Book 1: Foundation of Equestria

Ihō gulped, able to smell the blood of the Umbrum prince and the gorgon that apparently called herself Aladjinn. He was afraid. Ihō’s strength was stealth, he was very quiet, and his changeling blood gave him the ability to shapeshift. To change colour wasn’t magic based, but transformations were, so he could only blend into whatever he as around. it was difficult, and he was terrified when he got to hear the sound of slithering. He was so screwed. Where in the hell were those stupid flowers!? And where did Fuwa go?

“Dammit!” he heard the female shout, rubbing a deep hoof print scar on her cheek. Her jaw hadn’t healed right, and it looked extremely uncomfortable. So much so she hadn’t noticed him. He didn’t know if there was a god of luck, but if there was, thank you! “crap, crap, crap, crap!” she slithered in circles, pacing. The rage in her eyes was extreme, and he did his best to not look directly into them. he didn’t want to be stone. When a Draconequus died, they become stone, so this was playing with actual life and death her.

Ihō let his eyes wonder, trying to spot the flowers. Erin of Eagleand was willing to open trades, and apparently, he wanted some of those plants to replicate. A lot of lives can be saved through this, but him and his ally could get killed. Gorgons weren’t something you mess with. Konran was extremely reluctant, but the gorgon had smelt Umbrum, so they had to send a foreign species. if he did this then Kōkatsuna could shove it right under his stupid ass tail! That was a little mean, but still, this would prove that he could handle himself.

“Hello!” that voice… that was the Ahuizotl! What the hell was he doing here? “Yo, Aladjinn right? I’m Ahuizotl, and I’ve got somethin’ that’ll keep you from stoning me.” the gorgon hissed, glaring at the direction the strange creature came from. He was holding something in his tail hand? Ihō squinted his bug like eyes at the object, seeing it was an amulet?

There was a silver plate in the shape of an arrow and had the depiction of an Alicorn on it. two wings coming from the top that were red at the limbs and the feathers were black. The head was looking left, it had no mane, a sharp horn and red eyes. in the middle of the plate was a red diamond that glowed ominously. There was something seriously wrong with that thing, it was cursed and stomach churning, and he was just looking at the thing without being near it.

“What is that supposed to be, dog monkey?” Aladjinn growled, her eyes scowling deep into the red gem “Is this some kind of joke?” he was smiling like an innocent idiot, the same smile that made Ihō and Roki seem incompetent, along with a lot of Umbrum guards. The gorgon hissed, her snakes hissing along with her, all of them desiring to bite the alien beast where he stood.

“It’s something my master made. It has an inkling of his power. We call it the Unicharm… the name’s a work in progress.” He and that rat were definitely working for someone but who? Damn this was looking to be more trouble than he thought it’d be! Fuw-Discord was in a bit of a pickle here as well. They didn’t know what that thing did, so they were in more trouble than originally thought “Wear this, and you’ll be a forced to be reckoned with,” Ahuizotl chuckled, raising his brows up and down suggestively “Once you wear it, only you can take it off. It’s infused with the soul of an Alicorn we managed to slit the throat of… but be careful, it packs a wallop! Use it too much too fast, and your own soul will be lost to it,” he laughed as the gorgon took it, likely not listening to what he said. What the hell!? What, world, reality, bull crap is that? just out of the blue this moron gave this insane stoner an Alicorn necklace! Roki could come up with better names than these.

She smiled as she put it on, power visibly coursing through her veins. Ahuizotl trotted away like the ass he was, the gorgon now alone with the crazy power. Before he disappeared in the mist, he looked right into Ihō’s eyes and winked, then he was gone. he knew he was there. Somehow, they found out he’d be here… but, how? How did he know? He risked becoming stone for, just, he, raagh! He can’t think with how many questions where going on in his head! he was gonna die!

