Chapter Thirteen: The Dragon's Past (Alduin)
Chapter Thirteen: The Dragon's Past
Time. Time is the passage through which all things travel. But Alduin had been frozen for an incredible amount of time, petrified by his greatest foes. Though, now he was free, and within those first moments of freedom, he had already claimed victory over a decisive battle. And now he was at rest, the centuries he spent awake in stone, making way for a wave of fatigue that needed to be dealt with immediately. And so he slept, settled into a cave on a mountain that overlooked the town he had just saved, on the very edge of the Everfree Forest.
When Tirek had been defeated, and sent back to Tartarus, the ponies were unsure how to react to their savior. True, he had just saved Equestria from a huge threat, but he himself was the biggest threat the nation had ever encountered. Even so, that purple mare, Celestia's student if he remembered correctly, did take the time to thank him.
He had watched her approach nervously. She knew who he was, so he didn't blame her, and found her bravery admirable. Once more, she had yet to charge up any magic, a sign of peace and trust, which was probably why Alduin bothered to listen to her in the first place.
“U-Um… Lord Alduin?” The term, “lord,” hadn't been applied to him for so long, he nearly forgot that was a part of his title. Alduin strolled from his position of victory, and approached the young alicorn. From the corner of his eyes, he saw two of her comrades prepare to attack, but wing from Twilight stopped them. Smart mare.
The World Eater halted as soon as he was near, and his head lowered until it was level with his current subject of interest.
“You are Twilight Sparkle, correct?”
“Um, y-yes. How do you know my-”
“I've been petrified as a stone statue in the garden of Canterlot castle for three thousand years. I tend to learn who it is that kept in my prison’s keep.”
Twilight nodded and nervously swallowed. Facing him, facing the embodiment of destruction, the avatar of the end times, was absolutely terrifying. She wanted to run, to hide, to pray that she would never encounter this beast ever again. But as a princess, and with him free, she knew this would not be their last meeting, merely the first.
“So, I would like to thank you, for saving myself, my friends, and all of Equestria.”
“Do not thank me. It was your teacher that asked me to come, should you fail. She freed me to save you all. Course, whether or not that was a wise action is yet to be determined, so perhaps you should withhold your gratitude.”
Another nervous gulp. Twilight could hardly speak in the dragon's presence, having only enough courage to formulate that sentence. Seeing this, Alduin grinned.
“Perhaps you already suspect it to have been a foolish move.” Standing tall, the black scaled dragon turned and left without a word. With a flap of his wings, he was up in the air, and flying towards the mountain that overlooked the town.
And that's how he ended up here, in the cave where he rested. Unfortunately, his dreams were not peaceful.
Flashes and sequences of the war he fought, of the dragons he lost, of the destruction he placated. It plagued him like no other, and the dragon king was hardly getting the rest he needed. Another brief flash of a face he loved appeared, and Alduin's eyes snapped open.
With a grumble, and a yawn showing signs of the still yet faded fatigue, Alduin sat up. He had planned to fly back to the dragon lands after this, but there was no way he could now. It irked him how fate worked to keep him from his people. Oh how he missed his subjects.
“C’mon girls! This way!” A voice?
“Hold on Applebloom we're coming!” Two voices?
“Slow down you two!” Three? Alduin gazed at the entryway to his temporary home, and watched as three little fillies scurried inside. “Is this the place?”
“Sure is!” The first to enter was a yellow furred filly with a red mane and a large pink bow. She had an accent that was clearly southern, and eyes full of excitement.
“Whoa, this place is huge!” The second filly was orange with a magenta colored mane. Her voice was a little rough, and she had wings that Alduin noted were a bit small for a filly of her size.
“Well it would have to be, that dragon was pretty big.” The last filly had a white coat, with a mane that was half light purple, half pink.
The three intruders looked about the cave, somehow entirely missing Alduin until they bumped into his chest. The three fillies viewed the obstacle with some confusion, perhaps about to make a comment on some sort of wall that barred their way, till they took in the details of said wall. The wall had scales. So to, did the individual they were looking for, have scales. Theses scales were black. So were the scales of the individual they sought after. Putting two and two together, the young trespassers came to the conclusion that they had just stumbled into their person of interest.
Immediately they screamed, ducking for cover behind a few rocks at the entrance of the cave. The old dragon chuckled briefly. If they had come looking for him, then why were they so terrified?
“Come out little ones,” Alduin called. “I won't harm you.”
Hesitantly, the three fillies creeped out. Clearly the dragon was far more intimidating up close, and the legend surrounding him didn't do much for his appearance either. Still though, he had saved Ponyville, so he couldn't be all that bad.
“Um… mister Alduin sir?” the white one asked.
“Yes?”
“We just wanted to… thank you for saving our sisters and our town.”
“Y-Yeah!” the yellow one proclaimed. “Who knows what woulda happened if you hadn't come along!”
“Well, I did not do it without reason,” Alduin began to explain as he approached them. “Celestia, you leader, made a deal with me. In exchange for defeating Tirek if Twilight could not, I would be free. Now come along, I shall take you home before it-”
CRACKLE BOOM!
The loud clap of thunder resonated loudly within the walls of the cave. Looking outside, Alduin saw that a lightning storm had suddenly formed. Most likely, Ponyville was due for some rain, and the weather ponies were only just now enacting it.
“Hmm… how troublesome.”
“What's wrong mister Alduin?” the orange filly asked.
