Sentinel of the Everfree

Gasping and coughing I jolt up and immediately have to turn to my side to empty my stomach. The wet splattering of liquids on a hard surface barely registering to me however over my own choked and ragged breaths. By the time I finally stop my vision is swimming with the blurry outline of my bile as I struggle to hold myself steady enough to not fall face first into the damn thing.

An eternity could have passed without my knowledge as I stared down at the foggy image of my own vomit. Waiting for the turbulent storm in my stomach to settle I let out a pained groan. Slowly easing myself onto my haunches rather than hunching over my own mess. The movement made my stomach churn for a moment but ultimately calmed again after I steadied myself. Bringing a wing up to wipe at my dripping mouth and nose I sigh. Waiting in a blurry and miserable silence until my vision slowly starts to clear and I can see my surroundings.

Rather than the hollowed out stone of the Hidden Valley I expected, I am instead greeted by polished walls of marble and granite that are lit up by decoratively carved crystals. The room itself is no less lavishly decorated with the various white wooden shelves and tables fighting for space in the room being covered in gold and silver trimmings. Ironically the only thing about this room that doesn't scream ‘I’m rich’ are the countless old and broken things thrown about the room.

“Hello?” Raising onto all fours I’m careful not to upset my stomach any further. With slow movements I’m eventually able to stand without issue but pull my front paw back after hearing a muffled crunching sound. Lifting my paw up I see a thoroughly crushed chunk of amber and after twisting my neck around notice there are many more pieces all around me.

“Mom?” A loud echoing bang causes me to jump. Turning towards what looks like a door on the far side of the room I carefully take a few steps back until something touches my flank. Yelping in surprise I whip my tail around only to have to cover my head as a horrendously loud crash shakes the room. Slowly uncovering my head I looked to see that in my panic I had flipped over one of the tables and dumped all of the contents it held.

Heart pounding I fall to my haunches again and grip at my chest. Running my paw over the thick armored scales on my breast I pause as I reach my collar. Looking down at myself in confusion I'm met with a shiny and healthy scaled hide. Twisting myself around I search over my entire body, but I can't find a single blemish or imperfection. Breathing even deeper now I gently rub at the spot on my shoulder that should have a horrible scar or at least be bare of any scales.

I was just horribly wounded in battle. I’d been fighting for days on end and had been hurt numerous times. I should still be covered in wounds or at the very least have something still healing. Mom had only used her mana to heal my chest and shoulder but even then my scales wouldn’t have grown back so quick.

“Mom!” Something is wrong. Something is horribly wrong. Mom was lying when she said she was out of mana. She had to be lying, I saw her eyes flashing. She cast another spell and… Then I woke up.

Another loud noise had me jumping back to my paws and turning back to the door. Walking into the room and completely oblivious to me as they talked in a language I didn’t recognize were two ponies. Growling and baring my teeth I took on a proper fighting stance. Stopping mid stride one of the ponies nearly fell over while the other froze solid. Shaking and now staring at me both ponies again started to talk in the same language. Though now with obvious fear in their voices.

Ducking down and stepping into the room a third pony stopped next to the others with a concerned look on their face. Well over twice their size and with pure white fur they seemed more shocked at my presence than frightened. Clearing their throat the tall pony began trying to speak to me, however all I got was a jumbled mess of sounds. When they finished speaking they smiled, seemingly pleased with themselves. Snarling, I scraped my claws against the floor and cut long divots into the stone. I knew that voice.

“Celestia.” Mana flames dripped from my lips as I spat out their disgusting name. Frost and ice began to form around me as I slowly started to make my way towards the door. Eyes widening and sputtering more nonsense in whatever language they were speaking I took my time crossing the room. For whatever reason they never moved from the door and only kept talking as the other ponies ran away screaming. Stopping just in front of her I ignored her continued attempts at talking.

“No!” Spoken in draconic I look to the door just in time to see a purple blur rush through and hurl itself at me.

Thrown off to the side we both crash hard into tables that buckle under our combined weight. Sliding along the floor a deep growling hiss rumbles from my attacker as claws and teeth begin scraping against my scales. Snarling back I blindly claw and bite at whatever I can but find it hard to get a proper grip. Rolling around the floor in a tangle of limbs I eventually manage to toss off the offending creature.

Baring my teeth and raising my spines I turn to fully face my new opponent. However as they scramble to their paws I hesitate. Glaring back at me and standing between Celestia and I is another dragon. Only standing at about half my size he stood in what I assume was supposed to be an aggressive stance. However there was something very wrong with them. I can't see any marks anywhere on their body. How could such a young drake be in such good health while in the middle of a war?

Shouting something in the same language as the ponies they charge me. Sloppy and uncoordinated it would take little effort to counter them. Unsure of what to do I let my wings fall to my sides and step back. Not caring or not seeing my stance the young drake continues to charge me before hitting a patch of ice just in front of me and sliding head first into my chest. Hitting me hard I stumble back slightly but am otherwise fine.

Guilt settles into my chest as I look down at the poor drake. Eyes screwed shut in obvious pain they seemed to try and hold in a cry as I faintly heard them whimper. Cradling their bloodied muzzle tightly I could see them struggling to hold back tears.

“Stop!” Spoken with almost the same horrible accent I remember, Celestia rushes from the door and to my surprise wraps her wings around the drake. Without armor on she looks shockingly different.

“Mom -” Mom, why did he just call Celestia mom? Growling I start to back away from them only to have to whip around and slash at something trying to get behind me. A deafening crash of metal and pottery rings in my ears and makes me howl in pain as I hit a table rather than an enemy. Everything that was on the table is thrown in multiple directions, splinters of metal and wood mixing with ancient pottery flying through the air and making me howl in pain. Falling to the ground I grip my head tightly between my paws and clench my eyes shut.