The Age of Hunting

by SwordTune

The Sisters

The ship's teetering didn't help Spectra's boiling ichor. She sat still in the captain's quarters and listened to her lieutenant's report. The Marblestop takeover of the council, the dragon, it took all night to explain what Marina had done in Riverfork. Tenacity's presence was welcomed news. Spectra's vicious little sister seemed finally out of her depth.

"And you're sure you killed the rest of her drones?"

The lieutenant nodded with confidence. "I've been well-fed here in Riverfork. Out in the countryside, though, Tenacity's pack seemed underfed. She was reusing the same prey, eating their fear instead of getting new emotions."

Then that left only one problem. One massive, scaly, fire-breathing problem. There was no way in the world Halfwing could be killed as a dragon, Spectra believed. Her captain and lieutenant agreed. Killing a dragon in its cave was hard, but the closed space kept it grounded and made it easier to get in range to penetrate its scales.

"She can't fly, can she?" Spectra asked, worried over what her lieutenant might say.

The Changeling cast her eyes down, away from her princess. "I didn't think to ask her drone before I killed him. From the way he talked about her going to Marblestop, I don't think she can. But there's no guarantee."

Spectra grumbled and tapped her hoof on the captain's table. Either way, killing a dragon in open space would not be possible. Fire was the bigger weapon. In the open, Halfwing would have free reign to incinerate Spectra's pack, and it wouldn't matter if she owned all the river-iron spears in Riverfork. Which she did, as Marina.

"Captain," she called, commanding all the attention from the very first leader of her drones. "Organize the pack set a trap for Tenacity. Put a drone on every street of the docks."

"What about the skies, Princess? We make a show of force, and she might flee the town. The skies are much harder to-"

"She'll stay," Spectra cut him off, drawing a deep breath of air. "She must've picked up our scent by now. She'll stay if there's even a chance to take me out, which is why I'm the perfect bait while the pack will be waiting for Tenacity to trap herself on our ship."

"Yes, Princess," her captain bowed his head and exited the captain's quarters.

Heavy chested, Spectra sighed with her head on the desk. A dragon. How in the world did a Changeling as useless as her sister kill a dragon? She had half a mind to punish her lieutenant for helping Halfwing, but if she hadn't, the dragon would still be burning the countryside. Riverfork's bountiful flood plains made it a rich centre of trade. The dragon's fire could have devastated her hunting grounds if it continued to live.

"River-iron, what makes it so strong?" Spectra laid out a fresh sheet of parchment and grabbed a piece of charcoal off the table. If she had any hope of beating her sister, she'd need a new weapon.

"Normal iron would bend if it tried to pierce a dragon's scales," her lieutenant described. "But, with the Marblestop smiths, I found a process that makes the iron much sturdier. The notes are back in Marina's workshop."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tenacity tightened the hood around her face. The cloak she ripped off a distracted merchant smelled like warm wine, a smell that only irritated the Changeling's senses further. Bonfires transmuted the already hot summer morning into a suffocating bank of swelling heat. Yet, even with smouldering fires from last night's festivities, the princess still shivered.

Her stomach flipped at the smell of roasting vegetables. Draining terror and pain out of ponies just to build up a little more magic turned out to be less helpful than she had hoped. Their magic left a bitter taste in Tenacity's mouth and made her stomach scream at her to let the power out. Her limbs felt as if they were on fire.

Where were her drones? They outnumbered their attackers, but was it enough? Tenacity kept her head down. It wasn't hard to keep their attention off of her. The ponies not hungover from the reckless excess were still sloshing around cups of wine by dying fires.

She had enough magic to flay the sailors where they stood if they annoyed her, which she strongly considered. Getting the magic out of her would help her body's condition.

Tenacity's knees buckled, her legs shaking. The princess stumbled off the street and caught herself against the stall of a grain merchant who had just opened up his stall.

"Ma'am, are you alright?"

Tenacity pulled her cloak around herself even tighter, almost covering her eyes completely. The sickness in her stomach made her gag at the smell of another pony. She was so overfed that the thought of another creature's magic threatened to break her concentration. Only the cloak helped focus her vision on what lied ahead.

Ships of all sizes moored at the piers that jutted out from the town. Almost like the teeth of a bear, wooden walkways raked the river and gathered up its goods. As Tenacity moved closer to the river, her sickness started to fade, suppressed by an even sharper focus.

