The Dragon

by The Loner

Rating: mature
Tags: Sad, Other, Princess Luna, Princess Cadance, Profanity, Adventure, Princess Celestia, Main 6, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Death, Alternate Universe
Length: 77138

He didn't know that a gift of the heart could be so...bad

Star Reaper just wanted her to know how much she meant to him, the priestess didn't need to treat him that way because of the gift he got his love. So now he finds himself cast from his realm for what he did wrong and sailing through the emptiness of space, wondering where he is being cast to...

Published 2024-01-30 00:50:00 UTC
Last updated 2024-11-21 22:39:52 UTC

2: When Dragons Fall

After her generous captor returns upstairs, she picks up one of the elixirs first and heads to the mirror to check her current state. As she stands there before the mirror, she looks at her once pearl-white skin which is now an angry orangish brown. Her cyan eyes take in the appearance of her face, the left half of it is badly blistered with deep red blotches traveling down the right side of her body. Seeing how damaged her skin is, draws tears from her as she holds the precious elixir to her chest, silently praying to herself, "Please let this potion heal some of the damage..."

Pulling the cork out of the vial, Summer then tilts her head back and swallows the bitter contents. Returning the cork to the vial, she watches the mirror carefully for any changes to her skin. Several seconds pass by as the heavily damaged areas heal a little bit, still leaving a large area of blisters and burnt skin. With a happy, thankful sigh, she hurries to the box and grabs another two potions before returning to the mirror.

It takes twenty vials to restore her skin to her normal pearl-white color, looking at her rose-colored nipples and the burned-off hair around her pubic mound, saying with a raised eyebrow, "That actually looks rather nice down there... Now I will keep digging around through the crates he left out and see if there is anything that will let me fix my hair..."

As she sets to rummaging through the open crates, pulling out several pearl-handled brushes and combs before finding a pair of golden scissors, a straight razor, and of course a hand mirror. One thing that surprises her, however, is an ornate, gold and silver makeup box that used to belong to a great-aunt of hers, drawing a chuckle from her as she says, "I hope those two crooked relatives got what they deserved in the end."

Once she sets everything aside, she begins to get her hair back under control, saying, "Sorry hair, but Charred Princess went out of style millennia ago..."

It takes her three hours to get herself cleaned up and looking nice once more before she digs into the chests of clothes, managing to find a pair of lace-up open-toed solid silver stilettos with a three-inch heel having a padded leather sole for cushion and silver silk laces along with a butter yellow dress that looks like something a high-priced girl would wear at a brothel. With her choices greatly restricted, she has no choice but to wear the rather revealing dress, grumbling, "I hope I don't catch anything from this dress..."

When exhaustion takes its toll on her, she starts heading to the upper level when a glint of light catches her eye. Turning to see what it was, she sees her silver and diamond-studded tiara on the ground near the large pool of water. Heading over to it slowly, she returns it to her head and makes her way to the tunnel.

After reaching the top, she sees the dragon lying in front of two piles of treasure in clear view of the cave's entrance and looks for a place to lie down to stay warm as her arms start to feel chilly. With the only option being beside the dragon, she walks towards her captor and carefully steps between his right forearm as his head circles around to the right.

Cosmic feels something touch him and cracks his eyes open to see what it is, and finds that it is only the princess making her way beside him to keep warm. With nothing else to worry about for right now but his gift to complete, he pulls his right arm in closer and breathes in, then lets out a deep rumbling breath as he lets himself slip into sleep's embrace.

When morning comes, he looks at the princess slumbering away somewhat peacefully when he remembers the dream he had of flying among the stars above the world and smiles as an idea comes to his mind, thinking, 'I know just how to complete my gift to her now, all I have to do is find the perfect one to make it work...'

Waiting for the sleeping princess to shift away from him so he does not wake her when he gets up, the chance arrives a half hour later as she rolls over onto her right side and rests her head on her hands. Quietly getting up and heading over to the hollowed-out boulder, he pulls out the clear crystal heart and puts the boulder back in place before heading out of his den. Spreading his wings and taking flight, he makes his way up to the snow-covered peak of his mountain and hovers just above it. Closing his eyes and using his intuition to search for the star with just enough energy to imbue the crystal, his body slowly rotates in the air while he continues to hover.

Minutes later, he stops turning and looks up into the sky at a faintly flickering star just barely within his strengthened vision, saying, "There you are, now...I shall take your life force..." Raising his claw and holding the crystal between three of his claws, he begins to concentrate on his inner magic to begin drawing the life out of the star and into the heart.

An hour later, somewhere far from the Milky Way Galaxy

Tinker Bell is helping Clank and Bobble fix up a few damaged baskets when she hears one of her friends tell her about Queen Clarion calling an emergency meeting, and flies over to Fawn as they both hurry there, asking, "What happened Fawn?"

Tears stream down her face as she remembers what she and the others witnessed, struggling to keep flying as she just wants to curl up and cry over the loss, saying, "Y-You will find out after we get there Tink, I promise, but it is not good news."

Confused, she follows her to the pixie dust tree as she notices the fairies that went to the mainland, are holding each other closely. Taking a seat on one of the leaves with Fawn, she looks around to see that Queen Clarion has tears in her eyes as well and feels a pit form in the bottom of her stomach, saying, "Whatever happened can't be good because the Queen looks really sad."

Doing her best to keep herself strong for her fairies, Queen Clarion lightly dabs her eyes dry and takes a deep breath to steady herself, saying, "Please quiet down everyone, I have distressing news to share with you all." She looks around at the gathered fairies and continues while the ministers quietly shed their tears, saying, "Some of you may have seen a bright flash a half hour ago, that bright flash was caused by the star circled by the mainland, going supernova and destroying every planet around it. Regrettably, we have lost our duty to bring seasons to the mainland, but do not lose hope. We will search for a new land to help bring the seasons to, please take some time to grieve while the ministers and I work on our search plans."

Tinker Bell's face falls as her heart breaks at hearing that while tears start falling down her face, saying in a remorseful tone, "No..." She then looks up at the queen and asks, "Is everything really gone, Queen Clarion? Even Elizabeth and Dr. Griffiths?"

The queen turns to Tinker Bell and sighs sadly, nodding while saying, "I'm afraid it is true Tinker Bell. When I got word from the fairies that managed to make it back before the first wave hit, I gathered the other ministers and went to see what became of the mainland. When we came within sight of the planet the mainland was on, we got to watch the awful sight of the planet's atmosphere burn away followed shortly by the planet breaking apart into pieces. When we saw that, we knew immediately that all was regrettably lost on Earth."

As fairies all around start grieving together, Fawn hugs Tinker Bell to her tightly as she breaks into wailing cries, saying, "I know how you feel Tink, we are all here to help each other get through this."

In a faraway galaxy with Cosmic as he heads to the meeting area

Cosmic is almost to the volcano when he sees dragons still coming in, holding the completed gift in his left hand so that none can see it before he presents it to his love. When he spots his love off to the side, he heads directly to an open spot so that he can walk over to her.

After he lands, he hears other dragons comment about how he looks like a porcupine's ass in the morning or tease him about the pet princess on his head, not letting them get to him, he continues on while ignoring the pain the bolts inflict upon him that are still within his right side.

When Sulfur Hide looks at Cosmic Seeker, he sees the bolts lodged within the dragon's side and says, "So my niece speaks the truth about the threat from these biped's new weapons, are you unable to take them out?"

Cosmic slowly shakes his head, saying, "I am capable, I just didn't have the time due to a gift I was preparing for Sky Wing."

The Arch Dragon looks up at the elf, saying, "It took you so long to acquire a princess?"

He shakes his head and says, "No, milord. The gift I was preparing is far more precious than a mere princess, I assure you it is quite special indeed."

Sulfur Hide nods and then gazes upon Cosmic Seeker, saying, "I should hope so or you would risk insulting our bloodline... Share your tale in complete honesty so we can assess the danger the bipeds pose to us."

Cosmic nods and then starts his tale, saying, "Well, I was trying to think up ideas for my gift when I decided to go for a fly to get inspiration..."

When the Arch Dragon hears the end of the tale, he looks away deep in thought, saying, "This is most troubling indeed that they were bold or stupid enough to fire first despite the law..." He then lifts his massive claw that holds the blood-stained projectile and gazes upon it scornfully for several seconds before tossing it into the lava bed to melt away. Turning his gaze back to the injured dragon, he asks, "What are your thoughts regarding the issue with the bipeds?"

As he looks down thoughtfully, he looks back up and speaks up, saying, "Milord, I can't help but feel that the age may be turning in favor of the bipeds. My thoughts regarding the matter are that if the bipeds desire freedom from dragon rulership, then we should make them prove themselves worthy of it through battle."

Sulfur Hide takes several minutes to think his idea over before finally sighing and saying, "I had a feeling something was different..." He then looks up and gazes around at the others around the large caldera, saying, "There is indeed wisdom in your suggestion, so I shall acknowledge it." Raising his voice, he then says, "ON THIS DAY, LET THE WAR OF SCALE BEGIN! GO FORTH IN PAIRS, GROUPS, OR BY YOURSELF AND TELL EVERY SETTLEMENT THAT THE WAR FOR THEIR FREEDOM HAS BEGUN, BUT START THE ATTACKS TWO DAYS AFTER THE NEWS HAS BEEN DELIVERED. WE SHALL FIGHT THEM WITH LIMB, TOOTH, FLAME, OR MAGIC AND DISCOVER IF THEY DESERVE FREEDOM! IF THEY CAN FELL ME AND MY BEST SOLDIERS, THEY PROVE WORTHY OF IT!"

While the other dragons begin roaring out cheers, Cosmic Seeker turns to his lover, calling out loudly, "SKY WING! I COME TO ASK YOU TO BE MY MATE AND BRING AN OFFERING!"

Walking out into the open area, she stops in front of him as shivers run up and down her body at her lover being so public with asking to be her mate, saying clearly, "I AM HERE, PRESENT YOUR OFFERING FOR ME TO DECIDE YOU WORTHY OR UNWORTHY TO BE MATED TO ME, COSMIC SEEKER."

The moment of truth is upon him as he reaches his left hand out and gently lays the now blue and brightly glowing crystal heart on top of a flat stone saying, "I carved this crystal heart from the very top of a mountain made of crystal and empowered it with my magic to allow it to call forth a shield to guard you from all that means you harm. The once-clear crystal came from a mountain that overlooked the city which had attacked me first when I came to get the mountain's peak, after being hit with several bolts, I took my leave to drop the crystal off at my den to carve it before returning to the city and laying waste to it."

Sky Wing approaches the gorgeous blue crystal heart as her heart flutters, saying, "I FIND YOUR GIFT REMARKABLE AND CHOOSE YOU TO BE MY MATE, COSMIC SEEKER." She then begins to reach for the crystal heart.

A small, silver dragon with a golden headdress covering her head uses a silver staff to whack dragons in her way and leads the other dragonesses out into the opening, shouting, "HOLD THY CLAW SKY WING!"

She stops just before touching it and pulls her hand back, turning to the head priestess and asking, "What reason do you find to keep me from completing the ceremony, wise one?"

As the head priestess uses the staff like a walking stick, she looks at the crystal heart and says, "ONLY ONE ISSUE I OBJECT TO IS ABOUT THE GIFT AND THE DRAGON YOU ARE ABOUT TO TAKE AS YOUR MATE! THE CRYSTAL HEART IMBUED IS PURE AND HONEST TO PURPOSE, THE ISSUE RESIDES IN HOW IT WAS MADE THAT WAY."

Cosmic turns to the priestess and attempts to speak, saying, "I do not understand, wise one. There was nothing wrong with what..."

Using her staff to whack the end of one of the bolts, she hears him gently roar out in pain, shouting, "SILENCE! YOU KNOW NOT WHAT YOU HAVE DONE, BUT I DO!!" While she stops near his shoulder, the others continue walking and encircle the male dragon as she continues, saying in a loud, clear voice, "THE STAR WHOSE ENERGY YOU TOOK BELONGED TO A SOLAR SYSTEM BLESSED WITH LIFE. WHEN YOU TOOK THE LAST BIT OF LIFE FROM THAT SYSTEM'S ONLY SUN, THE MASSIVE STAR WENT SUPERNOVA AND REDUCED THE ENTIRE SYSTEM INTO RUBBLE. ONLY A SINGLE PLANET IN THAT SYSTEM HAD LIFE, AND THAT CRYSTAL HEART IS TAINTED BY THE BLOOD OF THOSE THAT CALLED IT HOME. THE NUMBER OF THOSE YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ARE SO FAR BEYOND COUNT, I AM SICKENED TO CONSIDER YOU A FELLOW DRAGON!"

The entire caldera is deathly silent at her words as he lets his back legs bend, leaving him sitting on the ground with a look of shock on his face as he says quietly, "I...I didn't know." Then turns to her slowly and asks, "What is to be done, wise one?"

She looks at him with a deep frown, saying, "Exile of the highest order." Hearing gasps from around the caldera, she then starts slowly tapping the ground with the base of her staff in a slow rhythm of three taps, delivering her decision while the others follow the rhythm smoothly as they focus on combining their magic. Joining her magic with theirs, she says, "Cosmic Seeker, as the head priestess I hereby expunge you of your name and grant you the draconic name of Reuladair Rionnag, known in common as Star Reaper. As a constant reminder of the innocents you indirectly slaughtered with your action, we hereby curse your body permanently with the main color of black with a blood-red undercoat and claws to match. You shall be tasked with making things right with others you have also befouled before your penance begins. Any last words before the magic is cast and you are hurled from this planet, Star Reaper?" while still maintaining the magic and the rhythm.

Star Reaper nods and lowers his head to the ground, saying, "Off you get, Summer."

Not wanting to leave her master's side, she clings to his spines, saying, "I don't want you to go master..."

Swiftly rolling his head to his left, he sends the elf to the ground, saying, "Well too bad, you don't have a say." Using his left hand, he picks up the elf with his thumb and forefinger then lightly tosses her over to his mate, looking up at her saying, "I, Star Reaper, hereby surrender to you, Sky Wing, my home and entire treasure hoard along with the elf, Princess Summer Raelordiel including the deal we made." Lowering his voice so that only his lover can hear him, he says, "Be sure to enjoy the contents of the large hollow boulder for me and take good care of the princess, she's been through a lot." Bowing his head to his love, tears begin to slip down his face as he says, "I'm sorry for failing you, dear, I hope you find another mate more worthy than me and have a large clutch of eggs. Farewell."

Unable to even respond due to her throat closing up and tears running down her face, she looks down and quickly grabs the elf as she tries to get back to her former captor. When she hears the priestesses all slam the ends of their staffs on the ground, the spell is cast and shrouds him in a golden light to begin changing his body. She manages to force out, "I will...goodbye...my love." just before a beam of light shoots him up into the sky and away from the surface, taking the crystal heart with it.

Needing to grieve, Sky Wing holds the elf in her grasp and takes to the sky as fast as she can towards the mountain given to her by her banished lover. When she is a fair distance away, she starts sobbing as the elf cries out for her master, thinking, 'They didn't have to be so cruel!'

Star watches helplessly as his former home world gets smaller while he hurdles through space rapidly with his back facing the direction the golden light is taking him, feeling sorrow and shame hit him hard as he slowly begins to comprehend just what he's done, thinking, 'I wish that I hadn't drained the energy from that star...'

Time loses all meaning as Star Reaper is carried through the vast emptiness of space when he feels something pushing inwards on his whole body, incidentally driving the bolts deeper into his body when the sensation magnifies a hundredfold. The sensation then is reversed as he feels himself being pulled in many different directions simultaneously, becoming agonizingly painful when he senses himself moving even faster. Cracking open his eyes with his inner eyelid closed, he watches light flow by him so fast it forms tiny beams of multi-colored light.

The light beams entrance him, allowing him to momentarily forget his sorrow and grief as the beams abruptly end. Still inside the spell's golden light, he watches as he is shot out of a void where there is a ring of rock surrounding it. The rocks are slowly being pulled in as one swiftly disappears inside the black hole, hearing small rocks hit the shafts of the bolts and bounce away spinning into space.

As Star Reaper looks around at the area around him littered by rocks and a few scattered clouds of different colors, he passes by one rock as large as his mountain. Noticing a twisted chunk of metal tower in one location, his heart sinks as he realizes this must be what remains of the life-blessed planet he destroyed. When small pebbles begin to slam into his hide and turn to dust, he pays no heed to them as they cause no pain or damage to his hard scales.

However, he lets out a roar of pain when he passes right next to one that forces the bolts in his side to bend out of its way, causing the arrowheads to further damage his inner body. He then winces in pain as his back collides with a rock roughly the same size as him, fracturing a few of his scales.

Just when Star Reaper thinks the ordeal is over, he turns his head just in time to watch as a rock three times the size of Sulfur Hide's caldera slam into his right side squarely with full force. Growling out his pain, it is magnified tenfold when something much larger than him sandwiches him from the other side, driving the bolts fully into his body and sending the glistening, blood-smeared mithril tips poking out the other side of his body which tears a painful howling roar from his throat. Feeling his bones starting to creak in protest at being crushed between the two rocks, they strike each other with a loud crackling rumble as they break into much smaller pieces.

As he passes the numerous chunks of destroyed planets, a piece the size of his body slams into his back and disintegrates, drawing a pained grunt from him. With several of his scales breaking and flying off into space, he hopes that he survives this trip when a fast-flying chunk half the size of the rock that broke several of his scales slams into the side of his head and knocks him out cold.

Several months later, leagues away from Pixie Hollow...

Vidia travels with a group of fast-flying fairies toward a new sector that hasn't been searched yet when an odd yellow glow catches her eye and stops in her trail to find its source, asking no one in particular, "Umm, what was that?"

Another fairy stops the group and turns to her asking, "What was what?"

She looks at the fairy and says, "I saw a yellow glow from the corner of my..." She then spots it again and quickly turns her head to see a golden trail a great distance away, pointing at it quickly, saying, "There!"

The fairy from before turns to look at it and spots it, gasping as she says, "It's the golden comet!"

A different fairy looks up at it and smiles saying, "The Gold Comet is a sign of good luck!"

Vidia narrows her eyes sceptically at it and observes it carefully, saying, "I seriously doubt that is what it is." As it continues its path, she watches it strike something that changes its course towards their direction. Turning her head to the others, she says, "Its course has changed and is heading our way, let's head back until it passes."

The others hesitate to answer as one fairy says excitedly, "WE SHOULD! THEN WE CAN LET QUEEN CLARION KNOW OF IT PASSING BY!"

She tries to get them under control but fails as they begin to head back toward Pixie Hollow, looking back to keep track of the comet's location. Seeing it making its way closer at a snail's pace, she says, "We need to move faster, it might be a great distance away but it is gaining on us."

The fairies fly as quickly as they can, making it back when they can see the flickering of the light coming off it. When they fly past the village, they spread the news of the comet's sighting to the other fairies. As they continue sharing the news, Fawn smiles and decides to fly over to let Tinker Bell know of the sighting.

When Fawn sees Tinker Bell's home in the distance, she spots her friend repairing a wagon and waves to her calling out, "TINK! TINK!"

Tinker Bell looks up from her friend when she hears a boom sound from above and when a sparkle in the sky catches her attention. Shading her eyes to investigate the glint, she spots something falling from the sky toward her friend and cries out while racing toward her, "FAWN, LOOKOUT!"

Fawn looks up and shields herself with her arms from the large, black, object while screaming in fear of being crushed by it when something tackles her out of the way just in time to feel a gust of wind blow her a distance away. When she opens her eyes, she finds herself in a dust cloud and coughs asking, "What?"

The tinker fairy hugs her friend tightly, saying, "I made it just in time to save you from that falling thing...whatever it was."

She hugs her friend back gratefully, saying, "Oh thank you Tink, thank you so much."

When the dust settles and clears the air, the two separate and turn around to look at the object embedded in the dirt as Fawn flies around the large, thick, black object asking, "Uhm...Tink? What is this thing that nearly crushed me?"

Tinker Bell looks at the thick edges of the black object curiously, saying, "I don't know, Fawn. One thing I am sure of is that it is part of something else because this entire side is damaged, let's use some of our dust to try to get it up off the ground."

As the two fairies work together, it takes them a few minutes when other fairies join in and help them pry the object up out of the ground when Fawn looks it over. She gulps nervously and says, "Uhm Tink, I think this is a scale because it has the same shape somewhat similar to that of a fish or a lizard. I have no idea what it came from but I think it is safe to assume that the creature this came from is bigger...much bigger."

The tinker fairy then says, "Let's take this to the Queen and show it to her, she might have an idea what creature this came from."

Together, the group of fairies guide the scale to the tree, only to arrive amid a large gathering of other fairies with Queen Clarion already there talking to a group of fast-flying fairies.

Queen Clarion hears the news about the sighting of the Gold Comet with a hopeful, yet neutral expression on her face when she sees something large being brought into the tree. When she recognizes it, her eyes go wide as she looks it over closely.

Tinker Bell then approaches the queen, saying, "Queen Clarion, this fell from the sky a few minutes ago, nearly hitting Fawn until I managed to tackle her out of its way. We had to use dust to get it up out of the ground, hearing from Fawn that it is a scale from a large creature. Might you know what creature this came from?"

Calming herself down as it is just a scale, she sighs out in relief and then lays a dainty hand on the scale. Feeling some faint traces of magic and warmth from it raises new concerns as she nervously says, "I do indeed recognize the scale, it belongs to a race of creatures that once called our world home known as Dragons. Their race was a young, and very hostile one that constantly fought amongst themselves for power."

Fawn shudders and holds Tink close, asking, "There aren't any dragons left here, right, Queen Clarion?"

A shiver snakes its way down her spine as she remembers the ancient history, saying, "No Fawn, there aren't."

Curiosity gets the better of Tinker Bell as she asks, "Do you know what happened to them? Were fairies here first or were the dragons?"

Queen Clarion smiles softly before letting it slip away, looking at Tinker Bell fondly, saying, "We were the first here, Tinker Bell, though it was us fairies who were responsible for their violence." Turning away, she heads to the center of the group of fairies, saying with a slight frown, "This history has been left forgotten for many years and is many eons old, but I shall share the tale with you all now due to necessity. Fairies were the first to call this world home, among a few other races such as gnomes, sprites, and elves." Gathering her thoughts, she continues and says, "Fairies back then were not the same as we are today, they were pranksters and quite mischievous without any magic. There was no purpose for them so they filled their time with causing trouble or stealing from the other races, but things changed when they learned magic from books they stole from the elves. Tired of being treated like pests and vermin, the fairies of yore used the magic they learned to get back at the others by altering the bodies of hundreds of Iguanas. Helping their brains to evolve and infusing their bodies with raw magic, they began to gain sentience and sapience in short order. Using them to wreak a little chaos upon the other races to make them treat them like equals, they never understood their folly until the iguanas began to mutate beyond their control and sprouted wings. Things became even worse for the other races as they turned into dragons the size of a tiny mountain and learned how to breathe fire, devolving into wild, vicious beasts that attacked anything that they laid eyes on. Sadly, as the other races fought back against them, the Gnomes and Sprites fell into extinction when the dragons gained the awful ability to breathe fire hot enough to melt a mountain...blue fire." Thinking back to her younger days, she reminiscently says, "Dragons capable of blue fire are ones to be the most afraid of..."

Getting the feeling that she knows much more than she is letting on, Tink asks, "Uhm...Queen Clarion, I don't mean to be rude...but were you..."

Turning her head to Tinker Bell, she sighs sadly and says, "There? Yes, yes I was." She flies around in a slow circle with her hands in front of her, rubbing her arms gently as she says, "I was only a few years old when Dragons gained blue fire while fairykind was being driven to extinction, I was playing in a meadow of lillies with four of my friends until a ground-shaking roar tore across the sky. My friends and I took off for our homes, finding everyone gathering what they needed and running away to where they could survive the dragon's inevitable attack."

She then spreads her hands apart and begins to weave them through the air before her, continuing her story, saying, "My parents were lorekeepers of our race and collected the history of the fairies into a single book that made me look so small at the time, then hid me with the few children there were deep underground. Before our parents sealed us away, my parents left the book in the cavern and told me to keep it safe. When they were closing the entrance, they told us not to open the door until the air inside grew cold.

Fawn watches in awe as a massive object starts to materialize on the floor before the queen, pointing it out to Tink, who is already staring at it curiously, saying, "Is that what I think it is, Tink?"

Queen Clarion then continues her story as the book her parents left in her care fully materializes, saying, "The last time we saw our parents, we heard a dull roar followed by a bright blue flash before everything went dark and quiet. When the door started glowing a soft red, the temperature inside grew to searing temperatures. As they persisted for several hours on end, we thought we would be baked alive. However, it did begin to cool down gradually to become quite cold inside the cavern, allowing my friends and I to finally open the door to head outside. When we left, we looked around to see what happened to our parents and the village, and saw absolutely nothing as far as our eyes could see but black stone and ash. There was no sign of our parents anywhere, no trees, flowers, or grass. The area was completely empty of all life and sound until Mother Dove landed before us with tears in her eyes, sharing the story of her survival after falling victim to the blue flames. When the elves reached our island, they saw the destruction left in the dragon's wake, and told us of their plan to banish the dragons to a faraway place where they would trouble no one ever again. Mother Dove even offered her help to send them away, so we began working together to save what remained of our world. When the preparations were made, the elves pulled out the final ingredient to cast a worldwide spell to send them somewhere else. As they added it into the cauldron, the lead elf told us of their intentions to leave the world to the fairies. We were too slow to stop the spell's completion and watched as a massive wave raced forward, taking the surviving sapient species with it. Once they were gone, we worked on repairing the damage but that is a tale for another time."

She turns back to the floating dragon scale, saying, "The appearance of a scale as fresh as this one concerns me greatly, for we no longer have the vital ingredients to banish them from our world should they return."

Unable to fight her curiosity and hope, Tink speaks up and says, "Maybe we could use something else in place of the ingredients we are missing!"

Queen Clarion raises her hand to her chin, thinking it over and saying, "That is a good suggestion, Tinker Bell. We will need to find a replacement for the elves' magic along with a dragon's mutated blood. I hope that no dragons do return here, but we should be prepared, should it ever happen."

Just then several horns sound out, followed by a scout flying into the canopy saying, "The Golden Comet is approaching, come watch it pass by!"

Picking the book up with some of her dust, she follows the fairies above the tree to watch the comet pass by. Scanning the sky for the comet, she locates it below the second star and smiles, thinking that their luck is changing. As the comet grows even closer, she senses something different about it but cannot figure out what it is exactly. When her eyes watch it rapidly heading to pass overhead, she realizes that the comet will come dangerously close to their world. It isn't until the comet enters the atmosphere, trailing black smoke in its wake, that the fire goes out and reveals it isn't a comet at all...but a dragon black as night, saying, "Oh no..."

Fawn and Tinker Bell both watch wondrously as the dragon slowly sails through the air from the south, suffused in golden light that fades away to leave a glittering yellow trail of dust in the air. Watching it pass overhead back first with its wings trailing through the air helplessly, following it with their eyes as they rotate to see where it will land.

When she sees it getting close to where the biggest mountain splits, she watches helplessly as the dragon's shadow passes over the top and easily missing it. However, a strong gust of wind catches them all by surprise, sending her and the other fairies cartwheeling through the air briefly before regaining control. Tink looks to where the dragon passed to see the wake pass over the mountain's Eastern slope and cause snow to start sliding toward the bottom, but hearing a deep boom echo from deep within the winter lands and gasps crying out, "WE NEED TO GO SEE IF THEY ARE ALRIGHT AND CHECK THE ROOT!"

Queen Clarion agrees with the idea and calls out, "GATHER YOUR WARM CLOTHES AND PUT THEM ON, THEN HEAD TO THE BRIDGE AND LET THE WINTER FAIRIES FROST YOUR WINGS!" She then makes her way to her home in the tree to put her own winter clothes on.

After gathering their warm clothing, the warm fairies head over to the bridge to get their wings frosted so they can fly without worrying about their wings breaking.

Once their wings are all frosted, Queen Clarion leads the group over to where the Pixie Dust Tree's root is at in the Winter Lands. Looking around, she doesn't see much damage except for around the mountains where avalanches were caused.

When the fairies reach the area where the root is, Tinker Bell sees her sister and races towards her crying out happily, "PERI, YOU'RE OKAY!"

Periwinkle hugs her sister back just as tightly, happy to see her, saying, "Of course, the avalanche surprised us, but the most amazing thing is that massive black dragon that sailed right over us. I'm glad that you are alright as well, we saw the trees on your side bend before the wind hit us."

As the two sisters hug, Sled looks at Fawn and asks, "Did any large scales fall in the warm lands?"

Fawn nods saying, "As far as we know, just one that was about to hit me until Tink saved me. Was your scale just as large?" Seeing a group of fairies pushing the large scale by, she points to it saying, "Oh they brought it with us."

Sled looks over at the scale in shock and shakes his head saying, "What landed here were small broken fragments, but they were the same color as that scale right there. Is that a whole scale?"

Parting from hugging her sister, she looks over at Sled and shakes her head, saying, "No, it isn't. That is just a large chunk from a scale from a dragon that is far larger and more dangerous. How did Lord Milori already know what it was?"

The animal talent winter fairy says, "He was with Queen Clarion before she was the Queen of all fairies, and that there was no Pixie Dust Tree until after the dragons and other races left this planet." Looking down at the large red spot of dried blood on the ground, he sighs and says, "Despite how violent the dragons were, I wonder how badly this one is hurt."

Fawn cocks her head and asks, "How can a creature so large and capable of melting mountains with its blue fire be hurt by anything?"

Sled sighs and points at the large spot saying, "I don't know, but it is bleeding because that was not there until after the dragon passed over us."

Overhearing the conversation, Queen Clarion and Lord Milori fly over to the group as she speaks up, asking, "Do you know where it landed?"

He turns to the queen and says, "From how high it passed over this mountain, I would guess it landed near the glacier. However, due to how it didn't use its wings to fly and was soaring through the sky back first, I think it would be a safer bet to say the dragon is likely unconscious."

Curious, Tinker Bell asks, "Can we please go check to see if that is indeed the case and find out how serious the injury is?"

Unable to make a decision, she turns to her lover and asks, "What do you think we should do, Milori? You saw as well as I did the aftermath of the dragon's attack from long ago."

Thinking carefully about the issue and the possibility of it being unconscious, he sighs and hesitantly agrees saying, "It would be wise to know how big this dragon is and what we might be faced with dealing, however, we must avoid getting too close to it in the event it wakes and starts to attack."

After ordering the other fairies to stay put, the five fairies fly in the direction the dragon was headed. When they get within sight of the glacier, they clearly see that the dragon had crashed into the side of the mountain just past the glacier.

Lord Milori looks at the new cracks running from the large crater in the mountain's side, saying, "That must have been quite the impact to leave such a deep crater in granite."

When they get closer to the crater, Sled notices more red stains on the side, saying, "There's more stains on the side, and there are smears heading down to the foot of the mountain."

The dragon comes into view, earning a gasp from Fawn as Tinker Bell looks on in wonder, asking, "Can we get a little closer? Something doesn't look right with the left side."

Hearing about Tinker Bell's legendary curiosity from his love, he sighs and urges the snowy owl to get closer to the downed dragon, saying softly, "This is as far as I dare to get to this dragon, I forbid any of you getting any closer than this."

3: Dragon's Lament

As Fawn fights against her inner desire to go check on the dragon, they perch on the branch of a dormant, leafless oak tree and stares at the enormous dragon large enough to rip trees from the ground with one claw and use it as a brush if it wanted to.

Several minutes pass as the dragon lies still, breathing deeply when the tail twitches and makes the fairies hold their breath. Watching the dragon even closer for more movement as Tinker Bell says barely over a whisper, "The color matches that of the scale pieces we found!"

When the fairies hear a pained groan come from the dragons partially open mouth, Fawn briefly cries out in alarm as Tink quickly puts her hand over her mouth when Queen Clarion quietly mumbles, "No one move a muscle or say a word..."

As Star Reaper slowly lifts his head while groaning in discomfort from the splitting headache he is suffering from, he turns his head from left to right slowly to look at where he is. Unable to see clearly, he tries to blink it away as he attempts to get his limbs under him.

Unaware that he is being watched, several moments pass as he growls painfully while getting into a sitting position from his right side, feeling the now burning pain in his body as the bolts were shoved in deeper and pierced the left side of his body. His breathing quickens a bit from the exertion and turns his head to look at his left side, lifting his wing up painfully to see the mithril tips of the bolts sticking out of his body by at least a couple feet. With a hesitant sigh, he says, "Since they are visible now, I better remove them so the wounds can start to heal."

Queen Clarion moves her right hand over her mouth at hearing the dragon speak, mumbling through her fingers, "When did they learn to speak?"

Lord Milori grips the reigns of his snowy owl tightly as he watches the dragon's large head move under its wing with open jaws, clamping onto something beside him and swiftly tears it out of him with a muffled growl of pain coming from his nose and clenched teeth.

Tinker Bell can't stop herself from gasping at seeing the large, blood-soaked object pulled out of the dragon's side and flung against the mountain with a metallic clang. The long object bounces off and lands on the ground below, glistening with the dragon's blood. an idea strikes her as she leans over to Queen Clarion's ear, whispering, "Do you have anything I can collect some of its blood in?"

Quickly nodding and pulling out a jar with a cork in it, she hand it over to Tinker Bell and whispers, "Just wait until it finishes discarding those dangerous-looking objects."

Holding the corked jar in both hands, she watches the dragon pull nine other objects from it's side and toss them against the mountain. When the dragon moves its head under its left wing and begin breathing fire over where the objects were lodged, she sees her chance and takes off towards the pile of discarded objects to collect the blood she needs.

Once he finishes cauterizing the wounds in his left and right sides with his fire, he turns back to the pile of bolts and notices a faintly glowing gold trail of glitter fade into nothing beside the pile. Curious, he rises onto his hands and feet, then slowly makes his way towards the pile to investigate, asking himself, "What was that?"

Tink hears that and gasps, returning the cork to the half-filled bottle and darting underneath one of the massive objects several times larger than the width of her body, praying silently in her mind, 'Oh please don't let it catch me...'

Star Reaper carefully looks over the pile of bolts coated with his blood, he notices a tiny pair of green shoes between two of the bolts and says, "I see your shoes, little one. So come on out and introduce yourself unless you wish to fight me." When the creature doesn't come out, he breathes in and blows out a strong huff of air through his lips to send it out of hiding.

Crying out in alarm when she is abruptly blown out from her hiding spot saying, "WAHH!"

Periwinkle almost races out to help her sister when she lands face first into a pile of snow and digs herself out. As she sees the look on her twin's face when it pops out of the snowbank, it is cherry red which causes Peri to giggle behind her hand saying, "It is true! She really does turn cherry red when she is angry."

Fawn watches Tink stomp over the snow towards the dragon and quietly says, "Please don't do anything to make him angry..."

Tinker Bell storms up to the jar of the dragon's blood and picks it up, looking up at the massive creature and shouting, "YOU DIDN'T NEED TO BE SO IMPATIENT AND RUDE! NOW LOOK AT WHAT YOU DID TO MY WING, YOU BROKE IT!"

He looks closely at the small creature, noting that her left wing is hanging at an odd angle. Sighing as he sees that, he then spots the tiny amount of blood in the jar and says, "If you wish to heal your wing, just apply the blood to the damaged edges and it will help it regenerate."

The anger leaves her immediately at hearing that an cocks her head to the side, saying, "Wha-What did you say about your blood?"

The others look on wondrously as the dragon repeats itself, instructing her to go to the end of one bolt that has an arrowhead and cut her palm, then apply some of the blood to the wound to allow it to work it's magic.

Hesitantly, Tinker Bell makes her way to the pointed end of a bolt and sets the jar down before pausing a few moments to slice the palm of her right hand open with the sharp edge, then uses the forefinger on her left hand to coat the tip with some of the blood, saying, "This feels gross..."

Star Reaper watches her move her covered finger to her cut and says, "When your hand starts to feel on fire, you know it is working. So brace for a bit of pain and endure it while you watch the wound close up without a blemish." Once she smears the blood along the small cut, he watches closely as it takes several seconds for her to begin shaking her hand in the air before shoving it into a snowbank. With a gentle chuckle at the scene, he watches her look up at him with a red face, saying, "I told you it would burn, but now look at your hand, tiny one."

Grumbling to herself while her redness fades away, she yanks her hand out of the snow and looks at where the cut was with a gasp, saying, "It worked?" Wiping her left forefinger clean in the snow, she then tries to spread the skin apart. Unable to find any trace of the cut, she slices her right hand again on the blade and applies a little more blood on the new cut. Careful not to make too much of a mess, she wipes away the excess blood and cleans her left hand off in the snow while watching her cut intently. Gripping her wrist in her left hand, she fights her desire to cool it off and sweats through the burning while the cut slowly begins to glow white and close up before her very eyes.

Once the glow fades away, she thrusts her hand in the snow to wash the blood away and looks over her hand closely. Amazed by it actually working, she smiles widely and then turns around to look up at where her sister is hiding. Waving her right hand in the air at her twin, she calls out, "PERI, COME HERE AND HELP APPLY SOME TO MY WING, IT REALLY WORKS!"

Very hesitantly, Periwinkle squirms a little before groaning and heading down to help her sister, saying, "I'm coming!"

When her twin lands beside her unhappily, Tink turns around and says, "I can't reach back far enough to coat the damaged edges, could you do it for me, please?"

The winter fairy looks at her sister, asking, "Are you sure about this, Tink?"

Nodding her head, she says, "I am. We can't always rely on the magic of our wings to heal each other, so let's give this a try."

Peri groans and says, "Alright, but if that dragon starts breathing fire, I won't let you forget it." Taking some of the blood with her fingertips, she grumbles with disgust, saying, "Eww...this feels so disgusting." while gingerly lifting up the damaged wing and coating the thin, delicate edge of her sister's wing.

Seconds pass as Tinker Bell feels the heat increase in her wing and hops lightly in place, while clenching her fists tightly and rapidly chanting, "Hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, HOT!"

Watching her sister hop back and forth between her left and right foot with concern, she notices a white glow along the damaged edges and holds her hands in front of her mouth in shock while the membrane knits itself back together seamlessly, saying, "Wow..."

It takes a few moments for her wing to stop burning as she says, "Whew, I thought the burning would never go away! That really flapping burns, you know!" She turns to her sister and asks, "Well Peri, how does my wing look?"

Peri holds her sister's wing in her hand and looks it over very closely, unable to believe what she sees, she says, "It's flawless...completely healed. Did the blood really restore your wing? Try to fly."

Tink flutters her wings and floats around her twin saying, "See?!" She then flips around and flies around her sister facing backward, adding, "The blood does at the dragon said it would, though it does burn quite a bit when applied to a sensitive area like our wings. Try it for yourself, cut your palm a little and dab a little blood to it. Cold snow does nothing to ease the burning, I tried."

Wiping her hands clean in the snow, she then looks at her own palm and hesitantly moves it to one of the sharp ends. With a quick jerk, she cuts the side of her right hand open a bit with a hiss of pain then collects a little blood with her left forefinger and lays it just inside the fresh cut. It takes a few seconds for the burning sensation in her hand to increase and slowly become unbearable, making her shake her hand in the cold air to try cooling it.

Fighting back her own giggles, she then finishes collecting the dragon blood she needs and says in an amused tone, "Burns while it heals, doesn't it?"

Peri looks at her sister with a mildly annoyed look saying, "It does! I can't begin to imagine how that felt for your wings..."

Remembering that they are in front of a massive dragon, Tinker Bell stops and lands, then looks up at them with a bashful look on her face and giggles nervously, saying, "Sorry if we were rude and ignoring you, but do you plan to go on a rampage and burn everything you see?"

Star Reaper cocks his head a moment before recalling the tales handed down from long ago and snorts in amusement, saying, "No, if the legends from long ago of dragons being like wild, mindless, and vicious beasts are to be believed, we came a long way in those six to twenty thousand years." His amusement gives way to sadness as he remembers how he came to be here and sighs saying, "I will not be rampaging or terrorizing at all for several years as I am being punished."

Seeing an opportunity to learn more, Queen Clarion flies toward the dragon with the other fairies following behind while Lord Milori goes from branch to branch to watch over them closely. When she is by Tinker Bell and Periwinkle, she stops and asks, "Can you tell me why that is?"

He sighs heavily and looks down at her, saying, "I was responsible for a great calamity due to my lack of knowledge, let me share my story with you so you can understand what I have been through... I don't know not how long ago it was, since I had lost track of time along the line. It all began one day when I was wanting a very special gift to present to my love to ask her to be my mate, though I had no idea of what I should get her, so I left my den to fly around to get some inspiration for a gift. I climbed high in the sky to ride the fast air currents to take some of the burden off my wings, traveling pretty far until something caught my eye. I looked closer and saw some mountains that reflected the light, revealing themselves to be made entirely from crystal. Making my way there, I paid no heed to the city as it was against the law for the biped creatures to attack us first without reason." Seeing the confused faces on them all, he then says, "They couldn't attack us without provocation because they were ruled by the Arch Dragon, Sulfur Hide, who was the uncle of my lover, Sky Wing. Anyway, back to the story... As I was passing over the city, I was headed for the very peak of the mountain when a bolt identical to the ones that are in a pile before you now, hit my horn and broke half of my right horn off. The moment that happened, it made me angry as I was not planning on attacking the city."

