Mother

The amethyst coloured dragoness winced and grunted in pain as she limped into the dark cave. She favoured her left foreclaw, which was dripping with blood, both hers and another's, as she dragged her broken self through the damp shadows. All over her body were gashes of varying depth, each one formed by a very familiar source; the talons of another dragon.

As she limped, she breathed a jet of pink flames onto her right wing, cauterizing some of the wounds. She would soon need to fly, and she could not allow something as simple as an injured wing to slow her down. She would not let it stop her from saving her precious little ones.

Or at least save the little one she had left.

The cave was cold and damp, and the stalagmites dripped with condensation, creating an ever echoing nuisance that the dragoness had long since learned to tune out. As uncomfortable as it was, the cave was the closest thing she had to a home since leaving her mother's nest so many hundreds of years ago. How long had it been since she had seen her sisters? She could did not remember; could not remember. She had seen too much terror, felt too much grief, to be able to recall the happier times.

As she dragged herself through the smooth-walled tunnels, she occasionally exhaled bright plumes of flames, to more easily the depths through which she was descending. She saw familiar scores on the cave wall, marking her path, and noted that she was most definitely going the right way.

"I'm almost there, little one," she whispered, dousing her flames, "please wait for me."

Her destination was not too deep into the winding tunnels, but it was far enough from the entrance that most ponies would turn back before finding the end, let alone other dragons. Or worse. She had hoped to keep her eggs safe in this cold place.

She had never been so wrong in all her life.

As the dragoness approached the charred remains of what had once been her nest, she couldn't help but shed a tear. Egg shells lay smashed on the cold ground, the fetuses within lay cold and dead within. Her precious younglings, brutally murdered in their eggs, would never see their mother's face. She would never see them full of life, would never see them leave to sire younglings of their own. Her heart bled, and tears rolled down her face as she mourned her loss, begging the cold hand of death to take her so that she need not feel this pain.

"Too late," she sobbed, wiping tears out of her eyes with. "I am too late."

He had been there. He had smashed them, destroyed them, and stolen their lives from them before they had even started to live. And yet, their blood was on her hands, as she had been unable to stop him, unable to save her own offsprings from a wrath she had incurred.

The dragoness, tears once again filling her eyes, sat on her haunches and picked up the dead little hatchlings in her arms, and held them close to her chest.

And she sobbed.

"It shouldn't have come to this," she whispered to her children, as if they were alive. They were completely cold to the touch, not an ounce of dragonfire burning in their unbeating hearts.

Through blurry eyes, the dragoness set the little corpses down, one by one, counting them as she did.

"Four? No, that can't be right," she muttered, wiping the tears from her eyes yet again as confusion pushed the sadness away. With a single talon, she pointed to and counted the corpse. "Four. One is missing."

"One is missing!"

As realization set in, the dragoness felt hope suddenly flare up inside her. One youngling was missing, perhaps one egg yet remained intact. Her dragonfire swelled as she began combing every inch of the cavern, in desperate search. She lifted boulders off the stone ground, completely ignoring her body's screams of pain.

Every few seconds, the dragoness would breathe a quick jet of pink flames, illuminating the cave so that she could possibly catch a glimpse of her beloved egg.

"Where are you little one," she called, lowering her head to ground level. "Please, little one, mother is terribly worried."

She tossed everything aside, including the remains of the other eggs, in her frantic search. She thanked the sun and the stars that the egg was so well hidden, as perhaps it is why He had been unable to find and smash it.

Finally, after an hour of torturing her already aching muscles, she caught a glimpse of mauve with purple speckles. Thinking her eyes may have been deceiving her out of desperation, she exhaled pink flames in that direction, and she felt her heart swell with happiness as her sight was proven just. There was the egg, hidden between four rocks. It was wedged perfectly between them, just enough that it couldn't roll away or be seen unless it was being viewed from a specific angle.

The dragoness, without thinking, grabbed her egg and held it in her arms, holding it as close to her heart as she possibly could.

"Everything is okay now, little one," she whispered into the shell, kissing its surface, "mother is here now. You shall be safe. I will not let any harm come to you."

Carrying the egg in two claws, the dragoness shuffled along the cave floor on her hind legs, as she slowly made her way to the exit of the cave. She would need to make her way north, to get away from Him, so the he could never hurt her or her child ever again. He didn't like the cold, he would most certainly not follow.

Occasionally, as she wandered, she would talk to the egg, or douse it with a quick burst of dragonfire. It was important for her to keep her child's heart beating, after all. She had made a promise, and she was determined to keep it.

Finally, after an hour of dragging her tired and broken body through the bone-chilling darkness, the dragoness was able to see the light of day. The cave entrance lay just before her, mere steps away, yet she was reluctant to embrace it. She feared to leave the safety of the dark, as its cold fingers were the only thing keeping her safe from Him.

"I must be brave," she whispered, kissing the egg. "I must."

Taking a deep breath, the dragoness stepped out of the light of cave.

Before she had realized what had happened, she could feel a set of claws raking her back, digging into the muscles she required to be able to fly. He had been waiting for her.

The ferocious dragon, easily twice her size, clung to the mountain wall just above the cave mouth, his dark red scales and dark green trims shimmering like gems in the waning sunlight. He exhaled a jet of emerald flames, dousing her and cauterizing her new wounds, forever crippling her flight.

The dragoness did not turn around to face him. She could not let him see the pain and the fear she was feeling. She knew why he was there. She held her egg as close to her heart as she could; all the while muttering a prayer to whatever god chose to listen to her.

"I had a feeling you would come back here, my little amethyst," he growled, his voice like a rumbling thunder.

"I had no choice," she whispered, attempting to stretch her now aching wings. She found that, once they were opened, they were very difficult to close again. This would work to her disadvantage, as it would severely hinder her ability to dive, but not her ability to climb while flying.

"Do you understand why I killed them?"

"You had to ensure this territory remained yours."

The male dragon nodded his crimson head, and climbed down from above the mountain wall. Almost lovingly, he placed a reassuring talon on the female's shoulder. "This territory has been mine for over four hundred years. I simply could not risk it for anything, even my own spawn."

"I could have taken them away."

"And then returned when I am old and unable to defend myself, and take everything from me then!?" The male roared into the sky, unleashing a geyser of flames fifty feet into the air. "No. They must all die."

The dragoness did her best to hide her last egg from the view of her mate, and spread her wings again in preparation for flight. "Must I die too?"

"No," the male answered, "if you give me that final egg, I will allow you to live."

"Then we have reached an impasse."