A Strange Trip

by TheWhiteFreak

Ch. 3 Welcome to the War

Ch. 3 Welcome to the War

I made my way out of Ponyville; luckily most of the ponies had heard about me so they weren’t running and screaming but were still keeping their distance. I had left a different way than I had come in since I really didn’t know where I was going. I came upon a large dirt field with small holes dug around randomly.

’Hey, this must be where Rarity digs up her gems for her outfits. I wonder if those diamond dogs are still around.’

I shook the thought away and decided that this field was large enough for me to attempt to learn how to fly.

‘Step one; move my wings.’

I looked at my back and tested my new wing muscles, they twitched and quivered as they unfurled to their full length, which looked about fifty feet tip to tip. I furled and unfurled my wings a few more times until the motion became fluid, then I gave a testing flap, the loose dirt and dust on the ground was blown up around me causing me to cough and gag on the dust.

“Rule…*cough*… number one; hold breath… *cough* … when taking off on loose dirt.”

I again attempted a flap, this time holding my breath, bringing my wings down harder I felt my body lighten a little, not enough to bring me off the ground but enough to know that I was more or less doing the right thing.

‘Hmm… maybe if I jump as well as bring my wings down I can get off the ground.’

I widened my stance and crouched down, with my wings lifted high in the air, I pushed off the ground with all my considerable might and brought my wings down as hard as I could. I rocketed into the air, leveling out at about forty feet or so in the air as I extended my wings hoping to start gliding, I didn’t. I almost immediately started falling back to earth, I flailed my arms and wings wildly hoping it would slow my descent, which it did, barely. I brought my arms and legs down in an attempt to catch myself as I hit the ground on my stomach, resounding in a massive boom and knocking the wind out of me and a huge cloud of dust.

“*wheeze*…To Do List…*cough*… revision, learn to fly…*wheeze*… and land.”

As I caught my breath I could hear laughing coming from above me, I looked up and saw a lone cloud floating gently above me. Rainbow Dash looked down at me with tears in her eyes and continued rolling around on the cloud laughing.

“Yea, yea, laugh it up, you try sleeping for a couple of years and tell me if you don’t forget how do fly either.” I sarcastically snorted at her, “Why are you following me anyways? Isn’t there some weather you should be managing or something?”

Rainbow was still chuckling as she floated to the ground, “nah the weather is going to clear all day, and I followed you to make sure that you didn’t cause any more trouble as you left town.”

“I didn’t cause any trouble to begin with.” I snorted at her.

I then heard a strange noise come from the group of trees to the left of me a little ways away, like a blast of steam from a release valve, and then felt a dozen sharp needles stick into my back.

“Aaahh! What the fuck was that!?” I shouted out in surprise and looked behind me.

I saw what had cause the pain, a metal net that had sharp barbs on the tips of it had pinned my wings to my back and the barbs dug in between my scales. I heard another blast of steam and saw a second net wiz by me and hit Rainbow. She screamed out in pain as the net coiled around her and the barbs dug into her soft flesh causing her to bleed profusely more than the trickle of blood that I had, I tried to reach out to her to get the net off of her but I heard a third blast of steam, I whipped my head around to try and catch the net before it could harm her more but it wasn’t another net that was flying at me but a metal spear attached to a chain. The harpoon then pierced straight through my left forearm and embedded itself in the ground. I roared out in pain and collapsed on the ground, something was sapping my strength, I looked down at the harpoon embedded in my arm that was gushing with blood that sizzled as it hit the ground and saw a glowing black aura.

‘Magic? This thing is draining me?’

I looked to the trees where the projectiles had come from and I saw three diamond dogs walking towards me, each with what looked like a rocket launcher on their shoulders, one with the other end of the chain attached to his belt all wearing a victorious smile on their muzzles.

‘Since when can diamond dogs use weapons and magic?’

The dog with the chain was leading the others as he approached me.

‘Come on, come on, a little closer. GOT YA!’

