//------------------------------// // Dragon Lands are not amusing // Story: The Godking is NOT Amused // by Zemez //------------------------------// Two weeks go by quickly when you've watched hundreds of years pass by. He had returned to the castle before either Celestia or Luna had gone to the dining room. The table still had the crack in it, so he mended that quickly. The castle had been scrambling in these two weeks. Veretus had no idea if Shining armor was suspecting that his wife-to-be had been replaced, but he talked about an anonymous report that an army was preparing to assault Canterlot. This was the moment he found out the future prince was the guard captain, and brother to Twilight Sparkle, who he lamented would have to wait to hear the news. The imposter insisted on continuing with the wedding regardless, which he would reveal them if it truly came to that day. In the meantime, the imposter had been inquiring deeply about Veretus, and recently, after finding that the residents knew little about him, began asking Veretus himself these questions. He answered them, the answers were harmless, and things everybody in Alvaris knew, how he ruled, his source of power, past accomplishments. She stuck to him when like this when no other pony was around to see, and somehow found him even when he went flying around Canterlot. Spike had progressed, although his form was still terrible. His training was settled to every three days after Twilight had told him that spike couldn't afford to be training every day. The flight of dragons was visible as specks from Canterlot. He had decided to take the train today, which had delayed him as he took ten minutes trying to get a ticket from the pony at the booth. The pony must have caught some malady mortals usually do, as he just couldn't focus. The flight was an interesting sight as the train pulled into Ponyville. Dragons had never congregated like this in his world, being fiercely independent creatures. Even after the Godsfall there hadn't been enough survivors to create such a sight. The dragons flying overhead were all adults, for each he estimated to be five times his size, and most reached ages of in the hundreds. The colors were much more varied than his reality as well, as he saw every color he could think of up there. The elements of harmony and Spike he found were observing the flight from a trench. He didn't have the heart to tell them that a trench would only trap the heat if one of the dragons decided to breathe fire directly down on them, or himself forbid, along the trench. "Veretus!" Spike called out to Veretus as the young drake saw him, waving him into the trench. He acquiesced, and walking into the trench, realized it was sized for its current pony inhabitants. The trench came up to the horns of its unicorn inhabitants. Unfortunately, the walls barely came up to his chest. "Get down, if they spot us-" "They have already spotted you, a trench in the middle of a field is easily noticed from above." He interrupted rainbow dash. He had already noticed several dragons angle their heads this way before focusing back on flying. Spike was off in a corner of the trench next to a cart filled with pastries. An interesting hobby he was sure, assuming Spike made the treats himself. Apparently, he had stared for too long, for spike began nervously shuffling his foot. "I know... It's not very dragon-like is it... I'll just-" "I said nothing of the sort," he looked over the mares with a skeptical glance, only rainbow dash looked embarrassed. "Dragons are free to take up their own hobbies, plus, you would stain yourself cooking, I assume, without it." This had gotten Spike to stop taking the apron off. "Wait, you assume? Veretus, when was the last time you were in a kitchen?" Twilight asked curiously. "In this or my previous life, never. Now hand me one of those Spike, it has been a thousand years, and I cannot find a single pastry in the castle, despite Celestia always going on about cake and occasionally smelling of chocolate." "Wait... How long did you say it's been..?" The pink mare, Pinkie Pie, asked slowly. "A little over a thousand years." He replied. "Uh oh." Applejack muttered. "I think I need to lie down." Pinkie said before pulling a couch from out of his peripherals. "My couch!" Rarity quietly exclaimed as Pinkie Pie collapsed upon it, a hoof over her forehead and moaning out to the world like... Honestly, he had never heard someone lament as she had. Probably because she still sounded happy despite it all. "While I would be more than happy to indulge in these shenanigans, Spike and I must be joining the dragon flight." "What!?" Twilight exclaimed, Veretus looked towards Spike with an eyebrow raised. "You did not tell her?" The Drake rubbed the back of his head with a claw sheepishly. "I will ensure no proper harm befalls him," Veretus said, turning back to Twilight. "No, I-" Twilight sighed. "Sometimes you have to trust a friend. Very well, but I expect a complete report on your return." Veretus was surprised that in only a scant fortnight she trusted him that much. "I will not misplace your trust Twilight Sparkle. Come along Spike, we must be off." "Right, let me just get- Woah!" The drake was interrupted by Veretus grabbing him and with a beat of his six wings, they ascended hundreds of feet into the air. After the two had left and disappeared into the throng of dragons Applejack walked up beside Twilight. "That's awfully trusting of you Twilight... and you're following them aren't yah?" The mare sighed. "Yes! Rarity, we need you to make the perfect dragon costume! I'll pack the provisions, and Rainbow, you're our wings!" Twilight said as she began teleporting supplies from her library, starting with a saddlebag. "Do I need to be the voice of reason in saying