//------------------------------// // A New World // Story: The Dragonriders of Equestria // by Dawn-Designs-Art //------------------------------// Sierra was roused by the sound of a dragon moaning in pain. She was very surprised to find that she wasn't dead. Her head hurt a little, but she could sense nothing else ailing her. Slowly, she opened her eyes to find herself laying against Melrith's neck, still strapped into the harness which kept her from falling off during flight. They were in a clearing, surrounded by a dark looking forest, and it appeared to be midday, judging by the location of the sun. Strangely, the sky was not the greenish blue that she was used to. You need to tend to Varoth, his rider has yet to wake Melrith said. "Right..." Sierra quickly unstrapped herself and climbed down, shrugging off the flamethrower strapped to her back and discarding it on the ground, she then walked over to the big Bronze. While she was thankful that she carried a jar of numbweed on her every Fall, she knew there wasn't enough to cover a full grown dragon's wing. At best, she'd be able to numb the pain where she needed to sew the gash closed, but none of the smaller wounds along the edge of the wing. First though, she needed to unstrap T'fern and get him to the ground safely. Varoth lay down to give her easy access to his rider, more worried about T'fern than himself. "Any idea where we are?" Sierra asked her dragon as she lay the Bronze rider on the grass. No, this place does not look familiar, nor does it smell familiar. I cannot sense or contact any of the others... the Queen replied as she looked around at the trees. That worried Sierra, a dragon could telepathically communicate with any other dragon on Pern, no matter the distance between them. If Melrith couldn't contact, or even sense, the other dragons of their weyr, what could that mean? Was something wrong with her dragon? I am fine, Varoth says to use the numbweed on his rider first. "But there's barely enough to numb the tears in his wing to sew the membrane back together," Sierra said. If T'fern dies that will no longer matter Melrith said, surprising Sierra, for dragons rarely used other peoples names. "Okay, but don't say I didn't warn him," Sierra murmured as she knelt at T'fern's side. His arm hadn't been quite as badly scored as she'd first thought, but the deepest wound needed stitches, and it would take time to heal. Carefully she removed and used his belt knife to cut off what remained of his shirt and jacket sleeves, the shirt sleeve she tore into strips to use as a bandage. Then, she took as much of the numbweed paste as she dared to rub into the score marks, glad that she wore leather riding gloves, for even a little numbweed would render her hands useless to sew his arm or the dragon's wing. She then took the needle and thread she carried in her belt pouch and did her best at sewing the worst wound closed, but without a proper Healer, these would definitely scar. She quickly finished by bandaging his arm before turning to the scored dragon who had been trying to suppress his sounds of pain. "Varoth, please spread your wing as close to the ground as possible, I don't have a table to stand on." The Bronze obliged, stretching out his wing so she could see the damage. She sighed in relief when she saw that there was only one major tear in the wing membrane, and it had only looked worse in the air because the edges were tattered. A dragons wing was much easier to sew than a humans arm, it was almost like sewing a thick blanket, if that blanket bled green ichor. Quickly, she spread what remained of the numbweed along both sides of the tear, much to the relief of the dragon. She then took the needle and thread and began to sew the two parts back together. By the time she was finished, nearly an hour later, her gloves and jacket arms were covered in dragon ichor, but the major tear and as many of the minor tears she'd had thread for, were sewn up. "That's going to hurt a lot when the numbweed wears off, and it will wear off quickly since I didn't have enough to lather it on as usual, but it will heal," Sierra said to the dragon, who carefully folded his wing. Carefully pealing off her gloves, she walked over to her dragon, retrieving her water skin and draining what was left in it in a few gulps. Now she had some time to actually look at her surroundings, and quickly discovered that nothing was familiar to her. Whilst some of the plants looked similar to ones she knew from home, albeit different colouration's, most looked strange, and once more she noted that the sky was a lot bluer than she'd ever seen. "I need to get a better lay of the land," she muttered. Varoth says he and T'fern will be fine if we take a short flight, we smell no danger around, and what wherry would attack a human guarded by a dragon, even if injured Melrith said, answering the question her rider had been about to voice. "I'd be more worried about tunnel snakes, they're much more sneaky, but okay then, let's go and see what we can of