//------------------------------// // Quartz // Story: Dragons of Hourglass // by Rammy //------------------------------// “We are being watched.” Harmony avoided looking about. No need to scare whatever it was off, yet. “By what?” “A dragon whelp.” Golden Heart popped a gem into his maw and chewed on it thoughtfully. “Hmm…” Harmony rubbed his chin, “Possibly a survivor of the massacre. I did tell Discord to not look for survivors.” “Smart…” He of Hourglass absentmindedly stuck a stick into the fire shifting some of the coals around and sending sparks into the air. “Did you see the scale colors?” “White and yellow… unlucky for the whelp. Any darker colors and I may not have noticed.” Harmony closed his eyes and cast a scrying spell. In the minds eye he flew upward from his body and above the campfire. He spun slowly around looking for white and yellow. Luckily white and white shows up well in the dark especially against the rusty red of the desert. The whelp was quite a distance away. Alicorns eyes were good in the dark but not in comparison to a dragon’s. The whelp has just outside of his normal visual range. Hmm downwind as well... This dragon is smart… too smart and the color… Harmony opened his eyes, releasing the spell. “I think I know who the dragon is. I’m sure he is a survivor and knowing his history I’m not too surprised.” “Then he might be able to tell us more on the attack?” “I doubt that… he doesn’t trust anyone,” Harmony sighed. And with me around even more so, “but I see no harm in trying. The name of the whelp is Quartz. I might as well fill you in on his story before we go confront him.” “His parents lived in a gem and prey poor area. Which require them to migrate around a lot. (For the life of me I do not know why they hatched the entire clutch so quickly.) Not only that the area is known as The Razorback Expanse.” “The Razorback Expanse! Even for a dragon to go there is to court death.” “I know…” (He of the Flight said the same thing…) “There was animosity between Quartz, the eldest, and his younger siblings. For reasons I’m not sure of his mother always payed more attention to Quartz. It went to the his head. He always found ways to put down his siblings (or at least from what He of the Flight was able to get out of the whelp). It all came to a head one day when his younger brother knocked him from the sky. By the time he was discovered missing it had been many hours. Given that he was a whelp I guess they figured he could catch up or if not take care of himself if he was still alive. Although most likely they abandon him as dead.“ “He managed to survive for three years before he finally left. He got lucky that he ran into some dragons heading to the Migration. It was at the migration that he found out the fate of his family. In their desperation they foolishly attacked a griffon eyrie on the north edge of the expanse. After a protracted battle both of the parents were killed.” “The griffons of course investigated why. It was clear that the dragons were a bit emancipated. His siblings had died of starvation and were found further up the mountain. The griffons managed to get word to me somehow. I sent a contact in to see why dragons would be in the Expanse. It was then that it was discovered why. The parents were dishonored. Quartz, as far as I know, does not know that part.” With the end of his story Harmony and Golden Heart fell into silence. Golden Heart mused about Quartz. A dragon with survival skills would be helpful the only question was if the whelp had the right attitude. Knowing the story it was understandable that he would be untrusting but that wasn’t a mark against him. The only way to really know for sure was to confront the dragon. Okay I think I know how to do this. Let’s hope it works otherwise we may never find him. Harmony could see that Golden Heart had stopped his own reflection at least. “Can you do teleportation?” “Yes.” Golden Heart looked at Harmony in confusion. What are you planning? “Okay, I’m going to set up an illusion spell and you teleport us downwind from the dragon. Be careful he is very smart and due to spending his early years in the Expanse he has some formidable fighting skills.” With a nod of readiness Golden Heart teleported them right behind the whelp. Golden Heart cringed a bit at looking at the whelp. He had scars all over him. Most of his spines were missing or in shreds. Marks that would be a badge of pride to an adult but to a whelp this was terrible. “Quartz.” Harmony called out. Harmony threw up a shield. Quartz fire poured over and around the shield. Harmony teleported out and behind Quartz. The whelp suddenly smelled the alicorn behind him and spun with his claws extended. Sparks flew as his claws scraped against metal. He was a bit shocked seeing that his claws were stopped by a sword. On instinct Quartz whipped his tail about to trip up the figure that surprised him. Harmony saw the movement and flipped up and over the dragon. He conjured another shield as flames shot up at him. His swung the blunt end of the sword into the back of the dragon. The whelp only stumbled forward for a microsecond before recovering. Quartz was livid whatever had surprised him soon learn why dragons were the apex of predators. With a glance into the distance he could tell it wasn’t that dragon and what appeared to be a pony. They were still by the fire. He needed to end this before the sound of the fight got the two’s attention. In a flash Harmony noticed the barely perceptible difference in how Quartz was moving. He’s moving into a four legged stance. This is going to make it harder. Time to get serious myself then. Harmony gave a smirk as he ended his illusion spell and readied a light spell that he learned from Luna. Stars beckon my call Let your light fall! He of Hourglass could feel the pressure from the spell. What is this? He looked up in awe. The stars were falling! He quickly closed his eyes at the light quickly overwhelm everything around them. Even with his eyes tightly shut the power of the light was almost too much. Quartz wasn’t so lucky he didn’t noticed the change until it was too late. The intense light not only blinded him but stunned him. For a moment his world was white then darkness once again filled his vision. “Quartz...” A voice called out to him. It was oddly familiar. He didn’t like the voice for some reason either. “Quartz…” The voice called out once again. The whelp blinked as his vision slowly came back. It was still night as he could see the moon out. A dark figure moved blocking some of the light. Quartz could feel his whole body ache but he suppress the urge to moan. No way was he going to show weakness. He rubbed his eyes a bit to clear the final fogginess. The whelp went wide eye for only