Both banished to Darkness, Can a long lost friendship be Rekindled
Obsidian the Black has been in seclusion for just over one thousand years. Long ago he was friends with a Midnight Blue mare and her sister, Working together they brought peace to the Dragon lands and Equestria. After Luna's Banishment Obsidian fell into depression and retreated into his hiding hole. But now after a thousand years, Luna has returned. Can Obsidian come back and rekindle the flame of friendship after all this time. And perhaps even more?
Proof Reading done by both AlicornPriest chapters 1 and 2, roker12 chapters 1,2,3,4, Raidy/Orion Chapters 1,2,3,4,5
Ember walked down the dark hallway alone. Two months had passed since the call of the previous Dragon Lord; two months since she had risen to the position herself. Thinking back on the event, she still couldn't wrap her head around it. To think that Spike, that tiny purple dragon, had so readily handed over the power of the Bloodstone Scepter to someone he'd only just met; she couldn't understand it. He could have kept it and become the Dragon Lord, but instead, he just gave it up.
To further complicate things, he had also extended a claw of friendship, something that dragons didn’t do. Friendship was just something that didn't work with dragons; at least, it hadn’t for a very long time. Ember had been thinking about it ever since she had obtained the scepter, and each time she’d looked back, she’d found it nearly impossible to think of a time when a Dragon Lord had been friends with ponies. Here she was once again, thinking those same thoughts two months later, and a single suitable Dragon Lord still would not come forward in her mind.
Frustrated, she decided to do something desperate, something that she'd never done before: she decided that she needed to do some research and spend some time in the Royal Archives. Surely, there must have been at least one Dragon Lord that brokered peace or some form of friendship with the ponies. After all, the dragons weren't at war with the ponies. All she had to do now was find the Dragon Lord that was responsible for the peace that existed between their two species.
Weeks passed, and still, she had found nothing. In desperation, she reached out to the one dragon she could count on as a friend, Spike, hoping that he might know of the dragon that instigated a treaty, or at least what the dragon's name was. If he didn’t know, then perhaps his friend Twilight Sparkle might. She seemed genuinely interested in dragons and Ember imagined that she might relish the chance to research the dragon that had brought the first peace between the ponies of Equestria and the Dragon Lands. After three days of waiting, a reply finally arrived.
Dear Ember,
I'm glad to hear that you are doing well. I didn’t know the answer to your question, so I asked Twilight about it. It turns out that she was able to find the name of the dragon that brokered the peace between dragons and ponies. According to Twilight, the dragon's name was ‘Obsidian the Black.' The peace treaties were apparently signed over a thousand years ago, and Obsidian was a good friend of the princesses of Equestria. From what we were able to dig up, it appears that he fell into reclusion after the banishment of Luna. I hope that this helps, although I'm not sure why you wanted to know. Just remember, if you need any help or if you ever just need to talk, Twilight and I are both here.
Your friend,
Spike
Having reread the letter for the third time, Ember sighed, “Well, at least I know what his name was. I guess that's someplace to start.” Steeling her resolve, she dove back into her research. At least now she had a name, and with a name, she had a starting point. “All I need to do now is figure out if any dragon knows who he is, or possibly even where he is.” Ember knew that this was a long shot; after all, no dragon had seen or even heard of Obsidian for the last thousand years, but Ember was stubborn. She knew that if she spent enough time and devoted enough of her energy towards finding him, eventually she would either succeed or at least find something he had left behind. Should she succeed, she would be able to utilize her knowledge to try to usher in a new era of peace. Perhaps something longer lasting, or at least more stable, then what Obsidian had left behind.
She threw herself into her new obsession. She wanted to know who this Dragon was and what he thought. Most of all, she wanted to figure out how he dealt with having friends. She continued to exchange letters with Spike and Twilight, and that certainly helped, but even then, she still felt as though she was missing some key understanding as to what it truly meant to have friends.
Hours turned to days, days to weeks, and weeks turned months; before she knew it an entire year had passed. After a year's worth of research, she was no closer to finding out where Obsidian was or even if he'd left any writings or works behind. Still, all she knew was that he had been the Dragon Lord over a thousand years ago. During her exhaustive research, she had spent a mountain of gems trying to find any information about him, all to no avail.
Late one night, after another day of fruitless research, Ember threw herself into her bed, a recent gift from her friend, Twilight. She mused to herself, “Even if there’s been nothing else useful to dragons created by ponykind, at the very least they invented feather mattresses.”
She snuggled into the soft confines of her bed. Truly, this was heaven. After years of sleeping on rocks—and occasionally a pile of gems—the softness of this bed was something that she couldn't compare to anything else. As she lay there, staring at the ceiling, all of the lights in her room suddenly winked out for all of half of a second. Startled by the sudden darkness in her room, she looked over to her bedside table and noticed something that had not been there moments before.
A black scroll tube that appeared to be made of obsidian lay there. Her heart rate increased as she reached out to grasp the tube, although upon wrapping her claws around it, she almost dropped it.
“This is really warm,” she said to herself, “almost as if it's been sitting in the sun for a few hours.” After the initial shock, she grasped the tube and removed the lid. Inside was a piece of the finest parchment she had ever held, and on said parchment was a letter that she had not expected to receive:
Greetings, Dragon Lord Ember, First of Her Name,
It has come to my attention that over this last year you've spent a great majority of your time searching for the writings or whereabouts of Dragon Lord ‘Obsidian the Black’. I must express my puzzlement as to why you would even bother looking into some dragon so long forgotten. I must admit that you have piqued my curiosity, and as such I would like to meet you, to truly gauge whether or not I should divulge certain information that I hold as to the whereabouts of Obsidian. I request this meeting so that I may be able to determine whether or not you are worthy to meet Obsidian; after all, he did make quite a few enemies during his rule. As I'm sure you can imagine, not all dragons were too terribly keen on the idea of being at peace with ponies. As far as the meeting goes, if you would be so kind, please meet me where you laid claim to the Blood Stone Scepter, at midnight one week from today's date.
Best regards,
Phoenix.
Ember could hardly contain herself. After a year of time spent looking, she was only a week away from possibly finding out the answers to some, if not all, of her questions. Not only that, but she would possibly even learn where he was and have the chance to speak to him directly.
While she was busy using her thoughts and a few questions to ask, she missed a tiny flash of something blue on the lid of the scroll cap, the tell-tale sign of a spell designed to spy on someone.
“Well I guess I'd better get some sleep. I need to get a lot of things taken care of before I go to this meeting next week.” Feeling better than she had in over a year's time, Ember lay down on her bed and uttered a final thought: “Maybe I can finally figure what kind of dragon he was, and maybe even figure out how having friends works...” Sleep overtook the young Dragon Lord. The land of dreams awaited her, and after a year of waiting, she was finally able to get a full night's rest.
Deep underground a massive black dragon looked away from his scrying disk. It had been many years since somedragon, or even somepony had spent time looking for him. He didn’t really know what was going to happen at the meeting, but knowing that somedragon still cared enough to search him out left him hopeful. It had been nearly one thousand years since his last trip out of his home.
Looking around his cave and gazing upon his hoard, he smiled to himself. While most dragons collected precious stones and metals--and to be honest he had his fair share of wealth--his most prized possession was his collection of rare magical tomes. He kept over a millennium's worth of magical knowledge. Tomes that had been written by Starswirl the Bearded, Clover the Clever, and Sombra, to name a few. He knew the contents of each by heart. To say that he was an archmage-level caster was to be humble. Nowhere on the planet had there been such a collection of tomes.
As Obsidian turned his head and gazed upon his collection, his eyes fell upon the tomes and letters that he considered his most valued treasures. They were simple things. They did not even contain the highest level of magic. They did not contain any kind of magic at all, at least not the contemporary kind. No, the books and letters were from and about one mare. The one true friend that Obsidian felt had ever truly cared about him. The one mare that had wanted what was best for him. She had not wanted anything from him other than companionship; she had been his dearest friend. But that had been a thousand years ago. She was lost to him, banished to a place where he could never follow.
Alone in his thoughts, he began to have a strange feeling deep within his breast. Something that he had not felt in a very long time: Hope. Hope that somedragon or somepony would be able to pull him out of his thousand-year funk. He wanted to feel like he had all those years ago. The joy of friendship, just something to distract him from his stupor.
Turning back to his scrying disk, he noticed that the current Dragon Lord was waking from her slumber. “I guess I lost track of time again,” he grumbled to himself in his deep bass voice. As he stretched his neck out, the sound of cracking echoed around the cave, like a rockslide tumbling down a mountain. “Well, if I go to sleep now, I should have time for a nap before I have to leave to meet her.”
He stretched his back, and the rock slide continued. After looping around and curling up with his tail (a wyrmling habit of his), Obsidian lay his head down, casually casting an alarm spell that would wake him the day before the meeting giving him enough time to fly to the meeting place. Murmuring to himself before sleep took him “Perhaps I will meet a kindred spirit willing to explore friendship in a way that will allow me to experience its wonders once again.
***
Ember could hardly contain herself. The meeting was only a few hours away. She had already arrived at the meeting place early in hopes that she would get a glimpse of her informant before he arrived.
“I must say, it is quite unusual of a Dragon Lord to be so nervous about a simple meeting,” said a deep bass voice, followed by a good-natured chuckle.
Ember whirled around to face the source of the voice “I’m not nervous, I just want to be punctual for my meeting,” she blurted out at the sudden appearance of the voice. What she saw unnerved her: before her, stood a pony. More importantly, the pony that stood before her stood a head taller than her and had leathery bat wings and a long horn protruding from his forehead. As she got a better look, she noticed that his eyes were slitted like her own, and he had fangs in his mouth. “A-and who are you, anyway?”
The pitch-black pony smiled and replied, “Phoenix.”
Ember stood dumbfounded and stared back. Putting her hands on hips while drumming her claws, she retorted, “So you expect me to believe that some pony knows where an ex-Dragon Lord is when no other dragon that I have spoken to in the last year, as well as a princess of Equestria, was able to tell me. I find that hard to believe.”
The black stallion looked back at her and smirked. “Then tell me, Dragon Lord Ember: why did you come to meet me, then? If you thought that I didn’t have the information, why fly out here all alone to meet some stranger that you have never met before? The only connection that you have with me is that I sent you a scroll that said that I know where he is. You seem to be very trusting for one in such a position as yourself.”
Ember looked at the strange black stallion, and her jaw dropped as she realized the terrible situation that she had let herself get drawn into. Her guard went up, and she took a defensive stance. “Alright, buster, don’t think I am going to go quietly. I may not be as strong as my father the Dragon Lord before me, but I know my way around a fight.”
The black stallion chuckled to himself, recognizing her stance as the martial fighting stance studied in Griffonholm. “I don’t mean you any harm. I was simply making an observation. Although you would be wise to screen your guests in the future. Remember, you will have to endure being the target of aggression for the next 250 years.” He smiled and corrected himself. “Pardon me, 249 years. In any event, all I wish to do this night is talk and perhaps gaze at the moon. Now please, join me.” He walked across the room toward two outcroppings of crystal. He lit his horn and proceeded to transmute the crystal growths into the shape of two chairs complete with pillows.
Taking a seat, Phoenix gestured with a wave of his hand to the other chair that faced him and offered “Please sit. I imagine that you must have a number of questions, and I would like to be comfortable as I answer them.” His genuine smile as he said so helped Ember relax her stance as she approached to take the offered chair.
“Thank you.” She still felt the chills that had traveled down her spine when she had seen him light his horn… although she wasn’t sure if she could call it lighting his horn. It almost appeared as though his horn took an even darker shade as the light in the room dimmed to almost complete darkness. “Who are you, Really? I know that there are currently five alicorns known to exist, and every one of them is a mare.”
