//------------------------------//
// Chapter 4 – The Fawn and the Foal 
// Story: Evenfall: Verdant White 
// by Yinglung 
//------------------------------//

“Here we are, the taiga forest where the deer dwell.”

Yolana quietly said to all, apparently not quite tired by endless sledding. The snowing had stopped shortly before their arrival, and Luna’s moon could be seen in the horizons, just some way below the clear and bright Northern Star.

“What should we do, Yolana? Should we go in and find the deer?” Kanipha asked.

Yolana quickly shook her head. “Don’t. The deer are really serious about protecting the integrity of their territories, even more so than the famously territorial wolves. When our forefathers first met them and made the mistake of entering the forest by ourselves, they were viciously attacked and chased out.”

“So we just wait here till they discover us? This seems inefficient.”

“Nay.”

Yolana took out a long wooden tube from the luggage. When the group looked at it more clearly using the dim moonlight, they discovered that it was actually a flute.

“This is a sybyzgy. It’s the traditional musical instrument of yaks and muskoxen alike. We have long made an agreement with the deer and the wolves, that when the tune of the White Star was played, it means that an emissary has come.”

She then put her mouth to the end of the flute and started playing away.

The tune was breathy, low humming, but also dreamily lyrical. It seemed to beckon for a night on a grassy plain, lone muskox trotting about in wavy fields of green and white. It almost sounded sad, but upon a longer hearing, it became soothing and plainly peaceful. 

Especially for Cadance and Shining Armor, who had heard from the chief about the muskoxen way of free roaming as opposed to yak’s sedentary lifestyle. What could not be expressed in words was now felt sincerely in the wistful tune, and they began to appreciate why the muskoxen preferred a roofless sky, under which they were one with the nature.

After the entire play, Yolana put down the flute and said with an uneasy smile. “And now we wait.”

After a while, the expected host began to swarm out of the dark forest and encircled the group. The deer were all horned and armored in white plate and red gems, holding delicately decorated spears. 

From afar, the disdain in their looks was apparent. From their wear and equipment, they were, for a lack of a better word, a more ‘civilized’ race than the muskoxen.

However, they looked incredibly surprised when they saw there were creatures other than muskoxen in the group. Some of them pointed at the ponies with barely hidden surprise and shouted in their tongue, and a few soldier-type galloped back into the forest with a faster speed than they came.

A grey-coated deer cautiously trotted near the group. He pointed towards Yolana and made a curious gesture towards his neck. Yolana seemed to understand what he was hinting at, and held high one of the necklaces she was wearing towards the sky, against the white moonlight.

Just like when her father chief was using muskoxen ritualistic power, a shaft of light descended on the black muskox, causing her to gleam a crystalline white like a black pearl.

The deer acknowledged the happening, and mouthed off some words incomprehensible to everyone in the group.

Yolana’s black pupils were glowing a piercing ice blue, and she opened her mouth to reply.

Strangely, no sound came out of her mouth, but the deer seemed to hear and understand. He continued to ask questions, and Yolana replied in her wordless magic. 

Spike frowned. This tongue sounded strangely familiar. It almost sounded like the ancient draconic tongue, but flat and accentless. He could understand some of his words, but even less than when the muskoxen spoke their own tongue, but he figured that trying would not hurt.

When the two was done talking, he walked out from behind the taller ponies and said tentatively and very slowly, supplementing his speech with plenty of body language. 

“Hey, mister… deer. Can… you… understand… me?”

The deer’s eyes grew as large as dinner plates upon seeing Spike, and even wider when he began to speak in Old Draconic. He back-trotted unconsciously and his breaths turned shaky.

“What? What's wrong?”

Spike asked with bemusement.

The grey deer turned his head and shouted to his fellow deer with a shrill voice, seemingly in great urgency.

The surrounding deer let out loud gasps and murmurs. Pisacan, who had been listening quietly, finally asked with a frown. “What happened, Spike? What did you say to them?”

“I just tried to use the Old Draconic tongue to talk to them, because it sounded a bit similar to what they’re talking in. It’s almost as if they’re speaking Draconic drolly with a potato in their mouths.”

The others snorted, and Yolana covered her mouth with surprise, and she uttered something. But no sound came out of her mouth again. 

She slapped her head with frustration, grabbed a large gem on her necklace and yanked it off. The blue glow in her eyes wore off immediately, and she exclaimed immediately. “Mister Spike, I’m amazed! You’re talking to them directly without magical aid!”

“Don’t put too much stock in me yet. I can understand just itty bitty of what he said though, something about dragon and languages.”

The grey deer leaned in. The disdainful and guarded expression on his face turned soft, and even a bit welcoming. “Jeg er Juniper.”

Spike blinked, and said. “Your name is Juniper?”

The deer tilted his head, and grinned. “Ya, hvat wid you?”

“Spike… or 'Gaddur' in the Dragon tongue.”

The deer named Juniper narrowed his eyes, seemingly to try to understand Spike’s words. At last, he gingerly grinned and said a really long sentence in lightning speed.

Spike’s brow twitched uneasily as he struggled to understand what the deer was talking about.

The deer noticed the difficult expression on the dragon’s face, and gestured with his hoof. 

“Huh?”

The deer gritted his teeth and said again. “Uh… Yai meen, staan her.”

“Star… her… stand here? Standa hér?”

“Ja, ja. Stan-da her.”

“But why?”

The deer mulled and said. “Someone who kan talk the tongue of the ice king vil kome.”

“Oh… uh, okay.”

The deer tilted his head again, and walked away from the group.

“How did it go, Spike?” Shining Armor hurriedly asked.

“Not much. His language is clearly related to the dragon tongue, which is strange, since they’re deer. But it’s clearly not Old Draconic, because I can only understand 30-40% of it, and that’s when he spoke slowly and in small chunks.”

Cadance then asked. “What did you talk to him about?”

“That deer, if I’m not mistaken, is called Juniper. I don’t know who he is exactly, because we just exchanged our names. He then talked very quickly about some, uh, ice king? I’m not too sure about that. And later, he told us to stand here and wait, because he would go fetch someone who can actually talk with me.”

“Not bad for talking to someone speaking a different language!” Shining Armor patted the dragon’s shoulder.

Pisacan also praised. “Spike, you sure have a talent for language.”

Kanipha agreed and poked the dragon’s back in jest. “Here comes again our dragon savior.”

“Cut it out, it’s just literally parley! And Yolana, so what did you talk to him about then?”

“He just asked what we’re here for, and who we are, in addition to me as the muskoxen representative. I then told him that we’re here to negotiate an alliance against the new shadow. He told me that he had to consult his peers and higher-ups. That’s about it.”

“They seemed a bit surprised to see ponies.” Geuse commented.

“And they probably don’t even know what the heck I am to form a reaction.” Kanipha joked.

“Alas, don’t blame them, Mister Kanipha. We’re as ignorant as them regarding the zebra race.”

Yolana raised a brow. “As far as we know, the deer were historically partial to ponies. Which is why I’m quite confident with bringing you all with me.”

Pisacan looked bemused. “This… is a bit different than what I expected.”

“And why would you think so, Miss Pisacan?”

“According to the traditional knowledge down south, deer were expelled from their southern homeland to the north by ponies, so I expected at least a bit hostility.”

“Hm… Something of that nature probably did happen, but that’s ancient history, probably before the yaks’ arrival. At least by the time the Old Shadow descended on earth, the deer was almost too inclined towards the ponies to consider joining us against him.”

“And what could possibly be the reason of this shift in attitude?”

Yolana frowned. “I’m sorry, but I have no idea. The deer has always been a race kept to themselves. The past thirty-seven meetings between us in this millennium all happened outside of their border, because they didn’t even want us to know what the place they lived in looked like. Not to mention the inner workings of their community.”

Kanipha interjected. “So are you telling me that the deer like ponies, but the wolves hate ponies?”

“That’s what the muskoxen tribe thinks, yes.”

Cadance raised a brow. “So what about later, when we have to meet the wolves?”

“I’m not sure yet, maybe we can discuss after the meeting with the deer. But as for now, we can make the biggest advantage of having ponies in our midst.”

Spike raised an arm. “What about dragons, Yolana? Juniper looked chuffed at seeing me. Maybe it’s a good thing too?”

Yolana smiled. “Perhaps indeed. Though I don’t know of any possible link between dragons and deer, but I too noticed how well-received your presence was. This shall make our outreaching more promising.”

“What do you know about dragons in the northern lands, then?”

“I’m afraid dragons are extremely rare sights in the north. In the whole time muskoxen have been roaming here, we’ve only recorded a few counts of dragon encounters, and they mostly happened when we were sending representatives to our yak cousins down south. If I must make a guess, I would say that the cold might be too dangerous for cold-blooded creatures.”

Spike slowly nodded. “That’s true. Dragons have a wildly fluctuating metabolic system. We’re also constantly spending a lot of energy to maintain our core flame. The cold is going to cause most dragons to feel sleepy, tired and even unable to shoot fire or fend for themselves. Worst, the cold could even kill.”

“But Mister Spike, you look alright.” Yolana commented with interest.

Before Spike could answer, Kanipha already interjected and winked. “Maybe the fact that your flame’s out is a blessing, Spike.”

“Hey, yeah. I never thought about my injury in this light. Maybe I need to go find and thank that cragadile if we can ever go back to Equestria...”

“Hey, Pisa!” Spike suddenly pumped his fist and called out.

“Eh? What’s the matter, Spike?”

“Ice king… dragon tongue… ring a bell?”

The yellow mare took in a gulp of air. “You don’t mean…?”

“Yup. Can the ‘ice king’ he talked about be the ice dragon you mentioned to us?”

“You sure that he’s talking about an ‘ice king’ at all?” Kanipha frowned.

“50-50 only. But it’s good to talk about this possibility anyway. Don’t you see how fast his expression changed when I walked out in front of him? It’s very possible that it’s due to my status as a dragon.”

“What on earth could deer have to do with dragons, anyway?”

“If only I have a smudge of idea. Do you have any, Pisa?”

“No, not according to what I’ve heard about the legend of the ice dragon. If anything, the ice dragon was said to be a lone, silent and secretive watcher. The legends were really iffy.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
With another labored wait, some loud shuffling noises came out of the dark snow-covered forest. The deer surrounding the group spread out quickly to form a guard of honor. A large figure gradually trotted out from the pines.

The newcomer deer was tall, but slender and fit. The coat was an impeccable white, and a soft orange mane adorned her head, chest and tail. Her softer and rounder features seem to suggest that she was a doe. However, she had a magnificently large pairs of antlers. It was quite obvious that she was a leader figure.

She gave the muskox female a gaze, and walked near her. Yolana quickly put the magical gem back on her necklace in time, and the tall deer asked her something. Yolana raised a brow and nodded, acknowledging the deer in her wordless answer.

The deer then passed through the ponies and observed them with some alarm and also heightened interest, but she did not speak to them. She briefly looked bemused when she passed through Kanipha, who snickered in response.

Shaking her head, she directly went to Spike. The deer, for the first time, smiled gently, which came as a surprise to the others in the group. She also looked somewhat uncertain and fretful, and she began.

“I hear that you speak the old tongue of our white savior, the ice king.”

The deer’s voice was calm and dignified, much like Princess Celestia’s, but it was also higher and more melodic, carrying an out-of-the-world atmosphere with her.

Spike cautiously replied. 

“My name is Spike, and I do speak the old dragon tongue. But who is this "ice king" that you speak of?”

The deer’s voice trembled with barely suppressed emotion. 

“This is an extraordinary occurrence, my honored dragon visitor. We have waited for this day for thousands of years.”

Spike was stunned. Thousands of years? What extraordinary thing could this deer be talking about?

The deer then did something even more surprising. She bowed towards the dragon and made a gesture for him to ride on her back.

“Please, my good Spike, let me be your wings and your guide towards our new destiny.”

“Wait, wait, wait! I'm confused. What on earth are you talking about? New destiny? And you haven't answered me about the ice king yet!”

The deer winced, and looked briefly to the surrounding ponies, zebra and muskox. She stood back up and said.

“All shall be answered in a moment. For now, you must follow me inside to prove your... worth.”

Spike eyed the deer a bit suspiciously. Although he got a bit of ‘reliable authority’ vibe from the deer, that might just be because her passing resemblance to Celestia. He was not that naïve to just trust her words and follow her inside the strange forest.

“I'd be glad if you can be less vague.”

The deer looked a bit stung by Spike’s words. But she bit her lips and said.

“While I'm pleased to make acquaintance with pony friends, your presence is far more important to us.”

Spike shook his head. He thought that the talk had strayed far enough from their official purpose.

"We need to talk about the deal-”

The deer said resolutely, cutting Spike off.

“You're the only one that we care about at this moment.”

“This would not do. We come as a group, and we come with one purpose. Why would you need to single me out?”

The deer exhaled heavily, and a solid look of determination flared up on her face.

“Alright. If you come with me and pass the trials, we the deer shall be your sword and your shield, we shall be all yours to command.”

“What?! Are you serious?”

A hint of verve and blitheness briefly flashed across the deer’s face, but it was quickly replaced by a solemn nod. She raised her left hoof up and said.

“I Rainga, the fiftieth princess of the deer nation, pledge to Spike the dragon good and true, that the promise I made just now is entirely truthful, and as the sovereign of all deer I will see to the fulfillment of my pledge.”

Spike took a deep breath. With some calm pondering, he said.

“Please allow me to have a word with my companions.”

Rainga, the deer princess, slightly frowned with worry. But she then nodded.

“Feel free, Spike.”

Spike then swiftly turned to the group, who quickly crowded around the little dragon. He scratched his cheek and muttered. “Goodness me…”

“What did she say?” Pisacan quickly asked.

“First of all, she claims to be the princess of the deer. Namely, she’s Princess Rainga, the fiftieth princess of the deer nation.”

Yolana nodded. “I can vouch for that. She did look the look according to muskox records.”

“And then she told me to ride with her into the forest.”

The female muskox looked surprised. “She let you into the forest?”

Geuse immediately asked. “What for?”

“She said that I must come with her to complete certain… trials.”

Kanipha frowned with bemusement. “Trials? We’re here to conduct a diplomatic mission, right? You sure she got the idea?”

