//------------------------------// // Entry 32: Working with the Bearded // Story: Samudra's Journal // by vren55 //------------------------------// Starswirl rendered another service to Aquestria. It helped him too, but I think he is somepony who at least bears us no harm. The dragons, one of the more dangerous surface worlder species, have usually been ignored by Aquestria. They can’t swim underwater after all. But they recently have gained a  ruler more intelligent than usual. This Dragon King, called Gormorath didn’t have magic, but he did enslave several mages through capturing their families and proceeded to go on a number of wars of expansion. For the moment, he had been content on conquering surface races, but then he went too far. He blocked off a bay that held a seapony settlement of nearly three thousand ponies, and then proceeded to have the dragons try to drain the water off to other smaller lakes, and steam the water with dragonfire. By doing this, they forced the seaponies into shallow enough water that his mages could bind them with special enchanted ropes that could strangle the captive if the captor wanted it. He intended to force my subjects to mine for underwater gems and gold. Normally, I could simply just kill the dragon king and his entourage. Summon a tsunami to deal with his mages and personally just slaughter the rest of his followers. The issue, was that the dragon king was… smarter than I expected. He took the threats and protestations from my subjects very seriously, as well as the stories of my power. So, Gormorath had the seaponies he captured moved into a lake more inland that he dammed off and posted a heavy guard on to prevent me from bringing too many of my Myrmidon guard. The thing is, my Myrmidons could get to the dam itself, but with so many dragons on it and the river confining my forces, it would be akin to walking into a trap. I could levitate myself over land.. However, a magical shield he forced his mages to set up would again impede my progress, forcing me to break the barrier while be beset by dragons. That itself was not too much of an issue. However, Gormorath left a survivor nearby the the message that if I tried to approach, he would kill all of my captured subjects. Needless to say, that was unacceptable, but so was him keeping my subjects. This was when I noticed Starswirl also sneaking near the shore. I approached him then and we decided to cooperated, united by our common interests, to kill the dragon king and save the innocents involved. It turns out he was seeking to put an end to the dragon king’s slaughtering and burning. We hatched a plan, Starswirl would infiltrate the camp and get me inside, where we would free the seaponies and the families of the mages. He had the spell knowledge and the arcane skill to cut through the barrier. I had the might. We didn’t know he was using enchanted ropes at the time, but we could guess that the dragons were keeping the seaponies controlled through some kind of magical means if they were going to try to use them to mine for gold. The plan went well when Starswirl and made our way to the landward side of the barrier. There he crafted an arcane circle (well, more like a semi-circle) that would open part of the barrier up without alerting anybody. I used my power to activate the array and we were in. Sneaking past the dragons and rescuing the mages was more difficult. Luckily, Starswirl knew about a really powerful sleeping spell that would even put dragons to sleep. He had taught me before we infiltrated and I performed it then, putting the guards to sleep. We reunited the mages with their families and got them to take down the shield. Thus, we could safely proceed to the lake, where Starswirl undid the spells on the ropes so that we could safely hydromance the seaponies out of the lake and back into the river where my Myrmidons were. Of course, I wasn’t going to simply let the dragons get away with it. They had imprisoned Aquestrian subjects and tried to subjugate them. Thus, I unleashed my wrath You see diary, Starswirl and I had laid a series of traps and arcane explosives around the camp, just in case they shook off the sleeping spell. All of his design, powered by my magic, were mostly restraining, or stunning. I used my magic to activate all of the traps. At the same time, I used the water in the lake and in the air to summon a blizzard so powerful, it ripped the scales from their dragons, froze their eyes, and if they survived that, the winds it produced whipped and contorted them until they were nothing but sacks of bone. Starswirl wasn’t expecting it and surprisingly enough, he asked me to stop. I pointed out to him that the dragons were surely going to come after us and I had to finish them here. He didn’t like it, but he grudgingly allowed me to continue and after casting a water-breathing spell quickly hunkered down in the river with my Myrmidons as I continued to unleash the storm. The few surviving dragons there were fled. Their king put up a greater fight, nearly reaching the lake where Starswirl and I were. He was behind me and I honestly didn’t notice, so focused I was with maintaining the storm. That was when Starswirl stepped in to paralyze him with a spell, allowing me to refocus my attention and kill it with spears of hardened ice through his eyes. Needless to say, the seaponies and rescued mages were eternally grateful. Starswirl was too, but he seemed a bit shaken, if very grateful for my assistance. I suppose he’ll come to accept that there was no way to leave the dragons alive without them becoming a greater threat. Gormorath had plans for world conquest that did not limit itself to the surface. I have been surprised though of how intelligent Starswirl was. I could have succeeded without his help, but the seaponies would have died for sure. With his help, what could have been a very tragic loss for Aquestria instead turned into one of our most one-sided battles. He’s not just somepony to be watched any longer… he actually might be an asset...