Just A Slice

He looked into the blue eyes of the terrified pony Zwei. He could sense his fear and confusion. With a claw he carved a red smile under his chin and stepped away to avoid getting blood on him. He could feel the armies in the palace resume fighting. He could sense Celestia and Luna panicking, wondering if this was some monster that the Dark Lord had conjured. The unicorn that had once been his master was wondering the same thing in a similar panic. Yet it proved to be the latter, if unintentional. Aeroga felt a few ponies stand up behind him. He turned on them and slaughtered them without a thought for mercy.

These were the ones responsible for Flare's death. The army, the Dark Lord, and Luna. He was still loyal to Celestia but he felt an abiding hatred for Luna for it was she who had given the Dark Lord what he needed to make his attack. But that hatred would have to wait for later. For now, he resolved to butcher the Dark Lord along with everypony in his way. He flapped his wings and flew through the halls to the main foyer. The green dragon landed in the midst of the ponies attacking the palace and killed them by the hundreds. He functioned more off of instinct, rather than coherent thought, using his newly found fangs, claws, and horns. He incinerated several fleeing brutes in a wash of fire from his maw. They fell before him like leaves in a storm and there was no mercy in his draconic heart. He quickly learned that he had complete control over his formerly meager magic, and cast killing spells left and right, most of them instinctual blasts of energy rather than actual magic. The ones that escaped him, he gave chase and killed until his rage carried him out into the courtyard. He sensed the Dark Lord see him, a bullet of fear rocket down the unicorns spine, and immediately flew for him. He flooded the ground with fire where the unicorn had been just as he vanished with a loud pop.

Furious at his prey escaping, Aeroga continued to circle, bathing anything and everything in a blast of fire. When every last life of the army was extinguished, he landed and walked among the charred bodies. He looked upon the carnage he had wrought and felt satisfied, to an extent. The Dark Lord had escaped his wrath, for now. He lifted into the air once again and flew for the Throne Room.

He entered through the windows he had come through before to deliver the message, but when his claws touched down, A golden shine encircled him and he could barely move. Summoning the power of the dragon inside of him, he shattered the magical hold over him and landed in a crouch.Looking up for his attacker, he saw Celestia was lying on the floor unconscious, her horn slightly charred. The guards at the door spun around and charged him. Without a thought he roared with his mind, "Halt!" Eveypony in the squad instantly stopped in their tracks and dropped their weapons to the ground, issuing a loud cacophony of clanging metal on stone. Aeroga rose to his hind legs and walked up to Luna, who stood petrified by the mental command. He realized he held enourmous power over anypony he wished, his being was powerful, but he didn't know why. He couldn't feel any magic in him as he did in Luna and Celestia, but he still seemed to have great corporeal power. "Use your mind. Bend the world. Use their mind against them." Came a voice inside his head. He recognized the voice of the Patriarch, and did as he was asked. He used a mental projection to make dozens of Aerogas walk about the room as he released everypony from his grip. The guards milled about in confusion in the midst of multiplying numbers of green dragons, slashing with their swords and hitting nothing but air.

One guard walked up to him and tried to hit him with his sword. He created a wall in front of him and the guard reeled in surprise, trying to figure out what was going on. With the wall he separated him, Luna and the unconscious Celestia from the rest of the room. He spoke to Luna with his mind, conveying all of his emotion and anger at her for what she had done, and incurred the emotions inside of him to make her understand. She trembled slightly and sat down on her throne heavily, holding her head in her hooves. "Make it stop. Please I beg of you. Make it stop. I-I can't stand this." He replied with his mind again, forcing the wild emotions into her harder without mercy. He only relented when she began crying uncontrollably.

Ceasing his onslaught slowly, he roared into her mind with all the power he could muster, "It is your fault! The hurt of all these ponies is all your fault Luna. The hundreds that army killed are all dead because of you, civilians and soldiers alike." She continued to weep. But he didn't let up. For her, he was beyond compassion or mercy. In his heart, he loathed Luna with a hatred unheard of in the annals of time. "Never again will I owe you anything. Never again will I respect you. You are the lowest of the low to me. Vermin among gods. I am only loyal to Celestia. So be warned, If you ever try to meddle with me, or those I care for, you incur my wrath." She recoiled violently, curling into her throne, as if trying to sink into the stones themselves. He left her like that, tears streaming down her face in shame, and woke Celestia, nudging her with his mind. She awoke disoriented at first, but she slowly came to full awareness. She saw Luna crying into her throne and the green dragon before her. He could sense her start to panic and spoke into her mind to try and keep her from striking him. "My Queen, forgive me. I did not know who held me and I struck out of defense."

"Aeroslash?" She asked groggily. He shook his head slowly, "No. Aeroslash died beneath the waves of the sea. I am Aeroga, former owner of that body. I had lost my memory and was given a new name by the Patriarch, my father dragon. Luna is the cause for all you see here."

