//------------------------------// // Chapter 7 // Story: A New Dragon in the Crystal Empire // by Vedues //------------------------------// The ringing in his head reminded Spirit why he wasn’t a fan of being Dash’s punching bag during morning training. At least their matches ended quickly; Sonic Rainbooms at close range tended to have that effect. Once he was done picking up the shattered remains of his ego, Spirit usually had lots of time to practice his illusion magic and maybe have a match or two against a more normal opponent. Today however, he found himself watching Autumn duel against Cheerilee, the elementary school teacher. Cheerilee was a moderately skilled fighter … probably. Spirit wasn’t really paying attention to her. His eyes were locked on his beautiful marefriend. As a crystal pony, Autumn’s strength and endurance were better than a unicorn’s, but not nearly as good as an earth pony. Thankfully, empathy helped her predict an opponent’s moves, and thus avoid the majority of Cheerilee’s blows. Crystallization helped a lot too. Spirit watched as Autumn stomped on the ground, shooting up a wall of crystals just as Cheerilee turned to buck at her. The wall didn’t hold of course, crystals weren’t nearly as hard as gemstones, but it did buy Autumn a moment to get away from the edge of the ring. Autumn was a fairly average combatant, but something about watching her fight made Spirit’s heartbeat skyrocket. It was rare to see her looking so fierce and determined outside of a training ring. He might have checked out her flank a few times as well. Hey, even with the prismatic shield separating them, it was still a nice view. As soon as the match ended—four to five, in favor of Cheerilee—Spirit stepped into the ring. “Hey, girls, good show out there!” Both mares looked up, panting heavily and covered in sweat. “I would wager we look less than good at the moment.” Autumn’s smile turned into a wince, probably due to her impressive black eye. Cheerilee winced too, but it was out of sympathy. “I’m really very sorry, Autumn. I was aiming for your shoulder.” “Don’t worry, I’ve got you both covered.” Spirit approached the two and quickly healed their injuries. He was careful not to use too much healing magic, though, otherwise it would undo the benefits of all that exercise. “Thank you, Spirit.” Autumn nuzzled into his hand after he healed her black eye. “Cheerilee, please stop feeling guilty. I wouldn’t have challenged you to a match if I was not prepared to receive several impressive bruises.” Cheerilee relaxed a little. “Thank you, Autumn, and thank you, Spirit.” “My pleasu-” Spirit’s response was cut short by the sound of an explosion. All three turned toward the sound of the noise. A rainbow-patterned wave of light filled the training ring next to them. Spirit also noted that the containment field had been set to its maximum height. The energy faded to reveal Big McIntosh standing in place with his eyes closed. He looked completely calm, which was actually kind of freaky, given the circumstances. Rainbow Dash stood on his back for a moment before flying up to the top of the containment field. Once there, she turned and dove, shaking the ground as another Sonic Rainboom shook the area. Big Mac seemed a little shorter when it cleared, but otherwise hadn’t moved. Spirit’s jaw dropped when he realized that the blast had driven his hooves several inches into the ground. Half a dozen Rainbooms later, the red stallion was up to his knees in the ground and still wearing the same calm expression. Spirit shivered. “Those two are scary.” “They are the highest producers of natural magic in the Village, next to Twilight.” Autumn sighed quietly. “It’s a little disheartening to think that I will never be able to fight either of them as an equal.” “Tell me about it.” Spirit hugged her around the shoulders. “Even controlling a drake puppet, I’m just a warm up for Dash.” Cheerilee didn’t say anything. She was too busy staring dreamily at Big Mac. Her crush on him was one of the worst kept secrets in the Village. “Maybe we should leave the lovebirds alone,” Spirit whispered. “It’s time for breakfast anyway.” Autumn nodded and led them both toward the castle. Spirit formed a link with her as they walked. Crystal ponies often had a lot of trouble adjusting to life outside the Empire. Without the ability to sense emotions, other types of ponies all seemed completely insensitive. Autumn had gotten used to it, but Spirit still liked to give her a little taste of home by joining their emotions with his magic. “I am sorry for causing you so much stress last week,” Autumn said. Remorse echoed through the link as she spoke. She changed over to emotion-based speech and sent, “You know I wouldn’t be angry if you would rather not be intimate, right?” “I know,” Spirit assured her, “and I do want it, but I also don’t.” He sighed, trying to weigh Autumn’s desires against what Celestia, Twilight Velvet, and Night Light had taught him about respecting mares, not to mention the