Dragons across the land are journeying to the Western Wilderlands, the homeland of dragons. An event has occurred that hasn't happened for millennia - the rise of a new Draconic Overlord, a dragon powerful enough to unite all dragonkind under him.
The dragon who could do this? Spike, of course!
...wait, what?
A Lunaverse story, set during the second season. Part of the World Tour arc!
Interesting lives indeed, Raindrops! Poor Cheerilee, talk about a tough crowd! Ah well, ponies always need to get the panic out of their systems first. I'm sure nobody will do anything... foolish... >_>;;
Pretty interesting.
Quite a fun start! I wonder if Solrath will hold on to the Rainbow of Darkness until the final battle or it'll get exposed this time around? Hmm...
arguing about dragon fights. fun.
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Arguing...?
Cool
Ha! Loved the bit with Cheerilee and Raindrops casually swapping the particulars of their draconic encounters, all while their escort "guards" get to stare in slack jawed amazement. Also quite enjoyed the bits at the beginning with Solrath experimenting with the Rainbow of Darkness, and then later his manipulative placations with Corona. Seriously, this fic may have been a long time coming, but it was definitely worth the wait.
Anyway, will be looking forward to more as it updates.
Well then, an ancient VERY pissed dragon with the Rainbow of Darkness on it's side. Well shit.
Indeed?
I like how smart he is, he knows that as strong as he is, he is utterly f*cked if he tries to fight Coronahead on.
That's enough raw firepower, if you'll excuse the pun, to destroy practically anything that isn't totally immune to fire.
Maybe road trip instead of just trip so it fits the beat of the original lyrics, and maybe ponies instead of poeple?
Wise move.
Most likely.
No kidding.
BTW, perhaps you could put a translation of the German in the author's notes or something?
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To be honest I wrote this months ago and don't remember most of the German, all of which was provided via Google translate anyway.
I excuse myself for my english since it isn't my mother language.
You have caught my attetion with this first chapter. I'm loooking forward for the next.
So finally you bring the Rainbow of Darkness in the story again, Solarath's plans toward the two alicorn sisters seem to became clearer, we will see. I liked the discussion on betwenn Raindrops and Cheerelee on the dragons they fought. Keep doin your good storytelling
I can't help but think the fight against Solrathicharnon's family went a bit like this only with Luna rather than Celestia.
Funny you should say that... (You should close the speech marks as well)
First time reading this version of the theme. It sounds sorta ominous when the right before this a giant angry dragon wielding a scary version of the One Ring is heading towards our heroes.
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The Song of Sylhex is indeed the direct inspiration for Solrathicharnon. I haven't actually named his father Sylhex, but I've dropped enough hints that it should probably be considered canon.
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So is this story sort of based on 'Children of a Lesser Dragon God Boy Whelp Thingy Guy' then?
Plus I might have an idea for next months writing challenge on the top of 'family'
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No, never heard of it.
This ought to be fun. Lots of dragons and two Element Bearers who both have personal experience fighting two of the more significant of them on the scene.
5719242 I was going to ask the same thing. The Song of Sylhex is one of my favorite stories from the early days of the site, and it's nice to see it get a little usage.
World tours, dragons, pony Germany, and Raindrops as a main character? Yep, I'm on board. Thumbs-Upped and Tracked.
What an awesome start. This fic combining dragons and Tirek's bag of darkness reminded me of something: Dragons eat gems, they can swim in lava, and in this universe they don't even need to breathe. Dragons are the only sapient species on the planet utterly unreliant on plant life of any kind. Therefore, they would be able to survive just fine in a world of Eternal Night (have to spend most of their time underground in lava to avoid freezing on the dark side though). I bet this is why the old G1 Tirek was turning ponies into dragons and recruiting dragons for his own eternal night plans, so he would have minions that would survive in his new world.
Oh, and surely there must be at least one dragon who normally lives in Pferdreich. I bet his name is Fafnir!
