> The Sorcerer of Dragons > by Knight of Crows > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Prologue > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unknown POV I have no idea where the Hell I am, what happened to me, nor do I know why I'm here. Let me start over. I was at home on one of my days off and went to bed pretty late, a friend of mine told me one of my favorite anime from my childhood was starting back up in 2019. That anime was "Sorcerous Stabber Orphen", I spent the last few days rewatching the first and second series "Orphen: Revenge" because I was so excited about it coming back. The second series wasn't as good as the first in my opinion, I liked the first one's designs more as well, don't know why though. I spent my the last 2 days playing the game which honestly could have been better. The graphics were great for it's time as an early PS2 game, but compared to the anime there were several differences that just couldn't be ignored. Orphen's student Majic was renamed Magnus, the Wolven, or Deep Dragon Leki looked more like a cat, voice actors sounded nothing like the anime, Orphen seemed more cocky and less intelligent at times, I could go on. At least it had more spell variety than the anime even though they could have thought of better names: Bolt of Thunder, Hand of Pyro, Smoke of Pain, Feathers of the Hurricane. I suppose a few of them fit, but my point still stands. I'm sorry, I tend to rant a lot. The game is still fun though, but I always got stuck in one room that in order to go proceed you need to get the right combination of colored music notes. I decided to call it a night before getting too into that as it was my last day off before going back the unspoken tenth Circle of Hell called retail. With it being Christmas soon I'm going to need anything that can help me and a good night's sleep was among those things. My last thought before sleeping was 'hopefully tomorrow won't have many headaches'. I awoke to the sound of metal beating against something and light shining on my still closed eye lids. I thought I forgot to close the blinds and something might have been happening outside, but after opening my eyes and letting them adjust a little I was proven wrong. Either I'm in a very vivid dream or I really am surrounded by armored people pointing spears at me. I tried standing, but in my still tired state I fell over again and one of them shouted "stay on your knees". Dream or not I was too tired to resist and just complied with the order. "Lock him up!" I reopened one of my eyes to get a glimpse at who was giving the order and saw someone white in purple and gold armor giving the orders. After locking something on my wrists they pulled me back up on my feet and gave me a hard shove almost knocking me over. Now awake or aware enough to fully cooperate I followed the guard who took the lead and heard the C.O say something about princesses and a sword. I was too far away and too tired to fully make out what he was saying. This is off to a great start. Game, sleep, dream(?), threatened, arrested, and already have a meeting with at least 2 V.I.Ps, all in what has felt like a few minutes. > Chapter 1 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shining Armor POV I watched as my subordinates took away the creature and the sword. First Sombra and now this thing appearing out of the Crystal Heart after his defeat? At least it hasn't tried anything yet, but the princesses should hear about this as soon as possible. "Sir!" A crystal guard said getting my attention. "What is it?" I asked "Would you like one of us to get princess Cadence and inform her of this development?" "No, she's in no condition to handle this at the moment. You can however go with them to keep watch over the creature." I watched as he went with the other guards and continued with my own business after they were a good distance away. I headed toward the castle in a hurry to get my sister and her friends. While I would prefer to send a messenger to the princesses, they need to hear of this sooner rather than later. If anypony would know about this it would be them. On the way I took notice of how much more lively everypony looked now that Sombra was gone and the Heart was back in it's rightful place. It brought a smile to my face knowing we did good, and I finally had a chance to help Twilight on a dangerous task unlike before with Nightmare Moon or the dragon. My thoughts came to an end as I approached the doors to the palace and looked for the others. Finding them around Cadence who looked to be rejuvenated I quickly got their attention. "Twily! I need to borrow Spike for a second." They all turned to me and Spike responded before my sister could. "Sure, what do you need?" He asked "I need to send a letter to the princesses about a recent development. It's best they hear this as soon as possible." No sooner did I finish that sentence did Twilight summon paper and a quill in an ink pot. "Go ahead, but do you mind me asking what this 'development' is?" She asked "Just moments ago we took an unknown, seemingly barely conscious creature and a unique looking sword with strange runes or glyphs of some kind into custody. It just appeared out of the Crystal Heart for no reason I can think of." Everypony looked equally disturbed "Okay, that's unsettling to say the least." Rainbow said breaking the moment of silence "Where is this creature and it's sword now?" Rarity asked "Right now the creature should be in a cell and it's sword locked up right now." I said finishing the letter and handing it to Spike. "Can we see the creature? It waiting until after Sombra was dealt with before being released from the Crystal Heart seems like too much of a coincidence to actually be one. Maybe we could get some answers from it?" I don't know Twilight "Come on everypony, we shouldn't keep him waiting!" Pinkie said going off on her own before I could stop her. We all just stood there for a minute before deciding to just go with it and walked to the dungeon. POV swap This is by far the strangest dream I've ever had, though even that is now in question as well as my sanity thanks to physical pain. None of this makes sense. How do I go from sleeping in my bed to waking up to angry whatever these things are? My clothes somehow changed, my voice and other things changed, and I've somehow lost weight. Wide awake now I looked at my surroundings and to say this looks strange for the inside of a cell is an understatement. I don't think this is a regular prison, especially considering how easily I can see the reflections of everything here. I looked down and saw something I know for a fact I didn't wear to bed since I didn't have it. I saw the amulet of the Tower of Fang around my neck (that dragon on the sword in the cover art). Turning over I saw something else that was anything but what I would expect, I saw Orphen in place of my reflection. Okay recap: Enjoy days off watching old anime and PS2 game, sleep, wake up surrounded by armed creatures who proceed to arrest me, and find myself somehow turned into Orphen. Oh and had