The Life of Dominus Vitam Mortem

Aliqui nascuntur magna aliqua consequi magnitúdo, et quidam habent magnitudinem vulnere super eos.”

Dominus swaggered into town, Clash leaning on him. People stared at his cutie mark as he walked past, muttering amongst themselves. Star Swirl led the duo into his house, holding the door open. Once Clash was laying on Star Swirl’s couch, her head between her forelegs; Dominus and Star Swirl sat on either sides of his desk and talked.

“So, I assume you have questions.” Star Swirl said, looking Dominus in the eyes.

“Yeah, you said my mark made me ‘a very important stallion’, what does that mean?”

“Remember when you asked me about Crystal Shard?”

“Yes.”

“She was Clash’s mother, and she was a very advanced psychic.”

“The whole thing with predicting the future?”

“Yes. She could predict the future, to a certain extent. She had visions, where she saw things. Dark things. Terrible things. You’ve seen the carvings in her house.”

“I had questions about one of those carvings,  the one with the winged unicorns.”

“I’m getting to that.” Star Swirl said, waving Dominus away with a hoof. “She carved the things she saw. One of which was your cutie mark.”

“What?!”

“Just before she died, she carved your cutie mark into the floor of the security office; where Lemon Tart lives now.”

“How did she die?”

“That’s hard to explain…”

“Could you try to explain, sir?” Dominus leaned forward on Star Swirl’s desk. He was sucked in.

“I shall. To be brief, she exploded.”

“She what?”

“Exploded. In a big ball of light. It was one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever seen.”

“How did it happen?”

“She came down with a terrible fever, and they brought her into the security office, which was also the medical clinic back then. She was burning up, and the doctor sent for me to help. By the time I arrived, she had started carving into the floor. The doctor and I tried to stop her, but there was some form of magic force field around her. She carved that image, your cutie mark, onto the ground, before collapsing. When she fell, smoke flew from her mouth, and it said, ‘beware the unicorn’, thus predicting the Earth Pony-Unicorn wars. Then she exploded in a ball of light, all the while we heard her screams. The mark is still there, I believe Ms. Tart covered it with an ornamental rug.”

Dominus was silent, he simply sat there, slack-jawed. After a few moments of staring at Star Swirl, he closed his jaw and stood up. He nodded to Star Swirl, lifted Clash onto his back, and walked to Crystal Shard’s old home.

By the time they got back to the house, Clash was asleep, and Dominus was so worn out from carrying her, that he fell down in the doorway of the house. When Iron Breaker got home, he had to pick up Clash and Dominus, who were both asleep in the doorway. When Carver returned home from school, he jumped up and down on top of Clash and Dominus, whom Iron Breaker had carelessly thrown on a couch together.

“Clash and Dom sittin’ in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!” He sang jumping on Dominus’s rib cage.

“AAUUGH!” Dominus wheezed as he awoke to find Carver bouncing on his ribs. “Get off me!”

“HA-HA!” Carver laughed running back to his room.

Dominus closed his eyes, seconds later, he opened them in surprise, he had felt something wrapped around his chest. He looked down to find Clash’s foreleg wrapped around him. He closed his eyes again, smiling.

“And remember class, stay still, stay focused, and visualize where you want to be.”

Nova, a mare in Star Swirl’s class closed her eyes, her worn glowing, and disappeared in a flash of light.

“Very good Nova!” Star Swirl said, clapping his hooves at the mare, who had reappeared on the other side of the room. Nova walked back to her spot in line, her knees shaking. Dominus was up next, and he quickly felt his horn strain as magic pulsed through it. He visualized the other end of the room, and found himself there. Everyone clapped respectfully, and he walked back. The process repeated with the next six unicorns, until everyone had attempted to teleport.

During lunch, Dominus and Star Swirl sat down and talked.

“So what does my cutie mark mean, exactly?” Dominus asked, munching on his sandwich.

“I’m not sure, but I can take a guess.”

“And what would you guess?”

“Spots said he saw you use a spell to kill a large number of dragons, correct?”

“Yes.”

“And I witnessed you bring Clash back from the dead.”

“Go on.”

“So, I can assume it heralds the coming of something to do with the concepts of life and death.”

“That’s a bit melodramatic.” Dominus said, finishing his sandwich in one bite.

“It is.” Star Swirl chuckled. “Oh, and Dominus.” Star Swirl called to dominus while he walked away.

“Yes sir?”

“I want you to start a journal, it’s good for your mental health.”

“Of course sir.” Dominus said, rolling his eyes sarcastically and walking away.

Dinner was cooked by Iron Breaker, who was quite the talented chef, so Dominus could actually stomach it. He was eating with Clash in her room, because she was so tired she couldn’t move.

