Draconic Guardians of Equestria

by Defias


Chapter 8

He had wandered around for awhile, assessing his surroundings and pondering how to go about the task given to him. While he was unsure of what inhabited the alien world he was on, he could feel the power emanating from it. More importantly, he could sense particular alterations within the magical spectrum that led to only one conclusion: a power, sentient race with an affinity for Arcane manipulation.

The power he could sense was all too familiar to Kil'jaeden. In fact, he was quite caught up in the nostalgic memories of his world when Sargeras imparted his gift of great power among himself, his brother, and his people. However, another memory made itself known as well, a memory which always drove the demon lord into rage: the betrayal of the one he once called his brother, Velen.

It was all irrelevant memories of the past, though. Kil'jaeden was as cunning as he was cruel, and knew better than to let his emotion and lust for vengeance get the better of him. His current task was set before him: The destruction of this world, or the enslavement of this worlds inhabitants. Simple as it seemed, precautions would be made to prevent the repeat of history nonetheless, and it was an easy solution as well.

While the concept of Kil'jaeden's undead Scourge was somewhat successful, he would need to find a way to directly control an army, or whatever inhabited this world directly. He would figure that out later, though. First, he needed to find which sentient race was the dominant one, and go about his ways of deception and corruption.

And as fortune would have it, he wouldn't have to look far, or for long. Upon hearing what he could single out as laughter, he made his way to a cave, and began looking for the source of the noise. It didn't take him long to find what he was looking for, the source being what he made out to be two winged steeds.

While not native to his home world, there were steeds of many types he knew of. The Nathrezim world, Xoroth, was the home of the well known Dreadsteed even, while the world of Azeroth had a few known winged steeds. The ones that flew before him intrigued him, though. The fact that they were talking wasn't what interested the Deceiver, rather, the expressions and emotions they showed. One was a cyan colored steed, with a mane and tail containing an assortment of different colors and a strange mark, while the other one was a pure dark purple. The purple one differed greatly from the cyan one though, he noticed. For one, unlike the feathered wings of the other, this one had reptilian like wings, as well as a reptilian tail.

After he observed the two winged steeds for some time, he singled out which one was which, though he did not know their names. The cyan one seemed to be female, while the dark purple one was male. Whether they were companions or not was irrelevant. As he observed, the dark purple steed stopped in mid air for some time, causing Kil'jaeden to grow slightly curious. The Deceiver's curiosity, however, would soon grow into concern and sudden realization as to what he saw: the dark purple steed was none other than the dragon that Kil'jaeden's master had fooled, Vakarious.

He had not seen the apparent 'Dragonlord' personally, let alone witness his abilities first hand. Everything he did know of the dragon were all merely reports from either subordinates or his master. A key thing that was known, however, was the dragon's arrogance, blind ambition and being prone to letting his emotions take over. While Kil'jaeden knew the dragon's power was great enough to see through any shape shifting spell he could use, Kil'jaeden would nonetheless be able to manipulate the dragon in other ways, and the cyan steed he flew with was the key.

After seeing the dragon land, Kil'jaeden realized exactly why he landed all too late: Vakarious saw the portal Kil'jaeden had use. While it was the same kind of portal even lesser warlocks could conjure up, such evidence could possibly compromise his position nonetheless. None of it mattered now, though. The Deceiver had work to do, and it required the manipulation of the cyan winged steed companion, and more importantly, more knowledge into this race.

After the duo left the mountains into the forest, the Deceiver began to emerge from the cave he had hid in. However, as he was exiting the cave, the ground beneath him began to shake. Before he could act, standing behind Kil'jaeden was a large, full grown green dragon. The Deceiver stared down the dragon, curious as to how many dragons actually inhabited this world, while the dragon stared down the Deceiver, curious as to what strange creature was invading his cave.

"You will leave my domain puny red creature, before I grow bored of being merciful," the green dragon threatened. Kil'jaeden merely laughed, however. While he could destroy this dragon with just a thought, he decided he'd find a use for this dragon instead. After all, making allies was more beneficial than making enemies, even if said allies serve you against their will.

