The Puppetmaster

by XSomeGuyX

At the Top...

Night had again fallen upon the small town of Ponyville, its residents all asleep. However, one pony still stirred around the silent streets. With a slow stride and toothy grin, he made his way over to the town’s library. He had kept his word from earlier in the day and returned to now empty, hollowed out oak tree. The smirk he carried momentarily disappeared as he jiggled the doorknob only to find it locked.

“Not as naive as you seem, ‘Princess,’” he whispered to himself. With a small kick, he flipped the “Welcome” mat in front of the door, revealing a hidden key. “But you’re still oh so predictable.”

Wasting no time, he unlocked the door and entered the library. His eyes strained to spot anything in the low light of the moon. With a grunt, he produced a small lantern from his saddlebag. He had waited out every pony that was still wandering about at night, but his paranoia still lingered. It would only take a single pony to spot him, then his plans would be compromised. But with so little light filtering in from the windows, his work would be slow going and he could not risk coming back the following night.

As he struck a match to his lantern, his gaze immediately glued itself to the glass case in the middle of the room. An ornate tiara surrounded by five small necklaces sat inside, glinting brightly by the light of his lantern.

“You made this far too easy. I had expected to find something, but the Elements of Harmony unguarded?” he thought aloud, stifling a laugh. As he examined it, he found a large padlock securely locking the case. “If it means collecting the Elements, the risk is well worth the reward.”

He stood up on his hindlegs and gave the case a large stomp, only to rebound against it and fall onto his side. With a defiant snort, he stood up and this time gave the case a strong kick from his hindlegs. Yet again, the force only rebounded, hurling him onto his back. He stood again and growled at the case, bearing his teeth.

“Reinforced with magic. I won’t be able to break through,” he concluded. “Finding the key is the only way, then. They weren’t the only reason I came, anyways.”

He trotted over to a very busy-looking desk, stacked with books and letters alike. He opened one of the books and found a compilation of memos and notes. Another was what seemed to be a schedule. Yet another was a daily journal. His mouth slowly curled back into a smile.

“With this much information, I’ll have you figured out within a few hours, ‘Princess,’” the stallion said as his eyes quickly scanned the pages of each book he opened.

After hours of endless research, the stallion hurled the book he held across the room. With an extreme vigor, he flipped through the countless pages of each book and scroll sitting on the desk. However, his pace slowed and his expression grew sour with each he finished. After what seemed to him like hundredth book of spa trips and tea parties with her friends, he angrily swept his hoof across the desk, clearing of all the materials he had been reading.

“WHERE IS IT!?” he nearly yelled. “All these books filled with useless lessons of ‘friendship’ and she doesn’t bother to write down the location of the key! Is this really the student that Celestia chose as her protegé? This has to be some sick joke.”

After so long a time, his lantern was nearly out of oil and its fire waned with every little breath of wind that passed through. It would not be a problem for long, as dawn was close at hoof. His patience wore out and he cleared the desk, pulling its drawers out in a desperate search for the key. After finding nothing, he continued his search in the upstairs bedroom. But again, he found nothing but pictures and keepsakes from residents and their friends.

“I will not leave empty-hoofed. Not when I’m so close! When will I ever get a chance like this again!?” he exclaimed, pressing his hooves into the glass case, as if by some miracle they would sink through. As he stared into the glass, he saw the very tip of the rising sun appear from over the horizon. “NO! Just a little more time!”

Just as he was about to cut his losses and gather his belongings, the reflection of a previously shadowy picture began to reveal itself on the glass. The picture was of course a large portrait the six bearers of the elements and the dragon assistant. The stallion could not help but laugh at himself.

“How could I miss such an obvious hiding place? Who would the ‘Princess of Friendship’ trust to protect the key more than her friends?” he asked himself as he approached the portrait.

Flinging it out of the way, he found a small crevice in the wall behind with a key hiding inside. He quickly grabbed the key and ran to the lock on the glass case. With a satisfying click, the padlock unlocked and he opened the case. The elements pulsated in a small, frantic light before dimming down. In one swift motion, he gathered all the magical accessories and stowed them away in his saddlebags.

