Chapter 1
The great dragon migration. Not much is know about it, since there hasn’t yet been a pony brave enough to try and question the dragons motives. Could have been the fact that the last one trying it didn’t come back. Still, whatever their reason, the migration always happens in mass. Tens of dragons fly across the land from and to an unknown destination, most of them joining the flight at random places. Those brave enough to watch it noticed a few things about the flight. One of them was, that the number of dragons increases the longer the flight takes, but they could never see where they came from, as if they had appeared out of thin air, and the flight ends in the same fashion. The other thing being the fact that the dragons fly like this together, even though they are solitary beings, at least most of them. This can be seen at how the dragons act during the migration. During the flight, they tend to hit or punch each other, hold different contests to prove who’s stronger and better. This seems to be normal, and even with some minor injuries happen, they still continue to do this during the whole flight.
And one such contest was the beginning of this story.
Four younger dragons, or at least young looking since dragons age differently, decided that the best dragon has to be able to stay in the air at all cost. And what better way to loose balance in the sky then getting hit by something.
The idea seemed great to them and so they started, pushing each other around, hitting each other, slowly escalating to headbutts, even bodychecks. The four seemed to be equally strong and none seemed to loose much balance, with one of them being almost unmovable. This angered his friend. How could he be so much better when they were the same size. And so he got a plan to ruin it for him.
He waited until it was his turn again for getting pushed, and once he got hit, he charged at him with all his might and speed he could muster. And it worked. The young dragon didn’t expect to be hit twice and was sent flying into a nearby dragon that was passing them at that moment. The young one managed to not fall and turned around to look at who he hit. The dragon was huge, almost six times his size, dark green colored and compared to the youngling, much older. The green dragon turned around to look at him, clearly being unhappy with what they did, but his only reaction was a small burst of flame from his nostrils before flying away. No biggie. The young ones returned to their little contest, except for one.
At first, the one that got the plan, he was happy for succeeding. He not only proved that he was stronger, but also strong enough to make him fly so far. Not even the fact that they hit someone else mattered to him. Overcome with joy he didn’t look at the elder dragons head when he looked at them, but instead looked at the place where his friend landed. And that’s when he saw it. Something small and round was falling on the other side of the elder dragon. Confused, he just looked at it. Once he realized what it was, it was late to react. What fell was a dragon egg, the same dragons they hit. And now it lay in the dark forest below, shattered into million pieces. His joy left as fast as it came. He wanted to prove how great he was, but killing one of his kind, and in this way, was not what he intended. Disappointed with himself, he flew away from his friends as far as he could, and continued the migration alone.
If only he knew he was wrong.
Just as the dragons body is strong, muscular, and with its scales almost indestructible, so are their eggs. The reason behind it is simple. The eggs have to be like this so their parents would accidentally crush or damage them and to prevent any brave animal to feast on one. The older dragons know this, and everyone learns this one day. The youngling didn’t yet.
But, there is one more thing different about these eggs. Once lain, they will only hatch in the presence of a dragon or by a burst of magic.
And now, the lost egg lays on broken branches and twigs, hidden in the shadows of the dark forest it landed in. Not a single soul around and no sounds either. This wasn’t caused by night though but by the forest itself, for it was not a normal forest. It was the magical and mysterious Everfree forest.
Normally, the egg would have remained dormant. This one wouldn’t thanks to the place it was now in.
The magic of the place, mysterious and unexplainable, started slowly seeping into the egg, filling it, and the baby dragon with the energy it needed to hatch. But the forest managed to do more than that. The egg slowly got what magic it needed to hatch, and so it did. A new life has been born into the world. A tiny, bright green dragon was sitting in between the broken shell, blinking at looking in front of himself. He kept on blinking, but at the same time he started growing too. The forest didn’t stop with its gift, and poured more magic, then what the tiny body could handle. And so the body grew to accommodate it. Once it stopped, the green dragon was almost the size of the nearby trees.
Sadly, the only thing he received from the forest was the magic. He sat there, confused, not knowing who or what he was, where he was nor if there was someone else. He looked around. Nothing but trees, grass and shadows. He didn’t know what to do. He felt something he couldn’t describe, since no one has told him what feelings were, but someone else would know that it was sadness. He tried to stand up and go find someone, anyone, but he fell. He didn’t even know how to walk yet, but he tried again and again. After a while he managed to maintain balance with his tail, which made him feel another thing, this one joy. He did his first step. Then his second. He was now able to walk and so he did.