“Seems as though taking you home would be an impossibility now. Though the lighting would hardly affect me, should I attempt to fly you three home, there is a high probability that you all would be struck by lightning, and die in an instant. And since it's getting dark, letting you three walk home would be a suicide mission.”
“Oh come on, we made it here didn't we?”
“Perhaps, but that was in daylight. I will not risk the lives of those who have hardly lived. Come, we shall wait until tomorrow.” Alduin lead the fillies deeper into the cave. In all honesty, he could use his clear skies shout to stop the storm, but he was never too keen on messing with nature. And considering the fact that nature here required assistance from the population that lived within, who knows what could happen if a single storm is negated in such a fragile system as this. So instead of clearing the sky, Alduin decided to be patient. After all, good things come to those who wait.
“So tell me,” Alduin questioned, “what are all of your names?”
“I'm Scootaloo, the second greatest pegasus in Ponyville, and number one fan of Rainbow Dash!” The orange one proclaimed with excitement. Clearly the love and admiration of this, “Rainbow Dash,” was an extensive part of her personality, as well as her ego.
“I'm Sweetie Belle, it's nice to meet you,” the white one answered. She seemed far more polite and orderly than her two companions, clearly having been taught proper manners by a pony still close to her to this very day.
“And I'm Apple Bloom, a pleasure ta make yer acquaintance,” the yellow one replied. Her southern accent, combined with the style of her bow, and the subtle muscle mass underneath her fur told Alduin it was likely that she was a farmer or rancher of some kind. Maybe even both.
“Greetings. And, I can already assume you know who I am?”
“Yer Alduin right? That legendary dragon that lead a war against Equestria in a greedy attempt to take over?”
“Hey yeah, didn't you used to be a bad guy? Why'd you save Ponyville then?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“As I said before, I had made a deal with Celestia. But in the past, I was not a, “bad guy.” Things weren't that simple back then.” Alduin strolled over to the very back of the cave, and settled down into the spot that served as a temporary bed. “Come, I shall explain to you what my side of that legend was like.”
The fillies sat down in the crook of the ancient king’s body. Now settled, the three fillies were ready to hear once more, the legend they thought they knew so well.
“As you know, my legend describes that three thousand years ago, I lead an attack on Equestria, in a greedy attempt to take over the land. That legend would have you believe that I was evil, and that the kingdom of dragons at that time was full of nothing but beasts of greed, and that ponies were a heroic force that brought us down. It teaches such ignorance, a disgusting amalgamation of what truly occurred. I will not be telling you the story you know, I will describe to you what both sides experienced. To begin, it all started a century before the events of the war…”
My eyes opened to the scenery of a dark cave. My head was pounding, and my body ached. I struggled to lift myself up, and when the soreness within my bones became too much I simply collapsed. I tried to think back on how I got here, but I had no memories to recall. I probably would've panicked if the pain hadn't dulled my mind as well.
I laid there for hours, simply letting the pain pass. Eventually, I came upon the strength to stand up, and walk to the exit of the cavern I found myself in. At the mouth of the cave, I could see a vast forest below me. The trees were white, and covered in autumn leaves. I didn't yet possess the strength to fly, so carefully I crawled down the mountainside, using the claws on my wings and feet to grip the rock to keep from sliding off.
These were my waking moments in this new world. Had I any idea what would follow, I might not have even left that cave.
Traversing the forest was a challenge in it of itself. The trees grew closely together, not close enough that I couldn't squeeze through, but enough so that moving through wasn't exactly easy. But I marched on, hoping to find some semblance of civilization, and perhaps some answer as to where I was. But the forest seemed to go on forever, and soon I became lost, unable to find the cave from which I had come.
After hours of searching, I could no longer take it, and collapsed again. My body was far weaker than I had realized, and I was robbed of my movement once more. I questioned what had happened to me before now, but silence was my only response. So, with naught more to do, I slept, hoping that rest would allow me to move once again.
My slumber was interrupted by the sound of a dropped bucket. Perhaps the sound itself had not awoken me, but the precense of another, as my eyes opened just as the bucket hit the earth. In front of me stood a pony, one of average stature, with a tan coat and brown mane. A straw hat donned his head, and a pail with some dirt served as his cutie mark.
He was frozen in fear, and it didn't take long for me to figure out why. I attempted to calm the trespasser of my dreams, but before a single word left my jaws, he had bolted. His fearful screams and panicked breaths afterwards only further confirmed his fear of me. But why? What reason did that pony have to fear me? The answers I would only receive should I follow, but was that a wise choice? If he feared me, who's to say his compatriots wouldn't? Evidently I had no choice, and so I followed, heading straight for the town that would begin these horrid events.
Alduin was going to continue further, but looking down he saw the fillies had fallen asleep. Perhaps he had been a bit slow with the beginning of his tale, and the three had lost interest. Besides, it was getting late, and Alduin also needed his rest. So without a word, Alduin curled around them in a protective manner, and drifted off, to peaceful dreams.
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8724081
he bored
Good story, but why make so many point of views at the same time? Is this all in the same universe?
8732001
No, different universes. None of them have met yet, but even when they do I'm going to keep this style. Keeps the story fresh, since, even though it's all first person, it focuses on one character.
This is very well written old friend. But rather confusing from all the POVs.
8807429
The switch in POVs is to keep things fresh and interesting, showing multiple situations from different views. There is a constant pattern to who's chapter comes next, so hopefully that helps.