Equestria Noir Case 22 "Heart of the Dragon"

by Jacoboby1

Chapter 1 "Families"

I was on something soft, that’s what I figured. The last thing I remembered was working in the office late, finishing up last week’s case file. I must’ve fallen asleep. Did somepony move me to the couch?

I heard soft breathing, somepony else was asleep? I reached over a hoof and felt somepony’s coat. The other inhabitant moved into my touch. Just what was going on here?

I blinked open my grey eyes and I found myself staring at a sleeping Twilight… I was in bed with Twilight?

Her amethyst eyes opened and she and I stared at each other for a moment. And then… AAAHH!!!

We both fell back at the sight of one another. Twilight glared at me and asked, “Private! Did you sneak into my room?”

“I fell asleep at the office!” I cried defensively. “I don’t know how I ended up here!”

Twilight shook her head and said peevishly,“Look I love you, but you can’t just pop up in my bed whenever you feel like it.”

“Says the mare who teleported me in her sleep,” I snapped, crossing my forelegs.

“Oh,” Twilight said with a faint blush.

It was then that I noticed Twilight’s mane.

“What?” Twilight asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Twilight, your mane is styled just like Rarity’s…” I said in disbelief.

Twilight ran a hoof through her violet mane and found it was in Rarity’s trademark curl. She then pointed to my mane and said, “And yours looks just like….”

We both frowned and shouted at the same time “SPIKE!!!!”

“Oh hey guys what’s up,” Spike asked as he walked into the room and noticed that we were both giving him the evil eye. He looked down at the small camera he had, the one I used on cases, and quickly hid it behind his back. ”Um, this isn’t what it looks like,” he explained sheepishly
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“Come on guys it was just a joke!” Spike shouted from inside the room we put him in. We used Trixie’s room as a temporary punishment area. Twilight descended from the stairs, her mane back into it’s usual style.

“Ugh,” she said with a shake of her head. “I don’t know what he was thinking!”

“Aren’t you the one who’s supposed to make sure he doesn’t come up with hair brained schemes like this?” I accused, still upset by Twilight's earlier false accusations.

Twilight frowned and argued, “It’s not my fault that I had to finish up reading those books last night.”

“I was doing important work too,” I snapped. “Where’s Trixie anyways? Isn’t your student supposed to watch Spike when you’re gone?”

“For your information, Trixie went up to Canterlot all day yesterday,” Twilight said with a smirk. “In fact, wasn't Spike with you yesterday afternoon?”

“Okay, but it’s not my fault he’s acting like this,” I argued.

“Are you sure it wasn’t all a ploy just to have an excuse to sneak into my bedroom?” she asked with narrowed eyes.

“Of course not!” I fired back.

Slowly, we realized how stupid we were being and sighed. I flattened my mane out and said, “Look, we shouldn’t be fighting like this. Spike was the one who did this, so we should find out why.”

“You’re right,” Twilight said. “I’m sorry for going crazy; I’m just a little cranky from being up all night studying.”

““I’m sorry for being a total jerk and accusing you of being irresponsible,” I said, and then planted a kiss on her nose.

“I’m sorry for thinking you set this up with Spike,” Twilight apologized, kissing my cheek lovingly. “Let’s find out what this is all about.”

I unlocked the door and both of us walked into the bedroom. Spike was sitting on the bed with his arms around his legs. He looked up at us for a minute with guilty green eyes and then back down.

Twilight was the one who spoke first, in a firm but motherly voice, “Spike, just what were you thinking tossing Private and I in the bed together?”

Spike met her eyes and explained, “I just, I wanted to help you guys out.”

“You wanted to help us out?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I don’t really know why I did it,” Spike admitted, meeting my eyes. “I came by the office after Twilight fell asleep and I just saw you sleeping there. I remembered that Twilight always slept better when you're there. So I thought, ‘maybe I could help Twilight since she’s been studying so much.’ Then when I saw how great you were together, I thought it would be nice if it was Rarity and I…”

“So you did this just to fulfill a fantasy of you and Rarity sleeping together?” Twilight asked a little flabbergasted.

