Chapter 3: Infiltration
“As far as we have discovered spike, their lair is in the far eastern region of Dracolas. I can fly you there myself, but from where I can land, it’ll be a few hours walk to the entrance of their lair. I can’t risk having a watch dragon seeing you with me, that would blow your cover,” said Aardunkay, as the four of them walked down the long hallway of the castle, approaching the door, “Now you must remember Spike, to put on your most foulest face you can muster. These dragons are terribly violent, greedy, devious, and wicked. They will not take kindly to any acts of decency or friendliness that you might show to them. You must try to act your absolute nastiest!” he said with urgency in his tone.
The Royal guards opened the door to the courtyard, and they all stepped outside, Aardunkay still speaking with urgency, “Listen carefully Spike. We need you to gather any verbal information you can about what exactly they are planning, no small strikes or little raids. We need to know what their big plans are, what their goal is. Finding the green dragon that attacked Ponyville may help. You must lend a careful ear to anything important that you might hear.”
Twilight Sparkle spoke up, “And I will go with him…”
Aardunkay gasped, “Twilight please, you would surely be killed if you went with him! We cannot afford your loss!” he said with concern.
Twilight raised a hoof, “Don’t worry Silverlight, I will go there under an invisibility spell, so I can keep an eye on Spike, and help him gather information. Also, if things should get hairy, I can teleport him out of there and make a quick get-away.”
Princess Celestia nodded at her, “Good thinking Twilight Sparkle. But above all else, I would ask that both of you be careful. If you think this is too difficult for you, or too dangerous, get out of there. I couldn’t bear the thought of losing either of you,” she said as she knelt down to nuzzle each of them.
Spike looked up fearlessly at Celestia, “Don’t worry your majesty; we won’t fail you, or Equestria!”
Twilight’s eyes lit up as she had a sudden though, “You two get ready, I’ll meet you back here in a few minutes, I need to make a quick stop at the Canterlot book store!” she said, before she ran off into the city.
Back in the great courtyard, the dragon Aardunkay reverted back to his normal size. And spike was preparing to jump atop of his back, when Twilight arrived with some things in a package.
“Be careful my little ponies, and good luck.” The princess bid farewell to them, as the great dragon took off from Canterlot, making his way east.
The three of them flew off into the eastern forests. Twilight Sparkle had been there once before, when she followed Spike as he was tracking the destination of the great dragon migration. In truth, they hadn’t gotten very deep into the Dracolas country, for other than the volcano, it was still heavily forested. It would take a full day’s flight, simply for Aardunkay to get to the edge of those forested lands, where Spike would recognize the mountain where he met the teenage dragons, and the forest where he rescued the phoenix egg. For two more days they would fly, past more wooded areas, and more lone mountains. The plants here were strange, and reminiscence of the everfree forest. As they flew on, Twilight noticed that the amount of plant-life seemed to get lower and lower. It was replaced with jagged rocks, and dusty badlands. Soon, there would hardly be any trees, and the ground would be simply covered with dead grass, and short, sprawling weeds.
Aardunkay had taken them to the edge of Dracolas, to a mountain range that divided it from the country further to the east of it. The sky above them was covered in a slight haze, blurring the blue sky above it, bringing a sense of sadness. But beyond, lay a jagged and rocky path into the mountains, with only the occasional patch of dirt, and weeds to soften their steps.
“I shall wait here for you to return young ones. I will expect a hasty retreat, but I will be lying low, and out of the skies,” he pointed over to a pile of boulders, “There is where I will be hiding, and do not forget it my little spies. And remember what I told you Carthanax!” finished Aardunkay. In a surprising show of affection, Spike reached up to pat the elder dragon’s snout. The silver dragon snorted, and brushed him away, “Quickly now younglings, do not tarry!”
Twilight followed spike as he made is way up the rocky mountain, “When we get there spike, I’m going to give you these,” she revealed to him from her case some basic mathematic and mechanics books, “I picked these up before we left, I figured maybe you could use it as an offering to get in closer.”
Spike took a quick glance at them, “But Twilight, isn’t that just giving them more information they could use against us?” he wondered.
