A Roegadyn in Equestria

A Roegadyn in Equestria.

Chapter 53: I’m Not A Child.

*Point of view: Third person*
*Location: Deep underneath the mountain that the Dragon made a nest in*

(Play this music for what is to come.)

The underground cavern that seemed more than big enough for the entire city of Canterlot to fit within, held one large Red Dragon that was standing on all fours in the center and facing off against Brex. Who is halfway between it and the far wall that was still melting due to the intense blast from his very large adversary. At the same time, more than a quarter of the area had been turned to either molten lava or glowing red-hot Earth, aside from a perfect circle where Brex now stood.

The air itself being illuminated by the scattering of flames and glowing burning hot rock, was being partially obscured due to the fluctuation in the heat, which gave quite a bit of haze. Even through all of this, the Dragon could easily be made out with how big its body size clashed with that of the boulders near its feet, that were no better than pebbles to it. There were sections that displayed the scales being chipped away and a few cut marks where the weapon of Rory had managed to get in between its natural hardened armor.

The crackling heat and roaring flames that surrounded them was easily dwarfed with the constant growling that the large Red Dragon was making as it curled its mouth into a snarl and bearing its razor-sharp teeth that were easily as long as a person's entire arm.

Due to there being no sunlight from above, it was easy to lose track of the back of the Dragon with the way the shadows were being formed from the light underneath. Which only would have made any normal person to be wary and be far more focused to try and tell exactly where each part of the monster's limbs could be or a sneak attack could be an end.

As for Brex, thanks to his in-game memories being altered so that they were as real as anything else. He was easily able to recall a time where he had to venture within an active volcano. So, this much was quite tame in comparison when seeing that back then. While in the game, he was quite literally surrounded by molten rock. Meaning that what was currently all around, was essentially no better than a puddle to the Roegadyn.

The Dragon, without giving any type of warning as to what it was about to do, leap forward without even bracing its legs and quickly closed the gap between them both. The speed in which it did so would have surprised any other, especially when it came to its sheer size.

As it did this, it's body would contort to give it a reptilian movement pattern in order to mislead its target as to what direction it would be coming at. At the very last moment, the dragon had twisted its head so that it could clamp its jaws around Brex from the left and right.

Its body was still in motion when the jaws had closed, however the Dragon quickly noticed that there was nothing there and not even a split second had gone by before its right eye was suddenly struck by three fast-moving lights that were the size of golf balls comprised of a bright neon blue light.

This had distracted the still in motion Dragon enough, that it had failed to stop itself in time before colliding into the small out cove and getting covered along its back side and a portion of the wings near the base, with the molten rock that it itself had created.

The dragon had released a bellowing roar that lasted several seconds as it flailed its body in order to get free from the hole, along with shaking off the molten rock. Its rage was apparent with how some flames were blasting out from both its mouth and nostrils during all of this, until it seems satisfied with its current state. Afterwards, it began to look around for the one that had obviously gotten away and launched that sneak attack. Which now had its right eye damaged enough that it had to keep it closed for the time being.

It was then struck again by a sudden attack, but this time it came from right underneath it's jaw. This turned out to be Brex, who had just given it a rising uppercut with his right fist. This had the effect of slamming the Dragon's jaw shut with such force that it had actually broken off one, if not two of its teeth and causing its head to snap upwards and elicited a guttural roar.

This allowing a good view of the Roegadyn, who is now still in mid-air and wearing what appeared to be a heavy set of futuristic armor that was comprised of mostly white or gray colored metal that covered him from head to foot. The entire thing had overall increased his size to that of over a foot and a half, which made him more than nine feet tall now.

(Here is a picture of the armor he is wearing right now.)

While still in the air and falling, the Dragon had recovered quickly and tried to snap its jaws onto Brex, but he had dodged the attack by the skin of his teeth by somehow leaping out of the way while kicking against the air with enough force to send him flying.

When he had done this, his form had gone straight up a good twenty meters or so and when he held out his right arm and hand wide open. Right after, a square shaped rod that was less than a meter long had appeared and as soon as he had gripped on to it, the item had extended until it was nearly as long as his body and a blade had been produced at the top that was nearly two and a half feet long.

His armored form had done a backflip and kicked off of something that was clearly not there to begin with and rocketed down at the Dragon at high speed and passed by its head. This had left a long gouge to form only a second later and some blood to squirt fourth. The new wound had cut along the side of its head where the bad eye was and had gone from the base of one of the horns and all the way down to the bottom of its jaw.

After doing this, he had landed near the base between its front claws that it was using to help hold itself up on all fours and quickly jumped back several dozen meters to a safe distance and landed again to a skidding halt after going nearly half a foot into the lava and splashing it about.

During that, the Dragon ended up roaring again, but this time it was not out of frustration or anger. It was clearly from that of experiencing great discomfort with the way it was throwing its head from side to side in a pathetic attempt to get rid of the pain in some way.

Over with Brex, he was staring down the dragon from behind his helmet that had the eye sections glowing with the same neon blue light that appeared before and had damaged the Dragons right eye. In fact, sections of its body were exhibiting lines that were similar in a type of circuitry pattern. This was more apparent where the joints were located.

From behind his helmet, one could hear him speaking in a voice that was obviously coming through some type of an external speaker system, with how there was this slight hint of artificial noise behind it. “I really must thank you for your participation in this beta test of mine. It's one thing to conduct these type of trial runs under simulated conditions. Although, nothing beats that of real-world scenarios. Now make sure you don't go easy on me! I completely expect you to try and destroy this armor to your utmost capabilities!”

“Your sacrifice today will ensure some very promising data for me to go over.” The Dragon having zeroed in on him, thanks to the talking had turned its head enough that its good left eye was staring directly at him. From there, its form began to give off this orange glow that lasted for only a second before the armor that Brex was wearing had begun to give off the same yellow light that soon ran across his entire body.

When everything had undergone this change. The Dragon began to give off a wicked laugh that was loud enough that the cave system. This had even caused the inside of the cave to begin to rumble and a few rocks had fallen from above and landed nearby that were easily the size of a three-story house. This had gone on for several seconds before it turned its attention back to Brex. Only to see that he had not moved at all. In response, the Dragon had lost its mirth and had gone completely silent as it sharpened its gaze.

This turned into a raised eyebrow, or at least equivalent with the way the scales began to contort and went wide upon hearing what was said next from the one in armor before it. Brex had begun to release a loud sigh of what could have only have been relief and slowly adjusting the shoulders to get comfortable as he spoke.

“Hmmmm-hmmmmm... OhhOoohhhh! That actually feels pretty good! I think I heard of something called a warm sand bath that you could get at some saunas. I wonder if this is what it feels like. Oh! This feels soooooooo good.” There was even this small appreciative growl of some kind that came from the helmet before he continued. “You know, it's quite a shame that you're going to die today... Ohhhh Yeah, that's the stuff! I would have actually paid you to come by and warm up my bath water. Oh well, I'll just track down another Copper Dragon.”

Being called a Copper Dragon had caused it to go from bewilderment, to pure frustration. Yet again, as it outstretched its neck. From there, it began to yell with such force that it blew a number of the flames that were behind Brex away. “I AM A RED DRAGON!!!!”

It was only further infuriated when it got the response of, “Hey, don't need to pretend to be something you're not. Seriously, don't you have any pride? For a Metallic Dragon this really is going too far, seeing as the Monochromatic ones are your enemies! Or is it that you're constantly being confused for them that you just given up and started to call yourself a Red Dragon? I’m actually starting to feel sorry for you.”

The Dragon began to flail its body almost erratically after unfurling its wings and trying to take a leap at Brex as it screamed out again. “You insolent whelp! I shall not be satisfied with your death. No! After I have consumed you, I will lay waste to this entire continent!” Brex had easily dodged it by taking another leap at the last second and had used the same move as Rory and ran along its form until it had completely passed by and crashed into the many rocks that were littering the ground.

This however had not stopped the dragon, as it got back to its four limbs and swung its tail as a whip at where Brex was now standing as it continued. I AM A RED DRAGON! A… RED… DRAGON! NOT A COPPER DRAGON! I am not some pathetic ground dwelling Copper Dragon! I am of a superior breed, to not only all life, but to that of the Dragons as well! We are the destroyers! We are the conquerors! We are-.”

By then, Brex had already leaped out of the way of the large tail and had run up its length and was now standing on the tip of the Dragon’s nose and staring down at him. With the spear in his left-hand, Brex had lifted his left arm and was using his fingers to do the gesture of imitating someone talking, while bobbing his head from left to right and a overly exaggerated mocking gesture.

