Spike Quits His Job and Goes on Numerous Quests

by B_25

73 – "Had You Only Harmed Me, Then I Would Only Be Upset."

~73~

"Had You Only Harmed Me, Then I Would Only Be Upset at the Moment."

The metal screeched across the platform, loud and clear.

Creak!

A blue claw crushed the railing within its grasp until it was nothing more than a metal clump; the same one responsible for the imprint on its owner's face. The clump of metal in the blue claw was brought to its owner's eyes, who gaze onto for a moment, before whipping across the platform.

It flew over the heads of three approaching mares, landing just a few feet after them, and knocking out a row of guards instructed to protect the said mares with their live.

They partially fulfilled their duty.

The three mares did not flinch, though the yellow one, standing in the middle of the pack, began to cower as they approached the beast. They stared up at him.

The ponies kept silent as the breeze swept up their manes into the air. A pair of scaly lips, cut and scared, split apart to show dreadful fangs sealed underneath them, only to expose the missing teeth and still bleeding gums. The lips closed at once, but the weakness behind them had already been sighted by its foes.

"Mr. Dragon!" The aforementioned dragon's eyes flicked right to the alabaster unicorn that had stepped forth. "I doubt highly that you can understand the words coming out of our mouths, but even beasts deserves the right to have themselves heard. Because of this fact, we are allowing for you to surrender yourself, and have your reasons for such a brutality heard."

The dragon leaned back to his full, towering height. A scaly brow arched itself at having processed the terms, staring down at the unicorn, and catching the yellow one shiver – despite there being no breeze.

"So," the white one continued, though her eyes lingered around the dragon, and never directly upon him. "What is your response, Mr. Dragon!?"

The answer. To whether the dragon could speak their language. To whether the dragon would give up his savage attack and turn himself in, was answered in the simplest way possible known.

The dragon roared.

Rarity pinned her hoof down on the ground before her, churning it left and right. "Then, so, be, IT!"

Multiple swords slashed at the already exposed left heel of the dragon; the scales there ripped away from the previous assault and his crash landing. A pain began to surge from his right heel as a sharpness merciless cut at his flesh, causing the dragon to curl his claws, as such feeble actions would not continue again.

Before the dragon could conjure a plan, a pink blur appeared in his peripheral vision. A few blinks went to alleviate nausea brought on by the sight, only for the eyes to finally focus on the thing standing on the blue snout.

The same snout the eyes have been trying for the entirely of the dragon's life to ignore.

"Why hello there!" the pink mare exclaimed in a cheer, a black vest adorning her coat with an equivalently styled hat resting atop her puffy mane. "My name is Pinkie Pie, and I know it must be totally jarring for your eyes to focus on me, well, so close to your eyes! But I'm sad, because when you're being evil like this, we can't be friends."

The dragon didn't know how he didn't see it the first time, but the mare had a cane in her hooves and began to tap dance atop his snout. Her every step felt like little tingles sent to stir the volcano that was the vomit beginning to form in his stomach. Every whack of the cane against his nose made him wince, making it more blurry for his eyes to focus on his foe.

"But if we beat you and maybe turn you to good, then maybe, just maybe, we can become friends! So you understand why I must tap dance now, don't you?"

If the burning pain gripping at his heels weren't enough, then this pesky mare was more than enough to set the dragon off. He swatted her off his snout in one swipe of the claw and furled his digits around her, securing her in his grip. That same claw, along with its other, acted if they were holding poles as they were flung downward; knocking away those who had begun to form around the dragon's legs.

The guards flew away from the impact and their armor collectively clanked upon their landings.

The same claw holding the pink mare rose high into the air, prompting her to raise her hoofs and give a small 'wee~ee', before preparing to slam her spin against the merciless floor. Another blur came before the pair of eyes before the act could be done, and this time, it was of a hazy yellowness.

"Um, hello! Mr. Dragon." The yellow blur pivoted just before his eyes, and even the dragon had to admit, that its voice was the sweetest his ears had heard in a long time. "I'm not sure if you're aware of this, because I know dragons can sometimes go blind when in rage, but right not, you're currently clutching my friend in your claw. Do you think, by any chance, that you could set her down, and maybe, all of us could go together and find whatever it is you're looking for?"

The dragon didn't know why, but he felt the every beat of his heart. The haze that his mind had become began to slowly clear, his eyes dilating on the kind face of the pegasus currently speaking to him, as well as the slightly scared face of the other clutched in his claw. But before he could use that moment of clarity to usher even a single word, something vile swept over his heart and tainted it with its poison.

The world went blurry.

