//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 - Pranceton // Story: Spike and the Dragon Tree // by Fimbulvinter //------------------------------// Spike and the Dragon Tree *** Chapter 5 - Pranceton Spike found that Zecora was up with the dawn. He didn’t know if it was that she liked to be up early, or if she simply was eager to get moving, but he found her sitting cross-legged on a lone rock outside of the cave. She was sitting so still that at first he feared that something bad may have happened to her, but as the first rays of the sun hit her face, she took a deep breath and lifted her head up a little. The light reflected off of the golden rings she kept around her throat and on her leg. Spike had to squint a little when the light hit his eyes. Covering his eyes with a claw he approached Zecora, not sure if he should call out and disturb her, or simply allow her to finish up with what appeared to be her morning meditation. In the end it was Zecora who spoke first. Spike hadn’t uttered a sound, and he had thought his footsteps were too quiet to be heard, but Zecora appeared to know that he was there anyway. “Rise with the sun, in order to get things done. That was what we were taught, and I will not let the teachings be for naught.” Zecora didn’t open her eyes as she spoke, but it was clear that she was aware of everything going on around her. Spike watched as she picked up her staff and rolled forward off the front end of the rock. The tip of the staff dug into the ground, creating a small furrow before it took all of Zecora’s weight as she held herself aloft, balancing her body through the tiny stick. She held the position for a minute or so before allowing her body to twist forward again so that she landed on her hooves. Only then did Zecora open her eyes, blinking a few times as her iris’s focused on Spike standing before her. She didn’t look the least bit disorientated to Spike’s eyes. If anything, she looked exactly like she had spent the night on a comfortable bed, rather than a pile of twigs and leaves. Spike was kind of envious. His own morning routine mostly consisted of either sleeping in way past his get out of bed time to the protests of Twilight, or getting up to find that Twilight had spent the entire night in some kind of study frenzy again. Both options invariably ended up with him cooking pancakes or some similar dish for breakfast. The thought of breakfast caught Spike’s stomach off guard. While the soup last night had been filling, it was still less than he was used to. It gave a mighty gurgle at the thought of getting pancakes. ‘No pancakes for now. Just gonna have to get used to that, stomach,’’ Spike told his digestive organs. His stomach responded with another growl of hunger. If it wasn't going to get pancakes, then it was going to make sure that he knew about it. Zecora gave Spike a knowing smile and picked up an orange from next to the caves entrance before handing it over to Spike. In response to his questioning look, she pointed to the cave, and to the bats now roosting from its ceiling. “A parting gift from our friendly locals, though I sense you would prefer a buffet of opals.” Spike had to agree that opal did sound good right about now, but he took the orange and split it down the middle with a claw. His claws were sharp, something he had noticed had been happening as he was getting older, and easily cut the soft fruit in half. He gave half back to Zecora before biting into his own slice. He wasn’t overly fond of oranges; ever since Twilight’s attempts to turn an apple into an orange that had resulted in the hybrid orange frog and bird, Spike had found his enthusiasm for the fruit waning, but he wasn’t in a situation where he could afford to be particularly picky. At least it wasn't a peach; Twilight's short obsession over those had forever turned him off of the fuzzy little balls. The pair ate in silence for a few more moments before they got up and checked on their things. Zecora left a few more flowers out on the ground at the cave’s entrance as payment for having disturbed the bats, while Spike made sure that he had everything he had brought with him. While he wasn’t expecting to be robbed out here in the middle of nowhere, he didn’t want to find out that he was missing something because it rolled out of his bag during the night. Finding nothing to be amiss with his pack, Spike hefted in onto his shoulder and the pair began to work their way further down the goat trails they had followed to get here. Far off in the distance, Spike could just make out the Widow Spine Mountains. The mountains marked the technical edge of Equestria. Everything beyond the summit of the mountain’s highest peak was officially considered to be the dragon lands, though the few ponies who lived near its base regarded the entire mountain range to be dragon territory. Though he couldn’t see it yet, Spike knew that there was one small settlement just a short distance away from the foot of the mountains that they would pass through. A little mining town by the name of Pranceton Pass would be their last chance to get supplies or local knowledge before they went beyond the reach of the princess’s authority. With the sun now rising rapidly, they