Gift of the Dovah

by Liirian

Prologue

Prologue

Twilight Sparkle trotted through the peaceful streets of Ponyville, accompanied by her assistant Spike. The young dragon looked around the bustling and energetic village, admiring how happy everypony seemed to be. He could see Lyra and Bon Bon chatting at the diner, the Cutie Mark Crusaders pulling a wagon full of hay; for Celestia knows what reason, Derpy Hooves; the Mailmare, was zig-zagging along her mail-route, and Big Mac was working the Apple Family’s stand. It really did look like it was going to be a nice, normal day in Ponyvile.

Well, except for maybe one thing. Twilight.

Spike cast a worried glance towards his friend. “Twilight,” the young dragon asked nervously “are you feeling alright?” as the two walked through the street. “You’ve been acting...well...distant all day.” He had known the Unicorn all his life, and he could tell when something was wrong with her.

The dragon’s question seemed to knock Twilight out of whatever stupor she was in. She shook her head, eyes blinking, before responding to her assistant. “What? Oh, um, really, it’s fine Spike, I’m just...” She paused awkwardly, as if considering something, before sighing. “Well, actually Spike, I have been feeling a bit off today. There’s been this...weird feeling in the back of my head that won’t seem to go away,” she said sheepishly, “I..I can’t really explain it.” The dragon raised an eyebrow at the unicorn’s confession.

“Have you asked Celestia if she might know what’s going on with you?” he asked.

“Oh, really Spike, I don’t think it’s that se-” The unicorn was trying to brush off Spike’s concerns, but was interrupted by the arrival of Ponyville’s premier party pony, who bounced towards the two in her usual manner.

“Hi Spike! Hi Twilight! Watcha doing?” asked Pinkie Pie, still bouncing.

“Oh, we’re just going for a walk Pinkie Pie, it is a beautiful day.” Said Twilight, trying to ignore Spike’s ‘We’re not done yet’ look.

“It is, isn’t it? I’m just on my way to Sug-” The Pink Pony stopped talking all of a sudden, before her eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. Less then a second later, before either Twilight or Spike could ask what was wrong, she began vibrating up and down, violently. She gave this odd buzzing noise as if she was trying to speak, but the vibrating prevented anything she said from being understood.

“Oh no, is it another doozy?!?” Spike asked quickly, eyes darting around for any signs of what might have caused the reaction.

“I don’t know Spike, but I think it’s something worse!” exclaimed Twilight, looking around the town herself.

Both of their questions were soon answered, as their ears were assaulted by a loud roar that shook the very foundations of the village. Ponies everywhere around town looked up and gasped, spotting a massive winged beast descending from the sky. It let out another earsplitting roar, before flying past a row of houses and opening its maw wide, letting loose a stream of intense orange flame from its jaws, lighting nearly a dozen houses on fire as it flew past. Screams of terror filled the village as ponies all over started panicking and running away, filling the streets.

Despite all the panic, the three of them stood rooted the ground as the monster landed on Carousel Boutique, which Spike thankfully noted Rarity wasn’t in right now. The creature’s sharp claws cut gouges into the exterior of the building as it secure itself, before releasing another stream of flame that torched several more buildings. The pause in the creature’s movements at least allowed the group to get a good look at it. The creature was a massive lizard, although not as large as the fully grown dragons they had encountered before, it’s body was covered in a thick hide of greenish-grey scales. Sharp but short spikes lined its back, and a sail adorned its head like a crown, with another one lining its back just below the lizard’s long neck. Its long tail had a large flap on the end of it, perfect for smacking a pony and sending them flying. Its wings were not on its back, but on its forearms, like a bat, and they were more ragged looking then the wings of similar large flying lizards.

