//------------------------------// // Back From the Dead // Story: How To Ponify Your Dragon // by Onomonopia //------------------------------// Astrid gently knocked against the crystal door three times, waiting for a full minute in silence before trying again. She knew that Hiccup was in there, she could hear the scratches of his pencil against the parchment, but aside from Toothless, he had refused to speak to anypony for the rest of the night. "Hiccup," Astrid spoke softly to the door as she leaned against it, hearing the scribbling stop as she spoke. "I know that you're upset over what happened...I was like that just yesterday as well...but we have bigger problems to focus on. Wijida is free and she's got the Draconis Gem, which can only mean that she's going to be heading to the land of the decayed. Celestia told us that we don't have much time, but first I want to-" Astrid's words were silenced when she heard a scratching sound followed by the door swinging open so suddenly, that she had to steady herself to keep from falling over. She entered into the room as Toothless moved out of the way, to see Hiccup sitting at a desk with a large amount of crumpled up paper around him and anything but guilt in his eyes. "Hiccup, are you alright?" Astrid asked when she glanced over his shoulder, while he began to furiously scribble in his notebook once again, causing Astrid to silently gasp when she saw he was writing battle plans. "Hiccup, these are...amazing," Astrid whispered when she picked up one of the crumpled papers and read what was on it. "Yeah, but not amazing enough," Hiccup fumed with a rage that Astrid had not heard from him in a while. "I've tried to think of some strategy to defeat Wijida, but with her countless abilities and sure-to-be dragon allies, I can't figure out a way to defeat her before she resurrects Thanatos." "You...know how she plans to resurrect Thanatos?" "I asked Celestia last night after...well, you know, and she told me what Wijida would have to do," Hiccup clarified as he rose to his feet while picking up the book as well, glancing over his most recent plan with a frown. "But we've only got a few more hours until we should head out, which only gives me a few more hours to think up a plan." "And none of these crumpled ideas have the plan you're looking for?" Astrid asked while motioning to the dozens of pieces of paper that were strewn around the room. When Hiccup remained focused on his work, Astrid let out a sigh before walking over to him and placing a hand on his shoulder. "Before we do this, I want to make sure that you're alright," she whispered, getting a look of curiosity from Hiccup. "What do you mean, 'alright'?" "I mean, with Zardon sacrificing himself to stop his brother and to save you...so soon after the death of your father..." Astrid began, but Hiccup cut her off by placing his hand overtop hers with a serious expression. "I am upset over what happened, but we can't focus on that right now," Hiccup whispered before his eyes set like flint. "Besides, it's just like my Dad used to say, 'There will be time for mourning after the battle.' Now come on Astrid, we've still got time to-" Whatever Hiccup was going to say was scattered to the winds when the door to the room swung open and Twilight ran inside, skidding to a stop when she saw both riders were there. "It's time to head out. Celestia and Luna informed me that the ceremony that is required to bring back Thanatos is somehow starting early." The two riders' eyes widened in shock, but a moment later they were surrounded by Twilight's magic. One teleportation spell later they found themselves standing on the outskirts of Ponyville with the other ponies and Stormfly. "I am glad that you found them so quickly, Twilight, because we do not have much time left," Celestia spoke with urgency as she looked off into the distance, where the others followed her gaze to find that a circle of an ominous green light was starting to swirl into the sky. "I do not know how, but somehow Wijida is starting the ritual ahead of when it should be possible. We must move now if we are to hope to beat her!" "If all of you would kindly link arms or hooves with one another, my sister and I will use our powers to teleport us there as quickly as we can," Luna instructed without any room for disagreement, waiting for a moment until all hooves or hands were linked, before both Luna's and Celestia's horns began to glow, surrounding all with a divine light of both sun and moon. Another flash of light later found the group standing in a barren wasteland that was completely covered by shadow, a shadow that was caused by the massive swirl of green magic that blocked out the sun. "We are here: The Land of the Decayed." All sets of eyes gazed across the land on which they found themselves standing, to see hundreds of skeletons that all seemed to come from massive monsters, many of which had numerous scythe-like hands or razor-like wings. But despite the terrifying bones that littered the land, all eyes eventually rested upon a massive stone structure that towered over the whole landscape from the top of a giant cliff, a tower where the green column of magic was ascending into the sky. And at the top of the tower stood a pony that they each knew all too well. "Greetings, my friends! According to my visions of the future, you are all a minute later than I saw you to be. That means today is off to an excellent start!" Wijida called down to them with a laugh before looking at the Draconis Gem that floated before her and muttered a few more of the ancient words. "Wijida, this ends today!" Twilight