Chapter 6

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Rukil was nervous. He had never been a good liar; not to the pups on his playground during his youth, and certainly not to authority figures. Still, as Fluttershy’s motionless body was presented to the council, he managed to keep his cool.

“Poison? Very clever. It looks more like an assassination. This should fool Princess Celestia.”

“I don’t know,” another member said. “A violent death would get a more passionate reaction. Maybe we ought to mutilate the body.”

Rukil tensed, suddenly very afraid.

“No. If one of her mages senses the poison while examining the body, it would open up a lot of questions. We stick to Rukil’s method.”

Rukil untensed, hoping his worry went unnoticed. It seemed to, as a Council member gave a calling howl. A moment later, two servants entered the chamber.

“Take her body and clean and dress it,” the lead Council member ordered. “We’ll send her back to Equestria in style.”

The two servants nodded, picking up the stretcher that held the body and carrying it away.

“Now then, we have received more information on the Greenrocks.”

Rukil’s ears perked up. “Yes?”

“It turns out that they have been harboring Fluttershy’s little dragon friend,” one of the members said. It occured to Rukil that the five members, whom he thought he had admired, were starting to become indistinguishable to him. All five were sprouting the same lies, the same propaganda.

“Have they?”

“The popular story around their side is that she ran off from their custody, but I think we can guess that they’ve sent her here to cause trouble.”

“I see,” he said. He was guessing that he was about to get some interesting orders.

“We just wanted to tell you to be on your guard,” the Council said. “Of course, we’ll pull you from active duty to give you some time to mourn.”

“I appreciate that, Alpha,” he said, not even bothering to note which he was speaking to.

“Very good. You’re dismissed.”

Rukil gave the appropriate salute and exited. He walked down the hall, hoping he could get to Fluttershy without arousing suspicion.

He had nearly made it to the coroner’s office before the alarms sounded.

Gary and Smolder were hiding in a watchtower on top of the wall, Gary looking annoyed.

“I thought I told you to keep quiet,” Gary said.

“And I was,” Smolder said. “It’s not my fault he shouted before I could knock him out.”

“Great. Now it’s the two of us versus an entire wall full of dangerous soldiers. Any bright ideas?”

“You know your way around. What do you think we should do?”

“Working on it,” Gary said. At that point, the door they had been trying to get through flew open, and several dogs came out. Gary’s eyes widened. “Well... I might need more time.”

“We don’t have time,” Smolder said. She looked at the crowd. They hadn’t noticed them yet. “No way around... we’ll have to fight our way through.”

“Are you a lunatic? We can’t fight off that many!”

“You have any better ideas?”

“...Oh, whatever. I’m tired of living anyway.”

At that point, a loud howl let loose. One of the guards was pointing at her. They all started to converge on them.

Gary readied his claws. “There are a lot of them.”

“Good. It means there are plenty of targets.”

Rukil made it to the coroner's office to find it abandoned. It seemed the moment the alarm went off, all non-combative personnel fled. Fluttershy still lay on the table, awaiting cleaning.

Pulling a bottle out of his vest, he gently held Fluttershy’s head up and placed the bottle to her lips, allowing the liquid to pour in. Moments later, Fluttershy coughed, her body moving again.

“That was... unpleasant,” she said, with a level of snark normally uncharacteristic of her. She looked at Rukil. “What’s going on?”

“I’m not sure. Something at the Wall, which probably means it’s your dragon friend. We’d better hurry while everyone’s in chaos. Don’t worry, the Wall isn’t far from here.”

Smolder’s strategy was proving to be a mistake. She was a good fighter, and so was Gary, judging by how many of the soldiers he was taking out. But sheer numbers were going to overwhelm them. Even if they could make it to the door, what would they do then?

“Brilliant plan,” Gary said.

“What was your plan, again?” Smolder asked, clawing another soldier across the face.

“...Okay, you win this round,” Gary said. “I was just winging it. But how do you propose we get out of this?”

What Smolder said next went against everything dragon culture had taught her. “I think we might need to retreat.”

“It’ll be harder to get back here,” Gary said.

“At least we’ll have a chance,” Smolder said. “If we fall back, maybe we...”

She trailed off, and was stunned for a moment, to the point where one of her opponents nearly hit her. She slashed him in the nose and shouted, “Nevermind. Keep going.”

“What?” Gary smashed another Dog in the face. “But...”

“Trust me,” she said. “Help is on the way.” She only looked down on the opposing side of the wall, where she saw a yellow figure coming through the streets.

Rukil and Fluttershy could see what was going on. Fluttershy felt her herself become elated with joy at seeing her student was alive and well.

“Smolder!” Fluttershy said, flying up.

“Wait!” Rukil said, reaching out to stop her. But he wasn’t quick enough. Fluttershy was fast when excited, and at that moment she couldn’t be stopped.

Rukil felt himself panic. He rushed into the wall, hoping security would be too busy trying to crush the melee upstairs.

Smolder and Gary were going to lose. That was obvious. Gary wondered what Smolder had been thinking in insisting that the fight go on. It was the dragon code of honor, he supposed.

“We need to surrender,” Gary insisted. “We’re going to...”

“When I say ‘now’,” Smolder interrupted, “we need to jump off the wall.”

Gary blinked. “What?”

“Jump off the wall.”

“...You remember I can’t fly, right?”

“You won’t have to.”

“You can’t...”

“Now!”

Smolder pushed Gary, and soon they had bounded over the side.

The Dogs that guarded the wall were highly trained and disciplined. After all, they had to be in order to guard the most dangerous part of the underground. However, even their discipline had its limits, and in those few seconds, they were stunned into absolute stillness by what they had just witnessed. All any of them could do was stare at the seemingly suicidal move the dragon and her accomplice had just made. Hadn't they come from the other side of the wall?

Finally, one of them made a move to the edge of the wall. No one was there.

Fluttershy felt her muscles strain. She could pull off some impressive feats under pressure, but even with Smolder’s help, lifting a Diamond Dog was hard.

The trio crashed into an alley not far from the wall, with Rukil catching up soon afterward.

“Ow,” Gary said.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Fluttershy said. “I thought...”

“Fluttershy!” Smolder said, wrapping her professor in a hug. “You’re alive! You’re alive! You’re alive! You’re alive!”

“Smolder... can’t breathe!” Fluttershy said.

“Oh, sorry,” Smolder said sheepishly, stepping back to give Fluttershy space.

“Wait,” Gary said, “I’m on the Azureclaw side of the wall.” His eyes widened. “I’m as good as dead here!”

“Not if we get to cover soon,” Rukil said. “We need to lay low for a while. Fortunately, I think I know a place.”

This place turned out to be Rukil’s own address. As they gathered around the dining room table, Smolder voiced the obvious concern. “Are you sure that no one’s going to look for us here?”

“Positive. They think I obeyed orders, or if they suspect I’d disobey, they couldn’t link me to the Wall just yet. Still, we shouldn’t dawdle. We need to come up with a plan.”

Gary spoke up. “I think I have one.”

All eyes looked at him. Gary looked at them each in turn, feeling a little tension when he looked at Rukil. Even if they knew everything their respective leaders had been saying was bunk, years’ worth of taught hatred wouldn’t go away in an instant.

“What’s that?” Rukil asked.

“After the dust up we caused at the wall, there’s bound to be an emergency meeting about it between the two clans. At the very least, that would be a good time to strike.”

“Yeah, but it would still just be the four of us,” Smolder said. “Unless there are more Dogs that haven’t... spoken...”

She slowed. She remembered what Gary had said about noticing a pattern in the Dogs that had been reassigned for questioning orders. If he noticed a pattern...

“There’s a resistance movement,” Smolder said.

“Well, calling it a ‘movement’ is being generous,” Gary said. “There is a loose collection of Dogs who would do something if given the chance. I know they’d make a move if we told them it was time.”

“And how would we be telling them that?”

“Well,” Gary said, “the Greenrocks have been saying Fluttershy is dead. I’m willing to bet the Azureclaws have told a similar lie about Smolder...”

“You think we can expose that lie?” Rukil asked.

“If we did, it would bring a lot of doubt to the surface. With everything that's happened lately, I doubt they could make up any excuse that would convince everyone. But the question is, how can we reveal this to enough people at once?”

There was silence as the four minds briefly pondered this. It was Smolder that spoke up first. “Well... how many dogs do you think we can alert right away?”

It was nearly twelve hours before the plot was put into place. Eight of those hours were spent sleeping, as all four realized they needed it after what they had been through. Fluttershy and Smolder ended up sharing Rukil’s bed, while Rukil and Gary slept downstairs.

They woke after eight hours. It was early morning according to the Diamond Dog clock, and the streets were as empty as they were going to get.

The first hard thing to do was sneaking Smolder and Gary back over the wall. However, after the attack on the wall earlier, most of the security had been called to the center, allowing Gary to carry Fluttershy over to the opposite side.

For the next few hours, both dogs took their guest around to other Dogs that they knew were growing suspicious of all the propaganda. With every visit, they had a new recruit.

The time of the meeting came, and on the Greenrocks’ side, Fluttershy felt nervous. “Are you sure about this?” she asked.

“A little late to be asking that,” Gary said. “All you have to do is fly up when we start making noise. If both of you are seen alive at the same time, that’ll be the endgame.”

“I hope you’re right,” Fluttershy said.

Carriages were coming up to the Greenrock entrance to the wall, each pulled by Dogs. The doors opened, and various Dogs in nice business suits came out, heading inside. Fluttershy didn’t need to ask to know that these were the Alphas.

“Are you sure we can take all this security?” Fluttershy asked.

“We won’t have to,” Gary said. “We just have to make some noise. Let’s just hope that we get Rukil’s signal soon.”

After a few minutes, they did get the signal. It wasn’t subtle, but that was largely the point. A large flare shot up from the other side of the wall, letting off a loud bang and sending light and smoke everywhere.

By the time Gary aimed his own flare gun, the alarms in the wall were already going off, and his own dogs were already leaping into action. His flare went up, which would attract more citizens who would want to know what all the noise was about.

The guards at the door all moved away so they could look up. When they looked back down, they only had seconds to jump out of the way as a carriage raced past them. The dogs pulling it stopped it directly in front of the door. Not long after, a second carriage parked next to it, reinforcing the barricade. It wouldn’t keep the guards inside forever, but it would hold them long enough for the plan to work.

The two guards still outside were quickly taken down by a sneak attack from two other Dogs. The two dragged their targets off, preparing to stash them in the alley and wait for the police to arrive.

“What are you waiting for?” Gary demanded. “Fly up there!”

Fluttershy remembered her part in the plan. She reached for the piece of equipment Gary had smuggled for her, a gas mask. The fit was off since it was made for a Dog face, but it would do. She took off, leaving the ground behind. She flew overhead, heading to the cloud of smoke that was settling on the roof of the cavern.

As she flew off, Dogs started dropping down. It seemed that Gary wasn’t the only Dog who knew how to climb. The guards on top of the wall were starting to rush out, and they were greeted with attacks from above.

It was a chaos of fur and claws, and Fluttershy felt her stomach roll. She abhorred violence. But it needed to be done.
‘
She flew higher, looking through the chaos. For a few brief moments, her anxiety flared up and she worried that something had happened to her student.

Luckily, a flash of orange caught her eye, and soon it came closer, forming into Smolder. Soon she was right next to her.

“Ready to go?” she asked.

“I think so,” Fluttershy said.

Smolder nodded, turned away from her, and took a deep breath. She let out a large blast of fire breath.

What happened next was easily the most nerve-wracking part of a plan that was already testing Fluttershy’s nerves to their limit. Smolder’s breath of fire signaled the dogs down below to begin firing up their flare guns. There were several bursts of fire going off around them, guaranteeing that the civilians would look up.

The noise ended up reaching their ears slowly, partly because of the bangs of the flares still ringing in their ears, but mostly because, being so high up, things came in a dull roar. It was the shocked cries, the howls of the dogs below.

They knew at this point, the weaker dogs that were in on the plan were traveling through the crowd, shouting that Fluttershy and Smolder were alive, that the populace had been lied to. This was an important part of the plan. They needed to make sure that the truth entered the public’s brain immediately, lest another, less controversial version of the truth be invented in their heads. For once, mob mentality would be a force for good.

Before the event could be witnessed any further, another flare shot past them. This one was dangerously close. At first, they believed it to be a near miss of friendly fire. But Smolder took a look down and immediately shoved Fluttershy to the side, just in time to avoid a shot that would have hit them.

The guards had noticed them, and it looked like they were determined to make sure that they wouldn’t live long enough to tell the truth.

Granted, the guards weren’t getting many opportunities to fire at them with the rebels clawing at them, but it still benefited them to get to safety.

They ended up flying to one of the highest buildings in the city. They had lost track of what side of the wall they were on. As they landed, the sounds of battle continued to roar.

“Now what?” Smolder asked.

“I think we better wait a few minutes,” Fluttershy said. “Hopefully the dogs on the wall will surrender. They know that they’ve been exposed; they aren’t going to bother keeping this up... right?”

Smolder only looked at her. “You don’t trade any notes with Princess Twilight, do you?”

“What?”

“We’ve been listening to her lectures on history in her class. Don’t you ever listen to each other?”

“I have no time, in between running the sanctuary, teaching classes, my teatimes with Discord...”

Smolder didn’t say anything, only letting her Professor trail off. They sat in silence until Fluttershy noticed that not only were the sounds of violence not calming down, they were actually getting louder.

Feeling dread, Fluttershy dared peek over the side of the building. What she saw shook her.

It was absolute chaos in the streets. A whole cluster of dogs were gathered around the base of the wall. The soldiers, having to come out one at a time, were falling to the civilians out of sheer numbers. Between the rebels on top and the wall and the civilians at the base of it, it wouldn’t be long before the ones in charge were caught and the truth was exposed.

But further away from the wall, there was chaos. Some less than desirable citizens had decided to take advantage of the confusion and help themselves to whatever they could grab. A vitally important event was happening, and all these dogs could think of were material things.

“What... we should do something!” Fluttershy shouted in a panic.

“What can we do?” Smolder said. “Everyone that could help us stop this is busy.”

“But... the thefts... all this rioting... how could they do this?”

“There are creatures like that,” Smolder said. “No matter what the species or culture, the worst among them seem to come out whenever they have the chance. But don’t worry,” she said. She pointed to one of the alleyways.

Fluttershy looked down at the streets. She saw what Smolder was pointing at. There was a dog looking out from the alleyway, paying attention to those robbing the stores.

“The dogs that aren’t busy at the wall are documenting everything they see. The thieves will get theirs.”

Fluttershy tried to feel better about that, but she couldn’t bring herself to. The whole thing was too depressing.

“I guess all we do now is wait,” Smolder said.

It was a longer wait than expected. Fluttershy felt depressed by the end of it.

The city (and it was one city now, even with the wall still standing) was not in the best shape. There were broken windows, debris, and even bloodstains near the wall. Further away, the damage was less severe, but the looting had left a mark.

It took longer than Fluttershy expected, but the higher-ups eventually realized the battle was pointless and surrendered. With all the lies exposed, it was eventually agreed that the clans would merge. The details on how were a little fuzzy, but it would happen.

Dogs eventually came for Fluttershy and Smolder. They escorted them into the wall and gave them sleeping quarters. They asked them to stay put until things calmed down. Neither had a problem with that.

They slept through another night before they were visited again, this time by Rukil and Gary. They had ended up being acting Alphas until everyone could decide what to do. Elections would be held... hopefully.

“So where does that leave us?” Smolder said once the two Diamond Dogs had finished explaining the situation

“Well, the Behir have calmed down quite a bit, so it should be safe for you to leave now. I’m sure you want to get back on your journey, and perhaps it would be for the best if you departed. There’s bound to be some loyalists seeking revenge,” said Rukil.

The Journey... it had seemed like ages ago that they had fallen into this conflict. They should be getting back on the road.

“Are you going to be alright here?” Fluttershy asked.

“We’ll be fine,” Gary said. “Trust me. It’s still going to be awkward between the two clans for a while, but I have confidence that we’ll survive.”

Fluttershy smiled. Rukil could see a sadness behind it.

“Great. So I take it we leave tomorrow morning?”

“That’s right. Finish resting. We’ll prepare you supplies. You’ll be able to leave early in the morning,” Gary replied.

There were a few more minutes of chatting before the pair had to go. Fluttershy and Smolder kept themselves busy with books and a few games. But the entire time, Fluttershy’s mind was troubled.

Fluttershy couldn’t sleep that night. Despite being told not to, she left the room she had been staying in. She found her way to the top of the wall. She flew to a tall building next door. She didn’t want to deal with anyone.

But twenty minutes later, Rukil was there. The guards didn’t let her leave go unnoticed.

“Fluttershy? What’s going on?”

Fluttershy looked at Rukil for a moment. Then she looked back out over the city. A lot of the mess had already cleaned, but there were still boards in place of windows in several places.

“My student had to teach me something here.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that things can’t always be solved peacefully,” she said. “I don’t understand. Why did the Alphas keep fighting? Didn’t they know they were going to lose?”

“I wish I could tell you,” Rukil said.

“Smolder knew what to expect better than I did. I’m supposed to be teaching her. She looks up to me. She wanted me to come on this trip because she thinks that I’m the greatest teacher ever. But I didn’t know what to do here. And she’s seen that.”

There was a moment of silence before Rukil spoke up. “Fluttershy... do you remember when you realized your parents weren’t perfect?”

Fluttershy gave a small laugh. “I remember.” Her tone quickly became one that Rukil hadn’t heard out of her before. “It was after my brother Zephyr Breeze managed to crash through my bedroom window for the third time and they still refused to ground him. I realized how spineless they were and...” She seemed to realize what she was saying. “That was inappropriate. But I knew they didn’t know what was best anymore.”

“And were you better off for knowing that?”

Fluttershy knew what Rukil was trying to say. Honestly, she felt a little better. “I suppose so. But...”

Rukil waited for her to go on.

“You know, all I ever wanted was a nice quiet life. A small cottage, animals to care for, Rarity and Rainbow Dash to be with. Then I met Twilight. Now here I am, on an adventure with a dragon. I’m going somewhere I’m scared to be. But I can’t think of a single decision I’ve made that makes me regret things.”

“Life rarely goes as planned,” Rukil said with a smile. “I thought that when I advanced to a high position, it would be under the Alphas through a promotion. Now I just overthrew the government and I’m in charge... for a while, anyway.”

“I miss not knowing how bad things can get,” Fluttershy said. “All that looting when something more important was going on. And that was just here. Back in Equestria, I thought we had moved past prejudice with Equestria’s founding, but when Twilight tried to open her school, there was a pony who objected to non-ponies coming in. And...” Fluttershy paused, wondering how to put her next point.

Rukil ended up providing her with the words with his next question. “What? I thought Celestia was a wise ruler. Why would she appoint someone like that?”

“Oh, she is. She’s every bit as kind and loving as everypony says. But she can’t run everything by herself. She needed to delegate, and a lot of those positions were elected. And... I used to think we had higher standards on who we elected.”

Rukil gave a tired smile. “That’s a sad truth, isn’t? Maybe nobody knows what they’re really doing. The ones in charge just know how to hide it better.”

Fluttershy sighed. After a moment, she said. “Don’t tell anypony, but I’ve seen Twilight at her worst. And yet... I still believe in her, and in every cause she tries. Maybe that’s why I don’t regret what brought me here.” She looked at Rukil. “I’m sorry, I’m rambling. But thank you for listening. You’re a good friend.”

There was a long stretch of silence.

“Fluttershy?”

She looked at Rukil. “Yeah?”

“I...” he started. There was a pause. “...I’m glad you came. I’m glad I met you. You’re a good friend too.”

Fluttershy hugged Rukil. After a moment’s delay, he hugged back.

Chapter 7

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The next two days passed by in near silence. The only words that passed between Fluttershy and Smolder were questions of when to stop for rest and their position relative to their destination. They were getting closer, and Smolder knew the area from the tales of earlier Journeys, so hopefully there wouldn’t be any more surprises.

It was only on the second night after they left, when they made camp in a small cave, that they had a serious conversation.

As per their usual routine, they set up a camp. Fluttershy pitched the tent, while Smolder lit the campfire itself with her flame breath and began preparing their meals. She cooked Fluttershy's first, then let her teacher move away as she started cooking meat. Once that was done, they sat down to eat, and for a while, did so in silence. It was only once the food was nearly gone that Smolder spoke.

“Professor Fluttershy... did you want to come on this trip?”

The question caught Fluttershy off guard. She looked at her student, and the only word that she managed to get out was “What?”

“It just feels you’ve been really nervous since we started. And you seemed rattled after we left the Diamond Dogs, too.”

Fluttershy took a deep breath. “Well... I’ll be honest with you, Smolder. I don’t like to travel much. I enjoy my cottage, and I don’t feel very comfortable leaving my animals in the care of anypony else, even if they are someone I trust.”

Smolder grinned. “I understand. I’m honestly worried what those knuckleheads are up to. Yona will probably scare them with all her jumping around, and Gallus might end up picking a fight with that bear.” She noticed how worried Fluttershy looked. “Oh, don’t worry. Cozy Glow will keep them in line. She always seems to know what she’s doing.”

“That’s true,” Fluttershy said, looking calmer.

“But you really don’t like to travel? I think that’s a surprise. You’ve been everywhere.”

“All part of my duties,” Fluttershy said. “I am always happy to help out when I can. In fact, I love helping people. But I’d rather be doing it in Ponyville.”

“Is that why you opened up your animal sanctuary?”

Fluttershy nodded. “Ever since my cutie mark appeared, I wanted to work with animals. I didn’t know how I was going to do that, but I was saving up my money. Then I became a Bearer, and so many doors were opened to me. Eventually, I had everything I needed to make the sanctuary.”

“Being friends with Princess Twilight didn’t hurt either, huh?”

Fluttershy smiled. “No. I don’t think the Cutie Mark Crusaders would have been able to open their camp if they didn’t have such close ties with her, either. But the point is, I’d be happy staying at home and enjoying my passion.”

“So, you don’t actually like anything you do?”

“Well, I didn’t say that.”

Smolder looked at her, wondering what to make of that.

“I love helping ponies... I love helping just about any creature who needs it,” Fluttershy said. “And when I traveled, I got to see a lot of animals I wouldn’t have seen otherwise. And all my experiences, even though they weren’t all pleasant, made me a stronger pony. There was a time I was too afraid to speak to anypony.”

“Really?” Smolder said. “You never had a problem speaking in front of the class.”

