Chapter 82- The Dragon Kingdom
Dark, Twilight, and Spike stood near base of the ramp leading them up to their airship. It wasn't anything too fancy, seeing as how it was a standard airship with its oval-shaped hot-air balloon tied down to a seventy-five foot ship beneath it. As they made their way up the ramp, Twilight began explaining to Dark about the different kind of airships that Equestria has. While most of them were more private airships for nobles and such, they did have a few that were meant for carrying cargo, but what they didn't have were any that were equipped for war.
While Twilight continued to explain airships to Dark on the deck of the ship, they were soon joined by Shining, Fissure, and Aero, with Shining having his own input on the subject. After a few minutes, their attention was turned towards the sound of chains clinking with each step. Looking at the source, they saw Garble and the two other dragons being escorted by sixteen royal guards who where assigned to go with them. Upon closer inspection, they saw that Garble's left wing was reduced to a stub ending in a metal covering, and his left shoulder being covered by a metallic plate. However, the most noticeable difference was the look in his eyes, showing behind them how defeated and empty they were.
While Spike looked at Garble with mixed feelings, Garble kept his gaze down, not wanting to look at anything but the ground before him. Followed behind him were the other two dragons who accompanied him. However, while they too were chained up like Garble, they didn't have that same sense of defeat as what he did, which was further proved when they both nodded respectfully to Spike as the guards continued to escort them down below the deck and into a small empty room.
With everyone aboard, Shining ordered the airship to take-off. After the guards untied the rope securing the ship to the posts anchoring into the ground, the pony at the helm then steered them towards the west to the Dragon Kingdom. Now flying high above the skies of Canterlot, Dark, Twilight, Spike, and Shining all went below deck to settle down, while Fissure and Aero stayed above deck.
After picking out their rooms, Shining and Spike went to Dark and Twilight's room and sat down at the table to relax. As they did, Shining started to become uneasy as his thoughts returned to the last time he went to the Dragon Kingdom in an airship. Even with the circumstances being different, he couldn't help but notice the similarities, like, again, he was in an airship, and currently had three others with him, all of whom he trusted.
Seeing his unease, Twilight got up and sat herself down by Shining's side.
"Hey, you doing alright there?" she asked, patting his back with a hoof.
"Yeah, I suppose," Shining replied. "It's just that this, how we are right now, it kinda reminds me of the last time I was headed this way. Too many similarities I guess."
"Do you need to go above deck and get some fresh air?"
"In a moment," he said with a headshake before smiling softly at Twilight. "But for right now, I have a small question for you, Twily."
"Yes?"
Shining's eyes glanced down. "... well... I was wondering... could I touch it?"
Following the direction of his gaze, Twilight gave a small smile before she took Shining's hoof into her own and gently placed it over her belly. Taken a little bit by surprise, it took Shining a moment before he realized that Twilight had let go of his hoof. Now holding his hoof against her on his own, Shining gave a small smile as he gently caressed his sister's baby bump.
"I'm still finding this hard to believe," he said with a chuckle.
"What?"
"That you had actually found somepony special and began on starting a family with them."
Twilight smiled warmly as she gave Shining a hug. "Well, I have, and I'm happy that I did, Uncle Shiny."
While he was a little slow at the start, a smile began to form on Shining's lips.
"I'm gonna be an uncle."
"You seriously haven't thought of that yet?" Spike asked with an amused snort of smoke.
"I guess it just never really sunk in until Twily called me one."
"Well, don't forget, Uncle Shiny," Twilight accented with a bit of mirth, "that this also means that Cadence will be an aunt, and that Skyla will have herself a little cousin to play with."
Shining's smile went a little wider as he wrapped a foreleg around Twilight, pulling her into a hug and planting a brotherly kiss on top of her forehead.
"This really is a wonderful thing, Twily," he told her before turning to Dark. "And I'm proud to say that in my opinion, you couldn't have picked a better stallion."
Smiling at his kind words, Dark gave Shining a small, polite bow. "Thank you, Shining."
"You're welcome," Shining returned with a small nod. "Now then, what do you all want to do? Last time it took us five hours to get to the village, and three days to get to where... you know. So, with the airship taking us straight there, and not having to take shelter from the weather, we should be there by tomorrow."
"How about a game?" Spike suggested.
"Like what?" Dark wondered.
There was a small glint in Spike's eyes. "It's a type of board game."
"Twilight and I didn't bring one, so I take it that you did?"
With a grin, Spike reached into his backpack and unfolded a makeshift map that he'd made. With it set out, he reached back in to pull out a book, and sack of what was soon to be revealed to be several types of dices. As Spike continued to set the game up, Shining looked over it with a glint in his own eyes.