Phoenix jerked his head back in surprise. “Well I guess we have more to discuss than I had originally thought. Last I knew, there were only two alicorns, and one of them had been banished to the moon. But we are getting off track. Don’t worry, I will touch on your question in a bit. But for now, I believe that you have some questions about the ex-Dragon Lord ‘Obsidian the Black’. Is that not true?”
Ember nodded and spoke again. “Just who was this ‘Obsidian the Black,’ and why is it so hard to find out anything about him? I mean he brokered the peace between the dragons and the ponies of Equestria. You would think that somedragon that important would have at least a little recorded about him. I mean, seriously, how can no one have heard of him, or even have some book that records something that he had done? I had to go to Princess Twilight Sparkle to find anything about him, and all she could find was his name. How does somedragon so important just disappear?”
Phoenix sighed and looked at her with sad eyes. “To give you a proper answer, we will have to start at the beginning.
Long ago, before your grandfather’s grandfather was born, the dragon lands were ruled over by a royal house--a single family of dragons that ruled over all others. After millennia of ruling, the last Queen of the Dragons made an announcement: ‘My rule will be the last as Queen of the Dragons. After a great deal of thought that has spanned over a century, I have decided that all dragons should have an opportunity to rule themselves. My family has sat upon the throne too long without challenge. This coming summer, we will hold a contest to see whom among you has what it takes to be the new ruler of the Dragon Lands: the Dragon Lord.”
Phoenix looked at Ember to see if she was paying attention. Her eyes glittered with interest, and she nodded as to urge him to continue. “As you can guess, this was the beginning of the Dragon Lords. Dragon Lords would hold dominion for two hundred and fifty years at a time, and once you had claimed the position of Dragon Lord, you are not able to claim it a second time. We now fast forward four hundred and fifty years later, when Obsidian was hatched to the the current Dragon Lord, much as you were hatched to your father before you. However, his hatching was a bit strange. Up until this point, only females had been hatched into his family. For whatever reason, the dragonesses of this family would only hatch more dragonesses; in over a millennium of time, not a single male dragon had been hatched.
Obsidian was the first. The matriarch of the family tried to tell his mother that he should be destroyed. Surely his gender and his black scales were proof that this hatchling was going to be the end of their way of life. But instead she ignored her elder’s pleas and kept the hatchling.
In time, Obsidian grew. Contrary to the nature of most black dragons, Obsidian took no interest in the dark arts. He did not spend his time learning the black magics that seemed to draw others of his coloring. He instead devoted his life to proving himself worthy of his mother’s clan. He strove to be all that was expected of a dragon of his birth. Giving little time to anything other than learning. During his youth, Obsidian came across the writings of Starswirl the Bearded. In his writings, he spoke at great length of the magic of friendship and all that it could (albeit theoretically) accomplish.
He grew obsessed with learning about this branch of magic. However, most dragons were opposed to the concept. They thought that only weaklings ever made friends. The years passed, and finally his mother’s rule came to an end. Obsidian was a driven individual and decided to compete in the gauntlet to claim the Blood Stone Scepter.
As you know, he was successful in his goal. One of the first things that he did was to contact the royalty of Equestria in order to broker peace and friendship between the two nations. For five years, he worked to bring about his plan. And in time he was successful.
But I feel this discussion has reached its conclusion for the evening, and I grow tired. It has been a long time since I have spent this long conversing with another being. I would, however, like to continue to speak to you. As I said, I would like to take a measure of you to determine if you are worthy to stand before Obsidian.
Ember looked at the stallion and blinked, enraptured by what she had been told. “Wait that’s it? You just cut your story off right at the best part! I want to know what happened.”
Phoenix chuckled and replied, “I realize that; now I have your attention, and I know that you will want to hear more.” Smiling, he lit his horn again and, with a small gesture with his hand, summoned another scroll tube into his hand. “I would like to continue conversing with you. Any time that you wish to talk, simply write me a letter and place it in one of the two scroll tubes that I have provided. I give you a second one just in case you need to contact me, and I have yet to reply to your first letter.”
Ember looked back at him and groused, “I thought that getting a measure of me was why you called this first meeting to start with.”
“You are correct, but you could hardly expect me to gain a full measure of your character with only one meeting. Obsidian made a lot of enemies in his life, and I mean to protect him. But look at it this way. If I were not pleased with what I have seen so far, I would never have extended the scroll tube to you. I have much that I want to ask about you, but I do not have time to spend speaking to you face to face. Nor do you.”
Ember looked back at the stallion and realized he was right. “Fine, but you had better be quick about getting back to me. Princess Twilight Sparkle normally doesn’t keep me waiting for a replay for more than three days.”
Phoenix replied with his normal smile. “Of course, Your Majesty,” he replied with just a hint of sarcasm. “Now I am afraid that I must be off. We shall continue this discussion at a later time. Good evening, Dragon Lord Ember.” With that, the stallion winked out of existence, almost as if he had been swallowed by the void of darkness.
Ember shook her head to try to make sense of all she had learned. She could hardly believe that the conversation had even occurred. The only proof that the stallion had even been there were the chairs of crystal and the black scroll tubes. She resolved that she would send him a letter first thing in the morning. Ember took off and returned home. Lying her head down in her bed, her final thoughts of the night were puzzlement about who the stallion was and why a pony of all beings in the world seemed to know where Obsidian was. In time, she would know; all she had to do was be patient.
True to her word, Ember wrote a letter to Phoenix the following day and continued to do so on an almost daily basis for a year. Consumed with curiosity over Obsidian, Ember forgot to ask about the existence of the male alicorn. She continued to ask questions, and in return, Phoenix gave answers, while also continuing to question her about her daily life as well as her attitudes towards the thought of friendship.
Ember’s first letters contained the most basic of questions that you would expect to be asked. “How did you get the other Dragons to agree to the peace treaty between Equestria and the Dragon lands? How did you first come into contact with the Royal pony sisters?” but in time she began to delve into more personal topics.
“Dear Phoenix,
It has now been one month since our first meeting, and I feel that I have asked a good number of questions in regards to the policies that Obsidian put into place. But at this point, I find myself curious as to who he is as a Dragon. Not as an ex-Dragon Lord but, as just a regular dragon. So I wonder, what are some of the things that he likes to do? I feel like I know quite a bit about who he is as a ruler, but not who is he as a dragon. I know that I am repeating myself, and I hope that this isn’t too forward of me to ask.
Your Friend Ember”
Obsidian looked a the letter and smiled. “Well, it took her a month before she got up the gumption to ask about me on a personal level. I guess it’s time to start writing about personal stuff.”
“Dear Ember,
To answer your last question first. No, I don’t think it is too forward to ask about Obsidian on the personal level. He was glad that you decided to delve into that topic finally. Policy and procedure can be a bit dry, and besides, you can learn quite a bit more about someone by learning what they like and don’t want to do. So as far as what Obsidian likes to do in his free time. Well, he enjoys reading. Having a vast collection of books to read he has spent the better part of the last century learning all he can about magic as well as just enjoying stories that have been written. Although to be completely honest he has a great need to update his collection. The newest story that he owns was printed well over 500 years ago. Did you have any specific topics that you would like to know about in regards to his collection? Perhaps genres? Fiction, non-fiction, action adventure, magic studies? He has a vast array (if a bit outdated). If you would like I would imagine that he would be willing to lend you some reading material, Although I believe that he may have to translate it into a more modern style of speech. Dragons and Ponies had a very different way of speaking that long ago. If you are interested, please let me know. It shouldn’t take all that long to translate the books into a more manageable format for you.
Your friend
Phoenix.”
Sealing the Scroll tube Obsidian pressed the onyx gem in the lid and is vanished away. Within a few minutes time, the tube blinked back into existence. “Well then, that was fast.” he chuckled to himself
“Dear Phoenix,
I would love to read anything that he would be willing to share. If possible would he be able to start with magic? I know that Dragons have magic, but up to this point I haven’t been able to find anydragon that would be willing to teach me. And now that I am the Dragon Lord I feel like asking would sound more like a command than a request. I know that I could make them teach me, but it would be nice to have a willing teacher rather than a captive one.
Your friend
Ember”
With this one exchange, the sharing of knowledge began. On a monthly basis, Obsidian would translate one of his magic books and bring it to Ember under the guise of Phoenix. Twice a month they would meet to have lessons in person. During their lessons in magic, he tossed in as many nuggets of wisdom as he could. Ember grew considerably in this time as a dragon, as a ruler, and she also began to show a bit of a gift for magic. During this time, however, one topic had been forgotten, the one issue that should have held a vast amount of importance for the teacher. The subject of Luna’s return.
Over time Ember and Phoenix grew to become good friends. Ember was finally able to relax and let her guard down, in a metaphorical sense. However, in a physical sense, she was never able to lower her guard. As she learned after her second meeting with Phoenix, He was a terrible prankster, after arriving home without noticing that he had changed her wings bright pink. The constant pranking helped her, however. She began to become acutely aware of her surroundings and made sure that she kept her physical guard up when she was outside of her home. Finally after a year of time the one letter that she had been hoping for ever since she had met Phoenix arrived.
Dear Ember,
Over the last year, I have come to know you and would like to state that we are friends, or at the very least I would hope that you would think of me as a friend. I feel that after this last year I have finally been able to gain a real measure of your character and have decided that it is now time for you to receive the reward that you have craved. I ask that you meet me at the location that we first met in one week's time. At that point in time, you shall finally be able to meet Obsidian the Black. I request only one thing from you as you meet him: please keep an open mind.
Your friend, Phoenix
Reading the letter a third and fourth time, Ember could hardly believe her eyes. After a year of waiting, she was finally going to be able to meet him. The great and ancient dragon Obsidian. Over the last year, she had learned quite a bit about Obsidian--asked as many questions as she possibly could and received many answers--to the point, she thought she almost knew exactly who he was, why he did the things he did and for the reasons he did them.
The week before the meeting was one of the longest weeks she’d ever endured. She imagined that this must be what Spike felt like when he was waiting for Hearth’s Warming Eve, at least if you were to believe what Spike wrote in his letters.
The night had finally come; it was the long-awaited meeting. He finally felt that it was time to move on. He had found a new friend, and now he was going to reveal himself to her. A truly momentous occasion; he only hoped that he would not scare her too much.
“Well, I guess that it is time to get going.” Obsidian walked out of his cave for the first time in over 900 years. “It’s time to see what life has to offer again.”
Ember was once again waiting in the crystal cavern sitting on her usual chair, waiting. She quickly jumped out of her chair and turned around when she heard the smallest of sounds. Behind her stood Phoenix, wearing his usual rakish smile.
“Very good Ember, you heard me coming and acted accordingly. You have taken my lessons on self-preservation to heart. Good.”
Ember blushed with a sense of pride. “Thought you could sneak up on me. Yeah, right. So where do I meet him? Do we have to go far?”
Phoenix smiled and replied, “Not far at all. If you would follow me to the entrance, you shall be able to meet him in just a few seconds.”
Ember had to contain her internal squee. “What does he look like, I mean does he have any other distinguishing features, scars or something that he doesn’t like anydragon to look at? Just so I know what to expect.”
“Oh, I think you will know him when you see him, and no. He doesn’t have any kind of a deformation that would cause embarrassment .”
They continued to walk to the entrance. Once there, however, Phoenix dropped his bag on the floor and continued to step out of the cave and a bit further away. Ember looked at him with a puzzled look on her face, right up to the point that she noticed that Phoenix’s shape had begun to distort and grow. Within the span of a few seconds, an enormous form came into existence. She could hardly believe her eyes: the dragon that now looked down at her dwarfed her father in comparison. It was as if a living mountain was looking down at her.
