The Heart Of Avarus
Chapter 3

By Daniel Bennett

Fear struck Twilight like a hot iron, it clenched at her chest without any reprieve. Nothing could prepare her to see her home gone up in flames. Green fire roared out of every opening in the tree and as it burned it seemed to be alive, screaming in agony at the fate that had befallen it. It was tearing at her every being, all the knowledge in those books was being destroyed but even worse was that Spike may be inside.

She set off galloping at full speed towards what used to be her home, hoping that she might be in time to save one of her dearest friends. Too much distance to close with no time to spare. Her horn glowed white hot and bolt of lightning came down from the sky to strike it. From there it arced in the direction of her home. In mid gallop Twilight disappeared and a split second later appeared at the end of the bolt keeping her stride. Without stopping she charged her way through the door wincing for only a moment while she carried on.

There was nowhere for her to go after that because of a mass of purple and green scales were blocking her way. Again the hot iron was applied to her heart, Spike had become a fully grown adult dragon. They had a close call with this previously but they were able to bring Spike back to his old self. The smoke started to fill her lungs as she yelled the dragon's name to stir him from his small pile of gems.

The monster replied but in only a roar that hurt her ears as much as the smoke did her lungs. "Spike please stop this! Don't you see what's happened again? Your greed is making you a monster and if you don't stop we might not be able to turn you back!" Twilight pleaded as loud as she could to the dragon but if it understood anything it wasn't letting on.

Nearly passing out she decided that this would have to continue elsewhere. With her horn glowing she chucked nearby books and objects at the dragon, trying to get his attention and to get both of them out of here. Despite hitting the dragon hard none of it seemed to hurt him, such was not her intention but hopefully it was enough to get him to chase her. She turned around and bolted back out of the door wishing for the best. After putting a short difference between her and her burning home she was coughing and wheezing from the smoke. Turning around she waited for her friend to follow.

Moments passed until unexpectedly rather than the front door, Spike exploded through the roof in a shower of branches, smoke and green fire. Roaring like only a true dragon could he spiraled upwards in the air and surveyed the ground. Ponies were already gathered around the library about to try to put out the fire but the emergence of the dragon scared them away to a seemingly safe distance.

"SPIKE! STOP RIGHT NOW!" Roared twilight in return to the dragon's as she reared back onto her hind legs. When she came back down her horn shot sent a beam at the menacing creature. This attack was much stronger as this time she was aiming to knock some sense into him. It sent the creature flying in the opposite direction as a small gem fell towards the ground. He quickly recovered and scanned the air for his falling treasure. With his sharp sight he spotted it immediately and with his strong wings he quickly retrieved it before it fell to the ground.

Doing this made Spike seemingly lose even more control, his anger at having briefly lost his gem rivaled his greed. Everypony was helpless against such a terrifying beast. They were shocked at everything that had transpired but now they were truly afraid for their lives. It was as if he declared war against Ponyville, the dragon began flying around the town spewing his green flames across everything that they cared about. All of Ponyville was soon burning and despite her attempts it was all too much for her, too much for anypony.

Tears flowing from her eyes Twilight wasn't able to hold back any longer. She had to unleash everything she had in order to stop Spike or everypony might not make it out of this. More bolts shot from her horn as she aimed to take the dragon out of the skies. Each more brilliant than the last yet less frequent. Some whizzed past the dragon, missing him slightly while other's managed to hit their target. She kept teleporting to get better shots but that was also getting less frequent.

Twilight stood breathing harder than she had ever before, her horn merely sparking instead of the magic she had been just casting. She had nothing left in her to continue on. The last thing she saw was Spike circling around the city layering on yet more flames and ignoring her even after her barrage as if she were a fly. The screams of other pony's had filtered back into her mind where her emotions had blocked them out and focused her on Spike before. Her vision became blurry, her energy left her and she fell on her side, her eyes closed to a burning Ponyville and she passed out to the screams of ponies and the roaring of fires.