//------------------------------// // Chipping Away // Story: A Royal History Lesson // by crazyjw18 //------------------------------// Celestia didn't know how long she remained frozen in place. Each second seemed like an eternity as she gazed into that great big unblinking eye. Her mind was screaming at her to run, to fly, to do something, but her body remained infuriatingly unresponsive. After a seemingly never-ending period of time it was the dragon that finally made the first move. Shifting his eyes guiltily to the side, he coughed politely and swung his immense head away from Celestia. "Well," he spoke, his deep raspy voice rumbling throughout the chamber, "who do we have here?" He snuck a glance back at the little white pony and saw that she was still frozen in fear. "Don't worry," he chuckled, "I'm not going to hurt you." Celestia flinched as his grin revealed even more of his numerous gleaming white fangs. His reassuring words reverberated in her skull, but in her shock she could barely make any sense of them. After seeing that the pony still wasn't calming down, the dragon sighed and laid his head back down on the ground, making sure to keep his distance. "You know," he began again," I never thought anyone would ever find me way all the way down here. Let alone a little pony. There wouldn't happen to be any others with you, would there?" Taking Celestia's silence for an answer, the dragon slowly lowered his gaze down at the floor. Then, to Celestia's amazement, a single tear formed in one of his eyes. "Excuse me," he apologized as he hastily wiped it away with his one free hand. "It's just been a really long time since I've seen anyone." The unexpected sight finally snapped Celestia out of her stupor. In a much-delayed reaction she leapt backwards into the air, a strong flap of her wings carrying her safely out of the creature's reach. Unfortunately she didn't see any way to go forward without passing dangerously close to him once again. "Please don't be scared, little one," the dragon pleaded as he twisted his long neck around to keep her in view. "I'm really quite gentle." "Gentle? You're a dragon!" Celestia squeaked. She shook her head in annoyance at how weak she sounded. "Everyone knows that dragons eat ponies." "Not me. I would never harm a pony," he retorted. "How am I supposed to believe that?" she demanded. "Just look at yourself!" "Huh?" he asked, craning his head around. "I know I'm not the most handsome dragon around, but I didn't think I looked that bad." Celestia was finding it harder and harder to stay terrified of the huge creature. However that didn't mean she was ready to trust him just yet. "How do I know that you're not going to try to eat me?" The dragon looked stumped for a moment. "Well, I guess you don't," he admitted as he laid his head back down on the floor. "It's not like anyone's left to vouch for me. All my friends are long gone." "What happened to them?" Celestia ventured to ask upon hearing the dragon's depressed tone. "Time happened," he replied. "Us dragons live for a real long time. Ponies, not so long." "Your friends were ponies?" "Yeah," he said with a sad smile. "I guess that seems kind of strange, doesn't it?" "Just a bit," Celestia agreed. "Well, they sort of adopted me when I was just a little baby," he explained. "Those were happier days, let me tell you." "I've never heard of any ponies adopting a dragon," Celestia pointed out. "How long ago was this?" "I'm not sure," the dragon replied thoughtfully. I've never been all that good at counting the years, especially since I got stuck down here." "Well, was it before the Great Calamity?" The dragon shook his head. "The only calamity I remember was Dream Valley getting smoozed." Celestia's eyes widened. "But that happened back in ancient times." "I told you that dragons live a long time." "Did you actually live here? In Dream Valley?" "Yep. Right here in this castle, in fact." "And you're not a spirit like all the others?" The dragon's head shot into the air, startling Celestia enough that she squeaked in fear. "Others?" he demanded. "What do you mean?" "The pony voices all over the place. Haven't you heard them?" The dragon looked perplexed. "Sometimes I've thought I heard Fizzy yelling my name, but I figured it was just my imagination." "I just ran into Fizzy a few minutes ago," Celestia replied hesitantly. "In fact it seems like I can't go five feet in this place without running into someone. Well, figuratively speaking. I assume that they're all intangible as well as invisible." The dragon's confused expression faded to one of annoyance. "You're just messing with me," he muttered. "There's no one else here." "I am not," Celestia insisted. "I met ponies named Buttons and Wind Whistler too." His ears perked back up. "Oh? Then what was Wind Whistler like?" he demanded. "Well, she likes to use a lot of big words and she's a bit condescending. But I guess she seemed nice enough." Celestia paused. She was getting a distinct feeling that the dragon still didn't believe her. "She told me about how one time Buttons teased her about not having any feelings." "What did you think of Fizzy?" "She's kind of an airhead," Celestia explained. "She was really friendly though." The dragon glanced back up, his eyes now glistening. "You really aren't messing with me, are you?" "Why in Equestria would I do that? Antagonizing a big dragon that could gobble me up in one bite doesn't really seem like the brightest idea to me right now." "Humph," the dragon snorted. "I'm sure that I've been down here for centuries. Why haven't they ever talked to me?" "Buttons said they couldn't move very far," Celestia