//------------------------------// // Birth of the Second Sun // Story: Ghosts of the Umbral Flame // by NovaTheFireBolt //------------------------------// Chapter 3: Birth of the Second Sun.   The war had begun.   Dragons soared through the air wielding nothing but their razor sharp claws and tail spikes. Not out of ignorance, but simply because that's all they needed. The King’s army however, was clad in their semi fire-proofed armor, powerful swords, and magically reinforced bows.   Unicorn archers drew back their bows, equipped with the dreaded explosive tips. The front line, mid line, and back line archers released a volley of the arrows upon the cavern. Explosions rocked the deepest catacombs, filling the sheltering dragon’s homes with dust and rock. As the archers reloaded, dragons swarmed their positions and rained heavy fire upon them. In a swift, single attack, the air filled with the ash of hundreds of soldiers.  The dragons were spread thin, but with the little resistance from the King's misjudgement about how many dragons were left in the cavern, the battle was going smoothly. Victory was in the dragon’s sight; very soon it would seem.   Then the fate of the land was decided. The King witnessed an organized retaliation from the Draconic Remnants and pulled out all the stops. The message was sent quickly, and the proper response was set in motion.   A ring of unicorn soldiers, far away from the heat of the battle, began to chant, the power in the words ebbing through them, reeling it's ugly head, impatient with the due process. Their horns started to glow.  Cracks tore through the ground around their vicinity, sending wisps of steam into the air. Trees nearby shattered, sending splinters in every direction. The soldiers chants grew louder and the cracks in the earth deepened with a noise like thunder.   From inside the soldiers ring, dirt and stone crumbled away into the darkness, and the ground heaved as the Demon below woke up.   The soldiers ran in all directions as the drone of their chanting echoed along the walls of the hole. A beast below bellowed and its purple talons dug into the walls, raining dirt and dust onto itself. A large, shadowy being emerged from the hole and it spread its wings stretching over the land like an eclipse of the sun. With one swift flap, it took to the skies, black soot falling off its body trailing behind it like a smokescreen.   It was the Constellation Demon Mother known as Typherias. She had a short, reptile-like neck covered in starry spikes shaped like a sleeked crown. The head resembled a grotesque dragon with six glowing yellow eyes that blazed like the sun. Her claws could slice through a dragon in one clean swipe.   And she was hungry.   ===============================   The Alpha reached the top of the freshly melted rock hole he created with his balefire and landing on the scorched grass, he gently placed the mare onto it.  "The battle will be difficult without my orders. Run to the egg, child. Run and cast the spell." The Alpha yelled to her over the quieting noise of death and explosions. She nodded to him and began to run. She ran faster that day than ever before. Lives of dragons rested in her hooves.   She could not falter now.   Glancing towards the sun in the sky, she noticed a peculiar black outline of a dragon. Must be the Alpha she thought. It took her a second to realize that most of the explosions ceased.  Slowing to a quick jog, she assessed the lack of noise. Strong gusts of wind began to make trees sway and darkness covered the land like a veil shrouded the sun.   Strange enough, there was such a cover over the celestial body. The puzzled mare stopped completely and squinted up towards the star. The oddly shaped black outline of what seemed like a dragon, only much larger she saw earlier was still there. Strangely, the light wasn't completely blocked out by the black form. It seemed to...  Pass right through it.   "That bastard! He summoned Typherias!" screamed the mare, beginning to run again. She sprinted for her life from the hell that Typherias would bring.   ===============================   The Alpha dodged a barrage of flaming arrows and watched their descent. Tracking the smoke trails, he assaulted the archers. Few had reloaded and opened fire against him. The Alpha barrel rolled to the left, spun into a tree and grabbed the upper trunk as it broke free from its roots. Using the backwards motion from his evasive roll, he swiped a line of archers away with the detached log.   Sliding back onto his feet, he faced seven squads of VERY angry soldiers. Arrows pelted his scales and bounced off harmlessly as he bounded towards one line of soldiers. Skidding to a stop, he brought his tail around like a wrecking ball; few soldiers were impaled on his spikes while others were crushed to a bloody stain on the grassy hill.   An explosive arrow hissed as it flew past his head, nearly destroying him. Another line of archers and soldiers advanced towards him.   The Alpha took a deep breath, and jumped at the line magically drawing back their bows preparing to fire.   Right as they let the arrows fly, he flapped his wings furiously. The draft blew the arrows back at the soldiers and desecrated them, raining blood onto the Alpha who was grinning all the while. Covered in blood, the Alpha turned towards the remaining soldiers. They were running away!  "Ha! These are your soldiers, great king?” sneered the Alpha. He turned to the cliff and leapt off, gliding into the air at the last moment.    As he soared, he noticed a peculiar black spot in the distance that seemed to block the sun. Having never seen such an occurrence before, he flew closer towards it, hoping to see what the mysterious black spot was.   ===============================   Typherias flew towards the sun and stretched her wings out to block it. Then she began to use her dark magic to absorb every cell of every creature on the battlefield below. This would create a vacuum effect and leave no ways of escape for her victims. All creatures needed to eat, and this is how Typherias ate: in large quantities, cell by cell.   She spoke and her voice rang over all the land, "This is the end of you creatures. Prepare to draw your last breath and watch as all you love is absorbed into my wake!"   ===============================   The young mare reached the riverbed at which she stored the egg. Panting heavily, she began to dig into the sand. Her hoof hit something and she heard a loud crack.  Scared that she might have broken the egg, she used her magic to clear away the rest of the sand. A glow penetrated a cover of glass that surrounded the egg.   Shadows moved towards her as Typherias continued to block off more of the sun, casting darkness over all the land. She frantically searched for a rock to smash the glass with. Finding none, she used her telekinesis and jabbed into the glass. Cracks formed around the surge that she fired into it. She unloaded again and again until the egg was freed.   Laying the crystal given to her by the Alpha in the sand, she began to weave her magic, making a net around the egg. She then connected the net to the crystal, tying the two objects together.   Shadows edged closer and closer to her and she felt her coat ripple from Typherias's spell.   "Enough of this!" she screamed as she closed her eyes and focused on the maturity acceleration spell. Her horn produced an overglow and the crystal hummed with the energy being siphoned into it.   Motes of light danced along the magical weave she created around the egg, and the crystal vibrated in the sand.   "COME ON! WORK, DAMNIT!" raged the mare, her horn creating a second, brighter overglow. The strings of light danced and pulsated, wrapping around the egg which was now glowing as well. A third overglow flared on her horn as her coat rippled again, the dark magic being worked by Typherias increasing in strength.   Finally, the strings of light tightened around the crystal and the egg, and a light flashed leaving the mare temporarily blinded.   ===============================   Flapping his wings against the powerful drafts in the higher altitudes, the Alpha had gotten very close to the strange black veil over the sun. He could feel a strange sensation, almost like the veil was tugging on his body, drawing him closer.   He flew faster, curious as to what dark magics were at work.  He blinked and a ominous tug pulled on his entire body. Now the "veil" wasn't so far away anymore. It turned its head and faced the Alpha, staring him down with its six eyes.   The Alpha was dumbstruck, and just stared right back. This creature looked like a behemoth compared to his monstrous size. Then, it spoke, its voice shaking his bones, "Do you wish to die first, perhaps? Fall at the mercy of me, Typherias?"   The Alpha snapped out of his continuous staring and replied to the beast, straightening his neck. "I am the last living Alpha leader of the Draconic Empire, and I will fight to my last breath! Do not expect me to submit so easily." The Alpha blew a jet of flame for emphasis. "If it is a battle you want then so be it! Die with honor, Typherias!"   She grinned, and stopped her dark magic from flowing. The spell could be finished after this simple battle, she told herself. Swallowing the magic bubbling in her throat, she turned in the sky and her starry skin rippled as she dived for the Alpha, baring her razor sharp teeth. He flew upwards, dodging the attack and blew a stream of fire into her 6 eyes, sending her reeling in the air. With a toothy grin, he flew at her falling body.   ===============================   The mare regained her sight, but she was left squinting from the afterglow left by the flash. Rubbing her face with a leg, she shook the blurriness away. Glancing up towards where she left the dragon’s egg and crystal, the blurriness faded away all at once, and she gasped at what she saw.   A dragon’s large skeletal remains were held together by serpentine pieces of fire and ligaments. Blood oozed from his muscles as the missing pieces were filled in by the moving flame, healing the flesh and growing red scales.   Before his complete regeneration, he leaned in close to the mare, and opened his bright, yellow scalene eyes, still fresh with a glossy coating that was blinked away. "Are you my mother?" The dragon asked in a seemingly lower pitch than the mare expected.   With tears in her eyes, the mare shook her head. She had never felt so much more accomplished in her life, and for such a good cause. "I...I...I'm not...No, I'm not your mother." The red dragon let his head droop, some scales popping up on his neck as the holes closed up, completing the regeneration.   The mare laid a hoof on his brow, not knowing what to do for the dragon.   An explosion destroyed a tree behind her, and she spun to face where the arrow was sent from.   "Daughter! I see you have made a new friend!"   Every instinct in her body told her to send hundreds of magical spear at her father. He wore bright blue armor and two unicorn soldiers flanked him, which she doubted weren't expendable guards to the Kings true purpose for fighting.   "Don't be so shocked, daughter. I always knew of your 'adventures' to their cavern. If anything, I should thank you for showing me where it was!" He stepped closer to her, grinning ear to ear.   The mare reeled backwards into the dragon’s wings, her eyes wide with fear. "You knew... You didn't act earlier because you wanted to kill them." she roared. Of course the king remained with his sadistic smile, edging closer to his mortified daughter.   "YOU WANTED TO KILL THEM ALL JUST FOR YOUR OWN PERSONAL GAIN!" Her blood seethed with anger. She was on the edge of impaling her father with rods of burning magic.   The dragon next to her snapped out of its downward gaze and fixated on the King.  "This one... He hurt others... Didn't he?" The mare looked at the dragons eyes and she noticed how familiar they looked.   Her dream from the night earlier was becoming true as she saw the burning hatred in the dragons eyes. "Yes... He did..." whispered the mare so quietly only the dragon could hear, a smile spreading on her face.   The King looked between his daughter and the dragon, still not quite putting together what was happening. Impatience got the best of him and he yelled to his soldiers, "Kill them! Kill them both!"   The archers drew their bows and loaded two explosive arrows. The King ran into the woods, fleeing the imminent death of his daughter.   Then the full-size, newborn dragon lunged at the archers, claws out and teeth barred.