Chapter 23
Princess Celestia issued a warning to Ponyville that very same day, and followed Cliff's advice by dispatching a regiment of one hundred pegasi. She also formally requested that he and the others help protect the town, and train her soldiers on how to fight berserkers. Twilight read her 'surprise' letter in front of town hall as soon as they were able to gather a decent crowd.
In a strange way, Cliff was grateful for the threat of a drake attack. It gave the Ponyville Coven something to focus on and prepare for, which helped him think about something other than Fluttershy. He stood next to his coven-mates at the side of the Dragon House the next morning while Twilight and Fire Claws addressed the newly arrived troops.
“This is our foe.” Fire Claws pointed to a large diagram of the berserker on the side of the house. “It's a green, rank three berserker. More specifically, a brawler variant. Put simply, getting close to this thing is suicide. If you value your lives, don't.”
Cliff looked over the soldiers as his grandmother spoke. He was impressed. All of them accepted her warning as though they hadn't expected anything less.
“Lightning is your best weapon,” she continued. “A dragon's scales won't do anything to stop it.” She pointed to the diagram. “Hit one of these wing joints with a strong enough bolt, and it should paralyze the wing long enough for more allies to arrive. Until they do, focus on distracting and containing the berserker. So long as you keep your distance, dodging its fire shouldn't be a problem. However, it might be smart enough to use its coloration as camouflage for a sneak attack, so keep your eyes open.”
Twilight stepped forward. “The local weather team will provide thunderclouds, so we don't have to worry about running out of them. However, for the bolts to be strong enough to be a practical weapon against this drake, the clouds will need to be so large that it will take three pegasi to move them.”
Her horn began to glow, and the diagram changed to a map of Ponyville.
“After lengthy deliberations with Fire Claws, we have selected ten locations for thunderclouds along the edge of the Everfree Forest. Teams of three will take eight hour shifts covering these locations. Nine pegasi per cloud per day and ten clouds means that each day, ten of you will get to have the day off.
“If anypony sees the berserker, shoot off one bolt. The thunder will be a signal to everypony else to grab their clouds and fly towards the source of the noise. If you are off duty when you hear it, extra clouds will be stored here.” She pointed on the map. “Once the fighting starts, weather pegasi will start ferrying new clouds to the battlefield, minimizing the time you will have to waste getting more ammunition. Above all, keep its focus away from Ponyville. Understood?”
“Yes, Princess!” they shouted in unison.
Fire Claws came forward once more. “Excellent. One final thing, myself and the other wyrms in town will be joining you on the battlefield. We might be able to convince the drake to leave in peace, but don't count on it. More importantly, we'll each be using defensive magic to protect ourselves from lightning. If you have a good shot at the target, take it. I don't care if one of us is in the way.”
Twilight paused. They hadn't talked about that earlier. “Uh, are you sure that will be safe?” she whispered to the dragoness. “Those lightning bolts will be nearly five times as powerful as the ones Fire Eyes can produce.”
“We'll keep our protective spells at maximum power,” she whispered back. “Besides, there's nothing safe about fighting berserkers.”
-_-_-_-_-_-
The next morning, the newspapers were strangely silent about dragons. A few articles explained that troops had been sent to Ponyville and why, but only one mentioned that Cliff and the others had been asked to fight alongside those troops. Perhaps they were all still afraid of Discord (not that the young dragon could blame them), but the majority of headlines were devoted to the upcoming Spring Wrap-up festival in Canterlot.
Frankly, Cliff didn't care what their reasons were. The only thing he cared about was what Twilight's Public Relations team, as Spike, Autumn, and Rarity had started calling themselves, would tell him after their meeting. He paced nervously around the palace, wishing he could somehow speed up time.
Every moment since waking up had seemed to crawl past for him. It's not like I'm asking for much, he reasoned. I just want to be with my marefriend.
When they finally came downstairs, Cliff only had one question. “Can I see her, yes or no?”
Twilight smiled. “Yes.”
That was all he needed to hear. Cliff barely waited to get outside before surging his magic and rocketing down the path to Fluttershy's cottage. No protesters marred the scene there. In fact, the young dragon couldn't see any ponies around at all. He was fine with that. There was only one pony he wanted to see at the moment.
Cliff took a deep breath and knocked.
After a few endless seconds, the door cracked open to reveal the most beautiful pegasus imaginable. For a moment, time seemed to freeze as they looked at each other. “Oh.” She pressed a hoof to her mouth as tears began to well up in her eyes. “Thank Celestia.”