The Dragon had pulled its head back quickly enough that Brex was now left in the air and was starting to fall. In that moment and then opened its mouth wide and the glowing heat from the flames contained within was already showing to be coming up through its throat. Brex had responded to this by outstretching his left arm and clenched his hand into a fist. The large protruding object that was only on that arm, had a cylinder pointed forward. From there, the end had opened as a panel slip open at the end.

The inside had shown three long cylinders held inside and being surrounded by half a dozen gold-colored rings. Each of them with runes etched onto the insides. A number of which, instantly began to spin and this caused the three thinner cylinders within to rotate and give off a blue glow. This was immediately proceeded with it releasing a multitude of quick shots of light that were aimed directly into the throat of the Dragon as the building flames began to reach the end of its neck.

The device while launching, would seem like an endless stream of magic and sounding very similar to that of a Gatling gun. As the shots made their way into the throat of the Dragon, there was a violent explosion upon the two opposing forces colliding with one another.

The force that was produced from such a clash, was capable of launching Brex backwards in the air. This was also accompanied by a thick cloud that blocked all vision until his form had exited it. Almost immediately after, a large claw came shooting from the smoke and Brex had to twist his body while getting his spear in position. It had barely grazed his armor and tore off a small chunk on the left shoulder plate as it passed.

During this brief instant, the spear was swung so that it had cut into the gap between two of its fingers and slice the backside of its claw. At first, the bladed end had scratched a few of the scales but managed to get past them after getting nearly halfway through the swing and drew a stream of blood that sprayed onto his helmet and coded much of the faceplate.

As the appendage continued on its path, it re-entered the smoke screen and was followed up with its tail coming out to show that the dragon had done all this and turning its own large frame. Due to the speed in which it was coming at him and still recovering from his last counter attack. Brex was unable to avoid this one and was slammed just as his back was turned.

He was then launched to the far end of the cavern and had skipped along the rocky terrain a short distance before coming near to the other wall. He would have made it all the way if it wasn't for one of the large stones that was blocking his path. Thanks to the rate he was traveling at the time, Brex made a body size indentation upon impact which broke off a few more of the smaller pieces of his gear.

The armor plating on his upper back was severely warped from the tail strike and it really didn't do him much of a favor during the multiple collisions for his sudden, and abrupt stop with the current rock that was giving him trouble with himself getting loose. Once Brex peeled himself off and turned to where the Dragon should be. The Roegadyn was blindsided with the Red Dragon taking another sweep of its tail, after apparently giving chase as he was sent flying from the previous swing.

This time, the trip consisted of Brex being pinned and roughly pushed along the rocky wall, thanks to the tail that was firmly pressing down on his armored body. This got a shower of sparks to be produced, along with a number of scraps to be torn off and expose a few of the inner workings as the jagged stones pelted his form.

Even the right side of his helmet was being slowly broken away but just before some of his face could be revealed, the limb had reached its full length and let up on the constant pressure, which allowed Brex to be freed after several seconds of the ordeal had passed.

After Brex fell from his current height and tumbled a few times. He had gotten back to his feet once again and got a quick look at his current condition. Even though he had technically taken no physical harm aside from a few bumps here and there while within the confines of his protective armor. The gear itself was clearly not in the same position.

Brex used a second to open up his character menu. On there, it displayed his current class and items equipped. It showed him to be his level Seventy Dragoon class. Alongside that, there was the added text that said, Subclass: Artificer level Seven. Normally, on this screen there should only have been one set of items that could be worn on the body which consisted of the head, chest, pants, boots and gloves. Alongside of those, are the accessories which included earrings, the necklace, one bracelet and two rings.

Although it was different now because of the added subclass ability given to him from taking on the Artificer from Dungeons & Dragons. This had to do with the specialized armor that his subclass was able to create which went over his existing armor. This meant there was an additional five slots that was currently showing what he was wearing for all to see at this moment.

From there he could tell that a number of his gear had suffered from a dramatic drop in durability. A few of the sections still look pretty good with over ninety percent. While others were all the way down to just above that of fifty percent. Brex really couldn't tell what his back could have looked like at the moment, but he could pretty much surmise that another heavy hit like the last one would easily be able to scrape the rest of it off.

There was also one more thing that was added to this list. Right next to the slot that displayed his current weapon which was a spear. Was also an icon that looked just like the weapon that was affixed to his left gauntlet. Brex couldn't help but to display his displeasure and seeing the current durability on it.

“Shit! Firing at that close a range really the number on it. I wouldn't be surprised if a few of the spell rings were damaged inside of the chamber. I wonder if that trick will still work if I was to use it now? Note to self, don’t do that again.”

His self-examination was cut short when he heard the Dragon preparing itself. Without wanting to give it any more time, Brex quickly did an internal set of chanting to increase his movement speed. Once that was done, the armored Roegadyn raced across the battlefield and zigzagging between the obstacles. Soon, he found himself facing the Dragon and was about to close in after rushing past a thick patch of black smoke that was in his path.

Just as Brex was about to take a sweep with his Lance. The lava that was pretty much everywhere by now, had suddenly erupted right in front of him and this made him back off with a long jump that put him about twenty meters back.

What appeared before Brex now, had caused his eyes to go wide when he caught sight of at least fifty of those fiery creatures that first appeared and were dispatched by the girls up top. They had all pretty much made a defensive perimeter between the dragon and himself and were already in the middle of their preparations for launching a simultaneous fire attack in his direction.

From where he was, Brex started to dodge their attacks one after another that seemed to come endlessly as they were alternating to keep it as a steady, ongoing rain of fire. However, no matter how much he managed to move around the Dragon, the small army would change their position to act as a constant barrier against him and position themselves in order to keep a clear line of sight to be broken from his opponent. Who was just standing there and clearly looking amused at the spectacle.

Whether it be from jumping from one place to the next and ricocheting off of the debris. Brex just couldn't seem to get any closer. He would use the Dragoons weapon throwing ability to take out a few here and there as his spear would return after each throw. There was even the skill that allowed him to jump to do a full stabbing motion with his spear in both arms and returning to his previous location. But no matter what he did, they would simply reform their ranks with additional numbers that would come shooting out from the lava.

It had even progressed to a point where Brex had to go in for melee attacks and get swarmed by them because of his positioning within the cave system that didn't allow him to straif any further and had to backtrack. After a couple minutes of this going on, over half of the creatures had switched from long range attacks to that of a Kamikaze tactic, as they would fly in and try to grab onto him so that their bodies could just explode.

Although Brex was clearly cleaving them with a simple strike, it was due to their sheer numbers that they were able to get a hold of him and inflict some substantial damage to his armor after so many explosions had occurred. This of course was able to destroy the rest of the armor plating on his damaged shoulder and most of his gear was brought down to just below forty percent of its total durability.

Luckily for Brex, the damage had not affected the internal working, which had some hydraulics added into the construction for some additional strength. But at the rate things were going it was only a matter of time until one of them got a lucky shot and damaged that system as well. Seeing that this was not getting him anywhere. Brex had maneuvered himself between some large pieces of rock in order to lure the smaller monsters into chasing him now that their line of sight was broken.

Luckily his plan had worked and they were more than eager to give chase. As they began flooding into the smaller pathways that were created from everything that had been done to the environment. Brex was waiting and had been jumping off of walls after getting a good foothold and running his spear through one after another. There was a number of times that due to their close proximity, that he was able to get multiple targets in just one sweep.

Once he had dealt with his hot-headed pursuers. He quickly returned to the open area and found that the Dragon was staring straight at him and was beginning to give off a faint red glow that ran across his entire form. Upon closer inspection, it could be seen that a form of energy was seeping like a mist onto the ground and flowing straight into the lava, where it would be pulled to the location that the creatures were coming out of to replenish their numbers.

Now that it was plainly obvious that this was going to be an endless fight if something wasn't done soon. The Roegadyn got behind a boulder that was clearly the size of a fully grown elephant and grabbed on to it after placing the spear away after retracting it to a smaller state and placing it on his back. As his fingers were digging in. Some splinters could be seen going out from the point in which he grabbed on to it by a good several feet.

It can easily be heard the amount of exertion that he was putting into it, as he strained his muscles along with the added strength that was bestowed thanks to the hydraulics. After a few seconds of this going on. The large mass finally began to move as it was ripped out of the ground by a few feet. Brex then started to give a menacing growl as he began to turn in place in order to spin the object around himself to gain sufficient momentum. It was then released at the point where it would end up flying straight at the Dragon.

