Alone.
That seemed to be the only thing I could grow attached to these days, the only thing that had made a recurring appearance within the boundaries of which I called my new life. While "new" was, in a way, the wrong word to use, as I had been masquerading and holding this unfamiliar form for around five years now, I still felt that strange, scratchy feeling you get whenever a new aspect is introduced to the relentless routine we call reality.
Despite the extended amount of time spent waiting, wandering, and searching, I've still no answers to my main questions, the same exact ones that had appeared approximately five years ago when I first woke up here.
Where was I?
Who am I?
Who was I?
These three questions seemed to threaten and engulf every corner of my mind that wasn't now occupied with my observations of the here and now, and the restless instincts that I have now grown with. Unfortunately, my current evidence has changed not a single bit since that day, and I have grown to realize that these may just have to be the answers, if only to just end my constant urge to find, to learn, to understand what these questions truly meant and how they pertained to me now.
I had no idea where I was. I've been in forests, deserts, even a swamp once, but none of these physical factors lead to any accurate or appealing guesses.
The only evidence as to who I am is the form that I now wear, whether I like it or not. A sleek, black, scaly body with a surprising amount of aerodynamic-ability, with sharp fangs that seemed to only come whenever I willed them to or when my new, eager instincts took their toll upon my senses. I had wings as well, but I had never actually tried to take flight.
Why I desperately fought for the search of these answers, I truly didn't know. No information about my previous life had been left in my mind or memories. What was the point in the relentless adventure I now took upon if I had no recollection of what I truly was, what life I lead, and what experience I had gained?
Or, perhaps, this was my real life?
No. I shook my head, putting a black, clawed hand to my temples, rubbing them for a mere moment. I seemed to slip into these thought trains more and more often, though I didn't know why. I liked to pretend that the fact of it was that my mind had started it's own desperate attempt at finding answers, that even it knew it didn't belong. While the hope was almost futile at this point, it still helped to believe.
I took a quick look around me, though I didn't expect to see anything different. It was the same old forest, the one that I had taken most of my stay in this world; I had found a cave a few miles off, and I set myself up there. After all, no answers would arise if I let myself die, though my instincts may not let me do that, no matter how hard I forced. It was a quaint little place. I had gathered hundreds of leaves to make myself a small, slightly-more-comfortable-than-the-floor mattress. It wasn't much, I'll admit, but anything to improve my current condition was most welcome.
I had been walking for some time now, While my stomach was growling at me, and my hunter's instinct had butt in a few hours ago, I was mainly walking for the zen of it all; the fact that, despite how vulnerable I was, how easy I was, nothing would even come near me; it was the natural order of things, after all. The smaller things stayed away from the bigger things, and, from what I could tell, the only things that inhabited these woods besides me were barely half my size.
I mainly fed on rabbits, dear, fish... Anything that had no thought of being able to escape, really. I wasn't very apt at hunting, mind you, but these basic animals seemed more than enough for me to survive and fuel this body on. I had tried for a fox, once, though I ended up slamming straight into a tree. It did shake free a piece of fruit, though, so I didn't feel too bad about it. It felt strange eating these things raw, though it's seemed to be decent thus far.
The world I now inhabited, the world I could do nothing else but call my home for now, was strange to say the least. Everything seemed so alive, so lush and free; the grass and the trees, basically any sort of vegetation, shone brilliantly, whether it be night or day. The air had a weird tickle to it, almost as if a strange force controlled and manipulated it, as if by magic nonetheless.
I continued my little trek through the trees, looking around occasionally as I did. Little bits of dust and other such particles floated and soared through the air, catching the light from the bright, big sun above, giving them the guise of a smaller lightning bug. Purple, blue, and even red flowers littered any area not occupied by trees and other small bushes. The trees wound and twisted their ways painfully into the sky, almost as if working towards the ultimate goal of touching the clouds. While none of them would ever reach them, I thought it good to strive. I related to them, in a weird sort of way; we both looked towards a single thing, but we would almost certainly never reach them. Really, who here would know why I was here, why I was like this and who I used to be? It would take a miracle for someone like that to exist, someone who could help me with no prior knowledge on my situation.
It's just, nothing seemed to add up. Based on who I was now, I had always, or at least for about five years, assumed that I was about as important back on... From wherever I was originally from. In the entirety of the universe, I was a speck in the distance, and now I was nothing different; a speck was the best anything could be in this universe. No matter if you changed history, made the world a better place, you were nothing to the universe and whichever twisted mind oversaw the control of it. Nothing.
