The Price of Power

by kingrulerword

Chapter 28

“Don’t you just love this fresh mountain air?”

“It smells like a hot egg fart.”

“But it’s an organic hot egg fart.”

“Not better.”

“Isn’t it, though?”

“No.”

As Adagio and I were debating the finer points of appreciating nature, the others sat in fearful silence. I had timed our entry into the Dragonlands to coincide with the great dragon migration, so we were surrounded by more dragons than any of them had seen in their lifetime. Not only that, being a wagon full non-dragons during what is essentially dragon spring break gave us the full attention of every dragon we passed. They were clearly not as excited as I was to be surrounded by short tempered, flying, fire breathing tanks that ate flesh. No idea why.

“Why are we here,” Sunset murmured under her breath.

“I don’t want to alarm anybody but I think we’re being followed,” Trixie added nervously.

The younger dragons were beginning to encroach on us. The older dragons, having seen me, kept their distance and shook their heads.

“It’s fine,” I said. “It’s not like we’re in any danger.”

“I wholeheartedly disagree,” Starlight whispered. “I think we’re in a ton of danger! So much danger! Literally ALL OF THE DANGER!”

“Those are just your prey instincts talking,” I blew her off.

“In case you haven’t noticed or maybe forgot: I AM A PREY SPECIES!”

“And I’m an apex predator,” I reassured her. “As is your sister and everyone else here. You’ll be fine. Just trust-”

“Hey you!” A young red dragon had finally gotten bold enough to step into my path. “This is no place for… whatever you are. Dragons only!”

“And who’s gonna stop me,” I laughed. “You?” I wrapped my arm around Starlight’s shoulders and pulled her into the dragon’s field of view. “Get a load of this guy!”

Starlight’s heart raced as the dragon growled. “You brought a stupid pony with you?”

“Of course not,” I grinned. “I brought a smart pony with me.” I tapped my chin thoughtfully. “Well, she’s definitely smarter than you. But I guess that’s a pretty low bar since you’ve got rocks for brains.”

It wasn’t my best work but it had the intended effect. The dragon breathed out a torrent of fire and I manifested the right half of Susanoo’s rib cage and arm to block it. I grabbed the dragon with the hand and squeezed. He screamed out in pain. “That looks like it hurts wyrmling.” The dragon writhed helplessly against Susanoo’s grip. “You want me to let you go?” I punctuated my question with another squeeze and the dragon nodded vigorously. “Answer some questions and I’ll be happy to drop you. Sound good?” Again the dragon nodded. “Good,” I relaxed the grip enough for him to speak. “Let’s start with your name.”

“Garble,” he choked out with a little blood.

“A pleasure to meet you, Garble,” I said. “I’m Sasuke Uchiha.”

Garble's eyes went wide. “You’re the Dragon Lord!”

“And you picked a fight with me,” I looked him dead in the eyes. “If I killed you right now the other dragons would laugh at how stupid you are.”

“I didn’t know! Don’t kill me!”

I dispelled Susanoo and Garble dropped to the ground. “Pick your opponent better next time. Now take me to Raze.”

Garble took some wheezing breaths and stood up. He briefly glanced at Starlight but quickly averted his gaze. “Yes, your lordship.”

The young dragons that had been sizing us up gave us a wide berth as Garble led us through the area.

“Told you: no danger,” I tried to scratch Starlight’s ears but she swatted my hand away and glared at me. It didn’t matter, I was feeling pretty good about not having to kill a named character. Although if Garble was here with me, that must mean Spike hadn’t shown up yet.

“Rainbow Dash is here,” Gilda suddenly muttered through grit teeth.

“Really?” I asked. “Where?”

She scanned the growing crowd. “Over there.”

She pointed to the poorly constructed dragon costume. Seeing it in cartoon form did not do it justice. It was the most out of place looking piece of garbage I’d ever seen in my life. The stupid thing was made out of fabric for crying out loud. But Spike was a little ways in front of it, watching us.

“Dragons are really stupid,” I mumbled.

Following my sight line, Adagio smirked. “They really are, aren’t they.”

“Garble.”

“What…. I mean yes?” he shifted uneasily in place.

“Go get that little purple dragon over there and bring him to me.”

