That Which was Lost

by LadyRFC

Baby Dragons

Twilight blinked rapidly and looked around. She appeared to be in a very large barn. The late afternoon light seemed to set the golden hay ablaze it was so bright.

“Twilight!”

Before she even registered the voice, small, familiar claws were clinging to her legs. She smiled and looked down.

“Spike! Thank goodness.”

Two large eyes looked up at her full of joy. Just as suddenly, they filled with terror at something behind her. “Twilight?!

“Calm down, Spike,” she soothed, looking back to see Chrysalis and her commander standing very still not far behind her. “They aren't bad guys anymore. They're on our side.”

“Did they tell you that?” Spike asked viciously. His eyes grew wide and he stepped away from her quickly. “How do I know you're -”

Twilight's eyelids lowered halfway in a bored expression. “Ketchup doesn't look like blood, Spike. To say nothing of that fake mouse toy.”

Spike blushed and ran forward to embrace her legs again. He looked around at everypony better and spotted Fluttershy and Silverline. “You got my message!”

Fluttershy came close to him and smiled. “Why of course we did! Although,” her face showed worry again, “poor Mr. Bluebird was pretty traumatized...”

Spike didn't answer her, his eyes were shifting between Silverline's injuries and Twilight's own strangely bound wings.

“What happened to you guys?”

Twilight shook her head. “Long story, Spike. But we don't have much time. We need to wake up the dragons here.”

“Wake up...” Spike looked as if something had slapped him and he immediately ran off into one of the many stalls to the left. Faint whispers were heard.

Spike rushed back again and waved his claws towards himself. “Come on out,” he called towards the stall. “They're the friends I told you about. They won't,” he cast a nervous glance in Chrysalis' direction, “hurt you.”

Small scratching sounds came from the stall and slowly two young dragons, one only slightly bigger than Spike, walked out on all fours. They had big eyes that looked at the ponies with caution and a hint of fear. Both were gray and obviously still babies.

Fluttershy switched from cowering behind her friend to rushing over towards the tiny dragons. Which, naturally, caused the older one to step in front and let out a vicious hiss. Spike stepped in quickly, claws raised.

“They're not too fond of... uh, ponies.” He turned back towards them. “Fluttershy would never ever hurt anypony – er, anydragon. She's really, really kind and gentle and usually pretty shy. Except when it comes to animals and baby dragons, that is.”

Spike turned back towards his pony friends slowly. “Uh, guys? This is Blitz and his little sister, Serendipity!”

Fluttershy got down on her belly, looking as innocent as possible. “It's so very nice to meet you two!”

Spike waved a claw around. “And this is Silverline, he lives around here, Twilight Sparkle, my mentor and a princess! And that's,” he gulped looking at the changling queen and her helper, “Queen Chrysalis... a changling. And her uh, her friend.”

The smaller changling stepped forward and bowed slightly. “I am called Sprint. Commander of the Swarm.”

“Oh, uh,” Spike nodded, forcing a smile as he walked over towards Twilight again. “That's... nice.” Dropping his voice low, he asked Twilight, “Did you have to bring them? It's hard enough to get Blitz to trust ponies!”

“I'm sorry, Spike,” Twilight apologized gently, “but we might need their help. We have to get all the dragons to listen to somepony other than the emperor and for that we need to sneak around and -”

“Woah, woah, wait!” Spike backed up, his voice back to normal so everypony could hear. Even Fluttershy turned from her adoring glances towards the still nervous baby dragons to look back at them.

“You mean, talking to the other dragons?” Spike looked a bit panicked at the thought.

“Oh, well,” Fluttershy got up slowly, looking as nervous as the other dragons, “maybe we don't need to after all, I mean,” she perked up and looked affectionately over at the two siblings again, “we can just talk to these little precious things, can't we?”

Chrysalis stepped forward and crocked her head to one side. “Although that might be easier, they certainly don't look like weapons to me.”

Blitz' eyes blazed. “I knew it! You ponies just want to use us for war, don't you?”

Fluttershy bent down on her two front hooves in a pleading position. “Oh, no, we'd never do that!”

The changling queen raised an eyebrow. “But your emperor plans to. And if we want to convince him that his greatest power won't be working for him after all, we'll need to have the older and more dangerous dragons agree to either not follow his orders to follow somepony else's for awhile.”

Blitz now looked confused, although suspicion still hung inside his eyes. “You're... stopping the Great One?”

Chrysalis snorted at the title.

Twilight walked forward slowly, shaking her head. “I'm not sure if that's the right term for him. He's kept you in captivity for a long time.” She sat down next to Fluttershy on the ground, a non-threatening position, she hoped. “You see, Queen Chrysalis and her kind want a home, too. He won't listen and has even done some pretty bad stuff lately. We need to stop him from hurting anypony else, even those ponies beyond the mountains we've never met. But to do that,” she smiled, “we need your help, Blitz. You too, Serendipity.”

Both dragons began to relax slightly. Serendipity even began to walk towards them, but the sharp sound of her brother's voice stopped her.

“How do we know you're not lying?”

Twilight stared at his focused eyes for a moment before looking over at her number one assistant. “Do you trust Spike?” They both blinked as she turned to look back at them. “Do you think Spike would be friends with ponies that lie?”

For awhile he was silent. Then he muttered, “Dragons aren't friends with ponies at all.” But he didn't stop his sister from cautiously walking over towards Fluttershy, who delightfully lowered her head so the small dragon could poke her soft mane with her small claw.

“Will you help us then?” Twilight asked Blitz.

The dragon sighed and walked over towards her, nodding. “Sure, but I'm not sure it's going to do any good. The battle dragons are kept at the mountain base nearby. They won't hurt you unless ordered, but that's not going to be the problem...”

“What's going to be the problem?” Fluttershy asked with a tremor in her voice, Serendipity now climbing all over her back playfully.

Blitz looked sad. “They've forgotten how to speak...”

Comments

[Starcat5]

“They've forgotten how to speak...”

That... could be a problem.