When Darkness Falls (Reboot)

by blm95tehe

Rating: mature
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Romance, Original Character, Spike, Adventure, Shining Armor, Discord, Main 6, Gore
Length: 42402

When you lose everything, what do you live for?

When you lose everything, what do you live for? This is the question Asher finds himself asking when his life is destroyed by the spirit of chaos: Discord. The young Pegasus will lick his wounds as he discovers more about his himself, love and the importance of letting go.....

A story co written with FlimFlamBros. (http://www.fimfiction.net/user/FlimFlamBros.)

Cover art by Matias Snellingen (http://azenge.deviantart.com/)

edited and co written by Calcos (http://www.fimfiction.net/user/Calcos)

Published 2012-06-23 18:04:02 UTC
Last updated 2013-01-16 04:01:01 UTC

Chapter 1 Descending Darkness

(This chapter was written by yours truly: FlimFlamBros.)

There was once a time when Equestria was a land of peace and harmony, a land that was blessed with happiness, and spared the horrors of war and conflict.

We were as foolish as foals to think that it would last forever, and in the end, we probably should have seen it coming. Nothing gold can stay, a friend of mine once said. A little poetic for my taste, but it was no less true: ’Nothing gold can stay, in the wind it blows away. It will never be the same, for him it was a game.

Games. That what he called it: A little game. A bit of harmless fun and mayhem to loosen us all up. I remember how this had all escalated. The chaos, the misery, the pain. It was all just a joke to him, a silly practical joke from the king of mischief. Apparently, the dead ponies and the burning of my home town could be seen as pretty fucking hilarious. I watched as their blood poured down like waterfalls, bones crushed by falling walls...as my parents were mauled and torn apart...

My name is Asher. I was a typical Pegasus: A dark grey coat, long messy black and white mane and tail, wings, the whole nine yards. I lived in a little mountain town called Aspen. I can’t remember the details of Aspen, only that it was beautiful, with small, cozy cottages dotting the rocky landscape. It had that sense of sanctuary to it, a sense that we eventually found out to be false. It was the fake haven that dotted the side of Mt. Hedon.

The actual mountain was not that high, only half the height of the Canterlot mountain. There was a small amount of snow capping the tip, but the mountain was mostly covered in dense forest. Because of this, Aspen was primarily a lumber town. Midway up Mt. Hedon was a waterfall that flowed out into a stream, snaking its way down the mountain and through Aspen, until finally forming Lake Aspro.

I used to live in a fairly normal, two story home, with plain siding and many windows. My mother loved to let light into the house, mostly so she could read her books. Both my mother and father worked for living by making instruments, which ranged from trumpets to lyres.

My father was an Earth pony named Elden. His coat was a rusty brown, and his tail and mane were dark gray, cut very short. My mother, Sun Rays, was a watery blue Pegasus with a copper colored tail and mane.

Then there was me. My coat is gray like a shadow, my mane and tail are black with white tips, and my eyes are a lush green. Like my mother, I was a Pegasus. In my youth, I heavily enjoyed flying. I would perform acrobatic stunts, tricks, and shows for the townsfolk. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt that joy, however, or any real joy, to be frank. But I’m getting there…

I was soaring across the sky, as I sometimes liked to do when I had breaks from training. My father had always pushed me towards a military career, always saying that I would have to be strong one day, and that I had to be able to protect my loved ones. Poor bastard. He never knew how right he may have been. I hated it, the training that is. All I ever wanted to do was to be a performer, to perform tricks in front of millions of awe-inspired ponies. Maybe I could even join the Wonderbolts one day! Thinking back, it all looked like a pipe dream.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Hey Asher!” a voice called from below me. I looked down in response. It was Cloud Walker, a strangely named grey and purple Earth pony, that also happened to be my best friend. “Ashey, get down here! I need to talk to you!” I hated when he called me that. I reluctantly glided down to him and sat down on one of the many tree branches.

“What’s up, Cloud?” I asked, lying down on the tree branch. I let my legs hang down lazily, swinging in the breeze.

“Guess what? I figured it out!” he shouted happily, jumping up the branches with unnatural agility. He was a strange one, Cloud Walker. You could easily tell that his mother was a Pegasus. With the way that he seemed to jump from branch to branch, you could have sworn he had wings. “I figured out how we can get out of this town!”

I rolled my eyes. “Not this again,” I said bluntly. Another fun fact about Cloud: He really wanted to be an adventurer, like Daring Do, or the founders of Equestria. Every week or so he would come up with some hair-brained scheme to raise enough money to fund an exposition. He would keep going on about all these unexplored lands that lay beyond the mountains and seas that surrounded Equestria, and how he was going to be the first to discover some new land, calling it, ‘Cloudtopia’.

“You don’t understand, Asher!” he explained, swinging onto the branch I was sitting on. “I worked out all the kinks this time! It’s absolutely, positively foolproof!” he cried happily.

“And what would it be this time?” I drolled with fake enthusiasm. “Is it better than your plan to sell our bodies? Because that was my personal favorite.”

“Mine, too!” he said happily, oblivious to my sarcasm. “But this one is even better!”

I sighed. “Let me guess: We rob a bank?”

“Nope.” He responded.

“We sell lemonade?”

“Err! Wrong!”

“We ask our parents for money?”

“Of course not!”

Scratching my head, I asked “Then, what is it?”

“We leave!” he said proudly.

I sat there for a moment, dumbfounded. “What?!”

“We leave!” he repeated. “We just take what we can in our saddlebags, and just take off! Who needs money when we can travel town to town and work odd jobs to fund our travels?”

“Cloud, listen to yourself” I said sternly, and with concern. “Are you seriously just thinking about jumping ship and leaving? What about our parents? Do you think that they’ll just smile and wave goodbye to their sons?”

“They won’t care.” he mumbled. “I know mine won’t. They’ve been looking for an excuse to kick my flank outta here for a while.”

“Well, mine are a little more strict than that.” I muttered. “My father still has me training with the cadets. He’d shit a brick if he found out I went on some random vacation.”

“Adventure.” Cloud corrected.

I sighed. “Whatever you wanna call it, I just can’t do it.” The truth was, I would give anything to leave this town. I wasn’t really into the ‘adventuring’ thing like Cloud Walker was, but I felt trapped here, under the cage of my father and his desire for me to be a Royal Guard one day.

Cloud moaned, as he usually did when I was uncooperative. “C’mon, Ash!” he whined, “I can’t do this without you! I need a partner, a compadre, a teammate. I need you, dude.”

“Sorry, Cloud,” I said, shaking my head. “I just can’t leave right now.”

He sighed, hopping out of the tree and landing with a little grunt. “Well, whatever. I’m leaving. If you change your mind, I’ll be heading down the mountain at sunset.” he said, happily trotting towards town. “Later!”

The relaxed and nonchalant way he said his last word let me know that he wasn’t entirely confident in his decision. After all, if this truly was goodbye, I’m pretty sure he would’ve given me a giant bear-hug, like he always does when we are about to be separated for a long while. I knew he wouldn’t leave without me; he depended too heavily on the companionship I gave him.

I let myself fall backwards out of the tree, doing a mid air twist, and spreading my wings. I flew in the opposite direction from Cloud. He lived on the west side of Aspen, while my folks and I lived on the eastern side.

In a few short minutes, I saw my plain old house. It was just like all the rest, the only differences being the names on the mailboxes. I landed a few feet from the door and opened it. My mother was sitting in her favorite rocking chair, reading one of her many books. She looked up at me, smiling at me with her amber eyes.

“Hello, sweetie!” She cooed. “How was your day today?”

I walked by her and jumped on the couch, sinking into the soft cushions. “Same as any day, I guess.” I replied.

My mother resumed reading her book. “So, nothing interesting happened at all, today?”

“Nope.”

Unsatisfied, she continued to probe. “Nothing at all?”

“That’s what I said, wasn’t it?” I responded, annoyed.

She closed her book and placed it on the end table. “Are you okay? You seem a little distant, today.”

“I’m fine, Mother,” I grumbled, burying my face in one of the throw cushions.

“You don’t sound fine.” she said matter-of-factly.

“I don’t want to talk about it.” I said, hoping to end this conversation.

“So, you did have a bad day.”

I glared at her. “I didn’t say that! I said, I didn’t want to talk about it!”

“Don’t raise your tone at me! I am your mother!” She snarled.

“Whatever,” I groaned. I could be very difficult to live with sometimes.

My mom was about to say something to me, but she instead just muttered something under her breath and went back to her book. I rolled over on the sofa, trying to find a comfy spot in the cushions.

I laid there in silence until the swing and following slam of the door broke it.

My father had burst open the door, his normal calm and collective self riddled with worries, visibly sweating. He looked towards me and my mother. “We have to get to town hall, right now!” he shouted.

My mother got up immediately, running to my father’s side, and secured her coat from a nearby coat rack. My father ran down the hall towards the bedrooms and ran in. He emerged a few moments with a saddle bag in his mouth. “Asher, put this on!” my dad mumbled through the straps of the bag.

He threw it at me and I quickly slipped it on, still very confused. “What’s going on?” I asked.

“I don’t know, boy,” he grumbled, “but the mayor said that everypony needed to assemble at town hall immediately, and to pack all that we can carry.” He ran into the kitchen and shoved all the contents of our fridge into another bag. “Something big is about to happen.”

I groaned a little as I followed my father out the door. “Dad, this is Aspen. Nothing ever happens in Aspen.” I deadpanned.

We walked to the center of the town. It wasn’t very far from our house, so the walk was short, and without conversation. Weaving through the crowd, I found Cloud Walker standing with his parents, whom also all had saddle bags strapped on. Cloud noticed me and gave me a big obnoxious wave, so I walked over to him.

“Dude, what’s going on?” he asked me.

I shrugged in response. “I’m just as confused as you are, Cloud.”

“ATTENTION, EVERYPONY!” a loud voice said on a microphone, grabbing everyone’s attention. I looked up to see an older, grey maned mare standing behind a podium. It was Aspen’s Mayor.

She began her impromptu conference. “I have just received dire news from Canterlot.”

There was nervous banter in the crowd as the Mayor continued. “The Princess Celestia warns us that...” she paused, sighing heavily, “...that the Spirit of Chaos, also known as the infamous Discord, has escaped his stony prison, and has gone on a rampage across Equestria.”

The ponies in the crowd began to panic, screaming as they pushed and shoved each other, looking for refuge. “PONIES, PLEASE!” She shouted, the crowd immediately falling silent. “Thank you. Now, we need to evacuate Aspen and descend down the mountain in an orderly fas-”

BOOOOOM!!

The large town hall exploded, crumbling on top of the mayor in seconds. Everypony gasped, frozen in shock. A few seconds later, from the rubble emerged a large and strange creature. It was a dragon, but not quite a dragon. His limbs were all from different animals: Legs of an alligator and bull, claws of an eagle and lion, and a head that was a mix of a pony, goat, deer and unicorn.

“Hello, my little ponies.” the strange beast giggled, looking down at the trembling audience. “I am the Spirit of Disharmony and Chaos, the beacon of insanity that shadows everypony’s heart. I am Discord!” he said with a thunderous, maniacal laugh. “Thank you all for appointing me as the new leader of your town! Now, this is the part when you all bow.”

The sky grew dark as pink clouds blocked out the sun. It began to rain some strange liquid. Cloud let one of the drops fall onto his tongue.

“Chocolate milk?”

Nopony did anything, still too afraid to react or respond. “HELLOOOOO!” called out Discord, crossing his mismatched hands together. A bolt of green lightning shot down from the sky, striking an unlucky unicorn, who immediately burst into a swarm of yellow butterflies. “I said, BOW!”

Afraid of a similar fate, everypony, including myself, all dropped to one knee and bowed our heads down. Everypony except my father, however.

“You think that you can scare me?” My father yelled at Discord. “You’re nothing but some crack pot, half-pony wannabe!”

I glanced up, but kept my head low. “Dad, what are you doing?” I whispered frantically.

His eye darted down at me. “Protect your mother.” he grunted.

“What?” I asked, but he ignored me. All he did was walk toward the demonic creature, who was looking amused at the tiny pony.

“What do we have here? Look out, folks, this pony’s going to vanquish me!” the King of Mischief said sarcastically, throwing his arms up. “And what makes you such a brave pony?”

“It’s simple,” My father began. “I won’t just bow down as some hideous thing destroys my home!”

Discord disappeared in a flash of light and glitter, re-appearing next to my father. “Aww, that’s so noble of you.” He jested. “Tell me something. What do you do for a living, brave pony?”

My father stuttered, unprepared for such an off-base question. “I...I make musical instruments.”

“Is that so?” Chuckled the Lord of Disharmony. “And what is your favorite?”

“...Guitars.”

“What a fabulous coincidence,” he smirked, staring closely into my father’s eye, giving him a snide smile. “That’s mine as well.”

I watched in horror as my father was struck with green lightning. Almost instantly, his neck began to stretch out, becoming longer and longer as my father screamed in agony. His legs and tail began to fuse to his body, and his nose started pressing into his face.

I stared helplessly as my father was slowly being turned into a guitar.

He looked at me. I could see how scared he was, and my father was never scared. Our eyes made contact as he screamed out the last word anyone would ever hear from him.

“RUN!!”

Everypony was thrown into a mass panic, shoving and pushing each other to get out of town square. Discord laughed as he watched the ponies, all of us scurrying around like headless chickens. I grabbed my mother and ran, with Cloud following close behind.

“Where are you ponies going?” Discord cackled, raising his new guitar over his head. “The chaos has just started!” He smashed the guitar to the ground, causing a colourful explosion of yellow and pink. Dozens of ponies were caught in the blast, and were disintegrated.

Discord flew into the air, giggling like a madmare as he flew through buildings. They either exploded in multi-coloured fire or melted into a strange brown goop. “Isn’t this fun?!” He shouted, twirling around in the air, shooting bolts of purple magic at the fleeing ponies. Anypony that came into contact with it was immediately transformed into a strange object, or simply exploded in a bloody mess.

I led my mother and Cloud through the streets, weaving around the screaming ponies. I watched as, in front of me, a large, black stallion was transformed into a sofa. I jumped over it and took to the air. I turned back to check on my mother, and could see that she was still on the ground. Something was wrong.

“Asher!” Cloud called up to me. “She’s stuck in some pink stuff!”

“Did we step in some of my special bubble gum?” A playful and booming voice echoed. From a burning cottage, the Draconquus appeared, a deranged look in his malformed eyes. “Let me see if I can help.” He raised his eagle claw, a large orb of green energy pulsing in his talons.

I screamed in terror, diving in to try and save my mother. A beam of energy had shot out of the sphere. It was too late.

Cloud managed to jump out of the way, just barely dodging the bolt that collided with my mother. Her body quickly expanded as if she was being blown up like a balloon. She kept rapidly inflating, her coat becoming see-through, much like stretched out rubber. Soon she was floating in the air, like a giant, round balloon. Her terrified face stretched and warped on the side, moving slightly. How she could still live in that form, I’ll never know.

“Oh, dear,” mused Discord, causally flying over to my inflated mother. “I’d really hate to burst her bubble...” He flicked open one of his claws. “But, it’s just so tempting!” He laughed, poking my mother with his sharp finger. The nail dug deeper into my mom, pressing down harder and harder until finally-

POP!

She burst, like the giant inflated balloon she was transformed into.

POP. There was no bloody mess, no buckets of gore or brains splattered everywhere. There was nothing but my mother’s popped, rubbery skin fluttering slowly down from the air. A small chunk fell in my hooves. It was labelled with the picture of a trumpet, a few musical notes stamped to the side.

It was her Cutie Mark. The texture of it felt like latex.

POP went my mind. I felt an insuppressible rage swell up inside of me.

I flew towards the thing that had just killed my parents as fast as I could. I had no idea what I was doing, but I didn’t care. that bastard had just killed both of my parents, and I wasn’t just going to stand around and let him kill other pony’s parents, as well.

“Hey, it looks like we have a fighter!” Smiled Discord. Quickly readying another blast of green magic in his paws, he threw it at me. However, I was ready for it. Using an aerial maneuver I learned in Flight Camp, I flew out of the way, and continued my course towards him. “And a fast one at that!” Discord added.

“I’ll kill you!” I screamed, bolting towards that smug face of his. When I was at point-blank distance, he effortlessly grabbed the tip of my tail. I helplessly stopped, buzzing in his grasp like a trapped fly.

“That seems a little harsh...” he mumbled sarcastically, “Jeez, did I kill your parents, or something?” The frown on my face gave him his answer as he smiled, wiping a non existent tear from his eye. “Well, boo hoo to you, kiddo! That’s just how the game works!”

“That’s all this is to you?!” I shouted. “This is all just a big game?!”

“Life is a game, colt, and we’re just the players,” he said, bringing me closer to his face. “Some of us, however, don’t play fair.” He giggled. “I like you, though. You’ve got spunk!” Discord said, poking me in the stomach.

An electrifying pain shot through me, starting from where he poked me and spreading throughout my body. It hurt so much, I couldn’t even scream.

“Goodbye, pony!” the Monster of Mayhem said, flicking me away with his talon like I was some sort of insect. “May we meet again, someday!”

I hurtled in the air, spinning round and round in a dizzy spin before I opened my wings, slowing my momentum and regaining my balance. Somehow, in my rage, I was able to ask myself a couple of questions: Why did he let me go? Why kill everypony else and let me live? What did he have to gain?

“Asher!” a voice called from below me, ending my trance. I looked down. Somehow, Cloud Walker had survived. He was running out of town, and I quickly followed, soaring high above him. We left the burning village and entered the forest down the mountain.

The same thoughts as before were running through my head as I clenched my chest, the pain still throbbing where Discord had touched me. What did he do to me? This pain was completely foreign, stranger than anything I had felt before.

I couldn’t think of it too much, however. I had to focus on getting out of that hell hole and finding help. The Royal Guards, the Princesses, anypony that could help to stop that beast.

That creature who killed my parents. That monster that destroyed my home. That thing that had treated it all...

...like it was one, big, fucking game.

Check out more of FlimFlamBros. stories at his home page here

Chapter 2 The escape to Hedon

Chapter 2 The escape to Hedon

(This chapter is presented to you by blm95tehe)

Cloud was running as fast as his legs could carry him while I flew overhead, making sure no pony, or no thing, was blocking our path. As we looked back, we could see that the monster, Discord, was laying on his back, laughing at what he had done.

“Just look at the little ponies running away!” he laughed, disappearing in a puff of smoke and ash.

The smoke was visible from the dusty trail leading up to Hedon. Everything I had come to know was there, and it was burnt to nothingness. I was deep in my thoughts, trying to figure out what had happened back there.

“What the hell was that all about?” I shouted. “First he kills everything and everypony in sight, then he just lets us go? He must have wanted us to live with the pain, or something like that,” I wondered aloud. “What kind of bucked up creature does that? And what did he do to me? Was it a spell?” Looking down at my chest, I could still feel what he had done to me. “I can’t stop thinking about this feeling I’m having. I can’t put my hoof on it, it’s too faint for me to figure it out.”

“Hey, slow down, I’m losing you!” screamed Cloud, doing his best to catch up to his frantic friend.

I noticed then just how fast I was flying, so I beat my wings twice, dropping out of the sky with incredible speed. Cloud’s eyes grew wide as I fell to the earth, but right before I smashed on the pavement ahead of him, I extended my wings and started gliding towards him playfully. For once, Cloud wasn't happy with my joke. He looked more like he was about to have a heart attack.

“What the hay was that?” he shouted at me. “I already lost my family, and I want to at least keep my best friend!”

“Sorry,” I quickly said. “Do you want me to stay on the ground to keep you from getting into trouble?”

“Me?” he laughed. “Silly filly, you're the one flying like a mad pony.” Cloud started bouncing up and down chanting, “Mad mare, mad mare, so crazy he’ll lose all his hair!”

“Ha ha, very funny,” I said sarcastically.

It felt good for both of us, knowing we had each other to get our mind off of today's terrible events. At a time like this, joking around was the only thing we really could do. It was all we knew how to do. However, I couldn’t stop thinking about Discord.

The fires had died down in Aspen, and the only thing standing was a single tree in the park. Oddly, there wasn’t a single scratch was on it; its lush green leaves were swaying beautifully in the wind.

“What memories had that tree must have seen,” I said. “Parties, a first kiss or two, maybe even a wedding.”

“Some bad memories, now,” Cloud mumbled. He was pointing to the one thing that could destroy this perfect scene: A small filly laid dead below its saddened branches, smoke radiating off her body.

This sight made me snap back to reality, as the realism and horror of these circumstances hit me like a brick wall. I fell to the ground as tears rolled from my eyes. All the pain and emotion flowed over me like a wave form the ocean as the salty tears ran down my cheeks like a river after a storm.

*Hiccup*

Like always, I started to hiccup between my wails.

Cloud stopped and looked down at me. I was his friend, possibly the only friend he had left in this world. He bent down, not feeling like telling a joke or being goofy. No, for the first time in his life, Cloud was completely serious.

“Hey,” he fumbled with his words, being careful of what he was about to say. “You're gonna be fine. I’m here for you man,” he told me, lifting up my chin with his hoof. “Trust me, everything’s going to be okay.”

It was a futile effort. “NO, IT’S NOT, CLOUD!” I screamed, swatting his hoof away from my face. “You don’t get it, you dumb crazy colt! All of our friends and family are dead because of that... that...” I thought what it could have been. “That thing! It just came out of nowhere, and destroyed my life in a few short moments! It looked as natural to him as breathing!”

Cloud backed away from Asher carefully, noticing that something was wrong with him. His eyes had, all of a sudden, changed from green to red, as if his best friend was being transformed into some hideous beast.

“I’ve made my decision, Cloud. I want to kill him. I’m going to kill him. I NEED to kill him. Slowly and painfully. I want to see him gasp for air as I crush his throat!”

Never in all their years of friendships had he had never seen anything like it before. Should I run or help him? Cloud thought. What should I do? I can’t think of anything that could help him!

Noticing Cloud’s distress, I slowly snapped out of my rage, shaking my head. To be honest, I may have just felt tired. My eyes faded back to normal and I fell to my knees, gasping for air.

“What...what happened?” I panted, looking up at my concerned friend.

“I don’t know,” replied Cloud. “You didn’t look...normal. You looked like something different, something I’ve never seen before. It may have something to do with the monster.”

“Maybe. The pain came out of nowhere. Then the anger followed. It wasn’t as simple as anger, though. It was more like...rage. Pure, unbridled rage.”

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but you need to calm down!” smiled Cloud.

I chuckled. “You're right, it’s nothing. I guess its all the stress we're under. Trust me, I’m fine.”

Cloud smiled as he started bouncing up and down again.

“Silly filly, Remember that little ‘pinkie’ filly that used to come into town with her dad selling rocks and how she told you: ‘Don’t wear a frown when life gets you down, just keep smiling?’”

“Yeah, I do remember. And sometimes, she would break out into a song,” I said with a faint smile.

“I wonder what she’s up to these days,” Cloud laughed.

“Living, hopefully.”

“You can be such a downer, downer, downer, wouldn't know a smile if it hit him in the face!” sang my friend.

“Whatever, man. Let’s just get going”

As we walked up the trail, the trees lining the path went from maple and oak, to pines, due to the temperature cooling down. A trail of dust started to form behind us. The rain must not reach up this far; the ground was hard and dry like the wasteland next to Equestria, while a fine layer of dust laid sleeping on the top.

The sun was also poking its head through the tree line, causing the shadows to dance, and like normal, Cloud was going on about how one liked a bird, or how another looked like us. After a while, however, I just tuned him out. That's when I noticed that the birds were following us. Most likely because they hadn’t seen us before. I threw some berries I found on some bushes along the side of the trail. They expertly dived down and caught them in mid air. Like I figured, they had been to a park before.

Ponies would throw berries up into the air, just so the birds would catch them, and get a cheap laugh out of it if one missed or crashed into a tree. For some reason, I never did find it that funny. To be honest, I thought it was a little cruel. Yet here I was, flicking berries in the air, hoping one would screw up for my enjoyment.

Cloud also noticed the birds, and started jumping up to the tree branch where they were enjoying their snacks, just so he could say hello. Instead of getting a greeting back, however, he scared then. They all flew off, leaving their food behind. I shook my head in disapproval.

Then the birds did something very unusual: They made a quick u-turn about a half-mile away, and came back at us. I looked at them with a quizzical expression, having never seen birds do something like that before. Soon enough, they started screeching. Loudly. Once they were at the perfect vantage point, they started to dive at incredible speed.

