Hatching in Equestria as a Silver Dragon

I was woken up by rustling noises, my tent being touched by someone from the outside, or something.

I saw a shape, clearly not human outside, I opened the tent door and poked my head out while yawning, half asleep as I thought they wanted to talk.

What was it? A large cat, the same size as me, huh? This wasn't a cat...

It was a jaguar! It stared at me in confusion just like I stared back blinking owlishly.

I probably should find out what it wants, a quick speak with animals was enough to give me the ability to do it.

"Hey kitty, what's got you so interested in my nest?" I asked in a playful tone, a small yawn escaped me, I was still half asleep.

It's eyes widened and it looked at me like i was crazy.

'You are prey? How strange, prey can't talk, well you are still prey and I'm gonna eat you.' it said, but I could also hear it making its distinctive jaguar noises, speak with animals was weird like that.

It bared it's fangs and growled, clearly intending to get me, animals really were honest, he admitted from the start his intent on eating me.

"If you want food I can share my food, but don't try to eat me or you'll get hurt." He started to bare his fangs at my answer, probably too proud to back away, or too hungry.
I exited my tent, baring my own fangs as well in defiance, I noticed off handedly that he had a tracking collar, probably monitored for conservation reasons, aren't jaguars supposed to live more in south america?

This animals were very rare to see, I was very lucky to get to see one, he was so cute for a large cat with murderous intent, if only he wasn't starving, I bet he would be fun to play with, if only I wasn't being chased by the largest military force in the world, i would have time to play.

'You will become the prey instead, you have more meat on you that whatever leftovers you have in there!' It then decided to rush me, roaring, fangs bared and claws extended, trying to grapple me and get its fangs on my neck, trying to get on top of me, I wouldn't let this happen a second time.

"Bad kitty, stay!" I snarled and grabbed him midair, he looked extremely confused and flailed uselessly in the air, trying to swipe at me or lunge, but couldn't do anything, I simply rolled my eyes and sat down while I watched it struggle and tire itself out in my telekinesis.

"You should not mess with prey you haven't hunted before, if you submit to me I will give you food and treat you well, if not, then you'll go hungry, and I'll smack you around, just because I can." I said and gave it a boop on the snout once he had tired itself out completely.

With that I dropped him on the ground, watching as he looked at me, his aggressiveness gone, it laid down and panted loudly with exhaustion, clearly defeated.

'You're... Really gonna to give me food? Please, I'm starving, there aren't almost any large animals here to eat, I haven't been able to get anything in a week, and you looked like you have enough meat on you to last me a week at least.' Ah, charming, he still wanted to eat me, well, I suppose I can't blame him for being desperate, I didn't have that much meat in my inventory, and I kinda wanted to eat it too, or I'd go hungry, but I had some eggs, I supposed I could share.

"I'm not letting you eat me! But... I have eggs, they'll work almost as good as meat, but don't try to eat me again, and go hunt for your own meat some real prey, or you'll starve to death!"

I pulled out a carton of eggs and placed about a dozen on the ground, the jaguar approached and sniffed them, made a face that looked funny, kind of a grossed out face, flehmen response if I remember correctly, then started to lick them, but was confused by the shells, not knowing to break them right away.

"You have to bite into it, the food is inside, they taste great!" He did as I told him, begining to eat slowly then eagerly as he tasted, one after another, ending up eating every egg, shells included in a matter of a few minutes.

"That's all I'm giving you, now go hunt something and don't attack anyone that's inside a tent, they can kill you in an instant and no matter how weak they are, humans don't forget and they definitively don't forgive if you kill one of their own.
It's much safer to hunt your own food and eat that, trust me big kitty." He seemed to think it over but ended up answering me.

'You have given me a tasty meal, not meat but good enough, I will not come close to tents again in the future, thank you for the warning, I better go and find prey, I feel I can hunt better now that I'm not starving, I feel like I can think again.' The jaguar approached me, nuzzled my side, a small gesture that I returned, and then he ran off into the wilderness, heading south, I lost it among the bushes and trees a few minutes later.

First cleaned the tent inside and then disassembled it, packed it and stored it, along with every accessory.

What a morning! Not even finished waking up and a big cat tries to eat me, such a majestic animal... I could use that form in the future, I may even try it soon.

I pulled out my water bottle and began to drink until I wasn't thirsty, then stored it back, this summer temperatures here were horrible.

I hope next time it's not something worse like a bear. Bears are scary, but doubt any of this animals can get through my scales in the first place, speaking about scales, I looked at the wounds on my chest and belly, where the circular saws had tried to vivisect me, and I found the bright blue skin under had healed fully, no burn marks, the damaged scales had fallen off during the night, and new ones were starting to grow, leaving a decent gap in my armor in two vital areas, I'd need to be extra careful this next couple of weeks.

I suppose it will take over a week for my scales to fully regrow, give or take. I sniffed myself, and recoiled in disgust, when was the last time I had been able to shower? I needed one badly, but there was no time.

