“Uh, hi.” Spike was barely able to mutter out. Pyrathy’s eye turned curious.
“What is wrong Little One? You have met such as I before.”
“I have?” Spike shot the question out before thinking, a spark of joy jumping through Pyrathy.
“You seemed not at all phased by one hours ago.”
Spike thought for a second before it dawned on him. “You mean Princess Luna?”
“Princess Luna…” Pyrathy looked forward. “Yes, she is the one I speak of, Princess Luna. Talented in the mind she is.” He looked back to Spike. “I have seen you act far braver than now. Why the hesitation?”
Spike gripped his claws behind his back and dug a toe into the rock, looking down. “It’s not quite the same thing, Princess Luna and yourself.”
There was a deep rumbling in the cavern, to which Spike identified as Pyrathy sighing. “Perhaps not. You have been raised far different than many of my children, many would have you heralded for being here, and many more would gut you for your weakness.”
“What?” Spike looked to Pyrathy, eyes and body shrinking.
“I am, for what you may consider, a hermit, Little One. And to many, a legend or myth. I do not meet with many of my children any more, and as such faded from their cultures.” Pyrathy’s eye focused down on Spike. “But you already know a portion of why.”
Spike’s eyes flickered to the scales aside Pyrathy’s eye to see a drake smacking aside a smaller dragoness. “Your curse.”
Pyrathy closed his eye in solemn acceptance. “Correct. We each bare the lives of our children, through all of their generations. We merely hear and see them, as we bare witness.” Spike let out a sigh of relief at hearing that. “But it also means we see ourselves.” Pyrathy reopened his eye to Spike’s confusion. “It is a loop, witnessing a child witness us witnessing them. It echo’s and can become infuriating.” Pyrathy's tone suddenly took a sorrowful note. “But the life our mother has inflicted on my children is maddening.
“You know of our births, and her rampage, but not of why.” Pyrathy began. “Mother was rampage incarnate, and with my brood, she spread such thoughts. I was passive in my care, as I was in all things, never straying far from my comfort. Even here I have not deemed it necessary to move too much. But, with this curse of ours, I have taken vested interests in my children. And they are dying Little One.”
“Uhh…” Spike glanced around, not really knowing what to do with such heavy knowledge being dumped on him.
“Our mother taught of conquest and destruction, and upon finding of my sibling’s children, deemed them unfit. This is what led to her rampage and her sealing. But her poison has run deep into my children, leading to their own self destruction.”
“They seemed pretty self-sufficient when I saw them.” Spike blurted out once more, making Pyrathy chuckle.
“That clan inherited and distilled a strong essence of myself, taking efforts only when necessary. Those more adventurous tend to find their way to other clans.” Pyrathy let out a contented sigh. “And this is why I need you, Spike.” Spike stood stiff at the mention of his actual name rather than ‘Little One’. “You are, by no doubt, the most unique child I have ever seen raised. Days after laying and hours after escape, you were found, and,” Pyrathy chuckled. “Rather oddly preserved.”
Spike wrinkled his brow. “Escaped?” Pyrathy’s eye saddened.
“Ask of the Purged of others, they will explain. I… wish not to echo the story.” Pyrathy then looked above and past Spike to where Spike knew he was looking at Twilight. “But your preservation to these days gives me hope to change what I had long thought set in stone.” He looked back down to Spike, looking into what Spike felt was his soul. “Change them. Show them there is more to life than carnage and waste.”
Spike just looked back at Pyrathy in disbelief. “How?” Spike extended his arms out in need of an answer. “I’m just a baby dragon. How can I make any of them change? Let alone listen to me.”
“You court more than you know.” Pyrathy said, his tone even. “Listen not to others, but to yourself.” Pyrathy closed his eye, a flicker of pain on his brow evident. “This is as much as I can take. I am sorry Little One. Please, leave.”
