The Dragon Lord’s Guardian
History of Scales, Iron and Hooves
Spike woke up with a start, as his reality shifted back hard. What should have been a nightmare, turned into an odd dream. He felt the light brushes of his mother’s mental blockage from his bad dreams but with the added benevolent benefits of forgetting them towards the end.
In truth, he had to be ‘dreamless’ in order to sleep if nothing else worked. A result of his own heart and desires to protect those around him plaguing him. The others, fortunately, no longer partake in his shared experiences if he went dreamless.
However, something felt off about this night’s dreaming. It almost felt like something was breaching out, a sort of echo trying to reach him. The gentle melody that his mothers’ would sing to him in his coma, slowly drawing out. A perpetual choir that seemed to ring his ears but leave him in a calming void.
So… why was last night so different? The enigma left him more annoyed than tired but he felt content with this compared to the other nights he had when his mates suffered alongside him. They had slowed since his training with his mother almost concluded, though now that perhaps he gets a better insight of what is happening in Ponyville thanks to Smolder, his heart could be more at ease. Perhaps it was something that he could bring up later when he returned home… For now, a new day arose and so did discovery!
“I trust you all had a ‘Good night' sleep?” Blacktip asked first thing in the morning as they vacated their rooms. Celestia’s sun had breached over the horizon, but had yet cleared the city’s buildings to the east. Still, the city was lit, the day starting and the dragons ready to begin a day anew.
Blacktip saw that the younger dragons had seemed to have a good night, though it could be because of their reunion. Possibly more…
Shadescale looked indifferent, as if this was just a minor inconvenience though she seemed almost happy to be outside of the room. Garble looked more at ease with his situation.
“Yeah, we are good,” Spike answered, being the voice of positive reason for them. His voice chipper and ever the reason to see more of the city, Blacktip nodded with the same positivity.
“Wonderful! Now, how about we go for breakfast first?” A nod from everyone except Shadescale who looked confused.
“What requires us to ‘Break-fast’ something?” She inquired as she stretched her wings and ligaments.
“Ah, sorry Shadescale,” Blacktip apologized, before anyone could comment or correct her. “I forget you are unfamiliar with the ways of ponies and dragons here. Simply put, ‘Breakfast’ is the time of day in the early morning when after you wake and have a meal.”
“A meal in the morning is called ‘Breakfast’?” Receiving a nod from not just Blacktip, but the others as well.
“Indeed, though I fear that since most dragons sleep in later times, that you miss the early morning rituals most species have. Come, we will enjoy delicacies just like yesterday.”
As they walked away from the hotel, Smolder looked behind them and saw them missing one ‘yeti’ friend. “Hey, no Ralph?”
Spike shook his head. “Nah, poor guy can only tolerate this area for so long. He’ll have to stay there for the time being, but I gave him some comics to read. I’ll stop by and bring him Breakfast too.”
Smolder seemed content with that with her focus turning to her brother, who had been surprisingly quiet this whole time. She hung back a bit, pulling his wing lightly with him. A pause at his sister’s pull and looked down at her.
“Hey, you okay? You’ve been awfully quiet since we got here.”
He waited until they were out of ear shot from the others and spoke softly as they walked behind. “I’m still… I’m still not sure what I’m doing here, Smols. I mean, I came with you just because I didn’t want you to go anywhere dangerous but…” He motioned with his snout to their hoard, Shadescale and Blacktip. “-I don’t think you need any protection. Plus… I feel like I don’t belong with them.”
Smolder knew her brother to be well and protective, but at the same time, she understood his reservations as well. It was not too long ago that he and Spike had quarrels along with Ember. Though Spike is quick to forgive him, she noted that her brother was absent out of their minds due to his lack of connection. It made sense that he was still cautious and perhaps a little hesitant to re-engage with him.
With her around, she’ll try to change that. Pulling close, she brushed against her older brother. “Hey, you’ve made progress since you were forced to stay in Ponyville. Spike saw that you have changed for the better and so have I. While the others don’t know that you have changed, I do.” She gave him a reassuring smile that eased his mind a lot. “Trust me, you can hang around Spike, just don’t bring up the past and try not to do any more dumb things and you’ll be fine.”
