Looking up from a newly bought map Sam nodded,"We're on the right path Valkyrie."

"Good, now if it's not to much trouble please grab your side of the cart and pick up the slack!" She barked back.

He sighed and shook his head,"Oh take me with you Sam," His voice was sarcastic as grabbed his side of the cart and lifted it,"I'll be helpful, I'll make sure to yell at you the whole time." He gave her a shit eating grin and stuck his tongue out.

She couldn't help but smile slightly,"Well I'm sorry, but the thought of running into a dragon has me just a little paranoid!" She shook her head and they started pulling again, the chest on the back rattling with every bump on the path.

After getting the sticks of dynamite from Zecora they quietly got everything packed and in the early morning, left. Sam made sure he had told Applejack, he didn't tell her what he was really doing just what Celestia wanted him to do. She understood and wished him good luck before sending him on his way.

Once in Los Pegasus the two bought a cart, a gold chest and some warm clothes for the trip. They only really needed new jackets, so Valkyrie bought herself a brown duffel jacket with a hood, he thought it went well with her white fur. She thought the olive drab field jacket he bought looked good with his Red hair, he only liked it because it looked like an old U.S military uniform.

After setting up the cart and tying the chest with dynamite inside to the back of it, they rigged up a fuse that allowed them to light it from the handles they were pulling without attracting attention to themselves. It was like Sam wanted, Stealthy and dangerous.

They carried their armor and weapons on their backs in heavy packs, his pike was placed on the underside of the cart because it was so long and cumbersome. Then following the map Valkyrie bought from some store, they pulled the loaded cart out of the city on the path that the bank's carts used.

It had been two days since the city fell out of sight and another two days since they left Ponyville, the area they currently traversed was hilly, filled crab grass and barren of trees. To their right the horizon was empty but to their left they could see the smokey mountains. It would be at least a week before they passed the mountains and another couple days before they entered the four miles that the dragon had claimed.

~

Celestia sighed as she took off her shoes and layed them at the foot of her bed, the day had been long and filled with problems that her little ponies needed help with. She loved them but sometimes they could wear her out.

Yawning she slipped her dress off and placed it on the night stand, opening the wardrobe she pulled out a golden yellow night gown. After donning the gown she sat on a chair in front of her vanity mirror and began removing her jewelry.

She lifted her necklace over her head and placed it down on the mirrors table. Gingerly pulling her tiara off so as to not pull any of her ethereal hair she rested it on the top of the mirror at an odd angle.

Cracking her neck she stood up and lifting her arms, grunted as she stretched her back. Turning around she walked over to the bed and sat down on the edge of it, she was going to enjoy sleeping tonight.

Pulling the blankets over herself she closed her eyes and smiled, it was wonderfully comfortable. Just as she started drifting away, a knocking came at the door. Sighing in annoyance Celestia pulled the covers off, sitting up she swung her legs over the side of the bed then stood up. Making her way to the door she grabbed the handle and opened it.

Her annoyed expression softened when she saw it was Luna that stood in the doorway,"May I come in dear sister?"

"Of course Luna," She stepped to the side, allowing Luna to walk in. She closed the door behind her sister,"What is it that you wish to see me about?"

Luna stood in the middle of the room, arms crossed,"Have you heard of what's happened in Zebrica?"

She shook her head carefully,"No I have not," Celestia raised an eyebrow and walked over to Luna,"What has happened?"

"Do you remember Lokely? The youngest son of king Uzbeka."

Celestia snorted and shook her head,"Unfortunately I do, why are you asking me this?"

Luna narrowed her eyes,"Lokely, is now prince Lokely, heir to the Zebrican throne."

Celestia's eyes widened,"What? How did he become prince? He had three older brothers did he not?"

"All of them have been killed in what seems to be accidents."

Celestia narrowed her eyes,"They're more than that are they not?"

"That is an interesting question, my spies have been watching the Zebrican government and Griffonstonian government since I returned." She swallowed and looked to the fireplace in Celestia's room,"In each government there have been numerous political assassinations all passed off as accidents, none of them are similar in any way shape or form except for one aspect."

"And what is that?"

"They have moved individuals that would see us conquered and subjected before their feet, up in rank." Luna took a deep breath,"The majority of generals in the Griffon military and the Zebrican military, now want to expand, preferably on us."

"Then that means..."

"Zebrica will soon be controlled by Lokely, Griffonstone will soon be controlled by Magnus and both of them hate us. Pair that with the majority of their advisors and generals hating us as well you get war."

"Gods above..." Celestia looked away in thought,"Could we somehow turn their people against them? Keep them from attacking by making them fear backlash from their populace."

