“What the hay just happened? Did we just win?” Rainbow Dash asked as she witnessed Nightmare Moon collapse on the floor just inches away from Luna and Celestia, her weapon dissipating into nothingness as the foal lost consciousness.

“I think we did,” Twilight answered before galloping towards Celestia and Luna, her mind going over the many spells she knew, eliminating the ones that required more mana than she currently had to spare, along with the ones that were energy inefficient. Stopping at Celestia’s body, she casted the spell she had selected and watched as her teacher’s wounds closed and sighed in relief as she felt Celestia’s natural mana recovery kick in. Breathing out a sigh of relief, Twilight sat on her haunches as she finally closed her eyes and let exhaustion take her.

“The purple one is attached to the white one. A lover? Sibling? Apprentice? Never mind, I’ll get one for myself, to make the game fair” the creature thought to itself as it watched from its perch atop a nearby house, its presence kept hidden by its own magics. It then turned its attention to the other mares that were with the purple one; the pink, the blue, the white, the yellow, and the orange. Pawns of the white one. It could taste the harmony that radiated off them, taste the elements oozing out of them. Pawns. It needed those. Not out of necessity, but out of fairness for the game. There was no fun if the game wasn’t fair. Turning its gaze to the blue one, the progenitor of Nightmare Moon, it shook its head in disappointment. This one was gone, it could see the harmony seeping into her body, wrapping itself around her brain and slowly rewriting it, making her weaker, more subservient to the will of the white one.

Pawns, pawns, pawns. It needed pawns to play the game. It needed its own kingdom to make the game fair. So many things to do, so many players to recruit, so many toys to gather, so much fun to be had. Bringing a claw to its head, it pierced through its skull and twisted it around, tearing apart its brain and letting its body repair the damage, the rearrangement sparking new ideas within its brain as its lips twisted into a smile, this was going to be fun.

Sitting on its perch, the creature watched as Nightmare Moon was put in a magic bubble and then carried away by the royal guards towards the castle. This wouldn’t do. It needed her to be free, to tell white and blue of the game they were playing. Its shadow began to boil and bubble, twist and writhe; changing into a viscous liquid that rose into the air and wrapped itself around its master. “Find Luna, make sure she’s allowed to play the game,” it commanded before kissing the creature on its head and sending it off, watching with glee as all the pieces began to fall into place.

“Time to go. Need to find the pawns, to find my own apprentice, my own enforcers,” the creature thought to itself. Turning its attention back to the ponies below, the creature watched as the white one got to her feet and began to absorb the ambient mana from the surroundings, the leylines beneath the city supplying her with enough mana to completely refill her mana reserves. With her power restored, the white one’s horn lit up and she bowed to the east, the sun slowly rising over the horizon in response to her magic.

“So that’s it? The fabled raising of the sun? I wonder if she would appreciate me playing with it?” it asked itself, a spear appearing in its hand. “Just a little bit,” it pointed the spear towards the rising sun and made a circular motion with it, watching in amusement as the sun looped and spun in the air, the gasps of the ponies temporarily satisfying its need for amusement.

“Lust stop playing around,” a voice scolded from within the creature’s head, bringing its antics to a halt.

“It's not fair,” the now named Lust whined, the spear dissipating before it forced a finger into its skull and stirred its brain, blood leaking from its eyes and nose, “Envy promised me that I could play with them,” Lust complained, the finger rearranging the brain into a new pattern.

“Since when does Envy outrank me?” the voice replied, the entire body freezing as the voice began to establish control over their shared body. “Now you will go back to the others and stay there until I’m done. Is that understood?” the voice growled, cracking its neck as Lust left the driver’s seat and retreated into the abyss that was their mind and joined the others who waited in the dark.

Stretching its body into various shapes and taking various poses, the creature was satisfied with the changes that Lust had made to the brain. It breathed in a breath of fresh air, ignoring the taste of harmony that saturated the world around it. Summoning a pitch-black ring with a single orb embedded in it from thin air onto its finger, the creature raised it to the sun and let the faint sunlight touch it. Activating the ring, the creature’s body dissipated into pure sunlight and rose into the sky, eager to begin its conquest.

………….……………………………………….XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX..……………………………………………………

“Hurry up you useless reptile” the unicorn swore at the dragon below who was struggling to make her way up the cliff, the dragon wincing as her bleeding claws dug into the rocky face of the cliff, doing her best not to let the weight of the luggage on her back drag her down. Gritting her teeth in rage, the dragon was about to let loose a hate-filled comment, only for a wave of positivity to wash over her, causing her anger to ebb. Breathing out a stream of smoke from her nostrils, she grit her teeth and continued the climb, doing her best to even her breathing as she tried to reach the ledge the unicorn had teleported herself to.

“This would be a lot easier if you just teleported me up,” the dragon groaned, “Or at least some of the stuff you made me pack. Most of them are yours after all,” she grabbed a rock above her, only for it to give way under the combined weight of the miniature dragon and her luggage. “Starshine help!” the dragon cried as she fell to the ground below, her eyes widening in fear as a pale blue aura wrapped itself around the bags, bringing their descent to a crawl as the dragon was left to crash to the ground, her scales offering her a meager form of protection as she impacted with the ground, creating a dent in it.

