Rukodiora's Romp Around Equestria Pt.1

"Unngh..."

You awoke slowly, everything from the tips of your toes to the top of your scalp hurting. Your eyes were still closed, keeping the sun out and saving you from a little agony. What felt like grass was underneath you, you must have been sent flying from...whatever hit you. You remember trying to cross a street, the screech of brakes, bright headlights, then...

...nothing?

You scratched your head, wincing when your claws scraped the scales the wrong way.

Wait.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, what?

Scales? Claws?

Your eyes shot open, and you beheld the strange appendages attached to your arms. Clawed hands, covered in scaly armor.

Staving off a panic attack through controlled breathing, you tried to gain your bearings. You appeared to be in a valley between two great mountains. A little bit of vegetation was here and there, but it was sparse. There was, however, a large forest directly behind you, at the edge of the valley.

Giving yourself a once over now that you knew where you were, you took notes of what seemed to be your new...body. Dark grey scales covered you from shoulder level on up, while a light sandy-colored plates were covering your underbelly. Several of the tan plates stuck out on your chest, tinged with a deeper orange. A small arrow stuck out of one of the plates, but they were otherwise undamaged.

You noticed your mouth had stretched almost a foot in front of you into a snout, and that it was lined with sharp fangs. Some were curved for gripping prey, others were incisors for ripping and tearing. In the back were four molars, obviously for crushing and grinding. You weren't sure if you were venomous or not, though hopefully you'd find out sooner rather than later.

Your orange-tinted claws were more like talons, extremely sharp and pointed. A quick test swipe at a nearby rock scarred it easily, with no apparent damage to you. You noted that you only had four digits, instead of the five you were accustomed to. You lacked a thumb, so holding anything would be...difficult, but not impossible. On that note, you felt muscle rippling under your scales and skin as you did so. You were strong. Very strong.

Welcoming this change for the most part, as confusing as it was (you always wanted to be a dragon, after all), you moved on to the rest of you.

Thin orange lines trailed from the cuticle of your talons on back to your elbow, the same tint as your claws. The lines then expanded past your elbow into three large, orange crystalline structures. Looking at your back legs showed much the same, though there were only two crystals, and they were further spread out. You also only had three rear talons, though that was of little concern.

Spines lined either side of your tail, sharp and pointed. They grew longer as they crested over your back and then shorter towards your neck, suddenly terminating just behind your neck. Stretched in between the spines on either side of your back was a lovely membrane you could only assume was used for flight. It was yellowish in color, going from bright yellow to deep orange from the edge on inwards. You couldn't figure out how to use them just yet, but you reasoned that you would eventually. You couldn't see any of your facial features for obvious reasons, but you could see a pale yellow horn peaking above your snout, almost horizontally.

Shaking your head at all of the new information about yourself in under ten minutes, you went to stand.

A sharp, piercing pain shot through your abdomen, reminding you of the arrow.

You growled and, hoping it wasn't barbed, began tugging on it. The arrow came out cleanly and easily, thin and pointed instead of broad and barbed. The arrowhead was bent and warped from punching through your plating, and the wound itself was shallow. It was almost the equivalent of a papercut to you; thin and annoying, but ultimately nothing to worry about. You snapped the arrow in half and discarded it with some disdain, huffing as you did so.

On the ground beside you was a note, a small leather bag (torn open but empty), and that strange little dragon keychain you had been convinced to buy earlier today from an odd stand in a mall. The figure had bright green scales with amber eyes at the time.

Now it was completely dark, eyes included.

You unfolded the note with some difficulty, and began to read.

"Greetings, human. You have perished." It started, blunt and to the point.

You audibly groaned. Your voice seemed a bit deeper.

"As a result of a drunken, reckless driver, your human body was shattered and broken. You died on impact, sparing you the pain of passing." The note continued.

"Great."

Definitely deeper.

"However, as a boon for releasing me from that gold-drunk man, I, Tiamat, have given you a small, almost insignificant portion of my power, the same that many of my worshipers have. The last dragon form on your mind is the form I have given you in return for your service to me. What you do with this new and grand power is your decision."

The note ended there.

Well, that was why your form seemed familiar. The name Tiamat sounded familiar too...