had no issue in navigating the rocky paths that led down from the hillside. It only took them an hour or two to make their way back down to flat ground and the verdant pastures beyond. Spike noticed that the weather seemed to be particularly pleasant on this side of the hill. It was sunny, but not hot, which would make for good travelling conditions. He figured that the princess may have subtly suggested altered the intensity of the sun so that it would be more comfortable for them. Whatever the reason was, he was glad that they weren’t facing freezing winds or boiling sands just yet. As she had the day before, Zecora gathered herbs and fruits from along the roadside while they walked. Now that he knew what she was doing, Spike was eager to help out, and he even managed to dig up a few wild growing vegetables. A pair of carrots and a couple of edible mushrooms soon joined the selection of herbs that Zecora had amassed. When it came time for them to rest for the night, Spike knew that dinner would be a far exciting fare than the previous night. The real prize of their searching was a pair of small truffles. Spike had scented the fungus while searching around in the leaf litter for mushrooms. He knew what they were the moment he smelled them, as he and Rarity had occasionally gone hunting for them when she had a full stock of gems. While not very large, or particularly appealing to look at, the two black growths would make for an excellent dessert. Spike had to wonder if Zecora had ever eaten one. The trees around the Everfree Forest would make an excellent place for them to grow, if you were willing to brave the hostile creatures and occasional sentient plant for them. As traveling along the grassy plains was far easier than trying to hike through uneven ground, it didn’t take long for the pair to establish a comfortable walking pace. Spike had wanted to move at a faster rate, but Zecora counseled against it, claiming that while they had to move fast, they should not move in haste and rush, as that would only lead to disaster for more than just them. Spike had to admit that Zecora seemed to be right, and they kept to a reasonable pace that wouldn’t tire them out too quickly. Even still, Spike had to ride up on Zecora’s back a few times when he just couldn’t keep going on his shorter legs. Zecora said that she didn’t mind carrying him along with their other burdens, but Spike knew that it had to tiring for the zebra to be carrying everything at once. It was a stroke of pure luck when they found a small dirt track running towards the horizon in the direction they were headed, and along the track was a couple of ponies hauling a well laden covered wagon. At the sight of two other travelers on the road, they both brightened a little and picked up their pace. The wagon pullers waved them over and invited them to share the road with them. One of them, a tan earth pony seemed delighted to have company, even if it was just for a short while. “Well, hey there,” she said, cheerful, despite the load she and her partner were pulling. “Didn’t expect to see anypony else out here. I'm Sprite, and this is Kip," she said indicating her partner. "Where you two headed? Not exactly a huge amount of things to see this far east.” “We’re going over to the dragon lands,” Spike said, hopping off of Zecora’s back and landing down on the ground. Given the mostly flat nature of the track, he could easily keep up with the slower pace of the wagon. “Migrations not for a while yet; you off on a pilgrimage, little one?” the other earth pony, Kip asked. “Going to see the lands of your birth?” “Not quite,” Spike replied. He wasn’t sure if he should be telling these two ponies anything about what he was really doing. “Well, do tell,” Sprite kept on. “We’re headed for Pranceton Pass, dropping off supplies for the miners there. It’s about another day’s travel, and is on the way to the dragon lands. Why don’t you travel with us until we get there? We would be happy for the company, and we have plenty of food and water to spare.” Spike looked to Zecora. She nodded back to him, and the pair fell into step slightly to the side of the wagon. “So, you were saying something about the dragon lands?” Sprite prompted. “Oh, right!” Spike felt that he could trust these two ponies, so he decided to tell them what he and Zecora were really doing. “I’m not really going to the dragon lands just on a whim. I’m really going there to save a friend…” * * * Spikes tale had taken up most of the day, and by the time that he had finished up to this point, the sun was already beginning to set, and orange fire covered the sky. Sprite and her companion hadn’t interrupted during the trip, and had both seemed very attentive. During the trip, they had offered to let the little dragon climb up onto the wagon, and to let Zecora store her saddlebags as well. Spike had felt bad about letting them take over their burdens, but the two carthorses had assured them that they regularly took far heavier loads than this one without straining themselves. It would be no inconvenience for them to take the extra goods for the short time that they would be traveling together. By the time that they called to set up camp, Spike could just make out a