My Little Pony and all characters contained therein are the property of the Hasbro Corporation.
Lady Draco's Revenge
Chapter One
"Come on, Spike. I think you can handle a few days without me around, right?"
Twilight Sparkle was busy packing some things for a short expedition she was undertaking for Princess Celestia; she'd jumped at the chance to help her mentor in any way she could. Spike, the little dragon that was her assistant and friend, was helping her pack, though he seemed kind of mopey and wishy-washy about it. It probably had something to do with the fact that Princess Celestia had requested that Twilight be accompanied by a member of the Royal Guard instead of Spike, and she was trying to cheer him up; it wasn't working.
"I guess. I just want to be with you when you discover whatever you're going to the Stoneshard Mountains to find."
"Look, I want you with me too." Twilight cinched up the last strap on her backpack and turned to face Spike. "But Princess Celestia asked me to take Reginius with me instead, and there was really nothing I could say."
"Great, so you get to go off with some stuffy full-of-himself guard, and I get stuck here by myself."
"You won't be all by yourself. Fluttershy said she'd be happy to have you stay with her while I'm gone, and I'm sure everyone else will let you help them out until I get back. Besides, I'll be back before you know it."
"Yeah, but . . . what about the worgs? They're all through the Stoneshard Mountains; what if you run into a pack of them?"
"Please, Spike. The worgs are scared of ponies. We'll have no problems with them, trust me." She nuzzled Spike goodbye before heading to the door. "I'll be back by the end of the week. Behave yourself."
And with that, Twilight walked out of the Ponyville Library and stepped onto the chariot that would take her to the foot of the Stoneshard Mountains. She certainly had no idea what she would find there, but that was part of the fun.
"You're late. You were supposed to be here half an hour ago."
Twilight rolled her eyes. She remembered Reginius from back when she lived in Canterlot and, if this was a good example of how he was going to act, he hadn't changed a bit. A pegasus with a fetish for punctuality, Reginius wasn't really someone she wanted to spend a week with; she'd had a few bad experiences with his ridiculous rules and curfews in her day. But Princess Celestia had asked her to take him with her, and she wouldn't have felt right about saying no to her. She used her magic to pull a map out of her pack and checked it, trying to make a plan for their survey.
"I said-"
"I heard you. I just had to say goodbye to some friends back home, and it took a little longer than I thought. Now, what exactly are we looking for? Princess Celestia was a little sketchy on the details."
"We're looking for a temple deep within the range. It's an important historical find, and I have to babysit you while you look for it."
"Babysit? That seems a little harsh. I mean, I'm sorry that you don't want to come along, but you don't have to take it out on me."
"Let's just get this over with. I have more important things to do back at the palace."
Twilight shook off Reginius' bad mood and started up the path carved through the lower mountains, using the map as a guide. It was still pretty early in the day, and she wanted to find the temple as soon as possible so she could get back home. After about an hour she called a break; she stopped at a nearby stream to get a drink, while Reginius scouted ahead from the air. She stopped drinking for a minute, only to find that the sounds of someone lapping up the water weren't going away. She looked up . . . . and found herself looking at a creature she'd only ever read about.
The worg, which was about her size, looked like a cross between a wolf and those "hyena" creatures Zecora had shown her pictures of. This one had reddish-orange highlights running through its grimy and matted fur, which blended with the spots and grey fur that dominated the rest of its body. This one looked like it was nothing more than skin and bones; the way it was standing suggested that it was pretty weak from hunger. Twilight cleared her throat, and the worg practically jumped out of its skin.
"Wait, don't run! Are you hungry?"
The worg looked around cautiously before slowly padding up to her. Twilight pulled an apple out of her pack and set it on the ground in front of the worg, which slowly bit into it. After an initial chew it lunged forward, practically swallowing the whole thing in one bite. Twilight decided to ask the worg a few questions, pulling out a journal and quill to document her conversation.
"So, what's your name, uh . . . actually, first question, are you a boy or a girl?"
"I am Ripjaw." The worg seemed to be looking around for more apples, though it came up empty. "I am a proud warrior of the Eastern Passes tribe!"
"The Eastern Passes . . . " Twilight pulled out her map and checked it. "That's nowhere near here. Are you lost, Ripjaw?"