“She gets the idea. However, she didn’t seem to care too much about deals, alliances, or even the pleasant surprise of meeting ponies. She was fixated at getting me inside the forest. You see her bow down just now, don’t you?”

“Yeah, Spike, what’s that about?” Shining Armor asked.

“She offered her back for me to ride on! A princess bowing down to me and let me ride on her!”

Cadance narrowed an eye and said. “A leader doesn’t simply humble herself casually and put aside her pride, unless she’s angling for something.”

Pisacan agreed. “This is rather… fishy, Spike. This might not be safe at all. You must think twice.”

Spike grimaced. “But you see… she promised me something big if I do follow her in and pass the trials.”

Kanipha looked suspicious. “How big could it be? It’s not like she would trade you her nation for completing the trials.”

“… She basically said that.”

“What?!” The group almost shouted at the same time.

“I’m not joking. She swore in front of me that if I come with her and pass the trials, the deer are ‘all mine to command’.”

“Holy heck, Spike. You’re gonna lord over these deer if you make it! What are you waiting for?” Kanipha looked excited.

“But that makes no sense!”

Geuse protested. “Why would she just hand over the leadership of her entire nation just because a dragon came forward and completed some tests? If becoming a prince is that easy, the world will be flooding with royalty!”

Cadance quietly added. “Being a leader is not just about the glamor, it’s also about the responsibilities. It would be shocking if she just abandons all responsibilities and leaves it to an unknown dragon. I know not her tongue, but she did not look or sound to me like a reckless and unthinking leader.”

Kanipha shook his head. “But why would she lie to Spike? If she had to make up a promise to Spike, I don’t think that would be her first go-to excuse. Spike’s arrival, or at least the appearance of a dragon in front of them, might be something of monumental importance to them.”

Shining Armor however cautioned. “Power always comes with a price, Spike. You might be a guileless dragon no more, but what you’ll encounter inside the forest might be tougher to deal with than everything you’ve seen before.”

Yolana looked a bit speechless. Only after everyone had commented, she managed to say. “Deer… Truly a strange bunch.”

Spike slowly breathed out. After a brief silence, he said. “This is something that I must do.”

“Spike!” Pisacan yelped in worry.

Spike turned and said. “I know this might be quite worry-sounding, but this does sound like what I’m out here for. Right, Kanny?”

Kanipha tapped his lips with his hoof. “You’re thinking this as your ultimate trial, aren’t you?”

“Bingo. We started this journey to prove our own worth to the Spirits of Harmony. Without sounding dramatic, this sounds like the most promising of challenges.”

Reminded of her own pairing with Pinkie for the same purpose, Geuse looked pained, but she still asked. “But Spike, we’re up north with no way back to Ponyville yet. How would you know if your previous adventures didn’t already do the job?”

“I just have this hunch… This is going to be the make-it-or-break-it opportunity for me. In any case, it’s also the way for us to break through to the deer through their stuck-up and stubborn ways and get them on our side.”

All others looked to each other with uneasy glances. Cadance asked slowly. “Are you certain, Spike? Even after hearing all the potential risks.”

“Yes Cadance, I’m certain.”

Pisacan bit her lips. She moved to sweep the dragon’s back scales gently. “Spike, please come back safely. Remember, we still have a promise.”

Spike chuckled. “Thanks Pisa. But everyone, stop worrying about nothing! I’m not exactly walking into a giant death-trap. It’s just some boreal forest.”

Kanipha, who had been cheering on Spike’s daring decision, suddenly looked a bit worried and sad. “I guess I can’t follow you around anymore.”

He scratched his cheek and joked a bit insecurely. “Maybe it’s for the better. You don’t need to put yourself on teeth of a cragadile or some such to pull me out of a pinch.”

“What the hay are you talking about, silly colt?”

Spike punched the zebra colt’s side lightly. “You put stock into my crazy plan, and from that day on you’re my responsibility. A brother of oath even.”

Kanipha slightly gasped as the dragon mentioned the idea of brotherhood, but Spike simply threw out more bombshell. “You don’t have to say it out loud, but from the fact that you so willingly join me and so quietly put up with my antics, I know that you love Twi as much as I do. If I… no, we make it out okay, and once Twi gets her memories back, you should totally join our household. Twi should be more than happy to have another adopted s-”

Kanipha cried, and he buried his head in the surprised dragon’s chest. “Don’t you ever try to skip and die on me! I’ll hold you to this all the way to Tartarus!”

“Okay, okay, Kanny, golly.” Spike smilingly patted the back of the colt. Geuse was stunned to see Kanipha broke down in tears in public, something that he never did in their long journey. It seemed that he really grew very fond and attached to the purple dragon.

After everyone calmed down, Spike gave a glance to the patiently waiting Rainga, who was eyeing their conversation keenly. With a clean flourish, he waved and turned towards the deer princess.

“I'm ready, Your Highness.”

Rainga remained largely calm, but palpable delight was still apparent on her face. 

“Let's go then.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It had been some time since Spike was riding on the back of someone.

He used to ride on the back of Twilight all the time before the debacle in Canterlot, when she was with him and all well. It felt so natural, and both the mare and the dragon liked to bond in this way. But since now Twilight was still recovering, he dared not to even touch her with too great a force. 

As for the other girls, it was not like that they would not allow him a ride. On the contrary, they were incredibly permissive, eager to pamper the dragon after he lost one of the dearest mares in his life.

However, he never quite took them up on their offer. He sought to grow up and better himself as an independent and strong dragon, because that was what Twilight had always wanted. Riding on ponies in public gave off an impression of a suckling foal, not a capable dragon. Even with Pinkie and Rarity, he never intimately mingle with them unless they were not in lime light, but that was also for many other reasons.

He did take up on Discord’s offer for a ride once. And he had sworn off to never mention or remember it ever again.

His errand thought was terminated when he noticed that the scenery was gradually changing.

Rainga trotted quite fast for a large deer, and they had made several turns and crossed quite a few gullies. Without referring to familiar landmarks and celestial objects, he was a bit lost as to his exact location, but he thought that he must be getting quite deep inside the forest.

The forest. It was becoming stranger as they progressed. The snow cover was becoming patchier and patchier. And the air was getting… warmer and damper?

He felt a bit weird finding himself fixated on the scenery and the air so much. Perhaps it was just signs of spring coming. But with him riding on a stranger deer, it was the least he could do to maintain some semblance of control.

As they progressed, the warmth was becoming even more and more apparent. Spike had to take off his scarves. As he warily eyed the surrounding, he was a bit bemused that the pine trees and snow had all but disappeared, replaced with broadleaves and vines commonly found in more southerly places. It was as if he had walked into the Everfree at night.

After a moment of more galloping, they came across a wide gorge, and a roaring river flowed beneath them. Rainga stopped right behind the ledge and let out a quiet sigh.

She smiled to Spike and said.

“Hold tight.”

Spike complied. He had a rough idea of what the deer princess was going to do, but he was not prepared to believe it before she actually did it. Rainga kicked backwards and leapt elegantly into the air. Her ebony horns flashed a warm orange, and she elevated in the air smoothly like a pegasus taking flight, all the more amazing due to the fact that she had no wings.

It was a surreal experience, and Spike was too engrossed with the amazing feeling of wingless flight to notice that Rainga had swiftly landed again.

Spike raised his head again. And before him was an enormous white rock, extruding from the larger chalk-white mountain ridge like an overturned column. 

“The test will be simple, Spike. Simply go forth and hug the column.”

“... That's it? What exactly is the challenging part of this trial?”

The deer princess’s eyes shifted, and she said.

“The magic of the great ice king will determine whether you're our worthy champion. You... will know the result when you do it.”

Spike felt suspicion growing within him. But now that he was in front of the trials, he thought that it would be simply cowardly if he simply backed out.

He slowly walked forwards the smooth column and laid his claws on it.

It felt incredibly smooth, strange for a natural formation exposed in the elements. But the feeling of cold and smoothness was quickly replaced by incredible surge of heat and power.

Instinctively, he wanted to withdraw his claws. Briefly, he turned back to Rainga with a look of shock, only to discover that the genial and polite deer princess was grinning at him with an honestly unnerving look.

Spike let out a scream of pain, as energy continued to surge within his body. Not even being force-fed molten gold would he feel even remotely this scorched, being a dragon that could withstand lava.

There was also an enormous presence pressing at his mind, threatening to squash him like a boulder did to a pea. He felt like his very presence was being peeled piece by piece.

He again let out an anguished cry, beginning to doubt whether the deer really had an innocent intention.

Swimming in and out of consciousness, he again looked back. Rainga was holding a large piece of white scale on her hoof, and she licked her lips drunkenly with satisfaction, while saying something with a triumphant tone.

Spike could not comprehend what she was saying, because he was entirely exhausted fighting with the battering ram against his mind. 

He winced and gritted his teeth. He did not need to know what she was saying to know that this overtly dignified deer was actually some kind of a crazed cultist. But he could no longer hold his own anymore. His defense was mercilessly shattered, and he was brutally knocked back into the dark recesses of his mind.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The deer could not believe everything was coming to fruition. And the prize seemed to have walked to her door himself.

Ever since she was cut from the grace of their infinitely benevolent sovereign millennia ago, she had been planning for this. Initially there was still a veneer of altruism for her brethren deer, but it had long given way to intense personal longing, a possessive desire of gargantuan proportion.

The muskoxen were always to her mere barbarians. Willing to subject themselves to the mercy of the winds, compliant of being the pitiful victims of the cruel winter spirits. The wolves were murderers worth a thousand cut, but she was restrained from revenge by words from the ice king himself.

She had had his blessing, whose immense presence created a world within world in the Frozen North. The ‘threat’ of the Shadow King was but kid’s play to her, even just with his latent protection.

They were the dignified servants of the greatest dragon of all, and she was his loyal, perpetual disciple. However, past events had rendered the body of the ice king incapable, and his mind all but erased. The deer nation lived in a state of shattered glory in the forest, reminiscing their golden age in their once Garden of Eden, meshing together in harmony with the first ones and the lucent ones who had the luck to live inside him. But newer fawns have already lost the memories of the olden days, even the sacred language of the dragon king.

She had fixated on one single goal – to bring back her beloved king. But having to maintain her consciousness over millennia came with a dark price, and she could barely leave this forest without literally losing herself. As such, she could only wait.

The last opportunity for her to bring in worthy vessels was a thousand years ago, when the coalition against the Shadow King offered her a chance to covertly steal some of his power, in order to move herself outside the forest. She did scout and bring forth some candidates, but they all perished when the immense power of the ice king surged through them.

Her elation was interrupted by a neutral voice. Deep and youthful harmonics vibrated in her ears like heavenly tunes, and she almost teared up in pure joy.

“Raingeva. It must’ve been a long time.”

The deer sharply turned, the purple dragon now stood right behind her, gaze locked with her own orange eyes. His face did not betray his emotion in any way. However, the deer felt the unmistakable signature of overwhelming draconic magic that she sought after for so long, and she struggled to contain her excitement.

She bloomed into a full smile, although she briefly wondered why her beloved king would choose to speak in the Southern pony tongue. She did make sure to choose a mind fluent in Old Draconic to facilitate the transfer of the great ice king’s consciousness. And her ignorance of the Southern tongue was a silly façade, because she already learnt it during the ranging to the south a thousand years ago.

But since that was her adored dragon king speaking, she would scramble to speak in the tongue of the sea snakes if it beckoned her to learn it.

“M- M- My lord! I have been waiting for this moment for so long! L- Let me, your humble serv-”

“Raingeva!” The dragon angrily shouted. His claw almost hit her cheek, but at the end, it limply fell as the dragon looked at her with a look of disbelief and ire.

“E- Eh?” The deer blinked with a confused look. Her smile still did not go away entirely, but confusion, and more evidently, fear for offense against her beloved dragon king, reigned in her mind.

“You… I cannot believe you, my child, would indulge in such a crime against the nature of things.”

The deer said with a trembling voice.

“My lord, I- I-”

“Tell me, how long exactly had passed since that night when the fanged white descended upon us?”

Finding calmness and solace in stating fact, she hurriedly said. “T- Three thousand years had passed since that horrible night the despicable wolves ambushed us.”

“Three thousand years…”

The purple dragon looked incredibly tired. “Raingeva, is the taint I sense on you…?”

Tears rolling down her guilty face, she sniffled. “Y- Yes.”

The purple dragon’s eyes narrowed, and spat out each word seemingly with pain.

“Whose body is this?”

“R- Rainga is my blood. My great grand-daughter through the maternal line, fifty generations removed.”

The purple dragon sharply chastised. “How can you do this to your own kin? And you’ve presumably done it over and over again over the years… You should be ashamed of yourself, my child! For you have robbed many younglings of their chance and choice to live their own lives! And now, I must bear this crime myself as well.”

“Yes… I’m a terrible thief and a craven, and the shame and sin is all mine. But alas, I have no choice, my lord! The project of finding a new vessel for you would have spanned many a lifetime, and to bring you back in order for m- us to witness your glory and join your grace again requires a steady guidance with my hooves!”

The dragon’s face was distorted in a whole slew of emotions, anger and disappointment being the most obvious. After a while, he shook his head and sighed with a breathy voice.

“I want no part of this, Raingeva.”

The deer felt lightness in her head, and she quickly begged. “My lord, please don’t! The deer need you! I- I need you!”

“I don’t want to, nor do I need to steal anyone’s life. The guilt would forever damn me to a non-life worse than the bliss of non-existence.”

The deer had not done something like that for a long time, but faced with the immovable dragon, she whimpered and cried aloud. 

The dragon put a claw to his forehead. “Raingeva, Raingeva, why can’t you be more selfless like Alva, or more magnanimous like Aida?”

The deer already looked heartbroken with the dragon’s merciless chastisement, she looked even more hurt by the mention of the two names. However, the purple dragon merely continued. 

“Alva would never hurt anyone innocent, let alone her kin, to forward any twisted plan of this sort. Aida would focus on the future and bring goodness to her people, not to dwell on the fact that I have passed on and looked for a way to bring me back. I had protected thousands during my life, and I had protected more with my body afterwards. Whether there is a mind attached to the magical warmth, it matters not the least, for I had fulfilled my purpose in the mundane. My body had become a veritable refuge for eons to come.”

