“Hey, Big Shot!” shouted Eff Stop to his fellow news photographer, “You feel that? Feels like somepony’s bringing in a storm cloud, a big one!”

Big Shot craned his neck to look around the near cloudless skies around Ponyville, “I hear ya, but I don’t see it. Geez! It’s like standing next to the Cloudsdale Storm Generator!”

“Maybe somepony’s rocking a lightning talent and is setting up to zap the lizard.” Eff Stop speculated as he flew closer to make conversation easier.

“That’s probably it, we better make sure we get shots of whoever it is.” Big Shot started scanning the sky, looking for a telltale trail of sparks.

“Can you tell which direction it’s coming from? I can’t see any of the pegasi up here generating that kind of voltage.”

Big shot looked around nervously as Eff Stop placed his eye to his camera again to carry on taking photos. “I dunno, but if they don’t look out they’re gonna crack a hundred kiloamps and fry like a -”

CRACK - BOOM!

“SWEET CELESTIA'S TEATS!” shouted a now blinded Eff Stop, very glad of the strap attached to his camera as he dropped it to cover his eyes from the flash of lightning.

“That came from the ground!” Big Shot called back, also rubbing at his eyes. “Who the hay generates lightning from the ground?”

“D’you think it was a unicorn?” speculated Eff Stop.

Big Shot glared at his friendly rival through bleary eyes, “Are you outta your mind? If a unicorn could do that, they would be more famous than Sapphire Shores and Fleur de Lis combined.”

Big Shot’s eyes widened as he looked past Eff Stop, spotting a blackened pegasus falling out of a slowly drifting green cloud. “They hit somepony! Go grab help.”

As the brown pegasus photographer shot past him, Eff Stop held his fedora in place with one hoof as he went from hovering to a full dive towards the nearest cluster of pegasus onlookers.

“HOY!” he shouted as loudly as he could to the small crowd of dazed pegasi. “Somepony got hit by that lightning bolt! They need help now!”

There were several gasps in the crowd, some of these pegasi were on the local weather team and knew that lightning, especially lightning as powerful as they had just seen was incredibly, and lethally dangerous.

A trio of mares and a young stallion, barely more than a colt flew forward for directions.

“You three come with me,” Eff Stop ordered, using the voice of command known to photographers and politicians everywhere, “You, fly to the hospital as fast as you can, warn them we have a lightning strike victim coming in. Let’s go!”

In a flurry of wings, the five departed as quickly as they could, a few extra busybodies following Eff Stop and the mares with him as they made for the downed pegasus with all the speed they could muster.

About halfway to the edge of the Whitetail Woods, Eff Stop caught the telltale contrails of incoming Wonderbolts coming in from ahead and slightly to the left their group.

“Flitter,” he called to the light blue pegasus flying next to him, “you’re the fastest, get over to the Wonderbolts and warn them. They need to know somepony’s throwing around lightning.”

Flitter did not even answer, she just peeled off and accelerated towards the incoming blue and yellow clad stunt fliers.

'MINE!' Spike’s voice cheered inside his own head, even as he grew and roared his defiance, a slave to his own instincts and power.

With a crunch, another home was ripped asunder, it’s contents swiftly pillaged of their tasties and shinies before the unattractive things were cast aside, destroying gardens, sheds and even other homes.

The pegasi flitting around him renewed their assault, their high speed kicks barely even noticeable against his ever thickening hide.

This was POWER, this was GLORY this is what it meant to be a true dragon. 'Behold my majesty! Behold my might! Give me what is MINE! ALL MINE!!!'

With a groan, another house was ripped from the ground, its walls cracking and breaking under the grip of his claws as he used his jaw to take hold of the roof and twist it off. A dozen ponies screaming and running from their hiding place below the former house.

'MORE SHINIES! MOOORRRE!'

Spike dropped the house, now empty of anything that looked like it should be claimed as his as demanded by the power of his draconic glory.

He turned and bent down. Maybe this next house would have something truly befitting his awesome majesty.

'CRACK - BOOM!'

His back tingled as a lightning bolt flew over him, some sparks splitting off to trail along some spines that were a little too close for comfort.

”RAAAAAAARRRRRR”

'Who dares?! WHO DARES DEFILE THE SPINY BACK OF THE AWESOME KING SPIKE!'

Spike reared up, his latest hoard collection forgotten as he scanned for the blasphemous cur who would so defile his magnificent visage.

No, no pony there - wait!

There.

A fat being dancing and swinging his arms around while a pathetic purple pony looked on with horrified eyes

There…

He is the one who blackened the scales of a god in the makings.

