Marks of Babylon
Chapter 8
Dragolonians Part 1
Crystal empire.
Dawn.
5.55am.
Guard meeting room.
Before his position started, due to the most recent physical damage, Captain Shining Armor was talking to his fellow guards about how they may need to increase their security, as well as other matters.
This continued until one of them needed to go to the John and left the others.
As he entered the empty bathroom, he opened the stall and to his surprise, some one was waiting for him on the inside, and immediately pulled him in. He tried to protest and call out for help, when an off-screen punch sound emitted, followed by a thud, and he suddenly went silent.
Meanwhile in the other room, it was almost time to start their day jobs and so Shining's colleagues went their separate paths. He was turning to grab his helmet, and as he put it on...
"Shining!" A stranger called out from behind.
He turned to see the unfamiliar voice. "Yo Shining!"
It was a teenage dragon wearing one of the guards outfits. His appearance almost made him gasp at first.
Imagine Spike:
Was Garble's age.
Had razor sharp spines and claws.
Had green spikes for spines all over his head like a porcupines back.
Got a six pack.
Was muscly
Grew wings as big and long as a Charizard's.
Had a mace at the end of his tail instead of that pointy thing.
Had a 9 foot long tail.
Grew a thin beard like an 18 year olds.
That's basically a description of what this dragon looks like.
"Name's Xervint, your new recruit." He began to approach Shining. "Just wanted to say that's gonna be awesome hanging with you, brah."
Shining wasn't sure what to make of this; he had never had a dragon used as a guard before, and he wasn't told that there would be any new recruits joining recently. Still, they may have needed the help of everyone at the moment, and he seemed nice enough.
"Um thanks?" He replied.
"Hey, don't sweat it. High five, man!" He offered his claw. Shining smiled and returned with a hoof, until...
As soon as he made contact, Xervint appeared to lightly wrap the front of his claw around his hoof, and Shining could feel energy flowing straight out of his body. He felt like something sucked the life out of him. All of a sudden, his cutie mark went dark.
Xervint smiled. "Hmm. See ya." He then walked off in the opposite direction to where Shining weakly trotted.
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About the same time as this, the apple family were just about to start their work routine, except for Applejack, who was still resting due to injury, left over from Phoxjes and Spike.
As Applebloom was walking past her sister's room, she felt scared at the sound of her sister's groans of agony, trying to move. She crept her head in the slightly opened doorway, and looked sad.
'How much longer til ah'm like that? Are they gonna come fer me as well?' The thought of being ambushed by the five stallions and one mare lingered in her head.
As she began to walk down the stairs, something was thrown into the corridor.
She jumped when it dropped on the floor behind her, but she reluctantly went to pick it up anyway.
It was a melted apple pastry. More worrying was that it was the pastry that SHE made yesterday. She noticed that there was a note attached to it.
'Hey AB baby! We haven't met, but I need ya for something. Meet Spike at the Collapsed Chasm in 10 minutes. Oh, and Bring your friends, just for the laughs.'
Yours faithfully
Xervint.'
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Meanwhile, just outside of Ponyville, Twilight and Rainbow dash were walking together debating what they should do next about the Babylonians.
They continued their discussion, until they came to a mountain side and overheard some distant fillies above them.
"Hey, what're you doing up there!?!!" Twilight panicked.
"Heading for the collapsed Chasm! Spike said he'll meet us there! Scootaloo responded.
"And you really believed him!?!" Shouted Twilight.
"Don't worry, we'll be fine!" Called Sweetie. "Up here we're perfectly-" she was then cut off by the explosion caused right behind her and the other two by some mixture of green lightning and Shining Amour's magic.
The three of them lost their balance and fell off the cliff.
"NOO!!" The two elements shouted in unison as they flew up to try and catch them. And they were about to, but were out flew by a certain dragon as he caught two in one hand each and the third in his tail.
"Spike!?" Twilight called out surprised, and as she did he circled and landed them and himself safely on the ground. The other two ran up to him and once they stopped he turned his face.
"Nope, never heard of him." He stated. She hardly cared, however, seeing as how he just saved the lives of three young fillies.
"Twilight he looks exactly like-" Rainbow Dash whispered to her.
"I know. Should we go and talk to him?" Twilight whispered back to her.
"Hey, thanks for the save." Said Rainbow to the dragon.
"That was pretty cool of you."
"Seems as though we owe you our gratitude." Followed Twilight.
"Well, I'm flattered that you're grateful, but I just wish I could do what you do. I mean you're like real heroes or something! It's great to meant ya!" He said offering Twilight a hoof shake.
