//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 // Story: To rekindle the flame // by Sky Trotter //------------------------------// The flight back to his cave was quiet. He really was glad to out and about again, stretching his wings fully for the first time in years. The flow of the wind over and under them, the feeling of weightlessness, it was intoxicating after so long in his self-imposed banishment, however at this through his mind fell back to the reason for it. Passing through the ages, his mind returned to first night he dreamt of her. Flying through the sky in his adolescent form, barely older than 90. Looking to his right there flew Luna, the moonlight gleaming off of her coat, her form-fitting dress leaving little to the imagination, the light highlighted off of her curves, the gleam on her lips. Leaning forward to kiss. It was at this point that he woke with a start. “What was that all about, Luna is my friend not...what was that?” That was where the dreams started. At the time Luna and he had an agreement that she would always announce herself before entering his dreams, which had allowed him to banish the dream that he was in the middle of or at least time to realize he was dreaming. But he had still been worried, that was when he began to study the field of dream magic, all in preparation for his century-long sleep. He had spent months learning all he could to prepare to banish that type of dream from his mind. To banish the thought, to banish the feelings, after all. How could somepony be as wonderful as her, ever even consider? Shaking his head, he quickly removed himself from that line of thought, ‘No, I can’t afford to fall back into that line of thinking. I have to keep moving forward’. He spent the remainder of his flight simply listening to the sound of the night. After a few minutes flight he crossed over the barrier of the Everfree forest, he could feel where the magic of the forest began to take hold over the elements, there were no pegasi that could control the weather here, everything was wild now. A result of the battle between the two sisters. ‘I think I will enter from the front tonight, haven’t done that in a few years’ looking over the sea of trees his eyes found the clearing that surrounded the ruins of the castle. Flying over, he felt the second shiver that signaled the boundaries around the site, the shock hit him quite suddenly. ‘What the?... the alarm is going off.’ thinking back he realized that his lair must have sunk just under the barrier spell. It must have, thinking on it he realized that after a few hundred years near the surface he began to dig deeper to spread out more as well as increase the amount of storage room he had. ‘I must have forgotten to expand the spell to account for the depth that I went down. No matter, not like anypony would have done much here, and I guess it makes sense considering that Ember told me that elements found new bearers’ Circling down he landed with a light touch on the bottom step of the front gate. ‘ I’ll need to make sure that I have everything packed together before I leave.’ Moving through the halls, he made his way down, deep into Equis, through the tunnels that he had carved himself so many years before. Finally reaching his true lair, he began to look about for his bag. One of the first items he had created, to most it would appear to be a simple canvas bag. However, it was truly much more. Walking to the center of the room he placed the bag on the floor and snapped his fingers. At once the room came alive with activity as centuries worth of possessions began to swirl around the room. At first, it appeared that they were moving in chaos, however, after a few moments they began to move into orderly lines, and from there into a conga line as it spiraled through the room toward the bag. Moving through the air the approached the bag, as they grew nearer to it they began to shrink down. The procession of items continued, first rising from the ground then being sucked into the spiral of items, then to shrink down and at last to be stored in the bag. This continued for nearly three hours as more and more things flew around the room and dropped into the bag. It was just as the last of the items found himself neatly placed in the bag that the black scroll tube blinked into existence right onto the receiving plate, he had anticipated this move and had left the plate out on purpose. Looking over the letter he grinned. “Damn I guess I left in a bit of a hurry this evening.” After reading her letter, he lit his horn in-order to blank out the parchment and jotted down a quick reply. Dear Ember, I apologize for my abrupt departure, It was disrespectful of me to abandon you in the way that I did. Your revelation about Princess Luna hit a little close to home. I will be moving to Ponyville here in the next day. I have been tasked with educating young Spike in the ways of dragons. I am sorry that this is a short letter, but I don’t have much time to make it there. Your friend and mentor, Obsidian. Looking down at the sloppy and, well to put it plainly, brief letter he sighed and sent it. ‘She isn’t going to let me off with that for long, but I really must be going’ looking around the empty room he let out another sigh. ‘I haven’t had it this clean in a long time. But if I want to make this work, I have to be dedicated to this course of action. Looking around one last time, he began his walk back out through the front gates. As he stood at them and looked back he thought to himself ‘this isn’t an ending, it’s a beginning’ he turned his back on the castle and began his flight. Gliding through the air he began to commit the area to memory, to find good practicing areas. An open field, perfect for fire magic, a small lake, a quarry, deeply wooded areas, each area really was a good place to practice. As he flew, he picked up an almost forgotten scent. ‘Is that the smell of Zebra magic? I haven’t smelt that in over three hundred years!’ looking around he saw the telltale signs of Zebra magic, the colored steam and smoke rising from the hut. ‘That is something that demands my attention, but not at this moment. First I must make haste to the home of the Princess. The day is nearly half over, and she will be expecting me’ As he flew closer to the small village, his form shifted, his horn disappearing. He appeared as nothing more than a pegasus. His eyes scanned the village, moving over the sights he fixed his gaze on the impressive castle constructed of crystal. ‘’Well then, at least she has a flair for her home” Chuckling he made his way towards the front gate. Alighting on the front lawn area, he approached slowly. As he made his way to the front gate he was shocked to see a humble sign tacked to the front door. Ponyville Library! Hours 08:00am to 8:00pm. Closed Sunday. His eyes widened in shock. “Surely she doesn't use her home and palace as something as mundane as a public library!” Shaking his head in, disbelief he knocked. Moments later it was answered by a small green and purple drake. “Welcome to Ponyville Library, My name is Spike, and you do know this is a Public Library right? You don't have to knock. Are you new to town?” Looking down, Obsidian beheld a very young Purple dragon. He couldn’t be older than 16 years of age. Truly nothing more than a Wormly barely out of the shell. “Well. Um. I think it would be best if I were to Introduce myself to Princesse Twilight and you in private. Did Princess Celestia not tell you I was coming in the letter she sent?” Looking up, Spike’s eyes grew wide. “You mean you’re.” his voice was cut short as the hand of the large Stallion covered his mouth. “Yes, young one. But we should not be doing this outside. If you would be so kind to show me in. I can explain.” Spike’s eyes shrank down and he nodded. Obsidian removed his hand and gestured with his head toward the front door. “Um yeah. Let me get her” they moved into the main hall and Spike lead Obsidian into a smaller meeting room next to the main throne room. “Um… Just stay here. I’ll go get Twilight” after exiting the room he Shouted loud enough for Obsidian to hear “TWILIGHT, THAT SPECIAL GUEST IS HERE!!!” Jumping back a bit at the volume, Obsidian shook his head “well one of the first lessons will have to be about proper decorum for a young dragon. Looking over, he noticed a large table surrounded by seven chairs, walking over to the strange table, he beheld the wonders of the map. Rendered in full detail, he beheld all of Equestria and its immediate surrounding countries. “Well this is quite impressive, I have never seen anything like this before. I wonder how she managed to make something like this?” “Well I didn’t make it. It kind of grew in with the rest of the Castle.” Whipping around, he beheld the young princess. Realizing who it was he quickly bowed to show her the respect that she was due. Jummping Twilight blushed and blurted “Oh please don’t do that. It took forever for me to get the rest of the town to stop, and if they see you doing it then it will all start up again.” Looking up at her, his eyebrow raised “It is only proper for one such as myself to show you proper respect. It is not my place to greet you without doing so princess.” Twilight let out an exasperated breath. “Please don’t use that title. I would prefer for everypony to just call me Twilight, and if you have to Twilight Sparkle. I really don’t want anypony to make a big deal out of this whole thing” Shaking his head he simply replied “well it would seem I will have two pupils instead of one.” Twilight looked back at him and replied “What is that supposed to mean. And I’m not entirely sure that you are who you say you are. Celestia told me you were supposed to be an Alicorn like me.” Smirking, he let the guise fall. His horn grew from nowhere. His wings lost their feathers and became like that of a bat, his fangs grew out and his pupils became slitted. “So you expected something more like this then?” Twilight’s eye grew wide. “How in the name of Celestia did you just do that, I didn’t feel any kind of spell dropping or even the activation of magic?!” Grinning he looked back toward her. “As I said. It would appear that I will have two pupils instead of one. I have much to teach. Provided you are willing to learn” The look that she gave him at this point almost made his blood turn to ice, ‘I think I might have bitten off more than I can chew with this one.’ “In any event, to get a measure of what I am working with. Spike, do you know what dragoness it was that laid your egg?” At mention of this Spike and Twilight simply looked at each other for a moment. “Um...well. I wasn’t hatched by a dragoness, Twilight hatched me. I don't know where I came from before that.” Obsidian nodded "I am aware of the situation of your hatching, though it still amazes me that it happened. It has never occurred before now." He fixed his gaze on the two of them together. Never having seen a purple dragon before, he now had an idea of where the color had come from. Blushing slightly Twilight replied “well I was doing my entrance exam for Celestia’s school. They presented me with a dragon egg and told me to hatch it. At first I wasn’t having any luck. But then, my friend Rainbow Dash performed a Sonic rainboom in Cloudsdale. The shock from that caused a magic surge, and well, Spike hatched” Looking back all Obsidian could do was process what he had just heard. After a few moments he shook his head and proceeded to ask. “Spike, How much do you know about the relationship between a Dragon and their parents?” Spike gave Obsidian a quizzical look. “I guess the answer to that would be zero. I don’t really know anything about dragon culture. Other than the migration and the choosing of the next dragon lord. I mean that is about it.” Turning his gaze on Twilight “and you Princess?” Her only response was simply to blush, expressing the fact that she had no additional information. Taking a deep breath “I feel we should be sitting for this” He motioned to the seats in the corner of the room. As they all took their seats he began. “To start with I will go over the nature of dragons when it comes to their young. For many eons when a Dragoness went into heat she would seek out a Dragon that showed that he had great strength. After the deed is done, the dragoness will then find a safe place to lay her eggs. Now at this point the egg is dormant. Now when I say dormant, I mean that the egg is just a coming together of the genetics of the mother and father. However the egg may never hatch.” Twilight and Spike looked at Obsidian with confused looks, at this point Twilight responded “What do you mean? If everything is provided why wouldn’t the egg hatch?” Will a small smile he responded “tell me Princess Twilight, what do you know of the nature of Souls?” “What do you mean by the Nature of Souls?” she responded. “What I mean is what do you know about Souls, how they are formed and what they do?” Blushing and looking down, she responded:“I have no idea, I haven't gotten around to that branch of magic yet.” Steeling himself for what he was about to reveal to the two. “The soul is what makes a sentient being. Without a soul we are mindless lumps of flesh. No direction, no purpose, no emotion. Basically without a soul, one could not be considered alive. When a dragoness lays her eggs, they do not contain a soul. As a species, we as dragons do not begin with the ability to possess a soul. In order for a dragon to hatch, the mother, tears off a piece of her soul and gives it to her young. This act is what causes a dragon to hatch. To start with this shard of the mother's soul is just that. A shard of her soul, but after time it grows to be the soul of the young dragon. As for the mother, her soul heals from the loss and grows stronger. From what you have revealed to me.” his eyes locked on Twilight. “You. Princess Twilight are Spikes mother.” The silence in the room was deafening. No one spoke, Twilight’s eyes had become dinner plates in how wide they had grown. “W-What do you mean? How is that possible. I’m not a dragon. I-I’m Spike’s mother?!” She looked at Spike, not sure what to feel at this moment. Trying to lighten the mood, Obsidian smiled “Yes Twilight. You are his mother. When you managed to hatch Spike, you tore a shard of your soul and gave it to him. From what you described, you had no idea what it was that you did. But I must stress this. Spike is your son, and you are his soul mother." "I understand that this is much to take in, and I imagine that you need some time together to digest this information. Thoe I am honestly surprised that Princesse Celestia hasn't told you this already. I know for certain that she knows this information." Shrugging it off for the time he asked "Would you by chance have a place where I would be able to stay? If not I can find a place for myself.” Still in a stunned state. “Oh.. yes! We had a room prepared for you. Simply ask a guard and they will escort you. I need to...I need some time to digest this. And we, well Spike and I need to talk about some stuff.” “Of course, I fully understand. Thank you for your hospitality” Picking himself up, he walked out of the room, pausing at the door, he turned “I hope that this information does not cause undue stress. This information should be of the happy sort. The greatest relationship that a dragon has is with their mother. Their mother is normally the first and in many cases the only other living being that a dragon truly cares about. This is a sacred bond, and is the greatest form of expressed love that can exist.” Turning his back he exited the room and quickly found a guard that would be able to escort him to his room. A bit later that night, Obsidian sat at the provided writing desk in his room to write his daily report to Princess Celestia. Dear Princess Celestia, I have arrived at the castle of Princess Twilight, our first encounter was interesting, but I feel as if I will have two very attentive students. I had not realized that you had neglected to notify Princess Twilight and young Spike of the nature of their relationship. The bond between a Dragon and its mother is sacred. It was quite a revelation for them, and as part of my lessons, I felt it was necessary for me to reveal this information. I am not sure as to why you had not already told her this already, but it will be important information for them both, knowing it will only help them to grow. In any event, our first meeting was rather short. I felt that it was prudent to let them process the new information. To end this letter though. I must admit that I have missed this feeling of being a teacher. It is a calling that I have missed, and I want to thank you again for giving me the opportunity to fill this role once again. As well as the opportunity to earn my way back into your good graces. Your humble servant, Obsidian.