Dragon's Tale: The city of Darkrise

by IMN

Rating: teen
Tags: Dark, Alternate Universe, Other, Princess Luna, Original Character, Spike, Comedy, Adventure, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 9371

Abandoned, abused, and defeated, Spike is then saved by magic wielding dragons; only there is a catch... One that might just turn his entire world upside down

Inspired by Children of the night

To my dragon friend

Greetings and grand salutation my dearest friend, It has been a long while since we spoke, and I apologies for my carelessness on that part, you see, returning after a thousand years leaves one with too many things to catch up upon, which can leave one such as myself, well, overwhelmed.

But enough about me, how have you been? I keep hearing great things about you, your heroic feat travel far and wide, and warms my heart to no end when I hear you defeated a foe or aided a kingdom, I do hope we can meet up again and catch up on everything. It has been a year since we last met, has it not? A full year since you helped my children of the night returned to their homeland from the land of eternal night and the beautiful city of Darkrise.
How time flies by. Though being an immortal, a full year may feel like a day, but I know, you have grown so much since that time, and I cannot wait to hear all about it.

Well enough small talk for now, I am sending you this letter to ask a favor of you; for you see a while back one of your colleagues managed to take away a precious dragon from my kingdom, and Equestria is in shambles, I fear the call for blood may soon over shadow the call for wisdom, I implore you to act fast. I do not wish to see another war against your kind, I still remember how terrifying the last one had been, and I wish to avoid it at all cost. I know this is a heavy burden for you to bear, but I know I can count on you, you may just be the right dragon for this job.

I do hope that I am not burdening you too much with my request, and again I apologies for asking your help like this.

In hopes that we meet again my friend

Yours truly

Princess Luna

Published 2014-05-25 13:00:01 UTC
Last updated 2015-07-10 20:03:15 UTC

The Equestrian Flight part 1: Wound

“I LIKE THE SUN.”

And no one can stop me for liking it, Darkrise1 is such a beautiful city no doubt, I mean living in an eternal night2 where the stars are always shining is great and all, but just once I wish Starlight could shut down the Temple3 and allow the sun to shine for a few hours, wouldn't that be a treat.

“I know you are excited for this excursion Wound, but please we do not want to bring unwanted attention to us,” Night Blade may be the most buzz kill thestral of them all, but she does have a few good qualities, a kind heart strong mind, and strong wings, too bad they aren't strong enough to carry me.

“But we are on a search and recovery mission, find that hatchling Starlight told us about, I don’t think anything bad in particular is going to attack us if we had a little fun in the process.”

“Jeez, are you arcane dragons4 so carefree,” Jackal is another companion of mine, a proud werewolf who roam these lands, she may be annoying, but at least her heart is in the right place, most of the times.

“Oh you’re just too serious about everything,” it’s true, under the sun werewolves can't be sneaky at all, so they tend to shun it, and be annoyed at it.

“Hey, hey, hey, ladies, you’re forgetting about me here.” Oh dear god why did I brought him.

“Tinkerbell, I told you to stay in my pocket,”

“Well I’m getting pretty snuffed out in there,” Tinkerbell is my personal fairy,5 you might that it’s fun to have a personal fairy following you around, trust me, it’s not, “And I told you my name is not Tinkerbell it’s…”

“Too hard to pronounce,” I say abruptly, seriously it takes me fifty second to pronounce his name, so I came to call him Tinkerbell instead.

“So did anyone tell you where we are going?” Tinkerbell added.

“You are staying in my pocket,” I seriously don’t want him to get hurt, he may be annoying but it’s my duty to protect Darkrise signature, “We are heading to the Equestrian dragon flight.”

“I have to ask,” Night Blade hovers next to me for a bit, “Why did Starlight chose you? Blake could just as easily have checked the flight and returned within a day.”

“I swear, Starlight is such a child sometimes, he could have chosen anyone, instead he choose a medic squad like us for a mission like this.”

Did she just call Starlight a child? The insolence, why I ought to... Oh, she shrieked, guess my glare worked.

“Well he is a child, barely twenty years old.” she tries to defend herself, how cute.

I hear Night Blade giggles and I simply shook my head. Sure Starlight is quite young to take such big responsibility all by himself, but he did prove to be quite capable, and for that I am proud.

“We’re here.” Night Blade finally said as the mountain top came to view.

Now I have met a lot of other flights over the years that passed Darkrise, a lot of migratory flights have the city as one of their checkpoints, usually these flights have only one type of dragons in them, which sometimes, well most of the times, they get hostile around other dragons types, more so with other species. Thankfully I belong to a stationary flight, a coven if you wish, which are far more diverse than migratory flights, and a lot friendlier.

So you can see my surprise when I saw a flight of Winged dragons in front of me. “Oh crud.”

“Well this is going to be a treat, any idea how we are going to find him without getting eaten?”

Night Blade is right about that, a pony and a werewolf may give the wrong impression, and end up getting us eaten isn't my idea of building up foreign relations with other flight.

“Alright then a change of plan,” I exclaimed and all three of them looked at me in surprise.

“We had a plan?” Jackal mocked.

“Jackal, Night, I want you two to scout the entire perimeter search for any irregularities, As for me I am going with the direct approach.”

“The direct approach??!” all three of my companion.

I flickered my marshmallow white scales and straightened the purple spikes on my back as I dazzled myself under the sun that I am enjoying too much, and I tell them with my most seductive voice, “I'm going to use my charm.”

I haven’t seen Jackal or Night Blade laugh so hard in their life, how frustrating can they get.

“Well if you own it show it.” I hear Tinkerbell say after he whistled at me, and now I’m suppressing the urge to punch someone.

