Chapter 1 ReBurth in Fire

Edited by Hunter Steel

Sup, name’s 丂んuｲ, Wait, let me guess, you can’t understand that. Yea, me either. So yea I'm apparently a ghost now, or am I a wraith? I don’t rightly know. As for how I got like this, well I was offered the chance to go to Equestria, and being the basement dwelling perma-virgin I am, I jumped at the opportunity and, well you can see how well that worked out. Instead of sending say all of me to Equestria the greedy bastard who promised to send me there copied my mind and soul, a process that destroys your body by the way and sent that instead with the excuse of, “send all of you? Bitch please, do you even have a clue how much energy, not to mention effort it would take to lug your sorry ass across dimensions? This is frankly cheaper and-” that’s about all I heard, you see there are three parts to your being; mind, body and soul. When you die the body part of that equation is usually the one that fails, when this happens your body 'returns to the earth' while your soul and mind start to drift apart, to my knowledge the soul is reincarnated and your mind… well I’m not sure what happens to your mind, personally I think it just fades away or something. Well that’s what usually happens anyway, and that's what was happening to me. Until “Well I guess I can let you spend the rest of however long like this, this is better than the alternative anyway, I’ll just connect your soul to your mind and there, now you don’t need a body, whelp good luck” and with that he was no more.

So yea I'm cursed to haunt this Earth for however long. I’m currently floating above the head of Miss Williams, both of us watching Law & Order SVU. She's a really nice lady, you know the type, goes to church, donates to charity, and has hips the US would invade for. She's a perfect ten, but she's a butter-face, and strangely single. It’s been a years since she has had any company if you know what I mean. The last guy she had over actually asked her to wear a paper bag on her head and, well, long story short now she hates men. But who am I to question my unknowing landlord.

“…”

What? No I didn’t watch her have sex, that would just be creepy. Fucking perverts, she’s like a sister to me, kinda, ok not really, but whatever.

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

Ooo Company don’t get up I’ll get it- or you could just ignore me sure that works too.

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Five minutes later

I watch with indifference as the priest continues going through the house “cleansing” the rooms or whatever I wasn’t really paying attention, apparently Miss Williams is having me evicted, it isn't working so far so imma just ignore them. One of the priest’s followers or whatever turns of the TV. 'Well that won’t do at all.' Using what influence I have in the physical world - which is to say little to none - I will the shadows that the room has been cast in to turn the TV back on after the guy leaves the room. A few minutes later he turns it off again, I didn’t even notice him come back. Looking at him, i could see the scrawny guy sweating bullets. He watches for a few seconds before putting down the remote and turning to leave. Deciding in that moment to fuck with him again, I will into existence a talon made of shadow and scrape them against the concrete wall opposite him, the guy slows down before turning to face the aforementioned wall, when he's about to turn around I turn the TV on again and he nearly shit's himself. After calming down, he walked over to where he put the remote, but it's not there. He’s about to start looking around when there's a bang behind him, turning around he finds the remote on the ground with the batteries missing, after he stares wide eyed for a bit, he fucking bolts.

The whole time I was laughing my ass off on the ceiling. It’s been awhile since I fucked with someone like that. I would screw with miss Williams, but it’s never wise to piss off your landlady, though it didn’t make much of a difference in the end now did it. Floating toward the doorway to follow him I find myself quite suddenly, violently, and painfully bitch slapped to the ground by the book of revelations. Looking up I see the priest skip through his bible before he starts chanting something in… I don’t even know what that is, but whatever it is, it’s doing something. I can feel whatever it is trying to pull apart the bond holding my mind and soul together, it’s not painful, but it won’t work either, the initial bond was half assed so if he had caught me back then this might actually work, but at this point my soul and mind have fused together. Pretty soon time starts to get a bit wonky for me. Next thing I know I'm slammed full and painful force into something. After swearing up a storm, I find I'm in front of several… I'm just going to assume there angels even though I can’t make out any features, they definitely give of that vibe. “Fret not child,” they said without saying in creepy unison, “for soon your soul will be free.” Now I never saw any of them move, however I did find two… I want to say hands, but I somehow feel like that would be insulting and racist both at the same time and individually. So I feel something on my shoulders, next that tugging sensation returned, gently at first, then several orders of magnitude stronger before getting unimaginably stronger just for the lols. Pretty soon, or maybe it’s been a while, it stops.

I smelt more than heard the angel sigh, “It seems this one cannot be saved, I suppose we will need to be rid of it then, do you recall what happened to make you this way?” suddenly I find myself spilling my guts as to when where and how everything happened, “This again," another sigh "very well.” Suddenly it grabs a piece of golden paper from… somewhere writes something on it with a disappointingly mundane ballpoint pen, I mean everything in wherever here is has an ethereal white or golden glow with the exception of, well me and the pen, this might seem like a strange thing to fixate on but it just seemed unnatural for an angel in all its shining glory to be writing with a cheap run of the mill pen. That and the fact that I felt like I was completely insignificant, which was about right, it was like just standing there was slowly making me more confident for some reason. I have no clue what was being written but there was sure a hell of a lot being written, even fifteen minutes later, at that point I broke my gaze to look around the area. Wherever I looked I could see nothing but what looked like fluffy white clouds. Half an hour later the angel addressed me while still writing. That was another half hour that boiled down to me promoted up a level to a ‘primary reincarnation’ basically when I die I can retain the memories of my previous life and seek out a new body to inhabit, provided it’s early enough in development to not yet have a soul. And since the boss man doesn’t deal in that kind of reincarnation, I was to be carted off to the nearest world that does tolerate that sort of stuff. After another couple minutes of silence and constant writing, the angel roles the sheet of paper around the pen and shoves both it into my chest where I feel it diffuse into my ‘body.’ Then it crumpled me into a golf ball and added me to a bin with a bunch of others. You ever played golf and your ball seemed to disappear despite how closely you watch for where it landed? Yea, well then you probably know where this is going. Three weeks, one packaging machine, seven vehicle rides, one country club, and one bitterly divorced woman with a high-end driver later, I find myself traveling through a vomit inducing warp gate of technicolour madness.

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Considering the tags on this story I most likely don’t need to tell you where I ended up. When I came too I found myself in Ponyville, a small town within the peaceful and magical land of Equestria before proceeding to befriend everypony… right? Yea no, I unfolded and landed in a man sized pile of shit, and it was still warm and fresh, how lucky am I? Good thing I'm incorporeal so no splatter. It was still extremely unpleasant nonetheless. After righting myself I look around at the burning wasteland I'm in. 'great, just fucking great.' After a few days of aimless floating I notice fire randomly spewing from the mouth of a mountain cave to my right, and seeing as there's no point for me to not see what goes on there I reorient myself and head for my new target. Now when I finally got there a day later I most definitely didn’t expect to find what I did. Have you ever killed anything before? And no I don’t mean things like bugs. Maybe you forgot to feed your pet rabbit? Neighbours dog mess up your garden one too many times? At least some of you know what I'm talking about. Personally the biggest thing I’ve killed was a pig, and it took me about a second to get into the mind-set to kill one of the animals I razed from their birth. That said, I don’t think I could kill a sentient being, or even do significant harm, well, not directly anyway. But who knows, maybe if push came to shove. But I'm generally a sensitive guy, one who will ignore your screams for help if there’s a chance of me getting dragged into your problem, but a sensitive guy none the less, even if all that sensitivity was gain from watching Adventure Time when Fin sings the empathy song to that green troll thing. So when I heard muffled cries of rage, pained and frantic broken crying along with grunting coming from the cave mouth and the sound of wet slapping and something scrabbling on stone, I slowed to a stop and the small smile I had been wearing while humming Tricks Up My Sleeve slowly melted off my face. While this could be something different from the images my mind was conjuring, deep down I already knew what was happening around the corner ten feet from me. And god damn the criess I heard tore at my soul. I don’t know when or why but I ended up turning the corner. It was then the smell and sights hit me like… like… My god, I expected to see something that would make me regret not turning around and walking away but what I saw… it… it.

