//------------------------------//
// Journey 
// Story: The Eclipsed Scale 
// by Maneiac 
//------------------------------//

The whispering current of wind caressed my ears, tickling them annoyingly. This was enough to wake me up, so, quite lethargically if I may add; I began stretching and popping my limbs, arching my back up. There was a pleasurable pop from the spine, and I exhaled in comfortability. 

Smacking my lips, I opened my eyes and saw something that ruined my day. 

I frowned at the Alicorn. “What is it now? I just woke up.” 

Eliahcus dipped his head in greeting. “Good morn’ to thee, Ragnarok. I have a mission for you to do.” 

I yawned in his face, making sure to blow his mane back and get as much saliva on him as possible. Eliahcus reminded me of a soggy weeping willow when the waterworks stopped. “Nope. Too tired.” 

Grunting in annoyance, the Alicorn raised a hoof to wipe off the excess drool on his face; throwing the mucous to the ground with a wet splat. “But you just woke up! You even said so,” he protested crossly, making me get up, turn my back on him, and then lay down again. 

I could hear his teeth grinding, but I didn’t really care. 

“Ragnarok! This is a matter of great importance! There is no time for your lazing!” Eliahcus shouted, displaying his lack of patience. 

Craning my neck so that I could stare at him over my shoulder, I gave a snort of bemusement. “You wanted me to go to Atlantis, right? I’m going, but I never said when.” 

“Listen to me, you oversized gecko! This doesn’t concern that petty island in the sky! I have a mission for you that lies in the opposite direction of Atlantis; a mission that needs completion by sundown, and it’ll take you half a day to get there! You’re wasting time!” Eliahcus stomped his hoof, and I could have sworn the entire mountain jumped into the air a little. 

I looked at him. 

He glared at me. 

“.... Nah. Too tired.” I turned around and- suddenly was being pulled by my tail!? 

Snapping my head back around, I saw Eliahcus trotting out of my cave with his nose in the air, my tail trailing behind him with a silver and gold aura jingling around it. Growling venomously, I placed a claw on the appendage and yanked it from the Alicorn’s magical hold. He seemed put off by this, and looked at me as if I had grown a second head. 

“What in the name of the Elder Tongue are you doing, Alicorn scum!? Don’t you EVER use your heathen magic on me! I’ll pound you into the dirt, you walking flea factory!” I glared at him for emphasis, watching angrily as he sighed and shook his head. 

“Why are you being so stubborn today, you beast of burden? I just wanted a love letter delivered,” Eliahcus, as weird as this may sound, sulked. 

Scrounging my face up into horrid confusion, I began wondering what kind of mare actually found this guy attractive. His mane practically defecates lightning and uses storm clouds as follicle flatulence. It’s even worse for the tail, and that Creators-damned sparkling yellow coat was too damn bright!

“A love letter? And you believe a dragon to be the best courier,” I asked incredulously, not really comprehending the broken logic he was tossing my way. “Are you sure there’s familial blood between you and Lauren? I don’t see it, or maybe it hasn’t reached your brain yet?” I scratched at my neck scales in thought, actually wondering if someone can be dumb because prodigious blood hadn’t circulated the way it should have.

A sigh broke me out of my thought process, however, and I faced the... “What gesture is that?” I pointed at the hoof on his face. “That looks horribly unsanitary, but I get the feeling he’s becoming sore with my antics from that pose.” 

“I’m becoming sore from your antics, Ragnarok. Yes, my logic may be flawed, but I can’t really trust a missive of love to anyone else; because everyone else thinks I’m dead. This, unfortunately, includes the mare who’s supposed to be receiving it. Please be my only,” Eliahcus paused, seeming to be slapped with disgust itself before shaking his head, “acquaintance, and deliver this to the Eldest Queen of the Flutterponies.” 

Before I could respond, a white envelope with a red heart wax seal appeared in front of me as he teleported out. My talon went up to interject, but I let it droop with mild annoyance before lowering my claw altogether. 

“You scum. No, seriously; don’t let me catch you at night, Eliahcus,” I quirked my eyebrow as I realized the strange notion of talking to myself. The awkwardness was made more apparent as the threat rung out through my head, and I quickly shook it out. 