“How are you feeling?” Dominus asked when she woke up.

“Alive.” she said, yawning.

“Thats great. I brought stew.”

“What kind?”

“Carrot, of course.”

“I despise carrots.” she said, as Dominus telekinetically lifted a spoonful of stew to her mouth.

“Why’s that?”

“They’re the only things I’ve eaten in my life.”

“Maybe I’ll get some potatoes at the market, much less bland.” Dominus said, as he and Clash chuckled.

“Star Swirl asked me to keep a journal, do you know where I could get one?”

“Actually, yes, my mother always kept a few.” Clash said, digging through a nightstand next to the bed. “Ah, here we go!” she said triumphantly, pulling out an empty journal and handing it to Dominus. “We have some ink and quills somewhere…” she mumbled, digging through the nightstand again and giving the ink and quills to Dominus.

“Thank you Clash.” He said, taking the miscellaneous writing utensils and leaving for his room.

From the journal of Dominus.

“Today I executed a perfect teleportation spell, and Star Swirl was very impressed. The only other student who did was Nova, who’s at the top of the class. I brought Clash back from the dead, and I guess that’s pretty interesting. Star Swirl says my cutie mark makes me important, which is also pretty cool. Also, my room used to belong to Crystal Shard, who had mystical powers. She also liked to read, so I’ve been reading her books. I think Clash has a crush on me.”

Dominus put the quill, ink, and journal away, before turning over in his bed and preparing to sleep. Before he drifted off, he resolved to take a few writing classes.

In the morning Dominus was alone with Star Swirl, pouring over maps of Canterlot mountain. Star Swirl was planning another expedition, this time into the center of the mountain, right into the dragon nests.

“Look, if we go here” Dominus said, pointing his hoof at a spot on the map. “We can avoid the bulk of the nests.”

“But the point is to examine the nests, Dominus.” Star Swirl countered.

“But that’s dangerous.”

“I know, but I want to test a few theories that those bones brought to me.”

“Well at least tell me we’ll have a few guards?”

“Of course.”

“how many?”

“Well… two?” Star Swirl said sheepishly.

“We’re going into a mountain filled with dragons, and you want to go with only two guards?!? You’re crazy!” Dominus half-shouted at him.

“There’s a method to my madness.” Star Swirl replied.

“And that is?”

“If we go in with a small army, we’re all going to draw attention, the smaller the group, the more stealthy we are.”

“Fine. Who are the guards?” Dominus sighed..

“Clash and her brother.”

“What?! you can’t bring Clash with us, do you remember what happened last time?” Dominus exclaimed.

“If memory serves, you brought her back from the dead.” Star Swirl glared at Dominus defiantly.

“I don’t know how I did it, I can’t guarantee that I will be able to bring someone back to life again.”

“Dominus, I know you can do it again; I believe in you.”

“Well, you believing in me isn’t going to keep Clash safe.” Dominus said. “Or her brother!” he added quickly.

“Ha, sounds like someone has a marefriend.” Star Swirl chuckled, taking a sip of coffee.

“Oh lay off.” Dominus grumbled.

“So, you’re fine with the way it’s planned?” Star Swirl inquired.

“Sure.” Dominus said, turning tail and walking out of the door.

About a week later Dominus, Star Swirl, Clash, and Iron Breaker were standing at the main entrance to Canterlot, prepared to entered the dragon tunnels.

“Alright lower the gate!” Clash bellowed to the guards manning the wall. One lowered the gate, while the other lowered the drawbridge. The motley assortment of ponies walked across the bridge, single-file. Clash first, the Star Swirl, followed by Dominus with Iron Breaker in the back. When everyone had left the bridge, the guards closed the gate and pulled up the drawbridge.

“Everyone ready?” Star Swirl hollered over the waterfall. There were a chorus of shouted yeses. Star Swirl hollered again: “Alright then, Dominus, would you do the honors?” Dominus nodded in agreement and prepared to use a drilling spell Star Swirl had taught him. His horn glowed red with bright energy. The the energy spun like a tornado, gathering speed. He pushed forward, and rock disintegrated and flew behind him. When they reached the catacombs the that filled the mountains like chambers in an anthill, Dominus cut off his drilling spell and both he and Star Swirl summoned balls of mystic light to float in front of them. Clash and Iron Breaker tensed and bit down on their swords. After an hour of uneventful walking, Dominus heard Clash shout something from far behind. She repeated it as he got closer.

“Guys, look at this!” she was pointing a hoof at a heaping pile of gems and other treasure.

“Beautiful!” Star Swirl exclaimed as he approached the gems.

