//------------------------------// // VIII - On Wyverns // Story: Flames // by Olakaan Peliik //------------------------------// My flight was quiet, other than the sound of the wind in my ears. I stayed in the air current much longer this time, lost in thought. And before I knew it, I was lost in the physical sense as well; nothing around me was familiar. I was far above the clouds right now. They weren't storm clouds, they were merely extremely tall and blocked my view of the ground. “Best drop down and figure out where I am before I can’t recognize anything,” I mumbled to myself. I started down through the clouds. Every time I came out from another cloud, my view of the ground was blocked by another layer of clouds. I dove through another cloud, blocked, another, blocked. The amount of clouds here was frustrating. I didn’t want to have to go all the way to the ground to figure out where I was. I tried going through one last cloud. It was big, but I flew as straight as I could with zero visibility. Muffled noises became apparent through the cloud. Coming out the other side of the cloud I saw motion off to the side and quickly had to veer off to my right to avoid colliding with a group of pegasi. Once I corrected my flight, one of the pegasi of the group flew up to me, clearly frustrated. The fire colored pegasus was wearing a somewhat familiar uniform, sunglasses, and a whistle around her neck. “What are you doing here? You're interrupting a Wonderbolt Cadet training session!” Now I remember the uniform, It was in the book on pegasi, the chapter on the Wonderbolts. She was a captain. “I apologize, Captain...?” “Spitfire,” she said, crossing her hooves waiting for an explanation. “My name is Speaker Krein. I was using one of the air currents above us to get back to Canterlot, but I can't seem to figure out where I am,” I explained. “You flew over it. Canterlot is about a thirty-minute flight, give or take, back that way.” She pointed a hoof back into the cloud I came out of. “Oh, thank you. If I can ask, what are you doing all the way up here?” I asked She ignored me and flew back over to where the cadets were waiting at attention. “Cloud navigation training! You cadets have to go through the cloud field, bump hooves with the instructor on the other side and come back here to get a time. The last pony to finish scrubs the latrine. GO!” She blew her whistle catching the cadets off guard. They took flight as soon as they could. Some mumbling complaints about not being able to see as they entered the cloud field. Spitfire was still ignoring me. She was the perfect kind of expert I needed to bring to the Dragonlands to help train a guard force. What pony better to train dragons to fight in aerial combat than someone who does it for a living. “Excuse me, Captain, if I may have a moment of your time? I wanted to ask—” Spitfire cut me off. “Look, Ambassador, I have five weeks to train these wannabes into Wonderbolt Reserve material at the most, Navy ready at the least. I don't have time to talk with dignitaries right now.” Immediately after she finished talking, the cadets burst out of the cloud along with the instructor that was supposed to be on the other side. “Hey, Cadets! What are you running from?” Spitfire yelled in her harsh tone. “Monster!” one of the cadets yelled. I looked at Spitfire. “Monster?” As we turned to look at the cloud I caught the scent of what they meant as “monster”. Reacting I flew to Spitfire, grabbing her and pulling her down out of the way, she tensed up into a defensive stance. I had no time to tell her I wasn't attacking her. A large, larger than me, black and green wyvern snapped at the cloud she was sitting on. It started after the cadets since they were the first things it saw after snapping at Spitfire. Luckily the cadets were faster than it was. I still remembered my last encounter with these things, it was the last time I saw my other three siblings. I righted myself in flight and released Spitfire from my grip. Once she was level and flying beside me, she looked back and forth between the wyvern and me. “Why is there a dragon attacking my cadets?” she asked me like I was a war criminal. “It's not a dragon, that it's a wyvern…” I told her pointing a claw at the beast. “Feral and unpredictable.” “I didn’t think wyverns flew this high?” Spitfire said as more of a question than a statement. “It shouldn’t be, they prefer easy prey. It must be desperate for food or something. I have an idea on how to