//------------------------------//
// 7.  The Rampage Begins 
// Story: My Little Sister is a Dragon: Ester Dracos Arc 
// by AleximusPrime 
//------------------------------//

Nightwatch sat in the front lawn of his parents’ house, with his telescope next to him.  It was sunset and he was waiting for the night to arrive, so he could study the stars. Suddenly, he saw Buttercream running over the hill across the road.  She was skipping along playfully and humming a happy tune.  Nightwatch looked at her and smiled.  She noticed him and then started running towards him.
“Nighty!  Hey!” she shouted, joyfully.
He dropped everything he was doing and ran across the road to meet her.  They both laughed joyfully as they ran.  She tripped as she was running but got back up without a problem.  They both stopped as they heard loud footsteps rumbling in the distance.  The sky grew dark rather fast and Nightwatch noticed a fiery glow on the other side of the hill Buttercream had just run over.  Suddenly, a huge hulking object emerged from the flames behind her.  It was none other than King Rubble.  He threw his head back and roared.
“N-N-Nighty, what is that?!”
“BUTTER, RUN!!”
Buttercream ran as fast as she could to her brother, but Rubble tried to grab her with his giant claws.  She dodged his claws and finally made it to Nightwatch.  He could not run away fast enough, so he covered Buttercream with his arms and cast a protection spell.  As Rubble reached for them, he closed his eyes.  A few seconds passed and nothing happened.  He opened his eyes again but saw that Buttercream was no longer with him.
“Bu…Butter?!  Buttercream, where are you?!” he yelped, as he frantically looked around.
“What’s the matter Nighty?”
He then heard a voice behind him.  It sounded like Buttercream’s voice, but it was echoing as if she were bigger.  He turned around and saw a giant 300-foot tall version of her in Rubble’s place. She laughed maniacally.  The fire behind her flared up and began to surround Nightwatch and burn all the grass and trees.
“Afraid you might lose me?  Afraid they might come and TAKE ME AWAY?!  AHAHAHA!!”
Her voice was now deeper and monstrous.  At this point, she was just a darkened silhouette, but he noticed her face and body were now morphing to look more like a grown Northern Drake, but not a friendly one.  She looked scarier than Rubble.  Nightwatch’s heart raced and felt as though it would leap out of his chest. Suddenly, he woke up.
“AAAGGGHHH!”
He saw the wallpaper in front of him and was turned away from where Buttercream was sleeping on the ground.  His heart was still pounding very fast and he was hyperventilating, but he grew calmer as he realized it was just a nightmare.  Before he could turn around, the confirmation already came that Buttercream was in there with him, safe and sound.
“Nighty?” she asked. “Are you okay?”
“Butter?  Yeah…yeah, I’m okay.  It was just a really bad dream,” Nightwatch said, still turned away from her.
“Oh.  It sure sounded bad.”
“Yeah, but don’t worry, I’m okay now, I’m okaAAAAAAY!”
Nightwatch turned around as he spoke and immediately lost control of his voice, upon seeing the sea of objects in the bedroom.  It was covering the entire floor and some of it had even started spilling over onto his bed.  The trash basket that he had thrown some of these things away was now in the pile with more objects in it.  Tons of random decorations, lamps, plates, bowls, vases and heirlooms from around the house were in the pile.  It looked like he was in a house that belonged to a hoarder.  Unfortunately, Buttercream’s greed issue had not gotten better over night, but worse.  Nightwatch threw off his cover and stood up on his bed.  He could barely see the hat Buttercream was wearing in the pile. Most of her face was obscured, but she moved and some of the things fell down to show her.
“Hey.  What’s the matter?” she asked.
“BU…BUTTER, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?!”
“What do you mean?  I feel great!”
“Great?  GREAT?! Look at all this stuff!  First you go for the game cartridges, then that fruit, then the torch, then Aster and Lily tell me you kept begging for gifts and picking up trash while I was gone yesterday, and now…AND NOW THIS?!”
Nightwatch used his magic to push some of the things away and clear a path for him to get through.  He recognized the lamp, tissue box, and alarm clock that belonged on the desk next to him and put them back where they belonged.
“Nighty, what are you doing?”
