Soft green grass caressed the teenage dragons' feet as they walked on towards the Dragonlands. Halfway there from where they started, they could see the peaks of the dragon mountains reaching up like fingers tickling the sky. Thick white clouds seemed to form rings over the mountaintops. It had been ten years since Spike had been to the Dragonlands. Memories of that dark place struck a nervous chord, though he didn't want to admit that to the girl holding his hand.
"Spike," Sapphire said as she pulled Spike in closer, "You got really quiet all of a sudden. Are you okay?"
Spike looked to the towering mountains for a few more seconds, and then rested his sight on Sapphire. "Yeah, I'm fine."
Sapphire watched as Spike looked towards the Dragonlands; his eyes gleaming with fear as he did. "Are you scared?"
"Who, me? Sacred? Yeah right!" Spike released Sapphire's hand and positioned himself in a karate fighting stance, eyes narrowed and focused as if he were anticipating a fight. "I'm a one-dragon kung-fu strike team!"
Shouting with each mock blow, Spike threw a left jab, a right jab and another left. He raised one foot in the air and pivoted on the other for a roundhouse kick, only for his foot to slip before he could spin all the way around and actually throw the kick. The grass did little to cushion the impact of his back hitting the ground. Sapphire laughed at this clumsy display.
"Oh, I can see THAT." The ice dragon bent over to help Spike back to his feet. "You haven't changed, Spike. You're still that same goofball I met all those years ago."
Trembling in Sapphire grasp, Spike swallowed a lump in his throat. Those glittering blue eyes, that beautiful smile. Somehow they'd grown even more stunning since the last time he'd gazed into her face ten years ago. "And you're still the prettiest dragon I've ever met."
Both dragons chuckled and averted their eyes from each other for a few moments. Spike felt himself being pulled forward by Sapphire's strength before she wrapped her arms around him, embracing him in a tight hug, her face inches from his.
"Come here, you," the ice dragon purred.
Before Spike had a chance to think anything of it, he felt something soft and warm press against his snout. The kiss sent a tingle up his spine. He closed his eyes to savor the moment. Their lips parted with a smack. Sapphire was already blushing when she let Spike go, her eyes turned sheepishly to the ground. The shock of the moment seemed to numb Spike to anything else except what had just happened.
"I'm sorry," Sapphire finally said to break the awkward silence. "We don't really have time for that. We have a job to do, don't we?"
Spike's elation droned out as he set his sights back towards those ominous, jagged mountain tops. "You're right. We should keep moving."
"Hey." Sapphire watched Spike turn his back to her, remove his backpack and begin fishing through it. "Maybe... once we're done with what we need to do in the Dragonlands... I'll kiss you all you like."
A smile he couldn't fight appeared on Spike's face as he looked up at Sapphire from his kneeling position, still sifting through his pack. Just one kiss was good enough, so his heart began to thump from imagining the dragoness smooching him many times. "Really? I'll hold you to that."
Sapphire stepped closer. "What are you looking for?"
"I can't take it anymore," Spike answered, his attention fixated on his search. Finally, he produced a writing quill and a scroll of parchment. "I have to let Celestia know what's going on here."
For about a minute, Sapphire watched Spike scribble a note on the piece of parchment, his eyes nervously darting. Once he was finished, he stood up, rolled the parchment and sent it on its way.
“Feel better now?” Sapphire asked as magic sparks streaked off towards Canterlot.
“Not entirely,” Spike mumbled. “But I still think we should keep moving.”
“If it helps, I’m scared, too,” Sapphire said as Spike bent over to pick up his backpack, visibly struggling with the weight of his bundles.
“Oof! How’d this thing get so heavy?”
“Probably because you’re worrying yourself sick,” Sapphire answered. After Spike got the straps over his shoulders, Sapphire took his hand again to help comfort him. “Just try to relax. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Meanwhile, back in Canterlot...
Celestia looked out her window into her beloved sunlit city, ever alert for any signs of the dragon invasion that she'd expected for the last week. Her alicorn's sense of foreboding had never failed her before, and she was positive it was right about this as well.
"Sister, will you calm down? It is rare to see you so unnerved. You are beginning to frighten me," the midnight-blue alicorn in the middle of the room said to her sister.
"Forgive me, Luna." Celestia removed herself from the window and joined the night princess. "I hope I am only worrying for no reason and the dragons don't actually pose a threat... but something tells me I would be mistaken to let matters settle themselves."
