//------------------------------//
// Millenia of Boredom, Centuries of Pain 
// Story: Calming Sigh-- with a Breath of Fire 
// by Laze Around 
//------------------------------//




The land of Equestria. A land filled with magical talking ponies, where the sun and moon are both heavenly bodies manually moved far out in the sky. A place of fantasy and impossibility, of mythical creatures and mundane, adventure and romance, peace and harmony.

It was a paradise.

...is what most people believe.

Even here corruption and evil lingers, away from the light of the sun and deep into the shadows of darkness. Ponies of higher nobility, save for a handful of few, take what they have for granted and look at what common pony have in disdain. Gryphons have their battle hungry states, where they would exert their dominance over other species. Dragons, at the time, seem to have the worst of the characteristics. They were big and ferocious, arrogant and vain, heedless and foolhardy; they have the qualities of a wild animal, yet they have the intelligence of any sapient creature of the land.

Over the course of time that had been the common understanding of all inhabitants of the world. Some changed, yet others predictably did not. Surprisingly, however, were the dragons themselves. Years ago, they would take anything that they wanted from any nation or royalty, it didn't matter. This habit of the race was so severe that it started more than a few wars against all sapient beings of the world. It was only after the princesses took the throne that they've stopped their reckless hoarding, and decided to not antagonize the other races that live in the land.

A celebration was made that day, where all spoke of how the Princess of the Sun and Moon confronted the beasts and made them submit to their will. The silence of the race only reinforced this claim, and all were at peace knowing that their treasures were in no danger of being taken from them.

What was odd, the ponies thought, was that none of the Princesses wish to speak of what transpired between them and the dragons. The citizens respected their wishes, and left the confrontation to their imaginations.

What the ponies and other races didn't realize, however, was that not even the Princesses knew what they did to make the dragons change their ways. They went over to where most of the dragons migrated, clad in armor, and prepared themselves for a violent refusal, but they were surprised when an elder dragon came and agreed for the rest of his kin. They saw that some dragons disapproved of the decision, yet none dared to voice their thoughts.

It was then that the Princesses knew that something was not right. They prepared themselves for a trap over the passing months, but when none transpired, they both agreed that it was merely paranoia toying with them.

If only they had reached out to the races outside their country, they would have been more suspicious of what caused the dragons to change their ways, and what had caused other vicious races from disappearing or going into hiding.

It was not until the reign of Sombra did they finally met me.






I looked down from a crystal spire, hunched down in the shadows of the Crystal Palace. The sun was soon to set, yet the citizens haven't been told to stop their work.

Ponies were shackled and bound, all miserable with eyes that had lost all hope. They continued to march and carve, creating and destroying things on the whim of their tyrant king. He sat upon a crystal throne, fanned on both sides by miserable slaves that were once his subjects. They gave him offerings, as per his wishes, and submitted to all his desires.

Across the land of Equestria, and the ones beyond, his cruelty was known. In a few short years, less than a decade, he somehow managed to take over an entire empire on his own, using nothing but his own magic and cruelty. Some say he took over using a limitless number of armies, others say that it was because of his talent over the crystals and being in the empire boosts his overall power, but there are some that say that he took something called the 'Crystal Heart', rendering the Crystal Ponies defenseless against him when he took over.

There were a lot of gossips and rumors going around with his name and his reign, but the general idea was all the same:

He is a Tyrant

He is Evil

Unfit to sit upon the throne of the empire.

He must be stopped!

And then here I was, crouching on one of the crystal structures, hiding from his all seeing eyes. I've only been here for a day, yet every time he makes his appearance, he would always look smug and arrogant while looking down on the chained ponies. Then of course, he'd go back inside and lavish in luxury not a moment later.

I was subjected to this insufferable scene, all because I wanted to put crystals into my draconic diet.

Silently, I slid down crystal and started to stealthily crawl on its surface while keeping myself blended in the shadows. My hands, once pale and fleshy, shifted into an amber colored appendage with five sharp claws and covered in scales. My feet also shifted into something similar, taking my shoes along with the transformation.

I squeezed along the walls, keeping myself hidden from any of the residents. I wanted to find out the state of the empire, and how they compared to the stories that I've heard before coming here. And it was actually worse than I thought.