take it down. Pegasi control weather right?” I asked her, she nodded. “Wyvern venom is flammable, if you can strike it with enough lightning it should explode within the wyvern, killing it.” “What are you gonna do?” Spitfire asked. I gave her a smile to cover my growing terror of this beast. “I’m the biggest item on the menu up here. I’m gonna give it something to chase while you get that lightning strike ready. I’ll try to slow it down while I’m at it.” Spitfire broke off from my side to aid her cadets. I beat my wings harder to catch up to the wyvern. Getting above it was a challenge since wyvern's wings are larger than your average fire dragon. I dove at its head using my talons on my rear feet to kick and scratch at its head. “Come and get me you overgrown iguana!” I yelled at it. It followed me without hesitation, screeching in fury. “Okay, you’ve got it’s attention and pissed it off. Now, what was the rest of your plan Krein?” I asked myself as I flew harder, pushing the limits of my wings. As it got closer to my tail it tried to bite me. I tucked my tail before its jaws clamped down. Realizing it was closer than I felt comfortable, I twisted my right wing up and my left slightly down, throwing me into a hard left turn. It may be bigger and faster than me, but because of a wyverns size, they can’t turn as quickly as a dragon. The wyvern had to slow down to chase after me. With a bit of extra time on my claws, I headed towards Spitfire and her cadets. Coming out of the cloud cover, I found where Spitfire had gone; a floating island in the clouds with a long landing strip and several buildings. The Equestrian flag was flying over one of the larger buildings. I guess that this was Wonderbolt Headquarters. I could see Spitfire with some actual Wonderbolts by the runway. “I hope you’re ready because I’m pretty sure I pissed it off!” I shouted, passing over them. The other Wonderbolts had a level of confusion on their faces but quickly refocused when the wyvern emerged from the clouds behind me. “Scatter!” Spitfire ordered. The Wonderbolts flew in every direction other than mine, and the wyvern’s. The wyvern shot a blob of venom at me. I countered it with a blast of fire, producing a small explosion a few yards from me and knocking me back. Recovering, I pushed forward toward the wyvern. The distance closing rapidly. Just before colliding with the beast I tucked my wings in and twisted my body for a roll. I thrust my claws out to the wyvern’s wings and cut large holes in them rendering them useless. Screeching in pain and anger, the wyvern managed to grab my tail in its talons, pulling me with it as it fell to the runway beneath. The wyvern crashed first rolling hard along the runway. It released me on touchdown but threw me into the ground ahead of it. I rolled off the runway and into the grass, it was at least a little softer than the runaway. Once I stopped rolling I got up as quickly as I could. The wyvern already on its feet and charging. Taking flight would take too long and expose my wings to attack. I stood my ground. I hadn't realized my scales had caught fire until now. I shot a plume of fire at the wyvern’s face and eyes causing it to stop it’s charge momentarily. Smoke came from the beast’s face as it roared in pain. “Cover your eyes and ears!” I heard a pony call. Quickly following the order, I put my claws over my ears and closed my eyes. Through the very slightly muffled sounds, there were three large cracks, booms, and I could feel the shock waves in my chest. Once the noise died, I looked. The wyvern was dead about fifteen feet from me, smoke rising from its body, but it was still roughly intact. I rubbed my ringing ears. Spitfire landed next to me, being careful not to get any closer to the carcass than she had to. “Make sure it's dead,” I heard her say as she poked me with a hoof. “What? These things are dragon killers. I'm just as afraid of these things as every other dragon, what makes you think I want to check if it's dead?” I glared at her. “Fine.” She turned to her cadets. “Cadet Orion! Front and Center!” A black coated, red-maned pegasus stallion wearing the Wonderbolt cadet uniform flew up and landed in front of Spitfire at attention. “Yes Captain?” he saluted her. “Check to see if that thing’s still breathing,” Spitfire ordered. Orion swallowed and carefully walked over behind the wyvern’s head, trembling with every step. He slowly reached out and tapped the back of the wyvern’s head with his hoof, then