//------------------------------// // The Equestrian Flight part 1: Wound // Story: Dragon's Tale: The city of Darkrise // by IMN //------------------------------// “I LIKE THE SUN.” And no one can stop me for liking it, Darkrise1 is such a beautiful city no doubt, I mean living in an eternal night2 where the stars are always shining is great and all, but just once I wish Starlight could shut down the Temple3 and allow the sun to shine for a few hours, wouldn't that be a treat. “I know you are excited for this excursion Wound, but please we do not want to bring unwanted attention to us,” Night Blade may be the most buzz kill thestral of them all, but she does have a few good qualities, a kind heart strong mind, and strong wings, too bad they aren't strong enough to carry me. “But we are on a search and recovery mission, find that hatchling Starlight told us about, I don’t think anything bad in particular is going to attack us just because we had a little fun in the process.” “Jeez, are all of you arcane dragons4 so carefree,” Jackal is another companion of mine, a proud werewolf who roam these lands, she may be annoying, but at least her heart is in the right place, most of the times. “Oh you’re just too serious about everything,” it’s true, under the sun werewolves can't be sneaky at all, so they tend to shun it, and be annoyed at it. “Hey, hey, hey, ladies, you’re forgetting about me here.” Oh dear god why did I brought him. “Tinkerbell, I told you to stay in my pocket,” “Well I’m getting pretty snuffed out in there,” Tinkerbell is my personal fairy,5 you might think that it’s fun to have a personal fairy following you around, trust me, it’s not, “And I told you my name is not Tinkerbell it’s…” “Too hard to pronounce,” I say abruptly, seriously it takes me fifty second to pronounce his name, so I came to call him Tinkerbell instead. “So did anyone tell you where we are going?” Tinkerbell added. “You are staying in my pocket,” I seriously don’t want him to get hurt, he may be annoying but it’s my duty to protect Darkrise signature, “We are heading to the Equestrian dragon flight.” “I have to ask,” Night Blade hovers next to me for a bit, “Why did Starlight chose you? Blade could just as easily have checked the flight and returned within a day.” “I swear, Starlight is such a child sometimes, he could have chosen anyone, but no~, his big sis needs to bath under the sun, so he just roll over and do what she wants.” Did she just call Starlight a child? The insolence, why I ought to... Oh, she shrieked, guess my glare works. “Well he is a child, barely twenty years old.” she tried to defend herself, how cute. Shacking my head, I heard Night Blade giggles. Sure Starlight is quite young to take such big responsibility all by himself, but he did prove to be quite capable, and for that I am proud. “We’re here.” Night Blade finally said as the mountain top came to view. Now I have met a lot of other flights over the years that passed Darkrise, a lot of migratory flights have the city as one of their checkpoints, usually these flights have only one type of dragons in them, which sometimes, well most of the times, they get hostile around other dragons types, more so with other species. Thankfully I belong to a stationary flight, a village if you wish, which are far more diverse than migratory flights, and a lot friendlier. So you can see my surprise when I saw a flight of Winged dragons in front of me, “Oh crud.” “Well this is going to be a treat, any idea how we are going to find him without getting roasted alive?” Night Blade is right about that, a pony and a werewolf may give the wrong impression, and end up getting us burned alive isn't my idea of building up foreign relations with other flights. “Alright then a change of plan,” I exclaimed and all three of them looked at me in surprise. “We had a plan?” Jackal mocked. “Jackal, Night, I want you two to scout the entire perimeter search for any irregularities, As for me I am going with the direct approach.” “The direct approach??!” all three of my companion. I flickered my marshmallow white scales and straightened the purple spikes on my back as I dazzled myself under the sun that I am enjoying through and through, and when I spoke, I turned on my most seductive voice, “I'm going to use my charm.” I haven’t seen Jackal or Night Blade laugh so hard in their life, how frustrating can they get? “Well if you own it show it.” I hear Tinkerbell say after he whistled at me, which made me want to punch someone. “And what’s so funny about that?” Being vexed at their reaction seem to