Ancient Wings, New Soul

by Kowlickkid

Rating: teen
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Human, Original Character, Comedy, Adventure, Crossover
Length: 45107

Part of the Ballad of Echo and Griffin the Griffin Crossover group, with a new species.

Hi. If you're listening to me, chances are you're probably not a human. Or, at least, not anymore. Human's don't really exist around here, except others in other forms. Me, I'm pretty much unique. Unique among the unique. And I like this place. Beats getting a swirly on a daily basis anytime. Except for maybe the almost-dying part, but even that seems better. This is my story. How I went from being everybody's favorite punching bag to a legendary beast. Who knows, maybe you'll catch lucky and come here with me. Probably better than living on the planet of the jerks. But enough about that. Let me tell you about, well, me.

This is a part of the many-writer story called "Chess Game of the Gods", which started with Rust's "The Ballad of Echo the Diamond Dog" which merged with Blackwing's "Griffin the Griffin", and many others joined. Permission has been granted.

Published 2012-06-13 15:54:02 UTC
Last updated 2014-04-09 21:01:42 UTC

Chapter 2: I Am A Legend

New World, New Start

I was in the same white room, sitting on the same chair, with the same desk in front of me and the same chair behind it. It swiveled around, and there was Chaos. But he was different. His tone was a darker green, and his physique was slightly different.

"What's with the new look?"

"I'm the entity of Chaos. It's in my nature to change things. Oh, and congratulations on a safe trip to Equestria."

"Alright, tell me why you're here."

"Simple. I just want to chat with you a bit. I must warn you so that when you wake up, don't freak out."

I began to get worried.

"Wait, wait wait wait wait. Why should I be freaking out?"

"Oh, don't worry. You'll be perfectly alright. You just don't want to startle the ones who are currently taking care of you."

"Tell me again why I'm in this new world."

"My dear boy, you are now a player. Think of it this way: the gods are playing a mostly uncontrollable videogame, and you are the characters. And to spice things up, everyone is different from the native species."

"So what am I?"

"I'll leave that to you to figure out. But let me tell you, it was difficult finding a species for you to have. Most all of the others are taken. I am one of the late-comers to this game. I had to dig in history."

"So all the other humans are different species, and none of them are the same?"

"Yes."

"You know what? I'm just going to stop trying to understand. This is just confusing."

"It's meant to be confusing to a degree. You must be a little bit insane to understand it. Now, wake up, and remember. Don't. Freak. Out."

"Yeah, that totally makes me feel relaxed. Thank you, Chaos."

"You're welcome. Oh, you know what would be fun? If you could roleplay to be somebody noble, or something similar."

"Sorta like in the MMORPGs?"

"You catch on quick. Now wake up."

The dream slowly faded and was replaced by darkness. I was awake, but my eyes were shut. I groggily tried to open my eyes, but was met with limited success, them only opening a crack so I could see blurs. I groaned and shifted my head as I felt a small amount of pain and some restlessness. Voices came into existence around me, again speaking in a language I didn't understand. I could see some blurs moving about, and one approached me. It said some words that I didn't understand.

"Ungh. Sorry. Can't understand you."

"My pardons, ancient one. I did not realize you spoke Equestrian and not Zebracan."

"No apologies necessary."

"Here. Drink this, for it will help you."

The source of the deep, yet female, voice handed me a small wooden container. I weakly clutched it and put it up to my lips. I almost spat it out, it tasted so nasty.

'Okay, thought process engaged. Nasty liquid with an unknown purpose. Don't know what to do with it. Analyse facts. The one who gave it to me was respectful of me and obviously wanted to help. Usually, nastiness equals medecine or something similar. I'm weak, possibly from sleeping too long without eating. Perhaps a nutrient substance. Well, over the lips and through the gums, look out tapeworm, here it comes. Not that I have a tapeworm.'

I put the liquid up to my lips again and started to drink it. It was revoltingly bitter, but I could feel my strength slowly returning to me. Almost as soon as I had finished it, another cup was handed to me.

"Drink this as well, if you may. It will rid your mouth of the bitter taste contained in the potion."

'Ah-ha! Point for brain. Nasty liquid is a medecine. New liquid is probably good-tasting.'

I brought the cup up to my mouth and tipped the liquid inside. It was less runny than water, and when it hit my tongue, it was an explosion of taste that nearly overwhelmed me. It was like honey got mixed with sugar and got lemon and apple juice mixed in, with a strong aftertaste of mango. I drained it and sighed.

"Thank you, ma'am."

"It was not even the least I could do for you."

"You are most kind."

I then opened my eyes fully, with much less difficulty. The sight shocked me considerably. Standing in front of me was a zebra. And not the kind you see at the zoo, this thing was a cartoon-drawn animal with various rings adorning it, as well as some African-looking charms and necklaces on it. I blinked twice and stared with my mouth open.

"If you wish, I can bring you some sustenance."

"J-just one minute, Miss, uh..."

"My sincerest apologies. I have been most rude. My name is Jangara, and I am the shaman of this village. We saw you crash into the ground and brought you here to look after you."

"Thank you again, Jangara. Could you wait one minute, please? I am a bit befuddled by a few things."

"Please, take the time you must."

I took a deep breath and lifted a hand in front of my face. Only it wasn't a hand anymore. It was a black talon. And not a rinky-dinky little thing that you would see on a regular eagle. These new fingers of mine were thicker than human fingers, and quite long. Looking at my other claw, I saw that it was the same. Three fingers going in one direction, and one going the other way, presumably acting as a sort of thumb. I saw that I was laying on my stomach on top of what seemed to be a sort of mat, and slowly raised myself. Interestingly, I was more comfortable on all fours, and I couldn't shift my balance enough to get on two legs. I took another deep breath and looked down at myself.

My chest was white. White as in white feathers, but they also had a few thin black streaks, like what you would see on a bald eagle, and they also had a slight tinge of sky-blue on the edges of each feather. Below this, there was a line that divided the area of white feathers with a larger area of light brown feathers which continued till the area where they met my legs, which kind of resembled a T-shirt in the way that my birdlike arms were covered a bit above what would count as the elbow, the black talons contrasting lightly with the light brown feathers. I turned my head over my shoulder and ovserved what was there. Light brown feathers, going all over my quadruped body. Quadruped. Funny how that worked. I was a bird, and I had four black talon-legs.

'Okay, so, I don't know what I am, but definitely not a griffin. I should have wings. After all, what bird doesn't have wings? Even penguins have wings, even though their counted as flippers. Oops, going slightly off-topic here. Returning to examination of body.'

I slowly moved my shoulders, and then my upper back, working my way slowly down the spinal cord area until I found what I was looking for. Slowly, two gigantic wings lifted up, brown on the top and the same bluish-white of my chest, and from what I would guess, my head, on the bottom. I was so absorbed in my wings that I didn't realize that my back muscles were still moving, so imagine my surprise when another even larger pair of wings sprouted out behind my current ones. I was flabbergasted. Two pairs of wings? Okay, I can tolerate four talons, but four wings? Wait, so far, in the last few hours of my memory, I've been struck by lightning, talked to by a supposedly omniscient entity, transported to a new world, and given a new body. Of course I can tolerate four wings. Heck, it's pretty cool. I just hope I can use them. Closing my new wings, I continued my search to see a bird's tail. Just a simple fan of feathers with a pretty big size. I took a deep breath and waited for my brain to process the information.

Loading

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Results Received

33.33% of brain says Awesome

33.33% of brain says Wierd

33.33% of brain says Freak Out Now

Awaiting Decision...

Memory Interference...

An image of Chaos appeared in my mind, saying 'Don't. Freak. Out.'

Decision: Freak Out Now Eliminated

50% Awesome

50% Wierd

Awaiting Decision...

'Okay brain, shut up. I'm going to go with pretty cool, but not enough to freak out. Wait, I haven't even gotten a look at my face yet!'

I turned to the zebra.

"Excuse me, Jangara. Do you happen to have a mirror handy?"

"Yes, I shall bring it for you."

She stepped through a doorway and then came out, holding a decent-sized mirror in her teeth. I received it from her and looked at the reflection portrayed there.

"...Wow." was all I could say. Staring back at me was basically the head of a bald eagle, but, of course, way bigger. The same eyes, the predator eyes, that I always admired in a bald eagle, for they made him look noble and fearless. A curved yellow beak, the end quite sharp. The feathers that were on my chest were also on my head. Blueish-white, with small black streaks. But some things different than what would be normal on an eagle. Two small feather crests, where my ears would be, like those on a great horned owl. The eyes were an electrifying blue with just a hint of purple.

'Like real lightning' I thought to myself, remembering with scorn the false image of a yellow lightning bolt, and the true lightning image of thin purple and blue strands spreading out. I handed the mirror back to Jangara, and she carefully set it upon a shelf, among several other items that looked very african.

"You are confused?" she asked me. I decided to go with the truth, or at least a part of it.

"This was not my body before." She looked at me in shock. "It may come as a shock to you, but I was something else. You probably wouldn't know what it is, as they aren't from around here. But the question remains unanswered to me: What am I now?"

A zebra came through the doorway with a decent-sized portion of fruit, which he set before me. To my surprise, he gave me a small bow before saying something I couldn't understand and trotting off.

"Did he just bow to me?"

"It is a sign of respect for your kind. Please, eat, while I find the one who can explain what you are the best."

She walked out of the hut, and I devoted my attention to the plate of fruit, which was filled with mangoes, bananas, apples and various other fruits which I didn't recognize. I shrugged and bit into the ripe fruit, realizing with delight that they were the best I had ever tasted. Soon, my attack on the food stopped, and shortly afterwards, Jangara re-entered the hut, followed by a shriveled old crone of a zebra who stopped before me. She said something indeciferable to me, and Jangara quickly translated.

"As I am the only zebra in this village who speaks the language you speak, I shall translate for you. This is Ok-Rena, the oldest and wisest elder in our village. She will tell you the story that involves what you are and your kind's history. The words she has just spoken are these: It is with greatest respect and honor that I set eyes upon a legendary creature such as yourself. If you wish to learn about the past, I will tell you."

She sat down on the ground in a fairly human position, legs crossed and sitting with her back as straight as her old bones would permit it. My back legs lowered until I was sitting as well, and I realized how much larger I was than the zebras; I was double, if not triple, their size. The old zebra carefully set a plate in front of us both and put various herbs and incensces on it. She mumbled something and a billowing cloud of smoke lifted up and remained suspended. I could tell that this, in some crazy way, was real magic. She began speaking in a hoarse and crackled voice, and Jangara translated what she said to me.

"Long ago, many many years before the raisers of the sun and the moon, many years before their grandparents, there was but one race of intelligent creatures: The Perfect Race." The smoke swirled around until it adopted a sphere shape. "When the gods first created this world, they created this race to populate the world, and then left. Unbeknownst to all, the god of Chaos placed a very discreet curse on the perfect race before they all went away. One century after the race was created, a strange fate befell them. A third of the population gave birth to dragons, the mighty reptiles." A part of the sphere separated and formed the image of a dragon. "They left the Perfect Race and went out into the world, where they changed little. Two centuries after the creation of them, another third gave birth to the alicorns, the magic ponies that when they went out into the world, became the ancestors of earth ponies, pegasi, unicorns, zebras, buffalo, changelings and even the mystic seaponies, that are claimed to be a myth by many in these days." Another part of the smoke went out and formed a winged horse with a horn, and many other figures appeared as she mentioned the other species. "Three centuries after the creation, the remaining population of the Perfect Race gave way to the cynogriffins, the winged wolves which became the ancestors of diamond dogs, griffins, and a few others."The remaining part of the sphere formed into the image of a winged wolf, with various other figures around it. "But this is where written knowledge stops and the legends were passed down by speech. As it turns out, not all of the remaining members of the Perfect Race reproduced during the end of the third century. Some became stubborn, and decided not to give birth to cynogriffins. Curiously, these beings did not age any further, but instead lived on and on. But they soon became unhappy, for they grew sad and melancholy. Finally, they all decided four centuries after the creation to reproduce. But the results were unexpected. Instead of being dragons, alicorns or cynogriffins, they became what can only be described as legendary creatures." The smoke shifted again, one figure being a sort of elongated armadillo-like creature, reminding me slightly of the pokémon Sandshrew, but stretched, another was a creature with long legs and webbed feet, resembling a frog, and the third, a four-winged, four-legged eagle. My breath was stolen from me. "These legendary creatures were masters of earth, water and air, and they could control their elements to a certain extent. It is thanks to the earth beings that alicorns managed to form earth ponies, and thanks to the water beings that the seaponies came into existence. Moreover, the beings created simpler life forms, such as birds, fish, and lesser beasts." The smoke cleared. "Time has erroded the names of the water and earth beings, but it is known to zebras, as the beings lived once in Zebrica, that the names of the air beings were the ventolians, or, as directly translated from the zebracan word, the heavenly winged ones. But through unknown circumstances, they died out, leaving the control of the sky, the sea and the land into the hands of the ponies, who did not worry about the change, for they didn't know about the beings. They were thought to have died out long ago, but some have held theories of surviving members." The old crone pointed a hoof at me. "You are a ventolian, a heavenly winged one, and you have the powers of the sky, and the knowledge that your kind were the creators of birds. That is the reason why we hold a deep respect for you, for you are a living legend among us zebras."

"Wow. I'm all that? But I'm not really a ventolian. Or at least, I think I'm not. I wasn't a few days ago, that much I know."

Jangara translated my message to the old zebra, and she said something back.

"The elder says that no matter what you were before, now you are a sky lord."

I groaned a little bit. "I don't really want people bowing and living in fear of me just because I look important."

The elder responded through Jangara.

"We do not bow in fear of you nor because you may look important. We bow to you because that is what we wish. You have our respect, as we can see you are special in a way worth respecting. It is marked clearly in your aura."

"Well, I didn't fully ask for all this respect, so I don't think I'm going to act like I enjoy it. I really don't deserve it-"

I was cut off by a massive roar which seemed almost to shake the small building we were in. I turned to Jangara, who had become suddenly very nervous.

"What's happening?"

She turned to me, fear displayed in her eyes. She said one word that sent chills down my spine.

"Dragon."

Dun dun dunnnnnnnnn! Ruh-oh! Dragon attacking village! Ouch. Anyways, the Perfect Race theory originated by Cloud_Surfer in his story 'The Bounty Catching, Freedom Dreaming, Winged Wolf Phenomenon'. I simply elaborated on a fact that Gustave didn't know, and thus, ended up with an explanation of the creature that Tyler is. Also, I came up with the creature myself, but I wouldn't be surprised that if you look hard enough, you'll find it's been done before. Such is the way of the Internet. Anyways, thanks for reading, and keep your stick on the ice.

P.S.: The story has been up for only around 6-7 hours, and it already has 11 thumbs up and 23 favorites. Wow. Also, I've been complemented on having a better backstory than Rust or Blackwing? Fordregha, you flatter me.

Chapter 3: Boss Battle!

Boss Battle!

"A d-d-dragon?"

"That is the most probable answer. Dragons are the only beings who are capable of both reaching this island and making such a noise. Yet few are the days in which one actually takes time to traverse the vast expanse to reach our small island. And to reach here, there is always the matter of defenses. It must be either powerful or stealthy."

A pegasus suddenly burst into the hut and blurted out:

"Jangara! Vizaraal the lightning dragon has landed! Most of the inhabitants are underground but the beast is destroying the houses and WHAT IS THAT GRIFFIN DOING HERE!"

Jangara's face was contorted with worry, but she introduced me first.

"Whiplash, I must inform you that this is not a griffin, and that matter is not as urgent as the dragon."

"What's up with the lightning part about Vizaraal?"

"It is a fact that most dragons breathe fire, but Vizaraal gained the ability to use lightning magic through an unknown method. He is extremely powerful. This could spell doom for our village."

"What are we going to do, Jangara?" asked Whiplash. I answered him.

"We're going to secure the town first. Then we're going to search for weak spots in the beast and use them to our advantage."

His face contorted with a bit of disgust.

"Who died and made you king of the village?"

I glared at him.

"In case you haven't noticed, there's a darn dragon assaulting this village, and even though I'm scared, I'm trying to solve the problem instead of running around like a wingless chicken. And if you have a better idea, please do tell."

He sighed.

"Fine. I shouldn't be like that anyways. Sorry."

I walked out the door and observed my surroundings. Suddenly, I caught sight of what had everyone so worried. A big, lightning-purple dragon that was a tremendous size. It's head alone was the size of my entire body. I hastily spread my wings to try to get closer, because I reasoned that running on four talons wouldn't be easy. I flapped a couple of times and ended up with a face full of dirt.

"Not so easy trying to fly, is it?" asked a familiar voice from behind. Chaos was standing there, his body now a light green, almost yellow, with a thin and tall physique. "Though I suppose it's not quite your fault. Flying can be more difficult than you realize, especially with four wings to reckon with.

"Gee, I didn't notice."

"Now, now, let's not have any of that attitude. Sarcasm won't help you. I, however, will."

"Wouldn't that be cheating or something?"

"My dear boy, of course it's not cheating. I'm just giving you a little gift, which is not much considering what one of us gave his player."

He snapped his fingers and a green orb the size of my fist appeared in front of him.

"Have fun with this. I'm giving you the gift of flight, seeing as how you're pretty much helpless without it."

The orb floated towards me and went into my chest. I could feel experience and ability almost radiating now from my wings, which were now fully extended, the larger ones having a total wingspan of more than double my length, from head to tail.

"I'm going to give you one last tip which might come in handy, though you have to figure out how it works. In this world, Latin has magic. I'm not going to tell you how. And now, you are on your own. Go ahead and spread a little bit of chaos. Even immortals need to feed once in a while."

I turned back to the dragon, which seemed to have a smug grin on it's face. I followed it's line of vision to a broken cart.

"Oh, no." I whispered. Huddled beneath the wooden structure was a zebra child, quaking with fear. My talons clenched. My wings spread. I flew towards the filly, intent on getting it out of danger before something happened. I could see the dragon open it's mouth wide. A cluster of electricity gathered between it's jaws. I sped faster towards the filly. I felt something wake me up. Adrenaline. But it was strong. Much stronger than I had ever experienced it before. I rocketed forward, my front talons reaching out in front of me. The dragon fired it's bolt. Time seemed to slow down as I finally reached the child, grabbed her forelegs in my palms, careful not to spear her with my claws, and tried to get out of the path of the lightning before it struck. The cart blasted into pieces as I made my way out, some fragments of the original bolt striking me in the back and sending slight jolts all across my body. I screeched and sped upwards at speeds I would never have guessed I could do with my four wings. I held the child tight in my claws as I curved and headed downwards towards Jangara.

"Quickly, hide her!" I practically screamed. "I'll do what I can to keep the reptile away!"

I sped back towards the dragon and narrowly avoided a claw swipe thrown at me by the beastly behemoth. I screamed, but not a scream such as you would hear from a human, a screech of an eagle, but amplified a few times. The dragon spoke.

"What are you doing here, griffin? No matter, I shall merely kill you as well. Nothing can stop such a bloodlust as mine."

My vision went pinkish-red.

"You... would kill... FOR FUN!"

He flashed a prideful look at me.

"I do what I wish, and none can stop me. I am Vizaraal!"

I let out a yell and charged at him. Big mistake. I bounced right off his chest, after which he punched me. Hard. If there was a brick wall, I would've gone flying right through it. If I was a human, I would be a messy pulp. Miraculously, I survived, after dragging on the ground for a few seconds. I groaned while the dragon approached to finish the job.

"Pathetic. When I heard news of the griffin who slayed dragons, I thought they might be worthy foes."

My thought process went bonkers. A griffin killed dragons. I was a sort of ancestor to griffins, and it wasn't by evolution that they came into existence, it was by a sort of crossbreed. Ergo, I was either almost exactly the same, or more powerful. I couldn't be much weaker, as my kind had been the lords of the sky once.

'But does it end here? Will I die before I realize my true potential?'

My answer came sooner than expected. The dragon raised it's head, charging another super attack. I closed my eyes, expecting the pain of lightning to hit me. It didn't come. I dared open my eyes to see that a small group of male zebras were throwing spears at the dragon. They weren't puncturing or scratching it, but I think it's safe to say that it stung enough to make it annoying. Probably something like chucking little paper pellets at a human. Not damaging, but annoying. It growled and turned to face the zebras.

"How DARE you interrupt my kill?! I will make you pay!"

The distraction had given me enough time to sit up and think again.

'Right. Avoid getting angry. If angry, don't let it control you, or you're toast. Control it to your advantage. Back to plan A. Observe weakness and exploit it. First weakness: The thing has got a temper and a noble attitude. Taunt to make him reveal weak spots.'

I picked up a rock and threw it at the monstrous beast. By sheer luck, it managed to land in it's eye. It growled and rubbed it's ocular organ.

"Hey! Big, tall and ugly! You've got something on your face! It's really ugly! It's hideous! It horrendou- Oh, wait. That's your FACE!!!"

It roared at me and took off after me. I quickly leaped into the air and moved to the right of a small electric-blue beam that came from the dragon.

'Okay, analysis on firepower complete. Works kind of like Megaman's cannon, either quick bursts or a charged rocket.'

I concentrated on going in quick movements around the creatures head, using my newfound evasive abilities to dodge what he threw at me.

'Chaos really gave me a good gift. I can fly really well. Probably has something to do with four wings.'

The dragon continued to slash and breathe at me repeatedly yet ineffectively. Yet it left no openings, except for the ones that were obvious.

'Apparently, he has no weaknesses in his scales. Possible targets include nostrils, inside of mouth, possibly the ears, most definitely the eyes, seeing as how the rock annoyed him, he probably doesn't have an effective second eyelid, and maybe below the tail in a region I don't really want to go to. After all, that thing might be loaded.'

After the physical examination, I looked around, trying to find a suitable weapon. Around me, I could see branches, trees, grass, and in the slight distance, the village, for I had managed to steer him away. I darted around a claw that was going for me, but it managed to nick my left back talon.

"CRUD! He got my talon... talon... which has claws... sharp, needle-like claws... weapon acquired. Commence dragon-slaying."

I opened my talons wide, exposing the wickedly sharp claws that grew out of the fingers. Maneuvering past another claw coming to strike me, I landed on the head of the dragon and plunged my right foreleg into his eye. A generous amount of a clear liquid spilled out as it roared in what I could imagine was intense pain. He thrashed about, and it was all I could do to avoid his frantic arm thrusts as he tore up the ground. When he finally got the pain under control, he glared at me with one eye, the other tightly shut with a hand over it.

"You shall pay for this, griffin!"

He lashed his tail out at me, but I swiftly dodged it, swooped up and looked down at him from my vantage point in the sky. I spoke, but it somehow wasn't me, as if someone else was using my voice.

"Fool!" I, or rather, what was controlling me, said. "Our kind is not that of a griffin! We existed before dragons evolved to their current forms. Now, you shall have to die!"

I was amazed by the words coming out of my mouth, but was even more amazed when I felt wind bending all around me. I felt power surging around me and through me, and the air seemed to congregate at a point in front of me. Unexpectedly, my four wings beat at once, their tips at the center of where the air had begun to make a slightly visible orb. With a great gust of wind, a clear spear went out from the orb and struck the dragon in the middle of the chest. It screamed, and then it's chest was torn open as the air spear punctured it. A voice sounded in my head.

"Fledgeling, you have great potential within you. Now, take the core heart of the beast and consume it, and embrace your destiny as the beginning of the new legacy of our species."

I slowly approached the dragon, confused at what had been said in my thoughts. I had to eat a heart? No, the heart of a dragon would be much too big. The core heart, whatever that was. I looked at the corpse of the dragon, and saw something shining inside. I peered inside, resisting the urge to puke, and saw a small white glowing sphere, about the size of an apple. I took hold of it and noticed that it held a different type of power, in a way I couldn't explain. I remembered the words in my head. Consume it. I apprehensivelly brought the sphere up to my beak and crunched it before swallowing. I then began to feel tired. Fatigued.

"Well done, fledgeling. You have completed the rite of passage, and do not need my energy support. Rest, and recuperate. You have done well."

My eyes fluttered shut as I collapsed on the ground, sinking into sweet oblivion.

School. Is. OVER! Yay! Let summer begin. Also, if anyone's curious, no, the dude's not going to the gala. No buts. So, expect more updates, though I might be on vacation for some days, and have a good summer vacation. Thanks for reading, and keep your stick on the ice.

Chapter 5: Farewells

Farewells

I listened enraptured to the beautiful melody that was being sung to me by a collection of birds. They had come while I was unconscious and gotten ready so that when I woke up, they started to sing. Tens of parrots and a few other birds all raised their voices and it was quite beautiful. Even the raucous squawks of the parrots tied into the song that in my opinion, had to be rehearsed. It was undescribable. When it finally came too an end, I smiled widely at them.

"That was quite impressive, little birds. A beautiful melody."

They all chirped happily and some of the parrots bowed and said 'Encore, encore!' in their squawky, high-pitched voice. I got up to my feet, or should I say, talons, and stepped out the door, banging my head on the top.

"Doh! Must remember that I'm twice as tall as the normal inhabitants."

I rubbed my head, annoyed at myself and the door. The birds flew out after me and soared away, a few of them turning back and almost waving, which I took to be a goodbye. I heard hooves clopping towards me on my right.

"So you awaken once more. I'm surprised that you actually awoke so quickly. Magic as powerful as yours should drain you considerably. Yet here you stand once more, and I thank you again for protecting our village. It is rather unfortunate that both a dragon and diamond dogs visited so soon, but thanks to you, they are no more."

"Wasn't there a huge flying ship around?"

"Indeed there was. It was meant to carry slaves back, but when they saw the destruction, they turned back. Your magic was powerful."

"I did magic..." I said to no one in particular. "So why were those diamond dogs here?"

"From what we know, they come to take slaves to their mines in Gem Fido. They rarely come to the Zebra Isles, but instead prefer to enslave the griffins who live next to them. We were quite unprepared this time around, due to the recent dragon attack."

"So you could fend them off?"

"Perhaps. Now that we have the scales of the dragon to add a better edge to our weapons, it would be even more difficult for them to take us."

