Snakeasaur Saga - The Quest For Harmony

Earth...was dead.

The once beautiful world of life and promise...gone.

For good.

The Earth, that little blue planet, the birth world and foundation of the human race, had been completely and utterly destroyed in a hellish storm of fire, poison, and fear, along with every single bit of life that had once stretched across its surface; it had been killed off like a mighty tree, succumbing to a deadly poison at the roots, and then burned to a blackened skeleton by a mighty fire, and with it all the fruits of life that grew from its once mighty branches, before they even had a chance to spread their seeds across the universe.

The planet was a dead shell of its former self: the once beautiful oceans were now thick, oozing, stagnant, black pools of decay and poison, the waters worse than the thickest, darkest, and most putrid tar, the surface littered with the poisoned, rotting bodies of every living organism of the oceans; billions upon billions of bloated, decaying corpses dissolving slowly in the acidic gunk now covered almost every inch of the planet's waters, spreading for thousand of miles in a layer of rot beyond the darkened horizon. The skies were pitch-black, the atmosphere choked by clouds of other-worldly smoke and smog; all light from the sun and stars had been completely cut off by the storm of death raging above, leaving the world in complete darkness...minus the flashes of red and white, cause by the unnatural, hellish-red lightning that blazed through the sky, sending flashes of crimson and thunderous explosions across the land.

Other sources of light were the fires blazing across the twisted, crushed landscape, the continents now no longer their original shapes in any way imaginable. A massive cliff of crumbling rock and dirt was all that remained of Europe and its surrounding land masses, all of which lay in giant heaps of crushed stone at the bottom of the black ocean. Africa had been turned into one massive crater stretching almost the entire half of the lower hemisphere, with a great mountain range three times as tall as Everest being the only barrier between the black sludge of the sea and the lake of molten rock filling up the crater from within the broken planet. North and South America had been smashed together, with South America shoved upwards from below and smashed against the underside of it's northern twin, which in turn forced it to smash into Asia. Add a broken Australia in the center of the mix and the continents were now a twisted version of the giant landmass they once were at their creation, with a few chunks of islands and land masses scattered about.

The surface of the world was the worst of all: the landscape had once been a treasure trove of varied ecological habitats and environments, as well as great civilizations and empires of nearly unlimited cultures and lifestyles, all of which were now burned to the ground. the plentiful forests and jungles of all kinds were now little more than miles upon miles of ash and death, while the great tundras and Polar Caps were now no longer existent, and the mountain ranges and plains were either transformed into their opposites by great tectonic forces, or completely obliterated all together. The only ecosystems that remained the same were the deserts, since they were already lifeless wastelands to begin with. One thing they all had in common now, though, was the worst fact: every single spark of life that once thrived throughout the world, even bacteria, had been banished into extinction.

Then, through the blackness of death, a single light suddenly shone through the darkness.

The cracked, flaky street remained undisturbed beneath the glowing, crystalline hooves of the alicorn that silently landed in the ruined city, the godly glow of her horn matching the color of her snow-white fur, lighting her way through the darkened world. Her sapphire-blue eyes gazed sadly upon the destroyed buildings before her as the ash gently fell from the sky like snow, covering the dry, rocky concrete in a blanket of grey, while the hot, dry winds blew it forward, also catching her long, rusty-red mane and tail, causing them to gently whip in the breeze.

Such a fate was too terrible to imagine...but when she heard the news, well...she just had to come.

This world...these people...she couldn't believe they were all gone. She had been here many times in the past when she was younger, usually in secret, just to watch the humans live their mortal lives and advance to new horizons; her most recent visit was that she made a few centuries ago, back when this particular continent had just been discovered by explorers from across the sea; a very brave feat for a mortal race, to cross an ocean with no knowledge of what was on the other side. Most of her kind stayed clear of the humans due to past aggressions between them and the ancestors of man; no doubt her mother would've be livid if she had found out about her little adventures, and to face the wrath of an angry goddess, even one of maternal anger, was a frightening thought.

Though it was her own Godhood that was the only reason she wasn't joining mankind in death.

Even as the stood there, looking about at all the destruction around her, she could feel the darkness fighting back against her light. The shadows slithering through the streets and buildings were not normal shadows; she could feel the fiery, consuming anger, and the cold, bitter hatred flowing through them, clawing at her, trying to end her life as well. It was only her light and immortality that shield her from their wrath; any mortal being that dared to enter this world in the future will be consumed by the shaded fires, and their very souls would die.

The one who did this made sure that earth, and humankind itself, would never return.

