//------------------------------// // The Wherefore // Story: Ember: Twilight's Search // by FallenLaughter //------------------------------// Some time ago: Twilight silently moved through the market eyeing everything around her. She was a small little mare with a lavender coat and a dark purple mane with a single highlight. She wasn't in a good state. Her clothes were nothing more then rags, barely able to hide her ribs, visble through her chest. Live didn't mean it good with the poor mare but it seemed at least today it was generous to her. Twilight stopped in front of a fruit vendor. If she was quick enough she might get some of the delicious looking fruits in front of her. Twilight hated to think about this but being an orphan and growing up on the streets made you do things you wouldn't do normaly, espacially when you haven't eaten for a few days now. While debating with herself wether she should do it or not the vendor became preoccupied with an argument with one of his costumers. This settled it for Twilight she wouldn't get a chance this good again in quite in while. Carefully she moved closer to the cart, watching not to draw attantion by acting strange. She had to be careful, one wrong move could mean her end. One quick glance around showed her that it was now or never. She quickly grabed some of the fruits and hid them under her rags. She started to move away happy to have something to eat today. But of course Fortuna had other plans with her. "Hey! what you think you're doing, kid? Give those back right now!", the vendor behind her shouted. Not wanting to give up her spoils, Twilight did the first thing she could thing of; she run. Like it turned out being chased buy an angry vendor tends to draw the attantion of the guards and soon a small mob of ponys followed her. Needless to say it wasn't one of her best days. Leading the mob square through town, they finally arrived at Twilights destination, an abondened town district she called home. It was given up a few years ago when a fire burnt everything down leaving nearly all of the houses destroyed, the relative closeness to the dangerous forest bordering to town convincing most ponys to just not bother to rebuild, instead building a new district somewhere safer. Now it was time for her to play her trump card. She dove into an alleyway, concentrated and teleportet to the roof of a houses a few meters away. She could hear angry shouts and curses while the ponys who chased her were searching every corner for signs of her position. Not wanting to wait for them to find her, Twilight moved away closer to the city border. Once she reached it and was shure nobody was following she allowed herself a sly grin and she took out her loot. She ate one of the fruits right there and then, but decided it would be wiser to leave the rest for later. Satisfied for the moment she decided to go to the place she called home. She was about to go when she suddenly heared something. A voice. Barely Audible. Quite. Sad. Young! Without hesistation Twilight took of after the noise, her head spinning with thoughs: "Where did it come from? Left! What now? Over there! In the collapsed house! I think can see it. What by ...?" Her strom of thoughs was cut off when she saw what was lying before her. She couldn't believe it. "No. Why here? I've never seen one of those." Before her lay a .... Dragon. A small dragon, his scales painted in a bright purple and green, small spikes runing down his head all the way down to the tip of his tail, instead of arms he had two big leathery wings. His eyes darted around, searching for help, his wings stretching and retreating slowly. He clearly was frightened and in pain. An closer look told Twilight why. A big wound ran across his right wing making it impossible to fly with it. He must have been hurt during one of the dragon migrations she heard of. Obviously he lost the contats with his parents when he was hurt and was now all alone in a big, scary, unknown place. "Poor little thing", Twilight thought "I know that feeling." She knew what she had to do. She pulled out one of the fruits and offered it to the dragon. He watched curious, slowly moving forward sniffing the unknown object. When he determined it (or the strange creature) wouldn't be a threat he chomped down on the meal. In the meantime Twilight decided she had to do something about that nasty wound of his. Stripping of her raged shirt and cutting it in stripes she used a cleaning spell to free it from any kind of dirt or harmful materials. She then proceeded in bandaging his hurt wing, one time in her life actually thamkful that she had to care for all of her injuries on her own. The dragon, at first not so happy about someone messing with his wing, soon felt the pain reducing effect of the bandages and let her do her job. When all was done Twilight thought about what to do next. She couldn't let him here that much was clear, but she couldn't bring him into town either. They certainly would kill him, keeping him as a kind of bizare circus attraction at best. While thinking about the problem she slowly started smiling. "So little one, how about you come with me? Granted I don't have that much myself but we will figure something out, right?" Hearing no complains from the dragon Twilight levitated him up and on her back, happily troting back to her place. "This is great! I think I will call you ... Spike!" The time flew by while Twilight kept caring for Spike treating him like a little brother. Soon she noticed that Spike was actually rather intelligent. While not being able to talk himself, he clearly showed signs of understanding when she talked to him and even followed most of the order she gave him to the dot. Quickly a daily routine for the two began. At day they would go out looking for food. Being able to produce fire Spike was a great help for keeping most dangers of the forest away, allowing them to search it for something instead of stealing. At sunset they would go back to their place enjoying the spoils of the day. Then Twilight would care for Spikes wound, which seemed to get better every time she saw it. Finally when the moon rose she would read Spike on of