“I don’t understand,” I began, grabbing hold of Twilight’s shoulders so she would stop pacing around the street in front of the inn. “We captured him two weeks ago, what exactly happened while I was gone?”
“Well I only expected to stick around for a week as you know,” Twilight began, rubbing her hooves together awkwardly. “A little longer at the most until we could get the last of the agents rounded up. It was just less than a week after you left; we were keeping him in an individual room on the boat, guarded day and night by two guards borrowed from Maverick. One of my crew was delivering food to him, when he found the guards murdered and the room completely empty. We searched everywhere, but he was nowhere on the ship, we could only assume he swam ashore or somepony had assisted him in escaping.
“We sent word to Maverick to put all his soldiers on high alert,” Twilight continued. “But after the first couple of days when nothing came up, we unloaded the prisoners and had them transferred to the prison in Pivot. We’ve been searching for him ever since, but leads have been scarce.”
“Do you know anypony that might have been able to help him?” I asked in a concerned voice. “Did any other Solar Empire agents escape with him?”
“None, all those who were captured are still in custody,” Twilight assured me. “And we’ve pretty much rounded up the rest from the various cities; all except one, who we believe could be responsible for Blueblood’s escape.”
“Who?” I asked urgently.
“Her name I Spitfire,” Twilight said with a grim expression. “She is… I mean, she was the captain of the Wonderbolts. Besides Blueblood, she’s easily the highest ranking pony from Equestria who joined the Solar Empire. I came here because your friend Stranglethorn once tracked her down here, apparently she was hiding in this very inn, being sheltered by the previous owner.”
“That makes sense,” I muttered. “As we came through here we overheard them mention a Wonderbolts pin they found in the basement.”
“Stranglethorn said she escaped him at the time,” Twilight went on. “And while I know that was quite some time ago, I figured this was the best place to start if I was going to track her down.”
“So Blueblood has escaped,” I began to summarise. “He’s been on the run for about a week now, most likely aided by this Spitfire. What does he even hope to do? The Solar Empire is finished and the… wait! What about the other sleeper agents?!”
I suddenly thought of Lyra back in Arclight, I hadn’t worried about her since I knew Blueblood was in no position to activate the spell he placed on her and the others, but now that he was no longer imprisoned…
“Rarity…” Twilight began, her voice sounding miserable. “I’m sorry but… but he must have activated the spells shortly after he escaped. Maverick managed to purge some of them before then, but those that he didn’t get to… they’re all gone, we don’t know where Blueblood has sent them.”
I didn’t respond, I was rendered speechless upon hearing the truth.
“We have to capture Blueblood soon,” I said in a worried tone. “Before he can do something awful with them.”
“We’re working on it,” Twilight promised in a confident tone. “Maverick has Stranglethorn searching the western side of Panchea, and I just picked up a lead right before you arrived.”
“Really? What is it?” I asked eagerly.
“The pony wasn’t certain,” Twilight started. “But she just travelled here form Timber, and she remembered seeing somepony who matched Spitfire’s description. No mention of Blueblood, but it’s a good start.”
“I’ll come with you,” I stated, not presenting it as a choice. “You might need help if you find Blueblood, especially if he’s not alone.”
“I was hoping you’d offer,” Twilight replied as she began walking away from the inn with me matching her strides. “Do you have anything you need to report to Maverick?”
“Quite a lot,” I admitted. “But it can wait until after we’ve checked this out.”
“I have an escort waiting just outside the town,” Twilight explained, gesturing to the cart that was just visible in the distance. “They should be able to get us south in no time.”
It was lucky that Maverick had leant Twilight the pair of pegasi to transport her, they wasted no time in carrying us down the road to Timber. They put a lot more emphasis in speed, so that by the time Twilight called for them to stop so that they could get some much needed rest; we were already at a easily recognisable area. Twilight hopped off the cart first, walking over to inspect a sign which she read allowed to us while the transporters prepared some bedrolls.
“Don’t sleep in the woods!” she called out. “What do you think it means?”
“It means there used to be a horrible Wight in those woods,” I informed her. “And while it may have been slain, there’s no guarantee there aren’t other threats lurking in those trees.”
“Are you just guessing?” Twilight asked curiously. “Or is that some local legend around these parts?”
“Neither,” I replied coolly. “We put the sign up the other week after I was nearly killed by the Wight.”
“Oh…” Twilight muttered awkwardly. “You never did tell me what all happened after we parted ways, did you have much trouble on your journey north?”