“CLOUD, RUN!”

As we ran, they started pecking at us, trying their hardest to slow us down. I that wasn't bad enough, the other animals of the forest started throwing nuts at us. This was all too confusing. In all my years of living, I have never seen animals have such a vendetta against ponies. Why were they only starting now? Thankfully, within a short timespan, we made it to the Hedon Falls; a waterfall that ran down the mountain. We immediately jumped into the water in an effort to lose the angry mob of woodland creatures that were trying to kill us. Finally, after a few minutes they decided to move on.

“I guess they didn’t see us jump into the water,” said Cloud, huffing.

Cloud may have been relaxed, but I was furious. “WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT ALL ABOUT?!” I screamed, not caring if the animals found us again.

“Sorry,” Cloud apologized, “I just wanted to say hello! Is that so bad?”

“Oh my Goddess, you are unbelievable!” I flailed my legs as best I could, trying to accentuate my point. After treading water for a few moments, I was calm once again. “Whatever. They’re gone, and that’s all that matters. Let’s just set up camp here for the night. Luna’s about to bring out the moon, and we need a fire.”

“Oh boy! I’ll start the fire with these rocks.” Cloud said excitedly, picking up two large round objects off the ground and slamming them together.

“No, I’m going to.” I said. “Remember what happened the last time you played with fire? You shot a bottle rocket through my house.” I took a better look at what Cloud was bashing together. “Also, those aren't rocks; they’re turtle shells.”

“What?”

Two very angry turtle popped out of their shells and snapped at Clouds hooves, causing him to shriek, and clumsily fall on his back.

“See? You should clean your ears out or something, ‘cause I have to scream just so you can hear me sometimes.” I snickered.

“Whatever, it’s all good.” said Cloud. He was getting back up, twisting and spinning like some stupid little filly.

I just rolled my eyes and told him to sit, and do nothing. He shot me a look of innocence, making me cringe. I reluctantly forgave him and took off to gather firewood.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The sun was almost gone by the time I got back to the camp. When I arrived, Cloud was missing, not surprisingly. After laying out the firewood, I went in search of my friend.

“Clooooouuuuddd?” I called out. “Cloud? I know you’re out here!” After about five minutes of searching, I started to hear giggling from a tree not too far from the falls.

“I wonder who that could be...” I said sarcastically to myself.

Cloud popped his head out of the tree above me, imitating a sloth. Startled, I picked up a rock and threw it at him, causing him to fall. He landed with a thud on the ground by my hooves.

“Why did you do that?” he asked groggily, rubbing his head.

“Because I’m cool like that.” I said playfully, sticking my tongue out at him.

Soon afterward, we went back to the campsite, and started a fire. Cloud found some berries to eat, and some leaves to make a mat that we could sit on. Luna’s moon was midway in the sky when we had finished eating. I let out a yawn and advised Cloud to get some sleep. After all, we had a big day ahead of us.

That night, my dreams plagued me with visions of fire, pain and death, but I was unable to remember what they really were, only that they were terrible. Thankfully, Cloud woke me up during the middle of it, but it wasn’t because he was worried about me...

“Asher, you awake? Ashers?” his voice echoed in my head.

I groaned “Wha...? What could it possibly be at this time of night?”

“I had a nightmare and...well, you see...” he paused

“And?”

“I thought I heard Nightmare Moon.”

I facehoofed. “Really, you act like such a foal sometimes. Some group of ponies saved Princess Luna from her, remember? She’s gone, trust me.”

But I got no response, as he had already fallen back to sleep.I face hoofed myself again and went back to sleep myself. Luckily I didn’t dream for the rest of the night.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When the sun finally rose, Cloud was already awake, playing with some turtles near the water. I walked over and started drinking from the fresh stream of water coming down from above. I only realized while drinking that my throat was completely parched. I drank even faster, trying to relieve the dryness in my esophagus. That was when I heard a splash.

As I had expected, Cloud had fallen in the water. Laughing at his misfortune, I went over to go pull him out. Before I could, however, something rushed past me, knocking me down. I quickly got to search my surroundings. That’s when I saw it. The Griffon.

It had golden feathers with a red beak and large, menacing claws. His feathers were rapidly falling out, revealing cuts all over its body. It’s most hideous feature, the eyes, were pure black. Simply looking into them was a challenge; when you peered into his gaze, it was as if a low growling sound came out of them, implanted directly into your mind.

With a booming, masculine voice, he bellowed: “For the new king, Discord...I WILL END YOU!”

The griffon took off into the air with a flash. Cloud, who had finally gotten out of the water, screamed, and jumped back in. I rolled my eyes at his fear, and took off into the air, thinking the griffon would go after me. I tucked my head under my arms and went right for him. But instead of taking the bait, he flew out of my way and straight for Cloud. He was still in the water, flapping like a foal who couldn’t swim. My eyes widened. Cloud had noticed that the griffon was barreling toward him at high speed, and was trying to get away.

Right before the griffon could sink his claws in my friend, I tackled him, causing both of us to crash onto the rocky bank. Cloud watched as a blur of scratches and bucks went whirling into a cloud of dust. We landed with him on top of me, ready to strike.

“Hey, you bucked up motherbucker! Over here!” Cloud shouted.

The griffon looked up just for a second. That was all I needed. I quickly repositioned myself and bucked him straight into the air with all my might. After righting myself, I shot up into the air myself, and chased after him. Still gasping for air, the griffon tried to get away, but to no avail. I had the advantage this time.

I grabbed him by the chest and decked him in the face. Then again. And again. I poured out all of my anger and frustration into this poor creature. At the moment, I didn’t care. He could’ve been Celestia herself, and I still would’ve kept punching. Eventually, I noticed his now warped and bruised face. In shock, I released my grip, and watched as he fell to the ground. I turned around to see Cloud on the bank of the falls, hyperventilating.

Turning around was a stupid mistake.

Out of nowhere, the griffon got me in a headlock, and started biting a huge chunk of my left ear off. Still in the air, he started spinning in a death roll towards the earth. By some luck, I was able to break free, twirl away from him, and do a loop to safety. Unfortunately, I found myself upside down when the griffon came back. Right before I could react, he slashed my wing with his claws, smashing bone, and causing it to gush blood everywhere.

The griffon, satisfied in his triumph, just smiled and watched as I fell towards the earth. I crashed in the tree line, hitting some branches before landing with a thud right on the edge of our camp. I slowly started to crawl away, but it was in vain, as the griffon was right on top of me. Accepting my fate, I closed my eyes, waiting for him to deliver the final blow.

Instead, all I heard was a sickening crack. Opening my eyes once more, I could clearly see what had transpired: Cloud had bashed the griffon on the head with a huge rock. He delivered blow after blow, blood splattering all over his face and mane.

“You stupid bastard!” He yelled, as he continued to annihilate the griffon’s face with his blunt tool of destruction. “You think you can attack us like that!? Look at my friend’s wing! What made you do something like this!? TELL ME!!”

I wanted to stop him. I really did. I wanted to tackle him to the ground, slap him in the face, do something that would make him stop. At the moment, however, I could only stare. Stare at the unrealistic events now unfolding before me. I was frozen by my own disbelief.

Cloud, the one pony I could always trust to never hurt anyone or anything, was now pulverizing a griffon with a barbaric instrument of death.

Eventually, he tired out. Tears were streaming from his eyes, his exclamations from earlier having devolved into quiet, nonsensical gibberish. Cloud’s face was nothing but a mash a flesh, blood and feathers. As for the griffon...well, I could no longer tell that he was ever a griffon in the first place.

Unbelievably, the griffon’s eyes slowly started to peek open. He was still alive! Not only that, but he was smiling! After a minor coughing fit, he began to speak:

“Please, don’t cry,” he whispered, “I wasn’t myself for a while. You may not realize it, but you saved me. You saved me from...being a slave to Discord. For that, I thank you.”

I crawled over to him, my eyes watering, hoping to give him one last bit of comfort. In my despair, I did the one thing I could do: I embraced him. This was the griffon that destroyed my wing, nearly killing me; and I was hugging him. With the last of his strength, he hugged me back.

“Don’t be sad, please,” He hacked. “This is a much better fate for me than spending the rest of my days as a puppet. We will see each other again one day...I guarantee it...”

The griffin gasped for air in vain, as he quietly slipped away. I closed his eyes immediately after his passing out of respect. At this point, Cloud was completely hysterical, blubbering maniacally. I went over to try and comfort him, but I couldn’t find the words to get him to calm down. He kept talking in fragmented phrases.

“Cloud? Are you alright?” I asked, already knowing the answer

He sniffled, took a deep breath, then spoke. “No, I’m not. I just killed somepony. Somepony that was completely innocent. How am I supposed to live with myself, now?”

“Hey, hey. Calm down. You heard him. You saved him from Discord. He was thankful
for what you did. I guess anypony would rather die if they were being controlled by that monster.”

Cloud’s voice was faint, and would trail off after every sentence he was able to utter out. His eyes were completely void of life, the spark that once inhabited them completely gane. Seeing him like this gave me chills.

“Asher, do...do you think I’m a bad pony now?”

I paused for a moment to think, and try to choose word that wouldn’t offend him.

“Of course not, Cloud. You did to save my life. You had no choice.”

Still crying, Cloud got back on his feet and started digging a hole with his hooves. “I’m going to bury him, then. It’s...the right thing to do.”

Not protesting, I went over to start digging the hole with him, but he angrily pushed me aside.

“Get away from me!” He screamed shakily. “This is my job, and mine alone. I’m the one that killed him, so I’m the one that sends him off...”

Confused and startled, I started checking myself. That’s when I noticed I was covered in blood. I rushed over to the water so I could see my reflection.

I glared at the pony looking back at me in the water. He looked similar, but more aged, with a look of despair in his eyes. A huge chunk of his ear was missing, and his right wing was a bloody mangled of feathers and bone. Cuts covered his entry body.

A ripple ran across the water, distracting me, causing me to blink. That’s when I realized; The pony in the water was me.

My attention immediately gravitated to the destroyed wing. “Oh, shit, my wing!” I exclaimed. “Oh Goddess, what if I can’t fly anymore?!” Searching for a solution, I remembered a Survivalist class Cloud had dragged me to a while back. I guess that class wasn’t a waste of time after all.

I carefully cleaned the blood off my face and wing, and started wrapped both my ear and my wing with some leaves I took from a low resting branch. Cloud was finished burying the griffin, so he came over to lend me a hoof. I wanted to reject his offer as he did mine earlier, but I was in no situation to make such an act. After a few popping sounds and enough pain for me to go blind, my wing was wrapped up in some leaves, along with a stick, used as a splint.

Cloud’s voice was emotionless, “See? I know what I’m doing. Come on, we need to get to get out of here.”

For three days we walked, with no major interruptions. Cloud was starting to get a better attitude with each passing day, and with every step, the air seemed to grow thinner, while a layer of snow greeted us as we came near the top.

“We can’t stay here overnight. We’ll freeze.” I said.

“I know, but I want to reach the top.” Cloud replied. “I need a vantage point, so I can figure out which direction Ponyville is in.”

When we finally hit the top, there was an old sign that read: “Top of Hedon, Ponyville due east, Aspen due west”

“Cloud? Can you see Ponyville, ‘cause all I see from here is the Everfree.”

“No, but the sign said due east, didn’t it?”

“So?” I asked.

“So let’s head east.” he deadpanned.

“But the Everfree is a dangerous place. I don’t want to be caught in it during the night.”

“You don’t have much of a choice, now do you?”smiled Cloud, referring to my wing.

I sighed. “Ok, but how in the hay are we going to go down the mountain? There’s no trail past this point.”

“There may be no trail, but I know for a fact that there’s a waterfall called Dusty Falls not too far from here.”

“And you just happen to know about that?” I asked.

“I read old maps, sometimes” He gave me a wink.

I gave him a suspicious look. “So, what does a waterfall have to do with anything?”

“It’s simple. There’s a stream called Dusty Creek created by the falls. We can ride it down the mountain.”

“Only a crazy pony like you would come up with such a crazy plan!” I said, a grin forming on my face.

“You know it!” he said gleefully.

Cloud walked only two steps before tripping. Without another second, he started to fall rapidly down the mountain. Shocked as I was, I about to take off when I remembered my wing was all bucked up some. So, for the first time in a long time, I started running after him.

As I was running down the mountain, however, I could hear him laughing and giggling until a huge waterfall was in sight. Somehow, he was able to stop rolling right at the water’s edge.

“Hey! I’ll meet you at the bottom!” he yelled, right before plopping into the water, swimming down the stream, and going out of sight.

“Hey! Where are you going?! I never said I was up to this!!”

I sighed heavily. It was not worth the fight, so I jumped after him. It was a lot deeper then I would have liked, and I was having trouble keeping my head above water. It seemed that the farther I drifted downstream, the faster I went. Panicking, I flailed about, trying to find something secure to hold onto. Before I could find anything, the current dragged me down. The cruel water unforgivingly smashed my head on a rock at the bottom, causing me to black out.

Chapter 4: The Elder

Chapter 4: The Elder

(This chapter was made with pride in the USA by blm95tehe and Calcos)

As we walked through the Alpha Dragon village, we received friendly ‘hellos’ and ‘welcomes’ from every dragon we passed by. An elderly dragon walked up to us with a cane, and said, “Well! Nice to see some ponies! My, it’s been 70 years since we had a pony visit us here in the Deep Wood.”

I greeted him, then turned to Night Swirl and asked, “So that's what this area is called.”

“Yes,” he replied. “This is the capital of our kingdom. There are about 8 settlements here in the Everfree, now.”

The sunflower lining lead us directly into the grand building. Past the walls was a courtyard that had lush flowers, growing in a carefully structured pattern. In all my life, I had never seen such beautiful plants. They came in all shapes, sizes and colors. One that stood out was a giant rose that stood a foot taller than myself. Its petals were arranged in a square shape, and it had the color scheme of an orange, striped tiger. The path suddenly turned into two rows of cherry blossom trees that were still in bloom, even thought it was summer. The petals ran in the wind, sometimes ending up in a small twister with petals from other plants.

The trees ended at the entry to the main tower, with a door similar to the main gate from before. Fireflies nearby danced in rhythm all around Cloud and I, creating a wonderful light show. Cloud noticeably became distracted, and before he could force his attention away from the insects, nearly fell straight into a pond that just happened to be right beside of him. Night Swirl, with cat-like reflexes, grabbed his hoof, and pulled him away before he could make an embarrassing spectacle of himself.

As we walked, Night began to speak. “So, I see you two have taken a liking to the royal garden. As you can see, these plants are like none you have seen before. It’s all thanks to our personal gardeners. They sing to the plants with enchanted voices, which cause them to grow into any shape, size, or color they wish.”

Continuing to marvel at the garden’s beauty, I asked, “I know I asked you this before, but what exactly ARE you? And the...people, as you call them here in this village? Are you really dragons, or what?”

“I guess I wasn’t as clear I thought before.” Night Swirl said with a frown. “I’ll reiterate it for you: Yes, we are dragons, but not the kind you may be familiar with. Like I said yesterday, there are two races of dragons in this world, the common dragons, or Winged Dragons, as some call them. Then there's us, the Alpha Dragons. Now, we may be wingless, and rarely grow to be taller than 4 feet in height, but we make up for all that with the ability to use magic, much like the Unicorn pony race, in fact.”

Curious, Cloud interjected. “Are you anything like those giant monsters that burn down towns, and eat entire families alive?”

Scowling, I gave him a light smack upside his head for saying such a rude comment. Night Swirl, however, simply waved it off. “It’s fine, Asher. We may be related to them, but trust me, we're nothing like them, personality-wise. My people are a kind, intelligent race that wish no harm on anything that lives and breathes. We're not like those giant monsters you speak of. In fact, we’re not even on good terms anymore. They’re barbaric, and my people want nothing to do with them.”

Cloud showed semblance of understanding. “Well, I’m sorry if I offended you...” he said.

For the first time that I knew of, Cloud was actually acting his age. He hung his head in shame, but Night reassured him. “None taken, Cloud. I’m actually glad you asked. It gives you a better understanding of what we’re like if you can make a good comparison.”

As we walked up to the gate, I noticed there were no guards around to open it. Instead, Night’s hands began to glow with the same light green aura as usual when he performed magic. He gently placed his palm on the door, which caused a greenish color similar to his aura to fill in lines that were indented in the door. Once the lines were filled, the door slowly opened, revealing the insides of the building.

I initially thought the inside would be dark and depressing. Instead, thousands of simple candles hovered in the air, giving a warm, welcoming look. Ventilation shafts splashed light onto the floor from the ceiling, which was easily fifty feet above us. It was an absolutely massive room, lined in the center with a huge red rug. It had gold lacing expertly sewn into the sides, and in the center of the rug, was a stitching of a large oak tree, with birds of many colors resting on its branches.

Near the end of the room was a balcony, with a set of stairs that broke off into two sets, curving away from each other, and ending on opposite ends of the balcony. They had a marble finish on them, with a red rug similar to the one on the main floor lining the steps. An enormous clock with an Manehatten-esque design hung in the center, its ticking being the only sound in the massive room. As we passed underneath the balcony, we entered what looked like the Throne Room. It was pure white, with Canterlot-style pillars holding the ceiling up. Candles also hovered near the walls, giving much-needed light, as this room lacked the shafts of the previous one.

As I continued to marvel at the wonderful design, my eyes wandered toward the throne at the end of the long, royal rug. It was not as large as I had expected, but it was still pretty sizable. The entire throne was made of stone, the only exception being the seat, which had a nice, comfy cushion on it. There wasn’t anything too special about the throne, which surprised me, as I was expecting a massive, gold chair, with ornate designs running alongside it, fit for a king. I made a mental note to ask about it later.

I couldn’t ask about it now, however, because sitting in the throne was a large, black dragon, with fierce yellow eyes, a blood-red underbelly, and spikes running along his back. Even when sitting down, I could tell he was around a foot taller than any of us, making his presence even more commanding. He also had a long, gray beard, showing his age. With a faint, aged smile on his face, he rose out of his massive throne, and greeted Night Swirl with a massive, fatherly hug.

His voice was deep and commanding. “Hello, my son!” He said enthusiastically. “Welcome back!” Releasing Night Swirl from his embrace, he turned toward us. “Who are your friends?”

Night Swirl turned toward us as well, and said, “These are two ponies I met travelling through the Everfree. The dark gray one is named Asher, and the greyish-purple one is named Cloud Walker.”

Night Swirl then took the time to explain everything that had happened to us thus far, including our run-ins with Discord. Night Swirl’s father looked at us intently for a few seconds, but soon wore an approving smile. “If you’re with my son, then I can trust you.” He walked toward us, speaking, “Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Night Rage. I am the Grand Elder, ruler of the Alpha Dragon civilization. Welcome to Saltus, our capital city! Please, make yourself at home.”

The Grand Elder extended a claw towards Cloud. I expected him to destroy the Elder with one of his world famous bear hugs, but instead, Cloud just respectfully held his hoof out, and shook the Elder’s claw. I guess even Cloud can show restraint, if it means greeting royalty. After they were done shaking, he turned toward me to do the same.

When we shook, however, a ring on one of his fingers started glowing an intense black aura, lined with a pure white color. The Elder quickly broke the shake, looking down at his ring. The look on his face was grave. He took a step back, rubbing his long beard in thought, staring at me. For what seemed like an eternity, there was a long silence in the cold room. It was as if Death himself was standing right next to me, and no one wanted to say anything. The Elder would open his mouth to say something, but would stop short, obviously shaken up.

Finally, he spoke, with little emotion, and never taking his eyes off of me. “Night, it’s almost 3 o'clock. You need to go pick up Shadow from school. Please take Cloud with you. Now would be a good time to show him around town.”

Night did what he was told, and started heading for the door in the long hallway, Cloud in tow. I turned around, watching them exit. As they walked out, I could overhear them discussing the latest Daring Do novel.

I guess they finally found something in common, I thought to myself. Turning back toward the Grand Elder, I was shocked to see him standing right over me, glaring with his fiery yellow eyes.

“Asher,” he spoke with a low tone. “There is something we have to discuss.” I stood unmoving, frozen in fear of his intimidating stance. Finally, he took a step back, allowing me room to breathe and relax.

After I regained my bearings, he heaved a sigh, and continued, “Have you heard the Legend of the Tu’eri?” I shook my head. “I see.” He replied. After a small pause, he extended his arm. “Grab my claw. I need to show you something.”

I was a little hesitant, but I slowly inched my hoof towards him. Not knowing what was going to happen, I grit my teeth in preparation. When I finally, just barely tapped his hand, everything started to spin around me. Colors mixed as the world melted away, leaving nothing but a cloud of nothingness. Everything was black and white, while a ringing noise hammered at my ear. It was like an explosion had gone off right next to me. After a few shakes of my head, the Earth returned to my vision, and color soon followed. When my vision was fully restored, I found the Elder standing in front of me, noticeably relieved.

Taking a moment to look around, I noticed we were in a small elliptical room, with a few windows, a bookshelf, and a old desk that had flower engraved at its base. A small red and white bed sat in the corner, next to a simple brown door, which was slightly ajar. There was a balcony on the opposite side. Looking out, I could see the entire town, my view partially blocked by a few trees.

“Asher,” the Elder began, forcing me to stop admiring the view of Saltus, and focus my attention on him. “I’m sorry if that was unpleasant. Teleportation is always hard on someone the first time, but there’s no time to walk up the entire staircase to my study.” Pausing, he turned and walked toward the bookshelf. “You must be wondering why I took you here. Well, I want to show you something.”

The Elder started to cast a spell, his hand glowing a rose red aura. A lone book floated from the bookshelf, and hovered an inch above the floor. Suddenly, it morphed into a small table with a stone bowl sitting atop it. His aura fading, he beckoned me over. Hesitantly, I walked over, standing alongside him, peering into the bowl.

The bowl was filled around two-thirds of the way with water. In my peripheral vision, I saw the Elder’s aura fire up once again. The water began to glow a red color, rippling slightly. The color in the water soon faded, and was replaced with what looked like a moving picture.

It showed a scene of a crowd outdoors, every member viewing a stage. The sun was shining brightly, showing off a perfectly clear blue sky. I couldn’t get a clear view of the stage, but you could hear the crowd cheering. Fascinated, I touched the water. It shimmered, causing the picture to blur.

“I have enchanted the water allowing us to view the past,” the Elder said. “It also allows us to communicate with other beings who can do the same, such as Princess Celestia.”

I looked at him in awe. I couldn’t believe that I might be granted an audience with Celestia herself! The Elder pointed at the water, indicating that he wanted me to continue watching. Turning back to the bowl, I attentively stared at the picture, which had now given me a clear view of the events unfolding before me.

“This took place 1,500 years ago,” the Elder clarified.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A much younger-looking Night Rage stood on the stage alongside Celestia and Luna. The crowd shuffled, making low murmurs in conversation with one another. A desk covered in dust and scratches sat awkwardly between them, a piece of paper with the words “Pacem Dracones et Mannis” sitting in its center. A small purple dragon with a white under belly ran up to Night Rage. He had a nervous look on his face, the kind of look were you know you're in trouble. He had to stand on his toes to be at eye level with him.

He whispered to Rage, “Commander, sir, I couldn’t find your speech document anywhere! What are we going to do?” He looked at Night Rage with fear. The importance of this gathering was paramount, and everything had to be perfect.

Rage’s face, however, was calm. “Don’t worry,” he replied. “Everything is fine. I memorized the entire thing.” Night Rage hadn’t actually memorized it. He just didn’t want the dragon to worry. He’d have to improvise something short on the spot, but that didn’t concern him. “Just head back to the tent, I need you to start packing; I don’t want to stay here in the Badlands for too long. It gives me the creeps.” Even with his calming words, I could tell that he was worried. What about, I didn’t know.

Reassured that everything was still perfect, the small dragon ran off the stage. Celestia and Luna moved towards the podium in the middle of the stage. Their horns started to glow, using magic to amplify their voices. Celestia cleared her throat, causing everyone to become silent.

Luna spoke first. “Good day to you all. It gives us great pride and pleasure to be able to inform both ponies and dragons alike, that the Great Dragon Wars Have now officially ended. May peace, love and fortune rain down upon you all today, and for all the days and nights to follow!”

Standing down, both Ponies and Alphas were cheering for Luna and her announcement. However, the Winged Dragons in the rear of the crowd remained unaffected, scowling. Night Rage saw this, and gestured for some guards. When they came up, he ordered them to keep an eye on the dragons near the back. Rage had a feeling that the Winged Dragons may stage a coup. Very few of them were happy about the dragon races surrendering to the ponies.

