//------------------------------// // Assault: Part Two // Story: The Dragon's Abyss // by DarklordAxel20 //------------------------------// On the Edge of the Mostly Ruined Ponyville Shade locked eyes with his attackers, blood dripped from his mouth as he bared his teeth. He let out an earth shaking roar as he flapped his wings while still holding up the golem's hand, effectively shooting himself through the golem's hand and through his arm before exiting out the shoulder. The stone behemoth let out a wail of pain as the half breed burrowed through and out of his arm, " I'm made of tougher stuff than you!!," a glint in the sky caught his attention, " Looks like I'm not the only one doing something about this eye sore," and with that he took a sharp turn in the air and flew as far back as possible. " HERE I COME, BIG AND UGLY!!!!," shouted Rainbow Dash as she shot down from the sky straight towards the stone golem, she soon punched through the sound barrier, creating a sonic rainboom, and pushing herself forward greatly at the same time. In a matter of seconds she was only mere inches away from the beast face, time seemed to slow down as she made contact with it. Upon colliding with the golem, she shot straight through it's stone body, the force of the rainboom causing it's upper body to practically explode. " Take that!!," Rainbow cheered as she stopped herself in the air to look at the damage she had done to the colossal being, but her cheers soon fell silent at what she had begun witnessing, " No...no way,". Everypony present at the battleground watched in shock as the Golem, not only managed to stay standing after having most of its upper body blown off and also tanking a head on sonic rainboom, but mere seconds after that, began reforming every piece of its body that it lost from surrounding debris in the area. However while it was reforming itself, Shade caught of a glimpse of something shining within it's chest, but only for a brief moment, " Perhaps that's our solution, ". Rainbow Dash, shocked and distraught at how easily her effort was shaken off, slowly descended to where her friends were, " But...the sonic rainboom is my most awesome move....why didn't it work,". She felt a hoof on her shoulder and turned to see Applejack next to her, " It's alright sugar cube, it would've worked on anypony else, but this here thing ain't no pony, it's best that we leave it up to him now,". The rest of the main six nodded in agreement, including the usually ecstatic Pinkie Pie. Shade eyed the golem's body, searching for any exploitable weak points, " Whoever animated you knew exactly what they were doing, but they missed one major flaw,". The dragon hybrid took flight once again, having thoroughly examined his foe, he was already calculating a strategy in his hand, and by the time he had finished coming up with a plan, he was only mere feet away from him. The now enraged golem swung is massive arm at the oncoming dragon, but this time Shade was expecting this, in fact, it was the first step for his plan to work. He took a rapid nose dive right as the massive arm came down to crush him, dodging it in the process, which led him to the next step, " Like I was saying, you have one major flaw, THE BIGGER THEY ARE!!!," he flew as fast as he could at that moment straight towards the golem's leg, making direct contact and barreling through it and taking it off in the process, " THE HARDER THEY FALL!!!," he watched as the stone giant came crashing down onto it's back, shaking the earth beneath it. Twilight awoke to the feeling of the ground she laid on tremble, " Ow...my head, w..whats going on,". " Twilight darling your OK," it was Rarity who first took notice of Twilight's awakening, and greeted her friend with a warm hug. " I'm glad your OK Twilight," Twilight could instantly tell it was Fluttershy who was speaking to her, the soft voice gave it up right away, " For a second we thought you'd never wake up..,". The sight of an injured Rainbow Dash caught Twilight's attention in a matter of seconds, " Wh..what happened to Rainbow?!,". Rainbow Dash looked up at Twilight and gave her a weak grin before letting out a small groan of pain and answering her. " I hit that big lug with a sonic rainboom....but he just took it all...wasn't too long before he rebuilt himself..ow,". " Sugar cube we'd like to help ya, but without that there fancy chest we used to beat Tirek I don't think any of us would even last a minute against that thing,". The others gave small nod of agreement after hearing Applejack speak. " Your probably right..but theres got to be a wa-," Twilight cut her own sentence off, she and the rest of the main six turned their attentions towards the battlegrounds before them, what they saw caused their jaws to drop, and caused Pinkie's jaw to literally fall to the ground. Shade grasped the golem's remaining leg at the base of the foot, using his already impressive physical strength, aided by his magic, he proceeded to lift the golem into the air. Although he knew it was risky, riskier than what he was doing now, he forced even more magic from his horn, which aided him in flying while holding the stone behemoth. " Let's see how well you fly," he gritted his teeth as he just barely managed to keep the golem above his head. Using as much strength as he could muster, he issued an ear splitting roar, and hurled the beast straight into one of the mountains at the edge of Ponyville. The force of the collision alone caused the crippled golem to fall into a pile at the foot of the mountain. " D..did he just...," Twilight's friends gave a simultaneous nod. After regaining his composure Shade flew over to the rubble that was the golem as fast as his weakened wings could take him, " I know it's here in this pile...but where,". He scanned the area below him for whatever it is that he was looking for, unaware of the danger above him. The golem burst out from the mountain, bringing it's colossal fist down on him, and smashing him and itself onto the pile of stones below them. Twilight shot up onto all four of her legs as she watched Shade being crushed, " NOO!!!!," without thinking about anything else at the very moment, she took off towards them, praying that Shade was OK. The golem quickly reformed, leaving an injured Shade underneath the rubble of it's previous body. However it was too busy getting a feel of it's new body to notice the magic blast hurtling towards it. The blast made contact with tremendous force, causing the stone giant to stumble back with every blast. " I HATE YOU!!!!," Twilight was enraged, for all she knew Shade could be dead under that pile of stones, she didn't even get a chance to tell him how she felt, like she had planned back at the castle. