Conduit

by Darkscout99

Dragons

“Aaand, done!” I grinned. “Now I just need to test it. Should probably go into the forest. Last time I tried one of these out, it blew up.” I mumbled to myself. grabbing the crystals, a full love crystal, and an empty one, I set out into the forest. After reaching a respectable distance from the house, I put one of the crystals on the ground with the full love crystal on top of it, and walked a little while away. When I got where I wanted to go, I held the transfer crystal to the empty love crystal. A few seconds passed as nothing happened. Then the love from the first crystal flew into the second, filling it instantly. The flow then suddenly snapped off. A few seconds later and it didn’t explode.

“I guess that counts as a success.” Walking back to the first transfer crystal, I noticed that it had a tiny crack in it. Looking back at the second crystal, i noticed it had a crack in it too. “Huh. that’s not good.” I had just gotten back to the house when RD smacked into the wall beside me.

“How do you manage to be both the best flyer and the best crasher in Equestria?” I asked as she peeled herself off the wall.

“Skill. Also, we need your help with a dragon.”

“A dragon. The fire breathing type?” she nodded her head. “Of course. I’m starting to get the feeling being friends with you six will be a lot of trouble. Fun trouble, but trouble.” she stood up.

“Well I have to go prep for our trip. Twilight sent me here to get you since, as you admitted, I’m the best flyer in Equestria. See ya!” she took of in a rainbow blur. I looked at the crystals in my hand and sighed.

“One day I’m going to finish you, but it does not seem that today is the day.” walking into zecora’s hut, I put the crystals into their hiding spot before telling zecora what I was doing and grabbing some extra supplies. Slipping them into my pack, I also grabbed the knives Aaron gave to me. I always wore the armor, but the knives were a little harder to conceal and ponyville didn’t like me carrying around knives. The final thing I grabbed was my travel cloak.

When I reached the square, Twilight had just finished setting everything up. “Alright girls, move out!” They suddenly burst out into a stampede, carrying a reluctant fluttershy with them, and leaving me behind. I spun my feet around before clapping my hands together and channeling earth magic into my feet. I then bolted after them. Somehow, just as they made it to the mountain, i caught up.

“So just because I’m a guy I get left behind?” twilight turned and looked at me, before putting her hoof to her head.

“I’m so sorry DJ, I don’t know why but for some reason I forgot to wait for you. Guess it was lucky that you managed to catch up to us.”

“Yeah, so all I know is that there is a dragon, and I’m assuming it is the cause for the smoke. We here to get rid of it?”

“Sorta, we don’t want to harm it, but we do want to encourage it to sleep somewhere else. The smoke it’s putting out would cover equestria for 100 years!”

My eyes opened wide in alarm. “Saying that’s bad is like saying nightmare moon was a little irritated. We need to stop it immediately. Up the mountain?” She nodded and walked over to the side of the cliff. The other girls followed her as she put her hoof on the rock face. She then lifted a second, third, fourth hoof onto the wallish surface. The only one who stayed behind other than me was fluttershy.

“How do they do that?” I asked.

“Do what?” fluttershy asked back. I looked at her. She was hiding inside a bush, but her head was peeking out enough that I could see her.

“Walk up nearly vertical surfaces.”

“Ok, everypony can do that. It’s the magic in our hooves, it allows us to grab things. We can also use it to walk up close to wall like surfaces. If it’s completely upright though we can’t do it.”

“Cool. I wonder…” I clapped my hands together and started searching through my stored magics. Changeling, unicorn, pegasus, earth pony, Zecora’s, a bit of dragon magic from spike, but nothing special. Grabbing the largest mana pool I had, changeling magic, I placed my hand to the wall and mentally gripped. When i tried to move it away, it slid right off. I put my hand back and grabbed as hard as I could. When my hand couldn’t move any further, I tried to move it away. This time it stuck like glue. I smiled and placed my second hand on. When I got to my feet it was a little bit harder, but i managed to do it.

We got halfway up the cliff before looking down. “C’mon fluttershy, we need you!” twilight shouted.

“But, it’s so steep.” she replied.