you just told 'im you trusted... and I'm being ignored, aren't I?" Applejack snorted before sitting down as the three mares began conversing with each other on their mission. Meanwhile, up in the air, Veretus had already dodged three dragons trying to ram him. He was growing tired of this, so the next time one decided to veer over to ram him out of the sky, he merely took Spike in one arm and pounded upon the dragon's side with his other, he could have maneuvered to just punch them, but he feared using his full strength on a dragon only a few hundred years old. The dragon, who was a light green, shot off opposite of their previous momentum before falling from the sky and landing in a lake. The dragon was still alive, so at least he could claim that, they may be quite late to the migration, however. "Woah, how did you do that?" Spike asked from his arm. "An application of weighing more than the dragon, and an amount of strength to bend a column of iron." He replied as he looked to see if any other dragons were going to try to knock them out of the sky, he saw that they had given him enough space to fully do a roll with his wings outstretched. Seems that might makes right is true for any reality, and especially for dragonkind. The journey along was quite uneventful, While Veretus was constantly on the lookout for an equivalent to his reality's ancient dragons, many of the ones near him were barely five hundred years old. After an hour Spike gasped while looking out of Veretus's grasp, they had just ascended over a mountain range. Past the snow-tipped peaks the land rolled out, Celestia's sun framed the landscape in cascading rays, and the clouds were alternating the colors of the rainbow in cottony goodness. Even Veretus was taken aback, he had never flown on long journeys like this, not until Alvaris was ruined by the demons, and after they had invaded the clouds were dry and wispy reds. But this... This was picturesque. He once had a companion who liked to paint, he never figured out why you'd want to, but this made him realize that he wished he knew how so that he could capture this scene for others. Eventually, after the entire day of flying, they had arrived at a volcanic range. Veretus breathed in the sulphuric smell, it reminded him of when he forged his first artifact in the depths of a volcano. Spike had covered his nose, unused to the smell. He had landed upon an outcropping over where adolescent dragons were hanging out. "I shall seek out elders, why don't you go see if those adolescents will be of any help." He said as he put Spike down. "Right... Uh... What if they don't like me? What if I'm not dragon enough..?" Spike asked, his voice a whisper at the end. Veretus kneeled in front of spike and looked him in the eyes. "Spike, being a dragon isn't about fitting in. Each dragon has something they want, and it's unique to each, and a dragon will do anything to keep it." "But last time I was greedy I became huge and out of control!" Spike franticly worried, Veretus heard about that. It was before he had made Spike a squire. He shook his head at the drake. "That was something you didn't already have, what I'm talking about is something you have and want to keep a hold of." "But... What is that?" Spike asked, Confused. "You'll have to figure that out yourself. Now you better get going. And have fun at least, I believe this is like a vacation for young dragons." He shooed spike down towards the dragons diving into lava, which he assumed would be painful if they weren't covered in scales. The drake looked at him unsure before walking down the rocky slope. With Spike getting some tips from his own reality's dragons, most likely on what not to do if the adolescent dragons acted the same as mortal adolescents from his reality, Veretus set off in finding an old dragon. He could have asked any dragon how their culture worked, but the adults had already proven they were hot-headed. As he flew around, he could already see one aspect that was different, Much of the adolescents were the same age, maybe a day or two apart, but there were none near Spike's age. Many of the adults looked up as he flew overhead, snorting at him with derision, but content to just watch him pass by. Or they were just too lazy to try and force him out of the sky. Eventually, he had found one, They were absolutely large, as large as ancients back home, the dragon's hide was a faded cerulean blue. His horns grew downwards from his head like a dog's floppy ears before curving forward. A large hat of an orange gem cluster sat upon his head like some sort of crown. His wing membranes were the same orange as the crown. This was most likely the ruler of the dragons, as he was also the only dragon Veretus had seen wearing armor. He tried not to think about how much metal was wasted making armor that would be weaker than his scales as he approached. "You are no dragon, leave before I eat you." The dragon's voice was gravely and deep, nothing at all like the delicate hissing and thrumming throat contractions his own dragons used. "In my world, I am the God of Dragons, so I am a dragon, even if not by your standards." Veretus shot back blasé. "And this is my land as the Dragonlord, so if you aren't a dragon by my standards, you aren't a dragon!" The Dragonlord as he claimed as his title was getting irritated, Veretus continued approaching, this time on foot, forcing the Dragonlord to lower his head to keep an eye on him. "If I am not a proper dragon by your standards, then what is?" He asked, and the Dragonlord snorted. "Large and strong, Ferocious and headstrong, Might makes right to a dragon, and you are no dragon." At this Veretus raised an eyebrow. "Then I suppose I shall act like one then." He said as he grabbed the end of the dragonlord's tusk. His