Upheaval: Reckoning
Chapter 30: The Dragon Scourge
"Ponyville!" Spike cried out. He couldn't believe it was finally time. The snow from the worst winter ever was finally melting, his training was complete, and he was finally allowed to return to his friends. He soared past Everfree Forest, admiring the enormous shadow he cast on the trees below. With a graceful flourish, he landed in the middle of the village, expecting a great many "oohs" and "aahs" from the ponies all around.
A horrible and deep wail blared from village square's sirens followed by the screams of every pony who caught sight of him. "Wait!" he told them. "It's me! It's Spike! I'm not going to hurt any of you!" He cringed as his voice came out as vicious roars. Something struck the scales on his chest. He looked down and saw a crossbow bolt fall away. Several more followed.
"Seifralhadar!" Seethe Scale was suddenly right next to Spike. She roared at the panicking ponies and the line of legionnaires that had formed up. "It's us against them!"
"No!" Spike roared. He raised a claw to stop her, but it was too late. She exhaled a great blast of fire, consuming the legionnaires and igniting every nearby house. The screams grew louder and more frantic. Spike spotted Big Macintosh ram into Seethe Scale so the other ponies could escape. She rumbled deeply in her chest, then lifted the stallion with both claws. "Stop! Seethe Scale, don't eat Big Mac! Don't eat him!" Despite his pleas, Seethe Scale bit down on Big Macintosh's head and pulled. The stallion's neck stretched and tore. Blood spattered all over Seethe Scale's white fur and dripped from the bits of torn muscle and few remaining ligaments still attaching the head to the rest the body. Throughout the gruesome scene, Ponyville's siren continued to drone on and on…
Spike groaned and opened his eyes. The dream was already receding, but that awful droning noise continued. Seethe Scale was already up. She moved to the very back of the cave, the one place that she didn't allow him to explore, and took something. "What's going on?" he asked. "What's that awful noise?"
"Alarm," Seethe Scale said. "A rogue dragon is approaching Wallforge."
The mention of a dragon attack may as well have been a bucket of ice water hurled into Spike's face. "What am I supposed to do?" he asked. He already feared the answer. He wanted to see firsthand how the Barrier Lands reacted to dragons, but Seethe Scale was likely going to ask him to stay in the cave while she dealt with the problem.
"You're coming with me," Seethe Scale said. "You need to see this." She lowered her shoulder so Spike could climb to her back.
The feel of Seethe Scale's coarse hair between Spike's fingers suddenly made him realize that this was the closest he had been to her since they met. The distance only made her size more apparent. She was undoubtedly a giant among ponies. Her fur made it difficult to notice, but she was very strong; a veritable wall of sinewy muscle, coarse fur, and toughened scales. His dream lingered within the recesses of his mind. Even Big Macintosh, the biggest and strongest pony he knew, would be a mere colt compared to her. Even alone, it wouldn't take much for Seethe Scale to demolish Ponyville and slaughter its inhabitants. 'Or me either…' he thought.
Still, a full-grown dragon would dwarf Seethe Scale. The Legion relied on her to kill 'rogue dragons', but he doubted that she did her job by matching her foes brawn for brawn. That was where her weaponry came in. On her back, he moved a few inches aside as she slung a bow across her shoulders. Spike guessed that it was a bow from the shape and from what other ponies had said. Otherwise, he wouldn't have recognized the massive thing. The weapon was made from a white, flexible material that curved into a graceful crescent shape. Even unstrung, it maintained its curve. He watched as Seethe Scale grabbed hold of the great roll of dragongut attached to one end, then stretch it over to form the string. "Is…is that how you hunt dragons?" he asked. The continuing siren forced him to raise his voice.
"Yes."
"What's it called?"
"The pony who crafted it called it 'Dragonslayer Greatbow'. I just call it 'Father'."
"Father? Why?"
"His bones. His gut." Seethe Scale attached an enormous quiver full of the barbed arrows to the belt she was wearing, then unfolded her wings. "Spike?"
"Yes?"
"If it helps you sleep better, I promise not to eat Big Mac."
