Three alicorns combined their magic in a flash of radiant light, blinding all who were watching as well as tearing open a hole in the fabric of reality in the center of the throne room of the Canterlot castle. Yet, when the light died down all eyes looked into the portal to see a village where dragons of various colors flew around buildings that were painted to look like the dragons...as well as buildings that were mostly set ablaze.
"And the village is burning to the ground without me around. I'd better go put a stop to that before things get out of hand," Hiccup sighed as he placed a hand against the portal only to find that he couldn't pass through. "Hey, what gives, I thought that this would take us back to our homes?" Hiccup asked when he turned to look at the three princesses.
"Well, you came here on the backs of your dragons, so you'll both need to be riding them to pass through the portal," Twilight explained, getting an eye roll from Astrid.
"Way to overcomplicate things," she smirked, getting a slight smile out of Twilight in the process.
"Ah gotta say that ah'm sad that ya'll will be leaving so soon, but judging by the state of yer village you'll be needed more there than here," Applejack observed as a group of dragon riders began to dump buckets of water onto the flames. "But if any of ya get sucked into our reality again, feel free to stop by and say 'hi'."
"Yeah, but I doubt that you'll want to show your faces around here again after the horrible loss that you suffered to me," Rainbow Dash said with a smirk while Toothless and Hiccup shot her a look. "I mean, you might be fast on your world, but here you just can't touch me."
"Oh, don't you worry. Once Toothless and I here have trained ourselves to go even faster, we'll be sure to come back and give you a rematch that will go down in history," Hiccup promised the pony, but before any more 'promises' could be slung at each other, Celestia stepped forward with a proud smile.
"Hiccup and Toothless. Astrid and Stromfly," she began, drawing all four sets of eyes to the princess, who then proceeded to bow to the four. "I cannot thank you enough for what you have done for us. Had it not been for you, Wijida may have unleashed the most destructive dragon that the world has ever seen upon us."
"I'm not too certain she would have. It seemed in the end that crazed pony was more concerned with creating an ending she couldn't see, more than she was unleashing Thanatos," Astrid muttered under her breath, with only Twilight close enough to hear.
"I wish that there was more that we could do to reward the four of you than the small trinkets we gave you previously, especially since Astrid managed to break her hammer in the final battle," Luna pointed out, but the Viking shrugged before spinning the axe around in her right hand before flipping it up onto her shoulder.
"That's alright. I'll stick to this old girl instead," Astrid smirked before looking down at Twilight, just barely catching the glance that the princess had been giving her. "If you all don't mind, I need to talk to Twilight in private for a second." She motioned for Twilight to follow her as the pair walked to the other side of the throne room, Twilight looking slightly nervous while Astrid leaned up against the wall. "Alright Twilight, if you've got something to say to me, say it now."
"It's just...I...I thought you should know that I haven't been entirely honest with you," Twilight began with deep regret in every word. "Ever since you...actually, since Hiccup came here-"
"You have feelings for him." Twilight's eyes snapped wide as she swung her head to look at the Viking, who was smirking at Twilight without any hostility. "Oh, I've known. Almost since the moment I got here. Hiccup may be the brains of our group, but I'm far from stupid. And trust me, Twilight, you're not the first and I doubt you'll be the last."
"Then, you knew all this time that I...then why didn't you say anything...or do something?" Twilight hesitantly asked.
"Oh, trust me, if that flirt Rarity tried anything herself with Hiccup, I would have imbedded my axe in her skull long ago," Astrid clarified with a sinister smirk that made Twilight's mane stand on end. "But you...you were different. You never made any moves, you didn't try to undermine us...hel, you're probably one of the few that didn't try to kill me in some way. And...I'm not sure why. With your power it would have been easy."
Twilight let out a small sigh before looking into the wondering eyes of Astrid, knowing that it was time to be totally honest. "Because...as much as I care for Hiccup...I genuinely see you as my friend. And I wasn't going to ruin my friendship with both you and Hiccup just so I could stand a chance with him. And I certainly wouldn't kill you. Besides, you two are so happy together...that I didn't mind just being friends. And honestly, I'm glad I did. I learned a lot from the two of you...about many different things."
