It was morning, and the swamp was brimming with ugly noises, from croaking frogs to chirping crickets. A large salamander crawled on the ground, and gobbled up an earthworm. When it fully consumed its food, it twitched its head as it heard something. Suddenly, a tongue pierced through its body, wrapped around it, and pulled it into Hammerheart's maw. He swallowed it whole and licked his lips.
"Barely even a meal." Hammerheart grumbled.
"Hammerheart!" Fluttershy called. The Wyvern turned to see her flying to him. "Are you ready to go?"
Hammerheart sighed. "I was born ready." He said. They both headed back to the village, where the other five mares were waiting. When they arrived, they all stood up and smiled.
"Alright, where to first?" said Twilight. "We've got seven places to go to find the seven Dragon God powers, with the eighth being the hardest to find."
"We should try the ocean first!" said Pinkie. Everyone looked at her with raised brows.
"Why the ocean first?" Rainbow Dash asked.
Pinkie just shrugged. "Just a thought."
Though a random choice, everyone simply agreed on a course. "Alright, the ocean it is." said Hammerheart.
Twilight looked to the four brothers. "Can you tell us which direction the ocean might be?" She asked.
"Da ocean?" said Basha, "Well, if ya go to da west, you'll find it soon enough."
"But be careful over dere." Crasha warned.
"Terrifyin' beasts swim dem waterz." said Smasha.
"An dey gotz a real taste fer meat." said Thrasha.
Fluttershy was nearly stiff with anxiety, but Hammerheart tapped her on the shoulder with his hand, and she relaxed.
"Don't fret, lassie." said Hammerheart, "I'll take care of everythin'." Fluttershy managed to calm down. With Hammerheart and her friends with her, she would definitely feel protected. "Alright, pull up yer stockings and let's git goin'." said Hammerheart.
"Okay!" The mares said.
The brothers gave them all a thumbs up and waved goodbye. "Go git 'em!" said Basha.
"Happy trailz!" said Crasha.
"Don't git lost on yer way dere!" said Smasha.
"If ya see a large T-Rex on yer way, tell 'im we're comin' for 'im!" said Thrasha.
As the party waved goodbye back and walked away, Basha, Crasha, and Smasha looked at Thrasha with raised brows.
"What do ya mean by that?" said Smasha. But Thrasha just shrugged.
Hammerheart and the group traversed through the forest that surrounded the swamplands of the Saurasks. Heading westward should lead them to the ocean, and the first of eight Dragon God powers. The birds sung their songs as they flew above them, more prehistoric mammals scurried about the forest floor as they fled from Hammerheart, and the warm atmosphere was at a surprisingly and perfectly comfortable temperature.
"Hey Twilight, you have any idea as to what these things that are running around are?" Rainbow Dash asked.
Twilight examined the bouncing shrew-like animals that were moving about. "Hmm. I believe they're called leptictidium." She said.
Everyone cocked an eye to the librarian. "A leppa-what now?" said Hammerheart.
Twilight cleared her throat as she began to explain. "Leptictidium, also known as the 'graceful weasel', are an extinct genus of mammals that are completely bipedal, along with today's animals like kangaroos and primates."
Everyone was silent upon hearing her explanation. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie barely understood half the words that came out of Twilight's mouth. Hammerheart simply shrugged, and they all continued their trek.
"What, no questions?" said Twilight.
"I think we're all passin' that up." said Applejack.
Suddenly, Hammerheart stopped dead in his tracks, and the mares stopped as well. "What's wrong, Hammerheart?" Fluttershy asked.
Hammerheart sniffed the air, and picked up an uncomfortable smell. "I smell blood." He said solemnly.
The mares gasped, and Hammerheart took off into the direction he caught the scent. The girls followed after him. Hammerheart ran past tree after tree, before finally finding where the scent was coming from. He hid behind a large bush, and the others caught up with.
"What going on, Hammerheart?" Twilight asked.
"SHH!" He hissed before lowering his voice to a whisper, "Keep behind cover and can yer pie holes." The girls zipped their lips and duck behind the bush. Looking past the bush, they saw a rather nasty event unfold before them.
A pack of feathered dinosaurs were surrounding and attacking a larger dinosaur. They had a six inch long claw on their inner toes, and screeched to each other. They dinosaur they were attacking was bigger than them, but already wounded from claw marks and bites. It had a bill and made a grunt that sounded like a horn of a sort.
"Twilight, what are those things?" Rainbow Dash asked.
Twilight examined them. "I think it's a pack of Deinonychus, and they're trying to bring down what looks like a Hadrosaurus." She said.
Fluttershy gasped. "We've gotta help it!" She said as she tried to fly in to rescue the wounded Hadrosaurus, but Hammerheart grabbed her tail with his mouth and pulled her down.
"We can't do anything, now." said Twilight. "Plus, it's a bad idea. If they see us, they'll try to kill and eat us, too."
They could do nothing but wait until the Deinonychus pack finished their kill and left. Soon, the Hadrosaurus fell to the ground, dying from all the deep wounds inflicted, until it finally ceased moving. The pack moved in to feast on their fresh kill.