recalled. "She said she hadn't even talked to any of the others in a long time." She tried to remember the invisible unicorn's exact words. "She said Twilight and the wizard Moochick cast some kind of weird spell on everyone that turned them into guardian spirits or something." "Seriously? Then all this time," the dragon mused out loud, "all these years, my friends were all around me, just out of my reach? This is ridiculous." "I found it pretty surprising myself." He shook his head. "I just can't believe this," he muttered, glancing back mournfully at the pile of rubble covering his lower half. "If only I hadn't gotten stuck like this, then I would have been able to talk to them again ages ago." "Exactly how did you get stuck all the way down here?" Celestia asked as she unconsciously drifted closer to the dragon. "Well, that's kind of an embarrassing story," he sighed. "When the valley got smoozed, there were only a few of us that managed to escape. Maybe half of the pegasus ponies made it out, but only a few unicorns and earth ponies were able to. I wouldn't have escaped myself if Surprise hadn't grabbed me." "Fizzy said she thought a unicorn named Galaxy escaped," Celestia interrupted. "Yes, Galaxy did escape," Spike confirmed. "She was actually our leader for a while." He bit his lip. "Anyways, the rest of the ponies barricaded themselves in the castle. We hoped that the pegasus ponies would be able to rescue them, but there was a lot more of the Smooze than we thought. The castle got completely buried, and no matter what we tried we couldn't break through." "Obviously you made it through," Celestia pointed out. "Yeah, I finally did it," the dragon confirmed. "But it was many years before I was big enough to do it." He gave her a sad smile. "To be honest I knew deep down that all the other ponies couldn't still be alive in here, but I just kept hoping. I guess I couldn't let go without seeing it for myself." "I guess I was a bit too big," he continued. "I had barely made it inside the castle when the floor collapsed and I fell all the way down here. I was trying to find a way out when the floor above me caved in and I got stuck like this." Celestia frowned as she landed next to the dragon, her earlier fear all but forgotten. "That's horrible." "You're telling me," he agreed. "I mean, it doesn't really hurt, but it's just so frustrating." Celestia nodded as she noticed for the first time the scores of deep tooth and claw marks on the rubble. Clearly the dragon had made many failed attempts to free himself over the years. "Maybe I can help," she suggested. "Thank you for the offer, but I don't think there's anything you can do." the dragon chuckled. "This stuff is really heavy." "Yeah," Celestia agreed as she carefully trotted up the side of the pile of rubble. "But if I can move enough of the smaller pieces, it'll take some of the weight off you." "Well, you're welcome to try," the dragon replied doubtfully. "But I really don't think-" Choosing a stone about half her size, Celestia narrowed her eyes and concentrated hard. Her horn flared up as the stone first wiggled a bit, then slowly lifted free of the pile. "Ah, you must share Button's talent," the dragon observed. With a grunt and a flick of her head, Celestia weakly hurled the stone clear. "That was a bit heavier than I thought," she admitted. "That was certainly impressive, but please don't strain yourself. There are way too many big stones for you to do much." "Nonsense," Celestia replied, her horn already beginning to glow again. "Even the tallest mountain can be chipped away bit by bit." Another stone went sailing through the air and crashed into the ground a short distance away. The dragon watched wide-eyed as the young pony steadily continued to send rocks flying in every direction. "Buttons certainly couldn't do that," he murmured. "What kind of pony are you?" "This almost seems like it's getting easier," Celestia mused after about fifteen minutes had passed. "It's odd. Logically I should be getting tired by now, but I'm not." "I've never seen anything like it," the dragon commented as he eyed the numerous stones now littering the floor around them. "Hey, does it really seem like it's making any difference though?" The dragon reluctantly shook his head. "Not really," he admitted. "I still can't budge." "That's what I was afraid of. I just uncovered this one really big beam, and it looks super heavy. Even if I can move all the smaller pieces, I'm not sure if it'll help." "That's what I was afraid of." "I guess we won't know until we try," Celestia said as she tossed aside yet another stone. "Well, it looks like this is as far as I can go," Truly announced. "Really? What do I do now?" Luna asked nervously as she peered into the dark hallway ahead. "Just keep your little chin up and keep on heading straight. "You'll know when you've reached the next test." "Well, ok," Luna replied. "Thank you for helping me get this far." "Oh, think nothing of it, sweetie. Now go on and get that Rainbow. I just know you can do it!" "Bye, Truly!" Luna called out as she headed off by herself. "Good luck!" Truly yelled back. Luna smiled as she made her way through the darkness by the glow of her horn. "I'll bet Big Sister will be proud when she hears that I passed a test all by myself! I wonder if she's having to do this too." She frowned. "I hope she's not mad that I didn't stay close." Deciding that Celestia would have to forgive her if she found the Rainbow all by herself, Luna picked up her pace. That sure would show Big Sister that she wasn't a little filly. Even Mama and Papa would have to be impressed by something like that.