//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5 
// Story: Flurry Heart’s Story: Go North, Young Dragon 
// by AleximusPrime 
//------------------------------//

Sludge dumped his treasure out of the sunken ship onto the ground of the crater atop His Elevated Eminence.  He spread it out evenly and circled around to find a comfortable position, surveying the sky around him to make sure no more dragons would invade his space.  In this form, he only had one thing on his mind: guarding his treasure and chasing away anything that would disturb him or try to take it away.  He did not remember who he was or what even caused him to steal these things.  He was just a wild, dumb animal with selfish intent and a one-track mind.  The effect of Northern Drake rage had taken him completely.
He finally lay down and curled himself up to begin his long slumber.  He shut his eyes, but before he could fall asleep, he heard the sound of wings flapping. His spikes went erect and he grumbled while baring his teeth.  He stretched his neck out to the southern end to check for the sound.  Smite appeared flying over the edge of the rock wall in the crater.  Sludge opened his mouth and roared as loud as he could to chase Smite away, but Smite did not move.  Sludge walked out to the edge to roar again, but Smite still stayed hovering a hundred yards from the crater.  Spike was standing inside Smite’s hands and holding the pillow.  He finally spoke.
“Sludge!  It’s me, Spike!” he called.
Sludge roared again.
“Sludge, you remember me, don’t you?  Remember this pillow?  Come on, Sludge, I know you can’t forget what you did to me!”
Sludge roared longer and tried to stretch his neck forward to frighten them, but they were not leaving.
“Sludge, you remember the pillow, right?  You took this from me right before you left.  Does that help?”
Sludge did not roar this time but stared at the pillow. His instincts were to want it, but Spike had already torn the pillow in half and threw both pieces onto the side of the mountain.  Sludge watched them fall down and quickly scraped them up with his claws.  He stared at the pillow in his hands, but didn’t seem to care that it was ripped to pieces.
“Go ahead and take it, but you’ve got to remember who you are!”
Sludge bared his teeth and grumbled but had already stopped roaring.  He did not yet recall Spike or anything else.  The pillow didn’t even help him remember.  He turned his head and began walking back to his pile with the pillow.
“Sludge, please!”
“Spike, I don’t think it’s working.  He’s too far gone,” Smite said, cautiously.
“Hold on, Dad.  I have to keep trying.”
“Spike, wait!”
Spike took flight as Smite tried stopping him at first. Sludge looked around and grimaced at Spike again.  Spike was not very close to him, but Sludge did not look like he wanted any visitors.
“Sludge, is there anything I can do to calm you down?  Do you remember about the good times we had? I know you were using me, but you seemed so nice at first.  Remember when my friends and I nursed you back to health after you had that bad fall? Come on, big guy, you’ve got to remember!”
Sludge just kept scowling.  He held his treasure close to him as if he thought Spike would try to steal it.  He wasn’t roaring anymore, so Spike figured he didn’t perceive him as a threat, but Sludge clearly still wasn’t himself. He finally rested his head on top of the treasure and closed his eyes.
“Sludge…”
Spike hung his head in disappointment.  Suddenly, he had an idea.  He stroked his chin and then took a deep breath.
“Alright, you leave me with no choice.  Bear with me cuz I can’t remember all the lyrics.”
Sludge opened one of his eyes and grimaced again as Spike started singing.


	Look at this castle where you live


	You can’t be a dragon here


	Uh…something, something, books upon the wall


	Something, something, treasure I fear


	 

Sludge looked curiously at Spike.  Spike was a safe distance away from Sludge, but danced, did jazz-hands, and spun around as he sang.


	Nothing about this place says ‘dragon den’, there’s too much fluff


	Something, something, robes in a pile


	Something, something goblets and dishes and…uh, stuff


	Something that rhymes with piiiiiile


	 


	Sure it may look grandiose, da-da-da-da-da, it’s just gross


	Da-da-da make something disappeeeeear


	I…uh, can’t remember this part, da-da-da-da-da-da-da


	You just can’t be a dragon heeeeere


	 

As Spike kept singing, Sludge’s face appeared less angry and more quizzical.  He watched Spike move about without any roaring or showing of teeth.  Smite could already tell this seemed to be working, so he didn’t try getting closer to help Spike or Sludge might feel threatened and attack.  Spike kept singing but started changing the lyrics.


	Each and every dragon has a swagger of his own


	Watch and I’ll show you what I meeeeean


	Sludge, I hope you’re listening, cuz boy I gotta say


	You really gotta turn back, pleeeeease


	 


	Northern Drakes don’t go around, stealing stuff from every town


	We’re better than that, oh can’t you seeeeee?


	Friends and family matter most, horded treasure won’t come close


	You just can’t stay in rage mode heeeere


	No, you just can’t stay in rage mode here…


	 