"Spike, is this...?"
Spike looked back at him with a chuckle. "You bet it is, Shining. Dark, may I introduce you to the greatest game in all of Equestria."
"Here we go again," Twilight groaned.
"Welcome, to Ogres and Oubliettes."
Several long hours later, Fissure and Aero went below deck to see what the others were doing. As they went down, they heard voices coming from behind one of the doors. Recognizing them, they made their way over to the door with the intent of going inside, but stopped when they heard the unusual conversation from the other side.
"I wanna cast a spell," Dark said from the other side. "I can cast any of these, right? On the list?"
"Yes, any of the first level one," Spike replied.
"In that case, I wanna cast Magic Missile."
"Why are you casting Magic Missile? There's nothing to attack here?" Twilight asked confusingly.
"... I... I'm attacking the darkness."
The sounds of Twilight, Spike, and Shining could be heard clearly through the door as Fissure and Aero looked at each other, both clearly confused as to what was going on in there.
"Hahahahahah! O-Okay, okay, fine," Spike said as he managed to get his laughter under control. Once he did, he cleared his throat before he continued. "There's a thestral in front of you. He's wearing a brown tunic and has a black mane with silver eyes-"
"Actually," Shining interrupted, "no, I don't. I have golden eyes."
Spike quirked an eyebrow. "Really?"
"Well, I did have silver eyes, but I decided that I wanted golden eyes."
"... Shining, you've played this long enough to know that you can't just switch like that."
"I know, but we hardly play this much together anymore, so I didn't think that it would hurt."
"He does have a point," Twilight agreed, getting a loud sigh from Spike.
"Alright, whatever. Okay, you two can talk to each other if you want."
"... hello," Dark said to Shining.
"Hello," Shining returned.
"I am Eventide, Wizard of Sunlight."
"Then how come you had to cast Magic Missile?"
This prompted another round of laughter while Dark remained silent, blushing in embarrassment while muttering beneath his breath. No longer able to withhold their curiosity, Aero knocked on the door before they were allowed to enter. Whey did, they saw Dark, Twilight, Spike, and Shining all sitting around a table with a crudely-drawn map sitting out, and what looked like character pieces on it.
"Hi, Aero, Fissure," Twilight welcomed them.
"Eeehhh, what's going on?" Aero unsurely asked.
"We're playing Ogres and Oubliettes," she answered with a small shrug before giving Dark a small smirk. "That is, we're trying to."
"Give me a break, Twilight. This is my first time playing this game," Dark whined.
"It's alright, Dark," Shining said, patting him on the back with a grin. "After all, the first time is always the hardest."
Unable to say or do anything in response, Dark remained stoic as he gawked at Shining, while he, Twilight, and Spike laughed at him once again. After a full minute had passed with him not moving, Aero floated over to him and placed a claw on his shoulder to shake him.
"Hey, Dark, are you okay?"
Hearing Aero calling for his attention, Dark was shaken out of his stupor.
"Uhhh... yeah," he slowly replied before looking back to see that the others were now snickering at him. "... I'm gonna go outside and get some air."
"We didn't go overdo it, did we?" Twilight asked, worried that they might taken things too far with him.
"No, you're all fine. I just wasn't expecting Shining to say something like that was all."
Shining chuckled at Dark. "Heh. In that case, you can think of that as payback for that little thing you told Cadence and I back in the Crystal Empire."
Knowing what he was referring to, Dark didn't look back as he made his way up the stairs and onto the deck of the airship. Feeling the wind through his mane, Dark walked over to one of the railings and looked out over it, seeing the vast landscape beneath them that stretched beyond the horizon. Enjoying the unique view due to the setting sun, and not actually having flown this high up before, Dark propped himself up on the railing and leaned on it as he peacefully took in the scene.
For the next half-hour, Dark watched the sun set and the night take over the skies. Feeling like he'd calmed down enough, Dark turned around and made his way back down below deck to join the others. Coming back into the room, he saw that Twilight, Spike, and Shining had continued the game without him, while Aero and Fissure watched from off to the side. Their continuing without him didn't really bother him in the least, having figured that he'd been gone long enough that he would've felt bad if they did decide to wait for him.
"So," Dark began as he made his way over to his seat beside Twilight, "how's the game going?"
"Alright, but I think that we should start thinking about calling it a night," Shining suggested. "I mean, it's gotta be nighttime by now."
"Yeah, it is."
"In that case, we probably should pack the game up and head off to bed," Twilight agreed. "We each have a busy day ahead of us, plus the three of us will have plenty of time to play on the way back."
