The Last Heroes of Equestria

by ZeroStar

Dragon Land (part 1 of 2)

A long way westward of Ponyville, the three ponies travelled slowly but surely into the mysterious western lands beyond the mountains. The lands beyond were know as the scorched badlands, due to the dangerous creatures who lurk throughout the land. At this point, however, our heroes are a long way from reaching their destination.

The large black Pegasus walked along with unstoppable confidence, his green and red spiked mane soaked from the heavy downpour of rain. The next in the line of heroes was of an average size for a unicorn, using his magic to create a barrier between him and the sky, keeping his icy blue coat and white streaked dark blue mane dry. The last in line of their marching order was an unlikely one, just barely a mare by age or height standards. She had a pristine white coat with bubblegum pink mane, with patches of darker pink throughout. She took cover under the other unicorn’s barrier to shield her from the rain.

“Are we there yet?”, the young unicorn whined, being sick of the rain and cold.

The older unicorn looked down on her, “We have yet to even reach the Dragon’s lands and you complain already?”

“If I knew that it was going to rain for three days straight I would have at least brought a raincoat.”

“And who’s fault is that?”

The young mare stuck her tongue out at him, then walked ahead of the unicorn to the Pegasus’ side. “Aren’t you cold?”, she asked in concern.

“This is my usual summer weather where I come from.”

“Really? Where is that?”

“Caneighda, a land to the north, where it is always cold, snowing, or raining.”

“Are the ponies from there nice?”

“My family are the only ponies, the rest who live there are moose.”

“What’s a moose?”

“I’ll tell you later.”

“But I want to know now!”, the young one whined.

“Cura, you keep talking like that, you’re grounded.”

“You can’t do that!”

“Watch me…”, his eyes narrowed as he stared down at her.

Cura pouted and looked away. The ponies kept marching onward towards the west along the muddy dirt road. Nightfall coming quickly, the ponies sat under a large old oak tree for cover. The large Pegasus laid down near the base of the tree. The icy blue unicorn took his place away from the base of the tree on the grass, a barrier still floating above him, keeping him dry. The young mare laid down away from the two of them, laying her head on the grass. All was quiet, save for the constant sound of water hitting the ground. The young mare lay there shivering. “I knew I should have packed my bags for cold weather…”, she whispered to herself.

“What was that?”, the Pegasus’ head rose as he spoke.

“Sorry, War Heart, I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“I’m guessing you’re cold…”

Cura looked down in a sort of shame, “I didn’t come prepared for cold weather, or the rain…”

War Heart raised his wing that was not against the tree, “Here, you can sleep under my wing tonight, I can’t have you getting sick on this mission.”

Cura walked over to War Heart and took shelter under his gargantuan wing that covered her completely. War Heart lowered his head once again and slept.

The morning arrived with its brisk air and fresh scents. The rain had stopped last night and the sky was beginning to clear. War Heart opened his eyes and rose his head to the new day. He looked down at his side where he was laying, checking under his wing for Cura. She lay there huddled up against him, “Hey, time to get up.”, War Heart nudged her with his front hoof. She pulled the wing back over her, “Five more minutes…”, Cura said, still half asleep.

“Nice try, but this is my wing.”, he pulled it away from her and stood up.

“Fine.”, Cura stood up and stretched. She looked over at the icy blue unicorn, “Wake up, Orion, it’s time to leave.”, Cura walked over Orion, leaving muddy hoof prints on him.

“Hey!”, Orion awoke abruptly to the pressure put on him.

“Oops, clumsy me.”, Cura giggled as she walked away following War Heart.

“Hey, Orion, is that the mountain range we have to get past.?”, War Heart said as he motioned towards the mountains in the distance.

“I believe so…”, Orion said as he was looking at an old scroll floating in front of him, containing a map of where they were going.

“It’s about a day away if we keep this pace.”, War Heart estimated as he walked.

“Or we could run!”, Cura shouted as she began to gallop ahead of them.

It took about a minute before Cura realized they were not running with her, so she waited ahead for them. “Jerks…”, she commented as they came by and she rejoined the march.

“Maybe, but we have to conserve our energy or we’ll tire ourselves out by the time we even get to the dragon lands.”

