A Dragon's Age

by BlazzingInferno


Long Jump

I never imagined the mountain being so big. I stood less than a thousand paces from the base of what looked like a pillar of stone holding up the sky itself. The column of smoke, the one that originally started me on this journey, came from a massive opening midway up the mountain. Black clouds of ash escaped the opening in small bursts every few minutes: the breath of a waking dragon, possibly one of the two dragons that brought me into the world.

If only I’d thought up some questions to ask. I hadn’t done much thinking since the previous night. Deep down, I knew Rainbow hadn’t meant to hurt my feelings, but it hurt all the same. I don’t whisper ‘I’m awesome’ in my sleep like she does. Her opinion on my current challenge wasn’t doing us any favors, either.

According to the map, the mountain was separated from Equestria by a small river. Swimming didn’t scare me, and neither did hiking across a dry river bed. The chasm in front of me wasn’t either of those, and it made my heart pound. Vertical cliff walls stood on either side of a bubbling bog of green ooze. The fumes coming from the pit burned my nose and eyes, and smelled like they’d do the same to my scales.

Rainbow stood a few hundred feet back, crouched down and ready to run. She burst forward, leaving a cloud of dust in her wake as she charged by me with her wings clamped to her sides. Her hooves thundered across the ground and then launched her into a jump off the edge of the cliff. She soared nearly halfway across the chasm before gravity started to take over. At that point she spread her wings and flew back to my side.

“I told you it’s too far to jump, Spike. If I can’t do it without my wings, there’s no way you can.”

I folded my arms. “I’m still not letting you carry me.”

“Oh, come on! Spike, this is dumb. You’re just going to turn around and go home?”

I looked at the mountain and took a deep breath. Traces of the bog’s burning stench filled my lungs. “Nope. I’m going for it.”

“What? You just saw me try the jump! You can’t even run as fast as me. You’re gonna land in that muck and—”

I glared at her. “Do you think I’m dumb, too?”

“Huh?”

“You think I’m a baby! Does that mean you think I don’t know what I’m doing?”

Rainbow folded her forelegs. “Well, you are a baby dragon, aren’t you?”

“Just stand back and watch.”

“Look, Spike. I know you’re not a baby baby, but you’re still way too little to do this! There’s no way—”

“I know what I’m doing. Just stand back and let me prove it.”

“But—”

I balled up my fists. “Trust me! Believe in me! Believe I can do this, for real!”

She glared at me. “What about when you’re neck-deep in that green muck? Can I help you then?”

I thought about the vials of potion Twilight packed for me, and how little I wanted to get teleported home empty-handed. “Fine. If I don’t make it and I actually land down there… you can fish me out. But if I make it across, you have to tell Scootaloo she’s your honorary little sister… and you have to ask out Thunderlane.”

She smiled, despite how nervous I could tell she was. Nothing warmed Rainbow up to a crazy idea like making it into a challenge. “And if I have to pull you out of the bog, you’re… I dunno. You’re doing all my laundry for a month, and I’m totally thinking of something embarrassing with Rarity.”

“Deal, but only if I actually land down there. You can’t come flying in until then, got it? You can’t get any closer to the bog. You can’t leave this spot at all.”

She sat down and nodded. “Got it. I won’t move a feather.”

I marched away from the edge so I could get a running start. Part of me wondered if I was making a mistake, not about the jump, but about how I sold it to Rainbow. I guess I technically hadn’t lied to her, I’d just left out a little bit of the truth. Maybe more than a little, actually.

I could feel her eyes on me as I stowed my hat, set my feet, started to run, and made what I’m sure was a pathetically short jump off the ledge. My gaze stayed fixed on the bog below me, specifically on the gas bubbling out of the green ooze. I’ll never forget that smell, a burning stench that I’d encountered only once before. I’d been alone then, too, and also off on a mission in search of other dragons. That whole thing was mostly a bust as far as learning about how to be a dragon goes, but it did teach me a thing or two about lighting a campfire without any firewood.

