> Journey of a Lifetime
>  by Oro_tharr
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> What a Twist
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shade stumbled on the cobblestone street, a thin layer of sweat already forming on her body as she regained her balance and rushed towards the school house, her almost ice colored hair flowed through the currents opposing her as she rapidly closed in on her destination, the school house were a single big house with a few classrooms inside and only a single corridor and the occasional flicking light bulb that appeared in the middle of the hallways, just outside her classroom.

Rushing inside the school building she barely notice the door as she barrel straight through it, a quick glance on her wrist clock tells her that she's twenty seconds from coming on time.

Rushing for all that she's worth she run down the corridor until she reaches her classroom labeled '963 A' which were curious to her as there were only seven classrooms in the entire building.

Practically shouting something that were a mix of 'LEEEEEEEEEROOOOOOOOOOY' and cusses labeling from cursing her feet to death, promising to summon Satan if someone as much as looks at her funny and a bunch of curses going from Swedish to English, to French, to German, to Spanish, British and Japanese.

"Kaminahage!" She shouts as she tackles the door inward, her clock telling her that she were five seconds early.

"Nailed it." Shade said as she got off of the floor and dusted herself off, the room were a dull grey version of a very small dining area, the paint had started to peel off of the walls and the blackboard were almost grey from constant use too, Shade would describe the room as a colorless hell, but just as the thought crossed her mind she noticed something, or lack of something.

No students or teacher's were present, and at a closer inspection the entire room looked more... Aged than ever.

A thin layer of dust covered everything, cobwebs almost everywhere and a half bitten pen, something were going on and she didn't like it one bit, reaching to her right pocket she pulled out her switch knife and held it at the ready, her left hand ready to grab her Butterfly would it be needed.

Shade started walking down the corridor in a combat stance, ready to kick someone if needed, her heavy leather boots would hurt a lot more than a knife, if used correctly.

She were telling herself that everything would be fine and that it was just some stupid prank, but that idea was replaced with a heavy feeling of dread as she realized that the corridor seemed longer than she remembered.
A lot longer...

"By the nine hell's what is going on?!" She yelled out at nothing, or everything.
A pair of footsteps were heard behind her.
"That exactly, child." An aged voice echoed from behind her, a walking stick slamming into the ground as the old man had stopped.

"What do you mean old man? I'm not in the mood for jokes!" She almost growls at him as she turns around, her switch blade held in a thrusting position.

The man were 5'4 tall, wearing a blue coat and a matching blue hat with a buckled wooden staff that he shouldn't be able to use, as it looked like it were about to break in half if you so much as breathed at it. The man wore a pair of dark glasses on his face that completely blocked out his face, his nose were huge, about a finger long and three thumbs thick
She stared at him for half a minute, and slowly retracted the switch blade before putting it in her pocket.

"Oy, aren't you a bit old for this place?" She said, gesturing to the bricks on the wall, leading to the schoolhouse.
"I'm a little too old for everything, Shade." He said, smiling.

His teeth were half rotten and yellow, they were sticking out in unnatural angles revealing a old tongue.

Her eye's turned into narrow slits as she kicked towards the man, and much to Shade's surprise he grabbed her dark jeans and threw her into the ground, making her land on her chest.

"FFFFFFFUU- ouuuchh! That freaking hurt you dimwit!" Shade said as she heaved herself to her feet, pulling out the switch blade she had secured in her pocket.

The man didn't even raise an eyebrow at the gesture.
"And it would've hurt too if you kicked me in the face." he said with a slight frown.

"Yeah? And for all I know you're some creepy pedophile that slaughtered my classmates! So choke on it, old man." She threw the switch blade at him, edge first.

He caught the blade between two fingers mid air and threw it back to Shade at a slow pace, she caught it with a practiced motion.
"... Who are you..?" she asked, utterly confused with how he knew that motion, it was her grandfather that taught her it and he's long dead.

"Well... In order to avoid complications call me Starswirl." he said, gesturing to the swirl filled with stars on his staff.
Only now did she notice how he looked a little... Red, his skin were slightly tinted towards a reddish color like he'dd been out in the sun for too long, which would be weird since it's the beginning of December.