Of course, by this point the large flock of creatures had been fully respond and had been situated between both him and the Dragon. They all had started to scream as they resumed their long-range attacks hoping to destroy the boulder as it came hurtling towards them. But due to its size and apparent density, that plan was not going well for them. It also seemed that they were reluctant to move from their position seeing as they would just be re-spawned immediately after their death.

Thanks to their constant barrages and loud screams, it made it difficult for not only them, but the dragon is well to notice that Brex had used his Dragoon skill of using a leaping attack and had quickly close the gap between him and the back of the boulder that was still in mid-flight.

Just before he had completely caught up with it, Brex had pulled from his back the spear and extended it back to its full length and gripped onto it with both of his hands before bringing it around in order to do a wide swing with all his might that was place behind it. Just as he did this, the Roegadyn yelled loud enough to be heard over all the commotion. “YOU ALL WANT TO HUG SO BADLY?! THEN HUG THIS!!!”

He then swung his spear so fast, that it had become nothing but a blur along with his arms. But during the split second as it got halfway into its arc. The silhouette of the spear which was a single straight rod had started to glow with a white light and contorted so that past the halfway point it had begun to expand.

By the time there was a small explosion of light to signify the switching of weapons had been completed, the spear had been completely switched out with not another of its own, but instead and oversized dark gray hammer that easily dwarfed Brex himself. There were even these three jet engine protrusions on the back side that gave off a red explosion to assist in its current momentum after giving a large bang immediately after being summoned.

(Here is a picture of the hammer. Only the head is far bigger.)

The hammer then struck the backside of the boulder and gave it an astounding burst of speed thanks to a strong shockwave that was generated upon impact. From there it nearly doubled, if not tripled its original flight speed. Because of this, the flying monsters had no way of getting out of its path even if they wanted to and were completely destroyed as it went through their entire formation.

It even was able to strike the Dragon squarely in its chest and sent it flying a good several hundred meters until it crashed against the cave wall that it had at that moment, it's back turned towards. A number of scales could be seen flying off from the impact and there was even some blood that had escaped the Dragons mouth from this attack. Brex wasn’t too sure but he could have sworn that its eyes were bugging out, out of either the impact or perhaps surprise.

This was immediately followed with the Dragon giving off yet another pained roar that shook the cave. It then caused this to happen once again after slamming into the wall. But this was followed with a third that had been nearly eclipsed by a collective explosion, due to the remains of the monsters that were clearly splattered all along the projectile that Brex had just used.

Over with Brex, he had landed in time to watch this all go on as his feet were standing in a shallow puddle of lava. Which only had him sink down a few inches. The hammer however, had been switched back to his other weapon before he had even landed and was already in a fighting position.

The ensuing explosion caused quite a bit of debris to come crashing down from above. Because of this, the area had been blanketed in heavy portions of dirt scattering about and creating a solid screen that was able to block anyone's vision beyond a few feet. Although, he could still hear the dragon giving off a series of growls that echoed through the entire cavern. This made it quite difficult for Brex to pin down exactly where it was, because of the way it was bouncing off of everything to create an echoing effect.

Brex had turned his head back and forth to try and pin down the source of the sound but his senses kicked in right as something had burst fourth from the cloud at a blinding speed. This being the Dragon's head. During that split second before it had gotten to Brex. It was plain to see that it had suffered some damage as some fresh cuts could be seen along the scales. Because of how fast it was going and the way it surprised the Roegadyn, he was unable to avoid it in time and had been forced and held to the ground after being crashed into.

Brex was currently in the following position as he grunted with the exertion of keeping himself from being devoured alive. The Dragon was pretty much now hunched over and bearing its full weight as it tried to take Brex into its mouth. His body had been pushed into the lava to the point that it was nearly enough that it began to cover parts of his body. Especially his back and hips as his chest was nearly submerged.

He was currently using both of his legs to push down on the lower jaw while the arms were doing the same with the upper half. It was clearly evident that with the position that they were in, that it was not going to give up even if it meant getting a mouthful of molten lava along with him with how hard it was going down with its jaws. Brex could feel that with all the weight being added to his own, it was only a matter of time before he was completely submerged.

Within his personal vision he had kept to one side the window that displayed is current gear condition and saw that a number of them had turned yellow and then red, to indicate that they were at their limit and had reached below fifteen percent of their durability. His armor could clearly be seen warping and breaking apart at the seams as it continued to fight against the Dragon.

After a few seconds of this, Brex could feel that the hydraulics within the suit, had finally given out due to the combination of stress and heat. Which meant he no longer had the benefit of an extra one fifth to his overall strength.

As the Dragon's jaw began to close ever so slightly due to the loss of his mechanical enhancements. His opponent could be heard chuckling from the back of his throat from sensing the change of his soon to be meal. But the Dragon was rudely interrupted when he began to hear a very loud and oddly amused laughter coming from below himself.

Brex had started to laugh so much, that he was literally throwing his head back enough that the top of his helmet was beginning to dip into the lava, before he brought it back up to stare directly into the Dragon’s throat with his glowing neon blue helmet eyes. Said eyes were already beginning to flicker due to the accumulated damage. This was also followed with him talking with the same level of excitement.

“Hahaha! Oh yeah! That's what I've been talking about! This is exactly what I needed to test my prototype! Mixing in some heat-resistant components to give it some resistance into the alloy seems to work quite well, although it does have a fixed limit. I'll have to look into that a little more. After all, I can't have my equipment going out on me before I even feel the burn.”

“The hydraulics could use some more tweaking as well, maybe I can squeeze out a little more on the next draw-ups. Now, as for the overall structure. The durability could use some work as well, but it held up pretty good considering it was a first generation. Hmmm, let's see what else... Oh yeah! I almost completely forgot about this one! how stupid of me! HaHa-Haha! I can be so forgetful at times!”

When Brex was in the middle of his little monologue. He had carefully removed his left arm away from the upper jaw and had positioned it so that it was pointing into the Dragons throat. From within the arm mounted device, the multiple rings began to rotate slowly and were giving off a light hum as the three rods were beginning to rotate in place. They quickly picked up the rate at which they spun until they were pretty much a blur with the way that they were going around in a circle inside after a few short seconds.

As for the golden rings that were housed within, those picked up speed as well. But every other one was rotating in the opposite direction. The ruins that were etched in on the inside and outside of the bands were now giving off a brighter glow and multiple streams of electricity and connecting all the pieces as they were randomly shooting from one part to the next.

The light hum that was produced, only got louder and louder until it could be heard over the last bit that Brex was saying, before the outer casing for the weapon had unlocked itself and shot off to expose the inner workings of the strange device.

Brex then said loudly, as a shower of electricity that was coursing along his arm and even connecting with small threads that were obviously hitting the inside of the dragon's mouth. “One of three things are going to happen here! First, nothing will happen. Second, something will go horribly wrong and I'll lose my arm! Lastly, you're going to have a new breathing hole to use!”

Before the Dragon had even had a chance to completely register what was going on. The weapon had picked up even more speed and the amount of noise it was creating had increased several folds. Brex then yelled one last thing before the weapon was fired. “IMPROVISED, SPECIAL BEAM CANNON!!!!”

The weapon had fired a very condensed stream of energy that was no thicker than a strand of hair as it punctured right through the Dragon as it attempted to move its head. As Time slowed down to nearly a crawl, one could see how the beam of light grew until it became a couple of inches wide in diameter and was followed by a second rotating beam that went around the main one in a corkscrew pattern.

which caused the area being affected to grow outwards from the initial point of contact. As for the lava underneath his body. The amount of energy being given off had forced it to be pushed away and exposing the solid ground underneath.

There was hardly any resistance at all as the flesh was torn and then disintegrated almost at the same time as a blinding blue light was produced from this attack. On the other side of the Dragon. The beam had continued on and illuminated most of the underground cavern as it traveled until it had hit the wall and going at an angle.

From there, it pretty much ended up drilling straight through the bedrock and exiting the Mountainside and going off to the sky. This had lasted a good, few seconds until the energy had died down to reveal a clean circular hole that was easily four or perhaps five meters wide that made a direct path to the surface.

Back with the girls on the top of the mountain. They had just caught a glimpse of the light show that was shooting high into the air and dispersing a couple of clouds in the process. As they were all pretty much gawking at the site, Pinkie was holding up her hand to act as a visor to help and blocking the Sun from messing with her view of the light show. The pink pony even began to whistle as she raised an eyebrow before asking a question to herself. “I hope that wasn’t trademarked...”