“Fine… I won’t run.”

They walked for the rest of the day with not a word said. They finally came to the Drake Tooth mountain range. Ahead they saw a long twisting dirt road going in a twisted path through the pass. “I guess this is the way in.”, War Heart took in the sight of the mountains and their snow capped peaks. The three walked along the unkempt path, stay from the edges so to avoid a nasty fall to the pointed rocks below. The path ended after about a three hour hike along the mountains and opened them to a tropical jungle terrain.

Orion took a look at the map, “Looks like we’re finally in the dragon’s lands… in the region of Novaterra.”

“That’s a weird name, why’s it called that?”

“I read that it mean ‘New Earth’, because this forest is burnt down every one hundred and fifty years, the dead things fertilize the soil and new life finds its way here every time. A certain clan of dragons also use the ashes to house their eggs.”

“Well, judging by how big the trees are, they may be burned down within the next year or so.”

“How would you know that?”

“My business is trees”

“Okay then…”

The walked into the dense woodland, brightly lit by the sun shining through the canopy made by the trees towering over them. There was never a moment of silence in the forest full of all sorts of wildlife. The three ponies marched through the forest, searching for something to mark which direction they must go. They slowly started to notice something somewhat concerning, the forest was quiet. “It’s quiet…”, War Heart noted. He walked forward a few steps, pushing a bit of foliage out of his way. To his dismay, he stepped into a black soiled clearing as if it had burnt recently, and even worse, he was staring directly at three large eggs, white like bone and the size of him. “Well, look what we have here…”, War Heart walked over to the eggs.

“Uh… War Heart, are you sure that is wise? The mother could be around somewhere.”, Orion commented.

“I’m going to make sure a dragon never threatens Equestria, starting with these eggs…”, War Heart reared back and brought his mighty hooves down on the eggs, resulting in them cracking open like they were just chicken eggs. He looked at his hooves to notice no mess, no dead unborn dragon, just shattered shell. He inspected the egg closer to find a hole in the other side of it. “Huh, looks like they already hatched…”, he turned back towards his party and began walking towards them. Cura and Orion exhaled in relief, glad that they would not have to be face to face with the angry mother dragon that left those eggs. “Well that was rather disapp-”, War Heart could not finish his sentence as a creature the size of a pony tackled him to the ground. It had a slender snake-like body, four legs with claws on all of its feet, it had spines along its back and a layer of skin between its front and back legs on each side to serve as a way to glide. It had green scales similar to the colour of emeralds and it’s eyes were amber and had the gaze of a predator. Its shriek was ear-piercing and high pitched as steam burst from it’s nose. War Heart swung his front hoof into the beast’s face, then threw it to the side off of him. He quickly got to his hooves and reared back, readying himself for an attack. He began to hear the shriek again, except the one he was facing wasn’t making the noise. He heard the shrieking get louder. He quickly turned around and threw his hooves down onto the beast’s sibling, pushing it to the ground and crushing its skull in one smooth motion. The creature he was fighting with before, leaped onto his back, digging in into his hide with its claws, biting into his shoulder. War Heart screamed in pain as the teeth of the beast sank into him. A scream of pain that turn into a roar of bloodlust as he threw himself onto his back, crushing the creature beneath him, stunning it for a moment from taking such a hit. War Heart rolled onto his hooves again and reared back once more, about to crush the creature like he did to the other one. The shriek came back right before he felt more claws digging into his back. The other beast got back up and jumped at War Heart, who was wrestling with it’s sibling, only to have his hoof trusted into its face, pushing it away from him. The creature on War Heart’s back sank its teeth into War Heart’s shoulder. War Heart threw himself back, hoping to crush the creature, only to end up flat on his back as it jumped off him. War Heart got back up, trying to catch his breath from the impact of the fall. The beasts began to circle him, trying to make sure they had him blindsided. The creatures hissed at him as they moved, watching his every move. One of them screeched at War Heart, making him turn towards the source of the noise. The one that kept quiet pounced on him, latching on to him once again. At this point, the pain did not occur to War Heart, the adrenaline making him feeling nearly invincible. He rolled to the ground, making the beast jump from his back. He stood in the center, once again surrounded by the two of them. One screeched at him, he looked towards it, and then quickly turned around, extending his shielded wing and swinging it into the pouncing creature. As War Heart was turning back towards the one that screeched, he reared back and trusted his front hooves into its face. It fell to the ground. War Heart ran to it roaring and crushed its head beneath his front hoof. He snapped his gaze towards the only one left. The creature hissed at him, trying to limp away with its leg broken from the bash War Heart gave it. He walked over to it and stepped on its tail, stopping it and causing it to screech more. War Heart screamed back at it and stomped down with all his strength onto its skull, causing it to be crushed into a bloody mess. War Heart there stood there, breathing heavily as his party just stared at him, mortified at what they had seen. Orion walked out to one of the dead creatures. He examined it and looked towards Cura, motioning her over to War Heart. Cura nervously walked over to War Heart, “War Heart? Are y-you okay?”, Cura didn’t stand to close to him, afraid of his wrath.

