The Aurorians: Rise and Fall
The Aurorians
“Oh, this is not good at all!” a light blue stallion with a white mane and dark sapphire blue eyes complains.
“Sparks, you better hurry and finish digging before it collapses onto us!” the black stallion with a flaming orange mane and ruby eyes urges.
“Well I am doing my best, Arso!” yells Sparks.
“How much further?” asks Arso in his complaining tone.
“I am close! The ground seems to be getting softer...” Sparks explains to Arso and the group.
Suddenly, Sparks pushes the soft ground up and pokes his head out to the surface. With amazement, he sees a full moon lighting the nightly landscape. He also notices a large forest of trees in the distance.
Sparks shouts with joy, “We made it! We´re free at last!”
He climbs out of the hole he’d been digging and yells back down: “Hey everypony! Hurry up before this tunnel collapses on all of you!”
One by one they all begin to climb out. Just as the last pony makes it out, the tunnel collapses in on itself, spewing dirt from the hole.
“Did everyone make out safely?” Sparks asks the group.
Arso relieves his worries. “Everyone is accounted for.”
“Good! We better hurry before the dragons find out that we escaped!” Sparks opines with a sigh of relief.
“And where should we head off to?” Arso asks looking around.
“We should head off to the trees near the mountains!” Sparks suggested. “If we go that way, we will be heading opposite of where the mines are located.”
“Why should we head that way? It seems too far to travel! And what if the dragons notice we’re gone?” The question remains unacknowledged.
Arso sighs. “Alright everypony! Let’s get moving!”
They walk through the night on the dry, rugged terrain. Suddenly, a loud, horrible howl resounds behind them. Sparks and the others are stunned by the noise they just hear.
“Everypony! Start galloping! Don’t stop and don’t look back!” yells Sparks.
They run and approach the forest ahead. Three dragons suddenly appear out of the night sky, casting their shadows on the soil below. They sweep down, grabbing every pony they can get, returning them to the mines.
‘This isn't good...’ Sparks thinks silently to himself.
A dragon swoops down to grab Sparks, but Arso, aware of what's happening, knocks Sparks aside, sacrificing himself.
"Get to the forest!" Arso yells at Sparks.
Sparks rushes to his hooves and gallops again, knowing the forest in front of him is mere hooves away. A dragon, seeing Sparks, swoops down to capture him. Unaware of his surrounding he hits a large tree, falling flat on his back. The force of the impact causes Sparks to tumble down a hill straight into a raging river. Sparks does his best to swim, but the stream is far too strong. Sparks cannot grab a hoofhold of anything and is quickly carried away.
He then notices the water getting even faster and the sound of a roaring waterfall resounds ahead!
‘Oh, this cannot be good!’ Sparks thinks.
Then, suddenly dropping over the falls, Sparks begins to yell at the top of his lungs.
He hits the bottom and everything goes dark...
Sparks awakens shortly after. He finds himself miles away from the waterfall, washed up on the side of a calm stream of the river into a nice but muddy grassy clearing.
He is exhausted from his horrifying escape, surviving the waterfall without any harm but a bruise to his left hoof.
Realizing it’s still dark and it’s probably only been a while from his escape, the blue stallion notices that it’s still full moon.
He is sure the dragons have stopped looking. If the Dragons saw him fall into the raging river, they would surely think he´d be dead.
Sparks gets up and trots further onto land into a nice soft patch of grass, panting heavily, trying to regain his energy.
While he lies down, he looks up to the sky and notices all the stars are shining brighter than he has ever seen. He had never seen stars when he was forced to work in the mines.
The sight was amazing! He then caught a glimpse of a bright shooting star passing by. This reminded Sparks of before he was taken away from his parents.
They once had told him, that if he ever saw a shooting star, he should make a wish on it.
Sparks looked at the star and made his one wish: “I wish for all ponies to be free from the dragons grasp.”
But then, he notices something weird about the shooting star he wished upon. It’s starting to turn to his direction, coming right at him at a fast rate!
Sparks begins to panic and ducks for cover behind a small hill nearby.
Just when he jumped behind the hill he hears a large boom.
Heavy blasts begin to roll over the hillside from where the object crashed and throw the blue stallion out of his cover.
Shortly after that, the blasts stopped.
Curious of what just crashed, he slowly peaks his head over the top of hillside. To his amazement, he notices whatever crashed has made a crater large enough to form a pond for fish to actually live in. Sparks begins to travel to the epicenter of where an object is currently sitting - or better: a pony!
It is fairly larger than Sparks and has wings and a horn on it. To even increase the mystery of this strange pony, he realizes it has a mark on its flank, appearing to be like stars in the midnight sky with many shades of color!
As Sparks gets closer, he wonders if it’s even still alive and begins to poke at it with his hooves on its side ribs, asking concerned: “Hello? Are you ok? Seems like a tough landing you had.”
The creature then makes a noise in pain because of Sparks continually poking at it. “Owww…”
Sparks, curious about the sound of the strange pony, decides to poke at it again, hoping for better results.
Just as he does, it mentions a few words out to Sparks “Please stop doing that!”
Sparks decides to do so and stops poking at it. For whatever reason, it seems like this type of pony doesn’t liked to be touched.
“Are you in pain? Do you need some help?” Sparks questions in a cautious tone.
Then the strange pony responds to Sparks’ question and rises to its hooves, his crimson red eyes staring down at him. “Nah. I think I’m fine. Just a little bit bruised is all.”
