The gently swaying canopy of the Everfree Forest was becoming far too familiar to Twilight than she ever expected it would.  Upon first moving to Ponyville living so close to the edge of the forest had worried the unicorn, however since the advent of her new life she found an appreciation for such convenience.  The sun slowly pushed its way along the sky, proceeding on its perpetual motion and completely disregarding the events on the ground.  Trees filtered the dwindling light into a soft glow, streaming down in beams to dot Twilight's path ahead.  The unicorn brought her black cloak along and was wearing it around her withers, not for any particular reason apart from the simple pleasure of draping soft cloth on her back.  As she slowly proceeded through a semi-familiar part of the forest, Twilight summoned up the vengeful spirit that had been locked away inside of her for so long.  She was tired of feeling weak and had put herself on the warpath to prove her power both to herself and to one of her ancient enemies.  

Mind if I ask where you're going?  Iago, sounding distracted with something, decided to speak up and inquire about Twilight's direction.

Can't you read my thoughts?  Twilight never took her eyes off of the weathered forest path in front of her, snapping back at her mentor in a somewhat friendly and somewhat genuinely exasperated demeanor.

Not involuntarily.  I'm a little busy right now, and have a small level of respect for your privacy.

Well, I know you went through my memories, so I know you've seen that time when Spike ran away from the Library after I got my pet owl.

So you're going after the dragon?

Absolutely.  He chased me through the woods, threatened to kill me, my pet, and my assistant...  I'm not a weak little pony anymore.

Ambitious.  How do you plan to do it?

Oh I'll just improvise while I'm there I'm sure.  I can breathe fire, I can fly, I can take a punch, so he's not exactly at any kind of advantage over me.  Difference is I'm small and tough to hit, but he's big and lumbering and susceptible to all of the things I can conjure up.

Just what do you hope to gain by killing the dragon?  Not that I wish you to stop, I'm just curious.

Well, if nothing else I know he's got a horde in his cave.  Mostly gems from what I could tell, but there should be more.

What use is worldly wealth?

Well, the gems could be used to buy off Spike if he ever sees anything he shouldn't.  That and I don't want to pass off the opportunity to make some statue or other out of one contiguous diamond.  Plus, ponies are greedy and can turn a blind eye for enough gold, who knows when it'll come in handy?

I suppose, just try not to think so small-time.  Why bribe a politician when you can just cut off their head?

Two reasons: subtlety and influence.  Two mouths spread a doctrine faster than one, and if nobles start turning up headless then a bunch of ponies might start grabbing their pitchforks and torches.

Have it your way, Twilight.  I look forward to seeing this.

Twilight smirked and picked up the pace a little, ducking under a familiar fallen log on the overgrown path.  She looked up above the canopy, spotting the mountain that housed the dragon's lair.  The closer she got the more scorched trees Twilight noticed lying around, reaffirming that she was on the right track.  Eventually, as the sheer stone wall came into view, the only plant life for a good fifty feet existed in the form of charcoal and ash.  

Twilight looked into the dark cave as it came into view, only spotting the generous glimmer of thousands of gems flashing away the residual sunlight.  She smiled and explored around the cave in a wide circle, glancing behind corners and into dark patches and trying to see if her old nemesis happened to be home.  From what she could tell the dragon was out prowling around the forest somewhere, so she stepped in and started to scout out the lair.  

The cave ran deeper than Twilight had originally thought, leading her down passages that seemed to be hollowed out with the dragon's vicious claws.  To her delight the horrid reptile kept his horde very neatly organized into its own separate pile..  Twilight noticed a glimmering pile of coins down one of the self-made caverns and went to investigate them.  Every single coin in the chamber was a gold bit, all of which seemed to be made within the past fifty years or so.  In the cavern directly next to it, Twilight found tens of thousands of tarnished silver coins that also seemed to be from the same era.  The process continued on, with copper coins, weapons, armor, trinkets, and thousands of other things.  The only objects that weren't fully organized were his gems, which didn't surprise Twilight since they were essentially food.  

After looking around and marveling at the massive range of objects in the dragon's possession, Twilight stepped back toward the mouth of the cave and looked up to the sky.  The sun was in a perfect position to cast a glimmering ray into the cave, so Twilight decided to make herself comfortable.  She hopped up onto the massive pile of gemstones, nestling herself into it so that the sun's ray was like a spotlight on her body and leaving her a spectacular view of the forest.  She decided to pick up and examine a few of the gems directly around her, looking through them and doing her best to determine their value from the cut and color.  