“You guys just looked so comfortable with one another,” Spike said, looking down. “I just wanted to help you guys out. You guys have always been like parents to me when I’ve never known mine. I thought you'd want to be closer.”

Twilight and I smiled at each other. We moved to sit on either side of Spike. I put a hoof on his back and said, “Hey, we appreciate you trying to help us get closer.”

“Still you can’t just do stuff like that without asking us. What you did crossed some boundaries, ” Twilight scolded gently. “Also, we need you to dispose of any pictures you took.”

“Aw,” Spike groaned, picking up the camera and handing me the film. “Trixie was going to give me two sapphires for the one of Twilight.”

Twilight and I raised our eyebrows at that. filing that away for later, Twilight asked, “Earlier you said that we were like your parents?”

Spike smiled up at Twilight and replied, “Well, you were the one who hatched me after all. Then Private was the one who showed me how to treat a mare right, and how to act like a gentledragon. If you guys aren’t my parents, then I don’t know who is.”

Twilight and I just hugged Spike like parents would to their child. Spike tried to pretend he didn’t like it too much. However, we both knew how much he really cared about us. Spike looked up at Twilight and asked hopefully, “So, am I off the hook?”

“You’re still grounded for a whole week, mister,” I said in a fatherly tone.

Twilight smiled at that and we eventually left Spike to begin the task of getting rid of the photos. I slapped my fedora on my head to get rid of Spike’s mane style. Hopefully I’ll get back to regular hat mane within the day. I noticed Twilight was looking at me and I asked, “What?”

“It’s just, the way Spike talked about us, it kind of got me thinking about, well…” she replied, blushing bright red.

I caught on to her meaning and blushed myself. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t dream of us getting married and having foals together. In truth, I’ve been looking around jewelry stores all week in the hopes of finding the perfect ring. I just knew that Twilight was the one, I just needed the courage to get down on my knees and pop the question.

Twilight noticed my quietness and walked to me. I gazed into her violet eyes for a moment, then smiled and said, “You know, the idea isn’t unappealing.”

Twilight flushed a little and said, “I agree…”

We tilted our heads about to kiss when suddenly a knock was heard at the library door, a very loud knock. Twilight and I broke apart and answered the door. A frantic Rainbow Dash gasped, “Private, Twilight, come on! It’s an emergency!”

“What’s wrong?” I asked, my tone serious.

“It’s Sweet Apple Acres! The trees have caught fire! We need everypony there now!”
________________________________________________________
Sweet Apple Acres was in total chaos when we arrived. Ponies everywhere were doing their best to quell the flames. Earth Ponies were throwing buckets of water at the trees. Unicorns were levitating water onto them as well. Rainbow was directing the weather team to gather storm clouds, desperately trying to quell the flames.

Twilight ran to aid the other unicorns. I noticed something strange about the fire. Instead of it being orange, the flames were green, like Spike’s fire…

“Move y'all!” I heard Applejack cry as Lyra and Bon Bon aimed a hose at a nearby tree. “Let’s get these fires out before they spread all over! Hurry!”

“Applejack!” I called running up to the farm pony. “What happened? How did this start?”

“Ah dun know,” Applejack replied, shaking her head. “Ah woke up this mornin' tah find some of the trees on fire. Now get a bucket and run down to the river! We need every hoof we can get!”

I nodded and levitated a bucket with my magic. I ran to the creek and filled it up. I tossed the water onto a nearby flaming tree and soon a raincloud provided by Flitter took care of the rest. It was then that something caught my eye; so, I bent down and picked it up. It was a small glass sphere with a lid on top of i, that looked like it could hold something. I slipped it into my trench coat to examine later.

