The Embers of Humanityby StarChaser01ChaptersPrologue: Like a Dragon out of HellChapter 1: A Whole New World!Chapter 2: Not in Kansas anymore...Chapter 3: A New BeginningPrologue: Like a Dragon out of HellA humanoid dragon with sapphire colored scales stood at the end of a dimly lit hallway, staring into the darkness ahead. To a passerby it would have appeared to be a statue, albeit a rather lifelike statue, but a statue none the less. A more observant individual might have noticed the small movements as it breathed. ‘Where are you?’ it thought as it continued staring into the darkness as if it was willing the veil to reveal the universes secrets. The dragon’s name was Ember, and the hallway was just one of many in the abandoned laboratory that was hir prison. Shi was the result of a series of genetic experiments on, what the scientists called “brave volunteers”, but the “volunteers” were anything but voluntary. They had been attempting to further understand genetic modification though trial and error, and Ember had been the first, and only one, to survive. Hir genetic code was now comprised of humans, lizards, spitting cobras, bats, cats, and pieces of DNA that didn’t belong to any known thing, including a small piece that made hir a hermaphrodite, both male and female. As a result, shortly after shi escaped confinement and into the lab proper, shi decided that normal pronouns just didn’t fit hir anymore. ‘After all, ‘he’ is for male and ‘she’ is for female, but I’m both now.’ Shi shook hirself from hir thoughts and memories to focus on the task at hand. ‘If I miss it this time, I’ll have to wait another month, and my food supplies won’t last more than a few!’ Suddenly, on the far side of the hallway, a strange light appeared. ‘It’s always on the other side of the hallway…’ shi thought to hirself before charging down the hallway. Ember ran down the abandoned hallway like hir life depended on it. ‘Just keep running, you’ll make it this time,’ Ember thought to hirself ‘you’ll make it to the light before it disappears!’ Shi still didn’t know what caused the light to appear and disappear, just that it was somehow linked to the event that caused the scientists and guards to abandon the place, leaving hir alone with slowly dwindling food supplies. ‘It’s amazing how long food supplies meant for 500 can last when only one person’s eating from it,’ shi thought to hirself as shi ran before shaking hir head and putting on an extra burst of speed ‘less thinking, more running!’ As shi passed various rooms a few memories came unbidden to hir mind. If shi wanted to, shi could easily identify in which rooms which part of hir was changed in. Turning hir attention back to hir goal, shi noticed that the light was slowly filling up hir vision. ’20 meters,’ shi estimated ’10 meters, 5!’ The edges of the light seemed to flicker, a sign that shi had learned meant that it was about to close again for about a month. ‘Oh no you don’t!’ shi thought as she leapt at it, and just as shi passed the boundary shi and the light disappeared, leaving the hallway dark and lifeless once more. Author's Note Don't worry, we'll get to the ponies in the next chapter! If you have any questions, concerns, or comments, leave them in the comment section below, I read every comment I get! If you find something wrong, please tell me what in the comment section below, and if you downvote this story, please say why, it will help me grow as a writer! Also, I did not come up with the pronouns, I got them from Chakatsden.com (Warning! Mature themes contained within that site!) Chapter 1: A Whole New World!‘I really should have expected it to look like this,’ Ember thought as shi fell through a white void ‘Though I’m not sure how a void could be white considering that a void is, by definition, empty.’ After falling for what felt like hours, though it was probably closer to minutes, the unrelenting white started resolving into shapes. ‘Oh cool!’ Ember thought, ‘Let’s see here, that one looks like a squiggle, that looks like a tail, there’s a needle, that looks like a tree, and there’s a horse… thing…’ Suddenly a hole in the void appeared directly beneath Ember and before shi could react, shi fell through it and landed on something that was certainly not tiled floor. Groaning, shi pushed hirself up as shi opened hir eyes before stopping. ‘Is that… grass? Am I… free?’ Standing up, shi looked around to see that shi was in the middle of a clearing located in a dense forest. Even though shi didn’t have any visible ears, shi could clearly hear the sound of birds chirping along with the sounds of small animals moving through the brush some distance away. ‘Considering that these horns on my head almost cover up where my “ears” are, I’m surprised that I can hear better than… before.’ Shaking hir head to clear the dark thoughts that started to creep in; another thought came back to hir. ‘I really am free…’ And with that, shi knelt down and cried out of joy. Princess Twilight Sparkle was, as had become the norm lately, practically buried in books as she tried to find at least one precedent for recent events. “You would think that in an area like the Everfree magical anomalies like this would be more common!” She cried for the 17th time that day to no one in particular. “Even a semi-recognizable wild spell, though rare, should have happened at least ONCE in recorded history! BUT NO! IT HASN’T!” Just then a scroll appeared in mid-air in front of the stressed princess. Quickly snatching it in her aura she unrolled it, glad for some kind of distraction. “Dear Twilight, I apologize for not responding to your letter as soon as I should have, your letter arrived at a rather unfortunate time; I hope you haven’t gone into a studying frenzy as a result again. We should talk more often, but you know how schedules go. Your request for a squad of guards to assist in the investigation of the recent thaumical anomalies in the Everfree Forest has been approved and will be arriving in approximately 24 hours. May the sun light your path, Celestia” Twilight set down the letter with a sigh of relief. The anomalies were too deep in the Everfree for her to safely investigate on her own, even though she was an Alicorn, and Spike, though he had grown a bit, was still too small to be of any help if any of the local wildlife decided to make them a meal. With a squad of trained guards along with her magical prowess, she was confident that there would be very little danger in investigating so far into the Everfree. “Well, first things first, making a list! Then worry about the fact that I’m thinking out loud again…” After crying for an indefinite amount of time, Ember found that shi had no more tears at the moment. ‘Darn it! It felt good to cry after so long…’ Deciding that it wouldn’t be the best idea to lament about hir lack of tears, shi turned hir thoughts to survival. ‘Freedom doesn’t mean much if I starve out here in God knows where! Although it sounds like there are plenty of local wildlife I could probably eat, I’m not sure how my stomach would react to actual meat after eating preservatives with a side of food for three years.’ After much debate, shi decided that finding a water source would be a higher priority, after all, shi had enough fat stored up to survive for a few days without food before feeling the effects of a lack of food. ‘I never thought I’d say this, but thank you genetic engineering! Wait… can I even talk? I haven’t tried since my vocal cords gave out from screaming when they were still pumping me full of mutagen…’ Deciding that it would be best if shi stopped rambling in hir head, shi focused on hir sense of sound. Although it didn’t look like it, shi could hear extremely well, especially so when considering that shi didn’t have any hunks of cartilage directing sound. Tuning out everything else, Ember focused hir hearing to levels that could only be matched by a few specific animals. Hir mind built a map of all the sounds around hir, from the smallest mouse in the grass, to a bird flying high overhead. Focusing for the sound of running water, shi eventually heard the faint sound of a creek ahead and to hir left. Opening hir eyes, shi continued focusing on the sound of running water and headed straight towards it. If shi had been paying attention to other sounds, shi would have heard a sound similar to twigs snapping which followed some distance behind hir as shi walked towards the creek. After about a half-an-hour of walking, Ember came to the creek. ‘Well,’ shi thought as shi looked down at the small creek ‘I don’t know what I expected, I mean, it’s a creek in the middle of a giant fucking forest! Oh well, it looks clean, and it’ll probably be better than that crap I was drinking before I got out… That shit probably had more preservatives in it than the food! AND IT WAS WATER!’ Looking around, Ember once again had to force hir thought on survival. ‘Okay, I’ve got water, I don’t need food for a few days, only thing I need now is shelter.’ Almost on cue, hir eyes fell upon a tree with a few low branches that shi estimated that shi could climb. ‘How convenient… Not that I’m complaining…’ shi thought as shi jumped up and grabbed the lowest branch. Pulling hirself up, shi climbed up until shi reached a strange branch formation that ended up in multiple branches all but fusing together into one wide branch that shi could easily sit on with hir back to the trunk of the tree. ‘It may not be soft, but it’ll do, but how did this form? I don’t know much about trees, but I’m fairly certain that trees don’t usually grow like this without some sort of external interference…’ Ember thought as shi checked shelter off of hir list of essentials. Noticing that it was getting dark, shi decided that it would be a good time to call it a day and enjoy hir first night free of the hell hole that shi had just escaped from. ‘Rest now, finding out where the hell I am later…’ shi thought as the comforting embrace of sleep consumed hir. Author's Note You know? I just realized while re-formatting this chapter that the italics are going to be a real pain as they don't transfer over from MC Word... Chapter 2: Not in Kansas anymore...Twilight and Lieutenant StarBurst looked over a disturbingly empty map of the Deep Everfree Forest. “Not that I doubt you Princess, but is this really the most detailed map of the anomaly’s location? It seems kind of… blank…” StarBurst hesitantly said. Twilight sighed, “Yes, unfortunately. The Deep Everfree is the most unexplored location in the world, and as such most of this map is made from both measurements made from afar and estimates based on what we do know.” “So… we’ll be the first to actually explore that area?” “Theoretically, yes.” “That’s close enough for me,” StarBurst said, suddenly more confident. “Let’s go find out what’s going on there, what’s your plan?” StarBurst said as the rest of the squad gathered around. “The plan is for us to fly out to the general location, once there I will scan for the anomaly’s more precise location and we’ll go to it. Once at “ground zero” your team will provide protection while I preform more precise scans of the area, and hopefully the anomaly itself. Any questions?” A pegasus in extra light armor raised his hoof. “What if this ana… anam… thing is dangerous and we can’t get close?” “Then we’ll improvise. Any other questions?” A pegasus in heavy (for pegasus troops) armor raised her hoof. “What if we suddenly need an evac?” “Then let me know and I’ll stop scanning it and perform an emergency large-scale teleport back to this castle.” “If you can do that, why do we need to fly out there?” “I can only teleport to locations that I’ve been to or seen with my own eyes, also a teleport of that distance would leave me unable to do much of anything for a short time after it’s complete, I’m not that powerful yet,” that resulted in a few chuckles from the troops. “Anything else?” There were none. “Then let’s go!” StarBurst said as they took to the skies and headed deep into the EverFree Forest. Ember woke up to the sunlight poking through the branches of the tree shi slept in. ‘That’s… a rather nice way to wake up actually… I could get used to this…’ Shi thought as shi stretched, before being interrupted by hir stomach. ‘Hungry already? Guess I didn’t have as much fat stored up as I thought, I could probably still go for another day without much problems but why bother? Time to go hunting, after I figure out how to get down from this tree…’ After a few moments of thinking the answer hit hir like a freight train ‘I’ve got WINGS!!! I’ll just glide down!’ As shi stepped up to the edge and estimated hir flight path another thought struck hir ‘I haven’t actually flown anywhere before… well no time like the present!’ And with that shi spread hir bat-like wings and hopped forward off the edge of the branch platform. Hir first flight went surprisingly well, especially considering that shi hardly had any instincts for flying. Landing on hir face shi thought ‘Well, that went better than expected, now I just need to work on landing on my feet.’ So shi climbed back up the tree to try again. “We’re now entering unexplored area, stick close, we have no idea what’s down there…” StarBurst said through the magical communicators that had become standard issue along with the guard armor since Princess Twilight Sparkle had invented their basic design. “ETA?” Came the general reply from the troops. “Princess?” “About 30 minutes at our current pace,” came Twilight’s reply as she started doing broad sweeps with her magic to locate the anomaly’s location. After about 15 face plants, 10 half front flips, and one complete failure, Ember had finally figured out how to land. ‘Well, that’s that. Now to get something to eat!’ And with that, shi headed back in the direction of the clearing to see what shi could find. Ember was being stalked. Shi had first noticed that something was off when there wasn’t any sounds from the local wild life. ‘Alright… where are you?’ Shi thought as shi started “looking” around with hir other senses. Hir trip to the clearing was otherwise uneventful, but that didn’t make hir feel any more comfortable. Upon stepping into the center of the clearing shi heard the sound of twigs snapping coming from all around hir, along with an unfamiliar smell. Looking around, Ember could only see the trees and bushes, but something seemed off about them, almost as if they were telling hir to run. Hearing a slightly louder snap behind hir, shi turned not knowing what to expect. ‘What’s- What the- is that… Is that a wolf made out of wood? WHAT THE HELL?!? AND WHY ARE ITS EYES GLOWING?!??!!?’ Upon seeing that Ember had noticed it, the wooden wolf charged at Ember who had to quickly jump out of the way to avoid getting leapt on. Just as the wooden wolf passed Ember, shi heard many more wood snapping sounds all around hir. Quickly looking around shi saw that wooden wolves were stalking out from behind almost every nearby bush. ‘Well… Shit,' was all that Ember got out before chaos ensued. It was all Ember could do to avoid being overwhelmed, shi dodged, rolled, and sometimes was able to take a slash at one of the wolves with hir semi-retractable claws. Although shi was doing an admirable job, a wolf still managed to slash one of hir wings. ‘I… can’t… keep… this up… for long… need to think… can’t fly away… wing’s torn… I… wait… wood… fire… THAT’S IT!’ Jumping back Ember used a feature of hir biology to spit a highly flammable fluid similar to how a spitting cobra launches venom into the eyes of an attacker. Startled, the wolves backed off. ‘Check and mate, you lose, firewood.’ And with that, Ember spat another stream of fluid, this time using another quirk of hir biology to create a small spark in hir mouth, little more than a small static shock, but more than enough to ignite the liquid streaming by it. With a sudden burst of flame, the fluid ignited and lit the wooden wolves on fire. ‘TAKE THAT YOU BITCHES!!!’ Ember thought as shi watched the wolves futilely try to put the fire out. Grinning manically, shi watched as, one by one, the wolves dropped to the ground, their eyes dimming, and were consumed by the flames. Staring at the smoldering piles of ash, Ember let the adrenalin rush die down before turning back to the task at hand, finding food. ‘Well, that’ll take down my fat reserves, guess I’ll REALLY have to find some food now…’ and with that, shi turned back to the forest, and resumed the hunt. Good friends Private SwiftWind and Corporal AreoSmith were having a chat in a private comm channel when Twilight announced that a clearing a little ways ahead was the source of the anomalous signatures. “Visual contact on the mission site,” Private SwiftWind said in his best military voice. “Seriously Swift?!? I though you said that you wouldn’t do that!” AreoSmith responded, sounding frustrated. “Aw… you never let me have some fun…” “Well, as long as you don’t do stuff like that after we land, I guess it won’t be that big of a deal…” As they switched back to the squad channel the order to land was given. “You know what to do, protect the Princess at all costs while she gets the scans. Lethal force is to be withheld until necessary,” came StarBurst’s voice over the comms as they landed in the middle of the clearing. As Twilight moved into the exact center of the clearing and started some sort of spell, the squad spread out for more viewpoints in case of hostiles. “Hey, what’s this?” SwiftWind asked when he noticed some piles of scattered charred wood. “Almost looks like what happens when a pack of Timberwolves attack a squad of Unicorns with fire spells…” AreoSmith commented after looking at what SwiftWind was looking at. Across the clearing another unit was also investigating the piles. “Some of these are still warm! So whatever burnt these things could still be around here!” “Get into a defensive position around the Princess,” StarBurst ordered “If whatever did this is still around, I wouldn’t bet much on it being friendly… Previous orders still stand though, lethal force has yet to be authorized.” Shortly after they made a ring around Twilight, they all heard the sound of something large moving through the brush. “Keep your eyes open,” StarBurst said unnecessarily. Almost as soon as the words left his mouth a large manticore burst through the bush and into the clearing, with the obvious intent to make the ponies its dinner. “ALPHA MANTICORE!” Somepony shouted. “Lethal force has been authorized, protect the Princess!” StarBurst ordered as for the second time that day, chaos descended upon the clearing. ‘Well, I wasn’t expecting wild rabbits to be so easily caught, but I guess I don’t look like their normal predators so that might have something to do with it,’ Ember thought as shi cleaned hir claws after catching, cooking, and consuming a pair of rabbits. Shi was about to re-enter the clearing when a group of 10 things landed in the middle of it. ‘What? Are those… horses? No, they’re too small, and horses can’t fly… wait, they have wings… small pegasi? Either the group that messed me up made some SERIOUS changes to Earth or I’m not on Earth anymore…’ Ember though as shi watched from within a bush. Shi watched as a purple one walked into the very center and a point just above its head started glowing! Looking more carefully Ember noticed that the purple one had both wings AND a horn! ‘A winged unicorn? What the fuck?!? And what’s it doing? And why have the-,' Ember was cut off by the sound of a large… thing moving through the brush. Before shi could start to wonder if hir hiding place was safe, a large… something… came charging into the clearing with the clear intent on making the… pegasi plus one it’s lunch. ‘That thing looks like a genetic experiment gone wrong! There’s a scorpion’s tail, parts of a lion, and all kinds of other things!’ Ember watched the pegasi engage it in combat while the winged unicorn continued doing its little light show. Almost immediately one of the pegasi was swatted by a giant lion paw and smashed into a tree nearby where Ember was hiding. After about a minute of this apparently the order to retreat had been given, as the winged unicorn suddenly stopped what it was doing as all of the pegasi disengaged from combat and converged on it before they disappeared in a bright ball of purple/lavender light. Before Ember could start to wonder what had just happened, the Pegasus that had been knocked out of battle groaned, drawing the thing’s attention. As it slowly stalked towards the helpless Pegasus, Ember was trying to decide whether shi should run or defend the Pegasus. Seeing that the pegasus was obviously terrified of the thing awoke something within Ember, a need to defend something other than hir own life. Just before the thing reached the pegasus, Ember leapt out of the bush and, extending hir claws as far as they could go, slashed the abomination in the face. ‘That… was not my best decision in the world…’ Ember thought as it only seemed to piss it off. ‘Why didn’t I keep my distance like I was trained to do?’ SwiftWind thought as he struggled to stay away from the manticore. As it drew closer, SwiftWind knew that there was nothing he could do, one of his legs and one of his wings were both broken. As the manticore raised its paw to deal the final blow, SwiftWind thought he saw something leap out of the bushes next to him and attack the manticore in the face before he blacked out. Ember groaned. ‘That could have gone much better,’ shi though to hirself as shi carried the unconscious pegasus back to hir camp. ‘Why didn’t I open with my FIRE?!? I mean it obviously had fur, and fur can burn! But no, I just HAD to start by slashing it in the face and just pissing it off!’ The fight had gone reasonably well, even though Ember had gotten batted around quite a bit, shi still managed in chasing it off. ‘Although I should have expected that stinger to come into play,’ Shi thought as shi remembered when that scorpion tail lashed out from behind it and almost pierced hir scales ‘good thing I HAVE scales, as I’m sure that the venom in that tail would have been REALLY powerful…’ Upon arriving at the tree, Ember, with great difficulty, gently lifted the pegasus up to the branch platform and laid him down. ‘I guess I should do my best to fix this one up for when it wakes up…’ So with what little medical knowledge that shi could remember, Ember did hir best to realign the pegasus’s broken bones and splint them with sticks and vines nearby. “WE HAVE TO GO BACK!” AreoSmith shouted almost immediately after the teleport finished, “SWIFTWIND IS STILL BACK THERE!!!” “It’s too dangerous and far right now!” StarBurst responded. “But-,” “Look, I know that you and SwiftWind are good friends, but it’s too far to fly and get there in time, unless he manages to get away and hide, he’s as good as dead.” “I…” “Look, I’m not saying that we won’t go back, it’s just that we need to assess our current status before making any decisions. As soon as we can we WILL go back, if only to retrieve what we can.” Knowing that that was the best she was going to get, Corporal AreoSmith stayed silent as the rest of the team checked themselves for injuries. “Stay safe…” She whispered to herself, looking out into the vast expanse of forest. Author's Note For anyone wondering, Ember can spit a highly flammable fluid, however the creation of that fluid uses up a lot of calories, plus it takes time to build back up after depleting hir current stores. Chapter 3: A New Beginning‘I hope no predators are drawn here…’ Ember though as shi looked at the thin trail of blood leading up to the unconscious Pegasus in the tree. ‘I don’t think I could deal with another pack of those… Timberwolves right now.’ Ember grinned at the pun shi had just made, completely oblivious at just how correct shi was. ‘Well anyway, it’s getting dark, and I think a fire would help keep any predators away; good thing there’s plenty of firewood around here,’ shi thought as shi started gathering small branches, ‘Plus it’s been forever since I’ve made a traditional fire, hope I still remember my Scout training…. Wait… how do I know that?’ Ember paused in hir gathering to try and figure out where that had come from before shaking hir head and going back to gathering sticks and small logs for the fire. ’Fire first, memories later.’ Private SwiftWind was in pain. Now that was to be expected, considering that he had been flung into a tree by an Alpha Mantacore, but the fact that he could FEEL was surprising. ‘How am I still alive?’ he wondered to himself until he decided to open his eyes and see if he could figure out what happened. Opening his eyes, he saw that it was night, he was on some sort of platform growing out of a tree, and that his right wing was in some sort of rudimentary splint made of sticks and vines. Hearing movement below him, he dragged himself to the edge of the platform and looked down. What he saw surprised him. Below him, on the ground, was what appeared to be a blue adolescent dragon tending to a small campfire. ‘What’s an adolescent dragon doing all the way out here? Is it one of the exiled?’ In traditional draconian culture, if an adolescent dragon displays highly abnormal traits such as little, no, or extreme hording, they would typically be “exiled” into the wilderness, sometimes to prove that they are worthy of being a part of draconian society, but usually left to die. In more recent years this practice had all but faded away, but it still occasionally happened. ‘I don’t see any major physical anomalies, so I doubt that it’s an exile…. Is it a scout for the draconian rebel army, looking for another way to attack us? If so, why did it help me? Did it help me? For all I know my rescuer could have been chased away by it and it doesn’t know I’m here. Best to keep quiet and hope for the best if it does see me.’ It was then that Murphy’s law decided to remind SwiftWind of its existence. Leaning back, the dragon looked up and over, directly at where SwiftWind was peering over the edge at it. Biting back a stream of curses SwiftWind quickly shrank back from the edge and moved back into the middle of the platform, hoping that the dragon hadn’t noticed him. ‘Well, glad I still remember how to set up a fire,’ Ember thought as shi leaned back from the fire that shi had finally managed to get burning without risking it running out of fuel immediately. ‘I wonder how my guest is doing.’ Turning hir head to look in the direction of the branch platform, shi noticed an equine shaped head peaking over the edge at hir. Almost immediately after noticing that shi was looking at it, the owner of the head quickly retreated out of sight. ‘Well, seems that he’s awake,’ Ember thought as shi stood up, ‘I should probably say hello.’ Ember paused, ’Well, not that I can really talk…’ Upon reaching the platform, Ember saw something that shi should have expected. The pegasus was doing his best to appear as small as possible and his eyes were wide with fear. ‘Of course he would be afraid of me, they probably don’t have any ‘dragons’ around here….’ Deciding that approaching the terrified pegasus would probably be a bad idea, Ember just stayed where shi was. “Thestrals, sound off.” “One, here.” “Two, here.” “Three, here.” “Four, still here.” “Five, bored, but alive.” “Stow it Five, now, we’re heading to the last known location of Private SwiftWind. We are to find the Private and get him back home, if that’s impossible, then prep his body for a proper burial.” SwiftWind was freaking out. Not only had the dragon spotted him, but it had also climbed up and was looking right at him! ’I’m dead. I am SOOOO dead. It spotted me and is now going to eat me! I… wait… why is it just sitting there? And why can’t I figure out its gender? It’s head shape is between that of a male and a female dragon…’ “Who are you? A… Are you the one who saved me?” SwiftWind managed to get out. The dragon just tilted its head. “C-Can you understand me?” The dragon started backing back down the tree. “Wait! Where are yo- Nngg!” SwiftWind gritted his teeth as his wing spiked in pain. The dragon stopped its decent and looked at him in what appeared to be concern. ‘It’s either an exile or is good at hiding its emotions… and the exile possibility is looking more and more likely,’ SwiftWind thought as he noticed that the dragon’s face wasn’t showing much emotion, almost as if its face was barely capable of showing emotion. Seeing that the pegasus was no longer terrified of hir, Ember slowly climbed back up onto the platform, gently picked up it up and, ignoring its complaints, carefully climbed back down the tree and set the now silent pegasus down by the fire. Just as shi was settling back down after putting another log on the fire shi heard a familiar sounding howl coming from somewhere nearby. ’Damn it! Those wooden wolves are back for more!’ shi angrily thought as shi stood up and began scanning the surrounding area for movement, ’And I didn’t get a chance for my flame to build back up again! Out of the corner of hir eye shi saw that the pegasus was also reacting to the howl, but in a much different way. Instead of becoming more alert and ready for a fight, he looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there. Spotting a bit of movement just outside of the fire’s light, Ember slowly bent down and picked up a small flaming log from the fire as a weapon. ’I hope they aren’t as persistent as the last group, I don’t have enough fire to deal with all of them and defend the pegasus at the same time….’ Just as those thoughts crossed hir mind, the first of the Timber wolves attacked. Spotting movement out of the corner of hir eye, Ember spun to hir right while at the same time bringing the flaming stick up to defend hir head, catching the leaping Timberwolfby surprise in the process. ’Damn it!’ shi thought as the force of the wolf’s lunge was enough to force hir back a few steps and next to the pegasus. Without knowing why, Ember fell into a fighting stance, the faint memory of some kind of… self-defense class came to mind before fading away again. Shaking hir head shi came back to hir senses just in time to hear the snapping of a twig behind hir. Once again turning, this time to hir left to avoid hitting the pegasus, shi blocked the leaping Timberwolf and this time quickly spat some flames into its face, more as a deterrent than anything, before having to turn back to the first Timberwolf, which was starting to circle around as more and more Timberwolves slowly stalked out of the shadows and into the flickering light of the campfire. The next few minutes were a blur for Ember as each Timberwolf leapt at hir, got blocked by the now extinguished branch, and got a small bit of fire to the face for its troubles. ’Crud, I’m almost out,’ Ember thought as shi once again spat fire into the face of a Timberwolf that was stupid enough to try the unsuccessful tactic once again. However, this time the fire was little more than a candle flame compared to the short bursts from earlier. Apparently sensing that something was wrong with their prey, the Timberwolves all lunged at Ember at once. Time seemed to slow down for Ember as the Timberwolves leapt at hir, ‘Not enough flame left to do anything useful, I can’t take all of them on at once without a full supply of flame, and I can’t just abandon the pegasus!’ With all other options unavailable, Ember did the one thing shi could do, use hir own body as a shield. Without hesitation, Ember flung hirself over the paralyzed pegasus and covered the sides with hir wings as shi braced hirself for what shi knew would come. Shi didn’t have to wait long before shi felt the wooden jaws biting hir back, trying to get through hir tough scales while sharp wooden claws slashed the delicate membrane of hir wings to ribbons. Although the pain was massive and it threatened to force hir into unconsciousness, it paled in comparison to what shi had experienced in the past, even so, a whimper of pain still escaped hir as the Timberwolves tore hir wings to pieces. After what felt like an eternity, even though it was probably just a few seconds, Ember thought shi could hear someone shout something and then the crack of wood as the assault abruptly ended. Caring not of why, Ember weakly fell over onto hir side, away from the injured pegasus, and gave up the fight for consciousness. As the darkness enveloped hir, she thought shi could see some equine shapes moving towards the one shi had defended, before losing hirself in the realm of sleep. Author's Note Yeah, I know, it's shorter... I was struggling with some REALLY annoying writers block with this chapter. THAT'S NO EXCUSE FOR MY STORY!!! Well to bad, I'm sticking with it! Lazy... Yes, that was part of it... and College, that didn't help either... So yeah! Like if you did, and if you didn't feel free to write in the comments what you didn't like about it!
