//------------------------------// // The Black Dragon // Story: Thick Scales, Warm Heart // by Freeda91 //------------------------------// The Black Dragon The room was silent. Six ponies and a malicious dragon were engaged in a battle of stares; or so it seemed. Of all of them only one would have been the undeniable winner, the one who had just been given another chance, in spite of already losing something precious. But that didn’t matter at all now, did it? All she could think of was not to waste this opportunity and, of course, accomplishing what the young dragon would have wanted. The only obstacle was a terrible king who sought destruction. “Amazing” White whispered “Spike wasn’t all that stupid after all if he was able to perform such spell under such circumstances” he then spoke out louder “But despite his bravery he is now dead!” the sinister dragon enjoyed clarifying that fact for the ponies “Or is he?” Nopony answered; he smiled, for he knew he was right. “And what else do we have?” he questioned no one “five regular old ponies with no hope of winning even with their precious elements, and a powerful unicorn who has hardly any magic left for another spell.” He glanced at Twilight. The mare gritted her teeth furiously because… well, he was correct. “Now tell me my little ponies, who is to protect you now from my flames when you don’t have any more shielding? You’re cornered; there’s absolutely no place you can run to, and absolutely no hope of surviving either”. It was a tough situation, Twilight knew. But even through adversity, they had resulted victorious several times. And she had the hope, that this wouldn’t be the exception. Not when Spike had risked his life in making it that way. “I envy you Twilight” The mare could hear this phrase coming from Rarity, but she found it hard to believe anyway. What reason was there to be jealous of somepony who had had trouble making friends. “One month with the princess has taught me many things” she explained “one of them is how to use my magic to defend myself; and the other one, that you are capable of performing an uncountable amount of spells.” White exhaled a small yet large-enough-to-be-deadly fireball at the now defenseless ponies. But apparently, they were far from defenseless. Just as the flames were about to reach them, a light blue force field swiftly protected the ponies from the terrible fire. Twilight looked in amazement at Rarity’s horn, which was glowing intensely; resembling how difficult it was for the unicorn to keep it up; so hard was it for her that it lasted for hardly a couple of seconds. Luckily though, it protected them from the impact and thus, saved them. “Wow, Rarity!” Pinkie Pie beamed in surprise “You’re just like Twilight! Do you also have a weird obsession with reading?” Twilight pretended she didn’t hear that. “Are you okay Rarity?” the concerned unicorn asked. As a unicorn, she recognized the effort she had to do. “I’m afraid that was it” Rarity whispered; not wanting either White or her friends to hear. Unluckily, despite her efforts to mute her conversation, her body betrayed her. She fell to the floor, nearly passing out. Everyone there realized she was even more exhausted than Twilight now. “So you got your friends a couple of seconds” White minimized her actions “big deal. I don’t think you can stop me again” As Twilight supposed and feared, White was already inhaling to release an even bigger amount of fire. It turned out Spike too, had only bought them a few spare minutes; and now there was absolutely no surviving. Everypony realized this, and as hard as it was, they had no option but to accept defeat. Surrounded by the remains of the last fire blast there was neither time nor place to run to. All they could do was to put themselves into a tight embrace, and hope for it to be quick. Finally, they could hear the fire burn. It felt cold, and hard; like it was a snake’s skin… Just after Twilight found out the incoherence she looked up, and saw a familiar fat brown dragon that joined the embrace, and covered them from the fire. “You okay friends?” Asked Chomp. Twilight just kept staring so it was Pinkie who ultimately nodded in response with a huge smile on her face. “We were just in time dude!” said another familiar voice, coming from a familiar purple teen dragon “I told you to cut down on the emeralds. You’ve put on too much weight for your tiny wings!” said Ace. “You two!” White shouted in confusion “How did you break free from my mind controlling spell? You two especially!” “You’re no longer our boss, boss!” Ace attempted to intimidate the dragon, failing miserably. “Yeah!” added Chomp “we’re too smart for your… uh… mind tricks.” “Or maybe the total opposite…” White muttered to himself. “Or perhaps…” Twilight thought “it was my sealing spell that nullified White’s controlling spell!” There was a small silence gap where everyone looked at her. “Of all the options that clearly is the most accurate” White confessed. “Where’s Garble?” Rainbow asked, noticing the missing gang member. “With Spike.” Answered both dragons. His sleepy eyes slowly opened in a shock. The last thing he remembered was falling for what seemed days to his death. Now, he could only gaze into a beautiful land only in his dreams he could imagine: Chocolate roads, gemstone lollipops, ice cream falling from the sky, and cotton candy trees with a quartz