• Published 15th Apr 2012
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For the Ones we Love - FlimFlamBros.



Spike must save Equestria from a newborn evil. But will he be able to stop it?

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The Plan

“When Darkness falls, who there to guide you out?
No one so you better start looking for a way out.”

~blm95tehe

Snap!

“You never had a chance.”

AAAAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!

“SPIKE!!” cried Rarity.

Spike’s shrieks of pain echoed throughout the throne room and the castle as Conquest slammed the dragon down, his spinal cord snapping under the tremendous force of the alicorn and the rock hard structure of his knee. The dragon rolled down onto the floor, his back was shattered, he could feel the bones of his spine dig around the flesh of his back, spreading apart as he felt his body go numb with agony.

“My…. My back….” shuddered Spike, twitching slightly on the ground, not daring on to move in fear of the pain it will bring. He turned his neck slightly, able to see the pony that had done this to him, the pony that was staring down at him, his face slowly putting itself back together. Everything that Spike had done to him, the beatings, the cuts and gouges, the broken teeth and the eye, all was healing, repairing itself. All he had done was for naught.

“You look hurt, dragon,” chuckled the dark alicorn. “I know that you dragons are quick healers but….. Well, you can’t heal this fast.”

“Why…” croaked the drake.

“Why? Why what? Why now?” asked Conquest. “Or perhaps why did I just not killed you? Hmm, is that it, muffin?” he wondered, giving the dragon fake concern. “Like I said, I don’t think that I can kill you. Silly, is it not? You thought you’d killed me, and were happy about it! And yet I’m just such a good pony that I can’t do the same” he giggled, “Sometimes I think I’m too nice for my own good!”

“You…..” Spike could hardly speak. He felt fatigued taking over, and soon everything faded to black. “…..Bastard,” he muttered, his head falling backwards.

“Well, now…” smiled the insane stallion, turning his gaze towards the ponies. Rarity was still traumatized from what she had just witnessed, but she had managed to free Rainbow from her bonds, as the rainbow-haired mare was busy untying the rest of the captives. “What to do with you? I mean, everything has gone so according to plan, I think I deserve a little treat,” he grinned. “Who to choose, who to choose? I did enjoy the hurting pink one, but there was something about cutting up the orange that made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside,” he paused, weighing his options. “You know what, I think I’ll do the yellow one, just cause I like hearing her cry—”

“NO!” cried Fluttershy, paralyzed in fear as the shadowy alicorn started his decent onto her, licking his lips eagerly.

WHACK!!

A large, blunt object, coming from out of nowhere, had randomly collided into Conquest’s face. Blood was drawn as the alicorn staggered down to one knee. Shaking his head and letting his vision return to him, he looked down at what had struck him in the face with great curiosity.

It was a forging hammer.

Forge was standing at the foot of the throne room doors, a determined look in his good eye. He was wearing what looked like a heavy snow parka, and had a bag of smithing supplies. “I have more where that came from,” the red dragon growled, as he reached in and pulled out another hammer.

“Oh my goddess! It’s you!” the dark pony squealed excitedly. “Forge! It’s so good to see you again! Hey, how’s that leafy dragon you had the hots for?” he laughed, playfully face hoofing himself. “Oh, that’s right, I ripped her heart out, right in front of you if I remember correctly.” He laughed some more as he made a little pouting face at the enraged drake. “Aww, still being a sour puss about that? You really need to let that go or you’ll give yourself a heart attack!”

“You were always a terrible joker, Conquest,” said Forge. “But that was just plain heartless.”

“Speaking of heartless,” smiled the alicorn. “How’s the old ticker holding up for you? Last time I heard, you cut some of it out to try and save your lady friend. How did that work out for you?” Conquest quickly dodged a thrown hammer. “Not well? That’s wonderful!” he jested. “It’s a pity, having only half your heart to work with. I can see it in your eye. I can see all the pain, the hatred, the age….. Has it only been a thousand years? I would have guessed differently. I can smell your body failing you, the shivers in your breath, the screaming of your aching muscles. Being up here is hellish for you, isn’t it?”

“I’ll admit, it’s a little cold,” grumbled Forge.

