Chapter 1: A New Beginning
His friend’s house was tinted by blue lights and sirens in the bitter winter’s eve.
Lewis stood still with his hands in the pockets of his leather jacket and stared at the house as the heavy raindrops fell on him, soaking his long hair and making it stick to his face. He didn’t know how long he had been standing there, but it must’ve been hours. He was the first to come and the last to leave.
He watched the medics rush inside the house with a stretcher, the police surrounding the area with yellow barricade tape, and the other policemen standing guard to make sure no one would interfere or step into the scene of the incident. Their facial expressions were emotionless, as if this was as normal as their daily breakfast.
In the place of the accident itself, the unconscious man was lying on the floor with his hand clutched around his phone. It was a good thing he managed to call the ambulance in the nick of time, because that gave him a glimmer of hope of survival. That’s what the medics had told him.
After he had been taken to the hospital in a rush, detectives started investigating. They were divided into two groups. The first group searched the house for clues of what could’ve led to his condition while the other group talked to the people that knew the victim to gather more information about him.
“Mister?” One of the detectives of the second group shouted as he walked towards Lewis.
Lewis fixed his soaking hair and brushed it back to take a better look. “H-how is he? Will he be alright?”
“I’m not going to lie to you, son, but he’s more dead than alive. He’s going to need a miracle to get out of this unscathed.” He didn’t sound very sympathetic or optimistic, but Lewis couldn’t care less. This man’s opinions did not equal truth or facts and even though the situation wasn’t very bright he would not so easily give up on his buddy.
“You better get to the bottom of it.” He growled, his eyes soaked with more than just raindrops.
“We’ll try everything in our power to do just that,” The detective answered. “But I do believe you’re well acquainted with Mr. Drake?”
“We were...are... good friends, yes.” He answered hastily with a frown plastered on his face. “Drop your questions for later. I really don’t want an interrogation now.”
The detective nodded a couple of times before reaching into his bag. “I’m here for another reason, actually. Normally we’re not supposed to hand out things that are part of the crime scene--, I mean, a part of the place of incident, but I don’t see a reason why I should keep this away from you. It seems personal.” The detective pulled out a leather folder and handed it over to him. “Go home, Mr. Lewis,” He added, nudging his shoulder a bit with his hand.
Lewis stared at the folder in confusion for a short while before looking back up. “Thank you.”
The detective nodded back and turned around, starting towards the house again.
After Lewis had changed his wet clothes to dry ones, he sat down on his sofa in the living room and put on his reading glasses before opening the folder delicately. Inside it was a batch of papers that had been written on. The writing wasn’t fancy, and at first glance it seemed as if a child had written it.
It read:
Lewis, I know you’re not going to believe me, and I’m not even going to ask you to. But please, read this and do not stop no matter how ridiculous or silly it will sound.
To get it out of the way, I’m just going to say that I, Drake, did indeed write this. I haven’t gone mad and I’m not pulling a prank on you. You’re the only one I can trust on Earth and I feel like I have to tell my story to someone. You deserve to know what happened to me.
To cut straight to the chase... I was reborn in another world called "Nirn" . The land I live in is called "Equestria" which is in the continent "Tamriel" . But I’m no longer a human. Now I'm some kind of an alien; some kind of cartoonish pony, if you wish. A pony with the same kind of intellect as humans, as you’ll see the further you delve into my story.
I don't know anything about Earth's situation; whether things have gone better or worse. And I don’t really know anything about how much time has passed in your world either. But what I do know is that I'm still alive, so do not weep me.
Here I was granted, by this world's Gods, the responsibility to lead the role of “Dragonborn”. As the title suggests, I’m also a part dragon. Not physically though. I have a pony body, dragon blood flowing in my veins, and a human's conscious. Yes, I know, it’s ridiculous, and I know this is getting weird, but let me explain myself...
I woke up to strange noises. I felt that I was moving, like I was being carried in some carriage or something similar. I didn't open my eyes yet, but I could feel the summer breeze caressing my body. I could hear birds singing beautifully, the buzzing of bees dancing with their little wings, the rustle of leaves, the sound of nature.
The air was pure and as I breathed in I felt its freshness in my lungs. I had never breathed in such refreshing air before, and I welcomed it.
But despite all that I had a massive headache and my body felt very weak. I also felt for my wrists being tied together with a rope, so I could not move my hands.
When I had realized I was awake I quickly opened my eyes and gasped, but didn't see anything. Everything was blurred, and the sunlight entering my pupils burned my feeble eyes.
