A Strange Trip

Chapters

Ch.0 Prologue
Ch. 1 I'm A Dragon
Ch. 2 Meet Some Ponies
Ch. 3 Welcome to the War
Ch. 4 a War on Every Front
Ch. 5 Perfect Pitch... for MAGIC!
Ch. 6 Head of State

Ch.0 Prologue

Ch. 0 Prologue
Hello there, my name is Eric, Eric James Carlson if you want to be formal, or at least that was my name before I got sent on the ride of my now very much extended life. This is my story of not only how I ended up in Equestria but what I did while there. You see I’m now a dragon, yup that’s right, a massive, magically super-charged, fire-breathing flying lizard. I didn’t start out that way mind you, I used to be a human, a regular Average Joe, not some super assassin, not a genius, but a total wimp. I stayed within the median of society, not standing out on anything, just going with the flow, it wasn’t the best life but I was happy. I was a pretty nice guy mostly because I couldn’t fight for shit and didn't want to get my teeth kicked in. I was also a brony, not a crazy scream-it-out-to-the-world brony mind you but I did enjoy the show and all the fanfics that fellow bronies wrote.

I used to work at an Ad agency, not the most exciting of jobs but it paid well and I could troll the internet for hours at a time and no one would care. My daily routine would be wake up, go to work, troll internet for a few hours, work for one, troll some more, go home, troll some more, go to bed, rinse and repeat. All that changed when I met Eris, the Greek God of Chaos; the hottest as well as the most bat-shit crazy god that I had ever met, which made sense, given her job. I had just turned thirty and after a night of binge drinking with some fellow co-workers, I was stumbling through the snowy streets when I ran into Eris, I didn’t know it was her at the time, she had pale white skin, glowing golden hair and wearing nothing but a toga, even in my drunken stupor it struck me as odd that a woman would be wearing a toga in the middle of winter and since I am a nice guy I asked her if she needed any help.

“Hey… ar-are you o-ok?” I asked her while stumbling a little.

“Oh yes, I’m fine now that you are here.” Her voiced had a melodious ring to it.

“M-me? Why were you wait-waiting for me?”

“Well you see a friend of mine from long ago contacted me and presented me with a little game he wanted to play. We would each take a being from our world and put them in the others world. He already chose his and I chose you to be mine. Now tell me what do you know about ‘My Little Pony’?”

Now you all know that drinking reduced your inhibitions? Well I was smashed so I just started drunkenly praising the show.

“I know a whole bunch, I’m a brony after all.” I tried to put my hand on my chest and accidentally hit my neck.

“Excellent.” She clapped her hands together, “Would you like to go there?”

“Oh hell ya, it’d be loads of fun, could you make me into a pony?” I drunkenly asked her.

“Oh that’s no fun, how bout something bigger, like a dragon?” she had an evil smirk.

“Hey yea I forgot about those… I’m not gonna be a small dragon like Spike am I?” the drunken brony in me was thoroughly enjoying himself.

“Of course not, like I said before, where’s the fun in that? So, are you ready to go?” she takes a slightly wider stance.

“All set, let ‘er rip!” I spread my arms out, ready to receive.

She then reached behind her back and pulled out a bat that had a gratuitous amount of nails sticking out of it.
Now, you know you are drunk and you all of a sudden have a moment of sobriety when some bad shit just happened or is about to? Yea that’s what happened to me, as she took a batter’s stance and wound up for the pitch.

“Wait hold on a sec-?” was all I got out as she swung hard and caught me right in the temple with a sickening crunch, as the world went dark I heard her shout.

“HOME RUN!”

Ch. 1 I'm A Dragon

Ch. 1 I'm A Dragon
I groaned as I slowly regained consciousness, my body laid spread eagle, heavy from last night drunken shenanigans. I smacked my lips together and realized that I was dehydrated.

“Your finally awake, I thought I may have hit you a little too hard.” That same melodious voice came from above me.

I groaned again as I blearily opened my eyes to see that I am not in my bed but in a white void with the crazy toga chick standing above me wearing an outfit that made me think of what a stripper would wear if you told her to dress like a Greek god, a cloth string bikini covered her chest, a mini skirt barely covering her waist and privates, gold bands on her upper arms and around her neck and wrists and some four inch gold high heels. She was standing above me with her toes just above my ears, I could seethat she wasn’t wearing any underwear.

“You know I can see everything right?” I said while blushing.

She smiled seductively, kneeled down and put my head on her lap, her golden glowing eyes staring through my soul, and pinched my cheeks.

“Ow, ok-ok, I didn’t see anything, now why the hell am I here?” I tried to bring my hands up to rub my cheeks but they wouldn’t move.

“I told you that I was gonna send you to Equestria but humans aren’t allowed so I had to destroy your old body so I could give you a new one.” Her smile didn’t even quiver.

“Wait… so does that mean I’m dead?”

“In a sense yes, but you won’t stay dead for long, your new body is almost finished, just needs to ‘cook’ a little longer and it will be all ready.” Her smile was starting to freak me out.

“So who are you anyways?” I probably should’ve asked that last night but since I was drunk I really don’t remember if she told me or not.

“My name is Eris Strife, Greek god of Chaos.” She looked down at me with her golden eyes.

'Greek god? I though they were just myths that anicent civilizations used to explain things they didn't understand'

“No we are not myths; we are all very much real.” She said as she looked up and turned her head to the left.

I looked out the corner of my eye seeing as I couldn’t turn my head and saw a puff of pink smoke and heard the quack of a duck.

“Ah Eris, is that the one you picked? A little scrawny isn’t he?” The infamous draconequus asked as he emerged from the smoke.

“Maybe so Discord, but if I remember the one you picked wasn’t exactly Hercules himself.” She said sarcastically.

Discord gave a hearty laugh, “I guess you got me on that one. Well I just came to see who you picked. I have to go see to my little pony now.” In another puff of pink smoke and a honk of a goose he was gone.

I then heard a ding, like the bell you ring at a hotel front desk; she looked up and smiled again.

“Ah, looks like your new body is ready, well then off you go.” She stood up and grabbed me by the hair and tore my head off.

As I looked down I could see my decapitated body, I didn’t have time to panic as she raised me up to eye level and gave me another evil smile.

“And a word of advice, don’t tell anyone, or anypony I should say, that you are from a different world, it would be… unhealthy to do so.” She let go of my hair and punted my head across the void, the world went dark again.

I groaned again as I once again regain consciousness. I could feel that I was on my stomach lying on some dirt and rocks, the smell of a forest around me.

‘So am I a dragon now? Or did Eris turn me into something silly just to get a laugh.’

I blinked open my eyes adjusting to the light and saw that I was indeed in a forest; it sort of looked like the Everfree forest. As I looked around I could see that my eyesight had been improved by leaps and bounds, where before I would need glasses to see ten feet in front of me, I could see at least two hundred feet away with vivid detail. I looked down and could see that I didn’t have a human nose anymore; instead my snout extended out and was covered in shimmering black scales. I tried to lift my head, instantly aware that it was very heavy and my brain screaming at me didn’t help either. After a few minutes of slow movement, I was finally able to lift my head without too much pain, as I turned around to get a good look at my new body and I was thoroughly impressed.

‘Alright so I’m a black dragon, she didn’t lie about that. Ok first things first, assess my new body.’

I clenched my fingers in the dirt and rocks to regain feeling and noticed that I still had four fingers along with my thumb. My fingernails had been replaced with long black-grey talons that covered the tips of my fingers. As I opened and closed my fist a few times and accidentally crushed a rock that was under my hand, I smiled at my new strength. I continued up to my arms which were thick and I could see the muscles and sinew expand and contract as I tested my new limb. My elbows had some bone-like protrusions that were shaped like blades that didn’t seem to hinder any movement as I swung my arm around in a big arc. I saw that on my back were two very large black wings that were folded up against my back, I tried to move them using new muscles that I didn’t have before, and they just twitched a little bit.

‘To do list; Learn to work my wings.’

I looked further down and say my legs which followed similar designs to my arms, I had lost one of my toes and the rest had been turned into long equal length talons with the same black-grey color along with the bone blade sticking out from my heel. Looking down at my tail, I saw that it was a little longer than my body and started thick where it connected and then tapered down to a shape that looked like a double-bladed sword that looked fairly sharp, I gave it a few testing swings and cut a tree clean in half. As I experimented with my tail I saw that it was prehensile as I twisted it around the tree I just cut down and lifted it up and swung it around before throwing it out of sight. Half way down my tail, I saw a ridge of small spines that got bigger as it followed my spine back to my head. I probed my hand around the back of my neck and head and felt that the spines were almost like horns, the larger ones near my spine and the others got progressively smaller around the sides of my head. I felt around my face and noticed that similar spines were around my face, although they were much smaller, giving me the feeling they were somewhat like a beard.

‘Assessment done, next let’s try walking’

I slowly rose on my han- claws, shaking and quivering as I did. As I stood waiting for my shaking to stop, I took in just how much taller I was, my head almost reached the top of a couple of the smaller trees, using them as a reference I made a rough guess at my new height.

‘I’m probably about twenty feet or so tall.’

I looked behind me at the length of my body.

‘And maybe fifty or so feet long with my tail.’

With the shaking gone from my legs, I shifted my weight around on my limbs as tested my new body, I then lifted my left arm and immediately fell flat on my face as I lost my balance.

“Oof.” As my face met the dirt, causing a loud crash as my body followed my head.

My eyes shot open as I noticed my voice was much, much deeper.

“Hello?” My voice rumbled out as it reverberated in my throat.

“Hello, hello, hello.” I spoke out as I tried different octaves and pitches with my new voice as I rose back to my claws.

‘My new voice is pretty kick-ass.’

I gave a chuckle and was shocked when a small puff of fire escaped my mouth.

‘What the-?’ I face-clawed myself, ‘Duh, I’m a dragon; of course I can breathe fire.’