Garble grinned and flew over to Spike. Grabbing him by the tail he yanked him into the air. When they got close, Garble threw Spike onto the ground in front of me. He grinned, clearly waiting for me to inflict some kind of violence on the baby dragon.

“What’s good, Spike!” I bellowed as I picked him up and gave an affectionate noogie. Garble’s face fell.

“Do I know you?” Spike said as he struggled out of my grip.

“Oh right, I was in disguise last time.” A quick transformation into my earth pony form and back did not put him at ease, surprisingly.

“You’re Rolling Stone?”

“Yup,” I said cheerfully. “And the king of Equestria and the ruler of all dragons and the most wanted in the Griffon Republic and a friend of the zebra and the big daddy of the timberwolves. I have many hats.”

“Wait, hold on a second, what do you mean king of-”

A loud gasp interrupted Spike’s question. Looking at the source, it came from the costume. Once the ponies inside realized they were drawing so much attention, they quickly shuffled away.

“Anywho, you’re a little young for the migration, aren’t you?” I said to Spike. “I mean, you don’t even have your wings yet.”

“I’m old enough to be here,” Spike puffed up his chest.

“You know most of what goes on at these things is senseless violence, right?”

He deflated a little. “Why are you here?”

“I’m glad you asked!” I pulled the girls out of the wagon. “These valiant warriors have volunteered to take part in THE FINAL CHALLENGE! Who among you is dragon enough to answer their challenge?”

The dragons all roared and spewed torrents of fire. Spike looked at me with eyes full of curiosity as he nervously rocked from side to side.

“What exactly is the ‘final challenge’,” Sunset anxiously asked. The large dragons around us had suddenly given us their full attention.

“Exactly what it sounds like.”

“That’s not helpful,” she said as she inched closer to me, her eyes darting back and forth.

I had spotted Raze approaching and I felt the name was pretty self explanatory, so I didn’t bother clarifying. She took a quick look at the girls behind me, snorted out a puff of smoke and shook her head. “I would say that you brought these little wyrms here to die but I’ve never seen any of your plans fail,” she said as she led us forward. “Are you certain they can handle it?”

As we made our way past the younger dragons and towards the much older, much larger dragons, I stroked my chin in thought. “Nope,” I shrugged. “Not even close to sure. Buuut, worst case scenario, they just die.”

At that moment, I caught a hoof to the jaw. “I just got her back! You better not let my sister die!”

“What’s this about me dying?”

“Dun wurry aboudit,” I said as the healing kicked in. “Starlight, have you ever considered taking up boxing? Does boxing even exist in this world? Do minotaurs box?” As I pondered these profound and weighty questions, I could feel Starlight’s eyes burning holes in the side of my face. “I’m getting worried that you’re learning to solve all of your problems with violence,” I said as I tried to pat her head.

Starlight swatted my hand away. “I wonder how that happened,” she narrowed her eyes at me. “Explanation. Now.”

“Right, so dragons are ageless immortals,” I explained. The girls all nodded. “Except that’s not really true.”

“What are you talking about?” Adagio questioned. “Who ever heard of a dragon dying of old age? I recognize some of these scaley faces from before my banishment.”

“If you would let me finish,” I swatted her ear, “I could tell you. Dragons do age, it makes them stronger instead of weaker. The older a dragon gets the bigger and stronger they get. And the harder it gets for them to die.”

“What do you mean?” Sonata asked.

“Dragons cannot fall to age and are immune to all disease,” Raze said. “The only way for us to die is to be killed. And once we get old enough, there are few things that can threaten us.”

“And it’s not like they can just go up to Celestia and say ‘Hey Princess, can you kill me?’” I added. “That’s no way for a dragon to go out.”

“So then the final challenge is,” Aria prompted.

“A fight to the death among the oldest and most powerful dragons,” Sunset finished, her face contorting in horrified realization. “And you volunteered us to fight.”

A posh “How barbaric!” was quickly shushed by two loud whispers.

“Exactly,” I grinned. “Who’s ready to put their training to the test?”

“Absolutely not,” Trixie tried to climb back into the wagon. I grabbed her lightly with Susanoo’s hand and pulled her back out. “Put Trixie down, she doesn’t wish to commit suicide for your entertainment!”

