Dragon's Dogma: Arisen of Equestria

Chapter 10

No rest for a Hero

Night time has fallen upon Equestria as Arisen finally made her way to Carousel Boutique with a tired expression on her face. So far, it’s been nothing more than a Q&A for the past couple of hours. Most of it involved examples of the magic she can do, while seeing if she could learn some of the magic in Equestria. As Twilight was about to see if Arisen could perform Equestrian magic, the clock hanging on the wall of her home rang and Arisen told her that she should get going so she can get a fresh start exploring the town in the morning. Before the dragon left, the alicorn handed over a couple of basic books in how to use magic for dummies.

“Gotta say, some of these spells are interesting and more advanced than some of the magic back in Gransys. Telekinesis might be useful in case I end up having my hands tied up...again.” She thought as she took notice to some of the ponies looking at her. As she looked back, some of them would either quickly head back inside their homes or shut the doors to their respectful businesses to avoid eye contact with the dragon. “Guess they still don’t trust me or are still afraid of me? Well so long as they don’t form an angry mob against me, then I shouldn’t worry about them disliking me or something.” Once she was at the boutique, she knocked on the door to see if anyone was up or still awake.

“Rarity, you in there!?” Arisen yelled as the door slowly opened to reveal the seamstress in her nightgown.

“Ah, Arisen. Was beginning to worry that Twilight might’ve kept you over at her place for more testing and what not.” She said before noticing the tired expression on the dragon’s face. “Oh my. It would seem that she worked you almost to the bone.”

“A lot of it was questions and answers. The other half was showing her a display of the magic I can perform.” She said as Rarity moved out of the doorway for her to enter. “Never thought I had to use more of my magic then how I usually do.”

“I’m very sorry about Twilight. She can be a bit excited when something new is introduced to her. Which in your case would be you in a way.” Rarity said as she chuckles a bit. “Now, as for your living arrangement. The guest room is set up right next to Sweetie Belle’s room. Make yourself at home for however long you’ll stay here...and if you can, do try to keep Sweetie Belle and her friends out of trouble from time to time.”

“Is it that bad?” Arisen asked as Rarity thought for a moment before shuddering at the CMC’s antics.

“Yes...yes it is.” She said before heading upstairs. “I’ll see you in the morning darling~” Arisen just stared at her for a moment before placing her weapons by the door and headed upstairs.

“Nice girl. Her personality reminds me of Madeleine.” Arisen paused at the thought of the merchant that she helped start her business in Gran Soren. “Wonder if she’s doing okay?” She thought before shaking her head and heads upstairs to the guest room. Once inside she soon flopped onto the soft comfortable looking bed as she lets out a sigh of relief. “Gotta admit. These ponies sure do know how to make a bed...much better than the beds at Gran Soren.” Having said that, her eyes felt heavy as her vision faded into darkness.

“Arisen...Ser, how could you?! I cannot think you entirely innocent of what has happened, nor do I doubt His Grace's words...yet...I also cannot think you an enemy to the people of Gransys. Alas, I am duty-bound to follow what orders I am given, ser. Pray, forgive me. His Grace commands the Arisen's capture, men!” Maximilian said as he and his men charged at the arisen with swords at the ready. Once they surrounded her, each one would attempt to try and stab her from all around. Only for her to either quickly parry their attacks with her longsword, dodging, or her pawn counters with a powerful shockwave that sent them flying backwards.

“Master, you must leave! I will hold them off!” The pawn said as he quickly blocked a sword strike with her staff and Arisen counters with the pummel of her longsword.

“Not happening. We’re a team, and I’m not about to abandon you.”

“I am your pawn. It is my job to protect you. Now please, run away while I hold them off!” The pawn said as he raised his staff up and generated a towering wall of flames between him and the soldiers. Arisen gritted her teeth as she bolted it towards the side of the entrance to the castle. As she made her way down the steps, she heard the sound of magic going off along with the sounds of weapons clanging against wood. What caused her to stop in her tracks, was the sound of her pawn screaming in pain and the sound of flesh being cut into.

“Her pawn is down, after the traitor men!” yelled a random soldier as she could hear them coming down the stairs. She quickly continued to run down the stairs and burst through the doors that lead to the craftsman’s quarter. Her eyes widened upon seeing more soldiers standing in front of her as a mystic knight hit her with a bolt of lightning to her chest. The lightning soon wrapped itself around her as she was soon pulled towards the mystic knight, then towards ground.

“Don’t even think about escaping traitor!” He yelled as he started to electrocute Arisen, causing her to scream and spaz out in pain. “I knew you would be the end of us all. My friends, family, all of it is gone because of you! Well now I’m going to make you suffer for what you did!” he said before pulling the whip made of lightning and tossing her into a nearby abandoned building. “Archers! Fire!” He ordered as the soldiers from behind fired a barrage of arrows into the house she was inside.

