A Dragon in Shining Scales

You still haven't brought us what we wanted! Shadows screamed in rage. They had waited too long for real food, and were getting impatient.

"I will not kill my brother. He spared my life with banishment an-"

Don't you forget foolish dragon? You made a deal with us to get the power to control what you once lost, in exchange we get to feed off of you. You still haven't given us reason to stay. They interrupted him with their cold collective voices.

Valkoris narrowed his eyes at the bending shadows in the light. Evil smiles and horrific eyes littered the cave walls and floor like a filled trashcan. "I have not fogotten... My code-"

YOU ARE A DRAGON! YOU HAVE NO CODE! The shadows screamed at him. We will feed on the land you will get, and we will consume the last bit of your... code. They began to creep close. Some started to hold him down and began to laugh. Heh-hehehehehe! We'll get what we both want! The shadows began to crawl into Valkoris's nose, mouth, and other parts of his body.

"NNNOO!!!" He screamed, trying to tear the shadows off of him. "NO! NO! NO! BROTHER!" Brother was the last word he had said as the shadows had taken his body over.

Standing from the rock and gold coined throne the once beautiful red dragon was now a shadowy black, and spines were blood red. A perfect mirror of Sülvahn except for the eyes. Those were hollow purple shells without their draconian slits.

We will return what is ours soon enough... It laughed, and looked around the cave noticing more demons rise from the shadows around it. Muh-hahahahahaha! RISE DEMONS FROM THE SHADOWS! WE WILL RISE! AND RECLAIM WHAT WE LOST HALF A MILLENNIA AGO! The Shadows began to laugh and jump for joy as they crawled out of swirling black clouds of darkness and despair.

Sülvahn is a happy dragon, well a content one, or well, he was one. He had no idea Sweetie Belle could be so loud. She was running around the cave he was trying to sleep in. He carefully opened an eye and watched her trot in place and a huge smile across her face. Then both eyes opened as he saw his gems and crystals fly around the cave.

"What are you doing!?" He barked at her and in that instant every gem and crystal fell to the floor, many of them breaking. Sülvahn being angry was just the beginning.

"I-I'm sorry!" Sweetie said. "I was just seeing if I could use my magic again!"

Sülvahn relaxed a bit. "Magic? You can use it now? Show me what you can do."

Sweetie lifted a gem off the ground, a ruby that was shattered in the fall. "Basic elemental repair. Earth Class spell, level two." She closed her eyes and her horn began to glow once more. Sülvahn watched in awe as the gem started to reshape into its previous unbroken form. It flashed allowing Sweetie Belle to end the spell. She looked at it with a smile. "There!"

Sülvahn started to smile. "That is a neat trick."

Sweetie Belle blushed softly, looking away as she heard the small complement. "I know more, but lifting things and repairing them is all I can do."

"So it is a matter of training when it comes to magic?" He asked, scratching his chin with interest.

"Sort of...A unicorn is limited to their horn. Each rank is the number of lines on a horn." She looked up at her horn. "I had five, now I have seven when I got Scorpan's magic. He gave it to me to fix my horn."

"It is too bad he could not heal all of you." He pointed to the scaring on her face. "Perhaps a healer could. There is one a day's flight away."

"How big is the Wastelands?"

"Square mileage equates to ten thousand. Highest altitude for a mountain, eight thousand feet. My mountain is the second tallest, seven point five thousand." He knew this well. Being a dragon and had no work to do during his free time, he measured all of the Wastelands

Sweetie knew dragons were smart, but this was way much more than she understood. Never liking math unlike Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle hated it. It was too complex for her, magic was easier to understand then math. Sülvahn must have learned a lot from Scorpan.

"You're very smart." Sweetie said. "The dragons were I'm from don't know much more than to count their gold."

"Six billion..." Sülvahn sighed. "In gems anyways. Coin...? 7,469."

Sweetie was shocked. Six billion bits could buy all but the castle in Canterlot. "How fast is the speed of sound?"

"Roughly three hundred and fifty meters per hour." He answered. "At thirty thousand feet, speed of sound is reduced due to lack of air pressure and resistance. My top speed is four hundred eighty meters per second." He stretched his wings out wide and began to glow as he focused energy into them. "Energized, eight hundred meters per second. I used Energized Wings to save your life."

"Ooohhhh.....my head...." Too much math...Sweetie didn't enjoy it. "No more math please..."

Sülvahn laughed a little. "I don't think a healer would enjoy taking care of a headache as she would a nasty scar." Sweetie's head hung low. "Now then, do not be down little one...You will return to your home. If I used Energized Wings to leave the Wastelands, we'll arrive at Entropy Fields in a week. However from there we'll need to walk until we reach the Celestial Sea."

"And from there you'll fly again?"

"Exactly. Total time... Maybe two months if I wish to keep enough energy to continue flying, or at least gliding." He flapped his wings a couple times. "Perhaps three to train you."

"Train me?"

"In magic. I may not be able to use more than to send a message, but Scorpan taught me about it. And now that you told me you need training to become more powerful, then I will aid you. In return, you will tell me about the Holy Land you call Equestria. Deal?"

Sweetie smiled wide. "A dragon who knows magic!? Amazing!" She jumped over to him, and hugged his leg.