Twilight shook her head, “I don’t think so spike. These are much more basic books than the ones they stole. Besides, I think if we can figure out what they’re planning, it’s worth the sacrifice.”
The two walked in relative silence along the way, with spike walking ahead of her, to make sure any of the bad dragons would spot him first, and not Twilight. As they made their way up the rugged path, a loud roaring was heard overhead, and a large, dark colored blur swooshed overhead them. They didn’t appear spotted, but Spike and Twilight knew they must be getting close.
“I’ll be close Spike… stay safe…” was all Twilight said, before she activated her invisibility spell, and a shroud of air came over her like a blanket, before it matched the surroundings behind it, rendering her completely undetectable.
Now Spike felt very much alone. He knew Twilight was behind him, but all around, he could see nothing but the earth colored, uninviting landscape. For a brief moment, he regretted volunteering himself for this job, but any sensible pony, or dragon would probably feel the same, if they were met with such a country. Spike took a deep breath, and continued to put one foot in front of the other, maybe his way closer and closer to the base of the volcano. Above him, more and more dragons began to fly overhead, and accompany their coming with ferocious roars. Spike stepped quickly and diligently as the path began to widen before him. He was closing fast to the spot he believed the large dragons where landing. Over the next ridge, he spotted a massive cave entrance that was outstretched from the mountain like the maw of a fearsome beast. Below, in a ravine that went under the mountain, many dragons where coming and going busily. Spike gulped, as he saw his destination. As he made his way down into the ravine, a large red dragon landed next to him, the ground quaking as he did. The great red dragon didn’t so much as pay him a glance, and walked right past him.
Dragons continued to walk past him, most without so much as noticing him, or if they did, they didn’t pay him much attention. At this moment, Spike became a bit concerned. Each of these dragons, no matter how big or small they were, were all terribly scared, and covered with dirt, and grime. This was quite in contrast to Spike’s perfectly clean purple hide. In an attempt to better blend in, he jumped behind a lone rock, and dove into the dirt, rubbing dirt and soil all over body, and especially into his face. The illusion was complete, now he not only looked like a much more rough-and-tumble dragon, but it gave the appearance that his scales were a slightly darker color than they really were.
“Good thinking,” Twilight whispered to him.
Spike drew closer to the mouth of the cave. A smaller dragon, although still considerably larger than himself, bumped into him. This made the other night-colored dragon turn to face him and hissed angrily. Spike’s inherent nature was to apologize, but he quickly caught himself. Instead he defiantly faced the big dragon, and let out a little roar. His practice had paid off, as is roar sounded much more draconic, perhaps something like an angry lizard more like, but still much more intimidating than his poor attempts when he was a baby. The older dragon snorted at him, and turned tail, apparently having more important things to do than teach an ornery hatchling a lesson. Spike grinned at his success, and he kept making his way forward.
Up ahead, spike saw a tall, adolescent blue dragon at the mouth of the cave. He was carefully looking at each dragon that entered personally. Spike thought that perhaps he could slip in with the adults unnoticed, but he would be proven wrong, “Hey! What do you think you’re doing whelp? This is a member’s only club, get outa here!” barked the young dragon in a hoarse and demeaning tone. The blue dragon grabbed spike by his tail and tossed him a few feet away from the entrance.
Spike grimaced at the adolescent, “Hey, I’m old enough to join you guys!” he said in protest.
This made the blue dragon chuckle, “Yeah right, we don’t need some hatchling slowing us down, now beat it!” he said sneering at the little dragon.
Spike thought quickly, he pulled out one of the books Twilight had given him, “Oh yeah? Well… how come I was able to steal these?”
The older dragon was taken aback by this for a moment, and he looked surprised, “How did YOU get those?” he asked curiously.
“Well uh, I stole them of course!” Spike said, trying to put some extra rasp into his voice, giving it an older and much more sinister sound.
“You stole books? Huh, maybe we could use someone like you after all…” the blue dragon thought for a moment, he pointed away from the cave, to a larger red dragon, “That’s Sergeant Blood Claw, go see him. He’ll decide if you’re good enough to let in or not.”
