Twilight woke suddenly as the sound of a driving wind penetrated her bedroom. She looked up and around; it was still dark outside, but regardless, she heard the wind grow unnaturally stronger.

She rose, and stumbled to the window, peering out into the darkness, but saw nothing.

Spike rustled in his sleep behind her, and once his movement died down, she heard a soft knock on the door.

She cautiously tip-toed down the stairs, even quieter than the knock in the otherwise silent house, careful not to wake Spike from his slumber. Lighting a trio of lanterns to provide yellow light in the otherwise blue, moonlit room of the hollowed out home, she began to grow a bit nervous.

Who could be visiting at this hour, she asked herself, looking out of the windows to try and catch a glimpse of her visitor. She saw no clues alluding to the identity of the unknown something beyond the wood of her door. What she did see was a small army of stallions outside, wearing copper hued armor and finishing up the repairs left by the town's citizens in the dark, light being provided by unicorns and work being done in teams.

She determined the one who'd knocked was one of them.

"I'm sorry," she called to the door, "The library is closed!"

"I'm not here to check out a book," came the response, smooth and maternal, and Twilight's heart fluttered as she heard its serenading note.

She darted to the door, throwing it open to gaze upon the splendor of Princess Celestia.

"Oh, princess? What are you doing here?" she asked, stupefied as she ushered the alicorn into her home.

"I received your letter," the regal mare explained, "from the sound of it, this town needs my presence more than the royal palace."

The princess, at the request of her student, took a seat on a red felt couch, and, likewise at the request of her student, accepted an offer for tea.

Twilight called in from the kitchen, fully awake and bustling about as she tried to brew the best cup of tea she had in months, "So, what's with the stallions outside?"

"The Corps of Engineers," Celestia explained, looking concernedly up at the empty vaulting ceiling, recently devoid of its books, "I ordered them along with me to repair the damage, which was far more extensive than I'd expected."

Twilight came back into the room with a pot of tea and a few china cups in tow, suspended in a lavender aura. She sat down opposite her mentor, bringing a chair up behind her telekinetically, and plopping down into its soft embrace.

Twilight poured the tea, and Celestia took it in the metaphysical grip of her horn, sipping contentedly. Twilight mimicked her every move.

"So," Celestia said, setting her cup down, prompting Twilight to do the same, "What are the details of his transformation?"

Twilight shrugged a bit as she tried to recollect.

"Well, it started when he started getting presents for his birthday; he just started growing, in size and in greed, and before long, he was hundreds of feet tall and had half the town in his arms."

Celestia nodded a bit, obviously reading into Twilight's reaction of her asking a question for once.

"It's a shame it couldn't have been prevented," continued Twilight earnestly.

"Yes," agreed Celestia, "you expressed such thoughts in your letter. How, perhaps if we knew more about dragons, things like this would never happen again."

Celestia paused for a moment.

"Tell me Twilight, if the opportunity arose, would you go to great lengths to see to it that things like this did never happen again?"

"Yes, definitely," the unicorn responded without hesitation.

Twilight nodded affirmation a second time as she continued, the regal mare rising out of the sofa to gaze at her sister's moon through the window. Her body silhouetted against the face of the full moon, its light coming into the room from all around her outline, and her shadow was cast long and stretching by the low-hanging body of the moon.

"They are amazing creatures, the dragons; majestic, powerful and rare, but dangerous and unpredictable, at least, to most."

Twilight's curiosity suddenly peaked, and she stepped out of the chair to proceed a pair of steps closer to the princess.

"Twilight, in your readings, have you ever come across any of the tribes native to Equestria?"

Twilight thought for a moment before answering, "Y-Yes."

"Which ones?"

"Well," the unicorn started as she dug through her file cabinet of a brain, "There were The Water Clans of the eastern coast."

"Right," nodded Celestia, giving her student a feeling of pride, "The Wave Riders, fishers and sea-farers, the first to ever master such arts as sailing the depths, as well as the shallows."

Twilight saw the bite of recollection in the princess's eyes, and felt the keen insight that her mentor was familiar with the subject personally, not from the pages of an aged textbook.

"What else?" asked the alicorn.

"The buffalo tribes of the east."

"The Thunder Herd," nodded Celestia again, the look of memory in her starlit eyes.

"And the Cervine Tribes of Everfree."

"Yes," the princess said, a hint of sorrow in her voice, "an anomaly in the natural world. Their tribe is unlike wild deer; they developed language and culture unparalleled by the developments of equines."

