The Great Dragon

She stepped as lightly as she could in the cave, but the corridor was so wide she swore she could hear every footstep for miles. It no longer felt like a dirty cave floor, her hooves felt the hard finish of a walkway, which made her steps even louder. The light from outside was nearly gone. The breathing ahead of her grew louder. She was told stories of snoring dragons that could cover miles with a cloud of ash. But this one was a very quiet sleeper. Like a wind a rhythmic as ocean waves.

A pony could sleep soundly right next to him, she thought. Strange as that thought was. What pony would sleep in the same room with a dragon? What dragon would allow that?

It grew warmer in the pitch black as the sleeping dragon’s breathing grew louder. She paced her hoof falls with the sound of the creatures breathing. What am I doing? I need to wake him when I find him. I should call out to him from outside. Then she remembered the first time she saw the dragon. His wings were so big he cast a shadow over the whole town. What would a monster that big do to an intruder yelling at his very doorstep? But staying outside wasn’t an option either, the beasts from the forest were dangerous for a little filly all alone. I’ll go inside and find a place to sleep nearby, and introduce myself in the morning.

But now it was getting too dark to see. She paced herself against the wall of the large hallway. Decorative pillars separated every few paces, conveniently place where she could bump into. Then she noticed the dragon’s breath had stopped. The pony held her breath.

“WHO’S THERE?” a deep and loud voice boomed from the hot darkness. In a panic the she dove behind one of the pillars. Fear stabbed her heart as if it were ice. “YOU THINK YOU CAN SNEAK UP ON ME? SHOW YOURSELF!”

The pony swallowed dryly and tried to speak, but couldn’t. She peaked around the pillar into the darkness. Ahead of her were two giant red disks reflect what little starlight survived the journey down the cave.

“You’re lucky I am partial to unicorns,” the dragon said.

Again she said nothing, she couldn’t. Then she realized the hood her cloak had fallen off her head when she scrambled to hide. All she could think of is the words of her Father: “Always keep yourself hidden. If He finds out what you are, He’ll take you away.” She gasped as she saw the giant eyes getting closer.

“How small you are. I bet you haven’t even gotten your mark yet.”

“N-no.” the pony admitted, shrinking back from the approaching eyes. “A-are you – are you going to eat me?”

“Are you a gemstone?”

“No.”

“Then I think you’re safe.”

She let out a sigh of relief.

“Where are the others?” he asked.

“Others?”

“In your group, who put you up to this?”

“There’s no one else, I came on my own.”

“You found this place all by yourself?”

“Well, not really. The White Mare of the Forest told me how to get in.”

“She’s not a mare. Her coat is white because she’s older than I am. Centuries ago you would have noticed she’s……different.”

“I came here when I saw you fly over my town.”

“I wonder how’s she’s still alive?” The dragon mused.  “She’s not that special. Why is it she’s still here and everyone else is gone?”

“I – uh. Don’t know.”

“Yeah me neither. What was that about a town?”

“You flew over my town a few weeks ago. I’m from Apuliza.”

“You mean Appleoosa. The word Apple and Loose with an A on the end.”

She never heard anyone pronounce it that way, but she thought its best not to correct a dragon.

“When I saw you fly overhead my horn hurt. And I knew I had to find you. So I left home and made my way here.”

“All by yourself?”

She nodded.

“Well aren’t you a brave little filly.” he groaned. She heard giant sinew stretching and the dragon’s huge lungs inhale. “I should be a proper host for such a guest.”

Flames burst through the darkness swirling in a glass globe high above, the fire spread through tubes that became visible as they danced their way to other globes, swirling in them as the flames spread. In seconds the dragon’s lair was lit with a bright inviting light. And it was nothing like the little pony could have imagined. Like the ballrooms she read in stories of the old days. Marble polished alabaster white, with brick tastefully spread about, arraigned in an enormous circular room domed with gold and silver. The fire globes hung from the ceiling like chandeliers, along the walls were steps and balconies too small for a dragon, but perfect for a pony. And several rooms pony sized as well. The fire was still lighting its way through the dragon’s home. (Certainly not a liar.) Past giant arched doorway even more rooms, these ones dragon sized. Gorgeous decorations could be seen in the other rooms and seemed to go beyond the little pony’s sight. Her face lit up as the room brightened, she had never seen something so beautiful.

And she was about to tell him so. That is until she saw her host in the light. The dragon was stretching and yawning like a cat after a lazy sleep. She’s been told a dragon could swallow a full grown pony whole, but a pony could fit in just one nostril of this dragon. His first great yawn bared teeth taller than the pony gaping at this terrifying creature. He stretched his full length his forelegs in front and tail stretched into the one of the other room far off in the distance.  All the blades from the top of his head trailed down to the tip of his tail, stood up. She thought they were much larger than necessary, and very sharp from what she could tell. Then there were his wings. As stretched like that he unfurled his wings and flapped them once.  Enormous even for a dragon, she’s seen paintings of dragons in flight, and usually the pictures are an exaggeration. But none of them matched the outrageous intimidating proportions of this dragon’s frame. Even the arrowhead shaped tip of his tail was 10 times her size.