The dragon roared, creating a current strong enough to blow back the pegasus to the rest of the fallen ponies, and instill in her a shiver of fear. He then brought down his claw to stare into his captive, planning to instill the same fear into her, just before her death. But he found himself starting at something odd instead.

Odd, and familiar.

"It's not nice to roar at ponies trying to be nice to you," the pink one said, cocking the large appendage onto her shoulder. "But you're only doing that because you're missing your tail, right? Well, here you go!"

Before the dragon could even question the situation, the pink mare arched her back and invested all her energy and body in flinging the spade of the severed tail forth.

Time slowed down. The spade of the tail occupied the entirety of the dragon's vision. Then he could see nothing more out of his left eye. Agony swept from the sensitive organ that was his eye and coursed throughout him. His body convulsed. Blood splattered forth from his eyes. And his tail slipped from the pocket that was once his eye down onto his side.

The pink captive had begun to slither out from the loose grip of the claw due to the dragon dealing with the surprise of the attack. She made it up to her hind legs, before screaming out of the horrific shock and searing pain spreading throughout her lower half, just as the claw tighten its iron grip.

The dragon had gone from wallowing in surprise to enduring the pain of losing a sensitive organ. Clinching both of his claws was a defensive mechanism against the pain, and unintentionally, transferred the same agony onto the one who caused it. A crack resounded from the pink one's lower half of the body, but even the pain of a snapped bone seemed dull when compared to what happened next.

The dragon might have had time to roar out his pain, but the pink captive wasn't given the same kindness.

The blue claw launched her across the platform, smashing her already damaged lower half against the merciless ground.

"Pinkie Pie!" Fluttershy managed to snap herself out of the shiver of fear the dragon had instilled in her, flying across the distance she was blown back to aid her unconscious friend. She took Pinkie onto her back and glanced over to Rarity, who nodded in response, and caused her to fly to safety before her friend could sustain any further damage.

Rarity's eyes trailed her distancing friends, before placing themselves on the beast who caused those friends' pain. "This. Is. It! Had you only harmed me, then I would only be upset at the moment."

The dragon brought the claw used to throw the pony to push against the bleeding pocket that was once his eye, the other used to stare with confusion at the white pony. The fact that she hadn't run away would've surprised the dragon, were it not for the overwhelming pain that clouded his mind – the mare seemed rather too pristine to get her hooves dirty, nonetheless fight.

"But now you have injured my friends." The white unicorn had unsaddled herself and dug her muzzle into the belongings of the said bag. She pulled out a moment later, accompanied by various sewing utensils caught in her blue magical aurora. "Do you know what that makes me?"

The dragon didn't have an answer besides a slight growl, watching the mare as she fell onto her rump, and brought her sewing material closer to her. With a speed that not even he could hope to match, the mare started knitting small sweats in such made from silks and wools procured from her previous travel to safety.

The sweater, once made, would hover in the air with the assistance of magic, as an army of more were made afterward. This confused the dragon, not the fact that the mare started knitting instead of fighting, but the sweaters were too small for even a pony to fit into him. If anything, they looked made for a pet, though the width would mean a fat pet at that.

"Since you are too much of a brute to articulate a reply," the white unicorn stood up once her army of floating clothes was assembled. "I shall give you my reply."

The dragon didn't know why a shiver coursed through him, or why his one eye zoomed in on the mare's face.

"You injuring my friends. Makes me, absolutely, positively, livid." At the end of her sentence, the blue aurora holding the articles of clothes simultaneously transition to a blood read. It was as if the very particles of magic had heated up alongside the mare's rage, and set fire to the silks and wools that constituted her army.

The army of flaming clothes was upon the dragon before he could even react. Their bodies rained down like the hell-fire the dragon had rained down on the ponies not too long ago, fearing the heat of the flames against his exposed flesh as he had not the scales to protect him any longer. The long duration of the battle left his limbs weak and his core aching, to the point where the phantom bodies actually began to weigh him down.

But he was a dragon. And dragon's were strong. But even a dragon as great as this one couldn't hope to expect the mare's next move.

It was as if the clothing had gained sentient consciousness, phantom white paws growing from the selves, and a rather fat head expanding outward from the cloths top. These semi-transparent head had no adorning features, besides the pure black pinpricks that shot fear into the dragon should, as well as glow slightly.

Before the dragon had a chance to comprehend why blazing, phantom cats were raining down on them – each and every cat had unsheathed their own claws and began to repeatedly tear away the dragon's scales with them. The scales started flying in the air like that cat were simply flinging the dirt and sand from their litter box, digging into the dragon's red flesh, and going even deeper than that.

