There and back again... With a twist!
Chapter 1
"Just give up... Boy... You never had a chance, to begin with!" my ever so confident opponent, Gaea the Wind Kaiser Dragon herself, taunted as she walked about the flawless hull of the Orbital Halo that surrounded the absolute gargant planet that I had recently flown us out of... Coughing roughly behind my cracked mask as I dug my fist into a small groove in the metal below me, not damaging it as per usual with this stupid space-borne superstructure. Painfully standing up with a clutched side as my eyes narrowed behind the mask, Gaea's confident swagger only being reinforced by my pain, "Look at you! You can barely stand as it is! And... This is -after- I healed you at the beginning of our little bout because you broke too easily!" bright green wisps of magical energy flew about her as those statements left her mouth...
It was true... I had been crippled into a near death state at the beginning of this fight... Yes, it is true that I was on the last few strings that could be considered conscious thought! Yes! I was too weak to win this! But I had a duty to not let down those people I left back on the surface, I had a duty as someone with power... No! I had the responsibility as this worlds premier hero to stop this being and her callous assault of peoples homes with her uncontrolled magical aura! I was the titan that would break her hurricanes! I was the monster man could only look up to in fearful awe as I stood high above them, protecting them... Saving them...
Being there for them in their darkest moments... I could not fail now! Not when someone needed my help so much...
"But look! You managed to give me a little cut on my lip! Aw... It's all gone now!" she thought I was now completely and utterly defeated on moral grounds as well... Pity, I would like to think me standing would've made it pretty clear that I wasn't going to be giving up in this circumstance.
"A little cut...? How informative..." snarling out a response as I curled my fingers back into a fist, the rest of my body followed with this as I aligned myself into a more proper pose for my current occasion. My immediate stoicism contrasted greatly with her laughs and pride, pride was to be expected, she was a Kaiser Dragon after all... But the laughs couldn't have been more poorly timed.
"Let me inform you some more then, I have won." she simply told me before she suddenly burst into existence in front of me, her speed being so far above mine that it was seemingly teleporting or something else that was as equally instantaneous. But, that did not stop me from turning my attention upwards and sending a fist in what was essentially acting... I needed to last just a little bit longer... Just a tiny bit longer...
Hiding my pain behind a heavy grunt when one of her clawed, armoured feet swiped aside my strike before the other one slammed straight into my chest, propelling me along the unmoving plates of metal that we were currently on. Rolling out the way when she tried to slam my torso into mush via an overhead stomp, flipping back on to my feet and blasting her with a few dozen beams of dull, flickering blue-ish light. Sliding down the side of the external superstructure when Gaea decided on retaliating with a few beams no wider than a finger but strong enough to lay countries to waste if they detonated. Weaving and dashing between the various decorative pieces of metal for cover as she hovered a short distance away and shot more beams at me, their power not being unleashed into colossal explosions due to the fact Gaea wanted me to feel the full brunt of all that power.
A dragons arrogance would be my key to winning, but that also would be my death if I made too many faults in the escalation for what I had planned for this situation. A dragons arrogance was such a fickle thing, it meant they wouldn't take you seriously in a fight if you did not approach them with your fangs fully bared, it meant that they intentionally be destructive in their fight and not focused and refined... Though that did make me wonder somewhat... After I broke us out of the atmosphere of the planet and slammed us on to the Orbital Halo... Gaea had started being more focused in her strikes, but I suppose that might be explained by the fact explosive assaults were useless here given the nigh-indestructible nature of the Halo itself...
"Stop running..." Gaea growled out as she grabbed me by my cape and then spun around to hit me back into the walls, using a sudden burst of flight to tear myself free as a grimace appeared on my face, I wasn't fond of having to destroy my clothes to save my life... But being in a life or death situation was one hell of a provocator for decisions that might normally halt someone in their tracks. Charging a set of spells into my bandaged fists before letting out a flurry of punches against the Wind Kaiser, they proved to be useless and a simple breath from Gaea sent me tumbling away in a vortex of magical power. Small sparkles that were purple in colour left me as I tumbled through the vacuum of space, smirking when she began to follow me through the sparkles, a small motion with my left hand soon set off the sparkles and revealed them to be a clutter of potent magical bombs...