The deer managed to ask with a small voice. “My… lord… Why had you forsaken me to the cold winds? The paradise was denied to us for three millennia, my lord…”

The timid and respectful voice grew loud, giving the dragon a stun. “Why? I- I never understand!”

The dragon looked old and sad for a second. He extended a claw and stroked the wet cheek of the tall deer. “You know, Raingeva, I love the deer as much as I do for the first and the lucent.”

“But…”

“Raingeva… The fanged white is as ancient as the greys. They are smart, fierce and most importantly, relentless. They remember. They would have wiped out the first ones at the bays and inlets had I not let them in. They would have destroyed the lucent ones had they turned east but not west in their directionless wander as well. They have no real vendetta against the deer, however, that’s why you, my child, can afford to roam the outside.”

“The outside is but windigo’s cruel breath and desolation, my lord!”

The dragon said bluntly. “The outside has limitless possibilities. It’s only been your obsession that bounded the deer here.”

The deer frowned, while the dragon looked up to the enormous white mountain, and breathed out.

“My child. Have the wolves ever come again after that time?”

“We have had skirmishes over lesser, mundane issues, but those are conveniently mediated by the simple-minded muskoxen. The wolves have never breached our home again… But I would never forget the pain they inflicted on us-”

“Alas, a long memory is a curse, Raingeva. Death is nature’s way to wipe away hate and cover it with dry dust. The fanged white bounded themselves to the chain by clinging so closely to the tragedy that happened to the fanged grey, and we shan’t allow ourselves to do the same.”

The deer looked down to the ground without a word. 

The dragon looked glazed, deep within memories of the past. “The magic from my youth and the force of my bulk gave the two sister races of yours a safe haven. But it’s always been my deep regret that the separation must be enforced. And although I felt through the beating of their life forces that they still thrive, I feel sad that I know little more than that.”

He sadly said. “It is not a blessing, Raingeva. They might be living without the threat from the whites, but they are caged and have no real freedom. They are stripped of their potential.”

“The only thing we want is to live in quiet harmony. The world is torrid, my lord, and under your protective wings we-”

The dragon cut her off. “My greatest regret was exactly that, my child. The first ones were too restive, the lucent ones were too placid. I would have gladly given them freedom regardless, if it would not invite the wrath of the fanged white, but I would always worry for them. But the deer… they are adaptable, and I had high hope for you that you and your successors might bring the deer from its dark past to a bright future.”

His tone became even more tired and heavy. “Raingeva... You are not as grown as I had thought. But you should have understood, for the comfort of the past and certainty is like a cradle, one must not stay in the cradle forever.”

The deer merely quickly nodded, perhaps somewhat too enthusiastically. In her mind, all that mattered was that he was here giving guiding light to her again.

The dragon’s gaze suddenly turned sharp. “Since you so long for the life inside, I trust that you do not hold grudges against the two sister races?”

The deer quickly shook her head. “I have nothing but love and respect for them. Every day I dreamt of restoring it and bathing in our once golden harmony. I never let my longing turned into poisonous jealousy… because I know you hate jealousy.”

She looked down to the ground and said wistfully. “But I’m afraid I already displeased you to the highest degree.”

“Raingeva. I don’t condone any of this, but I understand your loneliness. For I had lived the good first half of my life in it as well.”

Hope resurfaced in her mind. However, the dragon continued. “But as I said, you should have put me aside for a long, long time.”

The deer frowned again. The dragon shook his head again. “Raingeva. I am supposed to be gone, and remain gone.”

“My lord!”

“This is not your first try to reform me from ethereal energy and channel my essence into some other dragon.”

The deer again winced fearfully.

The dragon looked sorrowful. “I had felt it even as I swam on the boundary of ether with little consciousness. You know that it could well weaken the barrier and invite the fanged white here. Moreover, blood of many of my brethren is on my claws as well.”

The deer said grimly. “The responsibility is solely on my hooves, my lord.”

“It’s easy to say so, my child! Their bones might be dust, but they were all once beings of their own, with their own hopes, dreams and aspirations. We can never live their lives for them. This overbearing kind of thinking could only lead to tragedies.”

He looked down to his unfamiliar claws and sighed. “Even as of now, I’m taking away this young, hopeful drake’s life. He had important missions ahead of him, and old tired dragon like me should not usurp his place.”

The dragon suddenly laid a claw on the front hoof of the deer, causing her to yelp aloud in surprise. The expression on her face then immediately turned from a pout to a dreamy smile.

However, the dragon immediately said. “The spell you use… it is flawed.”

The deer now truly gasped in shock. 

“This spell is by nature blood magic. And you only ever bound your essence to your own kin using the same spell, and so its flaw is hidden.”

“Wh- H- How… Ahem, my lord, what is this flaw that you talk of?”

“Minds are never meant to jump from one body to another. In most of the times, the unholy union would result in a precarious coexistence. However, it would not last long, because a side must win, and nine times out of ten the native bond between mind and body would triumph. The foreign essence would either be expelled or destroyed. Stranger things could in theory happen if the essences collide as they battle, but I doubt many lived to tell.”

The deer blinked. Panic then welled up her timid face, and she knelt down on the ground frantically. “O- Oh, oh dear! M- My lord, I didn- I would never in a thousand years dream of- oh I’m so sorry! I don’t mean to-”

The dragon chortled wryly. “Raingeva, you misunderstood me. I’m not trying to say that you would have killed me off for real. I’ve lived long enough, and if I clung so much to survival, I would never have chosen this path anyway. I belong to the rare case, in which the ‘foreign’ essence is vastly overpowering. This would rather cause the host body to become physically unstable and disintegrate, as you have probably observed.”

The deer sighed quietly, and the dragon raised a brow and continued.

“I don’t know exactly how this magical item of yours attempts to circumvent this, but it seems to mask and magnify the foreign essence as the body’s own. However, this hinges on how similar the essences are to each other. But all in all…”

The dragon’s gaze turned harsh, and the deer bit her lips in uncertainty.

“I’m very disappointed and ashamed in your dabbling in the dark arts.”

The deer’s ears drooped in shame. “I’m terribly sorry, my lord…”

“We shall deal with this eventually. But now, I bring this up because this highlights why all your previous attempts failed but this one succeeds.”

“O- Oh dear… Are you saying that this… Gaddur… is related to you by blood as well?”

The corner of the dragon’s mouth raised slightly. “If so, I’d be rather surprised.”

“Why, my lord?”

“My form might be one of a dragon, but I was born of no one.”

The deer smiled fully. “Oh, I’ve always known that my lord is the special one.”

“The earth begot many more spirits, the Windigos, for one. Though I was powerful, I was not unique.”

He turned his gaze from the wind-blown trees back to the deer. “This might be as good as a time to tell you more about my time before I became the leader of all of you.”

“My lord! You never…”

“I never mentioned it because I had a history with the whites, and I fear that this would unsettle the first and the lucent that were under my protection.”

“A history…?”

“I was born long ago, deep under a hill down south, a height held sacred by the fanged grey. It held a mysterious eye of beacon, which emitted a strange wave in the fabric of natural magic. It swept through the living in the area, and it caused an upswing of civilization among the formerly nomadic greys. They still worshipped their sacred tree, but the hill became their equally holy site. And rightfully so, because I was born of that wave of magic as well.”

“What can that ‘beacon’ be?”

“I never knew quite exactly. But I surmise that it must have rippled through the immense natural deposit of magic in the area, and it resonated and concentrated magic to the extent that it shaped a dragon in the deep out of small lizards on the surface. Such signal must contains an unimaginable richness of information. But seeing how dragons also come from lands yonder, similar things might be happening around the world.”

The deer eagerly nodded, reminiscing the day she took lessons from the old and knowledgeable dragon.

“After I was born, I mostly slumbered and grew under the hill, until the great deluge happened. The newcomer ponies disturbed and reshaped the hill, and the signal became blurred and disrupted. What’s more, their disrespect and quarrelling rattled the Windigos. The south was a sea of chaos, thus I moved out of the hill and flew north”

“Whoa… my lord, I never saw you fly before! It must be an immense sight!”

“I was indeed a bit too intimidating big to be seen in the air, but I could fly just as well. The southerners were understandably terrified, but they left me alone after I simply flew on without threatening their livelihood.”

Eyes gleaming with interest, the deer kept asking. “So… my lord, have you witnessed the downfall of the greys?”

The dragon trembled briefly, and deeply breathed in. “I have. And I was the one who brought the news of this great injustice to the whites as well.”

The deer looked flabbergasted.

The dragon looked remorseful. “At the time, I only knew of my indignation at seeing such treachery by the southerners. I never knew that it would ignite a millennia-long blood feud.”

The deer sadly smiled. “M- My lord, what had happened had happened-”

“Alas, my child. I can’t shrug it off like that to lessen my guilt. As I moved north, I actually first dwelled amongst the white. They looked up to me, and I was happy to counsel them. But their temperament was still fiery, and they came to see all equines as their blood enemies.”

He sighed deeply. “At the time, the first ones were the only equines in the north, having sailed through the frozen ocean in their endless mission to trade, conquer and colonize. You might not believe it, but the first ones were once barbaric and efficient raiders, and the whites were the civilized ones.”

The deer covered her mouth. “My goodness…”

“The whites told me that they wanted to teach the first ones a lesson in humility, and I failed to see through their true intent. And so passed the tragedy at the town of Svein. The first ones went from the predator to the preys, their settlements burned and pillaged, their numbers decimated.”

Holding his head in pained recollection, he continued. “I was appalled, and yet the whites said to me it was but justice rendered, and I was too soft. However, their intention was plain. It was not really about the first ones’ raiding or other offenses. It was their guilt by association for being an equine. And so I left the whites to shelter the survivors, and they had denounced me ever since.”

“These faithless, despicable curs!”

“Now you know why they knew me so… and why they left me alone instead of delivering the killing blow and attempting to crack the barrier open. It’s because they still had a sliver of gratitude and respect for me.”

The deer was in disbelief. This added a confusing layer to her simple, straightforward distaste for the white wolves.

After a while, the dragon said gently. “Do you know why I’m speaking in the southern tongue with you?”

“No, my lord.”

The dragon grinned a wide grin. “I can’t help but take up his tongue, my child. I am afraid I am sort of dissolving into little ‘Spike’ here.”

The deer’s jaw dropped. “What?! H- How can this be happening?! D- Didn’t you say you’re much more powerful than all the dragons I brought to you before? If so, then how come this dragon c- can…?!”

“This ‘Spike’ bears the same kind of magic that once bathed me and nurtured me.”

“… Eh?!”

“It’s no wonder he could withstand my presence for so long. It’s also because of this, our essences are quite similar even without the mold of your spell. And being in the state of near-death for so long, plus being forcefully extracted from the diffused ether must have rendered whatever remaining of my integrity to almost nothing.”

The deer let out a terrified whimper, but the dragon simply shrugged. “If not for the fact that I’m still standing so close to my old body, and its power still feeding into this body, I would probably be gone like a spoonful of salt in water.”

The deer cried and begged. “M- my lord! Please, hold steady, I- I’m going to-”

“To do what? Use more twisted magic to prolong this? Even against my ardent wish?”

“Ugh…!”

“Raingeva. There is no need to worry. I won’t falter yet unless I walk out of this forest. And before I finish this talk with you I won’t take any drastic action.”

“… Yes, my lord. But I still-”

The dragon cut her off. “I’m glad to see you, but this is a meeting that should not happen. Both of us are here through unnatural means. While I’m amazed and curious about how Spike could have gained this unique brand of magic that had not been seen on the surface since the deluge, and that he could not be related to me by blood since I never had a mate, I’m more concerned that I’m doing a great disservice to someone who might have a common tie of fate with me, not to mention the baseness of body snatching.”

Facing with the sorrowful deer, the dragon gently sighed.

“You know what, Raingeva, you should take a rest as well.”

The deer’s tearful face shot up in surprise. “H- Huh?”

The dragon warmly smiled. “I give you a proposal that might soothe your sorrow, my child.”

“I- I’m all ears!”

“If you fear solitude in the mundane, we should both return to the ether… together.” 

The deer was completely stunned. The thought simply had not come across her mind. She had only thought about defying death and bring the dragon king back, but never joined the dragon in the quiet embrace of mortality.

The past millennia were a blur to her. She had worn the faces of her innocent and unsuspecting descendants like a puppet master, their minds all but a footnote to her presence, and eventually merged with hers at her next jump. 

All she had in mind really was to meet her dragon king again. She had stooped to the lows of forbidden magic and indirectly led to the demise of many innocent drakes in order to bring about her goal. Not that she did not care for her fellow deer, but they increasingly became an afterthought in her fervent pursuit of a lost dream.

But now suddenly, as if all the jadedness over the years came back to her at once, she felt an intense mix of existential dread and guilt. The dragon’s words seemed to bring out her long-suppressed doubt about the futility of her actions. 

Despite seeing to the deer’s continual survival in the northern land, and the subsequent integration of the refugees that escaped from the southerners, she had dragged down the deer race with her dogged attachment to the long-gone past. She had allowed them to become isolated and conceited, against the benevolent wish of her dragon sovereign.

Raingeva, for the first time in thousands of years, felt old and tired.

The dragon observed the deer carefully, but he did not speak. The deer slowly raised her head and asked. “My lord, I’ve always wondered.”

Noticing the change in demeanor in her, the dragon nodded with some curiosity. “Do ask, my child.”

“Why do you care so much for the deer and our sisters? A- And even the wolves too at the beginning?”

“Oh? Why wouldn’t I?”

The deer looked mortified. “Um… b- because we aren’t…?”

“Raingeva, although unlike most other spirits, I was never branded with an explicit purpose, over time I did strive to open my heart and embrace all within the world. We were never meant to journey alone.”

The deer blinked with a half-knowing look, and the dragon smiled sadly. “After witnessing tragedy after tragedy, I decided to use whatever there was in my power to mend the wounds of this imperfect world together. Although it was somewhat fortuitous, bringing together the three races together was my very first project towards this goal. It’s exactly because you’re so disparate, that I love you all so.”

“My lord…”

The deer bit her lips. “A dragon as powerful as you could have simply subdued all that opposed you. The white should have no chance to-”

“No, no. I would never do something like that. If I just brute-force my way to impose my will, what kind of example would I have been setting?”

