Tales

by geopol

11

I read as much as I could about Pyra when this was all over. There was too much I didn't know. And I felt really ashamed about that.

For example, I didn't know there are two types of dragons in Pyra. I always thought there was just one. But there are two, and they live in different parts of Pyra – the Occident and the Orient. The Occident is the western part, and the Orient is the eastern part. The Occident is right next to Equestria. The Orient is on the other side of the Occident from Equestria.

Occidental dragons are the kind most ponies know: the long necks, the huge lower bodies, the big arms and legs. The ridge of vertical scales from their heads down to their tails, sometimes. And wings.

When we were on the Forever Plain, the two dragons in the back were like that. And they wore helmets a lot like the ones War and his team wore. Even had spikes on them. But their helmets were bigger. Like as big as a house.

I learned they're called "wardracs." They're the soldiers of Pyra. They're there if Mythos starts something. Know how a normal dragon – if there is such a thing – is about the size of, maybe, three, four houses in Ponyville? The wardracs are about the size of ten. And there were two of them right in front of us. Looking at us like we were lunch.

Well, it was about noon.

The other dragon – the one right behind Celestia – was different. He was about the size of a normal dragon – I mean, an Occidental dragon – but he was long and narrow, like a snake. His arms and legs were relatively short, and his arms were about where they'd be on a normal dragon.

OK … look … When I say, "a normal dragon," I mean an Occidental dragon. They're the only ones I'd seen before then. Like I said, the Occident is next to Equestria. As far as I knew, they were the "norm." So saying "normal" became a habit. But I learned that the dragon behind Celestia wouldn't be considered abnormal in Pyra. I didn't know that then.

And that was a lesson for me. Not just something I learned.

Anyway …

The dragon's legs were at the other end of his narrow body, so he looked like a snake on all fours. But he had something like a mane around his neck. And he had a sort of mane around his jaw. I learned it's called a "beard." And he also had these two, um, "feelers" on the front of his snout that swept back along the sides of his head. And then – like there wasn't enough different about him – he had something like antlers coming out of the top of his head.

And I learned that all that was considered normal for dragons from the Orient.

He did have a ridge of scales all the way to the end of his tail. But he didn't have wings, which was strange to me because I thought all dragons had wings. Well, like I said, all Occidental dragons. But Oriental dragons don't, which makes the next thing really weird.

They can fly without them. They just can. They leap up and draw in their arms and legs, then sway their bodies left and right to move. So they look like slowly swimming snakes when they're flying.

And they do fly. They just can.

Like I said, when all this was over, I read up on Pyra a lot.