Teeth the size of lesser dragons, and scales darker than night, his eyes contained a luminescence that was hard to describe.
After looking up at the massive dragon for just over a minute, the only thing that she was able to say was, “You jerk. You were Obsidian the entire time!?”
A booming laugh escaped the massive dragon as his form once again shifted down to his smaller Avatar. “Is that all you have to say? The friend and teacher that you have spent the last year writing to and meeting with turns out to be the dragon that you have been searching two years for and all you can say is, ‘You jerk?’ Hahaha!”
Ember looked at the now-black stallion and blushed. “How is it even possible for you to change form like that?”
“Magic, of course. Although to be honest, there are very few of our kind that still practices the art of gaining an Avatar form. More often than not, dragons that reach the size where an Avatar becomes useful will normally isolate themselves and live off the devotion of sycophants that worship them, rather than go through the pain of learning how to change their form for convenience. A major failing, if you ask me.”
“Well, I guess that makes sense. And now that answers the question about how there is a male alicorn, I guess.”
Obsidian laughed again, realizing that over the past year the one topic that had never been broached between the two he decided it was time to bring it back up. “Oh yes, I guess I forgot to bring that up again. You had mentioned in our first meeting about the other alicorns in the world. I was under the impression that only one alicorn was in existence: Celestia.”
Ember smirked, happy that she now knew something that the massive jerk didn’t. “Well, yeah, Sun Butt is still around. Then there is Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship, and Cadence, the Empress of the Crystal Empire. Flurry Heart is Cadence’s daughter, and of course, Princess Luna has returned to continue her role as the Princess of the Night.” Turning her head to look back at Obsidian, she was stunned that he had fallen to his knees and felt a broad sense of concern when she saw a drop hit the ground that betrayed the fact he was crying.
“Hey, are you ok? Why are you crying?”
Obsidian tried to compose himself and looked back at her. “Please tell me that you jest not. Has Luna truly returned to our world? Please do not toy with me.”
Ember could hardly believe what she was seeing: the great Dragon Lord, Obsidian the Black, a member of the highest echelon of what dragons were capable of, now was kneeling before her weeping at the mere mention of somepony’s name. “Um...Yes, she came back a couple of years ago. Twilight and her friends saved her from the Darkness that had corrupted her and warped her into Nightmare Moon. Why?”
Obsidian let a strangled laugh escape his lips. “I am sorry, Ember, but I must be going. There is somepony that I made a promise to a long time ago that has been alone for far too long.”
Saying little else, Obsidian burst into the sky and shifted back to his massive form, shooting through the air toward Equestria. Ember stood there in shock and could hardly believe what had just happened. Going by what she had just told him, she could only think of one being that he was off to see. “How could he not know that she had returned?”
Thousands of miles away, several hours later, Luna was sitting in her throne room sifting through the dreams of her citizens and trying to make sense of the recurring pattern that she had found. A massive black dragon, the size of which must have been a mental exaggeration on the part of her citizens, kept appearing in the dreams of her little ponies.
As she continued to sift through dreams, she could feel a tingle as something moving very fast was approaching her home and her subjects here in Canterlot. The level of magic was staggering, and it began to scare her. Thoe what unnerved her the most was that this immense magical signature almost seemed familiar.
Luna jumped as the door to the Night Court slammed open, and Celestia burst into the room. “Luna, don your armor. We need to leave now. I am sure that you feel what is coming. I will be joining you. If we hurry, we can intercept it before it makes it to the city.”
They both looked in the same direction as they felt the massive levels of magic stop about a mile outside of the city. They both released a pent-up breath and summoned their armor around themselves. Luna looked to her sister and commented, “Is it just me, or does that magic seem almost familiar?”
Celestia looked at her smaller sister and nodded. “It does, but I can’t place where I have felt it before. However, I can’t imagine that we have ever felt this much before.”
Having donned their respective armors, the two sisters shot out of the throne room and went straight to the source of the magic.
Obsidian had shifted back to his Avatar and now sat beside a campfire. What surrounded him were things that Luna had once given him. A brass telescope, a star map, and a few odds and ends. What sat next to him was the chair that Luna always had claimed whenever the two of them had rested together to gaze up at Luna’s beautiful sky.
His eyes scanned the horizon; he was partially shocked when he felt not one, but two alicorns headed his way. “I guess it would be too much to hope for that I would get to be alone with her.”
He had just finished summoning the third chair when he felt the ground rumble as the two sisters landed. Standing with his back to the sisters, he quietly said, “Welcome to my camp. I had only expected one of you. However, you are both welcome.” He turned around slowly, his eyes brimming with tears. “I am so sorry that I failed you, Luna. I let you fall into the darkness.”
The sisters stood there in shock as they looked at the stallion that neither of them had seen before, but who at the same time reminded them of someone they both once knew.
Luna spoke first. “You speak with such familiarity to us. How bold, I do not bel…” Her eyes looked around and took in what surrounded them, the Telescope, the star maps, the chairs and the tent and rage began to fill her. “Vile monster. Where did you steal these things from?” The venom in her voice could have caused a hydra to loosen its bowels.
Obsidian looked at her and laughed quietly “Why, my dear friend, you wound me. I would have hoped that you would be able to remember to whom you gave this. Has it been so long that you forgot me?” An edge of hurt crept its way into his voice. “Must I show you my full form before you will be able to remember who I am.” Tears began to fill his eyes just before he launched himself into the air. Neither sister was ready for what they saw-- the behemoth blocked the view of the sky with his size. “Now you see why I modeled the form you saw the way that I did; after all, it is much more comfortable to be that size.” Landing; he shifted back to his smaller form and motioned to the other two chairs as he asked, “Would you like to take a seat? If I remember right, you both enjoy Earl Grey. Cream and sugar for Celestia, and honey and lemon for Luna, right?”
The two looked at each other and nodded. Taking their respective seats, Luna sat in her old chair apprehensively and looked back at the black stallion as he prepared their tea. Gazing at him she took this opportunity to look into his eyes and and the spark of realization hit her like a brick wall. “...S-S-Sid?”
Obsidian stopped moving and took a short breath. He hadn't heard that name in over a thousand years. His shoulders shook as he began to weep. “I am s-so s-sorry. I failed you. I let you slip into darkness, I fell asleep, and when I awoke and found that you had been banished, I hid away from the world. I didn’t care anymore. I abandoned the dragon lands and hid. I was such a coward.” Falling to his knees, the tea, now forgotten, he wrapped his arms around his chest and tried to calm his breathing.
Suddenly two familiar arms wrapped around him from behind and held him, whispering into his ear. “I can’t believe that you are still alive. Please don’t mark this occasion with your tears. Instead, let us revel in joy.” Luna held the stallion that had once been her most faithful friend. Celestia kept her hand over her mouth as she realized who this black stallion was.
“Where have you been? It has been more than a thousand years, relations with the dragons had been deteriorating, and you have just been, hiding away? Doing nothing! You were one of our greatest allies! Where were you?” Celestia began to tear up with hurt. “How could you do that to us. We needed you more than ever; besides you weren’t the only one that failed Luna. You were her friend, but I am her sister, and I just stood by and let her fall prey to the Darkness.” Celestia hugged herself, her anger and shame trying to overwhelm her.
Luna looked at Obsidian and finally made the connection that her sister had mentioned not moments ago. “Sid...Is what my sister said true? I know that you had gone into hibernation before my... Banishment. But after you had awakened to find me gone. Did you turn your back on everything and disappear?”
Obsidian flinched at Luna’s words and nodded his head. “I am ashamed to admit it but, yes it is true. I couldn’t find it in my heart to continue when you were gone.” Turning to Celestia “I know that you needed me, but I was angry. I hibernated with the expectation that everything would be back to normal when I awoke. Instead, I found an Equestria that was falling apart at the seams, You were alone and Luna had been banished to the Moon. To be honest, I was furious at you for banishing Luna and most of all for not finding me and waking me up to try to help.” Turning back to Luna “But most of all I was disgusted with myself for not being there when you needed me. I was supposed to be your friend and her's.” His spiral into self-pity was cut short with a curt slap across his face
“How could you! Even with me gone Celestia could have used your help. She was left alone without anypony in the world to help her, and what did you do? Sulk in a cave. What happened to the Champion of the Dragon lands. The fearless protector. The Greatest friend to Equestria. You hid away and pouted. She had to hold everything together for a thousand years!” Punctuating her final thought with another slap, Luna turned on her heels and flew back into the direction of Canterlot.
“Well, That could have gone better” Obsidian said to himself more than anyone else. Turning his head to look at Celestia he added: “I guess you want to get your slaps in as well.”
Looking at the dejected dragon, Celestia felt her heart begin to break. “I am not going to hurt you any more than you have already hurt yourself. Luna is in a rather...fragile place right now. She finds herself in a time that she never had an opportunity to ease into as time passed. It has been thrust upon her, and now she is being forced to adapt. Look at things from her perspective. You are one of if not the only friend that she has from the old world other than myself, and shortly after finding one another again she discovers that you effectively told us to deal with it by ourselves because you were angry. Now do not take this the wrong way. I know that you are beating yourself up about this, and I am still quite mad at you for disappearing, but I also know that you care about her still. And from the looks of it, you still care about Equestria as well. But to put it in laypony’s terms ‘you dun goofed up’.”
Obsidian looked at the White mare and sighed “I guess you are right. Gah! How could I have been so stupid.” Looking at her with pleading eyes “Please tell me is there any way that I could fix this? Anything that I could do?”
Celestia’s looked back at her old friend and replied “I do believe that there may be a way of fixing this. However, It is not going to be easy.”
“Please tell me. I will do anything to be her friend again. I want to be able to spend time with both of you again. Please.”
“Alright but you are going to have to work for it” Celestia replied
“I am ready and willing, I want this more than anything.”
Meanwhile back in her cave, a very confused Ember was putting the finishing touches on the letter she planned to send to Obsidian asking where in the world that he had disappeared to.
First of it is still really weird that you had been hiding who you were the entire time, and secondly, where did you disappear to? You just zipped off without an explanation. I mean one second we were having a friendly chat and the next you jumped off and flew away. Did I say something to offend you? Please contact me and let me know that you are ok. I know that I am still new to this whole friendship thing, but I am scared that I screwed something up. So again please contact me.
Your Friend, Ember”
Ember looked over the short letter again to see if she might be able to improve it in some way. “I guess that this is going to be a good as it gets,” she said to herself. Rolling the letter up and placing it in the scroll tube she screwed the cap on and pressed the gem in the lid that caused it to teleport away to wherever Obsidian was receiving the letters. “I guess that all I can do at this point is wait for the reply.” Frustrated she returned to the work of governing the Dragon lands.
____The previous night in the field outside of Canterlot._____
“Obsidian” Celestia paused and considered what she was going to task to him. “Obsidian as you may or may not know, there is a young dragon that lives peacefully in the small village of Ponyville” Looking back at her Obsidian nodded to show that he was following what she said. “I believe that the key to getting back into Luna’s good graces would be to show her that you are still a caring creature. To show her that you are not the selfish dragon, that you have up till now, shown yourself to be. What I will ask you to do is to go to Ponyville and become the instructor for the young dragon by the name of Spike.”
“You mean the young one who turned over the ownership of the Bloodstone scepter to Ember?”