He gave a small nod. “Yeah, alright.” Seeming optimistic, both quickly caught up to the group just as Blacktip had reintroduced them into the section they were in yesterday. However, the vendors now had breakfast going, which was a new concept for a certain dragoness, as she witnessed eggs, potatoes, and… flatbread? Along with it, came some odd aroma of blended beans, what looked like squeezed orange fruits, and an overwhelming amount of sweets being sent to their nostrils.
“What is it that makes breakfast so special for the occasion to wake up so early?” Shadescale half pondered out loud, though she was not one to ignore a free meal.
“Ah, that is the magic of Breakfast, Shadescale!” Blacktip answered easily and with enthusiastic insight. “For almost centuries, those who've had to rise early for work, needed some nutrition to start the day and you can not really work hard or fast if your belly is without food. Since most dragons and ponies start work early, meals were either prepped the nights before or made around before dusk, meals could be sold in a hurry to fill those hungry bellies. As dragons, we normally would wake up late then eat, but now as working dragons, we wake up early and need meals just to start the day.”
Spike nodded as they paused in front of a restaurant that would take his card. In front of the door, it stated it took ‘Equestrian currency,’ as well ‘gems’. However the building looked older with modern decor, which made more sense when the restaurant sign said it was established almost a century ago. “But unlike other foods, certain foods were only made during the mornings like eggs, pancakes, bacon, cereal, and so on. Also came the drinks only served for breakfast like coffee, orange juice and so on.”
The doors, big enough for all of them, opened and while it wasn’t packed, the dragons could see that there was a large bustle in the back of the kitchen as dragons rushed back and forth.
There were a few patrons already eating, so it didn’t seem too busy for them. A section was made for regular dragons in the main entrance while a larger section was made for dragons the size of Blacktip or larger in the back. It had an open backside for their size of dragons available.
A young dragoness, about Spike’s height, with a golden hairlock made by her head spines, two small horns and light blue over turquoise belly came to them wearing a waitress outfit. Smiling, she greeted them.
“Good Morning! Welcome to ‘Dragon Sliders!’ Hello Blacktip! Nice to see you again! Table for six?”
The green drake nodded, smiling towards the waiter. “Yes, thank you Yllia´x. The patio if possible.”
“No problem. Please follow me!” She then turned and guided them to the back of the restaurant with them all in tow while pulling menus off a shelf. Walking through, Spike noticed that the restaurant, while not larger than a standard one in like say Manehattan, it still had a generous amount of space within. The kitchen, which had a numerous amount of dragon's cooking, also had an elevator for a dragon to use.
“What’s with the elevator?” Spike asked out loud.
The dragoness waiter gave a glance, then understanding who she was seeing for the first time, answered a friendly response. “Oh, that is for customers who order ahead of time and need a quick pick up. We have a ‘flyby’ up on the roof for those who quickly swoop in to grab their food.” Upon reaching the back, the door opened to the otherside where it was a sort of clean back alley and had chairs of all sizes or mats spread for larger dragons. The patio was open but did show a lot of decorative stone designs where a wall of wire and stone created the barrier between the restaurant and the rest of the alley.
Only two large dragons, bigger than Blacktip, were currently out here. Overhead, there were a set of large signs, that they somehow missed, that stated, ‘Flyby Orders’ and designated posts to wait for the pickup. The idea was mind blowing and Spike half wondered why the pegasi haven’t adopted this method yet for restaurants or other food deliveries?
Yllia´x showed them an empty table with cushions for the larger dragons while the younger group all grabbed a chair. The waitress then handed them each out menu and brought out a writing pad with a charcoal pen.
“While you look into that, what can I get started with?”
“I’ll have a coffee, Yllia´x,” Blacktip answered almost immediately.
“Black?” She asked even though the answer was always the same.
“As the pits of Tartarus,” He chuckled, which she echoed then looked at the others.
“What is… ‘Coffee?” Shadescale asked him, while the others ordered their drinks.
“Ah, it’s a blend of certain types of beans that when roasted tastes extremely bitter but wakes you up with the amount of caffeine embedded in it. It helps start the day.” He then turned to the waitress. “Make that two, so she can try but if not, just please bring sugar and cream.”
A cheerful nod as she wrote down the others drinks. “No problem! I’ll fetch the drinks and you can all have the moment to see what you want.” With that she turned away and headed back in.
“What exactly makes this establishment special?” Shadescale queried.