The dragon sighed at the deer, sounding a bit disappointed that his erstwhile follower was not understanding of his mindset. “Yes, I want there to be no boundary between races, I hoped that we can all put aside pointless rivalries, and wade through the tides of times as one. But I don’t want the community-building becomes a dogma. If I just roasted anyone who would object to me putting all the disparate races together, then I’m just a tyrant. Even if I just threatened with such a possibility, people would just act out of fear. I want people to truly see past the differences by themselves, not simply being ordered to get along with each other.”

The dragon held his snout and grunted. “This is the same reason I sometimes regret assuming the trappings of a king.”

“...!”

“I took on the mantle of a king merely as a mean to iron out the disagreements that naturally arose, when you bring together races with different physiques and tongues. But it infantilized the people that I so fervently hoped to grow by themselves. It makes life under the eternal shadow of a seemingly benevolent authority look good. I would rather you all stand on your own hooves.”

The deer again looked at the dragon with a sad frown and a look of bemusement. 

The dragon secretly lamented. He doubted that his point would ever get to the head of the obsessed deer. However, he still cared immensely about the deer. She always had looked up to him more than anyone he ever met, and stayed dedicated to him even as things started to turn south. He could not stand to see her continue down the misguided path of trampling on other lives to further her own.

He extended his arms and held the deer’s head with both his claws. She shivered in shock. 

“Raingeva, despite everything, I must still say – I’m really happy to see you.”

“My lord…!”

“I had to maintain a veneer of aloofness and respectability before my people, so I never told you explicitly.”

He drew in a light breath and smiled. “My time with you was perhaps the blissful time I have ever lived through.”

The deer looked overjoyed, she swooned back and fell onto the ground like a wind-blown papier-mâché ornament. 

The dragon continued to say in a gentle tone. “As such a large and powerful dragon, intimacy was a rare thing to experience. Even Alva and Aida were always cautious and detached when they were around me. And yet you stay around me at all times despite my suffocating presence.”

He said with a hint of regret. “When I was alive, I did not ever show my feelings in return of your fervent devotion. I thought it was a sign of impartiality. But now I realize how cold I must have come across. I… am sorry for being so distant for all your faithfulness, my dearest Raingeva.”

The dragon let out a quiet sigh. He wondered if he had paid more love and attention to the deer, she would have come out more well-adjusted than how she was now.

The deer was gobsmacked with the sudden burst of sincere affection from her adored dragon. She always dreamt of being on closer terms with the dragon, but she also feared that her affection was only one-sided and that the dragon king himself would be offended. Now that the dragon himself said something that directly assuaged her long-held doubt, she felt as if she could melt away at any moment and not feel a sliver of sadness.

“My lord-”

“Raingeva, call me my name… for this once.”

“…!”

The deer gulped hard. Hot tears dropped from her wide eyes again as she forcefully nodded. “Nighthewer… I love you.”

“I love you too, Raingeva. Please accede to my last wish and join me in the ether. We can then truly be one and pure again.”

The deer froze for a brief while, and then she nodded resolutely. “I understood… I shall cast the release spell and unbounded… our essences from the mundane.”

She let out an ‘oomph’ as the dragon softly embraced her. 

“My lord, please lay your claws on the old white scales again.”

The dragon complied, and a soft, warm orange surrounded the horn of the white deer. The night forest was briefly lit up, and then everything grew dark again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was all white. The horizon was blended into one giant enclosing whiteness.

Nighthewer looked around. It was not quite the all-soothing nothingness that he expected and had experienced for the past millennia.

He raised his arms, and discovered that they were no longer purple and chubby. Instead, it was lean and white, much like what he was like when he was young.

As he raised his brows in surprise, someone tapped him on the shoulder.

Turning back abruptly, he saw the purple dragon that he was a moment earlier. 

“So you must be Nighthewer himself.”

“And you’re… Spike, I presume?”

“Yep, I am.”

Nighthewer sighed. “You do not look too pleased, youngling.”

“Well, old guy, I can’t be expected to be too pleased. The so-called trial turned out to be a cynical ploy to steal my body.”

“I have no intent at all to-”

“Nah, I got it. You have nothing to do with what Raingeva’s done. And she was the most insecure among the three anyway.”

“…?!”

“You seem surprised that I have knowledge about your past. I take it that this is not reciprocal?”

“Ashamed to say, youngling, I only know of your name and nothing much.”

Spike bit his lips and said with a curious tone. “Sometimes it might be a bliss to know less than to know more, though.”

Nighthewer knitted his brows in bemusement. 

Spike then said neutrally. “You’re the most pacifist of dragons I’ve ever seen. Even Red Fury, the dragon who taught me old Draconic, was always flaunting his aggression and power about. If we didn’t exactly come across each other in this kind of situation, I guess it would be much more pleasant.”

“Thank you for your understanding, young Spike.”

“You’re a good guy. I know it. I was sitting here listening the whole time. Being good to good people isn’t exactly the hardest job in the world.”

Nighthewer raised a brow, and Spike continued. “And I can’t even be mad at Raingeva either. She might be an immortal body snatcher, but at heart she’s just a naïve fawn hoping for the return of her adored adoptive father.”

The older dragon looked grim. “So you know that as well.”

“Because of this mishap, I know all about you, and I don’t know if this is a good thing or not.”

Nighthewer realized what Spike meant, and shook his head with regret. “I apologize for any distress viewing my memories might have caused you.”

Spike raised a brow. “You don’t seem mad that your private thoughts and memories were seen by me.”

“I would’ve preferred otherwise, but it’s undoubtedly our fault to have intruded upon your mental realm at first. A thief has no right to cry foul.”

“You’re just as upstanding as your memories suggest you’re. I can respect that.”

Spike then shook his head as well. “I might be young, but my adoptive mother made an effort to teach me about the less savory side of history, and the difference now is only that I see and remember it as well.”

He sighed. “I just don’t feel like this is what it should be.”

“What do you mean, young Spike?”

“I’m on a spiritual mission to prove myself worthy, so that the magic of harmony would restore my adoptive mother to full health.”

“’Tis indeed a worthy cause.”

“And she would’ve loved to see me become a strong, knowledgeable and independent dragon as well.”

Nighthewer tentatively said. “My young friend, then wouldn’t my experiences be a helpful claw on your way to enlightenment?”

Spike sharply looked up. “That’s exactly the thing I’m racking my head about.”

“Alas, perhaps my experiences are no longer suitable or applicable for the current age?”

“Not at all. Wisdom, kindness and endurance are all ageless qualities.”

Nighthewer smiled thinly. “You’ve flattered this old dragon, youngling.”

“However, sorry to say, I just felt a bit cheated.”

Nighthewer’s smile quickly dropped, and he sighed heavily. “Raingeva-”

“No, it is not about her. It is rather about myself really.”

Spike cupped his chin and said wearily. “I’m just sad that I don’t manage to grow by myself.” 

“Hmm…?”

“You see, some time ago, my adoptive mother did something not dissimilar to you when the white wolves came. She sacrificed herself in order to bring down a dire threat to Equestria.”

“I did not quite literally die yet from what I did, so she…”

“She turned out to be alive quite some months later, magically showing up in somewhere far from our home. We managed to get her home eventually, but she was ravished and amnesic. That is why I was traveling the land in the first place, to look for a way to cure her via magic.”

He shook his head. “But that happened way afterwards. I had soon begun to rethink my life after I thought she passed away. Following her teaching, I read extensively, traveled extensively, and tried to become an adult drake in general. Even after she turned out to be fine, I did not exactly stop in my track.”

Sighing softly, he continued. “I know this does not sound entirely sensible, but I’ve been seeing this as a journey towards my adulthood that I must do by myself. From the first time she told me to become an independent dragon, to the eventual moment that I finally become one. But now, suddenly out of nowhere, years of ancient memories of an old wise dragon suddenly got dumped onto me.”

Preempting the old dragon, Spike said. “I’m not saying that I resent your influence, I can still pretty much hold it on my own. It’s just that it just made everything that I did… a bit pointless, you know? What you’ve been through is infinitely more legendary, heroic and memorable than what a small drake like me ever did. It was like working my scales off to dig for a rare gem, only to be given one by a loved one as consolation.”

The old dragon narrowed his eyes. His expression was worn and grim. “Alas, our inopportune meeting had been injurious as well.”

Spike shook his claws and said. “It’s a bit much to call it that. Yes, it’s unexpected, and it put an end to my journey of self-discovery, but it’s been-”

“Young Spike, why would you think that your self-discovery ends here?”

Spike looked surprised. He sighed. “What more could be out there? The cataclysms and battles and miraculous occurrences that you witnessed would dwarf whatever I would see in my life.”

“Don’t let this old dragon’s jadedness overshadow your youthful passion, Spike.”

Nighthewer said solidly. “Life goes on, and all kind of possibilities are out there. What I’ve seen might be immense, but it’s far from everything.”

“Then tell me, Nighthewer, why would you rather die than to grab my body as your own? Even staying here next to your old body and being an armchair general to Raingeva’s devoted bunch would be more ‘possibilities’ than withering away and becoming nothing.”

Nighthewer said nothing. He closed his eyes and turned away from Spike. Towards the endless white of the mental realm, he began to hum with a low and deep voice.

“While you live, shine
have no grief at all
life exists only for a short while
and time demands an end.”

The older dragon showed Spike a pensive look. “I’ve never envisioned that my last act of desperation would turn out to be the same act that paradoxically tied my essence to the world, opening myself to the tampering by my errant child. Dragons might be long-lived, but we’re not supposed to be immortal, even earth-born ones like I was.”

He smiled. “Nothing is permanent, and no one is truly immortal. And yet things we do live an indelible mark that would keep on passing towards others in the world. And I’m proud to say that what I did was good to something rather than nothing. It satisfied me fully to know that my actions were constructive, and they might, in ways that I may never know, benefit others. You still have a life to live, and many others to help and benefit. I would be doing you and other a much greater service as a memory rather than an obstructing presence. And I, knowing that I have lived fully, am prepared to pass on at any time. Can you, though, say you’ve lived fully?”

Spike slowly took in what the old dragon said, and quietly let out a breath of mixed emotions.

“… No. Not until I’ve brought Pinkie back, restored Twilight to health and put an end to Sunset Shimmer’s menace. And at the very least knowing the wolves’ speech would be immensely helpful.”

“Young Spike, I wish you all the best on your endeavor.”

The old dragon tapped on his chin. “I figure that you’re securing the wolves’ support for something, am I correct?”

“An evil unicorn mage named Sunset Shimmer has taken over the pony nation of Crystal Empire, and threatened to engulf the world with her tyranny. She was a mind-controlling slaver with a poisonous gift of speech, and she mesmerized the whole nation into doing her bidding, even bewitching the ruling princess… and my marefriend as well. Through luck we chanced upon the muskoxen who’s been keeping the prince and the princess, and they are generous in their support. We are roaming the north lands to seek support from every friendly race that we can find.”

The older dragon frowned. “… Huh. A noble goal, but I doubt the wolves would be inclined to involve themselves in this matter.”

Spike knitted his brows deeply. “Yep, I know. They hate ponies to the bone.”

He drew in a breath deeply. “But I have something that might change their minds… Something that neither you nor they know.”

Nighthewer looked truly surprised. “Oh, what could that thing be?”

“I know about the greys before all these, and I know how to save them.”

“Really…!”

“Given it was actually the discovery and idea of my adoptive mother, and I doubt any non-unicorn, or indeed any unicorn other than her can pull something like that off. She did devise a ritual that would undo the terrible curse Trefoil placed on the grey wolves. But due to… personal and other circumstances, she did not manage to set the greys free before everything went to the drains.”

“… Most unfortunate. But the mere fact that she could find a way to magically connect with the greys were amazing in itself. The whites tried to do something like that but were only met with failure.”

Spike held his forehead and said. “I didn’t know what you know back then, so I don’t know how surprising it was, other than being amazed at the dancing light show. But yep, it should be patently impossible to do what she did. Trefoil was ruthlessly brilliant, he didn’t just cast the curse, he made dang sure that no subsequent magic, unicorn or not, could have unlocked it. How the hay did Twilight do exactly that, I would never know unless all dusts are settled. For now though, I can use this piece of information as a flag of peace when we eventually go to them.”

“That’s all the more reason that I wish for your eventual success.”

Nighthewer sighed. “It’s a shame that I could not have assisted you more. My conscious mind is but a redundant presence given that you’ve already known what I’ve known.”

“You’re not a redundant presence, Nighthewer. You’re the first dragon that I met who is not all gung-ho about gems, territories and how hot their fire-breaths are. I would love to have you around… not in my head preferably.” Spike added with a smirk.

Nighthewer chortled. “Alas, young Spike, then might I excuse myself and go into eternal rest already. My current presence is not stable anyway.”

“Wait, Nighthewer.”

“Yes, youngling?”

Spike breathed out slowly and said. “We were both born in Canterlot, even though it was a few thousand years apart. We were both born without seeing the face of our parent. And of course there is that strange thing about how similar our inherent magic is. I feel that our meeting is not at all a random accident.”

“I have this feeling as well, young Spike. We’re definitely connected in special ways.”

Spike closed his eyes. “… Thank you. Despite everything, you’ve given your experiences to me. In this sense, you’re like my mentor.”

“That is a way to put it. You shall be a worthy mentee to pass on what I know as well.”

“Nighthewer, I will keep you in my memories and your spirits in my life.”

“Thank you, young Spike.”

Spike bit his lips. “… One last thing, Nighthewer.”

“Yes?”

“Do you think it should continue?”

“… Isn’t it clear that you know what I think?”

“It’s one thing to glean your feelings from your memories. It’s another thing entirely to hear how you, a conscious mind, would put it to me.”

“A young but prickly mind that you are, Spike.”

Nighthewer heavily breathed out. His voice began to grow distorted as his presence began to lose whatever remained of its integrity.

Spike gulped, his voice grew shrill by emotion as well. “Now don’t you dodge my question by disappearing off to nothingness, old guy.”

“Ha… ha. I can’t even properly die off without answering that one, can I?”