Rage’s attention was broken by another roar from the crowd. Celestia had finished her part of the ceremony. Now, it was his turn, He cast the same spell that the sisters had used earlier, and made his way to the front of the stage.

As he passed Celestia, she whispered in his ear. “Break a leg, Commander.” she said playfully, as if it were nothing more than an act. Night Rage grew even more nervous. He may have done a good job showing otherwise, but nothing ever got past Celestia, it seemed. Slowly, he made his way to the podium, and started his improvised speech.

“Hello fellow dragons and newfound friends,” Night Rage began. “Today marks the start of a new era of peace and harmony with all five of the major races: The bold Winged Dragons and Pegasi, the humble, but strong Earth Ponies, and the magical and clever Unicorns and Alpha Dragons. With this treaty, we are one.” After the roaring applause died down, he waved for the princesses to sit by the desk with the peace treaty. “We will now perform the sealing ceremony.”

Rage walked over to the desk where Celestia and Luna were waiting. He grabbed a pen that was laying nearby, signing his name onto the piece of paper, the princesses doing the same afterward. Luna then stepped backward, leaving the rest of the affairs to Night Rage and Celestia. Both leaders started casting a spell that would end the ceremony, and finalize the agreement.

Rage’s red aura flowed from his hand, while Celestia’s golden aura shined like sun rays from her horn. The treaty was lifted into the air, both auras surrounding it. Everyone watched in amazement, as years of fighting and death were finally drawing to a close, peace replacing it. Some members of the crowd even started to cry.

Right before both auras could mix completely, completing the seal, the sky suddenly grew dark. Both Night Rage and Celestia immediately halted the enchantment, curiously watching the sky. The crowd did the same. After a few moments, everyone looked to Luna for an answer, but all they got was a terrified expression on her face.

Suddenly, to their horror, thousands of Winged Dragons swooped down from the skies. raining fire down upon the crowd. Everyone broke into a panic, running in all directions, hoping to escape the madness. Acting quickly, Night Rage and Celestia mustered up those who could fight. Both Alpha Dragon and Pony soldiers alike quickly grabbed their weapons and joined together in battle.

It was a sight to behold. These two civilizations, having been locked in battle for so long, effortlessly banded together to fight off the Winged Dragon army. Alpha Dragons cast spells with the Unicorns, while Earth Ponies crushed wings and skulls under their hooves, and the Pegasi performed intense aerobatic maneuvers, drawing fire away from the grounded races.

Without warning, however, as the battle raged on, a massive, spiked brown dragon with a white underbelly and pure black eyes flew from out of the clouds above.

Rage knew he was. It was none other than Sand Storm.

He was one of his Lieutenant Colonels during the war, and easily one of the most ruthless soldiers on either side. While he may have been a fantastic soldier, he was always battling personal demons, and on the battlefield, it showed. Ponies who crossed his path ended up as unidentifiable pools of blood. Night Rage never promoted him past his former rank, even though he deserved more; the dragon enjoyed war too much. Eventually, Sand Storm became enraged at Night Rage’s refusal to promote him, and left his post, taking with him the 500 soldiers under his command, who were almost as ruthless as himself.

A few days later, he returned, seemingly calm. The next day, Night Rage received word that Sand Storm and his men had raped and massacred a small town of civilian ponies, leaving nothing in their wake but a few survivors. Mortified, Night Rage discharged him and his soldiers, and banished them from the dragon kingdom, never to return.

However, they had indeed returned, and with a vengeance. Sand Storm landed with a thunderous crash onto the stage. He was easily over three times the size of Night Rage, and over twice the size of the princesses. With every step he took toward them, the stage would shake, the floor boards bending under his massive feet.

Not impressed with his show of power, Night Rage bellowed at him. “What are you doing here, Storm? I told you not to come back!”

Sand Storm looked down at the Alpha Dragon before him. “You really thought I would just stand aside when you banished me like some kind of rat? What a fool you are.” His voice sounded deep, heavy, and slightly demonic, but possessed a calming tone to it, rumbling every time he ended a sentence.

“You know DAMN well why I banished you!” Night Swirl yelled. “You broke the rules of war, and lost whatever sanity you had left!”

“War has no rules.” He stated. “Therefore, you had no right to send me to the Badlands!”

Night Rage was flabbergasted. “Do you honestly believe that what you did is in any way justifiable?! You and your men decimated an entire town of ponies, killing the stallions, raping the mares and...” Night Swirl shuddered in disgust. “...the foals, and burning everything to the ground! No one in their right mind would do anything like that. You are a menace to all of dragon-kind!”

Sand Storm ignored his statements. “Most of my men died within a year, but their deaths shall not go in vain. I was able to convince my superior race to follow me into war against both the Alpha Dragons and Ponies alike.” Sand Storm motioned toward the battle unfolding before them. “Look at it. Isn’t it beautiful? Once all the lesser races have been burned out, the Winged Dragon race will take the world for themselves!” He continued to admire his battle, waiting for a reply.

Night Rage turned toward the Princesses, looking for support. Both Alicorns shot him a fierce look, showing that they were ready for anything Sand Storm could throw at them. Turning back to Sand Storm, Night Rage spoke.

“So,” Rage growled, standing his ground. “It’s genocide you want. A Holocaust.” He had a grip on his sword, ready for whatever might happen. “You really have gone crazy.”

Storm turned toward Night Rage, the mark of his lunacy swirling in his eyes. “Well, I guess I’ll start my conquest by killing you, Night Rage!”

Sand Storm immediately lunged toward. Rage immediately drew his sword, slashing fervently at Storm. There was a mighty clash between the sword and the sand colored dragon’s claws, ending in a stalemate. The giant dragon spat fire onto Rage, which he quickly deflected with a spell.

Snapping into action, both Alicorn’s horns started to glow, shooting out beams of pure power; Celestia’s was golden, while Luna’s was midnight blue. They fused together midway, creating a spiral of pure power. Sand Storm made no attempt to dodge the beam, entirely focused on his goal of ending Night Rage’s life. It killed him almost instantly.

A quick, but brilliant flash of light, and it was over. His body hit the floor with a thud, colored charcoal black due to the heat created by the blast. All the fighting slowed to a stop as they saw a flash of light, and the massive dragon fall dead. After a few moments of stunned silence, Luna walked out into the center of the field. A cream-colored light with dark blue sparkles came from her horn, flowing throughout the battlefield. Every pony and dragon, no matter the race it came in contact with, would either heal from its injuries, or be revived from death itself.

A single tear rolled down her cheek. Every being that was killed or injured during the battle was restored back to health. They all looked at the night Alicorn in shock and awe after seeing what she did. For once, no one was fighting, after years of war. She then spoke in a thunderous voice after acting so calm. Surprisingly, she refused to use the Royal Canterlot “We”, but instead, chose to speak to each pony and dragon as a true equal.

“This is my one and only gift to you all. I’m done with death, war, and anger. This foolishness must stop now, or else it never will. Winged Dragons, if you wish, you can still join us in the treaty. However, as punishment for this uprising, you shall take control of the south end of the Badland, and nothing else will be given. Do what you wish to it, as it will be yours, and yours alone. The Alpha Dragons shall take the very land we stand on now, and can also do what they wish with it. The Pony races will take what is left of Equestria. We will rebuild it, and do what we wish with it. Peace through separation.

“If you don’t agree to the terms I have set forth, then you may continue the battle, and kill yourselves in the process. If you’re all going to be so ignorant and selfish after all that we’ve worked so hard for, then I refuse to help you.” The determination in her voice was clear. She was pissed, something Celestia had only seen a few times in her life.

Nopony, nor dragon, did anything for what seemed like an eternity. After a long, awed silence, one Earth Pony soldier raised his sword into the air with a hoof, and threw it onto the ground. With that display, others slowly followed suit, until the entire battlefield was covered in soldiers without their weapons. Luna’s ultimatum had worked. With that, everyone quickly returned to their positions before the battle had started.

Luna’s changes to the treaty were made, and the ceremony resumed. Celestia’s horn started to glow gold again, while Night Rage was covered in a red aura once more. Soon, each other’s magic touched the treaty, causing magical sparks to fly in every direction. Everyone looked in awe as a light show of every color danced into the sky. Both Rage’s and Celestia’s eyes glowed white with power. A massive blue beam of rough magic screamed into the clouds above. Explosions masked by the thunder clouds that were moving in went off, lightning dancing throughout the clouds as an aftereffect. Both Rage and Celestia finished the spell, and the magical effects vanished as quickly as they had appeared.

The spell had worked beautifully. Both ponies and dragons were one under the Elements of Harmony. The crowd, who had been silent during the event, started cheering in approval. The only exceptions were the Winged Dragons, who had started flying off immediately toward their new home, not wanting anything to do with the other races.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A massive celebration went on that night. Magic auras of every color casted multi colored shadows, mixing with lightning created by the Pegasi. Everypony was dancing to the wonderful music played by Earth Pony musicians. Everypony was getting drunk. Everypony was having a good time, enjoying life. Everypony was at peace.

All three of the leaders had a private session going on in a tent nearby, where they could talk about political events that were sure to happen now that the war was over. It was a simple tent, with a huge lantern that was dangling from a rope that had been tied from the roof. All the servants and guards had been given the night off to enjoy the party, so they had complete privacy.

Night Rage agreed to travel to the Winged Dragons’ new settlement, to ensure that an appropriate leader would be chosen, and that no further uprisings would occur. He would then return to this land, where his kind would plant a enchanted forest, much like how Equestria was before it was discovered a millenium ago.

It was Celestia’s turn to speak, but before she could say anything, the tent started to shake. The lantern was extinguished, while the table levitated. All three watched with wary eyes. The table suddenly fell, causing Night Rage to jump out of his chair. Angrily, he drew out his sword, waiting for whatever was harassing them.

A yellow orb entered the tent, and hovered over next to Luna. Then the orb disappeared, and a transparent frame of an aged unicorn appeared where the orb was previously. His coat was grey, and he wore a dark blue cape with stars sewn in from head to hoof, along with a giant wizard hat, worn slightly askew on his head. His long, white beard flowed in a non existent wind. His yellow eyes scanned his surroundings, trying to figure out his surroundings.

After seeing the three creatures before him, he smiled warmly. “Hello, Princesses! It’s been a long time, hasn’t it? Oh, and hello, noble Night Rage! I haven’t seen you in a while, either.” His voice was as as old as he looked, but it was always clear and always understood. He was calm and happy to see them all.

Luna was the first to reply. “Star Swirl? What are you doing here? You’ve been dead for centuries!”

“I would like to know that as well.” Celestia said, with a curious tone.

Star Swirl cleared his throat, and continued. “I’m sorry if I have interrupted anything, but I have returned temporarily from the afterlife to speak to you about that little stunt you pulled today.”

Luna began to tense up. Celestia began to look away. Night Rage was just confused. He had no idea what Star Swirl meant by ‘stunt’. Was it Luna’s spell that revived the dead? Was it the light show going on currently?

“Dragon magic and pony magic was never meant to mix.”

Oh. That.

Star Swirl the Bearded practically invented modern magic. It only made sense that he has a magical authority, even over the princesses. Celestia spoke with an apologetic tone. “We wanted to seal our new treaty with magic so it could never be broken.”

Star Swirl looked at her curiously for a bit, then smiled once again. “Well, its nothing to fear now. The reason I never allowed such events to happen was because I didn’t know what would. It was the one experiment I would never perform.” He cleared his throat again. “I’m here tonight because...something happened.”

Night Rage gave him a curious look. “So, what happened? Shouldn’t you tell us?” His face slowly grew grave with concern. “Is there another enemy? If there is, we still have plenty of soldiers to fight whatever evil is heading this way.”

Star Swirl gave out a chuckle. “No, not at all! In fact, something good may have happened!” All three of us looked at him, listening carefully. Something good coming from experimental magic? That would be unheard of!

“The spell you and Celestia used to seal the treaty; it accidentally created a life!”

“WHAT!” All three exclaimed at the same time. They all looked confused and shocked at the same time.

Humored by the childish way they all acted, Star Swirled went on. “I call it the Tu’eri, which means ‘life’ in my native tongue, back when I lived in the Unicorn tribe. I viewed your ceremony from afar, and when the spell was complete, I had a vision about the future. My vision showed the birth of a child. He will be a hybrid, part Dragon, and part Pony.

“I don’t know where he will be born, or even who his parents are. Because your spell altered the fabric of space and time, I don’t know when he will be born, either. I don’t even know whether he will look more like a foal or a drake, or what type of dragon he will be. But I do know this: It will be male, and he will hold more power than even I own myself.”

Star Swirl cleared his throat one final time, and said with utmost concern, “Be sure to find him as quickly as possible. Make sure no other creature is aware of his power, or of his lineage. You have been warned.”

With that, he slowly faded away into nothingness. All three looked at each other in disbelief, the only sounds being from the party still going on outside. Night Rage’s mind was reeling, trying to soak in everything he had heard.

He and Celestia had created life through magic.

Somehow, eventually, he would become a father to an unknown life form.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The surface of the water shimmered and rippled, and the image had vanished. I was now left staring into a blank bowl of water, with the now aged Night Rage standing next to me. I finally looked up, staring at the wall for what seemed like an eternity.

“Do you understand the memories I’ve shared with you today?” The Grand Elder asked.

I shook my head; I knew I understood, but I didn’t want to. “You’re saying that I’m this ‘Tu’eri’ thing?” I looked to the Elder for an answer, but he did nothing but stand there, unmoving. I continued. “If that’s the case, then what does that make me? What’s going to happen?”

The Elder removed a golden ring with a clear stone placed in its center, and handed it to me. At my touch, it glowed with a clear yellow tint. “I made this ring with a series of complex spells.” He said. “Its purpose is to reveal the Tu’eri when he was near. Thanks to this ring...” He paused, taking a deep breath. “I know, without a doubt, that you’re the Tu’eri.”

All I could feel at that moment was anger. After two days of wandering, looking for answers, I had finally been given the biggest curveball of them all: I was a Tu’eri. A one-of-a-kind, magical life form, created 1,500 years ago by pure chance from a living Goddess and an Alpha Dragon.

I calmly placed the ring on the table, and gained the courage to speak. “All of this is because of you. All of my misfortune, everything that has happened, was because of a mistake you made.” Tears began to form in my eyelids, and my words were unsteady. “I don’t want any of this. I just want to go home! I just want my family to be alive again!”

I sat on the floor, and cried. This was too much for me to handle. I was a magical mishap, nothing more. Night Rage walked up to me, and attempted to put a reassuring claw on my hoof. I instantly jerked it away, and looked in another direction. We stood uncomfortably like that for a few moments before he spoke.

“I’m sorry.”

I looked up at him with fire in my eyes. “For what? For making me?!” I screamed. “A hideous monster?! It’s too late for that, Night Rage! It’s been too late for centuries! What are you gonna do? Travel back in time, and make it so I was never born? I’m pretty sure that’s all but impossible!” I was in no mood to discuss this with my creator.

The Elder looked at me with a concerned scowl, and said, “With Star Swirl’s help, I probably could.”

I was shocked. Could he really erase my existence? “If that’s what you really want, I could find a way to get into contact with him, change the fabric of space and time, and make it so the magical fusion never happened. However, by doing so, I would most likely change the lives of every living being that had ever lived between then and now, possibly erasing them entirely. Or, in a worst-case scenario, I could destroy the universe in the process. I would prefer that neither happened.”

He paused. “For the last 1,500 years, there hasn’t been a single day that’s gone by without regret. Every day, I wish I could go back in time, reasonably, and stop the event from happening. But it did happen, and there’s nothing I can do about it. I’m sorry, Asher, truly I am, but what’s done is done, and you must accept your role in this world, no matter how much you don’t like it, or how unpleasant it may be.”

I sniffled, and looked up at him. As much as I didn’t like it, he was right. What’s done is done. “You’re right. I don’t like it, not one bit, but this is what it is.” I stood on my hooves, facing the Elder. “What do we do first?”

The Grand Elder heaved a sigh, and said, “Well, like Star Swirl said, I don’t know if you’re a Winged Dragon or an Alpha Dragon, but we will in a moment. All I have to do is place one last spell on my ring, and that, too, shall be revealed.”

Night Rage held his right palm above the ring. He said a small phrase in a foreign language, like some unicorns would do when they had a difficult spell to cast. Both his hand and the ring were covered in a red aura. After a few moments, the ring started to shake. The aura that had been floating above both his hand and the ring vanished inside the ring itself, and the spell was complete. He stepped back, allowing me to approach the ring. This time, when I touched it, the ring glowed a bright green color.

The Elder’s eyes softened with relief. “At last, after so many years, we finally know who the Tu’eri is. He is Asher: Pegasus, and Alpha Dragon.” I looked up at him, waiting for more. It never came.

At this point, I was done with his nonsense. I found out who I really was, so why did I need to wait around any longer? “Thanks for your hospitality, but I need to get going, now.” I said. I quickly made my way toward the exit, hoping to get away from all this, once and for all.

As I reached for the door handle, I turned around to face the Elder one last time. Immediately, he jumped towards me with his sharp claws. In my shock, I froze. There was no time for me to avoid the attack. I stood there, closing my eyes, bracing for the impact.

It never came. After a few seconds of waiting, I cracked my eyes open to take a look at my surroundings. Night Rage was gone. I scanned the room, but he was nowhere to be found. Eventually, I could hear a faint, muffled sound above me. I slowly looked up, flabbergasted at what I saw.

It was the Elder, encased in a black aura, with a see-through, outer layer that was pure white, created a blended gray color. I gasped in surprise. When I did, the aura instantly disappeared, causing the now freed dragon to fall to the floor with a loud crash.

The elder, still lying on the floor, shook his head, regaining his bearings. Slowly, he stood up, and looked at me with a toothy grin. “Do you believe me now?” He asked.

I was wide-eyed once again, my mind completely blown. “Y-you can’t possibly believe I did that!” I said, mouth completely agape. “I…I’m a Pegasus. We can’t use magic...can we?” I stood frozen in pure shook. I couldn’t believe what I just did, or how it was possible.

“You’re right.” The Elder answered. “Normally, a Pegasus can’t use magic. However, your Alpha Dragon side can.”

I gave him a completely confused look. “I guess I need to explain things better don’t I?” He said. “Like you saw earlier, when the war ended, Celestia and I wanted to ensure that a war of that size would never happen between our two civilizations again, so when we signed the peace treaty, we both placed a spell over it so we would be magical committed to and we would never be able to break it. However, magic can work in mysterious ways.

“Star Swirl the Bearded’s number one rule was to never mix the magic between dragons and ponies, due almost entirely to fear of the unknown. After some intensive research, we concluded that it was completely harmless to mix the magic between races. However, we were wrong. When our magic mixed, you were the byproduct. You are a perfect fusion of two races, holding the power of both. This is why you can use magic, even though you are a Pegasus.”

My confused look vanished, and was replaced with a curious one. “I still don’t entirely understand.” I said. “Why did it take me so long to be born?”

The Elder frowned. “I don’t know why it took so long for you to be born, and we may never know, unfortunately. But if Night Swirl was telling me the truth about you and Discord, then I need to contact the Princesses at once. You may have seen Discord, but you have no idea what he’s truly capable of.”

Chapture 5 A Dragon's Past

(This Chapter was Made by blm95tehe and Calcos)

Once more, the Elder walked over to the pedestal that supported the magical water. This time, he shouted out a single word. “Vocant.” I ran over to where he was standing, and peered into the bowl. An image of a grey stone room appeared, with a single torch inside to bring light into the room. Barrels were stacked high against the wall. There was a Unicorn guard taking post right in front of our view.

He turned in our direction, and spoke. “Hello, may I ask who’s calling?”

“This is Night Rage,” the Elder replied. “I need to speak to Celestia at once.“ His voice was heavy and tired.

The yellow Unicorn looked stunned. “Sir Night Rage, we, umm.” He tumbled with his words. “Yes, sir, right away.” He said quickly.

Wow, even the Royal Guard has respect for the Elder, I thought to myself.

The enchanted water’s image became blurred as colors mixed, until everything started to settle once more. This time, the scene was of a warm, oval room, lined almost entirely with bookshelves, while a round oak table with clear staining on it sat in the center. A single rose slept in a clear flower pot on top of the desk, while red blank banners hung in the empty spaces that weren’t taken up by bookshelves.

Three figures were visible in the distance, looking over a balcony, and talking. Princess Celestia, herself, was one of them! Alongside her was a small, young purple dragon with a light green underbelly, and a darker green set of eyes and spikes. He stood next to a young mare; she was a violet colored Unicorn. Her mane had a dark violet color to it, with a single pink line striking through its center.

It was already dark in Canterlot, while it was still mid-afternoon where we were. The village of Saltus must’ve been a long distance away for there to be that much of a difference in timezones. The Elder cleared his throat, catching Celestia’s attention.

She told the mare and the dragon to wait, that it should be too long. She had a look of urgency on her face, as she might for important political events. While the Elder used water to communicate, Celestia used a simple mirror. The only thing that made it stand out was the royal symbol, stamped at its base. Celestia’s face went from stern to soft, a smile visible on her face.

“Night! It’s so great to see you; I haven’t seen you in a while.” Celestia cheerfully said. “How are things with you?” She had delight in her face, having seen her old friend again.
I couldn’t help but smile; her voice was so angelic and beautiful, I had to pinch myself to make sure that I wasn’t dreaming. Of course, my wonder was replaced by apprehensiveness. I was looking at one of my two creators, after all. These two creators gave me a fate that I never asked for. Reminding myself of this fact, my smile was quickly wiped from my face.

The Elder was shocked by her calmness. “How can you be so calm at a time like this? I’ve recently received word that Discord is back!” He shouted. “Shouldn’t we gather our forces? This is of dire importance!”

With a smug look, Celestia giggled slightly. “Yes, I have been informed, but that happened nine months ago. There is nothing to worry about anymore.” The Elder and I wore a confused look. Noticing this, Celestia continued. “What’s wrong, Night Rage?”

We stood in silence for a short while, until I broke it. “That can’t be. That’s impossible.” My voice was shell shocked, but I went on. “I was there, in Aspen. I saw him destroy my town, my life, and my family!” I started to cry. “I WAS THERE, DAMMIT!”

The old dragon placed a hand on my back, trying to comfort me, but I shrugged him off. “It’s fine, Grand Elder.” I said, shaking my head. “I’ll be okay.”

The Elder stood there with an understanding look on his face. “Please, call me Night,” he said. “You were only made possible due to my magic, and that makes you like a son to me. Now, I know that I’m not your true father, but I swear to watch over you and Cloud, and to make sure both of you reach your goals in life. If you wish, you can call me your legal guardian. Does that sound fine to you?”

I did my best to make no show of emotion, but judging by the way Night Rage stepped backward slightly, I knew that I had a look of extreme loathing on my face. The fact that this strange dragon wanted to take me in as his son so easily disturbed me. Yes, he had been waiting for centuries for me to be born, and yes, he was technically my father, but the fact that he had such a hard time understanding my feelings disturbed me. Was his sense of empathy so clouded that he couldn’t see how much I was hurting?

In response to his question, I simply trotted over the bed on the other side of the room, jumped on top of it, and laid there, not making a sound. I would need time before I could ever make such a decision. In my mind, I still had a father, and his name wasn’t Night Rage: It was Elden, Aspen’s premier instrument manufacturer.

Night Rage looked back at me for a short while, then sighed, and turned back to the bowl of water. “I guess that mean Discord has been defeated,” he said. “Well, you can fill me in on that later. I was wondering, though: Do you still have that ‘special student’ you would always brag about? Her name was Twilight Sparkle, I believe.”

Twilight overheard and turned in Night Rage’s direction, gasping and beaming with joy. She always loved to hear Celestia praise her, especially to figures of importance. Night Rage continued, with a more serious look on his face: “Well, the Tu’eri has finally, after all these years, shown himself. He’s that Pegasus over there, the one you saw a bit earlier.” He pointed in my direction. “His name is Asher, and he has an Earth pony friend with him named Cloud Walker. My son found them deep in the Everfree Forest. They were trying to get to Ponyville.”

Wide eyed, Celestia interrupted. “What! Are you sure? I assumed Star Swirl would return the day he was born! Do you know if he’s part Winged Dragon or part Alpha Dragon?” Her questions came in a flurry of words.