jumped back immediately. When it didn't move he moved around to its mouth and held a hoof in front of its nose, checking for breathing. For good measure, it looked as if he checked for a pulse. “It's dead, Captain,” he finally called, looking immensely relieved. “No doubt about it.” “Alright, good,” Spitfire nodded. “Gather a cleanup detail!” I put a claw on Spitfire’s shoulder. “Hold on, now.” Spitfire looked at me as if I had said something in ancient dragon. “What? Do you want to do something with it?” I shook my head. “Not me in particular.” This only confused her further. “Put it on ice. I'm sure there are some unicorns who might want to figure out how these things work. I know I'd read something like that.” “Where do you suggest we take it?” Spitfire asked skeptically, folding her forehooves across her chest. “If you can freeze it, I'm sure the Princesses know of somepony who can study this thing. I know I want to know if this thing has more weakness. Don't you?” She took a breath and rubbed her brow. “Fine,” she said quietly before snapping back into full command mode. “Soarin!” she called. Another pegasus stallion, light blue, with navy blue mane, wearing the full-fledged Wonderbolt jumpsuit. He landed by her, didn't salute. “Yes?” Spitfire waved a hoof at Orion to come closer before she spoke. “Get squads two and three out of practice and tell them to come here and talk to Vice Commander Soarin. Go,” she ordered Orion. “Yes, ma’am!” Orion jetted away toward the main building. Spitfire turned to Soarin. “I want team three to freeze this thing, while team two works on transporting it to Canterlot. I want you to keep the Ambassador company while you oversee this. Am I understood?” “Don’t worry, I'll take care this,” Soarin nodded to her. “Thank you. Now I need to get back to training these cadets.” Spitfire turned away and headed toward the cadets who were already scrambling to get in line. “So what'd you do to get the Cap'n mad at you?” Soarin asked me. “Before or after the wyvern?” I asked him. Soarin chuckled. “If you have to separate events like that, it's best I not know. Come on, I want to hear more about wyverns while we wait on squads two and three.” “What do you want to know?” I asked. “How do you tell a dragon apart from a wyvern to start?” He inquired as we sat down nearby. “Well, dragons have six limbs. Four legs, two wings.” I wiggled my wings to emphasize my point. “Wyverns only have four limbs. Two ostrich-sized reptilian legs, and obviously the dragon-like wings. Then there are the size differences…” I continued to explain the differences in dragons vs. wyverns and the other draconic creatures well after the other Wonderbolts arrived. They even had questions of their own. Especially the Wonderbolt named Surprise. Soarin had to limit her questions to one every minute, which she kept track of. The Wonderbolts worked fast, freezing the wyvern carcass with the aid of a lot of snow clouds, loading it onto a cargo wagon and flying to Canterlot. “—and then Vice Commander Soarin and squads two and three helped me take the body back here to you,” I finished explaining to Celestia, Luna, and Captain Shining Armor. We were in the Guard Academy courtyard. Soarin and the other Wonderbolt squads were standing next to me, tired from the journey. I explained the entire ordeal to the royal leaders, who considered the story with interest. Celestia looked at Soarin. “If you could please bring it to the School For Gifted Unicorns R&D wing. After that, you may return to the Wonderbolts headquarters.” “Yes Princess,” Soarin bowed and left with the other Wonderbolts. Once they were gone, Celestia turned back to me. “I have mixed feelings about this. While I'm glad you aided in the defense of our citizens, I do not condone the loss of a life, even if that life is that of a beast meant to do harm,” she said in her warm but stern voice. “I apologize, princesses, but us dragons have found only two ways to deal with wyverns. One is repelling them, the other is termination,” I told her. Luna spoke before her older sister. “The deed is done. We cannot change what has happened, no use in dwelling on it. Do you have news from the Dragonlands, anything we should know?” I nodded. “A few things actually. The new, and only, settlement we have is requesting aid. Teachers actually.” Both of the Princesses looked intrigued. “I would be happy to fully explain over some dinner, and I'm awfully eager to see my sister.” “Of course. Come with us.” Celestia