The older dragon sighed difficultly. “Spike, before today, I would solidly say yes. In this harsh world, fencing the two races off against external threats was the only way they would continue to live, even though their freedom is illusory. But now… I honestly don’t know.”

“Why? You seem to have changed your mind.”

“It’s because of you, Spike. You bring surprise, as you presented a solution to a problem I never thought could be solved. You symbolize what I hope could bloom in the races that I’ve watched over – possibilities. I have, in pursuing the basic instinct and goal of survival, forwent the quality that I should foster, and even created a barrier that limited it. Guilt and fear dragged me down even as I drifted off to unconsciousness, and now even more so since you proved that freedom is not necessarily at odds with security. Moreover, as my magic falters, so would their world. It simply is a tragic affair to confine them in such a place, destined to fall apart slowly.”

“But opening the barrier means exposing them to the ire of the white wolves.”

“Indeed, but it’s up to you if you think the benefit outweighs the risk. If the white wolves could be persuaded to stand down, then having both freedom and safety might not be that fleeting a hope.”

The white dragon raised a brow. “But Spike, have you figured out a way to do it? You know that not even I could have opened it myself, having sealed and bent the space inside. It is a veritable alternate dimension that is inaccessible to us even if you can physically crack my crystalized body. Or have you hidden another surprise for me?”

Spike said bashfully. “… No. I don’t have an idea how. Maybe when all dusts are settled and we can carefully research a way to do it. They should be doing fine inside, shouldn’t they?”

“I hope so. But unless we actually get inside to have a look, it’s unkn… able h…w my bel…ved peop… are do… af…r all these y-”

“Nighthewer? Nighthewer!”

The flicking image of Nighthewer smiled. “I h…ve to g… now. Spike… t… care o… Rain…a a… th… de…r.”

Spike emphatically nodded, but then yelled nervously. “Nighthewer! Wait-!”

Yet no voice came through in the vast emptiness in his mind.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Spike abruptly opened his eyes. His claws were still laying on the white surface.

He looked up again to the towering object, scarcely able to believe that it was actually once the very body of the dragon he just talked to. Magically fossilized into chalk-like monolith, the old dragon literally gave his mind and his body to protect his people.

He sighed deeply and retracted his claws, and looked back to the deer that unscrupulously doublecrossed him a moment ago. 

She promised to give up her hold over her distant descendent as well, but Spike wondered what would come out of it. Unlike him and Nighthewer, the actual master of her body must have been casted aside in her own body for a long, long time. Would it really be a good thing to suddenly hand back the rein to her?

The deer simply looked dazed. Her eyes crossed in a silly manner like Derpy Hooves, as she sat on the ground like a helpless fawn. It was a sharp contrast of her gleeful, almost vicious look the moment before her plan ‘succeeded’.

Her gaze immediately focused on him as he shifted to observe her. Spike was briefly startled by her sudden movement, until the deer suddenly leaped forward and tackled him.

“W- What are you doing?!”

Spike gasped aloud as the deer planted a passionate kiss on his cheek. “Raingeva?!”

The deer immediately pouted. “Nuh-uh! I’m not gram-gram! I’m Rainga!”

“Rain…ga?” Spike looked briefly confused, and then immediately remembered that was the name of the original owner of the body of the doe.

“B- But I’m not Ni-”

The deer said cheerfully. “Heh, I know everything! I can see the memories of gram-gram just well! You’re Spike, right?”

Spike was taken aback. “Um, yeah. So why do you, uh, hug me?”

Rainga looked so naively delightful, it was a strange contrast to her solemn and mature physique. “I like you, is that not a reason enough?”

“B- B- But why?” Spike was completely perplexed. The guileless doe should not have any special knowledge of him that made her like him particularly. 

“Ya see, gram-gram always said Nid-nid is her dada. I always want to have a dada!”

Spike tilted his head slightly. “Rainga, don’t your mama have a, um, mate? Wasn’t that deer your 'dada'?”

Rainga shook her head. “That deer is just somebuck gran-gran picked. She always picked her mate at will. Gran-gran don’t really love or care about them, and they themselves just wanted to get close to gran-gran so that they become important deer themselves. She would make baby doe with them and then just shoo them away immediately. I don’t even know who that buck was before gran-gran got into my head.”

The deer banged her hooves together and said excitedly. “So Spike, you’re my very own dada!”

“What the-?!”

Spike’s jaw dropped, but he quickly covered his own mouth before swearing in front of the ‘youthful’ doe. 

She kept on smiling and said enthusiastically. “Nid-nid has given his knowledge to you, and it’s only because of you I’m free! You’re the new successor of the dragon throne and the only dragon in the world that is worthy of being my dada!”

Spike licked his dry lips, but his jaw then hung open wide while Rainga went on. “I thought gram-gram is going to take the rein till the end like mama, mama’s mama, and mama’s mama’s mama-”

“O- Okay, Rainga, I- I get the idea.”

“Hooray!”

A thousand worrying thoughts about suddenly becoming a foster parent ran through his head. But a part of him thought that if the doe would like to think that, he had little heart to simply deny her the attention she wanted. 

Spike scratched his cheek. “So, uh, Rainga, how old were you when, uh, ‘gram-gram’ took over?”

Rainga knitted her brows in deep thought. “Hmmm… I don’t really know myself, I’d only just learnt to talk back then…”

Spike did not know what reaction to put out. The influx of Nighthewer’s experiences were surprisingly congruous and unobstructive, and it did not really rattle his own sense of self like a merge of minds. The process was to him more like watching a particularly memorable moving reel, than actually living through those churning times himself.

But now, out of nowhere, he suddenly got an adopted fawn daughter. What’s more, that ‘fawn’ was outwardly a fully-grown doe the size of Alicorn princesses, with the ability to cast magic no less-

Spike slapped his forehead and said. “Ow, speaking of which, can you tell me more about the magic you just casted?”

The deer showed him a glassy-eyed expression. “E-hhh?”

“Oops, I mean, the magic ‘gram-gram’ casted. Can all deer cast magic?”

“Nope! Only gram-gram’s daughters and so on can do the floaty-float!”

“Oh, I see. So what about other magic?”

“What other magic? Floaty-float is all we can do!”

“Huh? What about the other spell that,uh, let her put ‘Nid-nid’ inside me and herself inside you?”

“Aha, that was not something that is born with us! Gram-gram came across some magical powder a long, long time ago. She would mush them and put them on the horn in order to do the job!”

“Oh for Pete’s sake, it’s Soul Dust again…!”

“Ooooh-! So that’s what the powder is called! Dada, you know so much!”

“Haha… But Rainga, please don’t play with that powder casually. It’s very dangerous.”

“Don’t wo-rry! Gram-gram told me the same thing when she left my head!”

“Okay…”

Spike sighed. This was going to be incredibly awkward when Rainga and he went back to the others. What would the deer think if their princess suddenly became a childish fawn? They would probably pin the blame squarely on him.

“Now Rainga, can you do something for me?”

“What is it, dada Spike?”

Spike clenched his teeth awkwardly. “Uh, first thing first, unless there are only you and me, please just call me Spike.”

“Eh-? Why-?” The deer flailed her hooves petulantly.

Spike scratched his head nervously. He quickly ran through ideas in his head and said. “Um, because you’re a princess, if I’m your d- da, then wouldn’t I be a… king? But I’m not yet in others’ eyes! We need to tell them at the end, but… um, we need to find a good time, a grand moment to tell them the good news!”

He rolled his eyes as even himself groaned at its incoherence, however Rainga simply said in seeming amazement. “Oh- I see!” 

“By the way, Rainga… Can you play pretend?”

The eyes of Rainga lit up like two spotlights. “Uuuoh! Play! I love playing! No one has ever played with me after gram-gram took over! Dada, what am I going to pretend to be? A grouchy muskox? A howling white wolf? A roaring dragon? Rawr rawr!”

Spike briefly wondered if the last sounds were supposed to be dragon roars. “Nah… Those would be too, um… easy. Can you pretend to talk to me in the way when ‘gram-gram’ is in charge? You know, all serious and highbrow and the like?”

The white deer’s eyes grew wide. After squishing her own face like a putty with her hooves, she gently coughed, raised her magnificent horns and said with firmness and pride. 

“Worthy dragon, friend of the deer, I Rainga, fiftieth princess of the nation of Deermark, welcome you to our midst.”

“Um. That’s excellent, you nail it down completely.”

The dignity on her face immediately melted away, and the deer grinned brightly in a jejune victory pose. “Heheh-!”

“Okay... So what was that tongue you and other deer were speaking in?”

“It’s Deerish, a brand new tongue that comes from the old dragon tongue! It’s funny, really!”

“Funny?”

“Long, long time ago, we had our own tongue, unrelated to the one we’re speaking now. When Nid-nid came, he taught us to speak his tongue, and over time it replaced the old Deerish. But after Nid-nid’s gone, some deer began to speak funny, and other deer think it’s a good idea to speak funny as well! So many many funnies afterwards, the deer began to speak so differently that it was poles apart from dragon! Gram-gram was at first not happy about it, and she wanted the deer to speak like Nid-nid did. But she found that it was impossible to stop the deer from speaking funny, so she just gave in and learned the new funny way to speak things, which became Deerish!”

“Oh, I see now. Quite interesting indeed.”

“Right-?!”

“Yep. But uh, Rainga, can you first take me back to my other friends?”

“Of course, dada!”

“Thanks Raing-”

Rainga interrupted him and asked eagerly. “Do I get to play with dada afterwards?”

Spike breathed in deeply, and smirked. “Only if you can keep up the gram-gram act you just showed me in front of your fellow deer.”

“Ehhhhh-?”

Rainga looked disappointed. “But-! It is such a quibble-squabble! Gram-gram always talked like a bore! And the way she walked and acted and blahblah was so… so… showy! La-di-da! It’s so put-on, it makes me feel queasy!”

“Remember Rainga, they don’t know that gram-gram is gone and I’m…”

Spike suppressed his desire to sigh out loud. “… y- your dada yet. They also don’t know that the princess they saw was mainly gram-gram but not you. If they see that you act so unlike gram-gram, they might think of you as a… as a phony!”

Rainga gasped aloud. But then she quickly shrugged. “Meh, being a princess is such a chore anyway. I’d rather play and take naps.”

Spike’s eyes almost popped out. “B- But think of me, Rainga!”

“Dada?”

“They would roast me alive if they think that I somehow make their princess act so close to me using some bad dragon witchery!”

“Roasting? Dada, you’re a dragon! You shouldn’t be afraid of fire!”

Spike massaged his temples. “Ah… I just meant they would be really mean to me! And if they hurt me, I- I can’t play with you anymore.”

Rainga gasped. “That won’t do!”

“So-”

Rainga scratched her cheek. “Guess I’m going gram-gram myself for once.”

Spike let out a sigh of relief. “Great…”

“But Spike, what fun game are you going to play with me afterwards?”

Spike’s eyes rolled left and right, and showed her a mysterious grin. “You will see, Rainga.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A giant hollow tree sat at the base of the white mountain, towering over most other trees and structures. It was meticulously crafted and decorated, with oaken window frame looking out to the semi-circular deer settlement inside the misty boreal forest.

Pebble pavements connected many perfectly circular clearings of different sizes, each of them containing exactly one building. Most of them were half-timbered circular towers, but some were hollowed trees, including this royal guesthouse. The level of technology was not quite as advanced as Equestria, but it was respectable, showing clear signs of advancement like metal working.

The forest town easily covered the area of Ponyville, though the population was probably much sparser. The visitors could not really tell, since the deer was by nature evasive and aloof.

Strangely enough, the town was not that far away from the ‘entrance’ of the forest, but from the outside it was not at all visible. Some magic was probably involved in masking the true location of the settlement from potential enemies.

Inside the treehouse guesthouse, the group assembled in what appeared to be a large guest room.

And yet, they were completely silent, looking at the small dragon and the white deer with disbelief.

“… So, Spike.”

Geuse said blandly. “Let me get this straight. You get tricked by a body-hopping-”

“Nuh-uh.”

Pisacan made a ‘T’ with her hooves and interrupted Geuse. “Repeating what Spike said is not going to make it sound less off-the-wall.”

“And I think result speaks louder than whatever logic there is in this case.”

Kanipha added, pointing to the dragon being helplessly cuddled by the unbashful doe.

Shining Armor wryly commented. “Spike, I guess your time with Twily had earned you the ability to work miracles as well.”

Spike rolled his eyes up and said. “You know, I would open up a portal back to Ponyville if I can really do miracles. I miss the soft embrace of my old basket.”

Cadance asked worriedly. “If what you’ve said is true, Spike, then do you feel alright? It can’t be good for your mental health to suddenly receive years and years’ worth of foreign memories.”

“I thought it would be maddening at first, or at least incredibly jarring. But no, it came and swung by naturally. I am not even too sure why, perhaps Nighthewer and I have some unknown bonds of magic. But at least now thanks to him, I have a pretty good perspectives of some of the northern races.”

Spike gulped, unsure whether he should also mention the whites and the greys, and if he mentioned it, how he could explain it so that he would not break his promise to Twilight.

He flicked one of his back scales and tutted. “I hope I can pull some old favors to entice the wolves into helping us.”

Yolana blinked and smiled. “This overture is so far going excellently, I’m sure the wolves would be kind enough to join us too. Father will be glad to hear that we’ve been allowed inside the deer settlement for the first time in history.”

Spike only scrubbed his nose nervously.

The muskox turned to the white deer and asked. “Rainga, I would like to ask you something.”

The deer was stunned at first, then looked at the muskox uncertainly. For a moment she attempted to hide behind Spike, but due to the size difference, it was impossible.

Spike crossed his arms and said. “Rainga’s just a fawn at heart, don’t raise your voice on her, please.”

Yolana covered her mouth and apologized. “My bad, Rainga.”

“What do you wanna ask her anyway?”

“I just wonder if the deer can pitch in some hoofpower to help, if the new shadow does come and pounce on us again.”

Rainga pouted. “Why would we want to? We are safe and snug in our homes.”

Yolana looked disappointed. “But she’s going to destroy the peaceful way of life for all of us if she succeeds…”

Rainga turned her head away and said. “Meh, dada’s magic is going to protect us just like the last time.”

Yolana frowned. “… Mister Spike?”

