DRAGONBOND MAKES HIS ATTEMPT TO FIND A RARE TREASURE AND FIGHT FOR ITS CLAIM. THE MANE SIX FIND OUT WHERE HE LIVES AND HOW TO CATCH HIM.

I do not own mlp

Eye of Danger

Dragonbond had finally arrived near the domain of the cyclopes. He had taken the river path that led through the forest and brought him close enough to where the mountains stood surrounded by the woods. Dragonbond took a deep breath as he prepared himself for this part of the journey. "You ready for this Ray?" He asked the ball of light that began to circle around him. "I'll take that as a maybe." He joked.

On hoof, he then continued to enter this great land of colossal towers of stone. Very ideal to hide a group of cyclopes or hopefully at least a small family size. Even by barely entering their territory, it was littered with bones of different creatures across the ground. Some bones had been crushed to the size of gravel. An educated guess that must have been to these cyclopes stepping on top of them under their cloven hooves. It was best to remain quiet on this scouting mission before advancing to his next mission to fight for his treasure, if they had any. Cyclopes were known to find and keep a lot of rare and highly valued treasures. None that are native to this land would dare risk their life for their treasure. Luckily, he wasn't from this land.

Dragonbond and Ray kept a low profile while sneaking around. Ray would look ahead and would bobble if it was clear or shake if there was danger. So far, Ray would continue to bobble as their path continued to remain clear. It was still daylight as it was the middle of the day and a good thing too. If it was later in the day when evening was nearing, Ray would start to stick out to easily be seen shining in the shadows that would begin to loom over the rocky barren land of the cyclopes.

Soon, Ray started to shake. Dragonbond halted for a moment and then crawled on his belly to sneak up to look over the ground to spy down on what the danger was. To his disappointment, it seemed to be a tribe of cyclopes. They had been in their caves that were large holes in the mountains. Though it looked like some kind of community, they were not the neighboring type as they acted hostile to each other if one drew near to one of their caves. Most likely filled with something valuable. Treasures they had taken and kept for themselves. What they also had were pet Cerberus'. Some running around with young cyclopes

Dragonbond observed this and figured this could work to his advantage. If he could manage to make it inside one of their caves, others would not follow inside if they were possessive of their territory. Maybe that would make the cyclops too busy to keep the others away from its cave rather than chase after something as small as he was. Dragonbond figured they would see him like a small fly that was more of an annoyance than a threat. So now the only thing to do was watch for which cave seemed like the most protected cave in the cyclops tribe.

Ray returned into the fused gem as to not attract attention to Dragonbond. Dragonbond would crawl around the tops of the mountain and looked down with his binocular vision. He watched each home of the cyclopes to see which one acted the most aggressive towards others. The more the aggression, the more one of the cyclopes were trying to protect their treasure. It might be harder if it happened to be one cyclops that had a family. The male would protect the cave while the mate and perhaps offspring would go after him. Even worse would be a Cerberus pet on his tail to use him as a chew toy. He hoped he would choose the right one.

He watched carefully as the cyclopes wandered around and studied which ones acted the most aggressive around their home cave. Dragonbond knew his clan were territorial with their own hoard of treasure, but these cyclopes looked like they never took a rest to relax from being paranoid of their own kin. No wonder they hardly go out from their territory if they are always believing that one of the others would invade their home while they are away. Such a sad life for them.

Then Dragonbond noticed one particular cyclops acting very violent as it severely injured another with a few claw cuts and a bash from its head to send the other into a wall. He then roared at the others violently. Dragonbond knew that was the cave with something very valuable in it. He would wait until night fall to sneak into the cave. It would still take a while until the sun would set. Then would come the most difficult part was to sneak in without any cover. Everything was grey or a greyish brown. Nothing green, red, or black that would conceal him from plain sight. He sighed in frustration. "No one said it would be easy or even slightly difficult." He said to himself.

The girls now had a dilemma. They now knew where to find the dragon pony's cave, but after speaking to the workers at the tavern, they were led to believe that he was heading for the Arimaspi Territory south of Equestria. They hadn't said he was heading there, but Twilight figured that he was searching for treasures. That would be the only other place apart from diamond dogs to find riches. It was always an official off-limits area since it once belonged to the cyclops creature Arimaspi. But many still believe that an unknown terror still dwells in that place. No pony has proven it before, but the skull of a cyclops was all the proof they needed to know better to stay away from there.