this place." And so, Sierra jumped up onto her Queen's back and Melrith leaped up powerfully, spreading her wings, and with a downward sweep, quickly gained altitude. The first thing Sierra noticed was that the forest was immense, stretching back a long way to some distant mountains. As Melrith turned though, She could see an end to the forest, relatively close, and beyond that, she could make out what looked to be a lot of buildings. That wasn't something she was used to, while buildings weren't uncommon on Pern, the amount of buildings she saw before her was highly unusual. Holders preferred the stone-bound safety of a carved out mountain, and what buildings that there were, were built mostly from stone, whilst the ones she could make out looked to be made of wood or some other pale materiel. She had Melrith circle their immediate area, and spotting a nearby river, they landed so Sierra could refill her flask, and maybe catch some fish. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Twilight! Twilight!" A blue and rainbow blur shouted as it rocketed through the door of Ponyville's crystal tree castle, heading towards the magic map room. "Rainbow Dash?" Twilight Sparkle said as she walked out of the room, only to have the pegasus crash into her. "Gah! Oow... Rainbow, I've told you time and time again to slow down inside!" the purple alicorn growled, pushing the dazed mare off her. Shaking her head, Dash stood up. "Eh heh... Sorry Twi... But seriously, I have something important to tell you, I saw a massive golden dragon flying above the Everfree! Bigger than that one we had to wake up and make leave. It wasn't far from town either." "Hmm, strange, I thought Ember had commanded that outside of the migration, dragons need to stay away from pony towns and cities until she can track down that rogue group of dragons that's causing trouble." The alicorn stood up and thought for a moment. "Spike?" she called. "Yeah Twi?" Spike replied as he strolled in, feather duster in hand. Twilight smiled, still not quite over the fact that he was back, and now much taller than her. He'd spent the past two years with Ember, learning about dragon history and culture. During that time he'd shot up, and he'd come back a lot more sure of himself and his place in the world. While Twilight had missed him dearly, she was glad that he'd had the chance to discover who he really was. "Rainbow Dash says she's seen a massive gold dragon in the Everfree, do you know anything about that?" "No, Ember didn't mention anything about letting any dragons pass through here in her last letter, and that's something she definitely would have told me. We should go and check it out, do you remember where you saw it Dash?" "Sure do, follow me!" Dash then zipped out the door. Spike sighed, shaking his head, then removed his apron and placed it and his feather duster on the map table. He then counted down from three on his claws, causing Twilight to smile as Rainbow flew back in the room as he reached one. "Umm, sorry guys, I forgot Spike's too big for you to carry anymore Twi..." "It's okay Rainbow, I forget sometimes too. I can just teleport us all to outside the forest and we can just walk from there." The other two nodded and stood next to Twilight as she lit her horn. A bright purple flash later and the trio were standing at the edge of the forest that had once struck fear into their hearts. "Okay, great, now follow me guys, it was just this w..." Rainbow was cut off by a ferocious roar. "Oh dear, we'd better hurry!" Twilight yelled, racing off in the direction of the sound, the other two following quickly. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Varoth's in trouble, we must return Melrith said to her rider seconds before the furious roar reached them. Abandoning her hunt for fish, Sierra leapt onto the dragons back and they took off immediately, flying as fast as possible over the short distance back to the clearing. There they saw Varoth facing off against a pack of five strange, canine like creatures. T'fern was still on the ground, but clearly awake, as he was struggling to sit up. Melrith landed next to Varoth and growled in anger at the strange intruders, eyes whirling red in fury. Upon closer inspection, the creatures appeared to be made of various pieces of wood, bark and leaves. Sierra also noticed a horrible stench that she hadn't smelt in the clearing before they'd left. "Tell Varoth to torch these things, whatever they are, if he has any fire left!" Sierra said, then spotted her discarded flamethrower where she'd left it, "I'll use my flamethrower." Melrith appeared to nod, and Varoth immediately opened his massive maw to release a jet of flame at the creatures, while Sierra jumped to the ground and bolted to were her flamethrower lay. Not bothering to pull the main bulk of the thing back onto her back, she grabbed up the nozzle, pulling the trigger to send a stream of flame at one of the creatures which was attempting to come at her. Faced with flaming foes, the strange canine creatures