“Yes, the very same. Spike has been raised by ponies all his life, and I am afraid that he has never had a full education on what it means to be a dragon. From what I understand his interactions with other dragons have been limited to Ember and a few juveniles that were not a very good indication of what a dragon can, or should be. To my knowledge, he has never shown a propensity towards magical other than an incident when he succumbed to a greed growth.”
Obsidian looked back at Celestia and blinked, Greed growth, that wasn’t that uncommon a thing for a dragon to succumb to, however he wanted to clarify “If you don’t mind me asking, how large did this greed growth cause him to end up?”
Celestia looked back at him with curiosity in her eyes “Well if I had to estimate it from reports...I would have to say that he would have been about ¼ the size of Canterlot Castle.”
Obsidian balked at the news “You mean to tell me that a wormling barely one decade out of his shell grew to be around ¼ the size of a castle with a greed growth? You sit there and say that he has never shown a spark of magic and then drop that on me.”
Celestia smiled and replied “Why? Is that unusual for that much growth to happen?”
“I would say that is unusual. Your average dragon with your average levels of magic might grow to twice their normal size when they succumb to greed, some might even grow to three times their size. But to grow to the size that you describe, the dragon in question would have to have access to an immense amount of magic. A dragons magic is directly linked to their size. A worming should not have been capable of this.”
“Well, he is not your average dragon. His egg had been in the treasury of my castle for over 400 years. We had been using it as a way to test young unicorns to see how they dealt with failure. We presented them the test that they were supposed to try to hatch the egg. We were under the assumption that there would never be an issue with it. After all, without a dragoness, the egg was nothing more than a pretty stone. At the time of Twilight Sparkles test, she had an intense magical surge. During the course of which, she not only hatched his egg but also managed to turn her parents as well as her testers into potted plants. High-level transmutation, and at this point she had had no formal training."
Narrowing his eyes, Obsidian fixed his gaze on the Princesse "You do realize what it is that you are implying. You are one of the few beings outside of the clans that knows the details of how a hatching is brought to life. If what you say is true..."
Celestia nodded "I know what it means, for the both of them. That was part of the reason that guided her toward ascension so that she can be there for him."
Obsidian paused to think to himself. ‘If this is what it will take for Luna to allow me back into her life then I am willing to do it’ Turning back to Celestia. “I will train the worming; I only hope that this will show that I am dedicated to the good of Equestria. I know that up until now I have been selfish. I honestly thought that I would never get to see her again. I am deeply sorry that I have failed you, and more than that, I am deeply sorry that I failed Luna further by disappearing. When do you want me to go to the young one?”
Celestia looked back at her old friends and sighed. “Thank you Obsidian. I really am glad that you have returned. I will send a letter to my former student about the situation in the morning. She is still new to her Alicorn status and will likely want to sit in on the lessons. If convenient, would you be able to be there by tomorrow afternoon?”
Looking back at Celestia Obsidian replied with as much respect as he could muster for the Ruler. “Of course your Highness. It will be my utmost pleasure to provide lessons to the young dragon and his companion, my only hope is that I am able to work my way back into your good graces.”
Celestia looked at Obsidian with a confused look. “Why has your demeanor changed? I have been wondering why you suddenly changed to such a formal attitude?”
Grimacing Obsidian replied “To speak to you informally is something that should be reserved for close friends. I have shamed myself and must earn my way back to that position of honor. I only hope that I can do so. My behavior has been highly unfitting for one my age and of my breeding. I humbly ask for your forgiveness, however, at the same time I know that I must earn it first.” Obsidian then did something that he had not done for more than a millennium. He bowed.
Celestia looked shocked at his action. Bowing was something that Dragons never did. At least not willingly. “Oh my. I guess you really are disappointed with your behavior?”
Looking down Obsidian muttered, “you have no idea how much I hate myself for failing her.”
“What was that Obsidian. I didn’t quite catch it.”
Looking back at the Alicorn Obsidian replied “It was nothing. I will take up the position that you have offered and will fulfill it to my utmost. I thank you for the opportunity to redeem myself in your eyes. However, I feel I must let you adjourn to your home. I will make myself known to the young princess tomorrow at midday tomorrow. I thank you for the opportunity that you have presented to me.” Bowing Obsidian turned to take his leave. “I wish you a good night princess, may you sleep well.”
Celestia looked up at her once good friend and sighed speaking to herself “I truly hope that you are able to return to the happy being that I once knew.” She watched as he spread his wings, just before he took off she added: “Where will you go for now?”
Turning to Celestia Obsidian replied “For now I will return to the forest, but by the morn, I will meet with your student. For tonight I must bid you adieu. I fear that Ember may have been a bit surprised with my sudden disappearance.” as he finished his sentence he took off into the night, a single thought on his mind “Maybe I can finally redeem myself in her eyes, after so many years’.
The flight back to his cave was quiet. He really was glad to out and about again, stretching his wings fully for the first time in years. The flow of the wind over and under them, the feeling of weightlessness, it was intoxicating after so long in his self-imposed banishment, however at this through his mind fell back to the reason for it. Passing through the ages, his mind returned to first night he dreamt of her.
Flying through the sky in his adolescent form, barely older than 90. Looking to his right there flew Luna, the moonlight gleaming off of her coat, her form-fitting dress leaving little to the imagination, the light highlighted off of her curves, the gleam on her lips. Leaning forward to kiss. It was at this point that he woke with a start. “What was that all about, Luna is my friend not...what was that?” That was where the dreams started.
At the time Luna and he had an agreement that she would always announce herself before entering his dreams, which had allowed him to banish the dream that he was in the middle of or at least time to realize he was dreaming. But he had still been worried, that was when he began to study the field of dream magic, all in preparation for his century-long sleep. He had spent months learning all he could to prepare to banish that type of dream from his mind. To banish the thought, to banish the feelings, after all. How could somepony be as wonderful as her, ever even consider?
Shaking his head, he quickly removed himself from that line of thought, ‘No, I can’t afford to fall back into that line of thinking. I have to keep moving forward’. He spent the remainder of his flight simply listening to the sound of the night. After a few minutes flight he crossed over the barrier of the Everfree forest, he could feel where the magic of the forest began to take hold over the elements, there were no pegasi that could control the weather here, everything was wild now. A result of the battle between the two sisters.
‘I think I will enter from the front tonight, haven’t done that in a few years’ looking over the sea of trees his eyes found the clearing that surrounded the ruins of the castle. Flying over, he felt the second shiver that signaled the boundaries around the site, the shock hit him quite suddenly. ‘What the?... the alarm is going off.’ thinking back he realized that his lair must have sunk just under the barrier spell. It must have, thinking on it he realized that after a few hundred years near the surface he began to dig deeper to spread out more as well as increase the amount of storage room he had. ‘I must have forgotten to expand the spell to account for the depth that I went down. No matter, not like anypony would have done much here, and I guess it makes sense considering that Ember told me that elements found new bearers’
Circling down he landed with a light touch on the bottom step of the front gate. ‘ I’ll need to make sure that I have everything packed together before I leave.’ Moving through the halls, he made his way down, deep into Equis, through the tunnels that he had carved himself so many years before. Finally reaching his true lair, he began to look about for his bag. One of the first items he had created, to most it would appear to be a simple canvas bag. However, it was truly much more. Walking to the center of the room he placed the bag on the floor and snapped his fingers. At once the room came alive with activity as centuries worth of possessions began to swirl around the room. At first, it appeared that they were moving in chaos, however, after a few moments they began to move into orderly lines, and from there into a conga line as it spiraled through the room toward the bag. Moving through the air the approached the bag, as they grew nearer to it they began to shrink down. The procession of items continued, first rising from the ground then being sucked into the spiral of items, then to shrink down and at last to be stored in the bag.
This continued for nearly three hours as more and more things flew around the room and dropped into the bag. It was just as the last of the items found himself neatly placed in the bag that the black scroll tube blinked into existence right onto the receiving plate, he had anticipated this move and had left the plate out on purpose. Looking over the letter he grinned. “Damn I guess I left in a bit of a hurry this evening.” After reading her letter, he lit his horn in-order to blank out the parchment and jotted down a quick reply.
Dear Ember,
I apologize for my abrupt departure, It was disrespectful of me to abandon you in the way that I did. Your revelation about Princess Luna hit a little close to home. I will be moving to Ponyville here in the next day. I have been tasked with educating young Spike in the ways of dragons. I am sorry that this is a short letter, but I don’t have much time to make it there.
Your friend and mentor,
Obsidian.
Looking down at the sloppy and, well to put it plainly, brief letter he sighed and sent it. ‘She isn’t going to let me off with that for long, but I really must be going’ looking around the empty room he let out another sigh. ‘I haven’t had it this clean in a long time. But if I want to make this work, I have to be dedicated to this course of action. Looking around one last time, he began his walk back out through the front gates. As he stood at them and looked back he thought to himself ‘this isn’t an ending, it’s a beginning’ he turned his back on the castle and began his flight.
Gliding through the air he began to commit the area to memory, to find good practicing areas. An open field, perfect for fire magic, a small lake, a quarry, deeply wooded areas, each area really was a good place to practice. As he flew, he picked up an almost forgotten scent. ‘Is that the smell of Zebra magic? I haven’t smelt that in over three hundred years!’ looking around he saw the telltale signs of Zebra magic, the colored steam and smoke rising from the hut.
‘That is something that demands my attention, but not at this moment. First I must make haste to the home of the Princess. The day is nearly half over, and she will be expecting me’ As he flew closer to the small village, his form shifted, his horn disappearing. He appeared as nothing more than a pegasus. His eyes scanned the village, moving over the sights he fixed his gaze on the impressive castle constructed of crystal. ‘’Well then, at least she has a flair for her home” Chuckling he made his way towards the front gate.
Alighting on the front lawn area, he approached slowly. As he made his way to the front gate he was shocked to see a humble sign tacked to the front door.
Ponyville Library! Hours 08:00am to 8:00pm. Closed Sunday.
His eyes widened in shock. “Surely she doesn't use her home and palace as something as mundane as a public library!” Shaking his head in, disbelief he knocked. Moments later it was answered by a small green and purple drake.
“Welcome to Ponyville Library, My name is Spike, and you do know this is a Public Library right? You don't have to knock. Are you new to town?”
Looking down, Obsidian beheld a very young Purple dragon. He couldn’t be older than 16 years of age. Truly nothing more than a Wormly barely out of the shell. “Well. Um. I think it would be best if I were to Introduce myself to Princesse Twilight and you in private. Did Princess Celestia not tell you I was coming in the letter she sent?”
Looking up, Spike’s eyes grew wide. “You mean you’re.” his voice was cut short as the hand of the large Stallion covered his mouth.
“Yes, young one. But we should not be doing this outside. If you would be so kind to show me in. I can explain.”
Spike’s eyes shrank down and he nodded. Obsidian removed his hand and gestured with his head toward the front door. “Um yeah. Let me get her” they moved into the main hall and Spike lead Obsidian into a smaller meeting room next to the main throne room. “Um… Just stay here. I’ll go get Twilight” after exiting the room he Shouted loud enough for Obsidian to hear “TWILIGHT, THAT SPECIAL GUEST IS HERE!!!”
Jumping back a bit at the volume, Obsidian shook his head “well one of the first lessons will have to be about proper decorum for a young dragon. Looking over, he noticed a large table surrounded by seven chairs, walking over to the strange table, he beheld the wonders of the map. Rendered in full detail, he beheld all of Equestria and its immediate surrounding countries. “Well this is quite impressive, I have never seen anything like this before. I wonder how she managed to make something like this?”
“Well I didn’t make it. It kind of grew in with the rest of the Castle.”
Whipping around, he beheld the young princess. Realizing who it was he quickly bowed to show her the respect that she was due.