"If anything does happen, we will be ready. You and I, we can accomplish anything if we work together. No foe can stand up to the might of the sisters of dusk and dawn."
"Perhaps you're right." Celestia sighed, trying her best to get her mind to settle on Luna's notion.
The sun princess' eyes widened as a letter appeared in front of her from a shower of magic sparks. Using her magic, she unrolled the scroll and read it silently to her self.
Luna stood quiet, watching her eyes dart faster and faster as they scanned the letter. When she could no longer stand the tension of the silence, Luna spoke. "What does it say?"
Celestia rolled up the scroll moments later, her eyes narrowed in unblinking determination. "Buckington was invaded last night."
"Invaded..." Luna whispered her dread of that word.
"Shining Armor!" Celestia shouted. One of the guards, undistinguishable under his suit of silver armor, galloped up to Celestia and gave a salute.
"What is it, you majesty?"
"Gather as many guards as you can find. I want every city and village on the border to the Dragonlands under close watch, and I want them working in pairs."
"The Dragonlands, madam?"
"Yes. Buckington was invaded and had all their capable ponies hauled off by dragons. I want reports from each settlement to come in at every two hours and no longer. If they're plotting a full-scale invasion, we'll be ready."
"Are you sure you want to fight..." Shining stopped to gulp down his nervousness. "DRAGONS?" Those enormous winged reptiles, with their breath of fire and unrivaled strength send a chill of trepidation down the captain of the guard’s spine. He’d rather fight an army of changelings again than tangle with even a single dragon, let alone a whole regime.
"If they are going to invade, then we have no choice."
Shining Armor straightened himself and gave a salute "Ma'am!" With that, he vanished down the hall, the sound of his hoofsteps following him.
Celestia's eyes were still narrowed and unblinking. She turned to Luna and looked her in her dark blue eyes as she gave a verbal vow to her sister. “I WILL protect my country."
I was earlier than first.
Tia is pissed
nice. short but well written.
(Send you to the moon)
I smell super Celestia
-Kiryu
The Sh!t.
It has hit the fan.
The kissing scene was nice, equally nice was the fact that they recognized the fact that they have a job to do; unlike most couples with important quests who will kiss, hug and completely ignore the dangers then cry over their loved ones dead body after the fact. Props there.
That being said, Celestia and Luna's scene...I hated it. Practically every single line makes no sense or paints them as incompetent fools. To clarify this, let's look at a few lines shall we.
Yup, your sense of foreboding has never failed you alright. In fact, except for Discord stealing the Elements of Harmony right under your nose, corrupting their wielders, breaking your own student and turning Ponyville into the chaos capitol of the world, and Queen Chrysalis successfully defeating you in a magical duel, mind slaving your royal guard captain, imprisoning you into green lantern cocoon, capturing your favorite student and her friends, invading and conquering Canterlot with a massive changeling horde; I can't think of any creature who has been able to undermine that ability. My point here is that if you have known for over a week, Lady British, why have you waited until now to do something about it? Dragon Hitler has made it pretty clear that he has no qualms about invading you. In fact, he has been preparing for just that-gathering allies from other like minded beings who are tired of living under and at the whims of pony hooves. This brings me to my next quote,
okay, I see you trying to ease your sister's concerns, it's not like you had a feeling of foreboding for the past week that something bad was about to happen--oh, wait.... I imagine that since her sense of dread is alicorn based, Luna also has a similar ability too, thereby making her lying to both herself and her sister completely pointless. However, then Luna says the dumbest line in this chapter,
.
Really, now? To be fair all your defeats have happened when one of you was actively shown, but Luna you are in Canterlot when Discord and Chrysalis attack. Are you catching up on your beauty sleep when that happens or are you too busy pwning n00bs on Xbox-Live? My point is that while I understand what you are trying to get across, how you implement it is awkward. General Zog is amassing in army in the south and has already invaded and you wait a week to do something? I get it Zordon, that the Power Rangers have gone into retirement here but your first actions against an army with hostile intent should not involve sending Alpha out on a quest to see the dragonlands and then having the captain of your guard setting up border defenses against an army of flying, fire-breathing, dragons. We are past Def-con two Denethor, we're at Def-con one now. The border villages should be evacuating and your army preparing to take the field against Sauron and his allies. The time for diplomacy has past, its time to send out reconnaissance teams and figure out where they are going to launch the main offensive first.