They were snapped out of their short observation when the creature unleashed another searing jet of flame, nearly torching a small group of ponies that were trying to run away. Twilight turned towards her two friends and immediately took charge of the situation. “Pinkie Pie, I need you to get the others, Rarity should be with Fluttershy at her house and Applejack’s probably at her farm.” The party pony had thankfully stopped vibrating at that point and, after holding her wobbly head steady, jumped to her hooves and ran off to find the others. Twilight then turned to her assistant. “Spike, I need you to run back to the library and send a message to the Princess. Hurry!” The young dragon nodded quickly and took off running towards the tree that he and Twilight lived in, sparing one last glance at his friend as she started galloping towards the monster herself. “Good luck...” he said as she vanished from view, hoping to himself that she’d be alright.

o-0-O-0-o

Dragon. That’s the one word Twilight’s mind connected to the massive beast. She didn’t know why, the only characteristics that the monstrosity shared with the dragons she’d seen was the fact that it was a large, flying, firebreathing lizard. Otherwise they were nothing alike. Pushing aside those thoughts, along with the odd sensation in her mind that seemed to be growing stronger, Twilight skidded to stop a few hundred feet in front of the ‘dragon’, hoping that what she was about to do wouldn’t end up getting her killed.

o-0-O-0-o

The dragon looked down at the insignificant creature that dared to stand up against it, letting out a snort as its menacing slitted eyes stared down at the purple thing, their sickly yellow-green color practically drilling holes into her. It prepared to end the foolish key’s life before it noticed that the creature’s horn was giving off an odd maroon glow...

o-0-O-0-o

Twilight gulped as the dragon glared down at her, giving off a sense of malice that seemed to enter the very core of her being. She suppressed a shiver and steeled herself, before using her magic to lift up a nearby fruit stand and bring it to a hover at the dragon’s head level. Hearing the hum of the magic field around the object, the dragon turned towards the noise just as Twilight hurled the thing at its face. It impacted hard, the entire stand shattering on collision and sprayed splinters and shards of wood everywhere. The dragon let out another roar, not one of pain, but of indignation. In fact, it didn’t seem hurt at all. The creature was angry, and Twilight couldn’t suppress the shiver that ran down her spine this time as it returned its gaze to her. Knowing that now was the time to run, the unicorn turned and started galloping as hard as her legs would let her, adrenaline coursing through her veins as she headed for the outskirts of town.

o-0-O-0-o

The nerve of the purple key, it actually had the gall to strike at the dragon with the odd magic the horned ones possessed. The dragon wouldn’t let such an transgression go unpunished, and took off after the fleeing unicorn, cutting through the sky. The creature was fast, but the dragon quickly caught up with it as it neared the edge of the village, and it let out a roar as closed the distance, calling upon its magic so that it could bring a torrent of fire down on the pathetic creature and end its short life. Its plans for retribution however were cut short when something impacted its side hard and knocked it off course, causing it to smash into the ground and actually gouge a sizable trench out of the earth with its body. Its anger ever rising, it looked up and saw one of those winged key, a blue one with a rainbow-colored mane, hovering in the sky above it. The worthless creature was actually cheering, celebrating its supposed victory. Calling upon its power, the dragon ended the pegasus’s short-lived celebration with a blast of searing flame, which the creature disappointingly managed to avoid, although judging by its cringing and the way it was holding its side in obvious pain the flames at least managed to give the vermin a burn. The small amount of joy the key’s pain brought was destroyed when something coarse wrapped and tightened around its neck.

o-0-O-0-o

Twilight stopped to catch her breath as she watched Applejack leap onto the dragon’s back, lasso secured around the lizard’s neck. The earth pony tightened the rope with her teeth as she glanced up at the pegasus hovering above her, who was still in pain from the burns the dragon’s flame gave her.

“That’s what you get for cheerin too soon!” yelled the farmpony through clenched teeth. “now come on, lets bag this varmint!” Rainbow Dash short her a glare, but flew down to help her anyway, grabbing the rope and helping it stay taut.

Having caught her breath, Twilight turned to help her friends and started concentrating on the dragon’s limbs, neck, and tail. As her horn lit-up, her magic’s aura covered the body parts she was focusing on, causing them to slam into the ground and anchoring them there. However, even under the magical restraint the dragon was fighting back with every muscle in its body, and it was strong. Twilight was actually struggling to keep the dragon locked down. As beads of sweat poured down her face a small part of her noted that her other friends had finally arrived, galloping towards the confrontation. That same part that was focused on things not pertinent to the situation also noted that the odd feeling in her head was growing stronger.

