Equestrian Wars: A Fixed Pathway

Author: Evowizard25

Chapter 3

The world seemed to come back into focus. 'Have I died? Will I see Eng-kan and my friends?' Hasgon groaned, while a small surge of pain pierced his skull, shredding that thought. 'Why do I have this horrible headache?' he thought. He could feel something stroking his neck. Whatever it was, it brought him comfort, soothing comfort. 'It feels nice…' He slowly lifted his head and opened his eyes.

He expected to find himself in the care of his own kind, but what he saw shocked him. Standing around him were hoonahs! Not the two legged kind, but new, four legged ones. 'How? Only the two-legged hoonahs were intelligent. Are there any of them here? Are these their pets?' As he processed this in his mind, he looked over at the hoonah stroking him. While the others cowered in the corners, this one just smiled down at him. This yellow, four-legged hoonah, with a pink mane, just beamed serenity. He felt calm and safe. He felt cared for. He felt…

Just then, Hasgon's stomach started growling. It brought him back to reality. There was one simple truth: hoonahs were food! He let out a loud hiss that startled the hoonah. It lifted its leg from off him. He lunged forward, hoping to puncture its windpipe. The hoonah ducked out of the way, to which he missed it by a mere inch. He quickly jumped to his feet and readied himself. With a simple movement, he lunged toward it.

However, something whacked into his side, sending him crashing into the wall. He looked up to see a blue hoonah, flying over him. 'Hoonahs can fly now?' He thought, but dispelled that. He needed to focus here. He jumped upwards, trying to catch it. He missed. He tried a few more times. During those attempts, he could hear the hoonah talk in its guttural language. He shouldn't have cared what it was saying, but he could hear the tone. He just knew this flying creature was mocking him. That infuriated Hasgon. 'No hoonah makes fun of a Kra!' He jumped high enough, that he caught hold of its tail. It squealed in surprise as he brought it to the ground. Since the tail was just made of hair, he hadn't hurt it. Yet.

Before he could do anything else, he again was rammed right into a desk. He looked up to see the orange hoonah from earlier, the one that had brought him here. He growled deeply, glaring at it. The hoonah returned the glare. Hasgon cast a glance over at the gun beside him. The Kra knew he had to be quick. He rolled over, picked up the gun, and stood up, then pointed his tintza rifle straight at it. The hoonah just stood there, proud and challenging. 'Let's see how proud you are when you have a hole right dab center in your chest!' The two stared at each other for a minute, before he inched a finger over the trigger.

Suddenly, Hasgon felt a strange tingling sensation. He felt light, almost like one of his feathers. He looked down to his feet. His eyes widened, as he saw he was started to float up in the air. He dropped his rifle and tried to get back down. It was all in vain. He clawed and kicked, trying to get back down on solid ground, but to no avail. 'What is this? How can I be flying?' He looked around for the source. He then noticed the light purple one's horn glowing. Its eyes were closed in concentration. 'But that's impossible. Hoonahs don't have magic. Not even Kra priests have that power. Only Eng-kan can grant…'

Fear gripped him. "Stop!" he shouted. "Please stop!" 'Did he grant them this power? He must have. Why would he grant such hoonahs this power? No! I cannot question his will. Then, these must be his blessed ones. His chosen. I had attacked and tried to harm the chosen of my own god. Eng-kan would never allow me access to the afterlife. I will never see his friends again. Not after this action of selfish, destructive behavior.' He was doomed! Not just his physical form, but his soul as well. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!"

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Fluttershy thought that maybe, it would be nice, like Spike. The very moment it woke up, it stared at her. She knew that there was intelligence on par with her own, lurking inside it. 'Maybe, he'll be our new friend,' she thought. But her feelings were short lived. The creature hissed, telling her of the upcoming strike. It lunged, but she ducked just in time. The timid Pegasus moved backwards, cowering before the predator. It quickly got to its feet and tried to lunge again.

"Oh, no you don't!" Rainbow Dash said, zooming right into the feathered dragon's side. The dragon fell to the ground, but was quickly back up. It tried jumping up at her. She laughed. "You can't catch me, lizard!"

