//------------------------------// // Chapter 2. The morning after. // Story: The Elder Dragons of Equestria // by FanboyGamer3E //------------------------------// 3rd Person POV ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twilight and her friends all gathered on the edge of the Everfree forest. "So why'd you have us all come here Twi?" Rainbow asked. "Yes, weren't we supposed to investigate the small little box at the Tree of Harmony." Rarity added. "We'll be putting that on hold for now." Twilight answered. "But why?" FlutterShy asked." "Because we have more pressing matters, last night I saw something fall from the sky and land in the Everfree forest, we're going to the crash site to investigate." "20 bits says it's and Alien Spacecraft with a baby in it." Pinkie said in her usual cheerful tone. "You got that from that new SuperMare comic, didn't you." AppleJack said snidely. "Heheheh, Yup." "So what actually happened?" Rainbow asked. "Well," Twilight began. "I was up late last night star gazing, right before I went to bed I noticed what I thought was a shooting star. I looked at it through my telescope and noticed that it wasn't moving like a normal comet or meteor." "Whatever do you mean darling?" Rarity asked. "I mean it was failing around, never holding or returning to a consistent shape. As it got closer I started to notice some features about it. It had wings, a tail, and a head with a huge pair of horns on top, it also looked to have a lizard-like face. By the time I noticed that it had fallen past the cloud line and had landed in the Everfree forest. Normally I would have sprang into action immediately, but I was just so tired and I didn't want to wake you so I just went to bed, which brings us to now." "Let me guess, we're going to go see what landed there." Rainbow said. "Yes, that is the plan." Twilight confirmed. "Alrighty then." "Okay." "Let's do this." "Okie-Dokie-Loki." "Ready when you are Darling." "Wait your not worried?" Twilight asked, surprised. "Come on Twilight, we've all been in and out of the Everfree about a hundred times by now." Rainbow said confidently. "Plus, your an Alicorn now, so if the weird thing from space does try to attack us, you can just blast it with your magic." "Hmm, I suppose your right." "Of coarse I'm right, now lets go see what's out here." Rainbow said before flying head with the rest of the girls following behind her. Twilight smiled, reassured by Rainbow's attitude and ran followed after her friends. It didn't take them long to find the crash site. The crater itself was about 13 feet in diameter, and was about 4 feet deep. However the really interesting part was what was lying in the hole. The best word Twilight could describe it as was a dragon. The dragon was the size of a large Manticore, which explained the crater. It had black scales with a hot pink coloration on its belly. Its wings where large and leathery with the wing membrane being a Tannish color with hints of black along the digits. It had a box shaped jaw which had sharp teeth along the mouth. It had massive horns on the side of its head which ended in sharp black points, it also had spikes with the same coloration across it's body, primarily on its front legs, its back, its tail, and the edges of its wings. The spikes varied in length with of of the longer ones being around five and a half inches long. Lastly its feet had light pink colored paw pads on the bottom of them, which was more characteristic of mammals instead of a lizard type creatures. "What is it." FlutterShy asked. "Looks to be some kind of dragon." Twilight said. "What I'm wondering is how did it survive falling from orbit?" "Maybe it's just super tough." Rainbow said. "Maybe we should tell the Princesses about this." AppleJack suggested. "Having both Tirek and this thing showing up around the same time feels like an omen." "You may be right." Twilight said. "I should send a message to Celestia." "Quiet, I think it's waking up." FlutterShy whispered, while pointing at it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st Person POV ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Good God everything hurts." I said raising a clawed hand up to my face before seeing it and being reminded of the events that lead me to this situation. "Oh yeah, was kinda hoping that was all a dream." I tried to get to my feet, but ended up falling on my gut before remembering that my new body was quadrupedal. I stood up, on all fours this time, before spreading out my wings to stretch them. Having wings was weird, it was like having a pair of giant hands on your back without being able to move each individual finger. It was then that I began to smell something, no, multiple things in the air. I choked it up to my new senses and tried to pick up on the individual scents. One smelled like fine perfume, another like apples, another like various cookies and cakes, one smelled like a combination of various animal scents, one that smelled like some sort of energy drink, and finally one that smelled like old paper and books, with a hint of lavender. I turned to see where the smells where coming from, and was surprised to see the mane six. Well not so much "surprised" since I expected to run into them sometime or another, but more like startled to see them so soon. It's like watching Terminator and having Arnold Schwarzenegger show up at your door asking if you're Sarah Conner, your not expecting it but your secretly glad it happened. "Alright, I've run through this