Twilight’s focus was redirected to the fight as the dragon, in an unexpected move, arched its back, causing the two ponies holding the lasso to lose balance and fall off. This caused a momentarily lapse in concentration on Twilight’s part that gave the dragon the edge it needed. It struggled more violently, and the unicorn’s magical bonds literally shattered as the dragon finally broke free. It let out a triumphant roar, and turned its neck towards the earth pony on its right that was still getting up. The dragon arched its tail away from Applejack, before whipping it back and slamming it into the farmpony. She was sent flying, crashing into a nearby building on the outer edge of Ponyville.

Twilight gasped as she watched her friend get violently flung away, but quickly recovered and turned her attention back to the dragon. She used her magic to lift up several nearby boulders and hurl them at the dragon. However, the creature was ready this time, and when the large rocks were within meters of its face, it opened its maw. A huge wave of energy flew out of it and hit the rocks, causing them to rebound and fly in Twilight’s direction. The unicorn gasped and quickly ducked just in time to avoid a boulder that flew over her head, before jumping out of the way as another crashed into the spot she was standing in moments ago.

o-0-O-0-o

Rainbow Dash by this time had long since recuperated and, using Twilight’s attack as a distraction, flew high into the sky. As the dragon deflected Twilight’s rocks, she dived towards the overgrown lizard, intending to smash into it just like she did to Applejack’s old barn. However, the dragon apparently heard the pegasus’s approach, and as she neared impact the creature turned its neck up and opened its maw. However, this time instead of a torrent of fire, a stream of freezing white frost was expelled from its mouth right at Rainbow Dash. The pegasus’s eyes widened, but she couldn’t turn out of the way before she plunged right into the freezing gas. Her entire body was instantly chilled, the frost was a hundred times colder then the blizzard that plagued Equestria before its founding, easily overcoming the pegasus’s natural resistance to cold. She felt her entire body go numb, joints freezing up, muscles shutting down, and just before she lost consciousness she felt herself fly out of control, her last sight that of the ground inches from her face before everything went black.

o-0-O-0-o

Fluttershy could only watch with Pinkie Pie and Rarity as her three other friends tried to subdue the dragon, and fail miserably. She watched as Twilight’s bonds were broken by the dragon. She watched as Applejack was flung into a building. She watched as Rainbow Dash was blasted by the dragon’s frost breath, the pegasus still laying on the ground several meters away, her body coated in a white sheen of frost. She watched, all the while feeling an emotion that she rarely felt bubble up inside her. An emotion that she had not felt since her horrible experience at the Gala. Rage. That rage reached a boiling point as she watched Rainbow Dash smash into the ground. Her eyes narrowed, her brow furrowed, her wings outstretched and her knees bent. An outsider might think she was about to murder that dragon. Her friends actually took a few steps away from her, knowing not to mess with her when she got like this. As she watched the dragon lift into the sky, she took off as well and flew towards the dragon, stopping behind it. Twilight all the while was just staring dumbly at the creature, mind still working on overdrive trying to think of a new plan.

“HEY!” she yelled, actually gaining the dragon’s attention. “I don’t know who you think you are, but you-” she started, but in a move that shocked her and everypony watching, the dragon swung around and released a wave of force right in her face, only making that critical eye contact for the briefest of moments. The pegasus felt her self being blasted through the sky, unable to regain control as she flew towards the ground at shocking speeds, her last thoughts before hitting a large boulder being, ’I’m sorry...’

o-0-O-0-o

Twilight could only stare in shock as the dragon, not even giving Fluttershy a moments glance, simply blasted the pegasus away. She was sure Fluttershy’s stare would be enough to subdue the dragon, but she didn’t even get a chance to use it to its full effect. For the first time this entire fight, she felt real fear. Not for her, but for her friends. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy could be dead right now. Her shock was broken when she saw that the dragon was moving again, soaring straight towards Fluttershy. She gaped, before quickly getting a hold of herself and turning to her still conscious friends. “Help Applejack and Rainbow Dash, I’m going to get Fluttershy!” she shouted, before concentrating on Fluttershy’s location and appearing there in a burst of magic. The dragon was practically on top of them at that point, and Twilight only had just enough time to bring up a domed energy shield around the two before the dragon’s fire breathed washed around them, scorching the ground outside the shield. Try as she might, she couldn’t concentrate enough for a double-teleport before dragon circled back around and assaulted the shield with a blast of frost. It circled around again just as quickly and sent another torrent of flame down on the shield. And again. And again. Each blast drained Twilight more and more, her fur was matted with sweat and she didn’t know how long she could last.

