“Hurry!” Scootaloo cried running as fast as her legs would go, fellow scouts and Crusaders right on her heels.
“Scoots,” Sweetie Belle shouted between breathes. “If we, don’t make it, out of this. I. Blame. You!”
“Me? This was all Apple Bloom’s idea!”
“Was not!”
“Was too!”
“Was not!”
“Was too!” A monstrous roar cut their arguing short, and Sweetie looked back and up just long enough to see a huge blue shadow swoop over them, blocking out the sun for a terrible second.
“Run now talk later!” she shouted picking up her pace, her one thought to get with her friends back safe to their group. She just hoped Rarity had gotten her text before she dropped her phone in the lake. Ahead of them was the tree line, and beyond that a wide grassy field, and the park ranger station.
Rainbow Dash wasn’t the type to be afraid of speed, but right now as Rarity weaved her way through traffic she was terrified. As Rarity kept the gas pedal nailed to the floor, Applejack had taken off her hat and stuck her head out the back side window, anything to see their destination sooner.
“Come on Rares!” Applejack screamed over the wind rushing in from the open window, “Can’t this junk pile go any faster?!” The fashionista had her teeth clamped too tight to respond, almost as tightly as Sunset Shimmer and Fluttershy’s grip on their respective ceiling grab handles.
“We’re gonna die we’re gonna die we’re gonna die we’re gonna die,” Fluttershy kept repeating as she rocked to and fro with the car’s frantic maneuvering. Sunset had bolted her eyes shut the moment the speedometers needle passed 70. She had never liked fast vehicles, not even the trains back in Equestria. One of them however, was absolutely giddy at the speed.
“Waahooooo!” Pinkie Pie had scrambled out of her seat in the back, up onto the console and through the sunroof, where she was now standing with her arms spread wide. Her face was locked in a smile that was more teeth than anything, and her hair was like a cloud of cotton candy racing above the car. She even stayed upright when Rarity put the car on two wheels through an intersection, only to finally panic when she saw the road ahead. They could already see the iron gates of Everfree City Park, but in front of that was a line of cop cars nose to bumper across the road. Thankfully though, Rarity’s mind was going faster than she was.
“Where’s the turn off for the game trail?” She asked without looking back, remembering Applejack’s cousin had once worked at the park. The farm girl though had a harder time remembering.
“Uhh, I think it’s.”
“WHERE?!”
“HERE! HARD RIGHT!” Rarity yanked the steering wheel almost out of its mounting, returning the car’s two right wheels to the air, and this time it was only Rainbow Dash’s shoving herself and Fluttershy against the tilt that kept them from rolling.
“Sunset,” Rarity called back, car now bouncing over a worn dirt and gravel road. “See if you can call Sweetie. Find out where my Sister is.” Sunset started fishing for rarities phone in the floor while Applejack already had hers out, bringing her head in out of the branches and leaves to dial a number.
“Ah it’s no use,” She groaned, “The park ain’t got squat reception past the gates. The whole place is a dead zone.” Fluttershy tensed up even more, now practically suspended by her grip on the handle.
“Why did you have to say dead Applejack?” she squeaked as Rarity’s car jolted over a particularly large rock in the road.
“We need to find Ms. Cheerilee,” she said avoiding another large rock. “Hopefully they’re still with her.”
“The park ranger station an visitor center,” Applejack suggested. “That’s the place she’d take them for a scout trip. Look for a sign, anything to tell us where we are.” Rainbow leaned across Fluttershy to try and get a better view out the front passenger side window. Sunset finally opened her eyes just as Pinkie Pie dropped back into the car and her old seat in the back middle, flashing her a wide toothy, bug spattered smile before pointing behind them.
“Hey look: 5r.”
“Five-er?” Applejack asked, before Rainbow Dash clarified.
“FIRE!” Rarity stomped on the brakes and the car skidded sideways through the gravel, stopping just yards from a wall of blazing brush.
“No!” Rarity cried, leaping out of the driver’s seat and rushing toward the fire, Sunset jumping out and running up behind to stop her before she got too close.
“Rarity don’t,” she yelled grabbing her by the waist with both arms. “Just stop for a second and think for Celestia’s sake!”
“Think?!” The fashionista barked wrestling free of the red head’s grip. “My Little sister is somewhere behind that, I don’t have time to think! I need to save her!”
“Well we ain’t do’n it goin that way,” Applejack said joining them from the car, along with the others, Fluttershy still clutching the now broken roof handle. Rainbow Dash looked up and down the blazing line of forest.