“Fluttershy, you just taught me how to do, what’s in my world, the impossible. Just fly up.”

“O-ok. I’ll try.” she pulled her wings from her side and started to flap them slowly. As she rose, it was evident she was no RD, but she could fly. When she had about matched where the ponies above me were, a loud snore shook the earth. Fluttershy’s wings stuck to the side of her body before she plummeted to the ground. Not being able to do anything, I had to watch as she luckily fell into a bush. When she emerged, i could see her struggling to start flying again, but she literally couldn’t pull her wings off the side of her body.

“Deus ex machina’s aren’t always good.” I mumbled to myself before shouting up to the other ponies. “I’ll get her up there somehow.” I started to climb back down the mountain before jumping off the last bit.

After doing a quick roll for a landing, I brushed myself off and went to fluttershy. I heard a thwack on the ground beside me. When i picked it up the and unrolled it, i found a map of the mountain. Sadly, the shortest way around the mountain would take multiple hours, compared to the first way that would have taken a few minutes. When i had gotten around the first bend, I turned to fluttershy.

“I’m going to try something, please don’t be afraid. I’m going to turn into the manticore. That way I can carry you easier and faster. I’ll still keep my mind, so you really don’t have to be afraid.”

With that, i clapped my hands together and crouched down before plating them on the ground. I tried to copy all of a manticore’s features. With a flash of green light I managed to attain the manticore form. Sadly this lasted all of two seconds as the disguise backfired and sent my flying backwards. I smacked into the rock face behind me hard. I heard a gasp and saw fluttershy staring at me.

“I-I’m ok.” i said as i got to my hooves. Hooves? I looked down at my hands and realised that when i lost my manticore form it had also dropped my human form, so I was standing in front of fluttershy with a form that could match celestia’s height. Combine that with the black chitin and holes to make one terrified fluttershy.

Without thinking i blurted out “Don’t scream!” before looking at her for a second longer, “You’re too terrified to scream aren’t you?” she nodded her head. I got down and put my legs under myself, strangely comfortable in pony-ish forms. Even while doing this, i was looking her in the face. Still better than looking down at her from twice her height.

“It’s still me fluttershy. I haven’t changed. Well, my body has. And i’m not the leader of a hive mind. Other than that though, i haven’t changed.”

“We-were you always a-a, whatever you are?” she asked.

“Changeling. And no, i wasn’t always one. In fact, the change was rather recent. Just a few weeks ago actually. Remember when twilight got the gala tickets? That night i learned about changelings.”

She seemed to be becoming more comfortable around me. Still on guard, but not scared to the point of shaking. “So what are they like? Changelings?”

“Mine are friendly, but secretive. The magic that allows me to shapeshift? That’s theirs.”

“That’s how you beat trixie?”

“Yep. used a magic she couldn’t use. At least, not without extensive training. Do you have any other questions?”

“Why do you have holes all over your body?”

That caused me to pause for a moment. “I have no idea, all I know is that touching the inside of one hurts. Now, I think we need to get going, if we take too long the others will get worried and come looking. Hop on my back.”

“A-Are you sure, I wouldn’t want to be a burden.”

I rolled my eyes. “Fluttershy, i’m almost three times as big as you, it won’t bother me.” she whimpered and started to slowly move backwards. With a sigh i grabbed her in my magic and put her onto my back. She gave a squeak as she landed but put up no fight. Standing up i started to trot at a good pace. When i felt confident about being able to go at a good pace without tiring out too quickly, i ran as fast as i could. When i felt fluttershy start to slide backwards, i used my magic to create thin lines that held her in place without wasting too much mana. A little while later, and after using up almost all of my earth pony and changeling magic, i finally reached the top. After getting fluttershy off, i changed back into a human and used up the last of my magic reserves. I was now left with unicorn magic and a rather decent supply of pegasi magic. We walked the rest of the way on foot.

Rounding the corner, i yelled out to twilight. “Hey! We’re here!”

She turned around. “Hey Aaron, how did you get up here so fast? It should have taken you twice as long to get up here as you did.”

