//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: The Revival // Story: Drake the Dragon // by Immortan Joe //------------------------------// It had taken quite some time and a tedious amount of preparation, but it had been done. With everything in position, and the two bodies now well preserved and cleaned up. The reaper pony was now ready to start the transportation of a living soul to an already deceased form. From her countless studies, she had learned that in ancient history this spell was heavily forbidden and neglected by various cultures saved for the lost Zebrican tribes of old. It was seen as a crude form of immortality, and what the pony had learned from old scriptures, a terrible spell which could yield some unwary symptoms. The details of such symptoms, she could not figure out. The only thing this reaper pony cared about was mainly the information this soul possibly yielded. Aside from that she really had no purpose in caring for such a being. Its soul was weak, yet determined to live. It would not carry a high price on the soul market, nothing as close as a dragon’s one at that. However, if she was able to transport this creature's soul to the dragon’s deceased, patched up corpse. There was a chance that this being could hold vast knowledge of interdimensional space, or even magics she herself had never heard of. If it doesn’t. She could at least pretend to feel good at the fact she saved the damned thing, and who knows, perhaps such a beast will be indebted to her? In the end everypony may win. So she hoped. After she had carried all of her necessary tools to the top of the mountain where the bodies laid. The reaper began copying the ancient inscriptions inside her spell book, using a white chalk she marked the various hieroglyphics into the mountain stone around the two corpses. After doing so she lit blue candles at the edges of the diamond ritual she had marked, and finally, the part she hated the most, she took a knife and winced as she lightly cut her right foreleg and leaked her blood onto both corpses before smearing some on the jar containing the alien creatures soul and placing it between the two bodies. Stepping towards the end of the ritual, the pony sat down and levitated her crudely written spell book in front of her face. Clearing her throat she began to chant a chant in a twisted and wicked tongue only familiar to those who had lived for millennia on end. As she chanted, the air grew thin, the moisture held within faded away as her coat hairs stood on end as a faint smell of roses became pungent. Continuing to speak in tongues a white light pierced the dark, night sky, as the ground around the ritual cracked and began to shake. The bloodied, reflective jar between the corpses lifted and began to ascend upwards before suddenly shattering into billions of shards. The soul of the bizarre animal twisted and released a horrific, shrieking howl which caused the chanting pony to jump with fright before falling back into rhythm. The glowing essence that was held with in the jar contorted and continued to scream as it was forcibly yanked towards the deceased reptile of a monster. Black strands ripped from the freshly killed lizard and wrapped themselves around the squirming, wailing soul which now grew brighter than the setting moon as it was dragged into the scaley carcass. Suddenly the world would fall silent. The light from the stars had gone out like a bedroom light, the thin air resided back to its normal stature and the smell of roses would drift away with the gentle, nightly breeze. The pony took a deep breath and summoned herself a bandage so she could wrap her self inflicted wound. Standing onto her hooves, she hesitantly approached the dragon’s body. From where she stood it looked as if it wasn’t breathing, but as she got closer, she noticed something extraordinary. Its stomach was weakly rising and falling, and she could faintly, ever so faintly hear the sound of breathing. Taking a deep breath she smiled as she used her magic to check on the beasts injuries caused from the hunt. The reaper had done her best to repair most of the damage inflicted by the griffons. Yes she had told the previous owner of this body that it was far too damaged to survive, however, that was only without proper medical attention. The pony could have easily rescued the creature yet she chose not to seeing that she thought she could bargain for its soul. But alas, that was not the case. Instead she had chose to gamble over this alien of thing’s soul in hopes to gain knowledge of what that horrific hell gate was...the pony shivered and stepped back from the unconscious beast the thought of the horrors from that hellish gate sent shivers down her very spine. The pony took a breath and shook her head. She didn’t want to think about that. Not yet, not while she didn’t have any answers. As of now all she needed to do was make sure the dragon’s corpse remains functioning and