The Dragonriders of Equestria

Chapters

A Brief History of Pern
The Fall
A New World
Hospitals and Conversations

A Brief History of Pern

Thousands of years after man first developed interstellar travel, colonists from Earth, Tau Ceti III, and many other planets throughout the known universe, settled upon Pern, which was the third planet of the star named Rukbat, in the Sagittarian Sector of space.

Rukbat’s solar system was home to five planets, two asteroid belts and a stray planet, which had only come to orbit in the system in recent millennia. The colonists who settled on Pern, found it to be the perfect planet for their purposes, an agricutural world a long ways off the standard intergalactic trading routes, and a perfect new start for those recovering from the horrors of the Nathi Wars.

The colonists, who were led by the war hero Admiral Paul Benden, and Governor Emily Boll of the war-torn planet of Tau Ceti, quickly abandoned their star-travelling technology in favour of a simpler agricultural life. For eight peaceful years - 'Turns' as they came to call them on Pern- the settlers spread out and multiplied on Pern's tropical Southern Continent, giving little thought to the strange little planet -the Red Star as they would soon come to call it- swinging around its adopted star in an unusual oval orbit. This planet would swing out to the edge of the solar system, passing through the edge of the system's Oort Cloud, before returning inward toward the warmth of the sun, a long cycle which took the small planet two hundred and fifty Turns.

For fifty of those turns, the Red Star was visible in the night sky over Pern. They say keep your enemies where you can see them, but that was not the case with the Red Star, for when it travelled into a close enough range, as it was in range for those fifty Turns of it’s journey, the native life form of the planet would bridge the gap through space between its home world and the more temperate and hospitable Pern. Once these alien spores entered the atmosphere of Pern, they would thin out into long, flat, narrow, silver streamers, like silk ribbons, which floated down to the ground, with the appearance from below of seemingly harmless 'Threads'. However, the mindless silver Threads were anything but harmless. Like all living things, Thread needed to eat to survive, and it ate indiscriminately and extensively of anything organic within it’s reach, plants or flesh, it was all the same to Thread.

The first deadly Fall of Thread caught the colonists completely off guard. This was not what they’d signed up for, and the data from the original evaluation of Pern made no mention of this threat, but this was their planet now, and while they’d abandoned much of their high tech weaponry and tools as part of their idealistic move to Pern, they were a peoples of ingenuity and skills, with battle experience from war-hardened veterans. For a while, they managed to fight off the Thread, using the flying sleds they had brought with them for the purposes of transport, in aerial battles against the sky born threat. It soon became apparent though, that this plan could not be sustained long enough to keep the settlers alive. They’d been able to calculate that the Thread would fall for the next fifty years. They also calculated that with the loss of sleds during the sky battles against Thread and no way of recharging the batteries which powered these flying vehicles, they would only be able to last, at most, another few Turn. Without enough fuel to return everyone safely to the colony ships which had brought them to Pern, and no other options available, they came up with a desperate plan to design a shield against what they knew would be a recurring threat.

Bio-geneticist Kitti Ping, with the help of the colonist’s scientifically minded, used her knowledge of genetic engineering to modify fire lizards - the four legged, winged Pernese lifeforms that possessed abilities needed to fight against Thread - into huge, intelligent, telepathic dragons, named for the mythological creature they resembled. These dragons had many characteristics which made them a perfect weapon against Thread, they could travel from one place to another instantly by going Between, essentially travelling through time and space. After chewing a phosphine-bearing rock the settlers called firestone, they would emit a gas which ignited upon contact with the air, essentially breathing fire. Because the dragons could fly, they were able to burn Thread in midair, before it could ever reach the ground below. Telepathically linked to their chosen riders from the moment of Hatching, during Impression, they could work together as fighting units in perfect harmony. These dragons and their riders formed the mainstay of the protection on Pern.

It would take many generations for the dragons to reach the full size specified in their genetic code, to allow them to be most effective at combatting Thread, but until then, these smaller dragons would be able to effectively protect Pern’s small population. The second part of the defence plan against the deadly invasions would take even longer to develop to their full potential, for Thread, once landed, would burrow and multiply with a truly terrifying speed. So a creature was developed to counter this parasite, and the resulting grub, which had the ability to eat Thread, was introduced into the soil of the Southern Continent and allowed to grow and multiply. The original plan was that the dragons would be visible protection, charring Thread while it was still in the sky, and protecting the dwellings and the livestock of the colonists whilst also being a reassuring sight, and the grub would be a hidden protection, safeguarding vegetation by devouring any Thread that managed to evade the dragons' fire.

The creators of this two-part defence did not allow for change or for hard geological fact. The approach of the Red Star not only brought Thread, but also wreaked havoc on the Southern Continent, causing it to heave with volcanoes and earthquakes, and forcing the colonists to seek out refuge on the smaller, less temperate, but comparatively safer Northern Continent. In their haste to flee, they lost many important resources and, over time, much of the knowledge the settlers had brought from their various home worlds was forgotten.

Huddled together in the cave systems of the first settlement on the Northern Continent, which they named Fort Hold, constructed in the eastern face of the Great West Mountain Range, the colonists soon found themselves to be overcrowded. The dragons had by then been bred to a larger size, and they and their riders required more spacious accommodations than the cliff side hold could provide. Soon though, they found that the ancient cave-pocked cones of extinct volcanoes, one high above Fort, and later another in the Benden mountains, were perfect residences for dragon and rider alike, requiring only a few improvements to be made habitable. However, such projects took the last of the fuel for the stonecutters which the colonists had brought with them. These tools had been programmed only for regular mining operations, to help start Pern’s mining operations, not for wholesale cliff excavations. Subsequent holds and weyrs had to be carved out by hand.

As time progressed, another settlement was started slightly to the north, alongside a great lake conveniently formed near a cave-filled cliff, but Ruatha Hold, as the settlement was called, also became overcrowded within a few generations. And so, the population continued to spread and more Holds, and Weyrs, were formed, though only where appropriate cave systems could be found. Only solid rock and metal, both of which were in distressingly short supply on Pern, were impervious to the burning score of Thread.

And so, the dragons and their riders, up in their high places and the people down in their cave holds went about their separate tasks, and each developed habits which soon became custom, which over the Turns solidified into tradition as incontrovertible as law.

Then came the first interval of two hundred Turns when the Red Star was at the end of its orbital cycle, and no Thread fell on Pern. The descendants of the original settlers began to erase the signs of Thread’s devastation, and they grew crops, planted orchards, and thought of reforestation for the slopes destroyed by Thread. They even managed to forget that they had once been in the very real danger of extinction. Then, when the wandering planet returned, and the Threads fell again, the Pernese thanked their ancestors, now many generations removed, for providing the dragons whose fiery breath would protect their beautiful home for the next fifty Turns.

Dragon kind, too, had flourished during that Interval and had settled in four other locations, following the master plan of defence for the Northern Continent created by the leaders of the first dragonriders.

Stories of Earth receded further from Pernese memories with each generation until the knowledge of Mankind’s origins became nothing but a myth. The significance of the southern continent—and the instructions left to teach of the two-part defence system of dragon and grub—became garbled and lost in the more immediate and important struggle to survive.

