The Thunder Wolf's Retribution

by Pinkie_Fatalis

Unexpected Reactions

The Day that Raiju was to meet with the dragons has come and he was already on his way. It was midday when he made it to the nest; he walked in and made his way towards the center while getting very angry looks from all of the dragons. One dragon flew over and landed in front of him stopping him in his tracks, it was the Rukodiora from before.

"What are you doing here Jinouga? You have a lot of nerve showing up at the nest."

"Out of the way...I have business here, and it isn't with you."

He showed the dragon the letter with the seal that only the elders can use. He immediately stepped out of the way and Raiju continued to the center, where he found an enormous cave that spiraled down to the heart of the nest. It eventually opened up into a large corridor that had large pools of lava on the sides. While walking through, he was stopped by a voice coming from the nearby pool of lava.

"So...you are the one who defeated Amatsu?” It said with a laugh. “She must be getting weak."

Amatsu flew into view and snapped back at the voice. "Shut up Guran-Miraosu! This Jinouga is a lot more resourceful than he looks."

"Whatever you say. Go ahead and grovel to your better." Its laughter could be heard fading away.

"Don't mind him, he's a jerk. The elders are waiting for you at the end of this corridor. Good luck, Crimson seems to be in a bad mood today, so keep your eyes to the ceiling in case a meteor decides to come crashing through."

"Thanks." He said, happy that he has an ally in high places.

He walked to the end of the corridor and entered a large room with three immense dragons standing on their back legs. Their limbs were small but appeared very muscular and their wings were enormous. The three all appeared the same except for their color and the shapes of the horns on their heads. The black one spoke first.

"Come in, we have been expecting you Raiju."

Raiju walked further into the room and waited for them to speak to him.

The black one spoke again. "So...why is it that you have requested to speak with us?"

Raiju took a deep breath and, after clearing his throat, answered him. "Well...I am here on behalf of Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria. I have been put in charge of defending their lands from attacks from dangerous species."

"Yes, we have heard of your accomplishments defeating general Amatsumagatsuchi. That is worthy of praise."

The red one now interrupted. "Oh enough of this meaningless small talk. Would you just tell us what you want?"

Raiju nervously began answering. "OK...In short I would like to request limiting entry into Equestria for dragons."

The red on became furious. "You want us to make it so dragons aren't allowed in Equestria?! NO. We refuse. Now leave."

Raiju began pleading by re wording what he said. "Wait you misunderstand dragons are always welcome in Equestria. It's just the ones who attack; we request that those who attack Equestria are punished so as to encourage them not to do so in the first place."

The black dragon responded first. "That seems fair to me, we should not be attacking a species so defenseless."
The red one began arguing with him. "WHAT?! You are going to side with him? Why should we give in to his demands? He isn’t even offering anything in return!"

"We have no right to be there in the first place. We also never informed them of our arrival here which puts their lives at risk. They were here first after all."

The two argued amongst themselves for a few minutes until a large bolt of red lightning struck between the two. They both turned and looked at the white dragon that was standing, angrily behind them. The black one then spoke, almost sounding afraid.

"Ok brother, what say you? Will we listen to this Jinouga and invoke a punishment for attacking Equestria?"
The dragon stood there for a moment, looking Raiju over. He then look back and forth between his two brothers and nodded his head. The red dragon let out an enormous roar as an explosion could be heard above them. The black dragon then began speaking.

"Well congratulations, our brother's say is final. We will send a letter with the finer details, but we assure you that dragons will no longer be an issue in Equestria. But be warned though. If they leave Equestria, we cannot punish them if they decide to attack them."

Raiju bowed to the three dragons and thanked them as he walked out of the room back into the corridor. He made a sigh of relief, and made his way out; he was stopped again by Generals Amatsumagatsuchi and Guran-Miraosu, who had returned to the pool of lava.

"So he's alive! We saw the meteor fall after that roar. Not many can say they've made Crimson angry and walked away."

"Yes." Amatsu said. "What is it that you said that made him so angry?"

Raiju responded. "It wasn't what I said that made him angry; it's that his brothers agreed to what I asked of them which made him angry. They agreed to discourage entry into Equestria for dragons by invoking a punishment to those who attack it."

"Really?!" The floating dragon responded, very surprised. "They must see something special about what you said to them for them to agree to something so important...well congratulations. They have never handed stuff like THAT out for free."

Raiju thanked her and quickly but calmly left the area. Once finally out of the nest he breathed a sigh of relief and silently congratulated himself as he made his way back to Equestria. He finally made it back to Ponyville a few days later, late at night and went to his home to get some rest. The next morning Raiju made his way to Ponyville to tell everypony the good news, but was stopped on his way by Twilight, her friends, and the two princesses. They looked angry as Raiju began talking to them, unaware of their anger.

"OH great I don't need to look for you to tell you the news."

Princess Celestia interrupted. "We already know...we got the letter."

"Great isn't it? I couldn't believe they agreed so quickly."

"Great?!" Twilight said with a sad look in her eyes. "Was everything really that meaningless to you?"

"Meaningless...what do you mean? Equestria is safer than ever."