Prologue: Like a Dragon out of HellA humanoid dragon with sapphire colored scales stood at the end of a dimly lit hallway, staring into the darkness ahead. To a passerby it would have appeared to be a statue, albeit a rather lifelike statue, but a statue none the less. A more observant individual might have noticed the small movements as it breathed. ‘Where are you?’ it thought as it continued staring into the darkness as if it was willing the veil to reveal the universes secrets. The dragon’s name was Ember, and the hallway was just one of many in the abandoned laboratory that was hir prison. Shi was the result of a series of genetic experiments on, what the scientists called “brave volunteers”, but the “volunteers” were anything but voluntary. They had been attempting to further understand genetic modification though trial and error, and Ember had been the first, and only one, to survive. Hir genetic code was now comprised of humans, lizards, spitting cobras, bats, cats, and pieces of DNA that didn’t belong to any known thing, including a small piece that made hir a hermaphrodite, both male and female. As a result, shortly after shi escaped confinement and into the lab proper, shi decided that normal pronouns just didn’t fit hir anymore. ‘After all, ‘he’ is for male and ‘she’ is for female, but I’m both now.’ Shi shook hirself from hir thoughts and memories to focus on the task at hand. ‘If I miss it this time, I’ll have to wait another month, and my food supplies won’t last more than a few!’ Suddenly, on the far side of the hallway, a strange light appeared. ‘It’s always on the other side of the hallway…’ shi thought to hirself before charging down the hallway. Ember ran down the abandoned hallway like hir life depended on it. ‘Just keep running, you’ll make it this time,’ Ember thought to hirself ‘you’ll make it to the light before it disappears!’ Shi still didn’t know what caused the light to appear and disappear, just that it was somehow linked to the event that caused the scientists and guards to abandon the place, leaving hir alone with slowly dwindling food supplies. ‘It’s amazing how long food supplies meant for 500 can last when only one person’s eating from it,’ shi thought to hirself as shi ran before shaking hir head and putting on an extra burst of speed ‘less thinking, more running!’ As shi passed various rooms a few memories came unbidden to hir mind. If shi wanted to, shi could easily identify in which rooms which part of hir was changed in. Turning hir attention back to hir goal, shi noticed that the light was slowly filling up hir vision. ’20 meters,’ shi estimated ’10 meters, 5!’ The edges of the light seemed to flicker, a sign that shi had learned meant that it was about to close again for about a month. ‘Oh no you don’t!’ shi thought as she leapt at it, and just as shi passed the boundary shi and the light disappeared, leaving the hallway dark and lifeless once more. Author's Note Don't worry, we'll get to the ponies in the next chapter! If you have any questions, concerns, or comments, leave them in the comment section below, I read every comment I get! If you find something wrong, please tell me what in the comment section below, and if you downvote this story, please say why, it will help me grow as a writer! Also, I did not come up with the pronouns, I got them from Chakatsden.com (Warning! Mature themes contained within that site!)
Chapter 1: A Whole New World!‘I really should have expected it to look like this,’ Ember thought as shi fell through a white void ‘Though I’m not sure how a void could be white considering that a void is, by definition, empty.’ After falling for what felt like hours, though it was probably closer to minutes, the unrelenting white started resolving into shapes. ‘Oh cool!’ Ember thought, ‘Let’s see here, that one looks like a squiggle, that looks like a tail, there’s a needle, that looks like a tree, and there’s a horse… thing…’ Suddenly a hole in the void appeared directly beneath Ember and before shi could react, shi fell through it and landed on something that was certainly not tiled floor. Groaning, shi pushed hirself up as shi opened hir eyes before stopping. ‘Is that… grass? Am I… free?’ Standing up, shi looked around to see that shi was in the middle of a clearing located in a dense forest. Even though shi didn’t have any visible ears, shi could clearly hear the sound of birds chirping along with the sounds of small animals moving through the brush some distance away. ‘Considering that these horns on my head almost cover up where my “ears” are, I’m surprised that I can hear better than… before.’ Shaking hir head to clear the dark thoughts that started to creep in; another thought came back to hir. ‘I really am free…’ And with that, shi knelt down and cried out of joy. Princess Twilight Sparkle was, as had become the norm lately, practically buried in books as she tried to find at least one precedent for recent events. “You would think that in an area like the Everfree magical anomalies like this would be more common!” She cried for the 17th time that day to no one in particular. “Even a semi-recognizable wild spell, though rare, should have happened at least ONCE in recorded history! BUT NO! IT HASN’T!” Just then a scroll appeared in mid-air in front of the stressed princess. Quickly snatching it in her aura she unrolled it, glad for some kind of distraction. “Dear Twilight, I apologize for not responding to your letter as soon as I should have, your letter arrived at a rather unfortunate time; I hope you haven’t gone into a studying frenzy as a result again. We should talk more often, but you know how schedules go. Your request for a squad of guards to assist in the investigation of the recent thaumical anomalies in the Everfree Forest has been approved and will be arriving in approximately 24 hours. May the sun light your path, Celestia” Twilight set down the letter with a sigh of relief. The anomalies were too deep in the Everfree for her to safely investigate on her own, even though she was an Alicorn, and Spike, though he had grown a bit, was still too small to be of any help if any of the local wildlife decided to make them a meal. With a squad of trained guards along with her magical prowess, she was confident that there would be very little danger in investigating so far into the Everfree. “Well, first things first, making a list! Then worry about the fact that I’m thinking out loud again…” After crying for an indefinite amount of time, Ember found that shi had no more tears at the moment. ‘Darn it! It felt good to cry after so long…’ Deciding that it wouldn’t be the best idea to lament about hir lack of tears, shi turned hir thoughts to survival. ‘Freedom doesn’t mean much if I starve out here in God knows where! Although it sounds like there are plenty of local wildlife I could probably eat, I’m not sure how my stomach would react to actual meat after eating preservatives with a side of food for three years.’ After much debate, shi decided that finding a water source would be a higher priority, after all, shi had enough fat stored up to survive for a few days without food before feeling the effects of a lack of food. ‘I never thought I’d say this, but thank you genetic engineering! Wait… can I even talk? I haven’t tried since my vocal cords gave out from screaming when they were still pumping me full of mutagen…’ Deciding that it would be best if shi stopped rambling in hir head, shi focused on hir sense of sound. Although it didn’t look like it, shi could hear extremely well, especially so when considering that shi didn’t have any hunks of cartilage directing sound. Tuning out everything else, Ember focused hir hearing to levels that could only be matched by a few specific animals. Hir mind built a map of all the sounds around hir, from the smallest mouse in the grass, to a bird flying high overhead. Focusing for the sound of running water, shi eventually heard the faint sound of a creek ahead and to hir left. Opening hir eyes, shi continued focusing on the sound of running water and headed straight towards it. If shi had been paying attention to other sounds, shi would have heard a sound similar to twigs snapping which followed some distance behind hir as shi walked towards the creek. After about a half-an-hour of walking, Ember came to the creek. ‘Well,’ shi thought as shi looked down at the small creek ‘I don’t know what I expected, I mean, it’s a creek in the middle of a giant fucking forest! Oh well, it looks clean, and it’ll probably be better than that crap I was drinking before I got out… That shit probably had more preservatives in it than the food! AND IT WAS WATER!’ Looking around, Ember once again had to force hir thought on survival. ‘Okay, I’ve got water, I don’t need food for a few days, only thing I need now is shelter.’ Almost on cue, hir eyes fell upon a tree with a few low branches that shi estimated that shi could climb. ‘How convenient… Not that I’m complaining…’ shi thought as shi jumped up and grabbed the lowest branch. Pulling hirself up, shi climbed up until shi reached a strange branch formation that ended up in multiple branches all but fusing together into one wide branch that shi could easily sit on with hir back to the trunk of the tree. ‘It may not be soft, but it’ll do, but how did this form? I don’t know much about trees, but I’m fairly certain that trees don’t usually grow like this without some sort of external interference…’ Ember thought as shi checked shelter off of hir list of essentials. Noticing that it was getting dark, shi decided that it would be a good time to call it a day and enjoy hir first night free of the hell hole that shi had just escaped from. ‘Rest now, finding out where the hell I am later…’ shi thought as the comforting embrace of sleep consumed hir. Author's Note You know? I just realized while re-formatting this chapter that the italics are going to be a real pain as they don't transfer over from MC Word...
Chapter 2: Not in Kansas anymore...Twilight and Lieutenant StarBurst looked over a disturbingly empty map of the Deep Everfree Forest. “Not that I doubt you Princess, but is this really the most detailed map of the anomaly’s location? It seems kind of… blank…” StarBurst hesitantly said. Twilight sighed, “Yes, unfortunately. The Deep Everfree is the most unexplored location in the world, and as such most of this map is made from both measurements made from afar and estimates based on what we do know.” “So… we’ll be the first to actually explore that area?” “Theoretically, yes.” “That’s close enough for me,” StarBurst said, suddenly more confident. “Let’s go find out what’s going on there, what’s your plan?” StarBurst said as the rest of the squad gathered around. “The plan is for us to fly out to the general location, once there I will scan for the anomaly’s more precise location and we’ll go to it. Once at “ground zero” your team will provide protection while I preform more precise scans of the area, and hopefully the anomaly itself. Any questions?” A pegasus in extra light armor raised his hoof. “What if this ana… anam… thing is dangerous and we can’t get close?” “Then we’ll improvise. Any other questions?” A pegasus in heavy (for pegasus troops) armor raised her hoof. “What if we suddenly need an evac?” “Then let me know and I’ll stop scanning it and perform an emergency large-scale teleport back to this castle.” “If you can do that, why do we need to fly out there?” “I can only teleport to locations that I’ve been to or seen with my own eyes, also a teleport of that distance would leave me unable to do much of anything for a short time after it’s complete, I’m not that powerful yet,” that resulted in a few chuckles from the troops. “Anything else?” There were none. “Then let’s go!” StarBurst said as they took to the skies and headed deep into the EverFree Forest. Ember woke up to the sunlight poking through the branches of the tree shi slept in. ‘That’s… a rather nice way to wake up actually… I could get used to this…’ Shi thought as shi stretched, before being interrupted by hir stomach. ‘Hungry already? Guess I didn’t have as much fat stored up as I thought, I could probably still go for another day without much problems but why bother? Time to go hunting, after I figure out how to get down from this tree…’ After a few moments of thinking the answer hit hir like a freight train ‘I’ve got WINGS!!! I’ll just glide down!’ As shi stepped up to the edge and estimated hir flight path another thought struck hir ‘I haven’t actually flown anywhere before… well no time like the present!’ And with that shi spread hir bat-like wings and hopped forward off the edge of the branch platform. Hir first flight went surprisingly well, especially considering that shi hardly had any instincts for flying. Landing on hir face shi thought ‘Well, that went better than expected, now I just need to work on landing on my feet.’ So shi climbed back up the tree to try again. “We’re now entering unexplored area, stick close, we have no idea what’s down there…” StarBurst said through the magical communicators that had become standard issue along with the guard armor since Princess Twilight Sparkle had invented their basic design. “ETA?” Came the general reply from the troops. “Princess?” “About 30 minutes at our current pace,” came Twilight’s reply as she started doing broad sweeps with her magic to locate the anomaly’s location. After about 15 face plants, 10 half front flips, and one complete failure, Ember had finally figured out how to land. ‘Well, that’s that. Now to get something to eat!’ And with that, shi headed back in the direction of the clearing to see what shi could find. Ember was being stalked. Shi had first noticed that something was off when there wasn’t any sounds from the local wild life. ‘Alright… where are you?’ Shi thought as shi started “looking” around with hir other senses. Hir trip to the clearing was otherwise uneventful, but that didn’t make hir feel any more comfortable. Upon stepping into the center of the clearing shi heard the sound of twigs snapping coming from all around hir, along with an unfamiliar smell. Looking around, Ember could only see the trees and bushes, but something seemed off about them, almost as if they were telling hir to run. Hearing a slightly louder snap behind hir, shi turned not knowing what to expect. ‘What’s- What the- is that… Is that a wolf made out of wood? WHAT THE HELL?!? AND WHY ARE ITS EYES GLOWING?!??!!?’ Upon seeing that Ember had noticed it, the wooden wolf charged at Ember who had to quickly jump out of the way to avoid getting leapt on. Just as the wooden wolf passed Ember, shi heard many more wood snapping sounds all around hir. Quickly looking around shi saw that wooden wolves were stalking out from behind almost every nearby bush. ‘Well… Shit,' was all that Ember got out before chaos ensued. It was all Ember could do to avoid being overwhelmed, shi dodged, rolled, and sometimes was able to take a slash at one of the wolves with hir semi-retractable claws. Although shi was doing an admirable job, a wolf still managed to slash one of hir wings. ‘I… can’t… keep… this up… for long… need to think… can’t fly away… wing’s torn… I… wait… wood… fire… THAT’S IT!’ Jumping back Ember used a feature of hir biology to spit a highly flammable fluid similar to how a spitting cobra launches venom into the eyes of an attacker. Startled, the wolves backed off. ‘Check and mate, you lose, firewood.’ And with that, Ember spat another stream of fluid, this time using another quirk of hir biology to create a small spark in hir mouth, little more than a small static shock, but more than enough to ignite the liquid streaming by it. With a sudden burst of flame, the fluid ignited and lit the wooden wolves on fire. ‘TAKE THAT YOU BITCHES!!!’ Ember thought as shi watched the wolves futilely try to put the fire out. Grinning manically, shi watched as, one by one, the wolves dropped to the ground, their eyes dimming, and were consumed by the flames. Staring at the smoldering piles of ash, Ember let the adrenalin rush die down before turning back to the task at hand, finding food. ‘Well, that’ll take down my fat reserves, guess I’ll REALLY have to find some food now…’ and with that, shi turned back to the forest, and resumed the hunt. Good friends Private SwiftWind and Corporal AreoSmith were having a chat in a private comm channel when Twilight announced that a clearing a little ways ahead was the source of the anomalous signatures. “Visual contact on the mission site,” Private SwiftWind said in his best military voice. “Seriously Swift?!? I though you said that you wouldn’t do that!” AreoSmith responded, sounding frustrated. “Aw… you never let me have some fun…” “Well, as long as you don’t do stuff like that after we land, I guess it won’t be that big of a deal…” As they switched back to the squad channel the order to land was given. “You know what to do, protect the Princess at all costs while she gets the scans. Lethal force is to be withheld until necessary,” came StarBurst’s voice over the comms as they landed in the middle of the clearing. As Twilight moved into the exact center of the clearing and started some sort of spell, the squad spread out for more viewpoints in case of hostiles. “Hey, what’s this?” SwiftWind asked when he noticed some piles of scattered charred wood. “Almost looks like what happens when a pack of Timberwolves attack a squad of Unicorns with fire spells…” AreoSmith commented after looking at what SwiftWind was looking at. Across the clearing another unit was also investigating the piles. “Some of these are still warm! So whatever burnt these things could still be around here!” “Get into a defensive position around the Princess,” StarBurst ordered “If whatever did this is still around, I wouldn’t bet much on it being friendly… Previous orders still stand though, lethal force has yet to be authorized.” Shortly after they made a ring around Twilight, they all heard the sound of something large moving through the brush. “Keep your eyes open,” StarBurst said unnecessarily. Almost as soon as the words left his mouth a large manticore burst through the bush and into the clearing, with the obvious intent to make the ponies its dinner. “ALPHA MANTICORE!” Somepony shouted. “Lethal force has been authorized, protect the Princess!” StarBurst ordered as for the second time that day, chaos descended upon the clearing. ‘Well, I wasn’t expecting wild rabbits to be so easily caught, but I guess I don’t look like their normal predators so that might have something to do with it,’ Ember thought as shi cleaned hir claws after catching, cooking, and consuming a pair of rabbits. Shi was about to re-enter the clearing when a group of 10 things landed in the middle of it. ‘What? Are those… horses? No, they’re too small, and horses can’t fly… wait, they have wings… small pegasi? Either the group that messed me up made some SERIOUS changes to Earth or I’m not on Earth anymore…’ Ember though as shi watched from within a bush. Shi watched as a purple one walked into the very center and a point just above its head started glowing! Looking more carefully Ember noticed that the purple one had both wings AND a horn! ‘A winged unicorn? What the fuck?!? And what’s it doing? And why have the-,' Ember was cut off by the sound of a large… thing moving through the brush. Before shi could start to wonder if hir hiding place was safe, a large… something… came charging into the clearing with the clear intent on making the… pegasi plus one it’s lunch. ‘That thing looks like a genetic experiment gone wrong! There’s a scorpion’s tail, parts of a lion, and all kinds of other things!’ Ember watched the pegasi engage it in combat while the winged unicorn continued doing its little light show. Almost immediately one of the pegasi was swatted by a giant lion paw and smashed into a tree nearby where Ember was hiding. After about a minute of this apparently the order to retreat had been given, as the winged unicorn suddenly stopped what it was doing as all of the pegasi disengaged from combat and converged on it before they disappeared in a bright ball of purple/lavender light. Before Ember could start to wonder what had just happened, the Pegasus that had been knocked out of battle groaned, drawing the thing’s attention. As it slowly stalked towards the helpless Pegasus, Ember was trying to decide whether shi should run or defend the Pegasus. Seeing that the pegasus was obviously terrified of the thing awoke something within Ember, a need to defend something other than hir own life. Just before the thing reached the pegasus, Ember leapt out of the bush and, extending hir claws as far as they could go, slashed the abomination in the face. ‘That… was not my best decision in the world…’ Ember thought as it only seemed to piss it off. ‘Why didn’t I keep my distance like I was trained to do?’ SwiftWind thought as he struggled to stay away from the manticore. As it drew closer, SwiftWind knew that there was nothing he could do, one of his legs and one of his wings were both broken. As the manticore raised its paw to deal the final blow, SwiftWind thought he saw something leap out of the bushes next to him and attack the manticore in the face before he blacked out. Ember groaned. ‘That could have gone much better,’ shi though to hirself as shi carried the unconscious pegasus back to hir camp. ‘Why didn’t I open with my FIRE?!? I mean it obviously had fur, and fur can burn! But no, I just HAD to start by slashing it in the face and just pissing it off!’ The fight had gone reasonably well, even though Ember had gotten batted around quite a bit, shi still managed in chasing it off. ‘Although I should have expected that stinger to come into play,’ Shi thought as shi remembered when that scorpion tail lashed out from behind it and almost pierced hir scales ‘good thing I HAVE scales, as I’m sure that the venom in that tail would have been REALLY powerful…’ Upon arriving at the tree, Ember, with great difficulty, gently lifted the pegasus up to the branch platform and laid him down. ‘I guess I should do my best to fix this one up for when it wakes up…’ So with what little medical knowledge that shi could remember, Ember did hir best to realign the pegasus’s broken bones and splint them with sticks and vines nearby. “WE HAVE TO GO BACK!” AreoSmith shouted almost immediately after the teleport finished, “SWIFTWIND IS STILL BACK THERE!!!” “It’s too dangerous and far right now!” StarBurst responded. “But-,” “Look, I know that you and SwiftWind are good friends, but it’s too far to fly and get there in time, unless he manages to get away and hide, he’s as good as dead.” “I…” “Look, I’m not saying that we won’t go back, it’s just that we need to assess our current status before making any decisions. As soon as we can we WILL go back, if only to retrieve what we can.” Knowing that that was the best she was going to get, Corporal AreoSmith stayed silent as the rest of the team checked themselves for injuries. “Stay safe…” She whispered to herself, looking out into the vast expanse of forest. Author's Note For anyone wondering, Ember can spit a highly flammable fluid, however the creation of that fluid uses up a lot of calories, plus it takes time to build back up after depleting hir current stores.