Luna shook her head,"Recent polls show forty eight percent of griffons and fifty two percent of Zebras have an unfavorable view of us."

Celestia looked to her in surprise,"What have we done to gain that?"

"Don't you remember? The first Zebro-Pony war?"

Celestia nodded warily,"Yes, I suppose I could understand that, but why do the griffons hate us? We have not had a war with them."

"No we have not, it's simply cultural differences. They believe in strong military and aggressive expansion, we are a generally peaceful country and don't have an exceptionally strong military. Which means we have not earned their respect." Luna explained.

"Damn... why is this happening?"

Luna narrowed her eyes and scrunched her mouth,"I believe it is not coincidence that has led to this, but rather somepony is doing it."

"Who?"

"I don't know but it seems as though this is planned, does it not? I mean, it's only happening in two countries, both of which have a hate for us and both of which border us."

Celestia frowned, her eyes turning grim,"It does sound like somepony is controlling this..."

Luna nodded,"I shall keep my spies watching this and we shall see where it leads, now, I should attend my nightly court."

"Yes you probably should," Celestia gave her sister a grateful smile,"Thank you for informing me of this, it is something for me to ponder over."

Luna returned the smile, walking over to the door she opened it,"Goodnight Celestia."

"Goodnight Luna."

~

"Pull!" Sam shouted as he and Valkyrie attempted to get their cart out of the mud.

"I am pulling!" She yelled back frustration clear in her voice.

It had been raining for the past two days, both Sam and Valkyrie were soaked to the bone. It was miserable, especially since the rain had turned everything to mud, the only good news was that they had managed to pass the smokey mountains before the rain had set in. Another positive side of this was the shared experience the both of them were having, it was a hardship they were getting through together and in fact their trust for each other had already gown over this past week.

The cart's wheels had become stuck in the mud along the path, they had sunk about a third of the way into the ground and it was a pain in the ass to try to pull out. Valkyrie had positioned herself at the front of the cart to pull the handles forward and Sam was at the back pushing upwards from below. They were attempting to coordinate his pushes and her pulls at the same time.

"Look, when I say now, you pull!" Sam yelled out digging his bent legs into the mud and strengthening his grip on the underside of the cart.

She gripped the handles as tightly as she could and leaned forward,"Alright, I'm ready, just give it your all!"

Nodding to himself he took a deep breath,"Okay, one! Two! Three! Go!"

He pushed and she pulled at just the right time and the cart came up out of the mud going forward a few feet.

"Thank Celestia we did it!" She cheered while coming around to where Sam was.

He sat in the mud, a smile on rain soaked face,"Yes we did," He sighed and sat up, not bothering to try wiping his jeans off,"It's late, we should probably try to find unsoaked ground to sleep on and to store the cart on."

She nodded,"Yeah," She looked down the dirt road and put a hand above her eyes,"I can see a tree about a hundred and yards down the path, I can't tell if it's wet or not but it's better than sleeping in the rain."

"You can see that far in this rain?"

"Well yeah, I'm a Pegasus, we can see really far, kind of like birds." She explained with a shrug,"I don't know why that's the way it is but I'm thankful for it." She smiled.

He smiled back, maybe it wasn't such a bad idea to bring her along after all...

They grabbed each of their respective handles Sam on the right and Valkyrie on the left, then pulled it down the wet path. Loud squelching sounds came up from the turning wheels as they plowed through the mud. When they reached the tree Sam untied the camping supplies he had placed next to the chest and layed them out under the tree.

The ground under the tree wasn't totally dry, the rain came through some of the branches, but it wasn't soaked either for the rain slinking through was much less than outside the trees circumference. So it was good enough to sleep on as well as keep the cart from sinking.

After finding a small dry spot under the tree he layed down a small amount of the kindling he brought. Then laying down some of the dry wood he had in his bag of camping supplies, he pulled out one of the many matches he had brought with him.

Striking the match he lowered it to the kindling, with Valkyrie's help, they managed to get a small flame going. Pulling some packaging off the cart Valkyrie opened it and removed two potatoes. She began peeling them while Sam retrieved a pot and a water bottle.

As soon as the water came to a boil and the potatoes were totally peeled, Valkyrie cut them into pieces small enough to eat. Sam placed them in the pot along with some salt to give it a bit of flavor. They sat down and rested their weary feet while they waited for the food to finish.

They talked for some time about what they would do when the dragon was dead, Valkyrie convinced Sam that if they did kill it then they would take some of it's teeth as souvenirs. The food was done by the time the light of day was gone, the nights out here were really dark but the stars always came out giving a small amount of light. With the stars blotted out by the clouds it was nearly impossible to see.