With each Pass of the Red Star, a complicated societal structure was developed to deal with the recurring evil. The six Weyrs, as the old volcanic homes of the dragonfolk were called, pledged themselves to protect Pern, each Weyr having a section of the Northern Continent literally under its wing.

Holds, which were settlements akin to towns, developed wherever natural caves were found— some of these Holds were, of course, larger or better situated than others. The largest Holds became like the capitol of a state, home to the Lord Holder, to whom all the smaller holders looked to for guidance and judgment. The Lord Holder decided where new small holds would be established, and who would lead each small hold. It was the job of the Lord Holder to listen to the complaints of those under his rule, collect the tithe to be sent to the Weyr, pass judgement on those accused of wrongdoing, and send aid to the smallest holds in times of hardship. The new Lord Holder was chosen from the most able of the old Holders blood relatives, debated and decided upon by the fourteen other Lord and Lady holders of Major Holds.

Men and women who had advanced skills in metalworking, music and the arts, weaving, animal husbandry, farming, fishing, and mining came together to form Crafthalls in each large and major Hold, and looked to one Master-Crafthall, where the concepts of their craft were taught and craft skills were preserved and guarded from one generation to the next. One Lord Holder could not deny the products of the crafthall located in his Hold to others, as the Crafts were deemed independent of all Hold affiliation.

Each Craftmaster of a hall owed allegiance to the Master of his craft, a person who was elected based upon their skill in the craft and on their administration ability. The Mastercraftsman was responsible for the output of his or her halls and the distribution, fair and unprejudiced, of all products created by the craft on a planetary basis. Certain rights and privileges were given to the different leaders of Holds and Masters of Crafts and, naturally, the dragonriders, to whom all Pern looked to for protection during Threadfall.

Because the dragonriders were unable to farm their own food, having no farmable land available, and could not make their own clothes or craft their own tools and furniture, their time consumed by the care and training of their dragons, and the fighting of Thread during the pass, each Hold agreed to pay tithe to the Weyr that directly protected their lands. Crafthalls would craft whatever items the dragonriders needed in exchange for transport on dragon back during the intervals. The Holds and Halls also provided candidates for Hatchings when the dragonriders were on Search, children aged 12 to 15 who would have the chance to stand on the Hatching Grounds, and if they were lucky, they would Impress a dragon and become a dragonrider. As life in the Weyrs was not only prestigious, but seen as easier an easier way of life for women and men alike, both Hold and Hall were proud to have their children taken on Search, and boasted of the members of their bloodlines who had become dragonriders.

It really was in the Weyrs though that the greatest social revolution took place, for the needs of the dragons took priority over all else, which was why it was seen as an easier life, after the first three years that is. Of the dragons, only the golden Queens and the greens were female, the bronze, brown, and blue dragons being male. Of the female dragons, only the Queens were fertile, as the greens were rendered sterile by the chewing of firestone, which wasn’t a bad thing since the sexual tendencies of the small greens would soon have left the Weyrs completely overpopulated. The greens were generally the most agile, however, and were invaluable as fighters of Thread, fearless and aggressive. But the price of fertility was inconvenience, and the riders of Queen dragons were required to use flamethrowers to burn Thread, though only then the Weyr had the required three Queens for a Queen’s wing. The blue males were sturdier than their smaller sisters, while the browns and bronzes had the stamina for the long, arduous battles against Thread, which lasted six long hours, unless the Fall started or finished over water, or the if it snowed that day, for Thread drowned in water and crumbled into a fine black dust when the air high above where a dragon can fly was too cold.

In theory, the Queenndragon would mate with whichever dragon could catch them first during their arduous mating flights, bronze, brown or blue, however the honour always went to the Bronze dragons, whose size, strength and speed were only beaten by the Queens. It quickly became a matter of Weyr law that the rider of the bronze dragon which flew the senior Queen of the Weyr became the Weyr Leader. It was up to him to choose the wing leaders, create new and better tactics to fight Thread, create the training schedule, and he was the one who oversaw the fighting Wings during each Fall. The rider of the senior Queen dragon, however, had the most responsibility in the Weyr during and after each Pass. It was the Weyrwoman’s job to nurture and preserve the dragons, to sustain and improve the Weyr and all its folk. A good, strong Weyrwoman was an essential part to the survival of the Weyr, just as the dragons were essential to the survival of Pern.

We begin our story during the first few years of the Seventh Pass of the Red Star, some fifteen hundred Turns after man first came to Pern....

The Fall

Sierra stood straight and tall, as her mother had always told her to do when people were watching her. She tried to ignore the hot sands which burned even through her sandles, tried to ignore the itch on her nose as she glanced to the side to see the half dozen other girls dressed as she was in a candidates white robe. The air was filled with the sounds of quiet conversation from the spectators sitting up in the stepped stone seats around the outside of the hatching grounds, but more important was the sound of humming from the dragons perched high above on ledges all around the great cavern.

The youngest daughter of the Lord of Benden Hold, Sierra had never dreamed that she could be standing here today. She was certain that her parents had already made plans for her to marry some young Holder before the Dragon Riders had come in search of candidates for Impression. Somehow, she had been Searched, and by a dragon no less. V'nore, Rider of blue Namath, had told her parents that Namath would not take him back to the Weyr unless Sierra was with him. She had never seen such excitement on her parents face, but then, it was a great honour to be Searched, even more so when the dragon chose you, not the rider. Also, to have a dragon rider in your family was very prestigious, much better for the family name than a mere marriage could be. And so she had been whisked away Between to the Weyr.

That had only been four days ago, four days since her life had completely changed, but it felt so much longer. Now she stood on the great Hatching Grounds of Benden Weyr, awaiting the hatching of the dragon eggs. The great golden Queen dragon Selith lay behind her clutch, watching the candidates sternly. This was to be her last clutch, if the rumours around the Weyr were to be believed, for she was old, indeed her hide no longer shone in the brilliant gold that younger Queen dragons possessed, and the clutch was a third the size of what she used to produce, only thirteen eggs in total, twelve mottled eggs of various cream, brown, greenish, blueish and yellowish patterns, and one gleaming gold egg which the Queen kept protectively close to herself.

Suddenly, the humming of the dragons ceased as the sound of a crack rang out through the Hatching Grounds. Unable to resist, Sierra looked over to where the male candidates stood, two dozen ranged in a loose semi-circle around the bulk of the eggs. Several of the eggs were rocking, cracks forming as the dragonette inside each one fought to break free. All of a sudden, one of the eggs burst open, releasing the Bronze that had been inside. It was a good omen for a Bronze to hatch first. The wobbly dragonette turned it's head this way and that, searching, until it spotted what, or rather who, it wanted.
Waddling forward on unsteady legs, squawking when he almost fell, the Bronze made a beeline for a stunned looking redheaded boy - Telfern was his name, or rather, T'fern now - who cried out in joy when the baby dragon reached him and the Impression was made. "He says his name is Varoth!" was all Sierra heard before her attention was wrenched back to the golden egg before her.

The egg had begun to rock, gently at first but then more fiercely as a spider web of cracks appeared up the side. Soon enough, the little Queen burst free of her egg with a squawk before turning her head to inspect the candidates before her. Tamelin, also the daughter of a Lord Holder, ran forward to the little Queen, desperate to be the one to Impress the golden dragonette. The oldest daughter of the Lord of Lemos Hold, she had been betrothed to the new young Lord of Nerat Hold, but now her sister would receive that honour. To not Impress today would be a disgrace, especially as her parents sat amongst the crowd. She reached the dragonette quickly, but cried out in dismay as the little Queen pushed right past her.