This... this could not go on. Though as much as I dislike showing myself to others, leaving that choice only when I grow desperate and in need, this slavery cannot go on. But what should I do? I'm confident enough with my power to take on the Tyrant, but what of after? What of during the encounter?

The choices that were available to me were few and limited, with the end result being the same or an empire filled with confused ponies. I wanted my anonymity to last until the day where I can find something I could use to go home.

A deep and feral rumble started in my chest. How very frustrating. This was like with the dragons all over again, back when they were still nothing more than barbaric thieves. It took four adult dragons and an arrogant elder to make them change their ways. Five lives lost, all of them by my hand- no... by my claws. I have to remind myself that I'm also a dragon now.

And all of that was triggered when one of them had the gall to steal an heirloom from the Earth Pony mare that took care of me when I first awoke in this world. I may not be much for social gatherings, but even back home my temper was something to be of wary, even if it did take specific things to spark my rage.

Harming my friends being one of them.

I looked up to the sky as I heard the tell tale signs of beating wings. There, I smiled, the answer to my dilemma. Finally, the princesses have arrived, clad in their armor and ready for battle.




When they arrived at the castle, Sombra actually greeted them as if to receive his guests. From the look in his eyes, he knew what they were there for, yet he showed no signs of fear in their presence. It didn't take a genius to figure out that he was up to something, and that he already anticipated their arrival sooner or later.

The Great Pony Sisters, the two Alicorns who sealed away the Spirit of Chaos himself, Discord, into stone. Their fame grew thanks to that victory, and were crowned as the new Princesses of the land as they represented all three types of ponies that lived in Equestria. Or so I've heard.

Though I will miss the annoying prankster, he should have known that not all of his 'Chaos' was taken well, and that not all of them were... tame. I still hear that some ponies still have not recovered from what were done to them, and were mentally and emotionally scarred.

The only reason he left me mostly alone during my travels was because we found out during our first encounter that he has no power over the things that are not of 'This' world. Either that, or something about me is keeping me protected from him.

I watched as how Sombra interacted with the princesses from my hiding spot in the shadow behind the throne. The Evil King was simply oozing with confidence and arrogance, and the sisters were not taking this well.

It was the younger sister who initiated the first attack. She shot a beam from her horn straight to the king. Sombra, in turn, smirked at the princesses and ignited his own horn, his eyes releasing a purple vapor. From the ground, a black crystal rose up and intercepted the princess' attack. It was there that the battle continued and intensified.

I stood back and watched from my hidden spot, observing the way the battle progressed. Sombra had been baiting them, using his natural arrogance and confidence to goad the Moon Princess to keep attacking recklessly, even going so far as to pretend that he was losing before countering with a near fatal attack to the mare's heart. The sun princess would then save her sister, and scold her for being unmindful of her surroundings.

I caught something from the younger sister's eyes, something that Sombra did as well. There was a glint of irritation every time Celestia scolded Luna, and every time, she would ignore her sister's warning and keep pressing forward.

Siblings.

I couldn't help but shake my head. Even here, sibling rivalry was also common, even to royalty. It only took one good strike from the king to nearly end the younger princess as she carried on with her reckless pursuit. Predictably, Celestia took the opportunity to teleport in front of her sister and defend her from Sombra's killing blow. It was then that the tyrant king sprung his trap.

Black crystals sprung from the ground and surrounded the Pony Sisters, trapping them within. Sombra laughed menacingly and mockingly at the two sisters. Magic didn't seem to work on the crystals, and teleporting out would just pull them back in. The sisters have met their match.

I only wanted to observe, but it seems that I need to step in after all. And why does Luna look so angry?





My eyes opened just as I felt a tug in my grip, strong enough to wake me from my slumber. I looked down at the end of my fishing pole and saw a fish trying to struggle out of the hook caught in its mouth. I pulled back on the rod and easily lifted the fish out of the water, where it thrashed harder before I caught the string in my hand.

"This should be enough for now." I muttered.

Unhooking the fish from the line and struck its head with a powerful slap, it didn't take long for it to go limp from the shock. I threw it back with the other three that I caught and went over to the fire pit to prepare for lunch.