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This is mostly a necessary secondary power. Simply put if you're chillin' out in a pool of lava most of the air around isn't going to be, well, breathable - to say nothing of the sheer resiliency needed to survive the crushing force of swimming in magma beneath the Earth's surface; in our world, the deepest point on Earth has the crushing power of about 15,000 pounds per square inch, but that's a result of just water, and nearly seven miles of it at that. Liquid rock would easily equal that at probably only one or two miles.
They still need air of some variety to exhale fire, though. I've been trying to make magic work kind of like it does in the Dresden Files: you can make magic do absolutely anything you want without any regards to physics, but once released from your control it tends to follow natural laws. So, for example, you can create a fireball and hold it in your hand anywhere, even in water or in a vacuum, but once you release it it's going to be quickly quenched.
5722085 Interesting. So your version evolved the ability to go without air to swim through magma, it sounds, and because unlike water, which is actually air, gills wouldn't do jack squat in magma. Do they actually not need oxygen, or are they just like whales, who can hold their breath for days?
Even if they do need to breathe, I suspect as some of the few remaining animals on a tidally-locked planet (eternal night on one side, eternal day on the other) there would be enough oxygen in the air provided by whatever plants survived in the terminal zone (where it is always twilight/dawn) to keep dragons going.
I completely agree on the Dresden Files view of magic, once it is released into the world magic has to play ball with physics. If you see fire magic leaving a scorch-mark or energy leaving a magically transformed object in the form of a bright flash of light, that's physics in action.
5722085 Just realized this might be the difference between Discord and everyone else, his magic seems permanently immune to the effects of the physical world, unlike everything else.
Should be versus
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Even sperm whales top out at about 4 hours of holding their breath. But yeah, dragons in the Lunaverse just outright don't need to breathe at all. Something something something magic.
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Yeah, Discord doesn't play by any rules save his own.
Interesting beginning. Ah, Sol. Yeah, Corona is nuts and needs stopping. As for him and the Bag of Darkness, hoo boy. That's gonna bite him in the rump methinks. Interesting the difference between Lunaverse and Hasbroverse draconic culture, too.
Nice interaction between Cheerilee and Raindrops, too. I am... kinda hoping they don't fight any dragons.
5721063 It's a fun little read.
I admit, Celestia´s willingness to kill the overlord simply for existing plus the threat of genocide unnerves me.
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It will be established later, but literally every Overlord that has ever existed can best be described as Dragon Atilla Khan.
You know it occurs to me there are a lot more dragons in this universe than I'm used to seeing in most fantasy settings, and it makes me realize how legitimately terrifying it would be to see a literal flock of dragons flying overhead.
So color me intrigued how they're going to deal with what's basically one of the world's oldest dragons, a species that only gets stronger the older they get, who also happens to have a magic artifact on par with the forces the alicorns played around with in pre-history.
Also, what's a "Trab hat"? My google-fu came up short trying to find out what it was.
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Oops, knew I'd forgotten to specify something. It's a Tyrolean hat, which is a common, traditional style of hat in Bavaria, Germany (which most of Pferdreich is being based upon, save for the whole democracy thing). That style of hat doesn't have another name that I could fine, and I doubt that the MLP world has a Tyrol, so I needed to rename it. Trab means "trot" in German.
Oh, crud. THAT idiot. Always with THAT idiot.
Pity he's not a Major General.
Fair enough.
Don't you mean gilDED?
It wants a truce, hm, purple and green, I wonder.
Man this guy is a Badass!
Oh?
Exactly, they could very easily die.
Fair enough.
ForGe.
I see.
ThroW.
I see.
Solrath, you DO realize that without the full set they're worthless, and even if you had the full set, you wouldn't be able to use them.
Nice cliffhanger!
5923688
For a little bit he was actually Major General Generalmajor. Which would be Generalmajor Generalmajor in German. I went with Preussischblau ("Prussian Blue", though a real German would write it as Preußischblau) instead, though.
