• Published 10th Oct 2018
  • 2,755 Views, 179 Comments

Üā Sūt Cktüis (How to be Dragon) - Rammy



After failing to teach Spike how to fly Twilight asks for Dragon Lord Ember help fill in her gaps of 'dragonish' knowledge. Whom Ember sends in response will send shock waves through Equestria and beyond...

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Chapter 8: Ieslotzījuls (Imprisonment)

A dragon who will not do what must be done will lose both hoard and life. ~ Ancient Dragon Proverb


Šizra awoke with a gasp, the growling sound of a pissed off dragon echoing in his mind. He closed his eyes and took several slow breaths in an attempt steady his racing heart. After a few moments he could feel himself calm down. There was still much he needed to do and he had no know idea how long he had lost consciousness. But as he slowly tried to get up onto his hooves and paws he found himself tripping over his forelegs.

He blinked as he gazed down. Instead of somehow being tangled up in his cloak as he expected he was actually shackled and chained to the floor. What? To further his shock both the shackles and chains were made from pure adamantine. A nigh of indestructible, mana resisting metal, very difficult to forge correctly, extremely expensive, and not a metal that would be used within Tartarus. His heart rate began to climb and the growling returning with a vengeance as he looked around and realized that what he initially thought were the shattered remains of Tirek's prison cell was actually his own.

A thick darkness swirled a few hoofs away from his cage preventing him from discovering what lied beyond. The floor was no help either being a common grey granite that could be from almost anywhere. He counted four large yellowish green crystals jutting out from the floor at equidistant intervals around his cage. Judging from the amount of light emitting from the crystals he estimated that he should be have been able to see at least three times farther than he could. All of that was nothing compared to what he saw next. The fur on his back rose and the growling morphed to ferocious roars when his eyes locked onto the granite arch that rose over his cage. A single word slipped out in a horrified whisper. "How..."

Etched upon its polished surface, one above him and one to each side of the cage was the magic runes for contain. If done correctly Šizra knew that there should be a forth below the cage. His mind raced as he went over the implications of seeing ancient runic magic. No one besides himself had any knowledge of it and the last time he had seen it outside his home of was over ten millennia ago, unless... Please don't tell me someone managed to decipher the runes upon the Gates of Tartarus!

If that was true then this could make Cozy Glow's mana theft seem minor in comparison. Ancient runic magic was by far the most powerful, resilient class of magic but it was also paradoxically rigid and temperamental. 'Contain' what? There were no quantifiers to describe what it was to contain so if the rune was properly made and depending on how much power was put in it would actively contain everything, literately everything.

Šizra's ears twitched, pulling him only slightly out of his worries. He could just make out the sound of hooves and what he assumed was a wheeled cart. Hopefully he would have some answers soon... if he could calm himself down that is.

His mind screeched to a halt when Celestia walked out from shadows pushing a tea trolley. A quick sniff masked as a yawn confirmed that he was most likely seeing the real Celestia and not an impostor looking and acting like her. He glazed at the runes out of the corner of his eyes before putting his full his attention unto Celestia. He again stole a look at the runes. While he could believe that Celestia would want to imprison him for the killing of Cozy Glow, using, to her, an unknown ancient runic magic far less so. Why imprison him in this fashion over locking him in Tartarus? He had to be missing something.

Šizra returned his attention to Celestia as she she begun to pour tea. He watched closely as she used no magic to hold the tea pot nor the tea cup.

"What do you want?"

Celestia took a slow long sniff from her tea before taking a sip. Šizra raised an eyebrow as he watched her continue to act like she had nothing better to do but to enjoy her tea. He knew she had heard him. The almost imperceptible movement of her right ear gave it away. "Where have you hidden SoulSunder?" She finally asked after pouring fresh tea into her cup.

Šizra sighed. Of course she wanted that accursed sword. And he could guess at to why too... But that was all the more the reason...


Šizra stifled another yawn his parents finally came to a stop. He was not happy being awoken in the middle of the night and practically dragged deep into his parent's hoard. He thought they were past giving him these kind of tests millennia ago. But he knew that he would not get back to sleep until he satisfied his parents.

"What do you see Šizra?" He father suddenly spoke, startling Šizra to full wakefulness.

With a sigh of defeat and a shake of his head he started to examine the dead end before them. At first glance all he could see was that there was a tier five runic ward carved into wall with a door in the center. That alone was not something worth waking him up for as there were numerous tier five wards all around the island, but as he stepped forward to take a closer look he realized that there something was off about this ward. The runes appeared to be too clean, too uniform, too smooth to be carved by claw or chisel. The only way that he knew of that could do this was that was magic was used to carve the runes. That was unusual... unique actually... His parents were very adamant about not using magic when carving runes. For good reason too. So why did they do it now?

Šizra stepped close taking a few sniffs before closing his eyes and slowly rubbing a paw across random rune. He hoped that feel of the mana, if there was any remaining, could give him some clues as to why. Over and over his paw ran over until he snapped back when he realized that the mana that created the rune had characteristics that precluded dragon. No wonder his parents woke him in the middle of the night! Someone had infiltrated their hoard!

He quickly summoned the relevant runic reference book from his library and began to try and figure out what creature may have created the runes. Going back to the rune he was examining he slowly crosschecked what he was sensing to the most likely candidates. As he slowly eliminated one candidate after another he felt more and more uneasy. Soon every possible candidate was eliminated, except alicorn. He shook his head in disbelief, nearly starting over, thinking that he must have made a mistake. There was no way an alicorn made the ward. Their were no alicorns left! He had scoured in entire world dozens upon dozens time in the pass five thousand years and was unable to find a single trace not even a rumor!

