A few months ago…

I found myself in a cave surround by other creatures from around the world, and coiled around my hoof was a little brown and orange serpent like dragon.

“Peran-ran okay you are?” the little dragon asked.

With a hoof to my head, I began to rub out a headache; I looked around for the biped that calls himself ‘Blaze Drifter’. “Where is he? Where is Blaze Drifter?” I asked as my eyes fell upon the little dragon before me.

“Saved you… stayed behind he did,” the little dragon replied. I began to shake, as I tried to stand up, but my hooves were not listening. The little dragon then placed his little claw like hands on my leg. “Stay… hurt.”

I nodded as I looked up towards the horizon to see the Changeling castle. “I’ll return for you Blaze… I swear.”

“You save Wise Dragon… Talon help!” the little dragon exclaimed. “Heal you first… then to save!” Talon then ran off.

“Talon wait!” I yelled reaching out with a hoof. The sudden shift of my movement caused me to shutter in pain. I looked down to my flank to notice a large fleshy gash with some sort of plant placed on top. Then all at once I felt a cool rush of fluids run down my back and everything went black.

I awoke to the smell of fresh flowers and grass. As I opened my eyes again a small fire was positioned to my left and a cave wall to my right. It was night, I could tell by the moisture in the air. Suddenly a shadow ran across the wall and I felt a sharp pain from my flank.

“Plant juice make better… flower is food, eat!” Talon exclaimed as he massaged an orange paste into my wound.

“Talon, where are we? And where is everybody else?” I asked as I began to eat.

“Everyone left… not help they said… scary. But not truth I think… too tempted to return.”

“Tempted to return?” I asked.

“Plants we all were, rooted, fed, and then picked for our fruits… plants don’t move. No look for better sun. Stay were planted, but if move they could, they would. Come back they might… and never leave again. Freedom is good, but to take care of self, hard… maybe too hard.” Talon said.

I gave him a wide-eyed look before I returned to my food; maybe this little dragon was much smarter than I thought. “So what’s the plan, Talon?”

“Me?! Plan… nonononono… me not smart, me have not plan…” Talon replied with hesitation.

“You hesitated! You do have a plan… don’t you?” I insisted. “What is it?”

The little dragon pushed gently on my muzzle. “You rest and better you get… watch Changelings outside… pick one out for plan. Replace with you… see then what happened with wise dragon… plan more, then save wise dragon,” Talon replied.

I stared at this little dragon completely amazed by his plan… or at least considering it a damn good one. “Okay, I will rest and get better. Will you help me? You seem to know your medicinal plants,” I said giving the little dragon a head rub as he nodded.
The next few days were very interesting to say the least, Talon was a little trooper. Before the sun would rise, he would get me food and apply what he called ‘plant paste’ to my wound. As soon as the sun began to rise, he would disappear and not return until the sun had passed overhead; and as soon as he returned he would begin to paint on the cave wall. Eventually, my leg became well enough for me to walk around and collect my own food. I walked over to where Talon was painting on the wall and was in complete surprise at what I found. It was a drawing of the surrounding area, with little changeling stick figures.

“It is them as they walk around the day… they not see well in the light. Good time to catch one,” Talon explained. “Toss it in the hole and then close it up!” he said pointing to his left.

And right there, to the left of him was a small hole with a large rock top, “Pretty good, little guy, now we gotta see which one of them is our best bet for this plan,” I replied looking over the claw painted map.

“This one!” Talon exclaimed. “Blind in one eye he is.”

A smile crept over my face, we were going to save the creature that saved me. But why was I going out of my way to save him? Was it because he was nice to me… because he saved me… no, he changed me. I was no longer a changeling… well not one that required feeding off emotions. “Why am I trying to save you?” I asked placing a hoof over the center of the painting.

“Because… he is friend,” Talon replied, “Friend that would fight army to save you.”

The next day would be the day we would sneak into the hive, and try to find Blaze.