"I am not lost. I am hunting for food. There is little of it in the Eastern Passes, and our warriors have been sent far and wide to find more of it."
"That's terrible. Here, I have some extra with me. Do you like bread?"
Twilight pulled a roll out of her supplies and put it down in front of Ripjaw. He sniffed it carefully before wolfing it down. Twilight picked up her journal and quill, ready to continue her interview, when flapping wings heralded the return of Reginius. He wasn't happy.
"What is that monster doing here? Leave, now!"
Ripjaw snarled up at Reginius, ready to fight him despite his weakened state. Twilight realized that she had to stop the two of them from tearing each other apart. All of a sudden she had a brilliant idea.
"Wait, he's, um . . . he's our guide!"
"What?"
"What?"
"Y-yeah. Ripjaw is going to guide us through the mountains, and I'll give him some of my food. Isn't that right?"
"Oh, right, yes. I will guide, and she will feed me what she can. That was the deal."
Reginius didn't look any happier than he had when he'd first seen Ripjaw, but he could tell that Twilight would fight him if he tried to overrule her decision. Snorting in frustration, he landed and glared at the worg. Twilight, on the other hand, stashed her journal and decided to ask Ripjaw if he knew anything about old temples in the mountains.
"We're looking for an old temple built by ponies. That's about all I have to go on; I know it's not much, but-"
"I know where one is. We worgs don't go near it, but I can get you close and wait for you. It'll take a couple of days to get there though."
"Perfect! This should give me plenty of time to find out more about your kind. Let's go!"
Twilight woke with a start in the earliest hours of the morning. She'd been reviewing her journal, with all of the information she'd gotten from Ripjaw about worgs; she might even write a book about them when this was all said and done. She hadn't realized how tired she was, but the fact that she'd been jerked out of a sound sleep was a little weird. She looked around, wondering what had woken her up like that. It wasn't Ripjaw; he liked to wander off late at night and early in the morning to try and scrounge up some meat to supplement the fruits and grains Twilight was giving him. She was about to stand up when a wing landed on her back. Reginius was lying next to her, staring off to his left. Twilight followed his gaze and was confused at what she saw.
The creature could have been a worg at one point, but that point had been a long time ago. The creature was easily bigger than Princess Celestia at the shoulder, and was significantly longer; a good chunk of this extra length was its long scaly tail, which was tipped with a large knot of bone. Its fur stopped about halfway down its forelegs, leaving its limbs scaly and taloned. Its eyes were solid red, and its mouth was now a massive cluster of teeth that took up a preposterous amount of its head. The nightmare worg was flanked by two smaller, normal worgs; both of them seemed to be much better fed than Ripjaw, and were making a point of staying out of the creature's direct line of sight.
"What-?"
"Shhh! If it hears us we're dead!"
Twilight heard something rustling up through the weeds next to her; fortunately it was only Ripjaw, who had obviously smelled the monster and came in silent. They watched as the behemoth stalked off, followed by its miniature companions. Twilight stood up as soon as she was given the signal, heading over to study the massive paw print left in the ground by the creature. Ripjaw was slow to approach the area where the creature had stood; Reginius sneered at him as he walked right up to the print.
"What was that? It looked more like a dragon than a worg."
"Those creatures are abominations." Ripjaw was edging around the clearing, unwilling to get any closer to the monster's trail than he had to. "No one in my tribe knows how they come about, but some of the other tribes use them as weapons in our fights for food."
"Maybe you should learn how to get your filthy paws on some. That thing looked like it could do some serious damage."
"You sound like you admire that beast, Reginius. It's kind of scary."
"I'm a soldier, kid. I admire any kind of war machine, especially the living ones."
"Perhaps you will admire them less when the united tribes turn those monsters loose on your decadent kingdom. If the Eastern Passes tribe is swayed or destroyed, it may very well happen."
"United tribes? I thought you said the worgs hated working with each other."
"Something deep in the mountains whispers to the chiefs, urging them to fight the ponies instead of each other. We all resent the ponies for forcing us to fight each other for survival, and some tribes have started combining forces to convert the rest of the tribes to their way of thinking. I am one of the few that sees this as an unnecessary fight, though my allies are starting to fall one by one."
