Chapter 1
Twilight Sparkle groaned in her sleep, screwing her eyes shut as tight as she possibly could. But no matter how much she tossed and turned and tried to go back to sleep the green light was still making its way through her closed eyelids.
"Spike stop snoring..." Twilight mumbled.
"Mmm, huh?" Spike said from his basket next to Twilight's bed.
Twilight was getting aggravated, the small dragon was still breathing fire and causing a green glow that was keeping her awake.
"Spike stop it I'm trying to sleep..." Twilight complained once more.
"T-Twilight... I'ts not me..." Spike stuttered with a yelp.
Twilight's eyes bolted open, and she saw she was face to face with the perpetrator that had kept her awake.
"Ahh!" The mare screamed as she thrashed under the sheets and fell out of bed.
The mare jumped up and stared at the glowing orb that floated next to where her face previously was. 'No, not an orb... an eye...' Twilight corrected herself as she noticed the slitted pupil that followed her movement as she trotted around it trying to get a better look. Somepony was spying on her, or trying to get her attention.
"Doral ana'diel?" A soft, but masculine voice emanated from the eye.
"W-what?!" Twilight exclaimed after the eye talked.
"Ah, how strange... You speak with the human tongue..." The voice said in a strange accent.
"Human tongue?" The scholar asked, "No, this language is called Equestrian."
"So it has worked! I have found a new world!" The voice sounded excited, if a bit tired.
"Who.. Are you?" Twilight Sparkle asked timidly.
"Oh, I apologize for being so rude. I am Kiridan Blackflame, grand warlock of Silvermoon City, at your service." The orb bobbed as if bowing.
Twilight gave the eye a scrutinizing gaze as she considered what is had said to her. Twilight began to back away as the eye slowly floated towards her. Upon noticing it was not making any progress the eye stopped once more.
"You do no believe me?" The eye asked.
"Well, I have never heard of Silvermoon, and I do not know what kind of eye a warlock is..." Twilight said as she backed against the wall and gave spike a pleading look. The little dragon shook his head and flipped the basket over himself to hide.
"What? Oh, haha. No, this eye is not my body, it is a spell so that I can peer into places I cannot normally reach." The eye said.
"A spell? You can use magic?" Twilight asked with an impressed and interested tone.
"Most races can from what I know, though not all choose to follow the path of a spell caster." The voice laughed.
"Wait, where you are from everypony can use magic, but some still choose not to? Why?" Twilight asked incredulous at the notion.
"Not all are as gifted, some choose to rely on their own strength. Those who follow their callings instead of trying to learn something they cannot get farther in life." The eye bobbed as it talked, as if losing power.
"Are you okay?" Twilight asked as the eye began to become dimmer.
"The spell is fading, I have reached the end of the duration. perhaps we can speak another day?" The eye inquired.
"Sure, but try to not come in the middle of the night... I was trying to sleep..." Twilight said with a smile and a forced laugh as she rubbed the back of her head with a hoof.
"Sorry about that, farewell..." The voice trailed off.
"Twilight, Twilight Sparkle." The mare said clearly
"Sinu a'manore Twilight." The eye said before losing all of its glow, and turning to ash that fell to the floor in a neat pile.
Twilight stared at where the eye had turned to ash, and then turned her attention towards the shivering basket beside her bed.
"Well spike since you decided to hide you can clean this up before going back to bed." Twilight said with a smile.
"Aww..." The baby dragon groaned.
Kiridan slipped through the transparent blue curtains that served as a door to the inn, the silky fabric emitted a quiet ring as the bells at the bottoms moved. Kiridan looked around the dimly lit room and caught his eyes on the innkeeper.
"Have they already gotten a room?" Kiridan asked as he approached her.
"They are upstairs, first room on the left. Please make sure they don't get too rowdy..." Velandra the innkeeper said with an annoyed look.