“Would you believe that I was nervous? I was afraid that I would never be able to do it. But when I started working on a lesson plan, I started to get excited. I was crushed when Neighsay put so many restrictions on us, and I was so sad that I wasn’t even really thinking about the fact that I was getting in front of so many ponies. Then Twilight decided to go over Neighsay’s head and open the school. By the time the first class started, I was eager to do it.”

Bringing up Neighsay lowered the mood, but the conversation kept going.

“My friends have always made me better. Rainbow Dash always stuck up for me in flight school, even before she knew who I was. Then I moved to Ponyville, and I met Pinkie. She was a little scary to me at first, but she did everything she could to make me feel welcome. Then I met Rarity, and she wanted to do a lot of the same things I did. Then I met Twilight and Spike, and then I really met Applejack, and we stopped Nightmare Moon. Before I knew it, my life had changed.”

There was another moment of silence. Fluttershy was mulling over her words, wondering what to say next.

“I want to keep going, Smolder,” Fluttershy said at last. “I want to keep going. I’ve already learned something on this trip, and I want to keep learning.”

Smolder smiled. “Looks like I made the right choice after all.”

Fluttershy smiled back. “Where are we going next?”

“If I remember the stories correctly, we should be heading into cyclops territory next.”

Fluttershy suddenly tensed up. “C-cyclops?”

“That’s right.”

“As in, the huge, pony-eating, one-eyed, offspring-of-sea-spirits cyclops?”

“Well... they eat more than ponies, and it’s not clear if they really are the offspring of sea spirits, but yeah, pretty much. We’re going to have to be careful.”

Fluttershy gulped. “I...I’ve heard tales about them. How they’re huge monsters that eat anything in their path. They even say that if you run into one, you never tell them your name, or else they call sea spirits to strike you down!”

“Oh, don’t worry. Most of that is just rumors,” Smolder replied, waving her hand. “Cyclops are big, but they’re as dumb as a sack of rocks. If we fly high enough, they won’t be able to reach us.”

“Are you sure?”

Smolder nodded. “We need to be careful about anything they throw, but they should lose interest in us pretty quickly. We’d be pretty small meals to them.”

Fluttershy gulped again. The idea of being eaten wasn’t appealing to her. She had seen the act in nature, and it wasn’t very pleasant.

“Pretty soon, we won’t be able to camp out in the open. We’ll need to find places to hide at night. But like I said, it shouldn’t be a problem. The cyclops aren’t very observant and aren’t too bright.”

Fluttershy wished she was reassured. They didn’t speak for the rest of the meal. The next words spoken were to tell each other good night before crawling in their sleeping bags.

Fluttershy laid down, her head resting on her pillow. She was missing her cottage at the moment. As great as nature was, there were modern conveniences even she wouldn’t want to do without.

Her thoughts drifted to her friends. Discord was probably moping that she was gone, maybe annoying Spike and Big Macintosh with whatever wrinkle he’d put into Ogres and Oubliettes. Twilight was no doubt still scheming to take down Neighsay’s “Ponies First” policy, as she had made it her personal mission since opening the school. Applejack was working all day, obviously. Rarity was probably missing having Fluttershy for a spa partner, and Rainbow Dash was probably missing having her as a cheering section.

But all her thoughts kept drifting back to Rukil. The way they had left the now-united Diamond Dog city was less than ideal. They weren’t even sure what the name of their new home was. All kinds of things could go wrong. Old hostilities could open up, there could be more loyalty to the Alphas than previously thought, the new government could be just as bad as the one it overthrew…

She sighed. Rukil had been so kind to her. He deserved to have a happy ending.

“Thinking about your boyfriend?”

Smolder’s words cut into her thoughts like a knife. She shot straight up.

“I wasn’t thinking about Rukil!”

“I never said it was Rukil.”

Fluttershy turned red.

“So, you felt that way about him. That’s good. I could tell he felt that way about you.”

“..Yes, I could tell. But I don’t feel that way about him. I was just worried about him.”

“Oh. So you have someone back home?”

“Um, no. I don’t have a partner.”

Smolder sat up and looked at Fluttershy, her jaw slack. “Really? That’s surprising.”

“Oh, really? Why’s that?

“Well... a lot of the students back in Ponyville think you’re really pretty. We all thought you must have had a partner by now.”

Fluttershy blushed. “Well... I guess I never really thought about it. I’m nervous enough to approach ponies as it is. I wouldn’t know how to ask a stallion out.”

Smolder grinned. “I’ll bet you wouldn’t have to. If you just walked into a nightclub, stallions would be lining up to dance with you.”

Fluttershy bit her tongue. She didn’t want to have to tell Smolder about some of the experiences she had had when she traveled out of Ponyville. In places that didn’t know her, she was hit on, at least until Rainbow Dash scared them off.

“Seriously, I bet they’d act the way Spike does around Professor Rarity.” Smolder paused. “Those two aren’t actually together, are they? I don’t think so, but some of the students are saying it’s true.”

“Oh, no. Rarity appreciates Spike, but he’s far too young for her.”

“I thought so,” she said. “It’s a shame. Spike’s a nice guy.”

Fluttershy looked at her. “Do you have a crush on Spike?”

“What? No. He’s nice and all, but I don’t feel that way about him. Besides, after teaching him how to fly, it would be weird. I still like hanging around with him, though. He’s kind of like a little brother.”

Fluttershy grinned. “Well, I know Twilight is grateful to you for helping him. She’s always wanted him to make connections among the dragons.”

There was silence for a moment as both of them turned the conversation over in their heads. Fluttershy had never thought about it, but she supposed she would like to meet someone. While she was still young, her thirtieth birthday wasn’t too far off. With the clock ticking, maybe it was time to find a partner.

“Are you interested in one of the other professors?” Smolder asked suddenly.

“What?”

“There’s a pool among the students, betting that you’re dating one of them. Are you interested in one of them? A lot of them have money on Rainbow Dash.”

Fluttershy winced. “We’re not dating. In fact, you probably shouldn’t even suggest that to her.”

Smolder suddenly looked worried. “Why? She’s not... against that, is she?”

“Oh no. But it just annoys her that so many ponies assume that because we’re close, we must be dating.”

“...Ah,” Smolder said, looking guilty.

Fluttershy thought for a moment. “Well... I guess if I had to answer, I’d pick Applejack.”

“Applejack? Why?”

“Well, she would want a simple life like mine. She likes the outdoors, and her path would let me stay in Ponyville. I could picture dating Twilight or Rarity, but Twilight’s being groomed by Princess Celestia for great things in Canterlot, and Rarity wants to be famous. I wouldn’t be happy long-term. Applejack would be the best bet.”

“I guess that makes sense.”

“What about you? Any of your friends that you’re interested in?”

“Nope.”

The answer was so blunt that Fluttershy wasn’t sure how to respond to it. Fortunately, Smolder went on after a pause.

“They’re nice, but I don’t feel that way about any of them.”

“I can understand that,” Fluttershy said.

They didn’t speak another word that night. They just lay there. As Fluttershy drifted off to sleep, she wondered how everyone back home was doing.

The work was getting done with surprising efficiency. They weren’t sure how it happened, but Cozy Glow seemed to have worked her way into a leadership role. They had been working all day, and while they were covered in soil and other elements of nature, Cozy looked as clean as she had ever been.

She had spent most of the day sitting at a makeshift desk made from a crate, handling the less exciting parts of the housesitting job: sorting the mail, paying the bills (these would need to be approved by Princess Twilight, but she was writing down how much it cost in a little book), and filling out order forms for more supplies.

She seemed uncharacteristically nervous whenever one of the others came near, quickly covering whatever she was working on. When asked, she simply answered, “I’m sure Professor Fluttershy would like as few eyes as possible on her finances”, something they all accepted.

The sun was well into its descent when Sandbar approached Cozy. She wasn’t nervous this time, as she had been packing up her work anyway.

“Alright, Cozy. I fed the ferrets. What next?”

“Well gee, according to the list, the only thing left to do is give Angel Bunny a bath.”

“Give a bunny a bath? That doesn’t sound too bad.”

“Yeah, well, don’t say that out loud,” Cozy said, rising to her hooves. She started trotting over to Angel’s burrow, with Sandbar following. “Rabbits are cute, but they're fast. We don’t need to waste time and energy chasing them down.”

They reached the burrow and saw Angel napping on a rock. Cozy started moving slowly, Sandbar following behind her.

“Remember, keep quiet. We don’t want them to know about the... bath.”

Immediately, Angel’s head snapped up, his eyes wide open and his ears standing up straight. He looked at the two with wide, terrified eyes.

“Now, now,” Cozy said slowly, coming toward him, “Fluttershy asked us to do it, and you know she knows best...”

Angel ran.

“Go after him,” Cozy said. Sandbar had galloped three steps before he realized he was obeying.

“You could have helped me, you know,” Sandbar said a few minutes later, in-between gasps for breath.

“Gee, Sandbar, I’m so small I couldn’t hope to catch up with something that fast,” Cozy said. “I thought you’d see that.”

Sandbar just gave her a dirty look before passing out.

“That’s why Yona will take over.” The yak in question stepped forward. “Yona fast. Yona will catch the troublemaking bunny.”

Not far away. Somehow, he had gotten a small black uniform with a red cap, and was currently holding a small red hoofkerchief. He was standing tall, like he was a warrior facing an opponent.

Yona scratched the ground with one hoof. Angel held out the hoofkerchief, waving it.

Yona charged forward at full speed. Cozy stood still, watching in anticipation. Sandbar cheered her on.

Just as Yona got near Angel, she jumped forward, her forelegs stretched out to snatch her target.

It was at that point that Angel jumped to one side, dropping the red cloth right onto Yona’s face. Temporarily blinded, she reached up to pull the cloth off, twisting her body in the process. This was one reason she didn’t come to a graceful stop.

The other reason was because Angel had made a point of standing in front of the outside door to Fluttershy’s cellar. She sailed inside, not stopping until she hit the ground with a painful thud.

Angel caught a reprise in Fluttershy’s kitchen. After making it up to the counter, he looked around, hoping to find a place to hide, when Gallus came in.

“There you are,” he said. Angel jumped and started to hop away, but in a flash, Gallus was in front of him. “Nice try, but griffons actually hunt. You’re not getting away from me!”

Angel was actually afraid. He looked around and saw his salvation. With one lightning fast movement, he hopped toward a knife block and pulled out the first he got his paws on.

This caught Gallus off guard, as no other prey ever used weapons to defend themselves. But he was stunned for only a moment. He reached over and pulled out his own knife.

The two went at it for a few seconds, both swinging and meeting each other’s blades. Angel managed to get Gallus to back up until he bumped into the refrigerator. However, at that point, Gallus finally managed to land a good strike, knocking Angel’s knife away.

Now in a panic, Angel dove into the open drawer just below him and pulled out the first utenstal he could get his paws on, which turned out to be a metal spoon.

Seeing this, Gallus gave a smug chuckle. Then, closing his eyes, he stuck his head forward, his beak a bit upright, inviting Angel to have a free shot.

But Gallus was unaware that him hitting the fridge had caused it to shake. More specifically, it had knocked a bowl right to the edge, causing it to balance a bit on the edge before coming toppling down.

The contents of the bowl? Several coconuts.

The first one hit Gallus on the head. So did the second, third, and fourth. Gallus fell off the counter, groaning in pain.

Angel, seeing this, hopped off before his opponent could recover. Unfortunately, he didn’t get far before he ran into two more obstacles.

A now awake Sandbar was there, holding a net between his teeth. Silverstream was with him, holding one of her own.

Angel jumped away as two nets came down. Sandbar leapt toward him, but hit the couch as Angel went under it. When Angel came out the other side, Silverstream was there, bringing her net down. Angel dodged.

“Come on, Angel! We just cleaned this room!” Sandbar said.

Angel was not sympathetic. He kept hopping. His two opponents kept chasing, always just missing their target by centimeters.

The chase came to an abrupt end when Sandbar and Silverstream, not being the most coordinated with each other, dive into each other, smacking their heads together and knocking each other out.

Angel kept jumping until he got to the bathroom. He stopped, realizing he was now in a corner.

“Angel?” Ocellus said. Angel jumped up onto the sink, his fear propelling him. Ocellus’s hoofsteps were getting louder. He quickly looked around and found a soap bar.

“Angel? Come on, it’s just a...”

Ocellus was walking through the doorway when she spoke. Angel took the opportunity to toss the bar of soap onto the floor.

It was a perfect throw, landing right where Ocellus’s hoof stepped. Her hoof slid forward, causing her to fall. She moved quickly to right herself, but failed to step off the bar before she did so. This time, it caused her to fall forward.

Her face ended up landing directly in the toilet. Thankfully, it had just been cleaned.

She spluttered, trying to get out. Angel responded by jumping on top of her head and pressing the flusher down.

As Ocellus screamed in disgust, Angel hopped off and out of the bathroom.

He was stopped by his final opponent.

Cozy Glow was glaring at him, looking quite angry.

“If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself,” she said, advancing on him.

Cozy, twice as big as Angel despite her small stature, was a pretty intimidating sight, and there was only one thing he could think to do.

He made a jump, and managed to stay one step ahead of Cozy. Jumping, he made his way to the stairs, clearing each of them in a single leap. Cozy jumped after him, and was rewarded with a facefull of stair. The dazed state allowed Angel to get further ahead.

By the time that Cozy recovered, Angel was at the top. Seeing the little Pegasus come up the stairs, he quickly ducked into Fluttershy’s room, shutting the door.

Cozy laughed as she got to the top. “You fool! I made sure every door and window was locked when you ran in here! You’re as good as trapped now! I’ll get you eventually! You have...”

She opened the door. She found herself not looking inside a room, but down the barrel of a cannon.

“...no... thing...”

The cannon fired. Luckily, it only fired pillows.

The feathered projectile struck her face and sent her falling back down the stairs.

Unfortunately, by this time Sandbar and Silverstream had recovered from getting hit and were coming to investigate the noise.

Cozy Glow hit them, and at the force she was going, the three of them ended up tumbling in a ball towards the basement door.

At that moment, the door opened, and Yona stepped out, swaying a bit.

“Yona okay...”

The three struck Yona, causing all four of them to fall back into the basement.

“...Yona not okay.”

Angel hopped out of the cottage, a triumphant look on his face. After making it back to his burrow, he went to the nearby wall, took a piece of chalk, and added another mark to his “Babysitters Owned” tally.

Chapter 8

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The next day’s travel was uneventful, which suited them both just fine. They both needed a less hectic time. But Smolder, being who she was, wasn’t content with quiet for long. And truthfully, even Fluttershy was starting to get anxious. After putting herself in danger several times, she had learned that the anticipation could be worse than any actual battle.

As they approached the border, Smolder started to get worried. Finally, she voiced her concern. “This isn’t right. We were supposed to have seen it by now.” She pulled a map out of her saddlebag.

“What were we supposed to see?”

“The watchtower. Well, to a cyclops, it’s more of a guardhouse, but it’s about as big as a pony tower. It’s at the border.”

Fluttershy thought that over a moment. “Well, maybe they tore it down. Didn’t you say that cyclops aren’t usually very organized?”

“Well, yes, but they still have some structure. Their government is really bare minimum, only things they can’t accomplish on their own, and one of those is keeping outsiders out.”

Fluttershy looked ahead. “Maybe we’re approaching from the wrong angle? I’ve heard of ponies getting themselves turned around sometimes...”

“I don’t think so... maybe we better take to the sky, just in case.”

Fluttershy couldn’t argue with that, so she flapped her wings and took to the air. They flew forward a bit, carefully scanning the air around them.

Eventually, they spotted the guardhouse, but they didn’t notice it at first… because it was a mass of broken stone.

Smolder and Fluttershy looked at its remains for a while. Finally, Smolder spoke up. “Well... this is unexpected.”

“What do you think happened?”

“Maybe you were right. Maybe they did get careless and destroy it.”

Fluttershy wanted to believe that, she really did. But she knew better than to bank her life on foolish hopes. “We should still keep our eyes open,” she said.

They kept traveling. They spent more time in the air, as much as they dared. They never wore out their wings. If they were attacked, flying away from the danger was the best choice.

Amazingly, the next day’s travel was quiet. They didn’t see any cyclops. In fact, they didn’t see anything. But instead of feeling relieved, they were getting more and more anxious.

Out of a desire to have something to talk about, Fluttershy started to ask more details about just about anything. Smolder answered, asking some of her own. After an hour of back and forth, Fluttershy asked a very important one.

“When we get to the First Flame, what’s going to happen?”

“We light it, and we’ll instantly be teleported back to the Dragon Lands. Then there’s going to be a big, three-day party. It’ll be the best! We’ll play games, eat until we’re ready to burst, then...”

“Smolder...”

Fluttershy’s words were quiet, but the twinge of fear in that word silenced her. Smolder looked at her professor, who was wide eyed with fear. She looked and saw why.

It was the corpse.

Initially, they assumed it was prey, something that the cyclops had for a snack and hadn’t got around to cleaning up. However, they quickly saw the truth: it was a cyclops.

Smolder looked like she was going to be ill. She had eaten meat before, but it had rarely been right off the bone, and it had usually been cooked by someone else. This one, though, was raw. And it had been an actual civilized creature, one included in Princess Twilight's Equal Rights Amendment, even if none of the cyclops were taking her up on it.

Fluttershy fared better. She knew brutality was a part of nature, and being among nature had prepared her for such scenes. But even she felt ill.

The body was not fresh. Flies were devouring it, and the blood had long since gone black.

“...I...” Smolder struggled to get any words about the sight before them out.

Fluttershy fared better. “Do... do you know of any enemies the cyclops have?”

“...N… no. Well, dragons might do this to one, but not in the middle of cyclops territory. This would be for trespassing onto territory or attacking another dragon.”

She looked at the cyclops again. It was soaked in blood from head to hooves, but even with the decay she could still see the muscles that it had once had.

“What could have done this?” Fluttershy asked while trembling from head to tail.

“I have no clue, but I don’t want to find out.”

They looked at the scene. After tearing their eyes away from the corpse, they started to look at the area around it.

There were rocks and stone. It was like the watchtower, they realized. Then they realized where they must be: in the ruins that had once been this cyclops’s home.

“I don’t think we should travel at night anymore,” Fluttershy said. Smolder had no objections.

Night had been swiftly falling at that time, so they searched for a place to make camp. They settled for taking some of the rubble for a makeshift shelter. It wasn’t the ideal solution, but it afforded them some safety for the time being.

The next morning’s trip was a miserable experience. The hard night’s sleep and the worry on the travel did not make for a good experience. By the afternoon, they were about midway through the cyclops territory, but too exhausted to celebrate.

Their travels brought them to more destruction. More ruined buildings, more remains that had been picked clean of their tasty parts. It was maddening.

As afternoon gave way to dusk, they searched for another place to stop for the night. They found one in a cave that seemed to be far from any settlement. Before declaring it safe, they searched the place carefully. Nothing was living in it, and there were no signs that anything else had been there before.

Using a few stones, they made a makeshift barricade. With themselves concealed, they chanced to start a fire and set up the campgrounds. As a result, it looked like that night’s rest would be better than the one before. Sadly, that turned out to not be the case.

It was about an hour after the fire had been extinguished and both her in their sleeping bags that Fluttershy was stirred. She lay there, trying to peer out into the darkness and see what it was. Her mind, still hazed by sleep, tried to grab all the floating thoughts and arrange them into some coherent understanding.

She had finally reached the conclusion that she had been dreaming, and was about to go back to sleep when a small scraping sound jolted her mind into alertness.

Something was in there.

Slowly, trying not to make any noise, she reached her hoof in the direction that she knew Smolder would be in. She couldn’t see, but her hoof made contact with Smolder’s face.

Smolder snorted. Fluttershy tensed and pressed her hoof onto her snout. Smolder gave a small moan.

Then there was another scrape, and Fluttershy felt Smolder’s body tense.

For the longest time, neither dared move, listening for the sound again. After what felt like an eternity, they heard it again.

Scrape. It was a little louder.

Scrape. A little louder.

Scrape. It was getting closer.

There was a long moment of silence.

Then, she felt it. She felt something pressing on top of her sleeping bag. Something that was traveling up her body.

She lashed out with her hoof. It struck something, causing an unnatural yell of surprise. After that, an incredible number of things happened in a short period of time.

First, once whatever Fluttershy hit went down, it alerted a lot of other creatures, whatever they were, to the fact that they were awake, and they all gave similar unnatural cries. They didn’t sound like roars, more like high pitch squeals.

Smolder, seeing that being passive was out the window, breathed fire in every direction where she knew Fluttershy wasn’t. The cave lit up, allowing the two to see some dark figures.

The creatures gave over more angry cries.

Fluttershy, even in her panicked state, realized the cries were in pain. But her survival instinct kicked in, and she turned and bucked the nearest figure, not even taking the time to see what they looked like.

Smolder ran out of air to exhale. She lunged forward while she took in her breath, slashing at a creature with her claws. They sunk into something, and another squeal of pain was heard. Not slowing down, Smolder breathed fire again, looking around the cave.

Fluttershy felt something swipe at her back. She stayed focused. It wouldn’t be the first time she had gotten an injury like that, working with animals her whole life. She simply charged forward, kicking at everything she could see.

Smolder saw what she was looking for. Unfortunately, at that point, one of the creatures jumped on her back, wrapping two appendages around her. She struggled, eventually pushing herself back. She had been hoping to hit the wall and make the creature let go. But because they were in the middle of the cave, they fell back onto the floor. Whatever her attacker was, it gave another cry of surprise and loosened its grip. Smolder tried to get up, but her new position made her vulnerable, and two more figures attacked her.

Fluttershy, seeing Smolder go down, lost herself in a panic. Instinct fully took over at this point, and she made a mad dash in the direction she saw her student fall. The strange creatures reached for her, but she ignored any pain. She slammed into one the creatures, sending them to the ground in a heap.

Smolder breathed fire again, managing to land an entire faceful on the creature attacking her. This shriek was the loudest of all, and it flew off her. Smolder got to her feet, slipping away from the one that had been holding her. Apparently it was simply too disoriented to keep a good grip.

Now free, Smolder made a mad dash for her goal and let loose a breath. It struck the campfire they had set up earlier. Smolder’s flames, magical in nature, caused a great fire immediately.

The cave filled up with light, and it had the same effect that Smolder had been hoping for. The creatures recoiled, covering their faces. Light was not kind to them, it seemed.

Both Smolder and Fluttershy took that moment to get a good look at their attackers. They were still hard to see, because they were black. Not simply dark colored, but pure black, the kind no light escaped from. It looked like their skin had no texture, a surreal and otherworldly quality. They appeared to be bipedal, standing on long legs with clawed faces. Each and every one of them were covering their faces, their long claws hiding any other features.