o-0-O-0-o

At last, the battle was nearing its conclusion. The key fought hard, but the dragon’s victory was a foregone conclusion. These peaceful animals weren’t warriors, while the dragon was a killing machine, several centuries worth of experience at its back. If it possessed the right facial muscles, it would have grinned as it landed in front of the magic wielder’s energy shield. The dragon stared right into the eyes of the creature, and the fear it saw brought malicious joy to its heart. It took a deep breath, unnecessary but satisfying, and let loose one last blast of fire, shattering the purple thing’s shield. The small creature nearly collapsed at that point, but it kept standing and backed towards the yellow one, the one who actually made the dragon feel a twinge of fear when their eyes met. But that didn’t matter, they would both be dead soon. The dragon reared back and opened its jaws wide, preparing for the final blow.

o-0-O-0-o

Twilight felt exhausted as the dragon finally burst through her shield. She felt like at least a gallon of sweat had poured out of her body. Knowing that this was it, the unicorn backed up towards her downed friend, as if to protect her from what was about to happen. But she knew it was useless, this was the end. But even as she shut her eyes, and turned her head away, that feeling in her head grew stronger. She started to...hear a whispering coming out of it. A series of three strange words, repeating over...

And over....

And over again.

The strange feeling compelled Twilight to turn her head back towards the dragon and open her eyes. As she saw the glistening maw of the dragon opened wide, ready to rip her in half, the feeling compelled her to repeat the three words. Complying, Twilight opened her mouth and uttered the first word in a hoarse, barely audible whisper. “Fus...” She murmured. Despite the lack of energy in the first word, when she spoke the next two words...

“RO DAH!!!” She felt herself practically scream. The volume of the shout matched even the infamous Traditional Royal Canterlot Voice, but the results were much more impressive. Upon speaking the words, she felt a surge of power course through her body and out her mouth, projecting a wave of power that actually pushed the Dragon back a few feet and stopped its final blow. The two locked eyes, both shocked at what had happened. In a different situation, Twilight might even have noted how amusing the dragon looked, frozen with its mouth agape. She even thought she saw what looked like true fear in the dragon’s slitted eyes.

Of the two, the dragon was the first to recover. It reared back and lunged towards Twilight, intending to end her as quickly as possible. The unicorn regained her senses just then, and, working on pure adrenaline and instinct, used the last of her magic to lift up the nearby boulder that Fluttershy crashed into and slam it into the dragon, hard. The large mass hit its neck, causing a very loud crack to fill the air as she felt something warm splatter across her face. The dragon slumped to the ground, a scarlet boulder landing next to it as shock filled Twilight, her entire body trembling as she realized what she had done. She felt sick to her stomach, like she was about to vomit.

“Oh...oh Celestia! I-I killed it!” she cried. However, that was not proven entirely true, as one of the dragon’s eyes opened and turned to stare at her, causing her to stumble and fall backwards, almost landing on Fluttershy. The dragon’s jaw opened slightly, and it actually rasped out something that Twilight could barely hear.

“Dov..ah..kiin.....nid...” rasped the beast, before its eye closed, the creature finally giving out.

Twilight’s heart was still beating so fast that it felt like it would burst from her chest, and she didn’t dare to move. Suddenly, the Dragon’s body started to light up, parts of its flesh looked like they were burning away, but without fire. Streams of energy, dozens of them, began to pour out of the dragon’s body and flow towards Twilight as the last of its flesh ignited and burned away, leaving nothing but a skeleton. The energy swirled around Twilight before it flowed into her body, disappearing completely into it in seconds. Now both shocked and confused, Twilight didn’t know what she just did or what she should do now. In fact, she was a bit afraid, she didn’t know what that energy that came out of the Dragon did to her.