“Calm down, Princess!” The Elder said. “We both know that Star Swirl never said that he would return, so why would you think something like that? To answer your other questions, yes, I’m sure that he’s the Tu’eri, and he is Alpha. I checked with another spell I was able to cast on my ring."

Celestia sighed with relief. “Well, that’s a good thing, but how are we going to teach him magic? Surely he has no knowledge about how to use magic.”

“He does have a small clue. I was able to get him to cast a levitation spell out of self defense. That’s why I asked you about Twilight. Would it be possible for her to be his teacher? I’ll tell him that he can transform into his dragon form, but Twilight is going to have to teach it to him. I’m going to be busy here for a while with some political problems. I’ll send the instructions on how to perform the spell in a letter. Is that fine with you?”

It took her a moment to decide what to do, but she finally agreed. “Well, I’m busy myself these days, and Twilight is one of the best spell casters in the world, so yes, that would be best. I think it would be good for Twilight to start teaching, anyway.”

Overhearing this, Twilight let out a long gasp, wearing a gigantic smile on her face. Celestia continued. “Is there anything else you would like to talk about?”

“I have two things I would like to talk about, in fact.” The Elder replied. “First off, you mentioned that Discord had attacked Equestria nine months ago, and was defeated. However, in our perspective, he had only attacked Aspen a few days ago. There seems to be a time disparity between our two regions, and I think I know why.”

At the mention of the time difference, I perked my ear up, giving my full attention. “Discord wanted to conquer both of our kingdoms, but not at the same time. If he had attempted that, he would have been easily overwhelmed. I believe he slowed down time here in the Everfree, so he wouldn’t have to fear us getting involved in his engagements. This would explain the differences in daylight between our locations. The spell is only starting to wear off now, and it won’t fully diminish for some time.”

Celestia waved her hoof. “There’s no need to worry about that. I can cancel the spell in the morning. It would’ve been nice to know about this earlier, though.”

Night Rage sighed, and continued. “Also, I believe Asher must have been the reason why he destroyed Aspen, but to be honest, I don’t think it was Discord’s true intention at the start. I don’t think he had any knowledge that Asher was the Tu’eri. After all, Asher didn’t choose to be born the way he was. It was entirely random chance. I’m certain he figured it out after the initial attack, hence the reason he sent the griffon to kill him. By the sound of things, he and Cloud Walker were the only survivors.”

The Elder’s voice grew stern, with a hint of anger. “Secondly, I think we should have a talk about him, too.” He pointed toward the purple dragon, who became astonished after becoming the center of attention.

The Sun Princess looked back towards the dragon. “You don’t mean Spike, do you?”

“Who else would I be talking about?” The Elder replied with force. “It’s time we tell him about his parents, and what he is. He has a right to know. This should have been done years ago.”

Celestia didn’t say a word in reply. She simply tilted her head over and called for both Twilight and Spike to finally come over. Spike’s eyes were noticeably heavy. It was late in Canterlot, and far past when he would normally sleep. The spell Discord cast over the Everfree must have not worn completely off yet , because it still was daytime here.

Celestia put on a poker face, hiding the awkwardness that she showed just a moment ago. Spike knew something was up, because only Twilight was smiling. Trying not to look concerned, he rubbed his eyes. “So, what do you need me for?” Spike said.

He tried to sound more chipper than he really was, but then he noticed the pony lying on the bed and the other dragon in the mirror. His heart skipped a beat, and all his suspicions were gone. His eyes widened, and there was a sparkle in his right eye.

“So Princess, who are your friends?” He was trying to act calm, but on the inside, he was about to explode with joy. For the first time, he saw a dragon that wasn’t trying to either kill him, or be a jerk to him!

Celestia acted like she was walking on eggshells; building up suspense, she took a breath of air. “Spike, this is Night Rage,” she said. “He’s a old friend of mine. Both he and I think it’s time to have a talk.”

His words were soft, fearing what the matter was about. All of his happiness from seeing a friendly dragon was slowly draining. “A talk about what?”

Celestia spoke with a perfect deadpan. “Its…it’s about your parents.”

Shocked, the world started to fall down around him. He knew exactly what was coming. As he went numb, his mind was filled with questions. Anger was the first feeling to return, but it soon was overtaken by depression. Overwhelmed, he started to sob.

Twilight embraced him, sobbing slightly herself. It was such a powerful moment, that even the Elder shed a tear. Twilight whispered into his ear. “Don’t worry, I’m right here. Whatever comes out of this, remember that I’m still your sister, and I love you very, very much.” Spike nodded, squeezing her tight.

Twilight quickly became angry, and for the first time, her anger was directed at her mentor, Celestia. She had a few questions to ask her, and they couldn’t wait any longer. She exploded.

“IF YOU KNEW SPIKE’S PARENTS, THEN WHY DIDN’T YOU SAY SOMETHING!? THIS SHOULD’VE BEEN CLEARED UP YEARS AGO! WHY DID YOU ONLY WAIT UNTIL NOW?!” She kept screaming, having lost all inhibitions. She had never been angrier in her life, and of all the ponies in the world, Celestia was the most unlikely to have received the brunt of it. It was such a shocking even, even the Elder jumped in surprise; in fact, he thought he was going to see another pony head off to the moon. Even he wasn’t brave enough to yell at one of the most powerful creatures in the world.

Twilight calmed down, and continued. “For years, we’ve wanted to know what truly happened to Spike’s parents. We spent so much time looking for his origins, and the fact that you never spoke up about them kills me inside! Sure, Spike may have been too young, but I haven’t been a filly for a long time, now! Why did you hide this from me for so long?”

When Twilight was finished, Celestia did something nopony saw coming: She started to cry.

“Twilight, I never meant to hurt anypony,” she said between sobs. “I just did what I thought was right. I just didn’t think he was ready, or that he was old enough. I’m sorry for waiting so long.”

Everything was silent for a few moments, until Spike lifted his head. He stepped toward Celestia, and wiped a tear off of her face. “Don’t cry, Celestia,” he said softly. “I’m not mad. Why would I be? Next to Twilight, you’re the only family I have, and I love you both very much. Remember all the fun games of hide and seek we would play in the castle while Twilight did her homework? And all the bedtime stories you would tell Twilight and I? You taught me right from wrong, and how to read and write. You would even sewed up my teddy bear when I would rip it.
“I wouldn’t trade that for the world. I know you had a good reason why you chose to not tell me until now, and I don’t care.” He reached over and gave her an embrace. “You and Twilight are the closest things I’ll ever have to a mother and sister. I’ll never stop loving you both.”

Touched by his extremely mature words, Celestia nuzzled his face. “And I shall never stop loving you.“ Afterward, Twilight approached the two, and joined in their hug. All three were in a group hug when the Elder cleared his throat again, causing them to break their embrace and look toward him.

“Sorry to butt in, but would Spike like to know more about his parents?” he asked. “Because I still have that memory you gave me, and I’m sure I can play it through the mirror.”

“Well, I don’t mind,” Twilight said. “However, it’s not up to Celestia or I. It’s up to Spike.”

Spike thought about it for a long while, but he finally nodded in agreement. He always wanted to know who he truly was, and finally, he had his chance. The Elder gave a slight gesture and stepped outside of view. When he returned, he had a small jar with a green fog trapped inside. He cast a spell, and the mist flowed out of the jar, covering his image. After a flash of bright colors In the mirror, two figures showed up. They were dragons, male and female.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

8 Years ago…

It was night, and heavy rain was pouring down. No thunder had been present, the only sound being thousands of raindrops meeting their fate with the hard ground below. The two figures walked slowly in the rain, a tired look apparent on their faces. They were covered in black cloaks that hung low to the ground, making them look half dead. The female dragon was a mainly purple color. While her spikes and underbelly were a grayish white, her eyes were a sapphire blue. She held a single purple egg with green spots that she squeezed tightly, half covered by her clothing protecting it from the cold rain.

The male dragon was green, much like Spike’s underbelly, but his spikes were jet black, his eyes and underbelly a light grass green. He was carrying a plain box that had a label attached on top. The label read “To: Princess Celestia. Item number 1184. Luna’s crown” It, like the egg, was protected from the rain. They hid in the shadows of Canterlot, in the hopes that they would stay unfound by any of the townsfolk. This was one delivery that no one should know about, other than Night Rage, Celestia, and themselves.

It was around midnight when they arrived at the castle. Two guards, a Unicorn and a Pegasus, were standing watch when the two very tired dragons walked up to the gate.

The Unicorn spoke first. “Stop! Who goes there? This is a restricted area; you must have a invitation from the royal family.” The two guards crossed their spears together to prevent them from entering.

The male dragon pulled out a note from inside his cloak with magic, moving toward the guards. The Pegasus snatched it out of the air, and began to read it. His eyes danced cross the lines of the paper until he was finished.

“I see…” The Pegasus said. “You two may enter. The Throne Room will be to your left once you walk up the steps. Have a nice night.” The pony said, with a more relaxed tone.

The Unicorn’s aura hugged the massive Iron Gate that kept them outside as it slowly opened for the two dragons. Inside was a small narrow courtyard that held a few bushes, but other than that, it was a very simple room. Near the back of the path within was a set of marble stairs that lead into the castle itself. Once inside they did what they were told and took a left. Celestia was waiting for them, standing by the entrance to the throne room.

She greeted them with a smile. “I take it that Night Rage sent you two for the delivery?“ She then shook both of their claws with her hoof. “Let’s take this to my private study, where we can talk alone.”

“Thank you, fair princess,” The male dragon said. “But I don’t think we have introduced ourselves properly. I’m Thorn, and this is my wife, Lilly.”

Lilly smiled. “It’s great to meet you. I hope I didn’t mind but we had to bring our egg with us tonight It’s about to hatch, and we wanted to be with it when it did.”

“I can allow that.” Celestia replied with a comforting smile. “Now, I know that Rage told you two to head straight back to the Everfree Forest as soon as you were done here, but judging by the weather, I don’t he would mind if you spent the night here in the castle,” Celestia chimed “It’s the least I can do, since you two came all this way. In fact, I’ll take you guys to your room for the night right now! I won’t take no for an answer.”

Both dragons looked at each other for a moment trying to decide what they should do. A thunderbolt cracked through the air outside, which lit up the throne room through the massive stained glass windows that surrounded the room. With that, they chose to take Celestia’s offer.

As they walked along the massive hallways and up a set of stairs, there was a row of rooms that were used to house guests during parties and other group gatherings. Celestia opened the first door on the right, which held a single queen sized bed with purple sheets and golden pillows. There was a simple window with old-fashioned wood framing. In fact, the entire room looked old. There weren’t even any lamps inside. Only a few unlit candles were found on a night stand nearby, which they didn’t even bother lighting.

Celestia began to speak. “Now that we’re in a private place, let’s talk about lu…” She stopped suddenly, a curious look on her face. Curious themselves, the dragons turned in the direction Celestia was looking.

There was a black Pegasus watching through the window, the rain bashing his wet, fiery mane that laid flat to one side of his face. He had a shiny silver box with a small red button in his right hoof. Giggling loudly, he started to fly away off into the night,and pressed the button.

Sending the world into slow motion, there was a flash of blinding light. Lilly was closest to the window, and Celestia had only a few Moments to react. Instead of saving herself, she protected the egg with a magical force field.

BOOM!

As Celestia recovered from the explosion, rain started to splash in her face from the giant hole in the wall where they were standing moments ago. Color started to drain back into her eyes, a slight ringing in her ears. The room was nothing but rubble, the rain soaking everything it came in contact with. Looking around quickly, she found the egg, resting safely and unmarked. She had been able to save the egg...

...but she had still failed in saving two other lives.

Thorn had been crushed by a boulder. He laid there, unmoving, his eyes blankly staring off into space. Lilly didn’t even seem to notice. Her body was covered with glass, while every bone in her was broken. It was a medical miracle that she was even still alive. She did nothing but reach out with a claw, attempting to hold her egg for one last time.

She was so damaged, but she just kept going, trying to reach her child. She looked back to see Celestia, shaken but fine. Eventually, Lilly relented, dropping her arm to the ground.

Spitting up blood, she still found a way to talk. “Please…Celestia, take my child,” she croaked, sobbing the whole way through. “I’m not going to make it. Please…it’s my only child. It can’t die, not tonight. Not while it hasn’t had a chance at life.”

Celestia looked on in amazement at her unflinching resolve. Still reeling from the explosion, she immediately gave her a simple nod in agreement to her request. She may not have known these two dragons for very long, but in this harrowing moment, her motherly instincts took over.

Lilly smiled, showing thanks for her kindness. With her dying breaths, she made one final request. “Can… I hold my child one more time?” Without a word from Celestia, the egg was placed into her claw. Drawing staggered breaths, Lilly looked at her unborn child, and began to sing:

“Hush, Hush time to sleep,
Time to lay your sleepy head,
Hush, Hush, time to dream,
Time to say good night,
Hush, Hush Sleep in peace
Your daddy loves you,
Your mommy… loves you,
You’re a gift from above…
And … nothing… would… change… that.”

Her last words were simple. “My baby...your life is going to be a little different than most dragons, and I wish I could be there, but I can’t. Be good, ok? Don’t become greedy...you’re an Alpha Dragon, and we have a tendency to become overwhelmed by our own magic and become monsters because of this. Be fair...and show generosity. Mommy loves…you…so much.”

Her breath became more shallow, while blood ran down the corners of her mouth. As she held the egg with her broken arms, her vision began more funneled, and everything went dark. Her breath became long and drawn out, until nothing came out.

She was gone.

All that was left was Celestia and the egg. She could hear her guards rushing up the stairway, screaming orders out to others making their way up. As they entered what was left of the door frame, they saw Celestia. She was covered in cuts, holding a dragon egg in her hooves, trying to keep it warm, and crying.

That night, the bodies were cremated and sent back to the Elder, where they would be buried. A note was taped onto the package which held the ashes that would be transported by magic.

Dear Night Rage,

I know I contacted you earlier about the events from last night, but I want to tell you that I take full responsibility for their death, and I’m sorry for their loss. Fortunately, my guards have been able to capture the pony that caused the explosion. A background check has shown that he was a schizophrenia patient from a mental hospital not too far from the castle that had escaped the night before. He was able to get a hold of some explosives from a shipping lane by a local river in the next town over. We still have no idea why he chose to attack me, but my guards plan to find out.

-Your Loving Friend

Celestia.

One week later…

Celestia’s wounds had healed up nicely, and she was reading the newspaper when a servant came walking into her bedroom. She took a bite out of her morning blueberry muffin, and gave a gesture for him to talk. His long blond hair covered his eyes.

“My lady,” he said. “Do you remember that egg?”

Celestia’s eyes shot up from the paper. Beforehand, he didn’t have her full attention, but after the word, “egg”, she was all ears. “What about the egg?” Her voice was razor sharp.

Her eyes burned through the servant. He replied quickly. “Well, um, last night, one of the caretakers thought the egg was part of the test for the magic academy, and, well, they took it in to be used for the entrance exams.” The blond hair pony was ready for punishment he would be given, but to his amazement, she ran out of the bed, spilling her milk, and almost knocking the colt to the ground.

She ran towards the school at full speed. Fearing the worst, she took a shortcut through the garden. Passing by shocked ponies, she could help but to think about what might happen. What if I’m too late? What if one of the fillies or foals hurt it? I’ve got to hurry!

CRASH!

She looked up from her sprint to see a giant, mutated Alpha Dragon with purple scales and green spikes poking through the roof of the academy.

Oh Goddess! What’s going on?

She found the steps, moving faster than before, almost running into the entranceway. Thunderous sounds of pure energy could be heard from the farthest room at the end of the main hallway of the school. Going at full speed, she ran for the room. Books flew past her, while locker room doors slammed open and shut. When she reached the door, it flew open.

Inside was a small filly shooting spells so powerful that Star Swirl the Bearded would have been proud. Seeing that none of the spells were permanent, Celestia took a sigh of relief. With a small smile, she walked over to the small filly, and calmed her down. After everything was brought back to normal, she asked to talk to the filly and her parents back in her private study to discuss her enrollment as Celestia’s personal student.

One week later…

Twilight’s parents had agreed to adopt the baby dragon at Celestia’s request. She had stated that he was in better hands with them, and while they were hesitant at first, Celestia had agreed to help them financially, and they immediately accepted. Shining Armour, however, was less than pleased. It was bad enough he had to share a room with a little filly, and now there was a dragon sleeping right next to him, and he wasn’t a sound sleeper. However, over a week, he had grown attached to him as well.

It had been a week-and-a-half since the baby was taken into the family. Ttwilight had just walked into the house from school when her mom called her into the kitchen. As she entered, her mom was cleaning some dishes while the dragon played with a spoon in his high chair.

“I made you a jelly sandwich you, Twilight!” Her mother cheerfully exclaimed. “It’s right there on the table, waiting for you.” As she sat there, enjoying her meal, the phone started ringing. Her mom picked it up and started talking.

“Hello?... I see… ok. Thank you. Good bye!” She hung up the phone, and gave a look towards Twilight. “Honey, that was the courthouse. They need to know what the baby’s name is going to be by tomorrow. If you don’t pick by bedtime, your father will.”

“Not daddy!” Twilight cried out. “He wants to name him after Grandpa.”

“And what’s wrong with that?” her mother said with a frustrated tone.
“But Garfunkel is a stupid name!”

“I hope you don’t tell Grandpa that. So, what do you have in mind, honey?”

“Well, I have one in mind,” she said, defensively. “But you’ll laugh, I know it.”

“Oh, it’s got to be better than whatever your father has in mind.” Her mother chimed.

Twilight’s voice was a whisper. “Well, I like how soft and cute his spikes are, so...I kinda want to name him Spike.”

“Spike?” Her mother questioned. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, why not?” Twilight answered. “Celestia said I could name him, and that’s the name I choose.”

Her mom chuckled. “Then it’s settled. We’ll head over to the courthouse after we pick up some food in the morning.”

Twilight cheered as she danced around the kitchen. It was settled! The dragon’s name was Spike Sparkle.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The mirror’s image slowly faded back to the Elder. Everyone was silent. I had awakened during the vision, and joined the Elder in the display while the memory had played, and was shocked by what I saw. Celestia hung her head in shame as Twilight held Spike’s claw. He was the first to break the silence.

“I thought this would answer all my questions, but it only left me with more,” Spike affirmed. “What’s an Alpha Dragon? What happened to the crazy pony in the story, and why wasn’t I or Twilight told about this till now?” Spike was confused. He didn’t know if he should be angry or saddened by the situation. He was so overwhelmed by what he saw; he broke down, and started to bawl.
Both Twilight and Celestia tried to calm him down, but nothing worked. After several minutes of trying, they were about to place a sleeping spell on him so he could get some rest. However, I approached the bowl. This poor dragon needed some reassurance.

“Hello? Spike?” All eyes were on me. “I’m Asher, the Tu’eri. Look, I’m may have only just met you, but I know what you’re going through, because I’m going through it, too. Remember how they found Aspen destroyed by Discord several months ago? Well, it’s felt like only a few days for me, due to a curse he placed. My best friend and I were the only survivors.”

I paused, choosing my words carefully. “I lost my friends, my family, even my home. You have to stay strong, because no one else can do it for you. Now, I guess I’m going to be staying with you guys over there soon, so we can help each other out when I get there. Does that sound good to you?”

Spike looked up to look at me, and I smiled at him through the mirror. With sleepy eyes, Spike sniffled, and was able to get out a few words. “I would like that. Thank you very much.”

“You’re welcome, little buddy. It’s the least I can do,” I chimed.

I got no response out of Spike, because he had fallen asleep. His snoring was almost as loud as his crying had been. Twilight took him out of the room towards where they would be staying the night. Soon they were gone, leaving only Celestia, Night Rage, and myself.

The Elder changed the subject back to Spike’s wellbeing. “So, Celestia, what kind of education does Spike get back out home?”

“Oh.” She had to think about it. “I believe he is homeschooled. Why do you ask?”

Night Rage explained. “Up to this point, I would have been fine with that, but since Twilight going to be spending much of her time teaching Asher magic, I believe he should be enrolled into his local school system as soon as possible. There’s not going to be enough time for her to teach both of them, and Asher needs to be given the best help possible. Without proper teaching, all that raw power locked inside him could explode, just like what happened to Twilight. Think about what kind of harm he could dish out.”

Beforehand, I didn’t like the idea of more schooling, but I understood why it had to be done. I had powers that I needed to learn to control, and who would be better to teach me, than the Element of Magic herself?

Neither I nor the Elder could tell what Celestia was thinking. “I’ll talk to Twilight about it in the morning,” She replied. “Both she and Spike need their rest. Asher, It’s a good thing you were heading to Ponyville, because that where they live.” Celestia’s voice became more relaxed at the end of that statement.

“Thank you,” Night Rage said. “Also, let them know that I’ll be sending my youngest son, Shadow, along with Cloud Walker and Asher. I think that it would be good for the young boy. They’ve already become friends, and I don’t want Shadow to miss out on this opportunity. It would be good for the both of them.

“Spike also could use a friend who he can relate to more, someone of his own kind. I can arrange for Shadow to attend school in Ponyville, and he can teach him what being an Alpha Dragon is all about. Is this fine with you?”

Both Celestia and I were shocked. “Why, I don’t mind,” Celestia said. “But I think Asher is the pony you should be asking.”

“Me?” I replied. “No, I’m fine with it, but are you sure you want your son coming with Cloud and I? Trouble always finds us, you know.”

The Elder chuckled. “I’m ok with it. Like I said before, Shadow could use this opportunity.”

Celestia interrupted. “It’s decided, then. I need to get to sleep, but I hope to see you later, Asher.” With that, Celestia’s image faded from the bowl.

Night Rage turned toward me, and spoke. “I wish you could stay a little longer, but you’re going to have to leave in the morning. Will that be fine with you?”

“That works for me,” I replied. “But I really need to get some medical help for my wing, and I’m still missing part of my ear. Shouldn’t I get checked out before I go?”

Night Rage sighed. “Again, I wish you could, but none of the doctors here know how to treat ponies. You can get treated when you arrive in Ponyville. I’m sorry about that.”

I tilted my head. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll be fine.”

The Elder stood there for a few moments before saying, “I also wanted to apologize for my ‘legal guardian’ comment before.”

I winced, but kept looking him in the eye. I needed to set something straight with him. “Look, I know that you want what’s best for me, and that you look at me as your son, rather than a guest,” I began. “But you need to understand where I’m coming from. In a matter of a few days, my entire life was destroyed before my eyes, and I’ve learned that almost everything I knew was wrong. In my mind, my parents aren’t a dragon named Night Rage, and a living goddess named Celestia. My parents’ names are Elden and Sun Rays, and they always will be. Nothing can change that.”

I sighed, then continued. “I know it’s not entirely your fault that I am what I am, but it’s going to take me some time to adjust to my new life. When I’m ready, I’ll let you know.”

The Elder put a claw on my shoulder, and smiled “Thank you for understanding, Asher. I was selfish to not consider your feelings.” He cleared his throat. “We should go over to Night Swirl’s house. That’s where you, Cloud, and Shadow will be spending the night.” With that, the Elder cast a new teleportation spell, and they were off.

After a moment of swirling light, they were standing in what looked like a living room with Cloud, Night Swirl, and a small dragon. The little dragon looked similar to Spike, but instead of having purple spikes, his were black. His underbelly and spikes were the same green as Spike’s were.

The house was simple; they were standing in a small white living room, which housed a radio, bookshelf and couch. There were three bedrooms in the house, while the kitchen and the dining room were put together, and a single bathroom off to the side.

I looked at the small dragon and asked him, “I take it that you’re Shadow, right?”

“Sure am!” He exclaimed. “I’ve heard a lot about you! It’s so cool to finally meet ponies! You’ve got to tell me what it’s like. Where are you from? Oh, you have wings! That’s so cool!” Shadow was much like Cloud in that he couldn’t stop talking.

“Shadow, please calm down a bit,” Night Swirl interjected. Shadow took a deep breath, and relaxed. “Asher, this is Shadow, my little brother. He’ll be coming with us to Ponyville.”
I reached out to shake his claw. He took it reluctantly, but then grasped my hoof, and eagerly soaked in the feeling of it. Somehow, I knew he would be a great travel companion. After all, with all of his questions, Cloud and I at least wouldn’t be bored.

The Grand Elder recapped the day’s events to Cloud and Night, who were both saddened and shocked by the story of my origins and Spike’s parents. Cloud took it surprisingly well, but was still concerned about me. It took quite a bit of reassurance that I wasn’t going to turn into a hideous monster.