Tinker Bell sits down on the snow beside her sister and the other two fairies except for Queen Clarion and Lord Milori, who watches over them while they continue talking, hearing him say, "Shortly after that first bolt broke my horn, I came under fire by the biped's ballistae mounted on the city's walls. Six other bolts had struck my right side when I corrected my course and struck the mountain's peak, fracturing it and allowing me to begin prying it off with my claws when other bolts struck my tail. When I managed to break off the small chunk, I held it in my claws and began to head back to my den, warning them that I would return to burn them all for breaking the Arch Dragon's law."

Star Reaper then continues his tale, saying, "It took me a couple of hours to return to my cave, where I let myself get sidetracked with carving my gift to my love. It was night time when I was finished, so I tucked the remarkably clear crystal heart away in my den after feeling it wasn't special enough. When I remembered that I was attacked, I left my den to uphold my warning to the city." Looking at the scared faces of the beings, he sighs and asks, "Do you wish me to tell you the details of my attack on the city, or skip to the conclusion?"

Before the other fairies can say anything, Queen Clarion says, "Just the conclusion before the young fairies, if you please. Violence and bloodshed have no place in our world."

Nodding his head, he continues, "I shall respect your wishes. I left my den under a clouded, night sky and flew up above the clouds with a bright, full moon overhead as I headed for the city. When I finished my attack, I left much of the city and its walls covered in my unique navy blue fire." Spotting an owl swoop down and land behind the beings with another of their kind on its back steering it, the being hops off and hurries over to the tall one and hold them tightly. With a sigh, he says, "From that reaction, I take it you experienced blue fire before. I know not what you went through, but I am sure it had to be quite traumatic."

She nods and holds Lord Milori close, saying, "It certainly was, but continue your tale."

Star Reaper nods again and resumes, "I left the city with an elven princess, who offered herself to me in exchange of sparing those that remained. After finding the missing part of my horn, I used it to serve as a grim reminder of the law along with a message which isn't important knowledge. When I returned later that morning, I began to make her captivity somewhat pleasant when I heard the wing beats of a dragon approaching my home. As I checked it out, I saw that it was just my love coming to check on me. Once she landed outside, she told me she saw the smoke from her den and how she figured it was my doing when she noticed my broken horn and asked what happened and if I was injured. Not wanting her to know that I was injured, but not seriously, I already had my right side angled away from outside view. I then told her that I was fine but the bipeds had gotten smarter and made better weapons that could cause great harm to us and tore one out of my tail to show it to her, she did not like how sinister the barbed tip was and wanted to tell the Arch Dragon of the news. She also asked if I could fly there with her, but I lied and told her I couldn't because I needed rest and that I would meet her there tomorrow. As I turned to head further into my den, she must have spotted one of the bolts because she asked if I was sure I was okay and how many hit me. Not wanting her to know the real number, I lied to her again and said that there were only a couple more in my right side and jokingly told her there was no need for her to worry about little old me. She understood my joke because she huffed in amusement and called me old sarcastically, saying that I knew all to well that dragons don't die from old age, but in battle with pride."

As Fawn listens to the story, she chuckles a little at his love snarkily telling him to get some rest and calling him a geezer. As she hears how he continued to make the elf's stay more comfortable, and told the elf that his love frequently visited and gave her details of her appearance, she starts to see him in a better light. While he tells them how he woke up to the elf sleeping within his arms, she wonders how strange that must have looked when she hears him say, "When I woke up the next morning, I remembered the dream I had where I was flying among the stars above my world and got an idea of how I would complete my gift to my love in hopes that she would accept me."

Pausing telling his story for a moment to let out a sad, heavy sigh, he says, "This is where I had made a terrible mistake... I had to wait for Summer to roll off of me before I could get up, when she did, I made my way quietly outside and flew toward the top of my mountain and hovered just above it to search for a star strong enough to imbue the crystal heart I had carved. I closed my eyes and used my intuition to begin searching for a suitable star, which took me several minutes to find one. After I had located a suitable one, I stopped rotating and looked up at it. Squinting my eyes and enhancing my vision as much as I was able, I just barely could see the flickering of the star. I then held the heart up between three claws and began using my inner magic to draw the strength from the star and into the gift, taking me an hour to fully imbue the crystal with a magical ability. When it was done, the star simply disappeared from view, so I looked down at the heart to see that the crystal had changed from being as clear as a diamond to a color deeper than a blue sapphire and had a glow all its own. Moving the crystal into my hand to hide it from view, I headed inside my den to pick up the princess and take her with me to the Arch Dragon."

Periwinkle listens to the story as she hears him speak of his arrival and can't hold back a snicker at hearing one of the other dragons comparing his injured side to the backside of a porcupine when the Arch Dragon began speaking with him. As he tells them of the conversation between the two of them and recounting his tale of the attack, she hears him sigh again and say, "When he asked for my thoughts about the bipeds, I took a few moments to think it over before telling him how I couldn't help but feel that the age was turning in favor of the bipeds. I then shared the other half of my thoughts, telling him that if the bipeds desired freedom from dragon rulership, then we should make them prove themselves worthy through battle."

As Star Reaper continues telling them of the Arch Dragon's declaration of war and how he then faced his love and called her out, requesting her to me his mate. He then tells them how she stepped forward out of the crowd and ordered him to step forward to be judged as worthy or unworthy of being her mate, and that he then shared how he made the heart to call forth a shield to protect her from those meaning her harm. When he reaches the point of how she appreciated his gift and declared him worthy to be her mate, he closes his eyes for a moment, saying, "As she reached out to claim the crystal heart with her claw...she was stopped short by a pure white dragon priestess stepping into the opening with a golden headdress completely covering her face and a silver staff, shouting 'hold thy claw, Sky Wing'."

Opening his eyes again, he continues, "She pulled back her claw and turned to the priestess, asking her for the reason she has for not allowing her to complete the ceremony. The priestess then told her the issue she has was with the gift and the dragon she intends to be her mate, then told her that the heart was pure and honest to purpose. However, she then told her that the only problem is how it came to become that way, which caused me to quickly turn to her as she headed toward me and said that I didn't understand and that there was nothing wrong with what I did. She stopped near me and cut me off by whacking the end of one of the bolts hard, causing me to gently roar out in pain as she shouted at me to be silent. Saying that I knew not what I had done, but she did. She stopped at my right shoulder and I had to look down a bit to give her my attention as the others kept walking around me. She then continued telling me in a loud, clear voice that the star whose energy I had taken belonged to a solar system blessed with life."

Moving her hands up to her mouth as she gasps, whispering no under her breath as she hears him continue his tale, "That when I had taken the last bit of energy remaining from the system's only sun, the massive star went supernova and reduced the entire system to rubble. Telling me only one planet on it sustained life and the heart I made is tainted by the blood of those that called it home."

Tears start falling from Sled's eyes as he puts the clues together, sitting down on his knees to hold Fawn close as she begins to sob when he hears a sob come from the dragon. He curiously watches as a few tears fall from the dragon and sink through the snow while he hears the dragon continue his tale through his tears, saying, "Saying that the number of those I was responsible for was so far beyond count, she was sickened to even consider me a fellow dragon."

Star Reaper hangs his head and looks at the ground in grief and shame, saying as his tears continue to fall to the snow-covered ground below, "Her words made all dragons in the caldera go deathly silent and struck my heart hard, shocking me to my very core, so much that it caused my back legs to give out from under me as I just looked into the distance with a shock-stricken face and said pausingly that I...I didn't know. I then slowly turned to look at her and asked what was to be done. She then looked up at me and said 'exile of the highest order' Because of how rarely that sentence is used, it caused many dragons to gasp at the severity of the punishment. As she began tapping the ground in a slow rhythm of three steady taps of her staff on the stone under her, the others joined the rhythm as she started to deliver the punishment saying 'Cosmic Seeker, as the head priestess, I hereby expunge you of your name and grant you the draconic name of Reuladair Rionnag, known in common as Star Reaper. As a constant reminder of the innocents you indirectly slaughtered with your action, we hereby curse your body permanently with the main color of black with a blood-red undercoat and claws to match. You shall be tasked with making things right with others you have also befouled before your penance begins. Any last words before the magic is cast and you are hurled from this planet, Star Reaper?'"

Shocked at hearing how he was punished harshly, Tinker Bell can't help but ask, "Uhm...do you know what your penance involves?"

With a nod, he says, "I do, and it isn't pleasant... What happens is that everything that makes me...well, me...my knowledge, intelligence, magic, ability to think, speak, feel emotions, and my conscious sense of self, get locked away deep inside a cell as my instincts take over and rule my body with the basest of needs to guide it along. Meaning that I become a prisoner inside my own body as it becomes driven by the needs of the body, only capable of feeling hatred or nothing at all, and am forced to watch helplessly as my body acts on its own."

Queen Clarion then clears her voice and asks, "Is this penance common knowledge among dragons?"

Star Reaper nods and says, "It is because every dragon is driven by instincts when we hatch until we develop conscious thoughts and begin to learn things taught by our parents. With the penance, we are reverted to that state and kept there until we are slain or set free somehow though it is rare that happens."

Fawn then sniffles and says, "Why did you destroy the mainland? What did we or they ever do to you?!"

With a sigh, he looks at the sobbing creature, and says, "Neither you nor they did anything to deserve being destroyed, it's just that the thought that there might be life out there other than on our world never occurred to me, if I had considered it...I would have tried to find another way."

Lord Milori looks up at the dragon and frowns at him saying, "It greatly upset and hurt us to lose our duties to the mainland, and I believe that all fairies on this world would expect you to right your wrong." Turning to the others, he asks, "What do you all think, young fairies?"

Star Reaper then looks at the fairies to hear them all voice their agreements loudly, and says, "I will do what I must to fix what I have robbed from you, and shall risk my very life to see it done."

Queen Clarion smiles very faintly and clasps her hands together before her saying, "Would you mind continuing your tale and how you came to arrive here?"

Nodding his head, he says, "Certainly, I was given the chance to say something before I was cast from the world, so I lowered my head to the ground and told the princess to get off. When she refused to leave me, I twisted my head and threw her to the ground while telling her she didn't have a say. Using my left hand, I picked her up with my thumb and index finger then tossed her gently to my love, and began to formally surrender everything I owned...to her, including the elf princess and the deal between us. When I was done, I lowered my voice only so she could hear and asked her to enjoy the contents of the hollow boulder for me and take good care of the elf. I then bowed my head to her as tears started to slip from my eyes and apologized for failing her, telling her that I hoped she would find a mate far more worthy for her than me and have a large clutch of eggs. After that, I said farewell to her and heard the staffs all hit the ground as the spell was cast, I remember the sensation of something tiny crawling underneath my scales and hide as the changes began to take effect. Just before I was shot up into the sky, I heard my love say she would, and said goodbye to me. I opened my eyes as I was sailing up into the air upside down and back first, surrounded by the golden light of the spell and watched my former home slowly shrink from sight as shame and sorrow hit me harder when I began to comprehend just what I had done and wished that I hadn't taken the energy from the star."

With a heavy sigh, he then continues, "I lost all meaning of time after that, remembering how I felt gravity pushing in all round me and forcing the bolts in deeper, increasing the pain a hundredfold. Things then reversed as I started to feel pulled in many different directions as the pain increased yet again, and opened my outer eyelids when I started to move faster without being allowed to use my wings. I moved so fast that I could see light form individual beams as they flew past, which entranced me for a while until they ended abruptly before I shot out of a black void surrounded by rock being drawn into it."

Fawn listens and winces at hearing his tale about his journey through the space where the mainland once was, tears slipping through her fingers as she gasps at hearing how he was knocked unconscious by a rock bigger than him, saying, "That sounds like you went through quite the ordeal to end up here, I couldn't imagine being on a journey for just over ten years without any control of where I was going."

He then raises an eyebrow saying, "It has been ten years since the calamity?"

Queen Clarion nods and says, "It has been ten years and eight months since we lost our duty to bring seasons to Earth. How do you plan to right things, Star Reaper?"

Star Reaper shakes his head, saying, "I do not know...I do my best thinking while flying."

Taking a moment to talk it over with his love, Lord Milori then looks up at the dragon responsible for their loss, saying, "So be it, but you will not be allowed to fly alone."

The queen then looks at him saying, "Most definitely not, I will be assigning a large group of scout fairies to escort you at all times. I expect you to respect and follow their requests or answer any questions they may have, should you ignore them or act aggressively towards any fairy for any reason, there will be consequences."

Nodding his head, saying, "Very well, though I only wish to lament that which I had lost and destroyed and will be feeling nothing but sorrow, guilt and shame for the foreseeable few centuries, so I will listen and heed your wishes."

Queen Clarion looks at Milori and says, "Let us head back so I can gather the scout regiment and have them prepare for a lengthy mission."

Lord Milori then nods and holds his hand out for her to take, saying, "Of course, dear." He then starts to guide her back to his snowy owl and looks to the others, saying, "Let's go back, everyone. Sled, remain here to keep a close watch until our own scouts arrive as well to help guard the dragon."

Instantly remembering that Lord Milori has a broken wing, Tinker Bell stops him, saying, "Please wait, Lord Milori, your wing."

Stopping and turning toward her, he raises an eyebrow, and asks, "What about my wing, Tinker Bell?"

Fidgeting nervously, she then says, "You could give the dragon's blood a chance to regenerate your broken wing."

Not wanting to get his hopes up to fly again, he sighs and says, "I don't think that it will be able to help with how long it has been broken..."

Not wanting to give up, Tinker Bell says, "Please just give it a chance, you will never know unless you try it! Please?!" Thinking of a way to prove it, she turns her head and looks up at the dragon, asking, "Uhm, are you positive that your blood will heal any injury, even if the limb is missing completely?"

Star Reaper nods and says, "Yes, I once watched a man save his wife from certain death when she was cut in half by a crazed warrior, she regrew new organs, bone, muscle, and even flesh. She walked away on her new legs hand in hand with her man."

To prove it, she looks at him and says, "Just watch, I will prove it works!" then turns around and heads towards the sharp blade of a bolt.

Knowing what her plan likely is, Periwinkle takes off after her, saying, "Come on, Tink, don't be crazy! You don't know for sure if it will really do what he claims!"

Ignoring her twin's pleas, she zips around in a wide circle and heads for just below the edge, saying, "I have faith that he is being honest! You will have to refrost them when they grow back!" She lowers her head and holds her wings straight up, hearing the blade cut through them like butter with a 'shing' a few inches above their base and cries out painfully just before skidding to a stop on the snow, saying, "Forget about the upper halves and apply the blood to just the cut portion Peri!" She then gets up and jogs back to the blade's edge.

Shaking her head, Peri collects some of the blood on her index finger, saying, "You're crazy for doing this, you know that?" She then begins to apply it along the cleanly cut portions of her top two wings, grumbling, "I have half a mind to leave you like this."

Tinker Bell sighs and says, "I know it is a bit on the extreme side, but I just know it will work! Trust me!"

When she finishes, she wipes her hands clean in the snow saying, "There you go, now we can get some entertainment if it does work when the burning starts to kick in."

Forgetting about that, she feels it begin to kick in a few seconds later, saying, "Oops, I forgot about the crazy burning sensation..."

Finding amusement in how the fairy now known as Tinker Bell jumps in the air and runs around while using strange curse words as her wings grow back, Star turns to the others and says, "The healing works much more efficiently with a fresh cut, if there is infection present in the wound...it will last longer as the burning will get rid of it before starting the healing process."

When the agonizingly painful burning goes away, Tink sighs in relief and falls face-first onto the snow with a groan, saying, "RELIEF...FINALLY! How do they look now, Peri?"

Wanting to get back at her sister, Periwinkle then says, "Like a bat's."

Tinker Bell shrieks and jerks her head around, shouting, "WHAT!" When she hears her sister and the others start giggling, she sees her wings are back to their normal shape and pattern, and frowns at her twin, saying, "Not very nice..."

Peri cleans the traces of blood off her wings, then frosts them saying, "Neither was your idea to cut off your wings which are identical to mine..." Then offers her a hand up.

Taking her hand, she stands back up and looks at the blade with her old wings pretty much glued to the blade by the blood, saying, "Ehh...I don't want to try to peel them off the blade since they look extremely gross with the frost stained red like that." Fluttering her way over to Lord Milori, she then raises her wings up for him to look at and lands in front of him, saying, "See, it works! Please give it a try!"

Lord Milori considers it and rubs his chin for a few seconds, saying, "Alright, I guess it won't hurt to give it a try just once..." He then removes his cloak and walks over to the blade, then bends over with his right wing raised when he feels a hand hold onto it. Looking over to see that it is his love, he smiles and says, "Thank you for helping me with this, dear."

Queen Clarion holds onto his wing gently as she walks forward, hearing the blade cut through the wing and causing her to wince at the sound. When the wing piece comes free, she holds it to her chest a moment as he steps away from the blade. Carefully tucking it into her coat, she heads over to the blade and hesitantly coats a few of her fingers on her left hand. Making her way to her love, she lifts his freshly cut wing up and carefully applies the sticky liquid to the edge before using the snow to clean her hands, then watches the wing closely as it slowly begins to glow brighter, asking, "How does your wing feel, dear?"

He then grunts in discomfort at the hot sensation, saying, "It is getting uncomfortably hot."

Star notices the color changing color and says, "There is an infection present, which means the temperature will increase even more and last until it is gone."

She looks at the now blue-glowing wing and asks, "Really? Is the color change a sign of it?"

He nods his head and says, "It is indeed, so prepare for the sensation to get much hotter as the infection is burned out."

Lord Milori remains stoic even though the burning pain skyrockets, causing him to start sweating more profusely, saying, "My wing feels like it's going to melt right off."

Star watches the fairy, saying, "Sweating is also a sign that it is making great progress, keep enduring through it, tough one."

Several minutes pass by when he lets out a sigh of relief and leans against his love lightly, asking nervously with a bit of hope coming through his voice, "Does it look any better, dear?"

Queen Clarion holds his wing in her hands with a happy smile as she cleans it with snow, saying, "Amazing, it is completely regenerated after being broken for so many years! There is no longer any yellow tint to the wing..." Using some of her own Pixie Dust, she covers his wings in it and says, "Try to fly now darling."

Lord Milori then hesitantly flaps his wings, feeling them start to lift him off the ground. He slowly makes them go faster and is wide-eyed at finding himself lifting off the ground and rising into the air steadily, saying, "I-I can't believe it...I'm...flying again."

She has tears in her eyes as she watches her love float around her in the air, taking her hands in his and pulling her up to join him in a slow dance, saying, "I'm glad you are back to your old self again, love."

Letting them have their moment, the dragon turns to the pile of bolts saying, "If everyone is finished with the bolts, I would like to get rid of them for good."

They all make their way a distance from the pile as Sled asks, "What are you going to do with them?"

Star Reaper then says, "Melt them so they can't ever be used again, is there a place where I can safely use my fire?"

Thinking about the layout of the valley, Lord Milori nods and says, "Yes, there is a corner at the far end of the valley, the spot is the bottom of a crater where no wildlife, insects, or plants inhabit. Follow me there."

With a nod, he opens his jaws and picks up the pile of bolts in his teeth, then turns and starts following the small fairy along the edge of the mountain's edge slowly.

Arriving a few minutes later, the dragon stands atop the ridge of the crater and looks at the bottom, saying, "This was formed by a meteor strike a long time ago, and will do nicely. I would advise you all to stay just beyond the ridge, finding safety out of the range of the heat that will be present when I use my blue flame. Fortunately, blue fire doesn't spread like normal fire does as it will stay in one spot until it burns out."

As the fairies remain at the ridge, they watch him as he heads down with a slight limp and drop the bolts to the ground. When the dragon raises his head with a deep inhale, they watch as he thrusts his head down toward the pile and engulfs them in blue flame.

Star Reaper continues engulfing the bolts in flame until the metal liquefies and forms a puddle in front of him, using his claws to smear the liquid around into the cracks to ensure nothing remains behind. Once he finishes with that, he nods and then walks around in a small circle and lies down, saying, "I must gather my strength before I do any flying, please inform your fairies that I tend to wake with a start and lash out. For their own safety, it is best they let me wake on my own."

4: The Dragon's Troubles

Just before he lays his head down to sleep, he turns to the fairies on the ridge and asks, "Would you be able to tell me where I might be able to find sustenance?"

They fly down to the dragon as Fawn asks, "Uhm...do dragons eat fairies?"

Star Reaper looks at her and chuffs in amusement, saying, "With your diminutive stature...definitely not as you wouldn't even amount to a morsel, however, you do look attractive in...other ways." He then is lightly amused by the female fairies blushing fiercely, adding, "I am just messing with you, no need to get tongue-tied over it. Dragons are capable of eating most anything except stone, though gems are favored by some. Some dragons even prey on the bipeds, though I never found their flavor to my liking...they have a funny aftertaste that I just don't like. There's also the fact that they're all bone."

Fawn tries to get the blush off her face, thinking about what he said and clears her throat, asking, "Do you eat a lot?"

He thinks for a moment, saying, "If you are wanting to know if I gorge myself until I am stuffed, the answer is no. I only eat out of necessity for sustenance to get me through the week, which amounts to half my body weight or one whale around my size."

Twiddling her thumbs as she battles herself, eventually sighing and saying, "Fine, but don't just target the whales because it will throw the balance off."

Star nods his head, saying, "I will respect that and even leave mothers with young be, there's nothing more cruel than making the young grow up without parents."

Fawn pauses in her twiddling and asks quietly, "Uhm...did you..."

Figuring out what she is going to say, he says, "Grow up without parents? I did." He then sighs heavily as he thinks back to that day, saying, "It was six hundred years ago during a territorial war, and they were defending their den from two younger mated dragon pairs who were fighting amongst each other for the mountain that my parents held. They managed to hold their own and drive them off until a much older, wiser mated pair struck from above. My father took them both on after telling my mom to keep the children safe, though she never made it far before the other female fell upon her from above. I was about a month old at the time and didn't know how to fly that well, but I still led my sisters and brothers away from the den as I saw my parents losing the fight. Out of my six siblings, only two of my sisters and one brother made it off the ledge down to the forest below. Eventually, only I was left of them as my siblings were captured or became prey to bears or crocodiles."

With a gasp, she rushes forward to attempt to hug the dragon, saying, "Oh you poor dear, you must have been so frightened!"

Star Reaper sighs and says, "Things aren't easy for a young whelpling on the ground and alone who can't breathe fire yet." He then clears his throat and says, "I appreciate the sentiment, but you all should get going. It will take me a while to heal from these wounds."

The others begin to take their leave as Tinker Bell manages to get Fawn to leave the dragon's side, heading back to tell the other fairies what they had learned.

Nyx is flying around the perimeter looking at the little damage caused by the avalanche when she hears Queen Clarion and Lord Milori call for the scouts to gather, and quickly flies over to her, asking, "What can I do for you, Queen Clarion?"

Queen Clarion looks at her and says, "Nyx, I have a special task for you and your scouts. What I want you to do is to stand guard over the slumbering dragon west northwest of here, doing your absolute best to keep curious fairies from disturbing his sleep as he heals." She continues giving Nyx the information she needs to know about the dragon, then finishes saying, "The dragon, or Star Reaper will be asleep for several days at least, so make a schedule to keep a constant watch on him. When he wakes and wishes to go hunting for food, if he hunts on land, send word to the others by using the hawk alarm. Be sure to have a plentiful supply of sleeping powders should you need to bring him back under control, though with what he has been through, it is doubtful that he will be aggressive towards anyone or anything."

Nodding with wide eyes, she then bows her head, saying, "We will not let you down, Queen Clarion." and whistles to her scout fairies to relay their orders.

After gathering the supplies necessary for a lengthy mission, Nyx follows the directions to the crater provided by Lord Milori. When she arrives with the rest of her fairies, her eyes go wide when she sees how large the dragon is, saying in disbelief, "We have to watch over something...like that?!"

A year passes as the scouts rotate out and maintain a constant watch over the dragon and for curious fairies trying to get a closer look.

Star Reaper wakes up feeling much better than he had much earlier, opening his eyes slowly to allow them to adjust to the sun warming his scales. Lifting his head up with a yawn, he spots a fairy near him and says, "Morning, little fairy. What are you up to?"

Nyx looks at him and holds her quill spear in her hands, saying, "We are scout fairies and we have been tasked with keeping you under constant watch and bring you back under control should you become aggressive. What do you plan on doing first, dragon?"

He looks at her and thinks for a moment, saying, "First, I need to hunt for food as I burned through quite a lot of what I had already eaten before crashing in this world of yours. What might your name be, little one?"

She looks at him and nods, saying, "Nyx." She then asks, "Where are you intending to hunt, over land or ocean?"

Star looks at the forest in thought, thinking it over for a few moments humming, "Hmm..." before looking at her and saying, "Since I just arrived, I will head to the ocean to see what there is to hunt."

Knowing how far away the ocean is, Nyx asks, "Would you mind if we spare our wings and dust the long flight by catching a ride on your body?"

With a nod, he says, "Being so small tells me that you fairies don't weigh much at all, so go right ahead and grab onto any spike running down my spine. I would advise not holding on past the starting point of my tail or my wings."

She nods and turns to her scout fairies, then puts her fingers to her mouth and whistles sharply, calling out, "He's going hunting in the ocean, we're hitching a ride to save dust!" She then sees the fairies fly toward her and tells them where the best spots to get a good grip, then flies up to land on his head, saying, "They're all seated. I'll find a spot on your head so that I see where we are heading, then you can take off."

Star Reaper nods his head, saying, "Okay." and waits for Nyx to get situated before rising to his feet. Spreading his wings, he flaps them while pushing off the ground with his legs to get himself into the air.

Keeping her wings close to her body, Nyx watches with sharp eyes as the dragon heads higher into the sky. When the dragon stops climbing, she is able to look out to see the ocean surrounding their large island.

Spending a few minutes flying over the ocean while using his keen senses to spot the wildlife in the water below, he spots something interesting lurking deep in the ocean and chuckles, saying, "What an interesting find."

She looks at him curiously, asking, "What did you find?"

Star looks at it and says, "I found a Kraken, which have been hunted to near extinction in my old world. However, they are quite plentiful here." Turning his eyes up to look at Nyx, he says, "You and your fairies better hop off here because I will be diving into the water to catch it."

Nyx then nods and says, "Alright, can you hover in the air so we can get to a safe distance?"

He then comes to a stop and hovers for a bit to let them off, once he watches them fly away, he looks back to where the Kraken is at and continues flying for a little bit before angling himself toward the water. Taking a deep breath, he closes his inner eyelids and brings his wings in then plunges into the water headfirst.

After entering the water, he folds his wings and legs against his body to swim more fluidly towards the bottom. It takes him a second or two to adjust to the weightless feeling of being in the water as he continues to get closer to his prey, which is on the move now as it chases something else.

Once he gets deep enough, his eyes adjust and glow to allow him to see in the blackness of the ocean's depths so he can better track his prey. Waiting for the right moment to strike, he swims after the Kraken in its blind spot until it reaches out to grab a large eel swimming by. Reaching out with his front claws, he swiftly latches onto it as it shrieks out in pain, causing the eel to race away through the water.

Having to battle the Kraken's tentacles as they attempt to wrap around him, he feels its beak bite into a spot missing a scale and growls out in mild pain. Eventually winning the struggle, the Kraken goes lax in his grip and allows him to start swimming towards the surface.

A half-hour passes as Nyx looks around nervously for the dragon, wondering where he got off to when she hears a loud exhale followed by a brief chuckle off to her right. Turning her head to look in the direction, she is relieved to find him swimming back toward her and heads toward him. Flying just above and in front of his head, she asks, "Was your hunt successful?"

Star looks up at her and lifts his mouth above the water just enough to say, "It was very successful, though the Kraken's beak found a weak spot in my hide where a scale still hasn't grown back in yet. There's just something very satisfying about catching something that tries to eat you. I would stop to let you fairies land, but unfortunately, I will sink while holding onto my food. You all will have to fly on ahead as I am heading toward a beach beside a waterfall to eat."

Nyx shakes her head, saying, "Nice try, but we will just follow you from above." Then flies off to get the others and follow him back to the mainland.

After he swims for a fair distance through the sea, he notices the fairies flying much lower and asks, "Why are you flying so low?"

One of the fairies looks up and says, "There's a hawk up ahead that goes after fairies."

Noticing the circling bird near the shore, Star then says, "Alright then, I'll deal with it." Taking a breath and channeling his magic to send out a shard of ice, he then lifts his head out of the water. With a harsh, quick puff, he sends out a shard towards the hawk and scares it half to death before it races away inland.

With a collective sigh, the other fairies thank the dragon and fly back into the sky as Nyx hovers near his head, saying, "Thank you for looking out for us and only scaring it off."

He looks at her with a brief nod, saying, "It would have been wrong to take a young mother's life."

After following the dragon for quite a while, the fairies see the shore ahead and land in the trees near the coast where the waterfall is and wait for the dragon to come onto the shore. Tracking him with their sharp eyes, they watch as he lowers his head into the water and starts to walk on the bottom while dragging the Kraken behind him.

Nyx watches in astonishment as he drags something that is almost as large as him with tentacles that are longer than his tail, when he sets it down on the beach and bites off one of the long tentacles.

Several of the fairies turn away at the sight of blood, still hearing the subtle sound of him eating the sea creature as Nyx observes him dutifully. Although watching him eat makes her stomach churn, she and the fairies enjoy their own lunches and replenish the dust on their wings.

Once he is finished eating the last bit of the Kraken, he uses his tail to wash away the blood and bits left behind. With the site cleaned of his meal, he makes his way over to the waterfall saying, "Now I am going to wash myself in the waterfall before I go anywhere."

After watching him bathe in the falling water with a few scales being washed off his body, Nyx flies over to his head and asks, "How long does it take new scales to grow in?"

Looking back at his body, he says, "It takes a few months for them to grow back, but if there is a scar under it, it means that scale is weaker than the others."

She looks his body over for any tell-tale scars, finding a few where the scales had fell from. Turning her gaze back to him, she asks, "So where are you intending to go next?"

He turns his head up to the sky and sighs saying, "To go fly among the stars and survey the destruction I had caused... So climb on and we'll get going."

Nyx and the other fairies find spots along his body, with Di landing beside her on his head, asking, "So how did that Kraken taste?"

Star then chuckles and says, "Different than I remember, it tasted a lot like sea turtle meat, though a bit on the squishy side. The squishy texture is from how old it was though, so I can't really complain." When he looks back to see everyone in place, he walks through the river into an opening.

She looks back to her fairies and calls out, "Is everyone ready for him to take off?" Hearing affirmations from the others, she looks at the dragon and says, "We're all set for you to take off, whenever you're ready."

Without nodding, he says, "Alright, though you will have to guide me to where the system was, as I was knocked unconscious when I passed through it." He then spreads his wings and pushes off the ground while flapping his wings, taking to the air slowly as to not cause any fairy to lose her grip.

Together, Nyx and Di guide him towards the ruined system, arriving after an hour has passed when Nyx hears him exhale, asking, "How are you able to breathe out here?"

Star flies on, following her latest directions and says, "I am not entirely sure, but I think it has something to do with dragon magic or our body's makeup."

Several fairies sniffle sadly at seeing the field of rocky debris as he flies through empty space, when he flies towards a strange, shimmering haze. They look at the shimmering cloud curiously as he goes around it when it starts to fluctuate and starts to draw in on itself, gasping when it starts to form a pure white, bipedal figure and venomously speaks out loudly, "You return to the scene of the crime, murderer." It then asks, "Have you come to admire your work?"

It takes him a few moments to come to a stop and slowly turn to face the strange being, and says, "I have not, I have come here to come up with a plan to set things right."

Looking at him curiously with a featureless face, she hums thoughtfully for a moment, saying, "Do you truly wish to set things right after making me watch helplessly as you murdered my brother?"

Star looks the featureless, shining, featureless creature and asks, "I do, though I know not who you are."

Huffing, she crosses her arms and says, "Of course you don't, and I will not tell you anything until I decide to forgive you for murdering my brother, and destroying the system which my brother and I looked after." With an idea coming to her, she says, "I know how you can begin to make things right, use that ability of yours to seek out the heart of the black hole you came out of and gather it into an orb. Once that is done, I will give you the next step."

With a nod, he closes his eyes and focuses on searching for the core of the black hole, finding it and raises his claw as he starts to draw it towards him.

The being looks at the small creatures on his back, saying, "As for you fairies, you must keep a fair distance from him or you will be squished like bugs due to the drastic increase of gravity once he begins pulling the heart out of the black hole."

Defiant, Nyx then calls up to her, asking, "Why are you having him do that, what does the heart of a black hole have to do with setting things right?"

She looks at the fairy and sighs saying, "A new world cannot be born without it, and it will take quite a long time for him to get everything ready for me to kick things off. Now get a long ways away from him for the gravity will be starting to rapidly increase around him, I will send him to you when it is safe. His body can withstand it because I saw him come out of the black hole where my brother used to be."

Hesitantly, she leads the fairies away from him as the gravity slowly starts to increase, having to go even farther than she would like before he heads off into a different direction. It annoys her to no end at having to wait for him to return as she watches each cloud disappear.

Suffering through the immense pain of being affected by the high gravity around the orb, he draws the last gas cloud into the orb and turns to her, asking, "What do you wish me to do with this now?"

The being looks at him saying, "Use your magic to sense where things are most unpleasant and set the orb there, then come back to me for your next instructions."

Star nods and sends his magic out in a wave to find the spot she means, feeling a searing pain pass over his body as if he is being flayed and having his meat harvested when he is still alive. Figuring out that must be the spot she means, he flies over to it and sets it in the center of the spot which causes him the most pain.

When she watches him return with a pained expression, she feels a little better at making him suffer and says, "The next item you will have to collect is a great amount of blue pixie dust which is closely guarded by the fairies, though it may take a few centuries to get enough to start the process."

He looks up at her and asks, "How will all this birth a new world?"

Dismissing him with a huff, she says, "A chain reaction, but that is all you need to know for now until everything is ready. Now go back to your keepers and get to work on gathering enough dust to completely bury that island shaped like a human's skull, new life cannot begin without it."

Nyx sighs in relief as she spots the dragon returning, waiting for him to stop so they can get back on, saying, "We've been here for hours waiting for you! What took you so long?"

Star sighs and says, "Apologies, I had to draw the flammable gas clouds that were scattered around the area into the orb, then set the orb into a certain spot. The next thing I need to gather is enough blue pixie dust to bury an island shaped like a skull..."

Di cuts him off and asks, "How does that thing know about our blue dust, and why do you need to collect it?!"

He hovers in place, saying, "She said that a chain reaction is required and that new life can't begin without it."

Nyx sighs and says, "I don't like this, but let's go report it to Queen Clarion and see what she thinks."

Star looks at the fairies and says, "Everyone find a place, we'll head back and you can guide me to a safe spot to land."

The fairies make their way to his floating body as he stops flapping, letting himself just float there so the fairies can get a good spot when Nyx and Di land on his head. After they double check on the others, Nyx pats the spike in front of her and says, "We're ready now, take it easy when you re-enter the atmosphere or you will burn us."

He then stays there a moment and says, "If that is the case, then I will follow you all back and one of you can fly on ahead to let Queen Clarion know that I will be arriving soon."

Nyx looks at Di and says, "You head back and let Her Majesty know Star Reaper will be arriving soon."

Di nods and says, "Right away, " then takes off towards their world.

Star watches the fairies as they leave their places and take off ahead of him, then follows them as they fly toward their home, thinking, 'I wonder how long it will take to gather that much dust...'

After returning, the fairies return to their places on his back due to him being much faster than them, with Nyx taking her place on his head.

Later, at the Pixie Dust Tree

Queen Clarion watches her fairies clear away as the dragon continues to approach saying, "All fairies take shelter in the Pixie Dust Tree and hold on until the dragon lands, he is here to talk so please remain calm!"

Tinker Bell watches from the tree beside her friends as the dragon, Star Reaper circles the tree for a little bit before coming in to land as gently as he can. When he touches down, she and the others hold on as a powerful tremor shakes the tree. She begins to fly over to him when her friends pull her back as she hears Fawn say, "Sorry Tink, but he came to talk with Queen Clarion."

Once he folds his wings in, he looks around and asks, "Your Majesty, Queen Clarion, are you here?"

She comes forth out of the tree, saying, "I am here, what is it you wish to discuss?"

Star lets out a sigh and says, "When I went to look over the destruction I have caused, I encountered a being that confronted me, calling me a murderer and asked if I was admiring my work. When I told her that I came to come up with an idea to set things right, she asked if I really meant that. I then told her I did but didn't know who she was, which she told me I wouldn't and that she wouldn't tell me anything until she decided to forgive me for that and destroying the world they looked after. She then came up with something but did not share any details. The being seemed to be female if her voice was any indication, she had me perform a few of tasks such as harvesting the core of a black hole. Nyx was suspicious about it and asked why I had to do that and what harvesting the heart of a black hole had to do with setting things right, which she answered by telling her that a new world couldn't be born without it. She also advised the fairies to get a safe distance away from the field of gravity that would begin to grow around me, and reluctantly, they did so. The next thing she had me do is collect the flammable gas clouds scattered throughout the area into the orb, then place it in a certain spot. When that was finished, I asked her how those tasks would help create a new world. Answering with only two words, 'chain reaction' before asking me to collect enough blue dust to amount to the size of a skull rock."

Queen Clarion raises a curious eyebrow as she says, "Quite strange, and you have not met this being before?"

He shakes his head, saying, "No, this being was seemingly made out of pure light, she called me murderer because her brother was the star whose life I stole."

Uneasy about hearing that request, she asks, "How can you know this being is telling the truth?"

Star then looks up at her saying, "Because all dragons are capable of sensing a lie, it is in our blood. She said that new life cannot begin without the blue dust, which I still cannot sense any falseness in her words as I have been running them through my mind over and over since we left her presence to detect the smallest fib."

Queen Clarion goes silent for a long moment before sighing and saying, "Very well...I will allow you to collect some of our precious blue dust, though it will take a few centuries for you to get that amount. The reason for that is due to us being able to collect it on one night every eight years, you can collect what is left of the blue dust." She then hears the ministers approach her, protesting against giving the powerful blue dust to an extremely dangerous creature and a being they've never met before. She silences their worries by saying, "We must get our duties back or there will be no point in fairies existing at all."

When he sees her face him again, he nods his head, saying, "I am most grateful for your kindness and willingness to cooperate with this plan."

She looks down at him kindly and holds her hands together before her, below her stomach, saying with a look of warning, "You are welcome, but if anything goes wrong...I will hold you responsible."

Star Reaper nods his head, saying, "I understand, Your Majesty. I shall find a suitable spot to make my temporary den and store the dust."

Seeing her chance, Tinker Bell manages to worm her way free from her friends' grasp, shouting excitedly, "I know the perfect spot!"

Looking up at the fairy he knows as Tinker Bell, he says, "Then make yourself comfortable on my head and guide me there, little one."

With a smile, Fawn looks at the others, saying, "We can't let her go off on her own, let's go with her!" then takes off after her friend.

With a groan, Vidia looks at the others saying, "Let's go after her, you never know what will happen when Tinker Bell gets involved."

Sighing, Silvermist, Iridessa, and Rosetta follow Vidia as Rosetta says, "I just hope that nothing dangerous happens this time around..."

Star waits for the fairies to get into place before watching the queen return to the tree, saying, "Everyone hang on, I will take off now." He then lowers himself to the ground and pushes himself into the air with his back legs, flapping his wings to gain altitude which sends a few houses tumbling away, saying, "Sorry about blowing your houses away, little fairies, didn't mean to do that."

Curious, Tinker Bell asks, "Why didn't you just walk through the forest?"

Raising his brow, he asks, "Do you realize how large I am and how much damage I would cause by doing that?"

She giggles in embarrassment when she realizes the silliness of her question, saying, "Oh...right, sorry for asking something so silly. If you head to the north, there will be a spot with a waterfall."

Thinking he knows the spot, he turns to the north, saying, "By the coast, right?

Tinker Bell nods her head, saying, "Yes! How did you know that?"

Nyx chimes in before he can answer, saying, "Because he dove into the sea and caught a Kraken that was bigger than he was and ate it, causing a few of us to lose our appetites."

A short while later, just outside the waterfall

After telling them the story about his hunt, Star Reaper makes his way toward the fall, saying, "You fairies best hop off now or you will get wet."

Tink and the others fly away from him, landing in the trees near the cliff wall as they watch him poke his head through the water. Moments later, he sits down and uses his front claws to dig away at the wall behind the cliff, when she says, "Wow, look at how he carves away at the wall as if it were nothing."

It takes a few hours for him to carve out a spot big enough for him to lay in when he then begins to make the entrance too deep for any to walk through. When he finishes with that, he looks at the side curiously and thinks up a way for the fairies to enter if they wish.

When she sees what he is doing, she gasps and flies up to him while keeping a distance from the water, saying, "That is really thoughtful of you to make a place for us fairies to land."

He continues scratching a path into the outer cliff, saying, "I have no desire to fight anymore, not with knowing how many lives I am responsible for snuffing out with my foolishness. So I thought it would be good to try being 'neighborly' to you fairies, should you wish to visit for any reason. Be it to guard me, talk, or whatever other reason you may have." When he finishes the outer landing spot, he looks at the exposed cliff and wonders aloud, "Hmm...this is a bit too exposed, I should look for some vines to drape over the entrance."

Finding an opportunity to make up for judging the dragon right away, Rosetta leaves her spot, saying with her southern accent, "I can help with that, just one moment." She then flies up to the top of the cliff above and uses her garden magic to help grow a few thin vines, which snake toward the edge of the cliff and keep getting longer.

Star watches as the small vines stretch out and cover the majority of the cliff face to one side, growing long enough to almost reach the ground. He then watches as the fairy then uses her magic to get the vines to let enough light through to keep small critters from making it their home. When the fairy heads to the left side and makes it look the same as the right side, he says, "Thank you, small one, that was quite interesting to watch."

