//------------------------------// // A Shadowed Fate // Story: Tiamat, The Dragon God of Evil... and Giraffes // by Hypnos //------------------------------// The world around Celestia flashed by as she fell through the portal, millions of lights passing by, through some she saw images of strange alien worlds, and some looked just like her home. Before long she finally passed through the other end of the portal, her landing crashing into Twilight who went before her. “Ow!” the smaller pony yelped, not having the softest landing herself. As they got up from the ground they saw the world around them, it looked strangely like their home, but somehow off. The stars not in the right places, the moon slightly off, and a trail of crater like footprints leading off into the distance. “Princess, where are we?” Twilight asked as she looks around. “This place looks like the Everfree forest but…” “I don’t know for certain, Twilight, but I have a feeling we’re not in Equestria anymore,” Celestia said, looking at all the strange differences. She looked at the tracks leading away, “but I think I know which way the dragon went.” “Princess, who or what was that?” Celestia's student asked. “That being isn’t any normal dragon I have seen or heard of.” “I honestly don’t know, Twilight, but we have to figure out where we are, and get back home before we can deal with it,” Celestia said, before heading away from where the footprints went. “But, first I believe we should seek shelter, it looks like a storm is forming and I’d rather not be caught outside when it hits.” Twilight nodded and followed the princess. Celestia saw her student expression was sorrowful that Spike was taken away from her. Celestia had seen this expression before when she saw a mother losing her child. She looked forward and pressed on, knowing that when they returned they would find Spike and bring him home. After a few minutes and the thunder clouds rumbling over them they found shelter in a cave. The cave was open and roomy, there was what looked like a campfire pit on the far side to the left and the smell of alcohol was faint in the air. “This will do, I’ll keep watch you rest and we’ll find a way back in the morning,” Celestia said, sitting by the entrance, waiting for anything to happen. After a few minutes the rain began to fall and the sound was oddly soothing to the princess. “Princess, do you see this?” Celestia heard her student say. “What is it Twilight? Is something wrong?” Celestia asked as she turned to her. Twilight was looking up with her horn lit up for some light. The princess saw what Twilight was looking at, at the edge of the light she made the shadows were clinging to it, trying to dim the light. Celestia also saw that the shadows were going through the wall. “I think this is a false wall,” the purple unicorn said as she put her hoof on the wall. “It… feels real, this is amazing.” “I don’t know if we should try dispelling, but I won’t say I’m not curious about what it may be hiding,” the princess said, looking to the wall with interest and worry. Twilight’s curiosity won out as she tried to dispel the wall in front of her, only to fail. Celestia looked at the wall and sensed the magic that made the wall, it was old and powerful, but not without holes that an experienced spellcaster could exploit. “Let me try, my young pupil, stand back,” Celestia ordered as she charged her magic, before lightly kicking the wall causing it to slowly fade away. “That… was oddly simple.” Twilight said as her ears flattened on her head. Celestia chuckled at her. “Sometimes the most complicated things are,” she smiled, stepping into the passage that had appeared, her student quickly making to follow. Neither noticing the wall reappeared before too long. The tunnel down was dark, so dark that the two ponies couldn’t see anything in front of them. Even when they cast a light spell, the darkness around them still made it hard to see. Celestia looked around at the darkness and felt that it was no normal darkness, this was something more powerful than normal darkness. As they traveled down Celestia felt that they were being watched, the darkness was held at bay by their light but circled them like wolves, almost as if waiting to strike out at them. Twilight moved closer to her mentor for protection. Celestia smiled softly as she moved her wing to her student. This gesture calmed the young unicorn a bit as they continued. Finally they have reached a large chamber that splits off into multiple paths. Celestia looked around as she saw some shining in the corner of her eye. She saw what looked like gold in the room that made her think this as a thieves den. “Princess…” Twilight said. Celestia looked down at her student just to see her looking towards a different path. At first she didn’t understand why but she then felt a magical pull that she had never felt before emanating from within. “Twilight, if I tell you to run,” Celestia whispered, causing the younger pony to tense in fear, not knowing what could make the Princess worry this much. The two of them slowly started to walk down the tunnel. The darkness around them seemed to become stronger as they continued to a point that they can only see ten feet in front of them. Celestia puts as much of her magic as she could into her spell just to see