After the tale was told, we all sat down to eat a wonderful dinner. Cloud was given a nice, vegetarian meal, and he ate it extremely quickly, not even bothering to savor the taste. However, I was flabbergasted when Night Rage put what looked like deer meat, along with a salad, in front of me. Cloud looked just as surprised.

“Night Rage,” I said. “You do realize that I’m not a dragon. I don’t eat meat. In fact, Cloud and I are not that comfortable with you eating it in front of us as well.”

Night Rage looked at me with a serious look. “Asher, I’m going to have to level with you, here. I’ve awakened the dragon part of you, which means that you’re going to need meat in your diet, now. It won’t be pleasant, but you must do it.”

I stared at him for a while, trying to get the message “I don’t eat meat” through his head, but he was adamant. I turned back toward my dinner, and examined the meat. To be honest, instead of looking horrid, it started to look appetizing. I started to noticeably salivate, drool dripping down my cheeks. Slowly, I took a tiny bite.

Taking what felt like hours, I sloshed the deer meat around my mouth, taking in the texture and taste. My mind said “disgusting”, but my mouth said “delicious”. Swallowing, I looked back at my meal in disgust, but took another, slightly larger, bite.

This one, I decided, was less gross than the last, and quickly chewed and swallowed. I finished the rest of my meal over time, using the salad as an anchor for my stomach. Cloud looked at me with his jaw wide open, not believing what he just saw. This was probably the first time a pony had eaten meat, and enjoyed it.

I simply stood from the table, and said, “I’m never going to get used to that.” After walking three steps, I felt a disturbance in my stomach. I rushed out of the house, and immediately barfed on the grass outside. My conflicting emotions had gotten the better of me, and I rejected the meat.

The other four members of the household rushed outside, and took me in, laying me on the couch in the living room. Shadow and Night Swirl rushed to the kitchen to find an ice pouch, while Cloud and Night Rage stood over me. Soon, the ice pouch was placed on my head. It’s cool feeling on me was extremely welcome.

“I know it’s terrible, but that’s what you’re going to have to do, now.” Night Rage said. “You’ll get used to it in time.”

I stirred a little bit, uncomfortable with what I was going to ask. “Night Rage? Could...could I have some more?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The following morning was spent preparing for the trip to Ponyville. Thankfully, the second meal of deer meat I devoured stayed in my stomach throughout the night. As much as I hated to admit it, Night Rage was completely right: I was indeed part dragon, and would have to eat meat every once in a while to keep up my strength. I only hoped and prayed that it wouldn’t have to be often.

After saying our goodbyes to the Grand Elder, we left that afternoon. We choose to sleep during the day, due to the fact that there were tons of Timber Wolves preying about during the night. Shadow had all kinds of questions for Cloud and I. He asked what it was like to walk on four hooves, what flying was like, why ponies couldn’t eat meat, etc. It was a nice change of pace to be able to answer the questions, rather than ask them.

After an uneventful week of traveling, we could finally see Ponyville, just a few short miles away.

Chapter 6 A New Home and a Fresh Start

(This chapter was written by blm95tehe)

It was a wonderful day in Ponyville. The sun was out, the birds were chirping, and five of the Mane Six were planning a party for twilight and spike’s return home. While the five of them were preparing a surprise party, Cloud, Shadow, and I were crossing one of the many rolling fields that neighbored the town with a tired look on our faces. Anypony could tell that the two day trip from the Everfree had taken its toll on all three of us. Even Shadow, the Dragon who couldn’t stop talking at the beginning, fell silent.

Both Cloud and I were covered in cuts and bruises, but of course I had taken the most damage during this long journey. My wing was wrapped up in old, dirty bandages that I was given by the dragons two days ago. Part of my ear was still missing, most likely still on Mt. Hedon. It too was bandaged back in the Everfree. It seemed every step grew heavier for us as we proceeded. Pain would shoot up my side every time I took a step on my right front hoof. It was most likely sprained, something I didn’t noticed till only a few days ago. While a trail of blood trailed behind us, most of it was mine. My bandages were starting to fall apart, blood started to soak through on my wing and ear, causing my vision to become blurry at times.

As I looked over to Cloud, I noticed the world seemed to be slowing down. Feeling faint, I fell to one hoof. Trying to stay conscious, I could hear both Cloud and Shadow screaming in slow, deep voices, “Are you ok?” Shaking my head, colors drained from my eyes as the world fell grey. A sharp, throbbing pain filled my body between heartbeats. Holding my head, I started to feel cold, while a feeling of comfort embraced me. Falling to the earth, I could see both Cloud and Shadow running to my aid. With a faint smile, I thought it was the end, and the lights would go out for good. No more troubles, no more pain, and no worries, just blissful death and the afterlife, which I didn’t believe in until a few days ago. As the world faded from grey to black, I closed my eyes and sound too disappeared. I thought I was dead. In reality, I had merely fainted. Now, don’t get me wrong. With my injuries and loss of blood, I would be dead soon if I didn’t get help.

Running to his aid, Cloud started shaking Asher, hoping to waking him up, but his efforts were in vain.

The young dragon, teary eyed, began shaking him faster and faster. “Asher? You need to wake up, please wake up. We’ve come too far, you can’t, not like! Wake up! Wake up.” His shaking became more violent as he submitted to his anger.

“Shadow, stop!”

Shocked by Cloud’s assertiveness, he did what he was told. “What is it?”

Cloud didn’t speak. For the first time in his life, he was serious.

“Well, what is it? Why aren’t you answering me?”

He placed a hoof in the air, as a sign to stop talking. “Shadow, I need you to be quiet. I’m trying to hear his breathing. I would check his pulse but I don’t know how, to tell you the truth.” Kneeling down, he partially placed his ear on Asher’s mouth, in hope of finding any sign of life. After a moment of focusing, he could hear a faint inhale and exhale. To his relief, Asher was alive, for now.

Standing up, Cloud let out a massive sigh of relief as he turned to Shadow “He’s fine for now. His breathing’s a little shallow, but he should be fine for now.”

Calming down, Shadow wiped his face and nose, clearing his crying. “You’re sure? I mean, shouldn’t get help or something? How did you know about the breathing thing?”

“Oh, that? It’s something I picked up from a survival class I took a while back when I lived in Aspen. I don’t think it’s a good idea, leaving for help. What if he wakes up? How about we wait till sunset and if he doesn’t wake up we’ll go find help? How about that?”

“Fine, if that what you want to do. I’m going to go find somebody! I’m not going to stand here and let Asher die!” With that, Shadow ran off towards the city, leaving Cloud to watch Asher alone. He wanted to call out, but something was holding him back.

‘Man, being the mature one isn’t my strong suit, but I have to. Asher isn’t here. Somepony needs to watch over him, and I guess that’s me. Oh, please wake up, Asher.’
________________________________________________________________

A while later, Shadow was lost, unable to find Cloud and Asher. He couldn’t even find where Ponyville was at this point. All he could see were rolling hills of fresh green grass and a few trees here and there. Scared, cold, and tired, he found no other option but to just give up. While he sat under a old oak tree, he could hear two ponies taking off in the distance. Looking up in the air, he could see two Pegasus having an angry conversation. From what he could see, there was a cyan pony with a rainbow mane and a steel-colored pony sporting golden hair. They seemed to be doing the oddest thing. They were kicking clouds!

The rainbow one was talking the loudest. “Can you believe it, Derpy? Every weekend, we get assigned weather patrol. In fact, I think Storm Eye has something to do with it. I swear he has it in for me. Always giving me that dirty look of his. My gosh, sometimes I hate that pony.”

The grey one was obviously more laid back. “Oh Dash, you need to let it go. Think of it this way. You get a few more bits and all you have to do is kick a few clouds back to where they belong, then you’re done. I like it! I always could use the money.”

“Yeah, but you got a kid to worry about. I can afford to skip on the extra money.”

“Whatever. Anyway, I need to know now. Are you still going to Twilight’s welcome home party from Canterlot tonight?”

‘That’s it!’ Shadow said to himself. ‘They know where Twilight is, all I have to do is get there attention and they can lead me to her.”

“Why of course, I wou...”

“HELP! DOWN HERE MY FRIEND IS HURT!!!!”

“What the hay? Derpy do you hear that?”

There wasn’t a soul in the sky, so it had have been coming from below. As they descended towards earth, as a small black and green dragon could be seen running towards them.

“That’s weird. Dragons normally never come this close to Ponyville. Well, other than Spike that is,” said Derpy as she lightly landed on the earth below.

“He is, and it looks like this day just got a little more lively. Come on, there’s something going down.”

And with that, she flew as fast as she could towards the earth, a rainbow trail was fallowing her. Derpy was not too far from her, a gold line just behind her. Not slowing up, Shadow feared they were going to crash and he took cover. It wasn’t till the last second did they open their wings, causing a gust of air till they landed softly on the ground.

Even though they might have landed with care, they sure didn’t act like it. “What is it, kid? We heard you screaming. What’s wrong? Who’s hurt? Come on what wrong?”

Shadow stood in shock. He couldn’t stop staring at the grey pony’s eyes until he remembered where he was, and the situation. Thankfully, the cross-eyed pony didn’t noticed. “Oh, right! I’m sorry, I’m a little out of it, that’s all.”

The multicolor pony shot him a frustrated look. “Sure kid. Where’s your friend? You did say something about a friend, right?”

“Yeah! My friends and i were heading to Ponyville and…and...” Shadow had been through so much, he was done. After just two days, he was far away from home, one of his new friends was dying, and he was finished.

The cross-eyed pony wrapped a hoof around his shoulder, as he started to cry. Talking in a soft, soothing voice, she was able to calm him down. “Hey, what’s wrong? Are you hurt, or is it your friend? What’s your name?”

“I’m (sniff) I’m Shadow, I’ve been traveling with an earth pony and a Pegasus named Cloud Walker and Asher. I came from the Alpha Dragon Kingdom in the Everfree. My friends are from a town called Aspen.”

Instantly, both ponies were confused. “Wait, what? Kid you have to be lying, because Aspen is gone. Nopony lives in the Everfree unless they’re some kind of monster. Not even a dragon would dare enter the messed up forest.”

The blue pony started getting in his face, causing Shadow to fall backwards.

“In fact, dragons don’t normally come to Equestria, unless they’re up to something. What are you up to? Because I swear if…”

“Now stop it! Don’t you think you’re being a little too harsh on him? He’s just a kid, so calm down,” interrupted Derpy. They both shot dirty looks at each other. “Rainbow, we had a talk about this, remember? You need to learn how to be calm when you meet somepony new.”

Realizing what she had done, Rainbow couldn’t help but apologize for her actions. Looking down at the ground, she backed off the little dragon, giving room for him to breathe again.

“Yeah, she’s right. Sorry kid. Sometimes I get carried away. It’s just nopony ever goes to the everfree, let alone live there. And as for Aspen, well…” She paused for a moment, troubled by the topic at hand. “It’s just when the Discord thing was done, my friend and I were assigned to help clear up the skies of Aspen. Nopony knew what had happened.”

Shadow stood up, his face was flushed with curiosity. “What? What Happened? They never told me why they left.”

“Well…” She stopped, trying to choose words that a kid could better understand. “Well, you see, Aspen is gone.”

“Gone?”

“Yeah, gone. When discord broke free of his prison, that’s where he went first. Something happened, Nopony knows how, but he went crazy. He leveled the entire town. Nothing was left but ruble and ash. Like I said before, no pony knows what had happened. Nopony survived.”

“But there was.”

“What? Somepony survived?” both ponies shouted.

The Rainbow pony seemed to be the one in most shock. “But, I was there. Nopony could have lived through what I saw. It was after Discord was sent back to his prison and since I was the fastest pony, I was told by Celestia herself to go fly to Aspen to see why contact had not been restored with Canterlot, after the attack. When I got there, everything was gone. When the Royal Guard was sent for clean up, they found no survivors.”

“Discord? Who’s Discord? I heard some of the adults back in my village talking about him, but every time I would ask about him, they would tell me to run along. What did he do that was so bad?”

The two ponies looked at each other, till the grey one spoke up.

“Well...how do I put this delicately?” She tapped her hooves together. Such a topic was a little harsh for just a kid.

She cleared her throat and went on, this time a little more blunt then before. “Discord was an evil monster from a long time ago. And, somehow he was able to escape from a very old prison. And he kind of started to screw things up for a lot of ponies. But what he did to that town was just horrible, and nopony knows why he did it. It’s wasn’t in his nature to hurt other ponies, but that day he did.

“Oh,” was all the young dragon could say, on such a heavy topic.

“Hey, sorry to ask but, how did you find these guys? And who are they?”

“Ok, so it goes like this. I have an older brother who found these two ponies in the everfree a few days ago. An earth pony named Cloud walker, and a Pegasus named Asher. They were taken to my dad who is the leader of my people. After that, I don’t know but I was told to follow them to Ponyville where I would meet up with another dragon around my age. His name is, um, Spike, I think.”

“Ok, well we know a Spike so we’ll deal with that later. For right now, your friends are a little more important. So are both ponies hurt?” Derpy asked in her calmest voice.

“No, it’s just the Pegasus, Asher. In fact, I’ll give you both the full story here after bit, but I really I need some help. Could you two show me where the local hospital is, by any chance?”

With a twinkle on her eye, Rainbow saw this as a chance to show off her speed once again. “Sure thing, kid. Here, jump on my back. It’s faster if we fly.”

The Young Dragon’s grey-blue eyes lit up. “Wow! You would really let me do that?”

With a swelled head, she opened her wings. “Sure thing, we are in a hurry, aren’t we?”

Setting off into the sky, Derpy gave her a look for acting so flashy.

“Ok, so what do you want to hear?”

“Ah, how about from the start, kid.”

“So there’s an entire species of dragons that live in the Everfree?” asked a very Confused Derpy.

“Yeah. I thought all ponies know about the Alphas. It’s kind of funny. After all these years, we still remember you guys, but ponies have forgot all about us.”

“Sorry about that, we normally try not to involve ourselves in the Everfree much,. It just it rubs most ponies the wrong way,” said Derpy.

“Hey, they should be down there by that old oak tree.” Shadow pointed straight down. The two ponies flew down to see a white earth pony sleeping next to a grey Pegasus. They looked a little rough.

“Wow, he looks bad,” said a shocked Rainbow. “But I’m sure he’ll be fine,” she added see how much the scared The Young Dragon.

Asher had gotten worse. His breathing had become labored. While being consumed in cold sweat, he was likely suffering from some type of infection. His blood stained the grass below him while Cloud could be seen sleeping not far from where he left Asher.

“He must have dozed off while waiting for me, poor guy.” Looking a back to Asher, he could feel a pit in his stomach “Hang in there, help is on the way.”

Cloud could feel small hands trying to shake him awake. “Hey… Hey Cloud. It’s time to get up. I was able to get help.”

Pulling himself out of a misty sleep, Cloud found himself rubbing his eyes open. When he was finally was able to open them, he was greeted by the little black and green dragon.

“Great! You’re awake,” said a relieved Shadow.

“What? What’s going on? Who are the ponies over by Asher?”

“Help. I found them, kicking clouds of all things. Isn’t that weird?”

“No, not really. It’s a Pegasus thing. Anyway, who are they?” asked a sluggish Cloud as he rubbed his head.

“Oh, I almost forgot. The blue one is Rainbow Dash, and the grey one is Derpy. They’re here to help.”

Giving a sigh of relief, Cloud got up and went over to greet them. “Hey. Thanks for helping out. I’m Cloud Walker.

“Yeah, so I’ve been told. Your little buddy over there told me you guys could use some help,” said Rainbow.

Cloud chuckled a little. “Yeah, you could say that. We were heading to Ponyville to find this mare named Twilight Sparkle. Do you two know were she lives, by any chance?”

Rainbow Seemed a little shocked by his question. She dragged out a long “Yeah” before going on. “Why do you ask?” she asked with a questioning tone.

“Well, it’s a long story, so to make it short, Twilight has agreed to be Asher’s teacher. If anypony can help, it’ll be her, but for now he needs a hospital.”

Giving him a look at suspicion, Rainbow agreed to help. “Well, then it’s settled. Derpy and Shadow can go take your friend over to the ER, while you and I can go over to the town’s library. That where she lives and we can meet up with her there. In fact, she should be getting home soon. She’s been on a trip to Canterlot for the past week and she should be coming home today. There was going to be a welcome home party for her and her friends but this changes a few things, for now. So unless anypony has a problem let’s get going.”

Everypony nodded in agreement as the midday Sun hung over them.

“Nurse Red Heart, are you by any chance going out on your break? Because if you are, could you pick up tissues? We’re running out over in the waiting room.”

“Yes, I am. In fact, I was just about to head over to the store anyw---”

BANG!!!

The doors to the main entrance of the hospital were kicked open by Derpy as the young dragon carried the limp pony inside and onto a waiting room chair, calling for help. Both Nurse Red Heart and Dr. Hooves could hear the commotion from the next room over. Swinging the ER Doors open, both ponies found themselves going from a gentle walk into a rushed pacing as they saw the small puddle of blood dripping from the lifeless pony.

But, as both medical ponies approached the three of them, the excited dragon ran over to Red Heart, calling for help. “OVER HERE, PLEAES SOMEBODY HELP! HELP! HE---” He was cut off by Red Heart.

Keeling down with a small comforting voice that she used to sooth young children, she said, “Hey it’s going to be fine. This is the best place for hurt ponies, after all.”

She waited till he calmed down while the Doctor examined Asher’s face and wing. After which, he was strapped to a surgical bed and wheeled off by the Doctor and a few other nurses. Derpy followed them. In her mind, somepony needed to be there with him and Shadow was still to upset for the job.

Tired from being too worked up, it took him a minute to noticed Asher was being taken away. He rose up from his seat, only to be stopped by Red heart yet again.

“Hey, where are they taking him?... STOP! Where are you taking him!” He shook his arm out of Red Heart’s hold.

“Now, stop that right, young colt!” For once, her tone grew sharp. “You need to calm down. You need to let the doctors do their jobs.”

In reaction, he started to cry. “But I want to (Sniff) be there for him…”

Seeing this over and over again with fillies, she knew the right words. “Don’t worry, your friend is going to be fine. He’s in good hooves right now.”

“O…ok (Sniff) are you sure?” The puffy-eyed dragon feared the worse.

“Oh, of course. Derpy is right there with him making sure every thing is all right.”

The young dragon just nodded.

“Good. Now, while we’re here, tell me. What’s your name?”

Wiping his nose, he answered the nurse. “Shadow.”

“Oh, what a very interesting name,” chimed Red heart. “Well, my name’s Red heart and I’m 29. How old are you? Where do you live?”

“I’m 8 and a half and I’m from a place called Ember and before you ask, it’s in the Everfree.” He chuckled for the first time there after that last comment.

Nurse Red Heart was relieved to see that. “Well, it’s good to see you laughing. I take it that calling your parents is out of the question, right?” Red Heart said with a silly smile on her face.

“So I take it that the young Pegasus was looking after you, then?”

“Yeah and the wacky earth pony named Cloud Walker. He went into town with the pony named Rainbow Dash to look for this mare. He should be here soon.”

The nervous pony just hoped so. “Well, I guess we can just wait here. So, tell me more about yourself.”
________________________________________________________________

‘Oh, my bucking head. Where am I? Why can’t I see?”

“Tell me, doctor, is he going to make it?”

‘WHAT! Are they talking about me? It...it can’t be. I’m fine. I feel fine!”

“I don’t know, Miss Derpy. By the look of things, his wing is completely broken, and I know for a fact that we’re not going to be able to restore the ear. And, for all we know, he could have other injuries we weren’t able to locate at the time. For now, we need to get him into surgery to save the wing. Do we have your permission?”

“Wait? What! Who’s Derpy and why is she the one giving permission for me to have surgery?”

Barley conscious, flickering his eyes open, he could see the white ceiling, while every so often he would be blinded by a fluorescent light tubes. Tilting his head, he could see he was strapped to a hospital bed. While his wing was being supported in the air by pulley system, bloody and mangled, it didn’t even look like could be saved. With all his might, he tried to call out for the doctors’ attention, but it was in vain. His vision became tunneled as the darkness fell across the world and he fell unconscious once more.

As they entered the entered the surgery room, Derpy was told to return to the waiting room since she wasn’t a nurse or a doctor. But as she walked out, a grey Unicorn walked in the white gloves and scrubs. He was levitating a clipboard in front of him.

“All right, Nurse Morning Glory. As always, does this chart look good to you?”

She read aloud.

“Ok let’s see.”
• Name: (Asher)
• Race (Pegasus)
• Ago (Unknown)
• Place of birth (Unknown)
• Blood type (Unknown)
• Place of Injury (Thought to be anywhere from Mt. Hedon to Sweet Apple Acres)
• Found with a young dragon and a pony
• Dragon’s name (Shadow)
Race/Type (Unknown)
• Pony’s name (Cloud Walker)
Race (Earth)
• Found by Derpy Hooves and Rainbow Dash
• Both Pony’s Race (Pegasus)
• Injuries:
Severe broken wing (Left), front hoof fracture (Right), part of ear missing (Right) Possible coma or mild concussion

“Yup, everything looks right.”

“Good, are you ready Nurse?”

“I think so. I’m still kind of new to this.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll do fine. Now, could you pass me the anesthesia mask? We’ve got some work ahead of us.”
________________________________________________________________

It was early morning in Ponyville when the train finally pulled into the Ponyville Station. The tired old beast let a final spray of steam before it fell into silence while two muscular colts were ready to assist ponies as they exited through the doorframe. Two of those individuals happened to be Twilight and Spike. Both sleepy from a rough night’s sleep, Spike found himself rubbing his eyes and fixing his bed head. Twilight left her man alone. She was too busy making sure she didn’t leave a book or two on the train, almost walking into a wall while she checking her bag. Like always, Spike was there to make sure to poke a little fun of her obsession with books. Rolling her eyes at him, she knew he had started feeling better about his parents fate.

“When are you going to learn that books aren’t everything, Twi?” asked Spike with a smug tone.

Twilight was able to counter his statement with little effort “Oh hush. You need to read more, if you want my honest opinion.”

“Yeah, I’ll make sure to look in on that,” giggled Spike.

Twilight just smiled and ruffled his spikes. “You’re a great kid, you know that?”

“Yeah, yeah, I know it. All in a days work,” said spike playfully.

“Do you think Pinkie has a party planned for us?”

“I don’t know. Probably. She always has,” stated Twilight as she checked her bag one last time before they left the station.

Walking through the town, they were given hellos, welcome homes, and other greetings in the same manner until they reached the door of the library. Resting her head on the door, she searched her bag for the keys.

Finding them, she inserted them in the chamber of the old wooden door. Before opening it, she looked over at Spike. “Now remember, act like you’re surprised.”

With a toothy grin he assured her, “You mean like always.”

“Yes, just like always,” winked the purple pony

And, right on cue, both Spike and Twilight were blushing at the sight of all their friends minus Rainbow Dash.

“Oh you guys, we were only gone a week,” stated a bashful Twilight.

“We appreciate this party though,” added spike.

Like always, Pinkie found a reason to throw a party, but the effort on this week’s was a little stale. “Oh, you know. It’s what I do bes,.” chimed the pink pony, hoofing both Twilight and Spike hats that matched their coat and scales. Like always, they traded hats.

Everything had been going to plan. Twilight had quickly learned of Rainbow’s duties this morning and knew she would most likely stop by later on. A few stray ponies would stop to say their hellos once again. While some stayed for a time, most left soon afterwards, stopping only for Pinkie’s punch. The music Rarity had picked out was perfect. Applejack supplied the food, which was delicious. Twi and Spike knew just how lucky they were to have such wonderful friends. Stopping to watch her friends dance, she couldn’t help but to think, wow. Just wow. ‘Almost three years ago, I had no clue how great it was to have friends. To be loved, to be cared for, to never have to truly face problems alone. In truth, friendship really was magical, It felt magical. To think something like this as even possible for both her and little brother Spike. It was no lie that moving to Ponyville had truly given him a better life, more than Canterlot could ever provide him. With room for him to play, grow, and make new friends, it was something the young dragon needed. Especially now, more then ever, due to the emotionally draining trip they both had faced.’ Twilight was distracted by a set of low, frantic knocks.

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

“Oh dear, who could that be? Do they have to knock so rudely?” sassed Rarity.

“Well, umm…there must be a reason why, maybe we should go check,” whispered Fluttershy.

