Skystriker: seeking Aspects

~~~~~Present day~~~~~

I kicked a column over, tossing an overgrowth potion on it to encourage the destruction of the thing a bit more swiftly. Memories were all well and good, but this castle should not have lasted as long as it did. As vines began growing over the column, I wondered what had happened to Luna, and if Celestia had found a way to bring her back yet. She’d had nearly one thousand years to discover a way, so there had to be something she’d found.

I left the ruins and began my trek south toward the badlands, wandering through the forest, leaving nothing behind, and making no sound. I was the forest, and yet separate from it, for such is my path.

Manticores flew overhead, phoenixes chirruped, and smaller animals squeaked and chattered, unaware of me as I passed. The trees swayed in the wind as it whistled through them, tearing off a few leaves and bringing with it the scent of trees and dirt and fur, in the distance, Timberwolves howled as they hunted. In short, everything was just as it should be in the forest.

A dragon emerged from its cave and roared, disturbing the perfection of the forest. I looked towards the mouth of the cave, where the dragon still stood, looking over its territory in satisfaction. A grim smile touched my lips. Dragons do not belong in the Everfree. I’ll go pay him a visit why don’t I?

The cave wasn’t far, and I found it easily. The stupid thing hadn’t even cleaned up after itself, leaving bones scattered across the stones. On the edges of the stones, I could see patches of green that marked where a few bones had landed touching the ground and decomposed. I’ll have to clean that up when I’m done.

I rapped loudly on the stones of the cave then climbed to the top of the mouth of the cave. From under me, I heard a loud roar that shook the earth. Soon, the dragon trundled out of the cave, still roaring in anger. I shook my head, clicking my tongue silently at its behavior.

“Who dares knock at the door of Grumbletongue?”

“That’s your name is it? Grumbletongue?” I laughed, waiting for his reaction, starting my Dragon aspect as I spoke. He spun, roaring again, looking  through the trees for me.

“You’re not one for thinking are you? I asked as he opened his mouth wide and bathed the entire area in flames. He looked towards my voice and shot more fire.

“You will pay for that offense! I will catch you, and then I will eat you! And you will be alive the whole way!” I snorted, rolling easily out of the way of the flames before diving toward him and stabbing out with one dagger. It stabbed through, but there was some definite resistance before it did so, forcing me to back away before cutting as deeply as I would have liked.

Fire came scorching down around the leg I had just hit, bathing half the dragon in flame. Scales are fire-proof and very strong. I added that to the aspect, letting it form as I saw the dragon flailing about in an attempt to flush me out of the forest. A tree crashed to the ground in front of me and I leapt over it, slamming my daggers into the dragons’ tail as I passed. Very strong and appears to be at least partially immune to poisons. I slipped behind another tree and pulled out a vial of ‘liquid death’ a venom I had used only once, not counting testing it, which inflicted death on the target within seconds. This should be about right for a dragon. The tail came back toward me and I leapt onto it, racing up the tail to the body along the spine before stabbing my blade into it right between the wings, straight into where I assumed the spine was. I didn’t want him getting back up.

I flew clear, landing behind the convulsing dragon, watching to see the results. Extreme resistance to poisons of any kind, it is not immune to them however. As the dragon began growing more still, I slipped forward and thrust my other dagger into his back. He stopped moving, and shortly began to decompose. I walked past the dead dragon, letting the dirt take the creature. I wasn’t sure how, but the dirt could tell when something dead was touching it, and it would compost dead things extremely rapidly. The Cave was now covered in dirt, and the bones would likely be composted as well soon.

After that relatively uneventful afternoon, I decided to test my new aspect. Drawing solely on the draconic aspect, I first tested the strength of the draconic aspect, noting it to be about twice that of the manticore aspect. It greatly improved my skins’ toughness, making me more resistant to blunt trauma. Now I can be perfectly honest when I claim to have thick skin. I laughed a little at my own joke before realizing that the tree in front of me was now slightly scorched. I frowned before realizing that I must have just breathed fire unconsciously. I tried to remember what I had just done, but as best I could recall I just exhaled. So that was what I did, envisioning flames blasting out of my mouth and scorching the tree. That didn’t work, but I kept at it.

By the end of the day, the tree was looking considerably worse for wear, but I could breathe fire at will using the aspect. I bedded down for the night in the scorched tree, reasoning that very little was going to come exploring where the dragon’s lair had been, even if the dragon had been silent for a few hours.

I awoke to the sound of timber wolves howling nearby. I shot up, looking about for any sign of danger before realizing where they were coming from. I looked down and hissed at the wolves.

“Get out of here.” They couldn’t understand me, but the hissing seemed to make them more wary, but they didn’t leave. Of course, predators wouldn’t, even if they were being more careful now.

“Alright, but it’s your fault if you die now, I gave you fair warning.” With that I opened my mouth and covered the pack in fire before gliding to the ground and cutting through three more wolves with my daggers. They all fell to the ground around me, and I quickly burnt them to ash.

“Rest well Spirits, may you join the forest in peace.” I looked up at the sky. It was about two hours until dawn, close enough to start off. I pulled the timber wolf aspect and continued my travels through the forest. What few monsters found me left me alone, save for one Elemental, who after a lengthy discussion decided that I was not an enemy of the forest and continued on his way. I stored the aspect. Earth elemental: Impossibly strong, hard to injure in any way, able to travel through dirt and stone without trace, can move stone and earth according to its wishes.

In equestrian territory now, I moved at high speed, moving as fast as possible to the badlands, wanting to avoid contact with ponykind for as long as possible. The less time I spend among ponies, the sooner I’ll be gathering aspects again.  I passed into a town and back out. As night came I soared into the sky as night came on, landing on a cloud as I channeled the most basic Pegasus aspect: cloud walking. I slept, knowing there would be no predators in the sky at night, much less this far within the borders of Equestria.

Still, after nearly a thousand years, the question still gnawed at me: Why did I, the ghost of the forest, who stood at the top of the predatory line, care about the pony rulers' well being?