//------------------------------// // Uzhas // Story: The Temnokt Empire // by ladyanaconda //------------------------------// Great. Just great. Glacial Fire was shivering, the armor was not meant to keep any dragon warm. The snow was getting entangled into his hair, and his breath froze into tiny bits of ice that made it visible. But that was not the thing that had him so irritated, no. What was driving him angry was that little hatchling, Spike was his name. He had come into the courtyard -he'd have to ask other guards how he got in in the first place- and was speaking with Rock Dust and Needlemouth. Seriously, that hatchling was annoying with his little voice and his habit of pestering others around when he had nothing else to do. How he envied Stormchaser, whose shift had ended half an hour ago. "Don't you guys have sweaters or something?" Spike was so cold he swore his mucus were turning into chopsticks. "It's freezing out here." Rock Dust and Needlemouth glanced at each other before the former asked. "What's a sweater?" "Seriously?" Spike could not believe what he was hearing."I suppose you don't know what is a hay shake." "Hay? Are you serious?" Glacial Fire couldn't help but feel incensed at the thought. "What kind of dragon eats hay?" Spike thought for a moment before he replied. "Uh... Me?" "It was a rhetorical question, kid." "Y-You d-don't eat m-meat?" Needlemouth stuttered with chattering teeth, but not out of the freezing cold. "Are you v-vegetarian?" "I get the feeling you're going to be a very small dragon." Rock Dust snickered to himself. "No wonder no one takes you seriously." "Hey! Twilight takes me seriously!" Spike protested with a cross of his arms and a small glare. "Besides, what if I'm small?" "Nothing." The bigger dragon looked away with a playful look. "By the way," Spike glanced around to make sure no one was around, the. Motioned the three dragons to lean closer. "Who was that stallion from the other night? The one with orange coat we saw when you took me back to Fukkuteru's house." "You mean Sunset Glare?" Glacial Fire snorted irritated. "That stallion means nothing but trouble. I'm sad to say that I've been involved in half of his arrests." Glacial thought for a moment before turning to Spike. "Did you find out what he was doing there?" Spike simply shrugged. "I asked Cadence, she said he had come for a visit, but he left just like that when she told him she and Shining were married." "Love triangle." Rock Dust let out a hearty laugh. "Even in ponies, there are love triangles!" He shot his friend a glance. "And here you thought Equestria was perfect." Glacial Fire said something in Krussian, probably another curse, Spike couldn't tell, but judging by his face, it was a possibility. Before he could say anything else, however, a long, stern shadow came from behind him and made the three guards stiffen and return to their original posts in a matter of seconds, freezing in place as if the cold itself had turned them to ice statues. Whiptail nodded approvingly. They knew their place. Whiptail looked down at Spike. "What are you doing out here, kid?" Spike gulped under the commander' intimidating shadow. "I-I was just... Just... I didn't want to..." "Speak up." Whiptail raised his voice a little, his patience wearing thin. "I only came to say hi to my friends, that's all!" Spike chirped, running to hide behind Needlemouth's front legs. The dragon didn't protest, too frightened of Whiptail to even blink. "Well, you should go back inside." Whiptail's hard eyes softened a bit. "You will catch a cold out here." "For example...!" Rock Dust thought bitterly, his nostrils itching from the cold, his throat raspy. If there was some dragon who would catch a cold, it was them. "Commander Whiptail... Can I ask you a thing?" Spike inquired timidly with his little voice. The dragon looked down at him curiously. "What is it, kid?" When Glacial and Rock realized what he was going to ask, they started making signals to the baby dragon from behind Whiptail's back to tell him to stop. But either he didn't mind them, or he had no idea what those signals meant. "What happened to your eye?" Glacial Fire smacked his forehead in frustration, Needlemouth contained the urges to gulp, and Rock Dust let out a silent groan of horror. Whiptail's eyes fixed severely in Spike, having being asked the same question not long ago by the rainbow-haired Pegasus. Spike gulped when Whiptail