trunk! It was paradise! What would the first thing he’d do now, well; he didn’t have time to think while devouring everything. But after he was a bit satisfied a small rather silly question arose. “Where am I?” He noticed something however. There was no one else there; only him and the delicious nature. He climbed top of a cotton candy tree expecting to increase his vision. He quickly regretted this idea when he found himself all sticky due to the sugar and also lonelier than before. He hadn’t noticed yet, but when he looked at the sky, not only it was snowing ice cream, but also there was a strange firmament. He remembered quite clearly, that you either saw the sun in the day or the moon at night. This time however, he could see both. Perfectly separated by a thin orange line he thought to be the twilight; the sun on its cloudless sky and the moon on its deep blue starry sky. After the weirdness vanished Spike was able to enjoy the beauty of the sky. Practically every color he could think of was there. It was like he had thought so before, a paradise. Just how in tarnation had he got there and why was he alone? This last thing was what worried him the most. He could only remember his last scene before passing out; falling. It was then that it struck him. “This is paradise. I am dead!” Of course; now he remembered everything. They confronted White and they were losing even after such a dramatic effort from everyone. In the end he remembered jumping down the cliff; but he couldn’t remember why. “Quite a beautiful sight isn’t it?” a deep, definitely masculine voice said “You have quite a delicious imagination. Too much sugar might be bad for you though.” Spike came back from his hard thinking and look to his side. He was surprised to see anyone after whatever time had gone by since he awoke. Then he became curious. He was expecting to see a familiar face, or at least that would have been the most relieving thing. Just who was this one standing next to him? Spike analyzed him quickly, but still he wouldn’t recognize him. He hadn’t seen this being before; but he sure heard about him. The black dragon with dark blue spikes and claws; his eyes as well, reflected like crystals the moon he was staring at. His scales, even though they were black, sparkled like the night stars that would never stop shining. Just who was this dragon? It was King Nebula. “K-k-king N-Nebula!” Spike reacted then proceeded to bow “your highness!” The royal dragon couldn’t help but laugh. “Hahaha, come on now, there’s no need for such formalities.” He smiled “Besides, I’m no longer a king.” He was right; he was… dead. “H-h-how come I can see you? Talk to you?” Spike asked, still shocked with amazement. “Let’s see if you can guess…” was the only thing the dragon replied. Spike sighed and his sadness took over him. “My suspicions are right, aren’t they? I’m dead.” Spike replied sighing in a very defeated voice. “My, my…” Nebula interrupted “You really are creative. How in your right mind did you come to that conclusion?” Spike was puzzled “My dear dragon you are to believe me when I tell you, that you are far from dead!” “H-How can you tell?” Spike didn’t understand his logic. “Well… for starters it’d be a lot easier to talk to you if you were dead. But pointless”. Oh that actually brought Spike another question. “Now that you say it, why are you even talking to me? And if what you say is true, that I’m not dead, how can I talk to a dead dragon?” “Please let me finish!” Spike immediately shut up “you do know I received life and magic from Princess Luna, do you?” Spike nodded “Mare of the night, guardian of dreams…” he seemed to pause a bit there. Perhaps he wanted Spike to deduce it? It wasn’t too hard to figure it out though. “You can enter other’s dreams as well!” Spike realized. Nebula grinned at the fellow dragon. It felt weird somehow. The surroundings where changing. Instead of an eatable forest, now it was just a plain grassland with no trees at all; also the night seemed to be covering most of the space in the sky now, though the land was still as clear as noon. “Don’t be afraid. As I told you, it is only a dream. And it reflects your mind. By the time you understand how it works exactly, you’ll also see why I wanted to talk to you.” Nebula seemed to love riddles and puzzles. Why couldn’t he just speak directly; it was really irritating. “B-but you’re dead. I don’t think I’m imagining your entire personality either. Am I?” Spike questioned. “You’ll see Spike; physically, I am dead. However, spiritually, I have a few connections to the world of living. Through which I can get in touch with via their dreams. One of them is Luna, obviously. And you’re the other one.” Spike’s confusion was deeper every time the black dragon opened his mouth to ‘clear’ those doubts. And boy was he tired of hearing all that nonsense. He was honored to be in the presence of a king, if it was actually a dream. But as far as he could tell, it was just his imagination speaking; although it did seem real. “Wait…” had Spike heard him well? He was the other connection? “How can I be a connection?” “Isn’t it obvious by now?” Nebula pat the little dragon on the head “I’m your father, silly”. “Oh… now everything makes… WAIT WHAT?!” Spike’s brain exploded. Just like a stomach is due to hurt from eating too fast, he suffered a migraine from all this sudden crucial information. Had