Jummping Twilight blushed and blurted “Oh please don’t do that. It took forever for me to get the rest of the town to stop, and if they see you doing it then it will all start up again.”
Looking up at her, his eyebrow raised “It is only proper for one such as myself to show you proper respect. It is not my place to greet you without doing so princess.”
Twilight let out an exasperated breath. “Please don’t use that title. I would prefer for everypony to just call me Twilight, and if you have to Twilight Sparkle. I really don’t want anypony to make a big deal out of this whole thing”
Shaking his head he simply replied “well it would seem I will have two pupils instead of one.”
Twilight looked back at him and replied “What is that supposed to mean. And I’m not entirely sure that you are who you say you are. Celestia told me you were supposed to be an Alicorn like me.”
Smirking, he let the guise fall. His horn grew from nowhere. His wings lost their feathers and became like that of a bat, his fangs grew out and his pupils became slitted. “So you expected something more like this then?”
Twilight’s eye grew wide. “How in the name of Celestia did you just do that, I didn’t feel any kind of spell dropping or even the activation of magic?!”
Grinning he looked back toward her. “As I said. It would appear that I will have two pupils instead of one. I have much to teach. Provided you are willing to learn”
The look that she gave him at this point almost made his blood turn to ice, ‘I think I might have bitten off more than I can chew with this one.’
“In any event, to get a measure of what I am working with. Spike, do you know what dragoness it was that laid your egg?”
At mention of this Spike and Twilight simply looked at each other for a moment.
“Um...well. I wasn’t hatched by a dragoness, Twilight hatched me. I don't know where I came from before that.”
Obsidian nodded "I am aware of the situation of your hatching, though it still amazes me that it happened. It has never occurred before now." He fixed his gaze on the two of them together. Never having seen a purple dragon before, he now had an idea of where the color had come from.
Blushing slightly Twilight replied “well I was doing my entrance exam for Celestia’s school. They presented me with a dragon egg and told me to hatch it. At first I wasn’t having any luck. But then, my friend Rainbow Dash performed a Sonic rainboom in Cloudsdale. The shock from that caused a magic surge, and well, Spike hatched”
Looking back all Obsidian could do was process what he had just heard. After a few moments he shook his head and proceeded to ask. “Spike, How much do you know about the relationship between a Dragon and their parents?”
Spike gave Obsidian a quizzical look. “I guess the answer to that would be zero. I don’t really know anything about dragon culture. Other than the migration and the choosing of the next dragon lord. I mean that is about it.”
Turning his gaze on Twilight “and you Princess?” Her only response was simply to blush, expressing the fact that she had no additional information. Taking a deep breath “I feel we should be sitting for this” He motioned to the seats in the corner of the room. As they all took their seats he began. “To start with I will go over the nature of dragons when it comes to their young. For many eons when a Dragoness went into heat she would seek out a Dragon that showed that he had great strength. After the deed is done, the dragoness will then find a safe place to lay her eggs. Now at this point the egg is dormant. Now when I say dormant, I mean that the egg is just a coming together of the genetics of the mother and father. However the egg may never hatch.”
Twilight and Spike looked at Obsidian with confused looks, at this point Twilight responded “What do you mean? If everything is provided why wouldn’t the egg hatch?”
Will a small smile he responded “tell me Princess Twilight, what do you know of the nature of Souls?”
“What do you mean by the Nature of Souls?” she responded.
“What I mean is what do you know about Souls, how they are formed and what they do?”
Blushing and looking down, she responded:“I have no idea, I haven't gotten around to that branch of magic yet.”
Steeling himself for what he was about to reveal to the two. “The soul is what makes a sentient being. Without a soul we are mindless lumps of flesh. No direction, no purpose, no emotion. Basically without a soul, one could not be considered alive. When a dragoness lays her eggs, they do not contain a soul. As a species, we as dragons do not begin with the ability to possess a soul. In order for a dragon to hatch, the mother, tears off a piece of her soul and gives it to her young. This act is what causes a dragon to hatch. To start with this shard of the mother's soul is just that. A shard of her soul, but after time it grows to be the soul of the young dragon. As for the mother, her soul heals from the loss and grows stronger. From what you have revealed to me.” his eyes locked on Twilight. “You. Princess Twilight are Spikes mother.”
The silence in the room was deafening. No one spoke, Twilight’s eyes had become dinner plates in how wide they had grown. “W-What do you mean? How is that possible. I’m not a dragon. I-I’m Spike’s mother?!” She looked at Spike, not sure what to feel at this moment.
Trying to lighten the mood, Obsidian smiled “Yes Twilight. You are his mother. When you managed to hatch Spike, you tore a shard of your soul and gave it to him. From what you described, you had no idea what it was that you did. But I must stress this. Spike is your son, and you are his soul mother."
"I understand that this is much to take in, and I imagine that you need some time together to digest this information. Thoe I am honestly surprised that Princesse Celestia hasn't told you this already. I know for certain that she knows this information." Shrugging it off for the time he asked "Would you by chance have a place where I would be able to stay? If not I can find a place for myself.”
Still in a stunned state. “Oh.. yes! We had a room prepared for you. Simply ask a guard and they will escort you. I need to...I need some time to digest this. And we, well Spike and I need to talk about some stuff.”
“Of course, I fully understand. Thank you for your hospitality” Picking himself up, he walked out of the room, pausing at the door, he turned “I hope that this information does not cause undue stress. This information should be of the happy sort. The greatest relationship that a dragon has is with their mother. Their mother is normally the first and in many cases the only other living being that a dragon truly cares about. This is a sacred bond, and is the greatest form of expressed love that can exist.” Turning his back he exited the room and quickly found a guard that would be able to escort him to his room.
A bit later that night, Obsidian sat at the provided writing desk in his room to write his daily report to Princess Celestia.
Dear Princess Celestia,
I have arrived at the castle of Princess Twilight, our first encounter was interesting, but I feel as if I will have two very attentive students. I had not realized that you had neglected to notify Princess Twilight and young Spike of the nature of their relationship. The bond between a Dragon and its mother is sacred. It was quite a revelation for them, and as part of my lessons, I felt it was necessary for me to reveal this information. I am not sure as to why you had not already told her this already, but it will be important information for them both, knowing it will only help them to grow. In any event, our first meeting was rather short. I felt that it was prudent to let them process the new information. To end this letter though. I must admit that I have missed this feeling of being a teacher. It is a calling that I have missed, and I want to thank you again for giving me the opportunity to fill this role once again. As well as the opportunity to earn my way back into your good graces.
Walking over to his bed, Obsidian pondered to himself the nature of the relationship that he now found himself in with the young princess as well as her young charge. Speaking to himself “I still find it astounding that Celestia never told her about the soul bonding.” No sooner had the words left his muzzle when a brilliant flash of light exploded in his room. Blinking away the afterimages, he felt two solid hands grip his shoulders and force him against the wall.
“YOU TOLD HER WHAT!!!!!!”
Still recovering from the flash bang of her entry, he realized that it was Celestia who had appeared in his room. Responding to her outburst, he replied: “Of course I told her, both she and her son have a right to know.”
"I realize that but….How do you expect her to cope with that, they are both so young. Twilight has never had this kind of responsibility.”
He looked into her eyes with a gaze that oozed annoyance. “Then please, explain to me when were you planning to tell her about her relationship with her son?” he quickly scanned the room to check for soundproofing spells, upon finding them firmly in place he continued. “From what I can tell, she has been acting as his mother for some time now, how could this change the dynamic between the two of them?”
Princesse Celestia blushed at his response as he continued. “They have the right to know what they are to one another. Would you rob him of his family? To understand where he comes from and from the bond that a mother and son can have?
Now knowing what I do about them, this is going to be interesting. I suspect that if Spike has had any interaction with other dragons, he would have already noticed that he is different. I saw that something was off about him during our first interaction. How many Purple dragons have you ever met before Princess? He is utterly unique, and to be honest. After having met him, I am excited to see how high he can fly.”
Celestia looked at him with a mournful eye, “I realize that they needed to know, I just wanted her to have a little more of her foalhood before everything falls into place.”
Showing a warm smile “I know that you must care for her deeply. All of your pupils have always carried a distinct air about them. They are driven, but they all suffer from the rather bad care of neurosis. We both know what that can do to the mind, lest we forget the brothers.”
Celestia slowly turned her head and stared at him with a gaze that could have liquefied steel. “don’t speak about them, they represent one of my greatest failures” her eyes fell “as well as one of my greatest successes.”
With understanding, Obsidian nodded “I know how it must pain you. They were both once great assets to the empire. But unless you work to break down the barriers that exist, force them to deal with it…” the silence that existed between them was deafening.
Taking a deep breath “We must use our experience in this situation, to avoid the mistakes of the past. They needed to know, and I can think of no reason why this would hurt them. I imagine that up to this point that they were like siblings. Being an older sister is not so much different from being a mother. Although I am curious, do you know which dragoness it was that laid his egg?”
Her response did not come quickly, averting her eyes from looking at him “That is a bit of a touchy subject. His hen didn’t want her identity revealed. Her passing the egg to me was of the most secret nature. No one knew that she had even had another egg.”
Nodding with understanding, Obsidian responded “I get that. However, I would very much like to know. It could offer some good insight into what kind of abilities I can expect to see from him. As you know, a dragon gets a vast amount of their power from their hen.”
Celestia turned her back on Obsidian before she continued. “I know, and you will be surprised to know that you and Spike have quite a bit in common... Most especially since you share the same hen.”
Obsidian was very old. Some would say that he had experienced everything, he had thought that he was beyond surprise of any kind. However here he was, Blown away with what he had just been told. He responded In a voice that was almost too calm, “what do you mean we share the same hen?”
Turning back to face him Celestia locked his eyes in a gaze as she stated it again “exactly what I said, Spike and you share the same hen. After you disappeared off the face of Equis, apparently you hen was so broken hearted that she had lost you, she must have sought comfort in any way she could, Spike’s egg was the result of that. As you know she was forbidden to hatch another egg after you, so rather than give it to your clan to be destroyed, she gave it to me. I kept it safe for 300 years. I had no idea that eggs could stay dormant for that kind of time. That is why we started to use it as a test to monitor how a foal handled failure. Twilight was a surprise in every way, not only did she succeed in doing what was thought to be impossible, but she also grew so much.” Her eyes began to tear up. “I think of both of them as my foals.”
Still shocked he dropped his eyes to the floor “I guess the matriarch was right. She did have a cursed womb.”
Celestia turned on him with anger in her eyes “Your hen did not have a cursed womb, she gifted this world with two dragons that I love dearly, even if one of them is a bit of a child, and I am not speaking of Spike right now.”
Chuckling he countered “You would be one of the few that think that way, my entire clan, to this day likely still think of me as the worst possible thing to have happened to them. Thoe I am happy that my mother found love again.” Thinking on it further he continued “By the way, do you know how she is doing? I kind of lost touch and stopped corresponding with her quite some time ago.”
The pain in Celestia’s eyes spoke volumes “She…oh Obsidian I am sorry but… She is no longer with us in the mortal realm. She…”
Raising his hand, “Please… do not continue. I understand, if you would not mind, please I need some alone time. There is much I must think about. I need to digest this information.”
Celestia turned to face her once greatest friend “I understand if you decide to tell Spike… well, I guess at that point it is family business. But please do not hold yourself responsible for her passing. We both know that she would not want you to.” She turned as if to leave then continued “If you ever want to know more, I am willing to tell. Goodbye Obsidian” And with a small pop accompanied with a blink of light, she was gone.