Absolutely, positively nothing.
Wait... What is that?
I stopped dead in my tracks, my weight being thrown backwards in order to steady my front-heavy body. My tail slapped the ground hard, sending some leaves that had taken their leave upon the ground soaring once again, if only for a few mere moments. I blew a bit of air out of my black, flaring nostrils, my breath appearing in the mild chill of the day.
Something had started to flow through my body, through my veins and through my arteries, injecting itself into the rest of my body. It felt odd. It willed me, urged me, to turn and head towards a new direction, one completely different from the one I looked and faced towards. It felt urgent, almost like if I didn't go, I would miss out on something extremely important, though what that was was still a mystery. I looked around to be sure nothing had drugged me, because this was the first time I had ever felt anything like this, even on this strange planet.
It wasn't drugs or any other thing like that, though, and I knew because of how it felt. It felt the same as sitting in the middle of the forest after a rainy day, or even just staring out an open window with the wind blowing your hair back; it felt natural, like I, or perhaps my body and form, was supposed to feel it.
Given that fact, though, I was still not entirely sure what to do. I could ignore the urge and go about my lonesome, unbeknownst business, or I could follow what my body was telling me to do. While even that was still not entirely known to me, I seemed to almost know where it was pushing me.
It was a volcano, one that loomed menacingly over its surroundings. How I knew this, I had no idea, and how my brain and memories seemed to just now be influenced by this feeling was right alongside it.
I turned my head towards the direction my new internal compass was pointing; blue skies as far as I could see, yet I could almost feel the volcano in the distance, my destination sitting within its crater. Should I? Could I, even?
I paused to think about this, my eyes fixated on the clouds that soared above me, tainting the perfect beauty of the blue sky. Could this be, perhaps, a call from the others of my kind. I cringed a bit thinking about how I thought about this form as my own, how close I had apparently gotten to it within the recent years. That didn't subtract from the thought, though, that perhaps, just maybe, I could meet others of this kind, ones that shared a form, mind, and appreciation similar to my own?
Despite all of the actual logistics of the situation, though, the thought still sat with me, enticing me to choose it, if not just to satisfy my own curiosity. Why was I feeling this? Why was this volcano my destination.
Great. More questions to add to my collection.
No, I would not let any more of my questions be unanswered.
I took on a determination, one for answers and for the slight annoyance at my lack of understanding, my lack of knowledge on all of this.
I turned my body towards the magnetic pull, my previous spot being marked by smashed down grass. I folded my legs at the joints, getting lower and lower towards the ground, until I threw myself into the air and used my wings, still stiff from being attached to the side of my body for so long. My eyes opened wide as the satisfying feeling of the chill wind caressed my body, giving me the will and the strength to continue. My wings flapped hard, the sound being nothing but noisy in the still atmosphere of the forest as the trees around me were pushed backwards, my body gaining altitude.
For the first time in five years, I felt ready to be lead.
I just hoped it was leading me to answers.
With a little bit more stabilization adjustments, I was on my way towards my newly found destiny as if I had been ready for my entire life.
Perhaps I was.
The wind blew calmly, as if soothing the ponies for the oncoming event. Hundreds of ponies were gathered around and within Ponyville's central town square, most of them with their eyes towards the clouds and the others turned to look at another one of their peers. Even the almost silent murmur going on between a pair or group of ponies was loud enough to add to the already decently loud symphony of mismatched voices.
A little bit away from the bustling square was a small ditch, mainly filled with sand while the edges were seeded with vegetation. The occasional tree hanging over the ditch and casting a gleaming shadow that offered a bit of cool on the rather warm day to the three residents of the stone-infested dip. A purple alicorn, a yellow pegasus, and an orange mare sat within the protection of the pit, under the authority of the cool given by the tree's offspring of shade. The yellow pegasus stared up at the clouds, following the example of her fellow equines back at the square, while the purple alicorn held a pair of binoculars to her eyes, hoping to spy the first signs sooner than anyone else. The orange mare merely sat, a bored expression adorning her face, while she looked indifferent about the situation altogether.
The yellow pegasus turned to her purple friend slowly, a slightly worried look on her face. "They should be here by now, Twilight," Fluttershy said, "what could be taking them so long?"