“They were one of the first ones to be open for dragons and one of the first to really embrace some Equestrian style of restaurant keep. While other restaurants copied what they did, they have remained faithfully dragon exclusive with their own creation of the ‘Fly-tru’ system on top.”
He then showed her the variety of foods that were delicious and wonderful to try. As this happened, Ember who had been quietly paying attention, watched from her prephial at how Shadescale became somewhat infatuated with Blacktip. She noted how she leaned in, hung onto his every word and perhaps even admired the drake. A small idea formed in her mind to hopefully push her more towards him then Spike. An idea that she hoped she could execute without much trouble.
When the waitress came back with their drinks, a large tray holding juices of variety for the younger dragons. Another dragon wheeled in on a wheel tray stand two giant bowls of hot coffee, with a full case of sugar and cream. One all that settled, she asked if they all had chosen what they wanted. Everyone did so while Blacktip ordered for himself and Shadescale, which the dragoness felt thankful for. Once she wrote everything down, she left giving an estimated time for their food to arrive.
“So Blacktip,” Ember began, trying to steer more of the attention back to him. “What exactly have you done here for almost a century? I mean, I know you are the Archivist, Historian and Record Keeper for dragons, but what about here? What did you do here specifically?” She really tried to shove him in the spotlight as much as possible.
“Oh, well there was plenty I have done here but mostly, I studied what I could with the University here. While I was under the tutelage of Ivory, I tried to study as much history as possible before claw. I didn’t know much growing up in the Dragonlands, but the few that did have scrolls or were available to read were limited.”
“So you sought out more knowledge?” Spike asked, taking a sip of his drink.
“Oh, more than that, I sought out who was the archivist before me! Not many of you know who it was but the Archivist role had been vacant for almost half a millennium. No other dragon didn’t care much about the role or bothered to write more. Outside of your mother, Ember, no other dragons were contributing towards our history or knowledge.”
“My mother?” She was briefly baffled but quickly understood what he meant.
“Those scrolls that you have, were gifted to you by your mother, no?”
A nod left her, reminding her of the ones that she had and the ones that Spike read. “Yes, though I never found out why she wrote them and not somedragon else. She didn’t write them all, right?”
“She may have contributed some, as I’ve read the ones she wrote during her century’s travel outside of the Dragonlands. But most of the older ones were written by the Archivist before me. After spending a good half century trying to gather everything, learning from everything here in Fillydelphia and getting several degrees, I sought Lord Torch and the Elders to ask if I can fill the vacant role of Archivist as well as Historian and Record Keeper.” He then seemed to fully beam in his role. “That was given to me and me alone. As I told them about the city here with dragons and ponies working together, I was cemented into keeping tabs both here and the DragonLands for development between us as a Record Keeper/Archivist. So far, I dare say, it's been the most exciting last few years since I started my role. Traveling back and forth between here and the Dragonlands has given me such insight and growth, I feel blessed everyday to know I have this job!” Shadescale seemed to take a far more notice into his role, especially as she kept her eating to a novice. Ember grinned internally.
“So who was the Archivist before you?” Spike asked through bites of his food.
“Oh, most of you don't know him, perhaps even heard of the name but it was ‘Falkor the lucky.”
Receiving blank stares even from Shadescale, he chuckled and nodded. “As I said, not many have even heard of the name or remember.”
At the moment, the food had arrived and the dragons briefly forgot the conversation, as the smell hit first before their actual appetites. The younger dragons got a variety of plates their sizes with them having a traditional breakfast of pancakes, eggs, and bacon.
Blacktip and Shadescale were given a giant bowl of scrambled eggs, an extra large plate of giant pancakes and two half body lengths of roasted pork sausage.
“What eggs do these originate from? I didn’t think about what preferences they provided?” Shadescale asked him, looking at the scrambled bowl before her. She hadn’t even touched her coffee, noting the strong aroma that hovered by it.
“Hmm, depends on your liking.” Blacktip replied. “I chose chicken since they are cheap, plentiful and easy to cook. However they carry ‘serpents’, ‘ostrids’, ‘turkey’, and even ‘cockatrice’ eggs.”
“Wait, aren’t those dangerous to eat?” Smolder paused mid bite on her eggs as she asked that.
Shaking his head, Blacktip clarified. “Not when they are eggs. At that stage, they are harmless, though they are very spicy.” Smolder blinked then looked down at her own eggs and shrugged before continuing to eat.
