Rise Of The Dragon Lord

Chapter 6:

Take To The Skies

"I thought Princess Celestia's letters came with a red seal," I said as I looked at the letter in Spikes hand. The whole incident with the town had occurred just an hour ago, but now I was being faced with a new challenge. "That seal looks blue."

The letter did in fact have a blue seal, adorned with a crescent moon on it. The parchment also looked to be of a darker shade than what I expected it to be.

"Because its from Princess Luna," Spike said with a smile. Unrolling the letter, Spike cleared his throat and began to read, only to be interrupted as the four fillies crashed through him. But he quickly recovered and continued to read.

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

We are happy to hear from you so soon after your departure. We feared that the recent assault on the castle would have caused problems with your return to Ponyville.

While our sister is currently too busy with current affairs to reply, we would be happy to provide you with our knowledge.

But we must admit, we were surprised to hear about your questions about a world without magic. If that is the case though, It must be a part of the book our sister sent you.

While we do not know much of said books history, we do understand your dilemma in translation. So, we are sending several books from the royal library that we believe should prove useful in deciphering the rest. They are as old as the book itself and contain languages that are not to be viewed by anyone but you Twilight Sparkle. This is very important. For your other topic, we shall also be sending another book specific to your questions. We have not had the time to read it ourselves, but it should hold the incite you need.

If you have any other questions, please do not be afraid to direct them towards us until our sister has handled the current state of affairs.

Princess Luna

P.S: We regret to inform you that the castle is currently restricting entry to all visitors.

"Never would've thought Luna would be the one to answer," I said as I watched the young fillies. They had stopped running around the room to listen to Spike as he read the letter. But, the looks on their faces revealed their confusion to the situation.

"Its actually quite understandable," Twilight said as she took the letter from Spike with her magic. "Ponies are scared because an attack like this has never happened. Granted, I would've liked an answer from Princess Celestia, I'm still happy to receive Princess Luna's help. Even if it is a few books."

"But why didn't the Princess just answer your questions in her letter," Scootaloo asked from nearby.

"She probably didn't have enough time," Twilight said as she re-read the letter. "It would explain why it took so long to reply in the first place."

Just then, a knock could be heard from the library door. Opening it, Twilight was greeted by a dark furred pony wearing dark blue armor and had a pair of bat wings. Without a word, they handed Twilight a stack of several books and flew off without a second glance.

"That was fast," I commented as Twilight set the books on a desk. I was about to pick up one of the books to look at, but as my hand just about reached the top one of the pile, Twilights hoof slapped it away. "What was that for?"

"You remember the letter," Twilight said as she got in between me and the books. "Princess Luna got these from the royal library and said that only I am to look at them. I know you want to help with this so you can get home. But don't worry, I'll figure it all out in no time.

"So how about you take the fillies home for now while I get to work. Ok?" There wasn't much I could do by that point. I did want to help, but I guessed that all I could do was trust in Twilight.

"Alright," I sighed as I turned and looked toward the fillies. "Come on, lets get back to what we were doing earlier."

With confused stares toward each other, the fillies nodded in agreement and made their way outside. "Lets just hope things go better this time," I said to Twilight as I left the library as well.

"What was that all about," Sweetie Belle asked as I met them outside the library.

"Don't worry about that," I said with a smile. " Now come one, lets go find Doctor Whooves."

"Who," Dinky asked. "I think he means Time Turner," Apple Bloom responded. Again, all for fillies stared at me in confusion.

"But why him," Dinky asked. "I mean, by what all the other ponies in town say. He's kind of . . ."

"Crazy," Scootaloo said blatantly. "I hear, he spends all his time working on things besides clocks, and he never make any sense when you ask him a question."

"I hear he fights crime and is always protecting ponies and the world," Sweetie Belle said with a smile. Suddenly, we were all laughing. It only lasted a few moments though.

"Actually," Scootaloo said. "How about we try doing something else for the rest of the day?"

"What do you mean by that," Apple Bloom asked.

"I'm not saying that this isn't fun," Scootaloo said rolling her eyes. "But I wanted to see something."

"And what would that be," Sweetie Belle asked as Scootaloo made her way over to where I stood. "I wanna see you fly," Scootaloo said as she looked up at me.

"But what about my sister," Dinky asked.

"Derpy's been good this long," Scootaloo said. "Besides, have you looked at his wings? I bet he could fly while carrying all of us. Imagine what we could do."

"Wait a minute. I promised Dinky," I tried to say only to be blocked by the other crusaders. They quickly began coming up with ideas and theories, all centered around using me as a pack mule. Looking over at Dinky, I was surprised that she seemed to like the idea too.

"Well, sorry to burst your bubble," I said as the fillies finally quieted down. "But I don't even know how to fly in the first place so . . ."

"Thats ok," Scootaloo said with a large grin. "We can just ask Rainbow Dash for help."

"Yeah," the other three fillies said in unison. Then, before I could respond, the fillies took off in search of Rainbow Dash.

"This will not end well," I sighed as I began to follow.

