The Return of the World Elders: Poladis
Dear Twilight Sparkle, my most faithful student.
I have information that requires your attention. At the recent summit between nations, the other World Leaders brought to my attention something I believed would never plague this world again, the progenitors of life, the Elder Dragons. Before Discord’s rule, before mine and Luna’s rule over Equestria, we had to wrest control from these ancient beings. We only succeeded with the help of Discord and when he betrayed us, we had to find a way to stop him. And stop him we did with the artifacts you and your friends now possess, the Elements of Harmony.
With them you returned Discord to stone and now I, no the world needs you to use them again to banish the Elder Dragons back into the Aether. I don’t know how they managed to return but it is of the upmost importance that we deal with this threat immediately. It is believed that before the world was what it is today, these ancient beings battled for control. And from that chaos the world was shaped into its current state and allowed life to arise. Then they divided and retreated to separate continents. When our time came, we saw how they ruthlessly lorded over the races of the world, how there was no freedom, no happiness and no room to grow. So we sought to end their oppression which culminated in a battle on the mountain on which Canterlot now rests.
There are six Elder Dragons; Srolit the Dragon of Fire, Damalulia the Dragon of Water, Nakadi the Dragon of Wind, Reliep’is the Dragon of Earth, Poladis the Dragon of Metal and Karish’khali the Dragon of Lightning. Make whatever preparations you need Twilight, nothing is beyond your reach in this time of crisis. When I met with the other world leaders, they informed me that the Elder Dragons have returned to the lands they once lorded over. So I’m sending all of you to these lands to combat them all at the same time because they are all linked. I fear they will be too much for you if you confront them all at once because when one falls the others will know and converge as they did on the mountain. You defeated Discord with the Elements of Harmony, Luna and I defeated the Elder Dragons with Discord, so it’s up to you to end their Evil. I have informed the other leaders of my plan and will be waiting for each of you and will offer any aid they can. Applejack will go to Minos, Rarity will go to Zebrica, Pinkie Pie will stay here in Equestria, Fluttershy will go to Dracones and Rainbow Dash will go to Alvarna. You Twilight, you will go to the Badlands. Stay safe all of you and good luck.
-Princess Celestia
That was the letter Twilight received two days ago from Canterlot. Since then she had made the preparations she and her friends needed and reluctantly sent them to where they were directed. In that time, the Elder Dragons had made their presence known and destroyed or enslaved several towns and cities in all the nations. A giant shield had been raised over Canterlot and the soldier presence in the remaining cities was staggering. In the time it took to complete preparations, Nakadi the Dragon of Wind was spotted flying around Equestria. Their size was tremendous, easily matching or surpassing Ursa Majors. But Twilight’s mission was not in Equestria: it lay across the sea to the southeast, the Badlands and the Changeling Hive.
The boat ride across the sea was a lonely one. Twilight had asked Spike to go to Canterlot for it was safest there; she didn’t have the heart to take him along on such a dangerous journey, no matter how badly he wanted to help. The boat arrived on the shores of the Badlands and stretched out before her was a massive expanse of desert and rocky spires jutting towards the sky. Of the crew who brought her here, two of them, a young stallion and older mare, volunteered to escort her to the Changeling Hive.
“You don’t have to do this. You can go home.” Twilight said quietly, just loud enough to be heard over the buffeting sand and the wind that carried it.
“If we do nothing, there might not be a home to go to.” The young stallion said.
“Helping you is our best chance of making a difference, we won’t go back.” The mare added. Twilight continued to stare out into the desert watching the hypnotizing sand as it swirled back and forth between the dunes. As much as she didn’t want anyone to be hurt or worse because of her, she respected their willingness to protect their home by protecting her.
“Ok, you can come but please…no heroics.”
“No promises, after all they don’t call me daredevil Swash for nothin’.” The stallion spoke boastfully and cheerfully.
“If by they you mean just you, I told you creating nicknames for yourself doesn’t make you any more impressive.” The mare said laughingly.
“Come on Aquamarine, just let me have that one!” Swash pleaded. Twilight had to stifle a giggle, those two must have been on the same crew together for some time.
“But where are our manners, my name is Aquamarine and this is-”
“My names Swashbuckler!”
“Yes but we just call him Swash since he’s always splashing around and goofing off.” Swash was a tall, kind of lanky cream colored stallion with short, cropped red mane and tail. True to his name, a cutlass was his cutie mark, similar to the one the both wore across their backs. Aquamarine on the other hoof, had a very dark blue coat with a cyan colored mane and tail. Her cutie mark was a gem of her namesake with a wave of water splashing behind it.
“Alright you two let’s get moving.” Twilight levitated a map out of her saddlebags and unrolled it. “…I think we have a lot of ground to cover.”
