//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3. 
// Story: A New Purpose 
// by Sparky Brony 
//------------------------------//

***Nick***

I had to ask Spike where the dragons hang out after the migration. But Rainbow Dash and I have finally made it to this rugged land. I've got to find them, I have to find the dragons. Rainbow Dash spent most of the day in the air after Celestia asked me to take on this little mission of hers after I presented my children to her. I'm tired, and, by the lack of braggadocio from my flying partner, she's pretty tired too. Finally, we land on the edge of a large ravine, very near an apparent active volcano. We trot around, and finally my ears catch the guttural voices of the dragons. I feel a thrill of fear as I hear those deep voices. Add to that, the roars and the sound of them spewing flames.

"Stay here, Rainbow."

"No way, dude, I'm going in with you."

I stomp a hoof. "No, you are not." I feel the tingle of this magic, what I've accessed with my cutie mark. I know what to do. "I am the one who can gain their respect…"

She interrupts me, "You aren't a better flier than I am, Nick."

"No, I'm not, but this has nothing to do with ability to fly. This is no place for mares, Rainbow Dash."

I hear her huff, I look back and see her hovering, her forehooves crossed. I smile at her. "My cutie mark has to do with dragons. I need to find out more of what it means. I can feel magic wash through me. I felt it strongest when I was flying with them. I need to find out what else that means to me. If this is my special talent, if it is what makes me special in the grand scheme of things in this world, I need to find out more about it. I do know one thing though. If you go into this with me, Celestia's request to gain help from the dragons will be ignored, and we will be in no better shape than before." I look around, then point. "You see that cloud right there?" She turns and looks. "Hang out there, and keep an eye on me. I must go in there alone. If I get eaten by the dragons, you can tell Twilight."

"And have her mad at me for not protecting you, I don't think so."

"Everything will be fine Rainbow Dash. I'm going to handle this." I spread my overlarge wings in preparation for takeoff.
She looks doubtful. "The foals are a day and a half old. You should be home with Twilight."

I look back at her. "Celestia asked me to do this. I will be back soon. Twilight has Fluttershy and everypony else to help her out. You should be there too. I can handle this." I said, knowing in the back of my mind that is the case.

"If you think I'm going to get too far away from you going into danger, you are crazy, Nick."

I grumble, "Mares," as I take off. Less than a minute of flying I can see the dragons have taken note of me. I'm one pony, they don't feel any danger from me, so the sleepy giants just keep an eye out. I don't know why, but somehow the knowledge of what I need to do just surfaces in my mind. I fold my wings and dive, spreading them at the last minute to slam into the ground, a large dust cloud rings my body and floats slowly away. I don't say a word. I just look at the assembled dragons. Several look at the small pony curiously, but none make a move to address me. I stand there, panting slightly. It's actually pretty hot here, and I'm finding it more than a little uncomfortable. I simply stay still, only moving my eyes.

I keep my ears rotating around, I can tell I certainly have their attention. I can hear them muttering to each other about the pony that flew with them. I smile inwardly, they remember me. I can hear the juvenile dragons squabbling down in the crater. But they aren't my goal, the leaders are my target. And I need to find an old, and strong dragon. The one that knows what's going on. But I can't force it, I must wait for him to reveal himself.

After what seems like an eternity, a massive dragon finally stands and saunters arrogantly towards me. He gets close then pushes his massive snout at me. "Why do you disturb our peace, little pony?" I want to yelp at how loud and menacing his voice is, but I keep my cool, barely. I feel the magic in me, whispering in my ear. I need to keep calm, cool, and collected.
"I am here on behalf of the royal sisters. We need your help, grand dragons."

He roars and spits flame right at me. I flap my wings to take to the air, and as the flames end I land right back where I was before. I keep my wings spread aggressively, but all I really want to do is hide from the massive threat display in front of me. He finally lowers to my level. "They are ponies that can raise and lower the moon and the sun themselves. What need have they of us?"
"Celestia and Luna are worried as to a potential threat to Equestria."

"Let them handle it." He tosses a claw dismissively.

"This threat is not from this world."

He inhales sharply. "You are not from this world, little pony."

How in the holy bleeding hell did he know of my origins here? "True, but I was brought here to help by Princess Luna. This threat is a rip in existence."

"How do you know this is a threat? What if those you seek are simply visitors?"

"I do not know for certain. But my being sent here has to do more than just this threat." The massive dragon blinks. He was not expecting that answer.

I lower my voice, shouting all the time has my throat a bit raw. "I just gained my cutie mark, I'm apparently gifted in working with dragons. My main reason to be here is Celestia has asked me to remake the legendary Dragon Corps."

