//------------------------------// // Decisions and Dragons // Story: Right Behind You // by BleepBloop2 //------------------------------// [One thousand and one years ago] [Spy] I take back everything I ever said about ponies as a species being terrible at war. Only most of them are terrible. Luna, for instance, if fucking horrifying. God, the things she did with those spears. Enough to give anything nightmares. Celestia had been recently discorporated by myself, leaving Luna free to take the field. I almost regret killing Celestia, after watching Luna go through normal ponies as easily as walking. It was like watching a giant kick the shit out of a group of paraplegic, mentally unfit midgets. Anyone that got within fifteen feet of Luna just dropped dead. Their eyes rolled back into their skull and they hit the dirt, bodies decaying at what had to be at least one thousand times the normal speed. Swarms of insects burst from their corpses, moving with a malevolent intelligence to devour any living ponies nearby, spreading a plague of flesh eating clouds of death at an ever-expanding rate. She removed any opposing unicorns with a ruthless efficiency, most of them being boiled inside their skin, eyeballs exploding from a sudden change in temperature. Those were the lucky ones. I don’t want to talk about the unlucky ones. Dear god, those spears. Pegasi got slightly better deaths, ‘better’ here being a relative term. They were certainly more varied. Some were flash-fried, giving off a smell like roast chicken and beef that made my mouth water. Others simply kept going up and never came back down. A few just vanished into portals opening before them, with nothing but a terror inspiring darkness on the other side. One of those had time to scream before the portal closed. I think fighting stopped across the battlefield as everyone turned to the source of the scream. Earth ponies, the name for non-unicorns or pegasi, she just ignored. Without Celestia to fight Luna, there wasn’t much the other side could do, and it was a matter of hours before they got routed. Not that Luna’s side stopped attacking when they turned their backs. A route turned into a massacre turned into a slaughter, and you can’t spell slaughter without laughter. Which is what I was doing. Laughing, that is. Luna hadn’t laughed in weeks. Hadn’t smiled in days. It was a slow thing, like the gentle shifting of glacial ice, the changes subtle and small. As soon as the battle was over, she retreated back to her tent, muttering to herself all the while. She gave me a look just before disappearing into her tent, a small shake of her head. I’m almost certain I heard her say, “No, he wouldn’t,” under her breath. She stayed there, half inside her tent, for a few seconds, looking my way, repeating that same phrase as if trying to convince someone. [Present] [Spy] I was starting to regret making a deal with Chrysalis, and I think she could tell. Every time we met she tried to finish faster and faster, even going so far as to suggest I meet with one of her subordinates. Then again, this meeting was different. She had asked for this one. I was waiting in her room for her, standing behind the door when she entered.  “You better have a good reason for this,” I told her. She flinched at my voice, barely stopping herself from whirling around to face me. “I do,” she said. “Tell me, have you heard of the Summer Sun Celebration?” I shook my head. “Well, every year, in the middle of summer, Celestia has a celebration on the dawn of the longest day of the year. As the first since her sister’s return, this one is to be held here, in Canterlot, as more ponies can visit. It is the single largest gathering of ponies in any one city.” I was pretty sure I knew where she was going with that, but I stayed silent, letting her do the talking. Chrysalis didn’t like silence, I think. She only lasted a few seconds before speaking again. “Your plan is to harm Celestia in any way possible, yes? Well, if you kill her there, not only will she no longer be a god in the eyes of her ponies, she will be killed in front of them. They would no longer trust her, no longer worship her as they do now. On top of that, the stampede caused by such an event would no doubt kill several ponies.” She smiled, like she had just found her winning argument. “You killing ponies is one thing, but ponies killing each other will hurt her deeply. You kill Celestia and vanish of in the ensuing panic.” It was, in all honesty, a pretty good plan. If I were feeling generous, I might even upgrade it to very good. It had everything I liked in a plan; Celestia died, was hurt emotionally, was even discredited, I got away easily, free to sneak off and cause more chaos. It was perfect. Perfect plans do not happen. There is always, always, something, some little but in there that makes you go, ‘it’s perfect, but.’’ Perfect plans make the world boring. There has to be a chance of failure, one that doesn’t come out of nowhere. Which meant one of two things. Either Celestia had cottoned on to Chrysalis’ betrayal and was feeding her false information, or Chrysalis was double crossing me. I smiled, and Chrysalis visibly relaxed, no doubt assuming it was just me approving of the plan. And, in a way, it was. “How long until this Sun Celebration,” I asked. “A month and a half,” Chrysalis said, after a seconds thought. “Forty five days, or thereabouts.” I nodded. “I’m going to need you to get me some supplies,” I told Chrysalis. I told her what I needed, and she said she would have them five days before the Celebration. My smile that followed sent her fleeing. [Present] [Spike] Spike ducked under thrown boulder, juked left to avoid a torrent of emerald dragonflame. He slammed into the cavern wall and bounced off it, straight into a sweeping claw. He rolled into a ball as best he could, but the force he hit the other side of the cave with sent pain burning through his body. Sliding down the wall, he unrolled himself just in time to see a massive tail coming his way. Pushing himself off the wall, he almost managed to avoid the attack, the long limb clipping his feet and sending him tumbling into the claws of his opponent. A massive claw touched his back. Spike sighed into the dirt. In a voice that threatened to bring the stalactites on the roof crashing down, the gigantic dragon pinning him spoke. “You have improved much, hatchling. Take heart in this, for many will fall before you ere your time ends.” Spike said nothing as the claw was lifted from his back. He brushed the dust from his scales. Had there been any light in this cave, he would have gleamed like the brightest gems. It seemed that, while a dragon could live off almost anything, some things made for better food than others, and raw magic made the best food of all. A thaumovore, was what Twilight would have called him. Should have been there to call him. From above, the voice rumbled again. “You know what errors you made, hatchling?” Spike let out a single small burst of fire, the light almost blinding in the blackness of the cave. The dragon teaching him was not able to hear him, she was much too large, her head to far above. She had no name that Spike knew of. For the past four thousand years, she had simply been the Dragon of the Wastelands. Apart from Spike, she was the only dragon for two thousand miles in any direction. It was likely she had been there longer, but Discords reign left few records and she had spent the four centuries Discord ruled most of the planet sleeping. At some time in her youth, she had painted the night sky on the ceiling of her cavern. Spike didn’t recognise any of the constellations the few times he saw it. Spike’s contemplation was broken by a sudden burst of light and thunderous sound. Luna set several magelights to hover around the cavern, giving small islands of red light in the darkness of the cavern. Spike could feel them with a sense that was almost sight and almost smell. They were small, and Luna had cast them well. They would not be worth eating. “How goes your training?” Luna asked. Spike shrugged, then realised he was outside the light. He moved towards one, staying at the edge, careful not to look directly at any of them. No point in ruining his darkvision. “It goes well, I think,” Spike replied. His voice came out rough, his throat sore from lack of use. Odd, how fire flowed with no pain, but air irritated it. Luna nodded. Spike didn’t have to see her to know that. She was full of magic, standing out like a blazing fire in an ice cold room. “He will be adequate shortly.” They turned to see the Dragon of the Wasteland staring down at them, her head larger than most houses in Canterlot. It towered above them even when laying on the floor. “By the turning of Sol, he will be ready to return.” “Turning of Sol?” Luna muttered. “You mean the summer Solstice?” “When summer becomes winter, he will be ready. Luna nodded. “I will return then.” Turning to Spike, she added, “You have forty days. Be ready.” She vanished before Spike could reply. [Present] [Celestia] Over the years, Celestia has had to perform a great number of unpleasant duties. Ordering a town struck by an incurable plague to be sealed and burned, the residents still inside, was one, but it had happened once, in the early years of Equestria when a town was anywhere more than eight ponies came together. One that never got any easier was telling a parent they had outlived their child. That she had to tell the same set of parents that the same monster responsible for the loss of their youngest child had killed the eldest as well was simply terrible, but Twilight Velvet and Nightlight bore the news with a quiet dignity. “I am so sorry for thi-” Princess Celestia began, but was interrupted by Nightlight. This happened so rarely she was shocked into silence. “Princess, you have apologised enough,” the unicorn said. “You are not responsible for what that monster has done. And I think I speak for my wife as well as myself when I say that we want revenge.” “And you shall have it. I am doing everything in my power to ensure the guilty party is caught as quickly as possible.” Twilight Velvet shook her head. “You misunderstand, Princess.” Her voice was cold and empty. “We want revenge, and I plan on carving it out of the monster that took my children from me. We can do it with your help, or without it.” Beside her, her husband nodded. Celestia sighed, but nodded. “Very well. My help, you shall have. I warn you, though, that once you start down this path you may not see it’s end.” “We understand,” they both said. “Very well. His name is Spy,” Celestia began, “and he fought on the side of Nightmare Moon in the Twilight War.”