Sam pulled the potatoes out of the boiling water with a knife and together they ate,"So you think we'll really find a dragon Sam?"

He looked down at the fire and shrugged,"Maybe, Celestia really believed so and she made a good argument for it, so yeah I think we might."

She nodded and followed his gaze to the fire,"You know, we might end up like that wood in the fire there," She cocked her head,"That's an odd thought, facing danger like that."

"Well," He leaned back against the tree and looked at her,"There's always going to be danger like that, you'll get past that fact quickly enough in your first fight." He looked back to the fire as it crackled, a piece of wood shifting slightly,"The thing you have to worry about is fear."

"Fear?"

"Yeah," He sniffed and looked out beyond the rain and into the darkness.

She raised and eyebrow and shifted closer to him,"Why do we need to worry about fear?"

He smiled and twisted his head to look at her,"Fear is what gets you, like say we find this dragon, the first thing you'll do is freeze up and think about how you might die," He leaned toward her a bit,"Then you'll push through that fear to fight the dragon, that's not facing danger, that's overcoming fear in the face of danger."

He leaned back while she stared into the fire processing what he said,"Oh, that makes... a lot of sense actually." She let out a breath,"Sam, your cold and tired too, right?"

"Well of course I'm cold and tired, hell freezing and exhausted is a more accurate way of describing it."

"I uh," she scooted up against his side, her back against the tree trunk,"I've heard it's good to be near each other so you can preserve body heat." She had an uncharacteristic blush on her face but maintained eye contact.

He looked down at her,"It does preserve heat."He nodded confirming what she had said.

"Then maybe it'd be good if we uh," Valkyrie looked down,"Stayed close together like this."

"If you're fine with it then I wouldn't be opposed to some extra heat." Without saying anything Valkyrie wormed an arm behind his back and wrapped the other arm around his waist. Holding him she leaned in and rested her head on his shoulder, he had to admit it was warmer.

Looking down at her to see if she was comfortable he could finally see her bright blush in the light of the fire, chalking it up to not being used to physical contact like he was, he brushed the matter away and looked back out into the night. Before long she fell asleep against him, with the heat of her body and the fire against him he closed his eyes and listened to the rhythm of the falling rain while drifting to sleep.

~

The hills started to flatten out into grassy plains, small areas of scrub oak started to appear here and there and the Smokey mountains were no longer on the horizon. It had stoppped raining last week and while there were still patches of wet ground it wasn't nearly as bad as it had been.

The couple were lucky enough to have found a small clean pond near the path, there were a lot of dirty ponds but this one was clean and so they took a whole day to wash their mudddy clothes, along with themselves. The clothes were relatively clean now and they were happy to have gotten the chance to bathe, no matter how cold the water was.

Sam made sure the dynamite wasn't wet, which it wasn't, the chest had provided good protection over it. The only thing he had to dry out was the fuse, which wasn't a very difficult operation at all.

Now they traveled an interesting area where the hills turned to flattened bumps and every mile traveled the bumps got flatter, the are was becoming a valley. The whole land was filled with tall grass, obviously it was happy with the rain it had just experienced and now it was growing in thicker and stronger then ever.

The road itself was changing slightly, it raised upwards by a small margin every couple miles and the edges flowed down the sides of it. This was intentional of course as it kept the roads from flooding and Sam hoped, might offer some cover from the dynamite if they got the chance to kill the dragon.

"Sam do you know any songs?"

"What?" He looked over at Valkyrie as they trudged along with the cart trailing behind.

"Do you have any, ya know, human traveling songs or something that you can sing?" She shrugged,"It's boring out here doing, nothing to do but pull a cart."

He looked ahead and scrunched his face in thought,"I guess I have some songs I remember, but they don't sound good without a band and I can't sing for shit."

"I don't care that you can't sing, pick out a song that doesn't need a band and sing it!"

"I guess there's one that kind of comes to mind..." He tapered off.

"Then sing it, I don't care how bad of a voice you have, maybe you could even teach me how the song goes and we could sing it together." She smiled mirthfully and looked at him,"Songs always sound better when sung by more than one pony."

He shook his head,"I guess you have a point, besides it is pretty boring out here huh?"

"Oh yeah, I mean sure it's a beautiful chunk of land and all, but there's nothing to do."

He nodded and sighed,"Well I guess I'll try singing."

"Please do." She grinned.

He took a deep breath and opened his mouth,"Here's forty shillings on the drum, for those who volunteer to come!"