cultural values of his wyrm parents. “It’s complicated.” It had been five days since he talked to Cliff about things, and he still wasn’t exactly sure what he should do. It didn’t help that he and Autumn both had jobs that kept them busy for most of the day. “I understand.” She pressed against his side as they walked. The kitchen was still mostly empty when they got there. Spirit poured himself a bowl of cereal with a side of amethysts before grabbing two newspapers from the stack and joining Autumn at a table. She thanked him for the paper, even though he grabbed one for her every morning, and began to read through it as she ate her breakfast of eggs and toast. A surge of confusion washed through her as she read aloud, “Prince Blueblood joined the Royal Army?” “Really?” Spirit checked the front page, and indeed, Prince Flank-head himself was displayed in a suit of armor, smiling for the camera. Autumn chuckled. “Oh Celestia, please let his platoon get sent Saddle Arabia or somewhere equally far away.” Spirit couldn’t help but laugh along. “I think they’d interpret that as an act of war.” The article itself talked a lot but said very little. Taking out all the fluff, Prince Blueblood had joined for unknown reasons—Spirit had his money on losing a drunken bet with his friends—then almost immediately tested out of basic training with his certifications from Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns before declaring himself a member of the reserve forces. “Maybe we can get Celestia to court martial him,” Spirit mused before flipping to the next page. “Second Dragon Migration,” he read aloud. “That’s weird.” From what Cliff had told him, the Great Dragon Migration was actually a bunch of drakes gathering together for a giant tournament of some kind, with losers trickling back to their home clans over the course of a decade or two. It made him extra glad that Twilight, Rarity, and Dash had prevented him from following the Migration to its end. A baby wyrm wouldn’t have lasted long among all those drakes. “I guess the northern clans lost early and decided to go home all at once or something.” “Perhaps.” Autumn skimmed through the article. “Strange that they’re so far east of their normal route though. It’s as though they’re trying to avoid attention.” “Who’s avoiding attention?” Spirit looked up to see his adopted sister walking toward them. A plate of haybrowns and pancakes levitated beside her. “Hey, Twi.” Autumn nodded. “To answer your question, a large group of drakes has been seen flying north across Equestria.” “They were spotted by a prospector near Dodge Junction four days ago,” Spirit explained. “If they went straight north from there, the only other city along their path would be Hollow Shades.” Twilight frowned a little as she sat down. “You’re right, that does sound like they’re avoiding attention. Maybe we should send somepony to keep an eye on them.” Spirit nodded. “I’ll talk to Grandma after breakfast.” Grandma was the head of security and military in Everfree Village, and this definitely fell under her jurisdiction. “Oh, and I’ll write a letter to Mom, so we can get her permission.” “Which mom?” Autumn asked with a smirk. “You do have three.” Spirit chuckled. “Fair enough. I meant Celestia.” Thinking back on it, he wasn’t quite sure when he had stopped thinking of the white alicorn as almost like another parent, and started thinking of her as another parent, plain and simple. Sometime after he met his draconic parents, probably, when he realized that it was possible to have more than one mother and father. “I’m sure she won’t mind if we check things out, but it’d be best if we get things in writing first, in case our team runs into any royal guards.” One of the annoyances of making Everfree a separate country was that they had to fill out paperwork before they did much of anything on Equestrian soil. “Maybe we should write a letter to Shining and Cadance too,” Twilight mused. “They might be as far north as the Crystal Empire by now.” Spirit nodded. “Alright, I’ll ask them about it.” “Thanks, Spirit.” Twilight started in on her meal. “No problem, Sis.” Spirit idly skimmed the paper as he worked through his own food. There wasn’t much else of note, just some hoofball scores. Apparently there wasn’t much going on in Equestria at the moment. -_-_-_-_-_- Talon looked around. Flying wyverns and drakes in one long column, with ice-covered mountains spread out beneath them as far as the eye could see. The air was so cold that it hurt to breathe in the mornings and the evenings. Even fire wyverns struggled to keep things comfortable. The Frozen North certainly lived up to its name. The last time Talon had seen bare ground was when Tornado melted away a patch of snow at the bottom of a canyon to give Squad Five a dry place to sleep, then he had curled around them in his battle form, sheltering them with one wing all through the night. She wouldn’t admit it, but Talon was starting to be okay with the fact that Tornado was her new battle