As Hammerheart watched them devour the dead Hadrosaurus, he could not help but feel hungry himself. He licked his lips, and drool dripped from his maw onto Rarity's head.
"BLECH!" She cried in disgust before looking up at the Wyvern responsible with a scowl. "Hammerheart, how rude!" She whispered.
Hammerheart shook his head and snapped out of his hunger trance. He looked down at Rarity. "What? What now?"
"Could you not drool on my mane, please?" said Rarity. "It took me hours to clean it this morning."
"With what?" said Applejack, "Ya ain't got no brush on ya."
"Why, the Saurask ladies back at the village gave me an oriental comb made of clean stone."
"Wait, why would something that doesn't have hair have a comb?" Rainbow Dash pointed out, but the sound of something hissing chilled their spines and prevented any answers. Hammerheart looked up, and the mares looked back to see the Deinonychus pack had overheard their little conversation, and were ready to hunt more prey.
Hammerheart caught a familiar scent of salt, and he looked towards the direction if was coming from. "Quick, follow me!" He called. He took off, and the others followed after him, with the Deinonychus pack in pursuit.
They fled through the forest with all the speed they could muster. Though Hammerheart could fly, near ground level and low branches did not offer enough space, which also prevented takeoff. They ran for their lives from the screeching and growling Dino-Pack.
"Hammerheart, where are we going?!" said Twilight.
Hammerheart grunted as he ran past the trees. "We're gettin' pretty close to the ocean! I can smell the salty waters!" Trusting in Hammerheart's sense of direction, the mares stayed close behind and picked up the pace.
But the Deinonychus were catching up, as they maneuvered through the forest with less trouble than their prey. They jumped over and slipped through any obstacles that obscured the way.
Soon, Hammerheart and the gang made it to a beach, and the shore. The ocean itself seemed endless. The water close to the shore was calm from the lack of strong winds, and the farther waters were practically still.
"The ocean! We made it!" said Twilight. Roaring from the forest told them they were not in the clear yet.
Hammerheart turned and faced the trees. "You lot, go! Hide!" The mares looked at him in disbelief. "I'll take care of these feather-brained roadrunners!"
"But Hammerheart, they'll have you outnumbered!" Fluttershy said, trying to save him from getting severely wounded again.
He looked at her with seemingly aggressive intent. "Go. Now." He growled. "Unless you want those things ta tear you a new one, ya'll do as I say, and hide."
Fluttershy backed away from Hammerheart, fearing the look in his eyes, and she and the others quickly hid behind a boulder in the sand.
Hammerheart stood his ground, waiting for his opponents to come to him. The pack leapt from the forest and roared at him. There were a dozen of them. Hammerheart was very outnumbered. He scrutinized the pack as he remembered Zaurus' advice.
"Find me enemy's weakness, and strike it." He thought. He looked at every single Deinonychus. They were stomping their feet and bobbing their bodies in an attempt to intimidate him. Hammerheart soon noticed one of the raptors barking at all the rest. It must be the pack leader. Hammerheart lunged at the barking Deinonychus, grabbed it with his jaws, and began to violently shake it from side to side while growling. The surrounding raptors leapt onto Hammerheart's back and began their attack, but had some difficulty trying to pierce his tough hide with their claws.
When the leader was weakened, Hammerheart placed it on the ground, but kept holding it. He then pinned it with his foot, tore a chunk of flesh from its body, and swallowed it whole. He was hungry, and he actually enjoyed the taste. He flapped his wings and got airborne, getting most of the other raptors off his back, and then landed near the water's edge.
"With their leader dead, they should be running away like wee little canaries." He thought. The Deinonychus sniffed their dead pack member's body, and then returned their focus to Hammerheart, cawing and barking with the need to kill.
Hammerheart cocked his head back in shock. "What?! But I killed their pack leader, didn't I? They don't have anyone else ta keep 'em together." He scrutinized them again. "They're must be something else that holds 'em together. Gaian Wyrms flee when their leader is killed, but these beasts' weakness has to be somethin' else. When I find it, I'll break their backs with it!"
The Dino-pack went in to attack, and Hammerheart greeted them with teeth and claws. He would try and set them ablaze with his fire breath, but they were swift. The Deinonychus leapt onto Hammerheart's body again, and began to bite and claw at his hide, leaving sizable cuts.
The mares watched in horror from afar as Hammerheart was being overwhelmed by the voracious dinosaurs. "Come on, Twilight!" Fluttershy begged. "There has to be something we can do."
"Why don't we just join in and give those overgrown turkeys a good buckin'?" Applejack suggested.
"Yeah! I wanna kick some dino tail, too!" Rainbow Dash said, kicking her front legs in front of herself.
"There's nothing we can do." said Twilight. "Those dinosaurs are extremely dangerous. If we get mixed up in that fight, we'll be killed in seconds."
Rarity raised an eyebrow in bafflement. "I cannot fathom as to why Hammerheart drooled on me like that..."
"Rarity, is now the time to be asking questions that don't matter right now?" said Rainbow Dash.
