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// Chapter 1: The Beginning 
// Story: A Long Sleep 
// by SilverEyedWolf 
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I ran from them, as fast as my four limbs could carry me. I couldn't believe they'd found me out after so long, after I'd kept my secret for years. My horn, something for earth ponies to fear, always under some hat or another. But of course the one day I stepped outside with a cover that didn't strap around my jaw was the day the gods themselves breathed their ice across the plains, throwing my cap to the sky and my thin disguise along with it.

I wouldn't have even been in the damned village if I hadn't stuck up for that mare in my own hometown, a poor wretch that had been as well as dead when she walked through the gate. None of the other unicorns would even look at the "mud-pony", but I couldn't have left her on those cobbles.

I stumbled over a stone, ripped from my thoughts as rocks ripped into my skin. I stood again, quickly looking over my shoulder. Most of the party stayed further down the plains, four or five still pursuing me up the mountain. A stone smacked into my flank, tearing my mark as it flew away.

Suppressing the pain, I moaned between my teeth as I turned back to the slope that inclined before me and my nonstop flight. Every now and again a stone would zoom by my ear or shoulder, but I was lucky enough to have most of the projectiles miss. I crested the slope, looking down into the ravine as I pushed ahead.

The rocks below me were quite loose, and I quickly lost control of my descent. Gravel and dirt followed me down as my slide began. I put out a rear leg, hoping to break my descent into the opposite bank. Instead I broke through a thin layer of dirt and into the opening of a tunnel. Landing again on my face, I feel the grainy dirt of the tunnel floor become intimate with my previous cuts and scrapes.

Looking behind me, I watched in awe as the dirt door reestablished itself. I held my breath, waiting for the Earth ponies to find it and come through… breathed again after a minute… three minutes… five…

After I'd waited ten minutes I breathed freely again. Looking around, I let magic flow into my horn, trapping it within the appendage and sending it spinning. After longer than it should have been, my horn started glowing faintly, lighting the dirt walls around me.

It almost looked as if a snake had been through here, slithering scales gouging the walls smooth. Besides a strange furrow along the top of the passage, and a few strange scratches along the floor at almost equal intervals, the walls were smooth and almost glassy. The floor was strangely dark, and crinkled a bit when I walked over it. From top to bottom, I guessed the height to be forty-five hooves tall, three times my height or so. Almost fifty-three hooves in that furrow.

A strange breeze of air flowed over me, smelling of cloves, rosemary, and char. I looked further down the tunnel, and realized why the breeze was so strange. It came from within, leaving the deeper recesses for the outside. After looking back to the entrance, I headed forward, into the scent and the darkness.

The floor always sloped downwards, sometimes twisting but never raising. Deeper into the earth I wandered, following my sinuous path. At some point I noticed it was getting warmer, and when I turned another corner, I noticed light dancing on the wall ahead. Wondering if I'd stumbled into a volcano and chiding myself for being silly, I sat for a minute and watched the glow flicker on the walls.

"Tiid los nahlrii sizaan, what are you waiting for?"

I jumped backwards, completely surprised by the rich voice emanating from within the cave. A chuckle followed me, and more words.

"Nid faas, don't be afraid. Come to me and make yourself comfortable, Joor. I'll not bite."

I regained my feet and crept to the turn in the wall, peaking gingerly around the corner. I withdrew my head much quicker, my heart pounding.

Around the corner sat a large cavern, certainly large enough to hold all the wealth I could hope to imagine, as it did. Gold coins and other trinkets were pooled everywhere like liquid, gleaming red in the light of a pit full of self-sustained fire. On top of the pile reclined a dragon, cream and brown mottled with green eyes. Ivory sabers gleamed behind a grin, lava tongue dancing in laughter.

As soon as my heart slowed, I peeked back around my corner, matching gazes with the monumental beast.

"Stiildus, joor. As I said, I'll not bite ye. Come closer; let me spend my last moments speaking with another mindosil." He beckoned with one claw, and then replaced it on his chest. It was then I noticed the silver gleam between his digits.

"You're…" I started, interrupted by my own dusty throat. He glanced over to a wall where a still pool shone, fed by a crack in the wall. Warily I walked over to it, keeping my eye on him at all times; which seemed only to fuel his amusement. Drinking, I felt the dust wash down into my body as I relieved the dryness of my mouth.

"You're hurt," I said, lifting my head from the water and glancing again between his claws.