"Well I say let the freak go there. It will save a lot of time for us to go searching for his fire breathing rump." Said Rainbow Dash feeling that they could go home after this if an accident were to befall the dragon pony.

"As much as Ah would want this thing gone from our lands, Ah don't reckon there's uh guarantee that this varmint can would survive that kind of trip. If he does, we know he'll be haulin' on back." Applejack said as she didn't think it would be this easy for this creature to fall so easily.

"Applejack's right. We can't be sure he won't come back. For all we know, he can already be coming back as we speak to his cave.

"You are not saying we go into such a dreadful murky dark cave, are you?" Rarity asked feeling queasy about going into a cave where she would get dirty.

"We might get trapped inside and he might burn us with his fire." Fluttershy added to the concern of this plan.

"Then we wait for him to go inside his cave as we wait outside over his cave and when he goes in, BOOM! We cause an avalanche of rocks and boulders to bury him inside and never able to come out again." Rainbow Dash said enjoying the sound of her own plan.

Fluttershy gasped in horror at the manner of this plan. "B-b-but he'll die in there!"

"Or it would keep him trapped until we bring all of the royal guards to capture him when we dig him out. Also, he has a brother that is a dragon. We need to make sure we get them both inside." Said Twilight as she carefully planned this strategy out. "From the Diamond dog's description, this dragon should be about the same size as a full-grown horse. I can also place a magic seal over the rocks to keep them inside."

"Great plan egghead! I'll go back to Canterlot Castle and tell them about this. That way they will already be on their way to capture this thing." Rainbow Dash volunteered herself.

Twilight shook her head. "Or I can just write a letter and have Spike send it." She said pointing out how that would be faster.

"Oh, heh. I guess I forgot about that." Said Rainbow Dash embarrassed of having forgotten about their personal messenger.

Spike took out a quill and paper out of Twilight's saddle bag. "Alright Twilight, what do you want it to say?"

Twilight started telling spike to tell the princesses about what they had found so far, and that the creature was indeed a pegasus that could breathe fire along with many other things. She had Fluttershy explain where the cave would be that her animal friends had told her and where he might be flying from where he was currently at. She asked for strong mages to cast enchanted cages and bindings to restrain the two dragon brothers once they dig him out from the cave.

"Alright. Signed, sealed and…" He cast his magical fire breath on the parchment as it burned into a green smoke and flew in the direction of Canterlot. "…Delivered." He finished proudly.

"Okay, we know what the plan is. So, let us head to that cave and prepare a trap."

Claw had returned to the cave after a while. He had gone to catch some breakfast and then hunted out a bit more to catch a meal for later in the day. Once he had returned earlier and found the carved message.

Claw read the carved message in the stone wall and sighed irritably. "He went without me, typical." Claw said swiping at a rock on the ground and making it break into multiple smaller pieces when it struck the wall.

For all Claw new, his brother was already at the Cyclopes' domain. If he tried to fly off after him, Dragonbond would probably be flying back. Also, it would be night, and this accursed land always had its magical moon shining out at night. Never a half or even a crescent moon. It always had to be a full moon to shine down and expose everything that was out at night with its light. Flying out at night would make him stand out with his bright golden colored scales.

Claw envied his brother with his much darker shaded colors of his fur and hair. Also, he could fly low near the green colored lands to blend in. Even through golden dragons were rare, it always was a disadvantage to always stand out with his color.

There was nothing he could do about it now. He figured he could go on a long hunting trip to try and find special animals with tender meat. He was a bit furious that his brother had gone without him, but then again, it was something he had to do on his own.

Claw was also spending the day to dig more in the cave to make a spot for all treasure they would probably acquire in the future. He also knew that cyclopes loved to hoard their own treasures. If his brother was greatly successful in his task, he would bring a whole lot of treasures, rare treasure into the cave. That would make it that much closer to find one more highly prized treasure for them to return home. Claw was counting the days until that happened.

He then finished his job and looked outside his cave. Night would come soon as the sun started to set. This would give him more than enough time to take a long nap until his brother would return. He just hoped his brother was being careful. But the words his brother would always reply with were, "Since when have I ever done that?"

Claw swore that if his brother got himself killed; he would find a way to resurrect him just so he can kill him. Mostly because Scalefang would have his hide if he came back this the news that his son was killed without him being there.