Arisen quickly rolled underneath a table as she took cover under it as the arrows hit the table. Once the hail of arrows stopped, she quickly bolted out of the house, rushes towards the mystic knight, and impaled him with her sword in the chest. As she quickly pulled her sword out of the soldier, she felt a surge of pain through her abdomen. Her eyes widen as she looked down to see a sword run through her and cough up some blood. Looking down she sees the mystic knight that she killed impaled her with his sword. He smirked as he drove his sword more into her as she gasped from the pain.

“Rot in hell, traitor…” He said before his body went limp as death took him. Arisen gritted her teeth from the pain, but pushed passed it as she ran off into the center of town while bleeding. Once she was there, she collapsed onto her hands and knees as the soldiers that were with the mystic knight surrounding her with their swords pointing at her.

“You have nowhere else to go Arisen. Surrender now and we will treat your wound and let you live the rest of your life in the dungeon.” Maximilian said as he walked in front of the bleeding human. “Please...I don’t want to have to lose a friend like you.” Just as the former hero of Gransys looked up, she noticed her surroundings starting to change as bright light soon engulfed the area she was in causing her to cover her eyes. Once she felt the light fade away, she could see Princess Luna standing in front of her instead of Maximilian as she blinked in surprise.

“Of all the nightmares I have visited in Equestria, yours is a...special case here.” Luna said as she uses her magic to help Arisen up on her feet. She then snaped her fingers as the wounds on her body vanished, causing the dragon to blink in surprise as she looks over her body.

“....I have...so many questions on how this is possible...besides the obvious answer being it’s magic.” Arisen asked as the princess chuckled to the dragon’s reaction.

“Magic is the only answer I have for you Arisen. Unlike most ponies, I can travel into ponies dreams when they’re asleep in the dream world. In here, this is my domain.”

“Huh. Would never have known you were this good with magic on this scale.” She said before she felt herself beginning to float. “It’s weird being awake in my own dream like this.”

“Given what you told us about your homeland, it would feel weird having this sort of thing happening to you.” Luna said as she looked off to the side a bit. “Forgive me if I was a bit late to stop the nightmare you were having sooner. Your mind is...a bit complex to move through. That and a lot of it kinda gave me some insight of what you went through.”

“H-How much did you see? I know I talked about it, but visual wise how much did you see?”

“Only the parts that you shared with us at Twilight’s place this afternoon. Nothing else, I swear.” Luna snapped her fingers as they are now sitting on beanbag chairs. “I take it that nightmare I saw you in was on the day when your people betrayed you?”

“Yeah...it was.”

“Do you hate them for what happen to you?”

“...I wouldn’t lie and say I didn’t. I can possibly understand the soldiers seeing how they’re more focus on protecting their king and all...but what Maximilion said really did hit me more than a cyclops. It didn’t help that the people turned against me as well seeing how I tried to weather out the ongoing disaster that was happening all around Gransys. My hometown was the only safe haven I had left and the people there believed me. Especially when Quina checked my heartbeat to see if it was there.”

“Couldn’t you have stayed in your hometown?”

“And let them suffer for something I’ve done? The people there are my family and saw me as a hero. Having them protect me from the king would end up getting themselves killed. I could handle losing the tile as hero and label as a villain...but almost losing my family was something I couldn’t bare to watch again.”

“Again?”

“I’ll possibly share about it later on if I have more nightmares, or if I’m more comfortable talking about it with you.” Arisen said as she leans back in the beanbag. “Not to be rude or anything. I know you didn’t mean to look into my mind. But you kinda invaded my personal space, which I hold nothing against you or anything. God knows I would’ve felt awful when waking up.”

“We understand. We’ll try to gain your trust and not accidentally read your mind as we come and visit you from time to time.”

“I appreciate that, thank you.” Arisen said as she looked around the dreamscape she was in. “So how long am I gonna be here in this place?”

“Until I leave. The nightmare shouldn’t happen again. But if it does, I’ll try and stop by and give you a relaxing dream.” She said before pulling herself up from her seat. “Which I should be doing with other ponies. Until we meet again Arisen.” She said before disappearing into cosmic dream dust.

“Ponies that can enter into the dreams of others...Could they be the ones that might’ve brought me here to this world and given me this body?”

Back at Canterlot Castle, Celestia was busy reading a book in her private studies. With day court done for today, the princess of the sun could finally relax a bit before going to bed to rest up for tomorrow. Though she wouldn’t get that much sleep as she soon heard the phone ring from her nightstand. Her horn glowed as she used her magic to levitate the phone over to her to answer.

“Hello? This is Princess Celestia. May I ask who is calling?”

“It’s me. Titania.” The centaur said as a smile grew across Celestia’s face upon hearing her voice.

“Ah, Ms. Titania. I take it you’re calling me to inform me that your father is out of tartarus?”