“Why give up such a good opportunity?” he asked as he reorganized all of the library as it had been when he had entered. He even went so far as to replace the lock on the case, leaving the scene exactly how he had found it minus the Elements of Harmony. “Just one step closer. There’s still so much to do, but these will definitely jump start my plans. Let’s see how well your student does, Celestia,” he said to himself, giving a toothy grin as he stared at the legendary artifacts in his bags.

The stallion strolled out of the library, locking the door behind him and replacing the hidden key back under its mat.

---

In the northern mountain, each of the bearers of the elements suddenly jerked awake from their slumber in a visible sweat.

“Hmm…?” a turquoise unicorn said from a desk. “You should really sleep. I know that you came all this way to ask me your questions, but you must be exhausted. Of course, you’re free to help with my notes if you want to stay up.”

The mares did not answer him, they instead simply looked at one another under the dim light of the fireplace. Each looked disheveled and wide-eyed, as if woken from a nightmare. Though each ground their teeth, all lied back down, tossing and turning for what seemed like an eternity before finally falling back to sleep. All except Twilight Sparkle. Try as she might, she could not find any comfort in her makeshift bed anymore. As quietly as she could, she got onto her hooves and headed to the unicorn who was attentively reading and writing on page after page, adding to the mountain of notebooks by his desk.

“Umm… Professor Tall Tale?” Twilight asked in a weak whisper.

“Princess?” He nodded with a wide smile. “I was really just joking. But you really should get back to sleep. Even Cloud Slider was exhausted and he makes this same trip once a month.”

“I can’t, but I thought I could ask you a few things,” Twilight said, frowning a bit. “Not about the dragons. Spike should probably hear about them with me, but some… other things.”

“Well, they do say that Princess Celestia knows more from age than from being a princess or alicorn, Princess,” he replied, rubbing his white mane and small, triangular beard. “What can this old codger do for you?”

“First, I wanted to know a little bit more about Cloud Slider,” Twilight said. “He seems a little—”

“Distant? I got that impression when I first met him too,” the Professor interrupted. “I don’t know too much about him, but he isn’t a ‘bad’ pony. He’s one hay of a listener. He’s the only one of the couriers that even bothers to listen to my little rants when they come to deliver my supplies. What’s the point of research if you can’t share the knowledge you obtain from it? I can already tell that some of my colleagues from Celestia’s School would definitely answer ‘knowledge for knowledge’s sake...’”

“Ahem, Professor?” Twilight cleared her throat.

“Oh yes, sorry. I often like to go off on a tangent. Don’t feel bad about trying to get me back on track!” He laughed quietly. “Where was I? Ah, yes! Cloud Slider is very… strange. While he’s usually mild, he doesn’t get along with the other couriers too well. They don’t seem to talk to him too much. The first time they delivered the supplies, they claimed that he almost left some of them behind when they had frozen their hindlegs trying to clear the clouds above the mountains.”

“He really did that?” Twilight said in disbelief as she looked back at the sleeping courier.

“I can’t say for sure. That is what they had told me. He wouldn’t give me his side of the story,” the Professor said with a heavy sigh. “But it might not have been as clear cut as the other couriers made it seem. With so much snow, an unfamiliar route, a large wagon full of supplies, AND some incapacitated ponies, it might not have been very easy to handle that all himself. You’re going to have to ask him the rest yourself. Don’t judge him too harshly from what I told you, Princess. He doesn’t really seem like a bad pony. He is certainly dedicated to his work, always making the trip up here without fail. But, as you can see, he doesn’t always have the easiest of times. Was there something else you wanted to talk about?”

“There was something about Spike, but it’s a little personal…” Twilight said as she looked to the dragon resting near Rarity.

“The dragon? I was pretty surprised to see him, almost as much as when I saw you,” he answered. “I don’t get too many visitors up here, aside from the couriers. I always dream to get a nice, ‘mature’ mare knocking on my door, but that’s a little too much to ask, huh? A stallion can always dream!” he said as he subconsciously drew a picture of an older mare on his notes, only to quickly scratch it out. “I’m getting sidetracked again. If you don’t feel comfortable asking about it, I won’t pry.”