“Oh, about that… Goodness, it’s so complicated.”

Kanipha shrugged. “It’s not like we can do anything other than keep on listening.”

“Alright. First, yes, Nighthewer can wield magic in addition to breathe fire. He’s a dragon straightly born from the ambient magic of the earth, making him one of the first dragons to roam the world. He would not like this comparison, but in this sense, he’s kind of like Discord, in that he’s an earth-born spirit with magical power.”

The zebra colt exclaimed. “Holy heck, Spike. Does it mean that you inherited his power?”

“Nah, I don’t think so. The last time I check, I still almost cough my lungs out when I tried my green breath. And I don’t think I can cast any spell yet.”

Pisacan sighed. “I told you not to overexert yourself, Spike.”

Spike waved his claw. “Roger that, Pisa. So when the nice little community Nighthewer forged together was under attack by the white wolves, he pulled a desperate gambit to save his people from their vendetta. He first casted layers upon layers of protective magic, and then concentrated his remaining magic and compressing it, so much so that it bent space-time and create a pocket space for them to live in, with his body as an anchor. The enormous white mountain behind you is exactly his fossilized body frame.”

Everyone in audience emitted a sigh of shock and wonder.

“So near the frame, the protective spells actively neutralize all offensive magic within a certain distance, including Sombra’s dark magic.”

Kanipha commented. “How handy if it’s something that’s portable.”

The dragon shook his head. “To counteract something that malicious, it requires great sacrifice. It’s literally Nighthewer’s life energy that makes up the protection, and it’s been weakened by Sombra’s assault and the passage of time.”

A tinge of sadness showed up in the listeners’ faces. Spike turned to the deer and said. “So Rainga, we can no longer rely on the magical protection anymore. We must learn to fend for ourselves.”

Rainga reluctantly nodded. “Aiyeee…”

This time Yolana used a cooing voice. “Um, Rainga, so how many deer can you muster if there is a need to fight?”

Rainga looked lost for a moment, and then she difficultly said. “Hummm… I don’t really know… Gram-gram thought she could call up a thousand or so defenders if the wolves try anything funny, but that’s only for holing up in our homes. If we have to fight the baddies out of the forest, we’ll need to move and eat a lot more food. I don’t think we’ll have enough for that, especially if we have to go all the way down south.”

She shrugged. “What’s more, the Windigos just went to sleep half a month ago. Snow has not all melted yet. We can’t even eat wild grass if we can bear the yuckiness.”

“But if you order them to move, will they totally listen?”

“Oh, they will I act all gram-gram on them. They’re dead scared of gram-gram’s anger. Heck, I’m a bit scared about that when I think of her outburst too.”

“So the deer can help, but probably not much?”

“Yep, yep.” Rainga nodded, and then yawned at the boring subject matter.

Shining Armor asked. “At the risk of sounding insensitive or ignorant, can we also count on the help from the people from within the pocket space? Like, can we open the barrier somehow?”

Cadance nodded. “Shining is right, who exactly are in the barrier anyway? Why do the wolves hate them?”

Spike winced hard. With clenched teeth and a difficult look, he said. “You know, the legends are true. There are ponies in the north, and those ponies are living inside the protection of Nighthewer.”

A few listeners yelped at once. “Really!”

“So, ancient history time. And just a warning, it might not be exactly pleasant.”

The listeners looked around with unease, and Cadance said grimly. “Speak freely, Spike. If what you’re going to say is the truth, then there is little need for censure.”

“Very well.”

Spike muttered softly. “It was back when ponies began to move across the sea to settle the land of modern-day Equestria en masse. However, the land had been already occupied.”

Shining Armor asked. “By who? Buffalos? Deer? Muskoxen?”

“The Equestrian landscape was different back then. At the time, south of the Crystal Mountain was an endless primeval forest. The crowns of old-growths were so dense that they would intertwined together, blotting out the sun. The Everfree is the only remains of this ancient woodland.”

Spike looked out of the window and continued. “Technically, the very first ponies who came onto this land was a group of snow-dwelling earth pony seafarers. They called themselves ‘Fyrstlingar’, or Firstlings. They were a freedom-loving bunch, and they came to get away from the influence of the ancient Crystal Empire, which was at her height of power. They were traders, but also raiders, and from the safe havens in the extreme northern icy fjords they would strike out at passing ships on the high seas. Their numbers were few, but they had sailed far and wide.”

He then looked at Cadance with a meaningful look. “And after Roam fell, crystal ponies fled to the West as well. Wary of the foes in the East, and also Firstlings on the coast, they built the impregnable citadel in the chilly mountains, and that city would later become the Empire Proper of now. The more southerly places was not a viable place to settle, being so covered with dense vegetation.”

The dragon then turned to Pisacan. “Pisa, remember how you told us about Princess Alba, who led an expedition to the north, right?”

“Yes! Oh dear, don’t tell me that the expedition was related to the ponies-”

“Bingo. Princess Alba originally went to the north with a large delegation to strike a peace deal with the Firstlings and establish permanent relations in a historic deal. But she was unexpectedly engulfed in a raging war between the Firstlings and the white wolves. The expedition had been cornered and forced to flee into the protection of Nighthewer alongside the Firstlings.”

“But you haven’t said why the white wolves hate ponies so much!” Geuse said.

“Their hatred might be irrational, but I don’t dare say it’s unjustified. They’re out there to take revenge for their lupine brothers, who were betrayed terribly by ponies.”

“…!” “Betrayal, ponies? How could it be?” “What exactly happened, Spike?”

Spike sighed, he was going into areas that were Twilight’s findings rather than Nighthewer’s knowledge, but given the current situation, to keep hiding his knowledge seemed unwise. He simply felt terrible that he might have to partially break his promise to Twilight.

“So anyone here has heard about the name… Trefoil?”

The listeners either frowned or shook their heads, but Cadance raised her voice after some recollection. “I think I’ve heard of this name in history class. He’s one of the first recorded unicorns in history, am I right?

“Yep. He’s the chief mage in the Unicornian court before the migration. Since the north was not only cold, but also already occupied by yaks, deer, crystal ponies and such, they mulled over the possibility of settling in the southerly lands. But once the fleet was sent out and some surveying was done, it was found that the forested land was not only unsuitable for pony settlement, it was also already occupied by a large confederation of sapient creatures – led by the forest-dwelling grey wolves.”

Kanipha frowned deeply. “Hmm, I surmise that this Trefoil must’ve done something really bad to them, am I correct?”

“That’s putting it lightly. The grey wolves were nothing like the feral hyenas. They were a civilized bunch with sophisticated social organization. They were deeply spiritual, and only ate fruits, nectars and occasionally fishes, even though it made them physically weaker than their other wolf brethren. I did not know how exactly Trefoil and the grey wolves met up, but it was certain that some trickeries were involved to lure the grey wolves to one place, and then Trefoil casted his vile spell to… exterminate all of them.”

Cadance gasped. “That’s a horrific crime…! Even though they’re not ponies, the sanctity of their lives should always be respected! How come nopony ever mentioned it in history books?”

“Well, for one, I guess it’s because Trefoil wrote most of the early Equestrian histories himself. It’s also very likely that he acted alone, independently of the unicorn court. And to give him the most generous appraisal, without him, there would be no Equestria.”

The ponies let out some muted noise of deep pondering. 

“After the greys disappeared, the natural magic of the land was also disrupted, perhaps as the magic of harmony reacted to the sheer vileness of the act. But this paradoxically benefited the ponies, because it led to the rapid shrinkage of the magic-tinged woodlands, opening up fertile flatlands for farming and settlement. One people’s hero is another’s villain, I’m afraid… It’s worth mentioning that Windigos, who would later terrorize the land, were likely given their current equine form because of Trefoil’s vile magic. Before that, they were simply formless energies of winter.”

Shining Armor and Cadance winced. Kanipha commented. “I know history is usually darker than we thought, but dang…”

Spike shook his head. “So yeah... When the white caught wind of the betrayal, they were enraged beyond reason. Nighthewer was at the time staying with them. Without his counsel, war would have immediately broken out. However, it turned out that his action only put their hatred into the backburner. Years later, just when Nighthewer thought the whites had finally put their hate behind them, they had launched their own war of extermination against every pony in sight. The Firstlings were caught by surprise and decimated. And it was then Princess Alba’s delegation came into the equation and got accidentally roped into the turmoil. The conflicted raged on for years, and the white wolves fought with such fury and intensity that the ponies had no choice but to flee into this very forest, then solely occupied by the deer.”

Regret apparent in his tone, he continued. “Nighthewer left the white to offer protection to all three races in the forest, and for a time conflicts did stop. He then attempted to build a union between the northern races to prevent something like that from ever happening again.”

Shining Armor commented with a sigh. “Not unlike the founding of Equestria itself, even though it’s somewhat ironic.”

“If only it’s a similar success… It turned out that the peace was an illusion, because the white were actually concocting a way to defeat even Nighthewer, who dared to shelter their blood enemies. War abruptly came to the door of the young union, and amidst almost assured defeat, Nighthewer had no choice but to offer up his life energy to preserve the life of his ponies. Fortunately, the white were not entirely heartless. They’ve come to regret cornering their once benefactor into sacrificing himself, and understand that the deer were only caught in the crossfire. So they pulled away and lived in isolation ever since, seemingly forgoing further revenge.”

Spike then clasped his claws. “That’s it. The concise description of the feud between wolves and ponies. It was also because of the experience of common struggle, even though the northern deer were later joined by refugees from the south, they did not become resentful of ponies as much as the white wolves did.”

Yolana frowned deeply. “We muskoxen only know that they once warred with each other almost to the last warrior, but we never know it’s because of… that.”

Kanipha bit his lips. “Somehow I get the feeling that the white wolves might not be the most forgetful or forgiving of bunches.”

Shining Armor covered his snout and said wryly. “No wonder Sombra got his plot kicked out by them. They must hated him extra for being an evil unicorn mage from Equestria. It was a miracle that he came out in one piece.”

Cadance asked uncertainly. “So Spike, do you still think it’s realistic to seek their help?”

“I can’t say. Given how sparse the white interacted with others, it is hard to tell how they would react to our outreach. Personally I doubt it would be much more successful than, um, Sombra.”

Spike deeply frowned. “Though I know a piece of information that might be useful.”

“What is it? Tell us, tell us!” Geuse asked hurriedly.

“There might be a way to bring back the greys by breaking the curse.”

“What?!”

Kanipha asked. “But didn’t you say all grey wolves were… were dead?”

“I don’t know why Trefoil did it this way, whether by design, by limitation, or out of some twisted sense of cruelty like our dear Discord in the past. He did not exactly kill the grey wolves. Rather, he forcefully stripped them of their sapience and transformed them into beings of wood and leaves, and then added layers of anti-magic charm on them to prevent any intentional or accidental tampering. This way, they would have gradually fizzled out and eventually truly died off, but not before walking the earth like a mockery of their former selves.”

Shining Armor asked in shock. “H- Holy, Spike, are you saying that Timberwolves are the greys?!”

“Yep. I am almost entirely sure.”

The zebra colt spit his tongue out. “Hot dang! This Trefoil is the quintessential evil warlock.”

“Magical as he was, he probably did not take into account of the ambient magic from the Tree of Harmony, which lengthened and sustained the effect of his transformation. Otherwise, it should be transient in nature like all other transfiguration spells.”

Cadance asked. “Spike, I didn’t know that you’re that proficient in the matter of magic. Is that thanks to Nighthewer’s experiences as well?”

The dragon said with a sigh. “Nighthewer was somewhat knowledgeable in magic, but it was actually mainly thanks to Twi.”

“T- Twily?” Shining Armor was even more stunned.

“Twi was the one who actually discovered something wrong with the Timberwolves when she surveyed the forest. She almost reached the truth, and she even devised a ritual that can realistically revive the greys. But she did not manage to set them free before what happened in Canterlot, out of the fear the commotion it would cause. Of course she did not know then the true history of the greys, but she knew that they were not simply animated branches.”

“… Dang. That leads us onto a dead end again, doesn’t it?”

Geuse looked frustrated. “Now that Twilie’s not exactly recovered, and we also have no way to prove our words even if we tell the wolves that.”

Pisacan nodded. “Indeed, if I’m the leader of the wolves, I would be inclined to think that you might be simply bluffing your way into getting their support.”

“It’s still worth a try, isn’t it? To avoid setting them off, the ponies among us can stay, while Yolana, Kanny and I can-”

“What about meeee?” Rainga added with a drawn-out voice.

Spike showed a helpless smile. “No, Rainga, you have to stay here. Without you, who’s going to translate for the ponies and the deer and look after their needs?”

Rainga pouted and frowned, but Spike quickly whispered something to her ears. Smile quickly returned to her face and she nodded enthusiastically. The others looked on with interest but stayed politely quiet.

Yolana’s look was worried. “Without the wolves’ support, the struggle against the new shadow would be very difficult. Among the principal three races in the north, they fight the best, no doubt.”

Kanipha said. “Not to mention they control the seaways. So even if we want to pull a getaway and-”

Yolana looked shocked. “Mister Kanipha, you can’t be serious! We’re in this together, aren’t we? This is our home, we can’t flee like you can!”

The zebra colt stuck his tongue out and said with a somewhat bashful tone. “I’m just saying in hypothetical. O- Of course I’m not really thinking of leaving you behind. If not for the muskoxen, we all would be frozen icicles out there. Having access to the sea would be an advantage in all cases.”

Yolana blinked and nodded. “We must try to secure the wolves’ support. That’s the way Ulgen intends it to be – the final step to eternal peace.”

“Bleh, you muskoxen with your silly supers- oomph!”

Spike put his claw on the deer’s mouth before there could be a diplomatic incident. He whispered into her ears and lightly chided. “Nuh-uh, Rainga. No disrespect of your visitors, hmm?”

“Yes, da- Spike.” The deer pouted.

Shining Armor bit his lips and asked again. “Spike, we must have more helping hooves especially if the wolves say no. Do you think it’s possible to get the ponies that were gated in by Nighthewer’s magic out of their pocket space, in order to get their assistance? You know, like how Crystal Empire came back into being after a thousand years in limbo?”