"Uh...thanks. I'm sure he'll appreciate it too."
"Hold on." Seethe Scale flapped her wings a couple of times and took off. In an instant, Spike was clutching desperately at hanks of her fur as a cold winter draft blasted him in the face. "Over there."
Spike opened his eyes and followed Seethe Scale's claw. Snow-capped trees covered the icy expanse of the Western Barrier Land's terrain, turning it into a tapestry of whites and greens as far as he could see. Wallforge was only a short flight away, easily spotted with its massive gray walls and the smoke from its hundreds of chimneys. It was the dragon approaching the city that held Spike's attention. It walked on the ground with six legs despite the pair of wings on its back. Its long, serpentine body was covered in dark green scales and divided into two segments from the way its legs were positioned.
"Gluttony Dragon," Seethe Scale rumbled. "There is no negotiating with this one."
"What are gluttony dragons like?" Spike asked.
"The name should tell you everything," Seethe Scale said. She banked to her left, trying to get a good spot that had a view of the dragon's side. "They're eating machines. This one is liable to stuff the entire city in its gullet, walls and all, if it's not stopped."
Spike looked at the gluttony dragon's head. Unlike other dragons, it didn't have any horns, spines, or a crest. Its head was completely smooth, resembling a serpent's instead of a dragon. "It's got a pretty small head to fit an entire city," he said. "Do its jaws work like a snake's?"
"You're looking at its talking mouth," Seethe Scale said. The gluttony dragon reared up. Two pairs of its legs remained on the ground while the foremost pair spread out as if it was going to embrace the city.
Pegasi squads flew from Wallforge and around its attacker in formations. They swooped in, slashing with their enormous, curved blades. Several dove head-first and stabbed the dragon's back with their spears. The dragon let out a hiss and tried to swat the pegasi away, but its slow swings found nothing but air. Spike could see more ponies along the walls, wheeling forward ballistae and catapults. Lightning flashed as several unicorn magi unleashed their magic.
Spike could only gasp and wince as the dragon's chest quivered, then split open from the base of its neck all the way to just above its middle pair of legs. Hundreds upon hundreds of dagger-like teeth lined the resulting flaps of flesh and the maw itself. The gaping jaws displaced its front claws so that they were almost parallel at its back. Great gobs of yellowish slime dripped from the cavernous mouth, hissing and smoking wherever they landed.
"That's the feeding mouth," Seethe Scale said.
Spike clutched at his own chest. "Thank Celestia I didn't turn into a gluttony dragon!" he said.
Seethe Scale landed on an outcropping of rock, still a good distance from the monstrosity as it continued to lumber towards the city. The gluttony dragon was so bent on eating the city and fending off its attackers that it hadn't noticed them. Spike shivered and held on to Seethe Scale tightly. The dragon was so big that it plunged them entirely in its shadow. Seethe Scale lifted her enormous weapon and plunged the spike on its base into the rock. Her shoulders tensed and her arms bulged as she drew back the bowstring and nocked and arrow. The silence of the whole encounter was disturbing. The gluttony dragon didn't roar or thrash and the city's defenders were so far that all that could be heard from them were a few distant shouts. For a moment, Spike watched breathlessly as Seethe Scale kept her bow taut and aimed. There was a loud thrum and the arrow was gone.
The gluttony dragon suddenly thrashed about. It didn't cry out, but a violent growl escaped its gigantic maw. Seethe Scale's enormous arrow stuck out of its skull. Great clumps of soil, mixed with boulders and tree trunks, flew around them. One tree sailed over Spike, then splintered when it struck the rocks behind him. Seethe Scale didn't even budge. She fired a second arrow. This one plunged through the gluttony dragon's neck, leaving a hole that a pony could crawl through in its wake. Hot blood rained on both of them soaking Seethe Scale's white fur an ugly crimson and forcing Spike to wipe the slick liquid from his eyes. Another tree flew towards them. Seethe Scale simply opened her jaws and exhaled a blast of lurid red flames. Spike coughed and choked as a cloud of ash descended on them. A loud crash sent more snow and dust rising and, when Spike finally cleared his vision, the gluttony dragon had disappeared under all the debris it raised.