“When you’re done playing around, make your way up. We don’t have enough time! Princess Luna is making her first public appearance for the first time since she returned and I will not miss it,” Starshine Prancer brought her hoof down in anger before turning around and making her way down the road towards Canterlot, the bag, and other items levitating behind her. “Meet me at home whenever you manage to drag your lazy flank back to Canterlot!” she yelled as she broke into a sprint, leaving the bruised and battered dragon in the crater, not bothering to check up on her.

“Stupid Starshine, stupid princess, stupid body,” the dragon growled from the crater, doing her best to crawl out of the crater, her movement sending waves of agony through her body as several broken bones and torn muscles made themselves known to her. Laying on her back, she breathed out a torrent of crimson fire into the air in an attempt to lessen her pain, the flames followed by a rage filled scream that resounded through the region as thoughts of murder and carnage filled her mind. “When I get my claws on her, I’ll,” her rant was cut off by her head exploding in pain, her violent thoughts being silenced by peace and harmony.

“Such rich emotions from one so small,” someone said calmly, temporarily disrupting the harmony that flowed into her brain, leaving her emotions unaltered. “So, tell me, what’s a hatchling drake doing so far away from her nest?” the voice asked, the owner of the voice taking advantage of the dragon’s immobility to stay out of her field of view.

“I’m not a hatchling, nor am I a drake!” she shouted angrily, wishing that she could bite the creature that dared to call her a drake and a hatchling. “I’m sixteen and I’m a dragon! A true, pureblooded one!” she proclaimed proudly, only to be met with laughter from whoever was there.

“If you’re pureblooded, then the sky is green,” the voice replied, a twinge of amusement in it. “And as we both can see, the sky is clearly blue. Besides, what true dragon doesn’t have wings?” a finger poked her, sending a wave of pain through her body.

“My wings will come in when I reach puberty,” she muttered, “Once I’m old enough they’ll grow in and I’ll finally be my proper size,”

“False, we’re born with our wings and we grow larger the older we are. You’re not a pure dragon. Even calling you a dragon is an insult to our species,” the creature chuckled, poking the dragon on the head, annoying her even more.

“And who are you to speak of what makes a dragon pure? What gives you the right to tell me what makes me a true dragon!?” she hissed in anger, wishing that she could sink her claws and fangs into the owner of the voice.

“The right? From the day of my birth, I was perfect among dragons. I took the thrones of my enemies; I ate their people like a wolf among sheep! I kill whoever I wish, whenever I wish! A dragon’s scales are iron, no blade can pierce us!” the creature went on, its voice thick with pride as it talked. Pride that the injured dragon couldn’t relate to. “Our teeth are swords! Our claws are spears! The shockwaves of our tails are a thunderbolt through the sky and the clap of their wings are a hurricane! My breath is death incarnate! This is what it means to be a true dragon, to be perfect among dragonkin! To be pure! You possess none of these things. You are not pure. You’re not a dragon, you’re a drake,” the creature poked her again, sending a small stream of arcana into the body of the drake to lessen the pain.

“That’s not true! I’m a dragon. I may not have those things, but I’m a true dragon. I was hatched from a dragon egg, straight from the dragon islands,”

“Then why do you reek of pony?” the creature asked. “You do not reek of dragon. Your body, your mind, your soul, they reek of pony. Why? You should smell like your mother, like your kin, like fire, smoke and jewelry; like a dragon. So why do you smell like flowers, harmony, and ponies?” it asked.

“I was hatched by Starshine Prancer at Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, and I’ve been her personal assistant and family member ever since,” the dragon explained.

“Some family you were. She let you fall and saved her precious luggage,” the voice taunted. “You weren’t important enough for her to bother saving. She left you here, and she’s never coming back.”

“That’s not true! She’s family! She wouldn’t abandon me! She would never leave me!” the dragon screeched, trying to defend the pony.

“Yet she’s done it before,” the creature pointed out, “She’s abandoned and sabotaged you every step of the way, telling you that its for your own good. Every single time. She left you alone in the forest, ruined your attempts to become independent, to learn about your heritage. And for what?” the creature asked.

“She’s trying to help me!” the dragon yelled, causing everything to fall silent, “Everything she’s done has been to help me. To make me a better dragon.”

“Why?”

“What do you mean why?”

“Why do you need help? Why do you need to be made better?” the creature asked. “You’re a dragon. You need no betterment. Especially from a pony.”

“You’re wrong. I’ve read about dragons and what they do. We need to be better than we are. We need harmony and friendship. We need to be better. To be more like them,” the dragon said in defense of ponykind, repeating the mantra that Starshine had drilled into her head as the harmony seeped into her mind.

“I see. So that’s how it is,” the creature muttered to itself as it shoved a single claw into her body, sending waves of raw arcana into her body, a smile on its face as it watched the dragon writhe and twist in pain. “I know it hurts,” the creature chuckled, taking pleasure in her suffering, “But don’t worry, you will see things as they are really soon,” the creature's laughter was accompanied by the screams of Nithe.

Author's Note

Another one done. Please let me know how to improve it and what yall think