But a mere year ago, if you had told any human of what was to come, they probably would've laughed at the idea before going about their normal lives. The planet's main and only sapient race, Human Beings, the mortal descendants of the ancient and legendary Starukians, were one of the first mortal races to come into existence; in their prime, humans numbered at seven-to-eight billion, and forged many civilizations of the like the universe would never see again. Thus they were the example of foundation for many younger races throughout the cosmos; there isn't a race out there younger than human beings that did not possess something in their civilization or culture that didn't mirror something within theirs.

Humans weren't perfect: they had flaws, and a track record most would steer clear of...but no race is perfect; that's what makes Soul Bearers what they are, and what humans lacked in perfection they made up for with their great potential: to do many great things, and to bring great wonder to the universe.

Then He came.

Mankind may have been one of the first races, but they were not the first; that honor went to the Dragons (or Dovah, in their tongue). Those great, eternal, reptilian monsters of fire, power, and greed, whose kind had spread fear throughout the universes, even to the gods themselves, had been around to see the birth and death of many worlds before Earth, and will be around to see the end of this universe and many more to come. They cared not for the other races that had been born amidst their carnage; all 'mortals' were nothing but insects under their feet, food to fill their bellies, or at best subjects to 'give them their well-deserved praise' and to dig up and purify the gold and jewels that they lusted for.

And just as humans had descended from a greater ancestor, dragons, too, had been born from a race even greater than they; the same that their animalistic kin, the Dinosaurs, also descended from. Long before the Reign of Gods, long before even the age of the mighty reptiles, even before Earth existed and mortals lived, Existence was ruled by the ancestors of dragons:

The Vidovahrah, which translates into 'Serpent-Dragon-God'.

They were to Gods and other deities what normal dragons were to mortal races: these great beasts flew through the galaxies and space as if it were merely the skies, and the planets lands full of food and treasure. Their hoards filled entire moons, and their great battles would wipe out entire solar systems in their wake. Entire worlds full of living souls...mere dirt under their feet...wiped out without even being acknowledged...over matters between gods with the minds of animals.

But even the greatest of creatures fall to the ravages of time, and just like their dinosaurian descendants, the mighty Vidovahrah eventually lost their place as the rulers of the universes and vanished into Extinction.

Without the great beasts around to threaten it, Life blossomed throughout the cosmos, whether it evolved over billions of years on its own, or were created by the higher beings that survived through the reign of the great titans to see the dawn of this new age. And soon, after many millennia, the Vidovahrah faded into legends and myth, long gone and dead.

All but one.

Many amongst the deity races have debated on how he survived what his race did not: the most likely theory is that his parents must've nested and laid his egg on a planet within a time rip, which preserved it long enough to hatch into mortal day...but the most-believed theory that he had been alive all this time, surviving what his ancestors did not. It isn't that unbelievable, given the creature's sheer power: far greater than any other Vidovahrah ever known.

A God amongst Gods.

Power Incarnate.

The Teeth of Fire.

The Primal God of Power.

Destroyer of Deities.

Heaven's Bane/Hell's Wrath.

Death.

He has been called all these and more...but the one name that stands out amongst all other is the one he calls himself by: a simple mortal's name, but one that had become feared throughout the cosmos.

Tyrone.

Tyrone the Vidovahrah...or, as the mortal translation will soon come to call it: Tyrone the Snakeasaurus.

In the blink of an eye he came out of nowhere, the power that was merely flowing from his skin twisting the very forces of Physics, Reality, and even Good-and-Evil around him. Before the people of Earth could even blink, he came blazing down from the heavens in a great, destructive wave of fire, poison, and death, roaring in an unbridled rage that no mortal should ever see, let alone feel for themselves. He twisted the very face of the planet with his power, forcing the land and seas themselves to fight against the mortals under his feet, creating a hellish landscape which not even the most resilient could survive, and did all in his power to wipe out everything that had, despite the odds. The humans, confident in their strength, united together to counter the beast's attacks with their own weapons of poisonous fire...but not even that harmed the great Tyrone, for only the weapons of gods could stand against a Vidovahrah. It became even worse when the rest of dragon-kind joined him in his rampage, descending upon mankind in the millions, eager to forever destroy and reap vengeance upon the race that had been a thorn in their side for too long.

Mankind fought to their last breath, but the fires of their enemy's rage and the shadows of his evil swallowed them and their entire world into eternal fire and shadow. And in a year's time, what took over 2,000,000 years to create was extinguished for eternity.

The only thing on this world that had been spared was the treasure: the gold, jewels, and other precious things of the earth that had been torn from its hold, no doubt added to the sea of riches made by the wealth stolen from countless other worlds that had suffered from his wrath. If that wretched beast wasn't still here on earth, then he was no doubt rolling around in his newly-stolen treasure, like a sow wallowing through its own filth.

Dovah, gods or not...monsters to the very core.

