Legends of Equestria: Hesturland

by The Blue EM2

I see Fire

"Not so fast, you little grubs," said a voice. Suddenly, there was a loud scream and another jet of flame shot across the landscape. A massive blue dragon flew through the sky and landed before Rockhoof. He was absolutely enormous, reaching almost to the top of the clouds. His horns were so massive they looped down the sides of his face (one had a golden ring on it), and his cold orange eyes stared down from atop a massive head fitted with a jaw big enough to swallow an aircraft carrier. He also wore heavy dark blue armour, his wings slotting through the gaps in the plates.

Rockhoof gulped. "Thor help us," he said.

"Well, well, well," he said. The dragon, that is, not Rochoof. "What do we have here, eh? Some small grub who intends to challenge me? Good luck with that."

"It's a dragon!" said one member of the Mighty Helm.

"The sky is also blue," Torch replied. "Care to state the obvious any further, mate?"

"How did he get here?" asked another.

"Never mind how he got here, ensure he can't escape!" Rockhoof shouted. "The silo doors are still open, so he may try to fly out of one before we have a chance to shut them. Any clue as to here that is?"

"The silo door control panel is up near the upper levels, on an access walkway on the left hoof side," another pony said, checking a map. Rockhoof had no idea how he could read these maps, as the words were all gobbledegook to him. "Seriously, who sets a base up like this?"

"Somebody not expecting a dragon?" suggested yet another.

Torch, however, had taken notice of their talking, and leaned his face into the glass, almost shattering it with his teeth. They all got a giant, uncomfortable, glowering look at his ugly mug. "You presume to slow me?" me asked, laughing with a massive toothed grin. "There's nothing that the pathetic little ponies of this world can even do about it. Or those things called people. They make such lovely snacks, you know. I am Torch, the mightiest dragon to have ever lived, and a being of limitless power. Nothing can stop or defeat me. Not even Flash Magnus with that fancy shield of his could see me off, only momentarily annoy me."

"Right, enough standing around!" Rockhoof shouted. "We need to get to the controls and seal him in here! If he escapes, who knows what havoc he could wreak upon the world?"

Torch smirked. "You do know I can hear you, right?" he asked, smiling still more. "There is nothing you can do to fight a giant dragon, you pesky, pathetic flies. I can't have you running off to any old place, can I? You could get in the way, and the Benefactor wouldn't like that. As a matter of fact, he'd be very cross indeed."

Rockhood hit the button that opened the control room door, and the ponies inside spilled out and into the main corridor, before entering the launch chamber via an access door on the side. They soon split up, with some going to the left route out of the door, and the rest taking the right hand door. Those who went left soon found themselves going up stairs, whilst the rest were confronted by a ladder that was very slippery, and seemingly covered in grease from previous maintenance or other such problems.

Torch blasted fire at some of them, forcing them to jump to a lower level. "You lot look small, weedy, easy to digest. Dragons have exceptionally powerful stomach acid, perfect for dissolving cows. A bunch of little ponies like you would make a most convenient appetiser."

"What is it with these guys title dropping the show?" Rockhoof shouted, as he tried to pull his way up the slippery ladder. "Oh, for Thor's sake! Getting up this is proving to be a nightmare!"

He began to reach the top, when another jet of flames hit the level above. This time, the intense heat and flames caught a pressure cylinder which exploded, showering bits and pieces of pressure cylinder everywhere.

"OK, possibly not a good place to go."

It was then he spotted something that ran from one side of the chamber to the other. From this floor to the other ran a cable. Two wheels were attached to the cables, and a bucked was mounted in below them. It would be very easy transport. The only problem was the bucket was on the wrong side. But Rockhoof was in luck. Not far from his position was a rope. This rope was connected to a pulley, and this pulley was connected to a cable, and this cable was connected to the bucket. He had an idea then and there.

"Draw the bucket over!" he shouted to two others. All three of them gripped the rope as best they could (which, with hooves, wasn't at all easy) and began to pull down on the rope. Slowly but surely this was pulling the bucket towards them. With pull after agonizing pull (the cable was extremely stiff), the bucket slowly but surely jerked across the room towards them.

