“I said move!” Ignia threw a punch and the dragons scattered.

“How the hay are we gonna bring something that big down!?” Rainbow demanded.

“By working together, remember my little ponies, united we can defeat any evil,” Celestia said as she ran around Ignia’s stepping feet “We just need to-” Celestia was scooped off the ground by Ignia and was held up to her face.

“You talk too much princess, be thankful I won’t kill you, can’t say the same for your student!” Ignia said with a laugh before she threw Celestia at a wall and she cried out as she impacted it and slid to the ground.

“Celestia!” Twilight cried before she took to the air and flew at Ignia, breathing fire, Ignia held a massive hand forward and blocked it, she pressed through it and swatted Twilight out of the air.

“Aah!” Twilight cried.

“I got you!” Fluttershy said as she jumped up and caught her.

Applejack and Pinkie ran up behind Ignia and spun and bucked her in the leg, making her leg slide a little but not knocking her foot out from under her.

“Annoying little pests! Accept your erasure!” Ignia said as she swung her massive tail at the two and Applejack tackled Pinkie out of the way as the tail destroyed multiple trees.

Spike and Rarity flew overhead and breathed fire on the side of her head, Ignia grunted and turned to them.

“Decent flames, now see mine,” Ignia grinned before she opened her maw and a glow came from her mouth.

“I got a bad feeling about this!” Spike said before tackling Rarity out of the air.

“Ah!” Rarity yelped as they narrowly avoided a massive column of flames that blasted into the cloudy skies.

“Whoa!” Rainbow said as she saw this before she flew at Ignia’s head and when Ignia turned to her Rainbow punched her in the face, Ignia responded by swatting her out of the air.

“Rainbow!” Twilight cried before she and the others ran at Ignia.

“RRRRAGH!” Ignia swung her fist down at the ground and it created a powerful shockwave that sent everydragon flying.

“AAHH!” Twilight and the others yelled as they were sent flying.

“Learn your place insects, dragons rule this world now,” Ignia said as she approached Twilight.

“Ngh…” Twilight sat up and widened her eyes as she saw Ignia raise a foot.

“You die first,” Ignia said before her eyes widened and she growled and turned to see Luna biting her tail.

With a flick of her tail she sent Luna flying.

“Luna!...” Celestia got up and ran forward to catch Luna but Ignia swung her hand down in front of Celestia, stopping her.

“You need a rest princess, Devnak!” Ignia said firing a bolt at Celestia from her hand and Celestia had dodged the first one but a second one hit her and she cried out before hitting the ground “Your magic can’t save you now, but honestly, even if you were all alicorns, this situation would still be hopeless!” Ignia laughed before picking up Celestia and chucking her into the forest beside Luna.

“Leave my friends alone!” Spike said getting up and flying at her but with surprising speed she turned and grabbed him.

“You should have joined me, but oh well, I’ll have alot of like-minded drakes and dragonesses soon to aid me soon,” Ignia said before slamming her hand down and pinning Spike down.

“AAAGH!” Spike grunted and he shrunk down.

“Small, weak, the lot of you,” Ignia said before she picked up Spike and held him over her maw.

“LET HIM GO!” Twilight lunged from her position and grabbed onto Ignia’s mouth, holding it closed.

“Mmmh!” Ignia growled and she tossed her head from side to side with Twilight holding on.

“I….WON’T… LET…. YOU… HURT HIM!” Twilight growled and she swung her claw and struck Ignia in the eye.

“AGH!” Ignia snarled and she tossed her head to the side and flung Twilight back to ground level and dropped Spike while clutching her eye.

“Spike!” Twilight cried, but Pinkie came out of nowhere and caught him.

“I got him!” Pinkie said before Ignia’s foot swung and Pinkie narrowly dodged out of the way and ran back to Twilight and the others gathered.

“We’re barely makin a dent in her, an the princesses are down!” AJ said looking tired.

“She really knows how to take it out of you,” Rainbow panted.

“What do we do?” Fluttershy asked.

“I don’t know… we’re up against a threat unlike anything before,” Twilight said looking up at Ignia dismayed.

“We can’t give up here girls, ponykind is at stake,” Rarity said.

“I-”

“Sunk in yet?” Ignia asked and they turned to see the massive dragon approaching them, baring a scratch on one of her eyes, which wasn't bleeding for some reason.