“Those things don’t belong to you, Butter!  None of this does!  Now get out of there while I-”
As Nightwatch spoke, he pulled Buttercream out of the pile with his magic.  To his horror, his little sister was not like he remembered.  Her arms and legs were longer and lanky.  She was thinner and almost more snake-like with an extra long tail. He hadn’t noticed it before due to being distracted by the mess, but even her face had changed a little.  Her snout had a more beak-like shape and her head had grown larger.  He pulled the hat off and noticed her spikes had grown a bit longer and pointier as well. Even though Lily said that she would be getting her wings in a few years, she somehow still had no wings, and her body shape was not chubby and round like he was expecting her to be. Somehow she had grown up into an adolescent form, but this was happening way too quickly.  He was so scared over what was happening to his sister, his heart started pounding again.
“Nighty what are you…huh?  What?!  Why am I bigger?!” she screamed. “Nighty, what happened?  All I did was go to sleep!”
“Well that’s obviously not all you did!  Butter, don’t you understand!?  Somehow being greedy is making you grow too fast!”
“Oh.  You think so?”
“Hello?” asked Lily on the other side of the door.
Nightwatch looked over to the door to see it start to slide open, but there was too much garbage in front of it.
“Wait!  LILY, NO!” he called, but it was too late.
The door slid open and Lily was instantly buried in junk. Aster was in the corridor with her, but he was tall enough that it only covered his legs.  Pansy was with them but was thankfully hovering in the air and hid right behind Aster’s back.
“WHOA!!  Clean up on aisle five!” Aster shouted as he pulled Lily out of the pile.
Lily had a cup hanging from one of her antlers and a vase stuck on her snout.  She pulled the vase off with her hands and feet and looked back to see Buttercream. Both she and Aster nearly fainted at the site of Buttercream being as big as she was.
“Guys, I’m sorry, I didn’t think she’d do this over night! I don’t know how she got this big!”
“Well we’d better clean this all up before Mom and Dad see it!” said Lily.  “That’s Grandma Tulip’s vase!”
“And I recognize some of these books from Dad’s study.  Buttercream, care to explain all this?”
“I don’t know, guys.  I just…I just like this stuff.”
“Come on, let’s get her out of here and clean up this mess.”
Aster reached in and pulled Buttercream out of her hoard. She was so confused over her newfound height, she briefly forgot about the pile.  As Aster moved her out into the living room, she was distracted by all the other things in the house she had not yet taken.
“There must be something wrong with her,” Lily said, frantically. “Nighty, are you sure you didn’t find any books or something about Northern Drakes in the archives?”
“I…uh…”
Nightwatch looked nervous and began to sweat.  In his mind, he now realized he should have consulted the book he got from Antirrhinum, but he couldn’t even locate it in the pile. He was about to confess, until Buttercream distracted him.  She was climbing up a pillar in the living room to fetch a painting hanging from the wall.
“Butter, stop!” he screamed.
“Whoa there, not-so-little lady!” said Aster, pulling her back down.
“But…but I want it!” Buttercream pouted.
“That’s an old family heirloom from several generations ago. Can’t letcha have that.  Maybe it’s time you just take a break.”
Aster put her back down on the ground to get her to sit still. He tried giving her a belly rub, which thankfully got her to roll over on the ground in submission.  While Aster and Lily were discussing things, Nightwatch went back into his bedroom to find his book.
“Hark, I have tamed the beast!” Aster said heroically.
“There you go, Aster!” Lily said.
“Who’s a good girl!  Who’s a good girl!”
As Aster spoke to Buttercream in a cute voice like she was a puppy, Nightwatch continued to search for his book.  He finally found the satchel, quickly pulled it out of the pile and placed it on his bed.  He opened the book and looked around in a section about Northern Drakes.  He found a page that showed images of baby Northerns and their anatomy and other facts about them.  He turned the pages until he saw a picture of a huge adult Northern that had a very long neck and tail with sharp spikes, but no wings.  He figured this might have something to do with Buttercream’s growth, so he looked elsewhere on the page to see several other dragons descending in height and one of them resembled Buttercream’s current look. He read some of the text on the page above and put his hoof up to his chin in shock.
“Oh no…” he said.
“Aster, can I get up now?” asked Buttercream.
“Only if you promise us you won’t take anymore things,” Lily said.
“I…uh…all right, fine.  I guess I’ve had enough.”
Aster stopped rubbing her and Buttercream sat still, looking somewhat disappointed.
“Now that means sitting here and not touching a thing until we can figure out what’s wrong with you.  Capeesh?” Aster continued.
“That’s right.  You wouldn’t want to keep growing bigger and bigger, would you?” Lily asked.
“No,” Buttercream said, crossly.
