The Rise of Species: Dragons

by Zarmflamekin

Message Recieved

“How is it doing that?” Twilight asked as she and Mourning Star began walking towards the scale.

“Due to our Father’s affinity for fire, his body could shape many forms of flame, and this scale that was left here simply channels nearby lava in a perpetual flow to keep it fresh.”

“And Pyrathy just left a scale of his here? What do you make of this… Spike?” Twilight looked back to see Spike’s eyes wide and jumping around everywhere, terror and repulsion clear as day on his face. “Spike! What is it?!” Twilight exclaimed as she rushed back to the drake’s side.

“So much… so much…” Spike was muttering as he shuffled backwards.

“Spike?” Mourning Star looked over his shoulder at the terrified drake. “What’s wrong?”

Spike didn’t even answer as he turned and bolted out the door, closely followed by Twilight. Spike got out a few paces from the shrine building before stumbling over and throwing up his meager gem snacks. Twilight hesitated as another wave hit Spike and another clattering of gem shards hit the floor. When Spike was hunched over, breathing heavily and unsteadily, Twilight approached with caution.

“Spike? What just happened?” She asked as she kneeled beside him, holding a wing over his back, hoping to soothe him.

“There’s so much blood Twilight.” Spike whispered, tears of pain and fear welling in his eyes. “It’s so much worse than Pyrathy’s scales.”

“Isn’t that one of Pyrathy’s scales?” Twilight asked as she looked over her shoulder to see a confused Mourning Star standing in the building’s archway. “Maybe it’s because he’s not here to control what it shows.”

“No.” Spike shook his head, standing up and away from his bile. “That wasn’t any dragon’s life. That was just carnage. I don’t even know where to begin, a lot of things were killing a lot of other things. Gryphons and changelings, hydras and deer, their b-blood moved like water Twilight.” Spike said quietly as he and Twilight turned to look back at the building, Spike's claws clenching to try and stop shaking. “That’s not Pyrathy’s scale.”

Mourning Star looked back into the shrine once more before he bowed his head and stepped out, the door swinging shut on its own behind him. He strode over to the pair with patient step before stopping at an appropriate distance so that he and Spike could see each other in the eye. Spike’s gaze was defiant, while Mourning Star’s was full of pity.

“I have never seen such a violent reaction from a Called before, but the scale of our Father has sensed his Call upon you. Thus, I am willing to listen to what you may believe needs to be changed.”

“Get rid of that scale.” Spike replied immediately, garnering him a sharpened glare from Mourning Star.

“The scale of our Father is the central point of our clan. I cannot just simply ‘get rid of it’. It is our totem and guide in life.”

“And you’re okay with that?” Spike asked in shock and disgust.

“We learn from our Father as he had lead, and shall continue to do so in his absence.” Mourning Star’s voice began to rise.

“In murder and slaughter?!” Spike proclaimed, making Twilight jump in shock, and even gained Dazzle’s attention from the stairs. When she noticed a gleaming spot on the floor next to Spike, she quickly started making her way over.

“Of course not.” Mourning Star berated. “We live by the hunt of food and shaping of our homes. We share the simple joys of living to each generation so that they may learn how to live the same way. What makes you think I would lead this clan on such a self-destructive path?” Mourning Star’s inflamed pride simmered to curiosity, and at that point Spike knew that Mourning Star couldn’t see what he had seen. Spike swallowed nervously, and disgusted by the bile aftertaste, asked:

“When you walk in there,” Spike pointed to the shrine building. “What do you see?”

Mourning Star raised a brow dubiously. “It’s our shrine. I keep it as clear as I can for the scale alone. There is nothing in there aside from it.”

“When I walk in there, I see death.” Spike said resolutely, shocking the clan chieftain and stopping Dazzle in her tracks to see what was wrong. Twilight could only look at him in pity for what he had to continue seeing. “I see creatures killing creatures and letting their blood flow like water. I see carnage and mutilation.” Spike’s gaze flickered over to Dazzle. “And I’ve seen what it does.”

Mourning Star’s gaze followed Spike’s, and turned to confusion as he connected his meaning. “What does Dazzle have to do with that.” He asked not as a question, but as a prompt.

Spike swallowed once again, but his adrenaline rush was gone and he flopped onto his ass. Twilight was quickly beside him with a wing around his shoulder, trying to steady his still shaking body. “You may not believe me, but I’ve had a greed growth.” That one statement made Mourning Star take two steps back, and for a dragon his size, that was quite a distance to take. “So I know what it’s like to be overcome by something natural, yet uncontrollable. It happened to Dazzle when I first told her.” Spike continued on so Mourning Star could hear him.

