Chapter 1
“So, you heard these...words in your head, and saying them projected a wave of energy that pushed the dragon back?” Rarity asked Twilight. The group was sitting around a table in Twilight’s house, the only ones absent being Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, the two pegasi were still in the hospital after the fight with the dragon.
“Yeah...I felt this...surge of power that coursed through my body and...burst from my mouth as I said the words.” Twilight said ”After the wave pushed the Dragon away I...I picked up a boulder...and...and...” she choked up, lowering her head and holding it in her hooves. Applejack put a foreleg over her shoulder and pulled her in for a hug.
“It’s alright sugarcube, we all know that if you didn’t take down that dragon it would of killed you and Fluttershy. It’s nothin to be ashamed of.” she reassured the unicorn. Twilight pulled away and held her head in her hooves, trying to drive the images of the dragon out of her head.
“I know...” She whimpered. “But...I can’t stop thinking about it...the blood...the snap...” she shuddered as the sound of the dragon’s neck snapping played again in her head. She suddenly felt something touch her shoulder, and turned to find Rarity putting a comforting hoof on her shoulder, eyes full of sympathy.
“Oh, Twilight, perhaps it would be best to put aside those thoughts and try to focus on something else. Did you...” She paused for a moment, searching for another topic. “...Find out anything about where that dragon came from?” asked the white unicorn. Twilight sniffed and took a deep breath, doing what Rarity said and pushing the thoughts out of her mind and focusing on the subject at hoof. She hopped out of her chair and walked over to the bookshelf.
“Well, I looked through my copy of The Equestrian Bestiary and found an article on a sub-species of dragons called wyverns.” the unicorn started, finding solace by going into her ‘scholar’ mode. “The description sort of fits the dragon we encountered: only two pairs of limbs, wings on the forelimbs, smaller then the your usual full grown dragon, but there’s so many things that don’t match up. While some wyverns are known to breath fire, and there have been sightings of ‘Frost Wyverns’ in the northern most parts of the world that exhibit a sort of ‘ice breath’, nopony has ever seen a wyvern or a regular dragon that can breath both fire and frost, let alone project a blast of energy like the one that slammed Fluttershy into the ground and deflected the rocks I threw.” she said as she used her magic to lift a book out of the bookshelf and turn to a specific page, before showing it to the other ponies.
“And look, the wyverns in this book don’t really look like the one we fought.” The other three ponies leaned in to get a better look, and she was right. The wyverns in the book resembled the dragons they were familiar with, much more so than the one they just fought. While these wyverns had brightly colored smooth scales and sleek wings, the one they had fought was a more greyish-green color. Its wings had somewhat ragged edges, a more rough scaley hide, and sharp spikes and fins. Not to mention that the dragon they fought had an aura of menace that neither the dragons they’ve met nor the wyverns in the pictures seemed to have.
“So wait, if that that thing wasn’t one of these wyverns critters, or a regular dragon, then
what was it?” Asked Applejack as she scratched her head in confusion. Twilight closed the book with a downcast look on her face. “I really don’t know, I was going to ask the Princess when she got back, but-” She was interrupted by the door opening and Celestia walking in, accompanied by Spike. Twilight jumped to her feet at the sight of her mentor. “Celestia! What did the doctors say about Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash?” she asked quickly as the four ponies gathered around the princess.
“They’ll be fine.” Celestia said reassuringly. “Fluttershy only has a few bruises, a broken bone, and a slight concussion, the doctors said she’ll be out by the end of the day. Your friend Rainbow Dash though...she’s a bit worse off.” This news caused worried gasps among the ponies.
“What happened? Is she going to be alright?” Twilight asked, understandably worried.
“The doctor said that she has a severe case of hypothermia, the first time even I’ve seen a pegasus get it, but the doctor also said that she should make a full recovery.” reported the Princess, causing everypony to sigh in relief. “But I’m more worried about you Twilight. How are you feeling?” she asked, looking down at her student. Twilight thought that she might ask something like that, considering what happened to her.
“I’m...fine, Princess. Just a bit shaken up is all.” she said, trying to hide the fact that she was considerably more than just a little bit shaken from the experience. Celestia frowned, her horn starting to glow before she waved it over Twilight, who felt a tingling sensation as it passed over her.
“Well, whatever that energy you absorbed from the dragon was, it doesn’t seem to have caused any abnormalities, at least ones that I can detect.” she stated as she finished ‘scanning’ Twilight. “Are you sure that everything's alright Twilight? You don’t feel anything different?” she asked again.
