Draconic Relations-chapter 1- Gearing up
BORING. That is the word I would use to describe life. I was a top student, socially awkward, kind of a game nerd, obsessed over anything that I found interesting and working on military skills. My family had a history of military service, and I was expected to follow in their footsteps. I knew a thing or two about fencing and archery, and I was always open to computers. I wrote a few stories, but the internet was not a kind place for me, thus that tangent was snuffed out. I did anything to sate my boredom, as long as I couldn't gain any serious injuries from it. Well, except for one thing...
The truth is, everything was way to normal. I wanted different places, and fantasy lands, the whole shebang! The only problem was; my dreams were impossible, and there was no way that was going to change. All I wished for was change. I wished too much.
I walked out the door, my pale complexion rejecting the evening sunlight. I flipped my hood up to shield myself from the sun, and headed to the car. It was an old compact, but it did its job. The drive to the airport was entirely uneventful, as Des Moines isn't exactly the busiest place on Earth. I pulled into the parking lot after paying the fine, then walked through the airport doors. I received my ticket from the flight kiosk and checked the gate I was supposed to go to.
"Six... six, six, six..." I repeated to myself, earning some dirty looks as I made my way past a few people lounging about in the lobby. I stopped at gate six and walked up to the attendant manning the tunnel thing going into the plane. I handed her my ticket, which she scanned, then handed back. I went through the metal detector after taking off my necklace and dragon bracelet. they patted me down, then sent me through to the plane. I settled into my seat and looked out the window to my right, knowing that I would probably be asleep soon in the flight to the Atlanta International airport. After the last few people boarded and the plane taxied towards the end of the runway, the world faded to black and I fell into a dark, dreamless sleep.
When I next woke up, I heard screaming. Lots of screaming. Oh, and rumbling too, can't forget the rumbling. The wind whipped at my face as I forced my eyes open. I looked at the empty sky ahead of us and thought Oh, that's pretty... wait... open sky?!
I turned my head to see that everyone else was holding on for dear life, while I just sat there, dumbfounded. The plane tipped forwards to a view of the ground that was coming towards us, fast. I simply strapped my seatbelt on, and sat, awaiting my demise. It came faster than expected. In one instant, everything simply stopped. It wasn't like we hit and I blacked out. No, EVERYTHING stopped. The plane, the screaming, the rumbling, maybe even time itself. Except for me, and one other. Someone who had been sitting calmly in the plane, just as I had. He was wearing an all white tweed suit with a red undershirt. He had white, neatly trimmed hair, and a wide goatee. The man climbed over the seats and sat next to me.
"I guess I cut it a little close, but it's fine." He muttered to himself, while I just stared at him with a slack jaw. "Yes, I must do better next time." He turned his head and finally acknowledged me. "Ah, hello! Now, I have a proposition for you that may be... interesting to you. You see, there is... another world out there, Drake, and I think that you, of all people, should go. It would spice up your life considerably, and, as an added bonus, become an entirely new life. Now, you don't have many that look after you, and I'm sure that this is what you've been looking for. So I give you a choice. Either stay here and die in this unfortunate accident, or come with me to a new life."
I stared at him, soaking it all in. A new world? This was great! Then I looked around the plane to see all the others.
"What about these people?" I asked.
"Oh, they'll be fine, more or less. Now, do you want to be here, dead and orphaned, or do you want to be anything you want?" He asked impatiently. The choice was clear.
"I think we'd better go then."
"Excellent!" he clapped his hands and suddenly we were standing in a white plain, stretching off into the distance in all directions. "First we'll need to change what you are..." He snapped his fingers and a long line of figures on racks came speeding out of nowhere like a subway train, stopping when we had a view of everything there. I pulled my hood down and put my hands on my head, making an O shape with my mouth. The man just stood there, looking chipper as always.
"Pick a species, any species!" I looked down the long line. There were midget equines, humongous dragons, felines that would put a liger to shame, tiny bugs, and even rodents such as squirrels and mice. I looked around until I found something that caught my eye. It was vaguely humanoid, with a short muzzle full of sharp teeth, a long tail that ended in a spike, dull white scales, double digit toes, four digit claws, digitigrade legs, large eyes that could be used for night vision, a plated spine along its back, two fin-like ears on the sides of its head and an armored underbelly.
I reached out to touch it, but it disappeared, and I started shrinking in height, while I gained a new awareness of a tail. The man handed me a small hand mirror to look at myself. My enlarged irises were a faintly glowing yellow, my teeth were razor sharp. My scales were charcoal gray, while my ears were off white. I handed the mirror back to the man. He snapped his fingers and the creatures disappeared, replaced by different articles of clothing specifically meant for me. After careful mixing and matching, I came out in a type of low silhouette chameleon armor that changed depending on my surroundings on command, with a clip on the back for a bow and one on each hip for swords, while a dull silver collar fitted around my neck that folded itself out to the shape of a hawk head, conforming to the chameleon style as well, with a grey hood to hide my face while it was down.
"So if I'm using swords and bows, I'm guessing it's not too advanced?" I asked jokingly, while he just beamed at me. He snapped his fingers again, so I turned around to see a literal wall of weapons. I almost squealed at it, running over to see what was in it and quickly grabbed two one handed swords that looked a lot like katanas.Next I picked a black bow meant for long ranges and high power that had a scope on the side. The quiver was also chameleon with a white base, just like my suit, with a full stock of high velocity, long range arrows, perfectly my style. For the final piece, I fitted myself with an armband with what looked like an Iron Man repulsor on the wrist that folded inwards. I turned back towards the man.
