Alduin's Wrath

The Everfree forest was already a dark place, but when it becomes engulfed in the shadow of a giant dragon, it becomes much darker. The shadow belonged to Alduin, who was curious to explore this land find out anything that he could to assist him in his goals. Alduin scanned the ground for anything interesting and so far had found nothing, it seemed like whatever he did just ended with him becoming even more bored that before, after all before he made his move he needed to recover more of his strength, and the best way to do that was through the souls of other creatures, while animals and monsters would work fine, the souls of intelligent beings would be much better, and he believed that he's found his first victim. Below moving near the forest edge was a large wooden cart, and could just barely make out a blue figure pulling it along, but at a rather slow pace. Alduin began to dive towards the figure and when he was near the cart, he slammed his feet into it and shattered the top of it, causing the figure to let out a scream of fear, before she broke into a run. Alduin circled back around and began to launch fire at the cart, destroying what remained of it, while the figure ran with a bit of fire nipping at her tail. Alduin landed in front of her and began to take a few steps forward, with a malicious look in his eyes.

"W-What do you want!? Trixie hasn't done anything wrong to you!" She shouted, but Alduin said nothing and simply approached.

"Zu'u yah hin slen... Your soul is mine..." Alduin said as he backed Trixie into the smoldering remains of her cart, before he pulled back his neck and shot it forward with his mouth wide open...

Alduin took off from the area, but he looked behind him and began to chuckle. What remained of his meal was a large collection of blood, chunks of flesh, and several bloody bones. There was a purple hat sitting on the ground, covered in its owners blood, which made him feel a bit proud, it had been long since he had feasted on flesh and souls, but what troubled him was this being traced back to him. Next time he would have to be more careful, next time he would have to attempt to swallow them whole...

Several royal guards surrounded the crime scene, while Shining Armor investigated. Blood was everywhere, splattered around randomly like some sick artist threw around his paint, bits of muscle and skin still remained, and even the bones seemed to have been split open by some powerful force. Whatever had done this was hungry, and willing to kill. He had ruled out the possibility of a Manticore, they don't usually make this big of a mess, while Chimeras were an option one has never been seen outside of the Everfree before, that left Timberwolves but then they would have lapped up everything, blood, leftover mean, and taken the bones back to their den to chew on.

"Do we have any way of identifying who this was?" Shining asked and a guard began to speak.

"We found some burned up photos in the wreckage, I believe it to be Trixie..." This troubled Shining, for Trixie hadn't been seen in Ponyville or Canterlot in months, this meant that something horrible was happening, and it was likely to happen again...

Word of Trixie's murder reached all of Equestria, and when it hit Ponyville there were some mixed reactions, while some were upset that a pony had been murdered, others were glad that lying cheater was gone, then you had Spike, who was simply scared. He had been going to Alduin with problems and would ask for his advice, so Spike thought he would take the opportunity to do so now. He made his way to the Everfree forest, where the dragon was staying for the time being, this was mostly to keep his existence a secret to protect him from any pony that might want to hurt him.

"Alduin? Are you there?" Spike asked, but upon receiving no answer, he frowned, but let out a startled gasp as a pair of blood red eyes opened in the darkness."

"Goraan Dovah... You require something?" Alduin asked, and Spike nodded.

"I'm not sure what to do... I don't know if you've heard, but a pony had been murdered and eaten, I'm just not sure what I would do if that happened to any of my friends..." Spike said, and Alduin approached.

"Do not worry. I will not allow harm to come upon your friends... I will protect them with all the power that I have... (Only because they are necessary for my plans to work)" Alduin said, and Spike smiled.

"Thanks..." SpIke said, hugging the larger dragon's snout, and although this act of affection disgusted Alduin he allowed it to happen.

"I'm telling you its true!" A young orange pegasus said.

"You're just messing with us, Scootaloo." A small white unicorn replied.

"Yeah, yah just want to make us look dumb." A yellow earth pony agreed.

"I'm telling you! I've seen it flying around in the sky! The big black dragon! You know if we find it, we could get our Cutie Marks in..." Scootaloo began, and the three smiled.

"Dragon Hunting!" They shouted in unison, before they rushed off towards the Everfree, although they had been warned many times not to go in unsupervised.

They didn't have to travel deep in to bump into something, and it was just what they were looking for. The very dragon that they'd heard about fifteen minutes ago. It turned to face them and began to growl.

"Zuk sil fah zey? Zu'u fen laan niin diist." It said, leaning forward to face them. "Give me a reason not burn you three to crisps..." It said, but they had already thought of an answer.

"Our sisters are the Elements of Harmony!" Applebloom, shouted, and the dragon stopped.

"They are...? (Perhaps destroying these three would not be in my best interest) Why have you traveled to me? Do you seek knowledge like your siblings? Or do you seek assistance?" It asked, and they began to think.

"Actually we were just trying to find you so that we can get our Cutie Marks... I guess we won't get it from Dragon Hunting... We're just always getting bullied and teased by these ponies in our class, their names are Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara." Scootaloo said, but Alduin took note of the names, perhaps getting rid of these two may earn him some favor in the eyes of the Elements...

"Now then, if that is all I wish to be alone." It said, before turning and walking away, deeper into the shadows of the Everfree, where it almost immediately disappeared from sight.

"I can't believe it! We met a real live dragon!" Sweetie Belle shouted.

"We've met Spike before." Applebloom said, but Scootaloo rolled her eyes.

"He isn't much of a dragon... But that guy was awesome and huge!" Scootaloo said with bright eyes, before they turned to go and tell all their friends about this amazing discovery.