//------------------------------// // Chapter 4: Running // Story: Avatar: The Last Alicorn. Book 1: Pegasus // by Jeweled Pen //------------------------------// The large purple balloon lazily sailed high across the world, the ground below so far away that the trees and rocks looked like small specks. The slow wind occasionally ruffled the manes of its passengers as they sailed through the air. The only thing to break up the dullness was when the balloon would veer slightly off course and Rainbow would be forced to fly out and adjust their course. Unsurprisingly, the rapid fast mare was slowly going stir crazy from boredom. “Can't this thing go any faster?” she groaned as she dropped onto her back with a huff. “It'll be years at this rate! My feathers will be all gray and old!” She had taken the fake armor off ages ago to allow her wings to flap free, but even with the extra allowed movement it did little to slate her appetite for excitement. “According to my calculations using the map we were given we will arrive in approximately two hours, thirteen minutes and thirty-two seconds. Give or take a minute or so from changing air speeds,” Twilight informed her friend precisely while she continued to look over the map. “Ugh, two hours? That might as well be a week. Here, let me see that map,” the speedster said and before the unicorn could object the map was yanked away. “Okay, let's see... So we're going this way, that means...” Rainbow hopped back to her feet and glanced around. “We're looking for a big mountain down this way, right?” she said with a motion of her hoof. “Well, yes. But what-” “I'll go on ahead and scout. Be back before you know it!” the pegasus said as she tossed the map aside and took off, leaving a rainbow colored blur in her wake. Twilight eeked as she lunged for the map, only barely stopping it from flying away. “What? Wait! Rainbow Dash! Come back! It's dangerous! RAINBOW!” she yelled out, but the blue mare just ignored her. The unicorn stomped her hooves in annoyance, “We should be going together! Separating like this is dangerous! Ugh, that mare! I swear she does this on purpose.” “Of course she does,” Pinkie said with a giggle, “It would be really hard to fly off like that accidentally.” “... Not what I meant. I just hope she can stay out of trouble.” ------ In only a fraction of the time it would have taken the balloon Rainbow arrived at her destination. A massive volcano, with smoke billowing from the top, stood out from the dry barren ground like a pimple on a teenage ponies face. The smoke was extremely thick, forcing the young acrobat to fly lower in order to avoid suffocating from it and even so soot continued to fall into her mane. As she circled around to get a better view she found she couldn't see anything through the acrid smoke, though she could feel the temperature rise as she came closer to the gaping mouth. What she did see was a large camp at the base of the volcano, encircling it. Water Nation flags billowed in the wind and streams surrounded the entirety of the camp, the only apparent water for miles. Even as high as she was a multitude of ponies could be seen, hundreds possibly. But none seemed willing to go any farther up than the borders of their camp, not that she blamed them. The side of the volcano was punctuated with tunnels leading deeper into the natural furnace but, despite her hawk like eyes scanning, she saw nothing dragon related. She circled the edge a few more times before landing. Despite the thick smoke it wasn't nearly as hot as she thought it would be. Unfortunately, there was no way she could see anything through the thick smoke, no matter how she narrowed her eyes to keep the smoke out. Letting out an annoyed grunt she planted both her hooves firmly on the ground before flapping her wings rapidly, sending powerful gusts of wind into the opening. The thick smoke was scattered, revealing the mesa below. There was no lava, magma or even a little flame. Instead there was a flat surface, filled with large tunnels that the smog billowed out from. A bit of movement caught her eye as she turned to the right, something small and purple disappearing down the tunnels. She took a step forward to investigate when a sudden shout caught her attention. Rainbow jumped to the right as a rope of water narrowly missed her. Whipping her head around she saw a number of unicorns standing over one of the pools of water, a long tentacle forming between them. Only stopping for a second to make a face at the water benders the