second before angrily growling. “Outsider.” Quartz was beginning to see nothing but red. No way he was beaten by that pony. I’m beginning to really hate that word. He of Hourglass let out his sparks to hold down the now raging whelp. The whelp was clearly not a fan of He of Harmony and being beaten by him seemed to only anger him further. The whelp fought for a while trying to break through the spell with pure force. Quartz soon expended all of his rage and was panting hard from the exertion. “The same as always I see.” Harmony noded a thanks to He of Hourglass who ended his paralysis spell. Now that his rage was diminished he finally took the time to notice He of Hourglass. His snout crunched up at seeing him. To see a dragon without wings and odd multicolor girly sparks dancing around his body hanging out with the outsider disgusted him. This was no dragon it was an overgrown lizard. “If you are here for the Migration forget it nodragon wants you around.” “I’m already aware of the massacre and the death of He of the Flight.” “He was a weak dragon to be taken out so easily.” Harmony narrowed his eyes to slits in anger. “You dishonor the memory of He of the Flight. I knew him for many millennia and he was the strongest dragon I have ever knew.” Makes me wish to have known him. I could use that strength. He of Hourglass called out with his mind. Harmony was surprised that he would initiate a thought sharing spell. But on further thought figured it would better coordinate their ‘interrogation.’ You have, in spirit, inherited his strength. “And what do you know? You are no dragon, Outsider.” “He is more honorable than you whelp.” Enough, He of Hourglass, I have dealt with many dragons like him. They will never change… with one exception. Quartermaster… Exactly. This is what he could have become. “Enough.” Quartz angrily shouted out before crossing his arms. “What are you doing here in my land.” “We are here to get mithril ore.” Harmony decided to ignore the ‘my land’ part. As usual Quartz was just being his smug smartass self. He of Hourglass was not happy to hear the ‘my land’ part and unlike Harmony made his irritation known. “Your territory!? You are merely a whelp.” “So? My parents are dead! I am allowed to protect and feed myself! I don't see you claiming this area as your own!” “Yes, you are allowed to protect and feed yourself but as He of Hourglass correctly pointed out you are merely a whelp. You are not allowed by code to have a territory.” “And yet you do.” Quartz smirked. Maybe he could get the other dragon to help him take down the pony a bit. “Why can’t I, a real dragon, not have one but a non dragon outsider have the entire ‘country’ of Equestria?!?” “Ugh…” And now his know-it-all part. “You know what! I am not dealing with this anymore. He of Hourglass, let’s just get the ore now and leave.” “No dragon would allow an outsider to push them around!” Quartz yelled out to the retreating Keepers. “Hmph.” “Here we go a vein of mithril this shouldn’t take too long…” Harmony commented as he began to dig about a pile of rocks. Golden Heart sighed a bit he had hoped for another potential clanmate but no way would he allow Quartz into the clan. Somehow I think building the clan is going to be more difficult than I figured… As if He of Harmony could still hear his thoughts (which Golden Heart knew he couldn’t as he severed the mind link) began to address his musing. “Dragons like He of the Flight or even yourself are a rarity. Less than forty dragons are in my firemail network. I am on good terms with maybe a hundred more. That is out of tens upon tens of thousands of dragons scattered across the globe.” “He of the Flight had nearly five hundred in his network. And he was on good terms with countless more dragons. Like Discord mentioned, your task is not going to be as easy as before. My ability to help is hampered by my non dragon status. Most of my network is here on the western continent. Of the eastern continents I only have three contacts…” “I’m sure the Migration started out small as will our potential associates and allies. I supposed it was best that I was here and not on the other continents.” “Maybe…” Harmony stopped to examine another rock but after a second rejected it as threw it to the side. “Equestria and several griffin eyries are the two major powers at least in the north. The south is a lot less settled. A few trading posts and a couple of ports. The Southern Crystal City being the only major city in the south and its population is a lot smaller than its counterpart in the north: the Crystal Empire. This however pales to the continents to the east. Don’t be mistaken Equestria is powerful but it is weak in comparison to some of the nations to the east.” Having nothing else to say for the moment Harmony went back to quietly shifting rocks around. All the talking had slowed him down. The darkness of the night didn’t help either. Outside of dealing with Quartz it was kind of nice to spend some time with Golden Heart. “I have to ask.” Harmony lifted another rock to examine. “Why did you ask me what about what was wrong about dragons?” Golden Heart thought on that for a while. Harmony seemed content to allow him time to respond as he nodded in approval at the rock he had and place it in the chest. Golden Heart remembered when he once wrote about trying to figure out the strangeness of He of Harmony. He ended up asking He of Laughter about him. “Harmony has spent nearly half of his nearly ten thousand year life with the dragons. Do you know why? I don’t. I can only speculate that he believes that there is something the dragons are missing or that something the dragons have that the ponies are missing…” “No Keeper went as far as he did to help to races beside those in his charge. I suspect that he is the only nondragon to be a ‘friend’ to dragons since the dark days prior to the sealing of the ‘Chaos Bringer’ though I do believe it’s ‘Nameless One’ to your kind.” “I hate using the term but I needed an outsider someone not bond by instinct to the code. Someone that wouldn’t let the pride of being a dragon interfere with being objective...” Harmony stopped digging around for mithril. He may not have his honesty cutiemark back but it was clear that Golden Heart was leaving something out. He looked straight at the dragon. “No, it’s not just that…” “You are right brother it is also because we are Keepers of Harmony tasked to restore it to this world and with the ‘Nameless One’ unbound it will take cooperation like at its sealing to win.“ Harmony chuckled, whispering to himself as he closed the chest, satisfied with the amount of ore. “Wisdom...” He of Hourglass didn’t have anytime to respond. A ripple of a sensation went over both of them. “Dark magic.” Both growled.