After about her fourth large amethyst, Twilight noticed out of the corner of her eye as a very large shadow fell on the cave.  She cracked a smile but kept the stone levitating in front of her eye, using the dwindling light that shone over the very large figure's shoulders to examine the beautiful purple stone.  The instant the light faded, Twilight glanced over the top of her gem with an annoyed expression and addressed the forest-green dragon in front of her, "Do you mind?"

"You're either very foolish, or very eager to die,"  The dragon grumbled, baring his teeth and hovering his head just inches away from the lounging unicorn.

"I'm neither.  Don't you recognize me?"  Twilight set the stone down and leaned back, displacing a few diamonds that skittered down the mountain of gems and danced across the floor.

"Actually I do.  You came to the timely rescue of that obnoxious, thieving infant.  Tell me something: was he the one that nigh destroyed your town a few months back?"  Smoke trailed out from under the dragon's repulsive forked tongue as he spoke.  Oddly enough, he took a more relaxed posture as the conversation went on, though he clearly was simply unafraid of Twilight.

"If you must know, yes that was Spike.  You could say he found his roots."

"And what about you?"  The dragon reached out a claw and forcefully jabbed Twilight in the chest to punctuate this final word.  "What brings you back here?  I've nothing of yours to take back and I don't imagine you came to engage me in friendly conversation."

"While I admit the idea of concept swapping with something your age could be enlightening, I'm afraid you're right in that it's not why I'm here.  I've come to kill you."  Twilight kept a perfectly serious look on her face as she addressed the reptile, but he didn't respond in kind.  His lips curled into a smirk and he let out a smokey chuckle.

"Surely you're joking.  I could swallow you whole."

"Let me step outside with you and you can try.  Don't want this gorgeous horde to be ruined in the scuffle now do we?"

The dragon gave a hefty laugh again, stepping back from the cave and using his wing to wave Twilight outside.  "Be my guest."

Twilight levitated herself out of the pile of gems, floating gently to her hooves and trotting out through the arch that the dragon left for her.  While he was very confident that Twilight was just a regular pony, the massive reptile was wise enough to understand not to judge a book by its cover.  Twilight took a deep breath through her nose as she emerged from the cave, honestly loving the scent of burnt plant matter.  

"Before we do this, pony, mind explaining to me what provoked you to seek your vengeance?  Most of your kind tend to count their blessings after surviving an encounter with an angry dragon."

"You chased me and Spike through the night, attacked us aggressively and only let up because you got caught in the woods.  That's a grievous insult, and I demand satisfaction.  Though I'm honestly wondering why you're in such a calm mood right now.  You weren't exactly the patient type when last we met."

"Your little friend was intruding on my food and my territory.  He seemed intent on moving in and was very disrespectful, if I do say so myself.  So I guess I'll answer the same way: I was dealt an insult."

Twilight removed her cloak and let it fall to the ground, flicking her mane away from her eyes as she did so.  "I guess I can respect that, but that doesn't mean I'll let it go."

"I have no genuine problem with you, however, so I'll give you one last chance to leave."  The dragon twisted his head and cracked his neck as his sentence ended.  Craning down to look at Twilight seemed to be bothering him.

"Oh you just wish I'd let you go that easily.  Twilight tilted her head down and swiped it to the side, throwing her hair out of her eyes and looking up confidently at the lizard.

The dragon huffed out a short laugh, taking more of a stance disbelief than a combat posture.  His pity, however, had been thinning out each time Twilight said something aggressive.  He shrugged and gave up trying to reason with the unicorn, looking Twilight in the eyes and saying, "I'll be sure your bones are brought back to Ponyville."  Just before taking a breath through his nose and exhaling potent flame down on her.

The smoke cleared and, to the dragon's surprise, Twilight was still standing amidst the charred earth.  The tips of her ears as well as her right foreleg were on fire, but Twilight didn't seem nearly as worried as the average pony should.  Twilight lifted her hoof up and lightly blew on it, sending a stream of fire spreading out in the dragon's direction.  Twilight's foe finally recognized the threat before him and took a slightly more aggressive stance.  "So I can see that you're no ordinary pony.  I don't suppose you'll explain yourself?"

"A magician never reveals her secrets.  What's the matter?  Do you fear the unknown?"  Twilight deliberately played on the dragon's pride, knowing that a prod to the ego was likely to garner a response eventually.  She expected something witty to come from him, but was instead greeted with a large, overhead slam from his fist.  The unicorn barely had any time to react, but managed to materialize several invisible blades and spikes above her body.  They were sparse enough to sink into her enemy's claws, but numerous enough to stop his assault before it even touched her.  