pegasus quickly took off into the sky. By the time the tentacle was ready to try a second time she was already gone, hidden by the smoke and darting away at full speed. Returning to the balloon was a far longer trip than she expected as, without her stellar guidance and control, the balloon had floated off course a bit. She landed on the edge of the basket dramatically and quickly shook the soot out. A large grin was plastered on her face as she started, “There are sooo many Water Nation ponies there. We're gonna have to kick sooooo much flank! This is going to be soooooooo awesome!” the pegasus said as she reached her hooves up to squish her face in preparation of the truly awesome fight that was totally going to happen and not be ruined by some pony who was a spoil sport. “K-kick flank?” Fluttershy asked fearfully. “W-we're going to have to fight? But... but...” “No no, I'm sure there will be no need for fighting. We still have our disguises and we can just land near the top and try to find the dragon from there,” Twilight assured the jumpy pegasus as Rainbow felt all the awesome slowly draining away into a pool of regret, common sense, and, ugh, non confrontational actions. There was only one chance left! She had to attempt it, if for no other reason than awesome! “There's a problem with that. The volcano is shooting out a lot of smoke. I didn't see any lava or stuff, but the ponies there are really freaked about it. They tried to even catch me when they saw me up there but no pony was willing to come up near the top where I was.” “Oh, then it's simple then,” Twilight said as the pegasus mentally cheered, “We'll just land on the top, find the dragon, and leave without any bother.” “... Did you miss the part about super thick smoke? I'm talking can't breathe, mane is turned black and can't see your hoof in front of your face thick. How do you aim to get through that?” “Oh, relax. I'm a fire bender, remember? I can deal with one little volcano,” the unicorn said quickly, her voice brimming with confidence. “The thing that worries me most is the dragon, but I'm sure it'll be friendly.” There was a sudden squeak from the back of the basket. The ponies turned to see Fluttershy huddled up in one of the corners, her entire body shaking. “I-I think it would be b-best for every pony i-if I just stayed here and g-guard the balloon when we landed. F-for safety. In case anything happens.” “Guard the balloon? Why would we need to... Oh,” Twilight said softly as realization dawned on her, “I see. You do have a point. If we land there and started exploring, even with our disguises, they might start getting suspicious and try to investigate. Leaving you alone to guard would be dangerous though, we should... Rainbow! Could you bring up some cloud cover? Maybe if we hide the balloon as we go in no pony will notice and we won't have any problems.” “Clouds? Are you kidding? I could do that in my sleep,” the pegasus boasted as she took off again, shaking the basket with her take off. She flew around as a blur, grabbing pieces of clouds and attaching them to the balloon, until the entire vehicle looked like a massive awkwardly shaped cloud. Through the poofy cover the avatar could make out the pillar of black smoke off in the distance. Within a few more minutes the unicorn could see the Water Nation camps encircling the volcano and she rubbed her chin with her hoof, plotting. “Hey Rainbow. If we went through the smoke do you think you could use your bending to try and make an air pocket for us? If you do that we can just fly through it and land in the volcano, they'll never know we were here.” “You want to land IN a volcano?! That's suicide! Awesome!” Rainbow said as she began to stretch her wings. “It'll be safe, really! I have my fire bending if there's any problems! Besides, we have to go inside it anyway. Would you rather we go around and have to fight all tho... Nevermind. Just try to make the air bubble, please,” Twilight mumbled as she put a hoof to her face and shook her head. “Fiiiiine. But if this doesn't work, we do things my way,” Rainbow grumbled as she dropped into the basket. Firmly planting her hooves down she began to flap her wings are hard as she could, sending powerful gusts of wind outward. At first the wind shot out until slowly it began to pull back and swirl around the balloon, catching the clouds and creating a miniature cyclone around the balloon as they approached the smoke. The other ponies were forced to hold onto the supplies, lest they be scattered