On the top of his hands were the symbol's that was on the staff, but in different color's, the one on his right were a mix of purple and dark green, and the one's on his left were a mix of orange and white.
He had quite a beard, how she hadn't noticed this before she does not know, it went down to his chest and had a steel grey color, the same as Shade's eyes.

"Starswirl..? I'll call you Starswirl the Bearded. I mean look'it!" Shade said, gesturing to the ginormous beard.
"Then i'll call you Nightshade, woman. But oh my look at the time!" He said, gesturing towards her clock.

Confused Shade lift her left arm to her face and saw that it had changed into a alphabet with a lot of small arrows pointing on E A I Q R S T U.
"What the..?" she started, completely shocked at her clock as the letters seemed to be random and didn't form an actual word.

"Girl, wanna make a bet? If I win, you can go on the journey of a lifetime, but if you win you can have one wish." He said, gesturing towards the clock.
"What's that supposed to mean, Starswirl? You can't just grant wishes, that would require magic and magic dosen't exist." She said with a quiet sob, all her friends were gone. She didn't know why this hit her right now, it just did.

"Don't cry Nightshade, magic does exist. Look." He said gesturing towards a brick wall, with a flick of his wrists the wall almost dissolved and revealed a portal with a mix of color's she had never seen before.

"If I win, you must enter, if you win i'll grant you one wish." Starswirl said, the tattoo's on his hands glowing with the portal.
"... Fine, i'll take your stupid bet." She said with a sigh, it was just an old man, how hard could it be?

He laughed a little and said "Excellent! Riddle me this little girl, what can't see itself in the mirror without crying, but other's can't look at it without falling in love?" He riddled, she didn't understand it.

"Umm... Something corrupt?" She guessed, that answered seemed about right to her.
The man's smile grew wider and he stated "Nope." 

Shade felt something grab her entire body and played her like a puppet and master.
"You lost the bet, Shade. You must pay the price." Starswirl added as she slowly advanced towards the portal.
"Like hell I do! Let me go you freak!" She shrieked and thrashed around her invisible bindings, but no matter what she did they did not budge.
"I can force you through that portal or you can leave yourself with at least a minor bit of dignity." He responded and let the magic dissolve around her, she hesitantly moved towards the portal.
"Good choice, forcefully stopping someone with magic is painful for the target." He idly commented as he watched her disappear, summoning a portal behind himself.
"Can you at least tell my sister that i'll be back for her, she'll probably be heart broken that her last sibling disappeared." Shade almost sobbed out, still slowly approaching the portal.

"Before I leave however, what was the correct answer, Starswirl?" She asked him, if he could answer then she at least could go without thinking she's been tricked.

He smiled at her, at least that made her feel a bit better.
"A Succubus." He answered with a grin, Shade just laughed at him.
"Thanks for lightening my mood at least, Starswirl." She took the final step towards the portal.

"I'll see you in another life, little sister of mine." She said with a tear as she entered the portal.

> What is Disaster?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The world warped around her, revealing a long and broken staircase upwards, and she could swear she were a lot taller than she was supposed to be.

Slowly walking towards the broken staircase her ears picked up at the sound of something... Clicking against rocks.
Looking around, she saw the broken cobblestone walls and the night sky through a almost completely demolished wall but still no source for the sound that had now stopped, she started muttering a song under her breath as she continued upwards the staircase, drowning out the sounds of clicking.

Shade kept walking for what she could swear were days, her legs tiring and she would occasionally slip and fall a few meters before getting up again, stopping for rest only whenever she fell.
Tripping this time, she didn't slip.

As she fell she tried to grasp at the wall out of fear for falling to her death, much to her surprise did her fingers not only completely halt her fall they also pierced the cobblestone wall, and that's when she was it.

Her fingers were longer and ended slightly pointier then she remembered, above them a pair of claws had come out and were now stuck in the wall.
Staring at it wide eyed for a moment Shade slowly raised herself to her feet, staggering a little doing so.

Looking over her body she noticed how she had pristine white scaled instead of pale skin, she still had hair, but it was blonde and as she looked over her body, she finally realized what that clicking sound was.

Shade looked down on her feet and noticed that there were claws on them, clicking against the cobblestone every step she took.