She took it and, like what he did to Shining, she felt a draining shock as soon as he wrapped his claw around her hoof. Now she felt power drained. Her cutie mark's light faded as well. He released.
"You too" he said to Rainbow, repeating the cycle over again. Her strength felt strange as well.
"Later~" he playfully whistled. As he walked off.
"Hey, Twilight? I'm not feeling too good." Moaned Rainbow.
"Yeah, me nether."
They both then found it difficult to stand up, and were about to fall over, until the other three girls tried to help them up.
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"Just try again, Twi" Applejack said picking up a book and putting it on a desk.
"Come on, Applejack, this is the fifth time now." She moaned.
"Okay, I'll try." She then tried with all her might to use her magic to even shift the book at all, but to no avail. She only hurt herself from stress and fell down. Again.
"Huh...huh...huh...this is...as fast...huh...as...I can go...huh" gasped Rainbow dash while running at a regular ponies running pace on a treadmill. Her newly formed cramp forced her to stop.
"Well..." Said Twilight as she picked herself up. "The problem's clear enough. Rainbow and I are no longer in possession of our special talents. The question is, how?"
"Hey! You six!" The elements turned their heads to see Scootaloo rush in on her scooter.
"Scoootaloo, what're you doing here?" asked Fluttershy.
"You gotta hear this! There's been a massive fire started in the ever free forest, and it's about to hit Fluttershy's cottage!"
"What!?!" Fluttershy cried. "Those poor animals could get hurt!"
"Well then let's not waste any time!" Said Pinkie.
"Twilight, perhaps you and Rainbow Dash should stay hear and rest." Recommended Rarity. "You shouldn't strain yourself too much."
They agreed.
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The other four galloped as fast as they could over to the cottage and saw that the roof was already on fire. But for 'some' reason, the fire was purple.
"Hey." Called Pinkie. "I thought that she said that it was ABOUT to catch fire." They all had to push their way in front of the crowd of ponies in front of them. There were a numerous amount of other ponies at the scene looking at the flames work.
"Alrighty then." Began Applejack. "I'm gonna see if I can bust out any of them lil' critters" she ran to the other entrance to break the doors open when she heard...
"Help!" She turned to the stream to see something struggling. "Somepony help me!" He said before going down. She had no choice but to jump in and try to save him.
As soon as she even dived in, she felt something grab her and drained something from inside of her. She was flown out of the water quite quickly. She weakly saw that she was in the arms of a certain dragon as he safely landed her onto the land and began his show.
The other three tried what they could to extinguish the flames, before they were shown up. Something was flying above them with incredible speed. He used a source of purple magic in his left hand and a somewhat pink source in his right to move some parts of the stream water over the fire.
"Here, let the people show you how it's done." He shouted as he zoomed around the house at Rainbow Dash speed putting out every inch of fire.
"Who is that guy?" Asked Rarity as a very exhausted Applejack walked on scene.
"Aw...heck if ah know." He suddenly rushed over right in front of Rarity.
"Name's Xervint! And I've always wanted to meet the most beautiful pony in Equestria." he said while taking her hoof.
"Oh! W-well-"
The energy drain happened again.
"You two, babe." he said as he let go and offered it to Fluttershy as she whimpered to the sight of a teenage dragon. He was about to grab her by force before, to his unfortunate surprise, the other ponies in the crowd carried him away.
"There he is!" "He saved the animals!" "Xervint!" "He's a superhero!" He was lifted and rode the crowd.
"Nah... Just a regular hero." He called to his newly adoring public.
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"Then he touched us, and all of a sudden our special talents were gone." Rarity finished explaining to the others.
"Well it's clear what the problem is. Him." Replied Rainbow.
"On one hoof, he is using our talents to help ponies." Said Twilight.
"But on the other hoof, it's just stealing. And I want my speed back! Nothing that this guy does is gonna stop that."
"At the very least, Xervint acts as though..." Fluttershy was interrupted.
"Wait a minute. Xervint? Isn't that the name of the dragon who sent the letter to Celestia the day Spike got kidnapped?" Of course, only Twilight would remember that.
Before any pony could answer, three guards came running down the hallway, two of them carrying the third.
"Your highness! Captain Shining requires to speak to you straight away!" One of them called to Twilight.
"Shiny what happened!?" She asked as she tried to help him up.
"I'm the one who should be asking that." He said as he found the strength to stand.
"You should still be resting after that battle we had with Phoxjes a few days ago." twilight was still focused on that battle.