He honestly didn't know which of them moved to embrace the other first. All Cliff knew was that his arms were around her once more as her feathered wings brushed against his scales. She still smells like the morning light. Somehow, that realization made him laugh as he nuzzled deeper into her mane.
Cliff's tail curled around her waist, pulling her closer as she wrapped her forelimbs around his neck. The young dragon couldn't believe how wonderful it felt to hold her again.
He wanted that moment to go on forever, but the last thing they needed was some reporter taking a picture of him and Fluttershy like that. “Can I come inside?”
“Mm hmm.” She sniffled and reluctantly pulled away. “Are you hungry?”
“Starving.” Cliff had been too nervous to eat much for breakfast. It was a testament to how much he had adapted to pony society that the idea of sharing a private meal with his marefriend didn't strike him as at all dirty.
The two of them relocated to Fluttershy's kitchen, where a simple breakfast was laying half eaten on her table.
“This is okay, right?” She pulled him into another embrace. “You won't... get in trouble, for coming to see me?”
“Spike and the others said it's fine.” He hugged her back, never wanting to let go. “Thanks to Discord, nopony wants to even print the word 'hybrid.'”
“It was so nice of him to agree to help.” Fluttershy smiled. “He really is very sweet under that gruff exterior.”
“Agreed to help?” Cliff repeated. “You asked him to hold that press conference?”
She nodded. “Sweetie Belle suggested it because Discord is an honorary Crusader.” She nuzzled into his cheek. “We all just wanted to see you again.”
It was a while before either of them was willing to let go. In fact, if Cliff's stomach hadn't growled, they might have stayed like that for hours.
Over the course of breakfast, lunch, dinner, and everything in between, both of them told the other what they had been doing for the past three weeks.
Fluttershy had mostly been writing letters to newspaper editors, asking them to be more fair in their stories about dragons. She had also spent a lot of time with Rainbow Dash and the Crusaders, since none of them had been allowed to spend time with dragons other than River Wind either.
He felt a surge of admiration for Fluttershy. In spite of all her fears and all the mistreatment she had received, she was still doing her best to help. Cliff's use of time seemed pretty selfish by comparison.
Eventually they ran out of things to say, and so they just rested on her couch and held each other in comfortable silence. For Cliff, it was like he had lost a part of himself in the last three weeks, and being with Fluttershy finally made him feel... whole, again.
Sometime after sundown, there was a knock at the door.
Cliff groaned. “I'll get it.” He began to disentangle himself from Fluttershy.
“Okay, if you don't mind, that is.” The yellow mare pulled him into another embrace. Her lips pressed against his cheek for a moment.
If he hadn't been laying down, he would have collapsed from shock.
Fluttershy looked away timidly. “I don't think I'm ready for normal kissing, but was that... okay?”
An uncontrollably goofy smile spread across Cliff's face. He planted a flurry of kisses across her cheeks and forehead. Something he had been wanting to say for a long time escaped his lips, “I love you, Fluttershy.”
There was another knock at the door.
Her hooves tightened around him. “I love you too, Cliff.” She sniffled. “I'm so sorry. I don't know why I'm crying.”
Cliff squeezed her back. “I am too,” he admitted, blinking away a tear. “And I don't know why either.” He nuzzled her cheek as a soft laugh escaped him. “I love you.”
“I love you too.” She returned his nuzzling.
The knocking came a third time. “Fluttershy? Cliff?” Twilight called. “Are you in there?”
Cliff reluctantly pried himself away from his marefriend and they both stood up. “One moment,” he called back.
Given that they took so long to answer, were both flushed when they finally did open the door, and Fluttershy's mane was noticeably frazzled, Cliff couldn't have blamed her for jumping to the wrong conclusion. To her credit, however, she just turned to him, arched an eyebrow, and said, “Would I be safe in assuming that this isn't what it looks like?”
“Uh yeah.” Cliff cleared his throat self-consciously. “What's going on?”
“Two of Autumn's reporter friends will be coming to Ponyville tomorrow. While they're here, we were hoping that they could do a story about you two.”
“Huh?” Cliff asked as Fluttershy inched behind him. “Why would they do a story about us?”
“Well,” Twilight fidgeted uncomfortably, “ponies can all relate to a love story, and since you're the only new dragon that's dating anypony...”
“You want to turn us into a celebrity couple?” he asked incredulously. He had seen enough while skimming through newspapers to know that such couples never got any privacy.
Twilight shook her head. “No, not at all. We just want the rest of Equestria to realize that ponies and dragons can mean something special to each other.”
Cliff sighed. “What do you think, Fluttershy?”
“Me?” she squeaked. “I, uh, if you think it would help...”
