//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 
// Story: Life of an Equestrian Dragon 
// by Aedric Starborn 
//------------------------------//

The wind shuttered in bursts as an amber colored dragon of notable size flew through the open blue sky of equestria. The dragon held something small and fitting to its claw with what could be associated with a death grip had it been enough to crush the object. It was round, oval shaped, and primarily amber with orange-red spots sparingly spaced upon it. 

The amber dragon looked below in search of a light within the darkness of the forest which it flew over. Creatures big and small alike fled with primal terror as their proclaimed apex predator passed above them. Spotting a rocky formation among the seemingly endless trees and shadow, the dragon landed before it. 

“Stay safe and secure my child; I’m sorry that I couldn’t be there.” 

The oddly soft yet lightly booming voice of the dragoness shook with sadness as she lifted the egg to her face and looked at it for a moment. The sight of it seemed to drive its mother to tears as she wept over the deed she was to perform. Her trembling hand clenched it once more before bringing the egg close to her mouth. 

The dragoness paused for a minute as she stabilized her breathing and tears in an attempt to keep control. Once her composure was regained she blew a small amount of fire over the egg, covering it with warmth only a mother could give. It was afterwards when she placed the egg gently in the cave. She then carefully stepped away from the cave before taking off once more into a sky which seemed all too empty. 

Within the cave the egg resonated with warmth for a while before it began to shake. The shaking started as a light tremor and built up to a violent thrashing as the small being inside kicked and pecked until it could free itself from the egg’s casing. Cracks formed across the shell’s surface as the stress of the desperate movement caused it to falter until the eggshell could bear no more. With a final burst of movement the hatchling within managed to break free after minutes of struggle from within. 

The hatchling looked around the stone and cold shadow of the cave it was in. The only examples of life around were hanging strands of moss and occasional insects which wriggled and crawled on the dirt and stone. The hatchling retreated back into its egg as it shivered from the arid cold that seemed to resonate from the walls and floor of its birthplace. The pitiful youngling held its limbs close to its body whilst it cried out to the silent and uncaring darkness. 

The weeping of the small whelp seemed to endlessly echo into the void beyond the egg which it sat in as it cried. The symphony was eventually interrupted by a sole hiccup, which caused a puff of smoke laced with sparks to erupt from the pitiful creature. The sparks and smoke delivered a small amount of warmth to the baby dragon as they washed over it like a blanket before quickly dissipating. The hatchling, surprised and desperate, tried to hiccup again to no avail. A series of gasps and hard breathing followed as it tried and failed to produce more warmth from which to cover itself. 

With several attempts at warming itself with sparks and smoke it finally managed a feat greater when the dancing strokes of fire brought greater warmth from within it. The fire was brief and quite dim in comparison to even a small campfire, but it warmed the baby dragon far more than sparks and smoke. With some level of warmth and most of its energy spent the whelp slumped down and fell to unconsciousness. 

A rumbling feeling accompanied by a muffled growling sound came from the small creature’s belly, rousing it from sleep after several waves of sound and sensation. It rose up from the egg and looked around the dark and arid cave in search of some form of food to eat. Within there were only insects and the occasional plant as opposed to any actual meat. 

After searching and finding nothing the whelp looked to the mouth of the cave. The light of day shone through for only a few feet before being overcome by the shadow. It looked on for a few seconds in what seemed to be wonder. The egg wobbled before tipping over and sending the baby dragon to the cold dirt ground. It crawled on its hands and knees to the light, its eyes slowly adjusted to the brightness as it approached.

The whelp’s eyes widened as it looked at the green fauna of the outside world. The trees stood tall and proud with a certain flexibility to the wind as it pushed against them in a chaotic pattern of force and leaves. The dirt below had what dust was upon it blow into the wind as if it was their very transport across the land. Through the chaos of nature stood three small rabbits as they looked on at the strange being from the cave. 

When their eyes met the world seemed to stand still. There was no wind, no trees, no dust, and absolutely no sound. The whelp was seemingly entranced by the small creature it saw. As if acting on its own, the body tensed as it readied to grab the weaker creature. With a single twitch from the bunny, the young dragon pounced. The rabbit was however ready for this and ran; this began the chase. 

The two raced through bushes and darted around trees in the dance of predator and prey, sheer instinct driving them both forward in their separate innate wills to live. It would be hard to say how long the chance lasted, it felt like only seconds despite the ground that seemed to be covered. Sadly for the whelp however, the rabbit escaped into the forest as it slowed down and keeled over from the exertion. its vision fell more and more to surrounding darkness before sleep eventually took hold. 

It woke up once again to the feeling of its belly growled with hunger’s vengeance at being denied. The hatchling looked around as it tried to find something else to eat, it was then that it spotted a frog nearby and a pond with it. The hatchling wasted no time and immediately grabbed it with the speed of greased lightning. Holding it tight, the reptilian then stuffed the frog into its mouth and chewed. After the morsel of a meal was comfortably in smaller chunks it swallowed with gusto. 

After it finished with the frog it looked for others to eat, of which it found and caught three with others escaping. It didn’t matter, the hunger was satisfied for the time being and the sky was beginning to darken. The hatchling looked around and realized it was a fair distance from the cave. However, it did see an opening a fair distance away. It made its way to the opening as the day gave way to the starry night and the light filled warmth of the sun turned to cold darkness with a minor glow from the moon. 

The hatchling continued to the cave, stopping many times to warm itself back up as the cold began to take hold of its body. Eventually the forest vegetation gave way to hardened dirt and rock as the cave awaited the hatchling who was eager to take shelter in it. The hatchling crawled back into its egg and began warming itself up again. As fire fanned over its body the immediate air in the shell began to warm up. When the temperature was comfortable enough the hatchling slumped its head down and events drifted to sleep.