Dragon Quarry

by Mimkage

The Stronghold

Darkness, that was all Spike could see. All around him all he felt was cold nibbling away at him. He couldn’t move nor could he speak. All that was there was an empty silence that gripped him to his very soul. While to most this would drive one to insanity to Spike this felt oddly familiar and safe to be alone in the silence.

That is, until a voice resonated from somewhere far away.

“My little gemstone, my precious gemstone. You make me happy when we’re alone. No matter how gray the blinding snow fall, my arms will always keep you warm.”

A delicate light began to radiate in the distance growing larger and larger. With it reassuring warmth came, washing over his body as his heart felt strangely at peace. Suddenly, the light flashed over him, smothering his heart with the feeling of calmness he never knew before.

“Sleep now, my little gemstone.”

A silhouette, blurred in the light, became visible to him as he realized he was cradled in a pair of arms.

“Sleep now.”

Spike’s eyes opened, finding himself being carried by the cloaked stranger with the warmth he felt coming from a flame they blew with every exhale. It served to warm the air they breathed in and to fight off the cold attacking the tiny dragon they held. He didn’t move, just looked up at them, as they entered a cave carved into the side of a mountain made of ice.

“Where…?” Spike muttered, still feeling weak as his muscles refused to move no matter how hard he tried. While his voice was mostly drowned out by the whirling sounds of the wind outside the stranger still noticed he made a noise and looked down at him.

“Well well, good morning sleeping beauty.” They chuckle, continuing to make their way deeper into the cave. Soon, they came to a dead end with an odd carving chipped into the wall with a hoof-sized hole in the middle. The stranger stopped before it and took in a deep breath before unleashing a powerful fire blast the hole. Nothing happened for a moment, confusing Spike, until he felt the ground rumble under them. The carving glew, a light splitting it in half and opening like a pair of doors.

As the door opened, Spike’s eyes widened in wonder. Crystals covered the walls everywhere as the cave opened up into a giant, underground air pocket that rivaled the size of the entirety of the Crystal Empire. Rocks were carved into homes with hole dotting the sides of the giant pocket. Moss acted as grass, covering the walls, floors and roofs of some to the homes in a decorative way. But, the thing that really caught his eye, was a giant, green, gemstone planted in the very center of the caverns. In a way it was like the empire’s castle but just a hunk of crystal rather than a carved piece.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Spike looked up the stranger, noticing softness filling their usually taunting voice. Carefully, they put Spike down and while he struggled to maintain his balance he managed to stand on his own.

“What is this place?” He looked around, amazement filling him as he took in every detail of the area.

“Welcome to the Stronghold, home sweet home.” They finally removed their hood, revealing to Spike at last who they were.

Scales lustrous and pink with soft, long white back and head scales flowing down their side, Spike was amazed as he saw this stranger was in fact a wingless dragon and boy was she a beautiful dragon to say the least. Her emerald colored eyes looked down at the awestruck dragon before her, making her chuckle as she patted his head.

“What’s wrong, Pony Pet? Surprised?” There it was, that taunting tone Spike had grown accustom to. So many questions rushed through his little head that all that escaped his mouth were odd stutters as he looked up at her.

“I’ll take that as a ‘yes’.” She stood; removing her cloak completely and tossing it aside to allow her long, slender, snake like body drink in the open air she had denied it for so long. Her tail was the length of her body, slamming onto the ground as she went down to all fours and stretched out her limbs. Spike didn’t know how to respond. How was he suppose to respond? Everything displayed before him overwhelmed him.

Finishing her stretch; she gazes at him with a smirk on her face.

“Race ya to the giant green gem!” With that she was off like a bullet, slithering down the sharp slope leading down to the ground. Spike ran after her, nearly falling off the edge only to catch himself with his claws.

“W-woah!” Thankfully, he managed to dig himself into the slope side and spare himself a painful tumble for the moment. Looking over his shoulder he watched the pink dragon make her way off to the green crystal, almost completely out of sight from how far ahead she had gotten.

Just then, a baby, yellow dragon even younger than him passes him by casually with its little head held up high. He didn’t have time to dwell on it though as the ground began to shake. Looking up, he panics as he sees a giant, adult, slender, yellow dragon make it’s away down towards him. He scrambled to the side, just barely evading getting squashed by a giant foot. However, doing this made him lose his grasp as he rolled down the slope; earning him a face plant with the ground bellow.
He stayed like that for a moment, groaning as he pulled himself up and rubbed his nose.

“Ow ow ow…. Why do these things always happen to me?” Taking a moment to look around he began to see more and more dragons crawl out of the holes in the walls and from the homes planted on the bottom. They all seemed to head towards the green crystals the pink dragon had scampered off to.

“Woah, that’s a lot of dragons.” He stood taking in everything before walking towards the crystal while keeping his eyes out as more and more dragons passed him. Small dragons, like him, did walk on two legs like so not many adults paid much attention to him but the larger dragons all seemed to walk on all fours with most of them looking either snake like and thin or bulky and strong.

He did his best to blend in, but his muscles still ached horribly from before so he walked pretty slowly and struggled to walk straight. In his mind he expected some dragon to make fun of him or bully him since that was all he knew of dragons but something else happened instead.

“Are you okay?” Spike looked up, seeing a large, bulky, orange towering over him. Seeing them Spike scrambled, falling over as his muscles couldn’t keep up. He trembled as he looked up at them, terror filling his entire body. They just stared at him with a pair of blue eyes wearing a stern look.

“Hey, are you just gonna stare at mommy like that?” Hearing another voice seemed to distract Spike for a second, tilting his head. Suddenly, a little tiny dragon, slightly shorter than him, popped over the bulky dragon’s head.

“Mommy?” Spike looked closer, almost not believing this huge being was a female.

“I’ll ask again, are you okay?” The dragon lowered their giant head down to Spike, trying to seem less threatening as she asked again. It seemed to work as Spike stood, struggling to do so, in an attempt to look tough.

“I’m okay. Just a little sore.” He said, attempting to turn and continue to walk only to have the large, orange dragon grab onto his tail with her mouth and pick him up.

“W-woah!” Gently, she places Spike on her back along with her son, releasing his tail and began to walk again.

“You should rest then. Don’t push it, you’ll just hurt yourself little one.” He seemed surprised, staring at her with confusion. But his confusion wasn’t allowed to stay long as her son jumped on his back playfully with a small growl.

“Hiya! I’m Splinter and that’s my momma! It’s nice to meet you!” He said, his tail swooshing from side to side. Now having a closer inspection of him, he looked similar to Spike but his tail was longer with similar colors to his mom and his back scales and frills were all diamond shaped, sharpened at the tips. He seemed nice, if a bit hyperactive.

“My name is Crush.” Said the giant dragon, keeping her eyes set on where she went.

“And you are?” It was obvious she was much less quirky than her son but she seemed nice enough. Spike’s expression soon changed from one of confusion to a smile as he properly sat and answered them.

“My name is Spike!”

He didn’t know what it was, he couldn’t explain it, but his he felt so overwhelmingly happy in this moment; just hanging out with a group of nice dragons. He heard Crush chuckle, looking back at him with a smile.

“It’s nice to meet you, young Spike.”

Comments

[Draconicus the Reaper]

good story so fare I looked forward to the next chapters

[Kikyoyaoi]

So looking forward to the next chapters. Keep it up G <3

[The Zebra Hybrid]

Crush? AND she's orange.......

I see what you did there.....

Now I want some orange soda..

[ThePonyBlues]

Aww... happy spike is best spike :)