I looked over to a group of trees and took a deep breath and unleashed a gout of fire that incinerated all the trees in front of me for a good hundred feet to ashes. I gave a hearty laugh and continued to burn down the trees around me. Satisfied with my control of my new fire-breathing, I decided to try walking again. I lifted my leg again, happy that I didn’t fall flat on my face again, and placed it a little farther forward. I then repeated the action with my other limbs each giving a small thud as they fell, the entire ordeal taking me little over a minute.

’First steps complete now to get walking down, won’t get very far if it takes a minute between each step.’

I spend a few minutes walking in the large clearing that I made, getting faster and faster as I mastered walking. Satisfied with my new walking pattern, I picked a random direction and began walking through the forest, quietly humming to myself even though it still came out as a dull roar. As I walked through the trees I could hear the cries of some of the smaller animals as they ran away from the new dragon that was trudging through their home. A couple of times I accidentally bumped into a few trees and scrapped off all of the bark in one motion, my tail knocked over some of the trees as well. I walked for what felt like an hour or two before I stopped when I noticed a strange smell in the air. It wasn’t the same as the rest of the forest, dank and moldy; it was pleasant, like a field of flowers along with the smell of freshly cut wood and it was right in front of me. I lowered myself to a crouch and began sneaking my way towards the smell, why I was sneaking as a big-ass dragon I didn’t know, maybe an old habit from when I was human. I came upon a horrifying scene, a pack of about five Timberwolves were surrounding a small quivering yellow pegasus pony with a pink mane up against a tree.

‘Holy shit! Fluttershy!’

The wolves were slowly closing in on her, growling and barking about the meal to come. I was going to deny them that meal. I loosed a deep growl of my own as I revealed myself from the trees, slamming my claws into the ground with each step, each eliciting a small boom. The wolves as well as the pony all snapped their heads to the new player and stared wide-eyed, legs shaking (Fluttershy was shaking a lot more than the wolves). I looked down at the wolves that were paralyzed with fear.

“Beat it.” I said nonchalantly while nodding my head to the side.

Even if the wolves couldn’t understand my words, they knew exactly what I meant as they bolted off into the trees. After I watched the spot they all went through for a minute, I turned my head back to Fluttershy who was still shaking like a leaf. I slowly walked closer to her, taking lighter steps; she just shook harder eyes still locked on mine.

“Are you ok?” I asked her in the quietest voice I could.

Her eyes rolled back in her head and she passed out.

“Perfect.”

Ch. 2 Meet Some Ponies

‘Well, I’m off to a great start, first pony I meet passes out from the sight of me, sure it’s Fluttershy but still.’

I sighed as I mentally berated myself before looking down at the passed out pony lying at my claws. I also noticed that if she was standing up she would be about four feet tall.

‘I can’t leave her here; this is the Everfree Forest after all. How am I gonna even carry her? I can’t put her on my back; my spines would probably spear her. I can’t carry her in my claw; I’m not confident enough in my walking to only use three limbs. Hmm… ’

I thought for a minute scratching my head and I noticed that on the top of my head was a flat spot that was fairly smooth.

‘Guess that’s as good as I’m gonna get.’

I gingerly take my claw and scoop up Fluttershy, making sure her weight isn’t on my talons as I lifted her up and placed her on top on my head. Making sure she was secure I started walking through the forest again.

‘What am I gonna do? Just waltz into Ponyville and give her to her friends or something? Yea that will go over real well, I bet Pinkie will throw me a party and everything.’

I chuckled to myself as I thought of the implications of throwing a dragon a party. After another hour or so of walking I cleared the forest and was in a large grassland, using my new incredible eyesight I could see off in the distance there was small town resting beneath the afternoon sun and a large castle sitting up on the mountainside further behind it.

‘Well shit, I didn’t think I’d end up in Ponyville so soon. Oh well nothing I can do about it now, gotta get Fluttershy back to her friends.

As if on cue, Fluttershy began to stir on the top of my head, I heard her squeak when she opened her eyes and realized where she was.

“Oh, you’re awake. Are you feeling ok?” I asked as I continued walking to the town.

Even with my increased hearing I could only hear a squeak as she curled into a ball and began to shake again.

“You don’t need to be afraid, I’m not gonna hurt you, in fact we are almost to that town over there, that’s where I was gonna take you if you stayed asleep.” She gasped a little, so I assumed she knew that it was Ponyville.

I walked in silence for a minute before I tried to make some more small talk.

“So, what’s your name?”

I actually got her to make a noise different than a squeak but I still couldn’t hear it.

“I didn’t quite catch that.” I was pretty sure she was telling me her name but I wanted to make sure.

“My name is Fluttershy.” Her voice was so quiet I wasn’t sure that she actually spoke or if it was the wind.

“Hello Fluttershy, it’s nice to meet you, my name is…” I paused for a second.

‘Should I tell her my old name? Should I even still use it myself? I’m not human any more so maybe I should think of a new name? Come on! Think! Think! Think!’

“My name is Taros.”

‘Oh nice dragon name there genius, why don’t you call yourself Dragon McDragon? How is that supposed to inspire fear in the hearts of your enemies?’

I mentally kicked myself in the head as I kept walking, the ponies of Ponyville becoming more visible as I went. As I passed some of the outlying buildings I heard a high pitched scream come from my right, when I looked over I saw Carrot Top staring back at me, eyes wide.

“He-.” I started but never got to finish as she bolted for town, screaming all the way.

‘Yea, that’s pretty much the reaction I was expecting.’

I sighed again and continued towards the center of town, passing more screaming ponies. Once I reached the center of town in front of town hall, I saw the rest of the Mane 6 standing there defiantly staring back at me, except Pinkie who was wearing the suit she used on the sleeping dragon in ‘Dragonshy’.
I opened my mouth to say hello but didn’t get very far as my mouth was snapped shut by a purple glow around my mouth silencing any attempt at verbal communication.

“You won’t get a chance to breathe fire on us Dragon!” Twilight shouted at me, her horn glowing the same purple color.

“Return dear Fluttershy to us you foul beast!” Rarity was the next to speak, a great deal of spite in her voice.

I closed my eyes realizing that any attempt at communication would fail if I didn’t get them to stop being so hostile to me first. I lowered my body to the ground, head included, until I was parallel to the ground. Fluttershy then quietly hopped off my head, but instead of immediately running to her friends, she stayed next to me. Everyone was shocked when she looked back at me and gave a small smile and then stood in between me and her friends. Twilight was so stunned that she dropped her magic around my mouth. I lifted my head but kept lying down, looked down at Fluttershy who looked back to me, and gave her a nod. She then slowly walked over to her friends who all huddled around her to hear what had happened; Rainbow Dash and Applejack were staring daggers at me the whole time, until Fluttershy told them about the timberwolves when they stared wide-eyed at her than at me.

Twilight was the first to approach me, horn still glowing with a charged spell ready to defend her in case I attack her.

“It seems we have you to thank for saving Fluttershy from those timberwolves.” Twilight was still wary of me.

“Oh you’re not gonna instantly snap my mouth shut with magic again?” She may be Twilight Sparkle but it doesn’t mean I can’t give her a jab while I’m here.

“I am sorry about that but so far all the dragons that have come to Ponyville have attacked us so we have had to defend ourselves.” She said while shooting me a glare.

‘Other dragons have attacked? I thought the only dragons near Ponyville were the one who was snoring and the one who lives in the forest?’

“Why did the other dragons attack?” I had to find out what was going on.

She gave me a confused look, “Don’t you know about the war?”

“War!? What war?”

“The three-sided war between the Griffons, Dragons, and the Diamond Dogs , how does a dragon not know about the war?” She was giving me a scrutinizing look.

‘Crap I got to think of some excuse for why I wouldn’t know about a war.’

“Uh… I was…asleep. I just woke up a day ago.”

“Hmm… I thought all the dragons were woken up when war was declared three years ago.” She was giving me an even more scrutinizing look, “but I suppose it’s possible that some of fell through the cracks.” She abandoned her line of questioning.

“Anyways, my name is Twilight Sparkle, Prized student of Princess Celestia. This is Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Pinkie Pie.” She pointed to each of the respective ponies, who each gave a wary nod, except Rainbow who gave me an angry glare.

A few other ponies hiding in buildings around the square began to slowly poke their heads out from hiding when the realized they weren’t going to be attacked. I could hear them whispering to each other but was distracted by a rainbow blur shooting up into my line of sight.

“Look here Dragon, I don’t know why you’re here and I don’t care. If you do anything to my town, there won’t be any place in the world you can hide where I won’t find you.” She tried to look as intimidating as possible which made me laugh.

“What’s so funny!?” she shouted.

“Ha-ha-ha nothing… nothing… I’ll make sure to keep that in mind.” I was still giggling, “Oh and by the way, the name isn’t Dragon; it’s Taros.”

I stood up and turned around and began to walk the way I came out of Ponyville when I saw a flash of purple light in front of me and saw Twilight now standing in front of me.

“Just where do you think you are going?”

“Leaving, it’s obvious that I am not wanted here, so I’d rather not overstay what little welcome I have.” I deadpanned as I walked right over her.

I heard Fluttershy gasp and a quick flap of feathered wings as she was soon floating in front of me.

“Wait… umm… I want to thank you for saving me…if you don’t mind that is…” Her voice was a little louder but still very quiet.

“Don’t worry about it Fluttershy, you don’t have to do any-.” I was interrupted by my stomach growling loudly. “*ahem*, actually if it isn’t too much trouble, something to eat would be nice.” I said with a little embarrassment.

“Oh… well I don’t have any gems that you eat… but… I’m sure that Rarity has some that she could give you?” she was looking at Rarity while asking.

“I… well… umm…” She was trying to think of some excuse but was no match for Fluttershy’s puppy dog eyes, “very well I shall return momentarily.” She sighed and gave Twilight a stern look and a nod.

I gave Rarity a small toothless smile as she took off down a connecting road. I then laid down in the middle of the road while I waited for her to return. I could see Twilight still giving me a scrutinizing look.

“Go ahead, ask your questions.” I deadpanned to her.

“What? I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She looked away from me.

“I can see it in your eyes, so go ahead and ask; I’m sure you haven’t had many opportunities to talk to a dragon, given by what you told me about the others that you’ve met.”