I looked over to see Twilight almost causing a rain shower of her own by levitating water directly from the lake and dropping it onto the fire. The trees were almost all dealt with when I heard a cry.

Ponies around me turned as Rarity cried, “Sweetie Belle and Applebloom were inside the barn! They were playing and I only turned away for a second, When I looked back I saw the barn catch fire! I can’t get to them!”

“Raiden!” I called up above, my best friend stopped in the air looking down at me. “Get a rain cloud to the barn right now!”

Raiden nodded and grabbed a rain cloud as I ran to the barn. Sure enough, the place was on fire. I saw smoke billowing out from inside. I used my magic to open the door and was immediately met with a thick black cloud of smoke.

“Somepony help us!” I heard Sweetie Belle calling from the second floor.

"Ah don't wanna be filly fritters!" Applebloom wailed.

“Hold on girls!” Raiden called flying in. But soon he came back out. “I can’t see anything in there! There’s smoke everywhere!”

“Hurry up!” I heard Applebloom cried, followed by a cough. “Ah can’t breathe or see in here!”

“Hold on you two!” Rarity cried “We’ll get help I promise you! Just try to find each other!”

What are we gonna do? Raiden can’t get in from the window. The fire on the first floor was making it impossible for me to consider jumping in a second time. I tried going in but was met by a wall of flames. I then looked and saw a small necklace on the ground next to the barn door. I grabbed it with my magic and pulled it to me just as a beam fell and rubble blocked the path into the barn.

“Guys!” I turned around to see Spike running towards us “Raiden toss me in there!”

“No way dude!” Raiden said, shaking his head “You’ll get trapped too!”

“Dragons are fireproof!” Spike said. “I can save them just toss me in!”

“Spikey Wikey!” Rarity cried as Raiden bent down to pick him up. Rarity looked on worriedly as Spike was lifted up to the window.

I watched on equally as nervous as Spike went in to the burning barn. We watched for a good ten minutes. I looked over at Rarity who’s hooves were together. She kept saying under her breath “Be safe, be safe, be safe…”

Suddenly a burst of light came out of the window and I saw before my very eyes a violet shape shoot out of the window. Rarity, Raiden and I looked wide eyed as Spike flew through the air. Wings were on his back as he floated down to earth, carrying Sweetie Belle and Applebloom on his back.

The fire finally died out as Applebloom and Sweetie Belle ran to their respective sisters. They were covered in soot and were coughing a little, but they were otherwise unharmed.

Twilight and I ran to Spike and looked at his tiny wings on his back. They were small, violet on the outside with green webbing and small claws on the ends. Twilight smiled and asked, “Did you know you would be getting these when you ran in like a real hero?”

Spike blushed and replied, “Well no, I’ve been having this back itch that I couldn’t get rid of. Once I got inside the fire it was suddenly gone. Also, am I a little taller?” he asked hopefully.

Spike had grown about half an inch since he left the fire, but it was only a small amount and not really noticeable. But, this was his big day, I rubbed Spike on the head and said, “I think maybe you’re taking a little too much after me pal.”

Spike smiled and laughed a little at my touch. He then spread one of his small wings and said, “They just came out in the fire. I just felt so comfortable there, like somepony was holding me close…”

I gave Twilight a look and asked, “Did you notice that the fire was green?”

Twilight nodded and replied, “Yeah, it’s kind of like Spike’s fire now that I think about it”

“I didn’t cause the fire!” Spike cried. “I was with you guys the whole time!”

“We would never think you would do something like that, Spike,” I reassured him. “Though you have to admit, it is odd that the fire would resemble your own so closely.”

“So what’re ya gonna do now?” Applejack asked as she walked over.

“I’ll call in a favor with ERPD’s arson crew,” I said firmly.

“You can do that?” Twilight asked.

“I was on the Arson crew for two weeks when before I accidentally destroyed their lab.”

“How do you accidentally do that?”

