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// Children of the Night part 1: Night Blade 
// Story: Dragon's Tale: The city of Darkrise 
// by IMN 
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	Before I start, let me tell you a little back story about the children of the night.

After Celestia exiled our princess to the moon, the children of the night were frightened of what their fellow equestrians might do to them, so following the lunar prophecy that says: “On the longest day of the thousand years, a dragon will reach the stars and aid in her escape, and she will bring night time eternal.”

For our fellow Equestrians, the dragon part went missing in their prophesy, but for us it was of extreme relevance, so we went in scores to search for the possible dragon that can bring back our princess, and after twenty years of futile search, we found a possible place where he might be born in; it was non other than the dragon city of Darkrise, however we failed to take into account one crucial thing:

Dragons are crazy.

I don’t necessary mean that in a bad way, dragons are unique in their biology and growth patterns,  they require a “hoard” or preferably called a “treasure” not just for their growth, but for their survival as well; their magic is directly proportionate to the size of their hoard, And because of that, hoarding dominates a huge part of their lives and of their thoughts.

To explain that a little better, there are two examples I could think of at the top of my tongue, the first happened when we moved into Darkrise, we asked a dragon nicknamed ‘the builder’ to build us a small castle on the outskirts of Darkrise.1 So he built us an amazing fortress that could possibly house a million thestral, without taking into consideration that there is only fifty thousand of us. When we voiced our concerns for upholding such large structure, he replied and I’ll quote: "I needed to build something big because I was running low in my hoard, take as much space as you need, I wont blame if the fortress was to rot.” So we lived in the closest tower to the city and let the rest of it ‘rot’.

The other example happened a couple of decades after that, when a ghost hunting dragon moved in to live with us, we told him that this is an extremely new building, and that he will not find any ghosts around here because no one had the chance to die yet, and his reply was: “My hoard consist of hunting ghosts, not finding them. As long as I do my search, I’m quite satisfied with the results, even if I found none.”

So basically, dragons will do anything to increase their hoard.

Which brings us to today’s dilemma.

“Blade would you put that things away,” Wound yelled at her older brother, who had been bragging about his new ‘thing’ ever since we came back, “I need to think and you flashing it in my face isn’t helping.”

“Did little miss Wound get annoyed from my new thing? Although I’m sure I’m not the only one with a bigger hoard this time,” He replied, it still boggles me how easily they know when another have increased his hoard, “So tell me, little sis, is that pipsqueak upstairs your new surgeon doll? Or is he some stray you brought home, because he was injured!?” 

“Blade, if you don’t put that thing away right now, I’m going to carve you up and stuff you like a turkey before dinner,” Wound hissed. Yep she is definitely pissed off at her mistake now.2 

“But I still need to polish it, make sure it’s clean and shiny, presentable at the very least, before I apply a coat of anti-rust to it.” He waved that thing in front of his face then skillfully brought it back to its sheath.

“What is that thing anyway?” I asked reluctant of the answer, though the shimmer of blade edge is definitely a telltale sign.

“Biggie here, is a claymore, a full body sword that I had it tailor made for my size.” He unsheathed it then at lightning speed swung it toward a candle which was blown off then he sheathed it back.

Blade, as you probably have guessed, is a winged, teal dragon with onyx scales on his back; he has a material hoard of swords, and to everyone’s misery, his skills in using these swords are on par with a grand master sword fighter. So using his swords is as important to him as the number of swords he carry.3 

“It looks greeaaat.” Jackal replied in her dreamiest voice ever, did I mention that he is also the most eligible bachelor in Darkrise? No? Well, he is.

“You named your sword?”

“I name all my swords, my sweet Night.” That was a rhetorical question lover boy. Stop batting your eyes in front of me like that, it makes you look annoying. Why do I feel hot all of a sudden?

“Ugh, would you guys please be quiet, I’m trying to think.” Wound finally iterated in frustration.

“Honestly Wound, what is there to think about?” Blade replied nonchalantly, “either Starlight did send you by mistake, which I highly doubt it, then that is his mess to clean as much as it’s yours, or he did send you knowing well what you will do, then he already had everything planned out.”

“Oh, so it’s that easy, huh. What do I tell our parents?4  Hey mom, dad, I brought a new hatchling to town, please take good care of him, oh and don’t worry, he already survived a greed growth, and he is sick from magical overflow poisoning which is preventing him from healing properly.”

“Which is why I said that you should give him to us,” I intervened, hoping to gain a foothold in this argument. “That Garble drake said that he was raised by ponies, I’m sure he’ll feel more comfortable around ponies.”

“I kinda agree with her you know.” Jackal finally snapped out of her trance, “You’re family is craziest dragon family in Darkrise, even if it isn’t Darkrise’s famous Athenaeum. Any other dragon family would do.”

Both dragons looked at us in disbelief for a moment, then, to my irritation, broke into laughter. And yet for some reason I am having the odd sense of deja-vue.

Seeing our annoyed looks, Blade was the first to calm down, “Oh come now, whatever did we do to make you say that?”

And just on cue, a terrifying explosion shook the house.

“That came from upstairs.” Blade and Wound are now on full alert.

But just as they were about to go upstairs, a familiar purple hatchling came stumbling downstairs.

“Help…” But before he could say anymore, Blade had unsheathed his 'Biggie' and is pointing it a hair width away from the baby dragon’s face.

Then with the most terrifying version of his voice Blade roared, “What did you do?”

However Blade didn’t have time to think before a shroud of magic suddenly paralyzed him in place, “Let me go Wound.”

“Not before you put down that sword,” Wound replied.

Spike took the opportunity and ran as fast as he could, then jumped through the window before anyone else had the time to stop him. 

In that instance, a white hatchling jumped from upstairs carrying the golden sword of a shape-shifted fairy, immediately followed by a roar of lightning as the child dragon came rushing down after her.

Then it all happened in a blink of an eye.

Wound let go of her older brother then teleported in front of her lightning wielding sibling, and just as he was about to strike her, she placed a shield in front of him which stopped him dead in his track.

On the other side, the moment Blade felt free, he intercepted his youngest sibling’s blade, which threw her across the other side of the room, shattering the bookcase that was standing there. Frost however, used that momentum to repel herself at top speed toward her oldest brother, and just as she was about to reach him, he brought down the full weight of his claymore on top of her, which she successfully blocked with her own blade, but destroyed the floor beneath her.

“How the buck is that a Normal family behavior to you?!!?!” I screamed at the top of my lung, when all of them seemingly calmed down a bit, realizing that they ended up fighting each other.

“Forget about them, Spike just jumped from the window.” Jackal noted as she headed toward the door, “We need to get to him before he bleeds out.”

But just as she opened the door, she slams it at once. 5 

Everyone looked at her with intrigue.

"Jackal, who was at the door?" I asked almost afraid of the answer, knowing where I am, it could be one dragon out of four others, and none of them are good news.

In an almost frightened voice, Jackal replied, "It's your dad."  





1.  The outskirts of Darkrise are just as dangerous as the Everfree forest.

2. The mistake of bringing Spike to her house.

3. Basically his hoard is swords-drake-ship which is directly related to the number of swords he can use as well as the number of forms he can use them in.

4. Spike needs to live somewhere, does he?

5. I'll be explaining how can a half sized werewolf open the door of a house built for full grown dragons, and how normal ponies can live in a dragon, soon.