Back with Twilight, the mare was pretty much slack-jawed as her expression showed that she didn't understand just what it was that she was looking at. There were even a few stray hairs that had poked out as she was mumbling to herself almost incoherently. However, there were a few phrases that had managed to be put together.

“How is... But that's not! That-That has just as much power as the Princess! Just who did-.” While all the rest were clearly dumbstruck and had nothing else to say. Fluttershy was the only one who was not paying attention to it. This being clear, with her still looking in the direction of the large hole.

In fact, during this whole time. Fluttershy had barely even moved a muscle aside from slowly blinking as her eyes, that were shifting from their usual color ever so often. But oddly enough to no one's notice, she would have one shocked expression after another. Even now, her eyes are going comically wide as her breath hitched in her throat.

Back down below, Brex had been released from the Dragon’s grip and in the middle of getting back onto his feet after pulling loose from the remaining bits of lava. Which was now partially coating his backside. His right arm looked pretty bad with the way that the weapon itself was pretty much turned into scrap metal.

Pretty much all of the rings had been broken apart and the few that still remained, had sizable chunks missing. It was safe to say that this made them useless at this point. The sets of rods had either melted or twisted so that they were no longer in a straight line.

As for the front of the chamber. That oddly remained somewhat intact after the casing was jettisoned during the firing process. That one had been slightly twisted and still glowing as it was slowly melting into the rest of the gauntlet.

The rest of it wasn't faring all that well either. Severe scorch marks could be seen in a blast pattern to show that it was running up the length of his arm. There are even a few random sparks of blue lightning going up and down to length of it. This caused the rest of the sections along the armor that were normally lit up, to be flickering in random succession.

The improvised special beam cannon, had also triggered sections of the caves ceiling to come crashing down and this created another set of thick dust clouds to settle in. Because of this, all that Brex could see, was vague outlines of the debris around and the subtle glow that was giving off of the lava background. Even the sunlight that was pouring through the large hole was barely visible thanks to all of that.

After another jolt of electricity had coursed over his body right then. Brex began to speak in a strained voice that would only spike whenever another one shot through him. “I don't know if that should be counted as, Ouch! As a success or a failure, Ouch! I'm really, really, Ouch! Fuck! That hurts! I'm really lucky that didn't go off back at HQ... Storing spells for future use in glyphs may need some more alterations before it becomes, Ouch! Fuck! More viable…”

“Creating that Special Beam Cannon by fusing a number of different spells together really was a blast! Hahaha.” Brex was slowly rotating his left shoulder, while giving out a grunt of pain before he continued. “The recoil it's going to be a problem if I don't do something about that. I guess there's no point of me wearing this anymore. Pretty much all of it is on the verge of falling off.”

After saying that. The Roegadyn was covered in the usual threads of blue and white until the amalgamation of colors had shrunk down to reveal him in his usual white and blue robe attire. There was even this simple looking spear placed on his back. But in reality, it was his level seventy weapon for the Dragoon.

It had been glamoured to be no different than any other bronze spear one might find in any weapons shop. After lately dusting off his clothing from the still falling dust and smoke that was in the middle of clearing. Brex turned his head slightly towards the left and called out in a joking tone.

“Just how long are you going to continue playing possum over there? I can hear you breathing.” What Brex said was in no way a lie, seeing as the Dragon was still breathing quite heavily, but there was a slight growl, mixed with a gurgling sound. It also didn't help the Dragon with hiding thanks to the red marker still showing it there on his mini map. After internally chanting a wind spell in his mind, there was a sudden strong gust of wind that blew the excess dirt particles away and out of the newly formed hole.

This revealed the dragon who was currently staggering onto all four of its limbs. The most notable feature to draw attention however, turned out to be the fact that it lost its lower jaw and there was a gaping hole off to the lower right part of its skull. Brex could even see a portion of the spine that connected the head to the neck where the flesh was both torn and burnt away from what he had done.

From behind this mask, Brex raised his right eyebrow in clear interest, while lightly shrugging his shoulders before speaking in a jovial tone. “Just great, seems that the aiming needs to be corrected too. I wonder if the alignment got knocked around during our little fight. The housing will need to be reinforced against such a design flaw.”

His musings were interrupted when he heard the Dragon beginning to give out a series of growls, gurgles and other hard to explain noises as it staggered to get up right. Brex had responded to this by giving a long yawn while bringing his hand up to his mask to show that he was trying to cover it up, but doing so rather poorly. After that, he turned his back on the Dragon and was now walking away slowly. As he did this, he called out over his shoulder in a rather bored tone.

“I'm honestly glad that you survived. I got a lot that I need to go over in my head and honestly, you're not worth my time anymore. Heck, I was holding back a lot of my skills during that fight so I could focus on what my suit can do.” This had clearly upset the Dragon, as it tried to roar at him. Instead, all it was able to do, was to cause a large amount of blood to come spewing out of where's missing jaw was. It's staggering quickly became long strides as it attempted to chase after him.

(Play this music for the next part.)

Brex clearly knew that this was going on behind him as he raised his right hand and extended a single finger to point straight up as he said something under his breath. “Did you happen to forget someone?” From right above the Dragon's head, there was a gleam of light that reflected the sunlight that was coming through the hole and it was coming at a frightening speed.

Up above in the higher areas of the cave, was still a thick layer of smoke and what came out of it was Rory. She was now holding a new axe in her hands and she had this murderous look in her now brightly glowing red eyes.

The scene comes to a complete stop and all the events begin to rewind at a frightening pace. Everything from the blast and the fight had gone by in a matter of seconds until everything stopped and began to go at normal speed at the point in which both Brex and Rory were within the barrier. He had just produced a new set of clothing and was in the middle of handing them over to her.

As Rory stood there while holding the fresh set of clothing in her arms. She heard her master saying the following. “Look towards the Dragon. Off to the right of him and about thirty meters, there is a small boulder that I stuck a new axe into. Make your way over to get it and then get as high as you can and wait for my signal.”

After that, Rory had given a quick nod and had made her way to a safer location to get dressed. The axe was easily retrieved and she had to go from one spot to another to evade the crossfire from both her master and the Dragon. She had even taken out a few of the smaller monsters that strayed too close to her as she kept to the shadows. When it got to the point in which she saw him being pinned to the lava. Rory had to give it her all in order to not jump in and follow her master's orders.

After that beam of light was shot. Rory started to make her way up the side of the cave by swinging her axe to dig into the hanging stalactites and swung herself from one to the next, until she had gotten as high as she possibly could. At the same time, keeping the area in which her master and the Dragon where in, within range of her senses. As soon as the overgrown lizard had started to make its way towards him after taking a face full of magical laser. Brex had sent a mental signal to Rory to finish him off. “Rory, it’s your turn!”

This of course brings it all back to the present. Rory had kicked off of the ceiling with all her might. During her swift descent, the girl had activated a number of abilities one after another to stack their accumulated effects. One of which contributed to her red glowing eyes. Along with the dark aura that was radiating off of her form, thanks to the warrior class.

Her weapon began to shine with a multitude of bright colors signify that it was layered with one damage increasing spell after another from the Dungeons & Dragons version of the Paladin class, that she had gotten from Ryu while they were both in his world in the past.

Right as Rory made it down to the Dragon and passing the last of the smoke. She gave off this menacing, feminine roar of her own that seemed way too loud for her to have produced and swung her now glowing axe as she passed right by the base of its long neck that had been left completely exposed.

Thanks to the sharp edge, along with the speed and magic added to it. There was the immediate effect of cutting right through the already beaten-up scales quite easily, as a number of them were cut away when the weapon went into its flesh. The magic had caused it to also extend the area of effect, so that instead of cutting away at only that section, Rory was able to cut clean through the entire neck, thereby decapitating it in a single blow.

By the time she had already passed by and landed on one of the few rocks right underneath its frame. The limb was already in the middle of separating from the rest of the body, as it showered its life-giving blood. Not wanting to get her brand-new outfit dirty after just receiving it, she quickly got out of the way and caught up to her Master.

The two turned around to watch as the blood landed on the surrounding river of lava, only to evaporate the very instant it all came into contact. As for the neck and head, well… Whatever was left of the head anyway. That had gone into the river and was now slowly beginning to sink until nearly half of it had disappeared. Oddly enough, even with it dead, the scales around the head alone showed them to be completely resisting the heat. Because of this, Brex went over quickly and plucked a few and placed them into his item box.