“Uh…”
_____________________________________________________
“This 'ere is the stupidest idea you’ve ever come up with!”

“Come on, County, I’m just showing Raiden around. What could happen?”

“He’s a civilian! Ya know we could get in trouble for this!”

“Hey guys, what does this do?”

“Raiden, don’t touch that, that’s the gas-“

BOOM!!!!

“Ooops…”

“Well, maybe Badge will take it lying down?”

“PRIVATE!!!!”

“Yeah, and cows can fly, City Boy.
____________________________________________________
“Let’s just say I was covering for somepony else.”

Twilight and Applejack narrowed their eyes in suspicion, while Raiden tried his best to look innocent.

“Anyway, after that I helped them solve a big case and they called it even. I still have some old contacts that I can hook up with,” I added quickly “They’ll be able to figure out exactly how and where it started.”

I looked up as Rarity walked over to Spike, a huge smile on her face. “Oh Spikey Wikey, words cannot describe the gratitude I feel towards you for rescuing my sister,” she gushed.

Spike blushed a little and replied, “Ah, it was nothing, Rarity. I just did what any fire proof magical creature would do.”

Rarity giggled. “Well, it was very gallant none the less,” she said as she bent her head down to examine his wings. “Why what beautiful wings you have grown.”

Spike flapped them self-consciously as his foot scuffed the ground. “They just grew back inside the fire. I’m lucky they grew out when they did.”

“But above all,” Rarity said lowering her head to plant a kiss on the baby dragon’s cheek. Spike tensed up as Rarity said, with a hint of a blush, “I’m happy you’re safe, my Spikey Wikey.”

Applejack chuckled and left with Rarity to help access the damage. I poked Spike and he fell over stiffly. Twilight and I laughed a little. My marefriend said, “Some things never change I guess.”

I decided now would be a good time to examine the necklace. I held it in my hoof and looked at it. It was gold, like real carat gold, with an apple made out of studded rubies hanging from it. Whatever this was, it was definitely from somepony with money.

I pocketed it and was about to talk to Twilight… When the sky darkened. I looked up slowly and saw a huge cloud of smoke. I followed the smoke and it lead to a large mountain peak off in the distance. Twilight’s eyes went wide as she stared. “Oh no…”

I looked at her worriedly. “Tell me that doesn’t mean what I think it means?”

“Something tells me we won’t need an arson crew to find out what started the fire,'” Twilight said.
________________________________________________________
Twilight, Spike and I used the hot air balloon to move up towards the peak. I had already made a call to the arson team to get to the barn. Applejack’s insurance would help cover the damages as well. Luckily it was early in the growing season so the trees were replaceable.

However, right now, we had a far bigger problem. We landed on the peak where a large cave was. Years ago Twilight and her friends came here when a dragon set up shop. Through Fluttershy’s determination they managed to drive it out. Apparently, other dragons did not get the memo.

I peeked inside the cave and said, “Alright, we are only going to scout ahead and then we’ll write a letter to Celestia to see if we can’t get more aid”

Spike looked inside the cave and sniffed the air “Something smells, familiar almost…”

“Spike, shh!” Twilight shushed as the three of us ventured into the dark of the cave. Smoke moved above us as we went deeper. I didn’t want to used our horns in case we woke up the inhabitant of the cave.

I saw a light ahead of me and my eyes went wide. There were two dragons sleeping over a pile of jewels. One of them was large, with a deep violet coat and red spines going down his back. It’s claws looked fierce and his wings large enough to cover a small house. The other was smaller and lither. It’s scales were black as night and the spines were green and on it’s head was a pair of green horns as well.

Smoke came out of their nostrils as they slept. I looked at Twilight and gestured for us to walk out slowly. Twilight did, but her tail brushed against Spike’s nose. The baby dragon tried to hold back but couldn’t, and he sneezed.