“Ok… I guess I will then… just to make sure that you aren’t a danger to any pony.” She was trying to hide her obvious curiosity.

She magicked out a piece of paper and a quill and began writing.

“So… umm… how old are you?”

‘Hmm that’s a good question. Should I tell her that I just turned thirty? No, that wouldn’t make seen for a dragon as big as me to be only thirty years old.’

“I’m about two hundred years old.” That sounded like a good age for an adult dragon.

“What do you mean ‘about’? Don’t you know how old you are?” she looked at me quizzically.

“Well you said that the war started three years ago and I don’t remember hearing anything about it from before I went to sleep so I had to guess at how long I have been asleep. Dragons tend not worry about the exact age since we live so long.”

She continued to take a few more notes; I used the opportunity to talk a look around the town. More of the ponies were looking out from their windows; a few of the braver ponies were slowly approaching me. There were even a few foals that were sneaking glances before their parents snatched them up and hid them again. Through all the whispers that I was listening to I could hear a faint buzzing noise that was getting louder. I closed my eyes and tried to listen, trying to make out what the sound was.

‘What is that sound? I know I’ve heard it before, but where?

I continued to listen as it got louder and louder when I shot my eyes open as the realization finally hit me.

‘I know that sound! It’s the-.’

“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS DRAGON SLAYERS!” Shouted the troupe of fillies as they came over the hill in Scootaloo’s scooter pulled wagon. They were stunned when they saw me and Scootaloo lost control of her scooter.

“Scootaloo! Hit the brakes! Evasive maneuvers!” Sweetie Belle shouted as they all screamed and crashed into me with surprising force. Their scooter and wagon was trashed as they attempted to untangle themselves. I also noticed that Spike was with them. Everypony present all gasped in horror when they saw me turning my head to face them.

“Dragon slayers huh? Aren’t you a little young for that?” I smirked while looking down at the jumble of three ponies and one dragon.

They all froze when they heard my voice and saw me looking at them; the color all drained from their faces, even Sweetie Belle’s loss of color was noticeable through her white coat. Spike was just staring up at me more awe more than fear.

“Sup.” I said as I gave him a head nod.

“Spike! What are you and the girls doing here!? I told you to stay in the library!” Twilight shouted at the small dragon.

Hearing her voice brought Spike out of his shock, “I couldn’t stop them Twilight, they were determined to come fight the dragon and they said that I could either stay behind or go with them and since I wanted to see the dragon as well I came along.” Spike was still staring at me with wide eyes as he spoke.

“I don’t mind, it’s not like they hurt me or anything. “ I said while looking back to Twilight.

“S-so ar-are you a n-nice dragon?” Applebloom stuttered out in her cute southern style accent.

“I don’t eat ponies if that’s what you’re asking.” I gave her a quick smile; she cringed a little bit, probably from seeing my teeth.

I looked over to the road that Rarity went down when I heard the clinking of gems and saw that she was carrying a wooden chest about the size of a small refrigerator in her magic. As she placed the chest down in front of me she gave a small snort and stuck her nose in the air, Applejack was ushering the fillies away while I was focused on my snack.

“I usually keep all of the flawed gems I collect in here until I can rebury them but I suppose I can give them to you as thanks for saving Fluttershy.” She said in her slightly smug tone.

“Thanks.” As I opened the chest, I was shocked by the gems inside, not only was almost every type of gem and precious mineral inside but the sheer size of the majority of them would put the Hope Diamond to shame. Like Rarity said many of them were flawed, some with dark splotches inside of them, some were foggy in color and others had a spider’s web of cracks.

‘I wonder how they will taste? I never really thought about it, Spike never mentioned how they tasted in the show; he just said they were delicious.’

I picked up the first gem, an emerald with roughly the same size and dimensions as a piece of bread.

‘Well, bon appetit.’

I opened my mouth and tossed the gem inside and brought my teeth down on it and it elicited a satisfying crunch. I was amazed by the flavor that followed; it tasted like a freshly picked green apple and even with the slight flaw that gave the smallest taste of dirt it was still delicious. After I chewed and swallowed the emerald I reached for another, this one a foggy red ruby, as I chomped down on it I tasted a mixture of cherry and baking flour, the latter was probably from the flaw. I couldn’t help myself as I started grabbing more and more of the gems and ravenously devoured them, each with their own unique flavor only slightly marred by the flaws that they all had.
After the last gem was safely inside my stomach, I gave a content and full-bellied sigh.

“That was very good, thank you for the generous gift Rarity.” She was taken aback slightly as I mentioned her Element without thinking about it.

“Well then.” I rose to my claws and stretched like a cat does, “I suppose it’s time for me to leave.”

Fluttershy fluttered up to me to say something else but I raised a claw and stopped her.

“Your debt is repaid Fluttershy, you don’t owe me anything more.” She gloomily floated back down to the ground, her face hidden by her mane as I made my way out of town under the watching eyes of many ponies.

Ch. 3 Welcome to the War

I made my way out of Ponyville; luckily most of the ponies had heard about me so they weren’t running and screaming but were still keeping their distance. I had left a different way than I had come in since I really didn’t know where I was going. I came upon a large dirt field with small holes dug around randomly.

’Hey, this must be where Rarity digs up her gems for her outfits. I wonder if those diamond dogs are still around.’

I shook the thought away and decided that this field was large enough for me to attempt to learn how to fly.

‘Step one; move my wings.’

I looked at my back and tested my new wing muscles, they twitched and quivered as they unfurled to their full length, which looked about fifty feet tip to tip. I furled and unfurled my wings a few more times until the motion became fluid, then I gave a testing flap, the loose dirt and dust on the ground was blown up around me causing me to cough and gag on the dust.

“Rule…*cough*… number one; hold breath… *cough* … when taking off on loose dirt.”

I again attempted a flap, this time holding my breath, bringing my wings down harder I felt my body lighten a little, not enough to bring me off the ground but enough to know that I was more or less doing the right thing.

‘Hmm… maybe if I jump as well as bring my wings down I can get off the ground.’

I widened my stance and crouched down, with my wings lifted high in the air, I pushed off the ground with all my considerable might and brought my wings down as hard as I could. I rocketed into the air, leveling out at about forty feet or so in the air as I extended my wings hoping to start gliding, I didn’t. I almost immediately started falling back to earth, I flailed my arms and wings wildly hoping it would slow my descent, which it did, barely. I brought my arms and legs down in an attempt to catch myself as I hit the ground on my stomach, resounding in a massive boom and knocking the wind out of me and a huge cloud of dust.

“*wheeze*…To Do List…*cough*… revision, learn to fly…*wheeze*… and land.”

As I caught my breath I could hear laughing coming from above me, I looked up and saw a lone cloud floating gently above me. Rainbow Dash looked down at me with tears in her eyes and continued rolling around on the cloud laughing.

“Yea, yea, laugh it up, you try sleeping for a couple of years and tell me if you don’t forget how do fly either.” I sarcastically snorted at her, “Why are you following me anyways? Isn’t there some weather you should be managing or something?”

Rainbow was still chuckling as she floated to the ground, “nah the weather is going to clear all day, and I followed you to make sure that you didn’t cause any more trouble as you left town.”

“I didn’t cause any trouble to begin with.” I snorted at her.

I then heard a strange noise come from the group of trees to the left of me a little ways away, like a blast of steam from a release valve, and then felt a dozen sharp needles stick into my back.

“Aaahh! What the fuck was that!?” I shouted out in surprise and looked behind me.

I saw what had cause the pain, a metal net that had sharp barbs on the tips of it had pinned my wings to my back and the barbs dug in between my scales. I heard another blast of steam and saw a second net wiz by me and hit Rainbow. She screamed out in pain as the net coiled around her and the barbs dug into her soft flesh causing her to bleed profusely more than the trickle of blood that I had, I tried to reach out to her to get the net off of her but I heard a third blast of steam, I whipped my head around to try and catch the net before it could harm her more but it wasn’t another net that was flying at me but a metal spear attached to a chain. The harpoon then pierced straight through my left forearm and embedded itself in the ground. I roared out in pain and collapsed on the ground, something was sapping my strength, I looked down at the harpoon embedded in my arm that was gushing with blood that sizzled as it hit the ground and saw a glowing black aura.

‘Magic? This thing is draining me?’

I looked to the trees where the projectiles had come from and I saw three diamond dogs walking towards me, each with what looked like a rocket launcher on their shoulders, one with the other end of the chain attached to his belt all wearing a victorious smile on their muzzles.

‘Since when can diamond dogs use weapons and magic?’

The dog with the chain was leading the others as he approached me.

‘Come on, come on, a little closer. GOT YA!’

I reared my head up and roared an inferno of flame right on the dogs. I kept it going for a good ten seconds before I stopped, the ground was melted, glowing red hot and releasing a large amount of black smoke. My head collapsed back onto the ground, between the blood loss and the strength sapping weapons I was exhausted.

“Is that best you got dragon?” a voice that sounded like someone was gargling asphalt came from the smoke.

‘No way! Those dogs should be ashes!’

I looked through the clearing smoke and saw the three dogs without so much as singed fur still wearing their smug smiles, the gems around their necks were glowing with a soft red aura.

‘Are you shitting me!? They have shields to protect them as well!?'

One of the other dogs looked to the center one, “This black dragon, very strong magic, not see one in two years, scale and bone sell good, make good weapons.” His voice was just as disgusting as the first’s.

“Dragon meat poison so pony make good snack too, other ponies in town make good food too.” The first spoke with a sadistic smile towards Rainbow.

My vision was fading fast; black was closing in around my eyes.

‘Shit, they are gonna cut me up and then eat Rainbow and the other ponies, I gotta do something. Move! Move! FUCKING MOVE!'

“I didn’t cause any trouble to begin with.” Taros snorted at Rainbow.

She was too busy watching him to notice the metal net come flying out of the trees and latch on to his back.

“Aaahh! What the fuck was that!?” he roared as he turned to look at the net, it began to glow with an evil black aura as it dug into his scales.

