Thick Scales, Warm Heart

by Freeda91

The Dragon Treaty

The Dragon Treaty

It had been a tough night for the little dragon who had been partially rejected by Rarity and harshly insulted by half Ponyville. Everypony thought of him as a menace, a giant, rampaging dragon. The painful memories of him destroying the town in his greedy-grown state brought chaos into his mind. It was torture for a child to have done something like that; then again, it was normal…if he was between dragons.

The sheets of his bed were roughly removed by Twilight’s magic, revealing a sobbing dragon who had suffered something nopony could experience or imagine; perhaps Zecora would know that feeling, but that was beside the point. Twilight wasn’t sure how to encourage him, but she couldn’t just let him like that; he needed his sister the most right now. Apart from the wet sheets and pillow, she noticed what was nearly half a dozen sapphires around Spike, shaped like roses! However, they were all broken or shaped incorrectly; the one that Spike was holding in his hand was the most accurate one. The purple pony then realized those were Spike’s first attempts of what was Rarity’s birthday present.

“Mind if I stay beside you?” Twilight tried to sound as calm and kind as possible. “You seem to be in need of some sisterly love”.

“No Twilight!” He answered standing up, now angry and between sobs. “Didn’t you see what happened yesterday?” He asked then turned back “Or on my birthday…” Spike had those images way too fresh for his comfort.

“Oh, come on Spike” She replied rolling her eyes “We have already forgiven you for that. Besides it’s not even your fault what happened yesterday”

“Apparently,” Spike added slowly “For everypony, I’m a dangerous creature who should be expelled from Equestria.”

“Don’t be ridiculous!” Twilight forced him to face her back with her magic; her tone was higher now. “You’re a sweet, kind and controlled dragon that was technically raised by princess Celestia! You should understand that if she had had a tiny bit of knowledge you’d become a ‘dangerous creature’ that’d create panic all over Equestria, she would have…” Twilight noticed she was being a little harsh and what she was going to say was a lot more. So she left it right there.

“Thanks for trying Twi” Spike sighed and lay back on his bed “But I’d rather call it a night. The sooner it ends the better.” This last sentence was very cold, even for… a dragon.

The lavender unicorn bit her lip, and agreed that there was nothing she could do to help him. If he wanted to be left alone with his feelings, then so shall he. However, he still needed her by his side; which was unavoidable due to their beds being next to each other’s. As Spike curled into a ball, grabbing the same sapphire flower as before, Twilight covered him with his blanket and proceeded to her own bed; it was just a matter of time before he’d open up his heart and decide to move on with his happy life. After all, the night did have something good; something that made it up for the humiliation and hate of all ponies in the town; Rarity did say she liked him back. A little smile formed through his watered face, Twilight noticed this and smiled as well.

As dawn came and the sun began to rise, the sleepy and yawning unicorn noticed Spike had left his bed. She quickly stood up and looked around in order to find him. It wasn’t so much work doing so, since he was sitting by the window; staring at the morning sun. The purple pony sat beside him and greeted him; the dragon, however, didn’t answer back. It was easily noticeable that Spike hadn’t cooled down just yet, not completely, but he showed much more progress than some couple of hours before, when he was in misery.

“Twilight” Spike spoke out of the blue, the pony actually though he’d be silent forever. “I’ve been wondering, ever since you brought up Celestia knowing I wasn’t a menace” the dragon continued “How come I’m the only dragon I have seen in Ponyville, or even Canterlot?” he finally asked “as far as I know, hatching a dragon egg is an entrance exam for unicorns. And lots of unicorns pass it”. Spike felt silent once again and turned to face twilight. His eyes were red of crying and it was obvious he hadn’t had the chance to rest in the entire night.

“I, um…”Twilight stuttered, her ears dropped “I actually don’t know” she answered what Spike feared she would and as in response he sighed. “Now that you mention it I have no idea, but it’s nothing a well written letter to the princess won’t answer” She said cheerfully trying to get his mood liven up.

“I guess so” Spike sighed, then as Twilight levitated a scroll and a quill in front of him, he began to write. After a minute and a half, the dragon had finished and was standing up, opening the window and preparing himself for his teletransportation fire-spell. The flame, however, was considerably small and was barely enough for the letter to be delivered. As the magic ashes flew away, the dragon took a deep breath and walked downstairs; where Twilight was waiting for him with breakfast.

There wasn’t much that picked his interest, except for a big bowl of shattered quartz. It wasn’t one of his favorite flavors, but it was better than coal. The pony had decided to make him a mineral based breakfast in order to cheer him up, she though a delicious meal (in dragon terms) would make him feel happier. Spike sat on the table and hesitated to eat; however, when his stomach growled, something Twilight noticed and was now laughing about, he gave up on it and bolted down his ‘cereal’.

“Hey, slow it down!” Twilight yelled “You’re gonna throw it all up”.