"Well," Twilight said, lowering both her view and the binoculars away from her eyes, "I can give you multiple logical reasons as to why their flyover would be delayed. Wind speed and direction, for one, could slow their advancement, perhaps a quick group hunt took place along the way, plenty of explanations as to their whereabouts."
Fluttershy looked back towards the sky, anxiously looking for a small speck in the distance, but to no current avail. "What if they're hurt? What if the weather of their countless habitats has hurt them?"
Applejack rested her hoof upon her friend's back. "Don't be so dramatic, Fluttershy, you of all ponies should know that nature ain't a clock, but instead more of a... kind of like an apple tree. Sure, the general basics happen, but they don't always happen at the same times, an' it ain't never gonna grow the apples in the same pattern twice."
"I know, it's just that-"
Fluttershy was cut off by the sudden spray of sand and gravel in their direction. Turning to face the source, they saw an ecstatic Pinkie laying still in a ball-like position, laughing.
"Woopsie, I guess I should've warned you guys," Pinkie Pie said, laughing again soon after and sprawling out, filling up a large area of the ditch that dug deep into the ground.
"No kiddin'," Applejack responded, spitting in an attempt to dislodge the small rocks from her teeth and to relieve her mouth from the crusty feeling grains. "Took you long enough, anyways."
"Oh come on, I'm only..." she thought about it silently for a moment before replying, "about an hour late. Though you can thank the oven breaking for that." Pinkie examined the empty sky. "Doesn't look like I missed much, though."
"Yeah," Applejack continued, "these dragons sure are takin' their darn time gettin' here."
"No kidding," Rainbow said, sitting on a cloud that had taken residence over the ditch, offering more shade to those below.
"When'd you get here," Fluttershy asked.
"I've been here since Pinkie got here. Just grabbing a seat," she answered as she proceeded to smack the cloud with her hoof, coughing from the mist that now took over her area.
"Hang on, I think I see them," Twilight said, waving her hoof to quiet the group. The rest of her peers looked in the direction she was, staring intently on the little patch of sky just over a mountain that overtook most of the horizon. The bustling and small chatter of those at the square were still audible when they saw the tiny, shaky dots in the distance. A wave of ease came over Fluttershy, and the rest of the group smiled at the beautiful anomaly taking place before them.
The spectating of the dragon migration had always been a part of equine culture, spanning even to the far reaches of Yakyakistan where the yaks would watch the few dragons from their area take off to join the main vein that ran just over Equestrian territory. The dots in the distance seemed to both increase in size and quantity exponentially over the next few moments, leading up the point where a cool breeze washed over the ponies as the flapping of the giant wings above them both made an auditory chopping and blasted cold air from higher in the atmosphere down.
Twilight set her binoculars on a stone on the edge of the crevice, and looked up and merely enjoyed the moment, as did everyone else within her group; each stared up, smiling, enjoying the small moments of the spectacle taking place above them. For these moments, it felt as if they weren't even part of a world, but not in a bad way, in a way as if they had never affected the natural order of things, the natural traditions; it felt as if they were there, but were never there in the first place. These were the times the ponies relished, the times they wished never ended.
If you were on the planet to better yourselves, then what became of those there before, who were on the planet for the same reason?
That question was both answered and disappeared altogether during these times. The answer? To live, to survive, and to thrive, just as everything else had; completing the hardest challenge of surviving the harsh reality. No one saw this answer, though, as the question was never there, and what good was an answer if the question never posed itself.
It was the most relaxing moment any creature could feel.
It was, anyway, until Twilight noticed something in the distance.
The relaxing sensation soon became the feeling of fear, not pure fear though, but instead the fear of uncertainty, something that plagued Twilight and others like her since the beginning.
She studied this thing she noticed; a mere black dot, just like the other dragons a distance away, but something was off. It flew not only strangely, in a weird zig-zag, inexperienced pattern, but also... Fast.
This thing was faster than any dragon, anything, Twilight had seen before, much faster than those in the upper ranks of the Wonderbolts and certainly faster than her rainbow-maned friend.
As Twilight came up from her laid down position she had come to adopt during her moments of ease, the rest of her friends noticed the dot in the distance too, especially as it had grown exponentially since she first noticed it. The murmur of the crowd inhabiting the square perked up again, alerting the group that whatever this thing was in the distance, it had definitely attracted its own in attention.
"Uh," Rainbow muttered, still perched atop her cloud, "what is that?"