“I’ll be fine…”, War Heart said, still breathing heavily, just staring at his hooves in the bloody mess of the creature’s head.

“It looks like these are the Scathewinds.”, Orion said upon finishing his examination.

“What does that mean?”, Cura looked over at Orion.

“They are a type of dragon that have no wings or an elemental breath. They drink water and store it to breath steam to blind their enemies and support their altitude while gliding with these flaps of skin.”, Orion pointed at the creature’s skin, “And by the look of it, those were all siblings, and born about a week ago.”

“Wow…”, Cura said in astonishment, amazed how big they got after only a week of life.

“Their tactics work a lot like wolves, hunting in packs and retreating when defeat is certain.”, Orion stated, recalling the fight between them and War Heart.

“Isn’t their mother going to look for them?”, Cura looked slightly worried at the idea of seeing whatever gave birth to such creatures.

“We should keep moving, we have to find shelter before dark.”, War Heart said as he started to walk away. Cura and Orion looked at each other, and then began to follow War Heart. They walked for about a half hour towards a mountain before reaching it and finding a cave. War Heart went inside, finding nothing in there but rocks and darkness. He laid down, wincing in pain from the cuts from his battle earlier. Orion stood at the mouth of the cave and began preparing a spell. Cura walked over to War Heart, still uneasy from seeing his behaviour from earlier.

“Are you sure you’re okay, War Heart? You look pretty hurt.”, Cura kept her distance from him.

“I don’t know, I’m not an expert on medicine. Check if you think it’s necessary.”

Cura nervously walked over to him, looking him over from farther away than she usually would, not wanting to touch him and get on his nerves. The only thing to look at was his shoulder, but to do that she’d have to go face him. It was almost as if she did not want to catch his gaze, lest she be turned to stone. She swallowed her fear and walked to his shoulder and examined it. She found that the creature sank its teeth in him pretty deeply, that he would have died in his sleep overnight if she left it. She closed her eyes and her horn began to glow blue. War Heart’s wounds began to heal to the point where they would stop bleeding, at which point Cura put bandages on his wounds. “You would have died over night if I left those alone.”, Cura said as she finished fixing him up.

“Thank you, Cura. That is twice you saved my life now.”, he smiled slightly at her, hoping to cheer her up.

“Well, it was my job, and what kind of a pony would I be if I just let you die?”, her tone sounded like one of pride, she felt like a hero.

“So, how exactly did you become a doctor?”, War Heart asked the young medic.

“Well… It’s a long story…”, she said, turning away from War Heart.

“Does it look like we’re going anywhere?”

“Okay then… When I was very little me and my father were going for a hike along a mountain far from home. There was a rockslide and my dad pushed me out of the way of a falling stone. His legs were broken and another rock came down and pinned him by stabbing through his lower torso… I had to sit there for three hours and watch him die because I didn’t know what to do… I was orphaned but I swore that I would keep anypony from dying so long as I could help. So I learned healing magic and first aid so I could help anypony that needed it.”, Cura began to tear up at the memory of her father. She stomped the ground with her front hoof, “If only I knew what to do! I could have saved him!”, her tears flowed down her face onto the ground as she started to sob. War Heart walked up beside her and laid down next to her, taking her under his wing. “You can’t change the past, Cura. I’m sure he would be proud of the pony he raised if he could see you now. You’re here on a mission to save the lives of many ponies in Equestria, how much more heroic can you get?”

