What if things had happened differently when Spike arrived at the volcano during his self-discovery quest? Let's find out.
Spike decides to take on his journey of self-discovery. When he arrives at the volcano where many Dragons are stopping to rest during the migration, an unexpected event happens that will change his perspective on Dragon kind, and will show him where he truly belongs in the world of Equis.
It had been a week since Spike had left Twilight's library in Ponyville. She along with Rainbow Dash and Rarity were worried about what would happen to him once he encountered other dragons. They were not sure what dragons were with their own kind. All they knew about them was dragons being ferocious and that they could breath fire and/or fly. But in the end, they let Spike take on the journey. Spike soon made it to what seemed to be some sort of resting area Dragons used before making their migration from the north Dragon Lands to the south Dragon Lands past the Badlands. A volcano. That made sense to him, since lava was one source of fuel dragons used to breath fire.
As he reached the top, he was amazed, there were dragons of all different kinds. Some with thick limbs, some thin, some with curved bodies, some straight as arrows, some even a had a chubby look to them, but that didn't make them look any less ferocious. A lot of dragons were very large, but Spike did spot a group of dragons that were small in comparison, but teenagers, compared to his size. "Those Dragons look more my type," he told himself, and began to trek down into the crater. His was midway down, when a large figure landed with the noise of thunder beneath their mass, and the ground shook about beneath them. Spike jumped in surprise and hid under the nearest boulder he could find, terrified by the sudden appearance of the figure.
He trembled as the dragon from approached closer to his hiding place. He closed his eyes, expecting something bad to happen. "Don't be frightened little one. Come out, I won't harm you," said a gentle feminine voice.
Spike opened his eyes, and slowly crawled out from under the boulder to see a dragoness. She was the biggest dragoness he had ever seen. She even dwarfed any of the Dragons that were fully grown, even the big one that had curved front horns hanging down facing frontward at the pointy end. Her scales were beige on the underbelly, the ones atop were of a shade of purple darker than his own. Her spikes were in a curved back fashion, of an ocean blue color across her back and tail, and her ears resembled that of Spike's own ears. While her size in any given situation would make any grown stallion hide their tail between their hindlegs and want to run, when she gazed down at Spike with eyes the color of sky blue, or at least slightly lighter than her spikes on her back and tail, he didn't feel he was in danger. Her gaze seemed very, well, motherly, and it made him feel safe. The same look Twilight Velvet gave him very often before he and Twilight Sparkle left for Ponyville.
As she bent her snout closer to Spike, he could tell that she could finish him in one swift chomp and gulp, should she wish to do so, but her body movements suggested otherwise. She then asked kindly, "Where's your mother dragoness dear? She must be worried about you."
Spike wasn't sure how to respond. He had gone without knowing a dragoness mother his whole life. The only figures that came close to fitting the role of mother were Celestia, and Twilight Velvet. Twilight Sparkle was like a sister to him. But how was he going to respond to this dragoness? He didn't want to lie to her and say his mother had abandoned him. But he didn't want to put his friends from Ponyville, nor the rest of Equestria in mortal danger. His mind was so conflicted. In the end, the lessons he had learned from Celestia and Twilight Velvet won out, and he admitted, "I-I don't know where she is. Some ponies found my egg, and I was hatched by a unicorn."
"Ponies? Did they treat you harshly little one?" The Dragoness asked.
"No. They were actually very nice to me. Prnicess Celestia even offered me a title as a lord for when I'm old enough," Spike stated.
"Princess Celestia? I know that mare, though I haven't talked to her in years," the Dragoness claimed.
"Y-You Know the Princess?" Spike gasped.
"Quite, we go very far back little one," the Dragoness said.
"Spike," Spike blurted out.
"Beg pardon dear?" the Dragoness inquired.
"Sorry, my name is Spike miss.... um?.... " Spike Paused.
He realized they hadn't even introduced each other yet, but at least he had started out, but now felt awkward. "Oh, my name is Rhea. And Spike.... that is an adorable name. It suits you," Rhea stated as she nuzzle his cheek gently.
Spike blushed red as an apple at this gesture. "So, may I ask why you were running Spike, cause you could have hurt yourself? Were you being hunted or chased. I know some of the grown dragons here can have quite an attitude, but you needn't worry about that around a dragoness, little hatchling Spike," Rhea continued.
