Spike's slumber was interrupted by the roar of a creature significantly larger than he. The baby dragon cowered beneath his insulative blanket of dirt. A large hoof slammed into the dirt near him, followed by a paw. Something large slammed into the ground only feet away from him. He was certain it would've crushed him. A loud hissing followed the slam. Something was swung through the air, and swept his cover away, exposing the battle between a chimera and a large rockodile.

He wasted no time running for cover, but was stopped when the snake head of the chimera blocked his path. It opened its mouth, and revealed its fangs. Venom poured from its mouth like a waterfall. With only a second to react, Spike shouted.

YOL

The snake head was ignited, and reared in pain. He used the opportunity to run to a nearby brush. From his spot, he could watch the battle take place. The chimera's teeth pierced the rock of the rockodile, and sunk into the supple flesh beneath. In retaliation, the rockodile's gargantuan jaws clamped down on the chimera's foreleg, and it began to flop over on its side, then back upright, over and over again. Before the chimera could even process what had begun to happen, the creature's foreleg had been avulsed. As the chimera's mouth opened to scream in pain, the rockodile leveraged its stony tail as an atlatl, flinging the beast into a thick fallen tree. It collapsed on the forest floor, dead.

The rockodile settled for a moment, then sniffed the air, and turned its head to Spike.

"Uh...hi there?"

The beast's legs forced into the dirt, and it started to hiss.

"No! No, I don't want to fight." He took half a step back.

The beast coiled its tail like the spring on a mouse trap.

Despite his pleas, it appeared this animal wanted to fight.

"So that's everything, any questions?" asked Twilight.

"Just one darling. What in Celestia's name are we standing around for? Little Spikey is out there all alone in this dreadful weather."

"I know Rarity, but we can't just go in without a plan, we'd just make everything worse."

"Twi? you spoke to this 'Mora felle-uh, thing, right? Did he seem trustworthy to you?"

"Honestly, no. Not at all, but it's the only lead we have on finding Spike. "

"Well then what're we waiting for? Let's go find him before something else does!", Rainbow Dash punctuated her sentence by slamming her hooves together.

"For once Rainbow Dash, we agree on something. I can simply wait no longer, come along everypony.", Rarity's horn lit up as she opened the door and walked out, followed by Rainbow dash.

Twilight's shoulders slumped. Applejack laid a hoof on her back, "don'tcha worry Sugarcube, we'll get Spike back, no matter what."

Spike ducked as the gargantuan tail flew over his head. Wind from the attack licked his scales. He let go a plume of fire at the hide of the beast, but the flames were dissipated by the beast's skin. The beast settled about two ponies away from him, and glared. Spike took a deep breath, and shouted.

YOL

A large fireball erupted from the drake, and prominently dissipated against the skin of the beast. Despite this, the shout did in fact seem to damage the beast's hide slightly. In retaliation, its jaws parted, and the beast lunged.

FUS

The beast was stopped dead in its tracks. The instant it was, Spike was back in Apocrypha, he remembered the language taught to him, how it felt for the knowledge to sear into his mind. He considered for time, the way in which the language was structured, then remembered that he had been taught not just a few words, but an entire language. In all the chaos, is was rather easy to forget the details.

He opened his eyes, and the forest once again surrounded him. The beast, still stunned from the shout, sat right in front of him. How could he possibly convey to a creature that can't speak his request for peace? By shouting in his face of course. He took in a large breath, and let fly a longer shout.

KAAN, DREM

He fell to his knees out of breath, one consequence of shouting. His eyes fell on the beast, who seemed to be picking bits of chimera out of his teeth, completely uninterested in the battle he was engulfed in mere seconds ago.

It was only now, that his heart had slowed, he was able to fully comprehend the situation he was in. Until this point, his mind had felt cluttered, as though everything was blurred. No doubt a side effect of an otherworldly entity pressing a foreign language into his mind. Nevertheless, this was neither the time or the place for such revelations. Now was the moment at which he found himself at a crossroad. Would he fall back into the loving embrace of his old life, and attempt to cope with the knowledge he was burdened with? Or, would he walk further into grasp of nature, and claim his birthright, as the king of any ecosystem? After all, is it not the place of a dragon to rule?

"Spike! Where are you?", off in the distance, a voice, female, most likely Twilight. They had come to find him. How could they possibly know where he is? It's only been half a day at most. Doesn't matter now, they're here, that's what matters. Once again, it appeared that the universe did not intend to give him a choice. Therefore, he must take it.

The drake slithered his way across the forest floor toward the voice. Where one is, the others can't be far behind. He stopped when he heard the clopping of hooves against dirt. eventually, they come into his line of sight, just beyond a thick hedge.