arched his long neck down to set his amethyst eye on him hardly. The pupil of his left eye lacked any pigment of color to show blindness, yet Spike could feel like both eyes were set on him. "S-Sorry, c-commander. I d-didn't mean to… I was just…" "Speak up." Whiptail raised his tone even more than before, his gaze hardening. "Don't stutter. I have enough headaches with Needlemouth stuttering everytime he speaks." Spike took a few breaths and managed to calm himself down a little bit. "It's not that you are ugly or anything, I just had curiosity!" "Don't you know curiosity killed the crow, kid?" Whiptail said coldly. "Sometimes it's better not to know anything." With these words, he flew away. Rock Dust, Glacial Fire and Needlemouth let out the cold breaths of anxiety they had been containing, then they glanced down at the baby dragon. "That was scary." Rock Dust spoke with dismay. "You were lucky, kid. Usually, anydragon who mentions Commander Whiptail's condition in front of him ends up in the infirmary." "Seriously?" Spike gulped at the thought. "But why is he so sensitive about it? It's not like I'm asking him about a lost familiar or something!" Before Rock Dust could say anything, Glacial Fire had enough. "Well, look at the time! Our shift it's over, let's go!" He walked away, glancing back to see if the other two drakes were following. "B-But it's still t-twenty minutes b-before our shift e-ends!" Needlemouth called out. Cursing in Krussian, Glacial Fire levitated Rock Dust and Needlemouth away from Spike and closer to him as he 'dragged' them away. Rock Dust and Needlemouth could only wave their claws at Spike. Spike did the same, waving them good bye with his claw. Spike thought it was time to go back with Twilight Sparkle and the others, but he wanted to take one more look around the courtyard. Like any courtyard, it was very spacious, and adorned with stone paths going around and through each other like vines, covered with snow. The grass patches between the stone pavement were all covered in snow, with the tall pine trees white from the ice and snow gathering on their branches. Spike could swear he caught a glance of a snowy owl moving through the branches of one of the pine trees looking for its nest. The moon was glowing peacefully, sharing its light with the taiga creatures. A branch snapped. Spike jumped at the sound and glanced around. The sound had come from behind him, but there was nothing more than a bush. Spike gulped and approached the thick bush silently, he didn't want to scare whoever animal was hiding in there. "Hey." "WAH!" Spike stepped back from the bush when it talked. His hand trembled as he pointed a claw at it with shrunk pupils, his heart throbbing inside his chest. Wide, aqua green eyes were staring at him. "Is everything alright out there?" Spike was frozen in fear. "Huh?" What kind of bushes were these?! "Are there any guards roaming around?" Despite the awkwardness of talking to a bush, Spike glanced around, then back at it. "N-No." "Yay!" Spike yelled in fear and fell back when a flash of black emerged from the bush and landed in front of him. He tried to crawl away, but the thing that came out jumped to his front and took the pose of a playful dog, now snout-to-snout with the baby dragon. Spike realized his mysterious attacker was not an animal, but a hatchling. A female hatchling. Judging by her size-a few inches shorter than him-she had his age, maybe a bit younger. She had a creamy pink underbelly and hair, with contrasting aqua green eyes. A pink ribbon was wrapped around her neck, tied into a bow similar to Applebloom's. "Who are you?" the hatchling inquired, tilting her head. "I've never seen you around here. And why are your scales purple and not black?" "I…" It took Spike a few seconds to calm down and reply. "I'm Spike. And I'm not from here, as you've guessed, I come from Equestria." "Equestria? Where Princess Lulu lives?" Spike blinked at the name. "Princess… Lulu? Who is that?" "Princess Lulu is the pony who brings out the moon every night. Mommy, Daddy and everydragon else speaks very fondly of her." Princess Luna? The Temnokt knew her? "And, what's your name?" Spike changed the subject. "I'm Clawrene." The hatchling grinned with squinted eyes. "How did you get here? Commander Whippy doesn't let any dragon into the castle." Spike nearly went into a fit of laughter when he heard how she called Whiptail. He wondered if the Commander