Realizing this, Sparks notices that this pony stands quite taller than him.
“May I ask: WHAT are you and WHO are you?” he questioned.
“I am Owal. I am part of a race called ‘Alicorn’.” the strange pony responds in a generous tone.
“Uh... can you tell me what an ‘Alicorn’ is?” the blue stallion asks Owal with curiosity.
Owal starts to respond with no hesitation: “Well, Alicorns are the most powerful creatures to rule. I have no time to explain this any further now.”
“Wait, why that is so?” Sparks asks.
“I am here for a recon mission. There´s evidence to suggest that ponies here are being mistreated. So I can convince my father that the stories about the ponies here are true. I hope a team can be organized to free them and take them away from here. This is where you come in, my fellow stallion.”
“Oh, what a relief!” Sparks cheered and introduced himself. “My name is Sparks. Ever since I was a young foal, my whole life comprised working in the mines for those horrible beasts.”
“Well Sparks, you have shed some light on my situation. My father has to believe me now and get me the team I need to free all the ponies!”
“So when do we leave to convince your father? When will we be back to free everypony?” the blue stallion asked with anticipation.
“As far as I know, it´ll take twenty-four full moons in your time to get you back to my world and to convince my father.”
‘What a waste of time!’ he thinks.
“But…Everypony I have known could be dead by then! What if your father says no?”
Sparks rants upset. “I just can’t do that! I am not going with you. There must be another way!”
“THERE IS NO OTHER WAY!” Owal yells over Sparks. “You will come with me to my world! Period!”
“Seems like you don’t really have much of a care for everypony here.”
“I care as much for anypony on this world as you do, Sparks! But it´s the only way!” the alicorn insisted.
Sparks sighed. “Fine! If it’s the only way, I will do it, though I may not like it…”
“I am pleased that this argument has come to a short conclusion. I am tired and not in the mood for any big discussions. We have to rest now before we travel back to my home.”
“Okay. We will rest tonight, and leave as soon as the sun rises. The sooner the better!”
“Alright then. Let´s rest. We´re having a long journey ahead of us.”
Owal goes and lays down into a patch of grass.
Sparks points to Owal’s flank and begins to ask him the question about the mark “Can you tell me this though...what does that mark on your side rear mean?”
Owal stares up at Sparks from his place in the grass. “That, I will tell you later. For now It’s not that important. What IS important is getting you to my father for the evidence I need. So please go to sleep now.”
Sparks lays down into a patchy grass area, too, and vastly falls asleep.
Owal watches Sparks’ eyelids close and him falling asleep, ensuring that Sparks won´t try to run off and ruin his chance for the freedom of the ponies of this world. As soon as Owal notices Sparks´ calm steady breaths of his deep sleep, he also drifts into a restful slumber…
…until a mysterious voice begins speaking to him…
“Owal, you have to awake! I have something important to tell you!” Owal, a bit startled because of the voice, rose to his hooves in surprise, facing a white stallion, shining in a glowing golden light directly in front of him.
Owal wonders. He knows the stallion:
It was the Guardian of Gifts!
Owal, just like every other Alicorn, doesn´t know very much about the Guardians. All he knows is that Guardians only contact and speak to Alicorns when they have something important to tell.
Owal bows down in respect on the Guardian.
“What does the Guardian here in front of me has to tell me?” he asked.
“Owal, I must tell you that your decision to take your friend Sparks here to your world could be the wrong plan! He was right when he talked about another way.”
“How is that possible, Guardian?” he frowned, still bowing down and puzzled with thoughts of what the Guardian could mean.
“Stand up and I will tell you why.”
Owal rises to stand and faced the Guardian on eye level.
“If you take Sparks to your world, your father will unquestionably turn you down for your acting. You have disobeyed him! This will also result in you never having the chance of freeing every pony here! Your friend Sparks will be free, but will die lonely, knowing that the ponies he knew will never be free!” the white stallion explains emphatic.
“So you’re telling me the future of what will happen?”
“I am only telling your future of what most certainly will happen if you return with sparks to your father! Seeing the rhythm of time even is always changing for everything you do, it´s though most certain your father will turn you down.”
“So please tell me about this other way, Guardian.”
“Then let me tell you the history of this world first…”
Owal nodded in agreement and impatiently listened to the Guardian´s words.
“You see, Owal, this world once was ruled by two brothers at one time. One was the prince of the Caspians, race of ponies, the other prince of the Dragons.
These two princes of this world kept the balance between each other. The Dragons were powerful, but the Caspians had a power...an ability that held this balance between the rivals.
One day, the prince of the Caspians called upon me wanting to have a more peaceful balance between him and his brother. I, the Guardian, warned him that his brother may won´t have a peaceful world. The prince of the Caspians urged me for a peaceful solution with his brother and so I gave a spell to the prince of the Caspians to lock the Caspian powers inside the ponies. I gave to his brother a spell that would have kept dragons from doing any harm to ponies. These spells, once used by an Alicorn, when casted upon his race may never let the Alicorn who cast the spell disband it once used.
The prince of the Caspians used the spell and the prince of the Dragons saw this as an advantage to have the world for his own and betrayed his brother by not using his spell I gave to him.
The prince of Caspians fled the world, knowing that he could never return to help his people and the dragons henceforth ruled this world.” he ended
“So are there any questions about what I just told you?”
“But…If you can see my future, then why you didn’t tell him about the intrigue of the dragon-prince?” Owal questioned.