I pointed downwards. “Longer legs.” she looked unconvinced but dropped it.

“Ok ponies and human, we need to get moving.” we started towards the next area that we needed to traverse. There was one problem, a small crack in the ground had split open at some point, meaning a small gap needed to be jumped over. The only danger it posed was to a foal, but fluttershy didn’t seem to think so. Pinkie grinned. “It’s not very far, just move your little rump, you can make it with a hop skip and jump!”

Twilight started to get irritated. “C’mon we don’t have all day!”

“A hop skip and jump, a hop skip and jump…” she bounced back and forth while repeating these lines. Not wanting to camp out on top of a mountain, i stepped back over the crack and bend down over fluttershy.

“You can do this, want me to go with you?” she nodded her head and i picked her up. She whimpered at being so high off the ground, but with a single step she was put down again. We then started walking across the mountain pass. When we were halfway through, pinkie started to bounce instead of walk.

“Stop that pinkie, the map said this is an avalanche zone!” with that fluttershy decided to make the loudest noise she had made yet.

“Ava- ava-” she was cut off with a resounding SHH sound from everyone present. That didn’t stop her though. “AVALANCHE?!” she screamed. We all froze as her yell bounced around the cliff. When after a few seconds nothing happened, we all let out a sigh of relief. Then the universe decided to intervene as we heard the rumbling start. The ponies looked at each other and bolted. Without earth pony magic I was much slower than any of them, so I quickly fell behind. With the rocks crashing down around me i did the only thing i could do. Spinning around, i channel magic into my hands and forced the rock closest to me away. I quickly turned back and threw a second rock away. Time blurred as i kept myself alive, a third rock, a fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, i lost count soon after. My arms and hands burned at being forced to channel so much mana, something they weren’t designed to do. I quickly burned through all the unicorn magic i had, and resorted to using the scrap of alicorn magic from when i was in the castle. Instead of using it to move rocks away, it pulsed out and incinerated all of the rocks around me. Not expecting such a powerful surge of magic, it knocked me out cold.
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I woke up an unknown amount of time later. Hearing the crackling of a fire, i opened my eyes and turned towards the sound. Six ponies could be seen sitting around it. I struggled to get up, and realised that my legs were refusing to obey me. When they heard the sound of me trying to get up, their heads shot in my direction and they scrambled to get over to me.

“Are you ok DJ? We saw you throwing rocks around and then WOOSH! All the rocks just disappeared! Rainbow flew back to get you like ZOOM! And…” Pinkie started crying, “you weren’t moving and we couldn’t get over to you. We were so scared!” i grabbed her into a hug that the others soon joined.

“Don’t worry pinkie, i’m fine. Well, my legs don’t want to seem to work, but other than that i’m good.”

“That’s to be expected when calling upon powerful magic DJ, parts of the body stop working for awhile. You should be fine by tomorrow. Let’s get some rest before we have to set out in the morning.” Twilight told me. With that they dragged me over to a tent and put me in a sleeping bag. I didn’t manage to sleep all night.

When the ponies got me a few hours later i had managed to get on my feet, but at this point i had managed burn almost all my mana. I had only pegasus magic left now, with only a slight scrap of earth and unicorn magic left. We started out again and somehow made it to the cave.

“Cold up here isn’t it?” i asked.

“Yeah.” said pinkie.

“Not really.” said rainbow.

“Absolutely.” said rarity.

“N-no.” said fluttershy.

A “Yep.” came from applejack.

“Yes.” twilight replied.

I stared at the the two pegasi. While everyone else was shaking and i was holding onto my arms trying to warm them up, they looked like it might as well be the middle of summer to them. I tried to channel pegasus magic through my body like earth magic, and i succeeded in making myself warmer. Dropping my arms i could feel the relief that the warmth brought. The non pegasus ponies looked at me jealously.

With using the magic though came another effect. My bones hollowed out and became much lighter. I didn’t realise this until i tried to walk though. Not knowing about this i took a step forward and rammed my knee into my jaw throwing me back. In a world where a limb weighed as much as a filly, my muscles weren’t accustomed to moving something as light enough that with some wings i could probably fly. It was even more painful as i tried to get up with my limbs flailing everywhere. Eventually i got it through my head that if i wanted to move i would have to exert barely any force.

