//------------------------------// // Awaken // Story: Of Scales and Riders // by Orthios //------------------------------// Of Scales and Riders Written by: Orthios Pre-read by: All of the Above “So, what now?” - Normal speech “May I eat them?” - Shared thoughts “Stop!” - Ancient language ~~~~~~~~~ When I awoke, there was only darkness and the cold. Stone and frost sapped my body heat through my clothing and my skin. The only sounds I could make out were those of a snapping, a fire maybe, and my own breathing. It took a few moments to collect myself enough to realize I felt warmth off to one side, but my senses still weren’t functioning enough to tell which side. I couldn't bring myself to open my eyes to see where I was. Just thinking was too disorienting at the moment. Realizing I was slowly descending into a panic, I attempted to regulate my breathing and hopefully slow the beating of my heart down to a more appropriate level for a... a what? I could feel my body calming down but the haze still hadn't lifted from my mind. There was so much I didn't understand at that moment; where I was, what I was, if anyone else was there, if anyone else was supposed to be there, what had happened... Feeling the panic set in again, I shut down my thoughts and decided to take things one step at a time. First, I needed to at least orient myself. Everything else could go from there. I concentrated first on my body and the sensations it was sending me. The cold stone was pressing against my back, the chill had already begun seeping into my bones. I didn't know where I was exactly but at least I knew I was lying on the ground. I could work with that. I noticed a slight weight on top of me, seeming to enfold me and give some small amount of warmth. Best guess, someone had placed something over me. A blanket maybe? My left side felt slightly warmer than my right, and my coherency finally reached a point to allow me to realize the sounds of the fire coming from my left. I couldn't feel any immediate pain but I still hadn't moved since waking up, so it was hard to tell. After checking my general health, I finally attempted to open my eyes. The first thing I saw was the light of the fire, which immediately sent a spike of pain through my retinas directly to my brain. I exhaled sharply, squeezing my eyes shut again. Well, that sucked. Alright, so apparently everything wasn't one hundred percent yet, I’d wait a little longer then. A little ways away, I heard a rustling sound followed by the clink of metal, boots, clacking against the stone floor. When the person drew close enough, I risked opening my eyes again, this time prepared for the searing pain. The first thing I noticed was the inside of the enormous cave. I could just barely make out the ceiling, the dim light of the fire glinting off of veins of… something blue running through the rock. The second thing I noticed was the pair of mares, one grey and one green, standing nearby. It took a moment to figure out their tribe but I eventually picked out the wings at their sides. The third thing I noticed was the armour both had dressed in. I hadn’t seen such high quality plating like that since before my entrance into Equestria. At least not from ponies, minotaurs maybe. "So you're finally awake," the green one said, staying several steps back from me. "How're you feeling?" I tried to speak but my throat was too dry to make any sound. I swallowed a few times until I was able to croak out a few words. "Where am I?" I asked "Somewhere north of Equestria. The mountains are a little hard to navigate so we aren’t sure of the exact location, but it should be easy enough to find our way out." Judging by her guarded expression and how she still refuses to come any closer, she’d probably holding something back. Oh well, we can deal with that later. She sat down and gave me a once over. "How are you feeling?" she asked again. "Like a minotaur used me as a punching bag," I replied, testing my arms and legs. My muscles protested, but thankfully it felt more like they were stiff from disuse rather than from injury. "A minotaur?" the other mare asked, but I brushed off the question. It was a long story. There was a low buzzing at the back of my mind that was becoming more and more insistent, until it finally burst in a single word. "ERAGON!" I jerked upright in surprise. Looking around for the source, I laid eyes on a massive sapphire form and was immediately ashamed of even wondering where the voice had come from. "Vivian," I let out a breath of relief. A rumble emitted from low in her chest making the strange ponies flinch back from the sound. To me, she was obviously happy, but the mares had no way of knowing that. "It is about time you woke up, sleepy head," her voice resounded pleasantly in my mind, giving me something familiar to latch on to. "And I don't appreciate being ignored." she added with a note of reproach. "I'm sorry Viv," I apologized. "I’m having trouble keeping a train of thought. And I don’t remember exactly how we got here." I glanced over at the mares sitting on the ground, staring bewildered at Vivien. "Do you know who these ponies are?" I asked. "They spoke to me," she replied, "but I did not speak back. At least they are smart enough to address me properly and not as some dumb animal. That would have... upset me. They say their names are Summer Breeze and Icy Wind and would like to know what we were doing in the crystal." "Crystal?" I couldn’t remember anything about a crystal. My pounding head fell into my hands. "Viv, what are you talking about?" "Hey, are you guys talking to each other?" They grey one asked, peeking over the green one. Oh. I hadn't noticed I spoke my thoughts out loud. What a bad habit. Briefly, I considered ignoring the mares but that would be rude, and I was raised better than that. On an unrelated note, both were armed and I was not. An apology was quickly