All this was taken in by them within the span of half a second, after which both of them realized they should be running. They ran toward the cave entrance, Smolder striking their barrier so hard the rocks collapsed, allowing them to break free.

Too scared to question how the creatures reached them without taking down the barrier, they ran out into the open air. Well, Fluttershy ran. Smolder was hobbling, the pain of striking the rocks catching up with her. Still, adrenaline was already beginning to numb the pain.

Fluttershy flapped her wings to get in the air. Smolder started doing the same, but she did it too late. Just before she got to a safe height, a claw wrapped around her ankle and pulled her to the ground. She redoubled her efforts, flapping her wings harder, but it was no good. Another creature jumped on her, and another, and she was dragged back to the ground.

Fluttershy, seeing this, was about to make a dive, but at that moment, something happened.

The sky lit up in several different colors. For a split second, Fluttershy thought she had stumbled into one of Vinyl’s raves. The heat also got far more intense.

After a moment she realized what the colors were. They were flames, all coming down from above her. She looked up.

There were dragons. There were a lot of dragons.

They were all bigger than Smolder. If Fluttershy thought about it, they seemed even bigger than Ember. Not huge, like some of the dragons that they had met, but an intimidating height for a pony. But that wasn’t the first thing they noticed.

Fluttershy had seen dragons in several colors, but not like these. They seemed metallic., their scales shining in silver, gold, and copper.

As the flames covered the area, one dragon flew down and landed in front of them. He looked like moving silver.

“Come with us.”

The instruction was simple, and Fluttershy’s fear of dragons was shouted down by survival instinct. She started moving forward, only stopping when the dragon said “Aren’t you coming?”

Fluttershy turned back. Smolder was glaring at the dragon, and baring her teeth on top of that.

“I’m not going anywhere with...”

Fluttershy didn’t remember running toward Smolder, picking her up, or carrying her to safety, but she must have, because Smolder was suddenly on her back, hardly protesting through her shock.

Fluttershy didn’t stop following the dragons until they led them to what looked like safety. It looked like another camp with a lot of tents. That was all she had time to take in before she was inside.

As she plopped Smolder down and collapsed to catch her breath, she heard the dragons mumbling about her. She didn’t care at the moment. Even her social anxiety had things that could override it.

But not for long, because she soon realized all eyes were on her. Her heart, which had been slowing down, suddenly raced again. She felt herself go stiff.

Smolder looked tense, but not out of nerves. She looked angry. Her eyes were shifting around as if she was sizing up threats.

Three of the dragons approached them. Even through her nervousness, Fluttershy recognized one as the silver dragon that had instructed them to follow. He was on one side of a golden dragon, with a copper dragon on the other side.

“What business have you in our lands?” the gold dragon asked. “Who are you?”

Smolder answered, which was relieving to Fluttershy. “I’m on the journey to the First Flame.”

That reaction led to a tremor of chuckles amongst the crowd. The golden dragon looked a bit put off, but before he could say anything the silver dragon laughed.

“The chromatics will send any dragon with a pulse these days,” he said. “A little slip of a girl like you looks like she should still be on her mother’s back.”

Fluttershy had seen Smolder mad before, but this was a whole new level. Luckily, her teacher instinct kicked in and she gave Smolder a look, telling her not to do anything rash. Smolder relented.

“Mind your tongue, Jaden,” the gold dragon said. He then turned back to Smolder. “While his surprise wasn’t tactful, I must share it. You seem far too young to be taking the Journey. Has Torch truly picked you?”

“Torch isn’t Dragon Lord anymore. Ember is. And yes, she selected me.”

The golden dragon looked surprised once again. “Ember? Are children now in charge of the chromatics?” Seeing Smolder get even angrier at him, he decided to turn to Fluttershy. “And who are you? I don’t believe I’ve seen a pony up this far in decades.”

“I’m her professor.” Fluttershy managed to get it out without stuttering.

Now the golden dragon looked truly stunned. So did the other dragons around.

“Chromatics are associated with ponies now? What happened?”

By this point, Fluttershy had calmed enough to realize that she better do the talking, not letting Smolder’s anger get the better of her. “One of our Princesses, Twilight Sparkle, has begun a campaign to unite different races. She’s opened a school to welcome every creature. Smolder was chosen to represent the dragons.”

“She was chosen to represent one half of the dragons,” the golden one stated.

“The loser half,” Jaden mumbled.

Smolder flared, but before she could say anything, the golden one’s tail smacked Jaden in the back of the head. “Watch your tongue, young one. Show some behavior appropriate to your station.”

Jaden mumbled, but kept quiet.

Fluttershy flinched a bit at the news of “one half”. “Oh, excuse me, we were not told that there were any dragons that didn’t serve the Dragon Lord.”

“The Dragon Lord rules over the Chromatic Dragons,” the golden dragon stated. “I rule over the Metallic Dragons. I am High Priest Xieru.”

Fluttershy managed to swallow more of her fear in order to keep the mission safe, a skill she had been forced to master ever since meeting Twilight. “I am... Professor Fluttershy. Smolder has chosen me to accompany her on the Journey.”

“Forgive me for saying so, but a pony hardly seems like a suitable companion for a trip like this,” Xieru said.

“Hey, watch it,” Smolder warned. “Fluttershy’s defeated several monsters.”

Jaden opened his mouth to say something, but Xieru, having guessed he would, turned and gave him a look. Jaden grit his teeth.

Xieru turned back to Fluttershy. “You did handle yourself quite well,” he conceded. “And you don’t even have a fire breath.”

“What are you even doing this far south?” Smolder asked. “I thought your territory didn’t start for another fifty miles.”

“I’m afraid... that we’re dealing with a crisis... oh, but forgive me. I imagine you will need your rest.” He turned to the copper dragon at his side. “Fetch these two provisions. Well...” He looked at Fluttershy. “Bring provisions for the young one... Smolder, was it? Take Professor Fluttershy to the field and let her graze.”

The copper dragon didn’t speak, but moved his claws into a few shapes that Fluttershy realized were some form of nonverbal communication.

As distrustful as Smolder was, she didn’t turn down the meal. She insisted on eating in the same field Fluttershy was taken to, unwilling to be apart from her.

It was two hours later, with both feeling better fed, that they were taken into the main tent of the campsite. By now the adrenaline of their near fatal encounter with the shadow imps had worn off and their bodies were crying for sleep, but their brains demanded that their curiosity be sated.

Xieru looked at them as they took their seats on the cushions provided for them. After taking a deep breath, he began. “I suppose I need to start from the beginning. Professor, unless I’m mistaken, you never even knew we existed.”

Fluttershy, feeling guilt, looked at the ground. “Well, no. We just established connections with the Dragon Lord a few years ago, and tensions are still high.”

“Well, it’s no wonder that you haven’t. Chromatics and Metallics have never seen eye to eye.”

“That’s an understatement,” Smolder muttered. A sharp look from Fluttershy got her to regret those words.

If Xieru was bothered by Smolder’s comment, he didn’t show it. “The two tribes of dragons have split largely due to religious differences. Smolder’s tribe worships the dragon lord Tiamet, while we worship his brother, Bahamut.”

Fluttershy felt tense. Every race on Equus worshiped one of the Great Creators. The ponies' own, Fauna Luster, was rather laissez faire about worship, and as such church gatherings had become less common as pony society marched on. But she knew other races had far more passion in it. Twilight had made it clear she needed to be careful when discussing these things.

“While Tiamet has stated that dragons should travel the world and live among it, Bahamut stated that we should remain close to the First Flame. This led to our split.”

“That’s leaving a lot out,” Smolder said.

Fluttershy gave Smolder a look that told her to be nice. This time, however, Xieru did not allow the comment to pass without mention.

“Do you believe that I’m misleading your professor in any way?” He didn’t sound angry. He sounded like he could be discussing the weather. It only made Smolder angrier.

Smolder stood up, shocking Fluttershy in her swiftness. “Don’t pretend it was a peaceful break. Don’t pretend that there wasn’t blood.”

“I pretend nothing. I merely don’t think that reopening wounds is best. Especially if you're ignorant as to what truly happened.”

Smolder looked enraged. So enraged that Fluttershy decided it was time to upgrade from a stern look to the Stare. Even in her rage, it withered Smolder’s desire to cause trouble, and she sat down.

Xieru looked at Fluttershy with a newfound respect. “Now then, you’ve no doubt noticed the swath of destruction as you’ve arrived in this land.”

That actually got Smolder to calm down. Remembering things at the border was a reminder that more immediate concerns needed to be addressed.

“Yes, we saw. What’s going on?”

Xieru took a deep breath. “I’m afraid that we’ve been betrayed by one of our own. We are being attacked by a worshiper of one of the Titans.”

Fluttershy felt her heart lurch. She, like many ponies, was convinced that the Titans were mere mythology, the result of scare tactics that cropped up as the gods became less involved in the affairs of mortals. The few agents of the gods left, like the Princesses or Santa Hooves, were mum about their existence. But fake or not, there were mortals who worshiped them, and they had committed some of the most egregious sins in history.

“We had a dragon, Valaxis, a previous priest. He ended up betraying us and worshiping Null, the dragon Titan of Death.”

Fluttershy saw Smolder shiver at the name. She vaguely remembered hearing the name in school, but it was lost among the many other names and dates she had memorized then dropped.

“He...” Xieru swallowed. It looked out of place on the dragon, who up until that point had remained very calm and stoic. “I’m sorry, this is a bit difficult. He... sacrificed dragons to Null. Made sure to do it quietly. He killed quite a few before we caught him.”

Fluttershy was beginning to suspect the matter was more personal than Xieru was letting on. Or the sacrifices had been far more gruesome.

“We locked him up, but on the day his trial was to begin, he escaped. We aren’t sure how he did it, but somehow he brought Nightwalkers into our world.”

“Was that what those things were?” Fluttershy asked.

Smolder spoke. Her voice was shaking. “But... they’re not real... they’re just something parents make up to keep their whelps quiet.”

Xieru looked at Smolder with pity. “This is why we look down on leaving the Flame. You start to lose sight of how the world is. Evil forces do not stop existing because they are out of sight. Trust me, there will come a day when they will return. Grogar, Lucifer, Nightmare Moon, Discord...”

Fluttershy was caught off guard. “Um, Nightmare Moon wasn’t a Titan.”

Xieru looked at her, his expression neutral. “What makes you so sure?”

“Because I’ve met her. She’s turned back into Princess Luna and rules alongside her sister in Equestria.”

“...I see,” Xieru said, sounding a bit alarmed. “Well, I suppose there was a rumor that she wasn’t the embodiment of darkness. I had always heard Princess Luna died in the battle against Discord.”

“Discord is free as well.”

Xieru’s eyes widened. “What?”

“Yes. Princess Celestia instructed me to befriend him. We have tea together once a week.”

“...”

“...Well... ponies are quite accomplished these days,” Xieru said, still processing what Fluttershy had just said. Fluttershy wasn’t quite sure she was being believed, while Smolder was taking some satisfaction in the fact that the Metallics were caught off guard by something.

“Well, at any rate, Valaxis has been wreaking havoc on us since. We’ve been doing our best, but he intends to slaughter us all. I believe we will win, but I fear we will lose several dragons in the war.”

There was silence for a moment. Fluttershy and Smolder pondered on what to do next.

“We can help.”

Fluttershy’s statement caused a surprised look, both from Xieru and Smolder.

“What? But Fluttershy, we’re on a mission...”

“It can wait,” said Fluttershy, in that firm voice she used whenever she didn’t want to be argued with. “If we don’t take care of this, it’s going to come to Equestria and the Dragon Lands... um, the Chromatic Dragon Lands,” she corrected herself.

Xieru seemed impressed. “I admire your foresight, but I’m not sure what you can do.”

“We can send a message to Equestria,” Smolder said. “Celestia’s bound to send help. Maybe Discord...”

“It would take too long,” Xieru said. “Unless you know how to send messages by dragon fire.”

“...No,” Smolder said, now regretting she hadn’t taken Spike up on his offer to teach her. She figured some of these dragons knew how, but none of them would have a connection with any citizen of Equestria.

“And without the others, I can’t use the Rainbow Power.”

“The what?” The question came from both Smolder and Xieru.

“It’s a power granted to us by the Elements of Harmony,” Fluttershy explained. “We used it to defeat Tirek.”

“You haven’t mentioned that before,” Smolder said.

“Well, we really haven’t had much of a reason to use it since... but it doesn’t matter now. We need to find another way.”

Xieru chuckled. “Fighting Titans and finding Equestria’s Elements. You are a pony of many surprises, Fluttershy.”

Fluttershy blinked. She started to ask what he meant, but Xieru continued on. “I imagine you’re both tired. It is an unholy time of night. Why don’t we turn in for right now? Once we’re rested, we can discuss what to do.”

That sentence reminded Fluttershy and Smolder of just how tired they were. Xieru was right, they would think better after a few hours of sleep.

“We can discuss this in the morning, over breakfast,” Xieru assured. “Well, maybe after breakfast. In either case, a full night’s sleep would be beneficial to us all.”

Xieru instructed another dragon to escort them both to their tent. This dragon was female, her bronze scales looking a bit dull in comparison to her companions. Still, she walked with a bounce in her strp that reminded them both of Pinkie Pie.

At first, the walk was silent, barring the dragon’s humming that sounded suspiciously like the Winter Wrap Up theme, but after a minute she spoke.

“What are the pony lands like?”

The question surprised Fluttershy. “Excuse me?”

“What is Equestria like? I hear that the entrance to Tartarus is somewhere in Equestria.”

Fluttershy shivered. Even years later, their run-in with Tirek was a frightening memory to look back on. “It is, but you wouldn’t guess it.”

“Is Cerberus real? I hear he is a vicious beast.”

“Oh no, he’s a sweetie. A few belly rubs and he can be very playful.”

“...Right,” said the dragon. “But what is Equestria like? What are the cities like?”

“It depends on where you go,” Fluttershy said. “My hometown of Ponyville is small, and it has a big open field and a lot of animals.” Fluttershy’s tone was filled with warmth. She was clearly fondly remembering home.

“Is it true the capital is built on the side of a mountain, and that Celestia carved it herself?”

“What? Oh my no, it wasn’t carved out of the mountain, it was built on the side of it. And Celestia didn’t build it herself, it was made by workers who lived over nine hundred years before I was born.”

“Well... Celestia is a warrior, right?”

“Well, yes... but Equestria was peaceful for a long time before Nightmare Moon escaped. She hasn’t directly done any fighting in nearly a century.”

The bronze dragon looked at her. Fluttershy was unsure of how to read her expression.

“That... sounds wonderful.”

Again, Fluttershy couldn’t quite place how that sentence should come across. Disappointed? No, that wasn’t it. Was it sadness?

As if reading her mind, the dragon spoke. “I hear life is easy there. That there are no wild animals and that everyone has enough to eat.”

“Well, that’s not true. Near my home, there is the Everfree Forest, and it’s filled with unnatural animals that resulted from Nightmare Moon’s magic. And Celestia has done a lot to help her ponies, but even she can’t help everypony.”

It was true. Despite there being programs to feed and house the poor, ample support systems for orphans and abused foals, and leading mental health treatment, there was still suffering and corruption.

“Still, I’ve always thought living there would be cool,” the dragon said. “The priests always say leaving the Flame is a bad idea, but it’s hard and painful sometimes.”

“Why is that?”

“Even before this whole mess happened, the cyclops were terrifying. And food is harder and harder to come by. We really have to work the land and raise cattle to get anything. Equestria sounds... it sounds so easy.”

“...You know, I have a friend named Zecora. She’s a zebra.”

The dragon turned her head. “A what now?”

“They’re like ponies, only they have stripes instead of a solid color. She used to live over the sea, but now she lives in Equestria for research. She tells me she misses her homeland, even though she came here to get away from it.”

The dragon looked surprised. “Really?”

“She said she left home to escape challenges, but she found new challenges in Equestria. To be honest... being the only zebra around made it difficult to fit in.”

“Really?”

“Yes,” Fluttershy said. She decided now was not the time to go into how xenophobic Equestria could be. “And the weather is different than she’s used to, and many things that she could get easily in her home country aren’t available where we live.

“She told me that moving there has taught her that every place you live has its own challenges. Where you decide to live should have the challenges that you are best equipped to face.”

The dragon thought about that. “I suppose that’s true.”

“Don’t be so quick to think you’ll be happier somewhere else.”

“I guess you’re right. Still, I wouldn’t mind seeing Equestria someday.”

“Maybe you’ll get the chance,” Fluttershy said. “Princess Twilight will want to come here on a goodwill mission once she learns it exists.”

She smiled. “I look forward to it. Well, I better let you get to sleep,” she said. They had reached the tent.

As the dragon left, Fluttershy asked her, “I don’t think I caught your name.”

The dragon looked back at her with a smile. “It’s Sykir.”

Chapter 9

View Online

Smolder was anxious to get back on the road, especially since she and Fluttershy had already lost so many days at the Diamond Dog settlement. But once again, much to her annoyance, they ended up staying in place for a few days.

Still, she couldn’t argue that she really had no other choice. It wasn’t like she could go anywhere with all the dangerous creatures running around, and the only way to fix that would be to work with the Metallics.

She had to admit she was already starting to get used to being around them. The next morning, the two of them were served breakfast. Smolder got the usual ration of strips of meat and a few gems. Fluttershy, however, was served some dry fruits that Xieru had managed to scavenge; after eating them, she excused herself to go graze to supplement her nutrition.

Despite some of the looks Smolder was getting (and returning), the hospitality was about as good as she could expect, given the circumstances. Still, when she saw Jaden coming, she knew to put up her guard. Most of the dragons were content to leave their disapproval to glares, but she knew he would pick a fight.

“Enjoying eating our resources?” he asked.

“As a matter of fact, I am,” she said. She immediately regretted letting those words leave her mouth. Fluttershy wasn’t there, but the knowledge thatvery fact that she knew she wouldn’t approve was enough to make her feel guilty.

Jaden opened his mouth to say something, but an older dragon nearby cleared his throat. Jaden looked at him, and seemed to shrink under the older dragon’s look: not necessarily a glare, but more of a warning to behave himself.

Jaden glared at Smolder one more time before stomping off. Smolder resisted the urge to throw a taunt his way and returned to his meal. As she did, she wondered if the elder dragon would have stepped in if it was another dragon, or if Jaden had a bad enough reputation among them as a hot head that no one wanted to put up with him.

Not long after that, Fluttershy returned from her graze. The two sat apart from the Metallics, and it was during this time that Fluttershy finally asked the question that had been on her mind since last night:

“Smolder... why are you being so hostile? I know there are differences between the two of you, but this feels like more than that.”

Smolder didn’t answer for a bit, instead taking a bite of her last gemstone. After a few loud chews, she swallowed. “It’s a bit more complicated than that,” she said. “We had a pleasant split at first, but things didn’t stay that way.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean we’ve been to war,” she explained. “It took a war just to get the treaty for the First Flame. Happened because some Metallics attacked the Chromatic making the journey and the High Priest refused to pay compensation.”

“What? But... why?”

“Because Metallics see us as barbarians,” Smolder said. “They hate us because we don’t keep things nice and orderly like they do.”

Fluttershy bit her lip. That wasn’t the impression she got through their interactions last night, but now didn’t seem to be the best time to say that.

“And then there are the wars over territory,” Smolder continued.

That confused Fluttershy. “What do you mean? I thought the Metallics were determined to stay in one place.”

“They are, but there’s been population growth. Eventually they needed more land. And it doesn’t matter if you’re Chromatic or Metallic, dragons need a lot of living space. The Dragon Lord at the time started off negotiating, but when they started demanding too much, they declared war.

“Dragons died because of their desires. Instead of just moving around like we do, they demand others move to accommodate them. And they’ve won every single battle. We’ve lost a lot to them.”

Two thoughts entered Fluttershy’s head.

First, she wondered how much of what Smolder believed was heavily biased. She remembered the Diamond Dogs in their underground city and wondered if something similar was going on here.

Then a more disturbing thought hit her: what were the ponies getting into, making diplomatic relationships with a race that was always going to war?

She resolved to watch her tongue on whatever she had to say for the remainder of her time here. And here she thought that she couldn’t get any more nervous around dragons.

Fluttershy took a deep breath. “Smolder... remember what Headmaster Twilight always says? About creatures you haven’t met yet?”

Smolder bit her tongue to prevent herself from saying that Twilight says a lot of things, and instead said what she knew Fluttershy was talking about: “‘Rumors aren’t always true. History can get muddled. Keep those things in mind before you judge anyone.’”

Smolder didn’t have to say it; Fluttershy could tell she was remembering the Diamond Dogs.

“Smolder...”

Smolder grit her teeth, something that got Fluttershy to reconsider speaking. Still, she remembered that she was Smolder’s teacher and needed to do what was best for her. “I think that this might be a good opportunity to put those words into practice...”

“No.”

It wasn’t a loud statement, but there was enough force behind it to get Fluttershy to stop speaking.

“I’m not playing friendship lessons with the Metallics.”

Again, it was a simple statement that was spoken without adding anything to the volume. But there was a force about it that made it clear she wasn’t going to argue about it.

Fluttershy searched her mind, trying to figure out what to say to make her change her mind. The only thing that she could think of was something Twilight had once said in the middle of a frustrated fit over Chancellor Neighsay:

You can give a pony all the knowledge you have, but you can’t make him use it.

She sighed. “Fine. If that’s your decision. But try to remember what you’re in the School of Friendship for.”

They didn’t say much afterward.

After breakfast, they met with the group and were assigned tasks to do that morning. They were basic chores: gathering firewood for Fluttershy and helping move supplies for Smolder. Much to Fluttershy’s surprise, Smolder did her assignment without being difficult.

It was midmorning when the chores were done. Not having anything else prepared, Xieru invited them into his tent.

“Alright, I believe this is a longshot, but maybe the two of you could help me. I understand that you’re both confidants of Princess Celestia?”

“I am,” Fluttershy said.

“I’ve only met her once,” Smolder said.

“Then maybe you can be good consultants. The traitor I told you about yesterday... where do you think he’ll try and run off to?”

Fluttershy thought for a moment, trying to remember if anything Twilight had said could help them. It was a hard thought process, as Twilight tended to ramble about magic when you got her going, but finally something came up that she thought could be useful.

“I think I remember Twi... Princess Twilight telling me once that after performing great spells, creatures without innate magic have to seek out a place of high magical energy or focus.”

It was a slim chance. Unlike Unicorns, who cast magic from their internal well, dragons and others who used spells needed to find a way to recharge.

“Now that you mention it,” Xieru said, “I think I might know a place to look. But it would involve going into cyclops territory.”