“I promise it will.” Twilight grinned. “Thank you, Fluttershy!”
She nodded. “Okay, but uh... Twilight? Would you be there? It's okay if you can't, of course. It's just, you always know the best way to say things.”
“Of course I will.” The purple alicorn skirted around Cliff to hug her friend. “You know you can always ask for my help.”
Fluttershy returned the hug. “Thank you, Twilight.”
“Besides, I've been studying all about methods and techniques for persuasive writing. I'd love to take notes on how actual reporters use them.”
Of course, Cliff thought.
-_-_-_-_-_-
“So how did you two first meet?” one of the reporters asked. He was a white pegasus with a blue mane.
“Princess Twilight introduced us,” Cliff told him. They were sitting on the couches in the palace living room.
Twilight nodded. “It was his first day in Ponyville, and I wanted him to meet all my friends.”
“So tell me, Fluttershy,” said the other reporter, a cream colored earth pony mare with a curly red mane, “what did you think when you first met Cliff Runner?”
“I...” The timid mare looked guiltily at Cliff. “I was scared.”
“You what?” the second reporter asked.
“She was scared,” Cliff told her.
“Really?”
Both reporters scribbled something down in their notebooks.
“I'm scared of dragons,” Fluttershy forced herself to speak more loudly. Almost as loud as a whisper, in fact. “Normally, that is.”
The pegasus reporter gave them a long look. Fluttershy and Cliff were sitting right next to each other, with her wing wrapped around him and his tail around her. “Obviously Cliff Runner is the exception.”
Fluttershy nodded, blushing slightly.
“How did that happen?”
“He gave me an emerald to look after.”
When it was obvious that neither reporter understood, Cliff explained his younger brother's gift, and how Fluttershy had offered to look after it because he didn't want to risk holding onto the gem himself. He was actually surprised that the yellow pegasus had been afraid of him up until then. He had thought she was just being shy.
“Interesting.” The stallion took more notes. “And how did that make you less afraid of him, Miss Fluttershy?”
“It gave us a chance to talk.” She smiled faintly. “I realized that he was really very nice.”
They asked some more questions, mostly about what sort of dates the couple went on. It was obvious they weren't thrilled with the responses though.
“Hmm...” The earth mare skimmed over her notes. “Not exactly a whirlwind romance, but we could work the star-crossed lovers angle, especially if we milk their enforced separation over the last few weeks.”
Cliff found her tone more than a little annoying. “You do know that those were three of the most difficult weeks of my life, right?”
“Of course we do,” she assured him, “but ponies will react more if we play it up a bit. What were you doing that whole time anyway? We can start there.”
“I was training with Fire Eyes, mostly.”
The pegasus stallion shook his head. “No, that won't do. Spending time with another mare will make you seem unsympathetic.”
“Dragoness, actually,” Cliff corrected, “and how would that make me seem unsympathetic?”
The stallion sighed. “Weeks of heartbreaking separation from your one true love, and you chose to spend them with another girl? Ponies are going to think that you were having an affair.”
The young dragon had to bite back an unkind comment about ponies in general. “Fire Eyes and I have been friends since we hatched, and she fully supports my relationship with Fluttershy. How is spending time with her at all like having an affair?”
The earth pony reporter shrugged. “It isn't, Cliff Runner, but that's what our readers would think. We're trying to help you here.”
“Fine.” He rolled his eyes. “Just say that I was training with my grandmother.”
“Grandmother. Got it.” She looked up from her notes. “Training in what, exactly?”
“Fighting and running.” Cliff glanced out the window towards the forest. “With that berserker on the loose, it's probably a good thing that Fire Eyes and I got the extra practice in.”
The stallion tapped a hoof against his chin thoughtfully. “Your bio said you've been all over the continent looking for your brother?”
Cliff nodded.
“Taming the Wanderer?” the reporter asked his colleague.
She nodded. “With a bit of Beauty and the Beast thrown in.”
“We could tie it in with the military operations here in Ponyville.”
“Perfect! 'The enemy of my enemy,' and all that.”
Cliff watched the two of them go back and forth like that for a while. He was fairly certain they were speaking a foreign language.
“Anyway,” the mare said at last, “what did you do during those weeks, Fluttershy?”
“Oh, I...” suddenly being the center of attention made her shrink down like she was trying to hide. “I wrote letters to newspapers, asking them to be more nice to dragons.”
“We can use that.” The female reporter nodded. “It'll help reinforce the hero-maiden theme we've got going.”
“Wait, wait,” Cliff objected, “I'm not a hero, and Fluttershy isn't some maiden to be rescued. By the stars, she has beaten bigger threats than I could even dream of.”
