The Dragon Extinction

YOLOS LOK KRiiVAH
KENDOV MUL
BRUNiiK NAHGAHDiNOK LO

After I used the counterspell on the locked door to the Inn, I opened it and Clover and I stepped out. The air outside was crisp and cool, the light of dawn streamed through the buildings where it lit up parts of the cobblestone road. With Clover next to me and the dragon egg safely nestled in his satchel we set hoof out on our journey to the Drakebark Forest.

The cobblestone path that left town slowly turned into gravel and then dirt as we travelled further and further away from the town of Greenvale. It felt like a few hours of walking, but by mid-morning we had reached the outer tree line of the Drakebark Forest, this would be the point at which any sane pony of sound mind would stop and gallop back home.

But not us, we had a mission.

The path we were following didn't really go into the forest, it somewhat just stopped at the very edge of the tree line.

"Okay, this is it. There's probably no turning back from this Clover, we'll need to have each others back from here on out." I said as I looked at his face.

"It's okay Star Swirl. I knew what I signed up for when I agreed to this." he wiped his brow with a hoof.

About an hour or so passed as the both of us travelled side by side in silence through the forest, following my compass south. I didn't know the exact location of the dragon's nest within the forest itself, so I would stop occasionally to examine the area around us for any sign of activity that could lead us to what we sought. In truth, my survival skills are shocking.

During my next attempt to survey the land and trees around us, I could smell something different. The air was thicker and had a faint scent of smoke. I looked ahead and saw trees in front of us that were beginning to darken near the trunks, with one last deep inhale, I knew we had arrived at the dragon's nest. In urgency, I galloped ahead of Clover and reached the crest of the hill with darkened trees.

What I saw, I couldn't believe.

"Clover, you better come see this." I shouted down to him.

Clover sprang into a gallop and soon enough was standing next to me looking at the terrible sight before us. The ground was black with charcoal and ash, few trees remained standing although terribly burned at the base of their trunks. We left hoofprints behind as we ventured further into the center of the devastation before us, burned stone buildings and charred remains of dragons poked out from the ground

"Oh my goodness, this is terrible." Clover gasped.

My mind raced as I tried to piece together what transpired here, clearly there was some sort of fire, but fire was nothing new to dragons. If my research was correct, most, if not all dragons were immune to fire and all forms of magic.

"Indeed it is. Something isn't adding up. From what I've read, dragons are immune to fire due to their thick magical scales, I've read that some of them even bathe in volcanic lava. But then I look upon this and clearly a fire has ravished this dragon nest." I clopped at the ground beneath my hooves and revealed green grass under the thick layer of black ash. "The grass remains unharmed. Ordinary fire wasn't responsible for this, whatever happened here is something different."

We spent the next few minutes searching the area, I had learned that the charred area was a perfect circle, it was a controlled fire. I sparked up my horn and picked up a glittering ruby red dragon scale poking out from a layer of ash and inspected it.

"I think the dragons were defending themselves from something powerful." I shouted across to Clover.

"What's more powerful than a dragon?" Clover's expression was grim.

"I suspect it might have been The Order of the Adamant Scales." I thought back to my spiritual eavesdropping. "When I saw those goons in my sleep, their leader said he needed the jade egg for a ritual. I would bet a bag of gold pieces he may have come here looking for an egg for his twisted ritual." I let the ruby scale in my magical grip drop to the floor and I continued to search for clues, navigating through the charred land that was once a thriving dragon community.

"Star Swirl!" I heard Clover shout. "I found something."

I galloped over to him, kicking up black dust behind me.

"Look at this." Clover said as he tilted his horn toward a wall partially obscured by burnt debris. Unlike the rest of the scorched area, this section of wall seemed to be new as the day it was built and on its surface were intricate gold symbols I did not recognize. "Have you ever seen anything like this?" Clover asked.

"No, I've never seen symbols like this." I lit my horn and retrieved a book from my satchel and began flipping through pages, glancing at paragraphs.

"It's a language." Cover said.

I paused and looked at him. "A language? Are you sure? I don't know how a pony would pronounce these symbols."

Clover's body jerked and then he lit his horn. The egg in his satchel floated out and it pulsed with light, it was clear to me that the egg was speaking to Clover. I felt a strange sensation as the egg continued to glow, this was different than before, the egg was radiating warmth. Clover closed his eyes and the egg floated back into his satchel.

"Clover?" I said as suddenly; his eyes opened again and were no longer the normal shade of green. They were glowing the same golden color I just saw from the egg. "Did the egg say what the symbols are?"

He nodded at me as his glowing eyes slowly faded back to his original green. "It a secret language used by the dragons, if I speak the words written, a hidden passage will reveal itself."

"If you speak?" I didn't believe what he just said.

"VOD. BEX. FAHDON!" Clover spoke. The words he used were otherworldly, nothing like I've ever heard before. The ancient language of the dragons. Flat rocks that made up the wall began to grind against one another as they slid from the center outwards and revealed a hidden dark passage leading down into the ground.