The other candidates all moved tentatively towards her, but she seemed set on her path, forcefully knocking one girl to the ground to reach her destination. Sierra's eye's widened in shock as she realised where that path led, and she fell to her knees as the crooning dragonette reached her, green jewelled eyes whirling. My name is Melrith came a soft, beautiful voice to Sierra's mind.

"Melrith..." Sierra murmured, tears springing in to her eyes. It was the most beautiful name for the most beautiful dragon on all of Pern.

Are you okay? Is something wrong came the voice again, Melrith's eyes changed to yellow in worry.

"No... No, everything's wonderful, you're wonderful, the most beautiful, wonderful dragon to ever hatch!" Sierra cried and threw her arms around her little Queen's neck. The dragonette squawked in surprise before crooning happily.

The moment only lasted a few seconds though, before Melrith pulled her head back to look at Sierra with her eyes whirling red. I am hungry.

Sierra laughed at that. "Of course you are, lets go get you fed!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 5 Turns Later ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Benden Weyr was a hive of activity, riders and weyrfolk alike checking and double checking preparations for the upcoming Threadfall over Lemos Hold in a little under an hours time. This was the first Threadfall of the new Turn for Benden Weyr, they'd been lucky enough to have a 12 day break between falls over Turns End, and had therefore been able to celebrate in proper fashion, unlike Ista Weyr, which had needed to fight Thread on the day of Turns End.
This was the start of the third turn of the current Pass of the Red Star, early enough during the Pass for the excitement to still be alive, but long enough for all six Weyrs to have taken heavy losses. The main, massive bowl of the Weyr was filled with the fighting wings, standing in their proper places as the riders checked the fighting straps on their saddles.

Weyrlings ran about, handing out bags of Firestone to each rider, while weyrfolk prepared the buckets of numbweed that would be required for those dragons which returned to the Weyr Threadscored, and the jugs of wine laced with Fellis Juice which would be required for any badly injured riders. From the caves that pockmarked the sides of the bowl, riders and dragons watched on longingly, confined to their quarters after having been injured in previous Falls. Up at the Star Stones, the structure that showed when the Pass of the Red Star would begin, the Watch dragon bugled a greeting to a dragon that had just winked in from Between.

Sierra was one such rider caught up in the excitement, standing on the large ledge outside her Weyr Cave as she tightened the straps of the saddle on her beloved golden Queen, Melrith. Like all other Queen dragons, she was bigger than even the biggest Bronze - Sierra was barely able to wrap her arms around Melrith's snout - and her gold hide shone bright in the sunlight that filtered down into the bowl of Benden Weyr. Will we be leaving very soon? came the sweet, melodic voice of her dragon.

"Yes my dear, we'll be leaving soon enough," Sierra said, smiling as Melrith made a trilling noise in approval.

Finishing with the saddle, Sierra had been about to go to collect her flamethrower from inside her Weyr Cave, when she heard a voice behind her. "Sierra, just what do you think you are doing?" asked the obviously angry man.

"I'm almost finished preparing for Threadfall, D'larim," Sierra replied, turning to face the angry wingleader, who was flanked by his wingseconds. "Just like everyone else is doing."

"I told you that Melrith would no longer be flying against Thread, not until she clutches and her eggs hatch, we can't risk her getting injured during the Fall." D'larim was a tall man in his late forties, with shrewd eyes and a sharp beak of a nose under a mop of dull brown hair. He was known for his fierce temper, and there were not many who could calm him down once he was angry. How such a man could ever Impress a Bronze, Sierra would never know.

"It will be about another three sevenday's before her eggs cause her to be too heavy to fly, four until she lays. Zenorth flew Thread a mere sevenday before she laid her eggs and you didn't make a fuss about that."

"Because Zenorth is the Senior Queen-"

"That doesn't mean anything when it comes to skill and you know it. Zenorth is only the Senior Queen because she rose to mate first after Selith and Lorissa went Between, if Melrith had risen first, she would be Senior Queen and I would be the Weyrwoman. Now I suggest that you go and check that the weyrlings have finished handing out the firestone sacks, we wouldn't want to be late for Threadfall now, would we?"

"Such insolence! After High Reaches lost an egg heavy Queen to Thread during their last fall, we cannot take any chances! Now you will obey my orders, I'll be Weyrleader soon enough and then-"

"Melrith and I have faith that none of Benden's riders would allow a clump of Thread past their ranks. And you may not become Weyrleader, there are a dozen other Bronzes who might catch Zenorth, and everyone knows that Carla favours R'nor and Kaybeth-"

"That's enough, from the both of you!" came the voice of Carla as she strode towards the small group. The Weyrwoman was a tall lady in her early thirties, with short golden hair and piercing blue eyes, the epitome of beauty, and exactly what the people living in the Holds would expect a Queen rider to look like, unlike Sierra, who was only 18, short, with thick, shoulder length black hair and dark green eyes.

"Weyrwoman, please allow me to explain, Sierra here is disobeying a direct order to remain behind-"

Carla held up her hand to silence the older rider. "I heard, it was hard not to. Sierra will be flying with myself and Melra in the Queens Wing, as Senora and Leith are still too young to be our third rider. You know we cannot have a Queens Wing without three Queens, and I will not miss out on the first Threadfall of the Turn simply because you do not have enough faith in our riders."

"Y-yes Weyrwoman, I'm sorry Weyrwoman" D'larim muttered, before slinking off down the stairs and into the bowl with his wingseconds to finish preparations.

The Weyrwoman strode over to inspect Melrith's saddle before nodding in approval. "You keep your gear well cared for, Sierra..." She held up a finger as Sierra tried to reply. "Now if only you would listen to me, I told you not to antagonise D'larim, he's a very prideful man, and he will disregard your status as a Queen rider because of your age, you need to learn to work around him, not get into an argument every time you speak."

"I know, Carla, I'll try..."

"Good, now you'd better hurry and collect your flamethrower and join Melra and I, I meant what I said about not wanting to miss the Fall. We will be leaving as soon as D'larim gives the signal, he's leading the Fall today after all." And with that, Carla strode off, back up the stairs to her cave where her dragon waited on the ledge.

Sierra sighed, but hurried to obey. She missed B'ral, everyone in the Weyr did. He had been the Weyrleader of Benden Weyr, with his Bronze Yelmeth, until the pair had been caught in a clump of Thread four falls ago. They had been too badly Threadscored to return to the Weyr, instead dissapearing into the black void of Between forever. The loss had been devastating to the Weyr, but life must go on, and Dragonmen must fly when Thread fills the sky, as the old saying went. So now everyone anxiously awaited Zenorth's next mating flight, which would determine who would gain the title of Weyrleader. The favourite was of course R'nor and his Bronze Kaybeth, but D'larim had his supporters, being older, and more experienced, having flown every Fall since the start of the Pass, leading many Falls and only suffering the most minor of Threadscores.