"That's good."

"You are planning to continue elsewhere?"

I was shocked. She had noticed right away.

"Well, yes. I don't want to seem ungrateful to you, but there seems to be something I'm missing. A reason all those birds came to me. What I'm destined to become."

"I understand. You wish to learn more about your ancestors, even if they weren't your ancestors per se. You feel the need to learn magic, and accomplish what you need to accomplish."

"How did you know?"

"I'm not as stupid as I look. We figured you would have such an ideal."

"So do you have any idea where I should go?"

"I would think that the best course of action would be to go south, to Zebrica. It would make sense that you would be able to find information in that area, for it is mostly unaffected by pony explorers. Few get to Zebrica, for it is far away, and most are easily distracted by other places."

"Zebrica... the place where ventolians once resided. It would make sense."

Suddenly, a little ball of black and white tackled me. Or at least, tried to. Hard to tackle something six times your size. I looked down at my chest and there was the little zebra filly.

"You are going already, Truenis?"

"It would seem that way, little one."

"Why?"

I stroked her mane.

"We all must find our way in life. I intend to find mine, back in Zebrica."

"I would have liked to spend more time with you, but I guess that it can't be helped. Will we see each other again?"

"Most indubitably."

She looked up at me, an eyebrow raised. I chuckled.

"That means of course. We both have long lives ahead of us, and how could I forget you?"

She squeezed me one last time and then let go.

"Okay, but if we don't, I'll come back and haunt you."

Of course, I knew she was joking. Or at least, I hoped she was. You can't really tell what can happen and what can't when you're in a world like this one.

I opened my four wings, crouched, and leaped into the air, letting out an eagle's screech as I went. I steadied myself and headed south, from what I could determine from the sun and something that seemed like a sort of internal GPS thingamabob.

'I just noticed something: I love flying. It is awesome. Such freedom, such wonder, such- TREE! SWERVE! BIRD! STORK! EVASIVE ACTION!'

After a while, I had left the island behind, and was flying over the open sea, blue and calm, scarcely a wave. Occasionally, I whipped my claw forth with incredible speed to nab an unfortunate fish, swimming foolishly close to the surface. Funny thing, I ate it raw. And it tasted good. Meat, blood, even bones. Just went down the hatch, and I didn't even notice the lack of it being exposed to sufficient heat to cook it.

At one point, I noticed a dark patch ahead of me in the water. My wings sort of took over, and sent me zooming upwards, and a good thing, too. Out of the water came a huge reptilian blue blunt and very toothy predator head with a long neck, roaring at me.

"SWEET APPLESAUCE AND HAMBURGER GRAVY! A SEA SERPENT!"

I just managed to stay ahead of it's giant jaws and jabbed my weapon into one of it's four yellow eyes. It roared in pain and retreated beneath the surface, leaving me hovering in the air, heart pounding and eyes wide. I gradually calmed down, and took a moment to examine my weapon, noting a curious spark of blue electricity running periodically across it's shaft and it's blade, as if it was charged and was demonstrating this.

"I need to name this blade. Heck, I don't even know what kind of weapon it is. Sword, no. Shaft is too long. A spear has a different blade, and nothing else seems fitting. I'll give it a proper name, so I don't have much doubt about it. Hmm, let's see... Made from the scales of a purple lightning dragon, has slayed diamond dogs, highly dangerous... Drawing another blank here... I gotta get better at naming things... HOLY TOLEDO!"

My last statement was directed at the creature lifting it's heads out of the water, clearly angry at me. Yes, I said heads. It was my old buddy the sea serpent... with 8 of his bros. I immediately started dodging as best I could.

"Okay, note to self: Not a sea serpent, a sea hydra. Now that that's clarified, I can die happy. I really need to stop talking sarcastically and losing breath when trying to evade giant sea monsters. And yet I continue."

I tried to evade the beasts, giving aerial maneuvers in some occasions, and glancing blows in others(Stupid slippery scales don't allow me to cut their head off, not that it would help much.) but eventually, I got surrounded. Adrenaline set in. The weapon in my hands crackled. I heard thunder. To my shock, dark clouds were forming overhead. A drain on my energy was present, and I fought to stay awake. With a thunderous boom, lightning flashed from the stormclouds and struck the hydra heads. They roared in pain and anguish before retreating to their dark home in the deep. As if sensing my exhaustion, the clouds rolled under me and somehow lifted me up in the sky, enveloping me and providing me with a sleeping location till my energy was restored. As my thoughts ebbed away, I thought of a name for my sword.

"I shall... call... you... Thunderhilt."

And then I blacked out.

I awoke with a yawn and a cracking of joints, a habit of mine that was one of my greatest skills. Seriously. In my hands alone, I could pop 20 different joints. Just in my fingers. Then there were the various back-cracking methods, the knees, the ankles, the toes, even the elbows could make a satisfying noise once in a while. Not to mention the neck, one of the most satisfying of all.

I realized with a start that I was laying on a cloud. A dark thundercloud. I bounced experimentally. The thing was practically a trampoline. I started jumping, something that nobody had ever allowed me to do on my bed back on Earth. Any birds that passed by must have thought I was slightly mental, but I didn't care. I suddenly noticed that my jumping was making rain spurt from the cloud, and that small crackles of lightning also came. With a smirk, I leaped off, flew up into the air and dive-bombed it. The thunderous roar that erupted would be deafening to anything that had above-average hearing. As it was, my ears merely resorted to pounding terribly, accompanied by a small headache. I looked below me and saw that the lightning bolt that had jumped out had somehow managed to strike a shark, and it was now floating, roasted, below me.

"Uuuuuh... breakfast is served, I guess."

And it wasn't too bad, but I had a distinct feeling that I would have preferred it raw. Weird taste buds, huh?

I decided that after the events that had passed, namely, the sea hydra, I would fly high in the sky. It was up there that I discovered something curious. Trees and other vegetation are the fruit of the land. Algae, coral and similar things are the fruit of the sea. And to my surprise, wisping around in the upper atmosphere was the fruit of the sky, almost invisibly translucent masses that blew around in an invisible wind, with soft textures and various tastes to acoompany them. They made a decent dessert, and some of them were salty, making good travel snacks. I put some of the finer examples inside my pack.

I continued on my way, alternating using my front smaller wings and my larger back wings, a process that allowed me to continue for quite some time before getting fatigued. Of course, eventually my wings couldn't take much more, so I gathered a few clouds and layed to rest myself, finding curiously that I could shape the cloud using what I thought to be magic. Eventually, I grew bored of that, and resorted to thinking about other things, and found myself examining my voice.

"My voice is way deeper than what it was before, but not so deep that it sounds like an old warrior. More like a really noble person. Cool. I guess it makes it easier to role-play someone legendary. I can live with that. But why am I able to make the screech sound, then? Perhaps another set of vocal chords? Ah, who cares? I'm awesome, even though I don't know how."

I took off once again, wings beating against the atmosphere as I bit into a sweet sky fruit.

The process continued for a couple days. I would fly and eat, and when I got tired, I would rest. At night, I would sleep on dark thunderclouds(So I like thunderclouds. Big deal. They're way cooler than ordinary white clouds. Deal with it.). After a while, I finally sighted a thick line on the horizon. As I approached, it got thicker and was revealed to be a sort of orange-ish color. When I finally reached the coastline, I could see that it was no mere island. The landscape stretched on and on, farther than the eye could see.

"So... This is Zebrica."

I walked for a while, seeing nothing but sand. The beach just kind of turned into desert practically immediately. After some time, vegetation started to appear, and it quickly turned into a savannah, with tall grass interspersed with open spaces with dry ground. I heard a thud to my right. To my astonishment, walking along was a giant creature that was made out of stone. It had a flat head that was perfectly parallel to a hunched back, no mouth, the two purely brown glowing eyes peering out from the middles of what could only be described as it's head. It's legs were boulders interlocking together, that plodded along with grand thumps. What was surprising was that there was a sort of crater in it's back that glowed with the light of a few gems, and it's hands, attached to stone boulder arms, were made entirely out of precious stones. As I watched, a single large yellow-ish diamond fell out of it's back and disappeared into the ground. It appeared to have not noticed, and continued on it's way, soon being little more than a speck in the distance.

Then, a small crowd of zebras came out of some tall grass and immediately started digging where the diamond was. Soon, they unearthed it, and held it up high for all the others to see. They all cheered and patted each other on the back, and then turned their heads toward where the stone monster went off to, and said 'Our thanks to you, stone gem-bringer!' in Zebrican, and turned and went off in another direction, in a very good mood. I watched as they disappeared, deciding to keep away for the time being. Suddenly, I heard a noise, as if the ground was breaking. A gravelly voice from behind me(I don't know how it was gravelly, but that's the best word for it) spoke.

"So. A ventolian is in Zebrica once again. I thought I might not see this day, yet here I am, in the presence of one of my cousins."

I looked around, and what I saw left me speechless.

Sorry it took so long to get this chapter out. Oh well, I guess. Before you ask, the rock monster was invented by me in a chance encounter while I was doodling. I like doodling. You draw a simple shape and try to turn it into something cool. Going off on a tangent here. Anyways, thanks for reading, and keep your stick on the ice.

Chapter 6: Mountain

Mountain

I turned around, and what met my eyes was surprising, to say the least. The creature that was there looked like you had stretched Sandshrew, added slim, long hands with extremely long nails, slapped an armadillo's head on it and added a long, probably prehensile tail. In short, like a giant, bricked out pangolin. I blinked.

"Forgive me if I offend, but would you mind telling me your species?"

I definetely did not want to make this guy angry. Sure, I was twice as tall as him, but he was three times as long, and had impressive muscles. Clearly not to be messed with. I realized I was holding a breath, but I let it go silently when he laughed.

"Surely you would recognize a cousin, wouldn't you? But then again, it could be possible, seeing as you are from elsewhere."

An image flashed through my mind.

"Hold on. Are you an earth being?"

"That I am, lord of the sky. A terradore."

'Okay, so now I know the name and looks of the earth being, and I know that the water being is slightly frog-like."

"So tell me, exactly how old are you? Surely around three centuries or so?"

"Um... I am sixteen years of age."

His jaw dropped and his eyes went wide.

"But that is impossible! Judging by your size, physique and appearance, that would be the correct approximate age! How can you only be sixteen?!"

I looked around and acknowledged that no one was around.

"You're going to have to keep this a bit of a secret, okay?"

He nodded.

"Good. The truth is, I wasn't always a ventolian."

"WHAT?!"

"Shhhh! Not so loud! But yes, I was once something else, and the age limit on that species was around eighty years old in good condition, some made it to ninety, and very few made it over a century. Of course, in unfavorable conditions, life expectancy was more of a lucky fifty years, and a common forty."

"So, you were once a pony?"

I considered telling a lie, but decided against it.

"Actually, my old species, I don't think they exist on this planet, maybe not even in this universe. I, through intervention of a crazy entity, actually managed to reach this reality after me and what could count as my friends died and I didn't have anything left over there. So, this is me, a sixteen year old ventolian."

"I am indeed confused, but I think I get the main idea. However, it would pay to not give away your age, not even if it is asked of you."

I nodded.

"So, I suppose now you would like me to tell how I ended up in Zebrica?"

"If you do not mind."

"Very well. I have come here in a journey to seek knowledge about my abilities and the ventolians before me. Could you assist me there."

He hung his head.

"Alas, the last ventolian died peacefully a few millenia ago, before even the birth of the alicorn sisters that rule today. And, though we live long, none of our kind managed to meet a sky lord and be alive today. Yet their legacy continues to be taught to all of our kind, and the kind of the water beings as well."

"Do you know of any place that does have that information?"

He scratched his chin thoughtfully.

"Now that you mention it, there is one place that might have what you are looking for? A mountain, which so far no one has managed to climb yet, not even terradores can reach the absolute flat peak. The reason for this is unscaleable walls with magic spells that prevent burrowing or teleporting, and there is a noticeable lighter atmosphere which prevents all fliers from gaining entrance. Few actually know that thousands of years ago, it was an important peak in the society of the beings of the air."

"What was it called?" 'Okay, it's gonna be something from my world that has been altered to an equine version.'

"It is Mount Kilimanejaro."

'NAILED IT! Mental high-five!'

I must've had an odd expression on my face, because my acquaintance shrugged and said:

"Hey, don't look at me, I didn't name it. Blame it on the pony explorers from a few eons ago." he huffed.

"You know, this seems to be going around a lot. I still haven't told you my name. My name is-"

"Ah ah ah!" he yelled. "Names have a certain power among us. Don't give me your real name, just tell me what to call you. Only tell your real name to somebody who you are absolutely sure you can trust, who knows how to keep a secret, and remember that your real name is only to be used when absolutely noone is around. You may call me Geocraf, but that is not the name I was given as a child."

"Very well, you may call me Truenis."

"Truenis... it fits you for some reason."

'Heh. I'm lucky. No one's going to try to... do some sort of weird magic with my name because they aren't gonna guess it.'

"I have been hearing that a lot."

"It is quite true. So, I see that you have already completed the rite of passage."

"Rite of passage?"

He chuckled.

"You truly do not know much, do you? The rite of passage is different depending on our species, but in the case of the ventolians, the young fledgeling had to find a great beast that had evil intentions and slay it, making a weapon from what remained in a select style. Some even chose to make clothing or armor as well. It is quite clear that you have slain a dragon. May I?"

I nodded and handed my weapon to him. Immediately, blue lightning coursed all around him, but he didn't seem to be fazed at all. He handed it back to me, upon which the energy stopped.

"As I suspected. Your weapon has taken a liking to you. Don't let any other person touch it. As I am a lord of earth, I can channel the energy into the ground, but any other being would most definetely be shocked quite severely. So, how did you slay the dragon exactly?"

"Uh... I don't remember all the details."

He cocked his head.

"Beg pardon?"

"The details are kind of fuzzy. I gouged out it's eye with my claws, and then I used some sort of magic to make a big hole right through it."

"How much magic do you know, exactly? It must be a good amount, seeing as how you used a cloaking spell with almost no effort."

"Cloaking spell?"

He gave me a 'Wut?' look.

"The spell you were just using to hide yourself from the zebras."

I blinked.

"Okay, add that to the list of involuntary magic spells. Really, the only magic I've used has been accidental, one time caused by what I could assume to be the ghost of a ventolian from long ago. I know practically diddly-squattage about the arcane."

"Well then, you should learn how to feel the flow of magic."

"Flow of magic?"

"Sort of a sixth sense, impossible to teach or describe, we all find it in different ways and no I can't tell you how to find it."

"So, changing topic, what was that rock monster back there?"

"Oh, you mean Kraktos? He's one of the creations of a terradore from a few millenia ago. They say he had a lot of spare time and used it to make a few creatures, which is way harder than you would expect, and I'm not going to teach you because I don't know, and you would do it differently."

"Okay. So, can you show me the way to Kilimanejaro?"

"Very well. See if you can keep up. I'll extend a tracking signal from where I'm burrowing so you can follow."

He closed his eyes, and then a rod suddenly popped out of the earth. He grasped it, and pulled upwards, revealing a large brown hammer. He chuckled at my expression of surprise.

"Trokaaj here is my weapon. He is a bit heavy, so I just summon him when I need him."

As strange as it seems, the hammer seemed a bit offended at the 'heavy' remark. Geocraf held his hammer out, and a red glowing marker appeared over his head, clearly visible.

"Now, if you take to the sky, I'll just burrow, and we'll be there in no time."

I had to internally smirk.

'How the heck is he going to burrow as fast as I fly?'

He then just sort of dived into the ground, as if it was an illusionary surface, and the marker, staying above ground, started moving at a pace that would make an Olympic runner jealous. My eyes widened and I took off to the skies.

'He wasn't kidding. He moves through dirt like a motorboat through water.'

The marker finally came to a stop at the base of a grey mountain, that extended far beyond the clouds in height. I actually got a bit woozy looking at it. I touched down at the ground as he surfaced.

"Welcome to Mount Kilimanejaro. Just remember, scale the mountain on foot first, and when you reach the giant wall, fly, and use all your wings. Two wings don't cut it here, which is why dragons and birds can't get up there. Good luck, Truenis."

"You know, I consider that an insult."

"What?"

"To wish one good luck. To me, it implies that I need good luck to do something, and that my skills would not allow me to succeed by themselves."

"That's a way of looking at it. In that case, break a leg."

"I take offense to that as well. Wishing harm upon another?"

He faceclawed.

"Fine. Use your skills, don't break a leg, and if you die, stay up there so I don't have to bury you."

He disappeared under the ground before I could come up with a witty comeback, and I turned my attention to one point of interest.

'How in the name of heck am I going to scale this thing?'

Eventually, I had to resort to walking up the mountain. It was slow going, but I wanted to conserve my wingpower for when I needed it. I could feel that the air was lighter around this mountain, and I knew that I wouldn't be able to fly as high. So I had to use my claws to go upwards, going among the bushes and the few trees that were on the landscape and hopping over small gaps. For some reason, I wasn't frying in the sun. A vague notion of my body temperature being maintained constant by my coat of feathers presented itself in my head, but I pushed it away, concentrating on the climb. After a few hours of walking, I stopped beneath the scant shade of a large tree, took a bit of juicy sky-fruit out of my bag and munched on it, letting the watery juice quench my thirst.

After finishing the sweetish treat, I took Thunderhilt and began tracing my claw around it, examining it's every detail. It seemed to crackle to life, a small spark of lightning appearing at random intervals.

"Interesting..." I muttered. "I wonder exactly how alive you are. That other hammer seemed to even have emotions."

Thunderhilt crackled a bit more, now glowing slightly. I shrugged and placed it back on my back, held by the leather that was strapped there. I then resumed walking up the mountain.

Two hours later, I was ambushed by what I could only define as a plant monster. It had a head reminiscient to a smiling venus fly-trap(cliché, right?), and a thick vine extended from there into the ground. Branching out from the thick vine were several smaller vines, each ending with a point, with thorns all over it. But what was really threatening about it was the two bigger vine-arms that were maybe three times as long as the others, and the thorns that were on them were about the length of a human shoulder to the elbow, slightly curved, and insanely sharp. I had Thunderhilt drawn, and I was in the air, dodging the smaller vines, cutting a few of them that came too close, but most of all, staying away from the wicked thorns that seemed capable of cutting a limb off. I flew to and fro, grateful that flight was a gift and I didn't need to learn it from scratch, when one of the huge thorns caught my left forearm slightly, leaving a small gash that would count as barely more than a papercut. The head of the plant seemed to smile even more, and the attacks ceased. I wondered for what reason this was, until I felt it. Pain. All over, but mostly in my left forearm. Burning. A scream. I realized it was me. I dropped to the ground, managing to shut my mouth, but wriggling almost uncontrolably, barely avoiding the small vines that went out, one by one, to pierce me. The head itself tried to get me, to grab me with it's giant, thorny teeth, but Thunderhilt somehow managed to bonk it on where the nose would have been, and it retreated momentarily. The pain subsided slightly. I stood shakily up to my feet, Thunderhilt weakly grasped in my right claw. A giant vine swung towards me. I had had enough. I roared like a berserker, rolled under the vine, got up to my feet and sliced upwards, chopping the appendage. The monster screamed in a high-pitched, whistly voice, and scampered away, it's main vine surfacing from the ground, displaying several large roots that carried it away, the stump that was left of the arm wriggling wildly. I sighed and limped again towards the peak, the pain slowly leaving my arm.

'So the giant plant monster has a pain venom, meant not to kill, but cause inmense discomfort, to say the least.'

I gazed upwards at the grey wall, an impeccable cliff with no cracks, footholds or platforms anywhere. It stretched pretty far, and a mist presented itself after a short little bit.

"I'm guessing that this might be the unclimbable wall." I said to myself. My thoughts responded to me.

'Gee, ya think, Captain Obvious? I wouldn't have noticed, given the fact that it can't be climbed.'

"Shut up, brain."

'Not brain, dude.'

I realized with a start that it actually wasn't me that was thinking that. I shook my head, confused, and started the arduous climb upwards, to reach the top of the mountain.

Hello there, and welcome back to Ancient Wings, New Soul. This new chapter took a while because, frankly, I didn't have much time, and there were a few things that were a bit more active. Like this new game we've got at our house. At my house, we like to play racquet games, such as fronton, tennis and squash. So we take this squash racquet, go to our backyard, and take turns. And you see, we have a bumblebee burrow there in the grass. So we take the squash racquet, and when a bumblebee buzzes along to try to enter or exit, well, *SQUASH!*. And that is what we've decided to call the game(true story). And for some reason, they're not lessening in numbers. Over the past two weeks, we must've squashed about a couple hundred. Even today, we killed a total of 66. Anyways, thanks for reading, and keep your stick on the ice.

Chapter 7: History And Companionship

History And Companionship

I took in deep breaths of air, trying to satisfy my body's need for oxygen. When I started flying, I had begun to wonder what that voice was, but those thoughts were driven out of my mind by the difficulty of trying to go so high in an atmosphere this thin. I realized that it wasn't just because it was a high mountain. It was actually a rather low one. The problem was the spell surrounding the mountain that thinned out the air and prevented other spells.

My four wings all beat the air powerfully, their tips touching above and below me when they flapped. I gasped for more breath, forcing myself to go higher and higher, slowly making progress up the steep mountain. The fog got thicker, and I was just about to give up, rest and try again, when suddenly, the cliff stopped going up and instead chose to be at an even level. Naturally, I immediately dove for the ground and lay there, panting. After some time spent on the rock, I rose to my claws and started walking forward. Absentmindedly, I noticed that I could cast a spell again if I wanted to. The mist wasn't so bad that I couldn't see five inches in front of my face, but it wasn't perfectly clear either. Out of the corner of my eye, I suddenly saw movement. I immediately drew Thunderhilt and held it in a defensive stance.

'A bit nervous, are we?', said the strange voice in my head.

'Shut up, what or whoever you are. I don't want to deal with you at this moment.'

'Ooh, touchy, are we?'

I pushed those thoughts away and slowly advanced towards the source of movement. As I approached, I put Thunderhilt back, as what I saw was a waterfall.

'Waterfall? So I'm not at the top? Or am I?'

I examined the cascade curiously. There was no cliff around, just flat ground, except for a few stray boulders. The water seemed to just come from the fog above, me being unable to see the source, and fall down onto a boulder, where, to my surprise, it made absolutely no sound. No splash, no crash, nothing. In fact, there was no sound at all. No wind, no birds, just silence. I took off my bag and Thunderhilt, and laid them by a large stone. Thunderhilt crackled in protest, so I decided to hold onto him. I leaped onto the boulder and slowly went under the waterfall, assuming a human cross-legged position, with Thunderhilt laid across my knees. Almost immediately, stray thoughts vanished and left me thinking about one thing: the flow of magic that I wanted to feel. I extended my senses, trying to detect anything that would point me in the right direction. At first, nothing. Only the steady rise and fall of my chest. The seconds ticked by. How much time I spent there I don't know, but somehow I managed to only think about the flow of magic. It was as if the waterfall was a focus for concentration. I remained with my eyes closed, looking for the one thing that would guide me to magic.

Gradually, something came up. A weird feeling, undescribable. I could see something there, though I didn't have my eyes open. I knew there were tendrils of something, but didn't know how I knew. The feeling got stronger. I felt a stronger source running through myself, through my veins, and through Thunderhilt. I opened my eyes.

"I see it."

I could sense it. Magic, throughout the air, and through me, enchantments woven into something in the distance. I reached inside of me and tried to control the magic. My wings flared open, and I was certain that my eyes were glowing(don't ask me how). I felt some fatigue. I shook it off and observed what had happened. A medium-sized boulder was floating at the same height of my head. I made a move to spin it, and another small wave of fatigue hit me. I dropped the rock.

"I can't be that bad at magic, can I?"

I reviewed what I had heard about magic. Wizards used magic words and wands, according to legend. Witches made potions with reagents and used a less flashy magic to fly around and other minor things. Some legends of unicorns that used their horns to cast spells. Little elves that used magic songs. Dragons and other mythical beings roaring, spitting out fire and inducing fear. Casting using staffs. Geocraf holding out his hammer and casting a spell.

'I see a paaaaaaatteeeern!', sing-songed the weird voice.

"They all channel their magic through something. Magic words, wands, reagents, waving of claws and hands, extreme mental powers, magic songs, horns, roars, fire glands, staffs, Geocraf's hammer, they're all methods of channeling magic. Some are probably better than others. I just channeled magic using my wings and possibly my eyes. The zebras used ingredients to make potions, Geocraf used his hammer. Objects other than the source of magic work best, the caster is not the best channeler, he just directs the magic through something else. Reagents hold magic and when combined with other reagents obtain potions that release certain magic spells when consumed. Some magic is more passive, like plant spirits and how they radiate a certain amount of magic power that helps plants grow. Terradores need something to focus their magic through, in Geocraf's case, his weapon. Ventolians probably need to as well. Thus, an easier way to cast magic would be using Thunderhilt."

'Brilliant deduction, Sherlock. You figure that out all by yourself?'

"You know, I don't know what's scarier, the fact that you are a mysterious voice in my head or the fact that you are a mirror image of my inner personality."

I stood up, hopped off the rock and headed towards the area in which I felt enchantments, putting my bag back on on the way. As I got closer, I could tell that the spells were ancient, yet familiar.

'So, how about we play I Spy on the way? I spy, with my little eye, something... misty.'

"The mist?"

'How'd ya know? Okay, I'll go again. I spy, with my little eye, something... white.'

"Mist?"

'Well, point for the bird. Me, again. I spy, something... clear.'

"Mist.", I responded immediately.

'Not bad, not bad. Okay, I spy, with my little eye, something...'

"Mist.", I deadpanned.

'Dang, you're good.'

I rolled my eyes and shut out the voice. It was creeping me out. Then, I saw a building. A big building. It was made of a light grey rock, and seemed to be something like an ancient Greek temple, castle size. Weird symbols were above the large doorway, not Equestrian, nor Zebrican, or English. It wasn't Egyptian hieroglyphics, and yes, I knew how to read those. Comes with having a brain which is a cross between a sponge and a black hole. Nothing like I had ever seen. But I still knew how to read it. Before my eyes, holographic images of the symbols rose from the real versions, shifted amongst themselves and changed shape until there was a translation I could see.