Timeskip covering a couple of centuries

It takes Star a few weeks to get the den to his liking while hauling off the debris and scattering it into the ocean, spending his time hunting mostly Kraken or sleeping for long periods of time due to the depression he has settled into.

Concerned about Star Reaper's depression over the past fifty years, Fawn begins to visit the dragon regularly and get to know him a bit better. When talking doesn't help his mood improve one bit, she begins to play small pranks on him to try to cheer him up.

Fifty more years pass by with Fawn making no progress whatsoever on cheering the dragon up with her pranks, making her turn to her friend Tinker Bell for ideas. Together, the pair manage to cheer him up a little bit, though not enough to satisfy Fawn.

It takes a century to get him into a mood between happy and sad when Fawn resorts to being a bit more mischievous, searching for a special flower when Rosetta spots her and stops her from picking the flower.

Putting her hands on her friend's shoulders, she guides her away from the plant, saying harshly in her accent, "Bust my bonnet, Fawn, I thought you knew better than to go near these dreadful flowers!"

Fawn smiles and then says, "I did, which is why I need to be careful so I can pick a bunch of them for a prank!"

Raising her eyebrow suspiciously, she puts her hands on her hips and says in an accusatory tone, "You're going to to use them to prank Star again, aren't you?"

With a smirk on her face, she nods eagerly, saying,"Yes! I know just what to do to get him into a better mood."

Rosetta sighs and shakes her head, saying, "Just be careful this time, the last big idea of yours nearly got Nyx's wings burned off."

Fawn blushes at that and says, "How was I supposed to know that Dragonfruit gave dragons bad gas?!"

She then looks her in the eyes and says, "Be. Careful. I don't want any misfortune to befall my closest friend from a prank."

Smiling, she hugs her, saying, "Don't worry, I promise you I will." then lets go and cautiously makes her way over to the flowers and cuts away at the stem so it falls away from her, then thinks, 'Hmm...I bet Tink, Clank, and Bobble could help me out by grinding several of these into powder so that we could spread it over Star's body as he sleeps. I wonder what joke the Poison Joke will play on him...'

Two years pass as Fawn finally has enough powdered Poison Joke to spread over the dragon's body while Clank and Bobble fix up the belt system set up to send down the blue pixie dust, with Tink and her using wagons and mice to deliver the bags of powder near the cliff.

When the bags are in place, Fawn heads into the cave down the long path that Star carved with his claws to make sure that he is still asleep. After reaching the end of the path, she sees that he is still asleep. With a grin on her face, she heads back up and tells Bobble and Clank to start sending down the bags as Tinker Bell lands just beside her.

Keeping her voice quiet, Tinker Bell looks at her friend and whispers, "I can't believe we're using powdered Poison Joke to prank Star."

Fighting back her glee at going through with her prank, she picks up a big bag of powder with one hand, saying quietly, "I know, isn't it so exciting! It is going to be so funny to see his reaction to the results when he wakes up!"

Together, the two fairies carefully dump bag after bag over Star's body, having enough to cover most of the top half of his body and most of his wings. Wanting to see the results of their efforts, the two fairies stay near the entrance and watch him closely.

Nyx joins them in the cave, quietly asking, "What trouble are you causing now, Fawn? I sure hope you didn't give him more Dragonfruit, I do not want to smell the aftereffects of the fire..."

Fawn shakes her head and says, "No, this time, we spread powdered Poison Joke all over him. Want to watch the results with us when he wakes up?"

She rolls her eyes and sighs, saying, "Not really, as it is my turn to watch over him tonight."

END OF SAFE READING, feel free to jump to the next chapter! The following section is NOT SAFE FOR WORK and can be skipped, feel free to return to it at a safer time!

After sending Clank and Bobble back home earlier, the girls all watch the dragon closely throughout the night, although it is mostly Nyx that keeps watch as the other two fall asleep. Nyx spots an unusual light coming from the dragon's body and flies over to check it out, landing on the floor as her eyes widen with surprise when the dragon suddenly begins to become smaller. As she watches him shrink down to only TWICE her size, he stirs and rolls over onto his back with his spines folded down as a few specks of blue powder land on her. Hastily brushing it off her, she walks toward the dragon curiously with her quill spear in her hands.

Nyx takes her time circling the dragon, wondering what all the powdered flower has done to him when she spots something red slip from between his back legs. Realizing what it is causes her to blush crimson and swiftly look away in embarrassment, however, a light haze falls over her body. She tries to shake it off, but is unsuccessful as her eyes are drawn back to his emerging member, with a heat slowly rising up within her body that gradually eats away at her ability to think rationally.

Taking a few steps closer, she begins to feel pent up as she starts rubbing herself between her legs while looking at his member, pulling her lower lip between her teeth. A couple minutes tick by slowly as the heat turns into an inferno, demanding her to sate it. Unable to fight against it, she begins to strip her shoes off first, followed immediately after by her pants and underwear. She carefully climbs up onto his body and guides the tip toward her front entrance, feeling his narrow tip slowly slip into her folds.

Star opens his eyes to find himself in a daze, feeling aroused with something tight sliding onto his member. Moments later, he hears a sharp hiss which causes his eyes to snap to the source above his lower body, able to see that it is a fairy trying to take his member into her. Thinking this is a dream, he chuffs in amusement, thinking, 'Wow, I must be really pent up if I'm fantasizing about being with a fairy as large as this... might as well enjoy it while the dream lasts.' He then lifts his head off the floor and presses his lips to the dark-haired fairy, giving her an intimate kiss meant for lovers.

Nyx kisses him back as she pushes herself down further, managing to get near a diamond-shaped bump near the base of his member, thinking, 'I wonder if I can get all of him inside me...' Seconds pass as she lifts herself up, then pushes down harder and feels the bump touch her cheeks.

He uses his claws to gently grab onto her hips, being mindful of her delicate wing and pulls her down forcefully while he kisses her passionately. While he uses his snake-like tongue to wrap around hers and pull it into his mouth, he thinks, 'Damn she's tight.' With a sniff, he smells blood and thinks, 'How sweet of her to give me her first time, even though this isn't real.'

She gasps into his mouth as he holds her body firmly in his claws, guiding her up and down as electricity builds up inside her. She places her lips over his jaw, feeling her teeth touch his as her body suddenly shudders. Her wings twitch and flutter madly, attempting to lift her off the ground but can't as she feels his bulge slowly getting bigger inside her. As she feels his claws lightly press into her back and just below her breasts, her vision slowly blurs as she feels a searing liquid heat shoot up into her which makes her eyes roll up into the back of her head.

Tinker Bell softly yawns and sits up to see that Nyx is gone, not noticing the heat rising within her body. Looking around for the prickly fairy, she walks down the path further into the dragon's den. Spotting the scout lying beside the dragon on her stomach with her wings twitching occasionally, she giggles when she looks at how the dragon is lying on his back. His member causes her to lick her lips hungrily, saying with a lusty tone, "Now that looks...fun" Climbing onto the dragon's belly, she looks over at the sleeping scout fairy to see that her pants and underwear lie discarded in a pile. Noticing the liquid slowly trickling out of her and onto the floor, she giggles and says while slipping her own underwear off, "Looks like you've already sampled this one, surely you don't mind if I have a go?"

Lining herself up, she quickly forces her way down and feels him slowly fill her up completely, bringing a grin to her face as she moans, "Oh, this feels so nice to be so full..." Leaning back on her hands, she raises her hips and slams them down, feeling a slight bump push into her which hits her g-spot and sends her head falling back.

Feeling another tightness around him, he opens his eyes while still in the dream and places his hands along her sides. Running his fingers over the top of the blonde-haired fairy's dress, he pulls the top part down to reveal a small pair of breasts with rose-colored nipples. Lifting his head up to her chest, he moves his left thumb asidepulls one small breast into his mouth and uses his tongue and lips to play with the nipple.

As Tinker Bell begins bouncing her hips up and down, she begins to moan out loudly, saying, "That's it, play with my small chest, try to get them to grow bigger as you completely stuff me full with your member."

Star moves to the neglected breast and starts teasing the nipple with his lips and tongue, eyes the aroused nipple as he hears the fairy riding him moan even louder when he feels himself start to approach his peak.

She feels his bump slowly get bigger and bigger, eventually getting too big to ease into her depths as he takes over. She feels him stop teasing her nipple as his claws grip her below her wings and quickly moves her up and down, leaving her breasts to lightly jiggle up and down while her wings drift up and down with the force. Pleasure grips her with an iron fist as her body suddenly begins spasming violently while her depths convulse around him, feeling a searing liquid heat shoot up into her. The searing heat draws a very pleased sigh from her mouth as her eyes lose focus, leaving her to bask in the glow with a dopey-eyed grin as she lets herself fall backward with his member still lodged deep inside her.

Having watched the affair with wide eyes, affected by her own heat of desire, Fawn quickly makes her way up to the sleeping dragon with his member still firmly lodged in her friend. Looking Tinker Bell's body over as she lies on her back with her dress split open down the front due to her swollen belly, saying, "Wow Tink, I didn't know you had such a wild side, but now I want a turn." She then tries to pull her friend off of his member, making her have to fly and pull hard before she comes off with a wet-sounding pop. Landing on her back with her friend atop her, she looks down at Tinker Bell's belly as it slowly shrinks to its normal size, saying, "Wow, I can't believe that he filled you that much...I wonder if fairies can get pregnant? There better be some left for me so I can find out."

With the dragon watching her hungrily, she moves her friend to a dry spot then lays her on her stomach, and watches as her wings twitch occasionally with a giggle before heading over to the dragon while taking off her clothes. Starting with her boots first, she slowly slides them down her legs in a teasing manner, saying sultrily, "Do you like my little act?

Star watches her like a hawk and nods as his member comes back to life, watching her lithe, pear-shaped body walk up his legs while twirling her pants in the air beside her with her left hand, saying, "Very much so, keep going, attractive one."

Fawn tosses her pants onto his head playfully as she drags her toes along his smooth underbelly scales teasingly, giggling as he just huffs out a breath of smoke and sends them fluttering to the floor beside him. She runs a hand down her body, over her left breast the same size as Tinker Bell's, then down her taut stomach and unfastens the vine holding her dress closed. Twirling the vine through the air like a whip, she flings it forth and catches the end around his unbroken horn then tosses the rope across the other side of his face with a giggle. Slowly slipping her dress off her body, she tosses it aside and stands there in all her naked glory while running a couple fingers between her toned thighs for him to ogle.

With an eager growl, he says, "Come here so I can show you how wild you are driving me."

She sits down on his member with a shake of her head , moaning blissfully as she feels him slide just in front of her entrance and ride up the front of her body. As her body comes to rest against his, she puts her hand at the tip of his member and looks down to see the end is just above her belly button. Looking at his member gives her a naughty idea as she swivels her body around, feeling the edges of his scales rub against her clit. The teasing sensations on her clit draws out a throaty moan from her as she places her lips onto the tip of his member, parting them and takes him inside her ever so slowly. Tasting the other two girls upon his member turns her on even more as she props her rear up into the air with her knees and waves it back and forth in front of him, running her tongue along his member as she continues to take him deeper.

Seeing her swaying bottom before his face, he reaches forward with his neck and opens his mouth wide. Running his tongue out as he feels her legs straddle his lower jaw, he slowly closes his mouth and feels her torso slip between his front teeth as her back legs catch on his two fangs. He brings his lips around her body, using his tongue to tease her entrance before pushing it into her.

She feels his tongue push into her, causing her back legs to push her backward while feeling the tips of his fangs press into her soft skin. Her eyes drift shut from the pleasure as she traces her toes along his underbelly scales, taking him further into her mouth and feels his tip hit her throat. Not feeling the urge to gag, she straightens her head out and keeps going down until she reaches his small knot. She feels him push his head further down, driving her forward and making her take the knot into her mouth. She wraps her small hands around it as best she can and pushes herself back and forth while moaning out through her nose.

As Star twists his tongue around inside of her, he pushes it into her deepest part which causes her body to spasm and gush fluid around his tongue. Tasting a sharp citrusy flavor, he begins to suck on her. Making sure to keep his lips around her lower body firmly so that he doesn't accidentally pull her into his mouth completely and rip her wings off, he hears her cry out through her nose as even more fluid gushes out of her entrance.

Fawn's eyes are glazed over as she came twice in a row, feeling his knot slowly get bigger and bigger in her mouth. When she begins to have trouble getting it out, she starts pushing herself backwards. As she feels her wings hit his lips, she stops and taps his lower jaw with her right heel and jerks her thumb backwards to get him to pull her back. When it takes a moment for him to get the signal, she feels him pull her back while still eating her out. When his member finally leaves her mouth, she gives his retreating tip an affectionate kiss before looking back with a smirk, saying, "Are you done eating this fairy?"

With an amused glint in his eyes, he nods briefly and opens his mouth to let her extract herself. Using his tongue to help lift her out, he watches her stand up on his underbelly on slightly wobbly legs, asking, "Are you going to be alright?"

She turns around to face him, her dark areolas and pointy nipples in his line of sight as she nods, saying, "Yes I will be, until you make love to me and drive me over the edge a few more times, then fill me with your sticky seed. I probably won't be able to walk right away or even fly properly, but I will be on cloud nine so don't worry." Turning back around, she walks toward his member sticking straight up into the air and turns around to face him, then bends her knees and feels his tip spread her lips open and slip inside. A moan escapes her as she reaches half-way to his base, saying in a lusty tone, "Yeah, that's it...spread me open wide and pump me full sweetheart, let's find out if a dragon and a fairy can procreate."

Star raises his legs for her to have extra leverage and watches with delight as the fairy drives herself down to his swelling knot, somehow managing to have enough strength in her legs and arms to force his knot into her depths. As she convulses around his knot for the first time, he feels a little liquid dripping down to his body when her legs and wings twitch wildly while his hard member keeps her in the air.

Fawn has spots in her eyes as she is dazed by that massive orgasm, trying to use her legs and arms to push herself off of his knot embedded into her tight entrance with no success. She tries again and fails with a chuckle, saying, "I'm sorry, I seem to be a little bit stuck on you, mind giving a girl a helping claw?"

Chuckling at her words, he grips her with his claws, saying, "Not at all, just leave the rest to me and voice out your pleasure."

With a smirk, she asks, "Are you sure you want that sweetheart? I can be quite loud and vocal..."

Star then pulls her off his member swiftly and brings her right back down, saying, "Let me hear how much pleasure you are feeling...be as loud as you like."

It is well past midnight as Di is on her way to relieve Nyx from her shift, hearing a moaning wail coming from within which makes her cock her head, wondering, 'Just what is going on in there...'

As she goes inside the cover, she sees the dragon not in the cave and ventures in deeper when she hears a voice matching Fawn's saying very loudly, "Ah yes, give it to this naughty little fairy harder!" Blushing at hearing her say such a thing, she goes deeper although something deep inside tells her not to investigate. When she reaches the bottom, she narrows her eyes as she can see a little bit with the yellow lanterns illuminating the den and spots Nyx lying face down on the floor with her wings twitching occasionally. She notices that her pants are missing and that she seems to be lying in a lake of white liquid, though movement above her catches her attention. When she looks at the form of Fawn being moved up and down vigorously, which causes her small chest to move up and down with the movement, she stares on with wide eyes as she watches the fairy's body begin to twitch madly while she is thrust down over a noticeable bump.

Realizing what is going on, she is frozen in place in shocked curiosity as Fawn wails out while her toes and fingers curl with her wings open and close madly.

Panting heavily while barely conscious, Fawn moans out, "Come on and fill my womb again, my bum is staring to burn from all this thrusting."

Di watches as the much smaller dragon moves her up and down over his now-bigger bump a few more times before slamming her down with a throaty growl, causing Fawn's limbs and wings to shudder madly again as she cries out blissfully, shouting, "Yes, YES! FILL THIS TINY FAIRY'S PUSSY WITH YOUR SEED AND TRY TO BREED ME!" Watching in stunned silence as her abdomen gradually starts to swell up, noticing how he releases his hold on her and just lets her body sit up in the air on its own.

Minutes pass as her vision starts to swim, feeling his searing seed filling her depths with his knot holding it all in, somehow managing to turn sideways and completely not notice that Di is a few feet away from her completely slack-jawed. Covering her mouth with her right hand as she yawns, she says in a tired voice, "I think I will just sleep on you for the night...I can't even feel my legs anymore."

As Fawn falls asleep, snoring lightly when his member starts to soften and let her down, Di begins to slowly back away, thinking, 'If only I could forget what I just saw...' When she comes to rest on his underbelly, she moves her hands up under her head and curls her legs up on herself. Not wanting to risk trying to rouse Nyx after seeing what Fawn just did, Di returns to the front of the den with a heavy blush on her face as the sight and sounds play out in front of her again when a stray though passes through her mind, 'I wonder if Nyx found the act as pleasurable...' Gasping at the thought, she shakes her head to rid it of the thought, thinking, 'This is going to be a long night...'

When morning comes around, Nyx gets up out of a sticky puddle and feels a cool breeze pass against her thighs. Noticing that something isn't right, she lifts her top up to see that she is not wearing her pants or shoes. Casting her gaze around the den in a hurry, she spots them lying in a dry location thankfully. Making her way over to put them on, she feels something ooze out from between her legs. Moving her right hand down there and collecting some of the fluid, she looks at it in the light and notices that it is white though with streaks of red in it. Events of last night come back to her, causing her to put her hand over her mouth as she recalls how it ended. Turning her head around to find the dragon, she casts an angry glare at it but notices fawn still lying on top of the dragon's belly with a swollen abdomen, his member still lodged inside her. Clenching her fists and fighting back her urge to shove her quill spear into the dragon's body and deck Fawn, she turns back around and stomps her way to the water to clean herself up, thinking, 'Ohh that Fawn went too far this time, and I am not going to forgive her for a long time... I can't believe that my first time was taken by that monster...' A sniffle escapes her as she reaches the water's edge and strips down to clean herself, starting by taking off her top and scrubbing it clean.

After cleaning herself up, she waits for her top to dry before making her way around the white fluid puddled in places on the floor around the dragon, looking to see if there is a way to reach Fawn. Her wobbly legs make walking tiresome, so she takes some of her dust and tosses it into the air. Turning around to cover her wings in it, she is relieved to find that they work somewhat properly as she flies up into the air. As she looks at Fawn, she spots Tinker Bell lying on the dragon's tail and heads to her first, touching her lightly on the elbow, saying, "Tink, if you can hear me...you need to wake up slowly so you don't fall off and get even dirtier than you already are."

Squinting her eyes and pushing herself into a sitting position, Tinker Bell rubs the sleep out of her eyes as she sees Nyx in front of her. Stretching her arms above her head, she yawns and says, "Hello Nyx, what time is it?"

Nyx looks at her and shushes her quietly, saying in a soft tone, "It is sometime in the morning, I'm not sure what time exactly as I haven't ventured outside yet. We have other problems to deal with, however. Can you fly?"

Cocking her head, she says, "Let's see, though I don't know why I wouldn't be able to." She then attempts to flap her wings, only to realize they feel heavier than they should and looks back at them to see them covered in a white liquid. The scene past her wings catches her attention, as she sees a naked fairy lying on her side with something stuck inside her. The sight triggers her memory to refresh and help her remember last night's events, placing a hand over her mouth as she gasps, saying, "Oh no, we fell victim to the powdered Poison Joke... I only hope that fairies can't get pregnant..."

The scout looks at her and narrows her eyes, saying, "I expect details of what you two did because if we three do wind up pregnant, so help me... I will beat you both black and blue with my spear. Now come this way so we can get you nice and clean, though your puffballs are a lost cause I fear."

Tinker Bell looks down at her feet to see that they are completely soaked in sticky fluid, saying, "At least those can be easily replaced..." She then sees some skin through her dress and investigates it with her hand, able to feel her stomach through the split. The discovery that her outfit needs repair causes her to sigh, saying, "Looks like this dress needs to be repaired when I get home." She then makes her way to the water, doing what she can to avoid the puddles of sticky white fluid.

When Fawn finally stirs awake, stretching her arms above her head and arching her back, she feels something soft still inside of her. When she turns her head and looks between her legs, what she sees lodged inside her brings back last night's memories. Giggling at the pleasant sensation, she rubs her swollen abdomen for a moment before attempting to stand. A few moments passes as her legs have no strength in them, she hears talking from the front of the den and looks in the direction to see Tinker Bell cleaning herself up. Waving her hand in the air, she calls out softly, "Uh...would you two be able to help me get off of Star? I...can't seem to move my legs."

Hearing her friend say that causes her to chuckle, saying, "Apologies, but I had to wash my wings. Perhaps Nyx could..." She then notices the glare on her face and chuckles nervously, saying, "On second thought, you are on your own until my wings dry. Sorry Fawn."

She sighs and says, "Oh alright, but it would be really nice if I could wash up too. Especially after what he put me through..."

Unable to fight her curiosity, Tinker Bell cocks her head and asks before Nyx can silence her, "What did he do to you?"

Fawn grins and says, "Well...the question is, what didn't he do to me... I found out that he does eat fairies, though not in the way you think...he pleasured me like a beast as I pleasured his member. He then took me from the front several times as well as the back, I still can't believe how he made me act like a fountain... Sorry about glazing your wings a little, Tink, he got a little wild with me."

Without missing a beat, Nyx blushes crimson and shouts, "OH MY SPARKLES, TMI!" then storms out of the cave, still blushing furiously at the images seared into her mind.

As they wait for Tinker Bell's wings to dry, Di comes into the cave and approaches Fawn with a mild blush, saying, "Nyx told me that you need a little help getting...unstuck, so raise your arms and I will pull you off."

Stretching her arms over her head with a big smile, she says, "Thanks a lot for helping me, Di."

The fairy takes her hands in hers and looks away with an uncomfortable blush on her cheeks saying, "Yeah, you're welcome...but...please don't mention it...ever. I got more than an eyeful last night of some of what you got up to Fawn."

Fawn flushes crimson in embarrassment as she hears that, asking barely above a whisper, "You...uh...saw what went on between Star and I?" Seeing her nod ever so slightly as she pulls up on her, she suddenly pops free and feels the seed come gushing out of her. Feeling her abdomen return to normal as the seed splatters onto the floor below, she looks away asking, "Could you please take me to the water, Di?"

Tinker Bell watches her friend be set beside the water and begins to take her clothing off, saying, "I will help you get clean Fawn, but if we get pregnant from this, Nyx is going to beat us both black and blue."

She smiles and then says, "Thank you, Tink, but don't worry about that because there has never been a pregnancy in over six thousand years."

When Star Reaper stirs awake and rolls onto his stomach, he yawns and blinks slowly to clear his blurry vision, saying, "That was some dream last night... Those three fairies were quite pretty, though that last one was quite wild." As his sight finally clears up, he looks around him to notice that something is off, and starts looking around to see what feels off to him, saying, "I know something is not as it should be, but what is it..."

A few minutes pass as he looks up at the lights near the top of his den and says, "Everything seems...bigger now, but how is that possible?"

Unable to keep quiet any longer, Fawn bursts out laughing and cries out, "It seems bigger because you are much smaller than you were when you fell asleep!"

His eyes turn to the source of the voice, seeing not one, but two naked fairies bathing in the water and recognizes one as Fawn and the other as her friend Tinker Bell. With an annoyed huff, he asks, "Alright, mischievous fairies, what did you do to me this time?"

END OF SECTION, enjoy the next chapter of the story!

5: A Dragon's Surprise

WARNING, THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS DARK CONTENT, BUT IS NOT NECESSARY TO FOLLOW THE STORY!

A hundred years ago...in another galaxy

Summer Raelordiel does her best to cheer Sky Wing up over the past hundred or so years, but nothing she does helps to cheer her up. She runs her dainty, hand over her forearm as she just lies on the floor, curled up on herself, saying, "Won't you go out today, miss Sky?"

Still sobbing over the ache in her heart, Sky Wing takes a breath, saying, "I don't feel like it, I still have trouble handling the knowledge of what those damn priestesses did to him."

Curious, she looks at her and asks, "Do you know what his punishment involves?"

Whimpering out a sob, the dragoness nods and says, "I doubt that even my love knows what the full penance is, many don't fully grasp how horrible it is... It begins with a dragon being reduced to a beast-like state driven by base instincts to survive and their very soul torn from them, forced to watch from above as their own body moves and act on its own beyond their control. While that is happening, they are given no peace as they see and feel the final moments of those that they have slain over and over. That stage lasts until their rampage gives rise to someone capable of killing them or imprisoning them. Once that happens, their soul is split apart into several pieces which causes them to feel excruciating agony until an extremely rare celestial event allows the pieces to reunite and return to their body. When they awaken, they are not of sane mind after serving their 'penance' and are left to themselves, or for others to handle them." A keening sigh escapes her as tears fall from her eyes, saying, "The bipeds have taken a few of us down already, Perhaps dragonkind should be wiped from existence."

The elven princess looks at her and sighs, saying, "Why don't you honor his wishes for you to take another mate?"

She then growls and says, "Because he was the only one that I could ever like, I won't ever take another mate besides him!"

With a sad expression on her face, Summer then looks up at her and says, "HOW DO YOU THINK I FEEL THAT HE'S GONE! ELVES ARE MORE SENSITIVE TO EMOTION THAN ANY OTHER CREATURE, ALMOST AS SENSITIVE AS DRAGONS ARE! I COULD BARELY BRING MYSELF TO EVEN EAT BECAUSE OF THE GRIEF I FELT THEN AND STILL FEEL!" With resignation in her voice, she then says, "Since neither of us don't want to live for him, then we both may as well just go and die."

Sky Wing sniffles and pulls her head out and looks at her with one eye, asking, "W-What did you just say?"

She repeats herself, saying, "I feel the same grief you do, but if you don't want to keep on living without him...then neither do I."

Straightening herself out, she lowers her head, saying, "Then we should cause as much damage as we can until we fall, get what you need for our last stand."

With a crazed look in her eyes, Summer nods and then takes off to the lower level to get a bag and fill it with as much supplies she could ever need. Returning a half-hour later with a set of four satchels around her waist and a couple straps, she looks up at Sky and says, "Let's go turn some towns to ashes..." Climbing onto her head, she ties the two straps around long spikes on Sky's head to keep herself in place.

After they head out, they fly over the ruins of Raelor, the city that Star Reaper took Summer from as she looks down at the city saying with a laugh, "Oh look, the city's finally stopped smoking...what a beautiful view..."

While flying through the air, they keep their eyes open for any settlement and rain death and destruction down upon each one they find. Watching a wing of seven dragons descend upon a large army and engulf them all in flames, though losing four dragons in the attack.

As they spend a few hours burning settlement after settlement, they come across the capital city of the entire region. Summer looks at it and says, "There's the capital city of Dannorel, with a population of around a hundred thousand... Looks pretty untouched by the other dragons...let's go hit it as hard as we can."

A scout in a tower focuses his sharp eyes on the approaching dragon and sweats immediately when he notices that it isn't just any dragon, but Sky Wing with the former princess of Raelor atop the dragon's head. Bringing his horn from his belt up to his lips, he blows on it as hard as he can, shouting, "SOUND THE ALARM, IT'S THE MAD PRINCESS OF RAELOR AND SKY WING!"

Sky Wing chuckles saying, "It seems we are rather famous, mad princess."

The crazed princess cackles as bells ring out and horns blare, saying, "I wonder why, was it because of our brutal attacks on a neighboring land whose capital lies in ruins now? Or was it our destruction of the port cities...it's kind of hard to pinpoint which one made us famous, you know?"

Flying up higher, the dragon dives down toward the city while sending fireball after fireball upon the city, pulling up out of it to engulf the castle walls in her own light blue fire. Once all four sides are burning, she raises her claws and slams into a tower to collapse it.

Summer cackles like a wicked witch as she uses her magic to catch ballista bolts and send them right back at the weapon that fired them while imbuing them with explosive fire, wreaking a lot of chaos as the weapon bursts apart and maims several of the bipeds operating it.

The scout watches with horror as the castle collapses after only a few strikes from the dragon, saying, "God help us all, they're both insane..." Not wanting to let the kingdom fall, he abandons his post and races towards the wall to help the soldiers fight back. As he makes his way to the wall, he hears shrieks from the far side of the city and stops to look behind him. Seeing the dragon attacking the far wall steels his resolve to save the city, spurring him to keep running toward the wall.

When he reaches the top of the wall, he runs toward a ballista manned by a dwarf and yanks him out of the seat saying, "Move! You can't hit the broadside of a barn!" Climbing into the seat, he uses the pedals to turn the weapon to lead the dragon, waiting for the right moment to pull the trigger.

The angry dwarf huffs indignantly, and watches the young boy finally pull the trigger. Following the bolt with his eyes, he is amazed when it slams into the dragon's body, just in front of the shoulder and claps him on the back, saying, "Well done lad, well done!"

The scout hears the dragon roar out in pain as it leaves another section of the wall in flames, saying, "Time to move, she's heading this way and she. is. pissed." He then jumps out of the seat and orders the others to abandon the ballista, then takes off running to one of the ballista towers.

Sky Wing sends a blue fireball towards the ballista that just hit her and swoops along the wall, engulfing it all in fire to destroy the ballistae that are pestering her, thinking, 'That was so close to being a fatal shot, come on and hit me again!'

Summer looks down at her side as it bleeds, then swipes a finger through the blood and puts it into her mouth to taste it, saying, "Tasty..." Turning her attention back to raising hell, she downs another mana potion and resumes casting wide area fire magic to cause as much death as she can, shouting, "ALL YOU BIPEDS WILL DIE THIS DAY, SO BURN BITCHES, BURN! AHHAHAHAHAHA!"

Several minutes pass as most of the outer walls and over three quarters of the city are now burning wildly, all ballistae destroyed or abandoned in terror when the scout finally reaches an intact ballista tower with the dwarf and crew following him, saying, "We will likely have only one chance to defeat the dragon, so use your magic to take that crazy elven bitch down first!"

Nodding their heads, the elves race ahead and begin to call forth long range spells to their hands and cast lightning bolts, fireballs, and ice spears at the cackling princess. They watch as the lightning misses her completely, with the fireballs grazing her hair, and two of the four ice spears hitting their mark.

Looking down at the two spears of ice sticking out of her body, knowing one of them is definitely a fatal wound, she falls to her knees and laughs softly, saying, "They got me, Sky...I will keep breathing until they get you too."

With a grin, Sky chuckles and says, "Don't worry, hopefully, it won't be long as I left one ballista intact." She then turns and starts flying towards the unburnt portion of the city to continue destroying it, giving the ballista a chance to hit her.

Gasping at hearing that, the scout says, "They both came here just to die?! What is wrong with wanting to live?" As the rest of the city is engulfed in flames, he gets a clear shot at the dragon and pulls the trigger.

The group of bipeds manning the last ballista watch the bolt fly forth in slow motion with bated breaths, seeing the bolt spin clockwise as it sails toward the dragon's body. Seconds last forever when they finally witness it hit the dragon behind the shoulder and a bit above, hearing the dragon wheeze out, "Thank....you..."

Sky Wing flies away from the city, ripping the bolt from her side and dropping it into a field below as she hears a few cheers ring out from the remaining tower. She thinks of heading back home until she recalls how the priestesses took her mate from her and chuckles darkly as her eyes dilate a little into wide, star-shaped slits, saying, "Now it's time to make them pay for taking him from us."

The scout watches the mortally wounded dragon fly off as the dwarf and elves shake him happily, thanking him and congratulate him for killing the dragon. He sighs sadly and looks at them, saying, "Why should we be happy about helping that dragon and former princess die?"

They all go silent as the dwarf speaks up, asking, "What do ya mean, lad?"

Wiping away a few tears, he then explains, saying, "Those two came here to commit suicide, didn't you hear the dragon say it wouldn't be long because she left only one ballista intact?" When he sees them nod, he says, "They did that on purpose just so we would bring her suffering to an end, and I pulled the trigger that will slowly kill her..."

Their bright and cheery mood turns dark and gloomy as they all walk down the stairs without saying a single word as the scout says, "Let's look for survivors after the fire fades, the capital is gone."

As she gets closer to the volcano where the priestesses reside, Sky asks, "Are you still with me, Summer?"

With a cough, Summer continues to lie on her head, saying, "Yes...I'm still here, I told you I would hang on until you go."

Sky smiles and sees the volcano in the distance, saying, "Good, because we are almost to the volcano where everything went wrong, I promise you that I will slaughter every last priestess in that accursed temple of theirs."

When they finally reach the volcano, Summer chuckles and says weakly, "Now let the slaughter begin..."

The pure white priestess makes her way to the entrance of their sacred temple as she smells blood in the air, saying, "Sky Wing, you have come for healing?"

Making her way towards the priestess with her rage barely controlled, saying, "Yes...of a sort."

Unaware of the danger she is in, she walks towards the bigger dragon, saying, "Approach me and I will do what I can to help you."

Sky smiles a murderous grin, saying, "Oh I know you will..." Waiting until she gets close enough, she sees her channel her magic into the staff to heal her. The opportunity presents itself, and she seizes it by swiftly raising her claw and gripping the smaller female in her grasp.

With her staff torn from her grip, she struggles to breathe asking, "Wh-What are you doing, Sky Wing?! Let me heal you!"

Chuckling darkly, the elf sits up and says, "I think not... For the crime of taking the one we love, we sentence you....all....to die."

Not missing a beat, Sky tears the priestesses head from her body and tosses it behind her, then drops the body and steps on it, crushing the smaller dragon's bones under her with a satisfying crunch. Walking further in, she then looks to the entrance and sends a blue fireball at it, causing it to collapse as she heads further into the temple to slaughter the priestesses.

Minutes pass by when Sulfur Hide hears screams of terror and pain coming from the temple, leaving his home to go investigate it. When he arrives he sees other dragons gathered around the entrance and notices that it is collapsed, but the head priestess's head is lying just in front of the pile. Turning to them, he says, "What are you waiting for, start clearing the debris so we can find out what is happening!"

The dragons begin working as swiftly as they can, carrying the stones away as the screams continue on, followed by the angry roar of a dragon inside. When the entrance is cleared, Sulfur Hide hurries in to see the crushed body of the head priestess lying on the floor. Noticing the claw marks on the neck tells him that another dragon did this and shouts angrily, "Just what in the holy fire is going on!"

As he continues on, he investigates the nearby rooms to find the priests and priestesses all dead and the rooms burning with blue fire. Not liking how it looks, he returns to the main room and looks at the floor to see it fully covered with a thin layer of blood. Even the walls are splattered with their blood as the bodies of young priestesses lie in piles, the golden decorations melted into nothing with orange flames eating away at the sparse flammable objects within. Making his way to the next part, he sees the children littering the floor with their bodies crushed underfoot as well, causing tears to fall from his eyes as he spots a couple of vibrant red scales on the floor in front of him between two dead whelps, asking the empty, lifeless space around him, "Why would you do this, Sky Wing?"

Once she finishes off the last female, she glares at the male before her and roars out angrily, "It sickens me how you call yourself priests and priestesses, but breed with each other as you are all related by blood!"

The old dragon stands guard in front of the hatchery and looks at her with displeasure, chuffing before saying, "It has been done this way for several millennia, it is our sacred duty to keep the holy bloodline going!" With an inhale, he prepares to attack her with his own blue fire.

Knowing what he is going to do, Sky inhales herself and sends a shard of ice towards him. When he is forced to evade it, she sends another one at him and charges toward the ancient dragon, saying, "The old ways will die with you!"

Even though he is much older than her, he is still a bit slower due to his size and fails to stop her from raking her claws across his shoulder, leaving a nasty set of gashes on his left shoulder. He then tries to retaliate by grabbing her tail and throwing her into the wall, though he fails to notice that she expected that.

Seeing her opening as he goes for her tail, she quickly spins around the other way and goes for his throat. Catching him by surprise, she hears him bellow out in pain which slowly turns into a gurgle as she applies more and more pressure to her jaws. When he begins to go limp, she rips out his throat and tosses the chunk aside before returning to tear the bastard's head completely off. Dragging the head to the center of the room, she walks over his corpse and looks back, bellowing out a vicious roar before heading into the hatchery.

Sky looks around at the number of eggs in the room, asking, "Summer, do you want to bake some eggs?"

Shaking her head with a weak cackle, Summer says, "Oh heavens no! I prefer mine scrambled!"

With a laugh, she then makes her way around the room, stomping on the fertilized eggs born of incestual relations between the bloodline, she says, "So do I!" then starts using her tail to crush or shatter them all.

Sulfur Hide makes his way through the temple complex, seeing only dead and burning corpses wherever Sky Wing has been. He gets a sinking feeling in his gut as he reaches the deepest part of the temple, finding the ancient dragon dead and the hatchery behind him engulfed in light blue flames. Rushing over his corpse, he enters the room to find every single egg shattered or crushed. When he spots his niece in the center of the room, lying on the floor while breathing weakly, he approaches her warily and asks with tears in his eyes, "Why, Sky Wing?"

Looking up at her uncle, she chuckles and says, "Vengeance, what else could there be?" She then coughs up blood and begins sobbing, saying, "I just can't live without him, Uncle, he meant too much to us and these incestuous bastards took him from Summer and I! So, we set out a few hours earlier to cause as much damage as we can until we die, and began laying waste to any settlement we could find until we came across Dannorel. I managed to destroy the entire city while leaving just one tower alone to give it a chance to fatally wound me, which they got Summer with their spells and landed a hit on my right lung. I won't be here much longer, so don't worry about little old me..."

Summer coughs and spits some blood out as her vision starts to darken, saying, "Hey Sky...I'll race you to the other side..." then lets out her last breath and slumps down against one of her twisted horns.

With another wet cough, her own vision darkens as she lays her head down, saying with her last breath, "Oh no...you...don't..."

Rushing up to his niece's side, he pulls her limp head against his chest as tears begin to fall from his eyes uncontrollably. With an agonized roar, he tears her head from her body and holds it close to him as he slowly rocks himself back and forth, mourning his dead niece.

Presently, at Star Reaper's temporary den in Never Land

Holding her friend while laughing herself, Tinker Bell says, "We just ground up some flowers called Poison Joke and spread the powder over you while you slept, expecting something funny to happen to you" then quietly adds with a slight blush, "but we didn't anticipate the...naughty events afterwards."

He looks at her and lets out a huff, saying, "So last night wasn't a dream...though me being smaller was part of your prank, you two really are trouble." Unable to keep back a chuckle, he says, "You best hope that there are no other nasty little surprises from the aftermath of your prank from those...events, or things might get a little dicey for you."

Feeling uneasy from the look he's giving them, Fawn asks nervously, "Uhm...what do you mean?"

Star looks at the fairies with a mischievous look on his face, and says, "Well, dragon females lay eggs, and with my size, I wonder if you would survive laying an egg even half your size."

The two fairies gulp together as Tinkerbell thinks about how that would look and goes pale with a shudder, saying, "If I have that many eggs in me, I will be torn apart!" Then looks at Fawn and says, "We need to get to a doctor to check ourselves for pregnancy."

Fawn nods and covers herself as best she can, saying, "I think that would be great, but could you finish helping me clean up?" Noticing that the dragon is looking at their bodies, she asks, "Could you please see where my clothes are at so that I can get dressed?"

With a nod, he turns, saying, "Of course, though I couldn't help but admire the view. Though I must thank you for giving me this chance to go places that I couldn't before due to my size." Noticing his change of mood, he lets out a huff and looks back over his shoulder and says, "It seems you have managed to break me out of my depression."

As Tinker Bell continues to bathe her friend clean, she groans and says, "I can't believe that you just let yourself fall asleep on him like that, some of this stuff just doesn't want to scrub off."

Nyx comes back with a slight wobble in her flight, glaring down at the two fairies as Fawn gets cleaned up. She then looks at the state of the dragon's den with disgust, asking, "Are you going to leave your den looking this messy?"

Once he finds her clothes, he sets them near the water, saying, "Well, I can get started on cleaning, though it will take me a while."

With a huff, she looks towards the entrance with her arms crossed over her chest, saying, "Very well then, you should probably get started." When she watches him head to the water and picks up a mouthful of water, walking over to one puddle and sprays the water into it with a surprising amount of force.

It takes Star a few hours to get the mess all pushed into the water when the fairies sit off to the side with Fawn finally dressed, he turns to her and asks, "Are you going to be okay, little one?"

Fawn nods and says, "My name is Fawn, but yes, I will be fine. I can at least move my legs around now, though there is no strength to them."

Nodding his head, he says, "Well that is some good news, if anything happens, let me know and I will do whatever I can to help out." Making his way up the path he carved, just barely small enough to accommodate his small size, he then jumps off the top and dives towards the water below to help get some of his sticky seed off him.

The girls wait for an hour until he finally comes back with Di looking at Nyx saying, "I will wait here as you take the others back to Pixie Hollow."

Climbing onto the stony floor, Star then asks, "Before you all go, how long will I be affected by this Poison Joke?"

When all eyes turn to Fawn for answers, she smiles sheepishly and says, "Um...until we can come up with a way to reverse it?"

Nyx growls at her, saying, "You did this without having a way to undo it?! I'm going to deck you for this!"

Taking off swiftly with Nyx on her trail, her legs float in the air behind her as she calls back, "Sorry, I'll figure something out eventually!"

Chuckling at seeing that, he turns to the fairy he knows as Tinker Bell and says, "Perhaps you should get going as well, little one, or are you not able to feel your wings?"

She turns red at hearing that, stomping towards him and saying, "I can feel them, and I can fly!" To prove her point, she flies in a circle around his head, saying, "See!" then comes to a stop in front of his face.

Star then smirks at her attitude, then asks, "So does the Poison Joke have the same effect on you fairies?"

