Long ago, there was a creature called a Black-Water shrimp. Looking like a large, blood-red shrimp, it almost always lurked near or just beyond the waters edge. Specifically, the edge along the eastern shore of equestria, far beyond the everfree forest. Now these 'shrimp' were huge, big enough to lift a manticore with one claw. They were known to prey on anything from a pony to a small dragons. They would hunt not by using their claws or mandibles, but rather, a hole next to the shrimps head on either side. These holes would project water that was pressurized within the shrimp at high velocities.

The firing of its natural weapon makes a very distinctive sound, a unique POP. One I came to know rather well when a pony fisherman enlisted my aid in dealing with them. Their shell is easy enough to crack if you can get close to them, but their blasts of water are extremely deadly, fatal to most any creature. Myself included.

I eased the bakery door open, and inside saw darkness. Gripping the handle firmly, I pushed the door open the rest of the way, immediately thereafter bright lights exploded all around the room, accompanied by a loud POPing sound.

"SURPRISE!!"

Acting on instinct and reflex, I knew I needed some kind of shield. So I grabbed the closest object I could get my hands on, or already had my hand on.

The door.

I tore it off the hinges and took a large step backwards, bowling over Twilight as I crouched behind the makeshift shield. Preparing my next move.

Here?! How are they here, I am inland! How could Black-Water shrimp be here?! My worry faded as the sound of ponies talking came from the doorway, and I heard Twilight groan from the ground beside me. Peaking around the door I saw a very confused Pinkie Pie as well as some fairly shocked party-goers, strange triangular hats atop their heads. Small flakes of colored paper settled to the ground all around the doorway.

There was never a shrimp. I do not know what that noise was, but it was most assuredly not a shrimp. I stood from my crouched position as Twilight finally righted herself. I set the door down.

"What was that noise?" I demanded, the party pony looked taken aback.

"It was my....party cannon?" Reaching behind her, she produced a pink cannon, complete with wheels. Twilight walked up to her.

"Maybe using a cannon is not the best idea around our new friend Pinkie,"

"But it's the party cannon! And this is a party!" Pinkie whined in response.

"Then we should get back to the party right?" The pink mare thinks for a moment, chin on hoof, before nodding enthusiastically and rushing back into the home/bakery.

Twilight looked back to me, exasperated.

"That did not help your image you know, ripping a door off by its hinges," I nodded, still staring at the pink cannon Pinkie Pie had left behind. This cannon made that noise? I looked around for what it could have possibly shot before settling on the small, colorful pieces of paper on the ground. .......why?

"Come on now, it's your party remember." Twilight chided from my side, nudging me with her magic.

"Very well," I walked past the cannon, ahead of Twilight, into the bakery.

It looks considerably different from when we were here last. The booths that make up the majority of the front room are decorated with pink ribbon, and banners hang everywhere with the writing 'Welcome to Ponyville' inscribed upon them. Soon after I walked in, a grey pegasus gave me a hat to match the rest of theirs, she was all smiles, much like Pinkie, however when placing the hat upon my head she missed and struck my face. She apologized and I forgave her, however she was one of the few ponies who actually approached me. My little stunt of ripping the door from its frame has not done me any favors, and many of the ponies fear me too much to approach me.

Many but not all.

I am crouching near the center of the room (on the 'dance floor') as a mint-green unicorn examines one hand, and I hold the large yellow cupcake with blue frosting that Pinkie gave me in the other. I take a bite of the dessert.

It is sweet, insanely sweet, absurdly and ludicrously sweet. I will not eat this, it is an affront to nature itself. I wait for nobody to be looking my way and I engulf it in a small spell. Reducing it to ash. I let it disperse onto the ground below me. I turn my attention back to the unicorn holding my hand, who is now individually flexing each digit on my hand.

"Are you quite finished?" I ask her. She fervently shakes her head.

"No no no! How could I ever be finished? These things are amazing!" She looks up from my hand and sees the annoyed expression on my face.

"I mean, yes, yes I am," She says, releasing my hand from her grasp. She rubs the back of her neck with a hoof, grinning sheepishly.

"It was nice while it lasted," she mutters under her breath as she turns and walks back into the crowd.