"I suppose," Spike said with a small sigh. "Oh, I also saved your character sheet, Dark. You know, for the next time we play. Now that you're starting to get into it, you could play with me, Big Mac, and Discord."
Dark blinked. "Wait. You three play this game together? Why haven't I seen any of this?"
Spike shrugged. "Probably because you were either working or training most of the time that we'd played, or were too tired and went straight to bed."
"Okay, so when's the next one?"
"Considering that we had to skip our next one due to the wedding, the following one would be on Friday the week after."
Dark scratched his chin. "Hmmm. I'm not sure if I'll be able to make it."
"Why not? As far as I know, you don't have anything planned for that day."
"Maybe, but Twilight and I don't know how long our honeymoon will last for... or what we're even doing for it."
"I wouldn't worry about it," Shining chuckled. "If I know Princess Celestia and mom, then I'm sure they won't let you two go without one. And I'm sure that whatever it is will be wonderful."
"I'm sure it will," Twilight agreed with a smile, one that quickly turned to a yawn.
"Yep, sounds like it's bedtime," Aero said, getting up and stretching out. "I'm off to bed. See you all in the morning."
"Me too," Fissure agreed before following Aero to the room they were sharing for tonight.
"I suppose we better get going too," Shining said, getting a nod from Spike as he started following him out.
As the two started to exit the room, they both bid a goodnight to Twilight and Dark, who returned it with their own. Now alone in their room, Twilight went over and crawled into bed while Dark went over to turn off the overhead light for the night. With his night-vision, he had no trouble making his way around the table and back towards the bed to join Twilight in sleep.
The next day was one of tense nerves as their airship was flying over a valley familiar to Dark and Shining, the latter of whom was shaking slightly with hasten breaths as he looked down upon the familiar setting from on deck, while the others were eating a late lunch below deck.
Keep yourself together, Shining Armor, he mentally told himself. It's all buried in the past now... and I'm about to literally have it dug back up.
As he continued to look down over the railing on the side of the airship, he heard heavy clawsteps coming up from behind, along with what sounded like a breeze of air.
"You doing alright? You seem a bit tense right now," Aero asked as she floated up alongside him, while Fissure took up a spot on Shining's other side.
"Just some bad memories of this place," Shining solemnly answered her.
"Having second thoughts?" Fissure asked.
"... I suppose I kinda am, but I've already come this far, so I might as well see it through. Besides, whether I want to be here or not, we need to know if those kirins buried down there did indeed work for whatever that creature was."
"In that case, we'll work as quickly as we can and get you out of here," Aero said. "Right, Fissure?"
"Yes," he rumbled.
"Well that's good," Shining began as he turned his head to look at the direction that they were going with a grimace, "because we're almost there."
Following Shining's gaze, Aero and Fissure both saw a mountain range coming up.
"At the rate we're going, we should be there within the next half-hour. I'm gonna go on down and tell Twilight and the others."
Turning around, Shining went below deck to see Twilight, Dark, and Spike just as they were about to finish up their lunch.
"Hey," Shining said, gaining their attention.
"Hi, Shiny," Twilight returned before noticing the look on his face. "Is something wrong?"
"Not exactly, Twilight. I just came to let you all know that my stop is coming up pretty soon."
"Oh... so that means that you'll be leaving us soon."
"Hey, I'll still see you back in Canterlot when you return. Besides, if anything, I should be the one worrying, considering that you've got the harder and more dangerous job between us."
"Maybe, but this can't be an easy thing for you either, having to return to all of this."
Shining shook his head with a heavy sigh. "No, it's not easy. Then again, I didn't expect it to be."
Not liking seeing her brother like this, Twilight got up and went over to give him a hug.
"I'm sorry that this is starting to take a toll on you. Is there anything that I can do to help you feel better?"
"Just stay safe, and I'll be fine," he said, returning her hug. "While coming back here is unsettling and brings back bad memories, I'm also worried about you going into the heart of the Dragon Kingdom. Especially with you being pregnant like this. I don't know if King Inferno knows about it or not, but if they do, then they'll more than likely target you."
"I'd like to see them try," Dark said with a growl. "Just like when he came to see us in Canterlot, if he or any of the others try anything to Twilight, they'll be dead before they even take their first step."
"Of that I have no doubt," Shining nodded approvingly, "which is why I didn't voice any objection to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna about Twilight going."
Letting their conversation end there, Shining turned back around and went back up onto the deck. Not long after, Dark, Twilight, and Spike followed after him. After another twenty minutes, they were starting to get close to the mountain range when the ships Captain came up to Shining with a salute.
