//------------------------------// // Rude Awakening // Story: The Thunder Wolf's Retribution // by Pinkie_Fatalis //------------------------------// Winter has set in, and Raiju was hibernating in his cave while Fluttershy took care of Thundercloud, with occasional help from her friends. The ponies were enjoying themselves as the winter holidays passed by. There is only a month left in winter, and Raiju's hibernation, and preparations for Winter Wrap-up began. One day a noise could be heard off in the distance, it sounded as though the wind itself was screaming in anger, everypony knew that there was a big storm coming, so they thought nothing of it. Later that day the wind began to pick up around Ponyville, this was no normal wind though; it was far stronger than has ever blown in Equestrian history. The next morning, a dragon, much like the Rukodiora in body shape, was seen slowly walking towards Ponyville. Its body was grey and metallic looking with highlights of white and what seemed to be rust and it slowly began breathing its icy breath to freeze over the town. Knowing that they couldn't take care of this creature on their own Twilight and Rainbow Dash snuck out of town to wake up Raiju, and save the town. They made it to the cave and walked inside, they tried everything to wake up Raiju, yelling, poking, magic. but to no avail. After almost an hour of persistent trying they finally got him to wake up. "Ugh...what month is it?" He said, slowly rolling over. Twilight immediately began expressing her concern. "Raiju quickly, I know that your hibernation isn't over but we desperately need your help!." "Twilight? Why are you-" "Raiju! If you don't hurry that dragon is going to destroy all of Ponyville." Raiju suddenly sprang up. "WHAT?! Ok...tell me what you know of it." Rainbow Dash started relaying everything she learned. "It's really hard to see due to the intense winds around Ponyville from the blizzard, but we know that it's a grey dragon and it's freezing the town over with its breath. It looks a lot like that other dragon...Rookie--Ruki..." "Rukodiora?...grey...strong winds...breaths ice" His eyes widened as the name of the creature came to his mind. "Kushala Daora!" Raiju bolted out the door towards town, leaving RainbowDash confused. “Kushala…What? I think he’s just making up stuff now." The town now had a giant wall of ice surrounding it, as the dragon hovered above. Without warning Raiju jumped at the creature raking his claws across its side, but it didn't even leave a mark on the metallic scales. "I was wondering if these ponies would ever defend themselves." It said with a chuckle. "Although I didn’t expect a Jinouga. I hope you are prepared to fight me." Just as he finished saying this, the winds nearby increased, making it very hard to see through the snow. Raiju was already struggling to keep himself awake and knew he had to act quickly. The dragon spat out mixes of ice and wind in an attempt to catch Raiju off guard, but missed. After five minutes of fighting the dragon, with columns of wind erupting all around, started to get irritated and stood up on his back two legs, he slowly raised his wings, and with the incredible force from flapping them, caused an enormous tornado to form around him. Raiju was too close, and the sheer power from winds, actually picked him up and threw him over fifty feet, where he landed with a loud thud on a nearby frozen pond, that broke from his weight. He immediately got up and ran towards the dragon, who was still trying to catch his breath from that last attack and couldn't avoid him. Raiju pinned him down as he tried escaping by using the wind to push him off but couldn't, so it said. "Get off of me! I'll rip you apart." "You will do no such thing. This fight is over and you must leave, and don't you DARE return or I will make sure you can't leave." The dragon agreed, but was not happy about it, and after Raiju stepped off of him, he said one last thing before flying off. "You got lucky this time! You haven't heard the last of me." Raiju watched angrily as the dragon flew out of view. Now with nothing around, Raiju realized how tired he still was, and started running back to his cave to rest, leaving Twilight and Rainbow Dash to help everypony else to thaw out the wall of ice surrounding the town. A month later began the annual Winter Wrap up. Before it truly began Twilight and Fluttershy went to the cave to see if Raiju would be willing to help wrap up winter, and Twilight had a lot of questions about the dragon that had attacked during winter. They managed to wake him up much quicker this time, and after a big yawn he began talking to the ponies. "Oh! Hello, how are you both doing?" Twilight smiled and responded. "Good morning Raiju. We just wanted to wake you up to see if you wanted to help with Winter Wrap up." I'd be glad to help, what do you want me to do?" "C'mon, I'll explain on the way." On the way to ponyville Fluttershy split off and went to go prepare to wake up the other hibernating animals, and Twilight began asking Raiju questions about the dragon. "So Raiju, you left before I could ask. What was that dragon that attacked us last month?" "Wait there was a dragon attack?! I had a nightmare that a Kushala Daora attacked but I don't remember waking up for any dragon attack." Twilight looked