The Rise of Species: Dragons

by Zarmflamekin

Meeting Royalty

Spike quickly kicked about to see Princess Luna standing behind him, eyes wide and wings flared.

“Princess Luna? What are you doing in my dream?” Spike asked, making Luna’s amazed look snap over to the small drake. Luna snapped her attention from between the meeting of Pyrathy and the dragoness and Spike multiple times before slowly approaching Spike, her eyes now glued on Pyrathy. Spike was now more than a bit suspicious and scared of Luna’s actions.

Spike looked back to see what Luna was being so weary of, and noticed that Pyrathy’s pupil had shifted up, no longer looking to the dragoness, but him. And he once more saw the smile before being covered in dark blue feathers.

“Gah!” Spike yelped in surprise as he was dragged backwards, suddenly finding himself hit the ground. When Luna’s wings retracted, Spike was left looking into a void with white mists and pinpoints of lights. Looking down, Spike could see he was actually sitting on some of that white mist. When he heard Luna let out a long sigh, Spike’s ire was more than a bit touched. He looked behind him to see Luna sitting, looking more than a bit shaken.

“What was that about?” Spike asked hotly as he hopped to his feet. “There was nothing wrong with my dream Princess!”

Luna looked up, shock very apparent, and blinking a few times without understanding, tilted her head to the side. “Spike, that was no dream.”

“What?” It was Spike’s turn to blink in disbelief. Luna took the moment to stand and gain some of her composure back.

“When Twilight sent her letter, she indicated that you had been visited in your dreams by this Pyrathy. It was not my intention to disrupt such a meeting, only to be a safety net of a sort. But when I searched for you tonight… well…” Luna raised her left wing, Spike looking to see her indicating to three doors, one purple and pink, one white and light blue, and one lime green and dark blue. “These are the dreams I found out here.”

“And mine’s not there because I’m here, right?” Spike asked hopefully. Luna shook her head in disillusionment.

“Yours is as such.” Luna’s magic glowed, a purple and green door rising alongside the other three. Oddly, Spike noticed, the ones for Twilight and the Guards were square and wooden, while his was an arc and metal. “Dragons are naturally very magic resistant.” Luna stated. “Normally, I am unable to interfere with any dream a dragon makes unless under extreme duress or permission, even you Spike. But tonight, I did not find you here.” Spike’s door dropped into nonexistence once more. “Instead, I followed you to where you were.”

“So… that wasn’t a dream?” Spike asked, more than a bit confused. Luna sighed as she massaged the bridged of her nose, not liking what she needed to tell Spike.

“You were not dreaming Spike; you were astral projecting yourself.” Luna finally said.

“Wait, like, my soul left my body?” Spike began patting himself down. Maybe he really was dead! Only when Luna placed a reassuring hoof over his frantic claws did his panic stop rising. He looked up to Luna’s serene look.

“You need not worry young one, you are safe. What happened to you is essentially a much higher grade of the dream walking I do to ward away nightmares across Equestria. Except, where I manifest myself within the subconscious of our citizens, you had manifested in full within the world. And, to tell the truth, if I had not been following your trail, I do not know if I could have as easily done the same.”

“So, what I was just watching was actually happening?”

Luna nodded. “That is correct.”

“And you were surprised to see Pyrathy?”

Luna bit her lip. “Y-Yes. Spike, you must know, my sister and I have never seen him or his siblings before. And to be honest, to know that a dragon of his size, much less four more, exist within the world… it terrifies me.”

“Terrifies you?” Spike asked, aghast. “But you’re the princess of the moon. You and Princess Celestia control something that took councils of other unicorns to attempt to do!”

Luna chuckled. “And by all accounts, they are massive feats. But for all of our power, Spike, we are still ponies.” Luna looked up and gazed out into the sparkling void. “This Pyrathy seems to essentially hold the same rank amongst dragons that We do. And We do not know more than hearsay about them.”

Spike looked up to Luna questioningly. “Uh, I don’t know if Twilight told you or not, but we have an entire book accounting for Pyrathy and the others. It’s called The Life And Fall of Tiamat, Mother of Dragons.”