'Attacker…'

'Blasphemer…'

'DEFILER!'

'DIE!!!'

With a roar, Spike trampled the building he has been about to pick up as he charged across town, tearing it apart to get to the lighting throwing blasphemer and his companion.

No pony throws lightning at The Magnificent and Awe-Inspiring Spike!

'Nopony.'

With a thump, a pegasus dressed in a blue and yellow suit and trailing sparks crashed into his snout, hooves first alongside two similarly dressed ponies.

SPARKS!

'NO! You won’t get away from me, little lightning ponies! Feel the wrath of Spike!'

With a roar, Spike turned again, chasing after the trio of Wonderbolts as they flew out of the town to get enough distance for another pass.

“Hey, Surprise,” the orange maned Wonderbolt called out to her formation leader, “looks like the dragon is a fan. He’s trying to follow us.”

Surprise smiled grimly and called back, “Nice. Slow up a little and let him chase us. That town’s wrecked as it is we’ll work him some more once he’s in the open a bit more.”

The third Wonderbolt, her curly mane whipping crazily in the wind, came in closer to make herself heard. “Did you spot who made that lightning bolt? I’ve never even heard of anypony with that level of control. Do you think there’s a Gale King somewhere here?”

Surprise snorted. “Do you see chunks of dragon flying around? If there was a Gale King around here, the dragon would be D-E-D dead! Smoking crater and all that jazz.”

“Umm… isn’t dead spelt…”

“Not the point!” Surprise interrupted her wingmare, “Whoever it was, I’ll bet that by the end of the day they are going to be buried in recruiters for the weather factory, either that or neck deep in shackles. I don’t know if you two saw it but whoever it was hit somepony.”

“Highwinds!” the orange maned pegasus called to her fellow wingmare, “you’re good at egghead stuff, how bad would a hit from a bolt like that be.”

“You see the cloud of featherdust that came off of that mare when she got hit, Blaze?” Highwinds started, waiting for the other mare to nod.

“Last time I saw a cloud of dust like that, a noblepony was having his unicorn guards blast a pile of Rarity Originals like they were a pinata.”

Blaze looked dumbfounded. “What?! Who would do that to a Rarity? Those dresses are expensive!”

Highwinds turned her head slightly to look sadly at Blaze, "That's the point though, the dresses stood about as much chance as whoever that poor mare was."

Blaze blanched. "You mean she's..."

Highwinds didn’t have time to answer as Surprise took charge.

“Game faces ladies, that mountain there looks good enough to take on a 60 hoof dragon.”

CRACK - BOOM!

“WOAH!”

Three colts watching from the trees looked on in complete awe as the bolt of light split the scene before them, only to look on in horror as the bolt passed through the sky above them and caused a green explosion above the trees in front of them.

A blackened, mangled pegasus fell out of the sky before them, one wing trailing behind her, and the other seeming to dissolve before their eyes.

“Oooohhh! That’s gotta hurt!” cringed Rumble, his wings clamping closed against his body in sympathetic pain.

“WAH!” Featherweight took one look at the falling pegasus and dove into the canopy in horror, tumbling down into the treehouse and nearly straight out of it.

Pipsqueak was silent as he watched the mare falling into the trees. He clung to the tree branch he had been standing on so playfully only moments before, lost in the memories that assaulted him.

Suddenly that wasn’t some anonymous pegasus mare, falling out of a cloud of her own feathers. In his minds eye, it was his big sister, flying too close to a thunderhead as she practiced tricks while her ground bound brother looked on.

Tears squeezed from his eyes as he wailed in remembered grief, renewed by the scene before him.

“Pips? Pips are you okay?” Rumble called, hearing his friend’s distress.

With a short leap, he swooped the short distance to the next tree where Pipsqueak had been watching from.

“Pips? Oh no.” Rumble turned back towards the tree he had just came from and shouted to their wiry friend. “Featherweight! Get over here. We gotta get Pips down now!”

“Hey,” a mare called from below, “is everything alright up there?”

Rumble shouted back down from the treetops where he was now holding his friend steady on the tree branch, “No, Somepony got hit by lightning and Pipsqueak’s freaked out! Can you help get him down?”

Octavia gasped and looked to her friend while Vinyl cursed under her breath.

“My levitation has terrible range,” Vinyl called back, “can you keep him safe until we get help?”

“Y-yes ma’am.” Rumble sounded unsure of himself and Vinyl could hear it.

“Hold on tight then.” Vinyl turned to the direction the rest of the ponies fleeing Ponyville had gone and set her stance, her hooves all planted firmly on the ground. “Cover your ears, Octy, I’m droppin’ the bass.”

