Rise Of the Dragon Queen

by Mystic Sunrise


Black Orb

While Twilight would later admit that it had been worth it in the end, at the moment she was wondering what on Equestria she was doing out here in the middle of nowhere.

Her journey had taken far south of Canterlot to a little known corner of Equestria. Very few lived out here and towns were extreme in the rare. Luckily the local ponies had been friendly. While few ever visited their small town, they had let her stay with one of the local families.

Twilight may not have known why she was out here at the moment, but it was relaxing. Nightmare Night had just passed so she was glad she didn't have to worry about the festivities.

Though now that she thought about it, she wondered Princess Luna had taken the news that Equestria had a national holiday dedicated to her former self Nightmare Moon. Twilight didn't think she had taken it well.

But that could wait as her mind went back to the night before and the bit of local lore she had been told by the earth pony family she was staying with. Apparently there was an old abandoned ruin deep in the swamp. Few had ever seen it, but all knew of it.

What was odd though was that nopony knew what it could be. The village was still new enough that it wasn't on any of Equestria's maps yet. Some ponies thought it might've been from an earlier, long-abandoned settlement, while others thought it could've been some old temple.

Naturally, Twilight's curiosity had been roused. She loved discovering new things. Maybe she could tick this mystery off the list. The villagers had been more than happy to point her in the right direction. It wasn't more than a day's walk from the village this time of year.

They had warned her though of the dangers of the deep swamp. Quicksand and deep water were at the top of the list for few predators lived there it seemed.

And now Twilight was glad of their warnings as she avoided another quicksand trap. "This thing had better be worth it," she grumbled as she continued. on. If she was remembering right, the ruin should be close by.

She hoped. For all she knew, she could be lost out here, and then what? Her magic could get her back to the village, but it was a risk. She had never teleported that far before. Hopefully, it wouldn't come to that she thought as she came to another clearing.

And stopped in her tracks, for there in front of her was the ruin she had been looking for. Like she had been told, it wasn't much to look at. Just a wall and some loose stone scattered about, all half sunk into the swamp.

As Twilight trotted closer, she gave the structure a closer look. Up close, nothing about it seemed to say what it had once been or how old it was. Walking around to the side, she could see it was only the one wall now and parts of a floor that lead into the water. No help there.

Her eyes though were drawn to an opening in the floor and what looked like a set of stairs leading down. Maybe another room? Walking carefully, not fully trusting the stonework, Twilight made her way down to see what could be seen. Igniting her horn as she reached the bottom, she looked around.

It wasn't much to look at. Just a half-flooded room with bits and pieces of who knew what scattered here and there. Several jars stood along one wall, all empty when Twilight peaked inside them. The far end was flooded, so she turned her attention to the wall opposite the broken jar, a feeling growing inside of her.

And jumped back with a frightened yelp at what the light from her horn showed her. After a moment she realized it was only a wall mural. Trying to calm her breathing, Twilight walked over and took in the mural in better detail. It depicted a five-headed dragon in flight, its eyes boring into her. One head, in particular, seemed fixated on her.

But that didn't make any sense. Dragons only had one head as far as she knew. Hydras could have more than one of course, but this was definitely a dragon. What was odd was that none of the heads resembled any dragons she had ever seen. She only knew of three of course, but even they shared much of the same body plan.

There was no color to the mural now, but the craftsmanship remained. Twilight didn't know much about art, but even she could see the artistry that had gone into making this.

Beneath the mural, almost directly under the right front head, in fact, was a black orb about the right size to fit comfortably in Twilight's hoof. As black as it was, it still gave off some light.

For some reason though, it seemed to be calling to her, and to her shock Twilight found she wanted to hear its call. On some level, she knew the orb was hers and always had been.

But that didn't make any sense. She had never heard of an orb like this before, let alone one that was hers. But the feeling would not leave her alone, and it was getting stronger by the second.

Not sure why or how she knew, but Twilight decided to take the orb with her. Maybe Princess Celestia would know more about it? It was a good place to start at least.

But how would she carry it? Her saddlebags were packed to the brim as it was, and she had no other place to put it, and she didn't have the materials to craft something either.

Seemingly reading her mind, the orb began to float above the ground. As Twilight watched, two golden dragons encircled the orbs, with their snouts touching at the top.

As they finished, it floated over and secured itself tightly but comfortably around Twilight's neck, before the glow ended as abruptly as it had begun.

Twilight gave her orb a bemused look. "Well, I guess that answers that question," she said with a giggle. The orbs eyes glowed as if giggling with her.

With that, she turned back to the stairs and began to climb back up to the top portion of the ruins. How she was going to explain all of this to her friends and Princess Celestia was beyond her at the moment.

At the moment though, Twilight focused more on getting back to the village she had come from. She did not want to be out here after dark.

***

Unseen, color returned to two heads of the mural. One red, and one black. Even the body itself began to take on a new color after so long awaiting this day.