No one in the tent relished the prospect of doing so; not only because of the cyclops, but because of whatever had been slaughtering them.

“What’s in there?” Fluttershy asked.

He took a deep breath. “The Sacrifice Pit.”

Fluttershy felt her chest tighten. Sacrifice? It was a dirty act that had never entered pony practice.

“Yes. The cyclops make frequent sacrifices to their god, Argos. He demands a portion of their sheep every year. It might be a barbaric practice, but it is still a passageway into the Other Realm. It would be a place for him to go and recharge.”

“Are we really taking the word of a pony?”

The group jumped. Then they all looked annoyed when Jaden came in. The quiet copper dragon trailed behind him, having a seemingly permanent look of annoyance on his face.

“Jaden,” Xieru began. As much as Smolder hated him, she had to admire the seemingly inexhaustible patience that Xieru seemed to have with his charge. “I know she is an outsider, but can you say she has any reason to lie to us?”

“The scorpion didn’t need any excuse to sting the frog.” (Smolder rolled her eyes. She never liked that fable.)

“Dragons aren’t animals, Jaden. We can make our own decisions. That being said, maybe you should stay at the camp for the time being.”

That actually got a reaction from Jaden. “What? Please, Elder... I can’t be left behind!”

“Then quit acting like a child,” Xieru said. “I don’t have time to nurture you right now. I’ll allow you to air your grievances with everything at a later date, but right now we’re in the middle of an emergency, and I can’t humor you.”

Xieru’s tone never changed, but everyone in the tent could sense the power behind it.

Jaden looked angry. But after shifting his eyes between the outsiders and Xieru, he took a deep breath. “Yes, Edler.”

“Excellent,” Xieru said. “We’ll go in a group of six. Between all of us, we should be able to find what we’re looking for.”

Jadon spoke up again. This time, his tone sounded legitimately concerned, rather than childishly angry. “Sir, are you sure we should go in that small of a group?”

Smolder hated that she shared that worry.

“The bigger the group, the more likely the trouble,” Xieru said simply. “We aren’t trying to fight just yet. This is a simple recon mission. We go in, find out what we need, and get out. I want us all ready to go within ten minutes.”

The copper dragon signaled something in sign language.

“Oh, don’t worry. I can take care of myself,” Fluttershy replied.

Everyone looked at Fluttershy in awe. The yellow Pegasus merely shrugged. “I took a few classes on sign language.”

The copper dragon smiled and then gave a few more signals. <Impressive. I am Oasis. It’s nice to meet you, Fluttershy>

“Nice to me you too, Oasis,” Fluttershy replied back with a smile.

“...Yes, well, let’s not linger any longer. The longer this conflict goes on, the more lives are lost.”

They were indeed off quickly. The party of six flew in silence, only broken up by Sykir’s humming of a bouncy tune. She seemed to be the only one who wasn’t carrying a load of anxiety about what was coming up.

Fluttershy flew in the back, slow as ever. Sykir eventually fell back, flying next to her.

“Is it true that ponies control the weather?”

“Well, yes. We create our own weather in Equestria.”

“Doesn’t that get boring?” Sykir said.

“Not really. It’s safer, and nopony gets hurt.”

“But aren’t you a great adventurer? Shouldn’t you like things to be exciting?”

“Oh, I’m no adventurer,” Fluttershy said.

Sykir looked more confused than ever. “But... you tangled with Nightmare Moon and Discord! How can a non-adventurer get caught up with them?”

“I was chosen by the Element of Kindness,” Fluttershy said. “I had to become a hero because I was chosen.”

“And you haven’t become a warrior?”

There was a moment of silence. “Well, I never wanted to be a hero. But I was chosen, and seeing Princess Celestia and Princess Luna get reunited made me appreciate what I was doing. And even if I didn’t like it, I couldn’t let Discord or Tirek run around Equestria. Even here, I couldn’t allow anyone to get hurt, even if I could just move on.”

“You’re weird, Fluttershy,” Sykir said.

At that point, they both noticed Oasis falling back until he was at their side. He moved his hands in sign language.

She remembered Rainbow Dash asking that very question. “Well, I heard that the Minotaur Homelands had some of the most exotic animals around. I wanted to visit them one day. I took the time to learn anything I might need for being there.”

<You are a mare of many surprises> Oasis signed.

“Oh, does that mean you don’t have tornados in Equestria?” Sykir said, suddenly bringing the conversation back to the weather.

Smolder was getting annoyed. She just wanted to talk to Fluttershy, and these Metallics were starting to take her. Not to mention that Sykir was reminding her far too much of Professor Pinkie.

“Well, not usually,” Fluttershy said. “We make them whenever we move water up to Cloudsdale to make rain clouds.”

“What’s wrong with evaporation?” Sykir asked.

“It spreads the clouds out too much. It’s easier to simply collect it all at once.”

“Why do you ponies even control the weather?”

Smolder had to admit that was an obvious question. She had wondered that at first.

“Centuries ago, the Pegasi only used them in combat tactics,” Fluttershy said. She’d left out the part where they also used it to extort food out of the Earth Ponies, but Smolder figured now wasn’t the time to get into the weeds about that. “But then Discord came along. He broke everything in Equestria so badly that they needed to do everything manually. Things are more stable now, but... I guess ponies just got used to doing them. A lot actually find weather by itself a little odd.”

Smolder really had to bite back a laugh. Hearing Sandbar talk about the weather in the Everfree Forest, you’d think it was an eldritch horror.

Oasis signed something else. Fluttershy laughed. Smolder fumed.

“Do you think that the Metallics are going to get an invite to this School of Harmony?”

Smolder’s eyes widened. That would be the ultimate nightmare. Metallics? At the School of Friendship? Her home away from home?”

“Most undoubtedly. Princess Twilight will send out invitations as soon as I tell her. But there are ponies in our government that might not like that.”

Smolder tuned her teacher out. She felt the growing dread in her heart. There were going to be Metallics, she just knew it. It didn’t matter how much Neighsay kicked and wailed, it would happen. The head of the EEA would twist it to Celestia giving her pampered brat of a protege whatever she wanted, but she knew that Headmaster Twilight had a habit of getting things done.

When she had taught Spike how to fly, he’d told her all about how Twilight had bent over backwards to make sure he got educated in spite of Neighsay’s bans, pushed so much of her agenda through after getting her crown, and taken down so many threats to Equestria in the process. She had a hand in getting a Dragon Lord that her adopted son had ties to on the throne, after all.

She would undoubtedly want to set up ties with the Metallics, and Smolder would have to live with it. Whoever got sent would undoubtedly work their way into her friend group. They’d all accept them without a second thought. Only Gallus might hesitate, but not for long.

“Aw, falling behind?”

She jolted up. Jaden had flown up to her with a sneer. To make matters worse, she had fallen behind.

“Back off,” she warned.

“Make me,” he said. He turned, making sure his tail smacked her in the face.

Professor Fluttershy had once taught their class that, when somepony angers you, to take the time and consider what to do before you retaliate. She took that advice and thought about how she could retaliate.

The first thought was simply to ignore him and put it out of her mind.

The second was to set it aside for now and have a word with Xieru later. The elder dragon seemed to be the only one to keep a leash on him.

The third was to keep going for now, wait for a chance to really show him what she was made of when the inevitable battle against their foes occurred.

She considered these for a few moments, then went with a fourth option: speed ahead of him and show him how fast she really was.

This turned out to be the wrong move, because it was the one Jaden had anticipated. He stuck out a wing, causing Smolder to run face first into it. As she stumbled, Jaden laughed and flew off. Smolder, already not the best at keeping her anger in check, chased after him.

“Smolder, stop!” Fluttershy said.

It actually got Smolder to stop. Fluttershy rarely rose her voice, so her yelling was more than enough.

Sadly, it happened too late.

Before anyone knew what was going on, the first shadow demon struck. Its claws reached out and cut Jaden, its claws sinking into his side. Jaden let out a roar of pain.

What happened next was a mess of violence.

Shadow demons jumped up from everywhere. The remaining dragons all managed to dodge. Fluttershy squealed as a set of claws grabbed her tail and yanked. Xieru unleashed a breath of flame in the creature's face, causing an unnatural cry of pain as it let go.

Fluttershy flew straight up, as did almost everyone else.

Jaden, however, fell to the ground.

Smolder, who saw this, did something that confused her in hindsight, something she could never understand why she was able to do it so unhesitantly.

She stopped flying up and flew toward him.

She unleashed fire in all directions, hitting the shadow demons and keeping them at bay. She reached Jaden and grabbed his arm, pulling him up and slowing his descent.

By this time, Jaden had regained his bearing and was flapping his wings, getting stable. Unfortunately, the overwhelming mess of shadows had blocked the view of the others.

“Keep breathing fire! Head in one direction. Just try to get away!”

For once, Smolder didn’t argue with him. The two kept breathing fire, searing any demon they could.

But it wasn’t enough, the claws were scratching at their scales. They would be ripped apart soon.

Sheer panic is a great stimulant, and they found themselves barreling through the mess until they saw daylight. They broke through the shadows, the daylight never looking so sweet. They flew in the same direction, going fast and not caring about a destination, as long as it was away from danger.

When they finally stopped to catch their breath, they looked around. Smolder didn’t recognize anything in the area.

“Please tell me you know where we are,” Smolder asked.

“I don’t...”

“I said please. Couldn’t you humor me?”

Jaden took a deep breath. “Alright, just give me a minute... I need to catch my breath.”

Smolder nodded, then began looking around. She had only spent a few moments doing so before she remembered that the first shadow demon had hit Jaden in the side.

She turned back. It hadn’t been a simple wound. That demon had taken a chunk out of him. Blood was dripping down. Jaden was leaning over, clutching his side. Sweat covered his face. Gasps of pain escaped his mouth.

“Oh my gosh... Jaden, you need to lie down!”

“Save it. I don’t need your...”

Jaden couldn’t finish that sentence. He fell to his knees, crying in pain.

“We need to get that bandaged,” Smolder said.

“No, we need to get...”

“We need to stay put,” Smolder said. “We’ll be a burden if we try to go after them. Fluttershy and the dragons won’t just let us die, they’ll want to protect us. We’re a weak link now.”

Jaden gritted his teeth. Smolder knew his common sense was warring with his desire to disagree with anything she said.

“We shouldn’t stay put. We should try and get back to camp.”

“No. Fluttershy taught us survival skills. If you’re ever lost, hunker down and wait for rescue. They’ll send a search party.”

“...Will they? I have no doubt they’d want to, but we’re in a war. Finding us might not be worth the resources.”

Smolder felt a chill. There wasn’t any of Jaden’s usual fire in it. It was logical, and worrying. Especially since she found she agreed.

“...We’ll worry about that in a minute. At any rate, we need to fix that wound. We’ll be in an even worse situation if it gets infected.” She looked around. “I don’t suppose there’s anything that naturally grows that we can use like bandages?”

“No... nothing practically.”

“Then... we’re going to do this the hard way.” She looked around, eventually finding a rock she hoped would last long enough. She passed it to him. “Put this in your mouth, between your teeth.”

Jaden blinked. “Why?”

“Because, unless my brother lied to me, this is going to feel like Tartarus.”

Feeling nervous, Jaden took the rock in his teeth.

“Lie down, and try to hold still.”

Jaden obeyed again. He looked nervous.

Taking a deep breath, Smolder blew a small, concentrated burst of fire onto the wound. On his normal scales, it would have been nothing. On an open wound, it was agony. He bit the rock in half, his teeth grinding against each other. It sadly hadn’t been hard enough. Still, Smolder finished cauterizing the wound quickly.”

“Okay... that’ll stop the bleeding. Come on, we better find a cave.”

Jaden, too wiped out to argue, slowly got up. Leaning on Smolder, he let her lead him to a place to rest.

Chapter 10

View Online

Fluttershy was kicking herself. Twice on this trip, she had lost track of her student. Twice now. She felt like a crummy teacher.

The group had managed to find their way to a cave to catch their breath. It was Xieru who spoke first.

“Okay... let’s not rush into anything. Let’s keep our priorities straight.”

Fluttershy didn’t like the sound of that. “What do you mean?”

“I think we’re going to have to keep going to our goal.”

“No! No!” Fluttershy said. “The kids...”

“Are strong and capable. It was why we brought them along. We have to have faith that they can take care of themselves. Meanwhile, there are countless lives counting on the success of this mission.”

Fluttershy hated how much sense that was making.

“But...” She let out a sigh. “Okay.”

“Now, we aren’t going to be safe here for long, so we’re going to have to...”

Sadly, Xieru had less time than he thought. At that point, a shadow imp jumped out of the cave and brought its claws down. Xieru was just quick enough to dodge.

Sadly he wasn’t quick enough to dodge the second imp, who was right behind the first. It slashed across Xieru’s chest, a light splatter of blood flying.

It was chaos once more. Imps were everywhere, clawing away. The three dragons and Fluttershy all began to scramble.

“Don’t fight! Fly!”

Fluttershy didn’t need to be told twice. She pumped her wings, flying high into the air.

She was the only one to get away.

Of all the crummy luck, it had to rain that night. Smolder sat in silence, not wanting to face reality. She wanted to be back in Ponyville. She missed Yona, and Sandbar, and Ocellus, and… everybody, really.

Jaden stayed silent. Well, as silent as he could. He was in an immense amount of pain. Moans escaped his lips, despite his efforts to keep it down.

Smolder had foraged some food, and was a bit ashamed how hard it was for her to do. She loved Equestria, but living as a pony had made her soft. It hadn’t been enough, especially for a dragon as injured as Jaden.

As they sat there, Smolder finally broke the silence. “Do you have a fever?”

Jaden looked at her. “What?”

“If you have an infection, getting home’s going to be harder. I just want to make sure you’re okay.”

“No, no fever. Just a lot of pain.”

“We aren’t going anywhere in this weather. We should try and sleep for now.”

“Why? What about the imps?”

Smolder sighed. “We’re pretty much dead if they catch us at this point. I’m dead tired, and you won’t last long in a fight. If we’ll die anyway, best get some sleep.”

“...That isn’t a comforting thought to sleep to.”

“Well, let’s talk about something else.” She thought for a moment. “What was the place like before this whole mess started?”

“A lot less chaotic,” Jaden said. “It wasn’t like the ponies’, but there was more of a community. We banded together to do things like hatch eggs...”

“Yona always thought bunnies were cute, but Yona is starting to reconsider.”

Yona said these words as Ocellus struggled against the ropes that were binding them together. As she struggled, she looked at the yak. “This would go faster if you would help.”

“It would go faster if you would turn into something small and slip out.”

There was a moment of silence. Then Ocellus changed into a rock, allowing the ropes to loosen and fall, freeing Yona to step out. Ocellus turned back to herself with a sheepish look.

“Sorry.”

“You changelings don’t know how to use your powers.”

“...What?”

“Yona just saying, you have those shape changing powers, yet your only invasion strategy for Canterlot was to Zerg Rush...”

“...What’s Zerg Rush?”

“Yona not know. Professor Pinkie said it once.”

“Alright, main point, what are we going to do about Angel?” Ocellus looked around Fluttershy’s basement. “That little rabbit is slippery, and I don’t think Professor Fluttershy will be happy with us if we let him get away with it.”

“Yona thinks the others are going to be needed,” she said. “Yona hopes they haven’t been caught too.”

At that moment, the basement door opened, and Cozy Glow snuck down.

“He’ll never find me here,” the pony said with a sigh of relief. Then she saw that the others were present. “Oh... hey guys,” she said.

“Cozy, what’s the situation with the others?” Ocellus asked.

“Well... I’m pretty sure they’re all captured,” Cozy said. “I tried my best, but I’m just an innocent little pony. I can’t be expected to help out all that much.”

“Yona thinks this is ridiculous.” The yak suddenly stepped forward. “Yona have mighty strength! Ocellus change shape! Gallus swift and mighty! We all have great power! One little bunny rabbit should not take us down.”

“Yeah,” Cozy admitted. “This does seem rather... ridiculous.” She rubbed her chin. “There has to be something we can do.”

Angel made several large hops as he sped down the hallway. He had to laugh. This was just too easy. He was actually starting to hope that Fluttershy left town more often. If these were the kinds of pet sitters she hired, he’d have free run of the place.

Sandbar galloped after him. “I’m going to get you! I mean it this time!”

Angel blew a raspberry at him and kept going.

Sandbar chased after him. “Seriously, Angel! Come take your bath! Now!”

Angel kept hopping, giving a smile. He jumped toward the bathroom.

“Finally, getting some common sense...”

Sandbar entered the bathroom, and had his sentence cut off by a well placed bar of soap. He heard Angel’s giggles as he slid until he hit the toilet, falling face first into the bowl

Thankfully, it wasn’t used.

Angel jumped on the handle, giving Sandbar a swirlie. The pony kicked, trying to pull himself out. Angel jumped on top of his head, then back to the ground, hopping out of the bathroom.

He jumped down the stairs, laughing. That was three down. Now, the only one he really had to worry about was...

“Gotcha!” Gallus jumped out, holding a vacuum in his claws. With a flick of his tail, he hit the on switch, turning the machine on.

Angel, who did not get where he was today by letting himself get caught easily, began hopping frantically. He was widening the gap, but he knew it was a matter of time before he was caught, especially since Gallus was coming closer.

“Nice try, rodent,” he said, using his tail to turn the power up. Angel looked around frantically. Finally, he thought to look at the floor, and saw that the rug was beginning to lift off it.

He jumped and kicked the rug back, causing the rug to go flying (seriously, who made a vacuum that powerful?). It hit the vacuum, blocking the passage for only three seconds before it crumpled up and entered the funnel. Still, that pause was enough, and Angel was able to get some distance.

He jumped onto the couch. As Gallus turned the vacuum on him, he grabbed a throw pillow and tossed it. It entered the vacuum even quicker than the rug, but it gave Angel enough time to grab another. He hopped to the end table, grabbing a vase of flowers for his next item. Then he threw a picture of Discord with a rose in his teeth, then a lamp.

Each item bought him seconds, but he needed to keep going.

He hopped to the cupboard, grabbing plates and tossing them. The vacuum took it all, the items entering the funnel with some difficulty.

“Keep it coming, Angel. You’re just delaying the inevitable.”

Angel hated how little confidence he had at this point. It did seem inevitable Gallus would catch him. He needed to think up a plan, and fast. Right now he could only keep throwing items...

He stopped. Only for a split second, as Gallus was still after him, but he suddenly realized this was the answer. Quickly he upped his game, grabbing every knickknack he could and throwing it at his opponent. He threw more, and more, until...

“Give it up, Angel,” Gallus said. “You’re running out... of...”

He trailed off as he noticed that the vacuum was stuttering. He also noticed that the room seemed darker. He turned around.

The vacuum bag was now huge, double his size... and it was rumbling.

“Oh...snap...”

The loud bang sounded, and all of Fluttershy’s possessions, some of them breakable, went flying out of the back of the vacuum, and the force knocked Gallus to the ground, his chin hitting the wood with a painful thud.

As he lay there moaning, Angel hopped up to him, slapped him in the face, and hopped off.

Angel hopped into the kitchen. Okay, that was... the yak, the changeling, two ponies, and the griffon. With the dragon with Fluttershy, that left....

“Gotcha!”

Silverstream grabbed Angel, lifting the little bunny in the air. “Now, what are you going to...”

Angel grabbed a lock of her mane and pulled. Silverstream let out a cry of pain, dropping Angel. Or at least, she would have if Angel hadn’t kept a death grip on her mane. Angel hopped onto her back, hopping across it and jumping to the fridge. He had long since figured out how to open it to get his food without Fluttershy’s permission. He popped it open and was inside quickly.

Silverstream turned, diving into the fridge. “Come here, you...”

Silverstream got a face full of whipped cream for her trouble. It then got topped with two cherries and an orange slice, forming a smile. Silverstream shot that off angrily.

“You knock that off...”

An apple hit her between the eyes. Grabbing her head in pain, the next one flew straight into her mouth. She angrily bit it in two. The pot of pasta hit her head. The contents stayed on her head, looking like a wig.

Angel then grabbed a turkey leg and started to throw it.

...

Angel lowered what he had grabbed, really looking at it. Silverstream stared at it too. They looked at each other, silently wondering why Fluttershy of all ponies would have such a thing in her fridge.

“Let’s pretend we never saw that,” Silverstream said. Angel nodded, awkwardly throwing the item aside.

With that out of the way, Angel grabbed the mustard and squeezed it into Silverstream’s face. This really hurt, the substance burning her eyes. She turned away, trying to wipe the condiment out of her eyes.

This left her wide open for the watermelon that struck her on the back of her head. She stumbled forward, pain exploding in the back of her head.

She was beginning to consider taking Gallus up on his offer to see what roasted rabbit tasted like.

She rose up. Angel seemed to have paused his onslaught, but hearing the chuckle made it clear he was reveling in his victory, not cutting her a break. Still, she wasn’t about to give up. Taking a deep breath, she turned around.

She got a face full of lemon in the eyes.

She shrieked again, her claws reaching up to her eyes, trying to wipe away the juice. This left her exposed to a strike to the chest. Angel reached for his next weapons.

A pineapple struck Silverstream square in the cheek. She yelped in pain, quickly swiping at the fruit. It fell off, leaving only the pain in her eyes. To add insult to injury, Angel decided to squeeze a bottle of ketchup at her. It hit her square in the barrel.

“What...?” Still not able to see, she pressed a claw to her chest.

“What the...?”

She stopped. She felt a liquid.

Her vision was starting to return. As she looked at her claws, she saw the red substance. “Blood... am I... dying?”

She felt herself shake. This couldn’t be the end. She had so much she wanted to do. She wanted to graduate from the School of Friendship. She wanted to see the homelands of her friends. She wanted to go right up to Tempest Shadow and smack her in the face for helping the Storm King.

No... she was doomed. She was...

She closed her eyes, falling to the ground. This was it.

“Any minute now I’ll see the gates of Paradise.”

A few seconds passed.

“Paradise is boring. It’s dark... and there’s nothing.”

Angel hit her in the face with a pie.

“Oh no... cherry... this must be the other place...”

...

“Uh... Silverstream? Why are you laying on the floor covered in ketchup?”

Silverstream opened her eyes to see Cozy standing over her. She looked at her chest again, seeing only ketchup.

“I guess I’m making an idiot of myself.” Silverstream stood up.

“So... nothing new.”

The others were filing into the room. Angel had already scampered off, feeling proud of himself.

“We need to go after him,” Sandbar said.

“Or we can go get some hamburgers, come back, and fix Professor Fluttershy’s cottage before we make bigger idiots of ourselves,” Cozy said. “Let’s fold for now and come back with a better plan.”