“I did, but he felt certain that his brother would agree with him and they would make peace. Even though I can see the future, the flow of time’s rhythm is always shaping, so there was maybe a chance for peace between these two brothers.”
“Couldn’t you have interfered and fixed that choice?”
“As a guardian, I do not interfere with one’s choices of what one desires and needs. I only provide the things that I may help with to an Alicorn.” the Guardian explains
“So what is this other way? How can you help me?” he finally asked.
“Let me show you something about your newfound friend Sparks…”
The Guardian and Owal walk up to the sleeping stallion. As soon as Owal approaches, he notices Sparks mumbling a few words in his sleep
Sparks mumbles: “You smell …… very nice today.….. Where have you been, beautiful?”
“Is THAT what you wanted to show me?” Owal asked in disbelief.
“No, it is not what I wanted you to see or hear. Pay closer attention to him!”
As Owal watches closely he notices a twitch and sees a static electric discharge from Sparks.
“Did you see what I wanted to show you?”
The alicorn frowned. “Yes, but…what is it?”
“That is the power of the Caspians! It wants to be free again. To fix everything that went wrong in this world and make it right...the way it’s supposed to be…”
“So Sparks here is a Caspian and his powers want to help?” he sums up.
“That is true, Owal, and you can help him make this world restore balance again. Just the way it was long time before.”
“But wasn’t the power locked away inside them, never to be disbanded?”
“The spell I gave the Caspian prince cannot be disbanded by the one who casted it, but a spell to a new Alicorn here can disband it.”
“So you know of a spell that can unlock the powers of the Caspians once again?”
The Guardian nodded. “I do have a spell that will help you but you must make a choice: either try to convince your father and face a chance of rejected aid or, take the spell that, I hav to warn you now, carries dire consequences if I give it to you.”
“What will this spell do to me if I accept it and use it?” Owal asked with slight doubts.
“This spell will bind you to all the hearts of any Caspian. You use it to release their power and will never be able to leave them as long as they care for you.”
He sighed in relief. “Well that doesn’t sound so bad. I care for everpony on this world right now!”
“That is not all that this spell will do Owal.” the Guardian added. “If your heart grows dark, you will put a terrible curse on all the Caspians that you used the spell on.”
“So I must make a choice now...either take Sparks back to my father and risk getting rejected by my father, or take a spell and risk the consequences with the spell…”
“Those are the choices you have to make on your own, Owal…”
Owal stares back down at Sparks sleeping and hears him mumble a small sentence: “I am sure of it everypony… that one day… we will all be free...”
Owal makes up his mind and tells the Guardian: “I have come to a decision, Guardian of the Gifts!”
“So what will that decision be?”
“My decision is to take the spell and show these dragons that these ponies deserve freedom!” he says fervently.
“If that is your choice Owal, I will give you the spell…”
“Before you give me this spell…” he interrupted him “…I have to ask...what is the future of this time rhythm that I choose?”
“This choice of this time rhythm has great confidence of victory but harder choices will be made along the way.” the Guardian announced.
“Sounds like the choice to make so far. Give me the spell!”
The Guardian nods and concentrates. A glowing ball of light appears in front of Owal, moving closer to him, flashing in a bright blinding light. Shortly before Owal went blind, he noticed the Guardian disappeared. Owal now has a mysterious spell racing through his mind. He begins to stare down at Sparks from where he is standing and notices that Sparks has a large, glowing aurora around him.
Owal thinks silently to himself. ‘What a strange blue colorful aurora!’
Owal knows that this spell must be linked to the aurora and be related to the power of the Caspians. Owal moves one of his hooves closer to Sparks and begins to tell him to wake up.
“Hey Sparks! Wake up, you blue ball!”
“Why do I have to get up?” he groans sleepy. “Is it time for you to take me away from every pony I cared about back at the mines?”
“No. I remembered something and I think I have found another way!”
Sparks raises his head, suddenly wide awake. “Wait... you found another way?”
“Yes. I just remembered this spell, and it works on certain ponies like you.”
“What’s a spell?” he asks dumbfounded.
“It’s a magical thing that can give ponies new abilities, as long as they have an aurora.”
Not feeling so sure about what Owal is telling him he responds back in an unsure manner.
“Ok, if this spell can give me new abilities, whatever these should be, in what way does this involve me?”
“I just noticed that you had an aurora! And I remembered this spell!”
“Well then why didn’t you remember this spell earlier?” he questions cooking an eyebrow.
Owal doesn’t want to tell Sparks about the Guardian of Gifts, fearing that he may thinks he would be crazy and run away from him.
“Well I forgot that! Anyway, I read the aurora can exist in ponies. In my world we have never seen them and the spell was pretty much abandoned. I learned it anyway and all of a sudden now I remember it.”
Sparks looked at Owal warily. “Okay…you sure do forget a lot of things. Are you sure you are okay? Or are you trying to trick me into thinking that you are going to use some kind of spell that will help me but will end up being a different kind of spell to keep me from escaping?”
“It’s no trick Sparks.” the alicorn placates. “You have my word on it! I will even shake hooves with you because you have my promise.”
“Well alright then.”
Owal and Sparks shake hooves with each other, agreeing that Owal will not do any betraying on Sparks.
“Are you going to let me use this spell?”
“Uh...yeah…sure…Why not?” Sparks replies slightly nervous.