“Guys!  Come quickly!” Nightwatch called.
Aster and Lily flew into the room to see Nightwatch with the book.
“What did you find?” Lily asked.
“Well…uh, is Butter here?”
“No, we told her to sit still.  Looks like she’s behaving now.”
“Alright good.  Now I think I’ve figured out what’s wrong with her.  She’s in a form of greed-induced accelerated growth that all Northerns go through at a prepubescent age.  They call it ‘rage mode’ in Nordo Dracos.”
“Whoa, pump the breaks.  So you did find a book.” Aster said.
Nightwatch glanced back at Buttercream to see if she could hear them.  She appeared to be distracted by tons of objects around her, but at least she would not hear what he was about to say.  He whispered to them as he made his confession.
“Yeah, well…look, I actually did find out some things about Butter’s kind and Antirrhinum did let me have this book, but here’s the thing: I don’t want Butter knowing anything about her kind right now.”
“Why not?” asked Lily.
“Because apparently the king of Nordo Dracos hates ponies.  And I have this sinking feeling she might be related to the royal family, so I can’t let her get anywhere near that place or they could find out about her and take her away.  And I’m afraid if I let her see this book, she’s gonna beg to go there. I just can’t let her know right now.”
“Oooh.  That does sound a little rough,” said Aster.
“Please don’t tell anyone.  I don’t wanna lose her.”
“You have our word, Nighty,” Lily said, saluting. “But you know she’s gonna find out eventually.”
“I’ll tell her some other day, but right now we really need to figure out how to stop this.  Here it says she’s going to get bigger, but any Northern can be brought back down to size if they’re ‘wrangled’ by an adult dragon or two.  Thank goodness!  I was worried she’d be like this forever!”
“Wrangled?  What does that mean?”
“Judging by these pictures, I guess they’re wrestled or something.  But do we have any adult Northern Drakes around here that know how to do that?”
“I don’t know of any,” Aster said. “I believe there are a few ‘great bog’ Northerns living retired lifestyles in the mountains, but they’re a little old and the chances that they’re even awake at this time of the year are slim.”
“Yeah, they really like to sleep.  A lot,” Lily added.
“Well then we’re going to have to find a way to wrangle her before she gets bigger,” Nightwatch said.
“ASTER!  LILY!!” called Azalea from a room above.
Everyone turned around to see Buttercream was no longer in the spot she had been sitting in earlier.  She had gotten up and started taking things from upstairs.  They all went out in to the living room they left her in and looked up to see Buttercream had climbed the pillars into the upper floors of their pagoda house.  She took a few things from their bedroom and slid down the pillar using one claw, which left scratch marks.  As she landed, Tigrinum and Azalea flew down and stood in front of her on all fours. Tigrinum stared firmly at her and used his magic to take everything out of her arms.
“NO!  I want those! Buttercream want!” Buttercream yelped as she jumped up and down to grab everything.
“Nightwatch, I hate to say this, but we best get Buttercream to Antirrhinum.  He might know how to deal with this,” Tigrinum said.
“We already figured it out, Dad,” said Lily.
“She’s growing fast from her greed and entering something Northern Drakes go through called ‘rage mode’,” Nightwatch explained.
“And we have to wrangle her to calm her down before she gets bigger!”
“Wrangle her?  Just how are we going to do that?” asked Azalea.
Everyone looked to see Aster cracking his knuckles.  He mimicked the sound of an audience at a sporting event.  Buttercream had already managed to pick up a rug from the ground and saw Aster challenging her.  She got down in a stance like the one he was in, knowing he would try to take her treasure. Tigrinum and Azalea moved some furniture to accommodate space for them.  Their living room had just turned into a training dojo.
“All right folks, stand back!  I’ve got this!” Aster said before switching his voice over to a sports announcer.
“Are you ready for the match of the century, ladies and gentlelongs?  In one corner, at one-eighty pounds we’ve got the Dragon of Dare, the Purveyor of Potency: ASTER!  And in the other corner at one hundred pounds is the terrifying, the deadly, the adorable BUTTERCREAM!  Can Aster overcome the beast!  Wait and find out!  LLLLETS GET READY TO RUMB-”
Before Aster could make his first move, Buttercream had already pounced on him.  His snakelike body enabled him to wrap himself around her, so he quickly gained the high ground and had her incapacitated.  He continued to humor everyone by adding commentary to the fight.
