//------------------------------// // Dragon Army Part 1: Fall of the Dragon Lands // Story: Our Stories: Else World Tales // by SciWriter //------------------------------// 400 years ago... Massive bat wings beat, wind sweeping across the land as the creature shot over the dragon lands. Torkuda looked up from his jungle home, the young green helgath dragon not... sure what he was seeing. It looked like a dragon, but it was much larger than any fellow species the young one had ever seen. He opened his wings and jumped through the over head trees and into the air. He soared after the creature, noticing as many other young dragons were flying out as well. Torkuda pulled his wings forward and then shot them back, tearing through the air like a missile, his mind so desperate to know, what was this thing? The creature was red and scaly, having four legs and a wing span nearly double its size. From the side and behind, it actually looked a lot like a fellow helgath. However, if the creature were to stand on the earth, it might have been twenty stories tall- Torkuda himself was barely three. Torkuda spun and unraveled his wings as he pulled ahead of the creature. He slowed down and looked back. The massive new dragon- no this was definitely not a dragon. All down it's spine there were massive jagged horns... more like large spiked rocks on it's back sticking out at odd angles. On it's head it had eight horns, two on top, twisting out like those of an antelope, six others were on the right and left of it's mouth, like the horns of a bull. It had six eyes that glowed purple. Finally its long mouth did look enough like that of a helgath however. What was this? Several dragons were now flying ahead of the creature. The creature turned its head to look over at one of the other dragons and opened it's mouth. A ball of flames and rocks shot out and slammed into the other young dragon, shredding it in the air. Torkuda's eyes widened, seeing one of his friends disintegrated in one shot. He dived down as the other young dragons fired off in all directions. The monster twisted in the air, its tail, which had a large stone like – thing- on the end, snapping too and fro, ripping through several young dragons. Torkuda landed in the trees... how could a creature like that get this far into the dragon lands? This place had always been safe. He had come to help the older dragons watch the younglings. Thousands of baby dragons were in these woods! His eyes filled with fear, watching the creature turn in the air, mouth open, fire ushering out of its mouth, flames ripping through the trees. Torkuda's ears started to ring with the screams as infant and child dragons, too young to have their fire resistant scales, burned alive. He let out a scream of his own and tore away. (***) That was only the first. There were five creatures, one, a twenty story long giant centipede, two, a ten story nine eyed crow, three, a fifteen story long snake with ahead on both ends of its body, four, a ten story tall ape like creature, with a mouth on its stomach. The fifth was the dragon like creature that attacked the nursery. The dragons came to know them as the “outer demons”. No one could talk to them and they seemed barely phased by fire. There had never been anything in all the world large enough to feed on dragons and if anything ever threatened them, most simply moved up to full size and blew fire, their enemy running away. The other races mostly avoided dragons. These things were not like the other creatures in the world. On occasion they would eat dragons, but mostly they seemed to just want to destroy and kill, wiping out all life. They destroyed forests and jungles, the five creatures moving on the massive dragon lands and slowly destroying everything alive. They were taking their time, but nothing seemed to grow in their wake. Over the course of fifty years, Torkuda and many dragons being forced to retreat to the border of the neighboring Equestria. (***) Torkuda had grown into a massive bull dragon, five stories tall with an eighty foot wing span. The rocks of this country were good to live on, even if they didn't taste as good as those found in fertile soil. The lands near Equestria were often barren, as opposed to the land in Equestria, but venturing into their territory usually proved fatal, as the equines believed dragons ate meat and on sight they would attack in mass and kill them. There were those who tried to go back home, but only a few returned, terror in their eyes. Dragons knew the basic layout of Equestria, but avoided it and especially it's capital. There was a difficulty however. Dragons had a natural yearning to migrate in order to mate, why, none seemed to know, dragons normally didn't keep good records of their history. Still some were starting to suspect it had something to do with the monsters now attacking. They had always migrated over their own lands, but now, they had to migrate over Equestria if they were to follow instinct. The Dragon Lord declared a simple solution. They migrate as a unit and simply not stop. The ponies would only attack one at a time, if they attacked at