“Ignia…” Twilight muttered.

“You're only prolonging the inevitable,” Ignia said.

“You monster,” Rainbow growled getting up and growling at her.

“For such an interesting little diversion, I’ll grant you all a quick death,” Ignia said before opening her mouth and the glow came forth.

“Girls…” Twilight said looking at them and they nodded sympathetically before they braced for it.

“DIE!” Ignia lunged her head forward to breath fire… before a series of fireballs struck her and threw her aim off.

“NGH!” Ignia grunted and looked to the side before several dragons rammed her, knocking her over.

“Huh?” Twilight said before someone landed in front of them.

“You guys alright?” Ember asked.

“Ember?! When did-” Twilight asked.

“Thank Discord, he sent a distress signal, alerting us of the situation,” Ember said.

“Discord?” Fluttershy said.

“You came at the right time,” Pinkie said.

“Let’s hurry, she can’t reach the cave!” Ember said.

“We’ve tried but nothing works!” Rainbow said.

“Because you're still fighting like ponies!” Ember said.

“What?” Twilight said.

“Stop fighting like ponies and fight like dragons! You don’t have magic anymore so get with it!” Ember said before flying off.

“Fight like dragons…. Girls?” Twilight looked to her friends and they nodded.

“Alright, no more playing around then,” Twilight said, putting Spike out of harms way and they rushed in to join the fray.

“GET OFF!” Ignia sprung out of the trees and tossed several dragons off before grabbing one off of her, and biting his wing off, and chucking him at Ember who dodged.

“You witch!” Ember yelled before shooting several more fireballs at Ignia who tanked them and she took a swing at Ember who flew around it.

“Your father was always too weak to do what was necessary to ensure draconic rule! Magmus was more of a leader than he will ever be!” Ignia said as she swung at Ember several more times and Ember flew back away from them.

“My father is capable of accepting there were other races in the world smaller than him! He’s more of a dragon than you’ll ever be!” Ember bit back before one of Ignia’s swings grazed her knocking her off balance.

“INSOLENCE!” Ignia said before she swung her claw again and struck Ember sending her flying.

Twilight jumped forward and she sank her teeth into Ignia’s leg and Rainbow jumped onto her side and slashed her flesh with her claws.

“Ngh! You little-” Ignia said before Pinkie jumped onto her neck and bit down and Fluttershy flew into her head.

“GET OFF!” Ignia shouted before swatting Pinkie off.

She growled as Fluttershy breathed a gout of fire into her face, Applejack aided by instead of bucking she full on rammed Ignia’s leg knocking it out from under and she fell forward.

“NO!” Ignia screeched as she hit the ground and she hit the ground with an earth shaking thud.

“Did that do it?” Twilight flew above her.

Suddenly Ignia opened her red eyes and she immediately rolled on the ground forcing the dragons clinging onto her to get off, less they be crushed.

“How can she still have strength left?” Twilight said before Ignia’s tail struck her out of the air and she tumbled towards the cave.

As Twilight landed she slowly got up, as she was about to run back out there she saw something odd.

Footprints… into the cave…

“What?” Twilight looked up and saw the tree itself starting to flash and glow.

“Wait… what’s…” Twilight narrowed her eyes and saw a rock fall from the ceiling as the fight outside rumbled… and bounce off of thin air…

“No… it was another diversion!” Twilight shouted and she ran into the cave towards the tree.

“Zuke,” A bolt of magic zapped the ground in front of Twilight and she looked up and growled at the reappearing dragoness.

Ignia was standing right there.

“Your clever pony, I figured I played the role well enough,” Ignia said.

“How?... you turned into that giant dragon out there,” Twilight said.

“Maybe I was giving you too much credit, the spell was to create a massive construct, not turn into a Primal Dragon, I guessed if you all thought I was out there fighting you, you wouldn’t pay attention to what’s in here,” Ignia chuckled.

“So you could finish your spell, we’ve been played again,” Twilight cursed.

“You all really need to wizen up,” Ignia said with a chuckle “You caught me in the middle of my spell, but no deal, I’ll simply kill you right now and resume,” Ignia said.

“I’ll stop you!” Twilight said before breathing fire at her.

“Balko,” Ignia used the protection spell to block the flames.

Twilight rushed at her and lunged.

“Zuke,” Ignia blasted Twilight with a bolt sending her flying, Twilight tumbled and landed.