“I suppose I should fill you in,” I said as we made our way back to the cart to get some rest. “The short story is yes, we encountered quite a bit of trouble. The long story…”
For the second time I decided to tell the abridged version, simply because I didn’t want to be up half the night recounting the whole tale, and for the second time my omissions would prove to be slightly problematic very soon. I filled her in as quickly as I could on the state of Brine and the events that occurred in Olympus.
“Well I’m glad this Rainbow Dash is on your side,” Twilight said with a loud yawn. “No doubt you’re eager to get back to Maverick so you can tell him the good news.”
“I don’t really care about sharing good news with him,” I commented. “I just need him as the last leader of the Rebellion to help with the upcoming negotiations. I promised Rainbow I would help put an end to the Dragoons and that’s just what I’ll do, even if I need Maverick’s help to do so.”
Twilight wasn’t listening at that point, having drifted off to sleep while I was saying my piece. I decided to get some sleep in as well; I figured I would need my energy for when we reached Timber the next day, in case we did happen to run into Blueblood and his ally. What I didn’t know was that I would in fact need my energy for when we arrived at Timber, but for a reason I would never have predicted. We made idle chatter as we rode on the cart the next morning, the pegasi did their part and carried us the rest of the way to Timber in good time.
As we made our way over the bridge, Twilight stopped talking suddenly, her eyes squinting slightly as they looked at something in the distance. I followed her gaze and mimicked her frown as I saw what had caught her attention. We were travelling along the road that would curve right around the Timber woodlands and bring us in to the town itself that was nestled on the most western side of the wood, however as we looked, we saw that the sky over the wood was a most peculiar shade of green.
From the way the colour intensified, I figured the source of the illumination was directly over Timber. To make matters even stranger, there seemed to be a great deal of smoke rising over the trees. While that might have been cause for alarm, the odd shade in the sky made us hesitate.
“Is that anything you’re familiar with?” Twilight asked me, to which I shook my head. “I guess it could be magical. Gentlecolts, if it’s not too much trouble, could you quicken the pace?”
The pegasi obeyed and broke into a canter, covering the final stretch of road quickly and curving around the woodlands so Timber appeared in view. They both immediately skidded to a halt upon seeing what remained of the town; both Twilight and I gaped at what lay in the distance. The entire town had been set ablaze; even from the great distance we had left to travel we could make out the tiny ponies scurrying about desperately, trying to put out the flames, even as their entire town was enveloped.
The source of the smoke was obvious, I had guessed a fire when I first saw it. What I couldn’t have guessed, was that the source of the green glow in the sky was the very same fire. The flames that were sweeping all over the town were a vibrant, acidic green, and they were burning so brightly that we had seen their light all the way from the bridge.
“Timber will be burnt to a crisp!” I exclaimed. “Everything’s made of wood!”
“We have to help them!” Twilight declared.
The two pegasi snapped their heads around to look at her, the look in their eyes made it clear that they were not being paid enough to rush into a burning town.
“It’s alright,” Twilight assured them both as she hopped off the cart. “You’ve done enough, return to Glean and tell them what’s happened, Timber is going to need some assistance after this.”
I jumped down beside Twilight while the two pegasi nodded gratefully and hurried back the way they came.
“Come on!” Twilight called out as she started running toward the town. “The cause of that fire must be magical; they’ll need all the help they can get.”
I chased after Twilight, surprised at how fast she could run and for how long when the need arose. I myself ended up completely out of breath when we reached the outskirts of the town, where we found crowds of ponies gathered. Twilight on the other hand, appeared perfectly fine as she addressed a family who were huddled together in fear.
“What happened here?!” she demanded. “What caused the fire?”
The father tried to respond, but his voice stammered uselessly, whatever had happened he was clearly too distraught to even form a sentence. I looked around at all the ponies, some were injured, while others were tending to the wounded. Some darted about in a mad panic, while others stayed rooted to the spot, clutching their loved ones or whatever possessions they could retrieve in time. Beyond the roaring flames and the clouds of smoke, I could see some brave ponies still inside the town attempting to battle the fire with buckets of water.
“Sir, we can help you,” Twilight began urgently. “But in order to do so we need to know what happened. Did something magical cause this? Was somepony responsible?”
“N… n… not a pony!” the stallion finally managed.
“Then what?” I asked breathlessly.
I got my answer in the form of an ear-splitting roar that threatened to tear apart the sky itself. The entire town went into frenzy, some making a desperate run for it while others simply huddled closer together.
“It’s back!” a voice screamed from the edge of the woods.