large plume of smoke rising up beyond the heat shimmer in the distance at the base of the enormous mountain range that now covered the horizon. Sprite unhitched herself from the cart and walked over to Spike. “Yep, that’s Pranceton Pass, alright. We should be there a bit before lunch tomorrow, if we set off at first light. Wow, I’ve never seen that much smoke coming from there before. They must have all the smelters running at full blast or something.” With the sun now almost set, they stopped for the night, and the two earth ponies began setting up their camp with a clearly practiced ease. One started setting out the bed rolls, while the other ranged around a little and collected wood for a fire. Spike went off to assist him with gathering up kindling, while Zecora opened up her traveling pouch and started cutting up the vegetables that Spike had collected to add to the soup stock that the mare was putting together. It didn’t take long before all four of them set settled down around a crackling fire, eating a far more invigorating broth than Spike had eaten last night. Spike even pulled out the truffles he had found and offered them around. Sprite declined them, but Kip took half of one of them eagerly. Even with the good food however, it didn’t take long before the exertions of the day began to catch up with him and Zecora. They had been walking for almost the entire day, and it sounded like they would be heading out again as soon as there was some light to see by. “While I do know this is an important quest, my hooves are certainly glad of the rest,” Zecora said as they stacked the dishes away. Their hosts had insisted that they would get them washed when they arrived in Pranceton later the next day, and that they should all get some sleep. Spike agreed, and they all settled in for the night. Sprite offered her sleeping roll to Zecora or Spike to use, but they would have none of it. The last thing that Spike noticed was the mare looking off towards where they would be traveling to in the morning. A column of smoke could still be seen rising steadily up into the night sky. Sprite saw him looking, and she gave him a quick smile. “I’m sure they just found a new ore vein and are working overtime. But, even still, it's odd. The sooner we get there, the better." Spike agreed. The next morning, the foursome made a rapid trot for Pranceton. When they had awoken, they could see that the smoke rising from the town had dissipated to a few smaller plumes. With they goal so close, the two cartponies had set off early, picking up a still sleepy Spike and placing him on the back of the wagon. Zecora had offered to take one of their places hauling the wagon, but they had refused her offer. By their calculations, they would reach the town a bit before lunchtime, and they would be able to grab a few packs of supplies before they made their way up into the mountains. It had taken them a little bit longer than they had expected to reach the town, but the sun was still hanging high above their heads as they started to crest the last hill that blocked their view of the buildings. The smoke from the smelters was clearly visible now, and the air around them was tinged with the smell of wood smoke. “Mmm, I can’t wait to take a bath, maybe sleep in a real bed tonight,” Kip said, clearly excited about reaching the end of their journey. “I can almost feel that pillow.” Spike had to admit that he was also looking forward to seeing how the town was doing. When he came through on the previous dragon migration, Pranceton Pass had been little more than a hole in the ground with a couple of shacks to house the mine workers. From what the two ponies had been telling him, the place had really started to develop since then, and was well on its way to becoming a fully fledged settlement, complete with agriculture and industry to support the mine. They all crested the hill and paused to look down at the fledgling town. What they saw froze them all to the spot. “Oh, no,” Sprite said, covering her mouth with her hooves. The smoke they had been following; the large plume that had guided them to this exact spot was not the smoke one would find from the refineries or smelters operating to process ore into metal ingots. It was the smoke that came from when a town was nearly razed to the ground. Almost half of the buildings that made up Pranceton had been reduced to cinders; burning logs and thatch had made up the fuel for the smoke. Everywhere, they could see ponies working together, trying to pull items out of the wreckage, or digging out trapped friends from the rubble. “What happened here?” Spike whispered, in awe of the destruction he was witnessing. “I do not know,” Zecora replied. “Perhaps we should go?” Without anymore hesitation, they all headed down the small dirt track they had been following and closed the distance towards the ruin where the town had once stood. Now that they were so close, the smells of wood smoke and charred crops were clear, and Spike could hear ponies calling out for each other, or yelling for help with something. A few spot fires were still burning, but it looked like most of the town had already finished burning. Sprite and Kip pulled the wagon up close to the edge of the