In the back of the cave were a few relatively small piles of gems, jewels, scrap metals, and gold nuggets arranged in a rough circle, in the centre of that circle is a nest of about three eggs, or at least what remained of them. In front of that was a male dragon judging by his build. He was about therteen meters, (little more than forty-two feet,) long and both his legs were broken and spiked through into the ground. One of his wings was torn off at the second joint and seemed to be both burnt and infected. The other wing was discoloured, swollen, and had been bent in several unnatural angles. One arm was buried in the ground up to the elbow while the other was broken in several places and stretched over his neck to be nailed into the ground by two spikes of rock, preventing him from lifting his head. A metal spike was driven through his snout and into the ground to serve as further restraint and to muffle his cries of rage. His tail was jaggedly cut most of the way through and hung on by a flap of infected skin with the tip nailed into the ground to his right. His primary colour was green while his spines and wings, um, wing, was a light blue, and his green bloodshot eyes were fixed on the dragoness just a bit smaller than him being brutally raped in front of him. Her neck and arms were seemingly merged through one pillar and her legs were merged through another such that she was suspended sideways. There were two male dragons one in front of her which had a black and green colour scheme and one behind with an orange and blue colour scheme, both ramming furiously into her ass and pussy, a mixture of blood and semen flowing from both her abused holes. Her horse throat maintained her constant frantic crying as her eyes that were locked to the male nailed to the ground maintained a constant flow of tears.

My ‘eyes’ were drawn to a bit of movement in a branching corner of the cave that obscured most of the form around the bend leaving the upper fourth of her body exposed, if she hadn’t moved I honestly wouldn’t have noticed. Sitting off to the side was another female dragon at least six times the size of the others, her primary colour was a golden orange while her secondary was a deep sapphire blue, she had three pairs of horns that swept back and down her head. She seemed oblivious to the level of anguish permeating the cave, and then I noticed the expression on her face. She had a small smile plastered on as though she was sitting on her lawn happily watching her children frolicking about with each other, it was sickening. Just then the black and green dragon raping the restrained dragoness seemed to climax inside of her before pulling out, exposing and allowing her torn, bleeding and gaping pussy to release a short torrent of semen. The dragoness in the corner smiled even wider at that, her expression sickening to the core. I couldn’t fathom how any being could be that… that… callous. I'm no saint, but I don’t think I would have the heart to do any of what i was seeing. Pretty soon the other dragon finished inside of her before pulling out and exposing her gaping ass which was in even worse condition than her cunt. When they stopped I could see the relief on her face even though she never stopped bawling. Then there was a crunch it sounded like something… crushing... an egg.

All eye snapped to the larger dragoness, at her feet was a clutch of five eggs, and she was eating them. The restrained dragoness seemed to snap at that, her cries of anguish turning to screams of motherly instinct fuelled rage. The coulombs restraining her started to crack under her frantic rage fuelled thrashing, my eyes being briefly drawn to the fluids being forced from her ass and pussy with the tensing of her lower body. Even the two males who just had their way with her started to back away from her after one of them had his arm cut open by her trashing barbed tail. The larger dragon only widened her smile before slowly and deliberately crushing another egg between her teeth. At that point one of her legs had broken free and was frantically trying to gain perches to break her other limbs free. Another egg… Her head got out. Two more eggs… She’s free... She sprints the distance toward the last of her clutch before collapsing in front of the egg, blood staining the shell from the mother's headless body hitting the floor as the larger dragoness thoughtfully chews and swallows her catch. I watched the larger dragon pick up her headless body before running her tongue over it and cleaning off the semen before forcing it into her pussy distending her stomach, and busting through all her body’s barriers before eventually her tongue forced its way through what remained of her neck, bringing a mixture of faeces, organs, blood, and cum with it. After using her tongue to play with the corpse to the horror of everyone present she finally got bored and decided to eat it.

My mind was frozen and my eyes locked on the atrocity being committed in front of me. The first thought to rip its way through my mind was ‘that could be me nailed to the ground’ followed by ‘my god make it stop, somebody fucking do something’. At that point it hit me, this is the world I’m going to live in. Sure I knew that things like this and even worse happened back on earth, but I was never affected by it, there’s a decent chance you’re the same. I'm sure most of you are sitting at home right now, reading this on your computer and casting your down votes, not at all worried that someone will break into your home, break your limbs, nail you to the floor, and proceed to violently rape you’re lover in front of you while eating your children. I know for a fact most of you read this and feel such a situation is impossible in the modern world. But you forget, the world is a fucked place, if there’s some sick mother fucker twisted enough to think of it, then there’s a crazy bastard out there willing to try it, and not even 10% of the bad things that happen today make it onto the news, so you’re woefully ignorant of how the world is despite your age.

Looking back at the guy nailed to the floor he seems to have completely given up. At second glance it seemed as though the mail was not spared his mates faith. There were spots of white scattered across his body. After the golden dragoness finished her snack she sucked in a breath before releasing it in the restrained male’s direction. What came out of her mouth was most definitely not fire. A wave of brown spewed forth from her maw and seemed to grow in volume as it neared its target. On impact it splashed and flowed like water before hardening into solid rock and building up on itself. Turning her head to the last two dragons she spoke in the most calming and motherly voice you could imagine, sadly I couldn’t understand any of what she said. “<I would like to thank you both for seeing to my entertainment, I thoroughly enjoyed myself.>” Turning to the still bleeding of the two her face took on an expression of concern, “<It seems you are hurt, come here let me have a look.>” Hesitantly he approached, and when in her reach, faster than most could register, his upper body was trapped beneath her claw. His accomplice tried to flee but with a grabbing motion he was encased from the neck down in a sphere of earth. Turning her attention back to the being pinned under her claw she lifted him to her mouth by his limbs and proceeded to eat the wings off his back. While I held no sympathy for the bastard, I couldn’t help but cringe at his frantic screams and pleads for help and mercy that continued until she tore open his chest. When she was done with him, her attention turned to the black dragon encased in rock, he didn’t even bother to fight it. ‘Smart lad’ I thought idly, ‘she obviously enjoys watching them try to escape their suffering.’ With a jester of her arm his restraint was slid across the floor to her before falling apart. “<I don’t suppose you would be willing to sing for me would you crest?>” Crest just closed his eyes.

“<Just do what you’re going to do to me already.>” I don’t know what he said to her, but she smiled. Moving into the main cave she reoriented herself facing the entrance while resting on her haunches and spreading her legs. Her pussy was dripping wet and releasing a smell of need that rivalled the stench of blood, rape, and gore that was permeating the cave. Crests eyes flickered to her soaking entrance for but a fraction of a second before turning away. But of course she didn’t miss that. Reaching forward and grabbing him she put his snout up to her slick entrance, “<Do a good enough job and you might just survive today.>” needing no further encouragement crest began to lap enthusiastically at her winking clit the size of his head. Soon enough she got impatient and started to repeatedly shove his entire head into her entrance, I could hear his frantic gasp for breath, and I could hear the gagging every time he got a lung full of her juices instead. Eventually she decided to force his entire upper body into herself, soon enough the tip of his tail was all that was left for her to hold on to as she covered her pussy to hold him in while releasing constant moans of pleasure, each peak signifying his frantic struggles for air. I don’t know how long I was standing frozen at that cave mouth watching this happen. If I could I would have voided my stomach, and through all that I couldn’t move, couldn’t turn away, and couldn’t close my eyes hours must have passed before a coughing and sputtering dragon was washed from her body in a wave of juices before passing out. She carelessly threw him into the alcove she earlier occupied and settled down to sleep.

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It was the next day and I was still in the same position, my mind still hadn’t processed the atrocity I was subject to watch by my traitorous body. Crest had just woken up and was crawling his way out of the cave praying to whatever god he prays too that he could escape before that thing sleeping the cavern woke up and decided to go a second round with her impromptu dildo. A few minutes later he managed to escape without alerting her, if barely. My frozen mind decided to return what motor ability I had, at that point I look down at my incorporeal hands, shaking uncontrollably. I don’t know how long I was like that before I heard movement and looked up to see the thing was awake and headed for me. I couldn’t move, and soon enough I could feel myself being drawn towards her, I couldn’t find the courage to do anything to escape and soon enough she passed through me and I was dragged into what would become her new egg.

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60000 Years Later
Filly Delphia Museum of Natural History

Four ponies walked down the halls of the museum, workers and visitors alike parting to make way for the curator Pathfinder as well as his guest and fellow archaeologist, Crimson Compass, Northern Lights and Hidden Seeker “I’m surprised how well this dig went,” started Crimson, “usually any archaeologically outing involving Daring Doo ends with what remains of the ruins being destroyed completely leaving behind nothing but a single artefact that ends up being sealed away by the princesses due to some obscure ancient magic.”

“Believe me Mr Crimson, I should know,” Said Lights. “like you I made the mistake of funding that lunatic’s supposed noble goal of ‘unearthing and preserving lost history’ I don’t believe that I can adequately portray my disdain for that Pegasus”

Hidden Seeker gave a displeased grimace. “Indeed, did you know that she showed up at several of our dig sites and proceeded to trudge through the ruins setting off each and every trap me and my archaeologist spent painstaking hours finding and cataloguing?”