No fingers fell around Twilight like she expected (rather wanted), instead the slashes in the dragon's hand ground to an abrupt halt as the invisible and infinitely thin blades reached the bone.  Twilight had heard stories that dragon bones were indestructible, and she intended to test that little theory out at some point.  

The reptile yanked his clawed hand away with a loud yelp, clutching it and taking a step back to keep his balance.  He violently unfurled his wings and snarled at Twilight who simply stood there laughing softly into her hoof.  A few large drops of blood fell from the wounded claws, vaporizing in the air and bursting into a lazy blue flame before they hit the charred ground below.  The sight of his own blood enraged the dragon, prompting him to exhale another blast of intense flame toward the little unicorn.  Twilight, however, split the blaze down the middle and caught most of it in her control.  She pressed it down into a glowing little orange ball that hovered just inches from her horn.

Cornered, her scaled enemy unfurled his wings and prepared to abandon the horde and start anew.  Twilight wasn't going to let him get away, though, and brought down dozens of telekinetic razors onto the exposed leather of his wings.  The thin membranes stretched out on their own, preparing to catch air but were instead greeted by the invisible weaponry.  The hide shredded and split apart, spreading more of the volatile dragon blood out against the already blackened forest and provoking another pained yelp from the dragon.  His eyes were showing fear for what Twilight assumed was the first time in his life.  The dragon snarled once more, growling at Twilight and rearing his neck back.  The unicorn knew that she probably wouldn't be able to stave off a direct bite (and realized that having her body destroyed was likely to present complications), so she instead threw him off balance with a little ingenuity.  She worked silently beneath the ground, pooling all of the water that was left in the soil underneath the dragon and liquified the dirt below him.  With that, to add a little insurance, she drove a tendril of mud up and wrapped it around his wounded foreleg, yanking it down and slamming his shoulder and neck into the ashen mire.

The massive, lumbering green dragon fell and struck out with snapping jaws, missing Twilight by just a few feet before writhing his tail to try futilely to escape from the trap.  Slowly but surely, Twilight brought more earthen tendrils out of the ground and wrapped them around various parts of the struggling dragon, ending with a tight collar just behind his jaw.  The unicorn stepped casually forward to the bound dragon, never having lost focus on her tiny ball of fire during the ordeal, so she began to push more and more energy into it.  As she came just inches away from the lizard's nose, she reached out a hoof and gently stroked along it, having never felt the scales of an adult dragon before.  His eyes held a mixture of contempt and fear, scanning over the situation for any possibility of escape or any opportunity to wound or kill his captor.  If he couldn't escape, this dragon was ready to fight until the bitter end.

Twilight's gentle touching on the dragon's nose could be misconstrued as almost motherly, and she knew this full well.  The unicorn smiled down into the reptile's huge eyes and moved the little ball of energy to her side; by then it had gotten white hot.  Twilight moved her hoof down and nestled it between the dragon's lips, keeping her back hoof on his lower jaw and miming along to her telekinesis prying the creature's maw open.  He tried to bite down but just couldn't break the stalwart grip of the spell, so he resolved to one last attempt at his fire breath.  Twilight didn't have much time to react, but still managed to capture some of the flame while letting the remainder spray against her indestructible body and dissipate out into the air.  The orb was now so bright that just looking at it started to grow painful.  

The unicorn was getting annoyed with the constant fire breath, and so she wrapped a few invisible tethers around the two longest teeth that she could find.  The dragon's maw wide open before her would have been so much more intimidating if she didn't have the power to destroy it with a thought.  She picked the favored pair of teeth and ripped them out, having to hold the dragon still immediately afterward lest he yank his head out of the restraints that she had prepared.  The flammable blood started to flow, and Twilight located the two large glands that helped produce flame toward the back of his throat.  She actually stepped inside of the dragon's mouth, using her small ball of energy as a torch to light the tapering fleshy tunnel.  Once her back hooves rested softly on the floor of the dragon's fleshy maw, she sunk the two teeth into his throat and permanently destroyed the dragon's primary choice of attack.  Twilight turned around to exit, watching as the horrified animal tried his damnedest to clench his jaws shut with absolutely no progress.  She ran her hoof along the strained muscle on the inside of his mouth, transferring it to one of his teeth and stroking it down the dagger-like piece of ivory.  

