There were countless dragons flying towards the caldera of all shapes and sizes. If there was one thing this world was good at, it was creating a diversity of physical appearances within species, and dragons were no exception to this. One could argue that there were more body types and colorations of dragons than there were in ponykind.
However, of all the types of dragons flying to that famous volcano in the badlands, only one had wings of smoke. He, a purple dragon the size of a typical late-adolescent, was flying high and fast above the rest of the incoming drakes and dames. Having spent so long animating his own body through sheer force-of-will (with a helping of magic on the side), the addition of a working cardiovascular system had given him quite the boost in speed and strength.
Soon enough, the blazing caldera, smoking profusely from both dragons and ash, comes into sight. As he approached, a fun little idea occurred to Thorn. Deciding to act on it, he ascends higher instead of gliding down like the rest of the dragons.
The moment he was directly over the caldera, he pulled his wings in tight and semi-stiff, but not fully closed. In that position, they offered no lift, but prevented him from careening out of control as he entered an extremely steep dive.
Down, down, down he fell, faster, faster, and faster still. The wind whipped past his body. The ground shot up to meet him. Closer and closer it came, but still, Thorn did not spread his wings.
And then, at the last possible instant, he snapped his wings open for a full stop. Most dragons would have ripped their flight membranes and dislocated their wing performing such a move; luckily for Thorn, the smokey membrane of his wings was made of tougher stuff, so he merely dislocated his wings.
And even then, he still plowed into the ground with impressive force. It was enough to kick up a cloud of dust and rock. But, as it cleared, Thorn couldn't be more proud of himself.
He'd stuck the landing.
His wings shuddered and then popped back into place as the magic in his body went to work fixing him. After all, Shining Armor wasn't the only one Thorn's mom had improved.
Thorn looked at a nearby group of adolescent dragons and flashed a winning smile. "How'd I look?"
The other dragons just looked at him, slack jawed. One of them shouted, "Dude! That was fucked up! Alright!"
"Thanks," Thorn replied.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't Thorn," a large, pink dame said as she lumbered over. "I'd recognize those wings anywhere."
Thorn turned to get a good look at her. The dame had pink scales and pink hair, and blue eyes, horns, and belly scales. However, Thorn saw her soul as her most prominent feature, and recognized her instantly. "Mina? Looking good, I see!"
"Haha! It's good to see you, too," she said as she shrunk down to a more manageable size. "Hey, about that message you left me with, I think I figured it out."
"Oh? Do tell..."
"'Dead dragons do tell tales.' You're an undead," she stated.
"Ding! One point for the little lady," Thorn said with a smile. "But can she go two for two? What kind of undead?"
"A lich," Mina replied. "Or a wight. I'm not sure which."
"Meh, I'll take it," Thorn replied. "Lich was correct, though I do have similarities to a wight."
"Ok. Hey, just to be clear, you're not going to suddenly eat my flesh or steal my soul or something, right? 'Cause I'm kinda attached to them."
Thorn waved a razor-sharp claw dismissively. "Nah, I already ate before I got here."
"So what brings you - what?" Mina was interrupted by Thorn. For reasons unknown to her, the lich had spontaneously started glowing orange. "What was that?"
"Mom winning."
When Thorn provided no more information, Mina shrugged and let it pass. "As I was saying, what brings you here?"
Thorn shrugged. "I was curious about dragons, so I came to observe."
"Well, shall we observe together?" Mina asked.
"That sounds nice."
A beat of silence passed between the two of them before Mina asked, "What's the deal with that pendant?"
Thorn looked down at the gold, triangular medallion on his neck. "It belonged to a gargoyle named Scorpan at one point. I never met him myself, but I want to find him. By this time, it's more likely that I find his grave.
"I'm actually looking for a specific dragon who might know him. I don't know much about that dragon, just a vague description and a name," he said. His eyes scanned the countless dragons occupying the caldera, as well as those still flying in. "He's got the same shortened name as my brother, Spike. Should be about one and a half thousand years old, has a purple body, pink belly, and green spines. That's all..."