Mistpeak Castle

"Well, I'm certainly glad they didn't put Kilimanejaro right there."

'No kiddin'. That is one lame horse pun.'

"I concur. Now, let's see what's inside."

I briefly wondered how I had come to accept the voice, then disregarded it as unimportant and pushed the door open. It didn't creak, or rasp. It just slid right open.

"That's a handy enchantment. Anti-creak doorways."

I stepped inside. The area had a lot of space, presumably for flight capability. And it was huge. I slowly flapped up. It seemed like dust was non-existent here. Either that, or another enchantment. And it might have been just my coat of feathers, but it was warm. There were no rugs or anything, but the floor wasn't cold either. But the silence was eerie. A bit sad too. Such a large place, and no one in it. I saw that in the walls there were various holes with tunnels leading from them. I went through one marked Workshop and ended up in a large space that was most definitely hollowed out of the ground. Over in one corner were a few anvils, and a couple large furnaces, with lumber piled up. There were also a few buckets and a spring of water. Over in another area, there were a few tables. Hanging on the walls were various tools used in woodworking, blacksmithing, tinkering, and various other tools. And even stranger, opposite from the furnace, there was a small pedestal, and a book on top of it. Naturally, I became curious, and approached it. It wasn't extremely thick, but browsing through it, it was larger than it looked, and had various pictures in great detail accompanying the text, which translated itself fairly quickly with practice.

"Dang... Whoever wrote this was a good artist."

I came upon a page that had the title of Lighting A Fire. I was about to turn the page, rolling my eyes because it would be simple to just use flint and steel, when I saw the picture of a gemstone. I then proceeded to read the text that was there.

If circumstance allows the fact that a fire has gone out, a new type of magic spell may be used to light a new fire. Despite the fact that ventolians use only wind and lightning magic, as well as some related spells and some of the more useful enchantments, a new method has been discovered. For this, it is necessary to have a capable weapon, including a material that can hold magic before channeling it, such as dragon scale, ursa fur, or a similar object, or a simple gemstone. The method used is to pour an amount of neutral, raw magic into the weapon and/or gemstone, leaving it charged. With the thought of the wood burning in mind, the word "ignis" must be muttered with all confidence. Bear in mind that you must be having thoughts of the wood burning, else the spell backfires and affects something else, or uses the flames in a different manner, or in some cases, causes lightning. The history of this word is unknown, being passed down through the generations, but it is thought to have simply been happened upon by one of the first ventolians. Many have sought words similar to "ignis", but none have managed to trigger a response from the stored arcane energy.

I looked up, and deduced what I could.

"Ignis is latin for fire, in some circumstances lightning. That would explain the response of the stored magic. Magic is now considered a type of energy, arcane energy to be exact. Gemstones, dragon scale, ursa, which I don't know what it is, fur and others can hold magic. Some other materials can channel, but can't hold. When using magic, must have a clear image of what you want. Otherwise, it could turn out unexpected. For better or for worse. Latin. Chaos told me that latin is magic in this world. Latin is commonly associated with magic, and by golly, the humans were right. So, theoretically speaking, "aqua" would trigger a result with water, "tenebris" would use darkness, "glaciem" is ice, "lux" is light, "fulgur" is another word for lightning. Of course, it's probably not just elemental words. "Timore", fear, would be an interesting experiment. Oh, I'm gonna have fun with this."

I continued my exploration of the castle. I happened upon a useful room, the library, which contained various stories, both fictional and historical, biology of the ventolians, and numerous other stories. I also came upon a mess hall of sorts, and seeing it made me wish that I could've seen it filled with legendary birds. After a while, I came upon a courtyard. Trees and flowers bloomed, though they hadn't had tenders in millennia. They were still healthy, and many had fruit. I could see, after examination, that there was a spell cast to keep them healthy.

In the center of the garden, I could sense a powerful enchantment. I approached slowly, rounded a corner, and there was a pyramid, built Aztec style, with steps leading up from four directions. I cautiously approached, not wanting to set off any danger. Then I saw what was at the top. A pedestal, upon which was a pillow, that had a large egg on top of it. It was red, with yellow markings on it.

'Breakfast!', yelled the voice.

'Don't. Even. Joke. Like that.', I responded.

'Okay.', it replied dejected.

I walked a bit further towards it, but was then cut off by a cracking sound. I blinked. The egg was splitting down the middle. I could sense the spell fading. With a resounding crack, it split open completely, the bits of eggshell falling around the cushion. I saw what was inside the egg. It was a very small reptilian. A dragon to be exact. A shiny red dragon with orange stripe marking at a few points on its body. It yawned and stretched its arms, displaying a sharp set of teeth and surprisingly well-sized muscles, considering it just hatched. I was torn between 'That is so adorable I wanna glomp it.' and 'That is one awesome-looking dude'. A couple of miniscule wings on its back buzzed as he rose to his feet and glanced around. Seeing me, he hopped down on two feet and trotted up to me until he was looking up at me and I looking down at him.

"Who are you?", he asked.

I was flabbergasted. The dude wasn't a minute old and he already knew how to talk. I found my voice.

"You may call me Truenis. Do you have a name?"

He scratched his chin thoughtfully.

"I think I do. No, I know I do. What was it?"

He clutched his head.

"Come on, come on, think. I know what my name is, I just know it. It began with an F, or was it an E, or maybe a B... Grrrr, all I remember are feathers. A lot of feathers and a bit of yellow."

I cocked my head.

"Well then, if you can't remember your name just yet, what should we call you now?"

"Call me now?", he asked, confused.

"Of course. Until you can remember, you should have something for someone to call you by."

"That's... understandable. I guess you can just call me.... Flare, for now."

I knelt down so as to put myself at his eye level.

"Well then, Flare. Would you like to travel with me?"

His face brightened.

"Sure. I can try to remember my name too."

Without hesitating, he went to my side, climbed up and nestled himself in my feathers, slipping inside the strap that held Thunderhilt. I smiled at him.

"Welcome aboard, Flare."

"Thank you. So, uh, now what?"

I pondered this. I had already learned much about ventolians, and even went through a spell book and selected a few to practice.

"We could go north, if you would like. Search out some curiosities. What do you say?"

"Sure."

He slipped out of the strap and stood in a triumphant pose, finger pointing ahead.

"Onwards, to adventure!"

I had to smile at the little guy. He was gifted. He was smart, and could be adorable and totally awesome at the same time. He was going to be a good companion.

Hey, y'all. Chapter 7 is done. And before you say anything, the wings on Flare are meant to be there, and I am aware that baby dragons don't have them. Just wait and see about him. Also, HAPPY 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY, FIMFICTION!!!!! Oh, in case someone was wondering, the bumblebee body count is 300 in the last six days. Yes, we started counting. Anyways, thanks for reading, and keep your stick on the ice.

Chapter 8: The Journey Begins

The Journey Begins

As it turns out, adventure was not just over the horizon. First, we explored more of the castle. At one point, Flare went off on his own and came back carrying, of all things, a ukulele. After strumming it a few times, he did something which astonished me to no end: he put it away. Why is it surprising? He didn't have pockets or a bag. He just put it behind his back and it disappeared. After staring open-mouthed for a few minutes, I dismissed it as cartoon logic(best reason ever) and continued exploring, finding my favorite room: The Library. The black hole brain was engaged, reading about olden times. Evidently, this was not the only castle of the ventolians. There were a few others, with a council ruling over each one, and many ventolians moved from one place to the next. Every once in a while, representatives would meet up in one castle and discuss matters. Contact with the lords of the earth and of the water were not particularly abundant, but it wasn't taboo or unusual to have friendships or even in some occasions, a marriage. Sometimes, a chosen ventolian would go and talk of an important matter, if there was one, with two other lords of the land and sea, in a traditional spot at high sea, on platforms raised out of water and surrounded by a hurricane. Unity and harmony was key, contrary to the relationship of Kyogre and Groudon in Pokémon. If there was not trust and agreements between land, sea and sky, the planet would be destroyed in the resulting battle. Cooperation spawned things such as mountains, clouds, the tide, tornadoes, waterspouts, and a few other natural occurrences.

"Kinda makes you wonder what the land was like before the beasts.", said Flare.

The dragon was an interesting kid. He never stopped trying to remember, but he pored over some of the books in a manner similar to my own, hungry for knowledge. Perhaps he thought it would help him remember. I noticed that his tail, that twitched slightly almost all the time, was slim and had a serrated, barbed, arrow-shaped tip.

'Okay, let's count up the points of Flare. Little size: Cute. Fiery red with orange stripes: Awesome. Big, round eyes: Cute. Purple-black slitted irises: Awesome. Steady, slightly high-pitched, non-nervous voice: Cute. Slim, twitchy tail: Cute. Barbed, serrated tip: Awesome. Adventurous disposition: Awesome. Orange, sharp spikes running down back: Awesome. Sharp claws: Awesome. Full count: 4 Cute, 6 Awesome. So far, the tyke is Awesome.'

"Uh, Truenis?"

I snapped out of my thoughts.

"Pardon, Flare. You caught me thinking. Yes, it does beg the question of what the planet was like."

He hopped over to a shelf and picked a book at random, marked Krystar and the Goblet of Scrotl.

"Ooh, adventure book, what fun!", he remarked, delving into the pages.

I returned my gaze to my own book. It implied that every ventolian went through the ritual of having to kill a powerful creature with an evil intention, initiating the process of maturing.

'So, thanks to the fact that I magically poked a giant hole through a reptilian beast and ate it's power source, I have been set on the path to maturity.

...

Do you ever hear the words coming out of your own thoughts and think 'What's that guy talking about'?'

A few hours later, we had begun to get tired, though I had learned a lot. For instance, the song that the birds on the Zebra Isles had sung to me was called The Prime Avian Melody, which was set into the memory of all birds when they were in their eggs, and which tune varied according to the class the bird was in. For instance, there was a class including some delicate songbirds that cheeped out a high melody, and another one composed of a few parrot species that added their normally raucous voices to the song perfectly. In olden times, one bird of all the species of the avians would be present at an important event. There was also a dance 'programmed' into the brains of all birds.

Flare came up to me, yawning.

'Cuteness level has increased by 1! Cute is now 5, and Awesome is 6

"Truenis, I'm getting kind of tired."

He scrambled up my side and curled up on my back, already asleep.

'Cute and Awesome are now tied.'

I gently lifted into the air silently with my wings and went through a few tunnels, finally finding the room where some guests slept. Grasping Thunderhilt, I let magic flow through me, through my weapon and into the air in front of me, where water condensed into a white cloud.

'Naaaaaaah!'

With some more magic energy, it turned into a black stormcloud, which I alighted upon and closed my eyes, letting sleep overtake me.

My eyes snapped open at the time I knew was exactly 5:55 AM. When the girl in charge wakes everybody up at 6 o'clock sharp with buckets of literal icewater, some people tended to learn how to get up before that happened. I rose to my claws and stretched, sighing in satisfaction at the numerous pops that went off in my back.

"Flare, wake up. Morning has come, and I believe we should get a move on."

He sat up and rubbed his eyes.

"First thing's first, do you have any food? I'm famished."

My own stomach growled in response. I reached into the purple dragonskin bags I had on(they are seriously awesome) and brought out a sky-fruit. He took it and bit into it.

"Mmmm, cloudfruit. Different taste to different species, flying ones enjoy it more."

"How do you know that?", I asked.

He shrugged.

"I dunno, it just came to me."

I pulled out another fruit and started munching on it, a sweet taste filling my mouth. After we had finished breakfast, I flew through a few holes, trying to find my way out of the castle.

"I feel like Alice in the Looking-glass Garden."

"Who in the what?"

"A reference to a book that I once had to read for educational purposes. Quite wacky and random, though."

He gave a small laugh and then became somber up, screwing up his face in effort.

"Searching for memories?"

"Yeah. It's on the tip of my tongue, but I can't say it. It's weird knowing you have a name, but don't know what it is."

I left him to think as I finally found my way out of the castle. The thing was freakin' ginormous. The familiar mist came into my sight as I walked away from the monolithic structure. Eventually, I left it behind, and came upon the silent waterfall. My skin crawled a little as I looked at it. Turns out, it wasn't water or anything similar. It was part of the spirits of the ancestors. So, earlier, I had been bathing in ghosts. Creepy. I left those thoughts behind and continued walking until I got to the edge of the cliff.

"Are you ready, Flare?"

"We'll just have to find out, won't we?"

Have I mentioned I love this kid?

With a leap, I jumped into the air, wings flapping to prevent extreme acceleration. Turning my head, I saw that Flare's head was whipping around wildly with the wind.

"THIS IS AWESOME!", he screamed. I grinned evilly.

'How awesome would an aileron roll be for him?'

Tucking my wings, I began spinning around, taking note of the thinning mist. Accelerating more and more, I dimly heard Flare screaming:

"RIGHTEOUS! RIGHTEOUS!"

The air became clearer as I sped down, my clear second eyelids(yeah, I got those. You jelly?) protecting my vision as my speed increased. I saw the ground in the distance, and prepared myself to adjust my angle. Close to the ground, but not squeezed up against it(I'm not stupid, nor a daredevil), I opened my wings just as a thunderous BOOM echoed around me. I realized that I had broken the sound barrier.

'Should I be surprised I just did that? Nah, I'm in a cartoon world and a lord of air. It's completely logical.'

I slowed down to a more reasonable speed and checked up on Flare. He was a bit dizzy, but he gave me a thumbs-up sign to signify that he was okay. I gently touched down on the ground.

"That was awesome.", declared the small dragon.

I chuckled lightly before the ground erupted in front of us. Vines wrapped around us and pinned us to the ground. Then, out came the head of my old buddy, the plant monster. Flare snapped his fingers and pointed.

"Oh, oh, I totally know what that is! It's on the tip of my tongue! Yes! It's a venus grandvine! Has a poison on it's thorns that causes pain and suffering but doesn't kill, and is highly vengeful against all those who... hurt it..."

He gave me a deadpan look.

"What? He attacked me first!"

"Dude, this thing tortures those who it hates before slowly ripping them apart."

I racked my brain for a way out. I looked around feverishly, position changed to bound wrists and ankles spread apart. Thunderhilt was being pulled away from me.

"Bad move, carnivine. Thunderhilt is attached to me."

My weapon coursed with blue energy and the vine holding it hastily dropped it... right into my claw.

"Okay, gotta think fast."

One of the thicker vines covered in thorns pulled back, ready to cut me. I began charging a spell, and released it around me and Flare.

"Air Slice!"

The vines holding us were sliced by the shockwave coming from Thunderhilt, dropping us to the ground.

"Does this thing have any weaknesses?", I asked as we hopped away from erupting ground vines.

"Uh... Let's see. The main vines are it's most important limbs. If they're cut, it hurts it, but it's not fatal. The minor vines are easily replaced, not a lot of feeling in those. Only way to kill it is to go for the brain, in the head, whether through burning, stabbing, or anything else. Why is it suddenly dark?"

I looked up to see that the mouth of the monster was bearing down on us. I picked up Flare and threw him to the side just as the monster caught me in it's mouth. By a great misfortune, the beast spit Thunderhilt out. I was crammed down the beast's throat.

'So, this is how it ends. Eaten by a plant.'

'Not on my watch, birdbrain!'

I rolled my eyes. The voice in my head was starting to get old. Suddenly, I heard a noise like a knife plunging into a watermelon. Looking up, I saw that Thunderhilt had somehow been cleaved above me, through the plant skin. I hurriedly grabbed it.

'Now hurry up and use me!'

Realization struck me like a lightning bolt... or maybe that was just the electric weapon.

'You're the voice in my head?!'

'You figure that all on you're own, did ya? Stop stalling and do something!'

'I can't just be struck by brilliance! I need time to think!'

I slowly began moving downwards at a jerky pace. It took a while, but I finally got my mind off of thinking of the sliminess.

'Thunderhilt is too long to be swung. My claws slip on some sort of membrane here, which is disgusting. What I have left are spells. Let's see, I don't want to light him on fire, 'cause I could get hurt. Water definitely wouldn't work. Lightning might not affect him. Ice could hurt me or block my exit. Let's see... Idea. Meheheheheheee...'

"Vomito"

A good chunk of magic flowed till the monster bagan to shake. Then, well, can ya guess? It barfed me up. I landed by Flare, who was, to my surprise, defending himself quite well, judging by the amount of charred vines and the way he was spinning that ukulele. Yeah, you heard me right. He was using a ukulele to keep away the vines. Also, his fire breath. Even as I landed, he unleashed an impressive blast of purple flames with black highlights. He saw me and smiled.

"Truenis! You got out!"

I cut a stray vine with Thunderhilt.

"Was there ever any doubt?"

He grinned as he dodged a few vines.

'HOLY COW! Did he just do a double backflip?'

My thoughts were interrupted by something slamming into me. To my horror, it was one of the big vines. And it had left a big slash on my body. My eyes widened.

"Oh, crud. This is gonna hurt. Sadistic plant."

I screamed as the pain set in. Adrenaline started pumping. Big time. At least my scream was cool. Not a girlish, high-pitched scream. A loud eagle screech. Loud enough to make the monster writhe in pain itself. Flare was also holding his ear flaps. After 7 minutes of intense pain, I finally recovered enough to stop screaming.

"I WILL DESTROY YOU!"

I flapped into the air, paying no heed to the remaining pain. Pink tinted the edges of my vision. I was mad. I reached a high altitude and zoomed towards the plant monster, cutting everything coming in my way. I screeched, and held out Thunderhilt in front of me. Time seemed to slow down for a bit as I came next to the monster's head.

"Time for this weed to get whacked."

I swung my sword down and touched down behind where the monster was. To the untrained eye, it seemed as though the monster was fine. Then, slowly but surely, as I maintained my pose on the ground, the beast's head fell... in different directions. Cut clean down the middle. I gave Thunderhilt a little twirl before putting him back on my back. Flare trotted up to me.

"I got an idea."

He waltzed up to one of the thick vines of the now-dead creature and started tugging on one of the large thorns, which were almost as big as he was. He finally succeeded in uprooting it and handed it to me.

"What say we make a weapon out of this?"

I looked at him and grinned. Carefully taking the thorn, I looked around for something for a hilt. I took some of the vines and began weaving them together. In time, a hilt began taking shape. Taking a bit of sap from the dead monster, I glued the thorn to the hilt.

"Now there's just the issue of making it stay together."

In response, the young dragon took the makeshift weapon and dipped it into a pile of sap. After that, he let loose a small belch of flame. The result was a sturdier-looking weapon.

"If the sap of the venus grandvine is very sticky, but fireproof. It is only present inside the head, which is why it's vines burn. Anyways, if subjected to high temperatures, it hardens a lot. Something between the durability of diamonds and dragonscales. Now it just needs to be sharpened."

"Well, can you channel magic?"

"Uh, maybe, perhaps just a little bit."

"Okay then, this is good. Channel magic through your weapon, and then say 'Lacero'. It will give the dagger a temporary sharp edge. It won't last very long, but you can cast it over and over again."

"Why do I say 'Lacero'?"

"It's from the same language as 'Ignis'. It triggers a magic release that differs depending on the word. The reason you have to cast it again after it wears out is that if the spell lasts longer, it has less effect. Same with area and distance. The farther away from your target you are, and the bigger your target is, the harder it is to cast, and the less effect it has. By the way, what happened to the uke?"

I had just noticed that the instrument was missing again. He shrugged.

"I put it away."

"...Right. Well, that spell-casting sure took a lot out of me. I need a nap. Or something. And, you can keep the short sword. All I need is Thunderhilt."

'A wise decision. And here I was, planning on gutting you alive. Nah, just kiddin'. You die, I die. But I could've given you a little punishment, if ya know what I mean.'

'So, we basically share a soul bond?'

'Actually, it's more like I am you. Or part of you. I represent the inner you, the you that is your real personality.'

I mentally groaned.

'Oh, joy. I have a doppleganger that I use as a weapon that is really annoying.'

'You know it, toots.'

"So Flare, you can give that a name if you want."

He put his finger to his chin.

"Hmmmm... I name this blade... Viper!"

About the late update: You know how it is, summer, vacation, mother using you as a slave, faulty internet, yadda yadda yadda. Oh, you don't accept those excuses? Fine, I'll say it. I'M SORRY! Okay, we good? We good.

On an unrelated note, the bumblebees are starting to scare me. We've counted 814 dead, but they're not coming that fast anymore. I think that they've got some evil bumblebee scientist or toxic waste down there because although they're not coming as fast, they're HUGE! These things are almost as big as my thumb! And I got a pretty big thumb. And they're juicy too. Juicy enough to spray if you hit 'em good, midair. For their big size, one good hit with the squash racquet sends 'em flying like an eagle, and those that we've recuperated are frequently either decapitated, debuttitated or both. And we've got a corpse that's creeping me out. No head, no butt, almost no guts. Guess how long it's been twitching. MORE THAN A FREAKIN' DAY! AND IT'S STILL GOING! But seriously, these things are so big that they have trouble flying. No exaggeration.

Anywho, I used some of the time that I had to draw some pictures. Cut me some slack on these, okay? They're made with colored pencils by a teenager, and the scanning didn't do too well with the result on paper, and I know about squat about Photoshop. But they turned out alright.

Here we have the cute little dragon, Flare. Isn't he adorable? And awesome? One of my better works.

Frankly, Truenis could've turned out better. I have a little trouble with beaks and wings. But Thunderhilt is perfect, so it's not too bad. Bear in mind I'm not a professional artist(though I wish I was, or at least had one drawing for me).

Again, sorry for the delay. I'm not very good at churning out chapters, but I'll try my best. Thanks for reading, and keep your stick on the ice.

Chapter 9: Dream

Dream

Quickly, I conjured up some clouds, put them at a decent altitude so as to not have any unwanted encounters and fell asleep almost as soon as I hit the clouds.

'These things are really comfortable.'

_____________________

I found myself standing on top of a cloud, looking down at an ugly sight. An army of black shady figures, brutally attacking anything that wasn't one of their own. A host of mixed-up figures were in their midst, fighting for their lives with grim efficiency. A griffin, a few dogs, some larger than others, a wingless black dragon, even some things extremely human. I also noticed I was holding Thunderhilt like a staff, and was surrounded by a few creatures. But when I tried to look at them, they vanished. I could barely see them out of the corner of my eye, but when I tried to see better, invisible.

"We should do something.", said a slightly high-pitched, feminine voice. Probably from a young teenage girl.

"We can't just leave them there like that!", concurred a young male.

Several began to step forward, but Thunderhilt, with a mind of it's own, sent out an electric field surrounding all of us. Then, to my astonishment, my weapon spoke loud and clear, and not in my head.

"Stop."

The voice sounded heavily electronic, almost robotic. A bit garbled, but clearly understandable.

"This is a test army," continued Thunderhilt. "The attack is to judge the strength of the resistance. After will come the true army, if it is big enough to do it. If we go in now, we risk an even more powerful army in the next wave. Now, we wait. The others won't be defeated. They're strong enough. We must prepare for the next attacks. We must warn others."

"Aye," agreed an older male voice. A grizzled old person must have spoke it. "The inanimate object is correct. You youngsters always want to rush into battle, without thinking of the consequences. I've seen this happen a couple times before, with a different army. They definitely have a few scouts out there, takin' info on all the members of the resistance and reporting statistics. If we go out there, they'll prepare for us as well."

I decided to put in my two cents.

"Maybe they would even make evil clones of us."

Silence. The female started to speak.

"That doesn't seem very plausible. Or anything that you would s-"

"It's possible.", interrupted the grizzly voice. "I've seen a lot of things happen. Nothing surprises me anymore."

"Then it's settled.", said Thunderhilt. "We'll fly back and warn the others. If they're prepared, there are going to be less casualties."

The whole party flew off in a different direction, me leading. Suddenly, my vision swam. The sky around me disappeared and was replaced by white. My talons landed on the ground. I knew what was going to happen now.

"Alright, Chaos, start talking."

A door rose up out of the white. I heard the knob click and the bottom of the door swung up like a trapdoor to give way to the old entity.

"I suppose you're wondering about that back there?"

"Gee, what madeja think so?"

He sighed and snapped his fingers. Two chairs materialized. We both sat down.

"I can't say too much. I'm treading on a bit of thin ice as it is. But what I can tell you is that that is a rough image of the future. It might happen, it might not, it might be a bit different, but there's a very high chance of that happening. And the only other thing I have to say: Beware the Endgame. Now, ta-ta! I can't risk giving away much else, unless I want to risk getting in deep trouble. You have no idea how long it could take to sort something like that out. The paperwork is tremendous, and the lectures are too long for me."

He banged a staff which had come into his hand on the ground and my vision swam again, before I woke up.

Okay, a bit of a short chapter here. Practically everyone is doing the vision thing and I figured, hey, why not. Thanks for reading, and keep your stick on the ice.

P.S. Beware the Endgame.... *evil chuckle*

Chapter 10: North To The Unknown

North To The Unknown

I woke up to the sound of Flare playing the ukulele. Really well. The kid was a prodigy. He was literally fingerpicking two different tunes to the same song, strumming a chord every once in a while. I couldn't even begin to describe how good he was. Take every ukulele song you've ever heard and throw it out the window. Heck, take this description and throw it out the window. If he played any better, the ukulele would burst into flames.

...

Speak of the devil.

"Uh, Flare, is that ukulele supposed to be on fire?"

He turned towards me, smiling.

"Don't worry about it, it's fireproof. It'll burn without burning up. I was doing it for quite a bit more a bit earlier. And before you ask, I dunno how I do it. It just comes naturally."

I looked the small dragon over. It was a picture of adorability, him smiling, holding the now only slightly smoking ukulele and playing. My heart threatened to explode. He finally finished playing and stood up. Stupid as I was, I took that moment to look out at the horizon, and when I returned my gaze to him, the uke was already gone.

'You gotta learn how to do that.', remarked Thunderhilt.

I disregarded his statement and held out a wing to Flare.

"You coming up?"

He scrambled up my feathers and took his place on my back.

