Clash of the Dragons

Chapter 6

The Dragonborn simply stood where he was as he and the Dragon glared at each other.

Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Dinky took this as a chance to escape and ran to get an unconscious Derpy and Applejack, as well as the still-conscious Dinky, to safety.

"You think that human could pull this off?" Twilight asked Rainbow Dash.

"Oh come on!" Rainbow Dash said with a somewhat cynical look, "Did you take a good look at this guy? he looks pretty much like a viking trying to bring down a Dragon the old-fashioned sword-and-shield way, I don't see how that cliche is gonna work when we couldn't do much better ourselves."

"You could be right," Twilight said, "It does seem a little far-fetched, but he sounded a little bit like he's done this before. But why did he ask if this was the second time a dragon attacked us?"

"How should I do know?" Rainbow Dash asked, "I've never been to wherever he's from."

"He must have came from wherever those portals lead to," Twilight pointed out, "And the fact he hasn't attacked us on sight does suggest at least that not everything in his world wants us dead."

The trio of Ponies made it out of Ponyville and went to a clearing at the outskirts of town where some Royal Guards were escort some of the civilians to safety, they saw Twilight and Rainbow Dash with Dinky by their side and Applejack and Derpy on their backs. The Guards stopped to allow the group to approach them.

As two of the Guards took over carrying Applejack and Derpy on their backs, Twilight said, "When Applejack regains consciousness, let her head back to town, we'll likely still need her help if we're to turn the tide on stopping this dragon," the Guards nodded.

Twilight then turned to Dinky and scolded, "And Dinky, try not to get killed next time!"

Dinky chuckled nervously.

Back in Ponyville, the Dragonborn and the Dragon were still glaring at each other, though the legendary Hero of Skyrim could see fear in the Dov's eyes, despite the creatures efforts to hide it.

"So, even here none of the Dovah are beyond your reach, Dovahkiin," the Dragon said with what seemed like some respectful admiration.

"Nor are any beyond my power," Dragonborn said, "You know you can't win this, right?"

"I am not Alduin, Dovahkiin," The Dragon scoffed, "Regardless of the outcome, I will not prove a Nikriin, a coward, as Alduin has when you first proved your Thu'um the strongest."

The Dragonborn quickly drank a health potion then readied himself for battle, "Then you will bear witness to how I defeated him."

The Dragon then thrusted his head forward and tried to bite the Dragonborn, who quickly blocked the attack with his shield. The Dragonborn retaliated by unleashing powerful slashes to the Dragon's head with his sword.

Twilight and Rainbow Dash returned to Ponyville to see the Dragonborn fighting the Dragon, they were surprised by how the human was single-handedly keeping the Dragon at bay.

Rainbow Dash was dumbfounded, "You gotta be kidding! We got our haunches handed to us by that dragon, yet that human is pushing him around like he's nothing!"

Suddenly, Rarity and Pinkie Pie arrived and reunited with Twilight and Rainbow Dash.

"We've taken care of the fires," Rarity said, "We decided to head back to you when there were none left to deal with."

"By the way, who's this guy?" Pinkie Pie asked, pointed toward the Dragonborn.

"I asked him that just before he started fight that Dragon," Twilight answered, "the weird thing is, he said, 'In Their tongue, I am Dovahkiin, Dragonborn!'."

"Dragonborn? wow," Pinkie said, "Wait, does it mean he has a mommy or daddy for a dragon?"

Before anyone could respond, however, Rarity suddenly noticed something "Wait, where's Applejack?"

"Right here, Y'all!" Applejack called out as she suddenly arrived.

"Applejack! thank goodness you're alright!" Twilight said with a sigh of relief.

Applejack looked at the fight between the Dragonborn and the Dragon and said, "Oookay, I take it I missed somethin' while I was out cold?"

"I was about to say the same thing," The 5 ponies turned to see Fluttershy also suddenly arrive, "Sorry I fainted, but that Dragon was really mean, scary, not to mention aloud louder than the Dragons in our world."

Twilight gave Fluttershy a brief, but firm and genuine, hug before she said, "No need to be sorry Fluttershy, that Dragon's been difficult for all of us. I think we're lucky we're all still alive. Plus, we got that human over who's practically taken over fighting that Dragon for us."

The Dragon suddenly started flying upward, as if planning to attack the Dragonborn from mid-air, but the mighty Nord hero had a different idea.

"JOOR ZAH FRUL!" The Dragonborn shouted, which to the Mane 6's surprise, they also saw how the Shout caused a blue aura to engulf the Dragon and cause him to be somehow forced back to the ground as if the Dragon's center of gravity was radically increased.

"Wait, so humans can use that same magic shouting that Dragon can?" Twilight asked, somewhat exasperated, "It's like every moment is throwing more and more questions in my mind! just what what are we dealing with here?-!"

As the Dragon was forced back onto the ground, he made a last-ditch effort to bite at the Dragonborn, who quickly stopped it by smacking the Dragon's head with a powerful shield bash, causing the Dragon to be briefly dazed. The Dragonborn quickly ran up and climbed onto the Dragon's head. The Dragon made futile attempts to shake the Dovahkiin off of him before the Nord hero stabbed his sword into the Dragon's eye and jumped off, killing the Dragon.