all, so only a few would be killed. Dragon Lord Devon walked over a huge stone over hang, looking over the land of Equestria, his shadow cast over the dragons below. He let out a roar and thousands of dragons shot into the air, the sun fading from sight on the ground as their shadows began to bath the land of the equines in darkness. In only minutes, Torkuda heard screaming and looked down, seeing the pony creatures running in terror. What were they thinking was going on? Were they experiencing the same fear he faced fifty years ago? Their screams sounded a lot like his. But they weren't being attacked. Torkuda and his group continued on, ponies simply scattering, none seeming to dare to approach or talk to them. The shadow of the group started to approach Ponyville, Torkuda starting to grow numb to the screams. He hated the sound, but this was what had to happen it seemed. He closed his eyes to tune them out and- felt himself yanked to the right and then pulled straight to the ground. He slammed head first into the earth and slammed onto his back. He rolled several times on the grass... it had been years since he had felt an actual field... and then pulled up to his feet, hearing a voice. “What is the meaning of this?!” he looked over at the voice, seeing a large white pony. Large for a pony anyway, the mare would still would barely have been large enough for him to have trouble swallowing it in one bite. She was dressed in armor, had a horn and large bird like wings. “You dragons have always kept to your own lands, but over the last several months more and more of you have... and now- you are TERRIFYING MY PEOPLE!” She finally screamed at him. “What do you want?!” Torkuda stepped back from the pony and shook his head. He stood up to his full size and opened his mouth, spewing flames at the pony, thinking to make her fly away. However she didn't run, her horn glowed, the flames shooting back into his own face and his head was thrown to the ground, forcing him to bite his own cheek. The dragon got up, spitting out a small amount of blood. Torkuda looked at the red substance, understanding it was his own. He held his head down, looking at the white pony. “I will ask again creature, what is it you want?!” he shook his head and lept into the air, wings spread and- slammed into the ground on his back. The shadows of his brothers and sisters continued to go over head, screams echoing out all around. “You WILL answer me,” the mare said. “Why?” the dragon finally answered. “Why what? I am the one asking questions here.” “Why do you fight me alone?” He pulled up to his full size again. “You seem to have magic that could harm me, but how certain are you would would really win a fight?” Torkuda did his best to look angry. “I... I could, I have no idea,” the mare admitted. “We are... migrating. Your people have nothing to fear. Just let me go.” He backed away a few more times. “Why are you afraid?” she asked. “Because you can hurt me, of course I'm afraid, why aren't you?” he demanded back. “Who says I'm not? You dragons are covering my entire kingdom in shadow.” Torkuda looked up, twisting his lips. “Weeeeell... it is a moving shadow, don't act like we're blotting out the sun or anything.” “But why are you migrating through here?” “We're afraid.” “Of what? What could cause such massive creatures to flee?” “We don't fight, don't you pay attention?” Torkuda asked. “The things that are after us are bigger than us, everything else just flees on our approach. We are simply surviving as we always have.” She looked at him, her head tilted. “You... you aren't fearsome monsters... you dragons are just... I don't understand. You have to fight.” “How do you fight something bigger than yourself?” “I... we do it all the time. We just organize our military and-” But she stopped, appearing to almost choke to make herself stop. She shook he head and waved her hoof at the sky. “Very well, if you creatures are not a threat, I will let you proceed. I'll do my best to tell the others not to be afraid on your approach.” She looked at him again. “Do you have names?” “Of course. Mine is Torkuda.” “Torkuda... if your kind are not warriors, I would keep it that way... but if what's coming is enough to- Torkuda there may be a way to stop those things... never mind just go.” Torkuda looked at her curiously, but then felt himself thrown into the air. He quickly opened his wings, catching his breath at the force. He realized the shadow of his kind was far away. He was alone in the pony world. He beat his wings and shot off after his group. (***) Celestia watched after the dragon. She spoke, as if he could hear him. “Whatever is coming...” she shook her head. “It's just your problem...” She closed her eyes. “I feel pity for you, but I cannot allow that to cloud my judgment. To fight your own war, you would need your own army. If there were, it would sweep over our land like a tidal wave...” Even speaking her thoughts aloud did not quite the doubts she was feeling about letting Torkuda go. She looked around nervously. “I mean... besides, if something hunts dragons, why would it even be interested in ponies?”