Part VI: True Nature

Part VI: True Nature

The oncoming horde of dragons is enough to leave the nine of us stock-still, staring frighteningly at it. But the ponies in the town... not so much. Fear made itself known to the hearts and minds of all of these creatures as they run in meaningless and confusing circles. Some have the sense to hide in their homes, slamming doors and shutting windows hastily,others gallop off behind buildings or into the distance, disappearing from sight.

Screaming, soaring, and angry, the dragons approach in a savage cloud of burning eyes, slashing claws, and large, flapping wings. What's weird is that they all look exactly alike. From where I'm standing, I can make out the characteristics that all of the dragons share, though it is difficult to differentiate because of the distance, which is maybe two miles, at best.

Their bodies must be over a hundred feet long, and they're covered with jet-black scales, glistening in the sun, their chests and underbellies layered with grayer scales, making an undulating motion as each beast draws closer. The wings share the jet-black color of the bodies, and a single wing looks like it can extend as far out as the height of Twilight's house, making the combined wingspan of a single dragon that much more intimidating. The spines poking out along their backs, elbows, and at the end of their wings are blood-red; the horns atop their heads and spikes that jutted out of the end of their thick, long tails were identical. At the ends of their dark heads, their jaws are wide open, revealing sharp, terrifying teeth that gleam white at every the tips, their dark-pink tongues licking their lips in a hungry manner that makes me shudder. A few of the beasts blast waves or focused beams of black fire at the landscape below them as they fly, begging more fear. As they get closer to the town, I can, somehow, make out the eyes of one of the monstrosities. Its pupils, along with the rest's, are dark-red, the sclera a neon green with an odd, purple mist pouring out of the corners, and they had one obvious goal: total destruction.

My mind traces back to the book that I still hold. In it, Ouranos had several vague descriptions of dragons, that most were all unique in their coloration, and that only on extremely rare occasions did two dragons have the exact same color scheme. But these monotonous dragons that are flying right at us, they are like one big contradiction that said "Fuck your book, and fuck you. Here we are, all the same, bitch."

"P-P-Princess!" Rainbow Dash screams with a shaky, sandy voice. In it was an unhidden fear.

Celestia, after a moment of silence, shakes her head feverishly and turns her head back to us. "All of you, get back inside the library," she declares with a voice that wouldn't accept "no" for an answer. She looks back at the oncoming horde, which approached nearer and nearer unchecked. "I'll try and lead the dragons away from Ponyville. Hopefully, I can lead them back into the sky until I can get Luna to prepare the Royal Army." She specifies the next instruction to the lavender unicorn standing right next to her. "Twilight, as soon as you all are inside, I want you to put up a forcefield to protect yourselves, just in case."

Twilight, stepping up to her mentor, answers, "I'm sorry, Princess, but I'm not going to leave you to those--"

"Twilight Sparkle!" Celestia shouts back in powerful authority, cutting above the shriek that originated from the oncoming brood. The one the alicorn addressed instantly silences herself. "Now is not the time for arguing. Do not disobey your princess! Get back inside, NOW! All of you!"

I'm a bit surprised the princess would pull rank like that. For some reason, it doesn't really seem to suit her. But, without any further insistence, seven of us dashed back to the library. I look back over my shoulder as I jog, but I stop in my tracks when I see that Twilight is still hesitant.

This time, Celestia speaks not in angry authority, but with calm compassion.

"Don't worry about me, my dear student," Celestia winks at her. "I won't let those dragons get anywhere near me to take a swipe at this pony." With that, she takes off like a fighter-jet towards the brood. I'm stunned at the alicorn's speed, my jaw dropping comically. Evidently, size doesn't matter when it comes to speed, especially since Rainbow Dash claimed to be the fastest flyer in Equestria. And if that were true, Celestia could give her a run for her money. I glanc back at Twilight, who remains still as stone, watching her princess charge into the face of danger.

"Twilight!" I call, my voice echoing throughout the streets. She finally turns to me. "C'mon! Get back inside!" She nods, takes one last look at the shrinking form of Celesta, and gallops to the library. I join her as she passes me.