Our plan failed, the guards had caught us and thrown us into a cell. Talon had tried to fight two changelings at once in order to let me escape, but to no avail. I looked down at Talon, his little body covered in cuts and bruises. I walked over to him and leaned against him, trying not to move him. “You little nut… you could have run and saved yourself.”

“Then bad friend I would be… Wise Dragon would not like me much,” Talon replied.

A few days later the door of our cell opened and I was held in place by a green aura.

“My, my, my… if it isn’t Peran?!” a female voice echoed.

“Queen Chrysalis…” I muttered.

“Well at least you remember me, but I honestly don’t remember you looking that way.” Chrysalis replied trotting into the room. “Dispel that vile form!” She ordered.

I smiled and spit in her direction.

“Brave, but foolish!” Chrysalis yelled as she enveloped my body in magic. “Dispel!” But nothing happened. She repeated her spell, and once again nothing happened.

“Nice try… but I am no longer one of your changelings…” I muttered.

Chrysalis smacked me across the face, “You might not look the same, but you will always be mine…” She smiled predatorily. “But then again so is he.” The cell went dark and in the distance I could see him… surrounded by a green glow.

“Blaze!” I yelled, only to be silenced by the Queen.

“Silly little fool, he can’t hear you.” The large changeling then lifted me to face her. “But I at least now have a use for you.”

“He won’t break… not like the others, and—“

Before I could finish talking, Chrysalis was engulfed in green fire, and there she stood as a copy of me in my new body. “This should do nicely.” The queen smiled while looking over at me. “Don’t worry, I’ll show him a good time.”

Before I could reply, a green aura wrapped around my muzzle and I was pushed against a panel of glass.

“Enjoy the show, I know I sure will,” the queen said and walked laughing out of the cell.

A few moments later I saw the lights in Blaze’s cell get brighter as Chrysalis neared him, using my body. At first they appeared to be talking, a smile ran across his face, and then she began to kiss him. I could not picture myself doing such a thing to Blaze, not anymore, but there she was, using a copy of my body, kissing him, touching him, mounting him, and now… I looked away disgusted with my former species.

After a few minutes the glass wall in front of us started to slide down, I turned to see Chrysalis still looking like me riding Blaze before bursting into a fit of laughter. She slowly changed back into her true form.

“What a wonderful pet you are, that was truly amazing, so much energy!” Chrysalis said. “Oh and as for your friend Peran…” Chrysalis gestured to us; Talon and I were tossed into the room. “Can you believe it, they returned to save you!” Chrysalis cackled.

“PERAN! TALON!” Blaze yelled.

Talon looked up at Blaze. “Wise Dragon, okay are you?”

“Silence, you little fool!” Chrysalis shouted firing an energy bolt at Talon. We all watched in horror as the little dragon flew across the room into a pillar and slid across the floor. His little claws were reaching out to Blaze as he drew his last few breaths on the cold dungeon floor.

The room began to shake, a large symbol on the floor glowing blue and blue flame engulfed Blaze’s body, “YOU WILL ALL PAY!” Blaze yelled.

I could only watch as blue fire erupted from Blaze’s body. Slowly I dragged myself over to Talon trying to wake him. I then looked up to see a pair of golden eyes staring down at me.

“Is he?!” Blaze asked gentle touching the small dragon, blue fire erupted from the small dragon’s body engulfing it in a bright blue blaze. There staring back at us was the largest serpent like dragon I had ever seen.

“Sorry so much wise dragon, did save you we did?” The large very old looking dragon asked.

“Yes, Talon, you did a great job. You saved me,” Blaze replied with tears in his eyes.

“Yay!” the dragon cheered. “So sleepy I am now… Leave to sleep now, presents I leave to you. History of me, and creatures before…” Talon looked over to me. “We saved him!”

I nodded tears flooding my eyes as the dragon looked to me and then back to Blaze.

“Good night, Wise Dragon…” Talon said, his bright green eyes slowly closing. Blaze hugged the large creature, burying his face into the furry muzzle of the dragon.