"Just what in Tartarus was that?" I asked astounded.

"What do you mean? I just told the passage to open to its friends." he answered.

"Incredible. It sounded so draconian. I have to write this down, you may be the first in all ponykind to hold knowledge of the ancient language dragons use."

"Neat." Clover replied nonchalantly.

With only the light from our horns to guide us, the two of us descended deeper into the underground tunnel, the air around us cooled as we travelled deeper into the earth and rock. It was silent and the smell of dirt was strong, occasionally we would pass glowing fungi that oozed with blue sap.

"What do you think is down here?" said Clover.

"I don't know to be sure, but I'm hoping answers as to what happened up on the surface." I replied.

The passageway opened up into a vast cave with thousands more glowing mushrooms lightning up the walls. In the center of the cavern were slabs of stone arranged in a way that was not natural, they almost looked like the buildings on the surface. We turned off the light emanating from our horns and walked cautiously towards the center.

"HOKORON."

The both of us froze in out steps. "SLEN?" The voice sounded deep and grizzled, I lit my horn again in an effort to see what it was that just spoke. I turned around and my eyes widened, a massive dragon emerged from the darkness behind us. It's scales were deep blue like an ocean and it was easily four ponies tall, small puffs of smoke curled out of its nostrils as it lowered its head closer to us.

"Intruders..." the dragon's voice rumbled. "How did you discover our hidden sanctuary?" It demanded.

"We mean you no harm," I stammered. "we came to your flight's nest in search of answers about this dragon egg that speaks to my friend using thought." I gestured to Clover and he unclasped his satchel, revealing the shining egg within.

"Cheap tricks unicorn!" the dragon said. "You are spies! Allies of The Order who seeks to destroy us!"

"No. Please. We are not with The Order of Adamant Scales." I swallowed. "Are they the ones responsible for what happened on the surface?" I asked.

Clover took a cautious step forward and lifted the egg with magic towards the large dragon in front of us.

"REVAK GORAAN." Clover said.

"TiNVAAK DOVAH?" the dragon sounded impressed.

"Yes, ever since the egg spoke to me and showed me how to unlock the hidden entrance to this cave." Clover said.

"Incredible. Not even most of our younglings know the ancient language dragon speak." the Dragon said. It's gaze turned to the egg."

"We encountered members from The Order in Greenvale, they attacked us and tried to take the egg but we managed to scare them off for now. But they are still looking for us." I said to the dragon.

"Very well." the dragon's growled face softened. "If what you claim is true, then you need to speak with our leader. His name is Amethyst. My name is Kyanite."

"Thank you Kyanite for understanding. My name is Star Swirl, High Mage of Equinox." I gestured at Clover.

"My name is Clover, uh- the Streetwise Mage of Greenvale." he looked at me and winked. I facehoofed.

"'the Streetwise'? hahaha, that is very clever." the dragon chuckled.

"Sorry, I don't have a fancy title like Star Swirl, I'm just a colt who's learned how to be resourceful." Clover said.

"It matters not with titles. What matters is where your loyalties lie while this Order is still about." the dragon walked forwards past us towards the center of the cavern where the light from glowing mushroom was the brightest.

We both followed behind the dragon and kept quiet unless we were spoken to. After a few minutes of walking, we had reached near the center where the mushroom's light grew much larger. "the camp is still on high alert, so no sudden moves. Take out the egg." Kyanite said.

Clover obeyed and lifted the egg out of his satchel once more.

We walked and felt I felt a strange feeling of sand over my body that sunk into my coat. It was some sort of magical barrier, we were now inside a large chamber. A group of lounging dragons to our left gasped as they saw Clover and myself, we only made eye contact as we both followed Kyanite.

"Don't take any strange looks personally. Many of us had never seen unicorns before, until the attack on the surface that is." Kyanite said.

Finally, we reached the center when a larger dragon than Kyanite sat. It had shiny sparkling purple scales, this had to be Amethyst.

"Kyanite. Why do you bring ponies to our sanctuary?" his eyes regarded us with a mixture of curiosity and suspicion.

"Amethyst. These ponies are Star Swirl and Clover," Kyanite motioned to each of us "they claim to be friendly."

"Where did you get this egg green pony?" Amethyst demanded, looking at Clover.

"I rescued it from someone who was going to sell it, to The Order, we suspect." Clover said.

"Is that right? Many would say anything to gain my trust, but I must confess, you do have an intact dragon egg with you. You must be either desperate or incredibly naive to come seeking dragons." Amethyst shifted in place.

"The Order of Adamant Scales is responsible for the attack on the surface, their leader possess power that I have never seen before. Somehow, they managed to raise a dragon's corpse from a grave with dark necromancy. Then they used it as a weapon to attack us. If it weren't for our secret sanctuary underneath, out flight might have gone extinct." Amethyst said with sorrow.

