What do you get when you take one out of shape pony, an entire day of walking, next to no sleep, and a fight during the middle of the night? One very pissed off Zenith.

I awoke with a pounding head, sore limbs and fatigue still hanging over my body. I groggily opened my eyes and glanced around the room. Shield was bent over his saddlebag, repacking and reorganizing the contents, whistling to himself while he worked. His armor had been taken off and lay close by, ready at a moment’s notice. I slowly sat up on my haunches, feeling like absolute shit. Shield turned, hearing my movements and broke into a wide grin.

“How ya feelin’ sweetheart?” he asked, the stupid smirk still on his face. I wanted to freakin hit him.

“I. Hate. This. Damn. Place.” I answered, taking the time to enunciate each word with as much hate as my sore mind could muster. I wasn’t a morning person at the best of times and feeling like shit kinda compounded that sentiment. It seemed like just being in this wasteland made me even more pissed off in the morning. This was the second consecutive day where I woke up with a pounding head and an attitude.

“What would Sunrise think of that language?” He teased. ”Welp, best I can tell ya is start movin’ around and get woken up, leavin’ in fifteen. Need to get a move on.” Shield instructed, telekinetically tossing me another apple. I swear he was making his voice louder just to piss me off.

I snacked on the apple hoping the food would wake me up. Unfortunately, it didn’t and I felt myself slump back down. Ugh. I closed my eyes for a second, just a second I swear. The next moment, Shield was shaking me back awake wearing his full armor, ready to start walking.

“Let’s go honey!” Shield said, in way too cheerful of a voice. He led the way back out the door, through the corpse room (which had oddly enough been cleared away - probably Shield’s work) and right back to the outside, depressing world. The sun shone down right into my eyes, exacerbating my headache. I froze for a second, waiting for my eyes to get adjusted to the harsh light. Shield kept walking and it took him a few seconds to notice I had halted.

“Time’s a wastin! You’re not hurt so get walkin.” He essentially commanded. Fuck him. Ok... I could do this. I let excess magic flow through my body, dulling the pain, but only barely. It wasn’t real healing magic, but it did alleviate the soreness a slight bit, although a full on doctor would heal so much more. Whatever, time to start walking.

I took a few hesitant steps forward and gave a few lunges to stretch out my sore knees. Shield turned his head back forward and resumed his walking, albeit at a slower pace than yesterday. This, I could at least keep up with for a while.

While yesterday’s silence had been borne from comfort, this one had arisen from fatigue. Shield walked as if nothing was wrong, and knowing him, he probably felt absolutely fine. He had spent his entire life running for his life every day. Me on the other hand? My past few years had been spent sitting on my ass on a library; this was hardly fair.

The first hour passed without a single word. I let my eyes glaze over and my thoughts drift, back towards Shield’s speech last night. I suppose he was right, but then again I didn’t really intend to stay here for too much longer. In Twilight’s notes, there had  been fleeting mentions of the vortex, but most of it was just crossed out experiments or other such useless crap.

Knowing Twilight, she would’ve shared her findings with Celestia, even though I had been sucked in through the vortex. Twilight always documented her findings and the last vortex was kind of a big deal. I’m sure she had done all she could to find me, probably even with enlisting the help of the princesses’, but there had to be a point where they knew it was just a lost cause. There were horror stories about getting sucked into vortexes.

For all Twilight knew, I had simply been ripped apart, not relatively safely transported into the future. She didn’t have any way of knowing and even if she did know, there wasn’t that much she could do about it. Still, even in tragedy Twilight kept on with her notes. My best best was to check Canterlot’s archives, Twilight always sent a copy of her notes there for safekeeping, no matter how trivial they were.

Until I could get to Canterlot, if ever, I was probably here to stay, which meant I had to take what Shield said to heart. If I was going to be helping out Sunrise, but I really had no idea where to start. She had sent me on this mission because I was capable and could actually get it down, but beyond this, what was there? Maybe with my help we could return even a little bit of this time to how it used to be. Peaceful. Besides, with my level of magical talent, there was no way I wouldn’t be able to make a difference.

While I had only seen a single town and a slaver camp, the magic talent in the wasteland was rather...lacking. Sure, I hadn’t really seen a lot, but what I had seen was pathetically weak. It could’ve been from the war itself or a dissolution of magic talent over the years but this was ridiculous. I was the strongest in this part of the wasteland and I wasn’t even that strong. In the old world, I was special but not the best. Here, I was twice the magician any of these foals were. At least this was something I could exploit. I could help Sunrise more because my magic, if nothing else.