Sparks sits down in front of Owal and begins to twitch with static electricity. As Owal notices this, he asks him when that began to happen to Sparks.
“Well, I will tell you if you tell me what that mark on your side is.” he says, grinning slyly.
Owal moans. “Fine! I will tell you after you tell me about your static twitch. It’s important to know before I use this spell!”
“Well, if you have me insist on telling, I will tell you. But promise to tell me about your mark after the spell.”
He rolls his eyes. “Trust me I will tell you.”
“Well ok.” he begins. “When growing up and working in the mines, I was outside hauling a cart in a lightning storm until I got struck by lightning out of the sky.
Other ponies don’t know how I survived, but it was the only day the dragons let me rest. Arso covered for me by hauling my cart as an extra. They don’t really like Arso, and the dragons thought it would be a good punishment for him for starting a large fire on the dragons huts before.
Boy, were they mad about that! But ever since that I have had weird electrical twitches that always come and go.”
“Well, thanks Sparks for the info. Are you now ready for me to cast this spell?”
“Yeah I guess. This won’t hurt will it?”
“ I don’t know. Never tried it before on a pony with an aurora.”
“Oh...ok.” he says with nervousness and slight panic in his voice.
“Ok, lets get started...”
Sparks closes his eyes in the panic of possible pain. As Sparks closes his eyes, Owal casts the spell. It appears that nothing has happened.
Sparks opens his eyelids, asking: “What did it do?”
Owal turns around pondering to himself and says to Sparks. “It seems to have done nothing! That is strange...I am sure that I did it right...it felt like I casted it correctly.”
Sparks notices something and tells Owal that it did have some effect. “Well you did fix my static twitch. I am glad that’s gone.”
Owal replies, still pondering to himself: “Well, yes that’s good for you, Sparks. But I don’t understand what I made wrong. I swear I did it all right!”
Sparks tells Owal of something else that is new to him. “I am also feeling like I am more energetic now. And stronger, in some kind of way all of the sudden…”
Owal, still musing, makes a small remark. “Well that’s nice, Sparks, that you are feeling that way. But maybe the spell doesn’t do what it supposed to do. I am certain though I did it right.”
“Hmm…let me try something on that dead tree over there…” Sparks muses.
“Sure, Sparks. Knock yourself out. I am going to figure out why it didn’t work.” he says absent-minded.
Then, Owal recognized what Sparks just said and turns to see the blue stallion blast a bolt of lightning from his body, ripping the dead tree in half, catching it on fire.
As soon as sparks threw that lightning to the tree, Sparks and Owal were both surprised, but Owal is more surprised to see a mark appear on Sparks´ flank.
“Did you see what I just did, Owal?” he cheers.
“Yeah...that’s really surprising!” Owal replies. “But not as surprising of what just appeared on your flank!”
Owal points to the mark on Sparks’ flank, which appears to be in the shape of lightning seen in a lightning cloud.
Sparks looks over to his side where Owal is pointing and notices the mark. “I got a mark just as you have!”
“I think it’s time to tell you about marks, starting with mine.”
“Well I am glad you are going to tell me.” he says and perks his ears.
“You see, Sparks, I got this mark from what a lot at home call me: A visionary! I always thought about new ways of making worlds more peaceful. And they usually did work, but that’s not how I got mine.
I first got it by solving a problem between two friends who always fought each other on who was stronger. I got tired of them fighting over a silly dispute and decided they should challenge each other. I used a trick that only I and my father know how to do.”
“What’s that trick?” Sparks interposes
“Well the trick was to see, who could split a solid iron ingot with ones hooves. I challenged the both of them between each other to see, who could do it. Both tried and failed.
Then I showed them that if they do it together and hit it in the right location with the right force, it would crack in half. My friends realized that neither one of them was stronger, that each other’s frustration made them weak, but if they worked together they could split the iron ingot. After they did it, my mark appeared with these eight points and these colors shown, showing me that I share what ponies want: a vision of peace.
My mark is a visionary of peace!” he finishes.
Sparks is fascinated about these marks, but wonders about his own. “Well that’s an interesting way for one to get his mark, but mine was given to me by you, pretty much.”
“Well that is true, Sparks. You see, where I live, they are called cutie marks. And for you, they aren’t really in terms of wanting to be cute.”
“Well what should we call these marks?”
“Well your mark shows that you are really powerful with the ability to control lightning and cast it so let’s just call these power marks.” he suggests.
“Sounds good to me.”
Sparks ponders another question. “So what kind of pony am I? You told me you’re an alicorn and I guess you do magic and can fly.”
Owal still lies to Sparks about who gave him this knowledge of his missing race of ancestors, fearing the history with them and alicorns may break his trust.
“Well, on my world we have Zebras, Pegasi, Unicorns and Earth Ponies. But I´ve never seen an earth pony with an aurora. I have never seen ponies like you that I know of. I have only heard of them.”
“Hmm you say you can see an aurora in ponies like me...” Sparks muses.
Owal nods. “Yes that is right.”
Sparks smiles with an idea. “Then let’s just call ponies like me ‘Aurorians’!”
“Now that sounds like a fitting name.”
Sparks nods. “Well, then it’s settled: Ponies that have powers similar to mine and marks in ways like mine are called ‘Aurorians’!”
“Sounds good! You and I together shall free all the Aurorians here on this world!”
Sparks shouts with joy, beginning to trot up a hill, eager to fight. Owal stomps on his tail with his front hooves, preventing him from doing so.