"Okay, I'm going to try a spell. Don't freak out or anything like that."

I pulled out Thunderhilt and started concentrating on what I wanted. Releasing the magic, I obtained a perfect result.

Or so I thought.

As I looked down at myself, nothing had changed. Flare tapped my shoulder.

"Uhh, Truenis?"

I swiveled my head and let out a surprised yelp. His head was missing. I sighed dejectedly.

"Ah, well. Practice makes perfect."

I uncast the spell and his head came back into existence.

"Well, the invisibility spell didn't work out too well."

I spread my two front wings and lifted off. One of the advantages of having four wings was the ability to use one pair at a time perfectly, only using all four for extra speed, lift or maneuverability. Eventually, I reached a good altitude and grabbed a cloud for cover, holding it below me with a hole through it so I could see. The scenery was amazing. Mostly desert, but patches of green and blue, defining an oasis, and the yellow of a savannah. After a few minutes of flying, a village came into view. I slowed down. Reaching for Thunderhilt, I tried the invisibility spell once more. Yet again, it failed, making our bodies be distorted.

"Wow, refracting light using air is harder than it would seem. But I can do it. Heck, I did it once without even noticing it."

I decided to try again later and brought the cloud down lower. I was curious about the village. Simple mud huts near an oasis. As suspected, zebras. Many of them with rings on their legs or necks. A few had spears. Small children ran about, indulging in one of the mysterious games of childhood. A mare was weaving a cloth under the shade of a grass roof, while nearby an older mare stirred a glowing pot. It was a happy village, that I could tell. My attention was drawn by a few wagons up ahead.

"Flare, analysis.", I whispered.

"Travellers, maybe merchants. Faint chance of disguised robbers, yet improbable."

"And I think I can assume that there's a high chance of them cheating the zebras."

"What?"

"It's a simple con. The zebras make things that are very valuable. I know that firsthand. Thunderhilt is a high-class weapon. All the merchants have to do is go in, say some cheap baubles and trinkets are worth a ton, and clean up."

"Possible. Let's check it out."

Slowly, so as to not attract attention, we moved towards the caravan. I saw a zebra conversing with another equine, a brown one with a black mane. As we got closer, I also saw that the other equine had a sleazy look in his eyes. I could see a bonafide trickster in that face. I finally approached enough to hear the conversation.

"...And so, we would like to exchange some valuable beads for a few of your potions."

I lightly snorted. Before I made myself known, I sneaked over towards the back of the caravan. Luckily, no one was looking up, and so they didn't see a very conspicuous cloud. I saw two other equines talking.

"I just don't really think it's right. We're tricking these nice zebras. The things we're trading aren't worth a hundreth of the value of one of their potions.", said a startlingly yellow one to the other.

"Hey, just shut up. The zebras want the beads, we want the potions. We both benefit, both ponies and zebras.", said the second, green one.

'So they're ponies. What's with their colors?'

"It's just that we're cheating."

"Aw, give it a break. Your help is replaceable. Bring your complaints to the boss."

'Can I shock him?', pleaded Thunderhilt.

'Maybe later.'

'Yay!'

I moved back towards where the zebra and the other pony were still talking. The pony had a circlet of beads held in his hoof... somehow.

"This is worth an incredible amount in Equestria!"

The zebra examined it with a scrutinous eye.

"Is this true? Then why would you want to trade it?"

The pony's eyes shifted a bit before he spoke again.

"Well, uh, we've got so many that we don't know what to do with them. And we've got a little shortage on potions."

"You are sure these are valuable?"

"If they're not, may lightning strike me this instant."

I grinned maliciously.

KRAKOW!

'Low voltage bolt. Easy spell.'

The stallion swayed, his brown coat singed and his mane and tail spiky.

"Ma, the lightnin' bugs are attackin' again. Git the bug spray.", he enunciated shakily.

I decided it was time to make an entrance. The cloud I was on turned dark grey and started swirling and crackling. It lowered until I was in full view, standing with a look that would kill Medusa. Attention was immediately on me. I addressed the cheat in a forceful voice.

"Why do you cheat these kind zebras? What is the reason for this deceit."

For some reason, I decided to also use my 'noble' tone, the one I used when roleplaying on a computer game. Hey, some of us actually like using our imaginations and doing that. Don't judge me.

'Wow, way to pour on the superiority.'

'Shut up, Sparky.'

The stallion's eyes stopped swirling and he looked at me with no small amount of fear.

"Ch-cheating? What do you mean?"

I scowled even further at the slightly quivering pony.

"Your lies fool me not. The truth. Now."

"Uh, well, um."

The stallion stuttered incomprehensibly.

'This guy is pathetic. We didn't even have to use the fear spell.'

"STOP SNIVELING!"

He curled up into a fetal position and put his front legs over his eyes.

"I'm sorry! I'm a dirty louse! It's what I do for a living! The beads are worthless! We cheat them for money! Their potions are so valuable!"

'Dang. I'm not really that scary, am I?'

'Uh, chief. You descended on a black menacing stormcloud with a dragon on your back wielding a giant weapon coursing with electricity with a look capable of frying eggs. How are you not scary?'

"Quiet. Your greed dug you into this hole. For mere money, you decided to cheat a happy village. Your punishment is fear. As will it be to those who share your greed."

I channeled magic through Thunderhilt.

"Timore pro cupiditas!"

A wave of magic spread out towards the caravan. To my surprise, no screams were heard. I looked towards the "Boss". He was rocking himself slowly, pupils shrunken to pinpricks, as he whimpered and sucked on his hoof. Nodding my head in satisfaction, I dropped the dominant act and stepped onto the ground. Several zebras were watching. I spoke to them in Zebrican.

"Apologies for that display. I am Truenis of the ventolians. My companion is Flare, the dragon."

Most of the striped people were unmoving and jaw-dropped. I saw a fly go in the mouth of one and three flies come out of the mouth of another.

'That was weird', remarked Thunderhilt.

Finally, the male zebra who had been dealing with the traders got over his stupor.

"Greetings. I am Zimbala, the patriarch of this village. It is an honor to have you here."

"I fear I can not stay long, but from what I have seen, I am greatly pleased at your village. It positively radiates happiness. Though your taste in trading partners could use a little adjustment. And don't worry about them, they won't be too severely traumatized. In case of this happening again, you should have someone who knows how valuable an object is. Such as the pony who is hiding behind that wagon."

I switched back to normal dialogue.

"I know that you're behind there. Yellow pony, red mane. Picture of a scale on your flanks. I'm not gonna hurt you."

The yellow face of the pony in question appeared from behind the wagon. He was clearly freaked out, but still managed to walk over, though trembling.

"What is your name?"

"Strawberry Cheese, sir."

I managed to keep my laughter contained. Thunderhilt didn't, and exploded into laughter into my head.

"You don't need to call me sir. Now, Mr. Cheese, I overheard your discussion with the other pony back there and I offer you a proposition. Would you like to stay here with these zebras and help them in trading ventures?"

He seemed surprised at that.

"You're not going to eat me?"

I broke out into chuckles.

"Oh, heavens no. I might eat meat once in a while but I'm not going to eat you. Mostly just fish, or some other non-sentient around there. I'm not just a cruel beast, as you might have gathered from that act. That was just to give the greedy others a lesson. Well, would you like to stay?"

"Well, I suppose so. It's a more honest career than trading with those others."

I smiled.

"That's good. Do you approve of this, Zimbala?"

"It seems well to me. Thank you for your assistance, heavenly winged one."

"It was no trouble. Make sure the quivering wrecks get sent on their way. I must go now. Farewell."

I spread my four wings and took off. Once we had left the village behind, Flare tapped my shoulder.

"What was up with that back there? You were a different guy."

"That was a little something called role-playing. It's basically acting different depending on the situation you are in. I acted a bit more... like a guy who you don't want to fool around with."

"I kinda noticed. Maybe it was the thundercloud or perhaps it was the cockatrice glare."

"The thing is, ever since I came here, I've been reformatting my personality. I used to be sarcastic, casual, and a slight bit meek, but that all changed."

"Why?"

I took a deep breath and started telling him about the facts of my past. I had been a different creature on a different world, an orphan constantly being harassed whenever possible. That made me hate those who took advantage of others. I also told him how I was a wimp before.

"Pretty big change, eh? Punching bag one day, dragon-slayer the next. Harmony was making my life a living Tartarus. Chaos made it a dream come true. A violent dream, but still, it's better than what I used to have."

"What was your other form like?"

"Weak, principally. All humans were weak compared to beasts. Even the most dedicated of body-builders didn't get extremely strong. And chances of survival against a dragon would be close to nothing. Good thing they didn't exist. Anyways, a human is sort of a hairless, tailless, tall monkey. The skin color ranges from near white to pink to golden brown to black. The hair that stands out the most only grows on the top of the head and with males, on the face. Other hair grows everywhere else, but it doesn't get very long, except in some cases under the armpits or a bit shorter on the chest of some males. Humans aren't very strong or fast, so they make up for it by being smart, intelligent, inventive, sneaky, precise and tricky. You name it, we know about it and probably have 15 different ways to use it, except for some of the harder things like dimensional travel, immortality, and extended space travel. Using our brains, we've come up with devastating weapons, and before those were invented, people fought with swords and with martial arts techniques that used the full potential of the body easily. The problem is that the planet is slowly dying of pollution and because we take it's resources, and next to noone cares. And a lot of people are cruel. Sure, about a third are good people, but then there are those who just don't care and the most abundant, the people who are just bad. Bullies, murderers, rapists, some lawyers, terrorists, politicians... the list goes on. It's mostly a dog-eat-dog world, and those who want to go up must push the others down."

"Doesn't sound like humans are the best creatures."

"No kiddin'. And we're pretty darn chaotic, too. Some of the things I've seen blow your mind... twice. Don't ask."

At this point we were flying over the ocean. I tucked in my wings and hurtled towards the water before pulling up, a very nice fish in my talons.

"Warn me before you do that!", shouted Flare.

"Sorry. Want some?"

"Uh, sure."

I cut him a fillet of the meat and handed it back, slipping the rest into my own beak.

"That was kinda gross, and kinda weird."

That being said, he roasted his fillet on his purple fire-breath and gulped it down.

"Mmm... Fish."

At that point, a thought entered my mind.

'How fast can I really go?'

'Thunderhilt, that's just weird. Referring to me as you? Weird. But, you have an idea there.'

"Okay Flare, I'm going to speed up a touch. Grab hold tight."

He grabbed my feathers, causing me to squawk.

"Oi! Careful where you grab!"

He chuckled feebly and grabbed the purple dragonskin belt. I spread all my wings and started flapping. Almost instantly, I was zooming across the air.

'And I'm barely trying here!'

I used the knowledge implanted into my brain to speed up even more. Soon, despite going horizontally, I could see a mach cone in front of me.

"I shouldn't be able to survive this, but it's a cartoon! Throw logic out the window!"

I slashed in front of me and the cone exploded. Looking behind me I could see a white circle expand from where I did it. Yet still I managed to speed up. In a couple minutes, I could see a more bluish cone starting to form around me. My eyes widened.

'Mach 2!'

I strove to break through that barrier, but it was tough. In one last-ditch effort, I lunged forward, intent on breaking it. The effect was immediate. I literally bounced off. Hard.

"My face!", I shouted.

Flare was a bit loopy, eyes spinning.

"Did anyone get the number on that wagon?"

"Yes, it was M2AKATHEWALL. Ooh, I got a headache."

I managed to continue flying till we sighted land.

"Well, I almost can't believe we got here so quick. Though the increased speeds might have had something to do with it. Obviously, we're not at the Zebrican isles. You know, this is changing the subject, but I would really want a newspaper right now, to see what's going on."

My eyes nearly popped out of their orbits when Flare put a newspaper, today's date, in front of my line of vision.

"Bu-How!? Wha-? Buh! Huh?!"

He shrugged and headed back to his regular seat. My mind took a couple minutes to reassemble itself enough for a conscious thought, which was: 'Cartoon logic, no explanation needed.' After that, I recovered quickly, but still took a few backward glances at the dragon.

"Grand Galloping Gala Becomes Disaster!

The Grand Galloping Gala of this year was inarguably the most chaotic gala in the history of Equestria. Captain Griffin of the Griffin Pirates was present along with his crew, making uncivilized music along with a new companion of Celestia's: A changeling! Also present at the gala was a strange bear-like creature, as well as a wolf and his two diamond-dog companions. This combination put the gala into an uproarious state resembling a bad-quality bar. An even more shocking revelation was that joining in were 90% of the nobles and even the two Princesses! And as if that wasn't bad enough, danger soon struck! A female, wingless, powerful black dragon broke in and severely injured Princess Luna, followed by the release of the creatures of the royal menagerie and a startling return of the Nightmare, though instead of taking form as Nightmare Moon, it was reincarnated as Nightmare Octave, possessing the refined Octavia and bringing destruction to the area. Fortunately, Griffin the Griffin and several others, including Aoi the wolf, Eol and Ubi the diamond-dogs and Knightmare(who struck the key blow against the Nightmare) managed to deal with the threat, though at great cost to the health of many."

I momentarily stopped reading.

"Shocking news, eh, Flare?"

"Yup."

"Judging by the fact that there are other humans in Equestria in various forms, and that humans would grab attention, I would guess that a few of those present were once humans. Griffin is pretty much definitive, Knightmare is extremely probable, Aoi is a Japanese name, I believe, so that would make him one too, there's a slight chance of that bear thing being one and possibly, the other two d-dogs Eol and Ubi are humans, but I'm not too sure about that. Since nobody else managed to stand out enough to get named in the paper, I would think that that would be it. Ooh, here's a nice little article.

Startling Discovery! Princess Celestia Gets Drunk!

Sometime during the gala, it was discovered that Princess Celestia had consumed enough alcohol to actually get her intoxicated, due to drinking 'Royal Pinks', a concoction made by party pony Pinkie-Pie, Element of Laughter and hyperactive resident of Ponyville."

I smirked and handed the paper to Flare.

"Keep this around, it might be handy to have if we ever need to blackmail her. Though it might be improbable seeing as how everyone already knows. Ah well, be good to troll her if we ever wanted to."

"Troll?"

"Tease, annoy, make fun of, laugh at, get x effect out of y person for the giggles. Easy to do in letters or something similar, very funny to do. So where are we at the moment?"

When I looked back at him he had gotten a map out of nowhere and the newspaper was nowhere to be found.

"I think we're in the Southern Rainforest, also known as the Feline Jungle."

"Okay, sounds like a living death-trap. Diseases, wildlife, whatever. Let's go inside."

"Adventure!" He made muscles with his arms and yelled out: "YEEEEAH!!!"

Chapter 10 is done. Isn't Flare just adorably awesome? If you don't agree, you might as well kill yourself now. I know the prime sight where you surf.... Anyways, thanks for reading, and keep your stick on the ice!

Chapter 11: In The Jungle, The Scary Jungle

In The Jungle, The Scary Jungle

I flew into the jungle, testing my flight abilities. As I weaved between the trunks, I couldn't help but silently thank Chaos for the flight training. Flare was continuously looking at the map, muttering to himself. I was doing good for a while, using my four wings to corkscrew and turn nimbly, until this one stupid tree just jumped out at me. I'm serious! One second I was flying along, the next, my face was planted into a trunk. Despite Flare's affirmations that the tree was perfectly immobile, I knew better. I held up two of my claws and traced a couple of lines from my eyes to the tree's trunk. Eventually I got to a pace where I could let my mind wander, and I found myself thinking about the dream.

'The Endgame. Doesn't sound too pleasant. That gigantic war scene. Who was there? Some griffins, a few dogs, a human with freakish powers, undead, some bear thing, barely any ponies. What else? Some sort of silvery humanoid with horns and a tail. Some others, but the details were fuzzy. Whatever it is, it's not gonna be good. And who were those others who were with me. I guess I'll find out when the time comes.'

I alighted on a large branch.

"So what are we looking for in here?", I asked Flare.

"Basically anything. This jungle is pretty big and is filled with practically anything you care to mention. Word of counsel: Don't touch the glowing blue flowers. Bad stuff."

"How do you know all this?"

"I don't know. I feel like there was something before I was in that egg, but I don't know what. And I don't like not knowing something like that."

I flapped into the air again. After a few minutes, I hastily grabbed the nearest tree and flung myself behind it, shielding myself from the view of what I had seen.

"Flare, identify.", I whispered.

The young dragon poked his head out slightly and then retracted it.

"Dragon. Green. Inclined to nature.

At that moment I sensed something else.

"Something is moving the flow of magic. Numerous creatures, inclined towards nature. Magic-based, but not overly powered."

"Look! I saw something!"

A quick glance to where Flare was pointing only showed me a small bit of pale green that vanished into a tree. Giggles were beginning to be heard, faint giggles that echoed slightly. I looked back at the dragon. It wasn't moving much, seemingly calm. It was quite different from the lightning dragon I had slain. It was green, slightly slim, and about half the size of Sparky, though it still was bigger than me by a good measure. Around it's body, and chiefly it's head, structures similar to green vines adorned it. I was cut from my observation by a giggle that sounded very close to me. I whipped my head around but saw nothing.

"Okay, beginning to get freaked out now."

"I concur."

Now I could see several flitting shapes going through the forest. Most were shades of green, but a few were brown. But all of them were ghostly.

"Wait a minute, I know what they are!", said Flare, pounding his right fist into his left palm in realization. "Dryads! Or hamadryads. I never could tell them apart. At least, I don't think I could."

A giggling green form crept around the tree trunk we had our backs to and nodded it's head enthusiastically. Now that I had a good look at it, it was basically a half-transparent greenish pony. All around us, they began to show themselves a bit more. It was pretty obvious that they were female.

"The spirits of the trees.", I softly said.

A female voice made me start.

"Well then, now that we've established that both of us don't really mean any harm to the other, come down so we can exchange some words."

I looked down, and there was the dragon. I did a mental facepalm when I realized she was female.

"She's right, Truenis. Dryads don't stick around malicious things for very long."

That said, he jumped off the branch we were on, executed a perfect front-flip and landed in front of the dragon. I followed on my wings, albeit quite a bit slower. I was a little uneasy around a dragon of that size.

"Pleasure to meet you, ma'am. You may call me Flare.", said the small dragon with a bow.

"Charmed. My name is Zephira. And you, winged one?"

"Just call me Truenis, miss."

"Glad to meet you. May I ask what you are doing in this forest?"

Flare responded. It was clear he trusted her well.

"We're traveling, and this jungle is where we're heading through next. And you?"

She gave a light chuckle.

"I've lived my whole life here in this jungle. I just woke up from being dormant for a few decades."

She paused momentarily and looked at me. To my slight embarrassment, she also sniffed me.

"That weapon you carry..."

I grabbed my weapon.

"It's name is Thunderhilt. Uh, I hope you're not going to kill me over this."

"That was the scale of my cousin."

A dreadful silence came over all of us.

"Good on ya. He was a completely idiotic, sadistic moron."

"...I guess I'll have to concur on that one. He was trying to destroy a zebra village."

"Ugh, what a guy. I'm ashamed to say he was related to me. So how did you kill him?"

"You might not believe me, but I first tore out one of his eyes with my claws-"

"That's believable."

"Please allow me to finish. After his eye was taken out, I kinda just punched a big hole through him with a spell."

"You're right. That doesn't sound very plausible."

"Believe it or not, it happened. I could scarcely believe it myself. I think it had something to do with ancestor help."

"The ancestors can be quite powerful. But that still doesn't explain how you're able to do magic."

"Though at first glance I might be confused for a griffin, I'm really a ventolian."

"Ohhhhh! What?"

"Ancient lord of air."

"Never heard of them."

"I don't blame you."

"Well, I have a little pest problem in my home that I must take a step towards confronting. Darn bumblebones..."

"Don't you mean bumblebees?"

"No, no. Bumblebones. They're similar to bumblebees, but they're about the size of Flare there. Their stingers can puncture steel and their hide is quite durable. Contrary to bumblebees, they're incredibly aggressive, attacking anything they see that isn't another of their hive. And if you so much as touch the nest, they hunt you down wherever you go until either they die or you die. Dragons normally don't have much of a problem with them due to fire breath and near impenetrable scales, but these ones just won't die. I suppose I might see you around at a later point. Have a good afternoon."

With that, she left, leaving me and Flare thinking about deadly insects. After a few minutes I shrugged, picked up Flare, put him on my back and started flying off. For a while the journey was uneventful, but suddenly, I heard a scream. Immediately I darted towards where I heard it, dodging trees and vines as best as I could. Soon I came upon the place. A gigantic bird, bigger than me, black as the inside of a closed cardboard box, was standing over an orange-ish figure. Upon closer examination, it was a sort of a cat person, clothed with an unknown material and carrying a basket full of what appeared to be herbs. My mood darkened, and various black storm-clouds rolled in menacingly as Thunderhilt found his way into my claw/hand thingamabob. Looking over my shoulder, Flare also had a fire in his eyes and was holding Viper. He gave it a little spin, professionally, I might add, and nodded to me. By now, the thunderstorm was all over the sky, and a fierce wind was whipping around. The cat must have thought it was her end, because she was shaking like a leaf. The big bird was confused for a while, but then returned it's attention to it's would-be prey. I screeched, loudly. I could see the sound waves coming out of my mouth and heading towards those two. Immediately, attention was on me. I noticed that Flare was off me, glaring hard at the bird, and my entire body was sparking with purple-blue electricity. I took a step forward, and the grass beneath me was singed. Dimly, I noticed that my eyes were completely purple-blue, tendrils of energy sparking from them, though I don't know how I knew. I took more steps forward, and the roc('cause what else would it be?) calmed down considerably and attempted a sort of a bow. I wouldn't have it.

"You.", I said, pointing a finger at the bird. "Make like da banana and split, before I split you in half."

Immediately, the roc sped away, leaving a comical pattern of feathers hanging in the air of the same shape as the bird. The storm clouds left as quickly as they had come and I was left normal, no energy crackling around me, albeit slightly exhausted. I turned my attention to the cat. Flare was already there, gently speaking to(now I could see it was a she) her. I approached. She noticed, and scooted a little bit away.

"There's no need to be frightened.", I said, my tone of voice softening. "I won't hurt you."

I held out a claw to try and help her up, but she still cowered away from me. Flare approached from the side.

"There, there. He's not really that scary. He just changes whenever he gets mad at something bad. If he wanted to harm you, he wouldn't have chased away the roc."

The female finally consented to be lifted up by my claw. I hoisted her up. She stood at pretty much my exact height.

"Wh-who are you?", she timidly asked.

"You may call me Truenis. May I ask your name?"

"I'm Jurida, of the Rhodan tribe. I came here to get herbs and was attacked by the roc. Thank you for saving me."

"It was no trouble at all. Do rocs often attacks you?"

"At times. We have a defense over in the village which none have managed to penetrate, but I lost my group out here and turned into an easy target."

"Do you need an escort?"

"That would be... nice."

It was clear that she was still nervous around me, even though she was good at hiding it. She led me through the forest, apparently knowing the jungle around her. Soon, we reached a village that was of a good size, mostly made out of wood. What surprised me was the defense set up. There was a really expansive pit all around the area, filled with jagged poles of wood that looked sharp. Directly around the village was a large fence made out of trees, the tops sharpened. At various points, there were openings in the fence where catapults lied, to my surprise. I thought I even caught a glimpse of a huge crossbow-like machine. It was obvious that these kitties weren't to be messed with. A single pathway trailed up to the village, a normal pathway most of the way but also with a few areas where it was different, such as a classic worn bridge with wide gaps and a small pit with big watermelons resting at the bottom. I was confused as to the watermelon, but I fully understood the wide gaps. If something resembling a spider came along, it would have a hard time getting across. Eventually, we reached a gate, where Jurida waved at a sentry. The gate opened, and out came running a brown cat, clearly masculine, who embraced Jurida energetically.

"Jurida! Oh, thank the maker! I was afraid you were lost when the others came back!"

The female detached herself from the arms of the other.

"Father, I was rescued by this man. He frightened the roc away."

I gave a modest smile while the pop sized me up.

"Greetings. You may call me Truenis. I heard a scream when I was flying through the forest and saw your daughter being attacked by the roc."

"In that case, I thank you, Truenis. You have made this old man smile again. How did you frighten a roc?"

Flare popped up, perched himself on my head and spoke.

"Trust me, Truenis may look like a ball of feathers, but when he gets mad, he scares anybody."

"A young dragon! Yet another surprise. Please, step into our village. I must somehow repay you."

He took me by the arm and started pulling me inside.

"I don't really need any payment. Rescuing someone isn't something I do for wealth."

"At least allow me to show you around."

"Very well. I suppose you're not going to back down."

During the next few hours, he showed me around the village. It was even more expansive than I had first thought. They had whole agricultural fields, filled with huge plants.

"The Rhodan tribe is very advanced in terms of agriculture. Using magical herbs, we make special plants that grow fast and big."

He wasn't kidding. There were grapes the size of eggs on some of those vines. And the wonder was increased when I saw tomatoes bigger than my head and he explained what they were used for.

"We load the catapults with those. Upon impact, they burst open. The flesh is acidic enough to burn most organic material and when the seeds smash against something, they explode, causing minor damage while at the same time, they release a toxic gas."

Anyone want ketchup? I thought not. And their aim was impeccable. Seriously, a roc came into view and the shooter hit it while it was still about a mile away.

Torom(the father) was married and his children were Jurida and two other very young twins, whose names I didn't catch, who, to my amusement and Jurida's chagrin, insisted on calling her 'Juju'.

After the grand tour of the village, during which I caught many an eye, he put a meal before all of us, which was received quite well. I believe the exact words of Flare were: 'Nectar and ambrosia taste like brussel sprouts compared to this.' And that was just the appetizer! After that he prepared to see me off.

"It was wonderful having you, Truenis."

"I had a good time here, Torom. Thank you for the hospitality."

But then, disaster struck as I prepared to leave. A voice suddenly shouted:

"I HAVE CHORTLES!!!"

Dark energy slammed into me, sending me sprawling backwards.