“You see, umm… he has feelings for a pony and uh… he’s too big right now. Some sort of plant aged him,” Twilight said, awkwardly trying to avoid names to keep the dragon’s “secret.” “That’s the reason we came to see you. I couldn’t get him back to his real age. But if I return him to normal, he’ll be too small. And he wanted to be his normal age, so he doesn’t have to leave us, especially her. And I just don’t know…”

“You’ve kept this pent quite a while, haven’t you?” the Professor asked with a reassuring smile. “You could have asked Princess Celestia. I’m sure you have access to her like that, but now you’re asking me?”

“I didn’t want her to think that I couldn’t handle something like this on my own, now that I’m a princess. Especially since she told me that I’d have to rule over Equestria in her place someday,” Twilight said, a light red blush taking over her otherwise purple cheeks. “But… I’m not sure what to do anymore. I was hoping by the time I met you and found out how to return him to his normal age, I would have figured it out. But here we are and I still don’t know how to help Spike. Spike doesn’t really want to go back to normal. He realized he could never actually confess to Rarity as a baby dragon, but he knows that he can’t stay with us if he gets any bigger and more… dangerous.” Twilight quickly covered her mouth with a hoof, realizing she just had used names.

“Rarity? Is she that white unicorn he’s sleeping next to?” the Professor asked, glancing over to the sleeping couple. “I can’t say that I’ve ever heard of such a star-crossed love story, but we can’t help who we fall for, can we? So… he was aged. Do you know how far?”

“No,” Twilight answered, shaking her hanging head. “We took him to Zecora, a zebra that knows a lot about strange stuff, but even she couldn’t exactly place him in years.”

“Hmm…” he hummed as he closed his eyes and stroked his beard. “Now, since you don’t know how far he was aged, why did you think you should revert him all the way?”

“What do you mean?” Twilight said, lifting her head.

“You’re only seeing two options: Either keep him the way he is and lose him soon, or return to his infant state and crush his heart. You’re not seeing the in-between, Princess,” he answered as he set two of his books at opposite ends of his desk, moving his hoof between the two. “If I had to guess, I’d place him somewhere around 200 years of age.”

“200 YEARS!?” she exclaimed with wide eyes.

“Shh… quiet now, Princess,” he said with a hoof to his lips. “Your friends are still asleep.” He glanced over at the sleeping group. “Anyways, he hasn’t sprouted his wings, which all matured dragons have. Matured dragons are usually between the ages of 300-700 years. So I can only say for sure that he’s less than 300 years in age. The only problem is… I’m not sure how far back you should age him. I haven’t been able to see the age that a dragon would be pony-sized. All the information I get are estimates.”

“Pony-sized? You mean there’s an age where Spike would be the size of a grown pony!?” Twilight said excitedly.

“Yes, and he should remain that way for quite some time,” the Professor said, nodding ecstatically. “In exchange for their longevity, dragons both age and mature much slower than most other species and breed even slower. Along with that, very few female dragons are born every mating season for them. That’s why you don’t see them just dominating and claiming all the territory in Equestria.”

“Uh… Professor,” Twilight interrupted his rant once again.

“Sorry, sorry. Anyways, I can’t help you completely. I never thought to ask the sizes of each stage of maturity, but if you go and see the elder dragon… she might be able to give you an exact age to shoot for,” the Professor said with a wide smile.

“Thank you, thank you!” Twilight said with a new light in her eyes. “You have no idea how much this means, especially to Spike. But, wait, we’re going to talk to the ‘elder dragon?’”

“It’ll mean extending your stay for possibly another day, but yes, you’ll go and talk to the elder dragon tomorrow. She is the closest thing to a ‘leader’ dragons have. She is a frost dragon, along with the rest of her clan, and she commands the respect of all of the dragons inhabiting the mountains for her age and wisdom. She lives much higher up, near the peak of the mountain,” the Professor said, nose turned up. “Of course, I’ll guide you there. Not even Cloud Slider has been that far up the mountain. Don’t worry, though. She is very tame and patient. It takes a lot for her to lose her cool. Pun definitely intended.

