Blazing Dragon

by Zanem-Ji

The Experiment, The Hidden Princess, And The Dark Soldier

The sound of electricity humming floated through the room, as the group stared at the pony before them. Celestia’s coat was no longer a glimmering, pristine white. Instead, it was now a sleeked shade of jet black. A shining ebony helmet rested on it, and the blackened eye sockets showed no signs of life. Circuit lines traveled throughout the helmet, glowing a soft shade of pink as power coursed through them. Metal plates were infused onto the front of her forelegs, hind legs, and down her spine, and all of the plates had a strange pinkish glow emanating from them as well. A short, thick EvenTide crystal had sprouted at the base of the back of her neck, and had two small metal pins embedded into it. Attached to the pins were thin tubes filled with a slightly glowing blue liquid that were placed deep into the sides of her neck. Her cotton candy pink mane and tail had thousands of thin metal strands in them that matched in color. An EvenTide crystal had sprouted from the top of her forehead, shaped like a Unicorn’s horn, and had few small plates of metal on it. There were various IV lines hooked up to her flesh, and wires hooked up to the metal. All of the wires and IVs were hooked up to a machine. It beeped with a steady pulse and various numbers and lines as danced on it’s screen. Dash walked up to the machine and studied the screen,

“Her stats show she’s still in the green.” She looked over at Twilight, “I’ll try to activate her again.”

“Activate?” Fluttershy repeated, “But...that means that…that thing in front of us isn’t her. That’s not Celestia.”

“This is Celestia. Our Celestia.” Twilight replied. “Do you all remember when she was on her death bed?”

The older mares nodded.

“Well…in order to preserve her, I took her body from the bed right after she died.”

“YOU DID WHAT?!” Fluttershy shrieked out. “How could you do that?!” she snapped her head Dash's direction, “And why in the hell are you a part of this?!”

“I just…I wanted to help. I didn’t know Twilight had taken the body up until a year after she did it.”

“An’ why didn’t ya stop her?!” Applejack questioned. She stormed up to Twilight, “What is it with ya an’ actin’ like yer one of the gods?!”

“Jackie’s right…this is too much.” Pinkie agreed. “It’s one thing to bring Dee and Sparks back to life, and as much I care about both of them...it's still something that shouldn't be.”

“Don’t say that!” Fluttershy shouted in a defensive tone. “If it were Haze, you’d be begging Twilight to bring him back!”

“Fine!!” Pinkie admitted, “You’re right…I probably would…” she looked back at Celestia, “But that isn’t Celestia…there’s no way that’s our Celestia. That thing doesn’t even look like her.”

“Rainbow and I have been making some changes to her, in order to insure her survival in this new world.”

“Making some changes?!” Rarity repeated angrily. “Twilight, this goes beyond even dark magic! You’re tampering with the laws that the Gods have laid out for us!”

“CBS-01 could be an essential asset in our war against Spike!!”

“Listen to yourself!” Pinkie screamed. “You didn’t even call her Celestia!”

“She doesn’t even call herself Celestia anymore!!” Dash screamed back defensively as she pointed at the hoof-made Alicorn. The room grew silent. Dash looked over at the Apprentices,

“Leave.”

They quickly and wordlessly filed out of the room. Dash turned back to the four older mares.

“Two years ago...we activated her cyber cardiovascular pump, and raised the electronic waves in her memory cortex to a level of consciousness. When we did, we conducted a basic functions test on her. Leg movement, organ functions, eye movement, coordination, things like that. After that, we proceeded to ask her a series of questions, to make sure that her memory cortex was functioning was as well as her body. And…” she looked back at the Alicorn. “She passed. She passed with flying colors. She remembered everything; Luna’s corruption, the battle against Twilight…even losing her Alicorn magic.” She looked over at the black pony. “However, she is also completely aware that she died long ago. As such, she believes that the name died with that pony. “So…she now goes by Burning Sun.”