Luna’s expression only softened slightly. “And We know of it, but do not take too much of it for fact. I have read some of the accounts of Nightmare Moon that were written well after I was banished, least to say they had some…” Luna winced. “Interesting theories on how I fell so.”

“Oh?”

“A lot of which have been collected into fiction now.” Luna chuckled in embarrassment, before clearing her throat. “But what I mean to say, Spike, is to not believe everything you have read about him.”

“Not like there’s a lot to go on.” Spike mumbled.

“Be that as it may,” Luna gave a small smile. “I also do not mean for you to be hostile. Treat him as you would any new pony.”

Spike considered her words for a moment before resolutely nodding. “I will Princess.” Spike looked back out into the void, something still not sitting right with him. “So, you followed me?”

“That is correct.” Luna affirmed.

“How?” Spike looked back to Luna. “How could you tell I was… out of my body?”

Luna’s face twisted in thought. “This isn’t something I usually have to explain, so forgive any… foggy explanations.” Luna stepped beside Spike, again raising his dream door. “The magic that allows me to enter dreams allows me access the minds of others, asleep or awake. When accessed, my perception becomes that of the one I am reading, how they see the world, how others appear to them. I can then direct their vision towards a desired outcome, even involving other points of view,” Luna shifted Twilight’s and Spike’s doors to be side by side, their frames merging together. “Never changing how they think, only what to think about.”

“However, when I came to find what could be intruding on your dream, instead of this door to your subconscious, I instead found this.” Spike’s door melted away, the green and purple slag beginning to glow a dull red as it began to slither out from their white walkway. “I could identify your presence within the path, but not the aura around it, though it did seem benign. Following this path lead me to you.”

“So Pyrathy did call me out.” Spike concluded.

“It would appear so.” Luna concurred as the conjured path vanished.

“But then, what about the other dragoness that was there? Did he call her too?”

“That I cannot say, but for one as young as her to be out here may not be coincidence.”

“How so?”

“There is a dragon colony to the west of you, surprisingly about the population size of Ponyville. She may have been called or she may have come here herself, but coming alone speaks to the former.”

“Well it’s not like she can’t take care of herself.” Spike huffed as he crossed his arms.

“Oh? You could tell that by looking?” A teasing smile played on Luna’s lips.

“More like first-hoof experience.” Spike replied flatly, Luna’s smile dropping immediately.

“What kind of experience.”

“Pointed Eye went for firewood and got into a scuffle with her.” Spike explained plainly. “The rest of us showed up to see what was up, and then Twilight teleported all of us out. Camp’s been warded and I believe in Twilight to have made every precaution.”

“And you’re sure the one to attack Corporal Pointed Eye and the dragoness we witnessed were the same?”

“Unless there’s another purple-black dragoness with white spines, pretty sure.”

“I see.” Luna concluded, a letter already being drafted in her head. “Words will need to be had.”

“Really? With who?”

Luna sighed. “As little as We interact with them, there is a designated leader of the dragons. We may need to reiterate what preying conditions apply in Equestria. Especially when it comes to our Guard. Honestly, you would think they would notice the armor plating.”

“Mmm.” Spike groaned in dissatisfaction.

“My apologies, I did not mean to offend you Spike.” Luna took an apologetic bow.

“Oh, no no Princess!” Spike waved both of his claws frantically. “It’s just that Pointed Eye said she went for his head first, but her claws looked a lot sharper than the nicks that were on it.”

Luna raised her head and inquisitive brow. “Are you defending her actions?”

“Eh, yes and no?” Spike shrugged, unsure of exactly what he was saying. “Just, maybe think of how often a Guard would actually be out near here? She did seem rather… playful, at the time?” Spike said, but he remembered the look the dragoness had given him, and her ‘playing’ could be a lot deadlier than normal.

Luna chuckled, surprising Spike quite a bit. “I’ll take you on your word Spike. But should you meet her, and actually speak, maybe tell her to tone down her ‘playing’.”

