//------------------------------// // A Kidnapping and a Challenge // Story: Fairy Tail: The Draco-Pony Conflict // by edwinflores428 //------------------------------// The band of wizards, ponies, dragons and...whatever Discord is, had finally reached the Dragon Lands, determined to bring Garble to justice before he could strike Equestria with his army, though unknown to them he was already aware of their plan and was preparing to intercept them as they spoke. "And then I said to the Changeling 'You had that many holes in your legs when I got here!'" "HAHAHAHA!! Good one Discord." Pinkie laughed. "I don't get it." Gajeel muttered. "You wouldn't. You've never seen Changelings before." Twilight explained. "So what exactly are we going to do when we get there?" Lucy inquired. "We already know Garble's expecting us thanks to Melinda's fake message. Do we have a plan to beat him?" "Easy! Mel said there are ways in that Mouth Wash doesn't know about. We head in through there and then take 'em by storm!" Natsu grinned. "It's always by storm with you." Lucy muttered. "But he is right about entering by a route Garble isn't aware of." Erza said. "Or better yet, we make our own way in. And I believe Lucy has just the friend for the job." "Virgo! Of course! She could dig a tunnel right into the throne room and we'd attack Garble right under his big red nose!" Happy cheered. "It's certainly less risky than running into his guards on our way in. There's no telling if he's discovered every way into the Kingdom by now." Melinda said. "Ok, well we have our way in. So then what?" Natsu asked. "The best course of action would be to dethrone Garble so the dragon slayers should go after him together while the rest of us handle his armies before they launch the next attack on Equestria." Twilight suggested. "It's certainly a start. But then our plans never go exactly the way we want them to." Rainbow said awkwardly. "But, we always pull through." she added. "Same goes for us. We go up against the impossible every month." Gajeel snickered. "Well to start off, I say we head to one of them secret entrances Melinda spoke of and form the rest of our plan there. That way we at least won't be seen out in the open by Mouth Wash or his minions." Applejack recommended. "Good call. Lead the way, Melinda." Twilight said as the dragoness took the lead while the others followed after. XXX "King Garble! We've sighted the enemy! They're headed for one of the secret entrances!" a guard spoke to the red dragon. A pompous smirk crossed his face as he drummed his claws together. "Excellent. Just as I thought they would. Nice try, Melinda, but I know every way into this land." he ended his monologue to face the guard. "Send the troops to intercept them, and remember. I want them all alive. What better way to crush the ponies' hopes than by executing their 'saviours' before them?" the guard swallowed at the darkness of the plot but nodded in understanding before taking his leave. "Nothing can stop me now, Celestia." XXX Meanwhile the invaders had reached a large mountain with a boulder placed in front. Melinda stood beside the rock and, with some effort, managed to roll it away to reveal a tunnel within. "Alright, now we're getting somewhere!" Natsu grinned as they entered the passage. "This should lead us into the lower regions of the castle." Melinda stated. "Once inside we'll make for the throne room with help from Lucy's spirit friend." she added to which the young woman smiled proudly knowing this was one of those rare occurrences where her magic was crucial to victory. As they descended deeper into the dark, Spike couldn't help glancing at Melinda as she lead the way. At first the drake had believed what he felt was admiration for her courage, wits and knowledge of the positives to his species but the more time he spent around her the more he realized he may not just looked up to her like he did Natsu and the Dragon Slayers. "M-Melinda....I..I want to tell you something before we fight Garble." the sapphire beauty turned around to face him as he spoke to her. "Really? What is it, Spike?" she asked with an curious smile. "W-Well, you see. The thing is...at first when I got to know you I thought I just admired you like I did Natsu and the others." Spike began. "Aww that's so sweet. I'm glad I've earned your praise." "I-I know but, after all this I've started to realise that-" "Shh!" the dragoness suddenly hissed. "Melinda I-" Spike tried to continue only for Natsu to cut him off this time. "Hold on. I hear something." the pink haired pyro said as the group stopped moving to listen. To the majority only silence reached their ears but to the dragons and slayers a faint scratching sound could be heard. Almost like...digging...from beneath them. KROOSH!! Before anyone could react the ground in front and behind them exploded in bursts of ground rock and dirt as four dragons emerged from the earth trapping the group between them. "Burrow Dragons! It's an ambush!" Melinda exclaimed. "But how did they find us?! I thought Garble didn't know about this tunnel!" Twilight questioned. "He shouldn't have!" Melinda explained. "He must have discovered it while I was away!" "Damn! Looks like the sneak attacks busted." Gray cursed. "Guess we'll have to do it Natsu's way after all." "Never thought you'd see it my way, frosty." the aforementioned grinned cockily before pounding his fists. "Alright let loose with the fire, I'm starving!" he egged the dragons on as they began to draw breath but instead of flames large clouds of yellowish gas poured from their maws engulfing the group who began coughing loudly. "GAAH!! What the hell do you dragon's eat?! That stinks!" Natsu gagged. "I can't breath! I feel so heavy!" Wendy coughed. "They're using smoke and sulfur! We have...to get...out..." Melinda tried to speak though her