowing her eyes at the new arrival.
“This is exciting for me too.” Discord told her.
Suddenly they were at it, casting magic at each other, teleporting all over the place, using diverse magic to get the upper hand. Discord would wrap himself around her winking, she would chop him in half only for him to appear as a smaller draconequus dancing on her head. The dragons and the alicorns went back to fighting each other.
“You need to get your priorities straight!” she yelled at him.
“I don't know about you but I do more when I'm not trapped in stone, so no thanks.” Discord gagged.
They continued to fight with no winner in sight because like the gods problem, they were equal in strength.
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Twilight and her friends listened to Johns tale of failed fatherhood. Jaws were on the floor because they all knew what this meant. Celestia, Luna and Chrysalis were all siblings. Fluttershy and Twilight blushed trying to not think of this creature mating with a pony. Rainbow Dash and Applejack rolled their eyes and Rarity giggled. Pinkie Pie was being... quiet.
“It seems that a fight for the future of Equestria is being fought in the north.” John said.
“What fight?” Twilight demanded to know, still angry at this monster.
“Between your princesses and the dragons.”
“Take us to them!” Fhillip begged to the creature.
“Why? Aren't we having a good time here?” he mocked. "I'm shocked that you haven't said anything to me until now." He put his hand to his chest and frowned. "I thought were friends..."
“You may have done some good for me but not enough to put up with your bullcrap! We need to save them. I know you don't care for Luna and Celestia but I owe the dragons a buck for destroying Canterlot!”
John scratched his chin behind his gray beard. “Well, I suppose we can go watch. After all, I wont let you do a thing to help.” He snapped his finger and the room was empty.
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The battle was interrupted by another flash of a teleportation spell. John had shown up with everypony and their eyes were on the battlefield. The fight continued and Twilight rushed to be by Celestia's side but John teleported her back beside him. “Not a thing.” he whispered. Twilight frowned and tears started building up.
“Don't listen to him Twi” Applejack said.
“Yea lets kick this guys ass!” Rainbow Dash said.
Pinkie smiled and Rarity nodded. Fluttershy however, was frozen on the spot. She couldn't take seeing these huge dragons in all their ferociousness fighting before her.
“Come on Fluttershy, we have to help the princesses!” Dash told the petrified yellow pegasus.
She looked at Rainbow Dash and slowly nodded. Once again, the elements on their jewelery began to glow and another rainbow shot out at John. Like last time, the chaotic god countered with a green spiraling beam that put them back into a stale mate.
“Isn't this a waste of time?” he yelled at the ponies.
“No!” screamed Twilight, “We must help them and you stand in our way! I'm not just going to watch!”
Celestia heard her pupil screaming and looked to her direction. Atlas took this opportunity to knock her out of the sky with his tail. She went flying at a accelerated speed hitting the ground which sent dirt and rock flinging about.
Luna looked on in horror as Celestia didn't show any movement after her landing. The moon princess flew as fast as she could away from her two enemies to her sisters position. Huxio wasn't letting her get away, his large form stomping after her. Luna landed next to her sister and shook her trying to get a sign of life. A large shadow formed on the ground around her and Luna saw that Huxio had jumped, intending to land on her. She looked up with fear in her eyes, pupils shrinking, believing she was about to die. Huxio grinned with satisfaction but then that expression turned to one of pain as his entire body was lit up in a green light.
It happened so fast, literally hundreds of green magical beams filled the sky as they were targeting every dragon specifically. Huxio flew far and fast landing similar to how Celestia landed but this creature shook the Earth. Lauren was surprised that her dragons were lit up in the same manner and her enemies flew from the sky and hit the ground too. The mother alicorn looked to see the origin and saw that Chrysalis had come to help with her entire changeling army. They were flying in like a strike force from the shadows, intent on destroying their target.
“Chrysalis!” Lauren yelled, looking very happy to see her daughter.
“I can't let the family down now, can I?” the queen said smirking.
The dragons regained composure and split up. Av continued to fight Lauren while Skadholm took off to kill the changeling queen. Alexandra wanted to help because Huxio still wanted Luna. Celestia was down and out so both her foes, Atlas and Ryalon went in to kill the new arrivals.
Atlas snapped at many changelings like a whip hitting many with his giant body, whatever didn't get hit by his fire. Alexandra did something nopony had seen before. She focused her eyes on the enemy in front of her and the lines in the dragons eyes began to glow. Her foes were transfixed on her and they could not move freely but only listen to her as she guided them all into her mouth.
Ryalon was nowhere to be seen in that air battle. She was disappearing in and out trying to strike down the commanding units. The dragons were trying their best to stay out of the barrage of magic missile fire. Skadholm was surprised to see Chrysalis holding her own. He blew fire at her and physically tried to hit. The queen was very agile and smart so she could devise a strategy against them soon. This is what Skad was assuming so he wanted to end it quickly.