“Yes Ma’am.” Spike saluted dutifully.

“Now, as for the rest of our night, I’m afraid since you’ve been conscious this whole time, a dream is not awaiting you this night. I could, however, send you into a dreamless sleep that will have you rested by the morning.”

“Yeah, sounds good enough.” Spike sighed. “Could you check on the other three, since you’re here?”

“I would not dream otherwise.” Luna smiled as she rose Spike’s door once more, this time the door swung inward without assistance. Spike happily walked into the hazy gray room beyond.

“Thank you Princess Luna.” Spike turned and waved.

“My pleasure.” Luna dipped her head in acknowledgment before shutting the door, and Spike’s consciousness went fuzzy once more.

…

“Spiiiike.” Twilight whispered overhead. “It’s time to get up sleepyhead.”

Spike smiled groggily. “Five more minutes.”

Twilight smiled mischievously, making Spike’s smile falter. “Sorry, but we need to pack.” She said with no remorse as her magic glowed, and Spike soon found himself rolling onto the hard ground.

“Mmm, I was kidding.” Spike grumbled as he proceeded to get up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

“And I’m keeping to the schedule.” Twilight replied as Spike’s sheets were folded up and began to shrink. “We have granola if you want any for breakfast.”

“Eh, pass.”

“All right, suit yourself.” Twilight chirped as she made her way out of the tent. Spike noticed the tent was now entirely empty, so Twilight must have given him at least a little extra time while she had packed her things. He made his way outside to find Pointed Eye and Steady Wing sitting in front of the chariot waiting, eating their breakfast, their tent already gone and packed.

Feeling a bit guilty at his lack of help, Spike pulled the tent spikes out of the ground and proceeded to roll up the tent around its poles and spikes as tightly as he could before picking it up and carrying it over to Twilight, who seemed to contemplating how their supplies had been packed in the first place, as multiple shrunken sheets and pillows floated about her head.

“You might be missing a piece.” Spike smiled as he held up the tent to Twilight.

“Hm?” Twilight looked up a bit dazed. “Oh, yes, thank you Spike.” She said near absently as she lifted and shrank the tent, quickly finding the pattern everything had been packed in and shutting the case.

“Something on your mind?” Spike asked, pretty much already knowing it was probably something to do with Princess Luna.

Twilight sighed. “Did… you happen to speak with Princess Luna last night?”

“Yeah, thanks for that heads up by the way.” Spike chuckled, but Twilight winced.

“Sorry about that, I should have told you I asked her to look out for you.”

“Eh, no harm no foul.” Spike shrugged.

“But did she seem a bit, I don’t know, cryptic to you?”

“Uh, no.” Spike grimaced in confusion. “She seemed pretty straight to me.”

“Ugh, maybe I’m just not remembering clearly enough.” Twilight grunted in agitation. “I know she said something about the forest creature not being a threat, but-“

“Dragoness.” Spike corrected.

“What?” Twilight asked in confusion.

“What?” The Guards asked in accusation, their head’s snapping to the conversation.

“What? Wasn’t that one obvious?”

“Spike, none of us got a clear look at that thing.” Twilight informed him. “We barely had a second of sight on it before we got out of there.”

“And you’re sure something that fast and small could be a dragon?” Steady Wing asked as he rounded the chariot to enter the conversation proper.

Spike just looked up at the corporal with a deadpan stare as he gestured down at himself.

“Well, yes, if… she’s only a bit older, she could fit the body size.” Twilight contemplated. “But I’ve never accounted for a dragon being that fast…” Twilight facehoofed. “And that’s why she said it was taken care of, because if she’s a dragon then the Princesses contact the Dragon King.”

“They have a king?” Pointed Eye asked, still at the front of the chariot. “I thought they just lived as they pleased.”

“Which they can pretty much do because of the Dragon King.” Twilight explained. “The Princesses hammered out the details a long time ago and they pretty much haven’t been touched since.” Twilight gave Spike a nervous smile “I may have read up on modern dragon interactions while I packed.”