Valkyrie looked forward to the far horizon and listened to him over the creaking wheels,"To 'list and fight the foe today, over the hills and far away!"

"O'er the hills and o'er the main, through Flanders, Portugal and Spain. King George commands and we obey, over the hills and far away!"

"When duty calls me I must go, to stand and face another foe, but part of me will always stray, over the hills and far away!"

She joined in when he went over the chorus again,"O'er the hills and o'er the main, through Flanders, Portugal and Spain, king George commands and we obey, over the hills and far away!" Their voices echoed over the disappearing hills.

She stopped when he continued the main lyrics,"If I should fall to rise no more, as many comrades did before, then ask the fifes and drums to play, over the hills and far away!"

They went through the chorus once more before he stopped singing, they both had smiles on their faces,"That was pretty good Sam! Your voice was shit like you said, but it didn't matter when I joined in."

He laughed and shook his head,"I know I can't sing, but I do know an ungodly amount of songs."

"Well then your going to have to teach me to sing at least that one, I liked it."

He nodded,"You do have a good voice, so I can teach you the lyrics with the knowledge you won't butcher the song like me."

They grunted when the cart went over a particularly big indent in the dirt road,"So where did that song come from Sam?"

"Oh, it's a variation of an old English song from the Napoleonic wars. I got it from a T.V. show called Sharpe's Rifles."

"T.V. show?"

"It's like a story in a book, but you watch it instead." He explained with a small laugh, he never thought he'd have to explain what a T.V. show was to anyone.

"Sam?"

"Yes?"

"What were the Napoleonic wars?"

He laughed,"To explain that, I would first need to explain the French Revolution as well as what led to the French Revolution." He turned to her,"That's kind of boring, until you get to the guillotine and Napoleon's battles at least."

She shrugged,"Well I'm interested and we have a while to talk, so just tell me about it I guess."

He smiled,"Alright then..." As he told her about seventeenth century France, the top of a lone mountain appeared on the horizon.

~

She watched the cart speed along the roadway, this was an odd attempt to cross through her territory. There were only two ponies this time, perhaps they were trying to make it through quickly and avoid her attention? If so that was an admirable idea, but she already had them in her sights.

Watching from the fields in a small area that scrub oak had claimed for itself she netted herself in, this cart had just exited the hills to the south of her territory only a couple hours ago. But since she hadn't seen any prey for at least two weeks she was on high alert and spotted them immediately.

Looking closely there wasn't much out of the ordinary with the cart, it had a chest, camping supplies and the rest. It was just odd to her that they would only send in two escorts this time, especially since they had sent more and more ponies with the carts every time before. It was even weirder when she got a better look at the ponies pulling the cart.

One was a pegasus, which she hadn't seen any of with the previous carts and the other was... she wasn't quite sure what it was. She had a suspicious feeling about the whole thing, they had packs on their back to carry... some kind of supplies and that was odd because they carried them rather than storing it all on the cart.

That's when she realized, it was a ruse. The ponies that sent this cart were trying to confuse her, make her think it wasn't a gold convoy but just travelers that happened to be traveling this stretch of land. She snarled to herself, she would kill them slowly for this act of cowardice.

Slinking down even further and tucking her wings in, she kept her yellow eyes on the road.

~

The land was now completely flat, tall grass surrounded them and more frequent patches of scrub oak showed up now and then. The road was now raised a couple feet off the ground and had recently dried, meaning they no longer had to walk through any mud.

They pulled the cart along now on more steady ground than before, the sun was in the middle of the sky and it beat down on them relentlessly. It almost made them wish the rain hadn't of stopped, the saving grace of it all was the cool breeze that flowed over the valley.

They went on silently, Valkyrie looked off absentmindedly. She could see a patch of trees and thought about all the little animals that probably live in it, she froze when she saw the whole clump of vegetation move.

Sam continued pulling till the cart bumped into Valkyrie and stopped,"Hey what are doing?"

She held up and hand and squinted her eyes in the direction of the trees. Letting go of the cart Sam stepped behind her and looked over her shoulder,"What is it you see?" He spoke softly.

"There's a patch of trees out there..." She let out a breath and shook her head,"I thought I saw them move."

He nodded,"Well how about you keep your eyes on it, just in case?"

"Okay, I will, it might just be a trick of the light though." She grabbed her handle and he grabbed his.

"Yeah," They started pulling again,"But it's better to be safe than sorry."

~

She froze, her eyes on the Pegasus. Had they seen her? No that's not possible, unless...

"I will need to finish you off quickly... Oh, this will be an interesting challenge indeed."