Unfortunately for me... That was also the last of my usable magical power, wobbling about after I had hit the ground again, my body very clearly not being able to hold itself up for much longer... My eyes briefly glanced down at the magical shell that made up the planets upper atmosphere... The relatively man-sized hole me and Gaea made had just finished repairing itself, and if I remembered my days back at Uhrstadt correctly... That meant exactly three seconds or so had passed, I just needed two more... But I was clearly not strong enough to give the effort required...
Stalling it was then.
"Finally giving up are we?" my dreaded opponent asked me as a toothy grin appeared on her face, this action showing something I really did not expect to see... She was... Happy to have won...? It wasn't ego that did that, no, ego would've meant I would have stayed dead at the beginning of this fight. I've clearly done something to provoke a different emotion from her.
"I suppose you could say that..." I muttered out as my body uselessly sat in front of her, its limbs motionless and my head faced downwards towards the fabled station below. Only looking up when she forced my head up, the smile was still there, giving her a pitiful excuse for a glare as one of her fists tightened up and began to fill with bright emerald light. Carefully eyeing her when her tail replaced her hand as a means to keep me upright so she could brush her white-gold locks of hair out of the way of her magical aura that so viciously consumed whatever speck of reality it touched.
"Alright then... Well done, by the way, it's been a while since I've had a fight that didn't start with the person being a puddle after the first strike, no... You were still whole. Now look at me, not even on the surface anymore!" her praise didn't mean much to me, though I guess in a weird way, I was happy that she was happy with something, even if my most likely imminent death was the cause of it. But she had just given me what I needed... Time... She was taking far too long to kill me... a whole 'nother three seconds in fact... More than I needed to get going. So now I just needed to surprise her!
Now the fist comes to crush my skull in... Or so she thought...
Suddenly exploded away from her with a burst of speed that left her flabbergasted, for me, it was a prideful smirk and glances at the wisps of blue tainted emerald light that followed my form. Sending myself back at her and punching her kilometres into the 'sky' while she was still in shock, my smirk only grew wider as I looked at the flying droplets of draconic blood... The spell I had spent years working on finally worked after all this time! Flying up to meet her once again in combat as she grew increasingly angry at me, clearly thinking that I was toying with her, which was funny giving she was toying with me up until this point!
"YOU'VE SOME EXPLAINING TO DO, BOY!" the angry dragoness yelled in fury as her magic began spiking around her in its full and dangerous glory, flaring brighter with every word she spoke. My response was to have a thin aura of emerald appear around me, clenching my hands tightly as my wounds disappeared into the aura and then into the void of space, my body now revitalised with stolen power.
"No." I simply answered as I burst into existence in front of her for the first time in our fight, a sharp jab from my knee slammed into her open mouth, the clack of tooth slamming together being music to my ears as pain-filled grunts came from her. Along with more blood. Her face was once again in utter disbelief as she stared down at the blood that she had just wiped from her mouth, and unlike her lip cut that I had used to get inside of her arcane systems, this was a full-on injury! Our fists soon began to connect against each other after she regained her focus, while she was still the one with the most power behind her punches, I could now actually match her results, and with every wound, she took my ground became increasingly even when compared to hers... And soon... It would be higher!
Slipping under her most recent attempt to strike my masked cheek in retribution and blasting her with a fully-powered shot of her own stolen power, pushing her away with a pulse backed palm strike to the gut and letting her revel in my new found strength once again. Now, I wasn't leaving these big gaps because I was arrogant or felt the need to boast, no, they were there because the longer we took, the stronger I would become. The weaker she would as well... And if it was a more lax environment, I probably would've laughed in joy as my little infestation of a spell worked its literal magic against the dragon. But fortunately for my repaired body, I did not provoke the still stronger dragon with such behaviour... I was going to provoke her with a different action!
