Like a pike impaled down in a drastically acute angle through a wall of dirt, a massive tower of stone bricks rose out from the side of a mountain range and up into the sky, overlooking the urban valley of a city below. And although the massive tower rose from the earth with bricks for skin, the higher it rose in the air the more the tower's stone exterior merged with the clouds of the sky, until finally its tip ended inside of a raging storm.
This was a storm facility. It was used by the ponies of Equestria to produce arcane and electrical energy for their benefit, and those who looked upon it's staggering height and how it was able to bridge the gap between the earth's mountain and the sky's storm found it a truly impressive sight. Although nearby pegasi with a keen eye for detail would point out that the storm seemed much more violent than usual.
Not that Kindle cared much for a storm or what little ponies thought of it—dragons usually didn't. She was much more focused on the courtyard surrounding the base of the tower, and the double rows of warehouses nearby that lined against the side of the mountain.
Landing between the rows of warehouses with a great, mighty thump, Kindle bellowed out a terrifying roar at the nearby ponies. Like most competent sentients, the ponies were justifiably frightened at the sight of an adult dragon roaring at them, but for good measure, Kindle then raised her head up and let loose a stream of flames into the air above her, deeply frightening more of the little equines. She then let slip a subtle smirk upon her short snout as she saw all of the ponies, many of whom were still garbed in their factory work coats, fearfully scamper away from her like terrified rabbits from a manticore.
"Too easy," thought the dragon as she slowly began moving herself between the warehouses.
Normally, Kindle didn't really go out of her way to bother the little ponies, especially the ones in such a large city. For one, she wasn't an idiot. She knew that terrorizing a city full of ponies, or any city full of the smaller beings of the world, was akin to poking a hornets' nest. Sooner or later, she was going to get swarmed and stung by the nest's vengeful soldiers.
And a dragon she may be, but an army she did not make.
Besides, she actually quite enjoyed the glittering lights and large architecture that the view of the city provided her from her hidden, mountainside nest.
Raising herself up and standing upright at the average height of a fully-grown dragon, Kindle's draconic waist was level with the roofs of the warehouses as she looked over them to view the city beyond. The storm facility's higher location on the side of a small mountain range allowed her to better see the city in its entirety; it's tall buildings and urban covering that stretched on for a mile or two complimenting beautifully with the evening sun of their ruling diarch.
With a dismissive grunt, the dragoness quickly dropped back down on all fours and resumed her traversing.
It was just that, considering the unique circumstances that were currently underway, it would be an absolute shame—a tragedy even—if she didn't take advantage of this opportunity, especially considering that this could be one of the only few times that she'd be able to get away with it.
So here she found herself: stomping along on all fours between the rows of warehouses; her large, leathery wings tucked into her sides, her glimmering, ivory scales shimmering from what light could reach her from under the shade of the tower's high storm, and her long, golden spikes that lined along her spine sailing over the sea of steel roofs like a predator of the ocean. And like a predator, Kindle was on the hunt. With her serpentine neck and her bright, sapphire eyes, she peeked through the windows of the warehouses as she searched for her prey.
And it didn't take long for her to find it.
The glass of a warehouse window shattered into a thousand pieces as an ivory claw nearly as big as the large window itself crashed through it. The claw then gripped the edges of the opening that had once been a window and began tearing out huge chunks of red bricks that made up the wall of the warehouse. It wasn't long before near the entire wall had been torn down, that the dragoness took the underside of the warehouse's metal roof and, with a minuscule amount of effort, tore off the entire roof so as to better gaze down at her prize.
Crystals.
Crystals everywhere.
The now-roofless warehouse was absolutely cluttered with crystals, all of them stored upon the many rows of factory shelves that filled the open interior. But these weren't just any sort of crystals. These blue crystals with white hues glowing in their center were power crystals, filled with the magical energy that had been siphoned off from the nearby storm facility. The ponies, and indeed most community-living sentient beings of the world, don't dare directly connect any sort of energy facility with an entire city, because considering how susceptible magitek is to these kinds of things, it would only take one cursing or haunted possession from a foul spirit to bring it all to ruin, so ponies instead use these gems to power all of their little gizmos and machinery that they use.
Grabbing a shelf with her ivory claw, Kindle shook the crystals loose, letting them clatter to the warehouse's cement floor noisily before tossing the now barren shelf over her shoulder, past her tucked-in wings, and letting the metal factory shelf break and shatter as it impacted against the wall of another nearby warehouse. Turning her attention back to the myriad number of energy crystals that lay scattered on the floor, she meticulously began clumping them up together in a pile with her claws before pressing them up against her scaled underbelly; the slight magnetic-like attraction of her body that was inherent to all dragons allowing them to stick to her scales without the further aid of her limbs.
With the energy gems sticking to her scales, Kindle reached over and grabbed another factory shelf filled with the crystalline batteries and began dumping them free; repeating the process.
It was while she was in the middle of this process of dumping crystals from shelves onto the floor and then sticking them to her coat of scales that a small voice called out through what was left of the warehouse's interior, interrupting her.
"Y'know..." spoke out the male voice in a sardonic tone, "I'm not usually one to judge on another dragon's tastes or anything, but I mean... energy crystals? Seriously?"