“Celestia the Burning Sun.” Twilight started. “And the only one of her kind; CBS-01.” She started to walk over to stand by Dash, “Believe me, my intention wasn’t even to pull Rainbow into this. But…after that time Spike managed to actually get us-”

“Ya brought back Celestia because Spike attacked us?” Applejack questioned. “What does that attack have anything tah do with us?”

“Do you not remember what he did?!” Twilight screamed. “He ripped Rainbow’s wing off!” she pointed at the white Unicorn, “He nearly burned Rarity to death! AGAIN!! And the only reason they both lived, is because Star Blast saved them!!” she stomped a hoof, “Was his life not a big enough sacrifice? What about the thousands of fighters we’ve lost in battle? Were their deaths in vain?” she looked back at Burning Sun, “CBS-01 may be able to right the wrongs we’ve committed…give meaning to the lives we’ve put on the front lines and sacrificed. Their deaths can have a purpose. And when they’re looking down on us from the Elysian Fields, they’ll be joyous over our victory.”

The others looked around at each other. Dash cleared her throat,

“Now…we’ve been working on her for almost two decades.” She trotted up to the Alicorn, “Twilight’s crystals, with my engineering, have been able to recreate CBS-01’s properties to when she was an Alicorn. The hardest part of this was giving her…magic, so to speak.”

“Tell me, how do you give a Pegasus the same magical properties as a Unicorn?” Pinkie questioned. “If I remember what you and Twilight said said, all breeds use their white matter differently.”

“You’re right, Pinkie. Pegasi have the ability to turn white matter into dark matter by using serotonin. The chemical is then transferred through the central nervous system, which hits the muscles in the wings. Since dark matter is negative and the world around us is made of dark matter, the dark matter that is now in the Pegasus’ wings forces them to repel against the dark matter surrounding us. If you will, think of it as our bodies and the world around us, being magnets.”

“But not for every situation, correct?” Rarity asked. “I mean, if that were the case, we’d all be stuck to the ground, barely able to walk.”

“Our bodies would have a heavier mass, and would compensate by changing in physical standards. More muscles, longer stamina-” she shook her head, “But that’s a different subject that I will be glad to cover with you later. The original point being, Pegasi use their white matter differently. Now, Alicorns, have the ability to use their white matter in all of the ways that all of the breeds do. First, the difference between Alicorns and the other three breeds, is that their white matter count is far higher than ours. Alicorns have a count of 3,000,000 white matter per white cell. Unicorns have 300,000 white matter per white cell. Pegasi and Earth Ponies have 30,000 white matter per white cell. So, in order for us to amplify her white matter count to Alicorn proportions, I had to donate some of my blood to her. From there, we crushed up an EvenTide crystal so that the white matter wouldn’t disperse when my blood left my body. Then, we placed the crushed EvenTide crystals into CBS-01’s cyber cardiovascular pump and let my white matter blood multiply in her. It took…a lot…but-”

“But she’s dead, so, you know.” Dash waved one of her hooves dismissively, “It’s not like I was gonna kill her during the transfusion.”

Twilight rolled her eyes, “Anyway…after the transfusion, her white matter count skyrocketed. All that was left, was to give her a Unicorn’s horn. Once again, the EvenTide crystals proved their versatility. The one that’s fused to her skull, is used as a conduit for magic. It was actually a simple process, and after a few months, the EvenTide crystal conduit gave an extra boost to the EvenTide crystal dust in her blood stream. It turned her bones into EvenTide crystals. Unlike the creatures I created, When she's Burning Sun, she has complete control over her body. I also cannot track her, despite the fact she has EvenTide crystals in her body.” She looked back at the others, “Eternal Slumber coming back was unexpected…However, Rainbow and I have been working on CBS-01 long enough to where that didn't hinder us that badly. We feel like she could be a real game changer to this.”

The other four mares wearily looked at one another. Fluttershy sighed and rubbed her temples,

“So does she…work?”