“I also think that you shouldn’t make them do this,” Spike said quietly. “Aren’t they your friends?”

“Spike, dude,” I said, “have a little faith in me. This is gonna be awesome! Garble, Raze, back me up here.”

“I want to see them die,” Garble grinned.

“Not helping,” I frowned.

“If Sasuke thinks they will survive, I trust him,” Raze said. “Much of what he does seems random and dangerous but things seem to work out in his favor more often than not.”

“Anyways, me offering you a choice was a courtesy,” I said happily. “You don’t really have one.”

***

I sat on a throne made from Blaze’s skull overlooking a crater repurposed into a stadium. Raze, the girls, Spike, Garble and the terrible costume sat up in my…. box? The irony of the dragon’s purported hatred for ‘fancy schmancy’ things and the theatricality of my situation was not lost on me.

“My dragons,” I yelled to the surrounding crowd. “The time has come! Who among you will fight with all that they have?” Five hill sized dragons flew down into the crater and roared. I could see the heat coming from their mouths from as far away as I was. I grinned. “Fantastic.”

“Looks like there aren’t enough for all of us,” Trixie said. “The gracious and team-oriented Trixie will sit this one out to let the others have their moment. As you know, Trixie is all about sharing the spotlight.”

“Nice try,” I chuckled. “The Dazzlings are fighting as a group.”

“How is that fair?” Gilda grumbled.

“See that green dragon down there, the one with all the scars,” I pointed to the largest one in the ring. “That one’s older than Raze and ten times as strong. That’s the one they’re fighting.”

Adagio followed my finger and grit her teeth. “Spine, you absolute piece of filth. Today’s the day I pay you back.” She turned to me. “We’re going first.”

I couldn’t hold back my glee.”It appears the first match has been decided!” I yelled. “Spine, you will have the honor of fighting the siren sisters!”

Spine chuckled, a deep rumble echoing from his throat. “Then it looks like I’ll be seeing you next year, Dragon Lord.”

The other dragons cleared out as the sirens jumped into the ring. Spike looked at me. “So how does this start?”

“It already has,” I replied.

The second Adagio had landed, Spine had breathed out a torrent of flame. The land glowed red in its wake. The sirens had all managed to dodge, Sonata and Aria firing back high pressure streams of water. The water evaporated on contact with Spine’s fire breath but it put out the flames and cooled the ground enough for them to stand. Adagio was moving to surround Spine but he was interrupting her movements with his tail. As the fight progressed, the fabric dragon had moved closer to me.

“Your Dragon Lordship,” Twilight’s voice said, “What are they doing?”

“Well, obviously real, totally not-fake dragon, they’re trying to come up with a winning strategy,” I explained. “They likely realized that their mind control specialty is useless on a creature that is so much more powerful than them so they need to change tactics.”

“You sent them into a fight with a disadvantage that severe?” Rainbow Dash’s voice asked.

“Yup.”

“Why?” Twilight’s voice asked.

“Because your best growth is at the edge of your ability,” I said as Aria got smacked into the ground with a claw. She got back up and screamed in a high pitch at Spine, who smirked. “For example, if you wanted to fly faster, you couldn’t do the same workout every day, could you?”

“Well, no,” Rainbow’s voice said.

“Exactly,” I watched Aria take over creating more water while Sonata switched to the high pitched screaming. All the while Adagio, who was the only one who had yet to get hit, just dodged Spine’s attacks. Spine himself was having a blast. He kept the fire breath coming and every few swipes of his claw would catch Sonata or Aria, smashing them into the walls of the stadium, drawing a cheer from the audience. The two sirens were clearly moving slower. “You need to increase your distance or carry heavier weights. Stress is where the growth is.”

Twilight’s eyes were focused on the match. “What are they trying to do?”

“We’ll find out if they win,” I said.

