It had been four days since I took control over Brimstone Village. The village itself consisted of veteran warriors who chose to live the quiet life and blacksmiths who were skilled in their craft. So when I started recruitment I got a lot of eager soldiers.
I have no idea why they didn’t just mob rush me when I first got here and challenged them for the Protodermis…that could have been difficult.
They were skilled in the ways of battle, but they had no sense of cohesion. I would need to reign discipline in and keep them active so that they could be a lethal fighting force. I needed a leader…
Luckily, I had Ridged Scale to help me do just that.
Ridged Scale was a former commander in the Royal Draconic Army before he came to the island as a form of retirement. Dragon’s aging was...strange. While in human years she would be 16, due to dragons and their strange aging she was actually 160. Whereas Ridged Scale had recently hit respectable 750 years of age.
He was an open minded individual and was smart enough to understand the tactics and training regiment I wanted him to implement. Since this island consisted of many former and active warriors, we had a pool of 2,000 recruits. The total population being 5,000, with 3,000 of them being children and noncombatants.
“We’ll divide them into what I call ‘centuries’ which is a unit of 80 dragons per century,” I said, using a drawing to show the commander what I was going for. Since I didn’t have enough soldiers to make a full legion, a legion consisting of 5,420 soldiers, I would modify it a little.
“Six centuries make 480 dragons, or what we will call a cohort,” I continued my explanation, both Ridged Scale and Ember Root looking at my drawing which now showed six boxes with the label ‘century’ in a big circle with the label ‘cohort’.
“Now, a legion will consist of two cohorts. That would be 960 dragons, we can have a total of two legions since two chorts will equal 1920 dragons and we have 2,000 dragon soldiers total.” I finished by circling the entire thing, and labeling it ‘Legion’.
“What about the remaining 80?” Ridged scale asked.
“They will be stationed as a permanent guards around our fortress,” I answered the old drake’s question. “Can I trust that you can take care of this?” I questioned. If he couldn’t perform the task I would find another.
“Don’t worry,” He chuckled, taking the paper and the rest of the notes I had prepared for him. If I want them to do it right, I gotta make sure they have the resources they need to do a good job. “I’ll have them whipped into shape!”
“Good,” I said, giving the commander an approving nod. It was good to have decent pe--dragons to rely on to do the job right.
I heard an exasperated sigh from a certain pink dragoness. “What?” I asked in annoyance.
When I had chosen to take the young drake on as an apprentice of sorts, I had forgotten that I was taking a child under my wing. While she was no slouch not wasted any of my time when I was teaching her, she was still impatient.
“Look,” She huffed, getting up from her makeshift hammock that she had set up in my chambers. Something I hadn’t minded since I had no drive for sexual activities anymore. “While I know it’s important to learn this stuff, I was wondering if we could do something fun now?”
“Fun?” I asked, my eyes turning purple to signify that I was raising an eyebrow.
“Yeah,” She said, starting to release some excitement she had been building up by flapping her wings. “The secret weapons, more training in your craft. You know, the fun stuff.”
I looked over to Ridged Scale, shrugged at her antics. I looked back to the young dragoness, ready to lecture her that learning the basics of military organization was important. Then I had an idea.
“Well, since commander Ridged Scale is here, I think I can reveal to both of you to my children…” I mused, the pink dragoness perking up in interest.
“Children?” She asked in curiosity. “I had no idea you were the father type, or the reproducing type for that matter.”
“Ugh, I can’t actually have sex you know,” I sighed in annoyance at her comment. “By children, I mean creations!”
“Oh, okay,” She said, bouncing in excitement. “Let’s see them then!”
I waved my claw to let them know to follow me and I walked towards the back of the inside of the volcano, near the Energized Protodermis. Once we reached the room in which my workshop and the pool were in, I removed the illusion I had created and revealed my greatest creations.
Before us appeared 42 Rahkshi standing lifeless before us.
“What are these?” Ember Root asked, examining the creatures intently.
“They are those who should never see the light of day,” I said ominously, remembering Teridax’s monologue of my children. “They are the Rahkshi, my children…”
“Cool!” Ember Root said, still inspecting my children. I was thrown off a little, I expected her to show fear towards them. Another thing I now liked about this one. “How do they work?”
“They are living, organic, creatures,” I said, walking up towards the red Rahkshi, Turahk. “As for how they work…” I trailed off, I tore into my chest and pulled out a kraata. It then slithered into the the red Rahkshi.
Ember Root and Ridged Scale gave looks of shock and a bit of disgust at the process of the Rahkshi’s creation.
“Mhhhhm,” Turahk moaned, shaking his head. He looked around before seeing me, immediately bowing down. “Father, what do you require of me?”