"An amusing gesture from one such as yourself. You may do as you wish to me, however, it will be all for naught," Kil'jaeden replied, his voice filled with sinister intent. The dragon, however, was affected by the Deceiver's words, instead responding with a large breath of flame. Just as the Deceiver said, however, it was pointless. Kil'jaeden just laughed at the gesture, showing no signs of damage at all.

"What sorcery is this?" the dragon shouted, shorted before finding thi entire body shackled in some sort of spiky chain, searing the scales from his hide.

"To put it simply, I currently have use for you, pathetic as you may be. Consider this an 'act of mercy'," Kil'jaeden said, shortly before bathing the dragon in a green flame, with his screams of agony silenced by the mouth of the cave collapsing. "You serve the will of the Burning Legion now, dragon. More importantly, you serve me. You will stay put for now, until I have further need of you," and with that, Kil'jaeden disappeared from the cave.

The dragon, which become nothing more than a skeleton with a green cloud around 'him', mere stood there in compliance. The dragon then went deeper into the cave, so as not to be found by anyone foolish enough to search the cave. He cared not for himself, his well being, or even his hoard of gems and jewels. He had only one instinct: To serve his new master to the death.


~~~


Rainbow Dash and Vakarious had flown over the Everfree Forest for some time until they had finally reached the edge of a mountain range Rainbow called 'Rambling Rock Ridge'. After scanning around for a bit to make sure nobody besides Rainbow and Vakarious were around, the latter changed his form: changing from a fairly small Pegasus to a dragon of gargantuan size. Rainbow, despite being the first one to see his true size originally, was still in awe at the shear size of her new draconic friend.

"You know, if you take it a picture, it would last a lot longer," Vakarious joked, snapping Rainbow out of her trance. Rainbow Dash also noticed another thing about her draconic friend: Whenever he spoke, he spoke with a metallic, resonating, yet almost soft spoken voice. It was hard for her to describe.

"Hey, it's not every day I get to look at a huge dragon that isn't either covering the entire town in smoke, or on a rampage around town," Rainbow replied, snapping back into reality.
"At least not yet..." Vakarious joked, though Rainbow just rolled her eyes.
"Whatever, just go lizard boy."
"'boy'? I'm 2,600 years old...I mean, give or take a couple numbers, but you get the idea. I'm a few times your age," Vakarious shot at Rainbow.
"Yeah, well, if you're apparently this immortal dragon, that's really not that old is it?" Rainbow shot back. Vakarious sighed upon realizing what he had set himself up for. He was going to respond with something clever, but he found that he actually did not having anything clever to respond with. So he just rolled his eyes and started flying off.



~~~



After Rainbow and Vakarious had spent some time flying over the mountain range, they had decided to head back to Ponyville, before they were late to Pinkie's party. As they both started heading back to Ponyville, Vakarious had noticed something strange on the ground below him.

"Hold on a sec, I wanna check something out," Vakarious called out to Rainbow, before turning himself into his Pegasus form and landing on the ground.
"What are you doing?" Rainbow asked, following after him. Vakarious didn't say anything though, focused on the strange marking before him. After a bit of examining, he realized what it was he was staring at: The mark of a transportation spell. More specifically, a circular demonic rune.

"What is it?" Rainbow asked, confused as to what her friend was doing.
"I saw something peculiar. I have a very good idea as to what it is, but I'd like to take a sample and examine it some more before I can confirm anything," he replied, scooping up some of the black and green dirt and placing it in a hastily made stone case.
"Well, is that stuff bad?"
"Like I said, dunno for sure yet. It could be nothing, or it could be very bad. But why cause a panic if it turns out to be nothing, yaknow? While on the flipside, if I examine it, and it turns out to be very bad, then I'll know exactly what I'm dealing with," Vakarious replied. He debated with himself whether or not he wanted to send the Princess a letter or not at the moment, but he decided he'd do so after he knew for sure if the sample he had was Legion related, or just an independent event.