began, but the moment she started speaking, Wijida let out an exasperated sigh. "Today is the day-" "Skip the speech, Twilight, and let me just cut right to the chase," Wijida interrupted as she looked back down at the group. "The resurrection of Thanatos is nearly complete and when it happens, we shall finally all see how this story ends. You don't want me to do that, so you will try to stop me before it does. You won't." "You've been wrong before, so how do you know that you won't be again?!" Astrid roared up at Wijida, who smiled wickedly before letting out a cackling shriek that made all hairs stand on end. "You can't fight us all! Not without any of your backup to stop me and Hiccup!" "Ah, Astrid, you are right. Today will be unlike any day that I've had. Because today something will happen that I cannot see coming," Wijida laughed before smirking at all of the ponies. "But you are wrong in saying that I do not have backup. Because this gem here, while I will be using it to revive Thanatos, will also have enough life left within to fully resurrect any of the lost souls you see here. And I'm sure they all want to be the ones I bring back." The moment she said this the ground around the ponies, dragons and humans began to shake. Twilight and the other princesses threw up a shield around themselves as thousands of bones long thought dead began to combine and take the shape of the beasts they used to be. Fear filled up the mane six and their allies as beasts of terrible power retook their ancient forms, eye sockets glowing with an unholy light as the now six massive monsters turned towards the group with wicked looks. "Here is your offer, beasts long since dead!" Wijida roared to the skeletal titans as they all looked to her for instructions. "Whichever one of you can kill the most ponies will have the honor of being brought back to life with the great destroyer himself, the mighty Thanatos! And speaking of the destroyer..." With those words, a torrent of green magic thundered down from the sky and into the black chasm that rested behind the tower of stone where she stood, filling it with the mighty power of the Draconis Gem. A roar of ancient and bestial power shook the whole of Equestria when the chasm was filled to the brim with ancient magic...before a pair of green eyes opened within the chasm. "It's time for the main attraction to take the stage!" Wijida cackled with delight as shadows wrapped around the ancient bones of a gargantuan dragon that, despite moving slowly, managed to overtake the tower within a few moments with just his head and neck. Wijida then spun around to look at the ponies and dragon riders with a wicked smile while the skeletal titans advanced towards them. "That's my move, Hiccup! I can't wait to see yours! Let's make this finale one that will be remembered for all time!" "Girls. With me," Twilight said in a no-nonsense voice. The other ponies nodded before taking up positions beside her as a rainbow light began to encompass all of them. Then a shockwave of rainbow light erupted from them, revealing the ponies empowered with the very rainbows themselves. Twilight and the others stared down the advancing skeletal monsters for a brief moment before she turned to look at Hiccup. "My friends and I will deal with the skeleton monsters. Luna and Celestia will aid the four of you in battling with Thanatos. Stay strong my friends, because the power of our friendship will defeat this monster." "Alright Twilight, we'll leave you to deal with those things," Hiccup said with a nod before he gestured to Astrid and raced over to Toothless, leaping onto his back while Astrid flipped onto Stormfly's back. With a cry to the heavens, the two dragon riders shot into the sky with the night and day behind the both of them. The skeletal beasts of days past roared with a hollow rage as they reached up to grab the ponies and dragons out of the air, but each was blasted by a different color of the rainbow which turned their attention to the six glowing ponies before them. "Oh, no you don't. You're dealing with us," Twilight whispered in a menacing voice before she and her friends hurled themselves into battle. Meanwhile the riders and princesses launched themselves towards the shadowy, bony dragon that was growing larger and larger, with his wings and shoulders beginning to appear over the edge of the chasm. "Princess, what can we do to put that thing back in its grave?!" Hiccup called over to Celestia, who narrowed her eyes before glancing down at where Wijida was. "If we can cut off the gem's connection to the deceased, we may be able to push him back into the grave before he has enough power to break free!" Celestia suggested, getting a nod from both Hiccup and Astrid as they both turned towards where Wijida was...before a massive column of dark magic in the shape of a claw tore apart the sky around them. The shadowy form of Thanatos let out a silent roar before his other arm dragged itself out of the chasm and swung for the princesses and riders, who had to scatter to avoid being ripped apart by the claws. Tendrils of darkness that erupted from the arms of Thanatos, coils that lunged towards the princesses and riders who barely had enough time to react before the tendrils were upon them. Luna and Celestia tried to fend them off with magic, but they quickly found themselves ensnared in the darkness. Astrid and Stormfly dodged and weaved around the tendrils as best they could, but the Nadder wasn't agile enough to keep dodging and they too quickly found themselves caught within the darkness. Only Toothless was fast enough to dodge