The warlock made his way up the stairs, running his hand over the golden railing as he stared at the room his friends would be in. Kiridan stopped in front of the curtain and looked in, seeing the two of them sitting next to each other, passing a hookah pipe between them. Each race had places like this one, where addictions could be served. For the Goblins it was gambling, the Orcs it was brawling, and the Forsaken had cannibal bars. The Blood Elves however, were addicted to magic. These hookahs were not normal ones used for smoking, they held the essence of a captured elemental that was being slowly stripped into a magical vapor.
Places like these were not cheap to get into, only regulars were allowed in without being charged upfront. Unfortunately, Kiridan and his friends had become regulars to this location. The warlock noticed something and looked to the side where a Blood Knight initiate was lying on the floor, shivering from his wounds in a pool of his own blood.
"Let him be, it's all part of the initiation ritual." One of his friends called from within the room.
Kiridan walked in and took a seat next to a free hookah. Taking a large puff of the mana vapor, the warlock sighed in relief. Only then did he turn his attention toward his friends.
"You two are being awfully friendly, sharing a pipe like that..." Kiridan said before taking another drag on his pipe.
"I'm supposed to be arresting her, can't let her out of my sight until it all blows over so we can forget the crime ever happened." The man who spoke before said with a sigh as he accepted the pipe back to take a puff.
"What did you do this time" Kiridan asked as he grabbed a handful of grapes from a nearby bowl and popped one into his mouth.
"Well, there may have been a slight misunderstanding in the bazaar..." The female Blood Elf said nervously.
"She got into an argument with an Orcish emissary from the Frost Wolves, he began yelling and she lit him on fire. Luckily I was there on duty and I 'apprehended' her..." The male said.
"Huh, guarding the bazaar today? is that why you are out of uniform?" Kiridan asked as he eyed the flashy armor his friend wore.
"As long as I am not in the northern districts it matters little, this armor is better than my regular Blood Knight uniform anyways..." He said casually before once more taking the hookah pipe.
"I would have been fine, the sleazeball was trying to make a move on me and that was why I lit him up." The girl said.
"Not that I have a problem with the destruction branch, but you cannot go around immolating whoever you please. Gives the rest of us warlocks a bad name..." Kiridan said shaking his head.
"Ha, you are one to talk. Summoning all those demons, I swear if you lose control of one again ill make sure to smite you with it. The last one you lost control of nearly destroyed the inn here. What would we do then, suck the magic out of a stranger like some kind of vampire?" The Blood Knight said with a frown.
"Yeah... Lost control..." The female said with a smirk.
"You didn't..." Kiridan said astonished.
"Yeah, you can never tell if you lost your control over them, or if another warlock stole control... come on though, it was funny wasn't it?" The female smirked.
"If you were not the guild's leader..." Kiridan warned.
"I don't care if she is, do your pranks outside of the city. I finally landed a good position here, and I won't see you ruining it." The male practically growled.
"Hah, and what would you do about it?" The female said with a mocking tone.
"Well I know of a certain Orcish emissary that would very much like to know where to send his assassins..." The male countered with his own smile.
"You wouldn't dare..." The woman said firmly.
"Oh no? I served a long time in Alterac Valley, I am an exalted soldier among their ranks still to this day for what I did for them." The man said proudly.
"By served you mean on your back for those big muscular Orcs right?" The woman teased.
The man froze for a second, before turning his head and looking directly at Kiridan. The warlock sat up slightly preparing for an outburst of violence he knew was coming. The man then pulled his leg back and kicked the leg of the woman's chair, shattering the wood and causing the woman to tumble to the ground.
"Diz!" Kiridan exclaimed as he looked at the groaning woman on the floor.
"Zip it Helix... Weaver got what she asked for." The Blood Knight said, addressing his friends with their guild code names, names that they had used for each other since their very first adventures together.
"Fuck you..." Weaver said as she got off the ground, still laughing at her success at getting a rise from the Blood Knight.
"So, Helix... You said you found something interesting?" Dizastrous said, changing the subject as he took a deep hit of the hookah, finishing it off.
"Yes, I may have uncovered a new place to look for the cure..." Helix/Kiridan said.
"What..." Weaver said as she dusted her robe off.