"Prince Shining Armor, we're almost to your destination and will be landing for you to disembark," he informed him.
"Thanks, but you can just continue onward," Shining dismissed.
"But sir, how will you get down there? Are you going to ride on one of those dragons?"
"Nope. I've got my own way," he smirked before turning to Twilight and giving her another hug. "Be safe, Twily, and good luck."
"You too, Shiny."
Pulling away from Twilight, Shining gave Spike a quick hug before turning to Dark, who, after a brief moment of hesitation, Shining hugged.
"Look out her," Shining whispered.
"You bet," Dark whispered back.
With a pat, they let go of each other. With his goodbyes said and done, Shining walked over to the railing and, with a salute, jumped off of the side with Aero and Fissure following after him. But while they were all calm about it, the ship's crewmembers all scrambled over to see Shining falling to what they all thought was his death. They were about so send some of the pegasi crewmembers over to fetch him, but Dark halted them before they could take off, having already seen this before and knowing what he's planning. After several long seconds of waiting, they watched as Shining encased himself in one of his barriers before hitting the ground with enough force to create an impact crater and kicking up the dirt and rocks into a blinding cloud. Not long after that, they all sighed in relief when they saw Shining walking out of it completely unharmed, making his way over towards where the old cave entrance was with Aero floating alongside his right, and Fissure walking along his left.
With the show now over, they each returned to their stations and changed their course slightly to take them to the Dragon Kingdom's capital city.
On the ground, Shining watched as the airship continued further into the Dragon Kingdom. With them gone and his own destination close, he began his walk to where he remembered the collapsed cave entrance being.
"So, Fissure," Shining began, "I know that you're the Lord of Earth, but can you really do it?"
"Yes," he plainly answered.
"Can't you feel where this cave is that Shining Armor's been talking about?" Aero asked.
"Yes. I can also feel the collapsed cave leading to it."
Nodding, Shining led them towards the entrance. After twenty minutes of walking, they finally came upon it.
"Well, here it is," Shining said with an uneasy breath.
Stepping forward, Fissure looked over the collapsed cave entrance before running a claw over it. After a few moments of his eyes scanning over it, he turned to look back at Shining and Aero.
"I can do it, but it will take some time," he told them.
"How long are you thinking?" Aero wondered.
Fissure turned back to the entrance. "About an hour."
"That long?" Shining skeptically asked. "I figured that as the Lord of Earth that you would be able to do it much faster."
"If you want a cave sturdy enough to walk through, then I'll need the time to do it. Besides, the walk there itself will take us a while."
"Well, as much as I don't want to stay here any longer than I need to, it's not necessarily like we're in any rush."
Fissure nodded. "Then stand back while I clear us a path."
Following his instructions, Shining backed away with Aero. Once they were far enough away, they watched as Fissure dug his claws into the ground, causing the earth beneath them to rumble. Moments later, they watched as the rocks blocking the cave entrance began to rise up and returned to where they were before the cave-in. Fissure then used his power over earth to turn the outside of the boulders to liquid rock and pressed them together in an attempt to bind them together.
As they cooled off, Fissure looked over them to make sure that they would hold. While most if it seemed alright, he saw that some of it would need some extra earth to fill in some gaps. Using some of the earth from the ground, he reshaped them before applying them to the required areas, filling in the cracks and allowing for it to hold soundly together. Giving a small nod at how it turned out, Fissure continued onward clearing the cave and returning it to how it was before Shining caved it in all those years ago.
Once they were far beyond the other side of the mountain range where Shining, Aero, and Fissure departed from, Dark looked over to his side at Twilight.
"So, how long do you think it'll take us to get to the capital?" he asked.
"It shouldn't be too long," she answered him, thinking over it in hear head. "From what I saw on the map downstairs, and with how fast we're going, we should get there just before sundown."
"So we're still a few hours out then," Spike summed up.
"Just about."
"In that case, should we start getting ready? You know, get dressed and stuff."
"Not just yet. Besides, what kind of clothes would you wear anyway?"
"I was actually talking about you and Dark, Twilight."
"I'll get changed after a bit... although," Twilight turned to Dark, "I still don't know what you'll be wearing."
"I'll be wearing my Coliseum armor," he answered her. "Not the one that I got winning the Championship match, but the chainmail one."
"Really? Why that one? Don't you have other clothes that you can wear besides that?"
"It's either that, the tuxedo I wore to the Hearth's Warming Eve Ball, or the armor that Anvil made me for becoming the Coliseum Champion. And trust me when I say that that armor isn't something that I should be wearing to something like this, unless I'm looking to start a fight."