Astrid stood stunned for a moment, having never heard this kind of response to the question she had asked a few times to others. But as Twilight's words sank in, she found that she couldn't help but smile slightly before letting out a sigh and patting Twilight on the shoulder.
"That's awfully noble of you, Twilight. Thanks for being honest and for helping the two of us out here...friend." Twilight's eyes had just begun to widen before Astrid punched Twilight in her shoulder, getting the mare to stagger while Astrid let out a laugh. "Now we're really friends!"
"You see us as friends...ow...that's great," Twilight said with a pure smile before she winced and rubbed her shoulder, while slightly cringing. "Well, if you guys ever come back, I'd like to know more about training dragons from your world and in general. It came in handy against the dragons that we fought here."
"Sure. But if you and your friends ever find themselves in Berk, you have to stop by and try some of my cooking. It's an experience that you can't pass up," Astrid proudly said with a large smile, neither she nor Twilight noticing that Hiccup instinctually retched off to the side.
"I'll make sure to do that," Twilight said before she and Astrid walked back over to where the others were waiting, both of them noticing that Fluttershy had been saying a very tearful farewell to the dragons while somewhat ignoring Hiccup. "Come on Fluttershy, it's time to let them go home," Twilight said as she pried the pony off of Toothless.
"'Bye, new friends! Come by again sometime soon!" Pinkie made them promise.
"Are you sure that you require nothing else from Equestria?" Luna asked, but Hiccup held up the book and waved it at the princess with a smile.
"Don't worry, I think I got more than enough to make some huge changes to Berk," Hiccup said while he and Astrid hopped onto the backs of their dragons, before turning the both of them towards the portal.
"Well, it was certainly nice meeting both of you as well as your dragons. Please come again soon," Rarity said to them, getting a nod from the pair before they both looked to Twilight, who simply waved with a smile on her face. Hiccup and Astrid then nodded to each other before the both of them raced into the portal, which closed shut behind them the moment they vanished from the ponies' reality.
"I'm going to miss the four of them," Fluttershy sadly said, the others agreeing with her as the mane six congregated and began to walk out of the throne room, leaving Celestia and Luna to look at each other with hesitant faces.
"We...did the right thing, didn't we Sister?" Luna asked once the mane six were out of earshot.
"Yes Sister, this is for the best," Celestia comforted her before looking to the portal where the riders had vanished. "As skilled dragon tamers as they are, there are far too many threats in Equestria that could destroy their home and way of life if they managed to find a way to Berk."
"But we've permanently closed off the portal between worlds," Luna reminded her sister, who nodded somberly.
"Yes, but it is for the best. As sad as it is...it will be easier to protect both of our worlds this way. But come Sister, Wijida is defeated and it is the time for celebration. We shall tell Twilight and her friends soon of our choice...when they've had time to relax." Celestia then walked off after Twilight and her friends, leaving Luna alone in the throne room to gaze at where the portal had vanished along with the riders.
'But I do not like it. If the worlds were more open, then perhaps there would be more champions of good to fight against the darkness that constantly bombards our worlds,' Luna thought with small shake of her head before following after her sister, leaving the room empty once more.
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"Well, that's a full bucket of salmon that you owe me," Hiccup said with a grim smile to Astrid as the pair looked around at the burning buildings, the panicking Vikings, and the other dragons riders that were trying in vain to stop the fires from spreading.
"What are you talking about? I specifically said that the village wouldn't burn to the ground if you were gone for a while. Most of the buildings are still standing," Astrid retaliated, not willing to lose the bet yet. Hiccup opened his mouth to argue, but then the loud bark of a dragon he knew well cut him off, and both riders looked up to see an insectoid-like dragon flying down towards them, with a very relieved and annoyed son of Eret smiling at them.
"Why, by Thor's beard I don't believe it! Both of you are alive," he laughed with relief before glancing back at the burning village. "And you sure picked one heck of a time to come back."