Twilight exited the dragon's maw as casually as if it were a porch step, turning around and standing slightly to the side so that her quarry could see her.  She decided that she had tortured the dragon enough and drove the little ball of fire into his throat, pushing it further and further past sizzling flesh into his stomach.  As soon as she got it as far as she desired, she shut the dragon's mouth and let the bundle of energy go.  The reaction wasn't quite as fast or violent as she expected it to be, instead starting with a small glowing behind his eyes and  smoke rising from under his scales.  Eventually, however, every single bit of flesh on the dragon's skeleton disintegrated in a flash, casting light from between his scales and briefly blinding the unicorn.  Luckily for her, however, no damage to any part of her body was permanent.  Once she regained her sight, Twilight looked over her quarry and couldn't help but smirk: all that remained of the dragon was a contiguous skeleton covered by his scaly hide.  No flesh stayed there save for some dense connective tissue that managed to survive the immolation.  Even some parts of the dragon's fireproof hide were breached, particularly under the belly and around most of the joints where his skin and scales were thin and weak.  

Twilight sat back and admired her kill, marveling at the barely-covered skull that just seconds ago contained lively flesh.  Even the two teeth that she had jammed into his fire producing glands had stayed there, protruding out of the remaining jawbone.  It took about a minute for Twilight to realize just how taxing the ordeal was, however, so she took a little while to catch her breath.

Surprised?  Iago quickly asked as Twilight slumped down on the ashy ground.

Surprised at what?  Twilight responded in kind, giving off an air of annoyance rather than genuine interest.

That he tried to flee, of course.  Your little friend in the alley seemed braver than the dragon.  Does that surprise you?

Well I did expect a dragon to have a little more wisdom than a petty criminal.

They're far more intelligent than most tend to realize.  There was a time when I thought it was such a shame for a dragon to die, but in the grand scheme of things even they don't measure up to me.

Why was it ever a shame?

Before the current monarchy there was a parliament, and before that dragons ruled the planet.  If you could get past their greed and pride they had a wealth of knowledge and information.  Years long past still lived on in their minds, and the knowledge of arcane secrets flowed between their teeth like the fire that they're so well known for as they spoke.  Entire history books were written about them, even many by them, and thousands were housed in a spectacular library.  Almost everything was kept there, but one of the first few things that happened when Celestia came to power was the greatest crime ever to befall society: the burning of that library.  It was razed to the ground, the keepers and librarians all trapped inside, and even the foundation was pulled up and distributed around.  Nothing was allowed to stay, so for the longest time a dragon was the only thing alive that could confirm the traces of history that may have been forgotten by others.  Nowadays the Great Wyrms have died off, leaving behind the disrespectful spawn that roam your world.  They don't know the meaning of knowledge, nor the meaning of society, and that's why there's nothing left of their civilization.

The "Great Wyrms" huh?  Who were they?

"Great Wyrm" is a title that was given to, or rather taken by, an ancient dragon who prized knowledge as the only true wealth to be hoarded.  They were beautiful creatures, as big as your town and strong enough to dig tunnels through entire mountains in less than a few days.  As a dragon matures, they stay incredibly greedy, but they also start to think very philosophically about their lives; eventually finding refuge in knowledge.  These dragons will actually spend their horde to acquire rare and interesting books or encyclopedias, collecting even the most mundane facts about the littlest things just to draw into the bigger picture.  Oh what I wouldn't give to have been visited by a Great Wyrm, but sadly the last one died off before the new era under Celestia began.

Was she responsible?

Goodness no.  If Celestia could kill a Great Wyrm, regardless of how much help she received from an army, I would be thoroughly impressed.  Those beasts could lay waste to the entire planet in a matter of weeks if they so desired, but they always knew better.  Other dragons sought them out for advice and would sacrifice something of their own in order to coax knowledge out of the Wyrms, and for a while they were even respected as elders and chieftains amongst their peers.

So all it takes for a Great Wyrm is a dragon who's fond of learning?  Twilight stood up and began to slowly circle her kill, eyeing the pale green scales and looking at herself in the mirrored finish.  After years of sleeping on diamonds and other hard gems the dragon's scales had been polished down to a surface like glass, reflecting dozens of copies of Twilight's beautiful countenance and paying into her own conceited sense of self.

It takes a bit more than that, I'm afraid.  Every single Great Wyrm has always been an incredible leader.  Since a grand majority of dragons are little beyond greedy, vain and aggressive, the only way to command respect amidst them is to show them your power and influence.  No Great Wyrm had ever risen to that rank without spilling the blood of several of their own kind, and even more of another's kind.  To put things in perspective, their eyes looked like molten metal, their heads were big enough for one to easily devour your little library in a swift bite and their temperament would provoke one to do so if they didn't agree with your literature.

