Chapter X:Round 1

Equestria, Canterlot, Tower of the Elements of Harmony, year 1001 C.R.

The two princesses and gangs have reached the entrance of the Tower of the Elements of Harmony. The gang of seven was really amazed by how the tower looked like. The only thing they could possibly compare it with is Saurus Rock. Seeing their bewildered faces Rainbow Dash gave a slight giggle and said:

"You should all see the looks on your faces hehehe."-hearing this the gang snapped out and closed their mouths quickly. Then Luna caught everyone's attention:

"Ahem, at the moment we must focus on the task at hand. For as we all know the royal guard just sounded the alarm and that, most certainly, cannot be good."

"She totally right. We have to focus! 'Cause for all we know Red Claw could be attacking us right now!"-Chomper shouted out, taking Luna's side, to everyone's surprise

"OK then smart guy, then where is Red Claw, hm?"- Cera asked, earning two nodges on both sides, one from Littlefoot and one from Applejack.

Chomper however took her question seriously and looked frantekly around to prove his point and as he looked to his left he shouted-"OVER THERE!"

And as everyone looked into the direction their friend pointed they saw something that terrified them more then anything: Red Claw, along with his new army, FLYING.

1 hour earlier, Everfree Forest

Red Claw seamed pleased to have a giant dragon body now, but it bodered him a lot the fact that he didn't know how to fly or spit fire. He was also pissed because Celestia nearly fried through his newly armoured skull. There was a big scorch mark on the top of his head. Then Screech took a shaky and scared step forth and asked in her native carnivore tongue:

"Uhm…m-m-master Red C-Claw. W-w-what is it t-that you w-w-want us to do?"

"Grrr, SILENCE!"-Red Claw roared and brought his right hind leg down, creating a slight tremor and causing all of the dragons to hide-"I will not leave from this lair until I have learned how to master flight and most importantly fire!"-and surprisingly as he said that a small ball of liquidish fire came out of his mouth and landed right behind the two raptor, creating a small fire in the process.

Red Claw was surprised about this and so he tried it again, this time he reered his head up and blew a massive colum of fire into the sky. And while that was happening he felt something moving on his back. He stopped the fire, looked back and saw that his wings were slowly rising. Then he just focused on wanting to fly and then his wings just gave a huge beat and all of a sudden his massive bulk was in the sky. A sinister grin formed on his horrible face and Thud and Screech knew exactly what that meant.

Now

Seeing Red Claw flying towards them with an army behind them only put the two gangs on high alert. Celestia then spoke up:

"Come girls! We have to get to the elements of harmony at once!"-the mane six nodded with serious looks-"Shining Armor! I need you and the royal guard to try and hold them of for as long as you can!"-the pony in question nodded and Luna told him to take the lunar guards as well for extra support-"Littlefoot! You and your friends will come with us! It's much safer in the tower!"-Littlefoot nodded, much to Alie's relief, and so they all went in, all except for Shining Armor and Cadance, who decided to help her husband out.

Inside the ponies and dinosaurs had to climb a lot of stairs until they reached the top level of the tower, where they were meat with a long corridor that ended with and unusual door.(try imagining the element safe door from season 2 episode 1 of MLP, 'cause my description may not be so good) The door had a massive six cornered star on its entire surface and only one hole in the middle of said star. Chomper couldn't resist to ask:

"Uhm, what is that?"

"It is a door to a safe that houses Equestria's most powerful weapon, young Chomper."-Luna said not turning to the young predator and, from the look of it, having a serious look on her face, obviously more focused on the problem at hand

While this made Chomper feel a little disappointed he promised to himself he'd worry about this later, right now it's their arch nemesis they have to worry about. Celestia walked up to the door and was ready to open the door, all the while the gang of seven was feeling both nervous and scared. This of course being shown by Alie leaning up against Littlefoot (making him blush like crazy), and also shown by Petrie hiding behind Rainbow Dash, who from noticing this told him:

"Petrie, cool it, will ya. It's going to be alright. Besides, I thought you said you'd be braver now."-hearing this, the little pteranodon got up from behind his pony friend and at least pretended to be brave.

Celestia placed her horn into the hole and soon it and the stars outlines were begining to glow and soon the door opened revealing a blue chest decorated with gemstones. Celestia levitated it to the group and opened it revealing five necklases and on big-crown-thingy. All of them had gemstones shaped like the mane six's cutie marks. These were the legendary Elements of Harmony, and the gang of seven was amazed by them. Well…all except for Cera who instead of saying 'wow', like everyone else, said:

"These are it? These are the 'Elements of Harmony'? How in the world are these going to beat Red Claw?!"

"Uh, don't count your chickens before they hatch Cera."-Applejack tried to reason with her prehistoric friend-"These here things may not seem much but they sure do pack a punch."

"Hmpf, I'll believe it when I'll see it."-Cera muttered under her breath

Soon after the mane six got their respected elements on they all felt a low tremor and went to the window to see what caused it. What they saw was surprising: the Gronckles were destroying the magic shields made by the unicorn guards with their bulk, while Monstrous Nightmares and Skrills were mauling the Pegasus guards, all the while Red Claw was using his new fire-power to destroys local buildings.

Shining Armor was trying his best to keep his special magic force field up, while Cadance provided the shooting, but both of their efforts was doing squat. Soon a Skrill fired a bolt of lightning at Cadance and by shocking her it also shocked Shining Armor, since they were standing side by side. They both collapsed unconscious and soon got surrounded by Zipplebacks, Terrors and Snaptrappers.

Seeing this got the mane six well worked up, Twilight mot of all, and they all rushed out to help their friends. The gang of seven wanted to go, but were stopped by Celestia, saying that it was too dangerous and almost everything they all heared before from their folks. So they had no choice but to watch the show from the window.