The fight had taken its toll on Sonata and Aria. They were barely getting out of the way of Spine’s claws and their healing had slowed down dramatically causing their evaporated blood to form a red mist. They were still taking turns screaming at different pitches but had given up on spraying water. Now they were helping each other dodge as the ground was slowly turning molten. Still Adagio focused on dodging, not attempting her own attack or helping out her sisters. This pattern kept going until Aria hit a certain pitch. It was just for a second but Spine contorted his face in pain and stopped moving. Shaking it off, he moved in to finish off Sonata and Aria. Adagio behind him formed hand seals in a pattern I didn’t recognize and let out a deafening shriek. Every creature in the stands put up whatever limbs they had to cover their ears and winced in pain. Then there was silence. No one could believe what they were seeing. Laying still with blood streaming from every orifice, was Spine. Adagio, having spent all of her chakra in a single attack, stumbled over to her sisters and helped them up. The three of them walked up to Spine, climbed on top of his head and cried out in victory. The dragons in the stadium all roared together, a sign of respect.

“An epic end to an epic dragon,” I yelled out. “Let’s hear it for the Dazzlings!”

The dragons roared louder in response, now excited for the prospect of real fights.

“Holy shit,” Garble said, looking at the rest of the girls with newfound respect. “Can they all do that?”

“Nah, they each have different skill sets,” I smiled. “This is going to be fun.”

“They were sharpening the ax,” Twilight said quietly.

“Exactly,” I responded. “But why do you know that phrase, random very real dragon who shouldn’t know any of the sayings I brought with me from my world?”

“Uhhh, I overheard it from a pony once,” Rarity’s voice offered.

“Sure you did,” I chuckled.

Raze dropped off the Dazzlings next to me, having flown down to get them. “Now that my pride has been avenged,” Adagio said through labored breaths. “I am going to go lay down for a moment.” Aria and Sonata mumbled agreement through wheezes.

“You’ve earned it,” I gave them all a firm pat on the back. “But don’t forget that the corpse and his hoard are all yours.” The Dazzlings shuffled off looking for the wagon.

“What are they going to do with the body,” Twilight asked.

“I’m not sure,” I scratched my chin. “But I recommend eating it.”

“What!?” Spike, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity all yelled in unison.

“What?” I asked back, genuinely confused.

“They’re so lucky,” Garble mumbled. “I’d give my wings to eat Spine.” Spike stared in horror at Garble. Garble was confused for a second but then realization dawned on him. “I forgot you live with ponies,” he sneered. “You’ve probably never had the chance to eat another dragon before.”

Spike gulped and looked at me. “Have you ever eaten a dragon before?”

I looked back at him, confused. “Of course I have. I ate my predecessor, Blaze. Had a romantic meal with Luna, in fact.” Spike’s jaw dropped. “I didn’t eat all of him at once, of course, but dragon meat doesn’t go bad. Unlike pony meat but between you and me, dragons taste better.”

A gasp echoed from the costume and Garble, surprisingly enough.

“You’ve eaten a pony,” Rarity’s voice asked as the back half of the costume started inching away.

“Yeah? Although I’m surprised Celestia never said anything to you, Spike,” I said. “I was pretty sure that would be a big part of the propaganda about how evil I am.”

“And dragons eat dragons,” Twilight’s voice asked, fearfully.

“Literally all the time,” I said. “I mean for a species that loves to fight and kill, how many dragon corpses have you seen lying around?”

The impatient growling let me know that the dragons were ready to see the next fight. A blue dragon waited in the center of the ring, tense and ready to fight.

“Alright Gilda, you’re up.”

“My time to shine,” she grinned. SHe flared her wings before taking off and flying a few laps in the air before landing in the ring.

“How does Gilda fight,” Twilight asked.

“Mostly by beating things to death,” Starlight answered.

I looked down at her. “I assume Sunset has calmed down a bit.”

The unicorn glared at me. “Yes, the panic attack you gave my sister has subsided.”

“Great,” I pulled her in close. “Ready to watch the next match?”

Before Starlight could answer, the loud crack of Gilda being smashed into a wall echoed through the stadium. The middle of the dragon costume lifted into the air as Rainbow Dash tried to fly into the ring to help her.

“Easy,” I pushed her down with Suasanoo’s arm. “Gilda is fine. Have a little faith in her.” As if on cue, Gilda stood up, enraged. “That’s not good.”

“What do you mean,” Rainbow panicked. “You said she’d be ok!”

“It’s not her I’m worried about.”