"Well, I'm ready to get out of here when you are," Vakarious said.
"Alright, let's go I guess," Rainbow replied. Vakarious could tell she was bothered by what he found, and how he wasn't telling her anything. "Look, I'll tell you what. On the condition that you don't tell anyone else that I found this thing, then I'll tell you first thing what it is, whether it's really bad or not, okay?" Vakarious offered. He figured it was only fair since he kind of dragged her along anyway.

"Fine, I'll pinkie promise not to tell anypony if you pinkie promise to tell me as soon as you find out," Rainbow Dash said. Vakarious rolled his eyes at the ridiculous promise he had to make, but proceed to give her his pinky finger. However, he was met with an odd look followed by a sudden realization: Her version of a pinky promise was different than humanity's.

"Ugh, just copy me. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye," Rainbow said, while making motions that reminded him of an old school yard oath.
"Tell you what. I'll give you a promise from my world that's just as strong as your 'pinkie promise', alright? Since it'll be a promise I know by heart, it'll have that much more meaning," he offered. To his surprised, Rainbow accepted. "Alright, I promise that you will be the first to know what I found, before even the Princess. Cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye," Vakarious said. Rainbow's reaction to the relatively morbid promise was quite priceless to him though, no matter how strong of a promise it was.

"Anyway, shall we head out then?" Vakarious asked, grinning.
"Yeah...let's go. Your world is pretty brutal, you know that right?" Rainbow stated, more than asked. Vakarious just shrugged.
"Yeah, that's what you get when you're raised by a war mongering race. Well, let's go then."

Vakarious flew off in his Pegasus form before Rainbow could say anything, though she caught up to him in no time. He didn't like how slow he was compared to her, though he figured it was just her being the apparent fastest flyer in Equestria.


~~~


Rainbow Dash and Vakarious finally arrived at Sugarcube Corner, apparently on time as well, considering they made it at the same time as Twilight Sparkle and Rarity did, two ponies who were never late for anything. Vakarious would have allowed Twilight and Rarity to enter before him, but Rainbow silently challenged him to a game of 'the first one inside wins', and he would not allow her such an easy victory, especially how often she seemed to humiliate him. Suffice to say, Vakarious had more burst speed than her on the ground, earning him this little, yet only victory. Rainbow just gave off a 'humph' of annoyance at her minor, yet big loss before heading inside.

Upon entering, Vakarious, Rainbow, Twilight, and Rarity were showered with confetti from a pink pony that seemingly appeared out of no where. Everyone, save for Vakarious, laughed at their pink friend, while Vakarious merely rolled his eyes. Not out of annoyance, more so at the apparent lack of laws of physics.I swear, she's gotta possess some sort of magical ability.Vakarious mused, before heading further inside. As he neared a table, Applejack saw him and started to nervously head his way.

"Well howdy there Vakarious," Applejack greeted.
"Hey there, what's up?" Vakarious greeted back.
"Aw, nothin' much. Ah heard ya'll came over earlier today," she said.
"Ah, yeah. I just came by mainly to, yaknow, fix any damage I caused yesterday, if you know what I mean," he replied. Applejack just looked down and chuckled nervously before she responded.Well, that's not a good sign...Vakarious thought to himself.

"Dontcha worry yerself 'bout it, nopony got hurt, so that's all that matters, 'yeknow?" Applejack finally replied. He could tell she was still nervous, though.
" Meh, still. Twilight was right, I should have mentioned what I was far earlier," he said.
"Ah said dontcha worry yerself 'bout it, 'ah completely understand why ya'll woulda wanted somethin' like kept private," she reassured, still nervous. Vakarious, seeing that Applejack was this nervous around him decided to save her the trouble of awkwardly finding a reason to leave.

"Thanks. Well, I'm gonna go ahead and check the rest of the party, nice talking to you," Vakarious said, Applejack apparently seeming relieved.
"Any time pardner," Applejack said, before walking towards Rainbow Dash.Wonderful. She's either afraid of me, or she doesn't trust me. I'd understand the latter, and I suppose the former, but still, kinda aggravating.

Vakarious decided he'd talk a little bit with Pinkie Pie, seeing as how she was really the only pony he'd essentially insulted. He had to admit, when he wasn't depressed, her party was actually pretty entertaining.

"Hey Pinkie," Vakarious said as he approached the pink pony in question. She had apparently just finished talking with Fluttershy.
"Hello Vaka. How are you enjoying the party so far? Is it fun? I was going to throw a surprise party, but then I remembered how you said you didn't like surprise parties, so then I decided to throw this party instead!" the eccentric pink party pony exclaimed.
"I like it, you definitely threw a pretty crazy party, that's for sure. I dare say I'm having fun," Vakarious replied. "More importantly though, I wanted to apologize again for the way I treated you the other day, and yesterday for my rather unique appearance," he added.
"Oh, I knew you didn't mean it. I could just tell something was bothering you when you said you didn't like parties! I mean, who doesn't like parties? I can understand surprise parties, since Fluttershy doesn't like surprise parties, but everypony likes a party of some kind," Pinkie continued, not even stopping to take a breath. Definitely not short on energy, that's for sure.Vakarious just stood there, making a futile attempt at trying to catch everything the pink pony was saying to no avail. Finally, after a few minutes, Pinkie said something about having to get her pet alligator out of the punch, much to Vakarious' relief. While he wasn't annoyed by her so much now, she was still too much for him to handle, which said a lot.


