Chapter 3 – Riders of Thunder
The sun's rays spread across the land, crossing rivers and peering into canyons, passing valleys nestled by mountains. In the continuing darkness, the dragons continued to slumber, unaware of the figure walking in their midst, moving steadily towards their sleeping patriarch. Ornstein moved quietly but confidently, certain that he could defeat the dragon and slip away amidst the ensuing chaos. Stopping several meters away from his target, he aimed his spear toward the sky and thrusted upward, firing off a lightning bolt. The ensuing thunder jerked all the beasts awake, and it wasn't long before all eyes within the valley were fixed upon the Dragonslayer. Unbeknownst to him, however, a number of those did not belong to dragons.
Ornstein stood still and silent, waiting for the ensuing uproar to fall, for the surprise of his presence, he knew, would keep the dragons from assaulting him – for now. With a bow, he wordlessly issued his challenge. With a roar, the beast rose to meet him, fire roaring from its maw. The Dragonslayer was expecting it, though, and with a leap, dodged the inferno. As the beast's head turned to attack once more, he leapt forward, his spear aimed for the beast's exposed throat. He could feel the burning anticipation of the kill, so it came as a shock when something slammed into his side, sending him rolling across the ground. He lay still for a moment, unsure what had happened, before standing and looking at the source of the throbbing sensation.
When his eyes met the sight of an arrow piercing his armor and blood running from the ensuing wound, a wave of shock passed over him. He dropped to one knee, clutching the injury, confused by his own reaction. He undoubtedly had suffered more horrific wounds than this during the war with the dragons. Why did it feel so horrible, then? He was startled from his reverie when an armored figure leapt down from one of the ledges on a mountain's side. As the dragons retreated, he tore the arrow from the wound and stood, fighting off a wave of nausea. The warrior was large and heavily armored, equipped with a massive shield and an exotic halberd. Looking up, the Dragonslayer counted two others, both with the same equipment as the one before him, but additionally armed with bows that were currently trained onto him.
He felt as if he should recognize them. Wracking his brain, Ornstein felt the impression that he had seen these warriors before, but any other detail escaped him. With a quick sweeping glance, he confirmed that those three were the only ones present. He also realized that the dragons weren't maintaining their distance defensively, but respectfully! This shocked and confused him so much that he barely registered the halberd's swing in time to dodge. As he moved forward to counterattack, a motion in the edge of his vision caused him to reverse course, narrowly dodging the two arrows launched his way. With a grunt of irritation, he glanced at the two archers and launched a lightning bolt in their direction. As he dodged another swing of the halberd, he observed one of the archers dropping their bow and readying their more personal weaponry before leaping down to join his comrade. With two skilled fighters flanking him and an archer keeping him from counterattacking, it took all the Dragonslayer's skill to avoid the mighty attacks.
As the fight wore on, he began to feel certain of one thing: he could not win this fight. For a brief moment he had the sensation of disgust with himself, another unexpected sensation. Even more unexpected was the sudden and powerful desire to flee! Set off-balance by the sudden sensation, he was lucky enough to only be knocked to the ground by the hit that followed. Swiftly rising to a standing position, he took a last glance at the trio that were his betters before racing off, intent to rest and recover before continuing with his mission. Listening intently for pursuit, it was only moments before the thunderous flapping of massive wings met his ears. Chancing a glance back, he felt a sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach at the sight that he met and a jolt of one last tidbit on the knights. He was pursued by the Dragonriders.
Twilight sighed with relief as she checked off the last objective on her to-do list for the day. Setting it aside, she lay on the couch with a groan, intent to rest the aches that the unexpectedly difficult day had left her. With Spike out playing with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, she was certain that her rest would go undisturbed. Thus, she was fairly perturbed when she was roused by an incessant knocking on her door. With a groan of irritation she rose and answered the door, masking her mood and managing to remain polite as she said “Oh, hello Rainbow. Did you need something?”
Her winged friend was straight to the point, which, Twilight mused, was nice. “Hey Twi! There's something going on in town, I think there might be trouble! Just thought you should know!” With that, she bolted off, likely toward the disturbance. With a sigh, Twilight stepped outside and closed the front door, mentally writing a note to tell her friend off for not giving her anything very specific. It didn't take her long to find the disturbance, as there were many ponies, possibly even Ponyville's who population, gathered up in a circle, all looking in toward the center. With many an “excuse me”, she finally got to a position where she saw just what all the ruckus was about – a strange, obviously armored, bipedal creature stood in the center of the circle, gazing at the sun.
For a moment she froze, startled by this unexpected sight. After taking several deep breaths and steeling herself, she slowly approached the creature, freezing once more as it turned its head to look at her. Unexpectedly, it spoke. “Ah, hello! You must be brave indeed, to approach a stranger to your land.” Twilight took a moment to find her tongue, and when she did, she blurted out one of the many questions swimming in her head. “Who – who are you?” She had the impression that the creature smiled as it replied “I am Solaire of Astora, an adherent of the Lord of Sunlight.”