"Um, no. No one was chasing me, or hunting me. And I'm not a hatchling. I hatched 7 years ago," Spike stated, trying to be prideful.
Rhea only chuckled, "In dragon culture, that's still considered a hatchling dear. Dragons age much slower than many other creatures. I myself am roughly...... actually, I lost count nearly thirteen thousand years ago."
"Th-Th-Thirteen Thousand Years?! That's older than Princess Celestia..... I think," Spike pondered. He had never asked how old Princess Celestia was. But he knew it was more than 1000 years, based on the tale of the Mare in the Moon.
Rhea smiled, "Indeed dear. Like I said, we two, and Princess Luna go way back. But back to the subject I was concerned about for you. Why were you running Spike?"
"Well, I was gonna talk with those dragons down there," Spike answered innocently.
Rhea looked and saw the dragons he was referring to. Her eyes' pupils became small at the realization of where Spike was originally heading. "Spike dear. Those are teenage dragons, already in their hundreds," Rhea emphasized.
"I thought they were. But why's that so bad?" Spike asked.
"Spike those teenage dragons are rebel dragons. While we do not harm our own, those dragons do at their age. Not entirely by fault of choice, but it does influence some of what they do. Other teens still stay with their dragon kresh, which is another word for extended family, till they reach proper adulthood. But those dragon boys are loners. Sure they formed a little social group, but they will tend to step on the little guys..... sometimes literally dear. You do best to steer clear of them," Rhea warned.
"Are you sure?" Spike asked.
"I know from experience Spike. Trust me. In fact why don't you come with me dear. I was planning to head to the nesting area when I saw you. There's so much I think I should teach you dear," Rhea stated.
Spike scratched his chin to think for a moment. Obviously Rhea was a dragoness who was concerned with his well being, and she definitely knew more about dragon kind than he did. Perhaps she could help him find the answers he seeked. Spike nodded, and Rhea scooped Spike up gently in her talon, and placed him on her back where he held on tight, even though Rhea knew it wasn't needed. It was then he was able to see how massive her wing span was. It looked like they could nearly touch two of the peaks close by at once. Her wing color was the same as her spikes on her back. With one mighty thrust of her wings, the two were soon airborn. Spike had not even noticed some adolescent dragons and dragonesses had been staring with mouths agape the whole time. Even some grown dragons were stunned.
After Rhea had taken off, right on the ridge there was a dragon that seemed a little out of the ordinary, but the others had seen stranger things and payed the dragon little heed. Little did any suspect, that it was three mares disguising themselves in the costume of a dragon. Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity had followed Spike to this volcanic mountain. And they had seen the whole event with Spike unfold. "Do you think we should follow?" Rainbow Dash asked quietly.
"Of course. For one, we've already learned so much in little time, and we need to keep an eye on Spike. Rhea may seem nice, but I want to make sure she isn't hiding some sort of information about us. Perhaps she may even help Spike realize his place is back with us," Twilight figure as she wrote notes on a parchment she brought.
"That's a very fine assumption darling. But what if Spike decides to stay with his own kind? You can't just force him to come back with you," Rarity stated.
"Well.... I suppose not. But I've known him all his life. I can't just sit back and not watch out for him. Let's head to that nesting area Rhea was talking about. Remember to flap your disguise wings Rainbow Dash. We don't want them to see a dragon flying about without flapping," Twilight said as she used her magic to levitate all three of them.
"Right," Rainbow said.
She flapped her wings, but made it so the costume looked like it wasn't a discombobulated Dragon somehow flying straight, and soon they made their way to where Rhea had flown to.
Spike was amazed at how big the Volcano actually looked from a, well, dragon's eye view. This was the first time he had been on a Dragon's back. He'd spent many a trips on the backs of Three ponies he was close with. Thinking about them did make him miss them a little, but he was happy to get to know his kind a bit better, not that he knew much yet, but Rhea said she was gonna teach him. Now that he thought about it, perhaps riding on backs was a natural thing for hatchlings to do. With no wings, he couldn't exactly fly to the nesting area Rhea spoke of, and even if he had walked, from what he could tell at this perspective, the trek would have been long, taking him hours, where, with the flap of Rheas wings, they were fast approaching.