Now alone in his room, Obsidian took a shuddering breath “I have a brother, and our hen is dead.” Lying his head down in his hands, he dropped to his knees his head on the bed and began to weep.
_______________earlier that night_______________________
Back in the sitting room, Twilight and Spike sat in silence. Having decided to break the awkward silence, Twilight looked at Spike and spoke up. “So… I’m your mother. That is um…”
Spike looked over at the purple alicorn sitting next to him. I-I’m not sure what to think about this. I mean, I kind of thought of you that way already.”
Jolting from surprise, she looked at the small purple dragon “Really? You already looked at me like that.”
He responded with a slight smile “Well yeah, I mean you were the first pony that I ever saw. You helped raise me; you kept me fed, you taught me everything I know. I mean I know that Celestia did a lot of the work when you were little, but I always thought of you as my mother.”
Twilight felt her heart melt, as her eyes began to glisten with tears she pulled Spike into a hug “I never knew, I feel like such a failure. All your life you have thought of me like that and all I saw was something akin to a little brother. I’ve treated you so poorly.” No longer able to hold it back she began to cry into his shoulder.
Seeing the mare that had been there for him all of his life crying because of this, caused a deep ache in Spike’s chest. He responded by pulling her closer into the hug, rubbing the back of her head as he held his mother. “shhh, it’s okay… we will get through this... mom.”
Twilight hiccupped “y-you called m-me mom.”
Smirking with his crooked toothy grin “well you always have been to me. All this means is that I get to call you that out loud now.”
Looking up at him Twilight smiled as tears streamed down her cheeks “y-you have really have grown up haven’t you.” She responded as more of a statement than a question.
Pushing her back a bit to look at her Spike responded “yeah I guess I have. You have always been there for me you know. You taught me how to read, you taught me how to talk, everything. You have been my mom my whole life, and if this means I am allowed to finally call you what I have wanted to call you my entire life. If this means that I finally have a real family to call my own. Why would I ever want to give that up.”
Smiling back at the young purple dragon “I guess this means I need to tell my parents that they have two grandfoals now. I also get to tell Cadence that I was a mom first.”
The two held each other close as they experience their first mother and son moment. The day continued forward into the evening, Obsidian stayed in his room until the evening, trying and at times failing to deal with the death of his hen, and the revelation about his younger brother.
At a little past seven in the evening a knock at his door disturbed him from his musings “Um… Obsidian it is time for dinner. I’m not sure what you like so I just stuck to what I know. We have hay burgers with hay fries. I added some ruby shards to ours. I hope that’s okay; they are kind of one of my favorites.”
Obsidian smirked and let out a small chuckle “yes that is fine. They are one of my favorites as well.” Standing up he went to his door to open it and looked down at the small worming, “And to keep this professional, it would be appropriate for you to call me master, as this will be the nature of our relationship for quite some time. Keep in mind, this will not be some fly by night training. What we are looking to undertake will take many years to master.”
Spikes eyes grew wide “really…years. Um… do you have any idea how many?”
Smirking and allowing a glint of glee to enter his eyes “I would think no less than two to three hundred to get everything down.”
The color drained from the smaller dragons face “t-t-two to three hundred years?!”
Locking eyes with Spike, Obsidian continued“Yes young one. I have no intention to give you any less than a full education. We have much to learn. But at the same time, we have a seemingly endless amount of time in which to learn it and don’t worry about your mother. She will be around for it all. Alicorns are immortal, just as you and I are. We will not die as long as we are not directly killed. Interestingly enough it is harder to kill an alicorn than it is to kill a dragon. My deepest wish is that you will not have to say goodbye to her for many millennia.”
Spike’s eyes seemed to stretch even further “really, we are. I guess that explains why I am still so short.”
Smirking Obsidian asked “just as a guess you are what? 17 years of age.” Looking into Obsidian’s black eyes, Spike nodded.
Obsidian continued. “Well, then young one tell me when was your hatching day?”
A smile broke across Spikes' face “It’s next week on Friday. Why do you ask?”
Obsidian’s face broke into a grin, his fangs now on display “oh you will see, let us just say that this is going to be a big hatching day for you. Now before we let your mother waste away from lack of food. Let us go down to dinner.”
Following Spike down the hall Obsidian watched as the young wormling walked with a bounce in his step. Thinking to himself ‘yes young one, we have much to learn from one another. When the time is right, I will tell you who your hen was. But for now, please enjoy the full experience of having a loving family.’
Spike lead the much older dragon through the castle halls toward the dining hall, “the castle can be a bit difficult to navigate at times. But if you are ever worried about getting lost just ask one of the guards, they will be able to direct you. In addition to that, there are maps at every major intersection.”
Nodding, Obsidian replied “that is very good to know, now tell me; is there a large open area in which we might be able to have our studies? A grand cavernous hall?” Looking back over his shoulder Spike replied “I am not really sure what you need. There is the ballroom. That is the largest room that I can think of.”
Shaking his head “No that will not work, after our meal; of which I hope there is quite a spread, I will have to take a chance to go to the lowest levels to check the composition of the crystal that I will have to work with.”
Spike looked back that the older male and gave him a quizzical look. “Why do we need to have a huge room, and why did you ask about how large dinner was?”
Smirking Obsidian replied “To answer your first question, some of the Magic that I will be teaching you can be rather dangerous. We will need a large area within which to practice them. There are also techniques that I will be teaching you that will require me to be in my normal form. You will understand it after you see me for the first time. As to the second question. I believe that after we start eating, you will discover your answer.”
Spike responded with a shrug and continued“Okay I guess, I mean I have been feeling quite hungry lately. It feels like no matter how much I eat, it’s never enough, at least over the last two months.”
Upon entering the dining area, Obsidian was pleased to see that the meal set out was quite large, looking down with a knowing smile “you were not exaggerating when you said you have been experiencing a larger than average hunger. This is normal, tonight I want you to eat as much as you can. Do not feel concerned for your mother for that matter or me, I will ensure that we have enough.”
The meal began as most meals in this house did. After sitting down they began; Spike started to question Twilight about her day, showing genuine interest into the goings on of his mother and the various things that she was dealing with, Obsidian sat in silence enjoying the modern food, but still keeping an eye on Spike as he continued to wolf down as much food as he could. Any time that it seemed as if they were going to start to run low, more food seemed to be on the platters; neither of the other dinner hosts noticed this but continued to eat and enjoy each other’s presence. However as the conversation began to peter out which left it open for a change in topic, it was at this point the attention was turned to Obsidian.
“So…” Twilight began as she locked her gaze upon the newcomer to their life “what kind of lessons will you be teaching us?”
Finishing his bite and making sure to entirely swallow his food, Obsidian looked up into Twilight's eyes “I intend to give Spike and by transition you, a full education into the world of dragons and politics. Spike will need to know what it is to be an ambassador to the dragons on behalf of his mother and citizens. To this point if you hadn’t already realized this, or if you just haven’t made the connection, Spike can and should be recognized as an Equestrian prince. He already has a good foothold via his friendship with Dragon Lord Ember. We may also look into the possibility of an arranged marriage provided that she is not already in one.”
At this comment, Spike began to cough with earnest and quickly began to gulp down his drink to clear his air pipe. Having not had a mouth of food blocking her airway Twilight spoke first “A-an arranged marriage! Spike is still a child, is that really something that we need to think about, he is still far too young, and besides nopony has arranged marriages anymore; that is something from the distant past!”
“I realize that for Equestria that is true. However, arraigned marriage for dragons is something that is still very much in place, and it is not like Spike would be limited to mates, are herds not still practiced here?”
Blushing Twilight replied “y-yes they are still recognized. Although they aren’t as common as they once were, they kind of fell out of fashion.”
Blinking with confusion “How can something like that fall out of ‘fashion.’ They serve a vital purpose, is the gender ratio not still around 7 females to 1 male here?”
Her blush intensifying “well yes while that is true, there have been some mares that have well, married other mares. We currently have a system in place that allows any mare that wants to have foals, access to the means to have them, without having to have a stallion involved directly involved, or even a stud program.”
Spike had finally managed to catch his breath. “Do you mean having to get married to Ember?!” his face going a deep purple-red when thinking about it.
Looking over to the smaller dragon, Obsidian replied “that would be the ideal candidate. I know for a fact that she would be open to the idea. You left quite an impression on her. Although I am not sure if she realizes it herself, from how she wrote about you in her letters it is quite obvious. In any event, now that our meal is done, who would like to see a magic demonstration?”
The worry about the potential arranged marriage disappeared from Twilight’s face as her arm shot into the air and she bounced in her seat “ME ME ME ME ME” after a few moments she realized what she did, and in a much calmer reaction, she replied “um. I mean I would be delighted to observe some dragon magic.”
Smirking at the reaction that he managed to get from the young mare Obsidian continued “alright then, if you would be so kind as to show me to the deepest levels of the castle.”
Once they had cleared off the table, they began to make their way down to the lowest levels of the castle. Twilight brought them to a small closet found deep in the ground. “Well here we are, not really sure what we are supposed to do with this tiny of a room, but it is the lowest area of the castle.”
Smiling Obsidian extended his hand to touch the back of the closet. Extending his will to press into the wall, expecting solid rock or soil, however this was not what he found. Instead the castle had cavernous opening, he pushed his will further into the opening to discern the size, the further he avanced, it just seemed to go on forever. This lead to the conclusion that the hidden room behind the thin wall was perfect. Large enough for him to fully stretch out, larger in fact than the area of Ponyville “well then it would appear that I have far less work than I thought I would.” Extending a minimal amount of energy he transmuted the thin wall into a door.
Obsidian continued“Well I have to say I am quite surprised as well as pleased. It would seem that the castle has provided for us. It would have taken a few weeks for me to have cleared this much space away with magic.” He pressed the door open and displayed what was hidden behind the once solid crystal door. Immediately beyond the door was a landing, off the landing was a grand staircase that leads down into the seemingly endless room. “This will work wonderfully for a room of instruction as well as a room for me to stay in.” without another word he leaped from the balcony and shifted to his true form, his massive wings spreading as he glided down to the floor far below. Looking around he beheld the miles of bookcases that lined the room, currently all empty. “everything has been provided for us, and even better, there is room for my hoard to be displayed.” Snapping his claw he summoned his bag from his room, popping into existence next to him he smiled at it. Snapping his fingers again they began to spill forth from the seemingly impossible space to fill the shelves.
Twilight had been staring entranced at the room. However, her eyes seemed to bulge out of her head at the sight of the books. “How many books do you have?!”
Smirking at her, Obsidian responded “Just a few that I have managed to collect over the years, I think last I checked I am currently sitting at a collection of around five thousand two hundred and forty-two. Many given to me from the original Authors.”
Twilight began to spin around as she looked at the now full shelves “Spike look at this. I had no idea that this was under the castle, just wow, look at all the books he brought with him…Spike…Spike?” looking down she smiled seeing her Son sleeping curled up with his thumb in his mouth. Leaning down she began to rock him back and forth in an attempt to wake him, she, however, was unsuccessful in her attempts, she began to grow worried. He wasn’t putting up any kind of resistance as she was attempting to wake him up. With a worried sound in her voice she calls out “Obsidian, hurry something is wrong with Spike, he won’t wake up.”
He nodded as he shifted back to his avatar. “I was surprised that he managed to stay awake this long, considering he is very close to his hatching day.”
Her eyes full of worry and love Twilight responded: “What do you mean, what about his hatching day?”
Obsidian responded “His first sleep of course. It’s not like most young dragons to put of succumbing to it so long. Most would have already been asleep for a week by now.”
Her eyes now full of annoyance “What do you mean by that!?”