One of the things I did was give the Rahkshi their own minds. I wanted them to think on their own. If I expected them to carry out my will effectively, they needed to properly understand what I wanted them to do. They were my most treasured creations, my children…
“Enough of that, loyal Turahk,” I chuckled, grabbing onto his arm and lifting him up. “You are my son, not my servant. Talk to me like one would talk to their father!”
“Of course,” He said, shaking his head and looking around the room. “Who is the beautiful dragon?”
Ember Root blushed at his comment.
Turahk was the last to receive his kraata, the others only in a deep sleep until I chose the right time to awake them. Creating the Rahkshi was something I had trouble with at first, but I eventually got a hang of it after getting through a few roadblocks…
------
“You want me to do what!?!” I shouted inwardly at the Kraahkan. I couldn’t believe what I just heard him say.
“Stop being such a baby,” It huffed in annoyance. “It’s like peeling off a band-aid!”
“You want me to tear into my chest and rip out a Kraata!” I shot back, pissed off at the mask sugarcoating the process.
“How is that in anyway pulling off a band-aid!?!” I questioned.
“Just do it!”
“You know what? Fine!” I shouted, shoving my claw into my chest. “Oh Goddddd,” I moaned as I slowly pulled out a Kraata. While I couldn’t feel what was happening per say, it mentally freaked me out.
Finally I pulled out two Kraata, watching in fascination as one went to the Energized Protodermis. It slowly morphed into a Rahkshi and when it finished, the other Kraata hopped into the shell.
“See, wasn’t that easy?” My masked questioned. “Now, forty-one to go…..”
“Ugh!”
-------
…Yeah,now was that time to awake them.
“Rise my children, awaken from your slumber,” I shouted, willing them awake
.
They soon awoke, looking around at their surroundings. I turned back to my commander and apprentice, both showing shocked reactions. Seems like I’ve gained Ember Root’s attention.
“What do you wish us to do, father?” One of the Rahkshi, a bright yellow chameleon Rahkshi by the name of Spyglass, asked. Others nodded in agreement, eagerly awaiting orders.
“You will stay here with me, Spyglass. The rest of you are to perform the telepathic commands I am about to send you,” I answered, sending out telepathic instructions on what their job would be.
“Ridged Scale, begin training the troops and some of the Rahkshi will come and help out,” I ordered, earning a salute from the old drake and he left my sanctum.
“Ember Root,” I turned to the pink dragoness. She perked up in interest, hoping for an exciting mission. “I need you to continue your studies, I have some solid protodermis for you to work on. Make a sword by the time I get back and we can go over anything you missed.”
She jumped up in excitement. This was the first time she would work with the material that her ancestors could never even touch. I jerked my head to Turahk and motioned for him to come to me.
“Watch her,” I ordered, getting a confused look from the babysitting Rahkshi and a whine of protest from Ember Root.
“I don’t need--” Whatever she was about the say was never heard as I grabbed Spyglass and teleported us to an unknown location.
“I hate him, I really hate him…..” She growled in frustration.
“I’m confused.” Turahk confessed. “But Lord Teridax ordered that I watch you, and that is what I will do!”
“Ugh,” She groaned, walking towards the forge to begin her work.
(Castle of the two sisters)
I teleported my chameleon Rahkshi and I to the infamous castle of the two sisters. The building had gained my interest; secrets lay behind its walls. That and the books I discovered only bolstered my schemes.
Yes Night Princess, I have read your book…
“Little Skittles, Fishguts, Blind Eye!” I shouted towards the shadows. “Come out!”
Three Skinks in helmets and five without them became visible and ran towards us. Spyglass took a defensive stance, ready to ward off the small lizards. I held my hand and stopped him from wasting his energy on the pathetic creatures.
“Greetings Dark One,” Little Skittles gurgiled. I gave the small creature a frustrated glare. I had found them hiding in the darkest caves located all over the island. They had an uncanny cloaking ability and basically worshiped me due to the aura I projected.
“Spyglass,” I said, placing a hand on my son’s shoulder. “I would like to introduce you to your spies, they will be yours to command.”
He gave them a scrupulous look but shook his head and lifted one of the creatures up. “My own spies?” He asked in confusion.
“Yes,” I replied. “They will be sent to Canterlot, Manehattan, and Ponyville to watch these targets.” I then wave my hand, creating illusions of eight ponies.
“The Bearers of the Elements of Harmony are a threat and they must be monitored. I want to know who their friends are, who their friends’ friends are,” I lectured the young Rahkshi.
“In Canterlot, I want you to watch Princess Luna, Discord, and Celestia.” I said, petting the illusion of Princess Luna on the head. “Luna has the ability to see dreams, she could find me eventually and Celestia commands high respect from her ponies and the other world leaders.”