His search brought him nothing. The forest was empty and motionless. The only thing keeping him company were the silent plants and shadows. The dragon tried his best to find anything, but luck wasn’t at his side. Slowly, he started getting hungry. But what could he eat. He didn’t even know what was what, even less what was edible. He had no other choice then to try, and so he took a bite of the first thing he saw. A tree standing right next to him. His teeth were sharp enough, and his jaws strong enough to bite off a big chunk, but he instantly spat it out. This wasn’t something he could eat. So he tried the next thing. A little bush under the tree. This one was chewable, but not really good, but he still swallowed it. He tried biting a few different looking trees and some more bushes, getting even more hungry with time. And then his luck finally kicked in. Between some of the bushes, he found one completely different. It was much brighter than the other ones, and it had little purple things hanging on it. He took a few and chewed them. A smile appeared on his face as their sweetness went down his throat. He ripped the whole bush out of the ground and started picking it clean. Once there wasn’t a single berry left, he let it go and continued his search.
Time passed and he still didn’t find anyone. The forest kept its silence the whole time. He was able to find a few more berry bushes along the way, learning where they were hiding so he could find them more easily. But as he walked, seeing became harder and harder. Night came and the dark forest turned even darker. Not being able to see anything, the dragon lay down under one of the trees. Its roots were growing out of the ground, giving him something to press his back onto. He put his head down, and the instant he closed his eyes, his exhaustion hit him and he fell asleep.
In his dream, he wasn’t in a dark forest anymore. He was somewhere high up, flying, and all around him he could see other just like him. Only their colors were different. They were high in the sky and everything below them looked tiny. He felt free and happy. Suddenly, his dream became blurry, and the feelings he had were replaced by a feeling of dread and sadness, and even though he could no longer recognize the dragons around him, they seemed to be moving away from him now. Without knowing what was happening he opened his eyes and woke up. He felt something on his cheek and when he touched it, his finger got wet. He cried in his sleep, and he didn’t even know why.
A new day was here, and the dragon decided to continue his search. Once again the forest was silent as the day before, but this time the sun was shining much brighter, and more of its light got through the leaves, making the forest less dark and creepy. The dragon continued on his way, once again looking for the bushes he found before, hoping to be more successful in finding someone or something.
And so he did.
At first he only noticed that the silence was broken. A weak sound could be heard from a distance, which he had not heard before. Turning his head around a bit, he found out which way the sound came from. He followed it for a while, sound getting stronger.
And then he arrived at the source.
Before him was a wide river, gently flowing in its path that it made thought the forest. He was amazed at it. Not only was its sound pleasant to the ears, but he also tried the water. Even though it wasn’t sweet as the berries, it was much better and he just couldn’t stop drinking. Once he stopped, he sat down next to it, just watching how it flows. He felt that it was beautiful, even though he didn’t know why.
He just sat there and listened. He completely forgot he was searching for anything, most likely because he had found something that brought him a bit joy in this dark forest. He listened and he noticed something else aswell. The calm churning sound of the river was accompanied by a sound he didn’t know. He stood up, started looking around for the source of the new sound. He couldn’t really tell which way it was coming from because of the river, but then he noticed something in the distance. There were a few gray smudges moving at the rivers bank. A smile appeared on his face as he ran to where the smudges were, closing the distance fast.
As he was nearing the source, the smudges started becoming more clear. What was in front of him were gray and white furred animals, walking around on all four legs. He didn’t know what they were, but they were something and he was happy. He even saw something green moving inbetween them, which he didn’t care. He just wanted to meet them. And that’s when they noticed him.
A dragon is a fierce creature, big body, sharp teeth and the ability to breathe fire are not something you want to take lightly. That is why when you see a dragon, four or five time your size run at you, you don’t stay and watch. The fuzzy creatures didn’t have a problem noticing him in time. Their hearing being made for hunting, the wolf pack was alarmed, and ran as fast as they were able. The dragon tried to catch up, but he was too slow, and the wolves chose paths where he had problems going through.
He stopped running, slowed down to a walk and then stopped completely.
He had no idea why they ran away from him. He knew he looked differently, but he just wanted to meet them. As he sat there, trying to figure out what happened, his face became wet again and he had trouble breathing. He cried once again. Why did he have to suffer like this. He walked over to the river to wash his face and once his eyes were clear, he saw his own reflection. A big green dragon. that’s what he was and how he looked like, although he didn’t know that yet. He slashed at the reflection to chase it away and decided to walk along the river instead in the forest. The rivers soothing voice helped him calm down and he didn’t want to leave the only source of sound in the whole forest.