“You’re wearing a parka in the middle of summer,” deadpanned Conquest. “What on earth happened to the old dragon that defied me? Oh, how the mighty have fallen.”

“Are we going to do this or are we just going to jerk each other around?”

“Do you really want me to answer that?” chuckled the alicorn.

Forge ran towards the insane pony, a hammer in each claw. Conquest mused at him and just stood there, waiting for him to strike.

“I’m feeling particularly generous today, so I’ll let you have the first hit!” laughed the alicorn, leaning his head towards the approaching dragon.

SLAM!!

Forge’s hammer collided with the jaw of Conquest. The dragon kept whipping his hammers into the skull of the pony, a relentless barrage of hammer blows. Conquest took it in stride, letting the red drake deal his damage, his smile never faltering throughout the whole ordeal.

Eventually Forge’s strikes started to weaken, his strikes beginning to teeter and sway. The dragon was starting to tire, he was panting heavily and sweat was dripping down his face. He tried to keep up the intensity of his attacks, but he was losing energy fast, his heart and age finally catching up with him. Conquest easily caught one of his claws when he went in for another strike.

“Getting tired?” he asked the dragon, “You were doing so well; I think that last one even tickled!”

“Not… I ain’t done yet…..” Forge panted, weakly raising his other arm and letting the hammer drop on Conquest’s face, not affecting the alicorn what-so-ever.

The dark pony sighed. “Well, this is no fun,” he said, pushing the drake to the ground, who fell limp and exhausted. “Seriously, have you really grown that pathetic in such a short time?” he asked. Forge was still breathing heavily as Conquest grabbed him by the neck, pulling him up nice and close. “Maybe I shouldn’t be too hard on you, old friend. After all, you have no wings, one eye, and half a heart! I can’t imagine what sort of hell you live through every single day. Personally, I would have killed myself if I were you.”

“You’re not me,” coughed Forge, spitting in his face, “and you never will be.”

Conquest rolled his eyes as he wiped the spit off of his cheek. “Why would I want to be a crippled old dragon?”

“Better than being a freaking psychopath!”

“Don’t knock it till you try it!” laughed the alicorn. “But you wouldn’t understand something like that. You’re a weak, pathetic, and a bore, just like you were all those years ago. You were too weak to stop me then, and too weak to stop me now. I really should just put you out of your misery.”

“Then do it!” grunted the dragon. “What are you waiting for? Kill me!”

Conquest cackled as he dropped the dragon, “Of course I will kill you. But later!” he laughed. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t have a little fun…” The dark alicorn grabbed the right leg of the drake. “I so enjoy our little tradition. You know, the one where every time I defeat you….”

Rip!

“I take something.”

From the knee down, Forge’s leg was ripped off his body. The alicorn laughed as he listened to the red dragon wither and scream and roll on the ground, cupping his stumpy leg, trying to stop the bleeding.

Conquest looked at the freshly torn limb in his hoof. Giving it a little whiff, he took a big bite out of the leg, sinking his sharp teeth into the flesh. “Oh, I’m sorry, where are my manners? Do you want a bite?”

“You asshole!” cried the drake, rocking back and forth on the floor. “You son of a bitch!”

“Quit your bitching,” muttered the dark pony, as he swallowed the rest of the leg. “Limbs grow back!” He turned to the group of ponies, smiling as he whispered, “No, they don’t.”

“You’re a monster!” screamed Rarity, as the dark alicorn started walking close to her.

“Ah, my fair little Rarity,” he snickered, “So pretty, you remind me of somepony that I use to know. She was sweet, kind, caring…” He sighed. “And she was also a cheat! Maybe not like you….but you smell just like her. You have the same musk, that sick little odour that she released when I killed her. You even have the same little twinkle in your eye that she had… Brings back pleasant memories of wolves in a forest.”

Conquest brushed his hoof through Rarity’s purple mane, causing the mare to shiver.

“Tell me something?” the dark alicorn asked. “Do you fear me? Are you afraid of what I can do? What I have done and plan on doing?”

“N-n-n-n-y-y-y-yes…” she shivered, petrified from his gaze.

“You are very warm….” Conquest said. “When I ate you, you actually made me warm inside, a feeling that I’d forgotten, a feeling that I missed. So this leads me to my next question…”

SLAP!!

