The Alicorn Scrolls

By Terrarian Pony

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Story:

Terrarian Pony presents

The Alicorn Scrolls

Chapter 3

The Harbingers

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As Terran entered the throne room, three royal guards at his back, watching his every move, probably waiting for a misstep, he saw the flowing, colorful mane, and star-lined mane of Princess Celestia, and her younger sister, Luna, who had, a few years ago, been trapped on the moon as Nightmare Moon for a thousand years, and is now a pillar of Equestrian society, once again. He tried not to pay attention to the fact that her mane was riddled with constellations, and such, because if he did, he would be spending too much time trying to figure out how in the world anypony could have stars in her mane. Just another mystery that neither he or anyone in the Guild would ever figure out.

Maybe it's some form of magic? Or maybe it was a gift from the stars themselves? Maybe she wasn't that way until she was trapped on the moon... NO! Stop thinking about that! Too many questions! I only came here for ONE thing. Dragons. Gaurds. Ponyville.

"I wasn't aware we would be giving an audience this evening." Celestia stated.

"This pegasus claims to be a member of the Guild of Knowledge, your highness." the lead guard said, with a cautious glance at Terran.

"I see." Celestia said. "And to what do I owe the pleasure of finally getting to meet a member of this particular guild?"

Terran bowed before speaking. "Princess Twilight has requested aid for Ponyville. Her dragon has been out on her behalf recently, and she has asked me to come for him."

"Is something going on in Ponyville?" inquired the night princess.

"Yes." Terran said. "Well, not exactly, yet. There is a dragon army, being lead by a very powerful dragon, and Princess Twilight fears for Ponyville's safety. And so do I. I saw what this dragon is capable of, and it has made a mess of Blacklight, a city I was investigating, hidden in the Everfree Forest, before I was caught by slavers."

"Hmm... I'm sure if were able to talk to this dragon, we may be able to convince him to call of his army." Celestia said. "That is, depending on the dragon of course." Terran looked to the side for a moment with moving his head, and bit his lip trying to find a response.

"Have you heard of the name Alduin?" he blurted. Both Celestia and Luna's eyes were wide in horror of that name.

"A-alduin..." Celestia whispered. "...the Destroyer?"

Terran arched a brow. "Is that what they call him, then?" he said.

"Alduin is the original dragon lord." Luna said. "A force of evil that even the Elements of Harmony cannot touch."

Now Terran's eyes were wide with fear. "That... sounds frighteningly powerful." he said. "So... if the Elements can't stop him... what can?"

Celestia breathed in, deeply, and the exhaled, slightly. "Only a Dragonborn can..."

"Coming through!" a familiar voice said, suddenly. A small, blue wyvern was flying her way into the throne in a panicked state. The guards twirled around, their spears facing her.

"Tulip!" Terran said. "You were supposed to wait outside!"

"Yeah, sure!" Tulip said. "But wouldn't you rather me warn you about the humongous dragon outside, attacking the city?" All ponies in the room froze. A dragon? Attacking Canterlot? Surely even a dragon wouldn't be so reckless... unless...

"CELESTIA! BO WAH ZU'U. QIILAAN WAH DII LOT AHRK NOK TUM HIN LAHVU!"

Oh no. Terran thought. I know that tongue.

"Fin Al" Celestia murmured. "The Destroyer." The voice of the dragon that frightened Terran so boomed from outside the castle.

"MUST I SPEAK IN YOUR GUTTURAL LANGUAGE!? GET OUT HERE, AND CALL OFF YOUR ARMY! I HAVE BEEN GENEROUS ENOUGH TO AVOID BURNING YOUR BUILDINGS YET! THAT WILL CHANGE VERY SOON!"