Once inside, and taking a few seconds to recover from our sprint, Twilight closes her eyes and an expression of intense focus carves its way onto her face. Her horn glows fiercely, several sparks blinking out from the tip, and within a few seconds, the light outside melts into a more pinkish-purple hue. I walk up to the window by the door and see a very large, purple dome envelope the entire oak home. I am, once again, impressed.

"You okay, Twi?" Applejack asks, standing next to the kneeling lavender mare, who must've been reeling from the effects of the spell she just cast. She extends a hoof to Twilight, and she accepts it gratefully, rising to all four hooves, then rubbing her temple.

"Thanks, AJ, I'm fine, just not really used to casting a force field that size," Twilight says, giving the orange mare an appreciative glance.

"Gah!" Rainbow Dash exhausts aggressively. "We shouldn't be hiding from those lousy dragons like a bunch of foals!" She points a hoof at the wall, presumably at the dragons flying on the other side. "We should be fighting them with Princess Celestia!" With the dragons no longer in view, Dash resumes her air of "bravery", though now it only seems more like brash foolhardiness. Still, I couldn't blame her for being scared out there; who wouldn't be?

Rarity stomps her hoof. "I agree! As the Elements of Harmony, it is our job to protect our home from threats like that! Why, just the thought of letting the princess go off on her own is absolutely blasphemous!"

Blasphemous?

Fluttreshy was making an effort to keep her composure, but fails, caving onto herself on the ground, her forehooves and wings attempting to cover her entire being, as if that would protect her from being burned alive of eaten by the dragons.

She whimpers slightly in fright. "I-I-I'm r-r-really s-s-s-sorry, R-R-R-Rainbow Dash, b-b-b-but... ARE YOU CRAZY?!"

The cyan pegasus replies, "If standing up for your home and your princess is crazy, then yes! I am most definitely crazy! Just call me... um... oh! Rainbow 'Crazy Dare-Devil' Dash!"

I raise an eyebrow. "Really? You're willing to go out their and battle all of those dragons?" Rainbow nods with stubbornness.

"You bet your two legs I'm willing!"

I jerk a thumb to the door. "Because while we were all out there, watching that cloud of dragons get closer and closer, you were shaking like a tree branch in a windstorm." The pegasus grumbles quietly to herself before retorting,

"I-I was shaking because it was cold outside!"

"It's one o'clock in the afternoon and, like, seventy-five degrees outside."

Applejack sighs and rolls her eyes. "All o'y'all, quit yer yappin'! Rainbow Dash, Rarity, y'all know better th'n t'disobey an order from th'princess herself." She trots up to the cyan mare and places a hoof on her shoulder. Dash, with her wings spread out like they were ready for take-off, cools off at the gesture. "'Sides, do you honestly think we c'n take on that whole horde o'angry dragons? If we were t'go 'n try 'n help the princess, we'd mostly jus' get 'n'er way, or worse."

Rainbow Dash looks down in defeat after a moment. "Yeah... I guess so..."

Applejack then turns to Rarity. "And Ah'm well aware that we're the Elements of Harmony, Rarity, but if th'princess thought that th'Elements would be any kind'a help, don't'cha think she would'a told us t'use 'em?"

The alabaster mare is silent for a moment, then sighs in defeat. "Oh, I suppose you right, Applejack." She kicks a cloud of dust into the air.

"Applejack is right," Twilight chimes in, seemingly fully recovered from casting the force field. "I know Celestia is more than capable of driving away those dragons." The others appear to relax at the statement, and honestly, so do I All this time, I had managed to keep the empty feeling in the pit of my stomach from controlling my actions.

"Um, guys?" Pinkie Pie shouts from Twilight's bedroom, which she mysteriously got into without anyone seeing. "You might wanna see this!"

We all obey. Charging up the staircase and through the bedroom door, I see Pinkie standing transfixed at the window at the other end of the room. She doesn't turn around to greet us, like something turned her into stone as she watched whatever was happening in the outside world. The others quickly trot to stand on either side of her, trying to see through the window. Spike climbs onto Rarity's back, I crouch down behind them all to get a better view past the low opening. It, conveniently, faces the direction of the murderous cloud of dragons.

Our attention is directed to a glowing orb of light that is flying directly at the outraged black horde. Fear's ice-cold fingers grips my intestines.