Spectra's scent was everywhere. Tenacity couldn't pinpoint her drones through the heavy fog of fish, cedarwood, and fermented wine, but she knew her sister had spread herself thin.

There were a lot of questions running through Tenacity's mind. Where had her sister been since Marblestop? It was summer, so it must've been nearly six months since they saw each other. How strong had she become, living under the blessing of the hive and their mother's protection?

But those questions didn't matter. It didn't even matter if Spectra knew she was coming. Tenacity had enough magic to rip her sister's ship apart. Against that kind of power, Spectra didn't stand a chance alone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By noon, the deck of the Ironmarsh ship was blistering with heat. Ponies were finally returning to their jobs after recovering from the night's drinking and dancing. Shops opened all at once and trafficked goods from one side of the market to the other. Boats from northern cities and towns offloaded crates of raw ore, fruits, and cloth. In return, river-iron spears and dried grain were hauled in carts onto the boats.

Spectra waited in the burning heat of the sun with her drone, Windcatcher. He looked like a wall of muscle next to her. Being natural large compared to normal drones, Windcatcher easily transformed into ponies who were taller and broader at the shoulders. His form as the pegasus captain of the ship looked like a giant compared to Marina.

Shifting back into her first pony skin was as easy as breathing. Marina's short brown mane fluttered in the air, looking a lot less elegant like the wavy smooth manes of other mares.

She wondered, for a moment, how Lunti's mane looked right now. The Changeling princess could hardly contain her anticipation of returning home to the hive. Her children were strong, using mutagens from magical plants to enhance their growth where a normal drone would struggle.

Like Windcatcher. Perhaps the only one of her drones that she could honestly consider as her son, the hunter-drone looked like a brute but proved his cunning by stealing the Ironmarsh ship without detection. He lacked a horn, due to the mutagen experiments on his egg sac, but we made up for it in size.

"Princess," Windcatcher pointed off the side of the ship to the pier. "That can't be her, can it?"

The cloaked figure trotting toward the ship carried an earthy scent, like mud and dust mixed with pine leaves, but it was definitely still Tenacity.

"Well, this'll be easier than I thought." Sliding off the ship, a single board of wood acted as the gangplank to the pier.

Tenacity paused at the edge and looked up to the top deck. The captain of the ship, definitely one of her sister's drone, covered the end of the pier with his shadow. She slowly walked up, careful to balance in the middle of the plank. Just falling off would jolt her stomach enough to cough up her stored magic.

"Been a while, sis," Spectra smiled, flipping her mane in the misty river breeze, "I thought the mines swallowed you up back in Marblestop."

Tenacity lowered her hood just enough to flash the whites of her eyes. Spectra recognized the kind of pony her sister had taken shape as. The roughly hemmed work clothes were for a stallion, covered in specks of dried mud. A farmer, definitely. But her coat was pale, her cheeks gaunt. The aura Tenacity gave off was saturated in frustration and pain.

Spectra stepped closer. It felt like she was standing next to a walking inflammation. "Not looking too good. Is food in the countryside that bad?"

Windcatcher kept his distance short, ready to push his Princess out of the way if needed. He knew he was a young hunter-drone, but he never had trouble reading a creature's emotions until now. He wasn't sure if Tenacity was confused, angry, or in pain. It wasn't all three. Some larger aura overtook her, masking everything else.

So it was fortunate he had other senses. The sound of her heart, its beats accelerated by adrenaline, warned him that she was ready for a fight.

"If we fight we'll be seen by every pony in Riverfork," Spectra lightly warned Tenacity. "Why don't we step into the captain's cabin and chat instead?"

"Go into a small closed space with you?" Her sister removed the hood completely from her cloak, grinning. "Of course, dear sister."

Windcatcher saw through the lie too late. Air fled his lungs as he hit his back against the mast of the ship. Spectra rolled back, aware her drone had been knocked down, and immediately alerted the rest of her pack with a high-pitched wail.

Tenacity's onslaught carried forward. The deck bowed and splintered under the force of the explosions from her horn. Spectra's call was cut short, dropping down into the cabins below. Wood shrapnel shot through her skin, easily drawing blood from her pony form's soft body.

So hard was Spectra knocked that she couldn't move for the few seconds it took to charge a spell. That was time which Tenacity made good use of to aim her horn and draw magic out from her body. The hair on their skin stood up as the air crackled with electrifying magic.