"Have any of you seen a dragon come by here?"
"As a matter of fact, we have. In fact, we're just talking about him." This got him to stand properly.
"He didn't touch you did he!?"
"Um... Maybe?"
He sighed.
"You see, this morning he came by the crystal empire and claimed that he was joining my command. He then touched me and I felt a strange power running through me. After this, I caught him with my own eyes abandoning his post, and flying off into Canterlot. I ran as fast I as could to follow him until my energy completely dropped. Even during passing out, I managed to see what he did next. He fired some sort of energy beam from his spines and caused a rock slide."
"That dirty little gecko!" Twilight shouted. "So first he stole your talent, then he caused a dangerous rockslide, then he rescued the crusaders and stole our talents, just so he could be famous."
"Yeah, an ah'm fairly certain he's the one who started the fire at the cottage where mine an rarity's talents went missin'" replied AJ.
"Well, I think that it's payback time!" Declared Rainbow. "Now let's find us a certain dragon."
Just then, they all heard some cheering in the distance. They looked out of the window to see tons of ponies gathering around a teenage dragon who appeared to be signing autographs.
"Well, that wasn't too difficult." Joked Twilight.
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"Xervint!" "Over here, Xervint!" "Sign mine!" "Xervint, come on!"
"Easy, every pony!" He called. "My beautiful face is here to stay, so there's plenty of Xervint to go around."
"Oh, is that so?" A tomboyish voice called from behind the public.
"Better save the celebrations, Xervint, for the real magic show, because there isn't any power in you, is there? Cause the real Xervint is nothing more than a big powerless, uh..., Xervint head!" "Twilight only shook her head at this.
"Dash, that makes no sense."
"You stole our special talents, didn't you! Admit it: you're a big fraud!"
The ponies all gasped.
"You're not getting away again." Rarity finished.
"BHA HA HA! Stole YOUR talents!? Look, every pony, they're only jealous because for once, someone else can do something better than they can, and Twilight wants me gone for looking like her enemy!"
Unfortunately, the public was still on his side at this point.
They all started booing at the mane six.
"But I'm a nice drake, so I am willing to forgive and forget." He used Rainbow's powers to rush over to Fluttershy and place his hand on her shoulder.
"We can be friends, right?" He asked with a friendly tone.
She then felt her inner strength flow straight into his claw emitting from all of her body.
"Fluttershy! Get away from her!" Twilight called as she ran up and pulled her friend away too late.
"See? I thought she was meant to represent the magic of friendship!" He called as the crowd then began to boo at the mane six again.
"Alright, I've had enough of this super clown!" Rainbow shouted. She then whispered "Maybe if we rush him all at once, he won't be able to defend himself."
"Good thinking, dash." Twilight replied.
The six of them did just that.
He then used Rarity's powers to pull some gems out of the ground at use Twilight's to launch each one at them. This knocked them all back into one big pile.
"Any more thoughts?" Asked Rainbow.
"Man, they are totally out for me!" He shouted as he then charged up his spines and fired against some streetlights and trees nearby, causing them to fall on the girls.
"Ya see? I gotta defend myself!" The mane six each tried to avoid the rocks as they dodged each one. He was toying with them and they knew it well.
Then out of nowhere, a pink puff of smoke appeared on top of the rocks.
"Alright, captain suck-up! And I mean that literally. You may think you can do everything, but can you do..." She reached behind her and pulled out her infamous party cannon. "THIS!?"
"Hey, I thought Caxpe broke that toy!" He smirked back at her. She open fired and he flew out of reach, then back down.
"Sweet! But can you do this?" He said as his razor sharp spines lit up and fired the same energy beam from before directly at Pinkie.
"AHH" she shouted as some smoke was summonsed around her. Xervint saw this and took an opportunity and rushed over to her using Rainbow's speed.
"Gotcha." He playfully said when he wrapped his claws around the smoke, but to seemed to grab nothing.
"Huh!?!"
The ponies and one dragon then looked up to see her on top of one of the houses.
"Ha! Can you do THAT!" She mocked. He then rushed up a different house and charged right at her. He crawled down when landing, and tried to grab her, but she seemed to have gone again.
"Grrr" he snarled.
"Oh Xervint~" she called. She was now on a random ponies head. He charged again, and she disappeared again.
"Where are ya, Pie dude!?"
Twilight and her friends then smiled at Pinkie's usual randomness.
"Hey look! Pinks is actually getting to him." She said
"Seems like she's somehow evolved irritating to a special talent." Replied Rainbow.