Twilight sighed. "Alright, if there's nothing else, then you might as well."
"Speaking of your Champion armor," Spike began, "you still haven't shown any of us yet. Have you even worn it to see if it fits at all?"
"I have, and it fits perfectly," Dark replied. "And despite what Anvil thought of it at first with the weight of it, between my natural strength, and the enchantment runes he placed on the inside of the armor to lighten them like with my sword, it's actually pretty light."
"Do you think that you'll ever show us?"
"... maybe after we get back I will."
"Sounds good," Twilight said before turning towards the steps leading below deck. "Now, if you two don't mind, I'm going down to see if they've got any pickles to snack on, and maybe some ketchup to dip it in."
Several hours later, the airship carrying Dark, Twilight, and Spike started to approach a chain of volcanoes with dragons perched on the cliffs, while others were flying over them. Standing on the bow of the ship, Twilight, wearing her dress and royal regalia, Dark in his black armor, and Spike, watched as they got closer and eventually flew over the volcanoes. When they did, they were granted the sight of the Dragon Kingdom's capital city.
"Well, here we are," Twilight nervously breathed. "Welcome to Vulcan, the capital of the Dragon Kingdom."
As the name implied, the entire area was surrounded by a chain of volcanoes, creating a natural barrier between the city and the outside world. Inside, several more volcanoes were shown with rivers of lava flowing at the base of them. In the sides of them, grand caves could be seen, each with a burning glow coming from within. And there, at the center of it all, was easily the biggest volcano they'd ever seen, easily bit enough to fit ten other volcanoes inside it.
Flying closer to it, their eyes began to wander around, noticing all of the dragons perched on ledges, flying around in the air, and some even seen relaxing in the rivers of lava. However, off to their left on a large plateau, they all saw that it was covered with something that appeared to be moving and glowing, but it didn't look like any dragon.
"What are those things?" Spike asked.
"Salamanders," Dark frowned. "And a lot of them. Guess Rin wasn't joking when he said how many of them there were."
"All the more reason for us to stop Inferno from unleashing them," Twilight said. "And hopefully, by returning Garble back to him, something in him will snap and cause Light's spell over him to break."
"Considering that we've never tried that method, or found a way to free anypony from it before, I doubt that it'll work... but, even so, I do hope that it does."
Turning their attention back towards the central volcano they were heading towards, they quickly noticed several dragons with armor flying towards them, each with a spear in their claw. Keeping an eye on them, they watched as the three dragons came up to the airship and hovered in front of it. However, as the dragons' eyes looked over the scared crew, Spike, and Twilight, their eyes soon fell upon Dark. When they did, his heartrate skyrocketed as they each roared and pointed their spears at him.
Seeing that this could quickly turn hostile, Twilight stepped forward in front of him.
"I am Princess Twilight Sparkle!" she declared, causing the three dragons to pause while she continued, "and I have been sent here by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna to speak with King Inferno!"
They eyed Twilight out before the center one gave a low growl and focused back on Dark.
"This one-"
"Is with me," Twilight interrupted him. "Dark Flame is here as my personal bodyguard. He will not attack any of you unless I'm attacked first, or he's provoked. As a Princess of Equestria, you have my word."
The amount of displeasure on their faces was clear for all to see. However, despite their reluctance, they relented.
"So be it," the dragon growled. "We shall escort you to one of the platforms to Inferno's lair."
Once the dragons had turned around, Dark leaned over to Twilight.
"Why did you tell them that I'm just a bodyguard and not your fiancé?" Dark whispered to her.
"Please don't be upset, Dark," Twilight whispered back. "It's just that if they don't know about my being pregnant yet, then they probably don't know about us getting married soon either. And if that's the case, then I'd rather that they continue to not know."
Dark thought about it for a moment before nodding in agreement. "Alright then."
Though Twilight was glad that this possible problem had been adverted, along with the one with the dragons confronting them, she didn't allow for any of her relief to show, and instead remained her posture with a stern and regal look to her. As their airship followed the three dragons escorting them, they looked around to see that other dragons had taken notice of them, or more specifically, of Dark. Closing in on Inferno's lair, they had to close their ears as the angered roars of every dragon who'd spotted them reverberated throughout the city, but were once again relieved that none of them made any move to even approach them.
Floating down to their landing platform, several of the pegasi flew off the sides of the airship with ropes in their mouths. Once they landed, they pulled the airship down until the bottom of it made contact with the stone ground, and tied the ropes down some nearby stalagmites. With the airship secured, the other members of the crew pulled out the ramp to let Twilight, Dark, and Spike off, along with six of the royal guards, while the others stayed to guard the airship.