and keep dodging, allowing the Night Fury to circle back around and blast the tendrils off of his allies with well aimed plasma bolts. "Is everyone alright?!" Hiccup called out to them as they broke themselves free of the rest of the darkness, each of them nodding to him before Thanatos began to lunge at them with his claws once again. "We cannot get close to her while Thanatos is still there!" Luna called out as she weaved around another claw strike that tore the air around her. "Yet, if we do not get to her we cannot stop Thanatos from rising! How are we supposed to-?!" The answer to her question came when a shrieking sound reached their ears followed by the blast of a plasma bolt to the side of the shadow's head, getting it to silently cry as Toothless whipped by it. "We lead it away from her and then come back to deal with Wijida! Princesses, start firing magic at Thanatos! If he has any memory of the two of you, he's sure to follow after you!" Hiccup called out to the pair of them before motioning for Astrid to come to his side. The princesses nodded before they faced the monstrosity and began to unleash their power of the sun and moon upon the dragon, who opened his maw to roar with silence before he began to chase after the pair of them. "What do you need me to do, Hiccup?!" Astrid called over the sounds of the princesses unleashing their magic, along with the blasts of rainbow light that erupted from the battle going on down below. Hiccup glanced over at Thanatos before scanning where Wijida was, almost as if he were coming to a decision. "I want you helping the princesses fend off Thanatos' shadow from up here," he ordered, ignoring the look of surprise that spread across Astrid's face. "I'm going to go down there to deal with Wijida. If any of us have the best chance of getting that gem from her, it's me." "Are you crazy?! Not only is she too much to deal with on your own, the princesses won't be able to beat Thanatos without your help! They can't dodge his attacks forever and neither can we!" Astrid reminded Hiccup, who narrowed his eyes as he tried to think of a new plan. "But you're not only the only one who can avoid Thanatos, you're also riding the Alpha of Berk, the dragon who opposes all other dragons. Only the two of you together can stop this monster." Before Hiccup could argue his point, Thanatos leaned his head back and finally let loose the roar he had been trying to bellow, a roar that echoed across all of the land of Equestria and to the borders beyond. And unbeknownst to the riders or the princesses, all of the dragons' eyes across the lands began to glow with a red light before they took flight and began to rain destruction upon wherever they were. Then the dragon began to once again pull itself free of the chasm, despite Luna and Celestia unleashing all of their might to try and push it back. "You are the dragon master, Hiccup. There is no dragon, not even this one, that you cannot train or defeat," Astrid reminded Hiccup one last time before looking down at where Wijida was. "They're your specialty. But crazy, power-wielding maniacs that try to hurt those that I care about? Those are my specialty." "Astrid. You can't be thinking what I think you're thinking," Hiccup whispered to her when she looked back at him, but all he saw in her eyes was the confirmation of his thoughts. "I won't let you! It's too dangerous! You're-" "The only one here who managed to score a hit against Wijida. The only one here who has had her in her mind. The only one here who can face her," Astrid reminded Hiccup before looking back to the princesses. "Please Hiccup, let me do this. This battle with her is personal." Hiccup wanted to argue, he wanted with all of his soul to argue with her, but then the princesses cried out in pain and he glanced back to find that they were being ensnared with the tendrils once again. "Fine," he finally agreed with a tone of absolute regret before looking up at her. "But on one condition." "What's that." "Come back alive." He then turned Toothless back towards the battle with Thanatos and rocketed off to aid the princesses, leaving Astrid to turn Stormfly towards where Wijida was and dive down towards the top of the tower. "Greetings, Astrid. I wondered if you would face me yourself," Wijida greeted as Stormfly landed on the platform. Astrid hopped off of Stormfly's back before looking up at the dragon with steely eyes. "Stormfly...I want you to go help Hiccup," she ordered. "Don't argue," she continued when the dragon barked in defiance. "He's going to need all the help he can get. Don't worry about me, I can handle this pony. In fact," Astrid said with menace in her voice as she turned towards Wijida, axe in one hand and hammer in the other. "I don't think you'll want to see what I'll do to her." The dragon let out one last bark before spreading her wings and flying off to where Hiccup was, leaving Wijida and Astrid to stare each other down. "And this is where it all ends," Wijida began with a smile on her face while she looked out across the landscape to the multiple battles going on. "Who will win? What will happen? Who lives or dies? Doesn't it just...excite you?" "Lady, you've made dragons attack innocents. Forced a dragon to battle his brother to the death. Took control of me and made me assault the man I love," Astrid seethed before slamming the hammer into the tower floor, while swinging the axe onto her shoulder before she glared up at Wijida with the rage of Thor himself in her eyes. "I don't care what future you see for everyone else out there, there is only one way this ends for you. Painfully."