The dragon was confused because the world had gone blurry again. His body felt ripped from itself, and then begun to stung. And to make matters worse, the white unicorn simply had to whistle, before the previous, pesky guards were about him once more with their sharp weapons. With none of his scales to protect him anymore, their steel stood a fair chance against his exposed flesh.

"His Achilles tendon!" One of the voiced had yelled from the dragon's back, who was too absorbed in a haze to tell where that even was. "Together men, we strike it as a collective force. Ready?"

The dragon sure wasn't, as the ponies began to cut down, and then cut something that caused a incomprehensive sensation far worse than what the word 'agony' entails. Blood splattered forth onto those brave faces that severed the now bleeding tendon, causing them to back away as the dragon lost blood at speed for which he could not recover at. Putting the weight of his body on his heel caused for more blood to splatter, which then became too weak to support him, as his shadow loomed over the bottomless circle.

He came crashing down, crushing the railings underneath his immense weight. His body was far too big to fall through the bottomless circle when his body laid like a plank, but by the closing of his eyes, the ponies were able to glean that there was a good chance that the dragon would never get back up.

Celestia and Luna looked at each other once more, exposing themselves out on the battlefield, before tapping their now glowing horns together. They knew better than to leave a foe injured, for they would retaliate. The embers of revenge must be totally crushed, no matter the cost of the lengths of doing so.

Their horns shot concentrated beams of sunny-gold and midnight-blue, the two beams becoming intertwined as they both began to spiral one another, before reaching their target. They exploded into a residue that covered the vicinity the dragon inhabited, creating a muti-layer barrier that wrapped just an inch away from him, and kept him in place.

The dragon cracked open an eye at the strange sensation covering him, raising a claw to ascertain just what it was, before receiving a horrible shock that glowed white when touched, and released a popping sound. Despite his pain and the haze that enveloped his mind, he still tried pushing against this barrier, even though the bolts of electricity it shot into him hurt worse than his heel.

The princess winced at the pain at trying to keep him in place. It was for this reason that they had to save their strength, for they knew that the dragon would go berserk within their confines, and they would have to endure the same pain as he. Still, even with their eyes clenched, Celestia and Luna cracked open at least one, and looked to those still active on the battlefield.

"Fetch the other Element Bears and bring them here. It is now time for the power of the Elements of Harmony to be summoned."

Comments

[RadicalDishonesty]

I never listen to the songs so... I dunno. I'm on my phone reading this so I won't boot it up due to data concerns, either.

Uh, but... what is with the title? Only upset at "the moment"? What does that mean?

Rarity can change the color of her magic? She is alright with making a bunch of cats on fire? Burning dresses?

How big is the tail Pinkie threw? I would have suspected it was pretty large from the descriptions but... well you weren't very specific.

Like, this chapter, that was probably supposed to be part of an adventure story with consistent abilities and stressful disasters suddenly turned into slapstick. Suddenly this super dangerous enemy that is trying to kill everyone and every action is super hard to enact against him and hundreds of ponies are worthless against... is being hit by flaming dresses and cats. Pinkie is tap dancing on his snout. Fluttershy is trying to confront him.

I suppose there isn't anything wrong with some comic relief, though? And there are ways to do tone changes... but this really seems off, here. I understand this entire arc has been insulting the hell outta of the guard but this chapter is the cherry on top.

[He23t]

The Struggle continues.

[B_25]

8104172 Rarity's magic should be the same color as always, unless I unintentionally made an inconsistency which I shall fix. Those also were not real cats, but rather just magic taking sentient consciousness in the form of her cat. Not actual cats...I'm not that much of a rat bastard.

Pinkie is known for her bizarre abilities with earth pony strength, so it isn't too unbelievable that she could lift the spade of the dragon's tail and propel it at the dragon's eye.

I could have probably finished this fight in a much better fashion, but since I never prepared myself to write something like this, I just want to take what I learned and finish it ASAP. But that being said, the past 20 chapters have been everyone weakening the dragon into the state he now is in, so once again, it isn't too unbelievable that the mane six would be the ones to deliver the last blow.

The mane six's encounter with the dragon ends in three chapters, and I hope you'll stay with us for just a bit longer.

[Deadman123]

X3

[B_25]

The hardest about writing these chapters, is what song to embed in the number that begins every chapter.

Should it be the song I listen to in the act of composition?

Or should it be a song that actually realtes to the chapter itself?

I hope that, in chapter 73, that you, my dear readers, will give me your opinions on the subject.

~B_25~