"Are you okay? Looks like to me that you've forgotten how to actually fight seriously against an opponent who can challenge you!" I tell her as I tackle her and let off small jets of magical steam to keep her distracted as I flew us into one of the fourteen moons that surrounded the planet, slamming us into the closest one and watching as the earth tore itself apart under the strike. A boom filled the air when a fist dug itself into my gut and then released a mighty blast, regaining my senses quickly and hovering in the air as Gaea got up off of the ground... Something was wrong though...
She wasn't angry at me... She was panicking as her eyes gazed at everything here... And admittedly it scared me slightly as if something was scaring her then I had the biggest reason to be afraid. But I wasn't going to falter to some emotions that I had promised never to feel again, I was a hero and I needed to stay upright and strong to stop these emotions that did nothing but remind me of the weak child that I once was. So I cocked my arms back, and shot straight back into her, sending the already fractured ground back into the air and occasionally glimpsing at it when our next flurry of connecting fists sent the rocks flying away even more! Twisting Gaea's leg when she tried to sweep me into an uncontrolled dive and then sending her skidding along the barren surface of the moon that had an atmosphere for some reason.
Each time my foot slammed into the ground, craters formed, every twitch of my muscles sent the wind reeling back with enough force to create an ever-growing cloud of frightened dust and debris. Sliding under the tornado that came out of Gaea's roaring mouth and digging myself a little canyon made entirely by the force of my slide, redirecting myself up, grabbing her by the foot to give me that little boost and punching her off over the horizon. A thunderous crack came from me as I chased after her, catching up to her and then punching her away some more, catch up and then punch away... Ad nauseam until we found ourselves in sight of a mountain range. Of which I followed up with a magical blast that was designed to force Gaea along the ground as much as physically possible instead of simply burning her or cutting her.
Once again following her into the wreckage and being rewarded with a smack to the back of my head, groaning as I tumbled along the mountain faces, chipping away at them over and over before getting sucked up into the upper atmosphere by a freak tornado created by Gaea. Breaking free from the storms grasp and then following it up with a barrage of concentrated magic in the form of exploding orbs, freaking out slightly when Gaea flew through the explosions without issue before she grasped my neck and began to choke me to death as we flew back out into space. Concentrating magic into the beak of my mask and then pecking her in one of her eyes so I could free myself and reverse our direction back into the moon. Gripping her hair by the handfuls, performing an overhead swing and sending her back into the cratered ground below us.
Her pain-filled screams vibrated throughout the moon as she began to start taking serious damage from out fight, her confusion in why she was losing power was holding her back from doing an actual counterattack of use... And her seeming want to get me off this moon as she kept trying to send us back into space but I would either not get into her grip again or escape it by grinding her skin and scales away and down to the bone. Soon we both slammed each other away and back down into the stone floor anyway, so it didn't matter too much I suppose. Jumping back on to my feet as she did the same before we both seemingly decided to bullrush the other.
With one of our hands each meeting at the centre of the charge and creating a tsunami of rubble and powdered stone that circled the entire world before it crashed back down upon us, only failing to blind us because our collective auras were forcing it all away from us and ensuring it would never swamp us or slow us. Another barrage came out of this before this time Gaea got the upper hand and sent me flying into a 'nearby' mountain range, one of her hands soon pinned me against the rock as the other repeatedly and savagely beat into me, her concern for the moon having been shifted into a case of...
'Only way to save it now is to just kill the threat than remove it...!' Or something along those lines at the very least...
My thoughts snapped back into reality as soon as my hand grabbed hers and halted its movements, straining myself as I forced her hand to punch the rocks behind me instead. Following that up with a jab to one of the joints of her other arm, the one that was choking me, and escaping its tyrannical grip upon my oxygen intake. Zipping out of that tight spot before I blasted her once again into the rocks, this time focusing my... Her power enough so that she would find herself being sent straight down into the earth and not just along the surface like last time. Quieting down as I took a few glances around the granite skinned planet that was unlucky enough to be mooned to an even bigger planet, nodding at something in the distance before speeding off. Just in time to avoid the tight swirl of green energy that exploded out of the deep tunnel for one I had just made.