where she was going. Finally they have entered a large room, or as they think was large since their light spell was showing so much. The magic they felt filled the room, it was odd to the princess. The magic felt both soft and light yet tough and deadly. She didn’t know why until her light caught something and she stopped. What she saw was a claw, a large claw that was bigger than her. She then realised that the gold she saw wasn’t one from a thieve's den but one of a dragon’s hoard. Before she could say anything a new source of light appeared that seemed to cut through the darkness as if it wasn’t there. Celestia and Twilight saw what looked like an eye that seemed clouded over, a sign of blindness. Celestia moved in front of her student to protect her with her life. “Why have you come here?” a voice said as the eye seemed to stare at them. “We didn’t mean to intrude, a storm was passing and we sought shelter in your cave,” Celestia said, with false confidence. The eye seemed to narrow at her as Celestia heard the sounds of it shifting a bit. “You sound like the Princess of the Sun yet you do not look like her, who are you?” the being asked. “I am Princess Celestia, we followed a dragon through a portal that took us to this land,” she said, more confident knowing that this world was too different than the one she called home. The being stared before she heard it make a sound which sounded like it was chuckling. “Princess Celestia, I think not, you do not look like her but what you said rings true,” the being said as it shifted a bit more. “Only her or her sister can break my magic, even when it’s at a weakened state.” Twilight looked at her mentor with wide eyes, for her she has never heard of a dragon casting magic or even having magic. Celestia simply kept eye contact with the dragon. “Then perhaps, you can help us find the dragon we are searching for, we believe she took a young dragon, named Spike, that was in Twilight’s care.” The dragon didn’t say anything, just simply stared at Celestia as if she was reading her. “This dragon, I sense anger in your voice when you speak,” the dragon said as there was a large thumping sound as it stood up. Due to the darkness the two couldn’t see the dragon’s body, only its eyes that seemed to pierce them even when clouded. “It attacked and killed a member of my guard, and mortally wounded another, then it left after single handedly defeating my sister and I,” Celestia rumbled angrily, remembering the dragon’s crimes. The dragon’s eyes didn’t falter as it looked at them. “I don’t see why this should bring your wrath unless this is because of pride,” the dragon said simply, showing no emotion whatsoever. “This creature has to be stopped, it was able to disarm Discord with a snap of its claw, who knows what other terrible things it may do with that kind of power,” Celestia seethed growing angry that this dragon would accuse her of being prideful. The dragon didn’t seem to react to her outburst which was odd to the solar princess. Dragons other than Spike were prideful and wild, they would attack their own for the simplest reasons, yet this one was different. “And what are you going to do, if this creature can stop a being of chaos so easily, and both you and your sister? What chance is there for you to stop this being?” the dragon said. “We will use the Elements, of course. Or if need be there are other, more dangerous things we can try,” the Princess said, an edge of doubt in her voice now. “And then what?” the dragon said. “The Elements are meant to stop evil but they won’t kill, would you let those bearers go and end one life for the sake of others?” This time her eyes narrowed at Celestia. “If it comes to that, I will end the beast’s life myself,” Celestia said evenly, Twilight looking at her with a worried expression. The dragon looked at the princess in silence and leaned a bit closer to her. “Tell me princess, will you kill another living being, a being that lived maybe longer than you,” the dragon said as it’s eye stared at Celestia. Her reflection stared back at her with her expression. Celestia stood there a moment looking at her reflection, seeing her student behind her looking at her with worry. But then she remember the guard she was told would never fly again, and the family of the one that would never see him again, and her expression shifted from one of doubt to one of righteous fury. “Yes.” The dragon stared at her. “You lie to yourself,” it said simply. “How can you say that? You know nothing about me, dragon,” her voice filled with anger that something like this could say that to her. “You have been living in a state of peace for some time now, you haven’t faced something that you could have faced alone, and for the rest,” the dragon’s eye shifted over a bit to look at Twilight. “They would become nothing more than cannon fodder.” “We didn’t come here seeking advice, we are here to find Spike and return home,” Celestia seethed frustrated at the dragon’s implications. “Will you help us find him or not?” “I do have one question for you,” the dragon said simply. “What does this dragon look like?” “She has two heads, one was red and the other black,” Twilight said before Celestia could continue arguing with the dragon. “But when they were talking I heard them say something about other heads.” The