"I-Is that Celestia?" Fluttershy asks to no one in particular.

"It must be," replies Twilight. "I've seen her do that on occasions when we had a private lesson."

We all stand silent for a while, waiting for something to happen.

Everything had a purple tint through the force field Twilight created. The glowing orb races on, charging at the dragons without any signs of hesitation. The dragons don't falter, either. Actually, they seem to become more enraged at the sight of this new unidentified flying object in the sky. It's like watching a black cat versus a mouse, the cat running at the mouse, except the mouse is running back at the cat. When the orb that was the princess reaches within several hundred feet of the brood, its glow intensifies ten-fold. It's almost painful to look at, even from the distance we're at. The shine is reminiscent of a second sun, except it's way too close to the ground. I almost have to cover my eyes just to be able to clearly see what is going to happen next. When the orb nearly collides with the lead-dragon, just above the Everfree Forest, where Twilight said she first found me, the orb grows in size and light ten-fold once more. This time, I have to cover my eyes, and so do the others. I hear Spike gasp as he falls off Rarity's back, landing with a light thud and an "OOF!"

After several seconds, the orange light that is seeping through the skin of my fingers dissipates slightly. I uncover my view, and see that the light didn't disappear completely, but ascends into the sky, casting shadows that stretch down from below the stunned dragon brood, as well as on the forest floor that stretched the shadows of thick trees for several dozen feet. My central vision holds only a dull green blur that was captured during the brief milliseconds the orb's extraordinary rays hit my retina. After blinking several times, I make out some of the ponies in front of me rubbing theirs eyes through the blurriness, as well. Eventually, we look back at the scene in the sky in the distance. The heavenly light is now hovering about five hundred feet above the stalled dragons, who were also attempting to clear their vision, rubbing red, irritated eyes with giant fisted claws. The light shines like a beacon, flickering in order to get the amassed beasts' attention.

A small spark of hope flared in me.

Maybe the dragons will try to chase whatever caused that light, away from us, I think desperately. Maybe Ponyville and all of its resident won't meet the same fate as the other towns Celesta mentioned.

"It worked!" Rainbow Dash exclaims, her wings fluttering slightly.

"She did it!" Rarity includes.

"Hooray!" Pinkie gleefully adds, throwing her hooves up.

"Yay!" Fluttershy softly calls.

"Thank goodness," Twilight sighs, bringing her head down in relief.

"Hey," I say to her. "I thought you said you were confident in her. Why do you sound so relieved?" I ask, calling her bluff.

She brings her head back up and raises an eyebrow. "I can still feel afraid, can't I?" She turns her head back around and grows silent. "Oh no..."

I look up and see the cause of her alarm. Those fingers that had let go of me had returned with an even stronger grip on my whole body.

"What's wrong, Twi?" Applejack asks quizzically.

Twilight hesitates when she answers, fear creeping into her voice, "Th-Th-Th-The dragons... They're..."

She didn't need to complete that sentence. As the rest look back at the horde of titans, they gasp when they finally see the dragons continuing to fly directly for the town, not at all impeded by Celestia's so-called distraction. In fact, they appear even angrier than before, of that were at all possible, which I hope to God wasn't.

We couldn't do anything but watch as they got closer, until finally, the first few of them reach the town limits, and they don't hesitate to start unleashing their dark fury upon everything below them, setting buildings and trees ablaze with black fires. Since Twilight's house was along the border of Ponyvillle, several of the dragons body-slam into the purple shield. The impacts cause substantial shockwaves that rustle the entirety of the library, and made all of as jump back from the window.

"EEEEEEEEEE!" Fluttershy screams meekly, proceeding to bullet under Twilight's bed.

The monstrosities that crashed into the force field roar and claw and bite at it furiously, others blasting it with black fire beams, and a few others continued to body-slam it, creating more shockwaves and instigating more terror, but ultimately fail to penetrate through the powerful wall, which didn't help their mood at all. I didn't think anything could hold these demons off, let alone a thin-looking force field as the one outside. I have to hand it to Twilight, she can make a sturdy force field.

I can see, through the dragons right in front of us, the majority of the dragons are flying past and overhead, presumably to attack the rest of the town. My arms begin to quiver slightly. Twilight suddenly yelps in pain, and brings her forehooves up to her bowed head.