“You…” Twilight struggled to her feet.

Ignia chuckled “The world moves on Twilight, why can’t you just accept it?” Ignia asked.

“I refuse to let you destroy the memory of ponykind, you think dragons should rule the world, but what about the ponies who don’t deserve this?! What about the ponies who work towards a better tomorrow?! What about the history of ponykind, the future harmony we’ll all reach together? The school that teaches all the races how to coexist! You don’t have to destroy it! Ponies and dragons can coexist,” Twilight pleaded.

“...” Ignia stared at her.

“Please Ignia, stop this, nocreature is superior to another, we’re all equals when we-'' Twilight tried to reason but Ignia suddenly burst out laughing.

“Oh dear… I was struggling to keep a straight face, but I couldn’t, not when you're spewing that garbage at me,” Ignia chuckled.

“Huh?” Twilight said.

“You talk about equality? About ponies and dragons existing on a similar standing? About friendship?.... What a pile of garbage, I’ll be sure to purge such nonsense from the mind of everypony else,” Ignia said before turning and resuming.

“NO!” Twilight rushed at Ignia but she spun and blasted Twilight with Zuke again and Twilight tumbled back.

“Rushing to your death?” Ignia said approaching “Have it your way, one less dragon won’t damage anything,” Ignia said before muttering ‘Ralts’ and her claws ignited, lengthened, and glowed.

Twilight looked on nervously as she approached.

“This spell can burn through even adult dragon scales, so long princess, I’ll leave a footnote about your…. Untimely passing,” Ignia said before raising her claws.

“NO!” Spike in adult form rammed her off her feet and pinned her.

“Spike!” Twilight cried.

“Release me!” Ignia said before slashing Spike across the arm spilling blood.

“AGH!” Spike grunted before she kicked him off.

“Spike!” Twilight ran over and Ignia dodged her pounce and whipped her with her tail.

Spike caught her tail and tossed her.

Ignia rolled on the ground and she breathed a gout of flame on Spike as he ran at her and he stumbled back.

“I have to hurry!” Ignia ran at the tree but Twilight got in front of her and tackled her down and they rolled on the ground clawing and biting at eachother.

“Look who finally became a dragon!” Ignia said with mock congratulations.

“I have to stop you!” Twilight punched Ignia but Ignia grabbed her arm and swiftly rolled on top of her and wrapped her tail around Twilight’s neck.

“Drop dead!” Ignia said before Spike took to the air and flew at her.

“Zuke!” Ignia said and she fired several shots at Spike.

“Focus…” Spike told himself, hoping that his recent discovery works… and he shrank down avoiding the shots.

“What?!” Ignia exclaimed before Spike suddenly grew big again and he rammed her off of Twilight and against the wall.

“AGH!” Ignia said as she struggled with Spike, thinking fast she used Vellp and turned into Twilight as Spike raised a fist.

“Huh?” Spike said.

“Weak pony hearted dragon,” Ignia grinned before turning back and breathing fire into his face making Spike yell and stagger back.

“Spike!” Twilight cried.

“I’m ok!” Spike said before he saw Ignia running for the tree.

“No!” Twilight cried and she took to the air and flew at Ignia, Ignia turned and used Rouk.

Multiple Ignia’s appeared and Twilight tackled the wrong one.

“Huh?!” Twilight looked around.

“You're in my way!” the real Ignia picked up a large rock and threw it at Twilight.

“NO!” Spike cried as he jumped in front of Twilight and took the hit, knocking him to the ground.

“Tch!” Ignia ran for the tree again and Twilight saw what happened to Spike and she growled before charging after Ignia and tackled her down just as she was about to reach the tree, Ignia reached for the tree.

“I’M…SO….CLOSE!” Ignia yelled.

“I WON’T LET YOU!” Twilight shouted.

“RELEASE ME PONY!” Ignia said as she dragged herself towards the tree.

“She can’t reach the tree!” Twilight panicked.

Both got into a struggle, one trying to reach the tree and the other trying to hold onto her.

“STOP!” Twilight cried as the tree’s glow got brighter.

“NOT AS LONG AS I LIVE!” Ignia screeched.

Thoughts raced through Twilight’s head, of her family forgetting who they were, pony society falling apart, harmony forgotten, the other races suffering from dragon overpopulation.