A whoop from behind Tenacity interrupted the spell. The princess turned to see a charging wall of muscle slam her across the head, knocking her through the door of the captain's quarters. Spectra could hear the sound of wood breaking. She drew on a small reserve of her magic to briefly turn into a sparrow and fly back above deck.

As she turned back to Marina, a searing beam of light nearly took her head. She heard Windcatcher howl and watched as he crawled out of the cabin with both right legs burned down to black stumps. Spectra stepped back as her hunter-drone continued to fight, forcing himself to stand on the thin black remains of his legs.

A table leg swung around and dropped the young hunter-drone back down. "Useless things."

Tenacity trotted out, her horn already glowing with another spell lined up. "You've relied on them so much, now you can't do anything yourself."

Without hesitation, Spectra ducked behind the mast to avoid Tenacity's shots. But the hit never came. Tenacity paced around the wooden pole, and Spectra did her best to move the opposite way to keep the mast between her sister and herself.

"Come on out, Spectra," laughed Tenacity. Though they hadn't seen each other in months, Spectra knew she was still the taller sister. It probably gave Tenacity great joy to know she was beating a bigger opponent.

Spectra ducked under her sister's aim the moment the hoof steps picked up speed and jolted forward. She rolled, regained her balance, and speared Tenacity's ribs with her horn. Tenacity fell over, involuntarily releasing a ball of magic out into the river, which burst and showered the ship with a torrent of water.

The siblings faced each other to keep fighting when a rush of hooves shuddered the pier and the boat. Though cut short, Spectra's hunter-drones clearly heard her summons. The scent of Changelings weighed heavy in the air as they stormed the ship one by one.

Not eager to face them all at once, Tenacity lashed out for Spectra's throat. A veritable swarm of hooves grabbed the princess, however, and pinned her down.

"Are you alright?" Spectra's captain hurried over to inspect her.

She pushed him away, gesturing to Windcatcher. "That one took the brunt of her magic. I'm fine."

Thrashing and screaming could be heard from the ship as the hunter-drones tried to subdue the princess. Arcs of crackling magic sprayed wildly out from the circle of drones around her. Two took the hits, going down immediately with unrecoverable burns to their limbs and face.

"Move," Spectra ordered one drone, forcing him aside so she could see her sister.

Stripped of her cloak, the princess's looked like any other farmer. The mare she posed as must have been the wife, or perhaps the eldest daughter. Though she seemed sick before, releasing all the excess magic brought colour back to her face. Blood from her chest pooled and dried at the wound, though for all her magic it seemed to Spectra that Tenacity couldn't focus her energy on healing.

"You've wasted the better half of the year hiding in a dirt hole," Spectra insulted her. "You're lucky I have the mercy to kill you."

"No, wait," Tenacity wriggled under the grasp of the drones. "There's no way you got rid of Majesta already. Whatever you've been doing, I bet Majesta's still stronger, isn't she?"

Spectra hesitated. That was a valid question, there was no guarantee that Majesta was lagging behind. Yet, looking around at her drones, her confidence couldn't be shaken. She had left with a sizeable pack, lead by multiple lieutenants and captains.

Windcatcher was dead, but the one who had posed as Marina had more than enough strength and wit to replace him. And her first captain, he was stronger than ever.

So, that was the consensus. "She's not stronger. You'd be surprised by how things can change."

"You've been gone so long, you don't even know how weak you are right now." Spectra laughed and gestured to her dead son. "That hunter-drone you burned, our mother didn't make him. He wasn't born in the hive, hidden away in some hole for weeks before finally seeing the sun. He's mine, and only mine."

Tenacity twisted her head as far back as she could and stared. The drone still twitched, technically alive in his pony form. But the wounds were inoperable. He was so weakened his body couldn't even return to its Changeling state.

"Fine, you're stronger than me," she admitted, not even bothering to lie. Among Changelings her aura told everything. "But you said he was born away from the hive. You've been away just like me. You can't afford to let me die, not if there's a chance Majesta's too strong for you-"

Spectra shut her sister's mouth with a smack from the hoof, forcing her to bite on her own tongue. Tenacity whimpered, sucking air through her teeth to deal with the pain.

"Majesta hasn't killed any of us," Spectra seethed. "Halfwing's alive, just like you. So I will be the only one us to kill a princess. That's something not even Majesta can claim."