Sparks falls to the ground onto his back.
“Ouch! What was that for?” he asked angrily.
Owal overlooks Sparks hovering above his head and tells him in a calm, but strict voice: “You can’t just go barging up the hill like that and start a fight against beasts like dragons!”
Sparks gets up and pulls his tail out under Owal’s hooves, replying confident: “I have powers now! And I know how to punch and kick with my hooves.”
Owal gives Sparks a stern look. “Yes, you may know how to fight! But you don´t know how to fight well! Do you have a plan to fight the dragons at the mines? Your powers may not be enough to do the job and you may get yourself killed, losing the only chance we have to free the ponies of this world!”
Sparks begins looking down upon the ground, feeling sorry for his actions. “I am sorry…if I was getting over my head. What do you have in mind?”
Owal tells him with a happy look upon his face. “Well I am glad you asked. I will teach you the fighting techniques I know, apply them with your powers and work on a plan to free your friend Arso from the mines.”
“So when do we begin?” Sparks urges.
Owal gives him a quick, responsive answer:
“We are going to begin right now and train until the next full moon!”
The Aurorians: Rise and Fall
The Dragon King Kirin Ch.2
The Dragon king Kirin Ch.2
He sits on his throne, a full moon casting its light through the ceiling in front of him.
He shouts for his servant in a dinning tone, echoing the hallways with fear for who he calls.
“DISCORD! Where are you? I demand you to be in my presence! AT! ONCE!”
Discord turns his head round a corner, looking at his master in panic, his eyes shot with fear by the sight of his master´s glowing red piercing eyes and the shadow of a beast of guttering flames behind him.
“Um…yes, Master Kirin?”
“Discord, come closer! I have an important question to ask you…”
Discord walks closer to his master, into the light of the full moon. He suddenly remembers that his master is weaker at full moon and sighs in relief, but still nervous about the question his master wants to ask.
He had a slight inkling of what this question could be…
“What is that I heard about ponies escaping from one of the mines?”
Discord stands in a positive manner and scratches under his chin.
“Oh, it’s no big deal, Master Kirin. The dragons at the mine managed to catch all the ponies…all but one blue male...”
“Well, then where is this blue one that got away, Discord?”
Discord relaxes a bit more, creates a couch in front of him and lies down on it, not worrying for anything his master will do. “Well one of the dragons reported that he went tumbling down a hill and into a raging river. We are sure he couldn’t have survived.”
Kirin begins staring at discord in disapproval.
“Did they ever find his body?” he questions in a darker tone.
Discord begins scratching his back with a hand of his floating behind his back. “Nah! Wasn’t worth the trouble for one pony. We are absolutely sure he is dead”
“Enough of this foolishness you are presenting me Discord!”
“Oh, I just want to have some fun! Like the good old times we had with your brother, my master.”
Kirin’s shadow reaches out, formed like a claw and grabs Discord at his throat, making the couch vanish into thin air. Kirin’s shadow chokes Discord’s neck, making his eyes bulging out of his head. Kirin’s shadow brings Discord closer, face to face with Kirin.
“You may think that right now I am powerless to hurt you Discord…” he began in a threatening voice “…but my shadow knows if I tend to not like something! It will not like it either. Its power that I have in my control tends to have a mind of its own on these full moons. It can be hard to control.”
Discord begins to snap his fingers to try to teleport away, but somehow he can’t manage to do so.
“Don’t think that you can escape from me and those powers!” he shouted.
Discord begins to grab at the shadowy figure’s claw around his neck to loosen its grip but can’t manage to get a hold of the shadow beast’s grip on him. His hand just passes through it.
“Don’t you remember how you got those powers in the first place?”
Discord begins pointing at his mouth trying to signal Kirin that he wants to speak.
Kirin’s shadow loosens his grip slightly, but only enough for Discord to speak a few short bursts of words.
“I... remember...”
“I gave you those powers to keep control, not chaos. Got it?”
Discord nods in agreeing manner.
Kirin loosens his grip on Discord and throws him to the ground with a dismissive movement.
“Then we are good. Don’t ever do your chaotic messes in front of me again! Clear?”
He looks at Discord lying on the floor, gasping for air to speak a few words.
“Y-yes, my master…loud and clear…”
Kirin grins evil. “Good! If we are clear about this matter being resolved, I want you to search for that missing pony from the mine. If he is still alive, destroy him!”
Discord speaks back at Kirin, disagreeing. “But master, we are absolutely sure that he i-”
“If you disobey me again, I will make sure that YOU are the destroyed one!” Kirin cut in, yelling at the dragonequus in front of him.
“But master Kirin, we are-”
Kirin’s shadow begins to stretch out his claw to grab Discord again but suddenly stops to listen to what Discord has to say through his fear.
“Y-y-yes master…I-I will do as you say…j-just don’t hurt me, please!”
“That is what I want to hear from you Discord. Now, listen and then do as I say!”
“What is it that you wish, master?”
“Search this pony until the next full moon’s rise! If you don´t find it, whether it´s alive or dead, you can stop. You hear?”
Discord bows down to Kirin “Yes master! As you wish…”
Kirin looks down upon Discord, scrutinizing him. “Anything else you want to know, Discord?” he asked after a while, leaning back on his throne.
“May I ask why it is that important to find a single meaningless pony, my master?”
Kirin cringes unnoticeable at his question. “The reason you have to find this pony and destroy it, Discord, is that he may be the one to make the lands of the dragons, Sirrush, and myself fall to his rise. It maybe will bring freedom to the ponies that we withheld in these lands.”