“Easy there.” I heard a deep voiced male say.
My ears twitched at the sudden sound. “W-where am I?” I responded dryly, my throat begging for liquid to clear and soften it. I blinked my eyes to adjust my sight that was slowly getting clearer. “And what the hell happened to my voice?” I swallowed, which managed to clear my voice slightly. “I-I don’t sound like myself.”
“Your voice seems pretty normal to me.”
“W-who are you?”
“Relax. I'm in the same situation as you. I'm your ally. Probably your last one at that,” He replied with a deep, slow chuckle. He had a thick accent. A Nordic one. From that chuckle alone I understood his personality. It told me he was brave, strong and mighty, and probably not to be fucked with. I was somewhat relieved that he told me he was a friend.
“W-What do you mean?” I asked confusedly, trying to touch anything in my reach. I slowly began to regain my sight, and the first thing I noticed was the beautiful environment. The green grass, the tall trees and the clear blue sky.
Before he could reply I turned around to see that he wasn't quite how I'd imagined him to be. He wasn't big or strong in appearance...he wasn't even human. He resembled some kind of a brown-ish mammal.
Like in a dream, the most ridiculous things can be taken for granted, so at first I just stared at him emotionlessly, as if anything couldn’t be more normal. But the more I stared at the foreign creature before me the more I started to realize that I wasn’t in a dream. After my brain put two and two together, I grew terrified beyond belief. I quickly looked down at what I thought were my hands and noticed that I had hooves of my own, and only then did I feel for a twitch from something that was attached to my back... they were wings. For what seemed a long while, I just stared. I wasn't thinking about anything, I just stared at my dark gray colored foreign body limbs with my blank mind.
“What the fuck is going on?!” I yelled in confusion the second I regained consciousness. I panted tremendously in excitement, and somehow everything I thought to be normal at first, such as the fresh air or the warm feeling of the sun, became unreal to me.
“Shut up there, you criminal scum!” One of the pony guards spat at me. "Or we'll put you down right here!"
I didn’t pay attention to their comments. “Where am I?! What is happening to me?!” I snapped, more panicked than I’d ever been.
“We are arriving to Helgen. I don't know what you've done to "deserve" this, but they're going to execute us,” The stallion responded, as calm as an eye of a storm.
“Execute?!” I gasped, breathing so heavily I started making the other calm prisoners that were being transported as well feel uncomfortable.
I noticed that the stallion wasn’t amused. I sounded like a coward, and if I had to take a wild guess, I bet he wasn't too fond of cowardice. After all, he was as relaxed as I would've been in a steam bath.
“Yes, my friend. Sovngarde awaits us all.” he answered calmly, yet a bit more agitated than before.
“Sovngarde? Wait, what the-- Why would they kill us? I’m having trouble wrapping my head around this.”
“Because apparently we're criminals, that's why! And please, do not try to reason with the guards. It's a waste of time, and they won't listen to you. They also tend to hate whiners, just like me.”
“But I haven't done anything wrong!” I growled at him. He didn't deserve that, but in the situation I was in, I had every reason to be shocked and angry.
“Neither have I.” His answer was of sarcasm and his smirking added to the tease.
“And who's that on my right?” I asked to change the subject. I wanted to take my mind off the whole execution subject for a bit.
“The one and only Stormcloak leader; Ulfric. I'm surprised you haven't heard of him.”
“And why is that cloth gagging him?”
“Are you new around here? Or have you been living under a rock?” He asked me with a questionable look.
I looked at my shaking hooves and nodded. “Yes. Yes I'm definitely new here.” I tried to move my tied up wings, which felt pretty sensitive to me, but to no avail. My hooves were dark gray colored which meant that the rest of my body was probably like that, too. I didn't pay notice to the color at first, since I was too surprised to wake up in a different body. It didn't even make any sense to me. Nothing made sense to me.
“He killed the High King Torygg.”
“So... I’m sitting next to a king murderer?” As soon as I said that I felt for Ulfric's cold eyes fixed on me. It made me gulp.
I decided to ignore him. Instead I went back to fearfully admiring my new body and wings. I didn't get a good look at it, but I could definitely see a part of the wings and my arms.
“Yes... and do you know what he used to kill the king?”
I expected a blade or a weapon, or whatever ponies used. I shook my head in disbelief. Whatever was going on, I was probably dreaming. I must have been. It wouldn't make any sense to just wake up in a moving cart and-- I stopped thinking about it. I decided to go with the flow and see where this crazy ride was taking me. After all, I was convinced that I was just having a very strange realistic dream. And why not enjoy it while it lasted? It seemed a helluva lot more fun than my real life.
