• Published 11th Dec 2015
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Spike Quits His Job and Goes on Numerous Quests - B_25

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62 – "I Know You Must Feel Weak."

~62~

"I Know You Must Feel Weak."

Raging agony swept through the blue dragon's mind as he clutched at the stub that once bore the length of his prideful tail. The ponies surrounding him were silenced by the feat done by their quiet princess that brought to her a great honor, while to him, the greatest shame he would have to bear all his life.

A dragon with even a scratch on his back is tossed down the ladder of respect and power to wallow in the pit of those who are cowards and powerless.

To have an tail chopped off, and by no other then an pony would stir for even the weakest of the dragons to howl in laughter in sight of his disgrace.

Luna rose her head to the booming cheers and laughter of her sister's guard, displaying the crescent of blood adorning her bottom right eye. Her midnight-blue translucent mane assimilated the stream of blood still spewing from the detached dragon's tail to around the edges of her hair. Some of the white dots transitioned into a red color amongst the starry night sky that the princess's mane was a replica of, accented further by the thick, red borderline that glowed inward in her sky.

An ethereal sensation washed over all those who even glanced at their princess's stern beauty, though her teal eyes were clashing against the burning infernos the purple eyes of the dragon's had boiled into. She held this dragon's blood within her hair, not as a fashion statement, rather as a warrior's claim on a loser's possession that they could never hope to reclaim.

How his blood still boiled in her mane but could never taint or seep past her overflowing dedication to the night sky spoke of the equal ground that these two foes stood upon.

The dragon released his tight grip on his tail, allowing more blood to leak out due to there no longer being a restraint, as the dragon rose back to his feet and straighten out his back. His chest expanded outward as his eyes came to a close, collecting the last second of peacefulness before it was torn asunder by the influx of rage. A dragon's pride holds back his power when his predetermining philosophy deem's he's gone too far while simultaneously affording him the energy needed to protect his pride.

But when the precipice of pride has been shattered, all that restraint power becomes free in a single moment, transitioning into the emotion known as rage.

The dragon unleashed a roar, silencing the patronizing laughter and cheers by the ponies who he hoped to crush within the confines of his claws.

Luna fell to her knees except for right fore-hoof, feeling the depravity of energy from expelling a large quality of it in order to pull off her maneuver of slicing the dragon's tail. It didn't help that all of the previous days was spent chasing and fighting away the dragon, while her sister drained her magic in an endless search for some unknown threat as well as placing a protective barrier on all the buildings in her city.

She hoped that severing the dragon's tail and claiming his blood would establish that the alicorn sisters were still formidable foes, enough so for the dragon to fly away and fight again another day. Truth be told, the alicorn sisters weren't as strong as they once were in their prime, and if this fight were to continue, then its outcome would be unpredictable even to the tactician minds who've seen to the end countless battles.

The dragon unfurled his mighty blue wings to their full extent, blocking the view to the ponies behind him, who could only see his arms rise into the air and spread. Everyone held their breaths, including the dragon himself, as his next move would dictate the next stage in the battle. Would he fly away, with whatever limbs he intact, forever remembering the fierce interior that the ponies hid all so well? know ponies as the hidden fierce warriors that they are?

Or...

...would he reveal his face hidden behind his massive wing, a glow of orange already emitting from the back of his throat, as in its collision course the ponies could only flinch or mutter the beginning to the cry? The concentrated beam of flames hurling their way sealed the answer to the question in flames.

Princess Luna charged her horn instinctively with a shielding spell, felt the painful blue sparks her horn emitted from being overheated, before chucking her ax at the dragon. But her horn, overly-channelled with magic slowly stretching out its confines, agonizingly pulsated inward on the skull of her forehead in the desperate attempt to be freed from her body.

Luna howled a cry of pain as the sensation itself claimed her head, shoving her to the ground, and coursed through the rest of her body. She withered underneath the pain, and when turned her eyes, her face was warmed by the incoming bout of flames. Feeling this could be her possible demise, Luna kept her eyes opened and awaited fate's next hand.

Golden particles martialized into the thin air just before the flames, glowing bolder as a lines shot like thunderbolts though the canvas, connecting every little dot as one giant wall that then felt the heat behind the dragon's flames. Their heavenly grace was tainted into a redness that plagued some of the dots into the transition into the same color, though they still equally rebounded the flames up into the sky.