She was stunned by the sudden attack that she didn’t notice a second net come out of the trees and coil around her like a snake, barbs cutting deep gashes all across her body. She screamed with pain and collapsed on the ground, she was about to pass out when Taros let loose a blood-curdling roar as the harpoon pierced his left arm and began to glow with the same evil black aura as the net. She watched him collapse on the ground, his red eyes struggling to stay open as he fought the magic of the weapons. She then looked over when she heard the diamond dogs talk, but she couldn’t understand them, her senses were blurred by the loss of blood. She struggled to stay awake as Taros engulfed the dogs in a blast of fire and was horrified when they emerged unscathed. She watched him slump his head back to the ground his eyes slowly closing from exhaustion. Her eyes were closing too; she couldn’t keep them open any more, until she felt a tingle of magic charge through her body and forced her fully awake.

Even though pegasus magic is passive, they still have a faint magical sense, not nearly as much as unicorns but when it is especially powerful they too can feel it and this surge was like nothing she ever felt before. Her hair was standing up, the air smelled like ozone, she looked up at Taros and saw that his eyes were no longer red but glowing bright yellow. He brought his head out of the dirt, turned to face the diamond dogs and opened his mouth to breath fire again. But fire is not what came out, instead a massive bolt of lightning arced out of his mouth, in a second the lightning had reached the dogs, with a massive crack and flash of light, they howled out in pain as the sparks arced through their bodies, flash-boiling blood, searing muscle and charring skin. In a second it was over, the dogs were no more, all that remained were charcoal husks of what used to be dogs. Taros’ eyes finally closed and his head hit the ground with a resonating thud, the magic that was keeping Rainbow awake also faded and she too succumbed to unconsciousness.

When you blackout, you don’t dream, you don’t remember blacking out, you just wake up however many hours later wondering how you got there. It had happened to me before when I drank too much and ended up in the bed of a woman I didn’t know, needless to say, it wasn’t a good way to wake up. This time I simply woke up lying on the ground, my head was pounding, my body ached and I was hungry again.

‘Oh man what happened? ... THE DOGS!’

My eyes sprang open as I shot my head up and began feverishly looking around, trying to find out where the dogs were. I was so focused on finding the dogs I didn’t even see the small purple dragon at my feet. I hissed when I was greeted by a screaming pain in my left arm. I looked down and saw that my arm where I had been hit by the harpoon now had a bandage on it with little scribbles on the cloth.

“Twilight! Come quick! He’s awake!” Spike shouted at the library that I was laying in front of.

“Fuck, what the hell happened?” I asked while clutching my head with my right claw.

“You and Rainbow got attacked by a diamond dog raiding group; they are a nasty piece of work, running from town to town capturing ponies for food and slave labor. I didn’t know they had the power to take down a dragon though. We all came running when we heard you roar and when we got there we saw you and rainbow unconscious, wrapped up in those nets and the dogs were nothing but charcoal.” Spike explained to me.

“Why were they so close to a pony town? Shouldn’t there be some guards to protect the town or something? What are the princesses doing if they let something dangerous as that roam the country?” I grumbled while I continued to rub my head.

“We do have a treaty of neutrality for the war so the majority of it does not come to Equestria, but there is only so much a treaty can protect against and my guards are already spread so thin.” A new voice spoke from the door to the library.

I looked towards the door and saw none other than Princess Celestia in all her regal glory walking out the door, followed by the Mane 6, even Rainbow was there, covered in bandages and limping slightly.

“Well, if it isn’t the legendary Princess Celestia, nice to finally meet you Princess.” I gave her a small smirk and a head nod.

“And it is nice to meet you too, I thought that all the black dragons went extinct two years ago when the war escalated in the Battle of Burning Plains so imagine my surprise when my precious student wrote me saying one had waltzed right into town.” She said with her motherly voice and gentle smile.

‘That’s the second time I’ve heard that black dragons were rare.’

“Those dogs mentioned something similar to that when I saw them, are the black dragons really all gone?” I asked her.

“From what the Dragon Queen told me when I saw her last, yes, she said that the Blacks, having superior magic and strength compared to the other colors, were the standard bearers and were the first to charge into battle, which lead to many of them getting killed. Before the Queen noticed, the last of them were killed off in the Battle of Burning Plains.” Celestia lost her gentle smile as she explained what happened to my particular breed.

“Wow I didn’t know about that, so much has happened since I went to sleep.”

‘Dragon Queen? Does that mean dragons are ruled as a monarchy as well? I thought we were all on our own.’

“But enough of such a somber topic, I heard from Twilight that you saved not only gentle Fluttershy from timberwolves but also dear Rainbow Dash from those diamond dog raiders one week ago.” Her smile had returned as she was praising me.

‘Wait… did she just say a week? Have I been asleep that long?’

“Did I really sleep for a whole week?” I asked her.

“I am afraid so, it quite some time to get those magic draining weapons off of you and when we did your magic was so depleted we were afraid that you wouldn’t wake up. I even gave you some of my own magic to make sure we didn’t lose you.” Her smile got a little bigger.

“Well then, I guess I’m in your debt, thank you for saving me Princess Celestia, and you all as well.” I bowed my head and looked over at the Mane 6.

“Don’t you dare say that!” Rainbow stumbled forward with the help of Fluttershy, “You saved my life, if anything I still owe you.” She said with her same brave face.

My stomach once again felt the need to put its two-cents into the conversation as it growled at me, “Oh shut-up you.” I said while looking down at my stomach.

Everyone shared a hearty laugh at my very rude stomach. I then saw the same chest that Rarity presented to me a week ago (apparently) but this time it was filled to the point of overflowing with the purest gems that I had ever seen, there wasn’t a single one that had even a hint of a flaw.

“It took me all week to find all of these but I wanted to make sure you had something good to eat when you woke up.” Rarity was beaming with pride over the haul that she had acquired for me.

“Thanks Rarity.” I reached for a diamond about the size of a softball and proceeded to devour it, it tasted like the best ice cream in the world, bar none.

'I wonder how many millions of dollars I have in my stomach.'

The thought only made me chuckle to myself as I grabbed a large chunk of amethyst and chomped down on it as well, it tasted like a fresh vine of grapes, as I continued to consume gem after gem, I then heard a small whisper under the crunching in my mouth.

“Shh… he’s gonna hear us if you keep making so much noise.”

“If’n he’s gonna hear us, why are you talkin’ so loud.”

“I’m not.”

“Yes you are.”

“No I’m not.”

“Yes you are.” I said while lifting my tail to reveal the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

The all gasped as they were exposed, but not in fear, more like they we playing hide and seek and I just found them.

“So what are the town’s dragon slayers doing now?” I said earning a chuckle from everyone present.

“We are learning the proper way to sneak up on a dragon, how did you notice us?” Sweetie asked me.

“Well for starters it usually helps if you aren’t talking when you are right behind said dragon, we have very good hearing and arguing will definitely give you away.”

“See! I was right, you were too loud Scoots. Come on we got to go back into hiding before we try again.” She took off around a building, the other crusaders following behind.

“Thanks Mr. Dragon, we’ll be sure to be extra sneaky next time.” Sweetie shouted as she followed the others.

“You’re welcome; and its Taros not Mr. Dragon!” I shouted as the fillies when out of sight and I returned to my lunch.

“You are very good with foals; do you have any hatchlings of your own?” Celestia inquired.

“Ha-ha, no, can’t say that I do, I’ve lived alone for most of my life, ‘lone wolfing' it so to speak. Never met the right dragoness I guess.” As I finished off the last gems and crossed my arms and laid my head down, being careful of my wounded left.

“That is a shame; you would surely make a good father. Now if you will excuse me there is a great deal of work piling up back at the castle and my younger sister is bound to be getting overwhelmed by it.” She backed away from me as I gave here a nod and was engulfed in a bright golden flash and was gone.

'Ha, me a father? That would be something to see.'

“So Twilight how much longer is my arm gonna be in this bandage?” I gave it a gingerly shake not wanting it to start hurting again.

“You should be ok in a day or two; the magic from the princess, the gems you ate and the magic runes on the bandage should speed up the recovery.”

I looked up and noticed the sun setting the sky on fire in a beautiful display of reds and oranges as it slowly sunk beneath the horizon.

“Well I guess I get some sleep then. Goodnight everyone, I mean everypony.” I curled my body till the tip of my tail was next to my snout.

“Goodnight Taros.” Each mare gave their goodnights as they slowly walked to their homes, Twilight helping Rainbow back into the library where she was staying while she healed.

As I drifted off to sleep, I failed to notice the sickly-green dragon eyes staring at me from behind a building, hiding their true form with that of a pony.

Ch. 4 a War on Every Front

I was awoken by the gentle morning light hitting me in the face, as I opened my eyes I was immediately confronted by three blobs, a yellow one, a white one and an orange one. I blinked a few times to bring my eyes into focus and saw that the CMC were indeed standing mere inches from my snout each wearing a individually colored scarf with matching beanies and snowshoes.

‘What the? Why are they wearing-?’

I eyes were drawn to the ground around me, it had a light dusting of snow, as I looked around the town I confirmed that it was indeed snowing, it was a gentle snow as the flakes gently listed to the ground.

“Morning crusaders, what…*yawn* … time is it?” I asked while raising my head and taking a massive yawn.

“It’s ‘bout seven o’clock.” Applebloom answered while giving a quick shiver.

I noticed that the other two did the same thing, looking down I saw why they did; there was a perfect outline of my body in the snow. I was giving off heat like a heater, keeping the cold at bay for the little fillies. I smiled and lowered my head back to the ground which they immediately huddled around to get some of the heat that I was gently breathing out.

“So you three got any plans today or are you just gonna use me as a heater?” I asked gently so as not to startle them.

“Applejack is settin’ up the apple cart for market so I’ll be helpin’ her with that.” Applebloom was the first to answer.

“Rarity is going to come visit Rainbow as well as got to market to with Twilight and Rainbow if she is feeling ok.” Sweetie was the second to answer.

“I’m gonna hang out with Rainbow Dash, now that she is spending time on the ground I can get close to her.” Scootaloo said with confidence.

“Market?” I raised a brow.