“I don’t think they are similar at all. Rarity told me that the Crystal Empire came back because Sombra’s curse ran its course. But what Nighthewer did was much more permanent. Hmm, if we have to make a comparison to something familiar, I would say it’s more like the protective barrier of Crystal Empire, but charged up to eleven by Nighthewer’s life energy and immense magic. It distorts space like a tight twist in a balloon, and not even air can pass between the two places.”

Geuse asked. “So there is no way to ‘untwist’ it at all?”

“Not even Nighthewer knew of a way to undo it. He only aimed to seal the place so tight that no one could have entered to harm the two pony races. The place might as well be its own little universe, now that there is no way to interact with it at all from the outside.”

“Oh, that’s loads of poppycock. But don’t you say it’s weaker than when he initially casted the spell? Maybe we can actively try to weaken it more so that it would go away entirely.”

This time it was Rainga that looked dismayed. “No can do! Nid-nid’s old body might fall to pieces if the magic is completely gone!”

Rainga slapped her forehead dramatically and whined. “We deer love and adore Nid-nid! His magic protects us and his body is holy to us! They don’t know dada took over for Nid-nid, and there will be a lot of unhappy deer if you do that!”

Kanipha peeked out of the window and mulled. “And I would get the Tartarus out of here if that really happens. I mean, a rockslide of this scale would bury this entire town.”

Rainga nodded vigorously. “Yep yep, and that too!”

Pisacan coolly warned. “Without more hoofpower, it would not be enough to inflict a defeat on Sunset Shimmer’s army shall they invade. The best we could do is use speed and element of surprise to break through the blockade across the Crystal Mountains and tried to muster help. But even if we manage to scale the mountain, it would leave the deer and muskoxen’s homelands defenseless, not to mention the fact that we know nothing about the south at the moment, as well as the possible toll on lives such a risky maneuver would cause.”

Spike exchanged glances with Cadance, Shining Armor and Yolana. The dragon quickly took initiative and said. “Time is running out, and we’ve already used quite a lot of time traveling around. The coast is a long way away from here, so we better get movin’.”

He nodded firmly. “Even if we can’t count on the white wolves believing our intention to save their brothers, we can still prepare something to appease them.”

“What can that be?” Cadance asked.

“First, Yolana, what I’m going to say might be somewhat unsettling to you as a muskox.”

The muskox chief’s daughter blinked and nodded, and Spike began. “You see, unlike the greys, the whites were carnivorous. They used to abduct muskox calf and, uh… feed on them. In fact, before Nighthewer came to the north, muskoxen were the primary target of attack for the white wolves.”

Blood drained from the female muskox’s face. With trepidation, she said. “By Teniri, I never knew t- that! They never cannibalized on deer or muskoxen in our records!”

“Bloody Tartarus, do they still prey on other sapients?” Kanipha looked both disgusted and angry.

“No, no. It was ages ago. When Nighthewer tried to forge a northern union, he already knew that it couldn’t be done if the whites see the others as food and not as partners. He again traveled south to the ruined fields of the greys, and brought the whites the seeds of susimarja, or wolfberries in the white’s tongue. It grows even in the harsh climate of the north, is incredibly nutritious, and they also produce sweet saps. It eliminated the need for them to hunt for preys. Seeing what happened in the following years, it’s safe to say that it stayed the same.”

“Thank goodness for that!”

“So yep, they grow wolfberries as their primary food source. But wolfberries do not grow the best on the coast, where salty sea wind and poor soil make for small, lumpy and dull-tasted berries. I don’t know how they’re doing after such a long time, but back in the old days, they also had to build large smoking fires to warm the plants in winter. It’s a great hassle for them, but it’s safer than being bucked in the face by a muskox.”

Yolana crossed her hooves defensively. “If they dare to attack me or my muskoxen, I’m not going to pull back.”

Spike smiled helplessly. “Relax, relax. But back to the topic of wolfberries – I found out that they grow the best in this very forest. Although the deer, as far as I know, do not grow wolfberries, they grow by themselves all around the white mountain, where it is hotter and wetter due to the latent magic from the barrier. Prime-quality wolfberries have an irresistibly sweet and wine-flavored taste to the wolves, but Raingeva has never let the wolves get their paws on them. Now that we want to offer an olive branch, what’s better than adding a good barrel of plump red wolfberries on the side?”

Shining Armor nodded. “Sounds like a plan to me.” 

Cadance touched her jaw uncertainly. “Can a barrel of berries trump years of hatred, though?”

Spike shrugged. “It can’t hurt, can it? Rainga and I actually already arranged for some deer helpers to collect berries down there, and they should be loaded to a cart very soon. Rainga also picked a small group of elite honor guards to protect us on our way to the wolves. They can even help pull the sleds!”

Yolana puckered her lips. “I don’t need help. My physical strength is a divine gift, and to not use it is to squander this gift. Plus my sleds are my life-craft, I would prefer no one to pull it save for myself.”

“But Yolana, you’ve just pulled a ton of stuffs and people across the snow for three days! It would take another week to get to the coast. You need some rotation to not exhaust yourself completely.”

Rainga looked disdainful. “For-get it, dada, if some muskox can’t learn to de-le-gate, then let her work herself into melted slush.”

Spike coughed. “Rainga.”

“But-!”

Spike huffed and drew a circle in the air with his claw, and then wiggled them.

“Fine, fine!”

Rainga hurriedly but reluctantly said to the muskox. “I’m sorr-iee.”

Yolana muttered. “No offense taken. But really, I can do it alone.”

Spike watched the defiant look on the muskox, and sighed again. “Alright then.” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kanipha could not sleep, even though the bed he slept on was a vast improvement from the rock bed in the muskoxen cave, or the cold canvas of the tent floor.

He quietly walked out of his quarter and up the spiral staircase that surrounded the tree house. Cold but damp night wind blew in his face, but he just shrugged it off.

Entering another corridor, he soon walked in front of the door of a large room. The door was not entirely closed, and he attempted to peak inside.

The door was abruptly opened, and the zebra colt almost yelped aloud if not for a timely claw to his mouth.

Spike whispered. “Shh- I’ve just got her to sleep.”

“O- Okay.”

Spike pushed the zebra colt out of the room and quietly closed the door.

The purple dragon asked. “Got something to talk about?”

“U- Um… yeah.”

“Let’s get up to the penthouse. It’s got a spectacular view.”

Kanipha nodded hesitantly. And the two went up to the conical-shaped rooftop of the treehouse. Spike immediately sat down next to the window, and gazed into the nightly view of the town.

To the left was the snow-white cliff made out of Nighthewer’s old form, and to the right was a spreading network of dim orange from the deer households. It was like floating candlelight on a placid lake.

“What is it, Kanny? Don’t tell me you need lullaby to sleep as well, ha ha.”

“I already made this joke to Geuse in Yakyakistan, and she hated it.”

“She’s not a jokey pegasus, even though she might get too sarcastic for a ‘knight’ at times.”

“Heh.”

“You look concerned. Is there anything I can…?”

“I just want to ask you something.”

“Fine, shoot.”

Kanipha drew in a breath and said. “Are you still 100% the Spike I used to know?”

“…?”

“I- I’m just worried! It can’t be nothing to have a thousand-year-old dragon to get in your head and dump everything into your head! For goodness’s sake, you know what happened to Twilight after she got jacked by the Wisselkind queen using the exact same method! What if you suddenly keel over and forget all about us, huh?”

“K- Kanny, no such thing would happen. I’m walking, talking and breathing.”

“So are Twilight.”

“Look, Kanny, Nighthewer was completely against the idea, and he could not wait to end that soon enough. Not to mention that he was supposed to be long dead, and that he had used up all his power to create the magical frame we’re seeing right now, his vital essence was weaker than a newborn’s breath. His will could not affect my conscious mind or my personality a bit. What Raingeva did to her descendants or those poor dragons before me was terrible, but what she did to me was just harmless folly.”

“Harmless?! That’s impossible… Even if there is no lasting damage to you, that is still a hundred times the length of your own life experiences suddenly put inside your head! What we remember makes us what we are, so how exactly can this be nothing? How is it possible that it did not alter you in any way?!”

“Kanny-”

The zebra colt bit his lips tightly, and after a short silence blurted. “I- I was always trying to catch up to you!”

“H- Huh? What are you talking about, Kanny? You’re much smarter than me! Didn’t you say you’ve solved mysteries all around Zebrica before joining Twi? That’s almost on par with Daring Do… sans the action and evil monsters, but still!”

“Those are peanuts. You said to me about family before you came into this forest, right?”

“… Yeah, I did.”

“I was too embarrassed to tell you, but to Tartarus with that now… I was so happy to hear than you think of me as a brother in oath, because that’s my biggest wish ever since I began traveling with you in Equestria.”

“Really, Kanny?”

“Yes! I was really piqued to have someone like a brother to me, who’s similar in age as me, would protect me without a blink and treat me like I’m your blood. While Twilight cared for me, she was older than me by a stretch, and that made more like a foster parent of sorts. But as a lone son, having a caring sibling is a luxury that I never dreamt of having.”

Spike looked both happy and regretful, thinking of the old days when Owlowicious just came. “You sure about that? Having a sibling is not always a good thing, you know. They compete for attention, for instance.”

“That’s why I was jealous of you at the beginning.”

“I thought you’re just…”

“… being my usual insufferable self?”

Kanipha toothily grinned. “I can see why people can be mistaken. I can be really obnoxious at times.”

“You’re not at all annoying, especially after the first few days.”

“It’s because I’ve come to understand why you’re a better son to Twilight.”

Spike was simply stunned into silence.

“I’m a year younger than you, at least according to what Twilight said. I am an insufferable smart-aleck, and not to mention I was jealous of you when we first met. I’m an all-round terrible zebra that would shame my birth mother, and my clan too if not for the fame I brought to their name. I believe the only reason Twilight doted on me was because I was a youngling that is also somewhat worldly and traveled, and this was what she hoped to see in you.”

Kanipha stopped Spike from speaking up with a quick hoof. “I was undoubtedly a stand-in for you, but I didn’t mind because I loved her attention and this new feeling of being loved again. But when I saw you, I realized all this and lashed out on you. I was so ashamed when you let it slide and invited me onto this journey. I had then determined to better myself, so that even if Twilight let me go, she would still think that I’m a decent zebra colt that was worthy of her attention.”

“K- Kanny, you…”

“As we went, though, I think that I have another, perhaps more pertinent goal – I want to make you think better of me. I want you to think that I’m an adequate brother as much as I’m an adequate stand-in son.”

“Stop saying that you’re a stand-in, Kanny. You’re as much as a worthy son to Twi as any.”

“… Well, let’s put that aside, I’m going to focus on the thing I’m most concerned now.”

Kanipha looked fearful. “Spike, I’m afraid after hearing that you’ve mind-merged with an ancient dragon. What if it changes all that? What if it makes your perspectives shift so much that showing care to a mere zebra colt is no longer important?”

The zebra colt’s voice grew shaky. “What if it again moved the bar to somewhere I can never reach? I will never be as good as you are, and I will always be an inadequate son in her eyes, and a bottom-feeder in your eyes…”

He quickly shook his head. He held his tears barely, and he quickly turned away for fear of showing them. “I- I’m sorry… I am being selfish again. I know I shouldn’t be jealous of your growth, quick or slow. But I don’t want to be separated with someone I so care about again, not physically, but mentally as well!”

Spike wanted to say some comforting words, but they were all lodged in his throat. The zebra colt never came across as someone with much self-doubt. On the contrary, he was quite full of himself at times. But he was so vulnerable in his arms, like a small brother who was just told that he would never see him again.

He still reflexively laid a claw on the zebra colt’s back as Kanipha trembled. He could not help but reflect on whether the colt’s words had merit.

Despite the ease at which Nighthewer’s experiences meshed with his, could he really say that he was a hundred percent Spike? But then again, was the colt’s impression based on something that was possible, meaningful, or even real?

He certainly did not at all think that he was Nighthewer, or even Nighthewer Junior. He was his own dragon. He was Spike. Nighthewer’s experiences might have added a whole canvas’s worth of scenery, but the purple dragon still stood proud as the centerpiece of the painting.

He knew that at least part of the reason was that Nighthewer was a spent force. Indeed, the old dragon had been a dragon that was so large, he could flatten a hill – or in his case, become a hill himself. He also possessed an internal magic similar to his, albeit orders of magnitude stronger than his too. However, by the time Raingeva casted her dodgy spell, his mind was barely there, nothing but a thin imprint on the mesh of magic that sustained the barrier. Added with the old dragon’s active reluctance, he barely made an imprint on his mind as well.

But the old dragon’s knowledge was indeed immense. He could easily lose his track when immersed in those distant memories. He trusted that he could keep his cool until everything became settled, but what then? What could he do to really add to those earth-shaking heroics and call his life a full life lived? And was the fact that he was contemplating these thoughts a sign of him changing? Perhaps he was losing his naïve optimism of being a young dragon too?

He bit his lips and tried to put aside those complicated thoughts. For this very moment, his most important task was to soothe and comfort Kanipha, his eager little brother. He needed to make sure that he understood that despite all, his relationship with the colt would not change.

“You know, Kanny. I can’t say that I’m 100% the Spike you waved off a day ago.”

The zebra colt let out a shocked noise, as if someone suddenly landed a punch on his chest and knocked out all the winds.

“But Kanny, who can say that they’re 100% the person they were yesterday? Even if you hide in the bed all day, you might still daydream, or at least get hungry or thirsty. All those qualify as change, no?”

“That… you know that’s not what I meant!”

“My point is, Kanny, we all change in ways that are expected or not. The important thing is that there will be things that forms a core that would not change. And my care for you belong to that group of things.”

Kanipha let out a sigh of slight relief, but he could not help but asked uncertainly. “Spike, I know that I am desperate, but you... why? Why must you entertain me, somecolt who just swung by and want to be your brother?”

“You didn’t just ‘swing’ by, Kanny. You helped Twi through the most difficult six months of her life. But even if we put all those aside – what makes our meeting more random, than the accident of birth who pit two people together as brothers?”

“…”

“You see it out there, I suddenly got an adult doe calling me her dad. Do you think that it make sense?”

“… Not really.”

“I too think that it was bizarre. Given how we’ve drifted to the frozen north by this string of strange events, this is one of the strangest things to happen.”