It kept on trying to get her, to which she kept on taunting. "I'm the fastest flyer in Equestria. Do you really think you can catch me, slowpoke?" At that very moment, karma, or rather, the feathered dragon, grabbed her tail. Dash yelled in fright, as she came crashing to the ground.

Applejack launched herself at the dragon, knocking him into the stand. The creature quickly got up and rolled over. It then hefted its strange cylinder object. For a moment, they just stared at each other, waiting for one to make a move.

Fluttershy could feel the tension in the air. 'Please, let no one get hurt,' she thought. After a moment of staring, Twilight tried using her magic. Concentrating, she lifted the dragon up into the air. He clawed and kicked, desperate to get back down. He even dropped his strange stick. Soon, she could hear it cry out in some type of language. It was pitiful, absolutely pitiful. She could hear hurt, pain, and loss in that voice. It broke her heart to see it like that. "Please stop," she said.

Twilight looked at her. "Are you crazy?" she asked. "That thing just tried to eat you!"

"I know, but we have to give him a chance," Fluttershy pleaded.

"I don't think so, Fluttershy," Applejack said, keeping her gaze on the feathered dragon. "This thing won't think twice about having us for supper."

"I say we chuck it back into the Everfree Forest, where it belongs," Rainbow Dash scoffed. She was looking over her tail.

"We could change him," Fluttershy said. She walked up to Twilight. Her eyes were pleading. "I know we can do it."

Twilight just stared at her, with occasional glances to the dragon. She then sighed. She floated the creature back to its bed and dropped it. Just in case it attacked again, she prepared a spell. Instead, he just went under the covers. They could hear it whimpering.

"I want that thing out of here!" Nurse Redheart nearly yelled, pointing at it. "This instant!"

"But he still needs to be cared for," Fluttershy said.

Redheart was simply fuming. "That thing nearly killed us," she said. "I will not have it in my hospital. Think of the other ponies. I can't simply leave them in here with that thing. It would eat them."

"No, he wouldn't." Fluttershy said, defending the creature.

"Then, where do we keep it?" Nurse Redheart asked.

The ponies were silent for a moment. The only sound in the room, was the feathered dragons whimpering. "I got it," Twilight said, raising a hoof. "He'll stay with Applejack."

All the others just stared at her. "Why can't he stay with me?" Fluttershy said, looking at the creature. 'The poor thing… He must be scared, not even knowing where he is,' she thought.

"Because, Applejack's farm is far enough away for this thing to be of any danger," Twilight explained.

"Except to the Apple family!" Applejack said, getting up in her face.

"I know, I know," Twilight said, reeling back. "But you have Big Macintosh. Fluttershy has, what, Angel? I don't think a little white rabbit is going to be much help in defending her."

Fluttershy could see that Applejack was going to continue arguing in the matter. "If it doesn't go well, I could use the Stare, if you like," she offered, before ducking her head. "Just a thought."

Applejack pondered on that for a moment, before saying. "Alright," she relented. "He can come." She then eyed Twilight. "But if he even so much as lays a finger on Apple Bloom, I swear, I'll whip his hide into next week!"

"Sure," Twilight said. She started to sweat. "I got it."

"Is there any way we could talk to him?" Fluttershy said, standing next to the feathered dragon.

"Well, duh," Rainbow Dash said, flying over to Twilight. "You gotta know a spell or something!" She looked back at the creature. "I'll give him a piece of my mind. No one bites Rainbow Dash's tail and gets away with it!"

Twilight rolled her eyes. "I'll be back soon," she said. With that said, she teleported.

Fluttershy smiled down at the creature. "Don't worry," she cooed. "Twilight is coming back. Then, we can talk to each other. Isn't that wonderful?" She was only answered by a soft whimper.

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Twilight soon appeared in the library. Her appearance was met by a yell. Spike stepped away from the mirror looking a little shy. "So, back so soon?" he asked.

"Yes, I need to find a book on translation spells," Twilight said.

"Why do we need one on that?" Spike said, raising a talon.

"Don't question me," Twilight said, "Just do it."