Meanwhile, the others were now trying to ascend a fireman's pole, with their bodies trying to snake up it. This proved to be easier said then done, as the pole was seemingly extremely slippery, and covered with other materials.

"We could do with some of the grease from the pole over here on this cable!" said one pony, as the others made it onto an upper floor. Though they had to move very quickly from that point, as another jet of flame followed them that way, and it was very hot. They sprinted from the flames, which were orange and fiery, and the intense heat, which was beginning to melt the walkway in places.

"Talk about hot stuff."

Meanwhile, the bucket was, at long last, almost halfway over. Torch was distracted by the other ponies, so paid them no heed. The bucket arrived, and Rockhoof hopped into it. Having drawn it all the way over, the ponies now began to run it over to the other side. Rockhoof was there in moments, and hit the button to seal the silo doors.

Torch, however, was not so easily deceived, and flew upwards. The doors buckled and broke apart as he smashed through them, flying upwards into the air and roaring triumphantly into the night. Rockhoof climbed another ladder and looked forward into the darkness (many hours has passed since they had entered).

They were all atop the bunker, which sat at the point with a good view from Mount Talladega of the surrounding area. In the distance, Torch was seen flying towards a city. As he closed in, flames poured from his mouth, consuming the city in fire.

They all looked on, shocked. "Where is that place?" Rockhoof asked.

Stygian checked his compass. ""30.2241° N, 92.0198° W. Three- Seven- Two- Four- One- Five- Seven. Two- Nine- Five- Eight- Nine- Five- Four- Seven. Six- Seven- Six- Eight- Four- Five- One. Five- Two- Four- Nine- Eight- Six- Three. Four- Two- Four- Six- Seven- Eight- Six." He gulped. "That was the target of the missiles. Clearly Torch was some sort of backup plan."

Rockhoof was in a state of shock. He slumped on the ground as the destruction raged before him. "What have we done?" he whispered, too horrified to comprehend saying anything else.

"It ain't yer fault," Meadowbrook said, trotting over to him and trying to soothe his mind. "Ya tried ta stop him-"

"Emphasis being very much on the word 'tried'," Rockhoof replied bitterly. "History doesn't recall many people being remembered for trying."

Meadowbrook ignored his interruption and went on. "But what's past is past, and now we need ta try and achieve somethin' to help in the fight against Project 722."

"Like a message!" Stygian said. "Rockhoof, you said that Torch had mentioned Flash Magnus, right? If so, there's a good chance that the other Pillars are out there too! All we need to do is try to reach out to them with a message!"

Meadowbrook responded by tapping something on the belt that held her skirt on, and then selected text that read 'wide bandwidth'. "This message has ta get to them," she said, and she began to speak.

"Ta all receivin' this transmission'," she began, "We are all in serious danger. Project 722 is makin' its move on the world. As Ah speak, Lafeyette burns in flames. Please hurry. The Pony of Shadows has returned and is stoppin' at nothin' to take control. He will kill anybody who gets in his way. He tried ta take control o' Stygian and killed Colonel Peterson. Ah have no idea when he'll come fer either me or Rockhoof."

"Let's hope they got that," Stygian said, in a sombre tone.

"If they didn't," Rockhoof added, his face long and tired, "then Faust help us all."

Author's Note:

Well, this is it. The end of another entry in the series, this one has a bit of a downer ending. However, if you wish to find out what the other Pillars were up to at the same time, check out this story;

TLegends of Equestria: The Long Road Back

• MLP: FiM
• Dark
• Adventure
• Random

The conclusion of the Legends of Equestria saga.

• Sex
• Violence
• Profanity
• Human
• Starswirl
• Somnambula
• Flash Magnus
• Meadowbrook
• Mistmane

JimmyHook19 · 33k words  ·  24  12 · 610 views

The ending of the story is loosely based on the conclusion of The Desolation of Smaug, the second film in the Hobbit trilogy. Whilst not the best Middle-Earth adaptation ever, I thought the final action sequence was excellently executed, and so a reference was suitable here.

Thank you for reading, and mar sin leat!

Comments

[JimmyHook19]

-sees my story in the Author's note- As of now... it is now in the number one spot for of the featured stories in the Mistmane character tag section! :D

[The Blue EM2]

10718065
Though that, sadly, is probably because there are very few Mistmane stories.