Chapter 13: Wrath of the Dragon Part 1
"Finally, the last one. Never thought I would see this day come." Twiligth joked. In the corridors of Canterlot Castle, Twilight was securing the Tiger talisman inside the enchanted vault that contained the other talismans. "You and your friends have discovered all twelve talismans, and managed to safely retrieve ten. I thank you dearly for doing this, Twlight." "Aw, it was nothing really." Twilight said scratching her head modestly. "It might be a little risky that we're missing two, but hey, it is what it is." "Be sure to invite your friends over to Canterlot tonight. I have a special dinner arranged to celebrate your accomplishment." Celestia said joyfully. "Speaking of which Twilight, my sister and I would like to have a brief discussion in the library." said Luna. "Of course, Princess Luna. I will gladly share anything the two of you wish to know." Twilight eagerly said. During their embark to the library, Twilight began to realize why she was needed. The princesses still wanted to know about the power of the Tiger talisman. "You're both in for a real treat this time. The Tiger talisman is by far the most unique and complicated of them all." Twilight said, trying to entice her mentors. "I do look forward to hearing about this." Celestia said politely.
Unknown to anybody else, Trixie and her cronies were hiding in the bushes plotting their next moves. This time, Trixie was accompanied with more ponies than usual to guarantee success. She knew that there was too much on the line and that failure was not an option. For this particular situation, she had recruited two of her closest friends Fuchsia Blush and Lavender Lace to aid her in the critical operation. "The most reasonable place for Celestia to keep the talismans would have to be the same room where Shendu was locked up." Trixie concluded. "This section of the grounds should be the closest one to our destination. I will create a diversion while the two of you raid the vault. Is that clear?" Trixie instructed. "Aren't we a little outnumbered for this? There's gonna be guards surrounding every room inside." Lavender said. "Not to worry, Lavender. This will ensure our success." said Trixie. The magician flashed out the Dragon talisman that she was holding in her right hoof, proving that she came well prepared. "You got this, boss." Fuchsia said with a self-assured wink. "Believe me, it wasn't easy to convince Shendu. It's the least he could do to hold his end of the deal." Trixie thought to herself. Suddenly, she felt a vibration under her magician's cloak which was her communication orb. Trixie pulled the enchanted object out and saw Finn's face appear. "Is everything going to plan, Finn?" Trixie asked. "Smooth sailing so far, Great T! Sparkle's hangout is 12:00 from where we're standin'." said Finn. "Good, proceed to phase 2." Trixie said. She tucked the orb back under her cape and signaled her comrades to cooperate. Trixie's horn glowed and then she and her other two unicorn lackeys teleported inside the Canterlot corridors.
Once Twilight and the royal princesses got inside the library, they made themselves comfortable at the main table. "Twilight Sparkle, please share anything you know about the talisman's magic." Princess Luna asked. "Gladly. From what I have seen, the Tiger talisman has the ability to split one being into at least two entities that have opposite traits." Twilight explained. "I have to admit Twilight that is some powerful magic for only one talisman." Celestia commented. "But before I go on, there's something I must inquire both of you about." Twilight asked. Celestia and Luna both got quiet and solemn at the same time and were prepared to hear the worst. "Has either one of you ever heard of something called yin and yang?" Twilight asked. "I've looked in every book in my library and I still haven't found a clue to what it means. Princess Celestia's eyes opened in surprise due to the fact that she had never heard of such thing. "I can't say I have." Celestia admitted with a small chuckle. "Even after all the years there's still more for myself to learn. If you don't mind me asking Twilight, how and when were those words used?" "It was during the fight between me and the chimera; the tiger to be exact. After all three of the animals were separated by the talisman's magic, they started to behave differently than before, except for the snake. Somehow she still kept her same personality. But anyway, the tiger was the one who said that the yin had been separated from its yang." Twilight summarized. "Where those the exact words that the creature spoke?" Luna asked. "I am almost positive that the tiger used those precise words." Twilight answered. "It was one of the strangest things I had ever witnessed. The goat was very friendly and gentle to Rarity, but the tiger became more aggressive than before . It was like watching good versus evil." Princess Luna's attention became more direct after listening to Twilight describe the powers of the Tiger talisman.