A deep sigh escaped Faust's lips as she bowed her head in sadness. She could see them before her: the charred, mummified skeletons of his victims littered the streets before her in the thousands; they had all been going about their normal lives before the first strike, and in that one moment before their death, all differences were forgotten in a common goal they all shared: to live, even by just running.

She had better leave; she had been gone long enough as it was, and her herd was probably looking for her at this very moment. Besides, there were other worlds out there to worry about. Nothing to gain from crying over dead bodies.

She had business elsewhere.

This day may have seen the end of one race...but in its wake, it would see the birth of another.

Deep within the cosmos, in another universe far away from earth, floated a single world amongst the stars. The planet was the same size as earth, as it had been forged in its likeness, and it orbited around a sun just as earth had, an accompanying moon following nearby; it was, by all means, another earth...except for its barren surface.

Unlike earth, which did have life at one time, this world never had living beings to support to begin with: while it did have breathable air, life never bloomed on this lonely little planet; whether it had been forsaken by the deities of other realms, or unable to evolve life on its own, it remained an empty husk. The great canyons that could've been the deep oceans were just as dry and bear as the rest of the world, and the sky was just as empty, not a single cloud or drop of humidity to be seen or felt. By all means, it was a lifeless mockery of the planet it had formed after.

It was perfect.

On the surface of the world, in the middle of a deep, wide valley, a tear through time and space split the air near the valley's ground; through it, for a moment, the horror that befell Earth could be seen, but Faust made that moment brief as she quickly soared through, her four wings shimmering like waves of heavenly aura, and her hooves touched the dirt beneath her just as the portal behind her sealed shut with a flash of light and clasp of thunder. A harsh wind blew into the planet through the portal just before it closed, bringing with it a brief flurry of ash and soot, which settled lifelessly onto the planet with the wind gone.

As the thunderous boom echoed in the distance, the white alicorn merely stood there and quietly observed the barren landscape before her. The night sky above her was filled with an ocean of stars, giving an almost alien beauty to the land; it was almost as beautiful as the night skies of the Elysium Fields, the ancient home realm of the Alicorns.

Yes...those were truly golden years for her kind. She was but a filly back then, but she could still remember it all: She was the youngest of three foals born of the High King Omnipoti and High Queen Eqquis, who were said to be among the first of the Alicorn Race. Under their rule, her race lived peacefully and happily in the Elysium Fields, a truly beautiful realms of flowing meadows, beautiful forests, peaceful oceans, and mighty mountains. She, along with her brother Solaris and her sister Nocturna, played happily under their watchful parents' eye, and looked forward to a life of peace, safe from the might and wrath of the Vidovahrah, for the great beasts cared not for the land and the high rulers of the alicorns, and left their home unharmed.

No, their time of peace was destroyed not by the Vidovahrah, but by another race of demonic creatures, one that was hated even more so than the god dragons of old: The Draconequii.

Born from the very essence of chaos and madness, these twisted, insane beings also wielded power of godly strength. While weaker and less feared than the Vidovahrah and Dragons, they were even more despised; whereas the dragons destroyed merely by instincts and ways of life, the Draconequii brought chaos and torment to lesser races for nothing more than sheer amusement and desire. They enjoyed twisting and corrupting the very fabric of reality just to watch others suffer, and go mad from their chaos...but the races they tormented the most were the alicorns. By nature, the Alicorns and Draconequii were mortal enemies; whereas the alicorns merely wished to live in peace and order, the draconequii desired to tear that peace apart and plunge the Elysium Fields into chaos. At first it was no more than mere conflicts and pranks, but eventually fights became more common and varied; more brutal...and following the murder of Demetra, High Queen of the Forests, the two races plunged into war.

The war was long and brutal, but in the end the Alicorns triumphed, wiping the Draconequii from existence, and cleansing the universe of the chaos they had wrought...but it was a bitter victory: while alive, both Omnipoti and Eqquis were permanently crippled, and the Elysium Fields were destroyed...much like Earth was now.

The alicorns had no choice but to leave their once-beautiful home.

For many centuries the herd roamed the cosmos, searching for a new home...but they would have to search long and hard. With many of the deity races extinct, the Ethereal Realm was rapidly vanishing, most of the power sources it once maintained itself upon gone, forcing what races remaining to descend to the mortal realm. But even this would prove to be difficult: with both the Vidovahrah and Draconequii gone, life of all kinds and origins were spawning throughout the cosmos, filling every inhabitable world and realm conceivable, and the Alicorns would not endanger the lives of other races just for their own ends.

But now, it was finally over. After eight thousand long and tiring years, they had found their new home.

They were ready to begin again.

KRAC-COOOOOM!