“And what’s so funny about that?” I am vexed at their reaction, “I am gorgeous, as was dictated by my many admirers.” And upcoming suitors who thought I’ll marry them if they showed up flashing their scales at me like peacocks, only to be turned down in the same ruthless manner each and every time.

“Well,” Night Blade managed after catching her breath, “I’m not saying you don’t have any charm, it’s just that, how do I put it lightly.”

“You’re a sadist sweetie, you have a habit to make full grown drakes pee themselves with just a glance, I simply can’t see you acting all dragoness like, flirting your way for information around here.” Jackal continued,

How rude of them, I can pull of sexy if I wanted to!6

“Don’t worry short cake,” Tinkerbell came buzzing at me, “If you get stuck, I’ll be right here to help ya.” He puffed his little chest like he’s some big shot, I couldn't help but snicker.

Ever since the dragons of Darkrise helped save the fairies from extinction a thousand year ago, the fairies became more like their willing servants at first, which soon became a predicament in itself, because dragons have no use for tiny dots of light hovering around them all the time, that is until the fairies were fed love for the first time.

“Well it’s as good a plan as any I’ll say.” Night Blade confirmed, “I’d love to see how you’ll pull it off.”

“Yeah good luck with that.” The nerve on Jackal, she couldn't even keep a straight face.

I simply nodded then went ahead toward the flight, if it’s one thing I learned is that actions speak louder than words, and I am going to make her eat hers after today.

I walked toward the first dragon I saw on the edge of the flight, usually these guys are consider the outer guards, and you can’t really gain access to the flight if these guys doesn't want you to, this one was a red drake, I’d estimate from his size he is fifty something years old, so a young adult, this ought to be interesting.

I walked up toward him then gave him my most disarming smile, "Hi there,” I say in a significantly squeaky voice which made him and a bunch of his comrades wince, yep, I definitely got it.7

“Hello and welcome to the Equestrian flight, the richest flight of the fire nation.” He replied after gaining his composure, if that is something that is supposed to impress me about his flight, then he failed miserably. “I am Garble the thirty third, please state your business with our flight.” At least he’s polite about it.

“My name is Wound, I’m an arcane dragoness of the Athenaeum bloodline, flight of Darkrise.” I can see that my introduction gave way to more attention since now I have four, no five dragons listening intently to each and every one of my words, I stare at them mischievously.8 Honestly I did not think this will work so well, still need to keep up the innocent9 act if i want to pull it off. “Uhm, you see I came here because we had a missing orphan dragon from our flight and we think he may have snuck in with another flight, is it okay if you helped me search for him? I’d be very grateful.” I bat my eyes on him and that seem to have melted him entirely, this is gold, I should use my charm more often.

“Yeah, sure, okay,” he’s stammering, that’s a good sign. “I’ll help,” Yes Score, “What does your whelp look like?”

“Well he’s a purple baby dragon with green crown of spikes on his back, he goes by the name of Spike.”

1. the name of the city that things are going to happen in.

previously known as the land of the werewolves, will explain more as the story progress.

the temple harness the light of the sun over a long distance, making the day as dark as night.

Arcane dragons are the second type of dragons in the Equestrian verse, they have a horn on their head that allow them to cast spells like unicorn.

A type of changeling race that resides in Darkrise, they are smaller almost the size of a breezie, but tougher and far more versatile.

no she can't, she can only pull innocent to fool her father.

again no, they all winced because her squeakiness grated their ears

the only reason why they are surrounding her is because she is sexy in dragon standards.

is that what she is doing? I would not have guessed

The Equestrian Flight part 2: Wound

This place is awful, the roads are dirty, they all live in uncouth caves, the sun roasts my beautiful scales and every dragon in sight wants to bed me, even the females, what’s with that?

I've heard that gold hoarders act like feral dragons for the most part, but come on, the extent of this is ridiculous. I have never wanted to return to Darkrise so much.

But I must be brave, Garble there told me that his son came a week ago with a baby dragon holding that same description, my mission is quite simple, make sure that the whelp isn't mistreated and return to Darkrise, simple enough right?

“I think he was supposed to be here,” Garble scratched his head, “Wait, I know how to find him.” He said, then turning toward a group of teens that were gawking at us from afar, he yelled: “Garble, get your butt over here.”

A rather young version of the dragon I am walking with flew toward us, then crashed right in front of us, seriously why are all the drakes so idiotic when it comes to us dragonesses?

“Hello young lady.” He says in a deeper tone showing me his most revolting smile, and what’s with that stench?

“How can I help?” never mind, it’s his breath.

“This is my son Garble,” married at such a young age? Maybe not married at all I’m guessing.

“Isn't your name is Garble?” I ask trying to feign interest.

“Yes, dragons of the same bloodline hold the same name.” Dear Magnus,1 this is the most ludicrous naming system ever.

“A pleasure.” I say, smiling suddenly became hard for some reason.

The son then took my hand and kissed it, “The pleasure is all mine.” Eww, there is slobber on my hand.

I pulled it off and shook the slob away, then gave him an awkward smile. I need to finish this quick or else, I might turn to my dark side.

“Take deep breath, focus on one thing then the next.” I hear Tinkerbell at my side telling me this, I sighed. I suppose I should give it a try, it couldn't get any worse than what I am already experiencing.

So I took a deep breath, inhale, then exhale, focus on one thing, the sun, inhale, it’s warmth on my scale, exhale, Garble saying something about a talking insect, inhale...wait.

“Buzz off.” He says in an aggressively while trying to swat Tinkerbell, and the poor guy barely evading before being hit to the ground, NOOO.

Garble then moved in to squish my fairy, I immediately used my magic and teleported Tinkerbell to my hand.