Sighing Obsidian clarified“I merely mean that most wormlings would have already gone into the designated sleep sooner than this. It is likely his devotion to you that kept him away for so long.”
Twilight Shot back“I will have you know that he sleeps every night, he is normally the one that makes me go to bed at a reasonable hour.”
Smirking he replied “I am sure that he does, however, what is happening right now is his first hibernation, every dragon goes through this just before they hit 18 years of age, it results in an explosive amount of growth that happens during a short hibernation. For most, it is around two weeks. But without fail he will awaken on his 18th hatching day.”
Looking back at him Twilight had venom in her voice “Why didn’t you tell me that this would happen?! Why didn’t you tell him?!”
Drawing back he composed himself to deal with the worried mother “for two reasons, the first is that this is a relatively short sleep, he will not miss much, and for the second reason. Well, I kind of hoped it would end up being a wonderful surprise for him. This should result in him growing to be around your size, and I expect potentially taller, and the addition of getting his wings. Although dealing with his hormones is going to be rather challenging if he was anything like myself. My own hen once said I was likely to make her claw her own scales off.” He chuckled with remorse on his own musings. “Besides now we have time to speak, let us move him to his room. I have much to say and to tell. While he will endure his changes, you will need to be given a crash course on what to expect when he awakens.”
Spike having been lifted and placed in his bed to spend the next week or so there resting and growing, Twilight and Obsidian excused themselves to a secluded corner of the castle where they might have a chat.
Twilight began“So start talking, why is it that you waited until now to speak to me.”
Obsidian replied, taking a deep breath he began “Tell me what do you know of the Hen that laid Spike’s egg?”
Looking back she replied as she began to wring her hands together “I don’t know anything about her, Celestia never told me. Why is that important, Do you know?”
Expecting this he continued. “I expected as much, as it happens it is vitaly important, a dragon’s hen passes many of her abilities on to her young. It doesn’t really matter much in the long run, after so many years a dragon develops all of their own abilities and power. But to start within the younger years, it can affect what kind of abilities they start out with. Now what I am about to tell you is of the highest level of secrecy. No one can know, with me now telling you, the total number of beings that know about this will number three. You, Celestia, and I, at one point I will tell Spike but not until after he has shown that he can be entrusted with the information. Keep in mind now Twilight. This is one of the few secrets that Princess Celestia is keeping even from Princess Luna.” Twilight’s eyes threw sparks off of them at that comment. “Not that I do not feel as if he can keep a secret, but the nature of this secret could endanger not only himself but all of Equestria as well.”
With a level of confusion, she had not experienced since foalhood Twilight hazarded a question “Why? Why would his Hen cause so much issue?”
Obsidian locked his eyes with hers, taking a deep breath as he continued “The reason it causes so much issue, is because Spike and I’s Hen was sworn to never have another egg after me.”
Twilight shot back suddenly “Why would that matter if she...wait” her eyes widened as she made the connection, “you said ‘Spike and I’s’ are you saying.”
Cutting her off “yes, it would appear that young Spike, is my half-brother. Apparently, after my self-exile, my mother sought out some comfort. That comfort resulted in Spikes egg, however, due to the oath that she had sworn she was supposed to have delivered the egg to the matriarch of our clan for the egg to be destroyed. Rather than do that she turned it over to Celestia. She has since passed on to the afterlife. Due to the nature of the oath and the amount of power that her clan holds… well, it is better than they never find out the Spike's origin. That is one of the reasons that I feel like it would be a good idea to broker an arranged marriage between Spike and Ember. Her position would offer quite a bit of safety. At that point, we can simply say that Celestia found Spike’s egg abandoned somewhere. I want to keep him safe. With our hen gone… he is all I have left of her, I hope that I will be able to tell him of her. She will remain just part of his origin. However” his eyes locked with Twilight’s “You are his mother in every way that counts. You raised him, you fed him, and you are the one who gave him his soul, and for this, I can never repay you for the gift you have unknowingly given me.”
Hesitantly pulling forward, his arms spread in an invitation of a hug. He wrapped Twilight in his arms and pulled her close “T-thank you for giving me my family back.” Twilight felt a moist drop hit her shoulder and she then realized that he was crying “Thank you so much for giving me back a little of the life that I once squandered and lost”
Obsidian didn’t sleep that night, and he wasn’t going to need sleep for a few months, seeing as he had recently woken up from a short two-year nap. He had been reading in one of the sitting rooms near the front of the castle. Letting time pass as he waited for Twilight to awaken. It was here in the morning hours just after the Sun had risen that the pounding began.
Looking up from his book Obsidian pondered. “What could that be? At this time of the morning, the Princess isn’t even awake yet.”
Lifting himself to his feet, he walked to the front door and pulled it open to see what was likely a noble. “How may I help you?”
The response put him on edge “I want to speak to the layabout princess, The real princesses told me that this ‘matter’ falls under this upstart’s jurisdiction, so here I am. I demand an audience with her.”
Obsidian grit his teeth, holding back his rage at the impetuous mare. Looking to his right, he noticed that there was a message posted that stated that Twilight was not opening court today due to ‘personal matters.' Turning back to the infuriating mare he calmly responded. “As you can see, Princess Twilight, Is not taking petitioners today.” The Mare responded with a glare. He continued “Even if she were taking any, it is not even close to the time in which she normally accepts them.” He pointed to the posted notice that displayed the hours in which Twilight held court.
The mare’s face lit with rage “Now see here. I am no common pony, do you know who I am! I am Silver Swift. I am a Duchess, and I will not be treated like some common plebeian. I demand that you fetch her this instant.” she finished her statement by stomping her hoof down into the dirt.
At this point, she was beginning to draw a crowd. Deciding that this was unbecoming of a Noble, Obsidian acted. Locking his gaze on her's, Obsidian dropped his visage, the illusion melted away, making sure it was only visible the Noblemare, to expose his real face in miniature. “You madam, have no idea who it is you raise your voice too.” smoke began to pour from corners of his mouth. “I am older than your Grandfather’s Grandfather. I watched this nation be built up from ashes. When I was helping build it, We choose nobles for actions. We also removed them for the same reason. You tarnish the title of Duchess with your behavior. I would suggest that you remove yourself from the premises at once. You may return during normal hours when everyone else does.” Obsidian turned from the shocked mare.
As he turned he noticed that she moved to swing her hand to slap him, He caught her hand and slowly turned back to her, his eyes promised death if she tried again. Speaking evenly “I will make sure to have a discussion with Princess Twilight, Celestia as well as Luna about your family's status, Silver Swift was it?” Her complexion paled at that notion. “And before you think otherwise, that was not a threat. It was a promise." After releasing her hand, he slowly closed the door.
Turning from the entryway, he noticed Twilight standing there with fear in her eyes. “What did you just do?!”
Speaking evenly “I turned an impudent woman away on your day off Princess.”
She looked at him with shock “But that was Silver Swift. Her family controls one of the biggest silver mines in the entire world!”
Cocking his head, he questioned, “It would not happen to be in the Unicorn mountains would it?”
She looked confused at this but responded “well yes, yes it is. Why?”
He smirked with an evil light in his eyes “Then no, no they do no not. I own one of the biggest silver mines in the world. I turned the operations of it over to a friend a long time ago. Telling him that he could take care of it and look after it, but that it would always be mine. With Celestia’s permission, I granted his title to him. Seeing as his family has let that wealth and power go to their heads. I would say that It is time to take that back, and give the daily operations of it over to someone far more worthy of the honor.”
She looked at him with shock. “You mean to tell me that you are the one that gave that family the power that they hold, and that you can take it back just like that?”
Obsidian frowned. “you mean to tell me that you did not know? The ability to do that is one of the fundamental duties and powers that a Princess holds. The power to raise up the deserving and strike down the undeserving. It is the way in which you keep the peace. That should have been one of the first lessons that Princess Celestia taught you. In any event, it appears that the other Princesses have turned this matter over to you to handle, going by what was just told to me by that insufferable mare.”
Twilight looked dumbstruck “they passed that over to me, but why?!”
Smirking Obsidian responded “I would imagine that they are looked to give you more power over the daily rule of the nation. Likely to show that they trust you a great deal. That, and I can imagine that they are looking to have some form of break from doing everything themselves for the last few centuries. It is only fair when you truly think about it.”
Twilight was dumbstruck. "This is a lot to take in."
Chuckling Obsidian responded "I can't relate. I have been doing this for a very long time, whereas you have only dealt with it for a little over two years." Walking over to her, he extended his arm. "Shal we go to eat breakfast. Afterward, I believe we should retire to my room to begin your training on how to deal with a Teenage dragon.
---------------------------------------------------------------------- Obsidian and Twilight spent much of the next week and a half down in the lowest reaches of the palace. Obsidian began to like Twilight quite a bit. She had a desire for knowledge that was unending. He often thought of her lust for learning to be very similar to a dragons greed for wealth. She absorbed anything and everything that he had to teach her during that short period.
But today was finally the day, the day for Spike to awaken.
Shifting in his bed, Spike rolled over "uhhhggggg... I slept like a rock." Rubbing his eyes, he went to jump down from his bed only to find that his feet touched the ground while still sitting. Looking down he was shocked, "My...My feet are touching the ground!" Spike shot up and flared his wings for the first time.
Shouting "When did I get wings!?"
A knock on his door snapped him from his confusion "Spike, Put some clothes on and come downstairs, we need to talk."
His mind was racing "M-mom?"
On the other side of the door, Twilight's heart warmed at hearing him say that "Yes Spike?"
Blushing Spike responded "Never mind, um... I don't think any of my old clothes are going to fit."
Suppressing a giggle Twilight continued "Don't worry son, I made sure we were prepared for when you woke up. Just look in your closet and pick something out. And don't take too long, we have guests waiting for you downstairs."
"Okay, mom I will..." Spike had to process what she had just said: "What do you mean guests downstairs?" However it was already too late, Twilight had walked away.
Ten minutes later Spike walked down the stairs to the dining hall, Turing the corner, he had not been prepared for what was waiting for him.
"SURPRISE!!!!!!"
He nearly fell to the floor when he walked into the room. Every one of his friends was standing in the room, all the girls, Ember and both princesses, as well as Shining Armor and Cadence.
Standing next to each other on the other side of the room were Rarity and Ember. They both looked at the new Spike and then to each other, a light blush on each of their cheeks.
Walking up behind him, Obsidian put his had on Spike's shoulder and whispered into his ear fin "Go, have fun. Your training will start tomorrow. For now please enjoy, and Happy Hatching day." With that, he turned and disappeared down into the depths of the castle. This was a gathering for those that held real meaning to Spike. He could hope that one day he would be able to redeem himself enough to attend a party like this, but today was not that day. His penance would genuinely begin the next day. For now, It was kind enough to let the young dragon enjoy himself.
Making his way down into the depths of the castle, quietly humming to himself, Obsidian began to think about how he was starting to learn the layout of the castle. His trek led him back to the passage that opened into the room that he had been using. Choosing to ignore the presence that was following him. He could feel no ill intent from whomever it was that pursued him, just one of curiosity.
As he made his way to the bookshelves, he relented “I can only assume that you wish to talk to me, at least that is what I am lead to believe. I can’t imagine that you followed me all the way down here without some form of interaction being expected.”
Turning to face the stranger his breath caught at the sight of Luna appearing before him. Dropping to his knee “I apologize for my lack of formalities. Had I know that it was you, Princess. I…” He couldn’t finish his line; the words died on his lips. This was the last person that he expected to have followed him here.
“You need not bow in such a manner.” came her flat response.