The calm night sky exploded in a blaze of white with a thunderous explosion of lightning; were it not for her godhood, Faust would've screamed like a little filly. She turned her gaze skyward to see the once-starry skies fill with a swirling vortex of clouds, lightning blazing forth in multiple directions. Looks like her brethren of the sky were bringing forth the planet's very first rainstorm; a storm that would set in motion the very first beginnings of life on their new little world. Sure enough, the first drops of water to ever touch the soil of this planet began to fall, and were quickly followed by what could only be described as a torrential downpour.

And she was standing in the middle of it.

With an amused huff, she lit up her horn and cast a barrier of magic over herself; a comforting sound of rain pattering against the arcane energy field was barely audible over the now roaring sound of heavy rain, the once cracked-dry earth quickly turning into mud as it greedily absorbed the water. The alicorn looked about herself she spotted it: a large cave opening up at the base of the mountain in the distance.

Perfect.

KRAC-COOOOOM!

Another clap of thunder erupted through the sky just as Faust trudged tiredly into the cave, her mane and coat dripping wet and hanging from her body. The shield she had cast did little to protect from the rain when a large gust of wind blew in from the north; as she used her magic to wring out her mane, she briefly wondered if that sudden wind had been a prank from one of the weather alicorns. She grinned at the thought, despite herself: they were notorious for being pranksters, if only gentle ones, nothing like those monstrous draconequii.

As she flicked her tail about to rid it of the water, she looked about the cavern she had entered: there was nothing truly impressive about it, other than its height; it was large enough to house a full grown dragon and its hoard, but other than that it was a perfectly ordinary cave, going far back into the mountain in a twisted tunnel. A few stalagmites hung from the ceiling and grew from the floor near the walls, which were beginning to moisten and drip from the sudden existence of humidity in the air, creating the silent dripping clinks in what was once a silent cave

'Not exactly the Throne of the High Alicorns, but at least it's dry.' She thought to herself as she laid down on her belly, reaching back to preen her right wing. The ash of earth's ruin had thankfully been washed off in the rain, but a few stray pieces had found their way in her wing feathers, and it made her shudder to think that could very well be the remains of a man on her body.

"You went to Earth, didn't you?"

So alarmed was Faust by the sudden voice that she bit down on her wing hard enough to draw blood; she cried out in pain as she jerked her head back, small streams of the crimson life staining her lips and the snowy-white feathers. She choked back on the pain, turning to see who had spoken...and when she saw her, she nearly choked on her own saliva; there, laying against the wall in the position of a mare nursing young with her great wings draped against and over her sides, was the leader and creator of Alicornkind herself.

She was the first alicorn to come into existence, and from her power and blood all other alicorns came after her. The sandy-blonde color of her mane and tail were fading from age (the thousands upon thousands of years that she had been alive), as were the tips of her feathers. Her fur still had the light-brown shine that she was well known for. Her four wings and single, curved horn were much larger than those of Faust, and her eyes were a gentle lavender in color.

She, like the mighty Tyrone, went by many names in many tongues, but the one she chose was also a mortal name, given to her by the human girl who cared for her as a filly:

Bonnie.

Simple, and even a bit silly...but she would have no other.

But to Faust, she went by no name:

"G-Grandmother!" She stammered in surprise, relaxing from her scare and allowing her wings to fold against her body. "Shouldn't you be back with the herd?"

The goddess known simply as Bonnie merely shook her head, the exhaustion of age clear in her tired movements. "No. This is going to be a very special time for me. I wish to spend it alone: just the two of us, grandmother and granddaughter, undisturbed by the outside..." She told her, her eyes soft as she looked down toward her wing; Faust realized she was shielding something under it, keeping whatever it was safely in her arms, so to speak. She then looked into her granddaughter's eyes, her gaze becoming just a touch colder. "...you went to earth to see what happened to the humans."

Faust didn't even try to lie; she knew better than that. If Bonnie's motherly intuition wouldn't see past it, then her godhood would've. "Yes: after I heard what had happened...well...I just had too."

The older alicorn smiled softly. "Can't say that I blame you, so I won't." She admitted, casting a sadden gaze downwards. "They truly were a good race. I wish we could've done something."

It was that last sentence that made something in Faust finally break; she had seen the carnage of earth for herself, and allowed sorrow, regret, and even guilt to weigh upon her heart...but those last words...that was all it took to break those emotions away, and allow one that had been forced down long enough to finally bubble up to the surface: anger.

"Why didn't we?!" She nearly shouted, slamming her hoof against the cave floor; a clap of thunder bellowed from outside, briefly lighting up the cave and revealing the younger alicorn's face twisted in rage and hatred. "Are we not gods capable of creating worlds?! Did the very sun and moon of our realm not bow to our very whim?! They were an entire world of innocent beings as well as guilty! Couldn't we have, at the very least, tried to save them if not their entire world?!"