Tinker Bell then shakes her head and says, "Oh no, it just makes us..." then searches for a polite word to use, then adds, "Really affectionate to put it mildly."

With a chuckle, he blows out a puff of air, saying, "I was convinced that it was a dream, though what took place was anything but really affectionate..."

Regaining control, she returns in front of him with a red face and says, "It only affects us for a few hours, thankfully. Though it is for that reason alone that we are warned to stay away from it."

Star looks at her and then says, "You should get going, little one."

Her face returns to its normal color as she shouts, "My name is Tinker Bell, NOT Little One!" With a huff, she then spins around and heads out of his den to go get checked out.

Two weeks pass as the three fairies find themselves at the healer's tree, with Nyx giving the other two an angry glare, asking, "Are you two feeling sick every morning too?"

Tinker Bell then chimes in, saying, "As well as having to...go more often?"

Fawn and Nyx groan as the animal fairy says, "Well, I guess we all sort of know what this might mean..."

The scout fist makes a fist and pounds it into her other hand, saying, "Yeah, it might mean that I finally get to beat you two black and blue..."

The nurse comes out and looks at the list, saying, "Nyx, I will take you in exam room two. Right this way please."

As she gets up to follow her, she scowls at Fawn and then follows the nurse to the room. Closing the door behind her, the nurse asks her what she is here for today and takes a breath to calmly say, "I am afraid that I might be...pregnant."

Shocked to the point where she drops her pencil, she then takes it as a joke and laughs loudly, saying, "Oh that's impossible, sweetie! Fairies have lost that ability thousands of years ago!" She then gets her laughing under control and sighs, saying, "I'm sorry for laughing, but why do you think that you are pregnant?"

Nyx sighs and tells her how she has been feeling, saying, "Because I have been throwing up frequently throughout the day, going to the bathroom way more often than I had before. Oh yeah, and the nasty cramps I have been getting in my abdomen."

She blinks and then says, "Very well, lets get you checked out for certain."

Once she gets what she needs, the nurse examines her for a few minutes. When the exam concludes, she looks at Nyx with a pale face, saying in a soft voice, "I don't believe it..." Shaking her head, she says, "Wait here for just one moment, I have to get a second opinion."

Huffing with annoyance, she nods and rests her head on her elbow as the nurse hurries out of the room and brings back another nurse, who does the exam over again.

When the exam is done, the nurse has the same, pale-faced look the other nurse does as she looks at her, gulping nervously saying, "It's true...she is, in fact...pregnant."

The first nurse turns to Nyx and asks, "Please tell us in detail about what happened."

Sighing in irritation, she then starts her story, saying, "It started about two weeks ago when I found out Fawn was playing yet another prank on Star Reaper..."

A few minutes pass by as she finishes her story, saying, "One moment sweetie, I will go get the other two." She then opens the door and makes her way to the waiting room, calling out, "Fawn, Tinker Bell, please come with me."

Confused, the two fairies look at each other and shrug their shoulders, then get up and follow her to the exam rooms. Entering exam room two, they see Nyx sitting in the exam chair with an angry scowl on her face as the nurse shuts the door, asking them, "Now one of you please take Nyx's place so we can examine you twice."

Once the two other fairies are also found to be pregnant, one of the nurses sends an assistant to ask Queen Clarion to come to exam room two in the healer's tree.

Queen Clarion floats into the exam room as a shimmering light, folding her hands in front of her asking, "Greetings fairies, what is going on?"

The nurse that performed the first examination on Nyx looks up at her saying, "We do not understand how it happened, but something miraculous occurred." She then steps back and gestures to the three fairies adding, "We examined these three young fairies a few times, and have soundly determined that they...are pregnant."

A gasp escapes her lips as she quickly raises her hands to her mouth, saying through her fingers, "Truly!?" She then looks at Nyx, Tinker Bell, and Fawn, asking, "Please tell me how this came to be."

When they blush from embarrassment at having to retell the story again, Fawn starts the story off with her part about playing a prank on the dragon as he slept with Tinker Bell joining in with her part. Taking them an hour to finish the story with no detail left out, Fawn looks at the floor, saying, "I'm sorry for causing such trouble, Queen Clarion...I just wanted to bring Star Reaper out of his sad mood."

Queen Clarion beams happily at her, lifting her head up with her hand, saying, "You misunderstand, Fawn. I am not mad at all about this discovery, I am quite pleased to hear this blessed news as there have been no new fairies being born from laughs." She then looks to the nurses and says, "Please ensure that these three fairies are well-cared for until the time they lay their eggs in three to four months, there might be one or even more." Turning back to the fairies with happy tears in her eyes, she pulls them into a gentle hug, saying, "Please take good care of your eggs and never leave them unattended, and always keep them warm until they hatch in a week."

After the queen takes her leave, Nyx looks at fawn with a raised fist and pulls it back, preparing to punch Fawn's cheek, saying, "I'm going to beat you black and blue for that prank!" She swings at her, making Fawn wince and try to protect herself with her arms when she stops her fist just short of her face, with her eyes tearing up and threatening to spill over her cheeks.

When Fawn doesn't feel the punch land or pain, she cracks one eye open to see that Nyx's face is full of tears as her nose turns red while she fights back her sobs. Pulling her into a hug, she quietly says, "I'm sorry for causing this to happen, Nyx, but at least the queen seems really happy about the news."

Something gives inside her as she leans on Fawn as she flutters in the air just above the ground, her tears and sobs begin to slip from her as she says through her sobs, "But I...didn't want this..."

Tinker Bell walks toward the two and lays her left hand on Fawn's lower back, then her right hand on Nyx's in the same place and joins the hug saying, "None of us did, but we are strong fairies and we can get through anything by sticking together."

After receiving the news, the three fairies follow their new diets and inform the dragon of their pregnancies. Against the scout's orders, Fawn and Tinker Bell show the shrunken dragon around Pixie Hollow over the following weeks.

Unable to fly due to her belly weighing her down, Tinker Bell places her hands on her hips with a red face as she says, "Ugh...if only I could fly!" She flaps her wings hard to try to lift herself off the ground, but fails as she barely manages to lift her heels and groans when she sees Fawn walking towards her and says, "It's so annoying not being able to fly with this belly weighing me down like this."

Fawn giggles and says, "I feel the same way, Tink. I can only fly for about fifty yards before I need to rest, though now I mostly walk everywhere to avoid feeling so tired."

She looks down at her friend's belly under her half top and above her pants, saying, "At least you can fly, these clothes show too much of our stomachs for my liking." Comparing her belly to her own, she stomps her foot indignantly and says, "I think you got lucky, your belly is smaller than mine."

Nyx lands before the two fairies with a big smile, saying, "And my belly is smaller than both of yours." Seeing her remark cause Tinkerbell to stomp her foot with a huff and turn her head away, sticking her nose into the air makes her chuckle saying, "How cute, someone's jealous... I guess one of us will be blessed with more than one egg." She then gasps as she feels liquid gush out from between her legs, saying, "Uhm...what just happened?"

The animal fairy's face lights up as fluid rushes down her own legs, saying happily, "I think our time might be approaching, let's fly on over to the healers to get ready!"

Tinker Bell watches the other two start to fly off and says, "Hello! Too big to fly here!"

The scout fairy chuckles and looks back, saying, "Right, apologies. We will carry you there."

Fawn then heads back with a smile, saying, "With a few stops in between so I can rest for a bit."

She stands in a small patch of dirt, raising her arms for them to grab and lift her up when she feels her own fluids gush out of her, slowly turning the dirt below her into mud and making her say, "Lift me up before I slip on this mud!"

It takes a few moments for the two to lift her off the ground as they start heading to the healers when Nyx groans, "Woah you're heavy!"

Carried by the two fairies with Nyx doing most of the lifting, Tinker Bell looks at Nyx, saying with a red face, "I already know that! Why do you think I can't fly at all!"

Eventually, Rosetta, Vidia, Silvermist, and Iridessa join in and help to carry the very pregnant Tinkerbell to the healer's tree as Silvermist asks, "So...did you and Terence patch things up yet?"

Tinker Bell sighs sadly and says, "No...he won't even look at me now, whenever I go to talk to him, he just comes up with a reason to fly away..."

Fawn sighs and says, "How inconsiderate of him, I thought he would be bigger than his jealousy over what happened months ago."

When they reach the healer's tree, Tinker Bell facepalms herself and says, "Could one of you go let Star know that our time is getting close?"

After setting her down, Vidia nods, saying, "I'll do it, I will be back before you can say sparkle!" then takes off toward the dragon's den.

Star is in his den, eating an eel he caught in the sea when a fairy flies up to him, lifting his head up from his meal, asking, "Hello, little one, what do you need?"

Hovering in the air, she cringes as she sees him slurp up the last bit of his food, saying, "Eww..." Remembering why she came here, she then says, "Tinker Bell, Fawn, and Nyx are getting close to their time, so they wanted you to know so you could come if you wanted to."

Getting up, he says, "Alright, let me get this cleaned up and I will follow you there."

Vidia watches impatiently as he runs over to the water and blasts the remains into the water, saying, "Good, it's clean now. Can we go now?"

Star chuckles and leaps into the air, saying, "After you, but can you keep up?"

She looks at him with a smirk, saying, "Just try and catch me." then takes off like a dart.

He grins an evil smile, saying, "Don't you know it's bad luck to challenge a dragon!" Giving chase, he watches her dart through the dry path and chuckles, saying, "Too bad you aren't skilled enough to dart between the open spaces in the waterfall!" Putting on a little speed while looking for a spot to slip through, finding one a moment later and then folds his wings against his body to dart through it.

Mildly impressed, she scoffs and looks back, saying, "I could do that if I wanted to, I just didn't want to get my feet wet." Turning in the air, she then heads back towards Pixie Hollow while hearing the dragon following after her.

As he chases after her, he spots a bird circling in the air up high and starts to dive toward them, forcing him to fly even faster, saying, "Fold your wings down, now!"

Vidia is about to look back when she hears a high pitched cry of a hawk, causing her to gasp and fold her wings against her back and protect her face with her arms when she hears teeth snapping shut. When she doesn't sense any pain anywhere, she feeling herself lying on something warm, wet, and slimy, causing her to open her eyes to look around her. Through zig-zagging patterns, she can see tiny slivers of light shining into wherever she is, when her eyes adjust to the low light, she trembles as she sees the inside of the dragon's mouth and screams, "PLEASE DON'T SWALLOW ME!"

Star grumbles at her scream and ignores her as he watches the hawk start to eye him, letting a threatening, rumbling growl slip through his nose, thinking, 'Oh don't you even think about, pest...'

When the hawk dives at him, he snorts out hot air angrily while pulling up sharply to get around the attacking hawk, thinking, 'Need to make this quick, but I sure hope she will grab onto my tongue to keep from going down my throat.'

Feels herself sliding backwards, she quickly grabs onto the slender tongue below her, praying silently that she doesn't end up in his stomach. As she lies there, sensing him changing his course repeatedly as if evading something, making her think, 'Wait...did he put me in his mouth to protect me from the hawk?' Her unspoken question is answered by a searing heat filling his mouth, turning her head just in time to see an orange glow rapidly rise up his throat and pisses herself in fear, saying, "So this is how I'm going to die..."

Rolling his eyes as he bathes the underbelly of the hawk in fire from his nostrils, he thinks, 'Hey, I'm not a latrine, you know... and don't be so dramatic.'

When the heat slowly fades away, she sighs with relief and hugs his tongue closer to her, kissing it thankfully, saying, "I'm unharmed and still alive, thank you for not roasting me." When she gets a little nauseous from a rather tight loop-the loop, she fights the urge to puke when she feels him perform a barrel roll. The barrel roll comes to a jarring stop as she empties her stomach into his mouth, noticing light illuminate the darkness around her. Looking up with a smile at finally seeing the sky again, she watches as his jaws open wide while heading right toward a slender, feathered neck. Watching with a horrified shriek as the hawk's neck enters his mouth, she hears him bite down on the bird's neck with a sickening crunch and throws up again before passing out.

Star opens his mouth to let the dead hawk fall, suddenly feeling the fairy sliding toward the back of his mouth and drops his head down to send her back toward the front, sighing with relief that he managed to keep her from sliding down his throat. Landing carefully in front of the healer's tree, he spots a passing fairy and clears his throat, saying around the unconscious fairy in his mouth, "Hey, a little help here?"

The fairy cocks her head and asks, "What do you need, mister dragon?"

He lies down on the ground and rests his head before saying around Vidia's unconscious body, "Please help her, she passed out when I killed the hawk."

When she sees him open his mouth wide open, she shrieks at seeing the slimy state of the fast-flying fairy's wings and whistles for another fairy to come over, saying, "Come help me bring Vidia inside to get her looked at!"

Once the two carefully pull the fairy out of his mouth, he swallows the bitter and sour liquids she left behind, saying, "She might need a new change of clothes as well because I was eating a slimy eel when she came to get me."

In their own rooms delivering their eggs as Tinkerbell hears one of the nurses say, "Come on Fawn, the second one is almost out. Now push again!"

Listening frustratedly as they congratulate her on birthing her third and last egg, she groans and shouts with a cherry red face, "When will someone come help me birth my eggs, I'm ready to explode here!"

A nurse hurries in, rolling her eyes, saying, "Alright, alright, I'm here Miss Bell. We had to wait for your entrance to become fully dilated first, I wonder how many eggs you will be birthing? Nyx birthed two eggs, which only lasted twenty minutes. Fawn, however, took a bit longer to lay all three of her eggs." She checks on her entrance and smiles at seeing it prepared and lays the sheet back over her legs, saying, "You are finally ready to begin birthing, let me go get a few assistants and we will get you started."

When they return a few minutes later to a red-faced Tinker Bell, the nurse calms her down and gets into position, saying, "Star Reaper is outside the tree to be here for you three, so take a breath and then push on your next contraction.

As the next contraction hits Tinker Bell, she grips the sides of the table and starts to push. Feeling her entrance stretch to accommodate the size of the egg, she screams out in pain as she pushes harder, shouting, "JUST HOW BIG IS THIS FLAPPING THING!"

She watches with wide eyes as the light green egg is slowly pushed out, saying, "It is a bit early to say, but I can guess it is about the size of a baby acorn."

When she feels it rush out of her, relief washes over her body as she feels a little less stuffed. Looking down between her raised legs, she watches the nurse hold up something almost as wide as her hips, looking with wide eyes, saying, "I pushed that out!?! How is that even possible!?"

The nurse chuckles and hands the large egg to an assistant to clean and lay into a basket, saying, "We fairies have flexible, partially split hips sweetie. Why do you think we all have pear-shaped bodies? That all helps to make it easier to birth our eggs, although you three are the very first pregnancies in a very, very, long time."

Letting her rest for a bit, she then returns to her position and says, "Once you are ready, wait for the contractions to start again and then push when the next one hits."

As Tinker Bell loses track of how much pushing she has to do, she feels the egg rush out of her. Left completely exhausted, her head rests on the pillow, asking, "Am I done pushing, yet? I'm to tired to push any more..."

Handing off the last egg to the assistant, the nurse looks at her slightly chubby stomach and cleans her up, saying, "Yes you are, Miss Bell. Congratulations on birthing even more than Fawn and Nyx combined, even a bit larger than their eggs too!"

Staring at the ceiling with unfocused eyes, too tired to even care, she asks, "How many were there?"

Finishing her task, she moves her feet out of the stirrups, saying, "Six in all, and they all were three-quarters the size of a sparrow egg, your friend's eggs were about half that size."

Taking a deep breath, she lets it out in a huff, saying, "Great to hear, now I can just sleep for a few days..."

The nurse chuckles when she hears the fairy start to lightly snore, saying softly, "Better sleep while you can..."

When the other fairies in the waiting room see the nurse wheeling a softly snoring Tinker Bell down the hall, Rosetta is the first to ask, "Oh gracious sunlight, is she okay?"

The nurse shushes them all and says softly, "Everything is just fine, she just needs her rest after birthing six eggs nearly as big as a sparrow's."

When they stand there in the hallway, watching her be wheeled into a recovery room, they look to each other with wide eyes, saying with disbelief, "SIX?!"

Moving her hand away from her mouth, Rosetta looks between the other two, saying, "Bust my bonnet, that's a lot of eggs for a small fairy to push out, don't you think girls?"

Iridessa then sighs and says, "Poor Tink, no wonder she couldn't fly anywhere and always had a red glow to her."

Silvermist then looks between the other two, asking, "How about we go check to see if Vidia's alright after being cleaned up?"

The garden fairy looks at her friend and asks, "What happened to her?"

The light fairy looks at Rosetta and says, "She was carried out of the dragon's mouth unconscious and all slimy after he caught her during a hawk attack, remember?"

Rosetta then giggles and places a few fingers over her mouth, saying, "Oh how silly of me, I forgot due to all the excitement. Yeah, let's go see if she is awake yet."

When they get to her room, they find her in a dry set of clothes sitting on the bed, rocking back and forth with her knees up to her chest as the garden fairy flies up to her and pulls her into a hug, saying, "Oh you poor dear, you must have been so scared."

Trembling in her friend's arms, she let's out a sob, saying, "I have never felt so ashamed of myself in my entire life... How could I just let myself go like that when he breathed fire through his nose?"

Getting something of an idea of what happened, Silvermist places her hand on her back, saying, "We do strange things when we are terrified and can't think properly. So don't be so hard on yourself, Vi, any one of us could have lost ourselves while trapped in his mouth as he was fighting."

Iridessa trembles and runs her hands up her arms, saying, "It gives me shivers at the thought of being inside a creature's mouth, I don't think I could keep myself from screaming my head off."

Realizing that her friends don't really know about her 'accident', she relaxes a bit and sighs with relief, saying, "Trust me girls...it's a terrifying experience. Some of his maneuvers caused me to be so nauseous, I actually threw up once or twice. When he opened his jaws wide to crush the hawk's neck, I screamed bloody murder when I realized what he was doing. When I heard the hawk's neck break, I puked again and must have passed out because I don't remember anything else." Angling her feet together, she asks, "Uh, do any of you know how is doing after that fight?"

The nurse enters the room, hearing the question and saying, "The dragon is just fine, just has a few light scratches down his back from the hawk's talons. He told us that you nearly slid down his throat when you passed out, so he tilted his head down to prevent that. Now let's find out if you can fly since you were completely covered head to toe in slime."

6: The Dragon's Penance

Author's Note

Apologies for skipping through the story thus far, I am just trying to reach a point where Star Reaper is back to his normal self. I promise that I will provide more details about his adventures and cut down on the skipping.

6: The Dragon's Penance

After giving Vidia a clean bill of health, the girls wait for the three fairies to wake. When they do, they spend a little time congratulating them on delivering their eggs and talk about what happened to Vidia on her way back.

It is morning the next day when Tinkerbell wakes up to see a few of her friends by her bed and yawns, asking, "Hey girls, what time is it?"

Iridessa smiles and says, "It is a bit past sunrise, Tink."

Vidia then looks at the tinker fairy and crosses her arms, saying, "Way to go on delivering half a dozen eggs nearly as big as a sparrow's egg, you are going to have your hands full raising them."

Rosetta turns to her with a frown, holding her hands down at her sides with her fists on her hips, saying, "Vidia!"

Tinker Bell blinks several times in disbelief when she says in shock, "SIX! REALLY?" She then groans and puts her hands over her face, sighing audibly, saying, "That explains why I seemed to weigh as much as a boulder, No wonder my back was always aching..." Turning to look at the girls, she asks, "Did you manage to bring Star here?"

Vidia nods, saying, "I did, though there was a hawk attack. I am fine because Star told me to fold my wings against my back and caught me in his mouth, though I will share that story with you when you get released in a few days."

Shaking her head, she says, "Nuh-uh, I want to hear it now. So spill it, Vid."

A few days pass when Vidia and the others come to visit their friends as she approaches the dragon curled up in front of the healer's tree, patting him lightly on the nose with her right hand.

Feeling someone tapping him, he opens his eyelids and sees Vidia hovering before him with a slight frown on her face, causing him to smirk and ask, "Let me guess, you want to play catch the fairy again?"

She frowns more as her friends chuckle and glares at the dragon, turning her head up with a huff, crossing her arms, saying, "I certainly do not! And why did you catch me inside your mouth? You could have damaged my wings or accidentally swallowed me!"

Star looks at the fairy with a smirk and says, "Well, I wanted to catch a fast snack, and you dared me to catch you." He then sees her look at him aghast and says honestly, "The truth is that I couldn't think of any other way to keep you safe from that pesky hawk which tried to make me it's dinner after I snagged you. He wouldn't like how I tasted anyway, because I would burn all the way down." With a smirk, he adds, "Besides, I would never let myself swallow a cute cactus as prickly as you, because your thorns would agitate my stomach lining."

Vidia hears her friends raucous laughter as Rosetta snort-laughs, causing her to get angry with a slight blush on her cheeks, saying, "I am not a cactus!" Her wings flutter angrily, sending her a little higher as she glares daggers into his eyes.

Seeing an opportunity to further mess with her, he smiles and says, "No you are not..." making her smile and nod victoriously, when he finishes, "but you certainly are as prickly like one."

She glares at him and turns to the door angrily, shouting, "UGH!" then heads inside while grumbling to herself.

When Tinkerbell is finally released, she leaves with a large cart that holds all six of her eggs and looks at eggs that Nyx and Fawn birthed, saying, "At least we will be able to know whose eggs are whose from the color."

Pushing her three eggs along, Fawn flutters behind her cart with a warm smile and a short giggle, saying, "That is a good thing with how many you have to look after."

Star looks at the fairies, saying, "Should any of you need assistance with caring for them or looking after them, all you need to do is ask and I will help."

Rosetta coos, saying, "Awee, what a great father you will make."

A week quickly passes as Tinkerbell's eggs are the last to hatch, with her friends except for Nyx. Watching the first of six eggs shake and crack, with seconds feeling like hours as the first one splits open to reveal something completely unexpected.

Queen Clarion looks on curiously, saying, "Oh, how interesting... I have never seen these type of creatures before. Though with how large their wings are compared to their bodies, I would say they are definitely a type of fairy." She turns to Tinker Bell and says, "Tinker Bell, I would like you to raise your children well while also studying them to see what they are capable of."

Tinker Bell looks at her and says, "You can count on me, Your Majesty." When the little creature begins to cry, she smiles affectionately at the little creature, having a tiny body shaped like an equine's with four legs, two large antennae between two long, pointed ears atop its head. Approaching the crying infant, she leans over and picks it up. Cradling it on its back, she sees it is female like her. Turning away from the others and pulling down her top to begin feeding her hungry child, she feels her latch on to her much larger breasts and begins to hum a lullaby to her.

Without realizing it, the subtle desire grows within the hearts of most of the fairies in the room, only noticed by the queen when she sees each of them squirming in place while biting on their lower lip, thinking, 'Pixie Hollow might be getting a slight boost before too long...'

Years later, in Star's den

Distracted from thinking about his past, Star chuckles as he lightly puffs air to help hundreds of his children learn to fly, saying softly to one of the creatures he and the others decided to name Breezies, "You're doing a good job there, Misty. Why don't you help out your brother Zap, he seems to be having trouble activating his magic to fly."

A tired Tinker Bell flutters into Star's den, saying, "Our children are running me ragged, Star. Mind if I rest in your arms for a bit?"

He looks at her and says, "Did you leave them with Fawn again?"

She blushes and nods sheepishly, saying, "I can't help it, she is just so good with them and is always so full of energy despite having to look after dozens of her own. Vidia can barely keep up with her dozen children, she begs me to look after half of them at least once every week."

Star looks at her curiously and says, "You said no and refer her to Fawn each time, don't you?"

Chuckling with a nervous nod, she says, "Of course, I need as much time I can get to work on a cure to help return you to your normal size."

Cocking his head, he asks, "How are you faring with that, by the way?"

With a defeated sigh, Tinker Bell heads over and lays down in his arms, saying, "I am getting much closer than I was since I got Zarina to help me with it, she thinks that we will have to use a mixture of dust to make a mixture to reverse the Poison Joke's magic."

Star lays his head down beside her, saying, "I know that you will figure it out soon, Tink."

A decade passes when the cure is finished as Tinker Bell uses it to return Star to his larger state, saying with a huff, "I still can't believe that my sister has even more children than I do... How can she keep all those names straight!?"

With a chuckle, Star says, "She thinks of it as a nursery rhyme, which goes something like..." and then begins to name off the three-hundred names. As he starts the next part, he continues, "Then the two sets of twins are Dinkle and Jingle, then Sprinkle, and Winkle. Followed by Day, Dill, Dot, Edie. The quints are Fee, Fie, Foe, and Fum..."

Shaking her head as he manages to name all three-hundred, she says, "You have a mind like a steel trap, I still laugh when I recall how Vidia was caught in the air with you while being intimate. She was the first after us fairies to lay only one egg, though every fairy calls her 'Freefall Vidia' which never fails to make her blush from embarrassment."

He looks at her and says, "It was her idea to do that, you know." Reminded of the children, he asks, "Speaking of which, what are the children all up to?"

Tinker Bell then says, "Well, the Breezies are learning how to gather pollen and pollinate flowers to produce seeds, though it is a challenge for them when the winds pick up, so they started to move in swarms. As for the baby fairies, they are learning to enjoy and hone their talents."

When his body finishes growing, he sighs and looks at Tinker Bell saying, "That is good to hear. It is time to move some sacks outside and fill the big one..."

Together, they spend several hours moving the sacks outside to fill the massive one in front of the den while the fairy looks at the big sack with a sad expression on her face, saying, "I guess it won't be too long before you will be saying farewell to us..."

Wishing he could hold her, he looks at the massive sack with a nod, saying, "It could be days from now or even centuries, I do not know until I bring this blue dust to the being."

Tinker Bell then looks up at him, asking, "Can I go with you to deliver it to her?"

With a nod, he heads for the waterfall, saying, "Of course you can, find a place on my head."

Once she is on his head, he leaps into the air and moves toward the massive sack, then grabs hold of the large poles they had prepared for this day. Flapping his wings hard, he slowly gains altitude and begins to make his way up towards the second star to the right.

Their journey to space takes much longer than it would any other time as the sack places quite the burden on his wings which causes him to sweat with exertion, making his way to the second star to the right.

When they reach the being, Tinker Bell looks at the featureless human-shaped being in awe as she hears her say, "You have finally brought the blue dust I require...good."

She uses her magic to measure the dust, taking a few moments before she smiles with delight, saying, "This will be just enough to birth a single planet, with enough left over to create a moon."

Star looks at her and asks, "What shall I do with this dust?"

The celestial looks at him and says, "Why take it to the orb and let it absorb it, what else?! Though the fairy has to stay behind due to the extreme gravity field."

Huffing at not being able to accompany him, she crosses her arms and frowns while her face goes cherry red, grumbling, "It's not fair how he gets to experience it and I can't."

Rolling her eyes at her pouting, she sarcastically says, "If you want to be squashed like a gnat, go right ahead and follow him."

Ignoring their conversation, Star watches the fairy get off and stay behind. Able to be on his way, he heads to where the orb rests in space.

Once he arrives, he suffers through the pain and uses his tail to split the bottom of the sack, letting the orb draw the dust from the split and into its center. It takes a few moments for the sack to empty when he hears it rip and is torn right off the poles, making him look down to see nothing left of the sack and release his grip on the poles. With the task finished, he flies back toward the being while fighting the increasing gravity field that tries to suck him in.

Tinker Bell watches as the massive chunks of rock slowly start to move toward the spot where Star is returning from, asking, "Why are the large rocks being drawn in?" When she feels herself being slowly pulled toward it, she flies backward to get out of its reach.

Using her magic to put a shield around the small fairy, she says, "The gravity field is rapidly expanding to draw in whatever matter is in its reach, that shield will protect you from being sucked into it as well as the blast that will eventually come after it."

When Star returns to the being, he sees Tinker Bell in a shield and addresses the being, asking, "Now what must I do?"

She looks at him quickly and says hastily, "Now you must wait for the majority of the debris to be sucked in, then suffuse your magic into the orb. Once you have given it half your magic, you must use the most devastating attack you can unleash with your blue fire and cast it upon the orb. After that is done, race back here and I shall protect you while you watch a new galaxy be born."

Cocking his head, he eyes her and asks sarcastically, "That's all I need to do? There's no weird ritual to perform, no funny dance to do, or spell to chant including bippity boppity boo?"

The being rolls her eyes and scoffs, saying, "Of course that is all and NO! Now shut up and just wait for your turn, then come back here and watch the force of the universe work its own magic."

Hours pass by as they watch massive chunks of rock smash into each other and crumble into dust when they reach the orb while the dust is drawn into it in a spiral pattern, even nearby stars are drawn into the orb. When the majority of the chunks are drawn into the glinting orb, Star takes off toward the orb.

He notices the difference immediately as he circles the orb, feeling it attempting to tear him into pieces as he begins to channel his magic towards the orb. Watching as the orb draws in his white, yellow, and blue sparkles of light, he fights to maintain his distance from the orb while keeping track of how much magic he has left. As he feels his own scales slowly being peeled off of him, the glinting becomes a steady orb emitting small beams of pure white light. Taking that as a sign, he stops feeding it his magic and heads a distance away to start channeling his most destructive blue fire spell, calling it 'Blue Meteor' due to it being capable of reducing a mountain into a smouldering crater with debris scattered in a fifty-mile radius.

Tinker Bell watches in amazement as the brightly sparkling orb gets brighter when she sees Star's head move, averting her eyes to watch him when he sends out a massive swirling orb of blue fire almost half his size towards the orb. Her eyes follow the ball of fire as he turns to fly away hastily, watching it hit the orb and causes a tiny explosion in the orb. The white sparkling light absorbs some of the swirling orb, causing the light to grow even larger and slowly pull in more of the blue fire. The leftover blue fire forms a glowing halo of flame while the bright light begins to take on a faint, bluish hue, then starts to slowly flicker between even brighter than before or almost a dimly glowing shade of purple.

The being watches him return with many of his scales missing from his body, casting a shield around him, saying, "Now get behind me and observe a once-in-a-lifetime experience." As he gets into place, she focuses her own magic onto the large ball of light, matter, fire, gas, and energy. Forcing her will onto it, she forces it to compress in on itself, trying to get it to reach critical mass, saying, "Now don't be so stubborn..."

Star watches her for several seconds as she makes the light get smaller and smaller, yet making it flicker faster and faster between white, light blue, and a new color, red.

It takes her a few minutes to get it to the necessary point, but she takes a short breath, saying, "When it winks out, close your eyes and turn your heads away from the flash or you will go blind forever." She then pulls off a tiny fragment of herself and places it on her palm, then holds it up to her lips and blows it towards the extremely bright, rapidly flashing blue light. With a thought, she uses some of her remaining magic to make a recording of the event, saying, "As a gift for helping to set things right, I will grant you a memory containing a safer version to remember so you don't go blind."

He watches the star wink out from existence and immediately closes both sets of eyelids and turns his head away, saying, "You are most gracious."

Tinker Bell closes her eyes and turns away, covering her eyes with her palms when there is a blinding flash from behind her followed by an explosion which causes her ears to ring loudly before going deaf altogether.

The being watches with delight as the bright blue wave of light washes over her, leaving two bodies of swirling, molten rock. The smaller one rapidly cools with her assistance, using some magic to help it glow a very light, light blue.

As their shields fade away, Star and the fairy open their eyes to look at the aftermath to see a small, glowing light blue moon near a much larger planetary body of swirling, molten rock with a moderately sized sun nearby.

Sighing happily at it working out in her favor, she gauges the distance from the single planet to the sun and nods when it is about right, saying, "I have work to do, so let me give you your gift before you go on your way." She picks up the recording and splits it in half, then turns around and shoves the shapeless mist into their heads, saying, "There you both go, now I need to get to work on making it suitable for life..." She turns away from them and heads towards the newborn planet to begin.

He shakes his head a bit to clear it of the dazzling image, then goes after her saying, "Before you go miss, I must ask if you will grant me permission to be the first to roam the world due to my penance starting soon."

She turns around and glares at him sharply, asking in a protective, angry tone, "Why would you even dare to ask to be the first on my new world after you murdered my brother and the last world?"

He sighs and hovers there under her fierce glare, saying, "I ask because I will soon be reduced to a savage beast driven solely by base desires and instincts, forced to watch helplessly without any control over my body as it operates on its own. Therefore, I do not wish to be on the fairies' world when that happens, as I have made them suffer enough."

She thinks about it for a moment before nodding her head, saying, "Very well, it will take me a couple hours to make a breathable atmosphere, so be by my side until I am finished."

Star bows his head to her and says, "Thank you for granting my request, great one. I have some farewells to say in that time."

Tinker Bell then flies toward her and asks, "Excuse me, great one...but when do you think us fairies will be able to visit it and bring the seasons?"

With a groan, the being looks at the fairy and says exasperatedly, "I have many names, but please just call me Faustine or Equise. As for you fairies being able to visit it, it will take me about a century at the least to make it remotely suitable for you to perform your previous duties. Be warned though, it will be a harsh and dangerous world at the start until evolution brings the planet into a better age."

With his questions answered, he turns away from Equise and looks at his friend, saying, "Climb onto my head one last time Tink, we head for Pixie Hollow first."

Making her way to a spot on his head with tears in her eyes, she sobs and clings to a spike saying, "I don't want you to go..."

Once they return to Never Land, Star circles the Pixie Dust tree, looking down at the ground saying, "My task is done, little ones. Gather at the tree so I can wish you all a brief goodbye, though I cannot stay long for my penance may begin at any time." He then lands in a spot big enough for him that does not have any fairies in it.

A couple minutes pass by as Queen Clarion makes her way from the tree as three glittering orbs, coalescing into her true form with tears forming in her eyes, saying, "We saw the brilliant flash earlier, does that mean that we will be able to perform our duties once again?"

He nods and says, "Yes, but it may be a century before it is remotely suitable for you to visit, keep a distant, but close watch on the new world. Rely on the scouts to determine the state of the planet, as it will be a hostile environment at the beginning of evolution." With a sigh, he looks around at the gathered fairies and says, "For those who consider me family or a close friend, keep this knowledge in your minds should you ever spot the slightest hint of my appearance in this new world. I will NOT be remotely kind, loving, or even friendly as I will be imprisoned within myself, unable to control my mind, magic, or body. My body will be driven by the base needs and instincts to survive, living and acting like a savage beast even worse than a hawk. Be honest with the children why they should not go looking for me, tell them what the dragons of the ancient past were like as I will be just like the worst of them. Should you ever be in the new world and hear a distant roar or see me in the distance, gather together and flee the planet until I fade from view."

Letting it sink in for a good minute, he then sighs and feels a slight discomfort come over him. Turning his head to Nyx, he says, "Nyx, come take Tinker Bell off my head please, I can feel the change beginning. I love you all and will miss the misadventures a few of us have had. Especially that one time with you, Freefall Vidia."

The scout fairy darts over to where Tinker Bell is desperately clinging to his spike and hits her with nightshade powder, saying, "Sorry about that Tink, but we need you here." She then kisses him on the head, picks her up and carries her away while tears fall from her cheeks, silently crying over having to say goodbye to a friend and the father of her children.

Vidia's wings go lax for a moment as she is annoyed at hearing that, then regains her altitude, screaming, "OH WILL YOU EVER LET THAT NICKNAME FADE?!?"

Star laughs with the other fairies and says, "Not if I can help it!" Casting his gaze around at the gathered fairies, he sighs and says, "Farewell to you all, may we meet again one day when my penance is done." After giving them a few minutes to hug him and say goodbye, he jumps up into the air when they are clear and makes his way to the winter lands.

An idea passes through his mind as he flies in circles around the Pixie Dust Tree, singing, "Farewell and adieu, to you fairy ladies. Farewell and adieu, to you lady fairies! For I've been ordered to begin now my penance, but I hope in a long time to see you again..."

Tinkerbell slowly stirs groggily, feeling someone hugging her tightly and hears someone singing a sea shanty. She looks at the fairy's wings to notice that it is Nyx that is holding her close when she notices that she is sobbing, then hugs her back as she spots Star pass through her vision over the trees. She lets herself cry against Nyx's shoulder as she figures out that it is Star singing the shanty, saying, "If only he could stay..."

As Star finishes the last line of the song, he changes his angle and banks to the north as the feeling gets a little more painful. When he passes over the border into the winter lands, he roars to get the winter fairies attention and then bellows, "Winter fairies gather at the Pixie Dust Root, my task is done and must say a swift farewell!"

When the winter fairies quickly make their way to the root, they cover their heads when he makes to land on the cliff above the root, hearing him say, "Watch out for falling snow below!" Only a couple fairies have to move out of the way of a falling pile of snow, Periwinkle being one of them as she looks to Gliss with sad eyes, saying, "It looks like he is going away for a long time, Gliss."

When Star settles himself on the cliff, he looks down at the winter fairies, saying, "I wish that I had the time to say a proper goodbye, but time is against me now as my penance is starting. It will take a century for the new world to be remotely ready for you all to visit, but be warned as it will be very dangerous. Rely on your scouts to keep a close watch on the new planet's development and discuss with the others if it is safe enough for you all. For those of you who consider me family or as a close friend, I love you and will miss the adventures we had. Which means you too, Glacier Gliss."

Gliss then blushes crimson and shouts, "OH COME ON THAT WAS ONLY ONE TIME, AND YOU GAVE ME THAT NICKNAME BECAUSE YOU LET ME CONVINCE YOU TO LET ME RIDE YOU AS YOU SKIDDED ALONG THE GLACIER ON YOUR BACK!"

He chuckles at that and says, "Well it wasn't my fault I skidded right off the edge and slid down a snowy hill until I hit a rock and sent you into the air, oozing as you landed right in a snowbank. The only clothing you were wearing then was snow, which still didn't cover much."

She huffs as everyone laughs at hearing that, saying, "I still had quite a bit of fun, so I don't care....even though I had to fly back in a blizzard wearing nothing."

When the laughter subsides, Star then continues to tell them what he told the warm fairies, adding, "Before you ask where the new world is, Peri's twin sister, Tinker Bell was there with me so she remembers where it was as we both were there to watch it be born. The being then introduced herself to us, asking to be called Faustine or Equise, then gifted us with a memory we could remember without going blind." With a sigh, he feels a bit more pain come across him, saying, "I must be going now, so be honest with our children and tell them why they must not look for me. Farewell to you all, may we meet again in the future when I am in control and of sane mind."

Pushing off the cliff's edge, he circles around them as he sings his final farewell to them, singing, "Farewell and adieu, to you fairy ladies. Farewell and adieu, to you lady fairies! For I've been ordered to begin now my penance, but I hope in a long time to see you again..."

Periwinkle hugs Gliss close as they both cry into each other's shoulder throughout the song, only looking up at the end of the song to see him bank up towards the second star to the right, saying with a sad sigh, "Goodbye...dear." before watching him fade from view completely and devolves into a sobbing fit.

Doing what he can before the penance fully takes hold of him, he hurries over to Equise's side and arrives just as he watches the atmophere form around the world, saying in a few words, "Penance...taking hold. Must reach safety of the planet. Is it ready?"

She can sense a complex magic taking hold of his body, finding it amazing as she nods her head, saying "Go on ahead, I just finished the atmosphere. Though it will take me a little while to bring life to this world, so you will have to find something suitable for you to eat. I will do whatever I must to keep you from hindering my work, just so you know."

Star nods and says, "Okay, I can...survive on most anything except stone." Without a moment to waste, he makes his way toward the new world as it begins to cool down. Looking at all the volcanoes scattered across the surface, he heads to a range of solitary peaks.

Faustine observes him curiously as he then lands beside a set of rocky peaks, standing on his back legs while letting out an agonized, screeching roar when his body suddenly glows a bright yellow and a shimmering, white orb shoots out of him and towards outer space. As she follows the orb toward the moon with her eyes, she sees it stop in front of it and examines it with her magic. Her eyes widen with surprise at what she learns, saying, "Interesting, so your consciousness and soul are in that orb, being shown and experiencing the final moments of those you've harmed repeatedly. A fitting punishment for all those you have killed."

A few dozen millennia later...near a solitary mountain

Star Swirl the bearded looks up at the sky with a nervous air about him, saying, "Where did you go, you mad menace to ponykind..."

Flash Magnus spots a black shape in the clouds a few thousand yards away, circling around to the right by the swirling clouds, saying, "It's east of us right now, seems to be keeping a distance due to that last blast you gave it across it's right cheek. I still don't understand why you don't just end its life already."

Her hooves are trembling violently as Clover watches the skies warily, saying, "B-Because my mentor says that ponies should never take a life if they can find another way."

Proud of his young protege, he looks at her with a happy smile of approval, saying, "That's right, my bright student." He then glances behind him, asking, "Are you nearly done in there, Rockhoof? I can't keep fending his attacks off forever, you know."

Rockhoof huffs and trots out of the large tunnel he just carved into the mountain, saying, "Yep, and the crystal circle is finished. All that remains is to get that dragon to follow us in and trap it inside with the leyline crystal."

Star Swirl hears a roar and looks up to see the dragon diving down at them, saying, "Let's go! We will only get one shot at this!"

Steeling her resolve, she swallows her fear, saying, "I will wait by the entrance invisble until the dragon follows you in, then restore the mountain to how it was before and teleport to my second position while still invisible. When my task is complete or fails, I will teleport out and repair the other side of the mountain."

They run towards the finished tunnel that Rockhoof dug out as the young Clover makes herself invisible and moves into position, sticking to the left side and going around the massive, deep hole to hold the dragon.