"Safer?!" Princess Celestia snapped. "You're species is going to wipe out Equestria next year and you say Equestria is safe?! I knew I shouldn't have ever let you stay."

"My species is WHAT?! Let me see the letter."

They handed him the letter.

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To the inhabitants of Equestria,
It has come to our attention that the treaty set in place, nine hundred forty three years ago, has been made void by your side. Because of this we have decided that in one years’ time, we will invade Equestria. As is required by ancient law we are required to inform you that we will attack you on the day of the summer solstice at dawn. We will not barter for peace, and intend to enslave as many of your kind as we wish and wipe out all others. We look forward to a glorious battle.

-King Zeus

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After reading it he said. "No way...how did he find out?!"

"Exactly...your continued existence will be the death of us all."

"WHAT?! Me? This isn't my fault. He would have specifically mentioned my name."

"Then whose fault is it then?" The princess said, not believing him.

Raiju took a moment and said. "Both of yours." He pointed to the two princesses. "You, Celestia, you signed the treaty. If you remember correctly, one part of it read, and I quote. "The jinouga species as a whole is not allowed inside of Equestrian lands so long as the ruler does not change." YOU signed that treaty with YOUR name. My brother put that in as a loophole so that he could conquer Equestria at a later time, if not some other king. It said that so long as YOU are the ruler...you are no longer the ruler, you are the CO-ruler of Equestria with you sister."

"Wait...you mean to say that he put that in knowing my sister was imprisoned on the moon and that she would later be freed? I don't believe you. There is no way that they could have known that."

"You don't have to believe me. I know what is and what isn’t true! I was there when it was written and he told me about it afterwards. I'm going back to my cave...Let me know if something attacks Equestria and I MIGHT help."

Thundercloud, who was on Fluttershy's back, suddenly teleported to Raiju's head. He then walked back to his house in anger. Three days had passed and Raiju still hadn't left his home. Twilight, feeling bad, decided that she should go apologize to Raiju. She made it to his house, but before she could knock, she could hear him yelling at himself through the door.

"Why can I remember that spell?! He specifically told me it in detail so that I wouldn't forget."

A loud bang could then be heard from inside.

Twilight slowly opened the door and said. "Hello? Are you ok in here?"

Raiju turned around to see who was there and, after pulling his arm out of the wall, said. "Twilight? Why are you here? I thought you didn't trust me anymore." he said with an angry look on his face.

Twilight was looking at the floor, sad as she said. "Yeah...about that. I came here to apologize. I think we all just overreacted but we really need your help with all of this."

"I'm not really sure I can help...I couldn’t hope to defeat an army. I've spent the past few days trying to remember a spell I was taught that would be immensely helpful, but I just can't remember it."

"Spell? What kind of spell?"

Raiju sighed, sat down, and said. "You might want to sit down for this; it's going to be a long story." Twilight sat down in a nearby chair as Raiju prepared himself to explain. "You remember that I told you I interrogated prisoners during peace time? Well, after the war with Equestria, we had a few prisoners that were ponies. One of which was immensely useful to us, a unicorn very well acquainted with magic. We used him to charge our soldiers before any major battles. I was in charge of overseeing him and making sure he did what he was told, since he was what we would call a VIP prisoner. In short, after about eight years he began to open my eyes to what we were doing to other creatures, and five years later I began planning his escape. It took another six years before he fully developed the spell that aided in his escape. The spell was designed specifically against my species. Basically, it discharged us to an incredibly low state and froze our bodies so that we couldn't move or speech. It was non-lethal, but it gave enough time for him to escape during a guard meeting. Before he left, he explained the spell in great detail in case I ever needed to learn it...but that was almost nine hundred years ago and I don't remember it anymore."

"Wow...so you're saying that almost nine hundred years before you came to Equestria, you were friends with somepony?"

"I guess so...but I don't even remember his real name anymore. Since we didn't like speaking your language, we just called him something from our language. Kirin. It means prosperity, since our kind had a period of great success while he was under our imprisonment."

"Well what did he look like? You said he was well acquainted with magic; maybe he wrote a book when he got back to Equestria."

"Hmm...I remember that he was completely white, both his coat and mane. He had a beard...I don't remember his cutie mark. OH! He had a really silly hat on when we captured him."

"Silly hat? Wait it wasn't blue with stars on it was it?"

"Yeah it was. How did you know?"

"That must have been Star Swirl the bearded! One of the most intelligent unicorns ever. There are libraries all across Equestria dedicated to him alone."

"So maybe he wrote something about it in a book! We need to find that spell or we don't stand a chance against the Jinouga army." He looked away and continued. "But I can't help you...Nopony trusts me after the princess got that letter and assumed it was my fault. So I guess it's up to you...You need to find something written by him from late in his life. I do know that he was not young when he escaped; in fact he was downright old, for all I know he might have never made it back to Equestria, but in the hope that he did, I wish you luck Twilight. I don't want to scare you but, this could mean the end for Equestria should that spell not be found. If you can, try to get Princess Celestia to help she will likely know more than either of us. I will stay here and try my best to remember, but if you find anything that you think could help, bring it here. It might help jog my memory."

Twilight agreed and, after saying goodbye, she immediately went back home to the library, to begin her search for the spell.