her favourite stories: "The Adventures of Starswirl the Bearded" allowing the dragon to drift off into the world of dreams. Once he was asleep she would cary him to his bed, tug him into a warm blanket and then she would go to bed as well. Life was great! A few months had passed since Twilight took Spike in. By now she couldn't imagine a live without him anymore. He was her only friend is this cruel world, the only constant in an unpredictable future. But now something would change, something big, something wonderful! Spikes wound was finally healed what meant only one thing: he should be able to fly again!. Twilight was excited. The thought alone of seeing her brother/son fly for the first time made her proud. They had decided for a special place to start his training. A old Villa standing atop a small cliff. If something would go wrong she could still catch him with her magic and even if she shouldn't be able to do it for some reason it wasn't high enough to actually hurt Spike should he fail. "Thia is it Spike. Are you ready?" The dragon nodded. Twilights horn began to glow, magical unwrapping the bandeges the kept for safety on his wing. "I guess from now on I can only watch. Be carefu and good luck." Spike quickly nuzzled her leg, then he concentrated on the task lying before him. He carefully shifted his weight, flexed his wings to see if everything was alright and took a deep breath. Then he moved a few paces back reading himself for the start. "Ready? Go!", Twilight shouted. Spike run up gainig speed. The edge was coming closer. He knew he could do it. The edge was nearly there. He opened his wings and started flapping. His foot touched the last part of safe ground. Spike jumped. He could feel the air catching under his wings, feel the excitemende as he started to rise higher and higher until he could touch the clouds. In an triumphantic moment he spat a great emerald flame into the air. Twilight watched all of this from the ground tears of joy in her eyes as she watched her little dragon soar through the sky. "He did it", she thought. "He really did it. I'm so proud. Maybe one day, when he's bigger, he'll even take me with him!" Twilight was in ecstasy. But suddenly she perked up her body going tense. A great shadow flew through the sky, momentarly blocking her sight of the sun. A great dragon easily as big as a house soared through the sky his dark black and brown scales reflecting the sun blending her for a moment. She watched in fear as the dragon drew closer to Spike, the little dragon unaware of his pressence yet. Twilight tried to shout a warning but it was to late. The big claws of the dragon wrapped around Spike grabing him out of the air. twilight could see the fear in Spikes eyes as his older brethern circled around flying back to were ever he came from. She tried to run after them but the massive wings of the older dragon were just to fast for her to keep up. even with her teleportaion. The last thing she saw of Spike was his wing pleadingly reached out to her ... Twilight run back to her home as fast as possible. She was in quite a panic and why souldn't she be? Her brother/son was just kidnapped by a full grown Dragon. Who knew what this beast would do to him. She inwardly debated what to do but came only to only one conclusion: she had to go after him and save him. Whith an inner determination she never felt before she prepared herself for her quest. She sold everything of value she might still posses, which means only her last book and a few things she found while searching the ruins, and bought an sturdy staff for her traveling. Out of her remaining blankets she sew makeshift clothes, designed to protect her from scratches and bruises. It would also serv her well sshould she need to go to colder regions. She collected all the food she had left hoping she would find a way to refill it on the way. With a last glance back to her old home she set out on her journey "Don't worry Spike", she thought "I'm comming to save you!" Her journey brought her to many strange place a lot of them bigger and more fantastic then she could have ever imagined. And yet she didn't spare them a second glance. The only thing that mattered for her now was to find bye. She travelled far and low, through heat and through cold. through thickest forest and barrend watelands, by sunshine, wind or rain. She braved many dangerous and risky situations.Nothing would stop her. She wouldn't rest until she had found her friend. But she couldn't find him. It was frustrating for her to say the least. She didn't know what to do. She wouldn't stop, she would never do something like this, but what was she supposed to do? She couldn't find a solution. Tired and emotionally exhausted she decided to rest in an nearby Inn, the money she made during her travellings would certainly help with it. As she entered she made a beeline to the counter ordering the strongest brew they had to offer. She planned on drink until she passed out but paused when she heared piees of a heated conversation. " .... swear it ... Seen it myself ... Dragon ..." Twilight froze. Slowly she turned around to see a young griffines talking to a group of her friends. Slowly Twilight rose up, walking over to the group. She could hear more of the conversation as she drew closer. "Don't be silly!", one of the older griffins said "All dragons live down in the south. What should one do there?" The griffines shot him a glare "How am i supposed to know? I just know what i saw myself. At one moment we were travelling the road in the next a dark dragon comes down on us, grabbing one of the guys drawing the carriages and flys away." "Yeah right as if." "Excuse me please!" The group went silent as Twilight aproached them. "What?" the grffines snarled "I've got no charity for you. Piss off." Her comrades laughed. "I'm not interrested in anything from you but one thing." Twilight said her voice becoming dangerously low. "Where did you see the dragon?" "And why sould i tell you that, hmm?" "Wordless Twilight levitated a sack of bits in front of them." She could see the greed in the eyes of the griffines. "Fine, whatever i saw him ... at the Northern Mountains."