I made the two sisters vanish, leaving the troublesome draconequus. “Discord is one of the oldest beings to live on this world. His power is almost unmatched, he is a reality warper, and he used to have nothing he cared for,” I placed one of my hands on his chest, turning my head to my minions and son.
“But he now has a heart….” An illusion of Fluttershy appeared next to me. I took my claw off Illusion Discord’s chest with great speed and decapitated the illusion of Fluttershy. “One I will rip out if he proves to be a problem!”
“Do you wish for me to situate one Skink to be near her at all times, so as to carry out the kill order?” Spyglass asked.
“Good thinking,” I praised my child, patting his head. “Yes, make sure it will be memorable should I wish to prove a point to the Jester of Chaos…To never love again.”
I then made the pegasus and draconequus disappear, leaving only a rough looking humanoid alligator to remain.
“Shank is the leader of the Black Ace mafia,” I said, pacing around the ugly creature. “I will be dealing with him under an alias. I will use him to start a bloody feud between all of the major gangs in Equestria.”
“The same for him as the yellow pony?” Spyglass asked. I gave him a nodded of approval.
“Yes. Now, I will leave one Skink here within the castle while the rest go with you, go and begin your mission!” I ordered. Spyglass nodded and vanished with the rest of the Skinks.
With him gone, I walked towards the castle library. Once I reached the room and went inside, I used my shadow power to move one of the bookshelves to reveal a secret passage. I shapeshifted into a white pegasus pony with a black mane since the passage was too small for my true size.
I reached the secret room and walked over to the desk next to the bed. Around twenty-two books littered the desk, each one written by both Starswirl the Bearded and Princess Luna. I enjoyed them immensely and the secret magic and knowledge had caught my interest.
Some books had secret incantations that would allow one to communicate with the dead, incantations and runes are the only form of pony magic I can use. Others provided spells and knowledge of the Dream Realm, I would be using this one in particular. And then there was the one I was after now--
“Princess Luna’s Guide to the Everfree”
The book gave several locations to forbidden areas. The Tree of Harmony, which is in a ravine, some demonic altar that would some the spirit of Grogar the Necromancer, and the one object I was interested in--
The Mirror Pool.
I teleported next to the magic puddle, taking the pool into account. It had been something that worried me, the concept that my enemies could duplicate themselves would prove to be problematic.
Which was why I was going to use it first.
I used my gravitational powers to slowly lift the water out of the pool towards a protosteel bucket. I muttered a few incantations from one of the other books, Starswirl the Bearded’s Incantations for Magic Enchantments, that would counter magical substances.
With the water in hand, I then destroyed the pool by making a gravitational sinkhole that dropped the water down into the abyss before closing the hole up. Now I wouldn’t have to worry about a hundred Twilight Sparkles swarming me.
Now, onwards to my next destination…
(Twilight Sparkle’s Fortress of Friendship)
It had been five days since she had taken the responsibility of reforming the Tyrannical Centaur know as Lord Tirek. Five days of trying to convince the stubborn centaur that Friendship was important. Five days of hearing his thunderous snores shake the castle each and every night!
I took a deep breath to calm herself down. Ah, better. Yes, Tirek had proven to be a challenge.
I had first tried to get him involved on Applejack’s farm. Things seemed to be going fine at first, but then he sent twelve trees into Ponyville. Whether it was on purpose or by accident was up for debate.
After that, other ponies weren’t really willing to give the centaur the benefit of the doubt. It became increasingly hard to even get anypony to not avoid Tirek, nopony felt safe. This will be difficult…
But I would not fail!
“What are these disgusting things?” Tirek spat out a mouthful of pancakes bitterly.
Yeah, this was going to take a while.
“They’re called pancakes, Tirek, and it’s kinda rude thing to do….” I said, forcing a smile.
“Oh, I’m sorry.” Tirek sneered. “It was an unthoughtful thing for me to do, can you ever forgive me?” He asked sarcastically.
I was about to make a comment on his behavior, but our breakfast was interrupted by the dining room doors were slammed open. My five friends rushed in, their faces filled with worry.
Discord on the other hand jumped up from the ground. It was just a skeleton at first, then the pancakes lept from the table to cover his bones and they morphed into his flesh. To say that it was horrifying would be generous….
“And now I don’t want to eat pancakes every again.” I groaned to myself.
“Twilight!” Rainbow Dash shouted. “Our cutie marks are acting weird and Discord said some kind of magicwhat’sit is happening inside the castle!”
“Disturbance,” Discord growled, teleporting right in front of Tirek. “What did you do!?” He demanded, grabbing the centaur by the throat.
Tirek let out a choking sound as the Draconequus lifted him off the ground. I was shocked by Discord’s violent action, this was unusual for the mischievous prankster.
“What are you all talking about?” I asked in confusion. “Tirek has been with me this whole time, and what is this about the map?”