"How long has this been happening? The Order attacking dragon flights, I mean." I asked.

"For us, we've always managed to hold our own against any attacks from wayward foes. But the unicorn who leads them, he was different, it wasn't just a dragon under his control, he was able to pierce our scales with magic I've never seen before." Amethyst said.

"So that answers why the dragon flights all over the country are dying out. The leader must be using dragon eggs in some sort of ritual to give himself power to kill dragons and then raise them." I said aloud.

"Clover the egg you carry is different, dragon eggs do not normally glow like this one," Kyanite said as he tapped the floating green egg with the tip of his talon. "And they certainly don't speak to ponies, or dragons for that matter."

"What should we do? The Order is desperate to have it and use it in their dark ritual." I asked.

"We can't let that happen." Clover said.

Amethyst grunted and began drawing in the dirt with a the tip of his wing. "That is a dragon egg of immense power, eggs such as this have not been laid in many generations of dragon kind. If this Order harnesses its ancient power, they could annihilate all of us with types of magic our scales are not immune to."

"So what do we do?" I asked again as Amethyst continued to draw lines and shapes.

"There is hope yet. There is a crystal lighthouse to the east, on the coast. Its keeper hoards ancient knowledge of dragons and magic." Amethyst stopped drawing and revealed a crudely drawn map in the dirt. "Kyanite. Will you fly them to the lighthouse? With your help, they could be there in a matter of hours and not have to travel for days."

Kyanite nodded to Amethyst. "I'd love a chance to truly stretch my wings."

"Farewell Star Swirl and Clover. Have a safe journey, I hope you find answers on how to stop The Order of Adamant Scales."

"Thank you Amethyst, your guidance of what we should do next has been invaluable." I said.

"I guess now you know what is happening to all the dragons Star Swirl." Clover said to me as we peered into the rays of sunlight at the sanctuary tunnel entrance. "What a terrible fate."

"I know Clover, if I get my hooves on his neck, I'll make him wish he had never cast a spell in his life." I was furious with the Order's leader.

"Bring him to me and I'll char him alive." grunted Kyanite as he stretched his wings high into the open air.

"Thank you for flying us Kyanite. I've actually always thought of creating a flying spell myself hilariously enough." I said.

Kyanite walked over to some foliage that the fire had not burned, picked up a long thick tree vine and tied a knot in it.

"So you don't fall off." he said as he threw it over his head and slid one arm through. "Climb onto my back and hold on tightly."

And so, Clover and myself shambled up and onto the scaly back of Kyanite and each grabbed the vine. I marveled at the smoothness of his blue scales and the warmth that they radiated.

The layer of ash around us blew away in a dark cloud as Kyanite beat his massive wings and launched us into the air, the ground below fell away rapidly, we soared up higher and higher into the open sky. I felt a rush of exhilaration take over my body, the wind whipped through my mane.

"This is incredible." I heard Clover shout with excitement.

"I don't think I like flying." I shouted back over the roaring wind. My heart was beating fast with a mix of fear and excitement, I had travelled by carriage pulled by Pegasi before, but nothing compared to the sensation of riding a dragon. The rush of air, the adrenaline pumping through my body. I looked down, I could no longer the desolated dragon ruins hidden inside the Drakebark forest as the landscape below us transformed into a combination of green fields and rocky cliffs.

I did not know how long it had been since we left the Drakebark forest, I was too afraid to let a single hoof go of the vine and check my watch stashed in my saddlebags, but the sun had moved quite a fair bit across the sky, before long I could see the vast east coast and the sparkling reflection of the sun on the water that stretched out across the horizon.

Kyanite's flying was a smooth journey, as we neared closer to the coastline he began to descend and before long I could see the lighthouse Amethyst had mentioned. Our destination shined with light, it was as if the entire building was one big pillar of light.

"Is that the lighthouse? It's so bright!" I shouted with excitement.

"Yes, the top is made of crystal. Legend says there are only five crystal lighthouses left in existence, but this is the only one my flight knows to be real." Kyanite replied.

We circled the crystal lighthouse gracefully before landing on a flat stretch of grass nearby, the lighthouse stood tall and proud on the jagged promontory of land, easily ten stories tall, and at the very top was the large crystal dome that was bright with warm light.

"And here we are." said Kyanite. He folded his wings and tilted his body for Clover and I to climb off.

"Thank you, Kyanite, I said with gratitude. "This has been and experience like no other, I'll never forget this."

"Hopefully when all of this danger is over, we can come visit you," Clover smiled and checked on the egg inside his satchel. "with good news. Haha."

Kyanite inclined his head. "I'd like that. It was a pleasure to meet the two of you, stay safe and protect that egg at all costs." with a final nod at us, he took to the sky once more.

I took a deep breath.

"Alright, Clover, let's see what we can uncover in this lighthouse."

To be continued.