turned tail and ran whimpering back into the forest, two of them singed and one smoking. Almost immediately the stench began to dissipate, making it clear that the creatures had brought it with them. Varoth warbled quietly in satisfaction at having scared off the threat to his rider, then lay down once more. "What on Pern were those things and why aren't we in the Weyr!?" T'fern almost shouted as he watched the creatures leave. "I honestly have no idea T'fern, but we clearly aren't on the Northern Continent anymore..." Sierra said as she walked over and helped him up. "So what, we're on the Southern continent? Or the Western continent? By the Egg Sierra, what image were you projecting to your dragon?" He asked, no longer as loud. "I was projecting an image of the Weyr, but something happened Between, and I have no idea what, I saw a flash of white light, felt a moment of sudden intense heat, didn't you feel it too? Shards! There isn't meant to be light or heat Between, there's no records of that happening..." "I... I saw that too, but I thought that was just some sort of fever dream because I'd passed out..." A low growl of warning brought the riders attention back to their surroundings as their dragons told them that something was approaching. Melrith moved, as if hiding the pair from the view of whatever was coming their way, while Varoth stretched out his neck, searching the treeline. Sierra readied the flamethrower in case they would need it again. They waited silently, until a figure appeared. At first, Sierra couldn't believe her eyes, the thing was green and purple. It stood on two legs like a human, but there wasn't anything else human about it, in fact it looked rather reptile. It looked to stand about as tall as Sierra, and was covered in purple scales, with green spines, green fins on it's head where it's ears would be if it were human, and a green underbelly, it also had rather large, green eyes. Most shocking of all though, was when it began to speak. "Um, hi there, I'm Spike, the Official Ambassador of Friendship between the Dragon Lands and Equestria, as appointed by Dragon Lord Ember of the Dragon Lands and Princess' Twilight, Celestia and Luna of Equestria. Now I don't remember seeing either of you when Ember made her announcement, but you should know that you are getting rather close to a pony settlement. Because of the actions of a renegade group of dragons, Lord Ember has commanded that for the time being, dragons without direct permission from Dragon Lord Ember herself, cannot settle near, or fly close to any pony settlements outside of migration flights." Spike was trying to sound as official as possible, but he couldn't help but be aware that these dragons looked strange. For one, their eyes looked more like multi-faceted gemstones than eyes, and their eyes were also changing from bright red in colour to orange. Secondly, they appeared to be wearing saddles of some kind, and the bronze one had a large sack strapped to it's saddle. From the bushes behind him, Twilight and Rainbow watched on, not wanting to interfere. Spike had it hard enough amongst his own kind for being a wingless dragon without a pair of ponies making it look like he couldn't do his job properly without help. They too noticed that these dragons weren't like anything they'd seen before, their colours were strange, metallic dragons weren't a common sight, and their eyes definitely looked alien, unlike any other creature in Equestria. There are two more creatures in the bushes behind this creature called Spike, I can smell them, they smell a little like runner beasts, they are hiding Melrith said to Sierra, mentally sharing the picture of small flashes of blue and purple in the nearby bush. At this point, some form of talking could be heard from the direction of the bushes as well. "I think it would be safe to introduce ourselves then, whatever they are, they clearly speak Pernese, and they might be able to help us," Sierra replied mentally, only able to make out a few words from the conversation in the bushes. "It looks like they're protecting something," Twilight whispered to Rainbow, noting how the gold dragon was sitting in a defensive looking manner that seemed to hide something from view. "Yeah, it does look that way... Should we sneak around and look?" "I don't know, it could just make them angry if we're discovered." "True, but what could they do to us, I'm awesome and you're an alicorn princess, you can teleport us home. Spike's a dragon, he spent two years learning how to deal with other dragons, so he can get out of a situation easy as pie." "Still, what if they are angry enough to follow us into town and they start to destroy everything?" "Relax Twi, they wouldn't do that, they wouldn't want to risk Ember's wrath" She is correct, Varoth and I have no intention of destroying a town, but we do not know who this Ember you speak of is. The voice rang clearly through the ponies heads, seemingly from nowhere. The pair of ponies were momentarily stunned into silence until a gasp