Chapter 3 To Live and Die in Manehatten

Ponies that talk funny

The ponies arrived at the shores of manehatten the next die on the back of the purple dragon.

“Thanks for the ride Stephen.” Clockwerk said hopping off of the purple dragons back.

“Thank you for the mustache trimmer, sorry about your boat.”

“Hey man it was a priceless vase.” Double Bubble said reassuring the dragon. “We’re the one that should be sorry it was a horrible decision on our part. The trimmer is the least I could do.”

“Well I’m just glad we could all get past it.” Stephen said happily. The three shared a hug as Stephen swam back into the ocean

“Well that ended a lot better than I expected,” Remarked Clockwerk.

“Yeah talk about a swell guy. We’ll never forget you Stephen Magnet.” Before he was quite out of earshot the purple dragon let out a massive cough that sent a projectile hurdling toward the two ponies. It smashed ino the ground in front of them with a thud and the two were happy to see their old friend.

“Gilda!!!” they both exclaimed somewhat sarcastically.

“Wow what a relief that you aren’t dead.” Double Bubble remarked

“Yeah we thought you were toast after Stephen Magnet ate you.” Gilda’s body twitched and croaked in reply. “Hey you alright Gilda?” Foam frothed from the injured Griffon’s mouth. “Yeah your fine what a trooper.”

“I don’t know C.W. don’t you think we should take her to a hospital or something?”

“What are you talking about she’s fine.” The mangled griffon body twitched a little. “See she’s already moving again.” Double Bubble gave his friend a stern look. “Oh fine we’ll take her to a hospital sheesh when did you become such a nice person.”

“She did give us her boat,” Double Bubble said picking up Gilda’s beaten body.

“Yeah after we threatened her with evisceration.”

“It’s also called being nice.”

“Oh don’t make me gag Bubbles.”

After a short and rather conspicuous walk down the road the two finally deposited Gilda in the hospital. And after some brief questioning they were on their way into the bustling streets of equestria’s major port city, and after a quick viewing of hinny of the hills the two continued on their journey.

“Okay what’s the fastest way to get to this orchard with the zap apples?” Clockwerk asked looking at a map of equestria.

“Well the fastest way would be to catch the san benganza jet stream but some pony rigged my wings to explode,” an embarrassed look from Clockwerk, “So it looks like we’re walking.”

"How long will that take?"

"It's a two day walk."

"That puts us really behind schedule."

A small filly just happened to overhear the conversation.

“Excuse me did you two say you were looking for zap apples?” Clockwerk and Double Bubble looked at the small filly who addressed them in her thick accent.

“What do you know about zap apples?” Double Bubble asked inquisitively.

“Believe it or not I have a cousin that has an apple orchard that makes zap apples once a year. And it’s only a train ride away.

“Really!” Double Bubble said excitedly, “Where?”

“Not so fast,” the small brown pony held her front hoof up. “If you want me to spill the beans I need your help with something.”

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The dragons convened around the traditional circle of fire atop the mountain not far from edinborough. The chieftain dragon bloodscales had convened a meeting to decide what action should be taken about the encroaching griffons and their inevitable attack on their mountain home. The large red dragon stood at least three stories tall, massive even for a dragon, he spoke with authority over the small group of dragons that had assembled before him.

“May wealth and rest find you fellow dragonborn.” The rest of the dragons returned this traditional greeting. “We are convened here for a purpose, we all know it. Our ongoing conflict with the foolish griffons is reaching a head and we will see a battle of great fire not seen since we attempted to take canterlot mountain.” The dragons roared in anger at remembering their loss. “Easy brothers, though those fortunes were lost to us and we are forbidden to attack for another 300 years by the bounds of the contract of the third son, if these griffons seek war with the great and mighty dragon tribes then we have the right to attack them by the self-defense clause, and we will claim the vast treasure trove kept by the griffons.” This comment led to several proud roars by the other dragons. “Now we have all seen the weapons the griffons currently use, not effective but troubling. As those who have seen conflict with the olden elves and studied their scrolls know the griffons should not have this kind o technology for another 100 years at the least, which means they are either being aided by magic or a great scientist of unprecedented potential. I will now call to the fire Samantha of the griffon kingdom, one who has forgone loyalty for wealth and power. She will deliver unto us the details of teh griffon kingdom's new technology.” Bloodscales lifted his wing and a dark Griffon stepped forward.

“Thank you your greatness,” The griffon spoke quickly and with purpose. “The source of the griffon army’s newest weapon, one which many of you have seen in battle know to us as the combat harness, is a pegasus by the name of Clockwerk, we believe he has also acquired the services of a unicorn to power the devices though none have seen the unicorn in person to confirm this, we do know that Clockwerk has no magical potential on his own yet he uses magic to power a majority of his devices including the combat harness which is currently in mark 1.7. We believe he is working on a mark 2 design one that will be significantly more powerful than the current version making sustained conflict between griffons and dragons bloody for both sides.”

“Yes glorious combat to be remembered by our children’s children.” A dragon roared proudly several others joining him.

“Quiet!!” Bloodscales yelled shooting a hot stream of fire from his mouth. “Do you fools wish to reenact the battle of canterlot, we no longer have the numbers to sustain serious combat, believe me my brothers our day will come we will see combat, glorious combat against our ancient enemy, but this is not that fight. If we can defeat the griffons we will have untold treasures in our grasp, we shall destroy half of equestria without a single battle and then we will see our revenge against the princess of darkness, but first who among will take on the honorable task of destroying this Clockwerk, stop him from making his creation so we may destroy the griffons with ease.”

“I will.” A voice rose from the back of the convention, the large black dragon behind it coming forward.

“Darkheart,” Bloodscales responded with authority, “Do you take on this responsibility for the honor and glory of every dragon everywhere?”

“I do death to the dark princess and death to all who oppose us.”

“Good. Samantha continue you report.”

“Yes sir,” the griffon continued in a monotone voice. “Clockwerck was last seen leaving the griffon kingdom on a boat owned by one Gilda, he was seen with an earth pony we believe to be a servant of some kind possibly carrying his machines for him, we believe they are headed to equestrai to gather supplies to help build their newest flight harness.” Bloodscales stepped in front of Samantha.

“Your mission honorable Darkheart, is to find this pony, and kill him, but be wary, the third son contract prevents us from damaging any equestrian building, but it does not prevent us from entering their borders. Be discreet and be fast and above all do not break the contract, dragon honor is a sacred thing you will be exiled from our ranks if you break it.”

“I understand the pony will die I shall feast upon his bones.”

“Good now remind us what happens to traitors.” The dragons all flew in a circle around Samantha who was now panicking. Only Darkheart remained on the ground and he slowly approached the terrified griffon who stood too scared to fly away. He reared his head into the air sucking in a faint glow coming from his throat getting brighter the farther up he got. Finally with a roar he released a stream of fire over the griffon and then moved on to scorch a mark into the ground the ancient rune for dragon. Once he was finished he flew out of the mountain the other dragons came out to circle the mountain and light the sky ablaze with fire as Darkheart flew off into the ocean.

Author's Note

Just in case there's an confusion about it the dragons think that double bubble is a unicorn because he's performing magic and as fa as they know earth ponies can't do magic that's why they say clockwerk has a servant with him, they don't know it's double bubble or that he's the one performing the magic that makes the machines run. And yes I am implying that at some point the dragons had a lengthy war with elves in the same universe as mlp and there are still living dragon survivors of that war and if you're lucky enough to dig around the treasure hoard of one of those dragons you might find one of those scrolls they mentioned. I'll go into more detail about elves later. As always let me know if there are any grammar mistakes and I'll try to correct them.