Movement not too far off caught your attention, followed by the quiet snapping of a branch underfoot. Your eyesight and hearing were much sharper too, that was nifty. You'd have to deal with this "Tiamat" business later.

You shifted your gaze to the treeline, awaiting whatever was there to appear. After a few seconds you issued a threatening growl, which caused the figures in the trees to act. Three forms burst from the bushes, in shiny metal armor and armed with various weapons. One had a large two-handed sword as they charged straight at you, one with a small sword and buckler keeping their distance, and the final with a bow and quiver full of those scale-piercing arrows far in the back, just near the line of foliage. They all had helmets as well, obscuring their faces.

The helmets were unique, shaped like bird heads. Sharp, alert eyes were visible through a visor in the bowman's helmet, but little else. Almost birdlike, like the helmet designs. Feathered wings sprouted from their backs, near the shoulders. Their rear legs were shaped like a cat's, though much larger. They each had different colored fur covering them, though only slightly different.

If your memory wasn't failing you like your last body did...Gryphons?

"I'll tranquilize him again, you two distract him!" The bowman called in a deep male tone.

"Right!" The middle one called, a female.

"On it!" The claymore user responded, another male.

Were they...hunting you?

Of course they were, you reasoned quickly. Now the only question was why? For food? A trophy kill?

They lunged for you, and you responded with a slow, sloppy swipe of a claw. This was definitely going to take time to get used to, but you didn't have that time, dammit! The female dodged back with a swift beat of her wings, smirking nastily at you as the male struck you in the side with his claymore, delivering superficial damage at best. You chased him away with a swing of your tail, growling.

"Arrow primed!" The archer called.

"Loose it already so we can go home!"

You looked at the archer and suddenly wished you could just...reach out and grab him. Lunging at him wasn't an option, he was too far away and likely too fast. Something built up in your throat as a result of your want, almost like a burp, and you opened your mouth to let it out.

You expected a gout of flame, like a regular dragon would use.

Instead, a black and red beam of energy, streaked with orange and blue electricity, tore itself from your mouth with little warning. It hit the archer dead on, and he simply ceased to be. The only thing left of him were two boots, each holding a severed and smoking paw, and his shattered bow. His ashes wouldn't be causing anyone any trouble anymore.

"Alden, no!" Cried the other gryphon, before he brought his attention back to you. "What in the Nine Hells was that?! Ebba! We kill it now, forget bringing it back subdued!"

"I'm with you, Eadric! This dragon dies!"

You bellowed a challenge, adrenaline pumping through your veins. You could hear your heart in your ears, but your hearing otherwise couldn't be sharper. You knew because you heard them both gasp and attempt to grab their ears through their helmets, obviously in pain.

You didn't feel bad about it. If you could use sound as a weapon too, you'd use it.

You leapt backwards, watching with glee as you easily cleared twenty feet with that one jump. You appeared to have the best of all three worlds, though that should be obvious. You were a *dragon*.

"Bastard, hold still!" Eadric called, plenty angry that you just literally erased his buddy.

You replied with a childish raspberry and a beat of your wings, just to taunt them.

Oh, that's how you use them. Cool.

The larger griffon quickly closed in and swung once more. Time to test your natural armor. You reached up and grabbed his sword mid-swing with one clawed limb, then snapped it in two with a quick squeeze. The gryphon reeled back in shock, viewing his suddenly much lighter weapon as you dropped the metal shards on the ground. A few shards were still embedded in the scale, but they painless and easily ignored. Something did manage to get through, leaving a thin slice that slowly oozed blood across the thick plating.

You lunged forward, pinning him down with a hand as wide as his chest. He screamed like a little girl promptly before you ended his life via quick decapitation. A high-pressure gout of crimson life force drenched your entire face as you spat his own armored head out of your mouth.

Drenched in gryphon blood, you looked up at the last remaining member of the hunting party. She seemed to be frozen in terror, sword hanging limply in her hands and shield already on the ground. You leapt forward and pinned her down as well, easily preventing her escape. Her sword joined her shield, knocked out of her grip.

"You're going to answer some questions of mine, or I'm going to kill you just like I did them." You stated coldly.

Damn, power like this was kinda intoxicating.

"Y-y-you talk...?" The girl asked dimly, eyes wide.

"Shut up! Speak when I ask something, be silent otherwise."

The she-gryphon nodded dully, breathing heavily.