Ponies were always strange, but I wonder if they have gotten stranger in my absence? I rise and scan the room for Twilight. I see her with the other elements in one of the bakery's booths. They seem to be having a fervent discussion about something. Spike is sitting next to Twilight, and seems to be staring at the element of generosity. I decide to watch and wait when I see the miniature dragon belch a flaming scroll onto the table. A little young for magic fire I would think, but, I had assumed he was a hatchling. Sitting on the ground, I take a deep breath and center myself, becoming distant from the party around me. Perhaps examining his soul will yield some answers.

The welcoming void is unlike what it was all those years ago. The once dim plane of reality now glitters with a thousand thousand souls. One less experienced than I would be very quickly overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of it all. The vastness is dotted by colorful forms that seem to emanate emotion. In my immediate vicinity the emotion most emanated is joy, but a sudden spike of trepidation and fear comes from Twilight's spirit. Her worrisome emotions dissolve into curiosity and concern as I scan the town as a whole. The colorful souls of the pony's swim around me. I need to focus.

Filtering out anything outside ten meters of myself, I quickly locate Spike's draconic soul.

I reach out to examine the dragon's spirit, it is very easy to find. A draconic soul is nothing like a pony's, and stands out like a sore thumb. A pony's spirit usually centers around the pony's heart, head, and cutie marks. (And wing/ horn, if they are present.) However a dragon's spirit encompasses its entire body. Like an outline.

As I begin to examine Spike's spirit I see something....off.

The normally powerful spirit of a dragon is laced by a golden thread of energy, twisting around the whole of Spike's soul, binding it and constricting it in ways just shy of killing it. To do something this grotesque to a soul is appalling. Who would do this?

I begin the laborious process of tracing the golden magic to its source, but before I even come close to completion, something rudely interrupts my meditative state, ripping me back into the waking world.

I open my eyes to Twilight and company worriedly staring at me. The party goes are all gone, only the elements and Spike remain. I focus on Spike. No wings, small fangs. Short stubby claws and limbs. Short neck, large eyes. It's almost as if..

"Wrath are you ok?" Twilight's voice breaks my concentration. I look to her from my position on the ground. With my sitting cross-legged, we are eye to eye.

"I am fine"

"You seemed a bit lost partner, you sure you're alright?" Applejack asks.

"I am sure." I respond. I rise from my position on the floor and loudly crack my back doing so. Causing Fluttershy to eep, Rarity to look appalled, and Rainbowdash and Applejack to snicker at Rarity, who glares at the two of them. Which in turn makes them begin to fully laugh.

"You should've seen the look on your face!" Rainbowdash exclaims. To which Rarity just dramatically sighs and looks away.

I turn to Twilight.

"What now?" I ask. She grins madly.

"We go back to the library for a nice Q and A session!" Her grin turns a shade darker. "....and I have a lot of questions. Who else is coming?"

Applejack shakes her head.

"Sorry Twi, I gotta get back to the farm. Gotta be up bright and early to catch up on all the time I have been gone." Twilight nods to Applejack who heads over to me. She extends a hoof.

"You might not be the most talkative fella, but the way those fillies played around on your head when you were meditatin makes me think you aint so bad after all. You are always welcome at Sweet Apple Acres!" I just look at her dumbly as she turns and walks out the door.

What?

"I'm sorry, but I have to go tend to my animals, they do miss me so much." Fluttershy quietly states before daintily fluttering out the door. She gives a small wave before closing it behind her.

"I have soooooooooo many questions!" Pinkie says excitedly, hopping up and down.

"This can't be boring, I'll come along too," Rainbowdash says from the top of the room. She never really does stop flying.

"I also have some questions for you darling," Rarity adds. Twilight then begins to lead us out the door. Myself, Rarity, Rainbowdash, Spike and Pinkie Pie in tow.

As we walk I remember before I went into my meditative trance, Spike had belched a scroll. When they read it I had felt a sharp pang of worry from Twilight.

"Twilight?" I ask.

"Yes?"

"That scroll you received earlier caused you a great deal of worry, what did it say?" She sighs and slowly shakes her head.

"A small town on the edge of the San Palamino desert called 'Last Chance' has spontaneously become abandoned. Almost everypony in the town has vanished."

"Almost everypony?" Rarity asks. Twilight looks concerned again.