Xervint was still looking around for her, when suddenly...
"Heads up!" A shout was heard from another roof. They all saw that she was using her party cannon again and was already launched directly at him. However, he was a quick thinker and got into counter position he jumped onto his hands and readied his legs.
"Back at ya." He shouted as he used AJ's talent to buck it away back to Pinkie. She couldn't move quick enough and was hit as well as sent flying off of the roof.
"Ha!" Came a teenage voice as it flew by and grabbed her. "Gotcha now party girl. How's it feel to be shaking and grooving in fear?"
A strange shock wave then flew right through her body and into his.
"Not fun." She sadly answered.
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"Well that makes six out of six." Twilight began.
"What are we gonna do? Now that he's got my power, he's almost unstoppable." Whined Pinkie.
"You know, maybe what Phoxjes told us can help."
"You mean "Help is what he will have have, if his power you are to feed.
Retrieve that power back, and help is what he will then need."?" Asked an uninterested Rainbow.
"Yeah, if we somehow find a way to steal our special talents back, maybe then he'll be completely powerless." Twilight brainstormed.
"OK so we have a plan. Now how do we get our talents back?" Fluttershy joined in.
"We do what they would've done. Go in there with as much brutal force as we can until we get what we want."
"Alright, let's draw him out with some bait first." Suggested Rarity. "And I believe I know where to find it."
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"THIS is yer plan?!" Asked AJ. "Yer makin' us walk all the way over 'ere again to find a dragon?!"
"Ugh." grunted Rarity. "I do believe I'm starting to see why these dogs blame me for whining."
"Ah still think ma plan is gonna work better."
"Rarity what if the diamond dogs take you again?"
"AAAHHHH!!!" Screamed a voice from the inside of the nearest cave.
The mane six went over to investigate, when rover and his old friends were sent hurdling out.
"Hahahahahahaha!" Laughed a teenage voice from inside.
"Run!!" Called Rover. The other mutts followed as they pegged it.
The mane six knew who it was and rush in.
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"Xervint!!" Shouted Twilight as they reached the end of the tunnel. "We've come for our- woah." She stopped as she saw what Xervint had done to the cave.
There was gem and rock statues of famous dragons who Twilight and her friends couldn't recognise.
Xervint could be seen from the other side on a ruby, sapphire and emerald throne. Golden robes hung from the ceiling and the room floor was almost spotless from loose stones.
Everywhere was nicely decorated with gems and even regular paintings. Not to mention the room itself was now approximately 60-100 metres long and wide.
"What took you so long? Was wittle Fwuttershy scared of the big mean dragon, or did Rarity spend another five hours preparing her mane?"
"I love what you've done with the decor." Gazed Rarity.
"If you beat me, you can have it."
"We didn't come for a cave, we've come for our talents." Shouted Twilight.
"Bring on, Zelda!" He roared as he leaped from his throne and flew above and over them as he fired his familiar spine beam at them. They managed to dodge each one landing almost perfectly.
"Ha. Been practising? Well that won't help much against this!" He shouted as he fired all three magic sources of Twilight, Rarity and Shining from his hands and tail.
The six jumped out the way as it hit a pillar, causing it to fall on him.
"Heads up, Xervint!" shouted Rainbow. He gasped and flew out of the way.
"Wow! You're trying to mock me too! Keep it up Dash and maybe soon you'll be able to insult me."
"That won't be the only way you'll be hurt!" Charged Twilight. She jumped up and tried to slam him. He blocked her and threw her down.
"Bring it on! I've still got my old moves too!" He tries a few punches, kicks air strikes and slam.
This continued until she got behind and pounced on him, wrapping her hooves around him tightly. They struggled for a few milliseconds when...
"Ah, hooves off, kid!!"
A purple glow emerged from his body and began to slow transfer over to her.
Twilight's eyes then began to glow in the same colour of her coat. She could feel herself getting stronger.
He proved stronger still, and managed to throw her forwards, getting her off of him.
"Hey..." Her horn started to glow slightly. She had an idea.
"Hey Xervint, I've got a little present for you" Rainbow dash confidently said as she ripped out part of the ground and launches it at him having Applejack buck it.
He was still a bit shocked from having Twilight absorb him so he couldn't dodge. He was buried in the rubble.
"Grrr..." He snarled as he got back up and his eyes glowed up in the same colour as Rarity's magic as he lifted his left hand at the two and fired a light blue magical beam, knocking them down.