~

It had been nearly two hours since Valkyrie thought she saw movement, they had moved quite a ways and by now the patch of trees was nearly out of sight. The two of them felt a little more at ease now that nothing had happened.

The couple kept quiet though, listening for anything similar to the flap of wings, they didn't hear anything like wings but they did hear the sound of their feet and the cricks of the cart and the sound of Valkyrie tripping on a rock.

Sam droped the cart handle out of reflex and caught her before she hit the ground, she didn't even stop to thank him but rather shot up and out of his arms to look back at the trees.

"S-Shit Sam the trees are moving!"

~

The Pegasus tripping gave her the break she needed to unfurl her wings and jump into the air. Trees flew outward from the force and speed of her wings slamming into them. Propelling herself upward, she made sure to hit high altitude before her prey had a chance to look back at the swaying trees.

She flew straight over the two ponies and circled them once, it took the Pegasus a moment to realize where she was. Shouting the weird one looked up then looked back down to fiddle with something on the cart,"What a fool!" She snarled and roared.

Setting her wings back she flung herself downward as quickly as possible, she would crush these ones like she had the others. The Pegasus began shouting and tugging at her compatriot, he stood at the cart unrelentingly standing his ground, his friend eventually let out one last yell before he turned and threw her back to side of the road.

She dived straight down, her fangs bared in pure hate, she would teach these cowards in disguise what fighting was. The weird creature looked up just as she hit the twenty feet mark, she smiled grimly in anticipation of seeing the fear on his face and when she did see his face, it wasn't fear but a... joyful smile?

"You really fucked this one up!"

~

"Sam it's above us!" She grabbed his shoulder and tugged,"We need to get down!"

He grit his teeth and attempted striking the match in his hands,"I know!" It didn't work on the first try, so he struck it again,"Get to cover Valkyrie!"

"I can't leave you behind!" She kept tugging at his shoulder, the gear on his back rattling the whole time. He struck the match once more to no avail.

He turned around and with one hand grabbed her, collar then threw her backwards. He was stronger than she ever could have ever imagined and it surprised her beyond belief, his eyes were narrowed and his mouth twisted,"Get to cover!" He shouted in the most commanding tone she had ever heard.

She looked up at him her eyes wide and mouth agape,"O-Okay, just," She stood up quickly, back pedaling while keeping her eyes on him and as she opened her mouth to speak again, fell down the side of the road into the thick grass.

Turning back he slid the match across the wood once more, it let out a single spark. The snarling growl of the beast above him became audible,"Come on you piece of shit!" With one last strike the match lit up and without wasting any time he lit the fuse.

A joyous smile graced his face, he looked up into the yellow eyes of the dragon. It's snarl disappeared slightly when it saw his smile,"You really fucked this one up!"

~

She saw his smile and panicked, slowing down slightly her whole body fumbled in the air, this gave the small form below her time to dive off the road. With a loud crash her body landed on its side.

The cart snapped down the middle lengthwise, splinters flying upwards and a few embedded themselves her side, luckily they were small ones. She groaned and growled while laying in the rubble.

Snorting she shook her head and rolled over. Lifting herself upwards, she looked forward and spotted the chest. Taking several cautious steps she placed her right claw on top of the chest and used it to lift herself up higher then looked down at the road.

She smiled when she spotted the faces of her two victims below her. They had propped their heads up on the edge of the road, she took a shaky breath,"I will give you this, you managed to trick me and make me panic, not many hav-," She stopped when she noticed a quiet burning sound.

Her eyes narrowed when she saw the faces of her prey light up,"What are y-"

~

Sam placed a hand on Valkyrie's back and forced her down into the ground along with him, the explosion rocked the whole area around them, shaking the grass and throwing the dirt high into the air along with the resulting smoke. Shrapnel and debris from the cart shot outwards in all directions, one piece flew straight over Valkyrie's head making her gasp.

After waiting a moment for everything to settle he cautiously lifted his head up. Sam peeped over the side of the road, his eyes could see the remains of the cart through the dust and smoke. On the other side of the road, the body of the dragon rested there.

He narrowed his eyes and licked his lips,"Valkyrie... stay down," He patted her shoulder,"I'm going to make sure it's dead." She nodded with a thin lipped smile and sat up to peak over the edge of the road like he did.

Swallowing thickly he placed his hands on the top of the road and pulled himself up, stepping forward he stood all the way up. Taking a cautious step he kept himself low, looking over what was left of the cart he spotted one of it's sides still intact and it just so happened to be the side he stored his pike under.