Suddenly the larger dragon opened his yellow eyes and growled low. I felt a terrible fear in my stomach as I stood frozen in terror. Then the smaller one opened a pair of jade green eyes. It looked at us and joined it's larger counterpart in growling low.

“You dare trespass, ponies!” the larger one growled, it’s voice sounded male.

Twilight walked forward and spoke as diplomatically as she could, “I am Twilight Sparkle, student of Princess Celestia, and your smoke is heading into our home. We’d appreciate it if you found some way to alleviate it.

The smaller one grinned a malicious smile and said, “Well, here's a solution.” Her voice was definitely female. “We could always get rid of the lousy ponies if they decide to bother us.” Her tail moved up, and I saw a sharp blade at the end of it. I hated to imagine what it was used for.

“Easy, Shar’drel,” the male growled. “We do not need to start wars unnecessarily.” He then turned his yellow eyes to us and continued, “On the other claw, we do not appreciate those that trespass in our home.”

“While we understand that, there are ponies that live down there. You don’t have to move, but if there is any way to stop the smoke it would be appreciated greatly.” Twilight said, trying to sound brave.

“Yag’ranel fled here a few years ago,” Shar’drel said. “We, however, are proud dragons and not intimidated by a bunch of ponies we could easily gobble up.”

The male gave her a glare and then went back to looking at us. “I am Thal’lan,” he said in a deep voice, “ruler of the Southern Mountain Clans.” He then gestured to his companion and continued, “This is Shar’drel, my finest warrior.”

I decided to speak up, “My name is Private Phelps Eye, servant of the Princesses, and the element of Tenacity.”

Thal’lan raised an eyebrow and said, “I had not heard of that element in centuries.”

“Yeah!” Spike said, peeking from behind me. “Twilight’s the Element of Magic to!”

Thal’lan and Shar’drel looked at Spike, shock evident on their faces, or at least as far as I could tell. Adult dragon faces are a little hard to read for a guy who’s only ever known a baby one.

“Who are you, little one?” Thal’lan asked, his voice showing… disbelief?

“I’m, uh Spike,” he said, spreading his tiny wings trying to look a little intimidating. “Assistant to Twilight Sparkle and Private Eye. Also savior of the Crystal Empire, and lover of gems.” He then looked at the pile and asked, “Speaking of which, are you gonna eat that emerald there?”

Shar’drel looked about to protest but Thal’lan raised his tail to her muzzle. He just stared as Spike took an emerald and began eating it. Spike, noticing Thal’lan’s expression, asked, “What?”

“Have we met before?” Thal’lan asked, his eyes…watering?

“I don’t think so,” Spike replied shaking his head. “I didn’t see you at the Dragon migrations, and I was raised by Twilight since I was an egg. She helped hatch me,” he said proudly.

Twilight smiled a little. Thal’lan lowered his massive head and stared at Spike with his yellow eyes. “Do you know where your egg was found?” he asked.

Twilight was the one who answered, “He doesn’t know and neither do I. I was just given him as an egg.”

“What’s with all these questions anyways?” Spike asked, looking up at the dragon. “I don’t know where I came from. I went on a whole quest to discover that, but it didn’t end so well. Maybe someday I will find where I came from,”

“You need not look too far,” the large dragon said.

Twilight and I looked at him wide eyed. Spike’s eyes grew even wider as he asked, “What are you saying?”

“Does the name Fran’salel ring any bells?” Thal’lan asked.

Spike thought for a long moment and said slowly, “Actually, it's a name I remember hearing in my dreams sometimes.” He met the dragon’s eyes and asked, “Is the name important or something?”

Thal’lan got quiet for a moment then replied, “She was the dragoness who gave birth to you.”

“She was my mom?” Spike cried.

Twilight and I dropped our jaws in shock. This guy knew Spike’s birth mother? What the hell!

“How do you know her?” Spike asked, shock evident in his voice.

“Because Spike, I… am your father,” Thal’lan said slowly.