“I guess…”, Cura stopped crying for a moment, slowly being drawn into the warmth of sleep.

“Guess getting that off her chest was a real relief.”, War Heart thought as he looked down at her under his wing.

Orion walked over, not actually having heard the conversation by being busy with a spell to protect them while they’re asleep, “The barrier I set up should keep any dragons from coming inside.”

“That’s good… I would not like to be taken by surprise.”, War Heart said as he laid his head down to sleep.

Orion looked at where he put the barrier and smirked, “Stupid dragons…”, Orion mocked as he also went to sleep.

The night was pitch black and the world seemed as if it were frozen in a moment of peace. The heroes lay still asleep within their cave shelter. Even they seemed to be frozen in the peace of the night. A pair of red eyes floated in front of the mouth of the cave, staring at the ponies within the darkness, a deep craving in its stare. The eyes fixed upon Orion and began to glow brighter. Orion ear twitched, then he shivered for a moment before rolling over. Cura woke to a sharp pain in her head and an ear-piercing whistling sound. She looked over at the opening of the cave to see the red eyes slowly floating side to side over to her, the space looking more and more distorted around the eyes as they drew closer to her. She tried to speak but she didn’t hear anything but the whistling. Her heart began to race as the eyes got closer. Cura tried to scream, feeling the air escape but still no sound. She looked around in a panic and smacked War Heart on the nose, waking him up. He immediately noticed the eyes and leaped at them. War Heart fell to the floor with the eyes and almost immediately his limbs pressed up against his body tightly. War Heart then floated upright, a look of anger on his face as he stared at the eyes with murderous intent. Cura watched in horror as all this occurred, she quickly ran to Orion and kicked him in the behind and pointed at War Heart and the pair of sinister eyes. Orion quickly jumped up and began mouthing some words, resulting in a surprised look on his face when no sound came of it. He concentrated for a second and had a look of confusion as his horn did not glow. Orion ran over to War Heart’s axe and picked it up, throwing it from his teeth at War Heart. The axe stopped and a loud screech came from in front of War Heart as everything could be heard again. Orion’s horn glowed for a second before a ball of light shot out of his horn at the pair of eyes. The screech continued as the ball made contact. The eyes turned on Orion, burnt flesh where the left eye used to be. The eye began to float away in the same way it came, floating back and forth away from them as War Heart’s limbs slowly released themselves, he then was gasping for air.

“I… Thought you… put up a barrier…”, War Heart questioned Orion between gasps.

“I did, but that thing disabled it. I don’t know how, but it did.”

“I heard a high-pitched whistling that woke me up.”, Cura mentioned, hoping to help Orion figure it out.

“Really? I guess it is a GhostWyrm.”, Orion said as he adjusted his glasses.

“What does it do then?”, War Heart asked, being rather impatient.

“Well, it only comes out at night, its skin gives it a sort of active camouflage, blending into anything behind it. It gives off a high pitched whistle that distorts sound in the area, making it seem like there is no sound at all as well as affecting the part of a unicorn‘s brain that deals with using magic, Cura only heard it because she is still young and her ears are still sensitive to such sounds. They call them GhostWyrms because they would be exposed by fillies and disappear, the fillies would say they saw a ghost but, something far deadlier was out there, waiting. They burn in sunlight, the spell I cast was a light spell, it burns its skin. It also is shaped like a snake which is why you were unable to move.”

“Great… That’s a great thing to have on our tails now.”, War Heart sarcastically remarked.

“It won’t bother us anymore, it knows that we know what it is, it will also take some time to heal, about a week or so.”, Orion clarified, then went to the entrance to put up another barrier while War Heart and Cura went back to sleep.

Cura was the first to awaken the next morning. She looked out side the cave, happy to see no floating eyes. She trotted over to War Heart and Orion and woke them up. “It’s time to get up.”, she said in a mocking impression of War Heart from the day before, giggling afterwards.

“Yeah, Yeah, I’m up.”, War Heart said as he rose to standing position.

Orion stood up, “I know which way to the closest dragon leader.”

“Some good news for once.”, War Heart said with a bit of relief in his tone.