Looking directly at the hovering envelope, which was suspended in a gold and silver aura, I frowned before taking it in claw. Closing the hand tightly, I made my way to the mouth of my cave and peeked outside.

I grinned in shallow amusement at the sunrise-stroked lands ahead of me. Bountiful prairie fields with high grass ran on forever, seeming to dip into the sun itself. To the right and in the distance was a lake which I used to bathe.

“Speaking of...” I thought with some amusement, entertaining the thought of actually stinking. I lifted my arm and took a half-whiff. 

“BY THE ELDERS,” I swore loudly, jerking my head away from the offending sweat-gland hole. I coughed once or twice, shaking my head with distaste before flying out of the cave, headed for a pit stop that needed to happen. 




Feeling invigorated after my dip into the warm water, I climbed out of the lake and shook myself dry. Water sprayed everything in the immediate area, practically gliding off my lithe but muscular form effortlessly. Using a claw to sweep back the crimson mane in the way of my eyes, I used the water to slick it back out of my way. 

“Sometimes I hate being born with a mane. Spikes are so much easier to manage than actual hair... but I make it work!”  Turning around to ogle myself in the water’s surface, I struck different poses before snickering to myself. “I still got it! Fifteen-hundred years and I could still kill with a single wink!” 

Redirecting myself so that I could assemble the rest of my things, I was suddenly struck by one of my many explosions of genius. Quickly sliding the rings Eliahcus gave me onto my arms, I looked around to make sure there were no eavesdroppers. “The Elder Tongue is too sacred for non-scales to hear. I will be no better than those sniveling Alicorns if I am listened upon without knowing.” 

Satisfied that no one was going to hear me, I lifted the petite missive of affection to my mane. Taking a deep breath and exhaling it, I focused on the magic inside my person and channeled it into my mane and the letter. “Obretio.” 

I felt chunks of my mane ensnare the letter and bind it up within its confines. With a sigh of relief as the magic went back down into my body, I took a deep breath of the summer air. Wildflowers and wet grass stuck out the most, but I could smell small game meandering about the grasslands without a care. The most prominent of this game were hares, which were my second main source of food. 

Of course, I would have to capture around twenty of those little scamps in order to nudge my hunger. A wild stag was a nice change of pace, and my unwanted starvation helped me slim down a lot. “It was rather annoying, walking around with a bulbous belly.”

With the letter secured within my mane, I opened my wings and took off. There was only one place with mares in the opposite direction of Atlantis, which was to the West. And I dreaded going there for two reasons. 

One: The Flutterponies were known to be horribly prudish, even in the face of more important figures. I remember when I went to the Royal Council Meetings with the Seven Lords, the Cynogriffins, the Alicorns, and the Flutterponies, who swore up and down they were different. The only reason I was allowed to come was because of my status as Arch-Dragon, which placed me pretty high up in the ranks of my kin. 

But the fact still remained that the Flutterponies- not the Queens, but rather their envoys -took the saying “showing your whole ass” to another level. They practically suckled the hooves Queen Pandora and Chrysalis used for walking, which made me gag, and the fact that they held Love in such high places made me vomit.

Like, literally vomit. 

Unfortunately, that was the last meeting I was allowed to attend. Many laughs were had afterwards with the Seven Lords and I, but the punishment was not revoked. 

And two: I hate Alicorns. Not really much else to say on that, I’m afraid.

“At least flying’s nice this time of the year. Creators-forbid another surprise squall happens like the day before last. Twas a bad time to rid my bowels of the rotten stag I had so foolishly consumed because I was feeling lazy.” I placed a claw on my poor stomach and rubbed it affectionately, cooing to the abdominals that, ‘I was sorry for putting them through the wringer like I did’.

“What the actual hell is wrong with me? My actions have become rather idiotic ever since meeting Eliahcus, and there’s no valid explanation I can give for that. At least I look better than that horse, heh,” I thought with a sputter of my lips, not understanding why I was so giddy all of a sudden.