The pegasus in question turned bright red at his praise.
“We know,” The stallion told him, “but it's better that Equestria thinks you're a hero than a monster, and you two couldn't pull off the 'Love on the Battlefield' theme nearly as well.” He reached into his bag and pulled out a camera. “We'll need to get a few pictures.”
-_-_-_-_-_-
As it turned out, Cliff was absolutely horrible at having his picture taken. That this was considered a skill at all baffled him.
After nearly a half hour of telling him that his smile seemed forced, (what did they expect? They were literally forcing him to smile,) the reporters had gone with a different theme for him; Cool and Collected. This amounted to staring into the distance with a thoughtful expression, like he was trying to work out a riddle. In this case, the riddle was, Why won't they leave me alone?
Meanwhile, he and Fluttershy, (who was extremely talented at getting her picture taken... somehow), were forced into a variety of poses and told not to move. Some were natural enough. Cliff didn't mind hugging his marefriend in the least. Others, however, were just confusing. For example, why would Fluttershy ever want to sit on his shoulders while he stood on his back legs?
Twilight seemed fascinated by it all, and asked the reporters question after question about what the shots were meant to convey, how they would enhance the article itself, etc.
“Alright,” the stallion said after what felt like an eternity, “we only need a few more photos, but we'll have to go outside to get them.”
“Oh really?” Twilight asked. “Why is that?”
The stallion and mare exchanged knowing glances.
“If we're going to make our boy Cliff here look like a dashing warrior,” the mare said, “we need at least one action shot.”
The stallion nodded. “Sure, everypony has heard that he fought off a hydra and can run at the speed of sound-”
“Mach four point three,” Twilight said absentmindedly. “According to our last test.”
“But most of our readers have never seen those sorts of things,” he pressed onward. “A good photo can change that, and turn Cliff into a real-life superhero.”
-_-_-_-_-_-
“But my eyes don't glow when I use magic,” Cliff objected.
“Yes,” the earth mare said patiently, “but how else will our readers know that you're using it?”
“Maybe because I'm lifting three hundred pounds.” He gestured at the rock they wanted him to move.
“I still think we should use a different shot,” the stallion said. “Most earth ponies could lift that much.”
“Excuse me for not being an earth pony,” Cliff muttered, though not loud enough for either reporter to hear him.
“If you can think of a good way to photograph his speed, then we can go with that,” the mare replied to her coworker.
“We could have his spikes glow instead,” Twilight suggested. “It would be more reminiscent of unicorn magic that way.”
While the reporters and alicorn discussed poses, themes, and imagery, Cliff turned to Fluttershy with a shrug. “Was it like this when you were a model?”
She nodded. “Yes, but Photo Finish always seemed to know exactly what she wanted from the pictures. It was sometimes really hard to get things the way she wanted them.”
“Well, that puts her one step ahead of those three.” Cliff pointed at Twilight and the reporters. “They only seem to know what they don't want.”
Fluttershy giggled.
Stars above, she's cute when she does that! He took a moment to admire her before speaking again. “Fluttershy, you have experience with this sort of thing. What kind of picture do you think they should take?”
“Oh,” she blushed, “I do have one idea, but I'm sure it isn't very good.”
Cliff moved to embrace her and kissed her quickly on the cheek. “What is it?”
Fluttershy blushed and smiled gratefully at him. “Well, I was wondering why we couldn't show what you were really like while you were hunting for Spike all those years...”
-_-_-_-_-_-
Two days later, when the article came out, Cliff was happy to see that they had gone with Fluttershy's suggestion after all. A picture of him sitting alone on the top of a mountain, with the Everfree Forest spread out below him adorned the front page. The title read, Dear Brother: One Dragon's Search for Love and Family.
According to Fluttershy, the picture was meant to symbolize the loneliness of his search, in order to better contrast with the joy of finding both Spike and love in Ponyville.
Cliff had to take her word for it. He thought the pictures of himself and Fluttershy were cute at least, but that was because Fluttershy was in them.
The article itself was a well written piece of fiction. According to it, Cliff was a brilliant and insightful loner who had never fit in with other dragons. He had wandered the world looking for his little brother for most of his life, (as opposed to just a couple of years). No mention was made of his parents.
After arriving in Ponyville (by chance in this version), he enjoyed a joyful reunion with Spike (probably the most accurate part of the whole thing). Fighting the hydra involved a heroic speech, for some reason, and apparently he had rescued Fluttershy during it as well.