Yet Mourning Star’s attention snapped to Dazzle. “He told you this?” Dazzle was still unsure what was going on, between the bile, Spike’s accusations, and her chieftain’s question, she didn’t even think of her answer as it came out.

“Yes, a bit after we met outside Father’s cave.”

Mourning Star’s next action made Twilight and Spike gasp as he took one step over to Dazzle and lifted her up by her throat. There was a short gasp from Dazzle as she tried to hold herself up at the chieftain’s claw.

“And you lead him right to the scale?” He snarled. Gone was his kindly demanding demeanor, but in its stead a rapidly boiling fury. Twilight jumped to attention with her horn aglow, ready to do what she needed to to save Dazzle. But Spike’s lethargic demeanor noticed something else aside from the assault.

There was a blood red mist coming from Mourning Star’s eyes as he glared at Dazzle.

He felt he needed to help Dazzle, but his strength still wasn’t with him, but he had at least calmed his breathing enough. “There it is, right there!” Spike called out, pointing accusingly, making Mourning Star look back down at him, and giving Twilight an opportunity to shoot a moderate electric spell at his hand to make him let go of Dazzle. He did so, and the dragoness fell to the ground, but Mourning Star didn’t even seem to notice as he bore down on Spike.

“Where is what?” Mourning Star snarled.

“The red.” Spike replied, pointing directly at Mourning Star's face. "In your eyes." Spike took deep breaths, hoping that he could talk his way out of this.

“Where?” Twilight asked from Dazzle’s side, simultaneously looking over the dragon chief and the neck of Dazzle, hoping her larynx hadn't collapsed. Mourning Star forcibly clenched his shocked hand as he rubbed at his left eye, but it did nothing for him, and nothing to the mist.

“There’s nothing in my eye Whelp.” Mourning Star snarled once more, making the mist flare. Spike noticed that making him even more angry would be detrimental to the situation, but seeing as talking was about the only thing Spike could do, he asked the question on his mind.

“So then why are you angry?”

Mourning Star’s attention snapped back once again to Dazzle. “Because she-!”

“Why?” Spike cut off the tirade, a bit of an edge hitting his own voice. “Why are you angry at her that she didn’t tell you? You just told me you don’t live your life through murder, so why resort to it now?”

“I wasn’t going to kill her!” Mourning Star roared at Spike. “I was…!” And Mourning Star slowed in his speech, his breathing began to slow, and Spike saw the red leave his eyes and understanding dawning in its place. “I was going to break her neck.” He whispered to himself, his eyes widening in horror as he took a few steps back. Mourning Star proceeded to lay down on his stomach with his wings tucked in tight, his tail coming around to be held in his front claws. “That hasn’t happened in a long time.”

Dazzle could only look on in awe as she saw the chief of her clan huddled in front of a whelp he just met who was barely the size of one of his fangs. With one last reassurance from Twilight that there was no lasting damage, the two of them walked to Spike’s side, Twilight even taking a second to swipe the bile far away from them into the flowing lava with her magic. She took her seat once more to Spike’s right as Dazzle lay off a bit to their collective left. Once Spike felt everything had called down once more, he asked again.

“Why were you angry with Dazzle, Mourning Star? I thought you would be angry with me more than anything.”

When there was no response from the chief, Dazzle took it upon herself to answer.

“It was my mother. She succumbed to her greed during a clan meeting and tried to take the scale. Mourning Star had to take care of her once the elders were able to drive her above ground.”

“Oh no.” Twilight gasped as she put a hoof over her mouth, Spike having a similar reaction of shock.

“I was… irrational.” Mourning Star admitted, not meeting anyone’s eyes. “I… I associated greed growths with Dazzle, and blamed her for bringing another on the scale. I honestly don’t know what came over me to do that.”

“But that’s what I’m talking about.” Spike spoke up. “I think that scale is doing something. Both when you and Dazzle had irrational bouts of fear and anger, there was something red coming from both of you, and that scale emanates so much of it that I can see what it really is.”

“But why would one of Father’s scales make us like that? Is there something in the curse we still don’t know?” Dazzle asked.

“Curse?” Mourning Star turned to Dazzle for answers.

“It’s why Pyrathy doesn’t see his children all that often.” Spike explained. “Tiamat cursed him with watching all of his children’s lives on his scales.”