“But if we are dealing with a dragoness, and we have interaction settlements, then why were we attacked last night?” Steady Wing asked.

“Well… your armor is rather shiny.” Spike gave a nervous half chuckle as he scratched the back of his head, looking down and away from Steady Wing’s heated glare.

“Seriously?”

“Hey, I went for less.”

Steady Wing took a deep breath, and let out an irritated sigh. “The damage was rather minor, and it did seem like the scratches were more toward ripping off than puncturing.”

“Not to mention she seemed to be a lot faster than me, I was feeling pretty toyed with.” Pointed Eye added.

“She did seem to be having fun.” Spike admitted.

“How do you know so much about her?” Steady Wing asked.

“Careful observation?” Spike replied less than helpfully. “Also, we’re probably going to have to be on the lookout for her today.”

“Why? She’s in the forest.” Pointed Eye nodded in the forest’s general direction.

“Not from what I saw last night.”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?” Steady Wing asked.

“Assuming all things to be true, I left my physical body last night and witnessed our dragoness having a meeting with Pyrathy.” Spike delivered flatly, waiting for reactions.

“I don’t believe you.” Pointed Eye said.

“I can’t believe you.” Steady Wing stated.

“That’s rather a bold thing to claim.” Said Twilight. “Astral projection is a rather theoretical magical practice and complicated shamanistic practice. To project your body on a whim is unheard of if not impossible.”

“And I would love for you to explain that to a near primordial magical being.” Spike smiled condescendingly, but soon recanted. “But I digress, Princess Luna showed me that Pyrathy basically picked me up and carried me to him.”

“So, two days ago…”

“The same thing happened, or so I think.” Spike nodded.

Twilight was silent for a moment, her face slowly scrunching in contemplation. With a final unsatisfied hum, Twilight sighed. “So, we’ve seen that this dragoness is formidable, but a bit benign. Not to take her lightly though, we need to be faster than her. Spike, we know where to start looking for Pyrathy, and since we can now, tentatively, say that what you’ve seen is where we’ll be going, is there anything else you can say about where we’re going?”

“The only way I know about to him is a singular tunnel, or at least, leading up to him is a single tunnel. It could more than likely have enough room for all four of us to move freely in, but if we needed to dodge around our opponent, I don’t know about that.”

Twilight sighed again as she addressed Steady Wing. “Which is why I’m going to be suggesting something I know you’re not going to like Corporal.” Steady Wing stood a bit more at attention at the mention of his rank. “I’m going to need you two to stay at the cave entrance with the chariot, and possibly leave without us in case of an emergency.”

“Princess! We can’t just-“

“You can and you will.” Twilight cut off flatly. “While I commend your sense of duty, you were asked to be here for escort, for which you and Corporal Pointed Eye have done excellently, but this has never been a combat mission or exercise. And as I demonstrated yesterday, I am more than capable of teleporting more than myself.” Twilight paused to cool her demeanor. “If necessary, the chariot can be left in an emergency, and I trust you and your partner’s judgment on abandoning royal property, as little as it may be. This is an order Corporal, is that clear?”

Both Steady Wing and Pointed Eye stood at attention and saluted. “Yes Ma’am.”

Twilight sighed and let go of her rigid posture she hadn’t even realized she had taken up. “Good, then Steady Wing, Pointed Eye, if you could fly us up, you’ll see a purple marker on one of the pillars, that is your destination.” Twilight directed as she stepped into the chariot and unceremoniously plopped down on the seat. Spike climbed in shortly afterward as Steady Wing made his way to the front.

“You okay Twilight?” Spike asked as he skootched in close.

“I will be.” Twilight said quietly. “I just feel bad about having to push Steady Wing around like this. He’s just doing his job, and I’m making it such a hassle for him.”

“But you did make a point Twi.” Spike pointed out. “We’re not here to fight, and honestly, Steady Wing has seemed on edge about fighting something out here from minute one.” With a slight gurgle from his stomach, Spike reached for the food bag and fished out a small sapphire. “If he only has to worry about himself and Pointed Eye, I think he’ll make a good snap decision. Like he did back in the forest.”