“Work?” Dash repeated. She turned and trotted back over to the giant machine hooked up to Burning Sun. “No, she doesn’t work. She’s not a full blown robot.” She smiled and looked over her shoulder,

“She lives.”

~MLP~

The Apprentices sat outside at the outer gates of S-13. Sparks smiled as she watched Patch, Haze, and Dee tumble around in the ash and dirt. Skye calmly walked up to the Unicorn and plopped down next to her. Sparks flinched a little when she felt a wing wrap around her shoulder. She looked over at the Pegasus,

‘It’s nice, isn’t it?’ Skye asked as she smiled and looked at the wrestling trio. ‘Its like there’s nothing wrong in the world right now. As if the war is over and we'll all heal with time.’

“I wish I could be a part of that.” Sparks stated sadly. “But it seems like Patch Work and I will be butting heads for a while.”

‘It’ll just take him a bit of time. He used to be like that with me too. Dee and Haze were extremely protective of me, so I never had a problem with them..’ She let out a wispy chuckle, ‘He learned to back off of me after I yelled at him for a while.’

A confused expression took over the Unicorn’s face, “How um…I-uh-how did you ‘yell’ at him?”

Skye smiled, ‘Just the way I’m talking to you, silly.’ Her smile shrank a little bit. ‘Even though I may not be able to physically speak, I still have a voice, you know.’

“Have you always…um…been like that?”

‘No, I haven’t been. Like most of us here, I too suffered from a life changing injury. The Hell King has a group of extremely powerful Hellions that work directly under him. They’re known simply as 'The Elite'. They're extremely dangerous, and can even stand a chance against Miss Fluttershy when she’s in the second stage of her vampiric form. Anyway...Miss Twilight had sent Master Applejack and I to try and find a good location to make a new base. While we were doing so, we were attacked by one of the Elite. He even had a name...Sombra, I believe. Anyway, Master Applejack and I went tooth and nail with him, but…I was still new to being Master Applejack’s Apprentice. I had only been with her for a few months, and I wasn’t nearly as strong back then as I am now. Basically, I got knocked out of the fight pretty early, leaving it up to Master Applejack to fight him.’ Her smile was completely gone at this point, ‘But…he was something different. He was unlike any Hellions we had fought before.’ She looked over at Sparks, ‘You know how sometimes you can tell what breed a Hellion was before they transformed?’

“Well, yes.”

‘That’s how it was with him.’ She started up again, ‘He used to be a Unicorn in his past life, that much could be said. His body wasn’t that decayed either. He didn’t completely look or act like a normal Hellion…but he didn’t act like a Unicorn either. He was vicious in hoof-to-hoof combat. He gave Master Applejack a run for her money. He…he almost killed her, and I couldn’t let that happen. He went to stomp on her, and I got in the way. He ended up stepping on my neck. Shattered my wind pipe and my vocal chords. Master Applejack got me back to base as fast as she could, and Miss Pinkie did all she could to fix me…but from that day on, I was a mute. Patch had never spoken to me when I tried to be friendly with him. Now that I was a mute, he thought it’d be cool to pick on me all the time. For a while, I took it. but then…Miss Twilight had Miss Pinkie put me back under for another surgery. When I came to, Miss Twilight told me that if I thought of whatever I wanted to say, and who I was talking to, anypony could hear it.’

Sparks rubbed her chin, “So...you're a Pegasus that can use telepathy?”

‘Yeah…it probably would’ve made since to just have said it like that from the beginning, huh?’

“No, not at all. It’s nice to know that you trust me enough to tell me your story.” Sparks smiled, “I appreciate it.”

‘It’s nothing, really. You're part of the family now too.’ She jumped up, ‘Now, if you don’t mind me, I’m going to go and pick a fight with Patch.’

Sparks chuckled as she watched Skye fly over to the cyborg Unicorn and tackle him to the ground. Her smile disappeared as she felt a source of power nearby, somewhere in the forest that wasn’t too far from the base. The others stopped as well. They turned into the source of energy.