offered. "Ah, sorry. Viv was just trying to help me clear my head. She says your names are Summer Breeze and Icy Wind, is that right?" "That's right," the grey one confirmed. That was quite unhelpful. Maybe I should have asked which was which. "So I was right about her being smart?" "You have no idea," I sighed. Don’t get me wrong, I love Viv with all of my heart but having another person in your head at all times can make for some exceedingly awkward moments. Especially when she knows you better than yourself and makes it a point to remind you of it as often as possible. I raised my hand again but stopped before I reached my head. It finally dawned on me that it was caked in dried blood. It took me an embarrassing amount of time to remember it was my blood. Everything came rushing back; flying over a sea of darkness, the battle, seeing Locus charge the mass of inky shadows only to be cut down, Sombra's ambush, falling prey to the spell of the Mad Tyrant, then waking to darkness and cold. What happened? Everything was blank after I fell from Viv’s saddle. "What happened to me?" I asked aloud, hoping one of the two know something. "We were hoping you could tell us," the green one said seriously. That’s it, she’s being called Icy Wind. I need a name attached to a being or it will drive me insane. "We were ordered to come here and investigate the source of a massive power surge, and we found you. So I need you to answer some questions for me." "Questions?" My headache was beginning to get worse. I should be dead, right? Then why am I still here? "We are soldiers of the Crystal Empire. We’re usually stationed in the palace but it seems all the guards in the area are busy." "Crystal Empire? Soldiers? I don't understand. The Empire doesn’t have soldiers, especially not pegasi. All that’s there is Sombra and the crystal pony slaves we couldn’t get to." The pain was only getting worse, it felt like my head was burning. "When you fell off my back during that final battle, I did not know what to do. I thought you were dying." Viv began speaking in my mind, only adding to the confusion. Unfortunately, the other mare cut back in with her questions. "Where are you from? Do you have magic? That’s a silly question, of course you do. We could feel it in the Empire. I've never felt magic like yours before. What can you do with your magic besides making a big staticy burst? " "I went after you and instinct took over. Even I am not sure exactly what I did." "I've never seen a dragon like that before. Or something like you, either." "I felt my magic pour over the both of us and time began to slow." They continued to speak over each other, blending their voices into an indecipherable cacophony. It was overwhelming and all I could do was desperately press my hands against my head to stop it from bursting. The pain became too much and under the agony something broke. Power, familiar but strange, poured through my mind as I screamed. "Silence!" Suddenly dragon and mares alike found themselves unable to speak. The soldiers began to panic at finding themselves voiceless, though I found it hard to care as the spell pulled at what little strength I had. I made them wait for the pain in my head to subside to something manageable before I released the magic holding them all silent. "What did you just do?" Summer, the grey one, asked fearfully before I was able to slip a word in.. "Sorry," the apology came out a little more terse than I meant it to sound, but I was still irked. "Too loud. I was overwhelmed and overreacted." "But what was that?!" Fear had returned to panic again. I gave her a tired look. "Magic," I sighed. Even with all the different species and different magics in this world, ponies were still dumbstruck by my particular brand of it. Before either of them could respond, I turned to my dragoness again. "Viv, what happened after I fell off?" "I went after you," she replied simply. Now that it was only her trying to speak to me, it was a little easier to think clearly. "Sombra's spell was tearing you apart. You were dying, I could feel you slipping away. I wanted you safe and my magic reacted. It would seem what ever the magic did has finally worn off." I frowned in deep thought, trying to remember. "Where are we now?" I finally asked a few minutes later when frustration started to make my headache worse again. There was always later to worry about trauma blacking out the memory of nearly dying. "I am not sure," she replied honestly. "You know that even I am unsure of how my magic works. Perhaps the one called Summer will have more answers for that than I do." When I didn't say anything for a few moments the dragon nudged me questioningly with a claw. “Uh… about that. Did they tell you which one was which?” The dragoness rolled her eyes at me, the deep rumble of her chuckling filling the cave. “You never learn, do you? The green one calls herself Summer, the grey one was introduced as Icy.” “Right. I had it backwards then. Probably a good thing I didn’t say their names out loud; that could have been awkward.” I was silent for a moment long, thinking, before asking "Do you think we can trust them?" "I have never met these mares before," she reminded me. "But there is something... familiar about them. They had a chance to harm us while we were unconscious but instead waited for us to awaken." She shook her head. "I say we trust them for now. If they betrays us or attempt to harm us, I can always eat them." I really couldn't help but chuckle a little at that. Despite her repeated threats of eating ponies that annoyed us, I still had yet to see her follow through. The green one, Summer, gave me a questioning look but didn't say anything. "Well, Viv believes we can trust you, and I can’t really find an argument against it." "Well that's good," Icy, the grey one, replied cheerfully. "I'd hate to get on the wrong side of a dragon who could probably