He took a breath and slowly made his way over to the piece of debris, when he reached it he lowered down and grabbed ahold of the end of his pike. Sam slowly slid the weapon out, a little sound coming from the wood as it slid out. Finally pulling it all the way out he held it against his chest, looking back to the where the dragon was last he realized that the settling dust now fully obstructed his view of the creature and so he reflexively decided to try standing up to get a better look.

He quickly stood all the way up, just as he stood up a large black claw flew out of the dust and just barely knicked his cheek, he fell backwards with a surprised yell. Sitting up as quickly as he could he saw the beast shove it's head through the dust,"You," Her voice was rough but distinctly feminine,"You did this to me!" Her wings unfurled with a roar,saliva coated fangs were displayed to him and the settling dust was thrown away with the powerful gust of wind that came from her wings.

Lowering his arms away from his eyes he saw just what the explosion did to her. Her jaw had a large piece of wood lodged in it's side, the underside of her belly was littered with small pieces of shrapnel sticking out and her left wing was ripped slightly. The real damage though had been done to her right claw.

It was completely gone, bone and flesh stuck out pulsing in a fairly horrible manner, her severed arm gushed blood with each pulse all over the ground beneath her. She growled an expression of rage overtaking her features, her eyes dilated and she shook uncontrollably,"I will kill you for this!"

Taking immediate action he pulled himself up and took a few steps back, lowering the long weapon he narrowed his eyes and gave her a snarl of his own,"Then kill me."

She roared and unlike her previous behavior, acted in a reckless manner, she instinctively lunged foward and swung her good claw down on him. He jumped to the side barely dodging her attack. Her whole body lost its balance without the help of her other claw and fell forward into the dirt. Regaining his footing Sam watched her attempt to pull herself up from the ground.

She growled as she struggled to lift herself up, placing her good claw beneath her chest she pushed, her whole body shaking at the strain. When she finally managed to stand all the way up she turned her head to look at him,"I will find you and kill you!"

Her wings stretched out and she used her back legs to jump into the air, with a couple pathetic flaps she finally pulled herself up to a good enough height and took off into the sky.

"Holy shit!" He looked back to see Valkyrie pulling herself up onto the road,"Sam are you okay?!"

He nodded,"I'm fine but the dragon isn't, she's wounded beyond belief and might even bleed out."

"Really?! That's great!"

"It is but, we can't leave that to chance, get your armor and your weapons ready, we are now hunting a dragon." He smirked at the look on her face and looked back around to the small black blur landing on the distant lone mountain.

~

Sam and Valkyrie abandoned the road, opting to go straight for the mountain. The ground wasn't as even as the road, but it was a valley so it was flat enough to traverse without much trouble. It took a couple hours of wading through tall grass and avoiding mole holes before they reached the base of the mountain.

The mountain itself was a dark black color and it went high into the air. It wasn't as steep as some mountains but it would still be a challenge to climb if they had to. Sam decided to send Valkyrie to fly around the mountain and save the time that would normally be needed to find the dragons lair.

She went up and not even a minute later came back down,"Sam, there's a huge cave entrance just like, thirty feet above us."

"What really?" She pointed up and he followed her fingers to a difficult to see indent in the mountain side.

He scrunched his eyes,"It's totally hidden from down here..."

She laughed,"Yeah well, it goes along with the slant of the mountain so it's an understandable oversight. Now, it's not that long of a climb so I suggest we start right now and take advantage of her wounds."

He nodded,"That's why we're here so let's get to it." He pulled his pack off and opened it up, he layed out all his armor and weapons, he'd need his pike the most.

In a short amount of time both of them were fully armored up and ready to fight. He carefully climbed up the side of the mountain, it might not have been that steep of a hill but it was unsteady. Valkyrie got to the entrance first, because she flew and when Sam was just under it she offered him a helping hand.

He grasped her leather covered hand with his gauntleted one. With a grunt she helped hoist him up and into the mouth of the cave.

He placed a hand on the ground and picked himself up,"Thanks Valkyrie, I owe ya one."

She lowered her plumed helmet's visor,"Yes you do."

He shook his helmeted head and turned to look into the cave. It wasn't really dark, there were fires in it, but it wasn't really bright either. Taking one last look out the cave at the setting sun he took a deep breath and gave a small prayer to God, after all it seemed like he listened last time. Turning about he boldly walked forward into the cave with Valkyrie trailing behind.

The first thing they noticed was the abundance of gold bits scattered about the place, it wasn't unexpected after all she did take it all, but it was still an interesting sight. They followed the natural curve of the cave a couple hundred feet before reaching the end of the cave. The end of it was an entrance to a large cavern.

"You think she's in there?" Valkyrie asked drawing her short sword and pulling up her shield.