They looked around at the destroyed cottage, which would likely give Fluttershy an aneurysm upon seeing it, and silently agreed. Angel watched as the students left one by one before chuckling to himself. He then quickly hopped to his little comfy bed and pulled out a notepad and pen. There was plenty of time to make some more plans to deal with those idiots when they came back.

He really should consider asking Fluttershy to let them babysit him more, he thought to himself. This was the most fun he’d had in months.

Fluttershy was starting to hate Rainbow Dash. Years ago, when they were still in flight school, she had told her that she couldn’t spend her whole life locked in her bedroom. She had made her go out, live experiences, get her cutie mark, and it all had led her to the life she lived now.

If she ever got back to Ponyville, she was locking herself in her cottage for the rest of her life.

Her wings were so heavy they felt like they were going to fall off. She wanted so badly to rest, to go to sleep, but she couldn’t.

She was beginning to give up on ever fixing this mess.

She felt despair like she hadn’t felt before. So much had gone wrong, and even under the worst circumstances in her other adventures, she always had faith that Twilight or one of the others would know what to do. Here, there was only her. No Rainbow Dash, no Twilight, no Princess Celestia. It was only her, and she had never been enough by herself.

Sighing, she scanned the ground. She finally noticed a cave. At least she could rest for the night. Even if she found anyone, she’d be useless in her state. She only sighed as she began her descent. Smolder would just have to wait.

Smolder was beginning to feel a bit better as she rested. Jaden sat nearby, and while he was trying to keep a stoic demeanor, it was clear that even he was grateful for the chance to rest his muscles.

The silence hadn’t been as awkward as she had been expecting, mostly because both of their exhaustion just made it feel natural. Still, there was something they needed to discuss.

“What do you think our next move should be?” Smolder asked. “Are you going to be good to move?”

“...I don’t know,” Jaden said. The lack of confidence in his voice was unnerving. Undoubtedly, the adrenaline had worn off and the real pain was setting in. “But we’re going to have to move sooner or later anyway. We can’t count on the others.”

“Then let’s make our next move count. What should we do?”

Jaden sighed. “I hate to say it, but I think we need to retreat. I’m going to be pretty much useless in a battle. We show up on the battlefield, we’ll probably do more harm than good.”

“Yeah, probably,” Smolder said. She looked frustrated. “I wish my friends were here.”

“Other chromatics?”

“No, my friends at the School of Friendship,” she said. “I’d give anything to just be hanging out in the library again.”

“A library?” Jaden asked. “You consider that exciting?”

She shrugged. “No, the library’s just where we are a lot of the time. It’s just spending time with them I like.”

“What are they like?”

Smolder was a bit surprised at the question. “Well, there’s Yona, she’s a yak. Really excited, really clumsy. Was destroying stuff left and right because things weren’t built to accommodate her. She’s been better, but Headmaster Twilight still doesn’t let anything valuable be kept in the halls.

Then there’s Ocellus. She’s a changeling...”

“A what?”

It took Smolder a minute to remember. “Yeah, they’re a race that’s been in hiding for a while. They used to be ruled by a Queen that tried to conquer Equestria, but they deposed her and put a new king in charge. They can change shape.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. She’d probably be a big help here... if we could get her moving. She’s really shy, hates being outside. Still, I think she would be willing to help.

“Gallus is a griffon. He’s kind of a jerk, but he has a practicality I respect. Real rough-and-tumble, too.

“Silverstream is a hippogriff. And... well, if I didn’t know Professor Pinkie, she’d be the most excited creature I know. She has a million questions a minute about everything. Really hard for her to sit still.

“And Sandbar is... well, he’s just really laid back. He goes along with the flow and usually is the one who can figure out what to do when things are going wrong. I remember one time, we had a big project due, and we ended up not being able to find the book we needed in the library. We were all panicking. But he calmed us down. He started sending us out to different places to find it. “

“Really?”

She nodded. “I guess ponies have that in common. Or at least, the ones I’ve met do. The other pony I know, Cozy Glow, is great. Whenever we work with her, she always seems to know what to do.”

“This school... I’m sorry, but it sounds boring.” The statement lacked his usual condescension. It was simply him stating a fact.

“I don’t blame you. It sounded boring to me too. I only offered to go because the Dragon Lord asked for a volunteer, and whenever the Dragon Lord says to do something, you do it.”

He nodded. “I guess that’s one thing our civilizations have in common,” he said. “Still, you seem to enjoy it now.”

“Yeah, I do,” she said. “You know, it honestly didn’t take me long to enjoy spending time with them.”

“Even with no other dragons?”

“There is one other dragon. Spike. He was hatched and raised by Headmaster Twilight. Kind of a wimp, but nice enough.”

“Really? How did he end up in pony territory?”

Smolder shrugged. “He’s never said. Only that his egg somehow ended up with Princess Celestia. I never asked.”

“You never asked?”

“I don’t think he knows. Some dragon showed up claiming to be his father once, and he believed it. If any Princess knows, they aren’t saying.”

“That sounds... odd.”

Smolder shrugged. “It does, but... I don’t know. There’s just this feeling that I can trust the Princesses. I really don’t think they’re playing games.”

“I don’t know. Don’t you think it’s a little suspicious? This new princess comes along and all of a sudden races with isolationist policies are all coming together?”

“You’re being paranoid. It’s just that once you spend time around others, you start seeing that they’re not so different from you.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Trust me, all those friends I mentioned? I know them well. They’re all great. Even Cozy Glow, though I don’t get to hang out with her too much. Besides, the dragon lands weren’t that great. Look at us; it’s a day to day fight for survival.”

He grumbled. “Yeah, well...” he didn’t have as much heat in her words.

“Trust me, seeing how it is where you aren’t constantly being paranoid about everything is a gamechanger. You aren’t always worried about another dragon wanting to hurt you.”

“Right... So the ponies have this perfect society?”

“Oh, no. The ponies have their problems. The one in charge of Equestria’s schools is a massive bigot.”

“Wait, really?”

“Yeah. Hates Princess Twilight for letting us in the school in the first place. Thinks we’re going to destroy Equestria somehow. He’s delusional, ranting about a group of creatures he’s never met.”

“Sounds like a real ashbrain.”

“Tell me about it. I don’t think he realizes how stupid he looks.”

There was a long silence.

“Jaden,” Smolder said at last, “I...’”

“Smolder!”

The two dragons jumped. It hadn’t been them who had spoken. Still, relief flooded over them quickly when they saw who it was.

“Fluttershy!” They both jumped up and ran to her. Smolder got there first, throwing her arms around her. Jaden reached second, doing the same.

“We thought we weren’t going to see you again.”

“I was worried about you two as well,” Fluttershy said. “Are any of the other dragons with you?”

The two young ones shook their heads. “It’s just the three of us,” Smolder said.

“What should we do?” Jaden asked.

“I think we should keep moving forward.”

The words surprised Fluttershy… despite her being the one who said them. She was remembering a time when she would run and hide. From Trixie and the Alicorn Amulet, from dragons, even from Princess Luna long after she stopped being Nightmare Moon. Now she was insisting on heading towards the danger, even though it terrified her.

Then again, maybe she wasn’t giving herself enough credit. After all, she hadn’t hesitated to follow Twilight into the Everfree just hours after meeting her. But then she had Twilight and the other backing her up. Here, she had to be the leader.

She pushed her thoughts to the back of her mind. She needed to focus.

“If the other dragons manage to escape, it’s where they’ll be headed. And we can’t complete the journey until the shadow demons are beaten.”

“That’s true,” Jaden said. “But we’re in no shape to travel right now. We need to rest.”

“I agree. Let’s get some sleep, then move in the morning.”

“Uh, professor? Shouldn’t one of us stay awake to keep watch?”

“No,” Fluttershy said. “It’s important we rest. We’re not going to be any good to anybody like this.”

“Besides,” Jaden said. He paused for a moment, looking like he was going to regret his words, but decided to say them anyway. “We’re as good as dead if they find us like this anyway. We’re all tired, and those things hunt in packs. Yeah, we better risk it.”

Even Jaden looked unnerved by his own words, but he pushed them aside.

They all laid down. Despite how uncomfortable they all were, they fell asleep quickly.

Chapter 11

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Smolder found herself going in and out of sleep a lot. She couldn’t find it in her to get too comfortable. For dragons, caves were not just shelters, but beds, homes, and sanctuaries from the hostile world outside. If you were going to grow healthy and strong, then finding the right cave to sleep in was critical.

She missed hers back home. It wasn’t the biggest, but it had a homely feel to it, and sometimes the gems in the walls would glow at night, providing her comfort. This cave was so cold and heartless, it felt like gazing into one of the black holes Headmare Twilight had once spoken of during an astronomy lesson.

That being said, she would admit that beds were a lot more comfortable than rocks. Maybe she could convince the school to let her take her dorm bed home over the summer break? That would be the best.

Sighing, Smolder got up and looked to her right. Professor Fluttershy was sleeping peacefully, using her own wings as a blanket. Pegasi were better at dealing with colder weather due to living in the clouds most of their lives, so it made sense that she wasn’t too bothered by the cave’s temperature.

When Smolder checked to see how Jaden was doing, she found that, much to her annoyance, he wasn’t there. Probably went to take a wizz or something.

Yet, in his condition, what if something happened to him? Smolder tried to fight the part of her consciousness telling her to look for him, but it won out in the end. I’ll check to see if he’s okay, but if I see him doing his business, I’m taking that voice in my head and throwing it into a lava lake.

Thankfully, Smolder didn’t need to look far. Jaden was near the entrance of the cave, looking up at the stars. Curious, she walked over and sat next beside him. He continued to stare at the night sky in silence.

“Hey,” Smolder greeted. “Couldn’t sleep?”

“Yeah,” Jaden whispered as he closed his eyes and sighed. “I’m worried about the others. Do you think... Do you think they’re okay?”

“...Do you want a comforting answer or a realistic one?” Smolder asked, biting her lip.

“Realistic.”

“They’re either in the same predicament we’re in... or they’re dead,” Smolder answered. Jaden’s tail twitched, but he had no other reaction. “S-Sorry, maybe that was-”

“No, I was thinking it too,” Jaden replied as he shook his head. “I mean, I believe they're alive. They’re some of the toughest dragons I know. Especially Xieru. Fluttershy escaped, so there is a chance they’re okay too.”

He lowered his head and gripped the rock so hard that his claws began digging into it. “But I’m not naive. There was always a chance we’d end up dead on this mission. Especially if the dragon behind all this is capable of summoning those monsters.”

“How’d he even get away with that?” Smolder asked. “Aren’t you Metallics dedicated to making sure no dragon among you goes rogue?”

“I don’t know,” Jaden answered with a shrug. “Xieru knew him better, but he never told us anything. Maybe Oasis knows. He’s good at listening in and figuring things out since he’s so quiet. And I wouldn’t put it past Sykir to look into it. She’s curious about everything.``

“Yeah, I heard the conversation she and Professor Fluttershy were having. She looked half ready to fly to Equestria right there and then,” Smolder chuckled.

Things were quiet between them for a bit before Smolder sighed and rubbed the back of her head. “Look, I’m not the greatest when it comes to this, but you gotta have faith that your comrades are okay. I mean, you said it yourself, they’re talented dragons. And we dragons don’t go down easily.”

“Even Metallics?” Jaden asked with a smirk.

“I guess even you metal heads can handle yourselves okay,” Smolder said, before pointing at his wound with a smirk of her own. “Although you have to prove yourself better.”

“Ha ha,” Jaden replied with a roll of his eyes.

Again there was silence between them, but Smolder didn’t mind it this time. It was actually kind of nice, just staring at the stars with a stranger. It made her appreciate the fact that everything had slowed down. Since she’d started her journey to the First Flame, it felt like everything had been one trial to the next both her and Professor Fluttershy. From being chased by an Earth Snake, to helping solve a civil war between Diamond Dogs.

Now I’m helping Metallics stop a crazy dragon from doing some freaky dark magic. I can safely say if I survive all this it will be one heck of a story to tell. And I thought my friends at school already made my life crazy, Smolder thought to herself with a smile. She really wished they were here with her. She could imagine what they would be doing at a time like this. Ocellus would be going through that big brain of hers to figure out a strategy; Gallus would complain about being on guard duty but secretly be extra vigil about it; Silverstream would be trying to keep every creature’s hopes up with a tale from her home; Yona would try to match such a story with one from Yakyakistan; and Sandbar? He’d mostly likely be asleep by now.

“I’m sorry.”

Smolder blinked as she came out of her thoughts. Jaden was looking at her with regret. “For what?”

“...Come on, don’t be stupid.” Jaden moaned as he rolled his eyes. “I’m sorry for mistreating you because you were Chromatic. I’d be in a worse state if you didn’t help me out, and I certainly didn’t make it easy with my attitude. Everyone says I have to think with my head instead of my mouth, but I got a problem learning it.”

“...Well, I guess I’m sorry too,” Smolder answered with a sigh. “I didn’t trust you or your group. I was taught to never trust Metallics. That you guys hated us and thought we were savages.”

“Well, guess what? We think you hate us because you’re jealous of our ordered society,” Jaden pointed out.

“...Sheesh, this is just like the Diamond Dogs.” Smolder facepalmed as Jaden titled his head.

“The what?”

“Never mind,” Smolder replied before shaking her head. “Look, I’m sorry for being a butthole. You’re sorry for being a butthole. How about we just start over?”

She held out her hand. “Name’s Smolder. Nice to meet you.”

Jaden looked at the hand before smiling and shook it. “Jaden. Same.”

“So, why don’t you ask me something about your kind and you ask me something about mine?” Smolder suggested as she lay down on the rock with her hands behind her head. “Because I’m not tired either, and I figure this could be the kind of Friendship lesson Professor Fluttershy would want me to learn.”

Smirking, Jaden laid down next to her. “Why not? Ladies first.”

“Alright.” Smolder wracked her brains for a bit before a question came to mind. “Do you guys really have a big citadel made out of platinum?”

“The Temple of Bahamut,” Jaden answered with a nod. “It’s the most important building in our religion. Dedicated to the god himself. It’s pure platinum, with five hundred silver fires constantly lit and twenty different separate rooms for masses and group prayer.”

“Huh, we just worship in our caves and in private. Don’t really have a hierarchy, save for a few sages. They live in isolation to devote themselves to the gods, then spread their wisdom to us,” Smolder replied.

“Okay, my turn,” Jaden said before thinking really hard. He then asked, “Is it true that you fight behemoths on a regular basis?”

“Not all the time, but they have made advances in our territories. It’s one of the few times we dragons all work together to fight them off,” Smolder answered with a shiver. There were few things in the world dragons would admit scared them, and the giant horned creatures of evil were one of them. “Thankfully, it's been three hundred years since the last big behemoth invasion. But we remain vigilant.”

“Wow, that’s admirable,” Jaden said with respect in his tone. “Okay, your turn.”

As Smolder asked her question, neither dragon noticed a certain smiling pegasus watching the two’s developing friendship.

***

The moment Xieru lost consciousness amidst the ambush, he was sure he would be waking up in the afterlife. Moaning, he opened his eyes and tried to get a good look at his surroundings. He was in a cave, that much was clear, but it was very small and cramped. Just barely able to fit not just his size but the others captured with him. He looked to his left and right and saw Oasis and Sykir on opposite ends of his side, both still unconscious. There was no sign of Fluttershy, Jaden, or Smolder.

Once his senses were fully back, Xieru tried to move, only to notice he was wrapped in dark red chains made of glowing magical energy. He looked ahead at the little light from the cave’s entrance and growled. It too was shielded by the same dark energy. However, it soon made an opening for a creature coming in, and Xieru’s growl turned to an outright snarl upon seeing who it was.

His scales were of pure steel that shone even in the darkest shadows of the cave. His spiked back and top two horns were that of normal bone, but with tipped steel edges. His wings, flapping behind him, were slightly larger than most dragons' his and Xieru’s size, and no less deadly.

With cold, gray-colored eyes, the steel dragon looked down at Xieru and snorted. “I was wondering when you were going to wake up.”

“Valaxis,” Xieru whispered with disgust.

Valaxis sighed and folded his arms. “I suppose I should be honored that the High Priest himself came after me, but I expected a larger group, not a bunch of young dragons barely out of their eggs.”

“There is a large army of dragons at the border, waiting to come and strike you and your monsters down,” Xieru grumbled, wishing he had them right now. “I was merely playing the scout to make sure you were here to begin with.”

“I did make it seem like I was going to the Chromatic Dragons’ lands, didn’t I?” Valaxis began to pace around Xieru and his unconscious friends. “I should have known you would not fall for that. You knew me too well.”

“Not enough,” Xieru muttered with a sorrowful sigh. “Because you clearly are mad.”

“Is it madness to want revenge for your parents’ death?” Valaxis argued as he stopped in front of Xieru and glared down at him, lowering his head so that they were face to face. “I would have thought you of all dragons, Xieru, would understand my reasoning. You lost your family to the Chromatic Dragons as well. Have you forgotten?”

“I have never forgotten, Valaxis,” Xieru stated as he closed his eyes.

He remembered that day very well. Many dragons, including both his and Valaxis’s families, had died in the attack. The only thing that prevented it from escalating into war was Torch personally delivering the instigators, saying he had not authorized this and wanted to negotiate for peace.

Even though the rogue dragons responsible were executed, the anger festered in Xieru for a long time. It helped him bond with Valaxis as they grew up, but over time, things changed. “The difference between you and me is that I found peace by worshiping Bahamut. I found the strength to move on, and now I lead our people with that wisdom I have found. You? You have let your anger and hatred swallow you to committing atrocities against your own people. For what? Power to wage a doomed war against Chromatics?”

“I’ve gained the power to see to it that no Metallic Dragon will ever need to worry about the barbaric Chromatics ever again,” Valaxis argued as his tail slammed the ground. “For generations, we’ve suffered at the hands of degenerates disgracing the dragon race. They raid, murder, steal, and burn anything and everything for themselves. They care nothing about others or even each other, save to use whoever is weaker than them as pawns for their games. They don’t even have a society; just roaming hordes keeping to primitive traditions we outgrew long ago. The world is better off without them, and the only reason we haven’t wiped them out is because we’re too merciful to do it.”

He snorted fire out of his nostrils. “That mercy will end with the death of the entire Chromatic race. They will feel the justice of all those that they have brought suffering to. Not just to us Metallics, but to all races in the world who have come to see all dragons as monsters because of them. With them gone, honor will return to our kind.”

“Liar!” Xieru snapped back with a growl. “The only thing you want is revenge. Don’t try to sugarcoat it with excuses. You sacrificed innocent dragons to an evil Titan for dark power, power that you have used to murder more dragons. You have not only disgraced yourself and our people, but you have disgraced Bahamut as well. He will damn your soul for what you have done.”

“Bahamut is the only one who can decide my fate. Not you,” Valaxis snorted. “And if going to Hell is the price I pay for wiping out the Chromatics, then so be it. I’ll gladly suffer for an eternity knowing I sent them all down with me.”

“And how will you do that? Even with as many monsters you have summoned, the Chromatics outnumber you, and I have ordered the Metallics to work with them to stop you should they not hear from me soon.” Xieru snorted. “I already know you intend to summon something. I’m guessing we’re in The Sacrifice Pit, and that you intend to sacrifice the three of us to summon it. But whatever you summon, it will not work.”

“Well, you are right and wrong at the same time, old friend,” Valaxis said with a smirk. “We are in the Sacrifice Pit, and I will have you sacrificed to Null tomorrow, but I will not be doing it. I’m leaving it to the Nightwalkers so they can summon more powerful monsters to hold back the Metallic army at the border.”

His smirk then increased. “I will instead sacrifice something more powerful. An ancient relic of great power that Null would find worthy of taking and exchanging for something just as powerful with it. I intend to sacrifice every First Flame itself.”

Xieru gasped and looked at Valaxis with horror. “Y-You can’t do that!”

“I am, and do you know what I intend to use it to summon?” Valaxis whispered it into Xieru’s ear, which made him freeze up in horror. His scales slowly turned pale as he looked at Valaxis as if he was a demon himself.

“Take comfort knowing that I will make sure it will not hurt the Metallic lands while it rampages. If it manages to hurt other nations? Well, I care not. Have a good night's sleep.”

The steel dragon soon made his way out of the cave, the magical barrier closing behind him. Xieru tried to say something, but he couldn’t find it in him to speak. A single word, the word Valaxis had muttered in his ear, was making him more afraid than ever. Not just for both kinds of dragons, but for the entire world.

“Bahamut help us...” Xieru whispered as he closed his eyes in despair. “Bahamut help us all.”

Of all the deadly demons that could be summoned, one of the most dangerous was now at risk of being brought into their world...

A Typhon.

Chapter 12

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“Is the demon bunny still in the living room?”

Poking his head out, Gallus looked out from his hiding spot, Yona right beside him. They had bags under their eyes, their fur was dirty and wrinkled, and Gallus had far fewer feathers than usual. Checking every nook and cranny of the room and finding it vacant, Gallus sighed in relief. He turned to Yona, who was clutching a tennis racket as a weapon.

“We’re all clear,” Gallus said as he tiptoed into the living room, Yona not too far behind.

He didn’t even know where the others were, but he was willing to bet that they were either in hiding as well… or it was already too late for them. Just last night, they’d heard Sandbar begging for mercy before letting out a fearful cry as an explosion echoed across the house. None of them had gotten any decent sleep, and even getting food was a risk all its own. To make it even worse, Rainbow Dash and Rarity were supposed to have come and helped them, but they’d been called away for an emergency by the map at Twilight’s castle. They were on their own.

Gallus and Yona hid behind the couch, which was covered in honey, mustard, and who knew what else. “Okay, we’ll just get to the front door, open it to check if the coast is clear, and run like the wind,” Gallus whispered. “No looking back.”

“What about friends?” Yona asked.

“It’s every creature for themselves at this point, okay?” Gallus hissed as he looked at the front door. “Okay. In three. Two. On-”

Suddenly, there was a flash of light. Gallus and Yona clung on to each other and screamed “Don’t kill me! I want to live!”

“Well, you two seem to be getting closer.”

Gallus and Yona stopped screaming and looked up to see a familiar face that, thankfully, wasn’t Angel Bunny. It was, in fact, the Spirit of Chaos himself, Discord, sipping from his teacup in amusement. He was sitting on a big pink chair made out of cotton candy, a large tea table with horse legs next to him. He wasn’t even alone. At the opposite end of the table, lying on a chair made of red velvet cushions, was Pinkie’s pet alligator, Gummy, dressed in a mini-tux, a top hat, and a monocle over his right eye.