"No. There was nothing we could've done." Bonnie said flatly yet sternly, keeping her voice calm. "If we had interfered, then Tyrone and all of Dovahkind surely would've turned his wrath upon us. Besides, the humans-"

"DAMN THOSE REPTILES TO TARTARUS!!" Faust screamed in rage; the very walls of the cave shook from the sheer volume of her voice, as if trembling in fear of her wrath. **"MANKIND IS DEAD BECAUSE OF THOSE MONSTERS!! WHAT, WERE THE HUMANS NOT GOOD ENOUGH TO EVEN LIVE UNDER THEM?! DAMN THEM ALL!! ALL THOSE* INNOCENT SOULS, ALL those Living* Beings...They're gone...all of them..." She couldn't take it anymore; only after she released her anger were the tears finally able to burst from her eyes as she crumbled to the floor. The mighty goddess, the 'author' of worlds, sobbed openly like a filly, her tears streaming down her cheeks and snout. "...W-Why?"

Bonnie's face remained emotionless, but her eyes softened with pity and sadness of her own. Yes, she knew about her granddaughter's secret trips to earth during her youth, but remained quiet about it; she knew how Faust loved the mortal beings that had once, long ago in the ancient times, had been allies with their own race. Her own daughter and son-in-law had always reprimanded her every time she had been caught sneaking out, for they had never trusted the humans as their daughter did. 'They are dangerous!', they would say; 'humans are monsters', they would say. Perhaps they were during their last moments, but they were not always that way. Bonnie would even question them being evil at all; yes they were dangerous and corruptible, but weren't all races? Even the tamest and friendliest of dogs could still bite, after all.

Faust continued to sob in her misery, with nothing but her grandmother's company to comfort her...that is, until the muffled cries of a child tore through the night. Bonnie turned her gaze down to her side, lifting her wing to soothe the crying creatures underneath, her gentle voice humming a soft lullaby, soothing the crying back into silence...and from underneath her wing shone the soft, pure light of a newly-created soul.

The younger alicorn looked up from the ground, and when she saw what laid at her elder's side, her blood-shot eyes widened in surprise and awe.

There, nestled up against the alicorn's barrel and deep in slumber, was a litter of six newborn fillies and one newborn colt...these foals, however, they were not like any foals she had ever seen before. For one, all seven were perfectly identical in appearance, except for the coloring: each one was one of the seven colors of the rainbow, their manes and tails being a darker shade of said color. Another trait was they didn't have horns or wings; they were 'Equestrian' foals, but the lack of alicorn gifts made her think of the animalistic creatures of earth that humans had tamed as beasts of burden (which some shallow alicorns seemed to use as a excuse to dislike humanity). And finally, as well as most importantly, they lacked the godly aura that all Alicorns possessed; yes, they were glowing with the light of their souls, but it wasn't the same as that of a god.

They were mortal.

Faust was stunned speechless, her eyes wide with wonder at the sight. "Are...are those...?" She managed to squeak.

Bonnie smiled cheekily at her daughter's expression. "Yes. Yes, they are." She told her, turning her loving gaze down to the sleeping fillies. "They are the first born of our future race: mortals, just like the humans were."

"Are...are you sure about that? Is that really the wisest thing to do?"

She shook her head. "No, it's not wise, but it's the only choice we have. The alicorns are a dying race, Faust; the mortal realm cannot support us as the Elysium Fields did. We will endure, but all future foals born here wouldn't...so, I've decided to follow in the footsteps of both the Starukians and Vidovahrah: we shall forge for ourselves a mortal race; become less so we can become more."

Faust stared at the infants; one by one they began to wake up, all yawning cutely as they stretched their tiny legs. "They are still plain; un-gifted. Why is that?"

To that question, Bonnie merely smiled warmly at her granddaughter. "That, my dear, is up for you to decide." She said calmly, her tired eyes warm and gentle.

The white alicorn could barely believe her ears, her face and eyes showing her shock and disbelief. Her grandmother had created new life, and had bestowed upon her the honor to forge it. Calmly, if a bit nervously, she looked back at the pile of babies; The orange, blue, and indigo fillies were all pushing and struggling against each other for access to Bonnie's nipples, each of them hungry for the life giving milk within. The red one had crawled over to her creator's tail, giggling happily as he tugged on and played with the aged yet sparkling hair. The yellow and green ones were huddled together for warmth, the former gently licking her sister's ear, making her squirm and giggle, and the purple one, the last...stared up at Faust with wide, awed eyes, her mouth set in a curious 'o'. The two stared at each other in silence for a few moments until the baby inched her way to Faust's chest and gently nuzzled her head against the alicorn's chest.

And despite her sorrow, Faust managed a small smile.

"Alright then...I'll do it."

