The Rise of Species: Dragons

by Zarmflamekin

Research

Spike was pacing. He had never particularly liked pacing. It was something that was completely unnecessary and accomplished nothing but build up what was fueling the pacing in the first place. And he didn’t have a number one assistant to tell him he was overreacting.

It was early morning, far too early as Twilight would point out. Nopony in their right mind, perhaps aside from the Apples, would be up this early. But Spike had a problem from last night, and he really didn’t know how to address it, and he was sure the only pony he could talk to about this was heading to bed herself.

Spike had had a dream. Not a nightmare, but also not what he would be considered a good dream, or even his own dream. He had found himself in a rather large cavern, an enormous one, perhaps even being able to house Canterlot and its mountain with room to breathe, though what was in the cavern might have something to say about that.

A dragon that took up the entire floor lay there. At first Spike had thought it to be a well sculpted rock, but soon saw a rolling fire beneath its large scales, red scales that shifted ever so slowly to show the behemoth still drew breath. Spike had found it to be immensely satisfying to be able to see the whole thing as he did, because he was pretty sure standing anywhere near it would make the dragon eclipse his view. And so he walked around the dragon, taking in every feature, to its leathern wings that rested peacefully along it’s back to the spear-point tail that wrapped about the its stomach. The swept back spines that ran down its back made it seem so fast, even as it lay near stone still. But as he drank this all in, he began seeing other things.

Visions. Visions of battles nopony would remember because no pony had been there, only dragons, and fearsome ones at that. Visions of families that had been dearly loved, ones of battle and death. And visions of pain as those two lives clashed.

Over and over these visions ran, but none ever seemed to repeat themselves. There, a black crawling dragon drooled over an egg, melting the shell and fetus inside, but close by was the same drake being hatched himself. Over and over scenes of love and hate seemed to mingle and shuffle, and Spike didn’t know where to look next, because each of these scenes seemed to play upon the massive dragon’s scales.

Soon Spike didn’t know where else to look except for where there were no scales, the dragon’s closed eye.

It didn’t stay as such, for it slowly creaked open, a sky blue iris that dove into a deep purple going toward the black chasm of its slit pupil. Spike looked to the color in awe as the eye fully opened and the thin haw membrane slid back, granting the dragon full vision.

And what had happened next currently had Spike pacing.

The dragon smiled. “Welcome home, Little Spike.”

The voice hadn’t rumbled or shaken the room, but it had shaken Spike awake. Something in Spike’s core had whisked him away from the dragon and into the waking world, and now he didn’t know what to do. He was sure he had never seen such a dragon before in his, granted few, travels. Spike had barely been as big as one of the smallest scales about the dragon’s eye. He should have felt as small and terrified as he had with the green dragon he had run into in the woods, probably even worse in fact.

But the more he paced, the more he tried to think, and the more he thought, a single conclusion came to him. And it was one that continued to confuse him to no end.

He had to see the dragon.

He couldn’t say why and he couldn’t say where either, he had only seen the cavern after all. And why did he feel a need to see the dragon when four words made him run in terror? Or was that terror? Maybe it was a start for his journey. Or was it something else?

And so Spike paced about the hallway outside his room, confused about the whole situation. Spike eventually stopped and pounded his right claw into his left. He needed to know, and if there had been one thing Twilight had taught him is that if you needed to know something, read its book. Spike set off to the main floor to the library section of the castle. Twilight had decided near immediately that the library needed to be replaced, and as the castle had more room than she knew what to do with, she had turned the entire right wing of the first floor into the new Ponyville public library, it even had enough rooms to be filled by genre materials alone.

As Spike made his way down, he knew exactly where to go. Unfortunately, where he was going was going to be a mess. Not because of disorganization, Celestia knew Twilight wouldn’t allow that. It was because what Spike needed was going to be in the Hardly Researched section of their selection. Apparently Twilight had been wrong once in her life and didn’t know that there was actual research on dragons, but it was either on their history in relation to Equestria or examining their mythology as a psychological examination of the draconic species. And as that was thrown together with near any other throw away topic, there was going to be a bit of digging before he found what he needed.