Spike wasted no time, and scurried away from the entrance, rather nervously walking up to the even larger dragon. This other dragon had sharp and devilish looking scales. What frightened him most was the occasional splatters of a red liquid on him, as well a red scar-marking over his eye. Now that spike approached Sergeant Blood Claw, he could tell that he was appropriately named, for the dried splatters along his body would prove to be blood, Spike could smell it. He would very much not like to have known where it came from as well, but around the encampment where Blood Claw sat, were bones, and bunches of fur that clung to the soil, and the bones. The truth of what happened here was beyond spikes wildest nightmares.
Most of the dragons, whom where evil like these, or good like Aardunkay, fed themselves on a steady diet of gems, and precious metals. They were not out to be overly good, or overly evil, they were simply content to eat, sleep, and be left alone. The dragons of the Silverlight Enclave also fed on a diet of gems; it was a natural thing for such a creature to eat. But deep inside dragons of the world, there was a fearsome predator, a creature that not only wanted to eat, but to kill. Dragons were susceptible to greed, sloth, and tyranny. They had a deep desire to dominate the smaller life forms they soared over. The dragons of the far eastern Dracolas had expressed their dominance over life by taking it from others. Long ago they had abandoned their old tastes for gems, and had instead taken a liking to eating meat. There were no smaller herbivores in the lands just below the mountains. They had all fled out of fear into the deep jungles further west. The great dragons had since drove them out, but would always hunt and torment them. Their life blood would sustain the terrible dragons, and give them power. But in their violence, it would bring them further and further into madness; drive them ever into a more primal, bestial nature.
The red dragon, Blood Claw turned to face the little hatchling that was before him, “Why do you bother me hatchling?!” he cried out angrily to spike, leaning his head down to peer ominously at him with his yellow eyes.
Spike trembled for a moment, and fought to regain his composure, “I um, I want to join… the cause! You see I stole these books, uh, Sergeant!” he said, shaking, and holding up one of the books to Blood Claw.
The Sergeant reached a claw down and snatched up the book, looking over it quickly, he peered back down suspiciously a spike, “And just how did you acquire this, little snatcher?”
Spike was already thinking of a story ever since Twilight told him about the books, “Well ah, you see… I snuck into a pony town, and convinced them I was good. And right when I gained their trust, I swiped these books from them!” said Spike, trying to throw in an evil little cackle at the end.
Blood Claw grinned at this, “You? You infiltrated the pony lands, and swindled them? How wonderfully devious of you! I must say, I don’t come across many hatchlings that are as delightfully wicked as yourself,” he scratched his chin some as he thought, “We don’t usually let in whelps, but, I think you’ve more than proved your loyalty. I’ll take those, Snatcher, there’s a moot going on in the cave, go ahead and join them,” he said as he plucked the books from spikes claws. As he was about to turn away he remembered something, “Oh right, here…” he dabbed his claw-tip into a cauldron, and traced it over Spike’s eye, giving him the same blood-red eye mark that the other dragons possessed.
Spike chuckled manically, “Heh, thanks boss, can’t wait to have another chance to mess with those goody-four-hoof ponies!” he said rubbing his claws together sinisterly.
“Oh you’ll get your chance Snatcher, just get on in,” said Blood Claw, before he flew off with the books.
Spike hobbled along now back to the mouth of the cave. The blue guard dragon that had stopped him before now simply gave him a nod, before letting him pass. The further along Spike went down into the large entry way, the darker it became. More blood dotted the walls and floor of the cave, to his relief, Spike wouldn’t come across the creatures that it belonged too. Spike followed along with the marching adult dragons, down a straight path into the mountain. There were several other smaller, diverging paths, but they looked fairly unoccupied, and they looked much more dark and lonesome. Up ahead, Spike could finally see evidence of light. There was an orange lit, large room that the dragons were gathering into. They all perched themselves around a circle, of which in the center, there was a circle of fire, and an enormous, mirror-like crystal. Spike looked around curiously, the room was lit brightly by the dancing flames, and the dragons were all roaring and grunting at each other noisily.
Twilight Sparkle leaned close to Spikes ear, “Wait here… I’ll be right back…” was all she said. Spike gave an inconspicuous nod, to acknowledge her.
