//------------------------------// // Six - Rememberance // Story: The Dragon Master // by Cantus //------------------------------// The staff turned towards the sky. It noticed something. The Runes on its side pulsed as it recognised the light in the heavens. The great light, that which brought the warm time. It knew nothing of brightness, so did not attribute that to it. Something resembling a feeling flicked through it. An emotion, one of the only things retained from before. A feeling of strength, of belonging. It had stood side-by-side with others, underneath that light...had it? The feeling passed as swiftly as it had come, and the moment of high thought was forgotten. The Runes re-asserted their power, and repeated the instructions that were to be followed. It turned its blind eyes away from the sky, and resumed its journey. *************************************************************************  Gravil sighed. The Prince had been buzzing with energy, keeping him up all night with questions about the minutae of the stories. It had only been a few days since the last renewal, yet he felt tired already. That concerned him vaguely - normally it lasted several weeks before anything even approaching weariness affected him. Could the Runes be weakening? Possible, but unlikely - those Runes had been carven to last, and thanks to their being inside Anbel they hadn't seen much in the way of weathering. He found himself sighing again. Perhaps caring for children was simply much more difficult than he had imagined? He shook his head. It didn't matter much either way. Even if the Runes were weakening, they'd last until noon tomorrow. After that, his survival meant nothing. He paced the halls as he thought. He liked doing that. His mind always seemed to work more clearly when he was walking, as if mind and body were wheels connected in some great mechanism. Now that he thought about it, that wasn't a bad allegory. One wheel turned another, the body turns the mind... His musings were interrupted as he walked into the wall. At such slow speeds that couldn't hurt him, but his concentration was certainly broken. "Ergh. Stupid. Need to be more..." He trailed off, his ramblings dying quickly with no-one to address. He shook his head, and tried to remember the last thing he'd been thinking about. It was then that it occurred to him. "Perhaps caring for children was more difficult than he imagined". It was this sentence that caught his attention. Child-rearing. One idea led to another, thoughts spiralling outwards from that first point in a web of possibilities. He instinctively began to pace again, as his mind worked itself back up to full running speed. An idea formed in his head. It wasn't part of the plan, but that didn't matter. He had the time, it could be done. After all, why win a war if you forget why you fought it? He spent the next few minutes treading down winding corridors, claws leaving tiny scratches in the colored stones of the floor. The room he was looking for was nested in the middle of a winding maze of corridors, to discourage unwanted intruders from accessing it, but this was not a problem for him. He had walked this path thousands of times, even before the war. He cracked a smile as his eyes fell upon the muted green of the door. Copper didn't age like any other metal. He muttered the words. "Lac En Lin I Vil-Da Den Olni" Speaking those familiar words eased his mind. The door swung inwards, a soft "click" the only signal that the lock had drawn back. He stepped forward, into the darkness. He called out. "Lin!" Nothing happened. He tried again. "Lin!" Still no response. Obviously the Light-Runes had been damaged somehow. Just as he was about to speak again, there came a slight flicker. A shape that looked vaguely like a serpent lit up in soft blue, before dying out a moment later. Evidently they weren't quite dead after all. He drew a deep breath, and tried calling one last time. "LIN!" At that, the room burst into light, the Runes decorating every wall throwing their rays onto the stones. He stood and stared, momentarily awed by the sight. It wasn't the type of awe one felt when seeing something grand for the first time - it was the sort that comes from seeing something for the thousandth time and still appreciating it. He recognised it. After so many years, it was unchanged. The depressions in the ground were filled with the dust of the last fires lit there, and the floors were still strewn with fragments of eggshell. His elevated mood sank back down, however, when he saw that the bones were still there. He sighed. Even in this place peace could not be found. The sight of bones returned a memory to him. He quivered with rage as he remembered: The mumbled words of worried broodmothers, the high-pitched shrieks of frightened hatchlings, and above it all, rumbling like thunder, the sound of terrible, iron-shod hooves. His gaze fell upon the remains of what had probably been one of the unfortunate matrons. All that was left was a skull - well, half of a skull, as one side of it had crumbled to pieces over the years. Beneath the skull was a pile of dust and rags - that had probably been the rest of her. Bone fragments Why had it happened? He found himself asking that question, even though he knew the answer. He clenched his teeth in hate. It had happened because of the anger of one woman. Renka...no, that which had once been Renka had done many heinous things after becoming Pan-Gor, but it was this act that truly cemented her status as an irredeemable enemy of Olni. Attacking a hatchery.... He shook his head. He couldn't allow emotion to overpower him. Not again. He summoned up his willpower, and quashed his hate, bottling it deep within him for later use. He sighed. Now he felt even more tired. Perhaps this hadn't been such a good idea... There was still one thing he wanted to do, though. He paced across the stones, careful not to disturb any bones. They deserved their rest. He climbed down into one of the pits, and sat down. The ashes smirched his robe, but he didn't care. Vague, warm memories of belonging washed over him. He couldn't remember anything in particular that had happened here - they had been forced out by the other memories he had accumulated through the long years. He stared upwards, at the glowing blue symbol etched onto the ceiling. It was one of the more complex ones, a coiling, winged serpent circling an orb, arms outstretched, holding the sun in its arms like a mother would a child. Olni. That one was hell to carve, difficult as it was to make curved lines on stone. Still, no pain would be spared - for who could ask the Dragonfather to work for them, when they would not work for Him? As he gazed upon the icon, a memory returned to him, bursting through the others that had buried it. It surged through him, an electric feeling that surged with life. He closed his eyes and sank into it. *************************************************************************  "Gravil, look at me when I'm talking to you!" He turned away from the ceiling reluctantly, unwilling to avert his gaze from its beauty. "Gravil, if you keep ignoring me, I will have to..." He snapped to attention. "Yes, Mother?" The grey-scaled matriarch stared at him disapprovingly. "It's time for rest, Gravil. Settle down." He frowned. Sleep was the last thing he wanted now. "But, Mother, I'm not tired!" The matriarch fixed him with a glare so cold it could probably have frozen water. "I said, it's time for rest, Gravil". He complied swiftly. He headed to the sleeping-quarters, not wanting to get into trouble. He still remembered the last time that had happened, and a week without food was not an experience he wished to repeat. As he settled down on the stone sleeping-bench, he cast his gaze around the room. Two broodmothers were stoking the fire-pit, whilst the other three were herding the children off to sleep. He felt a twinge of envy for the eggs kept beside the fire - they were warm, at least. He stared at the ceiling again. He couldn't see the wonderful symbol properly from this position - the benches were located around the edges of the room, and Olni's glyph was at the exact centre. There were others - runes that depicted the various spirits that did Olni's will, but they were nowhere near as beautiful. The manic energy that powers the young seemed to seep out of him as he thought about that Rune. Would he ever feel that way - knowing that you'd made something that caused people to gasp in amazement? His thoughts seeped away as tiredness washed over him, and he began to close his eyes... He felt someone prod him in the shoulder. His eyelids swung open lethargically. Above him stood something that he recognised, although it took him several seconds to realise what was happening. "Serin? What are you-" She put a blue-scaled finger to her mouth and hissed for silence. "Quiet!" He swung himself to a sitting position, and rubbed his sore head. She sat down beside him, not saying a word. He whispered to her. "You know this isn't allowed, don't you?" She whispered back. "What, you mean... mixing?" She pronounced the last word in mock horror. He couldn't surpress a chuckle. "What's that, your impression of Meres?" "Mother Meres" she replied, relishing the chance to mock her elders. "You're impossible, Serin." She smirked as she turned to him. "And you're insufferable, you cranky old wyrm". He hated when people brought that up. "I'm a month younger than you! I can't change the fact that some Broodmother decided to have fun naming me!" She smirked again. "Grey-scale" she taunted. He sighed. She was always like this. In spite of everything, he still enjoyed their discussions, if you could call a slander-match a discussion. He looked up at the ceiling, as he always found himself doing when he didn't have anything else in particular to do. It reminded him of something. It was only a month away, now. He still wasn't sure what he would choose. How did you make a choice like that? Serin seemed to sense his discomfort. "You worried about something?" He nodded. "Is it about the Determination?" He nodded again. He was glad she'd said it instead of him. "Come on, Gravil, it's not that bad. It gives you a real feeling of..." She paused, trying to find exactly the right