As the dragon groggily got composed she thought of something else, something very out of place. For such a fierce and horrific looking monster, this place is kind of - girly. Very neat, very pretty; even his gems were out of sight rather than the large pile on the ground the dragon sleeps on in all the tales she’s been told. This dragon had a large bed, if that’s what it could be called. A giant circle of warn stone in a circle where the he has curled up for every night for hundreds of years. In the middle of the worn circle a decorative pony sized bed the dragon made deliberate effort not to step on but with the ease of centuries of practice.

“So what’s your name young filly?” the dragon asked.

“Silver.”

“Silver?”

“Because of my mane!”

“I see.”

Silver noticed she said that too cheerfully and with too much pride. Silver immediately felt remarkably silly. “I was raised by earth ponies,” she confessed.

“Kinda figured.”

“It’s just a nickname really; my parents said I’ll have to choose my own name when I get my mark.”

The dragon growled. “Never heard of that tradition.”

It wasn’t tradition. It was her parents’ insistence. But she couldn’t reveal too much about herself to the dragon. Not yet. “Always keep yourself hidden,” her Father’s voice repeated in her mind.  The two stood in front of each other awkwardly silent.

Silver cleared her throat. “I was in the center of town when you flew over. You put everypony in a panic when you did.”

“That so?”

“Yeah then some out-of-towners recognized you because you’re wings are so big.”

“Do tell?” the dragon smiled slightly.

“Bigger than normal I’m told. How did they get so big?”

The dragon scratched his chin. “You know anything of how dragons grow?”

Silver shook her head.

“Well, they say greed is our nature. That’s fairly close. I describe it as dragons live off of Greed and Need. Our wants make us so large; almost always our wants are for a large hoard of treasure. They usually get too big to move around from place to place. So their Need makes their body grow wings, they sprout out of their back in a second and can fly with them right away. But their Need is almost always to get from place to place. So that’s all the wings they need.”

“So why are yours so much bigger?”

“I needed to save someone,” said the dragon.

“Did you?”

“Save her? Of course I did, made quite an impression on her too.” The dragon smiled. “Those were good times. Simple and frivolous, but I wish they never ended.”  In the light, the dragon’s pupils became slits with the dark green iris taking up most of the eyes. The dark unfeeling eyes of a reptile, but Silver could tell from his brow this story made him sad. “They work great though,” he said lightheartedly. “I’m faster than any dragon, and I never get tired when I fly!”

Silver smiled. “I heard allot of stories about you on the way here.”

“Really?”

“Uh huh. When you flew over those out-of-towners said you were the one who burned…… Him.”

The dragon grimaced, he knew who she was talking about.

“That why He’s got scars now, and you’re the only one He is afraid of. And when I was traveling here, I stayed with a family of Pegasus farmers of all things, they said you’re the reason there’s no chaos in this valley. And one time He sent FIVE grey dragons to the valley to drive you out. But you beat them.”

He growled at that. “It was nine dragons, five got away. And He is the one who turned them grey.”

“Some ponies live just outside the valley, they’ve seen you too. One day, when He was tormenting the ponies, you appeared on the mountaintop nearby and opened your wings. That was enough for Him to skulk off and leave them alone for the day. And since he can’t beat you that’s why there’s no chaos in the valley. So he forbade ponies from moving into the Old Village here.”

He growled again.

“They say you’re the oldest dragon ever. And you were alive during The Good Times, before Chaos. They even got a name for you.”

“What’s that?”

“The Great Dragon”

He let out a thunderous roar. Silver was too scared to run, she just stood there trembling. Yet a few seconds later she heard the roar turn into a belly laugh. She never saw a dragon laugh before. Or roll onto its back kicking its legs in the air. He cackled uncontrollably breathing out fiery air that heated the great room. It was getting rather stuffy in the enormous room; Silver wanted so much to take off her cloak. “Keep yourself hidden” she heard again. It seemed like forever before the dragon calmed down enough and got back onto his feet.

“Now THAT name I like!” he chuckled.

Silver laughed a little with him. “My name’s stupid,” she said about herself.

“I’ve heard worse names.”

Silver thought this is the right time to tell the dragon why she’s here.

“May I ask you something?” she probed meekly.

“I know what you’re going to ask and the answer is No.”

With that the dragon walked into one of the other great rooms. Silver galloped behind him. “What did you think I was going to ask?!” she panted to the dragon now out of sight who was obviously ignoring her. The dragon was moving things in the other room, and then began making a crunching sound. She finally made her way to the dragon to see him having a midnight snack. “You got a kitchen?! Dragons don’t have kitchens!”

“WELL I DO!” he barked without looking up from his bowl of gems.

“What did you think I was going to ask?”

The dragon smacked and chomped. He smacked his lips. “You were going to ask me to defeat…….Him. And that is far too dangerous.”

“Why?”

“Not for me if that’s what you think, foal.” The dragon’s voice had a more bitter tone now. “If I did defeat Him, my Greed would take over. And I would rule this world.” He snaked his head right up to Silver. “You would NEVER want a Dragon as your King!”