situation a dozen times in my head." I thought to myself. "I just need to not let them know I know them, act friendly, and not seem like I'm a threat. That last part is going to be difficult with this body but I'll make due." "Hello there." I say holding up a paw. Twilight's the first to speak. "Who and what are you?" She says it in an authoritative manor, but I can tell she's just trying to keep her cool. Having always been wanting to say this, I snidely reply with. "Don't you know it's impolite to ask someone's name without introducing yourself first." Before remembering that she's a princess and she can probably turn me to stone all on her own even without the Elements of Harmony now. Needless to say, I immediately regretted my previous decision. "Very well" She said to my relief. "I am Princess Twilight Sparkle, beside me are my friends Rainbow Dash, Rarity, AppleJack, FlutterShy, and Pinkie Pie. Now would you please be so kind as to tell us your name and what you are." Having gotten away with my previous snide comment, I stupidly decide to press my luck and say. "Well it's pretty obvious what I am. I'm a dragon, to be more specific an Elder Dragon, not saying I'm old or anything, I just have incredible power and don't fit into any other category of dragon. As for my name, I am called Nergigante, my title is the extinction dragon, but in all honesty I'm usually pretty peaceful." "What do you mean by don't fit into any category?" Twilight asked. "Well, this is going to be hard to explain so I'll do it as best I can." I say, while thinking up a concurrent backstory to explain my situation. "You see I'm from another world. In my world dragons and other monsters are sectioned into categories of Wyvern due to our nature. There's Brute Wyverns, Flying Wyverns, Bird Wyverns, Snake Wyvern, Fanged Wyvern, Piscine Wyverns, and finally Leviathan Wyverns. There are others but those are the basic categories. Then there are the Elder Dragons which don't fit into any of the categories. There are also several monsters that haven't been categorized due to so little being known about them." "Wait how do you not know about others like you." Twilight asked. "Well you see, we don't do the categorizing, the Humans, and Wyverians do." I answer. "What are Humans, and Wyverians?" FlutterShy asked. "Humans are a kind of hairless ape that stands on two legs and where's clothes all the time. Wyverians are basically humans with pointy ears, although they are more attuned with nature than humans, they also vary in size, some are as tall as humans and others are about 3 feet tall. There's also a race called the Lynians, who are basically cat people, they also vary in size but most of them are only about 3 feet. Lynians are basically servants for the other races, they help build thing, carry items, help in fights, basically whatever their master needs them to do." "I see so these races categorize dragons and other monsters so they can better understand them." Twilight guessed. "That seems like a very effective way of working together." "Now that's where your wrong Sparkle." I say holding up a claw. "It's not so we can work together, it's so we're easier to hunt, and kill." This visibly shocked the girls, FlutterShy most of all. "Why would they do that." FlutterShy asked. "Looks like I'll have to give you a history lesson." I say. "You see Monsters and Humans have been fighting each other for centuries now. It all began with the Great Dragon war. Centuries ago the races lived in moderate harmony with us dragons. When a dragon died, the humans would use the body to make armor, weapons, and food items. But one day the humans went too far by preforming the forbidden act. The forbidden act is creating new life from the life on another, which is essentially playing god. The humans slaughtered countless monsters, and used their corpses to create an abomination which they dubbed The Equal Dragon Weapon. Enraged by this, my ancestors along with other monsters destroyed the Human's civilization and nearly drove them to extinction. This was hundreds of years ago now, The Humans now call what was once theirs the Ancient Civilization, not even remembering it was once their birthright. The humans still hunt and kill monsters, using their hides to make weapons and armor as they once did. However they don't do it out of some instinctual hate as we have for them. They hunt us to understand and study us, they do not do it out of revenge but out of necessity. They see us as a threat, but only hunt us when they need to. This has given birth to the Hunter's guild, a human organization which accepts requests to hunt monster, either for research purposes, or because one of us is running amok. They even place and lift bans on hunting certain monsters if the population becomes too low. I suspect this is because they've been humbled by the near extinction of their race, and now have a greater respect for life." None of what I told them was made up. I learned it when the Tester filled my head with the knowledge of other monsters. It was like the information was directly linked to why the humans hunt them and how they came to be. But I knew the next question was where I would have to start getting creative. I didn't want to lie, but saying that I was from a world where they're a cartoon was more unbelievable than anything I could think up. "I see." Twilight said. "But then how did you get to Equestria?" "A portal." I answered. Not technically a lie, but I'd have to make it fit along side