"You are hard to find like a needle in a field of haystacks! But I have been finding you! Now the revenge will be served hot after a cold wait! I HAVE CHORTLES!!!"

I stood up and suddenly recognized the voice, even if the speech pattern had been set to 'Fawful'.

"Trent Higst!?"

A fist slammed into me and sent me flying backwards.

"I HAVE ANGST! No more am I the Trent! Dark power has been given to me and I am now VEX!! And now, I HAVE FURY!!!"

Whoa, this summer has not been productive. Sorry, but I've been hitting a bit of writer's block and don't have a lot of time. Anyways, ketchup, anyone? Dem tomatoes are lethal. Thanks for reading, and keep your stick on the ice.

Chapter 12: Old Enemy, Cold Revenge

Old Enemy, Cold Revenge

"Trent, what happened to you?!"

"Bah! Trent is of a bad dream, a wisp of the past. I am Vex!"

I guess some explanation is in order, huh?

Trent was one of my tormentors. But he wasn't successful. Oftentimes he would go to a lot of trouble to impress the other bullies, and then get in trouble with the teachers or the cops.

The tormenting started when he came into the orphanage. I was the kid to be picked on. I never even saw my parents. Everyone else lived with them at least a little. Trent came in way after I did. His parents fed him on base of the phrase: 'If anything tastes really good, it's gotta be good for you.' Not surprisingly, he was a ginormous kid, and he kept on growing. Heck, you couldn't see his neck. Or his wrists. Or ankles. He practically rolled. His parents died, almost at the same time, of cardiac arrest. Big surprise there, huh? To get over his parents' deaths, he decided to help torment everyone's favorite punching bag: me.

The problem to him was that he wasn't too subtle. How could he be sneaky, with all of that fat? He got punished more than half the time he did something to me, and he hated me all the more for it. Soon, it became personal. He wasn't playing to forget his parents. He wanted revenge on me. But the story kept happening the same way. He would hurt me, he would get in trouble, he would get mad.

He considered himself friends with the other bullies, but I could see past that. They secretly mocked his obesity and silently laughed when he got punished.

Apparently he had found himself in this new world. With a new body. And he. Was. Mad. I got whacked again by a pulsing orb of energy that just felt... evil. And dark. Evil darkness. He laughed. Just like Fawful. A quick, high-pitched, deranged giggle.

"With happiness I hug this day like a little girl embraces a cat. You suffer your defeat at the hands of Vex!"

His new body was quite a change from the old one. He was still humanoid, but he wasn't fat. In fact, he was very fit, and looked strong. His skin was completely black, and he had ears like a dragon's. A maniacal grin filled with surprisingly bright teeth was stuck on his face. His hands had fingers that looked like blades, black, long and sharp, and his feet were rather talon-ish, having two long toes going forwards and one going backwards. His eyes, evil semicircles inclined in an angry way, were a bright red and glowed. And one of his most defining features was that his whole body, except for his hands, ears and feet, seemed to be cracked open, revealing glowing red light in intersecting jagged lines. He levitated off the ground and produced an evil-looking black ball coursing with red energy.

"Are you liking it? Vex' new body? It is rather... powerful-looking, do you not think?"

With a tremendous speed, he alighted on the ground, ran behind me, leaving a red and black trail, and threw the orb of darkness at me, which exploded on contact, sending me flying. Then he crouched down, inserted his fingers in the ground and tore out a big mass of earth bigger than him and me put together, easily holding it above his head. He laughed again.

"I HAVE CHORTLES!!"

He then flung the boulder at me, and I barely dodged it. Not seeming to be discouraged by this, he executed a double-back-flip and levitated once more.

"Oh, what a joyous occasion this is, better than a birthday with a chocolate-cherry cake of goodness. My new form is strong, agile and fast. It is perfect revenge on your face!"

I shakily stood up.

"Tell me, Trent. Revenge for what? We both know that it was you who got yourself into trouble. You started it, and it came back to bite you in the butt."

"I AM NOT TRENT!!!"

He extended his right arm in front of him and a trail of huge obsidian spikes began to sprout from the ground, heading in my direction. I hastily took flight, avoiding damage. He himself flew(lucky dog has levitation powers and doesn't need wings) up until we were looking each other in the face.

"And the cold dish? I will be telling you. Of course you remember the catastrophe you were caught in. Nearly the whole city showed up, like fishermen to a stream full of overly-large salmon. And the police did too, of course. They blamed me. They were thinking in their twisted brains that I planted a special bomb because I was close to the scene! I was marked for trial, you being the only witness. I was let free until the trial. But when you disappeared, they immediately put me in jail! Said something about eliminating the witness. Then the trial came. And my friends, my buddies, they were saying that I did it! They claimed that I had bragged about it beforehand!"

"Just goes to show that you were hanging out with the wrong people. They never were your friends. They bad-mouthed you whenever they could."

He screeched in anger and pummeled me down to the ground.

"I HAVE FURY!!! I DO NOT CARE ABOUT YOUR LIES!!! I WILL DESTROY YOU WITH MY NEW BODY!!! FOR YOU ARE WEAK!!"

He stepped toward me again with intent to damage, but I looked up at him angrily and grabbed him by the throat.

"Correction: I was weak. You weren't the only one who got a costume change."

I sent an electric shock through his body, which he convulsed to, before flinging him away. Thunderhilt found himself in battle position. Seeing as how he stood up, I shot a large lightning bolt at him. Immediately he swept both arms up as if lifting something and a curved triangular wall of obsidian sprung up and deflected the beam. Somehow, he managed to jump over it and fire a large red and black beam of his own at me. Holding Thunderhilt in a defensive position, the beam hit it right on the dragon scale, and the magic('cause what else would it be?) pushed me back, though no damage was inflicted upon me. I grunted, but held my position until he stopped.

"So, care to give me an evil monologue of how you actually got here, or do we go straight to the part where I destroy you?"

He growled. Touching down, he began pacing, as I did as well.

"Your jokes are as funny as five-week old moldy cheese. I was in jail. Yes, the cesspit of odorous stink filled with ungoodness. But then, I slept like a teeny baby, and I met the one of excellence. REVENGE! She gave me an opportunity to make a body of newness according to my dark desires, and I made me."

"So you got to build your own body. Lucky dog."

Quicker than the eye, he ran towards me and punched me.

"I WILL BE HAVING VENGEANCE!"

I picked myself up again, wiping a bit of blood from my beak.

"Sorry, but that's not gonna happen. Flare!"

The young dragon executed an impressive jump, did a front flip, and landed on Vex, stabbing him with Viper deeply, before somersaulting off.

"A minion of pain you have found."

Then he was overcome by the poison and screamed. I let him stew in his agony for a while, but when the effect began to wear off, I flew towards him.

"Accelero"

My speed increased greatly. I socked him into the air with the flat of Thunderhilt, then proceeded to combo him upwards using my fists and claws. When we got to a sufficient altitude, I whacked him down with the flat and prepared a spell. In a second, it was ready.

"WIND IMPACT!!"

One of the more simple spells I had found in the library of Mount Mistpeak, wind impact served to generate several discs of wind that propelled themselves against the target, mostly sending it flying in one direction, but also giving a bit of blunt damage. Vex impacted into the ground. A huge dust cloud rose. I landed right next to Flare.

"Think that did it?", he asked me.

His response was a slap upside the head.

"You jinxed us."

Darkness started emanating from the dust cloud. Before I could react, he came out and punched me. I tumbled against the ground and while I was there, he picked up Flare and threw him away. As I started to get up, he punched me again, and then started whaling on me. He finally stopped and stepped over me in a triumphant pose. I groaned, in too much pain to attack.

"I HAVE VICTORY!"

He held both hands high above his head and began to charge a powerful spell.

"It is a pity you were not putting up more of a fight. I shall have to use my energy on this village of puniness."

But before he could kill me, something surprising happened. A little bird flew in his face. Just a tiny little bird. A sparrow, if I was correct.

"What... Be stopping... Stop scratching!"

The ball of magic energy flew up and exploded, firework-style, in the sky. I seized the moment and punched him off of me.

"You. Are. Dead."

The sky began to cloud up, lightning occasionally striking. Energy flowed around me, threatening to shock anything that came close. I used my wings to balance myself and stood on my two hind legs. I swirled my front claws around and then made a quick gesture, holding them out in front of me.

"SANDSTORM!"

Dust began to pick up, and with a boom, a terrific gale flew against Vex. The sparrow had flown away beforehand. Sand accumulated on his black figure. He lost his grip on the ground and flew backwards, out the gate. With a quick gesture downwards, I slammed him into a pit in the road. Immediately, a loud explosion sounded, and Vex went flying.

"Explosive watermelons. You don't see it coming until it's too late."

My enemy crashed down in front of me.

"This ends now."

Thunderhilt flew to my grip as I prepared to swing. Suddenly, it felt as if I was moving in molasses. I looked to Vex, who was holding a hand in my direction.

'A chronal distortion?'

'That's just cheating!'

'For once, I agree with you, Thunderhilt.'

He slowly stood up, in very bad shape. His body was even more cracked, and some pieces of his skin were badly positioned or even completely off. His eyes seemed to be cracked lenses.

"V-vex will come back. V-vex w-will have vengeance."

That said, a black swirling portal opened up behind him and swallowed him. I began moving normally again.

"AW, COME ON! How many stinkin' powers does he have!?"

Slowly, the clouds cleared up. Then I started panicking.

"Flare?! Are you alright?"

I started looking around frantically.

"I'd say never better, but I've been better than this."

Looking down, I saw him. He was dirty and was favoring his left arm, but he had a smile on him.

"Well, now that we're not in mortal peril, I think I'll just take four hundred wink... Zzzzzzzzzz..."

*********************

I woke up with a splitting headache.

"Did anyone get the number of that tank that hit me?"

"Nope. But at least you're still alive."

"Hey, Flare. How's your arm."

I turned my head from the comfortable mat it was laying on and looked at the dragon. He had his left arm bandaged in a cast.

"Meh, could be better."

Thunderhilt floated from a corner into my hand.

"Sauna"

He winced as the magic started knitting his bones together, then looked with wide eyes as he wiggled his arm around.

"It's all better."

"Yes, that was a healing spell."

What came next surprised me. He burned the cast off his arm. More accurately, he torched it and then it shattered off, but it was unexpected. Soon after, Torom walked in.

"Ah, it is good to see you awake, Truenis. And hatchling, what happened to your cast?"

Flare flexed his arm.

"Don't need it. Truenis healed it."

"You are full of surprises, Truenis.

"I suppose so. I must apologize for attracting Vex to your village."

"Don't worry. No harm was caused. We're just thankful that the area wasn't destroyed."

I stood up.

"Thank you, Torom. You've been an excellent host."

"How could I not be? Anyone able to have power like that and still be civil and decent is good in my books."

At that moment, the two twins came in, carrying rope.

'What the..?'

'No idea.'

Me and Thunderhilt's questions were soon answered as they began to climb over me, occasionally pausing to rip out a feather and cause me to squawk.

"Hey! What's up with... Where... Come here... OW! Why you little..."

Soon, they had me trussed up like a bull, legs tied together and on my back. They gave each other a high five. Flare started chuckling and Torom held in his laughter. I wasn't amused.

"Oh, it's so funny I forgot to laugh. Oh, wait, ha ha, you happy? Now are you going to let me out of this?"

The twins exchanged a look and then shook their heads. I smiled maliciously.

"Your loss. Thunderhilt, come here."

********************

From what I could tell, the twins were not amused. I had floated Thunderhilt over to cut the rope in a few places, then tied the kids back to back and stuck a couple of apples in their mouths. All that was done with me going at top speed under the influence of the speed spell Accelero. The look on Torom's face was priceless. He pointed to the twins, then to me, then back at the kids, then at me again, then back at the twins, and then slowly backed out of the hut. Flare was content to just roll back and squeak, not taking enough air in for laughter.

"So, if I let you out, will you be good?"

They grudgingly nodded. I simply pulled a little cord and the whole thing came apart.

I felt something alight on my shoulder. Turning, I saw that it was the sparrow. I gently ran a finger across it's back.

"Hello there. So you're the little one who helped me back there. Thank you. You know, that was very brave of you. A mere sparrow, going up against that predator. I'm proud of you."

The little bird chirped and hopped up and down. I chuckled.

"All in all, I think a reward is in order. I read something about this once back at the castle. Thunderhilt?"

My weapon floated into my hand. Electricity sparked around me and began flowing into the bird. It chirped, confused. It began to glow. I was exhausting a good amount of energy. Slowly, it began to grow and change shape. It stopped when it was about the height of an eagle, but a good deal slimmer. The glow died down. Standing on my shoulder was a beautiful bird with purple feet, a yellow beak, purple-blue eyes and a colorful plumage, of blue, purple, and some slight yellow marks. He opened his beak and a sound that could be described as awesome filled the room. You know the sound of the phoenix from the first movie of the Chronicles of Narnia? That, but a little bit more electric.

"Congratulations", I said. "You are now a Thunderbird."

The new Thunderbird spread it's wings and flapped off my shoulder. He then flew around the room, screeching happily. Once again, he landed on my shoulder.

"You need a name. How about Electron?"

The bird nodded.

"Then Electron it is. Live well, but come when I call. Farewell."

Electron nuzzled into my neck for a moment before flying out the door and disappearing, leaving a blue and purple streak.

**************

I stood outside the gates with Flare. Torom and Jurida were there to see me off.

"Well", I said. "This seems to be goodbye for now."

"Farewell, Truenis.", said Torom. "Have a safe trip to wherever you're going."

"We're going to Stalliongrad next. It's the nearest city. See ya later, Juju."

"Don't call me that. But all the same, goodbye, and thank you. Goodbye to you too, Flare."

"Ciao, Juju and Torom."

A facepaw graced us with it's royal presence. Flare got on my back, and I flew up and away. As we were flying away, I asked Flare for a newspaper. Easily enough, he handed one to me.

"Let's see... *snort*"

"What's funny?"

"Hehe. This can't be right. 'Princess Celestia names Griffin the Griffin Best Pony'. I don't know what exactly it means, but I do know that Captain Griffin wouldn't accept that. From what I hear, he doesn't like stuff like that. More of a tough guy who doesn't like snootiness, or at least that's what I gathered. Oh, hello... Curiously enough, the changeling called Knightmare was not around for the ceremony... Flare, definition of changeling."

"Sort of a cross between a pony and a bug. Has both a horn and wings. Usually shunned in pony society because they feed off of love, often replacing a pony in a relationship by shape-shifting into it."

"Yup, that's definitely a changeling in that picture. It seems Celestia and Griffin have a troll battle going on. Well, off to Stalliongrad!"

Hey everybody, I'm really late this time, aren't I. *insert lame excuse which you guys probably won't buy anyway*. Heh, ya bought it. Suckers. NO WAIT! Just kidding. So for those of you that are wondering what a Thunderbird looks like, think Philomeena with a bit more jagged feathers, kinda like lightning, and blue, purple and slight tinges of yellow instead of red, orange and yellow. And I bet you thought Vex was gonna bite the dust, huh? Not so. Thanks for reading, and keep your stick on the ice.

P.S.: Here's Vex. Not perfect, but not bad either.

Chapter 13: Ponies Are Racist... Just Like People

Ponies Are Racist... Just Like People

It took a few days of flying and surviving off of small game, but we finally got out of that rainforest. At the moment, we were perched on a cliff overlooking Stalliongrad. From afar, it looked pretty impressive. Massive edifices lifted out of the ground, the whole thing surrounded by a moat which came in through many rivers and went out through others. And it was pretty gosh darn big.

Using my superior eagle eyes(U jelly?), I sighted in the numerous gates, which all had the same thing going on. A pony came through, and he/she paid a couple of coins to the toll guy. Some other species(which included griffins and diamond dogs, and a few other things) would walk up, and had to unload an unfair amount. It was clear what was going on here.

"Ponies get in easy, other species have to pay through the nose. We can't get in either way, because we don't have any coins. We'll have to get in the hard way."

I made a sweeping gesture with my hands. Dark stormclouds immediately came up and covered the sky.

"Okay, this is going to be the hard part. The distraction is set, now I'm going to have to slip in. My illusion isn't perfect, but if the attention isn't on me, noone should notice me."

Flare was already on my back, and so I tried once more to cast the invisibility spell, which I had been working on. To my delight, it actually worked, though I was still blurry. With a few flaps, I went above the clouds, preparing for a swift descent. Within a couple minutes, I was above the city. Looking down, many ponies were either running around like headless chickens or frozen like statues. The other species were just shrugging it off.

'Wusses.', proclaimed my weapon.

'I concur.'

Tucking my wings, I began my descent towards an alley. I wanted to do it quickly, but silently, so as to not attract attention. The wind whistled by my ear tufts, my eyes intently observing my altitude. As I neared, I gently opened my wings, slowing my pace gradually until I could come to a safe stop. I landed right on target, inside an alley, where I removed my invisibility spell.

"Flare, you conscious?"

He gasped for air.

"Mildly... But I would appreci-oof-ate it if you could stop smashing me... against the wall!"

I quickly stepped away from the wall I had been glued against.

"Sorry, forgot you were there. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah... Can you hand me my spleen, please?"

After getting over the fact that I had just seen him swallow a purple-ish cartoony organ(Did I really see that, or was it my imagination?), I ordered the storm to disperse. With a few crackles of lightning, it disappeared, and the citizens began getting back to their respective businesses, the ponies noticeably uneasy. I guessed that was just because they thought the storm was caused by something evil.

Of course, I just casually strolled across the street. What's so noticeable about a double-sized, apparently mutant griffin-thingamabob that is carrying a young dragon with weird markings on him as well as a very long dragonscale weapon... Wait. Maybe some people would find it a little weird.

Yet somehow, most attention lingered on me for little more than a few seconds. I knew that back on Earth, I would be followed by a crowd of people, most probably either mocking or just walking with faces that said 'My brain has exploded, and I still don't know why'. Yes, it's that specific of a face. Most of the other species didn't even give me a second glance, except maybe a couple griffins who I was pretty sure were female... Miiiiight wanna stay away from that. I'm pretty sure that upraised wings when looking at someone with a blush and a guilty smile means something rather mature. Don't say anything.

"What are we looking for here?", whispered Flare.

"Good question. We're looking for most anything. Information would be a good thing, trouble won't be the best, but it might liven up our journey a tad. Other than that, I'm not sure. Perhaps some supplies... except we don't have any money. That sure puts a damper on our visit."

"You are pretty random, Truenis."

"You could say that. At times, I seem to fly by the seat of my pants, so to speak."

"What are pants?"

"Irrelevant to this conversation at this time. In other words, I don't want to explain it."

"Fair enough."

************

"So tell me a bit more about magic, Flare, in case I don't know something."

"Magic surrounds everything and is in everything, from a simple rock to the strongest alicorn. The only place where magic is not are some places of Tartarus, where magic is null. Every living creature has an absorption rate of magic energy, which can increase or decrease depending on how much the magic is practiced and the species. Also, different places have different amounts of magic. Zebrica has a good amount of magic inside it. The rainforest we were in is also chock full, as is Equestria, from what I know. The more magic a country has, the more creatures absorb. In many occasions, non-sentient creatures become intelligent, and something sentient in one country could easily be dumb in another. Have I lost you?"

"Not particularly. Basically, everyone is a battery which takes in more or less energy depending on the charger and how the battery is built."

"That's one way to put it. Magic energy is dispensed through different means, though I suppose you know those. Another topic to talk about is the different types of magic. There are various divisions, some more common than others. The most common is elemental, which is divided into mostly air, nature, water, lightning, fire, ice, light and darkness. Another common one is arcane, which is used for things like teleportation, levitation, and various other spells of that type. Then there are some less common ones, which include transmogrification and some other minor divisions. Sometimes, but very rarely, an animal gets... infused with enough elemental magic to gain an attribute. For instance, the lightning dragon that your weapon is made out of. It's an extremely rare occurrence, but it happened. Elemental creatures are stronger than normal creatures, for obvious reasons, normally being able to control their element to a certain extent."

"So some batteries get super-charged with a special type of electricity... good to know. Good to know."

*****************

"Excuze-moi, monsieur, I will have to ask you to walk on ze other side of ze street, s'il vous plait?", said a white unicorn with a blue mane and a "french" moustache in an obviously fake French accent.

"Pardonnez-moi, monsieur, mais je peux aller oú j'ai besoin du aller. Now quit with the phony accent and tell me why."

The unicorn bristled, elegant suit glinting in the sun(that was mildly unsettling), ready to do battle. His voice dropped the accent.

"Good sir, you are frightening away the potential costumers. I ask you to move your bulk to an area where it won't be noticed, lest there be repercussions."

I stooped down to glare at him.

"You, my dear boy, are a stuck-up prissy rich boy, and I have no intention of doing that just because you think I'm scary. And if I'm scaring away clients to your restaurant where someone will have to pay a royalty for 3 inches of minced veggies, I do not care in the slightest. Now skedaddle back inside, waiter, sir, before I decide I'm hungry for horse meat."

******************

"HALT!", screamed an official-sounding voice from behind me.

I turned around to behold a stallion and a mare, both in rather impressive armor. The mare was a unicorn and the stallion, of the pegasus variety. Officials, no doubt.

"May I help you, officers?"

The stallion voiced his lines in a powerful voice.

"Sir and dragon, you are under arrest."

'WHAT!?'

'Shut up, Thunderhilt.'

I looked at Flare.

"You know what we did?", I whispered.

He simply shrugged. Returning my voice to normal, I addressed the pair of guards.

"Under what charges?"

"Being a public disturbance, insulting the waiter of a restaurant, carrying a weapon-", he started to recite. I interrupted him.

"Wait, I've seen plenty of others who are carrying weapons. So...?"

"Law here states that only ponies can carry weapons. Any other species must get an official licence from a figure with sufficient authority. Now as I was saying, carrying a weapon, entering the city illegally-"

"What?"

The mare responded to me, her voice young but forceful.

"Do you think we're dumb? Granted, we didn't see you come in, but during that freak storm most fliers could do it. Also, the guard would be notified of something of your size coming in the city. Troublemakers, griffins."

"I'm gonna be quick to point out that I'm not a griffin. Sheesh, everyone seems to think that. I don't know what is wrong with them. I've got four wings and four legs, for goodness sakes."

"The guard doesn't care. Just, do you have any other reasons for arrest?"

"Only one: questioning authority."

"... Now that's just rude."

"Now if you would be so kind as to hoof over your weapon right now, your grave need not be dug any deeper."

'Hoof over? Some part of me just died.'

"Very well then, here is my weapon. You may take me into custody."

I took Thunderhilt and lightly tossed it to him. He caught it nimbly on one hoof... then started screaming as blue sparks started jumping about. His flesh quivered, and the hair he had was all standing straight up. I also noticed one more thing.

"Flare, where'd you get the popcorn?"

Flare looked down at the box he had and shrugged.

"I saved it for a good time."

The stallion finally managed to throw Thunderhilt back at me, so I caught it and used it as a sort of staff against the ground.

"Oh, did I forget to mention there's a possibility that could happen? Pardon."

The mare looked at her twitching companion and shook her head.

"Just Iss,", she began.

Thunderhilt began laughing uproariously in my head, and I suppressed a smirk with difficulty.

"How many times do I have to tell you to wait for me to give the okay? I can feel the magic radiating off this guy even without using the spell. I don't know how he can do it, but he's a good caster."

The stallion shakily got to his feet.

"H-how about y-you take the sp-sp-sp-spear thing?"

The mare rolled her eyes and grabbed my weapon with telekinesis, action that wasn't very smart, as she too began lighting up like a Christmas tree. While she was being shocked, I pondered an important matter, stroking my chin.

"How come you both are white with a blue mane? Is it some kind of illusion spell that comes with the armor, or what?"

At that point, the unicorn finally got the brains to let go of Thunderhilt. Once again, I held it in my right arm and used it to steady myself. The unicorn's horn began to glow again.

"All guards in the nearby vicinity, report to this location, I repeat, report to this location. We need reinforcements to bring in a screw-loose giant chicken."

"Well that's not very nice. But I must say that both of you make a nice couple."

"WHAT!?", they both yelled.

"Oh, don't worry, I'll keep your secret. Though I don't know how you managed to keep it a secret. You act like you're already married. The bickering, the eye-rolling, the attitude that's meant to say 'He/She's my partner and that's all' but really means 'I got a crush on him/her'. It's so obvious."

To my delight, they began blushing and stammering.

"She's not..."

"He's totally..."

"Just look how stuck-up..."

"Impossible to deal with..."

"WE'RE NOT TOGETHER!!!", they finally managed to blurt out after a few minutes, by which time some other guards had already arrived.

I rolled my eyes.

"Sure, I totally believe you. So how'd a big lunk like you manage to score such a lovely young mare?"

It was too easy. The stallion let out a roar.

"I'M GONNA NAIL YOU TO THE WALL!!!"

He charged toward me. Of course, I had been expecting this. As he neared, I simply side-stepped and "accidentally" left my back leg out, which he tripped over. I began whistling casually. By this time, a ton more guards had shown up. One bulky guy stepped forward.

"Don't make this any harder on yourself than it already is, bird. Just hand over the weapon and come quietly."

These ponies were too much fun.

"Oh, very well then. Here, catch."

The stallion, an earth pony, I believe his kind was called, got into a battle stance, interpreting my phrase as a prelude to me winging it at him as hard as I could. Needless to say, he was surprised when I just tossed it in front of him.

"Or don't catch it. Your choice, really."

He slowly approached the weapon, eyes on me at all times. He kneeled down, still giving me a stare. I was impressed with his dedication to not blinking. Until of course, he touched Thunderhilt.

*BBZZZZZZZZZT**BOOM*

It was comical really. The minute one pony would stop getting shocked, another one would try it's hand.

"The true definition of insanity is doing the same thing exactly the same way and expecting different results.", I whispered to Flare.

"Words of wisdom. I wonder if we should tell them."

"Nah, they probably wouldn't understand some of the words. Such as 'true', 'way', or 'the'. Those can be hard words."

We had a quiet chuckle to ourselves. Finally, the guards got tired of shocking themselves.

"Okay, you can hold on to your weapon for now. We'll find some way to pry it away from you."

