A Smoldering Feast of Fire

"Wait," Twilight raised her hand cutting Smolder off. The drakaina's groan in response to her headmistress' followed as everyone turned to Twilight as they were still chewing their food, all a little annoyed that she just cut off Smolder. "What's the title of the story?" She asked before she gave a weak laugh.

Smolder took a breath and had a swig of her cider before she answered, "The Revenge of Apep."

"I never heard that one." Spike said with a clear tawig of interest, "is from Southern Equestria?" he asked.

Smolder smirked as she nodded, "Close, but I can't say any more." she winked before she started her story again

Once upon a time, long before time existed there was nothing. Not even the concept of nothing. Then came a light, that light grew until it formed an orange-red cobra sixteen yards long from end of his nose to the tip of his tail. Slowly around the cobra, the rest of existence formed and the cobra noted that his hood was the largest light in the darkness. He slithered through the void to a formed piece of land with two rivers. One flowing south to north along the ground and another in the sky above it flowing east to west. The cobra was drawn to the river in the sky and started to swim along its surface and he saw from him hood he projected light onto the ground and in turn, plants began to grow. The cobra noted that the river he swam on went through a mountain cave. He followed the river into the cave and continued on in the dark for hours until he reached another opening which brought him back to the sky river at the far eastern side of the land he saw. This track he would continue for many years and all the while plants grew, animals came and humans appeared and soon other beings closer to him appear, somewhere appeared to be humans, others seemed more like animals and some as various crosses of humans and animals, a few of them even joined him on the river that flowed in the sky and underground in a barge.

One day, as the Cobra was swimming along one of the gods with a falcon head name Ra offered the Cobra a rest. The cobra accepted the offer and for the first time ever he shut his eyes and slept on the barge. As the barge passed the hours of the day and into the night, most noticeably during the seventh hour of the night, also known as the Secret Cavern, Ra took a knife and cut of the Cobra's hood and before it woke, Ra tossed the slumbering serpent off the boat and carried on taking on the role of sun god and kept it for so long that no-ever doubted that he was ever not the sun god.

However, the cobra, after he woke and found he was stuck in the Night's seventh hour and realized that his hood was cut off of him cursed the usurper to die every night as he passes from the twelveth hour of Day into the first hour of the night. Also part of the curse was that should Ra's body be devoured before it reaches the end of the twelveth hour of the night and entered into the first hour of the day, the cobra would reclaim his position as sun-god and will make all those that worshipped the pretender suffer the full wrath of the sun's flame. It was then that he took on the name Apep. And every night he waits in the Secret Cavern to devour Ra's dead body and all the gods that protect the body. However three thousand years ago Apep overpowered the snake Mehen, the gods Set and Selket and the very magic of Isis and he swallow the barge and all the gods on it. And with that Apep had his revenge and consumed the world with fire leaving himself as he got his justice and his hood back.

Smolder finished her with a tip of her head and had her hand raised with the palm up as if expecting a coin or two. She then raised her head, "So what did you think?" She asked.

"Well, dragons do have a culture with stories, in which, might make right and a dragon that shows weakness is brought low," Twilight spoke up as she tried to explain away some of the shock plastered on the faces of the other humans. "So we have to factor that into assessing it."

Velvet leaned back in thought, "Well, it comes off as a little too much like a bad revenge fic, with a dash of ex post facto revisionist history to the story in attempt to make Apep sympathetic." the older woman surmurised.

Night Light was also in thought, "Well, we should look at each story from as many perspectives as possible, at least half your work can be surmised as seeing the same thing from different angles." her husband challenged.

Shining then spoke up, "I kind of liked it, it shows that those who trick and steal are doomed to misery."

Cadance then spoke, "But what about mercy and forgiveness, or at least justice responses. You can't tell me that destroying the world is a just response to what happened."

"I liked it. It's often that you get to hear a story with a dragon as the good guy, or at least the initially wronged party." Spike commented. "Tell me I'm wrong."

"Uncle Spike isn't wrong, but it felt... short, like it was missing something." Flurry spoke up.

Skyla seemed to tear up, "Why did Ra do that?" the little one asked. "Ra's a big meanie."

"Well that's two, three if we accept the opponent's vote, that liked it, three that didn't, I am going to have say it wasn't your best work of fiction Smolder. Maybe because it was so on the spot with the telling or perhaps a lack of knowledge on how to connect with the audience. I am going have to say I'm neutral."

Smolder shrugged her shoulders and leaned back as she returned to her meal, "Half liking it, including my opponent, is actually better then I expected. You humans are actually less inherently tribalistic then other races."

After everyone had a little more to eat, Spike wiped his face off and cleared his throat as he got from the table. "Well then, it's my story. This one really doesn't have set title, but the telling is all in the heart." Spike said with a wink. He took breath and turned off all the light in the room and then ignited a single candle with lime green fire.