I sighed as I looked at the forest around me. The Everfree, the only wildlife in the Equestria that resembled the nature of my home world. It's been centuries, over a thousand years even, since I was brought here. I spent most of my first few years traveling around the continent, searching ways, artifacts, magic, and rituals that had something to do with different worlds. The closest thing that I found were the notes that Starswirl himself gave to me near the beginning of my journey, back when I got so desperate and actually showed myself to the equivalent of Merlin of this world.

The rest of my years I spent by experimenting with the powers that I got and mastering them. I dissected each skill that I knew and created variants and branches based on them. They were my only past time during my travels, and more than a few were created from mere accidents and boredom. I'm surprised my human mind didn't go insane yet over the years, it wasn't supposed to last more than four hundred as our mentality were quite frail to the life of longevity, even worse since I was alone in my travels. 

I went over to where one of the corpses of the timberwolves that attacked me and put their remains in the fire-pit. When I piled enough timber (I snorted in amusement at the pun) I took a deep breath and felt tingle start bubbling in my chest. I faced the pile of wood and blew out the air in my lungs, where a stream of fire came in along with it.

I stared at the fire a couple of seconds to see if it would go out. Satisfied that it wouldn't, I turned back to the fishes that I caught and prepared to clean them.

As my hands were kept busy from the familiar practice, my mind wondered back to the fire that I blew out. I was supposed to be human, as my appearance would suggest, yet I was able to do what I did because I was no longer normal by mankind's standards.

I was a dragon in human guise.

My hands stopped momentarily before continuing. That was a thing that I grew used to as I traveled, being a dragon but never forgetting that I was human. It's a complicated and a contradicting thought, but it's helped me pull myself back when homesickness got the better of me.

"GASP! You're still alive!"

The fake gasp and shout filled with so much exaggeration made me twitch and stopped my hand from skewering the cleaned fish on a stick.

"Weren't you supposed to be sealed in stone or something?" I asked, setting the fishes by the fire.

"Weren't you?"

The owner of the voice slithered in the air and came into my perspective view. I looked into his mismatchedly dilated, red eyes and he stared back.

"Still the brooder, I see." he said with a fanged smile before snapping his lion paw's fingers where he was suddenly roasting smores on my fire.

"I suppose that a 'Congratulations' is in order for your release?"

"Why thank you!" he said cheerfully, throwing the smore into the air where I followed its descent into the foliage. "You have no idea what it's like to have no one appreciate the things that you do."

"Of course I don't." I drawled sarcastically. "But when it comes to you, Discord, I wonder why."

"Oh don't be like that!" he slithered over to where I sat and hooked his gryhpon arm over my shoulder. "Aren't you happy to see a familiar face, at least?"

"I suppose that it does my sanity good to recognize someone from so long ago." I said, turning the fish by the fire. "Though being happy to see the Spirit of Chaos free and roaming makes me question my mental fortitude."

"Well!" the spirit huffed as he pulled away. "I see you haven't lost that sarcasm of yours." he turned away with his arms crossed, trying his best to look offended.

"If I remember correctly..." I began. "Whenever you came to visit me I get a pie in the face, a slap from a fish, a water balloon on the head, roads made of lego blocks that I can feel through my shoes, and other pranks that caught me in areas that I did not appreciate."

"I was just trying to make you stop brooding."

I shot him a flat look before going back to my fishes, only to find out that my lunch skipped straight on to dessert. The fishes were gone, and only smores were roasting at the fire. I gave him an irritated glare before swiping one of the sticks and taking a bite.

"There! You see!" he said, looking triumphant at me eating the snacks he made. "You should loosen up more!"

I rolled my eyes and kept eating. It's actually been a while since I had anything sweet. You don't get the luxury of getting these kind of things when you keep yourself hidden from anything other than the dragons and a few close acquaintances. The reptiles aren't really ones for baking pastries.

"Shouldn't you be causing chaos and mischief somewhere?" I asked the cheering spirit.

"I was actually just on my way to Ponyville before I caught a whiff of your unique signature." he said, looking smug at the particularly interesting achievement. And what an achievement it was. I was practically invisible to any magic sensing abilities while in my human form, only when I used magic did they have a chance in detecting me.