Sam shrugged,"I guess we'll see, huh?" He gripped his pike and readied it, he left his shield on his back. After all it would only get in the way if he they fought with her, which seemed an inevitability now.

He stepped forward cautiously in a low stance and she did the same, it was like he taught her in training he gave her. She kept her large shield in front of her lowered body for full protection and her sword to the side of it in a readied position.

The first thing they noticed was the huge pile of gold in the middle of the cavern. It looked to be eighteen feet high and twenty across! It was an incredible amount of wealth she had built up over these past months. They walked deeper into the room. The whole room had large rock chunks laying around, it Sam a second but he realized it was because she dug this hole out herself.

Looking from side to side Sam didn't see the dragon anywhere, so he decided that she might be at the back of the gold. He chose their path quietly and began to walk around the left side of the gold pile, each step he took was a calculated one and he avoided anything on the ground that might alert her to their presence. Valkyrie followed his example and made sure to examine the ground beneath her before taking a step. She was impressed at how silent Sam was being, especially with his armor on.

As they cautiously rounded the corner Sam froze in his steps, Valkyrie almost ran into him but looking forward figured out why he stopped, at the back of the pile lay the dragon. Her eyes widened and she almost yelled, but he raised a hand in the air to stop her. She narrowed her eyes and observed the dragon again, it was asleep, Valkyrie was relieved at the lucky break they'd caught.

The beast rested on her side, her severed arm faced upwards so as to avoid the pain. It had stopped bleeding but the flesh was still red and puffy, the wound still looked beyond painful. Further inspection of her body showed that she had removed the wood that had been lodged in her jaw, a nasty hole still remained but the wood was gone. Most of the debris that had been imbedded in her belly was also removed, a few pieces remained sticking out here and there but she had done a good cleanup job.

Sam narrowed his eyes, he turned to valkyries and whispered,"Go," He pointed to one of the rocks,"Get behind that, you'll have the element of surprise if it comes to a fight."

She nodded and stepped back slowly over to the rock. When she was safely hidden behind it he turned back to the sleeping beast and walked forward,"You have a very impressive lair here."

The creature snorted awake, she let out a deep breath and lifted her head up to look at him. Her yellow eyes scrunched,"Thank you, though it's odd that you would compliment me after trying to kill me."

He nodded and shifted his feet,"And it's odd that you haven't attacked me yet."

She turned her head to the side and swallowed, wincing as saliva came out through the hole in her jaw,"I will attempt to in a few seconds, but I wish to talk with you before I do so."

"You do?"

She nodded,"I wish to compliment the trick you used, I may have been angry back there but, now that I am of a more stable mindset I will tell you that it was a smart move." She wiggled her stump of a leg,"You knew that you could not face me head on, so you tried to kill me in one quick blow." Grunting the mighty beast rolled onto her stomach,"It is the tactic I would use if I was your size and you used it very effectively."

She raised herself up on her legs and balanced the weight on her good side,"If I am to die by your hands than, at least it is by your hands and not a pathetic ponies." She smiled,"Might I ask as to what you are?"

He nodded, surprised at how well spoken she was,"I am a human, my name is Samuel."

"Human... hmm ," She shook her head,"I am Bayghur, it is nice to meet a hunter like me."

He blinked in confusion at her politeness,"Uh, its, nice to meet you too."

Valkyrie raised an eyebrow as she listened, this was not going the way she anticipated it would.

"So, how did you come to know of me?" She cocked her head,"I thought I was in the middle of nowhere and my prey did not seem to important."

"Well I came to know of you through princess Celestia, word of the gold have stolen spread quickly and she deemed you danger to the cities in your surrounding area."

"Celestia herself sent you to hunt me?" She smiled widely,"What an honor, though I'd never be foolish enough to attack a city, I'll take it as a compliment."

He cocked his head,"You respect Celestia? I thought your view in ponies was that they were pathetic."

"Ponies now, are weak and gutless. But many, many years ago they were not, Celestia and her sister led those ponies once and put us dragons through a war we shall never forget. That is why I respect her."

Sam nodded making a note to ask Celestia about that. Sighing, he frowned,"You seem like very reasonable dragon, is there any way we could avoid a violent end to this ordeal? Perhaps we could find you new territory?"

She shook her head,"I am agraid its to late for that, you have taken my arm and some of my wing, I will never recover from this. It would be against my honor to simply leave, I must fight you to the death."

He looked down and drew in a breath,"That's... to bad."

"Yes, it is." She flared out her wings and stood tall giving him the signal to step back and ready his pike.

