Silence rang through the yawning maw of the Heart. It slithered around the three of them, dragon, pony, and Princess. It dug cold talons into the chest of Celestia, a sudden niggling of doubt worming its way into her staunch heart.
“Well?” Celestia demanded, glaring across the short distance. “Tell me this greatest of secrets, wise one.”
Spike’s eyes narrowed at the acidic tone, but the dragoness brushed it aside. She drew in a long breath, holding it. Flames licked through her teeth as she exhaled with a hiss, turning to look past Celestia, out through the open doors. Her wings shifted slightly as the reptilian pony settled herself.
“They are here because they have grown weary of me,” Spike whispered. Twilight could barely hear the soft words over the gentle breeze that began to blow in through the doorway. The wind rustled the unicorn’s mane, and Twilight had to shake an errant strand from her eyes.
“I’ve sometimes wondered, did you ever hear stories of the king who ruled over the ponies before your mother?” Spike asked, turning her head to look at Celestia. The grave stare seemed to take the Princess aback, and her mouth snapped shut on a flippant retort. Returning the blank look with one of petulant compliance, Celestia shook her head.
“I didn’t think so. And you certainly haven’t heard of King Petrichor who came before him, or Queen Nightshade before him, nor of Princess Surf Strider before her.” Spike snorted a mirthless chuckle. “It has always fascinated me, watching you ponies forget yourselves. An alicorn ruler seems to live forever, and every one of them seemed so convinced that they were the first child born to one of those immaculate beings. Until you, Celestia, none of them realized, or cared, that their birth had nothing to do with the gifts I gave them. I cannot tell you how pleased I was when you sought me out, to turn a young pegasus into the Princess she is today. Luna has made a kind ruler.”
A soft smile hovered around the edges of Spike’s scaled mouth, and Twilight couldn’t help but feel her own lips tug upwards. The thought of Luna, of her Luna, being praised by someone so clearly experienced made her heart swell just a touch. She felt her private smile fall away when the dragoness exhaled another gusty sigh.
“I’ll spare you the long line of pony royalty. Suffice to say there were many, and all that they shared in common other than the long life I gifted to them, was the kindness and goodness that they initially showed. What they became after centuries, that was often beyond my control. But even your mother, Tia, was once a generous soul, full of life and joy.
“The short answer to why Rylias is moving now, is that they cannot afford to wait any longer. As I am excellent proof, a dragon will never die from simple age. And as the centuries pass, we simply grow in strength and size.” Spike shifted a wing to point in the general area where her titanic dragon form had landed long ago. “The only change between an elder dragon, like myself, and an adult, save the size, is that an elder cannot breed. After several thousand years, a dragoness no longer lays eggs.”
“So you sealed the magic of the dragon breeding grounds away,” Twilight ventured. The dragon’s head snapped around, and a single gimlet eye glared at the unicorn. Twilight felt herself shrink before that eye, like a mouse who senses a hawk. Or maybe a snake, with merciless reptilian eyes.
“Nothing so simple,” Spike snapped, before calming herself. “You have no idea what the world was like, so long ago. Creatures you couldn’t begin to imagine were building civilizations that would rival Helios and Selene at their grandest. Heliopaths galloped across the desert sands. The treants tended their groves far from most mortals. The zebra you know are a shadow of the mighty empire they once commanded, casting their dominion over the farthest reaches of the plains. By comparison, Equestria was a land barely a third the size of Selene. All of the different ponies gathered for their own protection, not from some noble ideal of friendship.
“And do you know who held sway over all the races?” Spike growled. “Do you know who attacked without warning, killed without mercy?”
“The dragons,” Celestia said. It wasn’t a question, her voice rang with surety as she spoke. Her purple eyes were still dark with repressed anger, but they seemed to have softened slightly from the flakes of frozen gemstone they had been.
“My people were the stuff of nightmares. A single warrior was the worth of an army on his own. Few dared face us in magical combat, and none dared open warfare. The empire of Rhyss’velt grew by the decade, annexing everything near it.” Spike’s voice dropped into a guttural snarl as she continued. “My brother and I lead them to countless victories. And when we slaughtered the Priest-King of the Zebra, only three nations stood between us and the domination of the world.”