"Wait a minute. Are you . . . the chief of your tribe?"
"Impossible!" Reginius laughed practically in Twilight's face. "A worg chieftain wouldn't be something as scrawny and pathetic as this weakling is. Him, a chief. Ha!"
"You are like the rest of your kind, foolish and shallow!" Ripjaw seemed furious at Reginius, who was acting very unlike himself. "I am chief of the Eastern Passes tribe! I had left my people to seek an audience with your princess, to warn her about the united tribes and ask for her help! What do you think of that, pegasus?"
"You were coming to warn us?" Twilight was confused. "I thought worgs hated ponies too much to do something like that."
"Most of my people do, but some of us are more open-minded. I think we should head back to your princess' home; I fear the monster and its companions were headed to the temple you seek. It is no longer safe for you to be here."
"Nonsense!" Reginius held his head high as he spoke. "We were told to explore the temple, and that is exactly what we are going to do!"
"I don't think-"
"I think I, a professional soldier, am a better judge of danger than some flea-bitten mongrel. Lead on, mangy."
Twilight and Ripjaw looked at each other. It was clear that Reginius wasn't going to let up on this. It was also clear that he could easily defeat them in single combat, should they decide not to follow. The way he was acting now, it seemed likely that he would resort to violence to get them to come around. Despite their better judgment, both of them decided to head onward to the temple. All they had to do was figure out where to mark it on the map, right?
The temple was probably impressive at one point, but the years had not been kind. Only the stumps of legs were left on the statues that had once flanked the entrance, and the carvings on the outer walls had been eroded into formless shapes. Claw marks had damaged most of the standing stone structures; they had probably been left by the worgs that seemed to be guarding the entrance. Most of them were normal, but at least two were of the scaly monster variety. All in all, it didn't look like they would be getting in anytime soon.
"Okay, I've got the position marked on the map. It's obviously going to be impossible to explore the inside, so what say we leave and let Ripjaw get his chance to talk to Princess Celestia, huh?"
"I've got a different idea." And with that, Reginius stood up and started walking right up to the entrance.
"What are you doing? They'll-"
"Hail there boys! You miss me?"
Reginius' arrival did not have the effect Twilight had expected. Instead of the worgs ripping him to shreds, they walked up to him calmly, greeting him as an old friend. Twilight was about to sneak away with Ripjaw in tow when a growl came from behind them. Both of them found themselves staring into the fang-filled maw of one of the monster worgs. With their retreat cut off, they slowly walked out in the open, where they were surrounded by other worgs. Twilight saw Reginius in the center of the pack and couldn't help herself.
"You traitor! I thought you were loyal to Princess Celestia!"
"Why would you . . . oh, you still think I'm the loser who usually uses this body!" Reginius laughed, a harsh sound that was picked up by his furry cohorts. "Follow me inside, and I'll show you just how wrong you are."
With no choice, Twilight and Ripjaw marched through the entrance of the temple. Unlike its desecrated exterior, the inside was clean and well-lit. The carvings on the walls were a little disturbing; most of them featured images of Discord causing natural disasters or fighting other creatures. Twilight finally decided to just stare straight ahead, so she didn't have to look at the walls. They finally got to a large chamber with an open ceiling; while it didn't have the carvings on the walls, all the support pillars were carved in Discord's image. Lying in the center of the room, surrounded by serious-looking worgs, was the body of a unicorn. Reginius chuckled when he saw it.
"Right where I left it. Okay boys, ready the chains!"
Two worgs used their mouths to clap a metal collar on Reginius' neck; chains on either side of his neck were attached to a pair of nearby stones, clearly meant to hold victims in place. Reginius closed his eyes, and a gray mist seeped out of his mouth and nose. The mist drifted to the unicorn, shooting into his mouth as though the body had taken a deep breath. As Reginius' body slumped into unconsciousness the unicorn stood up, letting Twilight get a good look at him.