or the guards knew about this. "I came with Twilight and the others, but I wanted to come and greet Glacial Fire and Rock Dust. Now I don't know the way back to the Dining Hall." "I can show you the way." Clawrene offered. "But then I must go back to my room. Daddy and mommy don't like when I'm awake past my sleeping time." Before Spike could ask who her parents were, Clawrene was already running through the door and into the hallway. Spike ran after her and struggled to keep with her pace. The last thing he wanted was to get lost in the dark castle corridors. "So, Lady Sparkle, you say Princess Celestia is offering us a free trade agreement apart from the peace treaty?" Twilight nodded. "Yeah, and the removal of all tariffs between Krussia and Equestria, my lord." She was so glad the King and Queen understood their vegetarian habits, and spared them having to eat the meat. She had to say, it was interesting to talk with Crenshaw, the Court Mage, as she had just learned. He shared her passion for book and spells, but was hesitant to talk about dark magic with a unicorn. In fact, during the whole conversation the Temnokt mostly directed to her, or Discord, Rarity, Applejack or even Rainbow Dash, but they barely even glanced at Cadence or Shining Armor ever since they learned they ruled the Crystal Empire. There was something they weren't telling them. But she felt in no position to ask. "So you are a seamstress, Lady Rarity?" Boreal Blizzard inquired, glancing at Rarity curiously. "I'd rather prefer the term 'fashion designer', Majesty, if you wouldn't mind." Rarity said softly, feeling uncomfortable at the term 'seamstress. "But yes, I have a small boutique in my hometown, Ponyville. I design and make my own dresses and for my customers depending on their taste and personality." "Sounds more like a seamstress." Mythic muttered, before his mother gave him a mild glare. "Mythic, be more respectful!" she chided him. "Lady Sparkle, are there any other products you think could be worth trading?" King Bittercold changed the subject, again directing his words at the unicorn. "Well, My Lord, like my friend Applejack said, zap apple jam is one of the most popular Equestrian products, and there's also certain fabrics and materials that could be useful for you in this climate..." "I understand your kind controls their own weather, am I correct?" Crenshaw inquired. "It's the coolest thing ever!" Rainbow Dash laughed. "We fabricate the types of weather clouds in Cloudsdale, then we spread them out throughout Equestria and with a good buck, Pam! You got rain, or snow!" she glanced outside at the dark clouds and the bitter winter. "Seriously, no offense, but you guys need a weather factory." "Rainbow Dash!" Twilight snapped through grit teeth. "A factory of weather?" King Bittercold raised an eyebrow. "Is that possible?" "Well, it's a sort of a pegasi thing, My Lord." Applejack explained. "They control the weather, we Earth ponies grow crops and take care of animals, and the Unicorns take care of certain things that require pure magic." Midnight muttered under his breath as he fidgeted with his elk. "I can imagine..." he flinched when both his father and Crenshaw gave him a warning glance. "Well, it's now official. I don't like that guy." Discord muttered into Shining Armor's ear, subtly pointing at Mythic Midnight. "He thinks he's better than us or what?" "Discord, do you want to have us executed?" Shining Armor muttered back. "My Lord, Equestria is a prosperous country of friendship and harmony. Princess Celestia wishes to form a cordial relationship with your empire for the benefit of both countries." Cadence explained with a smile. "I'm certain we can reach an agreement that will benefit both parties." "A land of harmony, alright." Crenshaw glanced at Cadence with a small frown. "Forgive my incredulity, but as far as I know, your country has been attacked not only by Princess Luna in her corrupted form, but also from the Spirit of Chaos here present." he glanced at Discord as he froze in dismay, before continuing. "The Queen of a race of insect-like ponies, and 'He who must not be named' returned along with the Crystal Empire." "Excuse me, when you say 'he who must not be named' are you referring to King Sombra?" Rainbow Dash inquired. Twilight gagged and had to contain the urge to spit the water in her mouth, especially when she saw the expression on Bittercold's face darken as he glanced