Chapter 7 Broken Continuum

Dragons Attacking Castles

The group was teleported straight into the throne room at Canterlot castle and stood before a rather angry looking Luna and as they tried to back up they were stopped by a similarly angry Celestia. Luna stared straight into Clockwerk’s eyes as she asked her sister.

“Are these the ones?”

“I believe so.” She answered matter of factly. “The identification spell the dragon gave us led me to them.”

“You are not what we expected.” Luna said gesturing toward the group. “And while this is true a dragon seeks your heads for involvement in the griffon war and I want to know what you are doing bringing a foreign war into my kingdom?” Babs and Flash shuffled nervously away from Clockwerk and Double Bubble who were both shrinking considerably into the floor as the blue alicron stood over them glaring menacingly.

“Well you see we uhh we’re um, that is to say,” Double Bubble tried to answer but failed out of nervousness.

“And what’s this?”, she asked gesturing to the faintly glowing staff on Double Bubble’s back.

“I uhh I um guh.”

“They were in the underground ruins at Las Pegasus they probably stole it from there.” Celestia added eyeing the staff with anger.

“Elven magic.” Luna said with disgust. “Do you know how much damage these things can do? I’ve been spending the last hundred years fixing the mistakes those horrible creatures made and to think you would come here from the griffon kingdom and that you would ...” She was interrupted by a loud thud on the roof of the castle. A silence filled the room the two alicorns shifted their weight to their hind legs while the others glanced around nervously as they followed the sound of scraping and growling on the roof above them. Flash sentry broke the nervous silence.

“What was that?” He was immediately sushed by everyone in the room but it was too late the sounds on the roof moved over flash who was shaking in fear. “Guys?” he said as he backed his way toward one of the stained glass windows. “What’s going on guys?” Luna and Celestia were staring with angry determination behind Flash.

“Flaaaash,” Clockwerk said nervously. “You should run.” Flash turned around and was horrified to see the face of the black dragon Darkheart smiling menacingly. “RUN NOW!!” Flash rolled out of the way barley avoiding the large dragon claw that came smashing through the window as soon as Flash was clear of the window Clelestia and Luna launched themselves toward the dragon smashing through what was left of the stain glass window. Luna circled back and head to face the dragon head on while her sister flanked him from behind.

“Ahhh the infamous blood moon princess.” Drakheart said teasing. “I was hoping to get the chance to face you in combat this will be glorious.” Celestia had moved into postion and was approaching Darkheart from behind when he spun around knocking Luna away with his tail and smashing Celestia through the roof with his front claw. The princesses mangled body landed in front of the goup causing Babs and Flash to scream.

“Come on time to make ourselves scarce!” Clockwerk said picking Babs up and putting her on his back as the group ran speeding down the hall. “Bubbles hole!”

“Got it!” Double Bubble said retrieving a potion from his bag and throwing it at the wall leaving a gaping hole. Clockwerk made sure babs was hanging on and Flash picked up Double Bubble and the group floated down to the ground as Luna and Darkheart fought in the distance.

“You two get out of here it’s us he’s after!” Flash took Babs and sped away, “What do we got Bubbles?”

“Well that’s a class 3 dragon, possibly a bounty hunter that has bent sent to kill us, probably to prevent us from making the new combat flight harnesses.”

“Yup.”

“And we have no weapons or other means to keep him from eating us or otherwise causing us to die horribly."

“Correct.”

“It’s my professional opinion that we let the princess of nightmares fight the dragon.”

Luna had fired another magical laser at the dragon who shrugged it off and swiped again with his claws. Luna seeing the attack coming rolled underneath the attack, but was forced to waste energy teleporting thorough the dragons mouth as it closed down on where she once was.

“I want to thank you for bringing my prey to me. Saves me a lot of effort.” The dragon said continuing to tease Luna.

“Why are you doing this? You know the treaty prevents you from killing any citizen of Equestria.”

