//------------------------------//
// Lost Chapters - #6 "Until Next Time" 
// Story: Entropy 
// by PseudoBob Delightus 
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Chapter 6
Until Next Time


I was flying through the air at a speed over terminal velocity. The dragon had thrown me with such might that a wall of heated air formed in front of me, which, combined with the rapidly rotating world around me, effectively blinded me. I could still hear, however, and I dreaded that the dragon may have been reluctantly sparing me only to throw me into a worse situation.
I heard Pinkie Pie laughing. There were others with her and several ‘poof’ noises. She said something about not being scared of trees, but I lost track of what was being said as I lost air and began to fall. I was still traveling at an intense speed, and what little glimpses of the ground that I managed to make out told me I was on the other side of the forest, over a swamp.
I gained momentum and was half-way to the ground. In the overwhelming panic I almost forgot the two things I had to protect myself from dying this way; nearly indestructible armour and an air blast that could stop me, or at least slow my descent. I had to stabilize before either became effective, however.
As my spin started to slow, and the ground approached more quickly, I heard more of what the ponies below were saying.
“Well girls, that wasn’t so bad, was it?” That was the horribly memorable voice of Pinkie Pie.
“I don’t know how you do it Pinkie, and once again I am reluctant to accept it. But… yeah, it wasn’t bad at all!” I believed that was the voice of Twilight Sparkle. As her voice was followed by three others, I realized how bad the situation was. 
Celestia had made that group come after me, of all things. I would waste no time fighting them this time, and as I resolved those problems I managed to face the ground. I was closer than I had thought, so I acted quickly.
Building up the force in my lungs, I completed another natural flip before blasting the ground. What surprised me, however, was what happened during the flip. Of course, I should have expected the sudden dip as my body went parallel to my fall, but I was left off guard when a high tree clipped me. I released, but something went wrong. I was facing up. I threw myself at double speed towards the ground.
As I connected with my first obstacle, a tree, I expected more resistance. Instead, when I hit the trunk, the wood fibres crushed and compacted for a split second before exploding out from behind me, leaving me at an unchanged speed. The damn scales on my back made anything in my path, any chance to survive the fall, as weak as a piece of paper. With my spin dissipated, all I could do was bear with the patches of turbulent air that used to be trees and wait to die.
I hit the ground. Something went wrong. I didn’t die.
Instead, the ground below me acted as a mattress and I was flung in the air, again above the treetops, but at a much more survivable speed. On the other hand, the g-forces from changing speeds so quickly might as well have killed me, and I was winded and barely conscious by the time I landed again. I had the pleasure of hearing everything around me as I lay on the ground in pain.
“W-what was… that noise?”
“Oh Fluttershy, it’s probably nothing.”
“No, I heard it… It came from over here…”
“Yeah, I heard it too! Let’s get over there!” 
“Ah’ma comin! Ya guys sh’d prob’ly keep up, I dunno what coulda made that noise!” 
“Ugh, fine. Rarity, Pinkie Pie, come on, we have to- Pinkie? Where are y-”
“OVER HERE GIRLS!” Goddamn, they found me. Good thing Fluttershy was there, she would be the only one of six that wouldn’t try to kill me. 
“Hey, it’s that monsta’ thing we caught up a while ago! Now, how’d it get out a’ the castle?”
“That’s a mystery, AJ. Celestia just said it was locked away safely! Well she wouldn’t lie to us… maybe it just looks like the first one!”
“Oh you poor thing!” Fluttershy finally caught up and tried to roll me over. I was surrounded by what felt like molten glass but she managed to turn me over anyway.
“It’s hurt! What should we do?” She began poking and prodding at my burned and raw sides, chest and face, and in my weakened, barely alive state I could only flail my arms around in slow motion, trying to push her away from me. 
“Regardless of its injuries, we should figure out what made the noise, why this thing is burned and smoking, and-” A dragon cut her off as it roared overhead. I forced my eyes open, only to see the descending beast a dozen meters away. Looks like it came to finish the job.
“Well, the dragon’s here. It looks like these two had a falling out.” Hah. Unintentional puns. “Fluttershy, we may as well get our mission done right now. I’m sure you’ll know what to do.” As Twilight finished, Fluttershy looked back to me with a hesitant look. The dragon landed and Fluttershy put on a serious face with piercing eyes and flew over to the dragon that was slowly approaching.