“WHOA! LOOK AT ‘EM GO!  Look at how he does that chokehold!  The vigor!  The tenacity! I tell ya, I haven’t seen anything like this in my life!  That Aster is gonna be through with her before the day is done!”
“GO ASTER, GO!” shouted Lily, as she pumped her fist.
“GAH!  Let me go! Buttercream want!!” Buttercream growled.
“You got it, Aster!  Now just be careful to…oh dear…” Nightwatch said, looking down at his book.
“What’s the matter, Nighty?” Lily asked.
“I said…Buttercream…WAAAAANT!!!”
Buttercream’s voice grew deeper and she suddenly grew larger in a matter of seconds, while roaring.  Aster couldn’t hold her any longer.  She was too strong.  She used her claws to push his arms off of her.  Reaching back with ease, she threw him into a large sofa nearby.
“ASTER!” shouted Lily and Azalea.
“Alright, this has gone far enough!” said Tigrinum, as he flew around Buttercream in a circle with his antlers glowing.
Buttercream roared and tried clawing at Tigrinum as he flew, but she started floating in the air with his magic.  He tried casting a spell that would normally put her to sleep and weaken her, but it did no good.  She only grew angrier, so he resorted to getting physical like his son did.  He was long enough to wrap himself around her and nearly won, until he heard what Nightwatch was saying.
“TIGRINUM, STOP!  IT WON’T WORK UNTIL SHE’S REACHED HER LARGEST STAGE OF GROWTH!  DOING IT NOW JUST MAKES IT WORSE!” he screamed.
Before Tigrinum could remove himself, Buttercream pulled him off and threw him to the ground, while she came plummeting down next to him. She got up quickly, rushed over to the shoji windows at the other end of the dining room and ripped right through them.
“Tigrinum, my love!  Are you all right?” Azalea cried, tending to her husband.
“I’ve felt better,” he replied, weakly.
“Dad, now what?!  If we can’t wrangle her till she’s big enough, she’s just gonna wreck the entire town!” Lily said.
“I’m going to inform Antirrhinum.  We might be able to lure her into a safer zone and call in the Guardians.”
“Be careful, dear,” Azalea said, giving her husband a quick kiss.
Tigrinum picked himself up and went out the front door to fly off to the palace to warn the Emperor.
“Well we’ve already lost her,” Aster said, looking out of the giant dragon-shaped hole in the lattice structure.  “I don’t see her anywhere out there.  She probably ran off into the forest.  Gosh, that girl really packs a punch.”
“This is all my fault,” Nightwatch said, miserably.  “I should’ve consulted this book before all of this started happening.”
“It’s okay, Nighty,” Lily told him. “We were probably too late for that anyway.  At least we know there’s a way we can stop this.”
“Wait, Nightwatch, you had a book about this all along?” Azalea asked.
“I don’t have time to explain,” said Nightwatch.  “Come on.  Let’s go out there and see if we can find her and corral her into another place where she can’t do as much damage.  We should probably go warn everyone in town first so they can close up their shops. If she’s this greedy, she’ll go for the marketplace first.”
“He’s right,” said Aster. “That area is going to be a total smorgasbord for her if we don’t act fast!”
Everyone ran out of the front door to head for the marketplace and alert all the other longs.  Unfortunately, Buttercream was already on her way there.

In the town, longs continued about their normal lives, buying and socializing.  Hosta, Daisy and Amaryllis worked at their flower stand as they always would.
“Hey, Ammy, how many geraniums did we sell so far?” Hosta asked her sister.
“About fourteen in the first hour.  They’re really in this season!” Amaryllis replied.
“Uh, guys, what’s that?” asked Daisy as she pointed at a large yellow Northern Drake with pink spikes, tearing through the streets and picking up random goods from stands.
“HEY!  Are you gonna pay for those?!” asked a random shop-worker before she roared in his face.
Buttercream then turned and saw the flower stall.  The sisters had not yet figured out who she was, and she already had her eyes on the flowers.  She quickly rushed over and scooped up tons of them and put them in her arms.
“Hey, just what do you think you’re…wait, Buttercream, is that you?” asked Hosta.
Buttercream roared in Hosta’s face and then turned to steal more things at another shop.  Hosta’s hair was all messy from the wind in her face, but she was not interested in any makeovers right now.  She looked to see Buttercream running off and flew outside of the stall with her sisters.
“That was Buttercream?” asked Daisy.
“But how can that be Buttercream, unless…” Amaryllis started saying before pausing.