Back to the topic of animal transformations, I should probably use the jaguar form to more quickly traverse the environment, it was quite a speedy creature and very agile, Polymorph was an amazing spell, it transformed me into a version of the same age as me in the equivalent of the species, for example if i turned into a jaguar i would not be a 9 year old jaguar, i would be 9 years in Jaguar years, so i was more or less a juvenile, i was much smaller then the adult male that tried to eat me before.

This time I headed northwest, hoping to throw off my pursuers with a different direction, I ran for hours, taking breaks to recast my polymorph, making sure I was in a hidden spot before I did, I was still paranoid when traversing open spaces.

The heat was intense, in my normal form I would have gotten sick by now, summer sucks, and I guessed I was somewhere near the southern side of the US.

After another 4 more days of traveling, going over hills and valleys, climbing mountains and stopping for rest every hour or so, reached a high point peak, one that overlooked a large distant city, the largest city I have ever seen in my life. It was along the coast to the west.

West... Coast?! I think I knew where I was now, a plan forming in my mind.

POV Shift, 5 days ago, Army base, Yuma, Arizona

The base was in full emergency mode, reinforcements had been called, there were helicopters with thermal cameras flying around searching for the escapee, Commander Miller had declared a full quarantine of the base until the target was found, so far the cameras and sensors had not detected anything matching the description of the target in the area, nothing unusual was discovered, the target had evaded detection perfectly somehow, but it was unknown if he had managed to escape the base or was still hiding somewhere inside.

The cameras inside both the containment cell and the surgical room had been somehow blinded during the escape, and the witnesses testimonies had only deepened the mystery, and the concern of the higher ups.

This being was not only capable of speech, highly intelligent, cunning and strong, but it had supernatural abilities, it could seemingly move things with its mind, it could move incredibly fast, or outright teleport short distances, and most puzzling of all, it could make objects simply disappear, it had somehow taken the weapons, ammo and helmets of the soldiers assigned to keep watch over it.

At first it was considered low risk because it was completely sedated for 5 days, stuck in an induced coma while it was transported and the facilities were prepared, the fact that it also acted like a mere talking animal during it's capture, only showing remarkable strength had given the higher ups a false sense of its capabilities, it went from being no more dangerous than what a bear would be considered being to having supernatural abilities that defied logic, so its threat level was increased drastically after it's successful escape, now it was considered a priority target, but it was important to keep it a secret, which complicated things further.

The only redeeming point of this whole disaster is the fact that no one was injured or died, and that the needle injecting sedatives had a single drop of its dried up blood in it.

This was immediately picked up on by the resident xenobiologist that was to perform the live surgery for tissue collection purposes before the being managed to escape, the drop of blood was studied thoroughly, but it was not enough to find out much about the creature, the blood was dry and the cells dead.

They needed to recover the alien life form and soon, before it managed to escape them permanently, they could gain much from it.

They brought several bloodhounds and made them sniff the cage the creature had slept on, along with the operating seat.

It worked! the hounds picked up a scent, they followed it through many security points, going in and out of vents, then into the elevator, it was hard to believe, since the elevators had cameras and at no point it had been seen going into one, there was no clues, the cameras weren't the highest resolution but they showed nothing besides humans going out, all of which had been recognized and identified as authorized personal.

The people that used it that day were interrogated, but none of their accounts had enough importance, many people had seen mice and other small animals and bugs in the elevator before, the reason was that the people working at the station had gotten used to have food delivered to the door and they brought it into the deeper levels, something that was supposedly not allowed but agreed upon that was okay, this caused mice to become a problem as well as cockroaches.

The blood hounds had picked up the scent again leading to the parking lot, and followed it to a black lifted truck, sniffing and whining as they got under the vehicle, and there is where the scent ended, the highly trained dogs didn't seem to find anything else, even after being made to sniff the whole parking lot and perimeter of the station.

They interrogated the owner of the truck but he had been quarantined like everyone else , having no control over what happened to his truck.

The target had just vanished under the lifted pick up, simply vanished, cameras around didn't see anything other than shadow under the truck, the cameras were high up and the snipers too, none had any clue.

Central command at Washington were furious, demanding them to search the whole state, and nearby states if they needed to, they couldn't allow this thing to leave the country, or they would never see it again, they even agreed to provide help by sending a fleet of state of the art search helicopters and drones and, along with extra manpower to look across the large stretch of wilderness around them.

Even enlisting the police of nearby states to do vehicle inspections going any city or airport, any vehicle was thoroughly searched before it could enter the airport or city center.

POV Shift Onyx back to the present

This last days I had tried many new forms, from coyote to gray fox, mountain lion and even bunny.

But being a small prey animal made me really skittish and nervous for some reason, so I tried to not do it as often, I decided to stop laying down my tent and sleep hidden in any hole on the ground or under rocks and plants if I couldn't find a small cave, I was growing increasingly paranoid every day.

