Dragon Quarry

by Mimkage

Ch 12: Breaking Clouds

Spike swung side to side, his chin resting in the palm of his claws, as Punchin carried him down the road. He had given up fighting, just swinging there and letting the older dragon carry him around with an annoyed look. Walking through town he noticed the other dragons act warry of him, giving him cautious stares as he passed them. Then again who could blame them? Considering Sard’s reaction to him it seemed the entire village was on guard with it came to him.

Well almost the entire village at least.

“Spike!” A familiar voice rung in Spike’s ears, making him peer towards it only to find Splinter dashing towards him at high speed. Instantly, the tiny, orange, dragon jumped at Spike, pulling him from Punchin’s grasp and rolling onto a bed of moss with a happy giggle. This startled Punchin, making her give him a stink eye.

“Splinter!? Don’t do that!” Splinter just ignored her screeching, clinging onto Spike in delighted laughter. Little tears gathered in his eyes as he laughed, his laugh being that of relief. Spike, seeing him on the verge of sobbing, offered comfort to the little guy, petting him with an uncomfortable look on his face.

“H-hey Splint, What’s wrong? Common man, don’t cry…” Crush soon caught up, standing next to Punchin. She let out a sigh of relief, looking down at the two children.

“Splinter, honey, please don’t pounce of dragons like that. You can accidentally hurt them, sweetie.” She said, lowering her head down to the pair. Sniffling, Splinter let Spike go and wipes his eyes. He had a hard time speaking over his hicks and tears so Crush chimed in further.

“There, there sweetie, it’s alright.” She brushes her head against him, comforting her child as she continued to speak. “Forgive him Spike, we were worried sick about you since you left with Father. It’s such a relief to see you’re okay.” Splinter simply nodded, his eyes slightly red from crying and, while it was often very hard to see what Crush’s emotions were, it was clear by the tone of her voice she was happy to see him in one piece.

Knowing that these two worried about him so much brought a smile to Spike’s face, making him scratch the back of his head.

“W-well I’m sorry about worrying you. I’m okay, really.” He stood, walking over to Splinter to pat his back. This seemed to cheer the little dragon up, making him hug Spike again.

“Why did Father act like that? Did you do something to make him mad?” He asked, curious, only to have Punchin interpret.

“It’s a bit of a long story, Splint. I’ll give ya the low down later.” It’s then an idea comes to mind. “Hey, ya know what? Why don’t cha spend some time with Crush and Splint Spike? I gotta go check in with something and be back in like an hour or two.” She didn’t give him much of a chance to respond as she just pats his head and runs off. Spike barely manages to get of a “Hey!” before watching her vanish among the moss covered buildings.

“Is she always like that?” He asks, letting out a heavy sigh. Crush lifts her head, watching her storm off with a light growl.

“Punchin has always been quite... energetic… She doesn’t like taking no for an answer. But she means well, the young tyke. Anyways, it seems she’s left you with us. We were just about to head home for dinner, would you like to join us?” That offer seemed to make Splinter light up, staring at Spike with a begging look that Spike couldn’t possibly refuse. So, he smiled, nodding happily.

“Yeah!”

Meanwhile, back on the surface, Twilight and the rest of her group sit in one of the quarry houses that somehow remained mostly intact with the exception of a sizable hole in the roof. Most of them laid on the ground as the beds and other furniture were completely dust ridden and unstable. Night was fast approaching and, considering the day they had, it wasn’t a bad idea to get some rest before pressing on.

Twilight simply laid her head on her legs, staring at the wall with her ears lowered and a look of worry on her face. The others remained silent, sitting in a circle. Celestia and Luna wore a face of guilt and sadness, both looking down at the ground in shame.

“Princess Celestia, why didn’t you ever tell Spike about this? I understand why you had to take him but… something like this. Why would you hide this?” Asked Twilight, avoiding looking in Celestia’s direction. The question made her sigh, looking to the side as she spoke.

“I had intended to tell him someday. Preferably when he was older and could understand everything better. The actions of Sombra and our failure to save this place, to this day, remains to be one of mine and Luna’s biggest regrets. We didn’t want to let Spike know of how horribly we failed them, his dragons, Jade, our friends. Yes, it was selfish of us to keep that from him that I couldn’t bring myself to tell him for the guilt was too much to bare.” She bit her bottom lip, her eyes gluing shut as she tried to contain herself.

“Maybe if we had told him we wouldn’t be in this mess now. What must the dragons think of us now? Maybe if I had just…” In that moment Luna interrupted her, putting her hoof on her shoulder to quail her sister.

“It is not your fault, sister. It is I who is to blame.” This perked Twilght’s curiosity, her head lifting to look at Luna.

“What do you mean?” She asked, looking at Luna as she finally took her turn.

“After the events of the Empire and the Quarry some things went wrong. Without them we had to find ways to adjust without them which already provided distraction on top of… me turning into Nightmare Moon.” Silence gripped the room, leaving the wind to fill it for a long while before Luna began to speak again.

“With me gone, Celestia had to maintain Equestia on her own. She struggled so, trying to keep our kingdom from collapsing. As a result, she couldn’t come back here, she was simply too busy.”

“It is not your fault sister; we are both to blame. We have a chance now to hopefully remedy our mistakes, assuming the dragons are willing to heed us after all these years.” Celestia interjected, ensuring Luna did not completely blame herself. The group just remained silent, deep in thought after that.

Twilight, trying to process all this, looked up through the hole in the roof and noticed something rarely seen in the Arctic North.