Dropping to the ground as I heard the sound of supersonic flight being achieved before digging my hands under a mountain range that would probably be a large island if this moon had any water on it. Letting my physical grip be replaced by a metaphysical one and lifting the mountains above my head, the sound of billions upon billions of tonnes of stone creaking and cracking being the only sound I heard as I flew up into the now gone cloudline. Turning to face the one whose power was being siphoned and raring my arms back and chucking the oversized-overkill boulder at her. Following closely behind it as Gaea simply waved her hands and shredded the object with many razor-sharp blades of magically enhanced wind.
"TIME OUT FOR YOU!" I yelled at her as I once again grabbed her and sent us straight into the moon, grabbing her tightly by her two spiralling horns on the back of her head and throttling her as I sent her cascading back into the ground. The crust of the moon fractured and peeled away as an increasingly widening hole was gouged on and into the lunar surface. Soon finding myself in need of diverting a little bit of magical power to my clothes as we entered the gooey insides of this solar-sized sweet, our struggle visibly causing ripples and immediate distortions upon the metallic soup we were wrestling in. Shooting her over and over again with small, paltry attacks as she displayed visible discomfort at the tremendous heat of the area we were in, this problem was only made worse by our auras which were boiling the already superheated material even more.
Soon finding myself being thrown off of Gaea's horns and back when she had started to change from her humanoid form and back into her true draconic one. This was both good and bad, good because it meant she no longer had the power to hold that form and bad because a dragon in their true form was a much more physically impressive entity... Oh, the continent-carving claws and earthquake-starting biting power were also a much unenviable thing to face. Glaring at the liquid metal and rock I was surrounded by as Gaea's unfurling wings created absolute monstrous maelstroms of pure physical might.
Briefly hovering around her in the build-up towards my next action, that action being to run away from her once again. Wind magic was fundamentally vulnerable to fire magic as a wizard with strong enough control over their flames could theoretically cause wind magic to just go up and over them, completely nullifying its effectiveness or the wind would just brighten the fire into new levels of potency. And with that information on had; I could very much abuse our current environment by having an angered wind dragon chase me through it. Redirecting some magic into my hands so I could pepper Gaea's now completely scaly hide with lovely, lovely harassment so her thoughts would become more clouded into being just action over thought with action.
Wincing slightly as the sound of her roar made everything around me jiggle as if it was some form of jelly, it felt weird and it was a notable distraction. Dashing and diving as best I could through the metal as Gaea began to let loose streams of razor-sharp winds and violent twisters caused by her simply doing barrel rolls. Dropping downwards in shock when one of her talons missed me by a few inches, that was way too close for comfort and it was a grim reminder that shooting on the slow was a terrible choice at the moment. Halting my movements so she would fly by me and be forced to turn around, giving me a brief period to think of a new plan of attack.
Stroking my chin in a metaphorical way as I looked at the thinner parts of Gaea's wings, the several dozen metre-wide wingspan and its brief glimpses being more than enough to show me what kind of area I was working with. A plan was now there in my head, I would begin to redirect my efforts into specifically taking out the skin on her wings and force her to ground on the more solid core of this moon, from there I will use my agility to further my goals. Weaving by a closing jaw and letting off a few punches and kicks while I headed towards the wings, focusing my magic into a blade of sorts as I stabbed it into her. Dragging myself down the relatively weaker part of her body, weaving and hopping about as she tried increasingly desperate measures to get me off of her precious limb.
Though I was going to have to throw her a bone in that regard, the now loose bedsheet-sized flaps of leathery dragon skin were now getting too erratic in their movements to be safely held on to. And there's the fact Gaea was now crashing into the core at breakneck speeds and I had no intention of being crushed between a dragon and a chunk of iron, nickel and whatever ferrous materials had gathered themselves there. So just as she smashed into the metal and splintered it as if it was a piece of rotting wood, I hopped off and sent off a large pulse of magic to propel myself away from the pull she was generating in the liquid outer core and add to the force that was bringing her down. But now I was left with a new issue, it was getting a bit hard to see and Gaea's power was running out and soon, so would mine if I did not finish this quickly.