"There was one Donkey left. He was completely mad-"

"Mad? Why was he so mad? Was he mad because all his friends were gone?" I hold up my hand to silence the pink mare. Who continues to speak, though no noise comes out of her mouth.

"Pinkie! This is serious!" Twilight accuses. "Nopony has any idea where they all went!" Everyone falls silent after that.

We reach the library, still in silence. Twilight unlocks the door and we all go inside, myself last. Twilight begins setting up cushions in a circle for her 'Q and A session' as the other elements begin to get comfortable.

Something she said earlier gnaws at me. Once she is finished I take a seat near the bottom of the stairs on a large pile of three large cushions. Twilight is to my left, Spike lays next to her. Pinkie is at the far side of the circle, on her back with her hooves in the air, slowly flailing them. Rainbow is next to her, then Rarity on my right.

"Alright!" Twilight starts. "Now that we are together we can begin! I will go first and we can go clockwise from there. Now Wrath how do you-"

"Actually Twilight, could I start?" I ask. She looks a little frazzled but consents with a nod.

"You said there was one donkey left, what happened?" Her friends, Spike, and I look at her for an answer for about thirty seconds. Her face gets grim and pale.

"...Celestia said she would talk to him about what happened personally, and to her he seemed completely insane. At first he talked about how the residents in the town slowly dissapeared, one by one. Then he started talking about voices he was hearing, and began crying hysterically. She was the last one to see him alive. The next morning his balcony window was found open, he had jumped from his room at the castle to the gardens." The ponies around me all gasped, Spike did not, as Twilight's purplish magic was covering his ear holes.

"Thats.......horrible" Rarity sputtered.

"What could somebody do to a pony to make them do that?" Rainbow asked. nobody gave her an answer.

".....Celestia made sure to clean him up herself." Twilight finished. The ponies in the room looked shocked for awhile. Having seen, heard, and done much worse, I grew bored of it quickly. I spun my wrist in a gesture to Twilight, she looked confused for a moment before she nodded.

"Oh! It's my question now isn't it? Well then, Wrath, how old are you?" I thought for a moment while she, and everyone else, stared at me. Seemingly trying to forget what had just been said. Though Spike just seemed confused as to the tension in the air.

"I have no idea how long I was imprisoned, so I cant give you a valid answer." She just hardened her look.

"Ok, before you were imprisoned," She amended.

"On the day of my imprisonment, I was 3087 years old," I sadly shook my head. "But I was imprisoned for so much longer than that. I could not tell the passing of days." I paused and got more comfortable on the cushions provided. "...my real age could be in the thousands, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, I do not know. Next question."

"Alright! My turn my turn! How many cupcakes coul-"

"Pinkie!" Twilight scolded Pinkie pie. "Arent you forgetting someone?"

The pink mare thought for a moment before grinning sheepishly.

"Sorry spike," She apologizes.

"It's ok" Spike smiles and looks to me. "Now for my question... Have you ever fought a dragon before? Not like me, but a full grown dragon?"

I look to Twilight for a moment, she has an uncertain expression on her face, but nods nontheless.

"Yes," I answer honestly. I have fought dragons before, though those fights tend to be much more defensive than others. An elder wyrm is arguably the most deadly foe you could ever face.

Spike can't contain himself, and asks another question immediately after I answer.

"Didja win?"

I nod.

"If I did not I would not be here," That seems to satisfy him. I look at the pink mare and see her large azure eyes are locked with mine. Her insane smile betrays her fierce eyes.

"So..." she starts. "Did you like my cupcake?"

To everyone else in the room. The question seems innocent. Happy, even. But not to me. I can hear the challenge in her voice, I can feel the steel of her gaze, her spirit is closed off, I feel no emotion from her. This is......bad. I decide to lie, to lie through my teeth.

"Yes." The answer must have sounded hollow even to Spike. But Pinkie only grins wider.

"Do you promise?" She asks.

"Yes." I answer without hesitation. Her grin is wolf-like. Predatory.

"Do you...pinkie promise?" She sweetly asks. The most innocent question in the world to everyone else in the room.

"Yes," I answer again. The mare slowly rises, and practically glides over to me.

"Repeat after me." The mare commands, leaving no room for discussion. She begins an almost ritualistic chant with strange motions. I follow as she does.