A bit dejected at the one sidedness of the conversation, Spike understood and left the elder dragon. He saw Twilight barely sitting behind her conjured cover, and even that was flickering. Her eyes were wide and her ears were laid back, every muscle in her body seeming to yell ‘RUN AWAY!’ Spike walked calmly pass her, gently pulling on one of her forelegs as he passed to get her to turn and walk with him as she continued to stare back at Pyrathy. Neither of them said a word for minutes as they walked back down the way they came before Twilight finally broke.
“HOW?!” She screamed, Spike’s ears already prepped for the inevitable decibel hike. “How does he expect you to change the entirety of dragon society? It’s completely irresponsible and insane!”
“Could say the same thing about some of the thing Celestia has planned over the years.” Spike pointed out offhandedly. Twilight seemed to hesitate at an answer.
“While, yes, some of the things Princess Celestia has planned have been a bit… loose in their structure, at least there was an end goal!” She stamped in finality. “Beat Nightmare Moon, beat Discord, beat Tierk, and while, I admit, a bit convoluted in their executions, had definition. But restructuring a society? Where do you start? How does it end? Is there an end?”
“Well, we could start with assessment.” Spike offered.
“Oh yes, assessment of a species that has little to no interaction with us and no written history. I’m sure that’s not going to take forever.”
“What says I don’t have forever?” Spike asked, making Twilight stop in her tracks. “I mean; dragons are known to have rather expansive lifespans.”
“What about Ponyville? What about all of our friends?”
“What about them? We’ll be there.”
Twilight sighed and her shoulders drooped. “Spike, I think we’re on two separate tracks. Having to restructure dragon society would mean very in depth investigation and integration. Not to mention that, I think from what Pyrathy said, there are multiple different types of societies to study. If we were to dive into this, I don’t think there would be time to do anything else, let alone anything pony related.”
Spike’s ears perked in curiosity, and then drooped in realization. “Oh, right.” Spike kept on walking, Twilight following behind, her horn glowing a bit brighter as they went. “I guess, the most logical place to start would be at the top and work our way down. They have a king, right?”
Twilight nodded. “They do, but like I said, Celestia and Luna haven’t dealt with him in ages. There may be as many problems starting there as anywhere else.” Twilight sighed. “I still think it’s ridiculous that he thinks he can ask this of you because you were raised differently.”
Spike chuckled. “And you do know he can hear everything you say about him to me, right?”
Twilight’s face flushed a little bit and her feathers ruffled in discomfort, but cleared her throat, defiantly looking forward. “I stand by my acusations.”
Spike continued in his mirth for a second before a thought struck him. “So, if Pyrathy doesn’t like having dragon visitors, what do you think he was doing last night with that dragoness?”
Twilight forgot her embarrassment as she began to ponder Spike’s question. “That might be why he was so short. If he already had one echo, two might be pushing it. Which reminds me Spike, how’s your eyesight?”
“Hm?” Spike looked up to Twilight a bit confused before remembering how red everything had looked before. Spike looked around, and while the cave certainly glowed purple in Twilight’s light, the rocks seemed to pulse a non-intrusive red while not extending beyond the rock. “I can see the rock just fine, like it’s glowing red, and I guess you can’t?”
Twilight shook her head. “No, everything is pitch black, I can’t see beyond my horn. And it wasn’t like this before seeing Pyrathy?”
“It’s a lot less intense than going to Pyrathy.” Spike looked over his shoulder, but the rocks looked just the same with their red pulse. “Any ideas?”
“None. And that concerns me even more. Something’s obviously happened to specifically you, but I don’t want to go prodding it without knowing anything. My only theory is that something with Pyrathy led to this happening. But the problem with that is that I didn’t sense him do anything.” Twilight concluded as they reached the end of the cave, standing at the edge of the giant cavern before them.
“Well, it doesn’t seem to be doing anything other than making rocks re- look out!” Spike yelled as he shoved Twilight aside as a red streak dived right at the both of them. Spike wasn’t as fortunate to escape as he was swiftly crashed into, his head and body quickly squeezed tight and back scraping against the ground for quite a distance. Squinting his eyes open, Spike was able to look up between the claws around his head to see two eager, amber eyes, and once more the pit formed in his stomach.