and Luna turned toward the castle. I followed eager to see Kii. “—and Ice Spark mispronounced the last word in the spell and blew up his lunch!” Kii was telling a story from one of the days I was gone. “Really?” I asked with a laugh. Kii nodded. “Uh huh, Ms. Gingersnap had to give us a talk about practicing magic without a grown up.” “And what did you learn from that?” Cadence asked with a smirk on her lips. “Location, location, location,” Kii answered with a serious look on her muzzle that earned chuckles from around the table. Even Blueblood, who was as far away from me at the table as possible, cracked a small grin. Luna cut in. “We feel we may have gotten a little distracted. Krein, you were going to tell us more about the dragons asking for assistance?” “Oh, yeah, right.” I cleared my throat and continued. “We need experts in various fields; farming, security, education, medicine, building even. Experts willing to help these dragons get on their feet. We need these experts to teach a handful of dragons in the Dragonlands, so they can teach others.” Celestia looked at her sister and pondered. “We can certainly find volunteers to help—this would be beneficial to both of dragons and ponies—but it may take some time.” “To be honest, security is my number one concern. So maybe we should first send over military personnel to help make things safer for the next ship to carry volunteers over?” I suggested. Cadence nodded. “That can be arranged in a reasonable amount of time. Four to five months at the least, six at the most.” She looked to Celestia for confirmation. “Safety should be a priority. If we can promise safety to volunteers, we are confident more will lend aid,” Luna added. “Very well. Luna and I will discuss this over with our defense advisors, and we'll have a time frame for you by the end of the coming week.” I could see that Celestia was blinking tiredly; she seemed about ready to turn in. “There are two more things,” I said, recatching their attention. I pulled Olakaan’s book from my bags. “Our librarian and archivist, Olakaan, wrote this guide to Dragonkind. He wanted me to see if it were possible to copy and mass produce it for ponies to read.” Celestia levitated it over to have a look, before passing it to her sister. “I think we can do that. It would be good to have more information on the dragons.” “Thank you. He'd be happy to hear that. Now there is one last thing.” “Is it another book?” Cadence asked eagerly. “No.” I pulled one of the fire wolf pelts from my bag. “I brought gifts to say thank you for all that you have done for me.” Luna was the first to take the one I was holding, looking enraptured by the pelts. “What manner of beast has fur as this?” I pulled two more from my bag, leaving the last one for another. “For the record, I did not hunt these things, I just bought the furs. They are from fire wolves.” Cadence and Celestia each took the two I was holding. “They are so warm.” Cadance marveled as she touched her’s with a hoof. “This is unconventional but we accept the gift,” Celestia nodded with a smile. “Thank you, Krein.” “No, thank you, Princesses, for welcoming my sister and I.” I got up from my seat. “If you'll excuse me, it's been a long day. Goodnight, Princesses.” I bowed before leaving. Kii followed me out of the palace. I was tired, especially my wings. I haven't been using them to their fullest lately. Kii was silent the entire walk. I entered the house. I spotted two boxes sitting on the floor. “So what happened in the Dragonlands?” she asked. “Oh, nothing much. Olakaan was there though,” I told her. “Is he still mad about the book I ate as a baby?” she asked, a little ashamed. I shook my head as I removed the bags from my wings. “No, he's over it for the most part.” I pulled out the last fire wolf pelt. “This is ours by the way. Come on, time for bed.” “Can I sleep with you tonight?” Kii asked, with shiny hopeful eyes. “Yeah, why not.” We made our way up to my room. I was glad to see the bed. I was becoming fond of mattresses. I threw the fire wolf pelt over my bed and climbed up. Kii followed curling up beside me. “What day is it tomorrow?” I asked. Kii looked up at me. “Sunday. No school.” “Sleeping in, good. Goodnight.” I rested my head on a pillow. “Goodnight big brother,” Kii mumbled from her spot at my side. Exhaustion from the past few days finally caught up with me. My wings hurt, and I could feel several bruises forming beneath my scales. I'm glad I'm not going anywhere soon.