at him confused and said. "That...was no dream. That is exactly what happened...so what was it?" "Wow...I guess I don't remember things very well when I wake up mid hibernation.” He said with a small chuckle. “No wonder it was so vivid. Well...A Kushala Daora is a powerful dragon able to control both wind and ice. Very easy to anger and will do anything to get what they want, they tend to be very well respected throughout the dragon species...I wonder what he meant when he said ‘You haven't heard the last of me.’" The two went on to find something for Raiju to do during Winter Wrap up, and decided that he could assist in both clearing and plowing the fields. Winter Wrap up was now over and spring was under way, a few weeks later Rainbow Dash was seen flying around Ponyville trying to round up every pegasus pony she could. Raiju, who was getting food for himself and Thundercloud, noticed Rainbow Dash flying around and stopped and asked her what she was doing. "Hey Rainbow Dash! What are you doing flying back and forth around town?" "No time to talk Raiju. There is a massive storm coming from the south east, and Cloudsdale is requesting that everypony capable of helping, to come and help move it tomorrow morning." "Storm? Where?" Rainbow Dash pointed to a very far off, pitch black cloud that was hardly visible. "Hmm...I'm going to go check this out, I don't know why but I don't like the look of that cloud" Rainbow Dash took off, back to rounding up every pegasus in town, saying. "That's why we need to hurry and stop that storm before it gets near any towns" Raiju began walking out of town and towards a far off hill where he could get a better look at the storm. All the while, he couldn't shake the feeling that he's seen something similar before. Once he stood at the top of the hill for a minute or two watching the storm, he noticed what seemed to be red tinted lightning occasionally coming from the storm. His eyes widened and his jaw almost hit the floor, as couldn't believe what he was seeing. He suddenly stood up realizing that he needed to warn everypony. He ran back to town and immediately went to Twilight's library. He knocked on the door and Twilight opened the door. Raiju immediately started talking in a panic. "Twilight! This is a HUGE emergency! I need to get a letter to Princess Celestia, and I need help evacuating Ponyville...NOW!" Twilight stood there, confused, until she said. "Hold on, you need to slow down. What are you talking about?" Raiju caught his breath and said. "That storm coming this way, it's not a storm, It's the dragon general Amatsumagatsuchi! Embodiment of the storm. We need to stop the pegasi from getting near that thing, and it's heading right for Ponyville, please I need your help." "Wait...WHAT?! You said that they are the strongest of all dragons, what is it doing in Equestria?" "I don't know...I need to go talk with her before she gets here, but if talking to her doesn't work, I don't want anypony in the cross fire. Homes can be rebuilt, but lives cannot." Raiju wrote the letter and handed it to Spike, whom Twilight had just called over, and began preparing the evacuation. The evacuation only took two hours due to the train system changing their schedule to assist. The entire town was empty and Raiju was alone. He began walking towards the storm, Princess Celestia had arrived and began talking to Raiju as they walked. "Raiju...How are you so certain that this is what you say it is." "I've seen her before...she is immensely powerful but is not deaf to reason. Having you here will definitely help, but if things go wrong...run far away from here." The storm was almost directly overhead now, as a voice pierced through the wind. "You! You are the one who embarrassed my second in command and smeared my honor in the process." Raiju was stunned; this isn't what he expected at all. "Wait, hold on. This isn't about the letter I sent, requesting a meeting with the elder three?" "No, I was unaware of this letter. Now...Have at you!" All of a sudden a massive blast of water shot out of the cloud. Raiju quickly grabbed the princess and dodged the attack, the ground erupted in a cloud of mud where the blast had struck. She thanked him and wished him luck as she began to fly away. Raiju began trying to come up with a plan, he knew that he needed to get her out of the storm. He suddenly came up with an idea after a few minutes of dodging attacks, and began filling the storm with electricity until the dragon finaly spoke out. "I see you game Jinouga, unfortunately for me, there is nothing I can do. You are one of very few who have actually forced me out of my storm; this changes nothing however, my powers are not centered around it." The swirling clouds above began to open at the center where the bright sunshine began to break through. The dragon began to slowly fly from the storm. It had no wings; instead, its body was covered in fins that glistened in the sunlight as she seemed to just swim through the air. It was completely white except for the black on its face and the two large, golden horns atop its head. The dragon Laughed and said. "Let's see if you can hit me now." The dragon immediately started blasting the area with water and powerful winds. Raiju started dodging and throwing bolts of lightning back, which were hitting, but