eat me in a single bite." "That’s pretty much what she said." Summer paled at that but didn't say anything. Icy on the other hand, just giggled. Is there something wrong with that mare? Choosing not to follow the train of thought that accused one of the armed ponies of being crazy, I aimed for a few answers of my own. "You said before we were in some mountains north of Equestria, but I was on a plain before. Just how far north are we?" "A plain?" Summer asked, scrutinizing me carefully. She seemed to reach some conclusion because her suspicious expression softened somewhat. "I have a friend that studies the history of the area, but I don’t think there’s ever been plains here, just ice and mountains. Currently, we’re about fifteen miles east of the Crystal Empire." I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Ok, two problems with that. First, the areas around the Empire are just open plains. A little cold in the winter, but good for farming. That’s why it’s self-sufficient enough to stay independent of Equestria. The trade lines up here are questionable at best, without that source of food they’d be completely dependent on foreign aid. The crystal ponies are far too proud for that, or at least they were before Sombra got his hooves on them. Second, there’s pegasi in the Empire? You’re joking right? Sombra would never allow pegasi anywhere near him." The mares looked at each other before turning back to me. "No, this isn’t a joke" Summer replied. She was getting more serious, something was off. "Sombra is dead. Has been for about a year now." I was silent a moment, trying to sort things out. Sombra was dead? I... wasn’t sure how to feel about that. It was like I had been relieved of some heavy burden on my shoulders while getting stabbed in the chest. I filed the reaction away for later, there were more immediate problems to deal with before I could have a complete mental break down. Could Viv’s crystal have taken us somewhere far from where we were in an attempt to protect me? Another thought occurred to me, what if I was looking for the wrong answer. What if it was a question of when rather than where? Terror shot through me. "How long were we in that crystal?" I asked aloud, my voice surprisingly steady. "I... hadn't thought of that," Viv admitted after a moment, catching onto my thoughts. "I have no idea," Summer told me with a shrug. "Like I said, we were sent to investigate the source of the massive surge of power, but we found you here instead. I asked Tracker, that friend I mentioned, if he knew anything about the power we all felt, but he said it was either something new or something older than he could remember, and he has access to near a thousand years worth of information." That was the moment Summer finally figured out what Viv and I were thinking. "Wait, you’re saying you've been in there a thousand years? Since before the Empire disappeared?" "I don't know," I said honestly. On a hunch, I reached out with my mind, searching for something, anything, familiar. At first I could feel nothing at all, just darkness, but slowly sparks of life lit up in my mind’s eye. I could sense the mares and the surprisingly large amount of power they held; Viv, whose mind was intertwined with my own; the fungus that grew on the rocks of the surrounding area; the few birds and animals who dared to brave the cold of the high mountain tops. I reached out as far as I could, but I couldn’t find anything familiar. Even the land itself, the very bedrock below us, felt foreign. "We couldn't have been in there for a thousand years," I said, panicking. "That’s not possible." "Eragon..." Viv said sadly, her voice sounded like a condemnation. "No, it's impossible," I repeated, this time more forcefully. "If we were in there that long, it means we failed everyone, and that's not possible." I was shaking now, barely suppressing the hysteria threatening to bubble forth. I pushed back the instinct to curl in on myself and wait for everything to go back. Instead I leaned back against Viv, the strength to support myself fleeing from awful comprehension. "What are you talking about?" Summer was starting to sound concerned. "We couldn't have failed," I repeated again, my voice barely a whisper. Behind him, Viv lowered her head in sadness. She had already accepted the truth that I was desperately trying to deny. "We couldn't have." "What are you talking about?" Icy dropped her spear and moved over to us, placing her face right next to mine. “Are you ok? You look sad. What’s wrong?” I looked up at her, feeling lost; guilt-ridden, terrified, and hopelessly lost. “Everyone I know is dead, their descendants have long since withered to dust as well, one of my best friends was driven insane and killed before I had a chance to try to help, and I broke a promise to a very special filly that I would come home. I've had better days, thanks.” Summer looked depressed but Icy took the cake. Her entire demeanor deflated, head drooping, tears welling in her eyes. “Everypony?” she whimpered. “Everyone. Viv and I were the only ones her magic encased. They couldn’t have lived this long.” I pressed my hands against my eyes. "I really screwed up this time, didn’t I?” Sniffing a bit, I forced my hands to my sides, ignoring the red rims of my eyes. There were still other things that needed to be done. Vivian needed me to stay together. The tears and anger and terror were pushed down and locked in a tiny box. Just another thing to deal with later. I had done this before, trapped in a new place with next to nothing. I could do it again.  Only this time there was nowhere to run and no one to hide me. I needed a plan. Somewhere to stay and a quiet place to work through my emotions before they became a problem. After that, we could decide what to do. I looked to the ponies that had climbed a mountain to find me. “Well you found what you were looking for, what now?"