The look on Sludge’s face now appeared surprised and confused.  His eyes were opened wide.  He blinked once and his purple irises finally started showing.  He scrunched up his face and shook his head around.  Spike could see it was starting to work.
“Sludge?  Do you remember now?”
Sludge looked back up to Spike.  For the first time, he finally stopped caring about all the treasure and started to remember this little purple and green dragon. Something seemed familiar about him and the song he was singing.  Inside his mind he was brought back years ago in time.  He saw a smaller version of this dragon dancing around with him in a crystal castle.  He then remembered where the pillow came from and how he took it the last time he ever saw the little dragon.  Days later, he was alone in a cave with nothing but the pillow to help him sleep at night.  He felt miserable and disappointed in himself for ruining the little dragon’s day by lying to him about being his father.  He wondered if he could go back and apologize, but he knew he would never be welcome at that castle again.  Years passed and he stole a random chair from somepony’s back porch.  A while later he stole a jacket.  Later on he stole a random watering can that he would never use but liked the look of.  The next thing he knew, the jacket was tearing and no longer fitting him so he just ripped it off but still kept it.  Before he knew it, he was stealing anything he could possibly find, getting bigger and more mindless as he went.  He couldn’t carry his things anymore, so he flew out to the sea and found a sunken ship near Nordo Dracos with treasure inside.  He felt himself growing larger as he picked the ship up and put all his goods in it.  He then started taking rocks and tearing trees and plants out of the ground and felt the need to find a tall mountain to keep all these things in.  Finally he saw the battle from earlier that lead up to this very moment.
It finally dawned on Sludge what had really happened to him all these years.  He had become so greedy that it caused him to enter rage mode a second time in his life.  It took years to start growing, but once Sludge found the ship, it was already too late. He couldn’t remember exactly how long he had been like this, but it no longer mattered.  He remembered who he was and what he had done.  He put his hand up to his chest and looked deeply into Spike’s eyes.
“SP…SPI…SPIKE?” he said in a deep, grumbly voice.
“It’s me, Sludge.”
Sludge felt his insides moving around and his muscles tighten up.  His bones ached badly and the pores beneath his scales emitted steam.  He began to slowly shrink until finally he snapped right back into his true form several yards above the ground, landing on top of the gold.  Sludge had grown taller and bigger since Spike last saw him, but he was only a bit taller than Barb and still much smaller than all the other adult dragons in this land.  Spike watched as he slowly stood up and put his hands up to his head in pain.
“He did it!” shouted a dragon that had been observing from behind the walls of the crater.
“Everyone come quickly!  Smite’s son has tamed that dragon!” said another.
Several other dragons flew down and landed on the edge while cheering for Spike.  Spike looked over to see Smite land as Chara stood next to him.  His siblings all arrived with Barb carrying Chip and Annie and Singe carrying Pumpkin.  Flurry had a huge smile on her face.  Pound and Stormy pumped their hooves and whooped loudly as everyone else did the same.
“I can’t believe it actually worked!  And on a dragon in permanent rage mode too!” Singe exclaimed.
“That’s our baby brother!” shouted Scorch.
“S TO THE P TO THE I-K-E!  HIS DAD ROCKS AND SO DOES HE!  GOOOOOOO SPIKE!” Buttercream shouted as she waved her pom-poms around while still wearing her cheerleader uniform.
Spike smiled as he waved to the crowd, but he didn’t forget about Sludge.  As he looked back, he saw Sludge sitting down on top of the gold, covering his face with his hands.  He already had tears forming in his eyes.  Spike then put his hands up to quiet everyone down and walked over to Sludge.
“Hey, Sludge?” he asked.
“Don’t look at me, Spike,” Sludge whimpered.
“Sludge, it’s okay.”
“How can you say that after everything I’ve done?  I lied to you about being your dad, I stole your pillow and tons of other things, I made a mess in front of all those other dragons, and now I’ve incurred the wrath of King Smite.”
As Sludge cried, Smite had his arms crossed with a stern look on his face.  Chara stood next to him with her hand on his shoulder.  Smite was not happy with what Sludge had done, but he let Spike talk to him nonetheless.  Clearly this dragon was not as bad now that he had been tamed.  Spike walked over to Sludge and sat down next to him.
“Sludge, look, I may have only known my dad for a few minutes, but from what I’ve gathered so far, he’s a good king and he’s not going to banish you to Oster Dracos now that you’re back to normal.”
“It doesn’t matter, Spike.  I never should have done any of that.  I shouldn’t have taken advantage of you just so I could stay in that castle.  I deserve whatever’s coming my way.”
“Well you already feel sorry, so that’s a good start.  I won’t lie, I was mad at you for what you did, but I’ve experienced worse.  You were nice to me when you first came into Ponyville.  Even after you admitted you weren’t my dad, you still left without me even having to ask you.  Look, Sludge, forget about the pillow and everything else you did to me.  I’ve seen how dragons in Nordo Dracos treat each other and how close they are to their families.  It’s not too different from Equestria, so I’m going to treat you exactly how I’d want to be treated.  I forgive you, Sludge.”
“But I didn’t even say sorry.”
“And you’ll never have to.”
Sludge took a few moments to reflect.  He wiped his tears away and sniffled.  Finally he smiled and looked at Spike.
“I’ve never had anyone treat me as well as you and your friends did, Spike.  I guess that’s why I really wanted to stay in the castle.  But I’m still responsible for this whole mess.”
Spike thought for a few moments and then turned to his father.
“Hey, Dad?  He says he’s sorry.  I hope you can forgive him.”
Smite looked at Chara.  She smiled to him and Smite smiled back.  Smite finally turned to Sludge as Spike helped him up.
“How about this: Sludge, I’ll sentence you to cleaning up everything you wrecked down in the plaza and return that gold to Princess Twilight.  Judging by the emblem on that ship, that treasure was meant to go to Equestria years ago before it sank.  After you’re done with all that, you can consider your debt fully paid and I’d be happy to give you citizenship to Nordo Dracos.”
“Thank you, King Smite,” Sludge said, bashfully.
The dragons all returned to cheering as Spike and Sludge hugged each other.
“Thanks for giving me a second chance, Spike.  I still don’t feel I deserve it, but I’ll do what I can to make up for everything.”
“Hey, that’s what friends are for.”