CHAPTER 10: Grumblebog
It was about a fortnight since the princesses had heard about Grumblebog and were finally ready to go off to tame him. Once again they were accompanied by their dragon friends. Percy was to report on the negotiations just like last time and there was no convincing Penny to stay behind. She was more excited to meet another dragon than ever before.
It was afternoon and they flew carefully through the air towards the South Spire Mountain. They had to lay low because the sky above them was thick with black smoke coming from Grumblebog inside the mountain cave. Even the clean air had the smell of nearby smoke and fire.
“I sure hope this smoke doesn’t become a problem…” Celestia said.
“It won’t be once we get him out of there, Tia.” Luna replied.
“Not that, I mean while we’re in the mountain talking to him.” Celestia told her sister, looking back. “I am sure we can get him out of there. Hopefully our teachings will pay off.”
“I just hope we get him out there PERIOD.” Percy said nervously while carrying his sister below him.
“Percy, relax, we’ll be fine and he’ll be nice just like Accord said!” Penny replied to her brother.
“Accord never said Grumblebog was nice, Penny.” Celestia reminded the young dragon. “He told us he comes from a race of dragons that are supposed to be tame and that one such dragon was once persuaded by a single filly.”
“Which means we should have no problem persuading him as well.” Luna said proudly.
“True……though I really think the ‘stare’ would come in handy in a situation like this…” Celestia said.
They then flew over a major peak and saw the South Spire Mountain about a mile away. It was a tall and fearsome feature with smaller pointy ones surrounding it. On the northern side of the mountain was the cave entrance, but the smoke was flowing out of the top of the mountain like a volcano. This was no doubt where Grumblebog entered the cave when he attacked. As they got closer they noticed some crates and tools scattered on the stairway that scaled the side of the mountain and on the cliff side right in front of the entrance. Clearly, the workers left their equipment and supplies behind in their haste to evacuate. Celestia also noticed in the valley below some knight ponies with thick armor and weapons that were hiding among the trees and keeping watch to ensure their safety. They appeared armed for battle and even had catapults in place should Grumblebog emerge to attack. The others didn’t seem to notice the knights but Celestia didn’t inform them, because she didn’t want to worry her little sister.
As they got closer, the only settling thing they noticed was a waterfall to the left of the entrance with a rainbow present. Celestia smiled warmly, for rainbows were considered a sign of good luck in Equestria. Perhaps they were meant to tame this dragon and pass their test after all.
“Well, this is it everyone...” She said as they put their legs down to get ready to land on the top of the cliff in front of the cave.
“The mountain seems a lot bigger than how Father described it.” Luna stated as they both stared deeply into the cave.
“Yeah, well hopefully the dragon’s not like how they described him.” Percy said shaking a little.
Penny rolled her eyes and grabbed her brother’s hand and started leading him in after the princesses.
“Now don’t forget to speak gently.” Celestia told them as they walked in. “I’ll talk first and hopefully he won’t get too mad when we wake him up.”
Things got darker as they went in and the smell of smoke got even worse. Luna began to cough a little, but used her shoulder to muffle the sound. Percy and Penny of course were not affected by the smell of smoke, but they both seemed to have a hard time seeing through the darkness. Celestia then used a magic spell to make her horn glow, though it only showed enough light for them to see a few yards in front of them. It allowed her to see the path though, because there were tiny gold bit coins scattered on the ground that reflected from the light.
As they went deeper into the cave the light from the end of the tunnel seemed to dim and there was a grumbling noise that was no doubt the dragon’s breathing. The closer they got, the louder the grumble became. Luna started to get scared and huddled up next to Celestia while Percy started to bite his fingernails with tiny little shavings coming off. Even Penny herself seemed a little scared and took a big gulp.
Suddenly, Percy stepped on a small twig on the ground that he didn’t see and they all looked back at him. He froze completely with his eyes darting back and forth. There was a loud snort that sounded in front of them and they all turned their heads towards it. Celestia looked harder and saw what appeared to be an enormous claw on top of a pile of gold which was undoubtedly Grumblebog’s toenail. She brightened the light from her horn just a bit, but not too much for she didn’t want to anger Grumblebog. It was already apparent though, that he could tell they were there. With her sister and the dragons huddled close to her, she took a deep breath and began to talk.
“Um……hello?”
Her voice echoed a bit through the cave walls and then the dragon’s breathing stopped and there was a brief moment of silence. Suddenly the dragon spoke.
“You little ones do realize who’s cave you have entered, do you not?”
His voice was low and menacing and rumbled even deeper than the sound of his snoring, almost enough to shake some of the tiny golden coins on the ground. After he spoke the sound of coins falling could be heard from his movement. Celestia could just barely make out what appeared to be a beak and lower jaw right above where she could see his toenails. She decided that now was the time to reply to him, though she couldn’t do so without trembling.
“Mister……Grumblebog, Sir……we didn’t mean to disturb you, we only came to talk with you…” she said.
“Funny…I didn’t think any ponies were brave enough to enter my cave.” he said. “Are you children not even scared of me?”