With their escort following right behind them, Twilight led the way towards the mouth of the entrance with Dark and Spike flanking her sides. When they got there, the three dragons who had escorted them there turned and began to lead them inside the volcano. As they followed them inside to be taken to Inferno, Twilight's eyes flickered to the side every time they crossed another dragon that growled threateningly at them. But, as nervous as she was becoming after seeing so many dragons looking like they wanted to devour them initially, she also noticed that each dragon that growled at them flinched and went silent after she saw that Dark's eyes would snap over directly at them.
I figured that the dragons probably wouldn't of liked Dark being here, but I didn't think that it would be this bad, Twilight thought as she looked at another group of dragons that had been silenced by Dark's gaze. Then again, while they do seem almost hostile towards him, it doesn't look like they're willing to attack him either.
"We're here," the lead dragon announced, catching Twilight's attention as she now stood in front of a massive stone doorway easily twice the size of these dragons. "Wait here and I'll announce you to His Highness."
"Very well," Twilight regally replied.
Listening to him, Twilight and the others waited outside of the stone doors while the guard went in to inform Inferno about their arrival. While they waited, several large dragons had gathered around them, each growling in displeasure. However, when Dark turned to look at them and flashed his eyes red, they went silent and took several steps back away from him. A few minutes later, the doors opened to the draconic guard that went to talk to Inferno.
"King Inferno will not be seeing you," he told them.
Twilight and the others looked appalling in response to the reply.
"Excuse me?" Twilight said with a bit of irritation in her voice. "Did you just say that he will not be seeing us?"
"Yes."
"Did he give a reason why?"
"Yes, but that doesn't matter. What does is that he'll see you tomorrow instead when he's better prepared for this surprise visit of yours."
"How convenient," Spike muttered, folding his arms displeasingly. "Figures that he'd want some time to hide something that he wouldn't want us to see."
"Mind your tongue, whelpling," the dragon growled, tightening his grip on his spear, which also prompted the other two to do the same. "You may be here with Princess Twilight Sparkle, but you're still tiny and weak compared to us."
While Spike began to growl in offense, he quickly felt Dark place a claw on his shoulder before walking up in front of him.
"In that case, perhaps you'd like to face me like so many before you?" Dark asked with a gleam of anticipation in his eyes, causing the guard to take a step back.
"Keep talking, Dragon Slayer," he growled at Dark. "King Inferno will wipe you out, just like how Lord Nocturne did to your village."
Dark's eyes took on a dangerous look to them.
"Keep talking, dragon," Dark spat, "and you, along with the rest of this city, will find out first-hoof just how I got that title."
"Easy there, Dark," Twilight said, trying to calm him down before looking back up to the draconic guard who started this. "I would recommend that you cease this provocation while there's still time. After all, while his village was destroyed, in the end, Dark defeated Nocturne. So, if he could do that to the Scaleless Dragon of Death, then what chance do you think you'll have against him, especially since Dark's taken over Nocturne's position as Lord of Death?"
Each of the dragons listening were now looking at Dark with eyes filled with fear. It was bad enough that the Dragon Slayer was within their city, but now that he possesses the powers of Nocturne...
"You're bluffing," the guard stated nervously. "This scum doesn't possess Lord Nocturne's powers."
With a flaming snort, Dark's claw emanated a dark fog while a pair of dark portals appeared above his head. Seconds later, Nocturne's massive draconic arms popped out of them, each claw easily big enough to grip one of the dragons' heads in its palm and crush it. Growling, Dark's eyes turned blood-red as he punched his fist into the palm of his claw, which was mimicked by the pair above him. Cracking his knuckles, Dark grinned as his tail began flicking in anticipation.
"Care to test that?" Dark asked, using Nocturne's voice and sending a chill down the dragons' spines. "Go on. Give me a reason to send you to join the hundreds of dragons that tried to kill me before you."
Seeing that Twilight wasn't actually bluffing about Dark, the guards lowered their spears while the other dragons who'd come to see had scattered, now with greater fear of Dark.
"Apologies, Princess," the guard apologized with a bow. "I didn't mean to step out of line. However, King Inferno's orders still stand. If you would return to your airship, His Highness will see you tomorrow."
"Very well then," Twilight said. "We shall return and await for you to come for us when it's time."
Letting it end there, Twilight turned around and began making her way back to the airship with Spike and the royal guards. As she began leaving, Dark retracted the arms back into the portals and dispersed the shadows from his arms before giving one last snort and following after Twilight.