“With this power, I can get that little shadow. He was tasty, and I need to spite that rainbow one!” she growled, her voice changing as the amulet glowed violently. It was having extreme effects on her mentality and she’d just put the bloody thing on. Ihō didn’t need to look into her eyes, he was already petrified! She sniffed deeply, turning her head “Somebody’s here…” a deep aura surrounded her eyes and arms, the muscle beneath her skin trembling violently. She can’t handle that power, it was corrupting her very soul. That’s why he gave it to her. it was to corrupt her, to what purpose, Ihō didn’t want to know. Flowers. Just get the flowers and escape. But how? If he moved, she’d see him and kill him. He heard a very loud whistle, and the shine of armour. No, no, no you aren’t going to be doing this.

“Come at me fang face!” shouted the other Draconequus, her attention going towards him. She started moving unnaturally fast “Shit!” he ran with the gorgon following, leaving Ihō all alone. He slowly walked out from where he’d been hiding.

He breathed a breath of relief, though it was short lived. There would surely be a better plan than to paint a target on yourself. But then again, the gorgon had an amulet that was letting her use magic in a magicless zone, which narrows down all of your options for a fight. Find the flowers and get out quick. He searched, he searched, and he, guess what? he searched some more, and he couldn’t find any of the flowers! There were a lot of statues here, all of them used to be alive, and a couple potentially were. They were trapped, their life force slowly being eaten, what a way to go. he hoped Discord was an agile as when they were in training or he’d be another statue to the garden…

Many things went wrong today. She wanted to play with her the ponies she’d met, the young foals that hung around her for her and not because she had wings and a horn. They were like friends. She didn’t know, the only friend she really had out there was her guard and her sister, who refused to talk to her or even look at her. it was stressful to say the least. She sniffled, her ears against her multicoloured mane. It was just her and her ‘friends’, and then some bug pony came and captured them, putting them in metal cages. The one time she tries going out alone, and she gets captured like the princesses in story books! Only in this story the dragon creature would come to her rescue.

Lance Shy nuzzled her, trying to keep her spirits up. He was even more scared than she was, and wasn’t doing very job at hiding his fears, but he was trying. For them anyways. They didn’t know where they were going, from what he could tell they were on a wagon, since their cage was covered with something and everything was lightly shaking. At least they knew they were going somewhere and not to be monster meat.

Dark Heart kicked against the metal, fully aware he wouldn’t be able to escape, but he had to try. Lance Shy shook his head, a silent no. Dark Heart snorted and sat down, his back hooves aching from all the bucking he’d just done. he knew a farmer filly back home who could probably glare the thing open so that sucked. Rocking Arrow paced back and forth, trying to keep calm, even when he was clearly panicking. Unicorns didn’t have a lot of magic, but they were valuable. So were Velvet Chaser and Sky Eye. Pegasi were stolen to do races and things like that, earth ponies had barely anything. They’d likely just be sold for meat. Morbid but a fact.

Rocking Arrow scooted towards the cage door, trying to break the lock with his magic, again, but he failed. Celestia tried to help too, but she also failed. There wasn’t any harm in trying was there? The shaking suddenly stopped, the fabric covering them from letting them know where they were being removed. Before them was a young dragon.

He was plain. He had dark cyan scales, two warm ivory horns that curved like a ram, his wings had golden innards and his eye colour was of fire. She could see he was counting them, all six, and other little creatures like bunnies and whatever. She stood tall, walking to the bars of the cage beside Rocking Arrow. She needed to try and negotiate. She was a princess, wasn’t she? So far all she’d done was bitch and whine, not very princess like.

“Excuse me?” Celestia said, kind of getting the dragons attention “I’d like to negotiate with you.” he laughed at her, until he saw she was serious, and then he laughed even harder “If you release us, I’ll get…” she would make them swear to never say what she was about to say “My, dad, to keep your head on your shoulders. I am Celestia of Medianoche Brilliante, the Umbrum King!” she did her best to be as confident as possible, despite the fact she was shaking on the inside. This dragon could char her, and her only defence was an overly forgiving king she’d nearly killed.

“Really?” said the dragon, a scaled brow raised. It was rumoured that the king had taken in two stupid ponies, but he hadn’t believed it. until now “Well, I’d love to, but I have a job to do. I don’t like it, but it puts dinner on the table and a roof over my head. that and my boss will skin me if I don’t get your sorry tails to the rendezvous spot.” They would go for a high price, even the two earth ponies. They were colts, so they could be trained to pull things that mares wouldn’t be able to. Slaving wasn’t his favourite job, but nobody hired dragons these days, the few that were around anyways.