He was about to say that that was all he knew, but from the look on Mina's face, he knew that she recognized the description. "That's my great grandfather! I flew in with him!"
Mina grabbed his forearm and dragged him across the caldera. "Come on!" she yelled as they barreled forward, dodging around dragons, lava pools, and mounds of precious gems.
Soon enough, the pair found themselves facing a massive drake that fit the memories Sparkle had stolen from Tirek, albeit much bigger. "Great granddaddy! Hey!"
Lifting his head from his resting spot, the great dragon rumbled, "Ah, Mina, my darling. Are you enjoying yourself? I see you made a friend. Who might you be, young drake? I am Spike, just Spike."
"Thornecrovitar, sir, but Thorn for short," Thorn replied politely. "I have a question for you." He held up the amulet. "Does the name Scorpan ring a bell?"
Spike's eyes went wide and his body stiffened with shock. "Scorpan! You know Scorpan? You even have his amulet! Please, if you can tell me anything about my friend, please..."
"I don't know him, not personally. I don't even know if Scorpan is alive. I was raised by a powerful unicorn, who was attacked by Tirek. He had the amulet on him."
"Tirek did?" Spike asked. "How? He was in Tartarus, the last I heard."
"He escaped, and when he tried to attack my mom, she killed him instead and took his memories. When she started looking through them, she found out how important this amulet was to Tirek, simply for having belonged to Scorpan. It turns out that Scorpan gave it to Tirek just before he betrayed him to aid the ponies that were suffering under Tirek's rule. Tirek didn't know what happened to him after that."
For a long time, the elder dragon sat silently in thought. "I suppose a thank you is in order. I see now, it was Scorpan who saved us back then, and your mother who saved us now. I know that I am in no position to ask this of you, what with I being in your debt, but would you do me a favor? I would gladly part with much of my hoard for this."
Thorn's eyes, like most dragons' when given a chance to earn a small mountain of treasure, lit up with excitement. In Thorn's case specifically, it was a bit more literal as his eyes actually glowed with a sickly green. "Sure, name it."
"Would you find Scorpan, and tell him that I am looking for him? And if you can only find his grave, would you tell him to wait for me in the great beyond?"
"Consider it done," Thorn agreed.
The elder dragon smiled and then lowered his head. "The sun feels so nice on my scales, and my chest feels so light. I wonder if the Nightbringer will grace me with pleasant dreams?" He closed his eyes and murmured, "Perhaps..."
Mina grabbed Thorn's arm and dragged him off again, citing that they should let the old drake sleep. However, once they were far enough away, Mina's inner fan girl exploded forth. “This is so cool! You’re probably going to go on some grand quest all over the world, fighting monsters and baddies until you find Scorpan! It’s so exciting! Just like a comic book!”
Thorn chuckled. “Yeah, I bet you’re right about being an adventure. I just hope I don’t get sucked into anything else... and by that, I mean literally sucked into something.” Mina looked confused, so Thorn explained. “I found an enchanted Power Ponies comic book once; my mom, her student, and I all got sucked inside and turned into some of the characters.”
“Really? No way! Who were you?”
“I was... Humdrum,” Thorn replied, disappointed.
“Oh... That probably sucked,” Mina replied. “But what about the other two?”
“Cobalt was Filly-Second, though still a stallion, and my mom got to be the Mane-iac.”
“So cool! I’d do anything to find one of those comic books!” Mina squealed.
“Why would you want anything as namby-pamby as a comic book?” a new voice interrupted. The red and orange adolescent dragon swaggered over to the two of them and looked down at the currently small Mina. “Everydragon knows that comics are made by pathetic little ponies. Are you really going to waste your time on that junk?”
“Garble, I don’t care if we’re second cousins,” Mina growled. “You insult my comics again, and I’ll crush you.”
Garble, for some reason, found that extremely funny and burst out laughing. Mina seethed, while Thorn lept to her defense. “She’s not joking. She really will squish you.”
“Oh yeah?” Garble asked. “The two of you together probably weigh less than me. How are you possibly going to squish me?”