"Calm down," Seethe Scale said. "It's dead."
The ponies circling above them cheered while the cloud settled. Spike strained to see what should be a massive corpse, but he couldn't even make out a silhouette. Seethe Scale leaped from her spot and glided gently towards the center of the cloud. When everything had settled at last, Spike finally spotted the body.
Instead of the corpse of the rampaging monster he had just seen, Spike found himself looking at the body of a juvenile that couldn't be past its early teens. He gagged when he saw the stubbly wings, the gangly legs, the badly torn neck, and the half of the face that was still there.
"Some dragon in his gluttony phase," Seethe Scale said. "I figured as much. A dragon of the correct age as his size would have noticed us at least."
Spike seized the fur around the kirin's neck and tugged at them hard to make her look at him. "You knew?" he asked. "You knew that it was just some kid going through a phase and you shot him dead?"
"Yes."
"Why? Wasn't there some other way? Couldn't you have done something to change him back? I survived my appetite phase! Why couldn't he?"
"Different dragon, different circumstances." Seethe Scale walked over the corpse and picked it up.
"What are you doing now?"
"Breakfast."
Spike's jaw dropped. "You're going to eat him?"
"Yes."
"That's disgusting!"
"For a pony. For a dragon, being eaten by another dragon is the most honorable way to have your corpse treated." Seethe Scale glanced at the city behind her. "The opposite is to have your remains turned into construction material. If you're finding yourself sick. Think more like a dragon."
Spike folded his arms and glared at Seethe Scale. She was right. Of course she was right. She knew everything there was to dragons and he knew nothing at all even though he was the full-blood while she was the half-breed. He hated it. He hated every bit of knowledge she imparted to him with her cold, unchanging face and her terse way of talking. Dragons were awesome and majestic when he was sitting by the sidelines of their great migration with all his pony friends. The more he found out about his own kind, the more their savagery appalled him.
Seethe Scale suddenly looked around. The pegasi had landed all around them and more ponies were coming out of the city. She grunted and flexed her wings. A low, rousing chant emerged from the gathered ponies. They pounded their hooves on the ground while a few reared up to cheer her.
"Seethe Scale! Seethe Scale! Seethe Scale!"
Seethe Scale flinched. It was such an odd sensation to see her finally showing discomfort. "What's the matter?" he asked.
"I don't like crowds," Seethe Scale muttered. She flapped her wings and rose to the air with the dead dragon in her claws. The gathered ponies below them cheered even louder. Some of them even galloped after her.
"They just wanted to show their thanks," Spike said.
Seethe Scale had put several miles between her and Wallforge when she replied. "I don't want their thanks," she said. "I don't protect Wallforge for Wallforge's sake."
"Then why do you protect Wallforge?"
"Wallforge is one of the prince's favorite cities," Seethe Scale replied.
"You're doing all of this just for Prince Terrato?"
The kirin's voice lowered, forcing Spike to strain just to hear her. "I was an abomination that had no place in this world. He saved me from the Draco'dim at a great cost. Every day, I must prove that he made a wise investment."
Spike didn't know what to say next so he let her fly on in silence. At least, he thought that it was silence. He covered his ears when he heard the grisly crunching of Seethe Scale biting into her "breakfast". He reminded himself repeatedly that dragons were different. That Seethe Scale was actually honoring the dead dragon. His mind agreed easily enough. His guts continued to contort and twist themselves into knots.
Minutes passed before Spike realized that Seethe Scale wasn't flying back to her lair. "So…uh…where are we going?" he finally asked.
"The lair of Himfadora," Seethe Scale replied. "She's an envy dragon who wants to meet you."
The farther they flew, the more rugged the landscape became. They flew past a frozen gorge, then plunged into a valley so deep that the sun's rays barely made it through. Here, foliage gave way to jagged rock formations. They flew between the sheer walls of a narrow corridor of rock and until they came upon the entrance of a cave. The size alone told Spike what he should be expecting.
"Remember my warnings," Seethe Scale said.