Celestia thought for a second how to answer this. Saying they weren’t scared would have been a lie obviously and would probably agitate him so she just had to be honest.
“We are taken by your majestic presence, Grumblebog, but I am not saying we are-”
“NO?” he said loudly. “Perhaps we should shed a little light on this situation…”
He inhaled and blew out some fire in the air and several broken planks of wood jutting out of the wall behind them lit up the entire cave. Their hearts froze as they looked upon the dragon sitting in a mountain of gold. He was red with green spikes going down his back and very large ones on his head. He was rotund and somewhat plump compared to how most dragons appeared in some of the picture books they had read, but very strong and muscular. His jaw and underbelly were a lighter shade of red and some little coins and pieces of gold were stuck in between his scales, but they fell out as he moved. His eyes were yellow with orange irises and a large vertical slit right down the middle. The slit was rounder at first but as the light grew brighter it thinned out. Grumblebog was so frightening in appearance that all four of them forgot how much gold was in their presence and how brightly it shone through the entire cave. He grumbled a little as he looked at them and then noticed Percy and Penny behind the princesses.
“Wait……you are not all ponies…” he said. “Are those……dragons behind you two?”
Percy waved his hand nervously and Penny waved and said ‘hi’ in a whispered voice.
“Oh, yes, those are our dragon friends, Perseus and Penelope. We call them Percy and Penny for short.” Celestia said.
“And you are?” the dragon asked her.
Celestia stood proud and stopped trembling a little while presenting herself.
“I am Princess Celestia of Equestria, and this is my younger sister, Princess Luna. We are the daughters of the king of Equestria, King Solmidas.”
“What is your business in my cave?”
“We are here to negotiate with you, Grumblebog.” Celestia said. “Our father owns the gold in this mountain after all and we do need our gold.”
Grumblebog squinted his eyes a little and started to tighten the grip on his one claw that was around a small mound of gold in front of him.
“Well this gold belongs to Grumblebog now.” he said. “I am a dragon. Therefore I am not to be questioned with.”
“We can see you are mighty, Grumblebog…” Celestia said carefully “We respect that you are territorial and protective of your domain, but our country will suffer financially if we don’t have access to this gold.”
“Hmmmf. It’s not my problem.” Grumblebog said before taking a very loud yawn. “I suggest you four leave me be so that I may continue my long-awaited slumber.”
“But mighty Grumblebog…” Luna started to say, “…are there not any other mountains out there that you can dwell in? Surely there are some that are much more comfortable like a dormant volcano.”
“My ancestors have dwelled in the north for millennia, but I have grown tired of that land for it has changed over the last few centuries and gotten colder. I like it here, and I like this gold. I will horde this gold away and sleep in it as long as I see fit and that is that.”
“But perhaps we can find you another mountain?” Luna continued. “A good mountain without any gold but that is nice and warm and won’t-”
“NO!” Grumblebog bellowed. “This gold is mine. I never cared for the well-being of ponies and if you wanted your treasure to be safe from me you should have hid it somewhere that is harder for me to find. Now be gone.” He then closed his eyes and then rested his head back down on the gold.
This wasn’t going exactly as planned, though Celestia and Luna did expect him to be a bit persnickety. They thought now would be a good time to get help from their dragon friends.
“Alright, Percy, Penny, I think it’s time you two talked to him a bit.” Celestia whispered.
“Are you crazy?!” Percy replied. “The guy’s not gonna listen, he’s grumpier than Starswirl when he hasn’t had his morning tea!”
“Bro, maybe he’ll listen to us since we’re dragons, it’s worth a try.” Penny told her brother.
“Well……if you say so…I just hope Tia and Luna still get credit for passing this.” Percy said with sweat coming down from his forehead.
They both stepped in front of the princesses and cleared their throats and Percy began talking to Grumblebog.
“Hey, uh……Grumblebog, it’s Percy.”
Grumblebog’s eye opened up staring directly at Percy.
“Um……look, Penny and I have lived around ponies nearly all our lives you know. I mean I started out being raised by our parents but sometime after she hatched they left us and the royal family in the Everfree Palace took us in.”
“Yeah, so that means they’re alright with dragons.” Penny added.
“Oh yeah, they like us a lot and we love living with them. So yeah, dragons and ponies live in peace in Everfree……and stuff…and things…” Percy said kicking his leg around playfully.
“What exactly are you getting at, young fire-breather?!” Grumblebog said loudly moving his beak close to them, which caused Percy to step back a bit.
“Uh……well I’m just saying, we don’t mean you any harm, we just want to be nice and all, and the ponies are being as nice to you as they are to us...”
“Yeah, plus shouldn’t the fact that dragons live peacefully with ponies in this land be enough to let you know you can trust us?” Penny added.
Grumblebog snorted some smoke out from his nostrils at all four of them. This caused the princesses to cover their faces with their wings and cough violently. Even the dragons coughed a little from the thick smoke. Celestia and Percy used their wings to fan away the smoke.
“I see what’s going on now.” Grumblebog said. “You children think you can just manipulate me using your dragon visitors?”
“We’re only trying to persuade you.” Luna said innocently.