“Did you guys feel that?” Haze took a couple steps towards the power. “There’s something over there.”

“Well duh, dipshit. Of course there’s somethin’ over there.” Patch replied. “Let’s go an’ check it out.”

‘I don’t think we should do that.’ Skye stated. ‘I think that we should go and tell our Masters.’

Sparks trotted up to the group, “If it was that powerful, they would’ve felt it already. Master Rarity and another Fallen would’ve been heading towards it.” she looked into the dark forest’s edge, “The only reason we might be feeling it, is because we’re close to it. I honestly feel like we would be able to handle whatever is over there, if we go together.”

Dee began to hover, “Well...let’s go check it out then.”

~MLP~

“Where the hell did it go?” Patch looked around. “How could somethin’ so powerful just vanish like that?”

“Maybe whatever it was, it was like; ‘Oh no, look at these powerful ass ponies wondering all through here and shit! I better get out of here before they find me!’...or something like that.” Haze’s face suddenly took on an expression of realization, “Or maybe…it was never here at all…”

Patch shook his head and let out an annoyed sigh from his nostrils, “Or maybe…yer bein' a fuckin' strung out idiot like usual, an' should just shut yer trap.”

‘Shut the hell up, Patch. Gods, it’s like you don’t know what nice is unless it’s referring to the Fallen.’ Skye snapped. She looked over at the vampony hovering beside her, ‘Have you seen anything?’

Dee looked around, her glowing golden irises shining brightly in the dark, “No, not yet...” They landed amongst the group, “I haven’t used my echolocation in a while though.” She took a couple steps from the group and looked around once more. She opened her mouth and let out a barely audible squeak. Her ears swiveled around for a few minutes. They finally flinched and perked up as she looked over to her left,

“There’s something over there.” she whispered. Her ears twitched a few more times, “It doesn’t look like anything that would normally be in the woods.” She broke into a furious gallop, “This way!!”

The others followed suit. Within a few minutes, they came across a strange creature, fighting a small group of Hellions. One of the Hellions leapt at it. The creature dug it’s fangs into it’s carcass. The Apprentices looked on in shock and disgust, as the Hellion practically shriveled up before their eyes. The creature let go of it’s prey and looked at the other Hellions. Three of them leapt at it, and tackled it to the ground,

“Let me go!!” the creature screamed out in a female’s voice. Another four Hellions quickly surrounded her, and proceeded to beat her. Patch growled in frustration.

“We’ve got ta do somethin'.” He started to move, only to have hooves clamp down onto his shoulders,

“Wait a minute now…we don’t know what that thing is. It just killed a Hellion by sucking it to death!” Dee whispered angrily.

Haze let out a tiny snicker, “Suck.” Dee shot him a glare and smacked him,

“Shut up.” She looked back, “Let’s just see what happens.”

Sparks rose to her hooves, “We can’t do that. She needs our help.” Her horn glowed, “You guys want to stay here, that’s fine. But I won’t.”

Sparks leapt from the bushes, and tackled one of them. The Hellions roared in confusion, as Sparks killed three of them off before they knew what was happening. Two Hellions let go of the creature, and proceeded to retaliate on Sparks. One of them bit into her shoulder. She let out a grunt,

“Not this shit again!!”

Patch stood up, “Great, now we gotta go out there an’ save her hide.” He grumbled. He leapt from the bushes and joined the fray. Soon, all of the other ponies had jumped in, and had taken out the rest of the Hellions. Haze walked over to Sparks,

“You alright, dudette? You took some nasty bites from those Hellions.” He questioned as he helped her to her hooves.

“I’m fine.” Sparks prodded at the fang marks in her shoulder, “They’re just bite marks. Nothing I can’t handle. I can't even feel them anymore.” She walked over to the creature, “What about you? Are you okay?”