“I am a dragon! Dragons do not believe in giddy; they believe in results, and actuality! Get your head in the Game, Ragna!” I pepped myself up mentally, slapping my face to focus better and eject wayward thoughts. “Better. Now, by the time I reach Azalea, it should be evening. I’ll stay amongst their ilk for no longer than I have to, and I’ll be gone by first light... if everything goes to plan.” 

I settled down into my pace of gliding, then two flaps every-so-often, enjoying the warm air caressing my slick, lithe and muscular body. The air felt good enough to lull me into a pseudo-slumber, closing my eyes as the whistling in my ear-fins made me smile. “I could get used to this...”




So I had been flying for five-six hours now, if the sun was anything to go by. Zenith was here, and the heat of a summer’s day was beginning to take its toll on my body. So, with a roll of my eyes, I banked off towards a small pond to drink from. 

As I descended, I scanned the immediate area for any trouble... not that there would be any. I mean, I’m a dragon... and a handsome one at that!

Regardless, I strutted up to the pond and lowered my head, readying myself for the cool onslaught of liquid. And, with much gusto, I began lapping the water up. Under more favorable circumstances, I would be drinking it from a mug at someone’s house. But I didn’t have that luxury now, given my pariah disposition. 

Still, the water was invigorating, and did wonders for my burning chest. My lungs screamed for a break, and I was all too happy to give one up. I didn’t want to risk asphyxiation.

“If you paid attention to general studies as a whelp instead of brown-nosing the Elder Tongue, you might’ve actually learned something useful about dragon anatomy,” my brain rebuked, making me snarl minutely to myself. I then proceeded to chuckle.

Wiping my mouth of any excess water with a content sigh, I opened my wings and took off again, headed westwards to Azalea. 

As I climbed higher and higher, stopping just below the cloudline, I angled my body to the left with a smile and let my right scrape the cool, white clouds above me. The mist did wonders for my burning wing muscles, and I cursed myself for not thinking about taking a dip in the pond from before. 

I flew like this for a while before switching wings, sighing in relief as the burning was temporarily remedied. But my body was becoming sluggish from the flying, and no amount of cooling mist was going to alleviate the burning sensation that accumulated from six hours of nonstop flying. 

“I’m probably gonna crash land unless I take a break and rest. The little sip-n’-fly I did earlier wasn’t helpful in the slightest now that I’m actually flying again! It’s decided then: the next body of water I come across will be the one I take a nap at.” Looking down, I scanned the lime-green countryside with mild interest. There were little specks of purple, yellow, and red. I, with my dragon sight, knew perfectly well that these specks of colors were actually wildflowers. 

“Wait. I don’t have to take a break! These rings Eliahcus gave me are gonna get me there!” I smiled and lifted an arm in front of my face, inspecting two of the five closely. They felt like metal, that’s for sure, and there were no slits in their surface to suggest linking. Apparently, Eliahcus saw fit to bend the metal itself into a perfect circle somehow. “I know the magical capabilities of Alicorns well, but this is something else. I haven’t met an Alicorn capable of bending metal into perfect circles. If Eliahcus could do this, I shudder at the thought of Lauren Faust’s prowess.”

Frowning at how much of a coward that made me sound, I added a little more force into my flaps, accelerating minutely. The burning sensation within my wing muscles pained me slightly, but I trudged on, used to the inflammation already. 

“No, you’re not used to the pain. You’re just ignoring it. You don’t want it to hinder you, so onwards do you trudge. If a feeling is all it takes to shaken you, then Eliahcus has placed these rings on the wrong drake.” My brain really didn’t like me today for some reason.

“Don’t talk like we’re not one-in-the-same, Ragnarok. Every dragon knows the mind has to have two levels. It has to be this way, so we who barely age do not become mad as time drags on wearily.”  Frowning even harder, I added more force to my wings with a guttural growl.

“Stop it. I don’t like you,” I retorted childishly, but not disagreeing with what my mind was telling me. It was right, after all. Living a long life will drive any sentient being insane, which is why the ones cursed with long life are allowed a surrogate conscious. It keeps us on our toes and never without company.