partner. He had flown all day every day for a week, even giving the venom team rides so that they could rest. Talon had taken her share of them, but this time she had a different purpose in mind as she came down for a landing on Tornado’s back. Once she was sure that she wouldn’t slip off, Talon approached Gemstone, who was sitting at the base of Tornado's neck, watching the ground beneath them. “Hey, Gemstone, how are you holding up?” The green wyrm kept his eyes on the ground. “I’m fine. Tornado can’t really concentrate enough to work on the Stillness in his battle form, so I’m just killing time.” Talon nodded. “Sorry that Heart hasn’t been able to be here all week.” She was riding on Silver Tail, so they could go over different strategies. “That’s just life.” Gemstone looked over at Ember. Glowing runes covered the blue drake and the wind and thunder teams. “How are Genesis, Rune, and Clodhopper?” “They were fine when I talked to them.” Talon could see the three wyrms from where she stood, sitting in a circle as they worked on some kind of design that they assured Talon would help the war effort. Ember herself was struggling a little with the giant leather bag of rations strapped onto her back, but that was why she had three wyrms around to power her up. “You four are the only ones from the Mystic Forest Coven to join the Alliance, right?” A rare smile touched Gemstone’s face. “Yeah, I owe those three a lot.” “We owe you too,” Talon said. “I don’t think I ever thanked you for being a part of Squad Five, so thank you.” The smile disappeared from Gemstone’s face like a puff of smoke on the wind. “You shouldn’t thank me, Talon.” Something about his voice made Talon wary. “Why not?” Gemstone didn’t respond at first. His eyes drifted behind them to the east, where the Crystal Empire was just barely visible over the mountains between them. “I won’t be joining you on the battlefield tomorrow.” “What?” Talon shook her head. “No. You’re part of Squad Five now. It’s your duty.” “Not anymore.” Gemstone turned to look forward once more. “I think we’re almost to the Ice Spire Cave.” “Don’t try to change the subject.” Talon grabbed the wyrm with one foot and turned him around to face her. “Why do you want to abandon the Squad all of the sudden?” Gemstone looked down. “I thought I could do this, but I can’t. I’ll work as a healer, a rune-worker, and an enchanter, but I won’t be stepping foot on a battlefield.” He sighed. “I’m sorry, Talon, but nothing you say or do will change my mind.” “So you’re just going to leave the rest of us to die?” Talon asked, struggling to not grip his shoulder a lot tighter. “Rune Field volunteered to take my place,” Gemstone said quietly. “She’s the best rune master in the Alliance.” Talon looked over at Ember again. Rune Field was the light orange one, if Talon remembered correctly. She was also Genesis’s great-great-great-grandmother or something. The older wyrm would probably make a great addition to the Squad, but … “Why?” Talon asked at last. “My wife.” The words were so soft that Talon almost missed them. “I could never face her again.” Talon finally released his shoulder and crouched next to the green wyrm. “Your wife?” He nodded. “I didn’t know that you were married.” “I prefer not to talk about it.” Gemstone looked really sad, which was making it harder and harder to stay angry at him. “Okay.” Talon let out a sigh and pulled the green wyrm into a hug with her wings. “I’ll tell the Squad tonight that Rune will be replacing you.” “Thanks.” Gemstone weakly returned the hug. “We should be landing soon.” Talon had noticed it as well. The front of the column was already coming down toward a low but wide peak with a rounded top. It would be nearly impossible to find from the ground, nestled as it was between several larger peaks, and a flightless army would be vulnerable as it passed through the narrow canyons to reach them. “What will you do?” “Clodhopper and I will be setting up a ring of anti-magic runes around the cave,” Gemstone said. “Genesis and Rune too, when they aren’t busy with the Squad.” He gently broke off the hug and stood up. Talon stood as well. “I’ll talk to Thunderfang about letting you and Clodhopper share our nest. I’m sure Genesis and Rune will appreciate your company.” “Thanks.” He turned back to Talon with an oddly serious expression. “Stay safe out there.” “I will.” There wasn’t much left to say, so Talon offered a quick goodbye and rejoined the venom team in the air. They landed near the mountain’s top a few minutes later on a large flat expanse of rock and snow in front of a looming cave mouth. Massive icicles even hung from the top of the entryway like the fangs of some giant beast. How charming. At least Tornado didn’t seem worried. He walked right into the cave mouth after the drake in front of him, still in his battle form. The path spiraled gently downwards for maybe half a full circle, with snow gradually giving way to stone and the temperature steadily rising to comfortable levels. Eventually the