In the reporters' reality, wyrms gave gemstones as a sign of affection, which is why he gave one to Fluttershy. He was in awe of her beauty (true) from the first time he saw her (false), and she was overwhelmed by his sheer masculine presence. It only took Cliff five minutes to stop laughing after he read that last one.
Their courtship had (supposedly) been a whirlwind of romance and passion, until cruel lies had torn the “lovers” apart. Not the word Cliff would have used to describe them. They hadn't even kissed on the lips yet. In any case, both himself and Fluttershy were given lengthy monologues about the “agony” of their separation.
The article ended with a joyous reunion, including a passionate speech about their eternal love. It made Cliff a little nervous to think what the rest of Ponyville would think upon reading it. He said as much over the breakfast table.
“I think it's nice.” Fluttershy smiled. She had been reading along with him. “And I really did miss you.”
Cliff nuzzled her cheek. “I missed you too.”
“Alright you two, let me see,” Twilight said as she pulled the paper over. “And I'm sure it can't be that bad, Cliff.”
“You won't be saying that when you get to the 'masculine presence' part.”
Spike wasn't paying much attention to them. He was just glad that there wasn't a P.R. team meeting today. Weeks of working alongside Rarity had been taking their tole on the young dragon. What did she even mean, 'it would simply be too complicated' if we were to start dating?
The day after guiding Cliff and Fluttershy through a date in Canterlot, Spike had finally told the white unicorn everything that he and Autumn had been up to. She had been angry, of course, but strangely, seemed most upset over how he had treated Autumn Gem.
She was helping me as a favor between friends. Why is that so hard for everypony to understand?
Rarity had even said that Autumn would make a better marefriend for Spike than she would, and all but demanded that he continue dating the crystal mare.
Autumn had a crush on me, but it wasn't that serious, and I'm sure she's over it by now. Spike knew he wasn't naturally romantic. He didn't compose poetry or enjoy candle-lit dinners. Autumn had seen him as the irreverent, sarcastic, comic book collecting, video game obsessed geek that he was. If that hadn't killed every last thought of romance the crystal mare had for him, then he didn't know what would.
Spike finished off his breakfast and made his way to the Dragon House. Fire Eyes had the day off, and she apparently had something special planned for his training.
-_-_-_-_-_-
“Tier three magic?” Spike asked. “Are you sure? Twilight only reached that level a few days ago, and she's a lot more talented at this than I am.”
“Yes, but you're learning from three teachers,” Fire Eyes explained. “The Princess only has Cliff and her books. Plus she isn't applying her magic every day in training like you are.”
“She's coming by later today,” Spike reminded her.
The white dragoness's eyes lit up. “Trust me, I know.” She cleared her throat. “Anyway, Cliff tells me that you've been trying to master all the spells for high speed running?”
Spike nodded. “Yeah, for over a month now.”
“Good. That means you should only have the Speed spell left to learn.”
Real creative name, the young dragon thought, but he nodded. The others had all been tier two spells.
Fire Eyes sat down in front of him. “Excellent. Let's get started.”
It took an hour or so to learn a new tier two spell, and that time was nearly tripled for tier three. Figuring out the correct ratio for two emotions was relatively easy, as you can only really add to one and take away from the other, or vice versa. For three emotions, however, the possible combinations were nearly limitless. If Fire Eyes hadn't been helping him along, pointing out how some attempts came closer to success than others, Spike was fairly certain that he would never have gotten his new spell working.
“Whew, finally.” She helped him to his feet. “Now let's see if you can get all those spells going at once.”
Maintaining multiple spells was like having multiple hearts. Inside of each one, Spike could feel the emotions that powered them. They were somehow separated from the rest of his heart, but they were definitely there. Maybe having multiple personalities would be a better analogy. He tried not to let simultaneously feeling so many different emotions disorient him.
His head was starting to hurt by the time he got the fifth spell active. Now for the new one. Clearing his heart had become more and more difficult with each new spell, and Spike had to fight for several minutes before it was clear enough for him to attempt to cast Speed. While trying to create the right emotions, he accidentally broke the Stillness, forcing him to start with step one again. “...There,” he muttered at last.
“Good job. Now keep those spells going for as long as you can.”
“Can't I try, you know, running?” Spike objected.
“Not until you can hold onto all those spells without being distracted by them.” Fire Eyes patted him on the shoulder. “If you do well enough today, you can give running a try tomorrow.”
Spike tried not to let his disappointment show. At least I'm at tier three now, he reminded himself. Most wyrms earned their names from tier two or three spells, and he was really starting to get curious about his.
The young dragon wasn't sure how long he was forced to stand there before his willpower gave out. It was actually pretty boring, in a sort of migraine-inducing way.