The unicorn's body hair was matted and grimy, like it hadn't been washed in a while, and covered a body that was lean enough to show ribs through the skin. His mane, which was the same dirty gray as his body, was greasy and stringy. One of his rear legs looked stiff; as he walked towards her, she noticed that it didn't bend at all, giving him a noticeable limp. He got right up to her face, and she saw that his left eye was milky white and blind. Completing the picture of pitiable ugliness was his horn, which was short, and chipped in several places. Almost insultingly, his Cutie Mark was a mirror. She wanted to feel bad for him, but the look in his good eye was a clear warning not to. He studied her for a minute before moving over to Ripjaw. If anything, he looked angrier at Ripjaw for some reason. He was about to say something when a strong female voice sounded from the shadowy gallery above.
"Come on now, Envy, these are our guests. Why don't you introduce me to them?"
The unicorn sighed, and then gestured for Twilight and Ripjaw to follow him. It was slow going; Envy didn't want his prisoners getting ahead of him, and his limp slowed him down considerably. When they got to the gallery Envy shoved his way through the purple curtains hanging over the doorway. The female that had spoken was still in the shadows, though Twilight could see that she was a tall pony with a horn; with the poor visibility she couldn't tell if she was a unicorn or an alicorn. She was easily the size of Princess Celestia, which made her suspect that she might be an alicorn. Envy glared at the two of them; he gave them a command in a voice that could only be described as damaged.
"Kneel when in the presence of Lady Draco!"
"That won't be necessary. Please, have a seat and tell me who you are. You, the unicorn, you go first."
"My name is Twilight Sparkle, favored student of Princess Celestia. I-"
"One of little Cellie's students, huh?" Lady Draco seemed amused by this. "No doubt she didn't tell you I was here. Now you, the worg. What's your name, little guy?"
"I am Ripjaw, chieftain of the Eastern Passes tribe."
"That explains why your people were so eager to join Envy after being so resistant for so long. Seems you were the only thing keeping them from realizing their destiny with me."
Ripjaw was about to surge forward when a silken rope sprang up and wrapped itself around his legs, binding him in place. Lady Draco stepped out into the light for the first time, and Twilight was stunned at what she saw.
Lady Draco was obviously at least half-alicorn, but the other half was something else entirely. Her body was covered in green scales instead of hair, scales that extended down the long lizard tail she had in place of a pony's tail. Her "mane" was a line of spines running from her forehead and down her back; a thin web of skin ran between the spines to create a frill. Her wings were not feathered but instead large dragon wings, and her mouth was full of fangs instead of proper teeth; her Cutie Mark might have been a dragon, but it was stylized and not easily identifiable. Twilight felt a little nauseous when she saw this and hoped she didn't get sick all over Lady Draco, afraid that doing that would get her killed. Lady Draco didn't seem to notice, instead focusing on Ripjaw.
"You have no one left on the outside. I offer you the chance to survive. I'll even let you be in charge of your tribe again, though you will have to listen to Envy. If you don't agree, I'll have no choice but to let my dracoworgs hunt you down in the mountains. Do we have a deal?"
"Spare the unicorn, and I will accept your offer." Ripjaw didn't look happy. "I must look after my people, even if it means working with a monster like you."
"Splendid!" Lady Draco didn't seem the least bit phased by the fact that Ripjaw had insulted her to her face. "Envy, show the chief to his people. As for you, young Twilight Sparkle, I would like to have you here for a little while longer. One of the worgs will show you to a room you can sleep in. I'll be seeing you!"
And with that, Twilight Sparkle was escorted away from her host, scared and confused about what was going to happen to her.
It had been two days, and Twilight was getting a little worried. She hadn't been allowed to leave her room the whole time, though her host had sent food and reading material to her from time to time. Most of the books were history books, though they were written as though the writer thought Discord was a benevolent god. She realized that, at this point, she wasn't going to be getting back home in a week like she'd promised Spike. She sighed and decided to try and reread the book on the alicorn-dragon wars; before she could open it, a worg slipped in with a note clenched between its jaws. She opened it and read an invitation from Lady Draco. It seemed she wanted to give her a tour of the temple before sending her home. Holding her head high Twilight left her room, flanked by the two worgs that had been guarding her door for the past two days.
Lady Draco was waiting for Twilight in what had to be one of the most impressive libraries Twilight had ever seen, eagerly greeting her with that eerily chipper attitude that made Twilight's skin crawl. She gave Twilight a fang-baring grin before setting off with Twilight in tow.
"Did you read the books I sent you?"