Any thoughts on what just happened were interrupted when a voice called out for Twilight, a voice that filled her with relief to hear. Turning her neck around, she saw Princess Celestia land behind her, eyes wide with disbelief as she stared at the scene in front of her. Twilight, on the ground, covered in blood, while a large skeleton laid in front of her next to a blood-covered boulder and her unconscious friend Fluttershy laid behind her.

“Twilight....what happened?” asked the Princess of the Sun quietly, concern in both her voice and eyes.

The purple unicorn looked around, as if trying to find an answer to that question in the scene around her. When one was not found, she slumped her shoulders and looked at the ground, feeling very much like that filly that went out of control during that test all those years ago.

“I...I don’t know...” she finally answered in a whisper.

Comments

[Doobie]

very well written, tracking this.

[NSFWKazama]

I could actually hear the Skyrim theme playing in my head.

[The_other_guy]

FUS RO DAH!!!! Oh yeah twilight is now offically a true badass

[Darknacho]

You rule, I totally understood the dialogue and enjoyed the ponification of skyrim, Hail Ulfric Stormclock

Now she needs to learn dragonrend.

[Zervziel]

I really liked this. The blood dragon (and I'm so glad you decided to identify what type) came off as a legitimate threat.....right up until Twilight somehow managed to kill it with one blow from a boulder despite supposedly being weaken from the dragons assault. I know she's powerful in the show, but her powers need a cap otherwise it makes for a boring read.

Otherwise it's pretty good. The only part I disliked about it is the deus ex machina where Twilight somehow knows all three words and has true understanding of them. There's only three ways to do that. Dragon souls aka the Dovahkin way or intensive learning and meditation for extensive periods of time which is the way for every other poor sod with the dedication to do so and the final is to have the true meaning of these words passed on to someone magically. Twilight has done none of these and her just learning them out of the blue is a bit much.

Ok, since I said that, I need to give some probable means for her to at least get her first word. I'd say dragon dies by particular sun goddess since you have her arriving about the same time as the dragon's death. Twilight is on hand to absorb the soul and then you've got the hook for her to start digging into the legend of the Dovahkin.

Also is key the Dovah word for horse? If so props for that!

[Bromonn]

You can have all 5 of my stars my friend.

Brohoof to all!

[lightning_ryder]

Finally a true skyrim crossover not a ponyfied version of skyrim

[C0rwyn]

Very awesome! Keep up the great work and I shall follow

[FanNotANerd]

This isn't bad. I believe Sithis already covered any factual issues I might have in far greater detail than I could've, so I won't bother in that regard. So instead, I will whine about grammar. I noticed several run-on sentences, such as In fact, she was a bit afraid, she didn’t know what that energy that came out of the Dragon did to her. A correct version would be "In fact, she was a bit afraid. Although she felt no different, she had no idea what that energy had done."

Then there's the use of "causing". For instance: The large mass hit its neck, causing a very loud crack to fill the air as she felt something warm splatter across her face. I've never liked the use of that word, simply because it makes it sound like the writer is trying too hard to stay eloquent. A suggested edit would be "The large mass slammed into the dragon's neck, bending to the limit of its flexibility...and beyond. A loud crack filled the air as the dragon's vertebrae gave way, and the beast slumped limply onto the ground." Then there's the fact that you wouldn't get much blood from a broken neck, and certainly not enough to spatter Twilight's face. If she'd crushed the skull, maybe.

In all, while the story and battle depiction is good, the frequency of grammar and form errors is fairly alarming, especially for a featured fic. I'll withhold judgement until I get to later chapters, but I would recommend using a prereader to catch those errors in the future.

[burning-ruin-666]

this fits twilight way better than fluttershy W>.<W

30 READERS WHILE I'M READING
OMg

FUS=THIS/KAME
ROH=IS/HAME
DAH=SPARTA/HA

[DR_SHRUBBERY]

Have you seen those unicorns from Hammerfell? They've got curved horns. CURVED. HORNS.

[Fanskapet]

finally found this story again man it was long before i got a username and shit on this site, good story and all