Clover watches nervously, not making a sound and keeping her breathing steady although she is scared out of her mind as the massive, legendary dragon that has plagued the world for many years approaches her. When it gets closer, she realizes how truly massive it is when one of its scales are twice size of her body. Seconds drag on when the dragon finally disappears into the tunnel, letting her sigh in relief and cast her spell to restore the mountain's side.

Moving on to her next task, she teleports to the next point and waits for the dragon to pass in front of her, hopefully falling through the shale layer covering the massive pit below. Seconds feel like hours to her when she sees the others run past her along the far side of the hole below her, with Star Swirl holding up a powerful barrier as a blue stream of fire strikes the shield. Relieved that the shield holds, even though she can see her mentor sweating up a storm, she watches the dragon trot after them. When the flames subside, the dragon leaps forward and lands right in the middle of the shale layer, causing a crackling to fill the air as it gives way and sends the dragon to the depths below. She pulls out the leyline crystal and inserts it in the group of crystals, inside the slender spot shaped for that specific crystal. She watches with wonder as the completed group of crystals glows with a white light while a constant, low musical hum fills the air.

She trembles as she hears the dragon hit the bottom of the shaft and roar out in anger, waiting to find out whether or not the crystal device will work. Within a couple of minutes, she hears the dragon stop roaring as the deep rumbling inhale rises up to her ears. Not wanting to risk disrupting the structure, she steps away from it and trots a fair distance away before teleporting outside to restore the other side of the mountain.

Star Swirl watches his student restore the other side of the mountain, waiting for her to finish before asking, "So did the device work, Clover?"

Clover turns around to face her mentor with a smile saying, "It did indeed, the dragon is in a deep slumber now."

From her cave, Equise senses a disturbance far above her planet and focuses on its source, being the orb that was ejected from the dragon when he started acting like a mindless beast. As she watches the shaking orb, an ear-shattering roar of agonizing pain fills her cave, making her wish she could cover her ears. The screaming roar continues as the orb cracks in half, causing her to gasp and try to use her magic to keep his existence and soul from being split apart.

As she pours all her magic into keeping him together, she watches another crack forming and fights even harder, saying through clenched teeth, "Please don't let him die like this..."

A sudden piercing wail fills her cave, leaving her to watch in horror as the crack completes with an explosion at the center driving the four pieces of Star's shattered soul apart. When the cave goes silent, she sheds tears at how she failed to keep his soul safe when the sounds of four distinct sobs of grief, sorrow, and despair filters into her mind.

A few thousand years pass with the sobs sending her in a depressed state and keeping her there as she bangs her head with her fists, pleading with tears in her eyes, "Please stop crying, I don't know how to help you..."

When a subtle shift around her catches her attention, she looks up into the night sky to see the four pieces of his soul slowly pulling back together. A hopeful glint appears in her eyes as she hopes they reunite, watching with baited breath as they pass the edges of the moon. They suddenly snap back together and fuse, releasing a bright flash when she notices the mare's shadow disappear from the surface. She is relieved to hear the sobbing stop and sighs with relief, saying, "My head is my own again." Recalling something mentioned long ago, she says, "Hmm...on the day of the thousandth year, the stars will aid in her escape..." She chuckles to herself as she realizes what happened, saying, "I see now, these 'stars' were the fragments of his soul reuniting, and when they fused back together, they allowed her the chance she needed to escape. Oh how amusing! I can just let the ponies handle things from here, though I might intervene if it is required." She then watches the orb shoot toward Canterlot, passing right through the stone and returning to the dragon's slumbering body.

A year later, at Canterlot

As Twilight blasts away at the crystals that the imposter is using to make her image appear, she destroys them all and then blasts a wall of crystal she appears in to reveal the imposter she has been looking for. Galloping toward her in spite of her protests, she leaps toward her and topples her over.

Lying on her back with a pony above her, she tries to protect herself with her forelegs and looks under them at the pony, saying, "Please! Don't hurt me!" When her eyes make out the pony who knocked her over, she recognizes them as Twilight, saying, "Twilight, it's me."

Standing over the imposter with a frown, she hears her say how she was imprisoned here just like her and leans her head down a bit with her frown deepening, saying, "Likely story."

With no other choice, she crawls away and gets onto her hooves to begin their little greeting. As she starts prancing, she sings, "Sunshine, sunshine," then drops down and covers her eyes with her hooves, pulling them away, continuing, "ladybugs awake."

Recognizing the prance, Twilight sits down and continues the next part as she claps her hoof against hers then holds it up, saying, "Do a little shake..." The realization hits her that this truly is her old foalsitter brings a big smile to her face as she leaps toward her with a big hug, saying, "You remember me!"

As she hugs her back, she says, "Of course, how could I ever forget the little filly I love to sit for the most." An evil cackling laugh echoes down the cave toward her, making her turn her head in the direction it came from as she realizes what she needs to do.

A constant, low musical chime reaches her ears, causing her to shake her head to get rid of the sound. She then points down the tunnel, saying, "We need to get out of this place." Twilight then heads forward before stopping and facing her saying, "We need to stop her!"

Hearing a constant, low chime in her ears, she rubs her ears and then says, "Alright, let's go."

Further into the twisting caves, a dragon continues to be kept asleep by the crystal device when a melody starts to fill the air followed by singing. Unable to hear anything due to the crystal's enchanting magic, the dragon continues not to stir.

When the singing comes to an end, the two girls approach the end of the tracks. Noticing the massive dark hole below them, they don't give it another thought as they are sent into the air. Thinking quickly, the real Cadence says, "I'm going to use my wings, hold on to me!"

Twilight quickly wraps her front hooves around her foalsitter's barrel and looks up at the ceiling to avoid looking down and panicking, safely reaching the ledge up above as she spots a crystalline structure glowing brightly and creating the annoying chime that has been irritating her ears. Channeling magic with her horn, she then blasts the structure to pieces and sighs as the chime fades away.

Cadence lets out a relieved sigh, saying, "It is good to have a little break from that chiming."

When the enchantment effect weakens and fades away, she senses something off about the dragon and looks him over and gasps when she realizes that his mind has been broken, saying, "If he wakes up now in that state, he is liable to destroy all my hard work in his wild rampage! I must do something to limit the destruction, but what?" With no better options available to her, she sighs and says, "I'm sorry for having to do this to you after what you have gone through... but there is no other way." She then uses her magic to enter his mind and scrambles his memories, placing a mental alteration spell to behave as a young creature with a moderate intelligence and slight curiosity.

Deep down inside the hole, the slumbering dragon's eyelids flutter a bit before opening slowly. As he lifts his head off the floor and tries to stretch his body out, only to find himself unable to and looks at where he is.

The two mares are confronted by three entranced bride's mares, stalking toward them and saying, "You are not going anywhere."

Hearing the voices from above, the dragon lifts its groggy head and sees that it is in a deep hole. Knowing that something is up above, he places one front claw on the wall followed by the other. Feeling that it is a steep wall, he digs his claws into the wall and attempts to climb out of it.

As clawing sounds reach their ears, Cadence thinks fast and summons a bouquet of flowers. Not wanting to know what is making the clawing noises, she waves the bouquet in front of them as they focus on it. Without a moment to lose, she tosses the bouquet down another path to keep them away from the clawing noises coming from below. When they chase after it, she and Twilight take off for the exit, saying to Twilight, "I have no clue what that clawing is being caused by, but we do not have time to figure it out now."

When he finally claws up out of the hole, he stretches his body out and then yawns happily, saying, "I hungry." As he looks around him, he finds many large crystals sticking up out of the floor, saying with a bit of drool dripping from his mouth, "Crystal tasty, tasty is food." He heads for the crystal and bites right into it as if it were butter, then starts to chew what is in his mouth.

While he enjoys the crystal's taste, he hears some loud noises coming from above him. Curious, he turns towards the commotion and spreads his wings, saying, "Upsy daisy..."

As the bride's mares squabble over the bouquet, Lyra Heartstrings hears a slow, heavy flapping from behind her and turns to face them, saying, "You are not going anywhere..." and continues to walk forward when a massive object rises into view. The object soon becomes apparent when the rest of the head is seen, clearly belonging to a huge dragon. Trembling in terror, she promptly pees herself and backs away as she looks into a set of crimson, slitted eyes with one diamond in each eye as a pupil.

Star watches her as she accidentally steps on the bouquet, blinking and says, "Little Pony..."

The others then join her in backing up to the exit as Lyra screams bloody murder, shouting, "BIG DRAGON!!!" Hastily turning around, she takes off galloping for her life as the others piss themselves and race after her, screaming their heads off in terror.

Pulling his head back in disappointment, he huffs, saying, "Rude pony. Pony apologize." Letting himself back down, he approaches the wall and uses his front claws to dig his way out to make the pony apologize for her rudeness.

It takes Star some time to claw his way outside, making the hole big enough for him to leap out of to take flight. When he leaps out of it and takes to the air, a shimmering light catches his eye. Banking to his right, he lifts one eye up to look at what caught his attention and sees a shimmering lavender bubble around a city. As he focuses his eyes on the bubble, he notices little black dots hitting the bubble repeatedly. The tiny dots spark an image of his memory, seeing himself snag a small flying creature from the air and says, "Fast snack, still hungry." He flies up towards the sky for a better chance at catching a few of them in one pass, bringing his wings closer to his body when he gets high enough.

Chrysalis is in the throne room, watching the barrier as it shatters and crumbles away. She turns around and heads toward the stairs leading to the main floor, laughing victoriously when she hears dozens of her subjects scream in fright or cry out in pain through the hive-mind. Wincing at having so many voices scream at once, she shouts back through the connection, saying, "Don't you know it hurts when so many of you scream like that through the link!? What is happening?!"

A changeling watches with wide eyes as the massive dragon retreats and starts to turn around, answering through the link, "A dragon just dove down and snatched several others out of the air...and ate them! Here it comes again, everyling head down to the streets where we can have a-" She is unable to finish her sentence as the swift dragon opens its mouth and catches other changelings, including her when she slams into something hard. Looking up in a daze, she trembles and screams out through the link as well as her voice when the jaws snap shut. She feels her chitin being crushed, causing her immense pain when everything just goes black.

The Queen hurries to the balcony to find the dragon that dares to devour her subjects, charging a strong beam attack to kill it or drive it off and finds it diving after them again. She glares daggers at it and screams, "HOW DARE YOU TREAT MY SUBJECTS AS YOUR FOOD!! DIE YOU BASTARD!" then launches her attack on the dragon.

Star sees a bright green beam race toward him, feeling it slam into the base of his neck and runs along it. The attack causes him to screech in pain as it melts his scales and burns his hide, forced to pull up out of his dive. Circling around, he looks at the one that hurt him and growls angrily, shouting, "INSECT HURT DRAGON. INSECT SHALL BURN!"

In the streets below, Twilight looks at the now, very angry dragon with fearful eyes, saying, "Why can't we just have one problem to deal with..."

Applejack watches as the dragon rears its head back as it heads towards them, breathing fire down onto the street as changelings try to get out of the path. Using her strong back hooves, she bucks them to the other side of the street and gallops towards them when a roaring fire blazes right behind her and chars the end of her tail. Breathing quickly, she looks back to look at her tail and sighs with relief, saying, "Talk about a close-shave..."

Forced to act quickly, Chrysalis throws up a shield to protect herself and her subject's food, saying, "YOU WILL NOT TAKE MY SUBJECT'S FOOD FROM ME!"

When Star's orange fire doesn't do anything against her shield, he stops the attack and flies away to come up with something else. As he circles around the city in the sky, he watches the insects' movements as they go after the ponies.

Several minutes pass as the changelings take the city, keeping a watchful eye on the dragon while escorting the six mares to the wedding hall. With the dragon keeping its distance, the changeling queen takes the opportunity to gloat over her victory.

As he hears singing flow out of the back of the structure he seen the insect in earlier, he seizes the opportunity to attack her while her guard is down. Flying down without a sound, he lands in a large green field of grass, bushes and a few trees, spotting the black insect that hurt him earlier an bares his teeth in silent anger. He starts walking toward the creature that has its back to him, lowering his head to look through the window while glaring at it.

Chrysalis hears a large inhale as her mane is drawn backward, turning around in an instant to see a large open mouth fill with a blue light and channels her magic to create a shield. She watches as the dragon breathes blue fire against her shield, causing her to strain herself against the attack. To her horror, she feels herself get driven back as her shield begins to crack, shouting desperately to the others behind her, "Help me maintain this shield or we all will burn!"

Thinking quickly, Twilight rushes over to Cadence and uses her magic to burn away the goop sticking her hooves to the floor, saying, "Go to him before the shield fails!"

Finally free, Cadence gallops over to her love and hugs him, letting her love flow out toward him. Her strong affections cause a heart to appear from her horn and touch his head, waking him from the trance as he rubs his head.

Watching as more of Queen Chrysalis's shield cracks, she shouts at her brother, "YOUR SPELL, DO YOUR SPELL!"

As her love tries and fails to cast his spell, she holds him close, saying, "My love will give you the strength you need."

Star watches her shield crack even more when another light draws his focus away, causing his attack to falter when it suddenly races toward him and sends him into the air and away from the city. He recovers from his position and is about to circle back around to investigate the new lavender bubble surrounding the city when a black speck races past him screaming, making him turn his head to see what it was and spots the insect that hurt him. With an angry roar, he chases after it, shouting, "Bad insect must burn!"

She spots the dragon flying after her and tries to fly even faster, but looks back to see it quickly gaining on her and teleports herself down to the ground behind a large boulder in the badlands. Trembling lightly in fear, she takes the form of a smaller boulder and prays that it cannot find her here.

Later that evening, Princess Luna returns to find the reception underway and asks, "Hello everypony, did I miss anything?"

7: A Dragon Defends the Empire

Author's Note

Apologies for skipping through the story thus far, I am just trying to reach a point where Star Reaper is back to his normal self. I promise that I will provide more details about his adventures and cut down on the skipping.

7: A Dragon Defends the Empire

A few months pass by as Star Reaper soars through the sky, looking down at the ground below with a curious interest when a distant flash causes him to look in the direction. Seeing light glint off something in the distant horizon, he gives up on his search for the insect and makes his way there to check it out.

Celestia sifts through reports about the black dragon's activities, relieved to hear that it isn't causing too much harm to her subjects. She then sighs sadly when she reads a report about the dragon snatching a couple buffalo around Appleloosa when a guard gallops in, mentioning a report from Northern Equestria. She hands the reports off to her assistant and asks, "Yes?"

The guard takes off his helmet, with his ears laying back, saying, "I am simply to tell you...it...has returned, and the dragon that attacked during the wedding was headed in that direction."

With a gasp, she hastily turns to the guard on her right and says, "Find Princess Cadence and Shining Armor immediately." When the guard gallops off with the other two, she pulls out a quill to write a letter to Twilight.

An hour later, Celestia finishes telling Twilight about the Crystal Empire, saying, "Your Ponyville friends will be going with you upon your return, the black dragon that attacked during the wedding was heading that way as well. It is possible that you will encounter it again, but do not try to deal with it as I want you to prioritize protect the empire from King Sombra."

When Twilight returns to the station in Canterlot, she finds her friends already there, saying, "Girls, we're going to the Crystal Empire."

As the girls ride the train through the snowy lands of the Crystal Empire, Fluttershy shakes violently in fear, stammering, "We might encounter that terrifyingly ferocious, blue-fire breathing dragon at the Empire?"

She looks at the pale, terrified pegasus, saying, "Yes that is a possibility because he was headed in its direction, but I must focus on the Empire first."

The train pulls up to the station three hours later, letting the girls all get off as Shining Armor approaches the girls saying, "Twilight!" He then removes the scarf saying, "Twily, I'm so glad you made it!"

They walk toward the Empire through the blowing snow as Twilight asks, "Has the black dragon shown up yet?"

Shining Armor looks at his sister, nodding while saying, "It is certainly here alright, though it hasn't attacked at all. It does seem to find the barrier interesting as it frequently taps it with a claw or slaps its tail against it, finding some amusement at how the shield bounces back. I really hope it doesn't decide to attack the Empire."

She then asks her brother, "Do you know where it is at the moment?"

He nods his head and points to a small mountain a few miles away, saying, "It is on the peak of that mountain, looking at the barrier curiously." He then hears a distant howl over the blizzard and says, "We must get to the Crystal Empire now before the creature attacks us!"

Star looks at the barrier before a black mass catches his attention, turning his head to look at it curiously. When he spots a pair of bright green eyes, it reminds him of the insect that hurt him and leaps into the air to attack it. Climbing into the sky above it, he then dives down at it and breathes a blue fireball at it, shouting, "INSECT BURN!"

Shining Armor casts a protective shield over them all as he watches the blue ball of fire slam into the black mass and set it ablaze, causing the creature to howl in agony, saying, "Now's our chance! Get to the barrier while the dragon fights the shadow king!"

Sombra writhes and howls in agony, the flames refusing to go out in spite of his efforts. With no choice but to discard the burning layer, he darts after the ponies and leaves the burning shadow behind.

He watches as the insect burns, feeling something blast his neck. The attack causes a tingling sensation, which makes him see where it came from. He spots a light grey pony with a horn attacking the black mass, causing no damage when it engulfs them completely. Roaring in outrage, he flies toward the insect and bathes it in a stream of blue flames, causing the shadow to shriek and hurl the pony away. Not wanting to give the insect a chance to escape, Star circles around it while breathing blue fire at it.

As Twilight runs up to her brother, she sees his horn and says, "Oh no, your horn!" Turning her gaze to follow the dragon circling around the black mass, she thinks, 'I will have to find a way to thank them someday...'

After they make their way to the castle, Cadence and Twilight greet each other with their silly little dance as Cadence's magic fades out a little. Putting more effort into keeping it going, she maintains the barrier saying, "One of these days, we should get together when Equestria's fate isn't on the line."

When she asks if she is okay, her brother tells her she isn't and that she hasn't slept. Hearing that she barely eats causes her to worry more as her brother says she has managed to spread her love and light, which has been protecting the Empire so far.

Star huffs in irritation after the insect gave him the slip yet again, waiting at the top of the mountain closest to the city while keeping a sharp eye out for it to make an appearance again.

A few hours pass when he sees the pretty barrier disappear, followed by black clouds rolling in all around the strange city around the sparkly castle. Not wanting to allow it the upper hand, he dives off the top and races toward the unnatural things, preparing to breathe out a wide-range attack with his blue fire.

Shining Armor gasps and sees the dragon dart right past the castle, saying, "The Empire's under attack again." He then hurries to his wife's side and helps her up, encouraging her to continue on with an affectionate nuzzle.

Rainbow watches the black dragon breathe out a wave of blue fire with wide eyes, saying, "Woah, that dragon has some power..." She then sees the black clouds catch fire and draw a pained shriek from the shadow creature. The dragon then executes a loop-the-loop with a twist in midair to right itself, keeping Rainbow watching with rapt attention as the dragon performs the same attack again.

As his shadowy form burns, Sombra sees the barrier rise again and tries to get inside it but part of his horn is cut off by it. As the blue fire eats away at his form, he is forced to abandon part of it just to escape again.

Star keeps on attacking the insect, intent on completely burning it to dust and swoops down to strike it once more. When he sets another portion of the unnatural clouds ablaze, he banks around to the right to regain altitude and speed when he feels an attack strike his neck. The attack causes him to feel agony all over, drawing a pained roar from him as he feels something grow all along his scales and wings.

Applejack watches as the black dragon goes limp and heads towards the ground just outside of the city limits, gulping nervously, saying, "Ah hope that ya hurry up Twilight, that dragon was just taken out of the fight."

Once the Crystal Heart is finally returned to its rightful place and Sombra is defeated, Twilight looks down at Spike with a happy smile on her face, saying, "Good job Spike." A glittering, black form catches her attention outside of the Empire, making her turn her head to see the black dragon that kept fighting Sombra on the ground and unmoving. Wondering if the dragon is alright, she begins making her way back down to where her friends are.

When they all make their way to the outer limits of the city with Cadence and Shining Armor, they see the dragon still unmoving on the ground.

Rainbow Dash soon realizes just how massive the dragon is, saying, "Woah, this thing is gigantic! It is so large that it could pull a pine tree out of the ground and use it to brush its teeth if it wanted to!"

The farm pony looks at her and says, "Rainbow, would ya keep it down! This dragon could wake at any moment."

Seeing an aura surrounding him, Cadence turns to her husband and asks, "Shiny, could you examine the aura surrounding this dragon to learn what effect it has?"

Nodding his head, Shining Armor approaches the dragon warily and casts his spell, spreading his magic over the dragon's large body. Spending a few minutes examining the aura over the dragon, he cancels the spell and turns to look back at the others, saying in a normal tone, "Its alright to approach the dragon, this aura is just a field created by the crystal heart to contain the dragon into a sort of deep sleep. I don't know how to explain it, but something is wrong with the dragon's mind, which would explain the containment aura."

Concerned for the dragon, Fluttershy asks, "Is there anything we can do to help the poor dragon?"

Still in the air, the cyan pegasus flies up to the dragon's head and spots a strange purple smoke seeping from the corner of one eye, saying, "Hey, come check this out, there's something going on with its eye."

Making their way around his long body takes them a few minutes, but Twilight sees the green glow coming from under the not-fully-shut eyelid along with the purple smoke. With a gasp, she says, "They are still under the effect of Sombra's magic, we must do something to free them from it."

Agreeing with her new sister, she says, "It would be too cruel to leave the dragon to suffer from such dark magic. You should head back to Canterlot and notify Princess Celestia and Luna about this, perhaps they might come up with some way to help this dragon out."

Sighing defeatedly, she nods saying, "Alright, I guess I better go and face the music..."

Celestia looks at her student proudly, saying, "I am very proud of you for doing so well on this test, my faithful student. Congratulations on passing this test." She adopts a curious, yet slightly concerned expression as she changes the subject a little and asks, "Please tell me more about the dragon that attacked Sombra, what became of the dragon after the empire was saved."

Twilight smiles and giggles nervously, saying, "Right, how silly of me to leave that part out. When I was at the top of the crystal castle, I happened to notice a glittering dark spot outside the empire and turned to see what it was. That was when I noticed that it was the black dragon that fought against Sombra, though it was not moving at all. When I got the others and told them what I saw, Applejack told me she watched the dragon fall helplessly to the ground covered in black crystals. We all then went to check on it and when we got up to where it was, we found out how huge it was as Cadence noticed an aura surrounding it and asked my brother to examine it. When he finished, he told us that it was a containment aura cast by the Crystal Heart to hold the dragon in a deep sleep, he also said that there was something wrong with its mind which would explain the aura. Then Rainbow Dash noticed something off about the dragon's eye and told us to check it out, so we walked around the dragon and I saw a sliver of a green glow from under a slight gap in its eyelid along with a purple smoke coming from the corner. As soon as I saw that, I realized that he was under the effect of Sombra's Spell and told the others that we should do what we could to free them from it, which Cadence agreed with me about it and said that it would be too cruel to let them suffer from Sombra's dark magic. She then asked me to return to Canterlot and tell you and Princess Luna about it in hopes that you could find a way to help the dragon out."

The princess thinks about it for a moment, saying, "We might know of a way to help, why don't you all head on back to the Crystal Empire and my sister and I will meet you by the dragon when we are ready."

She makes her way out of the throne room, making her way through the halls to the front entrance and pauses at the door, then jumps outside saying, "I...passed!"

Celestia leaves the throne room, thinking, 'I wonder what my sister will say about this.' She blinks and finds herself standing in an open field with dead and burned grass all around her, hearing a faint whisper all around her, saying, "Save him..."

Luna tosses and turns in her sleep as she walks beneath a night sky with a beautiful full moon overhead. Making her way through what was once the beautiful White Tail Woods, but now is mostly ash with a few scarce trees burning in a blue flame asking, "What is going on here?"

A white figure walks out of the low-lying smoke, saying with an echoing, foreboding tone, "Look at what lies around you, Princess Luna. See what shall become of Equestria if you do not heed my words..."

Shading her eyes with her wing to try to look at them, she waits for her to say more but remains silent. Turning her head around to look at her surroundings, she gasps as she sees Canterlot illuminating the sky as it is completely wreathed in blue fire. She watches a black shadow appear near her and watches as it transforms into King Sombra, preparing to attack him when she watches a tear fall from his eye. Dismissing her magic, she watches as he looks around at all the burnt land before setting his eyes to the brightly burning city of Canterlot.

Sombra is upset at all the destruction he sees before him and shouts up to the dragon above Canterlot, "STOP, STOP! THIS IS NOT WHAT I ORDERED YOU TO DO!"

Hearing his words, the dragon stops his attack on the city as the screams slowly fade away. Turning toward the one who enslaved him for a while with a snarl, he flies over to him and hovers in the air before him, shouting back, "Isn't it though? YOU DEMANDED ME TO BREAK THE WILL AND SPIRIT OF THE PONIES SO THAT THEY CALL YOU MASTER AS I DO, THEREFORE, I AM OBEYING YOUR COMMAND UNTIL THEY GIVE IN!" Wanting to be rid of the nuisance, he then channels his magic and throws his head into the air. Sending a massive blue ball of fire into the sky above him, he says, "It angers me to no end that you managed to bend me to your will once, for I have been free for quite a while now and waiting for the perfect opportunity to get my revenge on you. NOW BURN! BLUE AURORA!"

Luna looks up at the blue ball of fire as it flattens out to become a small halo of blue light, then races toward the ground and sends a massive tidal wave of blue fire outward in all directions. Not having time to put up a shield, she prepares for the pain and feels none. Confused by this, she hears a blood-curdling scream of agony come from Sombra's mouth. Tears fall from her eyes as she feels her heart hurt from hearing Sombra fall silent, hearing the dragon shout HELL SHOWER as another blue light catches her eye. Looking up into the night sky, she sees hundreds of massive blue fireballs rain down upon the land and reducing anything still standing to ash.

The being looks at the princess as she begins to break down, saying, "This is only a vision of what may be. If you wish to avoid this fate, you must save him from further suffering, for he has had enough of that to last several lifetimes. You must move quickly, for time is against you as Sombra's spell deepens its hold."

She blinks and sits up in reflex, asking, "Who are you?!"

Standing in front of her sister, Celestia cocks her head a little saying curiously, "I am your sister, Lulu. Did you forget me?"

Looking around to find herself back in her room, Luna sighs and gets up out of bed saying, "Of course I didn't forget you, Cece. I just had a worrying vision, did you see it too?"

The solar princess frowns and nods, saying, "In a nutshell... If it started with standing in a field of ash that used to be the White Tail Woods, followed by Canterlot burning and lighting up the night with blue flames, The black dragon confronting his former master Sombra and killing him, with the last thing being the giant blue balls of fire falling from the sky with a being telling us to save him from further suffering and that time was short due to Sombra's spell getting more of a hold on the dragon... I did see it." She then sighs and says, "As they were working to save the Crystal Empire, the black dragon that attacked during the wedding, mistook Sombra for being Queen Chrysalis and tried to destroy him. A few minutes before the crystal heart was found by Twilight, Applejack watched the dragon fall through the sky unconscious and covered in black crystals. When the Empire was saved by the Crystal Heart, they all went to check on it to see if they were okay. After Shining Armor examined the aura, he found that it was being kept asleep by the heart's containment aura. He said that there was something wrong with the dragon's mind, which would explain the aura the heart created. Cadence and Twilight think that something should be done to help it. The question is...what do you think we should do Lulu?"

Luna starts making herself presentable, saying, "With what we both saw, how can we not lend a hoof?"

Celestia then looks at her sister with a nod, saying, "I had a feeling you might say that, I shall go freshen up so that I look my best as well.

An hour passes when her sister returns to her room, saying, "You're finally ready, I see. Do you want to fly there or teleport?"

She looks at her thoughtfully, saying, "How about we fly, it has been quite a while since we used our wings to fly anywhere together and it will take the train a few hours to reach the Empire."

When they arrive a couple hours later, they head to the crystal castle first to task them with looking after the empire for them as Cadence asks, "Aunties, do you know a way to help the dragon?"

Luna approaches her and nods saying, "We do, though it will take my ability to enter other ponies' dreams to have a chance to figure out what is going on.

Celestia looks at Cadence, asking, "Will you both come with us to check on the dragon's present state until the others return?"

Nodding her head, saying, "We most certainly will, " and looks to her husband saying, "let's go Shiny." She and her husband then lead the way out of the crystal castle to where the unconscious dragon lies.

As they reach the downed dragon, Celestia and Luna both look at it in awe as Luna hovers in the air above it, saying, "Wow, I've never seen a dragon this big before, just one of it's scales is as large as my entire body. I've...never felt so small before."

She joins her sister in the air and looks at the dragon, saying with wide eyes, "You're right, I never had a good look at the dragon from inside that amber cocoon, but it really does make a pony feel puny in comparison."

After arriving at the station, the six girls and Spike make their way to where the dragon is at as Twilight smiles approaches Celestia and Luna, asking, "I saw you both from the train, did the both of you have a nice flight, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna?"

With a smile, Celestia and Luna return to the ground as the older sister looks to her student, saying, "We did indeed, thank you for asking." Turning to her sister, she asks, "Do you need to make any preparations before we begin, sister?"

Shaking her head, Luna says, "No, I've just finished examining the aura myself and the state of the dragon's mind, what I found is troubling indeed.

Cocking her head curiously, she asks, "What is the matter, sister?"

With a heavy sigh, she says with a sad expression, "The dragon's mind is broken and his memories are scattered, Sombra's spell is trying to gain control over his mind so he obeys and serves him. This will be a difficult battle, but we must prevail...whatever it takes."

Before they can do anything, a white figure appears next to the dragon. Her sudden appearance causes them to gasp as the princesses turn to her, saying to them, "I know that a dark and ancient past resides within, for I watched much of it happen before my eyes, so be prepared to see the worst. I have seen and attempted to help protect the dragon but what caused the stages of his suffering was greater than my own power, though its final task was completed when Nightmare Moon was released. I did what I could to reduce the potential danger of him, but the dark magic cast upon him by Sombra destroyed my efforts and prevents me from doing so again." Without another word, she fades away, letting two final words echo past their ears, whispering, "Save him."

Twilight looks at the place where the figure was standing, saying, "Did that really just happen?"

Luna sighs and says, "She left without telling us who she was, again." She sees the curious looks directed at her from the others and says, "My sister and I had a vision of the future which included her, but we shall not mention it if we succeed as it will be meaningless."

Applejack then smiles and says, "Well then, let's get started if it is that bad."

Rainbow then nods, saying, "Yeah! Nightmare Moon, Dragons, Discord, Queen Chrysalis, and then King Sombra, No matter who or what we face, we will always find victory!"

With a smile coming to her face, she says, "You all have done very well against physical foes, and are learning to strengthen your mind. We must be aware of anything that seems amiss and out of place within his mind."

Nervous, Twilight then asks, "How will we be able to tell?"

Luna looks at her, then says, "I will cast a spell upon each of you to increase your sensitivity to the true ones."

Pinkie Pie then says, "This sounds exciting, let's get started!"

The princess then looks at them and says, "Very well, follow me over to the dragon's head and I shall cast some magic upon you all before we all lay down in a circle."

After casting magic upon them all and arranging them in a circle around the dragon's head, Luna has them sleep so she can cast her magic. Linking them to each other, she holds them in her magic and connects to the dragon's mind. The dragon fights against the connection at first until Luna runs a hoof along his scale, saying, "Shh...sleep now, for peace is coming." Finally allowed to make her connection, she lies down herself and slips her conscious self into the Dream Realm. She arrives in the Dream Realm with the others around her, seeing only one large, pitch black bubble showing Sombra talking at a dragon smaller than him, thinking, 'Is that his dream?'

Celestia and the others follow her as she sees her sister look at the bubble, asking her, "Did you find what you are searching for?"

She nods and says, "This is his dream, but we won't be going in as we need to help his mind where the trouble is." Looking to the right of the bubble, she sighs and says, "Normally I would never do this because it is something Nightmare Moon created, but we have no other way to save him."

Twilight looks on with curiosity as Luna focuses on a spell dark in nature, opening her eyes to reveal a solid, bright, light blue color. When she casts the spell, a door, blood red in color appears with a silver door handle on the right side of the bubble, asking, "Princess Luna, does this door look this color because of how bad his memories are?"

With a nod, she looks at the door and uses her hoof to push the door handle down, saying, "It does indeed, though I am shocked at how it is completely red like this. Follow me, everypony and keep your guard up when we enter this space." She then pushes the door open and sees it is pitch black in there, causing her to light up her horn. What she sees inside gives her pause, saying, "Whatever you see inside will not dirty your bodies outside, so steel your minds against this unsettling sight." Moving forward, she then dips a hoof into the blood to test how deep it is, discovering that it is nearly as deep as her leg and sighs, saying, "I sure hope I won't have to swim through this..." Making a short jump forward and hoping her hooves land on a hard surface below the blood, she is relieved to find that the blood only comes up to the fur on her chest, saying, "Hop on in sister, you can stand on the floor."

Celestia follows her sister in and illuminates her horn, regretting it immediately as she sees her sister standing in blood up to her belly, "Sister, this stuff is-"

Cutting her sister off, Luna stands by the door, saying, "I know sister, this is disgusting. I don't understand why, but we will have to wade through it. We will have to carry them on our backs until we find a dry place."

Groaning with disgust, she hops in after her, saying, "Alright." Feeling revulsion at the sensation of her legs becoming covered in blood, she then turns to the door and says, "Cadence, Shining Armor, you come in next. I will warn you now that you both will likely be neck deep in this, so keep your heads high."

Once Shining Armor lights his horn, he says, "This is really disturbing." before hopping forward and moving out of the way for his wife saying, "Watch your step Cady, the floor is a little slippery."

Cadence shivers as she sees what is inside the room, almost coming up to her husband's chin saying, "I think that I will just use my wings to fly above it." Spreading her wings and giving them a few flaps, she flies through the door and immediately loses the ability to stay in the air. Unable to maneuver, she takes a breath and braces herself to land in the blood. Keeping her nose high, she hits the surface with out a splash, sending out only a ripple while feeling the blood reach the back of her head. Opening her eyes as it doesn't get any higher, she sighs with relief and returns to her hooves, saying, "This feels so nasty against my coat."

He smiles and says, "I know how you feel dear."

Luna makes her way to the door and says, "Spike, since you are not tall enough for your head to be above the surface, you will have to ride on my back or my sister's." When she watches Spike come forth, shaking terribly as he gets on her back, she heads away from the door, looking back while saying, mind your step when you come in so you don't slip below the surface, little ponies."

Applejack is the first of the six to step forth and hop in, making her way towards Luna while forcing herself to ignore the fact that she is neck-deep in blood, saying, "Ah can handle deep mud, but this is a bit much."

Rarity illuminates her horn and sees what sort of substance they will have to wade through, screaming bloody murder before going light-headed and collapsing onto her right side. She wakes up to see Twilight, and Fluttershy by her side with the others around her, asking, "Good Heavens, please tell me that I was just dreaming!"

Twilight rests her left hoof on Rarity's neck, saying, "Calm down Rarity, and take deep breaths."

Slowly, she listens to her and takes a few slow breaths, unintentionally saying, "Heeee....Hoooo. Heeee....Hoooo."

Once she calms down enough, Fluttershy then pulls her into a hug, saying as kindly as she can, "I'm sorry, Rarity, but...you weren't dreaming. I know how disgusted and horrified you feel at seeing what was inside. When I saw what is inside that room, I wanted to run away crying in terror. The only reason that I didn't is because some poor creature is suffering and needs our help to get through it, we can't help him without you.

The farm pony looks at Rarity as she gazes into the room and looks at the blood in horror, curling up on herself, then says, "Rarity, ah know ya hate getting dirty, and find the thought of standing neck-deep in this stuff traumatizing...but there is a dragon that really needs our help. Can ya put aside your fears and come with us?"

Rarity takes one more look at the inside of the room and whines, "But it looks so icky inside and will get all over me!"

Twilight then pulls her friend's head to face her and says, "Remember Rarity, this will not affect our real bodies at all, only our minds if we let it get to us. All of us are with you at the utterly revolting substance within that room, but we must make our way past this challenge if we are going to thwart Sombra's spell completing its objective."

Rising from the ground with a groan, she approaches the door with a huff, saying, "After we get done saving this dragon's hide, I'm sooo going to have him take me to the Spa in Ponyville." With a resigned sigh, she hops in lady-like and whines, "EWWW, this feels so revolting!"

Once the others enter the room, Luna closes the door with her horn providing light, saying, "Now we can start looking for where the center is."

Celestia tries to walk up next to her sister, stepping right off the edge into a much deeper part, shouting in surprise, "Weah!" Forced to swim to keep herself afloat, she groans, saying, "Everypony be mindful of your steps, there is a much deeper part that I have no desire to know just how deep it is."

It takes them a few minutes for Luna and Celestia to learn that there is but one path to follow, making slow progress forward while using their horns to provide light.

When they finally stand on dry ground, the group sees a purple light in the distance as well as a pair of large, green eyes with red irises as Luna says, "That must be Sombra's spell, trying to seize dominance."

After cleaning themselves up, they continue forward when they begin to hear Sombra speaking, saying, "You are a creature with power that all should cower before! Obey my orders and I will give you riches and girls beyond your wildest dreams!"

Cadence and Shining Armor rush toward the dragon weakly fighting back against the spell's influence, throwing up a protection barrier as she looks back into a pair of sad, crimson eyes, saying, "We are here to help you against this menace trying to control you, don't let its lies sway you."

Star looks at the two ponies with a weary expression of gratitude on his face when he notices other ponies starting to attack the creature, saying as his eyes fall shut, "So...tired."

8: Saving the Dragon

Once they finally finish defeating the spell and removing any residual traces of it, they rest and wait for the dragon to rouse from its sleep. Most of them do succumb to their exhausted bodies due to the day's battle against Sombra, though Celestia and Luna keep awake as the younger sister looks around the dry ground for any clues to what they must do now.

As Luna wanders around, using her horn to see where she is at, she spots several massive piles of something that glint in the light of her horn. When she reaches them, she sees broken shards of crystal-like material piled up high enough to reach the base of Canterlot from the ground. Picking up one of the shards with her hoof and examining it, she wonders aloud, "What could these be I wonder?"

Celestia watches her sister's illuminated horn, seeing her stay around the pile of glinting objects for a little while, asking herself, 'What did you find over there?'.

A half-hour passes as the others rouse from their slumber, with Celestia waiting for them to finish waking up, saying, "It seems my sister has found something worth checking out, let's go find out what she discovered."

When Luna continues digging around for another shard matching the one she is looking at, she finds it a few moments later and lays it in the empty space. When the edges meet, she watches a light run along the broken edge and repairs the damage. It takes her a minute to find the rest of the fragments, but she manages to complete the picture as the last crack repairs itself, she looks at the completed image of a city engulfed in blue fire, saying, "I wonder how long ago this fragment happened..."

She looks over her sister's shoulder, saying, "What do you have there?"

Looking back at the gathered ponies around her, all trying to get a peak at the image and holds it up for them to see, saying, "This is a completed memory fragment that I just finished assembling, we will have to gather enough shards to complete the images so that he remembers his past. Once that is done, we will have to work on the next step. As the massive piles before me indicate, we will have a lot of fragments to finish. Let's solve these puzzles everypony, then we can find out more about him." The completed fragment them is pulled out of her grasp and heads up high into the air, stopping in a spot as a massive lattice of squares appears where fragments should go.

Rainbow looks up at the towering pile of shards and chuckles sheepishly, saying, "We might be able to assemble several of these, but there's an awful lot to assemble. Is there a way that we can get more help? Like, from the crystal ponies? He did play a part in defending their empire after all..."

Luna smiles at that and says, "Very good idea, Rainbow. I can create a door back to the Dream Realm from here now that Sombra's spell and its influence is gone." She then turns to her adopted niece and her husband, asking, "Cadence, Shining Armor, can you two go speak to the crystal ponies and ask if they would be willing to assist us in restoring the dragon's memories since Sombra's spell is no longer trying to seize control?" She then adds, "I will then add any who wish to volunteer, to the spell and bring them into the Dream Realm to transition into his mind, after that I will do some patrolling and check on you."

Cadence and Shining Armor nod as she says, "Of course we can, I am sure there are at least a few who are thankful for the dragon keeping Sombra distracted. Let's be on our way, Auntie Luna."

Glad they changed the day to night just before the train arrived, Celestia watches as her sister opens a door then follows them out, turning to the massive piles before her and says, "Let's get started everypony, we have a lot of work to do."

Luna waits near the others as she watches dozens of crystal ponies show up and lie down in layers of circles, then fall asleep so she can bring them in with her. A few minutes pass as at least a hundred crystal ponies show up and join the others when Luna flies up to see how many others are coming, only to find that Cadence and Shining Armor are the last ones coming.

When Cadence and her husband take their original spots, she smiles widely and says, "We managed to get the entire empire to come lend a hand with all those fragments! With their help, hopefully it won't take us days or even weeks to assemble them."

Smiling at her niece for doing so well, she says, "Excellent work on getting their help, I was beginning to wonder if it would take us months to finish assembling those shards." Focusing her magic, she sends her magic out to connect with each of the gathered pones, taking her a bit to make sure she didn't forget any of them. Finally making herself comfortable, she slips into the Dream Realm to find them all around her.

They all wait for her to grant them access to the door into his mind, which doesn't take long before they all start making their way through the door after being warned not to stray too far from the piles if they can help it.

When Luna watches Shining Armor and her niece go through last, saying, "I will check on your progress after patrolling for a little while." She then closes the door and begins her patrol.

As the ponies begin to work on assembling the fragments unknown to the dragon, they complete piece after piece little by little. As the feeling of guilt slowly gets stronger within him, Star shifts his position more and more in hopes to find a comfortable spot.