~~~



The party went on for another five more hours before ponies started to leave. While Vakarious didn't do much in the way of 'partying', he enjoyed conversing with the ponies he knew. He told various stories to the six ponies as well, such as a group of humans very similar to the Wonderbolts Rainbow Dash idolized called the 'Blue Angels', and the maneuvers they executed in their planes (which he would explain to her later), the cities that were very much like Canterlot in terms of sophistication, and talked about a lot of entertainment technology humans created.

The topic he enjoyed talking about the most, however, was the music of his world. He may not have been fond or trusting of humans, but to him, music was the most beautiful art humans have ever created. Twilight and surprisingly, Rainbow Dash, seemed to be the most interested in what he had to say.

"So, did humans and dragons ever work together to create music?" Twilight asked. Vakarious and Rainbow were surprised she wasn't taking notes.
"In older times, yes. While collaboration between humans and dragons didn't necessarily end abruptly, by the time of my worlds drastic change, such groups were pretty rare," Vakarious replied.
"Seeing as how you said there were a lot of different musical groups and bands, what were some of your personal favorite?" Twilight asked with an almost childlike expression.
"Well, there were a lot of different groups and types I liked. Though honestly, what I liked really can't be put into words. Sorry," Vakarious said. Twilight just nodded, she seemed to understand what he was talking about. Rainbow, however, just seemed annoyed and flew off to the other side of the room, stopping in front of Pinkie Pie.

After talking some time with Twilight, both her and Vakarious had noticed how late it had gotten, and both decided to leave and call it a night. Vakarious had left the building, and heading for his home. On his way, Rainbow Dash decided to pick up some small talk with him for a little bit, just talking about the party they were just at, and after some time, Rainbow had flown off towards her cloud home, while Vakarious neared his. While he disliked the concept of sleeping at night, it would be that night he would rest. He hadn't gotten any real rest in over a week, ever since...He interrupted those thoughts. While not particularly running away from the problems his world faced, worrying about them while stranded on a different world did him no good.

Once Vakarious had at last reached his home, he intended to lay down and rest. However, upon heading towards his room to do so, a certain stone case caught his attention. After some internal debating, he finally decided to investigate the contents of what was in the case the following morning. Rest at this point, was a priority. After toying with the case for a bit, he finally set it down and fell onto a makeshift bed that had come with the house. After only a few minutes, sleep overcame him.