Edited by Hunter Steel

Chapter 2 Language and Talk of the Old Gods

‘Ugh, the hell, I can’t move.’

CRACK!!!

“It’s activating. Quickly Ahuizotl, start your ritual.”

‘That language? The Fuck! Did I get captured by the Easterners? Crap, crap crap crap crap crap.’ I immediately started to flare my magic to hopefully disrupt whatever the hell these dragons were trying to do to me. Eastern dragons have a nasty habit of turning others into meat puppets, and I sure as fucking hell wasn’t going to be one of these sick freak's toy. Immediately the air became charged with a dangerous amount of sporadic magical static.

“Ahuizotl I can feel the magic washing off this thing and I'm an earth pony, this isn’t good. What’s taking the ritual so long!?”

“This cannot be rushed Caballeron, bad things will happen!”

“Like having the royal guard investigating a sudden spike of unknown magic!”

“You will beg to be in the custody of the guard should this ritual fail due to your inability to quiet down and let me focus.”

‘This magic, it’s, not a dragon, so not the southerners, then who? And it’s so weak'. Determining that the threat level was significantly lower than I initially thought, I redirected my attention to my current prison. Heavily enchanted with mostly protection and preservation runes, any spell casted in my direction would affect the shell not me. It also seems to have my mother's signature. 'So if this is her work then I need only.’ Feeling around with my magical senses I managed to locate the rune my mother would place on anything she enchanted for me when I was younger. This was so that I could figure out how the runic arrays worked and modify them however I want. In this case though, I just need to deactivate them, after going over there structure first that is.

Caballeron let out a relieved sigh when the magic started to recede. "Did it work?" at Ahuizotl's fatigued nod he continued, “Good, because we need to leave now, the Royal guards will be here any moment to investigate that magical surge. Also, should we be worried about anymore magical surges giving away our location.”

“No, the ritual I performed gives me full control of this relic. Once I established the connection the magic contained within it settled down, though I can still feel it probing around. It almost feels alive.”

“Yes yes whatever, we need to move this thing now the Guard are likely on their way”.

“And how do you suggest we move it?” queried Ahuizotl, “I doubt we can wheel it through the streets without drawing attention, and it definitely can’t fit through the way we came in.” Ahuizotl, glaring at Caballeron and waiting for an answer that would never come, noticed Caballeron was staring at something behind him. Turning around to see what had his attention his eyes were immediately drawn to the initial crack that had formed in the fossil, the sight that greeted him caused his blood to turn Icey. Through the diagonal crack that ran across the top half of the rock, framed by arcs of royal blue electricity was a jaggedly slit pupil colored to match the arcs of energy seemingly searching for perches, and it was staring at him with an intensity he’s seen his big cats give small rodents.

No one moved, no one breathed. Several of the ponies restrained in the room blacked out upon meeting the eyes that had their captors transfixed. Ahuizotl slowly started to back away, “don't make any sudden movements, back away very slowly.” The eye vanished soon after its appearance and the room seemed to breathe an unjustified sigh of relief. That was until the fossil began to flake away from the top down, taking Ahuizotl’s magical connection with it. Upon completion in its place was a breed of dragon the likes of which Ahuizotl had only seen vaguely mentioned on millennia old documents and hieroglyphs. Its body unfolded from the curled position it was in to stand upright to its full three meter height. The dragon in question had a primary color scheme of a white so pure as to rival Celestia's ivory coat and a Blue so light only the contrast of the white scales betrayed their true color. Across the dragon's body with the exception of his light blue underside there were filigree lines of the darkest black that blossom from the base of his webbed wings and unfurled across his body. His wings themselves adhered to his colors scheme with light blue webbing secured to a white frame. Atop his head is a pair of horns colored in the lightest blue that grew pointing behind him and slightly outwards before majestically curving upwards. Starting at the back of his head there were two uniform rows of serrated Electric yellow spines that curve backwards and run the length of his back and tail. His prehensile tail was the length of his body and ended in an angular double pronged spade that Shares the color of his spines. The full majesty of this dragon was however marred by the dust from the broken down shell that clung to his scales.

It felt good to stand up straight, I felt like I was stuck in there for a significant amount of time, not to mention I was starving, thirsty, and felt rather weak. I obviously wouldn't be able to do anything strenuous much less fly. Taking in my surroundings properly I noticed several ponies randomly standing around the large room, there was also a group of them restrained in a corner, several of which were sleeping. ‘I wonder how long they’ve been here’. Not far from one of the entrances to the room was a Pegasus with... ‘wait, is that daring do,' the only reason I remember her is I would magically watch episodes of my favorite TV shows when I sleep, effectively replacing my dreams with everything from Anime to Minecraft.

"..."