-_-_-_-_-_-
“... Feeling better?” a gentle voice asked.
“Hn?” Spike's eyes fluttered open. His grandmother was kneeling beside him.
“I'll take that as a 'yes.'” She helped him sit upright. “Fire Eyes tells me that you're ready to start high speed running.”
“What, really?”
She nodded. “Just remember to keep your protective spells running higher than anything else. Smashing into stuff is inevitable the first few times.”
My headache's gone, he realized. Sweet! “Speaking of Fire Eyes, where is she?”
“She went to the palace a few minutes ago to collect Twilight.”
Oh right, Spike glanced at the sun. It's about time for her sparring session. He was still surprised that Twilight had asked if she could join in. Not that his sister was afraid of fighting, but she normally wasn't the kind to seek it out. If Spike had to guess, she was just trying to understand dragons better by training with them.
There was certainly something to that line of thought. Spike knew it had brought him closer to his grandmother, and had drastically improved his spellcasting. He was even starting to think of Fire Eyes as a friend, in spite of her rather painful teaching methods.
“Are you ready?”
The question snapped Spike out of his reverie. “Yup.”
-_-_-_-_-_-
Tree, meet Face. Spike groaned. Face, this is Tree. I'm sure you two will be the best of friends. With a bit of effort, he pulled his head out of the splintered remains of a trunk.
“I did warn you to stick to the field,” Fire Claws said as she approached.
“I was trying to.” He spat out a mouthful of wood chips. “I was just turning to come back and... yeah,” he gestured at the broken pine tree, “this.”
“You were traveling at seventy miles per hour,” she reminded him. “The faster you go, the more room you'll need to turn. For a first try, though, you did very well.”
“I can't see how.” Spike gingerly pulled a piece of bark out of his left nostril.
“Cliff didn't push off correctly on his first step, and wound up flying sideways into the mountain.” She shook her head and laughed at the memory. “At least you went in the right direction.”
Spike chuckled. “I guess you're right, that wasn't so bad after all.”
“Of course I'm right,” Fire Claws helped him up, “I'm your grandmother. Let's try just going in a straight line for now.”
By the time Twilight and Fire Eyes arrived, Spike was able to handle straight lines fairly easily, but turning still threw him off, literally. Momentum was a cruel mistress, it seemed.
“What happened to you?” Twilight asked, looking over her little brother's dirt-encrusted form.
“I slipped a couple of times,” Spike deadpanned. “How was your afternoon?”
“Oh, I'm glad you asked. I think I finally developed a spell to measure willpower.” Twilight grinned. “Quantifying the amount of energy used on dragon spells is sure to be useful.”
Spike couldn't really see how, but he had long since learned not to second-guess his sister. “Anyway, are you ready to take a beating?”
It was largely a rhetorical question. She knew what dragon training was like, and wouldn't be here if she wasn't prepared for it.
“Of course I am, Spike,” Twilight said anyway.
“Perfect,” Fire Eyes slapped her on the shoulder, “but don't think too little of yourself. You've got alicorn magic, and that's going to count for a lot.”
Twilight frowned. “Isn't this training to improve my dragon magic? I thought you wouldn't want me to use unicorn magic.”
The white dragoness turned to Spike. “What are the first two rules of a fight?”
“'The winner is the one still standing at the end,' and, 'if you want to be the winner, use everything at your disposal,'” he recited.
“Exactly.” She turned back to Twilight. “We're doing this to make you a better warrior. Improving your dragon magic is just a side-effect.”
“O-okay then.” Twilight looked around. “How should we start?”
“With a fight, obviously.”
Stats
Page generated in 0.049 seconds
Total duration
686 users online
805,025 hits today, 2,280,440 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Reading this give me a little question...
Is not more easy to try with Discord? I mean, even the berserk dragon could not make anything if Discord help
I think the only way for Spike to get it through his thick skull is for him to read Autumn's emotions again.
Ah, sweet old media manipulation...Can't wait to see Spike's warrior name.
I think Twilight will adjust nicely to the fighting... After a few tries.
4646318 Well Discord's powers are a bit like the Deus Ex Machina, in that case. Really, I. The show the most powerful things have been Discord, the Elements of Harmony, Cadence and Shining's combined love magic thing, and the Crystal Heart, as all were fairly Deus Ex Machina. I actually would like to see those in a order of most to least powerful.
What's up with all this "Send pegasi guards not unicorn guards." nonsense?