“Oh wow.” She said, prompting the rest of them to look up. The clouds above the quarry had broken, revealing the beautiful, star lite sky sparkling in all its glory being hugged by a ray of color. An Aurora had formed, allowing strokes of green, yellow, red and blue stretch across the sky like a painting. Everypony just stared up in awe, admiring the view before them. Somehow, this brought a sense of hope to the group. A small smile spread across Twilight’s face and, while her face still had a worried look to it, seemed to be more assured. Cadence, who has been watching Twilight this entire time, smiled to see her sister-in-law finally relax a bit.

“It’s late, we should get some rest. Tomorrow, we find Spike.” Said the pink Alicorn, the others nod in agreement. Soon all of them were comfortable and calm, sleep finding them in the night.

Back in the Quarry, Spike sat in Crush’s and Splinter’s cave house, shoving down a bunch of gemstones down his throat. Considering all the things that happened today, he didn’t have much of a chance to eat anything, so having a nice meal seem to do him some good. Splinter was already asleep, sucking on a large, yellow, gem as he laid on a stone carved into a couch.

Crush picked him up, placing him gently in a small nest rested on an outcropping with a blanket and a pillow. After tucking him in and rubbing her head gently against him she finally shifted her attention over to Spike who had just finished his food.

“Do you want some more?” she asked, laying on a rug she had next to her stone carved table. In response, Spike burps, licking the gem dust off his claws.

“No, I’m stuffed. Thanks though.” He said, patting his stomach. Now that Splinter was asleep it seemed Crush was no longer concerned about being silent about her thoughts as she asked him a question she had on her mind for a while.

“Spike, why do you smell so odd and why did Father react so badly to it?” The question made Spike wince, seemly very unsure about telling her.

“Umm… Punchin said she was gonna tell ya…” He replied, trying to weasel his way out. But Crush was not one to toy with as she replied in a firm tone.

“I am not asking Punchin, I am asking you.”

This made him sigh, rubbing his neck nervously. There was no point in lying so he was just straight with her.

“It’s because… I smell like ponies. I was sorta raised by them.”

“I see. That explains why I have never seen you before. You must be the ‘taken’ one father always used to talk about.” Her calm reaction to this shocked Spike, making him question why but she didn’t give him the chance as she provided an answer.

“I, unlike Father Sard, don’t believe all ponies are as bad as he believes. Then again, I was only a baby, younger than Splinter, when the fall of our Quarry had happened so I do not remember much. I do understand why Father holds such feelings towards the ponies so I don’t question his authority when it comes to avoiding them. But I never shared his feelings. What I’ve seen today seems to prove that.” This made Spike tilt his head, confused.

“Hmm?”

“Well, tell me young one, if the ponies really were as bad as he believes then how would a tyke so polite such as you come to be. Surely if they were bad then you to would be bad no? Perhaps I am simplifying it a tad too much but that is what I believe.”

Author's Note:

We're reaching the final stretch. There are about 2-3 chapters left before this story is closed.

Comments

[Xanderfox]

Finally a sensible dragon in Crush, she's clearly smart enough to listen to BOTH sides before deciding what really happened. It helps she can see thing from a perspective that is not bogged down by emotions like Sard, I have a feeling she just might defy Sard in a bid for knowing the reality of things rather than what he thinks happened.

[Draconicus the Reaper]

good chapter

[GuardianofRoin]

Mhm, good chapter but could use a bit of proofreading.

[StarzGecko]

3 left already? Well I guess this we'll be a short story, but it's really balance and good writing!

Good job on the story, hope to see more cool dragon stories.

[Mimkage]

7485159 It's a plot device for later, I accidentally called it by name rather than what I was intending to call it. Sorry and thanks for pointing that out so I can fix it ^^;

[Fenton]

A solid story that I enjoyed reading.

The Earth Dragon race is a nice addition to the canon and you made it fit perfectly with the show.
Moreover, the OCs are rather good and likeable.
That was for the compliments. It might seems short but it is hard to not repeat myself about how I enjoyed it.

Anyway let's talk about the flaws (hope "flaws" doesn't sound harsh because I don't know how this word may sound for what I'll say is just details that I feel could be improved).
The first one, as others have already said, is the lack of separation between your scenes. Adding space or a straight line could make the reading easier. I sometimes found myself surprised to see that we have switched from Spike to Twilight.

The second one is somehow related to the first. I felt sometimes that the switch between the characters happened to fast, we didn't have proper time to settle with them, to know in wich state of mind they are or how they have delt with the previous events that we have already jumped to another one. Other times, I found them rather pointless, like we have to have this character otherwise, some could be disappointed not seeing him/her.

And lastly, I felt that, overall, most of the events or scenes happened a bit too fast. Not rushed but a bit fast. I think that some moments could be improved if you take time to set the action and describe in details what is around our protagonist, what are they thinking etc.
Don't get me wrong, you managed to give us the essentials and everything is here to get caught by the story. However, adding some details would improve the narration (at least in my opinion).

I hope I didn't seem to be too negative because I enjoyed the journey and I look forward to see the conclusion.
And because I have difficulties to express why I enjoy something, I let you know that it is upvoted, tracked and followed.

Hope to see the next chapter and stories that you'll publish.

PS: sorry for bad English, don't hesitate to point out the mistakes

[Mimkage]

This Story is on delay for a few weeks, I apologize in adavnce

[Saris Daddy]

7495024 I was halfway through writing my own review when I spotted your comment. And I totally agree all pro and cons are the so I don't have to write anything other than this

[Adamastos]

Wow! This story was not at all what I expected! I thought this was gonna be a story of Celestia having stolen Spike as an egg. Though I still question as to why Spikes origins have never been addressed in the show.

[The Great Derpsby]

Yeah, I've seen an explanation like this from Celestia in several stories now.

I wonder why she never asks whether the speaker believes letting Spike know that to the best of their knowledge, his entire family had been horribly murdered would've really been so much better.