“Discord!” Gallus shouted as he practically launched himself at the feet of the chaos lord, tears in his eyes. “Thank whatever powers that be that you’re here! We’ve never been so happy to see you!”

“Huh, creatures usually say the opposite whenever I pop in.” Discord giggled as he looked around. “I take it Fluttershy has you all on Angel Babysitting duty?”

“Yona will stomp all bunnies flat when she leaves this den of nightmares,” Yona muttered, her left eye twitching.

“Yes, I keep telling dearest Fluttershy she needs the Royal Guard to watch that rascal, but she doesn’t believe me when I say that thing is a monster from Tartarus,” Discord said before sipping more tea. “Where is she, by the way? We were supposed to have our regular tea session this week, but she hasn’t been answering my calls.”

“She went with Smolder on some journey to light a big torch or something, but forget about that!” Gallus shouted as he gripped onto him even harder. “You have to get us out of here! Teleport us someplace else! Even another realm of existence! Anywhere is better than here!”

“Hmm. I would, but I’m afraid I have a truce with Angel.” Discord snapped his fingers, and a large contract appeared before the two young creatures. On the bottom was Discord’s signature and Angel Bunny’s paw print. “Under our agreement, I am forbidden from interfering with any of Angel Bunny’s tortu- I mean, play sessions with his babysitters. In return, I’m allowed to use the guest quarters whenever I stay over, and he doesn’t do anything to interfere with my sleep.”

“So you’re saying you can’t help us?!” Gallus cried out.

“Oh, I didn’t say that,” Discord tisked as he snapped his fingers and the contract went away in a puff of smoke. “I’ll just find Fluttershy, zip her over here, and get her to calm Angel Bunny down. Sound good?”

“Yes! Great! Do it now! Go go go!” Yona urged.

“Alright, I’ll be back… soon. Whether or not it’s with Fluttershy, I'd prefer to get a tea party in before the day's out, and something tells me I won't get to her until the timing's just right. Toodles.”

And with another snap of his finger, Discord and Gummy disappeared.

“...So now what?” Yona asked, before the two of them heard a surprised yelp from above that sounded like Cozy Glow. That was followed by thumping, a toilet flush, and the angry bat cries that numbered in the dozens.

Without saying a word, the two rushed back into the closet and shut the door.

“Any sign of the First Flame?”

“No, Dragon Lord. Nothing yet.”

Ember sighed. She rubbed the back of her neck, but did her best to look calm. It would do no good for the new Dragon Lord to show any sign of weakness, especially worry for the dragon she’d personally selected to light the Flame.

While there was technically no age requirement for the journey, it was traditionally given to older, stronger dragons. Smolder was the youngest to date, and some dragons were against the whole idea of sending her, but Ember had her reasons. With so many of her subjects still hesitant about befriending the other races, there was no better way for her to prove that the power of friendship would make dragonkind stronger, not weaker.

Of course, she also knew that there was a chance she was sending a young dragon and an Element of Harmony, both of them Spike's friends, to their deaths. If something happened to either, it would ruin relations with Equestria.

They had been provided an extra week than the usual two on account of starting in Ponyville, but even so, only four days remained. Already there were whispers that Smolder and Fluttershy were dead, and if the deadline passed with no sign of the First Flame, Ember would have no choice but to declare the rumors true. Even if they managed to light the flame past their assumed deaths (an event that had, albeit rarely, occurred in the past), the delay would be seen as a sign of bad luck, defeating its whole purpose.

Ember didn't want to believe the whispers, but admitted in a letter to Princess Twilight that she was worried such a horrible fate had indeed befallen them.

Twilight had merely answered:

I have faith in them. They’re alive and I know it. Trust them, Ember. I promise they’ll be okay.

So Ember decided to have just as much faith.

“Dragon Lord Ember!” one of her dragon scouts called out as he landed in front of her.

“What is it?”

“Metallic Dragons were sighted on the edges of our border!” he said, which made Ember’s tail freeze up. “It’s a large group, and there appear to be more miles away. It might be an army.”

“Shoot,” Ember whispered. Were the Metallics planning to invade? A part of her wanted to assemble their own forces as a show of force, but she hesitated. Even the Metallics would not attack during the events of the First Flame. It was as important of a tradition to them as it was for the Chromatics.

Plus, her father often told her that the Metallics were not ones to attack first unless they deemed it absolutely necessary. And while things were tense, there was nothing to indicate relations between the two dragon nations were breaking down. Maybe something else is going on. But just to be sure...

“Tell the clans to be prepared for any attack on our lands, but that nobody is to leave the border of the Ashgem Mountains,” Ember ordered. “Also, send a messenger to tell the Metallics I wish to speak to one of their representatives. We'll meet at Swordrock Point, no more than ten dragons a side. I want to see what this is about and hopefully avoid a war.”

“Yes, My Lord!” The dragon saluted by crossing his arms over his chest and took off.

Ember sighed and shook her head. And I thought all I’d have to worry about today was The First Flame.

Morning came, but it didn’t bring many good tidings for the three who had nearly escaped death at the hands of the demonic shadow beings. While they were happy to have slept uninterrupted, there was still the issue of stopping whatever it was that Valaxis planned to do.

“So how does it look, Professor?” Smolder asked as Fluttershy checked Jaden’s wound one final time.

“A few scars, but it's cleared up quite well. I’ve never heard of a creature healing so fast before,” Fluttershy said in amazement.

“It’s a blessing from Bahumat that all Metallics have,” Jaden said. He got rid of the last of his modified cast and did a few light stretches.

“Do Chromatics have a blessing?” Fluttershy asked.

“No, we think those gifts are too much of a crutch. You don’t want to depend on them to the point of weakness,” Smolder said with a shrug. “Though I admit, faster healing would be a plus.”

“You could always join our religion,” Jaden joked.

“Only if I want to give my old Pops a heart attack,” Smolder joked back with a grin.

“Anyway,” Jaden said, clearing his throat and crossing his arms, “we need to focus on finding Xieru and the others. I still believe they’re alive, and we’ll have a better chance of stopping Valaxis with their help.”

“But where would they be?” Fluttershy asked, doing her best to gather her courage.

“The Sacrifice Pit is the best place I can think of,” Jaden answered with a grim look. “Knowing Valaxis, he won’t be able to resist sacrificing them to Null.”

“You sure?” Smolder asked, tilting her head.

“Yeah.” Jaden nodded with a growl. “This guy’s already sacrificed some of our people. I won’t be surprised if he does it to them too.”

“Then we’d better stop him before that happens,” Smolder said, flaring her wings out. “But we can’t rush in without a plan. Plus, we don’t know where this Sacrifice Pit is.”

Suddenly, the three were nearly blown from their feet as a bright purple light exploded outside of their cave. The three of them rushed outside and looked up with wide eyes as a giant purple spiral of dark energy erupted in the distance. The sinister cries of the damned could be heard in the wind.

Jaden raised his finger. “I’m going to hazard a guess and say it's over there.”

The spiral could even be seen from the Dragon Lands. Ember stared at the distant glowing spiral and got a bad feeling in her chest. Despite not being a master of magic, even she could tell that it didn’t look good. The spiral was deep in Cyclops territory, and the Cyclops themselves were barbarians who worshiped the dark god Argos, but not even they could do something like this.

Weren’t Smolder and Fluttershy going through Cyclops territory? Ember thought with a horrible realization. What if they’re near that?!

Ember wanted to order her dragons to investigate, but she had to remind herself of the rules. She couldn’t get involved in the Journey to the First Flame, or else it would be worth nothing.

Gritting her teeth, Ember instead made her way to Swordrock Point for the meeting with the Metallic Dragons, who had agreed to her summons. All the while, she prayed that the two were okay.

If you two get killed, Ember thought, I swear I’ll drag you both back from the afterlife to yell at you!

The Sacrifice Pit’s name didn’t do it justice. It was a giant colosseum, all of it encircled by large benches so its former cyclops occupants could watch the events within. To them, the dark sacrifices were not just a means of religious worship, but a manner of entertainment.

Nightwalkers were chanting in unholy dark tongues to a purple-flamed tower of dark energy emitting from the large pit. It was large enough to swallow a fully grown dragon; in the ritual’s center, the three dragons intended to be sacrificed were still struggling to get out of their chains.

“Can either of you break free?” Xieru asked his comrades, who had awakened not long after the Nightwalkers began the ritual.

“It’s no good,” Sykir muttered with a defeated groan. “I’m not strong enough.”

Oasis shook his head as well.

“Damnit,” Xieru growled. Seeing the Nightwalkers still worshiping the pit's dark energy, he closed his eyes and whispered, “I’m sorry. I have failed you as a leader. I brought you two to your deaths, and now we are to be Null’s playthings in the afterlife.”

“Don’t blame yourself, Xieru,” Skyir whispered, smiling at him. “We all volunteered for this. We knew there was a chance we’d end up dead.”

Oasis nodded and smiled too. The three of them wrapped their tails together in unison and, silently, began praying to Bahamut.

But just as he was finishing what he thought might be his final prayers, Xieru spotted something at the top edge of the pit’s structure. His eyes widened. “...Actually, we might have a chance.”

“Huh?” Skyir asked, opening her eyes.

“Just be ready to fight.”

The two dragons and pegasus reached the Sacrifice Pit without a moment to spare. They flew to the top of the stadium, hiding behind one of the statues dedicated to the dark god of the Cyclops race. From there, the three could see everything: the Nightwalkers, the Pit... and the three dragons they'd been looking for.

“Thank Bahamut, they're still alive," Jaden said, seeing Xieru, Skyir, and Oasis below. "Told you they'd be."

"They won't be alive for much longer if we don't do something. And those are a lot of Nightwalkers,” Smolder muttered with a growl. “Way too many for us to take out. And no offense to you, Professor Fluttershy, but you aren’t really a fighter.”

“None taken,” Fluttershy answered, shivering at the sight before her. She’d spent her entire life knowing the aura of creatures, even dangerous ones, and she had rarely felt such a palpable sense of malice from any of them. Fluttershy wondered if it was in the Nightwalkers’ nature, or if it had come from their realm, or even their summoner himself. She liked to think that no creature was completely evil, but it was clear they would only react with violence.

The swirl of dark magic was just as worrying. Fluttershy hated to find out what would happen if she were to even touch it. No doubt it would be a grim fate, one she wouldn’t wish on anyone, especially the captive dragons down below.

“If we can free Xieru, Skyir, and Oasis, then we stand a better chance.” Jaden turned to Fluttershy. “Can you free them?”

“Me?!” Fluttershy asked with a squeak.

“You’re the quietest of us. Plus, Smolder and I can keep them distracted while you sneak in,” Jaden replied. “It’s our best shot at this point.”

Fluttershy wanted to argue, but stopped herself. As much as she was afraid, she couldn’t leave the others to be sacrificed. Reluctantly, she nodded in agreement.

“Alright, ready to burn these suckers back to the shadows?” Jaden asked with a cocky grin.

“Thought you’d never ask,” Smolder shouted. She and Jaden flapped their wings and took to the skies before diving down as fast as possible.

The Nightwalkers were too distracted to see or hear the two dragons until they swooped down and unleashed their flames. Upon hearing their fellow shadow demons cry out before burning into dark dust, the Nightwalkers hissed at the two dragons flying above them.

Grinning, Smolder turned around and shook her rear at them. “Come try to kill us, you overgrown shadow farts!”

The Nightwalkers responded by firing sharp, pointed bolts of darkness at them, forcing Jaden and Smolder to fly in opposite directions. They took turns skillfully flying around and avoiding the projectiles, all while spewing out flames to counterattack.

Fluttershy waited a few more seconds. When she was sure the Nightwalkers were all distracted, she glided towards the three captive dragons as quietly as possible. Recognizing that silence was key, the three of them said nothing as Fluttershy approached (an especially easy feat for the mute Oasis).

However, she soon saw a problem. The dark red chains that were keeping the three from moving were obviously magical in nature, and Fluttershy had no skill in disabling them. Biting her lip, she quickly asked, “What do I do to get rid of these?”

“I don’t know,” Xieru said with a growl. “Valaxis made them. Unless you can use some kind of magic to destroy them-”

“Look out!” Skyir shouted, before quickly breathing fire. The cone of flame dispelled several shadow projectiles that had been heading right for Fluttershy’s head. The shy pegasus couldn’t help but let out both a gasp and a scream as she saw four Nightwalkers grinning at her from only a few feet away.

Fluttershy looked up, hoping that Smolder and Jaden could come to her rescue. They saw that she was in danger, but were held back by the growing crowd of Nightwalkers. Gulping, Fluttershy tried to think of something to do, anything. She didn’t have the magic or power to break the chains, nor could she fight off all the Nightwalkers. If only one of her other friends was here. Someone powerful enough to-

With a pop, Discord and Gummy appeared, floating in the air with their weird tea set. Needless to say, everyone stopped what they were doing to look at the odd scene that had spontaneously appeared.

Discord, who hadn’t noticed the staring, kept talking to Gummy. “-and then I said, ‘Oatmeal? You’re crazy! I would have preferred to use peanut butter with...jam...um...’”

Discord looked around, noticing the situation he was in, before focusing on Fluttershy. “Dearest Fluttershy, next time I come find you, can you please not be in a stadium full of Nightwalkers and dragons? I’d at least want to tidy up for these events.”

“...She really is friends with the Spirit of Chaos,” Skyir whispered in awe.

“Discord! We need your help!” Fluttershy shouted. “Save us from the Nightwalkers! There’s no time!”

Sighing, Discord turned to Gummy and sadly smiled. “Sorry, but it seems I have to help out a friend. Same time next week?”

Gummy only blinked twice in response.

“Excellent! See you then.” Discord said as he snapped his fingers, making Gummy and everything he’d brought disappear.

The four Nightwalkers that had tried to attack Fluttershy finally snapped out of their confusion and launched themselves at the Spirit of Chaos. Discord just yawned and snapped his fingers, catching the four of them in a giant, floating net before throwing them to the side. Seeing the new danger, other Nightwalkers started throwing their magical dark shards at Discord, who twisted his body into a giant tennis racket and batted them back at them. The Nightwalkers mostly ducked, but a few were hit by their own attacks and disappeared into the shadows upon impact.

“Woah,” Jaden said up above in awe.

“Yeah, you should see him when he’s really trying,” Smolder said with a grin. “Come on, let’s help him out!”

Smolder rushed over to one of the stone railings and broke off a piece long enough to be used as a weapon. She then dove towards an unsuspecting Nightwalker and knocked it off the ledge with a blow to the back of its head. Its face planted hard enough onto the ground that there was a crack before it poofed out of existence. Smolder grinned and charged at another one. “Fore!”

She smacked one after another, taking out any stragglers who weren’t focused on the Spirit of Chaos. Jaden soon joined in and shoulder checked one in the face, knocking it off the level to its doom below. He unleashed a series of fireballs that smoked entire groups of them into burning ashes as he and Smolder stood back to back. They took on whatever came towards them with perfect teamwork, occasionally switching sides to relieve the other.

Meanwhile, turning back to himself, Discord snapped his fingers, suddenly wearing a maid outfit. “Now, look at these pesky rodents in my house. I better get Mr. Hoover to deal with them.”

He snapped his fingers again, and this time, a giant vacuum clear appeared in the air and turned on, sucking in the air around it. The Nightwalkers screamed in dark fury as they were swallowed up by the giant machine. Many tried to run or fight back, but it was all futile, as they were gathered up like dust bunnies on a carpet. Even the ones that Smolder and Jaden were fighting got sucked up; much to their disappointment, as the brawl was getting fun. The other Metallic dragons were stunned to see that the creatures that had been giving them so much trouble were being easily thwarted - and by a giant vacuum cleaner, no less! Just as soon as he did this, the giant spiral of dark magic ceased to function, and all was quiet once again.

Discord made sure to get every last one of the dark creatures before he snapped his fingers again. The giant bag holding them all was placed on a large slingshot whose rubber band started to rear back. Discord changed into a classic naval admiral outfit and held out a sword before striking it down, screaming “Fire!” before the slingshot was sent loose. The giant bag went sailing into the air, right into the direction of the sun. It twinkled in the sky before disappearing completely.

“Where’d they go?” Smolder asked, flying next to Discord.

“Oh, I figured being from a world of darkness was terrible for their skin, so I decided to help by showing them the best place for a tan,” Discord said as put on some sun shades and started drinking from a coconut cup with a little plastic umbrella inside. “The sun.”

Squealing with joy, Fluttershy rushed up to her friend and hugged him by wrapping her arms around his face. “Oh, Discord! Thank you so much! You saved us!”

“Well, I was getting a little bored at that tea party. Gummy might be quite the talker, but he doesn’t have many interesting stories,” Discord said with a grin before he snapped his fingers again, freeing the trapped dragons from their chain. He then folded his arms and raised an eyebrow. “Now what are you doing here in what I can presume is Cyclops territory, all while surrounded by Nightwalkers, Metallic dragons, and a giant shadow gate to the netherrealm? Your students informed me that you were on some kind of heroic journey with Smolder; I assume it’s gotten out of hand?”

“Believe me, you don’t know the half of it,” Smolder said as she and Jaden landed next to everyone else.

“I can’t believe that we’re right in front of the Spirit of Chaos,” Jaden whispered in awe. “And he’s actually friends with a pony.”

“I can’t believe he just saved all our lives,” Skyir said with a grin. “Now I really want to try those cucumber sandwiches Fluttershy says he makes.”

“You can focus on eating later,” Xieru said with a growl, fear in his eyes. “We need to get to the First Flame now, before Valaxis gets to it first.”

“Valaxis is going to the First Flame? Why?” Jaden asked in surprise.

“Because he’s going to use it as a sacrifice to summon a being of pure destruction not even he can control. If he does so, not only will the Chromatic Dragon Lands burn, but ours and Bahamut knows how many others as well,” Xieru said, before turning to Discord. “Even you would have a challenge against such a beast, Spirit of Chaos.”

“But what is he planning on summoning?” Fluttershy asked.

Xieru closed his eyes and was silent for a bit before he opened them again. “He plans on summoning a Typhon.”

Everyone gasped in horror. Even Discord.

“A...A...A Typhon?!” Skyir shouted in horror. “But that’s-”

“Yes,” Xieru murmured, “the very same creature that wiped out nearly half the entire world’s population thousands of years ago. The one that wiped out eons of civilization. If we don’t stop it, millions of lives are going to be exterminated!”

Chapter 13

View Online

There were some monsters whose names alone could make anycreature freeze in fright. Names that anyone, even those who knew nothing about monsters, knew for their infamy:

The Leviathan.

The Baba Yaga.

The Nosferatu.

The Gorgon.

The Basilisk.

And above them all, the Typhon.

Said to be the father of monsters, the Typhon was a beast of terrible, fiery power, enough to wipe out entire nations in a matter of weeks. Stories of that power were tied to the graves of powerful empires throughout history. And now one Metallic Dragon wanted to make the Chromatics join their ranks.

Smolder’s mind first went to her parents and siblings. They wouldn’t stand a chance. They would be wiped out, as would so many other dragons she knew. Even those she despised didn’t deserve the wrath of a Typhon.

And this Valaxis plothole wanted to use the First Flame, the holy symbol of all dragonkind, to summon him?

“Y-You can’t be serious!" Jaden shouted, his eyes wide. "He’s insane! Nobody can control a Typhon! It wouldn’t just stop at the Chromatics! It would continue on to wherever else it wants! Equestria! The Badlands! Zebraswana! Even our home isn’t safe from this!”

Xieru's claws dug into his palms. "He told me so himself, and I looked into his eyes. His hatred for the Chromatics has made him lose all sense of reason. He will stop at nothing to wipe them out and damn the consequences.”

“But why does he need the First Flame?” Fluttershy asked in confusion.

“Summons require a sacrifice of some kind. For something as big as a Typhon, the First Flame makes a good choice,” Discord said, his grim tone sending a chill down Smolder's spine. “The First Flame just so happens to be placed perfectly at a crossroads in the world’s magical key lines. It’s quite literally a super sponge for magical energy; with the right ritual, it can and will summon the beast. If Valaxis summons that thing, even I won’t be enough to stop it.”

“Then let’s stop this guy already!” Smolder turned to Discord. “Teleport us there now!”

Discord scratched the back of his neck. "I can't."

“What?! Why?!”

“The First Flame is a symbol of Order. I am a Spirit of Chaos,” Discord said as he snapped his fingers, reappearing in a professor’s uniform, hat and all, with a chalkboard beside him. He wrote a complex equation on it that Smolder doubted was real, given that it used smiley faces, poo symbols, and Princess Celestia’s cutie mark. Regardless, he explained, “We’re like oil and water! Bacon and tofu! Heavy metal and disco! My powers wouldn’t work around it. I’d be as powerless as the time Tirek took my magic. Why do you think I used those vines to hurt the Tree of Harmony all those years ago? I couldn’t get near it in the first place.”

“Can you at least teleport us as close as possible to it, Discord?” Fluttershy asked.

“That I can do, but I don’t know how close you’ll be. You’ll have to fly fast to stop him.”

“Alright, then we teleport in. We fly fast, and we do not stop until Valaxis is taken down. One way or another,” Skyrir said with a determined expression.

“Discord, you should find Ember! She needs to know about this in case we fail!” Smolder said.

Oasis made a few quick hand signs. Smolder turned to Fluttershy for a translation as the pegasus said, “Apparently the Metallics have an army nearby.”

Xieru's eyes lit up. "Yes, Commander Joreim! Tell him everything, and to work with Dragon Lord Ember right away! We can put aside our differences for something like this easily!”

“But what about the rules for the journey?” Fluttershy pointed out.

“Screw the rules! It’s not going to matter if the First Flame is destroyed and we’re all dead!” Smolder shouted.

“Right, find Ember. Find this Joreim. And then I might as well find Twilight and the rest of her friends while I'm at it,” Discord replied as he began counting with his fingers.

“Wait, Twilight and the girls? Why?” Fluttershy asked.

"You and them swooping in to save the day is pretty much a trope by now," Discord said with a shrug. "And besides, the Elements of Harmony might be able to counter the ritual if need be."

Discord snapped his fingers. A portal appeared nearby, showing the base of a rocky mountain surrounded by dozens of smaller ones. Its summit rose high above the clouds.

“This is as close as I can send you, and the Flame's already taking a lot out of me as-is.,” Discord said as he wiped some sweat from his brow. “It will take some time for me to fully recover, so reinforcements might take a while. The rest is up to you.”