Not going to lie; Cliff and Fluttershy's reunion made me go 'D'aaaaw'. Hope to see their relationship grow now that they've admitted their feelings for one another, and that Flutters is growing more comfortable expressing her feelings to Cliff. Though I gotta admire Cliff for putting up with those journalists. And Spike is still being dumb in thinking that Autumn could've gotten over her feelings for Spike that easily. I really wish somepony/dragon would smack some sense in to him, and if he keeps this up, that's exactly going to be what happens.
... Are you sure? For someone not as experienced with magic as Twilight is, you're keeping up pretty well.
Buuut that's Spike! Down on himself when he does genuinely awesome things, up on himself when he does ordinary things!
Twi, something tells me you're NOT gonna have a good time. Then again, Anime's Rule of Inverse Probability states that now Spike is going to get pummeled to the ground…
4646318 Well, yeah. Discord COULD solve the problem. But do you honestly think he will? Remember, he was willing to put his friends' reputations on the line because he was blamed for RD's fire-breathing gimmicks.
I think I face palmed hard enough to leave an indent after those reporters. Why is it so damn hard to just give your readers the truth? He'll, if anything, a less sensationalized account would make them seem even more relatable, not less.
Ugh, I hate the media.
This is going to get interesting.
YAY!
Spike fight! 
4646586
If Fluttershy ask nice, maybe. After all one this is give problems and laugh... another thing is a dragon that could destroy ponyville
It's good to see Royal Guards being useful for a change. They've always either been completely overpowered by the threat they're facing or sitting around and staring instead of actually doing anything. I was beginning to believe that the only reason Celestia kept them around was to make her entrances by chariot look cool. Let's hope they play a role beyond being cannon fodder when the berserker decides to attack.
Now is the moment we've all been waiting for. Cliff and Fluttershy, commence the heart-melting reunion! That scene was absolutely adorable.
They may be trying to improve the situation for Cliff and Fluttershy, but those reporters went way too far with that article. The goal was to make ponies sympathize with their struggles, but all I can do is laugh at how far they stretched the details (not to mention the few they made up.) I'll phrase it like this. If most of Pinkie's antics are simply over the top, this article is poll-vaulting over the moon. It sounds like how most people who hate original characters would imagine this story after reading the summary. I haven't laughed this hard since I played through Sheogorath's expansion pack in Oblivion. The best part is that this is exactly how many reporters would actually write it. My compliments for this hilarious scene.
As always I'll leave Spike's romance issues for someone else to analyze. I will instead focus on his combat training. He is still moving at a believable pace. It would make sense that he's less skilled than Twilight. She is one of the most magically gifted members of her species. His attempt at using the speed spell was pretty funny. It also gives us an idea of how casting multiple spells at once would feel. I was hoping that his attempts at performing the spell would be set up as a montage of failure (much like the one used to show Cliff's first sparring match against Fire Eyes.) At least the one crash we did see was still funny.
In short, this was another good chapter. It had good humor, delivered that beautiful reunion scene, and subtly advanced our knowledge of dragon magic. I look forward to the next update.
I can't wait for the next chapter. That fight seems like it will be epic. Good luck with it.
4646757 Doesn't change the fact that Discord's still a jerks god. He might be friends with Shy and everyone else, but he still sees the dragons' presence as an excuse to slack off. If I were him, I would, too. But I'd still hit that thing with a bolt of divine fury anyways, just because I can. I don't know if HE would, though...
4646318 I think trying to get what you want from discord is more dangerous then the beserk dragon. Especially when there is more chaos if he let's them battle
4646782
Really? I was thinking Discord could have it easy, a little snap of fingers and the berserk dragon is in griffon Kingdom
4646780
They just need to find a motivation for Discord... Yes, he could be a jerk, but after he become friend with Fluttershy is a low level jerk and he still need to help Equestria because that's the side of the deal he did with Celestia
My 12 year old immature side sometimes wants Spike's warrior name to be "Sempai", just to hear Autumn say "I love you, sempai"
Damn. Rainbow Dash had competition, and it went faster than her.
watch death battle on YouTube. Starscream vs Rainbow Dash>>4647652
The media should know not to mess with Fluttershy. That Critter Caretaker deck is crazy strong...
I think you missed something here. Fluttershy never actually said that she made Discord agree to help here. Maybe it would be better as:
4648143 no.
If you are going to evolve one of the dragons please dont make it spike as he has already sort off leveled up please
Oh also keep up the good work its like your firing stories out of a room of monkeys taped to typewriters or is that what your doing
4646445
Against a foe that would be so powerful in close range, they were hoping to minimize pony casualties by using pegasi, who would be much better at staying away from it. They could also get to it faster when it shows up. This is just a guess, but I don't think a lot of unicorns can teleport. Lightning is about as good as energy rays for attacking anyway. Unicorn magic is better suited for fighting berserkers than dragon magic, but unicorns pull about even against pegasi.