“SHE’S ENTERING RAGE MODE!” they all shouted at the same time.
“Of course!  How could we forget Granddad went through this too?” Daisy said.
“That’s only for purebreds though, so Dad didn’t experience it and neither did any of us!” Hosta added.
“How did Granddad say they took care of him again?” asked Amaryllis.
“She has to be wrangled!” called Nightwatch, as he arrived in next to the sisters. “But we can’t do it until she reaches the final stage of growth.”
“Nightwatch!  How long has this been happening?” Hosta asked.
“I think it all started yesterday when we went through here and some of the villagers started giving her things,” Azalea told her.
“Oh shoot!  WE contributed to that!  How could we be so foolish!?” Amaryllis said, smacking herself in the face.
“Nightwatch, we’re so sorry,” said Daisy “We should’ve known she was entering the stage of a Northern Drake’s life where they can grow from greed.  It’s a little hard to pinpoint exactly when it will happen, but it’s usually a couple years before they get their wings.”
“Yeah, it only happens with purebreds though, so none of us have experienced this,” Hosta added.
“It’s okay, ladies,” Nightwatch replied. “I know you meant well. We need to find a way to get her wrangled.”
“Some of the larger longs are trying to stop her,” Azalea said. “Aster, let’s go and warn them to not let her near too many of the buildings, or there will be a lot of property damage.  Lily, you stay with Nightwatch.”
“Be careful, Mom,” Lily said, watching her mother and brother take off. 
“Now Nightwatch, you say it can only be dealt with when she’s big enough?” Amaryllis asked. “I forgot about that part.  That explains why we have a picture of Granddad being wrestled by his parents when he was bigger than them.”
“Plus the Northerns always have these things planned out too,” Daisy explained. “I remember Granddad saying when a young one reaches a certain age, he or she is placed in a deep crater they can’t escape and are fed gems and other random things until their greed increases and they grow.  If they’re large enough the next day, the parents jump in to wrangle them.  If they escape the crater, it can be pretty bad, but that’s why Northern Drakes induce the growth before a baby dragon gets its wings.”
“And depending on the dragon, it can take almost an entire hour to pin them into submission.  Other dragons might even need to get involved,” Hosta added. “Once they’re calm, they quickly shrink back into their baby size.  After that, everyone celebrates, marking it as a rite of passage.”
“I still don’t get it.  Why does this even happen to Northerns?” Nightwatch asked as he witnessed his sister stealing more things from stands.
“Nobody knows.  It didn’t always used to be that way.  About a thousand years ago, baby Northerns just started having this issue, but they quickly found a way to deal with it.”
“And is wrangling the only option?” Lily asked.
“So we’ve been told,” said Daisy, “Wrangling is a huge part of Nordo Dracos culture.  They like to wrestle for fun and to prepare for wrangling when they’re old enough.”
“Are there any Eastern Drakes that can do it?” asked Nightwatch.
“Probably not.  Easterns might have snake-like bodies, but they don’t exactly have the strength of a purebred Northern.  There’s a very specific process to how it’s done.  I hope the Guardians are capable of stopping her.”
“We could just call in someone from Nordo Dracos,” Amaryllis suggested.
“NO!” shouted Nightwatch as everyone stared at him. “Sorry, but we can’t do that!”
“Uh…why not?”
“Well…I…”
Some longs then flew by everyone as Buttercream came stomping back through to take things from the other side of the street they were on. Her features were starting to look far more bestial.  She was now about five times bigger than before.  She would have stood about 100 feet tall if she were standing on two legs, but she was now walking in a quadruped fashion and using her tail to carry things. In her tail was a giant marble bowl she stole from some larger longs to keep her hoard in.  A few of them started using their magic to try and stop her, but they were not strong enough, and it was too risky to fight in such a condensed area.  Alarms were already sounding and longs had begun to evacuate.  Azalea and Aster’s plan clearly didn’t work, so they returned to help everyone fall back.
“It’s not working!  She won’t leave the town!” Azalea cried.
“I’m tempted to make a Longzilla joke, but I should probably save that for later,” said Aster.
“Well if we’re gonna get a wrangler dragon, we need to do it fast!” said Amaryllis.
Everyone started backing up except Nightwatch who could not help but stand still and stare in horror at the giant dragon.  He felt so responsible for all of this damage, but even worse: he started to worry that he truly had lost his sister.
“Butter…I’m so sorry I let this happen to you,” he cried.