Disclaimer: I don't own MLP. If I did then I wouldn't have to write this
Day Four
A day after the Scylla's Lake incident, everydragon in the platoon was doing that day's exercise, which involved drink water from a bowl, while doing push-ups with a blade attached to a board below their stomachs.
"Come on you brats. You've only done a measly 100 so far, so if we're going to be eating dinner tonight, you better have the rest done by sundown. And a quick warning; that knife stick under your belly was dipped in mercury, so unless you wanna get the shits, I suggest you do 'em correctly."
"I'm going to die!"
"Well that sucked." Spike said as Night Stalker sewed up the wound on his stomach, though his gi still remained on his back, hiding his wings or lack thereof "I wonder why you're not writhing in agony like the other drakes that fell on the blade."
"I've drank mercury before, it's a lot less painful after the first ten shots. Thanks for fixing me up again by the way!"
"No thanks needed Scar. I'm a-or at least I want to be a doctor, so I have to treat everyone who gets injured. And besides, you saved my scales from that lake demon yesterday, and according to the dragon code I'm obliged to repay that."
This last tidbit surprised Spike "Hey! I thought I was the one who made that up!". To prove it he breathed fire into his hand to reveal his old card.
"…You spelled half the things on here wrong."
"Well, I was five when I wrote it."Spike chuckled to himself before clutching his stomach where the stitches were sewn "It hurts to laugh."
"Hey I'm impressed you lasted as long as you did. Half those other morons collapsed after 500. You did all thousand! But next time you might wanna fall aside from the blade. It would certainly make my job a lot easier." Night said as he cut the remainder of the thread with his claw "So how was life back in Central Equestria anyways?"
"I was an assistant same as you, except it was to a student. It was great at first, and I even got to make five new friends! But then I started to get forgotten more and more; even on my own birthday. That night we got into an argument, and it ended with me leaving. Then I met someone who told me all about this country and transported me here."
"That bites man. He sounds like a really big jerk to me!" Night said as he shook the trunk of a nearby coconut tree, and cracked it open to drink its milk.
"Actually she was a girl."
"What?! Sh-she's a mare?! Night asked in a surprised tone.
"Yeah. It's not that big a deal, her friends were girls too."
"WHAT! You mean you've been living with six gorgeous mares and you never told me!" Night asked as got up into his friends face.
Spike was slightly nervous of Night's shock, and tried to ease him "Well there's no way I could have brought it up in casual conversation until now!"
"Damn it, I'm so jealous!" Night Stalker got to his knees and began slamming his claws into the dirt.
It was at this point Cobalt flew up to them with a bounty of fish tied to a pole on her back "Hey I got some fish we could cook up and…You should just had to press the girl button, didn't you Scar?"
Later that night the group was hudled around the Crimson fire that night had lit earlier, eating tempura which had glistening garnets engrained in its crust "So you lived with a harem of six mares. Your a real ladies man aren't you?"
*Ahachhach* Harem?" Scar coughed up the tempura he was chewing in response to Cobalt's teasing "They were all just friends is all!…Well maybe I had a crush ONE of them! But that's it!"
Cobalt stopped to think for a moment before saying with a cheerful smile "Yeah you're definitely telling the truth."
"Wait, what?" Scar asked, confused as to why the devious dragoness suddenly withdrew her prodding.
Scout sensed this confusion and pulled out the da go he was chewing to explain it "Cobalt can tell when anydragon lies to her by the way their breathing. So if you really did have a more intimate relationship with any of them she'd rat you out in a millisecond."
"Really? Where'd you learn to do that?" Spike asked curiously to the dark blue dragoness "I never really learned how to do it. It always just sort of came to me naturally since I was a hatchling. Night and Scout have similar abilities."
"Yep, I have night vision like one of the high tech equestrian cameras. I can see anything even in complete pitch black darkness!"
"Really? Sweet Igneel you guys are cool. What can you do Scout?" A curious and wide eyed Spike asked of his camo green friend.
"Oh, it's not as cool as Cobalt or Night's, but…" Scout then began digging at the dirt and mumbling to himself "Let's see here, three beryllium, two aluminum, some silicon and oxygen."