"From what you have told us Twilight, I am under the impression that the Tiger talisman yields the power of spiritual balance. Yin and yang are most likely opposite forces that exist not only in the universe but within ourselves." Luna analyzed. Twilight was very impressed with the moon princess's input on the subject matter. At the same time, she also sensed that Luna's personal experience might be the reason. "It pains me to admit that I have lost balance within my own heart once before." Luna paused for a brief moment and then took a deep breath. "You and your friends gave it everything you had to help me find true harmony and I will always be in your debt." Twilight was very moved by the choice of words, which she knew was coming from the heart. She approached Princess Luna and they both shared a deep intimate hug. During their peaceful moment, a loud explosion was heard from not too far away.
"That came from the east wing! We must secure the talismans immediately!" Celestia ordered. "The guards and I shall secure the perimeter!" Luna announced. The ponies all made haste to their destinations without any delay. When Twilight and Celestia got to the entrance of the vault room, a blue smokescreen was blocking their view. "I'm going in!" Twilight said while sprinting forward. "Twilight it's a trap!" Celestia yelled, but she was too late on the warning. A flaming energy blast fired through the smoke and was aimed directly at Twilight. At the last second, the sun princess leaped forward, intercepted the blast, and took the hit. Fortunately she was using a magic shield to absorb most of the damage but the impact was still strong enough to put her out of commission. "Princess Celestia! Twilight shrieked. She ran up to her mentor and held her close. Celestia was unresponsive but she appeared to be breathing just a little bit. "Oops, looks like I fried the princess." Trixie maliciously joked as she appeared from out of the smokescreen. "This isn't funny, Trixie!" Twilight snapped. "The Dragon talisman is not a toy and could kill someone!" "Speaking of talismans, my dear friends have already cleared out the vault, so if you want to waste your time lecturing me, be my guest." Trixie patronized. Twilight had lost her patience for Trixie's insulting demeanor and reacted without thinking. Twilight teleported point blank in front of her rival and sucker punched Trixie in the face with full force, knocking the arrogant illusionist to the floor. Trixie lost grip of the Dragon talisman, which fell to the ground and was instantly snatched by Twilight. Trixie regained composure and realized that she did not have the Dragon talisman in her possession. "Keep the talisman while you can, Twilight Sparkle. You may have won this small battle, but I can promise that you've already lost the war!" Trixie sneered. With those last words, Trixie pitched a smokescreen and vanished from the castle.
Suddenly, Princess Luna appeared right next to Twlight and her unconscious sister. "The enemies escaped and the talismans are lost!" Luna panicked. "I'm very sorry Princess Luna... I tried my best." Twilight said with remorse. When Luna looked down at the injured Princess Celestia, she went from being stressed to completely devastated. My Sister! Who caused this treachory!?" Luna demanded. "It was Trixie. She's responsible for causing this!" Twilight answered. "I'll make sure she pays for what she did!" Twilight's horn started to glow and the Dragon talisman was pulsing in her hoof. Luna noticed the talisman and the way Twilight was acting unusually aggressive, despite everything that had happened. "Twilight, stop! You mustn't give in to your anger." Luna insisted. Twilight breathing was faster than usual, but listening to the princess help to calm her down a bit. "I'm sorry, it's just that I'm... very stressed." Twilight said. "I know that you are upset for my sister's sake, but we need to plan carefully. Twilight, I think it would be in your best interest to go back to Ponyville and plan for your next move." Luna suggested. "I would gladly go with you, but I need to heal my sister." "Yes Princess. I'll do everything I can." said Twilight. 'Twilight wait!" Luna beckoned, not wanting Twilight to leave just yet. "Yes?" Twilight answered. "When I say this, I mean it for your own safety. Please, don't do anything reckless." Luna begged. "I... understand. Goodbye Princess Luna." Twilight replied. With nothing else to say or discuss, Twilight's horn glowed and disappeared with her teleportation magic. Princess Luna looked at Celestia and then looked out the window with a sense of concern. "This will not be easy for her..." Luna sighed.
It took about half an hour for Twilight to get back to Ponyville. Luckily, she made it back to the library as soon as she could; not knowing what was in store for her next. "Spike I'm home." Twilight called out once she got inside. No answer. "Spike?" Twilight called again, but still no response. She could feel a bad omen creeping in on her. When Twilight it up the room and closed the door from behind, she instinctively turned around and saw a dagger stuck in the door holding onto a note. It read:
"We have your baby dragon. You know what we want, and be sure to come alone."