Chapter 3: A New Beginning‘I hope no predators are drawn here…’ Ember though as shi looked at the thin trail of blood leading up to the unconscious Pegasus in the tree. ‘I don’t think I could deal with another pack of those… Timberwolves right now.’ Ember grinned at the pun shi had just made, completely oblivious at just how correct shi was. ‘Well anyway, it’s getting dark, and I think a fire would help keep any predators away; good thing there’s plenty of firewood around here,’ shi thought as shi started gathering small branches, ‘Plus it’s been forever since I’ve made a traditional fire, hope I still remember my Scout training…. Wait… how do I know that?’ Ember paused in hir gathering to try and figure out where that had come from before shaking hir head and going back to gathering sticks and small logs for the fire. ’Fire first, memories later.’ Private SwiftWind was in pain. Now that was to be expected, considering that he had been flung into a tree by an Alpha Mantacore, but the fact that he could FEEL was surprising. ‘How am I still alive?’ he wondered to himself until he decided to open his eyes and see if he could figure out what happened. Opening his eyes, he saw that it was night, he was on some sort of platform growing out of a tree, and that his right wing was in some sort of rudimentary splint made of sticks and vines. Hearing movement below him, he dragged himself to the edge of the platform and looked down. What he saw surprised him. Below him, on the ground, was what appeared to be a blue adolescent dragon tending to a small campfire. ‘What’s an adolescent dragon doing all the way out here? Is it one of the exiled?’ In traditional draconian culture, if an adolescent dragon displays highly abnormal traits such as little, no, or extreme hording, they would typically be “exiled” into the wilderness, sometimes to prove that they are worthy of being a part of draconian society, but usually left to die. In more recent years this practice had all but faded away, but it still occasionally happened. ‘I don’t see any major physical anomalies, so I doubt that it’s an exile…. Is it a scout for the draconian rebel army, looking for another way to attack us? If so, why did it help me? Did it help me? For all I know my rescuer could have been chased away by it and it doesn’t know I’m here. Best to keep quiet and hope for the best if it does see me.’ It was then that Murphy’s law decided to remind SwiftWind of its existence. Leaning back, the dragon looked up and over, directly at where SwiftWind was peering over the edge at it. Biting back a stream of curses SwiftWind quickly shrank back from the edge and moved back into the middle of the platform, hoping that the dragon hadn’t noticed him. ‘Well, glad I still remember how to set up a fire,’ Ember thought as shi leaned back from the fire that shi had finally managed to get burning without risking it running out of fuel immediately. ‘I wonder how my guest is doing.’ Turning hir head to look in the direction of the branch platform, shi noticed an equine shaped head peaking over the edge at hir. Almost immediately after noticing that shi was looking at it, the owner of the head quickly retreated out of sight. ‘Well, seems that he’s awake,’ Ember thought as shi stood up, ‘I should probably say hello.’ Ember paused, ’Well, not that I can really talk…’ Upon reaching the platform, Ember saw something that shi should have expected. The pegasus was doing his best to appear as small as possible and his eyes were wide with fear. ‘Of course he would be afraid of me, they probably don’t have any ‘dragons’ around here….’ Deciding that approaching the terrified pegasus would probably be a bad idea, Ember just stayed where shi was. “Thestrals, sound off.” “One, here.” “Two, here.” “Three, here.” “Four, still here.” “Five, bored, but alive.” “Stow it Five, now, we’re heading to the last known location of Private SwiftWind. We are to find the Private and get him back home, if that’s impossible, then prep his body for a proper burial.” SwiftWind was freaking out. Not only had the dragon spotted him, but it had also climbed up and was looking right at him! ’I’m dead. I am SOOOO dead. It spotted me and is now going to eat me! I… wait… why is it just sitting there? And why can’t I figure out its gender? It’s head shape is between that of a male and a female dragon…’ “Who are you? A… Are you the one who saved me?” SwiftWind managed to get out. The dragon just tilted its head. “C-Can you understand me?” The dragon started backing back down the tree. “Wait! Where are yo- Nngg!” SwiftWind gritted his teeth as his wing spiked in pain. The dragon stopped its decent and looked at him in what appeared to be concern. ‘It’s either an exile or is good at hiding its emotions… and the exile possibility is looking more and more likely,’ SwiftWind thought as he noticed that the dragon’s face wasn’t showing much emotion, almost as if its face was barely capable of showing emotion. Seeing that the pegasus was no longer terrified of hir, Ember slowly climbed back up onto the platform, gently picked up it up and, ignoring its complaints, carefully climbed back down the tree and set the now silent pegasus down by the fire. Just as shi was settling back down after putting another log on the fire shi heard a familiar sounding howl coming from somewhere nearby. ’Damn it! Those wooden wolves are back for more!’ shi angrily thought as shi stood up and began scanning the surrounding area for movement, ’And I didn’t get a chance for my flame to build back up again! Out of the corner of hir eye shi saw that the pegasus was also reacting to the howl, but in a much different way. Instead of becoming more alert and ready for a fight, he looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there. Spotting a bit of movement just outside of the fire’s light, Ember slowly bent down and picked up a small flaming log from the fire as a weapon. ’I hope they aren’t as persistent as the last group, I don’t have enough fire to deal with all of them and defend the pegasus at the same time….’ Just as those thoughts crossed hir mind, the first of the Timber wolves attacked. Spotting movement out of the corner of hir eye, Ember spun to hir right while at the same time bringing the flaming stick up to defend hir head, catching the leaping Timberwolfby surprise in the process. ’Damn it!’ shi thought as the force of the wolf’s lunge was enough to force hir back a few steps and next to the pegasus. Without knowing why, Ember fell into a fighting stance, the faint memory of some kind of… self-defense class came to mind before fading away again. Shaking hir head shi came back to hir senses just in time to hear the snapping of a twig behind hir. Once again turning, this time to hir left to avoid hitting the pegasus, shi blocked the leaping Timberwolf and this time quickly spat some flames into its face, more as a deterrent than anything, before having to turn back to the first Timberwolf, which was starting to circle around as more and more Timberwolves slowly stalked out of the shadows and into the flickering light of the campfire. The next few minutes were a blur for Ember as each Timberwolf leapt at hir, got blocked by the now extinguished branch, and got a small bit of fire to the face for its troubles. ’Crud, I’m almost out,’ Ember thought as shi once again spat fire into the face of a Timberwolf that was stupid enough to try the unsuccessful tactic once again. However, this time the fire was little more than a candle flame compared to the short bursts from earlier. Apparently sensing that something was wrong with their prey, the Timberwolves all lunged at Ember at once. Time seemed to slow down for Ember as the Timberwolves leapt at hir, ‘Not enough flame left to do anything useful, I can’t take all of them on at once without a full supply of flame, and I can’t just abandon the pegasus!’ With all other options unavailable, Ember did the one thing shi could do, use hir own body as a shield. Without hesitation, Ember flung hirself over the paralyzed pegasus and covered the sides with hir wings as shi braced hirself for what shi knew would come. Shi didn’t have to wait long before shi felt the wooden jaws biting hir back, trying to get through hir tough scales while sharp wooden claws slashed the delicate membrane of hir wings to ribbons. Although the pain was massive and it threatened to force hir into unconsciousness, it paled in comparison to what shi had experienced in the past, even so, a whimper of pain still escaped hir as the Timberwolves tore hir wings to pieces. After what felt like an eternity, even though it was probably just a few seconds, Ember thought shi could hear someone shout something and then the crack of wood as the assault abruptly ended. Caring not of why, Ember weakly fell over onto hir side, away from the injured pegasus, and gave up the fight for consciousness. As the darkness enveloped hir, she thought shi could see some equine shapes moving towards the one shi had defended, before losing hirself in the realm of sleep. Author's Note Yeah, I know, it's shorter... I was struggling with some REALLY annoying writers block with this chapter. THAT'S NO EXCUSE FOR MY STORY!!! Well to bad, I'm sticking with it! Lazy... Yes, that was part of it... and College, that didn't help either... So yeah! Like if you did, and if you didn't feel free to write in the comments what you didn't like about it!