“You don’t say?” queried Pathfinder, “It seems I was fortunate to not have had any negative encounter with her then, I admit if I had known this beforehoof I would have avoided her at all cost, though we also would never have found these perfectly preserved fossils. And here we are ladies and gentlestallions.” The sight the four aerologist came upon was nothing short of amazing. Towering above them was the visage of a majestic dragon with three pair of majestic horns that swept back and down her body, several of which were severely damaged, the largest one on the right having been completely broken off at the base. She was curled protectively around what compared to her size was a small rock that thrummed with an as of yet unknown magical energy. Her Hide which hide become dehydrated was now shrivelled to her bones and showed signs of deep cuts testament to a vicious battle. Even with its shrivelled appearance and prone posture the form of this dragon was several stories tall and radiated majesty. She was positioned such that it was obvious the rock was the centre of all her attention. “Unbelievable isn’t it.”

“How in the name of Celestia’s lactating tits did you find this!? Much less move it here!? And how in heaven did you get it inside this building!?!?” All the ponies in the enormous room containing the fossil stopped and turned to Northern Lights upon her exclamation. Coughing into a hoof she couldn’t hide her excitement as she galloped up to the Massive creature and proceeded to examine it.

“Stop!!! You all need to get away from that thing.” Once again the room’s attention was rested from the dragon to land on a frazzled and roughed up looking daring doo standing in the entrance to the room. Her signature pith helmet was splattered with blood, her clothes were torn in several places, and she was covered in dust. She continued to speak as she limped forward. “I don’t know what’s so special about this thing, but Ahuizotl wants it, and if he wants it then believe me, we don’t want anything to do with it. We need to destroy it now.”

At her words all four archaeologist present placed themselves firmly between Daring and the dragon fossil. “You will do no such thing!” exclaimed Pathfinder, he open his mouth to continue but was cut off.

“I agree with Dr Pathfinder.” came a voice that sent chills up Daring’s spine, “you will do no such thing, I certainly will not stand idly by and let you destroy the only specimen of the old gods left in the world.”

Daring whipped around to the doorway she entered through. “Caballeron!?” she exclaimed, “what are you doing here!?” At that daring registered a cry of ‘watch out!’ before she was pounced from the side. Looking up she found herself staring into the blue eyes of a house cat while her limbs were restrained by several large jungle cats as more yet surrounded her.

“I hired him of course.” Craning her neck she could make out the form of Ahuizotl examining the fossil, more specifically the rock in the centre. Suddenly Daring’s nose was assaulted by a foul odour. Snapping her head to the front she found the house cat crouched above her face, turning back its head it gave her a Cheshire grin despite the disbelieving looks several of the big cats were giving it.

“Wait, what are you doing!?” Shouted daring, “Stop, that’s disgusting, no, No stop, No, NO, NOOOOOOOOO.”

Meanwhile Caballeron’s goons filed into the room and restrained anyone who didn’t have the common sense to try and leave the building, not that it would have done any good there were only two entrances to the room, and they had secured the entire building.

“Ahuizotl I'm gonna get you for this!!!!” Ahuizotl just chuckled and snapped his fingers. “Wait, I take it back, just not the tiger please, do you know how hard it is to get the smell of cat shi- MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!” Ahuizotl chuckled harder all the while never stopping his examination.

“That is just disgusting Ahuizotl.” Caballeron commented dryly.

“I am aware of that, but I find her cliché hero speeches tedious and annoying, hopefully this will lesson that a bit. Is the building secured?”

“Yes building secure and everyone is accounted for.”

“Good” Ahuizotl called over a mountain lion that had a bag around its neck. Reaching into the bag he retrieved a badly damaged stone tablet which he begun to wave over the surface of the rock. A few minutes in he brought the tablet over a crack in the rock at which point it burst into flames. He immediately dropped it and back-pedaled away from the giant fossil as the flames moved with unnatural speed to engulf the entirety of the display.

“NOOOOOO” Chorused all our characters of interest, well except daring, I wouldn’t open my mouth either in her situation, she did manage a smile though.

Within minutes the fossil was reduced to ash with the exception of the rock that now sat by itself in the middle of the display.
CRACK!

Chapter 2 ReBirth in Rock (Language and Talk of The Old Ones)

View Online

Edited by Hunter Steel

Chapter 2 Language and Talk of the Old Gods

‘Ugh, the hell, I can’t move.’

CRACK!!!

“It’s activating. Quickly Ahuizotl, start your ritual.”

‘That language? The Fuck! Did I get captured by the Easterners? Crap, crap crap crap crap crap.’ I immediately started to flare my magic to hopefully disrupt whatever the hell these dragons were trying to do to me. Eastern dragons have a nasty habit of turning others into meat puppets, and I sure as fucking hell wasn’t going to be one of these sick freak's toy. Immediately the air became charged with a dangerous amount of sporadic magical static.

“Ahuizotl I can feel the magic washing off this thing and I'm an earth pony, this isn’t good. What’s taking the ritual so long!?”

“This cannot be rushed Caballeron, bad things will happen!”

“Like having the royal guard investigating a sudden spike of unknown magic!”

“You will beg to be in the custody of the guard should this ritual fail due to your inability to quiet down and let me focus.”

‘This magic, it’s, not a dragon, so not the southerners, then who? And it’s so weak'. Determining that the threat level was significantly lower than I initially thought, I redirected my attention to my current prison. Heavily enchanted with mostly protection and preservation runes, any spell casted in my direction would affect the shell not me. It also seems to have my mother's signature. 'So if this is her work then I need only.’ Feeling around with my magical senses I managed to locate the rune my mother would place on anything she enchanted for me when I was younger. This was so that I could figure out how the runic arrays worked and modify them however I want. In this case though, I just need to deactivate them, after going over there structure first that is.

Caballeron let out a relieved sigh when the magic started to recede. "Did it work?" at Ahuizotl's fatigued nod he continued, “Good, because we need to leave now, the Royal guards will be here any moment to investigate that magical surge. Also, should we be worried about anymore magical surges giving away our location.”

“No, the ritual I performed gives me full control of this relic. Once I established the connection the magic contained within it settled down, though I can still feel it probing around. It almost feels alive.”

“Yes yes whatever, we need to move this thing now the Guard are likely on their way”.

“And how do you suggest we move it?” queried Ahuizotl, “I doubt we can wheel it through the streets without drawing attention, and it definitely can’t fit through the way we came in.” Ahuizotl, glaring at Caballeron and waiting for an answer that would never come, noticed Caballeron was staring at something behind him. Turning around to see what had his attention his eyes were immediately drawn to the initial crack that had formed in the fossil, the sight that greeted him caused his blood to turn Icey. Through the diagonal crack that ran across the top half of the rock, framed by arcs of royal blue electricity was a jaggedly slit pupil colored to match the arcs of energy seemingly searching for perches, and it was staring at him with an intensity he’s seen his big cats give small rodents.

No one moved, no one breathed. Several of the ponies restrained in the room blacked out upon meeting the eyes that had their captors transfixed. Ahuizotl slowly started to back away, “don't make any sudden movements, back away very slowly.” The eye vanished soon after its appearance and the room seemed to breathe an unjustified sigh of relief. That was until the fossil began to flake away from the top down, taking Ahuizotl’s magical connection with it. Upon completion in its place was a breed of dragon the likes of which Ahuizotl had only seen vaguely mentioned on millennia old documents and hieroglyphs. Its body unfolded from the curled position it was in to stand upright to its full three meter height. The dragon in question had a primary color scheme of a white so pure as to rival Celestia's ivory coat and a Blue so light only the contrast of the white scales betrayed their true color. Across the dragon's body with the exception of his light blue underside there were filigree lines of the darkest black that blossom from the base of his webbed wings and unfurled across his body. His wings themselves adhered to his colors scheme with light blue webbing secured to a white frame. Atop his head is a pair of horns colored in the lightest blue that grew pointing behind him and slightly outwards before majestically curving upwards. Starting at the back of his head there were two uniform rows of serrated Electric yellow spines that curve backwards and run the length of his back and tail. His prehensile tail was the length of his body and ended in an angular double pronged spade that Shares the color of his spines. The full majesty of this dragon was however marred by the dust from the broken down shell that clung to his scales.