Bringing a hand to her head she noticed two... Things sticking out, as much as she would want to find out what they were she didn't have a mirror, and nothing reflective was in sight.

Sighing to herself she made her way up the staircase, slowly ascending the hellish torture fate thought was funny.
Reaching the top she noticed three things, the first was a short tunnel with grass growing around it, at the end of the tunnel there were a door with the words LORE inscribed in front, to the right of the tunnel there were a steel chest with something that looked like a human skeleton as a lock.

To the left of the tunnel there were two things held up on a pedestal, there was a shield and a sword, both held by a standard plate armor, the sword were held up in a thrusting position and the shield looked like it were about to slam something bigger than the man in plate armor.

Slowly walking forward she grabbed the shield from the mans grip and set it across her back with a a bit of rope the knight had across his shoulder, leading to a very poor condition crossbow.
It was a loose fit, but it worked.

Grabbing the sword from the knights hand were proven more difficult than she'dd have liked, as he suddenly sprung alive and stabbed dead at her, the sword grazed the side with a slight wound that she barely felt, but she still exclaimed in shock.
Staggering backwards Shade managed to rip the shield off her back to bring it up just in time to deflect a blow towards her neck that would surely have ended her.

Having no idea what to do against someone obviously trained with swords, all she did was defend the best she could against his relentless attacks.
Meanwhile, her thoughts were racing.

Oh god oh god, what the hell? What should I do? Hell what can I do?
Calm down Shade, just calm down we got this, he got to get tired sooner or later, right?
Yes of course he does, but i'm afraid we'll tire out or run dry on luck before that.
... I refuse to die here! I'm not going to die in this hellhole, and i'll tear Starswirl a new asshole for this!
But what should we do... What would Leeroy do?
Isn't it obvious?
What?
...
Charge

She was snapped out of her internal conversations by a particularly hard blow to the shield, brazing herself for what she were to do next she took a deep breath.

What came next surprised both her and the knight.
"LEEEEEEEEEEROOOOOOOOOOOOOY" But instead of just a shout, it came out as a growl, followed closely by bright blue flames.

The knights eye's had time to widen in surprise before he and his armor were turned into a hot pile of metal and flesh, the sword were somehow unharmed by the intense heat and fell harmlessly to the ground, sticking halfway out.
As surprised as Shade was during this, she decided not to ponder and instead took the sword and sprinted out of there, shield still equipped.

Running into the room to the right, she noticed how the the sword had a small skeleton on the hilt with three fingers sticking out.

Putting one and one together she slowly approached the chest, ready for any and all surprises with the sword in a thrusting position.

As she got to the chest she went down to one knee and brought the swords hilt to the lock, putting it in and twisting it until the chest opened.

A almost invisible yet ghastly mist flowed out of the chest, revealing something that looked like solid fire.
Grabbing the first thing she saw her eyes went wide in surprise as a helmet that looked like solidified magma just rested in her hand.

Slowly bringing out the rest of the items, including a ring that looked like it were still burning, she set them on the floor.
The full set looked like something out of a game, adding the sword and shield made it look like something a high ranking demon or something would wear to keep him warm in the winters.

She didn't notice any heat radiating of the armor, but once it got close to her, the wound she had received on her side slowly started closing before vanishing completely, leaving no trace but a slightly whiter pair of scales to ever show there was a injury.

After that, she decided to equip the armor and slung the shield onto her back, and placed the sword in the sheath.
Walking back to the tunnel, she entered and pushed the door open.

> "My name... Is Arie'thorr" 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

0021 Discord's Rein (D.R.)


Stumbling through the door, she narrowly avoided hitting the door's frame as she continued her walk beyond the door and into a very green forest.
Her new dragon ears picked up something that reminded her off a female gang member that picked a fight with her a while back, strong, firm and challenging.

The memory made her grin, showing her razor sharp teeth for all the world to see.
"From what I heard she couldn't walk for a month after that."
"No surprise there, you twisted her leg in a unnatural angle until it broke."
"She kicked me on the boobs! She had it coming."
"No doubt she did, it's just you can get very violent sometimes.
"Yeah? So what, what do you know?"
"I'm you, remember?"