What!? I’m stuck on an alien world with nothing of my previous life, if you were in my situation and got a chance to watch TV I’m pretty sure you would jump at the opportunity just like I did. In front of me and slowly backing away was the Ahuizotl I spotted through the crack. ‘I wonder exactly how long I was in there’. He completely froze when I locked eyes with him. ‘I doubt the language is still the same, but he's a historian right? Let’s see if he can understand any of the Ahuizotl Languages I know’.

"{გამარჯობა შეგიძლიათ გამიგეთ?}"

“…”

“…”

‘No response, ok’.

"[ሠላም እኔን መረዳት የምንችለው እንዴት ነው?]"

"(مرحبا هل يمكن أن نفهم لي؟)"

"What’s it doing?" asked Dr. Pathfinder.

"SHHH" responded Northern Lights as she listened to the enunciation of the ancient dragon.

""

Her heart almost vacated her chest when she heard a few familiar words, even if they were in one of the few ancient languages she did not put much effort into studying due to its obscurity. Franticly looking around to formulate a response she locked eyes with Caballeron, who upon noticing her expression made to address her, but she verbalized her response before he had a chance.

""

‘Meh, close enough’. I turned and walked over to the gray-blue unicorn that was restrained with the others. She had bright blue eyes and her mane and tail were a few shades lighter than her coat, and by coat I mean her fur, not the brown jacket she was wearing with climbing boots for some reason, indoors, in the heat at that. Her cutie mark depicted two snow capped mountains and a snowflake. “” I Noted the Ahuizotl talking animatedly with one of the earth ponies. All the while the pony was trying her best to decipher my meaning and formulate her response. It took a few minutes before she responded.

“”

“”. Her face scrunched as she interpreted my question, it wasn’t too hard to know when she caught my meaning, seeing as she somehow managed to turn pale through already pale fur and looked up at me with fear prevalent in her eyes, ‘It seems she misinterpreted what I said, let’s see where this goes’.

Pathfinder noticed his colleague’s change in demeanor “What did it say?” He got no response, so he bumped her with this shoulder to get her attention. Northern Lights turned to him with a haunted look that made him question whether or not he really wanted to know before he repeated his question.

“It wants to take something from my head, but I don't know what, I think it wants my Brain, why did I have to open my mouth now it wants to eat my! At her frantic response all the ponies in the bundle started to panic while frantically trying to squirm away regardless of restraints, it was pretty funny to watch actually, but I don't think the smirk their actions caused to grow on my face helped my case. Of course this caught the attention of all the goons spread out through the room and caused the Ahuizotl and Pony I assume is in charge of the rest to move closer, albeit hesitantly. I know I'm going to regret this but let’s see how it goes.

“What is your answer, do I have your permission”? Pathfinder looked between Northern lights and the dragon with apprehension and fear as Northern tried to interpret the question. Soon enough Northern Lights turned to him with tears in her eyes, before surveying the room, after turning back to him one last time she faced the dragon and gave a single hesitant nod after which she clenched her eyes shut, not wanting to see her demise coming. Pathfinder watched as the dragon reached for the mare before closing his eyes and turning away.

Ahuizotl and Caballeron watched in morbid fascination as the dragon they spawned reached for the pony and sunk an unnaturally sharp claw into the flesh of her forehead below her horn. It’s claw and finger then lit up with runes and magical circles that used the ponies blood to form an intricate runic array across her head and neck, a bit of the blood then flowed up the dragons arm and neck to settle in the center of its forehead before forming a single small magic circle that glowed with crimson light.

Seemingly as soon as it started, the dragon removed its claw, the runes on the pony’s head holding their luminescence long enough for the small puncture wound to heal before going inert. Northern lights slowly opened her eyes after a few minutes passed of nothing more than a small prick below her horn. She saw the dragon looking at her. “ The Pony’s mouth opened and closed several times.

“”

“

“”

<“I asked your permission to exchange languages with you, The magic is still active and will last about an hour assuming the runes on your head remain in place throughout that period.”>

<”So what? you stole my knowledge of equestrian and replaced it with your language!!! Give it back! Give it back.”> At this she started thrashing around while shouting enough obscenities to draw the attention of the ponies that averted their eyes to avoid witnessing the ‘bloodbath’.

Ok that pissed me off, narrowing my eyes I calmly replied, <“Bitch I didn’t steal shit!!! I said we would learn each other’s language,”> came my eloquent response, <“If you would shut the fuck up and calm the hell down you would realize the only difference is you have a few extra languages bouncing around in your head.”> Walking away from that little headache I approached Ahuizotl and Caballeron, on the way my senses seemed to become unmuffled, it was akin to polling my head out of a block of jello, my vision sharpen, I could now hear the frantic breathing and heartbeats of the restrained ponies, I could taste the flakes of my mother's stasis shell in my mouth and deduce its composition, and my nose was instantly hit with the overwhelming and unmistakable smell of cat shit. Turning my head I noticed that the felines pinning Daring Do had turned her into a litterbox. What is it with this world and shit? Putting on a face of disgust and shaking my head I turned back to the ‘villains’. “Is it safe to assume you two are the ones who broke me out of that shell?” Seemingly caught off guard by my newfound ability to speak their language they stared at me. I stared back. They blinked. I turned and started to leave.