“How dare you!” growled the white mare as she trembled in fear. “I-I don’t care what you are but I am not going back in there! You do not treat a lady that way!”

“Well, lady” sneered Conquest, grabbing the unicorn by the hair and pulling her up. “If you weren’t such an asset to me right now, I would rip that pretty little mouth off of you so I could stuff your hoof down your throat!” He threw the mare down. “Lucky for you, you are very important.” He looked over at her friends, who were still bruised and battered, incapable of defending themselves. “However, your friends are nothing more than collateral.”

“No!” pleaded the white mare. “Don’t hurt them!”

The insane pony shrugged the white unicorn off of him. “And who’s going to stop me?” he laughed. “You?”

There was a thunderous quake as the whole room shook, the vibrations shuddering through the walls and standing pillars of the throne room. Another boom, this time closer, discarded furniture quaked, bouncing slightly off the ground. As the rumbling got closer sun was blocked out, no longer shining through the windows.

“Huh, wonder what that is?” said Conquest.

He soon found out as the giant green claw broke through the window, snatching the alicorn in his massive claw and dragging him out the window, glass shattering everywhere. The behemoth dragon was the height of the castle, his neck and head easily shadowing the structure. The beast that had grabbed the psycho glared at him with his piercing yellow eyes, snarling at him.

“You…..” Inferno grumbled, squeezing the pony in his hand. “I remember you…Curator!”

“Curator?” smiled the alicorn, “Curator’s not here at the moment, but please leave a message at the beep.”

“No….it’s you,” snarled the green dragon. “Your skin is dark, and your eyes are red, but you are still the bastard that slaughtered my clan!”

“Oh right!” chuckled Conquest. “That silly war thing that Curator was in. I’d almost forgot about it. But you’re still bitter about that?”

“It was everything to us!” roared the green drake, his grip tightening around the alicorn. “Our race was defeated by snivelling ponies! But, now no longer…” He licked his lips. “Now I avenge my race and dead: By eating the champion of the ponies!”

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” cackled Conquest. “I don’t like being eaten. I’m more of the eater, rather than the eaten.”
“You will not deny me my vengeance!” shouted Inferno.

“And I won’t deny you your death.”

The giant green dragon snarled as he stuffed his prey down his throat. The dark alicorn didn’t scream like he had thought. It was if he wasn’t afraid of death, that he wasn’t afraid of him, Inferno, the greatest of Gaia’s children.

“I’ve done it!” he bellowed. “I’ve killed the pony!” he laughed. “The champion will now digest in my stomach for generations! At last, I have my revenge!”

The ponies looked in amazement through the broken window. Pinkie Pie being the first to respond. “Is-is-is he gone now? Is that big meanie gone?”

“I think so…” said Rainbow Dash. “I mean, he was eaten by a dragon. I don’t think anypony can survive that.”

“But he’s not a normal pony…”

The group of young mares turned their heads to Forge, who had dragged himself to the wall. He sat up against it as he examined his bloody stump of a leg; it was bleeding quite profusely. Sighing heavily, he covered his mouth with his left hand and breathed a little fire into it, the yellow flames dancing on his palm. With a steady breath, he lifted up his stumpy leg, and painfully clasped his burning hand to his leg. The flames burnt his flesh, boiling his blood and cauterizing the wound.

“You’ve seen him,” he grunted, trying his best to ignore the pain in his leg. “He overcame the eight of you, I assume, he took my assault like it was nothing, hell he even ripped off my leg like it was soggy toilet paper. Do you have any idea how difficult that is? Dragon bones are harder than rocks and our scales are like steel.” The dragon ripped down a nearby banner, using the fabric to bandage his wound. “I’ve seen what he can do first hand, this leg ain’t the first thing he’s taken from me,” he sighed, pulling down more of the banner until the whole thing came down. He grabbed the pole that was holding the banner up, snapping it until it was more his size and used it as a crutch to support himself. “He’s taken so much…..”

“What should we do?” shivered Fluttershy.

“What can we do?” replied Forge, limping towards the ponies. “At the moment, all we can do is get out of here.” He looked out the window at the snarky elder dragon. “And delay the inevitable.”

