//------------------------------// // chapter: 1 // Story: Rapscallion // by monkeyXtypewriter //------------------------------// A crisp winter breeze rolled across the Everfree forest, eventually reaching the abandoned castle of the pony sisters. the large marble Walls and towers reclaimed by nature destined to return to the land as a crumbling ruin. Now nothing more than a shadow of its former glory, the fallen walls offered no respite from the cold to the few occupants that dwelt within. Barry was one such critter – who, despite having fur, was still not impervious to the less than stellar weather outside his abode. The little jack-rabbit shivered as the cool air nipped at his skin, draining him of precious, precious heat on the cold floor. He hopped around desperate to get to his warm burrow. Even now he could feel the first signs of frostbite, the only drive being his wife and hundreds of kids replaying in his mind. Woe is Barry. Unfortunately, this story isn’t about Barry rabbit. What do you think this is? National geographic? No, this story is of adventure!, romance!, friendship! And most of all….discord. It’s in the bleak, abandoned throne room that we set our scene. The very wind itself not daring to intrude upon the once grand antechamber. Quiet prevailed with only the ambience of the ancient forest outside as a perfect frame to the otherwise silent room. Suddenly, a wind rivalling that of the one outside began to blow from the dais. Torn and dirtied banners whipped in the tempest breeze that hadn’t been there a moment ago and broken furniture was thrown against the wall haphazardly. At the very top of the stairs, the tip of a curved blade appeared slowly, cutting the very fabric of space-time. It rent a jagged zigzag shape, despite seeming to cut in one single downwards motion until it reached the floor. The portal stood about 8 feet tall and white snakes of energies seemed to swirl inside the anomaly, casting a gentle glow onto the less than clean floor. From inside the portal a tall serpentine creature slipped through, the blue tear rippling like a disturbed pond before It fluctuated, the waves reaching the sides and closing up silently, the wind halting with it. The creature stood a good 7 feet tall, with dark blue fur on its lower portion and dull white - almost grey towards its neck and head with a scruff of unruly fur separating the two colours. Two fangs protruded from its pony-like jaw and small tufts of fur on its ears flicked to and fro. Its neck and head had a Mohawk of hair, a mane if you will, that looked choppy and wild from the force of the wind. Powerful hind legs kept the serpent-like creature standing, and in its claws held the scythe responsible for the portal. The weapons blade was a cool blue; almost aqua with black runes trailing the flat of the blade. Its handle had a stylised serpent coiled around the end of the staff and the creature gripped the weapon tightly in one of its claws, the butt of the staff firmly on the ground. This creature was of course a draconequus. An old-god some theorized, although all that pony scholars have to go on was the spirit of chaos and disharmony, discord. In truth, the draconequus race was one native to equis in the very early days of creation. Their incredible magic abilities allowed them to traverse planes of existence, hopping from world to world on a whim. Its not incredibly powerful magic per say, but the inherent magics that the draconequus wield is both potent and dangerous. Such is the reason for our unexpected visitor. The draconequus had taken up mantles as protectors – each world given a draconequus as a guardian to protect it against spacial anomalies. But what happens when the protectee needs protecting from the protector? Why discord of course. While not very common, there are always a few that go a bit overboard with their power. These draconequus are known simply as corrupt. It changes their very bodies, mismatching them with creatures seemingly at random and more often than not, driving them insane. To combat corruption, a council of elder draconequus was made to make sure any and all corruption was dealt with. Their enforcers - the rangers, are a group dedicated to that sole purpose. The one shivering his nips off in the throne room is one such being. His name: Drazen. (dray-zen) His mission: find and kill the corrupted guardian then return home to his ferret Frankie and half eaten pizza. Drazen crossed his arms, resting his one free claw under his arm for warmth. Trust my luck to get a winter job. He grumbled Looking around, Drazen noticed the room for the first time since arriving through the portal. Huh. Maybe a dining room perhaps? No, it’s too large for that. Throne room maybe? He thought absentmindedly. Never having traversed to this world before, Drazen hadn’t a clue for the lay of the land, only that its inhabitants were majority ponies. The council had requested him personally, which came to a shock as he was still considered the ‘rookie’ ranger. He’d raked up a sizable kill count so he wasn’t lacking in skill, but experience wise, Drazen was likened to a child (his immature behavior didn’t help much either) and when he was asked personally he was a bit skeptical. He shrugged it off a moment later when the promise of snack cakes was made. Orighty, first things first. Get out of this castle then find Selker. With his – admittedly simple- plan set, he set off. Stretching his wings, Drazen took to a hover above the freezing ground in a very serpentine manner. His whole body seemed to slither through the air; it server no purpose other than getting the blood flowing of course, but Drazen often did it because he could. When he was sufficiently warm and no longer viable to freeze to death (he may be a god-like being who is essentially immortal, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t feel the cold - or pain for that matter.) Even now he could feel his little piggies going numb. Reaching the large double-doors, Drazen found them to be rusted shut. Rather than forcing them open (even though he was more than capable of doing so) he instead opted to make a portal, the exit forming on the other side of the