//------------------------------// // Chapter 29 // Story: Six wishes for six elements // by Malcolm Merlyn //------------------------------// "WHAT'S HAPPENED TO SPIKE?!" Rarity screamed over the din as the big purple dragon began to breathe fire all over the town, scorching down entire buildings and sending ponies running in all directions. "He just turned huge!" Applejack screamed back as Spike sent a typhoon of fire that turned a wooden house into ash in ten seconds flat. "What's gotten into him?!" "SPIKE!" Twilight screamed over the din. "What are you doing?!" No answer. Only a mindless, senseless roar of an animal in uncontrollable rage. Spike was beyond her then as he sent another wave of fire down that would have consumed Twilight had she not gotten out of the way just in time. "Spike... okay... you... I am sorry..." She said to herself as she charged up her horn. The blast flew straight towards at Spike's face, hitting him right between the eyes. He didn't even blink, only turned towards Twilight. If he'd been mad before, he was now even madder (which had actually struck many witnesses as impossible until this moment). The dragon opened it's mouth once again to say the words. The words that were only replaced with a pained grunt as a spinning shield struck him right in the face. The dragon turned a moment to face his attacker, only to get shot twice in the face again, causing him to roar in senseless anger. Steve threw himself down as he retrieved his shield, the scorching flames missing him by less than a hair as they flew right above him. His cover, a large rock had it's entire frontal area turned into an angry red, anymore and it may not have been surprising to anyone if it melted. He was in a bad spot when he heard the massive footfalls that got closer and closer. He couldn't really run, his shield wouldn't be able to provide the ample protection. He could hope for the fact that Armin was already in... Another pained grunt, but this time, the heavy gunfire indicated that it was something else. A quick scan would reveal Jim approaching quickly, firing his C-14 rifle in at Spike, intent on filling the dragon with lead. "Please... don't kill him!" Twilight cried over the sounds of gunfire as Jim hid behind a building. "You crazy?! He's going to make us all into barbeque if we don't!" Jim replied as he shot a few more rounds at Spike, the dragon sending another wave of fire down at them. "He's my friend... please... just... do something... anything... but don't kill him! Okay!" "I'll see what we can do then..." A voice replied from behind her. Slade's. This wouldn't be good. "Wha...you... how...." "Nothing to it." Slade said as he grabbed his staff and took a scan of the area. He spied Armin on the top of one of the buildings, ready to strike with his swords. Looks like he didn't get the.... Spike's tail went straight into the building, knocking Armin straight off. Oh brother. It didn't help the fact that Armin had ended up stabbing Spike in the tail, doing no real harm in the process and only pissing Spike off to the point where he diverted his attention to Armin. "Idiot deserves what's coming..." Slade muttered underneath his breath as he saw the dragon about to go upon Armin. The only thing that saved him from getting chewed up was a well placed sniper rifle bullet on Slade's part and a bit of machine gun fire on Raynor's part. "Sanya..." Slade said as he went next to the girl. "Do you have a weapon?" "Umm... no..." Sanya replied sheepishly as she watched Armin run away from getting Spike. "I can..." "Doesn't matter for now... take this..." Slade said as he handed her the grenade launcher. "Hope you can point it the right way at least.... give me a distraction..." "Wait... why me?" "Just pull a magic trick, and I'll pull one of mine, okay?" Leaning over, he whispered a few directions in her ear. "Okay then..." Sanya said as she found a good place... It actually was a pretty awful place, to put this into perspective, the blast ended up knocking her straight for a few feet, anyone else besides Raynor who happened to have been in a 15 foot radius had a similar conundrum as they were launched several feet back. Evidently, it had been extra, extra high yield grenades that Slade had been using. Surprisingly, the blast hadn't killed Spike. Only stunned him. Had Sanya been aiming for Spike, it would have been easy to say that he would have been ripped in two. This was all Slade needed, from the smoke a figure in black and orange jumped off a building, landing on the dragons head. Grabbing a strange canister, he slapped it straight onto the dragon, a mysterious orange gas filling Spike's nostrils. Slowly, his actions began to die down as he lost consciousness. "And that's how you do it." Slade said as he jumped off the unconscious dragon. "Nobody hurt?" "You have at least told us there would be a blast that big." Cap said as he got up. His body had left a massive imprint in the ground. "Why didn't you anyways?! You wanted people to die or something?" "No one died. This thing tactical vision confirms that, but as of now, there would be no way in hell anyone was willing to fire that thing if I told them about the size of the explosion." Slade said as he passed the ponies who had their mouths agape in surprise. "Alright then... so... what do we do now?" "Is... it over?" Armin asked as he poked his head out from behind cover. His mistake as Slade grabbed him by the collar, the mercenary who had been somewhat good humored in the last second just turned dead serious. "Where the hell were you this time? Hiding to save yourself from what we were throwing our skins in front of?!" Slade snarled as he gripped Armin tightly, partially intent on choking the life from him. "Uh...uh...eh..." Knowing that everyone was watching, he leaned close to Armin's ear, every word meaning it. "Listen kid... I am a master of accidents... if you compromise ANYONE, ANYONE or if are something worse... if you are a coward.... if you contribute nothing... if you are nothing but a ball and chain... then I will kill you... do you understand me?" Armin nodded, though... what did he do again? Except for I don't know.... NOT GET BURNED ALIVE?! Throwing the boy down, Slade turned back to Twilight, who MIGHT of had an idea on how to change Spike back to his original size and temperament. From the distance, a lone dragon flew overhead, perhaps rather surprised at how these creatures performed and having witnessed firsthand. Perhaps they were truly indeed a threat to him. Should he attack now while they were weary and licking their wounds? Probably not. He was in a bad position and if he came down on them, they'd spot them quickly. No, some other time. The dragon king looked at the sight again, and flew back to his mountain where he would plan his next schemes.