Cracking my body loose from any built up strain and charging around the circumference of the inner core to build up speed, steadily lowering my angle of approach with every pass I made over Gaea's roaring head. Finishing my spherical spiral and slamming fist first into her softer, but still hard as diamonds underbelly, keeping the momentum up for as long as I could until I was forced to end it with a single punch to get her off of me. Dropping on to the core so I could focus more magic into my physical stats rather than my ability to fly, with my first grounded action being to create, small but cheap on magical power flares of sorts, blinding her enough for me to get in close and ignore her naturally higher melee range.
Skidding under her snapping jaws and retaliating by rolling along her head and then running down her body whilst letting off explosions along her spine, with myself also being careful as to not send myself kapooting off of her because I had lost track of my own personal stability. Grunting in annoyance when I just narrowly avoided getting whipped by her tail, moaning and groaning as I clutched my chest, no blood or serious injury but it stung to high heaven. Hurriedly putting up a shield dome when she turned around and let off a concentrated beam, a searing headache rippled over me as I was straining to maintain the dome, it being clear that she was putting every last drop she had left into doing this. Swearing into a mixture of annoyed shouts as I felt myself get forced all the way back to the surface of the moon.
Once again pulsing out of the direction dictating force, rolling along the cracked, damaged ground before coming to a stop. Groaning once more as I had to shoot back into a flying savvy mood as Gaea twisted and turned her head to redirect the beam everywhere to try and catch me, how she knew I got out of the way was surprising in of itself, but this reckless abandon was a bigger concern. Carefully observing the beam as I went around its destructive path, it was a subtle thing, but one could easily see that it was some type of tightly-formed tornado, of which frankly didn't surprise me much, Gaea liked her hurricanes and big willy's it seemed. Though one crazy idea did start to form at the end of all this... What if I reversed the stream and send it all back at her...?
"Well... No time like the present!" I squeak out as I narrowly dodged the beam again, flying next to it once I had gotten used to the speed it was moving and operating at. Soon finding myself in a steady synchronisation with it before I began to insert my hand into one of the many turbulent fibres that made this beam of mass destruction up. Clenching down on my teeth until the taste of iron and copper filled my senses completely, lighting my hand up in a dark purple-blue aura as I began to go down the beam, creating a multi-flavoured spiral as I went down. I was originally just going to go straight down but the path of least resistance dictated otherwise, so on top of having my arm hurt to hell and back, I was now dealing with the feeling of being about to vomit as I hugged the beam tightly.
Mentally raising a brow in favour of using my actual one when I saw the results of my interference, the beam was inverting on itself...? Like... If Gaea was a fountain and the beam was her water jet, then I am gravity causing it to form an umbrella shape before it fell back down, only... It wasn't just falling back down... It was building up into a massive tumour of magical energy that was closely following me. Frankly, this made me (though I was unaware of it for a short period) increase my pace downwards, and it only fed into itself as the magic went down at whatever pace I went down!
And now we reached the final few yards...
Narrowing my eyes at Gaea as started to panic once more, loosening my body so I could pull the final action off more cleanly... Screaming at the top of my lungs to now deal with the pain before I clenched my fist as tightly as it could be and slamming it straight into Gaea's head!
Meanwhile, in the palace of a foreign princess...
"Friend Twilight! While we understand thine's enthusiasm for this most spectacular of events...! But we must implore thou to calm thyself!" I called out to my sister's protege and the one whom saved me from a darker side of myself that I never wished to experience again! Smiling slightly as the lavender-furred mare stuck her head out of the piles of books and scrolls she had been carrying, my smile only brightening as it was now revealed that she was snacking on something while she carried the items back to my wing of the palace here in Canterlot.
She hurriedly gulped in down before replying, "Sorry, Princess Luna! But I'm just so excited...! Did you know that the event we are about to observe is so rare that it has only been recording three other times in all of pony history!" her enthusiasm for my designated celestial object touched my heart, it really did, made me feel like a little filly all over again. Though I must commend her, not many ponies with an interest in astrology or general night time gazing knew about what many of the common folk used to refer to as the Blooming of the Moon. It was certainly a wondrous event as well, one where my precious Moon would let off a faint green aura, we never did figure out what caused it and the only pony who ever spoke with certainty of the event to my knowledge was a hermit living a long since collapsed tunnel of Canterlot Mountain. I do wonder what happened to that stallion though... The way he acted towards the Moon did lead me to believe that ponies actually liked the Moon as they did the Sun...