In the end, no one would really know until the mating flight was flown. Sierra smiled, thinking fondly of Melrith's last mating flight. It had been her second flight, and the Queen had been flown by T'fern's Bronze Varoth. T'fern had been a caring lover, even whilst locked in the thrall dragon passion. A rider was never more at one with their dragon than during a mating flight. Smiling and shaking her head to clear the thoughts from her mind, she smiled and returned to Melrith, who crouched down and offered her foreleg as a step, which Sierra used to nimbly climb onto her Queen's back. "Let's join the others, shall we?"

The dragon warbled in agreement, before leaping powerfully off of the ledge and gliding down into the bowl, aiming for the massive golden beacons of Benden's other Queens. Zenorth was about the same size as Melrith, whilst Melra's Sinath was noticeably smaller, still bigger than the biggest Bronze though. Sierra waved in greeting to Melra, an older woman in her mid fifties, taller than Sierra but shorter than Carla, with brown curls and brown eyes, and darker skin that spoke of a desert Trader heritage. Melra waved back with a smile, "you're just in time, I think D'larim's about ready for us to go."

"I'd imagine so, he want's to start off the Turn right," Sierra replied.

"Don't we all?" Melra said, "we've got about 48 Turns left of Threadfall, we should aim to fight every Fall right!"

"Very true Melra" was all Sierra could say before D'larim began giving orders.

As leader of the Fall, it was D'larim's job too keep order, he kept the Wingleaders in order, and they kept their flights in check. He signalled everyone to begin feeding their dragons firestone, and the air was soon filled with the sound of dragons carefully grinding stone between their teeth. The chewing of firestone was what allowed the dragons to produce flame to burn Thread in the air.

Once satisfied that enough firestone had been chewed, each and every fighting dragon lifted up into the air on their massive wings. They quickly arranged themselves into formation, each Wing in different levels, the Queen's wing at the bottom. Queens had a much bigger wingspan in relation to their bodies compared to other dragons, which allowed them to fly closer to the ground, making them the last line of defence against any Thread that may have made it through the ranks of flaming dragons above.

Also, Queens were unable to chew firestone, or they'd risk infertility, so Queen riders wielded flamethrowers to combat stray Thread. The Queens had one final duty during Threadfall. As they were larger than every other dragon, if another dragon was too badly injured and could not make it back to the Weyr, a Queen would be able to catch the dragon on her back and help it back to the Weyr.

D'larim raised his arm in a fist as his Bronze spread the image of where they were going to every other dragon. Once every dragon had received and understood the telepathic image, he brought his fist down in the signal to go Between. As one, the fighting dragons of Benden Weyr disappeared into the absolute black void of Between.

Travelling Between takes only as long as it takes to cough three times. To those new to the experience, it was highly disconcerting, with no air to breath, the immediate bone chilling cold, the all encompassing black and deafening silence, and most unnerving of all, when Between, you could not feel the dragon beneath you, or anyone sitting in front of or behind you. For experienced Dragon Riders though, Between was not scary, it was what allowed then to travel almost instantly to any location on Pern. It also symbolised safety, a dragon caught in Thread could duck Between, where the cold would instantly freeze the Thread to death.

The dragons reappeared above Lemos Hold with a burst of frigid air and a loud whooshing sound, still in perfect formation. They didn't need to wait long before the first silvery Threads were spotted high above them. Thread didn't look dangerous, it looked like silvery ribbons drifting down to the ground, when in reality, it it could reduce a full grown herdbeast to bones in seconds, and then it would eat the bones too. The worst part was that it didn't have a mouth, but seemed to dissolve through anything organic it touched. Sierra hoped that they wouldn't lose a dragon or rider this fall, moral was low enough as it was. Those thoughts were swept from her mind as the dragons rose to meet their ancient foe, flame filling the air and reducing the Thread to ash.

The Fall had begun.

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

Sierra sent a burst of fire at a wayward Thread with her flamethrower. Judging by the movement of the sun through the sky, they'd been at this for about three hours now, meaning they had another three hours to go. They'd travelled quite a ways from Lemos Hold as they followed the path of the Fall. The Hold had most likely already sent out it's ground crews by now, wanting to double check that no Thread had escaped notice and fallen to the ground before it could do any real damage. If they happened upon a Thread burrow, they would use similar flamethrowers to the Queen riders ones to burn out the burrow and kill the Thread inside. Once the fall had ended, the riders would inform each of Lemos' smaller Holds that it was safe to send out their ground crews as well.

The dragons were still going strong, swooping and flaming Thread, chewing more firestone whenever they were getting low on the gasses which allowed them to breath fire. The older Weyrlings had made certain to keep the riders stocked up on Firestone, and the Queen riders flamethrowers fuelled, jumping Between to designated drop-off points where they could leave more firestone and fuel. So far they'd only had half a dozen dragons who needed to return to the Weyr from Threadscore, if they kept this up, it would be one of the best Falls they'd had so far in the Pass, but of course, you never knew with Thread. The only thing predictable about it was when and where it would fall.

Zenorth say's the wind is changing direction, the Thread is starting to clump Melrith said as she dove after a stray Thread for Sierra to flame.

"Shards! that's all we needed," Sierra exclaimed, for clumped Thread was more dangerous to fight.

It will be okay, the others know what they are doing.

"I know they do, but it only takes one slip in focus for disaster to str.." Sierra was cut off by the bugle of pain from a Bronze.

It's Varoth Melrith relayed as Sierra looked up to see the Bronze wink Between and back, then begin to fall.

"By the first egg, his wing's all torn to shreds! Tell the Zenorth and Sinath that we'll get him back to the Weyr!"

Done Melrith replied as they soared up to catch Varoth and T'fern as the big Bronze tried to glide down on one wing. Manoeuvring skillfully under him, Melrith was able to support his injured wing so that he wouldn't crash land once they returned to the Weyr. Once up close, Sierra could see that his wing wasn't quite as damaged as she'd first thought, but it would still be months before the tears in the wing membrane had healed enough for him to fly again. She could also see that T'fern had been hit by Thread, his arm scored badly, but he grit his teeth against the pain, more worried about his dragon than himself.

"Okay Melrith, take us home!" Sierra said, taking a deep breath, and suddenly they were Between. Like always, Sierra counted.

One cough.

Two cough.

Three cough...

Four...

Five...

Six...

"Melrith!?" Sierra shouted mentally in panic.

I am here, do not worry came the confused voice of her dragon.

"Why aren't we home!?"

I do not know... Varoth and T'fern are still with us.

"Oh no, no no no no, we're going to die here Between..." Sierra thought, more to herself than her dragon. Suddenly there was a flash of intensely hot, blinding, white light, before the freezing utter black void of Between returned. That didn't make sense, there was no heat, and definitely no light in Between, no one had ever written or spoke of a hot white flash before. Confused, scared, but still counting, it was around the twentieth cough that Sierra passed out from lack of breath and the absolute cold of Between. It was as the twenty fifth cough that the two dragons and their unconscious riders came out from Between.

Back at the Weyr, the dragons bugled in mourning at the loss of a Bronze and a Queen. The riders and dragons still fighting Thread would only stop to mourn once the Fall had ended, but Carla and Zenorth, and Melra and Sinath returned immediately to the Weyr, no longer having the three Queen riders they needed to fly during a Fall. Fighting back tears, the pair of Weyrwomen helped the Weyrfolk with patching up injured riders and dragons. There would be heavy drinking tonight.