One puff of fire was all it took. The gas hanging over the bog, the heavy gas trapped by the high cliff walls, ignited with a whooshing blast of heat and light. I wasn’t falling anymore. I was rocketing through the air with the speed of a cannonball and just as little control. Clouds of scaldingly hot smoke obscured my view and warmed my belly. For a moment I was flying just like a pegasus, all except for the wings. What if I hadn’t timed my fire right? What if I didn’t get lifted high enough and smashed into the cliff? What if I didn’t travel forward at all and just dropped into the flaming bog?

The smoke vanished, but my panic didn’t. Clearing the bog, and most of the atmosphere, turned out not to be much of a problem. Nothing made me value wings more than looking down on so much of the world all at once. The mountain loomed in front of me, my own near-vertical runway.

I pointed my feet at the approaching mountainside and tried to brace myself somehow. Flapping my arms would’ve done just as much good. My feet landed first, followed by my hands, my head, my tail, and then my feet again. I tumbled over and over a few times before my tail got wedged between two rocks, bringing me to a painful, jolting halt.

The explosion’s roar finally left my ears, which clued me into the fact that I was still screaming. A cough and a few gasps later, I looked up from my current face-on-rock vantage point at what I’d done. The bog was a now a curtain of smoke separating me from Equestria and every pony in it, all except one. Rainbow Dash burst through the smoke and zoomed up to my side. “S-Spike?”

I nodded. “I… I did it. I really did it!”

A familiar grin spread over her face. “That was awesome! You planned that whole thing, didn’t you? What am I saying, of course you did! And all this time I was thinking you’d… you know what, forget all that. I had it right at the train station: you’ve got this, Spike. You’ve totally got this. You… crud. Do I really have to ask out Thunderlane?”

Rainbow kept talking while I picked myself up and brushed off my trusty pack. A couple of the smaller pockets in the front were torn, but at least the main compartment had stayed closed. Rarity’s craftsponyship was way past amazing. “You’re probably gonna make Thunderlane faint… Tell me all about it when I get back to Ponyville.”

Rainbow glanced back towards Equestria and shrugged. “Eh, I’ll stick around here just in case you need anything. Ponyville can wait.”

“What? Rainbow, you’re not supposed to be here at all. I don’t want you to get in trouble or get hurt because of me!”

She waved a hoof dismissively. “Spike, did you forget who you’re talking to? I’m way too fast for some monster to catch me. Besides, have you seen this place? I get that it’s bad for ponies to be here during the dragon migration, but there’s literally nopony else around for miles. I’ll just hang right here and wait for you to check out the cave, then we’ll fly right out of here.”

Another plume of dragon smoke darkened the sky overhead and quickened my heartbeat. “But—”

Two hooves grasped my shoulders. “Spike, look. I get that you want to do this all on your own, and there’s no doubt that you can, but that doesn’t mean I’m just gonna go back home while you’re stuck out here. You’re my friend, and friends don’t leave each other behind.”

I studied Rainbow’s earnest gaze. I don’t think I’d ever been on the receiving end of the full brunt of her loyalty before. In any other circumstance I would’ve just nodded my head and moved on, but not like this. Not when I could hear Celestia’s warning in my mind. “Okay… Okay. You’re a really good friend, Rainbow.”

She folded her forelegs and grinned. “I know.”

I opened the pack’s main pocket and stuck my hand into the rolled-up blanket, in search of the most fragile cargo of all. “Can you hold something for me?”

I tossed her one of Twilight’s potions. She swiped it out of the air and balanced it on her hoof. “Sure thing. Why’d you want me to hold this, any—”

Once again, one puff of fire was all it took. I don’t have wings or a horn, but I do have a special kind of magic all my own. Dragon fire isn’t like a lit match. I can use it to do all sorts of things, like send letters to Princess Celestia, or vaporize a glass vial while leaving the pony holding it untouched.

Rainbow Dash vanished in a blast of light, leaving me with the fleeting image of the purple liquid splashing over her forelegs.

“I’m sorry, Rainbow… I’m sorry I tricked you and everything but… but I can’t let you get hurt out here because of me.”