She separated her lips to show off her teeth and threw herself forward, he dodged to the side, the bits under his feet clinking. Sam could hear her massive body impact the ground behind him, gold was thrown everywhere. She roared and lifted herself up enough to crawl forward as quickly as she could.

He could hear the snap of her jaws behind him, his heart rate shot through the roof. He ran towards the rock that valkyrie had hid behind, just barely holding on to his pike,"Thrust your sword in the air!"

She looked up just as he threw himself over the rock, she understood what he mean't right as the dragons body came over the rock chasing him. She was under the beasts vulnerable belly with a sword, that's what he meant.

Valkyrie gave a yell and thrust her sword up, just like Sam wanted, the blade bit deeply into the the dragons belly. Bayghur continued crawing over the rock doing the work for Valkyrie, her sword sliced along as she moved towards Sam.

Bayghur screamed at the unexpected pain in her stomach and jumping sideways, rolled on her back. She hissed and craned her neck to look at her new wound. The cut was long and deep, blood quickly seeped from the slice.

Valkyrie pulled herself up to see what she did, standing on shaking feet she saw the cut she had inflicted. Then looking down at her bloody sword she smiled weakly and laughed,"I did it..."

She felt a pat on her back and looked over her shoulder to see Sam,"And you made a damn good job of it."

She smiled proudly and turned back to the dragon,"Once again you trick me!" She growled and flipped up on her belly, forcing more blood to come from the wound and pool on the ground. Her wounds from before were reopening with each movement, blood began coming from her arm again and the hole in her jaw started bleeding consistently.

Sam narrowed his eyes, she would die soon, after all she had lost so much blood earlier that it wasn't possible for her to survive with all her wounds bleeding again. But she wouldn't let that happen without one last hurrah and he knew it.

She leveled her gaze at Sam, snorting. With a loud wheeze she drew in her breath, rolled back her eyes and pulled her head back, Sam's eyes widened,"Jump!" He ran into Valkyries, wrapping an arm around her side as they plunged sideways.

Just as the two of them jumped into the pile of gold, her flames bathed the ground they just stood on, coating it with soot. He could feel the heat of her fire from his position on the gold, it was worse than any heat he had felt before and he burned himself on the forge constantly.

"Keep your head down, I have an idea!" He yelled over the roaring flames to Valkyrie, clenching his teeth, he pulled himself up the pile of gold, bits sliding down around him. He got pushed his legs beck and pulled his arms up, it was like climbing up a hill that fought back every step of the way. When he reached the top of the piles he stood up unsteadily. Then putting his left foot forward he lowered his pike and aimed for her side.

Closing her mouth Bayghur rolled her eyes back forward and observed her work. The sound of metal clanking to her left made her head swivel towards the noise, she saw Sam sliding down the pile at an alarming speed and before she could react the his pike ripped into her side.

He managed to get the pike aimed just right and it penetrated her armor in side of her upper chest, the pike kept going deeper tearing into the sensitive flesh of her lungs. It kept going until Sam himself ran into her side, he fell back slamming into the ground.

Her jaw hung open, she stepped back a few paces and looked down. The pike was driven all the way through her, the metal tip stuck out her right side and the wooden end stuck out her left end. It had ripped through both her lungs and pierced the upper area of her heart.

Unsure of what to do she looked forward at the metal coated figure pulling itself up off the ground, his Pegasus friend threw off her helmet and ran down from the gold pile, slowing down to stand next to him. Bayghur coughed violently, blood coming up from her throat.

She looked up her eyes wide and her mouth hanging open,"I believe you have killed me sir..."

Valkyrie held his shoulder and put an arm around his back to help him stand up, together they watched the beast hold an arm to her chest and fall forward into the ground, dust flying and gold rattling along with her.

"Y-You okay Sam?" She turned her attention to Sam and placed a hand on his breastplate.

"Yeah," His breathing was heavy,"I-I'm good."

She patted his chest and smiled,"We killed it, Sam, we really killed it."

He smiled along with her, still catching his breath,"Yes we did, you did great Valkyrie, I'm beyond proud of you."

"...Thanks Sam." He pushed on her arm and she let go of him, he walked forward and up to the dragons head. Leaning against the head he placed a hand on her snout, using his other hand he drew his sword and used its tip to wrench it's lips up and give him a view of her gums.

"What are you doing?" Valkyrie came over and looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm pulling some teeth out, like you wanted." He spotted a pair of smaller teeth in the back of her jaws and shoved his sword into the gums above them. Valkyrie wordlessly watched Sam cut out the teeth of the beast, holding catching them for him when they fell out.

Author's Notes:

The song Sam sings here:Over The Hills And Far Away