Princess Celestia spread her wings, and began to take off. Luna, Terran, Tulip and the guards followed close. When they got outside, they saw a very large, familiar black dragon. Guards were pointing arrows directly at him. It spoke to the Princess in a low, aggravated tone. "I would be delighted if you were to kindly tell these hooligans to seize fire. Their puny arrows may not harm me, but they are quite annoying." Princess Celestia waved a wing to her gaurds, and they laid down their bows, hesitantly. The dragon smiled, which seemed even more menacing. "Now we can talk. You certainly look different from all these years. How long has it been? Over a thousand years? Of course, then... you had a dragonborn."

"I'll have you know..." Celestia began. "We have a new dragonborn at our disposal." Alduin raised a scaly eyebrow.

"Oh, is that so?" Alduin inquired. "Perhaps I can see this champion of yours, and we could have a nice chat over some tea. Hopefully he understands more of the dragon tongue than anyone else here." Celestia's glare matched the dragon's, but it didn't matter. She knew she was powerless to stop him. "I know you do not have a dovahkiin in this time. I've heard that Starswirl went down without an heir, which means that his lineage has been non-existent for a thousand years, at the least."

"Starswirl was only trapped in time, but he has returned." Luna said. She was right. Starswirl had returned to Equestria after a long time of being trapped with something called the pony of shadows. Terran never caught the full story, though.

"Oh. Now isn't that interesting?" Alduin said. "Tell me, then... how brittle is he?" Luna and Celestia both looked at each other with frightened faces. "I mean, surely... after a while, a simple unicorn like himself has grown old, and can barely stand on his own four legs, let alone manage to slay a dragon as powerful as myself." Celestia opened and closed her mouth multiple times, and then settled on gazing away from Alduin. "So then, it seems as though I'm the only one here with a bargaining chip. You surrender Equestria, and it's citizens to me, whom you and they will bow to for eternity, and pledge your undying loyalty to..."

"We will not be doing any such thing." Celestia interupted, gazing into Alduin's eyes with anger. This somehow seemed to surprise Alduin, because his head lifted as suddenly as Celestia stared back at him. "We will fight, 'til our last breathe for the land we call home."

Alduin grinned, widely. "Well then... it seems we have a nice little bone to pick with you, now don't we?" Alduintook a deep breath, looked up into the sky and then shouted the words "Mid dov, wahl kip do daar mey!"

Two dragons, a white one, and a grey one, off in the distance, took to the sky from their hiding spots outside the city, and landed behind Alduin atop the buildings. Alduin began to build up his fire aiming at Celestia and Luna. "WATCH OUT!" Terran yelled. Celestia, Luna, Terran, Tulip, and the guards dispersed.

"YOOOOOOL!" Flames came close to scorching Terran's tail, as he moved quickly out of the way. The dragons began to spit flames wherever they pleased, and the guards' spears were nothing to them. One of Alduin's dragon minions flew up and caught a pegasus guard in his mouth. The other was tearing up a residential building from it's rooftop, looking for anypony inside.

Terran picked up a spear that had fallen from one of the soldiers, and flew towards the white dragon. As he flew towards it, the dragon shouted "FO KRAH DIIIIIIN!" after which the dragon began to breath ice at Terran, which made his wings flap weakly and slowly, causing him to fall. He fell right in the center of Canterlot with a CRASH!! His body felt weak, he could feel the whole world spinning. Suddenly, he heard voices. Not the voices of ponies and dragons fighting above. He didn't hear any of that.

These voices were... unfamiliar. They were... chanting something? Terran looked up and saw a large, stone wall. The wall was curved, and ominous. Above the wall, was a carving of a dragon. On the wall, there was some kind of writing, but he couldn't read it, but there was a single word on the wall that was... glowing. Terran was drawn to it. He had to get closer... to read it. He had to see what it said. What that single word was! He stood up surprisingly well, and walked over to it. He put a hoof on the stone wall, completely unaware of the battle above him, and read the single, glowing word. "Fus."