Once he was finished digging through the dirt, held the dirt claw palm up, before clapping his free one onto it. In a flash of light that came from the impact he moved his upper claw away to reveal that a few small emeralds laid in his palms.
After they had somewhat cooled, Silent Scout nonchalantly popped them into his mouth "Not really good for much other than sustaining nutrition."
"Are you kidding me! If I had a power like that, I'd be as big as Celestia's Palace by now." Spike said with amazement, though the last part of his encouragement seemed to put Scout into a bad place.
"Well, he already is that big so there's not much room for comparison there." Night teased, but to his confusion Silent simply got up and went back to his tent without saying a word "Hey I was just kidding you know!"
"It's not that Night, I think Scar might have pressed the Celestia button by accident."
"Wait, what? What did I wrong?!"
"You probably didn't know this, but Scout has a pretty big beef with Celestia and pretty much Equestria in general." Night began to explain "He was raised by a Half breed named Rìshí back in Prance, and he more than likely ended up dead after helping us escape."
"But what does that have to do with the Princess? Or for that matter the rest of Equestria?"
Cobalt seeming genuinely shocked he was clueless of why or how he didn't know, further elaborated "Cause allicorns are the only ones who can actually successfully mate with dragons without it being deformed thanks to their incredible magical power. And guess who his mother was."
The moment this revelation hit him, Scar's mouth dropped so much that it nearly hit the ground. It took him a couple minutes to realize that this was all real and not some insane dream, before he began walking back to his tent, to ponder this news about his foster mother "I'm going to crash for tonight guys. See you in the morning."
"Hey Night, do you ever think that…maybe Rìshí and Amber just got off with a warning? That they're still alive somehow." Cobalt asked while chewing her tempura and staring into the fire.
"That's some wishful thinking for ya'. But I can't really hold it against you, since sometimes I hope that design I found was just a fake. Though I could never hold something so trivial against a beautiful ness like yourself."
"Oh shut up you creep. You already know I love somedragon else."
"You mean Scout; How could I not? Even Scar's started to pick up on it, and he's only known you for five days."
"…Actually, I'm pretty sure that Scar's not even his actual name."
"Wait a second, you mean?"
"Yep, he was lying to the captain about his name and heritage. But we already knew he was just a passerby, so not much surprise on changing his name to sound more igneelese. But there was another physical reaction when we brought up the Rìshí thing."
"Hm, looks like Scar's got a few secrets under his belt too. I guess he must know the Princess somehow; I'd like to know a bit more of just how there related." Night said while rubbing his chin.
However Cobalt sensed a lying reaction and countered "And by that you mean you want to ogle her."
Spike walked into enterance of his tent and found it was a hot mess a normal, still shellshocked by what he had just learned. He found Discord nonchalantly sipping on a lemonade pouch. This angered the confused dragon who proceeded to snap "Why the hay didn't you tell me?!"
"Tell you what, Spikey?" Discord asked back with his normal cheery disposition, as if he was completely oblivious towards Spike's anger with him.
"Gee, I don't know, how about the fact Celestia had a son with a dragon!"
Discord immediately halted his sipping and spat it out into Spike's face before coughing out the rest "What? Celestia had a half breed for a son?"
"Wait, you didn't know?"
"Kid, I've been stone for the past 1,275 years. I didn't even know about Acnologia till Luna told me!"
Scar just sighed when he hear this and collapsed onto his sleeping bag, upset that the situation had no real answers, before attempting to go to sleep. Keyword here being attempting.
That's when a trumpet blared into Spike's ears he jumped up from his sleeping bag with fire spewing from the spines on his head which slightly burned the top of the tent. He snatched the trumpet from Discords hooves and whispered angrily "What is wrong with you? If it weren't for the fact only I can sense you, you'd have woken the entire base."
"I'm bored! I only see once a week thanks to you running off, none of the others like me, the Smooze is on a vacation to Gargoylistan, and Jackie is an omnicidal maniac, and he also, kind of, killed your parents. I crave living interaction. We could play mahjong, or draconic checkers, or tangrams, just something!" Discord raved while poofing the various games into existence.