word. "...purpose, I guess. You know where you're meant to be". He sighed. "Yes, I know that, but it's just..." He knew what he wanted to say, but his mouth refused to work. He wanted to say that it scared him, that he didn't know if he wanted to proclaim himself a carver, or a soldier, or a digger, and have that be set in stone for his whole life. He wanted to say that he was afraid of leaving the hatchery, that the world outside was unfamiliar and full of danger, that he'd rather not face it. Yet his mouth refused to open. Serin sighed. "You're making a mountain from a molehill, Gravil." There was a noise from across the room, the sound of someone stirring in their sleep. Serin froze, for fear of discovery. Thankfully the noise passed, and whomever had made it went back to their slumber. "Listen, Gravil, I'd better get back to my own bed. Stop worrying, okay?" She stood up and tiptoed carefully around the sleeping wyrms. She was probably right, he thought to himself. It wouldn't be so bad. He sighed, letting out the tension as sleep came for him at last. ************************************************************************* The old wyrm shook himself out of his reverie, flinging soot everywhere as he did so. Well, he hadn't been expecting that. Why did he remember it so clearly now, when he'd been unable to recall his past for decades? Olni's teeth, why did it have to be her? Was that really what he needed now? More guilt? He gritted his teeth as realisation broke through. It was what he needed. The rest of the memories flowed from the first, detail begetting detail. It had been his fault. She was one of the many he had failed. He cast one last look at the ceiling, and fixed his gaze upon the sun. "I swear, in Olni's name..." He paused, trying to find the strength to say the words. Emotion overpowered him, immobilising his speech functions. "It will not have been in vain". ************************************************************************* Rainbow was bored. She knew that they needed to be thorough, and that not enerypony could keep the same pace as her, but that didn't make it much more tolerable. It just felt wrong to be flying slowly when there was something urgent to do! She had joined a group of scout-pegasi, tasked with locating Anbel. They didn't expect it to take long - The Princess had informed them that it was built into a mountainside, and they knew it was in the direction of the Everfree Forest, so that narrowed down the possibilities. Still, this job still needed to be done - the rest of the search party would stand little chance of finding the place without directions. That wasn't the problem. The problem was the other pegasi. They insisted on staying in formation, which meant that they couldn't fly faster than their slowest member, and he was a lot slower than Rainbow Dash. Rainbow swallowed her aggravation and kept in time. Twilight had been adamant that they stay in formation - finding that staff was top priority, and they couldn't guarantee that they'd have anypony spare to go looking for those who got lost. What if she had an accident? Highly though Rainbow thought of her own abilities, she didn't relish the idea of being left alone in the Forest, with nopony able to reach her... She snapped back to reality, and was greeted by the sight of mountains. The three towering heaps of rock and soil were big enough to loom over the five Pegasi, even at this height. The sergeant, a brown-coated stallion, raised his foreleg, forming the universally-accepted shape for "stop". His three subordinates came to a halt, their wings beating in reverse as they slowed themselves. Rainbow followed a few seconds later, drawing a disapproving look from the officer. He'd winced visibly when she'd been assigned to his team, so Rainbow had no illusions as to what he thought of her. She didn't care - and why should she? As long as he was helping the search, that was all that mattered now. He wiped the look from his face, evidently thinking better than to reprimand a national hero. The stallion began to speak. "Alright, team, we're to make a sweep of those mountains. Our instructions are clear - the place should be carved into the mountainside, and have visible doors. Big ones". Rainbow thought back to the last dragon she'd faced. He had been enormous - she didn't imagine that doors meant to fit creatures that big could be easily hidden. Still, she couldn't make out anything from this high up... She was caught in her thoughts again, and missed the sergeant give the signal to move out. It took her a short while to realise, but when she dragged herself out of her thoughts she found herself left behind as the team of pegasi soared forwards. "Oh, horseapples" she thought. She rose up another foot or two, and dove after them. ************************************************************************* On the ground, things were more difficult. Whilst travelling in groups of twelve made travelling through the Forest much safer than normal, that didn't mean very much considering the sheer number of beasts that lived there. Everypony inevitably found themselves looking over their own