Spike scoffed, though Twilight couldn’t tell if it was disgust with herself, or at the actions of her people.
“Next came the heliopaths,” Spike continued, nodding to Celestia. “They were creatures of fire, tied to the power of the sun in ways nobody fully understood. There were few of them, and they refused to ever leave their desert home. It was difficult to kill a creature of living fire. A thinking, breathing inferno. Fang despised them to the point where I sometimes wondered at his sanity. I tried to keep what few heliopaths were captured as comfortable as I could. Just because they were on the wrong side, didn’t mean that they needed to die for nothing.”
“Fang disagreed. He killed them, in creative ways, often.” Spike whispered, gazing once more out of the doorway. Peering through time into a memory, Twilight thought. It was a long moment before Spike began to speak once more, and Twilight could feel the anger trembling just beneath the surface.
“My brother and I had lived for centuries, millennia, maybe. Time is meaningless to us, we never saw a reason to measure its passage. But even for an immortal, we had known each other for many lifetimes, for so long we could no longer remember when we had met. We were friends, the best of friends, and we both knew that we would always have each other.”
“But when I saw how he attacked the Heliopaths, how he chased them down for sport, I finally saw who he really was. Fang was a monster. Just like the rest of my kind.” Spike spat the last words with sulphurous venom. “Once I had seen it in my brother, I began to see it in others. Dragons I had known for many years. My family, my friends. I saw what monsters they all really were. So… I stole their magic. The Heliopaths had an understanding of magic in a way that we dragons would never comprehend. I still don’t know how the spell worked, but I convinced a dying sage to cast it. He took my blood, the blood of a brood mother, and stole away the life from our eggs. He took all the magic that lets a dragon be born, and sealed it into the very scales of my body. He only begged that I stop the rampage my brother had started.
“This happened many eons ago,” she said, heaving a sigh. Her great armored flanks rose and fell, gemstone scales shining in the light. “I killed my brother, my best friend. I doomed my people. I cursed them to a horrific fate. I condemned them, condemned us, to watch as our ‘noble’ race withered and died.”
“A dragon’s egg will never hatch, unless it is bathed in fire magic for decades.” The dragon chuckled forlornly. Twilight thought she could hear a note of shame in the laughter, a hysterical note hidden within the sound. “You ponies think we guard our clutches like treasures, but that was never the case. Long ago, we simply made our nests in places of the purest fire, a place no living creatures save us could survive. And now… it hardly matters where a mother’s nest is now. Many have even taken to eating their own eggs in an attempt to...” Spike trailed off, shaking her head slowly.
“While this is fascinating,” Celestia began, not unkindly. Spike whirled at the words, baring her teeth, but Celestia raised an armored hoof to silence her, and continued. “While it is fascinating, this doesn’t explain why the dragons of Rylias are moving now. Nor does it tell us why they are marching on the Waste.”
“The latter is the simpler question.” Spike said, nodding towards the entrance. “What you call the Waste was once our favored breeding grounds. Molten rock bubbled to the surface, making pools. In my youth, the dominant females would lay their clutches within the lavapools themselves. Weaker females would lay theirs as close to the pools, or the boiling water that surround them as they could. It was a favored breeding ground, and it was said that eggs born from the pools of lava bore the strongest hatchlings. My brother and I were hatched there.”
“So they hope to restore the magic of the Waste?” Celestia asked.
“But how can they do that, if all the magic is inside you?” Twilight inquired, looking between the two larger creatures. “You said that the Heliopath sealed the magic into you?”
“Because even with the power of the spell the Heliopath used, he could not draw upon all of the fire magic in the world. He could draw up all of the released fire magic, and that was an enormous sum of power. It is the source of my magic. However, there were other sources, other vessels filled with it. The dragon’s act now, because they have found one of those sources. Or rather, they stole it from you, Celestia, some years ago.” Spike grimaced, teeth flashing as her lips pulled back. “My kind can feel fire magic for leagues, it warms us. Like basking in the summer sun.”