And every dragon started clapping and cheering, what’s wrong with this flight?2

“That was impressive,” father Garble tells me, “I thought those horns on arcane dragons are just for show.” He can’t be serious.

“Hey that was just like unicorn magic.” Garble son said.

“You know a unicorn?” My, that is pleasant surprise.

“Yes, it escaped just like that before I squashed it.” ….. Why am I not surprised by this?

“These guys are all crazy.” I hear Tinkerbell, “I’m going to hide in your pocket till we leave.”  He then jumps into my pocket and shuts himself in. Well at least he’ll be safe for now.

I sighed again, I need to finish this quick or I may end up doing something I regret.

“Well let’s get down to business shall we?” I say in confidence, “I am looking for a purple whelp with green spikes, whose name is Spike, he escaped a while back from Darkrise and we think he might have joined your flight, do you know if he is here?”

“Spike? Yeah there is a dragon like that living here, but we snatched him from the pony princess, so there is no way he could be from your city.”

Wow, that was easier than I thought it would, “Can I see him?” I asked shyly, now that I no longer have to stay here, my mood have improved a bit.

“Sure, he is over there.” He pointed toward a rock, and something in my head snapped, I felt IT.

An injury, someone was injured from the direction he pointed which is probably why my hoarding instinct is kicking in. I almost don’t want to go, but I forced myself to walk over there.

In his letter Starlight said that we need to confirm the wellbeing of that dragon, and if he is mistreated, we’ll negotiate for it.

“What’s wrong?” I look up to see Garble looking at me, “Did ya change your mind or something?”

“No coming,”

I could be overreacting, it could be a scrap; it could be nothing serious; there is no need for me to over think my instincts like this.

“Hey dweeb, get out of there, someone wants to see you.” Garble yelled behind the rock, and the young drake made his appearance.

For a moment there I could not comprehend what I was seeing, there were so many scrapes and bruises on his tiny body that he looked like someone out of torture, he had a broken arm, and a fracture rib. And from the looks of things he probably hadn't eaten anything in days.

My instincts were ablaze, I wanted to heal him; I needed to heal him. I am the hoarder of healed wounds, and he will be treated by me.

I approached him gently, “Come here little fellow,” my instincts are taking over my reality, for a moment there I forgot where I am. I squatted then extended my paw to him, “I won’t hurt you.”

He gulped, then walked toward me, I could smell he hasn't cleaned himself lately, I gently patted him on the head, “What’s your name little one?” I asked smiling.

He blushed the cutest shade of red I have seen on a baby dragon. But before he could speak, Garble kicked him right from under my paw, the baby dragon yelped as he landed a couple of feet away.

“When a dragoness ask you for your name you answer quickly, you got that?” he yelled at the baby.

I felt sick to my stomach, how could he? No, HOW DARE HE.

“That guy had been raised by ponies, could you believe that? They taught him no manners what-so-ever, so now I am pounding it in him what does it mean to be a dragon.” I glared at him, I could feel my own rage boiling hotter than the sun above, yet I froze.

“Dang girl, calm down,” Tinkerbell started buzzing around my face, “Don’t forget what we are here to do.”

“Did I just gave you the hots for me? I have that effect on the ladies.” Did that brute DARED to say that to me!!!

No, I will not negotiate with him, but I need to keep my cool, I need to do something about this situation and fast, I look at the baby dragon who is curled up in a ball silently sobbing.

“Dragons don’t cry you idiot.” Garble yelled while heading toward the baby dragon, my rage intensified.

And then he hit him again, “I’m sorry,” the baby cried, “I didn't mean to,” and he hit him again, “Garble please stop,” and again.

And I snapped. “Garble wait,”

How dare he sully my race’s good name with such acts of cruelty?!!

“A couple of friends and I are going to camp on the outskirts of the forest for the night.”

He will pay, mark my words, he will pay dearly for this.

“If you agree to bring Spike with you, I’m sure we can enjoy a night together.”

I will show him the true wrath of Darkrise, and by Starlight’s3 good name, I will MURDER HIM.

the dragon equivalent to Celestia

give them some slack girl, you are the first arcane dragon they ever seen.

the dragon equivalent to Twilight.

A very bad day: Celestia

Celestia:

His smile is unnerving, I thought I eliminated the last shred of that smile when I beat him to an inch of his life for harming my guards yesterday, for it to return so mischievously it gave me pause.

“If you have a reason then state it,” I said in my most authoritative tone, “and stop wasting our time.”1

He then regurgitated a letter from his flames, I saw Twilight and Spike laughing at his reaction toward the unpleasantness of the taste, something Spike had gotten used to I guess, oblivious toward the seriousness of this act, normally dragons don’t carry letters or paper2, which shows the importance of the paper he carries.

He walked toward me, his chains rattling, then placed the scroll in front of me, I picked up the scroll only to be horrified by finding the official seal of the King of the fire kingdom placed on it.

“Where did you get that?” I think I may be showing a bit more concern than I ought to be.

“Is something wrong princess?” I hear my student call me, but I ignore her, I need answers.

“Do you honestly think that we came here because we want to?” I detect a hint of mockery in his voice, “The higher ups want that kid in our flight, so I was asked to bring him back because I knew about him the longest.”

I look at the parchment, then I look at my previous student’s face, at her dragon, at her sibling, confusion stares mixed with unease are all around me.

I unseal the letter and open the parchment, and to my surprise it wasn't a letter, but a rune.3

“Captain Shining, I want you to gather all those present and place your best anti-fire barrier around them, I may have shot the messenger by mistake.”

The once previous laughter and snickers of those present have genuinely muddled as everypony gathered sat in one corner of the room and Shining’s barrier is up, I placed protective armor on myself as well, if I don't handle this correctly... I shudder at what might happen. Then placing the scroll on the ground, I poured magic into the rune activating it.