vision had begun to blur. "You cowards! Falling back on cheap tactics...like that." Erza said as she fell tot he ground and soon did the others as the dragon's stopped spraying them and one summoned a communicator flame. "King Garble. We've successfully knocked out the intruders." "Very good. take them tot he dungeon immediately. Begin with the traitor, Princess Twilight and that human girl Lucy. She has the means to bypass our security." the dragons nodded before three of them picked up the Alicorn, dragoness and celestial wizard while the fourth grabbed rarity due to her being the only other pony capable of magic. "Send for more to gather the rest. They won't stay asleep forever." but just as the dragons were leaving with their captives a growl reached their ears forcing them to turn around to see Discord had regained consciousness. "This isn't over you lizards." he glared and before they could stop him the chaos spirit enveloped himself and the group in a bubble which then disappeared with a pop. XXX A multitude of dizzy groans filled the air as the heroes groggily awoke form their daze to find themselves back outside a fair distance away from the kingdom. "Wha...What happened? Where are we?" Rainbow asked no one in particular. "Where's Lucy?!" Natsu shouted. "I can't find her scent!" "Melinda's gone too! And Twilight! And Rarity as well!" Spike panicked. "I'm sorry. I couldn't reach them in time." everyone looked to see Discord sitting with his back to them, staring at the kingdom in the distance. "What happened, Discord?" Applejack questioned. "The dragons knocked us out and captured some of the girls. I woke up and teleported us to safety." the draconequus explained. "And you just left the girls behind?!" Natsu thundered. "Natsu don't please." Fluttershy calmed him. "If it wasn't for Discord we all would've been captured." the salamander bit his lip frustrated over his friends capture before Erza spoke. "It seemed Garble new of our plan all along. My guess is he found out about Melinda's betrayal and found the rest of the entrances he didn't know of before. We walked right into his trap." "I told you we should've done it my way!" Natsu said. "Our plans never work so why bother?! Let's just charge in a rain hell down on that Mouth Wash dragon and his minions!" the young man was about to charge off before Erza seized him by his scarf. "Hold it! It's true stealth's no longer an option what with the dragon's on high alert and with Lucy captured we can't use Virgo's digging magic. But even so we can't charge in without a strategy before we do. So let's at least figure out how we're going to breach the castle and free our friends." "Here here." Pinkie agreed as the group huddled together to reform a new plan of action. XXX Meanwhile, deep beneath the castle in some unknown dungeon, the two unicorns, dragoness and human were stirring awake also. "What's going on?" Lucy sat up only to notice her hands were bound behind her back. What's more Melinda was wearing a muzzle and Twilight and Rarity had their horns locked in some strange cuffs, and like Lucy their limbs were restrained as well. "Oh great, as if I've been in enough dungeons already." "Lucy?" Twilight mumbled before she came to her senses. "Where are we? Where are the others?!" "It was Garble." Melinda confirmed. "He must have found out about my betrayal. He knew we'd try and use a different route to sneak in so he covered all of them. And he even overheard our plans to use Lucy's spirits to aid our attack. He got us good." "Shoot! I can't reach my keys with my hands bound like this!" Lucy grunted as she tried and failed to grab her key pouch. "Now what do we do?!" "Well for starters we mustn't panic." Rarity said. "Since none of the others are here it's best to assume they managed to escape those halitosis riddled dragons. So all we have to do is wait here for them to come and rescue us." the others nodded begrudgingly. Based on the situation all they could do for now was wait, whether they liked it or not. XXX "Forgive me, Spike, but that is the craziest bonkers plan I've ever heard!" Applejack hollered. "It's suicide man! I know you've grown but not THAT much! He'll tear you to pieces!" Rainbow panicked. "Guys it's the only way! Garble may be a rotten king but he won the throne by right so we can't just beat him up or the dragons won't have a leader to regulate them." the little drake said. "But you're joining Fairy Tail. How's this plan supposed to work then?" Pinkie asked. "...Yeah I'm still working on that part but right now what matters is dethroning Garble." Spike said. "Hey, you've got this, buddy." Natsu ruffled his spines as the dragon smiled at him before he rolled up a scroll he'd finished writing and passed it to Levy. "Can you reconfigure it so it goes to Garble instead of Celestia?" "Leave it to me, Spike!" Levy grinned with a thumbs up. "If it involves reading or writing, Shrimps your girl!" Gajeel laughed making her blush from what could have been embarrassment or pride...or both. The script mage added a few edits to the scroll before handing it back to Spike who took a deep breath before spraying it with fire, disintegrating it and sending it whizzing off toward the kingdom. "Now we wait." Erza muttered. XXX Back in the dungeon the girls were sitting in their cell, unable to figure a way out of their predicament. Lucy was trying to reach her keys again only for them to dangle out of reach of her fingertips. "GRRRRR THIS STINKS! If I could just summon Cancer he'd cut us loose no trouble!" she raged. "I know! I could levitate your keys to your hand but my horn isn't working with this weird cuff on it!" Twilight cursed. "Ugh! We should have never taken that route in the first place!" Rarity huffed. "Why didn't we just have Discord warp us inside or something?!" "I'm sorry. This is my fault." Melinda