“Like this,” both Thorn and Mina answered, each growing to a massive size. Despite the fact that their bodies now awkwardly pressed against one another, the pair still managed to look quite fierce.
Garble squeaked, unable to form any real words. As the two giant dragons loomed over him, he quickly scrambled away. Thorn shouted, “Oh, no you don't!” From the lich’s body, a black blur shot out and struck Garble, vanishing into his skin without pushing him. In the short instant that it was visible, Mina recognized it as the same thing Thorn had used to teach her how to grow and shrink at will.
When it struck, Garble froze. It wasn’t by choice.
“You really should apologize to her,” Thorn said. “And me too, but I’m not expecting any miracles.”
“W-what did you do to me?” Garble asked. The muscles below his neck still refused to answer to his brain.
“I made you a puppet,” Thorn replied. “Apologize, or dance. Your choice.”
“I’m not takin’ it back. Comics are stupid, and the ponies that make them are even stupider.”
Thorn commanded the Specter to spin him around and force him into a bow. “Wrong choice,” the lich replied.
A claw gripped Thorn’s arm. He looked over at Mina, who had a strange look in her eye. “It’s not worth it,” the dame said. “Let him go.”
Thorn looked at her, then at the forcefully genuflecting dragon, and then back at her blue eyes. He sighed, releasing his control over Garble. The red dragon quickly turned tail and ran away. “Why’d you stop me? I had him; I could have made him apologize.”
“Because he’s not worth it. Garble’s just a stupid bully; there’s no point in hurting him. Even I was just bluffing when I said I would squish him,” the pink dragoness replied. She started shrinking again, returning to her normal size.
“Aww... I was looking forward to squishing him,” Thorn replied as he too began to shrink. “It would have been funny to see his blood spurt everywhere. I wonder what he tastes like.”
Mina took a step back, perhaps realizing for the first time what it meant for Thorn to be a lich. Fear welled up inside her. “You really are bloodthirsty in there, aren’t you?”
“Extremely,” Thorn replied proudly. “I’m a monster, Mina; I always have been, and I always will be. Everyday's a struggle not to kill everything in sight, to devour everyone. I’m alwayS sO HuNgRy.” He blinked, and then shrugged. “Meh, but that’s unlife. Want to go swim in the lava?”
"You're insane," Mina realized.
"Never said I wasn't," Thorn replied.
"No funny business, alright? I'm not afraid to slay a monster," she declared.
Thorn laughed, finding Mina's statement funny in a condescending way. But, if only for her sake, he promised. "Cross my heart, the end is nigh, stick a spear point in my eye."
"Morbid, but I'll hold you to your word," Mina said.
"Of course you-AAGH!"
Thorn suddenly doubled over in pain. All across his face and body, his skin suddenly cracked. Bright, pale blue light erupted from the cracks.
"RRRRAAAGGGHHH!!!"
Unbeknownst to Thorn, nearly eight hundred miles away, Cobalt collapsed at that exact moment. His body violently convulsed and his voice screamed, but it was not his mind that was pulling the strings. His target was getting away, and all Cobalt could think about was that he was now trapped in a body that seemed determined to beat itself to death, and he had no idea why.
And, unbeknownst to both males, their common companion's sister had also collapsed in her own timeline at the exact same instant. Twilight, like Thorn, screamed in pain as her body cracked, with light pouring out of each fissure.
And then, just as suddenly as it had come, it was over. Thorn stood from where he had fallen, his body swiftly pulling itself together. Cobalt stood from his spot on the sidewalk, hissing as his raw, bleeding skin stung. And Twilight stood from her spot on the picnic blanket, blood dripping from her cracks, as her friends and son rushed to help her, wedding invitation forgotten.
And, within five seconds of standing and assessing the situation, all three of them came to the exact same conclusion: Something had happened to Sparkle.
Thorn, still damaged, turned around and launched himself into the air with his powerful wings, leaving behind a confused and scared dame without a goodbye. Nothing else mattered to him except for finding his mom...
... Or what was left of her.