In a sudden boom, flames engulfed the room just as I expected them to do, I saw Shining’s barrier falter at the sudden rush of heat hit it hard, then just as the temperature became high enough, the flames started to gather in the center where I placed the scroll, turning into a dragon shape, and the moment I saw it I knew, this is not going to end well.

“Magnus, I should have known.”

“Always a pleasure to meet you Celestia.” The flames said wickedly, “I do hope that it was under better circumstances though.”

Dear me, he is going to make this a lot more difficult than it needs to be, with his small talks and his pleasant demeanor that allows him to evade the subject entirely, better make this quick before I say something I regret, “enough with the small talk Magnus, and tell me what you want.”

“Oh dear, was I not clear? I asked those teenagers from one of my flights to bring any orphaned dragon they saw, I could not have guessed that it would be your whelp they lay their eyes upon.”

Did he just lie straight to my face? The nerve!

“Then you already know my answer, I raised that whelp from the first day he hatched, I placed him under the care of my most prized pupil, a pony I would entrust my own life to, and I watched over him every single step of the way, do you honestly think I would just give him up so easily?”

“Unfortunately, you don’t really have a choice in the matter myself,” How dare he, “A new law was passed among the dragon empire that dictates that no dragon whelp is allowed to be raised by non-dragons. I am only doing what the laws dictates me to do.”

“Lies," I have never, in my wildest dreams, imagined that he would sink so low, "you’re doing this just to spite me.”

“The nerve,” he took an offended pose, I knew he is being sarcastic at this point, “angering you was just a bonus I’m afraid. However, there is more to my presence than mere pettiness.” He walked toward the window where all the glasses have melted, “The fifth kingdom was the one that passed that law, and they will not tolerate having it mocked at, or ignored by the rest of the empire for that matter.”

“Fifth kingdoms?” I gulped, sweat is trickling on my frown “Since when did you guys gained a new kingdom?”

“Oh quite recently I must say, I think it was about the same time you guys declared your kingdom of friendship.” He turned to Twilight, “congratulations by the way.”

There are a lot of variables that had suddenly emerged, I knew the dragon empire is a major threat to pony kind, but they never have actively attacked any race without prior incidents4, but a new kingdom might explain their need to expand5, could they have chosen Equestria?

“What will happen it I refused?”

He chuckled, “We’ll use Black Sun on Equestria.”

Horrified doesn't describe the feeling I’m having right now, Black Sun? Are they really willing to go that far for a single dragon?

“ENOUGH.” Twilight surprised me with her scream, as I turned toward her, her Rainbow form flaring with powers had been activated. Stepping out of her brother’s barrier, she made her way toward the flaming apparition, apparently her rainbow powers protect her from the heat of a flame elemental, who knew?

“If you think you can just barge in and take whatever you want from us just because we are ponies, you have another thing coming.” She stepped toward him with a defying gaze, “I will not allow you take my most precious friend away even if I fight you for him, we are not so weak as to allow you to walk over us like that.”

For a moment I felt proud, my little Twilight sure is growing into a confident princess. As I gazed around the room, I can see the faces of my little pony light up with determination, Spike whom was crying a moment ago is now brimming with courage, and the teenage dragons all had doubtful looks on their faces.

Magnus however just looked amused, even as a fire apparition his body language is as clear as day, “Who said anything about fighting?” he finally said, and for the first time in a long while, I felt afraid, “Now that’s just offensive, just because we are dragons, that doesn't mean we solve all our problem with violence and fighting.”

He stretched his paw toward the sun, and the heat in the room just went up; every pony knew something is happening, my heart started to grow weary.

“All I’m saying is that we will take away your sunlight,”

His paw started to rotate, and the sky started to dim,

“We’ll sap it away bit by bit,”

The more he rotates his paw, the darker the sky gets as dreadfulness filled the eyes that were once so determined to fight.

“Until your days become as dark as your nights.”

He closed his paw and the morning sky became as dark as night, the sight of stars in the heavens have never been so dreadful, even though the sun is up, it felt like midnight had descended, screams of terror immediately filled the street.

“Tell me, princess of friendship, can you really fight something like that?”

Black Sun has just been cast upon Equestria. The end-day spell of the dragons and their most dreadful weapon, it rendered the werewolf kingdom defenseless the moment they cast it a 1500 years ago, allowing the four Kings descended upon their capital leveling it in less than an hour, erecting the strongest dragon city outside their empire's border in its place. Darkrise they called that abomination, as a warning to all those who might think to oppose them. And now, my little ponies are going to suffer the same fate...

“PLEASE STOP.” I did not realize that I jumped and grabbed the apparition's arm, burning myself in the process, “WE’LL DO IT,” I don’t know if it was from the pain or from out of despair that I cried out, but I'm glad I did.

He simply smiled at me before disappearing, and the sky returned to normal almost immediately after that.

Silence reign in the room,and the last thing I remember is Luna bursting in, “What is going on?" her voice rang strong.

This is going to be a bad day in Equestria.

Celestia is getting bored at this point

a fire breathing dragon will burn most paper, however if what's on that paper is important enough, they will turn is into ash and store it in their stomachs until later use.

Dragon magic 101: communication ruin, the "Skype" of the dragon race.

The dragon war with the werewolf nearly a thousand five hundred years ago was caused by the werewolves attacking the flight that became stationary there, the dragons in response destroyed the werewolf empire by casting "Black Sun."

In other words, force Celestia to declare war on them.

Welcome to Darkrise part 1: Spike

Wait, what are you doing? Stop! You’re killing him, you’re…

“OUCH.”