Dragonbond made sure to keep close to the shadows of the night. He had to avoid the torches that were still lit as the cyclopes slumbered in their caves. Dragonbond was also careful to avoid loos rocks as he scaled down the mountain walls. He didn't wish to stir up any Cerberus that were on guard of the cave of its master. He was right over the cave of the cyclopes that was the most aggressive.

After taking the treasure would come the tricky part. He had to fight for the treasure's claim. Fighting in the center of the cyclops's tribe would only gather more of the other cyclopes and Cerberus' to join in to outnumber and overpower him.

He had to get the treasure and find a way to lure just the one cyclops out of the tribe and out in the open where none of the others could hear them. Now was the time.

Dragonbond pushed off the mountain wall and glided down into the cave. He had to make sure not to flap to cause any Cerberus to hear. He glided down into the large massive cave of the cyclops. He felt like the size of a mouse in the cave home. There were only come roughly made chairs and tables crafted out of wood and thick vines made into ropes to keep the furniture steady and strong to use. A dead fireplace that would look like a bonfire the size of a house stood in the center of the room. Holes seemed to be all over the ceiling to vent out the smoke. It seemed to be the kitchen area for the cyclopes to roast the meat of creatures.

Then he saw the Cyclops with his pet Cerberus and off to the side was the stash of treasure. Dragonbond snuck his way over to the stash. He had to try and spot out where the most highly valued treasure was. But it all looked like plain treasures that had unique designs. Maybe some enchanted treasures, but magic enchanted treasures were hardly of value to a dragon of Draco. Maybe he would take several of them.

He carefully and silently picked them out of the pile and placed them carefully in a bundle. Next, he had to find a treasure that was high of worth. He was finding no such luck. That was when ray came out of his fused gem. This startled Dragonbond as he wanted to shout at Ray for coming out at the worst time. Dragonbond used hoof gestures to express his anger and frustration with the ball of light.

The light then circled around the gem that was in Dragonbond's harness several , it floated over to the pile of treasure and sunk under it. Dragonbond became puzzled at Ray's behavior. The way it circled around his fused gem and then sunk into the… Could it be? In a place like this? A place swarming with cyclopes and their pets? A place where no other creature would dare venture to? Could Dragonbond had stumbled upon another fused gem? The soul of a legendary dragon?

Dragonbond knew he would have to make noise in order to reach it. He had already taken too much time to carefully bundle some other treasure together. Trying to take the same precautions to uncover this gem would take until morning when they would all awaken. He would have to be quick about this. He would dig, grab, and carry his plunder away. No doubt the Cerberus would awaken first and chase him to the exit. But with Ray marking the exact place of the gem under the treasure with its glow, He might have a chance.

Dragonbond readied himself to jump. He would leap high enough to dive right into the pile of treasure where Ray was glowing. He had one shot at this.

Leaping up as high as he could, he used his wings to glide himself right to his destined mark. This was going to hurt.

With a crash and a jingle of treasure, the pet Cerberus had awoken and looked in the direction of the pile of treasure. It growled as it approached the mound of riches. The three heads could sniff something strange. It vaguely smelled of pony but also smelled mostly like ashes and smoke. This confused the three-headed monster.

Dragonbond then emerged from the treasure and blew fames into the beast's faces. The Cerberus yelped and whimpered in slight irritation from the burn. Dragonbond made a dash to his small bundle of treasure and scooped it up to make a fast getaway. He saw the Cyclops awaken as well from hearing the cries of its three-headed pet. The Cyclops saw a bit of smoke rise from its faces as if something had burned them. The cyclops then turned to the front exit to see a small green winged creature making off with a small bundle of its treasure.

Dragonbond could hear the beast roar after him. He didn't bother to look back as he could guess the Cyclops would reach for its weapon to chase after him. He flew with all his effort to make for the exit. He felt the vacuum of the air pull near him as a club had nearly missed him and crashed into a wall. The Cyclops had thrown his weapon and was reaching for something else to throw at Dragonbond. Luckily, he made it out of the cave and flew up into the sky. Now was the plan to lure the cyclops. Ray flew around Dragonbond as they made their escape.

When the Cyclops came out of the cave, it searched for the small thief. It spotted the small light in the distance. With its pet's face temporarily injured from the burns, the cyclopes had to go after the thief itself. Clutching its two axes, it gave case to the trespasser. It knew its prized treasure was stolen and would chase this thief to the ends of the earth to retrieve it back.