"That's good to know.", I responded in an innocent voice, levitating Thunderhilt to me.

At that moment, a pegasus grabbed Flare off my back and held him in his wing.

"I'll just hold onto this little guy, to assure your... cooperation."

I didn't really like the sound of that. Neither did Flare, apparently. But the good news was: I finally got to see how Flare keeps getting things when I'm not looking!

He throws them up.

As in, he vomits them up.

...

Seriously, he made a little retching noise, and the ukulele, which I feel might be a good idea to point out it's BIGGER than him, popped out of his mouth into his hand.

You know, I wonder whether somebody can get extreme brain damage from being hit with a ukulele in the back of the head...

Meh, he'll get over it.

***************

Eventually, we reached an accord. I would go to jail with my weapon and with Flare, in a manner in which the guard was surrounding me completely, and keeping 16 eyes on me at once, at least.

When we reached the jail, I was impressed. It was a huge tower, shaped like the rook of a chess game, with a base that I assumed was the main office. Going in, they escorted me up about 15 flights of stairs to a room that only had one cell.

"Welcome to one of the high security cells. The only contact you will have with others will be with the guards and your cellmates. And don't even think about escaping."

It was nice, your typical jail cell. A couple of hard beds, a table, a couple of chairs, and little else. When we stepped inside, the door was shut and three unicorns locked it in turn.

"The bars are made of reinforced arcanite. Not even dragonscale can cut through it. And I don't recommend trying to break them; the force will be returned back at you, triple-fold.", said the unicorn. I believed it was the mare that had first encountered me.

"Okay, so how long am I in here for?"

"Until further notice."

"Meals?"

"You're gonna hate 'em."

"Entertainment?"

"What does this look like, a dinner-and-a-show pub?"

"Mint on top of pillows?"

"I'm gonna go. Too much insanity might get to my head."

"There was already a profound display of insanity back at the scene, my dear."

But she was already gone.

"Well, I'm bored. Ideas on breaking out, Flare?"

"I'll brainstorm later."

"Excellent idea. I'm gonna sleep."

"Hey, Truenis?"

"Yes, Flare?"

"How did we get into all this exactly?"

"This is a cartoon world. And thus, I know nothing, nothing"

Seargent Schultz, continue bestowing your wise sayings upon us humble mortals.

***************

A dreamscape... again. I knew that Chaos was going to show up sooner or later, but there was a key difference with the place: it was completely black. Did this symbolize the darkness I had chosen by breaking the law? Or something different?

"Not hardly.", said a voice next to my ear suddenly.

I jumped back. It's not everyday that you get shocked by the entity of chaos, while he's hanging upside-down in a half-dream, half-reality dimension.

"Haven't seen you around, Chaos."

He looked a lot different. He was dressing a business suit that would have looked quite professional... had it not been hot pink. His face looked a lot ovaler(I'm making it a word) than usual, but he still had those cheesy-yellow dentures.

"I've been busy."

"So, what's the scoop on Vex?"

He sighed and rubbed his temples.

"I believe he said he was sent by Revenge?"

"Yes, he did."

"Well, he was. By Revenge, capital R. That girl really knows how to hold a grudge."

"Hold a grudge?"

"Well, let's just say that about 3 thousand years ago she was subject to one of my prank streaks. And of course, she has to go all cliché and say 'revenge is a dish best served cold' and wait for a few millenia to get back at me. And she does that by taking someone who wants revenge on you and booting him into this world, with a few alterations."

"Hmph. A cliché? We've been around so long that nothing could not be a cliché. You always were mentally unstable, Chaos.", suddenly said a new, female voice.

The voice was chilling, pitiless. Something resembling the caretaker at the orphanage. Looking to the left, I saw that the black of our surroundings was being penetrated by a combination of white and blue. But not the good kind of white and blue; the kind that looked sinister, like ice and bleached bones. A feminine figure slowly came into view. She was hovering above the ground, and was rather slim. Her body was white, with a few blue accents, such as in her flowing ethereal mane that extended behind her at a tremendous length. She didn't have a mouth or nose, and her eyes were just glowing blue slits. She didn't have many other details either.

"Ah, Revenge. I figured you would stop by. Disappointed that your piece was too weak to beat mine? Well, knight takes bishop."

"Foolish Chaos, this is not the end. The true power of my piece has not yet been revealed. You will suffer for making my ice cream spicy." She turned to me. "So, you are Truenis, or Tyler, as I should say. Hmph, you are not much. I shall have words with my piece. To lose to one such as you is insulting."

"If you say so.", I replied.

"Don't fret, Revenge. The game will go on longer than you would expect. I have had plans for my piece for... a long time. Now away with you. Depart from this realm.", intervened Chaos.

"I will have my revenge. I will laugh last, with the sweetest revenge. Beware, both of you."

With that parting shot, Revenge disappeared.

"Well, she's charming."

"Quite. I never paid much attention to her until she revealed she had a crush on me. Scary thought, right?"

"Yes..."

"That's not quite the only reason you're here."

"Oh?"

"Listen, one of the reasons you've gotten this far with not so much trouble is because you got some 'guardian angels'. Now, you're really going to need to be careful, because the help is just about over. You're true magic power is much weaker, as is your physical body, so be careful. You are going to need to train."

"Does this have something to do with the fact that you've got plans for me? What's up with that, anyway?"

"Well, erm... uh... Gee whiz, look at the time! Time for you to wake up!"

That said, he punched me, and I began to wake up.

*****************************************

Revenge scowled. She had been put through much embarrassment around the entity community after what had happened. She arranged a meeting with her piece. She was going to discipline him harshly. Failure was not going to be permitted any longer. With a flash, Vex was before her. The creature looked around him, confused.

'Pitiful fool.', she thought. 'The fact that I've been able to do so much with him already is astonishing.'

Finally, Vex noticed her.

"Ah, it is the Revenge-ing entity..."

"Quiet, fool. I have no time for your broken speech, so I will make myself clear."

"B-but Revenge! What is being the cause of the anger which troubles you."

Revenge stretched out a hand and took him by the throat.

"Listen, and listen closely, pawn.", she began, her voice dangerously soft, yet sharp. "You are not impressing me. You have no excuse to have not destroyed him. Because of you, I have become a laughingstock."

"B-b-but..."

"SHUT UP!!", she screamed at him. "I AM NOT PLEASED WITH YOU! You designed your own body and powers, which took away seven ninths of my reserves. Do you realize how long it will take for me to recuperate?"

Vex tried to reply but she squeezed on his throat harder.

"You do not want to know. And do you know how much power Chaos spent on that miserable urchin he calls a knight? One fifteen-hundredth of what I spent. And yet he still defeats you! Pathetic Vex, you will not fail again. I may not have much power, but I can dedicate a good portion of it so as to make every waking moment of the rest of your life screaming in agony. Do I make myself clear?"

The black-skinned humanoid frantically nodded, and she let go of him, leaving him sprawled on the ground. She gazed at him a moment before lifting a foot and slamming it down on his chest, effectively expelling him from the dream world.

"Truenis... You may want to watch your back, lest you find a dagger in it. Threndal!"

A figure clothed in white appeared out of nowhere.

"I am here, master. Order me as you wish."

"You will follow Vex, and should the situation arrive, assist him. If it is not imperative, merely watch from the sidelines. If he does anything you opinion to be unsatisfactory, report to me. I trust your judgement.

"As you command, master."

The creature winked out of existence.

"Serve me well, Threndal. You may find a reward."

Well, chapter 13. Feeling unlucky, anyone? Before anyone asks, I just had to have Flare hork up his stuff. Call it a little shout-out to Rico of the Penguins of Madagascar. As for Vex, everyone liked him so much I had to put him in again, but this time, getting dominated by his sponsor. One thing's for sure, I wouldn't like serving Revenge. She seems a little... icy. Unless, of course, she gave me the cold shoulder. Well, thanks for reading, and keep your stick on the... ice.(Fine, I stop puns... I can see I'm treading on thin... ice.)

Chapter 14: A New Companion

A New Companion

Momentary 3rd person

Day Break ground her teeth in frustration, pressing the industrial-grade earmuffs closer to her ears. No use. The sound permeated them almost as if she didn't have anything on.

'Ever since that overgrown parakeet came in here I've had a headache! Where did they find him?'

Giving the side of her head one last pound, she tried to concentrate on the paperwork of the new entries, ignoring the raucous singing as best she could.

"Let's see... Truenis. Species? U-unknown. S-similar to a large gr-griffin, but with four talons for legs and four wings. Gender: M-male. Voice: Deep, h-horribl-"

She was interrupted by an especially loud verse.

"FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!", she screamed, repeatedly banging her skull onto the fine mahogany desk, oblivious to whatever damage it may have caused to her horn.

Suddenly, it stopped. Her head lifted up, the beginnings of a smile beginning to play upon her lips.

"I-is it... over?"

But wait. What was that low sound... It seemed... almost like... whispering-

"JOHN, JACOB JINGLE-HEIMER SMITH!!!!"

Her left eye twitched involuntarily.

"GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!"

******1st person*******

The scream reached our cell. I had to admit I was impressed, but both me and Flare kept on singing.

John, Jacob Jingle-Heimer Smith

Your name is my name toooooooo!

Whenever we go out, the people always shout, singin'

JOHN, JACOB JINGLE-HEIMER SMITH!!

Da-da-da-da-da-da-da...

John, Jacob Jingle-Heimer Smith...

We were interrupted in the middle of our verse by the door to the room our cell was in slamming open. Standing in the doorway was a furious unicorn mare, bloodshot eyes glaring at us while steam erupted from her nostrils. She roared ferally and tried to claw her way through the bars at us.

"Is there a problem, miss?", I asked.

"IS THERE A PROBLEM!?! IS THERE A PROBLEM!?! IS THERE A PROBLEM!?!"

I turned my head towards Flare.

"You notice there's a peculiar kind of echo in here?"

The screams of rage continued till the mare finally got tired of it. Nostrils still flaring, she glared menacingly at us.

"If I hear one more verse of that song one more time, I'm going to kill you."

With a parting glare, she stomped out of the room and slammed the door behind her.

Oh, yeah.

You know what's coming.

*****************

This is the song that never ends,

Yes it goes on and on, my friends,

Some people started singing it not knowing what it was,

And they continued singing it forever just because

This is the song that never ends...

"STOP! JUST STOP! I WILL RIP OUT YOUR VOCAL CHORDS AND MAKE A SWEATER OUT OF THEM!"

I looked at Flare. He looked back.

"You think she mad?", he asked me.

"She mad."

I could hear her mind snapping. Her mouth opened and closed, but not a sound came out of it. Finally, she resorted to letting two tears fall out of her eyes and walking out the door, shutting it quietly behind her.

"Hey, whaddaya know. I guess I owe you five bits, ya big chicken. We actually broke her."

Our discussion was cut short by a new figure striding confidently into the room. This was a pegasus, and she(I think it was a she) was huuuuuuge. And not like fat huge. Muscly huge. Under one wing was a bucket.

"Alright, ya tin can brains. It's chow time. Don't complain, and I might give ya some tomorrow too."

With that, she unceremoniously chucked the bucket into our cell and sat down with a colossal grin on her face. I looked down into the metal container. Inside were a few fish, still slightly flopping, and a hunk of bloody meat. I looked back up at her.

"It's raw."

"I know. I'm the cook around here."

"Let me guess: You like seeing others gag on meat. How do you, an herbivore, stand watching meat get eaten?"

"It ain't eaten. They don't got the stomach for it."

I raised a feathery eyebrow. Flare peered into the bucket and fished out a trout. With a small puff of his breath, he roasted it through, and then swallowed the meat.

"...Touché. You can cook meat. Consider yourself lucky, bird."

"Oh, I have no problems whatsoever with this meal. In fact, I prefer it raw."

With that remark, I sliced a big piece of the bloody meat and licked it slowly. The face of the mare paled a little. Obviously, she hadn't served many true meat-eaters. I inserted my beak into the hunk and ripped off a chunk, and then swallowed it. A few more times and the chunk was gone. I licked my fingers. By this time, Flare had finished a few fish and was starting on his piece of meat. The cook had reached a sickly pale color. With a gulp, I simply swallowed a couple of fish. The visage of the mare was reaching incredibly green tones. After I finished licking my fingers of the slime covering them, she finally yielded to her urges and scampered out of the room, retching.

"Do you think I overdid it?"

"Nah."

**********

The meals had come and gone. Truthfully, I didn't know how long we had spent in there. And it wasn't so bad. Free food, free shelter, nothing to do... Okay, maybe that was a drawback. I spent some of my time reviewing some magic spells, finding that indeed, I was weaker. Both physically, and magically. Whatever was helping me before was gone. I would need to train to get stronger. The time passed uneventfully, just me and Flare talking, until a commotion was heard outside our door.

With a bang, the door flung open, and a pegasus wrestled a furiously squirming cloaked figure into the room. The only thing I could discern is that that bipedal figure didn't want to be seen. A black cape was draped around it's shoulders, with a hood covering it's head, and a mask over it's mouth and nose. The whole body was clothed in black, even the arms and legs wearing gloves. Four silver lines traced from it's elbows down to it's palm and the back of it's hand on each arm, forming a circle on both sides of the hand. Curiously, the right hand of the figure was a lot thinner than the left, which was abnormally large. Then, the figure spoke.

"Get your dirty hooves offa me!"

Surprisingly, it was the voice of a young woman.

"Shut up and get in the cell. Don't make me do something you'll regret later on."

The door was opened and she was thrown inside. Immediately, she rushed to the bars.

"Now listen to what's gonna happen. I'm gonna get out of here. And right after I find my mother, I'm gonna become filthy rich, rich enough to buy your butt, just so I can kick it. All. Day. Long."

Evidently, the pegasus stallion wasn't pleased. He went up to the bars.

"I dare you to say tha-"

He was cut off by the left hand slamming into his face with such power that he hit the other side of the wall, unconscious. Needless to say, I was impressed.

"Rather impressive. I'd be willing to wager that not many others have that much strength.", I said.

She immediately whirled around, looking for us. Finally, she spotted our spot in the shadowed corner, and put both her fists up. Why were we in the shadows? Because we could. And it was cool. I'm serious when I say that only our eyes shined out. The rest of our bodies were mere black outlines.

"Stay where you are. I'm prepared to disable you at the least movement."

I held up a hand.

"Peace. I'm not going to hurt you. In fact, if I wanted to hurt you, you would be hurting already."

"Yeah? I don't believe you."

She continued to hold her fighting pose. I sighed, and began to get up.

"Listen, I don't really wanna fi-Oof!"

She had slammed into me with her left fist. The speed at which she was moving was impressive. She got ready to pound me into the ground, but was interrupted by a faceful of black and purple flames. She stumbled backwards, and Flare took that opportunity to attack, jumping and swinging his tail at her, knocking her onto her back. He finished in an intimidating pose, though it was slightly offset by his low height.

"Back off."

I stood up, as did the girl.

"Can we start again? I'm Truenis, ventolian. I'm in here for carrying a weapon and not paying the toll."

"Soria."

"Excuse me-"

"Soria. It's my name. Don't forget it, chicken-brain."

"Flare.", said the young drake.

"Now listen up, I don't know about you, but I am planning on getting out of here. You two can stay if you want, but I'm going out."

She confidently strode towards the lock on the door and tapped it, listening intently.

"Hmm... It's complicated. Reinforced arcanite, that's nearly impossible to break through. The cost of one of these bars alone must have been astronomical."

To my surprise, she took a dagger out from under her cloak and began picking inside the lock. I sauntered up beside her.

"I thought they took away all weapons."

"Pfft. They can't take away what they don't know's there. My weapons are undetectable. Their scanner spells are useless."

She continued to poke about without success. With a grunt of disappointment, she put her dagger back. She stood up and faced me, standing a little taller than me.

"You got any ideas on how to get out of here?"

Now that she was facing me, I could see her better. Inside the hood, what I could see, what a face full of black fur, with a couple of chestnut eyes staring out. I examined the lock.

"Maybe if I try with my weapon."

At my call, Thunderhilt floated across the room into my hand. Soria showed no sign of surprise.

"You may want to stand back a little. I'm not sure if this is gonna work. Lacero!"

Even a simple spell such as that wore me out a good amount. But it was accomplished. My weapon gained a silvery sheen to it, and I swung with all my strength at the bars. The result was rather impressive. I was sent flying backwards into the wall, battered and bruised. Hobbling my way over to the bars, I surveyed the damage I had made.

"One... measly... scratch?"

It was true. There was barely a dent in the bar.

"Consider yourself strong. Most wouldn't even leave a mark. This is reinforced arcanite we're talking here, in case you're deaf. This stuff ain't gonna break."

"Flare, ideas."

The dragon walked up to the bars.

"The lock isn't easy to pick, the bars are virtually unbreakable. Teleportation might get us out of here."

"Two things wrong with that. One, I can see an anti-teleport barrier around here. Sensing magic can be useful at times. Two, we don't even know a teleport spell."

"Alright, I'm outta ideas."

I stared at the lock, rubbing my chin thoughtfully.

"I wonder..."

Gripping Thunderhilt once more, I prepared to cast a spell.

"Reserare"

With a simple click and a creak, the door swung open. I had to resist the urge to facepalm right then and there. Instead, I merely walked out. I looked back, and Soria was pointing at me.

"You... Why didn't you just do that beforehand?"

"Well, the food was fine, the cell was warm, and it didn't really come to me."

Ahhhh, young grasshopper, you must train to learn about the art of resisting facepalms.

"Alright, I'm outta here. You two coming too, or do you want to stay behind in your warm cell?"

She was fun.

"I think we'll come. Flare."

He immediately ran to my side and jumped, vibrating his small wings enough to give him a bit of extra altitude. He landed on my back.

"We're getting out of here. Prepare to incapacitate, but not wound."

"Understood.", he replied.

"Fantastic. So now that you two dough-boys are ready to go, I'll just go ahead and knock out the guards."

And with that sentence, she simply vanished into the shadows expertly. Me and Flare went down the stairs, the fact that Soria had disappeared so easily disturbing us. Suddenly, a guard appeared on the stairway. His mouth opened in shock, but before he could say anything, a dark shadow, well, the best word would be something like 'blobbed', out of the wall. With a strike faster than lightning, the stallion fell to the ground. A pair of chestnut eyes met mine for a second before Soria melted back into the shadows.

"You've done this before, haven't you?"

No response.

"Not too sociable, are you?"

We continued down the stairs, periodically knocking out a guard or two that had gotten in our way. Soria was scary. It was like a literal shadow was fighting for us. Flare was also demonstrating hidden abilities. He would jump at a guard and in 2 seconds, have him unconscious through some sort of extremely effective kung-fu. At the bottom of the stairway, Soria reappeared and glued herself to the wall next to the door. Me and Flare followed suit. She faced us and placed one finger in front of her mouth, basically telling us to be quiet. After me and flare stopped breathing, she cocked her head towards the doorway. When she had listened for a few moments, she took a sort of metal ball from a belt she had around her waist. A faint hissing sound was heard, as if an air pump was being worked.

"Five guards.", she whispered.

She twisted her wrist a little and a faint humming sound was heard. Carefully, she put her hand near the ground and slid it till the palm was facing the open doorway. The metal ball shot through, and she quickly withdrew her hand. She began to count softly.

"Three....Two....One...."

A sound reminiscient to an airlock being opened was heard, and soon, all five of the guards were screaming about their eyes, noses and mouths. I heard a clunk, and two voices dropped out, supposedly because they had ran into each other. One of them ran through the doorway, and was quickly nailed to the wall by a left jab from Soria.

"What do you have inside that glove?", asked Flare.

"My paw... In more ways than one."

We entered the room and were greeted by the sight of two unconscious guards and two more running around screaming. I turned to Soria and raised an eyebrow.

"Onion gas. A little concoction I came up with. Don't get any of it inside your mouth, nose or eyes. It'll burn."

I whacked one stallion with the staff end of Thunderhilt while Flare simply gave a light karate chop to the back of the neck of the other.

"That was surprisingly easy.", I said before I thought about it.

Fortunately, nothing happened. The universe spared us.

"Come on, let's go to the storeroom.", said Soria. "We'll need something for compensation."

She led us through a couple doors into a large room, with weapons hanging across the walls.

"Here's where they put the confiscated weapons, as well as the bits they earn from selling them."

Can you guess what we took? If you said the little dagger shaped like a carrot, you were wrong. We opened a chest and took a good amount of gold coins.

"Oh, hey Truenis.", called Flare. "Catch."

With that, he flicked five coins at me.

"There's the five bits I owe you."

After I had put some bits in my bags, we went out, and prepared to get out of the station. But before that could happen, we heard loud voices. Quickly, Soria ushered us into a dark room, where the voices were muffled considerably.

"Man, it's dark in here.", I remarked.

"Hey, here's a candle!", said Flare. He quickly gave a small spurt of fire and it started sparkling.

"Hey, that burns nice and bright.. Bring it over here, there's a sign. Let's see... Warning! Explosive Storage Area! Open Flames Prohibited!

...

Flare, exactly what kind of candle is that?"

He turned it to one side.

"Dee-nah-mee-tay. Must be a foreign make."

My right eye twitched involuntarily.

And all of a sudden I was hanging over a cliff!... Oh wait... That's you... Trololololol... Anyways, hope you like the new chapter. I wonder if anyone can guess exactly what Soria is. And in case you're wondering, canon hasn't been achieved yet, but we're getting closer. Thanks for reading, and keep your stick on the ice.

Chapter 15: Pasts

Pasts

Suddenly, I heard a large amount of sizzling.

"Flare, please don't tell me that more sticks are burning."

"Uh... okay."

"...You're just telling me what I want to hear, aren't you?"

"Yup."

"Curses."

Rapidly, I blanketed Flare in my front right wing and pulled him in close. I briefly doubted doing the same to Soria, but did so all the same.

"Oi! At least give me a warning!"

I bunched myself up as best as I could and began muttering 'Protego'. A shiny sphere appeared around us. I put my head down and waited for the inevitable boom. It didn't come. I dared to peek out from under my hands. Nothing. Still I held my two companions. The fizzling died out. To my chagrin, Flare poked his head out.

"What's the suspense for? Nothing's happening."

And there was the straw that broke the camel's back. The entire room blew up.

KABOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!

The air erupted into orange flames, the heat devastating on the room. The few sticks of dynamite that had been ignited had caused a chain reaction, and, well, the whole room full of TNT exploded. Our little shield bubble was sent flying, and we burst out of the jail into the sky, all the way... yelling in a manly way. Yes, that's it, yelling in a manly way. Not screaming.

Anywho, there we were, flying through the air. The protect spell had managed to keep us alive, but we still had the odd burn in some places. We soared over the city at an uncontrollable speed, until we slowed down at a part of the city that was extremely far away from our starting point. Dimly, I noted that my wings were very burned. However, those were just the front ones. The back ones were completely fine. I opened them and allowed them to control our descent.

It was pure coincidence that we landed in a dumpster in an alleyway. Definitely not one of my best landings. Soria stood up and started brushing herself off.

"Smooth flying, birdbrain."

I slowly got up, exhausted.

"Yeah...*pant*... well...*pant*... you just try...*pant*... landing with a magic drought...*pant* and a cargo of two other people...*pant*"

With that snarky comeback, I collapsed into the dumpster.

"Oooooooh, my aching everything!", I complained.

Flare stood up and wobbled around.

"Why is the twinkie eating around?", he said, stumbling.

"...What?", I asked him.

"The gumball won't stay still!"

"Flare, I don't really think you're fit for duty right now..."

"Nonsense!", he replied. "I'm as juxtaposed as the next hamburger!"

In a miscalculation, he fell over the side of the trash bin and ended up on the ground. With a shake of his head and the random sound of cowbells, he was back on his feet.

"Graceful...", I heard Soria mutter.

She herself hopped down with the ease of falling off a log(I never use 'Candy from a baby' because I once met this real tough toddler, and I think he was the child of Goliath and a female bear, because when some other dudes tried to take his lollipop away... I'm rambling, aren't I?).

"Right, then. If you two chimps can handle yourself, I'll be out of your hair."

"Hold up.", I said, appearing over the edge of the tub of trash. "Before you go, I want to hear how you got in jail, at least."

"Fine, I guess I owe you that much. I was careless. Happy? When I was getting lunch, I failed to notice the high-ranked guards around. They hauled me off."

I leaped out of the dumpster.

"So how did they get you? You don't play softball."

"Pfft, on a day when I'm watching, I can take 'em. Knock 'em out before they see me coming. But today, they saw me first. Like I said, I was careless, and I payed a small price for it."

"How did they defeat you? You can go into stealth mode in a fraction of a second!"

"They were unicorns!", she snapped suddenly. "I don't have magic! They just cast a spell and I'm revealed! Then they come out with their electrified chains and shock me beyond reason, and THEN they start giving me a beating! It's not easy to live like this, looking for someone who cares about someone else enough to actually DO something that you need, when nearly the whole population wants to see you behind bars!"

She stopped yelling and looked down at the ground.

"When your whole past is a nightmare, and there's no waking from it, why do people make it worse? Is it not enough for them to see me suffer, they also want to cause it? And on top of that, they have an unfair advantage. It's not as fair a world as it seems..."

I put a claw on her shoulder, and she looked up at me. I could see a great deal of pain behind those eyes, masked behind arrogance and pride. I could tell she had been through a lot in life.

"I didn't have the most stellar past either. It might not even come close to your's, but know that I feel for you. The few people that cared about me died not too long ago."

"You wouldn't know my pain... what I went through the first nine years of my life... the pain, the fatigue, the torture... just horrible."

"Try me.", I said, and we walked over and sat down with Flare.

****************************

Soria's POV

'Should I tell him? Telling others what I am has only ended badly before. I shouldn't. But he seems different. Like... he actually cares. The look in his eyes... He should know. I'm gonna tell him.'

I was almost shocked at myself. To trust... something I hadn't done for a long time. Would it be worth it? Worth the risk?

"Alright," I began. "The first thing you should know is what I actually am."

"I was beginning to wonder that myse-Oof!"