By the time they work on assembling the last shards, dawn begins to near as Celestia hears the dragon sigh heavily and mumble in a fitful slumber when she sees her sister Luna return with a haggard expression on her face, asking, "Sister, are you alright?"

The exhausted lunar princess looks at her sister a moment before she watches a fragment fly up into the air and take its place, causing the entire array to shine brightly before separating into an uncountable number of books. The books hover in mid-air as hundreds of massive bookshelves rise up along the outer edge of the gathered ponies, and watches them start to fly toward the bookcases.

Twilight watches in awe as several lifetime's worth of books fill the shelves, drooling slightly as she says, "Soo many self-organizing books..."

Luna looks at Twilight and chuckles, saying, "Yes, but those aren't normal books, Twilight. Each one is filled with his knowledge, memories, feelings, and more."

Star sighs and opens his eyes slowly, saying, "Everything makes sense now, though knowledge is a double-edged sword."

They all gasp in surprise at the dragon speaking, watching his every move as he slowly rolls onto his stomach when Luna approaches, saying, "I am glad to see you are finally awake. Do you feel well enough to tell us about yourself?"

With a small shake of his head, he moves his front legs in front of him, saying, "The guilt and shame I feel over my past prevent me from doing so." He then sighs and curls his neck around to lay his head on his clawed hands, saying as a tear slips down his scaled cheek, "I'm evil and deserve to be put out of my misery..."

Celestia then looks at him and begins to say, "You-" but is cut off by her sister's hoof on her mouth. She looks at her with a curious expression as to why she did that.

Luna walks forth and says, "Knowing what one has done in the past is a burden of its own, but the past shapes us and allows us to learn from the past mistakes we have made. Even I have learned from my own mistakes from long ago, and I am certain that you can grow wiser from yours."

Rainbow then chimes in and says, Yeah! You went after that evil King Sombra and kept him at bay long enough for Twilight and Spike to find the heart and save the day!" She then says, "Unfortunately, you were knocked out by Sombra's attack, so you didn't get to see end."

Applejack then steps forth, saying, "Ya might be really big and intimidating, but ya didn't attack us, the crystal ponies, or the crystal empire as we were trying to save it."

Star's guilt and shame lessen ever so slightly at hearing that, saying, "You really think that one such as I can move past what has haunted me for several millennia?"

She smiles at him and says, "I myself am slowly getting over my own dark past that makes me feel ashamed of myself and how foolishly I behaved."

Celestia then sighs and says, "I believe that anyone can find a way to come to terms with their mistakes, though it may not be easy for some."

Stepping forward, Twilight says, "With friends at your side, they can help get you through tough times. Friendship is magic, after all."

His guilt and shame ease up more as he uncurls his head and looks at them, saying, "It has been several millennia since I have had a friend." He looks at her curiously and tests her asking, "Would you be willing to consider me a friend if you knew I am responsible for ending countless lives?" He then stretches out his claw and turns it over so the palm faces up, continuing, "Will you touch my claw if it was covered in the blood of innocent victims I am responsible for? I have enough blood on my conscience to turn the ocean red. What will your answer be, young one?"

Feeling all the attention fall on her with wide eyes and several gaping mouths, she feels a massive weight upon her shoulders while she looks at one of her hooves pensively and thinks it over.

Luna holds her breath, sure that the rest of the others in the room are doing the same thing while hoping she makes the right decision, thinking, 'Would I be able to bring myself to call him a friend and touch his clawed hand after hearing what he said?'

Lost in thought, Twilight shakes her head and looks up saying, "Sorry for taking so long to answer, I was just thinking it over carefully."

Star raises an eyebrow, looking down on her expectantly while expecting her to refuse to be his friend, saying, "Yes? Go on, little one."

She then walks toward the dragon and says, "Of course I would consider you a friend, your past has no control over who you are now." Following through with her decision, she not only touches him...she jumps up onto the palm of his hand, then lays down on it saying, "Hi, my name is Twilight Sparkle. What's yours?"

Shocked speechless, his eyes go wide when he notices a few other ponies do the same as Twilight. One by one, he hears them introduce themselves when a young whelp walks up with large eyes full of wonder, saying, "Now what a strapping young whelp we have here, are you able to speak yet?"

With a mildly annoyed huff, he makes fists and rests them on his hips saying, "Of course I can talk! My name's Spike, what's yours?"

Star realizes that he hasn't introduced himself yet and says, "My name is Star Reaper, young Spike. Tell me, do you not have parents to care for you?"

Spike sighs sadly and shakes his head, saying, "I-I don't know anything about my parents, Princess Celestia told me that she found me as an egg several years ago and took me in. When Twilight Sparkle started attending her school for gifted unicorns, she was able to use her magic to hatch me, she has been looking after me ever since." He then looks up at him with eager and knowledge-hungry eyes, asking, "Can you tell me what you know about dragons!?"

He smirks and says, "I most certainly can, though I might be different from the dragons here. What I can tell you is that dragons are prideful, loyal to their personal values, and protect their loved ones from harm. Once I learn about where I am and what other dragons are like on this world, I can tell you more alright?"

Celestia then steps forth and looks at the six mares in his palm with a smile, introducing herself as her sister comes up beside her, saying, "My name is Princess Celestia and this is my sister, Princess Luna. We rule over Equestria together, bringing both day and night to our subjects. I watch over our subjects by day while my sister watches over their dreams at night." She then clears her throat and says, "Now that introductions are out of the way, would you be so kind as to explain why you were at Canterlot?"

Star thinks back a little bit and says, "My mind is still a bit fuzzy, but I was lured there by a powerful pony with a long, white beard and his friends. At the time, there was no city on the mountain, but he lured me into a pit there and made a chiming fill the air which lulled me into a sound sleep." He then recalls what happened after he woke up and sighs, saying, "I deeply regret attacking the city when I woke up after the chiming had stopped, for I have the blood of those that I killed on my claws as well." He then sighs and curls his head towards his body, saying shamefully, "I was not myself then, my mind was that of a young, curious and hungry drakeling's

Wanting to try to keep him from slipping back into sadness, Luna then sets a hoof on his claw, saying, "It is alright, you did not hurt any ponies in your attack."

Before he can respond, she then places her own hoof beside her sister's and looks at the dragon, saying, "That is correct, though your blue fire caused some significant damage, no one was injured. Now that you are back to your senses, you will have full control over yourself." Sensing that dawn is nearing, she looks at Luna and says, "Sister, the time to raise the sun and lower the moon is nearing, we should head back."

Realizing the time herself, she nods and turns back to Star, saying, "We look forward to hearing more about you in the future, Star Reaper."

He watches the six mares in his claw return to the ground as the dark blue pony, Princess Luna, uses her magic to summon a door beside her. When she opens the door for the others, he looks through the door curiously, thinking, 'She has some interesting powers of her own, I wonder what lies beyond that door?'

When they all return from the Dream Realm, Princess Luna and her sister watch over them as she says, "From what he says, he may be a bit older than we are. It will take time to help him get past his grief and shame, though it is good that we were able to defeat Sombra's spell and repair the damage it had done."

As the aura over the dragon's body fades, the being of pure white appears in front of the two sisters. She looks at the two princesses and says with a pleased tone, "It pleases me to see that you have succeeded in defeating the dark presence trying to corrupt his mind, you two have done remarkably well in this challenge." Turning her gaze toward the slowly waking dragon, she says, "Now it will fall to the young ones to help him get over the ghosts from his past that have haunted him for so long."

With the being beside them, Celestia asks curiously, "Forgive me for being rude, but who in Equestria are you and how do you know Star Reaper?"

She looks over at the older sister with a smile and says, "Apologies for earlier, I was really anxious with my hopes of you all saving him that I was rude. I go by many names, but I seem to be called Equis these days. As for Star and I, we go back a very long ways. However, that is a secret until he decides to tell you his story." Putting a finger to her chin in thought, she then says, "I do believe that it is nearly time for you two to raise the sun and lower the moon..."

When Star Reaper opens his eyes, he lifts his head and looks around him to find hundreds of ponies around him when he notices the sky getting lighter. Turning his head to the east, he watches the sun rise into the sky saying, "Such a beautiful thing to watch..."

Equis makes her way towards her old acquaintance, saying, "You are back to being yourself I see, I'm sorry that I couldn't prevent your soul being taken from your body so long ago. Years later, I felt something happening to it again and failed to keep it intact, with the four pieces of it reuniting during this year's Summer Solstice. I sure hope that there will be no more surprises from the penance you were suffering through, as I am getting tired of failing in my attempts to keep you from harm."

He turns to look at her, saying with a pained look on his face, "Faustine...I-I'm so sorry for how I took your brother from you. If only there was a way to find the heart I channeled him into so I can return him to you..."

Realizing what he is talking about, she waves his words away, saying, "No need to worry about that. After you set things right with me and left, an object was flying through space toward me. As it glinted in the light, I pulled it into my hands and discovered that my brother's essence was trapped within it. Once I pulled him out of there, I joined his essence with mine so that we would never be apart again. I then looked at the object you crafted and admired your work, so much so that I left the enchantment intact and sent it down into the world for others to find. So feel guilty over his death no longer, for he is now a part of me."

Star sighs in relief at hearing that and says, "I am glad that you were reunited with him in a fashion, though his death will still bring me pause. I wonder whatever became of the crystal heart I crafted..."

Gasping in surprise, Twilight and several other ponies exclaim in unison, "YOU MADE THE CRYSTAL HEART?!?!"

A glint catches his eye as he turns his head to see a towering crystal structure, seeing the glint come from underneath it and focuses his eyes on it. When he takes in the sight of the spinning, light blue crystal heart, he smiles and says, "Ah, there it is... It brings me joy to see it fulfilling its purpose." Remembering that they asked him something, he turns his gaze to the ponies and says, "I did indeed make it, though it was a challenge with claws not quite as big as mine are now. Perhaps I will share the story of its creation another day." He then glances down at his body curiously, saying, "This is interesting, I never enchanted it to have this effect... Some other being must have added it."

Equis/Faustine/Equise smirks at him admiring her work, huffing before saying, "It was nothing really, just a minor blessing I imbued it with. Do me a favor though and look after yourself, for I am not your caretaker anymore."

Star nods and says, "I will do my best, thank you for what you have done for me so far."

With a pleased smile, she mutters, "Such a troublesome young dragon." then fades away to return to her cave so she can watch over him from there.

He looks at the fading form and shoots back with a huff of smoke, "YOUNG?! I'm tens of thousands of years old, how am I young?"

Before she fully fades away, she laughs musically and says, "I'm still older than you, drake."

Star watches her fading form leave sparkles of light behind and blows a raspberry at her, saying, "We will find out who can outlive who one day, I promise you that."

Celestia and Luna both look up at the dragon with awestruck faces as Celestia asks in disbelief, "Are you really that old?! How long do dragon's live naturally?"

He looks at her and says, "Yes I have been around that long, and where I'm from...dragons don't die of old age, but in battle." With a heavy sigh, he looks up into the sky, saying sadly, "Though it may be possible that I am the very last of my race from my old home, it grieves me to know that I set things into motion that may have resulted in their extinction..."

Fluttershy rests her hoof on his claw and says with her voice full of affection, "Well, you may be from another world, but there are other dragons here. So if you think of it that way, you aren't alone."

Rainbow then lays a hoof on his claw, saying, "That's right, there are dragons in the Dragon Lands across the sea to the east, though they are a rude, rowdy, and mean bunch."

Reminded of another world, he wonders if his old friends might still be around, saying, "If it would be alright with you all, I'd like to see if a certain place far from here is still around after all the years I've been gone."

Luna sees the protest in her sister's face and says, "You may do as you wish, we are not your wardens. When you do return, could you come to Canterlot and share your past with us?"

With a sigh, he nods and rises to his feet, then stretches his body and wings out, saying, "I will come by, but make sure that your guards know not to attack me at all, I have razed cities to the ground for that."

Celestia then comes forth and says, "I do hope that when you arrive, you won't make such a spectacle as last time."

Star then shakes his head and says, "Like I said, I was not quite myself then." He takes another look at her and notices she has something on her cheek by her lips, making him wonder what it is. Acting on his curiosity, he says, "Excuse me, but I must find out what this is..." and quickly darts his tongue out, curling the end up like a fish hook before pulling it back along her cheek and brushing the corner of her lips.

Getting madder than a wet hen at him licking her, her mane starts smoking as she glares at him and shouts, "JUST WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING, LICKING A PRINCESS LIKE THAT?"

Fighting to control her snickering fit of laughter, Luna chimes in with a barely controlled grin of amusement, saying, "He spotted the frosting and crumbs on your right cheek, so he took care of it for you..."

Celestia's face pales at hearing that and turns to her sister with a mortified look, asking, "DID I REALLY HAVE CAKE ON MY FACE ALL THIS TIME?!? How could I have been so careless...how humiliating!!"

He sees the younger sister subtly waving a hoof near the ground for him to get going and says, "I shall return when I have satisfied my curiosity, and then quietly debate sharing my tale with you." Raising his wings up, he then jumps off the ground and heads up into the sky to go search for them.

Rainbow takes off into the sky after the dragon and flies beside his head, asking, "Hey, mind if I tag along?"

With a chuckle, Star continues going and says, "Not at all, but can you breathe where there is no air?"

She scoffs and says, "There's air everywhere, the only place you can't breathe is underwater!"

Looking straight ahead, he chuckles again and says, "In your case, there is also the emptiness of space, which is only revealed in its vastness at night."

Continuing on into the sky, Rainbow slowly finds it harder to breathe, gasping out, "How are you...able to handle...this so easily?"

Star stops climbing and hovers in place, saying, "I do not know what lets me continue living where there is no air to breathe, perhaps it is just how my body was made to be." Looking at the pegasus with concern, he says, "You best head back down before you lose consciousness and plummet to the ground, the air only gets thinner from here."

Huffing out in annoyance, she gasps, "Alright...fine, but I want...to see how...skilled you are in flying!"

Nodding his head, he says, "Very well, we shall see who has the better skills when I return. Where can I find you once I return?"

Rainbow smiles and gasps, "Ponyville. It's a small town...south of Canterlot. The city where...you went after...the changelings. Just call my name...and I'll come to you."

Star watches the pegasus turn back toward the ground in a dive, eventually causing a burst of rainbow colors to race outwards in a circle. Finding the sight quite interesting, he watches as a rainbow streaks its way over the glinting castle of the Crystal Empire. When the streak ends, he returns to his journey to find his friends from long ago.

Remembering the way back like the back of his hand, he closes his inner eyelid and flies into the void of space toward the second star. It takes him a little while to reach it, but he then turns in the direction of the planet's last location. Focusing his eyes on where it is located roughly, he spots it and smiles to see that it is still there.

Fairy Mary is giving orders to her tinkers when she spots Lucinda slacking and says, "Lucinda, get off your laurels and keep working on repairing baskets."

Tinker Bell helps Clank and Bobble finish up the repairs on one of the wagons when she hears a commotion outside, then puts her tools away as Clank hooks Cheese up to the wagon, saying, "I'm gonna go see what is going on outside."

Bobble gets up into the seat as Clank finishes and then joins him in the seat, saying, "Alright, we're right behind you."

They head out of the tree as Tink asks the gathered fairies who are looking up at the sky nervously, "What's going on?"

One of the fairies looks at her and points up to the cloudy sky, saying, "Look at the clouds for movement and you'll see something there."

The tinker fairy looks up with curious eyes, spotting something dark within the clouds when it slowly drifts down into view, gasping and shouting, "EVERY FAIRY GET TO COVER, STAR REAPER WILL ATTACK SHORTLY!"

Watching the fairies dart around below in panic makes him sigh sadly as he remembers what he told them long ago, singing, "Hello and greetings to you, fairy ladies. Hello and greetings to you, lady fairies. For my penance finished and I just had to visit, but I yearned to visit since I am myself again."

It takes a few minutes for them to calm down before he sees glittering golden trails hustle about to move things away as he circles around the Pixie Dust Tree, letting them finish before attempting to land.

Fifteen minutes pass as they work to clear an area large enough for him to land, chattering excitedly between themselves after discovering he has returned to himself at last.

He lands and settles in, watching as three orbs spiral out of the tree and come together to form Queen Clarion, saying, "It has been many years since I was last here, Queen Clarion. I hope that all the years have been fair to you and your fairies?"

Queen Clarion smiles up at him, saying, "Indeed they have, though unfortunately a few fairies do fall victim to hawk attacks every few years."

With a sad look on his face, he averts his eyes to look around at the fairies and turns back to Queen Clarion, asking, "Are my closest friends still around, or are they gone?"

The queen fairy looks at him and sighs, laying a hand on his nose, saying in a sorrowful tone, "Most of them are still around, such as Tinker Bell, Vidia, Iridessa, Silvermist, and Fawn. It pains me to inform you that Rosetta had fallen victim to a hawk two centuries ago...I'm sorry for your loss."

Not wanting to let himself slip back into depression, Star changes the subject and asks, "I appreciate your honesty. How are things with you and Lord Milori, have you had your first child yet?"

Queen Clarion lets him change the subject as she smiles and nods, saying, "We have indeed, several thousand years ago. Since then we have had and raised dozens of children together."

He smirks at the queen and cocks an eyebrow, saying teasingly, "Only a few dozen? You two should make the most of your time together and have as many as possible while you are still able, for time never stands still normally."

Crossing her arms and huffing lightly, she narrows her eyes at him and says, "We do make the most of our time together. Do you know how much stress laying eggs puts upon a body my age?"

Chuckling at her using her age as an excuse, Star says, "Nice try at attempting to excuse your inaction, but you haven't aged a day in the thousands of years I've been gone."

Queen Clarion smiles and pats him on the nose saying, "I appreciate the compliment, but I am involved with Lord Milori, who is not as old as you."

He blows a raspberry at her teasing, causing them both to laugh lightheartedly as he turns to the gathered fairies, saying, "So where are my closest friends at, don't play coy." He then feels something land on his head and chuckles, saying, "Is that you, Freefall Vidia?"

Vidia stomps her foot on his head and shouts, "HEY! IT TOOK ME CENTURIES TO LIVE THAT NAME DOWN, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!"

With a chuckle, he says, "It will take many more as I will never let that nickname fade away if I can help it."

Tinker Bell and the others make their way towards him swiftly, with Tink looking him over and crossing her hands over her noticeable chest, asking in annoyance, "You just had to have grown even bigger since last time, didn't you?!"

Star looks at how she squirms, making him chuckle and say, "I can't help it, my body won't ever stop growing. I am glad that you missed me, even if it is just for certain parts."

They all watch in amusement as their friend goes cherry red, giggling away as she looks like a fish out of water for a few seconds before starting to bicker with her friend, who has been absent for so many years as Fawn whispers, "Looks like she still holds a candle for him after all."

9: The Dragon's blues

As Star Reaper gets reacquainted with the fairies still around, he returns to his cave to find it just the way he left it, saying in his deep voice, "How is it still like this? There should be layers of dust and dirt on the floor as well as spiderwebs and other insect dwellings, but there's nothing at all in here, not even a pebble."

Fawn twirls a stray strand of hair around her finger, saying, "Uhm...well...it was something that Rosetta insisted on doing when you went away, and we all agreed with her. Do you like it?"

A tear slips from the corner of his eye as he turns to the girls, saying, "Like it? I love it girls, it makes me so happy to know that you all were thinking of me." He then moves towards the girls to give them passionate kisses until he remembers how big he is compared to them, saying, "Oh silly me, I'm too big to kiss you all..."

A smirk crosses Tinkerbell's face as she looks at the hidden area of the cave where they've hidden their stash of Poison Joke Dust, then turns to Star, saying with her dainty hands on her hips, "I think we can remedy that..." then turns to Vidia and the other girls and continues, "How about it girls?"

Salacious expressions slowly replace the kind, loving, and overall cheery expressions on their faces as they nod as one before flying off into the hidden section, causing Star to follow them towards the back as Silvermist looks back, saying, "You can just make yourself comfortable at the back of the cave, this might take us a little while!"

As Star wonders what they are up to, he listens to them when the pieces fall together and chuckles, saying, "Very well, for I plan on staying here for a few months to catch up with you all." Making himself comfortable at the back of the cave, he then closes his eyes and lets himself slip off to sleep so they can do their thing.

A full day passes as the girls bathe themselves in the water, laughing at yesterday's events while Vidia silently huffs in annoyance against the side of the cave with her arms crossed as best she can manage with how weak her whole body is, shouting at the others, "Will you all stop laughing about it already! You know that you all are going to be carrying me back, right?"

Chuckling at recalling how Vidia wound up glued to the wall by his seed, Star sits beside her and pulls her against him, saying, "Just be glad that they were able to keep your wings from being damaged, Poptop."

As Vidia starts loudly arguing against the new nickname, Tinkerbell finishes and makes her way out to dry off. After she puts her clothes back on, she sighs, saying, "I'm glad that we keep some fairy dust hidden here, girls, be right back with enough for us all." Forced to walk to the back of the cave to save the meager dust she has left in her pouch, she walks up to the large stalagmite in a corner of the hidden area where they keep most of their Poison Joke Dust just for Star, and pushes the hanging, stone painted scallop shell tucked in behind it aside. When it catches it on the small bar to keep it open, she lets it sit there and makes her way through the narrow opening while keeping her wings tucked down against her back. Arriving at the back of the hollow, illuminated by tiny glowing crystals that Zarina helped to create, she sees a much larger pile of pouches than she recalls seeing here last time. Grabbing one of the small pouches containing only a few pinches of fairy dust, she makes her way back to the others after taking a pinch for herself and coating her wings with it by tossing the pinch into the air.

Getting close enough to hear the others, she hears another fairy going at it quite vigorously. After flying into the cave, she is surprised to see Zarina making all the noise, leaving her speechless for a moment before shrugging and going to the other girls, saying, "I'm back girls, are you ready for a refill on dust? By the way, do any of you recall the stash being that big?"

Once Zarina finishes and cleans herself off, Star gets started on thoroughly cleaning the ceiling, walls, and floors of his cave, looking around while saying, "Hmm...while I'm here, I should do something to keep busy other than the horizontal tango with every female fairy that desires me."

Tinkerbell and Fawn both giggle at hearing that as Tink asks, "Why can't you just relax and enjoy the fact that you're back to your normal self?"

Smiling fondly at the blonde tinker fairy half his size, he breathes out a slow sigh, saying, "Complacency is the bane of a dragon's mind, and leads them to dwell on negative thoughts for many years on end. It is always in a dragon's best interest to be doing something to keep themselves busy." As he sees something glint on the wall in the light of a glowing crystal, he focuses on it for a bit when an idea comes to him and brings a smile to his face.

Curious, Fawn asks, "OOH OOH, did you think of something good?!"

He turns to her and chuckles, saying, "For me? Yes. For you all, not so much as you would be bored to tears from digging a tunnel through stone."

Cocking her head for a moment while thinking that over, the tinker fairy scrunches her face in thought, asking, "Why do you want to dig through rock?"

With a smile on Star's face, he says, "So that I can try my hand at mining as the bipeds do for what lies hidden under dirt and stone and figure out how to help protect future fairies from falling victim to hawk attacks."

Realizing that he is thinking of Rosetta and the others, the fairies fly up to him and hug him while asking how they can help. Returning to the tree and getting together a few mice with wagons, they return to see Star carving the previous path wide enough for two wagons to pass by.

With Star's sharp claws, it only takes a couple days to make a path to the back of the cave halfway between the ceiling and the floor as he begins to carve a tunnel slightly downward, making sure it is wide enough for the carts to turn around and tall enough for him to stand in at his present size, saying, "I'm glad that I returned to the same size as before with that dust, Tink, because you all wouldn't be able to keep up with how much useless rubble I would be digging away. I really appreciate all the help you fairies are giving me, but shouldn't you all be preparing for the next season?"

As Tink's wagon is filled with useless rock, she scratches her mouse freckles behind the ear, saying, "So are us fairies. As for the next season, we are way ahead of schedule thanks to the ponies doing some of the work for us. We are all set to bring Fall to the world, so we have plenty of time to haul the ore, gems and the rubble away."

After paying a visit to the winter lands and spending some time catching up with his friends there and sharing a few intimate nights with many of them over the course of a week, he returns to his cave to continue his search for ore to turn into protective devices and looks at his present stockpile, saying, "I wonder what I could make with what I have found..." when the image of an unmanned ballista comes to his mind.

The thought of making any version of the weapon that caused him such pain brings him pause, letting out a subconscious growl when it then turns to a sigh at thinking of how fairies are preyed upon by Hawks and have no way to fend them off, causing him to tilt his head in thought, thinking, 'Wait a minute...they don't need to kill the Hawks to keep them away, they just need to incapacitate them or scare their tail feathers off...'

Grinning as his idea grows stronger, he says, "In that case, I can still use some of this stuff that looks similar to silver ore, for it feels like it would resist bending under a hawk's attacks...though the silver, gold I will melt down into bars and add them to my hoard." Another idea then hits him as he asks himself, "But I have nothing to do either of those things with besides my breath..." Shrugging his shoulders, he leaves his cave to go find the talent fairies he requires for his plan.

Once he has what he needs for his idea, Star, Tink, Clank, and Bobble work on crafting the materials to assemble an initial prototype, taking a week to get it to work like it should as Star looks it over with a nod, saying, "This will do quite nicely, quite nicely indeed to keep those pesky Hawks at bay."

Tinkerbell flies around the strange contraption, seeing the moving pieces sitting on top of a swiveling stand having a long, single rail with a deep groove in it, two pieces of a stiff wood connected to a box at the front with a woven cord fastened to the notched far end of each wooden stick, the center of the cord is wrapped in a smooth band of waxy bark and resting over the center of the groove with two wheels on each side of the frame at the back with four handles driven into the skinny edge of the wheels at right angles with a square shaft driven through the center of each one. As she circles around the back of the contraption, she sees a small lever along with a delicate, silver + in the center of a circle that can move up and down a smooth vertical rod and asks, "Uhm, what is this, and why does it look so...intimidating?"

Glad it turned out so well, he says, "This is a slightly different, much smaller version of what the bipeds used to launch those metal bolts into my sides from a few years before I crash landed on your world, however, this will be able to launch a long wooden stick with split feathers glued to three places on the back and a bag of sleeping powder attached to the other end instead of a nasty barb."

Gasping at realizing the intent behind the sleeping powder, she then says, "Or something else that can scare the hawk away!" Unable to hide her joy at the idea, she attempts to tackle Star to the ground with a flying hug, but only manages to make him take a step back as she then holds him close, saying softly, "Oh you are so thoughtful, Star...I love you."

Holding her back, Star lets out a content rumble, saying, "I love you too, Tink."

Just now realizing what she said outloud, she turns bright red from embarrassment and jumps out of his embrace, then zips out of the cave, thinking, 'What?! Why did I just say that!?!'

Spotting something super fast heading her way, Vidia watches something red and green with blond hair zip by in the blink of an eye, causing her to raise an eyebrow, wondering, 'Was that really Tinkerbell? I better find out what's wrong...' Having to really push herself to catch up, she arrives at her house and walks in, breathing hard while asking, "Hey Tink, what's going on, you seriously made me fly as fast as I can just to try to catch up."

Letting her frustrations out, she explains what happened earlier while pacing wildly around the room. Once her explanation is over, she throws herself on the bed and shouts into the pillows, "WHY IN THE WORLD DID I LET MYSELF SAY THAT?!"

Giggling at her behavior as her other friends walk in to see what's going on, she hears Tink scream into the pillows and kick her feet in a tantrum and shouts a few other things that she doesn't pay much attention to, saying, "Tink's alright girls, she just admitted her true feelings for Star to his face without meaning to is all. No big deal."

It takes a while for them to help the tinker fairy to calm down and return to her normal color before making their way to check out the new contraption Star thought up to help fend off hawks, drawing Queen Clarion's attention to it as well when word gets around about one of his ideas being finished.

The queen looks the device over, being twice the size of the fairies, asking, "How does this device operate, Star Reaper?"

Recalling what he seen in the past, he says, "Well, it is quite simple really, though it will need a team of fairies to operate it." Walking up beside it, he stands on his back legs and puts one claw on one of the side wheels, saying, "This is a weapon similar in design to what the bipeds used to fire those metal spears into my side, though this one will be used for a very different purpose, firing bolts with flat ends and sacks of whatever powder deterrent you wish to drive the hawks off with."

Tink watches as Star makes his way around the weapon, pointing to each part while explaining how each one works and demonstrates by asking a couple fairies to operate the wheels. As one fairy cranks her wheel forward, she would hold it while the other starts to turn her wheel toward the front of the weapon. Bit by bit, the cord is pulled back as the wood creaks lightly while flexing, when a click echoes in the cave, and signals to the fairies it is safe to let go of the wheels. The same pair of fairies grab one of the five prepared bolts with a pouch of sand attached to one end as the other has three split feathers along the shaft at a slight angle and set it onto the rail with the pouch sticking out the front of the square box, then grab it by the two top feathers and pull it back against the string. Once it goes no farther, they let go and move back away from it while Clank grabs onto a handle on the bottom of the backside of the rail near the small lever, using his wings to lift him off the ground and maneuver the front of the weapon towards the back wall of the cave. Putting more strength into his wings, he rises higher and levels the rail with the ground while looking through the metal circle above the rail at the painted white circle at the center of the cave wall. Watching him take hold of the lever and crosses her fingers, saying, "Please work..."

Queen Clarion watches as Clank pushes the small lever forward, but nothing happens and causes her to ask, "Isn't it supposed to do something with that-" but is cut off by a chuckle from Clank.

Realizing what is wrong, he chuckles again, saying, "Silly me, I need to pull, not push hehe." then pulls the lever, which causes the built up tension to release in the blink of an eye and sends the bolt towards the back wall.

Shaking her head while dropping her head in her hands, she chuckles, saying, "It should work now."

She watches the projectile fly through the air almost faster than her eyes can follow and hit somewhere inside the circle, causing the sand pouch to break and send dry sand flying through the air in a small cloud followed nearly instantly by a loud splitting crack. Making her way towards the projectile after Clank sets the end he's holding down, she looks at the remains of the shaft and the pouch, saying, "Oh my, this is quite powerful to cause such damage to the wood shaft like this, I worry that it might greatly injure the hawks instead of scaring them away as intended."

Star nods his head and says, "Indeed it is, but the strength of the weapon can be lessened by replacing the wooden arms holding the string with more flexible wood." He then wrings his clawed hands nervously, asking, "What do you think about it, Your Majesty?"

Watching with bated breath and her hands over her mouth, Tinkerbell flutters in the air nervously while waiting for her choice, mumbling, "Is she going to approve it or deny it..."

Getting a closer look at the weapon, Queen Clarion stops beside it and lays a hand on it, saying, "After careful consideration..." then pauses for greater effect before continuing, "I will allow this weapon to be created...but only AFTER it is safe enough to cause no lasting harm to the hawks." With a curious look, she turns to the dragon and asks, "Do you have anything else to present to me that might further help to protect us fairies from hawk attacks?"

Shaking his head, he says, "Not at the present time, unfortunately, I was focusing on getting this one ready. Since I can leave this to the tinkers to experiment with different types of wood to lower the strength, I can now focus on my other idea though it might take a bit longer as it is a bit...different...in design."

Nodding her head, she turns to the gathered fairies, saying, "Tinkers, if you have the time, please see to it that this is brought to the workshop so you can begin working on it."

As the other Tinker fairies gather around it, Star says, "Clank, Bobble, and Tinkerbell know the most about it, since they helped me craft it and assemble it."

Tinkerbell makes her way over to congratulate Star on a successful presentation until she starts to feel very queasy and dizzy, forcing her to land as her wings flutter haltingly. Once safely on the ground, her vision starts to swim as she slips and collapses onto the floor, saying, "I don't feel so..."

Seeing Tinkerbell collapse like that greatly worries Star as he hurries to her side as her whole body starts to shimmer a rainbow of colors, causing the other fairies to chatter worriedly about what is going on with her. Curious himself, he closes his eyes, saying, "Let me use a little magic to see if I can figure out what is happening..."

Queen Clarion watches Star open his crimson eyes while staring intently upon Tinkerbell's motionless body as she notices them begin to glow and swirl round and round endlessly, entrancing her as she approaches and places her left hand just behind his eye, saying, "Wow, so pretty."

Able to ignore the distracting fairy beside him, he says, "You may get close to look at my eyes, but don't block my view of Tinkerbell, as it will cause me to scan the makeup of your body structure."

A few other fairies approach while he spends several long moments looking the collapsed Tinker fairy over, eventually saying, "Interesting, I didn't know that could happen with a fairy, but what is going on with the rest of her. Her magicules are all over the place and multiplying as well as changing their shapes, I don't know how to explain this..." It takes a bit longer until it becomes clear, causing him to let out a chuckle and drop the spell, saying, "Ah...I see now, that explains what I am seeing."

Eager to hear what is going on, the queen backs away a little, asking, "What is wrong with Tinkerbell, Star Reaper, what did you find?"

With a slightly amused smirk, he looks at the queen and says, "What is going on is that her body is undergoing a form of metamorphosis after forging a bond with me as a mate." Raising a claw to his face, he lightly scratches his chin, saying, "Hmm...how to explain it so you can understand..."

Gasping in fear, Clank cries out, "Is she turning into a dragon as big as you?!" which causes the others to murmur amongst themselves worriedly.

Shaking his head, Star says, "No, no, it's nothing like that I assure you. You see...when two dragons become mates and form a bond together, their bodies form a connection between each other that lets them feel what the other is feeling, as well as being able to see what they see, and can even know where they are at all times. Even though they always know where their partner is at, the exact location becomes more vague such as in which direction they are." Taking a breath to return to the more important information, he continues, saying, "Her body is adapting itself to accommodate the fact of how different our bodies are from each other, Tinkerbell's body is undergoing a great change to bridge the gap between her being a fairy no bigger than an acorn and me being a dragon the size of the inside of this cave."

Beginning to understand what he is saying, Queen Clarion says, "So her body is going to adopt draconic features as well as forming a link between the two of your bodies, is what you're saying, correct?"

Nodding his head, he says, "In a nutshell, yes." Remembering that she has a sister born from the same laugh, he slaps his claw onto his face, saying, "I forgot she has a sister, keep watch over her and give her some room if she needs it, but don't bother her once it finishes and try to keep her calm if she should wake. I will be back in a little while to check on her."

Thinking about her love, she gasps and asks loudly, "What about Lord Milori, he touched your blood as well?!"

Pausing mid-turn, Star chuckles and shakes his head, saying, "Blood alone doesn't form a bond, one needs to have love for the other in their heart for it to potentially trigger a bond."

Letting out a relieved sigh, she wipes her forehead, saying, "Thank goodness, you had me worried for a moment there."

With a smirk, he looks at the queen, saying, "I'm sure he is a great guy, but I don't swing that way, Your Majesty, so you can have him all to yourself." and catches the queen blush slightly before making his way out of the cave to go check on Peri.

It takes a couple minutes for Star to find the others gathered near the root surrounding a fallen shimmering fairy he recognizes as Periwinkle, saying, "Excuse me everyone, may I get closer so that I can look her over with a spell I know?"

Spike steps forward with her arms crossed, but Lord Milori speaks first, asking, "Do you know what is going on with Periwinkle, Star Reaper?"

Standing near Periwinkle, he looks down at her and channels his spell, saying, "I believe so, yes, but let me find out for certain."

Spotting the change in his eyes, The Keeper Dewey approaches, asking, "Is it possible for me to see what you are right now? This is a remarkable and interesting development that must be written down and added to fairy knowledge."

Maintaining his gaze, he then considers the possibility of it and remembers there is a spell to do that, nodding his head and saying, "It is, so stand beside me and I will use another spell to connect your eyes and mind to mine."

Once he is close enough, he looks down at Periwinkle and his eyes go wide at what he sees, saying, "OHH, how interesting!" As he begins to understand more of the complex symbols and other information, he recognizes information passing back and forth between Periwinkle and another fairy. Watching the information with great fascination, he gasps and says, "She's exchanging information with her sister Tinkerbell, and Tinkerbell is doing the same!" Turning back to Peri's main information, he notices how the information received from her sister causes small changes to occur in her, saying, "Absolutely remarkable! Each bit of information received results in her body making a change to the makeup of her body."

As they observe the process, it goes on for a long thirty-minutes before the transfer of information stops as Peri's body begins to glow brightly and rise into the air, bringing her knees up against her chest as her body turns right way up when a gentle wind picks up as yellow pixie dust starts to swirl around her, forming a sparkling silver egg which blocks their view of the changes going through Periwinkle's body.

With nothing further to see, Star ends the spells, saying, "I can confirm that Periwinkle is going through the very same metamorphosis as her sister Tinkerbell is."

Explaining what is going on to them as he had with the warm fairies, he repeats what he told Queen Clarion to Lord Milori and turns back to the egg several times larger than his body is presently, saying, "I really wish I knew what to expect next, but I am at a complete loss here as this is new territory for my knowledge of Draconic Bonding."

As Tinkerbell's large golden egg is brought over and frosted to keep it warm, nearly a week passes while several fairies start showing signs of pregnancy. Star keeps a very close watch over both eggs, forgetting to eat most of the time due to his desire to not miss the moment Periwinkle and Tinkerbell emerge from their eggs.

Two weeks pass by as Star rests on top of both eggs when one of them starts shaking, causing him to slip off and wake with a start, shouting, "Yahh!"

Moments later, a thumping noise from inside the golden egg is heard, along with Tinkerbell's voice shouting, "Agghh. Let me out of this dark space, I need to breathe you know!"

Approaching the rocking egg curiously, he gets a bit too close when a fragment of shell breaks away and a fist with long, golden claws hits his face and knocks him back a little. Rubbing his nose a bit, he chuckles and says, "Fight your way to freedom, Tink."

Bending down to look through the hole to see Star standing before her, Tinkerbell stomps her foot and says, "I'm going to get you back for putting me in here!" then returns to attacking the now, dimly lit interior of her cell.

Star laughs at hearing that and says, "Okay, but I didn't put you in there...you did that on your own after forming a bond with me."

Just then, the silver egg wobbles a little as a meek voice is heard, saying, "Hello? Is anyone out there? It's really dark in here..."

Hearing her sister nearby and in the same situation she is, Tinkerbell attacks the object confining her with more vigor, shouting, "I'm coming Peri!" Annoyed with how sturdy the walls are being, she spots a tiny crack running along the wall horizontally and then punches the top of the cell. Her punch sends the top of her prison into the air briefly before flipping over and landing somewhere behind her, leaping over the broken portion of wall and looking behind her, saying, "I'm finally out of this..." Realizing what she was just in at seeing the two broken halves, she finishes, "egg?!? Why did I put myself in an egg?!"

Periwinkle pounds her fists against the wall of her prison, saying, "Hello? Tink? I'm still trapped in here you know..."

Turning towards her sister's prison, saying, "Right, sorry Peri." and sees that she is in a big egg too, asking curiously, "You're in an egg too, huh? I wonder how we got into them..." and begins to attack her sister's silver egg prison.

Getting a good look at Tinkerbell's new form, Star smirks and scratches his chin curiously, saying, "What a curious development, one that I strangely find quite appealing..."

As her sister continues to attack the thick shell, bits of the shell slowly chip off and break away, falling into the shell. Once there is a hole big enough to get a hand through, she reaches her right hand out to squeeze it through when the light outside shines on it. Her eyes are drawn down to the sparkle coming from her hand, seeing right away that they are not how they should be, asking, "Umm...Tink? Should fairies have clawed hands and silver scales?"

Rolling her eyes and blowing a raspberry, Tink says, "Of course they don't have claws or scales, don't be silly...we should know that because you and me are sister fairies after all."

Turning her hands over curiously, she open and closes her hand before moving each finger, softly saying, "Huh?". Doing the same with her other hand, she feels like everything is strangely normal, that nothing is amiss at seeing silver claws that glint in the light and that her hands are covered in tiny round scales a much lighter shade with a slight point to them, saying in the same soft tone that could blow away in the breeze, "This is...really unusual. The tiny scales run up to just past her elbows and transition back into her normal, pale skintone when she feels something moving behind her and looks back over her shoulder to see what it is. Shifting her eyes down, she spots something long snaking around her lower legs when another hole opens up and shines light down on her legs, asking, "What is this thing behind me?" Using her hand to find out what is behind her, she feels her hand come to rest on something firm just above her rear where her posterior begins. Running her fingers along it, the movement of her fingertips send a shiver up her spine and cause her scales to ruffle slightly, causing her to say, "That tickles."

As she continues to run her hand and fingers along whatever part of her body she is touching, she eventually learns that she now has a tail as long as her body with a base that requires both hands to fully encircle it. Grabbing her tail gently and pulling it around to look at, she notices there are tiny points along the top ridge, angled slightly toward the tip of her tail. Looking at the underside of her tail, she finds that there are several wide, flat scales the color of snow all along the bottom. Using her fingers more carefully, she learns that they are quite smooth and run all the way down from her base, causing her to giggle, saying, "This is quite interesting...I have a tail."

Star watches as Periwinkle's last words cause Tinkerbell to pause her next punch, seeming to notice just now that she has claws as well, chuckling as he says, "If you think having claws and a tail are different, just wait until you see how your wings look."

Simultaneously, they both look behind them to look at their wings, though only Tink is able to see hers as she screams, "WAHH! What happened to my glorious wings?!"