he heard correct? Was the long dead king really his father? It made no sense… or did it? “Is there something wrong, son?” Nebula asked the shocked dragon. Spike indeed took several seconds to react. “B-b-but, t-that’s not possible!” He objected. Though he had said that out loud he didn’t really have any good reason to thinking that or not. He had little to no knowledge of where exactly he came from and all he did know was that Twilight hatched him. If this wasn’t his imagination pulling his leg after all, then maybe this could be the only chance in his life to know who he was, and where he came from! “Why do you think that?” Nebula asked in an extremely confident way “Go ahead and ask; the only way you’re truly going to believe me is if I clear any doubt you have.” Spike took his time to think, because he really had no idea what to say. It had been all so… sudden. After a minute Spike had sorted out his mind and came up with a couple of questions; all of them hard to understand. “Well… for starters, how can you be my father if you died one thousand years before my birth?” “Well…” Nebula sighed for a couple of seconds “Even though you’ve been raised by the princess you seem to know nothing about dragons! Didn’t you know dragon eggs can stay thousands of years abandoned and still be able to preserve the life of the future hatchling?” “Well I, uh… no.” Spike rubbed the back of his head. “But how do you explain all our physical differences? I mean look at you! You’re black and sparkle like a star. I’m just a plain purple dragon” “But you do possess the beautiful green eyes of your mother” Nebula complimented. Spike felt a like uncomfortable by that; whether or not he was his father or not. “Anyway, you were given life the same way my brother and I were; by unicorn magic. Thus you acquired the colors resembling your ‘unicorn mother’. Basic genetics”. Spike kept silent for a minute, having run out of arguments to contradict Nebula’s claim. In the end he gave up and decided to follow Nebula’s game and believe, even though not entirely, that what he was saying was the truth. “It’d seem I’ve convinced you, just by the fact you haven’t answered yet” he said noticing Spike’s rather depressed expression. “Tell me Spike, why is it that you’re sad?” “It’s not sadness.” Spike replied, not entirely sure “At least that’s what I think. It feels more like happiness; but then again, why am I so depressed?” Spike couldn’t even understand his own feelings. He was certainly happy to have the chance to meet his father, but he’d soon feel horrible, for he’d never see him again. “But even though this moment will last forever, I suppose I’ll never see you again…” “Spike. That’s something you’ll never know, until it happens. I connected with you once; who’s to tell you that won’t happen again? I might have been able to channel you because you were magically exhausted and suffering a terrible issue. You were lost in what my brother has recently told you aren’t you?” Nebula read Spike’s mind like it was a book. It was certain now why he had decided to talk to him in the first place. “He did say that I had my very own greed.” Spike remembered. “Different from any other dragon he knew”. The scenery once again changed. This time all Spike could see was that he was floating in the nothingness. Nebula’s color got disguised in the deep black, but his sparkling could tell Spike where he was; even if it wasn’t important at all. He only needed his voice after all. Spike started to remember White’s words clearly. How he mentioned he had a greed for jewels; only not ordinary jewels. He did get that, only he didn’t see how loving Rarity could be considered his greed. It wasn’t something bad at all, was it? He knew that if he was greedy he’d become a monster, but every time he was with Rarity, any possibility of that happening was null. “Spike” Nebula brought him back from his deep thoughts “I too, experienced the same kind of greed” Spike hadn’t told him yet what he felt; was he just guessing or was utterly sure what he was talking about? The latter was the most likely. “I don’t know who this special dragoness is, but let me tell you. Once you realize she’s the most important thing in the world for you, that’s when you develop this greed that beats any other kind of greed. For it’s the only one that doesn’t poison neither your mind nor your heart”. “Then…” Spike brought up “Why is it considered a greed?” Nebula was speechless. After a while, he came up with an answer. “Because it feeds a dragon’s heart. In a good way though” he explained; Spike got a hint that Nebula wasn’t quite sure himself by the way his shoulders twitched. “Y-you don’t really know don’t you?” Spike asked. Nebula was shocked when his lies were discovered. Though he didn’t even think Spike wouldn’t see through them. “No…” he corrected himself lowering his shoulders in embarrassment. “Truth to be told I found about it not long before I passed away, so I can’t really tell its effects on the long term. And it’s never been heard of, so I think I was the first one”. “But not the last one!” Spike interrupted “What about my mother? If you loved her so much then I bet…” he stopped himself as he saw the sadness in Nebula’s eyes; he was afraid to ask what had happened, though he had an idea. He was an orphan egg after all. “She… she was a victim during a civil dispute between dragons”. Nebula