Discord brings his head up slowly, surprised about his master´s words. “Really, master?” he asked in disbelief. “How could only one pony make the land of the dragons fall?”
Kirin looks down at Discord. “The reason, Discord, is that I betrayed my brother and his treaty. It may have had more dire consequences then I thought.” He pauses for a second and cringes. “The reason why I say this, Discord is that I know of a force that can tell the future. The time rhythm always is changing.”
Discord is amazed from what he heard. “What is this force that can tell the future, my master?”
“I am not going to tell you about this force. It only reveals itself onto others like me.” Kirin replied harsh and annoyed of the dragonequus´ curiosity.
Discord bows his head to his master trying not to annoy him any further. “Then could you at least tell me what this unknown force told you?”
“It told me of a fate that I shall lose my powers because of one simple pony who gains his freedom on a full moon like this night. I will be sealed away and not awake until I am freed, only to discover that the lands will be ruled by inferior ponies.”
Kirin’s shadow grabs his throne, his anger increasing. “This force also told me that when I´m freed, I will wage a war against them all. However, I will lose to a power that is more powerful than you and me, Discord!”
Discord is a little uneasy about these words.
“Why don’t we wipe out all these ponies and solve the problem?” he suggested.
Kirin looks at Discord. “That would be a foolish move. You see, they keep the planet alive. They are the life force for this world. If we got rid of them all then we will slowly die off and this world will never harvest life again.”
Discord nods to this. “I understand, my master, but did this force tell you anything else?”
“It also told me this, Discord: That if I can´t escape my fate, you will have a similar one, but a banishment that will last a terribly long time.”
Discord can’t believe what he is hearing. “Is there anything that we can do to stop this?”
“You can go now and find this one pony and destroy it so that we won’t have to worry about this prophecy coming true anymore...” Kirin suggested with a slightly menacing voice.
Discord bows one more time and gets up, walking out of the room and picks up a pink object from around the corner, which has a strange hat on it and a ball and screw with a mark on it. Kirin notices Discord picking up this object and knows what it is.
“I changed my mind about destroying you, Discord! If you disobey me again, I instead will have your pet taken away from you and you will never see her again…”
Discord stops, pauses, and stands where he is, muttering a few cursing words. He looks back to Kirin sternly.
“Yes, master…I understand…”
The Aurorians: Rise and Fall
The dark coated alicorn peaks his head out from its shade behind the trees, leaning its head into the early day and feeling the sun’s rays.
“I think they are not searching anymore.” he says and waves his hoof to the young blue stallion, indicating to him that he could come out off his hiding. The blue stallion did so, savoring the nice warm rays of the sun onto his blue coat, too.
“Aw, it’s so nice to feel being free and not to haul carts all the day!”
To only be short-spoken to by Owal.
“Alright, glad that we could avoid all those close calls, Sparks. These dragons seemed to be searching for you, flying around that much lately. Well, to your and my luck, they seem to have stopped their search and given up. Just glad that I taught you everything to the best of my knowledge! Now, you know some good fighting techniques and how you can use them with your powers. And all in one full moon´s pass! You also learned pretty quickly during your training, too! So let’s do a practice run.”
Owal turns around, stepping out of the thick barks and looking at the blue stallion, giving him a grin and a firm nod.
“Alright. How should we start this practice run?” The blue Stallion replies nodding and stomps his hooves down at the dirt, his head stretched out ready to attack.
The dark coated alicorn turns his head to face a group of withered dying trees. “You remember how we practiced on trees?”
Sparks, his head still close down to the ground and ready to do what Owal commands, replies with a determined voice: “Yeah I remember.”
The grateful dark alicorn points at an individual tree.
“Good! Let´s start: I want you to give one of them a lightning punch, then a lightning bomb and finally cast lightning blade to cut a tree in half!”
Sparks immediately dashes off, heading for the first tree.
He draws his right hoof back, charging it with his electrical power, feeling it build up in his limb. With a final jump, he darts at the tree and quickly punches the center of his target, releasing the tension of the electric force. The tree instantly explodes in a loud blast, wooden shards and chips sailing to the ground.
But that was only the beginning, one of the few powerful and destructive techniques, Owal had taught him!
He quickly turns too his second target, already collecting his electrical energy and forming it into a blue energy-ball. The blue stallion takes aim and looses the electric ball at the tree´s base. At express speed, the electric orb hits the tree, setting free its energy with a loud explosion and catapulting the tree´s upper part into the air like a rocket.
Finally, Sparks turns to his third target, glaring at it. The furious pony lunges out, raising to his rear legs and stretching his two front hooves to his back, collecting tingling energy in them. With a final determined cry of exertion, he rapidly slams them to the ground with a loud thud. With that, he forms and looses the energy in his hooves. Like a crescent made of lightning, it swiftly darts at the tree and splits it into two halves. The lightings heat sets it afire in addition.
Owal meanwhile sits down, leaning with his back against a tree and nods appreciative with folded front hooves. “Perfect! It seems you are ready to fight some dragons.” he means smiling.
“Alright! I am feeling ready! Just let me do this and show these dragons who is boss.” he announced, swinging his two hooves in the air like a pugilist, ready to fight against anything that will stand in his way.