“Before or after fighting here?” Mourning Star asked, making Twilight and Spike stare at him blankly.

“Oh, right.” Dazzle sighed. “Our home is based out of the largest impact crater created in Father and Tiamat’s struggle.”

“And you just assumed the scale was left here on purpose?!” Twilight exclaimed.

“Of course not.” Mourning Star dismissively snorted. “We found it buried here long after the fight when we were trying to discover where the fresh lava kept coming from.”

“And you didn’t once think that it wasn’t Pyrathy’s?” Spike questioned.

“He was the one who shaped our fire, why wouldn’t his good will flow through every piece of Himself?”

“Or, you know, it could be from his murder happy mother.” Spike replied in a deadpan, making Mourning Star scrunch his face in confusion. Spike just sighed. “There’s a lot that may have gotten lost in translation. One is that Tiamat is Pyrthay’s mother, not the other way around.”

That made Mourning Star raise just a bit. “You need to know to whom you speak-“

“Chief.” Dazzle cut in, not even looking at the larger dragon, instead dejectedly looking at the ground. “One of the things Spike said before is that all dragons that he has met have been overly cruel, and we seem to have shown to be no better.” She finally looked up to see Mourning Star’s full attention. “It may not be our normal way, but let us talk. Rash actions have tended to lead us to… unwanted outcomes.” Dazzle finished by absentmindedly rubbing her clavicle, making Mourning Star flinch back.

One deep breath later, Mourning Star leveled his gaze back on Spike. “Perhaps a tale is in order, Spike of No Clan. Tell me of your Call and your thoughts.”

From there the four talked late into the evening. Spike and Twilight told of their time in Canterlot and Ponyville, their escapades and lessons, and of their limited research into the lineage of Tiamat and her brood.

Mourning Star told them of the clans founding in the crater of Tiamat and Pyrathy’s impact and how rich the uncovered ground had been in minerals and gems. Their clan and its lands had been a major trading ground between many clans near and far, for those that chose to associate with others at all.

By the time their impromptu discussion session ended, Spike was leaning against Twilight with quickly fading stamina. Twilight noticed and thought of putting the young dragon to an early bed for the night when a sudden thought struck her.

“Oh no! I need to send a letter!” Twilight perked up, making Spike jolt into wakefulness.

“What for?” Mourning Star asked.

“I told our guard escort that they’d hear from me within a day of following Dazzle to make sure everything was all right. Do you happen to have any paper?”

“We… don’t really have a practical use for paper.” Dazzle answered. “Fire breathing and mining tends to make it illegible. We have tablets to etch in.”

“Oh, uhh…” Twilight glanced at Spike. “Do you think you could send a tablet?”

“I dunno.” Spike shrugged. “Never had to do it before.” Spike began to scratch his head at the logistics. “Then again, does the paper burn and reform, or does it just break down and reform? Even then the weight might be an iss- no, wait, I’ve done volume before, but still, smaller the better.”

Both Dazzle and Mourning Star looked at each other in confusion of the exchange.

“And how would Spike send a tablet to your guards? He had to ride here on you.” Dazzle broached.

“Oh, no, Spike sends letters between Celestia and myself with his fire.” Twilight dismissively explained, making the two dragons even more confused.

“That’s not how fire works.” Morning Star said. “It heats and burns, it does not… magically transport things.”

“Well, yeah, usually.” Spike said, a new bit of information dawning on him. “But some time after I hatched, I started to be able to send things to Celestia by breathing fire on it, and she basically uses a reverse spell to send things back through me. Can’t you do anything special with your fire?”

Mourning Star shook his head, and with a low rumble in warning, he turned his head aside and let out a long breath of yellow fire. Dazzle responded in kind with letting her own small flow of red fire a little ways out in front of her in demonstration.

“It is fire and our life blood, but that’s about all.” Mourning Star explained.

“Well, maybe not.” Twilight said with a look of deep thought, making Mourning Star quirk a brow at her presumptuous knowledge on dragons. “You said you trade with other clans, I presume with living accommodations such as these, quite a few of your goods require metals, correct?”

“Indeed.” Mourning Star affirmed.

“And do you use hammers or clamps or water when forging?”

“That’s apprentice level forging.” Dazzle answered. “Higher levels just use their fire and claws.”

That made Twilight smile. “One thing I liked to study back in Canterlot was passive magic use that just seemed natural to those that used it. I think here is an example of how your clan has just simply internalized your methods to the point of second nature.”