But something strange happened to those burning pools of energy.
They softened.
No longer was Spike looking at a hunter, he was looking at a dragoness. A surprised dragoness at that, her claws slowly loosening their grip as she seemed to try to process what was under her.
“Spike!” Twilight shouted, the dragoness’ head and eyes snapped up and around to look back at her intended target. Her claws fully let go of Spike as she began to turn to go back, her wings already flaring to sprint.
“No!” Spike cried as sat up, gripping at the dragoness’ hind leg that was still in reach. An annoyed snort escaped her as she looked down at Spike.
“Not now whelp!” She said under her breath in annoyance, shaking her leg to loosen Spike’s grip. In the process of doing so, she did not notice a concussive blast of magic making its way straight at her chest. It struck true and sent the dragoness flying back down the cave way towards Pyrathy, Spike gripping desperately to her leg. Less in stopping her now, and more in a desperate panic at the sudden sense of leaving the ground.
As she landed back first on the ground, Spike scrambled up her leg until he was on her chest looking her right in the face.
It was then that Spike noticed how dwarfed he was by her. Both of his claws barely reached to her shoulders and his knees were pressing into her breast. Her wings were spread beneath her, her wing tips barely passing her claw tips, the peaks of her wings at the same point of her elbows. How she was able to keep them so closely pressed against her body, Spike would wonder about later.
“Stop! Just stop! We don’t mean you any harm!”
“Then what just happened?” She snarled back at him, her upper lip retracting to show razor teeth much different to a pony’s.
“Self-defense!” Spike shot back, only letting a bit of his nerves fray at the sight of her teeth. “You struck first! Just like last time!”
“Like last time?” The dragoness’ snarl dropped and confusion took its place.
“Spike?” Twilight called from behind, hoof steps coming closer.
“Never mind.” She shook her head as she easily pushed herself up into a sitting position. “Nobody should be here but dragons!”
“She’s with me!” Spike called desperately as he began to hang from the dragoness’ shoulders.
“What?” She looked down at the desperate drake hanging onto her.
“She came with me to see Pyrathy!”
Her eyes widened significantly. “You met with Him?!”
“Yeah, and I know you did too, so just stop this already!” He wasn’t aware it was possible, but her eyes grew even more as her pupils shrank, and more than enough blood drained out of her face to make her dark purple scales match his. If she wasn’t already sitting, Spike was sure she would have fallen over.
“Spike!” Twilight called out as she came galloping up to the two dragons. “Spike, are you okay? What’s… going on?” Twilight asked as she slowed down and saw Spike hanging from the stunned dragoness.
“I, uh, got her stop?” Spike answered as he glanced between Twilight and the stunned dragoness. Spike let go and dropped lightly onto the dragoness’ lap, the force seeming to jostle the dragoness back to focus on the little drake climbing off of her to walk over to the purple pony. She had to blink a few times to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating.
“You?” She asked as she crossed her legs, placing her claws on her knees and leaning forward, frowning. “I remember you. You took my grab.”
“Your what?” Twilight asked, simultaneously confused and a bit offended.
“Oh, you can remember her but not me not being two inches above her.” Spike huffed as he rolled his eyes. The dragoness looked quickly between the two, looked up for a moment, and shrugged.
“It’s very hard to distinguish the two of you like that.”
“Well now that we’re in a bit of a less intense situation. My name is Twilight Sparkle, and this is my assistant Spike.” Twilight indicated between the two.
“Assistant?” The dragoness’ eye glinted in a hint of aggression. Twilight raised her wings slightly in response.
“Yeah, I help her with her work, is that a problem?” Spike asserted as he held a hand in front of Twilight. The dragoness huffed.
“I suppose not.” She sat back a little bit. “My name is Dazzle.” She glanced at Twilight. “What are you doing here?” Twilight looked down to Spike.