"How!?" Šizra exclaimed in shock, spinning around to face his parents. "How and why was there an alicorn runic ward here?" Given how deep the ward was into the mountain there was a chance it was here before his parents claimed the island but then again why was there an alicorn ward so deep within a claimed dragon...

"The ward was placed here by Harmonious Knight."

"The ward was placed..." Šizra repeated, blinking as he turned back to the ward trying to wrap his head around that revelation. Why would his sire put such a high tiered ward upon a room deep within his parents hoard? And why him and not his parents? If he recalled correctly while Harmonious Knight was skilled in runic wards he paled in comparison to... "Why would he put a runic ward here?"

"Because... Because he... that is... it..." The unease that Šizra had felt earlier roared back with a vengeance. He had never seen his father speak in such a way. What could possibly drive him to speak simultaneously with murderous fury and whimpering fear? "SoulSunderiscontainedwithin."

Šizra spun around once he deciphered his father's run-on words. His unease instantly replaced by murderous fury. "A ward!? A bucking ward?" He summoned Leafcutter with a barely a thought, raising it in preparation to attack. Of all the artifacts that the Alicorns created, which apparently managed to escape their destruction, it had to be darkest of them all! Worse still, his parents and sire thought to was okay to leave it behind a mere ward!?! "And not even a perfect seven tiered ward at that!? That damn sword should slagged, pounded into dust, atomized and finally scattered across the heavens!"

"Exactly, Šizra, Exactly..."


"Šizra!" Šizra jerked as Celestia shout startled him out of his recollection. "Where is SoulSunder?!"

Šizra slowly breathed out as he shook off the echoing remnants of the memory. He hated reliving that night... it was just too painful. To watch his parents d... Ember!

"How long have I been here?"

"Where. Is. SoulSunder!"

Šizra gritted his teeth in irritation. Of course she would not be willing to give simple answer to such an innocuous question. Not a surprise but with the steady roaring in his mind he was no mood to wear down Celestia. "If you do not answer my question fully and truthfully in the next thirty seconds on my life and by my magic I do swear I will geas myself to never reveal its secrets to anyone."

The teacup Celestia had been using suddenly shattered, spilling steaming hot tea all of the cart and down her neck and chest. Šizra frowned as he watched her slowly brushed a few shattered piece of porcelain off her chest before reaching out and pouring tea into a new cup. Why is she hesitating? He wondered as Celestia stiffly took a sip from her new cup. Did she think that his geas was somehow disrupted by the runes? Twenty seconds had already past and if she did not answer in the next ten seconds...

Nine

Eight

Seven

Six

Come on...

"Five."

"Four."

"Three."

"Six..." Celestia finally ground out. "Six days."

Six days!? Šizra nearly shouted out loud. The Voice curse it! If Cktüis Zuserthators Ember is anything like Lāckta...

"I have answered your question. Now... where have you hidden SoulSunder?"

"No." Šizra absentmindedly answered, doubling his mental efforts in finding a way to deal with the contain rune and tarturanium cage. He needed to get to Cktüis Zuserthators Ember before she had the chance to gather the dragons for war or more likely, given how long he had been unconscious, before they all die burning Equestria to ash.

"No?"

"No." He repeated, biting back a growl and gazing down at Celestia. "I will never tell you where, I will never show you where, and I will never give you SoulSunder."

Šizra flinched back as Celestia rushed his cage, her horn suddenly glowing. Her response had been expected but the glow of mana buildup immediately flowing away from her horn was not. That was not the typical reaction of Tarturanium nor the 'contain' rune. Interesting... He could think of a couple spells and substances that could disrupt magic but none that he could currently recall that pulled away mana in the manner that he saw. Was he wrong about the only runes being the runes for contain? Or had the Equestrians figured out something new in the realm of magic in the past few decades?

"I will not let you destroy Equestria!"

Šizra snorted twice before devolving into laughter. It was just too ridiculous to him. Destroy Equestria? Even with everything done by Cozy Glow the thought had never even crossed his mind. His wrath was against the alicorn race not the whole of pony kind. Not that Equestria housed the entire pony race to begin with. In the end if the nation of Equestria faded into history made no difference to him or to the world at large. Not that she could stop him if he had wanted to destroy Equestria. "The only one here that is letting Equestria be destroyed is you."

Celestia's jaw dropped, shock crossing her features for a moment until anger returned with a vengeance. "There isn't a punishment worthy of all you've done!" She growled. For a moment Šizra thought that she was about ready to attack irregardless of the cage in which he was imprisoned but then she turned away with a tired sigh.

He watched with fake indifference as she started to push the tea cart away. The sooner she left the sooner he could focus.

"You will never be free again Šizra." Celestia whispered as she paused at the edge of the darkness and gazed back, a look of defeat upon her face. "If you don't want to find yourself petrified and then thrown down the deepest, darkest pit in Tartarus you will tell me where you have hidden SoulSunder."

Šizra sighed tiredly, shaking his head. If only you knew... if only you knew...

"The rage over desecrating the body and soul of anyone much less a hatchling is... It's a powerful instinctual response... and you understand first hoof how difficult it is to overcome even with your dual nature..."

"But that doesn't explain..."

"The curse was not merely layered on top of the sword or in a embedded into a hilt gem like that of your Leafcutter... it was ensorcelled as it was forged..."

"Then... Then that means..."

"Yes. Too little power and nothing happens... but a thaum too much and or of the wrong type and a mana cascade explosion will occur..."

... and make the fate of everycreature from one end of Equestria to the other the same as Cozy Glow and Tirek.

Author's Note:

Yes this has been a long time coming... just been way busy and this chapter needed to be rewritten in spots dozens of times... hopefully i was able to self edit it decently and hopefully the next chapter wont take no where near as long...

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