“This dragon lord is special, he is a Shade Drake. A dragon with no wings but has special powers. This one in particular, Aceribus, has the power to hypnotise, and another power that I’m not sure of because that part of the scroll was missing. He lives in a deep mine with a race of shorter ponies known as pit ponies. He hypnotised a whole village in the night to dig him a mine for his lair. They are slaves to his power and attack any intruders.”

“Shouldn’t be much of a problem then…”, a hint of sarcasm in War Heart’s voice.

“Let’s goooooo”, Cura said with impatience as she trotted outside. War Heart followed her at his usual pace, as did Orion. A roar could be heard off in the distance, obviously far away, but from something that is disturbingly large. “We better keep moving, I don’t think you are ready to take that on, War Heart.”, Orion said as he kept walking, seemingly ignoring the sound.

“I’ll be ready for whatever I need to be ready for.”

The three heroes walked for a few hours to come to a clearing in the trees and a large opening in the ground. Cura walked over to the giant pit.

“I can’t see the bottom…”, she said as she peaked over the side.

“I can glide you down there, but only one at a time. I don’t think it’s safe to leave her alone, regardless of top or bottom.”, War Heart explained.

“Well, you don’t really have to.”

“Why?”

“This isn’t even the hole we’re looking for.”

“Oh…”

The three heroes walked around the dark hole and onwards towards their destination. They soon came upon a hole which had stairs carved in the stone going down in an amazingly more gradual slope than the hole they found before.

“This makes things a lot easier…”, War Heart commented as he lead the way into the dark tunnel with his companions behind him.

As they descended for what seemed like hours, not really knowing since they could no longer see the light of day anymore, only the dim lights of eerie blue flames along the corridors of the underground. “Couldn’t they have picked a better colour than blue? I mean, I can barely see.”, War Heart complained as they walked along.

“Better blue than no light, I guess.”, Cura retorted.

“Doesn’t change the fact that I can’t see where I’m-”, felt something tickle his face, “Son of a birch!”, War Heart frantically shook and stomped on the ground, alarming his companions.

“What is it!?”, Cura asked in urgency.

War Heart slowly turned to his followers, “A spider landed on my face…”

“Really… A spider? You’re such a baby.”

“Pfft, the baby that can bring down a dragon.”, War Heart exclaimed. Orion just looked at his party and covered his face with his hoof in shame, “What have I gotten myself into?”

It was a few more minutes after that incident that they happened upon a vast cavern. The cavern was brightly lit with what looked like glowing crystal formation, giving off a baby blue glow. The three stood in awe at the fortress they saw ahead. They could see multitudes of green pairs of orbs floating about in the darkness, that turned out to be attached to shorter ponies when they came into the light. There was a wall with a drawbridge that made a way to cross a pit with wooden pikes at the bottom of a twelve foot drop. The actual interior was not visible from where they were standing, but they were going to come up with a plan to get inside.

“Okay… How are we going to get in undetected?”, Orion began.

“I don’t know, that pit is too wide to get across. Can you disguise us as some of them?”, Cura asked

“I’m afraid not, I can only disguise one of us at a time.”

“Can’t War Heart just fl-”, Cura’s eyes widened.

“What?”, Orion asked, totally clueless. Cura turned his head to look face War Heart who was walking straight towards the fort.

“Oh clop, what is he doing?”, Orion said, awaiting the result of such a foolish action.

“Hey!”, War Heart shouted to the ponies on top of the wall who all stopped and stared at him in unison. War Heart stood there with the utmost amount of confidence, throwing off his shields from his wings and sliding his axe behind him several feet.

All the ponies on top of the wall stood on the edge of the massive stone barrier. They took a step off the edge only to begin walking straight down the wall.

“Okay, not gonna lie, that creeps me out.”, War Heart shivered as he watched them walk towards him.

They had no emotion. Not hate, anger, sadness, joy, or any of the like. Their expressions blank and their coats all an unhealthy shade of grey. They stared with single minded purpose. There were dozens closing in on the massive Pegasus. There was a pause for a moment right as they reached about six feet away from him. Then one of them spoke. “What does the prey want here?”, the pony spoke in a monotonous voice.