Hammerheart reached back with his head and caught a Deinonychus in his jaws, delivered a crushing bite, and threw it away. But there were still more raptors piling on him. Hammerheart spun in a circle as fast as he could, until he tripped on his own steps and fell to the ground, making the raptors fall off of him. He got back up on his feet, and the raptors stood up and began trying to intimidate him again by bobbing their bodies and cawing.
Hammerheart was getting angry. These beasts, like many others before, had the nerve to try and make prey out of him. The fact that they challenged him rather than be fearful got on his nerves. He felt his anger slowly turn into something much darker. He could feel his need to kill grow, and his hunger for their flesh intensify. He began to approach the pack and growl deeply. The Deinonychus still bobbed their bodies and cawed, but they stepped back with every step the Wyvern made. Hammerheart's bulbar conjunctivas began to turn from yellow to black.
Fluttershy noticed Hammerheart's unusual behavior. "Something's not right." She said.
The others looked to her. "What do you mean?" Pinkie asked.
"Hammerheart almost seems... different." said Fluttershy.
"Different how?" Twilight asked.
Fluttershy rapidly blinked and shook her head. "I'm not sure, but I've got a bad feeling."
Hammerheart readied himself to pounce and unleash himself upon the pack. The Deinonychus continued bobbing and cawing. Hammerheart's mouth curled into a sinister grin, but then something snapped in his mind, and he found himself calming down. His black eyes returned to their yellow color, and he no longer felt the need to viciously tear the raptors apart. "What... what was that?" He thought. "I just... felt the need to... slaughter everythin' that I saw." He then began coughing. Smoke came out every time he coughed. A cloud of smoke got in one of the Deinonychus's face, and it shook its head and grunted. Hammerheart caught that.
"So, these cock-a-doodle doohickeys gag at the taste of smoke, eh?" He thought. "Well then, time ta stop, drop, and roll yer way back ta yer mums' nests!" Hammerheart took in a deep breath, and exhaled a massive smokescreen that enveloped the Dino-pack. The Deinonychus cawed and growled and grunted from the smoke that threatened to choke them. They all then turned tail and fled into the forest to escape the Wyvern's breath. Hammerheart then flapped his wings and blew all of his smoke into the forest to make sure they were far gone.
The mares came out of hiding and rushed up to Hammerheart, who rolled and crackled his neck and shoulders from another battle fought and won.
"Are you alright?" Fluttershy asked.
Hammerheart sighed. "It's nothin'. I'll be fine once we're on the move."
Twilight noticed the wounds inflicted on his back and neck. "Those look really bad."
"Yeah, even worse than those timber wolf bites you had." said Rainbow Dash.
Hammerheart looked at the gashes on his back. They were rather deep. Why were those raptors able to cut his tough skin that easily? Now that he thought about it, why were those timber wolves also able to bite through his hide without trouble? Hammerheart gave a grumbling sigh.
"Here, I'll take care of those injuries." said Twilight. She closed her eyes and her horn started to glow. Her magical aura enveloped Hammerheart's body, and the cuts began to seal shut. Hammerheart raised an eye as he remembered Twilight could also heal injuries, just as well as Zaurus can. When Twilight stopped, Hammerheart's body was clean of any injuries.
"Thanks, I guess." He said.
Twilight smiled. "You're welcome." They all looked to the ocean. "So, what do we do?"
"I'm guessin' the power of Thalassia is swimmin' in those waters somewhere." said Hammerheart. "We can't search by air."
"So, what are you suggesting?" Fluttershy asked.
Hammerheart scratched his head. "As much as I don't like the idea meself, we're probably gonna have to git our feet wet."
"In other words, we're going swimming!" Pinkie cheered, bouncing with excitement.
Fluttershy's eyes widened worriedly. "But those four brothers said that there are so many monsters swimming in the ocean."
Hammerheart stepped closer to the water until they washed up to his feet. "It'll take more than a bunch of bubble-blowin' cat-baits ta keep me outta the water."
"So whadda we do?" said Applejack. "We can't swim, or breathe underwater."
Hammerheart rolled his eyes. "Ain't you the master of the obvious."
Twilight put her hoof to her chin. "I think I have an idea. Everypony, get on Hammerheart's back." Hammerheart cocked his head and looked at Twilight. "I can create an air barrier that will keep me and my friends from drowning, but I'm afraid it's only big enough for the six of us when we're huddled together. You're gonna have to hold your breath."
Hammerheart sighed through his nostrils. "I see. Right then, hop on lassies." He set his wing on the ground, and the others embarked onto his back. As Hammerheart stepped deeper into the water, Fluttershy tapped his back to get his attention, and he looked back at her.
"Hammerheart, you can swim, right?" She asked.
Hammerheart looked back towards the sea. "I can, though it's a wee bit difficult."
Before Hammerheart was fully submerged, Twilight began to cast the spell, and the barrier formed all around her and the other mares, sealing in their only oxygen, and keeping the water from drowning them. Hammerheart was soon underwater, and flapped his wings like he was flying, except with every flap he pushed himself through the water at a decent speed.
The search for the power of the Duwiau Ddraig had begun.