As for the rest of the headless body, the legs gave out and it simply plopped down with a resounding crash that shook the place for the final time. The legs were sprawled out, the wings were draped over and slowly being roasted as they laid on top of the molten rock. Rory, who had just calmed down from her raging effect. Was now looking at him with her normal red eyes and giving him a cheeky expression, as she nodded her head in the direction of the carcass. She then spoke in a joking tone. “Hay Master, are you feeling up to trying some Dragon meat?”

(Stop the music here.)

This got a subtle head shake from Brex. Before he replied with, “Honestly, I don't really want to eat the meat of another sentient creature such as a Dragon. After all, I am friends with Spike and now it would just seem completely wrong.” Rory gave a small hum before her expression turned a little sour as she spoke again. “I see your point on this Master. In a way, it's no different than saying I want to eat Pony meat, then turning around and wanting to being friends with them.”

“And by the way. Nice move with the giant hammer! Really, I had no idea you even had one of those tucked away. But hold on, didn't you have the Dragoon Soul Stone equipped? they only use lances.” This earned Rory a small chuckle from Brex as he answered her. “Oh that? You can thank my subclass. I don't really use it much, so I'm not too surprised that you forgot about it. I made sure that when I leveled up my Artificer, that I grabbed the feat that gave me a weapon specialty with two-handed blunt weapons.”

“With that, now I can pretty much pull out a two-handed hammer no matter what class I'm currently equipped as, because my Artificer is constantly on. It's pretty much the same way with you being a Warrior from Final Fantasy, as well as a Paladin from Dungeons & Dragons being your subclass. This also means that you're not restricted to purely using your great axe all the time. Why not try out a sword and shield once in a while?”

This got a playful pout from the girl, as she brought her bloodied axe’s head closer to her face and began to lovingly rub her cheeks against it. Surprisingly enough, none of the dried substance had rubbed off and onto her face. She then gave him a shifty glance before speaking. “But I love my axe. Master did make it just for me. How could I possibly reject your love and forsake such a treasure?”

As the two were continuing with their conversing. Neither one showed any signs that they knew about the green Carbuncle that was hiding under some rubble and sticking its head out enough, just to be able to keep them in its sights. After a few more seconds had gone by, said Carbuncle began to disintegrate as the particles slowly broke off from its form, until there was nothing left behind.

*Point of view: Rory Mercury*
*Time: One hour later*

Back on the very top of the mountain, where the girls were all still eagerly awaiting. Rainbow had to be pretty much restrained because she wanted to dive down into the hole. But her friends didn't want her to go in alone. As for Fluttershy, her eyes began to blink rapidly as her expression returned to normal.

But after a few moments had passed by, she had fully regained her senses and had this look of extreme nervousness. While taking a quick glance over at the hole and began to mutter to herself in such a low volume that it was even quieter than when she normally spoke. “Oh my... Was that a dream? It-It was so scary.”

Nearly half an hour had passed and the girls were finally beginning to lose it with all the waiting, that they were just about to try and climb down the hole after getting some climbing gear ready by using whatever they had on hand. Which turned out to be very little. But just as Rainbow was hurrying Applejack along, who had just begun to climb in. They were surprised by hearing Rory's playful voice coming from the path that they had taken to walk up the side of the mountain.

“What are yeah all about to do? If you're planning on going spelunking, you're going to need a whole lot more rope than that to reach the bottom.” From that, the girls pretty much all surrounded Rory and were asking question after question as to how she was and what happened after the fall.

The girl had carefully explained that after falling down into the hole, she and the Dragon continued their fight and she eventually came out on top. She did happen to mention that her clothing had gotten pretty messed up and she had to change into a spare set. They didn’t buy it at first, but Rory showed them a small bag that could fit in the palm on her hand.

From there, she reached in and pulled out a juicy red apple that was clearly bigger than the bag itself and started to munch away at it. This of course, had caused Rarity to faint when hearing about the outfit, but not before pulling out of whatever special space that she kept it in, which happened to be the famous fainting couch for her to fall on with an exaggerated thud.

Of course, Rainbow was extremely skeptical when it came to the whole story, but after confirming it through Applejack, that not a word was a lie. The rainbow Pegasus had to relent and immediately crossed her arms and clear defiance as to her not being able to actually get into the fight.

Afterwards, they all went down the mountain and as soon as they got to the bottom, the ponies all released a unified shriek of horror once they had gotten around a bend in the path and were less than a few paces away from the skull of the Dragon that had been clearly cut near the base of where the neck and the head would have connected to one another.

Twilight, who was currently getting squished in a group hug right then, that was comprised of violently shaking ponies. There was even a scared sheep sound that came from somewhere within the bundle. She soon popped her head out and had to try really hard to speak clearly enough to be heard. “What?! What is that doing here and what happened to it?!”

Rory had strolled right up next to it and casually leaned against the side that was mostly intact with her elbow. Afterwards, the girl gave a small laugh before replying with a smirk on her lips. “Huh? What do you mean by, what's it doing here? I'm bringing it back so that I have proof, of course.”

“Oh, and that reminds me! Twilight, I'm not going to be as thoughtless, as to bring this skull all the way into town, unless something is done beforehand. It might be best if you go in before me and make sure that little Dragon of yours doesn't see this when I carry it to the guild building. I know he's going to find out eventually that there's a dragon killer in Ponyville, but seeing the evidence is going to be too much of an impact, compared to that of simply being told. You get what I mean, right?”

Twilight could do nothing but to slowly nod as she was giving an audible gulp in response. What surprised the girls on their trip back even more, was how Rory was able to carry the large skull after stabbing her axe into the forehead and holding it as though it was a piece of meat on a skewer and resting the handle over her left shoulder. Not only did she show absolutely no signs of it being a bother whatsoever by doing this, but she was even humming a light tune to herself and having a joyous expression plastered all over her face.

Once they had made it to the very outskirts of the town. Twilight made sure to follow what Rory had suggested about Spike and tracked him down in the library in order to keep him there as the rest went over to the Adventurers Guild, along with the remains of the Dragon in tow. Suffice it to say, the group was drawing a great deal of attention on an epic scale, with the way the rest of the citizens would freeze in place and their eyes would go as wide as comically allowed, before it could be considered a medical emergency as they walked down the streets.

Rarity was pretty much keeping her distance from the Dragon's skull, out of it being both grotesque and the fear of anything getting on her outfit. This meant that the two couldn't converse as they did before about fashion. Which was clearly bothering the mare with how she was constantly backing off whenever she got a bit too close. As for Applejack and Rainbow, they were sticking pretty close and were not at all bothered by the time that they had pretty much got back.

Pinkie was her usual ball of energy and bouncing around the group. The pink pony had even joined along with Rory's humming at one point or another and hadn't stopped for quite some time. When it came to Fluttershy, she had immediately excused herself as soon as they had gotten close enough to see her Cottage on their way into town. As she was saying goodbye to all of them and had gotten to Rory being the last to do so with. The yellow Pegasus had completely clammed up and made a break for it after giving a small squeak.

In response, Rory merely shrugged as Applejack stepped up and told her that it was because of her fear of large Dragons and holding something over her back was the most likely reason that Rory had not been given a proper goodbye. The girl had just waved it off and continued on with the others until they had made it to the guild building and stood outside with the skull now laying upside down so that the remains didn't mess up the street. In the meantime, the rest of them were waiting for Twilight to return from meeting with Spike.

It had taken some time before the purple Unicorn had come back, due to her having to explain to Spike about some things and to give him warning in regards to what Rory was carrying back with them. Twilight then said as she was catching her breath. “I'm so sorry about the wait girls. You know, I'm really surprised at how well Spike took the news. Sure, he was really shaken up but after a little bit, but he seems fine. He's waiting at the library for me to come back.”

Rory chuckled a little bit before speaking up. “Well, well. It would seem that this Spike character is pretty mature for his age. Maybe it would have been okay to let him see this.” That was when she lightly kicked the remains with her left leg, which was currently disguised as a hoof, because of her Pony form being what they all saw.

Upon hearing that statement, Twilight had pretty much gone as far as to shrieking as her eyes went wide and she threw her arms in front of herself to wave frantically as she spoke in a hurried tone. “No-no-no-no! It was a good call on your part to send me ahead! There's no way I'm exposing my little brother to this!”

After exchanging a few words with one another. Twilight had gone into the building and came out with the representative, who was currently running the front desk that day. This turning out to be Lyra once more and as soon as she has gotten through the main entrance and just finished talking to Twilight.

The green mare had turned her attention forward and had let out a startled scream that drew the eyes of any on the streets, before ducking back through the doors at the site of the skull that was currently looking in her direction with its one good eye that was devoid of life.