"Ah, now to my favorite part! A companion!" He said cheerily. I flicked my tail and turned around again to see a bunch of random creatures milling about.
"Hey! Ouch!" a synthetic feminine voice called to me from below. I looked down to see the best potato I had ever laid eyes on, and not in an eating kind of way. It had a light on it with wires and nails coming out of the potato. On top of it was a small crow pecking at it. "You look like you're good at (ouch) murder. Would you (ouch) murder this bird for me?" I shooed the bird away and crouched down, picking the potato up. "You're not going to eat me, right?"
"No, but I would like to know your name."
"GLaDOS. Though, right now it's more like PotatOS. You can fix that if you put me the semi-circle over there." she said. I looked over to see that there was indeed a small white semi-circle. I picked it up and put what looked like a USB port onto the end for a USB cord. They connected and the light on the potato went out, transferring to the tiny GLaDOS head. I clipped it onto my the area below my collar.
"Thanks. I was worried I was going to fry that potato by thinking too hard." I smiled.
"For science, you monster." I said smugly, and turned back to the man in white.
"Who's this?" she whispered,
"No idea."
"Well that's helpful"
"So, are you all finished?" He cut in.
"Yes." responded GLaDOS before I could.
"Wonderful! Now, you'll need a life that not only they believe, but you believe as well as being provable... Ah yes! Still orphaned, one sibling, world traveler, inventor, warrior, tactician... maybe hulk-esque powers? Yes, that will work. Erm... hard life... quest to find... family? Yes... get rid of the need for video games..."
"Why do you have to do that?" I asked, slightly offended at how he thought it was a flaw.
"So you don't go crazy trying to find an equivalent!" He snapped. I took a step back and looked around the landscape to see if there was a single thing out there besides white. After an inconclusive five minutes of searching, I turned back to the man, who had finally stopped mumbling and was ready to go. I turned, activated my helmet, and nodded.
"All right, you'll be remembering more about your life there than on earth to make it easier." I shrugged. "Have fun..." he said quietly before snapping his fingers. And just like that, everything went dark. The light came back and my visor scrolled with 1s and 0s for a few seconds before going back to the view of outside the helmet. I looked around to discover that I was standing in the middle of a path in a forest.
Then the memories hit me like a wall. I stumbled backwards as I remembered how I had gotten here. I had been hiding in the dragon mountains, then I was driven out by a hoard of griffin dragon hunters a few years after my mother died and my brother's egg was stolen by -of all things- ponies. I remembered evading things for years afterwards, now on my way to see if I could sneak into the capital to find my brother, who was rumored to have been taken there and hatched by some unicorn. I activated my active camouflage and sprinted down the path to the edge of a forest. I nimbly took off to the nearby town, not stopping for anything.
I reached the town marketplace, which was crowded with ponies buying and selling wares. I crouched on my perch atop a house and watched for any signs of danger as I rested. The eyesore of a crowd came in as a dull roar through my helmet. Then something hit me from behind at a high speed, deactivating my camouflage as I back-flipped through the air and landed soundlessly on my feet, quite unlike the mare that hit me. She skidded across the ground before stopping at a wall. To my surprise, she jumped right back up, her rainbow mane and tail more than a little disheveled.
"HEY, WHAT'S THE BIG Idea..." She trailed off as she looked at me, standing in a battle ready stance, speechless. The crowd was completely silent at this point. Then a single pony raised a hoof and yelled in slow motion;
"MMOOOONNSSTEERRR!" There was a split second pause, the calm before the storm, before almost every single pony in Ponyville basically ran away screaming. Every pony except six, including the one that hit me. Four of them stood there defiantly with a fire in their eyes, while one bounced and another hid behind the rainbow pegasus. An orange and a pink normal ones, The cyan and the yellow pegusi, and the white and the purple unicorns.
Twilight
Twilight had thought that maybe, for at least one day she would be able to have a normal day without something weird happening, but NOOOOOO, some bird-lizard thing with invisibility just had to show up. Currently, she was staring at the creature in front of her, trying to put on her most fearsome look by crouching and snarling at it, as Rarity, Dash, and Applejack were doing.
"GO BACK TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM, MONSTER!" Yelled Dash. The monster cocked its head to the side, its black, soulless eyes boring into them.
"Cease and desist" It said calmly without moving its beak.
They all backpedaled at the fact that it could talk.
"I would listen to him." The orange light on its armor said.
"Beast! Monster! Leave us!" Rarity yelled. It simply cocked its head at her.
"Wait, Rarity." Twilight intervened. "Maybe it will tell us why it hit Rainbow Dash. HEY MONSTER!" She yelled. It shifted its gaze to her and she shrunk under its scrutiny. "Uhm, why did you hit my friend?"
"It's probably too stupid to answer..." Rainbow Dash whispered to her. The creature swung its head to face Dash as it shifted uncomfortably.
"You would best be quiet, lest I punish you for your insult. I did nothing that would cause harm to anyone. Your friend here simply flew into me. Not that she would admit it." It stated calmly
"Well you're coming with us whether you like it or not." She gripped it with her magic, only to have its eyes glow red and dispel it.
"I move on my own terms." They all gasped as its head folded back and its neck slid down to reveal a gray hooded face covered by a scarf. Though it was pitch black inside the hood, two glowing yellow eyes with slit pupils shone out.