//-------------------------------------------------------// The Thorn in his Side -by Nightblade64- //-------------------------------------------------------// //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 1 //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 1 A long time ago the city of Yana Mura was attacked by dragons. They came in numbers, burning and destroying everything in there path. The ponies of that city screamed in agony as their body's where slowly burned into charcoal. The smell of said burning body's filled the air and choked those that where still alive. The king and queen of that city panicked in their castle as they gave orders to evacuate the city in an under ground tunnel. Their heir to the throne, Blackthorn, ran down the corridor too the throne room and burst through the doors only to see the wall explode in a frenzy of fire and black claws. Blackthorn watched as his parents where engulfed in flames and listened to the cries of pain and torture. He snapped back into reality and opened his wings to fly away but before he could even try the claws of the black dragon’s claw sliced through them, ripping them off of his body. He sent his magic to cancel out the pain that he was feeling and got up from the ground. He broke into a dead sprint across the room dodging the claws and occasional spirt of fire. He ran to the only open door. And that lead to the balcony. As he reached he balcony he looked down to see his city burning in fire and death. He turned around to face a bright burning ball fly towards him. He managed to evade it. Well most of it. His left side of his face was caught in the fiery inferno, which in turn sent him flying over the rails and down below to the ground. He watched as the ground steadily grew larger and larger. The last thing he did before hitting the ground was promising to himself that he was going to survive this, and that he will get his revenge. 2004 years later. Blackthorn gasped as he sat up in the seat that he was lying down on and clutched his chest as he tried to slow his breathing. He has been having that dream every time he slept. Every night he was reminded of that day the dragons attacked. He sighed as he touched his left side of his face, the leather like fabric that covered that side felt like the skin of a new born animal. He looked out the window and watched as the scenery skimmed past as the train that he was on rocked back and forth. He was on his way to a little village called ponyville. His luggage was in the back. It mostly contained old relics from his castle, some broken swords and shields here, a few bits of jewellery there. But the most important things he was carrying was his fathers sword and shield, his crown and a tapestry that held his family tree. The only one missing was the one of himself. It's ironic, he was the only one to survive the attack but his mention if himself in the family tree was nowhere to be seen. He looked at his reflection, his brown fur coat was stained with dried bits of mud and blood. His sea blue main covered his black leather patch, his deep emerald eye is emotionless as he continues to look at himself. The last thing he looks at was his horn before going back to sleep. There was about four more hours before daylight broke through the night so he laid back down on the arm rest and closed his only eye and nodded off to sleep. After said hours passed Celestia’s bright sun rose from the hills and shined its rays of light in the cabin that he was staying in. The light passed over the covering on his left eye and slowly reached his second, making him stir in his sleep. Groaning he steadily lifted himself from the seat and rubbed the sleet from his eye. The doors to his cabin opened and a steel crate came through with a mare pushing it. She had a light tan coloured coat with a red mane and tail. She had a few freckles under her blue eyes. He must have been caught staring as her cheeks slowly became red. “O-oh I'm sorry for staring, it’s not polite.” He quickly apologised to the young mare. She seemed to snap out of her trance like state and shook her head as she trotted over to him and placed a tray of food on the table. “N-no it's alright sir.” She looked at his green eye. Her sight slowly drifted over the the patch of fabric covering his face. She gasped as she razed a hoof to her muzzle. “Oh my. What happened to your face?” Thorn (that's his nickname) looked down at his food sadly before turning his gaze towards her again. “I'd….I’d rather not talk about it.” She seemed to get the hint and nodded. She started to push the crate out of the room. Thorn sighed as he picked up his fork with his magic and dug it into the bland food. He lifted up a small bit of his salad and placed it into his mouth and slowly chewed. ‘I wonder if I can escape my past in this little village.’ He thought quietly as he looked back out of his window. Shortly after he had finished his breakfast the train began to slow down and getting ready stop at ponyville. He got up from his seat and trotted to the doors that was opening and stepped out onto he cold wooden floor boards. He breathed in the cold morning air as the wind nipped his nose. The conductor opened the luggage cargo hold and stepped in. Giving him a hoof thorn levitated he suitcases out i to the open. The conductor thanked him while thorn put on his saddle bags with all that he had in, and trotted down towards the town hall. 'I swear if something strange happens I'm going to hurt something.' Lost in his thought he bumped into an pink object and fell to the ground. Groaning he lifted his head to see an un-naturally all pink mare with balloons on her flanks. 'Right somepony find me my sword.' Was his last thoughts as his ears was bombarded with just noise.