Of course, the old saying “with great power comes great responsibility”  came to mind. I would naturally wield my magic  to the greatest of my potential but I was hardly the wisest of creatures. The wasteland was new to me and reactions varied greatly from my time to now.

So, for now at least, I’d listen to Sunrise and Shield. They seemed to know best and were the most experienced.

Lost in my thoughts, I didn’t notice a massive shadow blocking out the sun.

I ran smack into Shield who had suddenly stopped and looked up. “Fuck.” He swore. My tired brain didn’t even process his curse. A huge shockwave sent the two of us flying away from each other. I struggled back to my hooves peered through the settling dust to see what in Celestia’s name had just happened.

It was a Celestia damned dragon attacking us. A huge monster, blacked out by the sun behind it, circled overhead. Shield was still struggling to his feet, completely vulnerable on the ground. I quickly threw a barrier around him as the beast’s massive claw descended. It clashed against the shield, my magic barely holding.

I felt a huge wave of fatigue come over my body, the magic disappearing in a breath. Shield had managed to get up and had started to run away, firing his gun all the while. The shots didn’t even seem to bother the dragon, it just lumbered forward, barely being outpaced by Shield’s frenzied gallop. There was no way we could kill or even hurt this monster. I felt my knees grow weak and my mind freeze up.

The dragon let out a jet of flame towards Shield, catching the tail end of his armor. I could barely hear him yell out in pain and nearly fall. “Don’t just stand there dammit!” He yelled.

His voice snapped me out of my terrified stupor. I teleported to Shield and landed firmly beside him with a bright flare of red light, temporarily blinding the dragon. “H-Hold on!” I instructed Shield. My magic felt hard to reach already; stopping a dragon wasn’t easy and the subsequent flare of light drained it all the more. Still though, I had to try and get us out of here.

I focused my magic and drew as much as I felt safe doing from my amulet. I didn’t want the stores of energy going haywire on me now. My horn, for the first time, showed the faintest signs of a double overglow. I could feel the magic coursing through my body, rattling my bones. I wasn’t used to handling this much. With a final exertion, I cast the spell.

Only to have it explode in both our faces. The two of us were once against thrown through the air, this time by a red explosion. For the second time in so many minutes, I struggled to my hooves and tried to take stock of everything that hurt. No wait, that was right. Everything hurt. I could feel deep burns on my back and my mane felt singed. Shield had already gotten back up, his armor protecting him from most of the damage.

The dragon, on the other hand, had taken the brunt of the blast. A number of the scales around his face and neck had been blown away and giant drops of blood dripped from the scathing wounds. He roared in agony and anger and surged towards me. Once again, I froze up and I watched in terror as his jaws closed on me. The teeth were stopped by a barrier nearly a foot away. Shocked, I looked down to see my amulet shining bright.

Spike’s gift. A new determination replaced the weary acceptance as I remember what I was fighting to get back to. I teleported backwards and let the dragon’s jaws close with a snap. Shield had managed to get his gun firing against and was peppering the dragon’s neck and face with little shots. The scales no longer stopped the impacts and eat hit caused the dragon pause.

No more nice Zenith. I took more energy from the amulet, my own ambient magic completely burned away by now. Time seemed to slow as I searched through the grounds for large boulders. With a heave of effort I brought two boulders up through the ground, ramming into the stomach of the dragon.

The dragon was knocked onto its side, unbalanced and winded. With a flick of my horn, I let the rocks go high above the dragon, each one hitting dead on target. I noticed the overglow of my horn again, feeling rather satisfied with myself. That had to have at least knocked it out, we could actually run now!

Unfortunately, I was once again wrong. I had vastly underestimated the resilience of dragons. The huge form shifted the boulders and swung out with its tail, nailing Shield who had moved closed to make sure the dragon was truly down. Shield didn’t get back up this time.

More of the dragon’s scales had been knocked off and blood had began to pool underneath it, each drop scalding the ground and making light hissing noises. It turned to me and roared a challenge before taking to the air. The dragon strafed towards me, letting out a jet of flames I only barely dodged. I was a sitting duck.

I turned back towards the direction where we had stayed the night before and started galloping as hard as I could. I heard another roar and threw myself to the ground. The dragon passed barely an inch above me, its jaws snapping loudly. I climbed to my hooves, coughing from losing my breath but kept running.

With another great crash, the dragon landed on the ground in front of me and I barely stopped before running my way right into its reach. The dragon breathed another gout of flame. This time, I didn’t wait for my amulet to react and threw up another shield from the power inside it. The flame was easily stopped but the dragon just kept going and going. I felt myself wavering in focus and my shield dropped just as the flames did, leaving me standing unprotected and panting in front of one of the most dangerous creatures in Equestria.