“Yes, every weekend Ponyville hosts a gathering of merchants and such so they can peddle their wares.” I heard Twilight’s voice as she opened the library door and walked out with Spike on her back, wearing her own winter scarf and boots.

Rainbow followed closely behind them, she still had the bandages on under her winter coat but she was no longer limping.

“Hey Rainbow, feeling better?” I asked.

“Hey Taros, yea I’m good, a little sore but I should be out of these bandages in a day and back to flying soon after that. How bout you? How’s your arm doing?” she pointed a hoof to my bandaged arm.

I looked down at the bandage on my arm and saw that a couple of those little seals and symbols on the cloth had faded. I brought my arm up and moved it around, testing my range of motion, not feeling any major pain, just a slight soreness.

“Good, it’s still a little sore but it doesn’t hurt anymore.”

“Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo ran up to Rainbow and gave her a big hug, much to her discomfort, “I’m glad you are ok!” she was squeezing a little too hard based off of Rainbow’s grimace.

Applebloom and Sweetie Belle soon walked over to Twilight and started talking about nothing important. As I ignored their conversation, taking a look around the town, seeing a few ponies walking around, giving me a wide berth but not actively running scared of me.

‘Hmm… they are pretty accepting of the situation, something like this should usually have ponies running scared for weeks, not just shrugging it off in one day.’

A little perturbed by the ponies trusting nature I continued to pan my head around taking in the town. My eyes came to a dead stop when I saw a pony standing not twenty feet away from me, he was a pony in shape but there was something seriously wrong with him. He didn’t have a fur coat; instead he was covered head to hoof in small sickly-green scales, his pupils were thin slits, surrounded by irises if the same sickly-green as his scales. He didn’t have a mane or tail made of hair, what he had was a thick fin that ran from the back of his head down to his shoulders and his tail was that of a dragon’s with a similar but much thinner fin running along its length, tapering down to a whip-like end. On his back were two leathery wing that were folded against his sides; the wings were too large to tuck gently into his sides like a pegasus but instead hung past his flanks into the open air. His smell was particularly sickening; he smelled like sticking your head directly into a bowl of vinegar and inhaling deeply, almost making me sick from just the smell. He saw me look at him and gave an equally sickening smile, revealing rows of yellow, razor-sharp, jagged, uneven teeth. In a second he released a blast of green smoke that obscured my sight of him.

This puff of smoke drew the attention of the ponies present; Twilight charged her horn ready to fire a spell at a moment’s notice, the CMC and Spike hid behind Rainbow who was in the best defensive stance she could, I too rose to my claws ready to defend my friends from this dragon-pony thing.

“Never did I think I would see another Black, the Queen herself said that you were all dead.” Said a voice from the cloud that sent a chill my spine.

What emerged from the cloud was not the same dragon-pony hybrid thing but another dragon that was slowly walking towards me. He wasn’t the same as me, his wings were not separate appendages from arms like mine were; his arms had evolved into his wings with a single talon sticking out at the forward joint, much like a bat’s wings. He stood at least half my height but roughly the same length, he was also much thinner than me and didn’t have any of the spikes that covered my body. He seemed to resemble a snake that had sprouted a pair of wing-arms and legs. The fins that he had in his pony form were still there and in the same positions.

“Who are you?” I growled at him.

“Elitros Venomspitter, and who are you my large friend?” she had that same sickening smile revealing his nasty teeth in his mouth.

“Taros.” I said without lowering my guard.

“Taros what? Don’t you have an honor name?” his smile was gone and he looked questionably at me.

‘Honor name? Is that like a last name or something?’

“No.” I deadpanned to him.

His smile returned along with a sickening laugh, I also got a very large whif of his breath, if I wasn’t a dragon with an extremely strong stomach I would have vomited everything that I had eaten for the past five years.

“The last of the Blacks and he doesn’t have an honor name!” he roared out in laughter.

I didn’t know what an honor name meant in the dragon world but I did know he was laughing at me for something I didn’t have and I wasn’t gonna take that. I walked straight up and smacked my forehead into his and stared him straight in the eyes.

“I don’t know what an honor name means and I don’t give a shit, but if I were you, I wouldn’t be laughing at a dragon that was twice my size.” I was glaring daggers at him while flames licked out of my mouth.

He took a few steps back, a little shaken by my threat but that smile was still on his face.

“My apologies, but do you truly not know what an honor name means?” he had a questioning tone along with his smile.

‘God damn it, I want to smack that disgusting smile off his face.’

“No. Should I?” I returned.

“Of course! It is what is used to consider a dragon an adult, without one you are no better than that hatchling over there.” He pointed a wing-arm at Spike.

“Oh well, I guess I won’t be considered an adult by other dragons, no big loss.” I shrugged like it was nothing.

Elitros seemed to be stunned speechless for a second, his smile falling off his face for as he stared at me.

“H-h-how can you say that!? Without being an adult you cannot speak in the dragon council and can-.” He stopped for a second before his disgusting smile returned even bigger than before, “and cannot stand against any adult.” The joy in his words was dripping like the drool from his mouth.

“So what? Now tell me why you are here.” I didn’t like where this was going.

“Well if you must know hatchling, I came here to get a small snack and when I saw you I was going to ask your permission to feed here, but since you cannot hold territory I do not need to ask.” He was looking around at the ponies who had gathered to hear two dragons conversing, licking his lips.

He began to walk past me towards Twilight and the others when it hit me.

‘Shit! He’s gonna try to eat the ponies!’

“FUCK NO YOU WON”T!”I shouted as I brought up my fist and caught him right under his jaw with all my strength, thoroughly enjoying the cracks that came from his teeth breaking in his mouth.

He was sent flying head over tail and slammed into the ground twenty feet away. He shook his head and spat out a few of his yellow broken teeth.

“You will pay for that hatchling!” he roared out as he rose to his claws, widened his stance and took a deep breath.

‘Oh no you don’t you little fuck.’

I took a deep breath as well, knowing that my larger lungs would allow for a more powerful blast. Elitros released his breath first but it wasn’t fire that he loosed, it was a green stream of putrid smelling liquid.

’Shit, this guy can spit acid!?’

I didn’t have time to think of anything else as I released my breath as well, hoping the fire would protect me from the acid. I didn’t feel the gentle warmth that came when I breathed fire rise in my throat, instead I felt a tingle, I was thrown for a loop when it wasn’t fire that came out but instead a massive bolt of lightning came blasting out. The sudden force of the lightning threw my aim off, it arced through the stream of acid, instantly vaporizing it, and struck Elitros on the left wing, scorching the scales and destroying the muscles. He howled in pain as he grabbed his wing, fell to the ground and twitched violently.

‘Lightning!? Since when could breathe lightning? Whatever I’ll deal with it later; gotta take care of this asshole first.’

I began to carefully approach the green dragon not fully trusting that he was injured to the point of being unable to retaliate. He was totally ignoring me, completely lost in his pain; small sparks of lightning still arced across his body causing him to cry out even louder. He didn’t even notice me when I was looming above him. His cries continued until I brought my open claw up into the air and slammed it down on his neck, silencing him.

“I’m really paying for it aren’t I.” I gave him a sadistic smile.

I felt the lightning that was arcing through him travel up my arm but it didn’t hurt; it just gave a slight tingle. His pained groans and muffled screams stopped as the magic dissipated, his body was still twitching and shaking violently as he looked at me with horror in his eyes and spoke.

“How!? How did you breathe lightning? No dragon has been able to do that in eons!” his voice had lost all its earlier smugness.

“Guess this hatchling has a few tricks under his wings.” My smile just got even bigger as I could see the fury building in his eyes.

In an instant he brought his back legs up and swung his tail in a whipping fashion towards my face. I couldn’t react fast enough as the tip caught me right above the left eye, I could feel the blood leaking from my wound, it wasn’t serious but it forced me to keep my eye closed so blood wouldn’t get in it. It was a last desperate move for a desperate dragon. I brought my own tail up and swung it down on his, cutting it off cleanly, this earned even more howls from the dragon as he thrashed desperately to try to escape me pinning him to the ground, his blood splashing on the ground.

“Shut up!”

He didn’t stop howling.

“Shut up!”

He was howling even louder than before.

‘God damn it, if this guy doesn’t shut up I am gonna tear his head off!’

I took a deep breath, pulling all the air into my lungs to hopefully silence him with a roar. I brought my head down and opened my throat. Once again, something strange came out of my mouth, it wasn’t fire, it wasn’t even lightning, it was the same sickly-green liquid that Elitros tried to spit at me in our brief fight. As the goo covered his face and head, he stopped screaming again as the acid was sizzling on his scales, eating them awake. It was weird that he wasn’t screaming at all since his face was melting, his eyes were shut to protect them but it didn’t keep the acid out for very long as his eyelids were eaten away. I didn’t want to have this dragon dissolve away in the middle of Ponyville, which would definitely horrify the ponies watching.

‘Shit, I have to help him! I don’t want a death on my hands (claws).’

I took my claw off of his neck and brought it to his head to wipe away the goo, the second my talon touched the corrosive liquid it turned jet black and slid off his face like water and absorbed into the ground. I took a good look at the remaining face of the dragon that I had just doused in acid, most of the scales on his face were gone, leaving only the acid-burned green skin underneath, in a few places I could actually see bone sticking out from where the skin was so thin it didn’t stand up to the punishment. His eyes were gone, all that remained were gaping sockets were they used to be, it cause me to shudder a little.

Even with all the punishment I dealt upon this dragon he was still conscious.

“A curse upon you HATCHLING!”

“How are you still talking? Shouldn’t you have passed out from the pain of this acid.” I asked emotionlessly.

“You truly are a hatchling if you don’t even know that a Green’s acid destroys the nerves, killing all feeling.” He hissed.

‘Well that explains why he stopped screaming.’

“Good, now I won’t have to drag your dead ass out of the village, so get up and leave.”

“No, you will kill me, when two dragons fight one must die, it is the law of our world.”

‘This guy is willing to accept death? That’s somewhat impressive.’

“Sorry, but I’m not going to kill you, I don’t like death.”

“NO! You will shame me for all my life!” He was trying to rise to feet but with no tail for balance and a destroyed wing, he didn’t get anywhere.