“I say we go around. This thing can’t go on forever can it?”
“But which way?” Fluttershy asked, now realizing the number of animals and wildlife in danger from the fire. They each racked their brains, looking for signs in the forest around them only two of them could even recognize, until Sunset’s ears caught a sound she never expected to hear again. It was rough like sandpaper and shrill like a bird of prey’s screech, but roared like a thousand lions.
“That sound,” She breathed, following it with her ears and eyes. “This way, follow the fire!” She bolted into the woods to the left of the road, her friends right behind. They ran along the fire’s edge, darting between trees and jumping over stumps until at last they emerged on an open field of grass, the ranger station and visitor center visible, a single two story building dominating the field’s center, on the next rise. Pinkie Pie stole a look left and spied a group of police officers and park rangers huddled together, and she suddenly felt a tickling shiver run up her spine.
“Come on,” Applejack yelled, pulling out ahead of the others at a dead sprint.
“We’re almost at the.”
The roar was deafening, sending all six girls down to the ground clutching their ears to try and block it out, but leaving their eyes wide and open to see the top half of the ranger station engulfed by a torrent of flames raining down like water. Sunset followed the glowing heat up to its source, just as the police officers and rangers opened fire on the beast’s leathery wings and thick scaly hide.
“Faust protect us,” She gasped as the massive red and blue Dragon let loose another torrent of liquid fire, scorching the field and anything below its wings to cinders. Its body was long and thin like a snake, but below its short neck was a powerful torso supporting a pair of wide blue wings easily 30 feet across, and a jagged ridge of azure spines that ran all the way down it’s back to the tip of its spiked tail.
“A dragon?!” Pinkie Pie yelled in pure disbelief as the flying serpent banked through the air, exposing two powerful back legs and clawed feet. “Really? I thought we weren’t doing a Witcher crossover for another month?” Sunset forced her feet under her, staring up at the terribly beautiful creature, while Rarity froze, elbows propped up in the grass where she had fallen, eyes locked on the burning remains of the Ranger station.
“Sweetie Belle,” she squeaked, face already warm from the fire as the flames painted her skin pale orange, the same shade her friend as she shot past in a flat out desperate run.
“AJ!” Rainbow yelled, but the orange girl kept running even as her hat was blown off into the trees behind them. Dash looked at Rarity, then at Applejack’s shrinking form, made up her mind and took off after the farm girl. When Rarity saw a blur of rainbow colored hair rush past her she scrambled to her feet and followed.
Sunset saw them headed toward the building, nearly sprinting after them before a primal airborne roar shook the trees down to their roots. She looked left, where policemen were still picking themselves up from the dragon’s last pass, and to the fire and first responder trucks bounding up the park’s dirt path toward them. She looked right, where Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie both lay staring, the yellow girl’s eyes fixed on the dragon as it flew overhead. She ran over to Pinkie whose hair had lost almost all of its curls, an idea forming in her head.
“Pinkie,” She said jolting the girl’s shoulders a little to get her attention. “That teleporting thing you did in the gym, can you still do it?”
“I think so,” she said uncertainly, hair regaining a little poof. “What do want me to do?”
“We need to keep it occupied,” she explained as the dragon leveled its wings for another swooping pass. “Just long enough to let more police and firefighters get here. Distract it.” The Pink girl’s face blanked, but only a moment before it broke out in a wild grin, and her hair ballooned back to full volume as a sparkle of light signaled the return of her pony ears.
“One distraction ala-mode, coming right up!” She cheered before vanishing in a burst of pink light.
“Fluttershy,” Sunset called, kneeling down to the frozen girl, shaking her shoulder if only to get her attention. “Shy.” All it did was cause her to squeak and try to curl up in a ball, but Sunset pulled her upright and stopped her.
“Shy look at me,” She moved her face as gently as she could so they looked at each other. “I know you’re scared, but I need you to go find Ms. Cheerilee and her students. We don’t know they were in the ranger station for sure, so they might be somewhere else.”
“I, I’ll find them,” she stuttered, voice and body shaking like fall leaves in a spring storm. Her eyes were wide, horrified at what she was imagining within the fire’s blaze, and they only grew wider when Sunset got up and started walking away.
“Wh, Where are you going?!”
“To help Pinkie!” she shouted back, careful not to admit she had run out of plan.
The dragon’s fire breath had blasted the ranger station wide open, blowing out all the windows and doors, so the three big sisters had no trouble getting into the building’s burning remains, even as the flames creeped down to the bottom floor.