Yes, Shade definitely needed to make more friends.
Reaching a clearing she saw a dragon five times her size tussled up in a blue shimmering net.
"We got him! Pack him up, his head will be a nice tribute to Queen Celestia." The female voice said.
"Aye aye Captain." Came six different male voices surrounding the clearing, including slightly to Shade's left.
Looking there, she saw a small horse- No, Pony.

She saw the pony mutter something like "I don't get payed enough for this" as he walked into the clearing.
"Not so tough without without your magic, are you, Arie?" The Captain said as she approached him.

"We got to do something!"
"I agree, but what?"
"Wait... None of those guards seem to be wearing weapons, perhaps we can take them?"

"Death to Discord." The Captain said again as she and the other's began to drag and push the immobilized dragon to a giant cart.

"Worth a shot." And with that, Shade jumped out from the bushes and managed to slam the captain's face with the shield, it obviously came with more force than intended as a sickening crack echoed through the forest, loud enough for every single guard to drop the dragon and turn to the eight feet tall being in armor that seemed to be made out of fire crushed their captain in a single blow.
The soldiers turned to eachother, each trying to process that their Captain was defeated in a single blow.
Slowly they turned to face Shade again who had pulled her sword and approached the group in a relaxed manner, as if they didn't pose a threat.

A soldier wearing iron armor with two suns on it and one moon turned to the rest of the soldiers and shouted for all her could, 
"Retreat! Get of the forest! Now!"
And just like that they ran for all they could in a single direction.

"Heh, how do a bunch of gay guys walk?" She asked herself.
"Dunno, I payed more attention watching your friends ass and boobs.
"You're perverted, you know that?"

"I'm you."
Shade grumbled a threat as she walked towards the giant dragon.

"keh, tepoha wux confn ekess sulta sia loerchik? algbo, gethrisj ahead, coi ui|ulph desta ekess loreat ini kin loupon ini nomenoi drevaba harroci." The dragon said as Shade approached, making her pause.

She tilted her head in confusing and managed to squeeze out a small sentence.
"What?" The larger dragon blinked in confusion at first, then shook his head.

"I see, you do not speak our old tongue, what I asked was if you were here to end my suffering, Dragoness." The elder dragon managed a dry chuckle.

"No... I came here to free you, they treated you like a animal." She giggled a little at the irony.
"Indeed they did, I was stupid and allowed myself to be captured... This blasted net is sucking my life force away." He nonchalantly said.
Shade's eyes became wide with shock as she rushed over and cut the rope open with the sword, and then stumbled in surprise as the larger dragon's wings shot up.

"It feels nice to be free, tell me hatchling, what is your name?" Shade slowly sheathed her sword and coughed a little.
"I'm Shade, but I fear I do not know your name." She considered reaching out her hand, but decided against it.
"Names hold power, Shade, remember that before giving it out again. But you may call me Eldros, in your tongue I believe it means 'Rose of Fire'" 

"Right... that happened." She said, her mind was still having a hard time progressing that she were indeed talking to a dragon.
Said dragon winced as a cut on his side started bleeding again.

"Are you hurt, Eldros?" Shade asked as she slowly approached the dragon, helmet in hand.
"Nothing severe, hatchling, it will do nothing but annoy me until we can get to the nearest cave, away from here before they come back with reinforcements." Eldros frowned, his mind flashing back to his mate.

Shade pondered for a moment, she's sure she had seen a cave that should be big enough for the larger dragon to fit in without too much trouble, it was situated behind a waterfall.
"Come, I believe I saw a cave on my sprint here, it was behind a waterfall." A thought flashed through her mind, why was she trusting him so much?

"I don't know, he seems nice."

"He's a dragon! And he's huge! He'dd probably split you in half by sneezing too hard."
"Don't be silly, I saved his life, and if dragons here are like anything like the dragons in myth from where we're from dragons repay favors."
"And if they aren't?

"Then we're so fucked we'll just hope he dosen't rape us first."
"It's not like you to swear, Shade, what happened?"

"I stopped caring somewhere between the talking ponies, the azure blue dragon and me burping fire."
"And what stops us from killing him if he turns violent?"