"That was close," Spike commented once Dark was back beside them. "I mean, seriously, could you have made things anymore tense there, Dark?"
Dark looked down at Spike. "... do you really want me to answer that?"
"That was a rhetorical question, Dark. It was easy enough to see how much you wanted to fight him."
"He's lucky that I didn't," he growled. "Those idiots don't know that with the amount of fire that I can Amplify around here, and combining it with the power of my Flare, that I could destroy all of Vulcan with one blast if I wanted to, if not most of it."
"You're not doing that, Dark," Twilight sternly told him. "Even if we do end up being enemies in a war, I won't allow for you to destroy an entire city of dragons like that. Besides, wouldn't that be kinda similar to what Shining did to those kirins?"
While he didn't like the comparison, he did grimace as he found a few parallels between what Shining did, and what he was thinking about doing.
"... I suppose you're right," he admitted. Seeing Twilight nod approvingly, Dark looked up. "I wonder how Shining's doing?"
"You said that you could do this in an hour," Shining complained, "and it's been well over one hour."
"Doing this kind of work makes me hungry," Fissure defended himself.
"Besides," Aero took over, "I didn't hear you complaining when we sat down to take a break to eat."
"Anyway, we're almost there."
"How much longer are you thinking?" Shining wondered, but got his answer when Fissure gave him a deadpan look and punched through the last of the rubble, opening the way up to the main chamber.
"Now."
The smell from within was horrific as the scent from the decaying bodies was all trapped inside when Shining had collapsed the cave entrance. Now having a way out, Shining, Aero, and Fissure were all hit with a wave of nausea as the smell of decay hit them all, causing each of them to gag before Shining managed to cast a barrier around each of their heads to filter out the smell.
"Thanks," Fissure thanked with a breath of relief.
"No problem," Shining grimaced, looking out at the familiar but ruined setting.
"Alright, let's get this over with," Aero told them. "This place is making me uncomfortable enough as it is."
With a nod, Shining led the two down the stone ramp. As they descended, he continued to look around and saw that while the loose rocks that he'd blasted from the cave's ceiling had crushed most of the kirins' corpses, they were still well preserved with the lack of air coming in over these past years.
Coming to the base of the ramp, Shining went over to the closest uncrushed corpse and looked down at it with a hint of regret for what he did. Of course, while a part of him was regretful for what he did, he also knew that it was too late to take any of it back. Pushing those feelings away, Shining created a magical sword from his magic and carefully sliced open the dead kirin's chest. Once the incision was large enough, he used his magic to pry the ribcage open and reach in with his magic to feel for anything that should be in there.
Which there was.
"What the hay?"
Hearing Shining, Aero and Fissure walked up to him to see what he found. When they did, they watched as Shining used his magic to carefully extract whatever it was that he found inside. Once he pulled it out, they all looked at the black feather that had laid hidden within its chest.
"Looks like your guess was right," Aero commented.
"Looks like," Shining frowned. "Hey, could you two give me a hoof and check some of the others? I just want to make sure that this isn't some fluke."
"Sure."
While Fissure used his powers to remove the boulders crushing the corpses, Aero used her power over wind to slice open the bodies and send a small blast of wind into them. Unfortunately, when she did, the gust of wind blowing out of them brought a black feather out along with it. For the next hour they continued, searching hundreds of corpses and finding a feather in each of them.
Sighing to himself, Shining looked around at the hundreds that were still visible. "I think that that's enough."
"You sure?" Aero asked.
"Yeah. At the rate we're going, it's starting to look like that if we were to search each and every one of them that we'll find a feather on them... or in this case, inside them."
"Probably," Fissure agreed before catching something black off to the side. "What's that?"
Shining turned to see what he was referring to and grimaced. "The remains of the statue of that creature from the looks of it."
"Let's check it out."
Listening to him, they went over to the remains of the onyx-black statue. While everything from the base of it to the waist was fine, the entire upper-half of it had been broken off by a boulder that had fallen onto it. Looking around, they found chunks of black rock that Fissure identified to actually be onyx.
"So, this is it huh?" Aero finally spoke after several moments of silence had passed.
"Yep," Shining replied. "I didn't really think to take a good look last time, though."
Humming to herself, Aero floated around it as she inspected the remains of the statue, while Fissure looked over the base of it. After a moment of looking it over, Fissure paused.
"What's this?"
Coming over to see what he was pointing at, Shining and Aero looked at the name engraved onto the base of the stone.
"Is that supposed to be a name?" Shining wondered. "Because I've never seen one so short before."
"If it is, then it's unsettling," Fissure grumbled, clearly not liking it.
