//------------------------------//
// Chapter Five 
// Story: Mismatched 
// by Paradox Wolf 
//------------------------------//

"W-what?" Twilight stammered out in surprise. "Y-you can speak?"

"As can you? This day is getting weirder by the second. If falling out of the sky wasn't bad enough now talking multicolored horses." Stammered out the wolf taking a step back in surprise. "Hello there, small pony creature?" It's eyes had gone wide now carefully scanning over Twilight.

"Hello huge canine creature!" She said a little loud almost shouting at the wolf. "You seem... intelligent?" Twilight mentally slapped herself at the obscene comment but it was all she could come up with seeing the surprise of what had happened in the span of about a minute. 

"Yes I am." The wolf itself scaled to be just a tad larger than Celestia and was covered in crimson; she sincerely hoped it was just fur color. They sat peering at each other for what had seemed like hours. With each second she grew less scared as it was starting to become apparent he was just as confused. It didn't take long for the situation to deescalate to awkwardness. "So... Nice weather huh?"

"Yes... What exactly are you by the way?" Twilight had grown curious about him as he seemed peaceful. Well at the very least he hadn't tried to hurt her yet. "And that fire thing how did you do that?"

He stared at her in surprise faintly shifting his eyes between her in the village. Suddenly they widened and panic filled them. Finally they settled back on her as the flames seemingly cooled and started making there way back into the recesses in his fur. By some miracle it appeared as if the flames had effected nothing but the ow molten fountain. Even then the damage on the it was still relatively low. "I'm sorry purple one, I had no intention of letting my flames loose here. Thankfully they were set to friend rather then foe." 

"Friend? Foe? What are you talking about... Um Mr. Wolf?" They had been talking this whole time not realizing they had never been introduced. "I'm Twilight Sparkle by the way. Pleasure to meet you!"

He froze for a second. Could he trust this creature with his name? What if the Corporation tortured the information out of her? Eyes locked onto hers once more and he brought himself down to her level. "DawnBreaker, but please call me Dawn Ms. Sparkle. It's a pleasure to meet you as well."

"Twilight will be fine. Now about that comment you made with the flames. As well as the flames themselves. How did you do that?" Twilight began to think about harder now that she was sure that she wasn't in complete danger. Her horn lit up testing the magic in the air and she detected something very cleverly hidden in the air around her. It felt ancient compared to the normal magic that radiated around, not immensely strong or anything just... old. "What... is that? I can sense it all over you and around you but it just feels... wrong." All types of magic had a different feel to them. Changeling magic was ever changing and shifting while dragon magic pulsed outward with power. Dawn's magic felt much more like Celestia and Luna's. It was old, different and was from a bygone age but despite this the only close representation of his inner magic was that it was similar to that of the Princesses.

The giant wolf lifted itself to its paws at the sight of her horn lighting up. He gave a curious glare and began to sniff the air. "And you smell... different. The other experiments in the chemical X in them had an alerting scent about them but yours is calmer, comforting even." He closed his eyes and threw in slightly closer to her causing her to slightly flinch back. She didn't know whether the movement went unnoticed or he just didn't care. "Twilight you have X in you... You're like us?"

"Wait 'X'? What's 'X', do you mean my magic?" She asked confused. "You call your magic 'X'? Must be a cultural difference but your magic is definitely foreign?" 

"Twilight how did you escape the Corporation? Is this a whole village of escapees? What about containment teams and hostile experiments? How did you manage to fend them off?" He looked erratic and his eyes frantic. "Twilight please tell me everything you know about them! I still have friends in there I need to get out!"

"w-What? Corporation? Escapees and experiments? I don't know what you're talking about Dawn." The whole calm demeanor of the wolf was gone in an instant. Replaced by a more attentive persona he asked questions rapid fire not giving her enough time to process the information he was throwing out. "Dawn calm down! What's this about containment and corporations?"

Dawn stared at her with no clear expression printed on his face. "Your heartrate is normal and I detect no acetylcholine on you. Then again I wouldn't expect a creature such as you to have sweat glands." He sat down bringing his head to her level. He let out a sigh and closed his eyes before he spoke again. "This is going to be a long story Twilight. Just how long do you have?"

"I'll start some tea..."





"Now, lets get started." After a little some of the ponies that had fled had come back of their own violation. They were hesitant to go anywhere Dawn but they were curious enough to watch Twilight and Dawn from the distance. Just far enough away that most of their conversation had remained personal. "First off tell me about your magic. It feels very strange compared to everything else."

"I was never one to question where my powers came from or just how they came to be. One day I was just a pup then the Corporation found me and injected me with Chemical X. Next thing I knew I could summon flames from within and cause them to combust with deadly force." He closed his eyes and let out a 'huff' before some parts of him ignited. No heat came from them but they held a perfect representation of fire. "With time and my teachers advice I learned how to control different aspects of my flames allowing me to change temperature and even use them to form semi solid surfaces."