I teleported behind it again, gaining me a few precious seconds as it turned to follow me. I sprinted faster than I ever had before, death putting a whole new perspective on things. Rocks digging into my hooves? Ok whatever. Burns covering my back? I could deal with it. Head pounding like Celestia herself had bucked it? No big deal.

What would be a big deal would be if I was scythed in half by those massive teeth, so I kept running, ignoring my pain and the ever growing sense of hopelessness. If I had to be truthful with myself, I had been lucky to survive this long. Not too far off, I could see the old debris of a broken bridge. If I could just get to it, I might be able to hide and wait for this hell to pass.

I very nearly actually managed to get a way. Just a few more seconds and I may have had enough time to teleport myself into the rubble. But the princesses didn’t smile on me, not today at least. The dragon landed right on top of me, my tired mind not even processing its approach until it was too late. The dragon pinned me to the ground with a claw and crouched low, bringing itself level to send out one last bit of flame and finish me off.

I had actually failed. It wasn’t enough, even with everything I had I was still going to die. Hopefully Shield at least had gotten away. The thought of actually dying in this place was depressing. Never again would I see Twilight Sparkle or Spike or any of my real friends. I would never know what had gone so horribly, horribly wrong in my own town and could never warn my friends of the impending doom. I was a failure. Sorry Twilight, sorry Sunrise.

So tired and so much pain. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad, just a little rest and then it’d all be over. At least the pain would be gone, for good. I looked up, defiance in my eyes, ready to face my end at the last blast of green fire that would end my life. I wouldn’t end my life being a coward; I had started as one and would not finish it that way. My tired mind finally managed to click the obvious together, something I had been too panicked to notice in my fight and flight.

Wait.. Green fire and purple scales?

“Spike?” I asked weakly, barely able to keep my eyes open. Everything hurt and I was so tired. So much magic, more than anything I had ever even attempted, it made my head pound like a drum. I was tired, too tired to look away as the dragon swung his talons down like an executioner's axe. With my last spark of magic, I made myself be heard. “Spike?” I repeated, in a magically amplified voice before the last spark of red flickered out of being.

The dragon halted his descending claw, the final death blow. He dug his claws into the earth around me, trapping me tight. He lowered his head down to my level, putting us face to face “Who are you?” he asked, sulfurous breath making me wrinkle my nose. Hatred shone through his eyes. Our eyes locked for a second and I suddenly felt an invading conscious pressed against my mind. It searched through mine quickly. Before it could invade too far, I offered up a memory. One that I hoped would save us yet.

___

“Zenith!” Twilight had yelped with glee, poking me out of a deep slumber. I tried to hide back under my pillow but the expression of such obvious joy compelled me not to, at least not right away.

“This better be good Twilight.” I grumbled, rubbing my pained head.

“Spike's coming to visit us!” She announced, with an almost fan-girlish like squeal. Recognition flooded my mind at the drop of the name. Supposedly, he was Twilight's first apprentice and I had never stopped hearing about how much of a better job he did of it.

Sighing, I struggled to my hooves and shook myself awake. On the bright side, this meant that Pinkie Pie would naturally throw a party for the occasion (But then again, when didn't Pinkie want to throw parties?). “Be at the Sugarcube Corner within thirty minutes, got it?” Twilight asked. She bounced out the door in a highly Pinkie-ish manner before I could even begin to respond.

I headed to the bathroom and stared at my sleepy expression in the mirror. I quickly brushed my mane and tail, not caring as much to bother about the rest of my appearance.  It couldn't hurt to get to Pinkie's a little early, I decided.  Some of my friends were bound to be there before the actual celebrations started. It wasn't like I got to see them that often after all, especially with all the work Twilight assigned me and her belief that tardiness was the creation of Nightmare Moon herself. I kinda liked it; it meant we were actually getting some work done.

By and large, the Ponyville citizens ignored me as I headed towards Pinkie's. Few of them even knew I existed and those that did knew me as Twilight's apprentice that never talked to any of her clients. The only time I had actually used my magic in front of one of Twilight's renters, the poor filly had run out screaming. There was a certain taboo on my color magic and the crime report from Canterlot several years back didn’t help. A simple murder had been exaggerated into a series of brutal attacks with the label of being done by a unicorn with blood colored magic. The paranoia never did quite die down and ever since then blood-colored magic was considered a sign of madness.