Gilda screamed and the ground cracked around her. The dragon was pushed back by the force and flared its wings to stop moving. With a single step, Gilda was in its face and punched it into a wall. The crowd cheered as the dragon got up and the two entered into a furious exchange of blows.

“Why is Gil- er the griffin glowing,” Twilight asked.

“And suddenly able to go hoof to hoof with a dragon in a smackdown?” Rainbow added.

“Six gates,” I mumbled. “Surprising. ‘The griffin’ is just pulling more power out of herself. Nothing to be worried about.” My explanation was punctuated by Gilda being thrown into the ground hard enough to leave a crater and cough up blood. Rainbow glared at me through the costume as Gilda stood up, wiped her mouth, and flew back at the dragon. “She has strong regenerative power, that’s nothing. Even the usual downsides won’t bother her. Only way she loses is if she runs out of stamina.”

That didn’t look like it was going to happen any time soon. If anything Gilda was getting faster and hitting harder. The dragon, on the other hand, was getting weaker, slower, and tired. Their battle had escalated to mid air when Gilda stomped on its neck forcing them both to the ground. The dragon tried to struggle but Gilda grabbed it by the horns and yanked as hard as she could. Its head came off, showering her with gore. Gilda held the head high and roared.

“Fatality,” I chuckled. “Gilda wins.” The audience cheered, shooting streams of fire. Gilda, lost in her blood rage, kept pummeling the dragon’s corpse. “Raze could you...”

“Yes, Sasuke,” Raze flared her wings and flew down into the ring.

“Oh Faust that was,” Rainbow started.

“Brutal,” Rarity finished.

“Yeah,” Garble grinned toothily, “It was.”

Twilight seemed uncharacteristically quiet and when she finally noticed me looking at her, her eyes darted back and forth. “Something you want to ask?”

“Umm, I heard from, uh, some ponies that, umm, you went blind from overusing your powers,” she rapid-fired. “So, if you don’t mind me asking, how did you fix it?”

“Celestia and Luna going blind already?”

“NO, I mean yes, I mean, how would I know that?”

“Uh huh,” I rolled my eyes. “Just tell them to swap.”

“Swap what?”

“Oh look a distraction,” I said as Raze and placed a semi-conscious Gilda at my feet. “How does absolute victory feel, G?”

“Everything hurts,” she moaned.

“That’s a side effect of opening so many gates at once,” I explained. “The good news is, it's just pain, not actual injury.”

“Fuck you.”

“Well I wasn't the one who skipped gates 1 through 5. That wasn’t very shonen of you.” At that point Gilda could only groan. “Puffball get Gilda some pain killers and a soft spot to lay for a while.”

Smoke Puff teleported away and I dragged Gilda to sit up against the throne.

“Who are you sending out next,” I could feel Garble’s excitement.

“Who wants to see Mangle the Terrible fight the Great and Powerful Trixie!”

The crowd’s response was deafening. Trixie tried hiding in her hat. “Not that Trixie is afraid but why is the dragon called Mangle?”

“Mangle was just Fang but she kept mangling every creature she came across,” Garble leaned into Trixie’s face. “It got so bad, the pony princess herself fought her and kicked her out of Equestria.”

The golden dragon covered in scars looked up from the ring at Trixie and grinned.

“Trixie is afraid and doesn’t want to die,” she curled into her hat.

“I feel for you Trixie,” I said soothingly as I quietly formed Susanoo’s hand. “But sink or swim is the law of the land.” I gently grabbed the flailing hybrid and tossed her into the ring.

“Trixie hates you!”

Trixie stood up and stared into Mangle’s grinning, toothy maw. “You look delicious.”

“Trixie refuses to die here today,” she declared shakily. Trixie grit her teeth, swished her cape, and grabbed the brim of her hat. Her nervousness was slowly being locked behind her stage persona. “Today the Great and Powerful Trixie will give her greatest performance yet!”

“We have to do something!” Twilight shouted. “Trixie’s not that strong or good at magic!”

“While it’s true that Trixie is the least powerful of my…students? Agents? Villainess Squad,” I watched as fireworks filled the ring with smoke. “She’s the only one with that dog in her.”

“What does that even mean?” Twilight yelled.

Starlight sighed. “It’s a reference to something from his world. You get used to it. No matter how stupid it is to make references that no one else understands.”