Overall, this chapter wasn't very good. If the goal was to show Celestia and Luna grossly underestimating their foe, then well done. However, at the moment I have a hard time believing that this story is going to have a believable happy ending unless Father monologues long enough for the heroes to activate their deus ex machina so they can win.
tl;dr: we have general doom preparing for war and Celestia and Luna are treating him like a child who's throwing a temper-tantrum.
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1967756 I do understand much of what you're saying, and I'll keep these notes in mind for future chapters. However, part of this is just that Celestia is playing her pieces very carefully. She's trying to avoid any unnecessary provocation. Evacuation and that sort of thing would arouse suspicions with the dragons and know she's preparing for something big. Celestia does NOT want to risk them going on a full-scale attack as opposed to a small village. Right now she's in "infiltration mode", while preparing to enter "alert mode" only if absolutely necessary.
But not only that, without trying to give away too many spoilers, consider it a plot device for later events...
And...Celly finally gets the memo! Better late than never, I guess.
This is Celestia we're talking about here. Why is she apprehensive? She's older than dragons, stronger than dragons, and more -experienced- than dragons.
Tartarus is populated by all the demons of Equestria that aren't still slinking around somewhere. Do you think they moved there when they heard there was punch, pie, and free housing? It's pony Hell, they were -locked in there- forcibly. It's guarded by Cerberus, which as a poster in the episode shows is Celestia's pet dog. Celestia personally locked away the "evil creatures" (with the understanding that normal monsters can't actually be evil as they lack the ability to distinguish between good/evil and natural instinct - thereby wholly suggesting demons, which even previous MLP generations had to contend with).
She's so ridiculously powerful that she had to throw the fight against Chrysalis to prevent incinerating the wedding audience by turning up the juice enough to overpower the changeling queen.
She's -eons- old, according to Discord... she's had to have seen and/or participated in every Equestrian war since they sealed Discord away after the Founding, at least. She's acting pretty scared of some dragons... not in the sense of "Oh no I worry about my people" but in the sense "I don't think I can do this".
I get that this is Spike and Sapphire's story, so they're the ones who save the day instead of deus ex machina goddesses, but come on. Her Radiant Majesty the Dawnmother Celestia ain't gotta be scared, man.
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I don't think she could send all of the dragons to the moon, it may be a bit crowded...
To-do list for Celestia:
1. Summon Russian Army
2. Sit back and watch Russians kick ass
1968081
Fair enough, but if I may paraphrase kotor a for a moment, "And in doing so reveal much to the enemy." Infiltration and defense building is nice but costly, waiting too long can and has cost many commanders the war (ask Napoleon or Athens during the Third Peloponnesian War how that worked out for them).
Ultimately, there are a lot of variables that are going to need to be counted for. Moreover, I am under the impression that should war or any fighting break out, it is not going to be a bloodless conflict. Both sides could potentially lose friends and family that they care for. I could see how this could end without any blood being shed but with the stakes already being raised right from the gate... I guess what I am trying to say is is that if you are going to raise the stakes and have both sides fight, please do not make this a bloodless fight that is consequence free--for either side and I don't mean that only limbs are lost or a pony or dragon is wounded but still lives, I mean bringing in the ultimate tool a writer has at their disposal--character death be it major or minor (although at least one major character death wouldn't hurt as red shirt death is par for the course and not as impactful). Go all the way, you have already broke the comfort zone by having slavery and racism that reminds me of the early days of WWII. Please do not wrap the ending up in a neat bow just to have a happy ending; have all parties involved learn something important from all this. Let there be consequences for what is done or not done. Pretty please?
Nice work, Hope that the two of them can catch up by swapping stories.
He'll I'm always right when they're is a spy around and you don't see me labeling it as a part of my senses.
'stupid bloody spies'
nice !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! chap :DDD
Sacred.
Derp.
GOD DAMN IT WHEN ARE THEY GOING TO DO IT. YOU KNOW WE WANT THEM BOTH DOING IT!!!
1967756 I loved this comment so much.
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May the Grace of the Valar Protect You
Shire Folk
Zog
Either Zod misspelled or we got a TMNT fan.
THANK YOU! Thank you for telling Celestia before something can stop you from doing so!