Shortly thereafter, Dawn's magical cloak that had moments ago brought the unconscious pegasus enemies was dissolved, gently placing them on the frozen grass wich in other times was green and soft.

As the unicorn now held a progressively relaxing breath she ceased casting the spell slowly ensuring the safe and soft landing of the living cargo.

"Finally!" the pony exhaled loudly "now I need a couple of minutes to prepare everything to send all these to De-worming" (basiclly a slang to make referense to chance to remove the mana corruption, ergo their possession) . However before the treatment, they were wounded of course and needed to be sent to the recovery rooms or hospital if need be.

"So, so that's a time I won't be able to support you gals, are you sure you wouldn't prefer to wait a little longer Crown?" dawn
asked.

"No, every moment of respite we give them, they can re-coordinate better and we need to get this done as soon as possible to tend to the survivors and any wounded there are" debated the Dragon.

"Hmm. Well, I'll try to get this done as soon as possible to go support you, so don't dance with death to much aye?" admonished Dawn in her typical motherly tone.

"Sure, mom" replied the dragon in a partially sarcastic manner, to which the mare only snorted in mild disapproval, although she was pleased that Crown saw her in part as a mother figure...As time went on and their connection was stronger and stronger she didn't like the prospect of being in the "mother zone" it was frustrating.

"Abby, can you go on?" the dragon asked with a tone of concern in his voice tfor the white furred unicorn who was trying to stand up. Offering his hand as a point of support.

"...Yes, thank you for your concern, dear. Just...it was a lot of pressure, somewhat similar to your case in fact. It just took me a lot of effort to hold the shield mostly alone and the side effect of doing so. Trying to resist practically pony-sized bullets made of bone and meat exhausted me and I collapsed just for a moment, nothing serious..." the unicorn tried to explain as a light trickle of blood dripped from her nose.

"...ok, about that just now, listen-" Abundance enunciated slowly and softly, as she tried to calm his worries before they arose as he saw her nose bleed, albeit to a much lesser extent, compared to his own. All of this because of the stress to her vascular and nervous system from the previous event.

"It's okay, I trust you." The dragon just smiled.

"...Eh?"

The dragon lifted her to her full height and gently hugging her hips while looking her straight in the eyes, he pulled her closer to him smiling at her slightly.

"As I said I trust you. If I 'take a chance' since I know my limits, it would be hypocritical of me to assume you don't know yours. Besides, you are one of the most impresive mare-...no, correction PONIES let alone creature I know and probably has ever existed in history!, and however feminine you may or not be , I know perfectly well that you are not, nor will you ever be a damsel in distress, although.... I must admit that I like the idea of being your "white knight" so to speak, so if you ever need me, just say the word and it will be done.

The mare's cheeks took on a pastel pink color and her heart beat faster as her sapphire blue eyes and his met intensely for a moment, as if the rest of the world didn't matter for a few seconds.

"He he, you must say that to all the mares dear" Abby tried to make less obvious her clear emotions on her face, slightly deflecting the moment a bit with a teasing comment.

"Nah, only to the ponies/people/creatures I care about. Even more so if one of them is my best FRIEND!" said the dragon in enthusiasmunconsciously highlighting the word "Friend." However, he did not notice how the mare's sweet but teasing smile turned into a grimace of frustration barely visible to the untrained eye as the grip she had on his hand tightened significantly and her left eye twiched. Not that he noticed it however since it did not not caused him any discomfort , rather he interpreted it as a more affectionate grip giving reassurance to himself that he said the right thing.

All this while all the others present, even the pony recruits wich were lying bandaged in a resting position who by the way were completely on the blank without knowing the context between the 2 could FEEL the underlying feeling of the mare , made a soundless grimace that silently shouted: "oof, that had to hurt!

That had to hurt!", although some of those present, such as Pillows, Amber and Stella, were holding back their laughter. It was hard for them to contain it after witnessing their friend being unintentionally put in the friend zone AGAIN. At this point, it was practically common knowledge and basically an inside joke to most of the ponies and other creatures around the palace or its workers that Abundance was indeed Lost in love with the dragon, but yet here she was friend-zoned again!, lmao.