the facts I had in my mind. "Portals in space have been opening all across my world. No one knows what they are, not even the humans. What's weird is that the humans can't pass through them, only monsters. The portal I was sucked through just happened to be above your planet's atmosphere, which is how I ended up in this crater. Speaking of which can I please get out of here?" "Sure, come on up." Twilight said motioning me towards the with a hoof. I decided to give me wings a try. I flapped them and managed to get airborne. I circled around the mane six before landing next to them. It was at this point that I realized something, they where small compared to me. Granted I was expecting them to be about half my height while I was human. But I wasn't human anymore and my dragon body was around 13 to 14 feet tall, not to mention a probably weighed the same as an elephant. "Hey, is there anyway you can make me smaller?" I asked. "Actually I've been looking for a reason to use this new spell." Twilight said charging up her horn. "How small do you want to be?" "Uh, around the same size as you." I answer. I was a bit weirded out by being covered in this magic stuff. It made me feel all tingly. That's when I noticed my body was changing. My legs where becoming longer and less muscly, my tail and wings where becoming thinner, and my spikes and horns where decreasing in size. By the time the transformation was done I looked like a cross between a pony and my dragon body. Twilight let out a breath and said "Alright, the hard part's over, Now give me your paws." "Okay, why?" I asked while doing as she said. Without saying anything Twilight focused the magic which had been covering me before into the center of my paws. The magic condensed and formed a little emblem of each paw pad, the emblem was that of my dragon form's face, which had been colored purple. "What are these?" "They're transformation sigils." Twilight replied. "They allow you to transform from your full sized form into this smaller one, all you have to do is press them together. This spell was originally created to make previous Dragon lords smaller so they could fit into the building at the world summit." "Neat, what's a Dragon lord." I asked. I knew what a Dragon lord was from watching season 6, when Spike was called to the dragon lands by the Dragon lord. But I didn't want to make them think I knew anything about their world because that would just be opening a huge can of worms I did not want. "It's exactly as it sound." Twilight said with a hint of snide. Clever girl. "The Dragon lord is the supreme lord of the dragons. He's the one who leads them all. At least that's what Celestia's told me, and before you ask, Celestia is one of the co-rulers of this country known as Equestria." "Got it." I say, giving a thumbs up. "By the way I should probably have you meet Celestia." "I'm gonna stop you right there Twilight." Pinkie interjected before turning to me. "Before we do anything else we need you a nickname. Nergigante's a good name and all but it's a bit of a mouthful in casual conversation, how 'bout we call you Nergi?" "Nergi, hmm, I like it, kinda roles off the tongue. How'd you come up with it?" "Oh it was easy, I just cut your name in half and chose the one that sounded better." "Alright, it's decided, from now on call me Nergi." I said proudly, before a question popped into my head. "Have there been any reports of other bizarre monsters running around causing trouble? They might be from my world and if so I could give you information on them." "Well we haven't heard about any monsters." Twilight said. "The only one running around causing trouble is a centaur named Tirek, he's been draining ponies of their magic. Celestia sent Discord out to deal with him but he hasn't reported in. Discord is a Draconaquis, he's able to sense different kinds magic, as well distort reality using the power of chaos." "I see." I said nodding my head before thinking to myself. "That places me at the tail end of season 4, which means that Discord has probably already been persuaded to join Tirek. On the plus side I might be able to get a front row seat to the epic clash between Twilight and Tirek, SCORE." After introductions were over the girls brought me to Ponyville. The ponies all ran and hide like they did with Zecora but Twilight assured them that I wasn't an evil demon or anything like that. I decide to live with Twilight for my stay in Ponyville, I knew that at some point Celestia would summon Twilight to Canterlot so that she could receive the Alicorn magic. I didn't tell her this, I just made the excuse that I used to live in a tree and the Library was comforting to me. Which is not a total lie, I enjoyed the Golden Oak library whenever I saw it in the show and I always wanted to have a tree house in real life. Sure enough a couple hours after I arrived Spike burped out a letter saying that Twilight had to come to Canterlot right away. I suggested that I go with her and explained that I was bound to meet the princesses anyway so bringing me along would be killing two birds with one stone. The phrase slightly disturbed her but she agreed to take me. "I came as quickly as I could." Twilight said charging into the throne room. "Is something wrong? Is it Tirek?" "I'm afraid we put too much trust in Discord and the effect that friendship would have upon him." Celestia said solemnly. "Earlier today, a member of the Wonderbolts had reported that Discord had betrayed the ponies of Equestria and joined forces with Tirek." "How could he do this?" Twilight asked in disbelief. "I thought our friendship meant something to him. I thought he had changed." "You shouldn't blame him." I said walking into the throne room. "It's possible that this Tirek guy manipulated him into thinking that his friendship with you was just another form of imprisonment." My presence and appearance visibly put the Princesses on edge. Luna being ever headstrong asked. "Who art thou, and how did thou intrude upon us?" "Wait, he's with me." Twilight said stepping in front of me. "I'll take it from here Twilight." I said pushing past her before standing proud in front of the three Eldest Princesses. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Nergigante, I am a dragon from another world. I was brought to this world by being sucked through a portal, one of many that had been opening randomly back on my world. I would like to help you stop Tirek if you would allow me to aid you." "I'm afraid that you'd only do more harm than good." Celestia said. "Tirek has stolen enough magic that he now has the strength to steal fight as well, without Pegasi to control the weather there will be now rain in Equestria. There is word he has also gone after Earth Ponies as well, without their strength they will not be able to tend the land." "Ponies will no longer be able to control their world, that power will remain solely to Tirek." Luna added. "If he's able to steal flight and strength, then I'll just be a booster for him then." I said realizing the problems I could cause if Tirek got a hold of my power. "That's not all." Cadence added. "The last known reports from the crystal empire said that he had recruited an army by allying himself with Queen Chrysalis, and had resurrected King Sombra for insight on his military expertise." "I don't know who either of those are but it sounds like it's bad that they're with him." I saying bluntly. I knew exactly who Chrysalis and Sombra where, and with both of them AND Discord being in league with Tirek I felt like shit was about to hit the fan hard. "There is no doubt that Tirek is after Alicorn magic, and with Discord, Chrysalis and Sombra by his side, even we will not be able to stop him from taking it." Celestia said. "Once is in his possession all hope will be lost." Luna added "Even then he might not stop there." I interject, confusing the ponies. "Think about it, if he gets Alicorn magic what's to stop him from just stealing the powers of his henchmen? I might not be from here, but I know how a megalomaniac thinks, he won't stop until everything is his, he'll steal anything he can get his hands on and once he does he'll rule with an iron fist. Which begs the question, how do we stop him?" "There is one solution." Celestia said with a determined look in her eye. "It is only by making this sacrifice that Equestria and the land beyond it might be saved. We must rid ourselves of our magic, before Tirek has the change to steal it from us." "That is right, Tirek is set on possessing Alicorn magic." Luna added. "When he comes for us we cannot have what he is looking for." "I'm more than willing to do my part and give up my magic." Twilight said in a brave voice. "You misunderstand." Luna interrupted. "Our magic cannot just disappear into thin air, somepony must keep it safe." "That somepony is you Twilight." Cadence added. "Bad idea." I say bluntly. "How is it a bad idea?" Celestia asked. "As far as we know Tirek is not aware that a forth Alicorn Princess exists in Equestria." "What about Discord? He knows, and if he hasn't already he's bound to spill the beans about it when Tirek finds out you don't have your magic, I mean for God's sake there's a giant stained glass window of Twilight right beside you." I say pointed to said window. My argument clearly puts Celestia's plan back a square one. "So what do you purpose Dragon?" Luna asked. I think a bit and a plan springs up in my mind. "Alright, I have a plan, but before I explain it I should go over some stuff. Where I'm from, we Elder dragons have a kind of force in our bodies that gives us our powers it's called Bio-Energy. When it's time for an Elder dragon to die they make the Elder crossing and travel to a continent the humans call The New World. There they die and release the Bio-Energy into the ecosystem, super charging it. After countless centuries the Bio-Energy created a mystical gem known as the Sapphire Star. The Star holds the accumulated energy of thousands of Elder Dragons, most of who, if I haven't mentioned have the ability to change the environment of the region just by staying in one place long enough." At that point, Luna slapped me and shouted. "GET TO THE POINT DRAGON, WE DO NOT HAVE ALL DAY." "Ow, alright, Jesus. You didn't have to blindside me." I say before continuing. "Alright so my plan is that we condense your magic it some kind of crystal or artifact, then give it to me so I can keep it safe." "No." Luna interrupted. "Sister, we cannot trust him, for all we know he could be a servant of Tirek trying to gain favor." "Fine the don't give it to me. Give it to Twilight, give to that guard pony outside, Hell throw it in a lake for all I care, it doesn't matter. One way or another we need to hide it and keep it out of Tirek's hands." "But there's one thing you're not getting Nergi." Twilight said. "Somepony needs to wield the magic to move the Sun and Moon, if nopony does everything will be at a stand still." "Oh, wish you told me that sooner." I said, realizing