Once out side the mane six got to the unconscious couple and put some distance between them and the dragons. The dragons weren't, however, impressed by their threatening pose, but it certainly caught the attention of other dragons, one of them being Red Claw himself. He hovered several yards away from them, and this was exactly what the girls were hoping for: They closed their eyes and began to concetrait.

Red Claw thought that they wanted him to finish them of and so he blew a massive fire storm on to the ponies, smothering them all in flames. The gang of seven and Spike were shocked by this and thought that this was the end for their friends, but they were so wrong. After a few seconds the flames and smoke passed revealing a purple, dome-shaped shield around the ponies, much to Red Claw's utter surprise.

After a few more seconds the mane six began to float and when Twilight opened her eyes, revealing them to be as white as Heaven, she and her friends shot a rainbow-shaped magic beam at the gigantor-dragon. The beam engulfed Red Claw in a swirling rainbow tornado and everyone could hear him roar in defiance. Everyone thought that this was it, but after only ten seconds Red Claw ruptured the tornado with his gigantic wing and fire.

So the elements proved to be useless against him and when it was over the mane six collapsed, exousted, on to the ground. Even though their light show scared of the dragons that surrounded them, they immediately came back after it was over. The gang of seven and Spike, even the princesses, couldn't believe that the elements power had failed.

" That was supposed to stop Red Claw?! Look at him! He barely even got a scratch!"-Cera shouted in frustration, but got smacked from behind by Littlefoot's tail and he said:

"Cera! We can't think about that right now, ok?! We have to help our friends, NOW!"-all agreed, even Spike and Alie, and they quickly ran out before the princesses could stop them.

When they got out they couldn't get to their friends 'cause their path was blocked by four Deadly Nadders. But just then they all heard an ear-pearsing screech coming out of nowhere and heard a loud boom coming from Red Claw's direction. When they looked towards him, they noticed that he was hit by something hot at his right shoulder and that he was in great pain for once. Then they heard the same screech and, out of the corner of his eye, Littlefoot saw an incredibly fast, black figure fly by Red Claw and firing some kind of blue progectile to his other shoulder. He didn't know what it was, but he was glad that it was on their side.

Then the being made a sudden U turn in midair and flew right back at Red Claw, but this time he intercepted it by slamming it with his massive tail and sent it flying into a pile of rubble. After that Red Claw saw his injuries and decided that it's time to take of for now. The dragons followed him and after a minute they were all gone. The gang of seven was relieved that it was over, for now, and rushed over to their downed friends. All except for Littlefoot, who ran to the pile of rubble where the black figure landed in.

Once there he slowly and catiously circled the pile and only half way did he see the head of the figure. It was black, flat, with large closed eyes on the front of his head and also had ear-like apendeges on the back of its head. Littlefoot thought that it had to be a dragon, but even so it did save their hides from that flying nightmareish terror, and so he decided to get him out of the pile. But just as he got a few rocks of he heard a low grown and flinched. He then looked down and saw that the dragon was awake, since its big eyes were opened. Littlefoot thought it would be a good idea to tell it what was he doing:

"OK, look. I know that you're a dragon and that I should be scared of you and run away. But you saved both me and all of my friends. So I thought I could return the favour. Just don't eat me when you get free, OK?"-Littlefoot told the Nightfurry (yes it was a Nightfurry) as kindly and innocently as possible and seeing that the reptile wasn't showing any response he resumed to his previous action.

It was really hard, and seemed to not end, but after a while Littlefoot finally got the rocks of. Well actually the Nightfurry got the last rocks of himself by pouncing right onto Littlefoot and almost giving him a heart attack. The beast glared at him for a while, while the clamped down dinosaur was breathing heavily. Then the Nightfurry raired its head up and instead of biting Littlefoot's head of it only roared at him and swifly took of. Well actually it only leapt up and attempted to fly only to fail and fall back down.

After two more jumps and fails the royal guard captured it by throwing a net onto it and subduing it with unicorn magic. Celestia ordered to take it into a cage plated in unicorn magic for now, and all Littlefoot could do was to watch as the animal was taken away.

A few hours later it was sundown and having received a room of their own Littlefoot was there, looking through the window into the horizon. He was thinking, why did he free that dragon, an animal almost no different then the predators he knew from home? And why didn't that Nightfurry didn't kill him when it had the chance? His concentration was broken when Celestia came in and began talking to him:

"Littlefoot? Are you all right?"

"Well…I don't know Celestia. I mean it's been a really hard day for both me and the others. Which reminds me, where are my friends? Alie, Cera and the others I mean."

"They are with Twilight and her friends, at the infermery. You were the only one not there, so I thought I'd come up here and find out why."

"Well like I said. It's been a really hard day today. All that violence,…all that chaos,…all that death…"

"Well, that is the way of war."

"War?"

"Yes. It is a battle of great proportions in which two armies fight against each other. We haven't had a single war here in Equestria for decades, especially with dragons of this many varieties. I guess to know how to win this war you'd have to know everything you could about dragons."

After a bit of thinking Littlefoot said with a lot of determination-"Well I want to know everything about'em! Tell me how could I learn about'em Celestia!"-the sun princess was surprised by the little one's determination and even his tone convinced her to not be asked twice.

Celestia and Littlefoot once again went into the Canterlot archives, into the Starswirl the Bearded wing, where the alicorn princess pulled out a very old book with a coiling dragon on its cover, handed it to Littlefoot and said:

"Littlefoot, this is the Book of Dragons. The greatest and biggest record about dragon ever. Starswirl the Bearded himself wrote it. It won't be easy to learn from it, so do you think you're up for it?"

"Yes. Yes I am."-and with that Littlefoot took the book, went into a secluded room, went to a table with a light candle and began reading the Book of Dragons.