“Lauren Faust is a genius. The magic is still casted by heathens, but I blessed my surrogate mind with the Elder Tongue. Even so, the beast runs rampant at times, and sometimes I can deal with it... sometimes.” Half of me was grateful for Lauren’s ingenuity, while the other half cursed her for making my point of Alicorns being heathens that much harder to drive home. 

Something hit me in the face with a loud smack, and I promptly stopped in the air and put up my claws. 

Nothing was there. 

“What? Oh...” I looked at my right arm and frowned at it. “Stupid appendage. I had forgotten all about you. But you are quite fetching, if I may say so myself.” Smugly, I focused on the magic within my blood, feeling it bubble out of its liquid encasement and into my arms. “If I’m right, the magic will transfer into the Kinetic Rings and launch me at an insane speed towards my destination. If I am wrong, I lose two arms due to magical feedback.”  Pursing my lips, I began flying again. 

“I need to figure out how to work these things. The information will be quite useful for when I get into another tussle with a challenger; or for getting between Point A and Point B quicker.” This thought was meant to comfort me into using the rings, but the image of my arms spontaneously imploding somehow wormed itself behind my eyes. The imaginary stumps gushed my blood like a fountain or waterfall, and I found myself chuckling, in the midst of that gory image, at the confused look on my imaginary self’s face. 

“There really is a silver lining for everything! Hey! I’m starting to feel comfortable with using the rings!” With a smile, I pulled an Elder Command from within the bowels of my mind. “Accelero.” 

My face was pushed back, and a thunderous boom was heard. Struggling to turn my neck under the new force, I took notice of a plum and red-colored circle expanding outwards. I could no longer hear anything, which had me feeling a little disoriented at how quick everything happened in this small window of time. 

“Heh, I broke the sound barrier... again,” I thought in excitement, bringing my head back to face the direction of which I was traveling. The countryside was blowing past me now, and I’m pretty sure, if this was anything like the last time I broke the sound barrier, that a eggplant-colored streak was flowing behind me erratically. “Now I have to refocus my magic back into my belly!” 

I scrounged my face up in confusion, however, when I still felt the magic in my arms. “That’s... that’s impossible! How is my magic still in my arms!? Not a single drop of it left the confines of them,” I thought with some fear, recalling the energy into my belly before my arms exploded.

“Dodged that arrow, huh,” I asked myself with a snicker, making my way towards Azalea at great speeds. “This should cut travel time exponentially! These Kinetic Rings are great! I wonder if they have to recharge from this?” 




I pulled up sharply, recognizing my surroundings instantly. There was a forest that shrouded the grove in which Azalea could be found, this much I knew. And I was in front of said forest. 

The problem with this, however, is that I arrived way sooner than what Eliahcus had predicted. I don’t know about him, but if he told the Flutterponies that I was going to arrive close to sundown, then they’re going to be in for a shock. 

“That’s what happens when you show in the afternoon, fool. Plus, you missed out on all the gorgeous countryside! There could’ve been a weak and helpless dragoness being attacked by Cynogriffins, and you would’ve kept going without a care in the world!” I raised a single finger on my right claw and poked myself with it, stopping my surrogate conscious from talking. 

“Not another peep, you. Now, I’m wondering how I should go about doing this. If I fly over, they’ll panic and possibly attack me, resulting in the death of the Flutterponies and all they’ve built. Or, I could walk through the forest and approach them mildly, indicating a non-violent disposition.” I thought about the last one for three seconds, before blowing air through my nose in amusement.

“Yeah, right; as if they’ll ever believe me! After all, dragons are meant to be the monsters in the flights of fancy they tell their children!” With a hearty laugh and broad smile, I dropped onto the warm earth and proceeded into the forest. 

“If I’m not mistaken,” I said to myself while practically destroying the beautiful green scenery with wide swipes of my hips, causing trees to tumble with creaks of despair and hate. “I’ve been flying two degrees to the northeast of a straight-shot from my mountain to Azalea. So by turning slightly to the northwest, I should be walking right towards it.” 