When Lyra had come back out after a good five minutes of getting calmed down by both Twilight and Rarity. The mare asked in a shaky voice. “J-Just, just what did you do to it?! Why is it missing nearly half of its head and why is the bottom jaw is missing?!!!” Rory who is currently still leaning up against it, had just given another one of her shrugged shoulders, while giving a, I don't really care attitude as she spoke.”

“Oh? Nothing much, I killed and cut its head off to bring in as proof. It was not a very nice Dragon, nope! It even made some rude references to my Mast-, I my lover.” That was when Rory changed her carefree expression, to that of someone that should not be taken lately as she went on. Any who say ill of him, will suffer the same fate. Insulting him while in my presence is the worst possible insult imaginable…”

The air began to feel very thick and heavy while Rory had said this. But as soon as the last words had left her lips, did it all suddenly go back to normal, which shocked all the girls that were present. This including any bystanders that were within a city block on the streets. This was made apparent with them all looking straight at her with fear-stricken eyes and nodding furiously. Some of which had their furs standing on end so much, that they even puffed up some.

Lyra was pretty much frozen in place because of what Rory had just done and needed a few pokes from Twilight, who is standing next to her to regain her senses. When she did, the Unicorn had shaken her head and immediately went on to speak in a rather shaky tone, while keeping a wary eye on Rory.

“I-I'll m-make sure to report this so that a team can come in and pick that up. We really don't have the s-space. Also, even if this was an order issued by the princess and not by us, all of you will be given credit and the points will be added to your current rankings, along with a large reward.”

Twilight made sure that all present were given credit, along with Fluttershy. Who was currently not there to do so for herself. So, once everything was said and done. The girls were walking along the busy street, towards the center of town. Twilight began to walk closer to Rory, before asking her a question. “Um... You know, with the rush of the mission and everything. I never really got to ask just as to what was it that brought you to Ponyville? We don't get a lot of visitors here, unless it's for a celebration. I don't think we have anything scheduled for quite a while.”

Rarity was the next to enter the conversation, as she stepped up on the other side of Rory. “Oh, please! You must regale us; I am just dyeing to know as well! A pony that knows a well-known supermodel such as Fleur De Lis and to be able to bumps elbows with the high class of Canterlot, must have an important reason for coming all the way down to our quaint little Ponyville.”

This had obviously caught Rory by surprise, as she raised an eyebrow to this before she replied. “And, just how do you know about me to such an extent Rarity?” Rarity then used her magic and took out of her storage space, what appeared to be a magazine that had been opened halfway through and levitated it in front of Rory's face. It clearly showed it to be the picture of her and Fleur De Lis at a cafe. She then snatched it out of mid-air and began to quickly read over the article mentioning herself, before handing it back over to Rarity.

Rory then gave out a loud sigh, while her shoulders began to slump a little bit for a moment, before she began to speak again. “I guess this would explain the extra sets of eyes I've been getting these past few days... It is rather fortunate that my Mas-. Err, my lover isn't the jealous type to go after any that happened to look at me.”

Rarity had given the girl a sideways glance with narrowed eyes for a moment after catching that obvious and strange slip of the tongue. But chose not to say anything and return to her normal expression only a moment later.

The girl then went on to speak again, after giving a cheery smile. “Rarity, if you are insinuating that I am a part of the noble class of Canterlot, then it would be best that you correct that way of thinking. Yes, I do happen to know Fleur. But we happen to go back a long way. As for this picture, this was obviously taken only yesterday, so I'm very surprised that it has already made its way to Ponyville in such a short amount of time. Ha! I guess what they say is true after all. Gossip really does travel at 186,282 miles per second.”

That last bit in regards to the long stretch of numbers, had the immediate effect of causing the ponies that were with her, to stop dead in their tracks as she continues to walking several pieces ahead of them, before they rushed to be at the same pace as her again. Rory had noticed this and had a small smirk on her lips.

Applejack was clearly confused and was scratching the right side of her head, right behind the ear after lifting up her hat slightly off of her head. Rainbow had this look on her face that said that her brain had been fried at some point and was just blankly looking at Rory for a simple answer to be given. As for Rarity, she played it off and was giving a small giggle, but was clearly unawares as to the meaning of the numbers with how she had this look on her face that just said she was trying really hard to wrap her mind around it.

Pinkie was completely oblivious to this and was still bouncing around. Only to disappear and reappear behind random objects within view. As for Twilight, she had at one point or another, pulled out a notepad and was using her magic to quickly scribble into it while mouthing out the numbers. After seeing all of this, Rory had brought her free hand up to her mouth in order to stifle a small giggle before going on to explain.

“I feel that I must apologize. It's one of his jokes that I recall him using once and I couldn't help but to take the opportunity to use it for myself. It means the speed of light. That is if you observe it in a complete vacuum environment and have the proper instruments to register the speed right down to the millisecond.” In response, she got even more severe reactions from all of them and Twilight was busy writing down everything so fast on the notepad, that it was beginning to give off some smoke due to the friction being created by the quill.

Rory couldn't help but the comment on this when she pointed towards the floating object. “Twilight, how are you writing with a quill without dipping it in ink every few seconds?” Twilight blinked a few times and excitedly replied.

“Oh this? It's a small enchantment that I came up with that lets me store ink within the quill itself. This is thanks to a modified storage spell. Getting the ink to come out to write is the easy part. Now getting it in there to begin with, now that's the tricky bit. You would not believe how messy my bedroom got until I finally got that spell down.”

Rory then gave her a very toothy smile, as she had this slightly mischievous look, before replying to what Twilight had just said. “Oh, trust me! I can tell you that I know quite a bit about making a mess in the bedroom. The last time that my lover and I were together, the bed sheets were pretty much a lost cause and we ended up throwing them out once we were done.”

This had obviously caught them all off guard, as Twilight began to stammer out a stream of unintelligible, broken words. Along with turning a very dark shade of purple and pink. The others were pretty much in the same situation. However, when it came to Pinkie, she was just standing there and giggling up a storm as her hands came up to cover her mouth.

Rory then continued, after giving them a few seconds to recover. “Honestly, I can't even remember most of the night now that I look back. Passing out repeatedly after getting overly stimulated can really do a number to a girl.” By then, Rory was holding her free hand to her mouth and having a full-on giggle fit with her eyes closed.

Applejack was pretty much causing a windstorm with the way she was fanning her hat to help with the growing heat on her cheeks. Rainbow was the next to speak up as she flew in front of Rory, while having her fists resting on her hips and giving her a stare down that clearly showed that she didn't really believe a word that was just said. “Hey! You can't really be serious, can you? I never heard of a stallion doing that for a mare. Those guys aren't really known for their stamina. We would be lucky if they even go past a minute.”

Rory then lowered her hand and gave a devilish smirk, before getting very close to Rainbow's face. She then went on to talk in an extremely, sultry voice that could have easily sent any male within range to hear it, to get turned on within seconds.

“Te-hee~ You have no idea~. He has more stamina than you can believe... Whenever I would wake up after passing out, the first thing I would see, would be him still going at. There would be times that I would be completely spent and had hardly any strength left. Only for him to hold me in his strong arms so that he could keep using my body as he pleased.”

“And don't get me started on whenever he gets in the mood. He could become a real animal. Just remembering the growls that he would give off...” That was when she reached down and pressed her hand onto the front of her skirt and gave off a shutter that ran up her entire form. There was even this noticeable moan that came from Rory’s lips.

As a result of this action, Rainbows body went and had gone completely rigid. Her wings locked up in mid flap. This led to her falling pretty much face first onto the ground right before Rory's feet with a heavy thud. Afterwards, the Pegasus rolled over and was having trouble with getting her wings to fold in on themselves.

Rarity had summoned a hand fan and unfolded it to use on herself, as she wiped the bead of sweat that was accumulating on her forehead, before speaking in a somewhat out of breath tone. “Dear me! He does sound to be quite a stallion! I really do not wish to sound rude, but I myself find it rather difficult to believe that a stallion is capable of going for such extended period of time. It must have been a thrilling ten minutes.”

Rory then quickly replied to that in a casual way. “What? I do believe there has been a misunderstanding, come now. That doesn’t even count as a quickie for us. I'm talking about the night that we went nineteen hours straight.” After Rory had said that. One could hear all sound coming to a stop and a cricket could be heard in the background.