shoulders, for fear of whatever lurked in the undergrowth. Nonetheless, they were Royal Guards. They would watch for danger, but they were not about to panic at imaginary terrors. They maintained a soldierly pace, methodically putting one hoof in front of the other. AJ kept pace with them easily enough, being accustomed to physical exertion. It was harder going for Rarity, but she was at least able to keep up with the rearguard. To her credit, she wasn't complaining about the muck of the forest, although the look on her face made it clear that she really wanted to. Twilight was supervising the whole operation from the rear, trying to map out the teams' positions based on the reports she was getting back. It was beginning to come together. Now if only the Pegasi could finish their sweep on time... ************************************************************************* The rustling of undergrowth disturbed its sleep. It had been perfectly content to rest, allowing its body to heal from the wounds it had suffered on its last hunt. Its ears, designed to react to the slightest stimulus, pricked up, and the rest of it slowly followed. Two pairs of eyelids swung open. The third head did not have any eyelids, but it shook itself to wakefulness all the same. It rose to its legs, a difficult proposition considering how lopsided its build was. One head sniffed the air. There were all the usual scents - leaf, bark, fur, rain... There was something else. Something... unfamiliar. Recognition shot through its brains like a lightning bolt. It did recognise that smell. It had no memories, just a blurry feeling. It didn't know what the smell represented, but it did know that it hated it. It slipped from the cover of its cave, into the treeline, and faded from view. ************************************************************************* Rainbow's wings beat furiously as she tried to make up the gap between her and the other pegasi. Uh, how could I have been so stupid? she thought to herself. She might not be the most diligent pony in the world, but she'd never been as scatterbrained as she had been recently. What was up with that? It was like... She caught herself - she was about to do it again! She decided to grit her teeth and focus on the job. Catch up with them. ************************************************************************* They'd been searching for some time, to no avail. Steel Shield sighed. This mission shouldn't be difficult - find a set of massive doors and report back. The Sixth Airborne were more than a match for it. Yet it was proving him wrong. They'd swept most of the Drachenbach range already, and still nothing. He had to keep reminding himself that they hadn't been searching for that long. Just because they hadn't broken any records for search times didn't mean they were slow or ineffective. Even so, he always felt irritated when results took time to show. His mood was not improved by what he'd seen of the "legendary" pegasus pony that had been assigned to his group. He'd heard about the exploits of Rainbow Dash (who in Equestria hadn't?), and he was sorry to see that the reality didn't live up to his expectations. He'd heard she was fast, and that was probably true. He'd heard that she was loyal, and that was probably true also. But what struck him was the shocking lack of discipline. Perhaps he was being unfair - civilians weren't expected to maintain the same level of self-control as guardponies. Even so, he'd expected something...more. For goodness' sake, she hadn't even moved out when he signalled to! That was what really irked him. She probably hadn't meant anything by it, but a tiny part of his mind refused to believe that. She had been trying to undermine his authority, he just knew it! He gritted his teeth. She wasn't under his authority, she was just a civilian that couldn't be left behind. Why, oh why did it have to be his patrol? Well, if she thought her reputation alone would earn her his approval, she had another thing coming... He was snapped out of his thoughts by the sound of one of his scouts shouting. "Captain! I think I see something!" At last. He gave the signal, informing the scout that he had permission to investigate. A few minutes later, he returned, eyes wide with urgency. "Sir, I'm sure! This thing matches the description almost perfectly!" His heart leapt at the news - they'd be able to complete their mission after all. Still, he wanted to see it for himself - their mission was too important for them to leave anything to chance. Plus, he couldn't deny a certain amount of curiosity about exactly what this place looked like. He raised his arm... ************************************************************************* Before Steel Shield could give the order to move out, he noticed something. It was a strange, screeching sound, like the wind on a stormy night. Before he could wonder what might have caused it, a rainbow-coloured blur streaked past him, almost bowling him clean over with the force of its passing. "What the..." ************************************************************************* Rainbow realised too late that she