...Then she blessed each one of the seven ponies with one of the Alicorn's many special gifts; the powers of her kind. The first she blessed was the purple one: the one who had approached her. Her eyes were full of curiosity and a hunger for knowledge, ready to see the big, beautiful universe she had been born into: and thus she was blessed with the Gift of Magic, so that she may use it to learn and do more. And at that moment, a small horn poked out from her forehead, while her tail became longer and more lion-like, and her hooves cloven like a deer's. And thus the first Unicorn Pony was born.

The next she blessed the blue one: this one stood up bravely in front of her creators, chest puffed out bravely and proudly with a sense of childish honor and pride. Faust giggled as she blessed her with the Gift of Flight, so that she could fly to the rescue of her sisters. And from her back grew a tiny pair of feathery, bird-like wings, and from her hips above her tail came the tail feathers of a bird, while her back, breast, and hips were covered in a feathery down; she changed the most, her bones and muscles shifting and changing so that she could soar like the bird she had become like.  And thus the first Pegasus Pony was born.

Following her was the orange one: she was slightly larger than her sisters, and acted like a bigger sister to them as they played together; kind yet strong, protective yet caring. To her Faust gave the Gift of Earth, to be strong and sturdy for herself and her kind in times of hardship and plenty alike. Her body became larger, stronger, and tougher than the others, her hooves becoming larger, rounded and more solid, like the rest of her; the very soil and rock beneath her tiny hooves seemed to shift and bend to her will, ready to grow for its future tiller. And thus the first Earth Pony was born.

Next came the green one: this one, however, seemed out of place. The poor, weak creature had a hard time standing on her flimsy legs, as if they and the very ground she stood upon rejected her. So Faust gave her the Gift of Water. The oceans would welcome the pony where the land would not, and she and her kind would forever be at home in their depths. Then and there the filly's hind legs and tail vanished, turning into a single long, fish-like tail, while her fore-hooves shrunk and turned into small fins. She was then placed in a small pool of water near Faust's hooves, where she splashed about and cooed with happiness. And thus the first Sea Pony was born.

Then Faust turned to the yellow one: the moment she laid eyes on her, the tiny filly cowered against the floor, trembling softly in dread. Faust gave her a warm smile before granted her with the Gift of Nature; she was small and timid...a small, fleeting beauty of the world, just like the creatures that would soon inhabit this world's nature. From her back sprouted a pair of large yet lovely butterfly wings that seemed to glow with every color of the rainbow, and from her forehead grew a pair of tiny moth-like feelers, soft and gentle. And thus the first Flutter Pony was born.

After her was the indigo one: unlike her sisters, who all stayed close together for warmth and companionship, this one laid a good distance away from the others, simply wishing to be alone. To her Faust gave the Gift of Night; the darkness and solitude of the darkness would be her realm, when the rest of her sisters were fast asleep and unable to disturb her. Her body transformed into one similar to the pegasus pony, but instead of bird wings, from her shoulders grew the leathery wings of a bats, along with a pair of fangs from her mouth and her eyes becoming like those of a cat so she could see and hunt in the dark. And thus the first Bat Pony was born.

And finally there was the red one, the colt...but before she could grant him a gift, the acts of the dragons came back to haunt her once more.

For the cave they were taking shelter in was indeed large enough to house a dragon and his hoard...because it did, unbeknownst to the alicorns: farther back in the cave, hiding in the darkness of its depths, a large, elderly dragon watched the ponies from upon his hoard. This dragon was truly an old creature, more than a million years old; his scales and horns were worn, chipped, and faded, his wings torn and full of holes, and his claws and teeth dull and broken, though his fire was still burning bright within his gullet. But instead of attacking, he merely sat back, watching this new wonder before him: he had lived for many, *many years, and seen many, many things; he had lived a full life and was ready to die, so he had come to this planet to die in peace, the caves meant to be his eternally-undisturbed tomb...but he was glad to see one last new wonder before he died: the birth of a brand new race, one that he came to love then and there.*

He was also aware that it would only be a matter of time before his kind would find this new world, and meet the ponies being created before him...so, to protect the ponies, he knew that they would need a guardian; one that could stand up to the younger dragons of this time, and protect his sisters from their wrath.

So, right before Faust bestowed her gift, the old dragon summoned the last of his power and breathed it out onto the red colt.

Faust watched in horror and Bonnie in surprise as the last colt not only grew into an full-grown just as tall and big as they were, but was transformed into what could only be described as a dragon-alicorn hybrid; his fur was replaced by tough, dragon-like scales, resembling a thousand sparkling rubies, and his mane, as black as soot, ran down the entire length of his spine, including the incredibly long dragon-like tail ending in a sword-like tail blade. His teeth were as sharp as daggers, his tongue now like that of a snake, and his hooves had grown into cloven hooves resembling claws. His horn was long and curved, like a dragon's horns, and instead of wings he had large draconic fins resembling large spines growing from his shoulders, which glowed with the dragon's power, and along with his normal unicorn horn, he also had a pair of long dragon horns growing back from his head. His eyes were no longer those of a pony; they were like a cat's, and glowed with a inner fire. They were the eyes of a dragon.