This forest was awake with the sound of lazing cicadas, leaves in a cool breeze, and bird calls. There was also the humdrum of my forceful walking, but I decided to ignore the ear-splitting thumps of the falling, ancient trees. I did, however, focus on the wondrous pine scent that milled about forests. 

“I should be no more than a mile away. Should take five minutes, give or take.” 




“I’m stomping down the trees, yeah! I’m just a big, plum dragon looking for a mare infested with fleas,” I sang to myself, imagining a congregation of dragons next to me as I launched into the chorus. “I really want to find A-za-le-a! Really need to find A-za-le-a! Look no further than the evergreens; who stay up all night and watch you while you dream!” 

“Halt!” The voice was small and feminine, making me look down to inspect something relative to my interest. As I had expected, it was an Alicorn guard. But this Alicorn was different than Eliahcus, whose wings resembled those of an avians. The Flutterpony Alicorn’s wings were insectoid, reminding me of butterflies. 

Her mane, which was a deep shade of green, matched the beauty of her glistening, lighter emerald wings. A white horn, coming to a very pointy apex, was aimed at my pectoral muscles, her head lowered for better accuracy. I could see her eyes just fine, and they too matcher her wings. 

“State your business in Azalea, dragon!” The guard did her best to sound intimidating, but that squeaky voice was better suited for a timid, doormat-type of pony and not her.

“I have orders from an Alicorn to deliver a letter,” Grinning, I outstretched my pinky, placed it on her side, and moved her with an expert show of dexterity. Her hooves scuffed up the dirt, and I began walking towards Azalea. 

The fluttering of wings behind me let on to that fact of her tailing, and I gave a grunt of annoyance as she dropped directly into my vision. “I thought I told you to halt! I never gave you permission to enter the village,” she hollered, poking me in the nose with her horn. 

I gave her an annoyed look and pursed my lips. “Really? Count yourself lucky for being beautiful; I would’ve burned you to a crisp by now if you weren’t. Now please get the hell out of my way so I can deliver this creators-damned missive from a cowardly Alicorn.” 

“Make me, chump!” 

I...I just stared at her. “Does... does she not know I’m a dragon? I mean, it sure does look pretty obvious.” 

“That’s what I thought!” She placed a white hoof on her chest and turned her nose up with a smug grin, closing her eyes as if bathing in her accomplishment of denying me again.

I stared at her for a little longer, before smiling evilly.




“GET ME OUT OF THIS TREE! HEY! I’M TALKING TO YOU,” The flutterpony yelled as I walked past her ‘half-in-half-out’ form in the evergreen.Everything from her belly and back was shoved into that tree, and she looked absolutely hilarious. “HEY! HELP! HEEEELP!” 

“Why don’t you make like a tree and leave,” I hollered back with no small amount of amusement, ripping two large oaks from the ground and tossing them back at the Flutterpony guard, hearing her scream before falling silent as they thudded next to her tree loudly. 

This was when I decided to look back, watching her still-screaming form pass out, before laughing and walking on. 

I had to immediately stop myself when the forest opened up, allowing me to peer off the edge of the raised plateau I was on. 

“This place is... beautiful...” My mouth slowly curved up into a smile at all the wildflowers blooming in the valley below. It was a sea of bright specks of color, and white pollen danced in the air like millions of fireflies. Some of the pollen was even crystalline, reflecting rainbows along the brown walls of the valley.

I could see Flutterponies, young and old, playing or milling through the wildflowers with looks of pure joy. 

Still in shock, I slammed my backside onto the ground and stood up with my four legs, my eyes devouring the town that laid just beyond the outer reaches of the field of flowers. A chuckle escaped my lips as a soothing feeling of calm washed over me, and I felt the burning from my flight here disappear altogether. 

“This place... it’s beautiful... I don’t even...” I stepped forward and slid down the curving, brown wall of the valley. It didn’t take long to hit the bottom, and I felt the soothing texture of soft petals under my feet and claws. I felt bad for crushing such beauty, but then remembered my unparalleled good looks and kept it moving.

“First order of business: find out where the Queens lay their heads down to sleep. And I think this little filly up here will do wonders to help me find out!”