Dragonbond had flown far enough from the tribe grounds. He still wasn't out of the territory of the cyclopes. It was best to make a stand where the terrain was nothing but dirt and stone. Nothing would catch fire to spread into a massive wildfire. Dragonbond was positive that the cyclops would come alone. If it had awoke other to come with him, others that might have awoken could steal from it after being so far from its cave.

Soon the cyclops came upon Dragonbond, holding two axes in its hands. Dragonbond had placed the stolen treasure off to the side. The cyclops took a couple of steps towards the treasure until Dragonbond roared at it. The cyclops was caught off guard by the roar from the small creature. It thought that it came from a dragon hiding somewhere. But when Dragonbond roared again at it, the cyclops realized it was the small pegasus creature. Dragonbond blew a few bursts of flames from his mouth. This also proved to the cyclops that he was the cause of burning the face of its pet Cerberus.

Now Dragonbond had its full attention. Dragonbond roared once more while stomping his hoof in the ground to challenge the one-eyed beast. The challenge has been made and accepted. The two readied themselves for combat to see who would claim the prize or walk in defeat, maybe even pay with their life.

Dragonbond flew up as the cyclops charged to engage in battle.

The cyclops swung his axes wildly with every effort to slice or bash the fire breathing pegasus Dragonbond knew that he had speed and agility while the cyclops had power and durability. Being small made him a harder target as his speed and agility would help him narrowly doge each swing of the massive beast. Not only did he have to watch out for its axes, but its legs and horned head.

Dragonbond kept on the offense from its swings by blowing fire out at its hands and legs. To distract it, he would fire fireballs at its face. The cyclops would use its axes to shield its face.

The cyclops also used its leg strength to leap away to bring distance between them if Dragonbond was getting too close. This posed a problem for Dragonbond on how to get close to the monster to gain some kind of advantage of winning the fight.

The cyclops tried a new strategy by leaping up to try landing on Dragonbond. Luckily, Dragonbond had quick reaction time to fly out of the way as the cyclops continued to leap over and off walls all in attempts to crush the green pegasus. The goat like cyclopes was naturally used to leaping and could go on like this for a long while.

Out of desperation, When Dragonbond timed his next leap, he turned around and flew up straight into the cyclops. He rammed himself into its chest at full speed. This caused the cyclops to get knocked backwards making back spins until landing into the ground and tumbling backwards. Dragonbond was dazed from ramming himself, he tumbled down and crashed into some standing stones before sliding into a stop.

The two were rattled and tried to recover from the fall. The cyclops was able to clear its vision to spot Dragonbond. It used this moment to grab one of its axes and flung it spinning sideways at Dragonbond.

Dragonbond saw the oncoming spinning axes. At the last moment, he leaped just right over the blade of the axe and tumbled over the flat edge to clear being sliced in half before falling to the ground.

The cyclops growled in anger as it grabbed his other axe and charged holding it with both hands. Dragonbond saw it coming and ran towards a wall to start running up with the help of his wings. The cyclops followed in pursuit after the pegasus. They climbed higher up one of the rock towers of the canyon. Just as the cyclops thought it trapped Dragonbond, the pegasus leaped down at the one-eyed goat and unleashed as much fire as he could. The cyclops blocked it with its axe, but that gave Dragonbond the advantage he needed. Using his wings, he glided down and around the axe blocking the fire and his vision to head right into its neck with a forceful strike and a chomp of his jaws. Dragonbond clamped down shut while unleashing his flames on its neck.

The cyclops made to clasp at his neck but in doing so, he let go of the mountain and both descended to the ground tumbling on the face of the mountain. Dragonbond had received less of the fall from being lighter. The cyclops wasn't so fortunate. It received some broken bones and swelling around the face.

Dragonbond took this chance to fly over it and roared at the cyclops to submit. He blew out fire as an added measure to intimidate the cyclops. The single-eyed beast knew a few pieces of its treasure was nothing to lose its life over. Seeing no other alternative, the cyclops started to limp away in defeat. Dragonbond had won his prize in an honorable and fair fight.

He immediately dropped to the ground after using all his strength and determination to fly for that long. His wings were aching, and his front leg was dislocated. He was glad to have fought outside of the tribal grounds of the cyclopes. That way, no other cyclops would join in the fight to finish him off. Normally, the fight would last until the death of an opponent. Even if his leg was fine and had more strength to continue, He would have let the cyclops go. This was a worthy fight to have fought and he would honor the cyclops from being such a worthy opponent and let it live.