Twilight merely continued to stare at the dot, which had started to take a more dragon-y looking shape, as Fluttershy answered, "I've never seen a dragon move that fast before." Her voice had a tinge of stutter in it, showing her obvious concern.
"I don't know what it is," Twilight quivered, "but judging from how fast it's moving, it won't be fun being under that thing when it passes. We may want to move."
"Pssh," Rainbow said, waving her hoof, "it can't be any worse than the wind tunnel the Wonderbolts use in the academy."
"Suit yerself," Applejack responded, "I'm not about to be blown into a wall." She started to crawl out of the ditch.
Not even a minute after Applejack had made her way out of the sand filled ditch and started her way further back and away from the path of the oncoming dragon stream, the group turned to look in shock as a deafening cry cycled through the air, coming approximately from where the dragon, now taking on an unmistakably identified shape, was located, only a few miles away. The group stared, worried about what the call meant, anticipating.
The dragon had stopped moving, now almost floating in the air as its wings curled into its body. For a few moments, it seemed to defy gravity.
Its wings suddenly unfurled once again, and the dragon started forward at a speed no pony had ever seen from anything within all known history, leaving behind a faint purple ring that expanded and soon evaporated into the daytime air.
The dragon continued, it seemed, to gain speed as it came nearer and nearer to the group and the town square.
It was now only two miles away.
The group acted fast, scrambling out of the ditch while Rainbow made her way to help the town's ponies evade the incoming danger.
One mile...
Some ponies turned as they moved away, only to see the dragon speeding ahead of its peers, making them struggle as its sudden passing disrupted their air manipulation and caused them to lose grip. Along with this, the leaves and grass behind it simultaneously waved in defeat, threatening leaving their soft ground of the home and flying into the air, just as the dragons were.
The group met up with the others from the town, a good distance away and behind the shelter of some of the bigger buildings of the suburban area. They all watched, stunned at the speed of the previously undiscovered creature before them as it zoomed past their eyes, sending bits and pieces of dead, disjointed vegetation to where the same ponies stood just a few moments ago. It traveled at such a velocity that it could have seriously injured one of the citizens depending on where it hit them, and most of them were at head level.
While any other group of townsfolk might have been disgruntled by the event they just witnessed, despite its lack of damage and disruption, these ponies were mostly indifferent about the situation. Soon after the dragon was much further than even the lead of the stream, most of the ponies went back to their previous positions to continue their sighting of the spectacle, completely undismayed by the new species of dragon.
This was Ponyville, after all, the town of mayhem, as it had somewhat become known as.
In complete contrast to these ponies, the five merely stood where they were, each a different sort of confused about the whole situation.
There was Twilight, who stood there, eyes in a resting position but mouth clenched to one side, deep in thought about many different questions; where did it come from, why had it never been seen before, normal Twilight sort of ordeals.
Rainbow was envious of its show stopping abilities.
Fluttershy was scared for the safety of the other creatures around Equestria with this new predator about.
Applejack was thankful no one got hurt.
Pinkie was smiling, happy for a new event to show up within her normal, boring routine.
Rarity was walking along the path with a pair of sunglasses and a pink coat on, sipping a cup of tea.
"My my, what has happened here? It's a mess, sticks everywhere-"
"Yer a bit late there, Rarity," Applejack said in a snotty tone, "if you were here on time you wouldn't be asking that question."
"Well, yeah," Rarity said, giving up her elegant tone into a more nasty one, "that's obvious, now isn't it?"
The two looked away from each other with pursed lips, living in a pool of their own petty remarks and feelings.
"Spike, I need you to send a letter."
Twilight anticipated a reply. When she didn't get one, she looked around, only now realizing that Spike was still at the castle, sleeping. She gave an annoyed sigh.
"What do you need to tell Celestia?" Pinkie stared confused at Twilight. "Can't you just give it a name and be done-"
"This goes beyond a simple new species, Pinkie." Twilight turned to catch the eyes of all of members of the group. "That thing isn't a simple creature of nature; judging from its wingspan and it body, or what I could make out of it, at least, there's no way that thing should be able to reach that speed, no less hold it consistently with no drop or altitude gain. It just doesn't match what we know about even simple physics!" Twilight looked back towards the ponies that inhabited the square, obvious signs of concern on her face. Her friends watched, anxiously waiting for her suggestion.
"I fear something's seriously wrong here."