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she shot off blast after blast, each blast chipping away at the golem's stone hide. The more she hit the golem however, the more enraged it became, it wildly swung it's arms at the angered princess, only to be blasted again and again. Underneath the rubble that was the golem's previous body however, Shade was very much alive. In fact despite being buried underneath tons of boulders, he had a grin on his face. " I'm ready to end this," he could feel his blood literally boiling as the heat inside of him built up to dangerous levels. Fire shot from the boulders that laid on top of Shade, seeping through every crack and crevice at super heated temperatures. The sight was enough to stop Twilight's assault on the stone giant, this however left her open for an imminent attack. Which is exactly what happened, while her attention was diverted towards the burning pile of stones, the golem brought it's hands towards Twilight, clapping both of them on her, causing her to fall unconscious, and plummet towards the ground below. Right as the golem let Twilight drop, the pile of boulders behind it erupted in a powerful and fiery explosion, but despite the sound the explosion let out, it did not drown out the roar of pure rage the Shade let out as he stood on his hind legs. The golem went to turn towards the source of the noise, but upon facing Shade, he was no longer there. It was too late for the golem to realize that Shade was flying right towards him, " ENOUGH!!!!!!, THIS ENDS NOW!!!!," Shade's horn began glowing brightly, rapidly enveloping himself in it's glow before becoming completely covered in a ethereal dragon. Shade made contact with the golems chest in a very distinct spot, quickly burrowing through it's chest cavity and upon exiting on the other side he had exposed what was keeping the golem alive the whole time, a large chunk of crystal that was embedded into the golem's chest, during the whole fray it had done it's best to hide it's weak spot, even resorting to moving it to another part of his body when Rainbow Dash hit it with a sonic rainboom. Twilight weakly opened her eyes as she slowly plummeted towards the ground beneath her, a slight smile appeared on her face as she softly mumbled something, "...Get him Shade..,". Shade let out another earth Shaking roar before making a quick u-turn and aiming for the golem's exposed weak point. The golem attempted to shield the exposed crystal, but it was too late, Shade pushed himself further, excelling in speeds that could match Rainbow Dash. Using this speed boost he launched himself back through the golem's chest, this time barreling through the crystal, and shattering it on impact. The ethereal dragon quickly disappeared from around Shade, allowing him to take a rapid nose dive in order to catch the falling princess, and right as she was about to hit the solid earth below her,he swooped down, and flew her to where her friends were. " And stay gone," all six of them watched as the golem let out a loud death cry that shook the earth, before falling apart, boulder by boulder, until he was no more than a pile of rocks. a small cough escaped Twilight's mouth as she attempted to stand up, " H..how did you know where to hit it..?,". " Yes darling how ever did you know how to put a stop to that monstrosity, both Twilight and Rainbow Dash hit it as hard as they could and yet it didn't work, how did you know that gorgeous gem was in it's chest? ," asked Rarity. He let out a short chuckle before letting out a sigh of relief, " I kept my eyes open the whole time, when Rainbow Dash struck the beast only it's upper body fell apart, but when it began reforming I noticed something rather interesting, a bright and warm shine within all cold stone, and then it hit me, that's what made it so invulnerable,". "..F..fascinating," Twilight looked at Shade and gave him the best smile she could muster. Shade returned the smile, but it didn't stay for long as something caught his attention, rising from the corpse of the golem were shards of the same crystal he had just shattered. " What in the..," he didn't get a chance to finish what he was going to say as the shards flew towards him at blinding speeds before flying right at his chest, but instead of burrowing into him like he thought they would, it was as if his body was letting them inside. Despite the rather warm welcome his body had given the crystals, the warm feeling was quickly replaced by unbearable pain. Shade let out a shout comparable to that of someone who was being murdered, he grasped his chest before falling over as he slowly passed out. Twilight screamed in shock and terror as she watched Shade fall over unconscious, " Shade!!," she tried her best to limp over to him, only succeeding in stumbling and falling next to him, but she never hit the ground. " Twilight, is everypony OK?!," Twilight recognized the voice of her former mentor, " I'm sorry I didn't assist in the crisis....to be honest, I was too shocked to do anything," she turned her head towards the unconscious Shade. " Perhaps I did judge him too quickly...," using her magic, the solar princess lifted up both Shade and Twilight, " Come everypony,there is much to discuss,". Although slightly confused by the princess's behavior, the rest of the main six could only comply with what she had ordered them to do, perhaps it would finally shine some light on everything that just happened.