“APPLE BLOOM!”
“SWEETIE BELLE!”
“IS ANYBODY IN HERE?!” Rainbow shouted over the roaring flames crawling down the walls, jacket pulled off and held over her mouth to try and block out the smoke. Rarity held her hands over her mouth, eyes watering from the smoke and heat, while Applejack search furiously.
“Apple Bloom!” Her voice was already hoarse from the smoke and yelling. “Little Sis!” She kept shouting even as the heat of the fire scorched her throat, and weakened the beams overhead, until one above her split in two.
“Look out!” Rainbow tossed away her jacket and dived for Applejack, tackling the farm girl down and forward before the beam cleaved through the floorboards where she had been.
“Thanks,” she gasped looking at where she had been only seconds before, now a gaping hole in the floor. Rarity ran to the sound, only to find herself trapped on the other side of the hole, looking down into it while the burning beam painted the void orange-yellow.
“The basement,” she breathed, realizing the most logical hiding place, then yelled to her friends. “I’m going to check downstairs!”
“Otay,” AJ nodded, “We’ll keep look’n up here. Holler if you find anyone!”
“I will!”
“Good luck,” Rainbow yelled, before another falling beam widened the hole and the floor beneath the fashionista groaned, threatening to collapse as well. She darted back outside, coughing and hacking as her lungs tried to expel the smoke. She ran around the burning building until she saw the entrance to the building’s old storm cellar, only to find a fallen timber from the overhanging roof had dented the doors so badly they refused to open.
“Come on,” She growled, clenching her teeth as she tried to pull the doors open, but only banged them against the concrete frame. Then she felt her blood run cold when two tiny voices cried out from behind the doors.
“W-who’s there?”
“Help Us, please!”
“I’m coming.” Rarity pulled on the doors with all her might, only for the handle to slip through her fingers. When she tried to grab it again, her hand passed right through it. She barely had time to recall the strange powers Pinkie and Applejack had acquired earlier when a sudden blast of hot air from behind startled her. Her balance ran off, and Rarity fell head first into the basement doors, then through them tumbling end over end.
While her friends searched for their loved ones, Fluttershy was trying to find a police officer, firefighter, park ranger, somebody who could tell her where Cheerilee and her students were that wasn’t busy or hurt. She flitted through a crowd of rushing first responders and firemen lugging giant hoses until she found a firefighter and a police officer, both very important looking, talking beside one of the ambulances.
“Um, excuse me,” she squeaked, trying her best to get noticed without interrupting their conversation. “Sirs?” The Police officer turned around and looked at her, skin the same color as his navy blue uniform, with strange yellow cat like eyes and a slightly upturned nose.
“Yes?” His voice was smooth and soft despite his vampiric appearance.
“I’m looking for a friend, she was here earlier with some children. Ms. Cheerilee?” The firefighter looked at her from under his broad helmet.
“I know her. She and her scout troop were some of the first ones out when we shut the park off.” Fluttershy breathed a sigh of relief. “But she said there were five girls missing from her group.”
“I-is there anyone looking for them?” The moment the words were out of her mouth an orange glow shone through the trees, followed by another enraged roar. The policeman ducked down behind the ambulance, but the fireman kept standing.
“We need to figure out just what’s going on here first.” Fluttershy thought his tone was wrong for something as terrifying as a dragon attack, but she didn’t think very long about it after she heard Sunset’s voice.
“Fluttershy? Can you hear me?” The yellow girl jumped when her friend’s voice came out of nowhere, and only freaked out more when a look around revealed Sunset was nowhere in sight. She moved away from the two men, who had begun to give her concerned looks.
“Sunset? Where are you?”
“Still at the ranger station. I’m using a telepathy spell to talk to you right now.”
“Spell?” She wondered before remembering she looked like she was talking to herself, and closed her mouth. “But I thought you couldn’t use your magic here.”
“So did I. Something must’ve happened while we were stuck in our pony forms. Did you find Ms. Cheerilee?” Fluttershy moved to another ambulance, careful to stay out of anyone’s way.
“No, but a fireman said she and her scouts were some of the first people to leave the park, only she was missing five girls.” Fluttershy could actually feel the dread coming from Sunset, fear of who might be missing, and knew she had to do, say, think something. She just hoped her thoughts sounded braver than she really was feeling right now. “Sunset, there’s a lot of hurt people here. We need to stop the dragon.”
“Right.” The feelings of dread ebbed, and Fluttershy felt something resembling confidence return to her friend’s voice. “Okay, here’s the plan.”