had overshot her mark. Fear started to fill her as she saw the lumbering forms of the mountains looming closer. She backpedaled furiously, her wings beating forward in an attempt to slow her descent. She lost speed. It wasn't enough. ************************************************************************* Spike was sleeping soundly, the gem-bed of the treasury quite comfortable enough for him. That came to a swift end. Something impacted the Doors of Anbel with a tremendous crunch, shaking the ceiling with its force. It lasted only a second or two, but it was quite enough to jar Spike uncomfortably from his slumber. "Uh...what the..?" He stumbled through the treasury's door (which he had persuaded Gravil not to lock last night), onto the many-coloured floor of Anbel. There came the sound of claws scraping on stone, and doing so in a hurry. Gravil's black-robed figure darted out from a side-path, glancing frantically around. He sighed in relief when he spied Spike. "My Lord. Thank Olni, you are unharmed!" Spike asked the question that was on both of their minds. "What was that noise?" The old wyrm's face scowled with discomfort. "I do not yet know, My Lord. It may be anything, even enemies." Hope and fear both leapt in the young dragon's heart. Enemies? In Gravil's eyes, ponies would count as enemies... The wyrm spoke up again. "Fear not, My Lord. Ban-Ten-Na himself could not break these doors, despite his formidable strength. Nothing still lives that has the power to throw down Anbel. We are safe inside." Spike nodded and pretended that he wasn't trying to decide whether or not that was a good thing. Gravil spoke again before Spike had the chance to say anything. "My Lord, I must ask you to remain here. I must observe our enemy, but I shall not be long." The old wyrm's claws scraped across the tiles again, as he sprinted off in the direction of the door. ************************************************************************* Rainbow Dash opened her eyes. The world swam around her, and her skull thumped like a tambourine. "Uuuh". Her ears rang, but she could still make out the sounds of beating wings and hoof-falls behind her. "Just what are you doing?" She looked in the direction that the noise had come from, and saw the harsh-looking pegasus captain staring down at her. Her thoughts rallied, and she stood up. "Uh. In case you haven't noticed, I just crashed." she quipped. She always reached for sarcasm when she didn't know what else to say. The captain snorted in irritation. "I saw that! And if there's anyone inside there, I'm sure they heard it!" Man, this guy got on her nerves. Almost instinctively, she responded. "And?" His face turned the shade of particularly ripe beetroot. "That means we've lost the element of surprise! Now they knowwe're looking for them!" She probably shouldn't have antagonised those who were trying to help her, but at this stage she was taken by her annoyance. "Well, good! Now that they know Rainbow Dash is comin' for them, they'll just give up!" The captain's eyelid twitched. His face scrunched up as he tried to contain his frustration. He succeeded, though with visible effort. His face regained its normal coloration, as the soldierly discipline he seemed to pride himself on reasserted itself. "Regardless. We've found the target, and now we're going to report back. Come with us if you want, though I can't compel you to do anything." He turned to his squad and gave the signal to move out. ************************************************************************* It sniffed the air with both noses. The smell was becoming stronger. Its muscles tensed. It was no longer sure if it wanted to do this. The smell was very strong indeed - far more than one animal could produce. A flick of its serpent-tongue confirmed this fact. Their smell was sharp, a vivid odour that stood out from the earthen smells of the forest, like a candle in the night. There was certainly a large number of...them. An idea presented itself. Why not simply ignore them? They were a ways off yet, and they would not notice its smell over the overpowering stench of their own. It could simply return to the cave. It was dark in there, and safe. It did not feel particularly hungry, either. It could go another day or two before feeling seriously pressed. Why, then, was it still here? Turning around sounded like a very good idea. It began the awkward process of turning, awkward because it had to shift almost its whole body weight onto its right legs so that it could turn without falling over. It sensed something. Another scent in the air. It whipped its heads around, all three searching for the intrusion. It growled from two throats, and hissed from a third, challenging whatever beast had entered its domain to show itself. Its eyes caught something. A hint of movement, in the shade of the treeline, the last bit of shadow before the clearing. Except it wasn't. Something moved - but instead of stepping out of the shadow, they pulled it along with them. The darkness bulged, into the sunlight, where it should have no place. Eyes opened. Green triangles on a black background. The strange being