gauntleted hand barely fit around the pointed tip as he used Telekinesis to grab a hold of the rest of the tusk. with a heave of Veretus's muscles, the dragonlord was suddenly suspended in mid-air above Veretus by his tusk, before he slammed into the side of a caldera. Lava floated through the air, hit with enough force to cause it to act as he had just dropped the Dragonlord in a lake instead of a pool of lava. He ignored the lava droplets cascading down his armor as he walked to the edge of the caldera, the Dragonlord was stunned, he was lying on his back, and Veretus was surprised he was half-submerged. Either the lava pool was deep, or he had used more force than he was aiming for. "You dare to strike me!?" The dragonlord shouted, and any dragons that weren't already paying attention now were. "Dragons, capture this-" "Dragonlord, you yourself described your dragons as ferocious and headstrong, If you finish that order, you will have proven that you are not a dragon by your own definition," Veretus said calmly. Was this the most diplomatic approach? No, but Veretus was sure that the Dragonlord wouldn't listen to reason, or say anything to what he perceived as someone other than a dragon. The dragonlord got up from his position, his eyes were still clear, and Veretus was surprised, they were not narrowed in anger, or rather more anger than the dragon's face already conveyed even before he had approached. "You surprised me, if this is a ploy to out me as the Dragonlord, I should inform you that only Dragons can become Dragonlord." He seemed calm considering a being barely the size of one of his claws had just flipped him over. "I do not seek your title or the worship of your dragons, I came for information on your culture, but I've already found out more than I need to know from this interaction." Veretus wasn't goading the Dragonlord, he truly knew all he needed now from the Dragonlord's own words, smacking the Dragonlord was just to affirm that he would not be pushed around. "I cannot let you leave after insulting me like this... Dragons, NOD!" He suddenly yelled, and the dragons in the vicinity nodded their heads in affirmative. Normally Veretus would be sickened by such flagrant abuse of power, but these were dragons, they feared the strong, and overthrew them when they became the weak. This wasn't oppression to them, just the natural order of things. "Then a challenge then, Vers Relekihl if you will." The words rolled from Veretus's throat like a true dragon's, the Dragonlord looked confused at his words. "It means Power challenge in Ponish. It is combat to subjection, using no armor or weapons, the winner gets to demand anything from the loser aside from his life. If the loser cannot fulfill it with their current means, then the demand is forfeit and they must choose another." This was one of the traditions he actually found noble and just with the old dragon culture. Many a time this would only be used to claim territory and hoard, and the stipulations were that the dragons couldn't purposefully take each other's lives, either during the combat, or after. "Interesting... The name thrums something deep in my ancient heart... Very well, but I assume you will be very disadvantaged with your enchanted ar... mor..." The dragonlord's words died in his throat, as Veretus had merely teleported out of his armor, with nobody holding them up anymore they had crashed to the ground, cracking it. Of course, Veretus didn't go around lugging a several-ton armor set everywhere on him, it weighed nothing to him, and would continue to as long as he met the requirements to use the armor. The Dragonlord didn't know that, however. Veretus readied himself, the Dragonlord wasn't as tough as Luna, and the nature of this challenge dictated no forged weapons, meaning he would entirely be unharmed by any means the Dragonlord had. with a leap and a flap, Veretus launched himself into the air before punching out at the dragonlord's chest. The dragonlord crumpled like a bag of stones and wheezed as he breathed. Veretus blinked, even Luna took more of a beating than this, but this dragonlord was just pitifully weak. He actually felt sorry for the dragonlord now, as he supposed he found out one thing different about old Dragons in this reality... They didn't get stronger up until the end of their life. Then again, the Dragonlord still had another thousand years, so maybe they just aged slower? "Fine..." The Dragonlord wheezed out, sounding truly defeated. "What do you demand." "I demand the right to be labeled as a dragon." Veretus plainly stated, and the Dragonlord paused, staring at him, before giving a low, deep laugh. "You are the oddest creature I have ever fought... So much that for once my pride is not wounded in losing to you. Fine, you could have had all the riches of the dragonland, or even became the next dragonlord, but you ask to be a mere subservient dragon?" "I merely came to learn more about this reality's dragons, I had done so, so all I had left was to repair my Injured pride as God of Dragons." Veretus stated, beginning to put his armor back on. his mortal clothes had disintegrated long ago, so he was stark naked while fighting the Dragonlord. While he felt no embarrassment, he felt defenseless without his armor, even if that wasn't true. "Now I should check up on my charge I had left here, I had not let him pack, so I believe he should be getting hungry by now," Veretus said as he clasped on his bracers, the final piece. "I cannot tell if you truly thought this through or not, but as you are now a dragon, and were within your right to challenge me, you may freely go." The dragonlord said, heaving himself out of the lava, and the caldera it was contained within. As Veretus left him, he did not envy how the other dragons