dragon looked at Celestia before moving away from them. The sounds of large footfalls past them as the dragon walked out of the cave. “Follow.” the dragon said to them. Twilight looked to Celestia, her mentor’s expression hard before looking to Twilight and nodding. The two followed the dragon back to the main room and followed her tail into another. This one having a dim light coming from glowing crystals in the walls. The princess and unicorn saw the dragon in the light, it was a large black dragon with it’s eyes on them. Around them were statues of different creatures and items with more items and weapons around them. “These are statues of the gods of old that used to be worshiped by others, some dragons as well.” the dragon said as she nodded to two statues, one of a dragon holding a shield in one claw and wings spread out, and the other a five headed dragon, each head looking forward with a stinger-tipped wrapped around its feet. “What’s the point of this? You still haven't told us if you would help us find them,” Celestia fumed. The dragon looked at her and moved her claw over to the five headed dragon. “This is Tiamat, the Queen of all evil dragons, and basically the god of evil,” the dragon moved it’s head to look at them. “This is what you face, the god of evil herself.” “But, there’s only one god, and that’s Faust,” Twilight said confused. Celestia frowned at this, remembering when her ponies still had other gods, who eventually died due to lack of worship. The dragon chuckled. “You, my dear need to brush up on your history, Tiamat is a dragon god, she is the god of evil and the mother of all evil dragons, the chromatic dragons.” the dragon said as it looked at Celestia. “Do you think you can fight that by yourself? The dragon god of evil with nothing but some old trinkets?” Celestia sat there soaking in what the dragon said, remembering her first time facing Discord and the trouble her and her sister had. Then she remembered how Tiamat stopped him with no effort. “How could we fight such a creature?” Celestia mumbled, looking at the statue of Tiamat. “Don’t worry Princess, we’ll find a way,” Twilight reassured Celestia, placing a hoof on her shoulder. Celestia smiled at her student. Twilight then looked at the other statue. “So, then who is the other statue of, the King of Evil, or something?” The dragon started to laugh at this. “If that was true then we would all be doomed, that is Bahamut, the platinum dragon or the king of all good dragons or in this case the opposite to Tiamat, his twin.” “Then maybe he can help us fight Tiamat,” Twilight smiled, excited from learning so much more about a new subject. “So, dragon which one do you serve?” Celestia asked, sharply. “I serve neither of them because I,” the dragon stopped and looked over to another statue, this one was just a normal dragon but was larger. “You can say I serve under that one.” “Who is he?” Twilight asked, interested. “Rah Jun, and that’s all I know of him,” the dragon said. “I don’t know much about him, never asked when I saw him.” “Enough of this, will you aid us or will we have to seek Spike out for ourselves?” Celestia asked, looking up at the dragon. The dragon looked down at her and turned to leave. “You should rest and clear your head, we’ll talk tomorrow.” the dragon said as it disappeared in the caves. The two looked at each other, before making their way back to the entrance. Laying down near the fire they had passed by. As she laid there Celestia ruminated over what she had learned here. Discord, the fool he was, had released an actual god onto the world. And now she had no way of dealing with it or protecting her ponies from it. She lay there worrying about the future of her ponies, fearful of what may come now that the actual God of Evil, if the dragon was to be believed, was free to wreak havoc on the world. Meanwhile with the God of Evil “Red, are you sure you should be drinking that,” the less than excited head said to her heavily inebriated head. “Black, you know what? I… I love you, you know that,” the drunken one slurred at her still sober head. “Ugh, I need a drink.” Over at the far wall of the bar I had found, two pony-like people were sitting there staring at the strange creature sitting at the bar. “Mac, you seeing what I’m seeing?” one asked the other. “Eeyup.” “I think, it’s time to call it for the night,” she said to him. Mac looked at his drink then back at the dragon, then to his drink again, before setting it on the table along with some coins, and left. “Bar wench, a round for the everyone, on me!” Red yelled, opening a portal to her hoard, causing a pile of gold coins to flow out of it, making everyone in the bar cheer. The bartender sighed, “I hate this job.” The next morning Celestia and Twilight woke up to the sound of something being stirred and the smell of alcohol and something fruity. Celestia opened one of her eyes to an odd sight. There in front of her was what look like a monkey stirring a pot as it was adding berries to it. As they got up to see what he was making, he turned and looked at them. “Hello hello! You two slept like fallen logs.” the monkey said with a cheerful tone. “Uh my back, who knew sleeping outside could hurt so much,” Twilight whined. “Oh it’s not so bad, come come sit by the fire and I’ll pour you