The rest of the group didn’t argue with the drake. Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie and Rainbow rushed to the door as quickly as they could. Twilight, Rarity and the Princesses all focused their magic together to try and levitate Spike.

“Easy with him,” said Rarity, “his back is still very fragile.”

Twilight did her best to focus on lifting the dragon, but with her horn snapped off, the once great unicorn found it difficult to perform the simple spell. “I’m sorry,” she moped, “I can’t do it.”

“It’s all right, Twilight,” smiled Princess Celestia. “We can handle this.”

“I just feel so useless…” sobbed the lavender mare, looking up at her broken horn. “Magic was everything to me, and now it’s all gone.”

“Relax,” soothed Luna. “When this is all over we can reattach it, but right now, we must get out of here before—“

RRREAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!” boomed Inferno, crying out in pain.

“Oh no.”

“We need to leave now!” shouted Forge, as he wobbled out the door, hopping on his one leg.

The colossal dragon outside the castle grabbed his stomach; he felt an immense burning inside. His throat was filling up and it was getting hard to breath. Black liquid started to leak from his eyes, his ears and nose. Inferno fell to his knees, shaking the earth as he coughed up more of the black substance. He had never felt this kind of pain before.

Turn their blood into inky black,

The enormous green drake felt his bones start to crack, crumpling inside of him. His claws started to painfully roll backward, he felt every single ounce of agony as his skeleton started to implode on itself, and he felt every ounce of it.

Glass like bones crumple and crack,

The dragon tried to scream, but the only thing that came out of his mouth was the waterfall of black blood.

Muscles screaming, heart’s on fire, the situations getting dire,

“No….” gargled Inferno. He felt pressure at the base of his neck. “I can’t be defeated…by a pony.”

With one final thought they lose their will,

The elder dragon’s head erupted in an inky explosion, the ebony blood raining down for miles, and the dark alicorn stood at the base of what was left of Inferno’s neck, his burning red eyes and bright white smile cutting through the eruption of black rain.

“That’s my favorite way to kill.”

The evil alicorn smiled as he hopped off the decapitated dragon and flew through the window, grinning at the struggling ponies.

“Well, well, well,” Conquest said. “I get eaten by a dragon and you all think that you can just get up and walk away?” He giggled as he shook off the black blood of Inferno. “But I still need the dragon. The intact purple one, not the terribly disfigured red one.”

“You’re not touching him!” growled Rainbow, standing in front of Spike.

“Are you kidding me?” cackled the alicorn, raising and shaking his hooves in fake terror. “Look out everypony, the blue one is going to stop me!” he said sarcastically, “She found my one weakness… Idiocy.” Conquest eyes started to glow. “But in all seriousness, you aren’t a part of the plan, so it doesn’t matter if you live or die.” He raised his hoof as the rainbow maned pony flinched at the oncoming blow.

“YOU DON’T LAY A HOOF ON HER!!”

Conquest raised an eyebrow before he was knocked across the room from a back blur. The dark alicorn back smashed into the stairs, bouncing up them before ricocheting into the ceiling.

Rainbow opened her eyes; she thought she was a goner. Standing in front of her was a somewhat tall dragon, black scales, pink underbelly, and oversized wings. Dust Devil had his wings currently extended to full length.
“You aren’t going to touch her!” shouted the sky drake. “Or any of them!”

“Nice to see you’re finally coming out with your feeling,” snickered Bitterbite, as he, Glimmer, Lurch, and Slitilda came down the hall. There lightheartedness would be short lived when they saw Spike’s condition. “Holy crap, what happened?”

“Spike got hurt!” cried Rarity.

“What?” worried Slitilda, rushing towards the floating and sleeping dragon. She took a knee at his side. “Who did this to my Spike?”

“Excuse me?”

The bronze fire dragon looked over her shoulder to see Rarity giving her a look, the mare’s left eye scrunched up in confusion.

“Nothing…” said Slitilda, instantly recognizing the dragon from that photo from years ago. “Who did this to him?”
“The same thing that blew the elder’s head off,” mumbled Forge. “And the same reason that we all need to get the hell out of here!”

There was loud cackling coming from the other side of the room, as Conquest peeled himself off the ceiling, falling down and landing on his feet. “Aww, I was just starting to have fun!” he laughed as he jumped towards the group. He stared at the new group of dragons. “But, I suppose I could play with these new toys for a while.”