The dragon didn’t listen to her; he was too satisfied with his quartz which, despite being a tad sour, was a delight when combined with milk and a little of gold shattering as a sweetener. Even though he wasn’t eating all that fast, he grew a tickling sensation in his throat and realized he was going to either burp or throw up. He ended up burping all the cereal and milk, as well as a scroll and a small flame. Twilight noticed this and once she levitated the scroll from the floor, she glanced at the disaster Spike had caused throwing up half his bowl and frowned at the responsible.

“Um… excuse me” the dragon blushed.

Twilight unrolled the parchment and read it aloud for Spike “Dear Spike, I knew this day would arrive sooner or later, but as you were enjoying yourself with your happy life, I didn’t want to induce you the idea of being a dragon as something bad, indeed I wanted you to be a great citizen of our land of Equestria. As for your answers, I will send you something that will satisfy them”. Twilight and Spike both raised their eyebrows; understanding half the message, Twilight even less since she didn’t know all of Spike’s questions. Before Spike could ask something, he crouched as he felt a pain in his stomach and burped an entire book! This came as a total surprise for both. Twilight lifted the book from the floor and read its partially illegible tittle which named the book ‘The Dragon Treaty’.

“The dragon treaty?” Twilight asked herself, her interest attracted to the book almost as much as Spike’s.

“It’s really long!” Spike shouted once he saw the book’s thickness “It’ll take a month to finish, even for you”

“I don’t think so Spike” Twilight answered, and not for being too confident of herself “There’s a summary at the beginning and then there’s the complete book for you to read if you want to”.

“Uh…I’ll think about it” Spike faked a cough “Well, let’s read that summary then” He added.

“Very well” The unicorn laughed, she enjoyed seeing his smile coming back to him.

The Dragon Treaty

Long ago, not much after the foundation of Equestria, the land was conquered by chaos. All species from all kind of places were fighting over territory and food. The most important species in this case were the dragons, and the ponies. Other species from other regions such as hippocampus, who belonged to the deep oceans and other non-thinking creatures; many of which are now though to be extinct.

Let’s focus on the main point of our story; the dragons and the ponies were constantly in war, and despite the fact that dragons were powerful and mighty, they were very few in number as their species take thousands of years to fully grow. Apart from that, the ponies possessed very well organized forces including the Pegasus, unicorns and alicorns; these last ones resulted in a strange mixture between the others, wings beginning their growth during puberty, and were not part of the triple court of the moment, now they scarce to the point they’re on danger of extinction. Earth ponies weren’t efficient against these magnificent beasts so they took shelter in castles and were armed with bows and swords to defend these lands.

One day, like any other, a couple of young unicorn fillies sisters were exploring the woods looking for food; as these times were of war, ponies supplies were scarce and finding food was primordial for every day’s life. As farmlands were constantly the main battlefields, food production had suffered a great fall. The two fillies came across an injured dragoness; as a result of a pony assault, all her eggs but one were broken. Despite feeling an incommensurable hate for ponies, the dragoness did not attack the fillies. Instead, she asked them to carry on her last wish before her death, to make happy a dragon who was attacked by the unfairenesses of life.

The two fillies first hesitated to answer to the scary beast, however, the older one accepted to carry on her request. The dragoness, when she saw she was an unicorn, told her that the egg would not hatch unless it was warmth with the intensity of intense flames. A pony could never be able to achieve that, but the dragoness added that despite this fact, there was a slim chance that magic could probably work too. However, it had to be a magic powerful enough to crack the egg and warmth the baby dragon with the intensity needed. After its speech and blessing, the dragoness passed away.-Dragon egg hatching is nowadays known as a test for young unicorns to prove their magic abilities; more details are to be described in the full story-.

Many years had spent both fillies, the oldest one now a teenage pony, practicing, training and most importantly, protecting the egg of all dangers. The sisters though that perhaps this dragon could bring peace between species once it was born, so it was primordial to make sure it would hatch. As their parents fell victims of the war, the two now alone ponies had to take care of the egg and themselves. Luckily enough, the years of practice weren’t fruitless, as the oldest sister began to master her unicorn powers as well as her wings grew up. She discovered by the age of 14 that she was an alicorn of incredible power as she could move the sun. The time had come for them to try and hatch the egg.

The young pony focused all her magic in the egg, making sure to warmth it and not to just crack it. Also it had to warmth the dragon, not the shelter as it would cook it. These proved harder than what it seemed, but then she finally hatched it. The baby dragon, white scaled with bright turquoise eyes, top scales and tail; colors similar to the ones of the mare, who was white coated and pink manned, now lay on the ground. However, he was not crying, he was not moving, he was not living. Disappointed, the pony doubled her efforts and in a powerful blast of magic the baby dragon not only opened his eyes and cried, but because of the intensity of her magic, the dragon grew to almost its full size. It was only temporary however, as the pony was having an overload of magic. As soon as she cooled down, the baby dragon returned to his normal size and was now alive.