“He used his voice to tear him apart!” The mysterious stallion claimed.
My hesitant giggle turned into a laugh. “Aha! A comedian, I see. Despite our imminent death you’re still optimistic, I like that.”
I noticed that the stallion’s grin slowly turned into an angry frown. He stared at me like he was talking to an ignorant child.
“Oh... you're serious.” I said to myself, but it sounded more like a question.
“Indeed I am.” He replied, somewhat offended.
It took some time, but at last the carriage stopped. I looked around to see ponies everywhere in this peaceful, but dirty little village. I noticed one stallion ordering his colt to go inside. The little pony didn't obey, but that changed when I gave him a slow nod; A nod that indicated that he should follow his father's orders. The colt nodded back and went straight inside. The father, not sure if he approved or not, thanked me with a quick nod of his own before following his kid.
The guards cut us loose, but one prisoner was stupid enough to try to escape. He met his demise as he was shot down with an arrow. For a while I wondered how the hell the guard managed to use a bow with only his hooves, but since there was so many things confusing me I decided to drop it.
After my wings had been freed I spread them as wide as I could. Man, it felt good stretching those. Stretching them was like stretching your back when you woke up, or after a long day's work. I had no idea how I managed to move them, but it was pretty similar and felt as natural as moving my arms. It would feel like I had four pairs of arms instead of two, that is, if I were still a human. In my situation I had four legs and two wings, but there wasn’t much of a difference to be honest. The hardest part was to walk on four legs, but I bet I’d get used to it in no time.
“Please line up!” An angry silver-colored unicorn mare, presumably the captain, yelled at us. “Or you'll all end up like him or worse!” Her threats were as intimidating as sharp spears and her stare as cold as ice. She looked at us with disgust and seemed to want nothing more than seeing us dead.
We obeyed without hesitating. I had some trouble walking since I'd never walked on four legs before, so as soon as I took a few steps, and without intending to do so, I fell to the ground and slammed with my face first into the mud beneath my hooves. I groaned and gnashed my teeth as I slowly pushed myself off the ground, feeling for everyone’s confused stare on me.
“You! Step forward!” The mare ordered, looking at me eyes with her cold, sharp eyes.
I didn't dare do anything else but obey her. "What's your name, scum?” The mare spat out, pacing towards me. "I asked you a question, whelp... What is your fucking name!”
I jumped a bit and widened my eyes in surprise. Despite knowing I was about to get killed, I wasn't expecting that from such an adorable looking creature.
I gulped, a sudden spark of nervousness refusing me any movement. I looked around as I tried to find a new name and off the top of my head I hastily answered, “N-names are meaningless. I have no name.”
A guard walked up to me, biting on the leather handle of a small dagger. He grabbed my mane with one hoof and pressed the cold blade of the steel against my throat with the other, making me gasp and hiss in small pain.
“I’m not going to ask you again... Equestrian.” She positioned herself only inches away from my face. “Tell me your name or your death won’t be honorable.”
“Starfire!” I shouted in panic. “My name... is Starfire!”
There was no movement from anyone for what seemed to be a long while. The mare kept staring at me with her hateful scowl while the guard held me in a very uncomfortable position.
“You Equestrians all have stupid names.” She raised her hoof and the guard let me go. As soon as he did I fell to my knees and coughed, rubbing my throat with my right fore hoof. “All your names are too literal. What is your story of birth exactly? Born under a starry night next to a campfire or something?”
“I, uh... that’s just the name I got, mistress.”
“I don’t give a shit anyways.” she hissed. “No more delays. Priest, you’re welcome to bless those miserable sod of souls now if you wish.”
The priest started speaking, "Since the beginning of time, a--" but before she could continue, a white Earth-Stallion walked determinedly up to them with an annoyed frown. "For gods' sake, let's just get this over with!" He interrupted, more eager to face his death than to live as a prisoner. He clearly didn't lack the courage and he certainly wasn't afraid of death. Maybe he believed what waited for him was better for him anyways. Speaking of which, everyone kept mentioning Sovngarde. Maybe that wasn’t such a bad place if everyone was so calm about getting their lives taken.
He walked by himself up to the tree stump and placed his neck on it; waiting impatiently to be executed. "Damned be the Imperials! The Stormcloaks, the true sons of Equestria, will prevail!"