“Bring it, pony!” taunted Dust devil, flexing his claws.

“Easy Dust,” said Glimmer. “This one seems different, kind of like there’s something wrong with him.”

“I don’t see anything wrong,” smirked Dust. “Just a soon-to-be-dead pony.”

Conquest laughed, chuckling at the cockiness of the dragon. “Oh, that’s sweet of you to say,” he leaned in very close to the dark dragon’s face, his red eyes staring into his. “But, as many will tell you, there’s something really wrong with me.”

As the rest of the dragons were locked in a staring contest with the evil alicorn, Lurch nudged Pinkie Pie in the shoulder leaning into her ear. “Get everyone out of here. We’ll deal with this guy.”

“What? No!” shook the pink party pony. “He’ll kill all of you.”

“Relax, I’ll be fine, but you need to get the rest of these guys out of here now.”

The pink mare sighed as she motioned for all the ponies to carry Spike out of the room, closing the door behind them and leaving the five able-bodied drakes and dragonesses with the psycho pony.

“Well, well, well….” droned Conquest, looking at his new adversaries. “It looks like it’s five against one. That hardly seems fair, don’t you think?” He broke out into more laughter. “If you want, I can wait while you get more dragons.”

“Pretty cocky, for a dead pony,” mused the sky drake.

“And for a dragon who claims to hate ponies, you seem pretty eager to protect them,” chuckled Conquest.

“Hey, I hate ponies!” shouted Dust Devil.

“The why did you save the blue one?”

“I was protecting Spike!” he said defensively.

“You said, ‘You don’t lay a hoof on her,’ if I remember correctly.”

“He has a point there,” said Bitterbite. “You did say her.”

“Whose side are you on?!” yelled Dust.

“Yours, but I think you need to come clear with your feelings,” suggested the earth dragon. “And say that you like that Rainbow Dash pony.”

“I. DON’T. LIKE HER!!” shouted Dust Devil at the top of his lungs. “I hate her, I wish she would die!”

“But you protected her,” smirked Glimmer, getting in on the conversation. “That’s very…pony of you,” she giggled.

“Is this really the right time to do this?” wondered Lurch, “Aren’t we supposed to fight this guy…Or something?”

“Thank you Lurch,” sighed Dust Devil.

“Dust Devil can come out with his feelings for Rainbow after all this.”

“GAIA DAMN IT!” screeched the skyrin. “What the hell, Lurch?”

“Couldn’t resist,” grinned the large bulda dragon.

“Is he always this high strung?” asked Slitilda. “Or is this something new?”

“Nah, he’s always like this,” giggled Glimmer. “He’s actually taking this quite well.”

“Screw you, Glimmer!” snarled Dust Devil. “I hate all of you!”

“Shut up, you love us!” said Bitterbite, “And you know it.”

“You’re all terrible friends,” grumbled the sky drake. “Hate you…”

There was a few moments of silence between the silence, before some dragon realized….

“Wait, what were we doing again?”

Conquest gave a couple of coughs, alerting the dragons to his presence, making sure that they all knew that he was still there. “Wow,” he said. “Just wow… I have seen my groups of dysfunctional friends and seen plenty of abuse….but you guys are HILARIOUS,” he cackled, dropping to the floor in his fits of laughter. “I mean, seriously, you guys are about to go up against the most powerful being in existence, and you’re all focused on this guy’s in closet love for ponies.”

“I don’t like Rainbow Dash!”

“Enough,” said Conquest. “The focus has been off of me for almost five minutes.” His eyes started to glow. “And we can’t have that, now can we?”

“That’s it!” shouted Dust Devil, “I’m taking this guy down!” The dragon took off flying towards the alicorn, his claws at the ready. The pony just stood there, idly watching as the drake’s teeth got closer and closer and closer until they finally collided with Conquest’s hoof. Dust Devil went hurtling in the opposite direction.

