//------------------------------//
// A Dragon's Heart 
// Story: Carry the Fire 
// by Slywolf930 
//------------------------------//

A Dragon’s Heart

The wind blew softly across the scales of the purple dragon. He had beads of sweat on his forehead, some rolling down the side of his face as he lay down on the grassy ground. His breathing was calming down, but he was still exhausted from the day’s walk. The sun would fall any minute now, and he had no place to take shelter in, nor a fire to last the night.

“Fire?” Spike asked himself as he stared at the sky above.

The thought of Twilight came back to his mind. He remembered her calm and inspiring words. He would no doubt continue to carry this fire, and no amount of obstacles will stop him. There was nothing he couldn’t accomplish.

Spike picked himself off the floor and climbed a nearby tree. He broke down a handful of branches and dropped them to the ground. Using his own magical fire, he caught the sticks on fire and got a small flame going. Spike climbed back up the tree just as the sun dropped off of the horizon, being replaced by the moon.

The cloudless sky gave enough light for Spike to make his way down off the tree. As he reached the bottom, his claws scraped along the bark instead of clutching it, and he landed next to the fire. Spike rubbed his head where he had hit it against the roots of the tree. In the distance he could hear a spine chilling howl that couldn’t have been more than a hundred meters away.

“Oh no,” Spike said in a soft voice.

Across the prairie on his right, silhouetted by the moonlight were the outlines of a pack of timberwolves. Spike scrambled to get off the ground and try to climb the tree again. His claws were still stinging from the fall down, but he managed to get onto a lower branch. He waited silently as he tried to think of what to do next.

Spike could hear the creaking snaps of the timberwolves as they growled closer towards the fire. They did not approach the fire, but Spike could make out shapes circling it and his tree. It felt like hours to Spike before he could no longer hear the growling, but even then he saw motion at the edge of the fire.

There was a gust of wind that threatened to throw Spike from the branch. He dug his claws deep into the wood, managing to not lose his balance. When the wind stopped there was a strangling darkness that overtook the fire, blackening his campsite and shadowing his predators. The moonlight did not shine bright enough, and Spike squeezed his eyes into slits to see any form of movement.

There was a crash beneath Spike that rocked the tree. Spike looked down in horror to see shapes bounding up to the tree and colliding with it. The tree shook even more violently as it hung to the ground as Spike’s life hung from it’s branch.

“Shoo! Get out of here!” Spike cried, trying to deter the wolves.

Spike’s words were met with low growls and a skin piercing howl, who’s proximity made Spike cover his ears. The Timberwolves struck again, this time successfully dislodging Spike from his perch. His claws were not ready, and he collided with the tree on his fall down, but managing to fall onto his feet as the Timberwolves engaged.

Spike took off running, but he could feel their presence behind him and to the side of him as he ran towards the hill ahead of him. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a Timberwolf running alongside him, creeping ever so close to his neck.

Spike jumped to the side to avoid the bite directed at his neck, and rolled to the side as Timberwolves tried to pounce on him. There were too many, and there were still more than enough in position to overpower him. Spike’s eyes held back fear as the group circled him, not leaving any room for error as their prey realized the end.

“Get down!” Spike heard a voice call nearby.

From utter fear, Spike stayed standing as a spray of fire engulfed the creatures around him, as well as himself. The fear he felt turned to pain as the fires were hot to his scales and singed the area around his eyes. After a few moments of pain, Spike managed to open them to see the fallen, enflamed timberwolves lighting up the prairie around him.

Among the flames came a figure that walked through the fire as a towering demon, his eyes were red and he had horns protruding from his head. He fell from his two legged standing position and landed on four legs, about two feet taller than Spike. Spike could see that this was no normal two legged creature. He had scales and breathed fire. A dragon.

“Next time, you should duck,” The dragon said, letting out a puff of smoke from his nostrils as he inspected his work.

“Thanks,” Spike said, making sure he wasn’t horribly mangled from the flames.

There was a gust of wind that cooled Spike’s body and allowed him to take a deep breath. The fires started to go out slowly, but a few had stretched high into the sky before settling into a small fire. The other dragon sat down in front of Spike and looked over his face with the light from one of the fires lighting his view.

“Say, how come I haven’t seen you before? You new to these parts?” The dragon asked.

Before Spike could answer, he heard a flutter of wings hit the ground and a soft voice answer.

“He’s been walking for days, I’m not sure he even knows where he’s going,” A female voice said, her face hidden in the darkness.

“You’ve been following him?” The dragon asked.

“I wanted to see a good show,” The female said. Her voice was like snow, soft yet cold.

“Ha, you’re lucky kid. If I didn’t get here sooner you woulda been food for those timberwolves and entertainment for Cilia here,” The dragon said, hitting Spike in the side and laughing heartily.

It was a rumbling laughter and Spike saw bits of smoke leave his nose. Cilia was quiet while he laughed, but Spike managed to give an awkward laugh that increased in awkwardness as Cilia continued to be silent.

“C’mon Strife, let’s go,” Cilia said, cutting off his laughter as the fires died down.

The darkness was a cold grip on Spike that held him back. He wanted to walk away from these two, especially Cilia, but the darkness was too frightening to stay in. Spike could no longer see the dragon, but he saw movement and assumed the worst.

“Umm, are we the only dragons around here?” Spike asked, the fear etching its way into his voice.

“We?” Spike heard the dragon say.

“He’s a dragon, if you didn’t notice,” Cilia said.

Spike was alarmed when a ball of swirling purple and blue flames reached up to his face. Spike looked up to see Cilia’s face, also a dark blue, staring at his own. She was a dragon as well, made obvious by the blue flames slowly exhaled into her claws and the horns adorning her head in rows.

“Really? I thought he was some big lizard or something... he must be one of them hatchlings that got out. Should we take him back to his parents?” The first dragon said.

“Do what you want with him, I’m going to bed,” Cilia said, stopping her magic flames and enclosing them in darkness again.

Spike heard her flap her wings, taking off into the sky and being silhouetted by the moonlight as she headed for the forests nearby. Spike let go of the air he didn’t know he was holding. Another gust of wind blew against Spike’s face. The other dragon seemed to be thinking, but after a few more moments he spoke.

“I’ll take you to the others, but I can’t carry you. We’ll have to walk,” The dragon said.

“Okay,” Spike replied, glad that he’ll have company for a small part of this journey.

After these few days of walking, he realized how alone he felt. The friends he left in Ponyville had not left his mind, but the journey itself was too important to give up on. Now, as the two dragons walked through the forests at night, he felt like the world was a larger place. He might have left his family behind, but perhaps more friends, not newer friends, could be made on this journey.

The forest was filled with new and foreboding noises, all ready to inflict harm to the dragons. Spike, however, felt a sort of freedom as he walked into a blind journey. A warm sensation surrounded him as he walked even farther from the path that had brought him this far. The warmth was sensational, and he felt euphoric as he breathed to take in the moment.

But he couldn’t breathe.

Spike felt the warmth like a wildfire surround him as it overtook his vision, and he collapsed onto a tree. His vision and his hearing faded until the warmth faded as well. But in his heart he knew the journey would not end here. In his heart he knew, this was only the beginning.