"Interesting." Twilight had soon summoned a notepad to get all the information down. Satisfied with her notes on Dawn she moved to the next topic. "Chemical X, you keep mentioning this in several ways. Just what is it and how does it all relate back to you?"

"As I previously stated the Corporation and their scientists used Chemical X to give us experiments unique aspects. However it was quite toxic to all known lifeforms but through repeated testing and conditioning we were able to survive. Humans had it the worse out of the bunch and small dosages could render them mad. Large dosages caused rapid mutations as scaring appeared all over their flesh. With in a week the chemical could turn a human into an infected monstrosity. X is nothing more than a naturally occurring parasite or at least that's what the Corporation tell themselves as they try to understand something outside their jurisdiction."

"I feel so bad for them. Slowly dying to the wonders of magic with nothing that could help them. Some ever so slowly becoming monsters as they fail to explain something they never encountered before."

"Don't feel sorry for them Twilight. The wretched humans brought this on themselves for all they wrought to their world. It decided to bite back for once and show them all the misery they caused it. But the humans ever so resilient wouldn't die off so easily. They clustered together and the remnants of their leadership formed the Corporation to stop the advance of the infected while searching for a way to save them all." The flames on Dawn slowly started to warm up and spread slightly across fur consuming more of him. "They tested us and used us to keep one another in check through 'endurance' training. They had us kill each other to inject more X into the loser hoping to 'boost' results. Hundreds of my species lie dead at their hands, and thousands of other awakened species find themselves trampled over without a chance to live their own lives. All for a failing goal that has yet to bare any positive results for them."

"But why? If nothing ever came why would they keep torturing others? Couldn't they have found a way to not hurt anyone and research safely." Twilight had abandoned her notes due to the sheer shock of the story she was being told. "How could they hurt so many living creatures..."

"Yes you would think that but all they cause is pain and misery. Take heed my advice Twilight. Never trust a human. Most are terrible and I have only ever met one who makes her species worthy. Yet still she is a bad person, just slightly better than the rest." The wolf looked down as he finished. He let out a slight whimper barely audible to Twilight before a rainbow blur slammed into him before darting off. "W-what was that Twilight?" Dawn looked around the skies doing his best to keep the figure in sight but it moved just too fast for him to keep track off.

"Oh no! Rainbow stop he's friendly!" Twilight yelled into the sky. "He's not a monster!"

"You know this thi-" The blur slammed into him once more causing him to stumble a little. "Damn... Reminds me of ranking fights with Cadisk. Just as fast and pesky as him except airborne." Dawn muttered under his breathe trying to find this 'Rainbow' before it could strike him again. He had taken much harder blows during his imprisonment across Corporation facilities but it carried enough force to annoy him. Memories of battles and challenges from Cadisk started to bubble to the surface and bring the X in his blood to come forth. 'Calm yourself Dawn. These ones are no threat to you.'

"Dawn I'm so sorry I should've told everypony about you before something like this happened!" Twilight's eyes had joined the fray hoping to catch her friend before she pushed the wolf a step too far. "Are you okay? She's not hurting you is she?"

"It's fin-" Another thump smacked against him. "I'm okay." Twilight could easily see the nerves on the wolf slowly becoming undone with each repeated attack. Yet he never made any attempt to harm Rainbow. Weather it was because he was unable or in control of his emotions was up for debate.

Just then a moment opened up as Rainbow stopped in her tracks facing the Everfree. Alarm dotted her face right before she was entrapped by Twilight's Magic. "Rainbow chill!" Twilight kept the Pegasus locked in place making sure she couldn't antagonize the wolf any further

"Ow what the- He's not?!" Rainbow turned to face her friend once more. "Twilight look!" She jabbed her hoof out towards the forest where a fatigued Zecora had emerged alongside the three Cutie Mark Crusaders. They were all frozen at the sight of the large wolf who instantly locked eyes on the small, bloody form of Mimic.

Everyone within a hundred feet of the wolf could swear they felt the temperature drop a solid twenty degrees. Slow billowing flames emerged from his back like a cape flowing in the wind. His eyes became entrapped in unyielding heat. "You have the next ten seconds to explain just why he is in that shape..."





The soft chirping of birds, howling of strange creatures as well as the scents of strange surroundings. It was shocking at first not being within the confines of one of the many prisons that held her. It was peaceful and made her wish to sit there and soak in all in. Her neon, glowing green eyes fluttered open taking in the dark crevice she was hidden in. She gazed around looking for one small ball of fur that should have been hugging her side. 'Strange. Guess I have something to do now.'

All of her previous wounds ached and burned as she stretched. She soon crawled out the cave and looked into the orange, overcast sunset. She turned her head to the sky and let out a mighty howl that echoed through the leaves and foliage. It was both a call to arms and a challenge carried in one bold message.

Night has arrived.

But just then she heard an explosion ring out much louder than any of her howls. Only one wolf she knew could do that. 'Wonder who got Dawn in a tizzy?' She stumbled through the forest slowly as the undergrowth practically carried her at times. 'Don't need to get there fast, he can handle himself against most both in and outside his weight class.'