“Look I only have like 20 years worth of references anyway,” I said. “And I used all the good ones 1000 years ago. Would it kill you to let me have this?”

The dragon costume looked down, ashamed. “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to-”

“Don’t fall for it,” Starlight assured her. “I’m pretty sure he’s incapable of emotional pain.”

Twilight started to say something else but was interrupted by Rarity. “What is she doing down there?”

Looking into the ring, it was getting harder to see with all of the smoke. Mangle was trying to blow it away with her wings but it was staying put despite her best efforts. She eventually gave up on that and started looking for Trixie, who she had lost track of. Phantom Trixies ran through the smoke and each time Mangle caught one, they exploded in her face. Enraged at not catching such an obviously weak opponent, she unleashed a torrent of flame in all directions. The smoke began to fade, and Trixie stood proud atop a raised platform that had seemingly appeared from nowhere.

“Ladies and Gentledragons, welcome to the Great and Powerful Trixie’s first ever performance in the Dragon Lands,” Trixie announced with her hands outstretched. “Today Trixie will make this overgrown lizard disappear! Keep your eyes on Trixie as this will be a once in a lifetime experience. Oh, and a warning to those in the front rows: you’re in the splash zone!”

Starlight narrowed her eyes at me. “Isn’t that one of your references?”

I wiped a tear from my eye, “I’m so proud.”

Mangle, expecting another trick, kept her distance. Trixie pulled a black and white stage wand out of her hat and gave it a swish. The ground underneath Mangle exploded, sending a ton of kunai into her softer belly scales. The wounds weren’t deep but they did bleed.

“Those knives cut through her scales,” Garble gasped.

In a rage, Mangle charged forward at Trixie only for every step she took to explode more kunai into her. After 5 steps she took to the sky and breathed fire down onto Trixie’s stage.

“For Trixie’s next trick, she will dazzle you all,” Trixie said, apparently unaffected by the rain of fire. She gave her wand another swish and the kunai lodged in Mangle’s scales all exploded. Mangle fell out of a firework representation of Trixie’s cutie mark and left a large crater in the ground. The dragon tried to get up but couldn't find her balance and twitched helplessly on the ground.

“The poison was a nice touch,” I mused. “Too bad it’ll only last a few minutes.”

“It won’t be enough,” Garble agreed.

“Trixie has to know that,” Twilight stressed. “We need to help her!”

“No, we need to trust her,” I assured.

“And now for the grand finale,” Trixie said. Mangle’s eyes took on the sharingan pattern and the dragon sat on her hind legs, suddenly coordinated. She took a claw and jammed it into her own chest and yanked out her heart, falling to the ground.

“A mare after my own heart,” I said. The stage Trixie vanished and the real Trixie stood next to the fallen dragon, bowing and basking in the adoration of the crowd.

“How? What?” Twilight babbled.

I shrugged. “Sharingan is op.”

“That’s not an explanation!”

Raze landed next to me and let Trixie down. “How ya feel now, Trixie?”

Trixie held up a finger and threw up. I patted her back as she let all her stress out.

“Then the only one left is,” Rainbow looked to see Sunset Shimmer standing next to me and looking down at the last dragon.

“You’re up,” I said gently. She nodded and jumped down into the ring. “It has been a wild ride! Who’s ready to see the last match?”

The audience cheered as a red dragon landed in front of Sunset. “I did not think much of your group when I first saw you,” he said. “That was wrong of me. You all have my respect. Now let us fight to the death!”

Wordlessly, a golden-red skeletal Susanoo formed around Sunset and held the dragon down before it could attack. The crowd was silent. Suddenly the dragon's scales caught the same golden red fire. The dragon tried to scream out in pain but Sunset’s Susanoo held it in place. “This will be over in a moment,” Sunset said, almost apologetically as her Amatersu flames formed a blade and cleaved through the dragon’s neck.

“Sharingan is op,” I murmured to myself.

“What on Faust’s green earth just happened,” Rainbow screeched.

Sunset jumped from the ring to the throne and wiped the blood from her face. “I guess I should expect no less from Celestia’s former student,” I congratulated her. She grimaced.

“What!?” Twilight screeched.