Owal nods in agreeing manner. “Okay. I am going to let you go to rescue your friend and the other ponies.” He pauses for a moment, thinking about his next words. “I don’t think your powers will be able to kill these dragons, but maybe able to hurt them a lot and cause some damage…”
Sparks stops for a moment from punching the air and turns his attention to Owal. “What do you mean?”
“Dragons are extremely hard to kill, especially for me because I´m using magic. But for you it is another thing, because your powers are no real magic and you can cast a extremely large force of lightning that others with magic can’t do.” he explained serious.
“Well, I guess that makes sense…somehow…” Sparks replies, scratching his head.
“Alright. Now, you can go back to the mines and do whatever is needed with your powers to free those ponies. And once you have saved them, do bring them back here!”
“Alright! I will do as you said, Owal!” Sparks gives a salute before he trots up the hill and disappears in the distance, heading for where the mine is located.
While he is walking along the desert plains back to mines in his heroic attempt to free the ponies there, a figure above casts its shadow onto the ground below and soon lands in front of him, throwing the desert dust around.
A large dragon planted threateningly himself in front of the blue stallion. “Ah! So you are alive and finally returning to us! Though we were sure you were dead after we gave up the search.”
“Well, somehow, you could put it that way I guess. And yes, I am still alive!”
The Dragon before him snarls and responds: “Well, too bad for you! We dragons have order, that if you were still alive you have to be destroyed for our loyalty to our master.”
“Oh, too bad you are going to have a hard time destroying me, because I think it´s me who has the upper hoof now, dragon.” Sparks hit back cheeky.
The dragon only chuckles at his remark. “Ha! One single pony like you will take me on? The best joke made in years! You will never win, because you´ve got nothing on me!”
Sparks just smirks. “Well, if you think I´ve got nothing on you, let me show you this…”
And with that, he rapidly rears onto his back legs, conducts his electrical energies into his fore legs and stomps them down, casting lightning all around that rips the desert plain´s ground and strikes the dragon, causing a loud scream of pain out of the dragon. The sheer mass of energy and their power knocks him out instantly.
At a rapid gallop, Sparks dashes into the direction of the mine, knowing that he needed to get there fast. The dragon´s screams may have warned many of the others and might have blown his plan freeing the ponies.
Sitting in the slumps of his cage, he looks up. An opening outside his bars allow him a view at the beautiful sky, just to notice it going dark when a very spiked dragon passes by and grabs the bars of the cage to tell something to Arso, the black stallion with the fiery mane.
“You know your little blue friend is dead! He is never coming back!”
Arso tilts his head up from the cell´s dirty floor and laughs “Ha! I know he made it and he can’t be dead!”
The dragon gives an evil smirk at the black pony. “Nah, a dragon saw him fall down the hill into a raging river. A small pathetic creature like him would never survive this! Face the facts you pitiful creature! Your friend is dead!”
“I will never believe that he is dead! He is alive and he made it! I just know it!” Arso’s temper grows and rushes to his hooves, biting the dragon´s claw that gripped the cage.
The beast gives a short yelp in surprise an angrily throws him to the back of his cell.
“You disgraceful useless pony!” he shouts at him, losing his temper. He bends up the cell´s bars with his strong claws, ready to beat the hell out of the black Stallion, but was stopped by a bright lightning, pounding the dragon´s head into the ground and causing a big dirt and dust cloud.
Arso rubs the dirt out of his eyes and tries to see what struck down this dragon to unconsciousness.
“Whoa! Wait, what did that?” he asks confused and continues to rub his eyes. Because of the dust cloud all around, he can’t keep them open for long, only getting a quick glimpse at the blurring glob of gray appearing in his eyes and standing on top of the dragon´s head.
He begins to panic. What struck down this dragon? And would it be friendly to ponies? And what if it wouldn´t be?
“Who is there and who are you?” He questioned into the dust.
The shadow in front of him lowers itself onto all fours, the dust cloud beginning to vanish, and trots over to Arso.
“Well I am glad I got here in time or that dragon would have killed you, Arso. There, I am pretty sure.”
With a final rub, the black stallion cleaned his eyes from the last remains of dirt and dust and looks at the pony in front of him, recognizing its voice and going very wide-eyed in surprise. “Sparks? Is that you? But…I thought you were…were…”
Sparks quickly interrupts his sentence and smirks. “Dead you say? Nah! A pony like me is going be a lot harder to kill from now on!”
“Wait…what…why…” Arso stutters, not knowing what to feel.
A dragon soon appears from around a corner to the cell, noticing the unconscious dragon and the blue pony standing next to him. “You there! Stop and surrender!”
“I will show you Arso” He simply replies.
And then, he quickly turns around and dashes straight at the dragon, gathering his electrical power and punching him hard in his stomach. Taken by surprise, a jolt of lightning sends the beast across the room, through the bars of the cell and ramming the dragon´s head inside the wall.
The black stallion only stares in amazement about the demonstration of his blue friend´s powers. “But…but…but… how?...”
The blue pony quickly trots over to Arso “There is no time to talk! I need to get you and all the other ponies out of here!”
He indicates to Arso to take a few steps back. The black stallion did so, still awestricken by Sparks new abilities. With a few electrical enhanced kicks, the gate´s locks blast out off their hinges.
“Arso, I need you to guide these ponies out of the mine while I´ll keep the dragons busy!”
Arso stutters at Spark´s orders, not really believing into his friend´s crazy plan. But, in the end, this may is the last chance to escape forever, so he nods and responses: “Yeah, Sparks. Where should be head too?”