And thus came to be the first Kirin.

Feeling the power and wisdom of the dragons flowing through his body, the newly-born kirin seemed to glow with strength and honor; he turned to his creators and sisters, beaming with pride...but all he saw was horror in their eyes. His sisters screamed with terror at the monster before them, retreating to the shelter of Bonnie's wings, the brown alicorn being the only one who didn't look upon him as a beast. Faust, however, saw only red; her hatred for the dragons blinded her to what this...abomination before her really was. And with a scream of rage and hatred, she blasted the kirin with her magic just as Bonnie yelled 'No!'

But it was too late. Betrayal and sorrow filled the Kirin's heart, for his own mother had struck him out of hatred.

With an anguished roar, the newly transformed dragon-pony bolted from the cave and leaped into the sky, a trail of fire streaking behind him like the tail of a comet; Faust realized what she had done and, in a horror and guilt that only a mother who had harmed her child could feel, called out after him, but it was too late; he disappeared into the storm outside, never to be seen again.

The old dragon shook his head in disappointment as he laid it back down on his hoard of gold; he could feel the life slipping from his body as he laid there...but the only regret he had was not being able to see how this new race would grow. He really would've liked to have seen their future...

In the following years the Alicorns forged the planet into what it is now known today, the once lifeless rock transforming into a Eden of life and sunlight. The six ponies grew to create the foundations of the pony race, each using their special gifts to shape the world they lived in; the alicorns watched over the mortal ponies they created, protecting them from dangers of the world and the crueler races that would come to share the new world with the ponies...one of these races being the Dragons themselves.

Faust never forgave the dragons for what they had done, to both the human race and the seventh foal; the Kirins remained in this world, but they stayed hidden in the shadows of the deep forest, never revealing themselves to the other pony races...some say it was the kirins, and not the alicorns, that protected them from the true threats: they say that since the Kirin was part dragon, the dragons saw him as one of their own, and respected him enough to leave his sisters be...but that did not soothe the guilt or hate in Faust's heart. All races were welcomed in her new kingdom, but the ponies would fear the dragons for what they were in their creator's eyes: Monsters.

The young lavender filly frowned, hugging the sleeping baby dragon to her chest with worry. "But the old dragon was just trying to help." She murmured softly. "...and Spike's not a monster..."

The older mare looked up from the book with a warm, motherly smile, resisting the urge to giggle at her daughter's cuteness; the younger pony was currently tucked into bed in her room at the Sparkle Family Manor, her mother sitting by her bedside reading a story. This particular story had been chosen thanks to the newest member of the sparkle family: the newborn dragon curled up next to the filly who had hatched him.

"I know, Twilight, I know..."

It was an unbelievable turn of events, but it had started out as just a normal day for the citizens of Canterlot, the grand capital city of Equestria and home of Princess Celestia, ruler of ponykind. It was a special day for the Sparkle family, though, for their youngest daughter, the filly Twilight Sparkle, was about to fulfill her dream and be enrolled Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, a famous school where the most brilliant and skilled unicorns from across Equestria studied and learned under the eyes of Canterlot's greatest teachers, as well as Princess Celestia herself. Twilight was thrilled at first, but said thrill quickly turned into the dread when she learned that, in order to enter the school...she had to pass an entrance exam.

And not just any exam, but the infamous Dragon Egg exam.

The idea of the test was simple: if you could use your magic to get the egg to hatch, then you would pass. Many students had been given this exam before, and none had ever succeeded, so it came as no surprise that the purple filly with hardly any magic at all couldn't even conjure enough to so much as touch the egg.

But that was the point of the test.

For you see, as Twilight and her family later learned, the test was secretly impossible to pass: the egg couldn't be hatched, for it was barren. According to the story that Celestia told them, she had found the egg in a traveling caravan of traders from the east, who had found it in an abandoned dragon's cave; she bartered the egg from the traders and, discovering it was a dud, decided to make it part of her school's entrance exam.

The entire point of the test was to make the students fail: you see, once cleared in the enrollment form, the students were already accepted into the school. The 'entrance exam' was to test how the students handled failure and how to approach it in future lessons; students who broke down into tears would be given boosts in confidence, those who threw tantrums would be taught humility, and so forth.

But then this new filly, who seemed to be a magic-less unicorn, did the impossible; following an mysterious explosion from outside, the startled filly's incredible magic exploded from within, and in one blast, she struck the dead egg and brought forth a newly-born hatchling into the world.

