The Powers That Be

by Anthri

The Successor Of Fate

The battle was over and many changeling gave their lives to help the cause. The field was littered with the dead and Chrysalis was sure to remind the others of her sacrifices. Every-pony walked over to Luna and Celestia who were lying on the ground next to each other. Twilight had a look of worry, getting next to Celestia's body to see if she was okay. Celestia had been asleep the entire time.

“I think you have spoiled her Twilight.” Luna said with annoyance on her face.

“What?” Twilight looked confused.

“You always take care of things for her.” Luna replied.

“And I always will...” Twilight said smiling while petting Celestia's mane with a hoof.

Luna rolled her eyes then violently shook her sister, waking her in a abrupt shock. Celestia's eyes came wide open as her pupils looked around to see everypony surrounding her.

“I guess its back to work?” Celestia half grinned. Lauren just shook her head and began walking away. Celestia saw Twilight and the lavender alicorn stopped stroking her in embarrassment.

“Are you okay Twilight?” Celestia asked.

“Yes, princess.” she blushed.

Celestia got on her hooves and walked with her mother. They both found Discord in the field lying on his back and he was blowing on a dandelion nonchalantly.

“Well?” Celestia asked.

“Well what?” he sighed.

“Are you going to help us in this war?” she asked.

“I don't know. I try to stay away from actual violence.” he frowned but didn't get up.

Lauren and Celestia were met halfway by the others. “What now?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“Well, Luna, Celestia and I are going to climb the hill over there and wake up their dad.” Lauren said.

In the distance Chrysalis was talking to what was left of her changeling army as they were taking care of the sick and dead.

“Only his kin can help reanimate him at a faster pace. Once he is revived, we will begin to seal Chaos again. He will have no chance at returning because his avatar is no more. I want everyone to be there when Craig comes back.”

They all nodded and traveled with Lauren up the hill to the temple. Inside it was dark and Fhil noticed it was much similar to Chaos's. Leading straight into the main room with a door that had a strange symbol on the wall of a circle with two arrows combining into each other. It reminded Fhil of two heads eating each other in a never ending cycle.

The door opened and a red light filled the dark room. “Go into the light, Luna and Celestia.” Lauren told them.

Luna wanted to meet her dad, Celestia was uncertain about it. They walked into the light and it engulfed them. The blinding light made everypony shut their eyes and when it receded, Luna and Celestia were standing next to the newly reincarnated black dragon.

“Hello girls, it's finally nice to meet you.” Craig smiled.

“But unfortunately, we cannot catch up with you two.” Lauren cut in.

“That's true. We have to seal away Chaos for good and then after that, we will not get into the affairs of mortal beings anymore.” Craig said sadly.

“But..” Luna started.

“Discord and Discordia still have the power to change that. He knew this was coming and if you don't stop her, she will release Chaos again.” Craig said.

“How?” Celestia asked.

“Possession.” Lauren said grimly.

“They have the exact magical signatures of his avatar although they are less powerful, he will have to make due with that.” Craig said.

“We will stop Discordia.” Celestia said angrily.

Luna looked at her sister. “And we need to stop these dragons too.”

Lauren shook her head at Celestia. “You will not. You will go with your two sisters to Canterlot and finish rebuilding. I want to give the task of the dragons to the Elements of Harmony.”

“They can't take on those dragons by themselves!” Celestia said frantically.

“True but you do have him.” Craig pointed at Fhil.

“Me?” Fhil said backing away slowly. “Look I tried but I cannot do a damn thing physically or magically to anything. I want to help but that is just suicide.”

“You've heard some of the dragons stories. You will know how to avoid this war.” Lauren smiled.

“I doubt it..” he grumbled.

Craig stepped forward and held out his hand. “We will show you all of the history of the one they call Av.”

Lauren's horn lit up with a golden magic and using it, the entire group was watching a flashback of event's a millennium ago.

Once, there was Craig and he walked alone in the world while Harmony scattered all of Creations beings. His kin, the dragons, went with him and from egg to adult Craig raised them and was known to them as the Elder Dragon.

Craig taught his kin everything he wanted them to know, mainly his plans to cover the world in fire. Many generations passed and his dragon force grew in size till Craig started thinking about a successor to handle his charge of leading them. He went to Lauren, the god of Creation and commissioned a new kind of dragon, one who would be able to lead his kin to their destiny.

Lauren used her magic and a white egg with golden dots appeared before them, floating with the help of her horn's power. “In this egg beats the heart of a leader. Refine it and he will not disappoint you.” Lauren told him. “It's amazing really, this is the second special thing I've made this week.” Craig didn't know what she meant by this, but it was the birth of Chrysalis.

Craig left and put the responsibility of raising the egg on the shoulders of some of the female dragons, telling them that it was their future, so it was carefully taken care of. He then took responsibility of taking care of the creature when it hatched. The ways of the dragon were taught to the new hatch-ling and Craig carefully laid out his plans so that the newborn would do things he intended for the future.

When the young one became of age, eighteen years to be exact, Craig flew with the young dragon to a distant jungle. “You will remain here until you conquer the evil the plagues this land. You will know what it is soon enough. Also, be creative. They are creatures of Chaos that seek to rival us in the destruction of this world.” Craig then left the young one there to discover his destiny in that land.

Craig was right, it did not take long for the young dragon to notice there were almost no animals in the jungle. He flew up and saw wild fires spot the area. In the distance he saw charred and burning land and a large mountain in its center. He assumed that it was the source of the devastation. Flying straight there, he was attacked by birds that were engulfed in flames. They were so vicious that he was forced to flee and lose them by dropping below the jungles canopy.