"Oh nothing, just the fact that he's so big he'dd murder us in the blink of an eye."
"Comforting."
During her internal monologue she was leading Eldros to the cave, her memory guiding her.

----Fifteen minutes later----

" 'Tis a nice cave, Hatchling, is it not yours?" the azure dragon asked Shade, whom was leading him into the cave.
"Nah, just found this when I was in a silent sprint towards you." Shade informed him as she entered the cave, leading to a massive chamber with a lot of different minerals on the walls.


0082 Discord's Rein (D.R.)

"Sister, are you sure this is a good idea?" A blue unicorn asks her bigger sister.

"Yes, we must do this, if this Dragon Smith decide's to join Discord, we have no chances of winning." The elder sister explained, leaning down to muzzle her little sister.
The muzzle was received and returned as they took a sharp breath and entered the cave through the waterfall, revealing several long tubes holding the water.

"Now that's strange" the elder sister thought to herself as she continued into the cave.
The navy blue unicorn seemed to have other plans as her patience grew slim, she boomed into the cave.
"Show thyself, Dragon!" The voice echoed within the entire cave.

Slowly, a clicking sound could be heard as the two sister's rounded a corner, several wooden bolts suddenly stuck out around them and a group of Catizen's stood before them, all griping some kind of metal and wood item and most of them had some kind of sword around their backs.

"What is the meaning of this!?" the unicorn shouted towards the group, only for a bolt to lightly glaze by her eyes and almost hit her horn.
Her eye's became wide as she realized that they were completely at these creatures mercy.

"We might want to leave" She whispered to her elder sister who nodded and turned around to walk out of the cave, but were met with nothing but a solid stone wall.
"Name, authority and / or reasons to come here." One Catizen, wielding a very long and slim metal item with wood here and there, there seemed to be a lever of some kind it were it were holding it's claw around.

The elder sister took one step forward and stood with as much composure as she could.
"We are the leader's of the Dawnstar Rebellion, Celestia and Luna, we seek to talk to the Drake Smith, if he is available for a meeting?" Celestia asked, scanning over the Catizen's.

The one with the slim, shiny object turned to a Catizen with two black daggers with green edges and spoke in a strange language.
"Aro, telk ti Bleak, esk geri ufn geri eviably gar i neating." It said, gesturing towards the smaller Catizen.
The smaller Catizen saluted "Effir, Violander, syx foru neinie." And with that, he was off.

"Now, we wait." The obviously high ranking Catizen said and aimed the shiny object dead at Celestia.
After two minutes of tension the smaller Catizen came running back, not even out of breath.
"Kerpison, kantierg. Koda Aczury Kauetuion."

With that, the larger Catizen holstered the metal object and gestured for Celestia and Luna to follow.




**************************************************************************************************
Second Author Notes: Wow, finally done with this chapter, i'll admit it took me a lot longer than i'dd wanted it to.
Now for a translation, there is none online since I came up with this language on spot, but here's a basic translation: Aro, telk ti Bleak, esk geri ufn geri eviably gar i neating.

Aro is the name of the small Catizen (Cat people, basically.)
Telk means Speak, talk, command or inform, depends on the form it's spoken in.
Ti mean To, in all forms. Easy.
Bleak means Pearl, Bleach, White, and Shadow.
Esk means "Ask", "Check" or "Force" Depending on the situation and/or form it's spoken in.
geri means "She" "Her" and "Female" depending on the sentence build.
ufn means "If" "And" or "Or".
eviably means "Available", availability or "Is <Geri/Gime> Free?"
gar means "For" and in all forms it come in.
i means "a".
neating means "meeting" "gathering" "convention" and / or any other form of the word for social gatherings.

Direct translations: Aro, telk ti Bleak, esk geri ufn geri eviably gar i neating. > "Aro, talk to Pearl, ask her if she's available for a meeting."
"Effir, Violander, syx foru neinie." > "Affirmative, Commander. Six four nine."
"Kerpison, kantierg. Koda Aczury Kauetuion." > "Permission, granted. Code Azure Caution."

And for the reason my writing's been delayed... Shade's grandmother died less than a week ago, and she's been in the hospital for a while, Shade is practically the only family I have, so I was sad too.