“Also, didn’t you say that fire was necessary to hatch dragon eggs Dazzle?” Spike added. “I hardly think regular fire does that.”

“Hm, true.” Mourning Star mused. “There are many things to consider now. As for now, Dazzle, take them with you.” Mourning Star nodded toward the stairs. “I’ll be coming up tomorrow to address the clan about our future.”

“Yes chief.” Dazzle bowed her head before standing and heading back.

“She’ll get you what you need, whether a tablet will work or a messenger.” Mourning Star addressed Twilight. “I may not like dealing with other races, but I also do not seek open conflict.”

“Thank you Mourning Star.” Twilight stood and bowed, Spike standing up right along side her.

“And please, feel no rush about your stay. There’s a lot of work to be done.” And with his final statement, Mourning Star stood to his towering height and turned back to his tent. Twilight and Spike wasted no time to get back to the stairs to the surface with Dazzle leading them once more. There was no conversation on the way back up, but as Dazzle reached the top and began making her way outside, she hesitated.

“This is going to be… difficult.”

“Difficult?” Spike asked.

“There are going to be questions about what we just talked about.”

“And due to its sensitive subject material, you don’t want us telling anypony about it.” Twilight surmised as the two caught up to Dazzle’s side. “That’s not going to be hard.”

“Mmm, dragons are a lot more confrontational than ponies, and as I can tell you, we can tell when you’re side stepping the topic.” Dazzle replied, stoically looking ahead. “So I urge you to say nothing even more now than before, since they’re going to want to know. And we have to stop at the refining sector for a tablet since I don’t keep any with me.”

“So yeah, no pressure.” Spike joked sarcastically as he let out a nervous chuckle. As Dazzle glanced down to the pair, a forlorn look passed over her, still wondering if she should regret this decision of bringing the two here.

“We’re going to be moving levels, so it’ll be easier if you hitch onto Twilight once more, Spike.”

Spike gave her a friendly smile as Twilight dipped down to accommodate him once more. Once he was situated, Dazzle put on a stony expression as she set out of the entrance den. Once she had enough space, she immediately snapped open her wings and took off, leaving Twilight and Spike to wince at the dust before promptly following. It did not escape Spike’s notice that this was also a very effective way to cut down on unwanted interaction.

One short glide and level up, the three landed close to the wall that separated the second and third levels and began to walk in silence. Spike let his head swivel as he saw more dragons either eyeing them with intent or dismissing them, as well as carvings above the entrances in the wall. The carvings were crude, but effective in their message, as one showed a square with crisscrossing lines that he saw some dragons with buckets of dirt with some gleaming pieces showing through that made Spike think of a stop that sifted through dirt for necessary items. Another carving depicted a half circle over what he could only assume was fire, and from the smell of it, could only be a restaurant of sorts. Maybe if he could convince or sneak away from Twilight, he was a bit curious to see if he could stomach it.

Interestingly, the entrance they entered had only a square with two squiggly lines inside of it, and as they made their way in, Spike could see why so little was needed in the depiction. The store, for lack of a better term, widened out quite a bit just inside, but there was practically nothing aside from a raised stone table a way in and rows of rock slabs on shelves that seemed to simply form out of the wall.

“Hello?” Dazzle called out. At her voice, a red glowing arch came from the back of the store, and Spike could even make out some similar designs to the altar’s door. As it swung out, a much heavier heat rolled in from the door as a bipedal bronze dragon poked their head out. Seeing the three, the dragon smiled as they came out fully.

Her form screamed feminine to Spike as she walked out, and while small in comparison to Dazzle, still ended up taller than Twilight. She had no wings, but had a row of three small, round horns from down her snout. As she walked over to the table, she put one hand on the waist high table and deftly swung herself up as to have her legs start dangling off the other side.

“What’s the occasion Dazzle?” The dragoness asked in a pretty cheery tone. “Not like you to stop by for a chat.”

“And I’m not Chromie.” Dazzle replied as she looked over to Twilight, and just saw a striking awe in both her and her charge. “We’re here for a small tablet for a short message. But maybe she might be here for a chat.”

“Can I study you?” Twilight near blurted out, making Chromie break out into a fit of giggles.

“What?” She managed to gasp out.

“How do you manage such finesse? I’ve never seen a dragon be able to handle themselves so fluidly.” Twilight explained.