“Well, actually...” she started, remembering what happened earlier that day. “There was this...strange feeling in the back of my head all day before the Dragon attacked, and it only seemed to grow stronger as the fight went on. Just before the dragon would of...” She shuddered as she thought back to those moments, the dragons maw wide open, ready to rip her in half. “...You know. I heard a sort of...whispering coming from that feeling, repeating three short words over and over again.”
Celestia’s eyes grew wide in surprise. “What were those words?”
“I think it was fus...r-RO DAH!” she inadvertently yelled, sending Celestia bowling over, through the door and into the front yard, while Spike was sent flying. Everypony gasped and ran outside, finding a dazed Princess slowly and unsteadily getting up off the ground. “Oh Princess, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean for that to happen! It just...happened!” Twilight aplologized quickly. Celestia blinked and shooked her head, before looking down at her student.
“It’s alright Twilight, I know you didn’t mean it. Although I suggest you refrain from accidentally repeating those words again.” the Princess said with a small laugh.
Twilight sighed in relief, before she noticed something was missing. “Wait...where’s Spike?” Her eyes widened as she and everypony else started to look for the little dragon. It was Twilight who first noticed the little purple, green tipped tail poking out of a nearby bush, and she quickly ran over to pull the dragon out.
“Ugh...please don’t do that again Twilight. My head’s still swimming from that blast...” the dragon said, eyes swirling around in a daze.
“Hehe, sure Spike...” Twilight said, patting the dragon on the head. She used her magic to lift the little guy onto her back and walked back towards the group. As she approached, she noticed that Rarity had a look of contemplation on her face. “Something wrong Rarity?” she asked. The white unicorn looked up at her friend.
“Well, actually Twilight, doesn’t that blast of energy you just projected seem familiar somehow?” she asked slowly. Twilight blinked as she considered what Rarity said, before it hit her.
“Wait, you don’t think?” she asked, realization on her face.
“That the dragon was doing the exact same thing? Yes, that’s exactly what I’m thinking.” stated Rarity.
“Now that ya mention it, that thing Twilight just did was an awful like those blasts the dragon did.” Applejack said.
“Hmm...strange...there must be a connection between that dragon’s sudden appearance and your new powers Twilight. Did you four ever hear it say anything during the fight? Anything like what Twilight said?” asked Celestia. Everpony but Twilight shook their head, while the unicorn thought back to the battle.
“I think I may have heard it say something during the fight, but I’m not sure. But it definitely said something right before it...died. ‘Dovahkiin Nid.’ Any idea what it means Princess? Or where that dragon came from?” Asked Twilight. The Princess frowned and shook her head.
“No, my student. Neither I nor Luna have honestly ever seen dragons like that, nor have we ever seen anypony exhibiting abilities like you have. I’m sorry.”
Twilight sighed, another mystery to add to the pile of mysteries that today had brought. Where did that dragon come from? How did it project those blasts of energy? What connection did it have with Twilight? What does Dovahkiin Nid mean? What was that energy Twilight absorbed? And most importantly, where did these powers come from?
o-0-O-0-o
Spike hummed to himself as he slid the books from Twilight’s latest study-session back into their proper place on the shelf. As he went to pick up another pile of books, he glanced outside to see a construction crew working on rebuilding a house that was irreparably damaged by the Dragon’s attack, the last one that needed rebuilding. Further down the street he could see Fluttershy leading a group of ducklings to the outskirts of Ponyville.The pegasus had pretty much recovered from the fight, and was back to her normal routine. Even Rainbow Dash was going to get out of the clinic later that day. “Yep, everything seems to be getting back to no-”
“RO DAH!”
Spike winced as he was cut off by Twilight’s shout. “Well, mostly normal.” he said with a chuckle. He put the last of the last of the books away and went outside to see how Twilight was doing.
Outside, Twilight was busy writing something down in a notebook. Behind her were several tools, targets, and weights piled neatly onto a table. Spike remembered having to help Twilight get them earlier, she said she needed them to test the limits of her new ability. The unicorn in question looked up from the book when she heard the young dragon approaching. “Oh, hey Spike! I was just testing the effective weight that my ‘shout’ can push. ” she said as the glow of her magic engulfed a large weight that was laying on the ground several meters away, before floating over to the table and set down on the ground.
“Uh-huh.” murmered Spike as he eyed the objects on the table. “Did you find out anything um...interesting?”