Altough in all honesty how could she not be in love?. If all that he is, what he represents and how he acts isnt enough reason, he fills her with joy and inspiration, even more if we consider that by the very nature of her work and research for so many years her exposure to the opposite sex in a casual environment has always been limited to say the least, even more so since just like in equestri, this reality had a sexual disparity in birth, at with ponies. Speficifically the ratio of males to females being 2 of the former for every 10 of the latter.

However, the dragon from infant to its current state always spent his "free time" which was a couple of hours every day with the mares , creating a strong and stable bond of more than a couple of hours, for more than years, upon years. Finally coupled with her strange yet understable fascination bordering on fanaticism/fetishism with: what dragons represent, what they are, what they have done and what they can Do. Hell, just his birth impacted her forever, why would his time with her not do it too?.

"How... Charming" the mare said through closed lips, with a monotone that bordered on sarcasm but was mellow enough to throw others off the curve ball.

The dragon, as if nothing had happened, turned around and looked at the surroundings. The recruits he had initially rescued were no longer fit to fight, that much was obvious. In his eyes only Abundance, Amber and Pillows were available for the moment. Dawn was discarded immediately because she had to transport the wounded and possessed injured to a safe place, while Whis had to Help to take care of the wounded before transporting them, and in the case of Stella she had a comprimised limb, altough he was sure she could still go he did not want to riskt it, even more with a small but real risk with blood loss. Meaning Stella, was out of the question.

"Ok, first of all how much ammunition do we have left?" asked the dragon.

"From the dragunova rifles?" asked Pillow.

"In general."

"Hmm, well sweetie, from the rifles maybe or 2 rounds of 20 max. From the Drake python pistols I have the 6 rounds left from the revolver" replied amber.

"All 6, baby!" said Pillows.

"Same to you, 6" said Amber

"5" said simply crown, since he used 1 just now.

"6" said whis

"Likewise, 6" concluding abundance, currently being the only members who had guns, for obvious reasons, dawn and Stella being the exception.

There were currently 2 dragunova cartridges and 33 revolver bullets remaining.... The remaining possessed ponies, most of them possibly unicorns, should be if they were lucky only around maybe 35. Hmmm-.

The dragon thought for a moment and spoke "Ok, I propose the following: Whis, you and Stella will do long range control of any potential dangers you see once the wind starts to settle, With the 2 remaining rounds for the dragunov, it shouldn't take that long, their hellish hail storm is now history thanks to us, so the cold, misty wind should dissipate quickly, improving vision. Act THEN and watch our backs from here"

"Whis, I'll have to take your bullets, which I'll add to mine as well as those of Aundance and Amber." the dragon said as he turned to the pink mare.

"Pillows?"

"At your command, hottie!" the mare said.

"I'll give you the 33 bullets and my revolver so you can use them dually" said the dragon.

"Why?" she asked curiously

"Well, you're the fastest and best reflex having non-Stella pony out there, and here, thanks to all that stuff about your genetics and your training on adrenaline control and stuff, right?"

"...Yeah?"

"Ok, so even though one bullet alone won't take down 1 individual magic field 2 will, hopefully with max 3 bullets will be needed per unicorn if we have them in front of us. i need to create a situation where I concentrate enough of them, say 11 or 12 so that you with dual pistols and your incredible speed and dexterity can mow them down efficiently, reducing their numbers. Efficiently."

" Parallel to this with ranged support we could reduce their numbers relatively quickly leaving the rest for Amber, Abundance and me to deal with them in a more "Direct" way.

"Ok, sounds interesting, tell us what to do lumpy."

"Tell US?" asked the dragon with a mischievous grin.

"Hahaha, I can read you crown, clearly you'll need me and Abundance in your plan, so.... What role do we play?" replied Amber with equal mischievousness.

Raising his hands in mock surrender the dragon said: "ok ok, I was getting to that part. What an impatient girl. It's very simple really, Abundance will be mainly our shield and versatile support. you on the other hand will help me create the distraction and take out a few idiots in the process. Here's what I propose..."

Author's Note

So in case you are wondering... yes, the dinamic with Crown and Abundance, altough uninteded from his part is basically reverse Rarity and Spike. This will mater as the story goes on.