replied as shortly and fast as possible. No doubt he wanted to block that memory from his mind. “So we don’t know the effects…” Spike whispered to himself. Though Nebula was clearly capable of hearing him. “But no matter if there’s a downside to it. The fact of loving Rarity is far more compensating than any catastrophe that might happen because of it. And I’d be willing to risk my life for her a thousand times!” His spirit felt unbreakable now, like he could take on White just with it. And his heart, pure and strong. His magic he could tell was at its peak. He suddenly remembered Shining Armor and Cadance, when they repelled the Changeling army. Maybe that was the other upside to it; the least relevant one, compared to the single fact of loving Rarity. And now that he knew she loved him back, there was no way he’d let White do anything to her. He hadn’t come all this way just to lose her to him. “You seem different Spike” Nebula noticed it in his confident smile. In all the time he had been talking to him this was the first time Spike looked so sure of himself. “I do feel stronger now…” Spike added. “Motivation” Nebula cut him off taking the words right from his mouth “I believe that Rarity you speak of is who gave you this strength. I now have no doubt you will succeed in doing what needs to be done to take White’s empire down” Nebula said. However, there was one last thing. “Spike…” He began “What will you do, or what do you think will happen once my brother has been defeated?” “I suppose the dragons would stop attacking the ponies…” Spike replied; he hadn’t given it any thought, Nebula deduced. “Wrong.” He interrupted “at most the dragons forced to obey him would stop. But there are also dragons that obey him just because they’re okay with his ideas” Nebula lectured Spike on his brother’s politics. He stopped for a minute and decided to get to the point. “In short, the dragons that want to join the ponies and the ones who want to separate from them will fight once again. And the events that began all this trouble may once again happen”. “But why would the dragons attack the ponies if they want to get away from them?” Spike asked. “Because it’s not that they want to get away from them” Nebula explained “Even though my brother came up with the idea of separating the two species completely, the dragons weren’t simply going to leave. They are after all, greedy.” “So they want to live on their own, but on the ponies’ expenses?” Spike confirmed his doubts. Nebula nodded and that matter was now clear. “Hold on a minute!” Spike realized something interesting “If what you just said is true, then White’s ideas were not separating both species, but actually forcing dragons to leave pony territory because some dragons were threatening the ponies!” Nebula didn’t answer; he simply had all his attention on the smart little dragon in front of him. “I suppose you’re correct, Spike.” Nebula rubbed the back of his head; at this point he was just as confused about the whole thing as Spike. “In the end the Dragon Treaty was decreed and all dragons; both the ones that wanted to leave and the ones that didn’t, were forced out of the territory. They accepted this only because there had been recently discovered a land very rich in minerals, so the dragons’ nature took them there. “But apparently, their source is running out…” Spike guessed “That’s why the dragons migrate so often!” “Bingo!” Nebula smiled at his son “Well, there you have it. That would be what the whole problem would be based on” He resumed. “Not exactly…” Spike took his time adding this last statement. “When I joined the last dragon migration there was hardly enough food for half the dragons there; I mean the full-grown ones. And on the other hand, I once stumbled across a dragon cave in an attempt to run away from my life, and found that single dragon had maybe three times what the migrants had”. “In other words, you’re suspecting that some dragons have an excessive possession of jewels, which is natural, but the migrants only have a fraction of that boot for all of them?” Nebula repeated. “Exactly.” Spike said “and that’s why most of the dragons find their food source to be scarce. Because of social disproportion.” Spike explained; though he wasn’t even sure what he was talking about. He just remembered one time that Twilight got interested in economy books and started reading them aloud because she forgot she had an inner voice. “Then again” Nebula interrupted “That is very natural for dragons. The greedier they get the bigger, greedier and… lonelier they get. There’s no way you can change their nature!” Spike stood there for a minute thinking. They were back at the beginning; not a single step forward was given. They had analyzed and reanalyzed the situation several times, but it seemed to be an unsolvable problem. After all, it was changing the dragon’s nature; that seemed the only answer and it was actually not possible… or was it? Spike remembered when White told him he had found a new kind of greed. His eyes then lit up, and seemed to resemble a happy and hopeful expression. Perhaps, White had the same idea. If they could change the dragons’ greed into another, then maybe the food would suffice, and even perhaps peace could be achieved! “I think I have the answer we were seeking for, dad”. Spike was talking once again. Nebula was really happy of hearing