Spike swallowed a lump in his throat and nodded. 'Seifralhadar,' he thought. 'So long as I'm out here with Seethe Scale, my name is Seifralhadar.' Some of his frustration returned. Why should the Draco'dim even care what his name was? Why were they willing to kill dragons for petty slights like this? Having them be the closest thing to dragonkind's rulers was wrong no matter how he looked at it. Not allowing dragons to eat ponies didn't make things alright.
Spike looked around impatiently after a minute passed. Seethe Scale had told him already of how one should enter the home of a dragon. Dragons were a fiercely territorial lot, easily provoked into a rage by trespassing. The respectful way was to wait at the entrance until their host detected their scents and gave them permission to enter.
"The half-pony is back I see." The loud, hissing voice came from the innermost recesses of the cave. If Seethe Scale hadn't mentioned that the dragon they were going to meet was a "her", he wouldn't have figured it out from the voice. "And she has an actual dragon with her. Is he the one to make the claim?"
"Yes," Seethe Scale replied. "This is Seifralhadar."
"What?" Spike asked loudly, his eyes wide as he stared at Seethe Scale. She didn't even blink at his question.
Neither did the dragon in the cave it seemed. "Enter," Himfadora called out. Seethe Scale took a step forward, but Spike remained where he was.
"Tell me what this whole 'make the claim' business is all about first!" Spike said when Seethe Scale looked at him.
"If you loiter out here, Himfadora will take it as an insult," Seethe Scale replied. "She'll sting you and you'll die. More from bursting like a too full water balloon than from any effect of the poison."
Spike ground his teeth and clenched his fists. "You'll explain inside right?" he asked.
"You have not even bothered to tell him, half-pony?" Himfadora said. "Sometimes, it's hard to tell who is worse: Afralhadar or Terrato. Everything will be explained in time, Seifralhadar. Now, come inside."
Spike forced himself to be mollified for now. What was this claiming business? Was it part of his disguise just to hide from the Draco'dim? His resentment towards Seethe Scale's terse methods returned. If she had her way, the world would be reduced to yes or no questions. His darkvision took over when the light from the entrance failed.
Unlike Seethe Scale's naturally-formed cave, Himfadora's lair was clearly carved out of the surrounding rock. The floor was smooth, as were the walls. Gigantic rounded pillars rose around them, each one easily fifty feet high. Spike caught a glimpse of the piles of coins and gems as he walked farther in, but he made sure not to look at them. Seethe Scale had warned him that dragons distrusted their kind most of all when it came to treasure. One covetous creature knew the mind of another one all too well. He followed the loud breathing and looked up.
Himfadora reclined on a raised marble slab that looked over her entire hoard. Darkvision made it impossible to tell what color her scales were, but Spike noted the other details. She was very sleek for a dragon of her size and her scales were fine, like a snake's. A majestic, spined crest, each spine about five feet from root to tip, ran down from her forehead to her tail, which coiled on itself several times before hanging down the slab. It had to be twice as long as the tails of other dragons he had seen. It ended in a great stinger, similar to that of a scorpion's.
"I expected a slightly bigger dragon," Himfadora said. "But that may be because of your pedigree. If you listen to the stories, one would expect Reinfadora's hatchling to come out of his egg fully grown."
"Seifralhadar has spent all his life fending for himself in the Heartland," Seethe Scale said. "His growth has been delayed."
"But now that the pony prince has assigned him to your care, he's going to be better I take it?" Himfadora said. "The others won't take well to the idea that he is pony-grown."
"Just hold on!" Spike yelled. He clapped his own claws over his mouth at the outburst, but being surrounded by creatures so much bigger than him made it feel as if anything less would not be heard. "What do you mean Reinfadora's hatchling? What's going on?"
Himfadora stretched herself out lazily and let out a hiss. "We'll get to the details later. First, we make sure that we're not wasting our time and pinning our hopes on a worthless hatchling." She snaked her head down towards Spike. "Did you really think that the pony prince sent you here out of the kindness of his heart? He needs you to accomplish things and I am going to make sure that you are up to the task. After all, it's my neck on the line if you aren't."