Reading the note was now the final straw for Twilight Sparkle. She could barely control her anger at this point since things were already bad enough. First the talismans are stolen, then the princess was injured and close to death, and now her number one assistant has been kidnapped. "RRRRRAAAAA!" Twilight shouted and slammed her front hooves so hard on the floor that all the books on her shelves shook and fell out of place. Even some of her house decorations tipped over from the unexpected force. Twilight breathed heavily from exhaustion and tried to recooperate. "Alright Twilight, time for plan B." she said to herself. "It's time to take a trip to Manehattan."
Meanwhile, Trixie was opening up the sack of talismans that she, Lavender, and Fuchsia looted from Canterlot Castle. "Well Shendu, I think it's time we got the show on the road." Trixie said with a sense of accomplishment. "Start placing the talismans and say each one out loud." Shendu ordered. "Alright, fine. Rooster, Ox, Snake, Rabbit, Horse." Trixie said while placing each talisman in Shendu's octagonal sockets. "Ahhh, I can feel my powers returning to me. Soon I shall walk the earth once again!" Shendu said confidently. "Rat, Monkey, Dog, Pig, and Tiger. Ah ha! That should be all of them." said Trixie. "Fool! That's ten plus the Sheep that I already have! You still haven't mentioned the Dragon!" Shendu said impatiently. "Um, about that Shendu. You see, the talisman was... confiscated." Trixie admitted. "You did WHAT!?" Shendu raged. "That is my personal favorite and I entrusted it to you as an aide for your mission!" "Yes yes, I know your mad and you probably want to kill me." Trixie said trying to bide herself time. "I will admit that Sparkle got the best of me in our mono-e-mono confrontation." Shendu was snarling louder and was not buying into Trixie's attempt to stall. "I can promise you that I was well prepared for an incident like this to happen. I will gladly share with you my backup plan." "Then explain yourself..." Shendu sneered. Before Trixie could continue, Tohru barged in and threw a tied- up Spike onto the floor. Shortly after, Tohru left the room. "THAT is my explanation." Trixie said assertively. "A baby dragon? You mean to tell me that a baby dragon is your solution to the missing talisman!?" Shendu raged in anger. "This is no ordinary dragon, Shendu. He is Sparkle's closest friend and a witness to the powers that the talismans possess." Trixie answered. "Hold on, I remember your now. Ah yes, I took a hold of your empty vessel while you were fooling around with MY talisman." Shendu said in a very condescending tone." "You guys don't scare me! I'm not telling you anything!" Spike retorted. "Oh you don't have to worry about talking, young one. I'm sure your master is worried sick about you, and would give up anything to save your life." Trixie said with a slick grin. "We made sure to check every possible location that Sparkle uses for hiding the talismans. I was only a little bit surprised that she didn't have any at her library, so I figured hey, why not add a consolation prize to our heist. Taking a hostage is the icing on our cake." "Alright, fine. This is your only chance to correct your mistake." Shendu warned. "If this plan of your does not go through, then our alliance is over." Trixie's facial expression began to show a slight bit of worry after hearing the dreadful warning. Spike thought of this as a time to psych out his captor. "Heh, looks like you got yourself in quite a pickle." Spike taunted at Trixie. "Listen here, halfpint! Twilight Sparkle WILL surrender the talisman and I will become the richest pony in Equestria!" Trixie snapped. "So you'd best keep your mouth shut!" Spike shrugged and turned his head away to ignore the pompous pony.
Later on, Twilight managed to catch a ride on the Ponyville Express which was outbound for Manehattan. She did not bother to tell her closest friends about the stressful prediciment she was in
and preferred to take on the challenge alone. Upon her arrival in the big city, Twilight had
to use instinct to figure out where the Dark Hoof was hiding. After an hour of searching on
hoof, Twilight was beginning to feel more aggrivated. Eventually, she noticed a townhouse that stood
out from all the others around. It was poorly lit inside, and had wooden planks nailed to the windows.
"This has to be the place. I'm going in." Twilight said to herself with determination.