“The attack several years ago?” Celestia asked, voice sharp. “They were here for some kind of fire magic you hid here?”
Spike twisted, nodding towards the bowels of the Heart. “One of the ornaments I returned to you after the unfortunate demise of your mother. The fire magic contained within my body drew me to the stone only a few years after the collapse of the Rhyss’velt. Buried deep within the dormant hollow of the Waste, I found an egg. There are…” Spike winced. “There are no words in your tongue to describe the creature slumbering within. It is not unlike a phoenix, a creature of elemental fire. It is a titanic creature, the likes of which the world has not seen in eons. It is molten rock given form, a creature of fire and stone. My kind spoke of them in whispers, for even a dragon cannot withstand their fury. We named them Kyssht, and they were often spoken off to younglings to scare them into good behavior.”
“Then why do the dragon’s want to bring forth such a creature?” Celestia asked, eyes narrowing. “I’ve seldom seen you pay any creature the heed you speak of this… thing. The last was the Revenant.”
“This creature is far worse,” Spike growled. “The Revenant was powerful, but the Kyssht is something far stronger, and just as vile. They are evil, Celestia. Mindless, and hungry. They are the dark aspect of fire, all consuming, passionate hunger, and one that can bring forth fields of molten rock as easily as you and I breathe. They are almost unstoppable.”
“Then why would the dragons unleash this beast?” Celestia asked, eyes wide. “And why have they waited until now?”
“Because they are desperate!” Spike snapped, jaws clashing. “They see their doom looming closer every time one of their youngsters dies in some pointless conflict, with the lindorms, with the gryphons, or with the ponies. For all their might, dragons are not invulnerable, Celestia, and there are maybe half a hundred of us LEFT!”
Spike’s flanks rose and fell rapidly after her shout, one that still rang in the empty chamber.
“Spike?” Twilight asked, flinching as the reptilian head snapped around to face her. “Why did you wait until now to tell us?”
The little mare shuffled back a step, grimacing. “Er, what I mean is, why didn’t you do something as soon as the dragon’s stole the… egg, or whatever it is?”
Celestia’s eyes widened in surprise, before she turned to Spike. “A good question.”
Spike grew very still as Celestia stared at her. Her eyes slowly closed, and the dragoness released a shuddering breath. Celestia and Twilight turned, glancing at each other, before turning back to the dragon. Celestia’s eyes narrowed. “Why?”
“Because,” Spike growled, digging her talons into the polished stone. Flakes and chips of marble flew into the air about her clawed hand, a cloud of dust and rubble jumping into the air. “I planned to kill the last of my kind, Celestia. I doomed them , doomed us, to a slow death. If you want to know what it is like to know that your kind has no hope, ask your pet Changeling.”
The floor had deep grooves torn into it now, with the powerful claws sunk deep into rock. Spike seemed to not even be aware of her actions, a reflexive tightening of the muscles in her foreleg.
It startled Twilight to see such a casual, even accidental, display of physical strength. It was easy to forget that Spike, even with the doubt and suspicion she had been cast under for the last week, was a dragon. While she was nothing like a pony, in either manners or appearance, her good nature and dry wit had left Twilight reluctantly fond of the female.
But seeing how easily Spike tore through, not just dense rock, but through the layers of mystic enchantments laid into the very floor, to strengthen and protect the very stone of the Heart. And Spike had torn through it as easily as Twilight could have torn a page in her haste to find out what came next. It reminded Twilight of the first sight she had of the mighty dragon. It reminded her of the titanic creature who had dwarfed the many ponies flanking it.
The dragoness hadn’t finished though, and as she spoke, Twilight could see the marble around her claws change slowly from white to a cherry red. “I would allow them to cast their spell, and call forth a beast of dark fire. The spell would consume the last dragon mages, devoured by the monster. It would bring forth the fires of the Waste once more, so that the eggs still dormant there would begin to grow again. And I would hunt down the survivors, the last dragons. I would kill my species, Celestia, and spare them watching their future die. While they still have some hope left.”