“Well, I don’t know what in tarnation is going on. Wait here. I’ll get to the bottom of this,” said a rather irritated Applejack.

As she opened the door, she was greeted by Rainbow and a young while colt with silver eyes and mane. “Whoa there, partner. Where’s the fire?”

The strange pony was about to speak but was beat to the punch line by Rainbow. “I need to have a word with Twilight. Is she home yet?”

“Ah yeah, why? Don’t you see we have a small get-together going on here?” snapped a angry AJ.

“Hey, watch the attitude. I know it’s her party today, but there’s an emergency which involves Twilight. So could you get her out here or something?” shouted Rainbow.

“Well that’s all you had to say. Instead of banging on the door like some half wild varmint…” Applejack started to go off in a rant.

Rolling her eyes, Rainbow readied herself. “Crap there she goes. Cloud, I need you to wait here. I have to rush things unless we want to be at this all day.

Taking a step back, Rainbow rushed towards the cow pony, hoping to tackle her out of the doorframe. But the country pony was two steps ahead of her. Right before Dash made contact, AJ stepped out of the way and watched as the hotheaded Pegasus ran right into a wall. Laughing, the cow pony was pulled to the group, where she had a small wrestling match with Rainbow. Taking the chance to walk passed the fighting pair, Cloud found himself right in the middle of a party.

As all the ponies inside stared at him, he found himself choking up a little with embarrassment. “Umm, sorry to crash your party, but which one of you is Twilight Sparkle?”

The purple unicorn stepped from out of the small group, giving him a weird look. “Ah yes, can I help you?”

“Why yes, yes you can. In fact, you have no idea what I’ve gone through to get here.”

Rarity, and Fluttershy nervously looked around the room, fearing the awkward silence would turn hot.

Twi was starting to really creeped out by this pony’s arrival. Breathing heavily, he must have been tried. But, he was finally able to utter three words. “It’s… about Asher.”

Shocked, the unicorn couldn’t help but to remember back to when she first meet the dark grey pony with the hunter green eyes. He didn’t look to be in the best of shape at the time and the two final days of his trip most have been too much.

Slowly but firmly, Twilight spoke. “So I take it you’re Cloud Walker, right? The Princesses informed me of everything I needed to know about Asher and his friends. So, where’s Asher?” She feared for the worst.

Cloud shook his head. “He fell unconscious right as we about to enter Ponyville. Both Rainbow here and a pony named Derpy found Shadow, that young dragon that’s been traveling with us. Derpy and Shadow took him to the hospital while Rainbow and I came here to find you. Like I said before I’m so…”

But right as Cloud finished his story, both AJ and Rainbow came crashing in, still in a stalemate. It took Rarity to break up the fight. Holding both in the air with her magic’s light blue glow, they continued to fight, until Rarity knocked both their heads together, stopping both in their tracks.

“Hey, what was that for!”

“What in tarnation!”

The now very angry proper pony released her captives. “That’s what you two get for acting like a couple of hooligans. I swear, the way you two act at times is so appalling. In fact, you two were so busy on settling this little score, you didn’t even noticed that we have an emergency on our hooves. Now you two apologize to Twilight for ruining her party and to the young gentlemen for taking from what little time he has!”

Both rubbing their necks, Rainbow and AJ couldn’t help but to look towards the ground.

“Um, sorry about that.”

“Yeah. Sorry about that, partner.”

Twilight could have cared less at this point. Time was short and Asher might need her help still. As for Cloud, he just wanted to get to the hospital.

“I’m sorry, Pinkie, but is it ok to call your party officially over? From the sound of things, this pony might need my help. In fact, he’s kind of my responsibility.”

“Oh Twi, I understand. As long you had fun! In fact, this mean I can throw another party later!” The pink pony jumped in the air with excitement at the thought of it.

A pushy Twi started to gather some things for the short trip across town. “That’s sounds great, but I think I need to get going.”

The rest of her friends all wanted to go with her. “Oh darling, let us all go! There must be something we can do to help.”

Unable to find a reason to say no, Twilight agreed. “If you want. But we’re in a hurry, so let’s get going.” She truly felt lucky to have such ponies for friends as they made their way to the hospital.
________________________________________________________________

“Hello. May I help you?” asked the pony nurse with a sarcastic tone, which didn’t sit well with any of the main six.

“Ah yes, I’m here to visit a pony.”

“NAME,” shouted the nurse, cutting off Twilight.

“I was just getting to that.” Flashing a little anger towards the nurse did nothing but cause her to roll her eyes at the purple unicorn. “His name is Asher. Can you direct us to his room?”

“Sure thing…” the nurse muttered, pausing a moment to find his papers.

Twilight started to tap her hoof on the marble floor below them.

“All right, he’s in room 52B, which is on the 2nd floor. Now, to find the room you’re going to have to take the elevator. Once you get off, take a left and it on your right.”

“Tha...”

“NEXT.”

Yet again, Twilight was cut off, but this time she said nothing as she stormed off towards Asher’s room, as did the rest of the gang till Rainbow walked pass her.

“Would it kill you to maybe crack a smile or something, you bitter--”

Rarity stopped her. “Come on, dear. She’s not worth your time.”

The hospital itself was pretty plain, with egg white walls and a few fake flowers on a few tables. Truthfully, the place looked rather depressing. The elevator was truly scary, smelling of motor oil. It was so ancient, flickering lights and all, that even Rarity lost her cool, thinking they were going to fall. Spike was there, trying to act manly by wrapping his arm around her hoof while she smashed him against the wall as she panicked.

When they got to the room, it was locked. Through the window, they could see Asher in a bed, asleep, while a grey Unicorn talked to Derpy and the young dragon. A sign on the door said. ‘Do not enter without permission.’ Obeying the sign, Twilight took the time recall her last trip to Canterlot to her friends. When she was finished, Cloud found the time to recall the day Aspen fell to Discord up to the following day’s events before the Doctor opened the door.

“Oh! Hello there, little ponies. I didn’t know you were all waiting to see Asher. You may enter, but may I talk to Miss Sparkle for a moment?” The look on his face was soft but serious.

As the other ponies went inside to meet the pony they’d heard so much about, Twilight remained. “Yes, Doctor?”

“Heart Beat, Dr. Beat for short.” He shook Twilight’s hoof. “Now, I was told by the young lad Shadow that he was in your care as of today. Is that right, Miss?”

“Yes, Doctor. How is he? Will he make it?” Twilight asked desperately.

He chuckled a little. “Yes, of course he will. Other than a broken wing and a bacterial infection throughout his body, he’ll be fine. Make sure he gets plenty of rest, and he should be out flying a about a month. As for the bill--”

The Unicorn’s Face grew dark. ‘Oh no, I don’t have that kind of money. What am I going to do?’

Seeing this look, he was quick to give her good news. “Now, don’t worry. I was told that Celestia will be paying the bill.”

Eyes lighting up, Twilight couldn’t help but hug the doctor. “Really, that’s just great! I don’t know what I would do without her sometimes! Thanks so much.”

The bashful pony just smiled. “Oh, don’t thank me. Thank Celestia. Now, you should go check up on our friend.”

“Oh, right. Thanks for all your help.”

She got a “You’re welcome” as she entered the cramped room when Asher was waking up. And the first thing he saw was not Cloud or Shadow, or even Twilight, but Rainbow Dash.

A thousand thoughts ran through my head, stricken by this mare's beauty, more thoughts than the seven colors running through that wind spiked mane. Out of all the thoughts I thought and all the things I could have said, the only thing that i managed to squeeze through my lips was,

“Oh. Hello there.”

Chapter 6 Part 2: Let Have a Party!

I noticed she wasn’t used to seeing ponies hurt, in fact I could see it in her eyes. Trying to keep her cool, she let her words come smoothly off her tongue.

“Oh hey there, kid. Looks like you’re looking better then when I found you.”

Laughing awkwardly, I went on. “Yeah that’s what I thought, but you got to let me know. How’s the wing? Does it look as bad, as it feels?”

Turing to my side, she could see the true damage. My wing had been shaved due for the surgery to save it. It soon would be wrapped by a nurse. Looking up, Rainbow could see the ear couldn’t be saved, midway up, which had been bandaged already. My breathing was shallow, while my laughter had been cold and dry.

“Boy, I sure hope he’s going to be ok. By the sound of things, its about time things got better for that poor pony. And hey, we would look as bad if it wasn’t for the fact he’s been all cut up... He’s kind of cute.”

Both Rainbow and I started looking deep into each others eyes, hypnotized. Nothing could break the link, well till Pinkie Pie jumped in front of Rainbow.

“Hey there, your name’s Asher, right? Boy, it’s great to meet new ponies! By the way I’m Pinkie Pie! Here are my friends!” She listed off the names of each pony, as nodded their head in greeting.

“It’s a pleasure Darling”

“Howdy there partner!”

“It’s great to see you face to face, and not behind a mirror.”

“Oh… Um, hey there.”

“Hey, good to see you again, sorry you had to see that the other day; I had something in my eye that’s all.”

“Yeah, forgot to tell you this, but yeah. Nice to meet you Asher, maybe when you better when can fly together.”

“Yeah and now we’re all your new friends! Isn’t that great!” The Pink Pony could barely help herself at this point, jumping up and down with excitement. She was taken down by Applejack.

Oh Goddess This pony is just like Cloud! This can only end well... I thought to myself.

“Now ya need to simmer down, don’t you see he’s had a long day there partner?”

“It’s fine. Cloud over there is the same way.”

“It’s true.” Interrupted Cloud. “If I started lying now what would that make me?” Joked Cloud.

“Ha, You should go over and say hi, sometime. I think you two would get along, nicely.”

“It’s true.” Stated Cloud.

The pink pony gave out a small chuckle. “Sure, I would like that. HEY! That gives me a idea, let’s throw a PARTY!!!! You know for you, Cloud and Shadow, moving into Ponyville ! It’ll be fun! We’ll have games, food and tons of balloons, oh and some…”

“Come on there little missy, you and cloud, can plain this thing out in the hall. y'all,need to give him a break,” said Apple Jack as she pushed the two earth ponies out of the room, they were already choosing the dance music.

“Sorry about, that, dear. She can be as proper as a Diamond Dog at times. It isn’t her fault though, she’s just that kind of pony.” Stated Rarity, while fussing with her curls.

“Oh its fine, my friend Cloud acts the same way, well… he usually, this whole Discord thing has really gotten to him I think.” Looking down into my lap, I felt a hoof on my shoulder, which turned out to be a claw.

It was Shadow, still red-eyed form crying. “I might have only met you a few days ago, but... The way you looked after me, while making me laugh during our conversations together, has made a great friendship. And I know that both you and cloud are going to be fine. But I’m going to tell you the truth, when you were passed out I thought you were…” He started chocking up “I… Thought you were dying and, if you did and if Cloud was gone too, I would be…”

“... Alone?”

“Yeah.” Slouching down, the young dragon took a seat next to the bed.

The sun was setting, giving light a perfect angle to shine through the two dusty windows. It felt like the end of something, casting the room in an orange glow, as life started to settle back down. As every pony stood in silence, they reflected on the day and how life for all of them had changed due to Discord. I sighed, and before I knew it, I was crying.

Finally, this long and horrible trip was over, during which I never really cried once. I didn’t have the time; I was always running from somepony, or something. I was crying now because I could finally take the time to look back and see, what I was, what I had lost, and I had become. And I could finally weep for my family and friends.

Salty tears ran down my face, in silence, the only thing you could hear was my irregular breathing, and a few whimpers.

With everypony watching, I said few words. “It's gone... Everything, My Family, friends, even my house is gone.” Placing my hoof on my forehead, my sobbing became stronger. I felt the touch of Twilight as she came in for a hug. She was followed by Rarity, Fluttershy, and soon every other pony in the room, went in for a bug group hug. Shadow and Spike were being crushed near the center. Finally Both Cloud and I could mourn. With heavy hearts, they all took a step back as they spoke words of advice, comfort, and understanding, ending with Twilight and Spike.

“I know this isn’t the time but there’s this spare room at the library that we’re not using. I want you and Shadow to stay with me and Spike as long as you want. and don’t worry about Cloud because, Pinkie was able to talk, her folks in to letting them stay with them. And I just want you to know that you’re not alone.” Pointing to the small crowd behind her. “I think I can speak for everypony when I’ve just made a entire new group of friends, who want nothing more out of you than to be your friend, and the love you deserve. Am I right guys?”

Speaking in unison, everypony yelled ‘Yes’ at once.

The last thing I heard was AJ’s southern voice. “Come on ya all, he needs his rest now. How about we all head back to the farm, we have enough grub for everypony.”
One week later…

“Hey cloud? Cloud, wake up. It time to get up.”

“No it’s time for you to get up.”

“WAKE UP.”

Grabbing a bucket of water, the pink pony decided that if words weren’t going to wake him up, this would. Throwing the water into the air, it came crashing down onto Cloud’s Face, causing him jump out of the bed, as if he was being shot out of a cannon.

“What they hay?!” Screamed the drenched earth pony “Oh morning, Pinkie.” His expression went from anger to playfulness at sight of the party pony.

“Oh sorry, I hope that wasn’t too much. Well at least I used warm water!”

“Oh it’s fine, I always need a drink when I first wake up anyway.”

“Still sorry about that. It’s just that I’ve just been given great news!”

Seeing the look in her eyes was all he needed “What?! Is it with Asher? Is he coming home today?” holding his soggy breath he got the answer he wanted.

“YEAH!”

Tears swelling from within, the sliver pony almost killed Pinkie in a crushing hug. “That great, now all we have to worry about is that party!”

“Oh I’m never worried about a party. In fact I have a party cannon standing by at all times. The Cakes are going to bake a cake just for you guys.”

Blinking at the pink pony, Cloud was a little shocked. “For all three of us? But Asher is the one hurt, it should be his party.”

Her hair went from, being, fluffy ending in curls, to long straight and flat. It gave her a look of depression. For a moment, it was so strong, even the little alligator behind them felt moved.

“No... No you’ve all been through a lot.” She placed a hoof onto his shoulder. “You Asher, and Shadow are my friends. The one thing I do best is being there for my friends... To make sure they have a smile. In fact that reminds me of a song, but that’s for another day. I guess you could look at it this way. This party is my way of trying to help cheer you three up a little. How’s that sound?”

He knew her words were true he could only agree. But while taking a step through the door of their shared room. He couldn’t help but to hide a smile. He saw Pinkie’s small party cannon laying in the corner, with the words ‘Warning: Use in case of party’. He knew what had to be done.

“Oh, Pinkie?”

“Yeah?”

“Say hello to my little friend!” Grabbing the Cannon nearby, he was able to push the big red button before both the pinkie pony, her pet alligator could evade.

BOoM!!!

“Hahahahahahahaha,” The cloudy pony was rolling on the ground in fits of laughter. At the sight of the party pony being buried in here own confetti, while the green alligator dove into the pile, like a swimming pool. Poking her eyes out of the multi-colored paper, Pinkie decided to have a little more fun with Cloud.

“Brrrrraaainnns...” She moaned.

“What they hey?”

Sticking her arms out of the mess, pinkie started rising ever so slowly, mimicking a dead ponies movement, calling out the word ‘brains’.

“What the hay?” Playing along, he ran down the stairs, shouting at the top of his lungs. “ZOMBIE!!!!! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!”

“I WANT YOUR BRAIN!”

Running down the stairs, both ponies Barely missed Mrs. Cake, during their little zombie chase. Mr. Cake wasn’t so lucky; a fresh batch of donuts flew in the air. As the three ponies crashed in slow motion, Miss Cake could only watch in humor, imaging breaking glass and metal screeching together, as if there was a massive train wreck unfolding in front of her.

But her husband wasn’t has amused. “Pinkie, Cloud why don’t you two head over to Twilight’s house or the hospital, anywhere, in fact. I think you have been cooped up a little too long. Go get some fresh air, ok?”

Both ponies were a little embarrassed, and weren’t able to look the Cakes in their eyes.

“Yes sir.”

“Yeah what he said.”

Walking out the door though, they could hear something. “Oh honey don’t you think you were a little to tough with them on them?”

“Maybe, but aren't ponies supposed to be calmer at that age?”

“Oh they can be anything their hearts wish.”

“Yeah well those donuts were going to be sold at their party tonight.”

“Well I guess I’ll make a cake or something instead.”
_____________________________________________________________________

“Come on Spike is time to get up.”

“...”

“LET’S GO COME ON!”

“Come on Twi, don’t you know what time it is?”

“Yeah, it’s One in the afternoon.” Said a rather annoyed Twilight.

Cracking one eye open with a smile, the dragon hopped out of bed. “Exactly.”

Scratching his back spikes, he noticed something. “Hey Twilight? Where’s Shadow?”

Twilight was cleaning paper from the night before. She looked up, and answered him. “Oh. I think he’s out with Cloud and Pinkie getting stuff for the party tonight. I was about to head over to the hospital to get Asher today. Want to come with me?”

Still stretching, the young dragon agreed. “Yeah that sound fine with me. I mean me and Shadow were going to help out the Crusaders with something today, but I don’t think they’ll care if we’re late, or something like that.”

Giving out a little chuckle the purple unicorn couldn’t help but to mess up his spikes. “You guys are still doing the cutie mark thing?”

“Yeah so?”

“Oh nothing... You know that you can’t get a cutie mark right?”

“Yeah well Sweetie Bell said she was going to find a spell to change that for me.”

With a sarcastic tone the unicorn waved him off. “Oh I see... Well, have fun with that.”

“Oh, whatever. If we’re going then let’s get out of here, ok.”

“I’m right behind you.”

Shutting the door behind them both Twilight and Spike were greeted by a couple of birds passing by, while a few ponies were heading into town as well. While a fresh scent of flowers filled the air, form Rose’s garden down the road. Still tired spike remained quite, which didn’t bother twilight much, as she was going through a mental check list.

I really wish he hadn’t gone off with Cloud of all days like that, Shadow and I were supposed to have some alone time to talk about my kind. I mean all my life I wanted to know where I had come from, and finally when somepony with all the answer shows up he’s never has the time for me. And it sure didn’t help know, that Celestia could have told me everything at any given time, but choose not to.

Didn’t she know how much pain I would be in at times? No...I Know for a fact she did, what I don’t know is why? Why would she keep something like this a secret, it was uncalled for. And how Twilight acts about it isn’t any better, in fact it’s how she doesn't. It’s like she doesn’t even care. She’s all like “Don’t worry about I’ll explain every thing when your older” Oh what does she know, I have plenty of age.

“Hey Spike we’re almost there, do you want to stop somewhere to eat before we get Asher?”

More annoyed about losing his concentration, he gave out a small answer “No, I’m fine. I never was really one to liked eating in the morning, anyway.”

“Really? You know it’s not morning right?” Said the purple unicorn with a condescending tone.

Spike’s response sounded a little more tiresome. “Yeah, well... It’s morning to me.”

“Oh well, we’re here anyway.”

Waiting outside the massive grey building, Twilight saw familiar dark pegasus. Which was no other then Asher. After a long week of physical therapy, and plenty of bed rest, he was able to leave the hospital.

Still thinking of me as a victim, her tone sounded sorry. “Hey there Ash... Can I call you that?”

“Oh I’m fine, and Ash is ok with me.”

“Good well, are you ready to head of home? I think you can fill me in on all your adventures on the way home. If you’re up to it.”

“I’m ok with, and...” I lowered my voice, the less ponies knew my background, the better. “You don’t have to keep acting like I’m some kind of victim. Trust me I’m fine... Trust me.”

Still concerned, the mare came in for an embracing hug. “Well if you ever need to talk about anything, and I mean anything, you just find me. I’m always going to be here for you...ok?”

“Thanks. I really appreciate that, really. Thank you.”

The purple pony waved him off. “Oh don’t worry about it. Now let’s have a look around town shall we?”

“That sounds fine with me.”

Taking a tour about Ponyville, our first stop was Sweet Apple Acres. We were able to sit down and have some brunch with the apple family. After this we headed to Fluttershy’s cottage, where I tried to get to know better. In the end I was only able to hold a small conversation with the shy pony. So we went on our way after only a few minutes. After that we met up with the fair Rarity, for a trip to the local spa. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. Even though I only got a back massage, I still loved it, which is something I thought I would never say. The best part was the fact that Rarity paid for the entire thing! She by far the most most generous pony I had ever met. But not able to find either Cloud, or Pinkie, we deiced to head off home. For some reason, we couldn’t help, but to think about Rainbow. To me she has to be the most beautiful mare I had ever seen in my entire life.

But something was off. As we opened the door to the library, it was dark. Filled with a black void, I knew what was about to just happen, I could see it on Spike’s face.

“SURPRISE!!!!!!!”

Now I would be lying if I said I was surprised, but never the less I acted like it. “OH WOW! Thanks guys!.”

“Oh you’re welcome! Cloud and I planned the whole thing.” Said, a bright colorful pony jumping form out of the group, along side with my best friend.

Hopping into a circle around the two, hyper ponies started singing, ‘For He's a Jolly Good Fellow’.

Meanwhile, Twilight and Fluttershy rolled a huge cake up to me, with a single candle on top. I knew they were up to something because of the look the two ponies had on their faces. Twilight’s face was all bunched up, like she really wanted break out laughing, but she wouldn’t dare, while Fluttershy wouldn’t even look me in the eyes, as if she was ashamed of something.

And right before, I blew the candle out, a small green alligator popped out form the cake, latching onto my nose, casing me to topple backwards. Still flapping its tail every which way, I was able to detach the small creature, placing him onto the floor. Blinking at me a few times, the baby alligator waddled off.

Seeing every pony giggling, taking it like a good sport, I gave the the two mischievous ponies a big hug. I was thankful I was able to enjoy punch, and the cake, instead of it being used to hide little green reptiles, and gifts. I received a large scarf form rarity that she knitted herself, while AJ was able to supply the food, which was gift in its self. Twilight got me a book on magic, and much more form the other ponies. But all and all, it was a great night. Well till I blacked out.

Chapter 7 After Party

Chapter 7

After Party

“In the name of Celestia… What happened last night? … Uh, Why does my head hurt?”

Rising from a pile of trash, Spike could see that the party from the night before had been a success, along with trashing the entire Library. Sooner or later he would have to help clean up the torrent of trash that lay before him. Twilight always stuck him with all the cleaning, especially after one of her parties; for a quiet bookworm she sure did have a reputation for throwing wild parties. Which was unfair how she would stick Spike with all the cleaning while she did one of her so called so-called studies, with a copy HouseFancy Magazine and an old movie likeHoof Fiction. I was left with all the hard work. He was just happy that everypony had finally gone home. It usually was such a hassle getting the leftover ponies from the night before to leave. With a groggy voice, the young dragon called out into the dingy house, to no avail. The library remained silent.

“Hello? Anypony…? Is anypony here? …” With still no answer the young dragon started shifting through the trash, trying to making his way towards the kitchen.

He thought to himself. ‘What if they’re hiding? What if they want me toclean this entire mess all by myself?’ Still he was only greeted by nothingness.

Not giving up, the purple dragon pressed the problem at hand. "I know you're somewhere around here. Now if you guys think I’m going to clean up this entire mess all by myself, you got another thing coming. So you might all well get out here.”

With still no answer, the young dragon started on the cleanup effort. Living with an OCD pony could make anypony a little bit of a clean freak themselves.

It didn't take him a long time to finishing cleaning. He then headed over the living room. Before he could even finish the first corner, he could still hear snoring from the living room. Heading back, Spike didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. Scanning the room, he could still hear a torrent of sound but still with no sight of the source. He looked up, and to his surprise Shadow was hanging from the ceiling in a cocoon of tape. which had been slowly deteriorating throughout the night which it finally snapped, causing shadow to come crashing down to earth right on top of the purple dragon.

Crushed underneath the dark dragon, Spike started kicking his fallen friend. Slowly the sleepy Shadow finally started to come through. In a daze the dragon took a gaze around the destroyed room.

With a sluggish tone the sleeping Shadow was able to mumble out a short phrase. “Is it morning? Ah give me five more minutes, mom.”

Irritated spike launched the dark dragon off towards a nearby couch. “Of course not; and you could have really hurt me!” Dusting himself off, spike walked over to the droozy Shadow.

“And another thing, how did you get taped to the top of the ceiling anyway?”

Yawning, Shadow let out a long stretch popping a few bones in the process. “OOOOoooh. Beats me. I don’t even remember a thing from last night, let alone that.”