Twilight and I looked up to see a single pony running in our direction from the woods where he was presumably hiding, not the cleverest move during a fire.
“Dragon!” he scratched at the top of his voice before it appeared.
A dark shape looming in the woods was the only warning we got, before the closest row of trees were smashed away by the great beast as burst forth from the woods, reaching out with its long neck and snapping its massive jaws down on the fleeing stallion. There was absolute hysteria all around, as ponies gave up trying to put out the fire or recover their belongings and simply made to run as far away from the creature as they could. The dragon let out another might roar before spreading its wings to their full span, more than a hundred ponies wide, before flapping them hard and rocketing into the air.
As the dragon circled around the town, occasionally spewing jets of bright green fire down into it, I simply stood and stared at it, paralysed in both fear and awe. The beast was colossal, bigger than I even knew a dragon could grow, its scales were a surprising shade of lilac, while its underbelly was a slightly green shade of grey. The spines that ran all the way from the top of its head, down its back and tail were the same vibrant shade of green as the fire it breathed, and the way they shimmered in the light cast by its flames, I just knew they would be sharp enough to cleave a pony in two.
It was the dragon’s eyes that really caught my attention, a beautiful emerald colour, with pitch black pupils, slits like those of a cat. Of course it took me a moment to realise why I was able to see its eyes so clearly from where we stood so far below. It was because as the creature was flying around, it had noticed me and Twilight standing in place staring at it, rather than running for our lives like everypony around us had. I would never have been able to run away fast enough, no matter how quickly I realised what it was going to do.
The dragon twisted in the air, diving straight for us, its mouth wide open as the fire began brimming inside its throat. When the spout of fire was ejected, all I could do was mutter a final swear word before we were both engulfed… at least we would have been, if Twilight was as slow on the uptake as I was. When the green flames writhed all around us, but never actually came into contact with us, I glanced over at Twilight who was holding her sceptre high in the air, focusing with all her might at maintaining her shield.
Finally the flames ceased, and the dragon flew right over our heads. I watched as it looked back at us, I noticed its eyes narrow when it saw us still alive and uncooked. It circled back around and came diving into the ground where we stood, both of us diving in opposite directions to avoid its mighty claws as they ripped up the earth beneath it. I rolled and quickly got back on all fours, facing the dragon just as it turned its eyes on me. The attack came from its tail, which came sweeping out, forcing me to duck down to avoid having every bone in my body shattered.
The tail thrashed back and hammered into the ground in the hopes of fattening me under the flat of its spear head tip. I ran to the left, each time I heard the tail smash down behind me, it sounded a few inches closer. I only stopped when a huge hand swung in to intercept me, at which point I dropped to my belly, pressing myself as flat to the ground as I could, feeling the rush of air as the claw passed harmlessly over me. Whatever attack came next would have killed me, it would have taken me too long to scramble to my hooves again, but luckily Twilight leapt in and began unleashing a barrage of spells at it.
The dragon backed away, shielding its face with its arms as Twilight’s attacks threatened to hit it in the eyes. I took that moment to hurry back to Twilight’s side, drawing my sword although I doubted it would be any use against those scales, the underbelly on the other hand... While Twilight kept the beast occupied, trying to swat away the various blasts and elements she was hurling at it, I moved my rapier from my foreleg to my telekinesis. I gripped on to it loosely, swinging it around a bit to get the hang of it, I held on to the pommel of the blade with what I could only describe as a magical tether, like I was swinging it from a lasso.
If doing such a thing was already a named technique, I was unfamiliar with it, and I certainly had no practice with it. As far as I was concerned, I just made it up on the spot to do what I need to at that particular moment. Moving my head in circular motions, I raised my sword higher and higher into the air and began swinging it wide circles. With every rotation I made, the circle became wider and the swing became faster. Soon the momentum had the blade swishing around at a speed I never would have been capable of were it still in my hooves, or even my regular telekinesis.
Twilight guessed what I was trying to do and moved to get the dragon into position for me. With a flash of her horn, her sceptre shattered into millions of smaller replicas comprised entirely of purple light. She then shot them all directly at the dragons face, the magical darts were spread wide to cover a large area, and they were relentless in their numbers. Her method reminded me of the rapid fire style of the first canon that had attacked me during my mission to destroy the Dreadnaught. The dragon roared in frustration as it reared back on its hind legs, twisting its face out of harm’s way and trying fruitlessly to swat the ethereal darts out the air.