"A-anything, please don't kill me..."

"Where am I?" You asked, cutting off her begging.

"Wh-what?"

"I want a response, not a question." You replied with a growl and a brief tensing of your hand, just to get your point across. Your claws punctured some exposed flesh, while putting small dents in armor elsewhere. The gryphon bled lightly. Not enough to endanger her life, but enough to tell her to stop fucking around.

"T-the Gryphon Kingdoms!" She quickly replied.

Imaginative.

"That is where, geographically speaking?" You asked again.

"West of Equestria, over the Ocean of Conflict! North of the Oligarchy of the Minotaurs!"

None of that was familiar. Then again, you WERE speaking to a mythological creature. While being one, at that. You should have figured you weren't on Earth anymore.

"Alright. Next question: Why were you hunting me?"

"Y-you were going to be a prize for a visiting Equestrian princess!"

"Oh, a little dragon toy, is that it?!" You snarled.

"N-no, not at all!"

You were definitely earning some Dark Side points today, and you were enjoying watching this gryphon squirm around in fear. Unfortunately, this had to end.

"Run, Ebba." You commanded simply, bearing your teeth and making damn sure she saw the copious amounts of blood.

She shrieked, realizing that you knew her name. You released her, and she quickly turned and fled, wings taking her as fast as she could go. Your adrenaline quickly bled out after that, the gryphon now a small dot on the horizon. Now certain you would be left alone, you went and did what was natural for someone committing their first double homicide.

You threw up.
---

Six hours later, you were more used to working your dragon limbs.

Wings were more responsive, you could use that ion beam breath weapon with more frequency (despite it heavily taxing your energy reserves), and your blasted tail was a bit more ruly. That said, you had also gone well over eighteen hours without eating. Deer and other wildlife were plentiful, it was actually netting one that was the issue. The first time you had used the beam to try and hunt, and had to try and eat ashes. That went about as well as you had predicted it would.

You were a pickup truck-sized dragon that smelled heavily of blood. The orange markings all over your body stood out clearly from the forest around you. Your prey saw you coming each and every time. It was time to get creative, you supposed.

So, you devised a trap. You'd simply sit and wait until something walked into your spike trap, then finish it off and eat. Said trap was actually made from a few of your tail spines, which had hurt like hell to remove, and some vines from the tree canopies. A quick inspection of your tail revealed a cuticle-like structure near each spine, so you assumed they were replaceable. You hoped they would come back in, but it was no real loss if they didn't.

You heard a snap, followed by a sound of pain and distress.

Chow time.

Lumbering out from the undergrowth, a deer was neatly pinned through and through on the spines. Didn't matter if you let it bleed out now or released it, either way it would die. You swiftly and accurately slit its throat, then waited another moment. The light in its eyes went out, and you released the corpse from the trap.

Somehow, this was different from those gryphons. Perhaps the lack of talking is what did it...or you were already acclimated to killing things. You shrugged as you made a meal of the deer. Venison wasn't your first, second, or even third choice, but it would do.

You quickly quelled the dull ache in your stomach, then yawned. A nap would be really good right now.

A shuffle sounded off roughly ten meters ahead of you.

"It was back here! Eadric's body is still lying there!"

You immediately regretted not moving the remaining body straight away, even if it would have taken all of thirty seconds. You made a note for the future to either move away from a battleground or to clear it yourself, time dependent.

Armor clanked as another group of gryphons landed in the clearing. Four this time, including the one from before. If they didn't see you, maybe you won't have to fight. You were still worn out from the fight before, you doubted your abilities to take this new group on and still win. Hiding near a dying tree with orange and brown leaves, you simply observed.

They inspected the remains for a few minutes.

"Perhaps it's still in the area. Godrick, stay here. Shout if you see anything."

There was a pause.

"Ebba, go home. You've done enough."

"No! This dragon dies by my hand!"

There was another pause, you could see the two staring at one another with their helmets off. Ebba was glaring, the new one was giving an expression of concern.

"Stubborn girl. Fine."

"A dragon's head should be a fine gift for an Equestrian Princess, huh?" Another chimed in.

Equestrian? Ebba mentioned something about that earlier...

"I doubt it. Those ponies don't like violence all that much."

Literal ponies? Interesting. You shifted a bit to get comfortable, attempting to remain as silent as possible for a truck-sized dragon.