"What's wrong?" I ask concernedly.

"It's the dragons," she grunts through a strained voice. "Them attacking the force field like that is making it a lot harder to maintain it." Her head raises to get a good look at the black titans that are trying to breach the purple wall. "I-I'm not sure how much longer I can hold it if they keep that up."

Applejack places a caring hoof on her friends back. "Don't worry, Twilight, you can do this. We all believe in ya'." The others, excluding Fluttershy, who remains shivering underneath the bed, gather around the struggling unicorn, watching with a nurturing eyes. Twilight looks appreciatively back at each of them. After a moment, her headache appears to subside. For now, at least.

But the dragons out there are not so merciful. I walk back to the window and observe them. They continue to attack the impregnable wall, despite their lack of progress. These are evidently very stubborn creatures; something else the book had mentioned.

Bringing the crimson chronicle to my face from my side, I note my shattered reflection on the cover's golden dragon outline. I remember what my shadow doppelgänger said about this thing. "Keep that book, it act like an instruction manual for you," is what he had said, but I have no idea what he meant by it. "Also, try to practice using your true nature more often. It'll save your life..." True nature? Was he talking about those eyes that had appeared briefly in place of mine? What could my "true nature" possibly have anything to do with our situation, or this book?

Out of nowhere, pain explodes in my head like a nuke. I drop the book abruptly, shutting my eyes and pressing my palms to my head, collapsing on my knees.

"GGAAHH!" I painfully yell. The pain was indescribable, but it feels as though a spiked-ball is expanding outward from the center of my brain.

"Michael?" I can hear Twilight ask. "What's wrong?"

I can barely make out a comprehensible syllable. "M-My... h-head... NN--! AAGGHH!" I throw my head back and scream at the top of my lungs, the pain was so immense. It's like the spiked ball just grew to a thousand degrees. If that were so, how the fuck am I still alive? The golden hue returns as I glare at the ceiling, and I can only conclude that those draconic eyes had returned. I then start to thrash my head around, trying to make the pain go away instinctively. The ponies back away at my thrashes.

"W-Whats going now?!" Fluttershy cries out.

"Michael's freakin' out!" Rainbow Dash shouts back.

"Make it stop! Someone please, MAKE IT STOP!" I scream. My pulse races with fear. It wasn't enough being threatened by an entire horde of ferocious dragons, no, now my brain feels like it's about to go up like the fucking Hiroshima bomb.

Rex mo fechk.

"Who said that?!" I shout, the mysterious voice coming out of nowhere. "Make it go away!"

"Nopony said anything," Pinkie calls through my pained screams.

"Michael... Your eyes!" Twilight exclaims.

Rex mo fechk.

My heart nearly explodes from my chest as it goes on relentlessly. The continued roars outside and the occasional shockwaves from body-slams don't help, either. A new type of pain is emerging, only this time on my back. They feel as though they're resonating in the center and lower back, as if something were trying to rip free from my skin. But I can barely focus on that, because I feel like I'm about to die.

"Um, M-Michael? Your eyes... they're are changing again!" Spike shouts.

My eyes inexplicably dart forward, at the mirror in Twilight's room, and I see what he meant. I stagger forward, nearly collapsing several times, but I reach the mirror eventually, placing a hand on the edge to hold myself back to get a good look.

My eyes aren't the golden, dragon-like eyes I thought they were like earlier. These eyes are much more terrifying. Growing wider every second, my pupils are still slitted, but my irises are now crimson-red, and my sclera are neon-green, and thin, purple mists leak from the corners. They're like those dragons' eyes. My vision pulsed, but that's from the merciless pounding in my head, coupled with the ceaseless pain now resonating throughout my entire body. I have no idea how I'm still alive.

I can see the reflections of the ponies behind me, watching me fearfully.

Rex mo fechk.

I lean my face into my reflection, staring myself in the eyes. "What... What does that mean?"

The King... A voice in my head speaks.

The pain skyrockets in intensity. How am I even conscious still?

...has returned.

My thoughts are cut of by several screams ponies and roars from the winged demons in the distance, followed by several explosions. All of our heads turn in their direction, Fluttershy's poking out from the side of the bed.