A large, ghastly looking dark purple dragon walked into the center, by the fires, and the crystal. He raised his claws high above his head, and the other dragons around him began to grow quiet, and turn their attention to him, “All hail the forebear!” he yelled out, his words echoing throughout the cave. All of the dragons repeated him, Spike as well. The purple dragon walked slowly around the crystal, looking into the eyes of every dragon in the room, “Fifteen thousand years ago, our great forebear fell to pony-kind, through trickery!” he hissed, the room filled with shallow hissing and rumbles of anger, “Fifteen thousand years ago, the strongest race of the land was banished out of fear. For they feared what they knew to be true, that we are stronger than they, and the rightful owners of the world! Our great forefather promised these lands to us, his children, that we might take them, and paint them with the color of his breath, that we might fill it with fire! My brothers, our time is finally at hand…” he said ominously.
The dragons began to roar and cheer for him, raising their claws and wings in approval, “Soon, our father, our great leader will rise again, and will lead us into a new age of dragon rule! His fire will purify the lands, and make way for the reign of dragon-kind! My brothers, loyal followers of the true nature of the forebear… as I speak, we have discovered the site of our great fathers return. As I speak, his return is imminent!” he raised his claws up, speaking with such great enthusiasm, bringing the room in an uproar. He beckoned them to calm down. The mirror crystal began to glow, and the purple dragon bowed before it, the other dragons in the room following in his lead.
“Sons of the forebear, the hour of our destiny is upon us. Go now to your commanders! Revel in your true draconic natures! Eat the flesh of the lesser creatures, hunt, kill, and dominate all those who are not worthy!” echoed a mystical, and terrifying voice from the crystal. All of the dragons roared out in unison, celebrating their wicked natures.
The invisible pony crept around the halls of one of the narrower corridors. It was also the corridor in which the walls were the most blood soaked. She could hear voices coming down the hall, and she could make out the faint glow of another mirror crystal. The smell was overwhelming to her, making her want to turn away, and run as far as she could. The voices grew louder the closer she crept. There were strange symbols, all of them in blood along the lines of the walls; she had a feeling, a very bad one, that these dragons were far more important than the one’s in the great assembly area.
Over the noise of the other roaring dragons, she finally was able to make out some of the words, “It’s still working, after all these years it’s still on?” asked one voice.
“Yes, but it still needs to be activated,” said a different voice, it sounded more artificial, and echoing, perhaps like it was coming from a magical source.
“Can we do that, can we activate it?” asked the first voice.
“Perhaps, but I believe the activation console was damaged, it will need to be rebuilt. But if we can do that, we can activate the device…” said the second voice.
“Great destroyer… and then he’ll be able to come back? We are so close now… how much longer?” asked the first voice in an excited tone.
“Not long now… The protection of the device is of the utmost importance. Send everyone here,” said the second voice, before a loud buzz was heard, and then no more voices were heard.
With haste, Twilight Sparkle made her way back into the great room, and found Spike, trying not to look terrified among the roaring and growling adult dragons.
“Spike… we need to leave now…” just as he heard her speak to him, the dragons began to storm out of the room, some of them flying, but most of them just bulldozing their way out of the rocky hallway. With Spike out of the eye level of all of the bustling dragons, Twilight set her hooves on his shoulders, and in a dim flash of light, they both disappeared out of the horrid lair of the beast.
Both Twilight and Spike now appeared, very visible, at the end of the trail that led to the dark dragon’s lair. After taking a moment to gather their bearings from the dizzying spell, they both spotted the boulder of which Aardunkay had spoken of, and made off towards it.
For the three day flight neither of them spoke. They were far too busy with the images that they had seen ringing in their minds. Aardunkay knew the reason for their silence, and he did not press them. Aardunkay had, since he was just a young dragon himself; witness the atrocities that the dark dragons could commit. He also knew that whatever it is Twilight and Spike had seen, their information was of the greatest importance. And so he flew as swiftly as he was able back to Equestria, and to Princess Celestia.
They all arrived two days later, in the night, on the great porch in Celestia’s castle. She was waiting for them, but as they rushed to spill all the information they had to her, the princess raised a hoof. She beckoned them into her quarters, and let them rest the night on her couch. She allowed Aardunkay too, to rest his weary wings in her castle.