It hurts, it hurts everywhere. I think I just woke up from a very bad dream, but the pain from suddenly waking up feels like my body is being torn apart, wait, this feels soft, it feels like I’m on a bed, where am I?

“You’re awake.”

Who said that?

I glance over the room I am in, it’s made of wood, wood floor, wood ceiling, wood walls, with a window on the side letting the nightlight in, oddly enough, it reminds me of Golden Oak library. There are a few lanterns around which are shedding dim light that seem to break the darkness just enough for one to see, but not enough to become a bother for those who wish to sleep.

That is when I noticed them, they were two, a baby dragon? No, I think it’s a she… yep, definitely a baby dragoness, judging from her size she might be my age, and behind her is a dragon that looks to be a bit older than her, actually he definitely looks older than me, but not by much, wait, why is he tied up?

The baby dragoness kept eyeing me coldly, her frosting gaze felt like daggers are being sent to my soul. I simply smiled back, and gave her an innocent wave. I don’t know what’s going on, but after what that last dragoness did, I don’t think I ever want to get on the bad side of the females of my specie.

She's walking toward me, and now I start to notice other things, from what I can tell, I think her color is ice blue, with white spikes on her back, her eyes are also of the same color as her scales, and for some reason I keep looking at her tail, why am I looking at her tail? I mean it is a normal dragon's tail there is nothing special to it.

Suddenly she jumps on the bed then walks toward me, our faces meet; she smells minty fresh. I shift uncomfortably at her invasion of my personal space, “Um, hi?!” I say, trying to stay polite, hoping she would go away.

“You’re a guy.”

… Well duh, and you are a girl. and there is a dot of light flying next to you, if we are going to state the obvious at least make it something interesting.

“Why are you a guy?”

Oh great another crazy one, where do they come from? Haven’t I been tortured enough?

“Hey Sparky,” she turns to the dragon tied up behind her, “Why does Wound want to replace me with a dragon?”

“Um Frost?!” the voice came from the dot of light that is floating behind the dragoness, who is now called Frost it seems, “No one is trying to replace you,” I heard that voice before, that distinctive bell like chirp, I think he’s called Tinkerbell, “He’s the one that Wound brought on her latest excursion, the one Starlight asked for.”

“LIES.” Frost yelled, then jumped toward the floating light, the moment she touched it, it turned into a sword!?

Landing gracefully on the far end of the bed, she pointed the golden sword at me and hissed at apparently no one, “She threatened to disown me if I ever play with her organ collection.”

Organ collection? Is that why Wound brought me here?

“And now she brings another baby dragon, keep him in HER room and treat him like a little brother.”

When did that happen? because I don’t remember it ever happening.

“And you expect me to believe she doesn't want to replace me?”

Oh boy, I think it’s time to run.

“And you.” She jumped toward me, landing softly in front of me, I pull back, my back toward the wall, whimpering just as she pointed her sword at my throat. and as if she was reading my thoughts she said: “Don’t you dare think about running.”

“Yes Ma’am.” I gulped. She is scary, I want my blanky.

“Crazy much, princess?” Came the sudden voice from the tied up dragon, wait she is a princess? “And here I was hoping you might turn out not a sadist freak like Wound is.”

“How dare you badmouth my sister.” Frost, who turns out she is a princess, suddenly turned toward the young dragon, her fury is almost palpable.

“She is my sister way before she was yours.” He replied almost sarcastically, “I can badmouth her however I like.”

Frost suddenly jumped off of my bed and ran toward her brother, but just as she is about to reach him, the young dragon suddenly burst into lightning, knocking her on the ground and turning the sword into the dot of light that it used to be.

I heard the young dragon yell “RUN,” as he tried to untie himself from his awkward position.

Well he doesn't need to tell me twice as I immediately jumped from the bed and landed on my foot. Pain shot from it as I yelped and fell on my face. But there is no time to think about that, I need to get out of here, I picked myself up and ran like crazy toward the door, not daring to look back.

Children of the Night part 1: Night Blade

Before I start, let me tell you a little back story about the children of the night.

After Celestia exiled our princess to the moon, the children of the night were frightened of what their fellow equestrians might do to them, so following the lunar prophecy that says: “On the longest day of the thousand years, a dragon will reach the stars and aid in her escape, and she will bring night time eternal.”

For our fellow Equestrians, the dragon part went missing in their prophesy, but for us it was of extreme relevance, so we went in scores to search for the possible dragon that can bring back our princess, and after twenty years of futile search, we found a possible place where he might be born in, it was non other than the dragon city of Darkrise. However we failed to take into account one crucial thing:

Dragons are crazy.

I don’t necessary mean that in a bad way, dragons are unique in their biology and growth patterns,  they require a “hoard” or preferably called a “treasure” not just for their growth, but for their survival as well, their magic is directly proportionate to the size of their hoard. And because of that, hoarding dominates a huge part of their lives and of their thoughts.

To explain that a little better, there are two examples I could think of at the top of my tongue, the first happened when we moved into Darkrise, we asked a dragon nicknamed ‘the builder’ to build us a small castle on the outskirts of Darkrise.1 So he built us an amazing fortress that could possibly house a million thestral, without taking into consideration that there is only 50000 of us. When we voiced our concerns for upholding such large structure, he replied and I’ll quote: "I needed to build something big because I was running low in my hoard, take as much space as you need, I wont blame if the fortress was to rot.” So we lived in the closest tower to the city and let the rest of it ‘rot’.

The other example happened a couple of decades after that, when a ghost hunting dragon moved in to live with us, we told him that this is an extremely new building, and that he will not find any ghosts around here because no one had the chance to die yet, and his reply was: “My hoard consist of hunting ghosts, not finding them. As long as I do my search, I’m quite satisfied with the results, even if I found none.”