He huffs a bit of flame, then sits on his haunches and leans back. "I remember seeing you, the pony with the overlarge wings flying with us." A moment passes, then he smiles. "It has been a long time since I've seen a pegasus with such a lack of fear."

If he only knew how close I was to wetting myself. My magic is making me stay firm.

He brings a claw to his chin, he's apparently pondering me. I simply stay alert, finally he slams a massive paw onto the ground next to me. I just barely avoid flinching. His claw brushed against my primaries as it descended.

"It has been too long since we have worked with ponies. I remember my grandfather telling me of the elite Dragon Corps, helping the Royal Sisters in conquering those that would harm us. Is it true, she wants to bring that back, and have you in the lead?"

I simply nod.

He starts to chuckle, then it slowly progresses to a full blown laugh. Finally he subsides. "Fine, little pony. I know other dragons that have fond memories of flying with pegasi. I will speak to them, we will see about reforming the corps. And seeing a pony that can stand among dragons without quaking in fear is nice." He smiles a toothy smile.

"Nick!" I hear a voice behind me. A royal guard is hovering a good distance away.

I look at the dragon in front of me. "There seems to be a problem, I'll find what that guard wants." He waves a claw dismissively.
I'm shortly hovering in front of the guard. "What is it?"

"You are ordered to report to Canterlot immediately. Manehattan has been attacked."

"I'll be on my way in moments. Let me tell my new…" I look at the dragon, "friend." I speed back to the dragon.

"You may not have much time to tell other dragons of the reformation of the corps. Our city of Manehattan has been attacked, and judging by me being called immediately to Canterlot, it didn't go well. May I have your name, good sir?"

"Your city is under attack, so this threat may be very grave. Fine. I will gather the dragons and meet you sixty miles to the west of Manehattan. We will stay somewhat near the rail line heading into that city. And, my name is Brygor."

"As you heard, my name is Nick. Till we meet again, Brygor." I spread my wings and head immediately to the cloud Rainbow Dash was hiding in, then we both speed right for Canterlot.

***

First thing upon arriving back in Canterlot, I had to update the Princesses. Now, I have to deal with Twilight.

"I can be ready quickly. We will just have to get foal sitters for the trip. Perhaps…"

I cut her off. "You are not going, Twilight."

I get a venomous glare from her for my trouble. "Manehattan has been attacked, only one pegasus was able to escape the attack, and he died…" she gulped a little bit before continuing, "before we got more than finding out that a massive attack happened there."
"Exactly, you have two foals you need to worry about. I'll take Rainbow Dash, and the new Dragon Corps will find out what went wrong."

She shakes her head vehemently. "No, I need to be there. The princesses told me…"

I place a hoof gently on her lips. "We aren't going into battle, Twilight. We are simply going to find out what happened. If a battle is necessary, we will back off. For us to prevail in battle, we will need more than flight. We will need mages, we will need the strength of earth ponies. A couple of pegasi and some dragons are not a fighting force, we will be a reconnaissance force."

She looks down at the sleeping foals lying next to her. She nuzzles each one gently. Then once again shoots me a venomous glare. "You had better take care of yourself Nick."

I nod as I kiss the top of her head. "You know me."

"Yes, I do, and that's what I'm worried about."

After quite a while talking to her, I trot to the door, where Rainbow Dash is waiting. "Let's go."

Celestia made a strong case to have us take the train for the long trip to Manehattan, since both Rainbow Dash and I prefer to use our wings and that apparently was not an option. We spend several exhausting hours of flight at very high speed, I find out that I can hold speed above the speed of sound for hours. The fastest and longest that I've been able to fly in my entire life. We finally spot the dragons to the west of Manehattan. Finally we land and see that nearly two dozen of the menacing creatures have shown up. The massive one I had talked to previously is there, we head over to him.

"Greetings, Brygor. This is my friend, Rainbow Dash."

He looks at the rainbow maned pegasus critically. "I hope she can keep up with us."

I smile and wave a wing to forestall Rainbow's retort. "Trust me, that pony can fly."

"She had better not fold up and let fear control her."

I smirk at the dragon. "She's quite fearless."

I smile at her, fearless is a good way to describe her. She smirks at the dragons as they all lumber into the sky. She looks at me and takes off. I'm right behind her. In moments I've moved up to be flying with Brygor.

"I think a low insertion would be advantageous in this respect, we can skim the hills, and anypony looking for us will be taken by surprise."

Brygor looks over at me. "No, we will come in high, the better to see the most that we can see. We are simply to report what we see." Then he changes tactics, he glances back at Rainbow Dash. "She your mate?"

I laugh. "Not at all, she is a good friend. Princess Twilight Sparkle is the one I'm with."

The massive dragon stumbles in the air, it takes him a moment to regain his rhythm. "You are with Twilight? The one who took on a magically charged Tirek and held her own?"'