He was down, but the other dragons were not. Glimmer and Slitilda both took flight, the cloudweaver slithering towards the pony while the fire dragon took a nose dive. Conquest conjured up a strange aura boomerang , flinging it towards Slitilda. She was knocked out of the air, but Glimmer was able to make her strike. However, as the bronze cloud dragon was trying to constrict her body around the pony, she was grabbed and used as a shield to block Lurch’s multiple tongues. The large round drake’s tongues accidentally wrapped around Glimmer’s slender body and pulled her towards him.

“Now, where is that brown wingless one…” wondered Conquest.

The ground exploded from beneath the pony, Bitterbite sprung from the ground and grabbed around the neck. The brown drake viciously sunk his teeth into the alicorn, black blood spurting out. Conquest rolled his eyes as he easily bucked the rockmouth off of him, his bite wound quickly healing itself.

“Is that seriously all you’ve got?” laughed the pony. “C’mon, you’ve got to be kidding me, even my mother put up a bigger fight before I killed h—“

His sentence was cut short as he was struck across the face, and sent soaring across the room. Dust Devil, with bloody teeth, had looped around the room and head bashed Conquest. Lurch immediately shot out his tongues and latched onto the leg of the pony, and slammed him down on the ground. The large drake took advantage of this and leapt down on Conquest, crushing his ribcage with his girth. He proceeded to pound on the alicorn with his large meaty fist, each blow ripping up dark flesh and blood.

“We’ve got him now!” roared Lurch, punching the alicorn again in the face. “Get him!”

He went in for another strike, but the dark pony caught it with his hoof, and flipped the drake off of him. Conquest tried to get up, but two dirty brown claws ruptured from the floor, latching onto his arms. The alicorn snarled as he struggled to break free as Glimmer wrapped around his body, squeezing the life out of him. Dust Devil, Slitilda, and Lurch all piled onto Conquest, latching and scratching out at him. All of their claws and teeth ripped into his dark flesh, tearing at his coat and snapping his bones.

“ENOUGH!” shouted Conquest as his body exploded with dark energy. All the dragons were blasted off of the pony, their bodies smoking and crackling with the aftermath of the dark explosion. The alicorn got up from the ground as his invincible body started to regenerate. He laughed at the fallen warriors, there bodies twitching on the ground, still alive, but in great pain. “This has been a laugh and a half, but I think we’ve dragged this on long enough.” He walked over to the door, looking behind him. “Unless one of you still wishes to oppose me?”

“You…won’t…hurt him…”

Conquest looked quizzically at the bronze fire dragon, as she slowly started to get off.

“You won’t hurt my Spike…” Slitilda groaned. “I won’t let you!”

“I remember you…” smiled Conquest as he closed the door and walked over to the injured dragoness. “You’re the one who caused Spike so much trouble in the Badlands. I must admit that I was very impressed with you, hurting the dragon like that made me cry with joy.”

“I didn’t want to hurt him….” she muttered. “I just wanted him back.”

“Oh boo fricken hoo! I lost my loved ones and that’s what molded me into the even-minded stallion that you see today!” the pony laughed. “But I kid. Now, you are a very special individual, and that peaks my interest…”

“What do you mean?”

“You love the dragon,” Conquest said. “I don’t know why you do, but you do, and that love is what lead you to betray him. It was love that lead you here to protect him, it was love…” the pony grinned, “that lead you to here to kill Rarity.”

“What” gasped the shocked dragoness. “How did—“

“Your hate is a beautiful thing, but very predictable, and if that mare wasn’t an important part of my plan, I would let you proceed in slaughtering her. Though you must know that killing her would only serve to drive him farther away.”

“I-I guess I didn’t think—“

“That’s right, you didn’t think! You never think, and you just act!” laughed the alicorn. “And that’s why I love you! You let your anger for the unicorn and your love for the dragon cloud your judgement! And I find that hilarious! You really take after me, girly, and your hatred is intoxicating.”

“My hatred?”

“Tell me, Slitilda. Would you die for the dragon?”

“Would I die for him?”

“It’s a simple question, but one that I find to really bring out the true natures of a pony, or in this case dragon.”

“I-I-I don’t know,” she stuttered.

“You don’t know?” Conqeust pondered. “How very curious, and at the same time disappointing.”

“What are you going to do now?”

“What I was going to do anyways,” he smiled, his eyes glowing red. “I’m going to let you and everyone else in all of Equestria watch as I kill the dragon.”