by the fierce winds, but it did manage to keep the smoke out and keep their air in. The balloon continued through the dark smoke slowly but as the heat rose the bottom of the basket dipped out from the smoke for a moment. “W-what's going on?!” Rainbow asked as she panted and tried to wipe some sweat from her brow, struggling to keep her wings flapping and the powerful winds churning around them. Twilight reached her hoof up and sent flames into the balloon as it flew back up. “I didn't think about this! As it gets hotter the air inside the balloon will need to be more so or it will sink! Don't worry, I've got it handled!” she yelled as she struggled to send bursts of flames through the powerful winds. Despite her efforts the ponies could feel the balloon slowly sinking lower and lower. Not willing to give up the pony held out both hooves and sent a powerful stream of flames into the balloon before there was a sudden jerk and her flames stopped. “O-oh no. Every pony hold on! This isn't going to be-” her words were cut off as the balloon stopped descending slowly and instead began hurtling towards the ground below at break neck speeds. Popping out of the smoke a large hole could be seen at the top of the balloon, burned in from the powerful flames. The basket landed, hard, on the lip of the volcano before tipping over and spilling both itself and its contents all across the flat inner surface of the volcano. Rainbow was the first to manage to pull herself out from under the now useless balloon and she quickly flapped her wings once, dispelling some of the smoke around them. “Every pony okay? What happened?” “I used to much fire and burned a hole in the fabric,” Twilight said with a sigh as she pulled herself out from the wreckage, the others soon following. Together they began to gather their supplies while making sure to keep their heads low and under the smoke as best they could. “Huh, that's strange,” the avatar mumbled as she kicked the ground. “W-what's wrong?” Fluttershy asked with a frightened squeak as she glanced around nervously. “While it is hot in here I would imagine an active volcano to be much hotter,” Twilight said as she held a hoof under her chin in thought, “but if it's not active then where is all this smoke coming from?” Something caught her eye and as she whipped her head around she caught sight of something purple disappearing into one of the caverns. “There's something here! It just went into the tunnels! Quick, after it girls!” she yelled as she charged forward, with Pinkie and Rainbow following close behind. Coughing and sputtering the trio made their way into the cavern, the smoke burning their eyes and making it difficult to see. The fire bender made a small flame from her horn to light the way, but sadly it was unable to travel far with all the interference. Fortunately she did catch a small glimpse of the purple thing as it ran ahead, “This way, come on!” she yelled as they ran through the tunnels, barely able to keep it within sight as it tried to escape. Finally getting fed up with the chase the pegasus let out a frustrated growl. “This is getting us nowhere! Hold on!” Rainbow yelled as she spread out her wings and took off, flying through the small tunnels at breakneck speeds. Her powerful gusts shoved the others into the wall as she turned the area into a wind tunnel. Fortunately her burst in speed allowed her to catch up to their prey as she charged into the thing's back and sent both of them rolling, quickly coming up on top and pinning it down. “Hah! Gotcha! I am the awesomest! Hurry up you two slow pokes!” she called back to the others. Twilight and Pinkie, manes puffed up and curled from the fierce winds, quickly got to their hooves and ran towards their friend and her pinned captive. Keeping her horn low the unicorn slowly shed light on their mysterious target. Squirming under the pegasus's hooves was the last thing she expected to see. A very small purple dragon with green spikes. It seemed to be trying to speak but having its face shoved in the ground made it difficult. “Is this the dragon you were talking about? He doesn't really look that tough,” Rainbow said as she kept her wings flapping in an attempt to keep the smoke at bay, though it also made maintaining the unicorn's flame difficult. “I don't think so. The one I dreamed about was much... bigger. Let his head up but don't let him go,” Twilight said as she moved in a bit closer. Slowly the pegasus moved her hooves off his head and down to his body, making sure to