apologised. "I should have known Garble might have found out about me." "Oh Melinda you mustn't blame yourself." Twilight said. "It wasn't your fault." "No I should've seen this coming. I just haven't been very focused since I've been around Spike." almost instantly after she finished the sentence she covered her mouth as a blush came to her face. "What do you mean by that?" Rarity asked her eyes narrowed. "I...I mean...that is..." Melinda tried to say through her tied tongue. "Well maybe if you weren't so distracted by him you could have come up with a more full proof plan, and then maybe we wouldn't be in this situation." "Rarity can i talk to you fro a second? Melinda why don't you chat with Lucy?" Twilight suggested as she ushered Rarity away from the two. "Just what is it with you?" "What do you mean?" "I mean why you can't seem to get along with Melinda. I mean I know I had my doubts about her but I'm sure by this point you can tell she's on our side." "I know that. Of course she's our ally otherwise she wouldn't be in this cell with us." "Then what's the problem? Come on tell me." "It's just that...I don't know, I think I might be...jealous of her." Rarity murmured embarrassingly. "Jealous? Why would you be jealous?" Twilight inquired. "Unless...Rarity is this about Spike?" "Yes. No. Oh I don't know I'm so confused." Rarity whined. "You know you're the one who told him you didn't love him that way." "It's not as simple as that, Twilight. It's not that I didn't want to return his feelings. Out of all the stallions I've met none of them came close to his kindness and mannerisms. You know why I pretended not to notice his affection. How I won't live as long as him, how I couldn't bare the thought of breaking his heart like that. But still, it's not like he didn't matter to me." "Of course not. You had the best intentions telling him the truth. But are you saying you're having second thoughts?" "I don't know that's why I'm so confused. I guess...I guess just after Melinda came along the two of them just...zinged. And now it's not like he even notices me. I'm not saying I want him to start crushing on me again, I want him to find someone better but...I guess I'm just a little upset he got over me so quickly, like all that time he had feelings for me didn't exist. And now that he's going to join Fairy Tail...I'm scared he may forget me." "Oh Rarity." Twilight pulled the white unicorn into a hug. "How could you think that for a second. Spike loves you just like he loves me and the others. You're family to him, he could never forget you. And maybe Melinda did unintentionally sweep him off his feet without knowing. But then...he did learn how to treat a lady from one of the loveliest." a smile crossed Rarity's face when she heard that. "You're right. I don't know what came over me." "Hey it's fine. Let's just put it aside for now. We'll have plenty of time to talk about it after we get out of here." Twilight smiled when at that moment an echoed sound began to reach their ears. It sounded like footsteps. "Damn, it must be the guards." Lucy glared as the noise grew louder until a single dragon came into view; a female. She was cyan blue with red eyes and black spines. "Who are you?! What are you gonna do with us?!" Lucy panicked. "Ember?!" Melinda gaped. "You know her?!" Twilight asked surprised. "Don't worry. I'm here to help." the cyan dragoness said before taking out a bunch of keys and unlocking the cell door followed by the girls restraints. "My name is Ember. I suppose you could say I'm the Queen, though I use that term very loosely." "You're the Queen?!" Rarity exclaimed. "Only by marriage. I was forced to marry Garble by law when he claimed the throne but know that I don't love him nor do I support his actions." she looked at Twilight and rarity her face filled with guilt and sadness. "You ponies must hate my kind for the things Garble's manipulated or forced them into doing." Twilight shook her head. "No not at all. Granted my ponies are naturally frightened but we don't blame your species for this. It's not our way to prejudice another species." "Then you'll be happy to know that not all of us are letting Garble walk all over us." Ember said. "Follow me." the girls looked at each other before they began to follow Ember as they made their way through the twisted walkways of the dungeons before reaching a dead end. Ember scoured the wall before she pressed a oddly shaped stone in it causing the wall to slide out of view revealing a tunnel. The group walked through and after a few more minutes it opened out into a large cave filled with a group of clamoring dragons. The girls looked around at the small army before Ember spoke. "Welcome to the rebellion." XXX Garble sat quietly upon his throne plotting his next strategy when all of a sudden...POOF! The dragon was startled by a scroll appearing right before his eyes and landing in his lap. Curious, he picked it up and unrolled it and read. 'Garble. When first met you I hope you would be the one to show me how great it is to be a dragon...but I was wrong. You're everything that the world fears and hates about our species. Because of dragons like you, our kind is feared and even discriminated by the other species and now you've taken the throne and intend to burnt he world with your foul flames. But I won't stand for it. I've met a group who know the true values and ways of a dragon and with their help I will free our species from your reign and Equestria from your terror. So I challenge you to a duel for the title of ruler. Write your answer on the back of this scroll and burn it with your fire to send it back to me. Let's see who the true Dragon Lord is. Spike of Fairy Tail.' Garble's eyes narrowed as he gripped the letter tightly before turning his gaze to the window. "Game on, twerp." To be continued...