“We got called here.” Spike answered. “Like you were, I suppose.”
“I received the Dream Call, yes.” Dazzle nodded. “I knew to make my way here to see what He needed of me.”
Spike smirked. “And what did he ask you to do?”
“He told me to wait in the corralling nests until the second light passed.” Dazzle stated, making Spike and Twilight wait for something that wasn’t coming.
“That was it?” Twilight asked.
“That was all that needed to be asked.” Dazzle shot back.
“Pyrathy sure is curt.” Spike sighed.
“How can you speak His name so callously?” Dazzle asked.
“Well, what else would I call him?” Spike shrugged.
“Father, His Benevolence, He, any of these would show more respect.” Dazzle leaned forward again. “What clan raised you?” Spike and Twilight chuckled a bit nervously.
“I did.” Twilight raised her hoof.
“You did?” Dazzle jerked back as if physically shocked. “What dragoness in her right mind would allow a pony her egg?”
“Uh, well, we sort of found Spike from around here, somewhere.” Twilight tried to explain, but this only made Dazzle lean dangerously forward, claws flexing on her knees.
“Watch your lies pony. Who truly gave Spike to you?”
“Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns.” Twilight said automatically, making Dazzle growl.
“So he was stolen.” She muttered as she made her way to stand.
“Whoa, hey now.” Spike waved his hands. “I really was found out here, Pyrathy confirmed it.” This made Dazzle pause in her motion.
“Why would He tell you something trivial?” She asked, making Spike snort.
“Doesn’t seem so trivial to you.”
“Because I am not to forbearer of our kind.” Dazzle glowered. “I do not need to concern myself with the continuation of our race, I can wonder and take retribution.”
Spike just looked back up at the angry dragoness for a moment before chuckling and putting his claw over his face. Both Twilight and Dazzle were quite confused at his action.
“Looks like he doesn’t have that job either.” Dazzle’s right claw began to slowly align with Spike’s heart. “Because that’s my job now.”
“Lies.” Dazzle immediately shot back. "His Benevolence would never abandon us.”
“Well, not so much abandon, as have somepony to work through.” Twilight clarified, making Dazzle snap her attention to the intruder once more.
“He has never ‘worked’ through anyone before. Why would He do so now?”
“To answer that, let’s go back a bit.” Spike addressed as he calmed down. “So I’ll answer your question of why Pyrathy would tell me where I came from with a question of my own. Who are the Purged?”
“You don’t know?” Dazzle asked, a sense of curiosity and sadness dripping from her voice. When Spike shook his head, Dazzle sat back down, her claws falling into her lap.
“The Purged are those of us, long ago, that were branded with being too weak to live. Hundreds were purged, whether it be because they were too small or had pitiful flames. Others were killed for what were then deemed malformations. Serpintines and Wyverns were driven out or slaughtered. Many types have been lost simply because we did not record them, but Father does. He was furious to see his children slaughtering each other and ceased our actions, personally killing those who did not want to stop. It is part of what drove him to seal Tiamat away, and what made him sequester himself away from the rest of us.” Dazzle raised her eyes to Twilight, who was appropriately horrified at the story. “Not that any pony would care to learn our past.”
Twilight winced at the accusation. “Ponies haven’t been known to openly explore other societies. Even our knowledge on griffins was lacking, even though they’re our closest non-Equestrian partners.” She admitted. “And even our own history is blurry.”
“Hmph.” Dazzle snorted, and turned her attention to Spike. “If you were truly raised by her, how and why would you ask of the Purge?”
Spike replied with a sad smile. “Because He told me I escaped it.”
Dazzle’s curiosity turned to shocked awe in an instant. “How? The purge was more than a thousand years ago! No egg could have survived a week without care, much less a millennium!” Dazzle’s claw covered her mouth, looking away in concern, muttering. “But if Father said as much, then it must be.”