The dragon was no longer circling the main park in search of targets. Now it was darting left and right over the trees, completely focused on catching and incinerating the pink pest. All it knew was one moment it had a fresh kill in its sights, then there was a flash and the girl was there, followed by the most horrible burning in its eyes.
“Hey Scaly, over here!” The beast’s snake like head snapped left with its body, following the voice and smell through the veil of blindness. Pinkie Pie knew throwing confetti and sprinkles into a dragon’s eyes probably wasn’t the best way to get its attention, but she had it all now. The problem was what to do with it.
“Catch me if ya can!” She teleported to another tree, keeping just out of range but still insight of the flying lizard. Her hair was filled with pine needles, leaves, and lords of sugar only knew what else, but she had a job to do. She spied another tree, teleporting to it just as Sunset Shimmer’s voice filled her mind.
“Pinkie?”
“Woah nelly!” She nearly missed the branch, appearing just behind it but managing to grab it with her arms before she fell. “Sunny? Where are you? Can you tele-potty too?”
“Tele-wha, Pinkie I’m using a telepathy spell! I’m not talking to you you’re hearing my thoughts. Well, some of them anyway.”
“Ooooohhh, neat. YIPE!” One pink flash later Pinkie was watching her last perch burn to a crisp, before the dragon started to circle the smoking pole. “Sunny, now might be a reeeeeaally good time to tell me what step two is.”
“Working on it.” Pinkie knew she was only hearing Sunset’s thoughts, but she could swear she heard a light bulb switch on. “Just keep it flying in circles for a few more minutes, then when I tell you, lead it back to me.”
“Okey-dokey-loki! OY! Zilla monster!” The dragon twisted in midair, body following its roaring head and gaping red hot jaws, and locked in on the sound of nervous giggling.
Meanwhile Rainbow Dash and Applejack were still searching the ranger station, meaning Applejack was looking into burning rooms and shouting at the top of her lungs while Rainbow dodged flaming timbers falling from the ceiling.
“AJ we have to go!”
“NO! There’s still rooms we ain’t checked.” There wasn’t just concern in her voice, there was panic too, an old terror Dash had never seen on her face before.
“AJ We don’t even know that they're in here!” The farm girl spun back around and looked at Rainbow, eyes full of nothing but fear.
“I’m not losing her too Dash!” Rainbow didn’t get the chance to figure out the farm girl’s last statement before the ceiling groaned, and Applejack shoved her back just before the beams above them gave way, showering down tiles and burnt wood.
“AJ!” Rainbow threw herself back up and shoved her way through the charred debris until she saw a glint of blonde hair. “Hang on, I’ll have you out in no time!” She kept moving ceiling tiles until she found Applejack’s legs, only to see her left foot pinned under a beam. Thankfully she looked more annoyed than hurt.
“I’m stuck.”
“I can see that,” Rainbow snarked, tip toeing up beside her pinned friend. “Okay, on the count of three, I’m gonna lift and you’re gonna have to crawl out. One.” The ceiling groaned again, followed by more debris collapsing behind them.
“Three!” Rainbow heaved up as hard as she could, lifting the blackened beam up high enough and holding it long enough for Applejack to crawl away. When she was clear Rainbow dropped the beam, and it hit the floor so hard the boards under them splintered and cracked as more and more beams overhead started to do the same.
“Time to go,” Rainbow said helping her friend to her feet, only to nearly fall again had it not been for Dash.
“Crap,” Applejack winced as she tried and failed to put weight on her left leg. “I think it’s mah ankle.” Rainbow didn’t wait for permission and slung the farm girl’s arm over her shoulders. Applejack had no say in the matter as Rainbow dragged her hobbling and stumbling out of the building, only moments before the ranger station gave one last titanic groan and the second story and roof telescoped down into the ground floor.
They hobbled across the field to Sunset and Fluttershy, where the orange-yellow girl was rapidly carving and digging shapes into the grass and dirt with a stick. She had surrounded herself with a series of circles, eight small circles ringed by one large one Fluttershy was still carving out, with yet another smaller circle at the center of it all, and covered in bizarre rune like symbols Sunset gouged out of the ground.
“Sunset?” Rainbow called hoping to get the red head’s attention, “What are you doing?” Really her tone asked, ‘have you gone demon-crazy again?’ The former Equestrian didn’t so much as look up from her ground carving.
“It’s a Star Circle,” she explained as Fluttershy ran over and helped Rainbow lower a dazed Applejack off her feet. “Created by Starswirl the Bearded to help young unicorns learn to control their magic. It should help me focus mine into a half decent attack spell.”