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It didn't take long to find Rainbow Dash. Seeing as she was napping on the only cloud that was within three stories from the ground. It only took seconds to convince her to help me learn to fly.

"But you have to promise to race me before you leave," Rainbow Dash said menacingly. "You got that?"

"I can't promise anything," I said with a smug smile. I was beginning to get nervous. The thought of flying was exciting me. But the fact that I would end up several stories in the air, caused a knot to form in my chest.

"Don't worry," Rainbow Dash said as she made a lap around the fillies. "Its not that hard at all. And with those wings, you should do great."

As she said this, I took a look back at the large set of wings I had. They were very large, but being that I never had wings to begin with, I couldn't figure out how this would be easy.

"Now first," she continued as she flew back to inspect my wings for herself. "Lets see how they move. Now, tell me when it hurts." Suddenly, I began feeling a strange rotating feeling coming from the center of my back. Every now and then, there was a small singe of pain, but other than that, it actually felt really good.

"Well," Rainbow Dash said as she moved back into my line of sight. "There isn't anything wrong with your wings. So, try flapping them. If you don't know how. . ." she tried continuing, only to trail off. The fact that she didn't know how dragons flew was catching up to her.

"Hold on," I said as I began to flex my back muscles. In my head, I thought that all I would need to do is try to create a continuous feeling from the position on my back that had been rotating. It was actually a lot easier than I thought it was because as I started flexing the region, I could feel the wings flap and watched as dust began to stir in its cross wind.

"Yeah, like that," Rainbow Dash said as she watched me flap my wings. They were currently moving up and down and I could already feel myself losing weight as I began to lift off the ground. "Now flap harder."

Without a second thought, I put some added force into my flapping, and regretted it immediately. The one beat of my wings launched me well into the air and sent both Rainbow Dash and the fillies tumbling backwards. Looking down, I guessed that I had to be a good fifty feet up in the air and I was still going.

The sheer distance from the ground had brought out a long time fear of heights and it had started to cloud my mind. My mind had set my wings into auto pilot and I was gaining altitude fast. I had gone past several clouds by the time I noticed  the shaking.

Rainbow Dash had apparently been shaking me for the past hundred feet out of the good three hundred I had already flown. "Hay, you have to calm down," she said as she finally gained my attention. "Just slow your wing beats and you should be able to ease yourself back down."

"Ok," I quietly said, only now noticing how cold the air had gotten. I began to forcefully slow the wing beats. At first, the process was working as I dropped ten feet smoothly. But then, a rogue gust of wind caught one of my wings, catching me off guard and causing me to stop flapping.

I was now free falling straight down. Fear clouded my mind as I tried to remember how to flap my wings. Rainbow Dash was trying her best to catch me, but out of pure fear, I was flailing my arms, hoping to find something to grab that I knew wasn't there. I closed my eyes and waited for the inevitable.

THUMP

I had hit something that felt strangely soft, but was solid enough to still support my weight. I knew that this couldn't be the ground, It was far to soft.

"So this is heaven," I softly said to no one. Opening my eyes, I stared straight into the light of the sun. "And as I stare upon the gates of heaven, will they open?"

"Uh, Chris," A voice from below me called. Looking down, I saw the four fillies standing several feet below me. "You landed on a cloud," Scootaloo said, pointing up at my savior.

Looking back down, I was shocked to see that I had in fact landed on a cloud, and it was slowly sinking towards the ground due to my weight. Within seconds, I was standing back on the ground with the excited fillies and a shocked looking Rainbow Dash.

"There something on my face," I asked Rainbow Dash as I noticed her expression. She began to stutter a response to only be overpowered by the fillies excited comments. Each began jumping up and down, begging to be brought up into the sky. Suddenly, the fillies fell silent, turned and ran in different directions.

"Where's everyone going," I asked as I looked behind me. I turned just in time as a gray blob came crashing into me. Brining me with it as it tumbled into a nearby tree.

"That was amazing," Derpy chirped as she looked down at my legs. "Chris," Derpy asked in confusion as she looked for the rest of me. Looking down at where she was sitting, she realized that she was just about sitting on my face. "I am so sorry," She said as she jumped to her hooves and moved a few feet away, her face glowing red.

"There really is nothing there," I whizzed as air filled my lungs and the world around me began to fade.

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I was surrounded by darkness again. At first, the silence was deafening. I tried to call out, but like the last time, no words could be formed.

"Don't worry baby, I'll protect you."

The voices sudden appearance caused something inside of me to stur. It was a new voice to me. I could tell that it belonged to that of a woman. It seemed to be doing its best to give comfort, but was obviously seeking it themselves. Then, another voice broke the awkward silence. It sounded like that of a childs. But it said no words, only cried in fear.

"Don't worry," the dark voice from last time began. "It'll all be over soon enough."

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"NO," I yelled as I sat up, my eyes clenched shut. Reaching forward, I grabbed the closest thing I could. My mind still clouded, I began acting on pure instinct as I drew the object in close to me. A sudden urge to protect swept over me as I tried to shield the object from an unknown assault.