I used my magic and teleported Tirek out of Discord’s grip. The draconequus gave a snarl and jabbed a talon at me. “Something destroyed the Mirror Pool! That should be impossible, yet it happened.” He shouted in frustration, pacing around in anger.
“And now whatever magic remains is inside this castle. It just doesn’t make any sense! And not in a good way.” He threw his arms up before turning back to me. “Who else could have done it?”
“You could have,” Tirek laughed, a smirk on his face. Some of us shot skeptical looks towards the draconequus. While Tirek usually lied and stole from others, he had a point.
It was not long ago that the Spirit of Chaos had betrayed us for Tirek…
“Discord is reformed now!” Fluttershy interjected, defending her friend. “He would never do something like this!”
“He did before when you thought he was ‘reformed’,” He pointed out, making Discord flinch.
“Hello,” Rainbow Dash shouted to all of us. “While I hate to admit it, I believe Discord wouldn’t do this…and wasn’t it you who turned him on us the first time?” She stated. Tirek snorted and looked away from the daredevil.
Before the argument could continue, my cutie mark started to glow with the others. The map must want something, but what could it--
“Ohhhhhh noooo,” Discord wobbled. “Something bad, really bad, is happening. Someone is using the Mirror Pool’s magic right now!”
My thoughts went straight to the map. Could something terrible be happening to it? Did it have to do with the Mirror Pool? But what could it be, the only thing the Mirror Pool could do was copy--
Oh no…
“We need to go to the map, now!” I cried in fear, taking off to the map room. The others, even Tirek, followed me to see what I was going on about. On the way, the guards I had placed in the castle had noticed my distress expression and went after us.
Everypony was asking me what was wrong, but I ignored them. If my suspicions were true, then we didn’t have much time.
We reached the map room, the two guards that had been placed there lied in a pool of blood. Everypo-er, everybody reacted in shock and horror, even the centaur and draconequus.
“What the hell…” Discord recoiled at the sight before us, looking at the two ponies that lay dead before us.
I tried to open the doors, only to find them locked. With a cry of anger, I blasted the doors open to reveal the Cutie Map shaking uncontrollably. In front of the map stood a dark earth pony, if I could even call the abomination that.
It a slowly turned towards us, revealing that this pony was wearing some kind of armor.
“Well, what a pleasant surprise,” he said emotionlessly. I could see blood splattered his forelegs and chest. I had an inkling on who was responsible for the horrific act that played outside the room. “Princess Twilight Sparkle, I presume?”
“Who the hay are you, and what have you done?” I demanded, shaking in fear. It was like he was projecting fear from his very being. It made no sense, only somepony like Sombra could do that…
“I….I am your father,” He stated cooly. Though I could hear a smirk behind the mask.
All of us stared at him slack-jawed. Was he serious?
“Wh--what the hell are you even talking about?” Rainbow Dash shouted in annoyance.
“Hehe, you should have seen your faces,” He chuckled, holding a hoof up to his face to stifle his laughter. “Priceless!”
I teleported in front of the earth pony, lifting him up with my magic. “I will not ask again,” I snarled. “Who. Are. You!?”
The table continued to shake and I saw it slowly separate from another table. The table was duplicating, and from the bucket I saw next to it I had a pretty good guess on what was doing it.
“Feisty,” The offender tsked. “I’m just performing a little science experiment…no harm in that, is there?”
“NO--you killed two ponies!” Applejack cried at the pony’s madness. “What kind of pony--”
“Ah, looks like it’s done!” He said coolly. The others and I gasped as we saw a completely new Cutie Mark Table.
I let out a cry of pain as shadows leaked from his body, tearing my magical aura apart. He teleported away and appeared next to the table.
“So many uses, so many secrets,” He laughed. “And you just follow it so blindly, don’t you? Imagine the secrets this little table holds…I’m confused as to why you haven’t tried figuring it out yet, Twilight...”
His shadow started to peel off the wall, still in a two-dimensional form, and formed a box around the table. It stayed in its’ box form before melting into the ground, leaving nothing behind.
How? How could he have command over his own shadow? It took only the most skilled of unicorns to perform such a spell, and yet he was only an earth pony!
“Wh-who are you?” I asked, trembling as I spoke to him. He was like nothing I had ever meet. So cold…
“I am nothing,” He replied. He turned his head up towards the ceiling. “But, if it is a name you want…..you may call me Teridax.”
Our shadows started to leave us, much like his left him, and slowly circled the armored being. My friends look at him with confusion and fear. Even his name made me want to flee from his presence, names were powerful things…
“Oh, and I will be watching you very closely…” He laughed manically, his body almost completely faded from view, the shadows taking him to an unseen place. “Have fun with that thought…”
“Byeeeeeeee…”
And like that, he was gone.