Spike looked to Seethe Scale again. "Seifralhadar will prove himself," she said. "I believe in him."
Himfadora rose from the marble slab and walked deeper into the cave. Spike nearly jumped at how quickly something so huge could move. Himfadora moved on her thin limbs like a big spider suddenly scuttling about. "Follow me, I know just the place for him to prove himself!" she called out after them.
"Prince Terrato said that I'm here to grow stronger," Spike said. "He's using me isn't he?"
"Of course he's using you," Seethe Scale replied. "Just as he's using me, Himfadora, and the others."
"What for? And why didn't he just tell me from the start?"
"Equestria will need allies soon. Your friends and his sisters would not have agreed to burden you with this task. You are a hatchling to them. Equestria needs you to be more." Seethe Scale started to follow Himfadora. Spike grabbed a hold of her fur in response. She stopped and looked at him, her eyes glowing gold in the darkness. "Earlier you protested against the way the Draco'dim ruled dragons. Here's your chance to do something about it."
The challenge left Spike silent. Seethe Scale picked him up with a claw and settled him on her back. It was true that he felt that something had to be done about the Draco'dim. But what could he do? He was barely more than a hatchling. "Is it because I'm this Reinfadora's hatchling?" he asked quietly. He wasn't sure he wanted to hear the answer. He was torn between wanting to believe just to have something about his possible origins and viewing the whole thing as just some elaborate lie by either Prince Terrato or this Himfadora.
"Yes."
As they went deeper and deeper into the cave, Spike tried to picture what his actual mother would look like. The only image that ever formed was Princess Celestia's, the pony who took care of him in his infancy. He welcomed the inability. It was true that he had always been curious, but he needed no other family than the one he actually grew up with. "Just who was Reinfadora?" he asked.
"Reinfadora," Seethe Scale said. The reverence was unmistakable in her voice. "Draco'hraz, Draco'riina, Draco'shur Saryll…"
"Uh…I don't understand a word of that."
"You should get used to those words at least. Reinfadora: Dragon Scourge, Dragon Queen, Dragon of Sin."
"D-did you just say 'queen'?"
"She was the closest to being one," Seethe Scale replied. "Reinfadora's name carries a great deal of influence. Even today."
Spike leaned closer to Seethe Scale's face. "What happened to her?"
"Sickness," Seethe Scale said. "Even a mighty sin dragon can fall to a bad infection. It was a humbling experience for all of dragonkind. So much so that many refused to accept it. Many dragons turned on her mate, Drellhadar, thinking that he had cooked up something in his laboratories that killed her." Seethe Scale eyed Spike closely. "He was your father."
"And what was he like?" Spike asked.
Seethe Scale hesitated before answering. "Drellhadar…they called him 'Drellhadar the Malformed. He was said to be a hideous creature, born almost blind, with neither scales nor hind legs. Only a milky white skin and a mass of tails that dragged him to where he wished to go."
"What kind of dragon was he?"
"No one is sure. Drellhadar's early life was a secret and he didn't fit with the other categories of dragon."
"So my mother is the queen of dragons and my father was deformed monster…"
Before Seethe Scale could reply, the two of them finally caught up with Himfadora. She was perched over great hole in the ground. Spike tried to look at what could lie within, but even his darkvision failed him.
"Below is the entrance to one of Drellhadar's laboratories," Himfadora said. "Some of the guardians he created are still active. They are meant to recognize him and those who carry his blood. If you are truly his and Reinfadora's hatchling, they will acknowledge you."
"And if he's not?" Seethe Scale asked.
"Drellhadar delighted in killing intruders in violent and horrific ways."
"Seifralhadar will pass with no trouble," Seethe Scale said. She turned towards Spike. "You can do this."
Spike edged closer to the hole and shuddered. "I-I don't know. Why do I even need to do this?"
"The prince needs you to be a seed of influence among dragonkind," Seethe Scale said. "The dragons need you as a symbol to rally behind and overthrow the Draco'dim's tyranny. You need to harness your origins to help your friends. Find the balance."
Spike held on tightly to Seethe Scale's fur as she jumped down and winged her way through the darkness.