“Prey? I am no prey.”, War Heart replied, somewhat taking the label as a threat.

“You are not of the dragon blood, and not one of us. You are prey.”

“Listen, I’m here for the dragon lord, Aceribus.”

“You speak of the master, what do you want from him?”

“None of your concern, now let me pass!”

“It makes demands in even while it is in no position to argue.”

“Let me pass, or let me speak to whoever is in control.”, a moment passed in silence.

“Very well, behold the master. Ibus.”, the pony looked straight up as he spoke. Insect-like legs slid out of the eye sockets of the pony that was speaking to War Heart. The glowing green orbs being the torsos of two spiders. The spiders crawled out of the heads of everypony with the green glowing eyes. Suddenly the spiders began to float upwards towards the ceiling, the little green dots covering a surface revealing the shape of a giant spider. It’s eight giant glowing eyes shot open, fixing their gaze upon War Heart, who was frozen in fear. It glided down on its invisible thread and landed without a sound. It moved slowly and silently towards War Heart. “Now do you see the master puppeteer, my little pony?”, the giant arachnid spoke in a low bellowing voice. War Heart could not find the courage to move.

“We have to help him.”, Cura whispered to Orion.

“Yes, I have an idea, seeing that it-”

“No time to explain, just do it!”

“Right…”, Orion concentrated for a moment, making his horn glow. He then jumped out of his hiding place and shone a light from his horn, as bright as he could make it. The giant spider screeched in pain and covered its eyes with its front legs. Orion stood in front of War Heart, keeping the light going.

Cura grabbed War Heart’s shield and dragged it towards him. Orion then closed his eyes and the light he emitted turned orange, and he then shot out a fireball the size of him at the spider, torching a bit of its flesh.

“War Heart! If you don’t fight, we’ll fail, and that means everypony in Ponyville will be attacked.”, Cura shouted at War Heart, trying to snap him out of it.

“If you don’t fight, you’ll die here, breaking your promise to Ditzy!”, she held up the shield with Ditzy Doo’s cutie mark on it, tapping it with her front hoof twice, making a stout sounding thump.

War Heart looked at the shield, remembering leaving two days ago.

He walked over to Ditzy, who nuzzled her face against him, “Good luck, come back safely.”

“Don’t worry, I will. I promise.”

War Heart turned away from his companions, head down, and started trudging towards the exit.

Cura’s jaw dropped as she watched her companion, the bravest pony she ever knew, just walk away. Cura looked back at Orion, who was looking rather weak from expelling so much magic. Cura looked down at the floor, waiting for the spider to come and finish it. The giant arachnid walked towards them as the light from Orion faded. The spider drew closer, slowly gaining on them. Ibus reared back and readied his stinger, swinging backwards to ready the final attack. Suddenly there was a sound of a collision of something hitting wood. War Heart stopped the spider’s sting with his shield. Cura’s eyes brightened up to see him again.

“I swore I would protect them, and if it means I have to face my worst fears, and go to hell and back, so be it.”, War Heart then took his axe in hoof and swung at Ibus’ stinger, severing it and letting it drop to the floor with a clack. Ibus screeched in agony, stumbling to the ground.

War Heart stood on his hind legs with his axe ready, “Let’s finish this.”, he said as the spider came skittering towards him, charging. It rushed him, forcing him to block and pushed him into a wall with shield pressed against its face to keep its fangs away from him. After a bit of struggling he managed to get the spider away from him for a brief moment and slice at it with his axe, catching it in on of its eyes. It screamed as it backed away from War Heart, blinded by the strike. War Heart took flight and raised the axe above his head and brought it down with all his weight into the spider’s head, it’s body giving one last violent thrashing as its nerves went haywire. The body twitched as War Heart removed the axe from its head. Laughing could be heard throughout the cavern. It wasn’t low and menacing like the spider, but sounded female and sultry. A black smoke rose from the body of the spider and floated about the heroes.

“That seemed like a difficult battle, you must feel proud.”, the sultry voice spoke as if it was all around them.

“Who are you?”, War Heart called out.

“I’m just a spirit that has been trapped inside that big monster for oh so long now.”

“What do you want?”

“I want to reward you.”

“With what?”