Everything looked the same out here. Sand, more sand and rocks, which were just waiting to be wind whipped into sand. Even the rocky crags and spires which were impressive at first, now just blended in to the bleak repetitiveness that the desert brought. Didn’t stop Swash from yammering on though.
“…and that’s how I managed to land the finishing blow on that Kraken.”
“Uh huh.” Twilight affirmed only truly half listening, her attention focused solely on the map.
“You just trotted up and stabbed it after it was already dead, stop trying to impress her.” Aquamarine interjected. Swash turned to Aqua.
“You don’t know that, who’s to say my hit didn’t kill it? After all, I-” Swash bumped in to Twilight as she stood still at the top of the dune staring out with a look of pure shock on her face. Swash and Aquamarine walked to each side of her and their reactions were the same. Out before them was the destroyed landscape of what had once been a changeling hive. Shattered rock towers were everywhere and enormous swaths of destruction cut deeply into the land. Small fires raged throughout the hive, their cause was an eerie river of lava flowing from the top of the hive.
“Oh Goddess, what happened here?” Swash asked, his voice trembling noticeably. Twilight was at a loss for words. Even from what she researched, it seems she severely underestimated the destruction the Elder Dragons could bring and if Celestia was right, this was the work of Poladis, dragon of Metal.
“Despite the devastation there doesn’t seem to be very many dead.” Aqua observed.
“You’re right.” Twilight agreed. “According to my research a changeling hive can hold up to tens of thousands of them, yet there are few bodies. Do you think they escaped?”
“LOOK OUT!” Swash yelled out, only to be drowned out by a flash of green energy and a small explosion that knocked him to the ground, followed quickly by two more identical ones. Once the energy and dust settled down, three changelings stood before them. Twilight was the first to speak through the haze.
“Good…*cough* survivors maybe you can… *cough* tell us what happened.” All three changelings bared their fangs and hissed, their wings buzzing angrily behind them.
“I don’t think they’re friendly.” Aqua said quietly as she drew her sword. As soon as she had her sword in her mouth, two changelings pounced on her and Twilight while the third was felled by a wild swing from Swash, putting it down in the sand with him and out of the fight. Twilight instinctively created a shield around herself just in time for one of the changelings to be deflected by it and fall harmlessly to the side. Aquamarine took a head to head strategy with the changeling flying towards her and charged forward tackling it out of the air. They struggled together as the changeling tried to get back in the air, its wings buzzing loudly.
“Are you alright?” Swash trotted up to Twilight and asked.
“I don’t understand why they… where did the third one go?” Swash’s eyes turned to a pale blue for a second before returning to normal. Twilight saw something in the corner of her eye and jumped backward as another Swash slammed into the other sending it tumbling backwards. Twilight lowered her horn and blasted the downed ‘Swash’ with a beam of purple energy. Once the flash subsided the changeling was back in its true form. Swash charged towards it and managed to land a heavy strike across the changeling’s back, cracking its shell from which a deep green fluid began to flow. The changeling disengaged its fight with Swash and flew out of sight. Aquamarine had managed to wrestle herself into a position where she could pin her changeling down. Twilight took this opportunity to levitate a coil of rope out of her saddlebags and telekinetically tie it up.
“Why did they attack us like that?” Twilight asked as she trotted up to Aqua.
“Look, do you see that mark?” Aqua pointed a hoof at the changeling’s chest and she was right. Twilight saw a red symbol in the shape of a helix.
“So what does that mean?” Swash asked as he too joined them.
“I think they voluntarily submitted to this dragon we’re looking for and this is how they identify their allegiance.”
“What makes you think that?” Twilight questioned.
“Just look.” Aqua panned a hoof around the destruction before them. “So they wouldn’t wind up like them.” Twilight thought about it for a moment and concluded that she may be right. After all if the reports were accurate, the Elder Dragons had enslaved just as many cities as they destroyed.
“Soooo… now what?” Swash asked.
“We need to keep moving, if we stay here much longer more may show up.” Twilight unfolded her map and smiled. “On the bright side we have a guide now.”
The hogtied changeling on Aqua’s back was quick to offer directions. He said that he didn’t want to serve Poladis but that service was better than destruction.
“How long has Poladis been in the Badlands?” Twilight questioned.
“Two weeks or so and in that time he has captured or destroyed all the southern and western hives. Their power is so much greater than anything we could have prepared for.” He said, his voice was high and gravelly. The truth left a sinking feeling in Twilight’s stomach. How was she and her friends supposed to stop the entities that literally shaped the world? Hopefully there would be something to ease her mind when they got to the central hive.
“That mark on your chest is how his followers identify themselves right? How many do his followers number?” a grim look fell across the changelings features.
“It’s hard to say, there are so many and the number grows every day. If I had to guess, I’d say at least seventy-five thousand.” Twilight’s ears fell back as the sinking feeling intensified. It was bad enough when she thought she only had Poladis to deal with but now it was Poladis and his army. Twilights knees began to wobble and soon she was sitting in the sand.