Sounds like they'd be quite a fight.

I imagine so.  I was never lucky enough to see one in person, but I did get to read a book written by the last of them.

I don't suppose I'd have a copy of that in my library.

Well considering that the entire tree from your library wouldn't have made enough paper for a third of it, I'll venture to guess you don't.  It was quite the read, I have to say, though I only made it through about a quarter of the book.  I spent years reading it, but to sift through the knowledge of such a primeval creature wasn't exactly quick work.

As Iago taught Twilight about the most ancient sages of dragonkind, she began the simple task of slicing a relatively large patch of hide out of the remaining skin on the corpse.  Is that so?  Are there any copies left?

I'm afraid not.  That book, as well as thousands of other pieces of wonderful literature was within the Library of Ruthe.

Twilight shaped the skin around a telekinetic sphere, cutting off some of the excess leather and forming the skin into a bag.  She heated up the scales and rubbed them together, knowing from experience that the scales would fuse together in the presence of enough heat.  She let the thing hang, a perfect sack made from the hide of the dragon.  That's a shame...  Could you help me out here, though?  You mentioned something about a void spell that could hold things.

Of course, the void conjure.  It's quite simple, really, though it involves a channeling of energy that I'm not sure you can tap into as a living being.  Place your hoof in the sack and let me do the work.  

Twilight  followed the order methodically, placing her hoof in the dragon-hide bag and letting it set for a while though it didn't take long for her to feel a pulse through her nerves leading down toward her foreleg.  The bag immediately clenched around her leg, forming a slight vacuum and then slowly releasing in pressure.  Eventually it simply fell off and slapped to the ground, sounding like exactly what it was: a patch of semi-dry skin.

Did that even do anything?

Try putting your hoof in it again.  

The unicorn levitated the bag over and pushed her hoof in, but found that the bag consumed her entire front leg up to the shoulder.  She smirks and pulls it out, looking inside and seeing nothing but a formless blackness past the mouth of the sack.  Now that's cool.  Is there a limit to how much it can hold?

No limit at all, I imagine you'll be putting the entire horde in there, hmm?

Oh absolutely.  Maybe some other things too...  Would a living creature survive?  Twilight didn't even hesitate to run back toward the cave, scooping a massive quantity of random gems into the bottomless bag.  She reached in to see if she could find them, but felt as though she was simply running her hoof through a bag of gems.  She had no trouble finding any individual, even though there was apparently nothing but a black void inside the bag when she looked in to see it.  

Since it places them in the void, time should stop and everything should be perfectly fine.  However since there's an absence of space, time or any other matter I'm not sure if they'll be torn part from it.  You'll have to try it out.

"Uh huh..."  Twilight absently responded aloud as she positioned herself in the sunlight.  The unicorn lifted the entire horde of gemstones up into the sky, separating each gem by type into separate levitating piles and pulling out only the most poorly formed ones that she could.  Every single gem that was ugly, malformed, nonuniform or otherwise flawed was cast into a ball in the center of Twilight's vision.  She crushed them together, beginning with the diamonds, moving onto the sapphires, then rubies and so forth with her own knowledge of gemstone hardness.  The sound of crunching gems reminded the unicorn of shattering bones and left her with a grin on her face.  The growing, layered ball of gemstones grew larger by the minute, and the horde started to seem far less massive.  

After Twilight methodically packed up the horde into her bottomless dragonhide bag, she left the cave and admired her kill once more.  She glanced around for her cloak so that she could leave, but found to her dismay that it had been incinerated in the fight.  She didn't hesitate, however, to step back over toward the dragon's remains.  She picked a large area near his left shoulder, working again to cut through the scales and thick hide, but this time carving out a larger patch toward the center of his back.  She pulled the irregular slab of leather away, folding the skin and poking a pair of small holes in the edges.  She briefly dug around in her bag and produced an irregularly large cut spinel, fastening it between the holes and using it as a makeshift clasp for her new dragon-hide cloak.  She threw it over herself, the smaller and more flexible scaled portion from the dragon's shoulder making up the hood.  The fit was nearly perfect and covered her entire body, leaving her incredibly satisfied with the trophy.  

With that she set off for her library, carrying the wealth of entire cities beneath the hide of a dragon.  If anything dared to stand in Twilight's way, it wouldn't stand for long.