It felt good to stand up straight, I felt like I was stuck in there for a significant amount of time, not to mention I was starving, thirsty, and felt rather weak. I obviously wouldn't be able to do anything strenuous much less fly. Taking in my surroundings properly I noticed several ponies randomly standing around the large room, there was also a group of them restrained in a corner, several of which were sleeping. ‘I wonder how long they’ve been here’. Not far from one of the entrances to the room was a Pegasus with... ‘wait, is that daring do,' the only reason I remember her is I would magically watch episodes of my favorite TV shows when I sleep, effectively replacing my dreams with everything from Anime to Minecraft.

"..."

What!? I’m stuck on an alien world with nothing of my previous life, if you were in my situation and got a chance to watch TV I’m pretty sure you would jump at the opportunity just like I did. In front of me and slowly backing away was the Ahuizotl I spotted through the crack. ‘I wonder exactly how long I was in there’. He completely froze when I locked eyes with him. ‘I doubt the language is still the same, but he's a historian right? Let’s see if he can understand any of the Ahuizotl Languages I know’.

"{გამარჯობა შეგიძლიათ გამიგეთ?}"

“…”

‘No response, ok’.

"[ሠላም እኔን መረዳት የምንችለው እንዴት ነው?]"

"(مرحبا هل يمكن أن نفهم لي؟)"

"What’s it doing?" asked Dr. Pathfinder.

"SHHH" responded Northern Lights as she listened to the enunciation of the ancient dragon.

"<Hello can you understand me?>"

Her heart almost vacated her chest when she heard a few familiar words, even if they were in one of the few ancient languages she did not put much effort into studying due to its obscurity. Franticly looking around to formulate a response she locked eyes with Caballeron, who upon noticing her expression made to address her, but she verbalized her response before he had a chance.

"<Understanding can do I!>"

‘Meh, close enough’. I turned and walked over to the gray-blue unicorn that was restrained with the others. She had bright blue eyes and her mane and tail were a few shades lighter than her coat, and by coat I mean her fur, not the brown jacket she was wearing with climbing boots for some reason, indoors, in the heat at that. Her cutie mark depicted two snow capped mountains and a snowflake. “<How well can you understand me? Because your speech is badly broken.>” I Noted the Ahuizotl talking animatedly with one of the earth ponies. All the while the pony was trying her best to decipher my meaning and formulate her response. It took a few minutes before she responded.

“<Not nice good.>”

“<Very well then, is it ok if I use a spell on you? It will allow us to learn each other’s language.>”. Her face scrunched as she interpreted my question, it wasn’t too hard to know when she caught my meaning, seeing as she somehow managed to turn pale through already pale fur and looked up at me with fear prevalent in her eyes, ‘It seems she misinterpreted what I said, let’s see where this goes’.

Pathfinder noticed his colleague’s change in demeanor “What did it say?” He got no response, so he bumped her with this shoulder to get her attention. Northern Lights turned to him with a haunted look that made him question whether or not he really wanted to know before he repeated his question.

“It wants to take something from my head, but I don't know what, I think it wants my Brain, why did I have to open my mouth now it wants to eat my! At her frantic response all the ponies in the bundle started to panic while frantically trying to squirm away regardless of restraints, it was pretty funny to watch actually, but I don't think the smirk their actions caused to grow on my face helped my case. Of course this caught the attention of all the goons spread out through the room and caused the Ahuizotl and Pony I assume is in charge of the rest to move closer, albeit hesitantly. I know I'm going to regret this but let’s see how it goes.

“What is your answer, do I have your permission”? Pathfinder looked between Northern lights and the dragon with apprehension and fear as Northern tried to interpret the question. Soon enough Northern Lights turned to him with tears in her eyes, before surveying the room, after turning back to him one last time she faced the dragon and gave a single hesitant nod after which she clenched her eyes shut, not wanting to see her demise coming. Pathfinder watched as the dragon reached for the mare before closing his eyes and turning away.

Ahuizotl and Caballeron watched in morbid fascination as the dragon they spawned reached for the pony and sunk an unnaturally sharp claw into the flesh of her forehead below her horn. It’s claw and finger then lit up with runes and magical circles that used the ponies blood to form an intricate runic array across her head and neck, a bit of the blood then flowed up the dragons arm and neck to settle in the center of its forehead before forming a single small magic circle that glowed with crimson light.

Seemingly as soon as it started, the dragon removed its claw, the runes on the pony’s head holding their luminescence long enough for the small puncture wound to heal before going inert. Northern lights slowly opened her eyes after a few minutes passed of nothing more than a small prick below her horn. She saw the dragon looking at her. “<Can you understand me now?”> The Pony’s mouth opened and closed several times.

“<How are you speaking Equestrian!? How am I speaking Ancient Draconic!?!?>”

“<Are you saying you agreed to my request without knowing what I asked? I suppose that explains the reaction of the other equines.”>

“<But I …that, we… What did you do to me!?!?>”

<“I asked your permission to exchange languages with you, The magic is still active and will last about an hour assuming the runes on your head remain in place throughout that period.”>

<”So what? you stole my knowledge of equestrian and replaced it with your language!!! Give it back! Give it back.”> At this she started thrashing around while shouting enough obscenities to draw the attention of the ponies that averted their eyes to avoid witnessing the ‘bloodbath’.

Ok that pissed me off, narrowing my eyes I calmly replied, <“Bitch I didn’t steal shit!!! I said we would learn each other’s language,”> came my eloquent response, <“If you would shut the fuck up and calm the hell down you would realize the only difference is you have a few extra languages bouncing around in your head.”> Walking away from that little headache I approached Ahuizotl and Caballeron, on the way my senses seemed to become unmuffled, it was akin to polling my head out of a block of jello, my vision sharpen, I could now hear the frantic breathing and heartbeats of the restrained ponies, I could taste the flakes of my mother's stasis shell in my mouth and deduce its composition, and my nose was instantly hit with the overwhelming and unmistakable smell of cat shit. Turning my head I noticed that the felines pinning Daring Do had turned her into a litterbox. What is it with this world and shit? Putting on a face of disgust and shaking my head I turned back to the ‘villains’. “Is it safe to assume you two are the ones who broke me out of that shell?” Seemingly caught off guard by my newfound ability to speak their language they stared at me. I stared back. They blinked. I turned and started to leave.

“Where are you going!?”

“So you can talk, I thought you were just going to stand there staring”.

Caballeron lowered his head and bared his teeth. “Where did you come from?”

I simply crossed my arms and turned to Ahuizotl refusing to answer such an asinine question. “Do you have anything sensible to add?” Shaking his head held an arm before the pony about to charge backed by his gang of goons or whatever the hell they are to him, ‘maybe there his sons? Clones perhaps?’

“Apologies we did not expect to find one of your kind, we were expecting one of the old gods, though I suspect you might be able to help us in that regard”. I tapped my chin I had a suspicion of what they were talking about, but I needed to be sure.

“The name rings a bell and I have a suspicion I know what you’re talking about, though I hope I'm wrong. Do you have a description?”

“From what we gathered they are about, Six feet end to end, three and five-tenths feet central diameter, tapering to one foot at each end. Like a barrel with five bulging ridges in place of staves and have lateral breakages with thin stalks in middle of these ridges between which there are growths – combs or wings that fold up and spread out like fans to give almost seven-foot wing spread-”

“They had the overall appearance of a huge, oval-shaped barrel with starfish-like appendage at both ends, right?” At his nod I continued, “Yes I know of them, the old ones were the first lifeforms to inhabit this planet. They are also indirectly responsible for what I assume was the near mass extinction event that saw me trapped in stasis. But seeing as the world is once again developed enough to have large buildings I will assume the legions of Shoggoth either got bored and returned to the howling south or were somehow defeated, most likely by the Alicorns and Draconequus working together. I kinda wish I could have seen that”.

“So do you know where their civilization was?”

“No, I don't, I never went on that expedition. And those who survived would rather kill themselves than go back. Keep in mind that these are fully grown Dragons I’m talking about, and by the time the Shoggoths reached that far north while devouring the world they had all either killed themselves or been killed for one reason or another. Alicorns were the first to try and stop them, needless to say they failed miserably, and a couple thousand of them got killed in the process. Then the eastern dragons tried next and were all but wiped out. The last I can recall four of the five most powerful races that were left created superweapons to try and stop them. The Alicorns had The Elements of Harmony, the Sea Ponies had sirens, the Kirin had developed some kind of mega spell and dragons had a special Blood Diamond amulet. None of which worked in the slightest, the elements of harmony even seemed to make them harder to kill. I wasn’t around to see how it all ended. I don't suppose you could enlighten me as to what happened?”

“I am afraid we ourselves don't know, history seems to only go back to the rain of Discord, the only thing before that which is well documented is a global migration brought on by an extremely short lived ice age, anything beyond that is heavily fragmented and can’t be accurately dated.”