"Between you and Slovachek, I feel like I'm in a mental hospital. Can't you just clone yourself or some thing? Just because I'm not a hatchling anymore doesn't mean I don't require sleep like a normal functioning organism! Besides I have to spar tomorrow."
"Wait…Spar?! Are you insane! Half of these dragons could rip through you like tissue paper! What if you get the antlered guy. What if you get a good reason to be called Scar! Fluttershy will never forgive me if that happens!"
"You know, the way you always fuss over her, I'd say you like her." Scar teased the nerve wracked Discord.
"Well of course I like her. She's my friend, and my only one at that." Discord said, not understanding his implication.
"Not that kind of like."
When what he meant by this hit him, Discord quickly changed the subject "Well it's not like your going to win this anyways."
"Heheh, you totally just changed the subject. You do like her don't you!" Spike continued to tease Discord, who was blushing like mad.
He pulled the horns off his head and stuck them into his ear canals to block out the pressing. Now Spike knew he had Discord right where he wanted him "So when are you going to ask her out?"
"Can it Scarface!
"No need to be rude. Part of me thinks you two'd make a cute couple. You gonna propose? You gonna have kids?"
"Your Pinkie Pie is showing."
"How would that even work anyways. I mean your so old and she's barely into her twenties." Scar continued his erratic teasing (which came partially from revenge) till Discord had enough.
"That's it! Two can play at that game Scarface!" Discord yelled at him before slinking up to Spike's ear "Sexy body, killer personality, beautiful sky blue scales, shiny and wavy spines. Who does that remind you of."
The image of Glamour popped into Spike's head and his muscles tightened up. Normally he would just blush for a bit and shake it off, as there was no denying he had somewhat of a crush on her. But that was with Rarity. That was when he was a hatchling. That was before he met dragoness.
It was at this point fire began spewing a short distance from his ears. Unsurprisingly this caused Discord to start laughing aloud "Oh, hehe, oh boy.HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Maybe you could marry her she you get back. Assuming you don't lose our bet!"
Scar merely crossed his arms and grumbled "At least I don't keep dirty magazines I her house."
This comment caused to Discord to immediately stop laughing and begin seething with rage, before he magically changed into a boxer's outfit "Oh it is on Spikey-Wikey!"
"Don't you ever call me that!" Spike yelled back as flames covered his body.
The continued to fight for the rest of the night, until finally passing out from exhaustion. But while that was occurring, a much lesser humorous event was taking place in Equestria.
A gray coated unicorn with her white mane tied up into a bun walked through the slums of Baltimare. Multiple ponies gave her dirty looks as she trotted down the street up to a certain building called Black Diamond's that appeared to be in much better condition than any of the others.
She walked in to a spiel of taxidermied ponies and other creatures such as bears, Tigers, griffons, hydras and manticore. All where stuffed into rows leading up to a desk where a stallion with a slicked backed mane that pointed at the ends. He had brown fur and a leather jacket, with a fedora that had teeth tied around the rim and corks hanging from the bottom.
"'Ello girlie. What brings you to my humble abode." The stallion asked in a Austallion accent.
"I'd prefer you call me by my given name, Thesari. Serial killer and poacher, Black the Ripper. But in truth you are known as Black Diamond in Equestria's criminal underworld." Thesari stated to the unicorn who began growing a bloodthirsty grin on his face.
"You've terrorized Trottingham, Manehatten, Dodge, and now Baltimare either by killing ponies or their pets and adding them to your collection of creatures. But to this day nopony knows of your true identity besides a select few."
"Yes'm, that 'ould be correct. No what business do you have here?"
"I noticed you don't have a dragon in your collection. My master needs a certain dragon to die before he becomes to big a threat."
"Hehheh, I like the way you think. There's one thing I like more than cider and mares, and that's killing. But where can I find this dragon?"
"His current whereabouts are unknown to us at the moment. But I know of a few places where you can gather information on him." Thesari used her horn to pull out a map and set it on the desk. The names of three locations were circled on the map.
Crystal Empire
Canterlot
Ponyville