“Your reward for returning us will be protection from your boss then,” she said while swallowing her fears. She never thought she’d ever be in this situation, then again, the past near four years had been nuts. These few months more than anything. It mega sucked thanks to how Umbrum lived, a year to her was pretty much nothing to them, so time went by in a literal blink for them until Medianoche changed it. huh, he changed the body clock of his whole race just for her? the ONE time her Draconequus was needed to do a different job she gets nabbed by a slaving dragon! “Maybe I can try and get you some money from it too?”

“Rather brave for a filly ain’t ya?” she had a fire deep in her, which he mildly respected. Most of these equine just crapped themselves in fear, which was a pain to clean up. Dragons almost naturally respected that spark in other races, even if they’re as irritating as a pony. he did catch the scent of a creature he hadn’t smelt since working in Drapan. Well shit, if she knew one of those things along with the Umbrum then he’d be better off with her! might even be able to find better work than this pain in his scales “If my boss’ goons manage to break a scale on me, our deal is off, ight? Names Torch.”

“Ok, we have a deal.” She actually did it, she pulled it off. Knowing how forgiving Medianoche was, he’d likely give Torch a job. And she was brave, wasn’t she? Celestia, negotiator of dragons! She pushed her chest out with pride, her foal friends all hugging her with happiness “We’re goin’ home!” could’ve gone a lot worse, she hoped her luck wasn’t going to run out. Lance Shy waved a bit at the dragon, who was thinking whether or not he’d just screwed up or not. well, lets hope he doesn’t get eaten. Did Umbrum eat dragon? He didn’t want to find out.

If Ihō didn’t have any flowers he swore to, uh, well dead Cosmo he’d kill him! He had to jump up a tree again as the bitch managed to BREATHE POISON GAS! Because, you know, like you do! Could’ve thought this out a lot better for sure. Well he wasn’t known for very good plans. He had luck on his side though, since her brain was basically going to mush thanks to the mutated power surging through her body. this time physical strength wasn’t needed, it was about speed. His wings were too large to open while in the Hollow Shades’ forest, and he couldn’t shrink them thanks to the, you know, no magic. Couldn’t levitate either. It was situations like this that taught you how much you relied on magic.

“Stop running!” she screamed, a bulge growing on her back. Oh no. from her back, very bloody and nasty looking wings had sprouted. Like a disgusting tumour. He was going to run out of the dead zone, but that wasn’t an option. She was this power fuelled IN the zone, how strong would she be out of it? no, he needed a way to beat her. he was agile, but that could only do him so well and take him so far “Face me like whatever you are!”

“I’m a Draconequus!” he stopped jumping across the trees and climbed upwards into the foliage, doing his best to hide. Rather hard with his armour, but she wasn’t in the right mind state right now “You know that handy dog said that thing was going to take your soul, right?” negotiations, not his strong point “If you’re soulless, you can’t get your little shadow.” She was already heartless, losing her soul would barely do that much against her. he looked at her eyes, avoiding her pupils which were what turned you to stone. Not hard since they’d shrunk to pin pricks. Wow it was really messing her up. She looked around, searching for him.

“Where are you my mismatch?”

he’d been called worse. Discord grabbed his sabre bow, and hopefully he’d be able to damage the red stone. He held the bow with his lion paw and the light string with the eagle claw. The bow was carefully designed for multi-firing, from the string formed an arrow. He wasn’t a hundred percent sure how it was made, but he knew it had a lot to do with engineering and some none magic voodoo stuff from their dimension. He aimed for her freaky necklace, the very thing that he was concerned about.

He fired, then booked it, not hanging around long enough to see if it actually did anything or not. if it did, whoopie for him, if not, then he’d have a very angry gorgon. He heard loud wails of rage, which was likely because he’d hit her and not the stone. Well, it HIT, just not what he wanted to hit. You win some, you lose some, only in this case losing meant dying. Nope, he liked being alive. He stopped again, pulling the bow in half, it becoming two blades. Seriously, he really needed to talk to whoever made this because it was saving his tail a lot more often that it should.