When Twilight entered through the creaky door, she was not surprised to see Finn, Ratso, Chow,
Tohru, Fuchsia, and Lavender all waiting in the main room to confront their guest. "Twilight Sparkle, I'm taking you-" Before Tohru could say anything else, Twilight shot the stallion with a strong magic blast from her horn; knocking Tohru out cold. "Hey, you didn't even let him finish!" Finn whined. Twilight gave Finn a cold hard stare and cracked her neck, which provoked all the enforcers to attack at once. Trixie was upstairs sipping from a cup of tea while Twilight pulvarized her enemies without breaking a sweat. "It looks like our guest is well entertained." Trixie said in amusement. "You know she's coming for you next, Trixie. Twilight will make sure she whoops your hide real good." Spike said. Trixie rolled her eyes and chose not to bother debating with her capty. After the brawl was over, all six enforcers were either facedown on the canvas or looking at the ceiling in humiliation. "I guess Sparkle's in a really bad mood today." Finn assumed. "You mean psycho? She blasted a hole in my jacket!" Chow complained. Twilight overheard the commotion and quickly rushed up to Chow. She grabbed the prescription sunglasses from Chow's face, and smashed them to pieces between her hooves. Twilight shoved her way passed all the worn out enforcers and climbed the stairs. Once she made it to the highest floor and the last room, Twilight saw Trixie sitting at her desk and Spike tied up in the corner near Shendu. Twilight was amazed to see the enormous petrified demon curled up behind Trixie on the wall. "The dragon demon that Princess Celestia spoke of. He's much bigger than I expected." Twilight said in amazement.
"You decided to show up after all." said Trixe. "Let's get down to business, shall we?" "I have what you want." Twilight said, revealing the Dragon talisman. "Now let Spike go!" "Quite the heroic one, aren't you?" Trixie taunted. "Give me the talisman first and then I'll release your pet." "Fine!" Twilight snapped. She impatiently came closer to Trixie and placed the Dragon talisman on her desk. "It's all yours." "Alright boys, untie the prisoner." Trixie instructed to the Shadowkhan ninja that stood next to Spike. The young dragon was cut from his imprisonment and he went running to his master. After giving Twilight a quick hug, he gave her a worried look. "I'm glad you rescued me, but they have all the talismans!" Spike panicked. "That's true, but we still have a chance." Twilight said with an assertive tone. "Hold on a second, why do I feel so different all of the sudden? At first I was so filled with rage, but now I feel so much more relaxed." Twilight thought to herself. After looking around for a couple seconds, Twilight realized that the Dragon talsiman was the source of the never ending anger. "It's just like when Trixie used it at the harbor. She was acting the same way I did. I bet Princess Luna knew all about this when she spoke to me in the vault room. And I was too dumb to know." Twilight thought. "Trixie, you have all the talismans, so what now? Is your "friend" really worth that much to you?" Trixie was mentally caught off guard from Twilight's provoking question that she started to rethink the situation. She held the Dragon talisman and looked at it for a few seconds, thinking about Shendu and the lost treasure. Trixie was now the one who was starting to feel the frustratioin kick in."Ignore the foolish one! Secure the talisman and release me!" Shendu demanded. "Or face the consequences!" Trixie's was starting to get a headache from all the mental pressure and acted upon her gut feeling. "I must have the lost treasure! The treasure is all mine!" Trixie shouted in anger and frustration. She sprinted towards Shendu and slammed the Dragon talisman in the last remaining socket. All of the sudden, the talismans emitted a white light and resonated with each other. The ground trembled and the entire hideout shook. Soon enough, the talismans were compressed into Shendu's body and then his stone eventually started to materialize. "We have to get out of here!" Twilight yelled. Both she and Spike made a run for their lives while Trixie stood her ground. The enforcers were still too tired and injured to run for safety. Shendu's body also started to shift around and uncurl from his current position. His head came forward and then the arms and feet grew out. During this transformation, the entire hideout started to give in to the power and weight of Shendu. When the demon grew to his full height, his massive body had outgrown the hideout and destroyed it in the process. Happy to be free once more, Shendu stood tall and proud among the ruins of the Dark Hoof's townhouse.
"Iiiiii Liiive!" Shendu said with a menacing laugh.
End of Chapter 13