Suddenly, something began pulling on my arms, trying to break my grasp. But it did little but cause me to increase my grasp.

"I CAN'T LOSE YOU!"

"You don't have to," a familiar voice said as it broke through my clouded mind. then, something began to wrap itself around my body. Opening my eyes, I was shocked at what I saw.

I was in the middle of Twilight's library, surrounded by everyone. They each looked at me in complete shock and confusion. Dinky was the only one with a smile.

"What are you smiling about," I asked as I looked down. I immediately got lost in a combination of yellow and gray. Releasing my grip without a second thought, I began pushing Derpy away. This only caused her to intensify her hug.

"Hay,Derpy," I chuckled as a knot began forming in my chest. "Why don't we bring this to the other room," I continued, hoping to get a laugh or two.

Suddenly, all the wind was knocked out of me as Derpy rammed both of her front legs into my gut. She continued to do this until Rainbow Dash pulled her off. Her face was as red as an apple.

"I thought I told ya not to say that stuff around the youngins," Applejack scolded as she stepped up to where I sat. I merely laughed as I watched the embarrassed Derpy try to escape from Rainbow Dash's grasp to continue her assault.

"What time is it," I asked as I directed my attention towards a window. I could just see the sun poking over the horizon.

"About seven o'clock," Pinkie said as she began to hope around me.

"Thats not that bad," I said as I stood up.

"In the morning," Fluttershy said in a whisper.

"Oh, so i've been asleep for. . . OVER SIXTEEN HOURS?!" My mind was completely clouded as questions ran through my mind.

"Yeah, you passed out after Derpy rammed into you," Rainbow Dash said as she released a more calm Derpy from her grasp. "We got worried when we couldn't wake you up so we brought you to Twilight."

"Then, you started mumbling something in your sleep," Rarity said with a flick of her hoof. "We were all quite worried."

"Well, thanks for making sure I was alright," I said as a few questions still ran through my mind. "But if you don't mind, Could you answer me one question?"

"Sure," Twilight said as she inspected somthing on my face.

"Why am I on the floor of your library and not a hospital bed," I asked, directing the question towards Twilight. Immediately, the room fell silent once again and everyone stood frozen in place. "Thanks for calming my nerves," I said weakly.

"Well, you started to," Sweetie Belle began to say only to be silenced by Rarity. "What she means," Rarity said trying to take charge of the answer.

"No one in Ponyville knows how to take care of dragons other than Twilight," Applejack said rather quickly. "You were on the floor, because you were too heavy to get in a bed. We had to drag you here."

"But I thought," Apple Bloom began to say, only to be shushed by her sister. But the damage had been done. I knew they were hiding something.

"I know you're all hiding something," I said with a stern face. Everyone looked down towards the floor when I said this. After a moment of silence, Twilight took a step forward.

"You have to understand," Twilight began. She was about to continue when I held a hand up to silence her.

"You obviously have a reason for keeping whatever secret you have," I said, doing my best to keep calm. "If I don't need to know, then dont tell me."

Before anyone could respond, I ran out of the library. No one followed as I launched myself up into the sky. Shifting my weight, I began flying away. For it being my second time in the air, I felt oddly natural compared to the last time. From my position in the sky, I could see everything. The ponies going about their morning routine, the edge of town, the morning sun, and a familiar looking lake.

Within minutes I was closing in on the lake. I hit the ground rolling, since I had no idea how to land. But I didn't care about that as I got up and headed for the tire swing. To say I wanted to calm my nerves was an understatement. My entire body was shaking as I got in and started swinging.

The tension in my body immediately started to dull as I felt the rhythmic changes in gravity. Closing my eyes, I felt all the stress seep out of my mind and body.

Yet again, the empty canvas lay before me, ready to reveal the images in my mind. Random thoughts and images flew through my canvas. None of it having any relation to what was going on with my life.

I couldn't define how long I was swinging. But by the time I opened my eyes, the sun was almost at its highest point in the sky. I wanted to continue, but I knew that I had to get back and explain myself for my sudden actions. It was at this point that I heard an obnoxious chuckle come from behind me.

"You gonna keep swinging or what," Rainbow Dash asked as her chuckle turned into laughs. Looking from my seat in the tire, I saw Rainbow Dash, Twilight, and Fluttershy standing a few feet away.

"How long have you all been here," I asked as I jumped out of the tire.

"Only a few minutes," Fluttershy said weakly. "We were going to get your attention, but you looked really happy and we didn't want to disturb you."

"Well, thank you very much for that," I said with a smile, walking over to the three. While Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy seemed happy to see me, Twilight seemed to be having a mental debate about something.

"Sorry, I ran like that," I said with a mild chuckle. "Theres only so much someone can take before snapping."

"Are you kidding," Rainbow Dash said with a large grin. "You were amazing. I mean, it was only your second time in the air and you flew like a natural."

"Its ok," Fluttershy said with a caring smile. "I usually go home and have a nice cup of tea with my animal friends whenever I feel stressed."

"Your body's not real," Twilight said as calmly as she could.

"Well, I'm just glad you all . . .WHAT!?"