"I swear, cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye, that I enjoyed your cupcake," As I finish I feel a shiver go down my spine. I have not shivered in a long time. I have this feeling that I have just made a huge mistake.

Pinkie smiles at me, all wolfishness suddenly gone, and turns on her tail, bouncing to the door.

"That's all I need to hear, see you tomorrow Wrath!" And with that she is out the door. The ponies and dragon seem a little thrown off, but shrug and return to normalcy surprisingly fast. Rainbowdash coughs loudly. Garnering everyone's attention in the room.

"I think it's my turn now. Have you ever seen a sonic rainbow before?"

"A what?" I ask. She strikes a pose.

"A sonic rainboom! An explosion that I cause when I break the sound barrier. Which is super awesome. I have to show you some time!" I slowly nod.

"Alright I suppose." I respond.

"Now It is my turn, now darling I am going to cut straight to the point and ask, when we first saw you that.....thing....around your waist, what was it made of? Never in my life have I seen its equal and it was simply dashing"

"Bear,"

She blinks, Twilight and Rainbowdash blink, Spike yawns.

"Bear?" Rainbow, Twilight, and Rarity say at once.

"Yes, bear. Bear hide specifically, the skin and fur of a bear." With every word the ponies look a little greener and Spike looks confused.

"How would you wear a bear's skin? Did it give it's skin to you? Wouldn't that hurt?" Looking at the horrified faces of the ponies, I realize that things like this have never been taught to the young drake. Well, I'm in too deep now. I might as well be honest with the drake.

"The bear did not 'give' me its fur Spike. There is a ritual warriors like me undergo. We find a bear and fight it to the death, the goal being to kill the bear while keeping damage to its hide at a minimum. How well one did is reflected in the quality of their loincloth. Therefor the quality of a warrior's loincloth reflects the quality of the warrior."

Rainbow looks awestruck, while Rarity looks disturbed and Twilight excited, as she fervently writes on a notepad with a quill. Spike just looks tired.

"You kill and skin bears as a symbol of one's strength? Fascinating!" Twilight scribbles some more on the paper before setting it aside. "Alright, my turn again, can you use magic?"

I bring my hand up to my chin and think for a moment.

"It is, complicated."

"How?" Twilight asks, undeterred.

"Innately, my kind posses no magic whatsoever. However, I have learned ways to draw magic into myself. So yes, I can use magic." Though my 'spell casting' is about as useful as parlor tricks.

"Well I have more than enough data to work with for now, but I want to ask you some more questions tomorrow." Twilight states, turning to her friends and spike she says "Anybody have any more questions?"

Spike and Rainbow shake their heads.

"Just one last thing then darling," says Rarity. "Your kind are large in stature and strength, you fight and kill bears as a hobby. Why is it that before you arrived, there has never been tale of humans before?"

I sigh.

"I am sorry. But that I cannot tell you, not yet" The ponies look confused, the dragon looks asleep. Unless Celestia allows it, that is not something I am willing to share. Not yet anyway.

"I understand," Rarity says. She stands and trots over to Twilight, whom she hugs. She also briefly nuzzles the sleeping dragon before facing me.

"Well I don't, but you can tell us when your ready," Rainbow states from near the ceiling, before coming down and patting Rarity on the head.

"This has been fun, but I must get to bed. Every lady needs her beauty sleep after all!" Rarity trots out the door. Followed by Rainbow.

"G'night guys!" She shouts before taking off, into the night sky.

I cross my legs and assume a meditative pose. Twilight yawns from my side.

"I think Spike and I are going to bed."

"Sleep well, this night I will meditate, please wake me come morning if I am still in my trance."

"Sure, and you will have to teach me how to do that at some point you know." I smile.

"Gladly, say, how many ponies dissapeared from that village?" There is a slight pause.

"Around 200,"

"Thank you" I say as she climbs the stairs.

I hear Twilight rummaging around a bit above before my trance takes hold of me. 200 souls kidnapped should be easy enough to find. And it seems the San Palomino Desert is still where it was. Lets see if I can't find out who, or what, is responsible.

Author's Note

Well guys...the next chapter. I wanted it to be longer but this seemed like a good stopping point.

Like always please leave a comment! Constructive criticism is always welcome!

Any thoughts/concerns ill try to respond to as time allows.

Thanks for reading!