“Fine, then you will live with your shame for all your life, always knowing the last Black took everything from you that made you a dragon.”

I walked around to the back of him where his stump of a tail was, rose to my hind legs and grabbed his stump with my front claws, using my wings and tail for balance.

“Now leave, never again return, and live with your shame…” I began spinning around in a circle, dragging Elitros like a shot-put.

“FOREVER!” I roared as I put all my strength into one final spin and let his tail go; sending him flying off into the distant mountains, howling all the way.

I let out a large sigh as he faded from sight, lowered myself back to all fours, and looked over to my friends.

“Everypony ok?”

The CMC were the first to speak.

“THAT WAS AWSOME!” they shouted with volume that fillies really shouldn’t have been able to.

Rainbow was the next to speak, “Wow, I though dragons were awsome before, but I’ve never seen a dragon battle before, I have to say, you were pretty cool.”

‘20% cooler?’

Twilight was staring at me stunned, jaw hanging open, her pupils were mere pinpricks.

“Hello? Taros to Twilight? You home?” I waved my claw in front of her.

“Magus Perceptum.” She whispered before her eyes shut and she passed out.

“Dammit! Would you ponies quit doing that?”

Ch. 5 Perfect Pitch... for MAGIC!

Ch. 5 Perfect Pitch… for MAGIC!

**
During the fight between Taros and Elitros Venomspitter, almost every pony in the small town of Ponyville had heard the battle, some came running, others went running but they all knew what was going on. Rarity was the closest to the conflict, still getting her outfit ready for the day when she heard the first roar; she dropped the outfit and raced out the door, then ran back in and grabbed a stylish scarf, put it on, then raced out the door again.

Pinkie Pie the next to hear the sound of battle. She was happily singing her baking song in the kitchen when she started blowing raspberries.

“PPTHHPTHPFFTHPPPT… PPPTTTHHPPTFFFHHH?”

‘Uh oh, numb tongue, Taros is fighting an icky sticky dragon. I should go help… with CUPCAKES!’

She pulled out a pan of cupcakes from nowhere and began hoping out the door humming her ‘Smile, Smile, Smile’ song, the pan balanced perfectly on her head as she bounced.

Fluttershy was feeding some of her animal friends when the roar echoed across her home, sending her and her animals all running for cover. Hiding under her chicken coop she heard a second roar, much sharper than the first and full of malice. Even at such distance Fluttershy knew that the dragon that saved her life was in trouble and she had to help. She shakily dragged herself from under the coop, looked over to Angel Bunny who was hiding in his hovel.

“Angel, take care of the other animals while I’m gone.” Angel was going to stop her but her pre-‘Stare’ look silenced any opposition as she raced off to Ponyville.

Applejack was the last to hear, mostly because Sweet Apple Acres was so far away from town. She had already been up for a few hours, preparing the apple family cider for the market when the roar drew her attention. She dropped the barrel of cider she had on her back and rushed out the barn, shouting to Big Macintosh as she passed him.

“That new dragon is in trouble! Big Mac, take care of things!”

Big Mac didn’t say anything when he saw the determination in his sister’s eyes; he only nodded and hurried to the barn she had come from.

**
Spike, the CMC and Rainbow Dash were slowly carrying Twilight back into the library, Rainbow doing so with a little more care than the others, I couldn’t follow them since not even my head would fit through the door. Rainbow made sure to leave the door open so that I could see what was going on, they gently put her down on the couch and Spike went and got a wet cloth and placed it on her forehead. I knew that there wasn’t anything I could do until she woke up.

‘What did she say? Magus Perceptum or something? I think it’s Latin, Magus means magic or mage or something, but what does Perceptum mean? Perceive? Perception? Magic perception? What the hell does that have to do with anything?

I decided to stop thinking about what Twilight said, I would just ask her when she woke up and chose to think about what just happened with Elitros.

‘Now how did he turn into that dragon-pony thing? I thought that dragon magic was only in the fire-breathing?

I thought back to when I saw him as a pony; I closed my eyes as I re-analyzed the memory in my head but I failed to notice the growing tugging sensation in the back of my mind. My concentration was broken when I heard a loud snap and my body started wriggling all on its own. I tried to open my eyes but they wouldn’t move as I heard a parade of snapping sounds and my body writhing like angry snakes in a sack.

‘What the fuck is happening now!? Eris! Are you turning me into something else now?’

I shouted out my thoughts in my head like I was expecting her to hear them. The cracking and snapping soon slowed down as did the writhing of my body, I was able to open my eyes again and the first thing I noticed was that there was a huge crowd of ponies around me, the second was that they were only a little shorter than me.

‘Holy Shit! Did I just shrink or something!?’

I quickly turned my head to look at my body to see what happened to me, to my amazement I now had the body of a pony, similar to when I first saw Elitros but much different in the same way. My scales were still black; my wings as well were still folded up against my sides, hanging out past my hind legs (flanks now I guess), my tail also had the same shape to my dragon form but the bladed tip was gone, in its place was just a simple rounded tip of scales. I opened my mouth and poked my teeth with a hoof and felt that they were still just as sharp as in my dragon form but thankfully much shorter. I brought up one of my hooves and felt around my head and neck, all I felt was hair, I pulled some of into view and saw that it was jet-black, much like my scales, and had grey tips on it. My spines were gone so I continued to inspect the rest of my head, when I reached my forehead I felt a horn.

‘Wait…Is it a unicorn horn?’

I cautiously poked the horn and could feel the cylindrical spiral that ran up the horn, I poked the tip fully expecting it to be as sharp as my spines were but it was fairly dull, nothing like the spear-like spines of my dragon form.

‘So I guess I’m a dragon-alicorn. U mad bro?’

“Taros? Is that you?”

I looked through the crowd of ponies, which was much harder since I didn’t tower over them, to see the rest of the Mane 6 staring at me, eyes wide with shock.

“Yea it’s me. Pretty cool huh? I didn’t even know I could do this.” My voice was still the same as I smiled at my friends.

“Yes, it is indeed very impressive but how did you do it? What was that sound of battle we heard earlier? Was there another dragon here?” Rarity fired off her questions similar to how Twilight did.

“Yea there was, come on lets go inside the library, I’ll explain inside.” I waved a hoof as I walked up the stairs to the library.
When we entered the library, I was greeted by the further shocked faces of Spike, Rainbow, the CMC and the recently awaken Twilight, who looked like she was about to pass out again.

I then retold the story of meeting the green dragon Elitros Venomspitter and everything he told me, the fight and what happened after Twilight was taken into the library. Twilight was able to stay conscious by distracting herself with writing down everything that Elitros had said, no doubt to add to a book about dragon culture.

“So Twilight, before you passed out you said ‘Magus Perceptum’ or something, what does that mean?” I asked as she lifted her head from the paper, it also earned a gasp from Rarity.

“Spike, get me ‘Ancient Magic of the Ancient World'.” Spike gave her a quick salute and scrambled up a bookshelf and pulled a book and quickly passed it to Twilight.

“Well according to the text in this book, there was an ability in the ancient world called ‘Magus Perceptum’ which roughly translates to ‘Magic Understanding’. It was said that those who had this ability could see almost any magic once and instantly learn how to perform it, regardless if they were a unicorn, dragon, earth pony or anything else. Although there hasn’t been a single proven example of it, the legend still exists today, though it is usually unicorns that follow it, hoping that they will be the one to have the ancient ability.”

“And you think that I have this ability?” I asked her.

“I do, think about it, transformation magic is one of the hardest schools to learn, some unicorns spend their entire lives studying it and end up only able to change from a unicorn into something of equal size, and it takes a great deal of focus to maintain, yet you were able to change from your dragon form into that of an average sized pony, on accident no less!” She was barely containing her excitement.

“Couldn’t it just be that dragons are really good at transformation magic?”

“Hmm… you could be right, maybe we should test it.” She then brought out a different piece of paper and began to write a list of some kind, mostly likely a gambit of magical tests she wanted me to perform.

‘Great I just set off Twilight’s ‘Let’s learn everything about this’ mode.’

“Oh I know a great thing to test first!” Rainbow quickly blurted out.

“Oh, really Rainbow? What did you have in mind?” Twilight looked questioningly.

“Let’s see if he can understand how to fly as a pony…dragon…thing.”

“That’s a perfect thing to test, since he is a dragon and already understand the basics of flight, it will just be a matter of understanding how magic flows around a pegasus.” Twilight quickly scribbled on her paper.

“Fluttershy? If you wouldn’t mind?” She looked over to Fluttershy.

“Umm…ok…I guess I can…if it will help.” She spoke quietly as she flapped her wings and floated into the air gently.
I focused on her, expecting to instantly understand how she can fly with such small wings beating so slowly. As I watched her, I began to see what looked like air currents whipping and curling around her body, they seemed to hang around underneath her wings, spinning gently but still pushing up when she brought them down. It then hit me that it wasn’t the air that I was seeing but the magic current that she was subconsciously warping around to suit her needs.

‘Huh… so that’s how they are able to fly with such tiny wings.’

“Ok, do you think you can mimic what Fluttershy did Taros?” Twilight asked.

“Couldn’t hurt to try.” I shrugged as I stepped forward and unfurled my wings; Fluttershy took this opportunity to land next to the others.

‘Ok, now think of how the air moved around Fluttershy…good, now use you magic to warp the air to mimic that.”

I felt the small tug in the back of my mind, which I assumed was me pulling some of my magic, as I felt the air begin to bend around my body.

‘Good, now give your wings a flap to get off the ground.’

I gave my wings a flap, following the instructions of my mental coach; I became aware that I flapped way too hard as I crashed into the ceiling. Everyone gasped as I crashed and began to fall.

‘Ow, too hard, hold you wings out to slow your descent!’

I snapped my wings out, much like I did the first time I attempted flying and met with disastrous results, this time, thankfully, that didn’t happen. I was a few feet (or is it hooves?) off the ground when I suddenly stopped in midair and was floating in the air without even needing to flap my wings, I looked to my wings and could see the magic current under my wings condensed into almost a solid ball of energy, nothing like the ghostly spinning strands that Fluttershy had, holding my wings up.