keep him securely pinned. Almost instantly the dragon's head whipped up and glared at them. “Get out of here! I don't know who you are but you're invading my den! I won't stand for it! I'm a dr-” he was cut off as the athletic pony put him in a head lock. “Listen buddy,” Rainbow warned, “this girl here is the Avatar. You're going to answer her questions and be polite, or you answer to me. You got that?” she threatened. “O-okay! I got it! Ow! L-let me go! I'll answer what you want! Stooooop!” the dragon shrieked as his little claws clutched the leg around his head, small tears forming in his eyes from the pain. “Very good. Now is there anywhere a bit less smokey around here, dragon?” “D-down the tunnel, t-to the right,” the dragon said quickly before more pressure could be applied to the head lock. The three slowly proceeded, the prisoner being dragged along by his mighty captor. They soon entered a small, gem filled chamber that was almost devoid of smoke, though still quite hot and stuffy. The rubies, topazs, diamonds and other precious gemstones glittered from the avatar's small fire light. “Okay then, first things first! My name is Twilight Sparkle, the pony holding you so tightly is Rainbow Dash, my hopping friend here is Pinkie Pie, and... hey, where's Fluttershy?” the unicorn asked as she looked around. “Oh, she stopped at the tunnel entrance when we ran off!” the earth pony said as she hopped around the glittering cavern. “Why didn't you make her... not stop if you saw her?” “What? And miss this awesome game of tag? Are you crazy?” “...” Twilight just face hooved and shook her head. She didn't know why she even tried. “Just... please-” “Go get her? Okey dokey lokey!” Pinkie said with a giggle as she hopped off back the way they came. “Well, anyway. Moving on. You now know our names, now what's yours?” the avatar asked as she looked back at the annoyed dragon. “Huh? It's Spike! Now let me go!” the dragon growled as he tried to yank free from Rainbow's grasp, but a sudden squeeze made him whimper and quickly abandon his plan. “Okay. I think that's enough. I don't think he plans to run away and even if he does, there is only one exit from here.” With a less than dignified squeak the dragon was dropped to the ground. “Now as my companion has stated, I am indeed the avatar. I have come searching for a great dragon thanks to a dream and... I... why are you glaring at me?” “You're the avatar? Why in the world should I do anything to help you? It's because of you being lazy for the last hundred years that us dragons have been disappearing and forced to hide. We're hunted down like animals thanks to you! Why should I care two pegasus feathers about anything you want?” Spike snapped as he narrowed his eyes at her angrily. “I... I didn't mean to disappear! I mean, I was trapped, I only just got out. I'm here now! I'm going to make everything better...” Twilight mumbled pathetically as she glanced at the ground, her confidence draining in response to the young dragons rage. “I never wanted to disappear...” “Well you did! It's thanks to you disappearing that I've been stuck here my entire life!” Spike yelled moments before letting out another pained squeak as Rainbow pinned him again. “Hey buddy, she said she's sorry. Now stop rubbing it in. She's been working her flank off to try and set everything right so she doesn't need some smart mouthed little dragon going out of his way to make her feel guilty. Now, are you going to help us or what,” the pegasus snapped, despite her wording her tone made it clear she wasn't asking a question. That and the painful hoof she was shoving into the poor dragon. “Yes! I'll help!” the little dragon shrieked as tears went down his face. “What do you want to know?!” “Rainbow, stop! You're hurting him!” Twilight snapped, shaking her head as the pegasus finally relented. “Are you okay? I'm really sorry about my friend, she can be a bit over zealous. Now, the reason I'm here is simple. I had a dream recently and am searching for the Great Dragon. I don't suppose you know him? Or, possibly, are him?” she asked softly as she gazed down at the tiny creature. “The great dragon?” Spike asked with a shiver, “You don't want to meet him. Trust me. He's not very nice to ponies, or other dragons for that manner. He's also really arrogant, chose the name himself. You'd be better off just running away.” “We have too, we don't have any choice!” the avatar said as she stomped her hoof down, “The fate of the entire world depends on it! You have to take us