from Spike brought them back to reality. "What... What are you?" Spike asked as a strange bipedal creature walked out from between the two dragons. It was tall, almost as tall as himself, and it wore a lot of clothes, more than even Rarity would wear at once. "I could ask you the same question, you say you're a dragon, but you're clearly nothing like our dragons," the creature said in a clearly female voice. "You speak Equestrian? And... our?" "No, you're speaking Pernese, and I have another rider with me." At this point, Twilight and Rainbow both stumbled out of the bush, wanting to get a closer look at the strange creature. "What, by the egg, are those things!?" Sierra almost shouted in her surprise at the sight of such vibrantly coloured creatures. They looked almost like miniature runner beasts, but one was pale purple with a dark purple and pink mane and tail, whilst the other was light blue with rainbow hair. If that wasn't odd enough, both had wings and the purple one had a horn. "I'm not a thing, I'm a pony, pegasus to be exact, the names Rainbow Dash, now what are you?" the blue one stated. Shocked that this creature, a pony, could talk, Sierra couldn't help but respond in kind. "I'm a human, my name is Sierra, weyrwoman at Benden Weyr and rider of golden Melrith, my friend is T'fern, also of Benden and rider of bronze Varoth..." "We're pleased to meet you Sierra, I am Princess Twilight Sparkle, Equestria's Princess of Friendship. I am an alicorn, meaning I'm earth pony, unicorn and pegasus all in one. If I may ask, where is your friend, T'fern?" the purple one asked. Twilight wasn't sure what to think, while this Sierra did in fact resemble the humans through the magic mirror portal, she was also very different. She was much shorter, and her body bigger, and limbs and head much smaller than the mirror world humans, and her facial features were in different proportions, ears and nose bigger, eyes and mouth smaller, but that could come from a smaller head. Also, her colours were strange, very dull, not like a pony or their human counterpart at all. "He's right over here next to Varoth... Oh shards, he's passed out again..." Sierra walked back to T'fern and checked his arm, to find that the stitches had torn in his struggle to get up when those wooden creatures had tried to attack, and his arm was now bleeding freely, the bandage completely soaked. "He's hurt rather badly, do you ponies happen to have any Healers we could take him to?" "We can take him to the hospital," Spike said. He was a little unnerved by the fact that these humans called themselves the 'riders' of these dragons, as if they were some kind of pet, but the dragons didn't seem to mind, not that they were talking. "I don't know what a hospital is but if it has people who can heal wounds there, then that's where we need to go." Sierra said as she struggled to pick up T'fern. She wasn't sure what to think of these strange creatures, but right now all that mattered was for T'fern to get better, then he'd be able to help her sort all of this out. And then T'fern was lifted out of her grasp by a strange sparkling purple light, causing her to yelp in surprise. Varoth jumped to his feet, growling at the light holding his beloved rider, his eyes yellow with worry. Melrith tried to sniff at the light, trilling in curiosity. "Oh, um, sorry, I should have said I could carry him if that's easier..." Twilight said sheepishly, then recognised that they had no idea what it was that she was doing. "Oh, it's a simple telekinesis spell that I'm doing, mixed with a more advanced stasis spell, it smells like he's bleeding out, so this will stop it temporarily until we can get to Ponyville hospital." "I have no idea what you're talking about, but lets get going then... um, Varoth can't fly, he was hurt too, will he be able to walk all the way out of this forest? It looked really thick from the air." "Well he's really big, but I think I know a path where I could lead him out," Spike said, "if you want to go ahead with your friend... It might be best if both of the dragons stay with me, the ponies in town would react better to two strange dragons if they're with me." "Good thinking Spike, um, but only if that's okay with you Sierra," Twilight said. "You and, Rainbow Dash was it? Well you both have wings, we could fly to this hospital." "Not really," Rainbow spoke up, "You see, the weather conditions here over the Everfree Forest are like, super erratic, it's near impossible for anything other than a dragon to fly easily over it, trust me, I've tried." "Oh... Melrith, would you be okay staying with Varoth and following Spike out of the forest?" Sierra asked the golden queen. Of course Sierra, I would like to talk to this strange dragon, ask him about this world the dragon said, her eyes green with contentment. "Well okay then, I guess I'm walking with the two of you." Sierra then grabbed up and shouldered her flamethrower, not wanting to strap it to Melrith's saddle in case it snagged on a tree or something. "Okay, let's go."