I didn't want anything to do with them anyways, those that judged me on appearance shouldn't be my friends in the first place. My friends were above that. Attempting to attract no attention, I had entered Pinkie's through the back examining who had already joined the festivities before myself. From my group of friends only Crona had arrived, Doctor Whooves’ young colt. He caught sight of me from the corner of his eye and I gestured for him to follow me into one of the back rooms.

“Where's everyone else?” I whispered, particularly trying to avoid the attention of Twilight and Pinkie Pie. Both had been way too exuberant for my tastes.

“Not invited.” Crona replied bitterly. “I'm only here cause my dad and Spike had apparently been close during his later years.” I frowned at the news of low turn-out. Maybe this wouldn't be as fun as I had thought. Crona was way too shy around just me and how much fun could the two of us have alone?

“Hey, how about playing some hide and seek?” I suggested. We could at least do that with just us two. The storeroom was nearly perfect, with plenty of boxes and nooks to hide in. Both of us had been small enough to hide well and there were plenty of boxes we could get in. Crona assented, having no better ideas and I took my first turn at hiding. Sounds from the other room hinted that the party had started to finally kick in.

“So Twilight, who's your new assistant?” I heard a deep, almost rasping voice ask my mentor. Great, this must be the famed dragon I had heard so much about. I listened more carefully to hear Twi's response.

“Oh you know, I could never replace you. It's just a unicorn filly that Celestia needed a home for.” Twilight replied with a slight chuckle. Ugly anger welled up inside of me. So that was it then. Was I just some charity case Twilight had been forced to pick up? I had been doing fine on my own till the so called Goddess had to step in and screw up my life. I stomped my hoof to relieve my stress, unwittingly causing the pile of boxes I had hidden on top of to fall and push me right through the storeroom door. I came to rest directly in the dead center of the room, baking ingredients spilling from the boxes.

“Uh...ow?” I squeaked out. From somewhere still hidden in the storeroom, I heard Crona groan. For a moment, everypony just stared. Then, a deep rumbling laugh started to emanate from a huge dragon I somehow hadn't even noticed before. I felt my jaw literally drop open. How did something get this big? Spike was barely able to fit his head in the room. I would've started to die of laughter from if I hadn't been so embarrassed. I could only started to imagine how big the rest of him must be, the great purple mass extending far out of the door.

“So is this the filly then?” He asked, chuckling still filling his deep voice. Twilight's scowl and look of disappointment made me blush deeper.

“Yes, a filly I told to be here an hour ago and not wreck the storage of the Cake’s.” She started, in a reprimanding tone.

“Come now Twilight, I remember a certain pony who turned an entire town upside down for something very minor, if my memory hasn't completely degraded yet. Does a certain Smarty pants fiasco ring a bell?” Spike chided softly. This time, it was my mentor who blushed deeply, apparently remembering something from her own youth.  With the attention taken away from me, I quickly scampered back into the storeroom. Sounds of the party starting back filtered through the doorway. A rush of gratitude filled my heart towards Spike. He had to be a good person to help someone out he didn’t even know.

Hours later, as the party started winding down and night had fallen everypony had made their way outside, stargazing. Spike had separated from the main group, apparently lost in thought. Timidly, I approached him, wanting to know more about him.

“Spike?” I whispered, falling onto my haunches beside him. “Did Twilight really nearly destroy the whole town?” I asked bluntly. The fussy, careful mare couldn’t have screwed up that much, he had to have just been trying to embarrass her.

“I wouldn't say it was that dramatic, but yes. Without Celestia's intervention, it could have been a lot worse.” Spike responded, glancing down at me protectively. “I remember when she was much like you, before she got so study obsessed.” I nodded, that sounded like Twilight. “Zenith is it?” I nodded again. “I appreciate you taking my position. I know staying with Twilight can't be easy at times.” He continued, speaking as if this was my choice; of course it wasn't.

With a gentle breath of green fire, Spike summoned a necklace from some distant hoard. He gently hooked the chain with one giant talon and lay it at my feet. “This is for you. It will allow you to store magic within the gem as well as hosting a variety of protection spells. I wish you wouldn't ever need it, but knowing Twilight you probably will, she can be quite troublesome at times.” He finished with a small chuckle.

For a second, I just stared at the beautiful necklace before levitating it around my neck and fastening the clasp.”Do you like it?” Spike inquired, hope coloring his voice. The pendant was beyond wonderful; no one had thought to actually give me presents before, except Twilight who only gave me books. It was my first true gift. In response, I threw my forelegs around as much of him as I could (which wasn't much). That night, I fell asleep against his side, underneath the stars

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