“And with that, the Final Challenge has ended!” I announced. “My dragons, party your hearts out!”

***

All my crew except Sunset sat around the fire recovering. Spike had stayed with my group which meant three ponies in the dragon costume were nearby. Having not taken much damage, Sunset was sitting next to me. “How long have you had the mangekyou?”

She was quiet. “Canterlot.” The word came out as barely a whisper.

“Oh,” I was at a loss for words. In hindsight, I guess it made sense but.. “ You’re not sure if you miss her or hate her.”

“I really just wanted to make her proud but… I thought she was holding me back,” Sunset trailed off. Starlight offered her a comforting hoof.

“If you don’t mind my asking,” Twilight said as the dragon costume approached us, “Were you really Princess Celestia’s personal student?”

Doing a quick sweep of the area and realizing no one was listening to us, I replied. “She was the student before you, Twilight.”

Twilight sputtered. “What? No, you have me confused with somepony- somedragon else. I’m definitely a dragon!”

I pulled out the bloodstone scepter. “Then by my command, dragon, take the little one and go home.” Immediately, the three ponies in costume grabbed Spike and left.

“How did that work?” Starlight asked. “That wasn’t even a real dragon!”

“Doesn’t matter,” I grinned. “The bloodstone scepter is very progressive. If you identify as a dragon, even temporarily, it accepts you as subject to its power. Turns out it really isn't all that picky about who it enslaves. Inclusivity is the future, after all.”

Sunset Shimmer eyed the scepter warily. “That has to be some pretty strong dark magic. I’m surprised dragons allow it to exist.”

“Eh,” I shrugged. “As long as they think they have a shot at taking it, it’s worth having around for them.”

“DRAGON LORD,” a voice yelled.

“Oh what now,” I sighed.

A sapphire blue dragon about two thirds my height landed in front of me and glared. “I challenge you for the title of Dragon Lord!”

“Oh hey, Ember,” I said calmly. “I wondered where you were.”

“How do you- nevermind,” she growled. “How do you respond to my challenge?”

“Did Torch say something sexist?”

The dragon blushed. “No! My dad has nothing to do with this!”

“You know you need someone to back up your challenge, right?”

She looked around but all of the older dragons were snickering and the younger dragons were avoiding eye contact. “Whatever, that’s a dumb rule! Are you too scared to fight me?”

“You really want to die that bad? I mean come on. You just watched people weaker than me kill dragons stronger than you.”

“I’m-”

I cut off whatever she was going to say with a sharingan glare and a heaping helping of bloodlust and she froze in fear. “Not ready. But you will be.”

Ember collapsed. “Woah.”

“Somebody find Garble and bring him here.” Not long after I said that, a drunk Garble was thrown at my feet. “Alright you two. What we have here is an opportunity for you to be as powerful as the rest of my team.” I brought out two syringes. “If either, or both, of you are brave enough to take a shot in the tongue, you will be more powerful than you ever dreamed.”

The partying dragons were quiet as they watched the two dragons consider my offer. Garble and Ember looked at each other as if daring and challenging the other to go first. I raised an eyebrow at Ember, smirking at her. She growled at me, grabbed the syringe and injected the rainbow liquid into her tongue. She let out a strangled yelp and a single tear fell from her eye. The change started immediately. Garble on the other hand, looked more nervous. But a smirk from me and a healthy dose of peer pressure from the surrounding dragons had him close his eyes, hold his own tongue, and jam the needle in it. He fell to the ground as his transformation started.

I couldn’t help but laugh, “I love it when a plan comes together.”

I watched the two dragons turn into humans as I thought about my next move. First things first though, it was time to go home.

Author's Note:

Hi all! Story's not dead yet.

Comments

[Avatar Eddy]

This story is nine years old, and still going somehow. Ballin.

I just love how Sasuke messed with the 6.

Man. Still can't believe this site is still going. Not sure how the whole "Displaced" concept is doing atm. That was big back in the day.

[Vigriff]

I'm glad this story is still alive.

[Orderly Disassembly]

11532390
it pops up now and again, but not incredibly pervasive anymore

[Ghost Alvasa]

11532424
Still one hell of a story and one of my top ten favs

[Orderly Disassembly]

11532944
I was talking about the Displaced genre in general