“Well as long as nopony got hurt I don’t care.” Shrugged Spike.

As Shadow started to wake up a few fragmented memories began returning to him. “Oh yeah I remember now. Ha! That was some kind of party last night. I think that’s been the funniest night I’ve had in forever.”

“Yeah well it wasn’t fun having you come crashing into me.”

“Oh yeah sorry about that.”

“Whatever, just don’t let it happen again. Another stunt like that and I’ll end up in a comma.” Chuckled Spike.

“Yeah, but now that I think about it, I’m starting to recall a few things. It involved a drunken Rainbow Dash, a bet, some tape and a broomstick, but that’s it, everything else is a bit of a blur. I think it had to do with Pinkie’s Super Zap Sour Sucker Punch. After a sip of that stuff, things can get a bit crazy.

Spike gave Shadow a weird look. “I don’t know if I want to know anymore. First off you never want to play around with a Drunk Rainbow, but above all things you never want to mix and Pinkie's punch into any kind of bet. It always ends in tragedy, trust me if you ever see Rainbow’s Turtle don’t ask about the scar on his shell.”

“Good morning everypony. I take it you all slept well.” Twilight came walking in from her private study with a hoof-full of books and a messy mane. Dark bags Hung down her eye, while her entire face seemed drained off all energy. It was obvious that she had stayed up much later than most ponies would even dare to stay up, all in the name of her studies. She had been putting on delay for the past few days. “I hope I didn’t miss anything thing last night, after I cut the party short but I had some things to deal with.

“Not much, and I don’t think Shaodow remembers a thing.”

Rubbing her eyes, she took note of the room. “Well, this mess tells a different story. ”

“Yeah, I’m going to get a start on it after breakfast.”

“Oh don’t worry about that, in fact take the day off. I need to get some work done with Asher and I don’t want any distractions. Besides, I have a new spell that I think will do the trick. If they works right then it should make cleaning a lot easier.” Looking down Twilight saw a mass of used tape, which she rolled into a ball and throwing it into a nearby trash can.

“Really? I can do that?” Spike peaked with excitement.

“Of course, everypony deserve a break now and then. So how about some breakfast. Does some hay bacon sound good.”

“Sure, but can we have some eggs with that?”

“Yeah-yeah, don’t worry about it.”

While Spike and Twilight were talking. They didn’t take in the consider how Shadow had no idea what they were talking about. “Hey Spike. What’s hay bacon? Is it like normal bacon? I mean you guys eat meat-right?”

“Meat?! Of course not. why would anypony ever want to try something like that?”

“Because of the taste of course, I personally think it’s the best food group. But I’m not all that surprised, I mean you were raised by ponies. A Alpha Dragon’s life is very different from a pony’s.”

Spike was taken back by how casual Shadow had been, and even though he found it repulsive, Spike couldn’t help but to wonder what it would be like to eat a chicken or maybe even a cow. “Well I guess I’ve thought about it before. But what would all my other friends think, especially, Fluttershy.

“Oh so, you haven't completely signed off meat just I see. What if I was able to smuggle in some beef jerky, would you like that? All I would have to do is perform a teleportation spell.”

“Well maybe someday, but never said I was going to try something like umm-beef? It was just on my mind once. Back when the great dragon migration came flying into Ponyville a while back I was preparing to join and I was packing a sandwich when it hit me. Don’t dragons eat meat? So for the better part of the trip to the Migration Site that’s all I thought about.”

“Wait, you’ve been to the dragon migration? Of all the Alphas, I don’t believe you were able to do something like that.”

“Yeah? Is there something wrong with that?”

“Well it’s just that the dragons you encountered are a little different. My dad did tell you about the differences between us-” Pointing to Spike, Shadow went on. “-and them.”

Giving Shadow a confused look, Spike was lost. “Them? Them who?”

Shocked Shadow took a deep breath. “ My dad told me your knowledge on dragons was limited, but this is a ridiculous.”

“Well I’ve only been around other dragons a grand total of three times until you came to town. SO you don’t have to act all high and mighty.” Snapped Spike.

Shocked, Shadow had to take a few steps back. “Woah there I didn’t mean anything by it. I’m only trying to help. I just think it's kind of sad. I don’t mean any offence to you Its jusy how I feel. Here how about after Breakfast we go outside and I’ll tell you everything you want to know about being a Alpha Dragon.”

Spike’s attitude flipped. He had been waiting his entire life to know who he was. Now the only thing that stood between him and his answers was one meal.

“Sure, that sounds gre...”

“BREAKFAST!” Screamed Twilight.

After breakfast, the two dragons headed over to a creek near sweet Apple Acres. They decided to skip a few rocks, with each rock tacking a few jumps before disappearing under the creek’s small waves. While they continued their previous conversation. A cool breeze made its way past them and into town.

“You see, Spike, this is the life. You’re really lucky, did you know that?”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Well back where I’m from, it usually rains all day and it’s too quiet... None of the birds ever chirp. We have all these laws in place, so no one can have fun and it’s boring... Just boring.” The dragon sighed, staring out into the sky.

“Not like Ponyville, though...” He continued. “Here it’s different and that’s what I like about it. It’s hard to explain, but you never really know what’s going to happen next... I think that’s the way to live: not knowing what you’re going to be doing six weeks down the road. It’s just great! You get a better feel of control on your life.” Shadow grew sad, as he returned to reality.

“I really wish I could stay, but my dad wants me to come home in about a month,” he finished, sadly.

“Then ask him if you can stay a little longer.”

“Ask? That’s funny. You can’t ask my dad anything. He always says no to anything to everything I ask him.”

“Well believe it or not, Twilight and I were in the same boat once. You see we used to live in Canterlot, and we had to help set up a festival here in Ponyville. To make a long story short, we came here for a festival and we found it really nice in Ponyville. But I think it had to do with are newly made friends more than anything else. But Celestia had plans for us to go back with her. Right at the last second Twilight was able to build the courage to ask the Princess if Twilight and I could stay here in Ponyville. In the long run, it doesn’t hurt to ask.”

“I know. It’s just that he might not understand. I mean he’s put so much into the community. It wouldn’t look good on him if everyone found out that his own son doesn’t want to live in his country.”

“So let me get this straight; you want to live here, right?”

“Right.” Shadow nodded.

“And you want to tell your dad that you’re staying, right?”

Again the young dragon nodded “Yep”.

“Then send him a letter.” Chimed Spike. “I mean what’s the worst thing he can do? It’s not like he’s going to be standing next to you.”

“True… I guess I give him a call tonight.” Shrugged Shadow.

“Call? What the heck is that?” Asked a confused SPike

“You guys don’t call other ponies through a mirror?”

“No. Why would anypony do something like that?”

“To talk to someone without being right next to them, of course! That's how everyone talks in the Everfree.”

“Well I’ve only seen it happen once, and that was when I met Asher. I thought it was a one-time kind of thing. So you’re saying ponies talk through glass all the time?”

“Yeah, all you have to do is get some water or glass; anything that reflects light will do. Then you cast a spell, called Travelers Tongue or something like that, along with the name of the person and place where you want to contact them.”

“Wow, that’s all you have have to do?”

“Yep that’s all you have to do. Kind of cool isn’t it?”

“Oh, I bet Twilight can give it a shot. But I’ve been wondering…” Spike paused. “I’ve always wanted to know where I came from and this whole dragon race things is a little confusing. I just wanted to know what an Alpha Dragon was, you know? ”

Shadow was dumbstruck. “Really? You have no clue what an Alpha dragon is? Or what you even are? Come on, really?.”

“Well… No I’ve always been with ponies. I have no idea who I am, or what I’m suppose to be.

“Well, I’ll try my best to answer them.”

“Great, so where do we begin?”

“Well let’s start off with the fact you’re an Alpha dragon. It means you’re a magic-using dragon that walks upright, unlike a winged dragon who can fly. Now to cover an Alpha dragon’s anatomy. An average Alpha dragon weighs a hundred pounds or so, and usually grows to be about a foot taller than the average pony. But unlike our winged cousins, we can’t grow to the size of houses, but what we lack in size we make up with intelligence, Magic and our strong central moral codes. We’re not savages, unlike winged dragons.”

“Really? Well I was hoping to beat Rainbow Dash in a race one day, but I guess that’s out of the question. ”

Snickering, the dark dragon took a seat under a nearby oak tree. Putting a straw in his mouth, he started to chew on it, much like a farmer. “Yeah sure looks like it, doesn’t it?”

Closing his eye, Shadow let out a long yawn. “Man, I’m about to fall asleep.”

“Shadow?”

Peaking an eye open, the dark dragon looked towards Spike. “Yeah. What is it?”

“Well I got a question, but it’s a weird one. Is that fine with you?”

“Whatever it is, trust me I can handle it. I’m here to answer your questions in person.”

“Well about a year ago, around my birthday, I had an incident.”

“An ‘incident’? What kind of incident?” Shadow was now gaining some interested in the subject.

“Well, from what I’ve been told it has to deal with greed. It all started on my birthday when somepony gave me a hat just because I told them it was my birthday. But it didn’t stop there. I kept wanting more and more. Before I knew it I ended up with a pile of stuff, that I had stolen; the more I took, the bigger I got. I kept growing and growing till I was a 50 foot tall monster. They ended up calling in the military, it got that bad, and I almost destroyed the town. And I would have too if it wasn’t for a certain mare. It was the beautiful mare… Rarity.” Spike paused. Shadow could practically little hearts could be seen in the love stuck dragon eyes.

“Ok, well what happened next? I'm waiting," said Shadow, impatiently.

“Oh, sorry about that. I can get a little caught up with my story sometimes.” Spike Chuckled.

“So when I was destroying the town I saw Rarity and well… I have a little bit of a crush on her.”

“Noooo, really?” Interrupted Shadow.

“Ha, very funny. So I took her, and was going to put here with my stash up stuff I had taken when I saw something. It was a fire-red ruby I had given her just the day before, hanging around her neck. Now I’m not sure about what happened next, but I guess when I saw the ruby it reminded me of a moment where I showed some selflessness. I went back to normal after that. It’s like that moment of selflessness was a cure. Would you by any chance know what the heck happened to me that day?”

“So?”

“That’s it? ‘Ok’? That’s all you have to say? I thought you were here to help me.”

Laughing, the dark dragon stood up. “Hey chill dude, I was only playing around with you. As for what happened to you, I know exactly what happened.”

“Ok then what happened?”

“Well, My dad calls it the Grumpys.”

“Grumpys?” Echoed Spike.

Shadow eyed Spike. “Well I was getting to that.”

“So, much like a unicorn, Alpha’s are born unable to control their magic, and they have to be taught to be able to control it. Of course they can use Enchanted Items, much like the seal Twilight uses for the letters you send to Celestia. But unlike ponies, our magic reacts a little different. If we don’t use our magic, it builds up. Now when you’re little, this isn’t a problem, because the amount of magic is a lot lowe. But as you grow things start to change. Your bodies starts to produce more magic, which can cause problems.

If you let your magic build up, then you’ll start to have outbursts of raw magic. You don’t want to have bursts of magic, trust me you don’t want that to happen. When my brother went through the grumpies He ended up destroying a part of your castle. So it would probably be a smart idea if someone started giving you lessons in spell casting. We’ll deal with that later.”

“We’ll?” Echoed Spike.

“Yeah I just happened to have gone through the Grumpys around the same time a year ago myself”

“So the Grumpys is a point in your life where you start to gain strength in your abilities to use magic. Your body goes through some changes because of it, and in return affects your mood, giving it the name Grumpys. There's some other side effects, like growth. Usually an Alpha dragon only gets about four or five feet tall, but during the Grumpys you could be the size of a mountain. Greed is a another thing. A dragon can become extremely greedy during this phase, which you have personally experienced. And theres a massive list of other side effects things that could happen during the Grumpys. I’m sure you can find a book on it if you ever visit the Everfree Kingdom. If or when I have to head back off home you can come and stay with me for a while. I’m sure my Dad can tell you a lot more about who we are and stuff like that.”

Shifting through some gravel Spike found the perfect stone for skipping. It was smooth, brown and it had a bit of a shine to it. He tossed it between his claws before spitting a small flame onto the rock. HE wanted till it turned red hot before throwing it towards the creek. As the rock made contact it reacted in a hostile manner. In a cloud of steam, the rock started to hiss before falling underneath the water. “Well, that’s nice to know but I’m worried that I’ll become that monster again; because I don’t know if I can stop him twice.”

Waving him off, the dark dragon went down to the stream to skip a few rocks. “Don’t worry about it. As my dad would say: ‘ Don’t worry about stuff that doesn’t amount to a hill of beans.’ Even though it’s technically possible, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a dragon get the grumpys twice in a lifetime. I highly doubt you’ll be different. So, yeah, like I said before: don’t worry, you’ll probably grow up to be a perfectly healthy dragon.” chirped Shadow.

“Well, I’m glad you feel that way.” said Spike.

After relaxing by the water for a few more hours, the sun started setting, giving way to Luna’s moon. The sky was divided into bands of red, orange, and yellow. It was a beautiful sight, for the two, but also a sign that it was time to start heading home.

“So when are you going to study magic?”

“Magic? I haven't even thought about it really. I only found out about two weeks ago and I’ve been really busy, with traveling and and getting things ready for you and Asher. I don’t know where I would start.”

“Well after the Grumpys, you usually are supposed to start magic classes. I thought Twilight could start giving you and me some lessons when she’s not working with Asher.”

“Yeah that would be nice, but that might not work out.”

“Why not?”

“Well she has her own studies from the Princess to worry about, along side with being the librarian for Ponyville. I don’t think she has the time. Can’t you teach me a few spells?”

Embarrassed, Shadow blushed as he kicked some dirt. “Well I would like to, but I’m kinda new at the whole thing myself. I personally don’t know any spells. I was about a week into my studies before I came here. But Dragon and Unicorn share the same style of magic, so maybe we could get a few lessons from Rarity. I would like Twilight to, but she’s going to be pretty busy with Asher and with her own studies, and it’s not like we’re learning advance spells or anything like that. So I don’t think it matters who’s giving us the lessons along as it’s someone who has a idea of what they're doing.”

“Yeah that’ll work, but I’ve been wondering. If we don’t have horns, then how are we able to use magic? I was always told that you need to focused all your energy onto that one part of your body.” Added Spike.

“Well, I don’t know anything about focusing your energy onto to a signal body part, but I was always told that we have a special aura that appears every time someone casts a spell. So lets say that I wanted to teleport from this side of the creek to the other. I would focus all my energy into the spell; my eyes would flair up with my aura for a moment then I would imagine the place where I would like to teleport. After that the spell takes care of itself. But most spells use words That you usually would say inside you head, my dad tells me you want to focus all your energy into the word while you're performing the spell. “

“Ok, but how do you know what your Aura is if you can’t cast any spells?” interrupted Spike.

“Well you don’t, you should be able to after your first attempt, If I’m right your aura is usually the same color as the fire you breath out, rarely do dragons have a different color of aura from there fire there called Two Lights, and I just happened to be a Two Light. You see my aura is red just like my Father’s but my fire is a frost blue. So here try this.” Walking over to the creek’s edge, the dark dragon shifted through the gravel till he found a small round black pebble. Cleaning it off in the water he took it over to spike, placing it in his claw.

“Ok, so I want you to try and get this pebble to levitate a few inches above your claw. Its the first assessment I was given back in school and I’ve been stuck on it since.”

“Ok, so if I got this right, first I need to focus all my energy into this rock? Then I need to picture it floating out of my claw. But you see I don’t know how I’m going to put any energy into this rock, is there something I’m supposed to say or what?

Puzzled, Shadow had to think about it. “Well I never thought about it. I mean its just something you just to, it’s like breathing., or shooting fire. It just happens.”

Annoyed Spike, focused on the stone “Whatever, here goes nothing.” Closing his eyes he imagined himself forcing all his energy into the rock which in return causing it to hover a few inches above his claw. After a few minutes of nothing he was about to give up when he noticed he felt a little tired while the rock in his hand felt lighter. Which startled the unespeting Spike. Opening his eyes he noticing a faint light green aura enveloping the little pebble. The green light danced around the rock as it tried gaining air above his claw.

“Oh my Goddess! Check this out, I almost have it!” But his excitement was short lived. He was running out of energy and soon after the rock stopped moving and he lost his focus. Which caused him to give up.

Hunched over, Spike’s breathing grew labored. “Wow that sure takes a lot out of you. I guess you're right we should head over to Rarity. Maybe she can lend us a hoof.”

Looking to the sky Shadow noticed the sun was starting to make its way down the hills on in the distance. “Sure but its do it in the morning its starting to get late, besides, I’m starting to get hungry. Lets go see what Twilight is cooking for dinner.”

“Sure, but do me a favor.” Spike’s tone went flat.

“What?”

“Rarity is my girl, you got that? Go find some other pony to have a crush on.”

“Ha, Like I would do that.” Giggled Shadow.

≈≈≈

While Spike and Shadow were out having fun, I was left to fend for myself in the hooves of Twilight. Now don’t get me wrong as a friend she was a delight, but as a teacher, well that was a different story. The word ‘boredom’ comes to mind.

“Hey Ash, it’s time to get up.” With Spike and Shadow gone, Twilight came trotting into my new room. followed by opening the curtains and causing the sunlight to singe my eyes as it came rushing in.

“Come on, let’s go!” But I remained motionless

Groaning, I tossed a pillow over my face. “Agh! Can’t you give me five more minutes?”

“I already did that. Now it’s time to get up. We’ve got a big day ahead of us and I can’t afford to have you sleeping all day.”

“You’ve got a big day ahead, now let me sleep.” Rolling her eyes she left the room giving me time to fall back asleep.

A minute went by before she came back only to find I was still asleep. So instead of shaking me or calling my name again she decided to try a old trick she used to use on spike when he was younger. Pinching my nose she wait till I started to toss and turn as I grew more frustrated. Till I finally ran out of air shooting out of bed with a blue face, I gasped for air.

“Bloa! What the hay was that all about!” Rubbing my nose, I shot the smug unicorn a dirty look.

“You two have something in common with Spike when it come to waking up in the morning.” Chuckled. Twilight.

“Yeah well, that was uncalled for, and why did you have to wake me on such a fine morning? I would have rather have slept in till noon.” Stretching I gave out a big yawn.

Clamping her nose, she inched away. “How about I tell you after you brush your teeth? They kind of smell.”

“Fair, I’m going to take a shower while I’m at it.”

“Sure, just don’t use all the hot water, ok?”

≈≈≈

I found Twilight reading a few basic books on spells when I got out of the bathroom. Thinking I could slip past her, I made my way to the door, only to be cut off by a wall of magic.

“Oh, I see you’re done. Great! Now we can get started.”

“Yeah, just wonderful. Remind me what are we doing here today?” I asked sarcastically.

“Your studies, of course! Today, I’m going to teach you the wonderful world of magic! And I have the perfect first exam for you!” Excited, the purple pony started throwing a few books my away.

Catching them with a thud, my legs started to wobble under their weight. “Well, I see you're upbeat about this.”

“You bet I am! They’re nothing more exciting than the art of Magic, and it’s going to be my job to show you; come on this way.” Trotting off, she made her way to the center of the tree, while I dragged my hooves behind hers.

I kept telling myself, ‘Come on Asher, you can do this, you made a promise to the Elder after all.’ But I’m not going to lie, I always hated studying.

Even though there was a party the night before, it amazed me how spotless the entire house looked. I knew she was bit of a clean freak, but this was crazy. She must have gotten up around five to clean everything! The books were back to their rightful place while the floor was clean of trash, while the furniture was cleaned and return to their previous I had to admit she did a great job cleaning the place up.

“Are you ready?” Barked Twilight from the room ahead. There was a hint of glee in her voice as I made my way through the house.

“Yeah, yeah. As much as I’ll ever be. So what do you have in store for me today?”

“Something simple. I want you to try a hoof at levitation.”

I was a little disappointed. “Levitation? That’s it? I thought I was going to learn something a little more cool like teleportation or mind control.”

The unicorn must have rehearsed this before, because it didn’t take her long to lash back at me for saying that. “Well first off, you can’t control some pony’s mind with magic. Secondly, all ponies need to start of with something easy. So that’s why you’re starting with levitation and the manipulation of objects. Note I said objects, not living things. That’s an entirely different story. I assure you this will challenge your abilities.”

Placing an empty glass in the center of the room’s floor. She used her magic to make the glass float between us for a moment. She then placed it back down to it’s original spot. She then gestured me to do the same.

“Now it’s your turn.”

Embarrassed, I hid my face from Twilight. “I don’t really know what to do.”

“What? I thought you had a lesson or two back in the Everfree?”

“Not really, I held the Elder in the air for a moment, but that was out of reaction. I didn’t really know what I was going, It just kind of happened.”

Sighing, Twilight shook her head. “Well, you could have told me that from the beginning. You don’t have to be ashamed, this is all very new to you. You’re not going to learn this in a day.”

Restoring my hope, the unicorn pulled two books from of the shelf, while taking the books from earlier. The first one read ‘The Beginner’s Guide to Magic by W.R. Feathertop.’ While the other one was titled: ‘The Academy for Gifted Unicorns Standard Textbook: Volume 1’.

“Ok now I want you to read these books when we’re not working together. I can tell you’re not big on reading, which is totally fine. But to truly understand magic and its potential you need to stick your head into a book once in awhile. Trust me its worth it in the long run. ”

Flipping through the pages, I blushed as I figured out the age group the books were geared to. “Uh Twi? Don’t you think these books are a little out of my age group?”

“Not at all. Just because they might be a little childish, doesn’t mean the content isn’t useable. In fact these books are going to benefit you in the long run. You just wait and see.”

“Yeah, I see where you’re getting at, but I could use something a little more grown up.”

Frowning, Twilight placed the books on a nearby table. “Sorry but that’s all I’ve got. They don’t make books for the situation you’re in. Remember, this has never happened before.”

Rolling my eyes, I thought about it. “Well you do have a point… Yeah I guess you’re right. So where do we start?”

“Well, let me take a look.” Flipping through some pages of the Feathertop book, she found what she was looking for.

“Ok so I can assume you know what magic is right.” Twilight giggled.

“Yeah of course.”

“Good, but lets start from the very basics, ok.... So magic comes from within…”

After a long, two-hour speech by Twilight recited straight from the book, we finally got to the part of the lesson, where I could apply the material I had learned. The Twilight placed an empty glass back in the center of the room while a little golden star was placed on a nearby windowsill. Demonstrating, she levitated the clear glass from the center of the room, all the way over to the window and back. Nodding, she motioned me to do the same.

“Ok so I want you to give it a try, can you do that?”

“Yeah I think it’s possible.”

The unicorn smiled. “Good. I like to see a confident pony.” Picking up a clipboard from her desk, she started taking notes.

“Alright. Let’s do this.”

With a stern look of concentration on my face, I started to focus all my energy into the shining cup. Even with all my effort, the glass still remained motionless. With my hope draining out of me, I was about to give up when I heard Twilight’s voice from behind me.

“You're almost there! I have faith in you, keep it up!” Grinding my teeth I was about to lose it when sparks started to appear around the glass while the same translucent aura repapered around my eyes; it was the same that had appeared back at the Everfree, with the a translucent black aura similar to the midnight sky embracing the glass it attained the bulk of the aura, while a thin layer of pure white lined the mist.

Finally, after what seemed a lifetime, the glass started to shake. While it grew lighter before it took off the ground. With all my might, it started moving slowly throughout the room before making my way back to the center. With every inch, the cup moved, and Twilight grew more nervous. Chewing her nails, while the glass was about to meet its destination. But before the glass could meet the window I lost all my energy, causing the spell to break. Watching the glass caused my heart to sink, but I wasn’t about to give up. With what bit of energy I finally was able to catch the glass, right before it hit the floor, and to bring it to the floor below .

Author's Note

Cool this is new

Chapter 3: The Alpha Dragons (An Unlikely Friend)

(This chapter is presented blm95tehe)

My vision was fuzzy, and my thoughts were scattered. I had no idea the whereabouts of myself or Cloud, but as I opened my eyes, Cloud poked his head out from a nearby tree. He giggled and receded his head back inside, causing it to shake. After a few moments, he jumped out and started hopping towards me, with the widest smile he could muster up.

“Where......Where are we?” I asked him, still in my daze, and gulping for air.

Cloud gave me a confused look. “We’re in the Everfree Forest, silly! Where else would we be? You blacked out on the trip down. I can’t fathom why, though, I thought you were tougher than that!” Cloud said playfully.