4646760
It has been kind of a delicate line to walk, keeping both ponies and dragons at a comparable power level. Cliff spends the first group of chapters terrified that the 'evil' ponies would kill him, and I wanted them to be powerful enough that his fears would be somewhat justified. However, if you have an entire army of lethal ponies, how are four dragon warriors supposed to contribute? That's one of the reasons I went with calling in pegasi guards to help. They'd be faster at responding and better at staying away from the berserker, but that also means the wyrms will be needed to serve as front-line fighters, keeping it off the guards' flanks while they rain electric death down on it.
Your guess was more right than you know. I tried to imagine Cliff and Fluttershy's relationship as an angsty, anime-style, teenage romance, and then summarized what I came up with.
4648143
That's actually where I came up with the upper limits of Rainbow's abilities that I'm using in this story. That, and in her micro series comic, it shows her doing a double rainboom, implying that her real max speed is mach 20, but it hurt her body so much that she couldn't fly for two months afterward. Hence my headcannon that her natural magic is so powerful that she has to limit it to avoid injuring herself.
4649876
Oh, crap. My brain must have been putting "agree to" in there this whole time. Thanks for pointing that out!
4651935
No worries, there won't be any alicorn-wyrms in this story.
4651958
I actually just have nothing else to do with my life at the moment. Fall semester doesn't start up for another month or so.
4652656
Is it weird that you mentioning anime made me imagine either Cliff or Spike having a Shonen style freak out when that berserker does show up? I can't get the image of Berserker Spike turning gold and making a dragon shaped hole in the nearest mountain out of my head. I'm pretty sure that won't happen, but I'm also sure the fight will be one to remember anyway.
4652906
No, I don't think that's weird at all. Just the idea of a group of wyrms taking on a giant berserker made me think of Attack on Titan. Except, you know, interesting and likable characters may actually survive my version, and no one will spend four episodes whining about their own indecisiveness. (I was a bit underwhelmed by that show, in case you hadn't noticed.)
Now I'm half tempted to write an over-the-top anime fight scene... Well, more over-the-top than this one is going to be already.
4653175
I've heard quite a bit about that show but never sat down to watch it. I'm pretty sure it doesn't live up to the hype it's received. There is such a thing as spreading the word of a decent show too far. Then again, living up to the hype would mean it would have to be better than some of the best anime out there such as Fullmetal Alchemist. Oh great, now I can't stop picturing Spike as Ed and Cliff as Alphonse. One could consider Spike's delayed hatching as a stunted growth. Alright brain, you can stop working now. The crossovers are starting to get ridiculous.
Speaking of hype, I am looking forward to this fight. Your previous combat scenes tell me that you have a good bit of talent at writing action. The characters that could appear in the fight are also good enough to make me care about what happens to them. If you do end up writing in a freak out for Spike or Cliff, I would recommend not using the old 'fake death of a loved one' to cause it. There are a few good fights that use this to boost the action (the first episode of season 2 of Avatar comes to mind), but I think that the false character death trick would come off as lazy if used too clumsily. Besides that, the trick is best used in a setting where the character really could die so that the readers could fall for it just as hard as the character who goes berserk. We all know you wouldn't kill off Fluttershy, Autumn, or Rarity, so it wouldn't have quite as much of an impact as in other shows or stories. I know I'm just rambling at this point, but it's hard to stop myself when I start thinking. No matter how you set this fight up, I know it will be worth the wait.
4654030
Attack on Titan is basically a Doctorate thesis on buildup and tension, but (and lots of people would disagree with me on this), fell short on actually delivering the payoff it was promising.
After that FMA comment, I keep envisioning Cliff with a metal arm.
Don't worry, there won't be any fake deaths in this story. Wyrm healing magic kind of makes that unfeasible anyway. I'm glad you're looking forward to the berserker fight. Hopefully it will live up to your expectations.
Owwww , i really feel bad for Spike :'(
Awesome as always :D
Man, I really need to keep up with this fic :P
4647023
and then jealous rarity "NOTICE ME SENPAI"
encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSHJ82qVIzdPgcBYbOkg94fl2XnJlH44Nle9G-eUpvL7AODKjpLuw
(closest i could find to mlp)
I DEMAND FANART
Yeah, and I have a sneaking suspicion that "killing an innocent dragon that's just been minding his own business in the everfree forest" may be a point of contention between them soon. Fluttershy isn't really in favour of that kind of thing.