The creature rose to her hooves, “I’m fine.” She looked over at one of her translucent wings. A soft clicking sound emitted from her as she fluttered it against her hard body. “My wing has a cramp in it, but other than that, I should be fine…” she looked up at Sparks, “Thank you for helping me. I greatly appreciate it.”

The other sized her up. Her coat was dark ebony, with shimmering black chitin plates that started under her chin and traveled down the underside of her belly. Her cat-like pupils were surrounded by hot pink irises that also matched her transparent wings. She flicked her light pink tail around,

“My name is Locust Charm. What’s yours?”

Sparks gave her a friendly smile, “My name’s Bright Spark, but I go by Sparks.”

Dee trotted up beside Sparks and looked down at Locust,

“If you don’t mind me asking, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like you before.” She stated as she took notice of the holes near the bottom of Locust’s legs. “So what are you exactly?”

“I’m actually a hybrid-”

*SLAM!!*

The others looked on in shock as Pinkie landed in between the Apprentices and Locust. The pink Earth Pony looked over at the Apprentices,

“Why are you guys way out here in the middle of the woods?”

Haze pointed at Locust, “Well, Master Pinkie, we were drawn to her…”

Pinkie turned and look at Locust. Her smile instantly disappeared.

“No way…a Changeling hybrid…” she stood a bit taller, “You, creature, you’re coming with me.”

Locust backed away from her a little, “What are you going to do to me?”

"Nothing if you come peacefully..." Pinkie closed the distance. "But just so we both understand each other pretty well…” she pulled a small needle from one of her jacket’s pockets. “I’m going to let you meet the Fallen. If you move more than a few hoof steps away from me, I’m going to jam this poisonous needle into your neck, and make you throw up all the blood in your body, until there’s nothing left, and you die…do you understand?"

Locust let out a tiny gulp, “Yes ma'am…I understand…”

Pinkie’s friendly smile returned, “Great!!” she looked over at the Apprentices, “Alright now, time for everypony to head back to the base.” She rubbed the back of her head, “Although, I’m not going to lie, Twilight’s probably going to be super pissed about this…”

Sparks stood tall, “To be honest Miss Pinkie, I think that helping her is the right thing to do. I’m not going to speak for the others, but I think I’m ready to take whatever our mentors are going to throw at us.”

Pinkie’s smile shrank, “We’ll see, Sparks. We’ll see…”

~MLP~

Dash let out an impressed whistle, “Well I’ll be…a Changeling hybrid.” She leaned forward, “What’s your name?”

“It’s Locust Charm...Fallen One…” Locust replied.

Rarity’s ears perked up, “Locust Charm you say? As in-"

Rarity was cut off as a surge of magic radiated in the room. Twilight was suddenly towering over Locust.

“Locust Charm, Princess of the Hidden Changeling Hive and known as the First Forbidden Hybrid. You’re very far from home.” Her horn started to crackle with a small amount of magic, “Please tell me why I shouldn’t kill you off.”

“I came here because I was told that you worked off of diplomacy first, not destruction…unless it was absolutely necessary.”

“That was before a global sized war broke out, and had destroyed three-fourths of Equis.” Twilight stated bitterly, “Even with all this going on, Changelings are still monsters that feed off of what little love we still have for each other in this world.” Her horn started to crackle a little bit more with power, “So you still haven’t told me why I shouldn’t incinerate you.”

Locust stood a bit straighter, “With all due respect First Fallen, Changelings haven’t fed off of love since my mother and father took control of the Hive over 30 years ago. We eat the dark souls of the Hellions. I never even so much as bitten a pony in my life. Our hive is actually friends with pony kind, thanks to my father.” Her eyes glinted with determination. “As for a reason to not kill me, well…you just said it not too long ago. I am the Princess of a hive. A hive, that you have no idea how many Changelings are in. I have done nothing to warrant an attack from you, so if you were to kill me, you would have an unknown amount of Changelings and ponies retaliate.” She cleared her throat, “Now…may I please explain my reason for being here without your death threats?”