"Spike, you stay here," Twilight orders Spike.

"No problem!" Affirmed the little drake.

"C-Can I st-stay he-he-here, t-t-t-too?" Fluttershy's head added.

"Me three?" Added Pinkie Pie, who was shaking where she sat on the floor.

"Yeah, sure, Flutters," Rainbow Dash replies. "Just leave all of the hero work to us!"

Rarity turns to me, and a look of concern, and slight fear, rises on her features. "Michael, dear, I do believe it would be best for you to remain here, as well."

I slowly turn my head towards the alabaster mare and glare. "Do I look like I'm going anywhere--NNGGHH!" I clutch my head, and collapse in front of the mirror.

"Er, no, I suppose not."

"Uh, y'all?" Applejack speaks up. "What exactly is the plan?"

Nobody speaks up at first.

"Those dragons outside are giving me a hard enough time as it is," Twilight states tiredly. "I don't think there's much I can do besides try and keep that shield up. That means everypony has to stay inside. And yes, that includes you too, Rainbow."

"Aww..." Rainbow whines, though through the searing pain, I catch a hint of relief mixed in.

I bring my head up to my reflection, my hand squeezing the mirror's wooden border. The color has left my face. In fact, it looks completely white. Porcelain-white, actually. When--how did that happen? My scars seem to vanish, as well. I notice a particular sheen to my skin. I am interrupted when an even worse pain erupts on two spots just above my forehead. Something is definitely trying to rip my skin apart from the inside-out. Tears escape my eyes.

My muscles, bones, lungs, sinew, and joints feel as though they're on fire in seconds... Not to mention a very weird feeling around my loins.

What... WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME?!

THE KING HAS RETURNED!

"APPLEJACK! SOMEPONY! ANYPONY! HELP ME!"

My blood suddenly runs at a temperature of absolute-zero, the pain vanishing as I turn my head suddenly swings to my left, through the front door. I know that voice. And so did Applejack.

"APPLE BLOOM!" Applejack calls back in a terrified voice. She gallops in an orange blur down the steps and out the front door faster than Celestia took off earlier.

"WAIT! Applejack!" Rainbow Dash shouts, flying in pursuit of the distressed pony.

Twilight, Rarity, and Pinkie, chase after them. I, on the other hand -- er, claw, rather, noticing that when I bring my hand up to my face and find that the tips of my fingers are now clawed, am much slower to respond, through no fault of my own. The pain may have been suppressed when I first heard that scream, but my limbs barely feel like responding. I struggle to my feet and stagger drunkenly after them, clutching my side. Pain shoots up my legs with every step, igniting resistance in my joints, but I continue on. My vision is blurry, a pounding continues to rack my head, and my spine now feels as though melted iron is being poured on it. Tiny spikes of heat are transmitting down along my spine to the small of my back. I bring a hand back up to my forehead as I stumble through the bottom floor of the library and feel something wet... as well as something new. Something hard, and sticking out of my skull. I feel something warm trailing down the sides of my forehead, as well as trickling down my spine. I first think it's sweat, but reason that it is too thick for that. A rusty scent fills the air, and I conclude that blood is trickling down my body. I push all that aside, though, fearing the worst after hearing that scream.

Upon reaching the door, I decide to simply lean against the doorframe. I look up to see what the hell is going on. Applejack is pressing into the purple shield on her forehooves, screaming and swinging her head back and forth, looking for the source of her sister's cries. I am a little preoccupied with everything in front of her, however.

And what I see outside is an absolute nightmare.

The dragons ceased their vain attempts to penetrate the force field, but Ponyville is now the brunt of the slaughter. All of the buildings in view are either consumed by black fires, or completely crumbled in heaps of toasted lumber and melted glass. I look up through the paralyzing pain that holds me still, and spot a swirling vortex of the dark, winged monsters circling the sky above the town, blocking out the blue sky and sun, giving the entire world the resemblance of a solar eclipse casting its ominous shadow. Dear God, there must be thousands of them. The rest are making quick work of the buildings below, as well as the townsponies, whose shrieks and pleas for help go unanswered. I nearly vomit in my mouth from everything, plus the burning stench and sulfur that polluted the air and somehow managed to get though Twilight's force field. Galloping and endlessly screaming through the streets are ponies whose bodies, manes, tails, even eyeballs are ignited in black flame, killing them slowly. As they run around, the black flames trail closely behind, like comet tails. Some of them are so engulfed in flames, they drop and slide across the ground from sprinting so desperately, suffered agonizing ends when they come to a stop. Their charred bodies spread their poisonous stench all around them, making the whole scene more horrifying. If that were even possible.