A New World

Sierra was roused by the sound of a dragon moaning in pain. She was very surprised to find that she wasn't dead. Her head hurt a little, but she could sense nothing else ailing her. Slowly, she opened her eyes to find herself laying against Melrith's neck, still strapped into the harness which kept her from falling off during flight. They were in a clearing, surrounded by a dark looking forest, and it appeared to be midday, judging by the location of the sun. Strangely, the sky was not the greenish blue that she was used to. You need to tend to Varoth, his rider has yet to wake Melrith said.

"Right..." Sierra quickly unstrapped herself and climbed down, shrugging off the flamethrower strapped to her back and discarding it on the ground, she then walked over to the big Bronze. While she was thankful that she carried a jar of numbweed on her every Fall, she knew there wasn't enough to cover a full grown dragon's wing. At best, she'd be able to numb the pain where she needed to sew the gash closed, but none of the smaller wounds along the edge of the wing. First though, she needed to unstrap T'fern and get him to the ground safely. Varoth lay down to give her easy access to his rider, more worried about T'fern than himself. "Any idea where we are?" Sierra asked her dragon as she lay the Bronze rider on the grass.

No, this place does not look familiar, nor does it smell familiar. I cannot sense or contact any of the others... the Queen replied as she looked around at the trees. That worried Sierra, a dragon could telepathically communicate with any other dragon on Pern, no matter the distance between them. If Melrith couldn't contact, or even sense, the other dragons of their weyr, what could that mean? Was something wrong with her dragon? I am fine, Varoth says to use the numbweed on his rider first.

"But there's barely enough to numb the tears in his wing to sew the membrane back together," Sierra said.

If T'fern dies that will no longer matter Melrith said, surprising Sierra, for dragons rarely used other peoples names.

"Okay, but don't say I didn't warn him," Sierra murmured as she knelt at T'fern's side. His arm hadn't been quite as badly scored as she'd first thought, but the deepest wound needed stitches, and it would take time to heal. Carefully she removed and used his belt knife to cut off what remained of his shirt and jacket sleeves, the shirt sleeve she tore into strips to use as a bandage. Then, she took as much of the numbweed paste as she dared to rub into the score marks, glad that she wore leather riding gloves, for even a little numbweed would render her hands useless to sew his arm or the dragon's wing. She then took the needle and thread she carried in her belt pouch and did her best at sewing the worst wound closed, but without a proper Healer, these would definitely scar. She quickly finished by bandaging his arm before turning to the scored dragon who had been trying to suppress his sounds of pain. "Varoth, please spread your wing as close to the ground as possible, I don't have a table to stand on."

The Bronze obliged, stretching out his wing so she could see the damage. She sighed in relief when she saw that there was only one major tear in the wing membrane, and it had only looked worse in the air because the edges were tattered. A dragons wing was much easier to sew than a humans arm, it was almost like sewing a thick blanket, if that blanket bled green ichor. Quickly, she spread what remained of the numbweed along both sides of the tear, much to the relief of the dragon. She then took the needle and thread and began to sew the two parts back together. By the time she was finished, nearly an hour later, her gloves and jacket arms were covered in dragon ichor, but the major tear and as many of the minor tears she'd had thread for, were sewn up. "That's going to hurt a lot when the numbweed wears off, and it will wear off quickly since I didn't have enough to lather it on as usual, but it will heal," Sierra said to the dragon, who carefully folded his wing.

Carefully pealing off her gloves, she walked over to her dragon, retrieving her water skin and draining what was left in it in a few gulps. Now she had some time to actually look at her surroundings, and quickly discovered that nothing was familiar to her. Whilst some of the plants looked similar to ones she knew from home, albeit different colouration's, most looked strange, and once more she noted that the sky was a lot bluer than she'd ever seen. "I need to get a better lay of the land," she muttered.

Varoth says he and T'fern will be fine if we take a short flight, we smell no danger around, and what wherry would attack a human guarded by a dragon, even if injured Melrith said, answering the question her rider had been about to voice.

"I'd be more worried about tunnel snakes, they're much more sneaky, but okay then, let's go and see what we can of this place." And so, Sierra jumped up onto her Queen's back and Melrith leaped up powerfully, spreading her wings, and with a downward sweep, quickly gained altitude. The first thing Sierra noticed was that the forest was immense, stretching back a long way to some distant mountains. As Melrith turned though, She could see an end to the forest, relatively close, and beyond that, she could make out what looked to be a lot of buildings. That wasn't something she was used to, while buildings weren't uncommon on Pern, the amount of buildings she saw before her was highly unusual. Holders preferred the stone-bound safety of a carved out mountain, and what buildings that there were, were built mostly from stone, whilst the ones she could make out looked to be made of wood or some other pale materiel. She had Melrith circle their immediate area, and spotting a nearby river, they landed so Sierra could refill her flask, and maybe catch some fish.

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"Twilight! Twilight!" A blue and rainbow blur shouted as it rocketed through the door of Ponyville's crystal tree castle, heading towards the magic map room.

"Rainbow Dash?" Twilight Sparkle said as she walked out of the room, only to have the pegasus crash into her. "Gah! Oow... Rainbow, I've told you time and time again to slow down inside!" the purple alicorn growled, pushing the dazed mare off her.

Shaking her head, Dash stood up. "Eh heh... Sorry Twi... But seriously, I have something important to tell you, I saw a massive golden dragon flying above the Everfree! Bigger than that one we had to wake up and make leave. It wasn't far from town either."

"Hmm, strange, I thought Ember had commanded that outside of the migration, dragons need to stay away from pony towns and cities until she can track down that rogue group of dragons that's causing trouble." The alicorn stood up and thought for a moment. "Spike?" she called.

"Yeah Twi?" Spike replied as he strolled in, feather duster in hand. Twilight smiled, still not quite over the fact that he was back, and now much taller than her. He'd spent the past two years with Ember, learning about dragon history and culture. During that time he'd shot up, and he'd come back a lot more sure of himself and his place in the world. While Twilight had missed him dearly, she was glad that he'd had the chance to discover who he really was.

"Rainbow Dash says she's seen a massive gold dragon in the Everfree, do you know anything about that?"

"No, Ember didn't mention anything about letting any dragons pass through here in her last letter, and that's something she definitely would have told me. We should go and check it out, do you remember where you saw it Dash?"

"Sure do, follow me!" Dash then zipped out the door. Spike sighed, shaking his head, then removed his apron and placed it and his feather duster on the map table. He then counted down from three on his claws, causing Twilight to smile as Rainbow flew back in the room as he reached one. "Umm, sorry guys, I forgot Spike's too big for you to carry anymore Twi..."

"It's okay Rainbow, I forget sometimes too. I can just teleport us all to outside the forest and we can just walk from there." The other two nodded and stood next to Twilight as she lit her horn. A bright purple flash later and the trio were standing at the edge of the forest that had once struck fear into their hearts.

"Okay, great, now follow me guys, it was just this w..." Rainbow was cut off by a ferocious roar.

"Oh dear, we'd better hurry!" Twilight yelled, racing off in the direction of the sound, the other two following quickly.