The red dragon was cut off by the bird giving him a light slap.

"Don't interrupt."

The hatchling rubbed his head and began listening again. I decided to start by stretching my wings out of the holes cut in my cloak for that purpose. My wings... black as coal, almost as big as me height-wise. Lengthwise, they spanned bigger than my height. The looks of wonder I was expecting weren't as impressive as I had expected. But that was to be expected, seeing as how the expectations of the bird I had expected to be impassive. He merely raised an eyebrow, while the dragon blinked to make sure he was seeing right.

"Yes, I have wings. Figured out what I am yet?"

Shakes of the head were their answers.

"Of course not."

I took the next step and took off my cloak, my gloves and the mask I wore over my beak. This time there were more evidences of surprise. And who wouldn't be startled at me? Pitiful me. Doomed to walk as a low-class freak till my death. Sometimes I wish I was never born. But if that was true, there would be next to no hope for mother. Sweet, kind, caring mother.

The faces of my companions were now curious. Like I said, I wasn't very likely to win a beauty contest. Black fur all over my body. Of course, they didn't know that, because of my suit. I'll have to get in touch with Geirmund sometime to tell him how it all works out. I also had the reddish-orange left leg, courtesy of my mom's species. My lion's tail made itself known by laying itself out. I sighed at them. The sight must have looked abnormal, with my dog ears on the top of my head and my yellow beak stuck right in the middle, black fur surrounding everything, but letting my chestnut-colored eagle eyes show through. My oversized left d-dog paw hung from my left arm while my quick eagle claw arm stood at the opposite side.

"So now you know." I told them. "I'm a hybrid. An ugly, useless hybrid. My mom was a griffin, and she was the best mom in the world. Father's on my naughty list. Alpha of a diamond dog clan and an all-around bad guy."

Truenis spoke. And it wasn't what I was expecting. I was expecting something along the lines of 'Weirdo', 'Loser' or something less malicious, like 'Aren't d-dogs and griffins incompatible?'. But he had to do the unexpected. As was expected of him.

"Why do you consider yourself ugly?"

The question made me pause.

"Everyone considers me ugly. Who could think of a hybrid as anything but ugly? I've got a face only a mother could think of as nice. Father used to tell me I had a face like five miles of bad road."

I heard a loud snorting sound, like an attempt to supress laughter, coming from the drake. I glared at him. He didn't alter his facial muscles. Then, Truenis spoke again with another unexpected statement(guy's just full of surprises, ain't he?).

"I don't think you're ugly. In fact, you look pretty cute."

I gave him a blank look.

"Are you hitting on me?", I asked with a mixture of disgust, rage, and, though I hate to admit it, a little happiness.

"No, merely stating a fact. But why do you care so much about what other people say about you? Why do you care if someone you don't know or don't like insults you? You should only care about what those who truly like you say. I was insulted daily. Over time, I learned that just ignoring the insults that other people threw at you was the best way to go. You wouldn't get emotionally hurt by lies. I only cared about what my friends said about me."

Who was this guy? How could he speak so calmly about these things? Why did he think I was cute?

He detected that I was lost in thought and spoke again.

"Why don't you tell me your whole story. Tell me about your mother."

'Does this guy think he's a psychologist or something?'

"Alright, I'll tell you. But this isn't something I tell any random person. Despite my better knowledge, I'm trusting you."

*********Soria's Past**********

My mom is a griffin named Elyssa. Before I was born, she lived with her mate and her son in a cave up in the mountains. Did I mention her mate was a dragon? Yeah, I know how that sounds, but life was corny and the two of them fell in love and settled down together. After a while, they had their son, J'orin. Evidently, dragons are compatible with anything because of their high magic content.

Anyways, all was good and well in that household until the day when it happened. Mom was out gathering gems for the others, she told me, when out of nowhere came diamond-dogs. She fought back as best as she could, but she wasn't armed, and one griffin can't do much against a horde of dogs if it's not armed. Before they drug her under the earth, she said she saw her family coming. Evidently, they arrived too late.

When she woke up, she was in a slave room with people of practically every species there is. Ponies, zebras, d-dogs, griffins, all there. She was put to work, digging and hauling gems, with just enough nutrients to keep her alive.

Then came the issue with the alpha. He was a gem-loving dog, and cared nothing about slaves. He also loved power. So, when one day the workers broke through a wall that led to a magic pool, he jumped at the opportunity.

It's known to d-dogs that there are a few pools of magic water around the world. It's not known where they're from, if they're old extensions of the river Styx or just water that got infused with magic. Either way, putting it into your system will give you enhanced strength, speed and brutality, but it has side effects. Your sanity is drained, and if you get an overdose... it's not pretty. You mutate. That happened to the alpha. One minute, he was a buffed up hound. The next minute, he was a nine-armed freakish being with a deformed body. He still had enough sanity to run the operation, and run it he did. Anybody who didn't obey his orders... he ate 'em.

That's when his son came in. Before he came upon the magic pool, he had a few mates and a few offspring. The firstborn was the one that was most considered his son. He was ruthless, cruel and strong, as well as having a good set of brains. When the mutation happened to his dad, he didn't care about his dad. He just plotted on how to be alpha.

When he saw an opportunity, he went down to the magic pool. There, he slit his hands and forearms and held them inside the water. That caused his paws to grow beyond normality. His forearms became invincible shields, and the water had no side effect on his sanity.

Straight after that, he went to confront the alpha. They say that the battle collapsed a few tunnels. I'm not sure if that happened. But what did happen was that there was a cave-in leading to the magic pool. The path was blocked, and when they finally dug it out, the pool was gone. The end result of the battle was that the son won. Put his own father down like a wild beast.

From then on, the son told everyone to call him Alpha Dragonfist. He went on to take over, and he took over bad. He elected certain slaves to... entertain him and his friends. My mom was one of these. When ma started to have me, she was given respite. When I was born, it was a shocker to everybody. Evidently, dad thought one of the other griffins had done it. He never recognized me as his daughter. He knew it would degrade himself. Anyone who had such thoughts were beaten.

Mom raised me well. Taught me how to survive. She didn't care who my father was. All she cared about was that I was her daughter. I remember how she used to sing to me, and comfort me... And then they punted us both into the mines again. And that wasn't the worst part. When they considered me old enough... they used me. I still hate them for that. The Betas, and that moronic Alpha. Anything lower in rank I pardon. They didn't do anything of their own free will. It was all under the name of the two high ranks.

Nine years old was when I escaped. I was always one of the more rebellious slaves, always looking for a way out. For me and mom. After one of these escapades, the Alpha himself decided to punish me. He asked for a bow and arrows. I had to avoid getting shot by him. He showed all the slaves how good their aims were, and how they would get killed if they tried to escape. I got off lucky. Nothing touched me. That's when the Alpha made a mistake. He ordered me to pick up the arrows. Normally, I would refuse, but today I had an idea. I went around on my knees, picking up the arrows. When noone was looking, the Alpha lecturing, I hid an arrow in my beak. After picking up all the arrows, I returned them to the Alpha, but remained on my knees. When he turned round to say how good my behavior was, I spit the arrow into the back of his knee.

Then I ran. But I paused. Long enough to say to my mom: 'I'll come back for you'. Just that. Then I ran. I ran out the tunnel, I ran to the surface, I ran far from that den. I ran away. I've been out since. Training, equipping, but over all searching for someone to come with me to sack that den. I can't do it alone, no matter how hard I try. How I got my gear is another story. I might tell it to you sometime.

***********Truenis' POV***************

I looked at the girl in front of me. She was young. She couldn't have been much older than 15 or 16 years old. But she was still a child at heart. Despite all she had seen, all she had experienced, she never truly grew up. She was still young inside. I watched as a tear came out of her eye. She hastily wiped it away.

"I can't compare with the tragedy of your story. My past was that I was an absolute orphan. Didn't even catch a glimpse of my parents. My life mostly had people pushing me around. I grew a sort of a shell to people who weren't my friends. And then, we all died."

"What!?"

I gave a wry smile.

"Story for another time. What matters now is that I'm going to help you."

She suddenly became attentive and curious.

"What?"

"I'm going to help you save your mother. If she's still alive, she deserves freedom."

She smiled(How the heck do we do that with beaks?).

"Thanks."

She stood up.

"You know something about that Alpha?"

"What?"

"I think I can take him. After all, I beat him once, I can do it again. He used to be my boss... but then he took an arrow to the knee."

Dat last line. I had to use it. And I haven't even played Skyrim! Anywho, sorry about another late update(maybe I should stop apologizing for those...). So, who wants to see some pictures of Soria? Hey, you in the back there! I see that your hand isn't raised. Too bad, you get my images.

Here's Soria without gear on. Turned out very well, in my opinion.

And here is Soria with gear on. Didn't turn out too shabby either.

Anyways, thanks for reading, and keep your stick on the ice.

Chapter 16: Preparations

Preparations

I had to crack another smile.

"All right, then, Soria, I suppose you're our guide now."

"I guess so. Okay, have you ever heard of The Spring Goat?"

"Uh... no. Some sort of hotel?"

"No, it's a bar. Just go out this alleyway, take a left, continue straight till you get to the green sign, turn left, straight, turn right at the street beside The Faulty Barrel..."

My mind strove to memorize all the details of the directions she gave us. She gave us orders to go in every vector possible, be it forward, backward, right, left, up or down, or any combination of them. Eventually, she finally petered out.

"...then you hang a Ritchie at the big totem pole, go down the street and there it is. Go on ahead, order yourselves something, have lunch. I'll be there when I can."

And with that, she vanished into the shadows.

"Truenis, do you remember what she said?", asked Flare.

"I sure darn hope so, I sure darn hope so..."

A little while later...

"Are we there yet?"

"No, Flare."

"...Are we there now?"

"No."

"How about now?"

"Congratulations Flare, we have arrived. The destination is 'Annoyed'. Our next stop is known as 'Irked' and the final one is called 'Consequences'. Shall we keep on going?"

"...Uh... No thanks..."

"A wise decision."

A little later...

"Truenis?"

"Shhh, I'm getting my bearings."

"We're lost, aren't we?"

"Of course not! I know exactly where we are!"

"Riiiiiiiiiight. So where are we?"

"City of Stalliongrad, country, Equestria."

I heard the unmistakeable sound of a claw meeting a face.

Some more time later...

"Okay, I have an idea, Flare."

"Do tell."

"On three, we both point in a random direction. If we're pointing the same way, we go there."

"That has to be the dumbest idea ever."

"Do you have a better one?"

"Alright, fine."

We both counted.

"One, two, three, THAT WAY!"

We both pointed in completely different directions.

"One more time.", I said.

"One, two, three, THAT WAY!"

Once more, we didn't concur.

"Let's try again!"

Later...

"Truenis, I'm going to suggest something that goes completely out of nature of our gender. Should we ask for directions?"

I clasped a claw over his mouth in horror and gasped.

"How could you ever suggest such a thing!?!?!"

That said, I turned to a unicorn stallion walking by and said:

"Excuse me, do you know the way to The Spring Goat?"

He seemed slightly amused by the question. I facepalmed and sighed.

"It's right behind me, isn't it?"

He nodded. I turned around. There, a building stood, with the words: 'The Spring Goat' written in chipped paint.

"Uh, thanks.", I said.

"No problem."

I walked to the doorway and opened it. Walking in, no small feat considering my large body, I was greeted by a dozen different smells of cooking food. It was a medium-sized restaurant, not huge, but respectable. Inside were amassed a congregation of not only ponies, but also griffins, diamond dogs and some others. In fact, the ponies were a minority. No sooner had I come in, that a perky dark brown pegasus came up to me.

"Good afternoon, sir, would you like a table?"

She then sized me up.

"Wow, you're a big 'un. Come over here, there's some space."

I followed her over to a booth that was big enough for me. I noticed that all the seats were bigger than they were back on Earth, probably because most people reclined instead of sat, though there were many that sat like a dog. No, not a diamond dog, a... never mind, let's get on with the story.

Anywho, she led us over and we seated ourselves.

"I'll be there to take your orders in a few minutes."

"One sec, wasn't this a bar?", I asked.

"It doubles as a restaurant. Though between you and me," she whispered. "I don't like half the food they serve."

She walked away, leaving me and Flare sitting there. It was rather comical, me, being almost twice the size of a regular pony, sitting across from Flare, who wasn't much bigger than the head of a stallion. We both picked up our menus and commenced reading. After reaching a certain section, I had to chuckle.

"That's why the mare didn't like half the food: there's meat in half the dishes."

Elsewhere...

A gloved fist slammed into the chest of an attacker. He was immediately propelled backwards at a speed that was sure to be unhealthy. Two other muscular bodyguards tried to rush the cloaked figure, only to be hit in the face with small balls that shattered upon contact. The stallions' eyelids immediately drooped, and few moments had passed before they were lying on top of each other, emitting snores that sounded uncannily like bumpy potatoes being rolled across a thick aluminum surface. The shadow glared at one other pony. One other well-groomed stallion who remained with an impassive face.

"You owe me.", said Soria, approaching the greasy-haired cretin.

Back to the restaurant...

"I'll take... clam chowder and stromboli.", said Flare to the waitress.

"Goulash and a rare steak, please", I ordered.

The mare wrote down our orders(how the heck do they hold onto pencils with hooves?), gave us a smile(kinda ruined by the greenish tint she had on her face) and went off to the kitchen.

"I wonder what that girl is up to...", I pondered.

Another part of town...

Soria looked at the disfigured shapes that were supposed to pass as ordinary muscles on the guards' arms. 4 diamond dogs, all of which looked like they were on steroids for a few months before crossing their DNA with that of a gorillaphant(gorillaphants live inside big trees. It's true, I tell you! They're the ones moving all the trees!).

The hybrid cracked her neck before turning to the stallion.

"You should know that I can take these guys. You've seen me fight. Why don't you call them off so I don't have to tear off more limbs than necessary?"

If the pony was affected by this, he didn't show it. He merely snapped his fing... Wait...

...

...

Do you ever get the feeling that you're having an off day?

Anywho, the dogs advanced on Soria.

"Bring it."

Is that food?

I tore into my steak, delighted at the meaty taste. At the other end of the table, Flare had only begun to eat stromboli(for those of you who are unlucky enough to have never tried stromboli, I shall describe it to you: You take a bunch of dough, flatten it, lay different meats and cheeses on it, roll it up, pinch it tight, bake it, dip it in tomato sauce and enjoy.). Very soon, we were both finished.

The pegasus came over.

"Anything I can get you boys for dessert?", she asked, handing us a smaller dessert menu.

"I'm fine, thanks.", replied Flare.

"I'll try the cherry pie."

"Alright then, be right back with it."

After she had left, I observed who was at the place. As I said before, there were many species. As my eyes glanced towards the door, I saw two mares come in. They were both yellow, with matching green manes. Either twins or creepily-good friends. They walked up to the counter and sat on a couple of stools. I noticed that one of them seemed to be guiding the other. At that moment, the waitress came with my cherry pie, the planets were aligned and everyone was happy. Okay, maybe the planets weren't completely in a row, but pie is good. Even though this one seemed to be missing something, it was good.

Is that blood?

A dog's fist crashed into Soria's side. She tumbled to the ground. After getting onto her knees, she spit a little blood out of her mouth, conveniently in the direction of the dogs, and re-adjusted her mask.

Two dogs were already unconscious, and she caught a glimpse of the boss pressing a hanky to his forehead, but as she got a little careless with one, the other used the moment to strike. She had already been hit numerous times, yet still managed to find the energy to stand.

"Is that all you got, Fido? I got two words for you: 'Play Dead'."

One of the dogs, enraged at how she managed to call him by his name, charged forward and proceeded to beat Soria within an inch of her life. Or would've, if he hadn't slipped on the spit glob and had his head slammed by the magically-enhanced paw of the hybrid girl. Soria glared at the last bodyguard.

"You have two choices, the way I see it. Either you run away now, or I ram my fist down your throat, grab your tail and turn you inside out. Choose."

The dog paled(again, how? He's got fur covering his face!), stepped backwards... And then crashed through the wall and ran for the hills, leaving a grossly-over-buff-humanoid-shaped hole in the wall behind him. Soria then focused her sights on the pony, who was now trying to cover the fact that he was sweating worse than Santa Claus wearing 5 wool layers on a summer day on a beach in Tahiti surrounded by some vengeful kids on the naughty list.

"Payday, boss."

Mmmmm... Piiiiiiiiiie...

As I endeavoured to fill my beak with pie(harder to chew than you would think. I have a beak, for goodness sake!), I observed the two mares. The marks on their backsides were an eye on one and an ear on the other. The one with an ear ordered from the waiter.

I let my attention stray over to other tables. Soon, my mind was occupied in trying to read the 'lips' of a couple of griffins. Not very easy. When I interpreted 'That yucca lizard flatulated the balloon', I reckoned that it was time to stop. Soon after that, my eyes snapped back over to the general area where the two mares were. It appeared that they were being severely annoyed by a muscled earth pony.

"Hey ladies! Check out the dynamite show over here!", he said. "Boom! BOOM!", he continued, flexing a bicep with each word. "FI-AH-POWAH!!!"

The ladies completely ignored him.

Back to Soria

The huge paw enveloped the stallion's neck. Soria lifted him up and cocked her griffin arm back threateningly.

"You owe me. Tell me, NOW!", she said.

"I... don't... know...", he managed to gasp out.

"What?!", inquired Soria in a dangerously soft voice.

"You were... famous... in the... arena... I... needed you... for... the show..."

Soria slammed him into the table, which broke down the middle.

"So when you told me you had information about my brother... you lied?!"

The stallion was livid.

"I-I-I have g-gold... b-bits... anything!"

"You would give me anything?", asked Soria, quivering with rage.

The pony nodded frantically.

"Anything... a-anything at all!"

Soria kicked him away before lifting him up by his throat again.

"I want my mother and brother."

The stallion gulped.

"Pray to Celestia, Luna, Discord, or whatever deity you worship for mercy..."

His eyes widened in fear.

"...Because I'm not giving you any..."

Scene Censored for Violence and Stuff! Returning to Other Scene!

To my surprise, after the mares had had enough of the stallion, they got up and walked over to... our table?!?

"Excuse me," began one of the mares, the one with the eye, to be exact. "But can we sit here?"

I raised an eyebrow.

"Why not?"

I gestured to a pair of chairs that were at our table.

Now would be a good time to tell you something that I had done before trying to find The Spring Goat. Before I left the alley, I realized that guards would probably be looking for a four-legged, four-winged bird, so I took it upon myself to disguise myself by using a spell to bend air around me to create an illusion of me just being an oversized griffin. Did I take more than once to do it? Yeah. Did it poop me out considerably? Yes, it did. Was I slumped against the wall for an extended period of time due to casting so many failed spells which often ended with humiliating results? Well, that's beside the point. I looked like a giant griffin, Thunderhilt was invisible, end of story.

Back to the story, the mares smiled cheerfully and sat down next to us. They introduced themselves as Perfect Sight(the one with the eye marks) and Good Hearing(the one with the ear marks). Frankly, why anyone would name their children Perfect and Good is a mystery to me, but hey, I don't have kids. Soon after, we became aware that Sight was deaf and that Hearing was blind. Go figure.

They told us that they were identical twins, but they had been born with disabilities, one deaf, and the other blind. They helped each other get through life, and discovered that Hearing had a sort of a radar sense for objects around her and that Sight could read lips and beaks with almost zero difficulty.

And also, the stallion had been trying to get their attention with little to no success during our conversation.

"Come on! You wanna be with a REAL stallion! Take a look at the biceps! The triceps! The abs! The thighs!..." And so on and so forth. Finally, I just sighed, and said:

"I think that they've made it abundantly clear that they don't want anything to do with you."

He fake-shied away.

"Oooooooh, look out for the griffin! He could get mad! And what're you going to do, canary? Beat me up?"

I ignored him and took another bite of pie. For another 5 minutes, he tried to get my attention. After realizing that words weren't affecting me, he took his annoyance to another level. He took my pie and threw it onto the floor. I slowly gyrated my head to look at him. I spoke in a soft, dangerous voice.

"I can take insults. I don't care about anything you say about me. Insulting females is worse, but still slightly tolerable, unless they get offended enough. But the moment in which you defile my pie... That is the moment in which you put the straw that breaks the camels back on."

I stood up, cracked my neck, and gave him a death glare. He matched it. It was at this moment that I saw that he was quite intoxicated. He got into a cliché-ish martial arts pose.

"One of the drawbacks of alcohol: You think that you have mystical kung fu powers."

He threw a punch that crossed the distance between me and him faster than the speed of li-*snort* *laugh* I-I can't do this! It was so slow and lopsided that a slug could've caught it. Evidently, he thought it was going fast, because when I caught it, his eyes widened considerably. I put my other hand on his foreleg and began rubbing fast in opposite directions. His coat seemed to comically smoke.

"Ah! Ah! OW! Stop! Please!"

When I stopped, he dropped to the floor and cradled his foreleg tenderly. I sat back down and ordered another piece of cherry pie.

I Think Soria Finished...

Soria stepped through the alleyways of Stalliongrad with practiced ease. However, her mind was still raging. She was mad at that stallion. All that time fighting for the amusement of other beings, and nothing to show for it. If she ever met that pony again... it wouldn't be pretty. As it was, she had battered and bruised him and gave him a full body shave. A minor punishment.

She shook the thought of what she would've REALLY liked to do to him away, and focused on getting to the Spring Goat. After all, she wouldn't want to lose those two so soon. Even though she would like to think so, she wouldn't be able to take on a whole den by herself. 4 mutants, sure! They're dumber than a sack of hammers! But if there's a whole pack, with organized leaders to boot, well, not gonna happen.

Before she realized it, she was already at The Spring Goat. Taking a moment to compose herself, she quietly drifted through the door.

We're Back!

After the little incident that followed with the stallion, I attracted surprisingly little attention. Everyone else was too busy with their own stuff. Of course, the offender and his friends said they were going to report to the guards(Perhaps the 'hanging him upside down from the ceiling from a fan' thing was going a little too far, but he was asking for it). Hearing and Sight were quite pleased, and we spent some time talking before something tapped my shoulder. I turned around and promptly jumped a few feet in the air at the sight of Soria.

"Sheesh, girl! When did you get in here!? Give me a warning next time, you made me lose a few feathers!"

I was pretty sure she rolled her eyes before saying:

"Time to go."

I gathered Flare, nodded to the mares, and we were off, going away from Stalliongrad(I think I've had enough racism to last three lifetimes... which is apparently about 1/6 of what I have left to live, if the biology sticks).

Author's Note

I LIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!!!!! Yes, as astonishing as it seems, I have not given up on this story. I've been really busy with school and christmas and so on and so forth, but now I'm getting back in the rythm, so stay tuned. By the way, it seems that I'm doing something right with my story, because I'm getting artwork! Appletank drew this splendid picture of Soria! Kinda puts me to shame, doesn't it?

Anyways, thanks for reading, and keep your stick on the ice.

Chapter 17: More Dreaming of a Time Yet to Come

More Dreaming of a Time Yet to Come

********************That Night***********************

In the dream, I flew away from the great battle, flanked by a number of capable fliers. However, my body was moving completely on its own, and I could feel other feelings such as sadness inside, yet they were not my feelings. It was as if I was visiting someone else's body.

Our group sped across the skies, turning our backs on that scene in hopes of preparing for it again. Yet, the feeling of doubt was ever present.

Finally, when a high-pitched girlish shriek rang out through the air(most likely a noble who had chipped his hoof, but you can never be too careful), I snapped. Though it wasn't me saying it, I could hear myself talk and could feel the rage inside.

"That's it! I can't take this anymore! Electron, you're the fastest flier among us. Go tell all the others. Everyone else..."

Everyone hovered. Some radiated anger and rage, others sadness, there was one who was extremely calm.

"We fight."

The thunderbird sped off quite literally like lightning, leaving a blue and purple jagged trail. All the others turned around and headed back towards the battlefield.

"Why are you doing this, Truenis?" asked Thunderhilt. "You have no debts to pay off, no binding contract, you even had a better plan."

"Shut it." replied the other me. "We both know that neither you nor I are concerned about debts. We help because we can. And besides, Electron's got Plan A covered."

"*sigh* And Electron is going to tap out morse code with his beak to tell what's happening? He can only truly talk to you and me, and even then it's squawky. To any other person, he's just talking bird."

"...Thunderhilt, why do you always wait until the worst moments to say something reasonable?"

"The most amusing thing to me is exasperating you. Plus, I work better under pressure."

Our debate ended, I took the lead in the flying formation. We were very close to the battlefield.

"Okay, I want teams of two. Everybody find a partner to watch your back and watch his. Except for Soria, because she's a NINJA!" I directed. "We hit 'em hard, we hit 'em quick, we hit 'em NOW!"

We all grouped together into pairs(except for Soria. Seriously, NINJA!) and dived down into the fray.

And the battle was instantly weirder.

Author's Note

Hi everyone! So, I'm getting a bit active again, and this is kinda like a jump-start chapter. Kinda like that story I wrote a while ago, Ponies in Oberin. Now that one isn't doing too bad. So far noone has downvoted it! Of course, it has only had 53 views and 3 upvotes, but still...
So yeah, Soria is a ninja. And she's hiding in the dark. In your room. And she knows all your secrets. *looks over shoulder*. And she knows mine too 0.0. So yeah, thanks for reading, and keep your stick on the ice!

Canceling

Title says it all, peeps. This story just isn't happening. I'm never getting motivated enough to write for it, and you know, it was never really a good idea in the first place. All the CGotG stories going around, I just wanted to get in, but now I know better.
It's actually a bit of a pity. I had quite a bit imagined for this story: Truenis turns out to actually have originally came from ancient Equus, companions, yadda yadda yadda, true phoenixes, the chronicler, jokes, but it's just not happening. However, if one of you think that you can maybe write this, you can PM me a chapter and give it a shot. If it's good enough, I can give out the rights.
I will still be working on Scales, which I'm currently editing through, and then I have a lot of other ideas. It's almost pitiful: So many ideas, not enough time or motivation to do them. *shrugs*, well, whaddayagonnado?
Well, this is the last chapter of AW, NS, written by me. Maybe someone else will continue, who knows, but for now, he's gone.