Why the hell was there anyone even outside? Are these ponies as stupid as they were colorful?!

But that's only the half of it. All around, the dragons swoop down out of nowhere and snatch several of the ponies, either plucking them like cherries off a tree and drawing them into the sky to suffer horrors unknown, or quickly biting parts of their bodies off, with what remained of the ponies galloped blindly until they, too, collapse while the dragons enjoyed their snacks. My question to what the dragons do with the ponies they fish is answered when several bodies fall from the vortex and splatter onto the ground in sickening crunches and gushing crimson blood all around their corpses. Blood floods the ground everywhere, the scorched, bitten-off, and splattered corpses littering the surrounding area in a scene of pure gore.

This is hell.

I hear Pinkie Pie and Rarity shriek and gallop past me back into the library, refusing to stand and watch the horror any longer. I can't blame them. Twilight stands still, gazing across the burned and bloodied landscape in front of her that used to be her somewhat-peaceful home. I lean off the doorframe and take several steps forward, ignoring the obvious pleas from my body to stay still. Rainbow Dash is shaking uncontrollably on the ground, utterly scared out of her wits, her large ruby eyes as big as dinner plates. From what I can tell, Rainbow isn't watching anything in particular, probably soaking it all in. Whatever intention she had of holding back Applejack left her mind, and all that was left is self-preservation.

"Apple Bloom! Where are you?!" Applejack screams through the purple force field, her voice scared and strained.

"Applejack! Lemme in! Lemme in!" The little filly's scream comes from the left, and Applejack and I see the terrified form of Apple Bloom sprinting across the blood-coated grounds, past the corpses of burned ponies. She is galloping as fast as her short hooves could move, covering ground at a break-neck pace. She has tears in her eyes, I can see, and she's galloping straight for us. I'm sure if she could get through the dome shield. From what I can see, she doesn't appear hurt in any way. I silently thank God for that.

"Hold on, lil' sis!" Applejack calls back. She turned to the unmoving form of Twilight Sparkle. "Twi, open up the barrier!" The lavender mare doesn't make any indication that she heard what Applejack said. The cowpony rears up and places her hooves on the unicorn's shoulders, shaking her violently. "TWILIGHT! OPEN THE BUCKING FORCE FIELD!"

This manages to get the mare to snap out of her catatonic state. "Ri--" But before can finish, another dragon slams into the purple barrier, scaring the living daylights out of everyone in it. This one seems even more determined to get through this wall no matter what, its claws scraping across its surface, its fists pounding earthquaking punches at it, its maw blasting black fire at it, enveloping that entire hemisphere of the dome.

"SIS!" Apple Bloom screams again. Applejack recovers from the shock and looks back at her wailing sister. Quickly remembering what she was doing, she yells to Twilight again,

"Open it!"

But the purple unicorn shakes her head swiftly, her eyes glued to the black titan trying to get inside her force field.

"I-I... I-I can't!" Twilight cries.

The orange cowpony looks stunned and horrified. "Whaddya' mean ya' can't open it?!"

"If I release this force field, then we all die!" She points a shaky hoof at the relentless beast. "That thing will kill us all if I let go of the shield!"

"That's mah sister out there, Twilight! I ain't gonna leave her t'die while we cower in yer dang force field!"

Twilight seems to be on the verge of tears. "Applejack, please don't make me--"

"AAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

All of our heads snap towards the cry form the little filly, who now turned and is sprinting in another direction as a dragon began its swooping descent to get her.

"NO! APPLE BLOOM!" Applejack shrieks, tears streaming down her face.