“For now, you should really head to bed, Princess,” the Professor said, turning back to his work. “You have a very long day ahead of you.”

“Of course,” Twilight said as she bowed to him, “and thank you again.”

“Please, it’s a little embarrassing for a princess to bow to me,” the Professor laughed quietly. “Also, don’t thank me just yet. There is still one problem with this whole situation that I think is best saved for when everyone is awake.”

With a bright, new smile on her face, the purple unicorn returned to her bed and rested her head on the pillow. Slowly, the warm light of the fireplace disappeared as her heavy eyelids were finally allowed to fall.

---

“Twilight... Twilight...” Twilight heard a distant sounding voice say. “Twilight!”

The young alicorn’s eyes fluttered opened to see the slit-like pupils of her dragon assistant. With a small yawn, she lifted herself from her bed. She saw that everypony was already awake, most of them seated at an unfamiliar, long table having breakfast. However, a quick scan of the room revealed that one pony was missing.

“Spike,” Twilight said, rubbing her eyes, “where’s Rarity?”

“That’s kinda why I woke you up…” Spike answered as his eyes pointed towards one of the beds. “She won’t come out no matter what I do. She told me to call you over.”

Following his gaze, Twilight saw a large lump under a blanket. She got off her bed with a bit of a wobble and walked over to the lump. Prodding it, she asked, “Rarity?”

Within the blink of an eye, a hoof grabbed her and pulled under the blanket as well. Under the dim light of a unicorn horn, Rarity looked desperately at Twilight. “Twilight!” Rarity said, grabbing hold of both of her friend’s shoulders. “Thank goodness! I need you conjure me up a brush! You can manage that, can’t you, Twilight? PLEASE!”

“Uh… sure,” Twilight said, charging up her own horn. With a brilliant light, a brush instantly appeared and fell onto the bed.

“Thank you so much!” Rarity said as she took hold of the brush with her magic, rapidly brushing her messy mane. “You are truly the Princess of Friendship! I woke up with the worst case of bedhead!”

“But… we are all friends here, Rarity,” Twilight said, reaching for the covers. “I don’t think anypony would care about your mane...”

“NOOOO! I just can’t let him see me like this!” Rarity yelled as she grabbed hold of the alicorn’s hooves. “I mean… Please, I wouldn’t want to make a bad impression on Professor Tall Tale. Especially after the condition we arrived in yesterday.”

“Oookay…” Twilight said, lowering her hooves. She waited patiently under the covers as her friend styled her mane back to perfection. “This is all for Professor Tall Tale, huh?”

“No… I mean, yes…” Rarity said, a light pink blush overtaking her cheeks. “I mean, let’s eat breakfast! I’m absolutely famished!”

Before Twilight could protest, her stomach growled from the smell of freshly-cooked pancakes. With a flourish, Rarity threw off the covers, freeing her captive friend. They walked over to the table and joined the rest of their group.

Spike on the floor next to the table, being too small to accommodate his new size, but he kept his tail on the chair closest to the edge of the table, only removing it as Rarity approached. Though most of the table all appreciated each others’ company, Rainbow Dash and Cloud Slider shot one another daggers from across the table. With a sigh, Twilight sat down.

The professor quickly greeted her with a plate of pancakes. “Good morning, Princess,” he said with a bright smile.

“Mornin’, Twilight,” Applejack said as she took the seat next to her. It was obvious that she had been helping the Professor with all the cooking with her fur covered in flour. “Professor, I’ve been wonderin’. It ain’t got nothing to do with what we can here fer, but this place seems a lot smaller from the outside.”

“Ah, yes,” the older stallion said, sitting down at the table as well. “That is because I enchanted it with—”

“An Impossible Space Spell?” Twilight asked.

“Yes, very observant, Princess. I expect no less from Princess Celestia’s prized pupil!” the Professor answered.

“I thought those types of spells were too difficult for most unicorns,” Twilight said, taking a bite of her meal.