Tenacity opened her mouth to protest, only to have it filled with a thrust from Spectra's horn. The bone protrusion cracked through bone and tissue, snapping the sections of soft cartilage in the neck. The hunter-drones bristled, some of them twitching in their eyes or tensing their jaws.

Spectra noticed the change in their aura, smelling the stress fade away as they let go of Tenacity's body. Though they identified Spectra as the best candidate for the next Queen, the death of a Changeling princess produced a reaction hardwired into their bodies from birth.

"That's one," she said to her drones. Down in the market, militia forces started marching down from the wooden walkways to the docks. The sound of battle had drawn the cavalry, and it was time to go.

Spectra stepped to the edge of the ship away from the town, facing the other side of the river. "Captain, send out a signal to any drones that didn't join you. Leave Marina here with a small pack, six or seven hunter-drones."

"How should we deal with the ponies?" he asked, looking down at the row of spears forming behind them.

"We're not." Spectra jumped off the ship, leaving behind a flash of ash and light to dive into the river with the body of a gator. "We'll just leave them asking questions. A little chaos to keep them on their hooves."

Looks of confusion spread across the other hunter-drones, read to follow the captain's lead. He looked over to his former lieutenant, the one who had taken so much initiative as Marina, who stood by the walkway onto the ship as a rough-looking sailor. They traded knowing looks, Marina showing confidence that she could handle the backlash from Spectra's display.

"You six, you're staying here," he ordered some hunter-drones standing nearby.

Heavy rattling shook the planks of the pier as stallions brandished their spears toward the ship. "By the Council's orders," announced one pony in the front ranks, "you're all under arrest for disturbing the peace."

Spectra's captain simply smiled. "Changelings!" he cried out, sending a wave of shrill hoots to the drones still in the town. "Follow your princess. We leave for the hive!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Night had come.

"Septarian!" Fender braced against the wall while they pulled a chest from the collapsed house. It was one of the few houses the remaining ponies of Marblestop hadn't searched through. "It's too dark to keep digging. Let the boys head home, we'll start again tomorrow."

Septarian grunted, helping the younger colts force the chest through the split under the wall. The weight wasn't the issue, it was how much force they could use. They had to be careful. Even with Fender holding up the main section, the wall was still unstable. The caementine holding the marble bricks together had cracked apart without slaves to repair it.

He breathed a heavy sigh when they finally pulled it out. They'd bring it back to their camps outside the village, break open the lock and distribute whatever they found. Keeping Marblestop together was expensive. Only a couple hundred ponies were left from a village that once numbered in the thousands. Though they were free, it was a hard price to pay.

"You're thinking about her again, aren't you?"

Septarian looked over his shoulder to Fender. The stallion was like a toy bear, massive in size but soft and friendly. When Marblestop was ruled by masters, Fender had been traded around as an efficient builder, miner, or cart puller. Based on his stories, it seemed like he ended up as a slave fighter a few months before Lady Changeling brought a revolt to the village.

It explained why he found Fender leading an army of young colts out in the farmlands, hunting timberwolves and gathering food from the mountain and forest instead of trying to rebuild. In his words, Marblestop gave him nothing but chains. Only nature could set him free.

That belief only made his friendship that much more valuable. It took a lot from Septarian to get Fender to agree to help, especially after news of the Changeling battle in the mines spread across the survivors. The identity of being a freed slave could not have been stronger in the minds of the ponies that we left. No debts, no masters, no one to give orders. The ruins of the once-great village became as lawless as the wild in front of Septarian's eyes.

"Yes, I'm thinking about her," Septarian finally confessed to his friend.

"Not my place to judge your heart, friend," Fender said, "but I need you to remember what you promised me. You can't forget how many died fighting a Changeling's war."

"Put our ponies first," Septarian repeated his oath. It was the only thing that kept their little patch of rabble-rousers together. Months ago, in-fighting would've killed the survivors. Families, clans, they stuck together in small herds and clashed over Marblestop's sparse farmland. Most weren't any better than thieves, stealing to get by, killing witnesses if they had to.

There wasn't much energy left in the ponies to talk on their way back. With so few strong labourers, Septarian's crew didn't even bother trying to live in the village again. They built a camp with the stones they picked off walls of houses, grinding pottery from the abandoned markets to make new caementine for a wall around the settlement.

Most of the ponies living there were mares and their children, fillies and colts more suited to picking berries than tilling the land or plundering homes. The official count changed as families came and left, but they numbered around a hundred and fifty ponies, with maybe only fifty or so able to endure hard labour.