some brew.” the monkey said with a smile. The two of them made their way over to him, Twilight smiling and Celestia still worried about what she had learned the previous night. “So, would you like some of this brew or my wake up brew pony people?” “I’d love some,” Twilight smiled, though Celestia was still sitting there staring at the fire. “So which is it?” the monkey asked. “You can have this or the other.” “Umm, that one,” she said confused, not remembering which was which. The monkey’s tail went to the keg near him and began to pour the liquid into a small bowl. Celestia saw this out of the corner of her eye and saw that it was a small bowl, smaller than a normal cup. Twilight took a sip, “This is really g-” her tail and mane puffed up and she let out an ‘eep’, before she passed out. “Twilight, are you alright?” Celestia yelled, before she turned to look at the monkey. “What did you do to her?” “Hmm, light drinker,” the monkey said as he drank from the keg and his tail poke Twilight’s side, her leg twitched a bit. “What was in that drink?” Celestia asked him. “Monkey king wake up brew, good stuff,” he said happily. He then poured some in a small bowl. “Want some?” “No I think I’m awake enough,” she said, simply. “Suit yourself.” the monkey said as he tossed the bowl away and pulled out a ladle. He took some of the stuff from the pot and drank it. “Hmm, not enough hops.” “I’m not even gonna ask,” she said, as she shook her head, before looking to the forest outside the cave. “Wait, who are you?” “Me? Why I’m the Monkey King.” the monkey said with a smile. “You mean Sun Wu Kong?” “No no, that’s someone else, call me King.” the Monkey King said with a laugh. Celestia smiled softly. “So, what’s with the long face pony?” “We need to find a dragon that was kidnapped by an evil god, and return to our home,” Celestia said, concisely. “I don’t think that’s it, there’s something else you're troubled by,” King said as he put something in the pot. “You can talk to the Monkey King.” “I don’t know, it just seems like I’ve always tried to protect my ponies,” She sighed looking down at Twilight, “but now it seems like I can’t even do that. I’m afraid I just don’t know how to deal with this monster my little ponies are faced with.” “I don’t think you have to,” the monkey said. “That’s the thing about others, they come up with crazy stuff that works, sometimes.” “That was oddly, helpful,” Celestia smiled at the monkey. The monkey smiled at the princess. “Well we monkeys are helpful, you ponies don’t see that.” he said with a chuckle. “I wonder when our host will awaken, we must hurry. Who knows how far that foul dragon Tiamat has gone,” she said looking to the false wall that led to the cavern. “Don’t know, dragon friend left to do something about an hour before you two awoken.” the Monkey King said. “What! Why didn’t you say anything?” she yelled at him for forgetting to mention this earlier. “You didn’t ask,” the monkey said. “She said something about looking for some young dragon or something, didn’t listen busy making brew.” “Ugh, well do you at least know when she’ll return,” the alicorn sighed, before nudging Twilight. “How long will she be out?” “Don’t know, but if I have to say… maybe an hour or the next twelve minutes, she light drinker so it’s hard to say,” the monkey said. “Also I don’t know when she’ll be back, have to be careful with ponies, dragons and ponies aren’t as friendly with each other as ponies and dragonborn.” “Then I guess all there is, is to wait,” she said, sitting down. “Hmm! I have to say you're better than the other pony princess, she would have smite me where I stood.” the monkey said. “If she would that is her business, this is not my world and I have no right to interfere with it,” she said flatly. The Monkey King looked at the Princess for a moment. “If you don’t want to interfere why are you here?” “I came to retrieve my student and Spike.” “Yet, you are here in this world so you’re already interfering with the land already.” the monkey said simply as he stirred a bit. Celestia looked at the monkey king for a moment. “Are you saying you want me to smite you?” she asked, confused. “I wouldn’t hold it against you, we monkeys are used to it since you ponies hate the god of chaos and those he has made since his rule, that means us.” the monkey king said simply with a smile. Celestia stared at the monkey for a moment until she heard the sound of someone coming near. She turned to see what looked like a mare that stood on two legs. She had black fur and a dark gray mane wearing a t-shirt and pants. She walk into the cave with sigh as she saw the two of them. “Oh you're awake,” the mare said. “How did you sleep?” “And who are you?” Celestia asked her confused. “That’s Dragon friend.” the monkey king said. Celestia looked at the mare in shock. “You know that’s not a dragon, or are you too inebriated to tell?” “And do you know that the same dragon can cast magic right?” the mare said. Celestia looked at her for a moment before seeing that her eyes were clouded over. “It has been a long night,” the princess said to the dragon turned pony-person. “You can say that.” the mare said as she sat down. “Now do you have anything that your Spike is tied to, something that was his?” Celestia sat there thinking for a second, before looking over