Wow! Well the mobilisation of the whole continent's going to have some fall out isn't it, interesting to see the strength of the army of a relatively small nation, I wonder what Equestria's total Ponies under arms is? I was surprised you mentioned canon as I didn't think they were used as anything but ship board weaponry unless that's just in Equestria? Maybe if the Equestrian military see them here they might want a few of their own. Given the tech level I'd expect real artillery to start making some appearance as well, maybe the Minatours have it.
It makes some sense that Pearl carries his greatest treasure with him while he's out on migration, he wouldn't want anyone to break into his lair and steal anything (Damn adventures!)
An excellent chapter. Great job.
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Actually I just wanted to make a Modern Major General joke.
I see what you did here. Surely the name of the first Ovrlord is a citation of Tolkien most ancient dragons: Glaurung and Ancalgon the Black. Am I wrong.
Oh. Cliffhanger. Now Is the time Solarsth meets the Ovelord.
5925733
You're not wrong. In fact originally the scene named four previous Overlords, each of which had a name composed of a combination of two famous dragons' names from mythology and folklore (Tolkien was the only one from pure literature). I forget what the other ones were, save Niddjormunhoggandr.
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So did I, originally, but I decided against it. I actually love that song, and tend to sing it to myself when I don't have anything else to say.
Guess the Overlord will have to react quickly...
So thanks to seeing Age of Ultron last night, my mind read Hesjingrasvim's lines as David Spader. That was fun
So anyway, good chapter! Hesjingrasvim was an interesting character, everyone's characterisation was fun, and generally this was pretty well written.
I'm sure Solrath is going to get a talking down to at the start of the next chapter, which should be fun :3
It'll be interesting seeing what our new Overlord does in regards to Solrath now that the big red thug has flown up and threatened several ponies who were guaranteed to have the protected status of whelps. I suppose all he did was announce his intention to take the Elements, and nobody explicitly said that whelps would be protected from theft, but it does feel like a breach in the spirit of the arrangement if not the word.
I'm also really curious about how the long distance communication was being managed.
Loved the banter between Raindrops, Cheerilee, and Pferdreich ponies. It really is kind of hard to convince anyone you aren't a one-man army when the list of monster you've faced is so impressive sounding out of context. Also, I've been especially loving Cheerilee both this chapter and last. I know one upon a time you had trouble writing her, but she seems to have become something of a perfect fit to provide an in setting voice to the same kind of extensive world lore that has always been a highlight of what would otherwise be naration in your other stories.
Hesjingrasvim was fun as well. Is showing off some valuable trinket some sort of typical draconic greeting or just a particular quirk of his? Either was it was a fun little sequence. I also enjoyed his his confusion about how such small little ponies would refuse a request from the might dragon overlord, as well as how just he kept more or less invoking the overlords title as if it wer the only answer in question needed. It was a good contrast between draconic and equine culture.
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Heh... irrelivent related fact, I read this fic while waiting in line to see Age of Ultron last nite.
I mean... this scene had to come here. Like... the whole chapter was building up to how huge and powerful all the dragons are, and we knew the overlord was Spike from the synopsis, and unless Spike got the mother of all greed growths he was going to be small Spike...
But I'm still giggling like a madman at it. Just... the whole chapter's building up to it. That's great.
Oh, boy. I expect a pony with a South Asian accent to come along and yell "WHAT A TWIST!!!"
This idea is still bloody legendary and the build up makes it all so worth it for Spike. For this I love you RDD
No seriously this is one of the greatest things ever I can't wait to see what happens next!
I can see Solrathicharnon's reaction in the next chapter:
Solrathicharnon: **laughs** You're joking, you're joking! I can't believe my ears! You're joking, you have to be! This is the best laugh I've had in years.
...Well maybe he wouldn't say that, but it would probably be somewhere along those lines and I do so love the songs from Oogie's Revenge.
5977151 Your clip is broken... let me fix it.
I take the Elder Dragons don't have exactly an high opinion of Solrath Solrath. Is it because he is blind, or because his obsession with revenge?
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Why not both? They hate him for being weak physically (blind) and weak emotionally (prone to being manipulated by revenge).
Haha, knew it was coming but it was still pretty funny at the end.