“They don’t let just anypony become a professor at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, you know?” the Professor replied, resting his chin on his hoof and letting his eyes wander onto the ceiling. “I still remember my school days. Back then, we had a wonderful Mythical Creatures Professor. Most of us colts took all her classes for…” he paused to clear his throat, “obvious reasons… But I do thank her for helping me find my passion in the field. I ended up taking her place as chair of the Mythical Creatures department at the school when she finally retired.”

“I’m sorry to interrupt, Professor,” Twilight spoke up. “But we are all here now. And I think we’re ready.”

“Ah! Yes!” the Professor said, perking up. “Well, after the Princess briefed me on your little situation, I did offer her an idea. You are all going to come with me to meet the elder dragon. She can give you any information you can possibly want on dragons. But there is one obstacle that I know will prove to be a bit problematic.”

The Professor got off his seat and walked over to Spike. “As you have probably experienced, a dragon is much sturdier than anypony. Even the scales of hatchlings are stronger than stone. However, the scales merely provide a physical defense for dragons,” the Professor explained, giving Spike’s scales a small knock with his hooves. “But the most remarkable defense a dragon has is its hide. Its hide provides a natural defense against all types of magic. As it matures, a dragon’s hide grows thicker and more resistant to magic. As adults, they are virtually invulnerable to nearly all magic.”

“So that’s why my magic wasn’t working!” Twilight exclaimed.

“Yes.” He nodded. “Although he isn’t fully grown, our dragon here has grown quite a bit. His hide is undoubtedly very resistant to magic. If your own alicorn magic wasn’t enough to penetrate his defenses, then I’m not sure if it actually possible to use an age reversing spell on him.”

For a moment, the room fell deathly silent. Finally after what felt like an eternity, Twilight spoke, “But… what if… What if I could amplify my magic?”

“I suppose if somehow manage to strengthen your magic, it may be possible,” the Professor said, rubbing his chin. “But no pony can boost their magic so easily or quickly.”

“What if I used… a magical object?” Twilight said, earning her a few concerned looks from her friends.

“Twilight, ya ain’t thinkin’ about what I think yer thinkin’?” Applejack asked.

“There must be another way, darling,” Rarity said, pursing her lips. “You don’t need make such a hasty decision.”

“Rarity’s right, Twilight,” Spike agreed. “I can wait.”

“For how long, Spike!?” Twilight said, slamming her hooves on the table. “Do you really think you could wait a couple of years while I train? All the while, you become more and more resistant to magic.”

“Decades,” the Professor corrected, his eyes closed. “It would take decades to see a significant increase in the strength of your magic. And that’s only if you concentrate solely on increasing its power, rather than learning new spells.”

“See, Spike!?” Twilight said, pointing at the stallion next to him. “By the time I get strong enough, it’ll be way too late. I can handle it. I promise.”

“What magical object are you talking about exactly, Princess?” the Professor asked.

“A while back, a pony we met before, a unicorn named Trixie, managed to get her hooves on an amulet that amplifies the wearer’s magic,” Twilight said somberly. “But it has a cost. It corrupts the wearer the more power he or she draws from the amulet.”

“Ah, I remember coming across something like that in a book in the library of Celestia’s School,” the Professor said, nodding.

“It’s called the Alicorn Amulet,” Twilight deadpanned. “After what I saw with Trixie, how much it strengthened her magic, I know that I’ll be able to use it to use the age spell on Spike.”

“Well, that seems like a decision only you can make, Princess,” the Professor replied. “I won’t lie. Magical objects aren’t exactly my forté. But before you decide on anything, perhaps you should first speak with the elder dragon. She perhaps has some advice on your predicament. She may even rival Princess Celestia in wisdom.”

---

“How far to the top, Professor Tall Tale?” Twilight asked as the last of her friends exited the lone cabin in the frozen wilderness.

“It could be a while,” he replied as he threw the hood of his parka over his head. “Feel free to ask me any questions as we ascend. While I’m still learning about them, I gathered worlds of information from the elder dragon. I’d be happy to answer any question you or your friends have.”

“Well, I would like to know why you decided to come and study frost dragons,” Twilight said.