This got a collective shout from every one of them, including Pinkie, who was clearly shocked beyond belief. “WHAAAAT! NINETEEN HOUR'S???!!!! HE COULD GO FOR THAT LONG???!!!” Thanks to their sheer combined volume, it pretty much echoed throughout the entire town and the group ended up getting quite a few looks from the other residents from down the street or from inside of buildings that had their windows open. Clearly, they didn't really understand what they were yelling about.

Rory had quickly stabbed the bladed part of her axe into the ground and use both of her hands to cover her ears after immediately realizing that they were about to scream only a fraction of a second beforehand. After blinking a few times and shaking her ears to clear up her hearing once again, Rory was just about to say more on the subject, but her voice was caught in her throat when she began to twitch her ears in response to something on the wind.

The girl then grabbed onto her weapon and began to take a few steps forward before she spoke in a very happy voice. “Hmmmmm, and speaking of my lover... I do believe I hear him now.” Rory had begun to walk in a seemingly random direction between a set of buildings to enter an alleyway that connected to another street on the other end. Twilight and the others took a few seconds to realize that she was leaving and quickly gave chase once they recovered.

As soon as they had exited the alleyway, Rory made a quick left turn and was now heading in the direction of Ponyville’s park. While walking through town, the girl could be seen tilting her head up slightly and giving a light sniff once in a while. As she did this, she made a small comment now and then. Which consisted of, “His scent is pretty much everywhere in town. Although, I don't think he's been inside of that building at all.” The one that Rory was mentioning, turned out to be Sugar Cube Corner.

Pinkie had a somewhat hurt expression before she started to talk after brightening up quickly. “Yeah, but I'm hoping he will soon!” Applejack just then turned towards Pinkie before asking her a question that was clearly on the others minds. “Are you saying you know who the fella is that Rory's been going on about?” In response, the pink mare made the motion of zipping her lips. Surprisingly enough, there was also the noticeable sound effect of it being done as well, as to signify to the rest that she wasn't about to say another word.

They even ended up passing Rarities shop. Which the white mare was really insistent on pointing out. While going by the shop, Rory made it clear to them, that her lover had not even been on the sidewalk for the building, because there was not even a trace of his smell to indicate that he had ever done so. Twilight jumped in and said, “I've heard of mare’s that have a heightened sense of smell, but this is clearly going way above even that.”

Applejack came in next as well before saying, “I’m with Twilight on this one. With how easily you're picking up his scent, I bet you'd give Winonaa run for her bit's. Also, didn't you just say a minute ago that you heard him? I sure didn’t hear any stallion calling.” Rory spoke over her left shoulder as she was still keeping her eyes straight ahead. “I can hear him playing music. It's definitely him because it's one of his favorites.”

Applejack relented and gave a slight shrug as they all followed Rory until she eventually entered the park and was making her way over to the far end, where there was a large tree all by itself. Nearby, less than several yards away, was the end of a single park bench that could just barely be seen on the other side.

It took a moment before they realized that it was being used. The one sitting there was playing a guitar and producing a strange melody that none of the girls aside from Rory were accustomed to hearing. This was made apparent by the way that their ears were swiveling to pick up the music better.

(This is the song that could be heard by the girls.)

Rarity took the opportunity to inch closer to Applejack and whispered just low enough, so that she was the only one that could hear. “My, oh my~. Not only is he supposedly good in the bedroom, but is a musician as well?” Applejack replied in the same low volume. “It's not exactly the town and country that I'm used to listening to, but I have ta say, it's pretty good. I wonder if he knows how to play some of the songs I know?”

They had just gotten up to the tree and was now circling around it. But as soon as they had done that, did everyone but Rory come to a screeching halt to see that it was the one that they all knew as Gambit to be the one sitting there. Rory was pretty much ignoring the wide eyes as she sauntered over to him, just as he was about to get to the end of the song.

When the last note was struck, the instrument was carefully lifted off of his lap and laid onto the bench towards his right side. Rory had apparently taken this as her cue to go the rest of the way and stand before him. She then clearly said the following with an ecstatic look on her face. “Did my Master miss me?” This was immediately followed with her jumping into his lap and throwing her leg around to straddle him, while giving his mask a quick kiss on the spot where his mouth should be.

Upon seeing this. All the girls made a collective gasp, before also saying loud enough that it was pretty much a loud scream. “MASTER???!!!!!!” Applejack was the first one to step forward out of the group, after coming to her senses and asking in an unsure voice. “When you say Master, you mean that he taught you how to fight, right?” Rory had adjusted her way of sitting so that she was mostly laying against his left side and partially turned enough so she could look at the girls better.

She then replied to Applejack after snuggling up against him tighter and giving the farm girl a sultry stare down. “He-he~. It's far more than that Applejack. Master is my lover. In the strictest sense, I belong to him in both mind, body and soul. Truly, I believe from the bottom of my heart that I exist for him and him alone. The mare then continued after a moment of silence with her next question. “And just what in tarnation do you mean by all of that?”

Rory had brought up a hand and began to lightly run it across the chest of the one that she was currently sitting on. Who had incidentally not made a single move or even a sound during the entire exchange. She then spoke after giving a light hum of delight. “Exactly that~. My master is my Master and he is everything to me. I would do whatever he commands of me.” She had given another one of her giggles and glanced over at his mask, before returning her site to look straight into Applejack's eyes as she went on.

“All that my Master would have to do, is to give me but a single command and I would follow it to the letter without hesitation. If he were to wish for me to strip down completely nude and walk on my hands and knees as a common animal and be paraded through the streets of Ponyville, then I would be more than happy to do so~.”

This got a series of responses to come from all of the girls. Which consisted of, “Oh my!” “No bucking way!” “My word!” “Land sakes!” “Oh! Oh, let's make that into a party theme!” Five guesses as to who said that last one. Applejack had been completely surrounded by the other girls as they look towards her with unmoving eyes for some form of confirmation. While looking deeply disturbed and nearly beat red from the top of her head and going down to the end of her hoofs. Applejack responded to them with, “Ah... Girls, she ain't lying!”

The scene was finally broken when Brex spoke up after they all had time to settle down. Instead of his usual combination of either no real emotion or possibly agitation. His speech came out more loving compared than any of what the ponies had ever heard coming from his lips. “Now, now... There are things you should say and things that you shouldn't say while in public. You are clearly causing them some discomfort.”

After hearing this, Rory cozied up to him some more by pressing her chest into his body and gave a small playful whimper. This soon evolved into a small pout as she continued to trace her index finger along his chest while speaking. “I'm sorry Master, but it's been so long... Maybe tonight, you should re-educate me once more~. Perhaps we could break out the red ball-gag again? After all, it always does the trick in shutting me up quite nicely~.”

Quite literally taken aback by the straightforwardness of Rory's flirtations, Rainbow had taken several steps forward and had this angry expression on her face as she pointed an accusatory finger at Brex, before yelling out. “Hey bub! Just what do you think you're doing?! What's going on here is nothing but a crime, plain and simple! I don’t know what kind of trick it is you used to her to make her think this way, but she's clearly underaged! I should have trusted my guts from the very beginning, you're just some sicko that goes after little girls!”

Rainbow was just about to pick up more steam, but stopped in her tracks upon noticing how Rory was staring straight into her eyes. The flirtatious and pretty much carefree Rory that she had been known so far, had been completely replaced with a mare, that clearly wanted to kill her right on the spot. Rainbow could actually feel a part of her dyeing, just by looking into Rory’s eyes and had to take a step back out of pure fear.

The feeling that was produced from the time when the Dragon was roaring, was nothing in comparison to what was happening right now for the blue Pegasus. The girl was just about to get up off of Brex, but he had swung his right arm around and pulled her in nice and tight. Which distracted the girl for just a moment before returning her glare back at Rainbow.

However, it was far less powerful than it was just a moment ago. She was even sure that it wasn't her imagination that the girl had somehow changed the color of her lipstick to that of a dark shade of purple, before returning to its pink shade.

Brex then spoke in his usual monotone voice while addressing the blue Pegasus and the others. “You are quite mistaken. I can see that it would be quite difficult for you all to understand this, but it needs to be cleared up now. Rory is not as young as you all believe her to be. I will not be divulging her true age, because that would just be plane rude.”

“But she is clearly older than you, miss Dash. Simply put, my Rory here has a youthful figure that many would be quite envious of. I already have two examples in mind in regards to both of your rulers, especially when it comes to one's appearance and age being a contradiction. The princess of the sun has been on the throne for over a thousand years after all.”

