//------------------------------// // Quiet No More // Story: Dragons of Hourglass // by Rammy //------------------------------// “What was that?” Golden Heart wondered. It had sounded like something both hard and soft had splattered against castle at a high speed. “I don’t know…” Another large bang vibrated through the castle. Twilight didn’t want to end her conversation but she knew she’d better check. She really hoped it was nothing and if was nothing she would not be happy. “He of Hourglass... I need go find out what is going on… I hope it’s just another one of Pinkie and Rainbow Dash’s ill advised pranks…” “Same time next week, then?” Twilight nodded. “Hourglass Council out.” Twilight waited until the Hourglass Council room shimmered back to the Friendship Council room before she left. She stumbled a bit when another collision rocked the castle. What under Celestia Sun is going on? Mangy ran up as Twilight opened the council doors. “Mistress! Someone is attacking gem castle.” “Do you know who or where?” “Dogs no good in sight… But coming from near Everfree.” Twilight grumbled. “Why is it always Everfree?!” “Mistress?” Mangy Mutt tilted his head in confusion. “Nothing to worry about Mangy.” Twilight shook her head, embarrassed that she vented out loud. “I will deal with this. If the girls come by let them know where I went.” “Yes, Mistress.” Mangy bowed while closing his eyes for the flash to come. In a flash Twilight teleported near the tree line of the Everfree Forest. She looked around and didn’t see anything right off. The sound of a contraption got her attention and she looked up to see a mass of moss and rocks and held together in a dark red magic aura. She slowly made her way through the trees. What she discovered shocked her.  Ahead, in a small clearing, she could see three fillies that were part of the newest incarnation of the Cutiemark Crusaders. They were manning a crude cannonbolt. Twilight was confused as no current member of the CMC had a dark red aura. Something clearly wasn’t right. She remained behind the bush to investigate further. The unicorn filly known as Gentle Rays turned in her direction. Twilight instinctively shrank back hoping not to be seen just yet. What she had saw when the filly had glance in her direction chilled her. The eyes of the filly where coal black and her mouth was open and drooling. Dark Magic?! No time to analyze! I need to disenthrall them and quickly! She jumped out and quickly zapped the CMC with a memory spell laced as much light magic as she dared that she could that hopefully wouldn’t hurt them. The fillies at first tried to fight against the spell, thrashing around screaming demonically. Twilight cringed but fought through. After a tense minute the fillies stopped resisting. Twilight slowly released the spell and after a moment of complete silence the fillies started crying not wanting to look at her. Twilight breathed a sigh of relief as the spell seemed to have worked. “Princess Twilight! Please don’t banish us. Or throw us in a dungeon. Or banish us and then throw us in a dungeon in the place that you banish us to!” The three wailed scared out of their minds. Twilight soften her eyes and slowly approached them, “Are you three okay?” Twilight asked as she started to carefully examine the fillies for any residual dark magic. The trio, still crying, managed to nod. Twilight pulled the three into a warm embrace. “Relax, you are not in trouble but I still need to know something…” The CMC pulled their muzzles out of her fur. “What’s the last thing you remember?” Golden Heart sat midway up on the Spiral Spire idly chewing a large amethyst. He wondered what interrupted his image call to Ponyville. He wasn’t too worried as according to the Ascended One Ponyville was known as the center of weirdness of Equestria. The stories that she had been relating for the past few weeks made him agree. Still it made him wonder. As he ponder this and other things the sky darkened unexpectedly. Golden looked up to see that something was blocking part of the sun. At a glance it was too dark to be a cloud. For that matter he a quick look and couldn’t see any other ‘clouds.’ On further thought it seemed to be moving. He continued to watch, narrowing his eyes… hopefully whatever it was would be benign. Suddenly a transparent, slight pink film rose from the ground. I guess not… a second later he could feel the wards going off in his head. This confused him. A dragon was approaching but the moving ‘cloud’ was too large to just be a dragon. He took off to hover near the edge of the shield to await for whatever was approaching. He didn’t have to wait long before he finally could see some forms breaking off from the dark mass. He squinted a bit to try to get a better look. He finally could see that it the mass was comprised of pony-insect like creatures. Changelings! But why did the wards go off? A few moments more and the changeling swarm stopped near the shield and hovered. He of Hourglass called out. “You are trespassing. Leave now and I might let you live.” He watched as the swarm parted. A larger changeling, clearly female, buzzed through the opening. On either side on the changeling was a full grown dragon. A look at the eyes of the two dragons made his heart go cold. “Well, well, well. After all this time a dragon decides to make an old abandoned ruin his home. I have a counter proposal,” The queen rubbed an amulet on her neck seductively. Her horn glowed as she spoke, ”join me.” If it wasn’t for the fact that He of Hourglass was livid he might have laughed at her poor attempts at seduction. As he eyed the dragons, trying to figure out why they would be with the changelings, he noticed that the eyes of the dragons were unfocused and had a strange tint to them. If He of Hourglass mad before what he saw made it rise to murderous rage… He was not going to let them leave. “Not happening lielzasalus usuths!” The magic cannons obelisks scattered about Hourglass began firing at the dragon’s command causing the swarm to scatter in a frantic rush to avoid being shot out of the sky. “Take down this shield…” The queen screamed in rage. ”I want that dragon!” He of Hourglass turned away and glided towards He of Music’s hoard in the central park. He would need to discuss with his clanmate how they were going to defend their city. She enthralled a pair of dragons! How!? This does not bode well for the shields… I don’t think the shield is as powerful as it was when He of Laughter was young… or maybe they were never very powerful… Either way it would not last too long against two adult dragons and a swarm of changelings. “He of Music?” Golden Heart called out