Hatching in Equestria as a Silver Dragon

While the country of Equestria was peaceful and safe, or at least most of it, the other countries were not so lucky, the reign of a thousand years of princess Celestia had empowered Equestria economically, at the cost of other nations, the power of an alicorn was so great that it served as a deterrent for other nations, and they many times had to concede territories as a way to stay in good terms with the crown, most nations had little love for the alicorn monarchy, but they were forced into poor trade deals, were either they sold their resources for cheap or those lands full of resources were embargoed by Equestria, this did not always happen, but to her rivals, the princess was quick to resort to economic sanctions.

Usually the equestrian military did not conquer other lands, they just ruined their economy with economic sanctions and then offered to buy land and reduce those sanctions if they accepted to sell, this earned them many enemies in the shadows, but none really openly opposed, and those who did learned the hard way that magic was... very overpowered.

Magic was a counter against melee combatants and magic shields would deflect crossbow bolts so they had to go into melee, in which case unicorns would not allow them to get close, and earth ponies had high levels of strength to defend them if the opponents did get close.

Then you had specialized pegasi units that would dive bomb using blades or simply ramming unaware enemy combatants, or sometimes carry and use storm clouds to send lighting down on enemy formations, causing massive casualties.

This combination was a winning strategy against most nations, and against those that even this didn't work, like dragons and changelings, the princess herself would go and use her overwhelming magical and physical might to overpower and even kill her opponents, her fire and plasma affinity meant that she could use devastating attacks, way stronger than most dragonfire, using the power of the sun temporarily in a very small scale, but it was devastating nonetheless, but she only used it on truly desperate situations, where she did not see any other way to victory, as it risked great collateral damage.

Today princess Celestia was in the conference room, organizing an expedition to the north, she wanted to find if anything of use for her nation, learn more about lands outside, and maybe another nation or two who would form an alliance with Equestria to empower her nation, but the main reason was scientific, she wanted to better map the continent and what lived in it.

"I want a team of 6 ponies, one pegasi guard on duty to scout, and one unicorn that can use shields for protection, the rest will be experts on the terrain and creatures, a biologist, a geologist, archeologist and an earth pony that can haul the necessary equipment for an expedition, any of them but at least somepony has to know how to draw maps and have some survival skills, they will need to camp out in the cold many days, so it's very important" The princess explained to the assembled ponies, officers of the Royal Guard, along with it's captain, Steel Shield.

"As you command your majesty!" They all saluted, and marched out after stepping from the conference table and headed out of the room, each one had a task, supplies to order and organize, and ponies to get in contact with, this expeditions were the first step towards the growth of the nation economically, and sometimes would bring great news of untapped resources, and the names of the ponies who formed part of great discoveries would gain fame and fortune, so there was no shortage of volunteers.

Outskirts of the frozen north.

Onyx and Sylf had spend the last week hunting and surviving, Onyx's scales had fully hardened and he had earned enough experience to level up, had learned to use his first actual spell, he just has to remember to use it instead of using his breath attack, the spell took less mana but it took him trial and error to actually be able to cast, it was not as natural as his innate breath, but it wasn't that hard, while weaker and with less area of effect, it was an amazing addition to his arsenal, Sylf instead had still ways to go before leveling up, as she needs way more experience per level than the baby dragon.

Onyx: +2 INT from having used a spell for the first time, feeling the flow of magic throughout your body and successfully casting, you will struggle less when casting future spells, but you still have to learn them.
Onyx: +1 to all stats from leveling up, your Newborn condition is removed and you gain Blindsight with a range of 5 meters.

Mother and son were falling asleep huddled together, Onyx having his scales now fully hardened and starting to gain a slight silver tinge and losing his blue tones, Sylf as black as ever, when suddenly an alert popped up on their senses, both do them could hear this time.

'Starter Dungeon commencing in 30 seconds, please wake up and ready yourself for battle'.