Afterwards, the Roegadyn got up after gesturing for Rory to get off of himself first and the two excuse themselves and headed in the direction that all the girls knew to be where he stayed. It took several moments after they left for them to come to terms of what they just saw and heard and looked at each other with varying states of expressions. However, when it came to Rainbow, she was pretty much frozen in place. But she had a distant look as she kept on staring at the still walking pair.

The Pegasus was brought out of her current state, when Applejack nudged her with her elbow, before giving out a reluctance sigh as she spoke. “Rainbow… You really need to stop with the jumping before the carriage when it comes to that fella! It might be a good idea to start talking to that Gilda to find out a few things about him, before you go around and causing a fuss over a misunderstanding like the one you just had.”

*Point of view: Brex Mith*

He and Rory were already halfway through town and heading towards his hotel building. During this time, Rory went ahead and opened up the connection in order to talk privately with him. At the same time, holding on to his right arm and pressing herself tightly against it.

“Master, I'm surprised that you didn't react to that absurd accusation of hers. I know more than any about how you feel towards the treatment of kids and that was just crossing the line. I can't believe that some still think I'm that young. Especially when I've gained several inches in my height compared to the story version of Rory Mercury.”

Brex replied to that, while giving a mental sigh. “Honestly, I'm just going to believe that Rainbow is going to come up with whatever reason she can, just to get under my skin. But do you think that it's weird that I commend her for stepping up like that when she thought I really was a pedophile? At least I know now that she has a good sense when it comes to the young ones and that she's willing to stand up for their rights.”

Rory gave a small growl through the connection when she started to speak. “Master, you really need to stop with going so easy when it comes to that Rainbow Dash. Sure, she's a member of the Element bearers, but even that has a limit to the free passes one could get. Anyway, I know there's no use in arguing with you on this subject, so let's move on to something else. Do you think when we get back to your room, you can take a look at my arm?”

The Roegadyn gave a subtle nod and hummed for a few seconds before glancing down at her exposed arm that currently had the glamor from the bandana covering what was really there thanks to the illusion. He then said, “Yeah, no problem. I can tell just from the way you're holding yourself against me, that there's definitely something going on with it.”

“You did just use it to block a number of teeth from clamping down on you back underneath the mountain after all. Also, I believe you got hurt quite badly a couple of times. Am I right to assume that you need to be topped off again?”

Brex could clearly see that Rory was glancing up at him with a small smile and licking her lips at the same time. He then released an outward sigh before lightly shaking his head and speeding up their walk to the hotel. He then muttered under his breath, “It hasn't even been a week and you're already needing it again. You're really lucky that I love you this much.”

Rory gave out a quick giggle before she asked her next question. “By the way Master, I saw that last attack that you shot through the Dragon with. I take it that the spell storing system of yours seems to be working okay for your purposes?” This got a light head shake from Brex as he replied to that. “It's still going to need quite a bit of refining to get what I want out of using it in the future.”

“It's a good way to get around some of my limitations on how many times I can use certain spells, as well as combining them to create some interesting effects. The real issue is coming up with a more reliable means of storing and activation, without them burning out the way they did. If it wasn't for my body's resilience, then I'm pretty sure that my arm would have been made useless at the end there. By the way, I see you haven't had any real issues with keeping your disguise in place. Even with being with those girls for so long.”

Rory answered that as giving a small giggle through the connection. “Oh that? It was quite easy to do actually. There are so many trees back and forth, that all I needed was a second or two while breaking line of sight with them to reapply the illusion. Speaking of which, we should hurry up Master. I believe I have only a few minutes left until I need to do it again.”

*Point of view: Princess Luna*
*Location: Canterlot castle, within the throne room*
*Time: Six at night*

Princess Luna was currently pacing from within one of the shadows that lined the throne room, as her sister was dealing with the last of her day court duties. As she did this, the dark Alicorn was looking more worried by the second as time went on. Even without her full corporeal body being present. As she was within this state, it was quite clear with how her eyes showed that she was dreading today's report that was scheduled to come in at any moment.

Over recent days, her older sister Celestia had been getting more impatient and it took a considerable amount of effort to convince her not to go down to Ponyville just yet. Especially now that they knew of his location. Just then, she noticed that the last of the citizens had exited and the day court guards had already gone through the exchanging process with her own night guards.

At which time, she exited the shadows and took on her real form and went over to Celestia. Who was still sitting in her chair and glancing at the side door that was off to the left, with trepidation clearly plastered on her face. Even the peace of parchment in her possession wasn’t even looked over before it was placed with the rest.

Luna, upon standing next to her sister, had placed a hand onto her right shoulder and gave a reassuring smile before speaking. “Dear sister, please, you must calm yourself. I know that you want nothing more than to talk to him once again. But a face-to-face meeting, especially after what happened before, is not one that I would advise.”

This had earned her an exhausted sigh from Celestia, as she leaned back into her chair and took a few deep breaths of air to steady herself. After a few seconds of this, she looked up towards Luna before speaking. “I know, I know Luna. I am simply worked up because you have not been able to locate his dream for a few days now. Perhaps what you said before about him not needing to rest as much to be the cause. Otherwise, then I would have no doubt that you would have been able to find him with ease.”

Luna couldn't help but the show a small wince to be crossing her face, as her mind went back to the two instances that she had to go through when coming across his dream and absent-mindedly began to reach up and rub the spot of her head that had a hard run in with his dream bubble on the last attempt. She then said to Celestia, in a rather reluctant tone. “Mayhaps my location spell, while within the dream Realm could use some minor alterations...”

Luna's words were cut short when the side door was swiftly opened and one of her Thestrals came into the throne room, while bearing a note in their right hand and approached the princesses, before bowing down at the foot of the steps. Luna was just about to grab it with her magic, but was too slow when it was enveloped in her sister's golden aura and pretty much ripped out of the guard’s hand.

It was then brought up to the both of them and unfurled after the ribbon had been pretty much vaporized by a small bolt of magic from her older sister, that was too eager to take the time to simply slip it off. The remains could be seen fluttering to the carpeted floor as ashes.

The younger sister couldn't help but the raise an eyebrow at the way Celestia was acting. Ever since their last encounter with him, Celestia would keep her usual appearance. But whenever it came to these reports, she became no different than a small foal that just wouldn't listen when their birthday came around and would tear into their gift as soon as they found it.

There were even on occasions, that she could have sworn that she had smelled something sweet, that resembled frosting that was coming from her sister that wasn't her usual scent. But Luna played it off as something that stuck to her with all the cakes that she would be known to eat.

Unfortunately, she had been distracted long enough, that Celestia had already gone through the entire report and had dropped it with a blank expression on her face. Clearly confused as to what would have caused this to happen. Luna used her magic and grabbed on to the sheet of paper before it had fallen into the floor and brought it up to look at for herself. After going over the usual details, Luna instantly saw that there were some tidbits here and there as to his disappearance for some time, before coming back near the end of the day.

However, it was at the very end that made her stumble in place and she had to read it once more to make sure that her eyes weren't playing any tricks. In the report, it stated that Gambit ended up meeting a mare by the name of, Rory Mercury. It was also clearly stated that the two of them were in a very intimate relationship. It even stated that the two of them were seen entering the hotel that he was using and holding arms during their entire walk there after leaving Twilight in her group.

After a few seconds had gone by, the temperature of the room began to spike just a few degrees and this brought Luna's attention towards her older sister. What she had seen, caused Luna to be startled for a moment before she had to keep herself from taking a step back, after witnessing the expression on Celestia's face. There was this small burning ember of fury that could be seen just beyond the mask of tranquility that she would normally have on.

Celestia then muttered just low enough that Luna had to try very hard in order to hear. “Who… Is… This... Rory Mercury? Luna, could you possibly have your agents look into her for me? If you don't mind, I'm going to go straight to bed tonight... It could be that I am just very tired and an extra couple of hours of sleep might do me some good. The cooks can send some to my chambers.”

Luna gave a small nod as she watched her sister get up from her chair and take a few steps forward, before using her horn to teleport to where she assumed to be her bedroom. Having letting out a relieved sigh, the younger sister went to go sit down on the chair so that she can go over the report again. But as soon as her posterior had come into contact with a seat. She had let out a loud Yelp. This was after there was a small sizzling sound and she stood up to look at what had cause her such pain.

To her surprise, the padding on the chair had been completely burned through and exposed the marble underneath, that was slightly glowing from heat. She then had this worried expression that crossed her face as she looked towards the window and off into the night. Luna then started to think to herself. “Please, please be asleep tonight... There are many topics that we must discuss and some are quite urgent and cannot be put off.”