would probably capitalize on this, thinking that the Dragonlord was weak, when in fact, he was just weak compared to Veretus. Veretus returned to the Caldera where he had left Spike. If his blood could run cold, it would. He had expected to meet Spike here, either dejected at having been outmatched and humiliated by the other dragons, or successful at somehow impressing them. But the same group was here minus three others and spike. He didn't even notice the lava aggressively bubbling as he approached the group of dragons. "Where is Spike." He didn't so much ask as demanded, he ignored the dragons hopping out of the pool like they had been burned, as he grabbed one of them by the horn and repeated his demand. "wh- who?" The drake asked terrified. "The Small. Purple. Dragon." Each word was punctuated heavily. "N-north... to the f-forest. Ph-Pheonix e-egg smashing..." At those words, Veretus immediately dropped the adolescent and took off, his wings causing thunderclaps to emit every time he flapped them. He had arrived at the forest in less than a minute, the once beautiful scenery now evoked a feeling of oppressive darkness in the nighttime light. He couldn't see anything below the tree cover, and he wouldn't be able to cover enough ground. He would have to rethi- A bright flash, like the sun, shined in the forest to the east. His wings maneuvered in that direction before the light had faded from his eyes. He had broken through the canopy of trees with the sound of branches snapping before impacting the ground, causing dirt to go flying everywhere. "-but I'll rip you to pieces if you touch one scale on his cute little head!" He heard the voice of Rarity yell out throughout the forest. His form had disappeared from his spot before her voice had faded. He had appeared behind them, his wings outstretched to their full length, Spike was holding a golden and red egg, three adolescent dragons, he didn't bother noting them in his memory except for the oddity of one of them having hair, and they were laughing. Although that had stopped when he had appeared, and unlike unicorn teleportation, which he had seen twilight do a few times, his was instantaneous and produced no visual effects. Speaking of the mare, she and her friends Rainbow Dash and Rarity were behind Spike, rearing up to fight the dragons. His hand began reaching for his blade before he stopped. They were adolescents, dragon adolescents. He had worked himself into a frenzy and now that he had found Spike, he had to let go before he did something horrendous. He took a deep breath, Startling Spike and his friends before he used his telekinesis to lift the three dragons in the air. His shimmering multi-hued aura which only appeared when he used Equestrian magic surrounded them. "Silence your laughs before something flies down your throats..." He said in a low tone. "I can only assume since ponies do not start fights with dragons, that you are the aggressors... in which case-" "Veretus, no! don't kill them!" Twilight shouted out, and the entire group froze, including Veretus as they all looked at her, the three drakes in mention looked in horror at her statement, the other two mares in puzzlement, while Veretus and Spike looked at her in disbelief. "I- Twilight, I was merely going to send them back to the lava pit where I dropped spike off at... Why would I kill them for performing nothing but an act of bullying?" Veretus felt slightly hurt by her words, he thought she had said he was a friend... perhaps he misunderstood the pony connotation..? "I- I'm sorry Veretus... It just slipped out.." Twilight hung her head in apology. "While we're on this, I thought you said you trusted Veretus with taking me here... Why were you following us?" Spike spoke up. "I... oh Applejack was right, look, you suddenly decided to take Spike far away from Ponyville on some journey of self-discovery, what was I supposed to say? 'no, I don't trust you, take me with.'?" "Yes," Veretus said plainly. "I would have been happy to take you with me if you did not trust in Spike's safety with me, and it seems with the events today, with good reason." "I-" The mare paused mid-thought. "What about tradition or something, only dragons can be a part of the migration." "Twilight, I have broken more traditions than you have lived counted in years, one more would not have harmed me," Veretus said matter of factly. He had just remembered the dragons caught in his magical grip, so he sent them on their way with a teleport, not bothering with a more powerful spell, they probably landed at his intended destination... Probably. "Right, well..." Twilight began before sighing. "I... should have just told you I guess..." "I must also apologize to Spike," Veretus said after the mare. "Huh?" Spike expressed his confusion. "I had been treating you like I had my own son... which was unacceptable since not only are you two different types of dragons, you are different mentally as well... I should not have left you with those adolescents when I knew there were only two possibilities... Although I did not expect you to stand up to them like this." All of them were staring at him blankly in shock, he was about to ask when they shouted in unison. "You have a son?!" "Had... those are dark memories..." The group descended into awkward silence after that. They had eventually warmed back up afterward as they started walking back. It was a four-day walk, and they had plenty of time. "Thanks everypony... While those guys may have been my kind... You're my real family." Spike started before he turned towards Veretus. "And Veretus... I don't exactly know what you are yet, but I do know that advice you gave before you left... You weren't talking about dragons specifically... were you?" "Probably not Spike... Probably not..."