Chapter Three: UntyrUryte
Spike sighed as he walked back to the library, he truly did want to go. Yet Celestia had asked for just the heroes. It made him feel very left out and a little jealous. He had been there with them, he had helped out before. So why was it that he was being left behind more and more often? That he was being ignored a lot more? He really did feel a lot more upset that Twilight seemed to be growing distant. She was his only family, he paused as he looked at the library.
“I want to have an adventure,” he muttered under his breath but knew what his duties were. Since he wasn’t looking where he was going, he was looking at the ground, he ran into a pony. He fell to the ground and looked up seeing that it was a unicorn mare carrying a book. The strange thing was that he hadn’t seen her Ponyville before.
“Hey there,” he said slowly and she smiled at him as she helped him up, replying. “Hey there, yourself, I was just borrowing a book from the library. I noticed that you guys did not have a check out system or a desk. Is it just nicknamed the Gold Oaks Library or is it an actual one?”
“It is an actual one, but with how small Ponyville is we really don’t need something like that,” Spike answered, taking a peek at the book that she was holding in her magic. It was one of the books that Twilight was looking through in order to figure out the strange box from the Tree of Harmony. “About the book, Twilight is using it.”
“I know, I’ll put it back, I’m just borrowing it for a friend to copy,” the mare replied, her white tipped tail flicking back and forth. “You can come with me!”
“But I have to….” Spike glanced back towards the library, he knew he had to look after the library. The unicorn glanced back at the library as well. “Well you technically are looking after the library. You are looking after the books! So just lock the doors and close the blinds, we're going for a ride!”
“What?” was the only word that Spike could think of. The unicorn cleared her throat before saying. “It’s part of a song I listen to, it’s about… nevermind. The truth is, this friend of mine lives in the Everfree Forest and I would like the company.”
Now that did catch Spike’s attention, though tamer now the Everfree Forest was still a dangerous place. Living there would mean her friend was likely just like Zecora. Looking between her and the library he made up his mind. He was going to help this unicorn get to her friend, see the copy made, then bring the book back.
“Fine,” he finally said and the unicorn laughed a bit. She looked down at Spike realizing. “Oh right! My name, sorry about that. I’m Foxfire.”
“Spike,” the introduction might not have been needed but he was still trying to figure out why he hadn’t seen her before. He was really hoping that this wasn’t something that was going to end up with Twilight and the others having to fix his mistake.They walked for sometime, the conversation was light. Foxfire was talking about how she tries to help this friend out whenever she could when her job would allow. She was rather vague about what she did for a living but it seemed like it was important to her.
“Ah, here we are, right cave,” Foxfire said as she looked at a cave, something felt off to Spike. He honestly didn’t know what it was but something was just off about the cave entrance. “Coming?” he glanced up and saw Foxfire already walking in without a care in the world. He ran a bit to catch up to her asking. “Your friend, who is she?”
“You’ll find out,” was the only reply he got before looking up and seeing just darkness. He grew a bit scared before moving forward. This had to be a trap. ‘I’m such an idiot.’ he thought to himself before sniffling. Yet he had to get the book back, he didn’t want Twilight to be disappointed in him. That was when he heard a deep rumbling. Freezing a bit he noticed a dim light up ahead caused by light blue flames. It resembled the magic that Foxfire had been using so he figured that is where she went. Coming out of the dark cave he saw it led out into a massive cavern. It had been perfectly set up as a library, but with no ceiling or back in sight. Just rows and rows of shelves carved into the stone walls. There were also standing bookshelves further in the distance. In the middle of the cavern was a massive pile of books and on top was an even larger slumbering dragon. Spike rubbed his eyes trying to figure out if what he was seeing was real. Normally dragons would be sleeping on piles of gold, not books. Noticing some stairs, also carved from stone, leading down Spike decided that the best course of action would be to see if Foxfire was down there with the book she had taken.
There was no sign of the pony, the book itself was near the top of the pile. At first Spike wanted to see if he could climb it but when he got closer the sheer mass and size of the slumbering dragon caused him to seize up. Swallowing, he decided to look around at the other books on the shelves and realized that this was a library. The books themselves seemed to have some kind of preservation magic cast on them. Deciding he could wait until the dragon woke up Spike began to organize the shelves and put the books back. What he didn’t notice was the dragon’s eye opening up to watch him.
Taking his time Spike organized the books making sure to carry them one at a time up the shelves. The ones higher up were more difficult to reach but he managed. He had to make sure to never look down. He would often take breaks realizing just how much space there was between the next shelf the higher he went. Yet still he could not see the top of the cave.
“This has to be some kind of enchantment,” he said to himself as he sat against the books. He always found that when he put them back in their spot that they would increase in size. Yet whenever he grabbed one they would be the size of a regular book.
“You are really observant, Little One,” a voice spoke from behind him. Spike glanced over his shoulder before turning around seeing the face of the massive dragon in front of him. “You are indeed correct.”