raised what appeared to be its hand. This didn't feel right. It should be...should be... It couldn't remember anything. Its instincts blurred and its mind filled with a haze. Should it be frightened? Threatened? There was an intruder...there was something you were meant to do to intruders... The black thing swept its arm in a wide arc, infusing the air with a slight electric crackle. Suddenly, it felt at ease. There was no danger. None whatsoever... The black thing pointed to the tree-line in front of them. Suddenly, the overpowering smell from before returned. Its nostrils filled with the smell of horses, and its mind filled with blood lust. Its muscles rippled in anticipation, and it leapt into the trees, killing on its mind. The black thing opened its mouth in a grin that revealed rows of pointed teeth. The beast would suffice. All it had to do was slow the ponies down. After midday tomorrow,they would not matter. It stepped back out of the cursed sun, into the darkness. ************************************************************************* Applejack shuddered. Being with a dozen other ponies was reassuring, but even that couldn't totally dispel the dread the Everfree Forest inspired in any right-thinking pony. Who knew what sort of horrible things lurked underneath the ancient branches? She and her friends had gone through it before, but they'd known their destination that time, and that had still been a perilous journey. Now they were looking for the metaphorical needle in the haystack. She gulped as she realised that that meant they'd be combing through every inch of the Forest, making it more likely they'd stumble onto something's lair... She shook her head vigorously. It wouldn't do any good to think like that. She had to be strong, or else they might never get Spike back. The group leader shouted to pick up the pace, and she complied. It was then that she heard it. It was a distant sound, but it was grew louder very quickly. It reminded her of thunder, and the drums she'd heard being played sometimes at the Harvest Festival. She wasn't the only one - the rest of the troop heard it too. They just had time to face in the direction of the sound before the treeline erupted in a tide of red fur and snarling mouths. ************************************************************************* Rainbow Dash heard the roars and the shrieks as they rose above the trees. "What the-?" That was all she needed. Those were the screams of ponies. Her friends were down there. They were in danger. Other thoughts disappeared. She beat her wings and began to pick up speed, rushing towards where she thought she'd heard the scream. Steel Shield's irritation rose up again in protest at seeing the cyan pegasus race out of line again. It was quickly squashed, however, when his reason reasserted itself and he realised that he'd heard the roar too, and that she was doing the right thing. He didn't bother with the signal this time, simply yelling: "Sixth Airborne! With me!" With that, he began to fly, following the rainbow streak in the air, his troop following him. ************************************************************************* Gravil ascended the spiral stairs, and undid the lock on the door. He was glad he hadn't forgotten about this one: it lead to the Roost, the large covered platform where the Wyverns stayed when their muscles finally tired. He noticed the inscription on the wall, in crude script - clearly the work of an amateur. "How do you know when a Wyvern is dead? When His Wings stop moving." He grinned. Everyone though of it as a mild insult, except the Wyverns. They didn't see anything wrong with it in the least. He'd only been here once before, and that time the King had been with hmi. He shook himself before sentimentality had the chance to creep up on him. This was not the time for it, not with work yet to be done. He walked out to the ledge, out past the covering. He thought he could make something out in the distance, gradually growing smaller...what was that..? He recognised it - the equine outlines, framed by the unmistakeable silhouettes of feathered wings. Pegasi. He stood upright as he realised exactly what this meant. There were Pegasi over the forest, a group of them. They didn't go anywhere near the Forest without reason. If they were here, it meant they were probably looking for something, and he wouldn't be the least bit surprised if it was him. Right. That meant he needed to seal the doors. Come to think of it, he should probably lock the door to the Roost as well - they didn't have an entire flock of Wyverns to guard it this time. He gazed down at the Forest below for a few more moments. He could feel it - the Staff was still down there. He'd realised yesterday that he'd left it behind, but had resolved himself not to worry about it unduly. It was designed to not remain apart from him for long, amongst its many other powers. He could feel it moving, sense the urgency it felt, how dearly it wanted to return to him. "Be swift, Lak-Da." After completing the blessing, the old wyrm turned his back to the setting sun, and prepared for the tasks that lay ahead.