"Looks like no thieves came today," Septarian said with relief as the colts pushed the haul into the middle of their outpost.

Fender clapped his friend on the back. "Marblestop was built on caementine. Nothing can beat that recipe out of us, it's in our blood."

"Where was that talk three months ago?" Septarian smiled. "As I recall, you were sleeping under a tree with honey on your face and bee stings everywhere else."

Fender laughed. "I still say it was worth it."

Septarian passed along more cheerful comments to the other ponies as they gathered around the recovered supplies. They spent a whole day hauling barrels and chests out from just one collapsed house, and that bounty alone looked like enough to keep their outpost together for another week.

Pickled vegetables in sealed pots, weapons for defence and jewellery for trading, colts passed all the goods out to the women and children hoping for enough to avoid going hungry the next few days. And in the middle of the commotion, Septarian took his chance to slip away into the forest.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He walked a good while until he reached a small cave in the side of the mountain. The entrance looked a little different. He remembered it was smaller. But, then again, Halfwing was smaller too. He entered the bear cave, slowly making his way to the back. This was where he and his friends held a mining master hostage. He recalled one of his friends telling him that a pony brought the master to the cave, then told them to wait.

Now he was waiting once again.

Halfwing dragged her tail into the cave, the same time as the past few nights. Sky held one strip of purple on its horizon, a last gasp of the sun before it dove under the distant borders of the eyes.

"How was your search?" she asked. Her voice was stronger than before, but her pace still bothered Septarian. Her dragon form limped as if it had been wounded, and her scales were growing thinner each day.

"I'm more worried about your search," he said. "You're still sick."

"Sick?" Halfwing pondered. "I roasted a boar alive today. I think I'm fine."

"What about the mines? Dragons eat gemstones, but you haven't had any."

Halfwing collapsed. With her tail and neck, her dragon form was as big as a bear and twice as long, but without gems, her scales were nearly transparent. Septarian felt them. Her hard natural armour was, at first, a sight to behold.

She had tracked him down a few days ago, catching him off guard while he was scouting the forests for new areas to forage. Then, her dragon form could easily tower over a house. They agreed to give their plan some time. Ponies in Marblestop were through listening to anything else. No masters and all that.

Halfwing wasn't happy with it. "A waste of time, they could conquer anything," she had said. But without her drone with her, she deferred the judgement to Septarian. She was a Princess, and would ultimately need a kingdom to rule.

Septarian cradled her head, which was large enough to take half his body in one bite, and swept his hooves across the fringes along Halfwing's head. "Tell me what's happening. I thought you needed to drain magic for food, but you haven't changed back to yourself since you got here."

"I am a dragon," Halfwing said. "Why would I want to be anything else? I just need to rest a bit longer."

Suddenly, she raised her head, aiming her nose out of the cave. "I smell ponies. They're near, but I think they're covered in tree sap. I can't make them out through the rest of the scents."

A gamut of thought cycled through Septarian's mind, but there was really only one pony he knew who'd cover himself like that just for camouflage. "That sounds like Fender. He must've noticed I went for a walk."

"Do your friends always cover himself with sap when he's looking for you?"

Septarian hesitated. "This one might."

"Let them come, then." Once stepped out of the cave, green magic started pouring through her veins, expanding her body to its true size. "I am a dragon after all. What can they do?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"What are you doing?"

Fender's voice roared like a bear's, impressing even Halfwing. But one by one, the colts following him cowered from her, electing to peer at her from behind wide-trunked pine trees.

"Septarian," Fender said shakily. His words trailed off, he didn't know what to say to a massive green dragon that seemed to appear out of nowhere.

"I think you'll want to talk to me," Halfwing said, curling her tail around the ponies to cut off the path they came up. "After all, I will be your new Queen, soon."

Septarian noticed his friend's glare. Small as he was compared to a dragon, the stallion was foolhardy to a fault and refused to back down.

"It's Halfwing," he told Fender before the stallion could shout something in defiance. "She came to me after killing the dragon that had been living in the mountains."

Gasps washed over the colts. They had no idea who Halfwing was, but all of them had seen the dragon one time or another. Things died everywhere the dragon cast its massive shadow. Some of them, no doubt, dreamed of slaying the dragon themselves.