"Yeah, but they weren't really useful. The author was horribly inaccurate with a lot of details, and they were all praising Discord like he was the greatest thing in Equestria."
"Yes well, Sloth has always been a bit of a shill for her faith. The point is, you read all that was there on the dragon-alicorn conflicts, yes? The thing is, no one seems to mention me in any of those books. It's disappointing."
"Why would they-"
"Back in those days, the alicorns and the dragons simply despised each other. Equestria was being turned into a wasteland, and the other ponies were terrified of what was going to happen to them next. Space, King of the Alicorns, and Abraxeneus, Queen of the Dragons, decided that there was only one way to stop all the fighting: there had to be one ruler for both species. Their plan was to create such an heir from both species, who would rule once they were gone."
"Space . . . you mean Princess Celestia's father?"
"Yes; he was my father as well. I was conceived, and all were ready to accept me as the rightful ruler. Until the species united, fighting an enemy whose name has escaped even my knowledge. By the time I was born I was considered a gross abomination, cast out by both species and accepted by neither. The dragons went over to each governing him or herself, and Space had his own heirs."
"So you're trying to tell me that you're Princess Celestia's older sister? I don't believe it."
"You should. My traitor sisters know the truth, at any rate. I've been building up to this moment for years. Envy and the rest of the Elements of Discord have been searching high and low for other species that despise the Equestrian system of government, and we've been bringing them in with us for quite some time now."
"Elements of Discord? What-"
"The last of Discord's cultists, named after the Seven Great Failings of Ponykind. Their devotion to him has rendered them just as ageless as I am, and granted them powers that no normal pony could comprehend."
"So, you have an army of worgs and are going to . . . ?"
"It's more than worgs, my dear girl. And besides, I'm not going to tell you everything; it'll ruin the surprise. I will let you in on a little secret, though. My followers are rewarded with the gifts of dragon power. Take my dracoworgs for example. I simply perform certain rituals on normal worgs, and they come out as fresh new creations, ready for whatever I tell them to do. We're trying to see how it works on ponies. Here, we're at the ritual room; let's see how your little friend is doing."
They were on a balcony that looked out upon a large room with a mystic circle inscribed in the center. Several worgs stood chanting around the circle, which was glowing bright enough to obscure what was inside it. When the light cleared and the chanting stopped, Twilight saw a horrific sight. Reginius was standing there, but he had changed. Scaly spines were poking out of his flanks and shoulders, and a similarly scaly tail was peeking out from between the hairs of his normal tail. The feathers on his wings had started to pick up a scaly sheen to them, and a pair of tiny horns had sprouted from his forehead. He started screaming, and Lady Draco tut-tutted to herself.
"That was not what I wanted. Oh well, looks like it's back to the drawing board. I guess we'll just have to put him down."
"NO!" Twilight seemed to have shocked Lady Draco out of her studious thought-process. "Send him home with me. He has a family, and friends! You can't take him away from them like that."
"I see. Despite your pretensions as a scholar, you retain your emotional connections. Very interesting. Very well, you may have the freak, as he's no good to me. Now you must leave; I have an escort prepared to take you back to the foothills. Oh, and tell Cellie to watch her back. Wouldn't want her getting complacent, now would I?"
A full squad of the Royal Guard was waiting at the start of the path when Twilight and Reginius arrived, surrounded by a large pack of worgs. The pegasi all tensed when the worgs got close to them, and a few of the worgs started snarling at the guards. Twilight watched this, helpless to stop it. She'd wanted Ripjaw to escort them alone, but Lady Draco had disallowed that; she seemed to realize that Ripjaw's reaction probably wouldn't put the guards on edge like other worgs would. She pushed through the pack, leading Reginius with her to the guards.
"Yes, run back to your kind, pony. But the day will come when they cannot protect you any longer. That will be the day of the dragon's chosen, when the ponies are forced into the state of servitude they deserve."
"Silence, mongrel! Your mad dreams will not come to-"
"Stop, please!" Twilight couldn't take any more of this. "We have to work together, now, before something terrible happens!"
The head worg started laughing, turning around and leading his pack back into the mountains. Twilight bowed her head, worried about what was to come. At a prompting from one of the guards she turned around and followed them. She had to tell Princess Celestia. She had to tell her everything.