//------------------------------// // Chapter 17 // Story: Draconic Guardians of Equestria // by Defias //------------------------------// “Ugh, it makes no sense at all! What is so important about that world, that they occupied ours for over two hundred years.” Ever since Earth’s triumphant defense against the Burning Legion, and even prior to their defeat, Alestra worked non stop trying to learn everything she could about the demonic army. While she did have access to the Titan archives, she found very little in terms of information on the Burning Legion. What she did find however, was a commonality between the Legion and the Titans; a world they both seemed to have a vested interest in, the world known as Azeroth. While the Archives didn’t give a direct answer, Alestra deducted that the Titans interest in Azeroth was simply their goal of bringing order to the possibly chaotic world. Seeing as the Titan’s visitation of the world was over a hundred thousand years ago, it was her most logical assumption. The Archives however, gave no indication or reason as to why the Burning Legion apparently wanted Azeroth as bad as they did. Granted, Alestra knew essentially nothing about the world other than its name, so for all she knew it could have been the most arcane rich planet in the universe. Because she had very little information to go on, Alestra all but forgot about Azeroth. As far as she was concerned, nothing about the world explained the Burning Legion’s 250 year occupation of Earth. Alestra found herself staying in her quarters more and more ever since Vakarious contacted her. While she did curse the fact that it was because of him disappearing that her research into Azeroth was hindered, she was still glad to know that he was at least alive, albeit stranded on an entirely different world. Alestra was still upset though somewhat, having to focus on opening a gateway between Earth and the world Vakarious was on, rather than continue looking into Azeroth. “Thats it! The world V is on is the answer! How could I have been so stupid? It makes sooo much sense now,” Alestra shouted to herself, coming to a realization during her skulking around. “Prat, I need you to get down here, like, soon. Soon as in kinda now.” ~~~ ‘This had better be good’ Praetorian thought to himself as he headed down towards Alestra’s quarters. Under normal circumstances, anyone else who had the gall to speak to him in such a way would have been lucky to earn a quick death. Alestra, however, was a different case. Praetorian eventually decided it was because she was the most powerful dragon in the world, short of a Titan empowered aspect though. “Why do you call me Alestra,” Praetorian asked into the intercom outside of Alestra’s room. There was silence at first, then the sound of shuffling before Alestra responded. “Sorry, come in. Needed to put some things away,” she replied. Praetorian sighed before entering her quarters. “Alright, before I begin, I need to ask you to do me a kind of a big favor,” Alestra said after Praetorian entered the room. “No. Tell me what it is that’s so important as to warrant dragging me down here in the middle of troop organization,” Praetorian said. “Fine. I think I may have figured out two important things. One, why the Burning Legion invaded us and what they wanted with our world and two, why V was transported to the world he’s on now,” Alestra said, earning a look of interest from Praetorian. “Go on,” he said. “Alright, first things first, Pony Land. This world indirectly answers the Burning Legion’s purpose in their invasion. As you know, gateways and portals need a point A and point B to be functional, otherwise they’re nothing, right?” Alestra asked, receiving Praetorian’s questioning look in response. “Anyway...Vakarious being transported was somewhat of an accident that was done on purpose. You see, I think when Sargeras came down here, he was in a weakened form, probably intentional. Most likely, his full form was just too much for Earth’s atmosphere to handle with severely disrupting any Ley Lines,” Alestra paused, both to recompose herself and to allow Praetorian to ask any questions he may have had. When he didn’t say anything, Alestra began a seemingly different rant. “Anyway, after finding that anything concerning the world V is on right is restricted, I turned my attention to another world that I had been curious about for a long while now. This world I managed to at least get the name of; Azeroth. Now, what does this have to do with the Legion invading us, or the world V is stuck on? Simple. Earth is a nexus, or basically right in between Azeroth, and Pony Land,” Alestra finished her entire explanation, or lecture rather, with an excited grin. It was short lived, however, with Praetorian’s reaction, or lack thereof. “Look, this all leads me to that favor I have of you. As it stands, Vakarious is stuck until either the gateway on our end fully stabilizes, which could take a long time, or he manages to somehow find a reliable source of power where he is. In the amount of time he’ll be gone though, we’ll be very vulnerable to a lot of things, which is wh---” “Get on with it,” Praetorian interrupted. Alestra sighed, then continued. “I...need you to capture a demon. Alive, for questioning,” Alestra said. Praetorian stared at her, his silence being Alestra’s only indication to explain herself. “I need a demon to question about Azeroth. If I can find out why the Burning Legion spent 250 years on our world just to have access to Azeroth, then I may be able to find out how to get Vakarious back sooner. If nothing else, I can at least send a warning to one of the dragons I’m sure exists on Azeroth about the impending Burning Legion invasion they’ll face.” Praetorian stood in silence, his expression unreadable by Alestra. While she wasn’t exactly afraid of anything he would do, she was still concerned with what his answer would be, hoping it wouldn’t be a flat out ‘no’. “Tell me, before I decide. In what way is the fate of another world relevant to us, when rebuilding our own will be harder to do than defending it?” Praetorian asked. “Easy. Something so simple as a warning to the right person who will heed it, will in itself be a defeat for the Burning Legion. And any Burning Legion defeat, no matter how small, or where, is a victory for us, wouldn’t you agree?” Alestra responded. Praetorian pondered her request, and words for a few moments before heavily sighing. “Fine, you will have your demon soon,” Praetorian answered, leaving Alestra’s quarters immediately afterwards. ~~~ Shorty after Praetorian left, Alestra began opening a small portal to Azeroth to send fourth the warning. Surprisingly, she found that doing so was fairly easy to do, unlike the effort it took to open and maintain the same portal to the world Vakarious was on. Though it still would have taken time to open and stabilize a gateway large enough for anyone to go through safely, Alestra figured that doing so would take a far less amount of time and energy. She mused over the thoughts of herself going to another world while she looked for the best candidate to receive her warning. Despite the fact that the world she was scrying was relatively new in terms of Titan visitation, finding an actual dragon or even a keeper of the Titans was rather difficult. As she began to give up due to exhaustion, that was when she found her potential recipient . While she couldn't exactly make out who it was, she did make out two major details; he was a dragon, and he was at least close with the worlds version of their Dragonlord, if the residual Titan power and lack of Old God corruption were of any indication to her. With no other candidates to receive her message for the time being, Alestra decided that this dragon would have to do. All she could do is hope they he heeded her warning.