“Applejack,” Fluttershy said softly, trying to get the orange girl’s attention, but her eyes were fixed on the burning building.
“I left her. I left her and now she’s gone.” Rainbow knelt down beside her friend as Fluttershy felt along her leg for an injury.
“AJ I told you, you don’t know Apple Bloom was in there. We checked most all the first floor, and if there was anyone hiding in the basement Rarity would’ve, HOLY CRAP RARITY!” Rainbow jumped up and ran back to the ranger station and she was only ten feet from the building when the bottom floor caved into the basement below.
Five minutes ago:
Rarity tumbled through the storm cellar doors and down the tiny flight of stairs, onto the bare concrete floor and what should have been a hard landing. Instead she sank into it like a foam mattress, and standing was just as tricky. She was up to her shins in the floor, and she realized it felt like she was wading through water. She began to wonder if this was her equivalent of Applejack and Pinkie's new abilities when two tiny terrified voices cried out.
“Hello?!”
“Are you still there?”
“I’m here,” She called, treading through the dark basement toward the voices, still nearly knee deep in concrete. She wished she could just step up out of it like the water it felt like, then she felt something hard brush her arm. She reached up and found a metal handle attached to a table, and hauled herself up on that. Her feet came out of the floor, which only retained its water like surface for a moment before it was solid under her again. She felt her way around the table and other pieces of equipment, what felt like a vice clamp, an electric screw driver and other power tools.
It was only when she felt her hair brush one of the table legs and the faint muscle twitches atop her head that she realized she was back in her anthro-form, but she forgot all about it when she saw two girls huddled against the back wall, but instead of her Sweetie Belle and the crusaders it was their bullies; Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon.
“Please,” Silver Spoon sniffled, glasses broken and gone, her braided hair fraying. Rarity looked to the girl’s left and saw little Diamond was pinned face up under a massive metal cabinet, free only from her waist up. “We hid down here when the fires started and Diamond she, she.”
“It’s all right,” she said hugging Silver Spoon the way she would Sweetie after a bad day of school. It didn’t matter to rarity that these girls picked on her little sister and her friends every day, all she saw was two scared children who needed help. “Diamond? Can you hear me?” The pink girl looked scared out of her mind.
“Uh-hu. It, it hurts.”
“It’s okay darling,” she said as much to the trapped girl as to herself.
“Everything’s going to be okay.” She whipped her eyes around the room, shapes only half visible in the dark, a dark that was turning to harsh orange light as the floor above them burned. Diamond Tiara whimpered as the ceiling above them crackled like a campfire, and Silver Spoon darted back to her hiding place by the wall when embers began to fall around them, light painting the gem of Diamond’s necklace deep purple. Rarity knew she couldn’t lift the tool cabinet off of Diamond without help, but Silver Spoon was nowhere near strong enough to help. The doors above them were still stuck shut as well, but then she remembered how she got into the basement in the first place.
“Diamond, I need you to stay calm, and keep still. Can you do that for me?”
“I, I think so,” she sniffled as Rarity looked at her friend.
“Silver Spoon, I need you to come here. We’re going to get Diamond out from under this thing.”
“How? We’d need one of my daddy’s cranes to lift that up.”
“Everything’s going to be okay girls, I promise.” She motioned the white haired girl over to her friend and placed her hands on Diamonds. “Now when I say pull, I need you to pull Diamond as hard as you can out from under this. I’ll take care of the rest.” Silver Spoon nodded nervously and Diamond shut her eyes as Rarity placed her hands under the cabinet if only to be in contact with it. With nothing to go on but her tumble through the storm cellar door and wading through the floor, she imagined the metal cabinet and its contents becoming as thin as air. She was afraid it wouldn’t work, before the metal began to phase through her fingers.
“Pull!” Silver Spoon yanked hard on her friends arms, dragging Diamond away from the cabinet before it turned solid again and banged down on the floor.
“We did it,” she cried, only for the snap and crash of a timber from above to remind Rarity of the danger over their heads.
“Time to go. Diamond darling, can you move?”
“Nu, no,” the tiny girl said in pure terror, more afraid than she had been trapped beneath almost a half ton of metal. “I, I can’t feel my legs!” Another wad of timbers came crashing down on the work bench behind them, snapping it in half like tooth picks.