He shouldn’t be running. He was afraid, no sane person wouldn’t be, but he still can’t just run. He’d leave Ihō all alone for the witch to go after, and he was trained for this stuff. Equestrian gorgons were a lot more potent than the Drapanese ones, here you even got cockatrice! He just had to avoid her attacks as best as possible and try to slice her up. She’d be absorbing his life energy, so better be as quick as possible. Go for arteries, her limbs, the hair snakes, anything that’ll weaken her. hell, even deliberately make her use up her magic to the point she’s just a mindless animal! Anything to win. Victory or Death the Doragon No Uma always said.

“There you are…” she smiled as she came into his view, a white arrow sticking out of her collarbone and a scratch on the metal plate. So, he did hit it, but it just ricocheted into her collarbone? Well it was better than nothing “You’re going to pay for attacking me!” tears rolled down her eyes as more of that toxic energy pulsed around her, the plant life around her suddenly wilting and dying “This power, it’s filling me to the brim, I want more of it!”

Power corrupted all, no matter the person. It was too tempting to not use it, and even abuse it. something everyone was susceptible to, even offspring. Her scales pointed upwards, the tips flashing with red venom. At least he had armour. He could try having her take it off herself? It won’t come off unless she’s dead. Would’ve followed Ahuizotl if she hadn’t noticed Ihō. Konran was going to have a field day with this.

“Take it off before you kill yourself stupid snake. You want that Umbrum don’t you? how can you do it while a mindless soulless beast?” she scowled. From what Kanashimi said, this ‘Aladjinn’ had been intelligent. Work with that and try to get it off, he’ll still fight her of course, but it’d make it a lot easier for him. His tail rose off of the ground, waving slightly, his wings folded tightly against his body “That’s what you want isn’t it? you trust a random Ahuizotl you come by, I assume? Here I thought you were intelligent.”

“I am!” she shouted, her irises flashing red from the amulets power “I will get that little shadow, he will be mine! Just like you…” welp, should’ve seen that coming “My garden will be magnificent with you there, and your little friend wherever he is…” her eyes widened as she figured out why he’d gotten her all the way out here. She was so stupid! This was a distraction, so someone could get her flowers! This power was so amazing and addictive, but the creature was correct, it was sapping her soul. She was becoming a mindless beast. She’d been so desperate that she’d just taken this cursed object from another creature when he literally said it’d suck her soul out…

maybe he could get out of this without killing her? there were always other options. Just because you don’t like it didn’t mean it wasn’t there. He’d fought a lich, a couple necromancers, caught would be assassinators, but he’d yet to deal with this. a creature so desperate that she just went stupid and accepted an evil object. She was a gorgon, they weren’t ‘evil’ per say. They fed on your life energy, it was like attacking a bear for eating fish. It isn’t good for you, but that’s how they ate. How they survived. The stone thing was defence and a way to capture prey.

“How about this… you take it off, toss it over here, and we’ll be gone. we’re going to duplicate the flower for healing anyways, so we won’t have to bother you again.” she gripped onto the amulet, the Unicharm the bastard called it. it had the soul of an Alicorn, a vast amount of power that wasn’t meant to be for simple beings “We’ll leave you alone, and who knows, Skiadrum might come for you and have a final fight. I wouldn’t be surprised.” He was slightly insane after all.

she was being given an option? Here was this stranger in battle armour, who’d struck her with an arrow and had two blades at the ready to fight her, his very stance was prepared for a fight. Yet, he was giving her a chance that none of them needed to fight. Aladjinn wasn’t used to magic, especially in the dead zone. It was going to destroy her… it suddenly glowed with the intensity of the sun, and it felt like it was well. there was a loud noise, though she didn’t know if it was hers. It was painful, yet addictive. Like that Umbrum’s life energy…

The long head had a back up it seemed. Her skin had gone from shades of green to shades of red, her pupils nearly gone from pure madness. Well, it nearly worked, score points for that. she slithered at him abnormally quick, him dodging out of the way. Her tail rose up and whipped at him violently, desiring to cut a limb off.