Night came faster than the day before and once again the darkness caused the dragon to lay down, this time near the river. Just as the night before, his dreamland greeted him with open arms. One again he was flying high in the sky, his wings spread and the land below him as small as before. He felt free, but at the same time weird. He recognized the feeling as the one he had while searching for someone in the forest. When he looked around himself, instead of down, he noticed that all the other dragons were gone. Not a single soul was now flying with him but he didn’t seem to mind that. did he know that they were somewhere down there ? He didn’t find out because he woke up to sun reflecting from the rivers surface straight into his eye. He cursed the river for stopping him from finding out, but its sound made him forgive.
A new day, a new road ahead. The dragon walked along the river, listening to it and looking around himself. For some reason the forest seemed less dark then the day before. Even the silence was finally broken, and it was not the river. He heard a few lovely voices, as if someone was singing. He didn’t see who sang, but he liked it and enjoyed it even more than the river.
As he walked, even more singers appeared, still out of his sight but they were there. And then he reached the end of the forest.
The river has led him straight out of the forest and in front of him now lay a meadow covered in green grass. And in the distance something he didn’t see before. No matter what it was, he noticed movement there and he decided to go look at it. But this time slowly.
Full of excitement, he walked towards what he saw. It was a small town, and its citizens were having a calm sunny day. That is until they saw a dragon approach. His big body made the ground rumble quietly so he wasn’t really noticed at first. But once the rumble became a bit stronger, and he came into view, most of the town got alarmed. He noticed that the movement in the town got faster, the little ones were disappearing, and some big ones were gathering in his path. Was he going to finally meet someone ?
Full of expectations he finally came closer, but froze once he saw what was in front of him.
The citizens of the town gathered to block his path, some of them looking angry, some scared, but all were determined to stop him. He wanted to ensure them that he didn’t mean any harm. So he lifted his arm and tried to tell that to them.
“ROAR !” was the only thing that came out of his mouth. He forgot he didn’t know how to speak, but hoped that they would understand.
It didn’t seem to work though. All of them only seemed more scared then before.
So he tried again, but this time something got stuck in his throat, and as he choked he started snorting fire. He didn’t even notice when one of the houses close by caught fire.
“Someone go get water ! The rest of you after him !” one of them screamed
Some of them started throwing things at him, some of them tried to poke him but were to scared to approach. The worst were the ones with pointy things on their heads. One of them started glowing and a colorful light came out. It was beautiful and he tried to grab it, only to pull his hand back instantly once he got hit. What he felt was bad, he didn’t feel that before but he didn’t want to feel it again. As he saw another light coming at him, he quickly turned around and ran away, only to hear loud cheers behind him.
Why. Why was he so hated. He didn’t deserve this. It wasn’t his fault he was different. He just wanted someone, anyone, to be with him, to tell him who he was and to guide him. He wanted to feel like he did in his dreams. That’s when he saw the mountains in front of him. They were high, and from up there he would be able to see everything like he did in his dream. Wiping away the tears from his face he started heading towards his new destination.
Without the forest slowing him down, and with the thought of what he would see from up there speeding him up, the walk took less than what he expected. Now to only get up there.
Even thought the mountain was steep in places, he had no problems climbing up. His claws giving him the support he needed.
As he climbed, the air became different, better in some way he couldn’t explain but knew from his dream.
And then the top came.
In front of him, and all around him aswell, was a wide blue sky, filled with white clouds slowly moving around. He felt great just by looking at them, making the bad memories hide somewhere in the corner of his mind. He wanted to go higher, to feel even better, to be free. But he couldn’t. His could barely move, his body exhausted from the climb and from not eating anything for almost the whole day. He had no other chance then to lay down and try to get some rest, hoping that once he wakes up hell be able to try and fly.
His dreams welcomed him just as they did the nights before. But something was different. He didn’t feel free nor did he feel good. His sight was blurry as well so he couldn’t even see anything. What was happening to him. Couldn’t he escape from all his troubles into his dreams just as he did before ?
The feeling persisted and the blur didn’t vanish, no matter how hard he tried. This weird dream continued until he woke up with a jerk of his body.
He opened his eyes, his mind still somewhere else from the sudden wake up. What a weird dream he thought. He thought about closing his eyes and going back to sleep, but something wasn’t right. He wasn’t alone.
Once he realized he quickly lifted his head to see who else was there, his eyes widening once he saw.
A dragon was standing right above him, piercing him with his eyes and not moving an inch. The only movement were his nostrils while he was breathing. The two of them watched each other for a while for this wasn’t a simple random encounter. The little one felt something he had never before. He stood up and blinked at the big dragon in anticipation. The big one came closer with his head and touched him with his forehead with his. Eyes closed, suddenly tears came rolling from under his eyelids, making the little one not understand the situation any longer.
Once a few more tears came rolling down his cheeks and onto the little ones face, he opened his eyes and with a happy tone said.
“I found you my son.”