I just watched as the executioner snapped the stallion's head clean off with his huge and sharp looking ax. Blood sprayed out of his throat and painted the tree stump and around it red. I had an urge to puke, but I managed to keep it down.
“Holy shit!” I thought out loud, turning my head away. I closed my eyes firmly and swallowed hard. Then I opened them again and looked at the mare in control. “I think there’s been a misunderstanding here...”
The mare was holding on a clipboard, which I assumed contained our names, and seemed to be looking for something. “Hmm... Starfire... I can’t seem to find your name. It’s not on the list. But you can’t be making it up because it seems we have one more prisoner here than is supposed to be.”
“Does that mean I can go?” I asked full of hope, suddenly a lot less despairful than moments ago.
“Of course not.” She replied with her evil smirk. “You'll be beheaded anyways.”
“You can't do that! I'm not on that fucking list of yours and I didn't do anything wrong! Now let me go, you bitch!” I yelled at her furiously, taking another step towards her. My legs almost failed me, but I still managed to keep my hooves steady.
Two guards dressed in brown and red suddenly got a grip on me and dragged me towards the bloodied stump, forcing me to lay down where the stallion was executed. The sticky blood from the dead stallion was all over that tree stump. But I didn't have the energy to fight them, or resist. I closed my eyes firmly and waited for my unfair death.
Like a prayer being heard, my execution was interrupted in the nick of time with a sudden, creepy, distant roar.
“W-What was that?” Asked one of the terrified guards, searching the sky for the roar’s source.
“Everypony calm down. It's probably nothing.” The mare answered without any kind of fear. “Now let’s get back to it.”
The priest cleared her throat and spoke again; reading a poem from an old scroll. Apparently she was blessing my soul before I'd die, whatever that meant.
“...although your body will be buried here in Equestria, your soul will rest in peace somewhere else. A place where...”
While she spoke I started thinking of my existence in a new form. Where was I? Was there a reason for me being here? Why am I a pony? So many questions I wanted to get answered. But they wouldn't matter since I was about to be executed for something I didn't even do.
For the second time, that priest was interrupted with another roar, now louder and clearer than the one before. As sudden as the roar itself, a scaly and savagely violent-looking dragon landed on one of the roofs of the small village. Everypony screamed and panicked as it growled and summoned black clouds and intense thunder to cover the cyan colored sky. Then it started burning the village down and killing everything in sight with its extremely powerful fire breath, turning everything the fire touched into black ash and fumes.
That made the executioner, as well as everybody else, run away for their lives. And just like that I was free. My rescue was somehow very ironic.
“Hey! Over here!” Someone yelled towards me.
I looked around but didn't see who called for me. I tried to spot the person, but before I could even turn around, someone grabbed and pulled me inside a house.
“If you want to live, follow me.” He ordered. It was the same stallion that I'd been talking to on the carriage.
We managed to escape the doomed village through a secret tunnel, and for the first time since waking up I had freedom. I felt sorry for those who were trapped in there, but there was nothing I could do. I had to move on. The other stallion and I had gone our separate ways, but before he set off he promised to meet me again in the future. Whether he meant it or not was for time to tell.
I'd never seen anything as beautiful as my surroundings. I kept exploring the trees and the green grass, all the flowers and all the plants. I listened to the lovely sound of the river’s ripple and I welcomed the warm breeze caressing my mane. Everything seemed so peaceful I even considered the option of being in heaven.
I slowly walked along the stone made path with irritating difficulties, trying my best to adjust to walking on four legs. It was weird and very difficult; something I wasn't used to at all. But I didn't give up. I really didn't have much of a choice anyways.
That reminded me, I needed to check a mirror. I was very curious about my appearance, but at the same time I was terrified to face myself.
I walked -or crawled- down a steep hill towards a lake not far from me, but before I could get to it I noticed three beautiful menhirs that captured my attention.
On one of them was carved: Magic. For the unicorns willing to learn faster about magic.
I walked up to the next. On it was carved: Physical Strength. Most efficient for the Earth Ponies. The blessings of this stone will grant you more strength and better endurance.
As I walked up to the next stone, I read: Speed. Most efficient for the Pegasi. The blessings of this stone will grant you better agility, better performance from your wings, and better sneaking.
“Pegasi...” I thought to myself. Turning my head from left to right I noticed my wings and I knew that I had to be a Pegasus, so I placed two of my hooves on magical slots on that third stone and it resulted in a big blast; shooting some kind of a vertical light straight into the sky. I could sense the sudden power it emitted, and it felt surprisingly good.