"You heard me, but it is a new world completely. One that we can search without that fool Garrosh attempting a full fledged attack on." Helix said with a grin as he took another drag on his hookah.
"Lor'thermar will be pleased by this..." Dizastrous said as he took his seat again.
"When do we leave?" Weaver asked with a smile.
"Tonight..." Helix said grinning.
"I have an appointment to get my hair cut tonight." Dizastrous said casually.
"Fine tomorrow morning." Helix said with a frown.
"I have a spa visit scheduled in the morning." Weaver said looking at her nails.
"In the afternoon then?" Helix asked in an exasperated tone.
"Works for me." Dizastrous said glancing toward Weaver.
Weaver nodded her approval before moving over to a bed and flopping down on it. Dizastrous and Helix watched with neutral expressions as the female warlock stretched and began falling asleep.
"Looks like she claims that bed..." Helix said before moving over to another vacant one.
"We should get this place cleaned up sometime if it is going to host officer meetings for the guild like this... I know it's a mana house but does it have to smell like someone died in here?" Dizastrous said as he left the room.
The Blood Knight then looked over to where the dead initiate lay on the ground.
"Oh yeah..." Dizastrous mumbled.
Twilight Sparkle sat in her study looking over a book on spells that were designed to improve sight, and allow vision across wide ranges. However as she finished the book she huffed in dissatisfaction. She had hoped to figure out what kind of spell the stranger Kiridan Blackflame had used to contact her, but nothing she had researched had even hinted at the ability of the spell he referred to as the Eye of Kilrogg.
"Hmm, I wonder why he won't tell me how to cast it..." Twilight mumbled to herself as she levitated the book back to where it was supposed to be.
Twilight had been visited three times now by the floating green eye, and each time it would ask her questions about the land and the ponies that lived on it. She had shown it a map of the known regions of Equestria, and Twilight had even shown the eye a few books from the library. After the eye learned so much, it would then talk to Twilight and ask her about her own personal history. Twilight had come to view the eye as a sort of pen pal. Though she had not shared the news to anypony else yet, Twilight felt after talking with the eye that she could trust him. The only thing that irked her was that the eye refused to go into his own past, saying things like 'You really don't want to know', or 'The things I have done do not always bring me pride'.
"Bal'a dash young Twilight" Kiridan's voice called as the eye floated through the opened window of the library.
"Oh, Kiridan! You're earlier than you normally come." Twilight said as she sat back down and waited for the eye to draw closer.
"Yes, and I'm afraid I will not be visiting for near as long this time." Kiridan's voice was businesslike, but still warm.
"Oh. why not?" Twilight asked as she cocked her head to the side.
"I simply need to see a map of the land again. I am trying to figure out where my spell drops me off at in this world." Kiridan said with a tone that made twilight imagine him waving a hoof dismissively.
Twilight chuckled to herself as she trotted over to the wall that had the folding map of Equestria hanging on it, and she pulled the string at the bottom with her magic, allowing the map to unroll from its case. The eye then floated over and began searching. Twilight sat down and watched the eye look at different spots at the map and mumble to itself as if doing calculations.
"I remember going over a town... And those mountains would then definitely be the ones I get dropped off next to... So, I guess the leyline I come through must be on the edge of the badlands, just south of Dodge City here." Kiridan said finally.
"Wait, you fly over fifty miles just to come here when there was a town you already passed?" Twilight asked.
"I could sense no beings with an affinity towards magic that I could converse with in that town." Kiridan stated simply.
"Well they are all earth ponies... By the way, why did you want to figure this out?" Twilight asked, with several more questions already prepared to ask such as about what a magical leyline had to do with his ability to come into her world with his spell.
"Now is not the time, I will tell you when next we meet." The eye said before bursting into fire and falling as ash to the ground.
Twilight frowned at the hasty retreat Kiridan had made this time. As she thought to herself Spike walked into the study with a tray of cookies and tea for Twilight. After setting the tray down the young dragon looked at the pile of ashes and adopted a sour look on his face.
"Not again..." The baby dragon whined.