I paused mid-bite when I heard the name of the town. "Ponyville? Isn't that where Molestia sent her new student, the pony incarnation of the Element of Magic?"

Discord chuckled at the name I kept using to refer the Princess at times. "I still can't believe how catchy that name is, even now." he said. "But you're right. That's actually where ALL of the bearers of the Elements are. Quite the coincidence, isn't it?"

"Or quite the manipulations." I countered back, finishing off the last stick of the campfire snacks. "Two pegasi hailing from Cloudsdale suddenly going all the way to a ground bound town. Loyalty came down there so that Kindness wouldn't be alone. Honesty already lived there from the start, and with the burden of its family there was no way that she would have left. Generosity stays because of her talent and the quarry of gemstones close by for materials. Laughter settled there because it was close enough to her home and she could still share her special skill to the residents there and the ones passing by. Magic was the only thing she kept a close eye on. If it had seen how flimsy the concept of Friendship was, then the magic behind the combined elements would have been weaker."

"It looks like you've been keeping tabs." He gave a slow and menacing chuckle. "It makes me wonder how long you've been out. I'm pretty sure that I saw your petrified statue still in Celestia's garden, roaring at the sky even after a millenia."

"And I'm sure that the Sun Princess still thinks that the one they got with the Elements back then was me." I stood up and dusted my pants, dousing the flames of the fire and retrieving my fishing rod.

"What will you be doing now, then?"

"I'm waiting." I told him.

"For what?"

"A Calamity." I took a deep breath as my power began to rise. "Something like me. Something that's not of this world. I've felt it coming for a long time, but I made sure to keep myself hidden from it. It's been getting closer every time I used my powers."

"Should I be worried?"

"No." I shook my head. "If it's what I think it is, then there's no way of preventing the confrontation, only prolong the inevitable. I was on my way to Canterlot to see if her royal sunness would be interested in helping me with it."

"And you didn't ask for moi!" Discord gave me a look of fake outrage, literally glaring daggers from his eyes.

"I was. But I was going to ask her first and get her to agree before coming to you." I said. "But for now, I think I'll just stay here until things settle down."

"I sense something you're not telling me~!" he said rather sweetly.

"Remember when I said that I know of things, Discord?" I saw him nod and continued. "This is one of them. I'm going to ask after you've had you fun."

"Oh goodie!" the spirit clapped his mismatched paws in delight. "I get to have fun in my return and aid in an epic adventure!" with a snap of his fingers he was suddenly wearing a medieval armor fit for his body type. "Onwards!"

A sword appeared in his paw and pointed it towards the town of Ponyville. He started marching towards its direction before instantly disappearing in mid-step. I couldn't help but smile at the childish antics, but it was short lived as I looked on to where the spirit of Chaos disappeared to.

"Sorry Discord, but this is for your own good."

Power gathered within me before something manifested and dropped out of my chest. I caught it in my hand and opened it. It was a thickly bound book colored in red, with a quill securely strapped on the top of it's cover. I looked at the part where I wrote about the release of Discord and his re-sealing soon after.

Flipping the book near the end, I reviewed all of the skills that I've learned. They were all listed in one section of the Diary, all skills and spells that I could use, but it was up to me which ones I would learn and how to learn it.

With a nudge from my thoughts, the fishing rod in my hand dissipated into mana. It was a variant of [Mind Sword], the ability to attack foes using a blade made of pure magic. Of course with no weapon to channel it to, I had to improvise and create one out of my own magic. It took years, almost a century even, to make weaponry strong enough to withstand my dragon enhanced strength. Then I refined that skill and started creating other items using it.

After reading and remembering the skills, I let the book dissipate back inside me. It was a part of me now, just like how all of the Dragon Genes became a part of me when I became Ryu.

I walked over into the shade of a tree and allowed my magic to bleed out of my body and embrace me. I activated my own variant of the original skill and began to sink into the darkness.

"[Shadowwalk]"

It was a skill that allows me to walk into shadows. It was intended to be used as an ambush attack and strike at an enemy's vital point to score a critical blow, but after some time I've started using it as a travel and escape method.

After all, it's one of the skills that saved me from being turned to stone.