"So, you still call yourself our saviour?" Fender wore his emotions proudly, a wide frown like a canyon tearing across his face. "I stayed out of your new Marblestop, but I was devastated when I saw the survivors of your battle fleeing into my woods. You don't get to come back here after what you did."

Halfwing blew smoke from her nose, the fire in her throat glowing her nostrils like two hot coals. "There's plenty of blame to share around. But it was my sisters who attacked and killed your kind, not me."

"Fender, she can change into a dragon, one of the powerful creatures in the world. " Septarian urged, pointing to Halfwing's smoke. "Hear what she has to offer us. We need her power as much as she needs us."

After a moment, the tension in Fender's muscles left. He calmed himself with a few breaths, and then took a step back and let Halfwing explain.

And she could've lied, told a story that made her sisters seem like terribly evil creatures. Only, there was no lie she could come up with worse than the truth. For Septarian's sake, everything was laid bare. Halfwing recounted how her wing had been crippled by her sister, and how her mother applauded Tenacity for the action.

Fender glanced at his colts, some of them too young to really understand what Halfwing was asking of them. Then he looked back to Septarian. "Come on, brother, we're a team now. Don't do this to me."

Septarian furrowed his brows. "We're not going to lose, Fender. She's a dragon! We go with her to the hive, burn the rest of the Changelings and end the damn feud that got us in this mess to begin with."

"She's still one of them." Fender's hotheaded posturing brought out a smirk from Hlafwing. "A Changeling can lie and just become whoever they want and get away with it."

"Not me," Halfwing mused, flicking her tail around.

"You can change your shape, but not your heart."

Halfwing laughed, the sound echoing in the dragon's throat so much that it quaked the air around them. It felt as if a drum was beating in her chest, reverberating like she was a massive cave. The air compressed around their ears, causing a headache. While the ponies clutched their head from the sound, Halfwing shot a ball of fire over Fender's head, crashing it against a tree.

"I am a dragon," she raised her head, "reborn from the chest of the dragon I killed."

She reached a claw into the earth and ripped the roots of a tree straight out. "Schemes of Changelings are beneath me. I have power now. Nothing will stop me from my justice."

"Yes, you're great and powerful and could kill us all if you wanted," Fender said. "Go take your revenge and leave us out of it."

"Oh but that won't do," Halfwing's tone shifted fast, turning soft as she caressed Septarian. "My darling is here, among you. How can he rule by my side if he's with all of you?"

"He won't. He's not yours to take."

Septarian's skin went pale. He wanted to stay with Halfwing, but he didn't think Fender would give up so easily. He stepped between them, facing down his friend. "Calm down. Halfwing's not taking me anywhere if we can all work together."

Fender snarled at him. "What happened to 'put our ponies first?' She said it herself, she was reborn. She's not Lady Changeling anymore, you don't owe her anything."

The words pierced him. Halfwing narrowed her eyes at Fender. Even without a Changeling's nose, she could smell the sadness in Septarian. He didn't want to be apart from anyone, but it seemed Fender wasn't giving him much of a choice. It made Halfwing's blood begin to rush, blurring her perception.

In any other case, a Changeling would have full control over their form. Animal instincts were replaced with their own. But the dragon's power broke down her own will. Either by magic or by nature, nothing could stop her from tensing her neck, aiming the end of her jaw toward Fender.

"Everything is mine to take," she growled. "You cannot challenge a Queen!"

Halfwing grew as she roared. From being the size of a house, her tail grew to wrap twice around the ponies. Her scales thickened, expanding rather than growing new layers. Trees cracked against her ribs, giving up their roots to the Queen of Beasts. With a single beat of her wing, a few colts hiding behind Fender lost their footing and were flung back down the mountain.

"Halfwing, what are you doing?" Septarian ran up to her and waved his hooves. "Calm down, they'll never listen to you like this!" But with her head so high up, Halfwing couldn't hear him.

She laid a blanket of fire over the trees. Septarian's eyes ached, trying to adjust to the bright orange blazes. After a moment to refocus, he rushed to get Fender. The rest of the colts were already fleeing, tripping over roots and branches to avoid the dragon.

Septarian did his best to drown out a sickening crunch somewhere among the trees. Fender managed to get further back down the path, along with two older colts who were trying to push a fallen tree off of his leg. Septarian joined them, using his back legs to roll the trunk to the side.

"You made her mad," Septarian coughed, covering his nose.

"We'll talk later," Fender grunted as he leaned against Septarian and limped.