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Varoth's in trouble, we must return Melrith said to her rider seconds before the furious roar reached them. Abandoning her hunt for fish, Sierra leapt onto the dragons back and they took off immediately, flying as fast as possible over the short distance back to the clearing. There they saw Varoth facing off against a pack of five strange, canine like creatures. T'fern was still on the ground, but clearly awake, as he was struggling to sit up. Melrith landed next to Varoth and growled in anger at the strange intruders, eyes whirling red in fury. Upon closer inspection, the creatures appeared to be made of various pieces of wood, bark and leaves. Sierra also noticed a horrible stench that she hadn't smelt in the clearing before they'd left.

"Tell Varoth to torch these things, whatever they are, if he has any fire left!" Sierra said, then spotted her discarded flamethrower where she'd left it, "I'll use my flamethrower." Melrith appeared to nod, and Varoth immediately opened his massive maw to release a jet of flame at the creatures, while Sierra jumped to the ground and bolted to were her flamethrower lay. Not bothering to pull the main bulk of the thing back onto her back, she grabbed up the nozzle, pulling the trigger to send a stream of flame at one of the creatures which was attempting to come at her.

Faced with flaming foes, the strange canine creatures turned tail and ran whimpering back into the forest, two of them singed and one smoking. Almost immediately the stench began to dissipate, making it clear that the creatures had brought it with them. Varoth warbled quietly in satisfaction at having scared off the threat to his rider, then lay down once more.

"What on Pern were those things and why aren't we in the Weyr!?" T'fern almost shouted as he watched the creatures leave.

"I honestly have no idea T'fern, but we clearly aren't on the Northern Continent anymore..." Sierra said as she walked over and helped him up.

"So what, we're on the Southern continent? Or the Western continent? By the Egg Sierra, what image were you projecting to your dragon?" He asked, no longer as loud.

"I was projecting an image of the Weyr, but something happened Between, and I have no idea what, I saw a flash of white light, felt a moment of sudden intense heat, didn't you feel it too? Shards! There isn't meant to be light or heat Between, there's no records of that happening..."

"I... I saw that too, but I thought that was just some sort of fever dream because I'd passed out..."

A low growl of warning brought the riders attention back to their surroundings as their dragons told them that something was approaching. Melrith moved, as if hiding the pair from the view of whatever was coming their way, while Varoth stretched out his neck, searching the treeline. Sierra readied the flamethrower in case they would need it again. They waited silently, until a figure appeared. At first, Sierra couldn't believe her eyes, the thing was green and purple. It stood on two legs like a human, but there wasn't anything else human about it, in fact it looked rather reptile. It looked to stand about as tall as Sierra, and was covered in purple scales, with green spines, green fins on it's head where it's ears would be if it were human, and a green underbelly, it also had rather large, green eyes. Most shocking of all though, was when it began to speak.

"Um, hi there, I'm Spike, the Official Ambassador of Friendship between the Dragon Lands and Equestria, as appointed by Dragon Lord Ember of the Dragon Lands and Princess' Twilight, Celestia and Luna of Equestria. Now I don't remember seeing either of you when Ember made her announcement, but you should know that you are getting rather close to a pony settlement. Because of the actions of a renegade group of dragons, Lord Ember has commanded that for the time being, dragons without direct permission from Dragon Lord Ember herself, cannot settle near, or fly close to any pony settlements outside of migration flights." Spike was trying to sound as official as possible, but he couldn't help but be aware that these dragons looked strange. For one, their eyes looked more like multi-faceted gemstones than eyes, and their eyes were also changing from bright red in colour to orange. Secondly, they appeared to be wearing saddles of some kind, and the bronze one had a large sack strapped to it's saddle.

From the bushes behind him, Twilight and Rainbow watched on, not wanting to interfere. Spike had it hard enough amongst his own kind for being a wingless dragon without a pair of ponies making it look like he couldn't do his job properly without help. They too noticed that these dragons weren't like anything they'd seen before, their colours were strange, metallic dragons weren't a common sight, and their eyes definitely looked alien, unlike any other creature in Equestria.

There are two more creatures in the bushes behind this creature called Spike, I can smell them, they smell a little like runner beasts, they are hiding Melrith said to Sierra, mentally sharing the picture of small flashes of blue and purple in the nearby bush. At this point, some form of talking could be heard from the direction of the bushes as well.

"I think it would be safe to introduce ourselves then, whatever they are, they clearly speak Pernese, and they might be able to help us," Sierra replied mentally, only able to make out a few words from the conversation in the bushes.

"It looks like they're protecting something," Twilight whispered to Rainbow, noting how the gold dragon was sitting in a defensive looking manner that seemed to hide something from view.

"Yeah, it does look that way... Should we sneak around and look?"

"I don't know, it could just make them angry if we're discovered."

"True, but what could they do to us, I'm awesome and you're an alicorn princess, you can teleport us home. Spike's a dragon, he spent two years learning how to deal with other dragons, so he can get out of a situation easy as pie."

"Still, what if they are angry enough to follow us into town and they start to destroy everything?"

"Relax Twi, they wouldn't do that, they wouldn't want to risk Ember's wrath"

She is correct, Varoth and I have no intention of destroying a town, but we do not know who this Ember you speak of is. The voice rang clearly through the ponies heads, seemingly from nowhere. The pair of ponies were momentarily stunned into silence until a gasp from Spike brought them back to reality.

"What... What are you?" Spike asked as a strange bipedal creature walked out from between the two dragons. It was tall, almost as tall as himself, and it wore a lot of clothes, more than even Rarity would wear at once.

"I could ask you the same question, you say you're a dragon, but you're clearly nothing like our dragons," the creature said in a clearly female voice.

"You speak Equestrian? And... our?"

"No, you're speaking Pernese, and I have another rider with me." At this point, Twilight and Rainbow both stumbled out of the bush, wanting to get a closer look at the strange creature. "What, by the egg, are those things!?" Sierra almost shouted in her surprise at the sight of such vibrantly coloured creatures. They looked almost like miniature runner beasts, but one was pale purple with a dark purple and pink mane and tail, whilst the other was light blue with rainbow hair. If that wasn't odd enough, both had wings and the purple one had a horn.

"I'm not a thing, I'm a pony, pegasus to be exact, the names Rainbow Dash, now what are you?" the blue one stated.

Shocked that this creature, a pony, could talk, Sierra couldn't help but respond in kind. "I'm a human, my name is Sierra, weyrwoman at Benden Weyr and rider of golden Melrith, my friend is T'fern, also of Benden and rider of bronze Varoth..."

"We're pleased to meet you Sierra, I am Princess Twilight Sparkle, Equestria's Princess of Friendship. I am an alicorn, meaning I'm earth pony, unicorn and pegasus all in one. If I may ask, where is your friend, T'fern?" the purple one asked. Twilight wasn't sure what to think, while this Sierra did in fact resemble the humans through the magic mirror portal, she was also very different. She was much shorter, and her body bigger, and limbs and head much smaller than the mirror world humans, and her facial features were in different proportions, ears and nose bigger, eyes and mouth smaller, but that could come from a smaller head. Also, her colours were strange, very dull, not like a pony or their human counterpart at all.

"He's right over here next to Varoth... Oh shards, he's passed out again..." Sierra walked back to T'fern and checked his arm, to find that the stitches had torn in his struggle to get up when those wooden creatures had tried to attack, and his arm was now bleeding freely, the bandage completely soaked. "He's hurt rather badly, do you ponies happen to have any Healers we could take him to?"