tunnel opened up into the single largest cavern that Talon had ever seen. It was roughly the shape of an egg, with the entryway as the pointed tip. Lava pools dotted the floor, lighting the area and radiating welcome heat into the air. She wasn’t sure how high the ceiling went, high enough to be lost in shadows. There were also a few smaller tunnels, by drake standards, leading off into parts unknown. It wasn’t exactly the most welcoming thing that Talon had ever seen, but it would do until they captured the Crystal Empire. -_-_-_-_-_- Talon officially hated moving the entire camp. By the time Squad Five reported in, was assigned a part of the cavern floor to sleep on, and got their evening rations, it was long past sunset. She only even knew that because the tunnel entryway had gone dark. At least it was warm. Merciful Ancestors, Talon had nearly forgotten what it was like to be warm, fed, and at least relatively comfortable. Their position at the back of the central cavern was nice, shielding them from any cold air that might make its way down the entry tunnel. The rest of the Squad was in high spirits too, talking softly among themselves. Crystal and Heart lay on Talon’s right side, with Tornado on her left. The four wyrms from Mystic Forest sat to the left, clustered around some design or other. The rest of Squad Five was loosely clustered in front of Talon, and beyond them, she could see almost every dragon in the Alliance settling down to sleep. Not all of them would be joining Squad Five on the battlefield, of course. There were plenty of wyrms that had only come along to heal the wounded, and dragons of all types that would be in charge of gathering food and supplies. Still, the army that would attack the Crystal Empire would be larger than any that the wyverns had been able to muster in decades. “So, Rune,” Talon said, looking over Tornado’s back to the light orange wyrm. “Do you think you’ll be ready for tomorrow?” “I think so.” Rune finished scrawling out a design on a thin sheet of metal. Her claws somehow left glowing lines in their wake. “I just wish I could get this magic-field strength reader to work.” She turned to Talon. “Would you mind if I tried it on you?” “I wouldn’t do it,” Genesis said over Rune’s shoulder. “The last time I let her try an experimental rune on me, she rewired my magic field and almost made me melt my own teeth off.” “It was an honest mistake.” Rune playfully smacked him with the metal sheet she was holding. “Besides, dragon teeth don’t melt. Their chemical composition is wrong. They burn.” A thoughtful look crossed her face. “Unless wyvern or drake teeth are made of something different. I need to test that.” She looked at Talon with smile that made the wyvern more than a little uneasy. Talon leaned back a bit. “Uh, what are you hoping to do with that strength reader thing?” That seemed to snap Rune back to her original line of thought. “Oh, right. For generations, wyrms have been theorizing about ways to kill the White Goddess, but nodragon knows for sure what she’s capable of, so all the theories are essentially just guesses. A decent reading of her magic field will at least give us a place to start developing real theories.” “You want to kill Celestia?” Gemstone asked incredulously. His tone drew the attention of the rest of the squad. “Is that even possible?” Thunderfang asked. “I heard that she’s immortal.” “I heard that she creates earthquakes every time she takes a step,” another wyvern said. Talon couldn’t see who through the small crowd that was gathering. “A drake told me that she can move the sun,” somedragon else said. All eyes turned to Tornado and Ember, who were sitting at Talon's side. “Yol Toor can defeat her,” Tornado said firmly. Ember looked at him skeptically and folded her arms over her chest. “The Alliance isn’t going into this fight blind,” Heart said, drawing the group’s attention. “We’ve dug through every story and legend in wyrm or drake records. There are even some accounts from creatures that have talked to her face-to-face. They all agree that she’s extremely powerful and shows no mercy to anything that threatens her ponies.” Heart paused for a moment and looked around at the group. “But they also agree that she has her limits. So if Celestia does show up tomorrow, get as far away from her as you can, because the Hurricanes and every drake lord in the Alliance is going to be attacking her with everything they have.” She chuckled softly. “Even if all the stories about Celestia are true, I’d still vote on our champions. Have any of you seen drake Void Fire up close? Or the Hurricane of Thunder has this technique that can cut through anything, even magic.” “How about we all try to be careful tomorrow,” Thunderfang said, “no matter what we run into?” The rest of the Squad echoed their agreement. “Okay then,” Thunderfang looked around at everydragon, “let’s all try to get some sleep. Tomorrow is the first battle of the Alliance, and if all goes according to plan, it’ll be our last one too.”