Dragons.
Great, majestic beasts of the sky.
The most powerful beings of Equus.
Why then do we cower in caves, hoarding our gold?
My name is Vulcan, and I am a dragon.
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I was hatched in the dead of winter, only surviving because my mother spent her last days breathing fire over me, like the rays of the warm Sun. I was lucky enough to fly at age twenty, when they throw all the whelps of a cliff, to weed out the weak ones. If you can fly on that day, then an adult dragon will claim you. Usually your mother or father, but my mother died and my father too, so I'm stuck with my older brother. He's pretty stupid, but a dragon doesn't have to be smart to survive. He does most of the hunting, while I go with the other young drakes to be trained by the Elders.
You see, every dragon is expected to train for war. You're there since age twenty, and serve to age four hundred. The military doesn't actually go to war much, because no species would be stupid enough to fight dragons, right? We control the other dragons. After a dragon retires from the military, he'll sleep a couple decade away. When they wake up, they're angry. They don't have the military power they used to, so they get real fired up. We, the youngest drakes, try to keep them from destroying too much.
There's also the griffons, the only species that could ever really slay a dragon, without getting lucky. They've been stealing our gold for awhile now, trying to rebuild that little village of theirs into a city. Again, us drakes have to stop them.
Now the older military dragons, they just laze around. Occasionally one will fly off, raid a town, and return with a heap of gold. That's all they do, hoard. Then they retire, keep on hoarding. After about six hundred years, a dragon will fall asleep and only wake up every other century. The oldest ones, the Ancients, they've been asleep for thousands of years. When one wakes up, he'll spout some crazy mumbo jumbo, and probably kill a couple dragons. No one argues. Some think that the Ancients have some sorta wisdom, and that the death of whatever dragon was for the good of the species or something. They aren't too wrong, the Ancients are very intelligent, and some are wise. But most just don't care much for 'the good of the species'. That is, except for the Dragon Lord, the only Ancient whose always awake. My brother says he hasn't slept for seven centuries.
The ones slightly younger than the Ancients, less than two thousand years old, are the Elders. They 'advise' the Lord, but mostly they tax the hell out of everyone's hoard, keep it for themselves. They'll order some crazy thing for us drakes to do, say hunt down a hydra or something. It's mostly for their own amusement.
Not all dragons live under the domain of the Lord. Some despise the arbitrary rules and taxes, and go off to some other land. Once they leave the borders, the Dragon Lord is not responsible for their actions. These ones are truly ancient. They've lived so long, the laws and borders of lesser creatures mean nothing to them. They're also infinitely wise, though not necessarily good. The most evil of all dragons, Sin is his name, they say he has slept since time immemorial in the land of Equestria. The Royal Pony Sisters built the great dungeon of Tarturus around his body, fearing what might happen if he awoke. The Dragon Lord actually provided them with all materials to build this prison, because he's afraid of Sin too. Everyone is, you know.
Now that's the basics of it. The details are rather harsh and brutal. Like I said, the Elders toy with the drakes for their own amusement. They claim it's to 'weed out the weak'. They always try to kill every dragon in a generation except one or two. These one or two are officially inducted into dragon society.
One of the most common tasks designed to kill us is the slaying of a sea dragon. Sea dragons have no society; only individuals. We are tasked with killing one and/or stealing his hoard. We can only hold our breath for about an hour, so we work quick. Each generation only kills one, but usually half of them die trying to do this. It's certainly much more difficult than simply subduing the Ancients. The time I killed one, I saw this hydra get ripped in half. You see, we had lured the hydra to use as bait. Then we cut him, just a scratch, and the sea dragon came out, smelling the blood. The hydra didn't stand a chance. He was ripped right in half. We took the chance to sneak into his hoard, and I personally swam right into his mouth and ripped his heart out from the inside. You'd be surprised how easily a drake can slide down another dragon's throat.
Another, basic task is the raiding of a town. By this time, there are maybe 5 drakes left, and we each raid a separate town. I was assigned this little pony settlement, and I.......I couldn't do it. I was never a killer. Well, okay, I've killed quite a few. Ponies, griffons, and younger dragons, all dead at my claws. But...that was out of fear. Of the Elders, of course, not the ponies. Not a real excuse, maybe, but at this settlement, I was past the borders. I was......free. All the ponies were screaming, offering all they're gold, begging me to leave. And I just...flew off. I was no longer under the jurisdiction of the Dragon Lord, or the Elders.
"And that's how I'm here," said Vulcan.
A small purple unicorn, surrounded by five other ponies and a little drake (how did that guy get in with ponies?) stood in my hoard. Apparently, there was a pony village not far off, and I was causing some fear there.
"Um.." the purple one said, "So....do you mind......sleeping somewhere else? The smoke....it's kinda bad for ponies."
"Of course," said Vulcan, getting up and stretching.
"Hey," said the little drake.
"What?"
"Why...I mean, you'll just leave your hoard?"
Vulcan grinned, exposing his large teeth, rather scarily, "Don't need one. It's nice, sure, but........I'm just.....wandering."
"Just a wanderer."