the young dragon pronounce the word ‘dad’ with such pride. Spike had finally accepted the reality of what had just been experienced as the truth, and adopted it to answer all his questions. “I believe I have arrived at the same conclusion as well.” Nebula agreed. Spike couldn’t tell whether he had read his mind with some sort of magic or he just thought alike, but he knew he was being honest. “It seems that’s all we had to talk about for now, huh?” Spike sighed in depression “I still wonder if I will be able to seek your aid again. Or perhaps just to talk to my dad.” Spike couldn’t see a thing. But because of this all his other senses were much sharper. He could feel the warm tear of both sadness and happiness coming from his eye and touching his thick scales. “I’m sure you know who to talk to whenever you need my advice” Nebula informed him “until you can manage to talk to me on your own, perhaps we should channel with Luna’s help”. “Thank you” Spike said “And good bye dad. I’ll miss you”. With this last sentence Spike could feel he lost consciousness and everything went pitch black for sure. No sparkling could be seen this time, and his other senses could detect nothing as well. No voice to hear except for one last thing: “Time to wake up… Spike.” “Spike… Spike…” “Wake up you lazy lizard!” Spike slowly opened his eyes. He had indeed had a quite revealing dream hadn’t he? Blinded from his sleepiness he couldn’t tell who was in front of him, but his Garble’s voice was unmistakable for him now. The small dragon sat by himself. If he had the energy to sit, he had the energy to stand up; that was a good sign. “Where am i?” Spike asked his fellow dragon comrade who seemed to be distracted by something. Before Garble answered Spike looked around, to find himself in a forest, a couple feet away from a high mountain’s foot. That was Canterlot’s famous cliff. “I’m sorry I didn’t listen” Garble realized he was awake now “What did you ask?” “Never mind, I know already” Spike replied before successfully standing up. He felt a little dizzy, and a tad weak, but standing was possible. “High time you woke up Spike!” Garble teased the dragon “I’ve been waiting for about ten minutes! It’s not that I expected an immediate recovery, but we’re kind of in a tight schedule right now” Garble explained “Ace and Chomp are helping your friends right now; even if they can only make some time”. “Rarity!” Spike shouted remembering everything. Apparently he wasn’t listening at Garble at all. But this time he turned at him “Is Rarity fine? Tell me she’s fine!” he practically begged Garble. Not knowing her safety status was killing him. “Relax dude.” Garble calmed Spike down “She’s okay. She’s with all your friends.” Spike’s heart slowed down to a fairly regular beat. Only to be once again bumped out of his chest when a baby phoenix appeared right on his face. “Ahh!” Spike screamed. He looked over at Garble who was laughing his scales off alongside the prankster phoenix. “Y-you should have seen the look on your face! Hahaha!” Garble laughed “Nice one pewee!” they high fived their wings. “What’s he doing here? I thought I ordered him to go into hiding after the invasion” “But he did” Garble interrupted “he showed up in Canterlot when I was dropping Rarity that night, and boy did he blind me! I hear it was yours, so I eventually came to like it.” “Really?” Spike asked “I thought he was still too young to blind anyone.” “You don’t know about phoenixes as much as we do” Garble replied “like how drinking one’s tear can instantly replenish your energy and vitality” Spike certainly didn’t. But if that was the truth, he clearly knew of a somepony who needed one right away. “You said Ace and Chomp are there?” Spike asked. Garble simply nodded “Weren’t you supposed to be helping the ponies in the city?” “That’s something quite interesting that happened!” Garble began “You see, for starters Ace and Chomp were under White’s brainwashing spell as well as the majority of the dragons attacking” He explained “Suddenly, they just stopped attacking and acted all normal again! So now not only we’ve a better defense, but also… how do I begin?” Garble wondered “Maybe you should see it for yourself. The location where they were was far too practical. Not only they were hidden and safe from dangers, but they also were able to see a fairly good amount of the city and what happened there. Even though they were really small, Spike could see an amazing sight. An earth pony holding a sword galloped at full speed swung it just in time to defend a mid-size dragon from another by distracting him. The same thing happened for a full grown dragon that, going through a sea of flames carried a Pegasus away from the fire. And Spike just couldn’t count the number of times he could see a unicorn casting a barrier, or healing fellow dragons! If there was ever any doubt of whether dragons and ponies could work together here was the decisive evidence that proved so. ‘I can’t believe my eyes’ Spike thought ‘they really are working together in perfect harmony!’ Spike was happy; really happy. He only needed to survive one last encounter with White and he was completely sure that he would give the solution that’d bring peace once and for all. And if they didn’t give him credit all he needed was to make them witness this marvelous teamwork! “We’re doubtlessly winning!” Spike completed.