No! I refuse to dwell on the thoughts that made me lose my sister for a millennia!
"Princess? Princess! Are you alright, dear? You spaced out for a tad moment." Twilight's accompanying friend, the white-furred, purple-maned and tailed fashionista Rarity told me, shaking my head in embarrassment at the unicorn duo once I brought my train of thought back to them.
"Apologies, Friend Rarity and Friend Twilight! We were just distracted about some old details concerning this event..." I begin to tell them with some confidence before I fell into mutters and the hiding of one's snout behind their mane. Smiling in response to their laughs when they noticed it.
"I must say though, Princess! We as a generation are extremely lucky to see this! Personally though between you and me, I've been starved for ideas recently and the loss of a little beauty sleep is a sacrifice I am willing to make!" Rarity told me before whispering the last part, a small metal container soon went to her lips after she mentioned 'sleep' though, and if I remember correctly... It was filled with something known as... Coffee...
"Then I bring you good luck for such a venture!" I happily and loudly declare with a raised hoof, much to clothes designer's dismay. She clearly wanted it to be kept on the low as it were, but I felt like I could take some liberty with my tone as Friend Twilight had once again dug into her books, with our little dragon companion having to frantically run around and steer the distracted librarian. T'was an amusing sight, watching a creature as powerful as a dragon steer an objectively weaker species about. Though knowing what Friend Twilight was capable of, I wouldn't be surprised if a dragon was something she could somehow best through smarts and magical skill.
"Friend Twilight! You can put your books down!" my statement didn't reach the labyrinth she called a busy mind and I was forced into just giving Friend Spike a look to goad him into action. Friend Rarity simply giggled at Friend Spike's groans before she sat down on one of the many articles of seating in this room, which was quite a lot now that I thought about it, but I sense that wasn't the reason the white-furred unicorn decided to take up an entire sofa... In spite of her size that is...
"Twilight... Princess Celestia is here!" Spike lied as he shoved a book out of the lavender unicorn's face, smiling as she panicked and looked about before giving a disapproving frown at the young drake and his current smirk before she huffed off towards the telescope that was on the other side of the room. Using my magic to place the tired dragon on to a pile of cushions before walking outside so I could gaze at my precious gem in the night sky. Carefully eyeing its surface as brief flashes of sparkling green light flickered across the surface of it.
"Well, I do say... That is truly a wonderful sight!" Friend Rarity declared as she came out into the light of the moon as well so the light generated by the candles and palace decor did not taint the view too much. Silently nodding in response as I once again saw one of my most treasured moments. Turning my attention towards Friend Twilight when her scribbling of notes had started to get obnoxious, but it also gave me some concern as she was moving about with much haste and... A spark let's say...
"Coordinates put us in the mouth of the Mare on the Moon... Lights fluctuating and increasing in intensity..." she muttered as she forced her eye against the telescope, clearly eager to gather up every last morsel of information and ignorance-curing amazement. Deciding on getting her away from the device so she could enjoy the Blooming properly without seeing it as another test...
"Princess Luna! Is the green suddenly gaining a dash of purple and blue normal?" Friend Rarity asked in confusion with a hint of disgust in her words as the sudden colour change did not agree with her. Frowning as I went outside again to see the unforeseen change. Tilting my head as the shadows that made up the Mare began to change... A small raven-black bird flying at a dragon in an aggressive manner...
I was worried, but I didn't act just yet as I wasn't sure if... The incident... Had any bearing on how this event would play out...
"Nay, we should not be concerned for th-" I began to answer before the loudest boom I have ever heard washed over us. Planting my hooves down firmly as everything violently shook...
My eyes were showing nothing but distraught feelings... My heart was shattered... My precious Moon had just exploded into millions of stone shards...
Some would probably say that the explosion woke them up... I think it would be fairer to say my cries and screams contributed the most to an early rise...!