“Yes, well, seeing as I don't particularly want the place I live to be flooded with eldritch horrors I suggest you leave that place well alone”.

“That is something we cannot do, surely you can give me some useful information”.

“While I won’t give you what little I know off the Old Ones, I know of a few places you might find interesting, who knows, play your cards right and you will discover wonders and horrors alike. I can give you what knowledge I have of these places in exchange for what knowledge you have on modern geography. I will also exchange our knowledge of language, both written and spoken. I only ask that you let me know what you find.” He seemed to think it over for several seconds, but as he opened his mouth to reply Caballeron cleared his throat.

“Uh Ahuizotl” his eyes flicked to me, “may I speak to you for a moment.” Ahuizotl turned back to me. I shrugged.

After a brief but heated exchange of a words between the two Ahuizotl returned and agreed to my terms. Performing my spell again saw me with a second rune to the right of the first and Ahuizotl’s head covered in runic arrays written in his blood.

“Now, might I inquire as to where I am?”

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Author's Notes:

Shout out to first hand account, Who pretty much brought you this chapter.

Sorry for the long wait, you know how life is, one minute you start a fanfic and the next creepers start spawning in your subterranean home/work-station/mine. I think I need to let you guys know something tho, this story is not my main story right now, that would be Chaotic Neighbours, as such this story will receive significantly less attention, regardless it's highly unlikely I will stop writing either stories seeing as I tend to come up with ideas for this story when writing my other one. (Don't ask me how that works) Nun the less I will try to get a new chapter out every month. (no guarantees) maybe more maybe less, honestly it depends on how much inspiration I get/have. So comment and make your suggestions for the adventures, encounters, and just all the weird stuff you wanna see happen.

HOWEVER let me make it clear that I might not use your suggestion exactly how you state it or at all. Nun the less your comments help fuel my inspiration. Thanks for reading, see ya next time.

And as always a huge thanks to my editor Hunter Steel without whom this story would be a chore to read.

Chapter 3 ReBirth in Exposition and Shameless Self Promotion

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Edited by Hunter Steel

Chapter 3 Rebirth in Exposition and Shameless Self Promotion

After providing me with my current location, Ahuizotl and Caballeron went off to get a bit of privacy for their planning session. Ignoring them for the moment, I started walking around the room while contemplating my situation, all the while the goons never took their eyes off me. ‘Ok, let’s see, I’m apparently in a large city of which I have a vague layout, in addition to that I'm weak and starving something I should probably address first’. Looking around I saw a sign for the bathroom, letting out a sigh and cursing my impatience I made my way in the indicated direction. A few halls later I came to the restrooms and entered the door with a prominently blue coloration. Stepping into the restroom I promptly had my nostrils dropkicked by what has sadly become a familiar stench. ‘GOD FUCKING DAMN IT WHAT IS IT WITH THIS DIMENSION AND- you know what, fuck it, just fuck it. I’ve lived in this world for years but that’s something you just don’t get use to.’ Sticking my head out the door to get a lung full of untainted air I stepped back into the restroom. The room was relatively small with three stalls separated by roman style columns, the walls were a pristine white and each of the square sinks had a fancy looking round mirror above them. I had initially hoped to get a drink of water from the sink in here, but that’s not happening with this stench, I'm not that thirsty. Crouching to look into one of the mirrors that come up to my stomach I took in my features, my eyes are bloodshot and my face is slightly gaunt, but I'm not showing ribs which is a miracle by itself so I guess I can’t complain too much. I was completely covered in flakes of rock, anyone looking at me from a distance might mistake me for a brown dragon instead of white. The growl from my stomach provided sufficient motivation for me to leave in search of a break room. ‘If I'm lucky they will at least have fruit’ I thought. Wandering the halls checking every door marked staff only and occasionally stopping to look at a display, I eventually found an employee break room I had to hunch and bend my neck to stand in, and even then the spines at the base of my neck never lost contact with the roof, shifting to a quadrupedal stance I surveyed the room which just happened to have, yep you guessed it, glorious food, sixty percent of which is hay based in some way or the other. The rest was comprised of thirty-five percent flowers. But there was that wonderful five percent that consisted of half an apple, go figure.

“…”

What? I never said there was a lot of food, I just gave you percentages, it’s a museum not a supermarket. In reality there was only a small table with a plate of hay fries two hay burgers and half an apple which was diced up and spread across a small dish of daffodils, Calendula, Oregano, and Mint. “Damn herbivores,” I muttered after eating the apple slices and greasy burger bread which also had hay in it. The room was about three by three meters, counters with cupboards and cabinets ran along all the walls, interrupted only by a refrigerator and a double sink above, which had an open window covered by mesh, and in the centre of the room was the table. Turning to a small cupboard from which I smelled Pony, fear, determination, and a bit of urine, I used my tail to open the door from a distance and found a teal coated Pegasus mare with a blue mane and tail and a terrified looking Unicorn stallion with a yellow coat and orange mane and tail. Both were armed with thick tomes posed to strike. That decision was quickly abandoned however when they found they had to crane their necks back to meet my piercing blue eyes. The mare, who was looking quite determined quickly dawned a forced grin and tried to hide the tome behind her under my stare while the stallion froze, terror evident on his face. Closing the cupboard I continued to search for something eatable, all the while listening to the ponies hushed conversation about their inability to act in the face of danger. In my search I unearthed bags of chips (‘bags of breeze’ if you want to get technical) ‘with hay’ a box of donuts ‘again, hay’, dried flowers‘, and hay’, bowl of hay, ‘covered in an unhealthy amount of hay’, a box of milk, (made from hay) ‘how the fuck do you milk hay’ and a cereal box ‘filled with hay’, failing my quest, since such an unholy amount of hay isn’t healthy for me. I went over to the sink and grabbed a jug to drink my fill of water as I observe the city’s mid-evening rush from a small window above the sink, all the while being careful not to wash off any of the flakes marring my scales. From what I could see the museum was surrounded by high-rise buildings and skyscrapers, the bustling city streets were filled with ponies and the occasional donkey. Ponies pulling cars ponies… why am I telling you this? You know how a busy city looks like at… whatever time it is. If you don’t then consult YouTube.

Smiling and waving at the few ponies that managed to notice me for a little while, I eventually turned back to the occupied cupboard when the inhabitants started to raise their voices to something a pony could hear. Once again opening the door with my tail I was met with a magically propelled superbook headed for my crotch. Reacting quickly I raised my right foot and blocked the projectile. Frozen once more the Ponies locked eyes with me. Raising a brow I asked. “Do either of you know of any more food around here?” After a few seconds of staring they managed to give me directions to where the night guards stash their snacks when on duty. I thanked them before returning the tome and closing the cupboard door, however before leaving, I made a simple statement that, considering the herding instinct of their society, could give me quite a bit of anonymity. “The way you two act I could swear I was the first brown dragon you’ve ever met.” At which point I left to find more food.

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It’s been two days now and I'm still in the museum. Ahuizotl and Caballeron both had to leave in a hurry when the royal guard eventually showed up, funnily enough they weren’t drawn to the magic in the area, rather it seems one of the ponies I met in the break room got out and reported everything. Before that though Daring somehow managed to get free and started causing trouble for the goons. She left the scene before the guard got there, secret identity and all I guess. Additionally it seems the museum used the attention from the incident as shameless advertisement, and it worked, especially since ponies apparently saw Ahuizotl leaving the scene with his ‘cultist follower’ and a beat-up Caballeron in toe. Apparently that unicorn I learned the language from originally decided to join up with Ahuizotl or something. Some of the officials think the situation was real but apparently most of them along with seemingly all of the populace think it’s just a publicity stunt for a new daring do book and the museum. Well I can say that if it was it would have worked, I learnt all this just listening to snippets of conversation that pass by the display I'm hiding under, and considering this display is both empty and in an out of the way part of the museum, the place is probably packed. Best of all, no mention of a white dragon in the mix, none whatsoever.