I reared my head up and roared an inferno of flame right on the dogs. I kept it going for a good ten seconds before I stopped, the ground was melted, glowing red hot and releasing a large amount of black smoke. My head collapsed back onto the ground, between the blood loss and the strength sapping weapons I was exhausted.

“Is that best you got dragon?” a voice that sounded like someone was gargling asphalt came from the smoke.

‘No way! Those dogs should be ashes!’

I looked through the clearing smoke and saw the three dogs without so much as singed fur still wearing their smug smiles, the gems around their necks were glowing with a soft red aura.

‘Are you shitting me!? They have shields to protect them as well!?'

One of the other dogs looked to the center one, “This black dragon, very strong magic, not see one in two years, scale and bone sell good, make good weapons.” His voice was just as disgusting as the first’s.

“Dragon meat poison so pony make good snack too, other ponies in town make good food too.” The first spoke with a sadistic smile towards Rainbow.

My vision was fading fast; black was closing in around my eyes.

‘Shit, they are gonna cut me up and then eat Rainbow and the other ponies, I gotta do something. Move! Move! FUCKING MOVE!'

**

“I didn’t cause any trouble to begin with.” Taros snorted at Rainbow.

She was too busy watching him to notice the metal net come flying out of the trees and latch on to his back.

“Aaahh! What the fuck was that!?” he roared as he turned to look at the net, it began to glow with an evil black aura as it dug into his scales.

She was stunned by the sudden attack that she didn’t notice a second net come out of the trees and coil around her like a snake, barbs cutting deep gashes all across her body. She screamed with pain and collapsed on the ground, she was about to pass out when Taros let loose a blood-curdling roar as the harpoon pierced his left arm and began to glow with the same evil black aura as the net. She watched him collapse on the ground, his red eyes struggling to stay open as he fought the magic of the weapons. She then looked over when she heard the diamond dogs talk, but she couldn’t understand them, her senses were blurred by the loss of blood. She struggled to stay awake as Taros engulfed the dogs in a blast of fire and was horrified when they emerged unscathed. She watched him slump his head back to the ground his eyes slowly closing from exhaustion. Her eyes were closing too; she couldn’t keep them open any more, until she felt a tingle of magic charge through her body and forced her fully awake.

Even though pegasus magic is passive, they still have a faint magical sense, not nearly as much as unicorns but when it is especially powerful they too can feel it and this surge was like nothing she ever felt before. Her hair was standing up, the air smelled like ozone, she looked up at Taros and saw that his eyes were no longer red but glowing bright yellow. He brought his head out of the dirt, turned to face the diamond dogs and opened his mouth to breath fire again. But fire is not what came out, instead a massive bolt of lightning arced out of his mouth, in a second the lightning had reached the dogs, with a massive crack and flash of light, they howled out in pain as the sparks arced through their bodies, flash-boiling blood, searing muscle and charring skin. In a second it was over, the dogs were no more, all that remained were charcoal husks of what used to be dogs. Taros’ eyes finally closed and his head hit the ground with a resonating thud, the magic that was keeping Rainbow awake also faded and she too succumbed to unconsciousness.

**

When you blackout, you don’t dream, you don’t remember blacking out, you just wake up however many hours later wondering how you got there. It had happened to me before when I drank too much and ended up in the bed of a woman I didn’t know, needless to say, it wasn’t a good way to wake up. This time I simply woke up lying on the ground, my head was pounding, my body ached and I was hungry again.

‘Oh man what happened? ... THE DOGS!’

My eyes sprang open as I shot my head up and began feverishly looking around, trying to find out where the dogs were. I was so focused on finding the dogs I didn’t even see the small purple dragon at my feet. I hissed when I was greeted by a screaming pain in my left arm. I looked down and saw that my arm where I had been hit by the harpoon now had a bandage on it with little scribbles on the cloth.

“Twilight! Come quick! He’s awake!” Spike shouted at the library that I was laying in front of.