“By your command, your Highness.” Obsidian stood but kept his gaze from her. His shame still too great to grant himself the privilege or pleasure of gazing at her, “How may I be of service this day.” He kept his head low even now. It was quite the challenge to do so considering that he stood at least a head higher than the Princess of the Night.
Luna looked at him with a critical eye “Why do you prevent your gaze from falling on me?”
Taking a shuttering breath Obsidian responded “I avert my gaze because I am unworthy to look at you. I shamed our friendship; I destroyed what was once freely given. Until I can be forgiven…I.” He couldn’t bring himself to continue, so great was his shame.
“I must ask, Obsidian the Black.” She had used his title; he felt the knife in his gut twist “Why are you here?”
Steeling himself, he responded “Princess Celestia has given the task of instructing young Spike about the culture and history of Dragons to me. As well as any magic that he may possess. I have also begun to instruct Princess Twilight on how she might guide her son so that he will avoid the mistakes that so many of our kind have made.”
“Mistakes like you have made?” She shot back in an accusing tone.
He jumped as if she had punched him in the gut “Yes princess. I hope that he will learn from my failures, I would hope that he will be able to learn from the past, lest he is doomed to repeat it. My failures will be his teachers. He is blessed to have the Elements to augment his lessons. My greatest hope is that he never finds himself in the situation in which I find myself.”
Luna looked at the drake, trying to find anything that might expose him as being dishonest. Finding nothing, she asked the question “Why did you abandon me when you fell into your sleep?”
The sadness in her tone was a thousand knives in his chest. “I… I didn’t mean to, I..”
She stopped him mid-thought “Why did you close your mind and dreams to me. I felt so abandoned, so alone. My dearest friend just shut me out.” her voice was choked with emotion. The raw feelings of betrayal evident in her tone.
His heart felt like it was breaking, his act, that one act, done in desperation, caused so much pain. “Princess, I-I can’t even begin to understand what it was that you went through. I… I didn’t do it out of malice, I…” his face flushed “I was having, well I was having rather personal dreams. I didn’t want to have you wandering into one. My attempt was not to lock you out of my dreams. I was trying to prevent myself from having them in the first place. I was embarrassed.”
Luna did not like his answer “I am the mistress of dreams, do you think I haven’t wandered into dreams such as that before?! Do you think I am so vain or fragile that seeing something like that would negatively affect me!? That it would change what I thought of you! Do you think so little of me!!”
Her rage sparked a bit of his own “Well excuse me if I didn’t want the subject of my dreams finding me in the middle of one!!!” As soon as the words left his mouth, he realized it was too late. He had let the real reason out, and there was no taking back what he had just shouted.
Luna took a step back, trying to process the information “you mean that you were trying to stop yourself from having dreams of an intimate nature… about me?”
Obsidian was mortified; his deepest held secret was exposed. He had been madly in love with Luna for years. Their relationship had started out as nothing more than two political parties looking for peace, then it grew to acquaintances that were friendly with one another, then to Friends. After that, he wasn’t sure when the idea had started, but he knew when it took a firm hold on him. It had been just a year before his sleep. Luna had invited him to watch her raise her moon. But she had given him something that night. She had created a new constellation in the sky, one dedicated to friendship. She gave it to him on the night of the winter solstice. The longest night of the year, it was the one holiday that he made a point to observe.
He had been silent this entire time; his response was nothing more than a nod. As he looked up, he found that Luna had disappeared. Muttering to himself “I guess the idea of a dragon thinking about her in that manner is disgusting to her. I can’t say that I blame her. It’s not like my own family ever accepted me, why should a goddess.”
Obsidian turned away from the stairs back to his books. “At least the authors of old can’t judge you. They only give knowledge.”
What he didn’t see was that Luna was standing on the other side of the door, her hand held to her breast, her heart moving at an incredible pace. “He thinks of me like that? I need to speak to Tia.”
Luna ran through the halls back up to the ballroom where the rest of the guests were waiting. Skidding to a stop just outside the room, she adjusted her regalia and making herself look proper. The guards flanking the doorway choose to keep their faces forward and their mouths shut. All in all a wise move, moving forward now that she had made herself look more presentable, she entered to room to find everypony having a merry time. Cadence seemed to have cornered Twilight and appeared to be having a serious conversation about motherhood. Luna even managed to overhear questions about dealing with mood swings with an older child. Twilight seemed to be entirely out of her depth as her once upon a time foal sitter was asking for advice about her young child.
Spike was now sitting at a table surrounded by his friends, although Lady Rarity and Dragon Lord Ember sat to each side of him, both seemed to have scooched closer to him, almost touching his shoulders, which had appeared to widen quite a bit during his first hibernation. Passing through the room, Luna zeroed in on Celestia. After placing herself to Celestia’s right, she leaned over and hissed in her ear. “Sister, I need to speak to you in private. It’s about Sid.” She hurried off through the room toward an empty sitting area that lined the walls.
Celestia seemed to be a bit shocked that Luna had just said that. Though the critical reason for the shock was that Luna had just referred to Obsidian as his old nickname, Sid. For all Celestia knew, Luna was still furious at Obsidian and had no intention of talking to him. But now she was sitting across the room, her leg bouncing as a light blush lit her cheeks. Most wouldn’t be able to notice the almost imperceptible darkening of the already dark blue mares cheeks. But Celestia knew her sister. Quickly excusing herself from her conversation about pastries that she had been enjoying with Pinkie Pie, she made her way across the room to Luna.
As the older sister sat beside her younger, she looked at Luna’s face with a hint of worry “Lulu, what’s going on. What happened with Sid?”
Luna began to wring her hands, and she tried to pull herself together long enough to give a proper answer, looking up she noticed the worried face that Celestia was giving her. Taking a deep breath she spoke “Tia, well, I tried to talk to Sid when he left the party.” Celestia nodded, showing that she was paying full attention. “He descended through the castle down to a hidden cavern. At the base of a large staircase, was a vast library of ancient books. He must have noticed that he was being followed because he called out to me. After I revealed myself to him, he quickly averted his gaze.” she gave a hollow chuckle “He seemed to be deeply ashamed even to be close to me. I confronted him about his abandoning of you and his true intentions of being here. He told me that he was here on your orders.”
Celestia nodded but stayed silent to let her sister continue. “Tia he seemed broken. That is not the drake that we once knew. Much of the brash behavior that we once knew is gone. The drake down in the depts of this castle is not the same drake I once knew, but I can’t say that it’s a bad thing. He takes care when he speaks now. He was one of my best friends before, but now he is a grown dragon. I can tell that young drake is still there, but he has been tempered by time.” She looked down at her hands “He admitted to why he closed his mind off from me when he went into his century-long sleep.” Her cheeks began to glow rosy “Apparently he had begun to have...well lewd dreams about me.”
Celestia brought her hand up to her face to cover her mouth as she stifled a giggle. “You mean it took him telling you for you to notice his feelings for you?” she again attempted (unsuccessfully) to cover another chuckle.
Luna’s ears burned with a blush “Shut up Tia! This isn’t a joking matter. He had attempted to use dream magic to force himself to stop having those dreams. From what I can gather, he accidentally caused himself to have no form of dreams for an entire century. For him, it must have been as if he closed his eyes one moment then opened them to find out that I had been gone for fifty years. Tia, I don’t know what to feel about this. Sid has always been my best friend, the first one other than you or mother or father that told me that he loved my night. I feel a fluttering in my chest when I think about him, but at the same time, I’m still furious at him for abandoning you. What am I supposed to do?”
Celestia took a deep breath and stilled her mind for a moment before speaking. “I think the best thing to do for now is to let things continue to move forward. Spike is now awake, and he can truly begin his training. Let us see what happens over the next few months before we cast judgment. That will also give you time to sort out your feelings and give him time to reintegrate back into the world. He is even more out of touch with the modern world than you are due to you having the last few years to get back into the swing of things.”
Luna looked back at Celestia and took a calming breath before nodding. “You are right Tia. I just need some time to sort things out first. Come, let us go congratulate Spike on his 18th hatching day.”
The two princesses rose from their respective seats and moved through the ballroom. Over at Spike’s table, the young drake was feeling extremely nervous but at the same time had an enormous smile on his face. Primarily due to the white mare on his right, and the blue dragoness on his left. Leaning over and up next to him, Rarity titered “My my Spikey Wikey, you have certainly grown quite a bit over the last two weeks. I’m quite sure that you only have what you are currently wearing now.” He gave a nervous nod “That simply won’t do darling. After this little get together, I will need you to come with me to have a very ‘personal’ fitting back at the boutique.”
The tone that she used when saying ‘personal’ sent a shiver up his spine “U-um R-Rarity, is there something going one?”
She giggled before leaning closer to his ear “My dear Spikey Wikey, while you may never have said it, I have known about your little crush for quite some time now. And I must say that it was extremely flattering. But before today, I never could have reacted to it due to your age and physical size.” Spike turned to her with is eyes looking confused and bordering on hurt. “Now don’t take it the wrong way Spike, the age issue was a key factor, to have engaged in any way with you before then would have been rather improper, not to mention the issue with me being one of your, ahem, mothers best friends. But as I know you are aware, I am a few years younger than her.” She smirked, Twilight was currently 27 with Rarity now sitting at a comfortable 25.
“There was also the issue with size. You had the body of a very young child Spike, and while I feel like I could have looked past it, many others would not. What it would likely result is a challenging situation for the both of us. But now you have a body that matches your mind.” She gave him a half-lidded look, the kind that made his knees go weak. “I have to admit, the moment I saw you come down the stair, my first thought was that I finally have a chance for my knight in shining armor, although scales are just as good.”
Ember peaked around Spike’s head “Hey get in line sister, I have a contract with this guy already.”
Rarity was confused, but Spike wiped his head around “Don’t tell me that they already…”
Ember smirked with a half-lidded gaze as well, holding up the documents “You bet they did. Best deal of my life, you aren’t getting away from helping me with the dragon lands any more hot stuff.”
Spike gulped, and it was at this point that Rarity's critical eyes noticed that the documents were a contract for an arranged marriage. She shot up from her seat “TWILIGHT SPARKLE!” she stormed off after Spikes mom. Ember was still grinning and didn’t seem to care at all about the upset mare “Wonder how long it will take before Sparkle manages to tell her about the idea of a herd?” Looking back at Spike she leaned forward to close his mouth. “Keep that closed, you’ll catch flys.” before He could react Ember leaned forward a planted a small peck on his lips before getting up from her seat and walking over to the buffet table.
Being stuck in the same spot, completely floored by what happened, Spike’s mind began to run at a mile a minute. Thinking to himself he started to do what his mother always did, make a list of important things 1.) I woke up from apparently a two-week sleep. 2.) I’m now significantly larger than when I fell asleep. 3.)The mare of my dreams, the one that I have had a crush on for most of my life is interested in me. 4.)The amazingly hot dragoness that I met a few years ago, the one who I put into power by giving her the Blood Stone Septer is also interested in me and is now in a contract with me for an arranged marriage. 5.) She knows what a herd is and expects me to form one with her and Rarity. 6.)I JUST HAD MY FIRST KISS!
As the two princesses walked up to Spike, he turned to look at them with a wide grin on his face. Celestia spoke up first “Hello Spike, how had your birthday been? Get any good gifts so far?”
Not even waiting a moment Spike laughed out loud “Good gifts! This is the best birthday of my entire life! I don’t care if I ever get another give ever again. Nothing can bring me down right now!” His grin was a mile wide, and it made both princesses hearts swell to see it.
Down in the depths of the place, Obsidian watched through his scrying disk smiling at his student. Placing a hand on the image of the smiling youth he grinned and spoke to himself “Enjoy this day brother, for tomorrow, your training begins.”