They awoke rested the next morning, “Now then, my dear subjects, it is with great relief that I see you have both made it back safely,” she said sighing. Her friendly smile disappeared, “What it is you have learned?”
Spike stepped forward nervously. He didn’t particularly want to remember that place, but he would do so as his duty, “Well… your majesty, they talked about trying to take over Equestria. That had mentioned that ‘their time of reckoning was at hand’. It was a horrible place princess…” Spike shook his eyes as he remembered bloodied cavern, “It’s alright Spike, you won’t ever have to go back there again,” she put her hoof on him for comfort, “Please tell me, did you learn anything else?”
Twilight Sparkle stepped forward, “While spike was in the main assembly of dragons, I went off into a side corridor. I didn’t see who was talking, but I heard some dragons saying something about a ‘device’. They mentioned something about it bringing someone back.”
Spike looked up to her, “I bet it was this ‘forebear’ they kept talking about. They said he was the fore-father of all dragons and that he would be returning soon to lead them into taking over Equestria…” said spike with a look of fear in his eye.
The look of fear soon came to the princess as well, and to Aardunkay, “Numinex…” she uttered under her breath. Princess Celestia looked down with anguish, as Twilight and Spike looked to her.
“Your majesty, do you know who they were talking about?” Twilight asked.
Celestia took a deep breath, she had hopped this moment would never come, but now the worst nightmare her ponies could ever face was a threat to them all. If anything, her beloved student of all ponies deserved to know the truth.
“A very long time ago, during the first years of the founding of Equestria, the spirit of the earth resided here, in this very mountain. He took the form of an earth dragon, and was very dear to me. In the early years of Equestria, when Discord first shed his chaos onto our lands, he destroyed the earth dragon, and used his bones to build a construct for a horrible purpose. This construct was to be used as a vessel,” she looked down with sadness, and with a hint of fear, “This vessel took the form of a monster, a terrible black dragon. And inside of this body would reside the spirit of death, the element of destruction, Numinex,” the princess looked out into the morning sky as she recalled the form of the abominable dragon, “The black dragon Numinex claimed dominion over Equestria, and threatened to destroy the world. But his reign was short lived. You see, because Numinex was bound to a mortal body, he had limits, and his power was bound. Numinex was destroyed by one of the greatest heroes of the time, Starswirl the Bearded. But when Numinex died, his life force was expelled from him violently, and would become all the dragons of the world. This is why dragons have an inborn nature for wickedness, even though it is not their fault. Although they are each of them, their own individuals, different from their father, he still sometimes tries to influence them, and push them to do evil,” with a smile she turned to look at Spike, and Aardunkay, “But as I’m sure you can see, a dragon is perfectly capable of rejection his evil whispers, and leading a life of good.”
“And It appears that these wicked dragons, whom have decided to follow in Numinex’s footsteps, are now trying to bring him back…” said Aardunkay direly.
“But… but Starswirl the Bearded defeated him once, and that was before we had you and Princess Luna, we defeated him once, can’t you stop him if he comes back again?” asked Twilight Sparkle.
Princess Celestia sighed heavily, “No Twilight. When he came to the world the first time, he was only in a shell, a vessel for himself. If he comes back the way the wicked dragons intend to, his spirit will be in its purest form,” she looked to her pupil with dread, “As Luna and I are also bound to mortal vessels, we would not be able to stop him.”
Twilight Sparkle was at a loss for words. Princess Celestia was the most powerful, the most magical pony she had ever known in all her life. What manner of being could be more powerful than she? And what did she mean by ‘mortal vessels’? This was all news to Twilight, and it was difficult to sort through in her mind. Then a sudden thought came to her, “Princess Celestia, you once said that the elements of harmony are the most powerful magic known to pony-kind. What about them? Could we use the elements of harmony to stop him?” she asked desperately.
Celestia sighed again. For the first time in her long life, the goddess of the sun did not have answers. Her all-knowing eyes could not see beyond the sunset, and see what lied ahead in the future of her subjects, “I do not know Twilight Sparkle…” she said with worry in her voice. Her head arose again, making the sun outside too, rise higher in the sky, “But that is why we must stop him from returning! We must stop them from activating the device!” said the sun princess.
To be continued with, Chapter 4: The Device