Just before the demon can reach Apple Bloom, however, the dragon's whole body is slammed into the ground faster than any of us could follow. I can make out hearing a *swoop*, then a *pow*, followed by a quick *snap*, and finally a *smack*. Our attention is drawn to this new spectacle, and after the dust that was kicked up settles, Celestia is planted squarely in the center of the dragon's back. From what I heard, the sickening *snap* had the power to quite possibly paralyze this dragon. It evidently did, since the dragon lay unmoving. Celestia has a look of pure wrath on her royal features, yet, hidden in those purple eyes of hers, is a sense of failure and pain.

"Princess Celestia!" Twilight exclaims, a look of hope returning to her face. The monarch looks over at her student with a face full of shame.

"I... I'm so sorry, my little ponies," Celestia weeps, rivers leaving her eyes. "I failed..."

I almost say something when my lungs feel as though the collapsed in my chest. I fall to my knees as a spray of blood flies from my mouth onto the ground, followed by a series of hacks to regain my breath.

"Princ--" begins the lavender mare, but is interrupted as more dragons attack the force field, driving away her attention and causing more struggle as she battle to maintain the protective wall.

"Celestia!" Applejack cries. "Please, get mah sister outta here!" She points an orange hoof at the filly, who is now panting where she stands when the dragon that had been chasing her was halted. The alicorn's gaze follows the hoof and nods her head, taking off to reach the poor filly.

But she doesn't get far. Almost as quickly as Celestia had dropped that previous dragon, another one body-slams the unaware mare from above, causing a substantial earthquake. Celestia's form disappears under the vengeance-seeking dragon. That had to hurt.

"NO!" Twilight screams while still trying to keep the merciless beasts outside her shield.

RRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH

My head shoots up at the ungodly chorus, and more dragons begin descending, and I know where they're headed. My gaze swiftly darts down to the exhausted form of Apple Bloom. The yellow pony must be about two hundred feet away. She doesn't look like she has the strength to run anymore.

Applejack runs back over to one side of the force field, to the part that was right in front of Apple Bloom.

"RUN, APPLE BLOOM! RUUUN!" She screams, but to no avail. Apple Bloom looks way too scared and exhausted to move. She just crouches low on the ground, shaking with her hooves covering her eyes, seemingly excepting her fate. Applejack continues to try and convince her younger sister, but it doesn't help, until finally, the orange mare breaks down in tears. The black beasts from above get closer to the exposed pony on the outside. They'd probably take her in a few seconds, judging from their speed. The ones pounding away at the force field don't yield, and Twilight is still preoccupied with holding them off to save the rest of our skins.

I make to stand up, but end up just falling on all fours, pain, and anger, filling me. I feel angry because I'm absolutely useless. What do I do? What can I do? I don't even know what's happening to my own body. My fingers/claws clench at the blood-soaked dirt beneath me and I grind my teeth.

What do I do?

Resq ha.

The cowpony weeps, "Apple Bloom..."

What do I do?

Resq ha.

"No..."

WHAT DO I DO?!

SAVE HER!

"Not my sister too..."

That's the last straw.

The pain vanishing, my body moves on its own. I sprint towards the purple wall, and instead if slamming into it and breaking my nose, I pass right through it, entering the carnage on the other side.

"M-Michael?"

I don't turn around to answer. I continue to sprint towards the scared figure of Apple Bloom. I'm sprinting faster than I ever thought possible. It's almost like someone else had taken control over my body, someone more athletic than me. My vision shifts, and it is now a stable golden parody. But that's an afterthought; right now, I have to save Apple Bloom. I have no idea how, since getting back inside the force field might not be as easy as getting out. But that, I can worry about later.

The dragons are descending faster and faster. It's a race against time, who will reach the filly first? Me, or the dragons? I am going to make sure it would be me.

Somehow, I miraculously cover the distance to Apple Bloom, my heart pumping but my breathing calm and even, like I was used to sprinting that type of distance like I was used to brushing my teeth.

"Apple Bloom," I call, my voice now deeper and metallic, but not threateningly so, like it was the first time I spoke with it. Although, it almost feels as if someone else had spoken it, not me.

The small pony lifts her head, and her big, tear-stained amber eyes find mine, and slight fear creeps into her.