He stroked his scales and said. “But love did not have to make sense. It’s more about feeling, need and mutual acknowledgement. Rainga was a poor doe, really, and she happens to both need and hope for a father in her life, like her distant ancestor Raingeva once did.”

Kanipha difficultly gulped. “S- So it’s out of pity after all.”

“No, Kanny. It’s not pity. There are plenty basket cases out there, but that don’t mean that I have to, or indeed, can adopt all of them, or swear an oath with them. What we’ve been through was unique. It chiseled something into our very senses of self, and if it was not so life-moving, we won’t have the same thought of having you join our household.”

Spike sighed. “I must admit, Nighthewer did affect me in my decision regarding to Rainga. He saw himself as an aloof and tough father to Raingeva, but he was too much of a softie. He would’ve seen a parallel in Rainga as well, and his feelings might have rubbed off on me. I don’t even know if this can work out in the end… But I just can’t say no to her puppy eyes.”

“To be fair, I’ve observed that you’re weak against any form of begging and pleading from the opposite sex. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have been scammed in Dodge Junction.”  

“Hey you cheeky varmint!”

Spike chided with a smirk. “So you remember how to mock me now. Does that mean you’re over it?”

Kanipha reflexively wanted to retort, but he eventually said with a meek voice. “I’m hoping that you- no, we would never be ‘over it’. I hope we would be oath brothers forever.”

Spike slapped the zebra colt’s back and said with a laugh. “Quit being all wishy-washy, of course we’re brothers in arms… hooves… well, whatever, brothers!”

The zebra scratched his cheek, and then began to chortle as well. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“W- What the…? What are they doing to my sleds?”

Standing on the platform of a treetop outpost, Yolana pointed to the sleds with her shaky hoof. Crowds of deer carpenters appeared to be busily tinkering with her sleds at the edge of the forest.

Rainga looked dismissive. “Whaaat? I’m not going to let dada’s face get blasted with ice and hail on his way to the scary wolves. I’m building him a comfy moving fortress, like a king’s home!”

Yolana was vexed. She lowly groaned. “I- I don’t remember letting you mess with my sleds!”

“Aha, I know now, you’re a scaredy-cat and you’re afraid you can’t pull the sleds now that I’ve added all those goodies.”

Rainga waved her manicured hoof. “Pfft, we’re super good with wood. Our work would not throw off the balance by the slightest bit. And if you’re worried about the extra weight, how about you finally get over it and let our gooood strong deer hooves pull them for you?”

“Those sleds are my heirlooms! They’re passed from generation to generation from chiefs to their successors! They are also painted with protective runes, and now they are all ruined!”

Rainga narrowed her eyes and mocked. “Har har. Stop acting like that’s a special tradition of yours or something. Look at you muskox, so fat and ragged, totally dragging behind the wind. My belly tickles when you tell me you’re some sort of super sled-puller.”

Yolana was originally restraining herself and tried to maintain a vestige of diplomacy. However the arrogance of the deer was really unbearable. She loudly growled. “I- I’m not fat! Those are all muscles! And you, lady, you’re such a brat!”

“If it’s gram-gram instead of me, she won’t even bother with some mud-prodding muskox like you. Every single time in the past, gram-gram only sent out some lowly captain to meet you guys and those scheming wolves as well. And have you ever stopped and thought about where did you guys learn sled-pulling from? Yeah! From peeking at the whites and then us! It’s so rich to hear that it’s like something sacred. I say, why don’t you let the experts do it? That’s us if you want it spell out to ya.”

Yolana stomped on the snowy ground angrily. “T- This insult to the muskoxen will not stand!”

“Oh, so all the talks of getting closer together is just a yarn and a whopper? I thought your silly 'spirits' told you to do this, huh?”

“Don’t you dare to demean them with your ignorant, self-important words!”

“Tsk, if your dear god is oh so powerful, why don’t he just come down and smack me, huh? Is it because they’re actually make-believ- ouuuch!”

Rainga held her cheek in shock. She looked back to the muskox, who was visibly irked. Despite the slight difference in size, Yolana apparently reached up and slapped the deer with her hoof. Although the muskox obviously held back her full force, but pulsing pain still radiated around the deer’s cheek.

Tears immediately flooded out of the deer’s face. “How dare you! N- Nobody had dared to hit me before! Y- You mean, bad muskox! I hate you!”

Seeing the deer’s childish retort, Yolana was reminded of the deer’s mental age and felt immediately a bit regretful. Also, she was a bit afraid that it would irk any deer nearby or even caused a rift in the new fragile pact.

Fortunately, the two were in a secluded spot. Though the bawling noise of the deer did apparently attract someone’s attention.

“What’s happening in here? Why is Rainga crying?”

Spike walked out onto the balcony. He was donning an exquisitely crafted wooden chest-plate that hid his healing scar. He put aside a tray of supplies and frowned at the scene.

The deer immediately whined and complained. “Dadaaa-! This horrible, mean muskox hit me! My face huuurts!”

Spike clawed his cheek and turned to Yolana with a questioning look. “Is that true, Yolana?”

The muskox’s ire again rose up and displaced her nagging guilt. “She dared to insult the entire pantheon of ours! She said t- they’re make-believes! And before that she ordered her underlings to mess with my precious sleds, then said we’re all third-rate sled-pullers!”

A part of Spike thought that while calling her gods fake in front of her face was very rude, which race exactly invented and excelled at sled-pulling might as well be the pettiest thing to argue over. 

Giving the sleds an overhaul without asking for Yolana’s permission was quite impolite, given the emotional attachment she had with them. But it’s also in a small part Yolana’s oversight, as she had not at any time cautioned the deer handlers that helped stored her sleds. The fact that Shining Armor and Cadance used magic on her sleds before also gave off an impression that the sleds were nothing too special.

He sighed. “Yolana, while I understand that the sleds are important to you, I think the communication could have been done better. It might be better if you told the handlers that they were to maintain untouched when we turned them over to the deer. Seeing how the deer loved woodwork, they might’ve kind of assumed that you gave them implicit approval to tinker with your sleds.”

The muskox’s righteous anger was doused a bit, but she was still deeply angry at the deer’s insolent attitude. She breathed out heavily and said. “But the very reason the deer started to tinker my sleds is just that she wanted to make the trip more comfortable for you. For this… reason, she befouled the runes my father and I so laboriously carved onto the sleds for the safety of everyone on this trip!”

Spike briefly looked shocked, and then turned to the deer, who moaned. “I- I just want dada to sit comfily and rest well before meeting those slippery, fishy white wolves!”

He smiled sadly and stroked her head. “Silly Rainga, I have camped out in the open countless times, I can get by without snuggling in blankets for a few days. Your gesture is still much appreciated though.”

Turning back to the muskox, he apologized. “Yolana, I’m terribly sorry for that. Is there anything I can help to, you know, reapply those runes?”

The muskox rubbed her eyes tiredly. “I didn’t bring the runebook and the dice with me.”

“What is it, and why would you need a dice?”

“It is the Book of Omens we use to portent signs. We kept the Book of Omens in the Cave of Earth Mother. I would need to throw the dice in front of burnt offerings on our sacred platform, and then consult the Book for what runes to carve on the sleds. Since we’re now away from the cave, it can’t be done.”

“Okay… See, Yolana, I’m again sorry about the sleds. But now that time is not on our side, we have to make do and press on. As you said, the task on our hands and hooves is grueling but divinely inspired. I’m sure that the blessing shall remain even without the immediate protection from the runes, as long as we’re working our best.”

“Very well.”

Yolana raised a brow, and looked somewhat pacified. “You do have a point, Mister Spike. After all, the Book did say ‘everyone is master of his own fate’ at the end. But this doe also insulted us by claiming that we worship false gods!”

Spike bit his lower lips and turned back to the deer, but she immediately interjected with a sniffle. “She hit me over her superstitious nonsense! My cheek still hurts!”

“Yolana, I know I might simply be a small young dragon...”

“You’ve also had Nighthewer’s immense insight in you now.”

Spike looked ambivalent, but then solidified his gaze. “I might also have accidentally inherited some ancient knowledge, but I don’t need those to know that it’s wrong to hit someone over mere words.”

“B- But she blaspheme-”

“Still not a reason to smack her. I don’t supposed the High Spirits of yours are vengeful and out to get all non-believers?”

“Of course not!”

Spike gently stroked the shivering Rainga’s cheek, and sat her down on a chair. He took out a bag of marbles from his bag and gave it to Rainga, which caused the whining doe to puff up visibly. 

He then quickly returned to the bemused Yolana. With a slightly disapproving look, he said quietly. “Yolana, despite her look, she’s just a fawn. She never had a proper upbringing, because her ‘gram-gram’ only foster her to make her into a proper vessel to jump inside. And when she’s there, she was never really given any sort of life lesson, or even agency and choice. Her gram-gram’s coldness also rubbed off on her, so she sounds mean and unthinking at times. But at heart she’s not a bad fawn. I’m a bit shocked that you laid your hoof on her.”

Yolana was stung, and then sighed. “I have indeed let the red mist of anger cloud my judgment. Even though as the Qam Qatun, I have an obligation to the High Spirits, I also have an obligation to uphold their reputations, for the goodwill in the world sustain their powers as well. I failed to be the mature one here and I deserve all of your scorn.”

“I don’t dish out scorns. I only hope that you can indeed be the mature one here and set an example.”

Yolana paused for a moment before getting his hint. She looked reluctant, but she sighed and bit back her pride. “For my transgression and for our future peace, I shall apologize to her.”

“Excellent. Now let me talk with her and get her here as well.”

Spike walked near the doe, who was gazing into the bag of marbles excitedly. She looked up to him with a smile, seemingly forgotten about her hurt cheek already.

“Dada! Are we going to play marble attack again after packing up?”

“Sure Rainga. I’m not going to leave you hanging after last time.”

Rainga looked excited. “Yippie!”

“But there’s one string attached.”

“…?”

“You need to go and apologize to Yolana.”

“That nasty muskox?! Whyyy? She hit me! I’m not gonna-”

“Rainga, I know her beliefs might sound weird to you. But this is no reason to mock those she holds dearest in front of her. You will not be happy if someone speak badly of Nighthewer in front of you, right?”

“… Yeah...”

“And the sled-pulling thing… So what if the muskoxen were last to adopt them? It was ages ago, and by now all northern races have pulled sleds on snow for thousands of years. That kind of overbearing attitude towards Yolana was uncalled for.”

Rainga deeply pouted. She massaged her cheek and moaned. “My cheek still stings!”

“Yolana will say sorry to you. So you should say sorry about your attitude and those hurtful words as well.”

Rainga made a face, but at the end she shrugged weakly and said. “If you say so…”

She got up and slowly trotted up to the expectant muskox. Spike watched from behind at a low angle, still somewhat unused to the contrast of her physique and mental maturity.

Rainga raised a hoof and made a slight flinging movement. “Yolana.”

Yolana licked her dry lips and said. “Rainga. I apologize. No matter what you’ve said, I should never lose my temper and hit you. I hope that my act of aggression, though uncalled for, would not dent the relationship between the deer and the muskoxen.”

Rainga raised a brow. “I’m sorry as well. I guess it feels terrible to have something so dear to you talked down so casually. I will not do it to you again.”

Seeing an acknowledging nod, she waved her hooves. “And meh, I might be no gram-gram, but even I know to put my own feels and deer matters into two separate boxes. I, in the capacity as the princess of Deermark, promised to give aid. I’m not going to trot back from something that big because you hit me or something.”

Yolana looked a bit ashamed. “… Thank you, Rainga.”

Spike looked on from a distance with a satisfied look. The two appeared to have apologized to each other and the tenseness was gone. He then prepared to get back to his own work. A hoof suddenly landed on his shoulder, and he sharply turned back.

“… Pisa?!”

“Shh. I was just getting up here to look for Rainga or you. Juniper was streaming around like a headless deer, and it’s clear that he’s trying to get us to fetch someone who can understand him. I guess it’s about provisions and the number of guards to bring with us.”

Now fashioned with a birch walking-stick, the yellow crystal pony looked much more confident at walking around on her own.

“I see. But I’m still pretty much a newbie at Deerish. Dragon tongue might’ve given rise to it, but it’s become too different.”

“So Rainga that is.”

Noticing a quiet smirk on Pisacan’s face, Spike was suspicious. “What are you so happy about, Pisa?”

“Nothing much, I’m just amazed that how you prodded the two into positions to prevent a diplomatic incident.”

“So you heard it all, huh?”

Pisacan gesticulated hurriedly. “It’s not intentional, I just waded in when they began. Then I just hid behind this curtain because I don’t want to make it more complicated.”

Spike shrugged. “Fine, I understand.”

Pisacan nodded, and the two grew silent. Spike scratched his head and said. “Guess I’d be going then.”

“Wait a moment, Spike.”

“Yes?”

“Geuse told me that Kanipha looked much more relieved. I suppose you give him a talking to as well?”

Spike drily chuckled. “Well, yeah. I did.”

“I’m glad. You’re just like the Spike we sent off into the forest.”

“Oh, Pisa, don’t tell me you too are going to go all existential on me.”

“No, no. I have listened to you since you’ve come back to us. I’ve been confident that you didn’t change much. Kanipha was freaking out a little bit, worrying that you’ve been some grumpy old dragon. But I have faith in you.”

Spike laughed. “Thanks for the vote of confidence, I guess. But what is it then you want to talk with me?”

Pisacan bit her lips and looked nervy. “Um… Well, although I believe in you, I still want to know more about your new condition.”

“Huh… what do you want to know that I haven’t explained to all of you yesterday?”

“I…”

Pisacan suddenly sighed. She waved off with her hoof and shook her head. “Forget it. You’re right. What you’ve talked to us yesterday was clear enough.”

“Huh?”

Pisacan shifted the topic. “Do you think that you should leave the deer tinkering with the sleds be? Even though Yolana’s no longer mad, she can’t be too pleased.”

“I’ll sort this out with them, don’t you worry.”

“Hmm… I’ll be waiting with the others here then. I really hope everything’s well with you, Kanny and Yolana on your way… Ciao.”

“Um, ciao.” Spike scratched his head, but he kept quiet as he watched Pisacan walked down the stairs with reverberating knocks.