"We can take him to the hospital," Spike said. He was a little unnerved by the fact that these humans called themselves the 'riders' of these dragons, as if they were some kind of pet, but the dragons didn't seem to mind, not that they were talking.

"I don't know what a hospital is but if it has people who can heal wounds there, then that's where we need to go." Sierra said as she struggled to pick up T'fern. She wasn't sure what to think of these strange creatures, but right now all that mattered was for T'fern to get better, then he'd be able to help her sort all of this out. And then T'fern was lifted out of her grasp by a strange sparkling purple light, causing her to yelp in surprise. Varoth jumped to his feet, growling at the light holding his beloved rider, his eyes yellow with worry. Melrith tried to sniff at the light, trilling in curiosity.

"Oh, um, sorry, I should have said I could carry him if that's easier..." Twilight said sheepishly, then recognised that they had no idea what it was that she was doing. "Oh, it's a simple telekinesis spell that I'm doing, mixed with a more advanced stasis spell, it smells like he's bleeding out, so this will stop it temporarily until we can get to Ponyville hospital."

"I have no idea what you're talking about, but lets get going then... um, Varoth can't fly, he was hurt too, will he be able to walk all the way out of this forest? It looked really thick from the air."

"Well he's really big, but I think I know a path where I could lead him out," Spike said, "if you want to go ahead with your friend... It might be best if both of the dragons stay with me, the ponies in town would react better to two strange dragons if they're with me."

"Good thinking Spike, um, but only if that's okay with you Sierra," Twilight said.

"You and, Rainbow Dash was it? Well you both have wings, we could fly to this hospital."

"Not really," Rainbow spoke up, "You see, the weather conditions here over the Everfree Forest are like, super erratic, it's near impossible for anything other than a dragon to fly easily over it, trust me, I've tried."

"Oh... Melrith, would you be okay staying with Varoth and following Spike out of the forest?" Sierra asked the golden queen.

Of course Sierra, I would like to talk to this strange dragon, ask him about this world the dragon said, her eyes green with contentment.

"Well okay then, I guess I'm walking with the two of you." Sierra then grabbed up and shouldered her flamethrower, not wanting to strap it to Melrith's saddle in case it snagged on a tree or something. "Okay, let's go."

Author's Note

And this is where I publish this story. Writing these chapters has taken months, but hopefully now I'll be able to get some feedback and the inspiration to write chapters a little faster. Here's hoping I find some Pern fans to talk ideas with :)

Hospitals and Conversations

The forest seemed unending as the strange group ran, galloped, flew and floated towards what the ponies had called a 'hospital'. If not for her worry for T'fern, Sierra would be questioning the pair non-stop about what they were, how they could fly, why they were so oddly coloured, how did they build a town with what appeared to be hooves, what else could Twilight Sparkle do with that magic glowing horn of hers, why did only Twilight have a horn, were there any other types of pony other than pegasus and alicorn, but it appeared that the blue and rainbow one, Rainbow Dash, had no such inhibitions.

"So you and your dragon talk telepathically, and that's why you had that far away look on your face before? That's so cool! Okay, now, what's with the clothes?" the pegasus asked, flying beside Sierra.

"When we go Between on our dragons, there's immediate, bone freezing cold, the thicker your clothes the better... Hey, I thought you said you couldn't fly here?"

"Eh, as long as I'm below the trees it's fine, see?" She proceeded to do a loop. "Anyways, I meant why wear clothes when not doing that? We only wear clothes for special occasions, though the snooty, stuck up, high class of Canterlot wear clothes a lot more, you aren't stuck up and high class from where you're from are you?... Also what's Between?"

"Rainbow," Twilight spoke up, "now is not the time to play twenty questions, that will come later, after we know her friend will be okay. Now do you remember what I told about the Mirror World? The humans there have a strict nudity taboo, and I believe that to be a common human trait now."

"Thank you Twilight, but I don't mind answering some questions, it's taking my mind off things honestly... Now, there isn't quite as much of a taboo on nudity for dragon folk as there is for Hold and Hall dwellers, but we still wear clothes the majority of the time." Sierra hadn't even been thinking about why the ponies weren't wearing any clothes, but then decided that they mustn't need them, seeing as they were covered in fur and all.

"Right, okay... You know, Rarity's gonna love you two, creatures that always wear clothes, that's so many outfits for her to make."

"I'll definitely need some new clothes soon, all I have with me is what I needed for the Fall..."

"The Fall? What's..."

"We're almost there now" Twilight said, interrupting the pegasus, and sure enough, they'd finally reached the edge of the forest. "It's just over there," she said, pointing a hoof at a large building. Sierra shuddered instinctively at the sight of it, all that wood would be devoured in no time by Thread.

"What's wrong?" Rainbow asked, seeing the look of worry on Sierra's face.

"Well..." Sierra sighed as they continued, now walking. "Where I'm from, there is a thing we call Thread, it falls from the sky, the Fall, and it devours everything organic in sight once it reaches the ground, so we live mostly in caves, and if we have to build buildings, it's out of stone, so seeing a wooden structure just kind of freaks me out."

"That sounds super dangerous, but the name isn't very scary," Rainbow said.

"It's named for how it looks, silvery threads drifting down to the ground, anyway, the whole reason Dragonriders like T'fern even ride dragons is to burn the Thread in the air before it can reach the ground. At first I'd thought that this place must be the Southern Continent, and somehow a forest had survived despite the devastation of Thread, but there's no way this is the same world..."

"Wow... wait, what about you and..." Rainbow scrunched up her face for a moment.

"Melrith," Sierra supplied, finding the expression rather cute.

"Yeah, what about you and Melrith, why'd you just say Dragonriders like T'fern?"

"Melrith is a Queen dragon, golds and greens are the only females, but greens mate much more frequently than golds, we'd be over run by dragons in no time if they were always clutching, so they chew firestone to render them infertile, so only the golden Queens can lay eggs, and since they can't chew the firestone to breathe fire, their riders, like me, use flamethrowers like this one to burn any Thread that makes it past the rest of the riders." Sierra gestured to the flamethrower strapped to her back. She got the feeling that Twilight was bursting to ask her own questions, but was just being polite.

Soon enough though, they reached the hospital. Inside, Sierra was met with stares of shock and fear, until the ponies in the room saw who she'd come with, after which they calmed down. Looking at the ponies, Sierra could see two more pegasi like Rainbow, one whose wing was bandaged, and what she had at first thought to be two more alicorns like Twilight, until she realised that they didn't have wings, just horns. She also saw three ponies with neither horns nor wings. One of the horned ones, white with dark blue mane and tail, who wore a white coat and a weird metal disk on his head, walked up to the group, giving Sierra and the floating T'fern a weird look.

"Princess Twilight Sparkle, to what do we owe this visit?" the pony asked, definitely male from the voice.

"Doctor Spell, he needs urgent medical care, I had to use a stasis spell to prevent him from worsening," Twilight said, floating T'fern over to the doctor, which Sierra assumed meant Healer here, for examination.

"Okay, I agree he's in a bad way, but I don't rightly know why you brought him here, I'm trained to heal ponies, not to heal exotic... pets... I can tell you where a good vet is if you want?" He gulped, now noticing Sierra's scowl.