“Wrap your arms around my neck,” Rarity snapped, already hoisting Diamond off the ground. “Silver Spoon, climb on my back.” She could only hope her new ability and all those piggy back rides she gave Sweetie Belle would pay off. With the two girls wrapped around her, Rarity forced herself to stand under the weight and rushed for the door, stumbling left and right between the falling debris and her passengers combined mass.
Rarity dodged a flaming timber, then recovered her balance, and forced herself into one final lunging charge for the stairs and door. She kept her eyes on the stairs in the growing orange light, blocking out the screams of the two girls she was carrying as her throat dried and cracked. All she could think of was getting them to safety, no matter what.
For a split second she heard Sweetie Belle’s angelic little voice ringing out over the snapping and crashing of burning wood around her. Time appeared to slow, and in the toxic smoke addled haze, Rarity thought she could see someon on the stairs up to the storm doors; a woman surrounded by glowing white, a silver jewel studded crown atop her head.
The ground floors collapse into the basement blasted the warped storm cellar doors off their hinges, flinging them through the air like playing cards as Rainbow Dash went tumbling back head over heels. She landed on her side, only to feel another body slam into her gut and bowl her over. She realized the person’s weight on her ribcage was keeping her from breathing, before she saw the smoke and soot marred white skin behind a mess of white and pink-lavender hair clinging to the fashionista like a life preserver.
Rarity gently lowered Diamond Tiara to the ground as Silver Spoon let go of her shoulders, allowing blood to flow back into her arms. Fluttershy was already on her knees beside them when three more girls came charging out of the woods behind them.
“Sis!”
“Rarity!”
“Dash!”
Applejack twisted around in the grass, tears welling thick in her eyes as she watched her sister run toward her. Apple Bloom slowed down just enough to avoid running her big sister over, and the two apples held each other, if only to confirm the other was real. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo never got to hugging; a hand warning and glare from Fluttershy threw up an invisible barrier as she looked over Diamond and Silver Spoon’s injuries. When Rarity removed herself from the pile however, Sweetie Belle latched onto her immediately. All three were blubbering apologies faster than Pinkie Pie on a sugar high while Fluttershy checked Diamond Tiara to see just how badly the girl was hurt.
“I’m so sorry Rarity,” Sweetie Belle sobbed into her big sister’s chest. Rarity shushed her and tried to calm the trembling girl as she herself started to hiccough.
“Rainbow, are you okay?” Scootaloo helped the cyan girl upright, who replied with a nervous laugh as tears well to her eyes.
“Me? I’m the one that should be asking you. Now come’ere.” She pulled the orange tween into a hug, followed by a noogie that did more to lighten the little girl’s mood than words ever could. “That’s for waking up the dragon.”
“Hey,” She laughed defensively, trying to escape the older girl’s grip. “What makes you think WE woke that thing up?”
“Lets be honest squirt, this would not be at the tip of you three’s top 20 screw ups, but it definitely ranks.” Scootaloo quickly looked away, and Rainbow started to laugh until she noticed how ashamed the little girl looked, and settled for another hug instead. “I’m just glad you’re all safe. But between you and me,” she whispered. “Next time you wake up a dragon, don’t forget to tell me so we can borrow a saddle from AJ.”
The farm girl said nothing, just held her little sister close, not trusting her mouth of form the words in her head. The moment she’d even considered Applebloom was in danger, a thousand different scenarios flashed through her mind, all ending in an all too familiar way.
“Girls,” Fluttershy spoke up, trying to get someone else’s attention. “Diamond need’s a hospital, and Aj, you need to have that ankle set.”
“Shy’s right.” Sunset threw her stick away, circle completed. “Take the kids and get out of here as fast as you can.” Applejack knew she wasn’t a genius, but that was the last thing it took to figure out what Sunset meant.
“An leave you to do what? Get fried crispier than homemade chips?”
“Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine.” She moved to the middle of the circle, concentrating as hard as she could as the lines began to glow, but only barely. She blocked out her friend’s voices, trying to muster the magic for even the simplest self-defense spell. It was like drawing water from frozen rock. Slowly she could feel the energies flowing toward and around her, power different from her old home.
“Holy crap she’s doing it!!” Rainbow shouted, pulling Scootaloo back from the faintly glimmering teal swirl growing around Sunset. "She's got her magic back!" The former unicorn held her breath and tried not to show the strain she was feeling.
She had been on fire before, felt raw power coursing through her, but this was infinitely more painful. Her blood felt like it had turned to acid, and the wisps of energy swirling around her burned like hot irons when one blew too close. One large wisp caught her jacket at the sleeve, and while it didn’t set the leather on fire, she felt something wet begin to trickle down her arm.