As Spike opened the door to the Hardly Researched section, he hacked a bit from dust fluttering out to meet him. Spike grumbled as he put a hand over his mouth as he made his way to the opposite wall to open the window for a draft to enter. He might cough a bit more, but at least the dust would move after it was disrupted. So Spike began to search the shelves for whatever draconic knowledge they had acquired, moving past ‘The Minotaur’s Bloody Past?’ and ‘Do Sheep Dream of Electric Fences’ into the less concrete material. He spotted one that looked promising ‘The Life and Fall of Tiamat, Mother of Dragons’, along with ‘Nestling’s Nightly Stories’, which seemed a bit more dubious, but sounded like a better read than the first one.

Not wanting to kick up more than he had, Spike walked to the door and contemplated closing the window, but upon remembering the schedule Dash had drawn up, he was good until at least 3 today to get back to it, so he decided to let the little used room to air out. Making his way down to the Adventure section of the wing, Spike decided to make himself comfortable. Not that it was hard, as it was Rainbow Dash’s favorite, she had personally taken it upon herself to set up the comfiest, body enveloping chairs she could find. Twilight had to shoot down the idea of perpetual clouds due to really only pegasi using them, and their ambient moisture would definitely ruin more than a few books.

Looking over both books, Spike decided to crack into ‘The Life and Fall of Tiamat’ to get the boring one out of the way first. After skipping the tiresome opening and thank you of the author, Spike was greeted with the image of a massive dragon with five heads, one each of black, blue, green, red, and white, all of varied shapes and expressions, but all seeming to hold the same growl of disapproval. Massive wings and a scythe-like tail that had lopped off the top of a mountain made Spike’s eyes grow wide.
Tiamat, Mother of Dragons
Quickly skimming over the introduction, Spike turned the page and began reading the far more interesting history than he was expecting.

‘Tiamat had been born of five aspects clashing together, upon a solar eclipse as a dormant volcano erupted over its lush tropical island into the ocean, the resulting smog coalesced into the dragon upon the previous page. This birth had not been pleasant, as her roar ripped through the world, making even the newly awakened princesses shake in their shoes. It had been a roar of life, death, pain, and pleasure. The heads, naturally, fought for control, each pulling one way or biting for another to listen to it. Quickly tiring itself out, it had fallen over the island for a brief nap.’ Brief being five years.

“Spike?” A groggy Twilight inquired as she poked her head into the ‘Adventure’ section. “Are you in here?”

“Yeah Twi.” Spike acknowledged, looking up to see what was needed.

“Oh good.” Twilight smiled a bit lazily as she made her way to the reading area. “What do you have there?”

“Just a few, uh, dragon books.” He showed her the cover of his book. Twilight’s smile grew a bit more at ‘Nestlings Nightly Stories’, but dropped at ‘The Life and Fall of Tiamat’. She had skimmed both out of curiosity when they came in, and the first was surely something simple Spike could entertain himself with, but the second was something on a different level.

“’The Life and Fall of Tiamat’ huh? What brought about getting that out?” Twilight asked, and as an afterthought “Did you close the window in Hardly Researched?”

“I’ll get to that by three, and just some curiosity sparked, that’s all.” Spike said as he closed the book. “Was there something you needed Twi?”

“Uh, well, not really, just this isn’t where I normally find you is all.” Twilight answered. It was the truth, if she wasn’t getting him up, he was making breakfast for them. Having not found him in his room or kitchen had been quite the oddity. “What brought up the curiosity?”

“Just… a dream really.” Spike said in a halted tone. “Got some ideas running through my head and decided to read up on them.”

“A dream of dragons?”

“Yeah, just about. Haven’t had the best conversations with the dragons I’ve met, so I turned to your solution.” Spike gave a cocky smile as Twilight scowled. “But in all seriousness, this is pretty intense.” Spike pat ‘The Life and Fall of Tiamat’. “I think even Dash would want to read it.”

That made Twilight’s ear twitch. “How far have you gotten?”

“Not past the first five pages, but what five pages can do, you know?”

“You do realize it’s a myth book right? Not an actual retelling.” Twilight mused, remembering to the introduction.

“Doesn’t mean it can’t be entertaining. Besides, who knows how much could be true? I mean, if Nightmare Moon is any indication.” Spike shrugged.

“But Celestia was around to keep an eye on that story to make sure no radical changes happened Spike.”