“Ha-ha, check it out, I’m hovering!” I exclaimed as I gently hovered around the room before bringing myself down gently onto the ground.

“Excellent job Taros!” Twilight and the others cheered.

“See! I told ya it would be a good idea!” Rainbow bragged.

“Yes Rainbow, it was a very good test. Next we are going to see if you can do simple unicorn magic, telekinesis to be precise.” Twilight read off the next check on her list.

“Ok. What do you want me to lift?”

“These.” She levitated half a dozen books onto the table in front of us, making sure that I saw them surrounded by her magic.

Once again I stared at the floating books and could see how gravity seemed to reverse itself when engulfed in the magic and how when she floated them in a particular direction the gravity on that side changed from absolute buoyancy to a pull in that direction. After gaining a decent grasp on how to magically lift things, I stepped up to the books on the table and began my mental coaching again.

‘Reach out with you mind and locate the books.’

I did just that, locating each book, feeling the texture of the spine, the weight they each had and even the condition of the books.

‘Now encase them in your magic and lift them into the air.’

All six books were soon encased in a soft black glow and began to slowly rise into the air; a couple of them dipped as I lost focus on them but came back up when I focused again. It was hard at first, I had to focus intently on each book making sure I kept a detailed mental picture of each book, but as I lifted and floated the books around the room, I was able to work with a more and more vague picture of the books until all I needed to hold on to was that I was carrying books.

“Full marks again Taros!” Twilight made a quick note in her book.

“Man, that’s hard to do, I can only think of how hard it was to hold my mouth shut when we first met.”

“Don’t worry about it; you will eventually gain the finesse to do the same thing if you keep practicing. For the next test you will be performing medium level magic, repairing inanimate objects, Pinkie?”

Pinkie suddenly appeared out of nowhere with a vase in her hoof and smashed it into the table, sending dozens of pieces sliding across it.

“Thank you Pinkie.” Twilight said as her horn light up and enveloped each and every piece of the vase and brought them all together.

‘Ok so I have to use a combination of telekinesis and the repair spell’

I focused on one of the individual cracks as the pieces came together, watching, absorbing every detail of the spell. The spell worked by re-connecting the molecular bonds of the material without actually altering their shape or stretching them, weaving them back together like you would when splicing two pieces of rope. After a minute of analyzing the spell, she was finished; the vase was completely repaired like it was never broken to begin with.

“Ok now it’s your turn, don’t worry though; I will break it in two so it will be easier for you.” Twilight’s magic engulfed the vase again and it split cleanly in half.

‘Let’s do this’

I cheered to myself as I lifted the two pieces and brought them together and mimicked Twilight’s spell. The crack in the vase began to slowly stich itself together, sealing itself back into one piece. Once I ended the spell, I looked at my handiwork, the vase was indeed in one piece but the crack was still very visible as well as the fact that I didn’t have the two pieces lined up evenly when I started so the lip of the vase and the designs were uneven.

“Well this looks like shit.” I deadpanned as I looked over the vase.

“Hey, don’t say that. It was very good for a first attempt. I didn’t expect you to get it the first time which is why I only broke it into two pieces.” Twilight’s words were a little comforting.

“Thanks Twilight, so what is the next test?”

“The last test will be advanced spells, teleporting across the room, something that only very gifted unicorns can do.” She said as she walked over to the stairs that lead to the second floor and turned to face us.

Her horn lit up once again and began to channel her magic into the spell, thankfully doing it much slower so I could examine it. I saw her magic surround her in a sphere of light, once she was completely obscured by the sphere it collapsed in on itself, becoming a singularity of energy that disappeared within itself, then suddenly reappeared a few hooves in front of me and exploded out in a flash of light, revealing Twilight completely unharmed.

“There, now you try.” She said with confidence.

I let out a slow breath, trying to calm myself for this advanced spell I was about to attempt.

‘Come on, you got this. All you are doing is creating a wormhole, traveling through it, and then closing it behind you. Piece of cake.’

I wanted to punch my mental coach in the face for making so light of the fact that I was about to break the fabric of reality by choice. I closed my eyes and focused on the spell, first creating the sphere of energy around me, then focusing on where I wanted to go.

‘The stairs of Twilights house’

I then unleashed the spell. I felt my body being pulled and tugged as I traveled through the void of in between reality, it was a sickening feeling, and it felt like everything and nothing and being drawn in every direction at the same time. When I felt the comfort of regular space as the spell finished, I released the breath that I was holding and opened my eyes slowly. I saw that I was indeed in front of Twilight’s stairs but I was upside down and smoking a little bit and in a considerable amount of pain which thankfully faded quickly.

“Wow… That was a… unique experience.” I groaned out as I struggled to right myself.

“Well that proves it! You have ‘Magus Perceptum’ but it seems that you cannot copy a spell perfectly, so maybe you just understand how it works. This is so exciting! I have in my house one of, if not the only true case, of powerful ancient magic!” she was almost hysterical with laughter.

I couldn’t help but join in her laughter.

“Hee-hee, watch out Equestria, here comes a dragon with the Sharingan.” I giggled to myself.

“Katon, goukakyu-no-jutsu!” Pinkie yelled out with a hoof under her bottom lip while blowing out a breath.

I stopped laughing and stared at her.

“What?”

Author’s Note: Thanks to everyone who are enjoying my story, I had no idea it would be so well received, I did it mostly because I had the idea rattling around in my head but now it seems to have grown into a life of its own so I suppose I’ll have to keep going. I hope you all enjoyed the chapter; it took me a little while to think up the most scientific way to explain how the magic worked and the idea for Magus Perceptum for Taros as well as making sure it isn’t too powerful. If it wasn’t obvious where I got the idea from before the end of the chapter, the last four lines should have been a dead giveaway.

Ch. 6 Head of State

After I spent a good five minutes laughing at Pinkie’s fourth wall breaking antics, the other ponies decided to return to what they were doing before my fight. Twilight suggested we all meet at SugarCube Corner in two hours, we all agreed as the other members of the Mane 6 made their way out the library.

“So Twilight anymore tests you wanna run?” I asked.

“Not for right now, I want to send a letter to the princess though, I’m sure she will be just as excited to hear about proof of ‘Magus Perceptum’ but I will continue researching it, see if I can uncover some more information.” She answered while pulling a different piece of paper out.

“Ok then, I’m gonna go take a look around town, maybe stop by that market that you mentioned.”

“Sure, just make sure you don’t forget about SugarCube Corner. Oh and by the way, it seems that you are going to be in charge of a few fillies while you are out.” She gave me a smirk while looking at the CMC.

I turned my head to see the fillies giving me their trademark ‘puppy dog’ eyes complete with quivering lips.

‘Gah, must resist… impossible… D’awwwwwww.’

“I suppose I can manage that, so Cutie Mark Crusaders, what would you like to do?” I lowered myself to their level.

“We ne’er got a chance to sneak up on ya again; I wanna give it ‘nother go.” Applebloom quickly responded.

“Hmm… I’ve got a better idea, why don’t you all learn how to run away from a big scary dragon-pony!” I said the last part with a comically evil voice.

They all squealed out in joy and ran out of the library, I rose back to my hooves, gave Twilight and Spike a big smile and took off after the CMC.

“FLEE BEFORE ME PUNY CRUSADERS; YOU CANNOT HOPE TO MATCH TAROS THE EVIL!” I was using my cartoon bad-guy voice while I chased the squealing crusaders from the air.

They were running through the streets as I swopped down near them, making them laugh even louder as we passed a few other ponies that were looking with confusion at the strange scene in front of them. As I came around for another pass, I could see that they were hatching a plan to ‘defeat’ me, Sweetie Belle took off to the left down a side street, while Scootaloo went to the right, Applebloom still running down the main road. Applebloom then performed the ‘B-grade horror movie white girl fall’ maneuver complete with pretend scream.

‘What are you three planning I wonder?’

I decided to take the bait as I swopped down and landed a few hooves from Applebloom, who was trying to hide her smile behind her hooves.

“YOU SHALL MAKE A DECLICOUS SNACK LITTLE CRUSADER.” I ‘roared’ as I slowly walked towards her.

“NOW!” Applebloom shouted.

Sweetie and Scootaloo now came running out from the side streets and leapt at me while Applebloom jumped from her position at me as well. Applebloom latched on to my neck, Sweetie got me around the leg and Scootaloo grabbed my tail.

“ARRGH! IT IS NOT POSSIBLE! I AM DEFEATED!” I gave out a death yell and fell to the side that Sweetie wasn’t on and played dead complete with my mouth open and tongue hanging out.

“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS DRAGON SLAYERS, YAY!” they all cheered out together.

That was all I could handle, I started laughing on the ground and the crusaders soon joined in. Many other ponies were watching the scene with even more confusion than before.

“Good job crusaders, you have defeated your first dragon, now how bout we go take a look at that market?” I asked as they let me go and got up.

“Girls? Are you the one causing all this commotion?” The fuchsia earth pony I recognized as Cheeriliee walked up to us barely batting an eyelash at me.

“Hey, Ms. Cheeriliee, we were just crusadin’ with Taros.” Applebloom waved a hoof over to me.

“Hello Ms. Cheeriliee, nice to meet you.” I stuck out my hoof for a friendly greeting which she reciprocated happily.

“Ah, of course, nice to meet you as well Mr. Taros, I heard about that terrible fight you had with that other dragon, are you ok?”

“Just Taros is fine and yea I’m good, just a couple of scratches.” I replied.

“What brings ya to the market Ms. Cheeriliee?” Scootaloo asked.

“Just a little shopping that I had to take care of, the weekend markets always seem to bring out the freshest produce. If you will excuse me, I have quite a bit of grading that I need to take care of.” She said with a smile as she bid us goodbye.

“Wanna go tour the market for a little before we meet up with the mares?” I asked while looking at the fillies.