In that one moment, she had done what even Princess Celestia could never do: she didn't simply hatch an egg...

She had created life.

And even in that miraculous act, her magic hadn't weakened at all: in fact it only grew stronger, bursting forth from the filly's body in a maelstrom of arcane energy which nearly tore the entire school apart, if Princess Celestia herself hadn't intervened.

Twilight's mother, Velvet Sparkle, shivered at the memory: being turned into a potted fern was an experience she never wanted to repeat.

But instead of punishing Twilight, as the young filly had dreaded, Celestia saw the pure potential Twilight showed that day, and not only enlisted her into the school but made the filly her own personal student; to study in the castle under her teaching. Not only that, but she allowed Twilight to keep the baby dragon that she had brought into the world, knowing that the infant would never become a true danger being born of pony magic, and within the hour the face and name of Twilight Sparkle was in the papers and known throughout Equestria: Celestia's new personal student and acting-mother of Equestria's first true dragon resident. And to top it all off, throughout all the chaos, Twilight had earned her Cutie Mark.

Needless to say her parents were proud.

Tomorrow would be Twilight's first day of school as the princess's student; the poor filly had driven herself ragged preparing for tomorrow and taking care of Spike, and still the excitement and dread of tomorrow wouldn't allow her to sleep, so her mother decided to take this last special night with her daughter and read her a bedtime story of Equestria's History and Lore. Those were always Twilight's favorites; a real bookworm, she was. This story was chosen especially for their newest family member: The Bane of Faust, also known as The Legend of the Kirin...one of Equestria's sadder stories, but one that she and her husband agreed that Twilight needed to hear.

"...why did you read us that story?" Twilight asked as her mother put the book of the nearby dresser.

Velvet smiled, though her expression saddened a bit. "Your father and I thought it was for the best." She admitted, taking her daughter's hoof between her own. "Listen, Twilight. You'll need to know that not all dragons will be like Spike. We read this story so you would learn that: just because Spike's sweet and nice doesn't mean all other dragons are as well."

"I know that, mommy." Twilight said, slightly confused. "Celestia said Spike was nice because my magic made him that way."

"I know, but you still need to remember that: I don't want to wake up one morning to learn that my daughter's gone off to introduce Spike to his long-lost relatives or anything like that." She told her, rubbing a hoof on her daughter's tummy, making her giggle and squirm. "Spike will be safer here, with us, not with is own kind. Understood?"

"Yes, mommy." Twilight murmured, yawning tiredly afterwards.

"Alright, now, it's time for this little pony to get some sleep; you have a big day, tomorrow." The older unicorn told her, gently tucking both the unicorn filly and dragon hatchling into bed, pulling the covers up to their chins. After making sure she was comfortable, she used her magic to turn off the light, and then she kissed her daughter on the forehead. "Goodnight, my little filly." She whispered quietly, and then silently left the room.

"Goodnight." Twilight whispered to her mother just before she closed the door; she snuggled into bed and wrapped a gentle hoof around Spike, pulling him close to her chest like a big teddy-bear. Spike didn't awake, but he did nuzzle himself against his 'mother's' fur, snoring softly as she shifted over onto his back. Twilight smiled softly as she looked past him up at the window, where a full moon shone down on the city from the night sky; the mare in the moon stood out against the white rock, as if it was looking down upon Equestria, watching over those in her night.

'Goodnight, Spike.' She mentally whispered as her eyes closed, and she joined her future assistant in slumber.

Tomorrow would begin a new life for both of them.

And what a life it would be.

How does one define a Hero?

It isn't a hard thing to do; they've been immortalized in stories and legends dating back to the dawn of time, and I've seen them all. They are usually thought of as strong, fearless, and, as the title implies, heroic. They always fight for the right cause and do so with a heart unwavering and pure, never giving into evil and bringing hope to those most in need of something to believe in.

That is the very definition of a hero.

Which is why, when they are truly needed most...heroes are worthless.

You heard me.

Worthless.

It is for these very reasons a true hero is absolutely worthless when someone has to fight: their purity and sense of right are the very reasons they cannot be the ones to rely upon.

A hero's greatest attributes are often also his greatest weakness.

And when a hero falls to his own morals, who will save you then?

Sometimes, more often than not, to truly protect the ones you care about and do what is needed, you have to do the unthinkable and the unforgivable; it's not always the easy thing to do, nor the best thing to do. Hell, many times it's not even the right thing to do, but it's what needs to be done...and a conscious will only get in the way. Which is why a hero, who fights with a pure heart, cannot bring himself to do such evil, and never win against such odds...but one who doesn't can do what a hero cannot and crush the opposing force, and live with the consequences, unaffected by the blood on their hands...or should I say claws.

Sometimes a hero is the last thing you need to save the day...

Sometimes...

You need a Monster.