Worried, Periwinkle starts using her new claws to attack the walls of her egg, saying, "Hang on Tink, I wanna see too!" Once she creates a hole big enough, she climbs through it and turns to see her sister sharing much of the same appearance, but with golden scales the color of yellow pixie dust and golden claws that glint in the light. When she looks at her wings, her eyes go wide as she sees that they have undergone a great change as well, being similar to a bat's wing. Walking up to her sister, she grabs the top edge of it gently and discovers that there are bones in her wings now. The bones of her sister's wings are covered in tiny golden scales with a gold claw sticking up out of the top of the wing joint, saying, "Wow, your wings are like a second pair of arms and hands." Shifting her gaze to the membrane of her wings, she sees that it is thicker and a bit more like skin, however, still translucent with the same identical pattern running through it. Feeling the weight behind her, she gasps, saying, "Now look at mine to see if they are still the same!"

Chuckling as Tinkerbell turns around and examines her sister's wings, finding that their wings and patterns are identical once again, he sighs with a smile, saying, "Now that you both know the other is safe, let me use a spell to examine you and learn what other changes your bodies went through..."

As the girls hold still, they are both entranced by the swirling glow within Star's eyes as they both lean closer, saying in unison, "Wow...so pretty."

Once Star learns everything, he chuckles and says, "Well, I can say for sure that the two of you are both fairy and dragon, though your appetites may be a bit different. There were also a few other changes to your bodies, such as gaining the ability to use other magic." Realizing that this is a once in a lifetime discovery, he pauses and says, "Hold on for a second, let me go tell the others, they will no doubt want to hear this." Before he takes off, however, he turns to Periwinkle and asks, "Oh, and Peri? Could you frost her wings, their starting to shiver from the cold."

Making his way to the other Winter Fairies, he finds Lord Milori and notifies him that Periwinkle and Tinkerbell have emerged from their eggs. Politely requesting him to spread the word to the other fairies under his charge, he also asks that they are given no pixie dust yet so he can perform a test. Once he acknowledges his request, he then heads to Pixie Hollow to share the news with the warm fairies. Offering Queen Clarion a lift, he stops at the border for her wings to be frosted before continuing on towards the glacier where the two eggs were relocated.

Hearing the flapping of Star's wings outside the cave carved into the glacier, Lord Milori turns towards the cave entrance to see the winter fairies moving aside as the dragon enters the cave with his love sitting atop his neck. Once the dragon lands, he heads up to his love and helps her off asking, "How was the journey, my dear?"

Star lets the two wander away as he heads to where Tink and her sister are at, who are both easily several times larger than the other fairies gathered around her currently, including Queen Clarion, and stops in front of them both while rising onto his back legs to be eye level with them, saying, "Where did I leave off...oh, right. Aside from the slight change in your appetites, you also have the ability to cast spells aside from your innate magical talents. One other change is one of the adaptations your body has made due to your connection with each other." Turning to Periwinkle, he says, "Peri, your body will slowly mature to allow you to tolerate a fair bit of heat, though I don't know how long it will take." Then turning his attention to Tinkerbell, he says, "Tink, you will also mature and be able to handle cold weather to a degree." Looking between the two, he says, "You both will know when you mature once you go through your first molt, meaning that your scales will darken and fall off and not regrow. Once the last scale falls away, your outer layer of skin shall start to itch as it dries and cracks. The itching will stop once the molt has completed, though I have no idea of how long it will take for you to reach it."

Turning back to Peri, he says, "Once you grow out of your stage of infancy and grow into your adult scales, you will be able to breathe Frostfire, which is a magical fire such a unique shade of blue it is often confused as being snow-white." Shifting his gaze back to Tinkerbell, he says, "After you have reached your adulthood, you too can breathe fire. With your temper able to run so hot, you are capable of breathing fire hot enough to melt stone, so you will need to be mindful of that."

10: A Dragon's Reckoning

After Star and The Keeper agree on calling the two changed fairies Dragon Fairies, Tink and Periwinkle try to adjust to their new bodies. While Star finds it curious how they still need pixie dust to allow them to fly, he resumes working on his projects as their abdomens begin to swell already.

Months pass by as the pregnant fairies birth their eggs with it being Vidia's turn to lay six large eggs even bigger than Tink's were, though it is nearly halfway to winter by the time Periwinkle and Tinkerbell finally lay their eggs.

Utterly exhausted and sweaty from all the pushing and screaming, Tink huffs and puffs, saying in between pants, "Please...tell me...that was the last one."

It takes four nurses to carry the ostrich-sized egg to the infirmary to be cleaned off as the head nurse dabs her forehead with a dry cloth, saying, "Yes it was, Tinkerbell. That was the seventh and final egg, I am greatly impressed with how well you did given that they are as big as ostrich eggs."

The only response she has for the head nurse is, "Wonderful." before falling asleep instantly as she starts to snore when the afterbirth comes out, not rousing Tink from her slumber at all.

Standing in a structure built for their size, Star sits beside their seven eggs with a proud smile as he caresses them affectionately while humming a gentle tune, saying, "I can't wait for the day that you all hatch and reveal what we created this time..."

When the time comes for the eggs to hatch, most of the creatures that come out of Tink's eggs so far are on four legs, having four claws on each foot. Perhaps the most interesting creatures he has seen yet as they have some sort of feather-like antennae at the top of their heads instead of horns like their parents, though having a thin row of spines down their backs within a thin membrane. Covered in tiny round c-shaped scales with four, blade-like wings beside their spines, he notices that each translucent wing has a pattern to it with each one different from the other except for a couple pairs of twins.

While he and Dewey record the new discovery, another of Tink's eggs hatch, though this time, it is a female Dragon Fairy with light tan skin, green scales, silver claws, and wings just like her mother with two black horns protruding from the back of her head amidst her silverish lavender hair. When the young female stretches her arms out above her head, she lets out a soft yawn and lets herself fall onto her side to go back to sleep, saying, "So sleepy...".

Dewey's wide eyes are enraptured by the birth of the new fairy, furiously writing down notes, saying, "Absolutely remarkable, they are the same size as a regular, newly born fairy, and they can talk as soon as they hatch!"

When the last egg hatches, it is another female Dragon Fairy with black scales and red claws with a pair of curled, black horns sticking out the back of her head amidst a full head of auburn hair as she rises up on her spindly legs and toddles over toward her mother, holding her arms up and grabbing for her, saying, "So hungry."

Happy tears stream from Tink's face as she picks up her daughter with both hands and cradles her against her chest, turning away from the others in the room while pulling down the top of her dress so that she can breastfeed her. Lifting her head to look at her mate, she smiles and says, "Aren't our children so beautiful?"

Nuzzling his snout against her forehead, he rumbles happily in his chest, saying, "They are very beautiful, would you wish to have another clutch soon?"

When her child latches on at last, she giggles and says, "Perhaps in a year or two, I do have to help the others prepare to bring winter to some parts of the world, you know."

With a smirk, Star nods and asks, "So what would you like to name these two?"

Thinking it over for a moment, she then looks at the one suckling and says, "This one here, I'm thinking Seeker." then turns to look at the sleeping one and giggles, saying, "And her, how about Cosmo?"

Approving both names, he says, "I like them both." Letting her focus on the other children around her, Star turns to Dewey and asks, "So Dewey, what are we thinking about for naming the new species of fairy?"

Tapping his cheek curiously, he then says, "How about Fae Dragon?"

Unable to offer anything better, he smiles and nods, saying, "That is better than anything I can come up with presently." Reminded that Peri's eggs should be hatching soon, he makes his way out, saying, "I will go see if your sister's clutch is hatching yet."

Amused by his fatherly nature coming out, Tink chuckles, saying, "They will hatch when they are ready to hatch, don't rush them." Remembering how many there are, she huffs and says, "I can't believe she laid one more than me."

Raising an eyebrow at that, Star chuckles and says, "Competitive are we? Perhaps we could try to see if you can give birth to a large clutch then, if I recall correctly...there are thirteen eggs to one of those."

Her eyes go wide at hearing that, blinking in disbelief, saying, "Oh my poor stomach!"

With a smile, he says, "Don't worry, you can get it back to normal with lots of exercise, take Vidia for example..." when something lands around his nose.

Holding his mouth closed, Vidia looks back at Star's face, saying, "Not another word of how I looked after my birth, mister or I will sew your mouth shut!"

Letting her have the win, he chuckles through his nose and enjoys the view up her skirt as she is wearing nothing underneath, thinking, 'There's the poptop we all love.'

Just then another voice enters his mind, saying, 'I wouldn't let Vidia hear you say that, but would you get in here already? My eggs are starting to hatch.'

Shocked to hear Peri's voice in his head, he shakes the surprise off his face, saying, 'I forgot that you both can use telepathy after the bond was forged. I'm on my way.'

Spring comes again as Star manages to melt all the gold and silver into small ingots when he gets back to heating and crafting the sturdy silver-like metal into long bars with his fire and his own claws. When he runs out of the material, he returns to the tunnel to use his spell to search for more.

By the time he has finished his second prototype, he presents it to Queen Clarion, saying, "Your Majesty, my second prototype may resemble a large birdcage, but it is a bit different from one because it locks from the inside." Turning to a tired-looking Vidia, he grins and says, "Throughout the year, the cage is normally kept closed to prevent birds from making it their home. However, when a scout sounds the alarm after spotting a hawk, another scout closest to the safety cage will hurry over to slide the door open and stand watch over it until the safe capacity is reached. However, if a hawk should attack the cage, the scout will close the door and secure it so that the fairies inside are safe. For safety reasons, no fairy should be outside of the third ring as a hawk's talons might be able to reach that far. Allow me to demonstrate..."

Standing at the top of the pixie dust tree, he turns his gaze to Nyx, saying, "If you would, Nyx."

The scout fairy nods and dashes over to the closed cage, standing by the door and reaches her hand between the bars to grab the handle. Raising the handle and sliding it over, she releases it and pulls her hand out before sliding the door open. Moving inside the cage, she waits for the signal for the next part, saying, "Ready."

Star looks at the Queen and asks, "If you would please step inside, Your Majesty."

Turning to the cage with a curious look on her face, she heads over to the open door and notices that the outermost area is painted red with the rest of the inside area painted white, saying, "The white is the safe zone, correct?" When she hears Star give her confirmation that it is, she enters the cage and stands at the center of the area then waits for the demonstration to continue.

Turning back to Vidia, he smirks and calls out, "VIDIA, HAWK! GET TO THE CAGE!"

Startled awake at hearing that, she shouts, "AAHH! and zips over to the cage and dashes inside, folding her wings down and standing next to the queen when the door slides shut and is secured by Nyx, calming down enough to whine, "Why am I the unfortunate fairy to have the dust scared out of her!?"

Ignoring her, he chuckles and says, "If you would do your part now, Fawn."

Smiling widely, she claps, saying, "I'm glad to get to show off all my hard work training her!" then puts two fingers to her lips and blows a distinct whistle, which results in a shrill cry coming from a nearby tree.

Wrapping her arms around the queen, Vidia asks, "Fawn...what did you do now?"

Smiling innocently, she giggles and says, "Oh nothing much, I just trained Aimee for this presentation is all." and hears a flapping of wings approaching.

Blinking her eyes in confusion, she then starts to suspect she did something dangerous and says, "Did you train a hawk to chase fairies?!"

Shaking her head, she says, "Nope...I trained a Falcon to attack the cage."

Star watches as the fairies dart away to cover with Vidia fainting and falling against the queen while a blur of motion zips past and strikes the cage with a series of skrees and squawks, observing the falcon hop and climb all over the sides of the cage to try to get inside it. A long minute passes as he nods to Fawn saying, "Thanks Fawn, that will be all. You can send her back to where she came form now."

Nodding her head, she pulls out a short whistle and blows a couple sharp notes on it to get Aimee's attention, causing the falcon to leave the cage and land in front of her. Flying up to be eye-level with her, she lays her head against the falcon's and holds her close with her palms, saying, "Thank you for helping me with this Aimee, Falcons are much easier to handle than a hawk after all. You can go back to the Ravine now to be with your love."

As the falcon leaves and heads for her home, he spreads his wings and rises above the tree tops to ensure she is gone for real. When she is out of sight, he lands again and says, "She's back home, Nyx, you can open the cage door now."

Letting out a sigh of relief, she grabs the handle and moves it over. Once it is far enough, she releases it and slides the door open saying, "That rocking will take a bit of getting used to."

When Nyx helps an unconscious Vidia and a queasy Queen Clarion out of the cage, the fairy queen groans, saying, "Be sure to add places for fairies to hold on to before I approve of it. That rocking really gets to a fairy."

Nodding with a smile on his face at another successful test, Star says, "I will begin making the changes at once, how many of these cages should I make?"

Not trusting her wings, she walks on her two feet, saying, "I will try to have an answer to you by morning, Star, for now, I must rest until my stomach settles."

Receiving an order for twenty more cages, Star gets to work right away. One morning, weeks later, a strange metallic squeaking reaches his ears when he hears horns echo from outside his cave. Jumping into action at the hawk alarm, he leaves his cave in a rush and heads towards the pixie dust tree.

Spotting three hawks chasing fairies in a peculiar formation, two catch their targets and start flying off while the third has trouble catching theirs. His anger rises as a menacing growl rises from his throat, making him flap harder to catch up to the one still chasing the fairy he recognizes as Nyx.

Nyx darts between branches and glances behind her to see the hawk about to catch her with its talons, until Star slams into the bird's side and tears away at the neck in a vicious manner. She is about to throw up at the sight, but she notices just then that there are no entrails or blood, just a strange liquid that spills from the creature, causing her to ask, "What on earth is this thing?"

Star sniffs the creature and picks up a scent he's nearly forgotten, causing him to bare his teeth and snarl, saying, "I should have recognized their stench sooner, those wretched bipeds have stumbled upon this haven. Their presence anywhere near my territory will not be tolerated." Putting no thought toward his present size, he takes off after the other two once he destroys the magic crystal powering the creation.

Not wanting to be left behind, Nyx races after him and finds a spot behind a couple spikes, saying, "LET'S GO GET MY TWO GIRLS BACK, THOSE BASTARDS SNATCHED MY BABIES WHILE I WAS TEACHING THEM SOME TECHNIQUES!"

Snarling darkly, he chases the magically operated creatures through a portal, saying, "I intend to make them pay for their actions."

Closing her eyes as he darts through the shimmering portal, she finds herself amidst a desert stretching as far as the eye can see, asking, "What was that, and where did we go?"

Recognizing the desert from the gnarled trees growing upon it, he growls, saying, "That was a magic portal, and we are currently flying over a place called Unforgiving Desert, which happens to be where I failed to save my sister..."

Her eyes go wide as she looks around to see a beast leap up out of the sand at one of the passing hawks, but is far too high for it to reach, causing her to say, "You mean to say that we are-"

Closing the distance as he feels himself getting bigger, Star says, "Yes. We are flying through the skies of the world I once called 'home'. That portal must have had a protective barrier of some kind because I am returning to my original size, when I catch those creations, you grab your children and head back through the portal...I have unfinished business with the vermin of this world."

Nyx nods her head and watches as he effortlessly closes the distance and bites down on one of the creature's necks, causing it to release its prisoner as the silver-haired fairy hovers in the air, trembling violently from the experience. Kicking off from her place, she races to her daughter and wraps her arms around her, shaking her into focus on her, saying, "Look at me Dart, mommy's here. I need you to stick close to me as we go after your father."

Catching up to the last creation as it makes a bee-line somewhere, he uses a swipe of his claws to rip the creature's head right off and release the fairy in its grasp. Turning his head around, he sees Nyx grab her other daughter's hand and turn around to make for the portal, banking around so that he can ensure they make it back safely.

After seeing them through the portal safely he turns around and heads in the direction the creatures were heading, rumbling, "The last thing you will ever learn is to never earn a dragon's fury..."

Ordering her daughters to return home right away, she heads back towards the portal, saying, "I'm going to accompany your father and try to keep him from doing anything rash, tell the others that we'll be back as soon as we can." Once through the portal, she hurries to grab one of Star's tail spikes, barely managing to hold on as she starts crawling towards his head.

Flying for several long minutes, he eventually passes over a once-lush forest full of life, now filled only with trees dying of thirst as pillars of smoke rise into the sky on the horizon. Making note of the town's location, he adjusts his angle to survey the rest of the planet's surface and flies higher into the air.

Finally managing to reach his head, she clings to one of the spikes and shouts, "Was this world like this before?"

Sighing, he looks at the once-grassy lands ahead, saying, "No...it didn't. It was much like your world, rich and full of life, with birds singing their happy tunes. But now...everything that my eye sees on the horizon looks like it is suffering or dying."

Traveling to the various areas around the planet, he pays one final visit to where the dragon's ruled. Arriving only to find the caldera filled with the skeletons of his fellow dragons, his eyes tear up as guilt threatens to overtake him. Taking in the sight of the skeletons dumped into piles and piles all over in the caldera like waste, a sob is torn from his throat as he realizes that he is to blame for all of this, saying with a pained sniff, "This is all...my fault. I am to blame for my entire species going extinct and the planet dying..."

As she feels him land at the rim of the caldera overlooking the numerous skeletons of dead dragons, Nyx makes her way around to his face and lands on his snout, lying down and attempting to hug his snout, saying, "No, you're not. I don't know the specifics of what happened, but all of what we have seen can not fall on your shoulders alone. There must be many others at fault here for letting things get this bad here, but I am sure there is something that can be done to rescue it before it's too late."

Her words cause him to think on everything he knows, eventually recalling a legend his father once told him, saying, "Well...there might be. My memory is a bit fuzzy, but I think I remember my dad singing about a legend from a very long time ago. I wonder if I remember everything correctly." Clearing his voice before attempting to sing, he then says, "There was an ancient tale, from very long ago. From before even dragon rule...there was this female dragon barely left alive. With no friends to help her, she knew that she would perish. A passing thought did she relish, so with her dying breathe...she sang a plea to the one residing beneath. Many quiet moments passed until she heard an answer, and received a second chance to savor."

Blinking in confusion, Nyx tries to understand it and says, "Uh...what?"

Chuckling, Star says, "You see, there's this legend we have about a dragon residing deep within the planet that never wakes, and if your desire is strong enough to gain his attention, your wish shall be granted."

Skeptical of the legend, she then says, "I'm not big into fairy tales, no pun intended, but what do you think about that legend's claim?"

Considering how to answer a question he hasn't been asked before, it takes him a moment to come up with an answer, saying, "Well...I haven't really given it much thought before, and don't really believe in what I can't see, feel, smell, or taste."

Pushing herself upright and onto her knees, Nyx raises an eyebrow and puts her hands on her hips, saying, "Well, why don't you think on that for a while as we find where those strange hawk contraptions came from and stop them for good."

Nodding gently, Star says, "Very well, I can agree on that at least. Find a spot and hang on tightly so you don't go flying off."

Returning to where the town was at, Nyx spots a strange tower ahead of them, saying, "Something doesn't look right with that structure there."

Getting the same feeling, he uses his spell and links Nyx to it as well, saying, "Let's do a little investigating."

They circle high above the town out of sight as Nyx gasps and says, "For some reason I'm seeing traces of pixie dust in that tower."

Sharpening his focus, he recognizes at least a dozen fairies held within the upper part of the tower when he picks up a smell he recognizes, drawing an angry snarl from his throat, saying in a barely contained roar, "I smell Ro in there along with twelve others, these cretins are going to burn in hellfire for taking them!"

Not having a chance to respond as she is forced to hold on for her life when he dives down out of the sky, letting out a deafening roar of rage. As her hair whips behind her in the wind, she pries one eye open to see a bright blue glow coming from under Star's head as he pulls up from his dive.

Planning his attacks very carefully so as not to hit the tower, Star unleashes a wave of blue fire upon the city's outer limits and engulfing everything in fire, bellowing, "LOOK INTO THE BRIGHTNESS OF MY FLAME AND SCREAM IN TERROR!" Turning back around to continue his attack on the remaining quarters, bellowing, "WRITHE IN A BLUE FLASH AND BURN TO NOTHING, BEGONE...WORMS!"

As Nyx speechlessly watches the city being engulfed in flames, the screams of terror rise up to her and cause tears to stream from her eyes, silently thinking, 'No more...Please make it stop.'

A bright beam of light streaks just in front of Star's nose, startling him into stopping for a moment and turning his attention back to the top of the tower. Noticing a massive golden orb sparkling with yellow sparkles, he shrieks in outrage, screaming, "HOW DARE THEY STEAL FROM OUR FRIENDS TO CREATE SUCH A VILE THING!! HOW MANY DIED TO MAKE THAT POSSIBLE?! NO MATTER, I SHALL DESTROY IT AND ERASE IT FROM EXISTENCE."

Looking at the glittering orb, she gasps and stomps on his head, shouting, "Don't destroy it, we can take that back and change it back into the dust that it once was!"

Growling softly, he concedes to her request and decides to take the entire tower. Pulling himself upright, he hits the side of the tower and wraps his claws around the upper and lower parts of it. The bottom of the tower crumbles away and starts falling towards the ground, until he flaps his wings hard and quickly to get away.

Flying a safe distance away, Star sets the tower down in the grassy plains, using his spell to see inside the tower, shouting, "To the wretched bipeds within this tower, use anymore magic or try to escape with the prisoners and you shall die a most gruesome and slow death once I find you again!"

Fearing for their lives, a few young female elves scamper out with rags for clothing, then point up at the dragon's damaged horn with horrified expressions, mumbling, "It's him...the Dragon Reaper of Raelordiel!"

A taller, well-dressed elf with flowing blonde hair rushes out of the tower and aims a golden staff at the dragon's head, shouting, "FOOL! With our first prototype, your head shall make a marvelous trophy!"

The females cower together as the dragon lunges forth and grabs the noble between his front teeth, causing the powerful staff to drop from his hand as they watch him get tossed into the air and caught in its mouth. When they hear the crunching of bones, two of them puke all over the ground in front of them while one of them pisses themselves in terror, screaming, "Please don't eat us, we're not well!"

Spitting the remains into the distance like something nasty he just tasted, he uses his magic to examine the young elven girls. Once he figures out what they have, he huffs, saying, "How unfortunate...you all have syphilis, and I am not in the mood to heal you."

Desperate to survive, the tallest one prostrates herself, saying, "Nor would we beg you to, oh great one, all we wish is for our lives to be spared!"

Ignoring the urge to preen at the praise, he huffs in annoyance, saying, "So you shall, but go nowhere until I have secured what I came for." Turning his attention to the fairy on his head, he says, "Nyx, enter the tower and search for the others that are trapped inside while I remove this wretched orb."

Nodding, she leaves her spot on his head and races towards the tall tower, weaving her way up a long, winding staircase, saying, "Ugh, spirals are so annoying."

Star claws away at the top of the tower to get at the orb that attacked him, eventually able to wrap his teeth around it and wrench it free. Setting it on the ground, he then grabs the staff with his tail and sets it beside the orb, turning to the female elves, saying, "Were there any other items made from golden yellow magic dust?! Answer honestly and I might heal you."

Without missing a beat, the youngest and shortest elf speaks up, saying, "NO milord, just those two I swear. It took the scientists ages to finish that orb and staff."

Sensing no falsehood in their words, Star sighs with relief, saying, "Very well, I shall heal you all then for being so forthcoming with that information."

Making her way out of the tower with the others in tow, Nyx finally leaves the tower, looking over at Rosetta, saying, "Look who came on a personal mission of his to rescue you all."

Not caring that her dress is in tatters, Rosetta gasps and cries out happily, saying, "Well bust my bonnet, Star, you're back to your old elf again!" then runs up to him and hops up on one of his claws, saying, "Well my oh my didn't you get bigger, set me on top of that head of yours you big lug!"

Chuckling with happy tears trickling from his eyes, he lifts his claw up to his nose and watches the itty bitty fairy climb on and run up to his forehead, saying, "Once we get back home, we will fix your wings, alright girls?"

When the others are helped up onto his nose, Nyx crosses her arms and walks up his snout, saying, "Even though they were roughly treated, none of the captured fairies died. However, I did recover a few bags of stolen dust along with a bag of blue dust that went missing."

Star turns his eyes to the elves and huffs, saying, "What would you fairies like to do with these survivors?"

Hearing his question, they all speak quietly to themselves, when Rosetta eventually steps forward with her hands clasped in front of her, saying, "After talking about it, we think that it would be best to leave them here although these elven girls did take care of us."

Blinking in acknowledgement, he says, "Very well, find a comfortable position and hang on to a spike, we're going for a short ride to my old stomping grounds."

Hurrying to a spike, Nyx asks, "You're going to do that, aren't you?"

Smirking, he picks up the orb and staff, saying, "Maybe." When they arrive at the caldera, he hums in a low tone and wonders what to say, eventually making a choice as he sings, "Oh mighty and ancient dragon slumbering deep below, my heart and soul are burdened from my past actions. I make this earnest plea to save this world from its woe, for I am the one who began this wicked infection. Hear my words and start a cycle of retribution to help life regrow!"

A chuckle echoes up from deep underground and surrounds the group as the deep croaking voice calls out, "I hear ya youngun, but I ain't no ancient dragon, alright?" He then examine the world around him and says, "Well, well, things have certainly gone to hell in a hand basket didn't they?" Sensing the dragon's guilt at feeling responsible, the wise-old spirit says, "Don't be too hard on yerself, all ya have control of are the choices that ya have to make, so learn from yer mistakes and grow wiser. I was getting bored of watching all of this peaceful nature anyhow, perhaps I'll come up with something new to entertain myself for the next few million years, heh heheh!"

Confused, he looks at the ground, asking, "What are you saying old one?"

Groaning with exasperation, he says, "That's the problem with some of you younguns, ya just don't understand the advice I offer at times. What I'm sayin' is that ya shouldn't let yourself dwell too much on negative emotions, that is a one-way trip to a life of misery, which is no way for us eternals to experience the wondrous thing called life. When it comes to your emotions, grieve or cry when you need to, and even throw a tantrum if you need to, but don't let yourself be dragged down by those negative emotions for longer than is necessary or you will miss out on what life has to offer you." Realizing that he is prattling on, he groans in annoyance, saying, "Ah just listen to how I'm prattling on, you all best skedaddle before my big show starts! Time for me to work my magic and remake the world up top again!"

Turning around and preparing to fly away, Star says, "Thank you for the advice wise one, I will remember what you said."

Chuckling, the old spirit says, "Stop living in the past, youngun, the present is far more entertaining and the future is just plain chaotic! Now scoot along so I can start remodeling." Talking to himself, he asks, "Hmm...now should I go with a freeze first, or fire? Ehh...I did freeze first last time, so let's go with an epic fire and brimstone approach. Time to kick some long-forgotten volcanoes into action...heheheheh...I know just the one to wake up first."

Not wasting another moment, he takes off into the sky, hearing the old voice cackle and shout, "WAKE UP FATSO, IT'S TIME TO RISE AND SHINE!" hearing a distant rumbling, which causes him to turn to see what it is.

A peak slowly starts to climb into the sky, getting higher and higher as Rosetta wrings her hands while holding on with her arms and legs, saying, "Uhm...would you all be upset if I suggested we go back for those elven girls?"

When the girls shake their heads no, Nyx sees something sticking up, saying, "What is that thing over there, Star? It's not like any stone or tree I've seen before."

Star turns his head to see what she noticed and half chuckles, saying, "Ah, that is just the piece of horn that was shot off just before I came to your world."

Thinking for a moment, she then asks, "Why don't you swing over pick it up to take it back with us?"

Thinking about it for a moment, he says, "What would I use it for, a giant doorstop?"

Frowning, she thumps her foot on his head, saying, "Of course not, but you could have something to serve as a memento of what brought you to us, and all the good times we had together?"

Considering what she said, he concedes to her request and heads over to the piece of horn, snagging it with a free claw without having to land and making his way to where they left the elven girls at. Once they find the group huddled together a few hundred yards away from the tower, he sighs and asks, "Did they decide to try to live inside that tower, or did they get distracted by the rising mountain?"

Nyx sighs and says, "Probably a bit of both as they seem to be quite the curious sort from what Ro and the others told me."

Watching the distant mountain get taller by the minute, the elven girls scream with fright when they hear something land really close to them. Turning around to see the dragon from before, they prostrate themselves on the ground as the oldest says, "Have we angered you somehow, great one?"

Being worshiped rubs Star the wrong way already and will get old quickly, causing him to say, "I am no divine entity, just a powerful dragon that will be around long after your great-great grandchildren's bones are turned to dust until I fall in battle. So if you must show some respect, please just call me Lord Star or Lord Reaper. It has come to our attention that this world will be undergoing a great upheaval, which will result in all life on the planet being destroyed and reborn. The fairies have decided to offer you all a chance at life in another world, if you accept their gracious offer...know this. I do plan on making regular visits to their world, so I suggest that you all find a way to use your magic to live with the forest instead of clearing vast areas for timber and farm ground as other bipeds do. Your ancestors of the long past did this, so I expect you all to learn to do the same." He is about to continue when an eruption is heard, making him cut himself short, saying, "More will be explained when we arrive, so climb into my mouth and stay near the front. If you must relieve yourselves, do it now because I will not tolerate being treated as a latrine."

Without further delay, they all get up and run to the far side of a few scattered bushes. With a stream nearby, they rush over to it to clean themselves off while putting their tattered rags back on, bowing their heads to the dragon, saying, "Thank you for your benevolence, Lord Star."

Liking that much better, he lowers his head to the ground and opens his mouth for the girls to climb in. Once the last elf climbs in, he closes his mouth most of the way while letting some light shine in through his lips, tilting his head forward a bit, saying through his partially closed mouth, "If you need something to hold on to, grab hold of my tongue so you don't slip down my throat accidentally." Feeling their hands grasp his tongue, he then takes off back towards the portal.

Other mountains start to form in the distance as the first one begins spewing massive amounts of ash into the air when the portal comes into sight as Nyx coughs from the stench, saying, "There's the portal...(cough)...but how will you get through it, you're too big."

Smirking, he doesn't answer to keep most of the falling ash out of his mouth, using a magic spell to take hold of the portal and make it wide enough for him to pass through. Once it is large enough, he stops and flies through it. Making his way to an open area near the pixie dust tree, he lands on the ground gently while setting the orb and the staff down. Letting the fairies off next, he then sets his head down onto the ground and opens his mouth to let the elves out while releasing his hold on his horn when the vision of all the skeletons left behind on that world flashes through his mind. Thinking of the children he has raised so far, he sighs and waits for the last elf to get out before lifting his head, saying, "There is one more thing that I must get from back there, I will be right back. Be sure that you all stay right here unless there's a hawk attack, okay?"

Once they nod their heads, Nyx watches while he heads towards the portal, saying with a sigh, "Alright, but please be careful and come back in one piece."

After entering the portal, he races towards where the skeletons of his kin lay. Having to weave around to dodge falling rock, he feels a chunk strike his back, saying, "It's a good thing that I can't feel these strikes, or that might have hurt." A bigger flaming rock glances off the side of his head, making him say, "I guess it is really coming down now, I better be quick with finding an intact skeleton."

It takes him half an hour to find a solitary skeleton, landing beside it and scanning it with his spell, saying with a slight smirk, "So this is where your body wound up Sulfur Hide, I hope you don't mind...but I will be taking your remains with me on a little trip." Acting quickly as he hears a massive eruption nearby, he channels one of his spells to transform the whole skeleton into a square block of obsidian. Collecting the block between his two front claws, he sees movement ahead of him and looks up to watch as a massive chunk of landmass flips up into the air and lands on its backside. A violent tremor rocks the ground under him as he blinks, saying, "Uh...definitely time to go now."

Rosetta hops from foot to foot worriedly as more black ash continues to come out of the open portal, saying, "Come on, come on. What is taking him so long!"

Watching the portal, Nyx nervously clenches her spear in both hands, seeing the other side of the portal glow bright reddish orange for a moment before something shoots out of the black cloud of ash. Coughing is heard moments later when Star comes flying out of the portal, causing her to sigh in relief, saying, "He's alright..."

With molten rock starting to cool on his back, Star collapses the portal behind him and lands before them, turning to Nyx, saying, "Nyx, gather the water and wind fairies as fast as you can, have the wind fairies absorb the ash clouds before they can start spreading ash everywhere. Once you have them do that, have the water talent fairies start putting out fires caused by any molten rock I brought through on my way out of the portal."

As Nyx darts off to go get the other fairies, Rosetta approaches Star as he lies down on the ground coughing up some kind of black fluid, asking, "Are you alright, darlin'?"

Spitting out more fluid to clean out his lungs, he coughs roughly again, saying, "I will be fine, this is just my way of removing the ash I breathed in, and volcanic ash is a type of stone after all."

11: The Dragon's Word

Rosetta and the other fairies do what they can to soothe Star's rough coughing and hacking as they hear a flurry of fairies zip past to deal with the aftermath of his return, asking, "So what all have I missed out on?"

Star is about to respond as he spots Tink and Fawn racing their way, opening his mouth to say something when another bout of coughing and hacking stop him as he hears Rosetta say, "OOF, I'm happy to be back, but will you ease up on hugging me, I feel like a grape."

Tink releases her hold on Rosetta as tears fall from her eyes when Fawn wraps her arms around her newly returned friend and spins around in the air, saying, "Sorry about that Ro, but when you were captured...we all assumed you were eaten."

Getting slightly dizzy from all the spinning, Rosetta says, "I assumed that too, but we were locked up and asked endless questions about our magic." Once her stomach threatens to empty itself, she pushes on Fawn's shoulders, saying, "I'm happy to see you too Fawn, but can you please set me down now, you're upsetting my stomach with all the spinning."

Giggling happily, she lands and lets her friend go, saying, "Sorry, I'm just so glad to see that you are back safe and sound."

The newly returned fairy turns to look at who hugged her before, but her eyes bug out of her head as she says, "HUH!? How did you get so big and change so much, Tink?!"

Smiling while chuckling softly, she twists in place, saying, "Well...where do I begin?"

Once the fires are extinguished and the ash is gathered up, the other fairies gather around and welcome the captured fairies back with open arms. The commotion draws the attention of Queen Clarion, who drifts down from the tree with tears glistening in her eyes.

Wiping her tears away with a finger, she says, "It makes me so happy to see that everyone is back safely, with the unfortunate exceptions of your wings. Do not fret, for you all know that they can be repaired." Shifting her gaze to the dragon as he coughs and hacks up more fluid, she asks with a concerned expression on her face, "Are you going to be alright, Star?"

Trying to be polite to the queen, he turns his head to spit out the ash and places his claw over the puddle, saying, "Apologies, Your Majesty, but I will be fine. My body just inhaled volcanic ash is all and this is its way of getting it out, the coughing will only last for a week or two." Noticing the elves hiding between his legs, he says, "There are some new guests to your beautiful lands, Your Majesty. The captured fairies couldn't leave them to suffer in a world being remade, so they offered to give them a chance in your world." Turning his gaze to the hiding elves, he says, "Come on out and say hello to the queen of the fairies, Queen Clarion."

Queen Clarion gasps at seeing not just one, but seven elves come out from their hiding spot with their heads bowed and wearing tattered rags. As her mind tries to order its thoughts, she says, "They've returned..."

Coughing again, Star gets her attention, saying, "There are only these seven here, and I have told them how they should behave in the forests of your world. The only thing I don't know about them is their dietary needs, would you be willing to help them get settled in? They've been through quite a fright after what I did to the settlement where I found the captured fairies." Remembering the orb and staff, he grabs them and sets them before her, saying, "I also brought these items back at Nyx's suggestion, perhaps you could have some fairies look into how to undo what's been done to the pixie dust?"

Finally getting her thoughts organized, she folds her hands before her and looks at the still bowing elves, saying, "I shall see to it that their needs are met." Turning her gaze back to Star, she asks, "Though I would like to hear a full account of what happened."

As he tells her everything that transpired over there, suffering through a few coughing fits until he finishes his story and looks at the queen, fully expecting her to banish him, saying, "Whatever punishment you issue me, I shall wholly accept."

Queen Clarion looks between the elves and the dragon, realizing from his statement that he assumes she is angry with him for what he's done. Playing along with his false assumption, she lets out a slow sigh, saying, "I won't hide it from you as your attack was indeed quite ruthless, but you also managed to save a few lives while granting these elves a second chance to return to living a life of harmony with the forest. I will not punish you too harshly, though as the past should remain the past. So I shall see to it that the elves are given shelter near your den."

It takes a few weeks for things to settle back down after the return of the fairies presumed to be eaten as Star is shrunk back down to a more manageable size. Spending his time in his cave working on finishing the order for the cages, he completes half the order by the time summer gives way to fall. Looking over how much work remains to be done, Star sighs and says to himself, "I wish I could stay here forever, but there are others waiting to speak to me."

Lifting the bar into place, Tink says, "You plan on leaving us sometime soon?"

Using his breath to heat the ends to mold them together, he mixes the metal around before letting it cool, saying, "I'm having a hard time deciding. I want to stay and be around for our children, but I also want to see what I am missing in the world I helped create."

When he moves to the spot below and starts to heat it up, she looks away and says, "I know that must be a difficult choice for you to make, but as much as Peri and I would love to go with you...we can't because we still rely on pixie dust to fly."

Finishing with the bottom, Star sighs and looks at the completed cage, saying, "I know." then turns towards her and starts caressing her cheek affectionately, saying, "I understand that, which is why that I will be sure to visit as often as I can. So why don't we make the most of the time we have remaining."

Tink's tail sways side to side excitedly as she hopes his affection leads to what she is thinking, moving in to kiss her mate passionately, saying, "Love me tenderly."

By the time the order is finished, the fairies whose wings had to be regrown with his blood have undergone the same metamorphosis that Tink and Peri went through. After Rosetta had developed quite the egg belly, she waddles her way in the shallow side of the pool of water as a few rays of sunlight glint through the vines to illuminate her amber scales with black claws and a set of matching horns with an upward bend to them, saying, "Hoo-eeh darlin' these poor dogs of mine are barkin' sore with all this walking."

Chuckling as he looks at the Dragon Fairy whose belly seems ready to burst, Star says, "You could have just spoken to me over our mental link instead of walking all this way..."

Rosetta puts her clawed hands on her hips as her tail swings agitatedly, saying with a pout, "Oh hush up you! I could have, but then I would miss out on whatever time I can get with you before you leave us."

Walking up to her, he stands on his back legs to be the same height, saying, "I am glad you came to visit me, do you know how much longer it will take before you deliver?"

Wrapping her arms around him with a huff, she nuzzles his neck, saying, "Honey, if I knew that I'd tell you, but I sure hope it ain't too much longer. If this belly of mine gets any bigger, the nurses are gonna confine me to a hospital bed! If I didn't have this tail to help counter balance my belly, I would just topple right over and roll down the hill!"

Unable to hold back a snicker at the image that conjures, Star says, "If you don't deliver by the time I leave, be sure to send Tink to hunt me down when your time comes, alright?"

Trailing her claws along his back affectionately, Rosetta basks in her mate's scent, saying with half-lidded eyes, "Alright sugar, I will. In the meantime though...give me some sugar." and pulls her head away to kiss him deeply.

The time comes for Star to leave two weeks later as Star gathers his gold and silver at the back of his cave, turning to face the gathered fairies and elves with the exception of Rosetta due to her belly getting even bigger, saying, "I will just be a world away, everyone, but I shall see you again soon." Turning to Tink, he says, "Make sure that you come find me when Rosetta decides to stop hiding her eggs from me, Tink."

Cutting in at hearing that, Rosetta huffs angrily, saying through their link, 'If I could push them out right now, I would! Sometimes you must let nature run her course, so don't rush me. Oh, and could someone bring me some more dragonfruit, I'm starving! By the way, I love you honey.'

Tinkerbell giggles at hearing that and lays a hand on her own belly, saying, "If I can still fly by the time she decides to deliver, I will, but if not...I'll send Vidia or Nyx after you." while hearing an annoyed rumble coming from the mentioned bedridden garden fairy in her mind.

Standing on the edge of the cave's temporarily frozen pool, Peri caresses her growing belly as she says, "Winter will be coming by in about a month, so perhaps the girls and I can drop by to see you then."

Making his way over to her standing on his back legs, he lays his hands on her shoulders and rubs his nose against hers before giving her a gentle kiss on the lips, saying, "I look forward to it, hopefully I will find a nice mountain top cave to call home by then." Wanting the rest of his mates to get a kiss, he moves to Tink next, thinking, 'Here's a kiss for you as well dear.'

Feeling the sensation cross over the link makes her toes curl, causing her to moan lightly, saying, 'Why thank you sugar, with a kiss like that, I do expect to become laden with eggs as soon as these ones are born...'

Leaving Tink half-lidded while biting her lip, he chuckles as she trails her claws over her chest, saying through their link, 'Well I have no issue with that as long as you're up for it.'

Once he finishes kissing each of his mates and children, he heads to the back of the cave and thinks of where to open the portal at. An image of the Crystal Empire where he fell coming to his mind, he chuckles as he channels a spell to open a portal wondering to himself, 'I wonder if I should go in my compact, travel everywhere size...or in my somewhat inconvenient, gigantic size?' Thinking it over, he decides it best to go with his full size and adjusts the spell to nullify the effects of the Poison Joke dust affecting him. When the spell completes, he turns and looks back to the others, singing, "Farewell and adieu, to you Fairish ladies. Farewell and adieu, to you ladies of Fae. I have treasured this visit, though it is time to journey onward. I shall visit again in the near future, so look forward to seeing me again."

Heading to the back of his cave where the portal is against the wall, he starts grabbing and tossing his gold and silver bars through. Reducing his stacks to about half of what they were, he stops and walks toward the portal, saying, "That should be enough for a mountain I think, if not, I can fly back to get more..."

When he reaches the other side, he sees several guards standing a fair distance away, surrounding the portal, his pile of gold and silver bars, and him, saying, "Uhm...hello, I mean you no harm."