“And who’s to say there’s no dragon old enough to know this one?” Spike skeptically eyed Twilight. This was quickly turning into a debate he knew he wasn’t prepared for, but he always did like to see how far he could push his logic against Twilights.

“Because this says ‘Mother of Dragons’ Spike, and from what I gleamed from it, I doubt Tiamat recounted this to Bold Venture. There are quite a few inconsistencies that clearly show there were alterations in generations passed.”

“But does that disregard the entire story? Does Bold Venture disclaim any inaccuracy?”

Twilight smirked. “If you had bothered to read the introduction, as I doubt you did, you would see he states he got this ‘right from the dragon’s mouth’, with more than a bit of gusto. He’s obviously engorged on his own ego in writing this.”

“Oh, and don’t say you weren’t proud about authoring that paper on draconic growth habits.” Spike smirked back. “I happen to remember you watching me very intently for those six months.”

“I was seven! And you were-“ Twilight quickly stopped. “Eight… months… old.” Twilight cocked her head to the side. “Do you really remember when you were eight months old?”

Spike blinked back at Twilight. He looked up to the ceiling for an answer, and found one. No, he didn’t remember when he was eight months old, he knew of when he was eight months old. Thinking back, one of the last scales he glanced over had been a small purple unicorn with a notepad and quill in a shaky magical grasp as she tried to write and observe a small purple dragon teething on his tail. The thought made Spike shiver, as not only was the dream not fading, what he saw was still etched firmly into his brain.

“Spike?” Twilight asked with a bit of worry.

“No Twilight, I don’t remember when I was eight months old.” Spike answered uncharacteristically somber, looking down as he clutched his claws together. “I know. I saw you taking notes of me teething on my tail.”

Twilight’s eyes grew and her pupils shrunk. She could give credit if Spike had indeed remembered something from that long ago, but remembering something from when he was asleep was on the verge of impossible. She wouldn’t throw it out outright, but she wasn’t going to look to memory as a first answer.

“And how do you know?”

Spike gave a hesitant sigh. “Because I saw it last night. I saw a lot last night, actually.” Spike rolled his tongue in his mouth an unsettling thought. “I’m beginning to think I got a message.”

“From Luna?”

Spike shook his head with a dark smile and chuckle. “Oh no, he was much bigger.”

“He?” Twilight asked with a bit of concern.

Spike stopped to think again. “Yeah, he. Most likely, it gave off a ‘he’ vibe.”

“Spike, what happened last night?” Twilight asked, moving to sit in front of Spike to make sure she had his full attention.

“I’m not quite sure, but it definitely wasn’t a normal dream. I was in this huge cavern, like, bigger than Canterlot mountain and a half huge, and lying there was this equally huge red dragon, and it looked like he had lifetimes of dragons on every one of his scales, and when I looked him in the eye, he looked back at me and said, get this, ‘Welcome home, Little Spike.’”

Spike waited for Twilight’s thoughts on his little story, but none seemed to be forthcoming. Twilight stared darkly at the ground as her brain seemed to go a thousand miles an hour. Spike was about to speak again when Twilight finally looked up at him.

“Spike, go make us some breakfast.” Twilight stated. “I have a letter to write.”

Spike was a bit confused at this sudden shift. “Twilight, you’ve said before-“

“That you write faster and cleaner than I do, and that’s true. But this letter is going to need to be… thought out.” Twilight gave a tight smile. “Please Spike, I think we’re both going to need this.”

Still a bit off put, Spike nodded. Twilight was about as bad as Rainbow Dash in impatience when something big came up. For something to make that do a 180 and make her carefully deliberate must be something really important. Twilight gave a short sigh of relief as she turned and left the Adventure section. Spike picked up his two books and hopped off the chair after her, being sure to properly close the door.

Spike made his way to the kitchen that was both unsettlingly big and warmly comforting at the same time. Applejack’s additions to the kitchen was more of an overhaul of the room, as before the counters and seats were a deep purple and rigidly angular, now the room had an overall worn wood feel with counter edges smoothly running around the edge or into the wall. Spike honestly couldn’t tell if Rarity hadn’t had a hoof in it as well from the flares of green leaves and red apples that were embellished amongst any non-interacted surface.