my sword taken as well. Wait. Sword? .........."Oh shit!" I said out loud Please don't tell me it was THAT sword. I REALLY don't want to be blamed for another Bloody August. Azalie and technically Childman were already bad enough, I really hope we can avoid that shit. I wonder though, if I really am Orphen then I should have all the spells he's used at least. Are the spells from the game included in that list? It'd make combat simpler anyway. How did the spells go again? The game just said the name of the spell, but the anime and manga required an incantation consisting of two parts, a command or action as the first part and the second being the form it takes right? The strength of the voice also played a part in it's power as well I think. Lot of good that does, I don't even know magic. Just as that thought came to mind my head suffered a massive spike of pain. I thought that migraine years ago was bad, all I could do was grab my head and scream, but nothing came out. After what felt like hours of screaming and crying out in pain my head was finally given relief. All of Orphen's memories at the Tower of Fang came crashing down on me at once, his knowledge and experience came with them as well. Wanting to test something I stood up after getting my arms out from behind me and saw the restraints on my hands. "Hand of Pyro." I said and a small ball of fire was formed in the palm of my hand. I guided it down to the shackles and freed my hands. Looking at my right hand I saw something that shouldn't have been there, the Bracelet of Nomafrozis. (best view of it I could find, used as the collar for Leki the Wolven) Orphen was already one of the most powerful (or at least talented) Sorcerers in the world, he really didn't need the bracelet except at the end of the first series. Adding this magic strengthening bracelet is just overkill. Wanting to test one more thing I looked at the lock on the door and held my hand to it. "I invite thee, gate of origin." I said and I heard a clicking noise. Reaching around the bars I was able to open the door, but kept it shut anyway feeling that would be the better decision. As soon as I sat back down I heard footsteps from the end of the cells so I brought my hands behind me again and kicked the shackles into another cell. Royal audience already I thought as they grew closer, seems a little early if you ask me. Eight people walked in front of me, and what they are did nothing for my decreasing sanity. Multicolored humanoid creatures with equine features made up 7 of them and the last one looked like, I want to say an Argonian, but the colors and a few minor features are making me say he isn't. "So I see you're awake now." The armored one said "No thanks to your men. You see a barely conscious man on the ground and your first response is to lock him up? Some welcome." I said "Well what'd you expect? We just beat Sombra and outta nowhere you appear with a sword." The orange one said "As I said, barely conscious. I don't even know who Sombra is and who was I going to hurt when I was so close to falling asleep again? When was the last time a barely conscious person hurt anyone intentionally?" I asked "I guess that makes sense." The armored one conceded "Now what do I call you all." Really don't want to refer to them by their colors "Give us your name first and we'll give you ours." The rainbow haired one said. "I am Orphen. Court Magician of the Tower of Fang, and infamous Scion of Sorcery. That should be enough." I said getting into character for my amusement. "What kind of name is Orphan?" She asked. "It's spelled with an E not an A, now I believe you all owe me your names." (Skipping intro you've read countless times already) "Alright, time to get down to business. Where is the sword?" I asked "Why do you want to know?" Shining asked "That sword, the Sword of Baltanders is too dangerous to be left alone, much less in the hands of people who don't understand it's power." "It's just a sword right? What's so special about it that makes it so much more dangerous than other swords?" Twilight asked "That sword doesn't need to be anywhere near it's victims to be dangerous. In it's incomplete form it turned a mouse into a giant man eating dragon, turned a woman who was experimenting with it into a dragon to be hunted down like a rabid beast for 6 years by her school to protect it's image." Fluttershy's knees were shaking and Rainbow looked pissed at the betrayal. "The woman grew increasingly mentally unstable and used White Magic to switch bodies with her teacher who was trying to save her, thus he was hunted instead and tried to use his own body to kill him." Fluttershy was crying now, Rainbow looked ready to punch something, Applejack, Rarity, Twilight, and Spike looked horrified, and Shining was tightly grasping the pommel of his sword with a look that could kill. "It's next victim who was mentally unstable for reasons linked to the sword was turned to ash when he made an ultimately futile attempt to use the completed sword to kill the dragon who's body was possessed by the soul of the wrong person. The woman tried to correct her mistake and attempted to switch bodies again while using the sword, but while her body was turned back into a human, her soul and her teacher's soul were left without a vessel because the sword destroyed her teacher's body. It's final victim almost died using the sword with the magic strengthening bracelet the others lacked to put both souls into the same body, turning the woman into a mother was the only way he could save both." "Why would you be carrying a weapon like that with you?!" Twilight shouted "The weapon can't be destroyed, it's too valuable to do so, and too dangerous to be left with others who don't understand it's power. It can't just be left alone." "And what gives you the right to say that?" Rainbow asked "I'm the only one here who can read the inscriptions, I'm the only one who knows it's true power, I've seen first hand what it's capable of, and I'm the only sorcerer who can use it and survive. If you want to play that game then go ahead, but I'm not taking responsibility if a one of you turns into a dragon and goes on a murderous rampage nor am I helping you fix that mistake unless it comes to me. Fair warning, I won't try to reverse the transformation, but kill it instead." > Hiatus explained > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- So aside from not having any clear idea as to where I want to go with this story I also want to wait a while before working on this. If you haven't read my last blog I said I might be working on this, but I also want to wait until Orphen's new series is released so I'll have more and probably better stuff to work with than memory of the first series and a wiki with all the spells Orphen has used in the manga which I never read nor do I know where to look for it. Some of those spells didn't have clear descriptions anyway, like "I erase thee, demon's footprints" and how it "destroys the world of order", plenty of ways to interpret that. Figure I'll hold off on this for the foreseeable future.