“Then let’s move! Come on!” Xieru shouted. He flew in first, with everyone else not far behind. Fluttershy gave Discord one last hug before she followed her student and the other dragons into the portal. Silently wishing them good luck, Discord snapped his fingers and teleported out of the pit.

Swordrock Point was exactly what one would expect: a sword-shaped cliff along a mountain's edge. One of the Dragon Lands' more unique landmarks, it lay on the border between Metallic and Chromatic territory. Throughout history, it had been used as a place for both sides to talk without invading the other’s territory, and often was the place where war or peace broke out.

Dragon Lord Ember and her guards stood on one side of the edge, glaring at the Metallic Dragons on the other. All of them were the same height as her own dragons, only they were wearing armor and had large blades on them, as if they were preparing for war.

The small army not too far behind them didn't help either.

Meanwhile, I’m peanut-sized, Ember thought as she looked around. She really tried to give the image that size didn’t matter, but she couldn’t help but feel it was necessary at this point.

Nevertheless, she had a duty to represent her people, and thus stepped forward, as did a silver-scaled dragon with a purple cloak, golden armor, and a crystalline sword at his side, thankfully sheathed. The two met in the middle of the rocky formation.

Despite having to look up at the much taller dragon, Ember stood as proud as ever. Scepter raised, she said, “I am Dragon Lord Ember of the Chromatic Dragons. Who are you?”

“I am Commander Joreim of the Metallic Dragon Templars,” he answered with a small nod. “We are not here for war, for a dangerous criminal that has escaped our lands. We have a scouting team looking for him, led by a dragon named Xieru. Have you seen him or any Metallic Dragons in your territory?”

“You know that no Metallic Dragons are allowed in our territory without permission.” Ember forced back a growl. “Who is this dangerous criminal?”

“All you need to know is that he is a heretic and hates Chromatics. We believe he wishes harm on your people, and we wish to avoid that,” Commander Joreim answered.

Ember narrowed her eyes. “Why were we not informed of this sooner? If he is a threat to us, you should have told us at once!”

“We believed that we would be able to capture him in time. We also did not know how you would react to this news,” Commander Joreim answered with a sigh. “We were afraid you would seek retaliation. We are not seeking a war. Again.”

“How dangerous is this so-called ‘heretic’?” Ember asked, folding her arms. She wasn’t the most religious dragon in the world, but she knew the Metallics tended to be. Then again, they use “heretic” for everything against their views.

“He’s made a deal with the Dragon Titan of Death, Null,” Commander Joreim said, which made Ember’s eyes widen and her tail freeze. “He’s already sacrificed a number of lives to summon dark creatures, and we believe he intends to summon a massive creature against the Chromatics for revenge on his parents’ death.”

“....Godsdamnit,” Ember growled, burying her face in her hand. First I gotta worry about Smolder and Fluttershy, and now this?! What else is gonna give me a headache?!

A portal erupted right between the two dragons. Spooked, they drew their weapons, only for Ember to look with confusion at who it was coming out of the portal. It was Discord, dressed in some kind of red spandex costume with a yellow lighting bolt symbol in the middle. It reminded Ember of those comic superheroes Spike had once shown her.

“Discord?!” Ember shouted as the Spirit of Chaos zipped past her before skidding to a halt. “What are you doing here?!”

“Well, hello to you too, your majesty,” Discord said with a snort, before snapping his fingers to get rid of his costume.

“Wait, Discord?! The Spirit of Chaos?!” Commander Joreim pointed his sword at the unimpressed intruder. “What are you doing here?”

“Relax, Commander. He’s a...friend of a friend,” Ember said reluctantly as she waved for him to calm down. “But he is right, Discord. What are you doing here?”

“Well, after my little tea session got canceled, I found out that my dear friend Fluttershy is on a quest with Smolder to deal with that First Flame thing you dragons do ever so often,” Discord answered, crossing his arms.

“They’re alive?!” Ember shouted both with relief and happiness. She then paused. “Wait a minute, you’re not allowed to-”

“Intervene? I know, but considering that they and a bunch of Metallic Dragons were in Cyclops territory dealing with a bunch of Nightwalkers about to sacrifice them, I think I should be thanked, then scolded.”

“Nightwalkers?! Metallic dragons?! That must be Xieru, Skyir, Jaden and Oasis!” Commander Joreim exclaimed. “Are they okay?!”

“I take it you are Commander Joreim?” Discord asked, getting a nod in return. “Great, this will make things faster. Your dragon friends told you to get with Dragon Lord Ember and her forces and make for the First Flame as fast as you can.”

“Wait, The First Flame? Together? Why?” Ember asked. A bad feeling started forming in her stomach.

“Because some crazy Metallic Dragon is going to use it to summon a Typhon, and I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to see half of the entire world turn into a wasteland if that thing shows up. So whatever differences you have with each other, put them away, get flying, and pray your gods are with us today.”

“Can’t you just teleport us there?” Ember asked in frustration.

“Believe me, I would, but the others called dibs, and subjecting myself to symbols of Order tends to take a lot out of me,” Discord explained as he snapped his fingers and a lounge chair appeared for him to relax in. “I need to rest up, and then I’m going to get Twilight and her friends. I’d get flying if I were you.”

Ember cursed and turned to Commander Joreim. “As Dragon Lord, I ask for an alliance with the Metallics and permit them entry into our borders.”

“We will work with you,” Commander Joreim agreed. “Let’s hope we can make it there in time and our comrades can hold their own.”

“Um, is the First Flame’s mountain supposed to be this scary?” Fluttershy asked as she looked up and gulped.

“No, it’s not,” Smolder grumbled. Red, thundering clouds swirled overhead as chill winds blew around them, punctuated by deep rumblings that emanated from the mountain every few seconds. It felt like the gates of Tartarus had opened.

“Either he’s already preparing the ritual, or it's just about to begin,” Xieru said. “We have to fly at full speed! No rest! If someone falls behind you, leave them behind! Too much is at stake! Now let’s go!”

Nobody waited for a response. Everyone spread their wings and flew as fast as they could up the mountain. However, they soon felt the effects of the ritual working against them. Smolder could feel the fierce winds already pushing them down and around. It was almost as if her wings were going to get torn from her back, but she managed to stay strong despite the bumpy ride. Most of the others were doing okay as well, but Jadan was still struggling and it was clear that, despite healing most of his injuries, his body was still a bit damaged since he was wincing. There was a large part of Smolder that wanted to tell him to take it easy, but his cute, confident grin kept her mouth shut.

....Wait, cute?

A yelp distracted Smolder, and she saw that Fluttershy was furthest behind. Her wings, already weaker than most, weren’t fit for this kind of weather, and she was struggling as hard as she could to keep up. Smolder bit her lip and began to worry about her teacher. Much as a part of her wanted to help Fluttershy with her flying, she knew it would only delay the others.

Sighing, Smolder let herself float back to Fluttershy. “Professor! Stay back and let us handle this!”

“W-What?! But I can-”

“You look like you’re about to keel over!” Smolder shouted as Fluttershy winced. “Look, we’ll go on ahead and you join us when you can! Just be careful! If the worst happens-”

“I’m not leaving you, Smolder!” Fluttershy shouted. “We came all this way to do this, and we’re going to finish it together! We survived this much and we can survive this too! You...You’re one of my best students, and I’m not going to leave you! Win or lose!”

“But aren’t you afraid?!”

“Of course I am afraid!” Fluttershy screamed, blowing Smolder back with enough ferocity to rival the winds. “I've been afraid since we started! But I’m more afraid of losing you and failing you!” She grabbed Smolder’s claw with her hoof and smiled at her. “You’re a brave and kind dragon, Smolder. And you are going to go far. I’m proud to have you as my student, and I'm going to see this through with you. If we go down, we go down together.”

“...You’re pretty cool, Professor Fluttershy,” Smolder whispered as she did her best to hide a tear. “I’m really glad I chose you to do this with me. I don’t think...I don’t think I could have without you.”

“And me without you,” Fluttershy replied with a warm smile. “Now, shall we go save the world?”

“Yeah, but I got an idea.” Smolder flew under Fluttershy, pressed her back against her stomach, and let the pony place her hooves around her neck. “Hang on tight, okay?”

“O-O-Okay!” Fluttershy shouted as she held on.

Gritting her teeth, Smolder kicked it into high gear. She wasn’t going to lose to this storm. Nor to this Valaxis plothole for trying to ruin the world. She managed to catch up with Jaden and gazed over at him. He nodded. but then turned forward again, only to curse in alarm. “Dodge!”

Smolder only did so by turning to the left just as a thunderbolt nearly struck her in the chest. It wasn’t the only one, as dozens of lighting bolts came down upon them from above. The dragons ducked, twirled, and twisted in the air to avoid them. She wasn’t sure if the bolts would kill her or not, but she didn’t want to find out.

“Cave to the right! Take shelter!” Xieru shouted, pointing to a nearby cave.

They all flew in, just in time to avoid a giant bolt that struck the mouth of the cave a moment later. Landing on the ground, Smolder let Professor Fluttershy down as they gathered together.

Xieru cleared his throat. “Alright, we’re just a few feet away. Here is our battle strategy." He pointed to Oasis. "You, Smolder, and Fluttershy will sneak around and see if you can find some way to stop the ritual. Me, Skyir, and Jaden will distract Valaxis and fight him head-on. Valaxis will stop at nothing to get the ritual to work, even kill us, so hold nothing back.”

His expression darkening, he locked eyes once with each of them. “There is a good chance we might not all make it out of this alive. Should the worst happen to some or all of us, I want you to know that I am grateful to have fought alongside you all. Bahamut blesses you in the afterlife.”

“We’re going to make it out of this,” Fluttershy said much to everyone’s surprise as she stared at them with conviction. “All of us.”

“...Yeah,” Smolder said with a confident smile. “We will.”

Skyir nodded with enthusiasm, while Oasis gave a thumbs up and Jaden gave a grin. “Let’s kick some flank out there.”

“Alright, let’s get going,” Xieru said.

However, Jaden took Smolder by the shoulder and looked at her with a serious expression. “You be careful out there, okay?”

“Hey, you’re the one facing him head-on,” Smolder chuckled. “I should be saying that to you.”

To her surprise, Jaden didn’t say anything. He kept staring at her for a bit before closing his eyes. “Screw it. I don’t want to die with regrets.”

“Huh? What are you-” Smolder didn’t get a chance to finish as Jaden took her by the waist, brought her close, and, before she knew it, pressed his lips against her own. Her eyes widened and her cheeks went crimson as her tail and wings flared out straight. She stood there frozen, her heart thumping like a drum as Jaden continued to kiss her.

But the strangest thing of all?

She liked it.

He ended the kiss and grinned as a blushing Smolder babbled a bit, saying nonsense words before shaking her head. “W-What...was...that?”

“Call it a good luck kiss,” Jaden replied with a wink, before joining his comrades, all of whom were giving him knowing smirks..

Even Fluttershy couldn’t help but coo as Smolder focused on calming herself down, torn between kissing Jaden back and killing him herself.

Giggling, the pegasus then asked, “So what was that about not having feelings for anycreature earlier?”

“Shut up.”

Chapter 14

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Fluttershy was no stranger to heading into battle against dangerous villains who could potentially end her life. Yes, she didn’t like it, but she hated the idea of doing nothing to stop them even more. What teacher of friendship would she be if she abandoned her student? Abandoned all the other dragons she now called her friends?

She wasn’t going to back down and leave with her tail between her legs. Not a chance.

Oasis, Smolder, and Fluttershy had flown just below the top of the mountain, hoping to find an ideal ambush site. While the winds were still chaotic, hugging the mountain mitigated much of the earlier problems they had been dealing with. She could only hope that the others would be strong enough to hold back Valaxis.

Soon, Oasis signaled for them to stop, and she gulped as he pointed upward. The three of them peered up, their eyes widening at the scene before them. The top of the mountain was flat, with dozens of stone pillars bearing ancient runes carved by dragons of old. In the center of the top, the goal since the start of this journey, was the First Flame.

The object reminded Fluttershy of a tower or rook piece from chess. It would have been just about the size of five of her cottages in terms of length and width. The base was a three-step, eight-sided pagoda made of gold, with multiple gems decorating it. Smaller fires burned alongside each of the steps in multiple colors, ranging from red to blue to white to black and all others in-between. The tower itself was made of shiny gold, with its eight walls all showing stained glass designs of what Fluttershy guessed were famous dragons, who stood proud and tall amidst various environments: a red dragon behind a volcano; a blue dragon in the middle of the sea; a purple dragon with a thunderstorm behind them; a white dragon basking in the sun; a black dragon under the light of the moon; a green dragon surrounded by trees; and a yellow one flying in the sky with the clouds around them.

Finally, there was the crown of the tower, which opened up like an iron flower with sharp steel buds. A small gold and crimson flame could be seen on top with only embers to show. It was there that Smolder would need to breathe her fire to re-energize the First Flame.

Fluttershy couldn’t deny the beauty of the First Flame. It was truly something spectacular that could rival numerous works of art she had seen in Canterlot. However, this wonder was ruined by the ritual circle that surrounded it, extending what had to be twenty feet in all directions.

The shy pegasus was by no means a magic expert, but even she knew that a sinister blood red magical circle with spikes and crooked runes was not a good thing. They were all glowing, and a black reddish aura was being sent into the First Flame, as if empowering it with the negative energy. Nearby the First Flame was a steel-colored Metallic Dragon that Fluttershy assumed was Valaxis. His hands were glowing the same energy as the magical circle under his control and his focus was on the First Flame itself.

“Okay, how are we going to sabotage this?” Smolder whispered, stumped, and Fluttershy couldn’t blame her. She really wished Twilight was here to help her figure that out.

Oasis was the one with the answer, as he turned to them and started doing hand signs that Fluttershy translated: <The runes are the key. We need to get rid of them by wiping them off or ruining the design. Think of it as erasing a letter off of paper.>

“So just wipe them off with our tails or something?” Smolder asked, which got a nod from Oasis. “Huh, okay. That actually sounds easier than I thought.”

<You say that, but we will need to disturb many runes for this to happen, and remember that Valaxis is a sorcerer of great power. He can attack you from a distance.> Oasis signed with his hands. <Hopefully the others will be able to distract him long enough for us to get enough.>

Suddenly, the three heard Xieru shouting. “Valaxis!” They looked back and saw him, Skyir, and Jaden land just at the edges of the magical circle, their claws and teeth at the ready. Valaxis stopped what he was turning to turn around and glare at the three.

Xieru stepped forward. “In the name of our Lord and God, Bahamut, I am ordering you: stand down and return with us to face judgment for your crimes! Otherwise, we will stop you by any means necessary! Even with lethal force!”

“You’re too late, Xieru,” Valaxis said calmly as he walked down the pagoda to face the three. “As we speak, the ritual is underway, and you do not have the power to stop it. Like it or not, I’m going to end the Chromatic Dragons once and for all. I will end his conflict at last and our people will know peace.”

“And at what cost?! How many other races will suffer for your revenge?! You cannot control a Typhon, Valaxis! You will destroy millions of lives!” Xieru shouted.

“The price to pay for a better future. The world is better off without them,” Valaxis argued. “They are cruel, uncaring, greedy, and selfish. How many other races live in fear of them for burning their homes? How many lives have they claimed all for the sake of useless materials like gems and gold? They care nothing about compassion or love or justice. Only power and wealth. They create nothing but destroy everything. They are pathetic. Immature children who stomp and scream when they do not get their way, and generations from now, I will be silently thanked for getting rid of them.”

“You’re wrong!” Jaden shouted as he stepped forward and glared at him. “I used to think that way. I admit it. I hated Chromatics too. But I’ve seen that they are just like us even if we are different. They have compassion and care. They can learn about friendship. They are brave and honorable. You are the one in the wrong here. And I’ll stop you even if it costs me my life!”

“Don’t you dare die on me, you dumb rock head,” Smolder whispered to herself, though Fluttershy pretended not to hear. “Or I’ll go to the afterlife and drag you back.”

“Enough.” Valaxis’s hands began to glow a mix of black and purple. “I shall give you a quick and merciful death as fellow Metallics. Now be good dragons and die!”

He unleashed a wave of black fire from his hands that the three dragons avoided by flying into the air. Each of them unleashed their own fire breath, but Valaxis summoned a green energy shield to protect himself. Jaden and Skyir dived down and kicked the shield, which made it loosen in energy and disappear for a brief moment. That was enough for Xieru to dive down and smash his fist into Valaxis, who stumbled a bit but stood strong. Growling, he summoned a chain of magical energy and shot it at Xieru, who was soon caught in its clutches. Growling he tried to free himself as he fell to the floor as Valaxis prepared to strike, only for the evil dragon to get smacked in the back by Jaden’s tail while Skyir grabbed her superior and dragged him behind a pillar.

As the battle between the four began, Oasis turned to the others and nodded before pointing at them to go. Smolder wasted no time and started going after as many runes as she could by sweeping them with her tail or feet. Fluttershy soon joined her and almost compared it to cleaning the dust and dirt in her home floor. Oasis followed suit, and the three spread out to cover as much ground as possible.

Of course, it wasn’t that simple. The runes required a lot of focus on erasing, almost as if they were stuck to the ground. It took nearly half a minute to get just one rune to stop glowing and sending its sinister magic towards the First Flame. Once one was gone, Fluttershy hurried over to the next. It was a process that would be a lot less stressful if there wasn’t a dragon nearby who would vaporize her into atoms the moment he caught wind of her actions.

Fluttershy knew that the whole thing would be exposed if Valaxis saw what they were doing, so she made sure to hide behind the pillars occasionally for cover. Thankfully, Xieru (now free of his chains) and the others were making sure his attention was not focused on them. Fluttershy didn’t know how many runes the three of them had already managed to eliminate, but she could already see less threads of energy heading into the First Flame. Their plan was working.

Of course, something would go wrong at that moment.

Fluttershy yelped as she felt her flank nearly get crisped by a bolt of green lighting, forcing her to duck for a carved pillar as two more hit the stone and cracked it. She poked her head out and saw Valaxis glaring at her, summoning more magic around his body. “Did you really think I didn’t sense that my runes were being erased?! Nice try, but I’m not going to let anyone stop me!”

He then let out a cry of rage and channeled his magic into a giant orb of black and green energy above his head. It levitated into the sky as if it was the moon, slitted eyes appearing all around it, which made Fluttershy gulp in terror. Those eyes soon proved to be an even bigger threat than she thought, as they started firing energy beams at the four dragons and one pony, who all scattered to avoid getting hit.

The energy beams showed how destructive they were by blowing the pillar Oasis had hidden behind into pieces, knocking him back. He quickly managed to get back on his feet and fly off before another blast could hit him. Skyir and Xieru tried to attack Valaxis again with their fire breath, but he unleashed his own to counter them. Fluttershy continued to fly around, avoiding the eye blasts, until she bumped into Smolder in the air. This nearly made them get hit, but they regained their composure and dodged the attack before flying towards the First Flame itself.

The eyes fired more magical shots at them and hit the First Flame, which was undamaged, with even the stained glass reflecting the beams. The two hid behind the First Flame, wincing at the horrible feeling they were getting from the dark power coalescing inside of it.

“Well, I guess we’re kinda screwed, huh?” Smolder joked but she looked so nervous her knees were shaking. “Any ideas?”

“How many runes did we get?” Fluttershy asked as she looked around.

“Not enough, I’m guessing,” Smolder commented as she poked her head out. “We have to get rid of Valaxis.”

“Y-Y-You mean kill him?” Fluttershy asked, gulping.

“That, or somehow stop him from casting magic,” Smolder pointed out with a huff. “Any ideas?”

Fluttershy bit her lip and tried to think of something. She was a pegasus. Not a unicorn. All she could do was fly and even then she wasn’t that fast. The only thing protecting them was the First Flame which was able to reflect the magical beams thanks to the glass windows.

...Wait a minute! Fluttershy’s eyes lit up as she looked up and saw that they were standing against the design portraying the white, sunlit dragon. Praying to whatever deity was listening, she flew up a bit and pressed her hoof against the smooth, thick glass.

An idea came to her. It was crazy, but it was the only thing she could think of.

“Smolder! Can you use your talons to carve out a big circle from this window?” Fluttershy asked with haste. Smolder was puzzled, but shrugged and soon used her claws to do what her teacher requested. Once it was loose, the big glass stained circle came out and both Fluttershy and Smolder grabbed onto it.

“What are we going to do with this thing? Throw it at him?” Smolder asked in utter confusion.

“We’re going to use it as a mirror! You remember Twilight’s lesson on lasers and reflections in her science class, yes?!” Fluttershy asked, which made Smolder’s eyes widen as she glanced at the modified mirror in their grasps and grinned.

“Oh, I get it! But we’re going to need to get his attention! Leave that to me and get ready!” Smolder said as she helped lower it to the ground and held it up for Fluttershy to keep it steady.

Taking a deep breath, Smolder flew out into the open and put her hands in front of her mouth. “Hey! Valaxis!”

The dragon wizard turned his attention to Smolder, who grinned, turned around, and lifted her tail to shake her rump at him. “Who taught you how to use magic?! You can’t even hit me! I bet your parents are disappointed in your lameness!”

“Silence, you Chromatic filth!” Valaxis shouted with rage upon hearing his parents being insulted.

Seeing that she had an angle, Smolder turned around and crossed her arms. “Oh? Did I strike a nerve?! Well, let me say some more! Your mother was a whore and your dad was a useless sack of crap who wished you were never born!”

Valaxis screamed as he fired a huge bolt of lighting at Smolder, who barely managed to dodge it. The raging dragon flew towards his eyeball monstrosity and landed on it, diverting its main eye towards Smolder. “I will destroy you and your kind for what you did to me! Die!”

Smolder gulped and flew towards Fluttershy, who prepared their modified mirror behind the First Flame. The eyeball monstrosity continued to follow Smolder, charging its magic as she hid behind the First Flame, grabbed her end of the glass circle, and said, “Here goes nothing!”

The two then jumped out, holding the mirror out like a shield as the eyeball fired its biggest laser yet. The other dragons screamed their names in fear, but to their shock, and Smolder and Fluttershy’s amazement, the beam of deadly magic reflected off the mirror and shot right back at a surprised Valaxis.

He tried to get out of the way, but the beam of magic made direct contact with his chest. He screamed in agony as he was knocked back so hard he went flying and arced into a pillar that shattered upon contact. Upon him hitting the ground hard, the magical sphere disappeared in a puff of smoke. With his concentration ruined, the spell was broken. Fluttershy and Smolder looked at each other in amazement before high-fiving each other via their wings and cheering.

“That was awesome!” Smolder shouted.

“Yay!” Fluttershy yelled, although she was much quieter.

The other dragons landed near them and roared with excitement.