I managed to get up with only minor cuts and bruises, save the one on my chin. Rainbow was laughing the whole time, but everyone else looked concerned. I waved a hand at them.

“Just a little unexpected side effect of the magic. On a side note, did you know that pegasus ponies are much lighter than other types?”

Twilight was the one who responded. “Yeah but we didn’t know it was because of their magic. I’m going to have to run some tests on you when we get back, and see how much their mass drops compared to if they weren’t pegasus ponies.” i groaned but agreed. She then ran over who was doing what.

“So fluttershy and i will attempt to talk to the dragon, RD will clear the smoke, pinkie and rarity will make a distraction if need be, finally, Aaron and Aj will provide backup if necessary. Let’s go fluttershy. Fluttershy?”

“I-i can’t go in.”

“Fluttershy, you’re the best with animals here, you can do this.” i said trying to comfort her. It failed.

“But it’s a dragon!”

“And so is spike, but you have no problem with him.” twilight cut in.

“Yes, but he couldn’t eat me in one gulp!”

“He’s still strong enough to bite limbs off if he wanted too.” twilight replied. all that did was make fluttershy terrified of spike. “Look, i’ll go in with you if you want me to fluttershy. I’ll protect you two.” with a final gulp, fluttershy agreed to enter the cave. The whole time we moved she was cowering behind my legs. When we finally reached the dragon, she somehow hid behind me even further.

“Hello there mister dragon, we were wondering if you could uh, find somewhere else to sleep?” the dragon responded by turning over and letting out another belch of smoke in our faces. We all stumbled out of the cave coughing.

“I’m going to take that as a no.” i said. Rarity came up.

“Well, let us try something with a little bit more charm.” rarity said slyly. She walked into the cave. After another belch of smoke, the burst out of the cave coughing too. Then pinkie tried, and after walking in with what i thought was the most ridiculous outfit, she walked out with a broken form of it. Rainbow had enough at this point.

“THAT’S IT, I’M GOIN IN THERE!” she screamed as bolted towards the cave. A few shouts later, she came rushing out of the cave in a panic. The dragon soon appeared behind her. not being confident enough to challenge the dragon, all of us backed us into corner. then it roared at us. for some reason unknown to me, this set fluttershy off.

“HEY!” she roared back at the dragon. Never before had i seen her this angry. scratch that, this couldn’t even be considered angry. i couldn’t decide on furious, enraged, or murderous though. she flew up to the dragon and started ranting at it.

“you big menie pants, you can’t just go around harassing ponies!” the dragon was visibly cowering at this point.

“but, the blue one hit me.” he tried to throw the blame off of himself. it failed.

“I know, and she’s very sorry, but that doesn’t give you the right to go around harassing our friends. say you’re sorry, then go find another cave to sleep in that won’t cover equestria in smoke!” with the last line she shoved her face into the dragons and stared him down. He quickly apologised and flew off. We stared at fluttershy in shock. “What?”

“How- wha- huh?” all i could do was make sounds. Luckily twilight took over for me.

“Fluttershy, what did you just do?”

With that comment directed at her, she went back to her normal shy state. “I-i’m sorry, did i do something wrong? I-i’m so sorry i didn’t mean to.”

I laughed. Not the most considerate thing to do, and it caused fluttershy to hide even further behind her mane, but i laughed. “Fluttershy that was awesome! How many other ponies, no, any being in existence, can say that they yelled an adult dragon into submission while being a fraction of it’s size! Seriously, that was amazing!” with that we set back off for home. Not needing to be back immediately, we took the longer route avoiding the avalanche zones and sheer cliff faces we needed to climb down. When we finally got back a few days later, everyone was in high spirits, and split ways to get some much needed rest.

Author's Note:

So the next super long chapter is out. I'm really random with these lengths aren't I? As always please tell me about any spelling or grammar mistakes you see. Thanks!

Finally, I can't decide whether to do a cannon remake or an original chapter next. Some help please?