at Rainbow Dash. "Miss Rainbow Dash, I believe we asked you not to speak his name in our presence." "Oh, don't mind her, Majesty, she doesn't know what she says half of the time!" Rarity laughed nervously. "Hey!" Discord decided to try and lighten up the mood. "Indeed, she knocked her head on a cloud when she was a foal, she is a loony and makes coo-coo!" Cadence took a hoof to her forehead and shook her head, while Twilight looked like she wanted to be swallowed by the earth. She was certain Bittercold would have ordered them executed hadn't a creak signaling the door opening, and yet another Temnokt entered the Dining Room, wearing a regal red suit with a blue band, orange blonde hair falling on one side and a regal posture compared to that of the King himself. The drake bowed respectfully at the King. "My apologies if I'm late, Your Highness, I had a pending matter that couldn't wait." the dragon said apologetically, to which Bittercold nodded. "It's okay, Clawblack. We were just chatting with our guests." "Ah, the famous delegation has arrived, I presume." Clawblack took a glance at the ponies, and saw most of the delegation consisted of mares. "Is that all of them?" "No, My Lord, the rest of the delegates stayed behind at my clan's home." Fukkuteru explained. "We thought bringing so many ponies would be... overwhelming." "How many stayed behind, if we may know?" the Queen inquired politely, coughing a bit, "Nine." Applejack explained. "Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Stormfly and his daughter, both Changelings-" Crenshaw technically gagged on his elk, but quickly regained his composure to glare at Applejack. "You brought a CHANGELING into our country?!" Mythic Midnight rolled his eyes. "Cool it down, Crenshaw. It's not like they brought the Black Plague." Boreal Blizzard glanced down at her grandson disapprovingly. "Changelings feed on love, we don't know what... other things they might be capable of." "Nothing really, just take the shape of anypony to impersonate them and-" Twilight panicked and sealed Rainbow Dash's lips shut with her magic, while Cadence kept her head cool and glanced at the Elder Queen respectfully. "But Stormfly is a good Changeling, he has no bad intentions. We thought that if we were to sign a treaty, we should show you that Equestrian is open to all especies of all kinds and Princess Celestia will receive them with open arms." "Including the potentially dangerous species?" Crenshaw insisted. "Crenshaw, I believe you interrupted miss...." Clawblack glanced at Applejack. "Applejack." she presented herself. "Applejack when she was just explaining about the rest of the Equestrian delegation. That was rude on your part, if you don't mind me being honest." Clawblack smiled at Applejack. "Please, continue." Despite Crenshaw's muttering, Applejack coughed and resumed talking. "As I was saying, we also left Screwball and the children back in Fukkuteru's home." "Excuse me, children?" Bittercold inquired, staring questioningly at her. "Me and Discord's triplets, Your Highness." Twilight explained. "And my brother and Cadence's son." "You brought your young to a diplomatic mission?" Boreal Blizzard frowned. "Forgive me, but that's not very responsible on your part." "Majesty, they had a good reason to bring their young along." Fukkuteru spoke before another argument broke out. "Equestrian infants stay close to their mothers the first few months after birth, Lady Sparkle and Lady Cadenza couldn't leave their foals behind just like that." Clawblack pretended to be thinking, before speaking to Bittercold. "I think it would be better if we spoke with all delegates present, Majesty. That way we can avoid... misunderstandings." "What do you suggest?" Bittercold inquired. "The Ball of the Hunt is coming in a few days. Perhaps you could invite our guests to a social event so they can learn a bit about our customs." Fukkuteru quickly lifted his talon. "E-Excuse me, My Lord, but I don't think our visitors are ready for such an important event!" "I like the idea." Bittercold unfortunately agreed with Clawblack, before glancing at Twilight Sparkle. "Lady Sparkle, Do you have gala events in Equestria?" Twilight nodded. "The Grand Galloping Gala, Majesty." Surprisingly, Bittercold gave her a gesture which she could interpret as a smile. "Then you won't have any problem in attending the Ball of the Hunt." "No we won't, Majesty." Fukkuteru groaned and lifted