Archonix's scraps and bits

by archonix

Forged in Flame

Forged in Flame

Dragons. They lift great jewelled bodies on wings as broad as the horizon, limbs as thick as oaks and hard as stone reaching for a sky that they concede to no other. Heads massive as the great mountain lairs they call home, eyes bright as diamond, teeth sharp as iron, claws that rend cliffs.

Could there be anything more beautiful?

Their breath is fire, their hearts aflame, their minds as bright as the sun behind eyes that sear into your soul, burning dross and fear and will away until all you think is how beautiful they are, how wonderful, how terrible.

And nothing else.

* * *

There were rules.

Never look a dragon in the eye. Always remember your place. Never, ever talk about flying. Rainbow Dash had known the rules ever since she had learned to talk and, in theory, listen but she had not come to truly understand them until much, much later.

The sun was rising in a clear sky as she made her way slowly to the quarry, her hooves and hocks already plastered with the fine, cloying dust that formed the foundation of every miserable moment of her life. Rainbow looked up at the pale blue expanse stretching from horizon to horizon, pretending for just a moment that the talc choking her lungs was a distant memory, flushed away by frosty air and bright cloud as she spun and swooped, free of the surly bonds tugging at her body.

A shadow passed over, flicking across the dusty landscape. Two winged shapes moving lazily across the sky, trailing streamers of smoke and steam as they coasted toward the horizon. Rainbow watched them with unconcealed envy, eyes tracing the slow beat of their wings as they circled the camp, hooting at each other and others on the ground. She lifted her wings, spread them to let the early sun warm them and stood, for a final moment, soaking up a dream that could never be.

She had tried to prove she was worthy to be amongst them, that she was everything they wanted, everything they had needed.

She had tried to fly.

Only one Pegasus in every thousand was chosen to serve in the Imperial guard. One in every thousand granted the freedom of the sky, given the privilege of flight. They had given her a cursory look and rejected her before she could even raise her wings. So she had tried to fly, to prove what they should already know; that she was the best. That she could out fly anyone, yet she had barely left the ground when the first blast of magic had hit her square in the chest, flinging her, spinning, to the floor. A second, more subtle spell had held her down as they pinioned her wings.

Worst of all, it had been her own kind. A pegasus had taken her flight. Another had intoned the justification even as they had left her, bleeding and flailing, and moved on to the next. The rest had nodded their approval at the “justice” of her punishment and, all the while, they had sat in the background, unmoving, not even deigning to turn unblinking eyes to the one they had humiliated so completely, as if to demonstrate how inconsequential she was in their minds.

Rainbow Dash had hated dragons with all her might, but even hate has its limits; the body tires of it. Soon hate had been replaced with a numbing acceptance of her station and a dull resentment of everything that held her there. So she followed the rules and nothing more. Never look a dragon in the eye. Always remember your place. Never think about flying.

Never hope.

Author's Note:

Aaand something that I may or may not work on at some point in the near future. It's set, like so many of these stories, at the start of the series, with all the adventure that implies.

Blood is thicker than dragon's flame.

Point of interest: This is actualy the first pone I ever wrote. I thought that was worth mentioning.

Comments

[archonix]

1881582 What a missed opportunity!

[Lavalier_Mike]

ok whoa whoa whoa. this isn't meant to be a Xenoverse scrap... right?

[archonix]

1882038 Newp. Completely different story.

[Lavalier_Mike]

1882076 **WHEW**