"Alright, alright," Spike said, going over to the bookcase. "Sheesh." They searched for several minutes, before Spike finally found it.

Twilight smiled. She used her magic to levitate it over to herself and opened it up. "Ah, simple enough," she said, quickly teleporting herself back into the hospital. "Got it."

She closed her eyes and concentrated on the spell. It didn't take much effort, and soon she felt it take effect. "Now, can you hear me?" she asked the feathered dragon.

The creature lifted his head up at the sound of her voice. "Yes," he said. "But how…?"

"Magic," Twilight stated.

The creature lowered his head. "Truly, Eng-kan has blessed you," he said.

"Who is Eng-kan?" Twilight asked.

The creature stared at her for a moment. "You do not know Eng-kan?" He sounded like he couldn't believe it. "He is our god. Our soul protector. The lord of the afterlife. He must have given you these powers."

Before anyone could reply, he stood up. They all took a step back. 'Is he going to attack again?' Twilight thought, preparing another spell. Instead, the feathered dragon bowed before them. "Take my apologies, Eng-kan's chosen. If I had known, I would never have sought to end you."

"Um… I'm sorry to say this," Fluttershy said, "but we have never heard of this Eng-kan. I'm sure he's a great god, but we have only the princesses. You could call them gods, if you want. Though, I'm not imposing." She reeled back. "Sorry for bringing that up."

"No, Eng-kan," the dragon said. He shook his head. "But he must have. There is no way… unless!" He jumped off his bed and looked at Twilight. "Is this Eka?"

"Eka?" Twilight replied, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, Eka," The feathered dragon said. "Eka, my homeworld."

"I'm sorry, but this is Equestria," Twilight said.

The dragon blinked a few times, before replying. "Eng-kan must have sent me here," he said. "I prayed for my life, and he delivered me to safety." He looked down at his dressed wounds. "Who healed me?"

Redheart gulped and took a dainty step forward. "I did," she said, her voice shaking.

The creature bowed his head. "Then, I humbly thank you," he said.

"It was no problem," Redheart said, blushing under her fur.

The creature turned his head back to Twilight. "I must see these princesses immediately," he said. "They must know Eng-kan. I want to know why I was sent here."

Twilight blinked. 'Let a killer dragon into the princess's court,' she thought. 'Yeah, that will keep you on their good side.' "Well, I can't do that at this moment," she said.

The dragon growled. "Why not?" he asked.

"Only those with permission can enter their court," Twilight said, trying to think up some excuse. She wasn't about let some creature such as himself near the princesses.

"Then, I demand their permission," The feathered dragon said. "These princesses must know that the will of Eng-kan is supreme."

"Well, I'm sorry," Twilight said, getting rather annoyed with this creature and this 'Eng-kan'. "You can't go now."

The creature hissed threateningly. Applejack walked right up in front of him. "Now, don't you go an' disrespect Twilight!" she said. "She could have easily sent you back to where you came from."

The creature huffed. "Doesn't sound so bad," he said. "Although, I prefer four-legged hoonahs over the two-legged ones." The ponies just stared at him for a moment, before letting the comment slide. "Now, since I will be staying here, where will I sleep?"

Twilight looked over at Applejack. The pony in question closed her eyes and sighed. She opened them back up and walked over to him. "I'll let you stay with me," she said, before sending him a glare. "But don't you dare touch any of my family!"

The feathered dragon eyed her for a moment. "I would never harm the chosen ones," he said.

"Well, he's polite for a dragon," Fluttershy said.

"I'm not a dragon," the creature said. "Whatever that is. I am a Kra. My name is Hasgon. I am a great warrior." He puffed out his chest.

"Kra?" Rainbow Dash said, not really impressed. "Never heard of you."

"Well, you have now," Hasgon growled.

"Hey, don't growl at me, bub," Rainbow Dash said, getting in his face. "Don't think I forgot about you grabbing my tail."

"Next time, I won't miss," Hasgon threatened. The two tensed, looking as if they were ready to have a go at each other. Twilight sighed. 'Well, things have certainly gotten interesting.'

Next Chapter: Chapter 4 Estimated time remaining: 14 Minutes