//------------------------------// // The Mission // Story: The Fall // by Dr Poxx //------------------------------// The mission was quite clear cut, 3 dragons had fled to Star Screams Burrows after killing 30 civilian ponies in the neighboring town of Trotsville. The ponies didn’t stand a chance in that back water town lacking current technology and spells. This information is given so anyone who might pity their prey thinks otherwise. The only thought I had upon hearing it was “Why are they so unprotected? They live right on the boundary of the war.” Soon after I think that protecting every pony is an unreasonable thing so we must maximize efforts to save/ protect the cities with more ponies in them. I shook myself from these thoughts I can no longer waste time thinking of frivolous things. It’s time for me to get to work and prove that I am not a General for nothing. As soon as the briefing finished a dark pony with a crescent mark on its side. She stumbled over her words “C-C-Celest are you s-s-sure about going out ... to fight these dragons? I don’t want to lose you to those savages please don’t leave me here alone.” Celest, the Violet eyed one, gave a sad look that showed she was going to go anyways but I spoke to the dark one. I said “You are not alone in this tower. And if it is that important to you I’ll give you my word that she won’t die on this run but in exchange you can’t cry. Deal?” she looked extremely frightened of me but simply nodded her head. I can understand her fear because I was suited up in some custom armor employing some of the newest technology. As it stands I look like one of the demonic ponies from ancient stories and legends. If she knew these tales she wouldn’t have made the deal so readily. Because if you broke a promise with a demonic pony, it got to carve you out of your body and take it for itself to live your life and ruin it. All systems are running, Check, allies both have flight one has magic, check, cool sweet awesome it is just so great to know nothing other than they are 3 dragons who fled to a dark shrouded plain like area. One by one we stepped through the portal. I was first and after every one was through I told hawk to keep an eye on the Alicorn I will scout ahead and see if I can’t kill one now. Before I could continue Celest broke in “I am not Here to be protected AND I am not called Alicorn my name is Celestia, and I am more powerful than you so don’t simply think you can just simply tell me to stay put here.” I replied “I am the General here and though I am not charge of this mission I am a higher rank than you otherwise we would have been notified by Star Swirl. Also you are not going to be SIMPLY sitting here if you don’t want to. You can sit as complex as you would like while I scout and possibly kill ONE you will have your chance on the other two but if it is alone I will strike it down if not I will return with their location if it takes longer than an hour set up camp and get ready. Try to stay on guard. Hawk I need you to fly up to about 3,000 ft every 30 minutes and look to see if the dragons took flight. If we find nothing after 3 days we pack up and leave.” as I wrapped up with my instructions the mare had more to say but I wasn’t going to listen and added “If you follow me or break the rules Hawk will notify Star Swirl and forcibly remove you. Is that clear?” “Yes General but know you have angered the wrong Mare today.” she said with a lot of attitude. The kind of attitude only females can manage to achieve but enough of that. I gave a final look to Hawk and saw that she understood everything and booked it through the brush until I reached the Burrows. Funny thing is there are not any burrows here it’s just a flat plain, but the grass here is tall about 6-8 feet tall but I saw some high ground in the distance and from there I could spot and disturbances that pushed the grass down. Like sleeping dragons, or running dragons, or anything to do with dragons in general. As I got closer to the hill I caught a whiff of musk on the air. This tells me that there is an old dragon, at least a hundred years, nearby. This put me on edge because that hill has starting to pulsate along with the sound of heavy breathing. As soon as I realized that hill was a dragon I started to circle round till I saw its face. Woo doggy that is one big face, it is bigger than I am but that’s normal. I pulled out my most useful tool of the trade, My syringe. The cartridge was already loaded with a chemical especially designed to kill a dragon as quickly and quietly as possible. The only thing about it is that it needs to be injected in the heart throat or tail. The throat is the easiest one for me to do. I just got to find that sweet spot and shove it right in. That injection shuts down the brain of the dragon leaving the body as intact as possible for dissection. Better mark