He glanced down, grin becoming bitter. "Indeed. Some ponies seem to think it honorable to slay creatures of power, such as I. Some horned knight seeking a name and treasure." He flicked a claw towards a pile of blackened armor lying against a wall. A blackened unicorn's horn poked from the helmet, and I turned from it.

"Were this not an enchanted blade, I would be fine. Unfortunately it has been formed with some sort of taint forged into the metal. My slen, my flesh cools beneath my scales. I am dying, even now."

I walked over to the dragon's trove and climbed it slowly. As I approached, the dragon rolled slowly, bringing the wound down to a level I could see. His trunk was the size of the cottage I'd lived in at the unicorn village easily, and I figured out the source of the furrow along the tunnel's roof. His back was lined with spikes, coming up and arching down his spine.

As he rolled he hissed in pain, and a fresh font of blood pulsed from his wound. His hot blood splattered my muzzle and back, and I twitched violently. He eyed me regretfully, but I shook my head and leaned closer.

A silver sword glinted from a crimson gash in the cream skin, almost rapier-like but for the massive blade. Unicorn by design, unwieldy by anything not using magic. I sighed deeply.

"Is it very deep?"

The dragon shook its head. "Only faazaal, hurting. The magic in the blade is the only thing actually killing me, and I cannot undo whatever spell it is."

I nodded, and then glanced around the room. Grabbing a large gown of purple silk in my magic, I pulled it close to me. "I'm sorry for this."

The dragon looked curiously down at me for a moment, then nodded. Reaching out with my magic, I took the handle of the sword and pulled slowly as I kept the cloth pressed on either side of the gash. Soon the silk was soaked, but it seemed to staunch the worst of the blood flow. The dragon had tucked his head around the other side of his body, but I could still feel his rumbling through his ribs.

The release was unexpected, and I went tumbling down the treasure slope with the sword flying away behind some pile or another. I looked up to see the dragon inspecting his wound, then blowing fire to stop the flow.

"My thanks, joor, but all you've done is stall the inevitable. The enchantment lasts within me, and soon my heart will stop." He looked down at me, a gleam in his eye.

I stood, looking nervously up into his eye.

“Joor, do you know, I have had no broods? Vrah, no mate and no children. I have no one to receive all of my inheritance." He looked around him slowly, taking in the horde he slept on. He snapped his head back to me, eye blazing.

"Joor, I wish to give you a gift. Something very special to me, lorot. Something even more valuable than the gold I sleep on."

Looking around, I fidgeted. "I would be honored, great one, but please don't think it necessary…"

His rumbling laughter shifted the pile towards me, and I was soon ankle deep in gold.

"Come closer. Meyz het, joor." When I was close enough, he put his claw to his chest, laying it over his heart. Listening, I realized I could hear the heavy rhythm of his heart.

"You must do only two things for this gift, joor." I met his eye once more. "First, swear to me that you will never use this gift against the innocent, or for your own gain. Say Zu'u vaat if you can agree."

Looking into his eyes, I thought about it for a second, then repeated his phrase.

Looking pleased, he nodded. "Now comes the hard part. You must sleep for this, many and more years. You have no love for these times, I trust? For if you accept this gift, everything you know will change, and you will be rid from the world for thousands of centuries."

I looked up, confusion apparent on my features as I stared into the reflection in his eye. "But, how could I live?"

He smiled. "This gift comes with a long life, joor. You will no longer be joor, but Dovah kiindah, of my flesh. You will be of my heart, mindoraan."

I thought of my parents, killed by pegusi in some raiding or another. Of the earth pony I'd nursed back to health, only to have her head cut off and be chased from my home. The earth village I'd eventually found and then been chased from, by some I thought of a friends no less. I looked up, tears in my eyes.

“Zu'u vaat, great one. I have no love of this place."

Nodding, he sighed. "Joor, I name thee Dovah. Climb now into me, and sleep away the injustices of this time."

Moving his claw, he cut open his chest, baring a beating heart. I gasped and watched in horror as he cut shallowly into the muscle, baring the walls inside. He scooped me up with his claw and inserted me into the bloody room, hot liquid almost burning me.

Almost immediately I found my panic draining away, slowly feeling my consciousness falling away from my mind. The last thing I heard was the dragon, speaking a final time.

"I am now Dovbormah, and I will now sleep in the rock of eternity."