“I can answer that as well.” Twilight offered. Dazzle looked to her now in need of those answers. “Princess Celestia and Princess Luna found him out here and tried to find the nest that he had fallen from, but couldn’t. So they tried hatching Spike themselves, but nothing they ever tried ever worked.”
“Of course it wouldn’t, an egg needs to be tended to and hatched by at least an exceptional flame.” Dazzle cut in, making Twilight smile sheepishly.
“Which I did.”
Dazzle just stared at Twilight dumbfounded. She could only look over to Spike who was nodding his head.
“Oh yeah, that and turning the other five ponies in the room into plants. Saw it on Pyrathy myself.”
“Y-You produced enough flames to hatch an egg on your own while not burning everyone else?”
“Well, I output enough raw magic to change the procters and my parents into plants, hatch Spike, and artificially age him to the size of the lecture hall.” Twilight answered, a blush prominently coming forward.
“You what?!” Dazzle looked back to Spike.
“Well, that last part was only temporary.” Spike admitted. “I reverted back down shortly afterward.”
Dazzle cupped her face in her claws. “This just cannot be happening right now.”
“Tell that to the hole that was in the ceiling.” Spike smirked.
“Do you know how much fire it takes to even hatch an egg?” Dazzle’s hands slid down her face.
“Not really, we weren’t monitoring that at the time.” Twilight admitted.
“A single dragon has to build up an entire month worth of flames for one bout while simultaneously heating the egg at least once every other day to keep it healthy. Not to mention that a dragon’s growth is dictated partially by source absorption and retention. To say he was both hatched and grown by you alone would mean you would rival our five greatest warriors, together, alone.”
“Probably more since that was when she was seven.” Spike mentioned. “And before this.” Spike spread Twilight’s left wing, which promptly jerked away and smacked Spike behind the head. An appropriate glower came from both females.
“That was very rude Spike.” Twilight huffed.
“Quite.” Dazzle agreed. “And what is so special of a pony with a horn and wings?”
“It makes me an alicorn.” Twilight stated. “One of four.
“And set on the same stage of Pyrathy.” Spike added.
Once again, Dazzle could only look at the two in sheer bafflement. To her right was a dragon whelp that claimed to be from the darkest period in dragon history and also claimed to be crowned the overseer of their race. While to her left was a pony who claimed to have hatched a dragon egg single handedly and was posed as an equal to their Father, a place no dragon had ever even considered to be close to.
“Do you think we just broke her Twi?” Spike whispered not to subtly.
“You think?” Twilight answered sarcastically.
Dazzle could just hold her face in her claws once more. “What… exactly did Father tell you?” She lowered her claws enough to gaze over them. “As simply as you can please.”
“Uh, okay.” Spike said as he scratched the back of his neck. “So, he first started by telling me I would be heralded or gutted by meeting him, then he told me why he doesn’t meet with every dragon, then why Tiamat had gone on her rampage, and then he told me to change the basis of dragon society.” Spike summarized.
“Hmm.” Dazzle murmured, her claw dropping back into her lap. “While true that those of us who receive the Dream Call are seen as special to my clan, I do not understand why you would be gutted for it.”
Spike looked up at Dazzle blankly. “Review the last five minutes and come back to me on that.”
“Heh.” Dazzle smirked. “Maybe you personally, that makes sense. As for His and Tiamat’s reasons, I know them as well. But still, why would he task you with changing us?”
“Um, if I may?” Twilight raised a hesitant hoof. Dazzle cast her a quizitive eye. “Could you clarify your information to compare to ours?”
Dazzle gave a deep sigh. “It is known through my clan that due to the Purge, only a select few of us are deemed pure enough to stand before His Benevolence, but the Purge taints even us, so it is ever brief. As for Tiamat’s rampage, she saw upon the world of weakness that could not be tolerated, but Father saw that her rampage would lead to a world of desolation to which none but he and her could live.”
“Ehhh.” Both Spike and Twilight cringed.
“What?”
“Both are only sort of true.” Twilight said.
“Yeah, what about the other four helping to stop Tiamat?” Spike asked.
“What other four?”