“Anything your heart desires.”, there was a black mist in the cavern, dimming the light. War Heart looked into the distance and saw a grey mare with blonde mane, bound in spider‘s silk. “Ditzy!?”, War Heart was about to run to her until he hit some sort of invisible wall.

“Whoa there, lover-colt.”, a mare with grey coat and white flowing mane wearing a crown in the shape of a spider, “There are rules to this.”, she rubbed her hoof along his chin.

“What rules?”, War Heart looked at her.

“First, you have to kill that pit filly over there.”, she pointed to a small grey filly with her eyes missing.

“Very well…”, War Heart turned to the small filly and began walking to her. The filly had no emotion in its face and as slowly backed away from War Heart as he approached. Suddenly a figure of fire in the shape of a stallion charged in front of War Heart. It snorted flames at him in anger. War Heart reared back on his hind legs to strike at the fiery stallion. Suddenly War Heart was pushed back by an unseen force, knocking him into the ground, bashing his head. He looked to Ditzy and reached his front hoof towards her as he heard her scream as she fell into the pit of wooden pikes. After that, everything went black.

When War Heart came back into consciousness, Cura was looking him in the eyes. “You are so lucky I know you so well. I figured that you were under the effect of a mind-altering agent, and you were.”, she showed a decently big puddle of black liquid, “That is from the stinger that you got hit with as you were blocking it.”

War Heart stood up, stumbled a bit and then steadied himself, “I’m sorry… For whatever I might have done.”

“It’s all okay, I know you wouldn’t ever hurt me.”, she smiled sweetly at him.

“Well, I still suggest we leave this cave, it is way too dark down here.”, Orion was on his way out the cave.

“I just feel that we forgot something…”, War Heart pondered for a moment, “What was the name of the dragon lord we were looking for?”

Orion turned around to answer him, confident he knew the answer, but he stopped, “I… don’t… remember?”, Orion would never forget something like that so quickly.

Orion quickly looked at the scroll for the info but the name was torn from the parchment, “It’s been torn from my papers…”

War Heart looked to where the entrance was to find there was a new wall there.

“Excuse me…”, a small voice called from beside War Heart.

“Can you help me find mommy?”, the little filly beside War Heart had a purple-ish coat and blonde mane, with a striking resemblance to Ditzy.

War Heart looked at Orion who was looking at him oddly, then War Heart looked back to see a skeleton of a filly, with words carved into the ground, “YOU LEFT”

War Heart backed away and closed his eyes, “It isn’t real, it isn’t real, it isn’t real…”, he looked back and the skeleton and the words were gone.

“We have a serious problem guys, I keep seeing things…”

Orion had a sudden flash of remembrance, “Aceribus!”
A black scaled creature with green glowing eyes appeared in front of them, “Congratulations on remembering my name in my domain. Now, what do you want of me?”, the beast was only the size of Orion, but it had a booming voice.

“We came here to slay all the dragon ringleaders that would go to war with Equestria!”

“And you believe I would want this? Why?”

“You don’t?”

“I spend all my time here, what do I care of the outside world?”

“True…”

“However, I do grow tired of the other lords trying to rally me to a cause with threats. If you were to kill them, I may be able to claim lordship over the others. Does that suit your Equestria?”

“If you are true to your word.”

“Leave my home, the next one you seek is to the far north of this land, on Mount Gennafor where you will meet the dragon lord Raazmus, but be warned, he is no ordinary dragon.”, and with that last word, Aceribus disappeared.

The Heroes walked towards the exit of the cave, upon finally reaching the surface, “You pointed us to a Dragon Lord that happened to be a reclusive mind twister, I’m considering gong back home to grab Ditzy and flee Equestria from what I saw in there, AND FOR WHAT!? Knowing where the next dragon lord is!? For all we know, we could be walking into a trap.”, War Heart ranted, Cura walked up to him.

“What did you see?”, she put a hoof on his, War Heart laid down.

“I thought I saw Ditzy dying, and… I don’t know, it seemed so real…”

“You have to know that nothing in there was real, we have to press on for everypony in Equestria.”

War Heart took in a deep breath, “Okay, I’ll keep going… I have promises to keep.”, He stood back up and took another step forward.