She turned in the moonlight, her face darkened by a shadow, but not in an ominous way.

"But, skittish as they were, our industrialization scared them off, and the last of their kind left Equestria for the secluded north generations ago. I wish you could have seen them Twilight, as I wish you could have seen the monuments built by the Ponies of the Red Woods, carved in the heartwood of the largest trees on earth. I wish you could have seen the relationship the Lupines of the North had with their land, the way they blended with it, the way they became the landscape, moving without sound, like ghosts. I wish you could have seen the ways of the Shetland clans of the south, their persistence and dedication to each other as well as their land, and the way they fought in its defense. I wish you could have seen them all Twilight, but alas, their days have come and gone, taken from them by plague or war, or by the domination of the kingdom we established."

Twilight still heard the sting of regret in the princess's voice, and wondered if she somehow felt guilty for the past.

"But, a few remain untouched, or at least, unmoved by time."

The unicorn became even more intrigued, and drew closer to the alabaster alicorn.

"Are there any others you know of that we have not mentioned yet Twilight, specifically, the tribes of the mountains?"

"I've never heard of any other natives."

Celestia turned around, and with a spell, lit the entirety of the library's lanterns simultaneously. Light came in a blinding wave, but once Twilight's eyes readjusted, she saw Celestia opening some sort of portal in the middle of the room.

Out of the spinning void dropped a leather-bound book, and Twilight felt relieved that at least the library was more like a library now with at least one collection of paper and knowledge within its walls.

"Then I take it you've never heard of the Windriders of the North?"

Twilight shook her head 'no' as the book fluttered open, flipping past pages on the tribes of Equestria's young history, until settling on one, surprisingly blank in words, and filled mostly with an ancient-looking illustration.

"I'm not surprised," Celestia said as Twilight began reading, "This singular page contains the entirety of Equestrian knowledge on them."

Twilight read aloud as her eyes, in wonder, took in the parchment's contents.

"A clan of ancient ponies of legend and lore, The Windriders of the Northern Mountains were a society unrivaled in their talent and bravery. Honorable warriors, but also nomads, these ponies were a solitary group that clung to the granite slopes of the highest mountains between Equestria and The Crystal Empire. However impressive in the arts of blacksmithing, music, and war, these ponies had mastered something that no other has ever attempted; the art of dragon riding."

"What?!" Twilight asked aloud, and without Celestia's urging, kept reading more diligently than before.

"The only ponies ever to do so, The Windriders of the North live with the creatures. However, their methods in doing so are unknown. Fiercely territorial and secretive, The Windriders have only made their presence known in times of great turbulence."

Twilight looked to her mentor, and she confirmed that the book was valid with a nod.

"Under the command of their only documented chieftain, Surefire The Great, The Windriders came to the aid of the armies of Equestria twice in the past unknowingly, as the enemies of Equestria conveniently intruded on their tribal lands. Once during the griffon wars, in which the might of their warriors, dragon and pony alike, pushed the griffons' borders back, allowing Equestria to reclaim its lost territory, and a second time in the reclamation of the Crystal Empire when their king's conquests trespassed into their sacred territory. However, with the threats gone, they had no interest in Equestria or the lands below their home. The Windriders retreated back into their mountainous home, never to be heard from or seen again."

Twilight turned her eyes from the words to the drawing, a picture of ponies riding dragons and wielding reigns, bows and lances as they soared above a massive landscape below. They wore not armor, but animal skins, and their bodies were colored with what she could only think of as war-paint, dragons as well. Above the drawing was inscribed a message in swirling, poetic letters; ''Where the earth meets the sky, and the realms of beasts and ponies meet in harmony, dragons and ponies alike ride the wind."

They did acrobatics in the high air to the right of the page, a sketch of two wyverns, riders on their backs, circling each other in mid-air. Others hunted; a sketch of a green winged drake took the left side of the page, its rider aiming a bow at a stag in the trees below. But, the centerpiece of the picture was a massive, black dragon with golden paint spiraling down its belly and over its back in stripes.

This dragon was not amongst the mountains as the others were; this one was in the valley, spewing red flames onto what looked like an army below while its rider, a mere speck on its back, shot arrows into the same dark horde.

Celestia saw her student's fascination with the centerpiece.

"That is Surefire The Great," she said, touching the speck on the immense black dragon's back, "defeating the armies of King Sombra."

"It looks more like the dragon is defeating them," she said, laughing nervously as she gripped the fact that this was no fantasy, but a recount of actual events.