While the dragon was still a baby, and was being carefully baby sited by the youngest pony, the oldest one found another egg, and once again she performed her spell. However, the spell wouldn’t work this time. Sure she had cracked the egg and the baby lay on the ground, lifeless and colorless, and as much as the pony tried and even with the overload of magic power, the dragon wouldn’t be affected. After several tries, the winged Pegasus sadly gave up. Her sister, on the other hand, decided to give it a try on her own and in the same way as in the first time, the dragon lived; his colors determined by the ones of the one who gave him life: Black and blue as the night. The youngest sister was now 12 and had her own wings too apart from having a great deal of talent moving stars. They both tried with a third egg, but there was no result; they came to the conclusion that the spell only worked once per pony. The dragons then were brought up as brothers, and as the mares had predicted during their childhood, these two dragons had brought peace into the world. They’d bring the dragons to their senses and the mares did the same with their own kind. The mares became queens of their kind and the dragons became kings of theirs.

However, peace couldn’t be completely achieved until the god of chaos had been stopped. Unfortunately nopony knew how to defeat him; neither did the dragons. When the situation demanded it the most, the two ponies were revealed to possess magical qualities apart from normal magic. The oldest Pony was loyal and honest; the youngest one was kind and generous; both had learned the power of laughter when facing fears and both possessed a spark of magic. They were the holders of the elements of harmony.

The god of chaos had consumed the land into chaos once again, and to harden things up, the oldest dragon was hypnotized by chaos and, accompanied by his followers, he fought his younger brother. The youngest one, because he loved his brother, couldn’t hurt him and in the end, the older brother consumed by chaos and hatred, left deep injuries on his brother before he was fought back by the mares. The dragon couldn’t be defeated with simple magic; he was ten times stronger than normal dragons even though their adulthood size was not much taller than a stallion. In order to bring him back to his senses, the sisters used the newly discovered elements of harmony against their ‘son’. The harmony couldn’t be returned to him, and they didn’t know the reason. Even though it hurt them to do it, they managed to turn him into stone, and he now rests for eternity. However, fearing that his brother might break free and the mares wouldn’t be within the living anymore, the younger dragon bathed the mares with the magical fire of his vitality and gave them the ‘curse’ of immortality. I refer it as a curse because it is painful and unavoidable for them now, to witness the loss of their loved ones, again and again. The mane of the oldest one became multicolored and bright as the day; the one of the youngest one became shiny blue, as the night sky.

It was decreed then, that the dragons would live within the mountains past the limits of Equestria; since there was a huge discovery of minerals there, which were the dragon’s main aliment; and ponies were forbidden to practice any kind of mining on these lands. This was known as the ‘Dragon Treaty’. Although because of the conflict between the dragons their kind showed contempt for the ponies, they hesitated to the idea of another war; peace came when the mares imprisoned the god of chaos into a statue with the help of the elements of harmony. Even though the beast was sealed into slumber, it had left a curse on the younger mare, poisoning her heart into chaos. The older sister had no choice, as only half of the elements of harmony wasn’t enough to turn her sister back to normal, to imprison her…in the moon.

As Spike and Twilight finished reading the summary of the complex book, the light of the sun was beginning to fade. Despite being just a summary, it had taken them all morning. The pony stretched herself as well as Spike and both gave a tired yawn, they noticed how late it was and that they hadn’t had lunch at all.

“I can’t believe your stomach didn’t interrupt us” Twilight joked getting a cupcake from the fridge and levitating one to Spike.

“It’s just that the story was really intriguing” the dragon answered catching the cupcake, his stomach began to growl now. “I understand a little more why I’m the only dragon in this society, but I’m far from satisfied. If princess Celestia wrote that book then she knows how to explain me why no one else did that spell she did”.

“She did mention why, Spike” The Pony protested “It had to be a very powerful magic to give life to the hatchling, as I did. As far as we know, I’m the first one who did so. But if you’re still insecure, we can ask her later”. Twilight then added “Now I understand why she chose me to be her apprentice, she knew I’d be the new holder of the elements and when she saw you destroying the roof, she realized it was me”. It made sense, since the elements of harmony were based on friendship, and Celestia and Luna were painfully away from each other, their harmony had ended; and seeing such a powerful spell as Twilight’s, she knew she’d hold the spark of magic.

“I’d really like to” Spike finally commented. Twilight was happy to see how his mood had changed from the morning, and only with the help of a good story. The pain in him wasn’t reflected in his face; if he was hiding his feelings he was doing a good job, but since she knew him so well, she knew he was happy.

“Hey Twi” the dragon asked sniffing around “Don’t you smell something…burning?”

“Oh, my Celestia!” Twilight cried as she witnessed what was happening outside from the window; at first it just seemed to be the colors of the sunset, but she noticed after a glance at the clock and a deeper analysis of the situation, that it was fire. The whole town was on fire.

“What could be going on?” The dragon panicked having the same shocked look as his sister.

Twilight hesitated to answer and she didn’t need to; they could both see the burning houses and hear the screams of panic. She then answered: “I just hope they’re not blaming you for this too”.

Comments

[Sunset_Shimmer83]

sounds to me like a dragon or more has just attacked Ponyville

[Path_of_cloud]

Damn it Derpy! We told you not to play with fire, or go anywhere near it.