obstruction. Drazen stepped through without a moments thought, which as it turned out was a bad idea. A wall of white immediately blasted through the portal, sending him sprawling, spread eagle in a shallow pool of snow. When he finally slid to a stop, face down in the cold, Drazen muttered a few choice naughty words before pulling himself to his feet. Having learnt his lesson, this time the exit portal appeared a few paces away from the door. No snow came through this time, so Drazen took it as a sign to enter. When he emerged from the portal, he found himself in a courtyard. Collapsed balconies ran along the perimeter with doors hanging uselessly above the collapsed walkways. The gravel – that was more or less frozen, crunched with equal parts snow under his feet as he plodded forth. Drazen flicked the few bits of powder that had settled on his draconic wings before taking flight directly for the scant cloud cover overhead. They were a good hundred meters up in the air, the highest cloud almost matching the tallest spire of the castle. The temperature substantially rose above the cloud line and Drazen settled on one large enough to accommodate his size, only pausing to pump a bit of magic into the cloud so as to not fall to his death. A few loose wisps of cloud dispersed with a barely audible ‘woosh’ sound as he landed. Glad to be out of the cold, Drazen took only a moment to roll his shoulders and back, both eliciting ‘oh yeahs’ as they satisfyingly popped. The sun shone much more clearly now the few clouds weren’t there to block it. Drazen reached up to shade his eyes with one claw, while the other held his weapon, and looked around. A forest encompassed the castle on all sides. It was dark and foreboding, and even from this height, Drazen could see the perilous forest and its dangers. Swiveling on the spot, he located what looked like a town a fair distance away. It mattered not however. After all, when you have a scythe that can conjure portals, distance is irrelevant. Of course it could be seen as lazy, and more than a few draconequus had gotten quite pudgy using them, but that’s besides the point. Twirling the blade, it cut a swathe downwards large enough for Drazen to enter. If he was correct, the exit portal would be at the very tree line of the village. There was a certain risk too portaling long distances, namely in that you have a small chance the portal will appear inside a solid object, or divines forbid, creature. Drazen had seen it before, his buddy Phil phased into the middle of a cake. It. Was. brutal. And delicious. Thankfully nothing like that came about. this time. Drazen emerged just behind a rather large oak tree, some fifty meters away from the tree-line. Flora he couldn’t name riddled the forest floor with no discernable pattern; or trail for that matter. The foreboding feeling that stemmed from the forest may have been intimidating to some, but Drazen was unfazed. In fact, he felt more giddy than anything else. Always one to have a good laugh, Drazen couldn’t keep the smile off his face even if he tried. It wasn’t because of some creepy forest obsession he had mind you; It was because all the trees seemed to have spooky looking faces. He idly wondered if they had been carved into the wood or if it grew like that naturally. As he walked, he couldn’t help but laugh and picture an office scene with grumpy looking co-workers. ‘Martin, you got the form I asked for yet? Questioned Steve tree sternly ‘oh, not yet Steve, woodies out to lunch, I’m waiting on him’ answered martin tree. Steve tree shrugged, accepting it and stalked away towards his office. ‘so as I was sayin,’ martin tree said, turning to his audience, ‘when I woke up, my acorns were gone!’ he exclaimed, ‘that birch stole em as I slept, think she gave me squirrels too, my knots itched like a motherfu-‘ Drazen stopped that particular monologue as he left the forest. The change in light momentarily blinded him, but after a blink or two it passed. Again using his claws for shade above his eyes, Drazen looked down at the village from the small hill he was on. It looked fairly large, with no more than 30 buildings. The words quaint and rustic came to mind. Most of the buildings had thatched roves and were very, very colorful. From what he could gather from the incline he was on, the town was set out in a wheel and spoke pattern with a city-square in the middle. He saw a few ponies nearer to the town proper and was immediately reminded he was still in his draconequus form. Drazen had no doubt Selker had done a number on the draconequus public image. It had taken the council a bit longer then they had liked to determine this world’s guardian was corrupt. A lot can happen in a thousand years after all. So, Drazen grit his teeth together and steeled himself for what was to come. Oh this is gonna hurt. Not wanting to prolong it any further, Drazen charged the required amount of energy and formed it into the desired shape. “Like a Band-Aid!” he chanted, pacing back and forth. Coincidentally, the spell matrix for shape shifting looks oddly enough, like a Band-Aid. With one final application of magic, the Band-Aid matrix snapped into effect and Drazen was driven to his tummy from the sudden pain. It started in no point in particular, just.. Everywhere. The feeling of fire-ants nipping at every inch of his body washed over him quickly. this was known as the aether-ant effect. Because mass could not truly be destroyed, it had to go somewhere. It's theorized that the excess mass gets stored in the stomachs of phase-parasites until a later time when its returned safely. Knowing is growing. Drazen wisely chose to ignore the snapping and re-aligning of bones. His bones. Things shortened and others grew. Bones and muscles elongated and thickened as needed all in the space of a few seconds. Transforming never took long, it was a sudden change, but the pain felt like it lasted an eternity. Shakily clambering to his hooves, Drazen breathed a sigh of relief. Thankfully he had acquired the pony mentality with the change; else he’d have to re-learn how to walk - Something he couldn’t afford to waste time on at the moment. No. He had corruption to find.