town and unhitched themselves from it before galloping over to the closest cluster of ponies that looked like they knew what they were doing. Spike and Zecora held back a little, still reeling from all the senseless destruction they were looking at. It was clear that a very powerful being had attacked the town, but what could they possibly have had to gain from it. Pranceton was a mining town; it didn't have vast wealth, or strategic value. The only thing that the town had was ore and the occasional... "Uh oh," Spike whispered, realizing who, or rather, what was likely to have attacked the town. Zecora seemed to have reached the same conclusion, as she motioned for Spike to climb on her back again. "All this damage was the work of a dragon and his kin. We should be careful, lest the townsfolk allow a witch-hunt to begin." Near the centre of the town, next to the husk of a fountain, Sprite and Kip were talking to what looked to be a couple of the town's ponies. From the way that the other townsponies were clustered around them, it looked like they were in charge at the moment. Sprite and one of the leaders were arguing and pointing at each other. From his position on Zecora's back, Spike could see that whatever they were talking about, Sprite was clearly loosing. Suddenly, Spike was yanked from Zecora's back, grabbed by several pairs of hooves and thrown down to the ground. He rolled a couple of times, and tried to get back up to his feet, but a solid hoof pressed down on his back and kept him breathing into the dirt. He could see Zecora trying to push forward to help him, but a couple of other ponies had grabbed her and were holding her still. "Hey!" the pony holding Spike down yelled out. The ponies near the fountain looked up, quickly zeroing in on Spike and Zecora. "We got another one here. What do you want to do with 'im?" Spike struggled to get the hoof off of his back, but it was no use. The leader from over at the fountain trotted over and quickly gave Spike a once over before nodding to the pony holding Spike down. The hoof retracted, and Spike was able to pull himself up into a sitting position. When he looked up, he found the face of the leader pony just inches away from his own. "What? Isn't it enough that you burned our town? You had to come back for seconds." "Crystal, this one wasn't with them," Sprite called out from the back. "He rode in with us. There's no way he could have been involved with what happened here." Crystal lifted up a hoof to silence Sprite, not taking his eyes off of Spike. His expression was one of pure anger and rage. "Tell me why, little dragon. Tell me why your kind did this." he moved his hoof around to encompass the razed buildings. "Is our suffering funny to you? Was our tribute not enough? Why did you break your end of the agreement?" He leaned in until his head was nearly pressed up against Spike's. "Tell me why!" Sprite pushed through and yanked Crystal off of Spike, planting herself firmly between Spike and the clearly distraught pony. "That's enough. Spike's just a child, for Celestia's sake. I give you my word that he doesn't know what is going on here and that he had nothing to do with any of this. Now, what happened here, Crystal?" Crystal gave Spike one more glare before turning his attention to Sprite. "We had just found a new ore vein and were excavating around it, getting ready to process when we found a large cache of gems buried in the rock. Diamonds and rubies mostly. We put half of them in the usual spot, and the mountain dragons came and took them, like they always do. We thought that would be it; we offer the local dragons a portion of any gems we find, and they leave us alone the rest of the time. yesterday, several younger dragons appeared and demanded the rest of the cache we found, saying that they would burn our town to the ground if we didn't give them what they wanted." Crystal pointed a hoof directly at Spike. "We couldn't just give the gems to them. That would have told them that they could try it again. Every time we would leave gems, they would come back and demand more and more of them. We would have been ruined, so we refused. The next thing we knew, half the town was ablaze, and the dragons were just laughing. We got lucky that nopony was seriously hurt, but what are we meant to do now? We can't openly fight back against the dragons; We're farmers and miners. They'd kill us in a second." Crystals' expression turned dark. "We can't let this go unanswered though, and we just happen to have a little dragon here. An eye for an eye, or so the expression goes." "No!" Zecora yelled, dropping to the ground and twisting one of her captors over her back so that he fell heavily onto the ground with an 'oooff.' The second one looked on in shock for a second before taking a back hoof to the jaw and joining his crony on the grass. Now free, Zecora pulled out her staff and held it between Spike and Crystal. Kip and Sprite joined her, creating a wall between the dragon and his aggressors. "You would be well advised to let us go. An eye for an eye is not a healthy state of mind, for it would only leave the whole world blind." "Yea," Sprite agreed, "Think this through, Crystal. I'm sure that the elder dragons would