Spike swallowed his fear and a hiccup as he stared into the bright silvery blue eyes of the dragon. It was massive, being around 72’ feet, he was guessing as it was hunched over. The scales, now that he was getting a closer look, gleamed like crystals even in the dim lighting. He backed away for a moment before processing her words. “Did Foxfire cast these enchantments?”
“The servant of the Crystal Heart?” the dragon asked, looking rather confused for a moment. “This would not be something she would do, as one of the Iliniad.”
“Ilniad?” Spike asked and the dragon nodded its head before replying. “Yes, fox-like creatures that can walk on two legs, use magic, cause mischief, and are normally loyal to no one. They used to live in the South, not just in the Dunes but the Eternal Forest before most of it was destroyed and became the Wastes.”
Spike was quiet for a moment, there was nothing in pony history that spoke of this. Perhaps beyond the time of Star Swirl the Bearded and the founding of Equestria. He looked the dragon in the eyes and asked. “Who are you?”
“I am UntryrUryte, I am what remains of the First Dragons created by Discord,” the dragon answered sadly, glancing around the library. “This is my library… you can call me Aurora though.”
“First Dragons? Discord? Library?” The confusion of Spike began to grow before Aurora began to shrink in size, until she was a little larger than him. She flew up to the shelves and sat down next to him. “What about yourself?” What is your name?”
“Spike,” he answered honestly and the pain in her eyes grew more visible. “I’m sorry, this is all just so confusing to me.”
“Well, I may not be able to answer all of your questions, but I can answer a few,” Aurora answered honestly as she turned towards him. “First you must answer one of my questions.”
Spike nodded his head before saying. “Go ahead.”
“When you first saw me, why did you not challenge me for the book?” Aurora asked and Spike gave her a look of confusion. “The dragons who were born after the Curse of Greed fell upon our kind. The moment they see another dragon with their possessions, they will challenge and attack the other. No matter the size, yet you did not do that. You instead chose to help me by putting all of these books away.”
“Well, I wasn’t raised by dragons,” Spike answered as he looked down at the pile of books shyly. “I was raised by ponies, when I went through my greedy phase I had nearly harmed my friends. But when I saw the gift that I had given to the one that I loved… I remembered who I was.”
“A noble heart that is afflicted not by the greed of gold but bound by friendship and the spark of hope,” Aurora said, being drawn into a memory and Spike looked confused. “What’s that?”
“A prophecy told by the Spirit of Love and Courage who had once blessed my brother’s soul after he had passed,” explained Aurora with a look of sadness passing over it. “He was the only one to never have been touched by the curse for he had died before it came upon him. So the Spirit of Love and Courage who had guided him had blessed his line that one like him would come.”
“What was he like?” Spike wondered and Aurora’s scales shined with light as she projected an image of a large purple scaled dragon. His scales were a darker purple and his ventral scales were orange. His spikes running up his tail to his head were yellow. He seemed larger than Aurora by about 10 feet.
“His name was QuirinSurpMiir or as the ponies liked to call him Keboath Gillspotten Heathspike,” Aurora explained laughing at Spike’s face at the name. “He enjoyed it! At the time dragons were the only ones to have known the secrets of magic and flight. Despite the Spirit of Harmony being a bit up in arms that creatures made by the Spirit of Chaos learning how to use magic.”
“Spirit of Chaos? Discord?” Spike began to slowly wrap his mind around what was being told. “He created dragons?”
“Yes, he made my siblings and myself first,” Aurora explained and two more images appeared, one of a large red scaled dragon his size massively overshadowing the other two. The second was a smaller black dragon with white belly scales and spikes. “The largest was ThraxMaug, powerful in his strength and might. Yet he wasn’t prideful or arrogant, he was quiet and kept to himself. He taught the Pegasi how to fly with their wings and the Earth Ponies about strength.”
“What did the ponies call him?” Spike asked, looking up at the dragon. Aurora looked at the image looking away as if remembering something horrible. “Flame Heart. He had told them to call him Flame Heart.”
“They’re all dead… aren’t they?” Spike didn’t want to ask the question, yet he knew that she had mentioned being the remaining one.
“With what happened to ThraxMaug and ZundaeIngeir… they would have been better off dying,” Aurora answered honestly. “Spike, the reason why QuirinSurpMiir died, the reason why the dragons are the way they are, the reason why the Wastes exist, was because of the tale of ZundaeIngeir. Are you ready to hear this tale?”
Spike looked up at the image of his ancestor then to the others. His green eyes landed on ZundaeIngeir who looked to be the happiest among them. Yet deep within her eyes he could see a longing. What had happened to them? Why did the noble dragon vanish? What caused them to lose that code of honor and strength?
“What happened to ZundaeIngeir?” he asked, looking at Aurora as serious as possible. “What happened to her to cause all of this?”
Aurora began to change the image of ZundaeIngeir into a massive shadow dragon with six red eyes. A fox creature leaped up on the shelf next to her to curl up listening to the tale.
“Obsession.”