"Spike! Please come home with us! I'm not mad about the room, I know you're confused!"

The room? What was she... OH, the room! He had completely forgotten. It was the reason he was out here in the first place, and he'd...forgotten? The foolishness of his actions cracked him like a whip.

"What in Celestia's name am I doing out here?"

He stood, and began walking toward his friends, not even trying to conceal his presence anymore. He rose his claw to speak, and whatever noise came out of his mouth was drowned by a deafening roar. His claw dropped, and his legs pumped. He burst through the thick hedge, just to come face to face with a very large manticore.

"Spikey!"

"Girls, stay behind me!"

The manticore lunged forward, dipping right and circling around the drake. Spike pivoted and drew a breath.

FUS RO

The manticore was flung into a tree, toppling it.

"You want my friends, you go through me."

"Did Spike just....?", Applejack trailed off.

"Uh huh...", responded Fluttershy.

The beast rose, and stood against Spike. Its eyes betrayed the kind of anger only an animal can have, a primal one. The instincts written in the blood of his ancestors tugged at his back, yet he stood.

Those eyes, those terrible eyes. Spike wanted desperately to force the beast's eyes shut, to seal their lids, even one good scratch across the face, anything just to get the eyes off him. He readjusted his footing, the ground was soft, softer than it should be. His brain allowed his nose to report, confirming a pungent odor of ammonia. He had apparently been standing in a puddle of urine. The deepest corner of Spike's mind lit up, and he formed a plan.

"Everypony! Close your eyes!", the girls did as instructed.

Spike leaned hard to his left, and jammed a claw deep into the dirt.

WULD

His claw became the axis of a circle, of which he covered half the perimeter. The action forced a dense slurry of mud at the manticore. The slurry struck the beast in the face, blinding it.

"Everypony, run!", by the time the sentence had left his mouth, it was less a collection of words, and more an energetic yelp of instruction. The beast thrashed wildly, a claw splintered a large tree not three lengths away. Bark and pulp rained over the drake. When he opened his eyes, the tree blocked his path. The beast had turned away, desperately trying to remove the sting of urine from his eyes. This gave Spike pause.

What kind of a dragon runs away? Is he not one of the kings, a child of the race born to dominate all others? Is what Hermaeus called him...truly his fate? Will he forever be a slave to a master? And who will this master be? Twilight? Celestia? Perhaps a more intangible concept, his instincts, his fear? If he is truly cursed to be a slave to his own fear, why should he not allow the manticore to take him?

Because that's not what a dragon does. To hell with his name, no one he considers family gave it to him. All that matters is what he does here and now. And right now, all he wants is his friends to be safe.

He felt the pride of his ancestors well up within him. This is what dragons have been doing for centuries, protecting their hordes.

MUL QAH DIIV

Spike felt his body begin to change, his baby body lay at the epicenter of a hurricane of orange and blue hues. The storm dissipated and the hues took form, granting him the form of a true dragon. A skeleton cage of orange surrounded his body, and gradually faded into hues of blue leading to his extremities.

With his new body, the breath he could take had been increased, and the power of his shouts multiplied.

YOL TOOR SHUL

A great tornado of fire leapt from the canopy of the forest. Spike used his new neck like a string on a top; he flung the twister towards the manticore. The beast hadn't even cleared its eyes before it was ash.

He began to chuckle, which evolved into a full blown cackle. Is the action of freeing yourself from your chains not the ultimate form of domination? No longer does Dur-in-aar exist, nor does Spike. Now, Stin-Bo-Hind raises his head above the canopy, and unfurls his wings. A beautiful swirl of colors cascade on all he flies over. Like a glass window, his translucent body bathes the ground in stories.

He flew over his friends, and for a moment, he halted, hovering in the sky. He knew, deep within his heart, a fire had been lit that could never be put out, and the girls would never understand. It was no fault of theirs, they are still slaves to their instincts, as all ponies are. Yet, at the same time, against their instincts, they rushed into what was almost certainly their doom just to find him. Perhaps...ponies and dragons are not so different after all.

The spectacle of a translucent dragon hovering above six ponies drew a rather sizeable crowd. It was only a matter of time before Celestia showed up. How could he show how grateful he was for all the years they took care of him? His answer came in the form of a gully washer. Rain assaulted the un prepared ponies and the crowd dispersed, save for the six ponies he cared for most. Spike looked to the sky.

LOK VAH KOOR

The rain stopped, and the clouds broke, revealing the curtain of stars in the sky.

Fah Hi Zu'u love Fin Zok

Author's Note

You might need this.
https://www.thuum.org/translator.php

Kogaan Fah reading