be just as horrified with what happened here as you are. You need to speak to them and let them know what happened. Hurting this one will not be a good way to open negotiations." "No more talk. Sprite, Kip, I don't want to have to hurt you, or the zebra, but if you don't get out of the way..." Crystal said, advancing a few steps forward. His tone was low, dangerous, and there was a glint in his eye that said he would gladly go through them to get to his prize. A couple of his companions followed, and more still started egging them on. Zecora, Sprite and Kip all formed a close ring around Spike, who by this point was afraid for his life. Crystal was nearly on them when Zecora yanked something out from under her traveling cloak. Spike saw that it was a small potion vial, which she hurled to the ground between her and Crystal and his cronies. The vial smashed, and let out a loud bang, followed a moment later by a billowing cloud of thick smoke. Spike quickly felt a pair of hooves grab him and place him onto someponies back. He lost track of what happened next when the smoke enveloped him. He could hear ponies coughing, and the occasional shout of 'Their getting away!" After that, the thick smoke got into his eyes, and he had to close them as they began watering. Having lived among ponies meant that he hadn't developed the same resistance to smoke and ash that his wild kin would have. Not being able to see, Spike could only hang on as he bounced around on a back. When the smoke finally cleared from his eyes, he saw that he was on Kip's back, with Zecora and Sprite not too far behind him. Zecora was looking behind them, checking to see if anypony was following them. For the moment they seemed alone, and nopony else came running around the corner to grab them. Coughing could still be heard from the square they had just vacated. Not too far off was the wagon that they had ridden in on, and Kip quickly put Spike down and went over to grab some things off of it. Sprite was trying to wipe her eyes with her hooves, tears streaming down her face. "Hey, warn me... the next time you... plan to do that, ok?" she wheezed. "My apologies for the rude escape. I did not think we had time to wait. The townsfolk were ready to riot, and I doubt that mere words would have kept them quiet." "Fair enough," Sprite said, coughing out the last of the smoke. "So, what are we going to do now?" Kip came back over from the wagon, a small bundle of jars on his back. He handed the over to Zecora, along with a couple of packets of travel biscuits and some dried fruit. "Here, take these. I've got a feeling that you are going to need them. Sprite and I can take care of things here. You two need to get going and save your friend. And if you can, please try to let the mountain dragons know what happened here. Crystal is right, somepony needs to pay for what happened, or it will just happen again." "We'll do what we can," Spike assured Kip. He felt terrible just leaving the pair here to face the wrath of the angry townsponies, but he knew that his presence would only cause the situation to get worse. It would be for the best if he and Zecora made a quiet exit and let the situation calm down a little. Plus, they had Rarity counting on them, and Spike didn't know how much time she had left. "Once Rarity is safe, I'll come back and solve this," he said to himself. Zecora took the offered food and quickly repacked her gear to accommodate the new bulk. Kip wished them both a safe journey before turning around and heading back into town. A couple of ponies had already started fanning out to search for them. "Don't worry about us, Spike. You can do more good out there than you can here. Sprite and I have been in worse than a few angry ponies. I think it would be best if you got going before they find you again, don't you?" Spike had to agree, and he and Zecora quickly headed out at a fast trot, making for the closest trail that headed into the mountains. At a fast clip, they could be well into the mountain range by the time they had to stop for the night. Tomorrow, they would be in the Dragon Lands, and their search for the tree could truly begin. Unbeknownst to them, they had been seen leaving. Three earth ponies sitting on a rooftop watched them go. As one, they turned to look at the squabbling town ponies as they ran around looking for their already leaving quarry. With one curt nod from the biggest of the ponies, they all sheathed themselves in green fire for a moment. when the fire faded, they all stood there, exactly the same as before except for the pairs of wings now attached to their sides. They had smelt it the moment the dragon had come to town; he was leaking love for somepony like a sieve. They would be able to eat like kings for a week after they drained him. Picking in town would be slim for the next while; the dragon rampage through town had seen to that, and in the confusion and activity that would follow, nopony would miss them. One by one, the three changelings flapped their wings and took to the air, rising high enough to be covered by the cloud layer as they followed Spike and Zecora into dragon territory. It would be child's play to drain the pair of them when they stopped for the night.