“But those two aren't citizens of Equestria are they?” Another swipe with his claw missed. “And that same treaty prevents you from killing me so it seems your laws have put me at an advantage.” A moment of realization hit Luna causing her to momentarily lower her guard. Darkheart seeing the momentary opening swiped her away with a claw and she went flying into one of the castles turrets. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have ponies to eat.” The dragon launched off of the palace roof and glided toward the city below that was filled with ponies running around in a panic. Darkheart flew over the crowd mumbling the identification spell revealing Clockwerk and Double Bubble who were running toward the edge of town. He landed in front of them with a thud causing the two of them to reel back in fear. “There you are, I will enjoy feasting on your bones.” Darkheart reared his head back and let out a stream of fire. When he finished he was astounded to find that the two ponies were still alive hiding under a green shield and surrounded by ash.

“We’re alive!” Double Bubble said amazed. “Hey Clockwerk we’re alive!”

“Not for long,” Clockwerk said as Darkheart’s fist slammed down on the shield but to everyone’s surprise the shield did not break.

“What manner of magic is this,” Darkheart yelled in anger. “I will not be defeated.” He continued to slam against the shield to no avail.

“Wow!” Double Bubble said as the dragon continued pounding away. “This must be the generator, I didn't know it could produce effects this strong.”

“That’s great and all,” Clockwerk said reeling after every hit from the dragon. “But it seems to have put us in a rather tight situation.”

“Don’t worry I think I’m getting the hang of it,” Double Bubble moved some of the rings of the staff around. “If I’m right this should teleport us.” The shield at this point was starting to crack from the dragons repeated attacks.

“Good let’s do it,” Clockwerk said realizing the shield was failing.

“It might molecularly disassemble us though,” Double Bubble added causing Clockwerk to look at him concerned. “I’m sure we’ll be fine.” He slammed the staff down and the two teleported into a nearby empty house. “See we’re fine no harm dooooo ahhhhhh!” Double Bubble stopped as he noticed his friends wings were missing from his body. Clockwerk echoed his feelings.

“Ahhhh my wings, what did you do to my wings oh Celestia why?” His wings teleported on his body with a flash. Clcokwerk was still in shock, “Ok alright I’m not questioning it.”

Still in town Darkheart was slamming the ground in anger. “Curse them and their magic where did they go?” before he could say the words to the identification spell again a powerful laser hit him in the head as Celestia freshly recovered from her injuries moved in to attack. “Why do fight me?" Darkheart said getting annoyed by the princesses constant attacks. "I am simply claiming my bounty they are not your citizens.”

“Everypony is our citizen!” Celestia said with purpose. “It is our sworn duty to shelter and protect everypony who is in equestrian we cannot let you take them.”

“Your desire to help the weak is foolish and misplaced they are war criminals aiding the griffon army.”

“That may be but as long as they are under our domain they will have due process, and you will leave.”

“Such authority, you speak as though you are your sister. Maybe you should ask her before you go off demanding things on your own.” Celestia fired another laser in response. The dragon casually blocked it with his palm. “It seems as though I've pinched a nerve.”

Clockwerk and Double bubble continued to run toward the edge of town. Double Bubble spoke between breathes. “I've got that weird feeling again, like something isn't right.”

“Really Bubbles now, it’s not the best time. We still need to find a way out of here.”

“I don’t know if you've noticed or not Clockwerk but this city is on a mountain, there is no easy way down.”

“Ugh this is some of the worst city planning I've ever seen, I mean who builds a city on a mountain what if there’s a rock slide or something.”

“Yeah it’s almost is dumb as building a city out of clouds.”

“Hey!” sounds from the nearby battle filed the two pony's ears.

“I don’t think we’re going to be leaving the city any time soon.” Double Bubble said watching the battle play out. “We need to get the dragon to leave.”

“Good plan, but how do we scare a dragon off they’re like the embodiment of scary.”

“Well I’m not the combat expert that’s you.”