Spike decided that scrambled eggs sounded nice this morning, along with maybe some fire rubies for some extra spice, for himself of course. Spike had accidentally added crushed emeralds to a whole batch of cheese broccoli before, and the girls’ teeth had not taken kindly to it. Aside from Pinkie, who said they tasted minty-er than usual.

Placing his books on the dining counter, Spike flipped the burner on to its low setting with his tail as he scrounged next to the oven for a skillet. Walking over to a sink, he dashed some water into the pan and went back to set it down on the burner. The unfortunate truth of a kitchen in a royal palace was that it was made with the intention of at least ten ponies working in it, so while there was plenty of space to maneuver, there was also plenty of space between many of the appliances. By the time Spike got back with an empty pail and a pail of eggs, the water he had meant to help keep the skillet from getting food stuck was nearly evaporated.

Quickly cracking one egg open, emptying its contents, and tossing the shell into the empty pail, Spike picked up ‘The Life and Fall of Tiamat’, deftly holding it open with one hand while breaking up and stirring the egg with a spatula that had been hanging nearby. There had been many a time Twilight had asked him to stir a pot, and many a time he had found himself bored. Being able to read with one hand had become a handy skill.

‘After Tiamat’s nap, she had found many predators had come out of hiding and many birds were pecking at her back. Each head did its own job of clearing out the annoyances, by burning, flooding, or eating each pest. As food hit her stomach for the first time, the five came to a unanimous agreement. They had a shared stomach, and a shared hunger, so they would work together to eat. Each seemed to have their own preference, Blue wanted fish, Green wanted plants, Red wanted fresh meat, Black wanted the dead of any sort, and White wanted the essence of life. They scrounged the island for what it had to offer, but the island was soon desolate, and with a combined effort, the Mother of Dragons took flight for the first time.

Tiamat flew south and east for no other reason than Blue and White constantly scooping up ocean life. Upon finding land, Green, Red, and Black took up their own palate’s pleasure, quickly scouring the land and proceeding to make what is now known as the Badlands, thanks to Green, Black, and White leaving nothing to the cycle of life. Everything that could, ran. Anything that couldn’t, died. Tiamat was nigh unstoppable, until she stopped herself. In the middle of her feast, she stopped, and instead of Green eating its share, began to rip the trees out of the ground as Tiamat’s claws cleared the root system, with Red searing the ground into a sturdy hole, and Blue cooling it afterwards. It was then White who seemed to lead as-‘

Spike skipped the next two pages as he did not need that much information.

‘When the five eggs were properly arranged, Tiamat curled protectively about them. Four of the heads then began to sleep, as Black took an ever vigilant guard, keeping a very steady hold of Tiamat’s bladed tail.’

Spike put the book down as he felt the eggs begin to stiffen from overcooking and scrapped them onto awaiting plates. He sprinkled his own with rubies and took the two plates over to the adjoining dining room, which had Rarity’s name all over it. There were pink drapes that faded in nicely with the purple and blue crystal walls to make the place feel warmer, along with a white dining cloth that hid the dark purple dining table from the main focus of the room. Spike had actually hesitated the first time Twilight and he had used it as it had been made by Rarity, but Twilight had insisted that a dining room was meant for dining, so to was the cloth. Besides, it was a cloth. Spike put the plates down and pondered what else they would need, and shrugged as orange juice was the only thing to come to mind. So he fetched a pitcher, two glasses, and his books. Upon a second thought, he also picked up two heat retaining covers just in case Twilight took too long with her letter.

Covering the two meals, Spike sat in his chair and propped his book up again.

‘It was a year before the four awoke to the sound of hatching eggs. Each egg cracked and splintered to reveal five, near on clones of Tiamat, one of each head. As each mewed for food, the five collectively-‘ Spike was happy he hadn’t eaten yet ‘-regurgitated a pool of various things Tiamat had eaten. The five eagerly devoured the pool and began crawling about their nest. It had been at this point that Starswirl the Bearded approached Tiamat.’

Spike could only look at the last line dumbfounded and in complete and utter disbelief. Starswirl? Really? Had there been absolutely nopony else to look into this? It even said before that the Princesses were around already, why hadn’t they looked into Tiamat? And weren’t the Badlands a fair distance away from the Everfree where Celestia and Luna’s first castle had been?