as he made a very rough landing. “Yes Firstclaw?” Golden Heart watched as Eternal Beats jumped down from a nearby tree. “Do you have a plan for these interlopers who think they can take on a dragon clan?” Golden Heart pinch his snout quickly thinking how to best defend such a large city… “For the moment let the shield and magic cannons do their jobs. We will need to save our strength for the queen and the two enthralled dragons. I just hope that taking her out will break whatever hold she has on them.” Eternal Beats jaw dropped how could a changeling get enough magical power to over power not just one dragon but two. “H-How?” “Not sure…” Golden Heart admitted as he moved his claws around shifting his sparks around. The air shimmered a bit and an imaged formed. The dragons could now see the changeling queen. The spell was unable to pick up sound but it was clear she was directing her drones. On her neck was an odd amulet. The amulet appear to be made from two red and one black crystal. The black crystal was in the center was cut in a kite style. The two red crystals flank the black looked to be smaller hexagonal prisms. “What is that amulet she has?” “It seems familiar…” Golden Heart was sure he had either seen that amulet before or a description but he couldn’t remember. It was important too, but for now they had a more pressing matter, “but we don’t time for me to find out exactly what it is…” “Is it possible that this amulet gave her power like the amulet with Sombra’s horn gave uh...  “Aonghus… and yes that is what I’m thinking… And I’m positive I’ve seen or read about this amulet!” “Firstclaw, we need to focus! We can figure out about the amulet later when Hourglass is no longer under threat.” “Right, right…” A plan finally formed in the mind of Golden Heart, “make your way towards the council and library and try to stay hidden if you can. When the shield fails try to draw as many changelings as you can to you. If the dragons come after do your best to elude them I rather not hurt them unless we are forced. I will take on the queen and dragons personally.” “Yes, Firstclaw.” Eternal Beats acknowledged before he slid into the shadows. He of Hourglass sat down to mediate and to think battle strategy. It’s probably going to take a mix of tooth and claw and magic… Which means I will need to hold back my instincts… which is already becoming hard… A short hour later the shield finally fell. He of Hourglass took off towards the two dragons and the queen, flambeing any changeling in his way. He of Music watched as his Firstclaw engaged in battle. He needed to wait a bit before he could make his move. It was nerve racking to watch and not do anything. His instincts screaming to shred apart every intruder, to be bathed in their blood, and roar in prideful defiance. He then heard a certain roar. It was the signal and with a few flaps of his wings he took off. He of Music lightly landed on the stop of the Spiral Spire. With a roar he poured his magic though his bass guitar.  A wave of Harmony music blasted forth as his strummed the strings hard in his anger. As the wave rushed through the swarm it did two things. Those closest to the dragon shattered into dust. Others further way seemed to become mesmerised by the dragons playing and lazily floated towards him only to become dust like their comrades as they got close. He of Hourglass growled as he dodged stream of flame from the black dragon. The laughing changeling queen further infuriated him. He swallowed his building rage. He needed to focus if he was going to get out of this alive and stop this evil creature. Another stream of flame forced him to bank away and away from the changeling and towards the second, orange, dragon opened maw. Now he had to dunk down and took this advantage to flip upside down and pound the softer belly scales of the dragon with a paralysis spell. The orange dragon fell from the sky roaring angrily and setting a few unfortunate changelings on fire. One down, one to go… he spun around to hover. He of Hourglass smirked as he motioned with his claws ‘Your Next’. The insect pony monarch growled at the lost of one dragon. “Get him!” Was her only voiced response. The black dragon roared and dived right at He of Hourglass. He of Hourglass had no time to react before the full sized dragon slammed into him. Nearly all the air explosively escaped his lungs. He couldn’t use a paralysis spell as he might not be able to abstract himself from the dragon and a teleportation spell wouldn’t work as he would end up teleporting the other dragon. Teleportation! In a flash He of Hourglass teleported himself and the dragon further up in the sky. He of Hourglass shoved the bigger dragon, who was now dazed, away. He of Hourglass dived after him hoping that he could keep the dragon dazed without being hit himself from frailing appendages. He expanded his sparks like a shell then narrowed his body to increase his speed. The spark shell slammed into the dragon at high speed knocking the dragon unconscious. He of Hourglass flung his wings out to slow his descent. A stolen a glance over his shoulder told him that the queen was now pursuing him and quickly gaining. Perfect. He turned back to prepare for the coming very fast landing. As he reached the ground he started running as his speed was still high. He ran for a bit tearing up the road from his clawed feet. He stumbled a bit at the end before he was able to come to a stop. He turned around to see that the changeling was approaching him like a predator stalking prey. “I have you now you filthy lizard!” Wrong. He slammed his two hands together. At the same time two chunks of broken walls slammed into the queen. She swayed for a moment before crumpling to the ground. He of Hourglass began panting as the excursion of the battle caught up to him. He finally noticed all the scratches and cuts across his body, dripping blood. He wiped the blood dripping out of his snout. He slowly walked up to the queen. He could make out the queen wheezing. A smirk crept across his face as he kneeled down next to her. A part of him was going to enjoy seeing the life fade from her eyes. He grabbed her by the throat roughly then slammed her hard into the street. “Who… are... you?” The changeling queen managed to choke out in the ever tightening grip of He of Hourglass. He of Hourglass growled, no longer pulling back his rage. First this bug queen thinks it’s okay to attack his city, his clan, his hoard then thinks it has the right to ask who he was?! That went too far and his dragon instincts fully took over. THE DRAGON KEEPER OF HARMONY! He of Hourglass roared before let loose golden colored flames.