Chapter 1: Say What Now?

Say What Now?

I suppose I'd better show you around. This is my high school. We have charming students, nice teachers, excellent food in our cafeterias and our classes are as easy as pie. We also have kids who are incredibly sarcastic, like me, for instance. Yeah, we got none of the first four. With the students, either you're a predator, you're prey, or you're a bystander that's gonna get turned into prey once the big guys have finished. The teachers aren't good, but I suppose they could be worse. The food... the only thing I can say is 'chaque jour, nous mangeons ordures et nous buvons du jus de chaussettes'. That's french, meaning 'each day, we eat garbage and we drink sock water'. What a beautiful language. The classes, well, it depends on the student, which is one of the reasons that I'm where I am.

If you'll turn your gaze over this way, that would be me. If you're looking at the guy standing in front of the bathroom door, surrounded by girls, you're not looking where I am. No, I'm the dude inside the bathroom. The guy who's head is currently inside a toilet, while seven or eight others stand around and laugh their heads off. Not the best time for an introduction, but, there ya go. That's me. Pleased to meet you, or at least I hope so. The name's Tyler, a.k.a., The Sponge. And that's not because I'm yellow, square and am virtually indestructible. I'm none of those. I really wouldn't mind the nickname so much, if only it wasn't used to mock me. Because I sort of am a sponge. I'm a sponge for information. If I want to learn something, my brain sucks in all I can find and holds it. Only, unlike a sponge, not much of the info comes out afterwards. That's the reason that the teachers aren't screaming at me all the time for not studying. That's the reason that I'm passing classes with As and B+s. It's also the reason why I'm holding my breath while submerged in a swirling vortex of latrine water.

"Hahahahaha! Let's see if The Sponge can soak up water as good as he soaks up data!"

What did I tell you? Charming students. So here I am, Tyler The Sponge. I suppose you'd wonder what my last name is. Well, here's your answer: I don't have one. That's right, I'm an orphan. Parents dropped me off in a basket on the front porch of the place. Cliché, right? The funny thing is, I'm not made fun of because I'm an orphan. Probably has something to do with the fact that the lead predator lives right in the orphanage too, as well as a few others.

The orphanage would be called a great deal nicer than some others that there are in the world. We're not hungry, we go to school, we get a little free time instead of chores, if we're done with our homework, or in the case of some kids, if they want to skip homework. Being the natural whiz that I was born as, I didn't have much trouble with it, and had quite a bit of time to have fun. Problem was the bullies. At the park or around town, I might evade one at a time, but they often came in groups, and beat me up enough to hurt, but not enough to leave any physical marks. I never fought back. I never told anyone. I never fought back because I could almost certainly guarantee myself some ripped clothes or a bloody nose. I never told because, heck, nobody would have cared enough about me to do anything. The caretaker at the orphanage lived for few reasons: Waking us up at ungodly hours, food, drink, entertainment for her, delight at our suffering a wound as she bandaged it, the whole kaboodle. How she got the job, I don't know. Probably was the only one willing to do so. I did tell a few kids, and one grown-up about my situation, but even though we were buds, we couldn't have done anything.

The reasons were fairly simple: the kids were like me. Nerds. Outcasts. Prey. They went to a different school in the same city, but we were a bit close together when we saw each other. And the guy, he was a pal to all of us. He ran the net café. Yes, that's right, you heard correct. I went to a net café. It was literally the only place in the city where I could actually relax and not have to worry about bullies. And the guy that ran the place was an angel in the form of a big, brown, smiling wall of meat who we all called Max. He had a small black moustache covering the area between his lips and his nose, and the top of his head was almost bald, except for a few strands growing from the sides that he combed over the top. Overall, he was the guy that everybody liked, and he liked pretty much everybody back.

The only people he didn't like were the predators. He had made that clear throughout the years. He even made membership cards for people who came in. If you didn't have a membership card, you would have to ask him if you could get one, to which he would examine you with various 'spies', who were actually members, to see if you were decent enough. If you were a bully, you couldn't come in, and if you barged right in and started picking on people, well, worst mistake ever. You see, he had this giant frying pan... okay, not really, but if you didn't leave when he asked you to, he literally threw you out. Max was the big brother to everyone who he considered his friend, but his help was limited to his domain, the café.

He also had a fairly interesting net café scheme. If you had a laptop, you could bring it, and lo and behold, free internet. Then there was also the computers for rent that he had there, and the food and drinks that you could buy. I took many a good root beer sitting down in front of my laptop. You're wondering how I had a laptop? I won it. I was at a carnival, looking around with a limited amount of money, avoiding potential threats to my health and cash supply. The familiar face of one of my tormenters showed in the middle distance. I quickly ducked behind a corner to try to avoid him and was immediately met by a tall man in a startling carnival suit. He smiled and addressed me, opening his arms wide in greetings with a black cane held in his right hand. He was standing next to a stand with a podium, a microphone and a table that had a few items on it.

"Welcome, young lad. I presume you are here to try your knowledge to win a prize? Only three dollars, even though the prizes are very valuable."

A few voices had hissed at me then.

"Don't do it kid, it's impossible."

"I wasted thirty bucks on this game. You should get out of here."

I noticed my aggressor approaching further, and he would soon notice me.

"So, son, what's it gonna be? Are you going to see if you know enough, or are you going to let someone else win the prizes? It's your choice, and I'm not forcing you into any of this."

I looked into his face, which seemed honest and genuine, and held out my hand.

"I'll play once."

Parts of the onlookers groaned, while other kids facepalmed at my stupidity. The man took my hand and shook it.

"Very well, young man. This is a multiple-question quiz, and the prizes are, as I said before, quite valuable. Please, step up here."

I handed him three dollars and climbed onto the small podium, adjusting the microphone slightly so I could easily speak into it. The man smiled and took a microphone into his own hand.

"Okay, here's how this is going to work. I'm going to ask you a question, and you need to answer it as best you can. Mind you, the topics are diverse, so don't be startled at a sudden change. If you get 5 questions right in a row, you get a small prize. 8 questions correct, and you get a medium. If you manage to answer 12 questions correctly, you get the large prize. Are you ready?"

I nodded. He then proceeded to ask me a list of questions that no ordinary 12-year-old should know.

"How does thermite work?"

"It is a pyrotechnic composition of a metal powder and a metal oxide, usually aluminum as the powder and various options for oxides, such as simple rust, that when ignited, creates a thermite reaction, which has a high heat and sometimes explosive tendencies."

"Ladies and gentlemen, this young lad has just answered twelve questions correctly in a row! Son, you get the big prize!"

I momentarily smiled, and my eyes drifted over the small crowd. I suddenly picked out a small group of my tormenters, sadistic smiles growing on their lips. 'Would they break it?' The man drew back a sheet from the table, revealing a square object previously concealed; A laptop. He picked it up gently and carefully gave it to me.

"Young man," he said quietly to me. "This is a prototype of a new laptop that me and a few others have designed. It is meant to be able to emulate any computer software from Mac, Windows and Linux possible. We needed a beta tester, and what better way than a prize for a carnival?" He handed me a card. "Mind sending us an e-mail after a while to tell us how good it is?"

I nodded.

"Sure thing. Thanks, sir."

But my thoughts were elsewhere. This laptop was fragile. Really fragile. If they didn't break it tonight, they would surely come in a while during the night at the orphanage and break it there. Maybe I wouldn't even get that chance. Suddenly, I heard a faint 'pssssssst!' coming from the crowd. To the left of where I stood on the stage, a kid was trying to attract his attention. Seeing that my eyes were fixated on him, he motioned for me to come with him. Without a second thought, I jumped down from the stage and he led me across the carnival grounds, the bullies behind us, trying to keep up. Without that kid there guiding me, they would surely have gotten to me, but he managed to slip into places where they walked right by us, looking around in confusion. Some time later, we had both slowed down, having managed to lose the pursuers somewhere else. I clutched the laptop, my heart threatening to jump out my throat, while he leaned on his knees and panted.

"Thanks." I managed to stammer out. He made a little smile.

"Anytime. I couldn't let those guys get to that thing. Here, come with me, I have an idea of where you can keep it safe."

He led me slowly across the now deserted streets, everyone at the carnival, and stopped in front of the net café. He opened the door and stepped inside, motioning for me to do the same.

"Hey, Max. Serve me and my new pal here a couple of root beers, please."

The wall of brown cheerfulness I have since come to count as a close friend smiled and set a couple of glass mugs filled to the brim with dark brown liquid in front of us.

"Here you go, Cerb. Call me if you need anything."

'Cerb' put a dollar on the counter and took a swig of root beer. After I had done the same, marvelling in the taste, which was unlike anything I had ever tasted before, he stuck out his hand.

"I didn't properly introduce myself yet. I'm Caleb. People call me Cerb, stemming from cerebellum."

I met his hand and gave it a quick tug.

"I'm Tyler. People call me Sponge, 'cause I suck up information on anything."

"Well, Sponge, welcome to Max' net café, safe haven for nerds, geeks and just plain internet fans, one of the best places around. I couldn't help but bring you here because of those looks you kept giving those other kids. Nasty-looking lot there. You worried about the laptop?"

"Yeah. Aaagh. I don't know what to do with it. I can't take it to the orphanage, because they'll trash it. And there's no other place I can think of."

"Max can hold onto it for you."

"Say what?"

"Max is the most trustworthy guy I've ever met. He'll keep it here and you won't have to worry about a thing. You just ask him, and he'll do it."

After a few weeks of this strategy, I saw what everyone saw in Max. The guy that everyone liked, the guy that brewed his own root beer and sold it cheap, the guy who would throw out offenders, the guy who was all good to us. Cerb taught e about the internet from then on. I became attracted to MMORPGs. At first, I played only the ones that were free. Then I made a discovery: I could program like nobody's business. A year after that fateful night, me and Cerb gathered a group and created a game. A good game. A game so good, I'm not going to mention it for fear of you guys stopping reading this story to play it. Eventually, players started to buy extra equipment, to gain an edge up. Money began to trickle in. We added more opportunities for money, and soon we were getting a steady cash flow, enough to keep us occupied. We all spent it differently. I spent it playing different games. I paid to play, and I was a grinder. Hours I spent in dungeons, levelling up and chatting online, becoming powerful in some games while still maintaining my programming 'job'.

It had been 3 years since then. I was 16, and was still a grinder. I was a regular. Each day, I would come to the net café, because I had nothing better to do, and it was my life, right there. After homework, immediate internet.

One day, I sat down as usual, this time with wet hair, as happened sometime. Max threw me a towel so I could dry off.

"Attack mode Gamma, this time?"

"Yup, the old swirly."

Max could always refer to something in away that would make teenagers feel comfortable with him. He was Max. I started the regular grinding on one of my MMORPGs, and kept going for hours in the same place, slaying dragons like nobody's business. Suddenly, everything froze. Every computer in the café. The light's went out. I heard murmurs across the room. I could tell that this wasn't ordinary. Then, lightning struck. Not one of those piddling little bolts you see sometimes on a stormy night. A real one. A huge bolt. It tore through the ceiling and started to obliterate everything. My eyes widened, and I fell unconscious.

I was sitting down in a room. A room that only had the chair I was sitting on, a desk, and a chair behind that. It slowly swiveled around, revealing a green humanoid figure with an insane smile and yellow teeth, and piercing red eyes.

"Hello, Tyler." he, or rather it, said.

"You know my name?"

"Of course I know your name. I know all about you. And I almost regret to say that that lightning bolt was real. Very real. Unfortunately, all died. All except you."

I almost fell back in my chair.

"...What? I'm doomed to live on without all that? And who are you? Is this a dream? If so, why am I asking myself if it's a dream? It's a basic principle. If you're in a dream, things make sense, and you don't realize you're asleep."

"Well, to answer a few of your questions, you may call me Chaos, for that is what I am. I am an entity, the embodiment of Chaos. There are several others similar to me, but I am Chaos. And yes, this is a dream, but not a very usual one, for I am real. I am merely conversing with you inside your mind."

"But why are you here?"

"To put it bluntly, you interest me. I feel you are perfect for a little game that is going on with me and a few others. Call it a giant chess game, if you must. A chess game where everyone has one piece, that must stand out in a new world in a new form."

"You're using living beings as a game? How cruel and sadistic is that?"

"It may seem that way, but even chaos has rules, and we made one. In the end, all pieces of this game were once miserable, as were you. This is to prevent wanting to return."

"What makes you think I was miserable?"

"I have been watching you. Do you really want to go back to all that? The bullies, the orphanage, but this time, with no Max? With no net café? Or would you rather be in a different world where you can make a real difference?"

I pondered this.

"There's gotta be some strings attached."

"Clever. I like that. It is one of the reasons why you are adequate for this. The strings aren't many, and they are quite long. In this world, you may be any species, except for the main group. Don't worry, you won't have to choose, your form is already chosen for you."

"Will it be adequate for me?"

"To be sure, it is interesting enough. You will enjoy it."

"And why me?"

"You are resourceful. I can see that after having watched you for a few years. I watched your past. You will be most adequate for this little game. Now, it is almost time for you to wake up. You have a choice." He clenched his fist and opened it again, revealing a small orb a little bigger than a marble that shone with a green light. "Either you can go back to your ordinary life, but without all that is sunshine and joy in it, or you can take this orb and go to a new world, where you can start fresh and be free."

"...I'll take it. There's nothing for me on Earth now."

The orb levitated over to my hand and I grasped it.

"Perfect. When you are awake and you wish to go, simply crush that orb and you will have instant transportation. And you can not take anything physical with you."

"One last thing. Does this other world have a name?"

"There is no official name for the planet, though some call it Terra. The central area is called Equestria, and around it are various regions other than it, such as the Dominion, the Badlands, and the Zebra Isles. Now, wake up."

He slapped me hard on the cheek and I woke up suddenly in a hospital bed.

'Was it a dream? ...No...' The green orb was nestled into my palm.

"Well, goodbye Earth. May you purge yourself of the evil that kills you, planet."

I closed me fist around the orb and strained. It shattered easily, releasing a glowing green light that wrapped around me and plucked me away from the bed. I began to feel pain, but could not scream. I felt my bones move around, but I could not move. I quickly faded into oblivion, ending the pain and putting me into a dreamless sleep.

I faintly opened my eyes. The pain. Pain was everywhere. I could see blurry images, images with black and white stripes. They moved about and spoke in a language that was completely unfamiliar to me. I felt something rest on my forehead. It gently pulled my head back a little and moved my lower lip down, before a small bit of a fiery liquid was poured down my throat. The pain eased. I started to get up, but the hard thing gently pushed me down onto the bed.

"Rest, winged one. You must heal."

My eyes opened a bit more, and then I closed them and tried to find sleep. My last thoughts before I fell into dreamland were: 'Zebras? It couldn't have been, could it?'

Yup, here's another story in the excellent crossover multiverse thingamabob. I hope to do you all proud. Thanks for reading, and keep your stick on the ice.

Chapter 4: Mangy Mutts Meet Their Maker

Mangy Mutts Meet Their Maker

My eyes cracked open and a cup was immediately thrust into my line of vision. I took it and downed the contents, which had the effect of me standing up and wheezing. It felt like a fire had been lit in my stomach. Jangara approached me.

"It is good to see you have returned to the land of consciousness. What you accomplished was no small feat."

I held my forehead, which was throbbing.

"Wh-why am I hurting so much?"

"You cast a spell that ripped through the chest scales of a dragon. It is no wonder that you have magic backlash."

I coughed again and took a bite out of a fruit that she handed me.

"Thank you again for taking care of me."

She shook her head.

"Nay, it is not you who should be thanking us. You have saved our village, as well as many lives that would otherwise have been lost."

"It does not change the fact that I am still grateful to you for your assistance."

"Come, step outside for a while. I believe that the others would like to see you conscious for once."

I followed her outside the door and a great many cheers erupted from the throats of the inhabitants. Almost a fraction of a second after I stepped out, I felt a soft bundle gripping onto my neck with a great amount of force. Upon closer inspection, it was defined to be a little zebra filly. She said a short phrase in zebrican many times. I turned to Jangara, who translated for me.

"She is thanking you for saving her life from the dragon."

I smiled warmly down at the child, still clinging to my feathers, and ruffled her mane gently. Looking up, I saw a pair of zebras that were smiling farther than I could have thought possible without breaking their face, both having slightly red and puffy eyes. The child detached herself from me and ran back to her parents, giggling and laughing, and they both embraced her and said their thanks to me in zebrican.

'My heart... has exploded... twice.'

I saw a few zebras part, and from the opening emerged Ok-Rena and a male zebra carrying a small sack. The old crone approached me and bowed her head in respect. I did the same, to the apparent consternation of the crowd. She spoke in her crackled voice, and Jangara translated.

"Mighty ventolian, you have slain the dragon which had begun to plague our village, and for this feat, you have our greatest respect. Due to tradition, none of the creature shall be disposed of if it can be used. From examining a number of ancient tablets from before our time, I have discovered that the tradition of the ventolian was that after the rite of passage, consisting in slaying a dangerous creature which meant cruel harm to another less potent being, a weapon should be made from the remains of said creature and given to the slayer, as proof of his victory and to determine that the slayer is not a mere child anymore, but a grown ventolian. Therefore, we have fashioned you a weapon made from the hide of the dragon and a rod of ironwood we found in the stomach of the beast."

The elder reached inside the sack and brought out a magnificent spear-like weapon, clearly dangerous. It was a long rod, appearing to be covered in a coating of purple, while at one end there rested the blade, one of the chief scales of the dragon, being rounded at the area in which it was connected to the staff and diminishing to a deadly sharp point. She offered it to me and I gingerly took it in one of my claws.

"It is with great honor that we crafted this and enchanted it, so as to repay you of saving our families and friends."

A flat rope with a sheath was next presented to me, and I strapped it around my waist, beneath my wings, and put my new lance-sword into it, with the blunt end of the rod showing slightly above my right shoulder. A couple of purple dragonskin(the durable skin below a dragon's scales) bags were put on my back.

"Bear your weapon as your ancestors would have wished. Make them proud."

I nodded. I noticed that the crowd had begun to drift apart, and few were left, now that I had been examined. I noticed that the pegasus guard Whiplash was standing by himself and made a mental note to converse with him sometime. Jangara walked up to me and asked a question that made me facepalm.

"I almost forgot that I don't know your name. Could you tell it to me?"

My mind began racing.

'Smooth, Tyler, real smooth. You've saved their town from a dragon and they've made you an awesome weapon out of it, and they still don't know your name. What should I call myself? Tyler is out of the question. Tyler the ventolian. Not really impressive. Look out, bad guys, here comes Tyler! Uh, drawing a blank here. What name? I got it! No I don't. Wait, how about...'

"Truenis. Simply call me Truenis."

'Well, not the best name, but not really bad. I bet somebody's stuck with a really bad name.'

"Truenis. A strong name. It suits you."

"So Jangara, how was this made?"

"We took a few minor scales and melted them in a special potion, and soaked the ironwood in it until it was coated. Then, we affixed the blade using a very strong glue found in the bodies of dragons. The rope on your sheath is made from woven tendon, and the sheath itself is a strong pocket of muscle. You will find it difficult to break either, especially with the enforcing enchantment that was put on it."

"Well, I am grateful for it. Thank you."

She waved it away.

"Consider it a type of payment for assisting us."

I approached the pegasus quietly. He was reading a newspaper and sighed. Upon seeing me, he put away the paper and shuffled nervously. It was obvious I intimidated him a bit, maybe because of my size, maybe because I just took down something that was 30 times my size. I flashed him a grin, or the best I could do. Sometimes it's hard looking friendly when your eyes perpetually make me look like I'm gonna rip something apart.

"Anything new in the paper?"

He brought it out and tossed it to me.

"Take a look at it."

I unfolded it and stared at the writing. It was practically egyptian heiroglyphics.

"This may come as a surprise to you, but I can't read this."

He looked at me in confusion.

"Really?"

"Yeah. Where I come from, we have different writing. A lot different."

I handed the paper back to him, noticing that he had livened up a little bit.

"Then I suppose I'll just read this front article to you. *ahem* The Grand Galloping Gala is Coming Soon. The gathering to end all gatherings is about to come into existence once again in the castle of Princess Celestia-"

"One sec, who's Princess Celestia?"

His jaw dropped.

"You don't know who Celestia is?"

I shook my head.

"She's the grand enchilada, the big cheese, the leader of all Equestria. She raises the sun every day using her alicorn powers and at night, she lets her sister Princess Luna raise the moon."

"Okay, so, the Princesses are rulers of Equestria, big-time important people, and power packs. Please continue."

"Okay. In the castle of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Many nobles have already announced that they're not going to go due to the disastrous results of the previous gala, when the six element bearers made a grand galloping mess. However, others have decided that the six mares would not repeat the event, and have still decided to go. Yet there continues to be a certain amount of anomality as to how it will turn out, as the infamous Griffin the Griffin of the Griffin Pirates is thought to be coming, and there is also a rumor of a musical changeling under the protection of the princesses that will be in charge of the music."

He folded the newspaper and put it into his saddlebag.

"Sounds like quite a party, huh?"

"I don't think I'd like it much. Balls and galas reek of boredom to me. I prefer a certain amount of action. But who is this Griffin?"

He sighed and scuffed a hoof in the dirt.

"Griffin the Griffin is quite possibly the most bizarre creature to set foot in Equestria, besides Discord the draconequus, but you wouldn't know about him. If you're wondering, he's the lord of chaos, currently encased in stone."

'Hold the phone? There's a dude named Discord here? This is just freaky. But then again, he's probably one of the entities that are sending the players here, and Chaos showed up afterwards.'

"Anyways, Griffin has this crazy plot to take over the Dominion and lead the griffins, and the diamond dogs who accept, into a better life. He stopped by here a while ago. One of his soldiers took out a cockatrice without barely batting an eyelash. The surprising thing is that he's driven by hate. He says that compassion and love won't win battles for you."

"That's pretty true. If you tell your enemy that you love him, he'll break your heart... with his giant hammer."

"It's just strange that he's breaking the law to complete his goal."

"Well, it is for the greater good. If someone has the ability to do something for the greater good, then that person should have the responsibility of doing it. Perhaps we will meet someday. He seems like an interesting character."

'And he's causing a certain amount of chaos. Chalk that up to the fact that the ultimate goal of the game is chaos, there's a good chance that he wasn't always a griffin.'

"Maybe you will. He's slayed dragons too, you know."

"Hey Whiplash?"

"Yes?"

"Do you think you could teach me how to read a little bit?"

He shrugged.

"Sure. It's not like I've got much else to do."

Me and Whiplash were at it for an hour, and I had already gotten the basics of the language down. He was amazed at how quickly I was catching on, but hey, they didn't call me The Sponge for nothing. Eventually, he excused himself and went off to do some paperwork or something. I walked outside the village to the edge of a small cliff and sat, looking at the horizon and thinking. My mind had a mental debate referring to the weapon on my back.

I just killed a living creature. Granted, I've killed things like insects and things before, but never anything sentient. Should I feel bad about this?

No, it was going to kill you. You did it in self-defense.

You should feel bad. Even though it was nasty, you shouldn't have killed it. Only restrained it.

No, if something is that cruel, it must have an end.

Even if that was true, wouldn't making a weapon out of it be barbaric?

It is called not wasting useful material.

But it's wrong.

No it's not.

Yes it-

My thoughts were cut off courtesy of a large airship that flew over my head. I didn't even know they existed. Using my eagle eyesight, I looked at the flag, and was greeted with an image of a dog-like face breathing fire over a base of rubies.

'What the heck? Are those supposed to be diamond dogs?'

I darted back to the village to notify Jangara, but as I entered, I saw large bipedal furry mutts holding zebras in large nets while others looked around huts for others. One of them saw me and grinned evilly.

"Looky! Not only do we get striped ponies, we also get big griffin! Gammas! Catch him!"

Four dogs, smaller than some of the others, started loping towards me gorilla-style. My blood boiled. I gave a loud screech and prepared for battle. As one of the dogs came close to me, I scratched him across the chest. He gave a loud howl and fell to the ground, clutching his ribcage. The three others got to me and I learned the definition of the word dog-pile. I spread my two front wings and threw the dogs off, punching one in the throat in the process, leaving him gasping in the grass. I heard a whistling sound and dropped just in time to avoid a net that was hurtling across the sky. I looked downwards and both of the Gammas that were left had a sort of primitive net gun. The two fired at the same time and without thinking, I withdrew my new weapon and sliced them to ribbons. I landed and gave another swing, effectively decapitating the two that were left. The dog that had first seen me growled.

"Attention to the bird! Catch the bird! He is strong, and will make a good slave!"

I froze. These dogs were taking slaves? Okay, that did it. I flew towards the dog and punched him at a high speed, sending him flying back. A great many dogs started coming after me with huge spears. I took my lance-sword and started wildly charging them, using the length of my weapon to my advantage, slicing off their spears before darting in and slicing them in vital areaas. All around me, blood started to spill. I was in a craze. I kept on attacking for who knows how long when suddenly I felt something well up inside me. The feeling of power. It built up and built up until it finally exploded out of my body. Two words escaped my beak in great volume.

"Razor Wind"

White smoke seemed to come out of nowhere, and blew around until it found a diamond dog, when it would cut open a mutt's body. The nets holding the zebras were similarly afflicted, but fortunately, none of the zebras were hurt. I realized I was floating in the air and landed on the ground, now exhausted, but still with enough energy to remain awake. The silver wind died down, and out of an alleyway came the first diamond dog, who observed the carnage with murderous eyes.

"You must die, griffin."

He threw a vial at me, but I beat my wing and sent it right back at him. Before he blew up, I said these words:

"You made me mad. And I'm not a mad griffin. I'm a mad ventolian."

I had a lot of time, okay? I also spoke a bit fast, but hey, you take what ya got, right? Then, I collapsed.

'Why am I fainting so much these days?'

Well, there's not going to be updates for at least three days, as I'm going to a beach in France, but I'll get back on it when I come back. I don't have much else to say, except for the usual. Thanks for reading, and keep your stick on the ice.