With the dragon standing tall, and its underbelly perfectly exposed, I brought my spinning blade in closer. My blade lacerated right through the dragon’s flesh, making several rotations before the dragon could even react, each spin penetrating deeper than the last. The dragon howled in anguish as it launched itself into the sky, clutching the massive wound running diagonally across its chest, even as blood showered down over the town beneath it.
“Will it retreat?” I asked hopefully as the dragon continued to fly in circles, writhing in agony.
“Don’t count on it,” Twilight commented doubtfully. “We might have just made it more intent on killing us.”
Indeed the dragon immediately began shooting great balls of fire in our direction, although many of them went off wildly in other directions. Twilight reassembled her sceptre and focused her magic into it, the orb at the top unleashing bolts of lightning which struck the fireballs in mid-air and caused them to dissipate.
“I have a plan,” Twilight announced. “Dragons are very magic resistant, and they’re completely immune to fire, but they can be hurt by the fire of dragons.”
“But we don’t have another dragon,” I pointed out. “And I’m pretty sure that would only make matters worse.”
“I know, but I wonder if we could use its own fire against it,” Twilight pondered. “I might be able to do something, but I need you to keep it focused away from me for a bit while I set it up.”
“I’ll try,” I promised her in an uncertain voice before running towards the town. “Hey handsome, come get me!”
I rushed into the middle of the town, making sure the dragons attention was on me. I had to hold my breath as I stepped through the smoke screen, but I was able to reach a wide, open area where the smoke was less intense. The dragon landed on a nearby house, crushing the burning building beneath its feet as it lowered its head to face me. I backed up slightly from it as it hissed at me, opening its mouth to give me a close look at its single row of vicious looking teeth.
“Oh good,” I said to it in a shaky voice. “I’m glad you want to talk this out like civilised folk.”
The dragon’s head sprang forward, its jaws snapping at where I had been a few seconds before I dived to the side.
“Now, is that any way to behave?” I chastised, rolling out of the way of its claw as it swept through the clearing. “I only wanted to tell you how magnificent you looked.”
The dragon roared and belched more fire which I managed to avoid by sprinting under its own chin. It looked around for a bit, not realising where I went. I stepped out from under its head before I got trapped or hit during its flailing about.
“I guess you’re not one for flattery,” I stated as I backed up from it slightly, the dragon’s eyes snapping around to glare at me. “That’s alright; I have other ways of getting under your… scales…”
My voice slowed as I looked into the dragon’s eyes before sputtering to a stop altogether. Those giant emerald orbs had enchanted me from the short glimpse I had caught as it flew over the town, but now I was seeing them from mere metres away… and I saw something that made me hesitate.
“Rarity!” Twilight’s voice yelled. “Get away from it now!”
The dragon’s head shot upwards, seeking out the new voice while I too spun around to see Twilight suddenly in the area, her hoof raised as a swirling vortex gathered right over her head, at the centre of which was her sceptre. All around us I could see the black smoke fading away as the green flames were drawn in from all around the village. They were stripped away from all the burning buildings, leaving the charred remains behind, utterly destroyed but no longer fuelling the blaze. The fire itself was all sucked into the vortex which quickly began to fill and expand with the sheer amount of green fire it was absorbing.
Soon all the fire that had been devouring Timber was gathered into one great orb hovering feet above Twilight’s head. I realised what she was planning and galloped forwards, hoping to stop her before she could launch it at the dragon.
“Twilight, wait!” I bellowed. “It’s not what we think…”
But it was too late, the dragon, anticipating danger flapped into the air, but not fast enough to avoid the churning ball of flames that Twilight lobbed at it. The fireball caught the dragon squarely in the chest, exploding on impact and sending it crashing down into the town below. Any of the buildings that the dragon crashed into were instantly decimated, when it hit the ground it continued to travel some distance beyond, splitting a long scar right through the middle of the town.
I cringed as the dust cleared and I saw the dragon’s body no longer moving at the end of the trench it had dug. Looking back, I saw Twilight panting slightly as her sceptre descended back down before her. I hurried back over to her, both to make sure she was alright and to give her a stern telling off for not stopping when I told her to.
“I’m sorry Rarity,” Twilight gasped. “But it was too late, why did you want me to stop anyway?”
“Well… at least you stopped the town from burning down,” I pointed out, trying to find the silver lining. “But I wanted you to stop because I think there was something wrong with the dragon; I don’t think it was in control.”
“Oh, what do you mean?” Twilight asked, suddenly concerned as we began walking towards the massive body.
“When I looked into his eyes, I saw…” I began, struggling to find the words for what I had seen. “Pain.”
“Well, you did cut its chest open,” Twilight reminded me in a tentative voice.