So basically, dragons will do anything to increase their hoard.

Which brings us to today’s dilemma.

“Blade would you put that things away.” Wound yelled at her older brother, who had been bragging about his new ‘thing’ ever since we came back, “I need to think and you flashing it in my face isn’t helping.”

“Did little miss Wound get annoyed from my new thing? Although I’m sure I’m not the only one with a bigger hoard this time.” He replied, it still boggles me how easily they know when another have increased his hoard, “So tell me, little sis, is that pipsqueak upstairs your new surgeon doll? Or is he some stray you brought home, because he was injured!?”

“Blade, if you don’t put that thing away right now, I’m going to carve you up and stuff you like a turkey before dinner.” Wound hissed. Yep she is definitely pissed off at her mistake now.2

“But I still need to polish it, make sure it’s clean and shiny, presentable at the very least, before I apply a coat of anti-rust to it.” He waved that thing in front of his face then skillfully brought it back to its sheath.

“What is that thing anyway?” I ask reluctant of the answer.

“Biggie here, is a claymore, a full body sword that I had it tailor made for my size.” He unsheathed it then at lightning speed swung it toward a candle which was blown off then he sheathed it back.

Blade, as you probably have guessed, is a winged, teal dragon with onyx scales on his back, he has a material hoard of swords. And to everyone’s misery, his skills in using these swords are on par with a grand master sword fighter. So using his swords is as important to him as the number of swords he carry.3

“It looks greeaaat.” Jackal replied in her dreamiest voice ever, did I mention that he is also the most eligible bachelor in Darkrise? No? Well, he is.

“You named your sword?”

“I name all my swords, my sweet Night.” That was a rhetorical question lover boy. Stop batting your eyes in front of me like that, it makes you look annoying. Why do I feel hot all of a sudden?

“Ugh, would you guys please be quiet, I’m trying to think.” Wound finally iterated in frustration.

“Honestly Wound, what is there to think about?” Blade replied nonchalantly, “either Starlight did send you by mistake, which I highly doubt it, then that is his mess to clean as much as it’s yours, or he did send you knowing well what you will do, then he already had everything planned out.”

“Oh, so it’s that easy, huh. What do I tell our parents?4 Hey mom, dad, I brought a new hatchling to town, please take good care of him, oh and don’t worry, he already survived a greed growth, and he is sick from magical overflow poisoning which is preventing him from healing properly.”

“Which is why I said that you should give him to us.” I intervened, hoping to gain a foothold in this argument. “That Garble drake said that he was raised by ponies, I’m sure he’ll feel more comfortable around ponies.”

“I kinda agree with her you know.” Jackal finally snapped out of her trance, “You’re family is craziest dragon family in Darkrise, even if it isn’t Darkrise’s famous Athenaeum. Any other dragon family would do.”

Both dragons looked at us in disbelief for a moment, then, to my irritation, broke into laughter. And yet for some reason I am having the odd sense of deja-vue.

Seeing our annoyed looks, Blade was the first to calm down, “Oh come now, whatever did we do to make you say that?”

And just on cue, a terrifying explosion shook the house.

“That came from upstairs.” Blade and Wound are now on full alert.

But just as they were about to go upstairs, a familiar purple hatchling came stumbling downstairs.

“Help…” But before he could say anymore, Blade had unsheathed his 'Biggie' and is pointing it a hair width away from the baby dragon’s face.

Then with the most terrifying version of his voice Blade roared: “What did you do?”

However Blade didn’t have time to think before a shroud of magic suddenly paralyzed him in place, “Let me go Wound.”

“Not before you put down that sword.” Wound replied.

Spike took the opportunity and ran as fast as he could, then jumped through the window before anyone else had the time to stop him. (Yes they were in the living room that had a window overlooking the street)

In that instance, a white hatchling jumped from upstairs carrying the golden sword of a shaped shifted fairy, immediately followed by a roar of lightning as the child dragon came rushing down after her.

Then it all happened in a blink of an eye.

Wound let go of her older brother then teleported in front of her lightning wielding sibling, and just as he was about to strike her, she placed a shield in front of him which stopped him dead in his track.

On the other side, the moment Blade felt free, he intercepted his youngest sibling’s blade, which threw her across the other side of the room, shattering the bookcase that was standing there. Frost however, used that momentum to repel herself at top speed toward her oldest brother, and just as she was about to reach him, he brought down the full weight of his claymore on top of her, which she successfully blocked with her own blade, but destroyed the floor beneath her.

“How the buck is that a Normal family behavior to you?!!?!” I screamed at the top of my lung, when all of them seemingly calmed down a bit, realizing that they ended up fighting each other.

“Forget about them, Spike just jumped from the window.” Jackal noted as she headed toward the door, “We need to get to him before he bleeds out.”

But just as she opened the door, she slams it at once. 5

Everyone looked at her with intrigue.

"Jackal, who was at the door?" I asked almost afraid of the answer, knowing where I am, it could be one dragon out of four others, and none of them are good news.

In an almost frightened voice, Jackal replied, "It's your dad."

1.  The outskirts of Darkrise are just as dangerous as the Everfree forest.

The mistake of bringing Spike to her house.

Basically his hoard is swords-drake-ship which is directly related to the number of swords he can use as well as the number of forms he can use them in.

Spike needs to live somewhere, does he?

I'll be explaining how can a half sized werewolf open the door of a house built for full grown dragons, and how normal ponies can live in a dragon, soon.

Meet the Athenaeum bloodline part 1: Jackal.

I think I may have signed my death sentence, of all the dragons that lived in that house, I may have pissed off the most dangerous one of them all. Ignore Wound and her sadistic ways, or Blade and his need to cut everything, those are just normal occurrences in comparison to some of the legends I heard about this guy.