Sparks just grins. “You remember the forest where we first planned to go to? Head for it and you may run into a new friend I made.”
“Who is this new friend?” Arso asks curious.
The blue pony waves a hoof. “There is no time to explain. You must get going now, Arso! I´ll stay here and take care of these dragons!”
“And what is about you, Sparks?” his black-coated friend questions concerned.
Sparks just stares into Arso´s eyes, urgency in his own ones.
“JUST GO!”
Just as to emphasize his words, another dragon appears in front of them and tries to stomp them into the ground. Sparks acts fast, kicking Arso to the side and jumping to the other side to avoid the attack. With a loud rumble, the dragon-fist hit the ground where the two ponies had stand one second before. Wasting no time, Sparks jumped, hitting the dragon´s chin with a large charge of electricity.
Together, the two ponies fight their way through the mine, Sparks systematically knocking out every dragon that unfortunately crosses their way and freeing every pony out of its cell.
Finally, they reached the mine´s centre, ponies working hard everywhere, hauling pushcarts or working at the walls with pickaxes, everypony´s face black with dirt and their backs witnessing the usage of the dragon´s whips.
Suddenly, there is a movement in the shadows and a large dragon, appearing like a yellow snake with sharp claws, steps out of the shadows, puffing smoke out of his nose.
“So you are the leader of the dragons in this mine! Finally we meet…”
The blue hero, sweating from his former efforts, stares at the dragon face to face from the distance.
The black Stallion meanwhile yells to the ponies, announcing to stop their work.
“I want every pony to follow me because:”
And that were the magical words.
“We are leaving!”
There was a short silence, broken by the sudden outbursts of joy from hundreds of ponies, laying down their work and starting to form a crowd in front of him. He catches eye of a young colt that was brought to the mines and hauled a way too heavy cart.
He picks him up, because he was exhausted and way too slow to travel such a far distance. At his command, they follow Arso out of the mines while he carries the young colt to the gate that leads out. He notices, that the gate has been broken open for them to leave the dreaded mine. Arso one more time realizes that this is the time for them to finally leave and gain their freedom! And he one more time sees the immense power Sparks got now, when he looks the rampaged door over.
“Alright, everypony! I want every single one of you to head for the forest beyond the landscape!”
Every pony follows Arso, trotting their way to the forest and leaving the mine empty, except for our blue hero, who was still there to face a great challenge.
As the blue pony keeps his stance, the dragon speaks up. “It’s been so long, since I fought one of you, far too long I must say…”
Sparks tilts his head. “Wait, what you said?”
“Enough!” the dragon simply roars. “You must be destroyed to prevent the prophecy from coming true!” With that, he opens his mouth wide and shoots a large fireball at the blue stallion.
The blue stallion reacts quickly and avoids the dragon´s attack, ducking behind a rock
“This was close!” he puffs. “And this dragon is going to be harder than the others to take down!”
The yellowish dragon swings his large fist and stomps the ground with a loud thud, breaking the rock and, with it, his hiding place. “You can’t hide from me so easily! I will destroy you and make you into a paste!”
Sparks turns around to face the dragon once again and focuses his attention on him.
“I am tired of this! Let´s end this once and for all!”
The blue stallion raises his hooves up into the air, collecting his powers, and drops them down to the ground, casting his lightning from the sky and into the open mine, electrifying the dragon and throwing the loose dust from the ground all around.
After a short silence, a grumbling came out of the dusty cloud. “You have to try harder to hurt me, you pathetic blue pony!”
The yellowish dragon charges at the blue Stallion, sparing him only a second before he would get smashed into the wall. He quickly jumps to his left, causing the ferocious beast to smash into the mine´s wall.
“Well, and you have to be a lot smarter if you really want to destroy me!”
The yellowish dragon snarls at the remark and turns his head away from the wall and slams his fist with incredibly strength against it
“I will show you, foolish blue stallion!”
Sparks feels a rumbling from the ground and notices the wall crumbling behind the dragon. He smirks and pokes his tongue out. “Good luck with that…” he sang “…because you are going to taste a delicious load of earth!”
“You little…!” as the dragon was about to finish his sentence and slam down his fist onto sparks, a large amount of earth detaches from the wall´s edge above and falls down, slamming the angry beast hard into the earth and burying it under thousands of rocks. He swings his fist in a last try to hit Sparks, but fails.
Only unclear small mumbles of the dragon´s language can be heard, muffled by the large amount of earth. Though, he was still alive. “I…. will ha… my…. rev…”
Sparks just brushes his hooves clean from all the dust and the ordeal and bring his ear closer to the dragon´s earthy cage. “Wait, what did you say? I can’t hear you! it sounds like you have a load of earth in your mouth! Sorry, I can’t help you with anything if you don’t tell me what´s wrong!”
He rolls on his back, laughing in relief in the dusty dirt.
“Ohhhh I kid myself so much now!”
The Dragon continues to try and grab and reach anything with his one free claw, waving it around. Sparks waves back at the yellowish flayed claw, standing out from the dirt.
“Thanks for everything! I had very much fun! Maybe, we should do this again sometime! It sure was fun!”
And so, he trots his way up the path out of the mine, but abruptly stops.
“Oh, wait! There will never be a next time, because I will never return here again!”
He kicks dirt at the direction of the dragon and trots his way out of the mine and over the desert landscape to the forest right beyond where he gained his freedom.
He didn´t look back only one single time…