Suddenly, he heard a roar of thunder, and looked up. Tulip was caught in a fierce battle of fire vs lightning against the grey dragon, until the grey decided claws were more affective than flames, and grabbed the wyvern by the neck, throwing her into one of the buildings. "Tulip!" Terran shouted, genuinely concerned for the wyvern who had followed him all the way here. Tulip was his responsibility, and he had to help her. He flew towards the building that she was thrown into, and dove in through the shattered window. The furniture in the room was simple. A bed, some dressers, and a mirror. Okay, maybe not too simple.

Terran leaped to the wyvern's side. "T-tulip! Are you okay?" She was bleeding from her neck from where the dragon grabbed her, but she was still alive.

"I'm fine." Tulip said. "Hurt like that Nightmare Moon of yours, though, I'll give him that." She grinned, toothily, as if it was just an ant bite. Terran looked at her in shock. "Don't look at me like that. I'm fine! Let's dust us some dragons!" Terran took a deep breath.

Of course. She's a wyvern. Their scales are just as hard as a dragon's. But still, she was smaller than that dragon. Terran nodded, and then looked towards Alduin. He was having a showdown in the sky with Celestia and Luna. But they were both struggling to keep him away from civilians as well. The grey dragon was slurping down a guard who was unfortunate enough to grabbed and swallowed whole. The white dragon was boredly squishing one of the guards between the ground and a single talon.

"Alright, you finish off the fire breather, I'll take the ice one." he said.

"Because that worked out so well before." Tulip stated. "But hey, at least I don't have feathers to be smoldered."

The two spread their wings, and flew off towards their targets. Terran grabbed his spell wand, and cast a flame spell at the ice dragon. She roared, and clawed at the offending pegasus. "FO KRAH DIIIIIIIN!!!" Another spew of frost breath, but Terran dodged it this time, and raised the sword he took from the Blacklight armory, slicing at the dragon's neck. The ice dragon was none to pleased, as she roared in pain. She jumped on top of Terran, pinning him down by his wings, her claws like icicles digging through his feather.

"That was quite rude of you! I think I'll have my dinner... extra frosty. Fo..." But before the ice dragon could shout, an arrow struck her in the right eye. She screamed in pain, and began to ascend. It was the guard from when he and Tulip first arrived. He smiled and nodded toward Terran. Terran nodded back, and flew up towards the ice dragon, sword ready. The dragon sprayed another frost breath, slightly nicking Terran's left wing, and Terran heard a crack of lightning, followed by a dragon breathing fire. Tulip was doing well in her fight, but still barely piercing the grey dragon's scales.

"Tulip!" Terran yelled. "Go for the belly!" She grinned at him. Taking his advice, she slashed her claws through the dragon's belly. Terran continued towards his target, slashing left and right, but missing. Another blast of ice breath, missed. A cut through the wings.

Finally Terran found his way behind the ice dragon, and onto her neck. He swung the sword, cutting through her right horn, causing to roar in pain. He cut through the other one as she tried fling him off. He took the final blow to forehead, and through her jaw, and suddenly they began to descend. Another crackle of lightning, and the grey dragon was falling as well. Terran pulled his sword from the ice dragon's jaw just before she hit the ground with a CRACK!

He landed right in front of the two, now dead dragons. Their scales began to burn. Wait... they were burning off. Their scales and skin were... deteriorating, leaving only the bones. And suddenly, a strange energy came from both dragons, and was making it's way towards Terran, who staggered from the shock. He felt as though his insides were melting, but he couldn't find his voice to scream, and suddenly... "FUS!" It just came out. He didn't have any control over it. The word from the wall just shot out of him like a cannonball.

Alduin heard the shout, and looked down at the green pegasus' position. "Im-impossible!" he said. Alduin flew off, leaving Celestia and Luna confused as they descended towards the dead dragons' bones.

"Dovahkiin!" Tulip yelled, startled, while at the same time, Celestia uttered the word "Dragonborn." They looked at each other with great shock, and then back at Terran. Terran blinked. He blinked again. And then... THUMP!

To be continued...