Just then, as she prepped to land, Spike saw something quite unexpected. The Dragonesses, along with some older Dragon kids, were bowing. Rhea soon lent Spike a claw to let him down into the nesting area. Spike could see some eggs yet to be hatched were nestled closely to, what he assumed was the mother dragonesses who laid them. Then he heard one of the Dragonesses with white scales on top and beige scales on the underbelly, and spikes a little lighter than that of Rarity's mane, state, "Hello your majesty. It's an honor to see you again on the migration my queen."
'You're Majesty?...... wait, this Dragonesses is their queen?' Thought Spike as he gazed up at her. Now it made sense why her size out matched any other dragon or dragoness here. She was royalty. Spike bowed as soon as he realized he never formally did so before claw. "Forgive me, your highness," Spike apologized.
"For what little one?........ Oh, no need to worry dear. You didn't know, and I hadn't told you. Remember, you told me you were living among ponies, so it's only natural you weren't aware of my lineage dear," Rhea assured him, as she made him raise himself up, "Besides, you're only a hatchling. Many your age aren't yet at the point where not bowing would offend me dear."
Spike was relieved she was not offended by his actions at their first encounter. "And who is this adorable little claw biter you brought with you, your majesty? He's quite the tiny one." Stated another one of the mother Dragonesses present. She was one with Aqua scales on top, and Red Scales on the underbelly, and spikes that were of pink similar to Fluttershy's mane color. Spike wouldn't be surprised if he bumped into a Dragoness with Rainbow Colored spikes before too long.
Spike blushed at being called tiny and a claw biter. It sounded embarrassing, and out of instinct he hid behind Rhea's massive talon. Rhea chuckled at his actions. "This little hatchling, my dear Aqua, is called Spike. He told me that he has been living with ponies for a while, and doesn't know where his mother Dragoness is. And from what I could tell, he walked all the way here, since his wings haven't sprouted yet. I did save him from those rebel Dragons near the center of the lava pools, before they could bully him," Rhea answered Aqua's question.
"That's good to hear. Honestly, I don't know what possess those Rhinestones to behave like that," Stated the other dragoness from before.
"Sapphire, please, not with the hatchlings present. You know none of them like that word," Rhea warned Sapphire.
"My apologies, your grace. Those teenagers just really steam me up sometimes, I lose my temper. Sorry little ones," Sapphire apologized to all the other hatchlings present.
"It okay" many hatchling stated. Some looked Spike's age. Some older, some younger, but all were playing together under the watchful eyes of the giant mothers.... well, giant from Spike's point of view, making Rhea Titanic to him.
Rhea looked back to Spike. "Sorry for that outburst dear. Rhinestone is what we consider a fowl name to dragon kind, being as we all find the stone bitter to the taste, and often avoid eating them. Most of the time, it's the name we give to those rebel dragons. And usually, I try to keep that verbiage from being spoke around the little ones, and why I try to have mothers keep their hatchlings away from those rebels," She stated as she nuzzled him gently.
"Oh. Okay," Spike said shyly.
Rhea smiled as she nuzzled Spike and laid down as she scooted him in front of her between her for legs. "If you don't mind me asking your majesty, you said Little Spike there was living with ponies. While I bare them no ill will, were they using him as a slave? That isn't right for any species to do, especially what the Crystal King did to his subjects," Aqua stated.
That caught Spike's attention. He remembered hearing, or perhaps reading some mention of a crystal king, but the details were sparse, so he couldn't remember if that was pony or some other creature in their world. Could be dragon, though there was a difference between Gems and Crystals. He learned from Celestia herself, that while Gems were something he and his kind usually ate and hoarded, Crystals were used for medical situations for Dragon kind. So it felt unlikely this "Crystal King" was a Dragon.
His thoughts were interrupted as Rhea replied, "From what he has told me, he was actually taken in and treated as one of their own, as an equal, at least among the common ones. Not so sure about some of those snotty nobles Celestia and Luna have to deal with. They have the patience of Gaia herself. But like I said. Spike here has told me they didn't treat him unkindly."
"That's good to hear. I just hope our more "unethical" young ones haven't given too many of those ponies the wrong impression about us. I know we look fierce, but we're not savages who would hurt them," Sapphire stated.
"Indeed. We may get a little rough when we are cranky, but never hostile," Rhea assured.