to him!” “Not a chance,” the dragon said with a smirk, moments before Rainbow jumped at him. “I'll do it! I'll do it! O-oww! S-stop! I said I'd do it!” he shrieked as the pegasus smirked in satisfaction, having not even touched him yet. “Found her!” Pinkie called as she hopped into the cavern, pushing a terrified and cowering Fluttershy. “Fluttershy, what's wrong?” Twilight asked as she stared at her friend quizzically. “I... I... n-nothing,” the mare said as she shook her head and stared at the ground in shame. “Okay?” the unicorn said with a shrug before turning back to Spike. “Okay then! Lead the way, Spike.” The dragon let out a hmph before pulling away from the blue pegasus and walking back through the smokey tunnels. Occasionally he would glance back at his followers but each time he would quickly turn back ahead, not wishing to face the wrath of the blue one. Despite the heavy smoke they slowly made their way to a large open tunnel, decorated with the occasional glittering jewels and spacious enough so the smoke floated up to the top and out of their manes with plenty of smaller side tunnels to go through. The dragon took a deep, nervous breath as they slowly headed down the large tunnel until they came to a massive opening and the point of their destination. A chamber, easily bigger than the entirety of Ponyville, opened before them. A bed of thousands of gems covered the floor, each glittering from the flame from the large inhabitant on top of them, which occasionally would spit out a small burst of fire. A massive red dragon. Its teeth alone were likely bigger than the four ponies that stood before it and from its nostrils barreled thick black smoke, the very smoke that billowed out into the world above. “You're on your own from here! Good luck!” Spike called out as he turned to run back the way they came. Rainbow was too busy staring in awe to even notice or attempt to stop the little purple dragon. “O-okay girls. Let's go talk to a dragon,” Twilight said as she took a step forward, the others following behind. All except for Fluttershy, who was hiding in a nearby smaller tunnel that branched off from the larger one. “Ummm, Fluttershy? Are you coming?” “No, I'll just wait here. Make sure nothing happens to the tunnel and Spike. See? He's a baby dragon s-so he can't be left all alone, i-it's not safe,” Fluttershy said with a big fake grin as she motioned down the tunnel to where the small dragon was hiding, having dug himself into the wall. “Come on Fluttershy, he'll be fine. Besides, once I explain I'm the avatar I'm sure the Great Dragon will listen. You should co-” “I can't!” she shrieked before diving to hide behind a small rock, frightened by one of the dragon's snores. “I-I just can't! It's a huge, gigantic, terrifying, enormous, teeth-gnashing, sharp-scale having, horn-wearing, smoke-snoring, could eat a pony in one bite, totally all grown up dragon!” she wailed pitifully. “I just... I just can't...” she said one last time before hanging her head in shame. “I'm sorry...” Twilight sighed before looking away from her cowering friend. “No Fluttershy, I'm sorry. I never should have asked any of you to come here with me. This is my duty, not yours. You two as well, thank you but she's right. This is none of your problem, I'll do it on my own,” the unicorn said as she turned and took a nervous step towards the massive dragon. Rainbow followed behind her and rolled her eyes, “As if I would let you mess with a dragon without me. That would be so uncool,” she said with a cocky grin. “Yeah! Besides, this'll be fun! I've never met a dragon before so we can have a nice to meet you, first time I've met your species, and we're going to save the world party all at once!” Pinkie said as she happily hopped along. As the three slowly walked towards the dragon they couldn't help but feel that it was getting bigger and bigger with each step. Its scales seemed to glimmer in the small bit of light and every few exhalations small spurts of flame would shoot from its mouth and coat the chamber in shadows. Even with the dim light they could tell the beast was far bigger than anything they had dealt with before and, despite having encountered some before, the creature made Twilight's hooves sweaty as she slowly made her way to it. “HELLO!” she called out and a second later one of its eyes opened. “My name is Twilight Sparkle and I- EEK!” the mare shrieked as the dragon blew out a large burst of hot air and sent the three rolling backwards. The avatar groaned softly and