'W-what?!' I jumped awake as I heard that, a dungeon? Right as I was falling asleep?! I felt Sylf jump up in surprise at my psychic scream, which she and Jade heard, she looked at me in panic and confusion, I looked back at her.

'Mom, there's no time to explain, I know what a dungeon is, it's gonna be dangerous, make sure to stay next to me and prepare to fight to the death, hopefully we will be able to keep each other alive and win...' She didn't take this well, growing upset and slightly angry, but I smiled sadly at her.

'Im sure Jade will explain what's happening, I'm sorry for keeping Jade hidden from you, I just honestly forgot to mention her... It never came up, she is basically a little fairy that serves as a guide in this world, seems the beings I made a deal with to be reborn have... Played a trick on me.' I said while growling in anger and gritting my teeth, I was furious but I couldn't lose focus now, I would have to use the anger to fight, and protect mom, even tho she probably would be protecting me.

Before anyone else could say anything, reality began to distort around us and we were teleported, I immediately felt dizzy and a bit sick, teleporting didn't feel good, it has to keep down the bile rising up my throat, swallowing hard, Sylf seemed to have the same issue, then it hit us, a strong and disgusting stench, and a strong feeling of dread, we were inside a dark forest, the sky was black and it was nighttime, but I could see perfectly well, the scent of rotting meat mixed with the scent of the trees and plants, which looked twisted and sickly.

'Stay close next to me mom, and make sure to above and behind us , I will keep a look on the sides and front, we cant anything sneak up on us'. I watched her nod and ocasionally look behind and above as we walked, she had probably good night vision, and could hear what she couldn't see with her large wolf ears.

Suddenly she commanded me to stop, and pointed up, where I saw large cobwebs, and a spider the size of my body, who was slowly lowering down to the ground on a thread, I almost peed myself in fear there and, feeling a full body shiver, i jumped away and charged my ice breath, my mom followed me and moved away from the terrifying creature.
It was pitch black in color with green streaks along the abdomen.
Once it was not right under me anymore, I let loose my frost breath, and the spider reacted too late, it tried to climb up its web but it got partially frozen halfway, it was still alive but the frozen solid web became brittle and cut off, the large spider fell on the ground several meters, because it was frozen, it couldn't land on its legs and landed on its large abdomen, which cracked open, weakened by ice, and spilled the pus yellow guts over the stone ground, it still tried to crawl towards us, crippled and with missing legs that froze and broke off, but a ray of frost hit it right in the face, instantly killing it.

'You have defeated a baby darkling spider, your party has earned 100 EXP Onyx (lvl1):100/120 Sylf (lvl15):1030/1540

'WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE SPIDERS?! I really hate spiders, they creep me out so much! And I won't have enough mana to kill them all from a distance! W-WAIT A SECOND, BABY?! So there are even larger, probably gigantic...' I emptied my bladder in fear, shaking as I struggled to stay standing, giant spiders that wanted to eat me? Now I felt like this was a real betrayal, why did the Overseer did this to me? I-i couldn't beat a gigantic spider... Ugh, I need to get myself together!

'Calm down dear son, I will be by your side to protect you, no matter what, I promise!' I didn't realize my mom was next to me holding me until she spoke, I hugged her and tried to not cry, but a few years and sniffles were inevitable, I was too young for this, even if I could use magic and attacks, I was not strong enough for this horrors...

'T-thank you mom, thank you so much, but I... I should get myself together, we have to complete this, we have to kill all the spiders and probably the big one to escape, c-could you check the dead spider for any loot? I'd rather not have to do it myself, you probably need to cut it open, maybe it has a gem or some... Coins? Uhh I know it doesn't make sense but this place follows a logic from... Fantasy stories from my old life, and in those stories, sometimes dead enemies had in them, coins and gems and even weapons, even if the enemies were monsters and clearly didn't have pockets.' I say awkwardly, shrugging to her.