“Hmph.” Dazzle snorted as she looked away. Spike gave her an apologetic look for Twilight’s blunt forgetfulness.

“It’s nothing any trained dragon can’t do, honestly.” Chromie chuckled as her eyes drifted up to the dragon on the pony’s back. “Though if he’s your only source, I can see why.” Spike’s own gaze wandered to the floor as a heat of embarrassment shot into his cheeks.

“What do I keep telling you?” Twilight smirked over her shoulder.

“Shut up.” Spike mumbled back, trying and ultimately failing to gracefully jump off Twilight's back to prove a point. This just lead to Chromie and Twilight giggling for a second.

“On topic Chromie.” Dazzle course corrected the conversation. “Can you get us a small tablet?”

“Hmm.” Chromie’s head began to swivel as she considered the shelves. “How long’s the message?”

“Not long, just a note to let Princess Celestia and our guard to know everything’s going fine. Might need in a stipulation to ask her to send word to Ponyville to tell ponies where we’ve gone.” Twilight considered.

“Hmm, that’s pretty long. You might need a medium tablet just in case.”

“How big is that?” Spike asked, straightening himself out. “I don’t wanna burn myself out.”

“A bit smaller than that.” Chromie waved to her left near a bottom shelf. The tablets she indicated were a bit bigger than Ponyville’s city hall doors. Spike gulped and shrank back a bit at that, but Twilight looked at it curiously.

“I don’t think we need that much space for it.” After a second, a lightbulb sprang to life in Twilight’s head and snapped her attention to Dazzle. “How do dragons write? Or read?”

“Uh, Chromie?” Dazzle awkwardly fielded the question over to the bit puzzled dragon. Chromie leaned all the way on her back as she seemed to look for something under the table. When she sat back up, she was holding a shard of rock that had one flat surface that was about as long as a baseball bat. She proceeded to flick one claw out as she began to smoothly carve into the shard. After a second she turned it around to show an open three-pronged claw next to an arch-like indent that took up the entire shard.

At Twilight’s quirked head, Chromie explained. “This says ‘Welcome to my home’. It’s something some dragon’s around here have taken to hanging outside their homes in greetings.”

“So you write in glyphics? Fascinating.” Twilight murmered as she levitated the shard from Chromie’s claw, studying the two glyphs closely. “But this seems largely inefficient. This much space could be used for more than two glyphs.”

“It has to be big for people to see.” Chromie stated nonchalantly as she leaned back.

“From a distance for a sign? Sure. But if this is supposed to be the size for the standard written word? No.” Twilight shook her head. As an idea dawned on her, she asked. “Can I use this for testing?” she lifted the shard a bit in indication.

Chromie shrugged. “Sure, it’s what scarps are for anyways.”

“Good.” Twilight nodded as her magic flared, shearing the stone face as to erase the last message and smoothing the shard into a uniform beam of stone. As she blew the last bit of stone dust off, she noticed both Dazzle and Chromie staring. “What?”

“That was just an hour of work you did there in two seconds.” Chromie gestured in disbelief.

“And you just cut that stone without a second thought or ounce of effort.” Dazzle added, both statements making Twilight blush a little.

“W-Well, it was simple really. It was just an application of imagined force with nothing too delicate to worry about. Any sufficiently powerful unicorn or earth pony could do it.”

“Yeah, and how many of those do you think these two have met?” Spike smirked at her, making Twilight’s cheek’s burn a bit brighter in wrathful indignation.

“Just get to writing.” Twilight growled as she shoved the expectedly heavy rock into his arms.

“With what?” Spike wheezed. “It’s not like we have any pens.”

“Like a pen would work.” Twilight sighed. “Use your claw like Chromie did. It didn’t seem that hard.”

“Hmph.” Chromie snorted.

“Uh, yeah, Twi?” Spike looked back at Twilight in doubt. “You try doing that with your horn.”

“Spike, that’s not what horns are for.”

“Yeah, and I haven’t used my claws to write in stone before.” Spike sighed in lamentation as he sat down, laying the block in front of himself. He looked at his right hand and saw their nubby points, knowing that wouldn’t cut stone. He had honestly never tried extending his claws before. He knew he had them, and he even knew how to care for them, but he had never actively used them. When his index claw came out, it felt very strange, like he just started using a new knuckle. Then he began to doodle in one side, just to see how difficult it would be to carve in, and funnily enough, it only felt like compacted dirt. Flipping the block to its second side, he looked up expectantly at Twilight, who cleared her throat.