slowly untangled herself from her friends before looking up at the dragon. It had moved around so its back was to them, apparently in an attempt to ignore them. “Okay, let's try this again,” the purple mare said as she galloped around the dragon's gargantuan form and came back to look it in the eye. “Dragon! My name is Twilight Sparkle and I am AHHHH!” she yelled and jumped back as its tail came crashing down in front of her, a few mere feet from crushing her. “Oh that is it! I've had it!” Rainbow yelled as she took to the air and flew in front of the dragon's face. “Hey! You! Scale head! Listen! Up!” She turned around and bucked out, her hooves slamming into the large reptile's snout and jarring its head back. Its eyes opened as it stared at the little blue pony with a mix of sleepy annoyance, confusion and rage. As the drowsiness began to leak away the dragon lifted its head and let out a soft growl followed by a mighty roar that made the walls shake. “Err, s-sorry?” Rainbow said softly as she stared up at the pissed off creature with an apologetic grin. It didn't seem satisfied with the apology as its massive wings spread out, sending a powerful wind gale through the chamber. The fierce and sudden torrent sent all three ponies hurtling back into the walls as the beast slowly stretched before turning back to the pegasus. Flames flicked out from its lips as it gazed down at the cringing blue pegasus. It opened its maw as fire hot enough to melt stone shot out at the mare. “Rainbow!” Twilight screamed as she watched her friend's near end. To her relief the pegasus took off like a bolt moments before the flames struck her. The dragon didn't give up, however, and as she flew around the chamber the fire spewing beast continued its burning pursuit, creating dark black lines across the wall as their friend struggled to avoid her demise. The dragon's claw suddenly whipped out and sent the little blue pegasus hurtling into the ground, making her crash with a pained cry. The beast towered over her, flames flicking out from between its lips as Twilight watched in horror. “NO!” she screamed! Then the dragon stopped, frozen in place. For a moment the avatar thought it was her words that stopped it, but a voice soon echoed through the chamber. “Listen here mister, just because you're big doesn't mean you get to be a bully!” The ponies stared in disbelief at Fluttershy. The yellow pegasus was standing on the snout of the dragon, staring into one of its eyes that were larger than her. What was she doing?! She was going to get herself killed! “You may have huge teeth and sharp scales and breathe fire. But you do not-- I repeat-- You do not! Hurt! My! Friends! You got that?!” The dragon made a soft whimpering sound as Fluttershy got up as close as she could and glared into the creature's eye, her own eye mere centimeter's from his. “Well?!” she snapped with such fury even Twilight felt the unnatural urge to apologize. “But... that rainbow one kicked me,” the large reptile said in a soft fearful voice, as Rainbow merely nodded proudly. “And I'm very sorry for that. But you're much, much bigger than her and you should know better. You should also be nicer when ponies visit you and not ignore them like that.” “But I-” “Don't you 'But I' me, mister. Now what do you have to say for yourself?” she waited a second before repeating. “I said, what do you have to say for yourself?!” she snapped as she glared into the dragon's eye with such ferocity even Rainbow felt bad for the poor lizard. “I'm sorry...” the dragon said contritely as it lowered its gaze. It took all its will power to avoid bursting into tears as the pegasus kept staring at him. Finally she let out a sigh and patted his snout, freeing him from that terrible gaze. “What brings you to my lair?” “There. Now that's a good dragon. Now my friend, the avatar, has come a long way to find you,” she said as she motioned towards Twilight, who slowly raised a hoof and waved. The dragon straightened its back as it glanced down at the purple pony. He stood at his full height, wings folding across his back, as he attempted to put on an air of power and authority. He then nervously glanced towards the yellow mare. “Get o... I mean, please get off my face,” he grumbled softly, to which the pegasus complied. “The avatar... I have been waiting many, many years for your return. Come closer, there is much we must discuss and even more you must be shown.” Slowly the ponies moved forward to stand before the creature. The time had finally come.