“Sadly yes. As you ordered, I released him from his imprisonment and now he’s out gathering his strength...Care to explain what your plan is Princess?”

“You want the short version or the long version?”

“Short if possible.”

“Very well. As you already know, Tierk is planning on taking over Equestria after what happened to him all those years ago as a means of revenge right? And like you said he’s gathering energy by stealing the magic from innocent ponies. Once he has enough he will come here and take our magic once he’s strong enough.”

“Isn’t that why you have Twilight and her friends to solve all your problems?”

“Yes, but I’m afraid that even they won’t be able to stop him. Especially if Discord were to join his side.”

“...You’re joking right...you think he would be that stupid to join my father’s side?”

“It’s just a feeling I’m getting at. Even though the girls say he’s reformed...I have my doubts that he’s fully reformed.”

“Fair point. So what are you planning if the Elements of Harmony fail? Do keep in mind that my father can absorb magic of any kind. Including that magical rainbow beam of death.”

“Eris took care of that. She found somepony...or in this case, dragon that might be willing to help.”

“Really? And who might that be Ms. Omnipotent princess of everything~” Titania said sarcastically as Celestia rolled her eyes.

“She’s different. This dragon can use magic.” The princess said as there was a long pause over the phone before the centaur spoke.

“....You’re not planning on transferring all your magic into this dragon that can use magic are you?”
“Not just myself, but my sister and Bolero’s magic into her as well.”

“...Are you high or something!? What makes you think that this plan will work!?”

“It will work seeing how Arisen is not from Equestria. The magic that she gave off from when I met her was something that seemed rare. Like a needle in a haystack, this dragon if trained could handle the amount of magic stored in her.”

“And what makes you think this dragon will be willing to do it?” She asked as Celestia went silence upon her question. “You haven’t told them about this have you?”

“The walls have ears my dear friend. You know Tierk has eyes & ears on the inside of Equestria. Unless you forgot what happened when I asked you to help me take down your father.”

“...Right. So what are you planning on doing with this dragon named Arison?”

“For a while she will be in Ponyville spending some time relaxing and trying to gain the trust of the citizens within the town. Knowing that place, she’ll have her hands full dealing with monsters, crazy antics, and possible something involving Twilight and her friends.”

“Not to mention Cerberus that I ordered to attack the town.”

“....Wow, didn’t think you would do that.” Celestia said as she pulled herself up from her seat and headed towards the window of her room to look at the night sky. “I’ll have to make a mental note to train him in mental magic if your father does that when he’s sent back to tartarus.”

“Had to send it someplace to get me enough time to bail him out.”

“Fair point. As I was saying, she’ll be busy with Ponyville for some time with how it is. Once the ponies see her as a trusting dragon, I’ll have Gleaming Shield drop by to see how good she is in fighting. If I like what I see, then I’ll inform her about what I’ve done.”

“You do know that she might be pissed that you’re using her as a means to save Equestria right?”

“I know...and she’ll possibly hate me and never want to speak with me ever again.” Celestia sighed as she opens the window as the cool night wind blew passed her and caused her hair to flow majestically. “If I’m being honest...I’m tired of ruling...tired of always having to listen to ponies problems, royal ponies wanting to change the rules to help benefit themselves and screw over the poor ponies. I’m just tired of it.”

“If you’re tired of this, then why don’t you retire?”

“I want to go out with a bang of sorts. I want to see if Twilight and her friends can handle protecting Equestria on their own without the need of me or Luna when a problem comes. I mean, why do you think I’ve been pretending to be weak? I never wanted to be ruler of a nation. I wanted to explore the world, see new places, learn what it means to be a normal pony. Not some old fart locked up in a castle and is only allowed to leave when diplomacy is involved.”

“Well I can’t blame you on that. You have been protecting Equestria for the past one-thousand years. And no pony besides us rejects, your sister, and few of your subjects appreciate all the stuff you’ve done...I’ll continue to do as you order. Just remember not to have any regrets when you do plan on retiring.”

“My only regret is taking the reign of ruling the Kingdom of Equestria when father died. I think i’ve talked your ear off for far too long. I’ll let you get your sleep for when you’ll be in Canterlot tomorrow for your reward.”

“It better be bits this time, and not a sack of IOU cards.”

“Hey, those IOU cards worked for me when I had to get free ice-cream.”

“You’re a bucking princess...of course they’ll give you stuff for free!? Now am I getting bits this time or not!?”

“Fine, I’ll give two-thousand-hundred bits.Is that good enough for you?”

“Good, glad to hear my skills are worth the bits.”

“Gee, I feel so honored.” Celestia said in a sarcastic tone before cutting the call off and snorted in annoyance. “That centaur really gets on my nerves sometimes...she’s almost as annoying as Discord’s daughter.” She said before looking back at the sea of stars and smiled upon seeing some stars shoot across the sky. “Fail or succeed. At least I know what I’ll leave behind once this is over.”