'I will, I understand, maybe it will have som-' as soon as she touched the spider with intent of looting it, the spider broke into pieces as if sliced, and a notification appeared on Sylf's view, she realized now that she had a HUD too, she thought she was too focused to notice before.

'You have obtained 1 Darkness gem fragment and 4 gold'

'Oh mom, I think we share an inventory, now if you loot something like you just did, it goes to our shared inventory or I think so, I would need to check later' Sylf nodded at this, then suddenly she started to growl towards the stone path that headed deeper into the forest, I looked towards where she was looking, seeing many eyes staring back and slowly approaching, I felt my legs shaking a bit, but I shook my head and focused on the fight, I couldn't let my fear take over again, mom and I walked towards the advancing enemies, there were half a dozen, and their fangs glimmering as they approached, I took aim with my head and prepared the spell, waiting for the spider to be close enough, then cast it directly aimed at the eyes, which blinded one of the spiders, but it didn't die instantly, I stopped, thinking how to attack, did I want to get close and personal with them? Hell no, but I wasn't sure if I recover my mana if I used it, were they going to have mana recovery potions as loot? Hopefully, mom saw my hesitation and stepped forward, gesturing me back with her snout.

'Stay back son, I will crush them with my maw, you cover me with your magic, and if I give the order, hit me with your ice breath, I'll be able take it, but the spiders won't, so don't worry!' Mom smiled at me confidently, raising my spirits, I was gonna try to be careful and not hit her, but when she moved forward the darkling spiders rushed her, they didn't seem to care who they attacked, and they were slow and disorganized, but they had the numbers advantage.

Mom started to run towards them and when they lunged at her, she swiftly jumped over them and landed on all fours on top of one, crushing it's thorax and making it try to turn over and bite her but it died from its wounds before it could, but the other spiders were upon her, I sniped one of them on the abdomen with Ray of Frost before it could attack, slowing it down and causing it to turn towards me and screech, and mom dodged a lunge and bit into one of the spiders legs, easily ripping it off, the yellow blood of the disgusting arachnids was starting to cover her black coat, I growled in anger at the spiders, but I knew I couldn't get in melee, my claws were not long enough to kill, and I definitively didn't want to bite into a disgusting spider.

She moved fast, breaking their bodies and tearing off legs, one spider had only 2 legs but it still tried to crawl and attack, another spider had lost half it's legs and had its abdomen open and was leaving a trail of guts, but mom had also taken hits, a spider leg stabbed her on the side, drawing a bit of blood, and another slashed across her front leg, making a cut that bled slightly but thankfully none of them had managed to bite her, suddenly 4 more spiders came out of the path, probably lured here by all of the fighting and the death screeches of its fellow spiders, she grabbed one of the damaged spiders by the face and crushed it completely off, killing it instantly, quickly spitting out the disgusting gunk and jumping back from a slashing spider leg.

The remaining spiders seemed to sense something and attacked all together at once, mom looked panicked for an instant 'USE IT NOW!'
And I did, as I had started charging it when they all gathered together, mom leaped to the side slightly, giving me a good angle to hit all the spiders with the cone, she was caught in it too, but there was no other way, I released my charged ice breath, outright killing half the spiders and freezing the ones that were fully healthy, mom had a face of pain and discomfort but she didn't get frozen and instantly went to town on the spiders that were still alive, grabbing them by the middle and shaking in her maw until they broke in two, some tearing the heads right off, until all spiders were dead, she spit off the guts and yellow blood of with a disgusted face. I moved closer to her and bumped my forehead against hers, the only part where she wasn't covered in spider blood, I moved away after that to give her space to shake off the blood, which she did, she also kept constantly spitting until her maw was clean mostly.

'Your party killed 10 baby darkling spiders, 1000 EXP earned.
Onyx has reached level 6! Sylf has reached level 16!'