“I’m not a combat exert I make machines and unless you see a workbench nearby I’m pretty useless.”

“Well what are we supposed to do.”

“What about the generator it’s been useful so far what else can it do.”

“I could probably get it to shoot lasers, do lasers hurt dragons?”

“What kind of question is that lasers are lasers Bubbles they hurt everything.”

“Well I didn't know I thought dragons might be resistant or something.”

“Ok ok just hurry up and figure out how I don’t think our lovely princesses are doing well against that dragon.”

Celestia smashed against the side of a house and fell to the ground in a heap. A group of pegasi flew over in formation and landed beside her. The leader spoke up.

“Princess as per protocol we've evacuated the civilians to the shelters the first second and third battalion are yours we are ready to engage.”

“Wait!” said Celestia taking charge of the situation. “Hold off until the last minute the treaty prevents us from taking military action unless he sheds blood first no military personnel is to attack him unless I give the signal. Send the first and third battalion to the turrets man the cannons second battalion be ready to scramble, all other units hold position.” The group of military ponies gave a salute and ran off to man their assigned stations as Celestia flew back into action. Her magic pool was running dangerously low she couldn't hold him off for much longer.

Double Bubble was messing with the staff when Darkheart found them. Clockwerk jumped into action.

“Keep working on it I’ll distract him.” Clockwerk flew toward Darkheart skirting around his field of vision.”

“So you finally fight with honor,” The dragon said with eager anticipation. “A foolish endeavor but I respect your bravery.” Darkheart swiped with his claws barely missing Clockwerk who was struggling to regain control the wind of the last swipe knocking him off course. Darkheart moved in to eat Clockwerk in one bite but was stopped halfway by a laser blast from Celestia. He roared in anger. “Are you not done yet?” “Surely your magic must be almost out by now.” Celestia paid the dragon no mind and continued to circle with Clockwerk circling in the opposite direction. It took only a second for Darkheart to identify Clockwerk and he placed his claw in front of his flight path and grabbed him. “Look at this despite all of your hard work I’m still going to win, let this be an omen for the future the dragon wins and the pony gets eaten.”

“DO IT NOW!” Celestia yelled using the last of her magic to create a bright explosion. The newly revived Luna waited with the troop and upon seeing the flare sent out by her sister readied an attack.

“ALL TROOPS MOVE IN! KILL THE DRAGON”

“So this is it?” Darkheart said triumphantly. “I will be a martyr for dragon kind. Is the coming war worth the lives of these two ponies?” Luna said nothing as she and the soldiers moved in to engage. “Fine then I will die with Bahhh …” Darkheart was hit from behind by a huge green laser at least five times the size of those fired from the alicorns that was emanating from the staff that was barely being controlled by Double Bubble.

“PULL BACK,” Luna yelled seeing a chance to prevent conflict. “I REPEAT DO NOT ENGAGE BREAK OFF.” The attacking Pegasi turned away in unison as the laser continued to strike Darkheart, the searing pain causing him to lose his grip on Clockwerk who flew toward Double Bubble once he was free.

“Keep at it,” he said cheering Double Bubble on. “I think it’s working.” Darkheart reared in pain as double Bubble continued to fire the laser. The pain of the incredibly powerful laser finally grew too much and Darkheart flew off. Double Bubble however continued to fire the laser. “You got him Bubbles you can stop.”

“I can’t stop it it’s to powerful.” Double Bubble lost control and the laser cut through several buildings until the combined efforts of Clockwerk and Double Bubble managed to get it to stop.

“I think that went well,” Clockwerk said happily. as several buildings fell in the distance.

“I don’t know,” Double Bubble replied overlooking the damage caused by the out of control laser alone. “Maybe we could’ve used more finesse.”

“Don’t beat yourself up man you defeated a dragon that’s a victory in my book. Now let’s get out of here. Uff.” Cockwerk ran into the chest of a rather unamused Luna.

“You two are coming with me now!”

Author's Note

probably one of the more fun chapters to write.