And after such an intimidating display, the dragon picked up the empty bowl, walked on his hind legs to a giant sink, and washed it with a waterfall of soapy water and an enormous frilly cloth. Silver just had to say something.

“For a dragon as big and scary as you, you sure have allot of dainty looking things.”

Without looking he shrugged. “I didn’t make them,” he said then walked off into another great room.

Silver angrily galloped after him. “That’s not what I was going to ask you!” The dragon was silent, Silver stopped running to catch her breath. “I was going to ask if you will teach me!” She yelled as loud as she could, her tiny voice cracking.

The dragon’s head slowly peeked around the corner. A mirror of what Silver did in the dark not that long ago.

“Where I live there are only but earth ponies. No one knows anything about magic.”

“I’ve only seen magic,” the dragon said. “I don’t know how to cast spells.”

“But the valley,” Silver pleaded. “The Chaos is never there because of you!”

“That’s not because of any spell.” The giant beast sighed, and lumbered back into the kitchen. “When I told you about a dragon’s greed, I said almost always it’s driven by our want for a large hoard treasure. I said almost always because – well because depending on the way a dragon is raised he can cherish something more than jewels & gold.”

“Like what?”

“Learning, Friendship, Love.” With that the dragon turned back into the other room, but mercifully laid his tail spike flat on the ground for Silver to climb on, then gently picked her up carrying her along with him. “All my friends lived here. I cherished them more than any jewel.”

The dragon carried Silver high in the air to see the paintings along the walls of this room. Mostly the paintings were of the same group of ponies, some with ponies and a dragon at different stages of growth. Silver could only imagine it was the one carrying her. He stopped at a picture of a white unicorn and stared at it quietly.

“They’re all gone now,” he sniffed. “They all lived in this valley. And my memory of them is what I treasure most. You see little filly, the whole valley is my hoard, and I protect it. If He even dares to take that from me….”

The dragon was getting choked up; he violently shook his head away from the painting of the unicorn. But held Silver so gently she could very well be standing on solid ground. Silver felt awful. I’m the greedy one, she thought. She wanted to hug him impossible as that is. Silver laid down brushing her head and neck against the dragon’s tail.

“I’m so sorry,” she said.

The dragon snorted loudly, it echoed through the cavernous home. “It’s OK. I can help you in another way. I collect books; I’ve done so since I was young. I have a library, you could learn magic from there. Nice to meet a unicorn that wants to learn her skill rather than play it by ear, not that anypony can get any decent schooling these days. What’s your specialty?”

“From what I can tell, everything.”

Everypony else is impressed when they hear that. The old dragon took Silver at her word as if that’s a frequent occurrence for him.

“Over here,” he said and walked her into the largest room so far. The walls were lined with shelves and shelves of books. Scaffolding and ladders fit for a pony to reach every volume. “I organized them myself. When you’re done reading put back every book where you found it.”

“This is amazing!” Silver marveled.

“Thank you. It was a lot of work, but keeping busy is good at my age.” He dropped Silver off at the magic section. “It’s very late, I suggest you get some sleep and start tomorrow. How long will you be staying?”

“Forever!”

The dragon scoffed, but could see it in Silver’s eyes. “You’re serious.”

She nodded. “This is what my horn was telling me, when it made me follow you. The Magic inside me wants me to be here.”

“I don’t think I’m that generous, little filly.”

“But I have to! I need to learn everything I can. Mom and Dad said I was special and was brought into this world for a special purpose!”

The dragon shook his head. “Silver, unicorns are born into pony families all the time. I’ve seen it.”

“I know that. But I’m very different, and when I’m older I got to face…..Him.”

The dragon reared back with genuine concern. “That’s insane, why would your parents put an idea like that in your head?!”

Silver threw her cloak off and stretched out her wings. Something she’s never been able to do outside her parents’ house. The dragon’s eyes widened. She liked that, nothing seemed to impress this old dragon as much. She flew up to his face to meet him at eye level.

“When I was born my parents kept me hidden so I would be safe. They told me the stories of old about the two sisters that ruled during The Good Times. My Dad said I could defeat Him and end the Chaos.”

The dragon blinked with a look of shock on his face.

“I’m still really young,” Silver added. “And I got so much to learn, so I need a safe place be where He won’t find me.”

The dragon smiled.

Silver was filled with confidence. “If you help me, I promise I’ll bring The Good Times back to Equestria. And ponies will be able to come back to your valley again, you could have more friends.”

“I think I just found a one,” the dragon said. “Well!” The dragon clapped his massive hands together the shock making Silver flutter backwards a few feet. “If you’re going to stay here THAT long we’ll have to find a room for you. I’ve got 5 suites more that suitable for a special little pony such as yourself. Might I suggest the room with paintings of constellations on the ceiling, its prefect for a young princess who needs to study. AND it has a door that leads right to the library!”

The Great Dragon bowed formally. Silver bowed in return, playfully.

“Thank you, Mister….”

“Call me Spike,” the Great Dragon said. He saw the look on Silver’s face. “I told you I’ve heard worse names.”

They both laughed.