“How touching,” Chrysalis’ voice echoed from across the room, before she shot a bolt of energy towards Blaze.

As the energy neared, Blaze back handed the bolt of magic away, his skin charred from the contact. Slowly it healed and as it did, Talon’s large body began to glow, turning into magic and merging itself with Blaze. The only thing left of Talon was a large bone like sword. Blaze picked it up and as he did, his body was slowly growing scales and horns.

“You stole Talon from me… you stole several months of my life I could spend with my family…” Blaze said as fire erupted from the sword. “And you have done nothing to warrant me from sparing your LIVES!” The fire around him started to grow and wrap itself around him, and for a moment he looked away, as if the fire was talking to him.

“Changelings! Your Queen orders you to destroy him!” Chrysalis yelled as she slowly backed away into the shadows. Quickly the hive was buzzing to life, and began charging towards Blaze.

Blaze raised his sword and pointed out towards a group of changelings, “Move…” he spoke and without hesitation the hive moved away. “We are leaving Peran.” Blaze said as he walked over to me and picked me up.

“How? But? Why?” I replied wondering in confusion. The hive lowered their heads to Blaze as fear gripped them all.

"Changelings attack! Attack I SAY!" Chrysalis yelled and suddenly I found myself next to the Queen, still in Blaze's arms, his sword placed against her neck.

“It is not my place to pass judgment on you, Chrysalis, or your hive…” he spoke slowly turning to Chrysalis. “Did you here that, your majesty, but I will warn you now… if we ever cross paths again I will destroy you ALL!” Blaze yelled, his voice echoing through the hive, causing the queen and a few changelings that were close enough to flinch.

Still pointing the sword at the wall, he gripped the handle tighter causing fire to erupt forth, destroying the wall that stood between us and freedom.

The sound of clapping was heard as Peran finished telling her story, “What a nice story!” a voice came from behind Peran, the pair of griffons and Blaze, “But you forgot how that beastly human destroyed my army of the dead and no thanks to an ancient dragon.” A pair of large purple eyes appeared behind them as a large cat like creature came forth.

“You!?! I remember you!” Peran yelled as she ran behind Gibson.

“Sooo glad you do. Now Blaze, you and I have some unfinished business,” the creature said as its large purple and green body came into view.

“Look, whatever you are, take what you want, just let them go.” Blaze said as he extended his wings to protect his friends. Suddenly a large smooth gem on the creature’s chest caught Blaze’s attention. “Wait… Do I… Do I know you?”

With a quick pounce the creature was on top of Blaze, the gem pressing down on Blaze. “Remember…” In a flash, Blaze memories started to return. Images of Dark Morning, Poison Heart and the whole herd flashed in his head. Then he remembered what happened in the desert… what happened that caused the loss of his memories.

Looking out of the hole, I stared into the desert and took flight. As I flew I sensed something familiar in the distance, that's when I saw it, a huge army walking towards the forest, a large cat like beast giving commanding the army. With Peran in my arms, I stretched out my wings and flew over to see if someone there could help us… instead what I found was an army of the dead marching forward. The stench was more than enough to get me to throw up, but that was when I heard them… the sounds of guns and magic.

On the ground, in some sort of outpost was group of human marines and griffons being attacked by wave after wave of the undead. I couldn't decide whether or not I wanted to help them. Looking down at Peran and then to the sword of Talon, the answer was clear. Landing off to the side of the army I hid Peran in a small cave, and began changing my new body for war. I could feel the physical and magical changes in my body as the blue flame engulfed me. When I was done I felt taller and angrier than I had ever felt in my life before…

It was the dragon’s blood… but instead of a hoarder turning me into a berserker. It was my own rage and anger… anger for all the time I had lost away from Morning and the others. The fire that burned around me started to blur my vision and then I was gone... the last thing I heard was a voice, "We defend them all."

Author's Note

Yeah, sorry, short Chapter, but this needed to be done. Enjoy. See you in the next chapter. It has been edited.