“Fine. Next time I’ll hit your head against a rock, and we’ll see if you like it.”

Cloud giggled. “That's ok, I’ve already hit my head on a rock before, remember? When I fell out of that tree.” He raised his eyes to the sky, recalling an earlier memory. “I saw something when I blanked out.”

“Yeah, I remember that. The doc said there was nothing wrong with you, and I told him that there has always been something wrong with you.” I gave a sarcastic smile. “You crazy nut!”

“Just remember I’m the nut who saved your flank from drowning.” He giggled.

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot. You're such a hero. What would I ever do without you.” I deadpanned.

“You would most likely panic since, unlike you, I have an idea where we’re going.”

Cloud started marching far ahead of me, singing some song about an old river. I couldn’t make it out myself, as I was too busy taking in my surroundings. I’ve never really understood why everyone thought the Everfree Forest was so creepy. It may have been because it was still daylight, but the lush foliage was a beautiful sight for my sore eyes. Of course, my perception could completely change if we ran into a Timber Wolf, or any one of the dangerous creatures that lived here. At that moment, however, I didn’t care in the slightest.

Eventually, Cloud started getting out of sight. I called out for him, but as usual, he was too lost in thought. I started running after him, but as I ran, I heard hoof steps, ones that weren’t my own. They were muffled, and very faint. I immediately dug my hoofs in the dirt and stopped. The hoof steps would do the same a few seconds later.

It seemed that with every step I took, another pony’s hooves steps would follow. Nervous and wary, I took a look around my environment. I looked to my left, then to my right, but saw nothing. Still listening carefully for the sounds from before, I kept on walking...

SNAP!

“CLOUD, GET OVER HERE!!”

Cloud stopped, turned 180 degrees, and gallivanted back over to where I was standing. He was about to open his mouth to say something, but I shoved my hoof into his face so he would remain quiet. After a few seconds of searching, I took a deep breath, and shouted, “Come on out! I know you're following us. Just give it up and show your face!”

As I figured, Cloud was completely confused, and removed my hoof from his mouth. Immediately, he spoke up, asking me all sorts of questions I wasn’t paying attention to. I closed my eyes, trying to figure out where the hoof steps were coming from. I could hear one here and there, but I couldn’t pinpoint where they were coming from. Eventually, the noise ended altogether. The environment was completely silent.

Then without warning a fiery bird dove at us from the treetops.

KA-KAAAAWWWW!!

Cloud was the first to react. “TAKE COVER!” Cloud shrieked, going into a prone position. I dove to the side immediately afterward, and with luck, the bird missed us both. Cloud started crawling away apprehensively for a few moments before rising to his hooves and sprinting with all his might. Locking my sight onto him, I ran as fast as my legs would carry me, catching up to Cloud in moments. Soon afterward, the mysterious creature swiftly flew in front of us and landed with force, causing Cloud to jump backwards and fall over.

We were both scared stiff as this giant bird started walking towards us. Now that it was in plain sight, I could tell what it was. It was a phoenix, of all things. A giant phoenix, about a foot taller than we were when it stood upright. However there was something different about this one:

Instead of having a glowing reddish-orange color all over, this one had a deep purple color to it’s body, while the feathers and tiny flames on it’s wings were midnight blue, not unlike Luna’s night. It’s claws and beak were pure black, and it had a aura of navy blue.

Soon after I got my bearings, Cloud got his. Both the phoenix and us were about to charge at each other, when a male voice called out from up a tree, interrupting us:

“Stop it, both of you! you two are acting like children.”

Cloud, the phoenix, and I halted our plans to charge, and looked in the direction of the voice. “Children? What are children?” I asked myself.

I looked up into the tree overhead to see this...thing. It wasn’t ugly, nor scary, and it was hanging from a tree branch. Partially obscured by the branch’s leaves, I couldn’t quite make out what it was. After it had had enough of our staring contest, it jumped from the tree, landing on the ground directly in front of me.

My mouth opened in shock. He was a dragon! This wasn’t your normal dragon, however. Its head was more rounded than normal for a dragon, ending in a small snout, and he stood at about the same height as myself. His eyes were more pony-like, with a dazzling, deep topaz blue color to them. His body was a lush green color, and black strips danced around his body, except for his under belly, which was a grey color, like my own coat. His spikes were a darkish green that shone brilliantly. He walked upright while his average-sized tail dragged on the ground. Noticing his lack of wings, I figured that he was probably a Drake, and no older.

He had this curious look on its face as he spoke: “What are two young ponies doing in the Everfree?” he asked. Cloud was busy cowering behind tree, poking his head out every now and again to see what was going on. I had no idea exactly what he was. A dragon I was most sure of, but what kind? As it approached me, his face turned white.

“Are you two alright?” he asked.

I thought was a odd thing to say at first, but then I took a look at myself, and it hit me. After the events of the past few days we were covered in blood, muck and cuts, and my wing looked like it was hit by a carriage. Cloud reluctantly decided to leave his hiding spot to greet the strange dragon, while I was a little more hesitant to move forward. To my surprise, when Cloud held out his hoof for a hoofshake, he was pulled back with force. The dragon wrapped his arms around him in a crushing bear hug.

“Hello! It’s so nice to meet you!” he shouted. “I love meeting new ponies! What’s your name?” The dragon released Cloud from his friendly hug of doom.

Before Cloud was able to answer, I pulled him by the ear. “Come on, Cloud. That will do.” I said with finality.

“I’m Night Swirl...” he paused. “Are you hurt, too? Come on, I can help.”

Cloud gave him a confused look. “I’m not hurt. What are you doing here?” he asked. Night Swirl didn’t answer immediately. I was about to go over to drag him away, but before I could move, I was swept up in a light green aura. Levitating in the air, Cloud ran over to Night Swirl. “Asher! Night, let him go!” Cloud demanded. Once again, he was ignored.

“What is this? Magic?” I barked at the dragon.

“Relax. I’m doing nothing to hurt you, but it’s funny to see two ponies covered in blood wandering through Alpha Dragon territory.” Night Swirl said matter-of-factly. “Also, yes, this is magic. What else would it be?”

Cloud was visibly shaking in fear and awe of the dragon’s magic picking me up so effortlessly. I, however, somehow remained calm, despite being ponyhandled by a strange dragon’s magic. For some reason, I felt that I could trust him. “What's an Alpha Dragon?” I asked.

“Really? Don’t they teach pon...”

Cloud interrupted before Night Swirl could finish. “Is there any way you could get us out of here? Please! I’ll do anything!” Cloud shouted desperately.

“SHUT UP, CLOUD!” I screamed, hoping to shock him into calming down.

It was no use. Cloud had worked himself into fit, shouting at Night Swirl to both let me go, and get us out of the Everfree Forest. Having grown tired of his loud voice, I asked Night Swirl to sedate him. Before he could do anything, however, Cloud panicked, turned to run, and smashed his head against a tree. After stumbling about for a bit in a daze, Cloud fell over, and passed out. Both Night Swirl and I chuckled at Cloud’s amusing display. After a few brief moments, Night Swirl ended his spell, gently dropping me on the ground.

I rose to my feet and spoke. “Now that that’s over with, what was the spell you just used on me?”

“That?” Night Swirl reassured. “That was a basic analyzing spell. All I did was look into your subconscious, and searched for any intentions or traits that would keep me from trusting you. Since I found nothing, you’re in the clear.” He walked toward me and stood at my side. “Also, I’m sure you trust me as well. Very few ponies I use that spell on submit as easily as you did.”

As he said that, I realized why I could trust him so easily. “If you were truly out to get us, you could have done that a few minutes ago with the phoenix.” I revealed. “Anyway, I don’t think I’ve properly introduced myself. My name is Asher.” I extended a hoof out toward him. “Nice to meet you!”

Night Swirl reached out and held my hoof, but instead of hugging me like he did with Cloud, he gave my hoof a pleasant shake. “Pleasure to meet you. Sorry about hugging your friend as hard as I did. I guess I got a little over-excited.”

I looked over at Cloud, who was still unconscious. Night Swirl walked over to him, and picked him up with his magic, with seemingly no effort. I was in awe at how easily he was able to carry my friend. I’d seen many Unicorns with a knack for magic, but never one that could hold a pony of his weight so effortlessly. Carrying Cloud alongside him, he started walking along the path. “Come on, Asher. We have to get going!” Night Swirl commanded.

I snapped out of my daze and quickly joined him. “While he’s out cold, I guess we can talk, now,” I said. “To start off, where are we going, and what's an Alpha Dragon?”

“We’re heading to my village,” Night Swirl replied. “Again, don’t they teach you about our species in school anymore, or what?”

“I guess not. I’m from a place called Aspen. It's in a pretty isolated corner of Equestria.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not too surprised. My kind hasn’t left the Everfree since the Nightmare Moon uprising about a thousand years ago.” Night Swirl turned to face me as we walked. “Now, to answer your question from earlier: There are two types of dragons in this world. You have the big scary flying ones, which are just called Dragons. Then there's us, the Alpha Dragons. We’re an ancient race. In fact, we were the first to discover Equestria, about a hundred years before ponies did, and we settled here in the forest.”

“Why would anypony settle in the Everfree Forest? This place is a hell-hole!”

Night Swirl raised his arm in defiance. “First off it's everyone, not everypony. Pony talk has some weird habits, doesn't it?”

With that comment, I recalled what he said before. “I remember you calling us children’ earlier when that phoenix attacked us. As a matter of fact, where is that bird brain, anyway?”

“That ‘bird brain’ is my pet,” Night Swirl stated. “His name is Shadow, and he’s probably right above us, keeping watch, or something.”

Sure enough, when I looked up, Shadow was there, circling us in the sky. Watching him flying around, I was reminded of my injured wing. Man, I wish I was up there right now, I thought.

Night Swirl resumed our conversation. “Anyway, before you interrupted me, I was talking. As you can see, we don’t have wings, so, obviously we can’t fly. We can, however, use magic, but you’ve probably figured that out already. We lost connection with the other races outside of the Everfree about a thousand years ago, except for Princess Celestia.”

I opened my mouth to speak, but Night Swirl spoke first. “I know what you're going to ask. Back when Nightmare Moon rose up, she took control of some of our cities. When Celestia was finally able to capture and banish her, our leader, and my father, Fiery Night, closed the borders, in the hopes that such a event wouldn’t happen again.

Anyway, I guess the basic info about our race would be that we’re dragons that use magic, but lack wings, and that we average four-to-five feet in height. We are also one of the more intelligent races out there. Anything else you would like to know?” he said with a sarcastic tone.

I processed the information he gave me, then asked, “Can you breath fire?”

“Of course we can!” He answered. “We are dragons, after all.”

I had no more questions to ask, so we continued walking in silence. After a minute or so, Night Swirl was the first to speak. “So, um, what are two ponies doing this far in the Everfree?”

“Well it’s kind of a long story...” I said sheepishly.

“We have time.” Night Swirl replied.

As we made our way through the forest, I recalled my memories of the past few days: The encounter with Discord, the fate of Aspen and my parents, the adventure on Mt. Hedon, how we ended up in the Everfree. I also told him about the griffon we encountered. I made sure to spare no expense, and told him everything.

When I was done, I looked over at Night Swirl. To my surprise, he had an intense look on his face. It reminded me of the look Cloud had when he was beating the griffon with the rock. It was pure, absolute rage. Without warning, he dropped Cloud, causing him to mumble incoherently about being chased by birds. I looked with interest at Night Swirl, as he slowly walked toward a tree. Looking down toward the ground, he leaned his arm against the tree, and stayed there, facing away from me, not making a sound.

Curious, I approached after a few seconds of waiting. Standing by his side, I discovered why he turned away: He was crying. Sobbing away softly, like a child. I wasn’t sure what I said that could’ve had this much of an impact on him emotionally. Whatever it was, it must have been important enough to make this seemingly emotionally hard creature break down like this.

As Night Swirl stood there, Shadow had come down from the sky, standing next to him. He did nothing more than look on, more than likely understanding what was going on. I, however, was still in the dark about the situation. I let him be for a few brief moments, then spoke. “Night? What’s going on? Did I say something wrong?” I put a reassuring hoof on his shoulder, but he shrugged it off quickly, and turned to face me, wiping tears from his eyes.

“It’s okay, you didn’t mean anything.” Night Swirl replied with a sniffle. Sighing, he continued. “It’s just that...whenever anyone mentions Discord, I lose control of my emotions.” He paused briefly. “Long ago, Discord killed my mother. Even after all these years, I’ve never fully gotten over it. It’s silly, I know, but she was everything to me.”

For an instant, I felt disgruntled, furious at what Night Swirl had just told me. How many people has Discord killed over the centuries? I thought to myself. Is there anyone who hasn’t been affected by him? However, that feeling quickly subsided, as I had a newfound friend in front of me who needed a bit of comfort. “I’m sorry,” I solemnly said. “I know how you feel.”

After another sigh, and one last sniffle, Night Swirl spoke with finality. “I guess he still gets a kick out of killing mothers. Come on, we have to keep going.”

Night Swirl picked Cloud up once again with his magic, and we continued onward, Shadow flying overhead. It was quiet for the next several hours, no one electing to speak. I didn’t mind, though. The silence gave me a few hours to go over the events of the last couple of days. The more I thought about it, the more I realized how much my life had changed over such a short period of time...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nightfall came slowly, but surely. We had set up camp in a small clearing, one with a surprisingly nice view of the sky, which was perfect for Shadow to keep watch. I marveled at the little guy’s stamina. Except for when he came down every so often for a bite to eat from Night Swirl’s feed supply, he remained in the air, vigilantly guarding us. It was his job, and he was the best at it.

Night Swirl took this time to heal some of my injuries with his magic. “Don’t worry,” he said. “My father taught me a little bit about healing magic. We rarely die due to injury, thanks to our healing spells.”

“I’ll be fine, but I’m going to need proper bandages.” I replied.

“Don’t worry about that, I’ll be able to patch you right up.” Night Swirl said, his tone finally lightening up a little bit.

“Thaaaannnn....” I was about to express my gratitude, but my eyes grew heavy all of a sudden. It seemed with every second that passed, my vision grew darker. The last thing I remember before passing out was seeing the worried expression on Night Swirl’s face.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When I woke up, I found myself in a world filled with white. The sound of the laughter of foals echoed throughout the void. “Hello?” I asked the emptiness. “Is anypony there? What’s going on?!”

“Oh, hello there,” My body immediately tensed. I knew that voice. “My, my, my! I haven’t seen you in a few days, my little pony.” The voice cackled.

Shocked, I pinched myself, hoping this was a dream. To my dismay, I wouldn’t wake up. That's when my fears were confirmed. Discord faded into sight right in front of my hoofs. Terrified, I started to run. With an audible snap of his claw, he teleported in front of me.

“Where are you going?” He grinned. “Didn’t you just get here?”

I just stood there for a few moments, frozen in fear. He took the pause as an opportunity to laugh. That sickening laugh. It pierced my eardrums, going right into my subconscious. It was what I needed to wake myself up, and face my fears.

“Where am I, Discord?” I demanded. Figuring I wouldn’t get an answer, I continued. “I swear, if you lay a hand on Cloud, I’ll find you, trust me.” I said, as coldly as I could. “And when I do, I’ll be ready. I’ll slowly choke you until I see your little beady little eyes roll back into your head, you bucked up little bastard!”

Discord was unaffected. “Oh such harsh words! You’re making me sad! If you keep this up, you’ll break my heart!”

“It won’t get to break, ‘cause I’ll tear it out before it gets the chance!”

Discord just brushed it off with a wave of his lion claw. He started circling me with his toothy smile. With another snap, it started raining chocolate milk, like before.

“You know what? I grow tired of milk.” He snapped his finger a few more times switching between different types of rain. Iced coffee, apple juice, and even tea poured down from above, until he finally decided on lemonade. “That’s better, don’t you think?”

“Like I said before, you’re bucked up.”

“Now now, I’m just here to see how things are with you.”

I grew increasingly tired of his showcase. I demanded answers. “WHERE AM I?!” I screamed.

“You are a really tense pony, you know that?” Discord stated. “You are asleep right now, and under my total control. So, please tell me, what happened to your wing?”

“You don’t know?” I asked. It was useless, I could tell he already knew. “One of your goons did it.”

“Oh my, I’m so sorry.” he barked with a painfully obvious sarcastic tone. “I was hoping he would finish the job for me. He was my best gift from a friend in a faraway land.”

“You mean the Griffon Republic?”

“Try again. It’s even farther than that.”

“How far then?” I said, growing impatient.

“Don’t worry about that. Now, listen up, because I am only going to say this once. My friend has an entire group of followers he calls ‘The conquered’. Guess what? That griffon was their leader, until he staged a coup, and gave him to me. I saw you two kill him.”

I tensed at those words, flashing back to that horrible event. Everything flashed by in an instant, ending with Cloud striking the final blow.

“Why would you do such a thing? I’ve always known you to be above the killing of others.” He paused, raising his claw to his chin. “His name was Dark Wing, and I loved him like a son.”

“I’m not sorry, Discord. It may have been inadvertent, but Cloud freed him from your spell, and if that’s what it took, then so be it.”

“Don’t be sorry,” Discord said. “I lied. He was just a plaything to me. Anyway, I grow bored with you. I have to leave you, anyway. I need to deal with six annoying little ponies elsewhere.”

With that statement, he faded away, back into the void.

“WAIT! Who’s your friend? What’s going on? I demand answers from you, Discord!”

All I got in return was a chuckle. After a few moments, my vision receded into a tunnel, turning black. Suddenly, I started dreaming my old dreams of fire and destruction. However, this time, it was also a mixed with sunshine and happiness...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Suddenly, my vision cleared, and I gasped loudly. I quickly regained my bearings, and took in my new surroundings. I was in a small, nearly empty hut, lying in a fairly comfortable bed. Cloud was standing next to the bed, hovering over me with a shocked expression, which soon gave way to relief. I just gave him a clever smirk in return. I slowly sat up to see Night Swirl leaning against a wall, looking out a window. He then turned to face me, shooting me a look of determination, as if he already knew what I was dreaming earlier. I looked back apprehensively, waiting for him to say something.

Finally, he spoke. “Cloud, could you step outside for a moment? I need to talk to Asher.”

“Sure, not a problem.” Cloud said with a chirpy tone.

After Cloud left the hut, Night Swirl approached me. “How long was I out?” I asked him.

“You were only unconscious for a few minutes, but soon afterward you went into a normal sleep, which lasted for hours.” Night Swirl said. “I have some explaining to do, however. Soon after you passed out, I placed a spell on you, so I could look into your dreams.”

“I take it you know what happened, then.” I said

“I wish,” he replied. “Every time I placed the spell, all I saw was black. Whomever blocked my spell must have been very powerful. The only reason I know you went into a normal sleep is that when you did, I could see your normal dreaming.”

I turned away in dismay. “It was Discord, Night Swirl. He sent me into a void in my subconscious. We had a nice talk, too.”

Night Swirl nodded, his suspicions confirmed. “Did you get any information from him? I need to know what he’s planning.”

“He made hardly any sense, so I’m not sure how accurate his claims were, but...” I paused recalling everything he said to me. “Do you know anything about a group called, ‘The Conquered’? He kept talking about them, and their leader, whom he only stated was his friend. He never gave out a name. Have you ever heard of this group?”

“I haven’t, but I’ll be sure to ask my father about it.” Night Swirl answered. “If anyone would know anything about this, it would be him.”

He beckoned for me to follow him. I climbed out of bed, and shakily stood. Taking my time, I walked with him toward the direction of the exit. On the door was an old painting. I took a few moments to examine it.

It was a mural of what looked like an ancient battle. On one side were Alpha Dragons, slashing their swords towards an incoming wave of ponies, the royal symbol brandished on their armor. Pegasi were dropping rocks on the dragons, while the earth ponies were acting as knights, equipped with swords and shooting arrows. Looking further downward, a grey dragon with burning yellow eyes was holding hooves...hands with two alicorns, who looked to me like the princesses Luna and Celestia. The words “Harmony Will Always Find a Way” were engraved at the bottom. Night Swirl waited for me to finish looking, then spoke.

“This mural is a testament to the everlasting unity between our races.” He proudly said. “It took a lot of sacrifice from all of us, but we made it in the end.” He then gripped the small door knob, which was engraved with ivy vines and a sun symbol in the center, and pulled it open to it’s fullest extent.

I cringed as the light burned my eyes. Blinded, I stepped outside. Suddenly, I heard a joyful yell from above me. Looking up, I could see that Cloud had jumped from the roof, hoping to surprise me. I inched a little to my right, and he faced planted on the ground with giant thud. I swear, the earth moved a few feet. I’m sure he caused a small earthquake when he cracked the ground below us. I snickered, watching Cloud quickly get his bearings. He stood up slowly, and looked at me with a giant grin. Some things never change, I guess.

“I’m glad to see you’re okay, Asher!” He declared.

“Same to you, Cloud.” I declared back.

As my eyes adjusted, I discovered that we were still in the Everfree Forest. Night Swirl had used the hut as a temporary shelter, which explained why it was so empty. Starting back on the trail, I looked back at the old hut I found myself in this morning. The paint on the outside was almost completely washed away, and it leaned on its side against a stick, no doubt being used to keep it from completely falling down. An angry old oak tree blocked the sun from hitting the hut, only adding to it’s run-down look.

Looking up, I once again saw Shadow flying overhead, staying steadfast in his duty. I began to think that he didn’t ever need sleep. “So,” I asked Night Swirl, turning toward him. “What was that painting doing there on that old hut’s door?”

“That old thing?” Night Swirl replied. “I did that years ago. That old hut was something my father and I built years ago. It was my old club house until I gave it to my brother. When you fainted, we were conveniently close by, so I used it as a shelter.”

“It’s really beautiful, Night Swirl. You did a fantastic job.” Night Swirl blushed, clearly proud of his creation. Satisfied, I asked another question. “What is the painting of, exactly? It looks like no war I’ve ever heard of before.”

Night Swirl sighed. “Really? I would think that they would teach you guys about the Great Dragon War. Or as we call it, the Pony Wars.”

Cloud was astonished. “That’s what that’s of?” He exclaimed. “They do teach us about it, It's just...I’ve never seen it illustrated like that before.”

“Well I guess I’ve never thought about like this, but both sides have different views of the war.” Night Swirl explained. “The specific illustration on the door is a painting of the Battle for the Everfree. It was the last and most important battle before my Father and Princess Celestia signed the Treaty of Harmony. It marked the end of the war, and brought peace to each of our lands.” Night Swirl paused for a moment, reminiscing about the past. After a few seconds, he quickly shook his head, and continued. “I took an art class when I was younger, and I was testing out my shading technique. I think it's rather stupid looking if you ask me.”

Before I could reassure him that is was nothing short of a masterpiece, Night Swirl walked ahead of Cloud and I. After a few more minutes of walking, I began to notice something about the bottoms of the trees. They had a peculiar arrangement of holes going right into their trunks. After a few seconds, I realized what they were. They were windows.

“Cloud and Asher, welcome to my village!” Night Swirl proudly exclaimed. “The village of Saltus!”

Unlike much of the Everfree, the sunlight here had no trouble getting through the tops of the trees. Everything was bright and vibrant. Cloud and I took in the beautiful sight, marveling at the beauty that was the sleepy village of Saltus.

Each house grow out of a tree, and the outside walls were engraved with personal drawings of what ever the occupants wanted. One treehouse had vines wrapping around its trunk, with stars engraved all over the tree. Another was showing a gigantic, detailed etching of a dragon dressed in a suit of armor. Lantern cases also grew out of the home, each with an ornate look to them. Just like the engravings, they were all custom designs, made to fit the occupant’s needs. It was all outstanding.

Looming over everything was very large, plain, old-looking castle, with guards keeping watch at the top and bottom of it. It had no windows or any type of decoration on it. It had a dual sandstone color, which made it stand out in the green and brown forest. A single massive tower rose from its center. The final feature I noticed was a giant, wood-stained door. Unlike the rest of the structure, this piece had engravings, proudly displaying itself for all to see.

It was of a dragon and a pony holding their forearms out. In between them was an orb with the word ‘Concordia’ on it. What that meant, I had no idea. The edges of the door were not lined with cement or gravel, like normal, but instead were made of sunflowers, carefully lining the edges. As we walked up to the castle, The guards above left their post, and shouted to open the gate. Soon afterward, it slowly swung open.

Looking at Cloud and I with a smile, Night Swirl entered. “I think my father would like to have a word with you.”