"After what they did to the Chaos God and the Lord of the Underworld?" One asked in disbelief. "I'd be shocked if they didn't outright declare a war of conquest! They'd steamroll us!"

"They can try."

Political intrigue was not your strong suit, nor did it truly interest you. You sighed and shifted a bit, scales rubbing against the tree. You winced immediately from the sound.

"...hear that?" Ebba called. "In the foliage."

You silently cursed your lack of care. Round two already. You crept backwards, carefully avoiding other plants.

"Found you!" A voice roared from above.

A spear found itself lodged in your back, thrown from above. You had forgotten they could fly. A pained roar escaped you, and you beat your mighty wings in an effort to escape. The gryphon above you came down on top of you, grabbing something on the back of your head and drawing a short sword from his back.

You rolled over and slammed your back into the earth, crushing him into it. The spear snapped off at the haft, the metal point left deep in the scale and close to penetrating your flesh. The gryphon you had crushed wasn't moving, so you assumed you had either killed him or turned him into a feathery vegetable. Either or worked for you.

You took wing once more, trying to escape again. Meeting no opposition this time, you turned and fled. Tucking your limbs in for less drag, you beat a hasty escape to anywhere that wasn't *here*. Southeast. You didn't know how you knew, you just...did.

"The dragon's getting away!"

"I don't care, see if Godrick's still alive!"

The voices grew quieter as you outpaced them, the valley left far behind.
---

You gained altitude with another beat of your wings, grunting as the spearhead twinged in your back.

"I need to get that out..." You mumbled to yourself, trying to figure out just how to go about doing that.

Being a dragon was great, but there were a few complaints.

One was a definite lack of flexibility. The spear was dead center in your back, embedded in scale. Didn't quite punch through due to the angle, but was definitely stuck and you just couldn't quite reach it. Maybe you'd find a rocky outcropping, scrape the scale off entirely. That sounded like a plan, despite it leaving an obvious weakpoint until it grew back in.

Another was that it seemed like everybody and their grandmother wanted your head on a pike.

An ocean expanded beneath you, and you were worried about whether or not you could actually make it across. Due to the kite-like nature of your wings, you were definitely crossing more distance with each beat of them, but...the word 'ocean' alone implied hundreds, if not thousands of miles. You weren't sure if you could make that.

Food and water was bound to be an issue. While you had just eaten not long ago, and you were flying at a rather fast clip, there were doubts about your endurance against starvation. You were also pretty sure you couldn't drink salt water, despite all of the other advantages over your old human body.

The landmass continued if you went south, exactly as that gryphon had said...there may be a way around, or even a place you could just *rest*. You hadn't slept in the time you had been a dragon, and the fighting had been extremely taxing on you. Sleep was beginning to look really nice right about now.

Diverting course, you headed back to land.

Night had fallen when you landed next, completely exhausted and unable to continue. Your scales gave you some sort of camouflage against perhaps a casual glance in your direction at night, but it wasn't much if someone were really looking for you, and especially not during the day.

This was a plain, with no forest or true cover for miles. If you went to sleep here, you'd be completely unprotected...but you thought for a moment.

Honestly, who would screw with a sleeping dragon? To you, that sounded like a death wish. At the same time, however, you knew that heavily armed gryphons were about, looking to ruin your day. You weren't sure you had gone far enough to evade them just yet, even if you *were* faster than they were. At that, minotaurs just flat out didn't sound all that fun to be around, regardless of your level of fatigue.

Taking your chances, you settled down and closed your eyes.
---

You awoke with the sun high above, its warming rays only managing to convince you to go back to sleep. You couldn't, though. You had to figure out a plan of action.

First was the whole "Tiamat" business. You should have figured there was a reason that the dealer didn't want to sell that figurine. There may be a way to track her down...but would there really be a point to that? You were dead, this was simply your second chance.

Regardless, remaining here with everyone trying to kill your ass was definitely NOT ideal, and you'd have to fix that. How to go about that, however, was on your 'to do' list.

You huffed a sigh, seeing a large mountain in the distance now that the sun was out. Maybe you'd find a cave to hide out in for a little while, avoid the others while you got your shit straight. In fact, that sounded like a grand idea.

Taking flight, you headed for the base of the mountain.