"Where are you, little thieves?" Septarian looked back and saw how frenzied Halfwing became. There was an unmistakable body of a colt in one claw being swung around to batter the trees down. Halfwing breathed more gouts of fire, catching more trees around her until there was nothing but fire.

"No, you have to go," Septarian said, once he was sure the other colts could handle Fender's weight. "Halfwing won't be able to calm down until I'm with her."

Fender coughed through the smoke. "You're kidding yourself if you think you can stop that. Even if she'll listen to you, you'll never make it."

"We've been through worse," Septarian said. "I'll get through to her."

He pushed the colts to keep running while he turned back to wildfire behind him. Preferably, he thought to himself as she started galloping back, before the whole forest goes up in flames.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The ground was black with ash. While the ring of fire expanded farther out, Halfwing had burned so much around her that there was nothing left for the fire to catch on to. The edges of burned logs were white, wood ash settling into a thin layer on top of the charcoal.

"Halfwing?" Septarian ran through the smoking embers to the mass of soot and green scales in the middle of the circle. "What did you do to this place?"

She raised her head, revealing their cave underneath her chest. "I knew I'd find you," she said, smiling. "The fire was a little chaotic, I know, but you did exactly what I thought you'd do."

Once he was close enough to see the glint in her teeth, Septarian slowed his pace to a halt. "I did?"

"Yes, of course!" she cheerfully rubbed the end of her tail against his neck. "You're here, aren't you? When that pony said you should stay with him, I couldn't handle it. The thought of losing what's mine, it was just too much."

Halfwing's eyes flashed red as she watched him shuffle around in the dust. They looked bloodshot from the smoke, but it didn't seem to dampen her spirits.

"Yeah, that's great, but without the other ponies, I don't know how much I can help." Septarian gently moved away from her tail. "If you really want to get take over your hive, I think we should go our separate ways for now."

Halfwing blinked. "Why say this now, if you wanted to come back to me?"

Septarian threw a hoof up, scattering ashes everywhere. "I came to stop you from burning down your own land! Look around you, Halfwing."

For once, he raised his voiced against her. "This dragon act has gone too far! Your wildfire is still cutting a path through the mountain, and the fall rains won't be here for a few more weeks."

"Look at me," Halfwing chuckled, raising a claw, "I'd hardly call this an act."

"It didn't have to be fire!" Septarian began shouting, forgetting he was talking to a dragon and imagining Halfwing as the Changeling he met almost a year ago. "You can be a bear or a unicorn, you can use magic to show off your power. You didn't have to burn the forests, the same forests my survivors use to find food."

Halfwing looked down. "I'm not pretending, Sept."

"No, you are," he said. "I'm willing to guess you've thought of nothing but revenge ever since you killed that dragon. I get that you feel powerful." He scooped a pile of ashes off the ground. "Every pony can see how strong you are. But you've gone too far."

"You saw me try to shrink down, I can't do it!" Halfwing flapped the air in frustration, summoning a whirlwind of ash around them. "I'm not joking when I say I've been reborn, Septarian. There's always a price for power. I ate the dragon's body and magic until it became a part of me. I can't control it, can't tell it to be something it's not."

Septarian paused. "I don't--how is that possible?"

"Does it matter?" Halfwing lowered her head to Septarian's level. "We don't know how the seasons change, or why different birds grew to live in different climates, but we still live. So I'm going to do that, starting with the death of my mother. After what she did to me, what she let my sisters do, she doesn't deserve to live in my future."

She stared at him, eyes the size of his whole head. "Join me, and I'll do you a favour and cut off the wildfire. I can burn the trees ahead of the flames until there's nothing left for them to eat."

"And if I stay with my people?" Septarian asked sheepishly.

"Then I hope you have your own plan for fighting the fire. Because I am a dragon, Septarian. I don't do favours for free."

Comments

[Time Reaper]

One sister down and the other one must go down before she goes even crazier. At least now I understand what the dragon meant with "a price to be paid" for defeating him.

[Just_Me123]

I've been hoping for some progress with this story and here we are. But the plot just keeps on thickening, I have a feeling it will all be rather epic when it's finally over. With a background like this MLP Chrysalis is starting to seem like a pacifist, I'd hate to think what any of the 4 princesses in this story would have done with "A Canterlot Wedding". But it's been a good read so far. Thanks, and keep up the good work.

[SwordTune]

9802709
A very funny thought. Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it.