"So, I'm gone for only a few weeks and you manage to burn the whole village to the ground?"
"The buildings are still standing."
"Sorry about not having a proper welcome back ceremony, but we've had a number of rogue dragon attacks as of late and have to spend all of our manpower just to keep the village from burning down," Eret explained before Skullcrusher let out a roar and waddled over to Toothless, bowing to the Alpha before nodding to him.
"Well, looks like I won't get to take a break after all. Come on Eret, let's put these fires out and then see what we can do about those rogue dragons," Hiccup instructed as Toothless bound forward with Skullcrusher following right behind.
"That reminds me, be best that you avoid your mum for a few days. She's been worried sick about you since you...vanished off to wherever you went," Eret explained as the two flew off, leaving Astrid to watch them go. "Where did the pair of you vanish to anyway?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
Stormfly let out a bark and spread her wings to follow after the two, but then Astrid placed a hand on the dragon's head and stopped her takeoff. The Nadder looked up at her rider with confusion in her eyes, but when she looked into Astrid's eyes she saw that her rider was a million miles away.
'So, Wijida's crack at Twilight wasn't just her trying to distract us, that was just one of the many futures that she saw,' Astrid pieced together when she remembered what Twilight said, before Wijida's last words echoed throughout her mind as well. 'So does that mean...that she really saw a terrible future for Berk? For Hiccup?' Her eyes then set like flint as she watched the Chief of Berk help to extinguish the fires, shaking her head before making a decision.
'No, not as long as I'm around. As long as I draw breath, I promise that nothing will happen to Berk or Hiccup. I swear on the hammer of Thor!' she promised to herself before signaling for Stormfly to take to the skies, following after the two dragon riders with her determination restored.
'And I don't care what future she showed me, a Hofferson is afraid of nothing. Not even the future.'
(X)
Each painful breath ushered in a new kind of hell for the pony, because every breath caused her nerves to wail with agony that shook her broken form. Her coat was sticky due to the amount of blood that she had lost from her missing leg, and clung to her despite her having dragged herself out of the pool a while ago. She was beyond dizzy from the lost blood and had only managed to avoid bleeding to death by cutting off circulation to her leg with her mind.
'Which will do me little good if I cannot get out of here,' Wijida chuckled to herself as she tried once again to peer into the future, only to see emptiness. 'So, is this how I die? Face down in my own blood while the ponies celebrate their victory? Heh, that's a boring end to this story.'
Then the pony felt something, something other than pain for the first time in nearly a day. She felt the ground shaking beneath her. With the last of her strength Wijida rolled herself over to where the cause of the shaking came...and her breath left her lungs when she saw what was walking towards her. A tall creature that was almost human was walking towards her, yet where its right arm and leg should have been she could barely sense metal instead of flesh. She tried to look into the creature's face, but all that greeted her was a brown hood that was a part of a shredded brown cloak that only slightly covered its body. The creature came to a stop next to her and knelt down, making a "tsking" sound as it observed her.
"Strange. You were not supposed to die here. You were supposed to win. Triumph. Prevail," the creature spoke quickly and in a soft voice that sounded like it hadn't see much use in millennia. "That was the outcome of this world. But something changed, yet the change was not caused by them. How strange. Peculiar. Infuriating."
"W-wait," Wijida stammered out when the creature stood up, gaining its attention for a moment. "If I am not supposed to die here, then take me with you. This ending...is boring. I want a better ending. An ending that all of the worlds will remember." For a brief moment the creature looked down at her, pondering its options. Then the hood seemed to darken and it lifted its metal leg over her head.
"No. Your story was supposed to end here. And seeing as you offer nothing of interest...end here it shall."
"But what if it didn't end here?" Wijida asked. "What if I lived on...and made another outcome besides this one? Doesn't that thought excite you?" For another moment the creature considered her words as it lowered its leg, then its hood slightly rose as it pointed a metal finger at her and snapped its fingers. Wijida vanished in a flash of darkness, quickly followed by the cloaked being.
"Indeed it does. Excite. Tease. Begin."