“I second that.” Dominus said, gaping. Iron breaker remained silent, keeping watch over the group.

“Give me a moment.” Star Swirl said, holding up a bag and filling it to the brim with treasure. He filled three more bags with glimmering and glittering treasures. After loading up everypony with a bag of gems. They turned to leave the tunnel, but were stopped by a pair of glowing, reptilian eyes.

“Why hello there, my little ponies.” a deep, gruff voice hissed out of the darkness. “have you come to give me a little snack, or were you here to steal it?” light filled the room, which revealed itself to be a massive chamber. The light poured from a wall of torches that had been lit by an army of smaller dragons. In the center stood a dragon almost as tall as a quarter of Canterlot mountain. Its eyes were the ones that had been glowing earlier.

“Oh, I recognize you, you’re the one who killed so many of my subjects.” the dragon hissed contemptuously, lifting Dominus by the tail up to its eye level. “I will let you know that you haven’t even begun to make a dent in my armies, hatchling.” From the corner of his eye, Dominus saw dragons creeping up on the rest of the group.

“Now, hand over my gems, and your deaths shall be quick and slightly less painful than they would have been.”

“How’s about no.” Dominus said defiantly, teleporting to the top of the dragon’s head. Dominus felt the now familiar sense of death welling up inside of him.

“That can’t fool me! I will find you!” The dragon roared, fire jetting out of his maw. Dominus started to hear the voices, screaming at him. He felt his eyes cover with magical energy. His horn burned.

“WHAT IS THAT SOUND!” the dragon roared. “THE SCREAMING BURNS MY EARS!”

“AAAUUUGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!” the dragon roared while his internal organs disintegrated. As the dragon imploded, Dominus passed out and fell towards the ground.

“NO!” Clash screamed, running towards Dominus’ falling body. But, before she reached him, Dominus snapped his eyes open. He saw himself hurtling towards the ground and opened his wings to catch himself.

“WHAT WAS THAT?” Clash shouted at Dominus.

“I THINK THEY’RE WINGS!” Dominus shouted back, effortlessly gliding around the spherical chamber, firing off melting spells at every passing dragon.

“THAT’S GREAT DOMINUS, BUT CAN YOU COME BACK HERE?”

“WHAT?” Dominus replied, having too much fun killing dragons and flying to pay attention to Clash. Clash rolled her eyes and started to kill more dragons with her prized sword. After several more minutes of all-out war against the dragons, Dominus having killed most of them with another killing spell, the dragons retreated to lick their wounds.

“Well that was more fun than I’ve had since the first dragon war.” Star Swirl said, panting.

“Calm down old stallion, that was nothing compared to the battle of Canterlot.”

“Yes, I remember.” He responded, pulling out a canteen of coffee, which he warmed up with magic.

“WOOHOO!” Dominus shouted, landing next to Star Swirl, causing him to spill his coffee.

“Where did you get those?” Star Swirl said, putting his coffee away and examining Dominus’ newly found wings.

“I have no idea.”Dominus replied. sitting down and taking deep breaths.

“Who cares Swirly, they saved our flanks.” Clash replied galloping back to the stallion trio.

“Well, as to the wings saving us, I don’t think so. Now if Dominus hadn’t gained his wings, he would be dead, and subsequently so would we.”

“Swirly, you just repeated me but with fancier words.” Clash said, examining a dragons body, before ripping out one of its teeth to keep as a souvenir.

Iron Breaker spoke up: “We should probably get going.” He started, shifting uneasily on the ground. “We don’t wanna be here when the dragons get back.”

“Of course, of course.” Star Swirl said quickly, gathering up the bags of treasure and passed them to each member of the group. “Onward, my compatriots!” Star Swirl exclaimed, returning to the entrance of the chamber. As Dominus walked out, something caught his eye. He walked over to where it was. It was a small mirror, maybe the size of a stallion’s head. He picked it up from the rubble, along with a necklace he had seen. As he looked into the mirror, he almost screamed, it hadn’t shown his reflection, but a hideous beast. He ran as fast as he could, telekinetically filling another bag with any items he saw that were out of the ordinary.

The group walked back into town, except for Dominus who flew, panting and sweating from the walk. As Clash ordered the guards to open the gate and lower the drawbridge, Dominus simply flew into the town, landing on the other side of the gate. The guards stood on the wall, mouths agape, staring at Dominus. It wasn’t until Iron Breaker threw his sword at one of the guards, narrowly missing her head, did they open the gate. Once the group was across, one of the guards ran down from the wall and up to Star Swirl.

“Mr. Star Swirl! Did that stallion just fly?!?”

“Yes, yes he did.” Star Swirl said dismissively, walking off.