Regardless I will hopefully be able to leave tonight, my stomach would have gotten me caught already if I didn’t know how to magically filter sound. After leaving the break room I found the night guards’ Stash of food, which had a small bag of freeze dried prunes a pack of bubble-gum, and several dozen boxes of cereal, again all hay based, except for a box of Sugar Apple Bombs, The latter of which put me into a small panic attack after I remembered where I first heard of the cereal. The day just kept getting better and better, however I can’t verify anything at this point, something I need to do so I can plan my next several moves. if I'm in the version of Equestria I know that god damned delicious cereal from, I will be digging a very deep hole somewhere obscure and putting myself back into stasis for another 800 years, either that or move to the Canterlot High School if the mirror exists in this world and destroying the portal after hopefully figuring out its magic… hopefully. Regardless I need to leave this museum, preferably without being noticed, seeing as the museum is packed through the day and I don’t know the night guards’ routine, though it seems completely random from what my senses picked up from the times I woke up in the middle of the night. I need to leave early enough in the morning that the guards are tired or asleep but before the next shift starts. I would prefer not to use any magic unless it becomes absolutely necessary, the last thing I need is to become known for my magic, I Just don’t want to deal with the potential hassle.

Though I suppose I will need to acquaint myself with the kind of magic ponies use, however I doubt most of them will allow a fire breathing dragon into their libraries. Well all but one, who knows, maybe I can save Applebloom from the Everfree poster boys and get a free pass… I was probably gonna go there regardless. Hopefully I can also verify to some extent the version of Equestria I’m in. Ok thus far my priorities are food, magical knowledge, peace of mind. From there… meh I’ll see what happens.

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Leaving my hidey hole at the ass crack of dawn, seeing as I have no other reference for time and following the exit signs in the gloom, something that thinking back on it was an asinine idea, I was eventually met with the sealed main entrance to the museum, “Fuck”. I muttered as I used my senses to keep track of the patrolling guards, two of whom seemed to be headed my way. The lobby was two stories tall with an open design and a skylight that let in the early morning rays of the sun, and there were several support columns that supported the second floor which wrapped around the room and allowed the beings on the first floor to look down on the peasants entering the building. With nowhere to hide in the relatively empty museum lobby, I had to draw on my magic in my weakened state to make myself mostly invisible, you could see my outline if you really looked but at a glance no one would think much of a distortion in mid-air, at most they would suspect it to be a trick of the light or a ghost. This was in an effort to save energy, as using high amounts of magic in my current state (Like I did with Ahuizotl) would only make my condition worse and harder to recover from. With the clip clopping of hooves becoming more distinguishable despite attempts to muffle the sound, two night guards eventually rounded opposite corners of the room on different levels. One from the right on the ground floor and the other from the left on the first floor, however what caught my attention was the fact they were both Thestrals. Both were the same shade of grey one having a blue tail and mane with a more slender build while the other had a main for crimson and orange and was noticeably more muscular. Slowly shuffling my way into a corner the sunlight has yet to reach, I stayed quiet. They both moved around their respective levels of the room, occasionally casting several sideways glances in my direction, something that I didn’t miss, despite their attempts to keep it discreet. It was obvious they knew I was there, but it took a few seconds for me to realise how, every few seconds I would hear a high pitched click. ‘The bastards were echolocating’ I thought, at that a small smile touched my lips it was obvious they were waiting for something and were wandering the room to hopefully keep me here without needing to confront me, depending on their presence to be deterrent enough to keep me from moving and giving them time for… something. I gave a mental sigh, ‘and I didn’t want to use much magic.’

Seeing as I wasn’t willing to wait for their little plan to work out I concocted what was a simple plan in my mind at the time, give them a distraction and split. I first began using what rock flakes still clung to my body to form several runic arrays which I then energized and allowed to take effect. Immediately the flakes on my body took on a life of their own and quickly formed a vague outline of my body (also invisible) directly in front of me, the differences being its lack of a tail, legs, horns and the fact it’s face was more human like but pretty much featureless, basically I made a dementor (thank goodness for Harry Potter) Only a bit larger being modelled off me. Since I was still weak I used as little energy as possible to make the arrays but designed it to absorb magic from living creatures to sustain itself, if it didn’t get any magic it would only last about three minutes tops if I was lucky, it wouldn’t do any physical damage, but its victims would be left feeling weak from the encounter. Now you might be saying “What the fuck as of yet unnamed protagonist!!! Why the hell would you bring something so fucked up to a world of peace and happiness!?!? That was my only escape from real life you bitch, and you fucking corrupted it with a soul sucking eldritch horror like H.P Lovecraft on speed”. And as explanation I would mention that at that point I was, once again, starving, weak, malnourished, and just a bit lightheaded from making myself invisible, something that only got worse as the situation progressed, you’ll notice I also did a few more things that ‘looking back’ were completely unnecessary. Since I needed it to act on its own, I included a runic array it allow it to behave ‘instinctively’ for lack of a better term, along with several runes to make sure it didn’t attack me while also allowing me to modify the runic array from wherever. Both of the latter runes being standard in all my arrays. I then made myself inaudible using an array that has the side effect of negating sonar and echolocation by extension. To them looking at me would be more akin to looking at the negative of a picture in a sense. Under normal circumstances this would make me stand out more but with my dust dementor in front of me now becoming visible, they would be a bit preoccupied.

Instantly the temperature dropped severely as my creation absorbed all easily available energy to fuel its existence (Plus five minutes to life). Both Thestrals dropped into combat stances despite the fear and confusion on their faces. One of them tries to stutter out something but I wasn’t in the mood to indulge him. Setting lose my dementor it flew toward the guard on the ground floor all the while screeching its whispery screech like only a dementor can. The guard ducked low to the ground, not that it did him any good, as my dementor swooped over him stealing his energy for itself, (Plus three hours to life) and eliciting a pained scream and flailing hooves from the muscular stallion before circling the room and coming in for a second pass. The thestral on the first floor that had ducked behind a pillar upon hearing the shout of his companion immediately dove at the dementor in an attempt to save his friend. Succeeding in his task, the dementor was pushed into the beams of early morning light eliciting a pained whisper screech as it moved into the shade and flitted about. Standing over his friend with both front hooves frost bitten the thestral readied himself for another pass. At this point I was making my way to the back of the building to hopefully find the employee exit, all the while listening to the sounds of battle coming from the front room escalate as the remaining night guards hurried to the scene. After half an hour of wandering the large building while keeping track of the fight with my senses I found a backdoor into an alley. Quickly making my escape I brought back up the weaker version of my invisibility and made my way through the city avoiding the locals and weaving through streets and alleys as I made my way North-West, my hunger slowly being sated by what food I was able to snatch from restaurant goers who decided to eat outside. At one point I managed to liberate an entire fruit salad, a loaf of bread, and a bowl of soup from a mare sitting alone on the first floor balcony of a bakery. While I practically inhaled the soup, the mare who was enraptured by a newspaper titled “Museum Stages Robbery”, looked up to find her soup missing, looking around as her face of confusion morphed to annoyance, I managed to switch the empty soup bowl with her fruit salad, the audible clink of the bowl drawing her attention and causing my hand to freeze mid-air as she squinted her eyes at it “Darn it crescent this ain't funny,” she shouted in exasperation as she turned to the balcony door. “How many times ‘ave I told ya not to play ya pranks while I'm eaten!” casually munching on her salad I watched in amusement as an irate unicorn stallion poked his head out the window.

“Come on I didn’t even do anything”.

“Really” she inquired skeptically “then what happened to ma soup? Did da tooth breezy take it as penance for mi not flossin’ properly”? I took this time to put back the now empty salad dish and move the bread.

“Very well then, if you must have something to blame me for.” With that his horn lit up and a turkey appeared above the mare. Sniffing the bread I detected the now all too familiar smell of hay, sticking out my tongue I put it back on the plate. Being a dragon of my size, my appetite wasn’t anywhere near sated. The stallion levitated the bread in front of the bird who immediately started to drool, eyes drawn by the sound of crumbling bread the mare looked up in time to be showered in bread crumbs and descended upon by a ravenous turkey. The stallion cackled as the mare ran in circles trying to escape. Spurred on by the females frantic screams he begun to summon more turkeys to join in the hunt as the mare ran into the building. Slowly losing the battle to keep in my laughter I begun to walk away trying my best to remain quiet and not think about her situation.

After an hour of sneaking around I started to draw too many squints double takes and inquisitive stares as my fatigue and lightheadedness increased with inverse proportionality to my energy reserves. In my state the light of day started to make me more visible. Eventually I decided to wait for nightfall in an empty alley not visible from the street. Curling up under a fire escape I decided to drop my cloaking and rest for what it was worth as I waited.