“Huh, I wonder what else they do here that also seems different.” Spike wondered out loud as he began to eat his food.
“Oh my young apprentice, we have only scratched the surface.” Blacktip responded with great withheld enthusiasm and a glint in his eyes.
The chat turned to idle, as they mostly tried to enjoy their food. Scadescale ate slower than the others, tasting things here and there before fully consuming it. Blacktip encouraged her to try adding ketchup to her eggs or salt. The coffee, while bitter, seemed to suit her taste, though when he offered sugar, she seemed to pause.
“How sweet must it be to be enjoyable?”
“Oh, our limits with this are greatly unlimited. Sugar, however, is an addictive drug that can be difficult to be parted from, especially if done to certain foods. More so, it can trigger a dire need for the substance far more than any gem, jewel or even ‘hoarding’ can’t compete with. It also stimulates us into some various mood swings, if not moderated correctly.” He then poured a considerable amount to it that would be sweet but not too sweet as to not indulge that part of her anatomy.
“Well… that explains my donut addiction,” Spike commented with suppressed annoyance. “I swear, I could finish a box of them in under two minutes. Though I also flipped out spontaneously afterwards when I was done.”
“Same here though for me it’s Pinkie Pie’s cookies,” Smolder agreed as she casually spilled half a bottle's worth of maple syrup onto her pancakes. Garble stared at his sister as if insanity was about to partake her body.
“Oh, that is an addiction,” Blacktip remarked with some mirth, noting both of their indulgences. “But, it's thankfully not as unhealthy to us as it is to ponies. It’s just very difficult to come off it.”
“Like Berry Punch and alcohol,” Smolder remarked off-clawed through half-chewed pancakes.
Somewhere in Ponyville, said Mare raised a mug to toast up to Discord who remarked her name was briefly mentioned as an uncredited cameo mention…
“Oh, we have that too but our version is far more… lethal to ponies.” Blacktip remarked off-clawed by the statement.
“Say what?” Spike paused mid-bite.
“Later, for now, let’s finish before we continue our explorations here.”
Breakfast was finished half an hour later as the dragons indulged in the meal. When it came down to the pay, Spike handed out the card, which almost had the waitress almost bouncing. Apparently, having this kind of card added to any restaurant's status, would boost its popularity, even in Dragon Town. He also got another bit of a breakfast plate to go for Ralph.
Once he left a generous tip, the dragons all vacated the restaurant with Blacktip leading the way.
He actually became a tour guide to some of the parts of town that they didn’t get to see or explore yesterday. While they took a brief pause to allow Spike a quick drop off towards Ralph, he returned eager for the tour and guided them through the industry area of town.
“So, if you want to get technical,” Blacktip began for his little tour, “Dragon Town’ didn’t actually get its name until much later on. For the first two and a half decades, it was just known as ‘Dragon Area’, ‘Dragon Range’ and ‘Dragon’s Lair,'' Un-promptly, they passed by a shop of sorts, with the same name. In fact, a few more shops passed by with that name but for different types of businesses or establishments.
“Then after the Industrial Age really kicked off, things improved more rapidly and favorably.” Blacktip guided them to the industrial area where they passed through yesterday, seeing all the factories, mills and more through the area. Once more, the smell of sulfur, molten steel and other heavier elements being cured or turned could be scented.
“So, most of the jobs here are dragons then?” Quired Ember, suddenly peeked with interest at the prospect of dragons working in such areas.
“Most, but ponies still run parts of the show. Come, while we can’t visit all of them, the few we can visit are more tourist based and even museum-like.”
They headed to a smaller mill, one that was made essentially for tourists(Dragons-only) and open. ‘Iron Scale Works’, was the name of the company on a large sign right outside of the mill, along with a dragon claw and a pony hoof holding hammers.
The building, while smaller than the others, still had a grand stature in showing the architect of almost a century’s of work. From the main entrance, it was a large open area and signs were posted to ‘Tourists’ on the entrance while ‘Workers’ went to the back.
“While it didn’t seem like anything would work,” Blacktip continued as he guided through the mill, “-we found something as a common ground for us both. We provided the heat, the muscle, the ‘invulnerability’ to resist heat, to work with the metals and they would allow us to live amongst them with no prejudice and with added benefits.”