All the dragonesses agreed. While the grown ups were talking, some of the other hatchlings bounded over to Spike. He would have wondered what Rhea's reaction to this would have been, but having been told that these fellow hatchlings his age were not old enough to offend her, he figured this was normal behavior. "Hi there. My names Flare," Said a boy hatchling with spikes that looked like the shape of a flame on his back, as if he were speeding past. And the color matched, going from orange to yellow and he had the same build as Spike, maybe a head taller then himself. His top scales were Cobalt Blue, with yellow spikes on the underbelly, and like Spike, wings hadn't sprouted.
"Hi, I'm Spike. But, you knew that," Spike chuckled nervously.
Flare giggled a bit. "Yeah, hearing that story from the Queen, I'm just glad those rouges didn't get to you first. Do you wanna play Flaming Catch with us?" Flare asked with all the others urging Spike to join as well.
"How do you play that? Sorry, not used to dragon games," Spike admitted.
"Hey, it's no sweat, we use one of the round boulders that's able to burn completely when we fire it up and is light weight, then we throw it to each other to catch. That last Dragon who catches it when the flame goes out is the winner, and gets to take a ride with one of our moms to do a patrol fly for any, well, if we notice something dangerous, so we can alert the rest. But we can't cheat and keep a hold of the boulder til it burns out. Don't ask what happens if you do that...... it's not pretty," A girl dragon named Dagger with a more sleek build, and a longer jaw, and long spikes on the back, that were similar to that one dragon Twilight and Spike's pony friends asked to leave. Their scales were orange on top, the spikes were blue, and their underbelly scales were white.
"Cool. But, uh, I may not be the best to fire up the boulder. My flame tends to teleport things elsewhere," Spike admitted.
"Wow wow wow. You can actually breath fire already? That's awesome, I couldn't do that til a month ago, and I'm 12," Dagger admitted.
"Yeah. I can't even use flame yet. You're a fast learner Spike," Flare complimented.
Spike blushed, "Well, like I said, my flame's only been able to teleport things. Sometimes, I burp up a letter from Princess Celestia."
"THE SUN MARE?!!!" All the hatchlings explaimed.
"Wait, you know her?" Spike asked.
"Who doesn't? She's the one who raises and lowers the sun every morning and night. And Princess Luna is the Moon Mare. We all heard those stories. That's amazing, you get to be honored with their letters being sent back and forth through your flame," Flare stated.
Spike never knew his flame delivery was high honors for a dragon. "Well again, that's all I know how to do with my flame right now," Spike stated.
"That's why you ask one of us grown ups to flame up the boulder. We've got more training with our fire breath," Came a voice that sounded remarkably like Rainbow Dash, and belonged to a Dragoness who landed with a thundering quake.
The hatchlings hadn't noticed their outburst had silenced the mothers, who listened to the rest of the converstation they had, This new dragoness had spikes from her head, going down her neck, and on her tail, that matched Rainbow Dash's mane color, and they were almost having the look of a flowing mane, but stiff. Her top scales were just like Flare's, Cobalt Blue on top, but the undrebelly were sky blue. "MOM!!!" Explaimed Flare, as he dashed over to her.
"Hey there my firey tike. How you doing?" She inquired as she nuzzled him and let down another hatchling off her back.
Flare told her about Spike, and everything Spike had told him about living with ponies. She wasn't as big as Rhea, but she was the larger in height then all the other dragons. And her build told Spike that Rainbow Dash may have a serious competitor.
"I trust your patrol didn't find anything dangerous Zipper?" Rhea asked.
"Not a one your majesty. Although," Zipper said, before coming up to Rhea to whisper something to her.
Obviously, she didn't want the little ones to know about something that could possibly give them a fright, not that much could, when the Queen was around. Perhaps if something was around, Zipper didn't want it public that the Dragons were alert to the outsider's presence. "I see, thank you Zipper. Well, Spike, why don't you play with your new friends here. I have some things I'd like to talk to the mothers about," Rhea said, before firing up a boulder, almost light as a feather to give to let them play with.
"Okay," Spike agreed.
Soon, he and the others ran to the center of the nesting area, and he notices the mothers started speaking in old Dargon, a language he was not familiar with yet, nor were the rest of the hatchlings he was with. Modern Dargon was pretty much the same language as Modern Ponish, but they called it so, so it was not to discourage the little ones. He learned this when reading books with Twilight. He wondered what his Pony friends were doing now, but at the same time, was having a lot of fun playing flaming catch, wondering who would be the next to take a patrol flight with one of the mothers, not aware other caring eyes were keeping an eye on his state, and recording more info about what they were learning.