“Dear Princess Celestia, Spike and I have embarked on a journey to begin delegating with a local dragon population. Please tell Corporal Steady Wing and Pointed Eye, as well as our friends in Ponyville, that we are fine and shall be away for a while, but we are within good company. Your friend, Twilight Sparkle.”

With her letter dictated and written on the side of the block, Spike remembered a concern. He looked over to Chromie to ask for another scrap to test if this would work, but he found her standing next to his shoulder, making him jump in shock.

“Hmm, compact, but repetitive. Why does this circle and its variations repeat so much?” She asked, but Spike jumped in before a wide and sparkling eyed Twilight could answer.

“Do you have a smaller scrap I could test on first?”

“Hm? Yeah, one moment.” Chromie walked back around the counter as Dazzle took her own look at the message.

“It’s even smaller than what we have, how do you even know what any of this means?” she asked Spike.

“Practice.” He shrugged. “There’s still a lot of words I can’t spell, but their mostly the one’s Twilight uses when she wants to look smart.”

“Accurate. I use the longer terms when I want to be accurate.” Twilight berated, gaining a chuckle from Spike and Dazzle at her wounded ego.

“Here, this should do for you.” Chromie came back with a piece of stone slightly larger than Spike’s hand.

“Thanks Chromie.” Spike said as he took the stone, finding once again a rough stone with one flat side. Spike clawed in the word ‘test’ into the side, took a deep breath, and blew on the rock. To his and Twilight’s relief, the stone disintegrated and flew out of the store.

“What was that!?” Chromie exclaimed as she grabbed and lifted Spike by his shoulders. “What did you just do?” Spike was a bit scared at the sudden rough handling, but also the manic gleam he saw in the dragoness’ eye, not unlike Twilight discovering a new spell.

“I think he sent a letter.” Dazzle chuckled as she picked both of the two smaller dragons up, separated them, set Chromie on the desk, and Spike next to Twilight. “I will have to admit though, I have never seen green fire before.”

“I’ll have to see why.” Twilight mused. “Perhaps it’s inlaid into a dragon’s magic?”

“Dragons don’t have magic.” Chromie replied, and before a rebuttal could be formed, Spike felt a rumble in his stomach and belched. Yet, instead of an expected letter, they all found a perfectly round, smooth stone one would find from one of the palace rock gardens. Carved onto it was an elegant ‘Test received’.

“Oh.” Twilight’s eyes flicked between the intended message and the received stone. “You should probably tell her to get some space for this one.”

“Good call, Chromie?” Spike asked, but a giddy bronze dragon was already coming with another shard. With a tenuous glance at Chromie, Spike carved ‘Get some Space’ onto the shard and breathed his fire onto it, and again the stone disintegrated into green and grey smoke to fly out of the store.

“You have got to show me how to do that.” Chromie grabbed Spike’s hand. “Orders could be made so much easier.”

“I really don’t know how even I do it, I just can.” Spike shrugged in apology at a forlorn Chromie.

“But if you help with some tests, I could maybe figure it out.” Twilight interjected, perking Chromie up once more. Another warning growl later, Spike belched out another stone that said ‘Ready’. Standing up, Spike took a short breath in and out and rubbed his claws.

“Okay, let’s see if this works. Stand back everybody.” The three did as such as Spike took one massive breath, held it for a second, and unleashed a torrent of green fire on the stone beam. As before, the stone disintegrated away, and a much larger cloud of smoke left the store. As Spike took a breather, he was soon enwrapped by a very proud Twilight.

“That’s so impressive Spike! I’ve never seen you do anything like it.” She praised as she snuggled her cheek on top of his head.

“Hehe, yeah, today’s full of surprises.” Spike chuckled as heat started to come to his cheeks from the praise, which soon began to burn from the sly smiles he saw from the other two, but he decided to revel in the comfort of Twilight’s hug.

It was cut short by a warning grumble that came much faster than the other two. When Twilight backed away, Spike belched out the regular expected scroll and seal. A bit perplexed at this, Twilight picked up the paper and cracked the seal.

She could only read the first two bold words before there was a blinding light.

“YOU’RE WHAT?!”

Comments

[Nightingalehound]

Surprise Princess!!!

[Hillbe]

Yes Princess Celestia I'll tell Spike to stop sending stones!
BonK

ouch!
More tea?
Apple Jack Daniels on the rocks!

[Eonflare]

It's seems not many on this planet know much about each other.