to Twilight and plucking a hair from her mane, causing the mare to twitch and roll over, and hoofed it over to the dragon. The dragon mare look at the hair and sighed. “It’s going to be hard but I can work with this,” she said as she covered the hair with her other hand and closed her eyes. She didn’t say anything for a few minutes as she frown. The frown grew as she opened her eyes. “He’s not here.” she said bluntly. “I know he’s not here, that’s why we’re looking for him,” Celestia said, sharply. The mare looked at Celestia for a moment. “I mean he not here on this plane or world,” the mare said. She leaned a bit closer to Celestia. “Are you sure that he came through the portal?” Now that she thought about it, she hadn’t even seen him in the room when she entered the library. “It seems my student overreacted when she didn’t see Spike after the Tiamat vanished,” she looked at the still unconscious unicorn. “Now, I suppose the only thing is to find Tiamat and convince her to send us home.” Meanwhile at a random bar Tiamat lay there, her form now massive in size wrapped around the bar, her two heads resting on the roof. As the sun rose in the sky, its light stirred the great beast from its slumber, bringing forth wrath this world had never seen. *yawn* “Rob, I don’t wanna wake up turn off the sun,” she muttered, trying to dig her heads into her impromptu pillow, causing the roof to cave in. Just a few feet away, two pony people stood staring at the mess the dragon had made of their bar. “I’ll go get the guards,” one muttered, walking away as he mumbled about how this was why he hated dragons. “I’ll get the broom,” the other said, before trying to push past the dragon’s tail which blocked the door, causing her to stir slightly. Her movement making a wall tumble down. “Ugh, I hate this job.” In the cave Celestia watched as the dragon worked on getting the spell ready for her and her student to use to get back home. “Telyn Gwynn,” the dragon said out loud. “What is that?” Celestia asked curiously. “My name, you gave me yours yet I didn’t give you mine, so there it is.” she said without looking at her. “Well, then Telyn Gwynn I wish to thank you for your aid, and if ever you need it our doors are always open to you,” Celestia said to the dragon. The dragon was silent for a few minutes as she worked. “What does your sky look like?” the dragon asked randomly. Celestia blinked at this question. “It is a gentle shade of blue, with the sun’s light bouncing off the clouds. Sometimes in the distance from my castle I can see Cloudsdale gently moving over the plains. And when the sun sets it paints the world in a vibrant red hue, making the sky look like a work of art, only the gods could have painted,” Celestia smiled, fondly remembering her home, even though she was only gone a day. “Thank you,” the dragon said as she continued to work. “It’s hard you know, not able to see the morning sky or the night sky whenever you want.” “I can only imagine, but with all your power couldn’t you just heal your eyes?” Celestia asked. “I was told I could but… I don’t know how, I spent time in a plane that there’s no sky, just darkness,” she stopped and looked at the princess for a moment. “I’m unlike most dragons, I don’t have the pride of one or the anger, some say that I’m not even a real dragon.” “Even so, I believe you will find a way,” she said. The dragon smiled as she continued to work on the spell. “I wish I could give you something to help but I’m afraid that I have none,” she said as she stood up and turned to her. “Well, I guess I’ll send you home so that works.” Celestia stood, placing Twilight on her back, before turning back to Telyn. She took a few step back and raised her arms. After a few moments the same portal opened up and Telyn looked at her. Celestia and a passed out Twilight walked up to the portal. Before she step through the princess looked back at the dragon to say something but saw the strain she was going through to hold the portal open. She turned and jumped through it as it closed behind them. The dragon sighed as her form changed to that of a human. She let out a sigh as she turned to head into her cave. Before a portal opened before her, and through it stepped through the very being the Princess followed into this world. “This isn’t my hoard, Black I think we made a wrong turn,” one head said causing the other to groan in pain. “Ugh, why did we wake up?” the black head muttered. The red one looked over at Telyn, and raised a brow, which is hard when someone doesn’t have brows. “Maybe she know, you sad looking blind lady, which way is Dragon’s Eyrie?” it asked the confused Telyn. “Ummm, I don’t know where that is, I know where Shadowfell and the Feywilds are.” the sorceress said. “Bah, humans are never any help,” she said opening a gate with no effort or preparation, and stepped through it, before it disappeared the red head popped back out and smiled at her. “You look sad, have a puppy,” she said before a tiny hellhound appeared at Telyn feet, and yipped at her. The portal stood there open for a moment before collapsing in on itself. Telyn looked at where the portal was and at the tiny hellhound for a moment before looking out of the cave. “King! I need one of your strongest drinks!” the hellhound puppy barked at this. “Make that two!”