//------------------------------// // 13. Boast Busters - Part 2 // Story: Blaze the Pony Tale // by Wolven5 //------------------------------// Midnight ran towards the sounds, and sure enough there he saw them. Two dragons, one green the other red, were rampaging through Ponyville. The red one deeply inhaled, much to Midnight’s horror, and unleashed a fiery plume that engulfed a whole house. Thankfully, practically everypony had already cleared out. The green one lashed out its tail, demolishing the clock tower. Where did they come from?! Midnight racked his brain to figure out. The Everfree Forest, obviously, but what had drawn these scaly scourges from their forested haunts to attack a quiet little town? But why they’d come was now pointless, the real question was how was he gonna stop them before all of Ponyville was reduced to ashes?! Midnight quickly teleported behind a tall building, narrowly avoiding a large piece of debris, and peered around the corner to get a better look of the monsters. The screams of the ponies were receding in the direction he’d come from, so he wouldn’t have to worry about innocent bystanders, now was the time to act. But what could he do? Besides magic, Midnight had studied other subjects under Twilight’s tutelage and Spike had insisted on a book on dragons. However said book had been rather small and short because ponies didn’t go out of their way to study dragons, rather going out of their way to avoid them altogether. But there had been some tidbits of information in the book. Dragons, like Spike, enjoyed eating gemstones and their scales were resistant to magic. So a head-on approach was out of the question. Suddenly, Midnight recalled how the story had originally played out. Ponyville was attacked by an Ursa Minor, and Twilight overcame it by lulling it to sleep and putting it back to bed in the Everfree Forest! Perhaps the same method will work here. It actually made sense, that the trick to overcoming large creatures was how to calm them. Midnight looked around and saw a harp. He racked his brain for a soothing song and suddenly he had it! The dragons were now exploring the part of Ponyville they’d demolished, apparently looking for anything of interest, when a sound perked their ears. Looking up, they saw a golden harp, its strings being plucked in rhythm by an invisible player, and somehow the sounds were being amplified enough for them to hear it from a distance. Curious, they approached the harp, noting how it was enwreathed in a turquoise aura. Nearby, Midnight was observing the events unfold, his horn glowing, his eyes narrowed upon the horn. He was humming a song he knew and his magic was playing the melody through the harp. Nearby, ponies who had been hiding were all poking their heads out, as they saw the dragons’ eyes narrow, the way they swayed their heads as they unknowingly followed the harp as it floated left to right. Finally, the dragons fell over in two thunderous thuds, as steam blew from their nostrils as they began to snore. Ponies started coming out when Midnight hurried out quietly, saying, “Shhhhh!” He turned his attention back to the dragons and concentrated. His aura enveloped them both and they slowly began to rise into the air. Midnight envisioned a clearing deep in the Everfree forest he had seen when he and his friends had gone after the Elements of Harmony, and willed for the dragons to be taken there. But he began to sweat, his head starting to hurt and he realized lifting these two dragons at once was causing him to strain his magic. But he couldn’t stop, not until these beasts were well away from Ponyville. He focused, a vein starting to throb next to his horn, as everypony watched in awe as the sleeping dragons slowly but surely floated away, vanishing over the Everfree Forest. His head was starting to pound but Midnight had to be sure the dragons wouldn’t wake up and come right back. In his mind’s eye, he could still see the clearing, and maintained the magic. For a few agonizing minutes it felt like he wouldn’t get them there before he passed out from strain when at last, he saw them in his mind’s eye, floating towards the center of the clearing. He eased the magic, slowly setting the sleeping dragons into the soft grass before he broke the spell and started panting heavily, rubbing his head with a groan. He looked up and noticed for the first time that everypony was looking at him. Panting, he put on a smile and announced, “The dragons are gone!” Everypony cheered when Midnight had a flash and saw two little unicorn colts running from the forest screaming, and were soon followed by the dragons. Midnight recognized those colts and scanned the crowd for them. He saw them, quietly walking away and avoiding everypony. He narrowed his eyes and teleported in a flash in front of them, causing them to bump into him. “Going somewhere, boys?” he asked with a raised brow. The short and round colt, Snips, chuckled nervously, and said, “We uh, we’re late for…” “Something!” offered lamely Snails, the tall and gangly unicorn colt. “Would this something have to do with how it was you two who led those dragons into Ponyville?” Midnight inquired knowingly, and all eyes were on the two colts. Knowing they’d been found out, Snips and Snails threw themselves at Midnight’s hooves, wailing. “We’re sorry! We didn’t mean to cause so much trouble!” Snips cried. “We were trying to find an Ursa Major for Trixie to vanquish,” Snails sobbingly admitted, “we just wanted to see some awesome magic!” “But we found a dragon cave instead!” Snips concluded. “Please don’t hurt us!” “Well…” Midnight let the moment hang and took a guilty pleasure in seeing Snips & Snails squirm, before he said, “Alright! I’ll forgive you…” Snips & Snails both sighed but Midnight suddenly said, “After you both clean up this whole mess the dragons made.” Snips and Snails looked at the destruction around them and their jaws dropped at how much work was ahead of them. “But that’ll take forever!” Snips complained. “Then I suggest you get started,” Midnight smirked and both colts groaned in weary submission. “Three cheers for Midnight!” cheered somepony, and everypony joined in. “Hip-hip-hurray! Hip-hip-hurray! Hip-hip-hurray!” “Party at Sugarcube Corner!” announced Pinkie Pie. At Sugarcube Corner, everypony had fun (aside from Snips and Snails who were both outside, collecting debris into a wagon under the watch of a couple adult ponies), Midnight smiled as he explained how exactly he’d overcame the dragons, bringing up the harp, which, as it turned out, was dropped by Lyra, whom Midnight thanked for accidentally leaving it behind. Midnight’s friends were there too, Twilight saying, “I can’t believe you saved Ponyville from two dragons! You really levitated them both to Everfree Forest?” “It probably would’ve been easier at night,” Midnight answered, “somehow, I notice my magic’s kinda stronger during nighttime, especially when the moon’s out and a’glow.” “Hmm,” Twilight pondered Midnight’s words but decided to let him have his moment. He challenged Applejack to a cider-drinking contest (and lost), he hoof-wrassled Thunderlane (and won), and danced with Twilight during the party music. Even so, as night fell and she went home, she made sure to send a letter of the events to Princess Celestia. After reading the message form her faithful student pertaining to her own, Princess Celestia mused what it could mean. She looked to an old portrait of her own teacher from so long ago, Star Swirl the Bearded. “Perhaps, old friend… Perhaps Midnight could be the solution to saving somepony close to us both.”