"Wha--Michael?" She whimpers. "What're you--"

She is interrupted as six black dragons land on the ground, surrounding the both of us. Apple Bloom returns to cowering in her hooves. I, somehow, am not so afraid. For some reason, I know, I don't know how, but I know these dragons couldn't hurt me. The half-dozen beasts that surround us are snarling, licking their leathery lips, and growling in attempts to intimidate us, to get us to scream for our live. I'm not about to give them that satisfaction. I still have no idea where this new-found confidence had come from, nor why it suddenly chose to come up now. But that hardly matters at this point. What concerns me is if I can keep it up.

Whoever's controlling me, or helping me, or whatever, keep doing that!

"APPLE BLOOM! MICHAEL! NO!" I hear Applejack yell towards us.

Then, all of the dragons begin to growl with the same frequency, and I can only imagine what they were planning. As the first few tendrils of black flame escape from each of the dragons' maws, my body automatically reacts, dropping and covering the small form of Apple Bloom as the black fires engulfed us both.

"NOOOOOOOO!"

I can feel my clothes disintegrate into nothing. I'm prepared for the pain. I'm prepared to suffer the dragons' wrath. But... there is no pain. At all. Instead, the flames pass over Apple Bloom and me... and over something else. The only difference is the slight increase in the temperature. My heart is pumping from the adrenaline in my veins, but I hold still over the filly, my torso over her screaming whole body like a turtle shell, my arms and legs locked. My eyes are clenched shut instinctively.

I can sense the fires subside after several minutes of endless inferno. I hear the dragons screech and shriek in... is that confusion?

I slowly stand to my feet, holding Apple Bloom in my arms. She isn't that small, but she doesn't feel too heavy,  either, which would've surprised me, had it not been for the looks I'm receiving from the dragons. The looks on their faces seem... almost frightened.

Something I note almost instantly is that I feel slightly taller. There is something that's catching the wind on my back that makes it a little hard to stand still, but otherwise doesn't bother me too much. I notice something else: when I exhale, there is a slight animalistic sound to it. I look each and every dragon in the eye, and they reciprocate with growing confusion and fear. Whatever happened to me, it's helping to keep the black monsters at bay.

I look down at Apple Bloom in my grasp, and she is looking back at me with the same puzzlement. Looking down on her, I noticed my body is completely different.

My clothes had been incinerated, I can guess that much, but my skin had morphed into pure white scales. I bring my hand to my face and find it wasn't a human hand any longer. It was a complete, dracon-like claw. I follow the rest of my white-scaled arm up to my shoulder, noting all of the muscles that had formed in this new body of mine. I look down to my feet, and saw that they're clawed, as well. My limbs had grown an unbelievable amount of muscle, it was no wonder carrying Apple Bloom feels like I'm just holding a big bread basket.

I turn my head to the left, and I see two, shining-white wings extend almost six feet out. I look to my right and see the same thing. When I look at each of them, they flap several times, almost as if they are recognizing the fact I am observing them. I find that I can move them just as easily as I can move my arms or legs. These wings are what must've protected us from the black inferno. They didn't feel or feel burned or scorched or... anything at all. It's amazing. It's unreal. I feel...

Powerful.

One of the dragons roar, grabbing my attention back to our little predicament. The town is still burning, ponies are still being eaten and burned themselves, Applejack is probably completely broken down, thinking that her sister had been burned alive. I get angry. Very angry. I'm not going to let these fucking overgrown newts hurt anyone else. I gently place the yellow filly on the ground next me.

"Cover your ears," I tell her, and she obeys without question.

Something is boiling in my stomach, something growing. I let it do so. It travels up into my throat, and I know exactly what I have to do in order to get these things as far away from here as possible. My throat growls, and I show my teeth to the dragons. I wonder momentarily if my teeth had become pointed and sharp, as well. I spread my legs, like I'm preparing to dash the hundred-meters in the Olympics, staring down the monstrosities in front of me. When I'm ready, every muscle in my body tenses, and, spreading my arms out to either side, I unleash a sky-shattering roar at all of the dragons. It is a roar that put all of the brood's previous roars to shame. It pierces the hearts and minds of all of the dragons that had come to wreak havoc on the town. In their fear at this new creature who could roar louder than all of them, they're smart enough to return to the sky in haste, abandoning their mission for destruction. After swirling around in that dark vortex of theirs for a moment, they disperse in different directions, letting the sunlight and blue sky return to Ponyville.

Or what remains of it.