“Well that’s not going to work!” he replied angrily.
“But Grumblebog, we’ve heard that you are one of the Northern Drakes which are said to be tamer than most other dragons. Are you not one of these dragons?” Celestia continued starting to sound rather worried.
“I am a Northern Drake, yes, but I am different. The others do not take the time to find the mightiest of mountains with gold in them to horde away. That is the true way of the dragon. The drakes are weak and don’t behave like real dragons should.”
Once again things were not what either princess expected. Just like with Leogle, this mission did not look like it would end well. Celestia, however, did not give up yet. She thought hard to herself and then stepped forward bravely.
“Grumblebog…” she said.
“What now?!” Grumblebog replied.
“As I said before, we respect you and we do not want to get in an argument with you. We only want to be as reasonable as we possibly can and come to a fair agreement. We were not taught to be forceful and malevolent. We were taught to be peace-makers. If you leave, you may not be like a ‘real’ dragon but you will certainly be thanked by my father and the rest of the ponies for returning our gold.”
Grumblebog’s eyes started to move back and forth slowly as if he was deep in thought. It was almost like he was actually considering what Celestia had just told him. He closed his eyes for a second and then then looked back and began to speak again.
“Look……I am a dragon.” he started to say “I am a creature that is meant to be feared by all and I am not going to give in to this pitiful advice you are giving me.” He then stood up on his front legs to instill fear into them and looked taller and more imposing. “Your little dragon friends back there; they are infants. They don’t know what it is like to be a dragon because they were raised by weak-minded equines who live lives of luxury and peace. My race has grown soft and I am not going to be like them anymore!”
Grumblebog’s voice grew louder and louder and little rocks started to fall down from the cavern walls and the princesses and dragons started to walk backwards in fear.
“I am the Mighty Grumblebog, and I will not be so easily controlled by little brats like you! This cave belongs to me now and if anyone, pony or otherwise, tries to take it from me they will meet my wrath!!!”
Celestia and Luna looked horrified and didn’t know what to do. Luna started crying to see if that would change his mind.
“Grumblebog…” she whimpered. “Please……please let us have our gold back? Would you want to hurt our feelings? Innocent little ponies like us?”
Grumblebog rolled his eyes.
“Oh my goodness, now you’re just mocking me! WHAT PART OF ‘GET OUT’ DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?!?!?!”
Grumblebog hollered at them so loud that he accidentally blew fire at them but Celestia acted quickly and used her magic shield which protected all four of them from the fire and the heat. Grumblebog paused for a moment while panting and looked at the magic shield curiously. Celestia had her eyes closed but then started to open them with a very angry face. Then she lost her temper.
“HOW DARE YOU, GRUMBLEBOG!!” she screamed.
“SHHHH, TIA, WATCH IT!” Percy shouted.
“We’ve been nice to you! We’ve offered you another mountain, and this is how you treat us?! DO YOU HAVE ANY COMPASSION LEFT IN YOU AT ALL?!?”
Suddenly, she started to realize what she was doing and stopped shouting.
“Oh……I mean…no, what was I thinking…” she said to herself.
“Hahaha…”
For the first time ever, a smile started to form on Grumblebog’s face as he chuckled, but it was not a friendly laugh.
“Impressive, little princess.” he told her. “With that attitude perhaps you’d be much better at negotiating……but it won’t work on me. I am the king of this mountain now. Your pathetic father can mourn for his gold all he wants, but he cannot make me leave this cave. Now unless you all want to burn or strain yourself from using that magic shield, I suggest you leave.”
It didn’t take much to cause Celestia to burst into tears and rush out of the cave. She had just made the biggest mistake she could possibly make and ruined this negotiation with that outrage. She needed to get out of there and back to the palace as fast as she could.
“TIA, WAIT!!” Luna called running after her sister with Percy and Penny running away from Grumblebog scared for their lives.
Grumblebog watched them leave and stopped smiling. Without any remorse for how he treated them, he blew some smoke out of his nostrils and laid his head to rest back on his pillow of golden coins.
“Hmmf. Ponies.” he grunted.
Meanwhile, Celestia was soaring out of the cave entrance at high speed and Luna could barely keep up with her. She took off and flew while Percy grabbed his sister and carried her away. By now, Celestia was too far away for Luna to keep up with so she just slowed down and stuck close to the dragons to keep them company.
“You okay, Luna?” Penny asked her.
“We……we failed, again…We should never have come here. That dragon is far too dangerous.” Luna responded, miserably.
“I don’t want to say ‘I told you so’ Penny…” Percy told Penny, “but……well, I told-”
“You told me so, yes, I know, Bro.” Penny mumbled, cutting off her brother.
“Well…I sure hope the next assignment lands us in a much more welcoming place.” Luna said as she looked back at Celestia who was now several hundreds of yards away. The faint sound of her crying could be heard.
Luna then noticed it had gotten cloudier and the afternoon sun was completely blocked out. She looked back at the waterfall by the mountain and the rainbow they saw earlier was gone. Whatever luck they may have had when they entered that mine was now gone.
TO BE CONTINUED…