They entered through another set of doors, where other dragons were touring through, which led to a walkway and a view of the factory. The walkway was surrounded by bars and glass to keep it safe for tourists. Odd that it was just casually open to the public but no one really paid any real mind to it.
From this height, the group saw ponies and dragons working together in the mill that was working with some ore. Ponies dressed in safety equipment while the dragons had none, other than metallic helmets.
In an odd fascination, a river of liquid hot molten steel was poured from a cauldron down into a mold in a show of demonstration. Ponies in safety suits watched from a distance as it poured slowly while nearby dragons stood by and used their wings to shield any splashes from their co-workers. As the molten steel fell into molds, a single dragon guided the caldron, unimpaired or flinching at its heat while another began to scoop the rest of the steel into the molds. Effortlessly, the dragon seemed to enjoy himself as he also helped shape the molten steel properly into every crevice of the mold, even using his own flames to keep it from cooling rapidly.
The party were in awe and somewhat excitedly pleased to see this type of workmanship between creatures.
All this while not far from them, another dragon stood in a molten steel pool, dead center and was using their tail to stir the cooking liquid to mix in other elements being added to the pool. Two ponies from a walkway not too far up added the mixtures via tube.
Lastly, they saw on the same floor, another dragon lifted what looked like a few tons worth of still white hot iron rods that just came from a furnace. The dragon, bigger than Blacktip, then with small effort began to bend the rods to his will into shapes into curls or hooks that seemed to fit into a certain criteria for the work.
Blacktip then guided them further into another part of the factory where the walkway showed even more effort on the dragon’s end.
“And that was just a small part on our end, with the last few decades improving not just in quality but in quantity. We helped mold and shape most of the modern design in buildings, though we followed the instructions on the ponies, it wouldn’t have not been without our aid.”
“Then why isn’t Equestria talking about it or bringing it up?” Smolder asked, somewhat miffed at how dragons are not even mentioned in most of the textbooks in school. “I’ve just read a bunch of history and most of it doesn’t even mention us! That we are even here helping ponies out for the last almost a hundred years yet we can’t get a fucking reference or even a chapter?!”
While a grunt left Ember and Spike about Smolder’s choice of language, Blacktip agreed without delay. “Yet, within the last decade, that has slowly changed, far more better than we could have anticipated.”
“Huh?” Left the mouths of all present. Blacktip bobbed his head towards the rest of the mill. This side however showed heavy machinery doing most of the dangerous work but controlled by ponies behind the machines or magic wielders.
“You see, this bred some light animosity at first between species at first, as no pony wanted to credit the dragons for creating some of the ‘Buildings’ or ‘machinery’ we have today. Ponies, for a long while have been notoriously racist and bigots to other non-equine creatures. But because of a great change, we are witnessing the birth of a better era.”
“Why?” Spike asked, miffed himself at the
“A somewhat healthy competition between industries and businesses was forged. There were those that wanted to prove that ponies could be as good, if not better then dragons when it came down to ‘iron works’. Then there were others who believed that only dragons were strong enough to handle it. And then we have this.”
He led them into another part of the factory where the iron, having already cooled and ready to be further molded, was in a cooler room where it was shared with not just ponies and dragons, but zebras, griffins, minotaurs and other species. “An industry where all sorts of creatures can work in unison and prove that Harmony can happen between anycreature willing to seek it. The pages of history have yet to be written but, trust me my friends, dragons won’t be the only creatures that will make it into history. For now, we can enjoy the small victories here and there.”
“So when do we add our own story to history?” Spike asked, staring at the amazing scene of all these creatures working together.
“When the world and its audiences deem us worthy of being written.” As he said this, there was a great flare of emotion that surged between the dragons, as they witnessed all the creatures work in unison, almost harmoniously so, with equine interacting with dragons, with griffin, and so on. While it was a grand sight to behold, it did beg the question of how much of a better future this would create for Equestria and the world.
“Now my friends, onto the next part of the tour where they sell the next best thing from the factory!”
Leading them to another part of the area, it came to a great shock to most of them, that while it was still connected to the factory, this area led to a smaller refinery and… brewery?
“This is where dragons had the grand idea of not only working with metals to build, but to turn it into the finest drinks for dragonkind! This is where we Dragons have invented… ‘Alcohol for Dragons!”