“Nice one, girls!” Jaden shouted with a big smile.

“That was brilliant!” Skyir cried out. “Did you see the look on his face when it hit him? Ha!

<Seems fitting that the First Flame, which Valaxis was trying to use for his own gain, was used to hurt him instead> Oasis signaled.

“Come on! We cannot let this opportunity pass! We must press the attack!” Xieru shouted as the five of them charged forward to where Valaxis had landed.

They landed next to the small crater that Valaxis had caused upon his impact, the remains of the pillar he crashed into scattered around. The five of them walked cautiously towards the giant hole and winced upon seeing the villain lying inside. Everyone was grateful they hadn’t gotten hit by the magical beam. It didn't look good for Valaxis, as it seemed the blow had done much more damage than expected.

His entire chest was caved in and bleeding such amounts of blood that it made Fluttershy tear up and look away. His legs were crushed with shattered bones, and his right eye was gone, a gory mess in its place. There were sharp shards of the pillar’s rubble impaled all over his body, with a very thick spear-like piece deep in his stomach. Finally, his wings were ripped apart, and it was clear he wasn’t going to fly, or even move, any time soon.

Coughing up a glop of blood and saliva, Valaxis glared at the four Metallic dragons with utter hatred. “T-T-Traitors...You...fools....I was....going to make...us the true...dragon race...”

“You were going to commit genocide,” Xieru said softly, though the touch of sympathy was dwarfed by the disgust lingering in his tone. “You betrayed everything we have stood for. All that Bahamut has stood for. You are the traitor, Valaxis. And this is the fate of all traitors.”

“I...I was your....brother in life....Xieru...and you...” He hissed in pain and turned his head to Smolder, glaring at her. Fluttershy stood in front of her protectively, despite her discomfort at seeing a dying creature before her. “You...chose...them...over me...”

“You made your choice and you must live with it,” Xieru whispered as he lowered his head. “And die with it as well.”

“...So be it...but I will die...still...completing my goal!” Valaxis shouted as he lifted his claw, which was pure green as a sickle spiked rune appeared on the palm. “Lord Null! Take my life and complete the ritual! Bring forth the great fire serpentine of destruction! And bring chaos to the world!”

“No!” Xieru shouted in horror as he rushed forward, but it was too late.

Valaxis shoved his hand into his chest, going right through his scales like butter. He screamed, his glowing palm piercing his heart, and his body began to glow the same color as his rune. A burst of magic erupted from his wound and knocked everyone back as the body of Valaxis glowed green and began to decay. His scales rotted, his flesh burned, and his muscles disintegrated until there was nothing but a bony skeleton of the Metallic dragon.

The energy then shot right into the First Flame, which soon started glowing a similar color before unleashing a green tower of flames into the sky. The storm clouds above began to get darker and were slowly turning into a mix of red and green.

The five all gazed up in horror as the flaming energy soon spread into the heavens, and clouds began to circle around like a hurricane had taken them into its embrace. Something was beginning to open up, as if the sky was the shell of a cracking egg. A crackling portal was slowly opening as the winds began to blow in all directions, the sound of screeching echoed in the air, and the feeling of dread washed everyone over as the ritual continued.

Across the land, all who gazed upon the towering green inferno and hellfire clouds felt a similar feeling. Those who knew what it was wondered if they were too late.

Suddenly, something moved in the deep center of it all. It slowly moaned and growled as the muscle of something flinched. As if reality was tearing itself apart and the lightning from the storms was opening the gates of hell, a giant object faded into existence. It slowly opened its giant eyelids, covered in ancient scales so old that they were beyond knowledge. The demonic flames coated it like a sea of hellfire so hot that the five could feel it from the ground.

It slowly opened its red and yellow eyes, and soon they all knew what they were seeing.

The Eye of a Typhon.

Chapter 15

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Fluttershy had been afraid many times but had never felt more terrified than she did here and now. So much so that she was shocked that she hadn't wet herself yet. She gazed into the firing cataclysmic eye of a creature of pure and utter destruction threatening to enter their dimension and felt only fear. It was huge. Almost half the size of Ponyville itself. How did anything that big exist? How could they even defeat it or seal it?

Turning her gaze to the dragons, Fluttershy hoped that one of them knew what to do, but they were all just as terrified. Even Xieru looked like he was about to turn pale upon seeing their upcoming doom. Fluttershy didn't think her life would end like this, but it seemed, after so many risky adventures, her lucky survival streak had finally failed.

"W-What do we do?" Fluttershy asked desperately.

"I...I don't know..." Xieru whispered in horror. "I don't think we can do anything."

"There has to be something!" Smolder shouted in desperation as she pointed to the giant eye as the storm clouds worsened. "All we gotta do is shut the portal, right?!"

"How?! That thing's almost as big as the mountain!" Jaden pointed out in fear.

Smolder bit her lip and looked around. They are trying to find something that could stop the Typhon from entering their world. Fluttershy wished she could think of something, but her mind was blank. This was something Twilight was an expert on. Not her. Her thing was animals, and she knew she couldn't tame a Typhon. She doubted even The Stare could do something to anything that big.

"...We have to retreat," Xieru whispered. "If...If this thing comes out, we must be as far away from it as possible."

All of them agreed and spread their wings to start flying when, suddenly, an unearthly roar froze them in place. It blasted so loud. Fluttershy felt like her ears were about to bleed. A giant gust of wind blew down upon the group from the portal above, and a nasty, deathly, smelling breath hit them before blowing all six of them away. Skyler and Oasis grabbed boulders to stop themselves from going too far, while Xieru hit the ground hard and yelped by using his spikes and spines to stick to the ground. Smolder and Jaden grabbed each other's claws and tried to push themselves with their wings to keep them from going further until they hit a pillar and landed together.

However, Fluttershy could not grab something as the wind blew her away. She screamed as she got closer to the edge and heard her student shout her name in horror. Fluttershy tried to get her wings to move, but they were too scared to open up. It was like they were glued to her back. Fluttershy sent a final cry before she was finally blown off the top of the mountain and fell down its side as the clouds surrounded her.

This was a familiar feeling. Falling from great heights. Every time it happened, someone had always saved Shy. Usually, Rainbow Dash. What she wouldn't give to have her come to her rescue right now, but she was all the way back in Equestria.

Fluttershy closed her eyes and hoped that her demise wouldn't be painful. Even if it was the end, she lived a good life. She just hoped that Smolder didn't blame herself for this. She was a good student. A good dragon. It was a shame she never would see the First Flame light up. Smolder had come so far, and she wouldn't light it because some evil dragon was consumed by hatred.

Maybe the Metallics and Chromatics could work together and stop the Typhon with the other races? Stop it from hurting the world too much? It's too bad she wouldn't be around, but maybe she could see it in Heaven. Speaking of Heaven, she wondered if she was already there. For some reason, she was flying back up instead of down. Did she already hit the bottom? Was she already dead? Wait...why was she being carried?

"Jeez, Fluttershy! You really need to lay off the biscuits! I think you're getting heavier each time I carry you!"

Fluttershy knew that voice and opened her eyes to gasp upon seeing a familiar grinning rainbow-maned pegasus holding her while flying back in the direction she fell. "R-Rainbow D-Dash?!"

"The one and only!" Dash proudly proclaimed as she prepared her wings. "Now get ready!"

Faster than she could react, Fluttershy was carried back to the surface of the mountaintop where they landed. The gusts had stopped, and they could stand on their hooves as Rainbow Dash gave her usual grin to Fluttershy, who quickly hugged her fillyhood friend. She knew she should have questioned how she was here, but Fluttershy didn't care. It felt like everything was alright in the world now that one of her friends was here.

"Professor Fluttershy!" Smolder shouted as she flew over with the others in concern before noticing that there was another pony among them. "Professor Rainbow Dash?! What are you doing here?!"

"What I always do! Save the day!" Rainbow Dash said confidently as she looked behind her. "With a little bit of help, of course!"

Fluttershy's heart nearly leaped out of her chest when she heard this, and she hoped to every deity out there that Rainbow Dash's words were valid. A second later, Fluttershy nearly cried in joy upon seeing Twilight, saddlebags on her back, flying up and reaching the summit with Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie levitating beside her thanks to her telekinesis. She shut off her magic, and all four stood side by side with smiles and determination. Pinkie Pie was actually bouncing up and down in excitement, but that was normal.

"Girls!" Fluttershy screamed as she rushed over and hugged them in a giant group hug. They were here. Her best friends were here. All five of them. Things were going to be okay. When the six of them are together, everything always ends up okay. "I'm so glad to see you!"

"Glad to see you too, Fluttershy," Twilight said with a warm and comforting smile. "We were all worried about you and Smolder."

"Guess ya found yerself in more than just a simple visit to a fancy torch, huh?" Applejack asked with a chuckle.

"Ugh, I'm glad to see you, Darling, but you look absolutely dreadful," Rarity said with sympathy as she took notice of the dirt, grim, and mess that was Fluttershy's mane and coat. "The first thing we are doing when we return to Ponyville is a double spa treatment. Hmm, better make it triple."

Fluttershy couldn't help but smile even though a giant monster of doom was still trying to escape its dimension above. It just felt so good to see the girls after all this time.

"Oh! New friends!" Pinkie Pie said as she rushed over to the Metallic dragons, who were stunned to see her shaking their claws and zipping around them faster than they could react. "Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie! You must be the Metallic Dragons Discord told us about! Are you really made out of metal?! Do you like parties?! Do you like your portrayal in the 3rd or 5th edition DnD?! Oh, what's your favorite cake flavor?! You eat cake, right?!"

"...Uh, is she okay?" Jaden asked Smolder, who just chuckled.

"You get used to her," Smolder said before realizing something. "Wait, Discord?"

"Yeah, Discord told us everything and teleported us here as close as he could due to the First Flame hindering his powers," Rainbow Dash said. "So we're here to save the day."

"You guys are going to stop that?" Jaden asked as he pointed up to the Typhon's giant eye.

"Oh, wow!" Pinkie Pie said as she looked up at the monster's eye. "You think he needs big eye contacts to see?"

"No offense, but how will you ponies do that?" Xieru asked in confusion.

"With the power of friendship," Twilight said as she revealed the Elements of Harmony in her saddlebags. "I theorize that if we can use the power of the Elements of Harmony, we can reverse the summoning spell with the combined power of the First Flame's magic and seal the portal."

"Will that work?" Smolder asked.

"Only one way to find out," Twilight said as she handed each friend their jewelry.

Fluttershy didn't know if the Elements of Harmony would save the day as always, but they had never let them down before, and she didn't think they would start now. Besides, she trusted Twilight and her friends. If they believed that this could work, then it would work.

The six of them came together and closed their eyes. The familiar power of the Elements, the bonds they shared together, started to come from deep inside their hearts as the jewels began to glow. Slowly, they were lifted into the air by the power of the Elements and felt utter peace and unity as their hearts became one. Rainbow-colored energy flows between them and starts shining around their figures like a beacon of light in the darkness.

The dragons watched in awe as the six levitated with the power of the Elements of Harmony surrounding them. The eye of the Typhon, as if sensing the growing power, darted its eyes at the Elements and roared in defiance. However, unlike last time, Fluttershy felt no fear in her heart. Not when she had her six best friends by her side. She could face a hundred giant monsters and feel confident facing them all.

...Well, maybe only a few.

When the Element's power reached its peak, the six opened their eyes, and the rainbow-colored aura fired a beam at the First Flame. Almost instantly, it started to glow, restoring the damage done to it as the sinister and dark aura that was corrupting it began to fade away and was replaced with a purifying multicolor aura. The moment this happened, the Typhon roared not in anger or triumph but in fear. Despite not seeing the whole body, it was clear that the Elements were hurting it. As the eyes shook and widened, it realized that the means by which it was entering was now turning against it.

The six sent more power into the First Flame's structure until a beam of light shined from the top of the torch area and was sent into the sky. It hit the Typhon's eyes, shrieking as the energy spread across the sky like a blanket. The dragons watched in awe as the power of the Elements began to push the creature back and slowly started to seal the portal it was summoned by. Despair was soon replaced with hope as they looked up joyfully to see that the power of their friendship was indeed working.

The Typhon tried to fight back, but it was no match for the six's combined power. It soon realized it would lose and let out one last defiant scream before the portal disappeared in a large blast of energy. Everyone covered their eyes. It looked like fireworks had just been set off as multiple colored lights went off. This went on for a few minutes before it died down, and once the eyes were opened, all that could be seen was a clear blue sky and the sun shining down upon them.

The portal was gone, and so was the Typhon.

Smolder was the first to cheer, with the Metallics following soon after. Each of them roared and let out the fire to celebrate their victory. The six heroes soon came down from the sky and smiled at each other, knowing they had once again saved the day. Fluttershy took one deep breath and fell on her haunches, relieved that the world wouldn't end. Again.

She was then soon tackled by Smolder, who was laughing with tears in her eyes. The dragon student looked at Fluttershy and smiled at her. "That was awesome! You were awesome! You're amazing! I knew you were the best choice to pick, Professor Fluttershy! I knew it!"

"Oh, thank you, Smolder," Fluttershy said with a big smile to her student as she hugged her back. "You're an awesome student, too."

"Hey, what are we? Didn't we save the day, too? Where's our praise?" Rainbow Dash pouted, but Applejack rolled her eyes and elbowed her.

"They're having a moment. Let them."

It wasn't long before the Metallic dragons soon hugged as well. Xieru praised her and said she was a gift from Bahamut in their time of need. Skyir was just as fast as Pinkie Pie in her excited display of describing how amazing Fluttershy was with her friends. Oasis smiled and also gave out hand signs in a similar fashion. And Jaden just grinned and gave a thumbs-up.

'"I guess you ponies do know how to kick butt," Jaden said as he turned to Smolder. "You really do have awesome teachers."

"Yeah, I do," Smolder said with pride.

"Hey, look!" Rarity said as she pointed to the sky. "The other dragons!"

Everyone watched as two large armies of Chromatic and Metallic dragons, led by Dragon Lord Ember and Commander Joreim, were speeding towards them. The two groups landed, and Commander Joreim ordered them to spread out and form defensive positions as he saluted to Xieru. "Sir! Sorry for the late arrival!"

"It's okay, Joreim," Xieru said as he nodded. "Everything is taken care of."

"Smolder! Fluttershy! You two are okay!" Dragon Lord Ember shouted as she hugged the two. She then realized what she was doing and quickly let go before trying to get back into a more serious pose despite her blushing cheeks. "Um, glad to see you're still alive."

"Trust me, nobody is more glad to be alive than us," Smolder said with a big huff. "I'm just glad the Elements helped us."

"Yeah, we saw on our way here," Dragon Lord Ember said with a sigh as she smiled at the Elements. "Wow, Spike told me about the Elements of Harmony's power, but to see it with my own eyes? I'm glad our nations are friends."

"Wait, if you girls have the Elements, who's taking care of the vines?" Fluttershy asked in realization.

"Discord said he could hold it off long enough for us to stop the Typhon," Twilight Sparkle said with a smile as Fluttershy sighed in relief. "Don't worry. Princess Celestia and Luna are helping him as well."

"So the Typhon is really gone?" Commander Joreim asked.

"Gone. And so is Valaxis," Xieru said as he looked at the bony remains of his once close friend.

"Then I guess the day is saved, and everything is finished," Twilight said with a smile.

"Not quite," Fluttershy said, getting everypony attention as she turned to Smolder and smiled. "Someone needs to do their duty and end this journey."

Realization hit Smolder as she nervously looked around. "But...I broke the rules. I was only supposed to have you help me. I-"

"I think we all can agree that the circumstances made the rules obsolete," Ember said with a chuckle. "Besides, you helped save all of us from a Typhon. I can think of no better dragon worthy of lighting the First Flame than you, Smolder."

Smolder looked around and saw everyone, including the Metallic dragons, nod their head in support. Smiling, she turned around and strolled to the ancient structure that had been their goal this entire journey. After everything that had happened, this was it. This was the final part of their journey. The ending.

Taking in a deep breath, Smolder was about to unleash her flame when she paused. She stopped, turned around, and hurried over to Fluttershy with a smirk. "Come on."

"Huh?" Fluttershy asked in surprise.

"I couldn't have done this without you. I only made it this far with you by my side. As far as I am concerned, you and I deserve to do this together. So," Smolder held out her claw, "let's do it together."

Fluttershy looked at the claw and smiled before taking it. She and Smolder, hand in hoof, walked back to the First Flame. Smolder and Fluttershy nodded as the former finally took in a breath and unleashed her flame to the top. The torch caught on fire instantly, and the orange flames soon turned multicolor as the fire burst out and its flame shone like a star. The designs of the First Flame soon began to glow, and the jeweled glass glittered thanks to the burning fire.

The two stepped back and felt a vast relief leave their hearts. It was done. Their journey had come to an end.

The First Flame had been lit.

The Chromatic and Metallic dragons soon roared in celebration and honor of the First Flame. Both races, different in every possible way, united by the one thing that they shared with equal reverence.

"Woohoo!" Pinkie Pie shouted as she pulled out her party cannon (where many who didn't know her questioned how she got that from nowhere) and fired out some balloons and confetti. "This calls for a party!"

"No need to plan one, Pinkie Pie," Ember chuckled. "We always have a party after the First Flame is lit up. Mostly to honor it and the hero who set it up. Guess we'll also have to have a double party for saving the day from the Typhon as well."

"Woohoo! Double the party means double the fun!" Pinkie Pie cheered as she did a flip in the air.

"You guys want to come?" Ember asked Xieru, who was a bit surprised by this.

"You want to invite Metallics to your party on your territory?" Xieru asked.

"Eh, why not. Both of us helped each other out and saved the day. Plus, the lighting of First Flame is the one thing we both celebrate," Ember said with a shrug. "Princess Twilight is always going on about Friendship or whatnot, so I figured I might as well give it a try with your Metal scales."

"What if someone objects on your end?" Xieru asks.

"Then I threaten to shove my scepter up their ass," Ember said with a calm smile.

"I'd love to go to a party!" Skyir cried out while waving her hand.

<It would be a nice relaxing reward after all this.> Oasis's hand signaled.

"I wouldn't mind either," Jaden said as Smolder walked over to him, the two blushing as their tails touched.

"...Heh, I guess we have no choice but to accept," Xieru chuckled.

"Alright! Then let's go party!" Pinkie Pie shouted as she fired two more party cannons.

"...How does she..."

"Don't ask, it's Pinkie Pie."

The End

View Online

Fluttershy had to admit when dragons wanted to party they could really party. Combine it with Pinkie Pie’s usual celebration tastes and it was a bonanza of a good time. While there were some tensions between the Chromatics and the Metallics sharing the same area, that was all broken up the moment Pinkie Pie started a dancing session. Rainbow Dash and Applejack joined followed by Smolder who dragged Jaden into the circle and danced with him. Skyler dragged her friends and pretty soon everyone was dancing.

That and laughing at Twilight’s dancing. Even Fluttershy couldn’t help but still giggle whenever she saw her friend attempt to get down and “boogie”. In the end, it was a sign that the two dragons could not only get along, but also with ponies as well. Smolder was hailed as a hero among both dragons races as Ember proudly proclaimed her to be an example of what dragons should be. The Metallics, in turn, honored her for helping them stop Valaxis.

Whatever political doubts about Ember’s choice to change dragon society and ally with ponies were now all but an afterthought. Since dragons respected strength above all else, it was going to be hard to argue against being friends with a race that can seal away a Typhon. The Metallics stayed for another day for Ember to discuss some possible negotiations and a healing of old wounds. It wasn’t going to all get fixed in a day, but it was a start.

After that? It was time to go home. It was hard to believe that everything that happened was now over and Fluttershy was heading back to her cottage where her animal friends resided. But having been through so many adventures she knew that it would be just another memorable moment to put in her diary. She was looking forward to the peace that was going to come with it. At least until the next big crisis. Or some Friendship problem that would take thirty minutes or so to fix. It varied.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Fluttershy asked Smolder who was walking with her to her cottage.

“Yeah, I’m alright,” Smolder said as she rubbed her arm. “Okay, fine. I miss Jaden a bit.”

“I thought you both agreed to continue talking through mail?” Fluttershy asked.

“Yeah and he has said he’s interested in coming to the school next year,” Smolder replied but sighed. “But...I kinda...feel weird.”

“It’s your first crush,” Flutttershy giggled as she put a comforting hoof on the dragon’s shoulder. “You’re going to feel a lot of things. But I’m sure you and Jaden will be able to continue with what you have.”

“Thanks,” Smolder said with a light blush on her cheeks before pointing to Fluttershy. “Just make sure nobody knows about this. I got a reputation to keep.”

“I promise,” Fluttershy said as she giggled. “But I think everyone’s going to notice that you changed a lot from this journey.”

“Really?” Smolder asked in surprise.

“Yes, I think you’ve grown up a lot,” Fluttershy said as she hugged Smolder. “And I’m proud of you.”

Smolder hesitated at first, but soon she hugged Fluttershy back. Only for a minute before pushing her away. “Okay, mushy time is over. Let’s go see my friends.”

The two soon arrived at the door to Fluttershy’s cottage where Sandbar opened the door and the two blinked upon seeing him and the others in their current state. Their fur and feathers looked like they had been through a tornado, their bloodshot eyes were twitching, and they had multiple bruises and welts on their bodies. Sandbar all but gasped in relief like he had just been freed from imprisonment. Gallus was leaning on Silverstream to support himself while Cozy Glow was practically sprawled all over the ground. “Oh thank Celestia you are back.”

“Uh, yeah,” Smolder said as she looked at her friends. “You guys okay.”

“Just...peachy...” Ocellus sighed as she rubbed her neck and winced. “So...we’re free?”

“Um, yes. Is Angel here?” Fluttershy asked as a familiar bunny hopped over and dived into her embrace. “Angel! Mama missed you so much! Did you have a fun time with the others?”

Angel smiled at his “caretakers” who all backed away with a gulp before he turned to his owner and nodded.

“That’s a good boy,” Fluttershy said as she snuggled his face.

“...yeah....good...boy...” Gallus grumbled.

“Well, since you kids did such a good job, would you like to babysit him next week when-”

Smolder and Fluttershy soon found themselves knocked on their rears as the group screamed in horror and ran so fast that they could give Rainbow Dash a run for their money. The two watched as they soon became a dust cloud in the distance as they looked at each other wondering what that was about. All while Angel Bunny chuckled and smiled in satisfaction.

The End

Dedicated In Memory My Friend, and Original Writer of this story,

DarkLink22

Rest In Peace

Journey to the First Flame (Continued)

by Rated Ponystar

Opening Author's Note

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

The End