Sülvahn felt a jump in his heart he rarely felt beating. His eyes were wide, what was this? He pushed her off gently and tried to hide his shock. "Enough of that, do we have a deal?"

"You bet!" She grinned. "Let's go!" Her eyes closed, and she imagined her home. "Equestria, here I come..."

Sülvahn smiled at her. Sweetie Belle was an interesting gem to have. There was no way that he owned her, she was alive, he was only borrowing her. Still, he felt a twinge of pride swell in him. There was no dragon this side of Terra that had a unicorn under his protection, and in his claws. He didn't know much about magic, but he did know how to focus his energy.

"Sülvahn,-" Scorpan said, lifting his head high and pacing back and forth. "You have a job here in the Wastelands, a very important one. The people of our broken world need us to protect them from those who wish to spread darkness."

"DARKNESS BAD!" Sülvahn cheered, flapping his tiny wings. "I WILL CRUSH DARKNESS!"

Scorpan chuckled at the small drake. "Now my son, calm down. How can you 'crush darkness' when you can't even sit still?" Sülvahn stopped moving his wings, and sat straight up. Scorpan felt the need to chuckle. "Alright...When darkness comes, you need to be calm. You need to understand how it works."

"How does it work master?"

"Darkness leaves....scars... It tears through everything that isn't evil or its own. You are scarred, I healed you as best as I could."

Sülvahn looked a little depressed, his Alkits fell low. "I am evil...?"

Scorpan bent onto his knees, and rested a paw on his head. "It is alright... I was evil too. Then, two powerful goddesses and their kind showed me what being good feels like."

"Nothing is more powerful than me!" Sülvahn gazed upwards at Scorpan. "Except you master! You're the strongest! Then me!"

"Yes, yes...you are." Scorpan said with a light chuckle, and sat down. "Close your eyes Sülvahn." Sülvahn did so, and when Scorpan did, he opened them back up. "Close them!" This time he barked the order, and Sülvahn kept his eyes closed. "Everyone has their own energy, and their limit, even you. Thankfully as we grow and train our energy, we can hold more."

"What can energy do?!"

"Energy can do....Well, everything you can think of. Dragons have the energy to no only protect themselves from fire and lava, but breath said fire. You have wings, your energy lets you use them. "

"But I can't.....fly..." Sülvahn whispered softly in a saddened tone.

"With my help, you will fly faster than sound can travel." He opened his eyes and saw Sülvahn's wings faintly glowing red and smiled. "And that may be sooner than you may think."

Sweetie Belle poked him. "Hello~! Terra to Sülvahn? You there?"

Sweetie watched him nod to the cave exit. "I'll be out in a moment. I must do something to my hoard before I leave." Sweetie nodded, and ran out of the cave.

He sighed, putting his back against the cave, he moved the pillar in the center of the cave. Under the crystal pillar was a small enchanted bag, his most prized possession. Picking it up slowly, he opened it. Inside was like a whole other world, filled with gold, gems, and crystals.

"Gilded Gold Glide Gracefully into a Globe of Gold." He said the rhyme softly. Suddenly, all the gold in his cave began to swirl around him. He laughed a little, always enjoying his collection fly into his magical bag. And when it was all in, his cave was empty except the solar crystals.

Sülvahn turned to the cave exit when he felt a tug in the back of his head. His vision went blurry, but went back to normal. "No..." He shook the feeling off, and walked on.

He wasn't sure what the feeling was, nor did he really care. It hardly mattered when he felt a small tug on his mind whenever it happened. Normally it was just an energy surge within himself or something else near him, and because Sweetie Belle was not far from him, he assumed safely it was her. Turns out, it was.

Sweetie was trying to lift a rock but she was failing once it got up. She huffed angerly, then bucked it.

"Oww...." She groaned. "Stupid...So stupid."

"Even I wouldn't punch a rock... Perhaps you aren't done with your education either..." He got down on all fours, and used his tail to pick Sweetie Belle up. "You will sit on my back. I must hold on to our coin."

"Our?"

Sülvahn nodded. "Our coin. You will earn it, but for now. You are still weak so I must take care of you." He placed her on his back and spread his wings out wide. "If you can use your magic to hold yourself down, now would be good."

Sweetie's horn lit up like a fire as she created a magical rope to hold herself down. "Is that good?" Sülvahn nodded, and took off.

Now, unicorns are never ment to fly. Rarity did, but look where that got her? Sweetie realized why, the feeling was too amazing. The cool wind hardly touching her from Sülvahn's body heat protecting her rushed through her mane, making it flap around wildly. She started to laugh, a feeling rose up from her lungs, and she cheered happily, whooping and hollering at the speed.

Sülvahn dove down sharply, making Sweetie scream in excitement. It was like riding a rollercoaster in Manehattan. He made the feeling much more real by curving in sharp and some easy turns. Sweetie cheered him on more, shouting, "This is amazing!", and it was. He felt something so pure, happiness of a young child. It was like hearing Jakli laugh for the first time when she was but a foal. It brought good memories, ones he liked more than others.

It had been years since Jakli left his cave to find a love, a purpose. He knew, At least for the next couple months, he wouldn't be alone. Sweetie had felt the same.

"Sülvahn?" Sweetie asked as Sülvahn had slowed down. "A....are we friends?"

Sülvahn turned his head as they flew. He smiled and with a nod, he said, "Yes, I suppose we are."