“Is she supposed to be bleeding like that?” Sunset bit back a scream as the voices outside the vortex ran together in her pounding ears, clawing for the concentration she needed to send the signal to Pinkie Pie.
“Get her out of there!”
“How? That thing must be a bajillion degrees!” Sunset felt the temperature skyrocketing inside the magical maelstrom, magic lancing around her like lightning. She could feel the spell turning wild, running away from her like an overloaded cart down hill and jerking out of her control.
For the first time since being blasted by the elements of harmony, Sunset felt her own magic turn on her. Even with her eyes screwed shut she could see the colors of the writhing magic shift from teal to a deeper blue until it passed through purple, and became an all too familiar pitch black. Then the magic swirling in front of her became a face, a red face with fangs, pointed ears, and eyes as black as the void Nightmare Moon’s eternal night. Her knees buckled as the face’s body loomed over her, wings splayed out behind her, cackling over the magical typhoon.
“Help me.”
Sunset felt another magical aura appear, envelope her, and next she knew she was torn from the center of the vortex. She stumbled into the grass as the tempest of energy behind her rippled and split, before the spell too collapsed into an explosion that sent everyone in a two mile radius diving for cover.
There was no smoke, just a flash and a sound so loud it defied logic. The magical vortex held just enough strength to direct the column of arcane energy straight up. It punched a hole in the handful of clouds overhead, and they quickly fell apart.
Sunset was barely conscious, aware only of the pain stinging from her cuts and burns, and the haze of pink falling in and out of her left field of vision. It took everything she had left just to raise herself up enough to turn her head to look where Pinkie Pie was laying beside her. Her poofy hair and the tips of her pony ears were singed in more places than one, and she had nearly as many burns and cuts on the rest of her body as Sunset.
“Came as soon as I could,” she smiled weakly, eyes rapidly sliding shut. “Sorry about the Dragon.” She passed out before Sunset could even understand her meaning, just as a winged shadow appeared overhead.
The dragon followed the scent of insidious sweetness over the wind back across the park, and began circling the moment the smell had been joined by burned hair and dripping blood. The presence whispering in its ear nearly giggled with demented delight.
“This is just too easy.” Shadowfrights smiled was manic as he floated beside his airborne engine of destruction, invisible among the rising plumes of smoke. “Well?” he barked gleefully to the scaled flier. “Don’t just drift there you overgrown pteranodon, Get down there and incinerate them!” The beast narrowed it’s still mostly blind bloodshot eyes, and it’s lips curled back in a snarl, fire building in its gullet as it descended.
Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash had each grabbed their own little sisters up out of pure reflex when the spell collapsed. Fluttershy threw herself over Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara, as the shockwave blasted over them like a hurricane’s gale. It was the combined weight of the two girls she was protecting that kept the yellow teenager rooted to the ground while the others tumbled and rolled, though not very far in Rarity and Sweetie Belle’s case. Thus it was Fluttershy that first felt the soft thud of something large landing. Rarity had just dared to open her eyes again when a wave of warm air passed over her back like a ragged blanket.
She turned her head and body just enough to see the dragon raise its head and shoulders up from a dusty landing, blue wings now folded into long front legs, red tail whipping back and forth like a snapped cable as its blue belly glowed orange, and then yellow.
“Rarity?” Sweetie Bell squeaked, her big sister’s pony ears folding flat and her pupils shrinking to pinpricks. In the split second it took the glow in the dragon’s belly to travel up its neck, three things happened. Applejack, and Rainbow Dash grabbed their little sister’s even tighter and turned their bodies to shield them anyway they could. Fluttershy nearly crushed Diamond and Silver in a death hug, but not one tight enough to stop the little pink girl’s necklace from flying off her neck towards Rarity.
Shadowfright saw the dragon let loose its fire, only for a wall of white to erupt before it, blocking the searing beam and bathing the park in thick fog and steam.
“WHAT?!” He turned his smoke a lighter shade of grey and slithered closer, letting himself be blown above the fog until he could see just what had happened. Instead of eleven well-dressed piles of ash, the girls were unharmed behind a rapidly melting wall of pure white ice. None of it made sense until he saw the teenager with purple hair holding and guarding her sibling.
“No,” he gasped, recognizing the white jewel now shining on the girl’s forehead. “That’s not possible.” Shadowfright turned tail and flew as fast as his formless body would carry him. As the nightmare shade fled, the dragon looked on at the new wall of frozen protection in surprise. But not quite as surprised as that of those behind it.