“Where are you going!?”

“So you can talk, I thought you were just going to stand there staring”.

Caballeron lowered his head and bared his teeth. “Where did you come from?”

I simply crossed my arms and turned to Ahuizotl refusing to answer such an asinine question. “Do you have anything sensible to add?” Shaking his head held an arm before the pony about to charge backed by his gang of goons or whatever the hell they are to him, ‘maybe there his sons? Clones perhaps?’

“Apologies we did not expect to find one of your kind, we were expecting one of the old gods, though I suspect you might be able to help us in that regard”. I tapped my chin I had a suspicion of what they were talking about, but I needed to be sure.

“The name rings a bell and I have a suspicion I know what you’re talking about, though I hope I'm wrong. Do you have a description?”

“From what we gathered they are about, Six feet end to end, three and five-tenths feet central diameter, tapering to one foot at each end. Like a barrel with five bulging ridges in place of staves and have lateral breakages with thin stalks in middle of these ridges between which there are growths – combs or wings that fold up and spread out like fans to give almost seven-foot wing spread-”

“They had the overall appearance of a huge, oval-shaped barrel with starfish-like appendage at both ends, right?” At his nod I continued, “Yes I know of them, the old ones were the first lifeforms to inhabit this planet. They are also indirectly responsible for what I assume was the near mass extinction event that saw me trapped in stasis. But seeing as the world is once again developed enough to have large buildings I will assume the legions of Shoggoth either got bored and returned to the howling south or were somehow defeated, most likely by the Alicorns and Draconequus working together. I kinda wish I could have seen that”.

“So do you know where their civilization was?”

“No, I don't, I never went on that expedition. And those who survived would rather kill themselves than go back. Keep in mind that these are fully grown Dragons I’m talking about, and by the time the Shoggoths reached that far north while devouring the world they had all either killed themselves or been killed for one reason or another. Alicorns were the first to try and stop them, needless to say they failed miserably, and a couple thousand of them got killed in the process. Then the eastern dragons tried next and were all but wiped out. The last I can recall four of the five most powerful races that were left created superweapons to try and stop them. The Alicorns had The Elements of Harmony, the Sea Ponies had sirens, the Kirin had developed some kind of mega spell and dragons had a special Blood Diamond amulet. None of which worked in the slightest, the elements of harmony even seemed to make them harder to kill. I wasn’t around to see how it all ended. I don't suppose you could enlighten me as to what happened?”

“I am afraid we ourselves don't know, history seems to only go back to the rain of Discord, the only thing before that which is well documented is a global migration brought on by an extremely short lived ice age, anything beyond that is heavily fragmented and can’t be accurately dated.”

“Yes, well, seeing as I don't particularly want the place I live to be flooded with eldritch horrors I suggest you leave that place well alone”.

“That is something we cannot do, surely you can give me some useful information”.

“While I won’t give you what little I know off the Old Ones, I know of a few places you might find interesting, who knows, play your cards right and you will discover wonders and horrors alike. I can give you what knowledge I have of these places in exchange for what knowledge you have on modern geography. I will also exchange our knowledge of language, both written and spoken. I only ask that you let me know what you find.” He seemed to think it over for several seconds, but as he opened his mouth to reply Caballeron cleared his throat.

“Uh Ahuizotl” his eyes flicked to me, “may I speak to you for a moment.” Ahuizotl turned back to me. I shrugged.

After a brief but heated exchange of a words between the two Ahuizotl returned and agreed to my terms. Performing my spell again saw me with a second rune to the right of the first and Ahuizotl’s head covered in runic arrays written in his blood.

“Now, might I inquire as to where I am?”

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Author's Note

Shout out to first hand account, Who pretty much brought you this chapter.

Sorry for the long wait, you know how life is, one minute you start a fanfic and the next creepers start spawning in your subterranean home/work-station/mine. I think I need to let you guys know something tho, this story is not my main story right now, that would be Chaotic Neighbours, as such this story will receive significantly less attention, regardless it's highly unlikely I will stop writing either stories seeing as I tend to come up with ideas for this story when writing my other one. (Don't ask me how that works) Nun the less I will try to get a new chapter out every month. (no guarantees) maybe more maybe less, honestly it depends on how much inspiration I get/have. So comment and make your suggestions for the adventures, encounters, and just all the weird stuff you wanna see happen.

HOWEVER let me make it clear that I might not use your suggestion exactly how you state it or at all. Nun the less your comments help fuel my inspiration. Thanks for reading, see ya next time.

And as always a huge thanks to my editor Hunter Steel without whom this story would be a chore to read.