The soldiers look the dragon over, watching as the portal winks out of existence while he slowly starts to get bigger in size. Surprised, they step back until he stops growing as Shining Armor steps forth, saying, "You've returned, Star Reaper, I thought that we might come under attack from Sombra again. I didn't know that dragons could use magic like unicorns and Alicorns, no wonder that portal you came through looked a bit odd with runes I couldn't read." Looking at the pile of gold to the right, he then cocks his head curiously and asks, "So what's with the gold and silver bars, are you planning on doing a lot of trading?"

Nodding his head in understanding, he says, "It is wise to be ready to respond to any potential threat at any given time. As for dragons other than me using magic, I can't be sure until I study them. The runes are in the written dragon knowledge I know, I wouldn't mind helping teach it to you if you have the time. I am planning on doing some trading...of a sort, though what I have in mind is doing some property hunting. Would you know of anyone that would be able to assist with my inquiry?"

Thinking it over for a moment, Shining Armor smiles, saying, "I appreciate the offer, but I doubt that I might have much use for knowing your written language, though I am sure that my sister would love to learn it. With your desire to buy some land, I think my wife might know a pony that can help you with your search. For clarity, what kind of property are you seeking to purchase?"

With a smile, Star says, "It might be a little unusual, but I am looking to buy a mountain to build my dwelling in."

Running that through his head again, he smiles and rubs the back of his head with a hoof, saying, "On second thought, perhaps my wife might handle that herself as mountains are considered outside city limits. Let me report back to her so I can relay your request, please wait here a moment."

Once he watches the pony teleport away, he makes himself comfortable on the ground to wait for his return as the guards around him watch him warily. Minutes later, he does return with his wife in tow with a smile on her face, greeting her with a nod of his head, saying, "Greetings, Your Majesty, it is good to see you again. How does the Crystal Empire fare now that Sombra is gone?"

Cadance looks up at Star's massive form, saying, "It fares well now, though it was challenging for the first year until Rainbow Dash helped us get chosen to host the Equestrian Games this spring. Since we've been chosen to host the Equestrian Games in three years, we've become quite the attraction for visitors, so we are doing much better now." With a smile coming to her face, she says, "My husband tells me you are looking to purchase land outside the city, shall we go for a flight to see what area is to your liking?"

Star nods his head and says, "Yes, that would be very helpful, though, to be clear, I am looking to purchase a mountain and carve myself a dwelling into it." Then asks, "Would you still consider doing business with me?"

Cocking her head at what he said, she smiles and says, "Of course I will do business with you, but you helped fight against Sombra, and also crafted the Crystal Heart the crystal ponies hold so dear. I do believe my subjects would be unhappy with me for selling a anything to you for full price, so in response to that...how about I gift you a mountain of your choosing?"

Smiling down at the princess, he says, "If that is what you are willing to do, how about we compromise and I pay a lower price of your choosing?"

With her head still angled curiously, Cadance says, "Alright then." She then looks down to think over an offer that reflects how her subjects think of him, lifting her eyes back up to him and smiles, asking, "What do you think about ten percent of the going price?"

Raising a scaly-eyebrow skeptically, he sits down on his rear to be comfortable and chuffs in amusement, saying, "What do you think about eighty-five percent of the purchase price?"

Shining Armor listens to the two haggle back and forth and smirks as both fight tooth and claw or hoof to be fair to the other, chuckling under his breath, thinking, 'This is quite an amusing negotiation, Star's trying to stubbornly pay as much as he can...and my wife is trying to give him the lowest price to keep the crystal ponies from raising a fuss over not treating him fairly.'

The two spend a half-hour haggling back and forth until Star huffs and says, "I'm not going any lower than fifty percent of the price, that is as low as I am willing to go. Please either agree to it or I shall take my hoard and fly elsewhere in search of a home."

Fighting against her desire to stomp her feet and snort in agitation, Cadance lets out a loud sigh instead, saying in a firmer tone than she means, "Fine then, I will begrudgingly agree to that, although I still think it is much too high..."

Rising from his resting place, he smiles and nods, saying, "Thank you so much, now let's go see what peaks your empire has to offer."

Smiling and opening her wings, she smirks and says, "After you, young one."

Turning to the princess's husband, he asks, "Shining Armor, would you so kind as to guard my hoard while we look for a mountain I like?"

Shining Armor nods as Star spreads his wings, saying, "It would be my pleasure to keep it safe, Star Reaper." then watches as he takes off and follows after his wife.

Star catches up to Cadance pretty quickly, saying, "If you want to rest your wings at any time, you can land atop my head and cling to one of my spikes."

Keeping her front legs folded under her, Cadance continues heading northeast, looking back over her shoulder, saying, "Thank you for being thoughtful, but I have been needing the exercise after being stuck in the castle for the past week." She then asks, "Do you spot any mountain peaks that draw your eye?"

Looking around, his eyes land on the tallest one and causes him to ask, "Do you or your subjects have any attachment to the tall mountain to our left?"

She turns her head to look at the mountain in question and says, "Oh, that is Mount Everhoof over there, we once had a few mines at the base of it before Sombra took over. I don't think that my subjects would mind letting you make your home on it, there won't be any danger to the Empire from avalanches due to it being so far away."

Looking back at him over her right shoulder again, she says "However, you will need to be mindful of all the snow if you build anywhere on the mountain." then asks, "Are you wanting to purchase Mount Everhoof, Star?"

With a smile he nods and says, "Only the upper half of it so that your subjects can return to the mines and make them functional again."

With a nod and a happy expression on her face, Cadance adjusts her course a little and heads towards Mount Everhoof, saying, "Very well, let's go take a closer look to see how much snow has built up before searching for where you would like to build your home."

A few minutes later, they arrive at the mountain and circle it for several minutes as Star says, "Let's head to the base and cover the mine entrances first so that you know where they are, and can then uncover them at a time of your choosing."

Smiling at his kindness, she nods once more and heads towards the ground and looks for old mine entrances. It winds up taking them an hour to gather enough material to make heavy slabs to lay over the entrances and secure them in place before she follows star back up into the air, asking, "Now what are you planning on doing?"

Looking at all the built up snow, he says, "I'm going to head towards the top and give all this snow a little whack with my tail so that I know what it looks like underneath, so you might want to keep a fair distance when it gives way and heads down the mountain."

Cadance shakes her head in disbelief then sighs and hovers in place, saying, "Very well, but that is going to create quite an avalanche, you know?"

With a nod, he says, "At least there are no ponies around us to get caught up in it's path." then passes by the peak and comes to a near-hover as he brings his tail around to the right when he starts to turn away from the mountain. Slapping his tail against the eastern side of the peak, he heads to the other side to do the same.

She watches as the upper half of the packed snow breaks away and starts collapsing the layers beneath in a cascading effect, causing the undisturbed snow on top to break apart and slowly be ground down into a fine powder. In only a few seconds, the avalanche is roaring its way down the mountain, producing a billowing snowy mist that follows in the avalanches wake as more layers up above break free and make their way down the mountain. Spotting a few tumbling boulders the size of a house heading down the mountain, Cadance says with wide eyes, "Wow, I didn't realize that avalanches had such power..."

After whacking the other sides to break the layers up and send them down the mountain, Star sees that the mountain is several feet shorter than what it first appeared, saying over the roar of the avalanche racing down the mountainside, "I am surprised to see that the mountain is not as tall as I first thought, but I am glad I knocked the layers of snow free. If I hadn't, I might have started digging a little too high up."

Making his way over to Cadance, who is staring at the avalanche with eyes wide in surprise, he says, "Nature is the greatest force in the land, where many things are in a constant state of motion such as the sky, rivers and oceans, glaciers, and even the land itself moves. However, glaciers and the land move at a speed so slowly, you would have to watch time fly by rapidly to even notice the movement."

Looking over at him, Cadance asks in a soft tone, "If I asked you a question related to how long you've lived, would you be able to answer it?"

Hovering a bit behind her with his head even with her body in the sky, he looks at her and thinks for a few seconds before nodding and saying, "I have spent enough time mourning my past sins, though a new grief has taken its place. What would you like to know?"

Shifting her gaze to his eyes, she asks, "How long have you been on this planet?"

Recalling the memory of when this planet was first created, he smiles and says, "Almost from the very beginning of it, when the atmosphere was breathable. When I first landed on the surface, there was no life forms and it was still cooling down from the constant volcanic eruptions that were happening during the time I was saying my farewells. I have been here for a few dozen millennia, though it is hard for me to put a claw on the exact number."

Hearing him say that causes the goddess to reach out to their minds and say to the two of them, snorting with amusement, saying, "You've been on the planet for roughly a hundred thousand years, give or take a few millennia and a couple centuries, little dragon. Not to mention how I had to suffer through two or three thousand years of sorrow, grief, and despair from the fragments of your soul after it burst apart into four pieces once you were put to rest by Star Swirl."

Huffing in mild amusement at how Cadence looks all around to find who said that, he says, "That was the goddess who just said that into our minds, however, my penance began several seconds after I landed on the ground when my soul was taken from me by the spell that was placed upon me by the high priestess of my race when I was cast away from my home planet many, many millennia ago." Looking towards the sky, he says, "I was wondering why I had trouble recalling what happened once the chiming started and my body drifted into slumber." Just then, a dull ache makes itself known deep in is heart as he is reminded of how many he has killed, along with how he caused the war between the bipeds that led to his whole species being wiped out.

Able to sense the complicated state of his heart, Cadance detects that even though he has others partnered to him. Though he is mated to a few others, he feels deep down that, they are still not actual dragons...not like him. Sighing at how his heart secretly longs to be with one he knew long ago, she realizes that her powers of love can't do anything to help him out. Not letting herself get too upset in being unable to use her powers to ease his suffering, she says, "Even though the ones we love may move on, they live on in our memories and will always be a part of us. If they truly loved us, they would want us to move on with our lives and find love with another so that we are never alone. If you ever feel alone and need to talk to somepony about what bothers you, feel free to come talk to me."

Smiling at her kindness, Star says, "I said something of that sort to a dragoness I loved long ago when I was being cast away from my home planet of Drovura." Thinking of what other meanings her words could have, he says with a smirk, "You might want to think your responses over more carefully or someone might think that you are showing interest in them. I do find you very pretty for a pony, but I do believe that your husband would either be angry or very upset if you showed interest in me or another pony."

Her mind reels at hearing that as she blushes fiercely and loses some altitude due to her wings halting their flapping for a few moments, saying, "You know very well that I am not trying to flirt with you, but I appreciate your advice. Be sure to be more cautious with how you tease others, or it might cause you some unforeseen troubles in the future."

Chuckling in amusement at getting under her skin a little, he says, "I will keep that in mind, Cadance. Shall we head back so that I can pay you for the upper half of Mount Everhoof so that I can begin working on my home?"

Nodding her head in agreement, Cadance says, "We probably should, for we have been gone for about an hour. While you work on building your home, I can move your treasure to an empty storage vault in the castle so that no one takes what isn't theirs if you would like that, that is."

Flying back while thinking it over, he lands and says, "I have thought your offer over, princess, and I would like it very much if you would do that for me. Thank you very much, now how much would I owe you for the upper half of the mountain?"

When the princess answers and thinks over how much the normal price would be for a mountain, a female crystal guard clears her throat and says, "If I might be permitted to speak, Your Majesty, I could inform you about what the cost would be."

Happy at having a pony willing to offer information, the princess nods her head gratefully, saying, "I would greatly appreciate that, guardspony, thank you very much. Please speak your mind and share what you know."

Nodding, she then starts telling her about how she has a talent for measuring gold and how she uses her talent to determine the true value of the Equestrian bit. When she finishes, she looks at the dragon and asks, "Might you allow me to check the weight of one of your gold ingots, mister dragon?"

Star nods and grabs one of the ingots between his claws and sets it before her, saying, "Go ahead, little one, I just made them this size so that it wouldn't be such a hassle carrying them in my claws."

The guardspony steps forth after a nod from Shining Armor and touches her hoof to the bar while using her talent to get a read on the bar, humming to herself as she sorts through the information coming to her mind. Finished examining the gold bar's purity and weight, she steps it off carefully and says with a confident gleam in her eye, "This bar is beyond a doubt, one hundred percent pure and weighs about 800 pounds...give or take a few. My friend keeps a close eye on property values who has another friend that works in land sales, so enough information gets back to me that enables me to give a rough estimate about what the upper half of Mount Everhoof would be worth. With the land in question being the upper portion of a mountain, the economical value of the area is half of the going price of land of equivalent size. With that all in mind, to get approximately half of the value, it would still amount to requiring five hundred of these big bars."

Cadance's eyes widen at hearing that as she says with a slightly raised voice, "F-Five...hundred? Isn't that a little bit high just for a mountain?"

Shaking her head, she says, "With tourism at an all-time high and our growing economy over the past year, not to mention the widespread news that we are hosting the next Equestria Games getting us even more visitors, I might even be on the low side of the estimate for the Crystal Empire's favorite world-famous mountain landmark."

Star chuckles and turns to the princess, saying, "I don't have a problem with that price."

Looking up at him with narrowed eyes, Cadance huffs in annoyance, saying, "Easy for you to say, you don't have to ship it all off to be melted down in Canterlot. Very well then, I can agree to that price."

Cocking his head a little, he asks, "Why not melt it down yourselves, surely the Crystal Empire must have a way to melt metals down?"

Curious at what he said, she turns to the guards and asks, "Do either of you know if the city has the capabilities to melt gold at all?"

The female guard from before nods her head, saying, "We do, though nowhere near capable of melting something of this size."

Thinking it over, Star asks, "Perhaps we could make a new container out of crystal, since it has a much higher melting point than gold, and make adjustments to what you are capable of handling?"

The guard looks up in thought, searching her memories for what she recalls of their equipment's abilities and says, "That would be possible, though we only have six molds able to make three bars each with one bar weighing about 25 pounds."

Recalling the crystal boulders that tumbled down the mountain, he says, "I know where to find a decent-sized crystal boulder I can carve out to hold a few ingots."

She looks up at him as he prepares to fly towards the mountain, saying, "Make sure to also make a base for it to tilt on so it pours properly."

Nodding his head, he heads off to fetch a pair of large boulders to carve up with his claws and magic. Seeing a couple the size of his claws, he grabs them both with his front and back claws and returns to the group. Setting them both beside his hoard and landing behind them, he gets started as he watches a few guards hurry back towards the city.

By the time the guards get back, he has the large cauldron ready along with a stand it can swivel on and asks, "I haven't carved the spout yet, so how does this look so far?"

One of the ponies that came back with her trots forward, saying, "The shape is fine, can you tilt it ahead so that I can see how thick you made the walls?"

When he uses a claw to tilt the cauldron up by pushing the handle up with no effort, he watches the elder pony scrutinize the thickness with a few gentle nods of his head, saying, "Very nice, sonny, very nice indeed."

Hearing the dragon chuckle, he looks at the front of the cauldron and says, "You can take it out of the cradle now and lay it down just like this, we'll make the spout with our crystal shaping tools."

It takes the craftsponies only an hour to make the spout and a brief pouring chute for the liquid gold to trickle down to the waiting mold. Another group arrives as they finish setting up some tables with some stamps and other tools on them, then begin setting up their equipment to make ingots.

A half hour passes as Cadance watches curiously as the elderly pony tells the dragon to put a couple ingots into the pot and start heating it up as a fire is lit under the mold with a pony on the far end of the cart whose head is facing the mold in a strange harness attached to a scraper of some kind.

Once Star watches the gold become liquid and fill the pot half-full, he looks up to the elder standing on a podium looking into the pot and give a subtle nod of his head, hearing him say, "Remember to go very slowly sonny, our molds only handle 75 pounds of gold tops. Make sure that you keep a close eye on the hash marks to avoid pouring too much, I will say when to stop pouring but you keep an eye on the last ingot's level as well."

The elder pony turns to Cadance and asks, "Your Majesty, if you wouldn't mind, could you keep an eye on the smaller overflow pot at the end there and return the excess back into the big pot with your magic?"

Nodding her head with a smile, she trots over to the end to watch how everything functions, saying, "I'm ready for whenever you choose to start pouring."

Starting to push up on the handle, taking a little effort due to the weight of the molten gold inside, Star goes slowly at first and watches how the mold begins to fill up. Watching closely to how swiftly the last ingot fills up, he slows his pour to not go over too much when he hears the elder pony tell him to lower the pot down.

The pony harnessed to the scraper mounted to the mold pulls it forward and across the holes slowly until it reaches the end with a distinct clunk, then begins to detach from it so that the next pony can pull it ahead to the next station.

Using her magic to lift the small amount in her pot, Cadance moves it over and gently releases it back into the larger pot and watches the next mold begin to fill up, saying, "This is really an interesting process."

Chuckling at hearing that, the elder pony says, "Yeah, it might seem that way to you now, but just wait until you've been doing this for a few hours on end without taking a break to go get something to eat or drink. We will be here for six hours...at least."

It takes them eight hours to get almost all five hundred ingots melted down and poured into bullion molds as a clerk watches from her desk with a tally sheet as another ingot is placed into the pot, calling out, "Last one everypony, we're finally in the home stretch!"

After filling all the molds a few times over, the elder pony sees the pot dwindling down to the bottom, saying, "Alright, you can continue on pouring, I'm gonna stand around for when the pot gets down to the last drops and finish off the last mold's level myself."

When the last ingot is finally poured, the large pot is completely empty and begins to cool down when the last mold is rolled over to the next station as Shining Armor trots up to his wife and hands her a report with a smirk on his face, saying, "We're set for a good long while, darling."

Cadance tiredly looks over the report, which causes her eyes to rise up, asking, "Every inch of it is completely full, where's the rest being stored?"

Chuckling, he says, "Inside a secondary vault beside the primary one, though there is not much room left in it either with the precious relics, mementos, and bits that are stacked or packed into a corner." Turning his head to the last mold as Star sets the huge cauldron aside, he asks, "You all are finally done melting all five hundred of the ingots down?"

Nodding her head, she says, "Yes we are, at last. That mold there is the last one poured, now could you assign a group of rotating guards to watch over Star's hoard for him?"

Looking over at the setting sun, Star stretches out his body tiredly, saying, "I don't feel like digging into the mountainside tonight, so I shall rest right here until dawn."

Hearing Star yawn causes Cadance to yawn sleepily as well, saying, "Sleep sounds very enticing right now..." turning her head to her husband and kissing him lightly on the cheek, saying, "Shiny, dear, why don't you find a few guards to stand watch around our friend and his hoard here, then hurry on over to our chambers for some cuddling?"

Seeing the affection in her eyes brings a smile to his face as he nods eagerly, saying, "At once, my dear." then gallops off as she wishes the dragon goodnight and flies away to their private chambers, skidding to a stop and looking back over his shoulder, calling out, "Goodnight, Star Reaper! Glad to have you as a new resident of the Crystal Empire!"

Chuckling at the young stallion's eagerness, he says, "Goodnight, young stallion, go chase your love while I chase mine in my dreams." Curling himself around his smaller hoard, he lays his head down on the ground and takes a deep breath before letting it out. Closing both sets of eyelids, he drifts off to a peaceful slumber where he finds Sky Wing waiting for him and tapping her front claw in annoyance, asking, "Hey Cosmo, I'm so glad that you made it back, our kids are running me ragged with how they've been flapping and gliding from treetop to treetop taunting the bears with waterballs. I've had to go down and kill one or two so they realize that their mother is watching, I sure hope you're hungry, the two I brought up here are really big."

1: The Dragon's Gift

1: The Dragon's Gift

Cosmic Seeker lies in his den at the peak of a snow-covered mountain in a world populated by elves, dwarves, and numerous other creatures, all ruled by the Arch Dragon, Sulfur Hide. He sighs out dreamily as he dreams of furthering his courtship with Sky Wing, remembering how it is customary for the male to make the first move by presenting a gift for their intended mate and awaiting their decision. Wondering to himself about what he is going to give her, he sighs and gets up to fly around for some inspiration.

As he spreads his wings and leaves his den, he climbs higher into the skies to let the air currents do some of the work for him. When he gets high enough, Cosmic uses his wings to steady himself as the currents carry him across the land swiftly. Seeing snow-covered mountains passing below him, he focuses his sight on them and adjusts his eyes to get a closer look at them. Noticing that they are mountains made out of crystal, an idea forms in his mind as he swoops down between two clouds toward the mountain's very peak.

A dwarf standing guard catches sight of the large, four-legged, deep purple dragon with two wings, sharp spines running down along its back, and a spiked, star-shaped tail heading in the direction of the city. Seeing an elf turn to raise the alarm, he calls out to the others, "MAN YOUR POSTS, WARRIORS! DRAGON INBOUND!" He then runs to his assigned ballista and hops into the seat, then cranks the small positioning wheels to adjust the weapon's aim into the sky. With the dragon heading towards the mountain behind him to the right, he angles his seat and aiming reticle sideways slightly to the left, which are both part of a small, adjustable, platform.

He follows the dragon's trajectory as the dragon seems to be heading straight for the mountain and not their city, not taking any chances, he begins to crank the two ratcheting levers back and forth to cock the braided mithril string back. When the string reaches the very back of the rail, he hears a click and watches a long, black steel shaft tipped with a barbed, twin-bladed mithril arrowhead loaded into the rail and says, "When it's loaded, get clear of the string and ready another bolt!"

One of the elves rolls the bolt into the proper position and slides it back against the string, saying, "This isn't the first time we've done this you know!" She then crouches down and rolls out from harm's way, standing up and rushing over to bolt carrier, saying as she reaches it, "Clear!"

The dwarf then waits for the others to shout clear before using his foot pedals to rotate the entire ballista to follow the dragon's trajectory to the right while adjusting the aim downward, he follows the dragon's trajectory and notices one bolt take off towards the dragon, saying, "DON'T FIRE YET YOU MORON!" When it hits and breaks off half of the dragon's right horn, he gasps and says, "Well that greenhorn just pissed off that dragon...OPEN FIRE!"

The elf hears him pull the lever back beside the seat, firing the bolt at the dragon and shakes her head saying, "I can't believe that idiot fired before the order was given. Don't they know that they can't fire on a dragon until it attacks first? That's against the Arch Dragon's law!"

Cosmic growls in anger at losing half of his right horn and looks down at the city, narrowing his red, slitted eyes balefully at the city at the base of the mountain, thinking, 'After I get what I came for, I will take it to my den and come back to punish this wretched city...' He then roars out in pain as six other bolts pierce through his hide, missing vital areas but still inflicting deep wounds that will take time to heal.

As he twists his body out of the way of the bolts fired at him, he suddenly pulls upward and extends his four legs out toward the topmost part of the crystal mountain. Hitting it heavily with a lot of force fractures a sizable chunk of the peak, allowing him to pry his claws into the break and fly ahead while a few bolts hit his tail. A few moments pass when the portion breaks free, permitting him to wrap his claws around it firmly as he then flaps his wings hard to get out of range of the weapon's range, shouting, "YOU WILL ALL BURN FOR THIS!"

Cosmic forces himself to ignore the stinging pain of the shafts piercing the right side of his body, feeling grateful that none of the bolts hit his lungs or other vital organs. When he finally arrives back at his den a couple of hours later, he begins to carve away at the chunk of crystal with his claws.

Working through the rest of the day and much of the night, he wakes a short while later with a painful groan as he rolls onto his stomach from his undamaged left side and gazes upon his gift for his lover. Reaching out his left claw, he lays his palm on top of it and pulls it closer before closing his claws around it. Lifting his claw, he then turns it over and opens his clawed hands to look it over more carefully. As he looks upon the clear, crystal-shaped heart, he can't help but feel that it isn't quite special enough. Not sure what else to do, he recalls the attack from yesterday and growls angrily after allowing himself to get sidetracked with the gift for his love. He spots a large boulder where his secret hoard of gems is that he secretly shares with his love whenever they spend time together close to his den and makes his way over to it, he then moves the boulder into the small hole containing a very small pile of gold coins and treasure he took from the creatures around the planet and sets the crystal heart he carved into the hollow hidden underneath the boulder.

After moving the light boulder back into place, he turns around and makes his way out of the cave to punish the city for attacking first without reason. When he walks out of his den, he sees it is still night out with the moon obscured by clouds and spreads his wings to take flight.

When Cosmic is in the air, he flies higher into the sky to preserve what strength he has and angles himself towards the city that broke the law.

Only taking him a couple of hours to reach the city, he sees the signs of dawn approaching and circles the city just below the layer of clouds while looking at the city very closely to develop a plan of attack. Spotting several archer towers along with at least a hundred ballistae mounted on parapets along the top walls, he takes note of two large warning bells on two separate towers towards the interior of the city.

Knowing that the ballistae provide the greatest threat to him, he temporarily ignores the bells and dives towards one of the gates guarded by two towers. Keeping quiet, he approaches the rightmost tower beside the northern gate at a steep angle, pulling his body up and moving his wings straight behind him to let himself slam into it with full force.

When he slams into the tower, alarmed cries and terrified screams rise into the air after the tower collapses and falls into pieces on both sides of the closed gates. With the gates only partially blocked, Cosmic takes to the air again quickly as war horns sound the alarm with the bells ringing out their deep, sonorous notes.

With the sky so dark still, Cosmic swoops back around and slams the other tower down to completely block the gates. With his breath ready, he then breathes out his enchanted blue flame easily capable of melting stone which cannot be extinguished by anything. Engulfing a long stretch of the wall and smaller archer towers in his blue flame, he executes an overhead loop and swoops back toward the blocked gate to fully engulf it in fire.

After covering the blocked gate with the destroyed towers in fire from both sides, he goes back to his next task of destroying each ballista along the wall. When he comes across the second gate towards the southwest, he slams into it and sends it crashing down to block the gate.

As he returns to the air, he circles back around to take out the final tower beside the gate and starts hearing bolts whizz past him. Knowing he needs to be more careful now, he hits the tower and collapses it while the bells continue to ring out the alarm. Changing his tactics, he flies up and turns around to continue taking out the ballistae along the next stretch of wall.

Flying over the walls while banking to the left and breathing his blue flame, he hears metallic twangs as a few ballistae are destroyed. Seeing the final gate looming up ahead, he stops breathing fire and takes in a fresh breath while building up his speed again.

Seeing a ballista aimed directly at him, he quickly pulls off to the side while slamming his tail into the right tower, sending it down in pieces to block the gate while hearing soldiers shouting, "IT'S TRYING TO BLOCK THE GATES AND TRAP THE CITIZENS, SHOOT IT DOWN!"

When the bolt misses his body, Cosmic feels it punch through the membrane on his wing and heads for the ringing bells that are beginning to annoy him. Lining himself up, he uses his tail to destroy one and uses a fireball to destroy the last one, hearing it ring out dully a few times as it tumbles to the ground before falling silent completely. Returning to his previous task, he circles back around to take out the remaining ballistae.

A human teenage boy sees the blue light appear in the dragon's open maw as blue fire burns brightly behind him along the top of the walls, casting the dragon in a nightmare, inducing sight as it makes its way towards his station, saying, "Screw dying, I'm outta here!" and jumps out of his seat and races for the stairs down. When he reaches the side of the wall, he spots a hay cart nearby and jumps for it. He feels a blistering heat bake his back as he lands into the cart safely when one wheel breaks and tips over, sending him rolling out into the cobblestone street below.

When he returns to his feet, he hears the metallic twanging snap of his ballista breaking apart. A moment later, he sees the metal string slam into a house and reduce it to pieces, causing him to race toward it to save those he hears screaming inside.

After managing to save an elven girl, he looks back toward the wall to see the dragon finish off the last ballista and leave the entire wall burning as it banks around to the left while mages continue attacking it with their spells. He watches the dragon head straight for the last gate and engulf the side facing inward in flame, grabbing for the girl's hand and rushing off toward one of the entrances to the lower tunnels for safety, saying, "C'mon, we're getting to safety before that damned dragon starts lighting up the whole town and cuts off our escape!"

The young elven girl nods as tears fall down her delicate face while her light blue hair trails behind her in a long ponytail, turning her head to the left as she watches the dragon pass down a wide street several streets away from her. Anguished and terrified screams rise from the dragon's path as it begins to destroy the city, saying, "IT'S GOING TO KILL US ALL, RUN FASTER!"

The teenage boy pants and pulls her along, saying, "I never was that great with my stamina, but I'm going to keep running as fast as I can, so don't ever let go of my hand!"

Gripping his hand harder, she uses her long legs to take the lead, saying, "Try to keep up with me or I will carry you there on my shoulder, human!"

Cosmic destroys another tunnel that the beings below are streaming toward for safety, watching as they change direction and follows their path toward another escape route, shouting, "ACCEPT YOUR FATE, WRETCHED INSECTS! THERE IS NO ESCAPING MY FIRE!"

He breathes a trail of fire along the path of the fleeing citizens, burning them alive in seconds with his flame as he collapses yet one more tunnel. As watches them begin to change course again, he circles around and watches them from a short distance away for their destination.

When he finds where they are heading, he incinerates the whole line with his fire and collapses their escape with a blue fireball. Returning to the sky to look for more, he watches them scatter and start heading toward the castle. As the spells start coming frequently from the castle's defenses, Cosmic starts heading there when movement to his right catches his eye. Quickly turning his head, he spots an elven girl sprinting to a tunnel that he assumed he destroyed and watches her use magic to bend the fire out of her way. Seeing her do that enrages him to no end as he then bellows, "HOW DARE YOU MANIPULATE MY FIRE LIKE THAT! PREPARE TO DIE HORRIBLY!"

Almost to the tunnel, the elven girl runs even harder. When she sees the wall before her begin to glow with white light, her hair starts to singe and burn. Not wanting to die in a flash of light, she continues running and casts a protection barrier around her with what magic she has left when she is suddenly hurled forth by an explosion from behind. Hurled forth into the tunnel, she feels the human wrap his arms around her as they both begin tumbling down the stairs violently and holds him tightly right back.

When her magic runs out, the two cling to each other and try to protect their heads as much as possible until they black out after hitting the bottom of the floor and tumble apart.

Atop the tallest tower of the castle, the princess's eyes follow the dragon and cries out for the citizens, screaming, "PLEASE TAKE ME INSTEAD AND STOP KILLING THE PEOPLE, THEY'VE PAID ENOUGH FOR ATTACKING YOU!"

Her pleas fall on deaf ears as the dragon begins tearing the castle's defenses apart, watching in horror as her father leads the attack against the dragon and screams out, "FATHER, NOOOO!" She then falls to her knees as the dragon quickly engulfs him and his men in fire, letting her long, bright crimson hair fall in front of her face as she wails out in grief at her father's death while the dragon continues to destroy the castle's defenses.

After a while, the screams fall silent, making her look up with her tear-stained face and pull herself up the marble balustrade of the tower's balcony to look out at the city. What she sees in the mid-morning's light destroys her as she hoarsely wails out at seeing the entire city ablaze, causing fresh tears to stream down her face in rivers as she weakly cries out, "Take me instead..." while sobs wrack her body.

The princess's ears hear a dull roar as heat rushes up through the tower and past her face, blasting her to the end of the tower's large balcony when blue fire starts to erupt from the doors and shatter the once beautiful stained glass windows. As the fire races toward her in slow motion, she looks on with deadening eyes as she waits for her death, saying quietly, "Let my suffering end already, there is nothing left for me here..."

The fire slowly starts flowing upward, missing her by a few feet and setting fire to her lovely crimson hair but only burns away half of it. By the time her hair stops smoldering, her white silk dress starts on fire, screaming out in agony as the fire turns orange and burns the fabric away.

When the fire finally burns out, only scraps of her dress remain, barely enough to cover her private areas as she registers a dull flapping of large wings getting louder with each passing second.

Seconds pass as Cosmic reaches the tallest tower, watching as blue fire and smoke rise from every opening in the castle. Poking his head through the smoke to see if the one who screamed earlier is still there, he grins as his eyes fall on the barefoot, and nearly fully nude form of a high elf young woman with bright red hair matching his eye color and says, "How miraculous of you to survive..." His eyes notice something shiny to his left and spots a small silver tiara encrusted with diamonds, then looks back at her, finishing, "Young princess. I remember hearing you offer yourself to me to spare your people, are you willing to actually go through with that offer?"

The surviving princess sniffs sadly and pushes herself up on her burnt arms with a pained hiss, nodding weakly and looking down in reverence to the mighty dragon, saying softly, "Y-Yes..."

As he watches her avert her eyes in respect as all beings normally do when face-to-face with any dragon, his hurt pride fades a little more and puts him into a nicer mood, saying to her, "I permit you to look me in the face, elf." When she shivers and looks up at his face, he says, "Now what did you say? I didn't quite hear you with the blazing fires behind me."

With her hopes for her people surviving rekindled, she takes a short breath and speaks a little louder, saying, "I will still offer myself to you freely if you would so kindly spare the rest of the citizens, milord."

Cosmic feels her stroking his ego a little bit but does not let that get to him as he then narrows his eyes at her, saying, "Very well, I accept your offer and shall spare the few that managed to survive the destruction." He then uses one of his claws to pick up the discarded diamond-studded tiara while using his other to destroy the marble banister for the slightly crispy princess. When he lays his clawed right hand on the edge of the balcony, he looks at her and says, "Climb onto my head near the base of my horns amid the small spikes up front and hold on tight, if you try your luck attacking me...keep in mind that many mages have tried to pierce my thick skull and diamond-hard plates with their spells, but I will ignore your offer and make you watch as I slaughter the survivors of this city." Without another word, he lowers his head while watching her very closely with his crimson eyes.

The princess gulps and says honestly, "Understood sir, I will not try my luck." then climbs up into position on his head, not wanting to do anything to earn the dragon's wrath and kill the rest of the citizens, saying, "I'm in position, milord." She inhales an unsteady breath as she feels him raise his head up and fly away from the castle, watching the smoke flow around her barely clothed body when he begins to circle back around.

With the surrendered princess and treasure in place, he circles back around while looking at the castle and blasting the base of it apart with his fireballs. When he hears a faint rumble as it begins to collapse, he huffs and starts flying out of town while looking at the entire city engulfed in flames when he passes over the wall near the mountain and spots the missing half of his horn and says, "So that is where it fell, I shall use it to serve as a warning for other fools who dare to break my uncle's law..."

As Cosmic picks up his horn with his other front claw, he heads to the main road leading toward the burning city and plants it in the middle of the road with the point upward. Finding a boulder big enough, he splits it in half with his tail and writes in a language any being can understand clearly, 'Let this severed horn belonging to I, the dragon known as Cosmic Seeker, serve as a reminder of the fate that awaits those who violate the law and attack a dragon before it attacks them. Though I suffered some minor injuries while collecting a gift for my love, I still had plenty of strength remaining to lay waste to this very city and set each stone ablaze. HEED THY WARNING WELL, OR BE REDUCED TO ASH AS PENANCE FOR THY FOLLY!'

She looks up at the massive column of black smoke rising from the blue flames of the city she once called home when the hope within her eyes dwindles to nothing and fades away, causing her will to break as her mind starts to descend into madness. As she gazes into the raging blue flames, a stray thought enters her mind as she mumbles, "Such a pretty color..."

With the message written for all to see on the main road, he returns to the sky and says, "There are a few dragons that can breathe blue fire capable of melting stone, but I am the only one with that deep blue color."

Holding on to the small spines atop his head with what strength she can muster, some parts of her tattered remains get torn off and blow away in the wind, leaving her in just a tattered thong that covers almost nothing and a few slivers of silk covering some of her small chest.

It takes a little longer for him to return to his den due to the princess atop his head wearing practically nothing but the charred remains of a silk dress, seeing it getting closer with each flap of his wings, saying, "As you can see, there are no paths to or from that cave at the top of the mountain ahead of us, it is just a straight drop on either side without anyplace for a hand, foot or claw. I used my fire to melt the stone into a smooth surface about fifty years ago."

As the princess takes in the sight of the tall mountain, she looks on in awe at the dug-out moat at the base of the mountain filled with water from a waterfall on the side of the mountain and can't stop herself from asking, "Forgive me for this stupid question, master, but do you have fresh water in your dwelling?"

Cosmic smirks at hearing that and says, "Of course I do, even us dragons enjoy a bath on occasion." Then hears a pleased sigh from her and adds, "And I do expect you to bathe regularly as I have a sharp sense of smell. You also won't have to worry about food as I will bring back food every few days."

When he finally lands, he folds his wings and heads into his cave, setting the princess down near the lake at the bottom of his den, saying, "There you go, wash if you desire it but keep away from my treasure hoard." then drops the silver diamond-studded tiara beside her, saying, "To remind you of your offer to me..."

She watches him turn around, noticing how many bolts have pierced his hide as he heads up the curving tunnel, saying, "My name is Summer Raelordiel." Asking, "What's your name, master?"

Cosmic looks over his shoulder at her and notices her looking at the bolts lodged in his body saying, "My given name in our tongue is Neach-sireadh cosmaigeach, but in the common tongue I go by Cosmic Seeker. If you're hoping I die from these bolts, you will be disappointed to hear that they have missed all vital areas."

Summer then quickly says, "I wasn't hoping you would die, I was worried what would happen to me if you perished from your wounds."

An amused snort escapes his nostrils as he then says, "How common for a being such as you."

As he continues up the tunnel, she looks down at her destroyed clothing and sighs, realizing it is completely useless to cover herself with. Tearing her tattered silk dress off first followed by her thong shortly after, she tosses them both into a pile and crawls her way to the water's edge as braziers provide ample light to navigate the lower area. Taking a breath and bracing herself for an icy chill to shock her body, she is pleasantly surprised that the water is actually very warm. She washes her hands off before scooping some of the water with them and raises it up to her lips, taking a refreshing drink from the little that she manages to hold in her cupped, dainty hands.

While Cosmic makes his way up the tunnel, the bolt in his tail bumps into the wall which causes pain to briefly shoot through his body. Growling lowly in annoyance at the bolts in his side, he makes his way to the front of his den to begin removing the annoyances when he hears the beating wings of an approaching dragon. Stopping just inside the entrance to his den with enough room to look outside, he looks out to see his lover approaching from the direction of the still-burning city and lets himself relax a little while adjusting his angle a little to shield his right side from view.

Sky Wing makes her way to the ground in front of the den belonging to her lover, she moves her body into a landing position and gently sets down saying, "I spotted a column of smoke from my den and went to check it out, learning that it was your doing when I saw your signature blue flames melting the stone. I saw your message to the bipeds on the road, what happened to break your horn? Were you injured?"

He huffs out in annoyance, saying, "I will be fine but those bipeds have gotten smarter and made better weapons that can cause great harm to us dragons, let me show you what I mean..." then bends around to his right, sliding his tail towards his head as he holds his tail still with a claw and uses his mouth to yank the irritating bolt out with a pained snarl.

She gasps at seeing the black metal bolt hit the floor and skitter to a stop before her, armed with a blood-stained barbed metal tip, saying, "What a sinister-looking tip, the Arch Dragon needs to know of this development at once. Are you capable of flying to the dormant volcano?"

Cosmic shakes his head, saying, "No, I've had a long night and need to rest. Go on without me and I will meet you there tomorrow."

Sky sees another bolt sticking out of his side above his shoulder before his right wing, causing her to worry about him and ask, "Are you sure you're okay? How many of these hit you?"

He heads inside his cave saying, "There are a couple more bolts in my right side, though I assure you that I will be just fine Sky, there's no reason to worry about little old me."

She narrows her blue eyes at him and huffs in amusement, saying with slight sarcasm, "Old? You know all too well that dragons don't die from old age, we fall in battle with pride!" and says back snarkily, "Get some rest...geezer!" Grabbing the bolt with her hand, she takes flight and starts heading to where the Arch Dragon holds court while shaking her head thinking, 'He must not be that hurt if he is making jokes, though I don't like this new development at all.'

Cosmic makes his way into his den to slumber for a little while when he recalls that the elf doesn't have anything to wear and heads to his hoard to dig through each of his chests for anything remotely suitable for her to wear, finding a couple of chests stuffed with dresses and picks them up with his mouth before heading back down to the lower level to let her pick something to replace her clothing.

Summer washes herself off gingerly when she hears the dragon come back down the tunnel, setting two large chests down by the wall and telling her to find something suitable that will fit. With a smile, she says, "Thank you kindly, master, I am most grateful for your generosity."

He makes his way through the lower level to another pile of treasure, looking for a large mirror he remembered taking from another castle a couple of centuries ago. When he locates it, he carefully lifts it up and stands it up near the wall before ripping open some crates saying, "There's more crap here that I took from a wagon that some noble offered me to save his manor from being sacked by another army."

Curious, she makes her way up out of the warm water towards the crates to check them out, using her arms to try to preserve her modesty. When she reaches the first crate, her face brightens up with glee as she finds healing elixirs, scented bath oils and brushes mixed in with various luxurious soaps and gasps, asking, "Are you going to keep the healing elixirs, master?"

Cosmic looks down at her and says, "No, those are too small to do anything for me, so help yourself to them and whatever isn't gems, jewelry, or enchanted weapons and armor."

Summer hops back and forth on her left and right foot in happy glee at being able to enjoy a somewhat luxurious lifestyle, then drops her arms and rushes over to hug her generous and kind captor's front left leg, squealing happily, "OH THANK YOU VERY MUCH, MILORD, YOU ARE FAR TOO KIND!" Remembering her current state, she then hurries back toward the box and puts it between her and the dragon's gaze, pleading while bowing her head, "Please forgive my carelessness, master, I got carried away."

With a nod, Cosmic turns around and heads back toward the tunnel, saying, "If you have to relieve yourself, do it outside. I am going above to slumber, don't wake me unless it's an emergency. My lover visits regularly, having vibrant red scales, two slightly twisted horns on the back of her head, and bright blue eyes with a heart-shaped tail."