The Mane 6 looked upon this scene with surprising awe, they saw how their seemingly human visitor was able to succeed where they couldn't in stopping that dragon. But the Dragonborn simply stood where he was silently, as if waiting for something.

"Okay, what kind of human uses magic shouting and single-handedly brings down a dragon that also has magic shouting?" Rainbow Dash asked, as if about she was as frustrated by the lack of answers as Twilight was, "Seriously, wherever they came from, they make those Dremora from earlier look like 2-bit thugs!"

But the Mane 6 turned their attention to the dragon corpse when they saw how the skin suddenly seemed to be somehow both glowing and dissolving into some kind of magical energy, which ended up seemingly absorbed by the Dragonborn.

The Dragonborn gave a strongly satisfied look as he suddenly looked up to the sky, the Mane 6 almost felt the ground shake beneath their hooves as he suddenly roared triumphantly while he was absorbing the Dragon's soul, "DOVAHKIIN!!"

"Well," Rarity said, "He's rather.... excitable, if obviously someone who looks served hot from the Dark Ages."

"I just wish the shouting will at least take a break for while," Fluttershy said, rubbing her ears, "Anymore now and I think I'll go deaf."

The Dragonborn finally turned his attention to the Mane 6 right after the Dragon corpse was reduced to a skeleton. The Mane 6 all looked at him with a mix of awe and utter disbelief. He sheathed his sword and gave a flattered expression when he said, "Well now, I've clearly attracted an audience.

As the Mane 6 approached the Nord Rainbow Dash was to first to speak, "Okay! How the heck did you do that?"

"Do what?" Dragonborn asked, "How I pulled that dragon to the ground just by shouting at it? or how I absorbed the Dragon's soul?"

Wait! wait!" Twilight said as she found it very difficult to believe what she just heard, "you absorbed that dragon's SOUL?! how's that even possible?"

"I already said that I'm Dragonborn," the Nord said, "That means I'm a mortal with the blood and soul of a dragon, this allows me to absorb the power of the dragons I kill by taking their souls, no other mortal alive can do it"

"A human... with the blood and soul of a dragon?" Twilight asked, rubbing her head with one of her front hooves, trying to wrap her head around what she just heard, "I can't even imagine how that even makes sense, let alone how it works."

Pinkie Pie, predictably, welcomed the stranger with open arms.. or front legs, "What you did was.... AMAZING! that Dragon was like 'rawwwwwr! I'm gonna eat you all!' but then you came in and were like 'Not if I can help it! die!' pow! bash! klang! stab! And you didn't even have to drink a healing potion! you do this often?"

"yeah, I'd say I've killed several dozen dragons throughout my adventures," Dragonborn answered matter-of-factually, "Many of them were even stronger than the one you saw me bring down."

The Mane 6 suddenly shuddered at the idea of a dragon far stronger than the one they had to deal with.

Twilight decided quickly to change the subject, "So, where did you come from?"

"I come from Nirn," Dragonborn answered, "Or more specifically, the continent of Tamriel in the northern province of Skyrim, my homeland."

"So what are you doing here?" Twilight asked.

"Well, just recently there have been these portals that were appearing all over Skyrim," Dragonborn answered, "So I decided to investigate."

Twilight thought the Dragonborn's answer was too simple to be the whole truth, so she asked, "Does the name Boethiah ring any bells?"

"Boethiah? last time I met her, I sliced up the cult that worships her in Skyrim," The Dragonborn laughed, "Boy was she pissed off, but seriously, where does she fit into this?"

It became very clear to the Mane 6 that the Dragonborn, perhaps ironically, knew even less about the situation than they did.

The Mane 6 all silently figured that they should explain their side of the situation to the Dragonborn.

"Well, you see-" Twilight said but was cut off when a large group of Ponyville's citizens suddenly returned to town to see that Dragon was slain

The crowd made comments like;

"Wow, that really is really dead? but who killed it?"

"hey, it must have been that barbaric-looking biped stranger with the sword, shield, and primitive choice of wardrobe over here just near the Dragon corpse!"

"Of course! the classic sword-and-shield method, that cliche always worked in fairy tales, we should've thought of that before!"

"Let's greet our new Viking hero!"

"YEAH!"

The large crowd of ponies started galloping right toward the Dragonborn.

The Dragonborn looked very surprised, and surprisingly nervous, "uh, normally I don't get pummeled by adoring fans after killing a dragon, in fact, I only hear bad things about having fans run you over in Tamriel..."

"Can't be that bad!" Rainbow Dash mildly protested, "I know I got alot of fans right here in Ponyville, you don't see me get worried."

"Fans? you?" The Dragonborn asked as he turned to Rainbow Dash, then scoffed, "ha! if that's true, I'd like to hear what battles you're fought to earn that kind of reputation."

"Never mind that," Twilight said, "follow us, mister, uh, Dragonborn. we know a place we talk more... privately."

As the Mane 6 started galloping away from the scene, the Dragonborn quickly followed. He didn't know the horrors of being faced with adoring fans, but he didn't want to know.