“Oh, there isn’t too much to it!” the Professor said as he continued up a noticeably beaten path of packed snow. “One day, a promising student, perhaps my future replacement, asked me during our discussion on the wyvern, a large, menacing creature that was said to be very dragon-like, ‘What about actual dragons?’” He paused briefly, scratching his head as if reenacting his reaction that day. “Embarrassingly enough, I had very little to answer her question with. I told her about some of the myths and stories about dragons I had read. She seemed… less than satisfied.

“After my lecture, I tried my best to find any information to give my student a better answer, to no avail. I found myself feeling a little ashamed for being so oblivious to such a huge hole in my field of study. That is when I decided I was going to be the one to fill that gap in knowledge,” he said, again taking a pause to determinedly strike his hoof on the ground. “I took a sabbatical from my job at Celestia’s School to observe and document dragons. To be honest with you, Princess. I did not know about frost dragons at all. I had first attempted to follow the migratory dragons, but it proved… a bit more dangerous than I expected.” Yet again, he paused as he opened his coat to reveal a blanched, hairless spot on his underside.

“So how did you find out about the frost dragons?” Twilight asked.

“Well, through some less than reliable sources…” the Professor said, letting out a nervous giggle.

“Rumors, you mean?” Rainbow Dash said with half-lidded eyes and a pout.

“I like to think of them ‘traveller’s tales’…” he replied, climbing up a small ridge, “but yes, I guess you can call them that. As you might know, there were attempts to expand into the Frozen North prior to the re-emergence of the Crystal Empire. Some of the workers talked about seeing shadowy silhouettes of dragon-like creatures occasionally flying around in the distance. They never were attacked or even disturbed by them. I found those claims both a little curious and promising. If these were docile dragons, perhaps they’d be willing to let me study them. So, I joined a workers’ caravan to the Frozen North, simply to see if there any truth to these rumors.

“When I first reached the small outpost out here, I found nothing to them,” the Professor said with a heavy sigh. “I was disappointed, to say the least. The night before I planned to leave, I saw something amazing. I was awoken by a commotion outside. A pack of about five rather large dragons were high above our camp. They were not threatening us or planning an attack. They simply… began to breath this sort of blue mist from their mouths, almost like an icy fire. They all concentrated their breath into a single spot in the cloudy sky. It was truly a sight to see. After only a few minutes, the clouds grew thicker and grayer. Later, I was told by the elder dragon that this ritual was done to keep the Frozen North, well, frozen. Just as we do, the frost dragons also manipulate the weather of their environment, but in their case, they like to keep their habit nice and cold. As they finished, I saw them return to a single specific mountain.” He paused as he gestured to the mountain they were on.

“I could not hold in my excitement,” he continued, his voice growing louder. “That very night, I left the Frozen North and returned only a few days later with the supplies and help I needed to make a settlement deeper into the wilderness…”

As the Professor continued his rant, describing in excruciating detail how he found each member for his expedition, Twilight turned her attention to the extra member of their little group. “Umm… Cloud Slider, mind if I ask you something?” she asked in a whisper.

“Yeah, he’s always like this,” he answered prematurely.

“Oh no, not about that,” Twilight said. “It’s about your first trip up here. Somepony told me that you left some of the other couriers behind. That isn’t true, is it?”

Just as she finished her question, Cloud Slider’s entire body stiffened and he stopped in his tracks. “Wh-who t-t-told you a-about that?” he said in a shaky voice, swallowing hard.

“But it’s not true, right?” she asked again.

“It was the other couriers, wasn’t it?” he said.

“So… you did…” Twilight replied sadly.

“It isn’t like it sounds, Princess,” he whispered, looking away from Twilight. “But, if you want the short answer; yes, I did.”

Before Twilight could question further, the Professor slowed his pace and raised his voice. “As we reached what seemed like a satisfying height on the mountain I had seen the dragons return to, we constructed the cabin and I began looking for these dragons that I saw, and eventually…” the Professor said, stopping in front of the mouth of a very large cave, “I stumbled upon this cave. Inside,” he paused again, smiling widely, “I was greeted by the elder dragon. The wise Sapphire.”

Comments

[Hillbe]

What is it Rarity need another hair brush?
No Twilight but I found out about Spikes maturity. . .
Great! How old is he?
Old enough to make babies!
Wut!

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