“What do you think you doing back here?” She was actually talking straight to the dragon. Like, right it its face. I managed to sit up at that point, but when I saw her start I couldn’t move. The ponies around me just watched eagerly, like it was a good show but had happened before.
“Leave me be. This is between me and him.” The dragon pointed at me. My heart jumped and I was frozen even further. 
“Oh, no it’s not; you’re sleeping near Ponyville again! Didn’t you learn your lesson from last time?” The dragon, amazingly, was starting to shrink away from the angry Fluttershy. He looked away for a moment, and seemed to show a face of terror before growling and raising its arm.
The dragon tried a futile swipe at Fluttershy, who shrieked and flew back to the five ponies. The dragon started laughing.
“It won’t work like last time. This runt has been stealing from me, and I’m doing something about it!” It seemed to behave like a defiant child before rearing back, inhaling. At this point I finally got the motivation to start moving. I turned back to the shocked ponies, one of whom was right next to me, shivering. It didn’t make any sense to pit them against a dragon, no matter how powerful Twilight was. It was possible that I had more power than her, however, but I just used it for force. This was one of those situations, and I took control of it.
“All of you get away!” I shouted at them, pushing Fluttershy away in their direction. They stood, mouth agape, as I rose and stood against the dragon. My makeshift armour was mostly intact, but the rest of my clothes were burning away. I looked back again. They were looking between me and the dragon.
“Fine, don’t run. Get behind me!” They quickly obliged, and as they formed a cluster to my rear the dragon started to exhale. I could feel, see and hear the heat coming towards me, as well as hear the whimpering slowly backing away from me. I breathed in what little tolerable air there was around me, and began to charge up a blast; it was the only thing left. 
As the fire escaped the dragon’s mouth, shot through the air towards me, I noticed a change in my own abilities. All other sounds were squelched; I could only hear myself and the fire. Or, I thought I could hear it. I also seemed to see it from multiple angles, as if I had sonar vision. As all of this happened, time slowed down like when I approached the manticore for the first time, but this time, my taget was approaching me.
I stopped inhaling, but energy continued to build up. The fire was mere inches away now, but I felt no heat. I felt singeing on my face, ignored due to the adrenaline in my body, as the flames parted in front of me. That wasn’t supposed to happen; I was going to take the brunt of the flames, not the ponies behind me. I spread me arms and aimed them at the dragon. The power that coursed through felt euphoric and crippling at the same time, and the dragon fire twisted and turned around me, refusing to leave my body.
My clothes were almost melting at the heat, but I stood resolute. It didn’t matter if my skin was burning, even though it hurt more than anything I had experienced. I could only focus on the air and power being forced out of my lungs. A shockwave was sent through the air, carrying the flames with it. The dragon, realizing its mistake, tried to dodge out of the way, but the burst was too fast and it connected.
Scales shattered. Teeth and bone cracked. The dragon, once the most powerful being in the forest, fell to the ground. I could not check if the dragon was dead if I wanted to. As I stood there, in the center of a large molten-glass crater, I simply observed my last surroundings. 
There were trees knocked over, all bent away from me. The mountains reflected a faint echo of the foretold events, a second or two later than they actually occurred. The grass in front or around me was graduating between dried, burned, and vaporized. Though all this destruction surrounded me, six saved lives slowly approached, surely cautious of me and my power. I couldn’t blame them; I had just defeated a dragon.
There was muffled speaking as they drew closer. I could barely see or feel, hear or smell anything. It was obvious to me why this was, why I was frozen in time while the world passed by. I smiled in my mind, knowing that it finally came. I was fine with it.
The ponies were almost at my back, probably forcing their way through the stench of burning skin. One of them poked me. It was probably either Fluttershy or Rainbow Dash, as the poke was right on my shoulder, and the others couldn’t reach that high. My world darkened and I lost balance. Unable to move, or even react, I quietly fell over, waiting for my face to contact the ground. That never happened.
When I expected to hit the ground, instead I just spun and flipped a lazy circle through space. I could feel nothing but my memories. I smiled again, as I saw my home approaching. I knew what it all meant. I knew what it took to defeat the dragon, to save those that I had no reason to care for. I knew, as well, why the preceding moments took forever, and were viewed in third person. 
I was under judgement.
I was dead.