"That is Mortisserax, 'death shadow' in the Windrider's language," Celestia said, touching the illustration, "He was the greatest dragon that has ever lived, but he disappeared with the Windriders."

Twilight began to ask, "So this thing is real? Is it really that big? And how did they get onto its back, let alone train it?"

"Nopony knows. But, then again, nopony has ever tried to find out," Twilight looked questioningly at her mentor as she continued, "But if somepony were to try..."

"What are you asking of me?"

"I am not requesting anything from you, Twilight," the princess answered, "I am merely saying that if you were to try, perhaps becoming the only Equestrian expert on dragons in the process..."

"How would I? The mountains are so far away!"

"I could get you to the foothills without issue."

"But how would I find them?"

"The journey would be long and treacherous, but the reward, I am sure, would be worth the pain, and recall the words of the page; 'where the earth meets the sky, and the realms of beasts and ponies meet in harmony, dragons and ponies alike ride the wind."

"The book said they were warriors and very territorial; how do I know they won't kill me?"

"The book said they were honor-bound as well; there is no honor in killing an unarmed mare."

"How do I even know they exist anymore? They haven't been seen in over a thousand years."

"We don't know of them existing, but we are also just as unsure that they are extinct. All legends have a hint of fact in their stories, and this clan is the home of the only ponies in the world with any knowledge on dragons; there are none better to learn from than them."

Twilight looked horrified, sickened.

"Twilight," Celestia said, coming over to her and extending an ivory wing around a lavender pair of shoulders, "You don't have to, and I don't expect you to go. It was only a possibility I thought to make you aware of. But, at the end of it all, perhaps I am mistaken. I should not impose ideas into your head, as you would be the one to undertake the journey; I could not do so. If I could leave Equestria in control of somepony else, I would, but, things are as they are."

"I'll go," Twilight said suddenly, darting out from under Celestia's expansive wing to immediately begin packing a saddlebag with everything from a compass to rations of food.

"Are you sure?" Celestia said, almost shocked.

"I'm sure. Somepony has to make sure that something like what happened to Spike can't happen again, and I will do what I can to help that cause."

"Do you require anything?" Celestia asked, raising her voice at the end of her question.

"Watch Spike while I'm out, and take charge of fixing up the town."

Celestia was almost awestruck by her determination, as well as her diligence in packing her saddlebags to their brim.

"Oh, and I'll also need you to get me to the northern foothills."

"Anything," Celestia responded.

"And the page," Twilight said, placing a hoof on the corner of the paper, and before ripping, asked, "May I?" to receive a nod.

She packed the page into her saddlebag after folding it, and looked outside to see that the first rays of light were rising in the east.

"Alright," she said, starting to go over her checklist, "Warm clothes, three days' worth of food, compass, maps, paper and some quills, water, a sleeping bag, a rough translation dictionary...it might be useful, and, of course," she said, slapping her head with a hoof as she remembered something, "gifts, in favor of diplomacy."

She levitated a small mirror, the fanciest she had, as well as a gold plated candle bra, a solitary amethyst (she'd apologize for raiding Spike's stash later), and the most elegant crochet in her home, into her saddlebags, and sealed the clasp.

Twilight looked to Celestia, standing prepared and ready with her saddlebags over her back like a foal on its first day of school.

"Are you ready?" asked the princess as she opened a portal in the center of the room.

She received a nod, and Twilight began to walk towards it, slowly, but confidently. She leaned back, and prepared to jump through the threshold, but stopped herself short.

She turned to the princess.

"You'll tell the others why I had to go, right?"

Celestia nodded.

"Oh, and how will I get back?"

"You'll have to find a way, whether it's walking or with the help of new friends."

"Well, maybe I should get some more food then."

Twilight pranced around the kitchen, gathering cheese, bread and carrots until her pack could truly fit no more within its confines.

Then, the process repeated. Celestia opened a portal, and Twilight stopped just short of crossing into its dark swirling abyss.

She looked to her mentor for assurance.

"Remember," she coached gently, "where the earth meets the sky, and the realms of beasts and ponies meet in harmony..."

"Dragons and ponies alike ride the wind," said Twilight, finishing the princess's sentence for her.

"I have no doubt that you can do this, Twilight," complimented Celestia, and Twilight finally stepped into the portal.

Author's Notes:

Hey guys, I hope you've liked this so far. More updates are coming.
Please like this story if you did, and tell me why in the comments. Thanks.