“I suppose.” Twilight conceded as the chariot began to move and lifted off the ground. They quickly ascended high above all of the pillars in the Badlands before banking and heading toward a faint purple beacon. Nothing was said as they approached and Spike snacked, and soon the four were hovering outside of three relatively close crevices.

“Well, which one is it Twilight?” Spike asked as he looked between the three.

“It should be the middle one. Hold on.” Twilight’s horn lit up and three bolts of magic shot out, one entering each opening. “Yep, definitely the center one. The sides only go back for a bit, but the middle one just keeps going.” Twilight turned to address the guards. “You can set us down!”

The two began their decent, slowly landing without a slightest fault. As Twilight and Spike got off the chariot, they heard one of their throats clearing, and turned to find Pointed Eye was catching their attention.

“Please, be careful Princess.” He asked with genuine concern.

“We will, I promise.” Twilight nodded. She dipped her shoulder once more, and Spike happily obliged to hop on. “We’ll come back out here one way or another. If you’re gone, I’m going to assume something went wrong and you had to leave. Until we get back, stay vigilant you two.”

“Yes Ma’am.” Both saluted.

Twilight spread her wings, and soon both she and Spike were making their way down the crevice. It wasn’t even as difficult as Twilight was anticipating, the crevice was wide enough to give even a larger dragon a good amount of wiggle room, and due to the open ended nature of it, there was a steady air current to assist her.

While Twilight was concentrated on flying, Spike was wondering how this confrontation was going to go. Was it going to be urgent? Was it going to be laid back? What was he going to ask? Would he be allowed to ask anything? He was purposefully being pulled to him, so there had to be some sort of conversation, right?

And would they run into the dragoness? If what he saw was what was happening in real time, then she had to be somewhere nearby, if not still here. And what would they do if they did meet her? Run away immediately, or would they try to talk? Would she let them talk? Spike’s claws gripped and twisted the bottom of Twilight’s mane in uncomfortable anticipation.

“Spike?” Twilight said.

“Oh, sorry.” Spike apologized as he let go of her mane.

“Oh, well, thank you, but I asked, which way?”

“Huh?” Spike looked up to see Twilight’s horn lighting up three distinct passages. Above to their left was a tunnel that looked just a bit bigger than they were, ahead of them the cave continued onward and downward, and to their right was a large mound of boulders that had only a small space above it.

“Uh, can’t you do what you did before?”

“I did, but each of them seem to go on equally as long until the spell fizzles. I was wondering if you could make anything different out, being this close.”

Spike looked between the three options before him and tried to feel anything different between them. Which really wasn’t something he thought he could do, but it was worth shot. As his eyes darted between options, Spike felt an odd sense of emptiness from the right, a radiating heat from ahead, an eerie feeling from the left. And something felt familiar about it.

“Left, the best I can say.” Spike responded.

“Are you sure?” Twilight looked over her shoulder.

“As sure as I can be.” Spike nodded. With an affirmative nod, Twilight lifted them up to the small entrance and landed. The cave seemed to be just about as tall as her castle’s hallways, and similarly as wide. Spike hopped off on his own and began walking forward.

“Spike!” Twilight trotted up alongside the drake. “Don’t go wandering off!”

“Sorry.” Spike ducked his head a bit guiltily. “Just wanted to give you a break.”

“Well, stick close, we don’t know if or when we need to leave.” Twilight said as she began to look around, trying to take in any and every little detail.

“Hey, Twi?”

“Hm?”

“Are you okay?”

“Do I seem that nervous?” Twilight smiled a bit in embarrassment.

“Well, yeah, but also, we’re basically meeting the dragon equivalent of Celestia here. Are you okay with that, because I’ve seen you before meeting the Princess.”

Twilight chuckled. “I should really be asking you the same question, really. But to answer your question, yes, I am nervous, quite a bit actually. To be honest, your descriptions haven’t given me a really good sense of what we’re dealing with, and to have the sheer power to pluck your consciousness out of your body honestly scares me. There’s a lot of unknown variables going into this, and it’s making me rather uncomfortable.”