Over the next few days, he had learned of various nest scattered around the jungle. These nest were made of thorns and usually circled phoenix eggs. He realized by causing a distraction elsewhere, its guardians would fly off in that direction to investigate. This gave him the chance to smash the eggs. It made sense to him because they didn't die the usual way. He saw that they came back alive when they lived long enough. The dragon didn't take the chance that this was a never ending cycle, he just needed to kill the leader or perhaps mass genocide the entire nest he knew was located in that mountain.

The successor had a plan. He took his time using the distraction method but instead of smashing the eggs, he kept them. The dragon succeeded in amassing a large collection of eggs from all the nest in the territory. He then proceeded to walk into the mountain with eggs in tow using a makeshift vine net. The creatures dare not attack him in fear of losing a lot of the next generation of their kind. He made his way through the tunnels while they all kept a steady flight behind him. Soon he came to a large area inside and he discovered it was a dormant volcano. But a large phoenix roosted on a rock towards the centers edge. He got close enough until the phoenixes looked as if they were about to disregard the hostages and attack him anyways. He swung the vine net off the cliff into the awaiting magma pool. Most of the birds flew after it but they didn't realize that the dragon used this as another distraction to get at the Queen.

The dragon put his hands around the flaming bird and decided to close its throat. This bird was smaller from a distance needless to say, so the teenage dragon was swept up in its flight. Holding on while the phoenix climbed, it went through the small opening in the roof of the volcano. The scene was wild. Flames shot forward as the Queen emerged through the hole with a newly transformed dragon much larger than it clutching its throat still, the bird had died in his grasp.

Then Craig flew down to him, the new dragon towered over his master.

Craig spoke to Av. “ This mountain is called Mount Avuruad and because you have killed its owner, you are now called, Avuruad.” With that completed, they both flew back home.

The phoenixes have since then died off to low numbers thanks to the dragons martyr of nearly a whole generation. Soon, the dragons would inhabit the volcano, keeping eye on their former enemy and teaching their young to smash the eggs when and if they see them
.
Craig explains to Av that he is to lead the dragons and to find others who will help him. Ones that have done what he has done today. Craig then leaves the world and Avuruad sets out to build his horde.

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The flashback ended and everypony stood in silence. “You must go to Skadholm and end this.” Craig said.

Lauren cut in, “Knowing you for such a short time and that my daughter, Celestia has come to rely so much on you, I have faith in you all.”

Every-pony nodded knowing what lay in wait. Celestia and Luna went to speak with Craig in private, catching up just a bit as Lauren wanted to talk to the ponies from Ponyville.

Fluttershy was the most nervous so Lauren spoke to her first. “You've been very quiet all this time. Tell me... what's on your mind?”

Fluttershy trembled at the intimidating aura this holy alicorn brought with her. “I.. um..” she stuttered. “I'm scared of the dragons.”

“You won't have to fight them, if Fhil does everything right. Believe in your friends and you will come back home safe.” Lauren put a hoof on her shoulder for reassurance. The scared pegasus nodded and walked away.

Pinkie was next, Lauren could tell she was dying to talk. “Only say what is most important to you. We have little time Pinkie Pie.”

“Do you think dragons need to eat meat? Cause, I want to bake them a cake!” she giggled.

Lauren put a hoof to her chin and thought about it. “You should be the first to try that Pinkie.” Pinkie smiled and hopped away.

Rarity came next. “All this traveling is bad on my mane.” she said bitterly. “BUT, a small sacrifice for my friends. The things I do for them!”

“What do you think about your future situation?” Lauren asked curiously.

“I'll give it my all until I can give no more.” Rarity told her smiling.

“I hope you mean that. You may just have to.” Lauren nodded.

Rarity looked puzzled at this. She strolled away to her friends.

Applejack walked up and took her hat off. “I appreciate all you've done for us miss.” she said.

“You're welcome Applejack.”

“I know I can't fly or use fancy magic but I'm sure there will be other ways that I can help my friends other than being part of Harmony.” she sighed.

“Each of you possesses a special quality that make up Harmony. I'm sure you can use that to your advantage if fighting fails for you.” Lauren smiled.

AJ smiled and left and Rainbow Dash hovered over to her.

“I was talking about racing dragons earlier. Do you think we can ever live in peace?”

Lauren laughed. “Yes. Look at me and Craig. Opposites but we use what we have in common to strengthen our bond and what we don't have in common, we share with each other.”

“I hope that applies to them too.” Dash said flying away.

Lauren looked towards Twilight and beckoned her. Twilight was unsure of what to say. “I'm smart?” she laughed nervously.

“You know you are.” Lauren laughed too. “You can use that.”

“I never asked for this.” Twilight told her.

“Celestia tells me that around the time you came to Ponyville, you found interest in the tale of Nightmare Moon. You were given the power to backup your curiosity and the will to save your friends.”

“Yeah..” Twilight nodded smiling.

“She knows you can do it Twilight Sparkle.”

After that, everypony said their goodbyes. Luna and Celestia were teleported back to Canterlot. Chrysalis had some issues but went with them. Celestia would go before her subjects to help ease the changelings into helping the city.

And then with a flash, Twilight and friends opened their eyes to a large castle among the mountains.

Fhil stepped forward. “This is Skadholm, city of dragons.” The sun was setting and the city cast long shadows around and within.