Celestia rose to her hooves clumsily, still affected by his draconic attack. "I know Aeroga. She explained everything to me during the battle. Do not hold it against her. She made a wrong decisions, but in the end, she made the right one."

The dragon growled in response, "That right decision came too late, Flare is still dead." And with that he left the room, revoking all the illusions confusing the guards. He walked on his hind legs, a strange but natural position. His pony mind was unfamiliar with the gait whilst his body relished in it. He ran a paw over the scales on his belly and fingered the feathers sprouting from his back. He still had feathered wings, and his mane, but the rest of his body had completely transformed. His body was covered in deep green scales, a horn sprouted from either side of his jaw and stood out along a fanged snout. Sharp spikes ran the length of his back to the end of a pointed tail which split into three segments at the very end. Something else was different though. He had a sixth sense. Aeroga could feel the things around him, from the moths flitting around bright torch flames, to the guards in the previous room. He could feel their emotions, their thoughts were not like reading a book, but he could get a general idea on what went on in their heads based on what they were doing and feeling.

He pondered his transformation, wadering the halls until he came upon Flare's body. He sat on his haunches in front of the corpse and ran a talon through her mane her mane. She felt cold under his scaled fingers, and he couldn't sense her in his sixth sense like he could all the others in the palace. Reptiles don't have tear glands. He couldn't cry. It was anatomically impossible for him to shed tears, but in that moment, he felt his soul be shorn in two. His eyes remained dry, but his very soul was weeping blood.

The dragon sat there for what seemed like hours, stroking the body that had once been his greatest love. Even in death, she was still beautiful to him. Eventually a medic came up the hall, looking for survivors and carrying away the dead. He came and picked up a few bodies before leaving and returning for another load. When he tried to take Flare, a throaty growl scared him silly and he fled, leaving the dragon with several mangled bodies lying in pools of drying blood. Aeroga decided to take the body somewhere where he could mourn in peace and carefully lifted the mare's body from the ground, careful not to damage it as he took her outside. He settled down in front of the entrance to the labyrinth and laid the body in front of him and continued to shed his silent tears. A few hours later, he felt Celestia come up behind him. She didn't say anything so he began for her, sensing her emotions. "No. I will not bury her. I will cremate her. In the morning come back here and take her ashes. Preserve them in an urn and keep it safe till my return. I must go and... think." Aeroga had been thinking, but the ponies everywhere was distracting, he kept on sensing the wounded, leading doctors to the ones who needed attention most with his mind. He wanted to be alone, alone to mourn his loss.

Celestia made a startled squeak. " You can read minds?" She asked incredulously. "No." he answered, "Just emotions. I can figure out what you are thinking based on what you are feeling." He felt her recoil slightly, even though she tried to hide it. "Please don't hate Luna. She told me what you said to her. She-"

"She is the reason I was not here to protect Flare. She is the reason I had amnesia. She is the reason I have now lost everything." He said, rising to his feet. He was the size of Celestia on all fours, and towered over her on his hind legs. He smelled rather than sensed her fear. He could tell why he had affected Luna so much, the sense of power over the mighty alicorns was sweet and addictive, but he resisted it. In Celestia's mind he and continued, "And I will never forgive her. No matter if you give me the command yourself, I will then just leave. I pledge my loyalty, but on that threshold, my dedication ends." She flinched at the mental contact, but accepted his words before walking away. He began working on a stand to cremate Flare's body, creating stone slabs and building a small stone table out of thin air using his new found abilities. After a while, he felt Luna approach him from behind a hedge and stop to watch him. She remained ignorant of his knowing she was there and continued to watch him sadly. She felt miserable. Sad, confused, she was terrified of him, but she knew that she had to say something. Her whirlwind of emotions was delicious for the dragon, he loved how hurt she was, drank in every emotion and used it to fuel his anger. He picked her up with his mind and threw her onto the ground before him, pinning her down with his clawed hands on her chest and throat. Smoke billowed from his nostrils as he hammered her mind in a mental attack, ripping and raving through her psyche.