He knocked again, I knew that if I slammed the door in his face a second time, he'll present me as a rug to my parents. So I opened the door very slowly, and flashed all my teeth hoping it would appear as a smile.

“Jackal, Night Blade, so good to see you both.” He's ignoring my previous insolence, that's a relief. Though, I'm not out of the woods yet. “How are you both?” he always talk in a cheerful upbeat manner, which makes every other creature cower in fear of what he might say or do next.

“Good afternoon, mister Bookwyrm.” We reply unanimously.

Meet Bookwyrm, head of the Athenaeum bloodline, and the second strongest dragon in Darkrise. He is a teal colored, glasses wearing dragon with onyx scale and usually carries a book between his claws. If you thought that a dragon with books for a hoard is weak, think again; strong doesn't begin to describe him. He became so because he inherited his grandfather’s entire hoard of books, then managed to triple it within a hundred years time.1

In shorts, you don't mess with him.

“Jackal, sweetie, would you mind stepping aside so that I may enter my home? And don't worry, I will not hold what just happened against you.” He kept smiling at me, that smile, that dreaded, dreaded smile.

“Sorry.” I literally mewed that word as I stepped aside, my feet almost giving away as the adrenaline washed away from my body after knowing I will live to see another day. Which, now that I think about it, might have been embarrassing if it wasn’t for this whole situation.

Turning to his kids, who are suddenly sitting in a neat line like the very good kids they are supposed to be, he greeted them, "Children, how good to see you all."

“Good afternoon, father.” Since when did Wound sounded so innocent? “How was your trip to the capital?”

“Oh it was just divine.” He swayed the book he was carrying in front of everyone, “I found this lovely hard cover edition of a book2 I’ve been searching for, and look.” He knocked on the cover with a resonated metallic clang that made everyone jump, “It’s made of titanium.”

“Impressive, father.” Said Blade in a good boy tone.

“We knew you could do it.” Replied Frost, cheering? That can't be right.

This turned exciting rather quickly, this is the first time I have seen the Athenaeum kids acting so docile, and well behaved, and so out of character. If I knew they could pull the good kids act maybe I should come here only while he's around.

“Anyway, enough about me,” let the games begin, “tell me, dear children, what have you been up to lately?”

There was a long moment of nerve wrecking silence before Sparks3 decided to voice his concern: “I think something is wrong with Frost.”

“Hey…” Frost was about to protest before Sparks gave her a glare.

“She’s been acting weird lately.” Sparks explained.

“Weird how?” his father questioned.

Sweat Silence could be heard as each and every one of the dragon kids bit their lips, hoping that their dad wouldn’t catch what they were doing, Sparks was about to say something but was cut short by the house’s fairy, Tinkerbell.

“Does this have to do with the baby dragon that jumped through the window a while back?” the shock was visible on all of them. This is getting too exciting I can feel myself tingling.

“Don’t smirk you two,” he said while glancing at us and I froze, he just flashed at us his creepy smile then looked straight at his kids. If that is his way of putting us in our place....who am I kidding, it worked perfectly.

“Or the fact that Blade pinned Frost right about here.” He pointed to the broken part of the floor, then tilted his head toward the scorch marks on the stairs before stopping abruptly, “Or how Sparks and Wound were fighting right about here.” pointing at where the scorch marks stopped.

“Sparks used lightning in the house.” Frost was the first to turn over.

Shocked by his sister’s betrayal, Sparks accused, “well I wouldn’t need to use lightning in a tree house if you weren’t acting so much out of character lately, you threatened to gut the guy for being in your sister’s room.”

“And whose fault is that?” Frost reacted defensively.

“Well to be honest,” Tinkerbell interfered, “Wound brought him to her room.”

“Shut up.” Wound blushed immensely as she felt the inquisitive look of her father, “I didn’t do anything with him, To him.” She corrected as her father leaned closer to her, "You know what I mean."

Wound looked to her left and right, trying frantically to find an escape, “Well the reason he jumped out of the window was because Blade nearly stabbed him with his new claymore.”

“Oh, very rich of you sis, blame the big brother for everything.” Blade reacted in annoyance.

“Well you do have a tendency to overreact sometimes.” Frost commented and everyone started to argue at the same.

Then suddenly, amidst the cacophony of arguments, Bookwyrm decided to intervene, “kids, Kids, KIDS.” He yelled and when his children fell silent he resumed, “It’s not like I am putting the blame on any of you.” Suddenly the book he was holding started to levitate in front of him, then it opened at an unknown page and a magical whirlwind started to pick up, “I blame all of you for the mess you guys made.”

Suddenly the four dragons plus fairy were sucked into the book, and without any further fuss, the book closed itself trapping everyone inside.

Damn.

I'm scared.

“Now stay there until further notice.”

I swear I can still hear the muffled sound of his kids coming from the book, I gulped as he suddenly turned toward us.

“Does any of you have a comment on this situation?”

I feel my heart pumping so hard I think it's about to burst open.

“NO SIR.” I yelled, wanting to be as far away from here as possible.

“Actually what about Spike?” Night Blade almost shrieked when he turned toward her with his eerie smile.

“And who is Spike?” Damn it stop being so happy all the time.

“The dragon that jumped out of the window, please don’t turn me into a book!” wait, did I just say that out loud?

“Oh, him.” Bookwyrm broke off his gaze and I exhaled, when did I held my breath? “Don’t worry, I left him for the professional.”

Big hoard = strong dragon magic, in other words that guy has the biggest hoard in Darkrise.

The book is titled "the complete list of mythical creatures of the Everfree."

The youngest brother.