Twilight snorted angrily, “Fine. Why are you here?”

Locust cleared her throat, “My mother and father wish to speak with you about forming an alliance.”

~MLP~

Corrupted Spike drummed his claws on his armrest, while Eternal shifted nervously beside him. He looked down at her,

“You were defeated by a century old Unicorn…” he looked down at her, “How?”

“Rarity's power has grown immensely. Far stronger than I thought was possible for a Unicorn. It was unexpected-”

He made a fist and slammed it down on the armrest, cutting her off,

“Unexpected?!” he turned to leer down at her, “Don’t give me that bullshit!!” he leaned in, causing her to shrink before him, “You were my host…some of my power still flows through you! So how were you not able to handle that pathetic old mare?!”

She started to speak, but the dragon cut her off again,

“NO!! FUCK IT!! JUST GET OUT OF MY SIGHT BEFORE I TAKE MY POWERS OUT OF YOUR PATHETIC CORPSE!!”

Eternal nodded, “Yes, Great Dragon…”

She vanished from his room. He let out a sigh and rubbed his chin. He snapped his fingers and an onyx colored mirror appeared beside him. He looked over at it to see a reflection of himself in it. The dragon in the mirror however, had no sign of corruption and dark magic in him.

“I figured we’d talk this way. I don’t want to hear your incessant chatter in my head.” Corrupted Spike stated.

The Spike in the mirror narrowed his eyes, “You did the same thing to me before you stole my body.”

Corrupted Spike laughed, “Stole? I didn’t steal your body, you gave it to me. You took me into your soul. When you did that, it was like you signed a contract to give me your body.” he rubbed his chin again, “And I must say, you are the most powerful host that I have ever had.”

“Even with my body, you won’t win this war.” Spike stated. He gave a small smile, “My family is far too powerful to be defeated by the likes of you.”

“Your ‘family’? You’re a fucking idiot if you think that they’re your family. You’re a-”

“Dragon. Yeah, I know.” Spike cut him off. “Of course I know what the hell I am. The differences of two species is not what defines a family. They’re my family because they have been there for me all of my life, even when I left Ponyville so long ago. Twilight in particular…well…she’s raised me ever since I was born…”

“Yes, yes…she’s the best sister you could have ever dreamed of.” Corrupted Spike finished. “You seem to forget that she wouldn't hesitate to kill you the moment she got a chance to.”

“No, she wouldn’t hesitate to kill YOU.” Spike pointed at him.

“Your worthless soul is still residing in this body, you idiot.”

“That doesn’t matter…because at the end of it all, Twilight knows that I wouldn’t hesitate to lay my life down on the line if it mean the safety of Equis.”

“Yes, but you won’t be doing that. I already hold Equis in my claws. The Fallen aren’t even a problem in my life, but a mere annoyance…”

Spike smirked, “And yet your Alicorn weapon couldn’t stop them.”

Corrupted Spike let out a roar of frustration, “SHUT THE FUCK UP!!”

He turned and reeled his fist back, before slamming it into the mirror, and destroying it. Black fire quickly covered the cuts to cauterize them. He snapped his fingers again, and a pair of gleaming purple eyes glinted in the darkness,

“You have requested me, Great Dragon?” a sultry female voice spoke from the darkness.

“Yes…I’m going to send Eternal back out there soon.But for now, I would like to see what you can do.” He looked back out at the black horizon, “I will expect better results than Eternal's, so don’t fail me."

“Yes, Great Dragon…”

With that, the eyes disappeared. A wicked smile appeared on his face.

“You managed to stop my little pet Alicorn…impressive…” he rubbed his chin, “Looks like I’ll have to step up my game. Things are about to get…interesting…”

Comments

[Not Here Anymore]

This story is intriving to me it's lime a bomb ticking the bomb won't blow till the final chapter of this story. Really fun