“Fuck, what the hell happened?” I asked while clutching my head with my right claw.

“You and Rainbow got attacked by a diamond dog raiding group; they are a nasty piece of work, running from town to town capturing ponies for food and slave labor. I didn’t know they had the power to take down a dragon though. We all came running when we heard you roar and when we got there we saw you and rainbow unconscious, wrapped up in those nets and the dogs were nothing but charcoal.” Spike explained to me.

“Why were they so close to a pony town? Shouldn’t there be some guards to protect the town or something? What are the princesses doing if they let something dangerous as that roam the country?” I grumbled while I continued to rub my head.

“We do have a treaty of neutrality for the war so the majority of it does not come to Equestria, but there is only so much a treaty can protect against and my guards are already spread so thin.” A new voice spoke from the door to the library.

I looked towards the door and saw none other than Princess Celestia in all her regal glory walking out the door, followed by the Mane 6, even Rainbow was there, covered in bandages and limping slightly.

“Well, if it isn’t the legendary Princess Celestia, nice to finally meet you Princess.” I gave her a small smirk and a head nod.

“And it is nice to meet you too, I thought that all the black dragons went extinct two years ago when the war escalated in the Battle of Burning Plains so imagine my surprise when my precious student wrote me saying one had waltzed right into town.” She said with her motherly voice and gentle smile.

‘That’s the second time I’ve heard that black dragons were rare.’

“Those dogs mentioned something similar to that when I saw them, are the black dragons really all gone?” I asked her.

“From what the Dragon Queen told me when I saw her last, yes, she said that the Blacks, having superior magic and strength compared to the other colors, were the standard bearers and were the first to charge into battle, which lead to many of them getting killed. Before the Queen noticed, the last of them were killed off in the Battle of Burning Plains.” Celestia lost her gentle smile as she explained what happened to my particular breed.

“Wow I didn’t know about that, so much has happened since I went to sleep.”

‘Dragon Queen? Does that mean dragons are ruled as a monarchy as well? I thought we were all on our own.’

“But enough of such a somber topic, I heard from Twilight that you saved not only gentle Fluttershy from timberwolves but also dear Rainbow Dash from those diamond dog raiders one week ago.” Her smile had returned as she was praising me.

‘Wait… did she just say a week? Have I been asleep that long?’

“Did I really sleep for a whole week?” I asked her.

“I am afraid so, it quite some time to get those magic draining weapons off of you and when we did your magic was so depleted we were afraid that you wouldn’t wake up. I even gave you some of my own magic to make sure we didn’t lose you.” Her smile got a little bigger.

“Well then, I guess I’m in your debt, thank you for saving me Princess Celestia, and you all as well.” I bowed my head and looked over at the Mane 6.

“Don’t you dare say that!” Rainbow stumbled forward with the help of Fluttershy, “You saved my life, if anything I still owe you.” She said with her same brave face.

My stomach once again felt the need to put its two-cents into the conversation as it growled at me, “Oh shut-up you.” I said while looking down at my stomach.

Everyone shared a hearty laugh at my very rude stomach. I then saw the same chest that Rarity presented to me a week ago (apparently) but this time it was filled to the point of overflowing with the purest gems that I had ever seen, there wasn’t a single one that had even a hint of a flaw.

“It took me all week to find all of these but I wanted to make sure you had something good to eat when you woke up.” Rarity was beaming with pride over the haul that she had acquired for me.

“Thanks Rarity.” I reached for a diamond about the size of a softball and proceeded to devour it, it tasted like the best ice cream in the world, bar none.

'I wonder how many millions of dollars I have in my stomach.'

The thought only made me chuckle to myself as I grabbed a large chunk of amethyst and chomped down on it as well, it tasted like a fresh vine of grapes, as I continued to consume gem after gem, I then heard a small whisper under the crunching in my mouth.

“Shh… he’s gonna hear us if you keep making so much noise.”

“If’n he’s gonna hear us, why are you talkin’ so loud.”