“Sunset,” Applejack breathed, eyes locked on the massive wall of ice.
“That, wasn’t me,” she gasped, looking at the melting shield as Rainbow and Fluttershy noticed another development.
“Oh my. Rarity,” Fluttershy started but couldn’t begin to find the words. “What happened to your, um?” The fashionista extricated herself from her protective embrace of Diamond and Silver and looked nervously at her timid friend
“My what Darling?” She quietly wondered what could have happened to her to make Fluttershy rate it above the weirdness of a wall of ice appearing out of nowhere, but thankfully Rainbow was a bit more enthusiastic.
“Whoah, where did that come from?” Her tone left Rarity more annoyed for lack of a description than terrified.
“Where did what come from?” Rainbow opened and closed her mouth, looking very awkward, like she was explaining the birds and the bees to one of the crusaders. In the end she simply pointed at her forehead. Rarity yanked out her compact and checked her face. A few scratches and soot, nothing a bath and makeup couldn’t cover up. The horn jutting out of her forehead however.
She nearly dropped her compact when she saw it; a spire of shimmering crystal tapering to a needle point perched just below her hairline. The tip reached just above the tops of her pony ears, and had grooves spiraling all the way down its length.
“What on earth?” No one had a chance to answer her question as the shrinking ice wall behind them cracked. On the other side the dragon dug its claws into the cold slippery surface, determined to get to the prey on the other side. The wall cracked again, chunks of ice breaking off and falling away as the girls scrambled away from their rapidly breaking defense.
Rainbow hauled Sunset to her feet and Applejack forced herself to stand on her bad ankle. She picked up and cradled a still unconscious Pinkie Pie while the crusaders huddled together behind Rarity as the purple haired girl stared at the breaking wall. They backed away further as the claws of one of the dragon’s folded wings appeared over the wall, then the other, until the monster had hauled itself on top of the icy rampart. The fog had condensed into water and drenched its scales, and now the dragon was not only half blind, but doing a scaled up demonstration of just how mad a wet hen could be. Apple Bloom couldn’t take her eyes of the dragon, not until steam began to rise off its glowing chest.
“Aj?,” she squeaked looking at her big sister's, eyes full of fear. With Pinkie still in her arms and her nakle screaming at her to get off her feet, the farm girl moved between her sister and the dragon, even knowing she had no chance of stopping what was about to come out of its mouth. They all braced for the fire, but instead of in front of them, the blast came from behind.
The fireball hit between them, far enough from the girls to be harmless, but close enough to the dragon that the red and blue behemoth yelped and screeched, then fell, startled off its slick icy perch. The Rainbooms and the Crusaders looked up to see where the blast had come from, only to see an even larger form, not unlike the one now lying in a heap, glide over them to a graceful landing.
Four clawed legs touched down almost soundlessly, powerful lavender wings billowing as they brought the creature’s serpentine body to a stop. Its spiked head and body were covered in brilliant pearly golden scales, but also countless scars. This new beast was larger than the first dragon by at least three times. Then the wet ground before it glowed with the fire in its gullet, and the Rainbooms braced for another fire blast, but instead of flames, words came from the dragon’s mouth.
“Vuth!” It shouted, voice deep and rumbling like a waking volcano, only for a higher, much younger voice to answer.
“Fey tir do daar!” The red- and blue dragon snarled back, voice almost female compared to the larger dragon’s deep baritone. “Daar los dii niraat!”
“No,” The golden dragon thundered in English, “They are not.” He slowly stepped forward, head low and wings folded close to his body. The smaller dragon backed away, fire and steam flickering from between its jaws. If the golden dragon was intimidated, he did not show it.
“It’s alright young one,” he said as gently as a father to any frightened child. “Clear your mind. Calm yourself and see through the deception placed upon it. Nahkiv Lo.” The long horns of his crest began to glow light purple and the smaller dragon’s eyes flashed over the same color, then shook its head. The golden dragon stepped back a little as the younger one had its mind cleared, before the day delivered one more surprise, and Vice Principal Luna climbed down from the great dragon’s back. He twisted his head and long neck back toward her, and they seemed to exchange words before Luna walked toward the still wide eyed girls, and the dragon toward its smaller kin. She walked up the Rainbooms, still protecting their younger siblings and unconscious friends. She looked tired, worn out to the point of looking years, even decades older than she had just hours ago.
“I’m sorry,” she sighed in a voice heavy with both regret and embarrassment. “But to be fair you left before I could tell you the whole story. I’m afraid I may have excluded a few details.”