Meanwhile the Discords fought, still in equal footing. That is until Discordia managed to get to Discord mentally.
“You know, freedom from morality will get you places that you really want to be.” she said as they stood opposite of each other, both breathing heavy from constant magic usage.
“Like I told you before girl, I want to keep my friends.” he said angrily.
“They don't need you. You don't need them. Besides, I'm here for you now! Chaos is free again! We can turn this world inside out the way you always dreamed! The way I never had the chance to dream...” she said somberly.
He looked at her frowning. They both looked at John in stalemate with the Elements of Harmony. “Only you can decide who will win this war.” she finished staring at him with bedroom eyes.
“I'm sorry, but I can not do this to them. I used to rule this land for a short time. In that short time I made ponies lives completely miserable. I used all my magic to do that and I never had mercy for any-pony. Even then they forgave me and gave me a chance to show that chaos can be a good thing.” he explained to her.
Discordia was furious and all of her might when into the green spiraling beam that shot Discord in the chest. He fell down flat on his back. He looked at her in disbelief while she walked over to him.
“Our powers are not limitless in it's endurance but the strength of it knows no bounds if we retain our core personalities.” She shook her head at him and laughed. “You are strongest when you are having fun dear Discord. But the moment you stop that attitude and you come over to my territory, when you get serious...” she stuck her tongue out at him, “that is when I can getcha.”
He looked at her, furrowed his brow. “You bitch.” Discord couldn't move, he was too exhausted.
“I'm going to go help dad now.” she said and vanished.
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Skadholm was clueless because sometime during his fight with Chrysalis, she had transformed into one of her changelings. He didn't know which one was her so he along with the other dragons participating, began fighting them. In truth, Chrysalis used this time to sneak off towards Lauren to help deal with Av.
Without Skadholms help, Lauren was a great deal more of a threat to him. Size didn't matter if you couldn't swat a fly and this alicorn had more magic and strength than Luna and Celestia combined. He found himself being blasted by two different magical beams. He looked and saw Chrysalis coming at him. “Damn Skad, couldn't handle this!” he grunted.
In that instant Av was distracted, he was engulfed in more vines, similar to how Skad was earlier. He struggled but couldn't escape, he knew he had lost. But death didn't come to him, instead he had to listen to Lauren and Chrysalis talk.
“I've got this now, thanks hun.” Lauren told the queen.
“You're welcome.” Chrysalis rolled her eyes.
Lauren smiled and looked over at the John and Harmony battle.
“I know this is a bad time but you should go say hi to your father.”
“Father..?” Chrysalis asked her.
“Yeah..” Lauren said sullenly.
Lauren told her the quick version of the story. How John didn't want responsibility and that its his blood is reason for her unending hunger for love, for wanting. It explained the way she looked and how oddly her form worked. It also made sense of her changing ability. She was lost for words but a deep seated anger, one that she held for pony kind for a thousand years, boiled over. She shot across the sky towards him.
John was still caught in the never ending stalemate when he saw her coming at him like a bullet. She hit him in the face with a fore hoof. He stumbled backwards still managing the deadlocked magic. “Oh it's you.” he said simply.
“That's all you have to say to me!?” she screamed at him.
“Yes.” he said simply, wiping the blood from the cut on his lip caused by her hoof.
“Why don't you give a damn about me?” she frowned.
“I have new children and you simply cannot compete.” he winked at her.
The rage built inside of her festered and came out in a glowing green aura that surrounded the black alicorn queen. John looked on in curiosity then realized the imbalance that having two foes would cause him. Especially Chrysalis being kin to himself. After all, John had worked so hard to not be in the same place as Chrysalis herself. He had her abandon her home when she went to take Canterlot so that he could steal the Chanolis plant for the poison. He showed up at Canterlot after she had left and one mistake in his plan is that he never expected her to be here, among all situations and places.
“I wouldn't do that. That is not a great idea.” he said nervously.
“Shut up.” was all he heard. A large green magical burst of energy penetrated his chest and the rainbow of Harmony overcame him.
He lay on the ground, hole in his chest, the bottom half of his form started vanishing. The light caused by the attack of Harmony caused every creature to stop fighting. Lauren flew over to him and walked to his fast decaying body. “It's over John.” she said quietly.
“No my dear. Were all going to have to get together... and do this again sometime.” he chuckled.
His avatar disintegrated into the air while the ponies looked on. Fhil, who stood behind the Ponyville friends during the battle, didn't feel anything for his 'masters' death. Lauren too didn't feel much for him although she knew him since the beginning.
Discordia appeared and looked on in disbelief. Av yelled at Lauren from where he was being released by the other dragons. “I'm tired of you gods and your fates. I'm sick of hearing how you controlled everything even from the start. I will personally see the world burned to the ground.”
With that, he and the other dragons flew away in retreat, Discordia vanished as well.