his talon to his forehead. "They're doomed." "Bittercold..." Queen Astral Dusk lifted a talon to her husband's. "The delegates have just arrived. They're strangers in a foreign land, I don't think exposing them to such an elitist event will be good for them. They don't know of our customs, and you know how the High Bloods think of Unicorns, we could be exposing them to discrimination..." Thankfully, Bittercold seemed to considerate his wife's words, but Clawback spoke again. "My Queen, I assure you, surely our delegates are poised and have previous knowledge of out customs and traditions. I don't think Princess Celestia would be foolish enough to send a group of novices to negotiate with us, would she?" Crenshaw grunted and narrowed his eyes at Clawblack's insistence. He perfectly knew the Ball of the Hunt was one of the most important events in the Empire, all High Blood families would attend, the elite of the Krussian nobility, one mistake on the delegates' part and it could cost them not only the possibility of an agreement with Bittercold, but further deepen the discrimination and prejudice against Equestrians, already very strong in these times. Midnight simply continued to fidget with his meal, uninterested in the conversation. Applejack realized one member of their party was missing. "Uh, girls, where's Spike?" "He said he was going to see some friends." Discord shrugged. "Spike? Who is that?" Crenshaw glanced at them. "He's my assistant." Twilight explained. "He should have been back by now..." Just then, there was a tiny knock on the door. "Hello? Anyone there? Twilight?" The Royal Family's attention drew to the tiny voice behind the door, and Bittercold pulled the door open with his magic, allowing a small purple and green... lizard of some type to enter, and he rushed towards Twilight Sparkle. "Sorry, Twilight, I got lost and it took me a while to-" Spike stopped talking when Twilight coughed and motioned him to the larger dragons. Spike turned around and froze at the sight of the Temnokt who, judging by their regal clothing, apparently were the higher-ups here. "Oh, I'm sorry, Majesty, Y-Your Highness, I..." he fell to his knees and bowed. "Please don't execute me!" Twilight smacked her forehead with a hoof in dismay when Bittercold and Astral Dusk stared down at Spike curiously. Crenshaw and Clawblack were apparently not impressed, though. "What is that?" Spike stood up and introduced himself. "Oh, I'm Spike, Twilight's number one assistant!" Discord coughed and whispered into his ear. "I think he's talking about your species, Spike." "Oh, I'm a dragon." At that, suddenly Mythic Midnight burst out laughing. "A dragon! Don't make me laugh!" he snickered, pointing at Spike. "You don't even have wings, or claws, even a pony is taller than you! You look more like an overgrown lizard!" "MYTHIC MIDNIGHT!" Everyone in the room, the ponies in particular, jumped when King Bittercold roared at his son, his eyes glowing run and emanating purple mist as he glared at the younger Temnokt. The Queen took a hand to her chest in surprise, while Mythic Midnight flinched; the ponies had to cover their ears when Bittercold continued to roar at his son with an intimidating glare. "IS THAT HOW YOU TREAT A GUEST?! IS THAT HOW YOU TREAT A PEACE DELEGATION FROM ANOTHER COUNTRY?! GET OUT OF MY SIGHT BEFORE I PUNISH YOU LIKE I SHOULD!" His eyes went back to normal, but he still glared at his son. "To your room. Now." Mythic Midnight needed no more words. Leaving as he grumbled and left his seat, he stomped away with a lowered head. When Bittercold managed to calm down, he centered his attention back on his guests, and saw they were terrified; the white mare looked like she was about to faint, while the others were still in shock about what had just happened. A disapproving look from both his wife and mother told him all he needed to know. "My apologies." he sighed, looking slightly embarrassed, but most of all he seemed upset. "Sometimes I tend to lose my... head when my son behaves like that." Twilight managed to calm down and speak. "Don't worry, Your Majesty. But I believe it'll be best that we retire, we need to prepare for the Ball of the Hunt, and I think you need to tend some matters." Bittercold nodded. "I understand. Clawblack will escort you to the entrance." Clawblack smiled as he watched the visitors leave their seats,motioning towards the door. "If you'd be so kind to follow me."