Celestia shook her head fiercely, taking a staggering step back from the furious drake. Her eyes were wide, and once again, her magic poured off of her body, seeming to rise like a bulwark against the power rolling off of Spike in waves. Twilight moved away from the dragoness as well, sheltering behind the shield of Celestia’s will. The white mare didn’t turn to look behind her, but one feathery wing flared out slightly, a protective movement that seemed almost as reflexive as Spike’s demolition work moments ago. So close to her magic, Twilight could taste the emotion’s playing through the other mare’s mind without seeing the look on her face.
Coppery anger was present, the same flavor that had tinged the room since Twilight and Spike had entered. It was the righteous fury of a betrayed Princess. But it was a hot aftertaste to the frigid, nuclear peppermint of Celestia’s shocked disgust.
“I cannot bear it,” Spike whispered, still not meeting the disgusted, horrified look that had been plastered to the armored mare. “I can feel their despair, their fear. It torments me, Celestia. I cannot bear it any longer. Better that their end comes swiftly. So I allowed them to enter your kingdom. It was not the first time they sought that stone. But this time, they succeeded. They stole it away, and began to prepare this spell.”
“But why do all this?” Twilight asked. Her voice trembled, shaking almost as violently as the air between the magical heavyweights. The heat rising from the two creatures made the form of Spike blurry, but she was still visible when she turned a startled gaze towards the unicorn. Twilight gulped, but continued. “If you only wanted to... end their suffering, why not just do it yourself. It isn’t as though anypony could stop you.”
“Oh,” Spike mumbled, blinking as if poleaxed. Her eyes had sprung wide as she heard Twilight speak, and her grip on the rock relaxed. Then the dragoness grimaced. “Because I planned only for the cruelty of the dragons to die, not all of my kind. There are still dozens of clutches buried beneath the cooled lava of the Waste. When the Kyssht is born, it will bring forth the fire magic once again. Then I simply need to slay the monster, and the rest of my brothers and sisters. Once they are gone, and the eggs are safe I will… follow my kind.”
She ended with a whisper, and the words shocked both of the ponies. Before they could reply, Spike went on. “Without the hubris of their elders, feeding them a diet of nothing but their own superiority, then maybe the dragon’s will no longer bring death to the world.” She sighed. “I never wanted to cause so much pain, Celestia. I only wanted to bring peace.”
Celestia’s voice was cold, a jagged spear of ice that pierced the dragon’s tough scales. “Peace, bought with blood, is a lie. You told me that, when I was a filly.” Celestia’s breathing hitched, growing uneven. “You are as much of a monster as your brother.”
“I cannot deny that.” Spike whispered, sounding defeated. “But my kind’s barbarism dies with me.”
“Why did you stop us, then?” Celestia asked, voice ringing with command. It was the voice of a monarch, one who does not expect, but knows she will be obeyed. “Why did you not allow us to clean up your mess?”
“Because, this is my shame.” Spike murmured. “My responsibility. And I will not allow you to throw away lives that need not be spent.”
“How noble,” Celestia sneered. Then her eyes narrowed, and locked onto the dragon’s reptilian ones. “I will pull back my troops, Spike. But you will join me, and Luna. And we will meet with the dragons. You need not slay any more lives needlessly.”
Spike opened her fanged mouth, but Celestia cut her off, turning to spear Twilight with a hard purple gaze. “And you, Twilight, will accompany us, as will my honor guard. I trust you will see to it that no foul play comes of our parley?” She addressed the last to Spike, who blinked.
“What are you doing?” she whispered, shocked.
“I am going to end your stupid, selfish, VILE plan!” Celestia snapped. “You don’t get to take the coward’s way out, Spike. And so help me, I swear by the blood of my mother, and the cursed blood of yours that flows through me, I will bring you justice for these… atrocities.”
Celestia straightened, and Twilight felt the barrier of magic between herself and the dragon fall. “Now, if I may indulge in a bit of flamboyance of my own,” she snorted, in obvious contempt of Spike’s martyrdom. “I have a race of creatures to save, and only a day to do so. Shall we?”