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I had eventually fallen asleep only to be woken up by an annoying poking sensation in my facial area. Opening my eyes I recoiled, my head shooting up at the sensation of something prodding the sensitive orb. Closing the affected eye and opening the other, I was met with the sight of an Earth Pony Mare dressed in a police officer’s uniform, pointy stick outstretched in her hoof she had a light blue coat with orange mane and tail. Her eyes were obscured by a pair of aviators making her expression hard to read. I would suspect it was a cross between neutrality and determination… whatever that looks like. When she spoke her tone was firm and resolute. “Why are you sleeping under a fire escape? Do you know that’s a safety hazard”? BAM. instant respect right there, especially considering that her two colleagues ‘a Unicorn and a Pegasus stallion’, each more than twice her size and rippling with muscle at that, were trying and failing to hide behind a full trash can I know without a doubt was not there when I fell asleep. Seriously, this mare must have balls of steel. ‘Hmmmmm, should I try to escape? Eh, why bother, probably best to see where this goes’.

Judging by the light it was probably a little past midday. “Well I'm currently on my way to the forest North-West of here”, I shrugged as best I could with my curled position, “But I was tired so I decided to rest here for a while.” Don’t lie to the police kids, they're here to help, and keep you safe. She rose a brow at that. The sound of rattling metal became prominent in the alley. We both turned to see the stallions trembling and rattling the trash can they were clutching. In response to drawing my attention they recede further behind their makeshift fort when my eyes landed upon them.

Turning back to me the mare spoke. “Well you can’t stay right here,” the rattling redoubled. “Like I said it’s a safety hazard.” In reply I stood up, and being several times taller than her she had to crane her head back to look me in the eye. “However if you insist on staying here, I will be forced to place you under arrest and bring you down town”… I retract my previous statement, this mare has a pair of brass cojones. Smiling a serrated, razor sharp smile, I noticed one of the stallion's eyes roll to the back of his head before he promptly passed out toppling the trash can and leaving the other guy frozen to the spot.

Replying to the mare whom I now dub Integra, I nodded. “I understand, I’ll just leave then”. I could hear a relieved sigh from the stallion left standing as I walked off. “Hold on a minute”, turning back I found the mare approaching me, “It would probably be best if I escorted you, dragons aren’t a common sight here and I would rather you not cause a panic”. I shrugged in response. "Corporal Warden would you mind helping Lance Corporal Stone wall back to the station”. She looked at the downed stallion, “then again it's probably best to get him to the hospital”. The stallion’s eyes never left mine and I stared him down for the heck of it. He meekly nodded. ‘Aww, he did a Fluttershy’. Turning back to me the officer took the lead.

You want to learn how to make an entire city street go quiet in five seconds flat? Well it’s easy, just leave a random alley with a few hundred pounds of scaly apex predator trailing behind you. But that’s not all there is to it, you’ve got to walk with confidence, be sure you're directly in the centre of the sidewalk, make certain that all the plebeians know you own that shit. Keep your eyes forward and head up, but don’t stick your nose in the air you’re not in Canterlot, let the world know you're confident, not stuck up.
I fucking swear, this mare walked like this was in her job description. I could only imagine the reaction of the people she would tell this story to. We eventually came to an industrial district on the outskirts of town with train tracks leading out of the city, “This is as far as I can go. I'm already way off my patrol route.”

“Well, thanks for the escort, I guess”. With that I continued on my way to the forest surrounding a mountain range Something tells me , if I'm lucky I’ll be able to catch some decent food. Thinking back that pony didn’t have anything to indicate her rank did she?

Chapter 4 Rebirth In Exposition

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Chapter 4 Rebirth In Exposition

Edited by Hunter Steel

Ahhhhhhhhhh, fresh forest air, have you ever left the city to go hiking? The forest air has a distinctive smell, it's more… nature… like. Birds settling down for the evening, as jackalopes enter their burrows for the coming night, and the nocturnal creatures start to stir in their homes, getting ready for their foray into the coming night. Too bad I’m dead on my feet and couldn’t give less of a fuck, I'm sure someone does, just not me. My magic is at about two percent, my atrophied muscles are burning, I have a migraine, and I’m still fucking starving, ‘I should have eaten one of those bat-horses from the museum, I would be a wanted criminal but at least I wouldn’t be starving’. I had entered the forest a while ago, and the rough sloping terrain was hell on my weakened body. I needed food but I was in no condition to hunt, furthermore assuming I caught something I didn’t have any water to aid in digestion so I would just end up dangerously dehydrated. (Thank you Bear Grylls) so water first I suppose, finding water could possibly solve my food problem as well so that’s the priority made easier by the recent rainfall in the forest. Working through the migraine and fatigue I managed to enchant a twig to point towards the nearest body of water. The good thing about my form of magic is its extremely flexible, if Kirin magic is like a store with everything you could possibly need, my magic was a fully decked out workshop and laboratory in one, need a compass? Make one, want to go deep-sea diving but you’re not a sea pony? Design your own magical scuba gear. Need to send your neighbour’s dog to Tartarus? Chances are if you set your mind to it you’ll figure out a way.

So after clomping along for hell knows how long with my body taking every opportunity to remind me of its agony I eventually could go no further. Collapsing against a tree my brain promptly decided now was as good a time as any to shut down. Opening my eyes a little later the sun was setting and my body was stiff and sore as hell. Pushing myself into a sitting position I felt out my magic which had recovered somewhat. Deciding sleeping out in the open wasn’t a good idea I started digging a bit of a hollow at the base of the tree and promptly gave up at the protest of my arms. Failing that I curled up and covered myself in leaves the best I could. I woke up again, this time to a pitch black forest and the sound of a cicada on the tree I was sleeping against, after chopping it in two with my tail I curled back up before deciding to hopefully secure breakfast for the morning. Sinking the harpoon shaped double tip of my tail into the soft earth as best I could (which is to say barely at all), I drew on my magic thankful the migraine had lessened significantly, one of the tips strung a line of magic just below the earth in the direction I was traveling for a few meters before spreading out to form an runic array with a ten meter diameter that would be a trap for creatures of a certain size, after feeding the array a bit of magic I turned back to myself. I know for a fact I will be too stiff to walk when I wake up so I hope to fix that, another array formed below me, this one designed to soothe my muscles, out of curiosity I extended my senses and felt for my dementor, it seemed to still be haunting the museum, with enough magic to last it a week it seems. Reaching through the connection I added a few arrays to allow it to pass through solid objects and programed it to keep within a few miles range of me, never know when you might need lovecraftian backup. After retracting my tail I closed my eyes with a shiny new migraine and eventually dozed off again.

When next I woke up it was to bird song and an already risen sun and the feeling of prey caught in my traps, and quite a few by the feel of things. Tentatively standing up I felt out my range of motion. I could move so I guess things weren’t all bad, I was still aching and stiff but not as bad as it could be. Standing, stretching, and erasing the runes that I slept over and absorbing what magic was left in it with an empty stomach I made my way through the forest toward my trap, and I had quite a haul indeed, a family of racoons, three porcupines, a pink cat wearing a bell, two hedgehogs, a whole bunch of squirrels, a chinchilla, a wombat wearing a Countess Coloratura T-shirt (don’t question it), and the grand prize, a deer, the thing was still standing unlike its friends albeit on shaky legs. The trap I set while relatively simple is rather insidious in design, whenever something crosses the threshold onto above or below the array it immediately starts sapping their energy, the harder they try to leave the weaker they get as the array becomes more powerful from the stolen energy and continues to drain them until their fight is gone. Taking control of my trap I siphoned away all the deer’s energy. ‘Now for the rest.’ The deer is mine no question but the cat and wombat can go, racoons too, I'm not a fan of eating young. Hedgehog too not worth the effort of cleaning for so little meat, though that raises the question of why I'm keeping the squirrels… whatever’. I released the animals I decided not to eat from the hold of the spell to which they scurried off into the wilds, then I siphoned the remaining energy from the creatures left lulling them into unconsciousness, I didn’t exactly have somewhere to keep meat so this was my next best choice. But that brought up another question, how the hell was I going to carry all of them in my current state, I unfurled my wings to give them a proper stretch as I contemplated the issue only to hear them give off a creek reminiscent of unoiled hinges, grimacing at the sound I tucked them back to my side and begun the tedious task of hauling my catch along following my twig, taking extremely frequent stops along the way, often after recovering from a face plant brought on by exhaustion. It was long past midday when I came to an exceedingly large puddle of water about six inches at its deepest. Disregarding the teachings of Bear Grylls senpai, I drank to satisfaction, took a short rest and begun my search for wood.