make them laugh harder, “I am gorgeous, as was dictated by my many admirers,” And upcoming suitors who thought I’ll marry them if they showed up flashing their scales at me like peacocks, only to be turned down in the same ruthless manner each and every time. “Well,” Night Blade managed after catching her breath, “I’m not saying you don’t have any charm, it’s just that... how do I put it lightly?” “You’re a sadistic, over the top, sociopath sweetie. You have a habit to make full grown drakes pee themselves with just a glance," Jackal continued with her usual blunt honesty, "I simply can’t see you acting all dragoness like, flirting your way for information around here.” How rude of them, I can pull of sexy if I wanted to!6 “Don’t worry short cake,” Tinkerbell came buzzing at me, “If you get stuck, I’ll be right here to help ya.” He puffed his little chest like he’s some big shot, I couldn't help but snicker. He might just be the reason why this mission might end in failure. Ever since the dragons of Darkrise helped save the fairies from extinction a thousand year ago, the fairies became more like their willing servants at first, which soon became a predicament in itself, because dragons have no use for tiny dots of light hovering around them all the time, that is until the fairies were fed love for the first time. “Well it’s as good a plan as any I’ll say," Yes, I knew Night Blade would support me in the end, “I’d love to see how you’ll pull it off.” “Yeah good luck with whatever weird courtship you might come up with," I could do without the sarcasm Jackal, though if she's agreeing, that mean she didn't think of any alternatives, if it’s one thing I learned however, is that actions speak louder than words, and I am going to show her that I am more than the organ harvesting surgeon of Darkrise. 7 I simply nodded then went ahead toward the flight, I walked toward the first dragon I saw on the edge of the flight, usually these guys are consider the outer guards, and you can’t really gain access to the flight if these guys doesn't want you to, this one was a red drake, I’d estimate from his size he is fifty something years old, so a young adult, this ought to be interesting. I walked up toward him then gave him my most disarming smile, "Hi there,” I say in a significantly squeaky voice which made him and a bunch of his comrades wince, yep, I definitely got it.8 “Hello and welcome to the Equestrian flight, the richest flight of the fire nation,” He replied after gaining his composure, if that is something that is supposed to impress me about his flight, then he failed miserably, “I am Garble the thirty third, please state your business with our flight.” At least he’s polite about it. “My name is Wound, I’m an arcane dragoness of the Athenaeum bloodline, flight of Darkrise,” I can see that my introduction gave way to more attention since now I have four, no five dragons listening intently to each and every one of my words, I stare at them mischievously.9 Honestly I didn't think this will work so well, still need to keep up the innocence10 act if i want to pull it off, “Uhm, you see I came here because we had a missing orphan dragon from our flight and we think he may have sneaked in with another flight, is it okay if you helped me search for him? I’d be very grateful.” I bat my eyes on him and that seem to have melted him entirely, this is gold, I should use my charm more often. “Yeah, sure, okay,” he’s stammering, that’s a good sign. “I’ll help,” Yes Score, “What does your whelp look like?” “Well he’s a purple baby dragon with green crown of round spikes on his back, he goes by the name of Spike.” 1. the name of the city that things are going to happen in. 2. previously known as the land of the werewolves, will explain more as the story progress. 3. the temple harness the light of the sun over a long distance, making the day as dark as night. 4. Arcane dragons are the second type of dragons in the Equestrian verse, they have a horn on their head that allow them to cast spells like unicorn. 5. A type of changeling race that resides in Darkrise, they are smaller almost the size of a breezie, but tougher and far more versatile. 6. no she can't, she can only pull innocent to fool her father. 7. because it's easy to change your reputation after you gauge the eye of the dragon trying to flirt with you in public. 8. again no, they all winced because her squeakiness grated their ears 9. the only reason why they are surrounding her is because she is sexy in dragon standards. 10. is that what she is doing? I would not have guessed