They nodded as they ran up to flank me on each side as we walked through the main street where all of the stalls and carts were set up. I was once again getting those strange looks from ponies, some seemed to be outright disgusted while others seemed to see me as a curiosity, which in all fairness I was. I simply ignored them as we continued though the market. This market was much like any you would find at a farmer’s market on Earth, all sorts of fruits and vegetables in carts and on tables while the owners hawked at any who would walk close enough, just with ponies instead of humans. One thing that was different was there were a couple of merchants who were not selling produce or food of any kind; they were selling weapons and armor. Most of them were iron or some other type of metal but there was one merchant that made me despise him instantly. In his stall were weapons and armor made from the scales and bones of dragons. Now I didn’t have any real love for the dragons so far, given by the one that I met already, but there was something about seeing the bones and scales of one of my kind, hung up like a trophy just rubbed me the wrong way.

“Taros? You ok?” Applebloom gave me a nudge in the leg when she saw that I was growling loudly.

“Huh?” I snapped my head to her when I realized what I was doing, “yea… yea, I’m… fine. Let’s get out of here.”

As we walked by the merchant, admittedly at a hurried pace, I gave him my equivalent of the ‘Stare’ and given by his reaction, it conveyed my feelings to him. I shook off my anger once he was out of sight, brooding about it wasn’t going to change anything and attacking him probably wouldn’t go over as well as it did with Elitros. We ended up just walking aimlessly for a while until we spotted the familiar sight of SugarCube Corner.

“Hmm… we might be a little early but you fillies feel like waiting for the others inside?” I asked while looking down at my young entourage.

They all gave a nod before running ahead of me into the shop, I followed them through the door expecting to see the Cakes and maybe Pinkie, but instead I was greeted by all of the Mane 6 all wearing worried looks on their face.

“What’s up everypony?”

“We have a problem. The dragon ambassador came to visit Princess Celestia today.” Twilight answered while she looked at the ground.

“So? Why should I care about some other dragon?”

“She has asked for you personally.” I could see the worry in her eyes.

“Oh.”

“How does the dragon ambassador even know about me? Everyone that I’ve met had said that all the Blacks were dead and I haven’t shown myself to any other dragon except for Elitros and there is no way he got the information to any other dragon.” Taros was visibly worried about having to meet a foreign dignitary.

“That’s just it Taros, the dragon ambassador knew you were coming, it’s why she is here today.” Twilight was trying to keep him calm.

“That’s impossible, how could someone know I was here so quickly?”

“Her name is Deraga Soothsight; she is a dragon seer, possibly the strongest one in over two hundred years.” She had to read the name off of the letter she received to make sure she pronounced it right.

“Seer? You mean she can see the future?” Taros was still pacing around the store.

“Yes, and she asked for you personally because she foresaw your arrival over one year ago.” Twilight said.

“A whole year she has been waiting for me? Wait… does that mean she knows everything that I’ve done since I got here? The diamond dogs, Elitros and the Magus Perceptum thing too?”

“No I don’t think so. The letter says that you should fly there in your dragon form because she doesn’t seem to be aware of it yet and we should keep it under wraps as best we can for now.”

“I guess there is no way for me to get out of this is there?” Taros sighed as he made his way back out the door.

“I’m afraid not, no” Twilight answered as they all walked into the street in front of SugarCube Corner.

“Well I guess I better get going then, you might wanna back up though.” He gave a wave of his hoof and the group all backed up away from him.

Twilight could feel the magic Taros was giving off as he began changing forms. His body began wriggling and his bones snapped and changed shape as his form expanded and stretched to regain his draconic size. His hooves became claws with razor-sharp talons, his single unicorn horn and the hair on his head disappeared and were replaced by a field of spines that erupted from his head and ran down his neck. His tail also changed shape; the smooth rounded nub was replaced by the sharp double-bladed tip from before. As his transformation finished, many of the other ponies who were not in the know of what just happened were staring with utter shock, some even passed out when they saw a dragon-pony change into a twenty-hoof tall dragon.

“Seeya everypony.” He shouted as he unfurled his wings, crouched his body and leapt into the air, scattering dust from his take off point and began flying majestically towards Canterlot.

If dragons were capable of sweating, I would have been sweating bullets. The flight to Canterlot was excruciating, even if the flight wasn’t very long what was bothering me was who I was going to meet when I got there. As Canterlot Castle got bigger and bigger as I approached I could see some of the guard ponies start to mobilize when I came into view. I saw at least three dozen pegasus ponies come flying out from rooms in the castle to me. They surrounded me and moved to flank me on all sides, providing the equivalent of an armed escort.

“Is this really necessary? I’m not the most vulnerable of creatures.” I asked the guard closest to my head.

“This escort is not for you Sir, it is so the castle guards do not attack you and the citizenry are not disturbed by your presence!” he yelled out over the wind.

‘That does make sense, I probably would upset some of the ‘nobles’ if I just come flying in all of sudden.’

As we flew towards the castle I could see that there was an entire city beneath the city that was never seen in the show. The architecture had three different styles arranged into a rough ‘S’ shape that worked its way up the mountain towards the castle. The lowest district, which was closest to the outer gates, had mostly wooden buildings as well as a great deal of warehouses.

‘Guess that would be the ‘lower city’.’

The next district was what I assumed was the market district given all the open-walled building with ponies shouting about their wares and supplies.

‘Would I call that market district? Or maybe middle city? Nah that sounds silly.’

The last district was by far the most expensive-looking; each of the small estates had their own style and architecture leading me to believe that they were each commissioned by an individual, not the local government like the other districts. Even though the houses looked small from up in the air, I could tell that they were quite large.

‘Bet even I could be comfortable in some of those houses, this would probably be the noble district or something.’

I looked past the district and came upon the castle itself. The castle was a truly beautiful structure; the show did no justice to it. The stone was all a pearlescent white framed with shining gold and silver edging around the doors, balconies and windows. The spires and parapets reached high into the sky dwarfing even me with how far they scrapped the clouds in the sky. I was so lost in the beauty of the castle that I almost didn’t notice my escort begin to slow and drop altitude, forcing me to quickly follow suit.

We didn’t land in front of the castle though; we instead flew around to a large stone slab that was surrounded by an assortment of trees, bushes and shrubs. Already on the landing I could see Celestia as well as a very large blue dragoness as we landed on the stone.

Now even though I was turned into a dragon, I was still a human in heart and mind so it would make sense that I would still be attracted to a human woman, but something about this dragoness simply radiated beauty that could surpass even the most beautiful human woman in the world. I couldn’t help but stare at her.

She was a little larger than me, about 1/3 or so bigger with the same four legs and two wings body type. Even though her body roughly had the same bulkiness as mine, her features and bone structures were much more graceful, each curving to give her a gentle appearance. She had beautiful deep-blue scales and matching eyes that seemed to gleam and reflect the light perfectly. Along her head, neck and back was not spines like me or a fin like Elitros but instead she had hair that looked to be made of pure crystal that clinked and rang out like a wind chime as they blew gracefully in the wind. Her talons also seemed to be made of the same crystal material as her hair but they were ridged but still reflected the light in a prismatic display of color. She seemed to notice me staring at her as she gave a seductive smile.

“Has it been so long since you have seen another female Black?” Her voice sounded like a captivating song.

“Huh… oh…umm…yea… I guess.” I was stumbling with my words like the captain of the chess club trying to talk to the prom queen.

“Please, there is no need to be so nervous, you are not in trouble, and I merely came today to meet the last of the Blacks.” She gave a small smile and I could see her teeth were lined up perfectly and pearly white.

“Yea… sure, so what did you want to talk to me about then?”

“We shall address that in due time, Princess? Could you give us a moment please?” She lowered her head to address Celestia.

“Of course, take all the time you need, I shall be in the throne room when you are finished.” Celestia turned to walk awake while giving me secret and knowing look and wink.

As she left I looked back to Deraga and saw her eyes light up with a blue light and a bubble of air radiated out from her and surrounded us both. I looked around to see that the bubble was holding at about twenty feet from us while making everything beyond it look like it was seen through the water and the air was stale. I analyzed the spell with my eyes.

‘A muffling and obscuring spell so no one can see or hear what is going on.’

“Now then Taros, It’s time we had serious talk.” The smile was gone from her face as well as the harmonious voice.

I have been plagued by nightmares for weeks, each night they are different but each night there is one thing that is always constant, that black figure with the red eyes that sees through my soul towering over me. Some nights it is standing in a field of fire and death; dragons, griffons and diamond dogs lying dead or dying all around him. Other nights I see the same figure standing in a sunlit field with the same beings, but instead of on the ground they are standing next to him, supporting the decisions that he has made. It was not until last night when these nightmares became clear. I was once again standing in the field of fire but the black figure was nowhere to be seen, instead I saw dragon, griffon and diamond dog all standing against each other, weapons draw, fangs and claws barred, ready to tear each other apart. Before they began their battle, the black figure once again emerged from the flames and approached the standoff. As he walked forward I saw his form become solid, he was a black dragon who was only a little shorter than me with the same piercing red eyes. He stopped in front of the fighters and spoke words that I could not understand and the combatants lowered their weapons. He lifted his head and looked to me and I could see the sorrow in his eyes at what this war had done to our world. The dream then faded to black.

I woke in a panicked scream and was breathing heavily, my steward Jahila, a young purple dragon of no more than fifty came into the room.

“My Lady, are you alright?” her voice was tinged with worry.

“Yes…yes… Jahila… I am fine…please get me my journal…I must write what I saw before it fades.”

“Was it the nightmares again?” She asked me.

“Yes it was, but it was much clearer this time, I now know what they were trying to tell me all along.”

“What did you see?” she handed me my journal.

“The one who will change the fate of this world.”

Author’s Note: I hope you all enjoyed the latest chapter; I wanted to add an actual huge bustling city to Canterlot instead of just the small one that is in the show. I also added a few other dragons to begin to form the culture for each of the colors which will be evident in their names and attitudes Blues will be very respectful (using proper names and such), Purples will always be very proper in their speech (never using contractions or slang) and Greens are going to be very sneaky and conniving. I’m still thinking about the other colors; I will have to see how their attitudes strike me. In case anyone is confused or wondering how Jahila’s name is pronounced it’s Ja-He-La.