Now he had to limp back as far as he could to the forest. His wings would recover fast, but he needed to use some branches to assist himself to pop his leg back into place. It took a while, but Dragonbond managed to make it into the forest. Ray help light the way to find some good branches to help him stick his leg in and help with his dislocated leg. Dragonbond also found a good hard branch to bite on for when he went through with the process. Holding the branch in his mouth and getting into position, he took a deep breath. "Here comes the fun part." He said sarcastically to himself.

There came some snapping sounds as he started to yank on his stuck leg. Dragonbond bite down and growled from the pain. His teeth sinking a bit more than halfway through the branch. A push and some more cracking sounds followed by a pop, his leg was put back in place. Dragonbond bit through the rest of the branch before spitting out the crushed pieces of wood and splinters in his mouth. He gave a shout of relief now that it was over. His leg would swell a bit, but that would be a short passing problem.

Dragonbond had a way to get back to the cave. He just hoped there was a strong wind in the air. It was a little trick he had picked up back home. He got to work taking some branches and vines from the trees. He placed the branches into position and started to tie certain ends together to for the skeletal structure of a glider. Then he made the straps out of vines that would help hold him to the glider. One would normally need cloth or the hide of an animal to make the wings, but Dragonbond crafted this invention to use his wings instead of having to rely on anything else. He also had some straps on the back of the glider that would hold his claimed treasure.

For now, he would hide his glider in the hoped no creature would find it and take it apart for whatever need they would have from it. Using this invention would take him a bit longer to get back to the cave in the morning. But his leg was in no condition to move much even if he was able to fly with his wings. Flapping in the air would require him the use of his legs. This way his wings would do all the work as his legs would rest the entire way back to the cave. Claw would be upset at him for injuring his leg to begin with, but maybe not as much when he saw that he avoided using it to heal on the way back. Plus, the fused gem would also lessen the scold he would get from his brother to see that this was all worth it.

Dragonbond should have not been surprised that this land of cyclopes would hold a treasure such as this. It was very dangerous to be in and very dangerous to try and take from. What puzzled him was why a legendary dragon would come to this land to meet their end and what they could have done to receive such an honor. If he ever got the chance to get back home to the elder dragon, he would find out for he could put his mind at ease to know he had found this gem and it helped him get that much closer to head back home to the Land of Draco. But now he needed a place to sleep.

His wings had recovered, but he was drained from the fight and pain he had gone through. He found it would be wise to set up a resting spot for himself. He looked to the sky and sniffed the air to tell it would not rain anytime soon. At least he hoped it wouldn't since magic made everything here unpredictable. He began to borrow into the ground making himself a small hole to sleep in. He made sure it ran under a tree for a bit more protection.

When it was done, he brought the treasure in with him and covered the hole with a thick mesh of branches. He was almost close to his return home. He just needed a large pile of gold to mix in with his other pile of gems. Then later find a cart or wagon to carry it in. Either on the ground or by air. He would have to get some ropes to do that. He could cross off the rare treasure and pile of gems from his list. Now he needed to find some place that would have a whole pile of gold. That would be hard to do. The only place he could find that would be another dragon's cave or going to the Dragon lands itself. He prayed it would not come to that. Pony gold was out of the question. They were too weak to challenge with honor and the only gold they would hoard would be in places meant for ponies to keep their currency safe. It needed to come from just one pony and one that he would gain honor by fighting for it.

Then an idea popped into his mind. The only place he could fight for it and take it from those that didn't deserve it were from underworld crime organizations. Those that preyed on the weak. If he could locate one of these places, he would be able to fight them off and claim all their gold. His honor would be to take down a criminal group. With all their wealth gone, they would fall apart like shattered glass.

Although this would require more than asking around in a tavern. He would either have to listen around for possible leads, asking victimized ponies, or seeking out to join the criminal organization to infiltrate their hideout. That would be a last resort, if needed be. He hoped he would have a better chance to just find out where they were from other sources.

Right now, was not the time to think of this. He would put all his thoughts on hold and rest. He would wake up before sunrise and take to the skies to head back to the cave. The ride over should be enough for his fast healing process to let his leg recover in time.

Tomorrow would be the last and final push to get ready to head back home.