with little effect. The battle lasted for about twenty minutes, with Raiju still trying to resolve the battle peacefully, but she wouldn’t listen. The landscape was torn apart and Raiju was running out of ideas, until he came up with one final plan. The Dragon let loose a massive blast of water, but this time Raiju didn't move out of the way. This time he stood still and began pulling back all the electricity from the storm that he had put in at the beginning of the fight. The electricity went straight through the dragon, causing her to flinch and fall to the ground. The blast of water still hit its mark on Raiju, breaking some ribs and temporarily knocking him unconscious. When he awoke he struggled to move and, when he looked up, noticed the Amatsumagatsuchi hovering mere feet from him. He braced himself for an attack he knew he wouldn't survive, which never came. The dragon, instead, began speaking to Raiju. "Arise Jinouga. You have bested me this day. I wish to thank you for knocking some sense into me. I was acting on what is considered appropriate for dragon kind, defending the honor of myself and my subordinates, not for what is logical. You have done nothing to me before this day, nor have I to you. I was acting the pressure of others, but your motives are pure. You act selflessly and risk your life for others, a quality I have not seen in a very long time." The dragon flew back into its storm and just before leaving said one final thing to Raiju. "You said that you requested an audience with the elders...I will make sure that they will see you." Still dumbfounded, Raiju smiled and called out thanking her as she flew out of view. He then teleported himself back home and wrote a letter to the princess. It read. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dear Princess Celestia. General Amatsumagatsuchi has left Equestria and it is safe for everypony to return to their homes. She has decided to speed up the process and get me to speak with the three elders about the attacks on Equestria. I will attempt to have them outlaw entry into Equestria for any dragon. The battle left the area in poor condition, but luckily, didn't come close to any homes. I, however, did not come out of this unscathed. I have a few broken ribs, but I should be fine in a couple of weeks." --Raiju ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ He then sent the letter and went to bed. The next morning Raiju woke up to the sound of knocking on his door, to which he called out telling whomever it was to come in. Suddenly Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy burst through the door looking for Raiju, immediately bombarding him with questions. Twilight started. "Oh my goodness I can’t believe you did it! How did you do it?!" "Yeah!" Rainbow Dash interupted. "I went over there yesterday and saw what it did to the ground. Was that water that caused that?" "Yes that was water that it shot from its mouth. It's both pressurized in its body and it is pushed faster with the wind. As for defeating it...I didn't really. I electrocuted her almost as much as I could and all it did, was cause her to fall, I took the most of it." Twilight had another question. "The princess said something about you meeting with the three elders. What are those?" Raiju sighed and started to explain. "The three elders are all brothers. They are the strongest dragons to ever live, and quite likely strongest anything ever. They are also called the Fatalis Trio. Fatalis is their species, of which they are the only ones. It means two things, fate and fatal, which is exactly what they are. The youngest and weakest is black and tends to disagree with the Red colored one, who is the second youngest. He likes to look out for the interests of himself and of dragon kind, with little regard for other species." Raiju paused until Twilight asked. "And the oldest?" "The oldest...the most mysterious of the three. His voice has never been heard by anyone other than his brothers. His scales are white in color but it is said that he will glow a blood red when angry...the only problem with that information, is that all who have seen him angry...didn't survive to tell the tale. He is considered by many as the origin of all dragons, and has the final say in anything his brothers disagree on...and I need to convince them that dragons shouldn't be allowed in Equestria." There was a moment where none of them talked until Rainbow Dash decided she couldn't stand to silence. "Wow...Sounds like you have a lot on your plate...Well, you have my support, and I'm sure everpony else wishes you the best of luck." “Definitely!” Twilight said with a smile on her face They spent a good part of the day continuing to asking him questions, until they all left to let Raiju rest. Three weeks later, after Raiju's wounds were mostly healed and, while he was walking through town, a small wyvern flew up to him. It was a dark purple on its top and yellow on its underbelly and it’s body shape was very similar to a snake. "A Remobra?" Raiju said, surprised. "Then that means." The creature dropped the letter it held in its claws and flew off without a sound. Raiju unrolled the letter and read it. It said that Raiju was to report to the elders in one weeks’ time. He immediately stopped what he was doing and informed the other ponies.