"I... I think I've heard this name before," Aero mused out loud.
"From where?"
"From Aurora. I can't remember what it was about, but I do remember her giving me a name, one that she told me never to talk about."
Shining looked questionably at Aero. "And now that we know?"
"... we need to go back to Ponyville and speak with Aurora. If we need to, we'll get Pinkie Pie to translate what she's saying to us with her light."
Not waiting for a response, Aero used her wind to lift Shining onto her back and fly up towards the entrance. But, before she left the cave, she turned back towards Fissure.
"After we're gone, I want this entire place sealed up again," she told him. "It doesn't matter what method you use, just as long as nothing can get in here."
Once she'd gotten an understanding nod from Fissure, Aero left with Shining on her back. Once they'd left the cave and were flying into the night sky, she heard Shining speaking up.
"What about Fissure?"
"He's fine," she dismissed.
"I mean how's he gonna get back?"
"He's Earth Incarnate. He can meld into the earth and travel anywhere, just like how Dark can meld into the shadows and travel across long distances through that. So, more than likely, Fissure will be back in Ponyville before we even cross the border into Equestria."
Stats
Page generated in 0.052 seconds
Total duration
1,043 users online
1,881,460 hits today, 2,054,621 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.®
.......Shit.
So that .... Thing is now free... Emperor protect us....
finally caught up to chapter 82
I'm enjoying the story
7700715 Atleast it's not Bakunawa.
I wonder how Shining Armor is gonna take the fact that he committed Genocide against a race of people that were under the influence of dark magic and in no real control of their faculties, cause last I checked that's a no-no.
Also how great would it be to have a kinda "Flash Sentry" moment but with Dark Flame instead, Like their has to be other Kirins out there, The Dragon Empire would be a likely place to find one, Its been implied that Kirins group together when at all possible as well as breed between themselves(The fact that the majority of Kirins were living in a colony under ground, by themselves). Its only reinforced by the fact that Dragons despise them, seeing them as weak half breeds, and Pony's fear them thinking they are the same as their Dragon brethren, So neither one see them as potential mates(The Majority, exceptions such as Twilight are bound to exist). I Just think it would be a good Conflict idea to have a female Kirin learn of Dark's existence and go pining for him, Seeing as he could be one of the last male Kirins in the world.
7701064 would be interesting to see how things would go.
Keep up the good work oh powerful author!
I'm still not liking the overpowering of the characters.
It makes things like the Elements of Harmony, seem ordinary, whereas they're supposed to be the most powerful thing ever, and the other characters look insignificant.
It started out as a great story but overtime olyiu started to make most of the characters more and more overpowered and the others more and more like cannon fodder
7700715 Free now? Oh no, it's been free for a long time. If you'll recall, "this thing" approached Sombra over a thousand years prior to Shining finding the kirins and its statue. That statue itself was just a statue, not a prison like what happened to Discord.
7701064 Yeah, I agree with you about Shining there. As for your thought about a female kirin searching Dark out, while I admit that it's a pretty good idea, seeing as how far into the story we are right now, it's a bit too late to add it in. Perhaps if it happened after Chapter 45 when Dark learned about Shining and the kirins, then it could've worked.
7701167 Lol. Yeah, as soon as the Ogres and Oubliettes scene came up, I just had to reference that clip. Really, how couldn't I?
7703425 True it could have worked then, but I was not insinuating that they pair up. It was more of a unwanted love interest that won't go away, A sort of Chrysalis to dark and twilight's romance. The character would be hell bent on winning Darks hand, pushed to the brink by a feeling of desperation and despair(making her relatable and pitiable) resorting to nefarious means and dark magic, it could be used as a window to what drove the Kirin's down their path of self destruction and shed a little back story on the typical thoughts and feelings of a naturally born Kirin. I also simply think it would make a good wedding crash scene!
7703641 Ah. Okay, now I understand. Thanks for clearing that up.
Why in Tartarus did Twilight and Dark tip their hand like that?! Seriously, they had a nice little ace in the hole for most of the dragons. Then they absolutely ruined that surprise, with Twilight in the state she is in and the forced overnight stay they need all the aces that they can. They just threw one of their biggest aces of surprise out the window.
*Where have I seen/heard of this before. . .
*Oh man. . .that was funny. . .I remember now this is from that MLP Dungeons and Dragons animation!
7764072 I haven't checked out the MLP version yet. But here's a link to the original Dungeons & Dragons by the Dead Ale Wives.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Kgx2b1sIRs
I'm really loving all the different references that Garuda IV is putting into this story. Keep up the great work!!!