The sudden increase in power didn't go unnoticed specially by me, I felt my whole body become stronger, It was like a sudden growth spurt, I felt like pure energy was flowing thru my whole body, I didn't feel painful, it very good, in fact it was the best sensation I felt in my life, I felt the increase before when I reached level 1 but this was different, it was way faster and more sudden, and much more intense, Sylf looked like she was glowing too, but her improvement was only one level, I thought to myself that I will probably never feel this many levels increased at once, so I closed my eyes and savored the moment, i knew the higher the level the more EXP I would need to reach it, I hadn't had time to check the stat screen but it worked like that in every RPG game, why wouldn't it work the same here? It seems the creatures here are made of pure negative energy, but if killed by me or Sylf, they just become neutral energy for me to gather, like... Experience points, huh... It made sense in a really fucked up kind of way, I let out a mental mirthless chuckle at my own realization.

'You have deducted the nature of the Dream World correctly, and have earned 2 points in Wisdom and 2 Points in Intelligence, the knowledge you deducted is only available to someone with conscious access to the DW and there has not been a dream walker for centuries'

I blinked as my stats increased again, maybe thinking to myself wasn't such a bad thing after all, but I really needed to look this spiders, hopefully they have something useful.

'M-mom? Would you... Loot them again? You have more space in your inventory than me, I seem to have some... Limit on my own inventory, I think the system considers me too small to carry much, despite feeling strong, no idea why...'

'Sure little one, but you'll have to give me a massage when all of this is over!' I smile at her, nodding, she smiles back and gets to looting, I start getting notifications on my HUD, smiling I start to check thru the inventory, it's mostly gold and gem fragments, most of them small, and of the darkness type, but there is also a mana restoration potion and thee healing potions, my hp was full, mom's was 100/110 so it was not worth drinking it but I would quickly administer the potion to her when she needed it, since she couldn't exactly hold a potion and couldn't fight if she held it in her maw, and how would she open it without magic or opposable thumbs?.

'The loot is a big disappointment, the loot must be either hidden somewhere or at the end of the dungeon... Hmm what do you think?' She seemed to think about it for a while, then spoke up mentally.

'Spiders usually wrap their prey in webs once it's paralyzed, what if the treasure or loot is inside a webbed up corpse? That may also be the reason there is a scent of rotting meat, the corpses could be rotting if the spiders didn't eat them fast enough, maybe this spiders don't eat corpses or something? We wolves prefer not to prey on corpses unless we have nothing else to eat, we either hunt or forage.'
I smiled at her answer and nodded, it made total sense!.

'Sylf has made a correct deduction and earned 2 points of Wisdom' Jade announced helpfully, I felt happy for her, 2 extra points, honestly having someone with more knowledge of nature and animals was amazing, I loved those topics too.

'Seems you are right, thanks mom~ now let's start looking around, maybe guide me with your nose to the bad smell, and let's get see what this nasty spiders were keeping to themselves.' she nodded and started walking towards a side path, where the forest was denser, the trees were dense and the spiderwebs were everywhere, but I pushed forward and wiped the cobwebs away from my face, my scales thankfully weren't as sensitive as skin to the feeling of sticky web, so it was like being covered in armor, I felt just fine but it didn't feel like I was being tickled every time a web touched my body.
After a short walk, we reached an opening in the trees, I would say I was glad we got out of that forest, but the opening wasn't empty, it was full of more fucking webs and about a dozen spider eggs, along with bodies hanging above them, the horrible scent was coming from the bodies, they were unrecognizable, but clearly none of them were human.

'Ugghhh... I want to puke, it smells horrible! And we need to get those bodies down, and also crush this spider eggs and not even leave a single one alive'. I gagged as I tried to ignore the nasty stench.

'My little dragon, you are doing more than enough, let me handle this nasty business, stay back and watch over me, warm me if any nasty spiders try to sneak up on us'. I nod to her and she smiles at me despite the situation, I return a small smile, then going back to disgusted expression, pinching my nose with my claws.