"Surprise!" Shouted a pink earth pony as she then had a ton of small rocks and boulders next to her. She then took cover behind them and her mane then activated like a launcher, firing each one at him.
"Oh, so that's how it's gonna be?" He reached behind him and pulled out "his" party cannon. He started to open fire at each rock, causing balloons to pop and confetti to scatter everywhere.
The other girls then took cover. Twilight then began to inform them.
"Girls, I know how to beat him. When I touched Xervint I felt my powers coming back."
"So that is why he won't let any one near him. He absorbs the powers through touch, so we can get them back the same way." Suggested Fluttershy.
The party explosions continued until eventually Pinkie ran out of rocks to launch and the cannon aimed right for her, knocking her back into the other girls.
"And that was extreme measures, Xervint style."
"Time for a little squeeze play. Come on, girls, altogether." Twilight declared. They all rushed at once.
He then punched Twilight to the left, punched Rainbow to the right, threw Applejack up into the air, knocked Pinkie pie away with his tail, grabbed Rarity and threw her down when he jumped and kicked Fluttershy away.
Applejack then looked down as she prepared to land on him by bucking. Xervint saw this and used Twilight's powers to teleport away.
"Uh-oh." she stated as she landed on Rarity and Xervint reappeared 4 feet away.
"Why don't you take a seat, Xervint(?)!" Shouted Rainbow as she picked up his throne and lobbed it at him.
"That's okay Dashy!" He replied as he used Shining's magic to pick it up and throw it back at her. He then picked it up and placed it back at the original spot.
He laughed and used Twilight's magic to pile them all together.
"He's never gonna let us get near enough to him, girls." Twilight whispered.
"Unless he don't see us comin'." Replied Applejack.
"Ahahahaha! Aww, the poor little moron six all fall down." He laughed.
"Yeah, well come closer and say that to my face." Ordered Twilight.
"Ha! I have Pinkie sense, remember? I know what you're up to!"
Just then a familiar red aura emitted from HIS chest. The girls all knew what this meant.
"Let's see(!) You're all failing, I'm getting stronger with each passing second, your world is in danger, and every pony is treating ME like a HERO. Does that sound at all familiar(?)" He pointed to a painting above his throne. The girls looked.
It was so many cities crumbling and falling apart with many ponies and dragons getting hurt. No one seemed happy in this. The mane six instantly knew what this was meant to be.
This was clearly Babylon.
"I've been where you are, and I'm NOT going back! You six are so over! Grrraah!" He roared as he looked up.
"Bloom, now!!" Applejack shouted across the room. Xervint looked confused.
"Order up, big guy!" Shouted a younger cowgirl from behind the throne. She showed herself and threw the melted sludge of what she once called her apple pastry directly at him. He turned around a bit too late.
"Ugh! Ah! My eyes!" He tried to wipe them as her then fired the two unicorn's and one alicorn's magic in random directions.
"Now! Rush him!" Twilight called out. The other five obeyed. They each grabbed onto a different section of him and stretched him wide.
"No!!" He cried.
"Oh yeah!!" Shouted Rainbow dash.
"No don't!!"
"Ahh!!" Squealed Rarity.
"Uhh ha ha!!" Twilight grunted.
"No!"
"Yes!!" Applejack pushed.
"Ahh!!"
"Hehehe!!"
They released their grip.
"Will all real powers stand up, and all phonies fall down?" Twilight playfully stated as Xervint fell on cue. They just left him their staring at him breathing heavily.
"Only one thing left to do." She then declared.
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Xervint woke to find himself in a metal prison cell with him on the floor. He open his eyes more to see a certain white stallion hovering over him.
He placed his hoof directly on him.
"Ahh-ahhah!" He wanted to scream.
"I'll take my talent back, thank you very much." He started as he released.
"He-he- Twilight made you wait til I was awake to do that, didn't she?"
"Charismatic until the end, aren't we?" Xervint looked up slightly to see the goddess of the sun herself standing on the other side of the room to them.
"Cel baby!!" He laughed. Even she smiled.
"Hello, "Sypher.""
He tried to move, but quickly caught on that his hands were trapped in something. They appeared to be metal holders for his hands, preventing him from touching anything.
"Huh?"
"We shall release those and free you whenever you want. All you need do is hand Spike over to us." She demanded sounding serious.
"Hahaha. I would if I could- Well, actually no I wouldn't, but the point is that Spike is in no way of my control."
She sighed, then got an idea.
"Discord would've probably said the same thing..."
"Ah the old disc dude? Now that I could sort out with Phoxjes..."