this as my kill to. A simple liquid marker does the trick, now to find its sweet spot. There, a few feet above the collar bone is a discoloration spot, that’s where the scales are spread apart and now to jam it in. 3 … 2 … 1 … A slight puncture sound is all that rings through the air. The dragon’s size is its greatest weakness because they are quite insensitive to things of this size. It takes 30 minutes to take full effect but the first part will keep it knocked out near comatose. I Take advantage of that I slip my syringe back into its pocket and creep up the side of the dragon. It takes a few minutes to get up it because it its scales are so slippery. Wait something is off here if this truly was an old dragon it wouldn’t have left itself so defenseless. As I reached the top of the defeated dragon I realized what just happened. I screwed up big time. They were all old dragons but the one I was standing was the gravel class and since gravel class can’t fly they are the easiest to spot and finish when they are asleep. They were the perfect bait and I fell for it hook, line and sinker. As quickly as I could I dived back to the ground because those dragons were likely ruby or higher class. Son of a… That damn mare didn’t listen to a word I said. She was coming right to my mound but her face seemed shocked and horrified. Behind her Hawks flares went up. That decided it. I broke from any form of cover and went full tilt back to camp as I passed the mare she simply followed suit. The closer we got to the flare the louder the shrieks were. Please just be female dragons. After spotting one of the dragons flying up above I quickly worked to identify it. I was right it was definitely ruby class. “Quick set your armor in defense!” I said feeling the worry leek from my words like a wet rag. She was taking too long I had to do it myself. How is she even here she can’t even work private level armor. It was at this point Hawk fell through the light. Her white and black feathers were dripping a lot of red. I got my hoofs maximized. My armor was customized with pneumatic pumps that shot 3 foot blades out whenever I punched something in purple mode. They activate my stabilizers so that I can fight on two legs. Now I was throwing caution to the wind I needed to catch Hawk now or she would die from impact. MOVE LEGS MOVE. Just a few more feet away come on I was too slow to get there. I couldn’t catch her. At that point I spun around and saw the unlucky victims now. One ruby the other opal but both were going to die. My mistake was thinking that these dragons were smart. They flew full speed straight at me. Before they got to me I stood up and clopped my front legs together. 2 blades, one on each leg, popped out to greet them. The opal dragon turned just out of my slash radius, missed his wings by 3 inches. The ruby however stayed on course. Hahaha I could only laugh as I felt the sinew muscles tendons and three of its vital organs get butchered by his own momentum. While it was wailing on the ground I relocated my shoulder. A quick scan showed me that the Opal ran off. But I could track it now. That thought gave me comfort as I went over to mark this dragon. As I approached the dragon it hacked and coughed blood everywhere. It was muttering something looking at its wing. I sloshed out my marker on its wound, face and tail. “Damn you ponies! DAMN YOU TO HELL! MY KIND WILL FINISH YOU AND YOUR PETTY TRICKS.” It spewed unexpectedly clearly so before I replied I decapitated it. No sense talking to a dead dragon anyways but I added right before the slash “These aren’t tricks they are modern marvels of science.” With a sickening crack and a sound of cutting through rotten vegetables my second mark was finished. “Modern marvels… really that was the best you could come up with pox really?” A familiar voice cooed out. I looked back and the Hawk was beaten up as hell. “Where is all that flying prowess you bragged the griffons had?” I teased her. To that she didn’t reply she just sunk down and stared at the ground. I called for a portal said we had an injured griffon and a pony that couldn’t work her armor. Star Swirl obliged and added 2 to my queue for the month. He informed me that all ponies didn’t have a weekly queue anymore too many rushed to death to make it so now it’s a shared collective on mission kills marks were not used and there would be a minimum of 12 ponies to a mission. All this shocked me but I said I had to finish mine to which I was denied. I then went over to hawk and asked if she wanted me to go grab Twilight. “Sure I could use an old flight buddy now. Well, see you at the hospital.” She forced out. The damage she took could end her flying days for good. We weren’t close but it still made me angry that that opal got away from me. Next mission is going to be different. Because next mission I am going to be in charge.