“What’s wrong Twilight?” Swash inquired.
“H-how am I supposed to do this?” she said to no one. If her task wasn’t hopeless before, it certainly was now. She was in unfamiliar lands with the most potentially numerous species, half of which were dead or fighting for the Elder Dragon. Twilight gripped her head with her forehooves and began slowly rocking back and forth as the weight of her task crashed on her all at once. Her thoughts became a buzz of torment. What if I can’t do it? What if I fail? The whole world will be-
“Twilight snap out of it!” Aqua yelled. She was standing above Twilight now. Twilight’s veil of darkness fell as she was brought back from her despair.
“You can’t give up before you even begin! Now get back on your hooves and let’s keep moving!” She commanded. Twilight sat there, mouth agape as Aqua rejoined Swash. How can she be so calm and collected? Twilight thought. It doesn’t matter, if she can be strong then so can I! Twilight trotted up to her companions as they continued their pace to the Central Hive.
“Ya know, you never told us your name.” Swash said to the changeling.
“You never asked.” He responded harshly.
“Well we’re asking now, so what is it?” Twilight asked. He scoffed as he leaned forward as far as he could.
“It’s Chaurel. There, now that we are ‘friends’ will you untie me?” Twilight and Swash shared a glance, doubt in both their eyes. Twilight furrowed her brow in thought before asking.
“I don’t know, Aqua, what do you think?”
“I say no.”
“What? Surely I must be getting heavy, your back beginning to ache?” Chaurel pleaded.
“Nope you’re not heavy at all. Though I could drop and drag you along if you’re so worried about my back.” Twilight stifled a giggle while Swash let his go free.
“Let’s give him a chance you two.” Swash offered.
“And why should we do that?” Aqua asked.
“He’s been helpful so far and he hasn’t been making as much a fuss as I would were I in his place.”
“You’re so naïve Swash, fine. We can untie him but if things go wrong it’s on you. Any objections?” Aqua cocked her head towards Twilight who simply shook her head no in response.
“Ok then.” Aqua dropped Chaurel off her back and untied the ropes that bound him. He arose from the coil of rope and stretched out his wings, then came the slight buzzing as he lifted off the ground.
“Thank you for that. Now shall we continue?”
“I thought for sure you’d run- er..fly away.” Swash pointed out.
“I’m not the bad guy you believe me to be, I said I would help and I intend to follow through.”
“Not the bad guy eh?” Swash jabbed at the mark on Chaurel’s chest.
“Well, aside from that.” Aqua turned to him and cocked an eyebrow. “Ugh and I suppose our attempted invasion of Canterlot doesn’t exactly help our image either.”
“I’ll say, you almost ruined my brother’s wedding.”
“We were dangerously low on food, would your kind have done any different?”
“I don’t really… Actually, I haven’t had the chance to talk to a changeling before, would you mind if I asked you some questions?” Twilight was practically beaming with excitement to learn more about changeling biology.
“I suppose that’d be alright.” Chaurel relented. Twilight smiled and clapped her front hooves together as she levitated a notebook and quill out of her bag.
“Ok, first off during the Canterlot invasion your Queen said that changelings fed on positive emotions like love. Does love alone sustain you or can you eat regular food?”
“Emotions like love are what give us our magic power. We can survive on regular food but without love we are nothing.”
“I’d say that sounded romantic but then I remembered you eat it like a leech to blood.” Aqua commented.
“Aqua please, continue Chaurel.” Twilight implored.
“Love isn’t the only emotion we can consume. We can feed on negative emotions like hate or misery. Unlike love, those emotions…carry consequences if we feed on them.”
“Like what?”
“You’ll see when we get to the Central Hive and I'll explain then.”
“Hmm ok, what about your shape shifting abilities? Are there limits to it?” Twilight continued.
“We are only limited by size. We can’t turn into creatures like sand worms or shadow dragons.”
“S-shadow dragons? What are those?” Swash asked nervously.
“The last thing you will ever see, if you’re lucky that is. They attack in groups of three or more and over time they have developed camouflage that leaves them un-seeable until they are on top of you, if you’re not careful.” Swash swallowed in fright at the very thought of such monsters.
“Ok now how about your-” Twilight was cut off as she bumped into Aqua who was looking out from atop the dune.
“Save your questions for later Twilight, things just got a lot more complicated.” Out below the dune was a massive spire of stone that nearly breached the clouds. Surrounding it were smaller structures spread out a mile in any direction from the spire and surrounding those was a wall that stood fifty meters high. Around the wall was a sea of black as the armies of Poladis threatened to breach the wall with giant sand worms. High on the wall the defenders fired their ballistae into the beasts as catapults rained their projectiles into the swarm below. Attackers and defenders alike dotted the sky in a miasma of smoke and death. The Hive was under siege.