“No, I mean… it’s hard to explain,” I moaned as we continued towards dragon. “It was as if the dragon was pleading with me, like it was trying to apologise for what it was doing. I think… I think something was controlling it.”
“Rarity…” Twilight began warily. “I know what you’re thinking, but that spell Blueblood used on you… I highly doubt it would work on a dragon.”
“Could you just look at it?” I asked as we reached the body and made our way around to its head. “I just need to know that we didn’t kill an innocent creature.”
“One, we didn’t kill it,” Twilight pointed out, just as the dragon decided to let out a loud grunt, causing me to nearly jump out of my skin. “And two… I’ll take a look.”
Twilight walked over to where the dragon lay, almost completely still with the amount of pain it must have been in. I waited a short distance away, noticing that while Twilight worked, a number of the local ponies began to filter back into the town, or what remained of it anyway. I said it was a silver lining that Twilight managed to remove all the fire, but really there was little left to save by the time she did. The dragon fire had eaten through everything, reducing the once pleasant village to ashes and ruins.
As the ponies gathered, slowly getting braver and closer, I noticed that the dragon’s eye had cracked open slightly. While I heard distant voices calling for the beast to be killed, I saw that same look in its shining emerald eye, and I knew I wasn’t mistaken in what I had seen. After several more minutes, the light around Twilight’s horn faded and she stumbled back form the dragon, the look on her face a mixture of confusion and shock.
“Well?” I asked in a concerned voice as Twilight turned to look at me with wide eyes.
“You… you were right,” she declared. “This dragon has been filled with huge amounts of magic that have been corrupting it from the inside out. I’m talking dark magic here, the kind of forbidden magic I’ve only ever read about in ancient texts.”
“Is there anything you can do for him?” I asked, really starting to worry for the dragon that had been trying so very hard to kill me.
“I don’t think so…” Twilight began before looking to her sceptre. “But I think this might be able to do something, it is pretty ancient itself after all.”
Twilight looked from me, to the gathered ponies, to the dragon who was still peering out at us both.
“I’ll try my best,” Twilight promised as she began walking away.
Twilight walked until she was standing several metres from the top of the dragon’s head, she turned so she was facing in its direction, clutching her sceptre tightly. After taking a few deep breaths she finally levitated the sceptre out before her, spreading her forelegs wide and donning a zen like expression on her face. Eyes still shut; she tipped the sceptre so it was hovering horizontally, the orb pointing directly towards the dragon. Twilight waited a few seconds, simply breathing in and out before finally her eyes snapped open.
Gone were her pink irises and pupils, instead, an intense white light shone from her eyes while the purple aura around her horn magnified tenfold. As her eyes opened, so too did the orb on the end of the sceptre. It began by moving a few millimetres from the sceptre itself, so it was hovering independently before it began to split along the black lines that crisscrossed and intersected all over it. Once all the shards were separated, they began floating apart to reveal a squirming ball of light, the same brilliant white as Twilight’s eyes. The shards of the orb continued to float lazily around the ball of light, like glass cherry blossoms, right down to their soft pink hue.
The next thing that happened was that the entire dragon’s body was enveloped in the blinding light, tendrils of dark energy writhing all around it from head to toe, before getting sucked inexorably towards the open orb. As the orb began to drink in the darkness which was now streaming from the dragon into the sceptre, the light that was the dragon’s body began to change shape, morphing and shrinking. It continued to do this until the once massive dragon shrank into a size that appeared smaller than myself, not much bigger than my sister.
Finally the dark energy ceased as the last ounce of it was drawn from the dragon; the final drops were absorbed into the orb where they were drowned out by the light that had only grown more intense with all it had taken in. The shards of the orb reassembled themselves, almost forcing the light to remain contained within them. The black lines resealed themselves and the orb planted itself firmly back into the top of the sceptre, as it did, the light within Twilight’s eyes and around the dragon melted away.
I looked first to Twilight, who didn’t at all look shaken up or weakened by what she had just done, but rather she looked at her sceptre curiously, marvelling at what it had just accomplished. I then turned my attention to the dragon who was indeed only half the size of an adult pony, his lilac scales and green spines remained the same, as did his greyish underbelly, although it was completely healed of the wound I had inflicted upon it. The small guy, now wingless, picked himself up slowly, turning to look at Twilight and I with those enchanting emerald eyes.
“He was just a baby dragon all along,” Twilight breathed in amazement.
“Um… hi,” the dragon greeted making both of us jump slightly in surprise. “I’m Spike.”