If she doesn’t do what needs to be done…

“...Forgive me, Celestia…” Twilight grabbed a large rock off of the ground and she lunged onto Ignia further and smashed it down on her head.

“AGH! WHAT ARE YOU-” Twilight slammed the rock on her head over and over, trying to either kill her or render her unconscious.

A rage-fueled desperation had gripped Twilight and she smashed the rock onto Ignia’s face over and over again, as she raised the rock again-

A fireball blasted the area in front of them, propelling them away from the tree.

As they both tumbled back Twilight looked up in surprise and saw it was Spike.

“Twilight….” Spike groaned as he limped over to her.

“S-Spike I-” Spike slapped her and she looked up at him in surprise.

“Never… go that far, you're not her,” Spike said, Twilight looked at Ignia as saw her breathing raggedly, her face was bloody and her nose was broken.

“I… got so scared and…” Twilight said.

“It’s alright, I stopped you before you could…” Spike said.

“Spike, thank you I-”

“ZUKE!” Suddenly Twilight was blasted from behind and she landed in Spike’s arms.

“Twilight!” Spike looked up and saw Ignia struggling to her feet.

“I… thought she was going… to kill me back there, looks like there’s a true dragon in her yet,” Ignia chuckled.

“You monster,” Spike said as Ignia hobbled over to them.

“I’ve come too far to be stopped by a petulant child and a princess pony… you both will NOT get in my way!” Ignia said before forming the hand sign again.

Spike set the unconscious Twilight down and got in front of her.

“I’ll kill you… don’t think I won’t…” Ignia said.

“Then do it… but I won’t submit to you,” Spike said

“Then die…” Ignia said before she made the hand sign, she readied the spell.

“ZUK-” and she was struck from behind in the back of the head with a large rock and she hit the ground unconscious.

“Huh?” Spike said before seeing that the one who did it was none other than Luna.

“You forgot to render me unconscious too,” Luna said.

“Luna!” Spike ran over to her.

“It’s over,” Luna said.

“How did you-”

“I was about to return to the fight, but then I noticed Twilight running into the cave of Harmony, I decided to hobble over and see why,” Luna said.

“I guess it’s a good thing we both listened to our instincts,” Spike said.

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy tumbled to the ground and looked up to see the primal dragon still attacking.

“How is she not even worn out yet?!” Rainbow asked.

“I don’t know,” Fluttershy said before they saw the giant dragon turn its attention to them and it raised a fist.

“Shy! We need to move!” Rainbow said.

“I can’t…” Fluttershy tried but she was exhausted.

“No!” Rainbow jumped over her to shield her as the giant dragons fist came down on them… and scattered to ashes.

“Huh?” Rainbow looked up and saw the dragon construct fading away and vanishing.

“...What?” Rainbow and the other dragons looked on in surprise as all that was left was a rune stone that the light faded from.

Shining and the other dragon guards were battle-worn and backed up as the mind-controlled Ponyville dragons were ready to continue attacking.

When suddenly they began shaking their heads and snapping out of it.

“Huh?” Mr Cake said.

“Wha… what happened?” Mayor Mare asked.

“Their snapping out of it?” Shining asked.

“Then they must have done it,” Discord sighed in relief.

“Whew…. That was close…” A guard sighed.

Gradually all the dragons stopped fighting and they took account of their injuries.

“What just happened?” AJ demanded.

“It just vanished,” Ember said.

“Where did she go? Is she invisible again?” Rarity asked.

“No,” They all heard a voice and saw Spike, Luna, and Twilight dragging the real Ignia out into the open and they threw her unconscious body at their feet.

“What?” Ember said.

“She was fooling us all along, she made a construct made of rune magic, but we stopped the real Ignia,” Twilight smiled at Spike and Luna.

“Wow, she had us again,” Rainbow sighed.

“We need to alert the guard, this crisis is over,” Luna said.

“Let’s get moving then,” Ember said before turning to her dragons and ordering them to apprehend her.

The dragons moved forward and dragged the sorceress off.

“Is… it finally over Twilight?” Rarity asked.

“Yes, it is,” Twilight said with a smile as the sun peaked through the clouds, signaling the end of Ignia’s terror.

But there were still things that needed to be done.

Author's Note

I give credit to Bronyfan96 for proofreading this chapter.

But just because Ignia is defeated, this adventure isn't quite over yet.