He crossed the blades, catching the end of her tail. The moment it wedged itself within the cross he pulled them back and up, slicing the end off. The blood sizzled on his armour, the mithril thankfully keep it from getting to his flesh. The power absorbed Aladjinn roared, her tail end regrowing, but it was wrong. It was made of pure magic and an ancient kind of stone not of this dimension or his. it looked like it belonged in hell. Her scales became the same stone, the stone also covering her upper half like a second skin, an exoskeleton of rock. She went at him again; the speed had been increased again. oh, so she was like a hydra? Only when you cut a piece of her off she got stronger.

Oh, come on! that wasn’t fair. That made his blades a little useless. Begrudgingly he returned them to their bow form and decided it was mammal to reptile… slash, mammal mutant. She went at him again, Discord bending backwards, the moment his hands touched the ground he kicked her chin. She shook it off very quickly, which wasn’t very helpful. Her large tail lashed at him again and again, him blocking and with his armour. There was a lot of force behind those hits, it was pretty irritating.

He wasn’t fighting back for a pretty good reason. he was letting her burn out. she wasn’t going to be able to handle this much magic in her body after ages being void of it. your skin growing stone, it wasn’t going to do much against him as it was against her. your skin was a specific organ that kept everything in, stone wasn’t supposed to do that. even golems weren’t made with flesh because they didn’t do very well to keep things like blood in. water was corrosive to stone, yes that only worked over time, but this was gorgon blood. That stuff was corrosive as fuck. He could see it, the stone looking weaker and weaker. He’d get a lot of bruises from this, but she was bleeding herself out. skin wasn’t as rough as stone, so it was rather irritating for her muscles and organs, likely causing tears when she moved.

A little sad really. It’d just taken over, and she’d become an animal that was killing herself. He also stopped fighting because every time he hit her skin, he could feel off afterwards. Her body was poisonous, he was likely poisoned, and she was able to absorb his life force by being near her which was also made worse if he touched her. It was rather tiring you know, to feel your very life energy leave your body slowly. It’s kinda like when you’re really warm you can feel heat come from your palms. Or was that just him?

“I better be getting that raise,” he spat to himself. the gorgon stopped when she, or the gem, had finally realised that stone skin was a stupid idea. it seemed that Aladjinn was still there somewhere, might as well kill her when she’s her. it was more merciful that way. She tugged on the amulet, it coming free, but the damage was done. she collapsed, the magic was keeping her alive and together, and without it she was dying faster. It was a little sad, for some reason. He remembered when he’d first had rabbit that he was hooked on it, getting a little desperate for it sometimes. Drapanese bunnies tasted amazing, he’d never had a better meat. That desperation nearly got him killed once. She was desperate for a prey that’d tasted like nothing she’d ever had before and was desperate for it again. so much so, she accepted a cursed object that likely deliberately killed her as a kind of revenge and she was going to die.

“why…” the stone was cracking, about to crumble. He pulled out his halberd, the suggestion was silent, but she understood what he was asking. Give her mercy. Everything was so cold and terrifying. How? How had everything happened like this? she just wanted that little shadow again, to taste that despair and sorrow “Please… it, hurts…”

“Alright,” he sighed, gripping the halberd hard. With a quick motion, the blade was embedded in her skull, ending it in an instant. It was more painless than how she would’ve died. Just, screw life. a middle finger to it. none of this needed to happen, none of it. that blasted Ahuizotl must’ve known this’d happen. He had to. Discord’s tail picked the vile Unicharm up and glared at it. it was evil, whoever made it was evil. If you tried to take it off, it’d protect itself by fully taking you over. The poor Alicorn inside fought back, though that was more an assumption than a fact, and he also assumed that the soul would try to kill the user of the amulet. Maybe some sort of twisted mercy? “I need a drink.” One that’d give him a hangover for the next decade.

he hoped Celestia had, had a better day than him right now.