the irony that it was my plan being set back to square one. "Fine we'll go with Celestia's plan." From that point things went around the same way as it did in the episode. Twilight gets the magic of the other princesses, manages to messily raise the sun, and flies out to the Everfree Forest to think about her new powers. This is where I stopped following her around. I got hungry so I decide to go fishing, not the kind of fishing you're thinking of, I mean the kind of fishing that involves diving into the water and pulling a slippery lake Trout up onto the beach. I didn't really like the taste of fish when I was human, but since I wasn't sure if eating meat like beef, pork, and chicken was okay in Equestria, decided to eat fish until I get a conclusive answer. After I finished eating I went back to town. Tirek and the other villains where bound to show up at some point to capture the other members of the mane six, and when they did I could free them so Twilight wouldn't have to give up her magic. I know I was fucking with the timeline a bit, but I wanted to at least try to help even if I did more harm than good. I heard people talking from a little ways away and went to investigate. Looked to me like I had gotten there right on time, Tirek and his lackeys had already captured Spike and the girls, and Discord, Chrysalis, and Sombra had already been drained of their magic and where currently lying on the ground. Tirek himself was relishing in his new power and was around the same size as he was in the show before absorbing Discord's power. "I must say your abilities are certainly not to be trifled with." Tirek said proudly. "The power to shape shift is especially useful, I'll admit always having my size increase every time I absorb magic would become encumbering over time, and having a connection to an army through a species wide hive-mind is nothing to shake a stick at either. As for your powers Sombra, the ability to delve into a pony's mind and force them to live out their darkest fear is perhaps the most terrifying ability on its own, to be honest I was hoping for this to happen sooner, before you had a chance to double cross me. Crystal creation's not bad either, it'll allow me to literally raise my empire from the ground up." I only had one change at this so I decide to charge in. I managed to literally get the jump on Tirek, pouching on him and digging my claws into his shoulder. He grabbed me by my horn and slammed me into the ground, I thrusted my spiked tail towards him and missed. Tirek then capitalized on this by grabbing me by the tail and once again slamming me into the ground. I rolled off my back and jumped away from him before growing out my spikes to their limit before flying up into the air and swooping down shouting. "EXTINCTION DRAGON SPECIAL MOVE; BLACK SPIKE DIVE-BOMB." As I shouted I spun through the air whipping nearly all my spikes from my body before landing on my feet. Confident my attack had hit, I cracked a smirk. "Black Spike Dive-bomb, Really?" Tirek said, shattering my composure. "That's the best attack name you could think of. I'm not impressed dragon." I looked up to see that nearly all of my spikes had been imbedded in a wall of black crystal Tirek had created. I went to punch it but Tirek (No pun intended) beat me to the punch, not only that but he punched it with enough force to shatter it and send shards of crystal flying at me. I covered my eyes to keep the shards from blinding me, which is when Tirek grabbed me by the horns and slammed his knee into my face before grabbing my neck and raising me to eye level and saying. "I'm going to ask you two questions, and if I don't like your answer I tighten my grip on your neck. First off, who are you? Second, why did you think a weak little dragon like you could have a chance against me?" "I am Nergigante the Extinction Dragon." I answer. "I thought I could battle you to save Princess Twilight's friends so that you couldn't use them as bargaining chips." "Really?" Tirek asked with an eyebrow raised. "One last question, do you know where Princess Twilight is?" "No, but I can probably use my senses to find her." I answer, to wanting to get my neck crushed. Tirek smirked and threw me to the ground and said. "Alright dragon, I'm not going to drain you of your magic, but in exchange you have to do something for me. I want you to find Princess Twilight and tell her that if she even wants to see her friends again, she'll give me the Alicorn magic." "You know she won't give you the magic without a fight, right?" "Hmph, Let her fight. I'm more than a match for her." He was a match for her, even more so now that he had absorbed the power of Chrysalis and Sombra. I thought I could face him with my new dragon powers, but I was wrong. With nothing else I could do that wouldn't be considered suicide, I spread my wings and few of to the Everfree to search for Twilight. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tirek's POV ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As I watched the Dragon fly off I made a mental note to travel to the Dragon Lands to absorb their powers, fire breath would certainly be a beneficial ability, if only to serve as a painful means of execution. But for now I had things to do. I tuned myself into the Changeling Hive-mind and made my orders. "Changelings, round up every pony it this town and bring them to your new king, no, your new emperor." "YES EMPEROR TIREK." My pawns shouted before flying into town to do my bidding.