“EEP!” Octavia backed up rapidly and dove for the ground as she covered her ears with the crooks of her fetlocks as the trees shook with the power of Vinyl’s amplified voice.

”This is DJ PON-3, we have foals stuck in a tree here and need help. I repeat: we have foals in need of help here. Follow the wubs to find us!”

With that done, Vinyl quickly generated a small ball of light and set it to emit a pulsing wub wub wub wub

“You’re DJ PON-3?!” an excited voice shouted from the treetops. The skittering of hooves was heard from another tree as Featherweight scrambled to his hooves and darted for the forest floor.

“Really Vinyl? Did you have to go quite that loud? And to use your stage name as well, how gauche can you get?” Octavia complained as she sat up and rubbed her ringing ear with one hoof.

Vinyl merely grinned at her friend. “Never underestimate the power of fans, Octy. I once saw a group of stallions, all of them absolute studs making a bridge out of their own bodies just so Sapphire Shores could walk over them instead of getting mud on her hooves to get to her chariot.”

Octavia back flatly. “You do realize they were paid to do that, right?”

Vinyl’s grin dropped as she threw her head back with a hoof against her forehead to cry out melodramatically. “Stop crushing my dreams!”

FLASH!

“Yow!”

Vinyl looked up from her now prone position on the ground to the pegasus colt laughing softly above her, a camera in his hooves. “That’s gonna be a great shot! Can you sign it for me, Miss PON-3?”

“Sure, buddy, sure. Just warn me before you take pictures, eh?”

“Okay! Smile!”

FLASH!

“Ack!”

CRACK - BOOM!

A temporarily purple jaw landed on the grass.

“Did… Did you just make lightning with your hands?!”

Iroh glanced over his shoulder as he began the sequence of movements anew. “Did you think I was crazy enough to fight a dragon with fire?” he called back to her, “Where I come from they are a source of fire bending, I think it’s a pretty safe bet they are similar here!”

“They’re immune to fire.” the miscolored unicorn confirmed. “Wait! There’s pegasi coming in close to him, don’t release it yet.”

Iroh frowned in concentration as he continued his dance. “The longer I hold it, the stronger it gets and I can’t hold it for long.”

The temporarily sufferer of lavender unicorn syndrome narrowed her eyes as she spotted new fliers attacking the dragon in formation.

“Those are the Wonderbolts!” his unicorn friend shouted in excitement, “They’re leading him out of town.”

“Good.” Iroh turned as he danced to face his companion.

“Get well back. I’m going to discharge this into the ground.”

The obsessive unicorn took one look at the long arcs of electricity connecting his pointed fingers and backed up as quickly as she could, doing her best to never break line of sight with Iroh’s hands.

SNAP!

With a twin thrust, Iroh drove his fingers into the soil and discharged the second lightning bolt, creating two small glassy craters as he did so.

Iroh rocked back and sat down on the grassy hill, his legs outstretched before him and cradled his forehead in his hands.

“This is not going to end well,” groaned Iroh as he rubbed his temples, “this will not end well at all.”

“What are you talking about?” the purple pony asked, “you distracted the dragon and now the Wonderbolts are leading him away so he won’t do any more damage. Plus you got to throw lightning around! I know pegasi who would chew their own wings off for a chance to do that.”

“I missed.” Iroh looked up at the pony unhappily, “I missed and killed one of the flying ones. A pegasus.”

Her eyes widened as her ears drooped, “Oh. Oh no! What are we going to do?”

Iroh was resigned. “For the moment, we watch and make sure the dragon does not come back. While we do so, we go help as many of your people as you can, there are bound to be injuries in all that mess.”

“That’s it? No charging in to beat up the dragon? No chasing him away, so he never hurts anypony again?”

At this Iroh turned a disapproving frown on the mare, appearing angry for the first time she had ever seen. “One of your own kind lies dead by my hand, your village in ruins and probably dozens injured and your first thought is to get the old man who could barely run up a hill to go chasing a dragon for what will possibly be miles?

“That is the mindset of a thug, a soldier, not to mention plain crazy! I may have been a soldier once, but those days are behind me. All I can do now, is help with the cleanup and possibly do what I can to ensure that no more sons or daughters are mourned for tonight.

“If the dragon returns, I will do my best to distract it, or chase it away, or spirits forbid, kill it. Now come, let us help where we are needed, unless you want to go chasing that beast yourself.”

With a huff, Iroh stood and turned, stalking into town with mayhem on his mind - specifically, how to fix someone else's mayhem.