The sound of the dining room door opening made Spike look up to see Twilight taking slow steps in. She made her way over to her chair and sat with a graceless ‘thump’. She lifted away the cover to find the fresh scrambled eggs beneath, but looking to either side, she gave a small smile.

“Forgetting something Spike?” Twilight asked, finally looking up to him. While he did see a playful spark, that was only on the surface, and something much heavier was behind her eyes. But finally looking at the table, Spike smacked his forehead. He had forgotten the forks. “It’s all right, I’ve got them.” Twilight said as a pair of forks made their way from the kitchen to the table.

“Heh, guess I see how it is when you’re reading now.” Spike chuckled as he grabbed his fork out of the air as Twilight let go.

“You’ve been reading that book still?” Twilight’s eyebrow raised as she stuck her fork in her eggs, seeming to forget what she had been brooding over.

“Yeah, and I think I might have found where something might be amiss.” Spike said as he flipped to his last page and turned the book towards Twilight. “Was Starswirl the only pony to do anything noteworthy?”

Twilight scanned the page and chuckled. “Yeah, you picked a good bit. Starswirl was studying and teaching Celestia and Luna 1,456 years ago, and from what I’ve found in some of his more… ‘personal’ journals, those were not days to leave the Princesses unattended. There’s no way Starswirl was there to meet Tiamat and her hatchlings.”

“But… somepony did, didn’t they?”

Twilight was silent for a moment. “I don’t know Spike, maybe. But remember that ‘The Life and Fall of Tiamat’ should be-“

“Taken with a brick of salt, yeah yeah.” Spike wove Twilight off.

“A pinch of salt.” Twilight corrected. With a heavy sigh, she began eating her eggs as she poured both Spike and herself a glass of juice. Spike began eating and reading. “And put that book down, mister. It’s rude to read at the table.”

Spike looked up at Twilight with eyes that said ‘says the mare who does the same thing’. She huffed and busied herself in her basic eggs, and Spike began again.

‘It had been at this point that Starswirl the Bearded approached Tiamat. No words were exchanged between the two. Tiamat saw no threat in the unicorn, and was either planning to eat him, or let her little ones have their first hunt. The hatchlings White and Red seemed to give the most interest to Starswirl, but neither seemed inclined to attack him. Black, Blue, and Green mulled about in their mother’s nest, testing their legs and experimentally flapping their wings. Red gave up his interest and lay down to rest, but White opened his jaw, a cold mist of death rolling out as it began its first attempt at sapping life. But the mist went around the unicorn, both to Strswirl’s and Tiamat’s fascination and White’s irritation. When White was too exhausted to continue the mist, it had completely surrounded the unicorn, but came nowhere near to consuming him. Tiamat moved to kill Starswirl herself, but as she shifted, Starswirl disappeared with a flash of magic. White screamed in frustration, but Tiamat roared at the blatant defiance. She had shown weakness, and she could not, would not tolerate this.

Tiamat and her clutch soon moved as the six of them needed to eat. The young White and Black moved in tandem, White’s mist sapping the force of life out of his surroundings, while Black munched on their remains. Blue moved up river with Green moving beside her. The two set themselves about a giant lake, allowing the two ample time to taste test and learn. Red stayed beside his mother as she continued her path of annihilation. The Badlands grew substantially, but in time, Tiamat found she needed a proper rest, and returned to the nest she made for her first clutch.

Such a time was not upon her children however. Without his mother’s guiding force, Red began to roam to find what could interest him. Blue had long since left the lake and had made her way to the open ocean, feasting on whatever struck her fancy. Green had decided to stay in the forest however, and had even started becoming friends with the animal life therein. She garnered a high standing amongst them for eating troublesome plants. Black and White still moved side by side, but Black soon found he wanted to do more than eat and began to wonder what those he ate were like before White came along.

They would soon learn to play while their mother was away.’

Chapter Two: Proliferating the Races

Author's Note:

Dunno if the 'The Life and Fall of Tiamat' should be formatted differently or if it's okay as it is.

This was gonna be a one shot, but then to many ideas come, so here comes "Creation Myths: Dragon Edition"

Comments

[Eonflare]

Now, the question is, 'how accurate was that book?'