that nothing happens to the alien’s original body. Perhaps it maybe possible she could heal the other corpse and possibly transport the soul back to its original form? Yet the consequences of possibly doing such a thing are far too great. The various scriptures warned the reaper that soul transportation was a sketchy business. The pony bit her lip once more as she began to think that what she had done was a mistake? What if this beast she had just revived was not the one who had came through the tear? Once again she shook her head and cursed to herself. Right now she needed to focus and wait, wait for the deceased to wake up. :[-]: The Space Marine had learned of countless depictions of Hell through his various conquests across the vast universe. From the Rings of Fire generated from the Terran Christian, to the Black Oily Oceans told from the Wil’combian tribes in the plains on the planet Demango. Though none of them compared to what he had witnessed after being cast through that tear in the fabric of time. The black, misty void of hellish monstrosities and beings so hideous that even the brightest of minds would never be able to comprehend. So bombastically horrific that sanity of a single individual would snap at the sight of them. Creatures, if you could call them that, no man could even think about because just the thought alone would drive them crazy. Having drifted for what felt like weeks, no centuries, he couldn’t remember how long he was drifting. His mind had been broken during that time of being shoved and tortured. All he could recall was screaming, singing, pleaing and most of all laughing. Yet it was no laugh of a man who had heard a funny joke, no. It was a terrified laugh of a man who had completely lost his complete and utter will to live. A laugh of a man that would combine with his wailing sobs of mercy, yet where he was mercy did not exist. The nightmare he had traversed ended shortly after he had fallen through the other end of the tear and blacked out. His memories of ever seeing a pony or suffering a heart attack had faded along with most of his thoughts relating to the hellish hole he had undergone entirely. Not completely though, the fear of seeing anything resembling a crack or a dark space sends a terrible chill up his spine. Yet the reason why is unclear to him. When he woke up some time later in the next afternoon, he found himself lying beside the edge of a cliff overlooking a rather beautiful valley. The space marine blinked in confusion as he gazed over the luscious landscape, further below he even noticed a small town. His confusion still rather undying he would soon be startled by the high pitched yawn coming from behind him. Shifting to look back the marine gasped and groaned due to his body aching due to the various bruises and injuries he had sustained from the previous night. “Careful now, don’t move too much!” Came the voice of a young maiden. “Wh-who’s there?” Said a voice of a much older sounding woman. The marine glanced around, looking for the voice of the girl he had heard along with the woman who had said something vaguely similar to what he asked. Was he not alone? “You’re hurt, if you move too much, you’ll undo some of the bandages.” The younger woman said, suddenly the maringe felt someone tugging on the supposed bandages on him and he grimaces before looking down to see a grey and scaly body, a small four legged horse like creature dawned with a black hood was psionically tugging on the bandages wrapped across the reptilian body. “Wh-what in God’s name...” The older woman’s voice muttered just as he did, his eyes watching as the creature tugged on the bandages, to which he could also feel said pulling. “There you go, your bandages should be fastened well enough!” The small pony said before looking up into the marine’s eyes. “My...bandages?” The deep voice of the woman muttered, the marine’s eyes widening as the voice of the woman kept mimicking him. Then it began to settle in. The woman mimicking his voice was his own, the bandages on the scaly body he could feel was his. It was keenly obvious by this point that he was not in his own body, perhaps he had really gone mad? He did not feel as if he was crazy, yet due to crazy people know that about themselves? “Wh-what am I?” The marine muttered, the sound of his own, new and feminine undertone chilling him to his very core. The pony giggled and sat back on her haunches and gazed up at the marine’s eyes. “You’re a dragon!” Her voice sounding excited at the fact her ancient, illegal ritual was a complete success. The marine’s eyes widened, his head turning to look over the new found body. His breathing escalating his new and much larger lungs taking in vast quantities of air at an accelerated rate, his new and much larger heart beating hard. “Wh-what have you done to me?!” His new large, and beautiful blue eyes shrunken with fear. The pony bit her lip and hopped onto her hooves. “C-calm