Stout Lance was an earth pony mercenary, formerly a knight under Princess Platinum, who thought his ruler foolish to travel to a new land.

He was a corrupt, greedy individual, who often killed those he allied with so he would get all the money for himself. His most infamous deed was the slaying of an innocent Swamp Dragon, for which he gained a nearly-abandoned kingdom, a meager amount of gold, and a horrifying shrew of a wife.

The swamp dragon himself was avenged when Stout Lance's kingdom was burned to the ground by a force led by the Dragon Lord of the Far West of the time, Balerion, leaving only Stout Lance and his son alive, but killing Stout Lance's wife.

There was much rejoicing by the survivors because of this fact.

However, Stout Lance could not overlook the insult he seemingly suffered, and vowed to avenge his ill-gotten wealth.

Hear me, you great fiery newts! Don't think that just because you burned that bitch I'll let you off easily! You took all the treasure I stole, murdered, and cheated to get! I'll hunt you all down if it's the last thing I do!

From Stout Lance and his son emerged an order of dragon slayers dedicated to obtaining wealth, whether by claiming a dragon's treasure or carving up dragon corpses and selling their body parts, as the official anthem of the Order declares.

Of course, they very rarely actually killed dragons, unless they got lucky, and most of the time they could only find work by staging incidents to make it seem as though a dragon was attacking (burning crops, stealing livestock, mutilating townsfolk...).

The dragons, for their part, found the Order... irritating, to say the least. When an actual dragon slaying did occur, they were quick to seek retribution, as the victims in these cases were almost always immature or sick dragons.

With a rise in understanding and various treaties being signed, the Order has had slim pickings, and has for the most part now turned to poaching non-sapient dragon species, as well as creatures closely related to dragons. This is still illegal, but with the centuries they have become harder to track.

Nonetheless, the Order still dreams of fulfilling their founder's oath, and their prime target is the Dragon Emperor himself, Ancalagon the Black.

The current skull count in Carcosa's "Hall of Fools" is in the thousands, a testament to the members of the Order who have tried and failed to slay dragon leaders across the world. Each skull is carefully cleaned before being sent to Carcosa for placement within the Hall.

.....you should tell Twilight and Ember about this. Spike is only a baby dragon.

6197717 He's aware, Ember's aware, they're a minor concern

also he's 12 years old in the show or thereabouts

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Compared to how long dragons live, 12 is a baby.

6198753 fair enough

also, baby dragons are called piplings!

Where is that song from? I could have sworn I've heard it somewhere...

6200517 Part of the song "Every Little Piece" from the original Pete's Dragon

6200517