//------------------------------//
// Chapter 6: Battle of the Forge 
// Story: The Rise of Inferni 
// by starheart1049 
//------------------------------//

                   Light Hoof had led the group to the volcano, where they stood at its base, looking up the side. Twilight looked to her friends and said, "This is it girls, this is where it happens. I don't know what we'll see in that volcano, but whatever it is, we'll face it together." They all nodded. "Bring it on!, Let's get to it, Yee Haw!, yay..., it's time to rock this place!." Twilight smiled at them, grateful to have such great friends. Then she turned to Drake, who nodded and said, "Let's do this." Then, together, they all raced into the volcano, and were soon swallowed by the darkness. 

Once they were all inside, Twilight activated her magic, lighting the room they were in. looking around they saw that there were two passageways in the room. So, to cover more ground they split up, each heading down one of the two passages. Heading down passage 1 were Drake, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie. The passage led to a wide room with a high ceiling, and in the room they found what looked like chains on the walls, tables piled with rocks, and other assortments of weapons. In the corner, there was a platform which held what looked like a rusted lever and a chair embroidered with a flame pattern. "Whoa, looks like some ancient torture room," Rainbow said in astonishment. "Yes, but it could do with a complete make over," Rarity replied. Pinkie was over by the table, examining the items when the room shook with a resounding boom. 

They all looked at Pinkie who was shaking her head. " I didn't do it" she said. Then, a voice without a source said, " Of course not, I did." They all looked around wildly, then Rainbow said, "Inferni! Come out and fight like a man!" The voice laughed, causing the floor to shake, knocking them all to the ground. " Now what fun would that be, hen i can watch you fight instead." Suddenly, red tendrils of mist seeped from the floor, wrapping themselves around everyone's hooves, except Drake's. 

Then, the tendrils pulled them to the wall, where collared chains put themselves around their necks. But no matter how hard they tried they couldn't free themselves. Drake rushed over and tried to break the collars, but could not. The voice then said, " If you want to save your friends then you will have to fight." Drake, now angry turned around and shouted, "Fine! I'll fight." " Excellent." Suddenly, Drake was wearing full battle armor with a wicked edged sword. Then, he looked up, and gasped at what he saw. Standing in front of him was another warrior in battle armor. But this was not an ordinary warrior. It had a lizard-like tail and fangs as sharp as knives. When it raised its head, he saw that its eyes were like a snake's, slitted and cold. 

Once again the voice spoke. " This will be your opponent, my best warrior, Slither, the snake pony. Defeat him and you and your friends will go free, but if you loose, he will devour you, from head to toe." The voice laughed, then faded away. Then, the sound of a gong sounded around the room, and the fight began. Slither moved forward, faster than the eyes could see and was behind Drake before he could blink. Before he could react, Slither kicked Drake in the back of the head and sent him flying into the wall. Drake slowly go to his feet and dived out of the way just as Slither attacked again. 

Drake then delivered an attack of his own, which sent Slither crashing into the floor. Before he could get back up, Drake dived at him but was sent sent crashing to the floor as Slither used his hind leg to kick him. Drake got up as Slither did and began circling each other. Then, Drake, using hiss vampire speed ran behind Slither, who didn't react in time and was sent face first into the wall. Before he could recover,Drake ran up and grabbed his tail with his teeth and began spinning. 

Just as he was about to fall, he let go of the tail and sent Slither flying into the ceiling, rock crumbling away and falling to the floor. Then, with a crash Slither fell to the floor as well, a snap resounding as he landed. As they watched, a red mist enveloped him as he disappeared from sight. The chained collars disappeared as well, and the ponies dropped to the floor. They stood up and raced over to Drake, hugging him. After that they turned to see another tunnel opening up and they looked at each other and ran into it, vanishing into the darkness.