"T'fern is no pet! He is one of the finest Dragonriders in our Weyr and he deserves nothing but the best healing on offer!" Sierra snapped, catching the doctor off guard by her ability to speak.

"Oh, umm... I'm so so very sorry miss, and Princess, I had no idea these were foreign dignitaries!" The doctors responded, sweating in his nervousness at having insulted these creatures.

"They are in deed foreign, but please, T'fern really does need urgent care, Sierra is stressed out enough as it is, so if we could move to an examination room right now, that would be most appreciated, Doctor Spell." Twilight schooled her expression, not wanting to show her annoyance at the Doctor.

"Yes, yes! Of course, this way please, Princess, Sierra, and Rainbow Dash," Doctor Spell said, gesturing for them to follow.

"Uh, I think I'll wait outside, hospitals really aren't for me," and with that, the pegasus zipped out the door.

Twilight and Sierra followed doctor down a hallway, and into a room which contained many objects, the functions of which Sierra did not know. She felt unnerved by the total lack of Glowbaskets for lighting, finding the light from the strange hanging bowl things to be harsher than she was used to. She zoned out of the conversation, unable to to focus on the complicated foreign words they used while they talked over T'fern, who now lay on a strange looking bed which was too short for him, his legs mostly hanging off the end. She just examined the pictures on the walls and objects on the bench, trying to make sense of what all the pictures meant, and wondered how the Harper who made them could manage such detailed pictures and such fine script with brush.

"If he were a pony I'd be giving him a blood transfusion, but pony blood would harm him since he isn't a pony, as would her blood if it weren't the same type." Doctor Spell thought for a moment, then waved to get Sierra's attention. "What's your blood type? And do you know what his blood type is? If you have the same type we can use some of your blood to top up his."

"Err... No?" Sierra wasn't sure what he meant by types, but she did know that mixing the blood of one rider with another when patching them up after a Fall usually lead to the rider getting very sick. For some reason dragons never had this problem, and just as well, it'd be near impossible to clean all the ichor off before going to help the next dragon.

"Hmm, well I can know in a minute or two, a simple matter of casting a spell," he said as his horn lit up in a brilliant dark blue. First he placed his horn to T'ferns arm, holding it there for half a minute. He then moved to Sierra, and she felt a tingling up and down her arm as he held his horn to her wrist. He completed the spell with a frown, "their blood types are close, but not a match... I'll get Nurse Gold Heart to use a replication spell to temporarily replicate his blood until his body can replenish itself naturally. Now, if you ladies could please wait out in the waiting room, I'll get to healing that nasty wound of his."

Twilight nodded and headed to the door, "come on Sierra, let's leave him to his work." Sierra hesitated a moment, not wanting to leave T'fern in the hands, or rather hooves, of a stranger, but she ended up following.

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"So you guys talk to your riders telepathically, and you only let others hear you if you choose for them too?" Spike asked as he lead the huge gold and bronze dragons through the Everfree forest.

Correct, though occasionally a girl is born who can hear all dragons, whether we wish her to or not. Someone with that ability is always important to the Weyr Melrith replied. She was rather enjoying talking to this strange dragon who spoke vocally, rather than mentally, like her rider and other humans did.

Spike smiled, he was enjoying talking to dragons who were more like him, at least in temperament and attitude. The other dragons he knew were fine, but they were rough and tough, prone to crudeness, and most had violent tendencies, especially Garble, who'd never even attempted to get along with Spike or any ponies. The majority still weren't fully on board with being friends with ponies, despite all he and Ember had done to prove the benefits of pony-dragon relationships. He couldn't wait to tell Ember about these new dragons, she'd want to come and meet them, meaning he'd get to see her again sooner than they'd planned. He then pushed the thoughts from his head, turning his attention back to Melrith and Varoth. For the first time since leaving the clearing, he noticed that their eyes had changed colour again from the red to orange from before to an aqua blue colour for Melrith, and a grey tinged blue for Varoth. "Umm, if you don't mind me asking, what's with your eyes? I mean, why do they change colour?"

Our eyes show our emotions, changing colour to show how we feel. Red shows anger, hunger, or the passion of a mating flight, orange is suspicion, uncertainty, or panic. Yellow is fear, worry, or concern, while green is contentment, tranquillity, happiness, and blue is curiosity, mischievousness or excitement. Purple shows stress, and grey is great saddness, or pain. Varoth is curious about you, but his wing is beginning to give him pain again, hence the blue grey.

"Oh cool, that's so awesome, well, apart from the pain part... What happened to him anyway?" Spike asked, curious about the giant bronze's tattered wing.

I fought against our ancient foe, the Thread, and lost... Sometimes it is hard to judge how the Thread will fall at you, today it clumped suddenly, and that is the hardest to evade. The dragons voice in Spikes head was deep and rich, a powerful pleasant voice, though it was clearly tinged with pain.

"Oh... So what is Thread? It must be really dangerous if it can do that to your wing."

It looks harmless at first, came Melrith's softer voice, sounding rather like her rider Sierra. Silver ribbons floating gracefully down to Pern from the Red Star, but it devours anything living that it touches. Only fire, winter's cold and rain can destroy it before it does harm.

"Okay, yeah, that's not something I'd want to face." By now, they'd reached the edge of the Everfree, and now Spike needed to focus on getting them safely to the castle without having the townsponies freaking out over the sudden appearance of two huge dragons. Luckily, the castle was on the outskirts of Ponyville, so they could just skirt around the edge, rather than go through the town.

I've never seen so many buildings before, and none built like this Melirth said, curiosity clear in her voice and blue eyes. Are all those living here ponies?

"Well, not quite, we also have donkeys, cows and Zecora, who is a zebra." The dragons didn't seem to know what those were, but for right now, that didn't matter, somepony had noticed them.

"Spike! Why didn't you tell me you were having friends over from the Dragon Lands?" shouted the pink pony bouncing towards them.

"I, err, sorry Pinkie, I, umm, didn't know they were coming till they were here..."

Pinkie gasped, "a surprise visit? You're so lucky Spike!" She then turned to the dragons and waved. "Hey there, I'm Pinkie Pie, one of Spikes pony friends, nice to meet you!"

Hello Pinkie Pie, I am Melrith the gold said.

And I am Varoth

"Wowza! Weird names, but you guys can speak with your minds?! Spike, you didn't tell me dragons could do that!" she said said, shooting Spike an accusatory glance.

"Because they can't, or, we can't, these guys aren't from the Dragon Lands, they aren't even from this world..." Before Spike could say anything else, Pinkie gasped again.

"Alien dragons?"

"Kind of, I guess? Look Pinkie, I need to get them to the castle, Varoth's wing is causing him pain and we need to figure out something to help heal it in case Twilight doesn't know any healing spells that might help."

"Oh, do you want me to get Fluttershy? She's great with broken bird wings," Pinkie said, wanting to help.

"Err, I'm not sure that'd be a good idea, given how she panics around new dragons," Spike pointed out.

"Oh, right, well how about Zecora then? She knows all kinds of potions and stuff, and doesn't freak out easily," Pinkie suggested.

"Actually, yeah, she'd probably be more helpful than any pony doctors, if you could go get her, that'd be great Pinkie," he said. Pinkie then saluted and ran off towards the Everfree without another word. Blinking, Spike shrugged, then continued leading the metallic dragons to the castle without further incident.