down! I-It’s fine, you just had some complications th-that’s all!” “Complications! Wh-what is the meaning of this?!” His feminine voice still unfamiliar to his new and much, much better ears. The pony fell silent and took a breath. “Y-you came from...a portal, a tear really...” The pony shivered and shook her head, even the mentioning of the tear was difficult. “You had quite the tumble coming out of it, a-and...I had to save you!” She bit her lip. “Though in order to do that, I-I had to transport your soul to...a dragon's body, due to the fact that your normal body is going to need to go under some uh...” she fell silent. “Reconstruction.” She smiled widely up at the marine who looked at her unconvinced. “B-believe me when I say this, but I saved your life!” She began to approach him. “If I hadn’t been here you would be rotting right now!” A moment of silence fell over the two and the dragon marine closed his eyes and took a breath, his breathing and heart rate slowing to a steady rate. “Forgive me...these countless years I have endured as made my tone harsh and thoughts irrational. I did not mean to come off as hostile.” The tone of the dragon’s voice caused the pony to stand back and blink. “Well aren’t you a kind...being.” The pony smiled. The marine gazed up at the pony, the dragon’s face a little stern but not beaming with fright or fury. “Let me start over by thanking you for saving me...however, I do ask you this: will I ever return to my original form?” Luckily the pony had prepared for such a question and straightens herself out. “Y-yes! But uh...” The Dragon cocked its head and the pony blushed under her coat. “Not immediately, there’ll be some time to repair the damages that had been done,” her eyes shifted a bit as the dragon’s head lowered and breathed heavily. The marine was afraid of such answer, no things in life would ever come so easily. “Forgive me for being a little blunt but uh...what is your name?” The pony asked in a nervous tone. The marine glanced at the pony. “My name?” he cocked his head to one side, his mind some reason spotty in a few areas as he tried to think back, a few moments past and he smiled and nodded his head head before gazing down. “My name is Sergeant Andrew Drake, yet from what I recall...everyone just called me Drake. Might ask yours?” The pony smiled. “The name is Emerald,” she hummed as she sat back on her rear. “Also Drake sounds like a male’s name.” She giggled. Drake blinked. “But I am a male.” The pony suddenly found this hysterical as she laughed and shook her head, confused Drake glanced back, his new found body did seem rather lean and curvy compared to what he had seen in times past or in info-discs. “Not while you’re in that body, buddy,” The pony said between snorts and giggles. “You are one-hundred percent female!” Well that explained the voice he had been speaking in. Drake blinked once again and recoiled his head back again before glaring at the pony. “You are telling me I am no longer male?” The pony nodded and Drake recoiled once more, eyes wide in shock. “This does not make any sense, what kind of sorcery is this? Why did you not place me in something that matches my chromosomes?” The pony named Emerald seemed to be having a riot with all of this. “Oh by Celestia’s mane this is amazing!” Emerald sat up and beamed at Drake. “I’m sorry, Dr-Drake, but this is all what I had available to me!” Drake let off a sigh and sunk back, telling himself that this should only be temporary. “How much longer should I wait till my original form is restored?” That question seemed to knock the other pony off her hooves. “I-Uh-oh-ehhh....As of now uh...I d-don’t have a fool, diagnosis. So as of now....iiiits a little unknown.” She tapped her hooves together nervously and sat up, wincing a little when she noticed Drake’s glare. “May I see my body?” Drake asked and the pony shot up and shook her head. “N-no! You cannot do that, seeing your own corpse could have severe mental issues!” The pony said in a stern and serious tone. “I’ll let you know when the time is right, Drake,” she said before falling back and muttering how ‘Drake’ is a weird name. The dragon leaned back and sighed. “I hope you are being honest with me,” he muttered softly and winced as he felt something move behind him, causing a little pain. Gazing back his eyes widened when he noticed his very own tail. Making a strange face he shook his head and sighed. “Make it happen,” he said to the pony below him who looked up nervously. “I do not have all the time in the world.” His new, sharp eyes glared down at the pony who by this point was practically eating her bottom lip The pony stepped back, his eyes extremely intimidating. Nodding her head she said quietly. “Y-yeah, I’ll...try.” she sat back by a small campfire she had set up over night. “Just for now...try not to move. Dragons kinda...heal quickly, so it shouldn’t be long till you can move about.” Drake nodded softly. “Very well.”