“Well, actually-” she started, before being cut off by a yell in the distance. She turned to see Applejack and Rarity walking up to her testing area. “Oh, hey girls!” she called out as they approached.
“Hey Twilight. We were just headin over to Fluttershy’s to see how she’s doin’, before goin’ to see Dash out of the hospital. Wanna come?” asked Applejack.
“Oh, sure girls, just let me put this stuff away.” Twilight said, her horn glowing as she started lifting the tools, weights, targets, and other things off the table and into individual boxes. While she was packing up, Rarity noticed the notebook Twilight left on the table.
“Are those your notes Twilight?” she asked curiously.
At her friend’s question, Twilight looked up from the box she was packing. “Oh, yeah! You can look through them if you like.” she said before closing the box. Rarity nodded and started skimming through the book.
“Say, did ya find anythin’ interestin’ about that shoutin’ thing you do now Twilight?” Applejack asked as she watched her friend put her instruments and tools away.
“Actually yes!” she exclaimed as put the last weight in and shut the box. “Here, watch this...although you may want to stand back a bit.”
The three obliged, and Twilight put a hoof to her mouth, clearing her throat as she turned away from them. “Ehem, alright, here it goes....Yol...TOOR!” As she shouted, a stream of brilliant orange fire emerged from her mouth, flying for several feet before dissipating into the air. Twilight coughed a bit, unnecessarily, before turning towards her friends. They all bore the same expression, wide-eyed amazement
“Wow, Twilight, that was incredible!” said Rarity, the first to speak.
“Yeah, you’re practically a dragon now!” exclaimed Applejack
“Well, I wouldn’t go that far...” the unicorn said, rubbing the back of her head. “But it does support the theory that the dragon that attacked is connected to my new powers somehow. It was probably using shouts of its own to produce those fire and ice blasts.”
Rarity looked back down at the notebook and turned a page, and her eyebrows instantly shot up in surprise as she tried to discern the odd symbols written within. She looked back up at Twilight, who noticed the expression on her face. “Twilight, what exactly are these symbols you drew on this page?” she asked as she floated the notebook over to Twilight. The unicorn stared at the page for a moment, before chuckling nervously.
“Well...I think they’re the words of my shouts, spelled out in whatever language they originated in. Don’t ask me how I know that...I just sort of...do, I guess.” she said sheepishly.
Applejack leaned over to get a better look at the page. There were five groupings of claw mark-like symbols, with three groups lined up in one line, two groups lined up a few lines down below, and the last one all by itself below those. Under each grouping was what was presumably the word translated into something a pony could actually say, followed by that being translated into something Equestrian below that.. “So, ‘Fus Ro Dah’ means Force Balance Push?”
“Uh-huh, and ‘Yol Toor’ is Fire Inferno.” said Twilight, thankfully no longer having to worry about accidentally saying the words and sending somepony flying through a window, whatever was triggering the shout whenever she said the words before stopped now. Now, if she wanted to use a shout, she had to focus on the words as she yelled them.
Spike leaned over to get a look at the book himself. “What does Wuld do? Does it create a whirlwind or something?” he asked excitedly, imagining how cool that would look.
“Hehe, not exactly. Hey Applejack, want to have a race? Say, to that tree over there?” she asked, indicating the tree with an outstretched hoof.
The farmpony blinked, that was the last thing she expected Twilight to ask. The unicorn was never the athletic pony, even if she did enter the Running of the Leaves the year before. “Uh, sure Twilight.” she said uncertainly, wondering where this was going.
Twilight smiled and marked a starting line with her hoof, before she and Applejack lined up at it. “Spike would you do the honors?”
“Alright Twilight.” the dragon said before climbing up onto the table. “Ready! Set! Go!”
At the word go Applejack start sprinting to the tree, before she heard Twilight shouting behind her.
“WULD!”
Applejack felt a wave of air hit her, as if Rainbow Dash had just flown past her. She blinked dust out of her eyes and suddenly stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Twilight leaning against the tree, a smile on her face. “Wha? Huh? How?” She sputtered, but she quickly realized what was up. “Ah, I see, Wuld must be some sort of super-speed shout or somethin.”