Now that that had been dealt with, I decided to rush down to the lake. I tried using my wings to see if they’d been improved, but I immediately crashed to the ground.
“'Better performance from your wings', my ass...” I hissed. I had some difficulties standing up, but I managed to do it in the end. “I guess I’ll just have to get used to it, that’s all.”
When I finally came up to the lake, I could see the reflection of myself on the water and at first I jumped at the sight of me. Who was that person staring at me?
The first thing I noticed were those big amethyst irises in my cartoony eyes. My mane was a little darker than my coat, and it consisted of two layers of monochrome. It was short and wild and brushed backwards.
Then I turned around to take a look at my body. I was medium size, I’d say, judging by the size of the ponies that were with me before in the execution place. Some of them were bigger, others were slightly shorter. I was not skinny and I was not fat or broad, so I guess I was just the typical pony, or whatever those people were called.
I unfolded my wings and checked out its grace, and to be honest, I was really impressed with what I was looking at, despite the fact that I was now apparently a mammal. Thankfully my fur wasn’t wild or fluffy. It was short and trimmed, barely covering my skin. I was no fan of fur, which was a big part of why I didn’t like keeping too furry animals in my apartment.
Just before I stopped admiring my new body in the reflection of the water I noticed that I had a mark on my flanks. “Is that... a tattoo?” I asked myself, poking it delicately with my hoof. It was a symbol of a skull, presumably a dragon’s, being pierced by three swords.
“Hmm...” I thought to myself, scratching it slightly in curiosity. “I’ll find out sooner or later. For now I should focus on getting somewhere safe.”
As soon as I let go of the sentence my stomach started growling for food, reminding me that it hadn’t had any nutrition since... well, since I woke up in this world.
“And food...” I sighed, looking everywhere around me. I saw nothing but a road that led to the unknown, and trees. Lots of trees. I knew that I had no choice than to follow that road and hope it’d lead me to a populated area with perhaps more friendly people than I had the privilege of meeting earlier. Perhaps if I had any luck at all someone would help me find shelter and fill my belly with food. While I longed for something nutritious as a big juicy steak, I somehow realized that it may not have been an option anymore.
So I started my journey to the unknown and for hours I walked in the same direction. The road seemed to be endless, especially since I couldn't walk any faster than at sloth's speed while I was getting adjusted to my new limbs. My hunger grew and grew with each hour, and by the time it was evening and the moonlight and the bright little stars lit over the vast landscape, my body started protesting.
“So... hungry.... so... thirsty...” I moaned, forcing myself forward, one hoof at a time. For the most of the way I managed to block out the hunger as I focused on my walking. Left hind leg, left front leg, right hind leg, right front leg. It was like a sequence, always the same beat. And while it sounded easy it really wasn’t.
Eventually I stopped. It wasn’t my intention, but apparently my fragile mental state couldn’t take it anymore. My legs trembled tremendously in exhaustion and lack of energy, my stomach was as empty as last night’s jug and the rest of me had to fight to stay focus with the little strength I had in me left.
I knew that this was not a safe place to stay, so I tried everything in my power to at least force myself to move off the road, but my legs had stopped operating.
The next thing I knew I was lying on the ground, my cheek busted open as I landed on the rocky path.
I closed my eyes and suddenly all sounds died out except the sound of my own breath.
I don’t know how long I was out, but when I regained a slight consciousness I felt for my body being dragged along the ground. I tried opening my eyes again but everything was blurred like last time.
“...trust me Spike... that’s him...”
“Wh... what... what’s going on...” I murmured, my head spinning like a morning’s hangover.
“Ssh, don’t talk... everything... alright.”
I couldn’t hear through the buzzing in my ears, but I was certain that that voice belonged to a female.
“...heavy! ...use magic...?”
That other voice... it sounded like a young male. But then, nothing was relevant at that moment. My head was fucked up in more ways than I’ve ever thought possible, and for the first time since I got here I stopped giving a damn about anything. Death sounded more appealing than my terrible condition anyways. Maybe this Sovngarde place would treat me better.
My head felt like it was about to burst, like my brain was pressing against my skull. The pressure was immense, and so was my agonising pain.
“We’re almost there... with me!”
“P-please...” I forced into a whisper. “H-help...”
Before I even realized it, my head dropped and my mind drifted off to yet another world.
Author's Note
No editor for this chapter. Hopefully that will change for the chapters to come.