The scene carried on for another few moments, the golden display turning blood red, as the flames soon dissipated from their assault. In the next instance, the wall faded from existence as it casters huffed her every pant from across the platform. Luna tried to stop withering on the ground to show the dragon no more of her weakness, but all she could do was cast her eye on the form of her sister. "Tia, no!"

Her sister was too weighed down by exertion to even dare mutter out a response.

Luna's eyes could only glint at sensing her sister's weakness, unable to question if she even at the power still to restrain the dragon.

The dragon himself unleashed another roar not fueled by rage but by pain. Its inspiration wasn't derived from his attacked being repelled once more by the dualistic pest, rather because the heat of his flames being able to seal the once open wound of his tail. Expelling blood through the course of the fight would make for an even battle, so he concealed his weakness and bore through the agony resulting from his choice.

Such agony driving him to pummel his claw against the wall of the bar, only to feel it softly rebound away. With his curiosity able to withstand the torrent of agony, he tried to drive his claw into the bricks, only to find a golden later materialize into the air and glide his claw away, before fading out from existence. Hie eyes caught sight of the white infidelic life form quiver whenever he attempted to phase past the layer as if her horn charged up all on its own.

The realization of why his assault on the city had seen to so little damage quelled away some of his pain, as he knew now how to extract his revenge. Erecting himself before the front of the bar with both claws cocked at his waist, he offered a last toothy grin to the opponent behind his back, before releasing a barrage of punches against the walls of the bar. Each strike felt as if it shocked his claw a little. Each mighty impact softly swaying away.

But the dragon felt the thin layer shrink more in size with each and every hit.

The pained cries traverse his shoulder and into his ear, bringing him delight in his clever victory until he heard a thud crash against the ground. He felt his claw pierce through the layer though he stopped it an inch away from the brick, creating a circular gust of wind that assaulted all those who were near to feel just the force of his impact.

Given his deserved liberty to shatter the surrounding the building, the dragon instead unfurled his wings sweeping the ground in another gust of the wind by the force of his take-off flap. Before the surrounding guards could ponder why it had done that, they saw the dragon unleash yet another torrent of flames cooked up by his earlier barrage.

The fire began to rain down on all those exposed under the sky, no longer able to see the blueness of it past the waft of smoke created by the flames. Celestia had become too weak by being unable to undo her spell before the dragon took full advantage of it, no longer able to summon a barrier around her subject to save them from the scorching heat of the flames.

To make matters worse, the dragon had concealed himself perfectly behind the thick layer of smoke – not even his shadow contrasting against the cloud. Only his distant flaps and roars could be heard, as more fire rained down onto the hellish landscape, as the dragon could swoop down in completed stealth and slowly devour his opponents at his own leisure.

Applejack, who had been strangely quiet and still during the whole encounter, walked up to the princess willingly to show what hid behind her mask to the young cowpony. A ruler must never look weak or it'll instill fear to all the subject they lead – the saying enter her mind from the time Twilight was telling her about politics.

She eyed the malice lying on the ground and moved with her hoof closer to the princess, who she then softly helped back onto her hooves. The princess's eyes cracked up at the alien feeling touching her to only soften at the sight of her friend before her eyes almost came to a close again. A light shaking woke her back up.

The princess mumbled something incoherently before looking up at the simple pony.

"Princess, I know you must feel weak, but it's really important that you look strong right now." Applejack placed the weapon in her hooves, as Celestia fell back onto her rump. "Take the time you need to recover, but please make it look like you're preparing a spell or somethin'."

Celestia tried to wade her consciousness through the haze that her mind had become to listen to the words her friend was speaking, not fully hearing them but understanding what they meant, as her horn lit up in a golden faux aurora. She closed her eyes to drift back into her healing state, which Applejack hoped would only be a little nap.

Applejack leaned back and took her treasured hat off from her head and brought it to her face, staring deep into its dark rim before her teeth went to uncover the lasso tied around its length. Once the rope was secured inside her mouth, she went to tie the lace of the hat around the throat of her ruler, letting the hat rest on the back of her neck.

Applejack hoped that when the princess awoke, that her questioning gaze for her would find the stetson laid upon her neck, and she would be able to gather from that would the orange mare set off to do. And she hoped, that if whatever happened next didn't end in her favor, that the princess would give the hat to the good care of her little sister.

The Element of Honesty looked to her ruler like it were the last time she would do so, before turning around and snapping her lasso against the ground. The length of the rope draped along the floor as its owner looked up to the smoke infused sky, as she muttered out only a single line.

"Been a 'while since the last time I went huntin'."

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