“I’m not.”

“Yes you are.”

“No I’m not.”

“Yes you are.” I said while lifting my tail to reveal the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

The all gasped as they were exposed, but not in fear, more like they we playing hide and seek and I just found them.

“So what are the town’s dragon slayers doing now?” I said earning a chuckle from everyone present.

“We are learning the proper way to sneak up on a dragon, how did you notice us?” Sweetie asked me.

“Well for starters it usually helps if you aren’t talking when you are right behind said dragon, we have very good hearing and arguing will definitely give you away.”

“See! I was right, you were too loud Scoots. Come on we got to go back into hiding before we try again.” She took off around a building, the other crusaders following behind.

“Thanks Mr. Dragon, we’ll be sure to be extra sneaky next time.” Sweetie shouted as she followed the others.

“You’re welcome; and its Taros not Mr. Dragon!” I shouted as the fillies when out of sight and I returned to my lunch.

“You are very good with foals; do you have any hatchlings of your own?” Celestia inquired.

“Ha-ha, no, can’t say that I do, I’ve lived alone for most of my life, ‘lone wolfing' it so to speak. Never met the right dragoness I guess.” As I finished off the last gems and crossed my arms and laid my head down, being careful of my wounded left.

“That is a shame; you would surely make a good father. Now if you will excuse me there is a great deal of work piling up back at the castle and my younger sister is bound to be getting overwhelmed by it.” She backed away from me as I gave here a nod and was engulfed in a bright golden flash and was gone.

'Ha, me a father? That would be something to see.'

“So Twilight how much longer is my arm gonna be in this bandage?” I gave it a gingerly shake not wanting it to start hurting again.

“You should be ok in a day or two; the magic from the princess, the gems you ate and the magic runes on the bandage should speed up the recovery.”

I looked up and noticed the sun setting the sky on fire in a beautiful display of reds and oranges as it slowly sunk beneath the horizon.

“Well I guess I get some sleep then. Goodnight everyone, I mean everypony.” I curled my body till the tip of my tail was next to my snout.

“Goodnight Taros.” Each mare gave their goodnights as they slowly walked to their homes, Twilight helping Rainbow back into the library where she was staying while she healed.

As I drifted off to sleep, I failed to notice the sickly-green dragon eyes staring at me from behind a building, hiding their true form with that of a pony.

Comments

[TheWhiteFreak]

754654
I never said rusty but I like your way of thinking

[Soviet Fluttershy]

Dun dun DUNNNNNNNNNNNNNdl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/sillyfilly_Derpy_Hooves.png

[TheWhiteFreak]

756147
Hooray, I earned a
*removes glasses*
BOLD comment
*replaces glasses*
YYYYYEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHH!

[shadowless_night]

756159 my reaction to that joke
24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m5m2tiWoR11qkegu7o1_400.gif
and what is it about his name Taros that reminds me of the elder scrolls 4 oblivion?

[Chronicler]

Awsome story is awsome bro. Tracking.

[TheWhiteFreak]

756395
Not sure why it reminds you of oblivion I kinda just pulled it out of my ass cause it sounded cool, it may have been since I've been playing chrono trigger recently and the main baddy is Lavos and as for the joke I am almost positive no one has done it before

[shadowless_night]

756459 i worked it out it reminds me of oblivion cause of the human god talos and how it was the dragn god akatosh that blessed him as a god (i think anyway) its been a while since ive looked into elderscrolls lore

[TheWhiteFreak]

756505
Of course, I had total forgotten about him, it may have indeed affected my choice on the name but then again my head is a jumble of video games, anime, youtube and porn so who know where i may unconciously draw inspiration from... I will try to keep the porn out though

[shadowless_night]

756520 my mind is a messed up puzzel of games movies books school exams work my little pony and a completly vivid imagenation with the ability to daydream at will..... i dont think about porn much though and yes i think we would all apreciate it if u kept the porn part of your brain out of the story just saying