She started yelling for help and he formed a barrier around them with a casual thought. Aeroga let her go then, but the princess tried to flee, only to run straight into the invisible force field her attacker had conjured. Luna turned to face him, terrified, and tried to blast her way out with magic. He formed a spell dampening cloud in the domed barrier that absorbed her magic and made it useless. She ran out of ideas and just started screaming her head off in terror. He silenced her with a mental command, shutting off her screams like a switch. "I warned you Luna, and this is your last chance. After this, I won't let you go. Next time, you will die." He released all of his protections and she ran off into the night, tears streaming from her eyes like miniature waterfalls. She was miserable and he could feel her anguish, but he couldn't bring himself to care. She deserved the pain he had served. He didn't care if Luna hurt. He didn't care about her at all, only to revenge her the pain she had inflicted on him. Aeroga resumed his task, and by the time Celestia began the rising of the sun, the altar was finished. He prepared his body and loosed a jet of flame over the body of his love, the inferno tickling his barbed tongue and setting the very stones aglow with heat. the Flashfire ignited like a dry leaf as he lifted into the skies in the direction of Dragonheim.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Celestia walked through the medical wing among the dozens of soldiers that lay bleeding on their beds as doctors scrambled to help them all. She cast a spell here and there to help the ones who were more dangerously injured, but her horn still ached and magic was more tiring than it usually was. Aeroga had broken her magic so effortlessly, almost at a flick of will. Chrysalis, the changeling queen, had defeated her once, but only after a hard power struggle. The newborn dragon hardly had to try to shatter her magic and render her unconscious. She found the head nurse and thanked her for her efforts and asked if there was anything she could do to help. "No, your Majesty. We have a handle on things here, but the wounded are still coming in." Celestia thanked her again before leaving for the Throne Room. She dreaded her arrival, it would mean plans, forms, papers to sign, expectant ponies waiting for orders. She could only imagine what day would bring.

She arrived and was immediately asked about what to do about all the dead. She just told him to dispose of them in whatever way seemed best.They nodded their heads quickly and scuttled away to do their work. She sat on her throne and asked for the palace master-mason. He came quickly, eyes groggy with sleep, obviously ignorant of the attack. He must be a very heavy sleeper, especially since those screeching sounds shook the very stones of the castle. She had seen the damage of the immediate area and there wasn't a square foot of stone that wasn't cracked in one way or another. She filled him in on the happenings of the night, his eyes widening when informed of the sound shattered hallway. She told him to set about preparations for repair and when done with that, to come to her about the improvement of the defenses. She had had ideas for a long time about solidifying the walls, but a situation had not yet presented itself before tonight. He nodded quickly and scampered from the hall. Shining Armour came to her and requested a heavier watch for the next few weeks before she turned him down.

"No Shining. Aeroga obliterated the entirety of that army. It is unlikely that there is anypony left to defend against." Shining was not satisfied, "And if there is one who might seek to slip past our defenses?" "That is unlikely Shining. Give your guards under your command more credit. They lost a mere six tonight against the nearly two hundred that lay slain just outside that doorway." she pointed at the main entrance. "This was a siege, not an assassination attempt. A different type of fight, with different results." He only nodded and took a position at her side, next to her throne. She could see his frustration, subtle anger and need for vengeance brimming under his very skin, but he said nothing.

Celestia continued to administer to the needs of her injured kingdom. She gave the command to send out a relief force south, to asses the damage done by the marauding army. She was worried about the thousands of ponies between Canterlot and the southern border. She was scared that there was nothing left but a scorched wasteland, the dead bodies of hundreds of civilians, and the images haunted her as she tended to the needs of the palace. She issued army recruitment orders, they would need to raise an army to retaliate against the cities south of Equestria. Luna had hinted that the "Dark Lord" was the ruler of the cities there, and that meant that this was a declaration of war. She saw the edge of the moon flicker over the horizon and she hastily put everything down and rushed for her chambers. She rose the sun in a rush, almost dropping it a few times, and headed for the labyrinth where the funeral pyre for Flare stood. She felt obligated to obey the dragon's wishes since he had ended the battle for them. He had lost everything and in a way, Celestia pitied him. She couldn't imagine losing someone that close to her, and thought of Cadance and Shining. What would happen if one of them lost the other? She remembered Flare's expression of hurt and woe when Aeroga had flown away, not recognizing his name as she screamed it at him, torment and pain flooding her cracked voice. The pony had died miserable, and the pony who loved her was transformed into a vicious dragon at the sight of her dead body.

"Happy endings only seem to happen in the story books." She murmured to herself. She came upon the pyre, barely anything left but charred bones that continued to burn. Celestia crumbled the bones into ashes and placed them in a cremation urn. The patina was intricately carved with scenes of the afterlife, said to bless the pony's spirit within. She took the urn to Flare's old room, although now it was probably Aeroga's. When she entered, there was still wreckage scattered across the entirety of the room. Flare had thrown out the cleaning ponies and wouldn't even let them change her sheets. Broken wood and debris was scattered everywhere, covering almost the entire floor. The walls were slashed and had deep gouges in the stone where what was left of a dresser covered in a shredded dress stood. The bed had been mutilated, long slashes leaked goose down and the sheets were rent and torn like a tangled cobweb of thread. How the earth pony could do all this escaped her until she found a golden sword buried in the rubble. The blade was unmarred, and it shone with a brilliance that matched the sun, but the blade seemed lifeless. Even more so than the regular steel blades. As if the sword once had its own spirit, and that had fled. She summoned the cleaning crew and told them to take care of the mess at their own pace. There was no hurry. She put the urn in the corner next to the sword, which she stood against the wall, and left to go entertain the annoying aristocrats that believed they were entitled an audience with her, whether she cared to or not.