Sometime later I had cooked and eaten the deer and was in the process of gutting the chinchilla to join the other small critters over the fire. When I was done setting it over the fire I noticed one of the two squirrels I was yet to prepare was just barely conscious and seemed to be begging me for mercy with her big pleading eyes that seemed to boor into my soul. Sighing I reached over to the incapacitated creature and gently picked her up before dropping her in my mouth whole and chewing thoughtfully, choking on the fur as a result. ‘Now I remember why I don’t eat these things raw’. Coughing, a bit of meat flew from my mouth and landed near the fire, well that’s what I thought before I took a better look at it. It was a squirrel, a fetus to be exact. I stared at it for a while. I had just eaten a pregnant mother, and killed her children in the process. I was suddenly aware of every piece of meat in my mouth. The bigger pieces could be dismissed easily enough. But my mind started telling me that everything else was a baby squirrel clawing feebly at my teeth, cheeks, and tongue, inaudibly pleading for mercy with unborn voices to please be let free. I shifted my tongue slightly and felt a tiny claw scrape against it before deciding to dig a small hole some distance away and spit out the squirrel. After that I rinsed out my mouth a few times and went to sit by the fire. My eyes elided upon the first fetus I coughed up. Its mouth was open in a silent scream of agony when it was not before. Using a stick to shove it into the fire I gutted the other squirrel after confirming it was male and using my magic to check for pregnancy just in case. By the time I was done the sun had begun to set, my magic had recovered to about five percent so I set another trap and used the remainder of my magic to excavate myself a five by five hollow a few feet below ground and settled in for the night.

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I had somehow managed to sleep through the night and through to midday, when I woke my trap was empty. ‘Well I guess I couldn’t expect the same result every time’. Though my magic’s recovery was hindered by my physical state my mind was much clearer when I woke up, of both migraine and fatigue. Now was as good a time as any to decide what to do. I very much doubt I was the only one to be put into stasis, and there are some beings I just don’t see being put down by that war, though whether or not they survived is another matter entirely. ‘Ok first things first, I need to contact that Ahuizotl’, I reached for my magic and paused. ‘No, not now, maybe when I’ve recovered and my magic is at full throttle, let’s just hope he doesn’t get himself killed in the meantime. It's better I focus entirely on getting back to full health’. Drawing upon my knowledge of the local topography I decided to go westward to where the river borders the forest, I had no solid measure of distances but since I wasn’t willing to risk flying in my condition it would be a few weeks of walking through the bush at most. My main concern is water since I doubt this puddle despite how big it is will serve me until I’m at full health, and I doubt I can depend on the ponies to provide rainfall enough to be of any significance so I’ll just have to improvise, and move along. My muscles aren’t all gone but I will need to stay active if I want to get back to my previous muscle mass, I certainly don’t look particularly unhealthy which could work in my favour to some extent, assuming I don’t meet anyone who knows what to look for, but dragons don’t build muscle like most other creatures, if you see a dragon that looks particularly buff, that dragon is undoubtedly a body builder. Dragons tend to have a base size if you will, this changes with age and can vary from dragon to dragon, and is influenced primarily by genetics. As a result of this the size of a dragon's muscles (barring extreme starvation, malnutrition or an extremely active lifestyle) are at a personal standard, but get stronger and weaker; denser and lighter depending on their lifestyle, and seeing as I’ve been missing my morning cardio for a little while now it’s natural that my everything has atrophied, but I’m in no condition to travel much less start building any significant muscle mass I need proper nutrients first, so my body can recover from the stasis. But my trap isn’t guaranteed to catch anything, especially since animals will start to avoid my campsite and the surrounding area. My magic isn’t fully recovered but I’ll need it to recover quickly. I have one magical construct already, I’ll need to make some that can hunt for me and get water when this puddle dries up.

‘Hmm how about something insectile, butterfly- no… bees sound good but… hmm hornets? Let's go with hornets.’ Dredging up what magic I could I ignited the runes across my hands and pressed them against the cave wall, focusing on the array I need the runes on my body reacted and started to engrave the necessary arrays onto the wall directly from my thoughts, by the time I was done rechecking the arrays for the umpteenth time and dropped my arms and accompanying concentration the migraine was back with blood in its eyes. I clutched my head, squeezed my eyes shut, and sunk to the ground before passing out... Again. I woke up to the sunset casting the final lights of day into my hollow, and several dozen meters of fine and intricate rune work. In the center of the cave was a blank square space ready for an initial catalyst. And there lies my next problem what to use, since this was only to be the initial catalyst, I could technically use anything seeing as it would only be needed until there was sufficient energy stored in it, metal or gems would be best, so would need to go back to the outskirts of the city and get some scrap metal before removing any rust and… I blindly reached down to the floor, grabbed the first decent sized stone I could reach, and chucked it at the empty square. Needless to say my aim was pitiful and it took more attempts than I’m willing to recount to get one in the square. When I did finally score that was followed by all my hard work starting to flow toward the stone and seemingly disappearing upon contact. Soon enough there was no evidence of cavemen, and my stone unfolded in the most peculiar way to reveal a stone hornet that couldn’t fly for shit. I watched as it crawled outside and out of my view before feeling the ambient temperature drop several degrees as my construct soaked up any available energy. Once it had enough I could turn it into what I call a proper magical construct, this process entails transferring all those runic arrays from the stone directly to the energy it’s currently storing up, think of it as writing on pure energy instead of paper or in this case, rock. This gives multiple benefits, chief of which is the ability of my constructs to clone themselves once they have accumulated sufficient energy, all the while looking and acting like a legit hornet. That rock golem is pretty much going to be the queen of a hive, and guess who’s the king… That sounded better in my head.

Now undoubtedly many of you are confused as to how I went from copying languages and releasing magic in waves to fend off perceived mental invasion to lying on a cave floor nursing migraines and struggling to draw squiggly lines with magic. Put simply, mum wasn’t as good as me with the second kind of magic elemental dragons could use, very few were, and they were generally the equivalent of a nerd in the fifties, not a pleasant existence I assure you. Anyways, The gist is this, the runes used to keep me alive did their jobs perfectly, they effectively paused time, that much is evident, sadly that’s not the best way to put someone in stasis great for inanimate objects and meat not so much living people, while you can pause the effects of time on the person, time tends to catch up once the spell is released, if you want to keep someone in stasis for an extended time, you slow down the effects of time to a minute fraction of a crawl as this allows time to pass without passing.

“…”

Yes I know that theory is crap, a draconequus that was neutral towards me explained it to me and that’s the best explanation I could derive from that lecture. One quickly learns not to try too hard to understand when they start to explain certain concepts, their minds are literally built to be on a different level. Mortal minds tend to get lost when draconequus preach passionately about anything we consider abstract… well that’s assuming they don’t like you, or are neutral toward you apparently.

“….”

“I wasn’t being poetic dumbass, I’ve seen Alicorns turn suicidally insane trying to understand them beyond a certain point. You want me to dumb it down for you more, fine then. People assume that time is a strict progression from cause to effect but, actually from a non-linear non subjective viewpoint it’s more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly... timey wimey stuff.”

“…”

I am aware I just quoted the doctor. The fact I did should make it clear I… sigh* whatever. Bottom line I’m wasting away and the bug is programed to stuff me in a chrysalis, so I can shed my skin in a sense. And before you ask, no dragons do not naturally shed their skin. The same nerds that get tormented generally go on to become doctors and other such respectable things, one of who figured out how to regrow limbs, heal decapitation (minus memory and higher brain function) and bring your age counter to zero by using your DNA to basically code you a younger version of your body, not smaller, just younger, you basically become a newborn version of your older self, all while a giant insect hive of your choice tends to your every whim. The last part being my own personal spin on the spell, I effectively removed the need for constant supervision, by having magical constructs initiate and maintain the spell but as I said before those hornets can do a lot of things. Hell they can make cement, he he, you should see the hives they make with the stuff. That’s not to say the society I ‘grew up’ in thought anything of it. If you weren’t a hunter, smith, fighter or some other kind of physical strength based profession you were likely to die in a few years. So much so that the guy who came up with the procedure was tortured and raped to death some time later for removing the infected claw of a hunter who claimed he was trying to cripple him out of jealousy. I ended up with his research though so I guess…

“…”

Um, yea, right, sorry about getting side-tracked. Yea so pretty soon I’ll be both safer and more vulnerable than I’ve been in a while. I just need to wait, eat more food to aid the process, and wait for my constructs to absorb enough ambient magic to actually do the procedure, which means I should probably put off my hike to the other side of the forest, indefinitely… this is going to be a painful couple of months isn’t it.

ReBorn Where Lightning and Air Meet Water

by Dark Law

Chapter 1 ReBurth in Fire

Chapter 2 ReBirth in Rock (Language and Talk of The Old Ones)

Chapter 3 ReBirth in Exposition and Shameless Self Promotion

Chapter 4 Rebirth In Exposition