Time to Shine

by Easysnuggler

26. All Watcher

Once the threat became clear, the alicorns evacuated whom they could and slammed shut all the side gates only leaving a path straight to the far end of the chain of creation. Not everyone could or would run. At Holstein and Minos, the inhabitants elected to stay and fight to buy time for the evacuation.

—Pena, Reply to Prince Habib re: “On the Origins of Ponies*_{(*and Others)} and Magic”

26. All Watcher

Scorcher sat in his old council chair in the High Hall of the councilors. He was not feeling particularly Dragon Lordly this morning. There had been no sign of Rizi or any news from outside the valley, but six new dragons had awoken. None were as large as himself, but they were nearly so. There had been a lot of joy and yelling and shouting each time about his legitimacy as Dragon Lord. Only one had been asleep longer than he had. That one had been the least pleasant of these awakenings, the other red known as Garble.

Grable had a yellow underbelly, an orange crest, and a chip on his shoulder. He insisted that not only was Scorch not the Dragon Lord, but neither was his yellow sister Smolder.

“What have you done to my sister? Why is she so big? What have you done? Where is everyone? Why won’t she wake up? Where is Ember? Where is her body? What have you done to my sister?” he kept saying. Garble insisted that all while he had slept the little blue dragon lord had spoken to him. Garble said Ember had taken over for the dark blue alicorn Luna as guardian of the dream realms. Garble also said she had been yelling at him to wake up.

Scorcher's admission that he had a dream of Ember just before waking did little to improve matters.

There had been words and shouting. Scorcher felt bad about that. A leader should keep his temper.
Apparently, Garble had slept immediately upon returning from the heroic expedition to lock the door to the Nexus of Sominus. Garble said he had been exhausted from the triumphant battle over the door only to awaken now and find his sister grown to enormous size, promoted to dragon lord and asleep.

Smolder had even said good night and sweet dreams to him before heading to the tower to strengthen the defenses of Equis. A counterstrike by the nightmare king had been expected. Ember was already there.

It was touching, tragic, sad, and when they had both finally calmed down and compared notes all they could agree on was that Ember was missing. She had vanished in the moment of victory, along with almost every other powerful creature of that era. She had never returned from the Tower of Unity. Scorcher could only offer his recollections of Shining Armor’s tale. The unicorn prince had witnessed the last moments of the battle.

There had been alarm from the crystal empire when a crazed Flurry Heart went insane from grief at the loss of her friends, mother, soul sister, sister’s sons, and husband. She had been Shining Armor's daughter. She had tried to stop the extirpation for some reason and had banished the crystal empire, like Sombra had so long ago.

There had been another concern regarding an old nightmare outside the shields beyond their control, but nothing had come of it. Evidently Shining Armor and some other unicorns had heroically maintained two shields at once, keeping the nightmares confined to the tower and keeping them from invading its upper reaches.

Scorcher told Garble of Shining Armor’s encouraging words to the desperate and magically impaired Twilight Sparkle, telling her she wasn’t alone. He spoke of how Shining Armor had directed her to focus on saving lives. How they had patiently waited for the last nightmares to arrive before abandoning the shield.

Scorcher told Garble how once the extirpation of the Equis’s magical creatures was complete the alicorns had sprung their trap. Scorcher spoke of the defeat of the nightmare king and the growing transparent fading of the heroes as they vanished into the aethereal realm.

Garble had cried tears of grief and fled the hall.

So it was that Scorcher sat in a grim mood atop his old council chair, beside the throne of the Dragon Lord feeling for a time both unworthy and alone gnawing idly on a few gems in a goblet… and then the goblet.

—

There had been no dragon fire messages from Rizi so far, but it was soon still. She had probably not yet reached the far shore. Scorcher worried about the little kobold.

Tarnish, the All-Watcher of the kobolds had come to speak to the Dragon Lord. His once brilliant yellow scales had faded to a pale off white. The only seven letter kobold, he was led into the room carefully by a large green priestess, who intensely reminded Scorcher of Rizi. She even smelled like her.

Tarnish hobbled forward and slowly looked up at him. The ancient reptile's hazy cataract eyes rose to peer into Scorcher’s slate ones. Scorcher had never met such an elderly kobold before, or this kobold, but knew of him from the others.

This would no doubt be interesting. He could use a good diversion.

“Great Dragon Lord, I Tarnish bear tidings.”

“Speak and be welcome Tarnish All-Watcher.”

Tarnish made a short nod and then gestured with his walking stick at his green priestess assistant. “Doriz, is Prioress, chief seer and prophetess.” Doriz curtsied but did not meet his eye. “She spoke to her inner dragon today.”

“Oh?” Scorcher was amused. The little kobolds were very spiritual. They believed in reincarnation, signs, and visions. The alicorn of friendship Twilight Sparkle had also been a believer in such silly things. It had always amused him. Scorcher preferred to believe in things you could see, touch, and explain. He left philosophy to others.

The green kobold looked up at him. Her eyes were orange, just like Rizi’s. Her head horns were the same shade of ivory. She opened her mouth, licked her lips with her orange tongue, paused and then spoke slowly and clearly. “Inner dragon sent Dragon Lord message, yes?”

Scorcher smiled. “Oh? What message?” This was an amusing change from the grim drama of the early morning

The ancient Tarnish waved at Doriz to continue. Doriz swallowed audibly. “Dragon Lord words… insulting, must I say?” she asked Tarnish.

Still amused, Scorcher looked at Tarnish. “You must.” he said.

Scorcher, blinked at that. The he blinked two more times.

Doriz began to speak. “We need to help Rizi! She’s hurt. I can’t do anything! A stupid griffon shot her with an arrow! She’s dying. She can’t die. If she dies, I’ll lose my anchor to Equis and then that nightmare can go wherever it likes and we’ll never catch it. Stupid spell. Is this thing working? Kobold, kobold, can you hear me? Hey kobold, Doriz, Fragrant Flowers Odorize the Alcoves Pleasantly or whatever your name is, tell that jerk face Scorcher to go help Rizi and to get moving! Get going now! Now! Go!”

Doriz, mortified, covered her head in her clawed hands, and her tears began to fall.

The ancient all-watcher Tarnish smiled, turned, and began to slowly hobble away. He might have chuckled quietly once.

Scorcher was not amused. The message had been in Ember’s voice.

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[Easysnuggler]

Revised.