"Yes."

He shakes his head as we fly. "I went to the place where they battled, the magic was thick there. More than any dragon has ever felt." He looks at me appraisingly. "You have captured her heart then?"

I smile. "More along the lines we've captured each others. I never really knew love until I got to know her."

He smiles at me, and reaches a claw to touch my chest. "Hold her love close to your heart, Nicholas. That is something very special."

I smile. "I know."

We fly in silence as the tall buildings of Manehattan come into view. A haze of smoke is quite evident, and I can see the skyline has changed from the pictures I was shown of the massive city. Several tall buildings are apparently destroyed, and fires rage through parts of the town. It looks like a war zone. We keep an eye out for movement in the streets as we keep high. I don't see anything, we eventually make it to the ocean. Then we circle to the north. keeping our eyes peeled. But again, we don't see anything.

"Nearly a million ponies lived in this city," Brygor calls to me. "What happened to them?"

I shake my head. "I don't know. They should be here."

"It looks like they were all wiped out. But I don't see any bodies."

"This doesn't look like a changeling attack."

"Changelings?"

"I'll tell you later." Brygor shrugs. I jerk my head to the side as I hear a sharp crack. What looks like an inverted lightning strike ascends from the ground, hitting one of the dragons in the wing. The afflicted dragon apparently is overwhelmed, he clamps his ruined wing to his side and plummets for the ground. Hundreds more of the bolts spike into the air as two other dragons move to catch him and start evacuating. The entire sky is lit with bolts, I see one, now two, many dragons in serious trouble.

"Brygor, Rainbow, it's time to scatter," I howl over the wind of our flight. I bank hard, trying to avoid the bolts. I see Brygor hit, he howls in pain, but he stays in the air. I climb for some more altitude, but suddenly, I feel a blinding pain in my right wing. I glance over at my wing, it's singed, a good number of feathers are burned away. I start to fall from the sky.

"Nick!" I hear Rainbow Dash scream as she dives to catch me. I'm watching her strain to reach me when another bolt hits her square on in the chest. She's shocked, and knocked out. I look over and see Brygor, he's on his way to catch me, even with an injured wing.

I scream at him, "Save Rainbow Dash." He diverts to catch the cyan pegasus with a sad look at me. In moments he is heading 
west with an unconscious Rainbow Dash in tow. I smile as darkness finally takes me.

***Twilight Sparkle***

I've just finished feeding the twins. I look down at my beautiful fillies. I don't like being out of the action. But this time with them is amazing. I finally lay my head down. It's been a long day.

There is a knock at the door. And Rainbow Dash pushes in. I take a look at my friend, she looks like she's been through the wringer. She has patches of cyan fur missing, charred spots all over, her normally tousled mane is completely ragged, and her wings look like she's been hit by lightning. She stumbles closer.

"Oh my Celestia, Rainbow Dash, what happened?"

"We were ambushed," Her head is down her ears are splayed to the sides, "once we completed the first circuit around the city. We were heading around for a second pass when we were attacked." Her voice is barely louder than a whisper.

"Oh no!"

"In the end, nearly half the dragons are down, with various injuries. One was killed." Her voice catches in her throat when she says the last word.

"And Nick?"

"It was like lightning, it was so fast. I got a hit right in the chest, I was out. I came to in the arms of the dragon leader of the Dragon Corps, his name is Brygor."

"And what of Nick?"

She wilted even further. "Brygor was hit pretty badly, how he was still flying with his wing shredded like that, I'll never know. Nick told him to catch me as he was falling."

I feel a chill in my chest. I have to ask again, "And what of my stallion? What of Nick?"

She crumples to the floor, her answer comes barely as a whisper, "He has to be dead."

The world turns to ash. "Dead?"

"Nopony can survive a fall from that height. No pony or dragon was able to get to Nick to save him. I was hit as I was trying to catch him. I talked to Luna. When she brought Nick to our world, there was a connection between them that was created, she told me that connection has been snapped. " Tears started to flow from her eyes. "I'm so sorry Twilight, but the father of your foals is dead.

***???***

Chrysalis stands over the unconscious pony on the ground. Her Vore soldiers caught the falling pegasus and brought him. He was the only one that fell after their attack on the pony and dragon sortie. She bends her head and lights up her horn, pushing her magic into him. In moments she draws a quick breath.

"Ahh, so this is the pony that has that unicorn enraptured." After a moment, "She's ascended to be an alicorn. I had better do something about that." She reaches in with her magic, and severs the magical connection she feels. In moments the strength of his love for Twilight is infusing her body. She smiles at the power. She stands back from the prone pegasus and green flames surround her body. As the flames clear, a purple alicorn is standing there, Twilight Sparkle's voice cackles, "I will use him to get you." She smiles into the darkness.