Hospital of Darkrise: Mara

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

A very bad day: Luna

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Guardians of Darkrise: Weiss

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

The grave keepers: Spike.

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Prelude: A very bad day: Spike

A very bad day: Spike

*BLURP*

Oh Celestia, this is going to be one of those days again.

I really hate when I wake up from burping a letter from Celestia, these days almost always end up bad. And today was going especially bad, considering that I just woke up from the most wonderful dream ever, you see I was dreaming that Rarity and I were doing… uhm, stuff.1.

“Twilight,” I yelled at the top of my lungs, I have never missed the tree house as I do now, at least we were an earshot away from each other. Don’t get me wrong, I like our new crystal tree palace of friendship, with rainbow power conference room, and I like that now I have my own room the most, but the practicality of living in the Golden Oak library is still unrivaled.

As I trudge toward the kitchen I noticed that Twilight has not slept since last night, she was however reading a book.

“There you are, I was yelling for you all morning,” I lied, I only yelled once, “have you been reading that book all night, again?”

“Oh hey Spike,” she had puffs under her eyes, never a good sign, “I was just finishing this books about dragons that Celestia sent to me last night.”

“Princess Celestia sent you a book about dragons?”

“Yes she did, but it doesn't have anything new, just a bunch of speculations and theories, nothing we don’t already know.”

“Then why did you spend all night reading it?”

“Because Celestia told me that we are going to need it for today, I don’t know what for though, she sounded quite cryptic in her note when the guards delivered it yesterday.” She finished with a disappointed sigh.2.

How odd, usually they told me about any dragon literature they find, why did she kept this one from me? Maybe it's nothing, maybe I'm just overreacting.

“Oh that remind me,” I pick up the parchment and hand it to her, “This came for you.”

Twilight unfurl the parchment, her face turns into a scowl just like I expected. “Let me guess, Celestia wants us in Canterlot immediately.”

“No Spike, she wants YOU in Canterlot.”

Huh, that’s new, "what does she want with me?"

"She didn't say, she only mentioned that you need to be at one of her hearings."

“Will you at least come with me?” I ask skittishly.

“Why do you want me there?”

“I…” what am I supposed to say here? Should I tell her because that letter woke me up from my sleep? “Have a bad feeling about today, it’s all.”

Twilight thought for a moment, “Alright I’ll join, but first.” She picked up a sapphire tart and placed it in front of me, dear Celestia I love that Twilight is a princess of a kingdom “let’s eat.”

And I dove in the tart like it was going to be the last decent I will have in a long while.

Arriving at Canterlot palace, we were greeted by Shining Armor, and for some reason I had a pit in my stomach the moment I saw him. It’s not like I don’t like him, Shining is more like a brother to me, but still, every time he had been around recently something bad had happened, so why should this time be an exception.

“Twily, Spike, so good to see you both.” His greeting is casual enough.

“Hey BBBFF.” Twilight please that was cute the first thousand time you said it,3. “What are you doing here?"

“Extra security,” huh why do they need extra security for? “Come on, let's go inside, better not keep Princess Celestia waiting.”

What.

“What’s going on inside?” I had to ask, this day keeps eating away at me from this morning.

”You’ll see.” Did he just give me the all clear smile? Like the one before the changeling invasion? Well two can play it that game.

“No,” I made a face and sat on the ground, “I’m not moving until you tell me.”

“What’s wrong with him?” Shining asked Twilight.

“He just had a bad morning.” Twilight replied nonchalantly, “Just tell us already, so we can get this finished before noon. Maybe we can all have lunch together, just like old times.” She started jumping up and down at the prospect of a lunch.

“Ok, Ok.” With a chuckle, Shining tried to calm his alicorn sister a bit, “yesterday we had a peculiar request in the day court, a bunch of teenage dragons came barging in demanding that we “hand Spike over to them,” which of course Celestia made a quick work of, by nearly blasting them out of the castle.”

Teenage dragons? The only teenage dragons I know are…. uh oh, “Is one of those dragons a red scaled bully by the Garble?”

Shining nodded, “Yeah, how did you know that?”

“I ran into them during the dragon migration.”

“Might explain why they claim to know you so well.”

“So why am I asked to come here for?”

“Well, although there is no way in Tartaros of a chance that we'll send you away, it is regulation that you be present for the Princess's decision, which will be given today.”

I don’t think I smiled so hard in my life before, I have to wonder why Celestia is always so cryptic about good news like that in her letters.

A little while later and we are standing in the throne room snickering, when Garble and two other of his goons were brought in, shackled. They look ridiculous.

Celestia was regal as always standing there as she faced them, “I do hope that a night in our dungeon have taught you a thing or two about courtesy.” She said all refined, while Twilight and I were about to burst into laughter as the teenagers quivered and shrieked at each of Celestia's words.

“Yes your highness,” wow, she must have smacked him real good to make Garble become that.

“Now about your petition yesterday,” she pulled a scroll of paper in front of her, “you asked us to give custody of Spike the dragon to you, without giving us any reason for it, is that correct?”

“Yes.” Oh dear Celestia, he’s squeaking now.4.

“Due to lack or reason of doing so,” this is it,

“I am going to have to refuse your petition,” now show me that disappointed face, “I am sorry.”

Why is he smiling?

“Your highness,”

Why does he sound calmer?

“I never said I don’t have a reason”

Where did that come from?

“I just didn’t think I needed it, until now.”

Oh no, there is that pit again.

1.he was kissing her, on the lips, STOP EMBARRASSING HIM  >P

2.You can only imagine her disappointment for not learning anything new, the horror.

3.And yet Shining Armor enjoys hearing it every time

4.By now Spike isn't just rolling on the ground laughing, he is more like chocking on his last breath.