Kindle paused in her hoarding, her still claw inches from another shelf, before slowly swiveling her gaze over towards the source of the voice. There, on the far end of the overlook railing that hanged off of one of the warehouse's remaining walls, stood, much to her surprise, a small, purple drake with a casual air about him as he leaned forward on the railing and absentmindedly toyed with an energy crystal in his claw.
"Again, not judging. Just..." the purple dragon tossed up the crystal into the air and took a bite out of it, eating it, before scrunching his face inward in a mixture of slight pain and disgust at the sparks of electricity that danced around his teeth, "...They're just too sour for my tastes, is all."
With a dismissive flare of her nostrils, Kindle batted the factory shelf away and began moving herself towards the little drake. The many other factory shelves in her way being so effortlessly toppled over as she did so, and the multitude number of fallen gems scattering across the floor being paid no mind by her as her sapphire eyes stayed locked on the little, purple dragon, who so confidently waited as his towering kin approached him without any sign of trepidation.
Stopping before him, Kindle could now see that 'little' may have been a bit too relative when describing the purple dragon, as even on all fours the drake stood almost thrice as tall as the average pony—though he was still only barely the size of Kindle's entire head. Unusually, although his much smaller stature to her would indicate his age to be somewhere in the dragon equivalent of an older teenager, his features seemed much too mature and defined to be labeled so young. Whatever remaining baby fat that a young dragon of that size would have was absent, replaced with lean muscle, while the green spikes that lined his back and tail seemed to be much more broad and thick from the experience of age rather than what resulted from youthful growth.
Still, he was only a little dragon, and Kindle would not allow some stunted drake to slight her so easily.
"Well, if it isn't a little dragon among littler ponies," soothed out Kindle as she looked down on the smaller drake, her tone barbed with amusement, "are you another of my kin being raised by the civilized, little species of the world?"
The purple dragon chuckled, "Uh... no, I'm not being raised by them. Bit too old for that, really," he replied, his tone smarmy, "though if you're insinuating that my upbringing has made me civilized, then I won't deny it. After all, I am quite the eloquent speech-giver and writer."
"Is that so?" inquired the dragoness, "And what is it that a sophisticated dragon like you has approached me for? Do you plan to butter me up with honeyed words and ask me to leave?"
"Well... that's one approach," said the small dragon, "and I was sent here to stop you from destroying this place."
"Really? Then I am surprised," replied Kindle with a humorous smirk, "I, myself, was raised by griffons long ago and even those prideful birds taught me the value of not getting in the way of things much bigger than you. I had thought that ponies of all beings would have distilled that into you."
A small, brazen grin never seemed to leave the purple dragon as he leaned forward and replied, "Sorry, I must have missed that lesson. Which, considering all the ones that I had to write down in my younger years alone, is really saying something," he then let loose an indifferent shrug, "but ah well, it doesn't sound like a very important lesson anyways."
With a flare of her nostrils, Kindle blew a cloud of smoke into the little dragon's face for his impudence, which shut that brazen grin of his, "I beg to differ," spoke Kindle, "from one drake to another, let me share you some advice," she leaned her head forward, her snout pushing the purple dragon back as her bright blue eyes locked with his vibrant green ones, "flee," she told him with goad in her tone, her following words causing the smaller dragon to crease a deep frown, "hoard what you can and flee, because by the time after I'm gone, this facility and the city below it will be nothing but a pile of rubble and broken bodies. And you don't want to be here when it's made."
With that said, Kindle turned away from the little dragon, done with him, and returned to gathering the fallen energy crystals that were scattered across the floor, completely unaware of the ire that her words had prodded. With her back turned and her attention focused again on her hoarding, she paid no more attention to the little dragon or how his eyes had grown fierce as they glared into her winged back. Nor was she aware of how those glaring irises began to glow a fiery green, or how his violet scales started to smolder that same glow from the emerald flames that danced out from between their overlapping folds.
It was only when she heard the sound of straining metal tearing under heavy stress, and the subsequent sounds of a collapsing railing and the crumbling of a brick wall behind her that Kindle began to take notice.
But before she could return her gaze behind her, a foreboding shadow fell over her and encompassed her form in her entirety.
Suddenly, the dragoness felt a massive claw grip the base of her tail and an arm wrap around her gem-covered midsection. Before she knew it, Kindle was experiencing a rare sensation that very few adult dragons had ever experienced in their entire lives as ginormous, flying reptiles:
The sensation of being picked up and thrown.
Kindle let loose a defiant roar as she sailed through the air and over a number of warehouses like a boulder launched by a catapult, her wings flailing uselessly against the air in her forced flight, before crashing into the middle of the storm facility's courtyard. The energy crystals that had stuck to her body were now being splayed everywhere as her impact had her rolling across the courtyard from her velocity, brick and dirt being ripped apart and thrown into the air as her hard scales scraped against the ground. When she finally slowed and stilled her barreling, the courtyard of grass and intermingling brick pathways now had a torn trail of dirt and crystals slicing through it with a very irritated dragon at its end.
Invoking the name of her Mother under her breath, Kindle rolled herself off of her back and onto her stomach with a groan. Her head lying on the ground, Kindle quickly shook it to clear away the pain, before letting loose a low, fiery growl as she opened her eyes with the intent of hunting down and smoldering whoever it was that dared to have the audacity to throw her.
With her eyes now open, she was just in time to see the massive, clawed foot that slammed down onto the ground, right in front of her face, startling her.