“I hear ya.” Spike nodded. “But you know, I glimpsed at the other book I pulled out, and it had this one line about how if dragons ever needed anything, they could just ask him. But this whole thing makes it seem like he’s trying to ask something of me. And, I think, it’s making me a bit giddy, you know? Like when Princess Celestia called on you for something.”

Twilight looked up in thought, a relaxed smile coming to her. “I guess I know that feeling then.” She looked down to Spike who was mirroring her smile. “I guess we’ll just have to see what happens.”

“Yeah.” Spike nodded and the two began walking side by side down the cave. Twilight still looked about, but Spike noted that it looked a lot less jittery than before. But even though he had acted rather casually about this meeting to Twilight, on the inside it felt like his stomach had liquefied itself. Apparently he was just better at hiding it than Twilight.

Spike wasn’t sure exactly how far or how long they walked, but at some point Spike noticed that his vision was becoming less purple tinted, and instead having a red glow. Suddenly, Spike was having an immense sense of déjà vu.

“We’re close.” Spike barely got above a whisper.

“Really?” Twilight asked, her horn glowing a bit brighter, her eyes going wide a second afterward. “Oh dear Celestia.”

“Do you want to stay back? He’s only expecting me.” Spike offered, but Twilight shook her head furiously.

“I-I’ll leave the conversation to you, but I’m definitely going to be there for you.” She said resolutely. Spike nodded in return and continued on. Going on, the red began to overtake Twilight’s light entirely, and soon, Spike could swear it was perpetual twilight in the cave.

“Is that really necessary anymore Twi?” Spike finally asked.

“Yes, it’s still pitch dark in here.” Twilight replied before fully assimilating the question. When she did, she was struck with the oddity of the question. “Why?”

“’Cause it’s as bright as a sunset now.” Spike began to look around for an adequate reason why he could see just fine.

“Odd, something to look into later.” Twilight mumbled.

Before Spike could ask what she meant by that, Spike spotted a bright light at the end of the tunnel. Quickly assuring himself that he was, in fact, not dead, he picked up his pace.

“We’re here Twilight.” Spike directed over his shoulder, not quite taking her protest’s to wait into account.

When he got to the end of the tunnel, he had to squint a bit at the sudden intensity shift. When he could finally look out, it looked exactly as he remembered it, if not a bit more red.

The cave was still larger than he could fathom, and he could see the massive, statuesque dragon laying in front of him. He watched and barely saw the rise of breath within the dragon, wings nestled comfortably and tail unseen. Even from the distance the platform he was on was the rest of the body, Spike could still make out some movement here and there where he knew scenes of dragon brutality were occurring.

Looking behind, Spike saw Twilight sitting at the cave entrance, a shimmering rock pile of magic attempting to hide her from sight, at which Spike could only chuckle at, but none the less smiled warmly to his family. Twilight smiled back and waved. Spike nodded and looked forward once more to the enormous closed eye, and with one last, deep breath, began.

“Hello?”

Unlike before, there was notable shaking as the eyelid slid up to reveal the royal purple iris and void chasm pupil. Its secondary lid shifted aside and looked ever so slowly downward, and once more, Spike saw a glimmer in that void. Without being violently ejected this time, a deep voice rumbled through the chamber in both an imposing, yet welcoming bass voice.

“Welcome home, Little Spike.”

Comments

[Rammy]

ggggggggAAAAAH! A pox on all cliffhangers!!!!!

[SeventhBrony]

UPDATE and some very interesting stuff going on.
MOAR!!!!

[Hillbe]

"Welcome home Little Spike..."

"I see your mother"------------------------------->

"I smell your mate"--------------------------------->

"I feel your pain"-------------------------------------->

"Feel like some cup cakes?"------------------------>

[StainlessKey]

Great chapter! Can't wait to read the next one...

[Eonflare]

Sooo, why was he called?