“That’s effectively what it is, although I really don’t have any control over where I stop. Plus once it’s over, inertia doesn’t take hold.” Twilight said as she walked back over to the group. “The first time I tried it I got my horn stuck in that very same tree actually.” Applejack and Rarity glanced back over towards the tree, and saw the horn-shaped indentation in the side. They both imagined Twilight trying to pull her horn out of the tree, and promptly burst into laughter, with the unicorn in question soon joining in.
o-0-O-0-o
“While I was testing the force shout I noticed that I didn’t have to say all three words to use the shout, I could just yell Fus or Fus Ra, with a substantial decrease in power with each word taken away.” Twilight told the group as they approached Fluttershy’s Cabin. “And considering my fire breath isn’t nearly as powerful as the Dragon’s, I’m pretty sure that both that and the sprint shouts are incomplete, so to speak. For whatever reason I just don’t know all the words.”
“Odd...” said Rarity, considering the implications. “You didn’t happen to find any information on the symbols that seemed to be stuck in your head along with the words?” she asked.
“Sadly no, I’ve cross-referenced the symbols with every book I could find, I even sent them to Celestia to see if she recognized them, with no success. It’s as if they’ve literally never been seen in Equestria before.”
The group of four stopped in front of the door and Applejack knocked a couple times. A quiet “Coming.” could be heard from inside the house before the group was greeted by Fluttershy.
“Oh, hello girls.” Said the shy pegasus. “How are you all doing?”
“We were just coming to see how you were doing Fluttershy.” Said Twilight. “You did suffer a rather nasty crash during that fight.”
“Oh, don’t worry about me girls, I’m fine.” Fluttershy said with a smile, but it quickly faded away and her eyes looked down at the ground. “I’m actually more worried about Rainbow Dash, she didn’t look too good when I left the hospital. And Tank’s been worried sick about her” Twilight looked over the pegasus’s shoulder to see Rainbow Dash’s pet tortoise among the animals in Fluttershy’s house, his face looking even more sullen then usual.
“She’s actually supposed to be released from the hospital today, and we were going to see her when she gets out. Want to come? You can take Tank with you too, I’m sure he’d be happy to see Dash.” suggested Twilight.
“Oh, that would be wonderful! Let me finish some things here, and I’ll be right out.” said the pegasus excitedly.
o-0-O-0-o
The group of four ponies, one dragon, and one flying tortoise were soon joined by Pinkie Pie on the way to the hospital, making a group of seven. They waited in the hospital’s waiting room for nearly an hour, getting rather bored, before Nurse Redheart walked into the room, causing the ponies to jump to their hooves.
“Nurse Redheart, how’s Rainbow Dash?” Twilight was the first to ask as the group gathered around.
“She’s made a full recovery and will be out in a moment.” said the nurse with a reassuring smile. “But she should take it easy for a few days, just to be safe.”
“After being cooped up in a hospital room for so long, I doubt she’ll be takin’ it ‘easy’ for very long” commented Applejack.
A few moments later, the pegasus in question strode into the waiting room, and was immediately dogpiled by her pony friends in a massive group-hug. After a few moments, and protests from Rainbow Dash, the five relented and let the pegasus catch her breath.
“Oh Dashie, we were so worried about you!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie.
“Yeah, you didn’t exactly look peachy after that fight.” said Applejack.
“Ah, thanks girls. But you didn’t need to worry, it’ll take more than a dragon to keep this pegasus down for long!” Rainbow Dash declared, exuding an air of bravado around her. Twilight chuckled at her friend’s confidence.
“Well, we’re just glad to see you’re alright Dash.” she said.
Rainbow felt something nudging her back, and turned to see Tank hovering right behind her, a wide smile on his face.
“Hey Tank! Did you miss me?” she asked. The tortoise nodded in response. “Well, I’m sure Fluttershy took good care of you. Hey, how bout we have a race later? I really need to stretch out my wings after being stuck in that hospital for half a week.”
Rainbow Dash’s planning was cut short by a green flame shooting out of Spike’s mouth, materializing into a scroll from the Princess. The group turned towards Spike as he caught the scroll, before rolling it open.
“What does it say Spike?” asked Twilight as Spike began scanning the scroll.
“Dear Twilight Sparkle, I need you and your friends to come to Canterlot Palace immediately. I have grave news.” began Spike. As he read the next part in his head, he suddenly stopped, his eyes widening in disbelieve.
“What is it Spike?” Twilight asked, although she had a feeling she didn’t want to hear what was next.
The dragon looked up from the scroll towards Twilight, before looking at the rest of the group, his eyes finally falling on Applejack. “It’s Appleloosa, it’s been attacked! By a dragon!”