I slowly approached the city, having ditched my current form in a secluded area, this time a small sunken cliff wall, I then floating upwards until I was above the city, during the last few days I had heard helicopters and smaller more agile military drones flying above, many times, I didn't dare to look up at then too much, they were looking for me desperately, I had heard about a dozen per day, they seemed to be scanning as they passed back and forth at different distances, not stopping.

I know that they had thermal imaging cameras of high definition, so everytime I heard one I just pretended to be an animal, and since there were many animals around here in the area other than myself, it worked.

This was terrifying to say the least, and I was sure it was only the start, if they knew I could transform into a wild animal, they would start hunting them or capturing them all until they could get me, I couldn't let this happen to the little critters around here, I needed to escape before they caught up with my strategy, maybe transforming into an animals would have to stop for now, that's why I relied on my cloud form, it was inconspicuous and it since the city already had car smoke floating above it, it was ideal here to just float above the streets.

Slowly I entered the inhabited area, cars driving and people walking underneath me, going about their day, everyone was dressed for the summer, the heat was as always intense and a bit annoying.

Below I kept looking at the sights as I floated at a relaxed speed, more reconnaissance vehicles were flying overhead too, but I'm this form I was at the same temperature than the air around me, I should be invisible to them.

I still had to be extremely aware of my surroundings, I was sure they would be looking for me in the city too, they could have trained dogs with my scent, I do stink pretty bad and I left my scent everywhere I went, I knew they could catch my trail if i stayed more than a day or two, scent tracking was slow across hundreds of kilometers i have traversed since escaping, I hoped they would need time.

As I approached the city center, I saw more and more police checkpoints, oddly enough they were checking anyone's cars, even their trunks, once they checked they let them pass, I didn't know what to make of this, had they gotten help from the police? They would do something like this, I wasn't very surprised, I heard people complain and even riots were happening against this in some areas near the city center, of course there was police repression and violence, but I had my goal in sight, just a few kilometers more...

I had a reason for coming to the city, of course, I needed a way out, and the fastest way out of a country was international flight, usually airports were too heavily guarded, but they didn't have any way of detecting a floating cloud, the only thing I really needed to was figure out which plane was going to where I wanted to go, then just go into the loading area and sneak into the cargo hold, which was not exactly difficult when magic was on my side.

I may need a break first before I go into the airport itself, my concentration was starting to slip, I was tired, thirsty, needed the bathroom, I needed somewhere safe and comfortable to be, and soon.

A hotel room. I could teleport in and lock the door from the inside with magic, not even the key would be able to unlock it, there were many hotels right next to the airport, I was about 10 meters from the ground now, looking at the different hotels about two blocks away from to the gigantic airport.

I settled for the Marriott hotel, floating up and looking for a room that was vacant, it took a few minutes of looking at rooms to find the right one, once I did I used a short misty step line of sight teleport, cancelling my gaseous form and appearing inside the clean and pristine room, I immediately fell down to the carpet, panting from exhaustion, both physical and magical, floating and moving as a cloud was like running, it was harder than just running in fact, both physically and mentally exhausting.

I crawled and reached the door, casting Arcane lock to stick the lock into the closed position, now nothing but me should be able to unlock it, if someone tried getting in, they would have to use force.

I quickly moved and closed the blinds, the curtains, everything, I made the room as dark as possible, it was thankfully nice and cool in here, panting like I just had ran a marathon did help me cool down, but I needed to use the bathroom, and wanted to shower badly.

One hour later.

I had taken my time in the shower, with the very cool water and soap, I had finally fixed the issue of being stinky, after about a week of no shower and running almost all day, every day in various forms, and sleeping in holes in the ground it was desperately needed.

This would also make me less easy to track, I had no doubt I still could be tracked by scent but now I wouldn't be smelled kilometers away.

A happy exhale left me, I was glad I kept my hygiene kit in my inventory, toothbrush soap and sponge, even nail file, and scale polishing oil. I felt like a new drake, I couldn't wait to get back home, i have learned much here despite not wanting to, as an extra measure of security I placed glyphs at the door, it would automatically cast hold person on anyone who tried entering the room, after the door was broken, and it could work on up to 7 people, it only triggered when someone stepped or jumped over the glyph.

I was not taking any chances this time, not with this fucking bastards.

I could have easily slaughtered them all, I had planned to in fact at first, but then again, that would make me the monster they were begging me to be, they would have leverage against me, they would have the moral high ground as it were, I also didn't really want to kill so many people so senselessly, I knew something in me would change once i crossed that line.

I was not Celestia, I would not 'make an example' of a nation just because they threatened me or tried to torture me but I also wouldn't just let them get away with it, I had a little plan to implement tomorrow, something that would requiere a little scouting and gathering information. This time I would need to do a little crime, but is it really crime if the target is one of the largest companies in the world?

I crawled into bed, it was incredibly comfortable and I almost immediately fell asleep, too exhausted to care about anything else now that I had a safe place.